Inside Nature’s Giants

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 - 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.

Inside Nature's Giants - Rouge Baboon

Mark Evans and Joy Reidenberg travel to South Africa to dissect the first primate in the series - a huge alpha male baboon that led a band of baboons on a rampage through a Cape-town suburb - until the authorities were forced to euthanise him as he grew increasingly violent.

Inside Nature's Giants - Hippo

The hippopotamus is among the most dangerous animals in the world as it is highly aggressive and unpredictable. To help protect themselves from the canines of rival hippo’s they have developed inch thick skin; which proves to be a challenge for the Inside Nature’s Giants team.

Inside Nature's Giants - The Jungle

The team launch into a large-scale investigation of the jungle. Deep in the rainforest of Borneo they erect a high-tech dissection laboratory to investigate giant bugs and titan trees, and to reveal why the Jungle is home to the most diverse collection of living things on our planet.