All language subtitles for A9A20C49CC267F7254E9D8D48AB81B8E_eng

Antarctica, the Earth's coldest continent,
the one that is most hostile to life.

Here, 1300 kilometres from the South Pole,
it's 40 degrees below zero.

Of all the millions of
species of animals on

Earth, only one can
live here permanently.

A Weddell seal.

She can survive because she can dive below
the ice.

Here, she is protected from the storms
above, and here, too, she can find food.

But she is a mammal, and she has to
breathe air.

So she has to keep a lifeline open.

To the world above the ice.

Not only for her, but now for her newborn
pup.

He's less than a week old and still very
vulnerable.

A blizzard blows in, and with it,
storm force winds.

It could last for a week.

Mammals, seals can generate heat within
their bodies.

And their fur, with a thick layer of fat
beneath it, prevents most of that heat

from escaping, even in cold conditions
like this.

What is more, she is able to feed her
youngster with that mammalian speciality,

milk.

And while she does so, she shields him
from the worst of the blizzard.

She-No.

You will have to be careful with that.

And, of course, they're not quite the
same.

No, they're not the kind of people who
burn their own bodies.

I believe too much was said about it,
but it was a Н-So

she's not She's a girl.

No, she isn't.

Her father is a inside boy.

She's trying to bring a boy back to the
sea, but he doesn't allow her.

Look at how he's all over the place.

There are people out there, ...under the
ice, as soon as he can swim properly.

She encourages him to take his first
plunge, but, hardly surprisingly,

he's not keen.

Guided by his mother, he has to learn how
to hunt underwater and to find his way

back through the maze to his hole in the
ice.

The

body, fur, milk and maternal
care are essential for the

Weddell seal's survival in
this freezing environment.

And those qualities have helped the
mammals to colonise the entire globe.

Equatorial East Africa.

It's hard to imagine a place more
different from Antarctica.

To survive here, mammals need additional
talents.

This tree shelters the
territory of a tiny mammal

that spends its whole
life in frenzied activity.

It used to be called
an elephant shrew, but

now it's called by its
African name of sengi.

This is a female rufous sengi.

And like all sengis, she's so active,
she's permanently hungry.

To get all the food she needs, she
has to be both industrious and ingenious.

She has made an
intricate network of trails

that enable her to
travel across the ocean.

And it allows her to hunt her insect prey
very efficiently.

But these pathways have another important
function when she meets her enemies.

Having a map of these trails in her head
can mean the difference between life...

and death.

ALEC'S TRAILS ALEC'S TRAILS ALEC'S TRAILS
ALEC'S TRAILS ALEC'S TRAILS Like most

mammals, and unlike reptiles, her legs are
directly beneath her body.

That makes her less stable, but much
faster and more agile.

Not only has she outrun this reptile,
she's outwitted him.

And just as well, for she is a mother.

And has a youngster to care for.

The sengi relies on speed and cunning for
its success.

Other mammals have very different
techniques.

Here in Madagascar, one of the most
bizarre of all mammals is on the prowl.

The aye-aye, like the sengi, lives on
insects.

But the ones that she seeks, she can't
find.

For they're buried deep inside branches.

They're beetle grubs.

To find them, she has a special talent.

She taps her fingers on the wood up to
eight times a second and listens for the

tiny change in resonance that indicates a
hollow spot within.

Her hearing is so acute,
she can identify the precise

position in which to gnaw a
hole in order to reach the grub.

And she has a grotesquely long middle
finger with which to skewer it.

It takes a young aye-aye four years to
perfect this technique.

But once it has done so, it can collect
prey that no other mammal can reach.

The Arctic tundra.

Food is hard to find here, too.

Indeed, this land is so barren,
that few large animals can live here.

Yet one mammal has found a way to do so.

It's late spring, and as the mounting
strength of the sun warms the land,

eight million reindeer move north.

But the vegetation is so meagre
that the only way the herds

can get enough grass is to
keep constantly on the move.

Newborn calves soon
discover that they will have

to spend every day
walking in search of food.

They have extraordinary endurance.

Some of these animals, before they die,
will have trekked for a distance

equivalent to three times around the
Earth.

Grazing is now at its best.

But this is also the time when the
reindeer's worst enemy appears.

Biting flies.

The flies not only
drive them to distraction,

but they can drain a
pint of blood each day.

But the reindeer have a defensive
strategy.

Each individual tries to push
its way into the centre of the

land, into the centre of a group
where there are fewer flies.

With all this pushing and jostling,
mothers need to keep their calves close.

Sometimes the flies become so bad that the
reindeer can stand them no longer,

and they bolt to higher ground where the
flies can't follow.

BITING FLYES BITING FLYES The numbers of
escape can be high.

BITING�� GUNS In the rush, one mother has
lost her calf.

BITING ROCK CO hunched BITING ROCK BITING
ROLLING BITING ROLLING BITING ROLLING

Others have already found it.

The

herd has long since moved on, but her
maternal instinct is so strong,

she'll stay to search for her missing calf
for days.

The reindeer are free from flies for now,
but with no food on these high slopes,

they will eventually be
forced to descend to find

new pastures and face the
biting swarms once more.

No animal makes a longer migration across
the lands of the Earth than these mammals.

Other mammals have found
a more economic way of

travelling huge distances
and at greater speed.

They go by air.

They are also known as the giant
straw-coloured fruit bats.

Giant straw-coloured fruit bats inhabit
the great forests of the Congo.

Their wings are nearly a metre across.

In late October every year, they set off
on a long journey across the forest canopy.

The flocks of hundreds become thousands.

And tens of thousands become hundreds of
thousands.

They're fast and powerful
flyers and can travel more

than a thousand kilometres
in just a few nights.

Because of their great wings,

How they know where
and when to travel is a

mystery, but they all
end up in one place.

Kasanka, a remote swamp in Zambia.

There are ten million of them here.

They crowd together
in just one small patch of

forest, no bigger than two
or three football pitches.

And here they take up residence for a few
weeks.

It's the largest fruit bat roost on Earth.

After their long journey, they need to
rest and relax.

The roost is so crowded
that complete strangers

rub shoulders and even
snuggle up together.

As evening approaches, they prepare to
reap the reward for their long journey.

They've come from all over Central Africa
to this one place because here,

at this time of
year, there is an

extraordinary glut of
mangoes and other fruit.

Streaming out from the roost, they set off
to collect it.

Each bat guzzles at least two kilos worth
of fruit every night.

In just a few weeks, this mega roost will
devour more than a billion separate fruits.

It's only the power of flight that
allows these mammals to travel

so far and so fast that they
can reap such a brief harvest.

After six weeks, the trees have been
stripped of their fruit.

Then, once again, the immense aerial
armada takes to the air, each bat

returning to its own particular patch of
the vast Congo forests.

The land mammals of Africa also travel
together in stupendous numbers.

The herds that graze the East
African plains are not nearly

the size they were a century
ago, but they are still immense.

Grazing together is a good defense.

There's safety in numbers.

But hunting together also brings
advantages.

This hyena, however, is searching for food
on her own.

She needs to be careful.

But she smells food.

And she takes risks.

We'll see.

Let's go.

Bruised and blooded, she's lucky to have
survived her mistake.

But she's not totally defeated.

She belongs to a clan.

A call to arms rings out through the
night.

Reinforcements assemble.

Every adult in the clan responds.

Together,

they have a chance of challenging the
lions.

It's a clam against a pride, each at full
strength.

And the clam outnumbers the pride.

The combined power of the hyenas
eventually forces the lions to retreat.

Attacking as a coherent team requires a
high degree of social cooperation.

And that is another of the mammals'
specialities.

Social bonds between mammals begin when
mothers feed their young on milk.

And few look after their
young with greater care

than the mammal which
dominates this landscape.

A female polar bear is trying to find food
for her cubs.

But this is a particularly difficult time
of the year.

The sea ice on which she hunts is melting
beneath her feet.

She must look for food on land.

They're all safely ashore.

But they could still face months of
hunger.

Finding food is not so easy on this cold
and barren coast.

The search may be a long one.

Polar bears have an extraordinarily
sensitive sense of smell.

And she has caught a faint whiff of
something promising.

It's the immense carcass of a bowhead
whale.

A whale carcass could provide more than
any one family could eat.

But they're not the first here to find it.

By any means.

The smell has brought in bears some miles
away.

Bear families seldom get on with one
another.

She's taking a risk bringing her cubs
here.

Male bears can and do kill and eat small
cubs.

Another family challenges her.

She must decide whether to compete for
food or run away and go hungry.

She keeps her cubs close to her and stands
her ground.

Their mother's courage has won the cubs a
meal.

Living as a family may bring rewards.

But it can also create problems.

For siblings can also become rivals.

A coati.

A South American relative of the raccoon.

These babies were born in
a nest high in a tree and are

about to come down to
the ground for the first time.

The cubs are now ready to eat.

Some more reluctantly than others.

Once on the ground the
mother coati rounds her babies

up and takes them away
to join a single large group.

Together these families form a gang up to
40 strong.

Once again numbers bring safety.

The first to spot danger will warn
everyone.

But keeping order isn't easy.

And when they find food it's a free for
all.

Meerkats in the
Kalahari desert also live in

large groups but they're
rather more organized.

Each family band is
controlled by a queen who

is nearly always the
only female to breed.

She has been kept very
busy suckling her five pups

and it's high time they
became more independent.

Today is the new brood's first trip to get
breakfast for themselves.

It takes weeks for youngsters to learn how
to find food.

This one is trying to catch ants but hasn't
quite grasped the necessary technique.

But this youngster has persuaded an adult
to show him what to do.

The tutor is not his parent, just an
enthusiastic instructor and one who will

adapt his lessons to the ability of his
student.

This new one is a beginner, so he starts
with something easy.

How to dig for insect larvae.

Like this one.

A much trickier.

So the tutor disables the scorpion's sting
before he lets the youngster tackle it.

The family also cooperates in defence.

Every member does a tour of guard duty,
keeping an eye out for danger.

So while one watches, everyone else can
rest.

And on warm days, one can easily nod off.

The secret of meerkat's success is that
everyone takes a turn in combat.

And does their communal duties.

But many mammals do more than just share
their workload.

Some can share their knowledge.

And do so across several generations.

Elephant survival depends on profiting
from the experience of many lifetimes.

This baby elephant was born last night.

And the whole herd seems to welcome this
new addition.

But the mother is young and inexperienced.

This is her first baby.

If she is to produce milk, her mother must
drink.

And the newborn calf
must keep up with her as the

herd continues on their
long journey to find water.

After eight kilometres, the calf is
flagging.

Enough is enough.

The young mother encourages her calf to
continue.

But there is still a long way to go.

And the calf is already getting
dehydrated.

The elephants are now so close to water
that they can smell it.

Water at last.

This is the calf's first encounter with a
waterhole.

She's not sure what to make of it,
or indeed, how to get out of it.

Her mother tries to help her.

But she has no experience of dealing with
babies.

As the herd moves deeper into the swamp,
the calf follows.

But now she is in real trouble.

Elephant babies can and do get permanently
stuck in deep mud.

Her mother's attempts to help her baby are
only making matters worse.

It's stuck beneath her, and she's pushing
it deeper still.

But now the baby's grandmother spots the
problem and steps in.

But now the baby's grandmother spots the
problem and steps in.

Drastic action.

She pushes mother out of the
way with an unceremonious poke

in the rump and enables her
granddaughter to scramble free.

Mother and calf have learned a valuable
lesson from grandma.

Such passing of wisdom across generations
has been an important element.

In the survival of elephants.

The largest animal on land, the elephant,
is a mammal.

And so are the largest animals in the sea.

A female humpback whale and her calf.

Every few years, she will travel nearly
5,000 kilometers from the rich waters of

the Antarctic to these warm
but comparatively sterile

waters of the Pacific to
give birth to a single calf.

The seas around Tonga
are not only a nursery

for humpbacks, but
also their mating ground.

This 50-year-old female has come here to
seek the best partner.

And she starts by announcing her arrival
to potential suitors.

The males arrive.

But as they do, she
swims away, compelling

her half a dozen or
so suitors to follow her.

She leads, while the males jockey for
position behind her.

The males bellow threats to one another,
creating huge plumes of bubbles.

So far, it has been a relatively gentle
affair.

Now, the competition becomes serious.

Hour after hour, the males battle for
position right behind her.

They

begin to smash into one another.

This is the most massive battle in all
nature.

Rival males can kill one another.

As the conflict reaches its climax,
they try to force each other downwards.

At

Last, a victor takes his place alongside
the female and remains unchallenged.

By inciting the males to fight, the female
has secured the best mate for herself.

The one who is most likely to father the
strongest offspring.

Together, the couple dive to the depths.

But still, no one knows where they will
mate.

All mammals, including ourselves,
share a set of winning characteristics.

Warm bodies, extraordinary senses,
and highly developed intelligence.

And those qualities have contributed to
their, and our, success.

But perhaps the most
important characteristic

of all lies in the strength
of our family ties.

It is the mammal family that has conquered
the Earth.

It

Is the mammal family that has conquered
the Earth.

Tonga is famous for humpback whales.

But even here, finding and filming whales
in the open ocean would prove challenging.

For the life team, capturing the humpback
whales' unique mating contest,

known as a heat run, would need local
knowledge, hours on the water,

and a big slice of luck.

We've heard that one of the boats further
inland by submarine rock has seen a female

with a calf and an
escort, which is something

which might build to
hopefully a heat run.

So we're going to head over there and take
a look.

Any adult female with a
calf could be coming into

season, and so might be
a target for amorous males.

When we got there, I
was pretty excited, a

little bit nervous, didn't
know what to expect.

Once I got in the water and dived down,
it was surprisingly quiet and mellow.

I certainly didn't expect what happened
next.

The calf just came straight up towards me.

She seemed really relaxed and definitely
interested in me.

It's literally just swimming around within
metres of flicking its tail, just being

inquisitive, I think, and having a bit of
fun.

It's obviously quite young, so it's
staying on the surface quite a long time.

It's not diving down for very long,
maybe a couple of minutes.

The mother will be about five or ten
metres below, just keeping an eye on it.

But even a calf has great power in its
fins and tail.

Roger will need to be careful.

Got it?

That was the most silly thing I've ever
seen in my life.

She's just gambling around like a little
newborn lamb.

It weighs two tonnes.

A couple of bumps, it just comes around,
splashes through, can me or whatever.

I got a great shot of it chasing Jase
around.

Jase is just backpedalling like this,
coming back.

It's just a baby, like a little puppy.

You're playing with a little puppy,
but it's for me as well.

It's just... It's ludicrous.

Was its mum all right?

She was just totally chilling
out underneath, pecked

back, just hanging like
this for about 15 metres.

Just watching?

Yeah, just hanging there.

Probably didn't even see it, I don't
think.

It's one thing to be close to a playful
baby.

It will be another to be in the path of a
testosterone-charged group of males,

each ten times her size.

There are enough males here for a heat
run.

But are they in the mood?

Yes!

Are you guys ready?

Bring in the camera, maybe.

These whales can weigh up to 40 tonnes,
and they're moving surprisingly quickly.

So as well as getting the camera in a
position to get a shot, which they have to

be fairly close, we have to be really
careful that they're there.

They don't get bumped or hit.

If they get a knock from one of these
guys, it could do some serious damage.

To avoid disturbing the whales' behaviour,
the team need to free dive without scuba

tanks, holding their breath as long as
they can.

On a good dive, I can hold my breath for
maybe two minutes.

These guys, they can
go for 20 minutes or

more before they have
to come up for a breath.

There's no contest.

More and more whales are coming.

They're gathering.

But it's not turning into a heat run yet.

I can't see what's going on, Billy.

Was it a five that time?

They're kind of moving around,
coming up and under and over.

Hopefully something's starting to happen.

Maybe love's in the air?

Oh, God.

Love may be in the air, but it isn't in
the water.

Despite keeping tabs on
the whales over the next ten

days, there was still no
sign of a heat run starting.

You'd think it'd be quite easy to keep
track of a 40-ton animal, and we've got

six of them out here, and we keep losing
them.

One minute they're there,
we get up reasonably close,

within 30 seconds they've
dived and they're gone again.

And then it takes another maybe five
minutes, ten minutes, and then they'll

come up again and they'll
be 300 yards away, and

it just takes ages just
to get close to them.

So we're just playing a continuous game of
cat and mouse.

Cat and mouse?

It's whales.

The mating season is coming to an end, and
the crew haven't completed their mission.

But then, at last, the whales' behaviour
seems to have changed.

So this is it.

We've just spotted about six or seven
humpbacks on the horizon.

We think it's a heat run.

The last 16, 17 days on the water are
probably going to come down for the next

two hours, as to whether we get our shots
or not.

The chase is on.

There was at least three or four males
going past then, and they were all

competing and knocking
into each other and crossing as

they tried to get the pole
position behind the female.

Right at you.

Right at you.

The whales are moving so fast,
that to stand any chance of filming them,

the crew needs to be dropped right in
front of the charging group.

Just as Roger gets alongside
the males, the tempo of the

chase suddenly shifts to
full bore with a flick of a tail.

Facing the charging males
deep underwater, Roger keeps

shooting, holding his breath
until the group pass over.

A quick gasp of air, and Roger's back down
again.

The whales continue to rush by.

In the end, Roger just can't keep up any
longer.

Exhausted, it's time to return to the boat
for the last time.

Amazing.

That was the most amazing experience I've
ever had in the water.

We had about seven or eight.

We both dived down.

About 20 metres in front.

And then the female came through first,
quite close.

And then they all just
started diving towards me, so it

was just sort of like
standing in a stream of traffic.

It was just sort of one side, one the next
side, one the next side.

And then like after about 40 seconds,
I don't know, 40, 45 seconds, I was

getting a little bit out of
breath, and then sort of

looked up and there's one
sitting right on top of me.

Did you get it?

I think so.

I hope so.

If not... Broke my head.

It's taken 18 days and hundreds of dives,
but at last the team have been able to

reveal a secret of these whales' lives
that few people have ever seen.