Natural World 38

Attenborough's Wonder of Eggs (2018)

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.

Nature's Biggest Beasts (2018)

The world's biggest beasts have always captured the imagination. But whilst being big can have its advantages, it also comes with sizeable challenges. Take the world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, whose huge appetite means it must take on prey ten times its weight or the tallest animal of them all, the giraffe, who with such a long neck must control immense blood pressure. Nature's biggest beasts must go to extraordinary lengths to thrive. These are their epic survival stories!

Super Fast Falcon (2018)

The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on earth - it can reach speeds of over 200mph. But what does it take to be a high-speed record breaker? To find out, we follow a young family of falcons as they grow up in downtown Chicago. We join renowned bird handler Lloyd Buck, who, with the help of state-of-the-art technology and leading avian scientists, puts his peregrines to the test. And finally, we see if Lloyd can train one young peregrine for the ultimate challenge of speed and agility - against an Olympic skier in the Swiss Alps. Through such groundbreaking experiments and intimate views of these special birds in the wild, the secrets behind these super-fast falcons can finally be revealed.

Red Ape: Saving the Orangutan (2018)

For the last decade, a team of frontline medics has been fighting to save Borneo's critically endangered orangutans. Armed with cameras, International Animal Rescue has documented their struggle: pulling apes from devastated jungle, giving emergency medical care, rehabilitating and releasing the healthiest orangutans back into the wild. This is both the story of their life-saving work and of how one of our closest wild relatives has been pushed to the brink of extinction. Combining genuine rescue footage with contributions from experts throughout, this documentary looks toward the future and asks what hope remains to save the orangutan.

Pangolins: The World's Most Wanted Animal (2018)

The endearing pangolin is a little-known scaly mammal. Found in Africa and Asia, these shy creatures have an unfortunate tagline - they are the most poached and illegally trafficked animals in the world. Based in Namibia, conservationist Maria Diekmann rescues and rehabilitates her local pangolins. In a bid to better understand the global issues they are facing, we follow Maria to Vietnam, Thailand and China into the very heart of the crisis, where demand for pangolin products is greatest. In what turns out to be an emotional journey, Maria joins forces with a Chinese megastar to build a campaign to bring awareness to the plight of an animal most people have never even heard of.