In the final three episodes, the series follows animals being pushed to the edge as melting ice, extreme heat and prolonged drought reshape the environments they depend on. In the Himalayas, a snow leopard is forced from familiar territory, while an Arctic ground squirrel in Alaska undertakes an extraordinary migration and a young Arctic fox in Svalbard faces her first winter alone. These cold-adapted animals must rapidly change behaviours that once worked for generations as their frozen worlds become increasingly unstable. The struggle then shifts to the opposite extreme, where wombats, leopards and kangaroo rats are tested by record heat and worsening drought, pushing their remarkable physical and behavioural adaptations to their limits. In the final episode, attention turns to the people working directly to help wildlife survive these new extremes, revealing rescue efforts, scientific interventions and conservation strategies in some of the planet’s harshest environments. Together, these final chapters show that survival now depends not only on the animals’ ability to adapt, but increasingly on how far humans are willing to go to protect them.
The film tells the true story of a baby elephant born into a rescue camp in the Botswana wilderness. When she’s suddenly orphaned at one month, the keepers and scientist looking after the herd become tireless surrogate mothers while they fight to save the entire species.
David Attenborough narrates the intimate story of a leopard mother and her two cubs. This very special family must survive in the wilds of Botswana alongside some less-than-friendly neighbours: lions, wild dogs and hyenas. The competition for food is tough, and if they are going to make it they must learn a new skill - they must learn to fish. This is an epic family drama. With them every step of the way is local cameraman Brad Bestelink. Brad's 18-month journey following the lives of these secretive big cats offers a rare glimpse into an otherwise hidden world.
Fifty years ago there were close to half-a-million lions in Africa. Today there are around 20,000. To make matters worse, lions, unlike elephants, which are far more numerous, have virtually no protection under government mandate or through international accords. This is the jumping-off point for a disturbing, well-researched and beautifully made cri de coeur from husband and wife team Dereck and Beverly Joubert, award-winning filmmakers from Botswana who have been Explorers-in-Residence at National Geographic for more than four years. Pointing to poaching as a primary threat while noting the lion's pride of place on the list for eco-tourists-an industry that brings in 200 billion dollars per year worldwide-the Jouberts build a solid case for both the moral duty we have to protect lions (as well as other threatened "big cats," tigers among them) and the economic sense such protection would make. And when one takes into account the fact that big cats are at the very top of the food chain-and that their elimination would wreak havoc on all species below them, causing a complete ecosystem collapse-the need takes on a supreme urgency.
The struggle then shifts to the opposite extreme, where wombats, leopards and kangaroo rats are tested by record heat and worsening drought, pushing their remarkable physical and behavioural adaptations to their limits. In the final episode, attention turns to the people working directly to help wildlife survive these new extremes, revealing rescue efforts, scientific interventions and conservation strategies in some of the planet’s harshest environments. Together, these final chapters show that survival now depends not only on the animals’ ability to adapt, but increasingly on how far humans are willing to go to protect them.