Original subtitles

This rhino is not lost.

He is on his way to find food.

To get it, he must travel through a new and alien world.

This rhino in his lifetime has seen more

changes than any of his previous generations.

Across the globe, animals of all kinds are now

contending with one newly dominant species.

Us.

Like so many wild creatures, he's had to learn how to live in the human world.

Some animals have changed their behaviour to make the most out of living amongst us.

These long-tailed macaques live in Bali.

They have developed new interests brought by human visitors.

Every morning, the troop heads for a building in

Bali. They live in the centre of their territory.

Unuatu Temple.

Tourists come here every day in crowds.

So, the temple grounds are full of opportunities. If you know where to look.

There is a constant supply of hats and sunglasses.

And if you've mastered the element of surprise, it's easy to get them.

But this harvest is not for eating. It's for bargaining.

Seems like a fair trade. But it's not for eating.

But there are greater rewards to be had for those who know how to get them.

And this old male appears to be doing very well.

He and the other elders in this troop have both experience and knowledge.

They've been working the temple for over ten

years and now concentrate on the big stuff.

Things that human beings just can't do without.

No-one wants to walk home with just one shoe.

And these old boys can't wait to get their hands on the latest tech.

They've worked out that we simply can't survive without our phones

or our wallets.

The older males understand something the youngsters have yet to learn.

The art of the deal.

The banana.

How dare you!

A bar of chocolate. That's better.

The real skill is in the negotiations.

The macaques are playing us at our own game.

They demand whatever they want.

Humanity has spread to every corner of the globe.

We have become a force of nature.

We have altered 80% of the world's population. Of the land's surface.

Eight billion people now live on this planet. And

we are changing the world around us at such speed

that for animals the challenge is to keep up.

New York City.

Ants. This particular species is thought to have

arrived here with the first European settlers.

They're now known as pavement ants because they

live almost exclusively in our towns and cities.

And they're thriving because of junk food.

And here on Broadway Avenue, there's a lot of it.

This is what every pavement ant desires.

And to get it, they have to go through a lot of trouble.

The ants use the city's thousands of miles of underground

tunnels.

This scout is closing in on its target. But the animals with

which they share the pavement are 40 million times their

weight.

So it's best to stay in the cracks.

Jackpot. A meat mountain. This is too big a job for just one

ant. This worker is female, as they are in all ant colonies.

And she leaves a trail of pheromones to mark a path.

She communicates with every sister she meets as she

returns to the nest. And news on the street spreads fast.

This ultra-processed meat is very different from their original food.

But their digestive system is the key to their success. It's

able to keep up with the way humans constantly change their

diet.

Nowadays, the vast majority of what they eat comes from human food.

On Broadway alone, pavement ants eat the equivalent

of a staggering 60,000 hot dogs every year.

The calories in a single hot dog could fuel the growth of

the entire ant colony for a month. If only they can get it

back to the nest.

But this slow work makes them vulnerable.

They aren't the only ones partial to fast food. They're also

the most vulnerable to the disease. It's a race to get their

prize home.

There may be losses, but the colony as a whole will now thrive.

In fact, pavement ants are so successful here that

they outnumber human New Yorkers a thousand to one.

But success in the human world can be harder

to achieve if your reputation precedes you.

Here in India, this cobra is heading directly for a village.

It has detected the scent of prey.

Nearly two meters long, it has enough venom in a single bite to kill ten people.

Snake bites are responsible for nearly 60,000 deaths a year in India alone.

They travel so silently that their presence is often undetected.

And when they are hunting, there is no place they won't go.

A toad.

Each tip of its forked tongue collects chemical

signals from the prey and helps to reveal its position.

But up close, the snake relies on movement, because it

can be very dangerous. To precisely locate its prey.

The toad must pick its moment to escape.

Every time it touches the ground, the toad leaves behind a scent.

It can hide, but the trail will lead the snake. Do it.

These cobras don't just hunt here. They live here.

They have found a home where the Hindu villagers

revere them and consider them to be demi-gods.

Remarkably, scientists believe that this tolerance has been

a result of human activity. It has led to a change in the

snake's behavior.

They move more slowly and are less likely to strike if disturbed.

One of the most feared animals on the planet has found a

place where they are accepted and can coexist with human

beings.

But for many animals living in the human world, it pays to keep a low profile.

Here in Melbourne, Australia, one creature has perfected the art of camouflage.

A frog-mouthed chick. Its father helps to hide it during the day.

They are nocturnal birds, and as day turns to night, its

parents come out of the shelter in the shadows to reap the

rewards of urban living.

The city lights create excellent conditions for hunting.

Every night in the city is as bright as when there is a full

moon.

So city frog-mouths often... have their mouths full.

He's going fast, and today he just won't sit still. And now, he has a full mouth.

The first rule of frog-mouth behavior is don't move in the

day. But this is the one time in a frog-mouth's life when

the urge to fly simply cannot be suppressed.

But he's not ready to leave home just yet.

Come night time, he's hungry again.

He is wide awake, and wants to take off where he left off.

But he's getting unwanted attention, and this

time his parent is not nearby to protect him.

Humans bring pets, and cats in Australia kill a million birds a day.

And this is the one time in a frog-mouth's life

his first proper flight.

But unless he can find a safe place to roost, he is still in peril.

Made it through.

But if he is to survive in the city, like the

adults, he will have to learn how to blend in.

Some animals are so bold that they don't even try to hide.

To see a large predator in the built-up world is a rare sight.

And here in Lake Tahoe in North America, these black bears are particularly big.

And they're heading right to the center of town. Winter is

approaching, and these bears need to put on as much weight

as possible before the snow arrives.

This is a great place to gorge.

It's now bear country.

Why struggle for a meal? When you can cross the street for a takeaway.

There's so much food here that some of the bears

are 50% heavier than their country cousins.

But why stop here? Some bears just want to dine in.

A lucky few are able to get an easy meal from the human world.

But when we venture to the natural world in search of food,

the harvest is on a different scale. In just four decades,

fishing reduced fish populations by half and created great

problems for the ocean predators that once had such food to

themselves.

Off the coast of Vancouver Island, humpback whales

inhabit waters where herring have been overfished.

Humpbacks, however, are renowned for their ingenuity.

12 years ago, an adult male called Conger adopted a totally

new way of feeding. When the density of fish in the water is

low and birds are diving to catch them, the humpback opens

its mouth and creates a space that the fish mistake for

shelter.

The fish swim in and the trap is closed.

Conger was the first humpback whale to be seen doing this.

Now 30 whales in the area use the same technique.

The population of humpbacks here is growing and you might

think that this would reduce fish stocks even more, but

something surprising is thought to be happening. These tiny

phytoplankton are the basis of the food chain and need a

vital ingredient to grow. Iron.

Whale feces are rich in iron and great whales produce it

in enormous quantities. So the phytoplankton flourishes and

herring feed on it.

Whale feces, in fact, are helping to restore the whole ecosystem.

The herring attract seabirds. Diving birds attack them from

beneath and gulls and shearwaters dive on them from above.

Even bald eagles benefit from this rich feast.

Whale feces. Whale feces.

Whale feces.

Whale feces.

Whale feces. Astonishingly, even though conger and all the

other whales are feasting on fish, their role in fertilizing

the ocean is so influential that herring

numbers here are actually predicted to increase.

And the role they play in rejuvenating the environment

is having an even greater impact on the human world.

The flourishing plankton also collects

carbon from the atmosphere just as trees do.

So much so that each great whale has the same impact as a forest of 30,000 trees.

Our great whales were once hunted. And if they returned to

their pre-whaling numbers, it's estimated that this would be

equivalent to planting over 30 billion trees.

Whales are now being recognized as benefiting humanity.

But for most large animals, competition with humans brings conflict.

This six-ton African bull elephant is in his prime.

To stand the best chance of winning fights for females,

he needs to be big. He can smell highly nutritious food is

near.

But crossing the boundary to reach it is a dangerous journey.

He must wait for the cover of darkness.

These Kenyan farmers are preparing for the night ahead.

They have had to guard their crops every night for the last two months.

With only two days until harvest, this is a critical time.

In a single night, a bull elephant can destroy

the entire crops produced by ten farmers.

But he's taking a huge risk. He's taking a huge risk!

He's taking a huge risk! He's taking a huge risk!

He's taking a huge risk! He's taking a huge risk!

He's taking a huge risk! He's taking a huge risk!

He's twice the height of a man and he won't back down easily.

This human-wildlife conflict happens night after night.

And each year, it takes the lives of up to 200 elephants and 20 people in Kenya alone.

This standoff is potentially lethal.

The farmers have had to call for help from a team of highly experienced rangers.

Although they're armed, their task is to drive

the elephant out of the field without harming it.

But the bull is determined to hold ground.

The rangers will have to get closer.

On foot.

The rangers have to resort to firecrackers.

The bull is driven from this field and retreats deep into the bush.

Fortunately for this bull, the battle has been resolved

peacefully. And efforts like these are seeing fewer

elephants killed and their population in Kenya is starting to rise again.

But conflict with wildlife is now occurring on a far greater

scale as a consequence of the way we are changing the

world's climate.

Some arid regions are now experiencing unusually high rainfall.

And that is good for growing crops here in northeastern

Africa. But it's also the perfect conditions for one

particular insect.

Desert locusts.

They're normally solitary creatures but emerging from the

sand in great numbers triggers a dramatic physical change.

They turn a vivid yellow and become highly social. Together

they are an unstoppable army. On foot they can cover a mile

a day.

But they can only go so far in this way.

They need to find height.

Up here they begin their final transformation.

Normally it takes an individual insect at least a month

to become a winged adult. But in their social form their

development speeds up.

Now all they need is for their wings to harden.

Once airborne they can travel 60 miles in a day.

Swarms merge and they become a plague.

This one contains billions of individuals and eats

as much in a day as the entire population of Germany.

Today in northeastern Africa as a consequence of climate

change devastating surges of locusts are becoming more

frequent.

Two worlds are colliding.

Unintentionally humanity has created exactly the

conditions that cause this species to explode in numbers.

But another group of animals has seen an even more

dramatic rise as a consequence of our actions.

We have increased the numbers of a few species almost

astronomically. By weight 70% of the world's birds are now

chickens or other domesticated fowl.

We rear 70 billion farm animals each year. And every one of

them needs feeding. Producing the food for such numbers of

domesticated animals is having a profound impact on the natural world.

The Amazon rainforest twice the size of India.

It's so rich it contains one in every ten species on the

planet. And it's home to this sloth and her ten month old

baby.

He was born into an environment virtually untouched by humanity.

But now human beings are claiming even this space.

Year

after year after We clear over two million hectares

of the Amazon forest an area the size of Wales.

And we use nearly all of it to make more space

for cattle and to grow soya to feed our livestock.

Today habitat destruction is the biggest problem

we have created for wildlife around the world.

This porcupine has survived the fire

and is being rescued

It's being relocated to pristine forests.

This will be its new home.

Only a fortunate few animals are being given such a second chance.

A healthy natural world is not only vital

for wildlife but for our own very existence.

Somehow we must find ways to redress the balance.

Currently the vast majority of agricultural land more than

75% is used to raise livestock and this is very inefficient.

There are solutions.

One is considering what we eat.

If we shift away from eating meat and dairy and move towards

a plant based diet then the sun's energy goes directly into

growing our food.

And because that's so much more efficient we could still

produce enough to feed us but do so using a quarter of the

land.

This could free up an area the size of the United

States China, the European Union and Australia combined.

Space that could then be given back to nature.

And human innovations may be able to do even more for wildlife.

High tech farms now grow plants vertically yielding

up to 350 times the food grown in the same area.

This is one of many solutions we already have and others are surely on the horizon.

To find ways to protect all life on Earth means reimagining

how we live on this planet in the future. Human ingenuity,

our extraordinary ability to find solutions, gives me

hope that we can. It will be the major challenge for this

generation and the next.

Music

To film the impact that fires are having on the Amazon the

Planet Earth 3 team joined a local volunteer fire brigade.

The fire brigade responding to a patch of primary rainforest

that is burning. It's been burning for two days now. It's

difficult to know what we're going to see.

The fires are mainly lit illegally to clear space for cattle.

Battling fires is dangerous work but the firefighters face

them every day. For the wildlife film crew this is a totally

new experience and these fires can be unpredictable.

Music Music Music

Music I'm going to climb that.

Ah!

Go back up!

Quite scary.

With the ground team retreating, the safest way to carry on filming is with the drone.

MUSIC PLAYS Have we lost the drone? I think Abi has seen it.

Abi's on her way. Can you confirm you're on your way to the

drone, Abi?

MUSIC PLAYS The drone is

damaged beyond repair. Don't worry about it. I mean it.

Don't worry about it. It's absolutely fine. It's not OK. It

is. It's OK. It's equipment we've got to spare.

The main thing is we're all safe and no-one's hurt.

The team regroup and decide to move away from the heart of

the fire to its fringes to look for animals caught up in the

flames.

I've been reporting to a monkey in the trees. Ah! The

problem is there's fires all the way along here as well as

along here, so it's hard to know what all this wildlife

is going to do when their home is burnt up like this.

I don't know what it's like for these rainforest animals

to be experiencing a fire. It's horrific for me, so I don't

know what it is for them.

The fires burn into the night.

The following day, the crew accompany the firefighters in

the search for animals in the aftermath. Oh, my God, there

are flames all inside of it. Oh, my God.

Remarkably, some animals have survived.

They have everything we have, and so do they.

So, wow, it's sad to see nature like this.

They deserve a lot. They don't deserve to be mistreated, hurt.

They deserve to be strong enough to strengthen us. If

they get hurt, we get hurt too. If they fall, we fall too.

Clearing land for farming is not a problem unique to the Amazon.

Agriculture now takes up half of the habitable land on the

planet. To produce food with less impact on the natural

world requires new approaches. And that led the

wildlife film crew to a farm in a warehouse.

We're in the middle of the city. I can't believe

so much food being grown in such a small space.

Here in Los Angeles, 6,000 miles from the Amazon, this farm

is part of a burgeoning food revolution. This is the most

productive farm in the world, and it's our goal to reduce

the amount of land and resources necessary to grow down to

the bare minimum. It took a while to understand that for

nature, agricultural use of land was the primary destructive

behavior of humanity. As we expand this means of growing,

I'm very hopeful that this approach can ultimately give a

lot of land back to nature, and allow that biodiversity to

reestablish and flourish. Not only does this farm use less

space, but it also uses 90% less water, no pesticides, and cuts food miles.

It does feel like a really good start. Ideas like this can

reduce our footprint on the planet, giving the natural world

a chance to bounce back.

EO, EO, EO, EO, EO, EO, EO, EO, EO, EO, EO.