Understanding • 2020 • episode "S1E2" • The Age of Nature

59:16

David Attenborough takes a breathtaking journey through the vast and diverse continent of Africa as it has never been seen before. (Part 5: Sahara) Northern Africa is home to the greatest desert on Earth, the Sahara. On the fringes, huge zebras battle over dwindling resources and naked mole rats avoid the heat by living a bizarre underground existence. Within the desert, where the sand dunes 'sing', camels seek out water with the help of their herders and tiny swallows navigate across thousands of square miles to find a solitary oasis. This is a story of an apocalypse and how, when nature is overrun, some are forced to flee, some endure, but a few seize the opportunity to establish a new order.

S1E5 • Africa • 2013 • Nature

53:32

Watch as birds solve puzzles and challenge our basic notions of intelligence. Call somebody a “bird brain,” and you’re not delivering them a compliment. But as NOVA shows, birds turn out to have advanced problem-solving skills that we usually assume are unique to humans. Watch astonishing tests of avian aptitude: parrots that can plan for the future, jackdaws that can “read” human faces, and crows that can solve multi-step puzzles with tools like pebbles, sticks, and hooks. Could these just be clever tricks based on instinct or triggered by subtle cues from their human handlers? To rule out any doubts, NOVA puts feathered Einsteins through their paces and reveals skills that even three- or four-year-old children have a hard time mastering—such as putting off one reward now to get a bigger one later. From this revolution in thinking about our feathered friends, the conclusion seems irresistible that bird brains see the world in ways that aren’t so different from our own.

NOVA PBS • 2021 • Nature

59:00

Chris looks at social intelligence in the animal kingdom and finds out why it is that, for animals, being together means being clever. He looks at how lions hunt in teams and each hold a very specific position, how vampire bats build trust and donor networks through grooming, and how wild wolves first became domesticated and transformed into man's best friend.

S1E4 • Chris Packham's Animal Einsteins • 2021 • Nature

88:00

Follows a team of international scientists including Dr. Tori Herridge, Paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, and Harvard Medical School Geneticist Professor George Church dig up frozen beasts in Belaya Gora, Siberia.

2019 • Nature

44:09

This episode follows the animals of Argentina, living life at the mercy of the Andean mountains. These peaks dictate a hard existence for every living creature from their summits to the very edge of the Patagonian steppe, forcing even the cutest resident to turn carnivore.

S1E1 • Wild Argentina • 2017 • Nature

57:52

Beginning in Antarctica, Emperor Penguin chicks are abandoned by their parents as spring begins and must find their way across the treacherous sea ice to the rich waters of the Southern Ocean. In the Himalayas, the world's fluffiest cat hunts for gerbils and voles, while in the boreal forests circling North America, Europe and Asia, a Siberian tiger is on the lookout for black bears.

S1E1 • Frozen Planet II narrated by Sir David Attenborough • 2022 • Nature