Original subtitles

THE BEGINNING OF WINTER IN THE ARCTIC

It's hard to imagine a more challenging time

or place to learn how to fend for yourself.

Until today, this three-month-old arctic fox pup has had it easy.

Fed and protected by his parents, playing with his siblings.

But his mother is about to bring her cub's childhood

to an abrupt end and drive them into the wilderness.

Soon, food will be so thin on the ground that her cub's only chance of avoiding

starvation is to split up and face a six-month-long winter alone.

Even so, a young fox has only a one-in-five chance of surviving.

To find enough to eat on these barren wastes,

an arctic fox may have to travel 60 miles a day.

Scratching for scraps and scavenging from others.

It's a meagre existence.

And the worst of the winter is still to come.

By midwinter, temperatures drop to minus 50 degrees

Celsius, and deep snow makes scavenging nearly impossible.

But a faint sound beneath the snow may be this fox's salvation.

Lemmings.

It's time to become a hunter.

But catching what you can't see is not easy.

It's hard to judge the leap...

and the depth of the snow.

Too deep...

and you get stuck.

Too shallow... and it can be rather painful.

It's a man-under-the-valley man.

It's going to take time...

but mastering lemming hunting is vital if a young fox is to make it through the winter.

At last, this fox is on his way.

But if he is to survive until spring, he'll need

to make a catch like this every couple of days.

Adolescence... For an arctic fox... This is almost always a solitary journey.

But many creatures simply cannot make it on their own.

Even at seven months old, this tiger cub needs protection.

She's learning to take care of herself in a very dangerous world.

This is her father.

His role is to patrol his territory, defending it against rival males who would

try to kill any cubs they find that are not their own.

His scars are evidence of the violence of the society she is about to enter.

He's ruled for five years, but he's becoming increasingly violent.

He's becoming increasingly battle-worn.

She's unlikely to reach adulthood unless her father stays in power.

At the moment, she's safe.

And in good company.

She has a brother and a sister.

They will be her playmates and allies as she grows.

She already seems to be the most confident of the three.

They practice the fighting and hunting skills that they will depend on as adults.

But the cubs still have much to learn before they'll be fending for themselves.

Their mother is both their provider and teacher.

She's a formidable hunter, despite having lost an eye in a fight with a rival.

Her cub is about to be given a master class.

Their mother's success means that today, the cubs will not go hungry.

If all goes well, these cubs should have the

experience and strength to survive and survive.

They can live on their own in a year's time.

But only if their mother's support and their father's protection continues.

Growing up is not just about learning to survive.

Learning the art of seduction can also be a vital part of becoming an adult.

Here in eastern Australia lives an animal that spends up to seven years perfecting

the ability to build a structure solely to impress a female.

It's a bower.

And this is its creator, a five-year-old juvenile male satin bowerbird.

He is just a beginner.

But a stone's throw away is another bower.

BOWER And one from which the youngster could learn a lot.

It's bigger and more elaborate.

And this is its builder, an experienced male resplendent in his blue adult plumage.

So that is how it should be done.

TUNIA Tunia returns to his own bower and tries to improve things.

That should probably go just here.

Or maybe here.

TUNIA TUNIA Perhaps he was right in the first place.

TUNIA He just can't make up his mind.

This could take some time.

And it's not just about building.

The master's bower has something that Junior's lacks completely.

Blue decorations really please a female.

And the master has gone to town.

Junior takes a closer look.

What will the master make of his visitor?

Rather than drive him away, the master has other intentions.

Seduction.

Juvenile males are almost identical to females.

But they are different from females.

So the master grabs the opportunity to practice his courtship display on him.

Junior doesn't know what to do next.

So he exits...

mid-performance.

The youngster's bower.

With the breeding season close, adult males

grow increasingly intolerant of juveniles.

Oh, dear.

There's virtually nothing left.

Junior will just have to start all over again.

But he has several years left to perfect his skill.

At least he's got time on his side.

Now, where should that stick go?

Africa.

These 18-month-old cheetah sisters have been struggling

to cope since they left their mother a few weeks ago.

Their biggest problem is their own inexperience.

They're barely managing to catch even the smallest of them.

But they can't stop this prey.

Unless they can master big-game hunting, the sisters will soon starve.

They are the only survivors from a litter of five.

They've spent their lives so far playing and learning together.

Continuing that bond will be the key to their survival.

Cheetah siblings that support each other have

a better chance of making it to adulthood.

This is now the critical time for the sisters because

an opportunity is arising and they must seize it.

Male impala.

Weighing more than both sisters put together, they make a formidable prey.

But the impala are caught up in a month-long competition for mates.

And that is making the males increasingly weakened and distracted.

The next few weeks may provide the sisters best chance to make their first big kill.

They need to act soon.

The amount of time that different animals must spend in growing up varies enormously.

Once a veined octopus reaches adulthood, it mates and dies shortly after.

So most of its life is spent as an adolescent, eating as much as possible.

Although octopus are voracious hunters, their soft

bodies make them very vulnerable to other predators.

So how do the octopus that live here, on the exposed sea floor of Indonesia's

Lembeh Straits, keep on eating without being eaten?

For most, the solution is an almost unbelievable talent for disguise.

The mimic octopus can change the colour of its

body to seamlessly blend in with its surroundings.

It can also mimic predators, like a flounder.

Or a lionfish.

The wonderpussy's strategy is to look so bizarre,

it is simply unrecognisable as an octopus.

But no disguise is completely effective.

And flounders are a persistent menace.

Always on the lookout for an edible tentacle.

Unfortunately, the veined octopus has no clever disguise.

And the flounder is trailing it, waiting for an off-guard moment.

But the octopus has a unique solution to this problem.

A discarded coconut shell could provide some protection from its stalker.

This one carries the shell everywhere it goes.

But this is only half the story.

For all-round security, it needs another half to make a matching pair.

Its remarkable ability to manipulate shells is the

first known example of tool use amongst invertebrates.

Now the octopus can get back to its adolescent enthusiasm with bodybuilding.

The stalker is still stalking.

However, an armoured pod has another, more unexpected benefit.

The chance of a sharp exit.

This cunning cephalopod lives to hunt another day, all tentacles intact.

For some juveniles, their greatest rivals are adults of their own kind.

Huge colonies of nesting birds on the Falkland

Islands are a sitting target for a ruthless predator.

A striated caracara.

He, too, is a juvenile.

A yearling.

But despite the abundance of prey, this youngster is hungry.

That's because hunting rights in the colony are strictly controlled.

Adult caracara are fiercely territorial.

Breeding pairs punish juvenile trespassers very severely.

Juveniles are banished to the surrounding

moorlands, where their chances of survival are slim.

A year ago, this bird was being cared for, like these chicks are now.

But his parents pushed him out to make way for a new brood.

The adults want to keep the juveniles down.

But this youngster is not alone.

There are other outcasts here.

And they've joined forces.

To survive on these islands, all juvenile caracara form gangs.

They are an undisciplined mob, riven within fighting.

But there is strength in numbers.

And the adults know it.

They will try to break the gangs up.

If they can.

But now, with the might of the gang behind them,

young caracara can rise up against authority.

The balance of power has shifted.

With strength of numbers comes air supremacy.

Now the gang can invade the colonies with little fear of retribution from adults.

Gang

life may not be easy for a lowly new member.

But it opens up opportunities denied to it as a loner.

They are after eggs.

And together they overwhelm the nesting shacks.

The mob plunders until they're all fully gorged.

Working together is the only chance of success these juveniles have.

But gang life is a brutal existence that a young caracara

must endure for four years before finally reaching adulthood.

And leaving the mob behind.

In India, a year has passed.

The three tiger cubs are now 18 months old and on the brink of independence.

They're resting in the protection of a derelict fortress, trying to keep cool.

But the situation is less relaxed than it appears.

Something caused their mother to hide them here several days ago.

They haven't seen her or their father since then.

They're growing hungry.

They may soon be forced to take a critical step towards independence.

And to begin hunting for themselves.

This female has been the most confident of them all since they were cubs.

They've been fighting for their lives.

It's she who finally leaves the security of the fort and heads out on her own.

On the furthest edge of the family territory, she catches sight of another tiger.

It's her mother.

She is behaving strangely.

A male.

But he's not the cub's father.

A new male in the territory can mean only one thing.

That her father's rule is ending.

Her mother has little choice but to change her allegiance.

No matter how much the mother appeases the male, her daughter is now in danger.

This male will try to kill any of the old ruler's cubs.

The young female's survival now depends on finding a new home.

Early independence has been forced upon her.

The next day, the forest is quiet.

The young female is dead.

Killed by the new male.

Perhaps her confidence was her downfall.

The other two cubs at the fort are safe.

For now.

The journey to independence can be the most dangerous period of an animal's life.

Often, it's the more cautious ones that win through.

Animals fortunate or skillful enough to reach independence now face a new challenge.

Learning to compete in the adult world.

Very few animals experience this more acutely

than a booted racquet-tailed hummingbird.

He may look mature, but he's still struggling

to cope with the daily demands of adult life.

Hummingbirds have the most hyperactive lifestyle of all birds.

A racquet-tail must consume a sip of energy-rich nectar 2,000 times a day.

But here in the cloud forests of South America, flowers are very few and far between.

Constantly on the brink of starvation, a racquet-tail must learn where the

flowers are and the shortest route between them.

His heart beats a thousand times a minute.

And his wings at 60 times a second.

His lightning reactions and aerial agility allow him to dodge his way through his day.

And he needs to.

Because more than 30 other species of hummingbird

live here, all competing for the same flowers.

About the size of your little finger and the weight of a one-pence piece,

the racquet-tail is too small to battle with the bigger species.

But he can outmaneuver the competition and sneak through to flowers undetected.

However, even a racquet-tail can't avoid conflict with its own kind.

A juvenile must learn to stand his ground against mature males.

This hummingbird's day is about to get even worse.

Almost every afternoon it rains.

But such a tiny hummingbird can't afford to take shelter.

As the day cools down, he needs even more energy to maintain his body temperature.

But on this scale, raindrops can be a force to be reckoned with.

When the rain eases off, yet another problem emerges.

Honeybees are too small to fly in heavy rain.

But once it stops, they're out in force, urgently harvesting nectar.

And are prepared to fight for it.

One sting could kill a young racquet-tail.

But luckily, he has superior agility on his side.

Evening arrives, and this exhausted hummingbird can finally stop.

But it must slow its heart rate and enter a

state of torpor in order to survive the night.

Every dawn, the same hectic schedule will begin all over again.

But with each day, he learns a little more about becoming a successful adult.

Coming of age is a gradual process for the hummingbird.

But for some animals, it's defined by a single moment.

Late autumn in southern Africa spells the end of youth for the cheetah sisters.

Hunger has sharpened their instincts.

The sisters have identified a target.

Although in his prime, this male is exhausted by weeks of intense competition.

But there's still no room for error when taking on such powerful prey.

The stalk, the sprint, and the kill.

Everything must be perfectly executed.

Cheetah are unable to sustain top speed for long.

So they'll only be able to catch the impala

if the chase starts when they're really close.

And

if they work as a team.

One false move, and the chance will be gone.

The sisters close in and set the trap.

She lives in the wild.

She loses her stride, and the impala gains ground.

But her sister is ready.

Whilst the impala is still on his feet, he's dangerous.

They struggle to deliver the killing bite.

Finally, it's over.

At this moment, with this first success, these

young cheetahs have entered the adult world.

Now, they will face a new set of challenges.

Finding a home.

Winning a mate.

And eventually raising young of their own.

But the lessons of youth are the foundations of their future.

A small white fox that can cover more than

50 miles a day across this vast wide plain.

A great landscape is a real filming challenge.

Justin, Justin, do you copy?

Yeah, I copy.

I'm just trying to get my son to come back to life.

Director Sophie Lanphier has experienced the

difficulties of filming arctic animals before.

But she hopes to capture, for the first time, the extraordinary

hunting behaviour of an arctic fox snow diving for lemmings.

Her journey begins in the Swedish Arctic with cameraman Rolf Steinman.

Just spotting the foxes proves hard enough.

And it's soon clear that getting close to them is

going to demand all of Rolf's patience and resilience.

Today, we found a den here.

And after 13 hours of waiting, the arctic fox finally came out.

He's sitting there right now.

And taking a sunbath.

So, fingers crossed, this individual gets used to

us and he lets us see how he can survive out here.

After a week, the outlook seems good.

But fortunes can change suddenly in the Arctic.

With such bad conditions, the team consider abandoning the shoot.

I should have probably gone an hour ago.

I don't know if it's safe to drive in this.

Sophie and Rolf have no choice but to sit it out.

With filming out of the question, all they could do is stay warm.

Although the weather eventually clears,

there's precious little time left for filming.

Rolf, I hope you know how many bags we've got.

Finally, Rolf is able to film again.

But the foxes are proving hard to predict.

At one point he walked out of the frame and I tried to

frame up so that it comes into frame and suddenly it jumps.

I mean, I didn't even think that there's a big fat lemming

just sitting in the landscape and waiting to be eaten.

It was the last chance to film a hunt.

Their time is up.

I mean, that lemming must have been either

already dead or it was really stupid or it was...

With the foxes in Sweden too elusive, the following

winter the team decide to try their luck in Canada.

This location is one of the best places for tourists to experience Arctic wildlife.

And it's almost guaranteed to provide close encounters with white foxes.

So it's quite a surprise that the first fox they see is the wrong colour.

It's the first year in 30 years that red foxes have

come around this area to stay so early in the winter.

I mean, it's not their natural habitat.

They shouldn't be here.

And they're probably the reason why the Arctic foxes aren't coming in.

These red foxes are bigger and stronger than Arctic

foxes and they can push them out of the area.

And we experience it here in a very painful way.

Weeks pass, but no white foxes.

Instead, the number of red foxes just grows and grows, as does their boldness.

After five weeks without seeing a single white fox,

Sophie and Rolf are forced to accept a second defeat.

This is some kind of official game over.

Some people just don't give up.

And two and a half years since her first attempt, Sophie is back in Canada,

but now further north, where red foxes shouldn't be a problem.

We're going to be in the Naveat this time.

And third and final chance to film Arctic foxes.

So I'm confident this time we're going to get it.

We're going to get it.

Rolf was busy on another assignment, so

cameraman Justin Maguire takes up the challenge.

OK, we have our stuff.

Yay!

And he seems to bring good fortune.

In the first few days, they find some remarkably brazen foxes.

That's definitely the closest yet.

But the fox's very boldness is a problem.

There's a fox being chased.

He's getting his gun out.

No.

Hunting is a traditional way of life in these communities,

and foxes living nearest human habitation are most at risk.

So the team's only choice is to head further out into

the tundra as far from human contact as possible.

Not quite sure where we're heading.

The landscape's completely featureless, and we haven't seen any bears or foxes.

Somewhere out here, they hope to find foxes which are behaving completely naturally.

But the crew's life returns to an all-too-familiar pattern.

We drive, we stop, we spot, we lose them.

We drive, we stop, we spot, we lose them.

Vanished.

Currently lost them.

Eventually, persistence pays off.

Sophie and her team finally get their shot.

I've waited a very long time...

for this moment.

I don't think Rolf will believe it.

Next time on Life Story... Animals secure a home in a dangerous world.

They battle.

Grab opportunities.

Compete with neighbors.

Build.

And fight to dominate their world.