Home • episode "S1E5" • Wonders of Life

58:04

David Attenborough introduces conservation heroes fighting to save the world's wildlife, from exploring remote jungles to going undercover to catch criminals in the illegal ivory trade. In South Africa, new breeding populations of black rhino are set up in safe havens where they will be protected from poachers, while a conservationist in Ecuador works to protect endangered frogs.

S1E8 • Planet Earth III • 2023 • Nature

59:04

In Indonesia, Simon visits a village of sea gypsies and meets tribespeople who want to adopt him.

S1E2 • Equator with Simon Reeve • Nature

45:34

As the Ganges nears the sea, it joins its mightiest tributary the Brahmaputra, creating a vast flood-prone delta. Here the bustling cities of Calcutta and Dhaka meet the wetlands, home to giant lizards and snakes, huge mean-eating crocodiles and forests full of monkeys. This is a story of human life persisting in wildly variable conditions in a domain that is still the preserve of the royal Bengal tiger.

S1E3 • Ganges • 2007 • Nature

51:40

The Pleistocene Era, when packs of saber-tooths ruled. The arrival of the new cats; early snow leopards, cheetahs, and jaguars, marked a turning point in the evolutionary track. Their emergence as their innovative hunting techniques and physical advantages enable them to dominate their habitats.

S1E1 • Age of Big Cats • 2018 • Nature

57:50

There is no greater test for life than winter, as temperatures plummet to 70 below and winds reach 200kph. Darkness and ice extend across the polar regions and only a few remarkable survivors gamble on remaining. We join a female polar bear trekking into the Arctic mountains to give birth as the first blizzards arrive. Out on the frozen ocean, the entire world's population of spectacled eider ducks brave the winter in a giant ice hole kept open by ferocious currents. Arctic forests transform into a wonderland of frost and snow - the scene of a desperate and bloody battle between wolf and bison, but also where a remarkable alliance between raven and wolverine is made. Beneath the snow lies a magical world of winter survivors. Here tiny voles dodge the clutches of the great grey owl, but cannot escape the ultimate under-show predator - the least weasel. Midwinter and a male polar bear wanders alone across the dark, empty icescape. Below the snow, polar bear cubs begin life in an icy den while fantastical auroras light the night skies above. In Antarctica, we join male emperor penguins in their darkest hour, battling to protect precious eggs from fierce polar storms. Weddell seals escape to a hidden world of jewel-coloured corals and alien-looking creatures but frozen devastation follows as sinister ice stalactites reach down with deadly effect.

S1E5 • Frozen Planet • 2011 • Nature

39:35

In this final installment to the series, David Attenborough travels to four unique locations about the globe where an abundance of fossilized plant and animal remains have given us a detailed picture of what life could have been like in prehistoric times. Each of the sites experienced its own set of circumstances which enabled it to preserve many perfect specimens for extraction and analysis. Piecing together the collected evidence, paleontologists have been able to determine early animal hierarchies, their diets and their evolutionary paths.

S1E4 • Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives • 1989 • Nature