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Night on Earth takes us around the globe

to showcase incredible wildlife stories

that take place after dark.

From tropical rain forests

to the urban jungle...

...arctic ice

to African plains...

...crews worked the night shift...

...and used an array
of cutting-edge camera technology.

And then there was light.

Look at that.

Some used ultrasensitive cameras

that can shoot in full color

with just the faint light of the Moon.

Others filmed animals
with thermal imaging gear

designed for the battlefield.

-Oh!
-With groundbreaking technology

came groundbreaking science.

We're using drones technology
to count flamingos nesting.

Biologists provided their expertise

on newfound animal behaviors.

There they are. The cubs are calling.

But even they were amazed
at what our cameras revealed.

That's incredible.

Is that what I think it is?

Shooting from the air...

the land...

and under the water.

Enduring freezing cold...

...and tropical heat.

Whatever it took to capture
Night on Earth.

Moonlight-sensitive cameras
were first put to the test

on Mexico's Caribbean coast.

The crew's mission:

to record the nocturnal behavior
of flamingos...

on a remote lagoon
on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The flamingos nest
in a protected reserve...

only accessible with the help
of biologist Alexander Dzib.

It should be a beautiful tonight.
There are a few clouds, but, um...

not where the moon is coming.

His expertise will be vital
in getting our crew close.

Even so, getting into position isn't easy.

So the flamingo colony
is out on a little island, uh,

which offers it some protection
from predators.

Which means for us,
we've gotta cross this water to get there.

It's not that deep, but...

we've gotta run the gauntlet
of crocodiles.

Both American
and Morelet's crocodiles lurk here,

preying on flamingo chicks
that stray from the flock.

We've loaded all our kit up into a boat.

It's pretty heavy, so we're gonna
have to walk alongside the boat.

If anything happens, jump in the boat.

So we just have to walk up to this tower,

and from there, I'll get into my hide...

and slowly inch along.

Get as close as I can
without scaring them off the nests.

Now Ralph just has to wait for nightfall

to put the low-light camera
through its paces.

Specialist camera tech
also plays a role in Alexander's studies.

At the moment,
we're using drones technology

in order to count flamingos nesting.

And we count one by one.

Imagine counting 20,000 birds.

It takes at least close to a week
to finish that work.

Once hunted by people,

the number of birds here was in decline.

But with protection,
the flock is growing again.

This year, we have 21,900 nests.

So, that means close to 44,000 flamingos,

so there is increase of 7,000
more flamingos on the last years.

Over nearly two decades
of flamingo research,

one thing Alexander hasn't been able to do

is record what happens after dark.

But Ralph is going to change that.

I can't see.
I can't see anything with my eyes.

I have to only look through the camera.

It's hard to believe
the light of the moon is enough

for such color and detail.

The camera is doing a fantastic job.

I've got this beautiful pink line
of flamingos

all standing there
looking fantastic in this light.

I can see stars in the skies.

I'm really impressed with the images.

The super-sensitive camera
proved its worth,

showing us a familiar animal
in a completely new light.

The next step...

was to use it
and other cutting-edge cameras

to reveal behaviors never seen before.

One crew follow the lead

to one of Africa's most famous reserves:

Kenya's Maasai Mara.

To film alongside wildlife after dark,

they mount the moonlight camera
onto a four-wheel drive.

To make all of that camera system
work outside,

we have to have
a lot of equipment in here.

It looks like wires going everywhere,
but everything has its place,

going out--
out the window to the gimbal system,

going to the front to the cameraman,

sound, uh, GPS...

It's all got a use,
but it's, uh, quite crazy in here.

Setup complete,
cameraman Jamie McPherson

sits up front with his viewfinder
and control deck.

It's a short drive
to the gates of the reserve...

where they pick up Dr. Femke Broekhuis,

director of the Mara Cheetah Project.

She's studied cheetahs for over a decade.

This is the first time I've been
in a vehicle like this with a film crew,

and we're hoping to capture the cheetahs
and see what they get up to at night.

So we've just gotten information

that cheetahs have been seen, so we're
just on our way to try and find them.

Data from GPS tracking collars
has shown Femke

that, against expectations,

these cats are very active after dark.

Now, she'll get to see for herself.

Headlights would disturb the wildlife,

so Baz uses night vision goggles.

To drive during the night
is very difficult,

'cause you cannot see any distance,

or sometimes you have to just predict
where you're driving.

You cannot tell if there is a ditch
or there is a hole,

so it's quite dangerous.

You have to be very careful.

With Baz at the wheel,

the crew just about keep up
with the cheetahs.

And the moonlight-sensitive camera
is showing its power.

That's incredible.

It's honestly like it's daytime.

I mean, the image is so clear.

I never thought I'd see any cheetah,

but especially these cheetahs,
like this at night.

I think this is absolutely incredible.

As Femke's data suggested,
these cheetahs are on the move.

The team will stick close
and keep their camera trained,

hoping to catch more moonlight activity.

Half a world away...

without the light of a full moon...

another crew used a different
night vision camera.

On Peru's southern desert coast...

...they're looking for something sinister.

Field biologist Marco Cardeña

leads the long hike to the sea caves

where their targets are found.

For safety, they trek down the cliff paths
in daylight,

along trails strewn with millions
of seabird feathers.

It's like someone's had a massive
pillow fight here, but it's really stinky.

It's full of dust,

so it's not the best place.

The dust gets everywhere...

and its source becomes clear.

Four hundred thousand nesting cormorants.

Gotta be very careful
we don't scare them into the air,

'cause if we do, then all the predators
like seagulls will come in,

take away the chicks or the eggs.

So we keep a low profile as well,
so we don't break the horizon too much.

'Cause as soon as we do that,
we become very conspicuous.

We'll wait a couple of minutes.

The locals have the right of way.

Just waiting for some penguins...
like you do.

But birds are not what Marco
has led them down here for.

These caverns house a colony of bats.

To peer into the pitch-dark interior,

Luke uses a thermal imaging camera...

which detects heat
instead of seeing light.

I look up here, it's just black,
but on the camera...

-Oh. Ahh.
-Yeah. There they are.

-That's amazing.
-Yeah.

And these bats are vampires.

Marco, I've got one question.

When they come out,
are they gonna try and bite me?

I-- I'm not sure of the neck.

I think-- Normally, try to... the hands.

- Then, eh, try to cover...
- Okay.

A few nights at the vampire roost

gets Luke some great shots.

Arteries intact, the next mission

is to film the bats where they feed:

a nearby colony of fur seals.

Luke will use this crane arm
to get sweeping shots across the beach.

So the whole fur seal colony
has come out of the water to rest.

And they're all just chilling out
for the evening.

All the cubs are feeding
with their mothers.

The vampire bats are gonna come out
of the darkness at some point.

Their arrival puts Luke on edge.

It's quite a spooky place to be at night,
because... I can only see this screen.

Everything else around me is black.

I mean, the sounds are echoing
off the cliff behind me.

I've had a rat run up me in the night
that I thought was a vampire bat.

And I'm just hoping the bats
don't like the taste of me.

Luke's still on high alert,
when suddenly...

...the beach is thrown into disarray.

We've got a huge male sea lion
that's come up the beach.

He's full of testosterone and anger,

and he just wants to grab hold of the pups
and kill them.

Let's hope they get away.

Something we weren't expecting.

We came to see vampire bats,

and I see this guy terrorizes
this beach at night.

All the pups dash up the cliff.

And while they're up there,

the vampire bats are coming in
and feeding on them, so...

They think they've gone up there
to get safe,

and the poor things are getting hammered
by vampire bats.

Your heart just goes out for those pups.

Just hope they get back to their moms
later on.

Their thermal imaging camera

revealed more than this crew
ever expected.

The team in Kenya

have been following the cheetah group
for hours.

With only a few nights around
the full moon bright enough to film,

they need some action.

Femke spots a movement.

Is there like a...?

Is that a lion or a hyena or something?

Yeah, there's definitely something coming.

Lions?

She's gonna go for the cheetah.

A lion's power and excellent night vision

means encounters like this
can be fatal for cheetahs.

These poor cheetahs.

Moving around at night
definitely has its risks,

because the likelihood of encountering

other predators like hyenas and lions
will be much higher,

because this is when lions and hyenas
are most active.

This time, the cheetah gets away,

but it reaffirms
the nighttime pecking order.

Just after midnight,

the moon reaches its highest point.

This is when it shines brightest...

giving both the cheetahs
and Jamie's camera more light.

It's when a hunt is most likely.

Coordination is key.

One wrong turn of the car or camera,

and they could miss the crucial moment.

Okay, go, Baz, a bit quicker.

The five cheetahs have split.

One has actually split from the group.

-Are the others running or not?
-No, they're still-- they're still--

- Stay with this guy.
- We can only see the one now.

Slow, slow, slow.

Okay, we're a bit too close.

Yeah, that's good. Stay at that speed.

He's chasing after the wildebeest.

Straight.

Straight.

Left.

Left, left, left.

Yeah, he's going, he's going, he's going.

Right, right, right.
Right, right. Go straight.

Right. Oh, he's going for that zebra.

- It's given up.
- Very optimistic.

I mean, he's by himself,
and he's going for a full-grown zeb.

Although this hunt
was unsuccessful, Femke's thrilled.

So, for me as a researcher,
this is really exciting,

because one of the things that I've found

is that cheetahs are actually
very active at night,

but all of this was based
on data from collars.

So, a lot of researchers questioned that,

because it went against everything

that people had been saying.

So to be able to see now how active
they are with the use of these cameras,

backs up, um, my research.

It's a world first for Night on Earth...

changing the way scientists view
these iconic cats.

But even this camera couldn't penetrate

some of the darkest places on Earth.

Shooting nightlife in the treetops

would take more imaginative solutions.

In the Chaco forests
of Northern Argentina...

...the crew must contend
with a plague of mosquitoes...

summer floods...

...and a tiny subject in a labyrinth
of leaves and branches.

Thankfully, they have expert help.

For over 20 years,
scientists from The Owl Monkey Project

have been studying
these little primates...

...and have fitted some
with radio trackers.

But despite two decades of data,

the researchers have never captured

the nocturnal lives of their subjects
on video.

So they're keen to put our crew

in the best spot to film them.

We've got a family
of owl monkeys sleeping.

This time of day, it's hot.

I mean,
it's well in the mid-40s degrees Celsius.

Humidity is about 95, 100%.

And they're just doing
what any intelligent primate

would do in this weather, unlike us.

They're just flaked out,
draped over a branch.

They look like a bunch of beanbags
with tails.

It's pretty cool.

To get eye-to-eye with these monkeys,

James will have to raise his game.

Our secret weapon is a scaffold tower,

which I can use to gain a bit of elevation

and get up on a level with the monkeys

in order to film them in their habitat,

rather than simply trying
to get an angle on them from the ground.

Having guided him
to a prime spot in owl monkey territory,

the scientists help James
assemble the tower.

James will spend every night up here
for the next few weeks.

I can't see anything around me at all.

But luckily, this camera is sensitive
to infrared light,

which is non-visible to, uh,
the human eye.

So we've got infrared lights set up

in the center of the territory.

Emilio, can we go ahead and turn
the infrared lights on, please?

Roger that, James.

Here we go.

Okay, James...

on now.

And then there was light.

Look at that. Absolutely incredible.

Crucially, infrared light
is also invisible to the monkeys,

so when they come to these trees,

they'll behave as normal.

We'll be up here now
for the next six or seven hours.

So...

fingers crossed.

Hope springs eternal.

On the other side of the world,
a different challenge...

in the jungles of Borneo.

The biggest trees here

can be five times taller
than those facing James in Argentina.

Camerawoman Justine Evans
will need to climb into the canopy

to see what goes on up there after dark...

something that has rarely been studied.

Naturalists Denny Aloysius
and Cede Prudente

find her a suitable tree.

-It's got a lot of epiphytes up top.
-Yeah.

I think the main trunk...

- Are they okay to climb?
- Yeah.

And that looks over which way?

That valley over there.

From its strong straight trunk,

she'll have a view directly across
to an enormous fruiting fig tree.

Next, climbing experts
Tim Fogg and Gibby Madran

must set up a filming platform
over ten stories high.

We've decided where
we want to put the platform.

Now we have to get a line up
into the tree,

so Gibby's just organizing
a great big catapult.

This is a big lump of lead

that's going flying up into the tree.

It takes a strong arm...

a good aim...

Oh, well short.

...and perseverance.

- Yeah, yeah!
- Argh!

Hit the bottom of the branch.

In the hole!

Go, go, go, go, go!

Yes!

Yes.

With the ropes in place,
they winch up the platform.

Once Tim is happy it's secure...

it's Justine's turn.

Just starting the first climb...

up a very large dipterocarp tree

that emerges out of the forest.

Probably about 30 meters
to the platform position.

It's an absolutely amazing view
from up here.

Though it's hard work
getting up on the ropes, it's...

such a relief to be up
when you've got the view, and the breeze,

and just this idea that...
good things are gonna happen.

It's a long way down.

Gonna stay attached to the ropes
at all times, I think.

Don't want to be nodding off
and find myself flopping off the platform

in the middle of the night.

Infrared lights aren't strong enough

to illuminate such giant trees,

so Justine's using
the thermal imaging camera.

If there's anything that's
got warm blood out there, I'll see it.

You can probably hear it ticking over.
It's not a quiet camera.

With the forest now in total darkness,

it's not long before something shows up.

Looks to me like a civet.

Yeah.

First visitor to the fig.

It's absolutely gorging on the fruit,

and it's got the whole tree to itself
at the moment.

But once the civet leaves,

the night wears on without any action.

It's nearly two o'clock in the morning,

and things are very quiet now.

The hard thing about night work
is getting to the wee hours...

when your body really is craving sleep.

So it's sort of
keeping the stimulus going...

which means I'll probably make
another cup of tea.

In Argentina...

those furry beanbags
have been giving James the runaround.

It's a real challenge.

It's not easy.

These monkeys spend
most of the time during the day

just hanging out, sleeping,

but nighttime...

they just become these climbing maniacs,

and they whizz around the canopy

like nothing else I've seen at nighttime.

It's like trying to follow
an Olympic sprinter

through a three-dimensional
climbing course.

They're really tough to film.

It's not just the owl monkeys

making life difficult.

There are more mosquitoes here
than I think I've seen anywhere else.

So every single shot is, uh--

I reckon we've donated
a thimbleful of blood

and about a pint of sweat.

But what makes it all worthwhile

is when you do finally
catch a glimpse of these little guys.

Without this special camera,

which can see beyond
what the human eye can see...

you know, we wouldn't stand a chance.

I mean, scientists here have been studying
these monkeys for well over 20 years,

and even they haven't actually
had this opportunity

to look into the nocturnal life
of these monkeys the way we are,

so it's a real privilege.

Back in Borneo,

Justine's also having problems
with pest control.

Ooh. Yep, there's a load of them.

There's a load of them.

I've been trying to stop ants crawling...
all over the place.

All over my bags, me,

the platform, the camera.

It's a war of attrition, though.
I mean, I think they're winning.

It's-- It's slightly freaking me out.

Despite the distractions,

after many long nights,

Justine's starting to see more life
in the treetops.

Civets marking their territory.

Flying squirrels.

-And then...
-What on Earth is that?

...her camera reveals
something truly astonishing.

I don't believe it.

Next morning,
without giving anything away,

she shows the footage to Denny and Cede.

What's that?

What is that? It's...

Is that what I think it is?

-It's an orangutan.
-It's an orangutan.

What-- What time did you take this shot?

- Around midnight.
- Wow.

Amazing.

I've been taking
wildlife photographs for 30 years.

No one that I knew, that has told me,
or I encountered in any reports that

orangutans would feed at night.

- No.
- And it's my first time I saw

in this picture here.

I'm quite shocked.

This is an amazing...

-Discovery.
-...discovery.

From the extreme darkness of the jungle...

to the city,
ablaze with light around the clock.

For animals living amongst us,

this artificial brightness
has a huge impact.

To discover how urban light pollution
affects animals,

our crew traveled to Thailand

and the city of Lopburi...

...where long-tailed macaques
live in the heart of town.

So it's our first full day in Thailand,

and we're out recceing to find
the best spots to film macaques,

but seemingly we won't have a problem
because they're absolutely everywhere.

It's not long before cameraman
Ian Llewellyn finds himself in trouble.

He's gonna get my glasses or my hat.

Yes. It's quite nice in a way, but I know
in a minute he's gonna get my hat.

Is he biting it?
Feels like he's nibbling it.

Oh, that was interesting.

I literally sat down for like one second,
and I had one on my back.

And, um, it's gonna make filming
on the streets interesting,

'cause I think I'm gonna get
absolutely nailed.

In the wild,
macaques would be going to bed,

but the city never sleeps.

This is what the crew are here for,

but filming is as tricky as Ian suspected.

Close-ups are good,

but not that close.

The head bounce is a favorite,

and makes it hard to hold a steady shot.

Without warning,
things take a more serious turn.

Aah!

Filming's over for tonight.

So, nothing really to worry about,

but, um, I got bit by one of the smaller
monkeys whilst we were filming.

Um...

Kind of an occupational hazard.

It's not a bad bite, but it has--

the puncture
has gone into the bloodstream,

so just to be doubly safe,
I'm getting top-up rabies shots.

- Okay, done. We done.
- Cool. Thank you.

The macaques thrive
on daily gifts of food.

Buddhists believe kindness to animals
brings good karma...

and monkeys are linked with deities.

But just because everyone respects them...

doesn't mean everyone loves them.

I keep scaring
the monkeys away with this...

otherwise they damage the cars.

Normally we pretend to scare them away
and they're gone.

For me, some can be very annoying.

I'm scared a bit.

I'm not scared of them.

They only grab stuff
from people who are scared of them.

I'm scared.

Outsiders like me
are a bit scared of being bitten.

They don't normally bite...

but they jump on you.

Despite occasional misgivings,

locals and macaques
have learned to get along.

Fighting with monkeys?

No, we are friends.

Over time, Ian and Jo

also come to a kind of truce
with their subjects...

...allowing them to capture the highs...

and the lows of their urban lifestyle.

Around the world,
as our urban jungles grow,

living alongside wildlife

is something humans must get used to.

Away from the relative comfort
of cities...

some crews went to extremes...

...facing punishing weather
and sub-zero temperatures.

But endurance and determination...

...brought awesome results.

Deep inside the Arctic Circle

lie the remote islands of Svalbard.

Here, the team's mission
is to film polar bears

during the long, harsh northern night.

Expedition guide Tom Foreman

and director and cameraman Mateo Willis

fine-tune the low-light camera.

Preparation is key.

On the ice, in the dark,

help is a long way off.

Tom's experience is vital.

He knows the area
and how to survive the brutal conditions.

They're ready for the long journey.

With just an hour to go,

bad luck strikes.

This is broken down.

This is our lead snow machine,

and it's now completely not working.

Conditions for tackling breakdown repairs

don't get much worse.

It does not want to work,

so, uh, unfortunately,
I think we have to leave it here.

We'll get on the sat phone
to our support back in Longyearbyen,

and hopefully they can get it repaired.

Eleven hours after setting out,

they arrive, exhausted,
at their field base.

Pyramiden,
a former Soviet mining colony,

is now a frozen ghost town

with just a single habitable building.

This eerie place gets them
as close as possible

to the sea ice where polar bears
will be hunting.

But as nights and days pass,

the bears remain elusive.

They're hard enough to spot
at the best of times.

In the dark of night,
it seems almost inconceivable.

I try to be optimistic about these things,

but a white polar bear
in a white landscape...

Look at it.

Tracking down well-camouflaged predators

is a common theme.

In southern Chile's

Torres del Paine National Park...

...the rugged mountains
are a stronghold for pumas.

Searching these sweeping landscapes
is no easy task.

Thankfully, our crew can rely
on the tracking skills of Nico Lagos,

puma expert extraordinaire.

It's not long before Nico
comes up trumps.

Stop, James.

There is a puma over there,

lying on the grass.

- Can you see it?
- No.

It's insane, I can't see it.

You can only see the ears and the head.

- Oh, I got it.
- There, on the grasses.

- No way.
- She knows that we are here,

but she's very calm.

Nico, just out of nowhere,

just found a puma.

It looked like a rock.

I have no idea how he saw it.

I suppose that's what seven years
of tracking gives you.

From her appearance,

Nico is convinced she's suckling cubs

and must have a den nearby.

But as dusk approaches,
they lose sight of her.

So they return at dawn
with camera at the ready...

and settle in to wait.

If we're really, really lucky,

maybe we will find the den with the cubs.

This never happened to me before.

This would be my first time,

so it would be amazing.

Pete, Pete. It's just there.

There are the cubs calling.

That's the cubs.

There's the female.

Oh, my God.

Finally, we have this female.

You hear?

There, the cubs are calling.

And the mother is answering as well.

Amazing.

It's pretty incredible.

You can see--
You can just make out in the bushes

these tiny little cubs.

It appears that they've still got spots,

so they must be pretty young.

To film puma cubs this young

is exceptionally rare.

But they didn't come here
to film cats in the daytime.

They need to follow them after dark.

In Svalbard,
the crew's making little progress.

It's a relentless search,

back and forth across the sea ice.

Some nights are written off entirely.

But finally, they catch a break.

There's the mother and the two cubs

looking for seal lairs

in tidal ice cracks along here.

You can't imagine how difficult it must be

for a polar bear to bring up two cubs
in an environment like this.

I have complete respect for what she does.

To my eyes, I look around here,
and there's nothing.

It's just a frozen wasteland.

But to a polar bear, this is bounty time.

This is when they can find the seals.

It needs this sea ice as much as--
as we need our supermarkets.

Now that they've found bears,

the hard work really begins.

At a respectful distance,

they must stick with the family
around the clock.

The team in Chile uses the same tactic
with the pumas...

following them by day...

...and by night.

Get the lights, Pete.

Filming from a vehicle
keeps cameraman Luke Barnett mobile...

Okay, left hand down a bit.

...and discreet.

Cat's coming back. It's coming back.

Okay, I'm gonna cover up.

I don't want the cat to see me
staring straight back out,

so I've covered my face up.

But when they do lose sight of the pumas,

they have some new technology
to put to the test.

It's possibly the first time

this thermal camera's
been put on the drone.

The camera's designed
for use in a science lab.

Pete had to devise a special rig
just to attach it to the drone.

Let's get this thing in the air.

And it's temperamental.

Sometimes, a simple loose wire

means he's flying blind.

But when it works,

it opens up a new perspective
on the mountains at night.

There's actually a herd of guanaco
right in front of me.

I mean, you'd never know.

You can't see a thing,
other than through the camera.

And a thermal image
allows them to pick out the puma

regardless of its camouflage.

With cameras in the air and on the ground,

the crew get to know
the mother and cubs...

...and capture their struggles...

...and tender nature in the dark.

That's amazing.

She really needed to feed,
so that's amazing.

Those cubs will grow nice and fast.

Day is finally dawning

after the long Arctic night,

and the Svalbard team's persistence
also pays off.

I tell you what,

I think my heart is still thumping away
inside my chest.

I could just feel my body
vibrating like this with the suspense.

Aah.

And what was amazing is,

is that at some point, the--
the young ones are out in front.

And she obviously spotted the seal
that she wanted to go for...

and she must've given some command
or something,

- 'cause they just sat down.
- Yeah.

And she was the one
that went into hunting mode.

She was like,
"Right, kids, leave it up to me.

I'm gonna go and get us lunch."

You're always conflicted
when you witness an event like that.

On the one hand,
you feel this incredible sympathy

for the animal that's just been
caught and hunted...

and on the other hand, you know that
for that polar bear family to survive,

this was an absolute necessity.

Exhausted, cold, but elated,

the team use the short daylight hours
to return to civilization.

Nights on the ice...

belong to the bears.

Our camera crews also faced the challenge
of filming the night...

under the water...

to reveal amazing stories

hidden in the darkness of the deep.

Off the Pacific islands of Palau,

the spawning of bumphead parrotfish

takes place only at new moon,

when the nights are darkest.

So, once the crew entered the water...

the glow of underwater torches
was their only source of light.

Just before dawn,

hundreds of fish gathered...

That was very nice.

They are all around you,
so it's beautiful.

...and filmed the courtship display
as it's never been seen before.

You almost don't know where to look at.

Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.

Like fireworks everywhere.

In South Africa's Mossel Bay,

regular diving is prohibited.

And with good reason.

It's home to fearsome hunters.

Tricky work, especially in the dark.
It's a bit of a nightmare,

'cause you don't see the shark
until the last minute.

So the cameraman entered the water

inside a shark-proof cage.

With just a little light filtering down,

only specialist cameras
could pierce the gloom

to see great white sharks
in their element.

But perhaps the greatest
challenge of all...

meant braving the icy waters

of Norway's Arctic fjords.

Cameraman Mark Sharman
prepares to come face-to-face

with one of the planet's
biggest predators.

At more than twice the size
of a great white,

killer whales are smart, powerful,
and deadly.

The search begins.

First they need a fishing boat
preparing to haul its nets.

Now.

We're waiting for all the fishing boats

to put their nets out,
draw in their catch.

When they do that,
that's what attracts the whales,

that's when we're gonna go
into the water.

But until then, we put the drone
in the air and get some awesome shots.

Oh, there's something big in the water.

Look, you can see them coming in,
the ripples, here.

And it's so flat you can see them
coming in for miles.

I'm sure these are killer whales
coming in.

Okay, guys, we've got whales coming in.

This is a prime example
of what we're here to film.

-The nets are being drawn in...
-Oh, look at that.

Nets are being drawn in,

and that is the dinner bell
for these animals.

The herring boat steams off
with a full hold...

but others arrive to take its place.

It's clearly a rich fishing spot.

We're just moving through the darkness.

All of the fishing boats that we can see,
they've all got their lights off.

That means they're a fishing boat.

They don't want to startle the fish.

So we're just waiting for one of them
to switch those lights on.

That means they've been
hauling in their catch.

This fishing boat's got its lights on,

and, uh, we're just gonna scan for orcas
to see if they're here now.

They are. I can see one.

So, the next thing to do is just
to ask permission from the captain.

We just need permission to go in.

Oh, wait, wait.

Conditions seemed perfect,

but news of an approaching storm
forces a change of plan.

The weather has turned really dramatically
and is heading straight for us,

so we're racing back now

to try and just get back into safe waters
before this thing hits us,

'cause it really does not look good.

Ooh.

By the time they
reach the harbor, it's a full-blown storm.

The morning brings no respite.

Well, as you can see,
the conditions haven't improved.

In fact, they've just got worse.

The wind speed has doubled,
the wave size has doubled,

and it just means that we are gonna be
stuck here for the foreseeable.

Unfortunately,
the storm's not going anywhere.

It's a whole week before it breaks.

Dusk falls,
and the calm seems to be holding.

The storm may have passed...

but the weather is hardly pleasant.

At the moment,
it's about minus two degrees outside.

It's really heavy snow,

the water's really cold.

The last thing you want to do
is even be outside,

let alone drop into that inky blackness,

and get in the water
with some huge predators.

But, sometimes,
you've gotta roll your sleeves up

and... get stuck in there.

Then, the lights come on...

...the nets begin to tighten,

and right on cue...

the killer whales cruise in.

The time has finally come.

I'm probably most worried about
the industrial fishing activity,

to be honest.
They're here to do their job.

Uh, there's big, heavy machinery,

they're not gonna really be looking at me.

These are unpredictable animals,
so I'm gonna be wary of them,

but let's just give it a shot.

It's cold,

it's dark,

it's dangerous.

But the results...

are spectacular.

Oh, my God.

That was unbelievable.

That was one of the most intense things
I've ever done.

I mean, right at the beginning,
there was a time where

a couple of them looked up at me
and thought, "What the hell is that?"

And luckily they're not sharks,

and they don't sense
by biting into things,

so they didn't take a nibble out of me
to find out what I was.

And they just carry on behaving naturally,

and that's the best position to be in.

And it's just so weird,

like all the sort of dying herring
just all around you,

so you're just being bumped

with all these struggling fish
on the surface.

It's a really creepy scene.

The scales, that's all I can see.

Just the water, just lit up.

Just looks like
some sort of '70s disco ball.

Everything is glowing and glistening,

and they've got these massive mammals
just swimming around,

picking out all these fish.

I've never seen anything like it.

What an experience.

My face is numb,
I can barely speak properly.

I can't feel a thi-- at all.

But I don't care, I'm the happiest
I've ever been in my life.

That was unbelievable.

Another success, against the odds,

and more revelatory footage

to illuminate night on Earth.