Sir David Attenborough confronts viewers with some of the most shocking images of his 66-year BBC career as he outlines how animals are facing mass extinction because of humans.

Upsetting scenes in his new series A Perfect Planet, on TV in Britain now and airing on Channel 9 later this year, show a parched and psychologically damaged baby elephant – its adult relatives killed by extreme droughts – cry out as rescuers squirt water into its mouth.

A koala, its fur and paws scorched, crawls through burning undergrowth during last year’s Australian bushfires before it, too, is saved and bandaged.