The Natural World

Patrick Stewart narrates this eye-popping global spectacle that probes oceans and scales mountains to explain our planet's catastrophic past and violent present. What you don't know about your planet will thrill, amaze - and even frighten you. The facts featured are as starling as they are fascinating. Did you know that each year an average of 18,000 meteorites hit the earth; that it's 3,000 degree Fahrenheit just four miles below you or that the top of Mount Everest was once part of the ocean floor? Take part in the exciting story of Earth: scoop molten lava from an active volcano Explore the Moon with Apollo astronauts. Be present at the world's largest subsurface exploration. See Earth's oldest geological artifact - a 3.7 billion-year-old rock in Australia. Discover how Africa and South America split apart millions of years ago. Witness the devastating effects of an earthquake as it happens. Flee form deadly lightning-fast lava flows from an erupting volcano and much more. Buckle up, you won't believe the power of this amazing earth!

We study plate tectonics and their incredible power that can raise mountains, form the continents and open and close the seas. Ultimately, we learn that our restless planet will never stand still and that the geological truce may be coming to an end

The Frozen Kingdom is an extensive tour of the Earth's coldest places where a surprising variety of life is found. Ice worms and polar bears, killer whales and docile humpbacks, lumbering walrus bulls and slight arctic foxes all thrive in these seemingly uninhabitable climes. In the Arctic Circle, we follow a polar bear mother and her cubs in search of food and visit a colony of harbour seals. In the Gulf of Alaska, bull walruses and fur seals bludgeon one another in competition for a mate. Glacier Bay, in Alaska, hosts the annual migration of humpback whales whose haunting songs and giant brains hint at vast intelligence. Extraordinary footage taken off the coast of Patagonia shows killer whales attacking seals on a beach before battling them with their tails and finally devouring them. Finally, we visit Antarctica where emperor penguins cope with temperatures that can reach a hundred degrees below zero.

Three thousand miles from the mouth of the Amazon River, along the base of the towering Andes, lies the Manu Biosphere Reserve - the world's largest and most pristine rainforest. Celebrate the beauty of this region with the stunning aerial and ground footage of 'Spirits of the Rainforest'. Enriched by glimpses into the day-to- day life of the native Machiguenga tribe, the film interweaves the natural history of the area with the Machiguengas' myths and legends. The cameras follow Merino, a highly skilled hunter, into the heart of the forest as he teaches his son to catch spider monkeys. We also study the giant otters of the Manu River and the unbelievable birdlife that thrives in this most natural of environments. Spirits of the Rainforest tells the story of the land, the legends and the legacies in this most remote and resplendent region.

Ten thousand years ago, as the last ice age ended, many animals became extinct. However, the dog, elephant and lion carry on for their departed kin: the dire wolf, woolly mammoth and saber-tooth tiger. The plains of North America once hosted bison with horns that spanned seven feet and elk with ten feet antlers. But so much expenditure on sexual displays cost them dearly when the weather warmed and human hunters arrived. During the ice age, elephants with enormous tusks ranged into Eurasia and North America, but today their descendants in Africa face the threat of extinction. Rhinos were abundant ten millennia ago and now all five species are gravely endangered. Meanwhile, hippos, crocodiles, leopards and wild dogs survived the ice age with little or no change to their basic design. This programme spans the globe paying testament to those species that have survived the ice age while also reflecting back on the lives of their descendants.

For twenty thousand years, a woolly mammoth lay trapped in an icy tomb on the Taimyr Peninsula of Arctic Siberia. In 1999, French explorer Bernard Buigues raised the mammoth and had it airlifted to an ice cave for defrosting. Now, Bernard has an even greater goal: to paint a complete picture of the mammoth's world... its life and death... and ultimately to examine the causes of the mass extinctions that changed the face of the Taimyr at the end of the last Ice Age. Three theories of extinction are explored. Did the woolly mammoth vanish from our planet because of sudden climatic change… or a lethal virus… or did man cause his untimely extinction? Finally, current DNA research leads experts to consider the most hotly debated controversy of all: can the extinct woolly mammoth cloned? The mystery is waiting to unfold as we bring to life a long lost world in the "Land of the Mammoth."

There is a vast and mysterious world just offshore. A place of undiscovered species, cures for deadly diseases and keys to the weather. It's dangerous and threatening and at the same time beautiful and appealing. Are the ice caps melting? Is the planet getting hotter? Will sea levels rise? The answer to many global warming questions lie in the sea. Understanding Oceans investigates the ocean's currents, winds and weather systems. We demonstrate 'The Great Conveyor Belt', the circular process of warm water moving north, sinking in the Atlantic and then returning back to the equator. We study the effect the moon has on the ebb and flow of tides and look at the ever-changing formations of waves. We venture to the deepest part of the ocean to find what lurks beneath. Finally, we look at the global challenges of pollution and diminishing fish stocks and what needs to be done to balance human demands against the ocean’s resources.

Planet Earth teems with life. However, not all of the world is particularly friendly to its inhabitants for this is also planet of extremes: blistering deserts, barren mountain peaks, bleak ley wastelands and dark places that rarely see the sun. In the freezing world of the Arctic, the polar bear is equipped with a coat of fur and blubber designed to cope in a land where winters seem interminable . Mountain goats need to cope with thin air and treacherous terrain found above the snow line. Life in the desert is a constant battle against a lack of water. The saguaro cactus can expand sufficiently to absorb a ton of water a day when the rains come. In the deepest, darkest caves, freetail bats have developed extraordinarily sensitive hearing . Finally, in the mysterious deep of our oceans, fragile jellyfish are gelatinous enough to thrive in water pressure that would crush most creatures.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth takes you where noman has ventured before - the Earth's core and beyond! We'll investigate man's attempts to penetrate the depths of the Earth's surface via deep drill holes and super submerged submarines, examine the creatures that live where life is seemingly insupportable and discover what would happen if you dug through to the other side of the Earth! Along the way we compare our findings to Jules Verne’s classic tale, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Although Verne’s story was pure fantasy, written more than a century ago, his descriptions were surprisingly accurate and much of it is now science fact. Journey with us now as we venture below the earth’s surface to discover exactly what lies beneath our planet’s skin.