2008

SUnknownThe Revengeful Elephant

Mon, Jan 14, 2008

The psychological effects of war are no longer just a human condition. Africa is cultivating gangs of juvenile delinquents, wreaking havoc in the wild. 30 years of poaching and conservation management is beginning to backfire, resulting in 'abnormal' violent behavior in African elephants. In Kenya, elephants are targeting and killing Masai tribe's cattle. In South Africa, 58 rhinos are killed in a single park over just two years. And in Western Uganda a village is suffering indiscriminate and violent attacks by local elephants - where, previously they had roamed peacefully. What is provoking Africa's gentle giant to these violent outbursts?

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SUnknownThe Bodiless Bear

Mon, Jan 21, 2008

In the heart of the American West the bodies of four Black Bears are discovered. Macabre scenes of severed heads, disarticulated remains and dismembered bodies turned inside-out. The investigation that follows these chilling discoveries changes the way Yellowstone bears are viewed forever.

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SUnknownDolphin Murder Mystery

Mon, Jan 28, 2008

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SUnknownThe Zombie Alligator

Mon, Feb 04, 2008

Lake Griffin, Florida. A killer is on the loose, targeting the states oldest inhabitants. An eighteen foot long, six-hundred-pound American Alligator staggers towards the edge of the lake then disappears into the rancid green waters. First one, then another, thrash at the surface. Still more float belly up. A crack team assembled from 13 Government Agencies is hastily put together, but none of them are prepared for what lies ahead.

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SUnknownAlien Ice Bear

Mon, Oct 06, 2008

High above the arctic circle, on a remote Canadian island, an American sports hunter shoots what he believes is a polar bear. But is it? His Inuit guide has never seen an animal like this before. The killing unleashes an investigation by the Canadian authorities. But no-one can tell exactly what he has shot. The hunter is under threat of prosecution for a crime he says he didn't commit. Scientists pour over the only evidence they have - the corpse of an animal they've never seen before. With each new discovery the mystery deepens as they try to discover the exact species of this animal.

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SUnknownMutant Devils

Mon, Nov 03, 2008

In 2001 biologists in Australia's island state of Tasmania found that the Tasmanian Devil, an iconic species unique to Tasmania, was afflicted with a new, fatal kind of cancer. The mystery was how thousands of Tasmanian Devils could have the same cancer at the same time. As the disease spread across the state and Tasmanian Devil population numbers fell alarmingly, the Tasmanian government launched a 'Save the Devil' campaign to investigate the cause of the disease and prevent this unique species from becoming extinct. This investigation made history and turned the scientific world on its head.

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SUnknownMan Eating Prides

Mon, Dec 22, 2008

Tanzanians are under siege from a plague of man-eating lions. The East African nation has the largest lion population in the world but until recently attacks were far and few between. All of that has changed. Entire prides now consider humans fair game... over six hundred people have been killed in the last fifteen years in the South East of the country. 'Man-Eating Prides' looks at how and why lion behaviour is changing to targeting human beings as a prey source and joins a lion hunting team, out to trap and kill a pride of lions that has eaten at least twenty people in the previous year.

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SUnknownThe Whale That Ate the Great White

Mon, Oct 12, 2009

The great white shark and the killer whale are the most formidable predators in the sea. Animals so dangerous, they would never challenge each other; or so we thought... One morning, off the Californian coast, a boatload of tourists witnessed the ultimate clash of the titans. The outcome left biologists mystified, but now, with the help of a team of experts, we re-examine this extraordinary incident, and reveal an astonishing new perspective on the relationship between the ocean's two top predators.

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SUnknownCannibal Hippos

Mon, Oct 19, 2009

What begins with the unusual discovery of two dead hippos escalates out of control within a matter of weeks. The result: hundreds of putrefying hippo carcasses littering a pristine African wildlife park. Scientific investigators from across the world gather to sift through the evidence in an urgent, concerted effort to stop the mortalities. Yet bizarrely the killer is targeting animals from just one species, until tragically, as they close in on their prime suspect, humans too start to succumb. Tearing up the textbook, one scientist deduces the shocking cause: an epidemic of one of the most terrifying diseases known to man, infecting its victims in a way never seen before.

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SUnknownElephant Graveyard

Mon, Oct 26, 2009

In 2007 a family of five elephants are found dead in mysterious circumstances in the Indian state of West Bengal. The Authorities investigating the case attribute the deaths to a lightning strike, but research reveals humans and elephants are at war over the limited resources and the suspicion is the animals have been killed on purpose.

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SUnknownDeath Fog

Mon, Nov 02, 2009

A drama documentary that tells the extraordinary story of why nearly two thousand people died suddenly near the volcanic Lake Nyos in 1986. The popular opinion is that the victims were suffocated by volcanic gases erupting out of the lake. However scientist George Kling finds no supporting evidence and wonders if another natural event is to blame. Two years before the disaster there were similar deaths in Cameroon by another volcanic Lake. Icelandic volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson ruled out a volcanic eruption in favour of a new form of natural disaster he called Lake Overturn - where vast amounts of the natural gas carbon dioxide burst from the depths of the lake to form a giant cloud of CO2 that can kill through suffocation. His hypothesis was rejected, but Kling believes exactly the same occurred at Nyos and sets out to prove it - before it happens again.

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SUnknownIndia's Silent Killer

Mon, Sep 06, 2010

The war between leopards and the people of Mumbai has been steadily escalating for a decade. To date, the leopards have killed 50 Mumbaians, and the Mumbaians have killed 250 leopards. The leopards are being lured into the city chasing slum dogs. The number of strays has doubled in the last decade. There may be as many as half a million dogs now living in Mumbai's slums. As a result Mumbai has half of the human rabies on earth. The dog population is rocketing because they've gained unfettered access to the city's garbage heaps. There's plenty to go round - over 500 tonnes of garbage is dumped on the heaps each day. But it wasn't always like this. Ten years ago the dogs couldn't get on to the dumps. They were occupied by a rival scavenger - the vulture. But ten years ago there were 85 million vultures in India. Today the vultures are nowhere to be seen. 99% of India's vultures have vanished. "In a single decade they've undergone the most rapid population collapse of any animal in recorded history." Richard Cuthbert, RSPB. What has caused this catastrophe and wiped out the garbage-men of the natural world in India?

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SUnknownRubber Crocs

Mon, Sep 20, 2010

2008. More than two hundred crocodile carcasses are found in Kruger National Park, South Africa. The crocodile has existed for 200 million years. It survived the extinction of the dinosaurs... so what is decimating one of Africa's toughest animals today? Necropsies reveal the crocodiles have pansteatitis or 'orange fat disease' which turns their tails to rubber. Unable to move, they die a slow, painful death. Experts know how the crocs are dying but not why? Orange fat disease is usually caused by eating rancid fish but no die-offs are detected in the gorge. Could flooding from a controversial damn structure have reduced the space on the river banks where crocodiles sunbathe to regulate their body temperature? While crocodiles rarely succumb to disease, they are particularly susceptible to stress which affects their resistance to disease... is it possible that the crocs are dying from thermal stress?

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SUnknownThe Seal Ripper

Mon, Sep 27, 2010

A horrific series of mutilated seal corpses are washed up on a remote Atlantic island, disfigured in a way never seen before, their hides torn off in a spiral. It takes ten years of investigation for experts to uncover the 'corkscrew killer'. When all potential culprits have been ruled out, the only possibility remaining is the Greenland shark but everything we know about it rules it out as a suspect. Partially blind, this twenty foot monster stays deep and is known as a sluggish, bottom dwelling scavenger - so slow-moving in fact, it's called the "sleeper shark". But as the sea ice begins to form and the seal mutilations increase, biologists are forced to re-examine their opinions about this mysterious creature and what they discover changes science forever... the Greenland shark, contrary to all existing evidence, is a stealth predator.

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SUnknownLions vs. Giraffes

Sun, Apr 14, 2013

In Tanzania, Africa's largest population of lions are achieving the impossible.

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SUnknownThe Blacktip Shark Mystery

Sun, Apr 14, 2013

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SUnknownElephant Killers

Sun, Apr 21, 2013

In the South Indian state of Kerala during 2009/10 a series of dead elephants are discovered by forest guards - each has died in suspicious circumstances. Finding so many corpses in the popular Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary is a huge shock for those who protect these endangered animals, and for Scientists worldwide. Why are so many elephants dying in their prime, and why are nearly all female?

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