Natural World

A look at the bug-eat-bug world of the African driver ant, wildlife's neighbor from hell. The biggest family on Earth is a sinister army of 20 million sisters that thrives by ravaging forests, killing every living thing it can pin down and slice up. It is really a super-organism that dominates an often violent world, where miniature monsters roam and only the most powerful survive.

Thousands of tons of war wreckage sank into the fabled lagoons of the South Pacific islands during the naval and air battles of World War II. This fascinating documentary Investigates the array of shipwrecks in the area which have been transformed into spectacular living reefs featuring fantastic mini-ecosystems and incredible marine wildlife.

Unlike great civilizations such as the Romans and the Egyptians, the Mayan empire did not arise from the banks of a mighty river. Then why did they populate Yucatan? The Maya believed that the freshwater pools dotted across the area were sacred portals to the underworld. They are indeed portals, but to an incredible underground labyrinthine system of rivers with amazing wildlife.

Botswana's elephants are doing very well. Too well perhaps. People are worried that too many elephants could cause damage and have suggested that up to 60,000 should be culled. Researcher Mike Chase studies ancient elephant migration routes. He has tracked them across vast deserts, desolate salt pans, and Angolan minefields. Now he thinks he has a plan that could safeguard their future.

In this extraordinary and moving documentary, Canadian bear expert Charlie Russell rescues two orphaned bear cubs destined for death in a squalid Russian zoo and moves them to his home in the remote wilds of the South Kamchatka peninsula, in the former Soviet Union. But when it comes time to release the orphaned cubs back into the wild, both the bears, and Charlie, face a litany of dangers.

Many years ago, lions thrived in the deserts of Namibia's Skeleton Coast, until they were exterminated by man. Then maverick biologist Flip Stander discovered a tiny population alive and well in nearby mountains. Their numbers have steadily grown , and they are now returning to the desert. But Flip will have to persuade local people that the lions are worth more alive than dead.