Falkland Islands Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall...

..and this is Deadly Pole To Pole.

Oh!

From the top of the world to the bottom...

Whoa, ha-ha!

..deadly places, deadly adventures,

and deadly animals.

And you're coming with me every step of the way!

Argh!

As our journey south continues,

we're leaving mainland South America to kick-start

an epic adventure.

Our grand, planet-spanning expedition

is getting tantalisingly close to its final destination.

Antarctica is no more than 1,000 miles south of us,

but before we get there, there are still several big expeditions,

the first of which is the Falkland Islands.

We're almost 10,000 miles from our starting point in the high Arctic.

The Falkland Islands are a chain of over 700 small islands and inlets,

positioned 300 miles off the coast of South America.

It's an isolated, untamed archipelago

surrounded by violent seas,

but it's loaded with wildlife.

In such a hostile and extreme land,

only a very special kind of predator can survive.

Oh, ho-ho! Fantastic!

I'll be on a mission to find one of the largest predators

found on these islands...

A little bit spooky.

..challenging a gang of local villains...

..but first we're heading to Saunders Island,

in the remote and wild North Falklands

to meet a tough and fearless island hopper.

Saunders Island is absolutely huge,

but there's only four people that live here and no roads whatsoever,

so the only way of getting around is in one of these,

which makes for rather a bumpy ride.

Sorry!

Quite often with wildlife filming,

you can spend days and days out searching for,

just trying to find, your target animal.

But here, I don't think that's going to be a problem.

Amazing!

Oh!

Almost as intense as the sight of over 1,000 birds

crammed in tight together is the smell.

The wind's blowing in our direction at the moment

and it is totally, totally, overpowering.

But that is a breeding colony of perhaps 1,000 rockhopper penguins.

Pretty impressive.

Like most penguins,

rockhoppers are birds of the open ocean.

But at this time of year, they gather on land

in huge colonies to breed and raise their young.

And it gives me a chance to see them up close.

Rockhoppers are one of the most unusual-looking of all penguins.

They've got bright red eyes and then those absolutely crazy eyebrows.

Kind of stern-looking, but then with the bizarre crest behind the eyes

remind me of an eccentric

and perhaps slightly overweight professor.

They're small and dumpy,

one of the smallest of all penguin species,

but that doesn't mean they're not tough.

These breeding colonies are under constant attack from predators

waiting to snatch a chick.

But rockhopper parents are not easily outwitted.

Known for their fearless attitudes, they'll attack without hesitation.

And for persistent predators,

there's always extra reinforcements.

Despite their size, they're one pugnacious penguin.

ANGRY CAWING

But for me, it's not their feisty personality

that makes them so deadly.

To see what really makes them a worthy contender,

I'm heading down to the shoreline.

And on the way down, we find out how they got their name.

The rockhopper name is a really good one.

Most penguins as they walk just waddle from side to side

in a really comical fashion,

but rockhoppers, when they're ascending up to their nesting sites,

bound and they'll leap and climb up even vertical cliff faces.

They've only got little, itty-bitty legs.

It's kind of like us if we had our legs tied together,

trying to bound our way up a flight of stairs.

If they slip, they'll just bounce

and you'll see them going, dum-dum-dum,

all the way down the cliff,

like a rugby ball that's had half the air let out of it.

This might look brutal,

but rockhoppers are designed to withstand much worse.

Parent birds have to make daily fishing trips

to provide for their chicks.

They're master hunters,

diving down to 100m in pursuit of fish and krill.

For such expert fishermen, catching prey is the easy part.

The real challenge for these rockhoppers is to return to land.

Look at this!

About 50 penguins all just came ashore with one wave

and they're now frantically hopping to try and get up onto dry land

before another wave sweeps them back out to sea.

The shore's totally changed in character.

The waves are much, much bigger now,

and you're getting a sense of quite how difficult

it must be for life for these tiny, but tough little penguins.

As they're coming into the land, you just see tiny, black shapes

against the might of the ocean.

They're being smashed into the shore,

but somehow they've managed to get to land.

I can't imagine how tough this must be for them.

But I may have spoken a little too soon.

In the true spirit of Deadly,

my crew have decided the only way to really know

how tough it is for them is to join them

in the freezing surf.

Well, it's turned into an absolutely miserable day,

but that's not going to bother the penguins,

so I guess I've just got to toughen up

and make sure it doesn't bother me either.

While I'm battered by the waves,

their streamlined bodies and powerful flippers

allow the penguins to drive through the choppy surf effortlessly.

They can spend days out at sea on foraging trips

and with a thick layer of blubber to keep them insulated,

even in these icy-cold waters, they're in their element.

Which is more than can be said for me.

Even in my dry suit, after only a few hours...

..I'm frozen solid.

MUSIC: "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside"

But at least I'm providing entertainment for the crew.

-SINGING:

-..beside the sea.

-SINGING:

-Beside the seaside, beside the sea.

THEY LAUGH

Well, that was thoroughly unpleasant.

They're really quite canny, these little penguins.

I'm guessing that lying there in the surf,

I looked a bit like a predatory sea lion or leopard seal,

so they were giving me a really wide berth,

but having spent just a couple of hours

in there, the penguins' world,

I can't feel my face,

I'm completely frozen solid.

It is utterly miserable,

but these little penguins manage to make it their home.

For that reason, rockhoppers are deadly.

Can I have a cup of tea, now, please?

With their feisty, fearless attitude...

..death-defying leaps of faith...

..and ability to survive some of the roughest

and coldest seas in the world...

..rockhoppers are undoubtedly deadly.

Deadly!

My next contender is one of the largest predators in the Falklands

and to begin our search for one,

we're heading to a secluded island out at sea.

Today we're going out on a search for one of the most exciting animals

that hunts these southern seas -

an animal with a skull that looks like this.

It's a creature of vast size, weight and strength.

It kind of looks like some kind of dinosaur.

We've reached Kidney Island,

the place rumoured to be a favourite hideout

for this truly monster-sized creature.

So that's where we're going to begin our search.

This vegetation's called tussock grass.

From a distance, it just looks like a blanket of green,

but when you get close, there's a real maze in here,

so we need to be very, very careful as we go through.

Right, let's go.

Navigating around the tall, thick grass,

my crew and I have to be careful to not get separated...

..especially when such a powerful predator

could be hiding round any corner.

You can see that all the way through all this tussock grass,

there are channels that have been created

by these big, heavy mammals moving around.

I guess the reason they come up here, first of all, is to breed -

it's a good, safe place to raise young -

but also just to get away from the wind that's driving off the sea.

It's a little bit spooky.

Then a clear sign the predator we're looking for is close by.

A fresh squirt of...

..brown goo down here.

It's come through here very recently.

Eyes open.

Then, suddenly, something that makes me stop dead in my tracks.

Is that his head facing me?

-WHISPERING:

-At the moment, I can just see a big, bulbous dark shape

and I can't see which end the head is at.

That's the bit with the teeth, that's the danger end.

-So..

-GRUNTING

It's the predator we've been looking for.

We obviously took him by surprise.

A bull southern sea lion.

Highly aggressive and territorial,

males can grow to almost two and a half metres long

and over three times my body weight.

It is astounding quite how lion-like these animals are -

the appearance, in the teeth,

even in that great, big mane that the males have behind the head.

SEA LION GRUNTS

But it's not power and size alone that makes them deadly.

Here in the Falklands, the sea lions have learned to hunt on land.

They use their flippers

to gallop at surprising speed after their victims...

..and once they begin their pursuit,

their prey's locked into a deadly game.

They're one predator you definitely don't want

to bump into on the beach.

But there is no doubt that they are at their predatory best in the sea.

So the next step is try and swim with one.

The water here is icy cold and thick with kelp.

So although the sea lions can move around in complete ease,

I've got a feeling this dive's going to be more difficult for me.

It's very tricky trying to hold my position in amongst the swell.

Getting tossed around like a ragdoll.

And then, out of nowhere...

Extraordinary!

They're so big!

Under water, these sea lions are completely transformed.

Totally in their element, this group of curious females

dance around our heads with hypnotic ease and grace.

These sea lions may be graceful and elegant,

but they're also fearsome predators.

All of these high-speed twists and turns

are exactly the same ones they use when chasing prey.

Using a lethal combination of skill and pace,

these sea lions are able to catch

even the fastest of fish.

Capable of speeds over 20mph,

and able to dive to depths well over 200m,

they're also fantastic endurance hunters

and can stay out hunting for over 30 hours.

And, on top of all that,

these sea lions have an arsenal of senses

that makes them even more deadly.

These animals have the classic sea lion shape.

A long, thin, torpedo-shaped body

and very big, dark eyes that suck in light

for hunting in gloomy waters.

But perhaps the most important part of their senses is the whiskers.

Using these ultra-sensitive whiskers,

they can detect the invisible trail their prey leaves behind

as they move through the water.

I could stay down here all day with these aquatic acrobats,

but the weather's coming in

and beneath the surface, things are getting a little too hairy.

I really don't want to get stuck down here,

that would be very dangerous indeed.

This is really sketchy, we should head back to the boat.

We're going to get ourselves trapped in here.

Well, I think we can safely say

that southern sea lions

handle this stuff an awful lot better than we do.

In amongst the kelp and the waves we are utterly hopeless,

and it just brings out quite how clumsy we really are.

By contrast, the sea lions' grace and elegance

is also used to catch their prey.

With their formidable power and size...

incredible acrobatic ability...

and ability to catch prey both on land and in the sea,

these sea lions are dynamic and...

'Deadly!'

But the Southern Ocean isn't quite finished with us yet.

'As the crew and I head back home, we get an unexpected surprise...'

Oh, fantastic!

'..some very playful visitors!'

These are Peale's dolphins,

they're much smaller than bottlenose - about half the size.

And the dorsal fin is really, really sharply curved,

it's almost more like a shark's dorsal fin

than one you'd expect to see on a dolphin.

They look like they're having so much fun,

I can't resist trying to join them.

The dolphins have followed us all the way into shore

and they've just been playing all the way round the boats.

They're clearly in a very good mood. This is a perfect opportunity

for us to try and swim with them.

Wow!

The water is teeming with them.

They've got such glorious colours.

Grey, white, black.

They are absolutely beautiful.

They're very, very quick.

They just come zooming in towards you like little torpedoes

and then just zoom away at the last second

as if to show you quite how fast they are

and quite how much better in the water they are than you.

That was an unexpected and rather wonderful surprise.

But now I guess it's back to our main mission.

I could stay in there all day!

For our next contender, we're back on Saunders Island

to meet some birds known locally as "flying devils".

The Falklands is best known for its sea birds.

There are birds of prey here

and, in particular, one species that is an absolute menace.

The bird in question is the Striated Caracara.

Fierce, destructive and exceptionally intelligent,

these birds have earned themselves a pretty bad reputation,

and they're certainly not shy.

Everywhere you go in this part of Saunders Island

you're followed by caracara,

and they're a very special bird of prey.

To get a bit of a closer look at them...

I've got...

a chunk of old meat on a string.

Come on, then.

THEY SQUAWK

They're really ominous birds.

They're kind of like the cold-world equivalent of vultures,

but they just look like a big gang of thugs,

hanging around with mischief on their minds.

All the birds around me at the moment

are youngsters, they're immature,

and they still haven't got their full adult coloration.

And at this age they do something very, very special.

All round the world it's much more usual for birds of prey

to operate on their own.

They're solitary for the vast majority of their life

unless they're breeding.

But these young birds, they've learned that

they can take advantage of all of the breeding birds around here,

the chicks and their eggs, by working together as a team.

And they are really a rather sinister unit.

Using a combination of teamwork and intelligence,

the caracara stalk the bird colonies for weak or vulnerable chicks.

And with strength in numbers,

even for large prey like this seal pup,

once you've been singled out...

These birds are living in what is a very, very harsh environment

for a raptor, for a bird of prey.

So they have to take advantage

of every single opportunity that comes their way.

And they've become quite bright, quite intelligent,

they're very good at solving problems.

To figure out just how good they are,

we've come up with a little Deadly experiment.

Walkies!

So I have an expectant audience of curious and hungry-looking caracara,

and this puzzle, which I guess is a sort of intelligence test.

What I'm going to do is put a little bit of meat, food,

into the top here and, in order for them to get to it,

they're going to have to pull out each one of these slides.

They have never seen this puzzle before,

so the second I put the meat in

we're going to start the stopwatch going

and we'll see how long it takes for them to figure it out.

We've absolutely no idea how they might react to their new toy.

First bird in at 18 seconds.

OK, first thing they're going to try and do

is to go in through the top - that's the most obvious way.

But hopefully, we've set the meat just far enough down

that it won't be able to reach it.

After a promising start,

it looks like my crew and I are in for a long afternoon.

Uh...

That's cheating!

One bird plucks it straight from the top of the tube.

So they're clearly cleverer than we thought

and have figured out they can go straight in through the top

to get the piece of meat.

So this time round I'm going to put it down,

straight to the second slide, where they can't reach it.

Right - round two.

They clearly see the meat through the tube.

Yes, yes, go on. Pull, pull, pull, pull.

Nearly there. Don't give up!

Go on! Oh, no!

The string came off!

Disaster.

Six and a half minutes in,

and they've cleverly found another weakness in our puzzle.

And...another free feed!

HE LAUGHS

With each new attempt,

these birds are not only quicker but more creative.

And there's no doubt that already, they're learning.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

OK, so that's the first time that that's happened straight away.

Will they finally figure out our puzzle,

or are they just going to tug it out through the hole again?

OK, great. Now what happens?

Same bird, the same one dominant bird,

always has to be the one in to give it a good pull.

Let it figure out... OK, that's one more gone.

There's just one last piece of the puzzle to unravel.

Can it do it?

Yes! Oh, no!

He figured the whole thing out

and then had the food stolen from right under its nose.

That is so unfair!

Having sat here and watched these birds,

it's no wonder that they managed to survive and succeed here

in this harsh, barren, remote landscape.

They do it by just experimenting all the time.

They're inquisitive, they're curious, they're destructive,

and they're deadly.

They're the bully boys of the Falklands...

with the ability to work together...

and the intelligence, unmatched by almost any other bird.

Caracara - certainly not bird-brains.

'Deadly!'

Join me next time as we cross the turbulent Southern Ocean

to reach our next Pole To Pole Destination.