Chris Packham explores the success of the most widespread of marine mammals, the dolphin. Contrary to their amiable reputation, they are, in fact, ruthless predators. They hunt using a combination of specialized anatomy and complex communication, requiring a big brain. Chris explains the inner workings of dolphin echolocation, reveals how a pod uses body movements to communicate the location of food, and explores the strategies used by orcas during...

Shot by two filmmakers over fifteen years, this Arctic footage tells the story of a polar bear cub and a walrus pup as they come of age in a melting kingdom. In Australia, the notorious fireweed is threatening the natural habitat of Moreton Bay's endangered green turtles. With the help of Crittercam, researchers explore options for protecting these ancient creatures. Climate change threatens a precious commodity of Hawaii's big island - the Kona coffee...

The life cycles of plants, animals, and humans are studied close-up in this outstanding biology program. Narrated film action scenes show plant and animal reproduction, then show the budding of leaves, and the emergence of baby chicks from their shell. The growth stage depicts a caterpillar's metamorphosis into a butterfly, and a tadpole's emergence as a frog. Mature penguins, sheep, ducks, and baboons forage for food, while plants drink in sunlight...

Nature is a tough place to live and animals need to avoid getting eaten. Many creatures make their own venom for protection against attackers while some use it to kill prey. After nearly dying from a rattlesnake bite, scientist Bryan Fry has has always been intrigued with things that can kill you, and has made it his mission to seek out and study the most poisonous venoms in the world. This scientist-turned-venom-hunter collects toxins which could...

This program features two beaver families in Wyoming as they race to build up their dams before the winter freeze cuts off their food supply. Beavers work as cohesive family units and radically restructure their environments in the process. Carefully placed time-lapse footage and graphics combine to show the beavers' dramatic effect on the landscape. See the monumental and unexpected changes that the planet's busiest animal engineers impose on their...

This episode explores the rich ecosystem of the forest: a terrain covering one third of our planet's total land area. Forest floors and canopies are an excellent hunting ground for some deadly predators and elusive prey. Tropical jungles hide poisonous creatures, while large carnivores ravage northern boreal forests for their meals. Ideally suited for survival in their forest homes, twelve elite animals are distinguished by keen intellect, clever...

Explorer and primatologist Mireya Mayor spends her summers in the rich and biodiverse rainforests of Madagascar tracking down lemurs - performing critical work on two species of highly endangered primates whose habits remain a mystery to biologists: the silky sifaka and the Perrier sifaka. These fascinating lemurs, the smallest of the primates, are known for their large, dark eyes and agile movements through the treetops, where they live, eat, and...

Just how far do the similarities between humans and great apes extend? Sequences from historic experiments by Allen and Beatrix Gardner, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, and other primatologists, plus footage shot in the wild, provide compelling support for the thesis that chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans are highly evolved indeed. Demonstrations of cognition, self-awareness, memory retention, language use, social behavior, mating practices, and perhaps...

At a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, a team of conservationists raises orphaned elephants. The keepers must stay by the elephants' sides 24-hours a day in the hopes that they may return to the wild one day. A biologist searches for leopard seals among the Antarctic ice. Researchers deploy Crittercam to explore the lives of these relentless hunters. Join conservationists as they fight against the tide of garbage to support the cleanup effort in Washington,...

Every day, millions of creatures are born into a life on the march, on the wing, on the run. Witness the dramatic migration of Christmas Island's red crabs as they travel from interior forests to mate on the beaches, braving battles with ferocious yellow ants; the heartbreaking moment a wildebeest calf falls prey to crocodiles, all part of the 300-mile journey the wildebeest make each year; the monarch butterfly's annual journey that takes four generations...