Africa • episode "S1E1" • Equator with Simon Reeve

52:18

David discovers the plants that have evolved to shed their dependency on water enabling them to survive in the driest environments. The story begins at midnight in midsummer as David steps into the Princess of Wales Conservatory to witness the extraordinary nocturnal blooming of a cactus. The Queen of the Night, with its giant flowers, is the centre piece of a stunning symphony of cacti blooms that burst open in the desert (and at Kew) at night. In a mesmerizing 3D slow motion sequence, we discover the extraordinary connections between cacti and their natural ...

S1E3 • Kingdom of Plants • 2012 • Nature

53:37

This programme focuses on birds. The feather is key to everything that is crucial about a bird: it is both its aerofoil and its insulator. The earliest feathers were found on a fossilised Archaeopteryx skeleton in Bavaria. However, it had claws on its wings and there is only one species alive today that does so: the hoatzin, whose chicks possess them for about a week or so. Nevertheless, it serves to illustrate the probable movement of its ancestor. It may have taken to the trees to avoid predators, and over time, its bony, reptilian tail was replaced by feathers and its heavy jaw evolved into a keratin beak.

8/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature

29:03

Steve Backshall reveals the incredible influence that insects and their close relatives have on Earth's many ecosystems. In the grasslands of South America the landscape has been created almost solely by one team of insects - grass-cutter ants. Across the world's oceans one tiny creature plays such a key role that, without it, the largest animal on our planet, the blue whale, could not exist. And in East Africa the savannah would quickly be swamped in dung were it not for the activities of a certain beetle. Yet the greatest influence of all comes from a group of insects that have ultimately changed the colour and diversity of our planet.

S1E2 • Insect Worlds • 2013 • Nature

48:01

In southern Israel, two vastly different worlds live side-by-side. A tropical sea and ancient coral reef teem with aquatic life alongside a harsh desert landscape filled with hardy reptiles and alien acacia trees. Venture into a part of Israel that few people imagine exists.

S1E3 • Wild Israel • 2018 • Nature

49:21

The myth that birds only sing for pleasure is destroyed as birdsongs become known as ways of communication.

S1E6 • The Life of Birds • 1998 • Nature

44:11

The forest residents turn on Motsidi. Hounded from every direction, will she ever be queen?

S4E2 • Savage Kingdom • 2020 • Nature