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The wild places of Arabia are so hot and dry,

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that they were virtually untouched by people for thousands of years.

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But that ancient balance has shifted in the wake of one dramatic discovery.

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Oil, and the wealth it has brought have transformed this land,

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bringing the 21st century to the desert.

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Arabia's animals now live in a high-tech world.

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But Arabia's people are beginning to use their technology to protect nature.

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Dawn, at the Al Wathba camel race track,

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on the outskirts of the city of Abu Dhabi.

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For centuries, the Arabs held

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camel races to celebrate special occasions.

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But in the last 50 years, camel racing has been transformed,

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echoing changes that have swept all across Arabia.

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Now, this is one of the richest sports in the world.

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The winner of this race stands to win a million dollars.

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The prize money at stake means that 21 st-century camel racing

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has moved far beyond anything

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these camel handlers' grandparents could have imagined.

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In today's camel races,

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modern technology is in the driving seat.

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Literally.

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To save on weight, jockeys have been replaced by robots weighing no more than a laptop.

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The camel trainers drive alongside.

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They scream instructions to their camels

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through a speaker on the robot.

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The frenzy is added to

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by the fevered excitement of the race commentator,

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broadcasting live to the nation.

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When an extra burst of speed is needed,

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each robot carries a whip

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which the trainer operates by remote control.

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In today's Arabia,

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camel training has become a sophisticated business.

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Scientific breeding and state-of-the-art training

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have turned these camels into elite racing machines.

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The average speed of a racehorse in Europe

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hasn't changed in half a century.

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While the average speed of a racing camel has increased by 30%.

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To understand the vast changes

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that have swept across Arabia in recent decades,

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you have to go back millions of years.

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Then, most of the Arabian peninsula was underwater,

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forming the seabed of a vast ocean,

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the Tethys Sea.

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The waters were rich in tiny plants and animals,

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which sank to the bottom when they died.

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Over millennia,

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the decaying bodies of billions of these tiny life forms turned to oil.

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Oil was first discovered in the offshore waters

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of the Gulf and the Arabian desert in the 1920s.

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It was during the Second World War, and the boom years that followed,

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that the global demand for oil started to skyrocket.

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Arabia had struck it rich.

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All across Arabia, the oil men found new supplies of black gold.

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Today, close to a third of the world's oil

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is supplied by the countries of the Gulf.

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That's about three billion litres per day.

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Twenty-five major oil terminals lie in Arabia's Gulf coast.

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Every year, some 5,000 tankers pass through these waters.

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It certainly doesn't look wildlife-friendly.

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But in places,

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the impact on nature is not as negative as you might think.

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The divers who service the platforms

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get an exclusive view of some very exotic animals.

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The legs of the platforms become encrusted with corals.

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These, and the tiny animals associated with them,

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in turn provide food for fish.

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The rigs are home to dozens of beautiful species.

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Like the Longfin pennantfish,

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and the half-moon angelfish.

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It's not just reef dwellers that are found here.

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Fish from the open sea also gather.

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Perhaps because the rigs offer shelter

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from predatory sharks.

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Also, fishing near the rigs is banned,

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allowing shoals to grow larger than anywhere else in the Gulf.

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This is a popular spawning ground.

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The female queenfish swims on her side as she distributes her eggs.

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Males jostle behind her to be the first to fertilise them.

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In summertime, the water is thick with eggs.

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A feast for jellyfish.

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This cauliflower jelly is a metre across.

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But it's a tiddler,

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next to some of the diners attracted to this egg soup.

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A whale shark.

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At 12 metres plus in length, it's the biggest fish in the world.

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A sight to take your breath away.

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The diver needn't worry. Whale sharks only have tiny teeth,

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and don't eat anything more than a few centimetres long.

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Whale sharks feed by filtering food particles from the water.

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Though jellyfish are not on the menu.

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Every shark is accompanied by a cloud of remoras, or suckerfish,

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which are thought to feed largely on the shark's faeces.

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For most of their lives, which can be 70 years long,

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whale sharks are solitary.

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But there is so much food here

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that groups of over 100 sharks can gather together.

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These sharks are only in Arabian waters for the summer.

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Where they go for the rest of the year is unknown.

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Even in these waters, much of their life remains a mystery.

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They feed for just a few hours every day,

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then disappear back into the depths.

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What they get up to down there, nobody knows.

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The fish life around the oil platforms also provides food for sea birds.

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Ninety percent of the world's Socotra cormorants

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breed on low-lying islands in the Gulf.

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During the breeding season, from March to November,

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temperatures on the ground can reach a scorching 70 degrees centigrade.

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The cormorants flutter their throats to keep cool.

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Despite the heat,

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successful colonies like this one off the coast of Bahrain

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can be tens of thousands strong.

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But appearances can be deceptive.

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Although some large colonies do remain,

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over half have disappeared

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in the last 50 years,

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and oil pollution is thought to have played a large role.

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The oil industry is a lot cleaner than it was,

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but parts of the Gulf remain polluted

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because of the legacy of large spills in the past.

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This was the site of the world's largest ever oil spill.

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During the Gulf War in 1991,

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the Iraqi Army set fire to huge numbers of oil wells,

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and nearly two billion litres of oil were lost.

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No one knows just how many fish and seabirds were killed,

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but it certainly had a dramatic impact.

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Oil does eventually break down naturally,

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but it can take many years for all the toxic chemicals to disperse.

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The risk of further oil spills will remain a threat to wildlife

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while so much oil passes through the Gulf.

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Along the Gulf coast,

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the seabed is kept fertile by dust

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blowing in from the desert.

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That means these shallow waters

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are every bit as important for wildlife as the deep seas.

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But to exploit the food that's on offer here,

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you need the right equipment.

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The beak of the lesser flamingo

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is the only beak that's built to be used upside down.

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It's lined with bristles which filter out prawns and algae from the water.

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It's the pigment in this food that turns flamingos pink.

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Young birds start white and become pinker with age.

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The rhythmic feeding and swallowing looks like a graceful ballet.

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But the flamingos aren't above using those beautiful beaks as weapons

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to fight over personal space.

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And space is a key issue for the Gulf's flamingos.

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Many of the lagoons they rely on have been swallowed up

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by Arabia's fast-growing cities.

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This city centre wetland has been protected by an edict from the very top.

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Sheikh Mohammed,

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the Ruler of Dubai.

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But the pressure on many other wild places

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continues to increase.

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The population of the United Arab Emirates alone

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has risen by nearly 10,000% since the 1960s,

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leading to an explosion in construction and trade.

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The most extreme expression of the wealth of the Gulf cities

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is in Dubai.

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Home to more skyscrapers per square mile than anywhere else on Earth.

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This forest of concrete, glass and steel

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is towered over by the Burj Khalifa.

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At half a mile high,

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it's 300 metres higher than any other building on Earth.

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As well as going up, the Gulf cities are spreading out.

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This is The Palm.

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It's an extraordinary feat of engineering.

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But each frond was created by dredging sand from the seabed.

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And on the seabed is a grassland

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as rich as the plains of Africa.

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The warm, sun-drenched waters are perfect for seagrass,

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the only flowering plant in the sea.

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Just like the African grasslands,

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these underwater plains are home to many predators and prey.

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A bluespotted ribbontail ray hunts for buried shellfish.

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A blue triggerfish has the same quarry in mind.

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Small fish, like this blenny, have to lie low.

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An annulated sea snake

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two metres long, and one of the most venomous in the world.

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The snake can hunt for up to two hours on one breath.

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Hole-dwelling blennies are a favourite prey.

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Not all the reptiles here are voracious hunters.

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Unlike most sea turtles, green turtles prefer a vegetarian diet.

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Like the whale sharks, many turtles are accompanied by remoras.

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These ones are squabbling over access.

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Each remora has a suction pad on its head,

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which it can stick to animals to get a free ride.

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A turtle shell is easy to stick to, and worth fighting over.

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The growth of the Gulf cities threatens the seagrass plains,

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and all the weird and wonderful animals that depend on them.

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A dugong-

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Closest relative, the elephant.

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Dugongs eat almost nothing but seagrass.

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Using their flexible lips to pull up both the stalk

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and the nutritious roots beneath.

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A group of remoras are trying to hitch a ride on this dugong.

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But he's not tolerating the hangers-on.

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Every spring, the Gulf's dugongs gather together

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in what are thought to be mass migrations between feeding grounds.

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Protecting those feeding grounds from development

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would go a long way towards protecting the dugongs.

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But nobody yet knows where they are.

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Luckily, help is at hand.

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This is a project run by the Abu Dhabi government.

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It aims to find out where the Gulf's dugongs are going

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by fitting them with satellite transmitters.

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They've called in some assistance from the far side of the world.

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To the other boat, can you guys keep on our starboard side?

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Australian scientist Richard Campbell

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works with two Aboriginal Australians.

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Dwayne and Phillip grew up hunting dugongs for food,

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and now put their skills to a different use.

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Even for an expert, finding a dugong isn't easy.

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They only take a breath every five minutes or so,

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and barely break the surface.

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The team need eyes in the sky.

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Once the dugong's been spotted,

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Dwayne and Phillip use their expertise

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to approach with as little disturbance to the animal as possible.

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Dwayne speared his first dugong from an open boat at the age of 12.

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But today, he's going to have to grab the dugong.

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A third of a ton of slippery muscle.

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It's not for the faint-hearted.

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-You're gonna catch him, Dwayne? -Yup.

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Dwayne gets a loop around the tail.

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And the team work fast

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to secure the dugong safely to the side of the boat.

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Protecting the Gulf's dugongs

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means that a few will have to carry satellite transmitters.

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But each one weighs just half a kilo,

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and tied around the tail, they do no harm.

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This is a chance to take some useful measurements.

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You're on there, Yusuf?

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- Yes. - Yes?

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Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

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Two, seven, two. 2.72!

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Nearly three metres. A good size.

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This would've made for quite a feast in Phillip's youth.

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The team also takes skin samples for genetic analysis.

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The hairs on the body are a clue to the fact

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that dugongs' ancestors used to live on land.

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That's DNA, mate. You don't need much.

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After just a few minutes, the dugong is released.

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Mission accomplished for the team.

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Good job...Yeah.

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Information about this dugong's movements

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will help determine which regions of the Gulf need to be protected

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from future development.

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In the great desert heartland of Arabia,

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the relationship between people and nature goes back a long way.

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The Arabs survived here by hunting the desert's animals.

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And for 4,000 years, one very special predator

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has helped them catch their prey.

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The falcon.

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For many Arabs, falconry remains a passion,

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bordering on obsession.

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Mohammad Al-Kaabi

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comes out from the city to fly his birds every weekend.

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This is Hathi.

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Pedigree falcons like her can cost as much as $100,000.

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Hathi's trained to return to Mohammed

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using a lure that simulates her quarry.

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It's a workout that keeps her agile and in top condition.

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Mohammed is showing his sons, Salim and Saif,

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how to put Hathi through her paces.

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This is a rite of passage

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that Arab boys have enjoyed for thousands of years.

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It's time for the boys to get hands-on.

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It's crucial to keep calm.

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A falcon must learn to trust its handler,

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or it will never fly back to him.

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In the morning, the boys will move on to the next lesson.

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Traditionally, that's hunting live prey.

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Sadly, the Arab love of hunting with

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rifle, dog, and falcon,

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has pushed some desert animals, like the houbara bustard,

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to the brink of extinction.

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But with the appliance of science,

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there is now a solution that can keep everyone happy.

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With a lure attached to the back of a remote controlled plane,

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Mohammed can stretch the falcon to its limits.

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No wild animals will die today.

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But the thrill of the hunt is just as strong.

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Mohammed's sons are growing up in a world

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that's increasingly aware

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of the need to look after our natural resources.

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That's particularly challenging here,

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because of the difficulties of living in one of the hottest,

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driest places on Earth.

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For much of the year, Arabia is so hot

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that many people are at their most active after sunset.

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Even at night, the heat can be unbearable.

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So much of people's time is spent indoors

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in air-conditioned spaces.

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Dubai is home to the world's largest shopping mall.

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Kept cool all year round, good for the ski slope and the ice rink.

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Dubai by night is a vision of the most energy-hungry society on Earth.

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The richest Arab countries use more energy per person than anywhere else.

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And virtually all of it comes from burning fossil fuels.

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As well as contributing to climate change,

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that makes these countries very reliant on oil.

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And the Gulf oil wells will

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start to run dry within the next few decades.

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But there is an even more pressing problem for Arabia

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than its huge demand for power.

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Every night of the year

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Dubai puts on the biggest water show on Earth.

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The fountains reach as high as a fifty-storey building.

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Perhaps because it's a desert,

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Arabia is addicted to water.

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The Gulf states consume more water per person than anywhere else in the world.

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In Saudi Arabia and Jordan

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water is pumped from hundreds of metres underground,

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and brings life to the desert.

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Huge fields of crops, each one several hundred metres across,

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dot the landscape over huge areas.

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Clearly visible from space.

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These man-made oases have had a huge impact on nature.

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Songbirds now flock into the desert.

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This is a perfect place to drink

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and grab a well-needed shower.

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The fields are also rich in food like grubs and worms.

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They even have their own public transport system.

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Thousands of birds have changed their migration routes to visit these fields

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on their journey between Europe and Africa every year.

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Some species, like the pied wagtail and the wheatear,

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are familiar in the UK.

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Others, like the hoopoe and the Bluethroat,

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usually spend their summers further east

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in northern Russia or eastern Europe.

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But the songbirds who stop off here don't have things all their own way.

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Birds of prey also migrate.

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And they too gather here in huge numbers.

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These aerial predators aren't just here

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for a shower and a drink.

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All that flying builds up a healthy appetite.

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Of all the songbird hunters gather here,

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perhaps the most graceful is one

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that might be seen on the Scottish moors.

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A hen harrier.

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The harrier has a dish-shaped face like an owl.

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This helps catch sound,

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enabling it to hear the slightest rustle of a hidden bird.

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And the long, narrow wings can turn on a sixpence.

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It's pied wagtail for dinner.

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In the short term,

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this type of agriculture is good news for the birds.

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And provides jobs for local people.

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But it uses water at a staggering rate.

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The underground reservoirs will begin to run dry within the next 10 years.

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The land will be desert once again,

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and the people who work here will lose their livelihood.

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The fields sum up a problem that faces all of us.

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How to meet people's needs in a world of limited resources?

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But the immense wealth that's made Arabia a world leader

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in energy and water consumption

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is now being used to try and

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find solutions to those same problems.

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This is the solar power plant for the most futuristic town on Earth,

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Masdar.

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Lying on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi,

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Masdar is a prototype for the cities of the future.

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A hundred percent carbon neutral, but with all mod cons.

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Some features are simple ideas

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borrowed from traditional Arab architecture.

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The overhang from the floor above shades those below.

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And the streets are narrow

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so that they are shaded from the intense heat of the sun.

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Any breeze is captured in a wind tower and channelled down to the street.

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Combined with a light spray of water,

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this can lower the temperature at ground level by 15 degrees centigrade.

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Simple solutions like this

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create a cool outdoor space even in midsummer.

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In Masdar's vision of tomorrow,

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transport will be underground, in unmanned pods.

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Doors opening.

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Welcome to Masdar city.

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Here, in the heart of oil country,

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are the designers of Masdar

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taking us on a journey into the post-oil future?

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Arabia's cities are already world leaders

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in design and architecture.

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If the concepts from Masdar can be expanded here,

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then maybe they can also lead the way in reducing our impact

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on the world around us.

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Arabia is a place where people and animals have lived

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alongside each other for thousands of years.

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Oil money has changed Arabia.

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But there is still a deep affinity for the natural world.

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Even today's ultra-high-tech camel racing

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still has the Arab love of camels at its heart.

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At the end of each race,

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after the robots are dismounted and the prizes distributed,

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the camels are pampered like beloved family pets.

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Hand fed alfalfa and dates.

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The Arab people have never forgotten

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that it was their relationship with the camel

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that enabled them to survive the inhospitable deserts of Arabia

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in the first place.

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If that deep connection with wildlife can be maintained,

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then there will always be a place for nature

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in the heart of Arabia.