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00:05Every animal on Earth is on the same journey through life.
00:09Their goal is to leave offspring,
00:12but they must overcome great challenges on the way.
00:19The Life Story team wanted to capture these critical moments
00:24in unprecedented detail.
00:27They travelled to six continents and 26 countries,
00:31a distance equal to circling the globe 74 times.
00:37They spent 48 days at sea.
00:42They drove where there were roads and where there weren't.
00:49It's definitely the most remote location I've ever walked to.
00:54They spent nearly 2,000 days in some of the planet's wildest places.
01:05They found new ways to get close to their subjects.
01:09Sometimes their subjects got too close to them.
01:13Dear.
01:21We could tip this car over without even thinking about it.
01:24How should we get rid of all of these termites?
01:28I mean, that is serious.
01:29The team's global quest took four years.
01:33This is the story of six of their most challenging missions.
01:40The roof is already cracking up.
01:42I don't know what we're going to do.
01:43We're here for another seven weeks.
01:45I don't know what we're going to do.
01:55I don't know what we're going to do.
01:56Barnacle geese in Greenland face one of the most extraordinary trials
02:00that any animal goes through at the start of its life.
02:04The newly hatched goslings leap 150 metres
02:08to reach the grounds so that they can find food.
02:12No one has visited this remote landscape
02:15or witnessed the goslings' behaviour for 30 years.
02:19This will be not just an adventure into the unknown,
02:23but also an emotional experience for the crew.
02:26Producer Tom Hugh Jones
02:28and cameraman Matteo Willis and Mark Payne-Gill.
02:32He'll probably come out to that point.
02:33He'll tell us what's going on from above.
02:41They can only convey the scale of what these tiny animals must go through
02:46by showing it from their perspective.
02:52Wow.
02:53I'm not one for vertigo, but I just can't imagine what a chick would feel like having to do this.
02:59We're not going to have much time once they jump, eh?
03:02No. A lot of waiting and then suddenly it all happens.
03:04It's just that moment, isn't it?
03:05You've got 20 seconds to get everything.
03:07The team didn't even know if the geese still nest here.
03:11But Tom soon has good news.
03:14Yeah, copy Tom, over.
03:15She's still breeding the eggs, so we're here in plenty of time, which is good.
03:19The team has some time on its hands to prepare for the big moment.
03:36Three, two, one, go.
03:41Tom helps Mark to get his eye in.
03:44I don't think the chick will be quite the same.
03:50Tom checks on the nests every few hours.
03:54All the mothers are still on the nest, but no signs of chicks.
03:58We just have to sit and wait, which is what we do.
04:02Over.
04:07The only thing that seems to be hatching around here are mosquitoes.
04:13Have you got mozzly repart?
04:15I haven't, no.
04:17Sorry, I just swallowed a ton of mosquitoes.
04:21But it's the birds that are constantly on their minds.
04:25I dreamt about ducks last night.
04:27Ducks?
04:28Oh, so you had a dream about birds as well?
04:30Yeah, Mark dreamt about chicks.
04:37The wait is over.
04:38I've just spied our first chick.
04:45These chicks may jump any time.
04:49Where are the chicks?
04:51Mateo concentrates on trying to film the leaps.
04:56While Mark focuses on the front of the cliff for the fall.
05:01Their nest is just there above my fingertip.
05:03They've got to go down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
05:06until they hit the scree slope below.
05:08That's an incredible fall for anything, let alone a gosling.
05:15It's almost 48 hours since the chicks hatched.
05:18So they're really getting to the limit of how long they can go
05:22before they start getting too hungry.
05:25So we should be on for a big jump.
05:31I just saw the female.
05:35Come on, what are you going to do?
05:37Female is pointing towards the backside of the rock now.
05:41No, no, no, not the backside.
05:43I guess they're going to follow her.
05:44Come on.
05:45He comes forward again.
05:50Come on, mother, dad.
05:52I can't see the chick now. Where's the dad?
05:55They might be about to go.
06:00There it goes, there it goes, there it goes, there it goes.
06:03All the way down, all the way down. Wow.
06:07Okay, I didn't see that.
06:08It was hidden from my view.
06:10Did you see the last one jump, Matteo?
06:13I see it until it was flying through the air,
06:15and then I didn't catch it.
06:18Okay, got the chick, got the chick, got the chick.
06:27That was a shock for it.
06:29He survived.
06:34All the chicks jumped where the cliff obscured Mark and Matteo's view.
06:47What happens next comes as a shock.
06:52The fox's coming up the stream. He's now about to follow the fox.
07:05Oh, did you see that?
07:17Oh, it's heartbreaking.
07:21I know. I know. I think it's got them all.
07:27It's really sad.
07:32There's nothing he can do.
07:34The fox has its own young to feed.
07:38Life in this barren landscape is desperately tough for all its inhabitants.
07:46The team has to move on and try to film another nest.
07:55I'm going to head up around here and try and find a good position.
08:08So, this nest here is our last great hope.
08:12Probably the only remaining one that we can get a good viewpoint on.
08:20The parents appear eager for their chicks to go.
08:23Sound by, Mark.
08:25It looks like it's going to jump.
08:28By the male stick.
08:32Come on.
08:37Oh, where are you going to go?
08:40Here it goes.
08:41Here it goes.
08:42Here it goes.
08:42Chicks going.
08:49Wow.
08:51Oh my goodness.
08:53Here it comes.
08:57Wow.
09:03They're all falling exactly the same way. All at once.
09:07Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
09:19Chicks are tumbling down.
09:21Can you see it?
09:24Tumble, tumble.
09:26Whoa.
09:28Down the scree slope.
09:31Crikey.
09:36How many chicks can you see?
09:40I count three.
09:43No visual yet on any foxes.
09:47So far, so good.
09:49And they seem to be moving through.
09:58The team is able to film the family all the way down to the river and safety.
10:06I mean, think how far they've had to come.
10:09This is only, what, their third day in the world?
10:11Yeah.
10:12It's just great to see them doing what they should be doing now.
10:21An arctic fox was an unwelcome intruder on an extraordinary event.
10:26Yet in winter, it must itself do something remarkable to survive.
10:33Small, white and capable of travelling 80 kilometres a day,
10:37the foxes lead director Sophie Lanphier on an arctic odyssey.
10:42You might cut in quite nicely with some of the big jumps.
10:45You have big jumps and you cut into a tight shot.
10:47Sophie is on a mission to capture behaviour never filmed before.
10:51Arctic foxes snow diving for lemmings.
11:01Accompanying her in Sweden is cameraman Rolf Steinmann.
11:12Just spotting the foxes proves hard enough.
11:15And it's soon clear that getting close to them is going to demand all of Rolf's patience and resilience.
11:37Today, we found a den here, and after 13 hours of waiting, the arctic fox finally came out.
11:45He's sitting there right now and taking a sun bath.
11:48So, fingers crossed, this individual gets used to us and he lets us see how he can survive out here.
11:56After a week, the outlook seems good.
12:00But fortunes can change suddenly in the arctic.
12:20With such bad conditions, the team consider abandoning the chute.
12:25I should have probably gone an hour ago.
12:30I don't know if it's safe to drive in this.
12:35Sophie and Rolf have no choice but to sit it out.
12:53With filming out of the question, all they could do is stay warm.
13:09Although the weather eventually clears, there's precious little time left for filming.
13:18Well, I hope you know how many bags we've got.
13:31Finally, Rolf is able to film again.
13:36But the foxes are proving hard to predict.
13:40At one point, he walked out of the frame and I tried to frame up so that it comes into
13:44frame.
13:45And suddenly, it jumps.
13:49I mean, I didn't even think that there's a big fat lemming just sitting in the landscape and waiting to
13:55be eaten.
13:57It was the last chance to film a hunt.
14:00Their time is up.
14:02I mean, that lemming must have been either already dead or it was really stupid or it was...
14:10This shoot may be over, but Sophie and Rolf won't give up yet.
14:16Halfway across the world, another team also wants to capture new behavior.
14:21Chimps making spears to hunt.
14:27Their challenge will not be finding the chimps, but winning their trust.
14:39For director Emma Napper, the chance to meet these chimps has been a long time coming.
14:45We first heard about this site about nine months ago.
14:49So I know the chimps' names.
14:50I've seen little videos of them.
14:52I've seen pictures of them.
14:54And I've just now got to wait until it's light and I'll be able to see them.
14:58It's really...
14:59I can hear them in the trees. It's really cool.
15:05Field researcher Michelle Sadaku has been tracking the chimps for the last four years.
15:16Oh, my God, they're so loud.
15:18But for Emma and cameraman Richard Jones, this is the first time they've been so close to wild chimpanzees.
15:38These first encounters can be risky.
15:42Humans and chimps are so closely related that the crew could introduce disease into the troop.
15:53There's a group about ten metres away from us in the tree.
15:58Which is why we've got to wear the face masks.
16:04There are 30 chimps in the troop.
16:14Michel can not only recognise and name them, but he knows their histories and social status too.
16:25Making sense of this chaotic family is going to be key to the success of the shoot.
16:33And that means winning the troops' trust.
16:44Researcher Jill Preetz has been studying the troop for ten years.
16:49And she knows that the key to earning their trust is adopting the right etiquette.
16:56It's not like with gorillas either, where you can't look them in the eye or anything like that.
17:00Yeah, really.
17:00It's basically the same way you would look at a person.
17:03If you look too hard at a person, it's going to be rude. The same with the chimps.
17:08Over the next few weeks, the crew has to track the troop all over the forest.
17:14This means gruelling 18-hour days in temperatures above 40 degrees centigrade.
17:21The chimps are a volatile bunch, always squabbling among themselves.
17:29Emma starts to pick out some of the characters.
17:33It looks like a lot of teenage boys are used to know.
17:36And they haven't been too.
17:41A young male called Dawson particularly catches the crew's attention.
17:46We've decided to follow Dawson because he's at an interesting point in his life because he is junior amongst the
17:54males here.
17:56So he's really trying to fight to get the respect of the other males and to climb the hierarchy.
18:02By concentrating on Dawson, the crew may be able to film a much richer story than they had expected.
18:14It's the low-ranking chimps like Dawson that use spears to hunt.
18:20It's such an unusual behavior that many researchers couldn't believe it was true when Jill first reported it.
18:29Capturing it on film would be a real coup for the team.
18:40The crew have spent nearly 300 hours in the forest and covered hundreds of miles before the more dominant chimps
18:47accept them.
18:58But to gain the acceptance of the Shire chimps will take more time.
19:02And Emma is starting to get to grips with the family.
19:07When we first came here, Michelle was saying,
19:10Tumbo, that's the one with the big ears.
19:13David, that's the one that's really black.
19:15And you're sitting there thinking,
19:18Oh, the black chimp with the big ears.
19:20Well, they've all got big ears.
19:22They're all black.
19:24But a couple of weeks later, it's different.
19:26You can really see the differences.
19:28They act different. They look different.
19:30It's just a matter of getting to know them.
19:35Finally, Dawson walks directly towards the crew, a sign of trust at last.
19:42It's a critical breakthrough.
19:45Now the crew must wait.
19:48The chimps hunt for just a short period after the first rains arrive.
19:52And this landscape is in the depths of a drought.
20:02A year after a failed first attempt to film Arctic foxes hunting in Sweden,
20:08Sophie and Rolf are back in the Arctic, but this time in Canada.
20:12It's a location almost guaranteed to provide close encounters with white foxes.
20:20So it's quite a surprise that the first fox they see is the wrong colour.
20:26It's the first year in 30 years that red foxes have come around this area to stay so early in
20:33the winter.
20:34I mean, it's not their natural habitat. They shouldn't be here.
20:37And they're probably the reason why the Arctic foxes aren't coming in.
20:41These red foxes are bigger and stronger than Arctic foxes and they can push them out of the area.
20:49And we experience it here in a very painful way.
20:55Five weeks pass, but no white foxes.
20:59Instead, the number of red foxes just grows and grows, as does their boldness.
21:13For all Sophie and Rolf's determination, this is a second failure.
21:20This is some kind of official game over.
21:34After six weeks, the wet season is finally arriving in Senegal.
21:48The only time Michelle has ever seen the chimps hunting is immediately after a downpour.
22:02The chimps' mood changes with the rain. They seem more serious and focused. It's a good sign.
22:23With the noise and the rain, it's hard to keep up, but it's vital that the crew stick close to
22:28Dawson.
22:41As the rain subsides, the chimps behave in a way the crew have not seen before.
22:49The youngsters probe inside hollow trees with sticks.
22:54Then suddenly Lupin starts to make a full-size spear.
23:00Dawson watches from the sidelines.
23:08It's a remarkable moment.
23:12That's what we were hoping for.
23:14But it looks more deliberate than I could have ever imagined.
23:23It's absolutely amazing.
23:30Being able to capture this behaviour is the result of a decade of study by Jill and her team,
23:37and by the crew spending over 700 hours tracking the troop.
23:42Yet the hunt lasted just three minutes.
23:46It's hardly surprising only a handful of people have ever witnessed this before.
23:52When I still see it, I get really excited. You know, I still like that.
23:57That newness of it hasn't worn off, that's for sure.
24:04Emma and Richard have captured a unique demonstration of tool making.
24:08But the Life Story team was surprised to discover that nature's master craftsman lives under the sea in a bay
24:17off Japan.
24:18To film it in action, the team will have to become tool makers themselves.
24:23This is a puffer fish, and it creates an extraordinary structure out of sand to attract a mate.
24:32So, how do you film a tiny fish 13 metres under the sea?
24:43Specialist underwater cameraman Hugh Miller's solution is to build a film studio on the seabed.
24:50This is a quad pod. It's a bit like a tripod, but it's got four legs and lets us get
24:57the camera very, very low to the seabed.
24:59This metal triangle is going to be the point light rig.
25:05So, it's like a little ray of sunshine down on the bottom of the sea.
25:09But this is the first time it's been used, and we're going to find out if it works or not.
25:15Hugh has also designed an underwater crane to reveal the full complexity of the nest structure.
25:22But however good the equipment, the team will still have to find the 12-centimetre-long fish in a big
25:30bay.
25:32For that, they turn to the expert.
25:3670-year-old Yoji Okata first discovered the mysterious crop circles and the puffer fish that makes them.
25:48He and his dive buddy, Toyo, are going to search several square miles of seabed, hoping to locate a fish.
26:02Fish is very difficult almost. Camouflage very well, like almost sandy, so just I can see shadow or just ice,
26:12so it's very difficult.
26:14But eventually, Toyo and Yoji have good news.
26:18They've found what turns out to be the only male fish in the bay.
26:2212 metres, yeah.
26:24They've even drawn a map for Hugh to find it.
26:28If I get lost, I'll be holding this.
26:34Time to build the studio.
26:56All the kit is taken to the seabed to be carefully assembled.
27:01The last thing in place is Hugh's little ray of sunshine.
27:15The fish won't start building a new nest for several days, so there's time to test his reaction to the
27:22kit while he fans his eggs on his old, disintegrating nest.
27:29He's certainly not camera shy.
27:33And now Hugh's had his first good look at the fish.
27:42The biggest surprise was that the fish is a little bit smaller than I first hoped.
27:47In fact, he's only, well, he's really only about this big.
27:50So to suddenly be faced with a fish that's probably half the size of what I was hoping, I thought,
27:55well, this is going to be a little bit harder than I first thought.
27:59Yoji and Toyo keep watch, and it's not long before they spot the fish starting to construct a new nest,
28:06which Yoji expects will take him seven days to complete.
28:13He surprises everyone by finishing it in three.
28:20Yoji warns the crew to be ready at dawn the next day for a visit from a female fish.
28:29They spend three hours crouched over the camera to film the action as it unfolds, just as Yoji predicted.
28:44So what happened?
28:46Spawning!
28:48We got it. The little chap was doing very well for himself.
28:53But the male built his nest so fast that Hugh never had time to film a top-down shot for
29:00the ultimate reveal of his hard work.
29:03This requires the crew to become builders too.
29:07They build an A-frame to hold the camera perfectly steady well above the nest.
29:22They build an A-frame.
29:25They build an A-frame.
29:26They build an A-frame.
29:29Yoji and Toyo position the frame near to the old nest.
29:39Now the crew just have to wait for the fish to finish tending his eggs and resume building.
29:50But a few days later, there's bad news.
29:54We've been watching our typhoon system faster than the south of us for a number of days.
29:58We haven't really felt its effects until now.
30:00And today was going to be the first day of Hufferfish beginning its next cycle of nest building.
30:07And it's been completely blown.
30:12So rather than going in with the cameras and starting the new cycle,
30:17we're actually going in just to recover equipment, which is a real shame.
30:20We don't know what's going to happen next, really.
30:36It's five days before the storm blows through.
30:40Finally, the sea calms down and the visibility returns.
30:49But for Yoji and Toyo, it's back to square one.
30:52They must find the fish all over again.
30:55Day after day, they search and Toyo, acting as interpreter, reports back.
31:00Hmm, no nest, no male.
31:08The news gets slightly better.
31:11We find the fish, just one fish, but no nest.
31:19We find the male at the 20 metre deep sea, but not make several.
31:28The storm has put the fish off his construction work.
31:34Time it up and the team reluctantly start to dismantle the underwater studio.
31:41But the fish has one more surprise in store.
31:44I just couldn't come at a later point, the last dive, where we're going to pull out the kids.
31:52And there's a male making a nest.
31:59One final chance to get the perfect top shot from the A-frame.
32:24A shot that truly does justice to the fish's extraordinary artistry.
32:38Finding their animal subjects was a constant problem for the crews.
32:43When the Life Story team heard of a pack of hunting dogs on the open plains of Zambia,
32:48it seemed that this might just be a straightforward shoot.
32:53But director Emma Knapper and cameraman Jamie McPherson soon find that nature is rarely so simple.
33:01The park is 3,400 square kilometres, and the dogs can move over 50 kilometres a day.
33:09But if the team can somehow keep up with the dogs, they could film something few people have ever witnessed.
33:16A complete hunt.
33:20Scientists have radio-collared one of the pack, which ought to make finding them easier.
33:38It's not quite the start the crew was hoping for.
33:43God, that was quick.
33:46The dogs disappear into the grass.
33:49Once they've started running, they go as fast as we could go.
33:53And when we go to that speed, we risk damaging the car and ourselves quite badly.
33:57So, we just need more of a head start than we had this morning.
34:03And more jet packs.
34:06Over the following days, it becomes clear that chasing after the dogs isn't the way forward.
34:12Perhaps trying to get ahead of them during a hunt is a better option.
34:16But that brings its own problems.
34:18It's quite tricky in that trying to be there when they actually catch it is incredibly difficult.
34:26Even when it's completely flat and open like this, you still don't know which way they're going to go.
34:32Whenever a chase takes the dogs out of transmitter range, the crew must spend hours tracking them down again.
34:43Today, they finally catch up with them at a waterhole, and Jamie gets to see a softer side to the
34:50pack.
34:57With full stomachs, it's unlikely they will hunt again today.
35:06But there are other animals here that haven't fed yet.
35:11Yet.
35:18And hyenas are always on the lookout for an easy meal.
35:33Hopefully, it's just inquisitive.
35:35It could make short work of Jamie if it really wanted to.
35:40Just let me know if it comes out of the way.
35:43Do you think he will eat Jamie?
35:45Yeah, I will.
35:46He'll eat Jamie?
35:47Yeah, you will eat Jamie.
35:53Not bad at all.
35:58Then, as evening approaches, the mood changes.
36:07Bit of rivals, the dogs don't like the hyenas hanging around, and this one has outstayed its welcome.
36:15Jamie has a ringside seat.
36:27The crew leaves the dogs to settle down for the night.
36:35And hope for a change of luck in the morning.
36:44For the final programme in the series, the team want to film the long-term relationship between mother bonobo chimpanzees
36:53and their young.
36:55For cameraman Rolf Steinman, this will be the ultimate filming challenge.
37:00In this impenetrable forest, the bonobos can be hidden from view even when only a few metres away.
37:07He is embarking on the hardest and most gruelling shoot of the series.
37:14Rolf and camera assistant Ed Anderson journey far into the African rainforest.
37:24Despite a 25-kilometre walk to the research camp, Rolf's fillets are high.
37:29Really exciting, I think.
37:32It's definitely the most remote occasion I've ever walked to.
37:40The Louis Cotale research camp will be their home for the next seven weeks.
37:48They head out into the forest wearing face masks to protect the bonobos from human diseases.
38:00They hike over 20 kilometres following the bonobos, and eventually, Rolf gets his first view.
38:09It was a pretty special day, I would say.
38:12That was my first bonobos day.
38:15It was absolutely breathtaking, looking into their faces, seeing the babies.
38:21I mean, you can really feel that they are close relatives to us.
38:25I mean, it feels like you are surrounded by very little humans.
38:32But he quickly discovers that such a good day isn't typical.
38:39There's so much vegetation, I can't get a clear view.
38:43It's totally impossible.
38:54And the very density of this forest creates other filming problems.
38:59We're walking back to camp from the forest.
39:03It's 3.30pm.
39:05This is not a camera effect.
39:07It really is this dark.
39:10When the sun isn't out, it feels like the middle of the night sometimes.
39:20Ed and Rolf's difficulties just continue to mount.
39:27The bonobos went into the deepest, densest part of the forest.
39:32It's really hard to follow them.
39:37The 90% humidity is causing trouble for the camera.
39:43And worse, they soon encounter some of the other forest inhabitants.
39:48It's all full of ants here.
39:51I can't do that with the big backpack.
40:02The ants are everywhere.
40:07They're biting everywhere.
40:14They always want to get to the flesh.
40:17No, you don't get in there.
40:19Oh, they're biting everywhere.
40:23It's not really fun.
40:24It's really painful.
40:26Go away.
40:27Oh.
40:30Oh, God.
40:32I'll just have to get out of this.
40:37Wow.
40:43How should we get rid of all these termites?
40:46I mean, that is serious.
40:50The heat and humidity, the trekking and the insects are worse than Rolf had feared.
40:55But causing him most distress is hardly ever being able to film the bonobos.
41:0290% of the things you see, you can't film.
41:05It's so dark.
41:08There's so much vegetation.
41:10And the animals are always in the wrong spot.
41:13It is pretty much as frustrating as it gets, I think.
41:21You really have to learn to deal with all the frustration and become some kind of Zen master and suppress
41:28your emotions.
41:30Otherwise, you face a high risk here to get insane.
41:34I'm the lucky cameraman.
41:36I'm the lucky cameraman.
41:39I'm the lucky cameraman.
41:40Oh, my God.
41:51Oh, my God.
41:51Three weeks of trekking, and finally the bonobo family appear, briefly in the open.
42:04The bonobos are on the log totally relaxed.
42:07I've got my best shot so far.
42:10This is amazing.
42:12But the bonobos soon disappear again, and it's back to the daily grind of forest life.
42:28These sweat bees make me crazy.
42:36The optimism with which they began this shoot is long gone.
42:42Today, we've already walked 25 kilometers through some of the densest, thickest jungle so far.
42:53We didn't get a single shot of the bonobos.
42:58Yeah, it sometimes feels like a boot camp here.
43:02Some days, you just want to forget.
43:09The experience is simply exhausting.
43:17Finally, the perfect moment.
43:25Right when we get our first nesting in the daytime, really beautiful angle, perfect position, the camera stopped working.
43:35And now we have to go back to camp, leaving the bonobos, and hope that we can make the camera
43:41work again.
43:42Yeah, don't know really what to say.
43:46By the time they've got a new camera, the bonobos have completely disappeared.
43:51Paul, Paul, Paul, this is Ed. Paul, Paul, this is Ed. Come in, Paul.
43:58We can't hear them. We can't find any tracks.
44:02So it doesn't look very promising.
44:08Rolf is hardened to tough conditions, but not the frustration of so rarely getting a clear shot.
44:22Back in Zambia, a similar problem. The dogs have disappeared overnight.
44:31You can only pick them up if you're within two kilometres of them, and they tend to move, you know,
44:35they can.
44:35They have moved ten kilometres in a night, so hopefully they're moving the same way we're searching.
44:41If they've gone the opposite direction, then, yeah, we could be miles from there.
44:50Do you think maybe they went south?
44:52Maybe.
44:55And in the park's 3,500 square kilometres, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
45:02We have been looking for them since about four o'clock this morning, probably.
45:05It's now half past five in the afternoon. Sunset's in about an hour.
45:12So we've got about an hour to find them, really, because they're likely to get up at sunset and move
45:16again.
45:17We don't know where they are now, so it's just going to get harder, basically.
45:21So the sooner we find them, the better.
45:22You say you have located the dogs. Confirm, over.
45:27I have located the dogs.
45:30Where's that?
45:33Where's the...
45:35The set.
45:41Doggies.
45:47The crew can't afford to lose them again.
45:52The only option is to stay as close as possible all through the night.
45:59How close are they, Dennis?
46:01At least, Mr. Echrometer.
46:07In the dark, the radio transmitter helps the team keep tabs on the dogs.
46:14It's carrying food in its mouth. I can't see a carcass.
46:28And their luck holds.
46:36Dawn breaks and the crew is close by as the dogs begin to hunt.
47:03The crew is finally on the spot as the dogs move in for the kill.
47:07The crew is finally on the spot as the dogs move in for the kill.
47:10But to complete the story, the crew needs to cover an actual chase.
47:14And to do that, they will have to take to the air.
47:32This aerial view reveals the strategy the dogs use during the pursuit
47:37and their incredible endurance and skill.
47:42From the ground, you never see that point when the dogs swap over
47:45and another one takes over.
47:47And four or five kilometres of different elements of it.
47:51Just to better see it and keep up with it,
47:53there's absolutely no way you could keep up with that on the ground.
47:56It was over the termite mounds and really rough stuff.
47:58So, yeah, it was a good morning.
48:00There is no escape from the power of the pack.
48:08The pack of 20 wild dogs hunting flat out is...
48:12There's nothing like it.
48:13It's incredibly exciting.
48:14It's an amazing thing to see.
48:25Some people just don't give up.
48:29Two and a half years since her first attempt to film Arctic foxes hunting,
48:33Sophie Lanthier is back in Canada.
48:37I'm confident this time.
48:38We're going to get it.
48:39We're going to get it.
48:40Rolf was busy on another assignment,
48:43so cameraman Justin Maguire takes up the challenge.
48:47OK, we have our stuff.
48:49Yay!
48:52And he seems to bring good fortune.
48:57In the first few days, they find some remarkably brazen foxes.
49:02No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
49:13That's definitely the closest yet.
49:18But the fox's very boldness is a problem.
49:31There's a fox being chased.
49:34He's getting his gun out.
49:38No.
49:38No.
49:48Hunting is a traditional way of life in these communities,
49:53and foxes living nearest human habitation are most at risk.
50:00So the team's only choice is to head further out into the tundra
50:05as far from human contact as possible.
50:11Not quite sure where we're heading.
50:14The landscape's completely featureless,
50:16and we haven't seen any bears or foxes.
50:22Somewhere out here, they hope to find foxes
50:25which are behaving completely naturally.
50:30But the crew's life returns to an all too familiar pattern.
50:36We drive, we stop, we spot, we lose them.
50:40We drive, we stop, we spot, we lose them.
50:43Vanished.
50:44Currently lost them.
50:56Eventually, persistence pays off.
51:20Sophie and her team finally get their shot.
51:29I've waited a very long time for this moment.
51:40I don't think Rolf would believe it.
51:46Deep in the Congo rain forest,
51:48Rolf has heard news of the bonobos
51:50four days after he last saw them.
51:53They're heading north,
51:54so there's a good chance that they go into the swarms.
51:57And so we just speculate and run towards the swarms,
52:02and perhaps we find them there.
52:07After so much disappointment,
52:10Rolf and Ed are determined to find them.
52:23quite against the odds, their determination pays off.
52:28Rolf captures the first ever images of a family of bonobos harvesting lilies.
52:40A scene that feels much like a glimpse into our own past.
52:51It's everything Rolf had hoped for.
52:56This terrain, it's ridiculous that we made it.
52:59That is ridiculous.
53:00It's impossible to film that.
53:02It's simply impossible and we filmed it.
53:04I can't believe it.
53:05It's so good.
53:11All around the world, the Life Story crews have witnessed the irrepressible instinct of animals to survive and overcome the
53:21odds.
53:24The journey through life begins afresh with every new generation, as it has for countless millions of years.
53:33It is life's great story.
53:35This is your life story.
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