BBC Africa E04 Cape
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00:30The Cape of Good Hope, on Africa's southerly tip.
00:39Here two great seas meet, one the warm Indian Ocean, the other the chilly Atlantic.
00:51And as they mingle, so they create a billowing cloak that drapes the summit of Table Mountain.
01:07Spectacular though this is, the mountain's cloudy covering is only a hint of the profound
01:12influence that these two very different oceans have on the fortunes of life here.
01:31And not just here at the Cape, but across the length and breadth of southern Africa.
01:51Two thousand miles north from the Cape, beneath this sandy beach, new life is stirring.
02:15Hordes of baby green turtles emerge like a torrent from the safety of their nest.
02:39Each one, just seven centimetres long, must make a hundred metre sprint down the beach.
02:57From the moment they hatch, they're driven by an instinctive urge to run to the sea.
03:15Few creatures start life with the odds for success so heavily stacked against them.
03:29Yellow-billed kites, pied crows, but so many of these hatchlings appear together that predators
03:45can't catch them all.
04:00Last out, this baby might seem doomed.
04:09But struggling out late could just give her a chance.
04:23The crows seem insatiable.
04:34Even those that reach the sea aren't safe.
04:41This female has to make a dash for it.
04:54She's still in danger, and not just from above.
05:07A ghost crab may be smaller than the hatchling, but it has the strength to drag her into its lair.
05:31Not this time.
05:45At last, the sea.
05:58She has to catch her breath if she's not to drown, but the pounding waves make it desperately
06:33Beyond the surf, calmer water.
06:37But even here, the hatchling is not out of danger.
06:55She dives.
06:59Just in time.
07:22Only one hatchling in a thousand will survive to adulthood.
07:27But if she does, she may live for 80 years.
07:37For now, the ocean is there to be explored.
07:52As the hatchling disappears into the deep blue, she swims into the waters of one of
07:57the planet's most powerful currents, the Agulhas.
08:06The Agulhas sweep south towards the Cape, transporting a hundred billion gallons of
08:11warm water every day.
08:17These tropical seas are so warm, they evaporate on an enormous scale.
08:47As the clouds drift inland, they bring rain to one of the least explored corners of our
09:11planet, the mountains of Mozambique.
09:31This is the wettest place in southern Africa.
09:41Years of civil war have kept travellers away from this little-known land.
09:46It was satellite mapping that revealed the full extent of the forest that grows here.
09:52So now it's known to outsiders as the Google rainforest.
10:03It could also be called the butterfly forest.
10:12After the rains, butterflies have emerged together in huge numbers.
10:17As soon as their wings dry out, they will take to the air.
10:31Their goal?
10:32To find a mate.
10:35But how?
10:41There may be thousands close by, but the foliage is so thick it's difficult for them to find
10:47each other.
10:54They have a remarkable solution.
10:58They follow rivers upstream and travel to higher ground.
11:06The journey can take hours of determined flying.
11:10Eventually, they emerge into the only open space there is, the treeless peak of Mount
11:23Mabu.
11:33Up here, free from the confines of the forest, they hold a butterfly ball.
11:50Now the butterflies have all the space they need for their aerobatic courtship.
12:09The male's strategy is simple.
12:12Fly higher and faster than the competition and just maybe you'll win a virgin female.
12:31This spectacular gathering, unseen by outsiders until now, happens for just half an hour each
12:38morning and for just a few weeks in the year.
12:52Once mated, the females descend back to the rainforest to lay their eggs.
13:01A forest that only exists because of moisture rising from the warm Agulhas current, hundreds
13:07of miles away in the Indian Ocean.
13:38The rainwater now flows southwards from Mozambique's highest peaks to the lowlands of the Eastern
13:46Cape.
13:50And where the land flattens, rivers slow, creating a vast swamp 50 miles across.
14:00This is Gorongosa.
14:06Here all kinds of creatures come to catch fish.
14:31Whiskered catfish work as a team.
14:34They take a gulp of air at the surface and then belch it out underwater to create a net
14:39of bubbles.
14:41And that traps little fish.
14:47They're a fish for everyone.
15:07And each species has its own technique for catching them.
15:12It's all very well having a big beak, but you've still got to know how to use it.
15:30This young pelican has a lot to learn and not long to do so.
15:42Maybe like the catfish, teamwork is the answer.
15:59It's certainly working for the flock.
16:02And this pelican seems to be getting the hang of it.
16:14Surely it can't swallow that catfish.
16:32Trying to was a mistake.
16:44The rainwater, briefly held in Gorongosa's swamp, has now been enriched with silt and
17:06sand.
17:11All down this coast, sediment-laden rivers, the Zambezi, the Limpopo, the Saave, drain
17:18back to the sea.
17:21And there they meet the Agulhas Current.
17:34And what happens to all that sand?
17:38Over the millennia, the Agulhas has worked it into a complex underwater landscape.
17:58This vast sand sculpture is the Bazaruto Archipelago, the oldest of its kind in the world.
18:18It may look like paradise, but living here is not easy.
18:35For a hundred thousand years, the Agulhas Current has battered these submerged dunes
18:41with underwater sandstorms.
19:07But where the water is deep enough to escape these storms, nutrients carried from Africa's
19:13interior fuel an explosion of life.
19:32A rare oceanic hunter rules here.
19:39Giant kingfish.
19:42As big as a man, and weight for weight, one of the most powerful fish in the sea.
19:51Despite their size, they're extraordinarily agile when hunting.
20:15Normally kingfish are solitary, but for just a few weeks each year, they gather at places
20:20like Bazaruto and prepare for an extraordinary journey.
20:31One that will take them far inland.
20:39The Ntentu River.
20:54A king of kingfish leads them upstream.
21:02As they travel further into freshwater, they seem to change from aggressive hunters into
21:08dedicated pilgrims.
21:22Now many miles from their natural home, and in response to an unknown cue, they stop and
21:29begin to circle.
21:40Other marine fish that migrate upriver usually do so in order to breed, but there's no evidence
21:46that these kingfish spawn up here.
21:52Neither do they hunt, so what are they doing?
22:07In truth, the purpose of this strange behavior is still unknown.
22:16In a few weeks, they will retrace their journey back to the ocean.
22:31The lives of kingfish, like those of turtles and butterflies and pelicans, are influenced
22:37by the Agulhas current.
22:47But that influence can only reach so far.
22:53And this is why.
22:57The Drakensberg Mountains.
23:11Here local people say that the vultures soar so high, they can see into the future.
23:39These sheer cliffs, rising to over 3,000 meters, hold back the advancing rain clouds,
23:45and as a result, the land beyond them is starved of water.
24:01This is the greatest expanse of sand in the world, a seemingly endless desert that is
24:08the vast, parched center of Southern Africa.
24:23Thousands of miles to the west, where this desert meets the Atlantic Ocean, another current
24:29prevails.
24:35But the Benguela current, surging up the west side of Africa, has a very different character.
24:50It's extremely cold, full of nutrients, and it's thronged with life.
25:00A great white shark.
25:06They can raise their body temperature to 10 degrees above that of the surrounding sea.
25:16But doing so requires an enormous amount of high-grade fuel.
25:24So this is the great bonanza for them.
25:28The body of a dead whale.
25:38The carcass will draw in every great white for miles around.
25:45And here, off Cape Town, that means a lot of sharks.
26:01Instead of feeding in a frenzy, these sharks have rather refined table manners.
26:16They swim side by side to get the measure of each other.
26:23And each takes its turn.
26:32This female is the biggest, so she eats first.
27:01The next only feeds when she gives way.
27:31The waters of the Benguela are so rich, they support more great white sharks than any other
27:46seas on the planet.
27:58And they are so cold, they attract some surprising creatures to these African shores.
28:10Penguins.
28:13African penguins.
28:22This female is returning to relieve her partner.
28:29Of course, there's no ice here, but these rocks can be almost as slippery.
28:52But there are more serious obstacles than slippery rocks awaiting them.
29:23It's his turn to feed, so he leaves her to look after their eggs.
29:39Now she must tackle a problem faced by no other kind of penguin.
29:43For the next ten days, she must protect her eggs from the African sun.
30:02A dense coat of feathers that keeps her warm in cold seas now stifles her.
30:10On these exposed rocks, she must shade her eggs instead of keeping them warm.
30:21Everything here seems the wrong way round.
30:38For some, the soaring temperature is too much.
30:50A neighbor deserts his nest.
30:56His egg will not survive.
31:10He's not the only one to give up.
31:14For others, not a single chick is reared.
31:28These chicks are adapted to withstand temperatures of 40 degrees below zero, not 40 degrees above.
31:51Now, at the hottest part of the day, the very worst time, her chicks are hatching.
32:06Just when they need her most, she's reaching the limit of her endurance.
32:26After ten days of intensive fishing, the chick's father comes back to take his turn at the nest.
32:34But will he be too late?
32:55He greets his young for the very first time.
33:09The coolness of the Benguela current brought the penguins here.
33:14But that very coolness is a great disadvantage because it generates little rain.
33:27It can, however, produce moisture in a different form.
33:37A thick blanket of fog rolls in from the sea and condenses on this thirsty land.
33:52And each year, the desert bursts into life with a dazzling display.
34:06Water is so scarce that this show will not last long.
34:11So plants compete to attract their pollinators with color.
34:28Here in Namakwa land, a 600-mile strip of coastal desert becomes carpeted with blooms.
34:50The morning sun opens a Namakwa daisy and reveals a male monkey beetle asleep inside.
35:05Nights here are so cold that monkey beetles shelter within the closed-up petals of the daisies.
35:17The habit brings benefits to both sides.
35:20The beetle is kept warm and the flower gets pollinated.
35:25But now the beetle has urgent business.
35:28He must find a mate.
35:38As he searches, he hops from bloom to bloom, pollinating each in turn.
35:48At last, he spots a potential mate.
35:53A golden princess.
36:03But here comes trouble.
36:07A rival.
36:19There's no time for introductions.
36:27But he's been too slow.
36:37The rivals immediately begin to brawl.
36:45The female will only mate inside the daisy, so they wrestle for possession.
37:09They're so engrossed in fighting, they've pushed her off.
37:28The challenger is ejected.
37:45The winner wastes no time before getting back to business.
38:08At last.
38:24Now there will be a new generation of monkey beetles to pollinate these Namakwanan flowers.
38:39For most of the year, this land is desperately dry.
38:42But just occasionally, brief violent storms sweep in from the cold ocean.
39:02Springbok have been roaming this desert for many months,
39:05looking for one of these rare and highly localized downpours.
39:33The grass is sprouting.
39:40And that is worth celebrating.
39:54If you're a springbok, that means pronking.
40:23The grass is sprouting.
40:28And that means pronking.
40:34The grass is sprouting.
40:37And that means pronking.
40:41The grass is sprouting.
40:44And that means pronking.
40:48The grass is sprouting.
40:51And that means pronking.
40:54The grass is sprouting.
40:57And that means pronking.
41:00The grass is sprouting.
41:03And that means pronking.
41:06The grass is sprouting.
41:09And that means pronking.
41:12The grass is sprouting.
41:15And that means pronking.
41:18The grass is sprouting.
41:21And that means pronking.
41:24We still don't know exactly why they do this.
41:29The simplest answer is that they're dancing for joy.
41:55This is where the two great ocean currents, the warm Agulhas and the cold Benguela, crash into one another.
42:11And this collision in itself draws in life in abundance.
42:30A superpod of hunting dolphins, 5,000 strong.
42:49And shadowing them, Africa's biggest predator.
43:00A brooder's whale.
43:03This female is 15 meters long and weighs more than a whole family of elephants.
43:22The dolphins are in pursuit of sardines.
43:26Millions of them.
43:30But these cold water fish are heading towards an impenetrable barrier of warm water that they will not cross.
43:38The Agulhas current.
43:43They're trapped.
43:50And that gives the whale her chance.
44:13But the sardines are so speedy that the whale only catches a few with each pass.
44:26More and more hunters arrive.
44:38The whale needs the other hunters to push the fish upwards, forcing them against the surface.
44:55Now they have nowhere to escape.
45:14With each lumbering turn, she loses precious time, time that favors the more nimble.
45:39The brooder's whale probably knows that this opportunity will last less than five minutes.
45:46And with the last few lunges, she finally cashes in.
46:16The Agulhas current.
46:43The forces that triggered this great event have also shaped the fortunes of life far beyond this particular battleground.
46:54Without these currents, southern Africa would be a desert.
47:03But combined, the very different powers of the Agulhas and the Benguela have transformed the Cape into a land where life can flourish.
47:28The Komodo Islands, off Africa's east coast, are a haven for green turtles.
47:48Every year, a million turtles hatch on these beaches.
47:53But the chances of any one of them surviving is tiny.
48:06The Africa team came here to try and capture the dramatic first few minutes in the lives of these baby turtles.
48:14This was to be both a technical and surprisingly emotional challenge.
48:29It's only when you get down on the eye level of the baby turtle that you realize what an enormous journey it's got to make down over the beach.
48:35And it really is quite epic.
48:40Oh yeah, that's lovely.
48:43We're carrying all of these complicated, heavy bits of equipment, which hopefully will enable us to get into the world of a turtle which is just a few inches long.
49:01As they break out of all this soft sand, they hit the hard sand, and that's where the real sprint takes place.
49:08They must be desperate to hit that water, because you can see the seas just over the horizon.
49:12People are following them all the way down, and you do kind of get involved with them and cheering them on.
49:19OK, slow down a bit, slow down.
49:25And then suddenly all these crows come flocking in and start picking them off.
49:29And you just think, that's just so unfair.
49:33Lots more coming in, just loads coming in now.
49:40You've got to feel for them, you know, it's really quite upsetting.
49:43And particularly when you're looking through the camera and I'm just filling the frame with a turtle running down the beach.
49:48Then suddenly from nowhere, a beak comes in and boosh, and that's it.
49:53That turtle's no more.
50:00The turtles that escape the perils of the beach still have to face pounding surf.
50:13But at last they're in their element.
50:21More than can be said for the crew.
50:24They're faster than you, aren't they?
50:27It's really embarrassing being by something that's less than a day old.
50:35When we saw hatchlings go off the beach and see them go in the white water, you think they just get obliterated.
50:43They just plunge through the water.
50:45They do get flung around, but then they just ride themselves, keep on swimming, and they're ahead of you coming out the back of the wave.
50:52And it's amazing.
50:56All these baby turtles getting picked off left, right and centre, but they just keep going.
51:01They are just so resilient.
51:09And that made what happened next so distressing.
51:16A particularly high spring tide flooded the beach.
51:21Any baby turtles still in their nest would be lucky to survive.
51:26See it bubbling out as well? Yeah.
51:31Well, it means that basically anything below that line is going to be gone.
51:34Let's hope and pray it's not, but as you say, we don't know. Let's wait and see.
51:49All across the world, turtles are in decline.
51:54Their eggs are stolen, the adults are hunted for their flesh, and they drown in fishing nets.
52:02But here in the Comoros, they have friends.
52:07It's amazing here in Itzimir.
52:09It's just a really heartening story of how the local people are doing everything they can to protect what they think of as their turtles.
52:18And some of the baby turtles have survived the flood tide.
52:49The whole village comes to help the hatchlings.
52:54But the most important effort is to protect the adults from outsiders who would hunt them for their meat.
53:04They've taken it upon themselves to really police the beaches around here and make sure that poaching is kept to a minimum.
53:14The selfless protection these people provide means that this is one of the few places in the world where turtle numbers are actually increasing.
53:26And remarkably, here in Itzimir, the population has in fact doubled in the last decade.
53:39As the shoot was coming to the end, cameraman Kevin Flay noticed that some of the turtles that made it through the surf faced one last danger.
53:49I'm getting a shot of a kite which is flying down and taking turtles off the water's surface.
53:54That was a part of the story we had to tell.
53:59The aim is for us to be underwater, looking straight up as this happens.
54:06And that's actually really quite hard.
54:11Okay, three, two, one.
54:17Undeterred, the crew got into position.
54:26There we go, the kite's up.
54:42You can't see where you're going because my head's glued to this viewfinder so I'm banging into rocks and things like that.
54:48I'm really just trying to keep the turtle in shot.
54:56Something came in then?
55:09She came in and swooped down over the water's surface.
55:12And you could see the kite from underwater?
55:14I could see it, I could see the shape.
55:16In frame and you were running?
55:17Yeah.
55:21Didn't take the turtle?
55:22Didn't take the turtle.
55:23Maybe that's the best of both worlds because we got our lovely underwater shot of a kite and the turtle gets away.
55:31This lucky hatchling isn't the only one.
55:35With the help of the village of Itzamia, thousands more have a chance to make it to the open ocean.
55:43It's only really local populations that can actually support and sustain this conservation work.
55:47If it comes from the roots upwards then it's got a chance of success.
55:51You know, I think it's amazing, I really do, the fact that they do this and I wish you'd see it more often around the world.
56:00It's hard not to admire these extraordinary little creatures as they battle against such odds.
56:12This baby turtle won't touch land again until she returns to the very same island to lay her own eggs.
56:20With luck, she'll find the beaches still protected by the people of Itzamia.
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