Nature Shock Episode Guide

Episode Guide

Nature Shock: Season 3

• Season 3 Episode 4: Death Fog

  On August 21, 1986, nearly 2,000 people living near Lake Nyos in north-west Cameroon dropped dead, severely depleting the populations of three lakeside villages. The documentary examines the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, questioning whether the eruption of carbon dioxide pockets at the bottom of the lake could have produced an odourless toxic cloud deadly enough to suffocate the locals

• Season 3 Episode 3: Elephant Graveyard

  An examination of the media uproar that surrounded the deaths of five elephants near a Bengali village in May 2007. Intensive investigations concluded the creatures were killed by a lightning strike during a fierce electrical storm, but some experts remained unconvinced. This programme explores allegations of foul play by the Indian state's Forest Department, and questions whether the animals could have been poisoned

• Season 3 Episode 2: Cannibal Hippos

  Examination of the spate of deaths among Ugandan hippos that occurred in 2004. Though tests quickly confirmed they were being poisoned by anthrax, how it was spread astounded vets - noting that unusually no other species were affected by the outbreak, it became evident the creatures were catching the illness by eating the corpses of their kind as drought destroyed their regular sources of nutrition

• Season 3 Episode 1: The Whale That Ate the Great White

  In 1997, tourists on a whale-watching boat 27 miles west of San Francisco were stunned to see a great white shark being attacked, killed and eaten by an orca, effectively deposing the former as the marine world's most feared predator. Using footage from the incident, experts provide their theories as to how the killer whale was able to overpower its adversary, and question whether this event warrants a reconsideration of the ocean's food chain

Nature Shock: Season 2

• Season 2 Episode 4: The Mutant Devils

  In 1996, zoologists were shocked by the discovery of several hideously disfigured devil colonies living on the Australian island of Tasmania. This programme examines how intensive hunting undertaken by Tasmanian farmers led to the weakening of devils' immune system, causing the outbreak of a new, and highly contagious form of cancer

• Season 2 Episode 3: The Whale that Blew Up in the Street

  On January 26, 2004, the body of a 50-tonne sperm whale being transported to a Taiwanese university spontaneously exploded during transit - creating a macabre scene of devastation on a busy street in Tainan. The series explores the reasons behind the surreal event, suggesting that decomposition processes, coupled with thriving bacterial activity within the carcass, were the cause of the occurance

• Season 2 Episode 2: The Flesh-Eating River Monster

  Investigating a series of unexplained drownings in a North Indian river, in which three swimmers have disappeared after being gripped in the jaws of an unidentified beast. British biologist Jeremy Wade travels to India to learn more about the myth of the monster from the locals, and tests theories that the culprit is an indigenous crocodile or a bull shark, before setting up a super-strength fishing line in the hope of snaring the mysterious creature

• Season 2 Episode 1: Alien Ice Bear

  New series exploring extraordinary finds in the animal world, which shocked naturalists and scientific experts alike. This edition focuses on the story of a hunter and his Inuit guide, who were shocked to discover that a polar bear, which they had tracked across the remote Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic, actually appeared to be an animal of an entirely unknown species

Nature Shock: Season 1

• Season 1 Episode 6: Jellyfish Invasion

  How in 2005 billions of potentially deadly jellyfish suddenly appeared off Japan and started heading directly toward Australia. With an invasion coming, scientists set about investigating the influx, attempting to identify the motivation for their appearance and the apparently considered decision to head for the Antipodes. Last in series

• Season 1 Episode 5: The Zombie Alligators

  Detailing the findings of an investigation into multiple alligator deaths which occured in and around Florida's Lake Griffin during the late 1990s. With no signs of attack, locals and experts struggled to explain events which left many of the creatures in a catatonic state, struggling to survive in conditions they had adapted to over millions of years

• Season 1 Episode 4: The Dolphin Murders

  The investigation into a series of unexplained deaths among dolphins and porpoises off the coasts of Virginia and Scotland in the late 1990s. The dead mammals presented no external signs of trauma but were shown under autopsy to have massive internal injuries. Ruling out human and environmental causes of death, a team of American researchers eventually discovered small puncture marks on the creatures' jaws that brought them to a shocking conclusion

• Season 1 Episode 3: The Bodiless Bear

  Examining evidence that four black bears killed in Yellowstone Park in 1990 were victims of their larger cousins, grizzly bears, who had hitherto shied away from confrontation despite their physical superiority. Although the cases were unrelated, they demonstrated the rise in numbers of one of North America's most fearsome predators, showing the effect of changing habitat and increasing hunger

• Season 1 Episode 2: The Revengeful Elephant

  Documentary examining a spate of violent cattle and rhino deaths which took place across a large area of Africa in the early 1990s. Locals and scientists came to believe that the perpetrators were elephants seeking revenge against Maasai villagers who had previously been responsible for barbarous behaviour towards elephants, as evidence suggested they being specifically targeted for retribution

• Season 1 Episode 1: The Snake That Exploded

  True stories from the animal world that shocked naturalists and scientific experts. In this first programme scientists discuss the gruesome discovery in the Florida Everglades of a 6ft Burmese python undone by an unusual meal of decomposing alligator. Tests proved the snake had swallowed the creature whole, but that it soon proved to have bitten off more than it could chew

Nature Shock:

• Man-Eating Prides

  Documentary exploring the growing numbers of lion attacks on humans in east Africa and investigating the reasons behind this sudden shift in the behaviour of the animal. The programme follows a team of government rangers in Tanzania, where 600 people have been eaten by lions since 1990, to see what provokes the beasts into attacking and often devouring humans