Episode list

Wildlife film. South African naturalist Mike Rutzen is crazy about great white sharks. He never saw Jaws, so he doesn't share the terror that has made these sharks the world's most feared predator. For ten years Mike has been swimming with great whites, without the protection of a cage. He has spent so much time in their company that he has learned to read their body language and to think like a shark. It is this knowledge that keeps him safe. Mike's quest to understand them better now takes him into the heart of a seal ambush site where he hopes to witness their hunting behavior from underwater.

Cambridge ornithology professor Nick Davies helps David Attenborough explain the parasitical brood-behavior of the cuckoo. It specifically targets 20 European species (4 British, including the warbler) and lays an egg (extremely similar to the other birds) in the nest. This hatches only to kill the hosts' own offspring and steal all of the food provided, possibly by producing a fast feeding call simulating a whole brood. The study intends to understand the sharply declining species.

Wildlife documentary. Environmentalist and photographer, Sandesh Kadur, has traded a comfortable career in the family business to explore the natural wonders of the Western Ghats mountains. Just a few hours drive from the commercial bustle of his native Bangalore, Sandesh could be a world away. The monsoon pours six meters of rainfall each year on the remote peaks and isolated valleys of the Ghats. Alongside familiar Indian species like elephants, tigers and peacocks are more mysterious creatures that are found nowhere else: a purple frog with a face like a shrew and a monkey with a lion-like mane and tail. Most intriguing of all, a chance sighting of a gray big cat, unlike anything scientists have seen before. To find out whether this enigmatic cat-in-the-ghat really is a new species, Sandesh must climb to the summit of these mountains. His journey is a reminder that in fast-track, modern India, this cloud-wrapped wilderness is more precious than ever.

The Sundarbans mangrove forest, in Bangladesh near the Indian border, is a tidal jungle where Ganges and Brahmaputra enter the Indian Ocean. Its has some 400 Bengal tigers - the largest population in the world, and the only to be hardly scared of men. The downside is tigers kill up the 50 Bangladeshis a year, even from neighboring villages, so keeping them inside the reserve is key to long-term survival. A recent project tries to train local mongrels, not pets but fiercely self-reliant dogs, to spot and even scare off tigers from villages. An individual tiger can turn into a man-eater in order to survive - this process may occur due to an injury or old age (and so cannot hunt agile prey) or even accidentally tasting human flesh.

Botswana's elephants are doing very well, too well perhaps. People are worried that too many elephants will damage their fragile desert home and have suggested that up to 60,000 should be culled. Researcher Mike Chase studies ancient elephant migration routes - he has tracked them across vast deserts, desolate salt pans, and Angolan minefields. Now he thinks he has a plan that could safeguard their future.

A Japanese biologist investigates why a single species of monkeys, who live in the icy high north of mountainous Hokkaido island, are treated so differently by people. In their natural habitat, their cheeky behavior and cleverly inventive self-teaching, such as taking warm baths in a sauna-effect, inspires awe and sympathy, even attracts tourists. Yet as their stressed habitat can hardly support the population any more, the farmers are merciless on their 'thieving' field raids.

Famous naturalist David Attenborough narrates the story of the Cassowary but also warns how the human expansion combined with climate change directly endangers this unique giant flightless bird as well as its habitat.

Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family's farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key. With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family's wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year's high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is. Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low-energy future.

The physical, ruthlessly guarded Iron Curtain between the free West and Soviet block was a nightmare for people, but a sanctuary for wildlife, some of which thrived nowhere else. After the fall of the Berlin wall, biologists research how birds, and other species, fared in the former no man's land, first in Germany, then further south.

British zoologist Mark Bower traveled to Peru to extensively study a rare monkey species in the Amazonian jungle: the mysterious uakari, about whom very little is known yet.

Wildlife documentary. In the forests of northern Minnesota, biologist Lynn Rogers uses food to gain the trust of wild black bears, a controversial technique developed over his own forty-year journey from fear to fascination. Following the fortunes of mother bear June and her three cubs over a year, the film reveals an intimate portrait of the lives of black bears.

Wildlife documentary. A tale of life on the Zambezi River, set against the epic backdrop of Victoria Falls. The story is told from the point of view of a local fisherman, Mr White, who has fished these waters for 69 years, and whose riverside companions are elephants, baboons, hippos and kingfishers. Follow the fortunes of these animals through his eyes, and learn how their lives are ruled by the moods of the river and the rains.

Manta rays are one of the most intelligent creatures in the ocean and, at up to seven meters long, one of the largest. Yet despite their size and curious nature, almost nothing is known about their lives. Young marine biologist Andrea Marshall has given up everything for a life in Mozambique, diving amongst these beautiful animals. Superb underwater photography reveals new manta ray behavior including breathtaking footage of their ritual courtship dances. The film follows Andrea as she studies these endangered animals up close. With the discovery of a giant new species and remarkable insights into mantas' secretive lives, Andrea's findings are already rocking the world of marine biology.

Wildlife documentary. In the small African kingdom of Swaziland, the black mamba is a snake both feared and revered. During summer, these elegant yet lethal snakes turn up everywhere - in homes, schools and cars - and people are bitten every week. Enter Thea Litschka-Koen, a mum and hotel manager who has become known affectionately as the white witch. She and her husband are on call 24 hours a day to rescue and release black mambas when they get too close for comfort. But what everyone wants to know is will they come back again? We follow Thea and her team as they set up a pioneering new scientific project: to track the black mambas they release back into the wild, and find out just how these deadly snakes spend their lives.

Natural World investigates the vital bond between animal mothers and their babies. The more we study animals, the more we realize just how emotional they are; all mothers are faced with tough choices as they struggle to bring up babies in a difficult and dangerous world, constantly balancing their own needs with those of their infants. Yet there are many ways to raise your brood, from the fish who looks after her young in her mouth to the extended childhoods of gorillas or orangutans.

This stunningly beautiful film reveals the unique wildlife of the Scottish Highlands, seen through the eyes of filmmaker Fergus Beeley. Based for a year at Loch Maree and the surrounding hills in Scotland's far north-west, Beeley presents his personal view of the shy animals whose lives are ruled by the rains. He follows the fortunes of rare black-throated divers and white-tailed sea eagles, which both breed there, while capturing the red deer and salmon whose lives also revolve around the loch. With an evocative score provided by local musician Phil Cunningham, this enchanting film captures the magic of a very special place.

In deepest Borneo, a remarkable young Frenchman called Chanee is combining his love of music and his passion for gibbons. These magical singing apes of the rain-forest are in danger of extinction and to help save them, Chanee has set up a rescue center, and become the world expert at matchmaking gibbons. Only when a pair has successfully bonded can they be released back into the wild. To increase awareness of the gibbons' plight, Chanee has created his own radio station, Radio Kalaweit, named after the local word for gibbon. Its music and message has now made it the most successful radio station in Borneo.