David Attenborough

Monday, September 8 at 7.30pm

An emergent tree in a tropical forest can grow to over forty meters high. The first branch may be twenty meters from the ground. A slip from this height would almost certainly be fatal. To make matters worse, branches may break without warning, or the tree may blow over. But, though life may seem precarious here, for those mammals which have made this three dimensional world their home the rewards are great; trees provide food, security from ground living predators and a refuge from the elements. To reap these benefits, however, some very specialised adaptations are needed.

Monday, September 15 at 7.30pm

An emergent tree in a tropical forest can grow to over forty meters high. The first branch may be twenty meters from the ground. A slip from this height would almost certainly be fatal. To make matters worse, branches may break without warning, or the tree may blow over. But, though life may seem precarious here, for those mammals which have made this three dimensional world their home the rewards are great; trees provide food, security from ground living predators and a refuge from the elements. To reap these benefits, however, some very specialised adaptations are needed.

Monday, September 1 at 7.30pm

As the first signs of life left it’s watery environment to colonize dry land the race was on in the search for food. After millions of years the increasing competition to survive made some mammals take one of the greatest steps in evolution – they returned to the water.

Retaining the fur of their shore bound ancestors’ mammals like voles, otters and seals still return to land to breed but yet have the ability to swim to great depths in their search for food.

Still breathing air and giving birth to live young, dolphins and whales became the new hunters of the world’s oceans. With complex communication, perfect streamlining and great underwater speed these mammals have mastered all the problems that had to be solved to survive in this harsh alien world.

Monday August 11 at 7.30pm

In the time of the dinosaurs, some trees produced a noxious resin to protect themselves from voracious jaws, and this resin embalmed everything it touched in exquisite detail.Today, this substance and its contents endure in the form of amber. Natural World explores the amazing contribution this material has made to our understanding of the past, and the potential benefits it has for our future.

Monday, August 4 at 7.30pm

When it comes to food most mammals are specialists – some eat nothing but termites, some just seeds, others eatonly flesh, and one species, the giant panda, relies almost exclusively on bamboo. But, there is an alternative strategy for feeding. Instead of being a specialist you can be a generalist – an omnivore – able to eat such a variety of food that you can always make the most of whatever seems to be around at the time. It’s the recipe for a successful story, and amongst this diverse group of animals are some of the most charismatic and widespread mammals on the planet.

Monday, July 28 at 7.30pm

From the very first time mammals walked on the planet there has been both hunter and hunted.The pressure to evolve speed, endurance and maneuverability has helped them to outwit each other and occupy their very own niche. For the first mammalian hunters that came down from the trees their small size and agility proved to be a winner, but as they ventured further a field they needed to change to stay as the top hunters.

Monday, July 21 at 7.30pm

Plants usually protect the goodness inside their seeds with very hard outer cases – as David Attenborough testifies after he has tried and failed to crack open a tropical nut by bashing it with a rock. ‘Believe it or not’ he proclaims ‘there are mammals here in Panama which can break into these nuts with their bare teeth!’They are agoutis, terrier-sized rodents, which chisel through the rock hard shells with their remarkable front teeth, as if it was butter.

The reward is a protein-rich kernel, and all rodents from the tiniest harvest mice to the mighty beaver, have these special, constantly growing inscisor teeth, with chisel sharp enamel on their front edges, in order to get at food of this kind.

Monday, July 7 at 7.30pm

When mammals first appeared, insects were abundant on earth, and mammals made meals of them.

Crucially, they were the first creatures able to make and regulate their own body heat, so they could hunt insects in the cool of the night, when most of the predatory dinosaurs were asleep. The modern musk shrew gives us an insight into how these first mammals might have lived.

After the dinosaurs so suddenly disappeared, the mammals were free to conquer new territories. We meet shrews that dive under water, moles that swim in sand, and extraordinary creatures that gather their prey by running at speed down trail systems above and below ground.

It’s hard to sustain a large body by catching insects one by one but about 50 million years ago, some of them broadened their diet. The hedgehogs and armadillos mix their insects with fruit and birds eggs.

Monday June 23 at 7.30pm

Within a paw’s swipe of the world’s bears

Camouflaged roving cameras provide the most intimate portrayal of these engaging creatures ever seen.

Bouldercam took us to within a whisker of lions in Spy in the Den; Dungcam got close and personal with elephants in Spy in the Family, but Spy in the Woods is the roving camera’s most ambitious deployment yet.