Armoured Giants • 2008 • episode "S1E5" • Life in Cold Blood

54:03

The final episode deals with the evolution of the most widespread and dominant species on Earth: humans. The story begins in Africa, where, some 10 million years ago, apes descended from the trees and ventured out into the open grasslands in search of food. They slowly adapted to the habitat and grew in size. Their acute sense of vision led to them standing erect to spot predators, leaving their hands free to bear weapons. In addition, the primitive apemen also had stones that were chipped into cutting tools. Slowly, they grew taller and more upright, and their stone implements became ever more elaborate.

13/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature

58:56

Diablo the giant otter lives in a lake in the jungles of Peru, with his unruly family of six cubs. Even at the tender age of six months, they need to learn how to survive in this dangerous paradise. Their dad teaches them to swim and eventually to catch piranha for themselves, but they must also learn to stay away from the neighbours from hell - the giant caiman. These large members of the crocodile family are a real threat to the giant otter family and Diablo must go to extraordinary lengths to try to protect his cubs. Charlie Hamilton-James returns to the place he first filmed Diablo. Following the family over several months, sometimes in very difficult conditions, he discovers how perilous a home this is for the cubs and watches them develop under the careful guidance of their father. He also films remarkable scenes of the giant otters fighting caimans.

Natural World • 2013 • Nature

59:06

In New Zealand the travellers make their way through one of the most dramatic landscapes in the world. They are on a journey to find the last remaining kakapo, a fat, flightless parrot which, when threatened with attack, adopts a strategy of standing very still indeed.

S1E5 • Last Chance to See • 2009 • Nature

57:57

With the help of some surprising creatures from around the world, this series sets out to discover how animals take to the air, defying the force all airborne animals must conquer, gravity. Part 1: Defying Gravity In Africa, a caracal's 'rocket-propelled' launch enables it to catch birds in flight. In the Australian outback, a kangaroo's hop is key to finding water in a desert of over a million square kilometres. On an English farm, an insect's ultimate ejector seat accelerates it to 700G with help from a clutch in its crotch. And high above the jungles of Borneo, a leaping snake's unique shape allows it to glide, even without wings.

S1E1 • Life in the Air • 2016 • Nature

53:25

Howard Hall, one of the world's foremost underwater filmmakers, brings to NATURE a lifetime of insights into how life in the ocean really works - in surprisingly cooperative communities built on age-old partnerships. Coral reefs turn out to be cosmopolitan cities where relationships thrive: a specialist shrimp, a baby damsel fish, and a porcelain crab all share the protection of an anemone; an urchin and a crab form an unlikely pair; fan corals each support their own kind of seahorse. They're all part of a vast system that only exists because everything is connected. From great whales to turtles, to sharks and tiny blennies, the ocean is full of creatures that need and support each other.

2023 • Nature

24:00

Should a creature's bad reputation impact its survival prospects? As the venomous massasauga rattlesnake edges towards extinction and cormorants in Toronto destroy the trees they nest in, accommodating these misunderstood species has never been more important.

S1E4 • Great Lakes Wild • 2017 • Nature