Throng

Tuesday 3rd November 8.00pm

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world concludes. In 1986, a mysterious natural disaster claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 people at a lake in Cameroon. Scientists initially believed an underwater volcanic eruption was to blame, until the evidence pointed them towards an astonishing new scientific phenomenon.

On 21 August 1986, disaster struck a remote corner of north-west Cameroon. Nearly 2,000 people dropped dead by Lake Nyos without any obvious signs of injury or struggle. The following day, news of the staggering scale of the tragedy reached the outside world.

Tuesday 27th October 8.00pm

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This instalment explores the mysterious deaths of a family of five elephants in a remote Indian village. While official reports concluded that the animals were killed by lightning, many experts believe that a more sinister force was to blame.

Tuesday 20th October 8.00pm

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This instalment explores a spate of hippo deaths on a nature reserve in Uganda. Tests confirmed that the hippos were dying from anthrax, possibly contracted from infected soil. However, the unusual nature of the outbreak gave rise to a second, even more shocking theory – that the anthrax was being spread among the hippos through cannibalisation.

Wednesday 14th October 8.00pm

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world returns. The first instalment of the new run explores a remarkable clash between two oceanic predators. In 1997, stunned tourists on a whale-watching trip off the coast of California witnessed an orca seemingly attack, kill and eat a great white shark – a unique event that gave scientists a radical new perspective on the habits of both species.

Located 27 miles west of San Francisco in the North Pacific, the Farallones are a small group of barren islands that play host to one of the world’s greatest concentrations of great white sharks. Every autumn, the predators flock to the area to feed on the seals that gather on the rocks. Since 1987, scientists based on the islands have been studying the sharks and have built a detailed picture of their behaviour. On 4 October 1997, however, one extraordinary event altered the scientists’ entire perspective.

Wednesday 24th December at 8:00pm on five

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This instalment explores the growing incidence of lion attacks on humans in east Africa and investigates the reasons behind this sudden shift in behaviour.

Over the last two decades, lion attacks have quadrupled in Tanzania –600 people have been eaten by the beasts since 1990. The government has called in wildlife capture specialists like Dairen Simpson to help cull the problem animals. “We’re not talking about regular old lions,” says Dairen. “We’re talking about lions that walk into a village and kill.”

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This instalment uncovers the mystery of a group of hideously disfigured Tasmanian devils discovered by scientists in the late 1990s.

The devil is a carnivorous marsupial unique to the Australian island of Tasmania. It is the size of a small, sturdily built dog, and the name ‘devil’ comes from its loud and fiendish shriek. Due to its status as the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world, the animal is of great interest to conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts alike.

Saturday 25th – Friday 31st October

The documentary series examining freak
occurrences in the natural world continues. This
instalment focuses on the circumstances
surrounding the gruesome events of January
2004 when a dead sperm whale exploded in the
middle of a Taiwan street.
At 6.30am on 26 January 2004, police were called
to a grisly scene on a busy street in Tainan, southern
Taiwan. A huge dead body lay on the back of a
truck, while blood and entrails were spread across
the road, nearby cars and shopfronts. All the
stunned bystanders knew was that a whale had just
blown up in the street.
The 50-ton sperm whale – the biggest ever
recorded in Taiwan –was being transported from
the coast where it had washed up 24 hours earlier to
a university for examination. But the journey was
cut short by the unimaginable event. Large parts of
intestine, chunks of blubber and gallons of blood
burst from the tail section of the animal, bringing

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world returns. Using testimony from scientific experts, interviews with the key players and dramatic reconstructions, the series tells the stories of unique discoveries that have shocked naturalists and led to a broader understanding of the animal kingdom. This first episode examines the discovery of a mysterious animal in a remote part of the Arctic Circle.

In April 2006, hunter Jim Martell set out on an expedition to track down one of the most fearsome creatures on Earth – the polar bear. As the world’s largest land predator, the polar bear has been known to target humans. For Jim, his journey to the remote Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic Circle to confront these beasts was the trip of a lifetime. Accompanied by his Inuit guide, Roger Kuptana, Jim set off in the early hours of the morning, not expecting the drama that would soon follow.

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world concludes with a look at the discovery of thousands of giant jellyfishin Japanese waters.

On 25th August 2005, Japanese fishermen in the Tsushima Strait made a gruesome discovery as they pulled in their nets. Instead of the expected quota of anchovies and salmon, they had hauled aboard an altogether more deadly catch – thousands of giant Nomura’s jellyfish, with a mass of stinging tentacles and enough venom to kill all of the shocked fishermen. That night, they landed over three tonnes of jellyfish. But little did they know that below the surface, billions more jellyfish were coming up from the deep –some as big as a sumo wrestler.

nature shock
the zombie alligators (5/6)

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This programme focuses on a bizarre chain of events in Lake Griffin, Florida, which turned a once peaceful wilderness into a scene reminiscent of a horror film. Over a period of years, a number of Griffin’s resident alligators were turning up dead, but scientists were baffled as to the cause.

nature shock
the dolphin murders (4/6)

The documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This programme focuses on a series of attacks on dolphins and porpoises in Virginia and Scotland. The victims all shared horrific internal injuries yet showed no sign of external trauma. Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic considered everything from underwater explosions to predation by other creatures in a bid to try and explain the deaths.

In 1997, marine biologists in Virginia were astonished to find the bodies of two dolphin calves with seemingly inexplicable injuries. Neither dolphin showed signs of injury on the outside, yet post-mortem exams revealed massive internal damage, including bleeding, shattered ribs and fractured organs. “We saw things like massive fractures of all the ribs on one side,” recalls biologist William McLellan. “It looked like the ribs had just been imploded.”

nature shock
the bodiless bear (3/6)

The fascinating documentary series examining freak occurrences in the natural world continues. This programme looks at a series of brutal attacks on black bears in Yellowstone Park, including the extraordinary case of a severed bear head. As experts examined the seemingly unrelated cases, they found evidence that the killings were the work of the black bear’s more aggressive relative, the grizzly bear.

In 1990, whilst hiking through Yellowstone National Park, bear expert Dr David Mattson came across a most hideous and unbelievable sight: the severed head of a black bear. Mattson describes his grisly find as “one of the most macabre things I’ve ever seen”. The case of the bodiless bear, and three subsequent bear slayings, would go on to shed new light on what scientists understand about bears and their habitat.

nature shock
the revengeful elephant (2/6)

This fascinating series of documentaries examines freak occurrences in the natural world. Using testimony from scientific experts, interviews with the key players and dramatic reconstructions, the programmes tell the stories of unique discoveries that have shocked naturalists and led to a broader understanding of the animal kingdom. This programme examines a series of seemingly unprovoked attacks by elephants on a range of animals across Africa.

nature shock
the snake that exploded (1/6)

This new series of documentaries examines freak occurrences in the natural world. Using testimony from scientific experts, interviews with the key players and dramatic reconstructions, the programmes tell the stories of unique discoveries that have shocked naturalists and led to a broader understanding of the animal kingdom. The first documentary of the series examines the discovery of a bizarre, mangled reptile corpse in Florida.

The Snake that Exploded takes viewers to the Everglades National Park in Florida. While flying back to base after a routine land survey on 26th November 2005, contract pilot Michael Barron spotted something unusual in the water below. “What struck my attention was the size of it,” recalls Barron. “It was amazingly big.”

nature shock

Coming soon to Five is a brand new series of documentaries examining freak occurences in the natural world. Using testimony from scientific experts, interviews with the key players and dramatic reconstructions, the programmes tell the stories of unique discoveries from across the globe that have shocked naturalists and led to a broader understanding of the animal kingdom.

The first documentary of the series, ‘The Snake that Exploded’, takes us to the Everglades National Park in Florida. While flying back to base after a routine land survey on 26th November 2005, contract pilot Michael Barron spotted something unusual in the water below. “What struck my attention was the size of it,” recalls Michael. “It was amazingly big.”