Nature documentaries could be “actively misleading audiences” by showing nature as something pristine that is not being damaged by humans, researchers warn.

Scientists looked at the scripts from the four most recent David Attenborough-narrated BBC and Netflix nature series and said they did not show the extent to which nature is being threatened by human activity.

“Nature is still mostly shown as pristine, and the presence or impacts of people on the natural world very seldom appear,” researchers wrote in the paper published in People and Nature.

Scientists from the universities of Oxford, Newcastle, Kent and Bangor found the Netflix series Our Planet dedicated 15 per cent of the script to environmental threats and conservation. This far exceeded the BBC series Planet Earth II and Dynasties.

However, they said it still failed to visually show how threatened the natural world is.

“One could argue that by using camera angles to avoid showing any sign of people, nature filmmakers are being disingenuous, and even actively misleading audiences,” said lead researcher Professor Julia Jones from Bangor University.

“The viewer may be led to believe that things cannot be that bad for biodiversity as what they are seeing on the screen shows nature, for the most part, doing fine.

“The inextricable link between threats to the natural world and the high consumption of western lifestyles would be more difficult to ignore if the presence, or even dominance, of commercial agriculture, mining and transport infrastructure were more visible in the landscapes, reducing the space for the awe-inspiring wild spectacles shown.”

Blue Planet II – in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Blue Planet II – in pictures Blue Planet II – in pictures Broadclub cuttlefish "A broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus) in Indonesia. Its skin contains millions of pigment cells with which it can create ever-changing colours and patterns to apparently mesmerise their prey." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia "Once a year, responding to cues from the cycle of the moon and the temperature of the water, corals simultaneously release their eggs and sperm into the ocean. Tiny coral larvae drift in the ocean currents, some for days, some for weeks, before sinking back down to the ocean floor and settling to become new corals." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures An aggregation of marbled grouper (Epinephelus polyphekadion), French Polynesia "Thousands of groupers gather here in one of the few pristine spawning aggregations for this species remaining in the world. By taking up the position closest to a female, the male stands the best chance of fertilising her eggs." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Saddleback clownfish (Amphiprion polymnus) "A male saddleback clownfish uses all the strength it can muster to push a coconut shell to its anemone in Borneo. Unlike their reef relatives, saddleback clownfish live around anemones that are found in the sand, far away from the solid structure of the coral reef. Male saddleback clownfish must use their ingenuity to find a hard substrate upon which the females can lay their eggs." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Peters' monocle breams (Scolopsis affinis) "A group of Peters' monocle breams blow water-jets onto a hiding bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois) to expose its ferocious jaws. In so doing, they alert other fish to the worm's location, ruining the predator’s chance of a surprise attack. This new behaviour was published for the first time by Jose Lachat and Daniel Haag-Wackernagel in 2016." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) Green turtles in Sipadan, Borneo, jostling for their place at a cleaning station. Here, turtles are serviced by blennies and surgeonfish who rid them of algal growth, parasites and dead skin. In return, these fish receive a nutritious meal. BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) "Bumphead parrotfish feeding on coral and algae in Borneo. These parrotfish use their large forehead to ram corals, thereby breaking them into pieces that are more easily ingested. Each fish ingests over 5 tons of structural reef carbonates per year and after they digest the edible portions from the rock, they excrete it as sand, helping to create small islands and the sandy beaches." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Coral garden "A fish's-eye view of a coral garden on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. New underwater probe lenses, developed for Blue Planet II, allow the viewer to immerse themselves into the coral reef city like never before." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures A coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) "A coral grouper on the Great Barrier Reef in Northern Australia. Groupers use a gesture dubbed the ‘headstand signal’ to reach across the vertebrate-invertebrate divide and encourage another species to help it hunt. Gestures such as this are thought to only occur in the largest-brained species. The discovery of this behaviour in groupers indicates that some fish are able to think flexibly to achieve their goals." BBC Blue Planet II – in pictures Bigeye trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus) "A school of Bigeye trevally gather at the outer edge of the reef wall in Sipadan, Borneo. These trevally are a schooling species, widespread in the tropics and usually found in large- slow moving schools during the day. They eat a variety of smaller fish, crustaceans and marine invertebrates." BBC

Scientists are divided as to how much nature documentaries could increase support for conservation. Previous research has suggested that people are willing to make personal lifestyle changes and increase support for conservation. This generally means that policy change is more likely.

“However, we still don’t understand the mechanisms by which these changes take place,” said Laura Thomas-Walters, co-author of the study and PhD student at the University of Kent.

“Considerable research is needed to investigate how viewing nature, portrayed as threatened or pristine, in a documentary affects people in ways which might, ultimately, contribute to saving it.”

Scientists said collaboration between filmmakers and researchers could help the audience better understand the issues associated with the destruction of the natural world.

“By bringing the threats of facing nature into the mainstream (however tentatively) documentaries such as Our Planet help biodiversity and the pressure it faces gain a little more space in the minds of citizens worldwide,” researchers wrote in the paper.

“Conservation documentaries have repeatedly been shown the positively affect our attitudes to wildlife, but we lack a more nuanced understanding of how artistic and narrative decisions influence behaviour change.

“The time is therefore right to tackle the questions around the extent to which representations of nature on screen affects people in ways which might, ultimately, contribute to conserving that nature.”

Julian Hector, Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit told The Independent: “We all recognise the world is in an environmental climate crisis. BBC Studio’s Natural History Unit has and always will strive to do more to champion the natural world.