NDR Naturfilm

This 2004 documentary by Werner Herzog diaries the struggle of a passionate English inventor to design and test a unique airship during its maiden flight above the jungle canopy.

Uganda is still what travellers consider an ‘insider tip’. Off the tourist map, a place still in the shadows of its past. Visitors, including scientists and conservationists, had a difficult time in the civil war-stricken country. Poaching had endangered many of Uganda’s most iconic animals including Mountain gorillas, cave elephants, the chimpanzees and even the tree-dwelling lions. But now the national parks have been restored and Uganda’s wildlife is once again thriving. This is a celebration of their survival.

Main subject of Serengeti is the mass migration of wildebeest , which in search of nutritious grass hundreds of kilometers annually by the savannah draw. At the end of the rainy season, they break into a huge herd of over a million animals on the north. The wildebeest and other animals are joining the migration, as zebras and gazelles , continuously exposed to hazards, particularly by predators such as lions and cheetahs . A highlight of the great migration, the crossing of the Mara is: There, the wildebeest have to overcome not only meter high cliffs, they are also crocodiles delivered. With the onset of the rainy season, however, leave the wildebeest north again what had long been a mystery. The reason for this is that the grass in the north a phosphorus deficiency , and said thus wildebeest forces to retreat to the south.

The Lion, Africa’s ultimate predator. They’re known as the kings of the jungle yet their homeland is an open grassland rather than rainforest. In the African plains prey-rich real estate can be hard to come by, and lions work together to ensure no one claims their territory and usurps their crown

Angry birds are very popular- especially among game-playing kids, but are there real angry birds out there? Birds battle to survive, find food, and shelter, avoid danger, and raise their young. Life's hard, but will they get in a flap?

Huge wandering dunes on the Baltic, thousands of lakes in the dream landscape of Masuria, gigantic river systems of Biebrza and Narew, mystical primeval forests and the rugged crags of the Southern mountains: all of this is Poland. No other country in Europe has more square kilometres of national parks.

It covers thirty percent of the Earth's land mass and yet, most of us barely scratch the surface. Now, discover what few people have seen, as The Green Planet follows the stories of forest inhabitants, from graceful red deer to cunning foxes and impressive wild boar. With cutting edge technology, we also explore some of the more bizarre and wonderful forest dwellers: the purple emperor, liverworts, stag beetles and corydalis. See flowers bloom and blades of grass cut through the snow. Spend time in a foxes den with her new born cubs and follow tiny insects and creatures with microscopic detail. Be a part of a journey that takes you through the seasons and be prepared to be amazed by the natural wonder of creation, destruction and rebirth in this incomparable landscape.

Isolated from the rest of the world since the time of the dinosaurs, New Zealand’s magnificent wildlife has been left to its own devices for 80 million years, with surprising consequences. This series reveals New Zealand’s rich and intriguing wildlife stories, from the bustling communities of penguins hiding away in giant daisy forests to the kakapo – Earth’s only species of flightless nocturnal parrots. New Zealand was also the last place to be discovered and settled by people who brought with them new animals, like merino sheep and new predators like the stoat. Finally the series meets the pioneering conservation heroes who are fighting to save some of its most endangered species.

Gabon's Loango National Park is home to a group of western lowland gorillas who have become accustomed to biologists who have studied them for almost twenty years. This documentary presents an intimate look at the silverback Kamaya and his family and features a newborn baby gorilla, brave researchers, forest elephants, buffalos and the last remaining wild coastline in the African tropics.

Emmy award-winning filmmaker and marine biologist Rick Rosenthal teams up with science fiction writer Chris Carter on an investigative journey to explore evidence of intelligent life, not in space, but in the sea – specifically, manta rays. Might these alien-looking animals be trying to make contact with us? There are intriguing clues.

In the secluded isolation of Christmas Island, crabs have become the guardians of a lush rainforest kingdom. The robber crab is an unruly king, with a meter-wide leg-span and claws that can open a coconut. As we follow the robber’s life cycle, we learn that crabs are much more than creepy crawlies.

For carnivores a few bites of nutrient-rich meat can last you for days, so it's worth putting in a lot of effort and taking a certain amount of risk. All predators are therefore inherently in competition. With this in mind, it's no surprise that lions and spotted hyenas aren't exactly "best friends"! Lions and hyenas have a fundamental problem with each other that goes far beyond “normal competition”: both hunt the same prey in the same habitat and are therefore each other's fiercest evolutionary rivals. And because both are very powerful in combat - each in their own way - this competition is always latently deadly. The stuff that dramas are made of...

Two otter pups have been carefully watched over by their mother for a year, but her tireless work will soon come to an end. From here on the pups will have to fend for themselves, one day maybe starting an otter family of their own.

The white chalk cliffs of Rügen are among the most impressive natural monuments on earth, which the painter Casper David Friedrich immortalized for posterity as early as the 19th century. Germany's largest island with its seaside resorts from the Gründerzeit, its smaller side islands and peninsulas that give it its shape, its lagoon-like Bodden waters, the dense beech forests, the yellow rapeseed fields and the meadows, the shady tree avenues and the white sandy beaches is not only a magnet for tourists, but also a unique natural paradise in the middle of the Baltic Sea, a habitat for the rare white-tailed eagle, fallow deer, raccoon dogs and badgers as well as a resting place for huge swarms of migratory birds such as geese and cranes that can be heard trumpeting from afar. In this nature documentary, the unique landscapes and the diversity of the animal world of Rügen are captured with beautiful pictures during the changing of the seasons.

The hunters of Africa come out of their hiding places at night. They slept most of the time during the day to avoid the heat. But now their time has come. They are equipped with “super senses” that enable them to find their prey in complete darkness while staying invisible themselves. Lions, leopards and hyenas are the ultimate rulers of the night, but they all have different hunting strategies. Leopards sneak up to their prey like phantoms and attack in the last moment, while lions try to ambush their next meal and take it down as a team. Hyenas are long distance athletes and hunt their victims to exhaustion. All of this would be left in the dark, if not for extremely light sensitive lenses and thermal cameras. Thanks to this modern technique, we are able to get a unique view into the secret world of Africa’s hunters of the night.

Explore the wetlands of southwestern Germany, where wildlife is returning to the many ponds after suffering from coal mining.

On an ordinary farm, between the first buds of spring and the end of summer, our pets appear to live in peace and harmony. But if we look more closely, however tame these animals might be, when we immerse ourselves in their daily lives, reality is more complex and surprising than expected, sometimes tragic, always funny.

In some cultures, jackals were pursued and condemned as pests that fed on parasite-infested carcasses. In others, such as Ancient Egypt, they were divinely celebrated. This documentary accompanies a young scientist, who is drawn to these mythical mammals, and takes us on a journey to explore golden jackals, from Egypt to the barren hills of Greece.