A natural history film or wildlife film is
a documentary film about animals, plants,
or other non-human living creatures, usually
concentrating on film taken in their natural
habitat but also often including footage of
trained and captive animals.
Sometimes they are about wild animals, plants,
or ecosystems in relationship to human beings.
Such programmes are most frequently made for
television, particularly for public broadcasting
channels, but some are also made for the cinema
medium.
The proliferation of this genre occurred almost
simultaneously alongside the production of
similar television series.
== History ==
=== 
In cinema ===
Robert J. Flaherty's 1922 film Nanook of the
North is typically cited as the first feature-length
documentary.
Decades later, The Walt Disney Company pioneered
the serial theatrical release of nature-documentaries
with its production of the True-Life Adventures
series, a collection of fourteen full length
and short subject nature films from 1948 to
1960.
Prominent among those were The Living Desert
(1953) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954), both
written and directed by James Algar.
The first full-length nature-documentary films
pioneering colour underwater cinematography
were the Italian film Sesto Continente (The
Sixth Continent) and the French film Le Monde
du silence (The Silent World).
Directed by Folco Quilici Sesto Continente
was shot in 1952 and first exhibited to Italian
audiences in 1954.
The Silent World, shot in 1954 and 1955 by
Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, was first
released in 1956.Many other nature-documentary
films followed in subsequent years, such as
those made by Nicolas Vanier (The Last Trapper,
2004), Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins,
2005), and Alastair Fothergill (African Cats,
2011), among others.
=== In television ===
In 1954, the BBC started airing Zoo Quest,
featuring David Attenborough.
Other early nature documentaries include Fur
and Feathers shown on CBC from 1955 to 1956
and hosted by Ian McTaggart-Cowan., and Look,
a studio-based BBC magazine-program with filmed
inserts, hosted by Sir Peter Scott from 1955
to 1981.
The first 50-minute weekly documentary series,
The World About Us, began on BBC2 in 1967
with a color installment from the French filmmaker
Haroun Tazieff, called "Volcano".
Around 1982, the series changed its title
to The Natural World, which the BBC Natural
History Unit in Bristol continues to produce
as of 2018.
In 1961, Anglia Television produced the first
of the award-winning Survival series.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, several
other television companies round the world
set up their own specialized natural-history
departments, including the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation in Melbourne, Australia and TVNZ's
unit in Dunedin, New Zealand — both still
in existence, the latter having changed its
name to "NHNZ".
ITV's contribution to the genre, Survival,
became a prolific series of single films.
It was eventually axed when the network introduced
a controversial new schedule which many commentators
have criticized as "dumbing down".
Wildlife and natural history films have boomed
in popularity and have become one of modern
society's most important sources of information
about the natural world.
Yet film and television critics and scholars
have largely ignored them.The BBC television
series Walking With, narrated by Kenneth Branagh,
used computer-generated imagery (CGI) and
animatronics to film prehistoric life in a
similar manner to other nature documentaries.
The shows (Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking
with Beasts, and Walking with Monsters) had
three spinoffs, two of which featured Nigel
Marven: Chased by Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters:
A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy.
Robert Winston presented Walking with Cavemen.
== Content ==
=== Overview ===
Most nature documentary films or television
series focus on a particular species, ecosystem,
or scientific idea (such as evolution).
Although most take a scientific and educational
approach, some anthropomorphise their subjects
or present animals purely for the viewer's
pleasure.
In a few instances, they are in presented
in ethnographic film formats and contain stories
that involve humans and their relationships
with the natural world - as in Nanook of the
North (1922), The Story of the Weeping Camel
(2003), and Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life
(1925).
Although almost all have a human presenter,
the role varies widely, ranging from explanatory
voiceovers to extensive interaction or even
confrontation with animals.
Most nature documentaries are made for television
and are usually of 45 to 50 minutes duration,
but some are made as full-length cinematic
presentations.
Such films include:
In addition, the BBC's The Blue Planet and
Planet Earth series have both been adapted
for theatrical release.In some cases, nature
documentaries are produced in the short subject
form and are subsequently screened in theaters
or broadcast on television.
Often they are about the relationship between
humans and nature.
Notable examples include:
Agafia's Taiga Life (2013)
Grand Canyon (1958)
In Beaver Valley (1950)
The Land (1942) 45-minute documentary made
for the U.S. Department of Agriculture
The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)
The River (1938)
Seal Island (1948)Every two years the Wildscreen
Trust, of Bristol in the UK presents the Panda
Awards for nature documentaries.
=== Staged content ===
Some nature documentaries, particularly those
involving animals, have included footage of
staged events that appear "natural" while
actually contrived by filmmakers or occurring
in captivity.
In a famous example, Walt Disney's White Wilderness
(1958), lemmings were hurled to their deaths
- but examples also occur in modern nature
documentaries, such as The Blue Planet (2001)
and it hasn't stopped there.
== Notable nature documentary filmmakers ==
Among the many notable filmmakers, scientists,
and presenters who have contributed to the
medium include:
Sir David Attenborough's contributions to
conservation are widely regarded, and his
television programs have been seen by millions
of people throughout the world.
Series narrated and/or presented by him include:
Steve Irwin's documentaries, based on wildlife
conservation and environmentalism, aired on
Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.
The series comprises:
The Crocodile Hunter (1992–2004), 74 episodes
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002),
Movie
Crocodile Hunter's Croc Files (1999), 52 episodes
Ten Deadliest Snakes In The World (2001)
The Crocodile Hunter Diaries (2001–2003),
30 episodes
New Breed Vets (2005), 6 episodes
Ocean's Deadliest (2006)Bindi Irwin inherited
her father Steve Irwin's responsibilities
after he died.
The following documentaries are based on wildlife
and aired on the Discovery Channel and Animal
Planet.
Bindi the Jungle Girl
My Daddy, the Crocodile Hunter (a tribute
to her father)
== List of nature documentary series ==
In addition to those listed above, the following
is a sampling of the genre:
== Current production ==
In recent years, most traditional style 'blue
chip' programming has become prohibitively
expensive and are funded by a set of co-producers,
usually a broadcaster (such as Animal Planet,
National Geographic, or NHK, Japan) from one
or several countries, a production company,
and sometimes a distributor which then has
the rights to sell the show into more territories
than the original broadcaster.
Two recent examples of co-productions that
were filmed by the BBC are The Blue Planet
and Planet Earth, the latter being the first
series of its kind to be made entirely in
high-definition format.
Production companies are increasingly exploiting
the filmed material, by making DVDs for home
viewing or educational purposes, or selling
library footage to advertisers, museum exhibitors,
and other documentary producers.
== See also ==
List of documentary films
List of insect documentaries
