One hundred milestones defining the development of wildlife filmmaking.

	Photographer Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of stills, proving all four of a horse's feet leave the ground at one time when it trots. These early 'animal locomotion’ photos are considered by most film historians to be the ‘origins’ of the moving picture.	1872
	Das Boxende Känguruh premieres at the first public projection of motion pictures in Germany and is one of the earliest examples of animal behaviour on film.	1895
	Rough Sea at Dover, considered by some to be the first natural history orientated film, premieres to a paying audience in New York City.	1896
	British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, pioneers of early cinema technology, releases Pelicans at the Zoo	1897
	The Sea Lions at Home premieres, regarded by many as the first true wildlife film due to is combination of wild animals, natural location and natural behaviour	1897
	The first British film featuring a staged confrontation between two animals is made by William K. Dickson and features a fight between a tarantula and a scorpion. More...	1900
	Charles Urban begins the Unseen World series of micro-bioscopic films with Cheese Mites.	1903
	Oliver Pike's film, In Birdland, thought to be the first British wildlife film, is screened to a public fee-paying audience.	1907
	Percy Smith's early time-lapse study, The Birth of a Flower, explores a variety of plants as they bloom, causing great excitement among cinemagoers.	1910
	J. C. Hemment makes what may be the first aerial film of wildlife; filming a flock of wild ducks.	1911
	Percy Smith's The Strength and Agility of Insects premieres showing insects lifting objects many times their size and weight.	1911
	Terrors of the Deep, one of the earliest underwater motion pictures, is produced by Ernest Williamson.	1914
	Inauguration of British Instructional Films' Secrets of Nature, with The Cuckoo's Secret shown as the first in a series which ran for 11 years.	1922
	Martin and Osa Johnson's film, Simba, is released with large scale success in American cinemas. The film follows the couple armed with both rifle and camera, as they explore the African sub-continent in search of its wildlife.	1928
	Cherry Kearton appears in front of the camera in his film, Dassan: An Adventure in Search of Laughter Featuring Nature’s Greatest Little Comedians.	1930
	Congorilla by Martin and Osa Johnson is touted as the "first sound from darkest" Africa	1932
	Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act passed in Britain to prevent cruelty to animals in films.	1937
	The British film, The Private Life of the Gannets, is the first wildlife film to receive an Academy Award for Best One Reel Short Subject.	1937
	Pirsch Unter Wasser follows Hans Hass as he explores life in a Caribbean coral reef and is one of the first underwater films to gain wide public attention.	1940
	Hans Hass pioneers the use of self-contained diving equipment with flippers to explore previously inaccessible cave environments in his film Men Among Sharks.	1942
	Marlin Perkins appears on early US TV (Chicago WBKB) in a series of programmes featuring zoo animals and thought to be the first wildlife television programme anywhere in the world.	1945
	The first of Disney's True Life Adventures, Seal Island, is released with anthropomorphic tendencies.	1948
	The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) begins filming birds as part of its efforts to protect them. The silent films are intended as lecture accompaniments. More...	1950
	In Under the Red Sea, Hans and Lotte Hass explore a wealth of marine behaviour never captured before, including the first pictures of a whale shark underwater and the film wins first prize at Venice for feature-length documentary.	1951
	Jacques Cousteau begins his career as a broadcaster and film producer and launches his famous research vessel Calypso.	1951
	Jacques Cousteau takes the first underwater colour footage whilst researching in the Red Sea.	1952
	David Attenborough's first television series featuring animals, The Pattern of Animals, airs on BBC.	1953
	Disney's first feature-length True Life Adventure, The Living Desert, premieres.	1953
	RSPB Film Unit formed.	1953
	The first outside broadcast, Severn Wildfowl, is filmed at Slimbridge with Peter Scott.	1953
	Wild Geese with Peter Scott, the first of a series of monthly wildlife programmes begins.	1953
	Armand and Michaela Denis make their first appearance on British TV with their glamorous travelogue, Filming Wild Animals.	1954
	Zoo Quest with David Attenborough airs on BBC.	1954
	Diving to Adventure with Hans and Lotte Hass premieres on the BBC.	1955
	Heinz Sielmann's Woodpeckers, with its pioneering filming techniques and never before seen footage from within woodpecker nest holes, is shown as part of the BBC's Look series.	1955
	Look, a regular wildlife series featuring Peter Scott premieres on the BBC with Heinz Sielmann's film Foxes. More...	1955
	Second series of David Attenborough's Zoo Quest airs.	1955
	Bernard Grzimek's releases his film, Kein Platz für wilde Tiere, which severely criticizes safari hunting and is regarded as one of the first conservation films.	1956
	Desmond Morris presents Zoo Time, a children's TV series and the first natural history programming on ITV	1956
	BBC Natural History Unit established.	1957
	James Fisher presents A Visit to Hagenbeck's Zoo, the first BBC NHU Eurovision outside broadcast	1957
	On Safari, with Armand and Michaela Denis, premieres on the BBC.	1958
	The Undersea World of Adventure, with Hans and Lotte Hass, premieres on the BBC.	1958
	Tony Soper produces the BBC's first full length wildlife film, The Fulmar	1958
	White Wilderness, a Disney True Life Adventure, featuring the infamous faked lemming 'suicide', wins an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.	1958
	Serengeti Shall Not Die is awarded an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.	1959
	Countryman featuring Aubrey Buxton airs on Anglia TV.	1960
	Gerald Thompson engineers innovative lighting systems to deal with his microscopic subjects in The Alder Woodwasp and its Insect Enemies.	1960
	Survival Anglia is established by Colin Willock and Aubrey Buxton.	1961
	Survival's SOS Rhino premieres, thought to be one of the earliest examples of a conservation film.	1961
	The London Scene, the first Survival production airs	1961
	The Unknown Forest premieres on the BBC, featuring intimate footage of badgers, foxes and fallow deer captured using Eric Ashby's invention of a home-made sound-proof box, the 'blimp'.	1961
	The first Animal Magic with Johnny Morris airs.	1962
	The Major is the first BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) production to be filmed in colour.	1963
	Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, filmed by Hugo Van Lawick is the first National Geographic Television programme about wildlife and is shown on CBS.	1965
	Born Free, a feature film based on Joy Adamson's book, brings wide popular attention to the plight of lions in Africa.	1966
	The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau premieres on Australian TV network ABC.	1966
	The Private Life of the Kingfisher is the first BBC production to be transmitted in colour.	1967
	The World About Us strand premieres on BBC2.	1967
	Oxford Scientific Films is founded by Gerald Thompson, David Thompson, Peter Parks, John Paling and Sean Morris.	1968
	Signals for Survival, featuring Niko Tinbergen, airs on the BBC's World About Us strand exploring in great detail the behaviour of a single species; the lesser black-backed gull.	1968
	Survival's The Enchanted Isles, is the first British natural history film to air on American network television.	1968
	Des and Jen Bartlett's The Incredible Flight of the Snow Geese airs on American TV and wins two Emmys.	1973
	Alan and Joan Root capture unique footage of wildebeest migration using cameras housed in tortoise shells in The Year of the Wildebeest.	1974
	Partridge Films is founded by Michael Rosenberg.	1974
	Survival's The Family that Lives with Elephants is broadcast on American TV after a brief copulation scene is removed.	1974
	Badger Watch premieres, pioneering the 'live' wildlife format.	1977
	Wildlife on One premieres on BBC1.	1977
	David Attenborough's legendary encounter with a family of mountain gorillas is a highlight of Life on Earth	1979
	Life on Earth, the BBC Natural History Unit's first mega-series, airs on BBC2.	1979
	Animals in Action, Survival's wildlife programme for children, premieres with host Keith Shackleton.	1980
	The BBC Natural History Unit's second mega-series, The Living Planet, premieres.	1982
	The first Wildscreen Festival, co-founded by Chris Parsons and Peter Scott	1982
	BBC2's longest running series, The Natural World, premieres.	1984
	Discovery Channel premieres on cable in the US.	1985
	BBC's childrens' wildlife programme, Really Wild Show, premieres on BBC.	1986
	In-Flight Movie, featuring innovative on-board cameras gives a unique insight into ornithological flight.	1987
	Meerkats United airs, and is later voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers	1987
	Supersense, widely acclaimed for its stunning special effects and innovative filming techniques, premieres.	1988
	Tony Soper and Martha Holmes present Reefwatch, the first ever live underwater broadcast.	1988
	David Attenborough's The Trials of Life premieres.	1990
	Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival founded.	1991
	Mountain Gorilla directed by Adrian Warren is the first wildlife film made for IMAX.	1992
	Echo of the Elephants - Cynthia Moss follows the trials and tribulations of an new born elephant called Echo	1993
	Private Life of Plants airs on BBC TV.	1995
	Animal Planet cable channel is launched.	1996
	Mara Nights uses starlight cameras to reveal nocturnal animal behaviour.	1996
	Big Cat Diary inaugurates the 'diary' model.	1997
	National Geographic Channel (NGC) is launched.	1997
	Steve Irwin makes his first UK TV appearance on The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World with Steve Irwin.	1998
	Walking with Dinosaurs uses blue-chip wildlife filmmaking techniques to present a hypothetical view of the natural world during the age of the dinosaurs.	1999
	Predators: The Ultimate Killing Machines uses miniaturised cameras mounted on the hunters themselves to show the chase from the predators' perspective.	2000
	The Blue Planet, the first comprehensive series concerning the natural history of the oceans airs.	2001
	March of the Penguins feature film is distributed in theatres and achieves international success.	2005
	Soap opera styled Meerkat Manor watched by more than 20 million people in the US alone, premieres on BBC TV.	2005
	Springwatch premieres on BBC TV with nightly live broadcasts and encourages the public to record sightings of key British species via the website.	2005
	Extinct airs on ITV, with celebrities highlighting the plight of some of the world's most endangered species and a public phone vote to decide which project received the funds raised.	2006
	Planet Earth, the BBC's most ambitious mega-series, filmed in HD, premieres. Alastair Fothergill	2006
	Saving Planet Earth airs on BBC TV.	2007
	David Attenborough completes his 'Life' series with Life in Cold Blood	2008