Incredible 4K Nature Scenes Narrated By David Attenborough | BBC Earth

but leopards are the most versatile of all the big cats Adept at finding cover in the most unpromising [Music] [Music] places the Steep walls of the galy are now her cover for an ambush the male puuku is close enough but he's too big to tackle she needs to slip past him without being seen if he spots her he'll blow her cover [Music] slowly does it to succeed seed here she needs to find prey grazing close to the edge or better still in the galy itself frustration success would have staved off hunger for a [Music] week

but while there's prey around There's [Music] Hope peeking over the top is a risk but it's the quickest way to find a new Target [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] a burst of speed of 65 km an hour and it's all over in less than 6 seconds except it [Music] isn't dazed and disorientated the Impala makes a miraculous Escape they're cover blown Escape seems impossible but these particular fish have a unique ability [Music] they're flying [Music] fish with an extra thrust from their tails the flying fish get airborne once more [Music] with a good wind they can

glide for hundreds of [Music] [Music] meters but this is just what the frig birds have been waiting for when frigs join the hunt the flying fish are literally caught between the devil and the deep blue sea [Music] if the flying fish get too much lift they become easy prey for the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] frigs if they dive to evade attacks from above they could fall into the mouths of the Dorado [Music] [Music] and now the snakes are on the alert this is the best feeding opportunity they will get all year [Music] on flat ground

a baby iguana can outrun a racer snake but others are waiting in ambush another hatchling has its first glimpse of a dangerous world [Music] a snake's eyes aren't very good but they can detect movement so if the hatchling keeps its nerve it may just avoid detection [Music] [Music] a near miraculous Escape [Applause] the lucky survivors could begin learning the unique way of life demanded by this hostile Island during the dry season over half a million turns Crow onto this remote ATL in the Indian Ocean their chicks are still in their dark juvenile plumage they vary

in [Music] age whilst the more advanced chicks take to the [Music] air oh others aren't quite ready [Music] yet those just starting to learn to fly use the shallow Lagoon that occupies the center of the atol as their training ground it's difficult for some of them to stay a loft for long [Applause] [Music] giant treales usually they are solitary Hunters but about 50 of them have come here from neighboring reefs attracted by this abundance of potential prey [Applause] the fledglings stay out of the water if they can they even drink on the [Music] wing if

the Valia to catch one now they have to up their [Music] game so there is a fish here that amazingly has a brain capable of calculating the air speed altitude and trajectory of a bird the time comes when every fledgling has to take to the air and collect food for [Music] itself their parents lead them to the training grounds a [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] if they are to survive they must learn [Music] quickly after a month of practicing over the Lagoon the youngsters start to leave and take their chances out over the Open

Sea this is a poison dart frog males raise their young in a very special way a father will place each one of his tadpoles in its own tiny pool of water this is one nice and safe he might have up to five other tadpoles but he needs to remember where he put each one of them this one isn't doing so well it's tiny puddle has all but dried out the TPO will die unless its father can find a better place for it if dads are good for one thing it's piggyback rides [Music] [Music] fathers are

no bigger than a human thumbnail but this enables them to get to places that others can't this could be [Music] perfect the only problem is that there's no food here fathers need [Music] help somewhere in this Forest is Mom [Music] a female could do something a male cannot but first dad must lead his partner to their hungry [Music] [Music] tadpole and mother deal with the problem She lays a single unfertilized [Music] egg and her tple gets a much needed meal for the next 6 weeks parents continue their rounds an extraordinary test of teamwork and memory

a finch a female its ancestors doubtless were blown here by storms many centuries ago like most finches they feed on seeds nectar and insects but there's little food of any kind on Wolf and since they aren't strong enough Flyers to leave the island they've had to find food from a very unusual Source they depend on another of the Island's inhabitants NASA [Music] boobies every day these seabirds commute between the island and their fishing grounds out in the open ocean each time a pair meet they renew their bond and then catch up with the neighbors now

is the time to hop into action [Music] [Music] blood they are vampire [Music] finches these little birds have become one of the world world's newest [Music] species she cuts the quill of a large flight feather and the blood [Music] flows the sight of it attracts the attention of others blood is very nutritious Worth Fighting For [Music] so with this NeverEnding supply of food the vampire finches can flourish on an island where otherwise they could not [Music] survive why the boobies don't object nobody knows perhaps the Finch's Behavior started when they helped the boobers to remove

parasites from their [Music] plumage maybe the boobers think that the little vampires are still providing a service who can tell here there are other challenges [Music] St Andrews Bay on South Georgia is packed with half a million King [Music] Penguins in Spring the chicks are left for days whilst their parents are away collecting food for them there is a simple ARR arangement the chicks must stay exactly where their parents left them to be sure of being found [Music] again but this chick has decided to look around [Music] there is a lot to be investigated [Music]

[Music] but it must not stray too far from its meeting place this parent has returned with food in its crop but its chick isn't where it left it it's hard to stay put when there's so much to play [Music] with elephant seals are here [Music] too very mysterious [Music] [Applause] [Music] finding it in the crowd of youngsters is not going to be easy they must recognize each other by their cause [Music] but to hear these in such a noisy Colony they must be within 15 me of each other [Music] [Music] reunited losing its fear of

humans has enabled one animal to spread into cities everywhere and in huge numbers pigeons are by far the most successful Urban [Music] bird here in Albi and the south of France the pigeons Come to the River to bathe they need to PR their flight feathers clean off the city dust and cool themselves down but death lies in weight a predator that has taken advantage of the very thing that has led to the pigeon's success their lack of fear as the pigeons bathe oil from their plumage flows Downstream and is detected a monstrous Wells catfish introduced

here just 40 years ago they have proliferated virtually exterminated the local fish stocks and they've now developed a taste for Pigeon their eyesight is poor so they use their barbles to sense the movements of their victims this is a radical new hunting strategy for what is normally a bottom dwelling fish [Music] [Applause] after a thousand years of living in this city pigeons are now having to learn to avoid a fish it's called Darwin's bark spider and the female has a remarkable strategy [Music] [Music] like a real life Spider Woman she sprays strands of silk in

one long continuous [Music] flow the threads fan out like a sail and drift on air currents blowing across the water every few seconds she crimps the strands together to stop them spreading too widely the breeze will do the rest blowing the threads into a single line and a 25 M bridge now she must reinforce her Bridge because her web will hang from it but there's something think bouncing the line at the other end another Darwin spider is trying to take advantage of her hard [Music] work she must deal with the Intruder [Music] headon the cut

line is an inconvenience but no more than that with hooks on the tips of each leg she gathers in the [Music] thread it won't go to waste as she'll eat it [Music] later when it's all reeled in she sprays again out streams another 25 M Bridge ing [Music] line how a spider no bigger than a thumbnail can produce so much silk so quickly has baffled [Music] scientists and it's no ordinary silk it's the toughest natural fiber on the planet tougher than steel and it needs to be tough to span the wide river with the bridge

Tau and a ground anchor in place it's time to construct her [Music] trap these spiders can build the world's largest orb webs up to 2 m wide [Music] a few hours from the first spray of bridging line the job is [Music] done now her strategy is simple sit and wait [Music] and there's one final bout of silk production shrink wrapping her food for later a giant toris these creatures can float and live without food or fresh water for long periods of time this isolated at all is the perfect Refuge their only enemy is the sun

without shade a toris risks being boiled in his shell so after feeding in the cool of the morning and before the sun becomes too crushingly hot they have to find cover all of [Music] them there is very little vegetation but caves in the coral Rock can provide the shade they so badly [Music] need he's nearly there all that is left is a white knuckle ride to the bottom and he's in thousands of others are still out in the sun this tree could shade a couple of hundred if they pack tight [Music] it's bumper to bumper

[Music] parking within an hour or so all must find shade of some sort if they're to survive [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] safe but the future for alabra cortices is far from certain the climate is changing sea levels are rising and alabra tortoises May soon have to find a new Refuge or drown St Andrew's Beach is one of the most crowded on the planet and so holding a territory here is a constant battle this bull elephant seal The Mating rights to 60 females for two months he's guarded this stretch of beach unable to feed he's

losing 10 kilos a day and he's exhausted but other Bulls are lying around waiting their chance ATT he blubber 15 cm thick his protection against the cold but not from the impact of a fouron opponent he holds his ground and forces the Intruder back out to [Music] sea life in the Antarctic is Harsh indeed but all these creatures come here because the Southern Ocean is one of the richest on Earth at this time of year polar bears on average succeed only once in 20 hunts if the hunter is skinny like this one that may not

be often enough all she can do is keep trying [Music] to prevent her scent betraying her she makes a wide sweep to get down wind of the seal getting close she's now right behind the seal [Applause] incredibly she caught the seal underwater it's only small but even so its blubber alone will contain a 100,000 calories enough to sustain this bear for a week and in that time she might even catch [Music] another but this can't go on forever as summer continues temperatures are rising each hunt requires more energy draining the Bears of their reserves they're

setting off on the greatest Overland Trek made by any animal [Music] but wherever grass eaters travel Predators lie in weight here they are Arctic wolves they must seize their chance while the Caribou pass through their territory the wolf runs at the herd trying to flash out the weak or the slow a calf is separated at Full Tilt 60 km an hour the wolf is just faster but the calf has stamina [Music] [Music] only a few weeks old and this Cal's will to survive it's remarkable and it needs to be for these young Caribou have now

started a journey that will last a lifetime forever chasing the seasonal growth of the grass on which they depend [Music] like all grassland creatures they are at the mercy of these unpredictable but ultimately Bountiful [Music] lands grass can survive some of the harshest conditions on Earth flood far and Frost and still flourish [Music] so it is that grasslands provide a stage for the greatest Gatherings of wildlife on planet Earth in just 3 weeks half a million carves are born on these ashr Plains that's 24,000 a day a thousand an hour [Music] calves stand up within

a few minutes of being [Music] born though some need a little more time to find their [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] feet but a mother won't let her Cal suckle until it's mastered of a few physical skills walking trotting and [Music] running will the Beast cares must run if they're to stay alive [Music] for these planes also support the greatest assembly of hunters on the [Music] planet each species has its own special hunting technique but all have the same aim [Music] to make the most of this brief superabundance of life [Music] [Music] [Applause] he [Music] only

one in 10 will de Beast carves Will Survive to adulthood but that is enough to maintain the million strong herd of wilderbeast and the planet's highest density of predators the oceans around Sou in Asia are also feeling this pressure these Seas feed billions of people around the world for many fishermen here their catch is their only source of livelihood and there is one one fish here that they prize above all others the whale Shar it swims slowly gently harvesting the Plankton it's almost 10 m long the largest fish in the world they are also under

threat like many shark species in Asia populations have declined by more than half in recent years [Music] they are an easy and valuable catch But Here There is a respect for the Seas and their inhabitants whale shark hunting has now been banned across inter ania's Waters this whale shark plays a different part in the lives of these fishermen they feed him and the relationship seems to bring joy to both parties and with this new protection has come something truly remarkable whale sharks from far away are seeking out these fishermen and in these safe Waters there

is a chance for their numbers to increase and maybe one day other shark species will be protected too [Music] the people here have made a simple but extraordinary Choice fishing in a way that is sustainable for themselves and the [Music] Animals caring for wildlife is surely our shared responsibility [Music] across this vast continent and across the world it is decisions like these that are key to protecting the planet's most precious diversity food is so hard to find this far north that a Wolfpack must search hundreds of square kilometers if it's to be successful and success

means raising the Next Generation [Music] ation to do that here the Wolves must work together so the young are raised not only by their parents but by their aunts and uncles as well together they try to ensure that each pup reaches near adult size before the snow Returns the growing pup needs more than just a few [Music] Leverett the Wolves need bigger prey and to catch that they must hunt as a pack [Music] [Music] adult hairs may be easy to spot but they're far from easy to catch they run at 60 km an [Music] hour

to catch one the Wolves work as a team [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] one of them gets close enough to bite the hair's [Music] tail but a hair can change direction in an instant [Music] if it can continue to Sid step and it may ultimately Outlast [Music] them finally it gets away [Music] for the next hair the whole pack gives [Music] Chase now numbers count the lead wolves keep up the pace others run on either side so the hair can't change [Music] direction a tiny meal for the whole pack now a few females [Music] appear they're

much bigger than the males and warming will take them longer she releases a scent a pheromone that attracts the males they outnumber her 100 to one to speed her own return to activity she will absorb heat from [Music] them Intoxicated by her scent the males compete for her wrapping themselves around her [Music] she now has hundreds of males on top of her making mating near impossible but she has a way of reading out the men from the boys [Music] she'll make a daring Ascent of the nearby Cliff she barges her way through the crowd to

get to the rock [Music] face as she climbs Only the strongest fittest males can keep up with her [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] she's made it to the top only a few of her sutors have managed to rise to the occasion and she may reward them all termites an important source of protein [Music] but perhaps they are an acquired taste he's off to search for something he might prefer it's hard to know where to [Music] look or where it's safe to clamber [Music] different levels in the forest contain different foods and some of

the most delicious are in the very highest parts of the canopy 50 m above the ground he's a couple of years old and he's already getting adventurous his mother could climb right to the top in 10 minutes or so if she wanted to but she lingers to keep an eye on [Music] him a fall from this height could be fatal [Music] where the gaps between the branches are too wide for him his mother lets him use her body as a bridge [Music] [Applause] [Music] only 10 m to go before the [Music] top but it's hard

going for small [Music] hands he's had it enough time for a rest with [Music] mother and this is his reward ripe mangoes sweet and [Music] juicy there's so much he must [Music] learn he will depend entirely on his mother until he's [Music] seven it's the longest of all childhoods except ours to help her in her Quest she's equipped with three superpowers first an amazing approach to getting [Music] a Porsche is a jumping spider [Music] able to LEAP up to 50 times her own body [Music] length nowhere seems beyond her reach next her second superpower superb

eyesight essential if she's to distinguish her prey in all this clutter because her prey doesn't stray Porche is a spider eating spider this raises a few problems her lunch is three times her size packed with Venom and surrounded by a sticky trap Mission Impossible not at all because of her third superpower Porche is a genius she can map her world in three dimensions and formulate a plan of attack she can have an idea [Music] the web Builder is blind it won't have a clue that she's coming [Music] [Music] Right On Target and safely behind those

[Music] fangs but a mind as active as poor es can always do with more brain food here there's no Anchor Point for the [Music] absil but Porsche has another idea instead of going to the [Music] spider she will bring the spider to [Music] her she plucks the strands to imitate struggling [Music] prey drawing the spider in to its [Music] death the forests of central China home to the golden snubnosed [Music] monkey they will not survive the fast approaching winter unless they stock up on calorie rich food top of their Autumn menu pine cones they grew

during the summer sunlight and are rich in fats [Music] few are now left and time to gather them is running out dominant males Patrol the troop making sure they get the pick of the crop as the number of pine cones dwindles tensions between the Rival families increase [Music] M threats between two males may not be enough to settle [Music] disputes conflict is in the air there's going to be a fight [Music] [Music] vital food is at stake so every pine cone is worth fighting [Music] [Music] [Music] for the Victor and his family enjoy The Spoils

of War the losers get no more than a few Dead Leaves and will have fewer energy reserves for the coming winter here on the coast of Peru there are so many seabirds fishing in the offshore Waters that the cliffs are covered in droppings over a meter thick humble Penguins regard the s guano as a good material in which to dig their nest holes but it's a messy business it's the breeding season and more hopeful nesters arrive spotless from swimming in the sea time for the residents to get clean up and catch some fish for themselves

and their chicks to get to the Sea they cross the remains of an old nesting ground [Music] only 100 m to [Music] go but the beach is already crowded with sea lies they too have come ashore to raise their young and they don't like being [Music] disturbed to get through such a Minefield needs a bold and courageous leader a brave start a dead end now he's in trouble this is going to need a bit of crowd surfing [Applause] [Music] [Applause] but now all the seaons aroused getting through them will be tricky [Applause] [Music] [Music] a

cleansing bathe in the ocean well worth the effort a kilometer from the surface beyond the reach of the Sun a giant black void larger than all the rest of the world's habitats combined there's life here but not as we know it alien likee creatures produce dazzling displays of light nearly all animals need to attract mates and repel Predators this language of light is so widespread here that these signals are probably the commonest form of communication on the entire planet and yet we still know little about them [Music] [Music] Hunters illuminate themselves and by doing so

attract inquisitive prey [Music] this is fang tooth it has the largest teeth for its size of any fish there are precious sensors all over its head and body which can detect anything moving in the surrounding [Music] water it's the midnight Zone's most fucious fish but prey used light as a distraction a decoy of luminous ink down here in this Blackness creatures live beyond the normal rules of time siphonophores are virtually Eternal they repeatedly clone themselves some eventually growing longer than a blue whale down here it snows continuous clouds of organic debris drift slowly down from

[Music] above this is food and a whole variety of filter feeders depend on it [Music] jellyfish and delicate sea cucumbers [Music] the 1% of marine snow they miss eventually settles on the sea floor [Music] over millions of years it forms a layer of mud up to a kilometer thick it's an empty plane that covers half the surface of our planet [Music] the Deep seab bed May at first appear lifeless but it's home to a unique cast of mud [Music] dwellers the sea toad it is an ambush Predator with an enormous mouth and infinite patience [Music]

this fish has been living for so long here that its fins have changed into something more [Music] useful feet they help it Shuffle about on the sea [Music] [Music] Flor the flapjack octopus it's hovers just above the surface of the mud as it delicately sifts through it searching for worms but it can jet away at the first sign of danger the Army ant this may look like a ball of a million individuals but make no mistake The Colony acts as one a super organism with a sensory system of 2 million and ten a skeleton made

from the living bodies of workers a defense system of soldier ants ready to act at any sign of danger a digestive system processing piles of food food deep inside even a coordinated system for dealing with all the waste these are insects that by working together transcend individual [Music] size The Colony can search the entire jungle and flush out its wildli [Music] each day it sends out a silent probe into the forest in quest of [Music] food it doesn't use Scouts like other ants instead a vast search party pushes into Virgin Territory seeking out the signs

of anything [Music] alive they spread out along a 10 m front sweeping across the forest [Music] floor to find prey the ants must first touch it the iron is that this the most successful hide and seek player in the forest is almost completely blind it distinguishes the living only by their movement as long as an animal remains still it is safe but the slightest twitch will'll Give It Away within seconds the prey is pinned down within minutes it's torn apart at its joints the more the prey struggles the more the ants [Music] engage right across

the raid front prey of all sizes are driven from their hiding [Music] places even wasps must abandon their homes when the ants [Music] arrive everything alive in the path of the Raiders overwhelmed by sheer numbers mother is after eggs but getting them is not going to be [Music] easy the geese will risk their lives to protect their eggs if they lose them they can't produce another clutch this [Music] season the fox [Laughter] [Music] wins she gives the first eggs to her young pups [Music] and then heads back for [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] more some

of the eggs she stashes away they will be fooled to help her through the coming [Music] winter in just 3 weeks she will Ste steal over 800 eggs from the [Music] geese but eating a big egg is not easy if one is rather small it's a technique the pups haven't quite yet cracked mom shows how it's [Music] done 60 million tons of snow now blanket this herd's territory pushing through deep snow is exhausting work and the bison are now slowly starving just keeping warm saps huge amounts of energy their thick coats can insulate them down

to -30 C it's now -40 the only thing that will keep them alive is buried beneath a meter of snow and that's a problem shared with a surprising neighbor the food the fox seeks is also deep beneath the snow the survival of both creatures depends on getting through to the ground for the Bison it will be a matter of brute [Applause] strength massive neck muscles enable them to shovel five tons of snow a day their lightweight neighbor needs more precision [Music] the Bison have reached their goal a mouthful of withered grass and where the Bison

have dug the fox now spots an opportunity every footstep counts but he mustn't break through yet he listens carefully to pinpoint his Target it's moving a v small but 100 times more nutritious than a mouthful of dried grass to get through the winter on these is sometimes brain beats Brawn this far ant has reached the edge of her Known [Music] World Her Way Forward has now become blocked by the rising [Music] Waters she's one of many and in a few minutes their underground home will be [Music] [Applause] submerged forced to evacuate workers and soldiers try

to save the lawful young as their nest floods The Colony seems to be [Music] doomed but from chaos comes order the far ants band together each locking legs with its neighbors they're building a living raft each ant is covered in fine hairs that trap air against its body as the raft forms this air creates it's a cushion for them all to float on this is the power of the colony by working together they've become [Music] Unsinkable and no one gets left behind [Music] [Applause] pulled from the shallows the colony is now at the mercy of

the [Music] flood holding tight to the larvey and keeping their Queen hidden at the center of the raft The Colony drifts into deeper [Music] water where they are vulnerable to fish that now swim through the flooded Forest those that lose their grip must get back to the safety of the raft a little red flying [Music] fox their ancestors flew here traveling along the chain of volcanic islands that links Asia to Australia but that huge Wings which stretch from their fingers to their toes make it difficult for them to walk or take off from the ground

so when they want to rest they hang upside down in trees [Music] but the bats have to drink every day and they do so on the wing [Music] [Applause] they swoop just low enough to wet their bellies and then back in their roosts they will suck out the [Music] water each evening 10,000 of them come here [Applause] [Music] not all of them return every 2 MERS of river there is a crocodile they were here long before the bats survivors from Australia's prehistoric past [Music] [Music] these dramas have been taking place for millions of years aerial

agility versus patience and deadly speed [Music] Australia's forests are hostile places in which to make your [Music] home out here on the sand Flats there is safe accommodation for some a family of Saddle black clown fish have found an excellent home the tentacles of this carpeted anemone can kill but the clown fish are immune to the [Music] poison so they can shelter from danger [Music] in return the fish keep the anemon clean of [Music] De as with all clown fish the family is ruled by a big female her white face marks her out as the

boss the dommin of has to prove his worth so he works tirelessly removing debris and generally keeping on top of the housework [Music] greatest challenge is to find a safe place where the boss can lay her eggs but there's nothing solid here for the female to lay them [Music] on a nearby shell could be the solution if only he can move it to the protection of the anemon too heavy besides it has a mind of its own hermit crab [Music] but out here twice a day the anemon is swept by tidal currents and they bring

in new opportunities an old plastic bottle perhaps this will do not heavy [Music] enough a coconut [Music] shell it looks just right but it's a long way from home [Music] and he can't move it by himself [Music] so the pair now work together [Music] [Music] [Music] a little adjustment to the anemon tentacles in order to clear a space for it and the shell is tucked in [Music] the female lays a safe Nursery at [Music] last he has proved himself worthy to Father her young and he fertilizes them [Music] now he will meticulously tend the [Music]

eggs keeping them clean and healthy until they hatch in 10 days time [Music] even when more sea liins arrive they can't seem to break down the sardines coordinated [Music] [Applause] [Music] defenses with a sh this big the sea lands need to isolate a smaller more manageable group of [Music] fish but with so few Predators the fish still have the [Music] [Applause] advantage all the sea lions can do is keep the sardines at the surface and wait for others to join them [Music] tuna their arrival changes [Music] [Applause] [Music] everything tuna attack from below cutting off

the sardines Escape Route down to deeper water [Applause] [Music] next to appear sheer Waters excellent Flyers but also surprisingly agile underwater with so many predators attacking from all sides the advantage starts to shift away from the sardines [Music] [Applause] [Music] as the fish pack ever tighter their showning strategy now makes it easier for the hunters [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] copper sharks they've scented blood in the [Music] water surprisingly perhaps the predator never attack one another they work together to Corral the ball of fish taking turns to grab a [Applause] [Music] mouthful common Dolphins as

the show gets ever smaller each sardine scrambles desperately to hide in the middle but now there's no [Music] [Applause] escape a brudder's whale finishes off the feast tons of sardines devoured in less than an hour off the South Coast Lies by far the biggest of them Tasmania and that has its own special marsupio one that seldom appears until after dark the Tasmanian devil [Music] many predators inhabit a territory packed with prey but here there's nothing like that for [Music] them each May travel for Miles night after night prepared to eat anything it can find dead

or alive [Music] the shoreline is a good place to search there might be some small creatures to catch here or maybe something that the tide has brought [Music] in the carcass of a waby has been washed ashore [Music] Tasmanian devils can eat 40% of their body weight in one session and they have hugely powerful jaws they tackle everything even [Music] bones back at the Den there are other hungry mouths [Music] her two youngsters are 6 months old they still rely on their mother's milk but they're feeling [Music] peckish there must be something solid they could

find for themselves while they're waiting for a drink is this [Music] food that possum smells [Music] tasty but it's a little high up this looks more promising [Music] at last a giant stick not bad for a first [Music] go their mother will protect and feed these youngsters for another 3 months their survival is important to her but also for us because these are one of the last devil families in the [Music] world Tasmanian devils are now endangered found in only a few places such as this remote iset of the coast of Tasmania a Sally light

foot crab one of thousands of shore crabs just waiting for their moment every day they gather on the tropical shores of [Music] Brazil waiting for the tide to go [Music] out which exposes their feeding grounds seaweed covered rocks 100 M from the shore getting there is a race against the tide they leap from rock to rock [Music] [Music] these crabs seem to be afraid of the water and for good reason the Moray eel the chain Moray is a specialist crab Hunter its blunt teeth can easily grip and crush a crab's shell [Music] it's the crab's

deadliest [Music] enemy but the crabs feeding grounds are still a long way off they must Press On [Music] halfway but the enemy has other ideas crossing the land to reset the Ambush to feed the crabs must keep going but nowhere is safe an octopus also a crab killer the crabs make a dash for it made [Music] it risking life and limb to graze on these seaweed [Music] pastures but in 2 hours time when the tide starts to turn they will have to run the gauntlet all over again [Music] Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean for

millions of years this remote spec of land has been ruled by crabs their ancestors came from the sea but most have now adopted a landbased existence given there are so many of them they get along relatively harmoniously they're the gardeners and caretakers of of a tiny crab Utopia once a year they must all return to the Sea to breed and the march of the red crabs is one of the greatest natural Spectacles on [Music] Earth there are 50 million of the it's an event that has brought the island worldwide [Music] Fame but in recent years

millions of red crabs haven't managed to reach the sea [Music] an Invader has occupied this island yellow Crazy Ants they escaped from visiting ships and with no predators to control them they have now created fast super colonies in the [Music] forest when migrating red crabs March into their territory the ants attack squirting acid into the crabs eyes and [Music] mouths the Cs have no [Music] defense blinded and Confused they're doomed humans brought these an Invaders Here and Now humans are having to control them isolated communities May evolve for millions of years in relative peace but

when new challenges arrive they can struggle to cope of all the species that have become extinct in recent Years Around 80% have been Islanders 3 weeks ago these mile wide sand bars didn't exist in another 3 months they'll be back [Music] underwater but now they provide a crucial opportunity for giant River Turtles [Music] they've been coming here precisely this time of year for Generations 50,000 of them a quarter of the world's [Music] population they're all here for one reason but their window of opportunity is short so time in is [Music] everything scaling the 3 m

High banks will take this female higher and drier than she's been for [Music] months she's come here to lay her eggs but others have beaten her to it [Music] the early arrivals have already claimed nearly every inch of the beach and there are still many more Turtles to come whenever she turns the space is taken [Music] but being fashionably late does have an advantage had she arrived earlier her eggs might have been dug up by those searching for somewhere to [Music] lay she's found her spot settling down She lays nearly 100 eggs burying them keeps

them safe from predators and the warm sand incubates the clutch they must hatch before the river rises again and floods the Sand Bar [Music] any turtles that lay after her may have left it too [Music] late hopefully she has got her timing right [Music] [Music] 2 months on and the hatchlings emerge into the [Applause] world they were laid at the perfect time hundreds Scramble for the river just as the water starts to rise those still to hatch aren't so lucky Forest once covered 80% of [Music] Europe now only half of it remains [Music] [Music] a

brown bear one of only 1500 that are left in finland's forests her Cubs have recently emerged from their Nursery t [Music] the long summer days means there's plenty of time for play [Music] [Music] [Applause] with two boisterous cups it pays to rest whenever you [Applause] can but their mother must be on her guard the Cubs have spotted something a large male looking for a mate the Cubs aren't his so he might try to kill [Music] them their cubs are excellent climbers and now they're beyond his reach 15 M up [Music] their mother warns him to

keep his distance but the Cubs are coming down too soon she can't take any chances [Music] [Music] that was a close call [Music] finland's forests give us a glimpse of what Europe was once like a land of endless Wilderness where large animals roamed far and [Music] wide in a far corner of Southeast Asia lies the coral triangle a Custer of the richest coral reefs in the [Music] world undersea cities crammed full of life as in any crowded Metropolis there is fierce rivalry for space for food and for a partner but the reef is also a

Place full of [Music] opportunity a cuttlefish it specializes in hunting [Music] crabs but a large crab is a dangerous Quarry it has powerful claws the Cuttlefish however has a remarkable Talent its skin contains millions of pigment cells with which it create ever changing colors and [Music] patterns and that apparently hypnotizes the crap [Music] a cuttlefish may be clever but a shark is bigger and it eats cuttlefish time to disappear [Music] [Music] back to the hunt a new Target but the same mesmerizing technique [Music] for those that manage to establish themselves in these bustling undersea cities

there can be great rewards the Namib Desert one of the most exposed places on Earth as the sun climbs High everybody takes cover from the extreme heat [Music] everybody except the hot rod ant as others take refuge their day is just [Music] beginning cleaning out the [Music] nest the sand can reach a score watching 70 Cade the ant's long legs raise their bodies above the surface where it's 10° cooler but if they stand still they will fry they must keep moving or risk the same fate as their Quarry the creatures that have collapsed from heat

stroke too deeply buried but a good place to cool [Music] off foraging decisions must be fast too big perfect back to the nest before they also die but they've strayed into a minefield [Music] each of these strange cone-shaped pits is a death trap with a brutal Predator at its Center here lie ant lion larvi tiny Ambush Predators with Venom filled Pincers [Music] some ants manage to escape but the antline has other tricks flinging sand into the air it creates an avalanche in this cone of death the walls are so angled that the sand slips beneath

the ant's feet as Boulders rain from the sky Escape seems almost impossible [Music] phew they're bullied constantly and forced to live on the fringes of the [Music] troop as outcasts their only comfort is each other [Music] he's been snatched stolen by a higher ranking female she is childless and she wants a baby of her [Music] own he's only a few meters away [Music] but if his mother approaches the rest of the troop could well attack [Music] her the kidnapper has never raised the baby before so this one is in danger they're headed towards a cable

car Tower the young mother can't let them out of her sight [Music] [Music] they're 30 m up if she tries to grab her baby and fails he could fall to his death the kidnapper refuses to surrender him there's one last thing a mother can try and to do it she needs to recruit another maack [Music] now the mother begins to groom her companions in full view of the kidnapper all monkeys love to be groomed even by a low ranking female it's the basis for peace in maak society eventually the urge to join in is just

too strong the kidnap is over and the youngster can climb back into his mother's arms but most of the creatures come together for a very different reason to breed the giant cuttlefish the largest of all cuttlefish [Music] they live for just one or two years now as the Australian summer draws to an end they have one last act to complete to find a mate but there are over one 100,000 males competing for the arriving females in this one Bay among them a giant a true Goliath he probably weighs about 10 kilos bands of color sweep

across his skin that's how cuttlefish communicate this smaller male couldn't possibly take him on [Music] beside Goliath and under his protection a female who has just m with him but other rifal are still interested it seems a small male wouldn't stand a chance the female is now displaying a white stripe along her side nearest Goliath it's a clear signal that she no longer wants to mate with him it's all the encouragement that the little male needs [Music] [Music] he's going to have to use [Music] trickery he tones down his colors and Tucks in his arms

he's just the right size to mimic a [Music] female Goliath is deceived the small male now displays a white stripe just like the real female to deter his advances he slips beside her and they [Music] meet by meting with multiple partners the female ensures the greatest genetic diversity for her young the sneaky male leaves his final Act [Music] complete so even among giant cuttlefish it seems it's not all about size the red crabs of Christmas Island they've spent the dry season Sheltering in damp Burrows beneath the leaf [Music] litter crabs breathe through gilds that must

be kept moist so it's only with a return of the annual Monsoon that these land crabs can finally [Music] emerge with the humidity now high enough they can begin an epic Trek to the coast [Music] every red crab comes together from across the island and they do so in their Millions 50 million to be precise [Music] they've come to release their eggs that can only develop in the ocean there's just one small problem they may be crabs but they can't swim they're scared of the sea [Music] but they don't have a choice they must release

their eggs on the highest [Music] tide each carries around a 100,000 egg so over just two or three nights trillions are released into the ocean though some are more successful than others [Music] [Music] once their work is done the crabs will return to the forest [Music] and this Bobcat may be in luck for this particular Valley is blessed a river here never freezes it's fed by a canic hot spring that heats these Waters to 50° warmer than the surrounding air hungry animals of all kinds come here to feed [Music] throughout the winter the river is

full of food for those who know how to catch it here even the coyotes have become fishermen but hunting is hard for a cat that's not used to getting its feet wet so he must choose his Target with care [Music] golden eye Ducks but can he get close enough to pounce perhaps you'll have more luck on the other side here Steam from the river warms the surrounding trees so up in the branches there could be prey if only he could get to it it's 6 M up at last a squirrel not much but enough to

keep him going to survive a winter in these mountains takes tenacity and bobcats have that in abundance the Great American deserts cover over 2 and2 million square kilometers here roasted by the Sun and blasted by the wind the Rocks disintegrate and mountains particle by particle are reduced to sand these pillars are all that remain of a plateau where dinosaurs once roamed few animals can now survive [Music] here in summer as in all deserts the enemy is heat and it returns every [Music] day at 7 in the morning the temperature is already 25° Celsius the clock

is ticking for one unusual descendant of the Dinosaurs [Music] a Road Runner found only in the deserts of North America built for a life on the ground he can run at over 30 km an hour but the prey he seeks are one step [Music] ahead the Road Runner's challenge is picking the right target [Music] [Music] a heal a monster too [Music] big by midm morning it will be 40° [Music] Celsius even the smallest lizards will soon head for [Music] cover a centipede slim pickings for the morning's work hunting should get easier and prey will stay

out longer once the Summer's Peak begins to fade [Music] in the Gulf of Mexico these eruptions also release a super salty liquid Brian [Music] it's heavier than seawater and it accumulates in great pools on the sea floor it's difficult to make sense of the site a lake of concentrated salt water 15 M deep at the bottom of the [Applause] sea around its margin perhaps even more strangely there is a profusion of life giant muscles that can live and grow for a century or more pack tightly together dwarfing the shrimps and squat lobsters that feed around

them Cutthroat eels scavengers come to the shores of the Brian Lake in search of something edible some even Venture into the brine to [Music] spending too long in it can send an eel into toxic [Music] shock it only hope is to rise above it [Music] [Applause] it manages to escape others are not so lucky the rine embalms their bodies and the casualties of decades accumulate around the margins Lions will normally avoid hunting in such heat but they're also opportunists [Music] the Lions will need to bring him down quickly before they overheat [Music] [Music] even away

from the herd a bull is a formidable opponent he could Gore and kill a lion [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] close to overheating they finally succeed in bringing him to the ground [Music] [Music] but the massive bull is not giving [Music] up against the odds and the full weight of the Lions he regains his feet and it is now that the tables turn the lions are exhausted after a 20 minute struggle only the bull has the energy to finish the fight [Music] in such exposed and extreme conditions the challenge for predators and their prey is at

its most intense a thousand plants growing on one single tree throughout the forest this story is repeated endless times as a consequence jungles are home to more species of plants than anywhere else on Earth and they in turn support a wealth of animals in Ecuador the competition is at its most [Music] intense here there areund species of hummingbirds alone or fighting for nectar each flow only has a small amount at any one time and so it's first come first [Music] served one hummingbird has gone to Great Lengths to a void conflict with other species sword

bills are the only bird with a beak longer than their body and some flowers are too elongated for the other 99 species of hummingbirds here to feed from them [Music] a sword builds extraordinary beak however enables it to reach the places that others can't the top of this flower where the sweet nectar is produced it has found a solution that means it doesn't have to join the fight and as each long flower blooms it gives the sword build a fresh supply of food all to [Music] itself but having a beak longer than your body does

have its drawbacks for a start It's tricky to keep it clean harder still how do you pre your body feathers unlike the other Hummers sword pills can't reach their feathers with their beak the only option A Good Old [Music] [Music] Scratch it's a little unrefined but a small price to pay for an exclusive food [Music] supply a mother black bear is looking for something suitable for her Cubs this is their first ever trip to the seaside [Music] in a few hours the tide will return so they must keep up with Mom [Music] [Music] here's something

tasty [Music] crabs beat crabs can give a nasty nip so it's best to start off with smaller ones during spring 3/4 of the Bear's food comes from the beach [Music] [Music] but now this family is not alone an adult male he's double her size and there in his [Music] territory the Cubs know that call it's time to head for safety Bears have poor eyesight but their sense of smell is acute and the male has detected Intruders [Music] he knows exactly which tree they are in if the Cubs stay up there they'll be safe but they're

losing precious feeding time for now he's content to leave his scent Mark a warning note for trespassers the family moves on for the Cubs lunch today will have to be a takeaway the tide comes in and within minute feeding time is over for another day and wave power creates towering fortresses like these cliffs in the Arctic home to tens of thousands of breeding seabirds the faces of the cliffs are accessible only from the air and have plenty of looks and crannies for those that can get there but to feed seabirds must still Master the ocean

World Beyond a puffin he's a fisherman and a father he has a mate for life [Music] [Applause] both share the burden of raising their weak old chick their puffling who needs five square meals a day the parents alternate fishing [Music] trips it's Dad's turn [Music] when fish stocks are low puffins must fly as much as 50 kilm out to sea to reach the good fishing grounds [Music] once there they plunge into another world good fishing spots are hard to come by and they have company gilot like the Puffin their wings are short and good for

diving puffins can hold their breath for over a minute and dive as deep as 40 m a catch but it's a long way home after an exhausting round trip of almost 100 km this puffins nearly made it but there are pirates on this Coast Arctic skewers [Music] all around returning parents are being robbed [Music] the skewers long rback Wings make them faster and more maneuverable [Music] [Music] puffins must choose their moment wisely [Music] a near Miss [Music] the last desperate burst of speed and it's made it [Music] [Music] safely home after a 3-hour round [Music]

trip where his patient partner is waiting [Music] [Music] [Applause] today their puffling will [Music] eat but where fish numbers are in Decline many puffins Now find it hard to get enough food for their chicks in the changing seeds of today it can be even harder to be a successful Puffin parent he's a Marine iguana the only lizard in the world that gets its food from the sea [Music] the seaweed on which he totally relies only grows in abundance here because of the nutrients brought by the commwell current Once In The Water he has just 30

minutes to find food [Music] any longer than that and his muscles will seize up and he'll drown for like most reptiles he can't handle the cold chilly water isn't a problem for a warm blooded corant she can swim in it all day but can only hold her breath for a few minutes [Music] he on the other hand completes his whole half hour trip on one single breath his flat face and sharp teeth make him an efficient seaweed cropping machine but with the clock ticking he must eat [Music] fast the cormer having caught its fish goes

back to the surface one last mouthful and it's also time for the Iguana to head for home but to stop his muscles from seizing up in the cold water he must get back [Music] quickly so he could do without the attentions of an inquisitive seaon [Music] [Music] dry land is now just 30 m away but the biggest hurdle is still to come [Music] the surging water now fights against him he's out but he stayed in the coal so long that he's lost his strength [Music] and he's made [Music] it danger passed and that's just as

well because he is a father and he's got adding some very precious eggs for the last few weeks females one after the other have visited him and entrusted him with their [Music] offspring some are now almost ready to hatch there are several clutches on the leaf and those at the top the most recently laid are barely a day old old but in the jungle there's always someone out to get you this wasp is a specialist Hunter of Frog's eggs it's noticed the rigling tempos at the bottom of the leaf he mustn't move the youngest eggs

are the most vulnerable and he can't guard them all but these tadpoles are not as helpless as they might appear incredibly the unhatched T holes can sense danger and the oldest and strongest wriggle free and drop into the stream below the eggs at the top of the leaf however are still too young to hatch and now the Wasps know they're there but the male's back looks very like the youngest cluster of eggs and that seems to confuse the [Music] Wasps using his own body as a decoy is a huge risk the wasp stings could kill

him [Applause] [Music] he's managed to save most of his [Music] young he'll have to remain on guard for another 2 weeks but in the jungle just surviving the day can count as a success somewhere along this seemingly Barren stretch of sand there is food in great [Music] quantity Cape F there are around 10,000 of them here adult seals are large and strong but their pups are [Music] neither the youngsters are closely guarded by their mothers hyena however Ever Knows to be patient sooner or later seal mothers must return to the ocean to cool off a

single SEAL Pup could feed a hyena and her family for days but finding food is only half the [Music] battle it now has to be carried [Music] back a jackal is here too and it's not alone if a hyena loses her kill she'll have nothing with which to feed her Cubs the Jack Halls won't follow her very far from the coast it's too hot for them in the desert interior only by making these long Journeys can brown hyenas manage to survive in the middle of the Namib the blue shark it travels over 8,000 km a

year riding on the currents supported by its broad wing-shaped fins this one may not have eaten for 2 months but the currents can carry promising traces of fatty oils from many kilometers away and will lead it to its next meal [Music] after days of travel the smell of food gets stronger [Music] a dead whale recently struck by a ship this could be a real Feast but the blue shark must be cautious great white sharks 10 times heavier than a blue a highly possessive around a whale caucus great whites are eager to feed on energy rich

whale blubber which we now know forms a major part of their [Music] diet once the great white has had its fill smaller sharks like the blue shark tackle what's left of a carcass as the oils of this dead whale spread more widely more and more blue sharks appear [Music] within days the carcass will be stripped of its blubber then no longer kept buoyant by its oil it will sink Into the Depths below the blue with its reserves of fat replenished can now survive for another two months without eating Northern Australia has the highest tides in

the tropics which expose vast areas of Shoreline and here lives a truly extraordinary sweet PES of [Music] octopus octopuses are marine animals they live and breathe underwater at low tide most octopuses would be imprisoned in their Rocky pool [Applause] [Music] but this is no ordinary octopus [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's the only one specially adapted to walk on land it pulls itself along using the hundreds of tiny suckers that line its arms [Music] hunting for crabs it walks from pool to [Music] pool apart for a rather startled fish this one is empty so the octopus moves

on a rock pool may seem like a safe Refuge but the octopus's suckers enable it to move just as stealthily in water as out of it [Music] [Music] nowhere is safe when this octopus is around the Kalahari Desert here food is more plentiful but it's hidden a Pangolin [Music] she can collect food that others can't reach a keen sense of smell enables her to detect the presence of ants and termites in their nests beneath the sand [Music] her sticky tongue some 30 cm long enables her to collect them from deep [Music] underground and she's being

carefully watched the drier it gets the deeper the termites live many are way beyond the reach of even a pankin but not of an [Music] artar it's the world's largest burrowing animal [Music] sense of smell is extremely [Music] acute shovel-like Claws and Powerful legs enable it to dig down to depths of 5 or 6 m a full grown arvok needs to eat about 50,000 termites every day termites are highly nutritious and full of moisture and they can be collected here year round arvar are usually nocturnal but the fact that this one is foraging in daylight

is a sign that food is scarce recent droughts in the Kalahari have led to low termite numbers and as a consequence arvar here are close to Salvation changes in the world's climate are affecting many of Africa's animals it's predicted that in the next Century southern Africa will warm twice as much as the global [Music] average the future will be Bleak for for those that cannot adapt fast enough the struggle to survive in our green Seas can have far-reaching consequences once a year one particular Meadow in Australia is transformed around the first full moon of winter

an army materializes spider crabs for the past year they've been feeding in deeper waters now they march across the seagrass [Music] plains hundreds of thousands of them [Music] they clamber over one another creating great [Music] Mounds nearly 100 m long they're not seeking mates neither are they laying eggs they have come here in order to grow like all crabs their bodies are enclosed in a hard unexpandable shell so to grow they have to break out of it and that allows the soft one that has developed beneath to expand it will take days for the new

shell to harden its legs are so limp that they won't work properly the crab is unprotected and in great danger a smooth Stingray it's huge about 4 me me long it wants a soft freshly molded crab that will be easier to eat the crabs try to stick together but now disturbed by the ray they're scattering a newly moled crab is too weak to keep up with the crowd the safest place is right in the middle of the pile that is why they have all assembled here there is safety in numbers but the vast majority of

the crabs escape and within the next few days they will be ready to return to the depths and resume their lonely wanderings in search of food this is no graveyard but the Triumph of 100,000 crabs successfully molded black tip reef sharks they are bigger and more powerful than TR Val but not as fast or as [Music] agile the Hardy heads are well aware of them but so long as they stay just Out Of Reach they have little to fear [Music] but now the Sharks and the tri Val join [Music] forces together they enter the shallows

each looking for a chance to attack the trali make the first move and the Hardy heads take refuge again in the waves and this is what the sharks have been waiting for surging forwards they chase the Hardy heads out of the water beaching themselves in a daring bid to Hoover up their prey the Hardy heads that escape the sharks swim back out to deeper water but into the mouths of the chipal now the receding waves help to pull the Sharks back into deeper water in the chaos the seabirds get their chance [Music] it's a Feeding

Frenzy in only 10 cm of water over half of all animals in the open ocean drift in currents jellyfish cross entire oceans feeding on whatever happens to tangle with their tentacles some can go to a meter even 2 m across and when by Lucky chance they encounter a patch of sea rich in Plankton their numbers explode [Music] [Music] it's such a successful strategy the jellies are one of the most common life forms on the planet but among the jellies and looking somewhat like them is a rather more complex and C the creature the Portuguese Mana

[Music] War it floats with the help of a gas filled bladder topped by a vertical membrane with that serving as a sail it maintains a steady course through the waves [Music] long threads trail behind it some as much as 30 m long [Music] each is armed with many thousands of stinging cells a single tentacle could kill a fish or in rare cases a human but among its lethal tentacles lurks a Mana War fish that feeds by nibbling them whilst this fish has some resistance to the stings it must still be extremely careful most other fish

are not so lucky [Music] [Applause] [Music] a tentacle has caught this one and reels it in it's already paralyzed specialized muscular tentacles transfer the victim to others that digest the catch liquefying it with powerful [Applause] chemicals eventually all that is left is a scaly husk this voracious Mana War May collect over 100 100 small fish in a [Music] [Music] day it's July in the desert of Nevada in the Western United States the hottest time of the year bands of wild horses Mustang are converging on one of the last remaining water holes around now water not

only offers them the chance to drink it can also bring power if a stallion can control access to water he will have secured mating rights to the entire herd so stallion try to dominate these pools fighting off Rivals who venture too close [Music] a stranger he's traveled 15 kilm to be here because the pools where he's come from have already dried up with him come his females if he can't provide them with water they will leave him for the white stallion who already dominates this [Music] pool so he will have to fight oh [Music] [Music]

there is everything to lose a broken leg or a shattered jaw would mean a slow and painful death a missed kick and it's all over the new arrival has won Eden's Wales have lived here for gener Generations but the world around them is changing today agricultural pollution flowing from the land is beginning to suffocate this sea [Music] many fish now stay closer to the surface where the waters still contain enough oxygen to survive Eden's whales depend on these fish they swallow huge quantities of water before filtering out their prey it takes a lot of energy

to drive their 15 ton bulk through the [Music] water and with so few fish the rewards from feeding like this are barely worth it so to survive here the whales have developed a new hunting [Music] technique one that requires has almost no effort they simply open their mouths and [Music] wait the panicked fish jumped right [Music] in swimming alongside another whale scares even more into the open Jord [Music] with this ingenious new technique Eden's whales have found a way to survive the pressures they now face all across the planet animals are having to adapt to

a changing world but the speed of these changes will be too fast for many if we could only halt our unrestrained plunder of the ocean its habitats and species would recover and at a time when our overexploited lands are already failing us this has never been more important for Humanity hunting is only possible for 3 hours around low tide when the mud banks are exposed razor sharp oysters cover much of the shore beaching here could be lethal the hunters need to find a stretch of Shoreline with just the right slope to level and the Dolphins

risk stranding too Steep and they can't force their prey from the [Music] water working as a team the Dolphins surround the fish driving them towards the [Music] [Music] shore attacking in perfect synchrony the Dolphins create a bow [Music] wave it carries their prey onto the Muddy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Banks other fish eers profit from their daring herons and gulls follow every [Applause] hunt to get to the fish first the Dolphins drive themselves high up the bank but if they go too far they risk the St [Music] ing to prevent fish escaping between them the

dolphins all beat themselves on the same side always the right but this has a cost each time they grab a fish they also take in a mouthful of mud the grit gradually wears down their teeth but on one side only in time these teeth get so worn down that older Dolphins can no longer hunt like this and must find other ways to catch fish in the underwater forests of Northern Japan the residents of this sunken wreck are waiting for the summer temperatures to reach 16° [Music] C that for some is the time for [Music] mating

a kind of giant Rass called a cobod die this is a male [Music] and in female terms he's particularly handsome he's a meter long and weighs 15 [Music] kilos much larger than the demin [Music] female and he is ready to breed he attempts to meate with her and with any of the other dozen or so females that live in his territory whenever he gets the chance [Music] but females from around 10 years old take little notice of his advances [Music] [Music] this is because when any large female reaches a critical body size she can begin

a dramatic transformation over just a few months particular enzymes inside her body cease to work and male hormones start to circulate as time passes her head expands and her chin gets longer a she has changed into a he and with this comes a change in temperament the old male who ruled all the females here is challenged to a face off the more bulbous the head the more it intimidates an opponent [Music] [Music] the territory has a new ruler only the largest females transform themselves in this way but the change enables them to have more mates

so they will have many more offspring carrying their [Music] jeans but a new male can't afford to be complacent inside the body of every codai female there is a new mailin waiting and many animals here choose the simplest option of all staying hidden all day and only venturing out in the cool of the night as Darkness Falls animals appear from seemingly nowhere [Music] and among them inevitably are [Music] Hunters one of the most voracious nocturnal Predators is also one of the hardest to see this mysterious creature hardly ever appears on the surface of the tunes

but there are signs on the sand that can give it away it lives only here where the sand grains are so perfectly dry and Polished that they flow almost like water it's no bigger than a pingpong [Music] ball a golden mole it's totally blind but there's nothing to see underground anyway [Music] instead it has superb hearing its entire head acts as an amplifier that picks up vibrations through the sand so to locate prey on the surface of the Dune it has paradoxically to thrust its face into the dune [Music] termites not easy to catch when

you're blind far better to go into stealth mode once below the sand it can detect the slightest movement allowing it to strike with pinpoint accuracy well most of the [Music] time it can travel a kilometer a night in search of its dinner and right now it has just detected its it main course Little Wonder it's sometimes called the shark of the dunes