All language subtitles for Seven Worlds One Planet Continents of Wonder BBC 1080p EN SUB

200 million years ago,

our planet looked very different
from what it does today.

It was entirely covered by sea,

which surrounded one single
supercontinent we call Pangaea.

And then...
Pangaea began to break up.

Life was cast adrift
on fragments of land.

And these fragments eventually
became our seven continents.

We will see how life developed
on each continent,

giving rise to the extraordinary
and wonderful diversity

that we see today.

In this programme, we celebrate
highlights from the series.

From the far north

down to Antarctica.

Revealing rarely seen animals...

..newly discovered species...

..and incredible behaviours.

This is Seven Worlds, One Planet.

Over 100 times the size
of Great Britain,

North America stretches from
just above the equator

almost to the North Pole.

But today, on this vast continent,
things are changing.

In the far north, summers are now
getting longer and hotter.

And Canada is warming faster
than any other country on Earth.

Polar bears have always relied on
sea ice for their hunting.

For most, these long summer months
are a time of starvation.

But on the shores of Hudson Bay,

some bears are finding
a new source of food.

They're all looking for
the same thing,

and they have
their own ways of catching it.

First, they must find
the right rock.

Now, they must wait.

The tide comes in, bringing with it
other northern giants.

Beluga whales.

Close to the shore,

their calves should be safe from
ocean-going predators such as orca.

Over 3,000 whales
have gathered here.

The bears need to be patient.

Success will depend on
split-second timing.

A bite at the back of the head,
and the kill is swift.

This extraordinary behaviour
has only been reported here

in this remote corner
of North America.

And only in the last few years.

This one small group of bears
has found an ingenious way

to survive the lean summer months.

Today, much of the planet's wildlife
has to live alongside people.

And nowhere more so than in Europe.

With a population of over
700 million,

it's a crowded world
transformed by humanity.

But there are pockets of wilderness
even in Europe's cities.

Vienna in Austria has over
2,000 parks, gardens and cemeteries.

And down in the undergrowth,
a rather unusual resident.

Wild hamsters are found
in grasslands

throughout central Europe.

Here in the city,
they're doing extremely well.

This male is on a mission
to find food.

And he's set his sights on
one thing in particular.

Fresh flowers.

To survive the winter,
hamsters must fatten up.

So there's no time to waste.

The only problem - these flowers
are in someone else's patch.

HAMSTER SQUEAKS

BOTH SQUEAK

Graveside bouquets
are worth fighting for.

The winner gets to keep
the territory

and all the food within it.

The loser has to beat
a hasty retreat.

But the lure of fresh petals
is just too much.

Plan B - stealth mode.

The coast looks clear.

But best not take any chances.

The trick is to get in and out
before you're caught.

And now...

..dessert.

Candle wax.

It's full of oil,
and high in calories.

A hamster's cheeks can hold
a quarter of its body weight.

Just one more mouthful...

Oh, dear.

MUFFLED SQUEAKS

Big cheeks and narrow bottlenecks.

How very embarrassing.

Wherever you live,
finding food can be a challenge -

be it in the urban jungles
of Europe...

..or the equatorial jungle
of Africa.

At its heart lies over a million
square miles of wilderness...

..much of it still unexplored
even now.

The forests of the Ivory Coast
contain over 1,500 species of plant.

But some are very
difficult to get at,

even for one of the most
intelligent of animals...

..chimpanzees.

The elders in this group know where
to find the most nutritious food

and how to extract it.

But if they are
to survive to adulthood,

the youngsters must learn
these skills from their parents.

This young female is five years old.

Old enough to be given
an important lesson.

HOOTING

REPETITIVE BEATING

And this is her teacher.

Her mother.

The lesson is how to crack a nut.

Using tools like this is so complex
that it has only been mastered

by a handful of
chimpanzee communities.

This is a skill that has been
practised by chimps

for several thousand years.

Time to try for herself.

She needs to find a better tool.

Small rocks just
don't have the clout.

And larger ones are too cumbersome.

Wood is both light and strong...

..but not strong enough.

Back to teacher.

It may take a young chimp
up to a decade

to perfect the skills
it needs for nutcracking.

She'll share this knowledge
with youngsters of her own,

enabling them to harvest the riches
of their rainforest home.

The largest of all the continents,
Asia, is a land of extremes.

Here lie some of the hottest
deserts on Earth.

This is the Lut Desert of Iran.

Here, temperatures
can reach 70 Celsius.

The blisteringly hot rocks

and baking sands of Iran's deserts
may appear totally lifeless.

But a few trees manage to grow
in the shade of the canyon walls.

And here, at least,

migrating birds passing through
can stop for a little rest.

The flycatcher.

With luck, there might be
a meal of some kind here.

There are spiders in the crevices.

Not much, but worth having.

And there's something
moving up there.

The bird was mistaken.

It was a viper with a lethal bite.

This species has only
recently been discovered,

and so far, it has been found
nowhere else but here.

Its camouflage is so effective

that it's almost impossible
to see it on these rocks.

And on its tail,

movable scales have been modified
to look like a spider's legs...

..and its tip like an abdomen.

Migrating birds only appear
in this barren desert

during a few weeks of the year.

This is the snake's only chance
to eat for months.

A shrike.

It has flown here from Africa
and hasn't fed for days.

SHRIKE CHIRPS

Better luck next time.

Asia also contains
the highest mountains on Earth.

The Himalayas.

They stand over five miles high.

Asia's mountains stretch
all the way from Afghanistan

across northern India
to here in central China.

These are the mountains
of Shennongjia...

..among China's highest.

The forests here were,
until comparatively recently,

the least known in the world.

Few outsiders had any idea of what
animals might be living in them.

There were stories of
humanlike monsters, yetis,

abominable snowmen, who left
strange footprints in the snow...

..but little else.

And indeed, there are monkeys
living in the snowy forest.

And they're very strange.

Meet the two-faced, golden-coated,
snub-nosed snow monkey.

They are among
the heftiest of monkeys.

Big animals keep warm
more easily than small ones,

and they survive
in colder conditions

than any other monkey on Earth.

They all have snub noses.

Perhaps prominent ones would only
too easily get frostbitten.

The whole group huddles together

at the slightest opportunity
to keep warm.

And who wouldn't?

Even adults, if they get separated
from the group, can freeze to death.

Now, in the depths of winter,
food is desperately hard to find.

The head of the family leads them
to the edge of their territory

in search of something to eat.

The only food here
is wretchedly un-nourishing.

Bark, moss, and lichen.

There's hardly enough to sustain
one monkey, let alone a family.

But they share it peaceably.

Survival depends on
the group keeping together.

In these mountains,
any food is precious.

A rival group.

They too are searching for food.

MONKEYS SCREECH

The two males go head-to-head.

SCREECHING INTENSIFIES

And now, the females join the fray.

Outnumbered, the intruders retreat.

MONKEY ROARS

Their leader is the last to go.

The fight was over
the smallest of meals,

but it was ferocious nonetheless,
and the family is now scattered.

But they must stay together.

The youngest are
already badly chilled.

MONKEY SQUEAKS

She can see her father,

but has she the strength
to reach him?

Back to safety and warmth.

The huddle is the only source
of warmth in these bleak,

frozen forests.

Asia may have the highest
mountain range,

but the world's longest
can be found in South America.

Stretching for over 4,000 miles,

from Venezuela in the north,

to Patagonia in the south -

the Andes.

At the southern tip,
mountains rise almost vertically.

The barren slopes look inhospitable.

But like all parts
of South America,

they're actually rich
with wildlife.

A family of puma.

They live further south
than any other kind of cat on Earth.

These cubs are only six months old,

entirely dependent
on their mother for food.

She knows how to exploit this rugged
landscape to her advantage.

And she has to do so

if she is to catch the continent's
most challenging prey.

Guanaco, a relative of the camel.

Two metres tall and over
three times the weight of a puma.

The mother's only hope
is to go for the throat

and try to suffocate her prey.

GUANACO CALLS

GUANACO CALLS

Her cubs try to help...

..but they themselves
don't yet have the skills

or the weight to bring down
such large prey.

And the mother is now badly injured.

Her wounds are severe and will take
weeks to heal properly.

But without food,
her cubs won't survive for long.

As the days pass,
she's becoming more desperate...

..and leaves her cubs,
to hunt alone.

Staying low, she's nearly
within pouncing distance.

GUANACO CALLS

Now she MUST hold on.

She's exhausted.

But her hungry cubs
are almost a mile away.

PUMA CALLS

CUBS GROWL

This one meal will barely
last the whole family

for more than a few days.

Then their mother, somehow,

will have to summon
the strength to hunt again.

Life for a hunter in this land
is as hard as it gets.

In the heart of South America is one
of the continent's hidden jewels.

Here, at Bonito,

freshwater springs
bubble up from deep underground.

Filtered through limestone,
they create crystal-clear pools.

And in them live some
remarkable fish.

Piraputanga.

The water is so clear
that they're able to see

what is going on above its surface.

Brown capuchins are up there.

The monkeys are on their
daily search for ripe fruit.

The piraputanga watch them
attentively.

And with good reason.

Monkeys aren't
the neatest of feeders.

Every scrap is fought over.

Before long, the monkeys
have had their fill.

That might have to be
the end of mealtime

for the piraputanga today.

But now they know where
the fruit is.

And there's still
plenty left on the tree.

In the monkeys' absence,
they go for it themselves.

Success or failure is just
a matter of millimetres.

With a split-second adjustment,

the fish bends in midair

and collect the prize.

Where there is water,
there is life...

..even on the world's driest
inhabited continent...

..Australia.

The grasslands support
vast mobs of kangaroos.

In its woodlands are echidnas -

mammals that lay eggs like reptiles.

And there is an assassin here

that has only recently
been discovered.

A jotus - jumping spider.

She's only five millimetres long
but, nonetheless,

she is a stealthy
and ferocious hunter.

She searches for prey
among the grass stems.

THUD

She's single-minded
and focused on hunting.

But today might be different.

This is something new.

Something fast.

And a little trickier.

But what is it?

Is it food?

It's a male jotus,

looking for a mate.

He needs to catch her attention.

But female jotus only mate once -

if she's mated before,
she might kill him.

He will need to seduce her
with care.

Waving his arms makes
his intentions clear -

he's a friend, not food.

No sign of an attack, yet.

But she doesn't seem
particularly impressed.

Time to try his best move...

..the double paddle.

That surely will do the trick.

One final wave...

..and he's tamed her.

She stays still
for just long enough.

And then he retreats quickly,
before she has second thoughts.

At the far south of our planet
lies Antarctica...

..the most remote and least-known
of all the continents.

It was first sighted by humans
just 200 years ago.

It's the coldest, driest, windiest
and most hostile of all.

Nowhere in Antarctica
is survival easy.

Gentoo penguins
travel up to 50 miles every day

to find food.

And they're now returning
to their chicks.

They are the fastest penguin
in the sea

and can swim at 22mph.

An express delivery
for hungry chicks

who've been waiting patiently
back at the colony.

Today, it's been a good hunt
for krill.

Perhaps too good.

The chicks grow and it seems that
the Mohawk style

is back in fashion.

It's just a phase.

He'll grow out of it.

He'll soon lose
these remaining down feathers

and be ready to leave the colony

and collect food for himself.

But doing so is becoming harder
because of climate change.

Glaciers in the region
are now calving faster

than they have done
since records began.

And this brash ice
now fills the bays.

It's autumn.

The chicks have lost their down
feathers and they're hungry.

They must go to sea
for the first time.

But now there's a risk of
being crushed between blocks of ice.

They have to get to
the distant icebergs...

..and so reach the open ocean
that lies beyond.

And that is easier said than done.

A leopard seal...

..their main predator.

It's a giant - three metres long.

These icy conditions
help it to hunt.

PENGUIN TRILLS

The penguins
can neither walk nor swim.

PENGUIN SQUAWKS

These are easy pickings.

SEAL ROARS

But there is no alternative.

The penguins must run the gauntlet.

PENGUIN SQUAWKS

PENGUIN SQUAWKS

The seal seems to be
toying with this penguin.

But safety is in sight.

The ice floe is near the open ocean.

But this penguin is exhausted.

PENGUIN SQUAWKS

SEAL ROARS

PENGUIN SQUAWKS

SEAL ROARS

Perhaps it's not worth it,
after all.

90% of the world's ice
lies in Antarctica

and, in some parts,
the rate at which it's melting

is doubling every decade.

Climate change is affecting
weather patterns around the world.

Rainfall is increasingly
unpredictable.

Average temperatures are soaring.

Today, scientists tell us

that we are at the start of
a mass extinction,

and one that is being caused
by human activity.

Over a million species
could be wiped out,

many within the next few decades.

In Africa,
the northern white rhinoceros

is now facing extinction.

Killed by poachers for its horn

for use in traditional medicine.

These two females
are the last of their kind.

When they die,

an entire subspecies that inhabited
the Earth for millions of years

will have disappeared forever.

But, with help,

even the most vulnerable wildlife
populations can still recover.

In Africa,

an intensive conservation programme
for the mountain gorilla

has raised their numbers above 1,000

for the first time
since records began.

In Europe,
thanks to conservation efforts,

the numbers of Iberian lynx
are on the rise.

And it's no longer
critically endangered.

And in Antarctica,

the international ban on whaling
has meant that the great whales

have returned to the Southern Ocean
in numbers not seen for a century.

So we can improve things...

..if we determine to do so.

This is a crucial moment in time.

The decisions we take now

will influence the future of
animals, humanity,

and indeed all life on Earth.

# No, I don't wanna walk alone

# I want to believe

# Can you hear my call

# As love will speak to me? #