Nature's Most Amazing Events

Witness the planet's most breathtaking natural events, and follow the dramatic wildlife stories behind them. Combining the epic cinematography of Planet Earth, with all the emotion, intimacy and storytelling of a wildlife diary, this series charts the effects of global climatic phenomena which transform entire landscapes, drawing in thousands of animals and determining their fate. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, each episode is set in a different part of the world - from the great flood of the Okavango delta to the plankton blooms of the Pacific Ocean, and from the Indian monsoon to the race for survival triggered by the annual Arctic melt - and shows how immense natural forces, often starting thousands of miles away, drive a chain reaction that culminates in a spectacular wildlife event. For some animals, it's a window of opportunity, but for others, it's the most dangerous time of their lives. Follow their emotional, involving stories to a dramatic climax where their fate will be revealed.

Includes all 6 50-minute episodes from the epic series.

A BBC/Discovery Channel co-production in association with Wanda Films.

Episode 1: THE GREAT MELT As winter finally passes and the sun climbs over the Arctic, the 4 million square mile ice sheet rapidly begins to melt, revealing an archipelago of islands, channels and seas. For the masters of the ice, the polar bears, this is a moment of jeopardy but for others like the arctic fox, beluga whales, thousands of lemmings and immense flocks of birds this brief summer transforms the Arctic into the richest place on Earth.

Episode 2: THE GREAT SALMON RUN The temperate rainforest of British Columbia, Canada, harbors more life than any other forest in the world. Cloaked by the planet’s tallest trees, the last big carnivores of North America roam free - the great grizzly bear and forest wolf. Yet their survival depends entirely on one great event that runs up the rivers just once a year. As the rivers teem with spawning salmon the bears and wolves are drawn together and a deadly conflict unfolds.

Episode 3: THE GREAT MIGRATION The parched grassland of East Africa’s famous Serengeti Plain is the arena for bitter rivalries between warring cheetahs, lions and hyenas as they struggle over meager pickings. But with the arrival of the annual rains the plains momentarily flush green with fresh grass drawing in the greatest concentration of large animals on the Planet. Over two million wildebeest, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle have undergone an epic journey crossing crocodile infested rivers to graze here - but how will they survive the arena of carnivores?

Episode 4: THE GREAT TIDE As winter arrives along South Africa’s east coast the inshore waters cool, drawing billions of sardines northwards from the Cape to feed on the plankton-rich soup. The Sardine Run is the greatest marine spectacle on the planet, attracting an awe inspiring cast of ocean predators. Mega pods of common dolphins, battalions of sharks and greedy brydes whales feast on the sardines as gannets rain down from above. For African Penguins and bottlenose dolphins this movement of sardines is the defining moment of their lives. Both are living on a knife edge, and only the run of sardines can save them.

Episode 5: THE GREAT FLOOD In the intense heat of the northern Kalahari a herd of elephants trek towards a life saving goal while prides of lions and marooned hippos fight to survive around the last remaining waterholes. Their fortunes change dramatically with the annual flooding of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, turning 6000 square miles of desert into a maze of lagoons, islands and swamps. As millions of animals are drawn to the oasis, including great herds of near-starving elephants, the scene is set for one of the greatest clashes in nature.

Episode 6: THE GREAT FEAST The arrival of spring sunshine triggers an explosion of life in Alaska’s coastal waters so great that it eclipses even the Amazon rainforest. The feast draws in an amazing cast of characters, including humpback whales and their newborn calves who migrate all the way from Hawaii to spend the summer feeding in these rich waters, and resident sea lions who are also in a race against time to make the most of the good times before the harsh Alaskan winter closes in. Can the whales and sea lions catch enough fish – and avoid the predatory killer whales – to see them through?

Narrated by
David Attenborough

Camera Team
Paul Atkins
Barrie Britton
Martyn Colbeck
Tom Fitz
Mike Holding
Justin Maguire
Shane Moore
Didier Noirot
David Reichert
Warwick Sloss
Gavin Thurston
Jeff Turner
Simon Werry

Series Producer
Karen Bass
Jungle, Wild South America: Andes To Amazon, Wild Caribbean, BBC Wildlife Special: Crocodile

Executive Producer
Brian Leith
Congo, Wild China, BBC Wildlife Special: Gorillas, Africa's Big Game, Life On Air

1: THE GREAT MELT
Svalbard (Norway)
Churchill and Pond Inlet (Canadian Arctic)
North Baffin (Canada)

2: THE GREAT SALMON RUN
Klatse Inlet (British Colombia)
Bella Bella (British Colombia)
Hallo Bay (Alaska)
Brook Falls (Alaska)
Knight Inlet (British Colombia)

3: THE GREAT MIGRATION
Serengeti Plains (Tanzania)
Maasai Mara (Kenya)

4: THE GREAT TIDE
The Wild Coast - based in Port St John (South Africa)
Durban (South Africa)
East London (South Africa)
Plettenberg Bay (South Africa)
Malgas Island (South Africa)
Bird Island (South Africa)

5: THE GREAT FLOOD
Okavango Delta and surrounding Kalahari Desertlands (Botswana)

6: THE GREAT FEAST
The seas and islands around Sitka and Juneau (South East Alaska)
The seas and islands around Northern Vancouver Island (British Colombia)
Hawaii

• Arctic unicorns' in icy display from Nature's Most Amazing Events

“For my money, the best thing on television.” Richard Rogers, Observer

“David Attenborough is ringmaster to real-life wildlife events that are truly epic and dramatic. There’s the usual ‘aahh’ factor attached to tiny grizzly bear cubs, baby elephants and shoals of dolphins. But there’s added ‘aargh’ in this six-part series, as each week the cameras (high definition, of course) follow a set of beasts through a stunning but potentially perilous spectacle … Naturally, Attenborough’s narration and the BBC Natural History Unit’s cutting-edge techniques make it an evocative and intimate affair.” The Times

“Nature’s Great Events is wonderful television … it’s a shining example of how to make an affecting nature documentary: stunning scenery and captivating creatures, beautifully filmed, and warmly narrated by a man who knows his Narwhals from his Natterjacks.” Scotsman

“Slack-jawed with wonder and respect, you practically needed a seatbelt by the time he got to the narwhals, the aesthetic effect was so stunning.” Gavin Docherty, Daily Express

“After Wednesday’s superlative Nature’s Great Events, any neighbouring nature doc could look a little lacklustre.” Gareth McLean, Guardian

“…richly rewarding television … Do I need to tell you that it looks ravishingly beautiful? No, I don’t.” Pete Clark, London Evening Standard

“The BBC is a constant fource for the visual wonders of our planet, and almost as amazing as the sights their programmes show us is their Natural History Unit’s ability to keep finding inspiring and exciting ways to educate us about our world. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, this new six-par series does just that … kicking off with a real humdinger of an epic … This is an hour crammed with gasp-inducing moments … There’s limitless entertainment here, and awe for both adults and older children.” Mail On Sunday

“This is must-see TV … narrated by the reliably God-like David Attenborough…” Jane Simon, Daily Mirror

“…what more can be said about the impact of global warming on the region’s wildlife? To their great credit, narrator David Attenborough and the series’ producers, do manage to put extra flesh on the story, much of it exquisitely filmed, and take the viewer far beyond the sole concerns of the Arctic’s top predator. Thus we get footage of beluga whales gathering, in a great festival of itching, to rub their skins on riverbed pebbles to free them selves of parasites; unicorn-tusked narwhals trying to glide through channels in the treacherous, moving ice; and guillemot chicks hurling themselves off cliffs on their first flights from their nests – as Arctic foxes wait below to pounce on those who fail this crucial aeronautical test.” Robin McKie, Observer

“With the unbeatable combination of David Attenborough doing the voiceover and the usual breathtaking photography, this new six-part series is like a greatest hits compilation from the natural world … Arctic foxes are seen looking after their unspeakably sweet cubs. Whales swim along cracks in the ice. There is spectacular footage of Guillemot chicks as they take flight for the first time. And then there are the poor old polar bears, falling through the thin ice and struggling to survive without food throughout the summer. Two thirds of these bears could disappear by 2050, and films as beautiful as this show exactly why that would be a catastrophe.” David Chater, The Times

“Enough to melt the heart.” Thomas Sutcliffe, Independent

“Simply gorgeous.” Sophie Heath, Daily Mail

 “…flawless…” Jod Mitchell, Daily Telegraph

“…sublime photography…” Irish Independent

“Wonderful stuff of polar bears sliding about the place and an Arctic fox scavenging…” John Robinson, Guardian

This series employs state of the art photo-real satellite views from space, combined with revolutionary aerial techniques, stabilised camera mounts on boats, ultra high speed shooting, motion controlled photography and lapse time techniques pioneered on Planet Earth.

The Nature's Great Events team captured extraordinary wildlife footage, some shown for first time on television, including:
• Aerial footage of the amazing migration of the mysterious Arctic narwhal whale, with its unicorn-like tusk
• High definition footage of polar bears feeding on seals, struggling to survive as they hunt in broken ice and fall through
• The sardine run filmed with three crews in full high definition - underwater, aerial and on the surface
• Pioneering the boat stabilising mount to film the sardine run - previously only used in Hollywood feature films
• A shoal of sardines 15 miles long surrounded by thousands of sharks; 10,000 gannets raining down on a shoal of fish and a super-pod of 5,000 common dolphins - all filmed using the high definition helicopter mount
• Cape fur seals coming ashore to snatch gannet chicks from their colony
• The eruption of the Ol Doinyo Lengai Volcano in the Serengeti - the first eruption since 1964 - filmed in HD from the ground and the air
• The epic scale of the wildebeest migration from the air
• Grizzly bear families emerging from their dens, in snowy Alaska, filmed with gyro-stabilised cameras mounted on helicopters
• A pack of wolves attacking an adult grizzly bear in North America
• High speed cameras film grizzly bears chasing down salmon in shallow water, showing their power and grace
• Underwater footage of bears catching salmon using their feet - filmed by producer Jeff Turner, who swam among them
• High speed cameras filming up to 2,000 frames per second reveal how salmon leap over three metres through the air to clear waterfalls
• Film of the Okavango Delta flood at every level - from macro to aerial photography
• A young elephant attacked and killed by a pride of lions in broad daylight
• Elephants using their trunks to siphon water from the top of dirty pools
• Underwater crew capture humpback whales engulfing a whole herring bait ball in one giant gulp
• A pod of killer whales attacking and killing a huge male sea lion
• Bubble netting by humpback whales filmed from the air and on the surface, together with incredible sound to illustrate the co-operative fishing behaviour of these few select whales.