Wildlife on One

Wildlife on One returns with a fresh new look this season, David Attenborough narrates 10 emotionally inspiring stories from the natural world.

Series Editor, Sara Ford says: "Wildlife on One is one of the strongest brasnds in the natural history genre. This new direction brings stories that surprise, intrigue and have humour as well as increased levels of information.

"It goes without saying that stunning animal behaviour - intimately filmed - remains at the very heart of everything we do. We hope that this series is enjoyed equally by our core audience as well as attracting a whole new generation of wildlfe viewers."

In the first edition "Sensitive Sharks", the programme enters the world of sharks and reveals their sensitive and finely tuned hunting skills.

Sharks can pick up sound from more than a mile away an detect electricity down to just five-billionths of a volt. They have a battery of supercharged senses making them the most feared and successfukl predators in the oceans. Amazing new footage of divers intimately embracing Caribbean reef sharks has scientists questioning whether there is a more "sensitive" side to the nature of these incredible creatures.

From the notorious great white, with its deadly daytime vision, to the bizarrely blind greenland shark, a monster from the frozen deep, Sensitive Sharks reveals the extraordinary intelligence and sophistication of the biggest characters from the shark possibly the largest shark-feeding frenzy ever, revealing a sixth sense which is alien to humans.

Giant schools of hammerhead have a seventh electrical sense that helps them to find their way across the featureless oceans and hundreds of white-tip sharks gather around Cocoas Island off Costa Rica in a mass mating festival.

In "Dingoes: Outlaws Of The Outback" we take a look at Australia's wild dogs. Dingoes are Australia's biggest land predators but for years little was known about them. Wildlife On One brings the

pieces of the puzzle together and looks beyond the bad reputation of these wild dogs.

Dingoes arrived in Australia 4,000 years ago, brought across the continent by man. Confronted by a strange land of bizarre creatures, they have survived incredibly well. But they haven't had it easy. In particular, the dingo's relationship with Australia's human inhabitants has been fraught with conflict - the dingo has been, in turn, companion, outlaw, thief and pet.

Dingoes are, in fact, one of Australia's greatest wildlife success stories. But just as humans are beginning to find out the truth about them, time is running out. Many scientists believe that pure-bred dingoes will be extinct in the wild within 100 years.

In "Monkeys of the Rock" we pay a visit to Gibralter. Millions of tourists visit Southern Spain every year to see the "apes" on the Rock of Gibraltar. In fact they are not apes at all, they are monkeys - barbary macaques. These are the only free-living monkeys in Europe and they have a complex social life, which barely any visitors to this island fortress appreciate.

It is often thought that males rule the roost in barbary macaque society. But if anything, it is the females that run the show and they have equal status in the large groups. At first sight the huge male macaques look like thugs. They strut around ready to confront anything or anyone prepared to take them on. But in fact they turn out to be "modern men" monkeys that love to spend time with their offspring. Large male macaques are often seen cuddling the babies.

Barbary macaques originate from North Africa, Morocco and Tunisia. They were introduced to Gibraltar several hundred years ago by the British garrison, probably as pets. Some escaped and in 1780, their chattering alerted the troops to a Spanish invasion which was repelled. Since then the British have always encouraged their presence and seen them as a symbol of British power - so much so that when their numbers dwindled to just two or three in the Second World War, Churchill demanded that more should be imported from North Africa.

These social monkeys live in large groups. Although tourists are not meant to feed them the monkeys can often be seen with a packet of crisps or an ice cream. They supplement this diet with natural food, a rich diet which can only be dreamed of by their cousins across the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, where they struggle to find enough to eat.

The tourist board visit every day with barley grains. Large handfuls are spread around the monkeys, which are then kept occupied for hours whilst they pick up the small grains. One mother has found an easier way to collect a mouthful. She waits until one of her offspring has patiently gathered up hundreds of grains and stored them in its cheek pouches and then takes her share.