All language subtitles for Our Planet 2019 - 1x05 - From Deserts to Grasslands.WEB.en

[David Attenborough] Just 50 years ago,

we finally ventured to the moon.

For the very first time,
we looked back at our own planet.

Since then, the human population
has more than doubled.

This series will celebrate
the natural wonders that remain

and reveal what we must preserve

to ensure people and nature thrive.

The Earth still has sanctuaries,

and, on occasion, they hold
spectacular gatherings of wildlife.

They provide vital space,
but they're disappearing fast.

[wildebeest lowing]

A fifth of the land
on our planet is covered by desert.

The driest of all
is the Atacama in South America.

There are places here
where rain has never been recorded.

Deserts may appear to be barren and empty,

but they are of crucial importance
to life.

For those that can overcome
their challenges,

they provide a vital refuge.

[wind whistling]

Socotran cormorants,

emerging from a dust storm
in the Arabian desert.

It is the very emptiness of this landscape
that has brought them here,

and they have come in immense numbers.

[birds squawking]

Fifty thousand of them.

A quarter of the total population.

They have come
because here they can breed...

undisturbed.

But nesting in a desert is difficult.

Temperatures can reach 40 degrees Celsius.

Yet, both the adults
and their white chicks

are ready for this challenge.

[birds panting]

They cool themselves
by panting.

Any adult that appears to have food
in its crop is mobbed.

An adult will only give food
to its own chick,

which must be here somewhere.

The chicks chase an adult
out into the desert.

No luck.

Now, they must get back quickly
to the safety of the colony.

This desert provides the cormorants

with more than just a secure refuge.

Every morning, a mass movement begins.

It's the rush hour.

A shallow arm of the sea,
right beside the colony,

is full of food.

[cawing]

This richness comes
from the desert itself.

Dust, blown from the land,

contains nutrients
that fertilize the surrounding waters.

So, it is the desert itself
that enriches the sea.

In Oman, during the summer monsoon,
fogs roll in from the sea,

billowing over the Dhofar mountains.

The mists bring just enough moisture
to sustain a little vegetation...

and this sparse greenery
becomes a focus for life.

Ibex must cross the near vertical cliffs
to reach one of the few springs.

But they're nervous...

and with good reason.

An Arabian leopard,

one of less than 200
that survive in the wild.

This male's territory

extends over 350 square kilometers
of high mountains and deep wadis.

The southern edge
of the Arabian Peninsula

is one of the few places left
where there is enough prey

to sustain a population of these leopards.

But even so, there are probably
less than 60 individuals

in over 15,000 square kilometers.

These leopards have always been rare,

but now conflict with people

is causing their numbers
to decline still further.

[bird chirps]

Few leopards are left,

so what our hidden cameras now capture
verges on the miraculous.

A female leopard,

and she is tracking a male.

Such meetings
are becoming increasingly rare.

[growling]

This briefest of unions

may ensure
the short-term future for these leopards.

But in the longer term,

their fate will depend
on their territory being protected.

To the north of the Dhofar mountains

lies a place
of almost unimaginable emptiness.

The Rub' al Khali,

the Empty Quarter.

The very name of the place

resonates with the romance
of these desert lands.

This is the largest sand sea
in the world.

There are parts
where human beings never venture.

Only the greatest desert specialists
can survive here.

Arabian oryx.

Their ranges are vast,

extending
for over 3,000 square kilometers.

This is one of their last refuges.

Once hunted close to extinction,

they have now reclaimed
their ancestral territory.

With the help of conservationists,
they have returned home.

But reintroduction
cannot save all desert animals.

[elephants huffing]

Desert elephants.

Less than 150 survive, here in Namibia.

This oldest of deserts
is scarred by dry riverbeds,

carved by water that flows
for only one or two days in a year.

An adult elephant

must find up to 200 kilos of food
each and every day if it's not to starve.

So, for these last survivors,
life is an endless trek.

The herd is guided by a single old female,
the matriarch.

She is leading her family

to a special place
where food should be available

even in a drought.

She learned of its existence
from her mother,

many years ago.

Now, she's teaching her own calf
how to get there.

The elephants are not alone
in their search for food.

Desert lions.

They are just as rare as the elephants.

The calf is protected by its mother.

So the lions let them pass.

Distant trees are a sign of water.

[brays]

The riverbed is dry.

The ana trees, however, are still green.

But there is a problem.

At this time of year,

seedpods from the ana trees
usually litter the ground.

Rich food for elephants.

But this year, the crop has failed.

The matriarch
has led her herd here for nothing.

Even the trees' leafy branches
are out of their reach.

The family has no option but to move on.

A bull, standing nearly four meters tall.

He can reach into the canopy,

and he could be the solution
to their problem.

The old female has known him all her life
and turned to him for help before.

Elephants can only survive here

because of knowledge
passed down over generations.

But less than 20 matriarchs still survive,

and if their knowledge is lost,

elephants may no longer
be able to live here.

Deserts cannot support
large numbers of animals the year round,

and even those specially adapted
to these conditions

can only survive in small numbers.

But on very special occasions,

deserts are transformed.

[thunder rumbling]

Once in a decade,

there may be a cloudburst.

A single one can turn the desert green.

In southern California,

the change is visible from space.

Hundreds of square kilometers
suddenly bloom.

If such transformations become regular,

a new habitat may develop.

Grasslands.

One of our planet's
most productive landscapes.

They support the greatest aggregations
of large animals on Earth.

The Serengeti sustains herds
of over a million wildebeest.

They follow the rains
to crop the newly sprung grass.

These vast herds attract predators.

Five male cheetahs.

One of the largest coalitions
ever observed.

They dominate a territory
of 450 square kilometers.

They patrol it together,

and that attracts attention.

[birds chirruping]

[braying]

A change of strategy is needed

if they're to hunt successfully.

They need cover.

An adult wildebeest
is a formidable opponent.

Four of the cheetahs start the stalk,

walking directly towards the prey.

The fifth creeps around the side.

They need to get really close
before making their final sprint.

They're nearly there.

All five break cover,

each cat chasing a different target.

It's chaos.

A single cheetah
is not strong enough to defend its prize.

They must work together.

These dramas only continue
because the Serengeti is protected,

and has been for over 65 years.

But the Serengeti is an exception.

Across the planet, space for grasslands
has been steadily disappearing.

[huffs]

A hundred and eighty years ago,
herds of bison, millions strong,

grazed the Great Plains
of North America.

They roamed across a prairie
a hundred times larger than the Serengeti.

This was the true wild west.

[roaring]

Every summer,
the males roared their challenges

and fought for possession of the females.

As the rut intensified,
the fights became more brutal.

Today, however,
most of the prairie is silent.

Humans slaughtered the great herds.

Less than 30,000 wild bison remain,

and 90 percent of the prairie
has been lost,

most of it to agriculture.

What we eat, and how we produce it,

will determine the future
of our planet's grasslands.

Our past could show us
how we can feed ourselves

and still leave room for nature.

The ancient hay meadows of Hungary,
still farmed in the traditional way,

provide habitats
of extraordinary richness.

Butterflies are abundant.

One species has
an almost unbelievably complex life cycle.

The Alcon blue.

Each female must mate and lay eggs
on just one species of plant,

the marsh gentian.

The eggs soon hatch into caterpillars.

High up on the plants,
they're safe from predators below.

But then, the caterpillars
do something seemingly suicidal.

They abseil down on threads of silk
to the ground below...

and into danger.

They have no defense
against the marauding ants,

which carry them off.

But this is exactly what the caterpillars
need to happen.

They're producing a scent
like that emitted by an ant larva.

The ants respond
by taking them back to their nest.

There, they deposit them
in the colony's brood chamber.

The purple-colored caterpillars,
lying among the ants' own white larvae,

give off just the right signals.

And the nurse ants rush to feed them.

But there is more.

The caterpillars now start to mimic
the sounds made by the queen ant,

and, as a result,
the ants treat them like royalty.

If food gets short,

the ants will even feed the caterpillars
instead of their own young.

They give them such quantities of food
that the caterpillars grow hugely.

And there, underground, the caterpillars
feed and grow for nearly two years.

Until, one day,
there is nothing for the ants to feed.

The caterpillars have pupated.

But a few weeks later,

out crawls an Alcon blue butterfly.

Now, they begin to leave the nest

that has been their home
for the last 23 months.

The young adult
makes its way out of the nest

and clambers up a grass stem.

Its wings expand
as it prepares to fly off and find a mate.

This complex life
may be laborsaving for the butterfly,

but it's risky.

If anything happened to the ants
or to the gentian,

the Alcon blue would become extinct.

Only tiny fragments
of these ancient meadows

are left in Europe.

But beyond them to the east,

once stretched grasslands that extended
for a fifth of the way around the world,

from Romania to China.

Here, there are places where,
for mile after endless mile,

there are no roads or fences.

Here, where there are no trees,
eagles nest on the ground.

Once, these eagles would have preyed
on antelope that numbered in millions.

And some are still here.

These are saiga, antelope that live
nowhere else in the world.

Their extraordinary noses
are specially adapted

to filter out the dust kicked up
by the immense herds

that once lived here.

Now, they're critically endangered.

Poaching and the loss of habitat
have had a devastating impact on them.

But conservation efforts have recently
started to make a difference.

There is still hope
for these extraordinary plains dwellers.

And the proof of this
can be found further east, in Mongolia,

where the grasslands
still remain largely intact.

These are Przewalski’s horses.

Fifty years ago,
they were extinct in the wild,

but a few adults survived in captivity.

Careful breeding from 12 of them
increased their numbers

until there were sufficient
to release on the plains.

These are their descendants.

A stallion protects each harem.

They must be vigilant,
and they race to defend their herd...

or chase off bachelors
trying to lure away a mare.

With their numbers now topping 300,

the future for these wild horses
looks more secure.

Their recovery was only possible

because the vast Mongolian steppe
still remains largely untouched.

These grasses are some of the tallest
to be found anywhere on our planet.

They're so tall
they can conceal elephants.

They make the giants that live among them
seem small.

A last hiding place

for the highly endangered
greater one-horned rhino.

This is India,

one of the most populous countries
on Earth.

Yet here there is a great determination
to protect these crucial grasslands.

What must it be like

to live in this dense,
claustrophobic world?

Just moving about
could mean walking into danger.

The grasses conceal tigers.

Stripes and shadows blend.

Long grass
may hide a tigress from her prey,

but it also hides the prey from her.

She must get within 20 meters of it.

And she must always know
exactly where the prey are hidden.

She may have lost them.

She risks a look.

[bleats]

[bleating resonates]

Every deer around
now knows exactly where the tiger is.

Others have heard the signal
that announced her failure.

Her cubs.

She had left them hidden in the grass.

[growling]

In the last hundred years,

the number of wild tigers
has declined by over 95 percent.

But here in India,

despite the enormous pressure
from poaching,

and a growing human population,

tiger numbers are actually increasing.

Protect the precious space
that grasslands and deserts provide,

and the animals will bounce back.

Please visit ourplanet.com

to discover what we need to do now
to protect wild grasslands.

♪ I can hear the whole world
Singing together ♪

♪ I can hear the whole world
Say it's now or never ♪

♪ 'Cause it's not too late
If we change our ways ♪

♪ And connect the dots to our problems ♪

♪ I can hear the whole world
Say we're in this together ♪

♪ We're in this together ♪