The BEST episodes of Natural World season 23

#1 - Land of the Falling Lakes

Season 23 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/5/2005

Documentary about Plitvice National Park in Croatia, Europe's oldest and one of its most beautiful national parks - a network of crystal clear lakes connected by thousands of waterfalls. Its ancient beech forests are a stronghold for wolves, lynx and bears, animals that almost became extinct during the Balkan civil war and are now recovering. Hidden beneath the trees are spectacular limestone caves, home to salamanders and cave voles.

#2 - Echo of the Elephants - The Final Chapter?

Season 23 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/19/2005

Documentary following the latest chapter in the story of Echo the female elephant and her family in the Kenyan National Park of Amboseli. Scientist Cynthia Moss believes she is charting the 59-year-old matriarch's decline - until she makes a surprising discovery. Narrated by David Attenborough. Part of 100 Years of Wildlife Week

#3 - Andes - The Dragon's Back

Season 23 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/16/2004

The Andes is one of the world's most spectacular mountain ranges with one of the richest environments on Earth and a diverse and unique mix of plants and animals existing nowhere else in the world. Andes: The Dragon's Back so named because of the spines along its ridge travels through this range of mountains stretching from Cape Horn to the Equator, uncovering the largest ice field outside the poles, the Torres del Paine mountain region and the Atacama desert. The Andes is a perfect example of animals adapting to their environment, penguins manage to thrive in the desert, flamingos cluster around hot geysers and the spectacled bear which originated in North America subsists on South American flowers which now grow in the Andes. Take a tour of the world's longest and most geologically active mountain range in Andes: The Dragon's Back

#4 - The Wild Wood

Season 23 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/9/2004

An ancient oak wood in the heart of England is as full of beauty and drama as anywhere on Earth. Philippa Forrester spends a year witnessing its secret life - the sparrow-hawk terrorising blue tits, fox cubs learning to stalk rabbits and a buzzard looking for love.

#5 - Hammerhead

Season 23 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/2/2004

Profile of the hammerhead shark, which has until now been shrouded in mystery as no-one could understand why its head is such a strange shape, or how it might help the creature's survival. Marine biologists in Hawaii explain how the fish utilises the unusual shape to give it a unique, deadly weapon in the oceans. Narrated by Ian Holm

#6 - A Boy Among Polar Bears

Season 23 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/15/2005

Documentary following Inuit boy Apak Taktu as he takes his first trip out onto the frozen Arctic with his father to be taught esssential and traditional survival and hunting skills.

#7 - Secrets of the Maya Underworld

Season 23 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/9/2005

Beneath the jungle-clad temples of Mexico's Yucatan, a startling discovery has been made: the largest network of flooded caves and underground rivers in the world. The intrepid cave divers exploring this surreal landscape have made remarkable discoveries: bizarre new animals, as well as the skeletons of the ancient Maya and the offerings they made to the spirits. This was their underworld, and its secrets are finally being revealed.

#8 - Norfolk Broads: The Fall and Rise of a Great Swamp

Season 23 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/21/2004

The Norfolk Broads is one of the last fragments of a vast swamp where ancient Britons hunted wildfowl and fished for perch and giant pike. Over the centuries most of the marsh and its wildlife were destroyed. The swamp is now recovering, and spectacular birds like avocets, marsh harriers, and cranes are back. Can the Broads be restored or will they be destroyed by rising sea levels?

#9 - Cheetahs: Fast Track to Freedom

Season 23 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/14/2004

For two years Simon King takes on the role of mother to two cheetah cubs, Toki and Sambu, orphaned when their mother was killed by a lion.

#10 - Shark Coast

Season 23 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/26/2005

David Attenborough travels along the coast of Southern Africa which has an incredible variety of sharks, over 140 species, from massive great whites and tiger sharks to dozens of tiny sharks with intriguing names like the pyjama shark and leopard cat shark. The answer to why these seas are so rich in predators lies in the unique pattern of warm and cold currents allowing sharks that normally live oceans apart to coexist.

#11 - Mississippi: Tales of the Last River Rat

Season 23 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/25/2004

A stunningly photographed portrait of the wildlife and landscape of the Mississippi River seen through the eyes of 'River Rat' Kenny Salwey, a legendary hunter, trapper and author who lives off the land and shares his watery haunts with beavers, snapping turtles, sturgeons, pelicans and eagles.

#12 - Serengeti 24

Season 23 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/3/2005

Documentary chronicled the maternal behavior of a cheetah and a leopard as they cared for their cubs in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park.

#13 - Typhoon Island

Season 23 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/18/2004