Giant sand storms are wreaking havoc in China. They’re the biggest, most destructive storms in China’s history. And they’re not confined to the countryside. Beijing, the capital of China, frequently grinds to a halt as it is blanketed in airborne sand. Once a rare occurrence, these awesome sand storms are now a frequent blight on Beijing life.

The Arctic ice cap covers an area the size of the United States. No one had ever sailed full circle around this icy wilderness. A team of scientists, naturalists and explorers from 17 countries, set off on an epic 13,000 mile voyage in one of the world’s most powerful icebreakers to complete the world’s first circumnavigation of the Arctic.

Boulders, a popular beach resort on South Africa’s Cape and scene of a determined takeover by a colony of small penguins. Their invasion will bring laughter, fun and conflict. This is the story of African penguins and people competing for suburban habitat. Seabird and human share beaches, streets and sometimes even bedrooms!

Beneath the sea lie complex urban societies that parallel our own. At the Poor Knights Marine Reserve off New Zealand’s Bay of Islands there are four seasons of fish society, and fascinating customs in each sector of the fish community. Watch day and night-shift workers pass twice a day in rush hour, just like us.

A great upwelling of nutrients off the coast of New Zealand has produced a bounty for the most diverse collection of seals, whales and dolphins anywhere. Three species of dolphins and fur seals inhabit the Kaikoura coast and it’s the best place in the world to see sperm whales.

Rare yellow-eyed penguins waddle from wild ocean through sand dunes and farmland to nest with life-long mates amongst flax and scrub in southern New Zealand. Their strange lifestyle was uncovered by pioneer behaviour scientist Lance Richdale. In Colony Z we travel back in time to 1940, the year his two favourite penguins spent their last season together.

The creation of a rainforest in New York’s world famous Bronx Zoo presented unique challenges. How to grow a dense tropical jungle in the heart of a concrete jungle? How to make it realistic and safe for animals and visitors? Congo in the Bronx follows the countdown to opening day.

Moving silently within dense Costa Rican rain forest, jaguars and white lipped peccaries play a constant game of hide and seek. El Niño turns the dry season into the worst drought in living memory. After four months of waiting, the first rains arrive bringing with them a deadly surprise.