- 1 day ago
From the Andes peaks, follows the path of the relentless wind, sweeping east through Patagonia's dry desert. Dscover the weird world of maras - giant guinea pigs - and desert-dwelling penguins, and witness the first faltering steps of baby guanacos - Patagonia's very own camels. People live here too - brave souls who have taken on this arid world and carved out a home.
本集概览：
• 风的旅程：本集追随从安第斯山脉之巅呼啸而下的强劲风势，看它们一路向东，横扫巴塔哥尼亚草原上干旱贫瘠的荒漠地带。
• 独特的野生动物：
巴塔哥尼亚豚鼠（Maras）：一种长腿的大型啮齿动物，常被形容为“巨型豚鼠”。
• 沙漠企鹅：麦哲伦企鹅及其近亲种群，它们已适应了干旱的沿海或内陆过渡地带的生活。
• 原驼（Guanacos）：属于骆驼科的野生动物，是羊驼的近亲；镜头记录了刚出生的幼崽迈出生命最初步伐的珍贵瞬间。
• 人类的坚韧：展现了当地居民与“高乔人”（gauchos）的顽强生命力——他们适应了这片环境严苛、狂风肆虐的土地，在此生存并建立起家园。
本集概览：
• 风的旅程：本集追随从安第斯山脉之巅呼啸而下的强劲风势，看它们一路向东，横扫巴塔哥尼亚草原上干旱贫瘠的荒漠地带。
• 独特的野生动物：
巴塔哥尼亚豚鼠（Maras）：一种长腿的大型啮齿动物，常被形容为“巨型豚鼠”。
• 沙漠企鹅：麦哲伦企鹅及其近亲种群，它们已适应了干旱的沿海或内陆过渡地带的生活。
• 原驼（Guanacos）：属于骆驼科的野生动物，是羊驼的近亲；镜头记录了刚出生的幼崽迈出生命最初步伐的珍贵瞬间。
• 人类的坚韧：展现了当地居民与“高乔人”（gauchos）的顽强生命力——他们适应了这片环境严苛、狂风肆虐的土地，在此生存并建立起家园。
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TVTranscript
00:04In a far corner of the earth is a South American wilderness.
00:17These extreme landscapes are home to strange and wonderful animals.
00:27From the rugged peaks of the Andes, across the scorched desert steppe, to coasts battered
00:40by some of the roughest seas on the planet.
00:46Living here takes guts and determination.
00:51There are incredible opportunities for some.
00:58For others, it's a battle to survive.
01:07A pioneering spirit unites them all under the spell of Patagonia.
01:24Patagonia is a land of two extremes.
01:28The West is a lush wonderland.
01:33But the East is a different story.
01:41A world battered by the wind, then baked by the sun.
01:52This is a journey that blows from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic coast.
01:58Through Patagonia's increasingly tough desert.
02:02Where life copes by reinventing itself in weird and unique ways.
02:24An Andean condor.
02:26One of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
02:33is...
02:33held a loft on huge wings.
02:38Three meters from tip to tip.
02:44Making the most of Patagonia's powerful winds...
02:55Winds borne far out to sea.
03:01Driving across thousands of kilometers of ocean.
03:09Laden with moisture, they race towards Patagonia.
03:14And crash into a formidable barrier.
03:20The Andes Mountains.
03:35These high peaks strip the clouds of virtually all their moisture.
03:43Over three trillion tons of fresh water locked up in glaciers.
03:50Going nowhere.
04:00The wind still blow, but now they're freezing cold and very dry.
04:11They sweep eastwards from the Andes.
04:18On a journey towards the Atlantic coast.
04:31The winds blow so fiercely that those who live here call them la escoba de Dios, the broom of God.
04:48In the foothills, the world they create is like no other.
04:58Open moorlands bustling with life.
05:12And unexpected wandering herds.
05:41A male Wanako.
05:43A male Wanako.
05:43Wild ancestor of the llama.
05:47At this time of the year, his main concern is keeping an eye on his harem.
05:58Young bachelors are intent on stealing his females.
06:01Young bachelors.
06:20Among the western horses.
06:22Among hverns.
06:51While Dad is preoccupied with the bachelors, a grey fox is taking an interest.
07:14Mom takes no chances.
07:17Mom takes no chances.
07:34The new addition takes its first faltering steps.
07:39Joining the family herd.
07:50Even Dad is curious.
08:08After giving birth, the females quickly become fertile.
08:13They must mate again soon, and the bachelors know it.
08:26The male's entire harem is now at stake.
08:34One bachelor makes his move.
08:36The female spits her disapproval.
08:42The male leaps into action.
08:56Using razor sharp teeth, he aims for his challenger's testicles.
09:03An emasculating bite.
09:15Necks are protected by specially thickened skin.
09:22These fights have no rules.
09:29The battles are exhausting.
09:33The passer, you're in danger.
09:35Go up!
09:37Go!
09:54Go, go!
09:55Go, go!
09:57Go, go!
09:58Go, go!
09:58Go!
09:59Go!
09:59Go, go, go, go!
10:00Go, go!
10:01What do you want to do with this man?
10:06His masculinity intact, the male enjoys the rewards whilst he can.
10:26As the wind barrels across the slopes,
10:29it is twisted into ephemeral spirals.
10:35Spinning Patagonia's mysterious flying saucers.
10:42Lenticular clouds constantly whipped by the swirling winds.
10:59But on the ground below, the challenge is how to cheat the wind.
11:08The stunted vegetation is sculpted and armored.
11:16But under its protection, delicate flowers bloom, hidden from the shredding blasts.
11:28This is Gaby Lear, a southern specialist.
11:34An Andean sweet pea, its fragile petals saved from the wind.
11:40And the porcelain orchid, named after the delicate cracks that adorn its petals.
11:46It relishes these cold conditions.
11:53These spirited blooms each exploit a chink in the hostile climate.
12:10And it's not just the flowers that are keeping their heads down.
12:17On the edge of this lake, one bush looks a little different.
12:30Darwin's rear, Patagonia's largest bird.
12:35Like the bushes around, it's hunkered down to avoid the worst of the icy wind.
12:42Keeping something precious warm.
12:50A clutch of up to 50 eggs.
12:53Each ten times the size of a hen's egg.
12:57But this isn't mum.
12:59This is a dedicated father.
13:04These eggs were laid by many mothers.
13:06But they all have a single father, and he's now incubating them alone.
13:13For 40 days, he will barely eat or drink as his clutch develops.
13:22When dads can finally stretch their legs,
13:26they stride out with family in tow.
13:41Four Ria chicks, all sporting a striped camouflage.
13:49In a Ria's world, it's all about growing up fast.
13:55Building up fat reserves to insulate against the cruel winds.
14:16Plants, insects and even lizards are all snapped up.
14:27They'll grow to dad's one metre height in just over eight months.
14:37Whilst the chicks can hardly see over the grass,
14:41dad's long neck allows him to keep an eye out for danger.
14:56With dad on the lookout, the chicks can get back to eating their way
15:01through the Patagonian scrub.
15:08A flightless single father is unusual for a bird.
15:13But in Patagonia, those that survive often find unexpected solutions
15:18to the challenges they face.
15:25Small pools dot the foothills.
15:29Formed from the meagre winter snow.
15:31They provide a refuge for an unlikely wanderer.
15:42Chilien flamingos.
15:45Flamboyant and seemingly fragile.
15:47They are in fact hardy nomads.
15:50Living over 50 years.
15:55After a freezing night, ice has formed on the water.
16:02Soon, they won't be able to feed.
16:05So they must leave.
16:07Before they become trapped.
16:32Before they become trapped.
16:34Two kilometres in a day, looking for a new lake.
16:40But as they head east, away from the mountains,
16:44not any old lake will do.
16:49It must be shallow.
16:52Salty, but not too much.
16:55Ideally warm, getting lots of sun.
17:03Then, like this lake, it will be teeming with the tiny crustaceans the flamingos eat.
17:15Which give their feathers such dramatic colour.
17:22Their tongues pump vast quantities of water through their bills.
17:26Sivving out the microscopic food.
17:30Filtering the lake as fast as they can.
17:36It's essential.
17:37As they can't bank on where they'll find their next meal.
17:45The winds are still blowing.
17:48But now the powers of the wind and the sun combine.
17:56Together, they start to strangle the lake.
18:05As it evaporates, its chemistry changes.
18:09Gradually killing off the flamingos' food.
18:15Tempers begin to flare.
18:25Once again, they must leave.
18:27And resume their search for the next perfect lake.
18:31Racing the power of the sun.
18:40Ahead of the flamingos, everything changes.
18:45The foothills give way to the Patagonian steppe.
18:51A vast landscape nearly 700,000 square kilometres.
18:57Three times the size of Britain.
19:03East of here, the wind is warmer and the sun hotter.
19:08And the more difficult life becomes.
19:16The soils here are too dry for trees.
19:23Instead, another plant has the upper hand.
19:29The forest.
19:30This is the kingdom of grasses.
19:34Over 50 species.
19:43Tough, shiny leaves defy the bone-dry wind.
19:56The first Europeans to see this land weren't so impressed.
20:01Even Charles Darwin said it was wretched and useless.
20:08But this land is very good for something.
20:16These grasslands produce some of the finest wool in the world.
20:21From some of the finest sheep in the world.
20:25The merino.
20:29Patagonia's dry air keeps the sheep cleaner.
20:33Their whiter fleeces are prized by the fashion houses of Europe.
20:40Once a year, Patagonia's eight million sheep are rounded up.
20:45The trees are five ...
21:10It's been said that the culture and economy here is built on a sheep's back.
21:26As the gauchos bring in the sheep, the shearers are on their way.
21:42They travel the steppe, living, sleeping and eating together for months on end.
21:53Cesar Collir has been shearing sheep for 25 years.
21:58There are places where we go and you don't have a comfort zone,
22:04we don't have a little hole to be able to be able to be.
22:09You don't get bored of it, because you always get to sing, to make jokes.
22:17What is useful here is the companionship.
22:43The flock gathers.
22:56The shearers are ready.
22:58The flock gathers.
23:27My father, my father is also an esquilador. My father and my father are also.
23:41It's hard work.
23:52You have to be two and a quarter of a hour,
23:55you can get up to find the animal,
23:58and you can get it until you tell the last one.
24:24The animal is a good one.
24:26The ventilator is a ventilator that makes a lot of ovejas and instilates well.
24:35The day of the day, that would be 120, 30, 150.
25:00And today it's my place. I don't think I'll get out of Patagonia.
25:05It's my place where I grew up and I'd stay here in Patagonia.
25:35Making a living in these rolling grasslands is all about being part of a community.
25:46They all seek a home out of the wind.
25:58The architect of all this is the big, hairy armadillo.
26:15He scratches a living searching for grubs and beetle larvae hidden underground.
26:23His sense of smell is acute.
26:25He can detect food buried under 50 centimeters of soil.
26:36Inside his nose are special filters to keep out the dust.
26:41He can breathe where others would suffocate.
26:48He works his way around the steppe.
26:55Excavating as he goes.
26:59While he does, others are taking advantage of his tunnelling skills.
27:06A burrowing owl.
27:12And his mate.
27:15With no trees for shelter, the steppe wind drives them underground.
27:22So an old armadillo burrow makes for a snug home.
27:35They have a strong, lifelong bond.
27:47But their domestic bliss is threatened by nightmare neighbors.
27:54Maras.
27:55Perhaps Patagonia's oddest animal.
28:08It's like a guinea pig on stilts.
28:12Patagonia's answer to an antelope.
28:15She's also looking for a burrow.
28:19But they're in short supply.
28:22So the Maras take them by force.
28:26That doesn't go down well with the owls.
28:38They're only eight inches tall.
28:40But don't give up without a fight.
28:47There's a lot at stake for the Mara too.
28:52She needs the armadillo's burrow just as much.
28:55For her pups.
29:01This one's only a day old.
29:03He was born eyes wide open and fully furred.
29:14He'll share this nursery with up to 40 others.
29:20Burrows are vital to his survival.
29:27While his parents can sprint from danger, his only defense is to dive underground.
29:52The Maras graze.
29:55The Maras graze.
29:56The Armadillos trundle about.
29:58The Maras graze.
30:03The Maras graze.
30:04The Maras graze.
30:05And for the newborn.
30:06It's time to play.
30:08The Maras graze.
30:16The Maras graze.
30:19The Maras graze.
30:24Before long the pups are hungry.
30:28Each mother only feeds her own.
30:32Their smell is unique, so she sniffs each one.
30:43But the others still try their luck.
30:49So every female is harassed by hungry mouths.
30:58The newborn joins in, but he's in for a shock.
31:09He tries again and again.
31:14But female after female drives him away.
31:29Desperate for a meal, he tries one last time.
31:46And his courage is rewarded.
31:49This is his mother.
32:01This community's success goes to show that with a little help,
32:04you can make a home in the steppe.
32:16These rugged landscapes have, over the years,
32:18attracted people seeking freedom and a fresh start.
32:29The original Patagonians were nomads,
32:32but the new settlers wanted to put down roots.
32:40In 1865, Welsh pioneers set up a new homeland along the rivers.
32:49This was to be a Welsh utopia, far from English influence.
32:57By pulling together, this fledgling community, 153 strong,
33:03made farmsteads from the wilderness.
33:06Life was tough, but they had a lifeline
33:10that kept their remote settlements together.
33:11It still does today.
33:25La Trocita. The Little Gage.
33:31Better known as the Patagonian Express.
33:34A steam train in miniature.
33:46The Trocita was built to open up the steppe.
33:49A vital link, transporting settlers in,
33:53and wool and livestock out to the coast.
34:00It's still going strong.
34:03Lovingly maintained by Carlos Gomet and his team.
34:08The work that I have in ferroviario
34:13was something that, logically,
34:16I've always wanted to have since I was born.
34:24In 1965, the 2nd of February of 1965,
34:27I entered the ferrocarril with 17 years.
34:37Even with La Trocita, the steppe remains one of the most sparsely populated places on Earth.
34:55Carlos relishes his link to Patagonia's past.
35:00For all the ferroviarios,
35:01it's really an honor to be able to grab
35:03and be able to maintain,
35:05as I tell you,
35:06the joy of the ferrocarril.
35:10the first place to be a place to be a place.
35:12The rest of my life was in place.
35:13I didn't want to get married.
35:15I wish I could get married
35:17and be able to continue.
35:19The third place was in place.
35:35The third place was in place.
35:37But the unpredictable climate really tested new settlers.
35:44In 1902, the famous bank robbers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
35:49escaped here to invest their loot.
35:54Butch declared,
35:55This part of the country looks so good, I like the place better every day.
36:00But life proved too tough.
36:03After just five years, they packed it in,
36:05only to die in a Bolivian shootout.
36:13Monuments to failed ventures still haunt the steppe today.
36:24Halfway across the steppe, the winds begin to lose their power.
36:29The sun takes control.
36:40The sun turns out to be a big mess.
36:41Success in the stifling heat depends on the ability to seize the day.
36:49One creature is determined not to miss his chance.
37:07Patagonia's male wandering tarantulas were searching for love.
37:17This male spent four years reaching maturity, but in two months he'll be dead.
37:26He's in a serious hurry.
37:30He'll barely eat or sleep.
37:36This is what he's looking for.
37:39Silken threads left by a female, impregnated with her pheromones, chemical love letters advertising
37:50her availability.
37:52They lead him to her lair.
38:04She can live for 30 years.
38:07She's seen many suitors in the past.
38:15He taps a seductive rhythm to tempt her out.
38:21She replies.
38:26For him, this is a very dangerous liaison.
38:34He eyes her up.
38:37If he's not her type, she'll eat him.
38:53But this male has a talent for seduction.
39:00He tenderly strokes her body.
39:09She relaxes, opening her fangs, allowing him to move closer.
39:22He carefully delivers his packet of sperm.
39:30During mating, the female falls into a trance-like state.
39:38She stays like this for several minutes.
39:43He has to make a quick getaway before it wears off.
39:50For Tarantulas, lingering goodbyes are generally fatal.
40:06The winds are coming to the end of their journey, reaching the edge of the continent.
40:12Yet here, Patagonia is at its most brutal.
40:20This is a true desert, and also Patagonia's most mysterious landscape.
40:42For most of the year, there's not a drop of rain.
40:48It's so hot and arid, little can survive here today.
40:57But this was once a lush forest.
41:04It's littered with tree trunks, now long dead.
41:10Over millions of years, they've been petrified, turned to stone.
41:18Their evidence that the steppe was once far wetter.
41:24But that changed catastrophically.
41:30Seven million years ago, the rising Andes mountains reached their full height.
41:36The mountains stole the rain, transforming Patagonia's climate forever.
41:50A reminder that entire worlds can be snuffed out when the elemental forces of nature collide.
42:08Within touching distance of the Atlantic, Patagonia's desert is at its most extreme.
42:20Yet life triumphs even here.
42:36Not a mirage, a penguin.
42:43She's on a mission, walking deeper into the desert.
42:55Her lifelong mate is waiting for her.
43:07Just one couple in the largest penguin colony in South America.
43:16Magellanic penguins.
43:18Over half a million of them.
43:22So the competition for burrows often boils over.
43:35Magellanics have short fuses.
43:39They aim for bare patches of skin, where blood vessels are closest to the surface.
44:03The damage looks worse than it is, but he'll think twice before stealing another's burrow.
44:17The
44:17This couple have come to the desert for one reason.
44:20The dry air.
44:26Their new chicks are covered in a fluffy layer of down.
44:36Despite the searing day, nights are cold,
44:40so the down is essential for warmth.
44:48But if it gets wet, the chicks will chill and die.
44:55So everyone suffers in the heat.
45:04Each day, their parents take turns trudging to the sea,
45:08across two kilometers of desert.
45:15Dad's feet are leathery, protection from the burning sand.
45:22Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!
45:33Finally, the ocean is a welcome relief.
45:42He'll swim kilometers out to sea, fishing tirelessly for over eight hours.
45:53Back at the burrow, it's tough for Mom.
45:58With her thick feathers and a layer of fat, she's in danger of overheating.
46:06But despite the heat, she can't doze off.
46:09The colony is not safe.
46:17Kelp gulls.
46:21They skulk around the colony, searching every burrow,
46:26looking for unattended chicks.
46:32They won't try anything with Mom around.
46:41The gulls keep her on her toes.
46:43But the main threat to her chicks is the desert itself.
46:49Their only source of water is within the food their parents bring back from the sea.
47:04Around them, the gulls are making the most of early casualties.
47:27But these chicks are lucky.
47:30Dad emerges from the dust.
47:33His stomach full of fish and squid.
47:44Food and drink in one gulp.
47:58For this couple, a hundred days of trudging the desert lie ahead.
48:05Before their chicks are old enough to leave the colony.
48:08Heading out to spend winter at sea.
48:14Saying goodbye to Patagonia.
48:17For another year.
48:27The theft of rains by the Andes Mountains may have destroyed a world.
48:32But in doing so, it has created a new one.
48:38A windswept land to the east.
48:44An arid world of plucky and adaptable survivors.
48:51Pioneers who take on a punishing combination of elements.
48:56And against all the odds.
49:00They triumph.
49:09To be continued...
49:12To be continued...
49:33Transcription by CastingWords