Africa

Deserts sit side-by-side in the southwest corner of Africa, and, in spite of the lack of water, they are teeming with life.

In the constantly changing climate of east Africa, creatures must be able to deal with unpredictable elements.

The third episode visits the Congo basin and features some of the creatures which inhabit its two million square miles of jungle. In the canopy, a chimpanzee is filmed extracting honey from a bees' nest using a variety of branches as tools, whilst underground, a female African rock python incubates her eggs by coiling her warm body around them. Rare footage shows the nesting behaviour of Picathartes and a gathering of forest elephants at Dzanga bai. Other sequences show African skimmers, leaf-folding frogs and luminous fungi. Loango in Gabon is one of the few remaining places where the jungle meets the ocean. African forest buffalo, hippo, elephants and red river hogs emerge from the forest to sunbathe and swim. Eye to Eye shows the difficulties of filming in the Congo.

The fourth instalment shows how Southern Africa is influenced by two very different ocean currents. The warm Agulhas Current generates rainfall in Mozambique's interior, where butterflies gather on the summit of Mount Mabu to court and breed. The cold Benguela Current influences the Western Cape, where little rain falls. The intense heat makes incubating eggs a difficult prospect for African penguins. In spring, as Namaqualand is transformed into a desert garden, the drama of a monkey beetle's love life plays out in a single flower. Great white sharks and a 15 m Bryde's whale are filmed in the rich feeding grounds of the Atlantic. Eye to Eye reveals how the opening sequence, documenting the first few minutes of a green turtle hatchling's life, was constructed.

An exploration of the greatest desert on Earth, located in northern Africa. Mole rats avoid the heat by going underground and zebras battle for dwindling resources. Camels seek water, the sand dunes sing, and swallows navigate to an oasis.

David Attenborough comes face to face with a baby rhino and asks what the future holds for this little one. He meets the local people who are standing side-by-side with the wildlife at this pivotal moment in their history. We discover what it takes to save a species, hold back a desert and even resurrect an entire wilderness - revealing what the world was like before modern man.