Attenborough wonders about the pattern of bare spots in the Namib desert. As described in a study by a team led by Corina Tarnita and published in part in the January 2017 issue of Nature, the "polka dots" in the desert are due to a combination of two things. The first thing is the competition of vegetation for extremely scarce water resources. The second thing competing (moundless) termites fighting against each other for resources, which creates a virtual "no man's land" areas. An individual "fairy circle" can be created in either way but for an entire landscape to be covered in them, there must be both the competing vegetation and the competing termites.