Every year, in the seas surrounding Antarctica, an extraordinary event takes place. As the chill of a night which will last for six months envelops the frozen continent, the surface of the surrounding sea turns to solid ice, trapping everything in its path in an icy fist.This seemingly inhospitable and barren expanse of ice provides the basis of an intricate web of survival on which the lives of all of Antarctica's inhabitants, from microscopic krill to mammoth whales, depend. But as winter's long pause turns to polar summer, icebergs are released from this blanket of ice to be sculpted into surreal forms by wind and water as they resume their inevitable journey towards death. A year-and-a-half in the making, The Crystal Ocean is a compelling and visually stunning portrait of the cycle of freeze and thaw, life and death in the most extreme environment on earth.

It’s a horrific moment. Dr. Brady Barr, National Geographic Channel’s premiere herpetologist, is bitten by a 3.5 metre python.

National Geographic herpetologist Dr Brady Barr is headed to remote caves in Indonesia, to study one of the longest of all snake species; the rare and little-known reticulated python of Asia. First, he travels to Zoo Negara in Malaysia to measure what is supposed to be the longest snake in captivity. He's knocked over by the snake's size and power - literally! Brady is ready for the field… or so he thinks. The Indonesian cave that he and herpetologist, Dr Mark Auliya, explore is fraught with danger - waist-deep bat guano, cockroaches, snakes, giant spiders, concentrated ammonia and not enough oxygen. But worst of all, as he and Mark try to capture a big retic, the snake slithers into the river of bat feces and, while trying to get away, bites Brady on the leg! It's a hideous wound and Brady is in serious danger of infection. To get treatment, he has to hike for hours uphill and then is treated in two local clinics. Does it stop him working on snakes? No way. Six weeks later Brady returns to the cave learning crucial information about python biology and the need to protect these caves as a vital resource for these magnificent, giant snakes.

The infamous rough seas of Patagonia on the South American coast have created one of the harshest environments on Earth. To live there you need to be tough. And on the coast they are as tough as they come; every year a host of fighters arrive to breed. The arrival of penguins, sea lions, and elephant seals is a signal- let the games begin! From the penguin feather-weights to a clash of the titans- enormous four ton elephant seals that sumo wrestle for ownership of the beach. Only the fighting championships can decide who wins in the gritty underworld of The Real Fight Club.

At night, New Zealand's forests come alive with flightless birds, bats that forage on the ground and giant insects.