Stephen Dunleavy
Exploring the vital role colour plays in the daily lives of many species.
Tasmania lies on the Australian continent, but is a world apart. It is home to an extraordinary cast of black devils and white wallabies. Trees here tower to one hundred metres and green lights dance in the southern sky. As the last landfall heading south before Antarctica, Tasmania's isolation, cooler climate and distinct seasons influence everything.
David Attenborough investigates the remarkable life and death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the movie Dumbo. Attenborough joins a team of scientists and conservationists to unravel the complex and mysterious story of this large African elephant - an elephant many believed to be the biggest in the world. With unique access to Jumbo's skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History, the team work together to separate myth from reality. How big was Jumbo really? How was he treated in captivity? And how did he die? Jumbo's bones may offer vital clues.
Prairie dogs are America's answer to the meerkat - small, sociable and exceptionally cute. This offbeat film narrated by Rob Brydon takes us to the Wild West where prairie dogs live in huge colonies known as 'towns'. Like meerkats, they are comical to watch, but there is a whole lot more to prairie dogs than just being cute - they can talk. For 30 years Professor Con Slobodchikoff has been recording their calls in response to predators like coyotes, hawks and badgers. He believes he has discovered a language second only to humans in its complexity. It's a bold claim but is he right? Con has devised a series of cunning field experiments to help prove his point.
Sir David Attenborough takes a look at the potentially devastating impact of climate change.
Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.
