# The 32 Best Wildlife Documentaries of All Time

> Some of these crews spent years in a single forest or under polar ice; others changed how the public thinks about orcas and plastic. 1950s pioneers share the list with streaming-age epics.

*By YPB Team · Published October 27, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-32-best-wildlife-documentaries-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Planet Earth** — score 1000/1000
   The 2006 BBC series that set a new standard for wildlife filmmaking with aerial and high-definition footage of every major habitat.
2. **Planet Earth II** — score 936/1000
   The 2016 sequel shot in 4K, remembered for the iguana-versus-racer-snakes chase and its episode on city wildlife.
3. **Our Planet** — score 817/1000
   Netflix's 2019 series with Attenborough and WWF, pairing spectacular footage with the threats each habitat now faces.
4. **The Blue Planet** — score 723/1000
   The BBC's landmark 2001 series on the world's oceans, the first to film much of the deep sea's strange life.
5. **Earth** — score 645/1000
   The 2007 feature film drawn from Planet Earth footage, following a polar bear, elephants and humpback whales over a year.
6. **The Silent World** — score 548/1000
   Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle's 1956 underwater film, one of the first to show the ocean in color, winner of the Palme d'Or and an Oscar.
7. **Life** — score 548/1000
   A 2009 BBC series on the extraordinary strategies animals and plants use to survive, from Komodo dragons to tool-using capuchins.
8. **The Living Planet** — score 490/1000
   Attenborough's 1984 BBC follow-up exploring how life adapts to every habitat on the planet, from deserts to open ocean.
9. **The Life of Birds** — score 490/1000
   Attenborough's 1998 ten-part BBC survey of bird life, featuring the superb-lyrebird mimicking chainsaws and camera shutters.
10. **Planet Earth III** — score 490/1000
   The 2023 third chapter of the franchise, mixing new technology with stories of animals adapting to a changing world.
11. **Frozen Planet** — score 490/1000
   The BBC's 2011 series on life in the Arctic and Antarctic across the seasons, with wolves, polar bears and penguins.
12. **The Hunt** — score 490/1000
   The BBC's 2015 series focused entirely on predators and their prey, showing how often the hunters fail.
13. **Frozen Planet II** — score 490/1000
   The 2022 return to the planet's coldest places, documenting how melting ice is changing life at the poles and on mountain tops.
14. **Chimp Empire** — score 490/1000
   A 2023 Netflix series following the politics and rivalries of a huge chimpanzee community in Uganda's Ngogo forest.
15. **Seven Worlds, One Planet** — score 490/1000
   The BBC's 2019 series devoting one episode to the wildlife of each continent.
16. **The Living Desert** — score 425/1000
   Disney's 1953 True-Life Adventure on the creatures of the American Southwest desert, winner of the Oscar for best documentary.
17. **Microcosmos** — score 425/1000
   A 1996 French film that follows insects in a single meadow in extreme close-up, with almost no narration.
18. **Africa** — score 425/1000
   A 2013 BBC series filmed across the continent's deserts, savannas and jungles, including the night-time rhino gathering in the Kalahari.
19. **Chimpanzee** — score 425/1000
   Disneynature's 2012 film about an orphaned young chimp adopted by the group's alpha male in Ivory Coast's Taï Forest.
20. **Dynasties** — score 425/1000
   A 2018 BBC series following five animal families, including chimpanzees, emperor penguins and lions, over years of filming.
21. **The Trials of Life** — score 350/1000
   A 1990 Attenborough series on animal behaviour, from courtship to hunting, including the orcas beaching themselves to seize sea lions.
22. **Life in Cold Blood** — score 350/1000
   Attenborough's 2008 BBC series on reptiles and amphibians, completing his decades-long 'Life' collection.
23. **Blue Planet II** — score 350/1000
   The 2017 ocean series whose scenes of plastic pollution helped spark a worldwide campaign against single-use plastic.
24. **Night on Earth** — score 350/1000
   A 2020 Netflix series filmed with low-light cameras to show what animals do after dark.
25. **Winged Migration** — score 350/1000
   Jacques Perrin's 2001 film that flies alongside migrating birds across seven continents.
26. **Oceans** — score 350/1000
   Jacques Perrin's 2009 feature on marine life, filmed over four years with custom underwater rigs.
27. **Life on Earth** — score 264/1000
   David Attenborough's 1979 BBC series tracing the evolution of life, famous for his close encounter with mountain gorillas.
28. **My Octopus Teacher** — score 264/1000
   The 2020 Oscar-winning film about a diver's year-long bond with a wild octopus in a South African kelp forest.
29. **March of the Penguins** — score 163/1000
   The 2005 Oscar-winning film about emperor penguins' long journey to their breeding grounds in the Antarctic winter.
30. **The Cove** — score 163/1000
   The 2009 Oscar winner that secretly filmed the dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan.
31. **Blackfish** — score 163/1000
   The 2013 film on the orca Tilikum and captive killer whales at SeaWorld, which changed public views of marine parks.
32. **Grizzly Man** — score 0/1000
   Werner Herzog's 2005 film built from Timothy Treadwell's own footage of the Alaskan bears he lived among.

Tags: movies, nature, animals, tv shows, documentary