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Press Office

Wednesday 24 Sep 2014

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef
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Trained marine biologist and former Royal Marine Monty Halls heads off on an exploration of Australia's Great Barrier Reef – one of the natural wonders of the world and the largest living structure on the planet.

Uncovering the secrets of the 2000km reef, Monty travels from the wild outer reefs of the coral sea to the tangle of mangrove and rainforest on the shoreline, and from the large mountainous islands to tiny coral cays barely above sea level.

He discovers how it was created, how the intricate relationships between its inhabitants function and how climate change and other factors might shape its future. The incredible wildlife includes sharks that walk on land, camouflaged killers that ambush their prey and the most poisonous creatures known to science.

The latest in filming technology is employed to capture the magic of the reef as it has never been seen before – from remote mini-cameras to motion-controlled underwater time-lapse photography and remotely operated vehicles.

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Attenborough's Life Stories

Attenborough's Life Stories
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David Attenborough has witnessed an incredible period of change in our planet during his 60 years of broadcasting.

Attenborough's Life Stories is richly illustrated with both the images he has spent 60 years capturing and new filming, as he revisits some of the stories and locations featured in his landmark series. He brings them up to date with the latest developments and his own personal anecdotes to create a unique insight into a fascinating half-century.

Wild Images looks at the stunning advances in the technology of wildlife filmmaking and their impact on how we view the natural world. In The Secrets of Creation, David reviews the breathtaking revolution in the science of biology, exploring how it has enabled both him and us to comprehend the life around us. Finally, Our Planet Earth examines how our relationship with the natural environment has changed over 60 years of filmmaking.

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The Dark

The Dark
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Darkness conceals the most dangerous and terrifying creatures on earth. But it also holds some of the greatest, undiscovered mysteries of nature. Now secret lives can be unveiled and gripping behaviour captured using a new generation of military night filming technology, offering an exciting new perspective on our wild planet.

A team of wildlife experts and specialist camera crews are on a hair-raising mission to solve these fascinating wildlife enigmas. Most animals are nocturnal, but they're seldom studied at night and rarely filmed in the dark. During 50 years of wildlife filmmaking we've barely penetrated this world – until now.

As the team venture deep into the unknown, they have to become creatures of the night – wading through piranha-filled rivers, braving shark-infested waters and squeezing into the narrowest, snake-ridden caves. They come face to face with unearthly beasts prowling the pitch-black jungles, swamps and mountains of South America and discover startling new animal behaviours.

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How Life Works

How Life Works
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Chris Packham travels to the world's great habitats to reveal how they actually work – despite the huge challenges that nature throws at them. With insight from recent scientific discoveries, Chris delves into complex and interdependent relationships to show why the termite needs the rhino, the shark needs the tiger and the lynx needs the caterpillar.

Travelling to the jungles of Borneo and the Amazon, he sees how relentless infestations of insects are responsible for creating the jungles. In Kenya he witnesses how rhinos and giraffes are nurturing and restoring the depleted grasslands. In the North American forests the whole ecosystem crashes and is reborn – and it's all down to a breathtaking feat of timing by its species.

Finally in South America, Bangladesh and the Maldives, Chris shows how the creatures and plants that live in the water work together in complex relationships to overcome the challenges of constant change and oxygen starvation.

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Natural World

Natural World
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Now in its 28th year, the award-winning Natural World strand returns with a new selection of captivating one-off wildlife documentaries from across the globe. There are thirteen films in total this year, as Natural World travels to New Zealand to follow The Woman Who Swims With Killer Whales, up to Indonesia to unravel Komodo – Secrets Of The Dragon and over to the badlands of Arizona for the epic Empire Of The Desert Ants.

The autumn run kicks off much closer to home with a film from Charlie and Philippa Hamilton-James. Heligan – Secrets Of The Lost Garden uses the classic wildlife filmmaking skills that are usually associated with distant parts of the world to show some of our most treasured British wildlife. Badgers play on the lawns, toads breed in the ponds and wagtails make their nest in the pineapple beds. There are barn owls breeding, fox cubs playing and woodpeckers in the copse in this glorious portrait of a garden that encourages old-fashioned horticultural techniques to bring back the wildlife.

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Springwatch and Autumnwatch

Springwatch and Autumnwatch
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Springwatch and its sister live event Autumnwatch remain an important part of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two calendar, providing a focus for UK Natural History on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the past 8 years. The two series celebrate the best of the UK’s wildlife and wildlife people, bringing viewers news, views and action from across the country – live.

The core presenting team of Chris Packham, Martin Hughes-Games and Kate Humble are joined each week by different guest presenters to watch daily animal dramas unfold and enjoy the best of UK wildlife through the changing seasons.

One of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's most interactive and multiplatform broadcasts, viewers engage with the show – and its famous webcams – via the website (www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch), via Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ local TV and radio, on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. They can interact with the real-time narratives and also find out how to get involved with wildlife in their local area. This interactive relationship has now spawned its own TV show – Springwatch Unsprung.

In 2011, Springwatch won the Special Award at the BAFTA TV craft awards, for creative and technical teamwork, on TV and online.

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Expedition Wolf

Expedition Wolf
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Cameraman Gordon Buchanan goes on the trail of the elusive wild wolf, which is returning in droves to North America. Few other animals inspire such hatred and passion.

Once shot to the brink of extinction, the wolves are coming back with a vengeance and are on a collision course with humans. Scientists know very little about where they are from, how fast they are spreading and what their impact will be.

As sightings of packs are being reported closer to major cities than ever before, understanding these animals has never been more important. Recently a pack was recorded just hours away from Seattle.

Gordon and a team of local scientists track these invading wolf packs throughout the year using a variety of means – from dog sleds to snowshoes and skidoos. Finding the wily animals requires every ounce of field skill and technical expertise the crew can muster.

Does the resurgence of this magnificent animal signal a better future for all wildlife or will it inflame the age old dispute between man and beast?

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Mammoth

Mammoth
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Alice Roberts is on a quest to unearth the frozen remains of an adult mammoth, locked in the permafrost of the Arctic Circle. In the land of the midnight sun, high in the north of Siberia, she joins a mammoth hunting expedition to scour the frozen tundra. Using ground-penetrating radar designed to be used on the surface of Mars, Alice and a team of international scientists are on the trail of a long dead herd.

The woolly mammoth is one of the most recognisable animals ever to have walked the planet. Weighing in at six tonnes, this shaggy elephant lived on almost into the modern era. Our ancestors lived side by side with mammoths and, through an ever growing taste for mammoth meat, they probably contributed to their demise.

With the help of the latest in scientific analysis in Russia, the USA and Europe, CGI will bring the woolly mammoth back to life.

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Animal Einsteins

Animal Einsteins
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For centuries the idea of intelligent animals struck most people as ridiculous. The concept that they could talk, solve problems, even feel emotion was the stuff of fiction. However the latest science reveals that animals are a lot smarter than we thought.

In this two part series, biologist Liz Bonnin discovers that animals possess qualities we once thought uniquely human – such as language, culture, consciousness, insight and even emotion.

She tries to outwit a sea lion in a game of logic, does maths with a chimp genius, and examines the life of a parrot so clever the Economist published its obituary. Liz also witnesses the formidable skills and sociability of elephants, learns to communicate with wild mustangs, and as a special treat gets to stroke a whale in Mexico who some believe is capable of forgiveness. And in the US she meets what may be the world's greatest Animal Einstein – Kanzi the bonobo ape.

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Deadly 60 On A Mission

Deadly 60 On A Mission
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Wildlife expert and adventurer Steve Backshall travels to some of the most fascinating places on earth in pursuit of his list of the 60 deadliest animals on the planet, as the popular CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ hit makes the journey to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One, with highlights from the Children's series.

From lethal beauties to killer beasts, action-packed Deadly 60 On A Mission sees Steve embark on an adrenaline-fuelled adventure, taking viewers to the far corners of the world to discover and learn about the creatures that live there. But be warned – they all have one thing in common: every one of them is deadly.

Many of the animals featured are harmless to humans but in their own worlds are lethal. Some will be familiar to viewers, but Steve also introduces a host of rare and unusual creatures that he encounters on his journey.

Join Steve as he gets bitten, bashed, stung and crushed on his mission to prove why each animal deserves a coveted place on his ultimate list of the world's deadliest creatures.

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