Episodes

Episode 1 - Great White Shark

How did the shark become the biggest fish in the sea?

Episode 2 - Monster Python

The team venture into the swamps of the Florida Everglades in search of the giant Burmese Python.

Episode 3 - Big Cats

From the outside, the lion and the tiger look very different, but once their skins are removed, even the experts find it hard to tell the two apart.

Episode 1 - Great White Shark

In the first programme of the series the experts travel to South Africa to dissect a Great White Shark.  Weighing in at almost a ton (900kg) – and nearly fifteen feet (4.5 metres) in length – this is the largest specimen caught in the country’s shark protection nets since 2002.

Joy Reidenberg has dissected many whales, but has never ventured inside a Great White before. She uncovers the shark’s incredible array of senses, including a unique ability to detect the electro-magnetic field given off by the Earth and other creatures.  And she braves a cage to see Great Whites close up in the water.

Mark Evans investigates the origins of the shark’s infamous killing bite and, out at sea, a bite force test on a live Great White shows just how powerful those jaws really are.  Richard Dawkins explains how the teeth and jaws evolved from the shark’s outer skin and gill arches. Using a massive tooth from a prehistoric shark, Simon Watt explains that there were once sharks three times bigger than the largest Great Whites – up to sixty feet in length!

During the dissection, the team reveal how the Great White’s gigantic liver has played a key role in the shark becoming the biggest fish in the sea.  The programme also investigates whether the animal’s reputation as a man killer is really deserved.

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for Channel 4, NGCI
Distributed by Silverlining