Manta rays are one of the most intelligent creatures in the ocean and, at up to seven metres long, one of the largest. Yet despite their size and curious nature, almost nothing is known about their lives.

Wildlife documentary. In the small African kingdom of Swaziland, the black mamba is a snake both feared and revered. During summer, these elegant yet lethal snakes turn up everywhere - in homes, schools and cars - and people are bitten every week. Enter Thea Litschka-Koen, a mum and hotel manager who has become known affectionately as the white witch. She and her husband are on call 24 hours a day to rescue and release black mambas when they get too close for comfort.

Wildlife documentary. In the forests of northern Minnesota, biologist Lynn Rogers uses food to gain the trust of wild black bears, a controversial technique developed over his own forty-year journey from fear to fascination. Following the fortunes of mother bear June and her three cubs over a year, the film reveals an intimate portrait of the lives of black bears.

Wildlife documentary. Environmentalist and photographer, Sandesh Kadur, has traded a comfortable career in the family business to explore the natural wonders of the Western Ghats mountains. Just a few hours drive from the commercial bustle of his native Bangalore, Sandesh could be a world away. The monsoon pours six metres of rainfall each year on the remote peaks and isolated valleys of the Ghats. Alongside familiar Indian species like elephants, tigers and peacocks are more mysterious creatures that are found nowhere else: a purple frog with a face like a shrew and a monkey with a lion-like mane and tail.

Documentary-maker Simon King follows a family of meerkats in the Tswalu National Park in South Africa, winning their trust and using modern filming techniques to capture their secret lives, including their constant struggle to find food and potentially deadly encounters with snakes, scorpions and cheetahs.

Birds of paradise are some of the most colourful birds on the planet. They live in tropical forests and though females are often dull in colour - because they need to be inconspicuous when sitting on the nest - the males are generally fabulously adorned. They use their decoration to great effect when they're trying to attract a mate, performing elaborate courtship dances to win the females over.

Deep in a picturesque Devon valley lives the best loved wild animal in Britain. Yet while the badger is easily recognised, remarkably few people have ever seen one alive. For a creature never far from controversy and blamed for all manner of destruction and disease, surprisingly little is known about the badger's private family life.

Living in the depths of the New Guinea rainforest are the spectacular birds of paradise - creatures so beautiful that the first Europeans believed they must have fallen from heaven. Filming their bizarre courtship displays is the Holy Grail of wildlife film makers: some perform like iridescent acrobats, others make hypnotic pulsing sounds as they quiver and vibrate. David Attenborough narrates the film. He has been entranced by these birds since he was a boy and he introduces a team of New Guinean naturalists as they embark on a gruelling expedition to try to film ten birds of paradise deep in the heart of the rainforest.

One of the world's most breathtaking natural wonders falls deep in the heart of South America. At two and a half kilometres long it is three times the size of Niagara. Enough water pours over the 300 individual waterfalls in one day to supply a major capital city for an entire year. These are the Iguagu Falls. Splitting the borders between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the surrounding lush, damp rainforest is home to colourful and elegant creatures. Great Dusky Swifts cling to the vertical cliff faces beneath the thundering water. The raccoon's distant cousins, coatis, live precariously high in the trees whilst nearer the forest floor mysterious tapirs and elusive jaguars roam under the protection of a few dedicated rangers. With poachers encroaching on this National Park, the rangers must sometimes risk their lives to preserve the species under their protection.

This is the remarkable story of two baby elephants struggling to survive their critical first six months in the oldest desert on earth. The Desert Elephants of Namibia suffered a poaching holocaust in the 1980s. As the most endangered elephant population in the world recovers, every single calf is vital. Himba and Dusty are born in a boom year, but when the short-lived rivers on which they depend disappear underground, their lives depend on the memories, experience and decisions of the females who lead their tiny families.

When communism crumbled in 1989, it created an opportunity for wildlife. The Iron Curtain that divided communist Eastern Europe from the capitalist West had created a no-man's-land protected by barbed wire and minefields - a last haven for many rare animals and plants. This film tells the story of the movement, led by biologist Dr Kai Frobel, that set out to save the wildlife of this precious strip. Now as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, we can also celebrate the birth of the biggest conservation movement in the world, a ribbon of life stretching 13,000 kilometres across Europe, protecting everything from bears and wolverines in Finland to rare eagles in Bulgaria.

This moving film reveals the differing fortunes of a mother polar bear and a mother grizzly bear, and their new-born cubs, in a rapidly-changing world. The shrinking Arctic ice may be making life much tougher for polar bears, but it is offering new opportunities for grizzly bears to the south.

Tiger experts in Bangladesh have a problem: how can they encourage local people to protect the beautiful and endangered Bengal tiger when these animals have developed a taste for human flesh? The Sundarbans forest is one of the biggest tracts of mangrove forest left in the world. It is rich in wildlife and provides important forest resources for communities living around its edge. But up to 50 forest workers are killed by tigers each year and now the boldest animals are sneaking into villages at night. This gripping film reveals the tension and heartache of living so close to a killer cat and follows the bold attempt by one village to teach street dogs to scare away the rogue tiger on their doorstep.

In the forests of northern Minnesota, biologist Lynn Rogers uses food to gain the trust of wild black bears, a controversial technique developed over his own forty-year journey from fear to fascination. Following the fortunes of mother bear June and her three cubs over a year, the film reveals an intimate portrait of the lives of black bears.

On a riverbank in Kenya, Africa, a seemingly ordinary giant fig tree and the tiny fig wasp differ in size a billion times over, but neither could exist without the other. Their extraordinary relationship is a marvel of co-evolution, a marriage which has lasted for millennia. It forms the basis of a complex web of dependency that supports entire ecosystems, providing food for thousands of creatures, from elephants, giraffes, and fruit bats, to forest hornbills, monkeys, insects, and fish. Each individual fig is a infinitesimal microcosm of life: a stage set for birth, sex and death, in which the tiny fig wasp players battle against predators and parasites to fulfill their mission, which is to pollinate a tree whose flowers bloom inside its fruit.

Tiger experts in Bangladesh have a problem: how can they encourage local people to protect the beautiful and endangered Bengal tiger when these animals have developed a taste for human flesh?

The harpy eagle is the most powerful bird of prey in the world, plucking monkeys from the branches of the jungle canopy. Rare and elusive they are seldom seen, but with the discovery of a harpy nest in the remote Orinoco rainforest of Venezuela, wildlife film-maker Fergus Beeley has a unique opportunity to follow the life of a chick from birth to adulthood. Fergus ascends high into the canopy to reveal a stunning world of colour and sound, following the trials of the harpy eagle's newly hatched chick as it grows up. Fergus becomes just another member of the dazzling community of birds and animals surrounding the harpy nest and develops an unexpectedly close bond with the chick.

The harpy eagle is the most powerful bird of prey in the world, plucking monkeys from the branches of the jungle canopy. Rare and elusive they are seldom seen, but with the discovery of a harpy nest in the remote Orinoco rainforest of Venezuela, wildlife film-maker Fergus Beeley has a unique opportunity to follow the life of a chick from birth to adulthood. Fergus ascends high into the canopy to reveal a stunning world of colour and sound, following the trials of the harpy eagle's newly hatched chick as it grows up. Fergus becomes just another member of the dazzling community of birds and animals surrounding the harpy nest and develops an unexpectedly close bond with the chick.

In 1927, Henry Williamson wrote Tarka the Otter, about the life and death of an otter in Devon. This film goes in search of Tarka's descendents. Do they still fish the same pools as their forebears? Williamson's otters were treated as vermin and were trapped and hunted for sport. Today the otter is an endangered species and our attitude towards it has changed. Do the lives of modern otters reflect this shift? Combining well-loved fiction with modern-day fact, this film contrasts the dramatic events of the novel with actual events from a modern otter's life.

Multi-award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane sets out on a journey to explore the unexpected landscapes and natural history of Essex, revealing that there is far more to the county than the stereotypes of white stilettos and boy racers. Macfarlane spends a year travelling the county's strange and elemental landscapes of heavy industry, desolate beaches and wild woods. He encounters massive knot flocks over the Thames, peregrine falcons at Tilbury Power Station, water voles within sniffing distance of the municipal dump, deer rutting in earshot of the M25, barn owls, badgers and bluebells in Billericay as well as a large colony of common seals.

Multi-award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane sets out on a journey to explore the unexpected landscapes and natural history of Essex, revealing that there is far more to the county than the stereotypes of white stilettos and boy racers. Macfarlane spends a year travelling the county's strange and elemental landscapes of heavy industry, desolate beaches and wild woods. He encounters massive knot flocks over the Thames, peregrine falcons at Tilbury Power Station, water voles within sniffing distance of the municipal dump, deer rutting in earshot of the M25, barn owls, badgers and bluebells in Billericay as well as a large colony of common seals.

Prairie Dogs are America's answer to the meerkat - small, sociable and exceptionally cute. This offbeat film narrated by Rob Brydon takes us to the Wild West where prairie dogs live in huge colonies known as 'towns'. Like meerkats they are comical to watch, but there is a whole lot more to prairie dogs than just being cute - they can talk. For 30 years Professor Con Slobodchikoff has been recording their calls in response to predators like coyotes, hawks and badgers. He believes he has discovered a language second only to humans in its complexity. It's a bold claim but is he right? Con has devised a series of cunning field experiments to help prove his point.

Prairie Dogs are America's answer to the meerkat - small, sociable and exceptionally cute. This offbeat film narrated by Rob Brydon takes us to the Wild West where prairie dogs live in huge colonies known as 'towns'. Like meerkats they are comical to watch, but there is a whole lot more to prairie dogs than just being cute - they can talk. For 30 years Professor Con Slobodchikoff has been recording their calls in response to predators like coyotes, hawks and badgers. He believes he has discovered a language second only to humans in its complexity. It's a bold claim but is he right? Con has devised a series of cunning field experiments to help prove his point.