Madagascar: A World Apart • 2016 • episode "Part 2" • Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution

58:25

David Attenborough reveals the extraordinary ways in which animals battle to survive in a world of extremes, from mountain summits to deserts, polar tundra to the world's largest cave in Vietnam. On Ellesmere Island, a pack of Arctic wolves fight to rebuild their strength after one of the toughest winters on record, while in the mountains of Mexico, millions of Monarch butterflies huddle together to survive. But the calm is shattered when a storm hits their forest shelter.

S1E6 • Planet Earth III • 2023 • Nature

58:01

With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases. Extinction is now happening up to 100 times faster than the natural evolutionary rate, but the issue is about more than the loss of individual species. Everything in the natural world is connected in networks that support the whole of life on earth, including us, and we are losing many of the benefits that nature provides to us. The loss of insects is threatening the pollination of crops, while the loss of biodiversity in the soil also threatens plants growth. Plants underpin many of the things that we need, and yet one in four is now threatened with extinction. Last year, a UN report identified the key drivers of biodiversity loss, including overfishing, climate change and pollution. But the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats. Seventy-five per cent of Earth's land surface (where not covered by ice) has been changed by humans, much of it for agriculture, and as consumers we may unwittingly be contributing towards the loss of species through what we buy in the supermarket. Our destructive relationship with the natural world isn’t just putting the ecosystems that we rely on at risk. Human activities like the trade in animals and the destruction of habitats drive the emergence of diseases. Disease ecologists believe that if we continue on this pathway, this year’s pandemic will not be a one-off event.

2020 • Nature

28:02

Many insects won't survive the winter. But thanks to these remarkable adaptations, their offspring will live on.

S1E1 • Macro Worlds • 2020 • Nature

58:10

As the Serengeti starts to dry out, competition hots up between the families we were first introduced to in Episode One. The strong females take centre stage, dealing with wayward males and fighting for the survival of their kin. Lioness Kali and her sister are enjoying time with their seven cubs. Together, hunting is much easier and life is good. But their happiness is short-lived as they are being tracked by Sefu, a male lion from the pride. He takes their food and then relentlessly pursues them, but what does he want? A new family has moved into the Serengeti: Kike, a first-time cheetah mother with three tiny cubs in tow. If her first litter is to survive, she must learn the skills of motherhood fast. Not only must she learn to hunt and keep her cubs safe, but she must keep them away from the other predators who are out to get them. Bakari the baboon struggles to raise the baby he rescued when its mother was killed and desperately tries to find a female to help him raise his motherless baby. Nalla, the elephant matriarch, is worried for the safety of her baby when a group of huge male elephants come to fight over one of the family's females. A young female ostrich attempts to raise an enormous brood of chicks whilst being watched by the hungry eyes of the hyena leader, Zalika. As pressure builds, Kali decides that for the sake of her cubs she must confront the male stalker Sefu – but it's a dangerous decision. Bakari is threatened by the leader of the troop when their rivalry escalates and the baby is put at risk. Will a kind-hearted female called Cheka help him raise the baby? Only the strong survive in the Serengeti, and the mothers are the toughest of the lot.

S1E2 • Serengeti • 2019 • Nature

46:23

Chobe is Botswana's first national park, as well as the name of the mighty river that runs through it. Explore how its iconic species, like elephants, baboons, and lions, pass on their secrets of survival to the youngest members of their families.

S1E6 • Great Parks of Africa • 2017 • Nature

44:09

Argentina's northern territory contains one of the largest reserves in the country. Ibera is a vast expanse of swamps, marshes and lagoons, with a biodiversity count to rival the Pantanal. These lands are bursting with life, home to over 4000 animal and plant species. The rainy season in Ibera finds the wetlands in bloom... but unseen perils lurk beneath the surface, and even here, life can be a struggle for survival.

S1E3 • Wild Argentina • 2017 • Nature