Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In the South West of Africa,

where Namibia meets the Atlantic Ocean,

lies the Namib,

a desert half the size of Oklahoma.

In this remote and arid realm,

temperatures can exceed 120 degrees.

In places, annual rainfall

is less than a quarter inch.

Seemingly untouched by humans

in 55 million years or more,

this timeless desert,

possibly the oldest on Earth,

has given rise to more life

than any other.

Strange and marvelous specialists...

share this wondrous Eden

with giants.

ELEPHANTS TRUMPETING

NARRATOR: From its Skeleton Coast...

SQUEALS

NARRATOR: ...through the sea of sand...

to the haze of distant mountains...

this apparently forbidding desert

hides secret water sources.

And if you know where to look,

enough moisture can be found to survive...

even thrive.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

NARRATOR: There are still places on Earth

that remain pristine.

Where wildlife flourishes.

These are the last regions that could be called...

Eden.

This land appears to be so dry

that it's almost inconceivable

that it could be an Eden...

and yet, it is.

This is the only desert

that supports a population of lions.

GROWLING

NARRATOR: Closely monitored by scientists,

this five-year-old female has been living alone

these past months.

She hasn't eaten for a week.

Her solitary prowling

may take her up to 50 miles a day

in search of prey.

And finally, she's caught up with a herd

of the only antelope

that can survive the intense heat of the dunes.

BLEATING

NARRATOR: South African oryx.

BLEATING

NARRATOR: As many as 100,000 live here.

A system of blood vessels

under their black and white faces

allows them to keep cool heads

when others can't.

GROWLS SOFTLY

NARRATOR: Standing nearly 4 feet tall at the shoulder...

they outweigh her by 100 pounds.

And those yard-long rapier horns

have been known to impale a lion.

Without cover to hide an approach,

the odds are stacked against her.

GRUNTS

NARRATOR: Over distance,

she can't outpace an oryx.

In a sprint,

she has the edge.

GRUNTS

NARRATOR: But only if she can close the gap

to 50 feet or less.

SQUEALS

NARRATOR: Once oryx get into their stride

at 40 miles per hour...

further pursuit is futile.

In the fine balance between predator and prey,

the scales have tipped in favor of the antelope...

for now.

By midday, temperatures exceed 110 degrees.

SOFT GROWLING

NARRATOR: If she launched an attack now,

she'd face heat exhaustion.

But she's survived this long

by listening to the rhythms of the desert...

WIND BLOWING SOFTLY

NARRATOR: In the early afternoon,

the sands begin to whisper.

As air is heated by the sun, it rises...

and cooler air rushes in to replace it.

The Namib's wind-whipped sand

skews the odds

to her advantage...

and she knows it.

WIND HOWLING

NARRATOR: With oryx sheltering nearby,

once again she must close the distance.

Now the drifting veil blurs her outline.

BLEATS

NARRATOR: The incessant hiss

muffles her footfalls.

WIND HISSING

BLEATS

GRUNTING

ORYX GRUNTING

LION ROARING

ORYX GRUNTS LOUDLY

NARRATOR: This will supply the food

and, crucially,

the moisture a lion needs

for a week.

Uniquely, this desert

can even provide for a big cat...

that's mastered its mysterious ways

to triumph in an age-old conflict.

Rolling plains make up around half of the Namib.

They may look bone-dry and barren...

but water still finds a way

to trigger new life in this Eden.

This is a paradise

to the giant of the bird world.

Standing 8 feet tall...

the ostrich.

They may seem conspicuous out here,

but mounted on that periscope neck

are the largest eyeballs

of any land animal.

Bigger than their brains.

They can spot a predator

a mile away.

CHIRPING

NARRATOR: And since the Namib provides scant cover

for would-be hunters,

ostriches abound here

in the tens of thousands.

Those featherless drumsticks help radiate heat...

allowing these birds to tolerate temperatures

of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

With little or no competition,

they have the pick of the juiciest insects and roots...

supplying them with all the water they need.

But for this four-year-old male, just coming of age...

it's females, not food, that preoccupy him!

It takes succulent shoots

to sustain a brood of chicks.

And new vegetation

only arrives after rainfall.

Until then,

despite explicit advances...

he's got little hope of breeding.

Yet...

his luck could be about to change.

Storm clouds are gathering.

THUNDERCLAP

THUNDER CRACKS

NARRATOR: A quarter inch of rainfall.

And it could be all they get this year.

Still, it's enough.

The ostrich females

are now in the mood for romance.

Just what a lusty youngster was hoping for.

# COMICAL MUSIC PLAYING

NARRATOR: But that's not what she has in mind.

He doesn't know it yet...

but he's already lost the mating game.

DEEP BOOMING CALL

DEEP BOOMING CALL

HONKS

DEEP BOOMING CALL

NARRATOR: A booming amplified call

announces the arrival

of an alpha male.

DEEP BOOMING CALL

NARRATOR: That's how to make a big hit with the hens.

All eyes are on him.

# ROMANTIC TANGO MUSIC PLAYING

NARRATOR: Impeccable poise...

an elegantly executed waft of the wing...

and a neck-dip to die for.

It's a shimmying showstopper of a performance.

He scores a perfect ten.

Won over by his masterful moves,

a female lowers her wings in acceptance.

He better start rehearsing his song-and-dance routine.

He'll be ready the next time the rains come...

in a year.

Maybe more.

Every desert yearns for the promise of rain...

but in the Namib

it's the cue for a magical display...

as seeds that have lain dormant for up to 15 years...

turn desert into wildflower meadows.

BIRDS CHIRPING

NARRATOR: Far downstream,

another amazing transformation takes place.

Sleeping riverbeds awaken...

and are flushed by rain

that may have fallen two days ago...

over 150 miles away.

A long-awaited respite

from dust and drought.

For a female ostrich,

it's a baptism for her new brood.

Now, even the largest animals to walk the Earth

can quench a giant thirst.

Desert elephants.

ELEPHANTS TRUMPET

NARRATOR: Around 150

have chosen to live in the Namib.

Seeping away within days,

the runaway waters

are a fugitive memory.

But in this desert,

they continue to make life possible.

GRUNTING

NARRATOR: It's said that an elephant never forgets.

And to find their daily food,

this herd relies

on the 34-year-old matriarch...

GRUNTS

NARRATOR: ...and her powers of recall.

None more so than her calf.

In the driest years,

all calves may perish.

GRUNTS SOFTLY

NARRATOR: As she leads the herd down a sunbaked riverbed...

things don't look promising.

But under their feet

lies another of the Namib's secret water sources...

A hidden oasis.

An aquifer locks surface rainwater

in the rock itself.

Throughout Namibia, these underground reservoirs,

some of the largest in the world,

sequester around a third as much water

as flows in its rivers.

It may be more than 100 feet down,

but one type of tree...

the Ana...

has roots long enough

to tap into this precious groundwater.

LOUD GRUNT

NARRATOR: And the matriarch knows

that their branches are festooned

with succulent, protein-rich pods.

The problem is...

someone got here first.

DEEP GRUNTING

NARRATOR: A solitary bull.

At 14 feet tall...

plus that trunk...

he's plucked pretty much all the pods

within his 20-foot reach.

GRUNTING

NARRATOR: Just a few more up there.

GRUNTING

NARRATOR: But the patient matriarch

knows she can make the most of his impatience.

GRUNTS

NARRATOR: Pretty soon, he'll get frustrated enough

to shake things up a little.

GRUNTS

NARRATOR: At up to twice her weight,

he has the bulldozer-power

to dislodge all the pods he needs...

and more.

This welcome shower of pods

does more than whet their appetites.

It refuels the herd

for their commute to the next food stop

the matriarch has in mind.

GRUNTING

NARRATOR: Unlike other deserts...

the Namib's life-sustaining groundwaters

have made possible

the seemingly miraculous survival

of elephant families...

that pass down their wisdom

from generation to generation.

Beyond the dry riverbeds, with their hidden aquifers...

the Namib's western realm

rolls away to the horizon.

This scorched land may never see a drop of rain.

Braving the 120 degree furnace heat...

a yearling black-backed jackal.

Leaving family behind,

at her age,

she has to forge a new life.

Food here is scarce...

but she knows the far horizon

offers an unexpected promise of plenty.

After ten miles...

a breath of welcome sea breeze.

The Atlantic Ocean.

The desert stretches for a thousand miles

along Namibia's west coast.

Treacherous seas led early mariners

to name this place the Skeleton Coast.

But these storm-churned waters are fertile

and teem with fish...

making this desolate coastline a paradise

for up to a million cape fur seals...

SEALS BARKING

NARRATOR: ...in some of the largest colonies on the planet.

ROARS

NARRATOR: Drawing in hundreds of jackals from far and wide...

the pupping season offers her the chance

to found her independence

on the biggest feeding opportunity of the year.

SEALS CALLING

NARRATOR: So surely a jackal can just help itself?

SOFT BARKING

NARRATOR: But some of the pups already outweigh her...

SQUEALING

NARRATOR: They have teeth at one end.

BABY SEAL SQUEALING

MOTHER SEAL GRUNTS DEEPLY

GRUNTING

MOTHER BARKING

BABY SQUEALING

NARRATOR: And she can't risk tangling

with 250 pounds of angry mother.

Youngsters are just not experienced enough

to hunt on their own.

GROWLING FIERCELY

NARRATOR: Could she join a pack?

FIERCE GROWLING

SHRIEKING

WHIMPERING

ROARING

GROWLING

NARRATOR: This family is not about to share their kill.

She needs a different strategy.

Jackals are the ultimate scavengers...

a service that can help limit

the spread of disease.

CALLING SOFTLY

NARRATOR: Since as many as one in five seal pups

die of natural causes...

CALLING SOFTLY

NARRATOR: ...it's a trade-off between species.

CALLING SOFTLY

NARRATOR: Yearlings are feeding on carcasses...

and they're too hungry to care about hierarchy.

GROWLING

Now she can eat...

and slake her thirst.

GRUNTING

NARRATOR: But jackals are not at the top of the food chain.

This brown hyena

comes equipped with a jaw

that can crack bones.

JACKALS SQUEALING

NARRATOR: He takes any kill he wants.

HYENA GROWLS

NARRATOR: And she can't afford to be reckless.

HYENA GROWLS

JACKALS WHIMPER

NARRATOR: She may have lost her meal...

but she's found her place in the social order here...

and has proven she can make it on her own...

thanks to this annual offering

from ocean to desert.

But, by remarkable alchemy,

the chill waters of the Atlantic

have a more profound effect on life in this desert Eden.

Here, vital fresh water

is offered up to creatures far inland.

Rolling away from the sea for as much as 40 miles

and cresting 800 feet high...

the tallest dunes on the planet.

By the withering heat of day,

without a scrap of shade...

they're seemingly uninhabitable.

Yet, as night falls

and the Namib's temperatures

drop to a comfortable 50 degrees Fahrenheit...

they come alive...

to become the richest dune habitat on Earth.

The size of a ping-pong ball...

the desert rain frog.

To avoid frying to a crisp,

by day this amphibian hides deep in the sand...

But when the conditions are just right,

he emerges to feed.

Trudging up to 50 yards...

he calmly noses around for insects.

While a Namaqua Dwarf Adder...

primes itself for ambush.

This tiny snake

can only strike prey closer than four inches.

A parabuthus scorpion

uses hairlike feelers

to detect the tiniest movement.

And frogs are also on his menu.

The frog mustn't stir...

or he'll trigger a deadly attack from that stinging tail.

But waiting is what he's good at.

FROG GULPS

NARRATOR: At last!

A colony of termites

busily harvesting dune grass.

They're packed with protein and fat.

He'll force down up to 100 in a sitting.

But lingering can be dangerous.

It's just a harmless golden mole

snaffling his share of the termites.

Before he can go back into hiding,

the frog must hold his nerve

and wait until dawn draws near.

Only then will the desert give up

its most precious gift...

Coastal fog...

creeps up to 40 miles inland

over the dunes.

As it condenses on grass stems...

dew droplets wet the ground below.

Pressing his belly onto the damp sand,

this amphibian absorbs all the moisture he needs

through his skin...

before retreating

into the safety of his burrow once more.

For a few hours at dawn,

before the sun burns higher and hotter...

the dunes are bathed in the cool sea mist...

dousing this thirsty land

with twice as much water as rain...

for 100 or so days a year.

At least 48 different creatures

rely entirely on the fog,

many found nowhere else on Earth.

A headstand beetle hikes to the highest

and wettest point of the dune.

The equivalent of you or me climbing Mount Everest...

twice.

It tips hard-won dewdrops down its back...

and provides the mouthwatering meal

a Namaqua chameleon needs to survive here.

Incredibly, the Namib's fog

also offers life...

to giants.

Towering 19 feet high,

the tallest animal on the planet,

even a giraffe can get all the moisture it needs...

from fog-drenched leaves.

With the help of this most ethereal

of the Namib's water sources...

around 360 giraffes prosper

in one of Africa's most hostile regions.

In the past,

their numbers were managed...

by lions.

Our solitary female and her family

specialized in hunting

these 1.5 ton herbivores.

Old habits die hard.

But without backup,

she has no chance of taking one down.

Over the years, human persecution

not only took the lives of her pride...

but brought Namib's lions

to the very brink of extinction.

Now, with careful protection,

the population is stable

at around 150.

But today,

there's an even greater threat.

The latest data suggests the temperature here

has increased by almost three degrees.

The precious and unexpected water supplies

that sustain this place could dwindle and disappear.

From this ancient landscape

has sprung one of the most marvelous collections

of desert creatures on Earth.

With our help...

the ageless rhythm of life...

could prevail...

in this magical mirage

of an Eden.

NARRATOR: Filming over a period of a year,

the Eden team braved the hostile conditions

of the Namib desert.

It's very easy to get caught out here

and get completely cut off.

NARRATOR: They came here to capture ground-breaking behaviors...

from the small and rare....

the plentiful but wary...

Do I look utterly ridiculous?

NARRATOR: ...and the largest mammal on Earth.

The team's greatest challenge was to tell the intimate story

of how a family of desert elephants finds sustenance...

in an unforgiving landscape.

With only 150 inhabiting an area

of 50,000 square miles...

the first job is working out where to look.

So the crew team up

with wildlife field guide Paul Brehem,

who has been living and working in the Namib desert

for over 30 years.

Yeah, we've got fresh tracks here from the south.

You guys can turn and come back and help us, yeah?

MAN OVER WALKIE-TALKIE: Copy that. Coming back.

There's a huge amount of pressure to get enough food,

to get enough water in this area,

so the pressure's on them.

Their search takes them through

one of Africa's remotest regions.

Across the roughest of terrains.

But cameraman Louis Labrom

has come equipped with a specialist camera system

that's designed for just this sort of task.

LOUIS: This is a gyro-stabilized gimbal,

more commonly found on helicopters,

but in this instance we're using it

on a vehicle with this arm

that will take out most of the bumps, it's spring-loaded.

This really allows us to get

some intimate shots that otherwise we might miss.

NARRATOR: As Paul's team guides them

to the most likely area to find elephants...

a dried river bed...

a desert miracle unfolds.

There's a river in the desert. Quite bizarre.

It is really weird

to hear the sound of running water in the desert.

This is absolutely amazing.

NARRATOR: Then the last thing

you'd expect to happen in a desert...

Getting stuck in the mud!

We under-anticipated how deep this little patch was

and we need to dig ourselves out the back

in order to reverse out.

NARRATOR: As the water levels rise,

Louis is concerned about his precious camera.

Just can't get enough traction.

Just need to try and get out as quickly as possible.

ENGINE REVVING LOUDLY

Go, go, go! Yeah.

NARRATOR: At last their luck changes.

Fortunately, the appearance of water

has brought an elephant herd

right to the film crew.

LOUIS: A really lovely moment and it's really nice to see

elephants actually having life a little bit easier.

Yeah, it looks really happy.

NARRATOR: But In a matter of days, the river dries out.

For desert elephants, the quest

for food and water is endless.

Sometimes leading these intelligent mammals

to cash in on more reliable sources.

With increased human settlement and farming,

more and more bore holes are being sunk

to tap into the Namib's groundwater reserves...

drawing these thirsty giants into villages.

At times, this can cause conflict.

Efforts are underway to promote tolerance

and learn how best to live alongside

such an imposing neighbor.

HENDRICK: I've come to teach you about elephants.

HENDRICK: Education school children,

you are investing in the future.

When children are not having a lot of fear,

they are very easy to live with elephants

and they'll take care of them.

NARRATOR: Fortunately, the herd that resides

in the riverbed

has knowledge,

passed from generation

to generation,

that allows them to make the most

of what this desert has to offer.

And they lead the crew...

to a grove of Ana trees,

laden with protein-rich pods.

A welcome meal

for even the youngest members of the herd.

After four weeks of tireless tracking,

Louis finally gets the shots he needs.

LOUIS: Amazing to see someone so little being able to survive

in what seems like a really inhospitable place.

It's testament to their mother because obviously

the matriarchs know where the water is,

where the food is.

And so without them,

they would all pretty much just perish.

NARRATOR: And Hannah's reward

is a close encounter

with a curious mother elephant.

HANNAH: Gosh, that is a very close elephant.

Oh my word.

Hello.

Hello.

ELEPHANT RUMBLES

HANNAH: It's okay.

It's okay.

Wow!

That was amazing.

NARRATOR: This miracle Eden has existed in harmony

for millions of years.

Today, with fewer than 150

of these highly-specialized desert elephants

living in the Namib,

it's critical that this place

is kept safe from both human expansion

and the rigors of climate change.

The key is to protect the whole ecosystem

for all of the species that exist here.

And I think what's really important

is to start seeing places like these

as a World Heritage

for the entire planet,

to all the people in all the future generations,

this is really important to protect.