What's The Deadliest Animal In The World? • It's Okay To Be Smart

59:07

More than a billion people around the world commute into cities each day, and they are not alone. The world's wildlife is commuting too. A steady flow of animals journey in and out of cities to find food and shelter or to start a family. Leaving the wilderness they must overcome the unique challenges that the urban world throws at them to benefit from the opportunities on offer. This episode explores whether the secret to an animal's success in this fast-changing world is to keep one foot in the wild and one in the city, becoming a wild commuter. It seems that all over the world animals are finding that the city can offer opportunities that are harder to come by in the natural world. Some, like African penguins, whose population has plummeted by 80 per cent in the last 50 years, find shelter in the city. By nesting in Cape Town they are safer from predators, and with relatively easy access to their fishing grounds they have the best of both worlds. Many other animals commute into cities because they are filled with food. In St Lucia, South Africa, that includes hippos. Able to eat up to fifty kilograms of grass in a single sitting, they have developed a taste for the short, manicured lawns and come to town every night to dine out. St Lucia's human residents have learnt to give the hippos the space they need during their night-time raids. Black bears need to eat more than 20,000 calories a day to survive their six-month hibernation through winter, and using their acute sense of smell they can easily track down leftovers. In North America they come into towns and cities in search of food. Many animals displaced from their natural habitat are now using their wild skill set in the city to help fulfill their needs. Could this be the beginning of a new and very modern migration?

S1E2 • Cities: Nature's New Wild • 2018 • Nature

56:14

Starts in NASA's gravity research aircraft to illustrate the effect of weightlessness. There are surprisingly many plants whose seeds are, in effect, lighter than air.

7/12 • The Living Planet • 1984 • Nature

48:17

David Attenborough narrates a natural history of the oceans, examining how animals from in and around the sea use the constantly changing coastal areas.

S1E8 • Blue Planet I • 2001 • Nature

50:17

An aging king must lead his family into hostile territory, but it's how he deals with his treacherous son that will determine his power and pride's legacy.

S2E4 • Savage Kingdom • 2017 • 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

44:11

As the flood waters retreat, Dikeledi readies her cubs for escape through enemy territory.

S3E4 • Savage Kingdom • 2019 • Nature