Bad Reputations • 2017 • episode "S1E4" Great Lakes Wild

Category: Nature

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.

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Great Lakes Wild • 2017 • 8 episodes •

Isle Royale

On an island in the world's largest freshwater lake, a single, isolated population of moose battle for survival against a pack of wolves. Find out how this delicate ecosystem in the midst of Lake Superior reveals invaluable scientific information on the dynamics of predator-prey relationships.

2017 • Nature

Invaders from the Deep

Of the more than 180 invasive species found in the Great Lakes, two in particular stand out for their indiscriminate devastation: the fast-breeding Asian carp and the deadly sea lamprey. Join the front lines of an urgent battle to limit the impact of their ecological damage.

2017 • Nature

The Goby Effect

The Lake Erie water snake, once on the brink of extinction, now looks to be rebounding--thanks mainly to the invasive goby fish that's wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes ecosystem. Can scientists studying this environmental anomaly find a healthy ecological balance?

2017 • Nature

Bad Reputations

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.

2017 • Nature

Helping Out Endangered Species

Peregrine falcons are slowly rebounding from the edge of extinction, while snapping turtles face different life-threatening challenges. Learn about conservation efforts in Ontario, Canada to help give these threatened species a boost while they fight back.

2017 • Nature

The Damning Truth

What can the struggles of sturgeons and muskrats, two key Great Lakes species, tell us about the impact of upstream dams on the local ecosystem? Join conservationists as they assess the threats to the habitats of these animals and weigh options to counteract the damage before it's too late.

2017 • Nature

Night Moves

Bat populations are plummeting from a seemingly unstoppable fungal infection. Meanwhile, northern flying squirrels are being crowded out by their southern cousins. Learn about the life-or-death challenges faced by key wildlife in two of the Great Lakes region's most delicate ecosystems.

2017 • Nature

Back from the Dead

Two North American species have nearly vanished from their natural habitat in the course of the last century, due to a host of human and environmental factors. Can the elk and the wild turkey of Ontario be successfully brought back? Join the team of daring and ambitious scientists making it happen.

2017 • Nature

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Born Equal

The second episode of Andrew Marr's exploration of Darwin explores the impact of Darwin’s ideas on society and politics. Darwin’s first port of call on the Beagle was Salvador in Brazil – then a major port for the international slave trade. His experience there confirmed his enlightenment views of liberty and progress and his hatred of slavery. But his theory of evolution that began to take root on that epic voyage would describe a world of conflict, ruthless competition and struggle. It would be taken up and abused by some of the most reactionary movements of the late-19th and 20th centuries. The phrase “survival of the fittest” would help propel Darwin’s theory as a scientific justification for eugenics, enforced sterilisation and genocide. But after the Second World War, Darwin’s theory finds redemption in the United Nations statement on race which confirms Darwin’s long-held view that all humans are members of the same race and deserving of equal treatment. This is further reinforced in the extraordinary work of a small Jewish community in New York who used DNA testing and a voluntary and anonymous form of selective breeding to eliminate a debilitating disease from the Jewish community. DNA testing is the final frontier of Darwin’s Dangerous idea. But the lessons from history suggest that the new choices we face about what to do with the knowledge Darwin has given us when combined with genetics and DNA testing remains a major social and political challenge.

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Attenborough's Wonder of Song

Sir David Attenborough chooses his favourite recordings from the natural world that have revolutionised our understanding of song. Each one - from the song of the largest lemur to the song of the humpback whale to the song of the lyrebird - was recorded in his lifetime. When Sir David was born, the science of song had already been transformed by Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection: singing is dangerous as it reveals the singer’s location to predators, but it also offers the male a huge reward, the chance to attract a female and pass on genes to the next generation. Hence males sing and females don't. Today, new science in the field of birdsong is transforming those long-held ideas. Scientists are discovering that, in fact, in the majority of all songbird species, females sing - and it is only now they are being properly heard. Through this revelation and others, we can understand that animal songs are marvelous examples of the spectacular survival strategies that species have developed in order to stay alive.

2021 • Nature

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Above the deserts of North Africa, aerial combat ensues as male Barbaridactylus pterosaurs fight for the attention of females below.

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Our Fragile Planet

In the final film, he reflects on the dramatic impact that humankind has had on the natural world within his own lifetime. He tells the surprising and deeply personal story of the changes he has seen, of the pioneering conservationists with who he has worked - and of the global revolution in attitudes towards nature that has taken place within the last six decades. In a journey that takes him from the London Zoo to the jungles of Borneo, Attenborough reveals what inspired him to become a conservationist. He remembers classic encounters with mountain gorillas, blue whales and the giant tortoise, Lonesome George. These are all characters that have helped to change public attitudes to the natural world.

S1E3Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild • 2012 • Nature