Great Migrations event coming to National Geographic

National Geographic launched its spectacular new documentary series to media last night at a screening in Sydney.

Great Migrations is a 7 part series looking at the survival of animal species, which is set to air in November.

Three years in the making, the HD series will premiere globally in November. The series capitalises on innovations in technology to capture stunning cinematography.

It is narrated by Alec Baldwin.

Shot from land and air, in trees and cliff-blinds, on ice floes and underwater, Great Migrations tells the powerful stories of many of the planet’s species and their movements, while revealing new scientific insights with breathtaking high-definition clarity and emotional impact. The beauty of these stories is underscored by a new focus into these species’ fragile existence and their life-and-death quest for survival in an ever-changing world.

The National Geographic Great Migrations team spent two and a half years in the field, travelling 670,000 kilometres across 20 countries and all seven continents to bring this ambitious production to television. Seven hours in total, Great Migrations premieres worldwide this November in 330 million homes, 166 countries and 34 languages, with four core hours chronicling epic animal migration.

Additional hours include a special on scientific investigation of the mysteries of animal migration; a behind-the-scenes special on the advanced technology, dramatic challenges and passion required to capture these spectacular events; and an hour-long visual concert comprised of the stunning footage set to original music.

Great Migrations features the most-in depth visual record of a diverse range of animal migrations, including:
* Botswana zebras
* Mali elephants
* Red crabs on Christmas Island
* Flying foxes in Australia
* Army ants in Costa Rica
* Pacific great white sharks

Great Migrations also features never-before and rarely seen animal behaviours on film:
* The dramatic and bizarre moment a herd of Mail elephants pay tribute to a calf who died in the scorching sun
* A male zebra in Botswana risking losing his herd and his own life while patiently encouraging a foal to leave his slain mother
* Off the coast of Guadalupe Island, a great white shark devouring an elephant seal
* A group of 10 male sperm whales – some the size of a school bus – rubbing up against one another with surprising intimacy; and mothers and calves travelling together in groups of a dozen or more
* Massive numbers of white-eared kob of the Sudan, thought to have been wiped out during 20 years of violent unrest, filmed for the first time in decades
* First comprehensive HD footage of the possibly emerging global warming-driven walrus crisis in the Russian Arctic, and new documentation of this potential crisis
* First HD footage of complex interaction between jellyfish and their multiple predators in Jellyfish Lake on Palau
* First radio transmitter attached to a butterfly and an elephant seal, both documented in the Science of Great Migrations episode