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.

Ashes and Snow, a film by Gregory Colbert, uses both still and movie cameras to explore extraordinary interactions between humans and animals. The 60-minute feature is a poetic narrative rather than a documentary. It aims to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species, dissolving the distance that exists between them.

It is believed that cats are just indifferent and egotistic; but they are more complex, interesting and even cuter than is commonly imagined. The astonishing process by which a newborn kitten becomes a fully grown cat reveals the amazing and true secret life of cats.

Explores the Pyramids of Giza as Egyptologists try to unravel the mysteries and decipher the clues behind these stone giants built over 4,500 years ago.

A young penguin, driven by his instinct, embarks on his first major trip to an unknown destination.

The incredible, true-life story of a baby elephant born into a rescue camp in the wilderness of Botswana. When she's suddenly orphaned at one month of age, it's up to the men who look after her herd to save her life.

Based on Robert Sullivan’s bestselling book, Morgan Spurlock and his team travel around the world to bring viewers face to face with rats while delving into humans’ complicated relationship with the creepy creatures.

A breathtaking adventure across five continents and through time to reveal nature's most vital secret. Watch a flying fox gorge itself on a midnight snack of figs. Climb into the prickly jaws of insect-eating plants. Witness a mantis disguised as a flower petal lure its prey to doom.

Different species of fish and frogs, inside an aquarium.

This movie captures the motivations of an animal rights activist. Through his eyes, we explore the paradoxes in our society --- of being an animal lover and yet consuming some of them --- stemming from social conditioning and cognitive dissonance. The protagonist describes his journey and his motives and beliefs. Through this film, he tells us the real story behind the happy facade of our food choices and the difficulty and incessant obstruction faced by activists to stand against the unjust and powerful system.

Part lyrical document, part farce, Animals Under Anaesthesia: Speculations On the Dreamlife of Beasts explores the imaginary unconscious minds of animals. Images of sex, death and the natural world are made manifest in the murky and disquieting dreams of a dog, a cat, a pig and a rabbit.

In this filmic comment on Fascist ideology - which uses footage from the recently discovered archives of Luca Comerio - invisible hands push captive animals to fight among themselves.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is the human version of mad cow disease and has been described as a "ticking time bomb" in Britain. This documentary explores the claims by families of vCJD victims that a criminal inquiry should be held to examine the possibility of a cover-up by authorities of BSE in farming and the food industry.

Cat experts explain the behaviors of domestic cats and how their sometimes undesirable actions are really innate instincts, revealing how closely they are still connected to their wild ancestors.

Only twenty-five years ago, the first evidence of self-medicating behaviour among animals was reported among chimpanzees. On the basis of this pioneering research, led by the American Michael Huffman, a new science was founded: "zoopharmacognosy", or the study of animal pharmacopeia. Animals are apparently able to treat themselves actively, to detect natural substances that can provide a remedy for health problems, or to prevent them. The primatologist Michael Huffman explains how he discovered that chimpanzees can heal their diseases with medicinal plants from their environment. The scientist then comments on other very surprising examples: Birds that disinfect their nests by filling them with aromatic plants with repellent properties, a rodent that covers its coat with toxic sap as a poisonous defence against predators and elephants that place mud plasters on their injuries. Some therapeutic behaviours may even be transmitted socially among certain species.

This short documentary films some of the wild animal species that have adapted to the city of Vancouver, from the familiar pigeons and starlings to the less familiar herons nesting in Stanley Park and a coyote in a farmer's field.