Lifesense - Season 1

To our animal lodgers our homes are caves. In this extraordinary world, carpet beetles stalk our floors and clothes moths knit their own jumpers from fragments of wool; dustmites swirl in the hurricanes of vacuum cleaners and termites carve out a solid door. Even our beds shelter two million companions. In cities kites grab their own takeaways, while gulls and vultures recycle our rubbish. Stone martens disable car engines, skunks kerb crawl and monkeys mug people for food. In the man-made canyons of New York City the peregrine swoops dramatically on its pigeon prey. On this spectacular journey, Lifesense reveals that our lives are far from familiar when seen through animal eyes.

Enter a mysterious time world where plants entice bushmen to sow their seeds, melons expand, bushes grow and crops hold hidden influence over us. Here, sparrows shed wild wheat seeds and locusts devour crops before our eyes. In eerie slow-motion, cockroaches avoid our lumbering feet, using a special sense and lightning response.

In a world where chillies use addiction to encourage their fruit to be eaten and their seeds dispersed - and the humble potato once had the means to trap marauding insects - even the cabbage has a secretive nature. As we soar with parrots, flow with rivers of mice and swirl with the world's biggest flocks of birds, we discover the real winners of our partnership with plants.

Discover how domesticated animals view us. Enter a dog's world, run with hunters through a smoky inferno, street brawl with Balinese dogs. Try a dog's life disguised as a sheep or rule the roost as a pampered member of the human pack. Experience a cat's view of our homes and why our communication with them is prone to breakdown. In this new look at our closest companions we find cosseted pigs with devoted human foster mothers, a cassowary chick that thinks it's human and cows that are serenaded to sleep.
From guinea pigs in Bolivia and camels in the Sahara, to pigs on the factory farm, we find that life from the animals' viewpoint depends on your human companions.

A look at the part other creatures play in the mysterious world of human belief. Bushmen trance dance in the company of animals and Aborigines use bees to find honey. In Bali's holiest cave, worshippers appear as pulsing sound images to its native bats. On the misty Ganges turtles wait for a macabre meal, and in the market a holy cow becomes an aggressive shopper. Eighty thousand of Thailand's storks crowd a temple sanctuary and, fed by monks, huge catfish make the water boil. In Italy snakes sway from the top of a saint's statue and in America rattlesnakes, with their infrared sight, see haunting thermal auras of people interpreting the Bible literally and "taking up serpents" to reinforce their faith. Through animals' bizarre sensory worlds Lifesense reveals how changing human belief has affected other life.

To many creatures the human body is a landscape. Countless numbers dwell in its undulating hills, deep caverns and thick forests. Butterflies visit us for a salty cocktail of sweat. Mosquitoes follow breath trails, ticks wait for us to find shade and fleas jump on board at the slightest vibration. In the jungle of our hairs, lice find a home, mites inhabit crevices and on the desert of our skin, bacteria multiply undisturbed. Inside the body creatures travel among swirling blood cells while others share our meals.

In harmonious world, birds seek human help to enter beehives and dolphins drive fish into fishermen's nets. But as co-operation becomes coercion, Indian elephants haul logs, otters herd fish like aquatic sheepdogs and monkeys gather coconuts. For entertainment, Thai bulls perform territorial fights, pit bulls show inbred aggression and the bull ring glorifies human domination.

Through rabbit plagues, rivers of sheep and conveyor belts of chickens, the programme explores the imbalances of modern relationships. In contrast, Brazilian Indians still live in harmony with other life. But for how long?