- 47 minutes ago
Although rich in places, Britain as a whole is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. From a busy puffin colony, Sir David highlights the issue, and asks how nature can be restored for future generations.
大卫·爱登堡（David Attenborough）赞颂了英国的野生动物——其精彩与壮观程度丝毫不亚于他在海外所见的任何景象——并揭示了它们对于全球自然界的重要意义。然而，英国也是世界上自然生态退化最严重的国家之一。
大卫·爱登堡（David Attenborough）赞颂了英国的野生动物——其精彩与壮观程度丝毫不亚于他在海外所见的任何景象——并揭示了它们对于全球自然界的重要意义。然而，英国也是世界上自然生态退化最严重的国家之一。
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🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:21In my long life, I've been lucky enough to travel to almost every part of the globe
00:28and gaze upon some of its most beautiful and dramatic sights.
00:33I can assure you that nature in these islands, if you know where to look,
00:39can be just as dramatic and spectacular as anything that I've seen elsewhere.
00:55The British Isles are globally important for nature.
01:01In this series, we'll show you why that is so
01:06and celebrate the wonders of these islands that we call home.
01:11This is Wild Isles.
01:46Wild Islesrad
01:55Khurswugr The
01:57very far north of the British Isles.
02:02170 miles from mainland Scotland at the northern tip of the Shetland Islands,
02:09it's home to some of our richest marine and bird life.
02:24These rough waters are patrolled by our largest marine predator.
02:38Orca. Killer whales.
02:48Three pods of them, having spent the winter fishing for herring off Iceland,
02:54regularly return to Shetland's waters each spring.
03:02They do so for one particular reason.
03:16Thousands of common and grey seals live here.
03:31The waters are full of food, and there are plenty of gullies and channels that offer safety.
03:41Most of the time.
03:48The orca that come here have a particular taste for seals.
04:10And they have developed a unique way of catching them.
04:27They have discovered how to travel up channels in the kelp to reach the shallow water where seals often hide.
05:08No gully is left unchecked.
05:19The orca turn on their side so that their dorsal fin doesn't break the surface and reveal their presence.
05:42A seal. It stays close to the rocks where a large orca would find swimming difficult.
05:57It hides and waits for the danger to pass.
06:07The orca bide their time. Their best chance is to find a seal asleep in the water.
06:17Like this one.
06:30It wakes up and flees.
06:32But there's a pup here too.
06:51The orca takes its catch out into open water and there shows younger members of the pod how to drown
06:59it.
07:06The whole group now share the catch.
07:09Nothing will be wasted.
07:23Shetland is the only place in Britain and Ireland where orca breed.
07:29Just one of the many remarkable creatures that inhabit our seas, lands and skies.
07:48One reason why our natural world is so rich comes from its geology.
07:53Amongst the most varied to be found anywhere on the planet.
07:59From the chalk cliffs and downs of southern England to the limestone pavements of Yorkshire.
08:07From the rugged windstone cliffs of Durham to the volcanic basalt of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
08:17Each kind of rock creates its own landscape with its own community of animals and plants.
08:30Another reason why our nature is so diverse is our varied climate.
08:37In the north it can be very cold indeed.
08:43A thousand metres up in Scotland's Cairngorm Mountains.
08:48Winter here can be truly arced.
08:52With temperatures dropping to minus 27 degrees centigrade.
09:00These peaks and the highlands are patrolled by one of our most spectacular birds of prey.
09:09The golden eagle.
09:22They were once widespread across Britain and Ireland.
09:26But today almost all of our 500 or so pairs nest here in Scotland.
09:35Now, however, after years of persecution, golden eagle numbers are on the rise.
09:50Within their territory there is clear evidence of how precious our few remaining wild places are.
10:00There are now only remnants of the vast ancient forest that once covered most of the highlands.
10:08The Caledonian forest is the only native coniferous woodland left in Britain.
10:16It's less than 1% of its original extent.
10:27Only 13% of Britain as a whole is covered by trees.
10:32That's one of the lowest proportions in the whole of Europe.
10:37Our oak trees, however, are globally important.
10:42England alone has more ancient oaks than the whole of Europe put together.
10:48And over three quarters of them are more than 500 years old.
11:03In the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire stands the oldest oak tree in Britain.
11:11It's 1,046 years old and began its life before the Norman Conquest.
11:28Oak trees throughout their long lives provide food and shelter for over 2,300 different species of plants and animals.
11:49As the sun sets, the oak tree's night shift appears.
11:59Among them, one of the most charming animals in Britain.
12:09A dormouse.
12:11A dormouse.
12:11She assesses the light levels outside her nest.
12:16The full moon could be a problem.
12:22But after sleeping all day, she needs to get out and about.
12:33She has four growing babies who all depend on her for milk.
12:44But fortunately, higher up in the oak, there is a particularly energy-rich food waiting to be collected.
12:54For us, it would be like climbing to the top of a skyscraper.
13:12Left alone, the babies begin to explore the dangerous world beyond their nest hole.
13:37Their mother is getting closer to what she's looking for.
13:48But tawny owls also nest in oak trees.
13:56She freezes.
13:58And can stay motionless for over an hour to avoid detection.
14:17At last, she decides it's safe to continue her climb.
14:28Now she can smell the plant that she's looking for.
14:34Honeysuckle.
14:39This is worth the climb.
14:41The flowers are loaded with sugar-rich nectar.
14:52She bites off the petals to get to the sweet liquid at their base.
15:07Her young are getting impatient.
15:22One ventures out and starts to explore.
15:34Mother decides that she's eaten enough.
15:46The baby dormice scuttle back home.
16:06Safe at last.
16:09But for how long?
16:15Dormice were once widespread.
16:18But now they are largely restricted to Wales and southern England.
16:32Spring brings with it one of the Woodlands greatest spectacles.
16:40Bluebells.
16:44Within only a few days, the ground is flooded with colour.
16:49More than half the world's common bluebells flower in Britain and Ireland.
16:57The peak of their display coincides with an important event in the lives of one of the Woodlands bigger inhabitants.
17:12With a sense of smell that's much more acute than ours, a badger in East Sussex checks that the coast
17:19is clear.
17:25Once they're sure that it's safe, the adults allow their cubs above ground for the very first time.
17:38Badger clans are tightly knit and these young cubs are linked by scent.
17:42Not just to their mother, but to the whole extended family.
17:55Britain is home to over a quarter of Europe's badgers and their digging and foraging has been a major factor
18:02in shaping the forest floor.
18:11Woodlands are complex communities containing great numbers of species of plants and mammals, birds and insects.
18:20But over the decades, they've been greatly diminished.
18:26In just the last 20 years, 60% of our flying insects have vanished.
18:34Insects play a crucial role in pollinating both our wildflowers and our crops and they do so in a variety
18:42of remarkable ways.
18:46The flowers of red valerian, for instance, store their nectar at the base of their elongated blooms.
18:54So only a pollinator with very special mouthparts can drink it.
19:02The hummingbird hawk moth has just the right equipment for the job.
19:08A long tubular proboscis.
19:16These summer visitors can beat their wings 85 times a second and need lots of nectar to fuel the effort
19:24of doing so.
19:34Other flowers, like bittersweet, offer a different reward.
19:39Not nectar, but pollen, which is produced within its tightly sealed yellow anthers.
19:49And one insect knows how to reach it.
19:52A bumble bee.
19:58This female has developed a very clever way to get at the pollen.
20:03She vibrates her body at exactly the right frequency to make the pollen pour out.
20:19The pollen will feed her young, but some will rub off when she visits other flowers on her way home
20:26and so fertilize them.
20:32A win for both flower and bee.
20:40Perhaps the most complicated pollination technique of all is that used by a common woodland plant known as lords and
20:48ladies.
20:51It produces a very odd looking flower with a large purple spike called a spadix.
21:01In the late afternoon the spadix heats up until it becomes 20 degrees centigrade hotter than its surroundings and releases
21:12a foul smelling scent.
21:15Tiny owl mitch flies looking for rotting matter on which to lay their eggs find the stink irresistibly attractive.
21:27But the inner side of the hooded leaf that surrounds the spadix is very slippery.
21:34The flies tumble down into a dungeon.
21:40The bulbous chamber at the base of the plant.
21:47The female parts that need pollinating are at the bottom of this chamber.
21:53Above them, the male parts that produce the pollen.
21:58And at the very top, spiky, slippery, downward pointing hairs.
22:06These act like the bars of a prison trapping the owl flies below.
22:12And holding them there overnight.
22:21Trapped, the flies get glued to the flowers sticky female parts.
22:27Transferring any pollen they may have brought from other lords and ladies.
22:32The flies then eat the now dried sweet secretion and then try to leave.
22:38But the flower will not release them just yet.
22:44The male flowers above are now ripe and their pollen bursts out, showering the flies below.
22:57The prison bars now wilt and the flies are free to go.
23:04For this extraordinary pollination to be successful, a fly must escape this prison twice.
23:12First, to be loaded with pollen and then, once again, to deliver the pollen to another lords and ladies flower.
23:29Nowhere here is richer in wildflowers and insect pollinators than our traditional hay meadows.
23:38Sadly, in the last 60 years, we've lost 97% of this precious habitat.
23:46But with nature-friendly farming, meadows can be restored to provide a haven for wildlife.
23:56It's all about the timing.
24:03Delaying mowing until mid-July allows birds and insects to complete their breeding and flowers to set their seed.
24:16It also creates opportunities for those that are ready to exploit them.
24:29The local foxes here in Gloucestershire know these fields very well.
24:37Every year, they follow the farmers from field to field as they make hay.
24:44And sometimes, the cubs come with them.
24:52These cubs are only three months old and mostly interested in play.
25:06The summer chafers, emerging from the grass, are worth eating.
25:14If you can catch them.
25:19But the cubs need to be taught how to hunt properly.
25:28By September, they will be on their own.
25:32So, their mother shows them how.
25:45Her acute sense of hearing enables her to detect even the slightest rustle in the grass.
26:02By moving her head, she can pinpoint exactly where the noise is coming from.
26:11And then, silently, she leaps.
26:30At least, the cubs will have something to eat this evening.
26:45Britain and Ireland's position on the globe gives us a special importance for wildlife internationally.
26:53We are in just the right place to welcome migrants from the south in summer and from the north in
27:00winter.
27:05Each autumn, around 30,000 barnacle geese arrive on the Hebridean island of Isla.
27:18They have all come from Greenland, where they spent the summer.
27:28Some years, half the world population arrive here, all attracted by the same food.
27:36Some years, half the world.
27:40Grass.
27:45They feed in groups.
27:47That way, there will always be some eyes keeping watch.
27:59White-tailed eagles, our biggest bird of prey.
28:07Once extinct in Britain, today, up to a dozen now spend winter on Isla.
28:18But they've been spotted.
28:33The eagles must select a particular bird as a target.
28:40They're testing the geese, trying to identify a weak one.
28:46After a journey of almost 2,000 miles, some will be particularly exhausted.
28:57But the eagles haven't chosen one yet.
29:06At low tide, out on the estuary, the geese come down.
29:15Even here, the eagles don't let them rest for long.
29:24A young, inexperienced eagle tries his luck.
29:37Driving them on again.
29:43The youngster keeps the flock on the move.
29:51One exhausted goose, however, gets left behind.
30:04Another young eagle swoops in.
30:11In the confusion, the goose manages to fly off.
30:22The youngster keeps the flock off.
30:23But neither of the eagles is going to give up now.
30:39But neither of the eagles is going to give up now.
30:45As the goose turns, it loses one of its pursuers.
30:51Now, it's just a one-on-one.
30:54The goose is so heavy, the young eagle has to die.
30:56It's a one-on-one.
30:59It's a one-on-one.
31:00It's a one-on-one.
31:02It's a one-on-one.
31:21The goose is a one-on-one.
31:23The eagle has to struggle to hold on.
31:45This young bird and all the other white-tailed eagles here on Islay
31:50have only learnt how to hunt barnacle geese in the last ten years.
32:06Across Britain and Ireland, our mild climate
32:10attracts more than half a million geese each winter,
32:14making us a vital refuge for these long-distance travellers.
32:30Here in Britain, we have one of the rarest habitats on Earth, chalk streams.
32:41There are only about 200 chalk streams in the world
32:45and 85% of them flow through southern England.
32:52Their waters, rising through chalk and flowing over it,
32:57are rich in minerals and oxygen.
33:01This creates the right conditions for water crowfoot,
33:05that each summer produces floating carpets of white flowers.
33:17Above them, fly-banded, demoiselle damselflies,
33:22slimmer relatives of dragonflies.
33:26These, with dark patches on their wings, are the males,
33:30and they are an iridescent blue.
33:41The more metallic green ones with plain, unmarked wings are the females.
33:52To attract a female, a male must secure a patch of healthy floating leaves,
33:57on which she can lay her eggs.
34:02The male declares his ownership of a patch by flaunting his wings,
34:10before returning to a nearby perch.
34:18But other males want both his territory and the female,
34:21and they are willing to fight.
34:38He's outnumbered.
34:48In the chaos, he returns to his perch,
34:51watched closely by the female.
34:55This time, he invites her down to view his patch of leaves,
35:01and settles on the water surface,
35:03showing her that the oxygen-rich waters are flowing well,
35:08which will be vital for her eggs.
35:13She's impressed.
35:17Mating, however, is a complicated business.
35:21First, he grasps her firmly by the neck,
35:25and carefully removes any rival's sperm.
35:32Then he collects his own sperm,
35:34from an opening near his head,
35:36and transfers it to her.
35:50Once mated, the female flies to his patch of leaves,
35:54to lay her eggs.
36:01and the male joins her to guard her from his rivals.
36:09They barge in and try and pull the couple apart,
36:14for it's still not too late for them to mate with this female themselves.
36:27But she has an escape route.
36:30Under the water.
36:33A silver layer of bubbles allows her to breathe while she's beneath the surface.
36:43She cuts into the plant stems with her sharp ovipositor,
36:47and starts to inject her eggs,
36:50producing more than 400 in under an hour.
37:02mission accomplished.
37:14To breed in this way, the damsels require clean, free-flowing, fresh water.
37:22As do other animals that live in chalk streams.
37:27Our native brown trout and minnows.
37:33These small fish are preyed upon by one of our loveliest birds.
37:41We often hear them.
37:45But usually, get only a glimpse.
37:47A flash of electric blue.
37:51Kingfishers speed along rivers at 30 miles an hour.
37:58Each claims a particular stretch of river,
38:01which can be over two miles long.
38:08Fishing territories are vigorously defended.
38:11And a male will only share one with his partner.
38:41Just to stay alive,
38:43this female must eat over half her body weight each day.
38:54If they have chicks,
38:55a pair of kingfishers must catch a further 70 fish every day.
39:16The coastline of Britain and Ireland is over 22,000 miles long.
39:22And our seas are amongst the richest in Europe.
39:30Because of this,
39:32our seabird colonies are among the biggest and most spectacular
39:36to be found anywhere on the planet.
39:50Bass Rock, in Scotland's Firth of Forth,
39:53is the largest gannet colony in the world.
39:58with 75,000 pairs returning here each year.
40:06Our waters, in fact,
40:08support nearly 70% of the northern gannet's global population.
40:15At the height of summer,
40:16the whole of Bass Rock is jam-packed,
40:20with two nests to every square metre.
40:25Male and female spend the winter apart,
40:28far out at sea.
40:30But in spring,
40:32they return to their breeding grounds
40:33and each couple re-establish their partnership
40:36with a delicate courtship display.
40:51It takes over three months to rear a chick.
40:55And during that time,
40:57both parents will make hundreds of trips to collect food.
41:01On average, each feeding trip is over 140 miles long.
41:09But on occasion,
41:11they may travel as far as 600 miles.
41:35The gannets' immense journeys are only possible
41:38because they bring their catch home in their stomachs.
41:42The gannets' immense journeys are only possible
41:42for the gannets'
41:48mackerel and herring are the gannets' favourite food,
41:52though the size of a portion
41:55can be a bit of a problem for some.
42:08Another much smaller fish is also very important to our seabirds.
42:15Sand eels are only 30 centimetres long,
42:19but they occur in vast shoals.
42:22They're a critical link in the food chains
42:25of a whole range of different seabirds.
42:32Lesser sand eels are the favourite prey of puffins.
42:37Almost half a million of these lovable birds
42:40come to our coast each summer,
42:42mostly to islands such as these,
42:44the farms off Northumberland.
43:04Puffins mate for life,
43:06and pears use the same burrow every year.
43:09Here, they raise a single chick called a puffling.
43:18Unlike gannets,
43:19the journeys they make for food are usually shorter.
43:25Their broad bills enable them to carry
43:28remarkably large numbers of sand eels.
43:31But their catch is always temptingly visible.
43:35Ah!
43:38Ah!
43:45Herring gulls are twice the size of a puffin.
44:06Puffin
44:06But the greatest threat to puffins on this island
44:09comes from a smaller gull.
44:23The black-headed gull.
44:41They are not strong enough to grab a puffin in the air.
44:44They have to use another technique.
44:49They try to snatch the sand eels right out of the puffin's beak.
45:11This puffin escapes.
45:14But the problem is that this burrow is not his.
45:18And the gulls seem to know that.
45:26He can't stay down there for long.
45:43This little puffin is determined that these sand eels are for his chick and nobody else.
46:16What is your figure?
46:19This little fellows are amino.
46:32Made it.
46:48here off the coast of pembrokeshire puffin numbers have been steadily increasing
46:56today nearly 40 000 return to this tiny island every summer
47:01but skoma is an exception most of our puffin colonies are in decline overfishing and climate
47:11change mean the sand deals they depend on are increasingly hard to find it's a clear example
47:18of just how fragile and fragmented our nature is so rich in places britain as a whole is one of
47:27the
47:27most nature depleted countries in the world never has there been a more important time to invest in
47:35our own wildlife to try and set an example for the rest of the world and restore our once wild
47:44isles
47:44for future generations
48:01to film orca hunting seals the wild isles team traveled to shetland
48:07the plan was to find and follow one particular pod a family of eight individuals known as the 27s
48:18as shetland's biggest pod they were the team's best chance to film a hunt
48:27they had a fast boat modified to carry a stabilized camera system
48:33and drones to give them a far-reaching eye in the sky
48:39but finding the pod in this vast territory was not going to be easy
48:45so the crew enlisted local knowledge
48:49i just messaged my wife and asked her the uh how big is shetland's coastline and she wrote back to
48:56me
48:56and said it's 2700 kilometers and we're looking for a place of a pod of eight animals in the 2700
49:04kilometers of coast suddenly dawned on the enormity of what we're trying to do
49:14richard had vital extra help a whatsapp group of 250 islanders who regularly update each other on their
49:22sightings so all these eyes looking and picking up and posting on social media
49:30i think it would be very difficult to follow these killer whales
49:36orca can travel a hundred miles a day in their search for food
49:41they can appear anywhere on shetland's coast at any time
49:47so the strategy was to spend as much time at sea as possible to be able to react quickly to
49:53any
49:54sightings three weeks they haven't been anywhere seen anywhere in shetlands this pod it's quite
50:02difficult to film a killer whale sequence without killer whales there's literally nothing more we can
50:08do than go out search every day hope that the phone rings and someone else has seen it or we
50:14find
50:14why not and the challenge was made even greater when thick fog made navigating the islands near
50:21impossible well the weather changes pretty quickly up here we were in glorious becalmed blue sky flat
50:30water conditions about two hours ago we've just started our journey back and we've come into this
50:38bank of fog and it's completely surrounded the boat there are no reference points out here now
50:44time was running out with just a few days left richard finally got a call from one of the islanders
50:54what's just happened they've got two balls coming down blue most out heading south towards
50:59back low the team raced to catch up with the orca they got in position ahead of the bulls and
51:16waited
51:16for them to pass sadly the excitement was short-lived it's not the 27s which is the family group we
51:28were
51:28hoping to catch up with but it is killer whales after a month of effort they had run out of
51:35time that year
51:40and the following year saw a new team a new boat and a new plan
51:46basing themselves on land the team could be more reactive
51:51when the orca do turn up we need to drop everything and go and try and find them
51:58and the quickest way to do that on this island
52:02is to tow the boat to where we think they're about to be based on the last sightings that means
52:09that we
52:09have to know our slip ways but quite a few of them are covered in this green slimy weed
52:17for the crew this meant regular cleaning duty
52:24with the slipways weed free they could test the new camera setup
52:30this time they've mounted the camera on a jib to move it more quickly into position
52:37after two weeks of no sighting it felt like a replay of last year's bad luck
52:43but once again the network of islanders came to the rescue
52:48second-hand information but some orca was seen about 10ks from here at 8pm last night
52:53we just got a text this morning at 7am
52:57tipped off that a pod of orcas was close the team could quickly catch up with them
53:02but it wasn't the 27s it's a 19 pod with an individual in it called musa which is quite a
53:09well-known individual but she was last seen on friday uh with the 27 pod in orkney
53:16so we're now on sunday and she's here so does that mean the 27 pods here
53:22the team stuck around hoping the pods were traveling together
53:27there they are there they are there they are in the bay in the bay here yeah the other side
53:32of the
53:32scary can we just spin around please it took patience and determination but after two years
53:39of effort the crew finally caught up with the 27 pod we are here right now on the 27s which
53:47is our best
53:48pod because one of the guys working on the ferry saw them posted it on whatsapp we're five minutes
53:54away and we just we're straight on to it the pod soon lived up to their promise and began to
54:02hunt
54:02along the coast using the drone the team could follow as the pod spread out searching every inch
54:11of the shoreline from the boat from the boat the stabilized camera rig allowed them to film the action
54:18close-up that was carnage all so fast it just goes crazy yeah really crazy hun just
54:36just bonkers just like chaos after two years of filming and thanks to the network of islanders
54:44and richard's expertise the team were finally able to capture this extraordinary hunting behavior
54:57three months after returning from shetland there was some sad news a young male orca from the 27 pod
55:05was found dead washed up on shore a post-mortem revealed he had drowned after becoming entangled
55:14in fishing gear each year dozens of whales and dolphins die in this way
55:21but since filming three new calves have been spotted the youngest belonging to the 27s
55:32we must do everything we can to ensure that our waters are safe and welcoming
55:37for these rare and special visitors
55:46next time woodland ruled by the seasons
56:10the open university has produced a free poster exploring our wild isles
56:17and their diverse habitats and species order your copy by calling 0300 303 0265 or go to bbc.co.uk
56:28forward slash wild isles and follow the links to the open university if you'd like to play your part in
56:37restoring our wild isles and learn more about what you can do to help just search wild isles on the
56:44bbc website
56:47the
56:51the
56:53the
56:55the
57:00the
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