Natural World

The effect on the natural world of a nuclear war, reporting on reseacrh in America, Russia and Britain which suggests that for thirty years the world has had the capacity to cause `a nuclear winter'. A Natural World special transmitted in 1984.

Filmed in Nepal, Ethiopia and China investigates how the misuse of land and not drought lies at the root of famines in Ethiopia and elsewhere. The programme reveals how government policy and international trade conspire to cause starvation.

Burkino Faso, the edge of the Sahel in west Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has been gripped by drought since 1968, yet simple techniques are helping to conserve their rainfall. In the western USA, massive and expensive irrigation schemes are bringing a harvest of subsidised yet unsaleable crops.

Follows the great land migration in Africa, one of the seven wonders of the natural world. Wildebeests, numbering in the millions, run for their lives on a-mile trek to find food and water, battling predators along the way.

Impalas move with the great migration on the Serengeti plains of Africa. A new fawn is on his way, but so is danger for the herds.

On an African river in the Serengeti, a mother crocodile defends her babies against predators in the sky and on the ground. Discover the secret way that crocodiles have survived for millions of years.

The programme is about bumble bees in the forests of New England. We follow a queen bumble bee as she emerges from hibernation to find a suitable nest site and establish a colony from the eggs she has carried over the winter. She duels with a rival queen. Honey bees, bee mites and wax moths also feature in her life story.

Documentary which tells the story of some of the discoveries made by Indian ornitholigist Salim Ali

In their hunt for the dugong, the Kiwai people of Papua New Guinea still use magic to bewitch it and to charm their boats, whether they are powered by sail or outboard motor. The dugong, or sea cow, is the gentle creature that gave rise to the legend of the mermaid. To the Kiwai it is an important food and a central feature of their livelihood and culture. Now it is being hunted to the extent that it is a rare and endangered species.

As a child Jane Goodall dreamt of going to Africa and living with the animals. In 1960 her dream became reality: she began a study of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe National Park. Today, more than two decades later, her work still continues, and it has given us a remarkable portrait of the animal most like man. Spanning three generations of chimps, it shows them in all their moods.... playful infants, turbulent adolescents and adults whose behavior ranges from tender motherhood to hunting and even murder.

Documentary programme on Keith Brockle who spent twelve months painting and drawing the bird life on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth.

Truk Lagoon in the western Pacific is a peaceful tropical atoll. In 1944 its tranquillity was shattered when the US Navy surprised and sank a fleet of 60 Japanese ships. Within 40 years a dazzling array of corals and colorful fish have transformed this sunken arsenal into the world's largest artificial reef.

Land of the Tiger looks at the protected species of the Kanha and Ranthambore National Parks, celebrating these elusive and endangered big cats and exploring the delicately balanced ecosystem they inhabit. Interweaving footage of monkeys, deer and the tiger’s main competitor, crocodiles, the couple’s impressive cinematography brings the private world of tigers to life, as these magnificent creatures swim, play, mate, suckle their young and stalk their prey.

In all Africa there is no stranger riddle than the flowering of the land of the Nama. Those bushmen were the first to see their desert land burgeon into a blaze of color. But this paradise was always short-lived; a spectacular bloom that quickly withered away, not to be seen again for many years. RODNEY BORLAND filmed the most recent of these stupendous and mystifying displays. To a landscape already weird with huge halfmens plants, elephant ears and baboons' fingers, suddenly came vast arrays of nodding daisies and wave upon wave of mesembryanthemums, wild geraniums, gladioli and amaryllis. The landscape was bathed in brilliant hues, a natural garden whose glory may not shine again before the end of this century.

Documentary on the illicit trade in Rhino horns, which is threatening the five kinds of rhinoceros with extinction.

Documentary, exploring the Chinese attitudes to mythological and real animals.

Documentary on the wolf packs of Arctic Canada.

Documentary on European migrant birds as they winter on the flood plain of the River Niger in Mali.

An intimate and touching glimpse into the lives of these gentle, highly intelligent creatures, it follows a team of scientists and volunteers as they continue the research of the late ethologist Dian Fossey.

Report on the threat to the African elephant population from ivory poachers.

Documentary on the national park of Gran Paradiso in the Italian Alps, focusing on the imbalance in the fauna which inhabit the area.

David Attenborough and Cynthia Moss narrate an award-winning film about 18 months in the life of elephant matriarch Echo and her family, who live in Kenya's Amboseli National Park.

An atmospheric account of the lesser flamingo, Firebird explores the incredible adaptations these resilient birds possess in the hostile environment of East Africa's Great Rift Valley.

An extraordinary glimpse into the world of these incredibly efficient predators, Killer Whales: Wolves of the Sea is an intriguing celebration of the species’ ingenious hunting methods, sophisticated communication skills and strong family ties.

Focusing on a pair of albatrosses during the year they produce and raise a chick, Mysteries of the Ocean Wanderers is an engaging and atmospheric insight into the wildlife of the sub-Antarctic Crozet Islands. Delving into a previously unknown area, the film follows the intriguing work of French scientist Henri Weimerskirch as he uses satellite tracking and time-depth recorders to follow the ever changing population of these remote isles.

Documentary on the prairie dog of the South Dakota Badlands.

Documentary showing life under the Pacific Ocean and the predatory life of the marlin, sailfish, sea snakes, dolphins and tuna, birds and turtles.

A deeply moving account of elephant family life, The Next Generation is the sequel to the BBC Natural History Unit's award-winning Echo of the Elephants. The award-winning cameraman Martyn Colbeck returns to direct and photograph this piece, his stunning cinematography bringing to life the touching intimacy, brutal fights and amazing perseverance of these magnificent animals. Filmed over four years, elephant expert, leading conservationist and world-renowned research zoologist Cynthia Moss continues her research into the ageing matriarch Echo and her rapidly expanding clan.

In the depths of the world’s oceans, biologist and award-winning wildlife photographer Mike deGruy explores the multi-sensory world of the cephalopods. Stunning underwater photography provides an incredible glimpse into these enigmatic invertebrates, recording species never before captured on film. Impressive footage from a remote-controlled submersible provides the first ever glimpse of two rare creatures in their natural habitat, the living fossil nautilus and the intimidating vampire squid.

An investigation into the inhabitants of the Arctic who have adapted to extreme conditions, looks at the polar bear, narwhal and guillemots.

Wildlife film about sperm whales, revealing the secret lives led by these often misunderstood ocean giants. Scientists all over the world are now learning about the secret lives of sperm whales, the world's largest hunters that spawned the legendy of Moby Dick. Although Mellville painted them as fearsome beasts of the sea, they are actually shy creatures, and cameraman Rick Rosenthal needed patience and persistence to film them at close quarters. They turn out to be efficient hunters with a close family network involving sophisticated and vocal social lives.

The first ever production to record animal behaviour at night without the use of lights, Mara Nights is an intriguing insight into a whole host of unseen nocturnal antics in Kenya's Masai Mara National Park. The normally astute hunting techniques of the lion are replaced by complete reliance on scent and sound, and in the words of the filmmaker Martin Dohrn "bumping into things then jumping on them".

Documentary on penguins- not looking at their traditionally viewed habitat Antartica, but at those penguins who have adapted to life in the deserts of Peru, and the cities of New Zealand.

In Sri Lanka's ruined city of Polonnaruwa lives the Temple Troop, the unruliest gang of monkeys around. This film follows an extraordinary year in the life of the troop.

An examination of the wildlife living around Mt McKinley, North America's highest peak.

Focusing on the wildlife of the remote island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic.

This is the story of one Capybara group,whose territory spans a patchwork of of wildlife-rich swamp,grassland & forest in Venezuela's Orinoco flood plain -the "Llanos".

Includes footage of the gentle whale shark, and the perilous birth of a baby horn shark.

A dramatic film about Right Whales, the rarest of all the great whales. There's a race on to save them and even US nuclear submarines are part of the effort. Dramatic footage above and below the water reveals these fascinating giants battling for mates, rearing young, sailing with their tails and meeting other whales, dolphins, seals and sharks. It's called the Right Whale because it used to be the right whale to hunt - big and full of blubber. Today it's baffling biologists who cannot understand why, in spite of total protection, it refuses to recover.

A look at the unique wildlife of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, and the island's few remaining members of the ancient Ainu race, who see all animals as sacred. Swept by winds from the high Arctic, Hokkaido is an island of towering volcanos and fairytale forests, where cranes perform dances in the snow, brown bears plunge for salmon in rivers and eagles plunder the spoils from winter fishing fleets. The unique wildlife of Hokkaido has long been worshipped by an ancient race of hunter-gatherers, called Ainu, a few of whom still survive among modern Japanese. Even today, they honour the natural world around them through ritualised dance and prayer.

Beneath the forested flanks of an extinct volcano lies a cave with a mysterious secret. Kitum Cave on the slopes of Mt Elgon in Kenya is the only place on earth where elephants venture deep underground. They are forced to make the dangerous journey into the cave because of their craving for salt. Humans have been drawn to Kitum Cave for thousands of years, originally to harvest salt, but more recently to slaughter elephants, leading to local rangers Daniel and Mike being assigned to protect the survivors

This film follows a year on the exquisite west coast of Scotland, in the intimate company of a family of otters. Guided by their mother, the otter cubs survive the wildest storms of the Scottish winter, striving to overcome many challenges on their way to independence. The west coast is warmed by the Gulf Stream which is why dolphins and sharks, whales and puffins all come here to share it with the otters. Two years in the making, this film is packed with surprises and excitement and set in the most breathtaking scenery to be found anywhere in Britain.

Introduced to Australia in the 1840s by European settlers, camels were the only reliable form of transport in the country's harsh interior. Replaced by motor vehicles and abandoned at the turn of the 20th century, they now number over a quarter of a million - the only true wild camel population on the planet. This film tells the life story of a young camel growing up in the harsh world of the outback

Predators with the largest fangs of any snake and venom containing up to 50 deadly ingredients, vipers kill more people than any other animal. But now that medical science is beginning to discover the healing power of natural poisons, could this lethal reptile turn out to be a boon for mankind?