From around three months old, the animal babies can all get around on their own, but that means the impact of their environment and the struggle to find food really begin to hit home.
The fifth programme explores the alliances formed between the animal and plant worlds. It examines the ways in which plants live together and rely on each other. Whether living together in harmony, relying on each other for homes, protection or food, or living off each other, by strangling or otherwise destroying each other in a bid to survive.
5/6 • Private Life of Plants • 1995 • Nature
The highest mountain range on earth is home to extraordinary animals and remarkable ancient cultures. In the depths of winter, snow leopards creep into isolated mountain villages in search of food. In hidden valleys, bizarre-looking monkeys huddle for warmth in a frozen forest. Ancient Buddhist monasteries have age-old rituals creating beautiful works of art made from mountain sand and athletes compete in the gruelling Everest marathon. Strange and exotic creatures live in the Himalaya - the chiru, with the warmest wool in the world, snakes bathing in hot springs and wild yak competing in their annual rut. Breathtaking photography reveals a lost world of surprises in the latest landmark wildlife series from the BBC.
2/3 • Mountain Life at the Extreme • 2017 • Nature
Professor Alice Roberts explores the story of human evolution, revealing how a humble African ape became a successful global species. With daring parkour athletes and life-size primate animatronics, Alice explores the greatest leaps in our evolution by conjuring fire and re-enacting how we spread across the globe.
2/3 • Who Am I (Royal Institution Christmas Lectures) • 2018 • Nature
Steve Backshall visits unexplored parts of the world. This time his team is kayaking in the Arctic - they face perilous sea ice and have a terrifying encounter with a polar bear.
This instalment is the first of several to concentrate on mammals. The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs (in much the same manner of reptiles), and it is from such animals that others in the group evolved. Since mammals have warm blood and most have dense fur, they can hunt at night when temperatures drop. It is for this reason that they became more successful than their reptile ancestors, who needed to heat themselves externally. Much of the programme is devoted to marsupials (whose young are partially formed at birth) of which fossils have been found in the Americas dating back 60 million years.
9/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature
Dr George McGavin investigates the highly varied and dramatic life of oak tree. Part science documentary, part historical investigation, this film is a celebration of one of the most iconic trees in the British countryside. It aims to give viewers a sense of what an extraordinary species the oak is and provide an insight into how this venerable tree experiences life.
2017 • Nature
