All language subtitles for E11F9CD3B7912DD0EB3EBE32AD3046E5_eng

A male waved albatross will have the same
partner for his lifetime of over 20 years.

After feeding alone over the Pacific
Ocean, this male has returned here to the

Galapagos, as he does every year,
to wait for his mate to come back to him.

Others are already reaffirming their bond.

As the years go by and
they get older, there is almost

a possibility that one of
them will not make it back.

But his bond with his partner is so strong,
he will simply sit and wait for her.

In nature, it's rare to form such a
lifelong commitment.

For most animals, the mating game is both
brief and fiercely competitive.

A female green turtle must
survive the dangers of the open

ocean for 30 years before
she's mature enough to mate.

She's come here to the shallow waters of
Malaysia to breed.

El,

he's been waiting weeks for this
opportunity.

Courtship begins with the gentlest of
circling,

before she accepts his advances.

Their first breath together is the
beginning of several hours of mating.

He will hold on as tight as he can to keep
her all to himself.

Unfortunately, they have company.

He will do anything he can to separate the
pair and mate with the female himself.

He targets the soft, vulnerable parts.

He knocks the air out of his rival.

The female is struggling now
with the extra weight on her

back and soon she will need
the surface to take a breath.

Another male.

More competition.

And here's another.

Now the female has two
males locked on her back and

it's twice as hard for
her to get to the surface.

After an hour of battling, the pair are
being harassed by seven males.

But the males are so excited.

They start attacking each other.

In the commotion, the couple break away
for the surface.

The pair manage to make their escape.

Leaving the rival males milling around in
confusion.

Finally, they can mate in peace.

In the mating game, it's usually the males
who take the risks.

And make the most effort.

A flame bowerbird doesn't fight to win a
mate.

His strategy is to put on a show.

First, he builds a stage.

In the breeding season, he
spends a week creating this

construction called a bower in
the forests of Papua New Guinea.

He's a stickler for detail.

The stage is set.

Time to paint it with mud.

That makes a darker background which will
set off his magnificent colours.

Next, there are difficult decisions about
the set dressing.

Perhaps a bit dull.

There's still room for improvement.

Perfect.

Time to call in the audience.

If anyone's interested.

This could take some time.

Attracting attention is an essential part
of winning a mate.

The world's oceans are
filled with brilliant colours,

all designed to make
their wearers conspicuous.

Unfortunately, this
small Japanese pufferfish

is dull, almost to the
point of invisibility.

But to compensate, he is probably nature's
greatest artist.

To grab a female's attention, he creates
something that almost defies belief.

His only tools are his fins.

In his head, a plan of mathematical
perfection.

He ploughs the sand, breaking it up into
the finest of particles.

These shells aren't just rubbish to be
removed.

He uses them to decorate the bridges of
his construction.

He can't rest for more than a
moment, but must work 24 hours

a day for a week, or the
current will destroy his creation.

A final tidy up, and his masterpiece is
complete.

Nowhere else in nature
does an animal construct

something as complex
and perfect as this.

If this doesn't get him noticed,
nothing will.

Now

it's ready for inspection.

A female, swollen with eggs.

To make sure she gets the best view,
he encourages her into the centre.

Inspection over, she withdraws to await
the final stage of the process.

By the next morning, all the softest sand
is now in the middle.

The centre of the arena has been
flattened.

Right on cue, here she is.

This is what she wanted.

It's a perfect bed for her eggs.

The male now grasps her cheek,
and then fertilises her minuscule eggs.

And with a quick flick of his fins,
he buries them.

They carry on like this until she's
finished laying.

An hour of his rough affection leaves a
love bite on her cheek.

Finally, she leaves.

He stays to fan the eggs
until they hatch, while

his extraordinary work of
art fades away around him.

South Georgia in the Antarctic.

A male fur seal.

He's about ten years old and in his prime.

He's coming ashore to face the fight of
his life.

He may even die on this beach.

For the first time, he is
strong enough to try to win

a territory that could
attract a harem of females.

He's now in the middle of the sea.

But there are plenty of rivals here with
the same idea.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

He's a great hunter.

A little pause.

..

and we are back.

Just a week later, females
have filled the beach, choosing

the best territories in which
to give birth to their pups.

This male now has a harem of a dozen females,
and he's going to have to defend them.

His jealous neighbours will be ready to
exploit any sign of weakness.

It's only once the females have given
birth that males can mate with them.

It's only once the females have given
birth that males can mate with them.

Now this male must ensure that he alone
fathers next year's offspring.

But this is the rival's chance,
too.

He must act fast.

He won't find them all as easy as this to
intimidate.

He won't find them all as easy as this to
intimidate.

New males, pound up from the sea,
intent on testing the territory holds.

With many more waiting, he's going to have
to find a way to get behind them.

The biggest battles are yet to come.

Usually in the making game, it's not the
males, but the females who call the shots.

And this male long-tailed
mannequin is trying to

win over one of the
world's choosiest females.

He's been practising his moves here in
Costa Rica for as long as a decade.

There's another male here, too.

Only the newcomer is not a rival.

He is a junior partner.

They know each other so well, they can
finish each other's calls.

But that's not all that they have
synchronised.

They are master and apprentice.

The apprentice has also been practising
for many years.

He's been practising for many years.

But now he must copy the master's every
move.

In fact, the master
needs his wingman, as a

female won't even
look at a solo performer.

And what's more, she will expect perfect
harmony.

So they practise together every day.

At last, they're ready.

Here she is.

WHISTLE BLOWS WHISTLE BLOWS Rehearsal
over.

Their performance is the result of more
than 10 years' hard work.

She won't tolerate a single slip-up.

WHISTLE BLOWS WHISTLE BLOWS

WHISTLE BLOWS WHISTLE BLOWS WHISTLE BLOWS
WHISTLE BLOWS WHISTLE BLOWS WHISTLE BLOWS

Suddenly, the master calls time on the
dance and the apprentice is banished.

Only the master gets to mate.

For the apprentice,
there will be no reward

until his master dies
and he can take his place.

The mating game can sometimes be a long
game.

A male peacock jumping spider from
Australia on a quest for a mate.

And when you're the size of a grain of rice,
almost anything here could be dangerous.

He's searching for any sign that a female
spider came this way.

And he's found something.

Spider silk with the scent of a female.

He just needs to follow it.

Wherever.

It leads him.

Other males have gone on the same quest
and have come to a grisly end.

Here's a female and she doesn't look very
amorous.

In fact, she kills every male who doesn't
match up to her expectations.

What can he do to win her over?

Dance.

Dance.

Dance for his life.

He will need a show-stopping trick to
avoid becoming lunch.

With his fan unfurled, he
begins an ever-more-complicated

series of dance moves
to try and seduce her.

Dance.

Dance.

At last, she succumbs to his advances,
and allows him to mate with her.

He matched her expectations.

But she kills him anyway.

After all, his body will make the perfect
meal with which to nourish their eggs.

Bucky!

In Papua New Guinea,
the male flame bowerbird

is still doing his best
to attract a female.

And at last, he gets a response.

Unfortunately, it's a young male.

And worse, he's brought a friend.

They're taking liberties, practising on
his bower.

He doesn't seem to know what to do about
it.

But enough is enough.

The commotion attracts the attention of
another adult male.

A neighbour and rival.

Having destroyed the bower, he even steals
the decorations.

The owner arrives back to find a scene of
destruction.

No female's going to look twice at this
mess.

He'll just have to start all over again.

In life, there will always be rivals in
the mating game.

Autumn in the forests of Japan.

The mating season for Japanese macaques.

This dominant male is over 20 years old.

Age has clouded one eye.

He has had a harem of females for many
years.

And he can mate with them unopposed.

But time catches up with everyone.

Young rival males are hanging out on the
perimeter eyeing up his females.

For years, old blue eye has asserted his
authority from this tree.

But his authority is waning.

And the moment his back is turned, his
females are lured away by younger males.

Throughout the forest, his females are
conducting secret affairs.

Blue eye tries to guard his females by
patrolling the edge of the troop.

Caught in the act.

He attacks his unfaithful female.

He has reasserted his authority.

Or so he thinks.

The moment the old male shuts his eyes,
his females are off again.

Most of next year's babies will be
fathered by his rivals.

And he will never know.

In Papua New Guinea, the bowerbird has
lovingly rebuilt and redecorated his bower.

Another visitor.

This time, it's a female.

This is just where he wants her.

Time to begin the show.

First, he expands his pupils alternately.

It's an oddly mesmerizing display.

A spot of limbering
up, accompanied by a

weird, and wheezy call
from deep in his throat.

Now it's time for his grand performance.

He waves his wing like a matador's cape.

She appears to be transfixed.

This is certainly eye-catching,
but it seems he needs to do more.

Generously, she drops him a hint.

It's the bird equivalent of a bouquet of
flowers.

It's all going so well, it's time to get
physical, with a few headbutts to her chest.

One final flourish to cap weeks of effort.

But something's wrong.

His rival is back, and at the worst
possible moment.

What should he do?

For the female, the moment has gone.

Sometimes, whatever you do, things just
don't work out.

On the first seal beat
in South Georgia, the

fighting has been
relentless for two weeks.

Blooded and scarred,
this bull has held onto

his ground and his
harem against all comers.

But it's not over yet.

The rivals keep coming.

This new one looks particularly powerful.

When two bulls are as evenly matched as
this they can trade blows for 20 minutes.

The resident bull is tiring.

The weeks of fighting have taken too great
a toll.

Suddenly, his neighbors join in the
attack.

Overwhelmed, he's driven from his
territory and out of the colony forever.

The breeding season is almost over and the
seals will soon leave.

Now an outcast, this mortally wounded bull
will die here.

But he will die a winner.

He held his territory for long enough to
father offspring.

Success in nature is all about creating
the next generation.

Whatever it takes.

A male waved albatross waits for his mate
to return from the open sea.

Could this be her?

Or this?

Is there something familiar about her?

And they can resume their long-standing
relationship.

Love

as we understand it exists in nature.

Then surely this must be it.

Their lifelong bond will help them face
the final chapter of life's story together.

One of the most unexpected
stories found by the Life Story team

was that of a small fish who
makes crop circles in the sand.

Unfortunately, it builds them right at the
bottom of a bay in southern Japan.

So how do you film a tiny fish 13 metres
under the sea?

Specialist underwater cameraman Hugh
Miller's solution is to build a film story.

A film studio on the seabed.

This is a quad pod.

It's a bit like a tripod,
but it's got four legs and

lets us get the camera
very, very low to the seabed.

This metal triangle is going to be the
point light rig.

So it's like a little ray of sunshine down
at the bottom of the sea.

But this is the first time it's been used.

And we're going to find out if it works or
not.

Hugh has also designed
an underwater crane to

reveal the full complexity
of the nest structure.

But however good the
equipment, the team will still

have to find the
12-centimetre-long fish in a big bay.

For that, they turn to the expert.

70-year-old Yoji Okada first
discovered the mysterious

crop circles and the
puffer fish that makes them.

He and his dive buddy Toyo
are going to search the sea across

several square miles of
seabed, hoping to locate a fish.

Fish is very difficult, almost.

Camouflaged very well, like almost sandy,
so just I can see shadow or just eye,

so it's very difficult.

But eventually, Toyo and Yoji have good
news.

They've found what turns out to be the
only male fish in the bay.

12 metres, yeah.

They've even drawn a map for Hugh to find
it.

If I get lost, I'll be holding this.

Time to build the studio.

All the kit is taken to the seabed to be
carefully assembled.

Last thing in place is Hugh's little ray
of sunshine.

The fish won't start building a new nest
for several days, so there's time to test

his reaction to the kit while he fancies
eggs, on his old, disintegrating nest.

He's certainly not camera shy.

And now Hugh's had his first good look at
the fish.

The biggest surprise was the fish is a
little bit smaller than I first hoped.

In fact, he's only... he's really only
about this big.

So to suddenly be faced with a fish that's
probably half the size of what I was

hoping, I thought,
well, this is going to

be a little bit harder
than I first thought.

Yoji and Toyo keep watch, and it's not
long before they spot the fish starting to

construct a new nest, which Yoji expects
will take him seven days to complete.

He surprises everyone by finishing it in
three.

Yoji warns the crew to be ready at dawn the
next day for a visit from a female fish.

They spend three hours
crouched over the camera to

film the action as it unfolds,
just as Yoji predicted.

So what happened?

Spawning.

We got it.

The little chap was doing very well for
himself.

But the male built his nest so fast that
Hugh never had time to film a top-down

shot for the ultimate reveal of his hard
work.

This requires the crew to become builders,
too.

They build an A-frame to hold the camera
perfectly steady well above the nest.

Yoji and Toyo position the frame near to
the old nest.

Now the crew just have
to wait for the fish to

finish tending his eggs
and resume building.

But a few days later, there's bad news.

We've been watching a typhoon system far
to the south of us for a number of days.

We haven't really felt its effects until
now.

And today was going
to be the first day of half

a fish beginning its next
cycle of nest building.

And it's been completely blown.

So rather than going in with the cameras
and starting the new cycle, we're actually

going in just to recover equipment,
which is a real shame.

We don't know what's going to happen next,
really.

It's five days before the storm blows
through.

Finally, the sea calms down and the
visibility returns.

But for Yoji and Toyo, it's back to square
one.

They must find the fish all over again.

Day after day, they search, and Toyo,
acting as interpreter, reports back.

No nest, no mail.

No nest, no mail.

It gets slightly better.

We find a fish.

Just one fish, but no nest.

We find the mail at 20-metre deep.

But not make circle.

The storm has put the fish off his
construction work.

Time it up, and the team reluctantly start
to dismantle the underwater studio.

But the fish has one more surprise in
store.

I just couldn't come at a later point,
the last dive, where we're going to pull

out the kids, and there's a male making a
nest.

One final chance to get the perfect top
shot from the A-frame.

A shot that truly does justice to the
fish's extraordinary artistry.

Next up... It's time on Life
Story... Animals raise offspring.

With great commitment...

Bad behaviour...

Lessons to be learned...
And life and death choices.

Success means leaving a legacy for the
future.

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