Wild Isles - Season 1

The first episode examines the benefits of Britain's natural geology and examines ways in which depleted islands can be restored for future generations.

The woodlands of the British Isles are magical and mystical places, but as one of the least-forested countries in Europe, they are also under threat. Sir David Attenborough follows our woodlands through the seasons, revealing a host of spectacular animals and the hidden dramas that rule their lives.

David Attenborough explores Britain and Ireland's grasslands, revealing the creatures that create them and the extraordinary stories they hide. From the coastal flower meadows in the Scottish Outer Hebrides to the rich open landscapes in the mountains of southern Ireland, we enter surprising and dramatic worlds.

In southern England, we meet an extraordinary bee that lives in chalk grassland, one of our rarest habitats, laying her eggs in empty snail shells. Meanwhile, in the colourful machair of the Hebrides, ringed plovers and lapwings strive to rear their families of tiny fluffy chicks and to save them for marauding gulls.

We travel back in time to explore the vast wild grasslands once found throughout our isles, before meeting herds of semi-wild horses, where males battle fiercely for the females. Today, they are helping to turn some of this land back to wilderness. And in our precious remaining pockets of flower-rich meadow, a remarkable conservation success story plays out. Once extinct in our isles, England now has the largest known populations of large blue butterflies. Their survival relies on a game of deception with red ants, which are tricked into adopting the butterfly's unassuming but predatory caterpillars.

Our story then journeys to the mountains. Each morning in early spring, feisty male black grouse battle for prime position on their frozen breeding grounds. Their sole mission is to impress a female. Meanwhile, on south-facing scree slopes, dozens of adders emerge from hibernation to perform a surprisingly delicate courtship routine.

The episode concludes with a mighty battle in the wild mountains of County Kerry. This is the scene of an epic and spectacular rut between the largest land mammals in Britain and Ireland, red deer.

The grasslands of Britain and Ireland are under threat. We have lost 97% of our species-rich meadows in the last century, as modern agriculture replaces these precious habitats. This episode shows just how important different types of grassland are to the species which call these islands home.

From highland burns in the Scottish Cairngorms to vast mudflats in Norfolk, David Attenborough takes us on a journey from source to sea, following the course of our fresh water as it journeys through our landscapes. Along the way we meet a host of wildlife that lives in, on and around our rivers, lakes, and lochs.

Determined Atlantic salmon battle their way upstream in one of the greatest migrations on the planet - fighting against the flow and the odds to get back to their breeding grounds in the uplands. Beavers slow the flow down with their dam building, in the process creating habitat for creatures such as raft spiders that thrive in these slow-moving watercourses.

Our chalk streams are some of the rarest and most precious types of freshwater system in the world, and above them millions of mayflies hatch, dance and mate for just a few days each summer. On the riverbank, a secretive small mammal, the water shrew, lives life in the fast lane. Its high metabolism drives a constant, frenetic search for food, both above and below the surface

At night our rivers come alive too, providing hunting territories for Daubenton's bats that skim their prey from on and above the surface. It's easy to see how they have earned their common name of ‘water bats'. Darkness is also when our toads migrate, moving en masse to their traditional breeding grounds every spring. A few months later, the resulting toadlets must make their way out of the ponds and back to their woodland home - the most dangerous journey of their young lives.

As our rivers slow, they spread out, and huge areas of reedbed form. Hobbies, small agile birds of prey, swoop low and fast to catch dragonflies acrobatically in the summer sun, and in early spring great crested grebes pair up in one of the most complex and beautiful courtship ceremonies in the natural world.

Where our freshwater reaches the sea, vast mudflats can form, full of rich earth carried down by the river. These habitats are a magnet to hundreds of thousands of overwintering wading birds, migrants that come to fuel up on the hidden food below the mud. But they attract their own predators too. Peregrine falcons visit our coasts every year, and these migrants are on their menu.

Sir David Attenborough explores the surprisingly vibrant seas that surround the British Isles. The vast watery wilderness around us is over three times the size of our land mass, and yet to many, our oceans remain a mystery. Full of colour and teeming with life, the seas of Britain and Ireland are crucially important to a range of wildlife. This episode goes beneath the waves to uncover the thriving habitats that exist along our 22,000-mile coastline.

In winter, clear evidence of the ocean's abundance can be seen on a beach in Norfolk. Thousands of grey seals congregate on the shoreline to give birth. Britain and Ireland are home to 40 per cent of the world's grey seals, and the number being born on our shore rises every year. Once the newly born pups are weaned, the females are ready to breed again, and heavyweight males enter violent, bloody fights to win a stretch of beach, and the females along with it.

Beyond the beach, the vibrant shallows contain several important habitats. Rich beds of seagrass are nurseries for a range of animals, while also acting as very important carbon storage areas. They are also home to one of the strangest fish in our waters, the seahorse. We follow a male and female as they perform a balletic mating dance in the water, delicately entwining their tails. The stakes are high, as these animals mate for life.

In deeper water, patterned cuttlefish prowl the water on the hunt for food. When night falls, tiny algae floating in the water alert the cuttlefish to nearby prey. The bioluminescence allows the cuttlefish to snatch their victims, even in the dead of night.

Some animals, like the spider crab, undergo a mass migration along the shallow seabed. For just a few days every year, thousands of crabs march together, forming a huge mass of bodies. Others, like the slow-moving royal flush sea slug, have a more mesmerising way of migrating. They use the water currents to carry them to new and food-rich areas, using their bodies like wings to swim upwards and drift.

At the most northerly point of the British Isles are the Shetland Islands. The undisturbed coastline here is a stronghold for more than a thousand otters. We follow a fearless young otter as it dives to the sea floor, turning up rocks in search of fish and crabs. They need to catch enough prey to keep warm in the frigid northern water. Thankfully, the pickings here are rich.

The Corryvreckan whirlpool off Scotland's west coast is the third-largest whirlpool on the planet. Clashing currents recycle nutrients up to the surface, and the waters become a rich soup of tiny floating algae that serve as food for a group of alien-looking animals called the zooplankton, which are in turn a crucial food for our largest fish, the basking shark.

Herring and mackerel form huge swirling shoals as they too feed on plankton, and this attracts the attention of aerial hunters. Gannets dive at speeds of more than 60 miles an hour to snap up the fish. As they hit the surface, they fold their wings back to avoid them breaking on impact.

In a touching piece to camera, Sir David bids a fledging Manx shearwater chick farewell as it embarks on a 6,000-mile journey across the oceans to South America. There is no better example of how important the British Isles and its abundant seas are to the survival of wildlife worldwide.