Original subtitles

[instrumental music playing]

[narrator] A mountain barricade on one side,

and an immense blue ocean on the other.

A vast lake between,

with dark forests that open onto classic African savanna.

This is the Predator Coast,

a unique African arena that's a battleground for both the hunter and the hunted.

But this battle for survival plays out on a stage that changes with the seasons.

Nature has the power to give life,

and the power to take it away.

All are subject to its rule.

Every creature must have a plan...

to survive the Predator Coast.

The Predator Coast is a mix of different African environments

all thrown into one area.

[instrumental music playing]

The lake is ruled by Nile crocodiles,

the grassland by lions,

[lion growls]

and the thick brush by leopards.

Tiger, blacktip and ragged-tooth sharks hunt the waters,

while gannets must search the ever-changing ocean currents.

They all have a strategy.

But so does their prey.

[insects buzzing]

All these hunters share the Predator Coast,

and they have to be either strong or clever to make it through winter alive.

[rhythmic music playing]

Rising up to meet the sky,

a jagged barrier of basalt runs for hundreds of miles.

This is the imposing western wall of the Predator Coast.

It looks hostile and dangerous.

And it is.

But it's also the source of life for everything below.

The Dragon Mountains, or Drakensberg,

play a large part in the seasonal cycle of the lake and plains.

In summer, these peaks become a living being,

seething and writhing with heavy water vapor.

Moisture from below rises and mixes with alpine winds.

Warm air strikes the rock face, generating clouds,

sending moisture down to the savanna.

[thunder rumbles]

[hippo snorts]

The summer season brings more and more rain,

[vultures cackling]

[crickets chirping]

and with it comes rich grazing.

[birds calling]

Impala fawns stick close to their mothers.

At this age, she's their only protection.

The woodland is green and dense.

A great place to hide if you're prey.

But even better cover if you're a predator.

[leopard panting]

Although food is plentiful, the cat-and-mouse game of survival still plays out.

The hunter is always alert.

And the hunted should always be wary.

This young leopard has blown his cover.

He has to look elsewhere for food.

By midday, it's hot, and the waterhole is getting crowded.

A troop of vervet monkeys join the party.

[vervet monkeys chattering]

Everyone's wallowing, and the heat makes them drop their guard.

[ominous music playing]

[chattering continues]

Meanwhile, the leopard is eager to make up for his previous failure.

And the baby monkeys are too busy playing to spot him.

[suspenseful music playing]

The sentry loses focus.

[panting softly]

[monkey calls continue]

[panting softly]

[yawn]

The leopard strikes.

[monkeys calling]

But misses.

The young monkey is quick,

[leopard growls]

but not quick enough.

[leopard growls]

[alarmed monkey calls]

The adult monkeys are in shock. They're now fully awake, and angry.

The leopard clearly has a lot to learn.

It doesn't finish the kill.

Bigger, stronger prey would've escaped.

But this is the training ground of the wild.

It can seem cruel.

[leopard growling softly]

[leopard growls loudly, monkeys screeching]

But the leopard is learning.

It's not a cub anymore.

It needs to hunt for itself.

But it's going to have to do a lot better than this to survive.

The monkeys, too, have learned an important lesson.

It pays to be vigilant.

[instrumental music playing]

As the Predator Coast reaches towards the ocean,

the woodlands and plains are interrupted by an open expanse of water.

This is no ordinary lake.

St. Lucia is Africa's largest coastal lagoon.

It's connected to the sea, but with all the summer rain, the lake is less salty.

Hippos frolic and romp out in open water.

The lake is full of them.

[hippo grunting]

But it's also home to a far more menacing resident.

The Nile crocodile has ruled these waters for thousands of years.

After using its scales as solar panels to absorb the morning heat,

it has to return to the water to cool down.

Crocodiles can stay submerged for up to two hours

by slowing the heart to beat twice per minute.

In this lake, they're perfectly adapted for ambush,

like a coiled spring waiting to strike.

[birds calling]

Closer to the sea, the water is saltier,

and the lake is alive with nesting cormorants.

[cormorants squawking]

But for the young, learning to fly is a huge risk,

because the cold-blooded crocodile lurks beneath the tree.

[suspenseful music playing]

Hunting birds is the crocodile's easiest option at this time of year.

[cormorant squawks]

The fledglings that can't take off, get waterlogged and heavy.

[cormorants squawking]

The crocs just have to loiter in the area.

Parents are so busy feeding the greedy chicks,

that they don't notice the reptile.

It's hard work keeping this rabble in the nest.

It's even harder finding enough food for them.

When the crocodile dives, it becomes invisible.

[eerie music playing]

The open water is a prism of green.

Lush foliage thrives in summer,

and this offers great cover for crocodiles.

But their real secret lies closer to the banks.

Deep caves.

Dark tunnels snake under the floating foliage.

This is the ultimate stealth network.

The caverns are dark, with only a faint green light in the distance.

Gaps in the floating vegetation make good spy holes,

great for attack.

The croc is at home here.

It can sneak closer and move around undetected.

[insects chirping]

The birds don't know that they're being watched.

[birds chattering]

[heartbeat thudding steadily]

Stealth pays off.

A sudden lurch...

and this croc has scored itself a feathery lunch.

[crunching]

[instrumental music playing]

The entire lake passes through a narrow tidal channel

and drains into the Indian Ocean.

[insects buzzing, birds singing]

It enters silent mangrove forests

where secretive creatures wait for a different kind of prey.

The black mangrove tree loads its leaves with unwanted salt, and drops them.

[wind blowing, trees rustling]

The mud bank comes to life.

To mud crabs, leaves like these are a treat.

But there's not enough to go around,

and battle lines are drawn.

The crabs are vegetarian, and the leaves are their staple diet.

A simple tug of war sends the loser home empty handed.

[instrumental music playing]

Between lake and sea lies a great coastal barrier,

a dense forest.

It's a clear division between fresh and salt water.

But beneath the canopy, a treacherous world lies hidden.

[birdsong, insects buzzing]

It's a contrast of light and shade.

But the hunters here are far more devious.

[ominous music playing]

The Gaboon adder is a cold-blooded master of camouflage.

It's marking are so cryptic, it's almost impossible to detect.

Even on the move, it's difficult to make out.

The Gaboon adder has evolved the perfect suit of scales for its environment.

It puts prey at a distinct disadvantage.

When the adder smells food, it settles in to wait.

This is a common domestic rat, but it's set up house in the forest.

The rat smells something, but it sees nothing.

[birds calling]

[sniffing]

By the time it's settled, the snake's nearly invisible,

but carefully poised to strike.

The coast seems clear,

so the rat leaves the burrow...

and walks right into trouble.

The bite is quick, and the rat is free.

But not for long.

The venom is applied with the longest fangs in the snake world.

The rat dies within feet of the adder.

The potent hemotoxic venom causes internal bleeding.

It's a quick, but excruciating death.

Snakes don't have hands to help them eat,

so the adder uses its long fangs to walk the prey into its mouth.

The Gaboon adder has used its hardware well.

This meal will tide it over for two weeks.

[instrumental music playing]

Beyond the folds of forest,

the Predator Coast finally breaks onto the ocean.

Cool water from the south

meets the warm Mozambique current, and this mix brings life.

In springtime,

the deep caves and crevasses of the reef eagerly await new arrivals.

This warm water tempts a secretive predator from the cold south.

Lurking in the deep,

the ragged-tooth shark settles in and begins patrolling.

But it's not on the hunt for food.

It's looking for a mate.

After a 500 mile migration,

ragged-tooth sharks arrive on the Predator Coast to breed.

Their goal is to conserve energy during the day,

floating in the cover of the reef, out of the current.

These rocky spires are their mating bower.

Much of their breeding behavior remains a mystery

because it happens under cover of night.

It's likely the scars and scratches on their bodies come from mating.

But no one has ever witnessed this behavior.

[suspenseful music playing]

More and more fish meet in the warm water.

Every one of these slinger could be a meal,

so they mass together to form a bigger, scarier shape.

Snappers use color and markings to deceive.

They each have a black dot mimicking another eye.

To a predator, they could be a group of bigger animals facing off.

This loggerhead turtle has a more basic form of defense,

an armored shell.

She'll need to lay eggs soon,

and she needs all the protection she can get.

She's travelled miles, heading for the same beach that she was born on.

The nesting instinct is strong, pushing her on.

She has to keep moving,

because the warm summer water brings the most feared ocean hunter to the Predator Coast.

Tiger sharks eat turtles.

Their saw-like teeth can cut through a turtle's shell.

This shark is feared by many here.

They're one reason that rays adapted to be flat.

To hide better.

And they're the reason why giant mantas have chunks of flesh and tails missing.

All from run-ins with sharks.

[ominous music playing]

This manta has to be wary of attack.

It can beat a powerful retreat if it needs to.

But as long as the coast is clear, the manta hunts near the ocean floor.

It's a predator too, but it's not after fish.

It eats tiny floating eggs and larvae.

The more water the manta can funnel through its specially adapted paddles, the better.

As it is on land,

predator and prey adapt to stay one step ahead of the other.

The manta is a giant filter feeder,

but it's not alone.

And there's another that's a true giant.

In the sandy shallows,

the biggest fish in the sea arrives to feed.

The whale shark is the size of a school bus,

twenty tons,

and it's a great predator,

also of tiny plankton.

Like the manta, it trawls for smaller, but more nutritious prey.

It has travelled hundreds of miles for this rich, warm summer water.

As the whale shark steams south,

a female turtle heads for the shallows.

She hugs the reef, staying close to cover from any threat above.

But eventually,

she has to surface for air.

She chooses the wrong time,

and the wrong place.

[ominous music playing]

[turtle grunts]

The tiger shark starts on her soft flippers.

But the jaws are strong enough to break through the shell.

[turtle grunting]

The cover of darkness is what the turtles are waiting for.

The ones that make it through have to leave the water to dig a nest.

Despite its size,

the leatherback could fall prey to leopards, jackals, and even humans.

[turtle huffing]

She's slow, because she weighs close to a ton.

She's dug the egg shaft.

She'll drop up to 100 eggs.

It's exhausting work.

And while it may look like it's making her cry,

those aren't tears.

The turtle's eyes emit a jelly to keep them moist and free of sand.

[turtle huffing]

Eggs in place, it's time for the last critical step,

covering them up to keep them safe.

She's tired and she has to rest,

but the longer she spends here, the more vulnerable she is.

Now she has to haul 800 pounds of bulk back to the sea.

[turtle huffing]

She's been out of the water for 90 minutes,

but soon she feels the cool wash of the ocean.

She won't be back for two years.

She will never know which of her young survive.

[dog howls]

But within five weeks, the sand on the beach begins to stir.

Tiny hatchlings breech the fortress that their mother built,

and on sheer instinct, they make a break for the water.

[suspenseful music playing]

They're small, four inches long,

and the beach's predators are an even bigger threat to them.

If they stop moving, they're going to become a meal.

Ghost crabs are quick to pounce.

[crunching]

Some are stronger than others.

They'll be the first to the water.

One by one, the survivors make it through.

[seabirds squawking]

[instrumental music playing]

The hatchlings grow out in the ocean,

eventually, becoming stronger swimmers.

Females will return to the same beach to lay their own eggs.

Males will stay at sea until they die.

Beneath the travelling turtle, lies a unique part of the Predator Coast,

a 40-year-old wreck,

a monument to man's presence on the ocean.

Steel beams and plates, that once plied the surface,

now serve as a healthy reef,

a place that fish gravitate to.

Hundreds of tiny grunts use the cover of the wreck

to hide from the blacktip sharks above.

And any shark dipping down toward the bottom,

sends a wave of panic through the shoal.

As the summer progresses,

more and more fish congregate here.

And autumn will bring mackerel.

As they arrive, more and more sharks gather too.

But a stalemate develops.

The shark biding their time above,

and the clouds of fish barricaded in their wreck fortress below.

This dead ship is set to play a great part in the cycle of life on the Predator Coast.

As the summer turns to autumn,

the sharks have less and less to eat.

But soon, great numbers of small fish will arrive.

Too many for the wreck to hold.

The sharks just have to wait for them.

Before long,

there's up to 80 blacktips.

All hungry,

all hunting.

While the sharks are gearing up for a great feast,

an aerial division is doing the same.

[gannets squawking]

Gannets are busy raising their young,

and they'll need to prepare an attack on the predator coast soon.

They haven't hunted for themselves for weeks.

They'll need to search the ocean's surface for fish.

And their chosen direction will be north,

towards the wrecks and reefs where the sharks are waiting.

This is their launch pad.

If they don't leave their chicks and get airborne soon,

they'll face starvation.

[instrumental music playing]

As cool autumn water flows past the island,

gannets take off.

Their urge to leave is strong now.

They set off to hunt for their next meal.

While the gannets take to the wing,

the savanna flats of the Predator Coast have dried.

The grass is turning brown, and for prey,

the future will be fraught with hardship.

[zebra yipping]

Winter is here.

Great herds of herbivores are at the mercy of the dying grass,

and they have to choose their movements carefully.

For the lions,

this is hunting season.

It's dry,

and the movement of animals is constricted by the little available water.

[lion grunting]

[grunting continues]

But having nothing to drink can be tough for lions too.

This pride is forced in from higher ground

to one of the last remaining waterholes on the coastal plain.

The buffalo are in the same situation.

A great herd is camped at the water.

[buffalo grunting]

And the lions set up shop on the other side.

[lion purring]

Predator watches prey for days.

The buffalo are big and mean.

They can do the lions serious damage,

and will work together to fend off the pride.

The lions can't just run in and catch one.

They have to wait for the right opportunity.

Crocodiles are cornered in this last water too.

And they're also waiting.

[lion panting]

Sooner or later,

a move must be made.

[buffalos grunt]

One by one, the lions get mobile,

fanning out in a strategy

that will put them in deep cover.

[suspenseful music playing]

[lion growls]

The buffalo may spot one or two of them, but others are hidden,

waiting to pounce.

[lion growls]

[music intensifies]

[buffalo grunts]

A buffalo is separated from the herd.

[lions growling]

It's old, it's slower than the rest.

But it still takes nearly the entire pride to wrestle it to the ground.

[lions growling]

The lead lioness suffocates it,

and finally it falls,

close to the waterhole.

[buffalo grunts]

[lions growling]

[bird calling]

[flies buzzing]

The pride makes the most of their hard-won meal.

[lion panting]

The crocs watch eagerly from the water.

There is nothing they can do but observe the feast.

[birds calling]

Bringing down the buffalo was hard work,

and the lions take a breather.

[lions growling]

For a moment, they leave their prize unguarded.

For the crocs, it's a great opportunity.

They just have to pull the kill into the water.

Finally, the crocodiles have the carcass to themselves.

[insect buzzing]

Now the feast is theirs.

The smell attracts a horde,

but like the lions, crocs have a pecking order.

[flies buzzing]

The bigger ones will get the first bite.

The bloated stomach is the most attractive part.

[ominous music playing]

Lions avoid stomach contents,

but for crocs, it's like a dinner bell.

Even more home in on the smell.

[monkeys calling]

[crocodile growls]

The biggest takes the lead.

No knives or forks necessary.

Crocs have a special way of tearing prey apart.

It's called the death roll.

Effective for killing,

but also for pulling off chunks of tasty flesh.

The spins are so powerful, that the entire carcass is wrenched through the water.

And crocs that rip away bits of meat, swim off to eat without competition.

[lions growling]

The lions have fed enough.

[instrumental music playing]

[birds calling]

And the herd can deal with one loss in a hundred.

While the savanna has dried out,

the coastal dunes are still lush.

The tropical reefs are shrouded in green water.

The colorful shoals have gone.

But now the wrecks are packed with thousands more fish.

Fat, oily mackerel have arrived.

And they're very appealing to hungry predators.

By late winter, the sharks are desperate for food.

Just to the north, dolphins form ranks and head towards the wreck.

The new arrivals bunch together.

With all the other fish occupying the wreck below,

they're left in open water.

They're totally exposed in an ocean of predators.

As the fish pack closer and closer together,

the gannets are on their way.

[gannets squawking]

Sharks feel the tremors of an imminent meal and they pick up the pace.

[suspenseful music playing]

The dolphins are the first to attack.

The mackerel panic.

To the predators, they're a seething ball of food.

Much needed food in the midst of winter.

The dolphins form up.

They take command.

[dolphins clicking, squeaking]

They chase the mackerel up towards the surface.

As soon as the fish approach the surface, the gannets get their chance.

They dive-bomb the depths, each picking off a fish.

But for many, the mackerel are too big to handle.

Some can't hold on, but they're up and ready to dive again.

[gannets squawking]

The dolphins and gannets are busy.

Now the sharks get their chance.

[dramatic music playing]

The sharks don't have a fancy strategy,

they just wait for the dolphins to pack the fish, and they barrel in head first.

Some come up empty,

but others make off with a big, juicy mackerel.

[gannets squawking]

[dolphins clicking and squeaking]

Fat sharks cruise past, spewing blood trails as they feed.

The sharks, dolphins and gannets attack in waves.

But even in this chaos they tolerate each other.

Each predator sticks to its own technique.

And the fish are eaten one by one.

[dolphin clicking continues]

What seems like a strong survival strategy, bunching together,

has now become the mackerel's fatal mistake.

The shoal started off huge,

but now it's only half the size,

and the great feeding event rolls on.

The team of predators go through the same motions to gorge on fish.

They have to make the most of this windfall.

Huge bronze whalers arrive.

They move in to gulp fish.

The dolphins are relentless.

They do their duty keeping the ball together.

The feeding is a great banquet dance.

Predators hit a rhythm,

as if they're synchronized.

But eventually,

the feeding slows.

Despite their massive losses,

the mackerel aren't completely wiped out.

Now that the predators are full,

the survivors are able to breed the next banquet.

[dolphins clicking and squeaking]

The fat sharks disperse.

The gannets dissolve back into the sky.

The dolphins head home.

[instrumental music playing]

The cool winter water is eventually washed away by the looming summer current.

The reefs take on the blue tinge again.

The ragged-tooth sharks are back.

The lions catch their breath in the green of summer.

And crocodiles can bask in the sun.

Despite their struggles, the hunted also thrive.

Predators might seem to dominate,

but their prey has strength in numbers.

Some give the ultimate sacrifice.

Many more live and flourish

to be hunted another day.

[gannets squawking]

Nature's cold calculation

keeps the Predator Coast in balance.

[instrumental music playing]