Inside Natures Giants: Series 2

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Nature Documentary hosted by Mark Evans and published by Channel 4 in 2010 - English narration

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Inside Nature’s Giants Series 2

The second run of the BAFTA Award-winning series reveals the anatomy of some of nature's most successful predators. Highlights of the series include comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg coming face-to-face with great white sharks in a dramatic cage dive encounter, biologist Simon Watt being squeezed by a live python, and the team making a dead lion roar by passing compressed air through its windpipe. Experts in comparative anatomy, evolution and behaviour put some of the most popular and enigmatic large animals under the knife. Veterinary scientist Mark Evans interprets their findings, biologist Simon Watts tests the animals' physiology in the field and Richard Dawkins traces back the animals' place on the tree of life.

[edit] Great White Shark

The experts travel to South Africa to dissect a 900kg, 15-foot-long great white shark.
Comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg uncovers the shark's incredible array of senses, including the ability to detect the electro-magnetic field given off by other creatures.
Veterinary scientist Mark Evans investigates the origins of the shark's infamous killing bite and, out at sea, a bite force test on a live great white shows just how powerful those jaws really are.
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explains how sharks' teeth and jaws evolved from their outer skin and gill arches.
And the programme asks whether the animal's reputation as a man killer is really deserved.

[edit] Monster Python

The experts venture into the swamps of the Florida Everglades, where giant Burmese pythons are thriving. Many have been released into the wild by pet owners or have escaped from reptile breeding centres, and now up to 100,000 are threatening some native species with extinction.
Mark Evans and Joy Reidenberg meet 'python hunters' in the Everglades who are attempting to control the pythons' numbers through a cull, and join reptile expert Jeanette Wyneken to dissect two pythons: a nine-foot male and an enormous 14-foot female. The programme reveals the anatomy that allows pythons to sense, strike, squeeze and swallow their prey. They investigate the remains of the snakes' last meals and make an amazing discovery in the female: ovaries bulging with 40 egg follicles ready to be fertilised. Richard Dawkins describes how snakes evolved from four-legged lizard-like ancestors, and biologist Simon Watt finds out what it feels like to be crushed by a real-life python. The programme explores the science of slithering, how snakes have developed 'infra-red goggles', which allow them to hunt warm-blooded prey in the dark, and how a flexible jaw allows pythons to stretch their mouths around huge prey, including alligators.

[edit] The Big Cats

The experts dissect a lion and a tiger, and travel to South Africa to see lions in the wild. From the outside, the lion and the tiger look very different, but once their skins are removed, even the experts find it hard to tell them apart. At a big cat rescue centre, biologist Simon Watt traces the evolutionary history of the feline family, and comes face to face with a liger: a cross between a lion and a tiger and proof of how similar the two species are. One of the most characteristic features of these magnificent animals - and something that distinguishes them from the small cats - is their ability to roar. It's something that has intrigued scientists, so the team delve into the lion's throat to find the voicebox, and make a discovery that helps explain the way the vocal apparatus works like a trombone. To test the theory, they pass compressed air into the windpipe and - to everyone's amazement - make the dead lion roar. The team dissect the anatomy of how these deadly machines work, from the big cats' powerful forearms and retractable claws, to the powerful killing bite. Richard Dawkins explains the evolutionary arms race that has arisen between predators and their prey in the struggle to survive. And the experts try to find out why male lions have their distinctive mane of fur.