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AnimalsTranscript
00:10Transcription by ESO. Translation by —
00:16Of all the wonderful places in the world,
00:20one continent holds more riches than any other.
00:30It covers almost a third of the land on Earth.
00:36In the south stand vast forests.
00:47And to the north...
00:53...lies an immense frozen wilderness.
01:00Much of the center is dominated by deserts.
01:07And at its heart...
01:10...are the world's highest mountains.
01:20Off the coast of this continent...
01:23...stretch the richest seas on Earth.
01:29And that's not all.
01:31This is the most populous place on the planet.
01:38Here, animals live alongside humans...
01:41...in the most remarkable ways.
01:53If you think you've seen the best the natural world has to offer...
01:57...think again.
01:58There's nowhere else on Earth...
02:00...with so many untold stories.
02:03Welcome, then...
02:06...to Asia.
02:08Celebrity.
02:26As a way behind...
02:28HIV-A rescued a world's gallant...
02:28...to his...
02:30...Like a possível experience!
02:30I need to wait for...
02:34Tänk t, the comfort of fosse...
02:35...Dhood that's a sense oficked...
02:35But that, as you've said,
02:35we are black maniacsistoire really,
02:35...and, for Colossus...
02:35...he casi a bit of hell...
02:36...and, for parts of swollen lives...
02:43Asia is the largest continent on Earth.
02:48With a coastline over 100,000 miles long,
02:53it's surrounded by three oceans and 21 seas.
03:03Its waters stretch from Arabia through the Indian Ocean
03:08and Southeast Asia to the edge of the Pacific.
03:20Connected by some of the world's most powerful currents,
03:25these seas are the richest on the planet.
03:44And the animals in Asia's oceans
03:47are as spectacular as they are diverse.
04:10In the warm waters of the Western Pacific lives a dramatic little fish with pouting lips and dazzling stripes.
04:23The flamboyant Moorish idol.
04:32This one is looking for a partner.
04:38Moorish idols normally breed in pairs.
04:46But here they do something that no others of their species do.
04:56They congregate in huge numbers,
05:01before swimming away from the reef to spawn.
05:14But so many fish attract attention.
05:34The gray reef shark.
05:40And it's not alone.
05:48With so many hiding places,
05:50there is safety on the reef.
05:55But they must get out past the sharks.
06:23Finally, they make a break for it.
06:33Now in open water, they can swim into the blue.
06:46But they've been spotted.
06:59A few sharks can be avoided.
07:02A few sharks can be avoided.
07:23To have any chance of survival,
07:26they must stay in a tight group.
07:31The sharks try to split them up.
07:35And pick them off.
07:38The sharks can be eaten.
07:39The sharks can be eaten.
07:58The sharks can be eaten.
08:17After two hours of chasing, only the strongest are left.
08:35The few survivors swim in tight spirals, desperate to avoid capture.
08:56The sharks, tired and full, one by one, abandon the chase.
09:17Until only the luckiest and fittest Moorish idols survive.
09:30No one knows exactly where they spawn, but the developing young are carried away to safety
09:40by the currents.
09:51From the Western Pacific comes one of the most powerful currents in the world.
09:58The Indonesian through-flow.
10:04It sweeps between Borneo and Sulawesi and into the Flores Sea, where it hits Indonesia's
10:13Lesser Sunda Islands.
10:23Here, water is forced between the islands at a rate of 15 billion litres a second.
10:41And this produces some of the world's most intense currents and whirlpools.
11:11Off the island of Komodo, the water is funnelled into fast-flowing torrents, which constantly
11:18will concentrate the plankton it carries.
11:26Providing food for giants.
11:34Manta rays.
11:38Manta rays.
11:42With a wingspan of up to five metres, these mantas exploit the powerful currents.
11:53They feed by filtering plankton from the water.
12:06Such a feast makes this an excellent place to produce young.
12:11Manta rays.
12:12Manta rays.
12:28Manta rays.
12:30Manta rays.
12:30Manta rays.
12:30Manta rays.
12:30When the adults need a break, they head off for a bit of pampering.
12:41Out of the main flow are cleaning stations, staffed by hundreds of butterfly fish.
12:53The cleaners remove parasites and dead skin and get a meal in exchange for their services.
13:06And the mantas get a welcome break from the ripping currents.
13:15Refreshed, they can go back to feeding.
13:21As the Indonesian through-flow continues, one branch flows past Bali to Java and some
13:33of the richest coastal forests on Earth.
13:46Mangroves.
13:56These are places where nothing is as you might expect.
14:04Trees grow in the sea, and fish live on land.
14:17A dusky-gilled mudskipper.
14:23Only five centimetres long, but a master of these swamps.
14:33As long as they can stay wet, they can absorb oxygen from the air.
14:38And they spend most of their life out of water.
14:46Joints in their pectoral fins enable them to walk.
14:52And they can leap with a flick of their tail.
14:58This one is seeking a mate with whom to start a family.
15:04But first, he needs to dig a breeding burrow.
15:25Mudskippers will shift up to 300 times their body weight in mud.
15:30One mouthful at a time.
15:37Tiring work.
15:51With the dirty job done, it's time to find a female.
16:01But the mangroves are full of obstacles.
16:09A special set of grasping belly fins, however, enables skippers to become climbers.
16:25And when there is a dead end...
16:33A mudskipper simply skips across the water's surface a metre at a time.
16:51What's this?
16:55An open arena...
17:01full of females.
17:09Excellent.
17:14But there are also other males here looking for partners.
17:27To win a female, they must duel.
17:36But no one is backing down.
18:02And the opponent beats a hasty retreat.
18:13And it looks like this male has caught someone's eye.
18:32A quick wave should seal the deal.
18:42It's a date.
18:48They head back to his place.
18:52Ready to start a family of their own.
19:10Mango forests are essential for the survival of Asia's mudskippers.
19:17And trap four times more carbon than forests growing on dry land.
19:27Today, Southeast Asia holds a third of what is left of these precious forests.
19:34Adding clean, fresh water to the Indonesian throughflow as it travels.
19:47Sweeping away from Indonesia, the current heads west across the vast Indian Ocean.
20:00Carrying with it a whole host of drifters.
20:18And some objects provide entertainment for one of Asia's giants.
20:34A baby sperm whale plays with a mangrove seed.
20:39So, practicing his coordination.
20:46He produces pulses of high frequency sound from his large head.
20:51Sonar that will eventually enable him to locate prey in the black depths.
20:58And zeroing in on a tiny seed is great practice for doing so.
21:14When you're as big as this, grabbing something the size of a pencil is not easy.
21:23With play over, it's time to get back to the family.
21:33The grown-ups are taking a nap.
21:38It's thought that the reason they sleep upright is to make it easy to bob up the air.
21:55The calf is keen to join in.
22:00But it's not as easy as it looks.
22:13Staying vertical takes practice.
22:23And when you get the hang of that...
22:28The next challenge is buoyancy.
22:40Holding just the right amount of breath is an art.
22:53Too little...
22:55And you sink.
23:05The adults tenderly correct his mistakes.
23:10He still has a lot to learn.
23:16In his 70-year lifespan, he will explore much of the Indian Ocean.
23:30From here, the Indonesian through-flow continues west.
23:37But a very different kind of traffic is moving northwards.
23:48Shipping.
23:53Major international cargo lanes run from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, which divides Asia from Africa.
24:06At its northern end is the Suez Canal.
24:18One-third of the world's container freight travels along it and emerges into the Mediterranean.
24:28One of the planet's most polluted seas.
24:31One-third of the world's most polluted seas.
24:42Here, on Asia's westernmost coastline, this Israeli power station discharges water ten degrees hotter than the surrounding sea.
25:01Astonishingly, this has become a refuge for one of the most vulnerable of species.
25:06Musik
25:10Asian
25:10Surmount essas
25:27Astonishingly, this is about 123-20 emissary.
25:36come here in winter.
25:45And each one of them
25:48is pregnant.
25:52It's thought the warmth speeds up the development of their unborn young.
26:20This power station has created a shark sanctuary by accident.
26:26But elsewhere in Asia, deliberate steps are being taken to protect marine life.
26:38Over 5,000 miles away, on the other side of the continent,
26:45life is booming in the unlikeliest of places.
27:00The tiny island of Tulene in Far Eastern Russia.
27:15A disused hunting settlement.
27:24Here, enormous numbers of fur seals were once killed annually for their skins.
27:35But hunting restrictions have produced a spectacular recovery.
27:43Over 100,000 northern fur seals now come here each summer.
27:49It's one of the largest colonies in the world.
28:03The beaches are jam-packed.
28:07The beaches are jam-packed.
28:20They can't compete for space.
28:29It's dangerous for the tiny pups.
28:32Which weigh just a 50th of the adult bulls.
28:41The aggressive males are only focused on the next challenge
28:51When fights break out, the pups are ignored
29:25The aggressive males are only focused on the next challenge
29:56In the aftermath, many pups lie injured.
30:19Life on the beach is full of danger, but it's no safer in the sea.
30:40Orca.
30:47Fur seals returning from fishing must run the gauntlet.
31:00But these orca are specialists, ramming and tail slapping to stun their prey.
31:25And when their victim has been disabled, they drown it.
31:51Many pups are left as orphans.
32:00But enough will survive to support this now healthy population of northern fur seals.
32:13This richness in Asia's shallow seas can also be found in some of its deepest waters.
32:33Every night, billions of creatures travel up from the abyss.
32:39It's the largest regular movement of life on the planet.
32:53Strange life forms come up to feed in the surface waters.
33:03Among them, jelly-like salps, which have tiny crustaceans living inside their bodies.
33:19As dawn arrives, they return to the safety of the deep.
33:29But some creatures gathering in the sea of Japan are about to embark on a one-way trip out of
33:37the depths, never to return.
33:46Far-fly squid.
33:51They live for just 12 months.
33:59It's thought that they use their blue bioluminescent lights to confuse predators.
34:06And their green lights to communicate with one another.
34:11No other deep-sea animal can see green.
34:14It's the squid's own secret code.
34:21Some quarter of a billion females are heading to the surface.
34:41In the shallows, they lay thousands of eggs in strings.
34:47The final act of their short lives.
35:03With this done, their bodies are programmed to die.
35:18Here, on the north coast of Japan, they wash up on the beaches of Toyama Bay.
35:37mism Seth Daman.
35:40Now his face will make it possible to be the same on any beautiful coastalokes.
35:55The lights fade as life drifts away.
36:06Their eggs, however,
36:10are beginning to hatch.
36:23Sinking into the vast darkness of the deep sea,
36:26they won't return to shallow water for a year,
36:30when it will be their turn to lay eggs and then die.
36:422,000 miles south in the western Pacific
36:46lie wide expanses of shallow seas
36:50around the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
36:58The so-called Coral Triangle.
37:18Here, there are more abundant coral reefs than anywhere else.
37:25It's the richest concentration of marine life on the planet.
37:36Three quarters of the world's coral species are found here.
37:43And over 3,000 species of fish.
37:49It's every bit as diverse as the Amazon rainforest.
37:58Coral reefs truly are the ocean's bustling cities.
38:06Many residents have evolved ingenious ways
38:09of solving the problems of living in such close quarters.
38:17But some appear to be completely defenseless.
38:31meet the sea bunny.
38:37Just a few centimetres long,
38:39this tiny sea slug has no shell for protection.
38:47No eyes to spot danger.
38:50No eyes to spot danger.
38:54And travels
38:56at a snail's pace.
39:03It's looking for food.
39:09What appear to be its ears are, in fact,
39:13finely-tuned chemical sensors
39:16that enable it to smell its way to its next meal.
39:33But on the reef,
39:36predators are everywhere.
39:43When you can't see,
39:47it can be hard to avoid trouble.
39:55Alien-like beasts patrol the nooks and crannies of the reef.
40:06Alien-like beasts patrol the nooks and crannies of the reef.
40:25This one filters its food from the water
40:30and is no threat to the sea bunny.
40:36But not everything here is quite so harmless.
40:42The mooray eel.
40:45Powerful and fast.
40:50But apparently not keen on a slug for dinner.
41:03A scorpion fish.
41:05One of the reef's most deadly inhabitants.
41:11Extravagantly camouflaged,
41:12it waits for prey to come close.
41:22Then swallows them whole.
41:41That the sea bunny just walks all over him.
41:54And now it's headed straight for a deadly poisonous blue sponge.
42:03Blind and hungry,
42:04it's about to take a bite.
42:15It seems that its luck has finally run out.
42:23But no,
42:24this is actually its favorite food.
42:28It's immune to the poison.
42:31And by eating the sponge,
42:34the sea bunny has made itself toxic to predators.
42:40No wonder it's untouchable.
42:46As long as it can maintain its blue sponge diet,
42:50the sea bunny will be protected
42:52against the dangers of the reef.
43:01With so many complex survival strategies,
43:06life for predators on the Coral Triangle
43:09can require complex tactics.
43:20This snake,
43:22a black-banded sea crate,
43:24has venom ten times stronger than a cobra.
43:33A forked tongue
43:35that enables it to sniff out prey under water.
43:41And a flexible body
43:43so it can squeeze into crevices on the reef
43:45to look for prey.
43:48A formidable killer,
43:50it would seem.
43:57It would seem.
43:58Yet hunting fast prey
43:59is not one of its abilities.
44:05It's slow,
44:06with poor eyesight.
44:08Hardly the deadliest of assassins.
44:14If only it were fast and agile.
44:19Like these bluefin truvalli.
44:29They rely on sheer speed
44:31to catch their prey.
44:44Unlike the snake,
44:45they're too big
44:46to get between the arms of the coral.
44:53But these two struggling species
44:55have found a solution.
45:05They work as a team.
45:09They work as a team.
45:21They're too big.
45:22The truvalli leads.
45:27Indicating places
45:29where prey could be hiding.
45:36Which the snake
45:37then investigates.
45:38investigates.
45:50As they roam the reef, they're joined by more trevally.
45:59And more snakes.
46:10Soon, they are an army.
46:27The trevally find a target.
46:35The snakes head in.
46:40And the trevally cover the escape routes.
46:51There's nowhere left to hide.
47:02The trevally catch the fish that are flushed out.
47:11And the snake eats anything left inside.
47:29Each species benefits from the partnership.
47:37The hunts are so successful that they attract hundreds of trevally and snakes.
48:03This behaviour is extremely rare and has only been seen in Asia's Coral Triangle.
48:12Innovation and teamwork are critical to success in these competitive waters.
48:30These relationships and strategies developed over millennia are a consequence of the extraordinary richness of Asia's seas.
48:44And whilst our influence is now not far away, Asia's oceans still remain a world of wonder, offering spectacles not
48:54found anywhere else on Earth.
49:13The Asia team explored many of the continent's 21 seas.
49:21They spent thousands of hours underwater, filming the spectacular diversity of life.
49:39But their biggest challenge was getting up close with some of the most powerful currents on Earth.
49:49The Indonesian flue flow carries ten times more water than all the world's rivers combined.
50:05The tide has to make its way from the Pacific to the Indian, and that's a huge amount of water.
50:12And as it does that, it gets squeezed through these islands, which creates intense currents, but also brings an incredible
50:18amount of life.
50:22The team want to capture this immense power up close.
50:27But the fast currents are making filming difficult.
50:34For their first attempt, they use a pole-mounted camera.
50:45But getting the boat into position is almost impossible.
50:51We're fighting a loser battle.
50:52Yeah, we'll drop it.
50:54Let's go back to the main boat.
50:56David thinks he has a solution.
50:58David thinks he has a solution, but it's radical.
51:01He's going to get in the water himself using a floating camera rig to film inside the vortex.
51:10We'll see the swirling water, literally the opening of the funnel of the whirlpool.
51:15That's what I want, it's like the epic shot.
51:19If the shot works, it's going to be amazing.
51:22It's going to really tell the story of the currents nicely.
51:27So, I think what we have to do is put David up current initially, but closest into the island to
51:33get those swirls as you come past.
51:35What's the normal advice for divers here?
51:37Normally, we'll actually jump right next to the island where there's no current.
51:40They stay out of the current entirely, which is the opposite to what you're going to be doing.
51:45OK, yeah.
51:46This challenge is unlike anything David has faced in 30 years of filmmaking.
51:52I'm going to add two life jackets to the camera rig.
51:57And, you know, if I start to get sucked down, I'm going to just hang on to that.
52:06The key to staying safe will be buoyancy.
52:09Yeah, I don't know if I can get this third one on.
52:11Three life jackets should resist the pull of the whirlpools.
52:15Not that bad.
52:18What do you think? Money?
52:20Yeah.
52:22The team decide to dive on the rising tide when the currents are weaker.
52:32I think I'm plenty floating.
52:36David's home-made protection is holding up well.
52:47The current is running fast, but the whirlpools aren't forming.
52:53David, nothing.
52:55Nothing at all.
52:55Nothing at all.
52:56Like, I feel the current, and I, like, I don't see any, like, whirlpools, bubble,
53:02hardly anything in the water.
53:04You're picking up.
53:06Yeah.
53:09It seems that if David is to get his shots,
53:15he'll have to brave the much faster falling tide.
53:29Preparation will be key to success.
53:41The whirlpools only last a few seconds, so to get in the right position,
53:46the team needs eyes in the sky.
53:52Drones in the air.
53:54Okay, copy, copy.
53:55What do you guys see?
53:56The current looks strong on that eastern edge of the island.
53:59If you can spot good places where the whirlpools are cropping up.
54:06Mark, mark, the swirls forming on the edge you're at.
54:10Right, thanks, mate.
54:11Here we are.
54:11Look, we've got some, definitely some forming here.
54:16David must get to the whirlpools before they dissipate.
54:22This a good spot?
54:23Yeah.
54:24Yeah, I caught it right here.
54:25Okay, clear to go.
54:35Gonna get sucked in pretty quickly.
54:39Behind me.
54:40Behind me, David.
54:44Mark is ready with a throwing rope in case of trouble.
54:54You okay?
54:57Come on.
54:58You on the rope?
55:02He's okay.
55:03He wants to carry on.
55:06David's commitment is paying off.
55:11He's starting to get the shots.
55:27But the whirlpools are growing stronger.
55:38Whoo!
55:40That is putting him right in the whirlpools there.
55:48He's getting sucked in.
55:57All he can do now is hang on.
56:03Okay, can we get closer to David?
56:09Whoa.
56:10At last, the whirlpool splits him out.
56:18David, you okay?
56:20Yeah.
56:22It's hairy.
56:24It's not doing anything for my nerves, let alone David's.
56:28It's time to get back into the safety of the boat.
56:32Okay?
56:33Yeah.
56:33Yeah.
56:34It had me.
56:35Like, I could feel myself...
56:37Like that.
56:38But I had enough.
56:39I kind of kept my hands on the camera.
56:41Yeah.
56:42I didn't even see it coming.
56:42Suddenly, I was just like...
56:44Yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:46Oh, good whirlpool, huh?
56:48David's plan has succeeded.
56:51Yeah.
56:52He's faced Asia's ripping whirlpools and captured their fierce beauty as never before.
57:25Oh, no, no.
57:28The family continues having short dances as will break the fisherIES before and me.
57:29Oh, no, no.
57:30Yeah, yeah.
57:34It's like even over 500 meters before he passed away.
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