Planet Wild

In Australia, it's breeding season with parrots, kookaburras and opossums all looking for mates. For one koala mother, it's time for suitors to arrive, but that means her current son must move out as he's driven away by the new love interest. On her own once again, she must now raise a baby, and we follow her as she looks after her charge until it can take its first steps towards independence.

The wind-swept desert shores of California, where only hardy lizards and scorpions scratch out a living, doesn't seem like the ideal beach home. However, this is the quiet before the storm. The sea lions here are part of a cycle that involves a breeding bonanza.

Pods of dolphins form some of the strongest bonds in the animal kingdom and family life involves numerous social dynamics. We follow a group of bottlenose dolphins in their underwater paradise. Dolphins experience bad moods, teenage angst, jealousy and, for one maturing male, it's even time to be kicked out of the family. It's all going on under the surface as we follow their family fortunes.

The northern lynx is one of the largest predators in the forest whose day-to-day life is rarely seen. We head into the forest to find a caring mother whose cub is about to leave home for new pasture. While leaving, it's time for a new litter to make the forest their home. We follow the baby lynxes as they grow up and learn the tricks of the trade.

Boars form huge families that forage their way through the woods, tearing up the turf that lies in their wake on their quest for food. We pay special attention to a sow and her new piglets who are making their way in the world.

Overshadowed by the famous "big five" of the plains, a whole jungle high-rise community easily goes unnoticed. We look at this complex community and find that patrolling the forest floor, and picking up the leftovers, is the secretive and rarely seen elephant shrew scurrying next to soldier ants busy devouring everything in their path.

The red fox lives throughout the European meadows. These animals can be found during the day in places where their lives are undisturbed. However, it's time to uncover the late-night exploits of these creatures as they meet, exchange news, brawl and court future mates. We follow a dog and vixen from the time of an underground birth to the pup's first adventures in the outside world.

The soda lakes of East Africa are among the harshest environments on Earth. Here, virtually nothing can survive the caustic conditions... except flamingos. These social birds gather by the million. Whether traveling for drinking water, raising their babies, dodging marauding storks or avoiding lethal eagle attacks, flamingos act as a team seeking safety in numbers.

When you are the tiniest bird on earth, you need to stand your ground. These acrobats must feed every ten minutes and eat two-thirds of their body weight daily. But competition for nectar is fierce and food sources are highly prized. The smallest patch of flowers can become prime real estate when you need to get your fix and can quickly lead to sugar wars.

City-dwelling sparrows have taken full advantage of humans, living in every available nook and cranny, eating the food that we leave everywhere. There's no better zip code than the city zoo where fresh food is brought out daily. In this episode of "Wild Planet," fearless sparrows feed alongside elephants and antelope.

Second in size only to their cousin the polar bear, brown bears are the largest land carnivores. In the forests of Sweden, we look at the intimate lives of adult males through the rigors of bringing up rambunctious young cubs. The secret life of bears is revealed as we find out just what it takes to become a forest king.

Giant ground squirrels of the northern plains, marmots are tight-knit and extremely hardy. Since life is harsh in central Kazakhstan, a close family can be the difference between life and death. However, for one family, fate will deal more than its fair share of problems. We spend a year following a family through the thrills and spills of life, death, joys and disasters.

Life in the Antarctic is never going to be easy, but down here in the sub-zero temperatures, a whole variety of animals have carved out their own niche. On many island shores, different species of penguins gather in ungainly groups to rest, breed and raise chicks, while in the water they glide gracefully, dodging huge ice floes as chunks break free of glaciers and ice shelves.