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7 Episodes 2009 - 2010
Episode 1
60 mins
In a new approach to help end hunting of the Amazonian manatee, a research project is working with traditional hunting communities to rescue and release injured manatees back into the wild. It's hoped that while this will only affect a small number of animals directly, it may help to change attitudes towards them and effect a more profound change. Though no one knows for sure, there are believed to be only a few thousand manatees left in the Amazon basin. One individual at the rescue centre is weighed and measured to see if he's big enough to be released - no mean feat with an animal this size and strength. He is confirmed as being ready and his keeper, Michelle, is asked if she'll miss him as there is an obvious bond between her and the manatee.
Episode 2
60 mins
Mark and Stephen came in search of northern white rhino, but they were too late. Thankfully, lessons have been learned from the extinction that might mean the black rhino will not be allowed to dwindle into extinction. A relocation project for some of the remaining individuals is underway in Kenya. Rhino from Nairobi National Park are released into a 90,000 hectare conservancy, and although the area is fenced and protected, it's the closest the rhinos can get to a wild existence. Radio transmitters fitted into the relocated rhinos' horns allow the rangers to track the rhinos more easily in the vast conservancy. They may not be seen for months at a time as they get on with living and breeding as they have for millions of years. Stephen comments that we may not be able to call these animals truly wild, but they're wildish, and if the choice is between wildish and extinct, he knows which he'd choose.
Episode 3
60 mins
One of almost a 100 species of lemur, the dancing sifaka has an extraordinary and unusal gait when they are forced to come out of the trees and move about on the ground.
Episode 4
60 mins
On a journey through Malaysia and Indonesia to track down the deadly Komodo dragon, the travellers help to release turtles into the wild and encounter one of the deadliest snakes on earth.
Episode 5
60 mins
The first nest of the season is an exciting time for the scientists of the island. Mark has been to see it without Stephen and reports back saying it was the highlight of the trip. Under the roots of a tree, Lisa the kakapo sits on her nest and will be monitored by the researchers with remote cameras until the eggs hatch. The parrot appears to have no sense of danger with all the disturbance around her as the monitoring equipment is set up. Mark finds it poignantly sad that these birds are so trusting, given their precarious status. But, after the best season on record, the world population of kakapo parrots is now at 124 individuals.
Episode 6
60 mins
The San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja, is the mid-point in a 10,000 mile long migration route for the grey whale - one of the longest migrations of all mammals. They come here to mate, give birth and raise their calves in the safety of the lagoon. Because they come here every year at the same time, it is one of the most guaranteed wildlife spectacles. However, this regularity was a problem in the past when whalers used this to their advantage, killing thousands every year. Now protected, the grey whale numbers have begun to recover.
Episode 7
We follow four of the last remaining northern white rhinos as they were transferred from Dvur Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic to a protected reserve in Kenya, in a last-ditch attempt to save the subspecies from extinction.