All language subtitles for Life Story (2014) 810p 5of6 Courtship HDTV

So far on Life Story,

we have seen animals
take their first steps...

..grow up...

..find a home...

..and gain power.

Now, they need a mate.

Competition to win a partner

is so intense in nature,

it has created
both the most extraordinary beauty

and life-threatening violence.

A male waved albatross

will have the same partner
for his lifetime

of over 20 years.

After feeding alone
over the Pacific Ocean,

this male has returned here
to the Galapagos,

as he does every year,

to wait for his mate
to come back to him.

Others are already
reaffirming their bonds.

As the years go by
and they get older,

there is always the possibility that
one of them will not make it back.

But his bond with his partner
is so strong,

he will simply sit and wait for her.

In nature, it's rare to form
such a lifelong commitment.

For most animals, the mating game is
both brief and fiercely competitive.

A female green turtle

must survive the dangers
of the open ocean for 30 years

before she's mature enough to mate.

She's come here, to the shallow
waters off Malaysia, to breed.

A male.

He's been waiting weeks
for this opportunity.

Courtship begins
with the gentlest of circling...

..before she accepts his advances.

Their first breath together

is the beginning
of several hours of mating.

He will hold on as tight as he can

to keep her all to himself.

Unfortunately, they have company.

Another male.

He will do anything he can
to separate the pair

and mate with the female himself.

He targets
the soft, vulnerable parts.

He knocks the air out of his rival.

The female is struggling now
with the extra weight on her back,

and soon she will need to surface
to take a breath.

Another male.

MORE competition.

And here's another.

Now, the female has two males
locked on her back

and it's twice as hard for her
to get to the surface.

After an hour of battling,

the pair are being harassed
by seven males.

But the males are so excited,
they start attacking each other.

In the commotion, the couple
break away for the surface.

The pair manage
to make their escape...

..leaving the rival males
milling around in confusion.

Finally, they can mate in peace.

In the mating game, it's usually
the males who take the risks

and make the most effort.

HE CHIRRUPS

A flame bowerbird
doesn't fight to win a mate.

His strategy is to put on a show.

First, he builds a stage.

In the breeding season, he spends
a week creating this construction,

called a bower,
in the forests of Papua New Guinea.

He's a stickler for detail.

The stage is set.

Time to paint it with mud.

That makes a darker background,

which will set off
his magnificent colours.

Next, there are difficult
decisions about the set-dressing.

Perhaps a bit dull.

There's still room for improvement.

Perfect.

Time to call in the audience...

HE SQUAWKS

..if anyone's interested.

This could take some time.

Attracting attention is
an essential part of winning a mate.

The world's oceans
are filled with brilliant colours,

all designed
to make their wearers conspicuous.

Unfortunately this small,
Japanese puffer fish is dull,

almost to the point of invisibility,

but to compensate,

he is probably nature's
greatest artist.

To grab a female's attention,

he creates something that almost
defies belief.

His only tools are his fins.

In his head,
a plan of mathematical perfection.

He ploughs the sand, breaking it up
into the finest of particles.

These shells aren't just

He uses them to decorate
the bridges of his construction.

He can't rest for more
than a moment,

but must work 24 hours a day
for a week,

or the current
will destroy his creation.

A final tidy-up
and his masterpiece is complete.

Nowhere else in nature
does an animal construct something

as complex and perfect as this.

If this doesn't get him noticed,
nothing will.

Now it's ready for inspection.

A female, swollen with eggs.

To make sure she gets the best view,
he encourages her into the centre.

Inspection over, she withdraws

to await the final stage
of the process.

By the next morning, all the softest
sand is now in the middle.

The centre of the arena
has been flattened.

Right on cue, here she is.

This is what she wanted.

It's a perfect bed for her eggs.

The male now grasps her cheek and
then fertilises her minuscule eggs.

And with a quick flick of his fins,
he buries them.

They carry on like this
until she has finished laying.

An hour of his rough affection
leaves a love bite on her cheek.

Finally, she leaves.

He stays to fan the eggs
until they hatch,

while his extraordinary work of art
fades away around him.

South Georgia in the Antarctic.

A male fur seal.

He's about ten years old
and in his prime.

He's coming ashore to face
the fight of his life.

He may even die on this beach.

For the first time,
he is strong enough to try to win

a territory that could attract
a harem of females.

But there are plenty of rivals here
with the same idea.

These are only
the preliminary rounds.

The real struggle will begin
once the females arrive.

Just a week later,
females have filled the beach

choosing the best territories in
which to give birth to their pups.

This male now has a harem
of a dozen females

and he's going to have
to defend them.

His jealous neighbours will be ready
to exploit any sign of weakness.

It's only once the females
have given birth

that males can mate with them.

Now this male must ensure that he
alone fathers next year's offspring.

But this is the rival's chance too.

He must act fast.

He won't find them all
as easy as this to intimidate.

New males pound up from the sea,

intent on testing
the territory holders.

With many more waiting behind them.

The biggest battles are yet to come.

Usually in the mating game,
it's not the males

but the females who call the shots.

And this male long-tailed manakin
is trying to win over

one of the world's
choosiest females.

He's been practising his moves
here in Costa Rica

for as long as a decade.

There's another male here too.

Only the newcomer is not a rival,
he is a junior partner.

They know each other so well,
they can finish each other's calls.

But that's not all that
they have synchronised.

They are master and apprentice.

The apprentice has also been
practising for many years.

But now he must copy
the master's every move.

In fact,
the master needs his wingman

as a female won't even
look at a solo performer,

and what's more,
she will expect perfect harmony,

so they practice together every day.

At last they're ready.

Here she is.

Rehearsal over,

their performance is the result
of more than ten years' hard work.

She won't tolerate a single slip-up.

Suddenly the master
calls time on the dance...

..and the apprentice is banished.

Only the master gets to mate.

For the apprentice, there will be
no reward until his master dies

and he can take his place.

The mating game can sometimes be
a long game.

A male peacock jumping spider
from Australia

on a quest for a mate.

And when you're the size
of a grain of rice,

almost anything here
could be dangerous.

He's searching for any sign that
a female spider came this way.

And he's found something.

Spider silk,
with the scent of a female.

He just needs to follow it...

..wherever it leads him.

Other males have gone on the same
quest and have come to a grisly end.

Here's the female
and she doesn't look very amorous.

In fact, she kills every male

who doesn't match up
to her expectations.

What can he do to win her over?

Dance.

Dance for his life.

He will need a show-stopping trick
to avoid becoming lunch.

With his fan unfurled,

he begins an ever more complicated
series of dance moves

to try and seduce her.

At last she succumbs to his advances
and allows him to mate with her.

He matched her expectations.

But she kills him anyway.

After all, his body will make
the perfect meal

with which to nourish their eggs.

Back in Papua New Guinea,

the male flame bowerbird is still
doing his best to attract a female.

And at last he gets a response.

Unfortunately, it's a young male.

And worse, he's brought a friend.

They're taking liberties,
practising on his bower.

He doesn't seem to know
what to do about it.

But enough is enough.

The commotion attracts the attention
of another adult male,

a neighbour and rival.

Having destroyed the bower,
he even steals the decorations.

The owner arrives back
to find a scene of destruction.

No female's going to look twice
at this mess.

He'll just have to start
all over again.

In life, there will always be rivals
in the mating game.

Autumn in the forests of Japan.

The mating season
for Japanese macaques.

This dominant male
is over 20 years old.

Age has clouded one eye.

He has had a harem of females
for many years.

And he can mate with them unopposed.

But time catches up with everyone.

Young rival males are hanging out
on the perimeter,

eyeing up his females.

For years, Old Blue-eye has asserted
his authority from this tree.

But his authority is waning

and the moment his back is turned,

his females are lured away
by younger males.

Throughout the forest, his females
are conducting secret affairs.

Blue-eye tries to guard his females
by patrolling the edge of the troop.

Caught in the act.

He attacks his unfaithful female.

He has reasserted his authority.

Or so he thinks.

The moment the old male
shuts his eyes,

his females are off again.

Most of next year's babies
will be fathered by his rivals.

And he will never know.

In Papua New Guinea,

the bowerbird has lovingly rebuilt
and redecorated his bower.

Another visitor.

This time it's a female.

This is just where he wants her.

Time to begin the show.

First, he expands
his pupils alternately.

It's an oddly mesmerising display.

A spot of limbering up

accompanied by a weird
and wheezy call

from deep in his throat.

Now, it's time for his
grand performance.

He waves his wing
like a matador's cape.

She appears to be transfixed.

This is certainly eye-catching
but it seems he needs to do more.

Generously, she drops him a hint.

It's the bird equivalent
of a bouquet of flowers.

It's all going so well,

it's time to get physical
with a few head-butts to her chest.

One final flourish
to cap weeks of effort.

But something's wrong.

His rival is back,
and at the worst possible moment.

What should he do?

For the female, the moment has gone.

Sometimes, whatever you do,
things just don't work out.

On the fur seal beach
in South Georgia,

the fighting has been relentless
for two weeks.

Bloodied and scarred,
this bull has held on to his ground

and his harem against allcomers.

But it's not over yet.

The rivals keep coming.

This new one looks
particularly powerful.

When two bulls are as evenly matched
as this,

they can trade blows
for 20 minutes.

The resident bull is tiring.

The weeks of fighting
have taken too great a toll.

Suddenly, his neighbours
join in the attack.

Overwhelmed, he's driven
from his territory

and out of the colony forever.

The breeding season is almost over
and the seals will soon leave.

Now an outcast, this mortally
wounded bull will die here...

..but he will die a winner.

He held his territory for
long enough to father offspring.

Success in nature is all about
creating the next generation,

whatever it takes.

A male waved albatross waits for his
mate to return from the open sea.

Could this be her?

Or this?

Is there something familiar
about her?

Recognition.

Reunited.

And they can resume
their long-standing relationship.

If love, as we understand it,
exists in nature,

then surely this must be it.

Their lifelong bond will help them
face the final chapter

of life's story together,

parenthood.

One of the most unexpected stories
found by the Life Story team

was that of a small fish who makes
crop circles in the sand.

Unfortunately, it builds them right
at the bottom of a bay

in southern Japan.

So how do you film a tiny fish,
13 metres under the sea?

Specialist underwater cameraman
Hugh Miller's solution

is to build a film studio
on the sea bed.

This is a quad, a quad pod.

It's a bit like a tripod
but it's got four legs

and lets us get the camera
very, very low to the sea bed.

This metal triangle is going to be
the buoyant light rig,

so it's like a little ray
of sunshine down at the bottom

of the sea, but this is
the first time it's been used

and we're going to find out
if it works or not.

Hugh has also designed
an underwater crane

to reveal the full complexity
of the nest structure.

But however good the equipment,
the team will still have to find

the 12cm-long fish
in a big bay.

For that, they turn to the expert.

70-year-old Yogi Okata

first discovered the mysterious
crop circles

and the puffer fish that makes them.

He and his dive buddy Toyo
are going to search

several square miles of sea bed,
hoping to locate a fish.

Fish is very difficult,
almost camouflaged very well,

like almost sandy, so just
I can see shadow or just eye.

So it's very difficult.

But eventually Toyo and Yogi
have good news,

they've found what turns out to be
the only male fish in the bay.

12 metres, yeah.

They've even drawn a map for
Hugh to find it.

If I get lost,
I'll be holding this.

Time to build the studio.

All the kit is taken to the sea bed
to be carefully assembled.

The last thing in place
is Hugh's little ray of sunshine.

The fish won't start building
a new nest for several days,

so there's time to test
his reaction to the kit

while he fans his eggs on his old,
disintegrating nest.

He's certainly not camera shy.

And now Hugh's had his first good
look at the fish.

The biggest surprise was the fish
is a little bit smaller

than I first hoped.

In fact he's only, well,
he's really only about this big.

And so to suddenly be faced
with a fish

that's probably half the size
of what I was hoping,

I thought, well, this is going to be
a little bit harder

than I first thought.

Yogi and Toyo keep watch

and it's not long before they spot
the fish starting to construct

a new nest, which Yogi expects will
take him seven days to complete.

He surprises everyone
by finishing it in three.

Yogi warns the crew
to be ready at dawn the next day

for a visit from a female fish.

They spend three hours
crouched over the camera

to film the action as it unfolds,
just as Yogi predicted.

So what happened? Spawning!

We've got it.

The little chap was doing
very well for himself.

But the male built his nest so fast

that Hugh never had time
to film a top-down shot

for the ultimate reveal
of his hard work.

This requires the crew
to become builders too.

They build an A frame to hold
the camera perfectly steady

well above the nest.

Yogi and Toyo position
the frame near to the old nest.

Now the crew just have to wait

for the fish to finish tending
his eggs and resume building.

But a few days later,
there's bad news.

We've been watching a typhoon system
far to the south of us

for a number of days, and we haven't
really felt its effects until now,

and today was going to be
the first day of the puffer fish

beginning its next cycle
of nest building,

and it's been completely blown.

So rather than going in
with the cameras

and starting the new cycle,
we're actually going in

just to recover equipment,
which is a real shame,

cos we don't know what's going
to happen next, really.

It's five days before
the storm blows through.

Finally, the sea calms down
and the visibility returns.

But for Yogi and Toyo,
it's back to square one.

They must find the fish
all over again.

Day after day they search, and Toyo,
acting as interpreter, reports back.

Um... No nest, no male.

The news gets slightly better.

We find a fish.

Just one fish but no nest.

We find the male
at the 20 metre deeps,

but not make circle.

The storm has put the fish off
his construction work.

Time is up and the team reluctantly
start to dismantle

the underwater studio.

But the fish has one more surprise
in store.

Well, it just couldn't come at
a later point, the last dive.

We're, we're going in
to pull out the kit,

and there's a male making a nest.

One final chance to get the perfect
top shot from the A frame.

A shot that truly does justice to
the fish's extraordinary artistry.

Next time on Life Story,

animals raise offspring
with great commitment,

bad behaviour,

lessons to be learned

and life and death choices.

Success means
leaving a legacy for the future.

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