0:00:54 > 0:00:58These are the waters of the lowest lake in the world.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02They lie over 1,000 feet below the level of the oceans.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07And these strange formations are not ice, but salt.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10This is the Dead Sea.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21It's so hot here that most of the streams,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24which once in a while trickle down the surrounding hills,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27dry up before they get as far as this.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29Those few that DO reach this lake
0:01:29 > 0:01:31bring some of the salt with them,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35having dissolved it from the rocks and soils over which they flowed.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40Browny springs also bubble up from the bottom of the lake.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44And as the waters lie here, evaporating under this intense sun,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49they become so concentrated that the salt crystallises out.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Once, very much the same sort of thing,
0:01:52 > 0:01:54though on an immensely greater scale,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58was happening in the basin of the Mediterranean.
0:01:58 > 0:02:0120 million years ago, Africa was an island
0:02:01 > 0:02:04lying well to the south of Europe and Asia.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07As the millennia passed, it moved slowly northwards
0:02:07 > 0:02:10and collided with Europe, sealing off an arm of the ocean,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14first at its eastern end as Arabia pressed against Syria,
0:02:14 > 0:02:19then in the west, where, close to Gibraltar, Africa touched Spain.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22The imprisoned sea now began to evaporate.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Even the water flowing into it from the great rivers
0:02:25 > 0:02:27like the Rhone and the Nile couldn't save it.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Within a few centuries the vast basin,
0:02:30 > 0:02:342,000 miles long and three miles deep, dried out.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37And then, about 5½ million years ago,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41at the western end, the Atlantic Ocean broke through.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54The falls were probably about 50 times higher than Niagara today.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56And because they stretched for many miles,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00the flow over them was around 1,000 times greater.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Every 24 hours, some 40 cubic miles of water
0:03:04 > 0:03:08cascaded down into the huge trench beneath.
0:03:16 > 0:03:17For a century or more,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22the waters poured in, and slowly the great basin filled.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24The waters rose up around the coasts.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Mountains were turned into islands,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30and the Mediterranean we know today was born.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49The evidence for the extraordinary fact
0:03:49 > 0:03:51that the Mediterranean was once dry
0:03:51 > 0:03:54is direct and incontrovertible.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56It comes from rock like this.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Wherever you bore in the bottom of the Mediterranean,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03about 600 feet below the bottom of the sea,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08the drills bring up cores like this, full of salt.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Salt which extends downwards for a further mile or more.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14Salt, which, from its chemical composition
0:04:14 > 0:04:16and distribution in the Mediterranean,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21could only have been laid down if the Mediterranean had evaporated.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23And that refilling of the basin,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25around 5½ million years ago,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30must surely have been the most sudden and dramatic birth
0:04:30 > 0:04:32for any sea on earth.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And when it happened, fish and other animals from the Atlantic
0:04:36 > 0:04:39swam in through the Straits of Gibraltar
0:04:39 > 0:04:42to re-colonise this newborn sea.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Today, four different species of dolphin
0:05:20 > 0:05:22regularly visit the Mediterranean,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24and they often travel together.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28In this shoal, there are both striped and common dolphins.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43Even sperm whales, 50 feet long,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47call in each year during their global cruises.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Seals took up residence here so long ago
0:06:06 > 0:06:10that they have now evolved into a distinct and unique species,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13the Mediterranean monk seal.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34Loggerhead turtles, too, swam in,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38floating lazily through the warm surface waters,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41browsing on jellyfish and molluscs.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45They sped right along the 2,000 mile length of the sea
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and some became permanent residents,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51breeding on beaches in Turkey and Greece.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13And, of course, fish came too, in huge numbers.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Some, like these tunny, are still only visitors.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21They found the small new sea a suitable haven for spawning.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23They still do so every year,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26and then swim back to the Atlantic Ocean.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30But with them came vast numbers of other fish species
0:07:30 > 0:07:33that quickly adopted the sea as their permanent home.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Some of the mountains that had once stood on the floor of the dry basin
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and had now become islands were volcanoes.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44The forces deep in the earth's crust
0:07:44 > 0:07:47that had dragged the continents across the globe
0:07:47 > 0:07:51had also created deep rifts and faults in the earth's rocky skin,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54through which molten lava and ash erupted,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57building up great peaks around the vents.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Today the power has left many of these volcanoes,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and little more than steam rises from their craters.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17But some are still very active indeed.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31This is Etna, in Sicily, the biggest of all.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Its huge cone has been built up over many millennia
0:08:34 > 0:08:38and now stands over 10,000 feet high.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41The mountain rumbles and blows cinders into the air
0:08:41 > 0:08:43almost continuously.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46But every century or so, it becomes catastrophically violent
0:08:46 > 0:08:49and rivers of molten lava pour down its flanks.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Not all the islands were volcanoes.
0:10:04 > 0:10:05Some were composed of limestone
0:10:05 > 0:10:07that had formed on the floor of the sea
0:10:07 > 0:10:09before the great desiccation,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and had been pushed up like rucks in a carpet
0:10:12 > 0:10:15as Africa and Europe moved together.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18This is one of them. Malta.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Each of these islands had living on it
0:10:21 > 0:10:24its own community of animals and plants.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26And in their newly found isolation,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30they began evolving in their own strange way.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33There are caves in the rocks of Malta.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37At a time when the rainfall was very much higher than it is now,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40streams trickled through the rocks
0:10:40 > 0:10:44and eventually dissolved away great caverns like this one.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46And they also carried with them
0:10:46 > 0:10:50the remains of animals that lived on the island at the time.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Many of the smaller, more delicate bones, of course, were smashed.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55But teeth are very durable.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59And from teeth found here we know that hippopotamus
0:10:59 > 0:11:00and elephant lived here.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04But they were not like those that are living today.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10This, for example, is the back grinding molar of a modern elephant.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14But compare it with that of one of those ancient Maltese elephants.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22The mud and the rubble under here
0:11:22 > 0:11:24is full of bones of one kind or another.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26And when it was first excavated,
0:11:26 > 0:11:32it produced literally thousands of teeth, including this one.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37The back tooth of a Maltese elephant. It was a pygmy.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40And we know from such teeth as this and the rest of its bones
0:11:40 > 0:11:44that it was no bigger than a small pony.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48And there aren't only teeth of elephant. There are teeth of hippo.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50It, too, was a dwarf.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56Here on the island there was limited vegetation to feed on,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59so enormous growth wasn't easy to achieve.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02And neither were there any lions or other predators,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05so there was no need to grow huge as a defence against them,
0:12:05 > 0:12:06which is probably the reason
0:12:06 > 0:12:10that elephants on the mainland are so gigantic.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12Such tiny hippos and elephants
0:12:12 > 0:12:15evolved on the large island of Sicily to the north,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and on several Greek islands to the east.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19To the west, in Sardinia,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22there were not only small hippo and pygmy elephant,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26but strange pigs, dwarf deer and tiny monkeys.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Farther west still lie the Balearic Islands,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35They, at one time, were interconnected
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and formed a single large landmass,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41and it too had its own unique fauna.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Majorca, the biggest of the surviving fragments,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48has yielded fossils showing that it once possessed
0:12:48 > 0:12:52a giant dormouse, a shrew almost as big as a rabbit
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and a tiny antelope, no bigger than a spaniel,
0:12:55 > 0:13:00that had developed long, gnawing teeth like a rat.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04It, like the tiny elephants and hippos, is now extinct.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11But one animal, which we have known from fossils,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14has just been discovered alive.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19It lives in remote pools and streams high in the mountains.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23So remote, in fact, that its main enemy, the snake,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26which was only introduced into Majorca in historic times,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28has not, so far, reached them.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30Like here.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55It's a tiny toad,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58clearly related to the midwife toad of mainland Europe,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01with the same habit that gives that toad its name.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04The male carries the eggs entangled around its legs,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06and regularly goes for a swim with them
0:14:06 > 0:14:08to prevent them from drying out.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10But it's sufficiently different
0:14:10 > 0:14:13to be classified as a separate and unique species.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Because it evolved on an island where it had no enemies,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21it's changed in certain ways.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24It's lost, for example, the poison glands
0:14:24 > 0:14:27which serve its mainland relative as a defence.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30And its tadpoles have also changed slightly.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32There's some in the pool behind me.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37It's not so much their shape that is unusual, but their numbers.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40The female Majorca midwife produces many fewer eggs
0:14:40 > 0:14:42than the females on the mainland.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44It had no need to produce great numbers
0:14:44 > 0:14:46because there were no snakes here
0:14:46 > 0:14:48that would eat a large proportion of the tadpoles.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50So when snakes DID arrive,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53the little Majorca midwife was quickly wiped out,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56and it only survives today in places like this
0:14:56 > 0:14:58which snakes haven't reached...yet.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04These strange creatures started evolving on these islands
0:15:04 > 0:15:06some 5½ million years ago.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10At that time, the Mediterranean region as a whole was warm,
0:15:10 > 0:15:11with plenty of rain,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15and, as a consequence, thick forests were widespread.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19They grew not only on the islands
0:15:19 > 0:15:22but all around the mainland shores of the sea.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24And they were much the same in character
0:15:24 > 0:15:27on both the north shore and the south.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33In them grew cedars and evergreen oak, hawthorn and yew.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36All trees that still grow in Europe.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39On the African shore, however, where it's very much hotter today,
0:15:39 > 0:15:44they've died out. But 6,000 feet up in the Atlas mountains in Morocco,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47where I am now, these forests still survive.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49They may look European in character
0:15:49 > 0:15:52but in them lives a very African animal.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02These are monkeys. Barbary macaques.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06They're very competent climbers, scrambling through the branches
0:16:06 > 0:16:09collecting the tender leaves of the cedars and the oaks.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22They're also expert foragers on the ground,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26collecting fallen acorns, digging up bulbs and juicy roots,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28and catching millipedes and earthworms.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Macaques like these once lived in the forests
0:16:41 > 0:16:44of the European shore, as well as here in Africa.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47And, at one time, when the climate was rather warmer than it is now,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51they spread far north across Europe, even as far as Britain,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53as their fossilised bones prove.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56The monkeys that live today on the Rock of Gibraltar
0:16:56 > 0:17:00may in fact be a relic of that ancient European population.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04But during recent centuries their numbers have been boosted many times
0:17:04 > 0:17:09with importations of animals caught in these cedar forests in Morocco.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23The young are strikingly different in colour from the adults.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26Usually, only one is born at a time. Twins are very rare.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30And the baby is most carefully looked after by its parents.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48The males take their share of the baby minding,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51so allowing the females to go and gather food
0:17:51 > 0:17:53unencumbered by an unruly baby.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00In fact, all the adults clearly love playing with babies,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04and are so eager to do so, that they take on passengers
0:18:04 > 0:18:06whether the baby belongs to them or not.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27In spring, the skies above these North African forests
0:18:27 > 0:18:29suddenly fill with birds.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39White storks by the hundred.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04Buzzards, kites and eagles.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25They are wheeling around in thermals, columns of warm air
0:19:25 > 0:19:28that rise from the land, especially bare rock,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31as it heats up each day in the sun,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and which can lift them thousands of feet into the sky
0:19:34 > 0:19:38so that they have enough height to glide right across the sea
0:19:38 > 0:19:41to the northern European shore.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43They are on their spring migration,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47which will take them from Africa far into northern Europe.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01Why SHOULD these birds make such long and arduous journeys?
0:20:01 > 0:20:02The reason seems clear enough.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06In Europe, in summer, when the ground is no longer frozen,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08there's a great deal to eat.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Far more than the local birds that have wintered there
0:20:11 > 0:20:12can deal with by themselves.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16So that's the place to build a nest and rear your young.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18But how did these birds discover
0:20:18 > 0:20:20that all those hundreds of miles away
0:20:20 > 0:20:23there were such rich feeding grounds?
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Well, the answer to that seems to be
0:20:25 > 0:20:27that they weren't always so far away.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35About 2½ million years ago,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39the earth cooled and fell into the grip of an ice age.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Ice caps developed over Scandinavia and northern Britain
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and glaciers slowly ground their way southwards.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57Southern Europe became a treeless wasteland. Tundra.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01But in spring, it was alive with insects, frogs and small rodents,
0:21:01 > 0:21:05and many African birds began to make the short trip across the sea
0:21:05 > 0:21:07to feed and nest there.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Then, some 20,000 years ago, the ice began to retreat
0:21:10 > 0:21:14and the spring feeding grounds moved northwards with it.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18So year after year, the birds had to make longer journeys.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23As the climate continued to warm, so the Sahara Desert began to form.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Now, the journeys the spring breeders had to make
0:21:25 > 0:21:28became formidable indeed.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37It seems almost unbelievable
0:21:37 > 0:21:42that such a tiny bird as a martin, which weighs only a few ounces,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45should have the energy to fly across the Sahara,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49for there is little or no food for it on the way.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51Martins and swallows are not gliders like storks,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54but must continually beat their wings.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56They have to take regular rests,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00and here, there is nothing to alight on except the hot sand.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Some are so exhausted
0:22:38 > 0:22:41that they no longer have the strength to get into the air,
0:22:41 > 0:22:43and die where they landed.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59Oases, where a spring bubbling up from underground
0:22:59 > 0:23:04provides enough water for trees to grow, are invaluable staging posts.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Warblers and redstarts, flycatchers and wagtails,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14insect eaters of all kinds call in here and stay for several days,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17feeding and resting, and building up their strength
0:23:17 > 0:23:21for the long days and nights flying that still lie ahead.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Waders can't eat at all
0:23:35 > 0:23:37until they get to the shore of the Mediterranean,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41for they feed only on small creatures that live in mud.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43But when they DO get to the African coast,
0:23:43 > 0:23:47they stay for several days, feeding almost continuously.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49And the lagoons along the coast in spring
0:23:49 > 0:23:51are like restaurants on a motorway,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55providing nonstop meals for travellers from all parts.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59The curlew sandpiper may have come from the shores of the Indian Ocean,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02and be on its way to Siberia.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05The spoonbills were probably feeding only a week ago
0:24:05 > 0:24:07in the mangrove swamps of West Africa.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12On the European shore, spring has come.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00The plants created this rapid transformation
0:25:00 > 0:25:02in several different ways.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Poppies and crown daisies are annuals.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Their seeds were scattered last summer
0:25:08 > 0:25:10and lay dormant throughout the winter.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14Now, the warm spring rains have bought them to sudden life.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18They will swiftly set seed and then they will die,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22having condensed their entire active life into a few short weeks.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Others use a different technique.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35The asphodel and many other species, including the wild gladiolus,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39the scarlet crowfoot and 50-odd species of orchids,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42have kept the surplus food they made last year
0:25:42 > 0:25:45stored underground in bulbs and swollen roots.
0:25:45 > 0:25:46At the first hint of spring
0:25:46 > 0:25:49they use those savings to produce their flowers,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52in some cases, even before they sprouted leaves.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56At the same time, neatly synchronised by the warming weather,
0:25:56 > 0:25:58insects are hatching.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Now they are busy collecting the bribes of nectar,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06advertised by the flowers as inducements to transport pollen.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42This is the banquet that the birds have come to feed on.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47The roller may have travelled from Eastern Africa, Kenya or Mozambique.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Deep inside its nest hole,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05its young - there may be up to five of them -
0:27:05 > 0:27:08are demanding frequent meals throughout the day.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21The adults have a taste for big, crunchy insects,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24such as beetles, crickets and large grasshoppers.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28But this pair are feeding their nestlings on LESS prickly food -
0:27:28 > 0:27:30dragonflies and antlions.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37The bee-eaters may also have come from Eastern Africa.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46True to their name, they really do eat bees and wasps,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50beating them against a perch to discharge the stings.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53But they also gladly accept less-hazardous meals
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and they, too, are catching dragonflies.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09They have dug long tunnels in a sandy bank in which to nest.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Suitable sandbanks like these are not common,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17so bee-eaters, perhaps from necessity,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19habitually nest in colonies.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23They dig tunnels three feet or so into the banks with their beaks,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26kicking the loosened sand behind them as they go.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03The trouble with tunnels as narrow as THIS one
0:29:03 > 0:29:05is that there's no room to turn round.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24The spoonbills have also arrived and are finding the food they need
0:29:24 > 0:29:28in the warm shallow lagoons of the Coto Donana in Spain.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02The storks are here too, claiming the same nest sites
0:30:02 > 0:30:05that they have used each season for decades.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15The exultant rituals with which the pair greet one another
0:30:15 > 0:30:18reinforces the bond between them,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22as does the act of adding further bits and pieces to the nest itself.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25There's no structural need for these extra twigs,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28but placing them in just the right position
0:30:28 > 0:30:31clearly demands the most careful consideration.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47The young, exposed to the hot sun, are given not only solid food
0:30:47 > 0:30:50but drink, even if they don't know immediately that it's coming.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03And then they get their fish.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Flamingos, in spite of their somewhat unwieldy
0:31:20 > 0:31:21and laborious flight,
0:31:21 > 0:31:25are also adventurous and determined travellers.
0:31:25 > 0:31:26They've come north across the sea
0:31:26 > 0:31:28from the southern shores of the Mediterranean,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30in Morocco and Tunisia,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33to spend the summer in southern Spain
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Or on the lagoons around the mouth of the Rhone in the Camargue.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52Here, they are at the northernmost extent of their range
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and some years they seem to be in two minds
0:31:54 > 0:31:56as to whether to breed or not.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59They will only start their courtship displays
0:31:59 > 0:32:01if a sizeable flock of them have made the trip.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Even if they get as far as laying their eggs,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06they may still suddenly change their minds
0:32:06 > 0:32:08and forget about the whole business.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10If and when the eggs DO hatch,
0:32:10 > 0:32:14the young quickly leave the nests and gather together in groups,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17wading manfully through the shallows on their short legs.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34The parents can recognise their chicks by their calls,
0:32:34 > 0:32:39even in such great congregations as these, and will feed no others,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42supplying them with a soup of microscopic creatures
0:32:42 > 0:32:43filtered from the lagoon,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46as well as trickles of water pumped up from their stomachs.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17It will be 2½ months and high summer
0:33:17 > 0:33:20before they're big enough to feed themselves
0:33:20 > 0:33:22and have enough strength to accompany their parents
0:33:22 > 0:33:24on the long flight back to Africa.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41The blazing summer sun brings great danger to plants.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44It threatens to rob them of their precious water
0:33:44 > 0:33:47by evaporation through the pores in their leaves.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50And Mediterranean plants have several different ways
0:33:50 > 0:33:52of dealing with that.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57The asphodel, which flowers during February and March, is now dead.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59Its flowers gone, its leaves withered
0:33:59 > 0:34:03and it survives only as a bulb deep in the ground.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05Sage also loses its winter leaves,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08which are these long, brown dead leaves here,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12and sprouts specially small summer leaves
0:34:12 > 0:34:15which curl, which have very few pores in them,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19and which also produce a fragrant oil which covers the leaf in a film
0:34:19 > 0:34:22and so reduces evaporation.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24And that oil also serves as a protection.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Because whereas we like its taste, goats dislike it,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31and so goats don't browse the sage.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36This plant, poterium, in winter is a mass of green leaves.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38But now, in the summer, it's lost those leaves
0:34:38 > 0:34:43and grown instead these small summer leaves here.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47And it protects itself against goats with this mass of spines.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52The caper remains green
0:34:52 > 0:34:55by generating enormous suction in its roots,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57which collects the last vestiges of moisture.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59It even flowers at this time
0:34:59 > 0:35:01and prevents its blossoms from shrivelling
0:35:01 > 0:35:03by producing them at night.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17By early dawn they're fully open,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20attracting bees with their powerful scent.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35But by midday they are dead.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39The buds of these short-lived flowers are produced in sequence,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41along the length of its shoot.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44One for each night of the flowering season.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02Summer may be a hard and crippling time for many plants,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06but for these animals, it's the easy time of the year.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Lizards, being reptiles, draw their body heat directly from the sun.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15There are over 30 different species of them on the European shore alone
0:36:15 > 0:36:18and they actively hunt for insects and other small creatures
0:36:18 > 0:36:20throughout the hot summer months.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54And there are other reptiles on these hot, sandy northern shores.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Snakes. Quite a lot of different kinds,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00and one or two that are quite impressive.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05This in front of me is one of the biggest of them...
0:37:06 > 0:37:09..and one that is, in fact, poisonous.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Though not lethally so.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15This is a Montpelier snake.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18It's one of the biggest of the snakes in the western Mediterranean.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21It grows to six feet, that's a couple of metres long.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23And although it's poisonous,
0:37:23 > 0:37:26its poisons are in fact restricted
0:37:26 > 0:37:28to the fangs at the back of its mouth.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31The teeth in the front have no poison in them.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34So if it's going to inject its poison into its prey,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36it has to get a really good bite.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39And it can't do that, of course, on a human being.
0:37:39 > 0:37:40And, even if it did,
0:37:40 > 0:37:44the poison it has is not really lethal,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47it would just put me in bed feeling pretty uncomfortable
0:37:47 > 0:37:48for a couple of days.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51Its prey, after all, is not human beings.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Its prey are other small creatures
0:37:54 > 0:37:56which it finds around these sand dunes.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Prominent among its targets are lizards.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52It's now high summer.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54The flowers for the most part have disappeared
0:38:54 > 0:38:56and the woods of pine and olive
0:38:56 > 0:39:00are filled with the continuous, sometimes deafening calls,
0:39:00 > 0:39:05of that most indefatigable of insect singers, the cicada.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07REPEATED CHIRPING
0:39:10 > 0:39:14It produces this insistent invitation to mate
0:39:14 > 0:39:15by vibrating a membrane
0:39:15 > 0:39:18in chambers that open on the underside of its abdomen.
0:39:20 > 0:39:21In the withered grass,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25crickets and grasshoppers are searching for their last meals.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27Many will die before the summer is out,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30leaving their eggs in the soil to hatch next spring.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54The hunters in this grass-root jungle
0:39:54 > 0:39:57are spiders, scorpions and centipedes.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00They're comparatively long-lived creatures
0:40:00 > 0:40:02and must get enough food now
0:40:02 > 0:40:05to last them through the coming winter famine.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07So they are rounding up the last survivors
0:40:07 > 0:40:08of the herds of grasshoppers
0:40:08 > 0:40:10and other plant-eating insects.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Drought is now the enemy of all.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Snails climb up the stems of bushes
0:40:53 > 0:40:57and seal the entrance to their shells with mucus
0:40:57 > 0:41:00so as to retain their body moisture no matter how hot it gets.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Many butterflies and moths have now died.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16But one species manages to live in vast numbers
0:41:16 > 0:41:18right through these hot months.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31In one secluded wooded valley, on the island of Rhodes,
0:41:31 > 0:41:33where the trees provide shade
0:41:33 > 0:41:35and a permanent stream keeps the air humid,
0:41:35 > 0:41:39a million Jersey tiger moths have assembled.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55At the edge of the stream,
0:41:55 > 0:41:59a freshwater crab gathers any moths that settle within reach.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16The moths also fall prey to water boatman,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20if one of them accidentally flutters into the water.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33For four months they eat nothing,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36but live entirely on the fuel reserves
0:42:36 > 0:42:38that they built up during the winter.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42And that's why I mustn't talk loudly or make any sudden gesture
0:42:42 > 0:42:44that would cause them to fly into the air,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48and so use up a bit more of that valuable fuel
0:42:48 > 0:42:52that they MUST have if they are to last through until the autumn,
0:42:52 > 0:42:54when they can lay their eggs.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57So here, the only thing that disturbs them is, perhaps,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59the sudden call of a bird or the fall of a leaf
0:42:59 > 0:43:02and maybe the need to flutter up into the air
0:43:02 > 0:43:04to escape the direct rays of the sun
0:43:04 > 0:43:08and find a place that's a little cooler and a little darker.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14These conditions are almost African.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17And indeed, a few African animals have, over the millennia,
0:43:17 > 0:43:20slowly spread up around the eastern end of the sea
0:43:20 > 0:43:23to colonise the islands and the northern shores
0:43:23 > 0:43:24of the Mediterranean.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31This is one of them, the chameleon.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41Today it's found on the island of Crete and in southern Spain.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44And during the summer, at least, it finds plenty to eat.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Even chameleons aren't always 100% successful.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Tortoises are really animals of the tropics
0:44:23 > 0:44:25and have little resistance to cold.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29So when winter comes, they will have to take refuge below ground
0:44:29 > 0:44:32and hibernate, in order not to be killed by the frosts.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42The hot dry summers of the northern Mediterranean
0:44:42 > 0:44:44would suit many African mammals.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49It's the cold, wet winters that keep the majority of them away.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51Even so, one or two species
0:44:51 > 0:44:55have managed to come up north and live permanently here.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59And this cave, in Cyprus, is home of one of the more surprising of them.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22It's a fruit bat the size of a squirrel.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Fruit bats don't have the sophisticated echolocation technique
0:45:26 > 0:45:28of the smaller, insect-eating bats,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31which enable them to navigate in black caves
0:45:31 > 0:45:34and so escape the colds of winter by hibernating there.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37But this one species, the Rousette fruit bat,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41has improvised its own version by drawing back its lips
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and squeaking out of the side of its mouth.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46It's nowhere near as accurate a system
0:45:46 > 0:45:49as the high-frequency sonar of the insect-eaters,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52but it is good enough to enable the Rousette bat
0:45:52 > 0:45:55to roost in caves like this and so survive the winter,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59and be the most northerly living of all fruit bats in the world.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05Another African mammal also roams the European night.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07The porcupine.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13Like the bats, it, too, survives the chills of winter
0:46:13 > 0:46:17by taking shelter underground, in dens and burrows.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20It's the same species that is common over much of Africa,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22though these European colonists
0:46:22 > 0:46:25seldom get quite as big as the African ones.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Even so, it's a hefty animal, as big as a large spaniel.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41In Europe, it's found only in Sicily and Italy.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44An odd distribution and one that makes it likely
0:46:44 > 0:46:47that the animal was actually taken across the Mediterranean
0:46:47 > 0:46:50by the Romans 2,000 years ago.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Be that as it may, porcupines are still quite common
0:46:53 > 0:46:56in these countries, though they're not often seen
0:46:56 > 0:46:59since they only come out of their dens at night.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07This little creature, the rock hyrax,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10may be the next African mammal to reach Europe
0:47:10 > 0:47:12if the climate gets any warmer.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Its headquarters are in East Africa,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25but today its reign extends up the eastern end of the Mediterranean,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28through Egypt and into Israel and the Middle East.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32And that was one of the routes taken around a million years ago
0:47:32 > 0:47:36by the most influential mammal ever to come out of Africa to Europe.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38When the ice age came,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41this immigrant species took refuge in caves,
0:47:41 > 0:47:43including this one in eastern Spain.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47When investigators started work here, the cave was full of soil.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49But as they dug they discovered evidence
0:47:49 > 0:47:52of a change in this creature's activities
0:47:52 > 0:47:55that was to be of the greatest significance.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58For every foot of soil they removed
0:47:58 > 0:48:01they went back in time some thousand years.
0:48:01 > 0:48:07Until, 25 feet down and some 28,000 years back in time,
0:48:07 > 0:48:09they reached the bottom.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11And here, in these lowest layers,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15they found worked flints, like this.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20These are the handiwork of that tool-using super-ape - man.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23As time passed, the flint tools they produced
0:48:23 > 0:48:25became more finely worked.
0:48:25 > 0:48:26There was also evidence here
0:48:26 > 0:48:29not only of these people's improving manual skills,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32but of their developing imaginations.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34Drawings scratched on pieces of rock,
0:48:34 > 0:48:37as elsewhere they're found on cave walls.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41A horse. And, outlined with equal accuracy and certainty, a deer.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50From the remains they left strewn in the cave after their meals
0:48:50 > 0:48:53we can get a detailed picture of what animals they hunted,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57and what lived with them in the lands around the Mediterranean.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Bears were certainly numerous.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02At this time, between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05the ice age was only just coming to an end,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08and much of southern Europe was still tundra.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11The bears, warm in their long, hairy coats,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14were then living much as they do now, farther north in the Arctic
0:49:14 > 0:49:18on fish from the rivers, carrion, small rodents,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21but mostly succulent roots, berries and leaves.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Moose, which today still live in considerable numbers
0:49:28 > 0:49:33in northern Germany, Scandinavia and the Arctic, were also common.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36They waded through the bogs, munching water plants
0:49:36 > 0:49:40and taking refuge in the winter in the pockets of coniferous forests
0:49:40 > 0:49:42that were now beginning to spread across southern Europe
0:49:42 > 0:49:45as the glaciers retreated northwards.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56Bison, too, were abundant.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58Herds of them wandered across the open steppes.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00And they, too, as the climate warmed
0:50:00 > 0:50:03moved into the spreading forests.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07They survived in the wild until the early years of this century.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10Today, a few live in semi-captivity
0:50:10 > 0:50:13in forests on the Russian-Polish border and in the Caucasus.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21There were also ibex.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36It's a kind of wild goat that lives and squabbles in the mountains.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42The wolf, too, was abundant.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46And around this time it became the first animal to be tamed be man.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50It seems likely that people regularly reared orphan wolf cubs
0:50:50 > 0:50:53in their camps and, when they became fully grown,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55recruited them as hunting assistants.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59The wolf helped the men to track with its super-sensitive nose
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and used its sharp teeth to help bring down the quarry.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05In return, it took a share of the meat of the kill
0:51:05 > 0:51:07and gained the protection of mankind
0:51:07 > 0:51:11and a place in the warmth beside the campfire at night.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20As time passed and the climate got warmer still,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23forests spread right across Spain.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25This valley would then have been unrecognisable
0:51:25 > 0:51:29beneath a thick cover of oaks and elms and hazels.
0:51:37 > 0:51:38Some 10,000 years ago,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42there were still people living in caves in these valleys.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44But in one way at least, their habits had changed.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47They no longer painted on the cave walls.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50Instead, some of the people, presumably the hunters,
0:51:50 > 0:51:53came out and painted on the cliffs, like this one.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56Here for example, there's a frieze of deer.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Another, with its ears pricked in alarm.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Stags, head lowered in a charge.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13An ibex.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17And a great wild bull,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21probably the most dangerous animal in the whole forest.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24And these artists also portrayed themselves.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28A hunter, armed with a bow and arrow,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32has killed some deer which lie prostrate in front of him.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37Footprints lead to another animal,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40wounded with a spear or an arrow in its belly.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Two men set off on a hunt.
0:52:46 > 0:52:48Another climbs a tree.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52This is his head and his arms and his legs.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57And this is the tree, at the top of which is a bee's nest full of honey,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59with angry insects flying out of it.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07But, as these paintings make clear,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10the people remained primarily hunters.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12And that meant that they had to spend most of their lives
0:53:12 > 0:53:15wandering in search of their prey.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17But at the other, eastern end of the Mediterranean,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19around the mouths of the great rivers,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22people were learning new ways of living.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Ways that ultimately were to transform
0:53:24 > 0:53:26these lands around the Mediterranean.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28Their First Eden.