9.8/1014 votesLoading...#1 - The Urban Elephant
Season 19 Episode 4 - Aired 11/19/2000
The enigmatic subjects of NATURE: The Urban Elephant, Asian elephants are losing territory to the inevitable process of deforestation. Industrialization all over Asia has hurt the mahouts, or elephant drivers, so that the trained elephants and their riders are being driven into major cities such as Bangkok to earn a meager living receiving donations and food from curious tourists.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.7/1010 votesLoading...#2 - The Face of the Deep
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/1984
Examines the variety of plants and animals living in the Sargasso Sea, a gigantic floating bed of seaweed near Bermuda.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.6/1028 votesLoading...
#3 - Leopard: A Darkness in the Grass
Season 5 Episode 8 - Aired 12/14/1986
The activities of an elusive female leopard are traced over a two-day period on the hot plains of Africa.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.6/1012 votesLoading...#4 - Toothwalkers: Giants of the Arctic Ice
Season 16 Episode 1 - Aired 10/12/1997
TOOTHWALKERS presents extremely rare under-the-ice footage that reveals a complex and potentially dangerous side to this huge and often mysterious mammal.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.5/1020 votesLoading...
#5 - From the Heart of the World: the Elder Brothers' Warning
Season 10 Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/1991
This program features the Kogi tribe who live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Columbia. They are pre-Columbian peoples, and consider themselves as the elder brothers of humankind. They insist that it is the modern world, the younger brothers, who are destroying the harmony of life on earth.
Director: N/A
Writer: Alan Ereira
9.5/1021 votesLoading...#6 - Triumph of Life: The Four Billion Year War
Season 19 Episode 7 - Aired 1/15/2001
THE FOUR BILLION YEAR WAR explains how both conflict and cooperation have helped shape the species that today populate our world. And it profiles the winners and losers in this epic evolutionary contest — from the massive dinosaurs who disappeared long ago to the humble bacteria that have survived for billions of years virtually unchanged.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.5/1018 votesLoading...
#7 - Africa: Desert Odyssey
Season 20 Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/2001
For centuries, the Tuareg people have braved the brutal Sahara to trade in salt, a precious cargo once worth its weight in gold. In this episode of AFRICA, Adam Ilius,salt production a young boy of nine, crosses hundreds of miles of desolate and dangerous desert on his first trans-Saharan salt caravan. After months of traveling, will Adam make it to Bilma, Niger to sell the caravan's salt for necessary food and clothing? Or will the shifting sands of the desert spell disaster for this tenacious group?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.4/108 votesLoading...
#8 - Cheetahs in the Land of Lions
Season 11 Episode 11 - Aired 1/24/1993
A study of cheetah behavior follows a mother and her cubs on the Serengeti plains.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.4/109 votesLoading...
#9 - Gorilla: King of the Congo
Season 11 Episode 12 - Aired 2/14/1993
A gorilla orphanage and a proposed forest reserve may save the lowland gorilla.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.3/1010 votesLoading...#10 - Obsession with Orchids
Season 18 Episode 13 - Aired 4/16/2000
No flowering plant has captured the attention of humans, or stirred their passions, in quite the way that orchids have.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.3/1014 votesLoading...#11 - Underdogs
Season 24 Episode 7 - Aired 1/29/2006
Underdogs tells the poignant story of two misfit dogs whose lives were turned around by people who saw their potential for greatness.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.2/1012 votesLoading...#12 - The Nature of Sex: The Sex Contract
Season 12 Episode 6 - Aired 11/23/1993
Explores the selection process among different species for choosing a mate, whether it’s for life or just for the day.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.2/1018 votesLoading...#13 - Extraordinary Cats
Season 17 Episode 14 - Aired 2/21/1999
Cats command our attention and our devotion. These fascinating creatures have been perplexing people for thousands of years.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.2/1010 votesLoading...#14 - Triumph of Life: The Eternal Arms Race
Season 19 Episode 9 - Aired 1/28/2001
For billions of years, life on Earth has been engaged in its own ETERNAL ARMS RACE, the subject of Part 3 of NATURE’s TRIUMPH OF LIFE. As predators became better hunters, their prey also evolved better defenses.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.2/1016 votesLoading...
#15 - Australia's Little Assassins
Season 19 Episode 16 - Aired 5/20/2001
When animals are the subject, most people associate Australia with lovable koalas and leaping kangaroos. But an even more distinctive aspect of Australian wildlife is its abundance of animals -- from snakes and spiders to a host of marine life forms and at least one mammal -- that use venom to defend themselves, attack prey, and in some cases help digest food.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.2/1045 votesLoading...#16 - The Queen of Trees
Season 24 Episode 11 - Aired 4/9/2006
Patricia Clarkson narrates this look at the relationship between the sycamore fig tree and the tiny fig wasp, which is so small it could fly through the eye of a needle. The trees, which flourish in Kenya, produce fruit that provides nourishment to more wildlife than any other tree in Africa, but without the pollination the wasp provides, that might not occur. The documentary also examines other creatures that make the trees their homes, including gray hornbills (one of Africa's largest birds).
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.2/1018 votesLoading...#17 - Crime Scene Creatures
Season 24 Episode 13 - Aired 5/7/2006
They are among the most reliable witnesses to a crime — expert in their testimony and bulletproof in their account. Yet they never utter a single word. They are the animals, plants, and insects that are being recruited by a special breed of forensic scientists to solve the most seemingly impenetrable of crimes.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.1/1015 votesLoading...#18 - Jaguar: Year of the Cat
Season 14 Episode 1 - Aired 10/8/1995
"Jaguar: Year of the Cat" follows the predator in its native rain forests of Belize. Included: a pair stalk turtles, peccaries and armadillos; scenes of the habits of their animal neighbors, including toucans and ocelots.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.1/1025 votesLoading...#19 - Hippo Beach
Season 22 Episode 1 - Aired 10/19/2003
A chronicle of hippopotamus life along the banks of Zambia's Luangwa River includes footage of males fighting over territory; females protecting their young; the hippo's importance to river ecology; and societal rituals involving the head male of the pod. Mark Hamill narrates.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.1/1015 votesLoading...#20 - The Venom Cure
Season 23 Episode 9 - Aired 4/3/2005
Scientists have discovered that natural poisons and venoms contain chemicals that can be used to create drugs for treating everything from chronic pain to cancer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.0/1012 votesLoading...#21 - The Seedy Side of Plants
Season 17 Episode 15 - Aired 5/23/1999
How does such a seemingly passive life form accomplish the complex task of reproduction?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.0/1030 votesLoading...#22 - Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies
Season 20 Episode 9 - Aired 11/4/2001
Filmed in the mountains of Montana, this poignant, engrossing chronicle focuses on an extraordinary stallion, whose life has been recorded since his birth in the wild in 1995 by Emmy-winning filmmaker Ginger Kathrens.
Director: Ginger Kathrens
Writer: Ginger Kathrens
9.0/109 votesLoading...#23 - The Real Macaw
Season 22 Episode 8 - Aired 2/15/2004
Everyone loves macaws. Playful, intelligent, beautiful, they are the stars of parrot parks and zoos, and the cherished pets of devoted owners around the world. All of which makes them prime targets for poachers, who can make enormous profits from illegal sales of the birds. Thousands are smuggled from the wild each year, and many die in the process. In the forests of South America, several species of macaw are severely endangered. But there is hope on the horizon. Dr. Charlie Munn, a wealthy American who is also a leading ornithologist and world expert on parrots, has begun a campaign to promote eco-tourism as a means of saving the birds. Employing former poachers as conservationists, and providing locals with the means to start and maintain a trade in tourism instead of smuggling, he’s betting that instead of buying birds, their fans will pay to see them in the wild.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.0/1012 votesLoading...
#24 - Earthflight
Season 32 Episode 6 - Aired 10/9/2013
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.9/1012 votesLoading...#25 - The Joy of Pigs
Season 15 Episode 4 - Aired 11/17/1996
Exploring pigs, described by host George Page as “the world's most cosmopolitan characters,” with a focus on their adaptability to a variety of environments. Included: pigs as pets; hunters stalking a “bearded” pig in Borneo.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Nature
Every episode of Nature ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Nature!
Consistently stunning documentaries transport viewers to far-flung locations ranging from the torrid African plains to the chilly splendours of icy Antarctica. The show's primary focus...
Genres:DocumentaryFamily
Network:PBS
Best Episodes Summary
"The Urban Elephant" is the best rated episode of "Nature". It scored 9.8/10 based on 14 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 11/19/2000. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Face of the Deep".