Antarctica Deadly on a Mission: Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall.

Whoa!

And I'm on a mission, searching for

deadly places,

deadly adventures

and deadly animals.

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

Argh!

I've been on the road now for just over a year

and we have one last stop before we reach our final destination

in Antarctica but what a place to stop, this is South Georgia.

This daunting, haunting wilderness is stranded far from any continent.

South Georgia is 10,000 miles from the Arctic, where our journey began.

'The seas can be the roughest on Earth.

'Beneath them, some of the hardiest hyper-powered hunters.'

No way!

HE LAUGHS

'We'll meet the heavyweights of the deep...

'..before continuing south to the climax

'of this leviathan expedition, Antarctica...'

Yes!

'..for a meeting with the ultimate frozen world predator

'beneath the polar ice.'

Wow!

I'm not sure I want to get in the water with that.

Our floating home first heads for St Andrews Bay...

..a place festooned with the great icon of the deep freeze.

As you get closer you can see that,

I mean, it looked like the beach was covered in snow, but actually

every single one of those little white dots is a penguin.

Amazing!

These are king penguins.

Second only in size to the emperor penguin

and, to my mind, the most beautiful.

They're gorgeous and glamorous but tough as nails.

Everything about life here is hard,

from the devastating chill of Antarctic storms and winter months...

..to making a living hunting in seas around freezing point.

We're hoping to do something very few people have ever done...

..to join them in their underwater world.

But we begin with a spectacle I will never forget.

As with so much of the wildlife here in South Georgia

they don't see human beings as a threat.

They probably don't see that many people so they're not scared of us.

Sometimes it's completely the opposite.

Hello.

It doesn't take long for their natural curiosity

to get the better of them.

You can see them clocking you from miles away

and you're just waddling through the hordes

until they get really close and then they'll crane out

that extendable neck to get a really good, close look at you.

But this is just a taster of what's ahead.

The main concentration of birds

is where they come together for breeding.

Now, the beach is all very beautiful

but I've been saving myself for my first view of the breeding colony.

It is just over this ridge.

Wow!

That is... absolutely jaw-dropping.

The density and the amount of animals here,

it is just impossible to comprehend. They go on for ever.

Well, I was expecting it to be big,

but that is ridiculous.

This avian assembly is a united effort,

producing the next generation of regal penguins.

They breed probably twice in three years,

lay one egg and that turns into a furry brown chick.

After about six weeks they're old enough

that they can be left in a creche like this, and there's lots of

little brown youngsters and the adults are both off at sea feeding.

After two months they've got to be the same size and weight

as the adult but it is a full year before they've properly fledged

and they can head out to sea to feed themselves.

And it's out there that these penguins will really come into their own.

Our fond hope is that we'll get an opportunity to film them below the waves.

But beach space here is at a premium.

The sands are shared with gargantuan giants.

Guys!

Johnny!

Two southern elephant seals, in the mood for a fight.

SEALS GROWL

This is incredible.

These are probably young males that are just trying out their skills.

Even so, you can see how brutal it can get.

These two massive animals,

laying into each other, stabbing with those big teeth,

and using the layers, the thick layers of blubber to protect themselves.

It's almost like a suit of armour around the neck.

These seals are the largest on the planet,

weighing up to four tonnes,

and when they go into battle the results can be titanic.

The males will launch at each other,

tearing chunks out of their competitor.

Some encounters end with warring and aggressive posturing

but many others will turn into violent, bloody battles.

The sound they make is almost like a classic car or motorbike

revving up and it's always a precursor to conflict.

And the next sound is the sound of two animals

that probably weigh three tonnes, slamming against each other.

It's the largest species of seal on the planet, the champion free diver

of all seals, and in the battles between males, absolutely brutal.

For that reason, the elephant seal is undeniably deadly.

The waters around the penguin colony are usually murky with silt and bird droppings.

We had no right to even hope we could dive with them.

Yet next morning we wake to an unbelievable sight,

clear water and thousands of circling birds.

This means we have the opportunity to do something

very few people have ever done, to dive with king penguins.

No way!

HE LAUGHS

Penguins have that wobbling gait, they look so clumsy,

but underwater their grace and elegance is just bewitching.

It's absolutely breathtaking.

When they're travelling, like now, they stay close to the surface,

but when they're hunting it's a whole different story.

Along with their close relative the emperor penguin,

kings hunt underwater, scything through krill, squid and fish.

They've lost the power of flight so can be heavy,

laden with insulating fatty blubber, and their wings have evolved

into flattened paddles, enabling them to fly underwater.

They can generate enough force to propel them clear of the water

and up onto the ice.

Unbelievable!

This is an experience I will never forget.

Their ability to fly underwater, their bright colours,

their simple camouflage,

there's no doubt that these masters of Antarctica are deadly.

We could happily stay in South Georgia for many months more

but our grand journey is reaching its end.

Finally we're bound for the bottom of the world,

Antarctica.

That means we leave dry land behind and head out into the open ocean.

Huge seas,

force 10 storms,

waves that, at times, top our boat,

we even have to be vigilant for icebergs that appear from the darkness.

We didn't see it until we were about 40 or 50 metres away from it.

But after seven days we finally make it.

Over 10,000 miles from where we began,

we've reached the land of extremes, Antarctica.

It's the least inhabited, the most remote, highest, driest,

coldest, windiest and wildest continent on the planet.

The animal we have come here to find

is one of the most brutal predators of this frozen world.

It's an animal that will literally shake a penguin out of its own skin,

the terrifying leopard seal.

These are the most formidable hunters of all the seals.

Feeding not just on krill and squid,

but on warm blooded prey.

They stalk the shallows, lying in wait for penguins

and seals heading in and out from shore.

They can even hurl their bulk out of the sea

to drag prey off the ice flows and down to a brutal end.

With massive skulls and canines bigger than my thumbs,

plus a reputation for being potentially dangerous,

they're not to be taken lightly.

Every leopard seal has a different personality

so if I'm going to get in the water with one we'll need a seal

that's both curious and bold. But even to find one

amongst the bergs and pack ice will be a challenge.

On the flat rocks underneath that big rocky headland

is a gentoo penguin colony.

There's an awful lot of them there and leopard seals tend to hang out

around the outskirts of these colonies in the hope of food,

so we're going to do a bit of a scan around,

through the icebergs up ahead of us -

lots and lots of penguins in the water -

and hope that we catch sight of our powerful polar predator.

The team and I train our binoculars on the water,

hoping to see that telltale sign of a leopard seal

poking its head above the sea.

I think I heard breathing.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

What was that there? Did someone see that?

I saw a breath at the surface.

There, there it is. There!

Straight ahead of us.

Yes! Yes, leopard seal!

Leopard seal! Off the end of that iceberg. Can you see it?

It's huge!

I've never seen a seal taking that position before.

It was almost like the nostrils were more like a crocodile,

just poking up out of the water, sucking in air.

And it's just dropped down below us now.

'We scan around as she could come up anywhere.

'And then she pops up right next to our boat.'

No way!

It's so much bigger than I expected.

She's gone under the boat, gone right underneath the boat.

It's our first leopard seal.

Wow!

Steve, it's right there. Steve, Steve, Steve!

He's right here. Right, right, right here.

'The chill up my spine is due to more than the temperature.

'She's a deeply unsettling animal.'

I'm not sure I want to get in the water with that.

That is a monster.

'But then she dives.

'We watch anxiously for any sign of her.'

HE GASPS

Humpback whales!

Amazing.

'A familiar friend, come to lighten our worried mood.'

In all probability there is a big swarm of krill

or something else below us that they're feeding on.

They are right below the surface, just behind us.

Oh, my goodness!

The sound they make as they come to the surface,

expelling air with their massive lungs.

You can feel the reverberation coming across the water.

It hits you right in your heart.

Humpback whales are, to me, incredibly special.

They are the most social, the most vocal,

the most playful of all of the great whales.

But they're also very special for this Pole To Pole expedition as well.

They've been with us for the entire trip.

We saw them feeding way up in the Arctic at the start

of our expedition, saw them breaching

and playing in Alaska, breeding in Hawaii

and now they are swimming underneath me here in Antarctica.

After a year of journey.

Amazing.

To get into the mind of our leopard seal predator

we first have to understand their prey.

In this case, penguins.

The penguins' whole life is dominated by the possible presence of a leopard seal.

Out at sea they can be slow, on the land they can just stand there,

but when they're coming through this zone here they move at

great pace because there could well be a leopard seal waiting.

Since we've been down south, we've already seen several breeding colonies of penguins,

rockhoppers and most spectacularly king penguins.

Gentoos though are very different.

They don't roost and nest together in big, dense colonies.

Instead they're much more spread out.

They still have that really heavy fat layer beneath the surface

of the skin which keeps them warm, but that's also their downfall

because that's the calories that the leopard seal's looking for.

Looking around us a lot of the snow looks like it's been painted.

That actually has great significance.

Just up there is an area that looks like it's been stained pink.

That's from the droppings of penguins that have been feeding

on krill, which is a shrimplike crustacean.

Down here we've got some high-powered squirts of white

and that's from penguins that have been feeding on fish and squid.

But this here, this is kind of the important bit,

this bright, bright green squirt

is from penguins that have been fasting,

that haven't eaten for at least three days

and all of these feathers are why, they're moulting.

These penguins at the moment can't swim,

they can't go into the water but when they've finally got

their new coat they're going to be desperate,

really, really hungry and it doesn't matter if a leopard seal

is just sitting right out there,

they're going to have to go out to sea to feed.

And just down the beach there are a group of penguins about to

head out on that lethal journey.

It is quite interesting watching the gentoos

as they come in and out of the water.

This little group here is about to try and make

their commitment to go in. They've all clustered together

and they're waiting for the first one to take the plunge.

And, actually, look at that one,

they're sticking their head under the water,

as if they are looking around. Possibly they are,

possibly they're looking for the presence of a leopard seal.

All of them have gone in heads down first.

You don't see penguins with their bodies at the surface

and the head underwater very often.

'And no wonder they're nervous.

'Concealed in the shallows is a familiar menacing form.'

This seal is definitely hunting.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes!

I don't believe it.

We're just witnessing a leopard seal attack.

It's come right into the shallows after the gentoos.

We could not ask for more dramatic evidence

of why life for gentoo penguins is so, so tough.

We've seen an attendant leopard seal just sitting there

in the shallows waiting for one to run the gauntlet back to land.

This time it was unsuccessful but scientists have watched

leopard seals that have been sitting alongside colonies.

They've taken as many as eight penguins a day.

I don't believe we just saw that.

A bustling penguin colony like this could feed several seals,

and we spot what could be another nearby.

There's a low, flat berg just offshore,

and lying on it is a long, thin shape.

I think we should get into the boat and go and have a closer look.

It could well be a leopard seal.

It is a leopard seal, hauled out on the ice.

Very occasionally these animals will come up onto rocky shores,

but they seem to much prefer low-lying icebergs like this.

It looks like it's sleeping.

The eyes are closed, it's almost snoring.

This gives us the perfect opportunity to take a closer look.

You can see where they get the leopard seal name from,

they're covered in spots, all over their body.

But also their method of hunting is very leopard like.

Lying in ambush, waiting for the very last second

and then pouncing with incredible dynamic force and speed.

There's something deeply sinister about leopard seals.

I'm not sure what it is, it's almost a reptilian,

snakelike appearance to their body.

It is not like any other kind of seal I've ever seen.

With at least three leopard seals in this one bay,

we seem to have found our ideal spot.

But we still need to be cautious.

These are unpredictable and potentially dangerous animals.

Everything needs to be right before we consider diving.

I'm so excited!

It looks like it might finally happen.

The adrenaline is absolutely singing around my body.

'The crew are all on edge.

'The tension builds, but we need to be calm and make the right choices.

'This is one of the top predators, not just of Antarctica,

'but all the world's oceans.'

Right there, right there.

Right there, right behind you.

Move forwards, move forwards.

OK, talk to me on the surface, tell me what you see.

Does anyone see anything?

Right behind you with his head up.

If you haven't got visual, he's coming towards you now.

Oh, I see him!

I see him, he's massive.

Look at the size of that.

It seems we've found our perfect curious leopard seal.

And, judging from its size, I think it's a female.

Coming up to the surface to breathe.

That is the most extraordinary sight.

A leopard seal, just showing off her expertise.

Look at that barrel rolling around, pirouetting in front of us.

Something I have waited a lifetime to see.

And she seems relatively playful.

I can't think of an animal that looks more in control,

more utterly at home in its environment than this.

The leopard seal carving alongside an Antarctic iceberg,

it's one of the most chilling and exciting sights of my whole life.

Unbelievable!

'We need to try and keep her in sight at all times

'as her behaviour could change in an instant.'

Where is she? Does anyone see her? Where's she gone?

She is under the boat, under the boat!

Where's she gone? Has anyone got eyes on?

Come up a little bit, Johnny, come up.

Coming up behind them.

Behind you, guys, look lively, look lively. It's behind you.

There she is.

Wow!

She's kind of getting bolder each time she approaches,

each time it's just a little bit closer.

I am not taking my eyes off her for even a second.

A big show of teeth there, look at that.

When an animal shows off its teeth like that and blows bubbles,

it's not yawning, it's showing off what it can do.

'It's an expression of dominance.

'She's working herself up, getting more and more excited.'

There's no doubt this animal could do me an awful lot of damage.

Wow!

I think it's time for us to head to the surface.

Oh, my goodness!

Oh!

That's one of the most exhilarating

and frightening experiences of my entire life.

I mean, penguins here just do not stand a chance.

The animal is bigger than them,

it's faster, it's more agile and the teeth are truly

some of the most extraordinary I have ever seen

in the animal kingdom.

It was coming right up into my camera, just inches away

and showing off those teeth.

There's simply nothing here that can contend with it.

I have to say, I don't often get frightened with animals

but that was terrifying, it was absolutely terrifying.

I've never felt quite so much like I've been in another animal's world,

and that it has totally been the boss of me.

It was one of the greatest experiences I'll ever have.

I'm not sure it can be beaten.

Leopard seals, deadly.

-Happy days.

-Amazing.

-Happy days.

-Absolutely amazing, well done.

'We've finally reached our journey's end.'

Wow!

No way!

HE LAUGHS

'But finished in the most sublime style.'

Amazing!

Humpback whales!

Wow! It's so much bigger than I expected.

'Next time, on our last Deadly On A Mission...'

Argh!

'..we'll recount the whole planet-spanning expedition.'

Look at that!

Whoa!

Holy moly!

'With some of the fun...

HE GABBLES

HE LAUGHS

'..the highs...

'and the lows.'

I want to go home.

'From the jaw-dropping...'

Oh, they are stunning!

'..to the utterly breathtaking.'

That's all my dreams coming true at once.

'And, of course, the downright terrifying.'

Johnny, back towards us, Johnny.