All language subtitles for Ch5 Atlantic A Year in the Wild 3of4 Summer 1080p.eng

The Atlantic - immense, hostile and brutal.

The world's second-largest ocean,

so vast it generates weather.

An irresistible power that shapes
lands with its unstoppable force.

To survive in the world's wildest
ocean takes tenacity and strength.

This is the story of
birth and death,

struggle and survival.

Where the Atlantic meets Europe,

where the land meets the sea,

this is a year in the wild.

The Atlantic stretches from the
Antarctic to the Arctic,

from the Americas to Africa
and Europe...

..where its ferocity is matched by
its richness and diversity.

Summer has arrived.

The ocean is at its warmest.

Migrants and residents gorge.

Youngsters must grow and learn

before taking their first steps
towards adulthood.

In the Atlantic's far north,
summers are short,

heaping pressure on the animals
that live there.

Iceland's most northerly
peninsula is Hornstrandir.

Rising 1,500ft from the
Atlantic Ocean,

it's remote and wild...

..home to a pair of Arctic foxes...

..and their two cubs

who have reached a critical point
in their short lives.

Back in the spring,

they raised their five cubs on a
diet of seabirds...

..which they plundered from nests

along some of the Atlantic's
tallest cliffs.

Now, with seabird nesting season
over, food is scarce.

Mum is forced to travel further
and for longer to find food...

..leaving Dad to look after
the cubs.

He's relocated to sea level

where he picks for bugs along
the shoreline.

Only two of the five cubs remain,

their three siblings having already
moved on.

They spend much of their time
playing...

..seemingly unaware that they must
soon start out on their own.

One has learned the beach is a good
place to search for scraps

washed up by the waves.

This will become an important
source of food as he grows.

CUB CRIES

The second cub is less
resourceful...

..and cannot hide its excitement
when Dad returns.

A seabird carcass is
hungrily received.

But it can't rely on
handouts for much longer.

The adults will soon reclaim this
territory,

forcing the two youngsters to find a
place of their own.

Starting life alone is a difficult
and dangerous time

for many youngsters.

For some, it requires a massive
leap of faith.

The island of Noss,
just east of mainland Shetland.

It's a very big day in
a puffin colony -

the culmination of their
breeding season.

Every summer, hundreds of young
puffins, called pufflings,

emerge from their
underground burrows.

They take their first look at
the outside world...

..and the 600ft cliffs they're about
to jump off.

Back in the spring, the adults
returned from a winter at sea...

..got reacquainted with their
lifelong partner...

..and then renovated their nest.

Once mating was over,

they put all their energy into
raising a single chick.

Fishing trips are
long and regular...

..diving down to 200ft...

..to hunt fish and sand eels...

..which they carry home
dozens at a time.

Late July...

and the youngsters are now
old enough to care for themselves.

So the adults abandon their nests

and suddenly feeding stops.

If the pufflings are to eat,

they must take their very first
flight from the clifftops

to the ocean below.

But there's an added danger.

Predatory gulls are waiting
for them to emerge.

The only way to avoid them is to
jump in the dead of night.

One by one they appear...

..warm up their flight muscles...

..make a few final adjustments...

..then take off into the
inky blackness.

A life-and-death leap
into the unknown.

Midnight on the Shetland island
of Noss.

A colony of pufflings emerged from
their underground burrows

to leap 600ft into the
Atlantic Ocean.

The morning after...

it's obvious some didn't make it.

But the vast majority did.

One is still to jump.

The longer it waits,
the greater the chance of predation.

A stumble...

but is saved by a ledge.

It must get at least 1,000ft
out to sea

to be safe from the gulls.

It steels itself...

..then leaps...

to the safety of the ocean.

Puffling fledging is highly
synchronised,

and is over in a couple of days.

The clifftop that's been
a hive of activity since spring

suddenly falls silent...

..until next year.

Breeding season may be over for
the puffins,

but along the Atlantic coast,
it's still in full swing

for one of the world's most
remarkable ocean inhabitants.

A male short-snouted seahorse
waits for his partner to return.

She is out patrolling her
territory...

..feeding as she goes,
sucking up microscopic creatures.

The tiny fins on her head help her
change direction.

The long fin on her back
pushes her forward.

Her eyes work independently.

One focuses on what she is about
to eat,

while the other searches
for her next meal.

But she must also keep
an eye out for predators.

A large spider crab approaches.

She changes colour to blend in
with her surroundings.

Once the coast is clear,
she moves off,

only to come across more crabs...

..forcing her to flee again.

Seahorses pair for life,

and unlike any other animal,

it's the male that carries,
and gives birth to, their young.

They breed throughout the summer,
giving birth to multiple broods.

They're reunited.

He puffs up his empty brood pouch
to show her he's ready to mate.

And they dance.

Courtship will continue until
they eventually mate.

He will then give birth to
live young in about three weeks.

Courtship displays take on
many guises.

Unlike the seahorse dance,

the world's strongest beetles
attract their mate

by parading, bulking up,
even giving presents.

Donana National Park,
south-west Spain.

A vast wilderness of dunes,

woods and marshland...

..supporting a rich and diverse
array of wildlife...

..including rare Retuerta horses,

which once roamed across
much of this region,

but now only exist here.

Their existence provides food

for one of the dunes' most
industrious little residents.

Dung beetles -

nature's recyclers.

They love poo.

They eat it, live in it,

even lay their eggs in it.

But first, they have to find it,
move it and hide it.

A male dung beetle scans the
air with his antennae.

Once he locates a dung pile,
he moves in...

..cuts off a manageable chunk...

..then carries it off.

This is what he needs to
win himself a mate.

Head down and bum up,

he rolls it in a straight line
away from the dung pile,

using the sun to help him navigate.

Knocked off track by the terrain,

he quickly checks his bearings...

..before heading off again.

But another male catches a whiff
and wants some.

A judo roll finishes off
the aggressor.

Finally, he attracts a female.

She trails a few paces behind.

Even hitching a ride.

Once he finds a good place
to bury it, he digs.

She waits patiently.

When the hole is about the right
size, she moves in.

He follows.

Safely hidden away, they feed
and mate...

..then move on to do it
all over again.

This coastline is strategically
important

to millions of migratory birds.

A place to refuel when flying
between Europe and Africa.

But for some,
this is also the journey's end.

Every year, greater flamingos arrive
from north-west Africa

to feed and raise their
next generation.

At four feet tall, they're the
world's tallest flamingo.

They feed on shrimps, snails,

crabs and small fish, which they
stir up with their feet.

Pigments in their food give them
their distinctive pink plumage.

They're feeding for themselves
and their offspring,

which they leave in a creche
at the centre of the saltpan.

They group tightly together,

the smallest pushed to the
outer edge.

With many parents away,
they're vulnerable to attack

from predatory gulls that are
circling above...

..waiting for the perfect moment
to strike.

On a coastal lagoon in
southern Spain,

a predatory gull circles above
a flamingo creche.

Once it spots a small one at the
edge of the crowd...

..it attacks.

The creche descends into chaos.

With its parents away feeding,
it is powerless.

The assault is brief but violent.

The gull has learned that repeated
strikes tire the chick out.

Eventually it collapses with
exhaustion and dies.

For the flamingos,
losses are unavoidable.

But the flock thrives and
remains strong.

Across the Atlantic,

many summer migrants are now reaping
the rewards of their long journeys.

Every year, the British Isles
attracts

one of the most mysterious migrants
of all.

The cool, shallow waters off the
island of Tiree

in the Inner Hebrides

is the destination for dozens of
basking sharks.

No-one really knows where they
come from,

or return to in the autumn.

They're here to feast on
small fish and invertebrates

which they filter from the water.

Driven by their massively
powerful tails,

these 30ft-long sharks graze...

..their three-foot-wide
mouths gaping,

straining up to 2,000 tonnes
of water every hour.

Tiny creatures trapped by their
gills are then swallowed.

They're not indiscriminate feeders,

but actively search for water
rich in food,

then simply swim through
their next meal.

The UK plays host to 40 species
of shark.

Basking sharks are the largest.

But the most numerous large sharks
are found off the Cornish coast.

As the ocean warms to
14 degrees Celsius,

blue sharks arrive...

..some having travelled 4,000 miles.

Their streamlined bodies and long
pectoral fins

help them conserve energy
while they swim.

Big eyes give them away as
visual predators.

But they're also scavengers,

and their excellent sense of smell

helps them detect food
many miles away.

A dead dolphin floating off the
Cornish coast draws in the sharks.

Shaking their heads helps them
slice through

the dolphin's thick, leathery skin.

The ten-foot-long adults dominate.

Smaller youngsters nip in to
grab a bite when they can.

The 200lb dolphin is stripped
of flesh in no time.

And the sharks move on to scavenge
elsewhere.

On Scotland's Isle of Skye,

the two white-tailed eagle chicks
have fed well.

They've outgrown their nest
and are ready to move on.

Back in the spring,
their parents fished well.

The chicks grew quickly.

Now, midsummer, food deliveries
are starting to dry up -

a gentle hint to the youngsters
that it's time to leave home.

The larger one warms up its
flight muscles

in preparation for its
maiden flight.

This is a dangerous time.

The sea loch lies 100ft below.

The mountainside is covered in
thick forest.

Get take-off wrong and its
first flight could be its last.

Suddenly...

..it's off.

Its very first flight.

Looking on,
its sibling is now alone.

There's no time to waste.

Flapping and jumping help
with confidence.

And suddenly, it's off too.

Their parents continue
to bring them fish,

using an old eagle nest as
a feeding platform.

The family will stay together
for another two months,

until the youngsters learn to
fish for themselves.

Then they'll head out on their own,

nomadic at first, before they find
themselves a territory

and grow to become tenacious top
predators, just like their parents.

For some, the transition from
youngster to adult

takes just a few minutes.

Every year,
off the Cornish and Welsh coasts,

thousands of spiny spider crabs
emerge from the deep.

They're on a life-changing mission

that will culminate in their
transformation

from adolescents to adults.

The Atlantic coast of
south-west England.

Spider crabs are leaving the deep
and heading towards the shore.

Just one or two at first.

But numbers soon increase.

Some have walked a hundred miles
to get here,

covered in seaweed which they
stick to themselves

to help with camouflage.

They're all adolescent crabs,
around two years old.

In just two days,
they'll turn into adults.

But before that, a remarkable
transformation must happen.

Spider crabs have a tough shell

which they must shed before they can
grow.

They crack open and start to emerge.

It takes 15 minutes to carefully
extract themselves, legs and all.

More keep arriving,
crashing into those in mid-moult.

Once out, they're soft and exposed.

It takes two days for their shell
to harden.

During that time,
they're vulnerable to predators.

Gathering in such huge numbers
offers them some safety.

But they'll even eat each other.

One hasn't emerged fully
and is cannibalised.

Vital fuel ahead of their
long journey back to the deep.

The only sign of their remarkable
migration -

cast shells strewn along
the shoreline.

Late August,
summer is drawing to a close.

But the Irish Atlantic has
one last spectacle.

The ocean is at its warmest.

Plankton blooms,
drawing in huge schools of herring,

which in turn attract predators.

Two miles off Ireland's Kerry coast,

around the Blasket Islands,
gannets fish to feed their chicks.

Common dolphins race in...

..to fish alongside one of the
world's largest predators.

Humpback whales.

The Irish Atlantic is home to
a small number of humpbacks

all year round.

But their numbers peak in
summer and autumn

as migrants arrive,

turning this part of the Atlantic
into a major feeding ground.

They hunt by bubble netting.

Once they find a school of fish,
one drops deep...

..swims in a circle...

..and blows bubbles from its
blowhole.

This creates a curtain which the
fish won't swim through.

Two humpbacks have developed
a unique type of bubble netting

not seen anywhere else in the world.

While one makes a circle of bubbles,

the second remains at the surface,
blocking the fishes' escape route.

The first whale swims up,
mouth open...

..and devours hundreds of fish.

They then swap over roles so that
they both get a turn to feed.

They're the only two humpbacks
known to feed like this,

and proves that whales can be
incredibly creative

when it comes to securing a meal.

The dolphins join them, picking off
the fish that the whales missed.

For all the animals living in
and around the North Atlantic coast,

life is about to become
a race as autumn arrives.

Next time, the season of plenty
gives way to the season of change...

..when animals must either migrate
or prepare for winter's onslaught.

But for some, autumn is also the
time of courtship...

BELLOWING

..and birth.

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