Patagonia is a wild land at the end of the Earth pounded by ferocious storms and surrounded by violent Seas huge glaciers ripped through a landscape carved by Ice survival here means being tough enough to cope with brutal Winters enough to exploit short seasons of opportunity on land Wildlife struggles in one of the world's most extreme environments but oceans explode with life this is South America's most rugged wilderness thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] is the southernmost part of South America stretching south from the Rio Colorado it covers over 300 000 square miles of
Argentina and Chile [Music] it's a place of extremes home to one of the world's largest deserts and yet billions of liters of fresh water are locked into the ice of its vast Glacier fields it's a land of the unexpected where unusual animals live in unusual places Penguins Nest under desert plants [Music] relatives of the camel sit out winter snows parrots live by the sea gripped by winter for nearly half the year Patagonia is a tough place to survive spring and summer are all too brief and Wildlife must rush to take advantage of a short opportunity
to hunt and breed on the Northeast Coast the ocean collides with a remote peninsula it's the ideal place for sea lions to rear their pups yeah it's the end of summer for the last two months the pups have enjoyed the safety of the beaches but now they're getting curious and venturing into the water they need to perfect their swimming skills before winter returns and they have to take their first journey out to the open ocean surfing the shallows they Flex their flippers and gear up for a life at sea but this Nursery isn't a safe
place foreign [Music] or killer whales or the ocean's apex predators and one of the most intelligent animals in the water [Applause] this Patagonian Shore is the only place in the world where killer whales have learned to beach themselves as a hunting technique it's a it's a risky maneuver if they get stranded on land their bodies would quickly collapse under their own weight the killer whales patrolling patagonia's beaches I've learned how to wriggle back to deeper water the Hunter's window of opportunities short-lived in just two weeks the sea lions will leave the beaches and head south
to the rich feeding grounds of the South Atlantic [Music] the southernmost tip of South America breaks up into a maze of fjords and Islands this archipelago at the end of the world is called Tierra del Fuego it's most southerly Headland Cape Horn is a treeless island of rock that marks the place where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet Antarctica is just a thousand kilometers away [Music] seas around Cape Horn are some of the most notorious in the world pounded by gale force winds and dominated by waves up to 30 meters high in the 16th century
explorers came here in search of a trade route to The Spice Islands and the riches of the East Indies but for many both boats and dreams were dashed against the rocks [Music] over 800 ships have been wrecked trying to round Cape Horn and for centuries it was known as the sailors graveyard cold water from Antarctica pushes North along South America's West Coast from the southern tip of Chile right up to the Equator this vast cold tongue of water is known as The Humble current [Music] bringing nutrients up from the deep it Powers the most productive
Marine ecosystem in the world while they may have claimed the lives of hundreds of sailors the cold seas around the tip of Patagonia are bursting with life sardines form shows that can be 20 meters across and made up of hundreds of thousands of individuals a fifth of the world's entire fish catch comes from these Waters and so much fish attracts specialist fish Hunters [Music] feline is one of the most skillful predators in the ocean [Music] which diet helps him build up a layer of blubber several centimeters thick keeping him warm and almost freezing water [Music]
oh Tierra del Fuego is surrounded by icy waters but its name means land of Fire this archipelago was named by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan to led the first European expedition here in 1520 from his ship Magellan saw fires on the beaches that belonged to the native yaghan and Shelton people reports from this Voyage tell of encounters with people 12 feet tall that roared like Bulls Magellan called these fearsome people patagon after the Giant in a popular Spanish novel of the time it was an outrageous exaggeration but the mythology stuck Patagonia the land of giants was
born but evidence of it remains Mounds along the seashores are formed from piles of shells known as concertos all that is left of lost settlements women would coat themselves in Seal fat and dive for shellfish in the cold Waters men built canoes and Huts from native lenga Beech trees the vanished people left their Mark here but there is something new that is changing the landscape dramatically [Music] the forests of Southern Beech trees on Patagonia are some of the hardiest trees in the world they tolerate gale force winds and survive temperatures as low as -30 degrees
[Music] but they're succumbing to a new enemy beavers this male works hard to stockpile food for his family before the winter takes hold in a few short weeks his pond will freeze over but he'll still be able to access his underwater Larder thick oily coat keeps him warm in the icy water like all rodents this Beaver has an insatiable desire to chew [Music] his leg teeth never stop growing so he needs to gnaw wood to wear them down this male is descended from just 50 Canadian beavers that were released in Tierra del Fuego in the
1940s to start a fur trade the Beavers thrived today he's one of over a hundred thousand beavers here and their dams have flooded thousands of hectares of Tierra del Fuego these Southern Beach forests can't regenerate from the stump so Beaver damage kills them outright beaver dams turned pristine streams into stagnant ponds thank you native animals such as these austral parakeets are suffering is a direct result these little birds live further south than any other parrot in the world as beavers cut down more and more trees the parakeets food supply and potential homes are running out
there's another bird here that seems to be thriving in the wake of the beaver's destruction but only in the short term the magellanic woodpecker [Music] a red-headed male forages with his family decaying logs felled by beavers of prime habitat for grubs and the woodpeckers have the perfect tools to dislodge them the beak is hard and like the beaver's teeth never stops growing it's worn down by the birds incessant hammering huge feet have toes that face both forwards and backwards helping them keep a firm grip specially stiffened tail feathers brace against a tree like a tripod
[Music] but the woodpecker's secret weapon is its tongue covered in sticky saliva Barbed at the end it's the ideal weapon for skewering juicy prey [Music] the woodpecker's tongue is also a built-in shock absorber the tongue is almost as long as the bird's body and it wraps around the woodpecker's skull helping protect its brain from the impact of drilling for grubs but the woodpecker's boom time won't last Beaver damaged trees rot away to nothing and the forests are shrinking eventually there won't be enough trees to support woodpeckers at all Tierra del Fuego snow-capped Hills are the
tail end of the longest mountain range on Earth [Music] they stretch North seven thousand kilometers to Venezuela on the Caribbean coast [Music] they're so big they determine the weather of the entire South American continent [Music] at the onset of winter moisture-laden air blowing in from the Pacific Ocean is forced up the steep slopes already chilled by the Humboldt current coming up from the Antarctic water vapor in the rising air condenses and Falls as snow which gradually compacts into ice twenty thousand years ago the whole of southern Chile was covered by Ice today just four percent
of this ice sheet remains in two ice fields the larger of the two the southern Patagonian ice field still extends nearly 17 000 square kilometers it's the second largest expansive ice in the world outside the poles [Music] as winter approaches more and more storms bring new snowfall to feed the ice field days shorten to just seven hours of light in the shadow of the freezing Peaks flamingos fuel up while they can their tongues pump up and down six times per second pushing water through their beaks allowing them to filter out algae and invertebrates soon the
lake will freeze over and the flamingos will be forced to move north towards the equator not all animals can escape the brutal grip of winter they have no choice but to sit out the Snows the scorenaco's double coat of fur helps it cope with the cold a fine down layer close to the skin insulates against the biting wind and cause outer hairs keep wet snow away from its body guanacos stick together in herds keeping a weary eye out for danger Puma is a constant threat a gray fox is wildly enough to follow the herds an
X Amiga living picking up scraps from any Puma kill but climate is the biggest killer here not all animals will survive the five long months of winter guanacos recycle each mouthful of food extracting every last nutrient available foreign is desperately hungry [Music] but the guanacos are on high alert and without the element of surprise the Puma has little chance of making it kill Ed a hair is hardly more than a mouthful but in these lean times it could be the difference between life and death [Music] there'll be few scraps left over for scavengers this time
winter loosens its grip but never lets go of patagonia's mountains completely some snow melts but the temperatures never rise enough to make much impact on the reservoir of ice 48 glaciers slowly flow down the mountains from the southern Patagonian ice field harita Moreno Garcia stretches for nearly 30 kilometers filling a valley with ice up to 700 meters deep its front end is five kilometers wide Towers over 70 meters above Lake Argentine [Music] as it reaches the water the ice destabilizes and breaks apart process known as carving it's not melting but collapsing under its own weight
as its Rock Foundation gives way to water [Music] at last the days begin to lengthen and the Snow Line creeps uphill the worst is over and for those that have survived through to Spring this is a new season of opportunity gray foxes squabble over a granaco carcass uncovered by the melting snow but they need to be quick Andean condos outdo foxes in size and numbers and soon muscle in on the feast but even at this time of year the Condors weigh to constant battle with the elements [Music] they're very picky about where they Roost choosing
an east facing Cliff to make the most of the weak spring sunshine to help them fly they rely on thermals rising up the rock wall [Music] with a wingspan of three meters they can soar for hours barely flapping their wings [Music] young birds try and find their place in the hierarchy of the loose [Music] but there is a strict pecking order and larger white collared adults get the best purchase intruders are not tolerated [Music] condos take seven years to reach maturity and can live for over 50 years so it's a long hard climb to the
top of the ranks [Music] the Andes trap moisture locking most of patagonia's fresh water supply into its glaciers east of the range the glacier Lakes give way to the desert of patagonia's Step foreign winter than those in the highlands but they face challenges of Their Own [Music] with no rainfall and few Rivers guanacos must get all the moisture they need from eating the few tough plants but managed to grow in the Arid conditions [Music] guanacos are the only large native herbivores able to survive here but they do have competition introduced 150 years ago sheep thrive
in Patagonia but only with man's help by shepherding their flocks long distances between pastures and far-flung water points Gauchos can raise thousands of sheep for wool and meat it's arduous work [Music] these Gauchos rely on their horses to reach their flogs it's lambing time the most dangerous time for sheep [Music] a glass of young Lambs often draws Predators down from the mountains they're much easier to hunt than Wild konakos the Gauchos cannot afford to lose their livelihoods to the jaws of a mountain lion Pumas are pests here and the Gauchos need to be vigilant breeding
working animals strong enough to cope with this ranching lifestyle is tough and dangerous these young horses were born on the farm but have never been handled they've lived almost Wild for the last three years roaming the plains as a herd but now it's time for them to be caught Untamed donzoiler has been working with horses since he was a boy in his younger days he'd have broken in a horse using Brute Force but today he and his stepson Gerardo practice a more compassionate method they believe the secret behind taming a horse is to speak its
language and earn its trust but it's not easy [Music] little by little they introduce a young cult to a bit of a saddle [Music] [Music] for a horse that's known nothing but the freedom of the fields system [Music] all right guys [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] this house is so feisty he's been named chispa meaning Spark It's better it will take a good deal more persuasion to convince chisper to tow the line [Applause] the step makes up 90 of Patagonia steep dropped from the mountains to the plains generates an almost constant wind air currents race
down the Andean slopes gale force winds make it impossible for anything larger than a shrub to take hold gusts can be a hundred miles an hour [Music] many Patagonian insects have lost the ability to fly their hard Wing cases have become fused in evolutionary terms it's a step backwards flight is usually considered progress but take off here and they'd be blown out to sea but there's more than just the wind to worry about [Music] a Patagonian skunk forages were a meal it's not a fussy eater skunks will eat anything they can lay their paws on
from rodents and lizards to insects and even carrion a grasshopper disguises itself as a pebble in the hope of going unnoticed [Music] a beetle can run and it can try to hide but the skunk's claws are built to dig and the soft sandy soil offers little protection within a few short weeks the freezing winter is a distant memory every animal on the Patagonian step is in a hurry to make the most of spring a male armadillo is on a mission to find a mate his thick skin Shields him from the thorny undergrowth [Music] but she's
more interested in finding food the Bony plate on her head helps her bulldoze through Earth as she digs her prey the male is hot on her heels [Music] his eyesight is poor but he sniffs her out but mating isn't easy when you wear a suit of armor spring is turning into summer [Music] so far south average summer temperatures are no more than 15 degrees but daylight lasts for 18 hours [Music] tagonia Shores draw in animals from far and wide [Music] 800 kilometers east of the Andes and Beyond patagonia's vast plains lies Peninsula Valdez it jots
out into the Atlantic Ocean to form two sheltered Bays providing a welcome resting place for ocean Wanderers these magellanic penguins have been at sea for six months but they must come to the shore to breathe [Music] penguins made for life couples return to the same nest year after year there are hundreds of thousands of penguin nests in several colonies along this Coast in these large rookeries some penguins have to walk up to two kilometers Inland to reach their Borough tough going for an animal adapted to life in the ocean penguin bodies are built for the
sea tightly packed feathers are coated in water resistant oil secreted by a gland above the tail and with flipper-like wings they fly through the water life on land is much harder work [Music] even in patagonia's Cool Spring days a penguin can overheat I Can't Sweat but bear patches around the eyes dissipate Heat and they even pant to keep cool colonies disperse when they're at sea and these penguin pairs have been seen each other for six months they're desperate to Define their Partners but finding your mate among the multitude can be tricky oh Bill fencing is
a way of greeting old acquaintances [Music] thank you but not all penguins are pleased to see each other [Music] squabbles over Nest sites are common loud Brays carry right across the colony and each penguin recognizes the distinctive call of its partner these long-distance relationships seem to work couples reunite and settle down for a summer of cohabitation whatever further down the coast more marine animals are arriving this time each year more than twenty thousand Southern elephant seals descend on the beaches of peninsula Valdez it's the only elephant seal Colony on the South American Mainland [Music] the
first to arrive with a huge five meter Bulls who come early to claim the best beachfront spots [Music] when the females arrive in time to give birth after an 11 month pregnancy they settle in harems around each male [Music] elephant seals spend most of their lives at sea but must come ashore to breed [Music] steel milk is so nutritious pups grow incredibly first and they need to pups suckle for just three weeks before the females leave them to fend for themselves in this short time they triple their weight while mothers lose nearly half of theirs
[Music] this tiny whelp will weigh over 130 kilos by the time he's weaned just offshore patagonia's beaches are some of the largest animals in the ocean [Music] foreign [Music] Southern right whales can grow up to 18 meters long and weigh as much as 80 tons [Music] [Music] about 1500 of these ocean Giants spend the summer around Peninsula Valdez thank you many have come to give birth away from the fierce Seas these protected bays and their relatively warm waters are the ideal nursery for young whales newborns weigh over a thousand kilograms carves drink 200 liters of
milk and put on 90 kilos every day and they'll suckle for a year before they weaned even these Titans would be at risk in the open ocean great white sharks Patrol offshore where they would easily make a meal of a baby whale so whale mothers know to hug the coastline to keep their young out of danger but closer to land there's another threat kelp gulls have learned that the lulling whales are the source of a good meal whale's skin is surprisingly soft and the Gold's beaks are Rapier Sharp [Music] dwarfed by the huge whales the
gulls pick at their blubber despite the size difference the whales are clearly uncomfortable as well as causing painful lesions harassment from the gulls means whales dive more frequently which can make life very hard for their calves youngsters can't hold their breath for as long as adults and need to lean on their mothers while they rested the surface in just a few weeks time the calves will need to be strong enough to leave these Bays and migrate south with their mothers to their feeding grounds and Antarctica 150 kilometers north of peninsula Valdez is a more surprising
breeding colony parrots are usually thought of as a tropical jungle bird but these Patagonian conures have moved to the seaside this pair are renovating their Cliffside burrow in preparation for laying this year's eggs most parrots use their beaks as nutcrackers but these put them to work as pickaxes thank you their nest holes can reach up to four meters into the cliff [Music] s Penguins these parrots made for life nozzling is more than a public display of affection it helps keep each other Clean and Free from parasites [Music] this pair are part of an extended family
group that all live close by on this patch of cliff burrowing in the soft Sandstone is a neat solution to life from the treeless windy Plains it's the perfect place to Nest so perfect in fact that this couple are one of 35 000 breeding pairs that have taken up residence in a stretch of Cliff 12 kilometers long the largest colony of parrots anywhere in the world [Applause] [Music] parrots see a broader color spectrum including ultraviolet so it's easy for them to tell each other apart males have brighter greens and deeper Reds while females have brighter
blues and along a red stripe on their undersides and like all parts they're talkative just like humans they gossip telling each other what's going on in the rest of the floor [Music] living on top of each other can cause tempers to fray not all neighbors get on but a sunset flight is all it takes to cool off further south in the elephant seal colonies passions are also running High dominant males control a stretch of Shore and have their pick of the females on their perch younger males or those that arrive too late to stake a
claim are always on the lookout for opportunities to mate on the sly one such Casanova checks to see if the coast is clear the interlopus spottish chance and makes his move foreign but it's hard to be subtle when you weigh three tons and the females are far from cooperative [Music] but he's nothing if not persistent the commotion hasn't gone unnoticed the alpha male finally realizes that a trespasser in his territory but the Intruder has no intention of getting in now he squares up to his rival the two males Tower four meters above the beach they're
evenly merged neither is willing to back down [Music] fights can last as long as half an hour [Music] and the results can be horrifying [Music] bloodied and battered the Challenger finally retreats the elephant seal clashes are violent but the Giant's offshore have a more peaceful approach to courtship While most of the female right whales have come here to give birth others have come to mate they only do this once every three or four years so when they do they attract quite a crowd as many as 20 males engage in an elegant courtship dance with each
female [Music] surprisingly there's no animosity between the sutus in fact they even seem to cooperate in persuading the female to mate the secret behind this collaboration lies in the size of their testicles right whales have the largest testes of any animal on Earth [Music] a pair quite literally weigh a ton and among these Giants size does matter the bigger the testes the more sperm they produce and the more likely a male is to Father a calf [Music] Spring Summer and Autumn are all packed into just a few months the Patagonian year has come full circle
Wildlife all over Patagonia has seized this short season of opportunity to gather and breed soon winter will take hold here once more [Music] Patagonia is one of South America's last great wildernesses a Windswept plane in the shadow of Frozen mountains [Music] a landscape carved by Ice that has long loomed large in our imaginations [Music] humans may be fantasy but Nature's Giants Thrive here patagonia's coastline is the breeding ground for wildlife as diverse as whales and Penguins buffeted planes are home to creatures adapted to the harshest environments in South America [Music] as each year passes animals
and people continue to cling to survival here at the ends of the Earth [Music]
