Wednesday, January 4 at 8:00 p.m.
Birds of the Gods
Living in the depths of the New Guinean rainforest are birds of unimaginable color and beauty. When Europeans first saw the plumes of these fabulous creatures in the 16th century, they believed they must be from heaven and called them birds of paradise. The people of New Guinea make even greater claims. They say the birds possess supernatural powers and magic. But to find these birds in New Guinea is one of the toughest assignments, and to witness their extraordinary mating displays is even tougher. David Attenborough introduces a young team of New Guinean scientists on a grueling expedition to find and film these Birds of Paradise; the holy grail of wildlife filmmakers.
Wednesday, January 11 at 8:00 p.m.
Kangaroo Mob
Meet the mob of street-smart kangaroos moving into Australia’s capital city and the ecologists who follow their every move. Over the course of one drought-stricken year, follow mob leader, Black Spot, and kangaroo mother, Madge, with her two young joeys — mischievous Sonny and tiny pouch-bound Alice. This is a look at what happens when human development encroaches on wildlife habitat and two very different species are forced to co-exist.
Wednesday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Broken Tail: A Tiger's Last Journey
Irish cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson spent almost 600 days filming Broken Tail and his family for some of the finest tiger documentaries ever made. Broken Tail was the most charismatic tiger cub ever seen in Ranthambore, one of India’s best protected tiger reserves. But suddenly and without warning, Broken Tail abandoned his sanctuary and went on the run, moving through farmland and scrub until he was killed by a train nearly 200 miles from his home. To track Broken Tail’s incredible journey, Colin and his soundman Salim retrace the tiger’s path and piece together the cub’s last days — and through his story reveal the fate of the few surviving tigers in India.
Wednesday, January 25 at 8:00 p.m.
Fortress of the Bears
Part of the massive Tongass National Forest, Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska supports the largest concentration of bears anywhere in the world. Sustained by a wealth of salmon streams, isolated and protected by their environment, some 1,700 Alaskan brown bears are part of a unique circle of life that has played out here for centuries. Beginning in August, millions of salmon — pink and chum, coho and sockeye — return to the island to spawn, providing a feast for the bears, eagles, orcas, sea lions and even the trees. As long as the salmon continue to arrive, all is well. But this year, the salmon fail to arrive for the first time, and the bears get a bitter taste of what the future may hold.
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