Video collections
Watch the year's highlights from the BBC's exploration of the planet's hidden corners and rarest creatures: from the turquoise seas of the South Pacific to the Lost Land of the Volcano.
With animal behaviour often centre stage, there have been some memorable presenter/wildlife interactions with amorous parrots and territorial hippos, but the spotlight has shone elsewhere too. We've followed the seasons in Yellowstone and across the UK, retrodden old paths for a last chance to see some of our most endangered wildlife, and even helped in the discovery of species new to science.
Whether you like your wildlife homegrown or exotic, take the 2009 grand tour and find out where the wild things really are.
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Wily fox
How do you catch mice hiding under several feet of snow?
Cameraman Shane Moore spent two months in a yurt during one of the coldest winters for 10 years. Every day he donned his snowshoes and followed fox tracks, but though he often saw foxes stalking, he never saw them pounce. Wondering whether the snow was too deep this year and the mice too far down, he was just about to give up hope when he found one last hunting fox. Zooming out in case the fox jumped he captured this leap into the deep snow that was about three times as high as anything he had seen in a lifetime spent in Yellowstone.
Snow covered
As the winter freeze hits, otters struggle to find open water for fishing.
Otters sledging through the snow seemed the perfect antidote to the narrative of winter life getting tougher. But while the team struggled in air temperatures of minus 30, the otters happily moved about under the ice and out of sight. Cameraman Shane Moore worked out that they'd eventually end up at a waterfall, so positioning himself on the edge of the abyss, he waited. The otters appeared and simply bounced over the lip of the falls, swerving away from the drop just in time. As Shane considered their likely next move, suddenly there the otters were: all in a line and tobogganing just like we’d imagined.
Barracuda swarm
Thousands of lethally toothed fish cause a temporary eclipse!
In the reefs around Mabul Island, chevron barracuda are well known for shoaling in great numbers and being approachable for divers, but wildlife film-makers are always sceptical of such information. As the director and support diver swam behind Steve and cameraman Simon, and watched them hare off into the darkening patch of water, he was mystified as to why they would rush off into what looked like a storm front. Then he realised that the darkening was caused by the massive school of fish, and that the cameraman had positioned himself right in the sweet spot, below the school, and with Steve above him in its midst to get these fantastic shots.
Cross-dresser
Undersized male cuttlefish have a sly way to get to the girls.
It seems humans aren't the only ones to use dirty tricks when it comes to getting a mate. It goes without saying that there is more to a cross-dresser than meets the eye, but some male cuttlefish have developed it to a fine art. Too small to fight for a mate, this male changes his appearance to trick a courting pair of cuttlefish into believing he's just another female looking to mate. The strategy works: the other male is fooled and the cross-dresser nips in quick while he's distracted!
Bubble net fishing
Working together reaps rich rewards for a school of humpback whales.
As with all the sequences in Nature's Great Events, it took a lot of time and effort to be in the right place at the right time, but when a dozen 30-tonne humpback whales erupted at the surface in unison the spectacle was incredible. The intelligence and synchronicity combined with the sheer size and scale of these animals was truly awesome. Without a doubt, it was the most amazing animal behaviour the producer Hugh Pearson had ever been fortunate enough to witness.
African bush elephant
African bush elephants are the largest living land mammals and the second tallest after...
Black bear
Black bears are found only in North America...
Giant cuttlefish
The Australian giant cuttlefish is the largest of the world’s hundred or so species of...
Black-throated diver
Black-throated divers are the only member of the diver bird family to have a white patch...
Bornean orangutan
Bornean orangutans live high in the tropical canopy of Borneo's forests, where they...
Brown bear
Brown bears are some of the largest carnivores on Earth.
Cape dwarf chameleon
Cape dwarf chameleons are only to be found in the grasses and shrubs of South Africa's...
Cape gannet
Cape gannets breed on islands off the coast of Nambia and South Africa.
Herring and sardine family
Herrings and sardines form the family of fish called clupeids.
Eeltail catfish
Eeltail catfish can be found in both marine and freshwater.
European honey bee
European honey bees have been introduced to nearly all parts of the world by humans, but...
Starling
Although seen in their millions in the spectacular winter aerial displays, starlings...
Hippopotamus
Hippopotamuses are found in Africa where they require habitats with water deep enough to...
Great apes
Great apes including humans are all in the same primate family, called the Hominidae,...
Humpback whale
Humpback whales migrate seasonally...
Kakapo
Kakapos are very unusual parrots.
Woolly rats
Woolly rats are found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, usually in mountain forests or...
Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are a family of insects encompassing over 3,500 recognised species.
Bess beetles
Bess beetles, or passalidae, are a family of beetles mostly found in the tropics.
Red deer
Red deer are the largest of the UK's resident deer species.
Red fox
Red foxes have overtaken grey wolves as the most...
Knot
Knots, known as red knots in America as a result of their lovely red summer plumage, are...
Short-beaked common dolphin
Common short-beaked dolphins are the most numerous dolphins in the world, and can be...
Stoat
Stoats are completely white in winter, except for the black tips of their tails.
Tiger
The magnificent tiger, largest of the big cats, is a heavily muscled, powerful predator...
Tufted capuchin
Tufted capuchins are relatively common in the forests and rainforests of south America.
White rhinoceros
White rhinos are named after a corruption of their Afrikaans name 'weit' (meaning wide),...
Sundews
Sundews are a genus of carnivorous plants which usually live in wet habitats where the...
Sundew family
Sundews and their relatives are a family of plants that, in addition to a few hundred...
Venus flytrap
Venus flytraps are carnivorous plants native to a small region of wetlands in the...
Desert
Desert and dry scrubland describes any area that receives less than 250mm of rainfall a...
Carnivorous
Carnivores are animals whose main method of getting food is to kill and eat other...
Eusocial
Eusocial describes species with a very highly developed social structure.
Adapted to flying
Flying, in its true sense, is the ability to move through the air under your own power...
Mimicry
Mimicry is when an animal or plant resembles another creature or inanimate object,...
Ovoviviparous
Ovoviviparous animals produce eggs inside their body, but then give birth to live young.
Parasitic
Parasitic organisms have a close relationship with another organism, which they use...
Active at birth
Active at birth, or precocial, describes species that are physically mobile and able...
Predator
Predators are creatures that catch and kill other animals for food.
Venomous
Venomous organisms inflict poisonous wounds by actively biting, stinging or scratching...
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