Episode
Nature: Wisdom of the Wild
Overview
Human lives have been influenced by animals in matters that reach far beyond the food chain. In surprising ways, animals help teach, heal, and strengthen people -- in body, mind, and spirit.
Details
- Series
- Nature
- Season
- Season 18
- Episode
- Episode 5
- Air date
- 1999-12-05
- Runtime
- 53 min
Episode context
Wisdom of the Wild is Episode 5 in Season 18 of Nature. It aired on 1999-12-05. The runtime is 53 min.
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Episode 4: Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic
Ironically, the powerful, dedicated canines profiled in Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic are little more than mutts. They are mixed-breed huskies that have endurance.
Episode 6: Inside the Animal Mind Part One: Are Animals Intelligent?
Birds may have a reputation for being less than geniuses, but researchers are discovering that some are remarkably smart.
Some birds have the capacity to recognize, count, or name different objects.
Ravens, for instance, have the ability to solve difficult puzzles, such as untangling a knotted string to free up a tasty treat or figuring out how to steal fish by hauling in an angler’s untended line. And, as shown in the first part of NATURE’s Inside the Animal Mind, crows on the remote Pacific island of New Caledonia have learned a skill that people once thought only primates could master: the use of tools. The birds use long, specially chosen twigs to spear the plump grubs that hide deep beneath the bark of rotting logs.
More episodes from this season
Episode 3: Horses
Though their glory days may be in the past, these hoofed creatures continue to enthrall us, as the NATURE program HORSES demonstrates in sparkling detail. From the steppes of Mongolia, where children race at breakneck speeds perched on stallions ten times their size, to the fields of Georgia, where people confined to wheelchairs find new freedom in the saddle, HORSES highlights the many roles played by this multi-talented beast of burden. There are also rare glimpses of the world’s most endangered horse, and an inside look at the art of the horse whisperers, the trainers who through their gentle touch can transform a wild bucking bronco into a stately show horse.
Episode 7: Humpback Whales
Spanning the Pacific from the inlets of the Alaskan coast to the Polynesian Islands and the shores of Antarctica, Humpback Whales presents a multi-faceted portrait of this fascinating mammal. This program follows the humpbacks closely and uncovers revealing details that add to the growing knowledge of these creatures.
Episode 2: Antarctica: The End of the Earth: Iceberg
Part 2 investigates the icebergs, million-ton islands of ice that have broken free of glacial cliffs to become floating platforms of life. Despite the harshness of the environment, diverse eco-systems thrive. The principal wildlife includes crabeater seals and leopard seals, Adelie and emperor penguins, Minke whales, krill, snow petrals and algae.
Episode 8: Inside the Animal Mind Part Two: Do Animals Have Emotions?
Happiness, sadness, anger, fear, love, hate — emotions play a pivotal role in our lives. But do they loom large in an animal’s world as well? Part Two of NATURE’s Inside the Animal Mind explores that question in fascinating detail.
Episode 1: Antarctica: The End of the Earth: Katabatic
Documentary that explores Antarctica's weather phenomena, its rugged and adaptable wildlife and the powerful dynamics of its ever-changing icecap. Part 1 discusses the effects of the katabatic -- the relentless wind that sweeps over the Antarctic landscape, often at speeds of more than 100 mile per hour, re-sculpting the topography of the continent and affecting the climate of the entire southern hemisphere.
Episode 9: Inside the Animal Mind Part Three: Animal Consciousness
As you read this, you are probably aware of reading this. Indeed, you can also imagine yourself reading this — a sort of picture within a picture in your mind’s eye. But do animals share this kind of consciousness?
That is the question asked by Part Three of NATURE’s Inside the Animal Mind. The program ponders just what consciousness is — and which animals might share this trait with people.
Episode 10: Cheetahs in a Hot Spot
Cheetahs in a Hot Spot takes viewers to Namibia, one of the world’s richest cheetah habitats, for a remarkable look at these graceful hunters. It follows six gangly young cheetahs as they come of age in the desert wilderness of Etosha National Park, where they learn the essential hunting and social skills that will enable them to rear families of their own. But the documentary also captures the sobering challenges that other cheetahs face on nearby livestock ranches, where farmers routinely trap and kill the cats to reduce attacks on their herds. And the NATURE special profiles the courageous work of cheetah rescuer Lise Hanssen, who is creating alternatives to the deadly rivalry between rancher and predator.
Episode 11: Showdown at Grizzly River
NATURE’s Showdown at Grizzly River tells the story of one bold little bear’s coming of age at the falls. It follows an 18-month old cub named Toughie as she spends her last few months with her mother, learning to pluck salmon from the fierce current, eat nutritious marsh grasses and, most importantly, how to behave around other bears. Besides tangling with cubs her own size, Toughie also learns how to deal with the towering adult males that threaten her young life, but may one day father her own cubs.
Episode 12: Jackals of the African Crater
Jackals of the African Crater documents the dramatic, and sometimes heartrending, stories of these jackal families. One pair of black-backed parents struggles to feed its pups in the midst of a dry season, only to lose their nearly grown offspring to a hungry golden jackal.
Episode 13: Obsession with Orchids
No flowering plant has captured the attention of humans, or stirred their passions, in quite the way that orchids have.