Madagascar, l'île sauvage

In the remote Russian Arctic, an aging scientist and his son are trying to recreate the Ice Age. They call their experiment Pleistocene Park – a perfect home for woolly mammoths, resurrected by modern genetics. But the mammoths are only a means to a bigger end: defusing a carbon timebomb frozen in the permafrost to slow the effects of global warming.

The Lake District, nearly all a national park, covers a mountainous region in NW England's Cumbria county, and contains Windemere and other lakes, England's largest and deepest. The seasons dominate tourism, the dominant modern sector as it is the most popular domestic destination, with walks, aquatic fun and lake tours, as well as traditional rural life, including old-fashioned games and competitions at Rusland. While the varied environment is home to many wildlife species, some rare or even unique, the agricultural pride is the local Herdwick sheep, which produces fine wool and survives outdoors on high slopes even in harsh winters.

Thanks to new excavations in Mauritius and Madagascar, as well as archival and museum research in France, Spain, England and Canada, a group of international scholars paint a new portrait of the world of piracy in the Indian Ocean.

A devoted pair of little owls set up home in an old orchard in rural Herefordshire. From spring blossom to autumn apples, a year in the life of the parent birds, their baby owls and the old fruit trees.

In French Polynesia, there is a place where every year, thousands of groupers gather in secret followed by hundreds of sharks… The photographer, diver and biologist Laurent Ballesta, with his team, wanted to better understand what motivates these fish to wait until the exact day of the full moon to spawn all at once! With the help of researchers from the CNRS of Moorea, they dived and conducted numerous experiments to study and witness this unique phenomenon. Taking advantage of this period of incredible richness, Laurent Ballesta did a record dive of 24 hours at over 20 meters.

Where there are humans, are also ravens and crows. No animal knows us better.

A love triangle that incites jealous rage. An out-of-control wildfire that threatens lives and livelihoods. A sudden tragedy that upends a close-knit community. You might not expect such intense dramas at a small conservation center in the California desert, yet that’s exactly what you’ll get in the documentary, The Center: Gibbons and Guardians, which includes interview with Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace. Watch it to get immersed in the sometimes funny, sometimes startling story of the Gibbon Conservation Center. There, a determined group of people dedicate their lives to the conservation, study, and care of these endangered apes — and in the process, find courage, laughter, and even romance. The film will keep you riveted as the staff face one challenge after another. The lives of the apes intertwine with those who care for them to create a rich symphony that will make you feel how surprising and passionate life can be.

Running With The Beest

Ashes

From the North Pole to remote islands, birds can live almost anywhere. How do these resilient animals thrive in such different environments? They have become hardy and versatile through their bodies, feathers, movements, and songs. In this global birding tour, we learn about these nomads of the sky.

Two rare 6-week-old clouded leopard cubs are given to a filmmaker, giving him the opportunity of a lifetime to examine the secret lives of big cats.

Follow a multi-generational orangutan family through their treetop triumphs and travails in this immersive documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

Attenborough's team travels the globe for up-close looks at polar bears, grizzlies, pandas and other fascinating bear species.

Venturing into the wilds of China, "Born in China" captures intimate moments with a panda bear and her growing cub, a young golden monkey who feels displaced by his baby sister, and a mother snow leopard struggling to raise her two cubs.

The story of one remarkable woman who became a global icon in animal welfare and conservation who not only hoped for a better world, she achieved it! This sweeping documentary celebrates the vast legacy of Dr. Goodall’s four decades of advocacy work for chimpanzees and depicts the next chapter for generations to come.

Brown hyena expert Ingrid Wiesel wants to find her favourite study animal, named Tosca, who has disappeared from her home range on Namibia’s wild west coast. Ingrid's spent the last 17 years studying brown hyenas - now she must journey deep into Tosca's world to discover what exactly has forced her to leave her traditional hunting grounds.

In DIARY OF A BEE we follow the adventurous journey of a single bee from its birth (or hatching) to the founding of a new colony. Three years of shooting with the latest macro camera technology and special post-processing enable a unique visual language that allows completely new insights into the world of bees - without becoming unscientific. This story is told by Anna Thalbach as the "winter bee" and her daughter Nellie Thalbach, who takes on the role of the "summer bee". Welcome to the big drama of the little pollen collectors!

Gabon's Loango National Park is home to a group of western lowland gorillas who have become accustomed to biologists who have studied them for almost twenty years. This documentary presents an intimate look at the silverback Kamaya and his family and features a newborn baby gorilla, brave researchers, forest elephants, buffalos and the last remaining wild coastline in the African tropics.

Emmy award-winning filmmaker and marine biologist Rick Rosenthal teams up with science fiction writer Chris Carter on an investigative journey to explore evidence of intelligent life, not in space, but in the sea – specifically, manta rays. Might these alien-looking animals be trying to make contact with us? There are intriguing clues.

A Secrets of Life short.