Since 1950, Alberta's fabled Rat Patrol has kept the province rat-free. But as pest control meets ecology in the 21st century, what does the future hold for this mythic institution and their "enemy?"
Cat experts explain the behaviors of domestic cats and how their sometimes undesirable actions are really innate instincts, revealing how closely they are still connected to their wild ancestors.
Only twenty-five years ago, the first evidence of self-medicating behaviour among animals was reported among chimpanzees. On the basis of this pioneering research, led by the American Michael Huffman, a new science was founded: "zoopharmacognosy", or the study of animal pharmacopeia. Animals are apparently able to treat themselves actively, to detect natural substances that can provide a remedy for health problems, or to prevent them. The primatologist Michael Huffman explains how he discovered that chimpanzees can heal their diseases with medicinal plants from their environment. The scientist then comments on other very surprising examples: Birds that disinfect their nests by filling them with aromatic plants with repellent properties, a rodent that covers its coat with toxic sap as a poisonous defence against predators and elephants that place mud plasters on their injuries. Some therapeutic behaviours may even be transmitted socially among certain species.
Set in the wilderness of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the land of legends and the kingdom of wild brown bears, we follow the daily adventures of five wild brown bears.
89-year-old Italian immigrant Mike Nardone operates a farm all by himself in Alberta, Canada.
The incredible, true-life story of a baby elephant born into a rescue camp in the wilderness of Botswana. When she's suddenly orphaned at one month of age, it's up to the men who look after her herd to save her life.
Chris Packham presents, mentioning others that didn't quite make the list, his favorite top ten animal - and plant species from the half million discovered in the first decade of the 21st century. The animals include the most endangered African monkey, a lemur (Madagascar simian), a mouse-size and -resembling relative of the elephant, a Caribean island-adapted sloth, a shark which 'walks coral reefs on an arm', the largest mega-stick, a deep sea jellyfish without tentacles and a jungle gecko mutation happening in Malaysian state Perlis in order to flee serpent predation into caves. Plant species include a giant Venus-flytrap on Palawan (Philipines) and the largest ever orchid from Peru.
Flight is the ultimate superpower, an extraordinary ability that humans can only dream of. Yet an astonishing number of animals have mastered the skies. Now, new technology allows us to join them in their previously hidden world, ‘flying’ alongside these gravity-defying animals and experiencing their unique point of view. With exceptional skills and breath-taking design, creatures ranging from frogs to fish, from spiders to squirrels, spend their lives mid-air. Life in the Air captures this extraordinary animal behaviour and reveals – in incredible detail – the amazing science of flight.
Documentary offers a look at the historical development, establishment and artistic transformations of the Ukrainian Circus as a cultural phenomenon of the 20 century.
After the sunset, a man wonders between the edges of the highways gathering edible roadkill animals.
It is believed that cats are just indifferent and egotistic; but they are more complex, interesting and even cuter than is commonly imagined. The astonishing process by which a newborn kitten becomes a fully grown cat reveals the amazing and true secret life of cats.
Life on the road in India, showing the traffic, people and animals.
Isolated from the rest of the world since the time of the dinosaurs, New Zealand’s magnificent wildlife has been left to its own devices for 80 million years, with surprising consequences. This series reveals New Zealand’s rich and intriguing wildlife stories, from the bustling communities of penguins hiding away in giant daisy forests to the kakapo – Earth’s only species of flightless nocturnal parrots. New Zealand was also the last place to be discovered and settled by people who brought with them new animals, like merino sheep and new predators like the stoat. Finally the series meets the pioneering conservation heroes who are fighting to save some of its most endangered species.