Chimpanzee follows the struggles of David, an alpha male western chimpanzeenote residing in Senegal, West Africa. Caught in the middle of a brutal power struggle, the elderly David must keep his position as top chimp secured, fending off his rivals Jumkin and Luther, and creating new alliances if he is to continue his legacy.
Emperor centres on the annual breeding cycle of the emperor penguinnote colonies living in Antarctica's Atka Bay and Neumayer-Station III. Having mated in the autumn, the male emperors must cooperate to incubate their eggs through the harsh Antarctic winter, as well as getting the chicks ready to fend for themselves.
Lion is based around one of Africa's most famous lion note families; the Marsh pride of Kenya's Massai Mara. It starts one August after all the adult males recently abandoned the pride. There are only two adult females, Charm and her sister Sienna, who are the only fully adult females in the pride.
Painted Wolf revolves around two rival clans of the titular canidnote , living in Zimbabwe's Mana Pools. One group, lead by the elderly Tait, is driven out of their territory by a larger pack lead by her daughter, Blacktip. Forced into the lion pridelands, Tait struggles to keep her family alive and hidden, whilst Blacktip strives to drive her mother out of Mana once and for all.
Tiger focuses on Bengal tigernote Raj Bherra and her four new cubs. But life in India's Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve is difficult. With dwindling habitat thanks to human encroachment, and rival tigers on all sides, Raj Bherra must raise her cubs to adulthood and defend her territory from anyone daring to take it.
This series provides examples of:
- Big Brother Instinct: Or rather Big Sister Instinct. Tait's youngest daughter, Tammy, drives off a pair of honey badgers nearing the family den, giving her mother time to take her two much younger siblings to safety.
- Cats Are Mean: Zigzagged. The Lion and Tiger episodes put the spotlight on these iconic yet endangered big cats. But in the Painted Wolf episode, the lions are depicted as brutish predators attacking the wolf packs, stealing their kills and trying to kill the puppies as well.
- Endangered Species: A recurring theme throughout the series. Every species featured is threatened with extinction due to human activities; among the causes are poaching, habitat loss, persecution and climate change. The behind the scenes segments for each episode explore the threats facing each animal and the conservation efforts working to protect them.
- Heinous Hyena: Spotted hyenas appear in both the lion and painted wolf stories, where they play an antagonistic role. In Lion, a clan of twenty hyenas harass and nearly kill Red
, while in Painted Wolf, a clan of fifteen shadow Blacktip's pack during their march before separating and killing one of the puppies. The follow-up series, Dynasties 2, subverts this trope by having an episode focusing on spotted hyenas. - Killed Offscreen: Despite his episode ending on a positive note, David the chimpanzee was later killed, most likely by rival males.
- Narrative-Driven Nature Documentary: Planet Earth: Dynasties is a more dramatized documentary than the original Planet Earth. Each episode (besides the penguin episode) focuses on a specific family, such as the Marsh pride in Lion.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Near the end of Painted Wolf, a large Nile crocodile lunges out and attacks Blacktip's pack, dragging one member to its death.
- No Name Given: The emperor penguin episode focuses on the penguins as a whole instead of individually. It doesn't name any individual.
- Only a Flesh Wound: After Sienna's heals a bit, she doesn't seem in too much pain despite her open wound. She even almost kills a wildebeest on her own.
- Parental Abandonment: There's a pragmatic example in the lion episode. After the pride is poisoned, Charm is forced to abandon her 1-year old son. He's too weak to walk, but Charm must put the rest of the pride before her son.
- Perspective Flip: Episode three features lions as the main protagonists. The following episode, which centres on painted wolves, sets the lions up as an ever-present threat to Tait and Blacktip's packs.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The lions inadvertently eat poisoned meat after coming across cows illegally grazing on lion territory. Most of the pride survives it.
- Together in Death: The ultimate fate that befalls the ageing Tait. Unable to evade the lions anymore, she and her mate, who refused to leave her, died together in the pridelands.
- Wicked Step Mother: Gender-Inverted. Because one of Charm's older cubs is too young to breed, the new males have no need for her and consider her just a useless mouth to feed. They kick her out, with the only other option being death. They eventually kick out all cubs, leaving only Charm and her adult daughter Yaya.
