From Deserts to Grasslands • 2019 • episode "5/8" • Our Planet

58:50

There are 200 million insects for each of us. They are the most successful animal group ever. Their key is an armoured covering that takes on almost any shape. Darwin's stag beetle fights in the tree tops with huge curved jaws. The camera flies with millions of monarch butterflies which migrate 2000 miles, navigating by the sun. Super slow motion shows a bombardier beetle firing boiling liquid at enemies through a rotating nozzle. A honey bee army stings a raiding bear into submission. Grass cutter ants march like a Roman army, harvesting grass they cannot actually eat. They cultivate a fungus that breaks the grass down for them. Their giant colony is the closest thing in nature to the complexity of a human city.

6/10 • Life • 2009 • Nature

24:22

For many animals, group living offers protection, better food, and more social opportunities. For their young, it's a valuable education. From flamboyant flamingo mating dances, to elephant calves growing up under the watchful eye of the group matriarch, peer into some of nature's most tight-knit social groups.

S2E2 • Baby Animals • 2016 • Nature

50:21

Matsumi, the new Queen of the Marsh Pride must keep her dynasty together or she will lose the heart of the Matsumi, the new Queen of the Marsh Pride must keep her dynasty together or she will lose the heart of the Savage Kingdom. Kingdom.

S1E2 • Savage Kingdom • 2016 • 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.

2/3 • Insect Worlds • 2013 • Nature

3:21

From eldritch aspen colonies to immortal jellyfish, the world is lousy with long-lived organisms. But what’s the oldest?

2015 • Nature

46:23

While the immense ecosystem of the Kalahari is characterized by its harsh conditions, it also offers a wealth of resources to the native wildlife. From the burrows of nocturnal bat-eared foxes to the massive colonies of harvester ants, the region provides habitats for a vast array of life.

5/6 • Africa's Wild Horizons • 2017 • Nature