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Private Notes
The first title from the exciting series made up from the BBC's natural history output.
Just the sight of a shark's fin breaking the surface spells terror, but is this Hollywood-delivered image fair? Underwater filming of these awesome, two ton, 19 foot fish in their natural unbaited environments exposes the Great White as a paradox: a shy and cautious creature existing within a highly structured social order, but also a terrific killing machine striking with total surprise and devatating speed from the murky depths.
A fascinating celebration of these powerful and formidable predators - majestic in their natural habitat. A land of ice and blizzards, bleak and desolate, there can be few places as remote or as beautiful as the Arctic Circle. Punishing in the extreme, with a winter of perpetual darkness which is then replaced by months of blazing daylight, this BBC production was the first in-depth study of the polar bear in its harsh and unrelenting terrain. With little polar bear behaviour ever being caught on film before, world-renowned wildlife producer Martha Holmes, together with cameramen Doug Allan and Martin Saunders, recorded a number of groundbreaking sequences. In evocative scenes yearlings are seen imitating their parents as they crash into the dens of seal pups, hunt walruses and scavenge on vegetation and bird carcasses. With the dramatic backdrop of frozen ice fields and stunning underwater shots, the unique imagery is woven in with an informative commentary from David Attenborough. Winner of a Best Factual Photography BAFTA in 1998, Polar Bear: The Arctic Warrior provides a comprehensive insight into the day-to-day life of the world's largest land carnivore.
Only now, by exploring their complete world, above and below water, by day and night, can we fully appreciate how sophisticated crocodiles are.
This episode ventures into the night, and follows the lives of two leopards in Zambia's Luangwa Valley, to reveal the night-time secrets of the cat that walks on its own.
Few birds have captured the human imagination as deeply as the eagle and in this remarkable film, aerial photography captures the dramatic life of eagles as never seen before.
From the Arctic to the Antarctic, amazing underwater footage reveals for the first time the successful hunting and spectacular social behaviour of the world's largest predator.
The definitive story of this much-maligned animal - filmed in habitats ranging from the high Arctic to the hill farms of Europe and monsoon-sodden India.
After 25 years of the Project Tiger Scheme operating in the Madhya Pradesh, these magnificent animals have become more trusting, permitting an extraordinary intimate film which follows them from sunrise to sunset, in monsoon rains and in shimmering heat.
Edited from more than 3000 hours of footage, this documentary uses a remote camera disguised as a rock to observe cubs growing up into adult lions. It features their futile attempts to climb trees, the mayhem caused when they surround a hippo, and various encounters with other animals such as cobras, buffalos and elephants. Narrated by David Attenborough
Grizzly - a powerful predator and an animal to fear. But not for Jeff Turner, a Canadian photographer who has spent fifteen years getting face to face with bears. In this film he uses his unique skills to get closer than ever before, and uncovers the true nature of this magnificent beast. Few other people could stalk a hunting grizzly across the tundra of Alaska or film them underwater diving for fish.
Jeff reveals an animal that is complex, intelligent and adaptable, one which is just as good at prizing barnacles from rocks and digging for clams, as it is pursuing elk and swimming for salmon. And just like us, every grizzly is an individual, each with it's own
Over a century ago, the first explorers in the Congo forests sent back terrifying accounts of an aggressive ape, "half man, half beast," which inspired the myth of King Kong. Ever since then, we have had little contact with these lowland gorillas — they have remained a mystery to us. We have come to know the mountain gorillas of Rwanda intimately, but what are King Kong's wild lowland cousins really like? GORILLAS: ON THE TRAIL OF KING KONG follows Sir David Attenborough and intrepid cameraman Gavin Thurston on the trail deep into the heart of three gorilla sanctuaries in northern Congo: Ndoki, Odzala and Lossi, in search of the true nature of the lowland gorilla.
One of the most successful species on earth is also one of the least documented. Miniaturised cameras reveal the snakes' world for the first time from their point of view. Head-mounted cameras capture gripping images of the world's most dangerous snakes hunting and overcoming their prey. Using high-speed photography, x-ray imaging and state-of-the-art computer graphics, this is the most ambitious TV study of snakes yet attempted.
Elephants: Spy In The Herd provides the most intimate portrayal of the everyday life of an elephant herd.
Narrated by David Attenborough and filmed over a year, throughout the program the elephant herd exhibits many human similarities: their life span, social structure, wisdom of age and emotional bonds.
The idea of using "character-cameras" is developed even further and the spy-cams help unravel the elephants' intimate story. Three different types of cameras were created: "Dungcam", "Poopcam" and "Plopcam"! By using radical techniques, the disguised cameras capture each dramatic moment of elephant life from extraordinary proximity.
Witness two males clashing over territory, the birth and slow development of a calf and jealous rivalries between herd members. A real sense of these animals' incredible flexibility and intimacy is shown as they bathe in mineral salts, mud and dust, while their astonishing sensory perceptions are also revealed.
The "Dungcams" also interact with the herd in a remarkable way. Dung is important in elephants' lives - so inevitably they are at times interested in the cameras themselves - especially as each one is laced with real elephant dung. With the cameras rolling, the elephants interact with the cameras, kicking them like footballs and going so far as to pick them up and filmthemselves.
Attempts at charting shark behaviour using a 6ft, lifelike animatronic robot, complete with on-board camera and pre-programmed swimming patterns. In the waters around Bikini Atoll the creation is able to mingle safely with man-eating reef sharks, while in the Philippines it spies on deep-sea threshers and joins great whites as they hunt seals. Narrated by David Attenborough.
Sir David Attenborough narrates this look at bears from across the globe through the use of spycams, camoflaged in a variety of disguises from logs, boulders, fish and dustbins.
"The Journey" - A wildebeest calf makes spectacular year-long journey, an arduous 3,000km round trip across Tanzania's Serengeti and Kenya's Masai Mara. Filmed using Dungcam, Bouldercam, Croccam, Skullcam, Tortoisecam and other spycams. (Part one of a two-part documentary.)
"The Crossing" - A wildebeest calf makes spectacular year-long journey, an arduous 3,000km round trip across Tanzania's Serengeti and Kenya's Masai Mara. In part two, the migration reaches the Masai Mara where, for the calf, the river presents his greatest challenge yet.
Elephants carrying Trunkcam, Tuskcam and other spy cameras tell the story of four cubs growing up in the Indian jungle. In the first programme, the elephants come upon the four 10-day-old tiger cubs. This is their mother's first litter and she has her paws full.
The cubs are now half-grown and very playful, learning the skills they'll need as adults.
The cubs are now a year-and-a-half old and learning to hunt for themselves.
Spycams sneak within a paw’s swipe of the world’s largest land predators – Polar bears. This fantastic documentary gets closer than ever before to these charismatic bears and reveals their astonishing intelligence and curiosity. Part one of two.
Spycams sneak within a paw’s swipe of the world’s largest land predators – Polar bears. This fantastic documentary gets closer than ever before to these charismatic bears and reveals their astonishing intelligence and curiosity. Part two of two.
"The Journey" - Emperor penguins cross a treacherous frozen sea to reach their breeding grounds.
"First Steps" - Newborn penguins are caught taking their first unsteady steps.
"Growing Up" - As the chicks become increasingly independent, their parents continue to protect them.
The award-winning team behind Penguins - Spy in the Huddle use hidden cameras to go into the heart of the dolphins' world, offering the chance to encounter dolphins up-close. The camera eyes of thirteen different 'Spy Creatures', including Spy Dolphin, Spy Nautilus and Spy Turtle, allow behaviour to be captured that has never been filmed before, including a vast superpod of spinner dolphins hunting huge shoals of lanternfish while dodging the gaping mouths of giant rays.
In Mozambique, a newborn bottlenose dolphin learns from his mother as they follow a mysterious gathering of stingrays and then hunt huge kingfish. He practices his sonar, plays with bubbles and also discovers ways to dislodge pesky suckerfish. Nearby, the males live a playboy lifestyle as they play chicken with supertankers, visit a coral health spa and surf the waves. When they try to woo the females their direct approach threatens the baby, but eventually bouquets of seaweed have the desired effect.
Other astonishing sights include dolphins using rings of mud to catch fish and the spectacular highspeed leaps and corkscrews of spinner dolphins. There is humour too, when Spy Turtle encounters real amorous turtles and Spy Squid has a near miss with a hungry potato bass.
Remote-controlled Spy Creatures reveal dolphins as never before. Meet the orca, king of the dolphins, and discover the intimacy of its remarkable family life. Find dolphins that wear sponges on their noses, and race with the fastest dolphin in the world - the Dall's porpoise.
Discover a real dolphin secret agent that carries a camera into the pod to uncover their mysteries of communication and interactions. Elsewhere, a young bottlenose begins a life on his own joined by Spy Puffer and Spy Baby - a cute camera dolphin that has bubble conversations with real dolphins! The youngster makes friends with a rare humpback dolphin, joins a gang and takes part in a bizarre initiation ceremony. He also becomes intoxicated on the secretions of strange fish and finally woos a female with gifts and charm.
Most of the behaviour is filmed for the first time. Other spectacles include superpods of common dolphins feeding among sharks; and orcas using their cleverness to catch dolphins and seals. Spy Dolphin joins a pod as it strands itself to catch fish and it's curtains for one Spy Creature as he himself becomes a meal.
Never before has the extraordinary intelligence of dolphins been so intimately revealed.
Sir David Attenborough's new documentary traces his lifelong passion for birds of paradise.
For five centuries "birds from paradise" have captivated explorers, naturalists, artists, film-makers and even royalty. They are also one of David Attenborough's lifelong passions.
He was the first to film many of their beautiful and often bizarre displays and has spent a lifetime tracking them all over the jungles of New Guinea.
Here, David reflects on his first attempt to film the birds of paradise, their bizarre and exotic courtship rituals, his experience at a state-of-the-art breeding facility in Qatar, and how there are always wonderful things to discover.
From the Wildlife on One series, already stored appropriately in thetvdb.
Filmed over two years, Sir David Attenborough will tell the story of the fossil discovery and reconstruction in Argentina of the largest known dinosaur, a new species of titanosaur. Measuring 37m long - close to four London buses put end to end - and weighing 70 metric tons, latest calculations show that this new giant titanosaur is the biggest animal ever to walk the earth.
Luminous beings, creatures with their own internal light, enchant and astonish us. Anyone who has seen a firefly or a glow-worm cannot help but fall under their spell. The sea at night sparkles as millions of luminous plankton reveal the shapes of dolphins in a truly magical light show. But why do animals produce living light? For centuries we could only marvel at the beauty and the mystery, but now for the first time we can begin to reveal the amazing truth about living lights. It has taken three crucial technological breakthroughs.
220 million years ago dinosaurs were beginning their domination of Earth. But another group of reptiles was about to make an extraordinary leap: pterosaurs were taking control of the skies. The story of how and why these mysterious creatures took to the air is more fantastical than any fiction. In Flying Monsters 3D, Sir David Attenborough the world’s leading naturalist, sets out to uncover the truth about the enigmatic pterosaurs, whose wingspans of up to 40 feet were equal to that of a modern day jet plane.
As Sir David Attenborough turns 90, this intimate film presents new interviews, eye-opening behind-the-scenes footage and extraordinary clips from some of his most recent films. The doc, which was made for the occasion of Attenborough’s 90th birthday, was shot over seven years and follows him as he travels to Borneo, Morocco and the Galapagos to shoot wildlife specials. Geffen, the CEO of Atlantic Productions, commented, “This is such a special Attenborough film because unusually he is the subject. As I look back over the last seven years, I never fail to be amazed by his extraordinary ambition and drive to use the very latest technology to communicate the natural world to audiences around the globe. This film gives audiences the chance to see what it’s like to be on the road with David.”
Award-winning musician Björk and legendary broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough have admired each other's work for years but this is the first time they have discussed their mutual love of music and the natural world on screen.
In this remarkable documentary, Björk explores our unique relationship with music and discovers how technology might transform the way we engage with it in the future.
At the heart of the film is Biophilia, Björk's cutting-edge music project that explores where nature, music and technology meet. David Attenborough explains how music exists in the natural world and speaks about his own passion for music.
Author and professor of neurology and psychiatry Oliver Sacks explains the extraordinary and beneficial effects music has on our brains and explains why performing and engaging with music is something all of us should take more seriously.
Along the Scotia Arc of the South Atlantic Ocean, South Georgia Island is home to some of the most populated animal cities on the globe. This IMAX production visits this area, made famous by Ernest Shackleton and his Antarctic voyage, films these stunning animal gatherings during the high seasons of spring and summer. Narrated by David Attenborough.
Attenborough is the narrator for this BBC documentary video, which is suitable for older elementary, middle school, and high school students.
A remarkable 200-million-year-old fossil - the bones of an ichthyosaur, a giant sea dragon - has been discovered on the Jurassic coast of Britain. David Attenborough joins the hunt to bring this ancient creature's story to life. Using state-of-the-art imaging technology and CGI, the team reconstruct the skeleton and create the most detailed animation of an ichthyosaur ever made. Along the way, the team stumble into a 200-million-year-old murder mystery - and only painstaking forensic investigation can unravel the story of this extraordinary creature's fate.
