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Our Planet | Forests | FULL EPISODE | Netflix — Transcript

by Netflix · 2,719 words · 348 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:20[narrator] Just 50 years ago,
0:23we finally ventured to the moon.
0:40For the very first time, we looked back at our own planet.
0:53Since then, the human population has more than doubled.
1:04This series will celebrate the natural wonders that remain
1:09and reveal what we must preserve
1:12to ensure people and nature thrive.
1:34Forests.
1:37Over half of all the world's trees, evergreen and deciduous,
1:42stand in these great assemblies.
1:47[birds chirping]
1:54[narrator] For many of us, they are places of mystery and darkness.
2:08They are key to our climate, and home to countless unique species.
2:19In the past, we have destroyed them without hesitation.
2:25Yet, forests do have an astonishing ability to recover.
2:52This is the southern edge of the boreal forest,
3:00the forest that dominates the far north.
3:07It stretches eastwards across Russia for thousands of kilometers,
3:12and now, in the middle of winter, it's largely silent,
3:18seemingly empty of animals of any kind.
3:26But this is the home of an animal so rare it's almost mythical.
3:56A Siberian tiger.
4:02There are less than 600 of them.
4:10[caws]
4:19[tiger growls]
4:22[narrator] These are the most intimate pictures of them in the wild yet taken.
4:39A male Siberian tiger patrols a territory of almost 2,000 square kilometers,
4:47and it has to do so if it is to find enough prey
4:51to keep itself alive during the long winter.
5:04This is an impoverished land where food of any kind is scarce.
5:14A pine cone.
5:18Pine nuts provide vital energy during the winter months.
5:30Wild boar depend on these nuts.
5:37For them, it has to be grab and go,
5:42for they themselves are food for a tiger.
5:53[squeals]
6:00[narrator] This game of hide-and-seek is played out over vast areas of forest,
6:05as all the animals search for the life-giving stands of pine.
6:19Poaching has taken the Siberian tiger to the brink of extinction,
6:25but, since the 1980s, their numbers have slowly increased.
6:40These rare glimpses reveal
6:43that their future still depends on having vast areas of forest in which to hunt.
7:00The boreal forest extends from Russia in the east,
7:04across Europe, to North America.
7:08It contains 750 billion trees,
7:13and it stores over 40 percent of the world's carbon,
7:17making it a vital element in the fight against climate change.
7:27During the winter, the days are so short and the temperature so low,
7:32that growth is at a standstill.
7:42This far north, the forest can support very few animals
7:46compared to the rain forests of the tropics.
7:52Many are dependent on the supplement to be found in its rivers.
7:58[birds caw]
8:09[narrator] In western Alaska, both in spring and, as now, in autumn,
8:14salmon, having left the ocean,
8:17swim up rivers to reach their ancestral spawning grounds.
8:22Their journey from the sea into the forest represents
8:25the greatest transfer of nutrients from one habitat to another
8:30anywhere on Earth.
8:38The fish are crucial seasonal food
8:41for all the predators that live in this forest.
8:48Bald eagles live here the year round and nest close to the river.
8:55[piercing chirp]
9:12[narrator] Young eagles, still without white heads,
9:16spend their first years searching for food in the forest.
9:21But, like this four-year-old female,
9:24they're now big enough to try and claim a place on the river.
9:33At first, all she can get are the scraps left by others.
9:41And she can't get even these without a fight.
9:50[eagles chittering]
10:05[narrator] She will have to look elsewhere.
10:13The boreal forest may be vast,
10:16but the places where the salmon spawn are known to all the predators.
10:26As the rivers begin to freeze over, competition becomes even more intense.
10:43This youngster is lucky, but her success is noticed immediately.
10:47[chittering]
11:22[narrator] She does have one advantage.
11:27Females, even when young, are larger than the males.
11:31And here, size matters.
12:12[cawing]
12:16[narrator] As winter advances,
12:18young and old have to meet the challenge of the intense cold.
12:26If she can survive, she will have gained a place
12:29in one of the greatest and harshest forests on Earth.
12:47A little further south
12:48stand the last of the great redwood forests.
12:56Not so long ago, these great trees grew throughout the Pacific Northwest.
13:09Now, only five percent of them remain.
13:22Here, conditions are less harsh.
13:25Winds bring in warm, humid air from the Pacific Ocean,
13:29so the trees are able to grow the year round.
13:35Hidden in the vegetation of the moist forest floor
13:39is a richly populated underworld.
13:48A male rough-skinned newt.
13:54Every spring, he is driven by a mysterious urge
13:58to return to the pool where he hatched as a tadpole.
14:06And he needs to get there quickly.
14:12Because there are lots of others like him...
14:19with exactly the same idea.
14:44They're all searching for a female,
14:47but trekking across hundreds of meters of old-growth forest is not easy.
15:00There is strong competition.
15:11And the female is anxious to get going.
15:21Once paired, he hangs on,
15:23for she may take several hours to discharge all her eggs.
15:34Other males are only too eager to displace him if they can.
15:48Competition is so vigorous
15:50that the females in the center of these writhing balls
15:54have been known to drown for lack of air.
16:08But her first partner maintains his grip.
16:13Within weeks, their tadpoles will hatch.
16:19And none too soon, for the forest is about to change dramatically.
16:30By the end of the summer, the sun has baked the forest so intensely
16:34that they are as dry as tinder.
17:00Strong winds drive the flames,
17:04and temperatures rise to 700 degrees Celsius.
18:05Its aftermath is seemingly total destruction.
18:23The wind, scouring the newly exposed forest floor,
18:27kicks up dust devils of ash.
18:43The ground appears to be devoid of life.
19:03But the forest is far from dead.
19:16Within only a few months,
19:18flowers and tree seedlings will rise from the soil.
19:32Many, in fact, would not have germinated had they not received a baptism of fire.
19:50[birds chirping]
19:55[narrator] Light streaming down through the newly opened canopy
19:59provides the energy for a surge of new growth.
20:15The older, well-established redwoods have survived,
20:19protected by their thick, fire-resistant bark.
20:29This natural resilience is essential to the continued health of these forests.
20:47Most forests, however, cannot recover on their own.
20:54Many are helped to recover by animals.
21:02The trees and their inhabitants are interdependent.
21:10And nowhere is this dependence more apparent
21:13than in India's Western Ghats.
21:17This globally important habitat
21:19contains a third of all animal species found in India.
21:28[animals whoop and chirp]
21:35[narrator] Lion-tailed macaques.
21:43They feed on the fruits of many kinds of tree,
21:46and, in doing so, they distribute the seeds,
21:49which will emerge unscathed with their droppings.
21:57But few monkeys travel very far.
22:01If plants are to distribute their seeds across great distances,
22:06they need another kind of transport.
22:21Wings.
22:44Great hornbills have wings that are almost two meters across,
22:49and they enable the birds to travel long distances in search of food.
22:57Hornbills feed on the fruit of 40 or so different kinds of trees,
23:02and transport the indigestible seeds they contain
23:05all over the Western Ghats.
23:12So, it's to the trees' advantage to attract the hornbill's attention.
23:33The figs themselves, although they taste nice,
23:36are not, in fact, very nutritious,
23:38so the hornbills have to eat great quantities of them.
23:47It can be tiring work.
23:52But it's not a free-for-all.
23:59A single fig tree in fruit attracts great numbers of hornbills.
24:12Competition between them is intense.
24:32This aerial jousting between males has never been filmed before
24:37and its purpose is not really understood.
24:42It may be that the birds are simply squabbling over food,
24:46but it seems rather more than that.
25:00[squawking]
25:22[narrator] The winner is able to demonstrate his strength and skill
25:26to visiting females.
25:37The males certainly seem keen to ingratiate themselves.
25:51It's particularly important for hornbills to get the best pairing
25:55because, once established, the bond between male and female
25:59will last a lifetime.
26:09The forest also benefits from these squabbles,
26:12because even a defeated hornbill
26:14will spread seeds over wide areas as he searches for his next meal.
26:25The relationship between trees and animals in a forest
26:28is not always so harmonious.
26:33This is Africa's largest forest, the Miombo,
26:38named after one of its common trees.
26:42It stretches for over a thousand miles,
26:45from Angola in the west to Mozambique in the east.
26:59At the height of the dry season,
27:01the Miombo attracts animals from all across southern Africa.
27:05[trumpeting]
27:17[narrator] Elephants prefer grass if they can get it. It's very nutritious.
27:26In its absence,
27:27they browse on the abundant leaves and branches of the Miombo.
27:33[elephants huffing]
27:39[narrator] But they're not the only hungry ones here.
27:47These mopane worms
27:49are not worms, of course, but caterpillars.
27:56They hatch simultaneously in huge numbers.
28:05And just as the forest is putting out new leaves,
28:08they begin their attack.
28:24They feed so voraciously
28:26that in just six weeks they increase their size 40 times.
28:36By the time they're fully developed, this million-strong army
28:40will have stripped the entire forest of its foliage.
28:50But the Miombo bounces back.
28:55With the caterpillars gone,
28:56the trees produce a second growth of leaves.
29:06This fresh feast then attracts elephants.
29:14They are less fussy than the caterpillars.
29:19They will eat every part of the tree.
29:23And a hungry elephant can munch through 200 kilos of vegetation in a day.
29:36Yet, even this destruction has its benefits.
29:41It shapes the forest in a way that helps one of Africa's most endangered animals.
29:50Hunting dogs.
29:56They're seen most frequently, and most easily, on grasslands.
30:00But, in fact, these open forests are their preferred habitat.
30:05[grunts]
30:11[narrator] Browsing elephants open up a forest,
30:13and that attracts the animals on which the dogs prey.
30:17[barks]
30:25[dogs yipping]
30:59[narrator] For the dogs, the Miombo forest is perfect hunting country.
31:07And it's also an excellent place in which to bring up pups.
31:22The pups greet the adults returning from a hunt
31:24with great excitement.
31:26[squealing]
31:33[narrator] Food.
31:44The first three months of the pups' lives are spent sheltering underground.
31:50[soft growling]
31:55[narrator] Now, they are confident enough
31:57to stay out in the open for much of the time.
32:01And then, like all puppies, they have fun.
32:21Playing is important for the youngsters,
32:24for as they do so, they establish the social bonds
32:28that they will need when they start to hunt together as a team.
32:39-[bird squawks] -[squealing]
32:43[narrator] The Miombo has always been important for hunting dogs,
32:47both as a place to find prey and as a refuge.
32:56Never has it been more crucial
32:58for the survival of this endangered species than now.
33:07But they will only survive if other creatures are here
33:11to create the kind of habitat they need.
33:14[elephant lows]
33:22[narrator] Madagascar has a forest
33:24dominated uniquely by one of the oddest of trees.
33:29Baobabs.
33:36The island has been isolated for over 80 million years.
33:41During that immensity of time, its animals and plants
33:45have evolved into forms quite different from any elsewhere.
33:54This makes them one of the most precious forests on our planet.
34:09This is not a monkey, but a distant relative, a lemur,
34:13and there are at least 40 different kinds of lemurs,
34:17all unique to Madagascar and all endangered.
34:21[lemur hoots]
34:23[narrator] Lemurs are crucial to the forest.
34:26Without them, some species of tree cannot survive.
34:36The forest even has its own specialized lemur hunter.
34:50It's Madagascar's top predator,
34:53and its presence is cause for alarm.
35:01It can grow to a length of one and a half meters,
35:04and it's very seldom seen in the wild.
35:09It's a fossa.
35:20For most of the year, fossas are solitary,
35:22but in the breeding season, they assemble in a way that is all their own.
35:30Each mature female takes up residence in a special mating tree.
35:49Half a dozen or so male fossas have gathered in the forest below it,
35:56but she is clearly occupied.
36:02So, one of the males leaves his scent.
36:07A visiting card, just to show that he called.
36:24He will just have to wait around and see whether she takes any notice.
36:34Her present engagement can last all night.
36:42With its top predators distracted, the rest of the forest animals
36:46can go about their normal nightly business undisturbed.
36:54These are immature leaf bugs, a species found only here in Madagascar.
37:01Why they have this extraordinary shape, no one knows.
37:09They feed on tree sap,
37:11absorbing the part they need and excreting the rest as a sweet liquid
37:15sometimes known, perhaps flatteringly, as honeydew.
37:25And honeydew, in turn, provides food for a particular species of small lemur.
37:43The gray mouse lemur is only 15 centimeters long,
37:47one of the smallest primates in the world.
37:55It's very active and needs an energy-packed food.
38:01And while the sugar drops are clearly delicious,
38:04they're not very sustaining.
38:10So, she's not going to let a single drop go to waste.
38:38The male fossas below are still awaiting their turn.
38:42[animal screeches]
38:45[narrator] So, having eaten as much as she can,
38:48she retreats to the safety of her nest hole
38:51to sleep during the daylight hours.
39:16Things are not looking so satisfactory on the ground
39:19around the fossas' mating tree.
39:23[sniffs]
39:26[narrator] The pair above are clearly still engaged.
39:33He will either have to find another mating tree or be very patient.
39:46But he may well fail altogether.
39:51A third of Madagascar's fossas have disappeared in the last 20 years,
39:57a result of the continued destruction of their forests by people.
40:06Since these pictures were recorded,
40:08this forest, and the unique life it once contained,
40:12have disappeared altogether.
40:19Only three percent of Madagascar's dry forest remains.
40:31Worldwide, we have now destroyed
40:34over half of the forests that once flourished on our planet.
40:41Not only are we losing the animals that once lived in them,
40:45we are also changing the climate of the entire globe.
41:02But our planet's forests, if given the chance,
41:05are almost unbelievably resilient.
41:13Perhaps the best proof we have of their ability to recover
41:17can be seen on the site of one of our greatest disasters.
41:29Chernobyl.
41:36In 1986, one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded.
41:44It turned this utopian vision of the future into a ghost town.
41:55Over 100,000 people were immediately evacuated,
42:00never to return.
42:08The fallout zone was declared uninhabitable for the next 20,000 years.
42:25Yet despite the radiation, there has been a remarkable recovery.
42:56Within only a decade,
42:59vegetation began to germinate in the ruined city.
43:09And as the forest reestablished itself, animals began to appear.
43:39At first it was thought that these were rare visitors,
43:48but it soon became clear that the former city
43:51was occupied by an established and thriving wild community.
44:08[chirping]
44:23[narrator] Within only 20 years,
44:25science has recorded populations of animals
44:28similar to that in the wilder parts of Europe.
44:35Roe deer are now a common sight, wandering through the suburbs.
44:48Herds of the endangered Przewalski's horse
44:51now roam freely through the once busy city.
44:57Most surprising of all perhaps,
45:00the top predator of these forests has reappeared.
45:06Wolves.
45:11Hunters like these would only return
45:13if their prey and the surrounding forest is also thriving.
45:20Now, studies have shown
45:22that there are seven times more wolves inside the exclusion zone than outside it.
45:36No unprotected human being
45:38can stay here for long without lethal risk.
45:44But in driving us out,
45:46the radiation has created space for wildlife to return.
45:59The dramatic recolonization of Chernobyl in the space of only 30 years
46:05is proof of forests' extraordinary resilience.
46:21If we choose to give forests time and space,
46:25they could reclothe the earth
46:27with much of the rich and varied communities of animals and plants
46:32of which we have, so recently, robbed it.
46:39A future with more forests is key to the resilience of our planet.
47:03Please visit ourplanet.com
47:06to discover what we need to do now to restore our forests.
47:13♪ I can hear the whole world Singing together ♪
47:21♪ I can hear the whole world Say it's now or never ♪
47:30♪ 'Cause it's not too late If we change our ways ♪
47:34♪ And connect the dots to our problems ♪
47:38♪ I can hear the whole world Say we're in this together ♪
47:45♪ We're in this together ♪

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