About this season
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 is on animals and ecosystems around the world. A comic book based on the show, meant to be used an as educational tool for kids, was briefly distributed to museums and schools at no cost in the mid-2000s.
Episodes (20)
1. The Great Rift: Footprints in the Valley
Aired 8 October 1989 • 53 min
The area's evolutionary roots opens this look at the African valley.
2. The Great Rift: Out of the Ashes
Aired 15 October 1989 • 53 min
The wildlife that lives on the Great Rift's ash plains.
3. The Great Rift: Breaking the Continent
Aired 22 October 1989 • 53 min
Examines the Red Sea, the island of Madagascar and East Africa.
4. Under the Ice
Aired 29 October 1989 • 53 min
Soft coral, sponges, tubeworms, anemones and giant cod adapt to life in Antarctica's subzero waters.
5. Land of Dragons
Aired 12 November 1989 • 53 min
Profiles the wildlife living within the British crown colony of Hong Kong
6. The Great Wood of Caledon
Aired 19 November 1989 • 53 min
An exploration of the Caledonian forest in Scotland, Britain's largest remaining area of ancient woodland.
7. Gorillas
Aired 10 December 1989 • 53 min
A portrait of the endangered mountain gorilla in equatorial Africa.
8. Forest of Fear
Aired 17 December 1989 • 53 min
A look at the maneating tigers of the Sundarbans delta in India.
9. Gran Paradiso
Aired 7 January 1990 • 53 min
Resource management in Italy's alpine Gran Paradiso National Park has consequences beyond the parks boundaries.
10. Cranes of the Grey Wind
Aired 21 January 1990 • 53 min
Scientists study sandhill cranes on Nebraskan plains, Alaskan and Siberian coasts and in the Northwest Territories.
11. King Solomon's Mountains
Aired 4 February 1990 • 53 min
The forests and waters of Ethiopia's Bale Mountains, may one day renew the country's depleted landscape.
12. Hunters of the Sky
Aired 11 February 1990 • 53 min
A look at how Europe's birds of prey have adapted.
13. A Wolf in the Fold
Aired 18 February 1990 • 53 min
The relationship between working sheepdogs and flocks of sheep. Selective breeding yields a sheepdog with outstanding abilities to tend the creature other canines prey upon.
14. The Colorado
Aired 4 March 1990 • 53 min
Tracing the course of the Colorado River.
15. The Emerald Isle
Aired 11 March 1990 • 53 min
Thousands of years of human settlement provide the backdrop by which to discover the wildlife of Ireland.
16. Giant Otters
Aired 18 March 1990 • 53 min
The fur trade continues to threaten the South American otter with extinction, despite its status as an endangered species.
17. The Haida Gwai: Islands of the People
Aired 25 March 1990 • 53 min
Profiles the Haida Indians who live on British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Island.
18. Presque Isle: Land in Motion
Aired 1 April 1990 • 53 min
An exploration of the environmental impact of man's attempts to halt the erosion of Presque Isle beaches.
19. Yellowstone on Fire
Aired 8 April 1990 • 53 min
The effect of the 1988 fire on the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park.
20. Serpents
Aired 15 April 1990 • 53 min
A natural history of the snake includes its significance to man as a symbol of fertility, immortality and death.