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Ocean Wonderland 3D

2003 Nature 3D

The mission of the film is to underline the crucial ecological role of coral reefs play in maintaining the well being of our planet, and to point out and warn against the dangers that are destroying the world's coral reefs. Entirely filmed using digital technology, thanks to it, the film was shot almost entirely with natural light, thus showi ...ng the underwater world as it exactly is. This is the closest you can get to dive without being there. Shot on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in the Bahamas, it brings to you the amazing beauty of the many varieties of coral and the immense diversity of the marine life thriving there. Show More

Meat-Eaters

1998 Nature

This episode examines those birds whose sustenance comes from flesh and their methods of hunting. In New Zealand, Sir Attenborough observes Keas, parrots that do not eat meat exclusively, raiding a shearwater's burrow for a chick. However, it is the dedicated birds of prey, such as owls, buzzards, eagles, falcons and vultures, to which much o ...f the programme is devoted. In order to spot and pursue their victims, senses of sight and hearing are very acute. Vultures are the exception, in that they eat what others have left, and once a carcass is found, so many birds descend on it that the carrion seems submerged beneath them. The Turkey Vulture is an anomaly within its group, as it also has a keen sense of smell. Eagles defend their territory vigorously, and a pair of sea eagles are shown engaging in an aerial battle. The Galápagos Hawk hunts Marine Iguanas, but can only do so when its quarry is vulnerable, during the breeding season. The African Harrier Hawk has adapted to extracting burrowing animals by virtue of an especially long, double-jointed pair of legs. By contrast, a shrike is not equipped with the requisite sharp beak and talons needed for butchery, and so dismembers its kill by impaling it on the thorns of acacias. The Lammergeier eats bones, and will drop them on to rocks from a great height in order to break them down to a digestible size. Also featured are the Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Goshawk and Peregrine Falcon. Show More

Series: The Life of Birds

Aliens of the Deep

Nature

James Cameron journeys to some of the Earth's deepest, most extreme and unknown environments in search of the strange and alien creatures that live there. Joining him is a team of young NASA scientists and marine biologists who consider how these life forms represent life we may one day find in outer space not only on distant planets orbiting ... distant stars, but also within our own solar system.
Aliens of the Deep is the result of expeditions to several hydrothermal vent sites in the Atlantic and the Pacific. These are violent volcanic regions where new planet is literally being born and where the interaction between ocean and molten rock creates plumes of super-heated, chemically-charged water that serve as oases for animals unlike anything ever discovered. Six-foot tall worms with blood-red plumes and no stomach, blind white crabs, and a biomass of shrimp capable of 'seeing' heat all compete to find just the right location in the flow of the super-heated, life-giving water or to fry. Show More

Mission Blue

History

Legendary oceanographer and TED prize winner Dr. Sylvia Earle is on a mission to save our oceans. Mission Blue is part action-adventure, part expose of an Eco-disaster. More than 100 scientists, philanthropists and activists gather in the Galapagos Islands to help fulfill Dr. Earle's lifelong wish: build a global network of marine protected a ...reas, like underwater national parks, to protect the natural systems that keep humans alive.
As the expedition ends, the Deep water Horizon oil well explodes. With oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Sylvia and an environmental dream team race around the world trying to defend her 'Hope Spots'. Show More

Navy of the Damned

History

Recent archaeological sites in England offer a whole new perspective on the life and death of the seafarers and marines who built the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. The bones of sailors reveal surprising and shocking facts. Apparently not only seasoned men but also half children did their service in the Royal Navy; according t ...o the investigations, the youngest were no older than 13 years. A forensic archaeologist studies the injuries on bones discovered at the site of an battle and suggests how these people may have died.
Three-hundred-and-fifty skeletons, exhumed from Royal Navy graveyards from the age of Nelson's Navy, are throwing an extraordinary new light on how these sailors lived, fought, outwitted their enemy, and, from the oldest to youngest, suffered for victory. These men were the beating heart of the most victorious fleet in history and never have so many of these sailors' remains been available for forensic investigation.
Six remarkable stories stand out: the child sailor, the top man, the American gunner, the freed slave, the marine and the victim of the sailor's most dreaded disease: syphilis. Broken bones, amputations, injuries from blows with a saber or cutlass, sexually transmitted diseases, but also malnutrition - the list of causes of death is long. There is definitely no tale of seafaring romance. These fighters and sailors sailed the globe as cannon fodder, conquered an empire for the crown, and were themselves forgotten. No longer just bones in a box, the men of Nelson's Navy are back from the dead. Show More

Series: Warrior Graveyard

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