Inside Nature’s Giants

Inside Nature's Giants - Elephant

On this episode of Inside Nature’s Giants, the team explore the largest land animal on earth, The Elephant. Through dissection of the world’s largest animals we can learn the evolutionary secrets of how they developed and survived in an ever-changing world.

This show demonstrates just how these huge grey creatures have adapted to their 18 hour a day eating habit to fuel their large bodies and brains.

Inside Nature's Giants - Whale

In this episode experts dissect a 20 metre, 50 tonne fin whale - second only in size to its 'cousin' the blue whale - that has died after being stranded off the coast of Ireland. It's a race against time as whale anatomist Joy Reidenberg flies in from New York before the animal's decomposition causes it to explode on the beach.

Veterinary scientist Mark Evans helps investigate its mysterious death and explores its extraordinary anatomy. Using whale-size machinery, Joy and the team set to work amidst gale force winds, driving rain, blood, intestines, evil smells and freezing conditions. Meanwhile, advancing tides engulf the whale, jeopardising the whole operation.

Inside Nature's Giants -Crocodile

In this next instalment of Inside Nature’s Giants, the team travel to Florida to test the huge strength of a crocodile’s incredible jaw muscles. Unlike previous giants shown in this series, Professor Richard Dawkins explains how little, this perfect predator, has changed since the age of the dinosaurs.

Inside Nature's Giants - Giraffe

Veterinary scientist Mark Evans acts as guide as a team of experts investigate the inner workings of the giraffe.

Creationists question how this extraordinary creature could have evolved such a long neck, but for Professor Richard Dawkins the anatomy of the world's tallest animal provides some of the best arguments in favour of Darwinian natural selection.

Inside Nature's Giants - Shark

In a dramatic costal setting Joy Reidenberg leads the team in the dissection investigation of these notorious Great White’s. She uncovers that shark’s have an incredible array of senses, including a unique ability to detect the electro-magnetic field given off by the Earth and other creatures. And she braves a cage to see Great Whites close up in the water.

Inside Nature's Giants - Python

The team head back to Florida in this next instalment of Inside Nature’s Giants in search of the Burmese Python. No-one knows for sure how snakes native to South East Asia ended up here, but theories include snake owners dumping pet pythons when they got too big and snakes escaping from reptile breeding centres in the wake of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Mark and Joy meet local ‘python hunters’ on the front line of the battle against these snakes. At a swamp camp in the heart of the Everglades they join reptile expert Jeanette Wyneken to dissect two pythons captured in the cull – a 9ft male and an enormous 14ft female.

Inside Nature's Giants - Big Cats

This episode the experts look at two big cats – the lion and the tiger. As well as dissecting the two species at the Royal Veterinary College, they travel to South Africa to see lions in the wild.

Inside Nature's Giant - Camel

In this Inside Nature’s Giants episode Mark Evans and Joy Reidenberg brave the baking desert to dissect a camel. They uncover the secret of the camel’s hump and investigate how its elastic legs, stretchy lips and pedestal (a strange bump on its chest) are among the many surprising adaptations that enable the camel to thrive in such a dry and hostile environment.

Inside Nature's Giants - Dino Bird

The Cassowary has earned its nickname, Dinosaur Bird, due to fearsome tales of slaying men with their five inch talons. Normally subdued the large Cassowary Bird, unless feeling threatened will strut around quietly in the jungle and occasionally take a trip to the coast.

The team investigates this mysterious bird and some of its curious behaviours, such as its deep resonant mating call and how it evolved to have killer talons but stunted wings.

Inside Nature's Giants - Leatherback Turtle

The Inside Nature's Giants team uncover the evolutionary mystery of how turtles developed shells to protect themselves from some of the sharpest-toothed predators on the planet.

Inside Nature's Giants - Racehorse

The thoroughbred racehorse is one of the greatest athletes on the planet – galloping with incredible speed and stamina - for such a large animal. It is the result of unnatural selection, and exists on a knife edge between glory and catastrophic failure.

Inside Nature's Giants - Giant Squid

In a special dissection laboratory in Wellington, New Zealand, the team uses a swimming pool to thaw the giant squid before delving into its three hearts, razor sharp beak, tooth covered tentacles and bizarre reproductive system.

Inside Nature's Giants - Polar Bear

On a remote peninsula off the east coast of Greenland the Inside Nature’s Giants team join hunters and scientists waiting for polar bears to come in from the sea ice. They brave driving blizzards and freezing seas to find out how the ice bear survives such harsh conditions, where temperatures can plummet to -70º.
For the first time, the Inside Nature’s Giants team joins an international scientific expedition investigating the plight of polar bears in this region.

Inside Nature's Giants - Sperm Whale

In this Inside Nature’s Giants Special, the BAFTA-winning team battle through the night against a rising tide to explore the mysteries of the largest predator on Earth - the Sperm Whale.