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Precious Blue: The Caribbean Sea -- Bonding with the Sperm Whale
(c)NHK / CHIYODA RAFT
"Deep Ocean" Revealing its Secrets -- The Coastal Waters off Okinawa
The "deep sea" is the final largely unexplored part of the planet. A high-definition camera on a Japanese unmanned deep-sea probe vessel introduces the rare creatures that inhabit this amazing world.
200-year Old Tortoise -- Giant Tortoise, Galapagos
Think of the Galapagos Islands and the giant elephant tortoises come to mind. Weighing up to 200 kilograms and living up to an estimated 200 years of age, they have managed to evolve in different ways to adapt to their environment. However, of the 11 species of elephant tortoises, one species is nea...
7 Million Flock to the Desert's End -- Seabirds, The Sahara
Africa's Sahara Desert is the biggest desert in the world. At the edge of this desert there is an unusual island to which great flocks of birds from all over the world migrate. Seven million birds of 100 species, including exotic birds like flamingos, gather there. In the harsh desert, where neither...
[TREASURE BOX JAPAN｜mipformats 2016]
NHK's long-running popular series since 2006. Ranked No. 1 for viewer satisfaction.
‘72 hours’ is an extremely unique format of human-interest documentary. For the duration of 72 hours, cameras target and record a single location. There are no preconceived sc...
A Bird That Flies through Water -- Atlantic Puffin, Iceland
The Atlantic puffin, often called "clown of the ocean". Their comical appearance is heightened by their orange and yellow bill and triangular markings around the eye. Despite being birds, they are hopeless at landing. In fact, they are often seen carelessly landing on top of each other. However, onc...
A Bird That's Crazy About Wasps -- Honey Buzzard, Japan
During summer, the migrant honey buzzards raise their young in the forests of Japan. This predatory bird of the hawk family has been said to feed mainly on nests of wasps which they dig out from the ground. Unfortunately, very little footage existed of them actually in action. However, for the first...
A Fish That Looks Like a Rock -- Fourspine Sculpin, Japan
The fourspine sculpin live in the Koza river, one of the clearest rivers in Japan. Master of disguise, these fish camouflage as rocks to capture prey by ambush. There is also an interesting saying about this species: "they catch sweetfish with the spines on their gill cover." This episode features t...
A Fish That Shoots -- Archerfish, Palau
Discover the world of the ultimate underwater archer, the archerfish.Squirting water with their mouths, the archerfish shoot down grasshoppers and mantises resting on branches. With lightning speed, they never miss their target. They can shoot more than 10 times in a row, and even leap out of the wa...
A Living Dinosaur -- Komodo Dragon, Indonesia
Growing to three meters in length and 100 kilograms in weight, the Komodo dragon, which inhabits the island of Komodo and other islands of sub-equatorial Indonesia, is the world's largest lizard. With their thick protective skin, Komodo dragons are just like dinosaurs, and they hunt wildlife such as...
A Portrait of the Wild: The North Woods of Canada
The North Woods region in Canada's interior occupies one-third of the country's land area. It is also a treasure trove of flora and fauna. Roaming its reaches are bison, which can reach a weight of one ton; reindeer, with their magnificent antlers; and other indigenous creatures like wildcats and cr...
During summer, the Atlantic coast between northeastern United States and southeastern Canada attracts large sea creatures such as whales, sharks that feed on the dense aggregations of plankton. To help reveal the secrets of these creatures' underwater hunting and behavior, the documentary film crew ...
Acrobat of the Hokkaido Forest: Eurasian Red Squirrel
The Eurasian red squirrel lives in Hokkaido in northern Japan. Some can be found in the virgin forest inching up to Sapporo, which is the fifth largest city in Japan. They use the hollows in the trunks of big trees to bear and raise their young. They depend for food on nuts and berries in the forest...
The Albertine Rift covers just one percent of the Africa's area, but contains more species of vertebrate animal than anywhere else on the continent. Powerful forces below the Earth transformed the landscape and changed the climate. These radical changes forced animals and plants to mutate and evolve...
A tale of three African lakes set in an aquatic world of vibrant color, shape and movement. In these waters live over 1,000 fish species, all evolved from one family. These fish are evolving faster than any other vertebrate on the planet. It is a story that would have wowed Darwin.
Ama-chan is a light-hearted drama about a young city girl's transformation when she moves to the Japanese countryside. Aki, the heroine, falls for country life and ends up helping revitalize her village. Ama-chan was written by popular Japanese playwright, Kankuro Kudo, in hopes of cheering up Japan...
Amazing Hunters of the Aegean: Eleonora's Falcon
Various species of birds flock to the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea in the autumn. These migratory birds use the islands as stopping points on their journey from Europe to the African continent. During this season Eleonora's Falcons come to these islands to hunt for these birds. For efficiency's s...
Amazon Alliance: New World Monkeys
The Peruvian jungle in the upper reaches of the Amazon is home to two different species of monkeys, the Andean titi and the brown-mantled tamarin. What's interesting is that these two species live side by side as if they were members of a single troop. When titis feed on insects, they rely on tamari...
An Amazing Evolutionary Path: Penguin
The South Island of New Zealand, known as a penguin paradise, is home to the largest number of penguin species. In fact, the island is believed to be where the very first penguins appeared. Little penguins, which at night slightly lean forward when walking back and forth between their nest and the s...
An Artist of the Floating World
Who can tell where the lines are drawn?
Japan, a few years after the end of the Second World War -- Masuji Ono is an ageing painter of considerable renown, and retired life in his lavish mansion unfolds peacefully -- on the surface. But this seeming tranquility is broken when he is told that his ...
An Ear for Danger: Bat Eared Fox
The Serengeti plain in East Africa is one of the world's most diverse and spectacular wildlife kingdoms. It's home to the bat-eared fox. They feed mainly on insects. With their long, big ears, they can detect the ultrasonic waves that insects emit. Ultrasonic waves usually travel in a straight line ...
Australia is a floating laboratory whose ancient origins, continental drift and changing climate forced its inhabitants to evolve and adapt, culminating in over 200 species of pouched marsupials. The story of Australia's iconic red kangaroo and how it evolved to survive and thrive in the desert, rep...
The Beast of Peace shall reign
In the 16th century, Japan was still fragmented and at war, with famed warlords wrestling for land and power. Akechi Mitsuhide is born into this world as heir to a minor lord. But as he is groomed to become a military commander, Mitsuhide yearns for nothing but peac...
Aye-aye, It's a Monkey! -- Aye-aye, Madagascar
The Aye-ayes live deep in the forests of Madagascar, and until now, the activities and daily life of these nocturnal primates have been wrapped in mystery. Using ultra-sensitive high-definition cameras, NHK's cameramen provide a rare glimpse of these intriguing animals. It's truly amazing to see the...
Back from the Brink: Okinawa Spiny Rat
The forests of Yanbaru on the main Okinawa Island have been called "a time capsule of evolution." The forests' primal environment hosts no native carnivores. Although the environment has undergone changes in recent years, the Okinawa spiny rat, which was believed to be extinct, was rediscovered in 2...
Back from the Deep: Giant Sea Bass
The waters surrounding the Channel Islands of California not only teem with life but they also hide a mysterious surprise. For every year these shoals are visited by an endangered species that is just coming back from the brink of extinction: the giant sea bass. The giant sea bass can grow up to two...
Battle in the North -- Fox vs. Geese, Canada
In April, Canadian geese migrate to the estuary of the Churchill River where it flows into the Hudson Bay in the northern part of Canada. During the short summer season, they lay their eggs and raise their chicks, but these eggs and chicks are the targets of red foxes. Also on Russia's Wrangel Islan...
Battles of the Mothers: Ring-tailed Lemurs
Ring-tailed lemurs are easily recognized by their black and white long tails. They inhabit forests in the dry regions of southern Madagascar. They live in female dominated groups. When territorial disputes break out, females engage in fierce fights. They pounce and kick at each other, all the while ...
Big Bird in an Old Forest: Southern Cassowary
Australia's northeastern tropical rain forest, among the oldest forests in the world, is home to a unique, flightless bird. The huge southern cassowary stands 1.8 meters tall and weighs up to 60 kilograms. It maintains an interesting relationship with the surrounding plant life. It can swallow fruit...
Biggest and Wildest Cacti -- North America, The Sonoran Desert
The red-hot vastness of the Sonoran Desert of North America is the habitat of a surprising number of lifeforms. A high-definition camera travels deep into the "cactus desert" in search of them.
Borneo is one of the great biodiverse eco-systems on earth. Here, the tallest rainforests on earth have thrived almost untouched for over a hundred million years, harboring an extraordinary group of creatures, including 30 species of gliding animals that have evolved to live in these forests. The lu...
The Cerrado in Brazil is a vast grassland where life is defined by close relationships and synchronized life cycles. An extreme climate has transformed the Cerrado into a theatre of evolution where the inhabitants have acquired remarkable skills, unique shapes and unusual habits -- the predator eats...
Bringing Life to the Desert: Giant Cactus
In the Sonoran Desert that stretches across part of North America, giant cacti are an important part of the lives of various wild birds. The Greater Roadrunner, an eccentric ground bird that dashes across the land, nests in the space of a spine-covered cactus. Meanwhile, small owls with a dynamic hu...
Forests cover nearly 70% of the Japanese archipelago. They provide rare landscapes of mixtures of wide varieties of broadleaf and coniferous trees, and the coloring of the leaves in autumn provides spectacularly beautiful scenes -- some say the most beautiful in the world. And deep inside these fore...
Builders of Large Communal Nests: Sociable Weaver
In the arid region of Namibia in southern Africa stand bizarre-looking trees covered by huge lumps of dried grass. Weighing one ton, they are in fact the nests of the sociable weaver -- one of the world's largest bird nests. Each nest is like a big apartment, with over 100 holes that house some 300 ...
Canopy Gliders of the Borneo Rainforest
On equatorial Borneo Island, it's not only birds and insects that can fly. Using special methods, even reptiles, amphibians, and mammals can soar through the air! Photographer Tadashi Shimada takes up the challenge of capturing them in flight.
Challenge of the Chalk Lands: Kazakhstan (Japanese Title : 白亜の絶景 秘められた謎に迫る～カザフスタン～)
Kazakhstan is a vast nation with dramatic and unexpected landscapes. One of them is the chalk lands—snow-white mountains with towering cliffs made of pure chalk. This spectacular landscape is little known outside Kazakhstan, but that's going to change; a film crew from Japan is about to reveal this ...
Chicks' Free-fall Adventure -- Crested Murrelet, Japan
Looking a little like small penguins, crested murrelets are sea birds. The day after they are hatched, murrelet chicks already begin the process of leaving their nests. Indeed they face a great challenge: in the middle of the night, they are forced to fling themselves, rolling and falling, off a 50-...
Co-viewing comedy show which challenges celebrities with child-like innocent questions which are often surprisingly difficult to answer. The quizmaster is an “eternal 5 year old” character named Chiko. She is half CGI, half costume voiced by a famous male comedian. Full of curiosity and hard to plea...
Chile's Island of Extremes: Madre de Dios (Japanese Title : 南米 最果て 謎の無人島へ～チリ・多島海～)
Madre de Dios Island is one of six thousand islands comprising an archipelago southwest of Chile, South America. Access to this uninhabited island near the center of the archipelago is extremely difficult as the island is located in one of the world's most famous rainstorm regions known as the "Furi...
A titanic collision between India and Asia created the tallest mountain range on earth and forced up the vast Tibetan plateau -- often described as "The Roof of the World."
Only those creatures that could adapt to hostile alpine conditions survived in the highest ecosystems on Earth.
Mutation and ...
Clever Gourmet -- Crab-eating Macaque, Thailand
On a small deserted island in Thailand, Southeast Asia, there are monkeys called crab-eating macaques that use rocks as tools. Not only do they use large rocks to crack open shellfish and hard nuts, but also they carefully use the edges of small rocks to shuck oysters. No other monkey in the world c...
Climbing Giants: The Mighty Redwoods
Redwoods are among the world's largest living organisms. Some grow higher than 100 meters and live to be more than 3,000 years old. A belt of redwood forest stretches along the west coast of California in the United States. By using the latest advances in tree climbing, this program reveals an entir...