Rare Glimpses • 1989 • episode "S1E4" • Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives

39:32

First prog in series about fossils. David Attenborough travels in UK, Dominican Republic, West Germany & USA in search of fossils, & the palaeontological techniques to find and reveal them.

S1E1 • Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives • 1989 • Nature

50:00

The Auckland Islands are an isolated archipelago of islands far south of New Zealand. They might seem bleak, but they are a surprising sanctuary for wildlife. In summer, hordes of giant sea lions descend upon a desolate beach, and testosterone-driven males begin bloody battles for mating rights. When the pregnant females return to give birth on the beach, chaos ensues. The pups are always in danger of being squashed by overly eager males. Some of the rarest penguins on the planet, the yellow-eyed penguins, are also breeding here and must constantly evade the huge brawling male sea lions. Southern royal albatross, giant petrels and skuas are other species that go to extremes to ensure their offspring’s survival. The drama of summer in the sub-Antarctic islands peaks as the sea lion pups dare to take their very first ocean swims.

2019 • Nature

49:11

The series begins with an in-depth look at flightless birds around the world.

S1E1 • The Life of Birds • 1998 • Nature

44:18

Their habitat once stretched across the Prairies, but when humans wiped out the one thing they eat, the black-footed ferret disappeared. The only native North American ferret, this mysterious animal became the most endangered species in the world. For many years, they survived only in zoos. Now a fledgling project is attempting to bring the black-footed ferret back to Saskatchewan. This dramatic story of the ferrets’ reintroduction to the wild unfolds in Return of the Prairie Bandit, a new documentary by Kenton Vaughan set in the stunning prairie of southern Saskatchewan.

S50E13 • The Nature of Things • 2011 • Nature

47:58

Volcanoes may have shaped Europe, but they could also destroy it. Find out how ticking volcanic time-bombs threaten the continent's existence.

3/3 • Birth of Europe • 2011 • Nature

29:14

This episode of the documentary series focuses on the new giants, the heavyweights of the dinosaur world. It is only in recent years that experts have unearthed the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived. One monster eclipsed all others; more than seven times as heavy as diplodocus was the immense argentinosaurus - a single backbone was bigger than a human. For years, these giants were considered immune to attack from any predator - until the discovery of mapusaurus, a new giant killer whose fate appeared to be inextricably linked to argentinosaurus.

5/6 • Planet Dinosaur • 2011 • Nature