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The Best Episodes of Nature

Every episode of Nature ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Nature!

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...
  1. Background image for The Urban Elephant
    9.5/10(16 votes)

    #1 - The Urban Elephant

    S19:E4

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for From the Heart of the World: the Elder Brothers' Warning
    9.4/10(21 votes)

    #2 - From the Heart of the World: the Elder Brothers' Warning

    S10:E1

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
  3. Background image for Leopard: A Darkness in the Grass
    9.3/10(29 votes)

    #3 - Leopard: A Darkness in the Grass

    S5:E8

    The activities of an elusive female leopard are traced over a two-day period on the hot plains of Africa.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for Toothwalkers: Giants of the Arctic Ice
    9.3/10(13 votes)

    #4 - Toothwalkers: Giants of the Arctic Ice

    S16:E1

    TOOTHWALKERS presents extremely rare under-the-ice footage that reveals a complex and potentially dangerous side to this huge and often mysterious mammal.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for Triumph of Life: The Four Billion Year War
    9.3/10(22 votes)

    #5 - Triumph of Life: The Four Billion Year War

    S19:E7

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for The Nature of Sex: The Sex Contract
    9.2/10(12 votes)

    #6 - The Nature of Sex: The Sex Contract

    S12:E6

    Explores the selection process among different species for choosing a mate, whether it’s for life or just for the day.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Extraordinary Cats
    9.2/10(18 votes)

    #7 - Extraordinary Cats

    S17:E14

    Cats command our attention and our devotion. These fascinating creatures have been perplexing people for thousands of years.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Triumph of Life: The Eternal Arms Race
    9.2/10(10 votes)

    #8 - Triumph of Life: The Eternal Arms Race

    S19:E9

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for Australia's Little Assassins
    9.2/10(16 votes)

    #9 - Australia's Little Assassins

    S19:E16

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for The Venom Cure
    9.2/10(16 votes)

    #10 - The Venom Cure

    S23:E9

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for The Queen of Trees
    9.2/10(45 votes)

    #11 - The Queen of Trees

    S24:E11

    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).

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for Crime Scene Creatures
    9.2/10(19 votes)

    #12 - Crime Scene Creatures

    S24:E13

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for Jaguar: Year of the Cat
    9.1/10(15 votes)

    #13 - Jaguar: Year of the Cat

    S14:E1

    "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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for Hippo Beach
    9.1/10(25 votes)

    #14 - Hippo Beach

    S22:E1

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for Underdogs
    9.1/10(15 votes)

    #15 - Underdogs

    S24:E7

    Underdogs tells the poignant story of two misfit dogs whose lives were turned around by people who saw their potential for greatness.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for Cheetahs in the Land of Lions
    9.0/10(9 votes)

    #16 - Cheetahs in the Land of Lions

    S11:E11

    A study of cheetah behavior follows a mother and her cubs on the Serengeti plains.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for Gorilla: King of the Congo
    9.0/10(10 votes)

    #17 - Gorilla: King of the Congo

    S11:E12

    A gorilla orphanage and a proposed forest reserve may save the lowland gorilla.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for Echoes from the Ice
    9.0/10(9 votes)

    #18 - Echoes from the Ice

    S12:E3

    The two-hundred-foot walls of ice in Glacier Bay overwhelm the senses, but they also surround the most beautiful sights Alaska has to offer — the Northern Lights, the roaming grizzly bears, and the humpback whales. The glacier itself is also creating new life — it has retreated some 70 miles up the bay, wiping the ecological slate clean, allowing new plants and animals to start again from scratch.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for The Seedy Side of Plants
    9.0/10(12 votes)

    #19 - The Seedy Side of Plants

    S17:E15

    How does such a seemingly passive life form accomplish the complex task of reproduction?

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for The Real Macaw
    9.0/10(9 votes)

    #20 - The Real Macaw

    S22:E8

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Attenborough's Life Stories: Our Fragile Planet
    9.0/10(42 votes)

    #21 - Attenborough's Life Stories: Our Fragile Planet

    S31:E7

    Attenborough reflects on the dramatic impact that we have had on the natural world during his lifetime.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for My Garden of a Thousand Bees
    9.0/10(158 votes)

    #22 - My Garden of a Thousand Bees

    S40:E1

    A story of surprise and revelation. A wildlife cameraman spends his time during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown filming the bees in his urban garden and discovers the many diverse species and personalities that exist in this insect family.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for Dracula’s Hidden Kingdom
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #23 - Dracula’s Hidden Kingdom

    S43:E2

    Discover Transylvania, a mystical region in central Romania where its mountain ranges, vast ancient forests and medieval villages are a sanctuary for wolves, lynxes, brown bears, bats and more. Narrated by Jeremy Irons

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    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for The Joy of Pigs
    8.9/10(12 votes)

    #24 - The Joy of Pigs

    S15:E4

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic
    8.9/10(13 votes)

    #25 - Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic

    S18:E4

    Ironically, the powerful, dedicated canines profiled in Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic are little more than mutts. They are mixed-breed huskies that have endurance.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Best Episodes Summary

"The Urban Elephant" is the best rated episode of "Nature". It scored 9.5/10 based on 16 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 11/19/2000. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "From the Heart of the World: the Elder Brothers' Warning".