It's a grim end to a short life, but many of the surviving calves will face a more terrifying death. In the Mara River, another migration is culminating. Crocodiles have memorized when and where the wildebeests will try to cross. They have gathered i...
A quarter of a million wildebeest will die in their yearly odyssey. In the sun burnt Serengeti, hunger keeps the wildebeests thundering northward, following the rain. A collective intelligence keeps the herd on track, neighbor leading neighbor, along...
Females travel in family groups, sometimes leading their young on yearly wanderings of up to 20,000 miles. Each day, they gather to reaffirm their bonds. They seem to crave physical contact. Finally, the mothers disperse to feed in shifts. They leave...
For the delicate monarch, it may as well be a trip to the moon. And yet somehow they do it, their tiny bodies attuned to a seasonal sundial and resonating to the invisible signature of the earth's core--its magnetic field. Around the planet, animals,...
Then the brilliant masses take to the wing, heading to a place they've never been. Their only map, imprinted on their genes. A mysterious interplay of sun on eyes and antennae, an uncanny sense of magnetic north guides the way. It will take five mont...
Ravenous triggerfish seize the luckless, an unceremonious end to an epic quest. For the surviving males, the odyssey has just begun. The females will arrive within days, urged on by celestial forces demanding they reach the males and the sea in time....
It's a brutal, month-long migration, up to 5 miles, an ultra-marathon for a crab. The cruel sun makes its appearance, threatening them with dehydration. And they face a gauntlet of roads, crisscrossing the island. They stop only to nourish themselves...
Only the fit and the lucky will inherit the relay race of their lives. It is a race that is increasingly endangered like many of the world's great migrations. Climate change disrupts weather patterns and exploding human populations encroach on their...
Apprentice killers wait for their taste of the chase. But they're about to learn that hell has no fury like a zebra protecting her foal. Older cheetahs know the value of patience. Soon, the herd will move on. Hungry eyes turn to one of the last-born...
What on earth could drive this headlong rush to slaughter? Only earth herself with her insistent clocks. This story begins in the Great Rift Valley, where the continent is tearing itself apart and being reborn. The plains in the shadow of the rift, t...
They're born to move, to move or die, forging ahead against terrifying odds, navigating the first of millions of miles, spanning continents on fledgling wings, clattering ever onwards. Right now, our planet is on the march, on the wing, on the run, a...
The word for burial in Tibetan means giving offerings to the birds, an act of generosity, in line with the concept of compassion for all beings. By doing good deeds, Buddhists believe that they can contribute to the process of enlightenment. So a sky...
The full entourage of Tibetan monks make the most of the occasion,with music, prayers, and blessings. Hundreds of fresh prayer flags are prepared and added to the pole. The head lama's sacred scarf adds the final touch to the proceedings. But the sig...
Like a giant hotplate. The plateau heats up in the spring and summer. The change in air pressure draws in warm moist air from the Indian Ocean in the south. Thanks to this, over a billion people from India to Burma benefit from the monsoon rain that...
Out on the plateau,new-born chiru are vulnerable to predators, so their mothers must try to hide and protect them. The most recent problem faced by the chiru is the new Tibet-Qinghai railway, which cuts right through their traditional migration route...
