The Best Episodes of David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities

#1 Fan Favorite
Click to reveal
8.6/10(38 votes)
#1 - Incredible Shells
S4:E56/25/2017
David Attenborough investigates two shells that have proved to be winners in evolution: the bird’s shell and the hard shell of the tortoise. The ostrich egg is so strong it’s possible for a person to stand on it without it breaking – how does the chick break out of this fortress? The evolution of the tortoise shell was for a long time a mystery and this bony box offers a lot more than just protection.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.5/10(40 votes)
#2 - Curious Minds
S3:E22/9/2015
Orangutans can use tools but such skills remained undiscovered for centuries. They were considered as just clever mimics until discovery in remote Sumatran swamps revealed their true potential. Clever crows also make surprisingly sophisticated tools. How have the curious minds of these two animals helped them become so inventive?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.5/10(39 votes)
#3 - Finding the Way
S4:E26/11/2017
Some animals have an extraordinary ability to find their way. The dung beetle, an insect revered by ancient Egyptians, uses the sun, the moon and even the Milky Way to move its prized ball of dung in the right direction. Pigeons are often considered feeble birdbrains, but they have incredible memories that can recall several complex travel routes with amazing accuracy and they even use manmade roads and hedgerows to find the quickest way home.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.3/10(46 votes)
#4 - Curious Imposters
S2:E42/25/2014
Here we discover that some animals are able to trick others into believing they are something that they are not. The art of deception is a powerful attribute for some.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.3/10(45 votes)
#5 - Life on Ice
S2:E73/11/2014
In this episode we explore the remarkable adaptations of two creatures that have evolved to survive the most challenging of conditions and seem to defy the laws of nature.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.3/10(36 votes)
#6 - Extreme Babies
S4:E36/18/2017
The giant panda gives birth to the smallest baby of any mammal and has to care for and protect it for many months. The kiwi lays one of the largest eggs in the bird world, which produces a very well developed chick. Why don’t pandas give birth to more developed, robust young and why do kiwis produce a single egg that is a quarter of its body mass and almost too big to lay?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown

TRENDING NOW

The 20 WORST Episodes of David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities

READ

8.2/10(57 votes)
#7 - A Curious Hoax?
S1:E22/5/2013
David discovers the curiosities that have led to accusations of forgery but have ultimately helped us rethink evolution. When early explorers brought the first specimen of a duck-billed platypus back to England in 1799, it was thought so bizarre it was deemed a hoax, while the midwife toad became the centre of a raging scientific storm in the 1920s that led to accusations of fakery.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(56 votes)
#8 - A Curious Twist
S1:E42/19/2013
The single spiral tusk of the narwhal inspiration for tales of unicorns and the myriad variations on the twist of the snail shell have delighted and fascinated naturalists and artists since the dawn of civilization.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(50 votes)
#9 - Seeing the Pattern
S1:E52/26/2013
Zebra stripes vary subtly between the different species but there is one group of animals that has evolved colourful patterns of seemingly infinite variety, the butterflies. In this episode David looks at two examples of animal patterns that have bedazzled and baffled science for a long time, and uses modern tools to unlock their secrets.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(53 votes)
#10 - Virgin Birth
S2:E12/18/2014
Sir David Attenborough uses this episode to investigate two animals who are capable of true virgin birth - the production of offspring without the need for sex.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(41 votes)
#11 - Shocking Senses
S2:E63/4/2014
Plants and animals have some curious super senses that enable them to see, hear and feel things that are quite invisible to us.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(41 votes)
#12 - Magical Appearances
S2:E103/18/2014
"Magical Appearances" explores how swallows magically appear each spring and asks how did complex and beautiful insects like butterflies suddenly arrive in the summer. The discovery of the swallow’s epic migration and the revelation that butterflies could metamorphose into totally different looking adults were scientific stories both cloaked in mystery and controversy.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(41 votes)
#13 - Impossible Feats
S3:E12/2/2015
Fleas are supposed to be able to jump the equivalent of a human leaping over St. Paul’s Cathedral and cheetahs purportedly can clock speeds of 70 miles per hour. But are these claims really true? The discovery of the world's most elastic natural protein in insects and the development of a hi-tech tracking collar have helped reveal the truth. So can these creatures really achieve what should be physically impossible?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(38 votes)
#14 - Curious Cures
S3:E53/2/2015
Humans are not alone in using medicines against injuries and infection. Some animals protect themselves with natural remedies in the most extraordinary ways. Hippos produce a blood-red “sweat” that acts as a sunblock and helps fight infections, while capuchin monkeys rub themselves with insect-repellent leaves to protect against insect bites.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(41 votes)
#15 - Animal Frankensteins
S4:E16/11/2017
Hybrids can be bizarre and they can be deadly. We look at two hybrid animals that owe their existence to human interference – the pizzly bear (a cross between a polar bear and grizzly), which has come into being because of global warming, and the killer bee brought into existence because of the transfer of African bees to South America.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.1/10(59 votes)
#16 - Stretched to the Limit
S1:E11/29/2013
Some animals appear to have taken Nature’s gifts and stretched them to extreme limits. With these two natural curiosities one creature, the giraffe, has ended up with a super-stretched neck, the other, the chameleon, a super stretchy tongue. In both cases nature has found a way to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.1/10(43 votes)
#17 - Bad Reputations
S2:E53/4/2014
After initially gaining frightening reputations, it's now known that gorillas and bats are a lot gentler and considerate than their early reputations suggest.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.1/10(42 votes)
#18 - Spinners and Weavers
S2:E83/11/2014
We'll find out how nature is incredibly inventive and has produced two unique mechanisms of natural construction that have fascinated scientists for centuries; weaving in birds and silk.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.1/10(38 votes)
#19 - Expandable Bodies
S3:E32/16/2015
The bodies of some animals stretch and shrink in extraordinary ways. The anaconda can swallow prey twice its own body size - and then wait for over a year until their next meal. The camel’s curious hump can almost double in weight giving it the energy to travel huge distances across deserts. What is the secret behind these expandable bodies?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.0/10(50 votes)
#20 - Young Wrinklies
S1:E32/12/2013
David encounters two examples where Nature has tinkered with the aging process to alarmingly different effect – the first grows old while trapped in a young body while the second looks old from birth but might hold the key to a long life.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.0/10(45 votes)
#21 - Armoured Animals
S2:E22/18/2014
This episode explores the story of two animals that hide behind seemingly impregnable coat of arms. Can Sir David Attenborough get in behind their armour and reveal their mysteries?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.0/10(33 votes)
#22 - Curious Counters
S4:E46/18/2017
Can animals count? This is a question that has intrigued and fooled investigators for a long time. Just over a hundred years ago, a German horse called Hans was declared a mathematical genius but all was not as it seemed. And strangely, some bamboos around the world flower exactly at the same no matter where they are – are they counting down the years?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.9/10(41 votes)
#23 - Strange Parents
S2:E93/18/2014
"Strange Parents" asks how we usually recognise animals as either male or female and how each sex normally plays a particular role in their own life cycle. However both hyenas and seahorses completely break the gender rules.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.9/10(34 votes)
#24 - Curious Feeders
S3:E42/23/2015
The blue whale and the flamingo both have bodies determined by their diet. Blue whales grow enormous by feeding on tiny shrimp-like creatures, while flamingos spend their lives eating with their heads upside down. Both are oddities in their own groups and yet both are curiously similar.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
7.9/10(38 votes)
#25 - Remarkable Regeneration
S3:E63/9/2015
Salamanders can regenerate entire legs and tails to replace ones they have lost, while deer shed their massive antlers and re-grow them from a few remaining cells each year. How do these creatures regenerate entire body parts and why is it not possible for all animals to do the same?
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
Be the first to start the conversation for this episode
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown