National Geographic

   

March 18, 2013

For more than half a century, famed explorer Jacques Cousteau filmed throughout the Mediterranean, offering the world a first glimpse into the mysterious realm under the sea. Now, his youngest son retraces his father's footsteps with renowned marine ecologist Enric Sala, comparing the Mediterranean today with imagery first captured by his father. Cousteau worried that pollution and overfishing would destroy the fragile sea. Now, the new generation of explorers will discover if anything has been saved - or if Cousteau's warning came too late. Their adventure begins in Marseille, where they dive in the exact spot where the legendary explorer first filmed. The contrast is striking. By referencing the original imagery, Sala estimates that the populations of some species of fish in the area have dropped by more than 90 per cent. The expedition has started with disappointment, but it's not over. During the course of coming weeks, the young explorers face adventure, frustration and excitement as they dive in the Mediterranean's few protected marine reserves. Here they encounter strange and wonderful species - underwater landscapes of breath-taking beauty populated by massive fish, ancient corals and one particularly curious octopus. But they also encounter poachers and developers, spear fishermen and a worried prince. By the end of their adventure they have a clear idea of how best to save the Mediterranean. Now they must convince the leaders of dozens of countries that line its shores that protecting this ancient sea is worth the effort.

   

February 3, 2013

Some migratory animals make epic journeys across the globe, covering thousands of miles. Others travel vertically, spiralling downwards to great depths in the ocean. We know they do it to find food, a mate, a good place to start a family. But there is so much more to learn about the nomadic lifestyle. What are the underlying forces and physics that drive migration? And what can migratory patterns tell us about the effects climate change and habitat destruction have on animals? Science of Migrations is bursting with technology, leading to fresh insights into animal behaviour. This film shows the science of migration as it is unfolding, revealing a new understanding of animal decision-making, swarm dynamics and the inner workings of a herd, flock or pod. Advanced tagging devices are the new technology - and they're light-years beyond your old-fashioned radio collar. Daily diary loggers and GPS tags gather more information than ever before, in 3D, tracking animal movements down to a turn of a head or a wag of a tail. They monitor vital signs, such as blood pressure and temperature, detect patterns that neither we, nor remote cameras, can capture. The results allow us to witness animal behaviour in ways we could never before. As zoologist Rory Wilson says, ,When we tag an animal, it's like giving it a blank book. The tagged animal writes the book, and we can pick it up and read it., Science of Migrations will take us around the world: to the great wildebeest migration in the Serengeti, where the impetus to relocate for a good meal supersedes the likelihood of getting eaten by hungry crocodiles. To Patagonia, where three-ton blubbery elephant seals transform into ballerinas as soon as they hit the water, diving and flipping down to 1500-metres for their food. To Kansas, where monarch butterflies stop over while on their epic 1800-mile pilgrimage to find the perfect place to lay their eggs. We'll track bugs and birds, schools and herds, showing a myriad of reasons for mass movements, but also shedding light on the forces behind the itinerant lifestyle that all migratory creatures share.

   

November 17, 2012

n 1494, Christopher Columbus made a second journey to the Americas, this time with more ships, more men and a grander mission. He sailed with 17 ships, almost 1400 people and a goal of building the first European colony in the New World. But in just a few short years, the settlement would perish - one-fifth of its inhabitants dead and at least six ships sunk in the bay. What happened at this ill-fated settlement remains a mystery 500 years later. Now, two separate teams of archaeologists, one at sea and one on land, journey to uncover new evidence of the failure of America's first European city, La Isabela. Located in what is now the Dominican Republic, La Isabela was Columbus' greatest aspiration and his chance at empire and riches. It was also the first sustained contact between the New and Old World, the first place where a local American civilization met and clashed with the European colonizers. But Columbus' quest for wealth, power and governorship of the New World would never come to be. Hundreds of his men and thousands of indigenous Taino Indians of Hispaniola perished. Hurricanes, then unknown to the Spanish, sank their ships, and the colony ultimately collapsed in just four short years. Incredibly, no one knows exactly why and how the colony ended in ruin. But clues can be found in their 15th century ships and bones and the hunt is now on to find out what went wrong at La Isabela. Charlie Beeker, the director of underwater science at Indiana University, is on perhaps his most elusive and important quest ever: to find a ship of Christopher Columbus. To date, a Columbus shipwreck has never been discovered. It's a space capsule of its time, potentially holding New World items meant for Spain and important findings of how these ships of discovery were built... and sunk. Having surveyed thousands of shipwrecks, with one of the oldest dating back to the age of conquest and piracy in the Caribbean, Beeker hopes to unlock this mystery at sea and add knowledge to the mystery of Columbus' failed second journey. On land, husband and wife bio-archaeology team Andrea Cucina and Vera Tiesler, are on a forensic mission to figure out who these first colonists were and what killed them in such a short period of time. They will dig graves to uncover bones of these settlers. Bones can tell a story even 500 years later. They can reveal diseases, signs of violence, or other evidence of cause of death. Both teams will have to contend with a shroud of mystery created by 500 years of time, degradation and myths propagated by Columbus and his men. Fortunately, bones and artefacts don't lie... and somewhere in the sea and sand lies the truth behind the rise and fall of La Isabela.

   

May 5, 2012

The Obama White House: Through the Lens follows the US President, via Pete Souza, his official photographer, into key political and social situations - from giving speeches and hosting State dinners, to playing with Bo, the family dog. In this unique programme the trusted producers from National Geographic Television were deep inside the real West Wing, capturing the frenetic pace of everyday life and for the first time, seeing what it is really like to be President and how the White House works. Shooting took place over a six-month period during this historic first term, extending into 2010, and with footage featuring President Obama onboard Air Force One, meeting with heads of state, eg Canada's PM, Stephen Harper, arriving for lunch with former President, Bill Clinton and joking with White House staffers, The Obama White House: Through the Lens is one of the most intimate and telling portraits ever of an American president. We even get a unique insight into the everyday life of the First Lady as NGT were also able to film over the shoulder of another photographer. This landmark film is built on a series of unprecedented sequences that reveal the texture of Obama's White House as seen from the inside by Pete Souza. Working for Obama is a high-adrenaline challenge, unlike any job anywhere and it is relentless. The President's life is a blur of high-level meetings, greetings, politicking, trips, events and crisis management - and Souza has to get it all. Where he moves, we move, ultimately delivering an unprecedented look at the grit of the President's day, always from just over his shoulder. The schedule that Obama, and thereby Souza, follows is so intense that some days are broken into two and three minute segments, a rapid-fire series of moments, each charged by the intensity of being at the fulcrum of power. Stand outside the Oval Office as NGT did for several days last September and pretty soon, everyone who is anyone will come by. In the space of one 10-minute period we encountered Colin Powell, the Obama's new dog, Bo and Henry Kissinger - each of whom was either en route to or from a meeting with the Commander-in- Chief.

   

March 3, 2012

Starting in 2007, National Geographic crews dispersed all over the planet to film the most amazing and unique animal migration stories ever told. Over three years, the crew spent 350 hours in trees, 500 hours in blinds and 400 hours underwater. This behind-the-scenes story takes you to the depths of the sea and the far corners of the earth as you experience the dangers, difficulties and adventures of a National Geographic cameraman.

   

February 18, 2012

Filmed in more than 20 countries across a three-year period, by more than 30 of the world's leading wildlife filmmakers and using the very latest, cutting-edge technology, this landmark, blue-chip series is one of the most astounding wildlife programmes ever made and probably National Geographic Television's most impressive show in it's 45-year history. Our planet is in constant motion: death-defying dramas playing out every day across the land, sea and sky; millions of creatures moving because their lives depend on it. 3. Race Against Time Migrations are ticking clocks: every day, countless animals must move or die, driven by changing seasons and a changing climate; they are racing to reach their destination, before it's too late - to breed, feed or simply stay alive. For animals ranging from walruses to whale sharks, zebras to orangutans, pronghorn to plankton - every day is a race against time.

   

February 4, 2012

Filmed in more than 20 countries across a three-year period, by more than 30 of the world's leading wildlife filmmakers and using the very latest, cutting-edge technology, this landmark, blue-chip series is one of the most astounding wildlife programmes ever made and probably National Geographic Television's most impressive show in it's 45-year history. Our planet is in constant motion: death-defying dramas playing out every day across the land, sea and sky; millions of creatures moving because their lives depend on it. 1. Born to Move Every day, millions of creatures are born into a life on the march, on the wing, on the run. Born to Move spans the globe, revealing four of the most remarkable animal movements: sperm whales travelling over a million miles in a lifetime; red crabs overcoming horrific obstacles on a daily basis; monarch butterflies taking four generations to cross a continent and wildebeest, rising above the gaping jaws of ravenous crocodiles.

   

November 26, 2011

A lone figure, mirage like, breaks up a vista that in every direction as far as the eye can see, is as flat as a surgical table. The air is hot and crisp, the light glaring relentlessly. The only sound to be heard is the chink of dislodged salt crystals being tossed by the dry wind. Being the tallest object for hundreds of miles isn't the only peculiarity about this figure. Stopping here and there the man inspects the ground and moves on into the seemingly endless saltpan. Dr. Greg Johnston has come to Australia's 'dead heart' in search of a final piece of an ancient puzzle. Yet it is not only this lone figure being drawn to one of the most hostile places on earth. At this moment torrents of waters are converging towards the continent's lowest point. Within days the area will begin to metamorphose into a veritable powerhouse of life. Floods will drench dry river systems and a plethora of flora and fauna will come to life in their wake. Red gibber plains transform into wildflower meadows, dormant amphibians emerge from their entombed state and a chorus of birdlife kick-starts a breeding frenzy. During the coming weeks the lakes will briefly earn the right to their name and return to their prehistoric glory days as an inland sea. Although this event is one of the most unpredictable of the Australian landscape, one species has become defined by it. The Australian pelican sees the entire Australian continent as its home, its riverbeds as road maps and its ephemeral lakes as immeasurably important chances to breed. They come in tens of thousands, mysteriously arriving just as fish stocks reach their pinnacle. No other animal personifies the dynamic nature of these ephemeral lakes as does the pelican and that is precisely why Greg is here. To literally dig into the past and unravel the long-standing 'affair' between the lakes and their transient devoted tenants.

   

November 10, 2011

Railroads are the backbone of American industry. 170,000 miles of track crisscross the country from coast to coast, moving two billion tons of freight nationally every year. At the centre of it all sits Kansas City - the second largest rail junction in North America. Two hundred thousand trains pass through this location every year. But today, two SD40 locomotives owned by Kansas City Southern - or K-C-S - will stop running. These diesel locomotives have been on the rails for over 40 years. Now their engine technology is inefficient - so they're headed for the scrap dealer: Erman Corporation.

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May 21, 2011

Sixty six million years ago a meteor struck the Earth, wiping out three-quarters of all life on the planet (including most dinosaurs) and helped clear the way for the rise of mammals (including humans). Recent scientific investigations have made it possible to understand more precisely what likely happened and how, as the cosmic impact unleashed cataclysmic forces. Why did some creatures survive while nearly all others perished? What happened in those first minutes and hours, on a day when the whole world changed forever? In 24 Hours After: Asteroid Impact, we meet scientists who are piecing together what they think is the precise chronology of that day. Using computer graphics and real-world demonstrations, the film takes viewers step-by-step through the cataclysmic events of that day to examine the likely cascade of effects that followed the impact, and show who won and who lost - and why - in the ultimate test of survival.

   

April 30, 2011

Species extinction is happening at an alarming rate - a hundred to a thousand times faster than ever before because of human activity. Join scientists and conservationists around the world as they work to protect endangered animals and their natural environment. From pandas, whooping cranes and frogs to orangutans and crocodiles, Wild Again shows viewers what it takes to save the world's endangered species.

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April 2, 2011

In March 2009, twelve scientists embark on a ship that's more like a floating science lab. Led by charismatic and camera-friendly National Geographic Fellow, Enric Sala, this passionate team of the world's foremost coral reef biologists is on a mission to investigate the mind-blowing web of life that exists on one of the planet's last, pristine coral reefs. It's eco-time travel at its best-- the scientific expedition of a lifetime.

   

March 19, 2011

Where Montana kisses Canada lies a jewel of the US national park system. Glacier's million-acre wilderness is arguably America's most stunning natural environment, with 700 or so wetland areas and lakes, towering peaks, hundreds of waterfalls and - of course - two dozen glaciers. Called by Blackfeet Indians ,the backbone of the world,, this World Heritage Site straddles the US/Canadian border. Its glaciers carve and reveal prehistoric seas, faults, uplifts and giant slabs of ancient crust - a unique geologic formula for spectacular scenery. Over 700 miles of hiking trails venture into the national park's backcountry - an extreme playground for cross-country skiers, paddlers and climbers. Glacier is also a living laboratory for scientists. They work to understand how a warming climate will change this ecosystem, protect vulnerable aquatic species, track grizzly bears and wolverines, study glacial retreat and fight the devastating impact of a deadly disease on Glacier's mighty pines.

   

March 5, 2011

Carved between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the magic of the ,Big South, stretches just 90 miles long and 20 miles wide, and is flanked on the east by the Santa Lucia Mountains. Just offshore is the largest submarine canyon in North America, where a rich upwelling from the deep nourishes shallow kelp forests. At the shoreline, rocks are mobbed with many species of seals and sea lions. Two miles inland, coastal redwoods offer sanctuary to cougars, California condors and several unusual and rarely seen creatures. East of the tall trees, Big Sur stretches into meadows and oak woodlands where coyotes and hawks compete with rattlesnakes for small prey. Nowhere else in the world does such a wide variety of extreme habitats exist in such close proximity to one another. Dramas occur in every niche, but the magnificent coast is the centre stage for a longforgotten drama to unfold during this hour-long, blue chip film.

   

February 19, 2011

Anthropologist and Emerging Explorer Jill Preutz takes us deep into the fascinating world of the creatures she has studied for 9 years -- giving us exclusive access to not only their groundbreaking hunting skills, but their other strangely human ways: They spend most of their days on the ground, not in a tropical canopy; they splash in swimming holes; they even curl up in caves. With the help of experts on our earliest ancestors, newly discovered evidence of a chimp stone age, and groundbreaking graphics of how our ancestors may have looked and acted, we take an eye-opening and controversial scientific journey that reveals as much about ourselves as the remarkable chimps of Fongoli.

   

October 30, 2010

The moose is a colossus of size, power and majesty, with an armoury unmatched on Earth. Explore the hidden life of an icon of the Northern wilderness.

   

March 20, 2010

In 1985, Robert Ballard grabbed the world's attention when he discovered the famed ocean liner. Few knew that when he found Titanic, he was on a secret intelligence mission for the U.S. Navy. He was investigating the loss in the 1960s of two American nuclear submarines, the Thresher and the Scorpion.

   

March 6, 2010

Bright-eyed, bounding exuberantly, standing tall as a man, spilling adorable joeys out of the pouch: what could be causing kangaroos to leave the bush, come into town and cause chaos? Scientists and wildlife rescuers search for clues, and also investigate the kangaroos' deadly foes: dingoes, people, and Australia's largest bird of prey, the wedge-tailed eagle.

   

January 16, 2010

Most of the gold ever mined throughout history remains in circulation - recycled and all but untraceable. Gold is eternal. Once ripped from the earth and purified, it cannot be destroyed - so durable that 4,500-year-old Egyptian dental work is good enough for today's mouths. When it goes missing, it stirs deep and dark passions.

   

December 5, 2009

Known as an arch-villain who ordered the massacre of all male children under the age of two, Herod the Great was also one of the greatest architectural masterminds in world history. He was responsible for 22 temples, palaces, fortresses and cities in ancient Judea, plus an aqueduct and a deep-water port. But where is his tomb?

   

November 21, 2009

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: 80-foot high coral reefs, 139,000 square miles of uninhabited islands and countless shipwrecks. More than 7,000 species of bird, fish and mammal - a quarter of them unique to the area - live in a unique web of life that we're only just beginning to understand.

   

November 7, 2009

Each year more and more of the water that feeds the Everglades is diverted to the farmlands and the rapidly growing cities of Florida. Every drop taken by people upstream makes a difference in how high an island or a tree sits out of the water... and with the wrong height, that ecosystem will die.

   

October 24, 2009

Darwin spends a mere five weeks in the Galápagos islands and, contrary to conventional belief, his greatest epiphanies do not occur there. Instead, they are a culmination of years exploring the wilds of South America, a world teeming with life. What he finds along the way is perplexing to a 19th-century naturalist.

   

October 10, 2009

Scientists join the blue whales' stunning migration and observe the massive creatures' courtship behaviour off the coast of Costa Rica. Now they hope to find and record the breeding and calving grounds of the biggest mammals in the sea.

   

March 5, 2009

Inspired by ancient Chinese art, the architects of the Beijing Olympic Stadium came up with a sculpture of curving lines that seen from the sky resembles a bird's nest made with steel "branches" and "twigs." Not only structurally sound, this goliath construction is energy efficient, thus also fulfilling the Games' green goals.

   

February 7, 2009

Nasharuddin Bin Usman has an unusual job: to move wild elephants, like Amanda, back into their Malaysian rainforest habitat to protect them from being shot or poisoned by angry locals.

   

January 31, 2009

In the Serengeti, cheetahs live uneasy lives. Females with cubs must hunt. Left alone, their offspring are exposed to the savagery of more powerful predators. Even scavengers can gain the upper hand over these slender felines. Cheetahs are the fastest, but also the most vulnerable of the big cats. We follow two cheetah mothers, with varying fortunes, as they struggle to raise their families against the odds.

   

January 24, 2009

Ken Street has a project that is vital for the future of the planet: finding seeds that may help save the world from its greatest ever crisis - a global food shortage brought about by human-induced climate change.

   

January 10, 2009

The story of two fawns living parallel lives on the great plains of Africa: one, an impala, resident in the southern acacia forests and the other, a Thomson's gazelle, soon to be on the march with the great herds. Both must outrun their natural opponents, the predators, to survive in a relentless and deadly contest - a race for life itself.

   

December 6, 2008

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the "Alaskan Serengeti," a vast wilderness near the top of the world where an incredible pilgrimage of 100 000 caribou makes its way to the ocean and back every summer. The place is a national treasure. Just below the surface is another kind of treasure - the promise of oil.

   

November 15, 2008

An in-depth look at an unusual pride of lions.

   

November 1, 2008

There are fish ... and then there are FISH. Lurking in the murky depths of the world's great waterways are bizarre giants - specimens of such enormous proportion and odd appearance they boggle the mind. Aquatic ecologist Zeb Hogan heads for the Amazon, an ideal place to search for megafish.

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October 23, 2008

In the Gulf of Mexico, gigantic state-of-the-art precision machinery - including a bizarre drilling ship with a hole in its centre - is attempting to mine the deepest gas reserves ever targeted. But if these mega machines can't work in perfect synchrony, the project will produce nothing but a two-billion dollar mistake!

   

October 16, 2008

To build the Karahnjukar Hydro Electric Project, three 400-foot long rock-grinding monsters, starting from different points, are burrowing through miles of basalt. Even a slight miscalculation could lead to catastrophe - and to these mammoth machines being stuck miles underground.

   

October 9, 2008

It took a miracle of engineering to create it: the construction of the biggest locks and largest earthen dam ever attempted, the creation of two massive lakes and blasting a path through a mountain range. Yet almost a century later, is the Panama Canal headed for its demise? Or destined to become even bigger?

   

October 2, 2008

It's no ordinary boat. The Hawaii Superferry will be a floating city complete with shops, restaurants and space to park nearly 3000 cars. If this mammoth catamaran-style craft works, it will fly over water using a tenth of the fuel of a plane, while carrying four times as many passengers. But the waters of the Hawaiian archipelago are notoriously rough. How will this new super ferry stay afloat in these stormy seas?

   

April 5, 2008

At the start of the Amazon's dry season, the forest drains, and South America's largest predators, the black caiman, are driven to the only remaining source of water: the lake. Over a thousand of these cousins of the crocodile battle for space in an ever-decreasing pool.

   

February 9, 2008

For over 500 million years, the jellyfish has survived in our oceans. Today, global warming and pollution may be contributing to a population explosion, And though they have no bones, blood or brain, some jellyfish are armed with a deadly arsenal unlike any other on the planet. Dissecting the fascinating physiology of this living fossil.

   

December 22, 2007

To Muslims it's Al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. To Jews and Christians it's the Temple Mount. Depending where you are in Jerusalem, using the wrong name could spark a riot. Rarely are cameras allowed inside the walled sanctuary in the heart of Old Jerusalem that is home to the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

   

December 1, 2007

National Geographic factual programming.

   

November 24, 2007

It travels faster than a speeding bullet. It burns five times hotter than the surface of the sun. And lightning can strike you dead pretty much out of the blue. Thirty million volts of electricity colliding with the human body are enough to stop your heart, zap your memory, change your personality. National Geographic follows the stories of three lightning victims and storm chaser Tim Samaras as he takes us into the heart of a lightning storm.

   

November 10, 2007

Mt. Denali, the highest peak in North America, is one of the most dangerous climbs in the world. Those who attempt the summit risk freezing temperatures and gale-force winds - not to mention altitude sickness. And there is more to this park than just the mountain. Moose, caribou, grizzlies and wolves roam a wild playground. Far below, a rumbling fault line is prone to violent tantrums that can spawn earthquakes.

   

October 27, 2007

Get in the pilot's seat of nature's most elite airborne unit as novel onboard camera technology, ride-along angles and stylish graphics reveal the engineering secrets of hawks, eagles, falcons and owls.

   

October 13, 2007

Thera, now the Greek island of Santorini, was a volcano so colossal it shattered the ancient world, cast the land into darkness and sparked a mega-tsunami. But could it also have destroyed one of the Europe's first civilizations? The truth has been lost in legend - until Robert Ballard, armed with a two-tonne remotely operated vehicle and high definition cameras, dives into Thera's submerged caldera.

   

September 29, 2007

In Gabon, against all odds, a visionary leader and a group of dedicated scientists are defying conventional wisdom that insists oil, mining and logging are the best way to bring prosperity. Out of the wild, they have created 13 new national parks and are developing an ecotourism industry to sustain them.

   

April 28, 2007

Beautiful, bewildering, and largely unexplored, our oceans dominate our planet. How did they form? Why haven't they evaporated away? Take a journey from the coral reef shallows to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

   

April 14, 2007

On the Mala Mala game reserve, filmmaker Kim Wolhuter wins the trust of a hyena clan and its queen. In their daily struggles, rivalry with lions, forms of communication and tenderness as mothers, they prove that they're not just cackling scavengers.

   

February 14, 2004

Photographers go the extra mile to get that perfect shot of big game cats.

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January 24, 2004

Photographer Carsten Peter braves toxic gases, treacherous rock falls, and giant pools of molten lava as he rappels inside volcanic craters on the South Pacific island of Ambrym - all in the name of science.

   

December 20, 2003

Photographic images of Yellowstone's signature species and spectacular time-lapse cinematography reveal how plants and animals are locked in a cyclical struggle to survive, revealing the relationships that bind and build the complex forests of one of the world's most famous national parks.

   

November 15, 2003

Insect expert Phil De Vries hops from continent to continent in search of the deadliest swarms on the planet.

   

November 1, 2003

A robot is used to explore what lies behind a stone door deep inside the Great Pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu on the Giza plateau. Experts also open a sealed sarcophagus that may contain the oldest mummy found in Egypt.

   

October 11, 2003

In the deep waters of Mexico's Sea of Cortez human-sized Humbolt squid congregate, sometimes in the thousands, then disappear for months or years at a time. Scientists investigate the migration patterns and intelligence of these ravenous predators that are at the core of the area's food chain.

   

September 27, 2003

Fabien Cousteau, grandson of famed ocean adventurer Jacques, embarks on a worldwide investigation into the secret lives of sharks and tries to get to the bottom of a 90-year-old mystery. In 1916 two people in New Jersey were attacked in a freshwater creek - miles from the ocean. For decades many believed it was a great white, but the culprit is more likely the bull shark which can swim in both salt and fresh water.

   

Three million years ago, the rise of the Panamanian land bridge connected the American continents and unleashed an astonishing animal encounter. The emergence of the narrow, 400-mile-long Isthmus of Panama is one of the most important events in Earth's history - and one of the least understood. In this new show, we reveal the story of how the area comprising the current-day Republic of Panama connected two continents - each with its own full-blown animal kingdom - separated two oceans, and transformed the world as we know it.