Favourite natural history programmes

I haven’t seen a thread on this subject yet – apologies if it already exists. I figured it would be interesting to share what we think to be the best natural history documentaries; that could be a single-episode programme, an entire series or a single episode from a series. I have included eight main programmes (in no particular order of preference), plus a single guilty pleasure and a programme I haven’t seen yet but dearly wish to:

1) Dynasties (2018)

This makes the list purely on the merits of the episode ‘Painted Wolf’ which is, I think, the best single example of a programme following an individual animal – it combines the regular dramas of wild dog life with interesting new observations such as the species hunting baboons. The rest of the series ultimately left me cold – the chimpanzee episode was probably the second most interesting (considering how uninterested I normally am in chimps, that is really something), the family lives of lions were better displayed in the Big Cat Diary/Week series and the tiger and especially the emperor penguin episodes just seemed pointless to me.​

2) The Velvet Claw (1992)

One of the advantages of clinging to obsolete technology like a hermit is that I can watch this BBC series on VHS and it has long been one of my favourite programmes. The seven episodes explore the evolution and diversity of most of the carnivore groups, with a great diversity of living species and hand-drawn animation of the extinct carnivores. This series tops the list of the ones I would love to see the BBC remake or provide a sequel to, with updated information on taxonomy and an episode added to include the evolution and diversity of the pinnipeds.​

3) Forest Cattle Survey Expedition to Southeast Asia (1957)

This film is primarily the results of a scientific expedition, so the cinematography is not necessarily the greatest. However, it is hugely elevated by its showing of a now almost lost world of Cambodia’s wooded savannahs. While some of the film (particularly near the start) shows the ruins of ancient Cambodian civilizations and the people, the images of interest come later with abundant shots of all four Cambodian wild cattle – the banteng, gaur, Asiatic wild buffalo and the now almost-certainly extinct kouprey along with Eld’s deer, sambar, wild boar, pangolin and gibbons among other species.

The full documentary is included below – the kouprey appear from 28:26:
MSS0046_000X_m_vi_000025​

4) Secrets of our Living Planet (2012)

This four-part series, presented by Chris Packham, looks at the ecological relationships between seemingly disparate species in various habitats as well as exploring what make those habitats work. Each programme poses a series of questions, for example ‘Why does the dwarf gecko need the giraffe’ and then looks at the species and processes that link the two together (in the case of the gecko and giraffe, they are linked by whistling acacias, acacia ants and patas monkeys). It is one of the few series I regularly re-watch, because it is of such interest.​

5) The Living Planet (1984)

The original habitat anthology series on which Planet Earth and Planet Earth II are based and personally I think still the best of the three. Across twelve episodes almost every habitat is explored, with some that didn’t appear in Planet Earth (islands and cities) and some that didn’t appear in Planet Earth II (freshwater, seasonal forests and all marine habitats). The Living Planet never shies away from showing people living in these environments unlike many later series and also seems to be much more forceful in its condemnation of environmental harm in the final episode than almost any documentary since.​

6) Secrets of Nature (2016)

Not the 1920s-30s British series, but a more recent series of Youtube-based documentaries. The quality of the programming on this channel varies considerably, but ‘Secrets of the Flooded Forest’ is truly excellent, depicting a year in the life of Vienna’s Danube-Auen National Park. It features a range of interesting species and also shows how the yearly cycle of water creates habitats for this variety of animals. The channel also includes a couple of programmes about zoos – ‘Gene Pool of the Alps’ about Alpenzoo Innsbruck and ‘Keepers of the Ark – A Life for Animals’ about Schonbrunn Zoo, but I haven’t watched them in full and so cannot really comment on their quality.

The full ‘Secrets of the Flooded Forest’ documentary is included below:
​

7) The Hunt (2015)

This seven-part BBC series shows how predators operate in a variety of habitats. As a general rule, it is very good – the cinematography is excellent and there are some interesting species involved such as Darwin’s bark spider, American marten, caracal and Abdopus octopus. However, I did have some grievances – I felt it was unnecessary to have two different sequences of lions hunting in the ‘Plains’ episode, footage of chimpanzees hunting colobus has barely evolved at all since it was filmed for Trials of Life in 1990 and the ‘Arctic’ episode could have been split between the Plains and Coasts episodes and replaced with an episode about freshwater predators.​

8) Survival: The Tides of Kirawira (1994)

This is one of only two Deeble and Stone documentaries I have seen all the way through. It explores the wildlife of the Grumeti River and the ebbs and flows of the two ‘tides’ – the brown tide of the water and the black tide of the migrating wildebeest. It is a textbook example of how good a documentary can turn out when a filmmaker simply familiarises with a single area rather than going and looking for a specific sequence. It includes a host of interesting species and some fascinating behaviour (I have never heard reference elsewhere of Nile monitors using their own bodies as seine-nets for fishing, for example).

The full documentary is included below, from the official Deeble and Stone YouTube channel:
​

Guilty pleasure) Miracles of Nature (2012)

This three-part BBC series was presented by Richard Hammond, most famous for formerly presenting Top Gear and best-known in wildlife documentary circles for the slow-motion train-wreck that was ‘Planet Earth Live’. This series however, is one I find quite interesting and I still sometimes re-watch it. It explores the world of biomimicry and tests interesting inventions based on the features of animals – for example testing hydrophobic coatings for a huge variety of objects based on the surface of morpho butterfly wings or performing a drop-test of a lightbulb from the edge of space to test a design based on a woodpecker skull that would be used for crash helmets.​

Desired programme) Survival: A Space in the Heart of Africa (1996)

This is the last of the Alan Root documentaries ever shown and is the one I definitely most want to see. It looks at the wildlife of the Congo rainforest and includes a variety of particularly choice species that you rarely if ever see in other series – okapi, potto, tree pangolin, water chevrotain, Demidoff’s galago, goliath beetle, Congo peafowl, checkered sengi, giant otter shrew and perhaps the choicest species, the aquatic genet. The programme does apparently have an overarching theme that relates to the title, looking at how the actions of forest elephants keep openings clear and so provide for other species. It sounds fantastic.​

I would be interested to know what everyone else has seen and particularly enjoyed or not seen and particularly want to.

 

As a waterfowl enthusiast, I've seen two programmes devoted to single waterfowl species, one over 50 years ago on the North Anerican Black Duck, and one in the mid-70s on the Australian Shelduck (Mountain Duck). And yet useless stuff like football is on the telly all the time.....

 

@DesertRhino150 ,

Number 3 in your great list is almost unbelievable! Thanks for sharing!

 

I liked 'Natural Break' - a series of 10 minute long programmes on various subjects. It included a film of a captive thylacine and the funniest wildlife scene I've ever seen - a trap door spider trying to catch grasshoppers - it left David Attenborough in hysterics.

I've also liked the cave programme on Planet Earth and any programmes on deep sea life.

I like wildlife quizzes such as 'Wildbrain' and the 'Survival Game'

 

Actually just found this double episode of 'Survival' that I thought might be of interest.

The first episode, called 'Bongo' (running to about 24 minutes), is about the process undertaken by Alan and Joan Root in the capture and habituation of Eastern bongo in the Aberdare Mountains, with three of the twelve captured animals being shown in their home at Frankfurt Zoo.

The second episode, called 'The Elephant that Walked on Air' is a series of humorous experiments being undertaken in Africa by Bernhard Grzimek, former director of Frankfurt Zoo. It simply looks at the reactions of wild animals such as elephants, lions and rhinoceroses to some very ropey-looking inflatable animals.

The full programme is included below:

 

When I was a very young child, one of my favourite television programmes was On Safari with Armand and Michaela Dennis

Follow the link below to watch a complete episode from 1957 which seems incredibly old-fashioned today but is, I think, still well worth watching.

 

I love the "Velvet claw" series (was well before my time but heard about them on tetrapod zoology blog and had to check them out) and worth mentioning that all of the episodes can now be found on youtube.

 

I love watching wildlife documentaries, both old and new, in my spare time. Here are a couple that I've seen and enjoyed over the past few years. Enjoy them while they last though as many will probably be taken off youtube soon.

 

​

Some quite big news on this front - in September 2021 'Survival: A Space in the Heart of Africa' was uploaded onto Youtube. It's excellent that I can finally get around to seeing it.

 

Many thanks for bringing to my attention the fact that this excellent programme is now available on YouTube. I've seen it before but it's great to be able to watch it again.

My personal favourite part features the water chevrotain (although it's rather irritating to hear it described as an antelope) but there's lots of other fascinatingly footage including aquatic genet, giant otter shrew, Congo peafowl, pangolin, giant elephant shrew... Marvellous stuff!

 

Just watched this great doc, and wow never knew giant otter shrew tails were that bizarre. Always thought they were otter tail just long and covered in fur, but they really appear more like a vertical beaver or like a crocodile newt, with what looks to be grooves on the tail.

 

@DesertRhino150 when you post here I am always in a rush to check what. Thank you! Omg, I forgot about the White-bellied Duiker! I remember it was a discussion In the past, regarding The Space in the Heart of Africa. If the movie is made with a captive animals and that they even had African Golden Cat, but she died. Nevertheless, one of the best Natural history shows ever. An all-time classic.

Edit:

Those Camera Trap videos could be interesting for the fans of the Central African rare species:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFuAzBCtF-gTiocvKbNDA0g/videos

 

I watched this programme long ago, and it is a great opportunity to see it again. It shows so many species virtually unseen in zoos and in the wild before and after!

From long ago I seem to remember also a scene where a leopard feeds on an okapi, and is chased away by a group of chimpanzees. It is not in this film.

Is my memory playing tricks, or anybody can remember such a scene from another film? It is unique, even if it was staged.

BTW, Linked is another incredible Alan Root documentary; of tamed African elephants in Garamba, Africa. At about 25.00 there are also Northern White Rhinos.

 

I watched Dynasties when it first came out and bar the African wild dog episode (which was excellent), I was a little underwhelmed. I think the reason I enjoyed the African wild dog episode so much was because this is a species that’s had comparatively little coverage vs African lions - which have been done to death in docos.

The Common chimpanzee episode fell well short of my expectations. Dynasties are exactly what this species is about - with status being a two way street between mothers and their adult offspring (and family lines supporting each other). They showed none of that. The dynasty trope here was an alpha male, struggling to retain leadership of his troop in the face of hardship and physical injuries, supposedly fathering an infant that year. Paternity was assumed and in my mind doubtful when females often mate with subordinate males they think are on verge of becoming alpha (of which this troop had several).

 

My favorite show growing up was Life by BBC. Also basically anything else narrated by David Attenborough.

 

If you want more Wildlife on One, there are 136 episodes available on this channel on the Internet Archive:
BBC Wildlife On One (David Attenborough) (1977-2005) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive