If you have any way at all of getting your hands on it, the BBC’s Planet Earth is incredible. Think chimpanzees are peaceful vegetarians? Planet Earth will show you another side. Want to see lions hunt elephant? Planet Earth has the footage. A penguin backing off a fur seal? A spider that carries an air supply so it can go diving? A six-foot salamander?
The Diaries section alone is worth getting hold of an episode. Ever wonder how they get those incredible shots? A man named Simon tied himself to the boat so he could put his all into filming Great White Sharks jumping completely out of the water without fear of falling overboard if he leaned too far. A man named (I think) Paul spent some 100+ hours in a blind to film the courtship dance of Birds of Paradise. A team spent, IIRC, six months in the Himalayas, trying to get footage of the snow leopard hunting.
And did they ever get it!
Watch this show. I’m getting it a disk at a time from Netflix, but it’s not hard to find.
Watch this show.