ARNE nature reserve has been selected to host the flagship wildlife television programme Autumnwatch 2016.

The RSPB reserve will be the setting, for what is one of the BBC's largest UK live outdoor broadcasts, for four consecutive evenings in late October.

Presenters Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games will be documenting how the wildlife at Arne deals with the dramatic change from summer to autumn.

Earlier this year results from a 24-hour bio-blitz at Arne were broadcast on the BBC's Springwatch programme. And in 2008 - when presenters Bill Oddie and Kate Humble were at the helm - Autumnwatch was filmed from Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour.

Speaking about the latest announcement, Morwenna Alldis - spokesman for RSPB Arne - said: "For over 50 years the RSPB and its dedicated members and partners across Purbeck have worked together to put nature back in the landscape.

"Hosting the show is a fantastic acknowledgement of everyone's hard work over the past five decades.

"Throughout the week viewers will see all the very best nature stories from the area, and hear from people from our different partner organisations, demonstrating that if everyone works together for nature we can make a significant difference to its future."

RSPB Arne has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years - in 2015 the reserve was awarded a £30,000 grant to develop a wildlife and play garden next to its new visitor centre.

Rob Farrington, visitor experience manager at Arne, said: "I still remember the first time I visited RSPB Arne as a child - what I saw and where I went.

"Twenty years later and the reserve can still take my breath away and surprises me.

"Even being in the reserve for much of my working week, I still stumble across corners that I've never seen before.

"For me there's no other landscape that is so engaging and I've never experienced a day at RSPB Arne on which I haven't discovered something new and amazing about its nature."

The reserve included habitats such as wet and dry lowland heath, ancient oak woodland, saltmarsh, mudflats, fresh and salt water reedbeds, farmland and even sandy beaches.

Mr Farrington said: "We are very much looking forward to sharing this remarkable nature reserve with a much wider audience through the live broadcast of Autumnwatch this October."

Autumnwatch 2016 will be broadcast live on BBC Two on the following days: Monday, October 24, from 8pm.

Tuesday, October 25, from 8pm.

Wednesday, October 26, from 9pm.

Thursday, October, 27, from 8pm.