The Dawn of Mammals • 2018 • episode "S1E3" • Ancient Earth: Series 2

52:08

The Galapagos Islands are home to some animals that washed up on the islands millions of years ago and have made adaptations. Penguins, iguanas, tortoises and cormorants have changed so they can survive the harsh climate. But possibly the oddest adaptation is that of the Vampire finch.

S1E2 • Wild Galapagos • 2017 • Nature

51:38

Following extraordinary rumours of tigers living in the mountains of Bhutan, the expedition shifts to high altitude. Cameraman Gordon Buchanan captures remarkable footage of a snow leopard cub from over 5,000 metres in the air. Along the Tibetan border, explorer Steve Backshall treks to the mystical Tiger Mountain, where he has a very close encounter with the world's most elusive predator.

S1E3 • Lost Land of the Jaguar • 2009 • Nature

53:21

This instalment examines the earliest land vegetation and insects. The first plants, being devoid of stems, mainly comprised mosses and liverworts. Using both sexual and asexual methods of reproduction, they proliferated. Descended from segmented sea creatures, millipedes were among the first to take advantage of such a habitat and were quickly followed by other species. Without water to carry eggs, bodily contact between the sexes was now necessary. This was problematical for some hunters, such as spiders and scorpions, who developed courtship rituals to ensure that the female didn't eat the male.

3/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature

48:02

With over 350,000 different varieties, these ancient insects make up nearly one-fourth of all known animal species.

S1E3 • Macro Worlds • 2020 • Nature

58:26

Plants of the seasonal world face constant change. They use use strategy, deception and feats of engineering to survive. Most importantly, they must get their timing right.

S1E3 • The Green Planet • 2022 • Nature

44:33

Supermarkets are stocked with fruit year round in a global permanent summertime, but despite its accessibility, have we lost the diversity that makes it so special? The second episode of The Fruit Hunters will look at what happens when we abandon the Garden of Eden for an industrialized monoculture. In lush jungles of Borneo, Bala Tingang, an elder of one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes, lives of the wild fruits that are the key to his tribe's survival. And yet, all around the world, natural diversity is being replaced with monocultures, plantations of only one variety, bred for long shelf life and transportability rather than their taste or health properties. Not only is this lost of diversity impoverishing our taste buds, but it has catastrophic implications for our food security. In the vast uniform banana fields of Honduras, Juan Aguilar, a banana scientist, frantically tries to breed a banana resistant to a deadly fungus.

S52E12 • The Nature of Things • 2013 • Nature