All language subtitles for Africa.S01E04.1080p.BluRay.x265-KONTRAST

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
The Cape of Good Hope,

on Africa's southerly tip.

Here, two great seas meet.

One, the warm Indian Ocean,

the other, the chilly Atlantic.

And as they mingle,
so they create a billowing cloak

that drapes the summit
of Table Mountain.

Spectacular though this is,
the mountain's cloudy covering

is only a hint of the profound influence

that these two very different oceans
have on the fortunes of life here.

(WAVES CRASHING)

And not just here at the Cape,

but across the length and breadth
of southern Africa.

Two thousand miles north from the Cape,

beneath this sandy beach,

new life is stirring.

(SCURRYING)

Hundreds of baby green turtles

emerge like a torrent
from the safety of their nest.

Each one, just seven centimetres long,

must make a 100-metre sprint
down the beach.

From the moment they hatch,

they're driven by an instinctive urge
to run to the sea.

Few creatures start life

with the odds for success
so heavily stacked against them.

Yellow-billed kites.

Pied crows.

(SQUAWKING)

But so many of these hatchlings
appear together

that predators can't catch them all.

Last out, this baby might seem doomed.

But struggling out late
could just give her a chance.

(CROWS CAWING)

The crows seem insatiable.

Even those that reach
the sea aren't safe.

This female has to make a dash for it.

She's still in danger,
and not just from above.

A ghost crab may be smaller
than the hatchling,

but it has the strength
to drag her into its lair.

Not this time.

At last, the sea.

(WAVES LAPPING)

She has to catch a breath
if she's not to drown.

But the pounding waves
make it desperately difficult.

(WAVES CRASHING)

Beyond the surf, calmer water.

But even here,
the hatchling is not out of danger.

She dives.

Just in time.

Only one hatchling in a thousand
will survive to adulthood.

But if she does,
she may live for 80 years.

For now,
the ocean is there to be explored.

As the hatchling disappears
into the deep blue,

she swims into the waters

of one the planet's
most powerful currents,

the Agulhas.

The Agulhas sweeps south
towards the Cape,

transporting 100 billion gallons
of warm water every day.

These tropical seas are so warm,

they evaporate on an enormous scale.

Water vapour rises until, at altitude,

it cools and condenses into clouds.

As the clouds drift inland,

they bring rain to one of the least
explored corners of our planet,

the mountains of Mozambique.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

This the wettest place
in Southern Africa.

Decades of civil war

have kept travellers away
from this little-known land.

It was satellite mapping

that revealed the full extent
of the forest that grows here.

So now it's known to outsiders
as the Google rainforest.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

It could also be called
the butterfly forest.

After the rains,

butterflies have emerged together
in huge numbers.

As soon as their wings dry out,
they will take to the air.

Their goal, to find a mate.

But how?

There may be thousands close by,

but the foliage is so thick

it's difficult for them
to find each other.

(BIRDS TWITTERING)

They have a remarkable solution.

They follow rivers upstream
and travel to higher ground.

The journey can take hours
of determined flying.

Eventually they emerge
into the only open space there is.

The treeless peak of Mount Mabu.

Up here, free from the confines
of the forest,

they hold a butterfly ball.

Now, the butterflies have all the space
they need for their aerobatic courtship.

The male's strategy is simple,

fly higher and faster
than the competition

and just maybe you'll win
a virgin female.

This spectacular gathering,
unseen by outsiders until now,

happens for just half an hour
each morning

and for just a few weeks in the year.

Once mated, the females descend

back to the rainforest
to lay their eggs.

A forest that only exists

because of moisture rising
from the warm Agulhas current

hundreds of miles away
in the Indian Ocean.

The rainwater now flows southwards
from Mozambique's highest peaks

to the lowlands of the Eastern Cape.

And where the land flattens,
rivers slow,

creating a vast swamp 50 miles across.

This is Gorongosa.

Here, all kinds of creatures come
to catch fish.

(WATER BUBBLING)

(SQUAWKING)

Whiskered catfish work as a team.

They take a gulp of air at the surface

and then belch it out underwater
to create a net of bubbles,

and that traps little fish.

There are fish for everyone.

And each species has its own technique
for catching them.

(SQUAWKING)

It's all very well having a big beak

but you've still got to know
how to use it.

This young pelican has a lot to learn,

and not long to do so.

(SQUAWKING)

Maybe, like the catfish,
teamwork is the answer.

It's certainly working for the flock,

and this pelican seems to be
getting the hang of it.

But surely
it can't swallow that catfish.

Trying to was a mistake.

(CROWS CAWING)

The rainwater,
briefly held in Gorongosa's swamp,

has now been enriched
with silt and sand.

All down this coast,
sediment-laden rivers,

the Zambezi, the Limpopo,
the Save, drain back to the sea,

and there they meet
the Agulhas Current.

And what happens to all that sand?

Over the millennia,
the Agulhas has worked it

into a complex underwater landscape.

This vast sand sculpture
is the Bazaruto Archipelago,

the oldest of its kind in the world.

It may look like paradise,
but living here is not easy.

(WAVES ROARING)

For 100,000 years

the Agulhas Current has battered
these submerged dunes

with underwater sandstorms.

But where the water is deep enough
to escape these storms,

nutrients carried from Africa's interior
fuel an explosion of life.

A rare oceanic hunter rules here.

Giant kingfish.

As big as a man and, weight for weight,

one of the most powerful fish
in the sea.

Despite their size,

they're extraordinarily agile
when hunting.

Normally, kingfish are solitary,

but for just a few weeks each year,
they gather at places like Bazaruto

and prepare
for an extraordinary journey,

one that will take them far inland.

The Mtentu River.

The king of kingfish
leads them upstream.

As they travel further into freshwater,

they seem to change
from aggressive hunters

into dedicated pilgrims.

Now, many miles from their natural home,

and in response to an unknown cue,

they stop and begin to circle.

Other marine fish that migrate upriver
usually do so in order to breed,

but there's no evidence that
these kingfish spawn up here.

Neither do they hunt.

So, what are they doing?

In truth, the purpose of this strange
behaviour is still unknown.

Within a few weeks, they will retrace
their journey back to the ocean.

The lives of kingfish,

like those of turtles, and butterflies,
and pelicans,

are influenced by the Agulhas Current.

But that influence
can only reach so far.

And this is why.

The Drakensberg Mountains.

Here, local people say that
the vultures soar so high

they can see into the future.

These sheer cliffs,
rising to over 3,000 metres,

hold back the advancing rain clouds,
and as a result,

the land beyond them
is starved of water.

This is the greatest expanse
of sand in the world,

a seemingly endless desert

that is the vast, parched centre
of Southern Africa.

Thousands of miles to the west,

where this desert meets
the Atlantic Ocean,

another current prevails.

But the Benguela Current,
surging up the west side of Africa,

has a very different character.

(SEALS BARKING)

It's extremely cold, full of nutrients,

and it's thronged with life.

A great white shark.

They can raise their body temperature

to 10 degrees above that
of the surrounding sea.

But doing so requires an enormous amount
of high-grade fuel.

So this is a great bonanza for them.

The body of a dead whale.

The carcass will draw in
every great white for miles around.

And here, off Cape Town,
that means a lot of sharks.

Instead of feeding in a frenzy,

these sharks have rather refined
table manners.

They swim side by side to get
the measure of each other,

then each takes its turn.

This female is the biggest,
so she eats first.

The next only feeds
when she gives way.

The waters of the Benguela are so rich,

they support more great white sharks
than any other seas on the planet.

(WAVES CRASHING)

And they are so cold,

they attract some surprising creatures
to these African shores.

(PENGUINS WARBLING)

Penguins.

African penguins.

This female is returning
to relieve her partner.

Of course, there's no ice here,

but these rocks
can be almost as slippery.

(WARBLING CONTINUES)

But there are more serious obstacles
than the slippery rocks awaiting them.

It's his turn to feed,

so he leaves her
to look after their eggs.

Now, she must tackle a problem faced
by no other kind of penguin.

For the next 10 days,
she must protect her eggs

from the African sun.

A dense coat of feathers that keeps
her warm in cold seas

now stifles her.

On these exposed rocks, she must shade
her eggs instead of keeping them warm.

Everything here seems
the wrong way round.

For some, the soaring temperature

is too much.

A neighbour deserts his nest.

His egg will not survive.

He's not the only one to give up.

Some years,
not a single chick is reared.

Penguins are adapted to withstand
temperatures of 40 degrees below zero,

not 40 degrees above.

(PENGUIN CHICK PEEPING)

Now, at the hottest part of the day,
the very worst time,

her chicks are hatching.

Just when they need her most,

she's reaching the limit
of her endurance.

After 10 days of intensive fishing,

the chick's father comes back
to take his turn at the nest.

But will he be too late?

(CHICKS PEEPING)

(PENGUIN BLEATING)

He greets his young
for the very first time.

(CHICK PEEPING)

The coolness of the Benguela Current
brought the penguins here.

But that very coolness is
a great disadvantage

because it generates little rain.

It can, however, produce moisture
in a different form.

(RUMBLING)

A thick blanket of fog
rolls in from the sea

and condenses on this thirsty land.

And each year, the desert bursts into
life with a dazzling display.

Water is so scarce that this show
will not last long,

so plants compete to attract
their pollinators with colour.

Here in Namaqualand,
a 600-mile strip of coastal desert

becomes carpeted with blooms.

The morning sun opens a Namaqua Daisy

and reveals a male monkey beetle

asleep inside.

Nights here are so cold,

that monkey beetles shelter within
the closed up petals of the daisies.

The habit brings benefits to both sides.

The beetle is kept warm
and the flower gets pollinated.

But now the beetle has urgent business.

He must find a mate.

(WINGS WHIRRING)

As he searches,
he hops from bloom to bloom,

pollinating each in turn.

At last, he spots a potential mate.

A golden princess.

But here comes trouble.

A rival.

There's no time for introductions.

But he's been too slow.

The rivals immediately begin to brawl.

The female will only mate
inside the daisy,

so they wrestle for possession.

They're so engrossed in fighting
they've pushed her off.

The challenger is ejected.

The winner wastes no time before getting
back to business.

At last.

Now there will be a new generation
of monkey beetles

to pollinate these Namaqualand flowers.

For most of the year,
this land is desperately dry,

but just occasionally, brief, violent
storms sweep in from the cold ocean.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

Springbok have been roaming this desert
for many months,

searching for one of these rare
and highly-localised downpours.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

The grass is sprouting.

And that is worth celebrating.

If you're a springbok

that means pronking.

We still don't know
exactly why they do this.

The simplest answer

is that they're dancing for joy.

Africa's most southerly tip.

This is where the two
great ocean currents,

the warm Agulhas and the cold Benguela,
crash into one another.

And this collision, in itself,
draws in life in abundance.

(DOLPHINS CHATTERING)

A super-pod of hunting dolphins,
5,000 strong.

(DOLPHINS WHISTLING)

And shadowing them,

Africa's biggest predator,

a Bryde's whale.

This female is 15 metres long

and weighs more than
a whole family of elephants.

The dolphins are in pursuit of sardines.

Millions of them!

But these cold-water fish
are heading towards

an impenetrable barrier of warm water

that they will not cross,

the Agulhas Current.

(DOLPHINS WHISTLING)

They're trapped.

And that gives the whale her chance.

But the sardines are so speedy

that the whale only catches
a few with each pass.

More and more hunters arrive.

(BIRDS HONKING)

The whale needs the other hunters,
to push the fish upwards,

forcing them against the surface.

Now they have nowhere to escape.

With each lumbering turn,
she loses precious time,

time that favours the more nimble.

The Bryde's whale probably knows
that this opportunity

will last less than five minutes.

And with the last few lunges,
she finally cashes in.

The forces that triggered
this great event

have also shaped the fortunes of life

far beyond this particular battleground.

Without these currents,
Southern Africa would be a desert.

But combined, the very different powers
of the Agulhas and the Benguela

have transformed the Cape
into a land where life can flourish.

The Comoros Islands
off Africa's east coast,

are a haven for green turtles.

Every year, a million turtles
hatch on these beaches,

but the chances of any
one of them surviving is tiny.

(CAWING)

(WAVES RUMBLING)

The Africa team came here
to try and capture

the dramatic first few minutes
in the lives of these baby turtles.

It was to be both a technical
and surprisingly emotional challenge.

FLAY: It's only when you get down
on the eye level of the baby turtle

that you realise what an enormous
journey it's got to make down the beach.

And it really is quite epic.

PEARSON: That's fine.
Oh, yeah, that's lovely.

It's using all of these complicated,
heavy bits of equipment,

which hopefully will enable us
to get into the world of a turtle

which is just a few inches long.

As they break out of all the
soft sand, they hit the hard sand

and that's where
the real sprint takes place.

They must be desperate to hit that water

because you can see,
the sea's just over the horizon.

We were following them all the way down
and you do kind of get

involved with them and cheering them on.

FLAY: Okay, slow down a bit, slow down.

And then suddenly all these crows
come flocking in

and start picking them off

and you just think
that's just so unfair.

PEARSON: Lots more coming in.
There's loads coming in now.

FLAY: And you've got to feel for them.

You know, it's really quite upsetting,

particularly when you're looking through
the camera and I'm just filling a frame

with a turtle running down the beach,

then suddenly from nowhere
a beak comes in and woosh, and that's it.

That turtle is no more.

ATTENBOROUGH: The turtles that escape

the perils of the beach

still have to face pounding surf.

But at last, they're in their element.

More than can be said for the crew.

PEARSON: They're faster than you,
aren't they?

MILLER: Yep. It's a bit embarrassing.

MILLER: Beaten by something that's less
than a day old. (ALL LAUGHING)

When we saw hatchlings
getting off the beach

and you see them going in
the white water you think

they'd just get obliterated.

They just punch through the water,
they do get flung around

but then they just right themselves,

keep on swimming,
and they're ahead of you

coming out the back of the wave
and it's amazing.

MILLER: You're seeing all these
baby turtles getting picked off

left, right and centre,
but they just keep going.

They are just so resilient.

(WAVES ROLLING)

And that made what happened next
so distressing.

A particularly high spring tide
flooded the beach.

Any baby turtles still in their nests
would be lucky to survive.

- WOMAN: See it bubbling out as well, sea the air.
- PEARSON: Yeah.

KEVIN: Well, it means that basically
anything below that line

is going to be gone.

Let's hope and pray it's not, but...

As you say, we don't know.
Let's wait and see.

All across the world,
turtles are in decline.

Their eggs are stolen,

the adults are hunted for their flesh,

and they drown in fishing nets.

But here in the Comoros,
they have friends.

PEARSON: It's amazing here in Itsamia.
It's just a really heartening story

of how the local people

are doing everything they can
to protect, sort of,

what they think of as their turtles.

And some of the baby turtles
have survived the flood tide.

I've already found
two baby turtles in the nest.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

If we save the nests
we help them to leave.

YOUNG BOY: It's my village,

I must protect the baby turtles
and the big turtles,

it's for all of us.

The whole village comes
to help the hatchlings.

But the most important effort
is to protect the adults

from outsiders who would hunt them
for their meat.

FLAY: They've taken it upon themselves
to really police the beaches around here

and make sure that poaching
is kept to a minimum.

The selfless
protection these people provide

means that this is one
of the few places in the world

where turtle numbers
are actually increasing.

And remarkably, here in Itsamia,

the population has, in fact, doubled
in the last decade.

As the shoot was coming to the end,
cameraman Kevin Flay

noticed that some of the turtles
that made it through the surf,

faced one last danger.

I'm getting shots
of a kite which is flying down

and taking turtles
off the water surface.

That was a part of the story
we had to tell.

The aim is for us

to be underwater looking straight up

as this happens
and that's actually really quite hard.

WOMAN: Okay. Three.

Two, one.

Undeterred, the crew got into position.

There we go, the kite's up.

MILLER: You can't see where you're going
because my head's glued

to this viewfinder, so I'm banging
into rocks and things like that.

I'm really just trying to keep
the turtle in shot.

PEARSON: Something came in then?

She came in and swooped down
over the water's surface.

And you could see the kite
from underwater?

I could see it. I could see the shape.

PEARSON: In frame and you were running?
MILLER: Yeah.

PEARSON: Didn't take the turtle.
MILLER: Didn't take the turtle.

PEARSON: Probably that's the best of both worlds.

because we got our lovely
underwater shot of a kite

and the turtle gets away!

This lucky hatchling isn't the only one.

With the help
of the village of Itsamia,

thousands more have a chance
to make it to the open ocean.

PEARSON: It's only really local
populations that can actually

support and sustain
this conservation work.

If it comes from the roots upwards

then it's got a chance of success.

FLAY: You know, I think it's amazing,
I really do, the fact that they do this

and, you know, we should see it more often
around the world.

It's hard not to admire these
extraordinary little creatures

as they battle against such odds.

This baby turtle won't touch land again

until she returns to the very same
island to lay her own eggs.

With luck, she'll find the beach
is still protected

by the people of Itsamia.