2024-01-01
0
Sir David Attenborough narrates a documentary about the Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. Playful and destructive, it attacks cars, starts landslides and terrorises New Zealand ski resorts but behind the bad behaviour there's a sharp mind at work. David tries to play chess with a kea and discovers how its cheeky character is the key to its survival.
ITV Naturalist Nigel Marven stars in this drama-documentary in which he explores his own back garden, in all its intricate detail. Shrunk to the size of an ant, he and his two companions - technical assistant Laura Green (Sarah Matravers) and driver Doug Kruger (Robin Lawrence) - embark on a mission to cross Nigel's back garden in just 24 hours. Along the way they meet some of the many thousands of creatures that fight for survival every day in these urban jungles .
Lake Tanganyika is an 'Ocean' in Africa. Millions of years ago it was colonized by a little fish called 'Cichlid'. Otters, crocodiles, cobras and cormorants all hunt the fish in clear water. How the Cichlid survived and evolved is an incredible story for, millions of years later, there are over 200 new species - all found only in Lake Tanganyika. Incredibly, they have evolved to look like coral reef fish. There are cichlid equivalents of tuna, snapper, gobies and goatfish. They have evolved bizarre methods of breeding with mouth-incubation, lekking and, unique amongst fish, there is even a cuckoo. Despite all their specialization over millions of years, if an opportunity presents itself, the little fish can behave like their unspecialized ancestor. In the climax of the film, they bang together to feast on a hatch of sardine fry. This is the story of how one little fish has conquered a lake.
In Africa there is a fable that explains the creation of the tides. When a hyaena challenged a mudskipper to a drinking contest to decide who should own the shore, the god Mungu tilted the earth so the sea flowed inland, and neither could win.
Once facing extinction, Asia's last wild lions live dangerously close to India's villages.
Embark with conservation ecologist Chris Morgan on a great challenge: to find and film the Siberian tiger.
In September 1954, David Attenborough, cameraman Charles Lagus, Jack Lester and Alf Woods, both from the Zoological Society of London, set out for Sierra Leone. They spent three months intently surveying the landscapes of Sierra Leone in search of nature’s rarest animals. Although predominantly searching for Picathartes gymnocephalus (the White-necked Rockfowl) they hoped to take back to London a representative collection of the whole of animal life in this part of Africa.
Cuba's enforced isolation has resulted in the unlikeliest of marine reserves: a huge, rambling archipelago known as Jardines de la Reina, or "Gardens of the Queen." Stretching around 140 miles along the southern coast of Cuba, it's one of the longest barrier reef systems in the world. Get an up-close look at Fidel Castro's diving playground, a forgotten ocean paradise unseen for half a century, and witness exotic species rarely seen elsewhere in the region. It's the lost jewel of the Caribbean, but how long can this pristine wilderness survive?
Every year, thousands of Antarctica's emperor penguins make an astonishing journey to breed their young. They walk, marching day and night in single file 70 miles into the darkest, driest and coldest continent on Earth. This amazing, true-life tale is touched with humour and alive with thrills. Breathtaking photography captures the transcendent beauty and staggering drama of devoted parent penguins who, in the fierce polar winter, take turns guarding their egg and trekking to the ocean in search of food. Predators hunt them, storms lash them. But the safety of their adorable chicks makes it all worthwhile. So follow the leader... to adventure!!
In a time of hardship, Hobart resident Peter Walsh turns to the secretive platypus for solace, only to discover it is the platypus that need his help to survive in a habitat under threat.
Travel to the ice mountains of Chile to discover the secrets of the puma (aka panther, mountain lion and cougar) the area's largest predator. Discover how this elusive cat survives and follow the dramatic fate of a puma and her cubs.
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
Join the big cats as we get up close and personal with their journeys through growing pains, adulthood, survival struggles and unfamiliar territories. These seven films follow the lives of some of the most formidable feline predators - lions, leopards, tigers and cheetahs in intimate detail.
They say that in the wild, nothing dies of old age. Yet one female baboon defies the rule. Queen of Baboons is a deeply intimate portrayal of life in a baboon troop through the eyes of its matriarch Mmasadi. From the moment of her birth, Mmasadi is destined for greatness. Born into the troops highest-ranking family, she will become queen one day.
Innocent nature walk leads to a discovery of the morbid nature of humans.
The common European adder, the only venomous snake native to Estonia, has often been feared and hated among the people. "Tavaline rästik" attempts to see behind the fears and introduce this unique reptile.
Val Plumwood, environmental philosopher returns to Kakadu, where she was the victim of a crocodile attack. Against the backdrop of the steamy, intensely beautiful Kakadu National Park, she shares her thoughts on wilderness and wildlife.