Nature

Growing up wild is hard – even harder when you’ve lost your mom. But for some orphans, there are havens, rescue centers where dedicated individuals are helping them to make it on their own. It’s a demanding job, as many require long-term, round-the-clock care. Yet the caregivers persevere, and not just because they believe every animal deserves a chance at a wild life. Forming supportive bonds with these helpless, tiny creatures, providing them with carefully monitored feedings and medical attention, as well as greatly needed affection, training, security and comfort, clearly brings rewards beyond measure to each of them in turn. In this captivating two-part mini-series, fall in love with baby koala Danny, tiny wallaby Neil, baby sloth Newbie, young kangaroo Harry and baby fruit bat Bugsy, and with their caring foster mothers, who give so much of themselves to help these little orphans find their way back to the wild.

Growing up wild is hard – even harder when you’ve lost your mom. But for some orphans, there are havens, rescue centers where dedicated individuals are helping them to make it on their own. It’s a demanding job, as many require long-term, round-the-clock care. Yet the caregivers persevere, and not just because they believe every animal deserves a chance at a wild life. Forming supportive bonds with these helpless, tiny creatures, providing them with carefully monitored feedings and medical attention, as well as greatly needed affection, training, security and comfort, clearly brings rewards beyond measure to each of them in turn. In this captivating two-part mini-series, fall in love with baby koala Danny, tiny wallaby Neil, baby sloth Newbie, young kangaroo Harry and baby fruit bat Bugsy, and with their caring foster mothers, who give so much of themselves to help these little orphans find their way back to the wild.

Of all the birds he’s filmed over the years, David Attenborough finds these big birds the most comical. They are the Flintstones of the bird world – a group whose lineage can be traced back to when dinosaurs walked the earth. The ostrich, the emu, and the rhea – together with the kiwi and the cassowary – are essentially the court jesters of the avian world, because they can’t do the one thing that birds are famous for doing. They can’t fly. But exactly how – and why – did these birds abandon flight? It’s been one of the natural world’s great mysteries. And now DNA is promising to give us the answer. Among their number is the fastest bird on land, whose chicks hatch ready to run. One has dagger-sharp talons; another, killer thighs. One is a bird that is heard, but seldom seen, and only in the pitch black dead of night, does it call. So you could say these groups of birds are real oddballs. But they’re a family with a remarkable success story…despite having never flown a day in their lives.

Ironically, every dead elephant with its ivory intact is a reason to celebrate. It means an elephant died of natural causes, not bullets, snares or poison, and a soul was allowed to be celebrated and mourned by its herd. Award-winning filmmakers, Dereck and Beverly Joubert start with the remains of two bull elephants and through a series of key flashbacks, look at the lives they would have led, the dramas they may have seen, their great migrations for water with their families, and their encounters with lions and hyenas. This film, shot over two years, is an intimate look at elephants through the lens of perhaps the greatest storytellers of natural history.

In the first of a two-part series, Playful Creatures investigates how our favorite pets get in touch with their wild side through play. Discover how the pastimes of parakeets, marathon-running hamsters, wall-climbing cats, revered rabbits, and Peruvian dogs are just a whisker away from the wild.

The second of a two-part series, Secretive Creatures looks into how our pets experience their world through hidden channels of communication revealed with ultra slow-motion, photography that makes smells visible, X-rays that reveal hidden powers, and ultraviolet light that brings out the best in birds.

Moose populations across many parts of North America are in steep decline and scientists believe one of the reasons is that fewer moose calves are surviving their first year. This stunningly intimate nature documentary, filmed over 13 months in the spectacular wilds of Jasper National Park, takes viewers deep inside the world of moose to experience a mother’s love and a calf’s first year of life up close and personal.

Have scientists discovered the biggest animal to have ever walked the planet? Deep in a South American desert, a giant is being awakened after 101 million years of sleep. As the bones are found in different sediment layers there could be up to seven individuals – so are they all the same species? With a complete skeleton averaging 275 bones – how many of these bones belong to one giant? What bones are missing and why? And how will they fill in the gaps? And the ultimate question – is this the largest animal that ever walked on earth? All these questions and more will be answered as the team pieces together the evidence.

Animal Reunions have captured the imaginations of millions of people worldwide. YouTube is full of animal reunion stories – moments that illustrate and capture genuine affection and emotion between and among species. These rare moments provide a fleeting window into the emotional capacities of animals and their ability to form bonds with humans. But can wild animals really feel joy, devotion and love? Most animal lovers are convinced that they do, and now scientists are beginning to agree as we discover the stories that bring those animal emotions to life. We meet orphaned elephants in Kenya who have learned to trust their nursery keepers even after they lost their families at the hand of man – and witness a deep bond revealed as the head keeper travels to the National Park to see if his fully grown elephants remember him. We meet Damian Aspinall, the first man to release a captive-bred family of gorillas back to the wild, and see his reunion with one of those gorillas, proving a bond that may last a lifetime. We also meet Jane Goodall, the legendary chimpanzee researcher who was once heavily criticized for her claims about animal emotions; and Rebeca Atencia, the veterinarian who runs a Congolese chimp sanctuary set up by Goodall, as she travels to find the orphan chimpanzee she raised and released back into the wild. Through these incredible stories about human-animal relationships, illuminated by interviews with some of the world’s most eminent ethologists and academics, this film sets out to question not only the emotional intelligence of animals but the so-called divide between us and them.

Across the planet, animals are joining forces. They are doing so in surprising and diverse ways, whether it is to hunt, build a home, or solve complex problems. Partnerships were once thought rare in the animal kingdom, but now more and more are being discovered. Some are what we might expect from animals of the same species – elephant matriarchs helping a baby elephant, a pod of killer whales hunting as a team, or a troop of capuchin monkeys scheming together to steal a meal from a snake. What’s really astonishing is that often completely unrelated species such as the finch and the tortoise, the lizard and lions, and the raven and the wolverine become unlikely collaborators. Such teamwork involves considerable brainpower, revealing just what animals are really capable of. By teaming up, animals can achieve incredible things, becoming greater than the sum of their parts.