Introducing 'Bouldercam' - a revolutionary remote camera device that boldly goes where no camera has gone before - right into the heart of a lion pride. Looking deceptively like a mobile rock, but carrying a hidden digital camera, 'Bouldercam' gets up close and personal as it unravels the story of how cubs learn to become adult lions. Bouldercam was often just a whisker away as the cubs were watched, for over 3000 hours, growing up and learning to be lions. As David Attenborough says 'This is no ordinary film about lions.'
The sensational Bouldercam that took us to within a whisker of lions in 'Spy in the Den' applies its revolutionary brand of photography to perhaps the most popular of all animals - the African Elephant. Like its predecessor, 'Elephants' is an action-packed ride full of natural humour. This time, the film uses an army of mobile cameras - all of them disguised as piles of elephant dung! In TV-shaking proximity, they reveal what it is really like to be part of an elephant family.
This film uses an army of camouflaged roving cameras to unravel the lives of one of the world's most popular groups of animals. It is the most intimate portrayal ever of life amongst these engaging creatures. Using an array of almost magically camouflaged cameras the film take us to within paw's reach of the most charismatic of the world's bears. The Giant panda (filmed exclusively in the wild) is the star of the film. The programme shows how this popular creature fits into the great bear family. It contrasts its lifestyle with the American brown bear - the archetypal bear - as well as its arctic cousin the Polar bear. This far-reaching investigation also highlights the less well-known spectacled bear - the only bear to inhabit South America and the inspiration for Paddington bear. The roving cameras take us closer to these enchanting subjects than ever before.
Through the use of stealthcam, cameras built inside capsules resembling everything from crocodiles and hippos to mudpiles and dragonflies, the magnificent journey of more than a million wildebeest across Tanzania's Serengeti Plain has been captured like never before. The migration is the largest of land animals on the planet and the perils on the 3000km round trip, which the wildebeest take annually for food and water, are numerous. Wildebeest are on the hit list of every African predator. By land and across water, their lives are in constant danger from cheetahs, lions, hyenas and crocodiles, as well as nature's most gruelling physical challenges. Their coming signals food for their enemies on the plains and in the rivers. Their enemies wait to pick them off at the slightest chance. So survival tactics are called for from the first minutes of a newborn wildebeest's life.
Beating the odds against the predators on Tanzania's Serengeti Plain and the Kenyan Masa Marai, the wildebeest calf has survived the first part of the huge 3000 km round trek with his mother and the herd. But the crossing of the Mara River presents the biggest challenge yet for this fragile little creature. Its raging torrents are a death trap and there are crocodiles galore waiting to pick him off. Croc cam, skullcam, tortoisecam and hippocam, filming from ground level camouflaged cameras, capture all the drama and danger up close as the herd run the gauntlet of their land and water enemies for their annual epic mission.
Four 10-day-old tiger cubs, two females and two males, are living in the Indian jungle. This is their mother's first litter and the cubs insist on tumbling out of the den, only to be carried delicately back to safety in her massive jaws. As they grow, their diet changes from their mother's milk to meat. At 14 weeks they can eat over a kilo of meat a day between them - the equivalent of 20 large steaks. It's a good job that this tigress is such a skilled hunter and that spotted and sambar deer are so plentiful. Charger, their imposing father, keeps his distance but helps to protect his vulnerable offspring from rogue male tigers and leopards. Life seems sweet, until one day the cubs are left home alone and one of their greatest threats, an Indian leopard is near by.
The cubs are half grown and still pretty playful but it's time to learn the hunting and fighting skills they'll need as adults. Play fighting erupts between them - it looks nasty, but their claws are never drawn. The young tigers have huge appetites and their mother must hunt successfully most days to satisy them. When they're not eating, playing or fighting, the cubs sleep - and tigers love water, so a cooling water hole is perfect on a steaming day. The spy cameras show that this wallow is also a magnet for a whole array of other forest animals, including wild boar and sloth bears. The cubs are starting to behave as individuals and take personal hunting tuition from their mother. Then disaster strikes when both their parents are injured, and a rogue male tiger puts in an appearance. They still have a lot to learn.
The cubs are beginning to gain their independence. They must hone their hunting skills, and the two males must prepare to leave their mother and sisters and face the world on their own.
Emperor penguins cross a treacherous frozen sea to reach their breeding grounds.
Newborn penguins are caught taking their first unsteady steps.
As the chicks become increasingly independent, their parents continue to protect them.
