Attenborough's Wonder of Eggs

David Attenborough has a passion for birds' eggs. These remarkable structures nurture new life, protecting it from the outside world at the same time as allowing it to breathe. They are strong enough to withstand the full weight of an incubating parent and weak enough to allow a chick to break free.

But how is an egg made? Why are they the shape they are? And perhaps most importantly, why lay an egg at all? Piece by piece, from creation to hatching, David reveals the wonder behind these miracles of nature.

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The Life of Birds

More Than Honey

More than Honey is a 2012 Swiss documentary film directed by Markus Imhoof about honeybee colonies in California, Switzerland, China and Australia. The film is looking into the fascinating world of bees, showing small family beekeepers (including the beekeeper of ERSTE Foundation beehive, Heidrun Singer) and industrialized honey farms. MORE THAN HONEY is a film on the relationship between mankind and honeybees, about nature and about our future. Honeybees show us that stability is just as unhealthy as unlimited growth, that crises and disasters are triggering evolution and that salvation sometimes comes from a completely unexpected direction.

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Bees, Butterflies and Blooms
Silence of Bees

The Beauty of Ugly

In the animal world, as in our own, looks aren't everything. In fact, some of the most aesthetically challenged creatures - from warthogs and proboscis monkeys to bull elephant seals - are also the most fascinating. A stunning variety of these ghastly yet glorious forms are explored in NATURE's The Beauty of Ugly.

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The Trials of Life

Fabulous Frogs (PBS Nature)

David Attenborough takes us on a journey through the weird and wonderful world of frogs, shedding new light on these charismatic, colorful and frequently bizarre little animals through first-hand stories, the latest science, and cutting-edge technology. Frogs from around the world are used to demonstrate the wide variety of frog anatomy, appearance and behavior. Their amazing adaptations and survival techniques have made them the most successful of all amphibians.

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Life in Cold Blood

African Cats

African Cats is a nature documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, about several lions and cheetahs trying to survive on the African savannah. African Cats captures the real-life love, humour and determination of the majestic kings of the savannah. The story features Mara, an endearing lion cub who strives to grow up with her mother’s strength, spirit and wisdom; Sita, a fearless cheetah and single mother of five mischievous newborns; and Fang, a proud leader of the pride who must defend his family from a rival lion and his sons.

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The Great Rift - Africa's Wild Heart

After Life: The Strange Science of Decay

Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay.

For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old. Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.

Secrets of an African Jungle (PBS Nature)

The importance of rainforests is stressed in this episode of the PBS series Nature. The Korup rainforest is not as well known as the Amazon, and other, better publicized ecosystems, yet it supports a huge population of flora and fauna. Nature: Secrets of an African Jungle examines the denizens of this lush environment as they go about their daily search for food. Over time, relationships have developed between plants and animals that are beneficial to both. Monkeys, bats, and other creatures are nourished by the plants they eat, and in turn, they help to pollinate and seed the plants. (from answers.com)

Related Links:
Living Planet - Jungle

Radioactive Wolves (PBS Nature)

What happens to nature after a nuclear accident? And how does wildlife deal with the world it inherits after human inhabitants have fled? In 1986 a nuclear meltdown at the infamous Chernobyl power plant in present-day Ukraine left miles of land in radioactive ruins. Residents living in areas most contaminated by the disaster were evacuated and relocated by government order, and a no-man’s land of our own making was left to its own devices. In the ensuing 25 years, forests, marshes, fields and rivers reclaimed the land, reversing the effects of hundreds of years of human development. And surprisingly, this exclusion zone, or "dead zone," has become a kind of post-nuclear Eden, populated by beaver and bison, horses and birds, fish and falcons – and ruled by wolves.

Access to the zone is now permitted, at least on a limited basis, and scientists are monitoring the surviving wildlife in the area, trying to learn how the various species are coping with the invisible blight of radiation. As the top predators in this new wilderness, wolves best reflect the condition of the entire ecosystem because if the wolves are doing well, the populations of their prey must also be doing well. Accordingly, a key long-term study of the wolves has been initiated to determine their health, their range, and their numbers. Radioactive Wolves examines the state of wildlife populations in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, an area that, to this day, remains too radioactive for human habitation.

Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice

Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice is a BBC nature documentary presented by Prof. Alice Roberts, revealing the natural history of the most famous of Ice Age animals - the woolly mammoth. Mammoths have transfixed humans since the depths of the last Ice Age, when their herds roamed across what is now Europe and Asia. Although these curious members of the elephant family have now been extinct for thousands of years, scientists can now paint an incredibly detailed picture of their lives thanks to whole carcasses that have been beautifully preserved in the Siberian permafrost. Alice Roberts meets the scientists who are using the latest genetic, chemical and molecular tests to reveal the adaptations that allowed mammoths to evolve from their origins in the tropics, to surviving the extremes of Siberia.

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Walking with Beasts
Ice Age Giants

Andes: The Dragon’s Back (PBS Nature)

With glaciers marking its tip, active volcanoes running along its spine, snow-capped peaks rising high above its range, both wet and dry tropical rainforests within its interior, and desert, lowland savanna and alpine tundra in between, the Andes is an extraordinary world of diverse terrain, extreme temperatures and multifarious wildlife. Rising out of the Pacific Coast, this high mountain range is 5,000 miles long, extending over seven countries between Tierra del Fuego in the extreme south to the Caribbean coast in the north. (from pbs.org)

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Andes to Amazon (Wild South America)

Birds of Paradise (BBC Natural World)

Living in the depths of the New Guinea rainforest are the spectacular birds of paradise - creatures so beautiful that the first Europeans believed they must have fallen from heaven. Filming their bizarre courtship displays is the Holy Grail of wildlife film makers: some perform like iridescent acrobats, others make hypnotic pulsing sounds as they quiver and vibrate.

David Attenborough narrates the film. He has been entranced by these birds since he was a boy and he introduces a team of New Guinean naturalists as they embark on a gruelling expedition to try to film ten birds of paradise deep in the heart of the rainforest.

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The Life of Birds

Cuba - Wild Island of the Caribbean

Cuba is home to some of the most unusual creatures on earth, including the feisty Cuban crocodile, the world's smallest bird and frog, and migrating land crabs. Cuba's diverse wildlife stems from its unique natural history. Cuba was not originally in the Caribbean Sea but in the Pacific Ocean, where the island was situated 100 million years ago, before the forces of continental drift slowly brought it into the Caribbean. As the island migrated over the ages, an astonishing variety of life arrived by air, sea, and possibly by land bridges that may have once existed. Over time, these animals adapted to their new environment. Today, more than half of Cuba's plants and animals, including more than 80 percent of its reptiles and amphibians, are found nowhere else on the planet.

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Wild Caribbean

Ants - Nature’s Secret Power

In this documentary we will be transported into the world of ants through the eyes of Bert Hoelldobler, a world authority on these amazing animals. What animal has achieved immortality? What animal is the most warlike? What animal has the greatest supercity on the planet? Not man but ants. They are the real success story. It is only their tiny size and our vanity that allows us to hold onto the myth of our supremacy. Ants rule the planet. They are found in more habitats from far northern Finland to the sweltering tropics. The largest colony known of these insects is in Japan, where 306 million ants, with 1 million queens, in 45,000 colonies spread over 270 hectares. The fiercest warriors on earth are the slave maker ants. Other ants have barracks and sentry posts to protect themselves against surprise attack.

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Lord of the Ants
Understanding Ants

Natural World: Himalayas

This is a BBC nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough, looking at the wildlife of the most stunning mountain range in the world, home to snow leopards, Himalayan wolves and Tibetan bears. Snow leopards stalk their prey among the highest peaks. Concealed by snowfall, the chase is watched by golden eagles circling above. On the harsh plains of the Tibetan plateau live extraordinary bears and square-faced foxes hunting small rodents to survive. In the alpine forests, dancing pheasants have even influenced rival border guards in their ritualistic displays. Valleys carved by glacial waters lead to hillsides covered by paddy fields containing the lifeline to the East, rice. In this world of extremes, the Himalayas reveal not only snow-capped mountains and fascinating animals but also a vital lifeline for humanity.

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Walking the Himalayas

Earth Navigators (PBS Nature)

Earth Navigators is a PBS nature documentary following the world's most dauntless creatures in their epic migrations. Seasonal changes impel a wide variety of creatures, from whooper swans to monarch butterflies, to begin their epic migrations to ancient feeding, mating, and breeding grounds, sometimes covering thousands of miles and employing ingenious methods to reach their destinations. The migration of animals is one of the most astonishing phenomenons in the natural world. Twice a year, over land, in the air, and through the oceans, animals move in their thousands, prompted by the changing seasons.

Related Links:
Nature's Great Events

Playing God (BBC Horizon)

Playing God is a BBC Horizon documentary presented by Adam Rutherford, looking at how US scientists created a new species called the spider-goat. Adam Rutherford meets a new creature created by American scientists, the spider-goat. It is part goat, part spider, and its milk can be used to create artificial spider's web. It is part of a new field of research, synthetic biology, with a radical aim: to break down nature into spare parts so that we can rebuild it however we please. This technology is already being used to make bio-diesel to power cars. Other researchers are looking at how we might, one day, control human emotions by sending 'biological machines' into our brains.

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DNA (PBS documentary)

Yellowstone in Winter (PBS Nature, 1984)

As seen through the camera of Wolfgang Bayer, Yellowstone in Winter is a snow-swept landscape upon which wild creatures wage a test of endurance. The grizzly bear, majestic elk, bison, beaver, coyote, and other players enact a timeless drama, with the winners greeting springtime's renewal of life in this vast, beautiful wilderness. Featuring unique scenes and footage of American wildlife, Yellowstone in Winter tells a stirring story of struggle and survival against a backdrop of spectacular natural beauty.

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Books and Films - Yellowstone