Coasts (Ep1)

Sir David Attenborough explores the dangerous frontiers created by the world's coasts, where animals fight for survival amidst constant change. On South Africa’s Robberg Peninsula, thousands of Cape fur seals are squeezed onto a small ledge. A yearling pup escapes into the water, where the clumsy youngster becomes nimble and graceful. In recent years, this coast has been home to unprecedented numbers of great white sharks, and the seal colony must band together if they’re to see off the world’s most notorious predator. The Arctic coast is the scene of the biggest seasonal transformation on earth, and the melting of billions of tonnes of ice brings short-lived opportunities to these coastal waters. Animals arrive en masse, perhaps the strangest of which is the sea angel. This beguiling creature has a devilish side – it’s a voracious predator whose ambush wouldn’t be amiss in a sci-fi horror. On Namibia’s infamous Skeleton Coast, where the world’s oldest desert meets the cold Atlantic, we meet some unexpected residents. Hungry lions discover this coast for the first time in 40 years and try their luck in a huge seabird colony. Coasts attract visitors from far afield. A southern right whale reaches her journey’s end at Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. In British Columbia, terrestrial garter snakes take the plunge into chilly waters in search of a meal. In tropical Raja Ampat, Indonesia, coral reef is sheltered by forest. Mangrove trees are salt-tolerant and rooted in the seabed, providing a unique opportunity for archer fish, which use jets of water like arrows to shoot down insects from high above. By contrast, the shallow lagoons of Mexico’s Yucatan are very exposed. It’s here in these hostile, hypersaline pools that Caribbean flamingos choose to nest, but can their offspring survive the tropical storms that have arrived early? Coasts are the front line in our changing world. Increasingly unpredictable storms and sea level rises are urgent threats to those that make their homes near the coast, including nearly 40% of the world’s human population. On tiny Raine Island, tens of thousands of female green turtles come ashore to nest, but many are stranded by the ebbing tide. The island is on borrowed time. This, the world’s largest green turtle rookery, is set to disappear beneath the waves. The end of the episode reveals the speed of change over the course of Sir David's lifetime. His was the first filming expedition in 1957. Little could he have known just how much the island would change in 66 years.

58m

Ocean (Ep2)

Much of our world remains virtually unexplored because most of it is under water. The ocean covers two-thirds of the planet and is home to 80 per cent of all animal life. Yet we know little about it. Presented by Sir David Attenborough, this groundbreaking film journeys through the vast and varied ocean to reveal the extraordinary behaviours and adaptations required for life there. The shallow seas of the tropics may look like a paradise, but they are a battlefield, where even predators like the deadly lionfish must beware. Nothing is what it seems. The clown frogfish, the reef’s most extraordinary hunter, carries a fishing rod on its head, baited with a shrimp-like lure that can prove fatally seductive. Away from the tropics, in the cold waters off North America, the sun fuels forests of giant kelp. It is a dangerous place for young horn sharks. Giant sea bass and larger sharks patrol through the kelp. But the real danger is buried beneath. A little horn shark unwittingly stumbles into the ambush of an angel shark. With a lightning strike, it is swallowed whole. But it is not over yet – the little horn shark has a secret weapon. Winter storms can batter the forest and rip the kelp from the seabed, casting it away into the open ocean. Out in the big blue, the floating kelp becomes a vital lifeline for animals such as flying fish, which use them to lay their eggs. But they must lay thousands because these eggs are on the menu for hungry blue sharks. Life in the vastness of the open ocean relies on these islands of seaweed, but today they are being replaced by something altogether different – plastic. Every year, 12 million tonnes end up in the ocean. It is lethal to many, but some animals are learning to take advantage of these plastic rafts. Meet the Columbus crab. An open ocean creature with a big problem. Columbus crabs are poor swimmers, so to find a mate, they must hitch a lift. Passing turtles can help, and in fact provide a permanent home for a pair of crabs. In return, the crabs provide an onboard grooming service, a relationship that works so well that these turtles are often home to a devoted Columbus crab couple. Finding a partner in the ocean is not always easy. In the Sea of Cortez, mobula rays perform astounding acrobatic leaps to attract other rays, resulting in a gathering of vast numbers. All the noise, however, attracts a family of specialist ray-hunting orca that have a unique strategy to catch these fast and agile animals. The least-known parts of the ocean are its great depths. To venture there requires specialised vessels to withstand the crushing pressure. As you leave the surface behind, sunlight fades and you enter an alien world, encountering a massive siphonophore, longer than a blue whale, and a gulper eel with huge jaws that can engulf prey larger than its own body. By the time you reach the seabed two miles down, the temperature has dropped to near freezing, so cold that the eggs of a mother pearl octopus would take over ten years to develop. She heads to a special place where warm water escaping from the seabed creates a thermal spa. She is joined by 20,000 female octopuses, all here to raise their eggs – the largest-known gathering of octopus on planet earth. The warm water speeds up her eggs’ development, but it will still take two years and in that time this devoted mother will not leave them, not even to feed. It is an extreme effort that will eventually kill her. In today’s ocean, animals are having to compete with us. Off the coast of Chile, South American sea lions have learned clever techniques to raid fishermen’s nets – which they now do in their thousands, but it comes with a huge risk. As the net is drawn in, the sea lions must get out quickly, or they risk being crushed and drowned. Sadly, the inexperienced young and pups don’t get out in time, and some pay the ultimate price. Animals have evolved in remarkable ways to cope with the demands of life in the ocean. But can they now adapt to the new challenge… living alongside us?

58m

Deserts and Grasslands (Ep3)

In the baked Namib desert, a pair of ostriches raise their family in the searing heat to keep them safe from predators – but time is ticking as the chicks begin to hatch. Outside of the egg, the newborns won’t survive long in these temperatures, but not all of the clutch hatch at once. For the whole brood to survive, the parents need to time their departure perfectly, but tragically they are forced to leave behind a single unhatched egg. As the family depart, the newborn emerges and the lone chick wanders the vast Namib desert calling for its family. In the desert, life exists in a world with almost no water, and it drives one troop of desert baboons on a continual quest to find it. A young mother who is low in the pecking order must battle for her right to drink – her newborn’s life depends on it. Without water, her milk will run dry. As climatic change causes deserts around the world to expand, dust storms towering up to a mile high and travelling at speeds of up to 70mph overwhelm entire cities in an instant. Where rain falls regularly, it can transform a desert, turning it into one of earth’s most productive landscapes – grasslands. Grasslands support the biggest concentrations of large animals on the planet. This wealth of life, in turn, attracts predators. Leopards are the most adaptable of the big cats, and a handful of special individuals have learned to hunt by hiding and leaping from treetops, some higher than the roof of a two-storey house. Their lives depend on them getting this unique game of hide-and-seek right, and when they do, their prey doesn’t see them coming. Grasslands are one of the most widespread habitats on earth, and in the frozen north, herds of alien-like saiga antelope fight for their chance to win mating rights. Seventy per cent of rutting males die every year in battles that have been taking place since the ice age. Closer to the equator, a grassland paradise can be found – the Cerrado in Brazil. This is the richest grassland on earth and home to the rare, fruit-eating maned wolf. Little is known about this bizarre creature, and for the first time, we glimpse inside the den of wild maned wolf. A mother raises her three puppies, but their future is uncertain. The Cerrado is a vitally important grassland – home to thousands of species of plants and animals found nowhere else – and it is in danger of being lost forever. This grassland is being destroyed more than two times faster than the Amazon rainforest to clear land for farming. Reduced to 50 per cent of its former size, some predict it could disappear completely in the next ten years. But there is hope. In central Africa, one of the world’s most spectacular wildlife gatherings is testament to what can happen if we help protect these precious ecosystems and allow nature to restore its own balance.

58m

Fresh Water (Ep4)

Fresh water is the lifeblood of planet Earth and the stage for extraordinary animal dramas. In the heart of the Costa Rican rainforest, a little-known spectacle unfolds above a very special pond. Up to ten thousand gliding tree frogs – the world’s largest known gathering of its kind – descend from the canopy for the most important breeding event of the year. It will only last a day, and with males outnumbering females nine to one, competition is fierce. This is a party you don’t want to be late for. Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, as the dry season reaches its peak, the last remaining waterhole for miles around becomes a magnet for a different animal: mugger crocodiles. Giants up to five metres long lurk beneath the surface, waiting patiently for thirsty chital deer to approach the waterhole for a drink. But catching their prey is no easy feat and requires them to do something extraordinary. Documented nowhere else, these crafty crocodiles have learned how to exploit their prey’s need for fresh water – by creating traps. Nestled amongst flowering water lilies, newly hatched ‘lily-trotter’ chicks learn a vital lesson – how to ‘walk on water’. Their oversized feet – almost double the length of their body – make for a wobbly start, but their dedicated father will do whatever it takes to keep them safe during the most vulnerable stage of their life. One of the biggest challenges of living in a freshwater world is its dynamic nature. It can appear, vanish or transform rapidly. Survival in these dynamic environments hinges on adaptation. In the Okavango Delta, the arrival of the great annual flood poses a significant challenge for a pack of five African wild dogs. On dry land, they are one of the continent’s most successful hunters, but as their hunting grounds turn to swamp, they must find an innovative way to master this water world. Meanwhile, millions of goby fish on the remote volcanic island of Bioko prepare for a perilous journey. After months feeding out at sea, they return to fresh water to breed. The safest place to lay their eggs is where ocean predators can’t follow – at the very top of a 30m waterfall. Surely an impossible journey for a fish only an inch long, and one that will require a bizarre physical transformation. In a few rare places, like Lake Malawi, fresh water has remained a consistent presence for millions of years, resulting in a dazzling diversity of life. Here, over a thousand unique fish species thrive – more than any other lake on earth, but competition in these crowded waters is intense. To survive here takes ingenuity. Meet Nimbochromis livingstonii - a master of deception that tricks other fish into thinking it's dead. Fresh water is vital to life, yet it is a finite resource. Of all the water on earth, only 2.5 per cent is fresh and most of that is locked up as ice or hidden deep below ground. In fact, less than one per cent of fresh water is accessible. Humans rely on fresh water for drinking, agriculture, irrigation, industry and power. Throughout history, we have devised extraordinary means to ensure it is always available for every demand, fostering the dangerous illusion that it is infinitely abundant. Yet today, two-thirds of our world’s great rivers no longer reach the sea, and in the last 50 years, freshwater species have seen an 83 per cent decline globally – a faster decline than that of species in any other habitat. One animal suffering on the front line is the Indus river dolphin in Pakistan. This species is the most endangered freshwater dolphin globally, with only around two thousand individuals remaining. Every year, these dolphins get trapped in the network of irrigation canals which form part of the vast Indus Basin irrigation system – the largest such system on earth. These canals divert water from the Indus River to irrigate crops. As water levels drop due to agricultural demands, the dolphins become stranded in ever-shrinking pools, often hundreds of kilometres away from the main river. Their only hope for survival depends on the efforts of a dedicated rescue team, working to return them back to the river before it’s too late.

58m

Forests (Ep5)

Sir David Attenborough journeys into the hidden world of forests, where lives are entwined in the most unexpected of ways. From the temperate rainforests of Canada, where rarely seen ‘spirit bears’ fish for salmon, to the teak forests of India, where whistling wild dogs work together to bring down prey three times their size, the forests of planet Earth are full of unseen connections. To stand out in the misty mountainous forests of China, male tragopan have developed a comical dance routine, whilst in the dense tropical rainforest, treehoppers form surprising alliances to fight off assassin bugs, and oriental pied hornbills go to incredible lengths to protect their young. Even though we are only now beginning to understand how deeply interconnected life in the forest is, we do know that those connections are threatened by deforestation. Each individual tree is an intricate ecosystem in its own right, yet humans cut down 15 billion of them every year. In the Amazon, they are being replaced by plantations of a single species of tree – eucalyptus – which turn rich and complex worlds into little more than green deserts. In the small patches of remaining forest, animals like chimpanzees, our closest relatives, are forced to carve out an existence in the human world.

57m

Extremes (Ep6)

David Attenborough reveals the extraordinary ways in which animals battle to survive the elements in a world of extremes. From mountain summits to scorching deserts, polar tundra to deep underground caves, these remote places are rarely visited, yet the animals that survive there are some of the most resilient and specially adapted on Earth. Here, life exists on a knife edge. In Vietnam, the true scale and grandeur of what’s thought to be the world’s largest cave - Hang son Doong - is revealed. In its depths, blind white cave fish are found in tiny pools of water, surviving on nutrients washed in from the jungle above. On Ellesmere Island, a pack of Arctic wolves fight to rebuild their strength after one of the toughest winters on Earth. But the season of plenty is not all it seems, with prey so scarce they must travel vast distances to find it. And when they do, they must battle their ancient foes, musk oxen, a relic of the Ice Age. Emerging after months below the ice, a European common frog sticks it’s head out of the snow. It’s a sunny spring day in the Alps, and the perfect day to find a mate. But dozens of frogs are all racing towards the same breeding pool. Who will get there in time? Huddling can be a survival superpower, especially in the winter cold of the Atlas Mountains. For a young barbary macaque, separated from the group, it’s vital to find and re-join the huddle before nightfall, but there is a surprising obstacle in his way. The ultimate huddle is found in the mountains of Mexico where millions of monarch butterflies are overwintering. But the calm is shattered when a storm hits their forest shelter. Fires are one of nature’s most destructive forces, but they are also vital for keeping some habitats healthy; few places more so than northern Australia’s savannahs. A pair of golden shouldered parrots are raising their family… inside a termite mound. Thick walls keep the chicks safe from predators but when a fire unexpectedly strikes, will the nest protect them? As our climate changes, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and often more intense. On the plains of Kenya, an elephant mother is struggling to keep her two sons alive, and after months of drought and with food and water supplies critically low, the family are faced with tragedy. Few places are more extreme than the Gobi desert where temperatures can range between -30 and +40 degrees Celsius. But the snow leopard has made its home here. This rare and intimate view of a mother and cubs reminds us that the extremes still hold some of planet Earth’s greatest secrets and most spectacular natural wonders.

58m

Human (Ep7)

The human world, from our cities to our fields, has spread to every corner of the globe. Wildlife now has to adapt to a vastly altered landscape…and contend directly with us. Some animals are meeting this challenge head on. In Bali, long-tailed macaques have learned that by stealing tourists’ most precious items, they can barter for their favourite food. The older males won’t give you back your phone unless they get what they’re after. For many animals living alongside us, it pays to keep a low profile. Tawny frogmouths are masters of camouflage, and in Melbourne, Australia, they are preyed on by cats. Nevertheless, frogmouths are doing well here because the streetlights help them find their prey, and in many parts of the city they are now found in a higher density than in the surrounding countryside. Some animals are so bold they don’t even try to hide. Rhinos walk through the streets of Sauraha, Nepal, simply to get to food on the other side of town. In Lake Tahoe, USA, black bears head to the city dumpsters in search of food before hibernation, and the rich food they find means that they are up to 50% heavier than their country-dwelling cousins.* For wildlife, part of the challenge is to keep up with us. Pavement ants are the most common ant in New York City, outnumbering New Yorkers by 1,000 to one.* The secret to their success is their digestive system, which has been able to keep pace with the constantly changing human diet; 90% of what they eat now comes from human food.* On Broadway Avenue alone they eat the equivalent of 60,000 hotdogs a year.* Life is not so straightforward for animals that are feared or persecuted by humans. Snake bites cause an estimated 60,000 human deaths every year in India alone,* but in one Indian village, venomous cobras are seen hunting inside peoples’ houses. Remarkably, scientists believe that this coexistence has led to a change in the snakes’ behaviour; they move more slowly and are less likely to strike when disturbed. However, when animals come into the human world to compete for resources, it often leads to conflict. In Kenya, once the sun has set, African elephant bulls venture to fields of tomatoes to gorge. It’s a dangerous job for the farmers trying to repel the largest land animals on the planet. Surprisingly, wildlife eating the same food as humans doesn’t always result in competition. Off the coast of Vancouver Island, humpback whales inhabit waters that have been overfished. You would think that their presence would reduce fish stocks even further, but astonishingly the opposite is thought to be happening. Although some species are managing to thrive in the human world, in many parts our actions are putting unprecedented pressure on wildlife. Our fates, however, are closely intertwined. If the natural world is not protected, it could be devastating for all humans on earth. The major challenge will be re-imagining the way we live on this planet to find ways to protect all life on earth.

57m

Heroes (Ep8)

We started making the very first Planet Earth series just over 20 years ago. Since then our camera teams have filmed all over the world and have visited its wildest and most remote corners. But the truth is, most of the animals we’ve filmed over the past two decades are now rarer than they were and the places they live are in greater danger of destruction. But I’ve seen another change in those years. A hopeful change. A new generation of remarkable people are stepping up to save wildlife. They’re overcoming huge obstacles, travelling to dangerous places, and sometimes even risking their lives. To me they are true heroes. This is the story of some of them.

58m