Herbert Ostwald

Animals and plants play an important role in the Christian festival. This documentary answers questions about the natural history of Christmas: How are the descendants of the biblical donkey doing? How do Santa's reindeer survive the winter? And what does the robin have to do with all this? Adventurous stories set in dreamlike landscapes around the world.

In this documentary, nature photographer Benny Rebel embarks on a multiweek expedition to capture images of wildlife native to his homeland of Iran.

Most people think they know everything about cows: They stand around in fields. They eat grass, moo every now and then and of course they give milk. They are the archetypal symbols of a rural scene, of everlasting tranquility. But cows are much more than that. Cows are generally held to be peaceful and a bit stupid. However, that's actually a big misunderstanding. Because cows have personalities, they are sensitive, able to learn and socially oriented, but also quite able to defend themselves. In two parts, with spellbinding images, employing new camera angles in an entertaining, unusual and exciting way, this film tells the story of some quite surprising aspects of a cow's life.

A library on four legs, the world's only existing Camel Library is located in Northern Kenya. As they pass antelopes and giraffes, the heavily loadedcaravan of camels are routinely carrying books through the rough savannah.In the villages with their houses of mud and dung these tenacious desert ships are wishfully awaited by the people of the nomadic Muslim tribes. Under the shade of acacia trees, especially the children are excitedly turning pages of school books, novels and comics. However, 400 kilometers outside of the capital city of Nairobi the local librarians are still struggling with illiteracy, old traditions, insufficient funds, blistering sun and - stubborn camels... This is the story about the Camel Library, about inquisitive children, about the origins of a book and about a camel and an exceptional librarian in the heart of Africa within the UNESCO-world decade of alphabetization.

Barely known and never seen, elephant shrews baffle even the zoologists. With their stilt-like legs and long mobile trunk, joined to the body of a large shrew with a golden bottom, they certainly deserve their name - though they are related to neither elephant not shrew! This shy, endangered creature has become the mascot of Kenya’s beautiful Arabuko National Park. The income they attract via tourism pays for the education of local children. The elephant shrew has truly become the Spirit of the Forest.

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Africa's giant rats – the size of a cat – can be trained to detect land-mines by smelling them. Giant rats are clever and they learn fast. Their sense of smell is better than a dog's, they have more stamina, and they're a lot cheaper to train. This documentary follows "Miss Marple", who was born in a training lab and who goes through a year's training before being sent on her first mission to Mozambique. A shorter version (43 minutes) screened at festivals in 2009 but was never widely released.

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Biologists at the University of Münster take a deep dive into the lives of guinea pigs to unveil the highly intelligent side to these cute rodents.

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Jimmy is a burglar and a loner, Long-Fingered Fred excels in breaking into cars, while Merlin prefers to target restaurants. Meet the alpha males of the infamous Smits Baboon Gang.

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Since the disappearance of the last male northern white rhino in 2018, only a mother and daughter remain as representatives of the species in a Kenyan reserve. Mammoths, which became extinct 4,000 years ago, are attracting the interest of the private American laboratory Colossal Biosciences. Its researchers are working to produce ex vivo (with artificial wombs) embryos from cells harvested from mammoths, liberated from the thawed soils of Siberia, and from Asian elephant oocytes, 99.6% of whose genome matches that of the ancient mastodon. They hope to have their first baby mammoth by 2028.

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The story of this amazingly social and cunning creature ranges from the altars of ancient rituals to the bedrooms of countless kids, and from its status as the sacred animal of the Inca to research model for human society. This upbeat and humorous documentary portrays the Guinea pigs as pets and wild animals who are at home especially in the Andes and other regions of South America.

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Africa's giant rats, which are the size of a cat, can be trained to detect landmines by smell. Giant rats are smart and they learn quickly. Their sense of smell is better than that of a dog. They have more stamina, and they are much cheaper to train.

A fascinating in-depth look at the tiny, furless African mammals who have a busy social life that remarkably resembles insect interactions.