Episode
Natural World: Nature's Wildest Weapons: Horns, Tusks and Antlers
Overview
The animal kingdom possesses a fearsome arsenal - a variety of extreme weapons used in epic battles to gore, stab, crush and batter. But are they more than just instruments of deadly force? For Professor Doug Emlen, it has been his lifetime's ambition to discover the secrets of nature's arms races, what triggers them and what they can teach us about the most formidable weapons on earth - our own.
Details
- Series
- Natural World
- Season
- Season 37
- Episode
- Episode 3
- Air date
- 2017-04-18
Episode context
Nature's Wildest Weapons: Horns, Tusks and Antlers is Episode 3 in Season 37 of Natural World. It aired on 2017-04-18.
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Episode 2: Hotel Armadillo
60 years after he first appeared on TV with an armadillo, David Attenborough introduces the family's biggest member and reveals never-before-screened secrets of giant armadillo life - including how this rare and seldom seen animal provides scores of other creatures with the hotel and restaurant services they need to thrive in earth's biggest natural wetland - the Pantanal of Brazil.
Episode 4: Nature's Miniature Miracles
It really is a big bad world out there. So what happens if you are the little guy? This film tells the epic survival stories of the world's smallest animals.
To make a living, these tiny heroes have evolved extraordinary skills and achieved mind-boggling feats. From the animal kingdom's greatest artist to the tiny creatures that provide us with so much of the air we breathe, we discover what it takes to be a miniature miracle.
More episodes from this season
Episode 1: Puerto Rico: Island of Enchantment
David Attenborough tells the revealing story of this Caribbean island's exotic but vulnerable wildlife. A team of conservation champions are making it their mission to save the most precious species. We see how Puerto Rican parrots, manatees and turtles are now making a comeback.
Episode 5: Supercharged Otters
Otters are playful, adaptable and champion swimmers - they've captivated cameraman Charlie Hamilton James for the last 25 years. He's filmed them more than anyone else and now, through the eyes of three orphaned river otters, a set of ground-breaking experiments and some incredible wild encounters, Charlie wants to reveal their survival secrets and exactly why he believes they're so special.
Episode 6: Sudan: The Last of the Rhinos
The remarkable story of 43-year-old Sudan, the very last male northern white rhino on the planet. Aged just three, Sudan was snatched from his mother's side in Central Africa. He became a prized exhibit in azoo behind the Iron Curtain, while the rest of his kind was poached to extinction in the wild. Today, Sudan has become an unwitting celebrity and the focus of a desperate eleventh hour battle to save his sub-species. This astonishing modern day fable is told through the international cast of characters who have been involved in Sudan's life, for better and for worse.
Episode 7: H is for Hawk: A New Chapter
Following the success of Helen Macdonald's bestselling novel of the same name, H is for Hawk: A New Chapter is an intimate and personal journey. After the loss of her father, Helen trained the hardest bird in falconry, a goshawk. The cathartic experience helped her to grieve and now she is ready to do it again, but this time she hopes it will be her wings to somewhere new. In this beautiful and moving film, Helen trains a new bird and follows a wild goshawk family at the nest, getting closer than ever before to these fiery eyed birds of prey.
Episode 8: Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants
David Attenborough is in the Swiss Jura Mountains to discover the secrets of a giant. Beneath his feet lies a vast network of tunnels and chambers, home to a huge empire of ants. It is believed to be one of the largest animal societies in the world, where over a billion ants from rival colonies live in peace. Their harmonious existence breaks many of the rules for both ants and evolution, and raises some important questions. Through winter, spring and into summer, David turns detective to find the answers.