0:00:02 > 0:00:04My name's Steve Backshall!
0:00:05 > 0:00:07Whoa! Ha-ha!
0:00:08 > 0:00:10'And I'm on a mission, searching for...'
0:00:10 > 0:00:13deadly places... deadly adventurers...
0:00:13 > 0:00:14and deadly animals.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16Oi-oi-oi...
0:00:18 > 0:00:21And you're coming with me, every step of the way!
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Argh!
0:00:31 > 0:00:36An expedition that began high in the Arctic Circle has journeyed down
0:00:36 > 0:00:40through North and South America and now lunges away from the continents.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46To explore the wild islands that lead south
0:00:46 > 0:00:49towards our final destination of Antarctica.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55'I'll challenge a gang of local villains...'
0:00:55 > 0:00:56Walkies!
0:01:00 > 0:01:02'..head beneath the turbulent seas...'
0:01:02 > 0:01:04I really don't want to get stuck down here!
0:01:06 > 0:01:08'..and we take a journey from hell...
0:01:10 > 0:01:12'..to a mystical land.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15'To discover prehistoric predators...'
0:01:15 > 0:01:19It really is like some kind of flapping dinosaur.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21'..and meet a winged giant.'
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Almost 10,000 miles from our starting point,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32we've arrived in the Falkland Islands.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40This isolated, untamed archipelago
0:01:40 > 0:01:43is surrounded by some of the roughest seas in the world.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Hostile to humans, but heaven for hardy hunters.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Only the toughest and the cleverest can survive here.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57We've come to find and film them.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03And we begin with a lovable yet resilient predator.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Quite often with wildlife filming, you can spend days
0:02:11 > 0:02:16and days of searching, just trying to find your target animal.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19But here I don't think that's going to be a problem.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Amazing!
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Oh!
0:02:29 > 0:02:31Almost as intense as the sight of
0:02:31 > 0:02:36over 1,000 birds crammed in tight together is the smell.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39The wind's blowing in our direction at the moment.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43And it is totally, totally overpowering.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48But that is a breeding colony of perhaps 1,000 rockhopper penguins.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51Pretty impressive!
0:02:57 > 0:02:59Rockhoppers are birds of the open ocean,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02but at this time of year, they gather on land
0:03:02 > 0:03:06in huge colonies to breed and raise their young.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09And this gives me the perfect opportunity to see that
0:03:09 > 0:03:12there's more to these little penguins than meets the eye.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22Rockhoppers are one of the most unusual-looking of all penguins.
0:03:22 > 0:03:28They've got bright red eyes and then those absolutely crazy eyebrows.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33Kind of stern-looking, but then with the bizarre crest behind the eyes.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38Small and dumpy - one of the smallest of all penguin species -
0:03:38 > 0:03:41but that doesn't mean they're not tough.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45They have to be, as these breeding colonies
0:03:45 > 0:03:48come under constant attack from predators
0:03:48 > 0:03:50waiting to snatch a chick.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53But rockhopper parents risk life and limb to raise their young,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57and will protect their investment with determination.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Nesting in a colony means strength in numbers.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Despite their size, they're one pugnacious penguin.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17But every part of the penguins' life has elements of the extreme.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24To show you this, you need to live a day in the life of a rockhopper.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33'First off, how they get their name.'
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The rockhopper name is a really good one.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Most penguins, as they walk, just waddle from side to side
0:04:41 > 0:04:43in a really comical fashion.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47But rockhoppers, when they're ascending up to their nesting sites,
0:04:47 > 0:04:52bound, and they will leap and climb up even vertical cliff faces.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55If they slip, they'll just bounce.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59You'll see them going donk, donk, donk all the way down the cliff.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Like a rugby ball that's had half the air let out of it.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Their insulating layer of fat
0:05:07 > 0:05:11and feathers can also be used to protect their bones and bodies.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Parent birds have to make daily fishing trips
0:05:17 > 0:05:19to provide for their chicks.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23They're master hunters,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25diving over 100 metres down
0:05:25 > 0:05:27in pursuit of fish and krill.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34For such expert fishermen, catching prey is the easy part.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36The real challenge is returning to land.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Look at this! There's about 50 penguins all just came ashore
0:05:42 > 0:05:45with one wave, and they're now frantically hopping to try to
0:05:45 > 0:05:49get up onto dry land before another wave sweeps them back out to sea.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53The shore has totally changed in character.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55The waves are much, much bigger now.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58And you're getting a sense of quite how difficult
0:05:58 > 0:06:01it must be for life for these tiny but tough little penguins.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Where the land meets the sea
0:06:13 > 0:06:16is where rockhoppers really show how robust they are.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25For a taste of their toughness, I'm going to head in and join them.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Well, it's turned into an absolutely miserable day.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42But that's not going to bother the penguins. So I guess I've just
0:06:42 > 0:06:44got to toughen up and make sure it doesn't bother me either.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52While I'm battered by the waves, their streamlined bodies
0:06:52 > 0:06:55and flipper-like wings allow the penguins to drive through
0:06:55 > 0:06:57the choppy surf effortlessly.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02They can spend days out at sea on foraging trips.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05And with that thick layer of blubber to keep them insulated,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09even in these icy cold waters, they're in their element.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Which is more than can be said for me.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Well, that was thoroughly unpleasant.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26After having spent just a couple of hours in there,
0:07:26 > 0:07:31the penguins' world, I can't feel my face
0:07:31 > 0:07:33and I'm completely frozen solid.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35It is utterly miserable.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39But these little penguins manage to make it their home.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42And for that reason, rockhoppers are deadly.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Can I have a cup of tea now, please?
0:07:46 > 0:07:49THEY LAUGH
0:07:52 > 0:07:56'Any animal that stalks these seas needs to be hardy.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58'But the Southern Seas are so stocked with fish,
0:07:58 > 0:08:04'squid and krill that, if you can survive, you can thrive.'
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Today we're going out on a search for one of the most exciting animals
0:08:07 > 0:08:09that hunts these Southern Seas.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13An animal with a skull that looks like this.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18It's a creature of vast size, weight and strength.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22'To find one, I need to drop in to its turbulent underwater world.'
0:08:31 > 0:08:36It's very tricky, trying to hold my position in amongst the swell.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40I'm getting tossed around like a rag doll.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47'But then, appearing from the murky swell, southern sea lions.'
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Extraordinary!
0:08:53 > 0:08:55They're so big!
0:08:59 > 0:09:04Underwater, these sea lions are effortless, totally at ease.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07This group of curious females dance around our heads
0:09:07 > 0:09:09with high-speed twists and turns.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17These sea lions...
0:09:17 > 0:09:22may be graceful and elegant, but they're also fearsome predators.
0:09:26 > 0:09:31Using a lethal combination of agility, senses and speed,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35these sea lions are able to catch even the fastest of fish.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Capable of speeds of over 20mph,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42and able to dive to depths well over 200 metres,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46they can travel vast distances in search of fine feeding grounds.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Their hunting trips can last for 30 hours.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53But, like all seals and sea lions,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56it's their senses that give them the edge.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00These animals have the classic sea lion shape.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05A long, thin, torpedo-shaped body
0:10:05 > 0:10:09and very big, dark eyes that suck in light.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11For hunting in gloomy waters,
0:10:11 > 0:10:16but perhaps the most important part of their senses is the whiskers.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Using these ultrasensitive whiskers,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23they're able to detect the slightest vibration
0:10:23 > 0:10:26from the wake passing prey leave behind.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32The sea lions are utterly at home in these thick kelp forests.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35But the weather's closing in, and for me, beneath the surface,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37things are getting a little hairy.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41I really don't want to get stuck down here!
0:10:41 > 0:10:43That would be very dangerous indeed.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49This is really sketchy. We should head back to the boat.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52We're going to get ourselves trapped in here.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Well, I think we can safely say that southern sea lions
0:11:10 > 0:11:13handle this stuff an awful lot better than we do.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18In amongst the kelp and the waves, we are utterly hopeless.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21And it just brings out quite how clumsy we really are.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26By contrast, the sea lions' speed and agility underwater
0:11:26 > 0:11:29make them dynamic and undeniably deadly.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38As so often on these expeditions,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42it's the unexpected moments that provide the highlights.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48Oh-ho-ho! Fantastic!
0:11:57 > 0:11:59These are Peel's dolphins.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02They're much smaller than bottlenose, about half the size,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06and the dorsal fin is really, really sharply curved.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08It's almost more like a shark's dorsal fin
0:12:08 > 0:12:10than one you'd expect to see on a dolphin.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13They look like they're having so much fun,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15I can't resist trying to join them.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Wow!
0:12:28 > 0:12:30The water is teeming with them.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34They're very, very quick.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37They just come zooming in towards you like little torpedoes,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40and then just zoom away at the last second,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42as if to show you quite how fast they are
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and quite how much better in the water they are than you.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51It's tempting to stay and play,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54but we have an appointment with another island resident.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03A flying fiend with a mind for mischief.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09The Falklands is best known for its sea birds,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11but there are birds of prey here
0:13:11 > 0:13:15and, in particular, one species that is an absolute menace.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22The bird in question is the striated caracara -
0:13:22 > 0:13:25fierce, destructive and exceptionally intelligent.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29These birds have earned themselves a pretty bad reputation.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34And here in this part of the Falklands, they're certainly bold.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Working together, these thugs stalk the bird colonies
0:13:43 > 0:13:45for weak or vulnerable chicks.
0:13:48 > 0:13:49And with strength in numbers,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53they can even take on large prey like this seal pup.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57A sinister and unsettling presence, watching for weakness.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Living in such a harsh environment,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03these bullyboys have to take advantage
0:14:03 > 0:14:05of every single opportunity.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08Their intelligence and problem solving is unmatched
0:14:08 > 0:14:11by almost any other bird of prey on earth.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16'And to figure out just how smart they are...'
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Walkies!
0:14:18 > 0:14:20'..we've come up with a Deadly experiment.'
0:14:21 > 0:14:26So, I have an expectant audience of curious and hungry-looking caracara,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30and this puzzle, which is, I guess, a sort of intelligence test.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32What I'm going to do is put a little bit of meat,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35food, into the top here, and in order for them to get to it
0:14:35 > 0:14:39they're going to have to pull out each one of these slides.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43They've never seen this puzzle before,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47so we've absolutely no idea how they might react to their new toy.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52OK, first thing they're going to try and do is to go in through the top.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53That's the most obvious way.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56But hopefully we've set the meat just far enough down
0:14:56 > 0:14:58that it won't be able to reach it.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Oh!
0:15:11 > 0:15:13That's cheating!
0:15:14 > 0:15:16So, they're clearly cleverer than we thought.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19They figured out they can go straight in through the top
0:15:19 > 0:15:21to get the piece of meat. This time round, I'm going to put it down
0:15:21 > 0:15:24straight to the second slide, where they can't reach it.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Right, round two.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Yes, yes, go on, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull!
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Nearly there. Don't give up!
0:15:37 > 0:15:41Go on...oh, no! The string came off!
0:15:41 > 0:15:42Disaster.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46But undeterred, with each new attempt,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50these birds are not only quicker, but more creative.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56And there's no doubt that already they are learning.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03OK, so that's the first time that that's happened straight away.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Will they finally figure out our puzzle?
0:16:06 > 0:16:07Now what happens?
0:16:07 > 0:16:11Same bird, the same one, dominant bird,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14always has to be the one in to give it a good pull.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Will it figure out that it has to pull?
0:16:17 > 0:16:19Yeah. OK, that's one more gone.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23There is just one last piece of the puzzle to unravel.
0:16:24 > 0:16:25Can it do it?
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Yes! Oh, no!
0:16:33 > 0:16:35He figured the whole thing out,
0:16:35 > 0:16:41and then had the food stolen from right under its nose!
0:16:41 > 0:16:43That is so unfair!
0:16:49 > 0:16:51Having sat here and watched these birds,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54it's no wonder that they manage to survive
0:16:54 > 0:17:00and succeed here in this harsh, barren, remote landscape.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03They do it by just experimenting all the time.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06They're inquisitive, they're curious,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09they're destructive, and they're deadly.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14The Falkland Islands is just the start of our adventure.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Where we're going, it just gets wilder.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23We're heading south, down to Bird Island,
0:17:23 > 0:17:24on this boat, the Hans Hansson.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29We're going to be at sea for a month in the roughest seas on the planet.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Everything we'll need has to be stashed on board.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34We'll be cut off from the outside world,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38a sole, vulnerable, disconcertingly small boat,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40alone on the Southern Ocean.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Once we leave this dock, we'll have to fend for ourselves.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Only 600 miles from the Falklands,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Bird Island is a long way from anywhere.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Remote, rugged, it's rarely visited by humans.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57But during the summer months,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01this tiny speck of land has more wildlife crammed onto it
0:18:01 > 0:18:04than just about anywhere else on the planet...
0:18:05 > 0:18:09..with a bird or seal for nearly every square metre of land.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11The shoreline becomes packed with
0:18:11 > 0:18:14some of the most bad-tempered animals you'll ever meet,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18all jostling for the best spot on the beach.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26But to get to it, we had to endure four days of hard sailing
0:18:26 > 0:18:28with waves as big as houses,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31storm force winds and constant swell.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34MUSIC: "Best Day Of My Life" by American Authors
0:18:34 > 0:18:38# This is gonna be the best day of my life
0:18:38 > 0:18:41# My li-i-i-i-i-ife
0:18:44 > 0:18:47# This is gonna be the best day of my life
0:18:47 > 0:18:51# My li-i-i-i-i-ife
0:18:55 > 0:18:58# Just don't wake me now... #
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Oh, this is like hell on earth.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05But thankfully, an end to the constant rocking
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and rolling is in sight.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13We finally got our first sighting of land.
0:19:13 > 0:19:14It looks really sinister.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16It looks like a land that time forgot,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21but this is one of the finest spots for wildlife on the entire planet.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Although incredibly remote, Bird Island is not uninhabited.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Since the 1950s, there has been a permanent base here
0:19:34 > 0:19:36'for the British Antarctic Survey.'
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Hello, hello!
0:19:38 > 0:19:40'The wildlife here is highly cherished,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43'and bio-security is strict.
0:19:43 > 0:19:44'So, after a thorough boot wash,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47'we can begin to explore this extraordinary outpost.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53'Immediately we are overwhelmed by the abundance of life.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57'Open-ocean animals that right now gather on land to breed
0:19:57 > 0:19:58'and raise their young.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03'Penguins, sea birds and Antarctic fur seals
0:20:03 > 0:20:06'in their tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands.'
0:20:06 > 0:20:11It's hard to believe, when you see this amount of animals, that these
0:20:11 > 0:20:14fur seals were almost hunted to extinction by human beings.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17As many as 112,000 of them
0:20:17 > 0:20:20were killed every single year for their fur,
0:20:20 > 0:20:22but they have made a dramatic recovery,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25and now these beaches, where they haul out ashore
0:20:25 > 0:20:32and come to breed, are bawdy, noisy and they smell like a sewer.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39As with anywhere that has this much life, there is
0:20:39 > 0:20:42also, sadly, a fair amount of death as well.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Not all of the penguin chicks, the other birds
0:20:44 > 0:20:47and the young fur seal pups are going to leave these beaches.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Some of them will die here, and something has to clean up the mess.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54It's too cold here for there to be many insects,
0:20:54 > 0:20:55and there are no vultures either,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59so some other animals have to do the job.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05And these street cleaners of the natural world include
0:21:05 > 0:21:06a prehistoric-looking bird.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14By far the most impressive bird here at the carcass is this
0:21:14 > 0:21:17massive creature. The giant petrel.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Most modern palaeontologists agree that birds
0:21:21 > 0:21:24that are around today share a common ancestor with the dinosaurs,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28and it is when you are this close to a giant petrel
0:21:28 > 0:21:31that that is very obviously true.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35I mean, it has this reptilian bluey-green eye,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38and then that massive, huge beak.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Their sense of smell is much more potent than most birds,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45and they can find a dead, decaying, rotting carcass like this
0:21:45 > 0:21:47from miles away.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52And it's unbelievably grotesque in the way it plunges its head
0:21:52 > 0:21:55into that carcass, getting caked with dried blood.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59It's easy to turn your nose up at scavengers,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01to look at them as being, I guess,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04the ugly undertakers of the bird world,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08but they serve an incredibly important purpose.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Without them, carcasses like this would litter the landscape
0:22:11 > 0:22:12and spread diseases.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15These are actually some of the most important creatures
0:22:15 > 0:22:17you will ever see.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21But these scavenging scoundrels and not our main target.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24We are here to find a marvel of the natural world.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29A lonesome ancient mariner that spends its days alone,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31blown by polar hurricanes,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and only returns to land for mere months of its long life.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38As you look around the tusset grass,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42you can see these intense little white dots.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45Well, they LOOK little from a distance.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49But when you get up close they are not small at all.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52We are in the presence of giants.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57This is the wandering albatross.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02The largest of the sea birds and one that makes us
0:23:02 > 0:23:04forget the hardship of getting here.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11Bird Island is one of their few true breeding strongholds.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23It is only when they turn front on, like that,
0:23:23 > 0:23:28and spread those wings that you get any sense of scale.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33This is the biggest wingspan of any bird.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38It can be 3½ metres - that's double my height.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43There are special mechanisms in these wings that mean
0:23:43 > 0:23:47when they are out, fully extended, they lock in place
0:23:47 > 0:23:51and they can't come above the height of their shoulders.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52It means that they can soar
0:23:52 > 0:23:56and glide over the waves without any expenditure of energy.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59The wings are just locked there in place.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Using a technique known as dynamic soaring,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09the birds swoop up and down over the waves,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13using differences in wind speeds at different heights to propel them.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20As the titanic winds of the south hit the waves,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24they're driven upwards, carrying the soaring albatross aloft
0:24:24 > 0:24:28for hour after hour, day after day, with scarcely a wing beat.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Albatross spend their lives out at sea, hunting.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41The majority of their diet is made up of things like squid and krill.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45And it's all caught with that massive mighty beak.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Because of the size of their wings, albatrosses are not great divers.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54It's very difficult for them to get under the water,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57so they can't swim down in search of prey.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Instead, they just have to stick that long neck and beak down
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and snatch squid and krill from below the surface.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10It's during these feeding trips that albatross come across
0:25:10 > 0:25:12their biggest threat -
0:25:12 > 0:25:16getting caught up with the hooks of the long-line fishing industry.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Sadly, only around 6,000 breeding pairs of wandering albatross
0:25:20 > 0:25:24are left on the planet, with numbers continuing to decline.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29These birds endure a life so extreme that, until recently,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32little was known about these long-distance gliders.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Over the last few decades,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37scientists have started applying satellite transmitters to particular
0:25:37 > 0:25:42individual birds, and some of the journeys are just insane.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46This here is one feeding journey of an adult bird.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51It left here in Bird Island, and it's gone all the way up the coast
0:25:51 > 0:25:53of South America, as far as Brazil,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56and then done an enormous, great big loop, all the way back,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59to land at exactly the same place, on Bird Island.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04In this movie here, you can see several different birds -
0:26:04 > 0:26:06each one of these has a colour -
0:26:06 > 0:26:08and you can see the journeys they are undertaking.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15Individual birds have been tracked travelling 5,000 miles in a week,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19and they could circumnavigate the entire globe in a month.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22That would have to be one of the greatest journeys
0:26:22 > 0:26:24undertaken by any animal on earth.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29But, having been on the wing for so long, when they DO return to land
0:26:29 > 0:26:33to breed, they perform the most extraordinary and beautiful duet.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37This is called sky pointing.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40It's one of the most joyous sights
0:26:40 > 0:26:43and sounds you will hear from any bird.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47And I think essentially it's just saying, "I'm pleased to see you."
0:26:47 > 0:26:50SQUAWKING AND WHISTLING
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Albatross can live for 60 years, and will pair for life.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01One pair are known to have been together over 18 years,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04returning to the same island year after year,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07to successfully raise over six chicks.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12On land, they build a nest out of mud, grass and moss,
0:27:12 > 0:27:13into which they lay a single leg.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15After two months,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19this hatches, and the parents take it in turns to feed the chick.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Feeding trips may last days or a few weeks,
0:27:22 > 0:27:26in which time the adult bird could span an entire ocean.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29The chick remains on the nest through the cold winter,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32not fledging until around eight months after it hatched.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37By the time they are ready to take to the air, they weigh
0:27:37 > 0:27:41more than their parents, which makes for a tricky first flight.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51But, once up and away, they'll not return to land for five years
0:27:51 > 0:27:53or even more.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03They live their lives in one of the most extreme, inhospitable, hostile
0:28:03 > 0:28:07of all environments, out in the waves and the seas,
0:28:07 > 0:28:10constantly blown by the gales of Antarctica.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13But these birds are more than just beauties,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16they are true emperors of the skies.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Wandering albatross are deadly.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23'Our time here on Bird Island may be done.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28'But our exploration of the chilly south is only just beginning.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30'Join me next time,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34'as our planet-spanning expedition finally reaches Antarctica,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36'where I meet an old friend...'
0:28:36 > 0:28:38Oh! My goodness!
0:28:38 > 0:28:42'..and dare to dive with the ultimate polar predator.'
0:28:42 > 0:28:44Wow!