Arlington, VA; January 6, 2015 - PBS Distribution announced today it is releasing EARTH: A New Wild on DVD and Blu-ray. This landmark series reveals the extraordinary way humans are intimately connected to the wild animals and wild places of this planet. EARTH: A New Wild reveals nature as never before seen with one simple act: by turning the cameras around to put humans into the picture.

Produced by National Geographic Studios in association with Passion Plane,t and hosted by conservation scientist Dr. M. Sanjayan, the series takes viewers to the frontiers of where man and wildlife meet. Viewers will discover how humans are inextricably woven into every aspect of the planet's natural systems, and how saving and restoring wild nature is key to preserving - and enriching - our future existence.

EARTH: A New Wild will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on February 10. The run time of the series is approximately 300 minutes on two discs. The DVD SRP is $29.99, and the Blu-ray SRP is $34.99.

With 45 shoots in 29 different countries using advanced filming techniques, the series provides all the spectacle of the best nature documentaries. It also goes a step further by capturing real-life encounters between wild animals, and the people who live and work with them. These up-close looks at a range of species, from giant pandas to humpback whales, African lions and Arctic reindeer, uncover how people and wildlife - even top predators - can thrive alongside each other and be mutually beneficial.

Each of the five episodes - Home, Plains, Forests, Oceans and Water - visits a different critical habitat in which humans are engaging with nature in new ways. The stunning nature sequences in these "frontier" places reveal the new and surprising roles that wild nature plays in our lives and the critical part people can play in restoring the natural world.

"The pristine views of epic nature shows always leave something out of the picture: us," said Sanjayan. "I traveled the world to film some of the wildest places. What I found were amazing stories that reveal a new paradigm about us and the planet we live on - that when we save wild nature we really are saving ourselves."

Following are the descriptions of the five episodes featured in EARTH: A New Wild:

"Home" - Travel to the frontier of the wild to take a fresh look at humankind's relationship with the great wild animals of our world. Viewers will discover how captive-born pandas are learning to be wild and will witness the release of the first captive-born female giant panda into the wilds of China. From there, audiences will literally fly with vultures in the Himalayas; travel with Jane Goodall to Tanzania, where she first began her work and where chimps and humans are now sharing the land; and, finally, learn a shocking lesson from a community of people who live under the constant threat of man-eating tigers. "Home" reveals the threat humans pose to our world's extraordinary animals and their habitats, yet it also relays powerful, dramatic human stories that teach us that wildlife and human life can thrive side by side. Here, on the frontiers, viewers will encounter a new kind of wild - one upon which our very survival depends.

"Plains" - The plains and grasslands of the world are home to the greatest number of mammals on Earth and are our breadbasket. They are also among the most endangered places on Earth. Traveling to the great plains of the world, from Africa to the Arctic tundra, Sanjayan discovers that people and wild predators play an active and beneficial role in the revitalization of these habitats. Wildlife highlights include the first HD footage of rutting Saiga antelope on the steppes of Russia and the return of an ancient tradition in the Arctic: the castration of reindeer males not by mechanical means but by biting. Here on the plains, human-animal conflict is at its highest, but so is the promise that humans, by mimicking or working with top predators, can restore these grasslands to their former glory.

"Forests" - A journey deep into the great forests of planet Earth reveals a new way of looking at wild places and the people and animals that live there. In the Amazon, Sanjayan travels deep into an uncharted area known as the "intangible zone," home to previously "uncontacted" tribes. From there, he travels to British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest, where he captures rarely filmed wolf behavior. Then it is on to Portugal's cork forests and finally Sumatra, where frightening elephant battles are exploding. Viewers will discover that today, Earth's great forests are home to a surprising number of people and very likely supported vastly larger human populations in the past. What do these human forest dwellers know about how people can sustain the great forests - forests that, in turn, sustain the world?

"Oceans" - Reporting from Palmyra Atoll, one of the most remote coral atolls on Earth, from the Bahamas and from New York Harbor, Sanjayan draws deep on his own ocean experiences to reveal a vibrant community of scientists, engineers and fishermen who are discovering new ways to help maintain the remarkable productivity of oceans. Sanjayan is aware of the vast threat facing our oceans, but standing in the water playing midwife to a large lemon shark is just one of the moments that give him hope that we can turn around our influence on this, the wildest habitat on Earth. "Oceans" concludes in New York Harbor, inviting viewers to reimagine what oceans can provide us with our ever-increasing numbers.

"Water" - To unravel the dramatic connections between fresh water and the health of the planet, Sanjayan travels to some of Earth's greatest bodies of fresh water. Highlights include: the never-before-seen-on-television gathering of people, elephants and lions at the Singing Wells of Northern Kenya; and Sanjayan's epic kayak journey down the Colorado River from its source to where it dies out before reaching the sea. From there, viewers will discover why a depletion in fish stock in Lake Malawi is giving rise to HIV infections; they will meet the man who stopped the Sahara desert with an ancient use of nature; and will witness one of the greatest ecological disasters on the planet: the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan.