Shifting Sands Wild Arabia

The wild places of Arabia are so hot and dry

that they were virtually

untouched by people for thousands of years.

But that ancient balance has shifted

in the wake of one dramatic discovery.

Oil and the wealth it has brought have transformed this land,

bringing the 21st century to the desert.

Arabia's animals now live in a hi-tech world...

..but Arabia's people

are beginning to use their technology to protect nature.

Dawn at the Al Wathba camel racetrack

on the outskirts of the city of Abu Dhabi.

For centuries, the Arabs held camel races to celebrate special occasions,

But in the last 50 years camel-racing has been transformed,

echoing changes that have swept all across Arabia.

Now this is one of the richest sports in the world.

The winner of this race stands to win a million dollars.

The prize money at stake means that 21st century camel racing

has moved far beyond anything

these camel handlers' grandparents could have imagined.

In today's camel races,

modern technology is in the driving seat...

literally.

To save on weight,

jockeys have been replaced by robots weighing no more than a laptop.

CAR HORN BEEPS

The camel trainers drive alongside.

They scream instructions to their camels

through a speaker on the robot.

EXCITED CHATTER

The frenzy is added to by the fevered excitement of the race commentator,

broadcasting live to the nation.

HE SPEAKS ARABIC

When an extra burst of speed is needed,

each robot carries a whip

which the trainer operates by remote control.

In today's Arabia,

camel training has become a sophisticated business.

Scientific breeding and state-of-the-art training

have turned these camels into elite racing machines.

The average speed of a race horse in Europe

hasn't changed in half a century,

while the average speed of a racing camel has increased by 30%.

To understand the vast changes

that have swept across Arabia in recent decades,

you have to go back millions of years.

Then, most of the Arabian Peninsula was under water,

forming the seabed of a vast ocean...

..the Tethys Sea.

The waters were rich in tiny plants and animals

which sank to the bottom when they died.

Over millennia, the decaying bodies

of billions of these tiny life forms turned to oil.

Oil was first discovered

in the offshore waters of the Gulf and the Arabian desert in the 1920s.

It was during the Second World War and the boom years that followed

that the global demand for oil started to skyrocket.

Arabia had struck it rich.

All across Arabia, the oil men found new supplies of black gold.

Today, close to a third of the world's oil

is supplied by the countries of the Gulf -

that's about three billion litres per day.

25 major oil terminals line Arabia's Gulf coast.

Every year, some 5,000 tankers pass through these waters.

It certainly doesn't look wildlife-friendly...

..but in places, the impact on nature

is not as negative as you might think.

The divers who service the platforms

get an exclusive view of some very exotic animals.

The legs of the platforms become encrusted with corals.

These, and the tiny animals associated with them,

in turn provide food for fish.

The rigs are home to dozens of beautiful species...

..like the long fin pennant fish...

..and the half moon angel fish.

It's not just reef dwellers that are found here.

Fish from the open sea also gather,

perhaps because the rigs offer shelter from predatory sharks.

Also, fishing near the rigs is banned,

allowing shoals to grow larger than anywhere else in the Gulf.

This is a popular spawning ground.

The female Queen fish swims on her side as she distributes her eggs.

Males jostle behind her to be the first to fertilise them.

In summertime, the water is thick with eggs, a feast for jellyfish.

This cauliflower jelly is a metre across...

..but it's a tiddler

next to some of the diners attracted to this egg soup.

A whale shark.

At 12 metres plus in length,

it's the biggest fish in the world.

A sight to take your breath away.

The diver needn't worry.

whale sharks only have tiny teeth,

and don't eat anything more than a few centimetres long.

Whale sharks feed by filtering food particles from the water,

though jellyfish are not on the menu.

Every shark is accompanied by a cloud of remoras or suckerfish,

which are thought to feed largely on the shark's faeces.

For most of their lives - which can be 70 years long -

whale sharks are solitary.

But there is so much food here,

that groups of over 100 sharks can gather together.

These sharks are only in Arabian waters for the summer.

Where they go for the rest of the year is unknown.

Even in these waters, much of their life remains a mystery.

They feed for just a few hours every day,

then disappear back into the depths.

What they get up to down there, nobody knows.

The fish life around the oil platforms

also provides food for seabirds.

90% of the world's Socotra cormorants

breed on low-lying islands in the Gulf.

During the breeding season - from March to November -

temperatures on the ground can reach a scorching 70 degrees centigrade.

The cormorants flutter their throats to keep cool.

Despite the heat, successful colonies -

like this one off the coast of Bahrain -

can be tens of thousands strong.

But appearances can be deceptive.

Although some large colonies do remain,

over half have disappeared in the last 50 years

and oil pollution is thought to have played a large role.

The oil industry is a lot cleaner than it was,

but parts of the Gulf remain polluted

because of the legacy of large spills in the past.

This was the site of the world's largest ever oil spill.

During the Gulf War in 1991,

the Iraqi army set fire to huge numbers of oil wells

and nearly two billion litres of oil were lost.

No-one knows just how many fish and seabirds were killed,

but it certainly had a dramatic impact.

Oil does eventually break down naturally,

but it can take many years for all the toxic chemicals to disperse.

The risk of further oil spills will remain a threat to wildlife

while so much oil passes through the Gulf.

Along the Gulf coast,

the seabed is kept fertile by dust blowing in from the desert.

That means these shallow waters

are every bit as important for wildlife as the deep seas.

But to exploit the food that's on offer here,

you need the right equipment.

The beak of the Lesser Flamingo

is the only beak that's built to be used upside down.

It's lined with bristles

which filter out prawns and algae from the water.

It's the pigment in this food that turns flamingos pink.

Young birds start white and become pinker with age.

The rhythmic feeding and swallowing looks like a graceful ballet,

but the flamingos aren't above using those beautiful beaks

as weapons to fight over personal space.

And space is a key issue for the Gulf's flamingos.

Many of the lagoons they rely on

have been swallowed up by Arabia's fast-growing cities.

This city-centre wetland has been protected

by an edict from the very top - Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai.

But the pressure on many other wild places continues to increase.

The population of the United Arab Emirates alone

has risen by nearly 10,000 per cent since the 1960s,

leading to an explosion in construction and trade.

The most extreme expression of the wealth of the Gulf cities

is in Dubai...

..home to more skyscrapers per square mile

than anywhere else on Earth.

This forest of concrete, glass and steel

is towered over by the Burj Khalifa.

At half a mile high, it's 300 metres higher

than any other building on Earth.

As well as going up, the Gulf cities are spreading out.

This is the Palm.

It's an extraordinary feat of engineering,

but each frond was created by dredging sand from the seabed.

And on the seabed is a grassland as rich as the plains of Africa.

The warm, sun-drenched waters are perfect for sea grass,

the only flowering plant in the sea.

Just like the African grasslands, these underwater plains

are home to many predators and prey.

A blue-spotted ribbon tail ray hunts for buried shellfish.

A blue triggerfish has the same quarry in mind.

Small fish, like this blenny, have to lie low.

An annulated sea snake, two metres long

and one of the most venomous in the world.

The snake can hunt for up to two hours on one breath.

Hole-dwelling blennies are a favourite prey.

Not all the reptiles here are voracious hunters.

Unlike most sea turtles, green turtles prefer a vegetarian diet.

Like the whale sharks, many turtles are accompanied by remoras.

These ones are squabbling over access.

Each remora has a suction pad on its head

which it can stick to animals to get a free ride.

A turtle shell is easy stick to and worth fighting over.

The growth of the Gulf's cities threatens the sea grass plains...

..and all the weird and wonderful animals that depend on them.

A dugong.

Closest relative, the elephant.

Dugongs eat almost nothing but sea grass,

using their flexible lips

to pull up both the stalk and the nutritious roots beneath.

A group of remoras are trying to hitch a ride on this dugong,

but he's not tolerating the hangers-on.

Every spring the Gulf's dugongs gather together

in what are thought to be mass migrations between feeding grounds.

Protecting those feeding grounds from development

would go a long way towards protecting the dugongs,

but nobody yet knows where they are.

Luckily, help is at hand.

This is a project run by the Abu Dhabi Government

that aims to find out where the Gulf's dugongs are going

by fitting them with satellite transmitters.

They've called in some assistance from the far side of the world.

Ah, to the other boats, can you guys keep on our starboard side?

Australian scientist Richard Campbell

works with two Aboriginal Australians.

Dwayne and Philip grew up hunting dugongs for food...

..and now put their skills to a different use.

Even for an expert, finding a dugong isn't easy.

They only take a breath every five minutes or so

and barely break the surface.

The team need eyes in the sky.

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

CHATTER OVER RADIO

Once the dugong's been spotted,

Dwayne and Philip use their expertise

to approach with as little disturbance to the animal as possible.

Dwayne speared his first dugong from an open boat at the age of 12,

but today he's going to have to grab the dugong,

a third of a ton of slippery muscle.

It's not for the faint-hearted.

-Going to catch him, Dwayne?

-Yep.

Dwayne gets a loop around the tail...

..and the team work fast

to secure the dugong safely to the side of the boat.

Protecting the Gulf's dugongs

means that a few will have to carry satellite transmitters

but each one weighs just half a kilo

and tied around the tail, they do no harm.

This is a chance to take some useful measurements.

-Get it on there, Yussef.

-OK?

Yeah, yeah, OK.

-2.72.

-2.72.

Nearly 3 metres, a good size.

This would have made for quite a feast in Philip's youth.

The team also take skin samples for genetic analysis.

The hairs on the body are a clue

to the fact that dugongs' ancestors used to live on land.

Yeah, just DNA, mate. We don't need much.

After just a few minutes, the dugong is released.

Mission accomplished for the team.

Success! Good job!

Information about this dugong's movements

will help determine which regions of the Gulf

need to be protected from future development.

In the great desert heartland of Arabia,

the relationship between people and nature goes back a long way.

The Arabs survived here by hunting the desert's animals

and for 4,000 years, one very special predator

has helped them catch their prey...

..the falcon.

For many Arabs, falconry remains a passion bordering on obsession.

Mohammed Al-Kaabi comes out from the city

to fly his birds every weekend.

This is Haty.

Pedigree falcons like her can cost as much as 100,000.

Haty's trained to return to Mohammed

using a lure that simulates her quarry.

It's a workout that keeps her agile and in top condition.

Mohammed is showing his sons, Salem and Saif,

how to put Haty through her paces.

LAUGHTER

MOHAMED ISSUES COMMANDS IN ARABIC

This is a rite of passage

that Arab boys have enjoyed for thousands of years.

MOHAMED ISSUES COMMANDS IN ARABIC

It's time for the boys to get hands-on.

It's crucial to keep calm.

A falcon must learn to trust its handler

or it will never fly back to him.

In the morning, the boys will move on to the next lesson.

Traditionally, that's hunting live prey.

Sadly, the Arab love of hunting with rifle, dog and falcon

has pushed some desert animals - like the houbara bustard -

to the brink of extinction.

But with the appliance of science,

there is now a solution that can keep everyone happy.

With a lure attached to the back of a remote-controlled plane,

Mohammed can stretch the falcon to its limits.

No wild animals will die today,

but the thrill of the hunt is just as strong.

Mohammed's sons are growing up in a world that's increasingly aware

of the need to look after our natural resources.

That's particularly challenging here

because of the difficulties of living

in one of the hottest, driest places on Earth.

For much of the year, Arabia is so hot

that many people are at their most active after sunset.

Even at night, the heat can be unbearable,

so much of people's time is spent indoors in air-conditioned spaces.

Dubai is home to the world's largest shopping mall,

kept cool all-year round -

good for the ski slope and the ice rink.

Dubai by night is a vision of the most energy-hungry society on Earth.

The richest Arab countries

use more energy per person than anywhere else,

and virtually all of it comes from burning fossil fuels.

As well as contributing to climate change,

that makes these countries very reliant on oil.

And the Gulf oil wells will start to run dry within the next few decades.

But there's an even more pressing problem for Arabia

than its huge demand for power.

FIREWORKS CRACKLE

Every night of the year,

Dubai puts on the biggest water show on Earth.

The fountains reach as high as a 50-storey building.

Perhaps because it's a desert, Arabia is addicted to water.

The Gulf States consume more water per person

than anywhere else in the world.

In Saudi Arabia and Jordan,

water is pumped from hundreds of metres under ground

and brings life to the desert.

Huge fields of crops, each one several hundred metres across,

dot the landscape over huge areas -

clearly visible from space.

These man-made oases have had a huge impact on nature.

Songbirds now flock into the desert.

This is a perfect place to drink and grab a well-needed shower.

The fields are also rich in food, like grubs and worms.

They even have their own public transport system.

Thousands of birds have changed their migration routes

to visit these fields

on their journey between Europe and Africa every year.

Some species - like the pied wagtail and the wheatear -

are familiar in the UK.

Others, like the hoopoe and the bluethroat,

usually spend their summers further east,

in northern Russia or eastern Europe.

But the songbirds who stop off here don't have things all their own way.

Birds of prey also migrate

and they too gather here in huge numbers.

These aerial predators aren't just here for a shower and a drink.

All that flying builds up a healthy appetite.

Of all the songbird hunters to gather here,

perhaps the most graceful

is one that might be seen on the Scottish moors -

a hen harrier.

The harrier has a dish-shaped face like an owl.

This helps catch sound,

enabling it to hear the slightest rustle of a hidden bird.

And the long, narrow wings can turn on a sixpence.

It's pied wagtail for dinner.

In the short term, this type of agriculture

is good news for the birds and provides jobs for local people

but it uses water at a staggering rate.

The underground reservoirs will begin to run dry

within the next ten years.

The land will be desert once again

and the people who work here will lose their livelihood.

The fields sum up a problem that faces all of us -

how to meet people's needs in a world of limited resources.

But the immense wealth

that's made Arabia a world leader in energy and water consumption

is now being used to try and find solutions to those same problems.

This is the solar power plant

for the most futuristic town on Earth - Masdar.

Lying on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi,

Masdar is a prototype for the cities of the future.

100 per cent carbon neutral, but with all mod-cons.

Some features are simple ideas

borrowed from traditional Arab architecture.

The overhang from the floor above shades those below

and the streets are narrow

so that they are shaded from the intense heat of the sun.

Any breeze is captured in a wind tower

and channelled down to the street.

Combined with a light spray of water,

this can lower the temperature at ground level

by 15 degrees centigrade.

Simple solutions like this

create a cool outdoor space, even in midsummer.

In Masdar's vision of tomorrow,

transport will be underground in unmanned pods.

'Doors opening.'

'Welcome to Masdar City.'

Here, in the heart of oil country,

are the designers of Masdar,

taking us on a journey into the post-oil future.

Arabia's cities are already world leaders in design and architecture.

If the concepts from Masdar can be expanded here,

then maybe they can also lead the way

in reducing our impact on the world around us.

Arabia is a place where people and animals

have lived alongside each other for thousands of years.

Oil money has changed Arabia...

..but there is still a deep affinity for the natural world.

Even today's ultra hi-tech camel racing

still has the Arab love of camels at its heart.

At the end of each race, after the robots are dismounted

and the prizes distributed,

the camels are pampered like beloved family pets...

..hand-fed alfalfa and dates.

The Arab people have never forgotten

that it was their relationship with the camel

that enabled them to survive the inhospitable deserts of Arabia in the first place.

If that deep connection with wildlife can be maintained...

..then there will always be a place for nature in the heart of Arabia.

Spectacular gatherings of whale sharks

appear every year off the coast of Arabia,

but getting close to the biggest fish in the sea

proved a challenge for the Wild Arabia team.

Director Liz White and cameraman Hugh Miller

are travelling out to the middle of the Gulf,

midway between Qatar and Iran.

They've joined up with a team of whale shark scientists.

-Have you changed any of them?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-What were they on?

The scientists want to understand more

about the mysteries of the Gulf's whale sharks,

but they know that getting close to them will be particularly difficult.

The sharks here are quite different from elsewhere

because they swim quite fast,

so getting all of the data that we need from one shark here

will be a challenge.

Hugh has been tipped off about these high-speed sharks

so he's brought a secret weapon.

So this thing on the back here with the propeller

is going to drive me through the water in a stable manner.

But before Hugh's had time to prepare his kit,

word comes from the bridge.

HE SPEAKS ARABIC

The boat crew have spotted a group of whale sharks.

We can just about make out the fins if they turn the right way.

We're just going to see how many are there.

Got to watch out, there's one right in front of us.

Yeah, one right in front of us now.

With only his snorkel and his fins, Hugh goes into action.

We've definitely got three sharks here.

Hugh and Dave are in the water, but they move pretty fast.

The guys will be swimming pretty hard to keep up with them.

Sure enough, under water, Hugh is struggling.

Whale sharks look like slow movers,

but every stroke of that massive tail

pushes them forward at great speed.

Hugh can barely keep up

and keeping a steady shot while kicking so hard

is nearly impossible.

Not much filming success, but an amazing experience for Hugh.

I mean, you don't appreciate how many sharks there are.

I mean, the visibility means I can only see so far,

and it's incredible just to come up here

and there's just black fins everywhere.

The scientists have also been pursuing the sharks with cameras.

They want to get ID photographs of as many individuals as possible.

The team uses specially adapted spear guns

to attach the satellite transmitters.

Whale shark skin is over ten centimetres thick

so the sharks never feel a thing.

The scientists have collected seawater samples

that show why the sharks are here in the first place.

I've got four pots here full of fish eggs,

so we can kind of say that the sharks were certainly there

to consume the fish eggs.

If you looked to the density, that's two good-sized fillet steaks

in around about three minutes

and these sharks were feeding with us for five hours

and after we left the water, they were still feeding.

Scientists and film crew are happy with the way things have started,

but as evening falls, the wind starts to pick up

and the morning brings heavy seas and bad news.

I'm standing here with the weather forecast for the next ten days

and it looks like we're going to have

anywhere from 20 to 40 knots winds

and there's no end to it. It's just wind, wind, waves.

and the likelihood of seeing sharks in this kind of weather,

is close to zero.

The dreaded Shamal winds blow from the north east,

bringing clouds of dust from the Iranian desert

and churning up the sea.

Even if they could see the sharks,

it would be too dangerous to launch the dive boats in this weather.

The Shamal can blow for weeks at a time.

All the crew can do is wait.

The science team take the chance to look over some of their ID photos.

They have a programme to help them recognise individual sharks

by the pattern of their spots.

Every pattern is unique, like human fingerprints.

To everyone's relief, the weather improves sooner than expected.

Soon, signs of life are spotted from the bridge.

A school of bottlenose dolphins, but no whale sharks.

Strong winds disperse the fish eggs

which the whales are here to feed on

and the groups of sharks often break up as a consequence.

Liz makes use of a drilling platform as a vantage point.

Whale sharks are often seen near the platforms

because fish gather to spawn here.

Watching the spawning fish

is a popular pastime for the platform workers,

some of whom take notes on any whale sharks they spot,

to help the research project.

While the crew are on board, there's an encouraging sighting.

Whale shark!

Where is it?

-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-A big one.

Could this finally be Hugh's chance to try out his new toy?

Are you ready?

But just when it seems that everything is going smoothly...

Very unfortunate timing.

What's happening is we have an aggregation straight ahead of us

and now we have a big tanker coming in,

so we cannot launch any boats.

We don't know what's going to happen with the aggregation,

if they're going to disperse and dive,

Sure, they'll dive because the tanker's heading right towards them.

These are anxious moments for the film crew and the scientists.

But the tanker takes a detour,

leaving the whale sharks undisturbed.

Now, everything is good to go.

Immediately, the propeller starts to deliver on its promise,

giving Hugh a smooth ride alongside these gentle giants.

After his magical encounter, Hugh does his bit for science.

He's frozen a few shots from his video camera

to see if he can help ID any of the sharks.

Yeah, I think, Hugh, we have actually got

a completely new individual, looking at this side of it.

So you have to add it to the database, maybe we'll call him Hugh.

Brilliant, I'd love that.

I think Hugh's a good name for a whale shark.

I think it's a very good name for a whale shark.

Out at sea, having given film crew and scientists

a glimpse into his life...

..Hugh the Shark swims off into the depths.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd