Share:

Movies: Best "nature documentary" Movies

A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's natural habitat, but often including footage of trained and captive animals, too. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series which is distributed across the world. ()

All Providers

Sort by:
221 movies found (page 1/8):

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet(2020)

1h 23min | Documentary
4.3/5 (with 134 votes)

The story of life on our planet by the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other. In more than 90 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Addressing the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, the film offers a powerful message of hope for future generations.

Fire of Love(2022)

PG
| 1h 33min | Documentary
3.7/5 (with 57 votes)

A doomed love triangle between intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, and their beloved volcanoes.

Directed by Sara Dosa

My Octopus Teacher(2020)

1h 24min | Documentary
4.0/5 (with 369 votes)

After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her den and tracking her movements for months on end he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal.

Directed by Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed

The Elephant Queen(2019)

PG
| 1h 36min | Documentary, Kids & Family
3.8/5 (with 27 votes)

Join Athena, the majestic matriarch, as she leads her elephant herd across an unforgiving African landscape.

Koyaanisqatsi(1982)

NR
| 1h 26min | Documentary
4.0/5 (with 271 votes)

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Directed by Godfrey Reggio

Elephant(2020)

3.9/5 (with 45 votes)

Disneynature’s Elephant follows African elephant Shani and her spirited son Jomo as their herd make an epic journey hundreds of miles across the vast Kalahari Desert. Led by their great matriarch, Gaia, the family faces brutal heat, dwindling resources and persistent predators, as they follow in their ancestors’ footsteps on a quest to reach a lush, green paradise.

March of the Penguins(2005)

3.5/5 (with 495 votes)

Every year, thousands of Antarctica's emperor penguins make an astonishing journey to breed their young. They walk, marching day and night in single file 70 miles into the darkest, driest and coldest continent on Earth. This amazing, true-life tale is touched with humour and alive with thrills. Breathtaking photography captures the transcendent beauty and staggering drama of devoted parent penguins who, in the fierce polar winter, take turns guarding their egg and trekking to the ocean in search of food. Predators hunt them, storms lash them. But the safety of their adorable chicks makes it all worthwhile. So follow the leader... to adventure!!

Directed by Luc Jacquet

Deep Sea 3D(2006)

G
| 41min | Documentary
3.3/5 (with 32 votes)

Sea life in a whole new way. Deep Sea 3D, an underwater adventure from the filmmakers behind the successful IMAX® 3D film Into the Deep, transports audiences deep below the ocean surface. Through the magic of IMAX®; and IMAX 3D, moviegoers will swim with some of the planets most unique, dangerous and colorful creatures, and understand this inspiring underworld.

Directed by Howard Hall - With Johnny Depp

Bears(2014)

G
| 1h 18min | Documentary
3.7/5 (with 69 votes)

Filmmakers Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey chronicle a year in the lives of an Alaskan brown bear named Sky and her cubs, Scout and Amber. Their saga begins as the bears emerge from hibernation at the end of winter. As time passes, the bear family must work together to find food and stay safe from other predators, especially other bears. Although their world is exciting, it is also risky, and the cubs' survival hinges on family togetherness.

Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Adam Chapman - With John C. Reilly

Microcosmos(1996)

G
| 1h 20min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 95 votes)

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

Blue Planet II(2017)

6h 4min | Documentary

There is nowhere more powerful and unforgiving yet more beautiful and compelling than the ocean. Join us and explore the greatest yet least known parts of our planet.

Polar Bear(2022)

1h 24min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 23 votes)

A new mother’s memories of her own youth prepare her to navigate motherhood in the increasingly challenging world that polar bears face today.

Ad Protect Your Online Privacy with a VPN

Don't risk your personal information and online activities being exposed to hackers, government surveillance, and other online threats. A VPN encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP, giving you maximum security and privacy. Take control of your online safety, switch to a VPN now. Choose one of these services to learn more:

Kiss the Ground(2020)

1h 25min | Documentary
4.0/5 (with 27 votes)

Sheds light on an alternative approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.

Directed by Rebecca Harrell Tickell, Josh Tickell - With Gisele Bündchen, Woody Harrelson

Anaconda: Silent Killer(2014)

52min | Documentary
3.3/5 (with 3 votes)

Exploring the large and powerful anaconda in remote parts of the Amazon rainforest.

Directed by Marion Pöllmann

Animals Are Beautiful People(1974)

3.9/5 (with 28 votes)

Animals Are Beautiful People (aka Beautiful People) is a 1974 nature documentary about the wildlife in Southern Africa. It was filmed in the Namib Desert, the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango River and Okavango Delta. It was produced for cinema and has a length of slightly more than 90 minutes.

Directed by Jamie Uys - With Holger Hagen

Brothers in Blood: The Lions of Sabi Sand(2015)

1h 28min | Documentary
4.2/5 (with 5 votes)

This is a powerful documentary, filmed over a 16 year span, about the rise of a Coalition of six lions, branded The Mapogo Lions, and their takeover of the largest territory by a pride.

To the Arctic(2012)

G
| 40min | Documentary
3.1/5 (with 10 votes)

A journey into the lives of a mother polar bear and her two seven-month-old cubs as they navigate the changing Arctic wilderness they call home.

Directed by Greg MacGillivray

Humpback Whales(2015)

40min | Documentary
3.5/5 (with 7 votes)

Humpback Whales takes audiences to Alaska, Hawaii and the Kingdom of Tonga for a close-up look at how these whales communicate, sing, feed, play and take care of their young. Humpbacks were nearly driven to extinction 50 years ago, but today are making a steady recovery. Join a team of researchers as they explore what makes humpbacks the most acrobatic of all whales, why only the males sing, and why these intelligent 50-foot, 48-ton animals migrate more than 6,000 miles round-trip every year.

Directed by Greg MacGillivray - With Ewan McGregor

Deepsea Challenge(2014)

PG
| 1h 30min | Documentary
3.3/5 (with 19 votes)

Described as being a film about determination, danger and the ocean’s greatest depths, James Cameron's "Deepsea Challenge 3D" tells the story of Cameron’s journey to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming an explorer. The movie offers a unique insight into Cameron's world as he makes that dream reality – and makes history – by becoming the first person to travel solo to the deepest point on the planet.

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar(2014)

G
| 39min | Documentary
3.1/5 (with 13 votes)

The incredible true story of nature’s greatest explorers—lemurs. Through footage captured with IMAX 3D, audiences go on a spectacular journey to the remote and wondrous world of Madagascar. Join trailblazing scientist Patricia Wright on her lifelong mission to help these strange and adorable creatures survive in the modern world.

Directed by David Douglas - With Morgan Freeman

Seasons(2016)

1h 36min | Documentary
3.4/5 (with 29 votes)

Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud travel throughout Europe to film brown bears, wild horses, wolves and other animals in their natural habitat.

Oceans: Our Blue Planet(2018)

NR
| 40min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 6 votes)

Embark on a global odyssey to discover the largest and least explored habitat on earth. New ocean science and technology has allowed us to go further into the unknown than we ever thought possible.

The Vanishing Prairie(1954)

1h 11min | Documentary
3.6/5 (with 12 votes)

Story of the American Prairie as it was when vast herds of bison and elk grazed.

Directed by James Algar

National Geographic: Eternal Enemies Lions and Hyenas(1992)

4.0/5 (with 1 vote)

Trek into the hidden battlefields of northern Botswana where lions and spotted hyenas clash in overlapping territories. With never-before-seen footage, much of it filmed at night, you'll uncover an intense and vicious blood feud that has been waged for millennia. Follow the Southern Clan, led by a powerful hyena matriarch whose firstborn female cub kills her sister at birth to assure her succession as leader of the clan. Lurk in the shadows as a lioness from the Central Pride gives birth to three cubs and then encounters a deadly Egyptian cobra. You'll be stunned by breathtaking chase scenes as the hyena matriarch is brutally killed by a male lion, throwing the clan into chaos. Discover nature's savage conflicts in this ancient rivalry.

IMAX Dolphins and Whales: Tribes of the Ocean(2008)

42min | Documentary
3.5/5 (with 4 votes)

This documentary goes to coral reefs of the Bahamas and the waters of the Kingdom of Tonga for a close encounter with the surviving tribes of the ocean: wild dolphins and belugas, the love of a Humpback mother for her newborn calf, the singing Humpback males, an orca the mighty King of the ocean, and the gentle manatee. Little-known aspects of these creatures capable of sophisticated communication and social interaction. Documents the life of these graceful, majestic yet endangered sea creatures.

The Private Life of Plants(1995)

4h 52min | Documentary
4.3/5 (with 14 votes)

David Attenborough takes us on a guided tour through the secret world of plants, to see things no unaided eye could witness. Each episode in this six-part series focuses on one of the critical stages through which every plant must pass if it is to survive:- travelling, growing, and flowering; struggling with one another; creating alliances with other organisms both plant and animal; and evolving complex ways of surviving in the earth's most ferociously hostile environments.

Into the Grand Canyon(2019)

1h 24min | Documentary
3.9/5 (with 7 votes)

Two journalists traverse the Grand Canyon by foot, hoping this 750-mile walk will help them better understand one of America's most revered landscapes and the threats poised to alter it forever.

Journey to the South Pacific(2013)

G
| 40min | Documentary, Adventure
2.9/5 (with 2 votes)

An underwater voyage to Indonesia to learn about its inhabitants such as giant rays and whale sharks as well as efforts being made in the region for ocean conservation.

Directed by Greg MacGillivray

Hidden Kingdoms(2014)

2h 30min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 6 votes)

Immerse yourself in the lives of extraordinary characters that stand a few inches tall. From chipmunks to mice, be entertained and spellbound by the creatures that call the Hidden Kingdoms home.

Africa: The Serengeti(1994)

40min | Documentary
3.0/5 (with 7 votes)

Africa the Serengeti takes you on an extraordinary journey to view a spectacle few humans have ever witnessed: The Great Migration. Journey with more than two million wildebeests, zebras and antelopes as in their annual 500 mile trek across the Serengeti plains.

Directed by George Casey
previous page
next page