''[[WildlifeCommentarySpoof We are standing in the plains of Medialand. We can see Snarkus majoris, the Common Troper, stalking another cliché. Watch as she creeps silently towards the overused plot device. Soon... there she goes! She leaps onto the cliché and sinks her snarky teeth into it. Look at it writhe! It can't escape! Soon it will be another entry in the Troper's Lair.]]''

Documentaries in which animals are filmed in their natural habitat. Or not, as the case may be. There are two variants: one where a narrator explains whats going on over a clandestinely filmed scene. The other is where the host goes out and wrestles the animals to show off the beauty of the unspoiled nature.

Perhaps the UrExample for television was ''[[Creator/JacquesCousteau The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau]]'' which ran on American Television for a decade and inspired an entire genre of underwater adventure documentaries (as well as a lot of affectionate parodies). All modern TV nature documentaries owe something to Cousteau.

The rise of CGI special effects lead to a genre of SpeculativeDocumentary films focusing on the lives of extinct animals, life on alien planets, or life from Earth's future. While the footage in these films is ([[MediumBlending mostly]]) created by computer animation, they otherwise follow the formula of regular nature documentaries.

Commonly parodied in various media as the WildlifeCommentarySpoof. SuperTrope to NarrativeDrivenNatureDocumentary.
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!!Examples:
[[index]]
* Creator/AnimalPlanet is an entire channel devoted to {{Nature Show}}s..or, [[NetworkDecay was]].
* ''Film/AnArcticTale''
* Creator/DavidAttenborough:
** ''Series/BluePlanet''
** ''Series/LifeOnEarth''
** ''Series/LifeInColdBlood''
** ''Series/PlanetEarth''
** ''Series/PlanetEarthDynasties''
** ''The Blue Planet''
** ''Series/ZooQuest'' (1954-1963), Attenborough's first series, may be the UrExample of an ''unfaked'' TV NatureDocumentary.
** ''Series/TheLifeOfBirds''
** ''The Life of Mammals''
** ''Life in Cold Blood'' (focusing on herptiles)
** ''Life in the Undergrowth'' (invertebrates)
** ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet''
* ''Series/BigCatDiaries''
* ''Film/{{Blackfish}}'', a 2013 documentary covering the deaths of trainers at SeaWorld by the captive Orca Tilikum.
* The undersea documentaries of Creator/JacquesCousteau
** ''Film/TheSilentWorld'', featuring pioneering underwater photography
** ''Film/WorldWithoutSun'', in which Cousteau and company spend a month under the Red Sea in an underwater habitat
* ''Series/CrocodileHunter''
* ''Series/DinosaurPlanet''
* ''WesternAnimation/GrowingUpCreepie'', on vermin.
* ''Series/{{Earthflight}}''
* ''Film/EncountersAtTheEndOfTheWorld''
* ''WesternAnimation/ForgottenBloodlinesAgate'', a CGI-heavy documentary about life in Miocene North America.
* ''Literature/TheFutureIsWild''
* ''Series/IslandOfTheSeaWolves''
* ''Series/TheJeffCorwinExperience''
* ''Film/K2SirenOfTheHimalayas'':
* Creator/KrattBrothers
** ''Series/BeTheCreature''
** ''Series/KrattsCreatures''
** ''Series/{{Zoboomafoo}}''
** ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts''
* ''Series/LastChanceToSee'' with Creator/StephenFry.
* ''Film/TheLastLions''
* ''Film/MarchOfThePenguins''
* ''Series/MeerkatManor''
* ''Series/MutualOfOmahasWildKingdom''
* ''Film/NationalParksAdventure''
* ''Series/{{Nature}}'' on Creator/{{PBS}}
* ''WesternAnimation/NatureCat''
* ''Film/ThePrivateLifeOfTheGannets'', an Oscar-winning 1934 short that is one of the earliest examples
* ''Series/SavageKingdom''
* ''Film/TheSecretLand'', a 1948 documentary about a massive U.S. Navy expedition to Antarctica
* ''Series/{{Serengeti}}''
* ''Film/Sharks3D''
* Walt Disney's ''Film/TrueLifeAdventures'' series were some of the first popular nature documentaries. They are rather infamous nowadays as [[DocumentaryOfLies Documentaries Of Lies]], particularly due to the faked lemming suicide scene in "White Wilderness".
** ''Film/TheLivingDesert'' was a 1953 installment of ''True Life Adventures'' focusing on the wildlife found in the deserts of the American West.
** ''Film/PeopleAndPlaces'' was a spin-off series focusing on exotic cultures around the world.
* ''Series/PlanetDinosaur''
* ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' and its spinoffs/sequels differ in that the creatures are mostly CGI, with animatronics thrown in.
** The same about ''Series/PlanetOfDinosaurs'', though without CGI.
** Both are justified of course; unless you want to do an entire documentary about birds (which many people have already done anyway) you're not going to have any luck finding dinosaurs to document these days.
* ''Series/WhenNatureCalls'', a Creator/{{ABC}} program that's part wild animal footage, part GagDub.
* ''Film/{{Gunda}}'': Nature documentary set on a farm, with production credits to ''Creator/JoaquinPhoenix''.
* ''Film/TheWildAndTheBrave'', 1974 Oscar-nominated documentary about a Ugandan national park
* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', though Nigel's nature show is inside.
* ''Film/WingedMigration'': Documentary feature about the migrations of birds.

[[/index]]

!!Use as a trope in media:
* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' as ''Untamed World''.
* [[https://youtu.be/PDp7eT0oJtc This commercial]] for the Little Ceasar's pizza chain starts as an apparent documentary, with the narrator explaining that a baby hippo eats over sixty pounds of food day, which is a constant challenge for the mother. Then it cuts to a hippo carrying a pizza box in its mouth.
-->'''Narrator:''' Luckily, nature always finds a way.
* Parodied in the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "Naturama", with the show's characters appearing as animals on ''[[Series/MutualOfOmahasWildKingdom Mutual of Omicron's Wild Universe]]''.
* This is what ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' were supposed to be making.
* Skipper tried to use one in ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' to force Rico to throw up a time bomb after he was forced to take gag medication. Specifically, it was a documentary aptly titled "Carnage of the Penguins," which showed penguins getting torn apart and eaten alive by leopard seals. Everyone else threw up, but [[NightmareFetishist Rico]] just watched on with a smile and popcorn.
-->'''Kowalski:''' Ohhh, that image will ''haunt me''.

!!Notable or frequent nature documentary {{narrator}}s:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: English language: ]]

* Creator/DavidAttenborough
* Creator/KennethBranagh
* Creator/BenedictCumberbatch

[[/folder]]

[[folder: French language: ]]

* Creator/PierreArditi
* Creator/AndreDussollier
* Creator/JacquesFrantz
* Creator/BernardGabay
* Creator/BorisRehlinger
* Creator/JeanRochefort
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