Ushuaïa TV

It was long believed that animals only played to learn, only mated to reproduce and only took drugs by accident. But sometimes, they just do it for fun! Research has revealed that animals seek for pleasure just like humans do, and that there are many ways in which they enjoy themselves. Did you know that rats loved to play hide-and-seek? That primates played erotic games to ease tensions within their groups? Or that reindeers were quite fond of hallucinogenic mushrooms? Scientists show that this quest for pleasure – as wild as it can get – might even be a key of evolution and biodiversity! Combining the testimonies of international ethologists, scientific archives and sequences showing the animals in their natural habitats, this unusual documentary reveals the complexity of animal pleasure.

In the Darhat valley in northern Mongolia, the horses of nomadic tribes are stolen by bandits who then sell them to Russian slaughterhouses. Shukhert, a brave horseman, relentlessly pursues them through the Mongolian taiga, bordering Siberia.

French actress Marion Cotillard travelled to the Philippines to meet with children and young people on climate change and what they want big-polluting governments to do about it. One of the girls she met is Marinel, a survivor of the Super Typhoon disaster in the Philippines in 2013, who is taking action on climate change in her own community. She participates in Plan International’s climate change adaptation projects and now teaches at youth camps to pass on everything she has learnt to the younger children. Marinel travelled to Paris with Plan International for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in December 2015.

Rather than learning France's history through its people, we explore its natural history. A two billion-year journey back in time to look at the country's geological heritage: a mountain chain becomes Brittany, lagoons where Paris now stands, ice from the Aiguille du Midi maps the routes of rivers flowing seawards.

This investigation by Marie-Monique Robin makes the link between the proliferation of new viruses and the destruction of biodiversity and probes the scientists gathered around the issue of global health. To counter the multiplication of health crises, these specialists advocate the preservation of biodiversity as an antidote.

Man has always sought to seek further afield. After the seafaring explorers of the 16th century, 21st century cosmologists today navigate more celestial oceans, with each mission providing an ever-broader and more impressive cartography of our surroundings. At the avant garde of modern technology, these strange travellers are actually immobile, and their vessels are powerful and spectacular telescopes, on the Earth or in space, constantly widening the limits of our knowledge and giving form to our dreams of infinity. From Hawaii to Australia, via South Africa and China, we set out on an incredible scientific and human adventure to visit the planet's greatest cosmic exploration centres to discover the new challenges involved in understanding the universe. A journey on Earth and in the heavens that will take your breath away!

For the animal and plant world that lives there, the Kalahari is a region as grandiose as it is unforgiving. For a long time it was thought that only the law of the strongest could survive here. But a completely different strategy is needed: cooperation.

Who knows about springtails? And among those for whom this name rings a bell, how many have already seen them? Yet, these small animals, similar to insects, are present in all terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails are undisputed soil regulators. Scientists recognize them today as absolutely essential, especially in the search for pollutants, disruptors, and all the variations that affect our soils, but this little animal is almost unknown. Thanks to extremely precise cameras, as close as possible to these microscopic animals, a teeming life is revealed before our eyes. According to the seasons, the film invites us to get into the intimacy of the springtails, to discover their morphology, their role and their usefulness in the ecosystems of the planet while rubbing shoulders with other organisms in the same environments.

For more than a decade, wildfires of unprecedented force have been devouring our lives, homes and forests at a steady pace. Each year, 350 million hectares of forest go up in smoke, the equivalent of six times the size of France. In the US, the fire season now lasts up to two months longer than a generation ago, and the surface burnt annually has multiplied by three. This film sets out on a gripping journey of investigation from Europe to the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia to follow the work of a global team of dedicated firefighters, scientists and fire experts as they investigate why our forests are going up in flames, and act on an unexpected discovery: if we want to save our forests, homes, health and our climate, we need to radically change our attitude towards fire and the way we fight wildfires.

Dreamer of images and lover of the cold, wildlife photographer Jérémie Villet travels alone through the white deserts of the northern hemisphere in search of animals that blend into the snow. Jérémie is about to explore the wild and extreme Yukon region in Northern Canada, in search of the emblematic mountain goat.

The "gravity" nightmare is becoming a reality: tons of rocket and satellite parts have been scattered into space over the past 60 years. The fragments collide with other objects, producing more and more scrap - a proliferation that has long since gotten out of control and poses an acute danger to rocket launches and space stations.

Every year in Tanzania, the dry season hits the Ruaha reserve hard. To survive, animal populations come down from the high plateaus to reach the Ruaha river, where a troupe of lionesses waits patiently, poised for combat