All language subtitles for David.Attenboroughs.Global.Adventure.S01E01

Narrator: Sir David Attenborough
is the unstoppable champion

of the natural world.

His pioneering ideas
about life on our planet

open our eyes to new worlds.

These have been called
nature's greatest experiment.

Narrator: In his mid-80s,
many thought he had retired.

However,
over the next seven years,

he launched a new era
of natural history filmmaking.

Ooh!

He revisited iconic locations
across the globe...

Attenborough:
I'm here surrounded

by one of nature's
greatest wonders.

Narrator: Embracing
advanced technologies,

his mission
was to show us the world

from a different perspective.

Ow!

That's a very powerful beak.

This is a journey
from that very special time

of global adventures.

Oceans cover almost
three quarters of our planet.

It's a world which reveals an
astonishing diversity of life.

In the shallow seas off
the northeast coast of Australia

lies the world's largest
coral-reef system.

I'm here surrounded by one
of nature's greatest wonders,

a living structure so enormous,
it can be seen from space.

The Great Barrier Reef.

I've been fascinated by it
for almost 60 years.

It's an ecosystem like no other.

And, for me, it's truly one of

the most extraordinary places
on the planet.

Coral reefs are surprisingly
noisy places.

Fish and invertebrates produce
a whole range of clicks

and grunts and snaps.

The healthier the reef,

the more varied and numerous
its inhabitants

and the louder this chorus is.

We now know that fish,
just like birds,

vocalize most
at dawn and dusk.

Damselfish call
to defend their territory.

Seahorses click
to attract a mate.

Others create
a very different soundscape

simply by carrying out
their daily duties.

Parrotfish crunching
through the hard coral

are a constant on the reef.

Fish perceive sound
in two different ways.

Many have internal ears,

but underwater they can also
feel sound as a vibration.

The noise is a key indication

that the community
is in good shape.

In fact, the louder the noise
on a reef,

the more inviting it is
to newcomers --

newcomers like
the young clownfish.

This little male
is no bigger than a button,

but the time has come for him to
find his place in the big city.

At this stage,
his swimming abilities

leave something to be desired.

But his hearing is so sensitive,

he can tell over hundreds
of meters if a reef is suitable.

His journey can last days.

The final approach
is usually made at night

to avoid predators.

In the case of the clownfish,

juveniles have been known
to travel 250 miles

before they find a reef.

Fortunately, for the majority,

it's usually
a much shorter journey.

While they rarely return
to the particular anemone

beside which they hatched,

60% find a new home
on the same reef.

The clownfish keeps the anemone
in good health

by removing unwanted parasites.

And in return,
the anemone offers security.

It's stinging cells ward off
the sort of creatures

which would otherwise
threaten the clownfish.

Cooperation
is the key to success

in this extremely crowded environment.

Other residents, however,
take a very different approach.

Rather than share their home,

they fiercely defend
their territories.

This is a mantis shrimp.

There are many different species
of mantis shrimp,

but they all have
one thing in common --

superb vision.

The 400-million-year-old visual
system of the mantis shrimp

is the most complex
in the entire animal kingdom.

Its eyes are mounted
on two stalks,

giving it independent vision.

But whereas our eyes
produce binocular vision,

each one of theirs produces
three different images.

Not only that, whereas
we have three photo receptors

in our eyes,

the mantis shrimp has up to 16,

giving it access
to parts of the spectrum

that we can't even see,
let alone imagine.

And they can use their amazing
vision to devastating effect.

While some are armed
with spears,

others carry clubs.

Many are champion boxers.

They can deliver a punch
that accelerates faster

than a .22-caliber bullet.

These powerful blows
are used to stun their prey

and defend their burrows.

Mantis shrimps are one of
the more house-proud residents

on the reef.

In fact,
they're compulsive cleaners.

They keep their burrows
meticulously neat.

With all that effort,
it's hardly surprising

that they're
fiercely territorial.

In fact, mantis shrimps
have earned themselves

a reputation for being
somewhat ill-tempered.

The mantis shrimp is arguably

one of the reef's
most colorful characters

and typifies
the key to survival here.

I first came to the Barrier Reef
nearly 60 years ago,

and I remember very clearly

how amazed I was to see
such a complexity of life.

But today we have ways

of looking at the reef,
technical ways,

which we never had before

and give us a completely new
vision of this wonderful place,

which is surely

one of the greatest treasures
of the natural world.

Taking me on this journey
is the Alucia,

a 56-meter state-of-the-art
research and exploration vessel.

For this expedition, we've been
granted unprecedented access

to some of
the most remote corners

of the Great Barrier Reef.

This is a Triton submarine,

the very latest
in submersible technology...

and the first of its kind
to be brought to these waters.

There are still parts
of the Great Barrier Reef

that are virtually unexplored.

But today we have got remarkable
new underwater vessels

like this submersible
that can take us

to places where no unprotected
human being could possibly go.

What they will find down there,
nobody knows,

but I'm lucky enough
to be one of those

who's about to go down
to find out.

Our state-of-the-art submersible
is going to take me

to see these deep corals
for myself.

Are we clear to vent?

You are clear to vent.
Clear to vent.

Roger. Venting now.

Sinking beneath the waves
is a very surreal experience.

Your first instinct
is to hold your breath.

We are descending
into the Twilight Zone.

Nobody has ever dived
as deep as this before

on the Great Barrier Reef.

Most of the light
that filters down from above

comes from the blue end
of the spectrum,

so the rock surface
ahead of me looks very dull,

but turn on the lights,
and it looks very different.

Despite their remoteness,

these strange relatives
of reef-building corals

are still part
of the Great Reef system.

To understand
how they're connected,

we need to study them closely.

So this seems an excellent place
to collect a sample.

But maneuvering
our 8-ton submersible

close to the rock face
is a delicate operation.

Oh, that's great.

The chances are that this
could well be a species

that no one
has ever seen before.

At this depth,
the pressure bearing down

on the submersible's sphere

is more than 30 times
that at the surface.

At almost
the deepest point of our dive,

something pays us a visit.

It's a deep-water grouper.

No one has ever seen them up
close like this at this depth.

It appears to find the sub
and its occupants fascinating.

And he's big, this boy.

He must be 4, 5 feet long.
Couple of meters almost.

Hello.
Oh, gosh.

And why he's down here,

what he's looking for,
who knows?

He's going up.

So are we.

As we ascend, light and color

returns to the reef around us.

Narrator:
The world's most remote islands

open a window into a world

where nature
remains undisturbed...

...harboring rare
and hardy creatures.

600 miles off the coast
of South America,

a unique group of islands

form the archipelago
of the Galápagos.

Attenborough:
In the vastness of the Pacific,

there's a place
unlike any other...

enchanted volcanic islands
that are home

to a remarkable collection
of animals and plants.

Here, evolution is proceeding
with spectacular speed.

In a lifetime spent
making natural history films,

I've been
to many wonderful places,

but none more extraordinary
than here,

the Galápagos Islands.

These have been called
nature's greatest experiment,

for, here,
life has evolved in isolation

and produced
some extraordinary results.

This is Alcedo.

Its vast crater
is 4 miles across.

And it has become a sanctuary

for one of the island's
most spectacular inhabitants,

giant tortoises.

There are thousands of them.

These are
the extraordinary creatures

that gave their name
to the islands.

"Galápagos" in Spanish
means "tortoise."

And here in the pit
of the volcano Alcedo,

they've assembled
in quite some numbers

to wallow
in the warm volcanic mud.

They live for up to 100 years
or more,

which makes them amongst
the most long-lived

of all vertebrates.

And being reptiles,
they get their energy

by basking in the sun,

but their bodies are so big
that once they are warmed up,

they can carry on browsing
for quite a long time.

Perhaps the most
extraordinary thing

about the Galápagos tortoises

is that they're not
all the same.

Different islands
have different kinds.

In the heyday,
there were 15 species.

They seem to have appeared

in an evolutionary
blink of the eye.

In the far west of
the archipelago lies Fernandina.

This is the youngest
of the Galápagos Islands.

Its forbiddingly desolate
and inhospitable.

But one animal
has colonized its shoreline.

This creature is a specialist

at surviving
in this harsh terrain.

And in adapting to this place,

it has become like
no other animal on Earth.

Behold the marine iguana.

The ancestors of these iguanas
almost certainly lived

in the jungles
of Central America.

There, still today,
you can see iguanas

in the trees
overhanging the rivers,

nibbling leaves

or on rafts of reeds.

Occasionally,
some are swept out to sea,

and the vast majority,
of course, die there.

But just a few a long time ago
were fortunate enough

to be swept
by favorable currents

out to the ocean
and pitched up here.

In their ancestral
rainforest habitat,

iguanas are vegetarians.

Here, they browse
on juicy leaves.

But the iguanas that first
appeared in the Galápagos

could find no such things.

So these iguanas, to survive,

had to eat the only kind of leaf
that was available.

Seaweed.

And to get the best of that,

they had to do something
even more radical.

They had to swim.

They even learned to dive.

They acquired the ability
to hold their breath

for up to an hour

so that they could swim down
to a depth of 20 meters.

Their claws strengthened

so they could cling
to the rocks on the seabed.

And under the water,

they found an endless supply
of seaweed,

which grew in abundance
in the nutrient-rich currents

that flow around the islands.

But that was not all.

Their snouts became flatter
to help them graze.

And their teeth became sharper
to grip the slippery seaweed.

Narrator: Almost 5,000 miles
from the Galápagos,

deep in the Southern Atlantic,

lies the island
of South Georgia.

Far from any human settlement,

this undisturbed shoreline
is a haven for the hardy.

All are fighting for survival.

There is one animal here
which dominates.

Attenborough: This is the home
of the penguins.

King penguins.

A chick begs for more

of what little food remains
in its mother's stomach.

The mother can't carry on
like this forever.

If her partner
doesn't come soon,

she will have to make
a terrible choice.

Either she or the chick
will starve.

But the fishing party
is on its way back.

They've landed at the wrong end
of the beach.

All the king wants to do
is to get back to his partner

and feed his chick.

But there is trouble.

Elephant seals.

At least 20 of them.

60 tons of blubber
and flatulence.

And they don't like
being disturbed.

They can't go back...

they can't go 'round.

The only option
is to find a way through.

Our king seizes the moment

and leads
a death-or-glory charge.

Bad idea.

It's time to regroup.

Perhaps a more stealthy approach
would be better.

Not that way.

Or that way.

Our king spots his chance.

He leads his cousins through.

A city full of penguins,
each with its own cry.

Despite this, our king
can call right across them

and still hear the answer
he's hoping for.

In the time he spent away,

his chick has changed
almost beyond recognition.

For the first time,
he can take over.

Between them, these two
will do everything they can

to keep their chick from hunger.

Narrator:
Our skies hold evidence

of a remarkable
evolutionary story.

Here, animals adapted to rise up
from the surface of the Earth

and spread across the planet.

Flight is the natural world's
soaring achievement.

Clues to how the earliest fliers
took to the skies

can be found in the ancient
rainforests of Borneo.

We human beings
are latecomers to the skies,

and although we might think that
we're now pretty good at it,

the natural world,

with the help of several million
years of evolution,

has produced a dazzling range
of aeronauts

whose talents
are far beyond ours.

The story of how animals
managed to colonize the air

is truly astonishing.

First into the skies
were insects,

but after having had the skies
to themselves

for about 100 million years,

a new group of animals
took to the air --

vertebrates,
creatures with backbones.

I am being winched up into
one of the tallest trees here

in search of a creature
that can give us a hint

of how backboned animals
first took to the air.

Hidden among these leaves

of this fern high up here
in the canopy

is a very remarkable
little frog.

It's a harlequin tree frog.

And it's a very,
very good climber.

It spends most of its life
up here

climbing around in the branches.

Here, it's away from the
numerous predators there are

that might attack it
down on the forest floor.

But if in fact a predator
were able to get up here

to hunt it --
a snake, perhaps --

well, the tree frog has
a remarkable trick for defense.

It glides.

It has membranes
between greatly elongated toes

so that each foot
becomes a parachute,

which slows the frog's descent

and so enables it to make
a relatively safe landing.

The vertebrates made
their first forays into the air

around 260 million years ago,

and it's very likely
that some of these pioneers

used skinny membranes
to control their falls

in much the same way
as this little frog does.

Narrator:
For many creatures,

flight has become
the ultimate superpower.

The insects took advantage of it
with such success

that they are now
the most numerous

and widespread animals
on the planet.

Attenborough: Emerging
from beneath the ground

where it has lived and fed
as a larva is a beetle,

one of the biggest in the world.

The Atlas beetle.

Males like this one
are armed with long horns,

powerful weapons with which to
compete with rivals for a mate.

It now spends most of its time
above the ground,

barging its way
through the undergrowth

where it feeds on tree sap
and fallen fruit.

This hefty, powerful creature

may not look
as if it could fly...

but it can.

At key moments in its life,
it takes to the air

to look for new sources of food

and, of course, a female.

All this borrowing
and rummaging around

could injure
delicate flight wings,

so beetles have hardened
the front pair

to form this pair
of protective covers.

And the delicate flight pair

are stowed away in safety underneath.

To see how the wings are folded
away beneath their covers,

we need to wait for takeoff.

As it flaps,
sprung hinges click open

and the wings are stretched
to their full size.

The working wings create lift

in just the same way
that the dragonfly wings do.

And the front wings,
which have now become covers,

are held out to the side.

And their shape does give
a little extra lift.

But it's clear that this is
really a rather clumsy flier.

Landings can be clumsy, too.

And now those fragile wings

must be carefully packed away
beneath their covers.

They're guided
by a line of tiny hairs

at the base of the abdomen.

These grip the wings

and help push them
into position.

The beetle does it
with all the care and precision

that a skydiver uses
when packing away his parachute.

The beetle way of life
proved astonishingly successful.

There are over 370,000
different species of beetle

so far discovered.

An unbelievable figure.

Narrator:
Over 100 million years
after the insects,

the birds took to the skies,

dazzling the natural world
with their extraordinary skill

as aerial acrobats...

and stealthy hunters...

crossing oceans and continents

to conquer
every landscape on Earth,

even the skies
above manmade urban jungles.

Attenborough:
To watch a bird that has evolved

into one of the world's
most skillful hunters,

I've come to Rome.

There's a bird that flies over
these roofs that finds its prey

not on the ground,
but in the air.

And it owes its success
to its speed.

In fact, it's said to be the
fastest-moving animal on Earth.

The peregrine.

Peregrines hunt other birds.

Many different kinds of birds
now live in cities,

attracted by
the food and shelter

that is so easily found here.

And a tall building like this is
an ideal lookout for a hunter.

Flying prey can move
in any direction it chooses,

so a hunter has to be both fast
and agile if it's to get a meal.

And speed is crucial
to a peregrine's success.

It also has acute vision

that enables it to spot prey
over a mile away.

And for the peregrines
that hunt in Rome,

these birds are prime targets.

Starlings.

They, too, are fast fliers.

And their smaller size makes
them even more maneuverable.

So to catch a starling,
a peregrine must be even faster.

And in order to gain speed
and surprise,

it attacks from above.

First it climbs.

When it sees a group of
its potential prey, it turns...

dives, and accelerates
by beating its wings.

The starlings are still unaware

of the danger
hurtling towards them.

Finally, the peregrine
draws its wings back.

This is called the stoop,

a superb, streamlined shape
that slices through the air.

Now it can reach speeds
of over 200 miles an hour.

As it nears its target,
it opens its wings

to slow its descent
and makes its final lunge.

Narrator:
Exploring our past can give us

insight into the natural world
in the present.

Brought to life
by new technologies,

it's a world where encounters
can be just as wondrous

as anything we experience today.

Attenborough:
The Natural History Museum.

It's a place where we can get

a vivid idea
of the great variety of life

that inhabits our planet
both today and in the past.

We wanted to bring animals

in the Natural History Museum
to life.

CGI has reached
a peak of perfection.

It simply looks real.

It's an ideal playground
for computer-generated images

to waltz around the place.

Once you got the idea that
you were going to take advantage

- of 3
- D and the CGIs,

then you say, okay,
which are going to be

the interesting things
to bring to life?

And so one of the
entertaining things to do

is to bring these animals
to life

in the light
of modern knowledge.

And here it is.

There are two ways of
pronouncing it scientific name.

It's either dipplo-dough-cuss
or dip-lodda-cuss.

Either way,
it's a bit of a mouthful.

So I am going to use
the nickname that is commonly

used around here.

This is Dippy.

And what's more, although
there's no way of being sure

whether it was male or female,

I'm going to assume
that Dippy was female.

But what did Dippy look like
when she was alive?

This strangely shaped fragment

of a dinosaur called Edmontosaurus

was mummified
before it was fossilized.

So not only the bones,

but the skin
was almost perfectly preserved.

And it was covered
in small scales.

They didn't overlap
like those of a lizard,

but formed
a close-fitting mosaic.

Maybe Dippy was like that, too.

But what about her color?

My suspicion is that Dippy,
like many large mammals today,

such as elephants
or rhinoceros,

was a general, all over,
neutral plain color.

So if we add a little bit
of skin and flesh,

we can get some idea of what
she actually looked like.

So now, after 150 million years,

we've got a pretty good idea
of what Dippy looked like.

But how did she behave?

Well, animals
her size and weight

must have moved
in a rather ponderous way.

And in any case,
since she was a vegetarian,

as we know from her teeth,

she had no need to be speedy
to get her food.

But it's the tiny bones
in Dippy's inner ear

that can give us a clue
as to what she sounded like.

These little bones
are basically the same shape

as that of the dinosaurs'
closest relatives, birds.

The range of sounds
a bird hears

is related to its size.

A small bird makes and hears
high-pitched sounds,

whereas large birds communicate
with low-pitched sounds.

So huge Dippy

with her inner ear bones
shaped like those of a bird

could probably hear

very low-pitched
frequencies of sound.

And she could probably
make them, too.

We know that elephants today

can communicate
using infrasound,

sound with sequences so low,
they're below human hearing.

And those sounds travel
through the ground,

sometimes for many miles,

and are detected by elephants

through their large, flat,
sensitive feet.

Dippy, too,
had large, flat feet,

so maybe the giant dinosaurs
communicated with one another

in much the same way,
as well as by bellowing.

And those may not have been
the only noises

that Dippy could make.

Some scientists think
that because

of the length of her tail
and the way the joints work,

she might have been able
to crack it like a whip.

The muscular strength
that enabled her

to hold her tail
above the ground

meant that she could, if
necessary, use it as a weapon.

Her tail would have helped
to balance her long, heavy neck.

But why was that so long?

It used to be thought
that she lived in rivers

and needed her neck to break
the surface in order to breathe.

But that can't have been true

because if her body
was submerged,

the pressure of the water
would have crushed her lungs.

The most likely explanation
seems to be that her huge neck

helped her reach
vast quantities of leaves.

Sweeping it from side to side,

she could cover
a larger grazing area.

She could also push ahead
between forest trees

to reach ferns
and other ground vegetation.

But in order
to reach the highest,

most succulent leaves
in the forest,

it seems likely that Dippy

would have reared up
on her hind legs.

Come on, Dippy.

Breakfast. Come on.

Oh, hello.

This poor old bird is a dodo.

It once lived on the island of
Mauritius in the Indian Ocean,

and it's almost certainly
the first animal species

that human beings actually
exterminated in historic times.

And so now we talk about
being "as dead as a dodo."

But in spite of its fame,

this one is a fake.

Its feathers come from a goose.

Its feet were modeled
on a turkey.

And its beak, I suspect,
is plaster.

The museum can be forgiven

because no skin or feathers
of the dodo survive.

Its image was influenced
by pictures like this one

painted by a 17th-century
Dutch artist, Roelant Savery,

but he had never seen
a living dodo

and based his image
on accounts by seafarers.

I've often wondered whether
dodos actually looked like that,

but unfortunately
they'd all disappeared

before anyone
could get a good look at them.

Until now.

This funny, dumpy creature

is how the bird is usually
represented these days.

But I've seen quite a lot of
flightless birds over the years,

and this one
doesn't quite ring true.

An examination of the way
its thighs join its pelvis

has shown that in life

it actually stood
much more upright.

We now know that its feathers

were probably a lot fluffier
than in that painting.

We also now know that
it was related to the pigeon,

and some experts suggest
that it made a pigeon-like call.

"Doo-doo, doo-doo."
Which gave the bird its name.

The dodo probably fed on fruit.

There was a lot of it
on the island.

I'll try him with a bit.
Come on.

What do you make of that?

Ow!
That's a very powerful beak.

In fact, it may well
have been adapted

for crushing shells
and crustaceans

for the sake of the calcium.

And there's a female.

Maybe she is another reason
why they had such large beaks --

to show off with
during courtship.

And here comes a rival male.

He could be another reason
for having a huge beak --

to fight with
in disputes over nest sites.

Until now, no one
has ever seen a dodo egg,

so no one knows how big it was.

But after tonight, who knows?