28.2.08

Highland Diary: The remote munro

Fergus is the epitome of a real British explorer! Sounds like a real mission, but I expect that as usual he will return victorious and with yet another spectacular Natural World under his belt.
clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
BBC natural history producer Fergus Beeley has headed to the top a remote munro in Scotland to film the spectacular wildlife that live there.

Animals such as red deer, mountain hares and ptarmigan can be seen in the rocky terrain.
The footage is being recorded for a Natural World wildlife programme, Secrets of the Highlands, to be broadcast next year.
At about 700m, the visibility improved and the snow-capped peaks of Beinn Eighe came into view. The camera was running.
This was day one of filming for a wildlife documentary in the north-west highlands of Scotland and the images today were stunning.

"No-one had expected that we would soon be fighting to remain on the ground in an extraordinary gale that reached storm force 11."

It came on us as night fell, as if an angry dinosaur shared the corrie with us.
After the gale (Jim McNeill)
The storm devastated the team's kit

"We could not ride out this storm now without some significant danger of hypothermia setting into us."


Cameraman Ian McCarthy was struggling to remain in the last standing tent, as it shifted with him across the ground.
Though he was also safely anchored to our own rope-to-boulder lashings, if anything were to go now, our tents would be lifted straight off the ground and away with the dark, the snow, the mouth of the storm.

Read more in Fergus's Online Diary

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26.2.08

Life in Cold Blood: Sophisticated Serpents

Monday 25th February, 21.00, BBC1
5.5M Viewers, 23.6% Audience Share
(Average for Monday 21.00 = 5.62M, 23%)

Radio Times:
It's all forked tongues, beady eyes and slithering tonight - lots of slithering. "Snakes, it must be admitted, have had a bad reputation ever since one appeared in the Garden of Eden," sighs David Attenborough. He clearly loves them, but is aware that many of us don't, so he does his best to sell serpents to us as brilliant hunters, elegant movers - even tender lovers. And by the end you may be won over. Because it's not all slithering: you may never have seen a snake jump before (like a cracking whip), or spit, or wrestle, or give birth to live young underwater, or snuggle up to another snake; but having watched this, it's hard to regard them as quite so irredeemably legless and alien. And for those of us who enjoyed it in the first episode, there's a reprise of the sequence in which an African rock python eats an antelope...whole. And when you learn that this meal can keep it going for a whole year, you're forced to admit: snakes are cool.

David Attenborough with a Green Mamba

25.2.08

World on the Move: Episode Three

The third instalment of the BBC's animal migration epic "World on The Move" is broadcast live at 11.00am tomorrow morning on BBC Radio 4.

Join Philippa Forrester and Brett Westwood at 92-94 FM or 198 LW, where they will be taking a look at the first Swallows arriving back in Britain, the Polar Bear migration that didn't happen in Russia, White-eared Kob - live from the Sudan, and the latest from the shows nine tagged Alaskan Bar-Tailed Godwits.

If you miss the show you can listen again at the World on the Move website:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/worldonthemove

The Natural World: Spacechimp & Wild

Friday 22nd February, 20.00 and 20.50, BBC2
1.4M/1.5 Viewers, 5.8%/6.3% Audience Share
(Average for 20.30: 2.44M, 12% and 20.30: 2.69M, 12%)

Radio Times:
For those of us who've watched this wildlife series over the past 20-odd years, marvelling at the photography and the exotic animals, this edition - first shown on Animal Planet last year - is a very weird creature indeed. Using both archive footage and dramatic reconstructions, it tells the story of a young chimpanzee called Ham, who in 1961 ended up being the first primate to go into orbit - and come back alive. The dramatic elements, depicting the relationship between Ham and his caring soldier handler, are cheesy; but the Nasa archive film of screeching chimps enduring scientific tests and being trained to press levers in response to flashing lights - and to avoid electric shocks - is distressing. Ham and his chimp friends were for two years poked, prodded, locked in confined spaces and subjected to G-forces they'd never experienced back home in the African jungle. It makes for an absorbing slice of space history, but some viewers will still be appalled at seeing any animal treated in this way.

Wild: Great British Parakeet Invasion
Wildlife documentary series. There are estimated to be 30,000 wild parakeets in Britain. Why are they thriving?

24.2.08

BBC Wildlife Podcast: March

When was the last time you saw a hedgehog? Mammologist Hugh Warwick joins the Wildlife team to talk about the decline of this much-loved garden critter, and what you can do to help save it, while James and Sarah battle it out to decide which is best, the elephant or the mouse. There’s also wildlife news, the best of the March issue and our top out and about locations.

March Podcast   -  Download Now
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High Speed Cameras as described by Steve Leonard

High speed cameras as described by Steve Leonard on the BBC Series "Animal Camera".
Not particularly informative but some gratuitous slo-mo shots.

High Speed Cameras as described by Steve Leonard

High speed cameras as described by Steve Leonard on the BBC Series "Animal Camera".
Not particularly informative but some gratuitous slo-mo shots.

BBC Natural World: Space Chimp

Fri 22 Feb 8.00pm BBC Two and Sat 23 Feb 5.40pm.
If you missed it then watch it on iPlayer before it expires:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0090xxf.shtml
A chimp astronaught © NASA

January 31, 1961: a Mercury rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral. The astronaut on board is a three-year-old chimpanzee named Ham. The young chimp is shot into the stratosphere before splashing back down in the Atlantic Ocean. He is thus the first 'earthling' to come back alive from space.

This drama tells the famous chimp's remarkable story, based on reconstructions of events surrounding the mission and footage shot by NASA at the time.

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Snake hunt filmed for first time

This is incredible footage and even more so when you realise that almost every time you think you have seen snake predation on TV it has been cleverly constructed from various shots - big closeups of fangs striking the camera etc. This is mostly due to animal welfare controls - legal restrictions, and the BBC's strict policies when working with animals. So the best way to show the true behaviour is in the wild. It is very rare, however, that the opportunity arises to do this, and in this case it was because of the cooperation from a group of dedicated scientists who were tracking and monitoring several rattlesnakes in the field. Still it proved a huge challenge as you will see in the "Under the Skin" section of programme Four of "Life in Cold Blood".
clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
Rattlesnake
The fearsome hunting skills of a wild rattlesnake have been caught on camera for the first time.
Using a specially designed camera trap, a BBC crew managed to film the snake killing and then eating his victim - a small mouse - in the wild.
The mouse died almost immediately after being stabbed and injected with the timber rattlesnake's deadly venom.
The snake hunt was filmed in New York State, US, under the guidance of rattlesnake expert Harry Greene.
He helped the crew track the snake by using radio telemetry.
The footage forms part of the BBC One series Life in Cold Blood.

Life In Cold Blood is on BBC One on Monday, 25 February at 2100 GMT.

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23.2.08

BBC iPlayer: 500,000 programmes viewed every day

The BBC press office are not releasing specific viewing figures but they have said that "Life in Cold Blood" is somewhere in the top 15 of programmes viewed since Christmas.
clipped from www.bbc.co.uk
The BBC iPlayer home page
BBC iPlayer growth continues as bbc.co.uk records 29% increase

Number of programmes downloaded or streamed on demand via BBC
iPlayer reaches 17 million, up to 500,000 a day

BBC-branded entertainment channels showing clips on Yahoo! with
Blinkx and MSN to follow soon

There was an average of 20 million UK visitors weekly to bbc.co.uk across January, marking an increase of 29% on the corresponding period in 2007, driven chiefly by BBC iPlayer (accounting for up to 1.3 million unique visitors weekly), news, sport and weather.
Programmes which performed particularly well on BBC iPlayer include Ashes To Ashes, coverage of the Six Nations clash between England and Wales and Life In Cold Blood.

New and improved Solio charger

I've had the first edition Solio charger for the past few years and it's served me well for charging my various AV devices. It's not very useful in the UK but it does double up as a nice backup battery which can be charged from the mains before you leave on your journey (the first edition was even cheaper than a backup ipod battery).
Solio Magnesium solar charger

Similar in design to Better Energy Systems award-winning Classic, the Magnesium packs almost double the power and is the most powerful solar charger on the market. Engineered to meet the demands of the most serious adventurer, the new Solio Magnesium combines efficient solar cells, a powerful internal battery, and a rugged, environmentally friendly magnesium alloy shell. Available this month at a price of $199.95.

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Surround Video

clipped from www.bbc.co.uk
Surround video
Surround Video is a means of visually immersing the viewer into a TV programme.
It is like surround sound, an optional extra that enhances viewing on a normal display. The idea is to use a wide angle (or fisheye) camera fixed rigidly alongside the normal camera shooting the programme, and to project the image onto the walls, ceiling and floor of the viewer's room.
The image is scaled and positioned to ensure that it aligns up with the existing TV, and warped to compensate for the distortion effects that come from the wide-angle lens and projection system. Although the projected image will be dimmer and of lower resolution than the main image, it nevertheless gives a strong feeling of immersion, particularly with motion cues being visible in the viewer's peripheral vision.

Surround video is mentioned in this recent article about the work of BBC R&I from The Independent. There's also more information in this PDF from the BBC Technology Festival.

surround_video_camera.png
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19.2.08

Life In Cold Blood: Dragons of the Dry

Monday 18th February, 21.00, BBC1
5.4M Viewers, 22.6% Audience Share
(Slot Average for Monday 21.00 = 5.62M, 23%)
Repeated on Sunday at 6pm.
Radio Times: 3/5 - Dragons of the Dry
More than any other presenter, David Attenborough is at home sharing the screen with his animal subjects. Or perhaps they feel at home sharing it with him? Either way, the double act produces moments that feel almost showbiz. A highlight this week is the piece to camera Attenborough does by the side of a fabulous monitor lizard, standing handsomely on its back legs, milking its moment of fame. Prior to this series, I wouldn't have thought to use the words "fabulous" and "lizard" in the same sentence, but again and again here you're struck by the beauty of lizards, geckos, skinks and chameleons. Watching dwarf chameleons being born, clinging one-toed to a branch for the first time, is a truly wondrous sight and very touching indeed.

David and a Green Iguana (Photo: Miles Barton, BBC)

18.2.08

Life in Cold Blood 'Dragons of the Dry'

Tonight on BBC One. Join David Attenborough as he meets the lizards and comes face to face with a monitor lizard that stands on tiptoe, is flashed at by anole lizards and uses a rod and line to tempt a timid skink out of its burrow. Other scaly stars include jacky lizards that wave, wrestling beaded lizards and the largest chameleons in the world jousting in the trees. He also encounters the world’s smallest chameleon no bigger than his thumb nail and the biggest lizard in Australia as he traces their colonisation of the earth to become the Dragons of the Dry.

BBC One Monday 18th February at 9pm.
Repeated BBC One Sunday 24th February at 5:35pm


For more about Life in Cold Blood and to see exclusive clips visit www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeincoldblood

See the Chameleon Feeding Montage on YouTube.
The chamaleon feeding montage includes a Madagascan Panther Chameleon which was filmed at up to 2000 frames per second using a high speed Photron camera. When played back at 25 frames per second (the standard speed of video) it reveals the amazing grasping action of the Chameleon tongue, 80x slower than the actual speed.

15.2.08

TONIGHT: Natural World - Badgers: Secrets of the Sett

Tonight at 8:00 p.m. on BBC 2
Deep in a picturesque Devon valley lives the best loved wild animal in Britain. Yet while the badger is easily recognized, remarkably few people have ever seen one alive. For a creature never far from controversy and blamed for all manner of destruction and disease, surprisingly little is known about their private family life. Now for the first time we are able to paint a full picture of their lives as we spy on them over a year, big brother style, with hidden cameras deep underground. These are badgers as never seen before.

Narrator - David Attenborough
Producer - Andrew Cooper
Series Editor - Tim Martin

'Narrator David Attenborough whispers that we are being given a "privileged glimpse into a secret world" by this enchanting film, and he is, of course, absolutely right.'
Radio Times

'The badgers of an enchanting valley deep in the Devon countryside have become the unwitting stars of an extaordinary new film.'
Daily Telegraph

12.2.08

Life in Cold Blood: Land Invaders

Monday 11th February, 21.00, BBC1
5.6M Viewers, 23.6% Audience Share
(Average for Monday 21.00: 6.37M, 26%)

Radio Times: 2/5 - Land Invaders
As David Attenborough's slimy, scaly epic continues, it's the behind-the-scenes sequence that again hits the hardest. In the main programme, we learn that Panamanian golden frogs have a sweet way of signalling to each other by waving. In the postscript, however, we discover that, thanks to a fungal disease, the footage of them doing so was to be the last ever filmed of them in the wild. You may find you haven't felt so emotional towards a frog since Kermit. It's not all sad, though. One of the pleasures of an episode devoted to amphibians is the chance to see species where it's the males who look after the kids. The proud African bullfrog excavating a canal for his shoal of tadpoles before ushering them through to the big pond is wonderful, as is the poison-arrow frog giving piggybacks to his young. Neither, though, can match the devoted parenting of the mother caecilian, a wormlike creature that lives mostly underground: she feeds her writhing young on (shudder) her own skin.

A male Alpine Newt courting a female by wafting its pheremones with it's tail


A few comments from the viewers panel:

"A masterclass "
Male 61

"You have to watch attenborough"
Male 44

"What knowledge would we have on animal behaviour if it wasn't for David Attenborough"
Female 63

"Another triumph for the BBC wildlife programs - they never let you down!"
Female 35

"Nothing left to say in praise of this series of programmes - he has maintained the same high standard for 50 years."
Male 68

"Surely anyone would be enthralled. The camera work was excellent and David Attenborough is always superb - he sounds so interested in his subject."
Female 67

11.2.08

TONIGHT: Life in Cold Blood 'Land Invaders' with David Attenborough

David Attenborough delves into the extraordinary and intimate lives of the soft skinned amphibians and finds marsupial frogs where the father carries his young in pouches and then gives birth, giant salamanders over a metre long that wrestle for territory and newts that display just like underwater birds of paradise. From steamy jungles to dry deserts amphibians have taken their first footsteps onto land using their bizarre life histories to break their ties with the water and invade the earth.
BBC One Monday 11th February at 9pm.
Repeated BBC One Sunday 17th February at 6pm

For more about Life in Cold Blood and to see exclusive clips visit www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeincoldblood

Caecilians:Sharks of the Soil

"Reptiles and amphibians are thought of as slow, dim-witted and primitive," says David Attenborough in this the start of the final chapter of his Life on Earth saga. However they can also be, as this beautifully conceived (and presented) programme shows, affectionate and sophisticated." Daily Teleeraph


"It is effortless, intriguing and utterly sublime: TV that entertains & educates with painless ease." Observer.

"Here is the mythic presenter cosying up to frogs, alligators and iguanas, captured by the finest wildlife photography in the world. Where does the BBC go from here?" Times

Natural World: Saved By Dolphins & Wild: A Norfolk Rhapsody

Friday 8th February, 20.00 and 20.50, BBC2
2.3M/2.1M Viewers, 9.6%/8.8% Audience Share
(Average for 20.30: 2.44M, 12% and 20.30: 2.69M, 12%)
Radio Times:
Dolphins have everything going for them. They're cute, clever, emotionally self-aware and, say experts, have a high degree of empathy with humans. But according to this fascinating film, that empathy runs a lot deeper than merely the occasional friendly frolic with swimmers. Dolphins know when humans are in big trouble, and they will come to the rescue. Admittedly, this sounds like wishful thinking, or at the very least some kind of Disney version of aquatic nature, but the programme features a dolphin "rescue" that appears to brook no argument. Coupled with a top-notch reconstruction, swimmers describe how a group of dolphins effectively protected them from attack by a great white shark. The evidence is compelling and the experts are in accord: the act was one of pure altruism.
Wild: A Norfolk Rhapsody
Nature documentary. Cameraman Ian McCarthy films thousands of Norfolk's wading birds taking off into the winter sky.

10.2.08

BBC Wildlife Magazine Podcast: Life in Cold Blood

BBC Wildlife Podcast...

Miles Barton, series producer of Life in Cold Blood, joins the team to talk flesh-eating babies, skinny seaweed and pet elephants. Plus, Sir David Attenborough on Darwin, the value of understanding and his possible successor.

Download MP3

8.2.08

TONIGHT: Natural World - Saved by Dolphins

8:00 p.m. on BBC 2
Since ancient times there have been stories of dolphins rescuing humans at sea. Is there any truth behind them, or are they just myths and legends? By reconstructing two recent cases, Natural World presents startling new evidence that dolphins will deliberately help people in distress. Set against the backdrops of the Red Sea and New Zealand's North Island, the film dramatises and analyses two events where dolphins are believed to have saved swimmers from sharks, and with the help of scientists, reveals what makes a dolphin take pity on a human.

Narrator - Pete Gallagher
Director - Nick Stringer
Executive Producer - Sarah Cunliffe
Series Editor - Tim Martin


"Dolphins aren't just cute and clever - they've been known to "rescue" humans in mortal danger from sharks, according to evidence in this fascinating documentary."
Radio Times

"This remarkable film is primarily a rescue story resembling an edition of Michael Buerk's 999, but the resuers are dolphins, not lifeboat crew or firefighters, and the incident at its centre is scientifically suggestive as well as gripping."
The Sunday Times

5.2.08

Nature Shock - The Zombie Alligators

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This programme focuses on a bizarre chain of events in Lake Griffin, Florida, which turned a once peaceful wilderness into a scene reminiscent of a horror film. Over a period of years, a number of Griffin’s resident alligators were turning up dead, but scientists were baffled as to the cause.

In May 1997, the bloated bodies of a number of adult alligators were discovered on the shoreline of Lake Griffin in central Florida. “There were times when I would go into the lake and find ten alligators within half a mile,” recalls local fisherman Skip Goerner. The reports of these strange deaths caught the attention of the Florida state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), who sent a team to look into the mystery. Leading the investigation was wildlife biologist Allan Woodward who immediately suspected the work of poachers. However, the corpses told a different story –they bore no signs of attack by man and, most shockingly of all, some of the motionless animals were not even dead.

In order to discover the cause of these events, the FWC team began to study the behaviour of the alligators before they died. What the scientists found was that the animals were struggling to move properly and keep their heads above water, with many alligators spending much of their time floating listlessly in the lake or lying motionless on the banks. “We noticed alligators that showed poor equilibrium,” says Woodward. But why would these amphibious creatures who have survived for millions of years suddenly be unable to survive in their natural environment?

Pathologist Dr Scott Terrell conducted thorough autopsies on the alligators, but he could find no clues as to the cause of death. “What we were seeing were adult, healthy animals,” he recalls. “We weren’t finding much.”

Since the dead bodies were offering no evidence, the scientists returned to the lake and went in search of a living ‘zombie’ alligator. Soon, they had caught one such animal –an unusually easy manoeuvre since the alligator was incapable of putting up a fight. A sample of blood was taken from the animal and sent to Mark Merchant –a professor of biochemistry at McNeese State University. But Merchant could find no sign of any illnes. In fact, he attempted to infect the blood with a number of deadly viruses, including E. coli, salmonella and HIV, but each time the incredibly resistant blood fought off the infection.

Having drawn another blank, the scientists returned to their living specimen. “Some of the signs we saw did suggest some neurological problems,” says Woodward. “That became our next suspect.” Tests showed that the animal responded in a slow and unpredictable way to electrical stimulation, suggesting that the problem did lie somewhere in the nervous system –but it was still not clear where. Dr Terrell suspected that the key to the mystery lay in the alligator’s brain –an organ weighing just eight grammes. He sent tissue samples for tests and soon discovered that many of the neurons in the animal’s brain had died. “There were areas of the tissue that were almost ghost-like,” he says.

This brain damage explained all the symptoms common among the alligators, including disorientation, loss of balance, nerve damage and drowning –it seemed that for some reason, portions of these alligators’ brains were dying while they were still alive. However, despite their breakthrough, the scientists were still no closer to finding the culprit for the animal deaths.

The FWC suspected that man’s activites were responsible and began to focus on the change in water quality caused by increased agricultural activity on the banks of the river. However, it was not until a chance meeting with a man called Dr Dale Honeyfield at a scientific conference in Maryland that Woodward and his team would finally get to the bottom of the case. Could something as simple as a vitamin deficiency be responsible for such a strange turn of events?

www.tvthrong.co.uk

Life in Cold Blood: The Cold-Blooded Truth

Friday 4th February, 21.00, BBC1
6.7M Viewers, 28% Audience Share
(Average for time slot: 6.37M, 26%)

Radio Times: 1/5 - The Cold Blooded Truth
The great communicator has his work cut out here. The ninth and final chapter of David Attenborough's nature epic brings him to reptiles and amphibians, also known as the Ugly Lot. Surely the scaly, slimy creatures of the Earth will need more than his raptures (and the BBC Natural History Unit's visual magic) to get us on side? Never fear, by the end of tonight's opening episode, you'll find yourself warming to cold-bloodedness, rather as the sweet North American painted turtles thaw out after a winter frozen in their burrows. When you see the males courting underwater by stroking the females' cheeks, you may even agree with Attenborough that reptiles and amphibians "can be touchingly warm-hearted". Other highlights range from the comic - jousting tortoises - to the gross - a python ingesting a whole deer, like a vacuum cleaner very slowly sucking in the family dog. But be sure to stay for the "making of" postscript about chameleons, where we see the great man's face (and voice) light up as he fulfils a lifetime ambition.

4.2.08

David Attenborough's ten rules for would-be presenters

Nice to see that I and my "Life in Cold Blood" co-researcher Nikki get a mention here...

Number 5: Go the extra mile in research
When you’re planning a programme explaining amphibian lifecycles, for example, you say to your bright, highly qualified researcher: “I know this, this and this about newts and tadpoles, and that means by definition they are fairly well-known. But there must be some guy somewhere who’s doing research on something absolutely mind-blowing which makes that point. Find it!” They will come up with half a dozen and I pick the best. That’s how we discovered the female Venezuelan caymans that raise several other females’ young in a crèche, the legless female amphibian who feeds her young on her own skin, then regrows it, and how we got the last-ever film of Panamanian golden frogs in the wild.
Read the full article in the Times
- Paul Williams

Some recent "Life in Cold Blood" reviews

The Observer.
"... an exhilarating piece of filming, matched by a host of other gems: the South American waxy monkey frog which keeps its skin moist by rubbing itself all over with oily secretions, for all the world like a sunbather on speed. It is effortless, intriguing and utterly sublime: TV that entertains & educates with painless ease. "

The Times

"Here is the mythic presenter cosying up to frogs, alligators and iguanas, captured by the finest wildlife photography in the world. Where does the BBC go from here?"

Daily Telegraph
"Reptiles and amphibians are thought of as slow, dim-witted and primitive," says David Attenborough in this the start of the final chapter of his Life on Earth saga. However they can also be, as this beautifully conceived (and presented) programme shows, affectionate and sophisticated."

Mail W/E
*****"David Attenborough returns with another ground-breaking series to get us marvelling at Mother Natures Glories. Attenborough explains why reptiles (dry skinned), such as marine iguanas, spend so much time lounging around in the sunshine, while amphibians (moist skinned) must avoid it. Not so, however, the South American waxy monkey frog, which has developed a clever feature that enables it to enjoy sunbathing sessions - an in built supply of sun tan lotion. Amazing stuff and there is plenty more in this spectacular opener. "

TV Guide
"Thermal imagery is the new buzzword here, and it really adds pace and drama to the series which, unsurprisingly, oozes quality."

3.2.08

Life in Cold Blood: The Panamanian Golden Frog

In Panama, David meets the rare golden frog – filmed for the last time in the wild. It communicates with its rivals and mates by semaphore in the form of gentle hand waves.

1.2.08

Natural World - White Falcon, White Wolf

Don't miss tonight's Natural World: 8:00 p.m. on BBC 2.
On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic a pair of white gyrfalcons and a pack of arctic wolves are both struggling to raise families during the short summer. As the falcons' eggs hatch the race is on to catch enough young arctic hares to feed them; meanwhile the wolf pack have a den in a hillside, from which new cubs should emerge any day. The film is a visual treat thanks to stunning photography and the dramatic landscape of Ellesmere Island, but it also tells a moving story about the day to day lives of two rarely filmed predators, including behaviour has never before been seen by scientists, let alone filmed. The film is beautifully scored by the BBC's New TV Composers Scheme Winner Anne Nikitin.

Narrated by Simon Poland
Produced by Fergus Beeley
Series Editor - Tim Martin

"Natural World is - once again - the most beautiful programme of the week."
The Times

"Last week, the jungles of India - this week, the snowy wastes of the Arctic, where two radiant white predators, a gyrfalcon and an Arctic wolf, struggle to raise families in the short Arctic summer. This visually dazzling film follows them as they hunt their prey across the briefly thawed wilderness."
Daily Mail

American Trailer for its broadcast on PBS.

World on the Move: Mammoth series for Radio 4 coming soon

BBC Radio 4 is to embark on its biggest ever natural history event later this month - a 44-week "high risk" project tracking scores of species of migrating animals. In what BBC executives claim will be Britain's first radio-led multimedia programming event, World on the Move: Great Animal Migrations will cost the network more than £500,000 and will begin charting the progress of hundreds of animals over a 44-week period from February 12th.

World on the Move will be anchored from the studio by former Tomorrow's World host Philippa Forrester. Radio 4 wildlife presenter Brett Westwood will travel the world as the programme follows creatures such as the Alaskan bar-tailed godwit, which migrates from New Zealand to Alaska each year, a journey so long it ends up digesting its own muscles and internal organs.

Read more in the Guardian...

The independant...