Episode 6 Planet Earth Live

We are following the lives of young animals around the world. We are

bringing you their individual stories of survival throughout the

month a May. A critical month as they are at their most vulnerable.

Join us as we follow their dramas every step of the way. This is

Planet Earth Live. Hello and welcome to Kenya. Already

in the seerdz we have had surprises, upsets and revelations as we follow

the fortunes of the young animals and their families here and across

the world. We have picked a tumultuous time in the animal cycle,

but every year is different, 2012 is proving no exception. Whatever

happens next, we will keep you updated.

We have reports flooding in 24/7 from around the world.

Our camera teams and experts are following the action as the events

unfold. Tonight, flooded rivers continue to put our elephant babies

in danger. Moja and his mum are pushed from pillar to post to avoid

unwanted attention. Gremlin moves up the pecking order

when a new baby arrives. Right here and around the clock on

our website you can follow the latest twists and turns in our

animals' lives as the nature enlightens our screens.

Hello and welcome to the North Woods of Minnesota. It is a

glorious spring day here. The temperatures are 26 Celsius. They

call this the state of 10,000Lakes, but for us, importantly, it is the

land of 25,000 black bears. This is a unique location. It is the only

place in the world where you can get upclose and personal to wild

black bears. Today we have the latest news on the little black

bear cub, Sybil. We've been worried she is not growing quickly, but the

improving weather seems to be good news for her it is a difficult time

for black bear June. She is getting ready to find a new mate and has to

force her year lings, Aspen and Aster out of the group. The latest

on the migration of the whales up the Pacific coast. A perilous

journey, there are killer whales along the route. Now, let's ping

8,000 miles south of here to Richard and the team in Africa.

Hello and welcome once again with me here in the African Savannah.

The Masai Mara in Kenya, to be precise, where for the past three

weeks we have been following the lives of Moja and his mum as they

struggle for survival. They have become stars in their own right,

but let's not detract that the struggle for survival is very, very

real. They are out there now, looking for food, trying to stay

out of the way of their enemies. This is a picture of them that we

have now. It is getting harder to find them as Moja's mum is making

her way across the terrain, keeping low. She is very good at that,

after all, she is a lion. More on the show. There is more to tell.

Meanwhile, in Samburu, we have another team. They have been living

and working with the elephants. They are telling us their story. It

is different there. Here for the lions, the raining season is tough

times, but for the elephants it trigger a baby boom. There have

been something like 50 calves born in the area. That is staggering,

and the calves are dependant on their mothers for a long time. They

are vulnerable. Lions hunt them, they can die from exhaustion, even

exposure to the sun. During the dry season, the river is the only

source of water in Samburu. Elephants dig deep wells in a

riverbed to reach fresh water. It is the lifeblood of the reserve,

but when the rains come, it is transformed from creator to

destroyer. The thousand and or so elephants

that range through Samburu have to cross the river in their constant

search for food. But for the class of 2012, the new-

borne born calves, the river poses a new and terrible danger. David

Daballen from Save the Elephants has seen countless young calves

struggle with the threat of this in the centre of their world.

They have to learn how to swim. How to go around the kurents and stuff

like that. So in the rainy season when the

river is at its highest and if you don't know what you are doing, its

most dangerous, there are calves having to make the crossing. So

this becomes an occasion, where the elephants, they need the resource,

the experience of the elders? They need that knowledge? Absolutely.

That is when the elephants need the elder females, they act like a bank

of knowledge. They know when to cross, where to cross and which

areas are really dipping in this dense area. This river can be very

challenging. It is not just us being sentimental

when we say this that strongly. The lead is essential in the complex

elephant societies. They need the wise matriarchs they will help

guide the families in search of food and drink. They are essential.

The tragedy is that it is the wiser and older elephants that are hunted

and killed by poachers. More and more young families are finding

themselves without the resource, without that guidance and

experience. Often, then when the mother has

gone they make the wrong decision, and when there are young calves in

the family that can prove fatal. The crew are by the river, filming

the elephants waiting to cross. There's been a lot of rain. The

river is high. Crocodiles lurk in the shallows.

They will take an elephant calf. The mood is tense, but the need to

feed on the opposite bank drives them on.

The matriarch of the Rivers Herd goes first.

She assetss the danger and starts to navigate her family through the

torrent. With no new-born calves in her family, it is a risk that she

knows she can take it is a struggle, but everyone make it is across.

Following closely behind is another herd the Lakes. Badly hit by

poaching, they have no older females with them.

The young mums have three very small calves, only weeks old.

They decide to cross... The kofls are tiny. Their feet cannot touch

This is really, really bad. Tiny babies.

Yeah, this could abdisaster, actually.

-- could be a disaster, actually. This is the problem of not having

proper leadership in the families. They are really, really struggling.

Oh, my God! One has gone! See that? Oh, God. This is so painful

watching this happening. Oh, my goodness.

They eare now in the deepest most dangerous section of of the river.

-- they are now in the deepest, most dangerous section of the river.

The mothers loose their footing. Look, I know it is agony to watch,

but all I will say is don't despair right now. Our camera crews filming

that thought they were lost. They stopped filming and jumped up to

drive as far as they could downstream. What they saw then

amazed them. That is all that I will say. We will pick up that

story later on. Meanwhile it is worth remembering why that happened

in the first place. The Lake herd have been hit hard by poachers. If

they had an elder, it is possible she would not have made the

crossing with calves as young as that. We will have more on that

later. Now let's move on. We have seen how it is very important for

the animals, the mammals especially to retain the contact with their

mothers. In the case of elephants, a young elephant stays with his

mother for eight to ten years. It is a similar situation with the

bears. It is one year for the year lings

here. Welcome back to Minnesota. We are surrounded by lakes and forest.

That makes the perfect bear habitat. Our little black bear cubs are very

much with their mothers and learning to forage and to climb. We

are following the story of Juliet and her three little one, Sam,

Sophie and Sybil. We are worried about Sybil. She is smaller than

the rest, she is not interacting with the other siblings, but the

advent of spring could have turned things around. Sybil is the runt of

the litter. A few weeks ago, it was not looking good for her. We were

all worried. But now things are looking up for

our little cub, Sybil. She's giving as good as she gets

from her siblings, Sam and Sophie. In fact, now she's riding high and

is a real team player in the family. All of Juliet's cubs are getting

more confident every day. They are now developing their

essential climbing skills and have learned how to control falling out

of trees for a safe landing. It looks like fun, but tree-

climbing a is an essential skill for the little black bears. It is

how they escape danger. There are predators in the woods, there are

coyotes and wolves. If you watch the little cubs the tree skills are

improving. They are making controlled jumps, rather than

simply falling, but tree-climbing, sadly, does not always mean that

they escape danger. We have mentioned the weather and how hot

it is here, about 26 Celsius. The spring here is hotting up. This

mean there is is a new danger for the black bear cubs, forest fires.

There have been nearly 800 forest fires already in Minnesota. There

are seven fires burning right now as we are live. We caught this one

while we were out filming. 5,000 acres are lost every year to fire.

The winds that we are experiencing today do not help either. They

literally drive the fires through the forests. That means here that

the Forestry Commission are always on a state of alert. They are

training and on hand to train almost every day. This is a

helicopter training exercise that we caught. The forestry department

has five of these helicopters on standby. They take on 2,000 gallons

of water from the lakes and drop them on to the fires.

Today in Ely we are on a high-risk alert state. So something else for

our little black bear cubs to watch out for. More dangers are lurking

for the toque macaques in Sri Lanka. They are always on high alert.

We're following Gremlin. A ten week-old toque macaque growing up

in amongst the ancient ruins of a city in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately

for Gremlin, in the hierarchal world of toque macaque society, she

is pretty much the lowest of the low. Learning lifes lessons at the

school of hard knocks. Gavin is following every faltering

step in her young life. She's no longer the tiny naked baby she was

when he first met her. She is coming on leaps and bounds. Her

position in the troop pecking order has changed too.

There is a new arrival on the scene... It's another day with the

troop and we have really exciting news. Poppin, the oldest female in

the group has had her baby. He is called Little Richard. He is

only a few hours' old. Naturally Gremlin is keen to say hello. As

the official lowest-ranking adult, Gremlin comes in now as the lowest

of the low. Gremlin has moved up a rung on the social ladder. Like all

little females, Gremlin love as baby, but she is still a baby

herself and has a lot to learn. She has started saying her first words.

She's learning what to eat. And now she's working hard on

Toque macaques are one of the mostagile monkeys, able to leap 30

feet from tree-to-tree. The adults make it look easy, 60 feet up in

the air. They have had years to perfect

their high-wire skills. Gremlin will need two hard years in

this jungle gym before she can match their agility.

These skills are essential to keep up with the rest of the family.

They are travelling miles every day, foraging and patrolling their

territory, but she will also need them to get herself out of any

trouble. She may need to do this sooner than she thinks, trouble is

almost certainly on its way. The figure -- figs are ripe on the tree

on the border of the two groups of monkeys. It is led by Bad Eye.

There is bad blood between the two rival gangs. They have been both

keeping a careful eye on the ripeness of the figs. They are just

on the edge of being perfect. Both sides think it is their tree. A

fight looks to be inevitable. When it kicks off, Gremlin will have to

beagile and fast to get out of the way of Bad Eye and his slumdogs. If

she is left behind... They will show no mercy.

A quick note if I could to our younger viewer, Little Richard was

a pop singer many years ago. There is no connection to me. We are

keeping an eye on Gremlin and her family and update you. Meanwhile,

welcome back to Kenya. It is a lovely eve.ing. Over on the camera

we can see an elephant out there on the thermal camera. That is good as

elephants are what we are talking about right now. If you were

watching earlier on you don't need reminders to what you saw. It was

burnt into my mind, it probably is burnt into yours. We saw a disaster

unfolding. Three young mums crossing the river with three young

calves, but the river is up. It is the rainy season. The river was

raging. The family was swept away. David Daballen and the camera crew

The three mothers make it to the other side, but the babies are

still in the grip of the current. The calves are exhausted. They're

struggling to keep their trunks above the water.

One of them make it is to the edge. This is the most dangerous time.

There are huge crocodiles nearby. There are huge crocodiles nearby.

They are hungry. Let's go.

Those poor females. This is one of the groups that has been destroyed.

It would be awful if they lose another baby.

The other one is here! Wow! There are two babies actually here. Wow!

They are really tough. The females are coming down.

I hope they will save them. They will get tired. If a crock grabs

them, that is it. -- croc. Come on, females, get in

and save the babies. They are making such a noise. I

hope that the croc does not get them.

OK. One baby is out. The other one will come out soon.

Oh! Oh, man that is such a relief. That is so joyful to see all of

them again coming back together. I can't really remember having such

a tense time in my life with all the experiences that I have.

Oh, poor things. Oh! They are really crying.

Oh! They are really crying. They've just had a nightmare.

Such a astonishing drama. Let's not forget that's real. That stuff is

happening around us right now. Warren Samuels, the cameraman

filming that, we met him the other day. He said it was the most

emotional thing of 20 years of filming wildlife. All he wanted to

do was jump in. Who can blame him? Elephants, they are the most like

us, more than any other animal that I can think of right now. To see

that young family going through such an experience was truly

heartbreaking. Now, the thing about the elephants

in Samburu, they range a huge area. It is difficult to follow them.

But there is a young calf who has so far been most accommodating.

Very few people have ever witnessed the birth of an elephant, but the

crew were lucky enough to come across the next best thing.

A tiny new-born, just a few hours old.

Named Maya by our Twitter and Facebook followers, it is

incredible to think she was inside mum a few moments before.

At only nine years old, Zadi is a young mother. Maya is very small as

a result. She weighs about 13ston, which is 80 kilograms. Like a human

baby, her brain is not yet fully developed. She is completely

dependant on her mother. Maya may be small, but must drink up to 11

litres of milk every day. Zadi's herd has been devastated by

poaching. She does not have any guidance from older females but she

is doing her best to protect and nurture Maya. Next time we report

on the ups and the downs of Maya's first if you few days as she meets

the herds and experiments with unusual play mates.

Warren Samuels will be following Maya every day. He reports so far

that the family have been wise and remaining in the safety of the

reserve. That is good news. Now, let's move on to the lions. We have

the crews here in the Masai Mara following the fortune it is of the

lives of Moja and his mum. They are here in no man's land. Surrounded

by prides. We have watched since we arrived the prey becoming more

scarce. We knew that times would be tough in May. Now it is getting

tougher. Moja and his mum are fugitives.

She spends her days hunting, keeping her cub hidden from rival

She's so desperate for food, she's straying in other families'

territories. Lionesss from the Paradise Pride

know she is there, they want her Food is scarce for everyone and

these females are not about to share.

Moja's mum is outnumbered. If she wants to eat, she needs to look

elsewhere. But lionesss are not the only

danger. Hungry males also patrol the

Savannah. Two of them are dangerously close.

If they find Moja they will kill him so that they can mate with his

mother. They walk the plains.

Always looking over their shoulders. Always looking for the next meal.

So this is it. Since we got here we have spoken about tough times for

lions and now those time really are here. As the food is more scarce,

the lions are forced to wander further afield in search of prey.

Things are getting worse out there. I went to talk to Sophie, to see

what she thought about the situation for Moja and his mum.

See where the camera is? She is an inch below. Moja is behind her.

Oh, look at him! So the last few days have been about moving about?

Yes. She's been skirting around. There have been other lions coming

back into their territories. Reasserting their power and being

visible. Every time we see here, he is is skull king off somewhere, as

she is trespassing. The other day we had two male lions. They came

right up and through. She saw them and went off. Every time she sees

them she has to change tack. She does not want it meet them, they

will nick her food or harm Moja. It is not her territory. For a lion

there is a blurring of territory. She is growling at him a lot.

Why? Because she is hungry. We had her recorded as eating about five

days ago. What is your feel being them now?

Is she in trouble, do you think? did I feel a pang of anxiety.

Seriously. I thought that the warthogs will not replenish

themselves. There is nothing left to eat. It is tricky for her.

So, this, right now, is the most testing time for Moja. It is some

comfort to know on his side he has his mum and she has proven to be a

tough, resourceful, courageous lioness. Let's hope she can keep

him safe out there and for the forthcoming weeks. Let's have a

look at what is coming up: Still to come on the show, the polar bear

cubs, Mickey and Luka are on thin ice. Julia has the latest on the

epic grey whale migration and the lion cubs having a very different

upbringing to Moja. Welcome back! May brings dramatic

challenges and changes to the bears here in the North Woods of

Minnesota. I have a new sound for you to listen to. Have a listen,

what do you think it is? Do you think it sounds like geese? Ducks?

No. Surprisingly, that is the sound of two males fighting. Male bears.

That's right. The males are moving into the woods. They are on the

prowl. They are looking for a mate. The ladies are receptive, they are

scent marking, leaving their calling cards if you will. I wanted

to know more about this. So I went on a scent-marking masterclass with

the man who knows all about this. Dr Lynn, our bear man.

The number one for marking scent is a good tree rub. You stand up and

rub against the tree with your neck and shoulders. Then they like to

turn around and they bite... Then they walk away, looking for

something to urinate on as we go. So over this, unioniate on it as

you go. This little one too? Yep.

Am I marking well? You're doing a great job! Good. It's my first time

you know! Another way that the bears mark is what we call the

cowboy walk. They are down like this, they spread their legs far

apart and grind each one into the ground as they go.

Sometimes they are urinating as they go.

I don't have to do that, though, do I? No, in the necessarily.

I'm finding my inner bear. They are always interested in other

bear's scents. So they will sniff this and not just sniffing it, but

opening up their mouth to draw in the scent. Anything with another

bear's path, they can pick it up. Up, perfect! It is not easy to

sniff and open your mouth without snorting! So, do you think I'll cut

it as a bear? You're a natural! It's a hard life. It is non-stop,

bear life. Well, I knew that was not pretty.

That is all done to attract the males, the big Boyce. It is vital,

the whole scent-marking business. Imagine the scene, you have a 250

pound female, and she is mating with a 450-pound male bear. That is

about 200 kilos. Now, let's up the an terbgs a bit. Look at Big Harry.

He weighs in at 600 pounds. That is about 43 stone, 270 kilos.

Picture the scene if you will. In order for mum to mate, the first

thing she has to do is break up with her year ling cubs. This is a

traumatic time of year. It is traumatic for both of them, the

mother and the cub. It is fiscal. It is where the mum has to reject

her year lings from the family group. What you see now is Aspen

and his moment of break-up with June, his mother. There he is being

shunned. Then that bond is broken forever. June is left with Aster,

the female year ling, she should be doing family break-up with Aster,

but the problem with June is that she is not very good at the whole

break-up thing. I heard something else had happened deep in the woods.

I pulled on my gators to find out what was going on with June and her

family. Look at what expert tree climbers

they are. Even when you think they are getting large. I'm happy that

the family break-up was not forever! Lynn is off again.

It is very bogy. -- boggy.

Oh, look... That's Aspen? Yes. So, he is really back for the

mother bonding. Look! Playing. He is properly back

into the fold. This is not the scene we were expecting to see?

Absolutely not. Look at them, they are play-

fighting, they are gelled again as a family unit. So the family break-

up in this instance for June was not for real? No, as you get close

to family break-up, the year lings become more independent, but they

are different personalities. Aspen is one that is more independent,

but he is back with her. Now we see that he is really trying to bond

and to become a part of the family again.

And June, obviously, is the kind of mother that just can't say goodbye!

Yeah, right! This is a pattern for her.

Yeah, she has done this before. Look at that, my goodness sakes.

What does that mean? We have wondered about that for years. We

have narrowed it down, we think it is just a form of bonding! We can

see here that Aster is interested in the camera. Max, our cameraman...

She has had a good old bite at the microphone. The perils of filming

with wild animals. Max, don't put your hand in there!

Let her have it. There we go.

I don't think we are going to get that back.

I have said it before, but seeing them like this, so playful, so

juvenile, I can't believe that it is that time. The family break up,

tomorrow or the day after, who knows with June, but it is soon.

Yes, we can't predict when they are going to leave. They are nursing,

grooming, playing, right up to the end.

They are settling down now. It is a good time for us to leave to check

out another bear. OK. We'll leave them to their

family time. A rare and difficult situation for June. She is torn

between her instincts to mate and her mothering instincts to be a

mother. She is very confused Richard, poor June.

That will be an interesting insurance claim for the camera.

Welcome back to the Masai Mara in Kenya. Down here it is all about

the lions, up in the north it is all about the elephants.

But now back to the elephants. Later, but we have asked you for a

name for Moja's mum for the Mara Predator Project. The Mara Predator

Project finds out more about and conserves the lions of the Masai

Mara. Naming the lions is very important as part of identifying,

so they like a choice. Boy, did you suggest names. Tens of thousands of

them flooded in to Facebook and Twitter. The Mara Predator Project

found a choice. They have gone for it here it is Nyota. Which means in

Swahili "star" thank you to everyone who suggested that.

We have been captured by the flight of Moja and Nyota. Because they are

alone out there just the two of them. That is not how it works for

the lions normally. Moja explore his world alone.

With little game around, hunting pack tis is limited and not all

that effective. -- practise is limited and not all

that effective. The only thing it achieves is annoying his mum. With

no brothers or sisters, he is missing out on the opportunity to

build up his strength. And to learn how to ablion.

Lions are the most social cats. It make it is so poignant when you

watch little Moja playing on his own. Especially when you now how it

is for lion cubs in a pride with lots of brothers and sisters to

play with. Ten miles to the north, there is a whole bunch of lions for

whom their life is a very different experience. It is time for us to

meet the Acacia Pride. There are eight cubs in the family, but don't

be fooled by the cute faces. These guys are as tough as they come.

Any cubs showing weakness is arch easy target.

-- is an easy target. They are not afraid to spar with the big girls.

These are mums who will put them firmly in their place.

When a huge buffalo crosses the family's path, it's time to watch

Today, it's just target practise, but these cubs aren't afraid to get

in the mix. If you've ever doubted me when I

said how tough buffalo are, now you have seen for yourself. They are

really, really tough. Now, Moja, it is looking a bit doom and gloom

right now. There is no food left, he is on his own, but he has two

things in his favour, firstly his mum, Nyota. She is a tough lion and

an amazing hunter. It turns out that the genes on his father's side

are very good. We are researching the heck out of this. We are pretty

sure he is directly descended from this guy. He is Notch. Trust me,

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this lion is a legend. He is

believed by many to be the finest lion ever to stalk these plains. We

know he is called Notch, you can see the notch on his nose, that is

who he is. Give us a little bit of time to get this nailed down and to

be absolutely certain. We will bring the full story on Sunday's

show. Get your goose bumps ready, it will be amazing.

Now, over the spring, Gordon Buchannan has been living with,

well, amongst others, two of this year's young polar bear cubs. Born

under the Arctic snow in the Arctic island of Svalbard.

Meet Mickey and Luka. They've been holed up with their

mum in a snow den since they were born, three months ago. This is

their first time in the great outdoors.

Their mum, Lyra, has not eaten since she entered the den. If she

does not hunt soon, her milk will dry up and the cubs will die. What

the family don't know yet is that this is going to be the toughest

year ever for polar bears. I've come here to Svalbard in

Norway to follow their story. The problems facing Mickey and Luka

and their mother here are all around me.

Normally, you would be able to travel across this bay on a skidoo.

It should be thick ice. There is absolutely no sea ice here. No boat

in living memory has been able to sail these waters at this time of

year, but today my boat is powering through a sea of broken ice to Edge

Island, where I'm hoping to see Mickey and Luka. As we near the

island, I spot a bear with cubs, but these cubs are older than

Mickey and Luka. Travelling through this landscape to actually see

them... It is out of this world. This is a mother with two cubs from

last year. She's done incredibly well to keep both of them alive.

This female is clearly hungry. She comes right up to the boat.

I must smell good. I don't think you can get away from the fact that

life out here is tough. I think this year is going to be tougher

than ever for the polar bears. All the polar bears here have a

hard few months ahead. Especially the younger cubs like Mickey and

Luka. The sea ice is their mother's

hunting ground. She must eat soon if she is to continue to suckle

them. Mickey and Luka's lives are on the

line. I've been set the task of getting

to know these polar bears. And that's no many feat in these

cold, harsh conditions. When I first see Mickey and Luka

they are still at the den. Oh, that snow looks quite fresh. Or it's

been recently excavated. It does. Look! Look! The face of a baby

polar bear. Fantastic. I didn't have to wait too long.

Liar rar uses the few days outside of the den to check that the cubs

will be strong enough to follow her when she goes off to hunt.

Thinking about it from the mother's perspective, she's been literally

starving herself. All of her resources have been going into

nurturing the point to the cubs, so that they can leave the den and

journey on the ice. There are many dangers. There are

rogue males in search of an easy snack, but they can't risk waiting

much longer. It's so peaceful and serene up here. The den represents

safety and security. All of the real dangers for these polar bears

lay ahead of them. If Mickey and Luka are to survive

then liara -- Lyra needs to drag them away from the sanctuary of the

den, a journey of a lifetime, a journey to find food.

Beautiful stuff from Gordon. It seems that the spring is causing

much bigger problems for the polar bears than for the black bears in

Minnesota. At least here in the North Woods the cubs have food it

is a very different situation for Mickey and Luka. Already born into

a barren and emptiness, 2012 will be dealing them a difficult hand.

The mother is going to try to find them a traditional pre y of seals.

The seals come up to the surface to breathe through the holes that is

where the polar bears lie in wait. Mickey and Luka have to learn the

essential hunting skills, just like the black bears. They have to learn

to forage, but with the sea ice melting, this could be a lesson

that they lose out on. If that is so, they could go hungry. The

mother must find food if her little cup cubs are to survive. Of all of

the baby animals featured in Planet Earth Live, essentially, our little

polar bear cubs face the biggest fight for their lives. We will

follow that story again on Sunday. Right, now it is time to catch up

with the grey whale migration. We are following the grey whale

migration and their cubs, up the spaifbg coast on the 5,000 mile

journey. Killer whales are omni present. However, we have not seen

a killer whale since May 3rd. That is unusual. There are a few

theories. One of them is that the incredible humpback whale

intervention you remember from last week, well, since then, there have

been over 200 humpback whales in the bay. They are there feeding on

krill. The presence of the humpbacks may be deterring the

killer Wales -- whales from hunting in the bay. There they are

breaching and tail-slapping. It may be keeping the killer whales from

Monterey Bay, but unfortunately, you cannot keep them away from

these grey whales all of the time. They are very strong and graceful.

We have had some sightings, there is news of a killer whale attempted

attack in the Monterey Bay area. This is a deep-water marine canyon

more than a mile deep. The killer whales use this to their advantage.

They tried it on one particular grey, but failed. What the grey

whale mother did was to circumnavigate around the deep

water canyon and rather than crossing those deep waters she

hugged the shoreline, moving in to shallower waters. It is a longer

route, but it is a route that paid off for our particular grey. A

clever grey, a very clever grey in this case. We do know, however,

that a third of our grey whale calves do not make it. A third do

not make it to their final destination. These shots are from

yesterday. That, you can see is a lone grey

whale. That's a female, an adult. She is travelling alone north of

the bay. As she is travelling north, unfortunately, we can only assume

the worst, that her calf did not make it. We are to continue

following this epic migration. It really is an ongoing struggle. Such

a saga, Richard? Julia, the footage from your teams in America is

amazing. It is testimony to the dedication of the camera teams that

we have posted around the world. Each bringing you intimate moments

into the lives of our young animals and their families, but there is a

team who has taken the whole up close and personal thing to a new

level. There is now a special report from Toby Strong and his

meerkat team working in the Kalahari.

Swift's family have allowed our camera crew close enough to capture

every intimate moment. I've been lucky enough to film with

guerrillas, bears, none of them have ever sat on my head... I guess

that's a good thing. Crucially, the filming does not

interfere with their natural behaviour.

The meerkats here have been studied for over two decades. It means that

they are completely used to humans. Having had lots of contact with

scientists studying them over the years, they see our crew as part of

the landscape. Swift is taking shade in the shadow of our

director's buttocks! That is some substantial shade there! The

meerkats are naturally curious, if they weren't, they would never find

the prey that lies buried in the sand. While they give us great

stories a tall cameraman makes a perfect advantage point to scan for

predators. Will you keep still up there, please?! Well, they all seem

happy. I have time to show you two bits of footage that I would love

you to see. First of all, this. We were out looking for buffalo. We

came across this fight between two big bulls. Their fights are violent.

They have been known to kill one another. They clash and try to gore

each other. It really is violent. The dominant bull is probably the

one with the thickest horns. The winner of the fight is the one that

goes on to stay with the herd, to mate and protect the calves, the

lone one is the terrible ones that you meet on the Savannah, all alone,

full of bitterness and regret. Now, this is a far more symbolic sort of

afar, these guys will lock horns and spire. Once they have

established who is the strongest, the winner claims the herd and the

fight is over. So a very different, a more gentle fight. Those are two

of the things that we spotted out there in the Masai Mara. There are

crews out there all day, gathering footage like that I thought you

might like to see it! On Sunday we are tracking down the male bears

moving in to mate in the territory and the latest news on the June,

Aspen, Aster family break-up. Will they break-up? And the big news

that is in right now, is that ten miles away a forest fire is raging.

It has erupted. That is exactly where one of our black bear

families is living. We will have the latest on that when we see you

on Sunday. Well, it has been another action-

packed show. There is so much to see all around the world. Let's

have a look at what is coming up on Sunday.

We learn more of Moja's past and what it means for his future.

What does the arrival of adult males mean for the bear mums? That

is about it for Planet Earth Live, tonight. I have to say this the --

is the first time we have been live on air if in the mass yie Mara and