The Simien Mountains • 2017 • episode "S1E3" • Extreme Africa

23:11

When did we start riding horses? When did dogs become man's best friend? Answering questions like these help us understand our impact on other species' evolutionary journeys - a crucial step toward ensuring our survival doesn't necessarily come at the expense of their own.

S1E2 • Mysteries of Evolution • 2017 • Nature

54:10

The penultimate instalment investigates the primates, whose defining characteristics are forward-facing eyes for judging distance, and gripping hands with which to grasp branches, manipulate food and groom one another. The programme begins in Madagascar, home to the lemurs, of which there are some 20 different types. Two examples are the sifaka, which is a specialised jumper, and the indri, which has a well-developed voice. Away from Madagascar, the only lemur relatives to have survived are nocturnal, such as the bushbaby, the potto and the loris. The others were supplanted by the monkeys and a primitive species that still exists is the smallest, the marmoset. However, Attenborough selects the squirrel monkey as being typical of the group. Howler monkeys demonstrate why they are so named their chorus is said to the loudest of any mammal and their prehensile tails illustrate their agility.

12/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature

50:03

The final programme looks at the superorganisms formed by bees, ants and termites. Attenborough reveals that their colonies, whose individuals were once considered purely servile, are "full of conflict, power struggles and mutinies." They evolved when such creatures moved away from a solitary existence and started building nests side-by-side, which led to a collective approach to caring for their young.

Part 5 • Life in the Undergrowth • 2005 • Nature

58:00

With the help of some surprising creatures from around the world, this series sets out to discover how animals take to the air, defying the force all airborne animals must conquer, gravity. Part 3: Crowded Skies This episode features a creature that creates sound out of thin air with the world's fastest courtship display and arguably the world's most aggressive bird. In a South American jungle, there's 'hunt and evasion' flying during the night, as bats and moths fight for the upper hand in one of the world's oldest arms races. Plus a camera films a giant flock to unlock the secrets that keep half a million birds from colliding in the same air space.

S1E3 • Life in the Air • 2016 • Nature

57:59

The undercover cameras reveal how animals rely upon each other for a range of activities. Arctic wolves group together to survive in one of the harshest landscapes on earth, a band of hungry mongoose groom warthogs for tasty morsels - before turning their attention to Spy Warthog - and fish help clean hippos' bodies, as well as providing a unique dental service. Meanwhile, crocodiles and dikkop birds take part in a mutual neighbourhood watch against hungry prowling monitor lizards, and Spy Rattlesnake captures how prairie dogs and burrowing owls use their language skills to tell the rest of their community of approaching danger.

S1E3 • Spy in the Wild • 2017 • Nature

59:01

In this bird's-eye view of two continents, demoiselle cranes negotiate a dangerous Himalayan pass on their way to India while high-flying bar-headed geese take the fast track five miles above. In Rajasthan, vultures watch hunting tigers hoping for a meal and pigeons visit a temple dedicated solely to sacred rats. Pigeons are also our guide to the greatest gatherings of camels on Earth and learn to dodge buzzards around the battlements of Jodhpur Fort. 9,000 cranes overwinter in the most unlikely of spots - a barbed wire compound in the centre of a desert town. In Australia, rainbow lorikeets drop in on Sydney and patrol Australia's Gold Coast. In the outback, white cockatoos swirl in thousands and budgerigars pass Uluru (Ayers Rock) and gather in the biggest flocks ever recorded. In China, swallows and swifts visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden City of Beijing. In Japan, the country's most revered birds - Japanese cranes are fed fish by appreciative locals and are joined in strange, momentary harmony by hungry red foxes, white-tailed eagles and Steller's eagles. As peace descends, Japanese cranes dance beautifully in the snow.

S1E5 • Earthflight • 2012 • Nature