Catch up TV

Series 1: Episode 3

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan leads a team of animal camera experts as they join forces with scientists to put cameras on animals.\n\nIn the heart of the Atlantic, Gordon Buchanan joins a team looking to discover why huge numbers of devil rays, fish with 'wings' nearly four metres across, gather every summer near the Azores archipelago. The team deploy specially designed cameras which are towed behind the rays and can survive the crushing ocean depths. The never-before-seen footage includes rays feeding on plankton and 'sun-bathing' to warm up after a chilly dive. Most exciting of all, the cameras film unborn ray pups kicking inside their mothers - a sign that this gathering might be a breeding ground for these mysterious ocean giants.\n\nIn northeast Turkey the on-board cameras are carried by brown bears as part of a study trying to understand why so many bears survive in a small patch of forest. The cameras capture a dramatic fight between two males, a lengthy chase through the forest and a touching courtship scene. The footage helps the scientists' conservation plans by revealing that, although the forest is excellent bear habitat, it probably can't support many more of these endangered predators.\n\nIn southern France on-board cameras help scientists trying to prove that guard dogs can help protect sheep flocks from wolf attacks. The night-vision cameras show how the dogs work together as a team to fend off the wolves. This could be great news for people who want to see wolf numbers increase in the French countryside.

Source: BBC 1