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00:00Only one creature has carved a life for itself in every habitat on Earth.
00:13That creature is us.
00:18All over the world, we still use our ingenuity to survive in the wild places, far from the
00:25city lights, face to face with raw nature.
00:31This is the human planet.
00:51In all the wild places on Earth, we have risen to the challenges nature has thrown
00:56at us.
01:01Now we have created the habitat of our dreams, designed by us, for us, the pinnacle of human
01:14imagination and ingenuity.
01:19This is where we humans like to think we reign supreme, driving out the nature we don't
01:30want, shipping in what we do.
01:37But the natural world isn't easy to control.
01:44Can we humans ever really master nature in the urban jungle, and is it wise to try?
02:10Dubai is the ultimate modern city, orderly, sparkling, and squeaky clean.
02:22It's a temple to man's ingenuity, rising from the desert.
02:32But there's a menace in the air, pigeons.
02:38Thousands of them are making a mess in this pristine metropolis, and Dubai doesn't like
02:48it.
02:50One man can help.
02:54The Arabs call him Al Hur.
02:58His name is David Stead.
03:10His challenge is to keep Dubai pigeon-free, using falcons, an ancient Arabian solution
03:17for a modern urban problem.
03:22Well, birds of prey, of course, are hunting birds, and the falcons in the bird of prey
03:28family are the specialist bird hunters.
03:31They only catch other birds for a living, and as a result, the pigeons are most scared
03:37of falcons compared to any of the other birds of prey.
03:40So even a pigeon that has never seen a falcon in its life does have this almost genetic
03:46fear of the silhouette, the shape of a falcon.
03:58Today he is working for some of Dubai's top hotels with his peregrine falcon, Nimr.
04:07Nimr is a three-year-old falcon now.
04:09They become adult at one, so she's now quite a mature falcon, although at three she still
04:15has an awful lot to learn.
04:18Out of the whole team, she's probably the most arrogant.
04:23She has this tremendous attitude about her, and she knows who's in charge, and I can assure
04:27you it's not us.
04:32City pigeons damage these buildings.
04:35Their corrosive droppings erode chrome and stone, and each bird can produce 12 kilos
04:42of mess a year.
04:52But David's aim isn't to kill or even catch them.
04:57He is hoping to scare them away, and Nimr loves the chase.
05:03After all, she's a peregrine, the fastest creature in the sky, capable of swooping 280
05:10kilometers an hour.
05:17So once she's moved them on, he needs to tempt her back, and that's tricky.
05:25She's an extremely inquisitive falcon, which can be frustrating for me because I tend to
05:30lose all contact and control with her when she's flying and she sees something amusing.
05:40But there's always one way to a falcon's heart, the promise of a chicken dinner.
05:54Thanks to David and Nimr, Dubai's hotels remain pigeon-free.
06:06After all, no one wants pigeon poo to spoil their million-dollar view.
06:14Sometimes driving unwanted wildlife out of the town requires a much more modern solution.
06:29Sergeant Stan Schumacher is on a mission.
06:38He works in Estes Park, Colorado.
06:43Every day he patrols his patch on an unusual police vehicle, a Segway scooter.
06:56His job is to keep the streets free of trouble, and trouble here is particularly large and spiky.
07:13Once the elk come in, getting around town's a hassle, pretty much from June to the beginning of October.
07:22Every summer, the town is invaded by elk stags.
07:26Sergeant Schumacher's job is to make sure that the locals can go about their daily business.
07:31Not easy at this time of year.
07:34They may look placid, but elk weigh over 300 kilos, can be three meters tall, and their antlers are lethal.
07:44They're pretty much everywhere in town.
07:46This whole valley's pretty much full of elk.
07:49Any given time there could be anywhere from five to fifteen hundred.
07:54The female elk love the urban grasslands.
07:58They live here year-round.
08:01We've got the two main golf courses.
08:04The grass is, of course, golf grass, so they absolutely love that.
08:09The male elk are only visiting, and it's not for golf.
08:14The boys are back in town for one thing, a stag party.
08:25At this time of year, the stags fight over the females and can be very dangerous.
08:34But it's not just the elk causing problems.
08:37Sergeant Schumacher also has to control the tourists.
08:42A lot of these tourists have no idea that these animals are wild.
08:47It's the craziest thing, but they, for some reason, they think these animals are tame.
09:05There's no messing with an irritable elk.
09:17In the wild west of the 21st century,
09:21the sheriff's white stallion has been replaced by a giant scooter.
09:26The elk do not like the Segway.
09:28I don't know what it is.
09:29I think it's the movement, because I'm not moving normal as a human would walk,
09:34and I'm scurrying around a lot quicker on that Segway,
09:37so the elk do not like it whatsoever.
09:41Today has been a good day for Sergeant Schumacher.
09:45He's run the troublemakers out of town.
09:50But not all the invaders who come to our cities are so easy to chase away.
09:58Some cities are plagued by creatures who are just as wily and streetwise as us.
10:06Jaipur, one of the fastest growing cities in India,
10:11Shakuntala, a local market seller, is terrorized by street gangs,
10:16and these are not the local lads.
10:41She has to face them every day.
10:47They're a terrifying bunch.
10:55The posse of Reese's macaques hang out on the rooftops.
11:00One bite from these canines can inflict horrible damage.
11:11For the macaques, life in the urban jungle is even easier than life in the real one.
11:26Like us, they can be smart and slick.
11:31Jaipur's temples and streets provide endless pockets to pick,
11:37and their favorite place is the food market.
11:44The macaques are known for their delicious food,
11:47but they are also known for being a bit of a pain in the butt.
11:51Jaipur's temples and streets provide endless pockets to pick,
11:57and their favorite place is the food market.
12:03The question today is, will Shakuntala's stall survive all the monkey business?
12:09The attack is led by the gang leader, an alpha male.
12:29The macaques work as a coordinated team, ducking and diving.
12:34Attacking from all angles, the smaller macaques distract Shakuntala,
12:40while the bolder males grab the loot.
12:43Life on Jaipur's streets is tough enough,
12:46but there is no guarantee that the macaques will survive the attack.
12:53They are known for their delicious food.
12:58They are known for their delicious food.
13:03They are known for their delicious food.
13:07Life on Jaipur's streets is tough enough,
13:10but when your enemy is protected by a deity, there's nothing you can do.
13:15These monkeys are sacred to the monkey god, Hanuman.
13:37Monkeys could be a menace in the market,
13:40but there is a wider war going on under all our city streets.
13:52Some species have become a threat to our domination of our very own urban world.
14:00Jeff and Junior are on a stakeout,
14:04hunting down mortal enemies on the Manhattan front line.
14:09My job is a nighttime exterminator in New York City.
14:14Daytime guys where I work do bed bugs,
14:17we just do rats, mice, roaches, and restaurants.
14:20What time do you think we're going to be getting up in this place?
14:23I don't know.
14:25They said about midnight.
14:27They're not closed yet.
14:30I mean, I don't really have a problem telling people what I do,
14:33but we try to be as discreet as possible,
14:35just because I don't want people to think that they're eating in an area that's full of rats,
14:39but East Village is full of them, so you can't hide that.
14:43Rats love fine dining too, but they don't leave tips behind.
14:48They leave excrement and disease.
14:51No one wants to admit that the Big Apple has a big rat problem,
14:56so Jeff and Junior only work at night.
14:59Trash is a big deal.
15:02Sloppy humans throwing your trash out on the sidewalks
15:05and leaving the juices and meat juices and chicken bones everywhere.
15:08That's a buffet for them, you know what I mean?
15:12Tonight, they're laying traps in Chinatown.
15:20Another one of these, man.
15:23Another one of these.
15:26How do you even leave your restaurant like this?
15:30Dude, look at this.
15:31Look at all this stuff.
15:33Sushi, rice, noodles.
15:38Rats will eat anything, from chop suey to the chopsticks themselves.
15:44We walk in at night because we have keys.
15:46We have to go when the customers are gone.
15:48And when the people leave the restaurant, the rats think it's time to come out.
15:52But we go in there later, like an hour after they close, so they're out partying.
15:56Uh-oh, there he is, there he is.
15:57Right there, right there.
15:58Right there, right there, right there, right there.
15:59See him?
16:01Uh-oh, he's going down, he's going down.
16:03Right there, right in the hole.
16:06Damn.
16:07Yeah, he was drinking coffee.
16:08Something.
16:09That's the last thing that this guy needs is coffee.
16:13Unbelievable.
16:15That's why I don't eat takeout, man.
16:17Yes, you do.
16:19Come on, let's go to the basement, man.
16:23Watch out, man, it's slippery.
16:26And there's another horror in the basement.
16:30Yo, look at the water bugs in the ceiling.
16:32You know how you never see that?
16:34Right there, behind the door.
16:35Cockroaches.
16:37This is professional extermination.
16:38I got these dogs.
16:40Oh.
16:41You seen this basement?
16:42What's in there, man?
16:44Old buildings connected by pipes and basements allow the rats and roaches to scuttle through the city unseen.
16:51It's disgusting in here.
16:52Look at the water dripping all over the place.
16:55We were basically trying to be quiet to hear noises for any, you know, any signs of rats actually squeaking or anything.
17:01You hear that?
17:02The little pitter-patter?
17:05The little fingernails?
17:06Yeah.
17:08Over here.
17:11Look at that.
17:12That goes right into the...
17:13I can see the kitchen.
17:17For Jeff and Junior, it's a lifelong fight.
17:20It's said there's at least one rat for every person in New York.
17:24That's nearly nine million rats.
17:27As far as humans winning the battle over rats, no, we're close.
17:33I don't even know how you would stop it.
17:34I really don't.
17:37They're going to use every contraption they can devise in the battle with the pests.
17:42Well, this is...
17:43I don't want to call them out, but...
17:45Listen to that.
17:47All those people out there, they have no idea what's happening down here.
17:51And they're going to come eat here tomorrow.
17:5350% off all day, huh?
17:56Yeah.
17:58Yeah, no wonder.
18:0724 hours later, Jeff and Junior are back to assess the death toll.
18:13Ah, dude.
18:17The snap traps have worked.
18:21That's cute.
18:23And the glue mats.
18:25This one is decomposing.
18:28And the poison.
18:30Oh, dude.
18:32Look at the size of him.
18:34He's dead.
18:36Looks like he's been fighting or something, bro.
18:39Damn, look at them teeth, bro.
18:41Whoa.
18:42What's the weight on that?
18:44I'm telling you, man.
18:45My arm got tired.
18:46That's pretty...
18:47That's brutal.
18:48This is just another night in the ongoing battle with our eternal enemies.
18:54Sometimes we'll walk out with bags of dead things.
18:57And I'll take a take-out bag from the restaurant.
19:01So people think I'm leaving with a take-out food.
19:18And it gets worse.
19:22There are other tiny creatures which take advantage of dense urban populations.
19:30They exploit us in much more intimate ways.
19:35They're reaching epidemic proportions.
19:39Not just feeding off us like rats, but literally feeding on us.
19:44Londoner Carol Anderson has these unwanted house guests.
19:49Have you got any bites on you at the moment?
19:51You mean these?
19:53Yeah, the bites that you had all around here.
19:56They're still little red marks from them, aren't they?
19:59Where do you think they are in your room?
20:02Down the side of the bed.
20:04That's what I meant.
20:06And crawling up the walls.
20:08Irritating parasites which only come out at night.
20:12Right.
20:13Right, come on then.
20:15Indigo, hop up.
20:17That's it then.
20:18Good night.
20:19Sleep tight.
20:20Don't let the...
20:21Dead bugs bite.
20:23Let's hope not.
20:24Bed bugs are insect vampires,
20:27attracted to carbon dioxide, heat and body odors.
20:34They like clean warm houses.
20:40They like to sleep in the sun.
20:43They like to sleep in the sun.
20:46They like to sleep in the sun.
20:49They like to sleep in the sun.
20:52They like clean warm houses.
21:03Their only food is human blood.
21:08The sheer numbers is quite daunting really.
21:13They literally were streaming up the wall,
21:15up to the ceiling, just full of blood.
21:17So they'd obviously all just been feeding.
21:19First thing in the morning I woke up and looked up.
21:22It was horrible, it really was horrible.
21:29Carol calls in the best bed bug detector in the business.
21:35Charlie the Chocolate Labrador,
21:37ably assisted by his handler, Adam.
21:47Right, well, the sofa seems to be the worst affected.
21:51Charlie's nose is 44 times more sensitive than ours.
21:56He can literally sniff out the bed bugs.
22:07If they are present, he's trained to sit down.
22:13Good boy, Charlie.
22:15It's all Adam needs to know.
22:21Bed bugs are on the increase.
22:23Hitchhiking as we travel from city to city,
22:26often infesting furniture like Carol's sofa.
22:33I do resent them, but I quite admire them as well.
22:36They are actually quite amazing,
22:38which makes it even creepier, you know,
22:40because that's what I'm up against.
22:46But with Adam's spray and his help,
22:50with Adam's spray and Charlie's nose,
22:52the bugs here have met their match.
22:56This is one urban intruder nobody wants to live with.
23:09In some parts of the world,
23:11people have learned to put their urban invaders to good use.
23:16The Moroccan city of Fez, a bit like Dubai,
23:20has a problem with pigeons.
23:24But rather than chasing them away,
23:27the people of Fez invite them in.
23:34Nourdine has built a home for pigeons on his roof.
23:46He doesn't do this just for the love of animals.
23:49Pigeon droppings are vital to a local industry.
23:55And Nourdine's friend, Tami, has come to buy some.
23:59Tami was a hamster.
24:01It was a hamster.
24:03He was a hamster.
24:05He was a hamster.
24:07He was a hamster.
24:14We have to eat the hamster,
24:16because if we leave it,
24:18it will go back to its mother.
24:20It will go back to its mother.
24:22The baby will be a hamster.
24:24The baby will be a hamster.
24:26Imagine.
24:28Tami works at the local tannery.
24:31Fez is the center of the Moroccan leather industry.
24:41The leather here is famed for its softness
24:44and the pigeon droppings are a secret ingredient.
24:48The pigeon droppings are very important for the leather.
24:55Wild pigeon droppings contain an enzyme
24:58which eats at the protein in the animal's skin,
25:01softening it up.
25:05The hides are soaked in the vats for three days
25:08and Tami works them with his feet.
25:12This could be the stinkiest job in the world.
25:17It's hard to say, but it's normal.
25:20When it's dry, you can smell it.
25:23At first, you can't smell it, but when it's dry...
25:27For Tami, it's a price worth paying.
25:31The pigeon droppings give the skins a softness
25:33no man-made chemical can produce.
25:41When we put the pigeon droppings in the vats,
25:44they stay dry.
25:48HE DRIPS
26:07Thanks to Fez's wild pigeons,
26:10the skins will reach the highest possible price.
26:17Another very different city
26:20is also working with an urban intruder.
26:33Sometimes, even the most unlikely species
26:36can turn out to be good news.
26:39Austin, Texas, is now home to 1.5 million free-tailed bats,
26:44and today, they are very welcome here.
26:5320 years ago, they set up home on this bridge
26:56in downtown Austin,
26:58and the residents wanted to get rid of them.
27:03But now, they've got a new home.
27:05They've got a new home, and they want to get rid of them.
27:11River boatman Captain Mike remembers it well.
27:15Oh, they're already taken off.
27:17Look over the treetops along the right-hand side.
27:20They are off and running.
27:22There was a fair amount of people
27:24that were actually afraid of the bats
27:26because they were afraid we were going to have a rabies problem
27:29or a disease outbreak,
27:31so there are actually groups of people
27:33and business leaders to figure out a way to exterminate the colony.
27:40But bats turned out to be helpful for the city.
27:44The 24-hour urban lifestyle means that Austin is a city of light,
27:49and that attracts millions of insects,
27:52which are, in turn, fast food for bats.
27:57Every night, the bats eat six tonnes of insects.
28:01That's an incredible 2,000 tonnes a year.
28:08However, they are more than just bug killers.
28:11Captain Mike saw bats as a commercial opportunity.
28:16I started doing bat-watching cruises
28:18shortly after they moved in here,
28:20and word spread, and they started getting more and more popular.
28:24So we do those seven nights a week during the season,
28:27from March through October.
28:29Bats have really helped me in my business, so I love them.
28:32If you look up underneath the bridge,
28:34you'll watch them drop out of these cracks here.
28:37Visitors who come to see the bats
28:39generate $10 million in tourist revenue every year,
28:43so the free-tailed bats of the state capital are now protected.
28:49It turns out we still want to be connected to nature,
28:53and perhaps we always have.
29:01In India, one group of people take caring for animals
29:05to the ultimate level.
29:07They are the people who take care of the animals,
29:10and the people who take care of the animals
29:13are the people who take care of the animals.
29:16They're caring for animals to the ultimate extreme,
29:19and they've been doing it for centuries.
29:26Shyam Sunder has rescued a chinkara gazelle
29:30on the outskirts of his town in Rajasthan.
29:36Her mother has been killed.
29:38Without milk, the fawn will not survive,
29:41so Shyam is taking her home.
29:46We take great care of the deer.
30:11They're calling her Aarti,
30:13and a spot of sandalwood honours her arrival.
30:21Kaira, Shyam's wife, has cared for many gazelles.
30:37The Sunders belong to a Hindu sect of nature worshippers
30:41called the Bishnoi.
30:43Shyam supplies milk to the Bishnoi temple,
30:46which has its own orphans to care for.
30:52The Bishnoi were India's first environmentalists
30:55and have brought their traditions from the country
30:58into the towns and cities.
31:03It is their belief that gazelles are their children,
31:06and so the Bishnoi women show an incredible act of kindness.
31:11They breastfeed the fawns that don't take to the bottle.
31:27Even for gazelles, breast is best.
31:36We feed the fawns with our own milk.
31:40We feed them with our own milk.
31:44We feed them with our own milk.
31:47We feed them with our own milk.
31:57After six weeks with her new family, Aarti is weaned.
32:06She is now fit and healthy,
32:09Shyam can take her back to the wild.
32:15Watching a child leave home is always tough for a mum,
32:19but it is only natural that she is happy.
32:23She's now fit and healthy.
32:26Shyam can take her back to the wild.
32:32Watching a child leave home is always tough for a mum,
32:36even a surrogate one.
32:41Aarti is returned to the desert,
32:44where she'll join up with the wild herds.
32:48This may appear to be a tiny gesture of kindness,
32:52but all of us who live in cities
32:55need the nature that exists beyond the city walls.
33:05Because the natural world feeds our hungry cities.
33:18And what the urban jungle needs, the urban jungle gets.
33:26More than three billion of us now live in cities.
33:34To feed this huge population,
33:37we ship in billions of tons of fresh food and produce all year round.
33:43We have the technology to bring in what we want
33:47from thousands of kilometres away.
33:54Peaches may grow here in Spain,
33:57but these are imported from South America.
34:02We consume what we want when we want it.
34:11We no longer need to eat locally or seasonally.
34:21And we have an insatiable appetite.
34:26We've never been so good at exploiting nature,
34:30but we're not quite so good at dealing with the consequences.
34:39Massive consumption creates mountains of waste.
34:46And we're not quite so good at dealing with the consequences.
34:56In the UK alone, we produce over 100 million tons of rubbish each year.
35:03And we dump it safely out of sight.
35:09But in some places, this world is home to an unfortunate few.
35:16Here, in Mombasa, Kenya,
35:19people must scratch a living from the things others throw away.
35:29For Asha and her family, this dump is their home.
35:36They're the only ones who can afford it.
35:41For Asha and her family, this dump is both home and hunting ground.
35:48They are modern-day hunter-gatherers,
35:51adapted to survival on the dark side of the urban jungle.
36:10Here, you can see garbage, garbage cans, plastic bags.
36:18When they throw it away, other people come and buy it.
36:25There's a lot of food here,
36:28but only a handful of it goes to the municipality.
36:32There's a lot of garbage here.
36:35There's a lot of food here, but only a handful goes to the municipality.
36:40When a rubbish truck arrives, the race is on to grab the best scraps.
37:11Asha's husband, Ali, gets stuck in.
37:20This really is life on the edge.
37:26Finding food for your children in a city's rubbish.
37:41More than half of us now live in cities,
37:45and we're using up nature's resources as never before.
37:54We are, without doubt, the most inventive and powerful creature on the planet.
38:01We're so successful, we've hijacked the whole world for our own ends.
38:13But the consequences of our voracious lives are spiralling out of control.
38:22Are we pushing the natural world towards a crisis?
38:31Where do we go from here?
38:42There are a few people who seem to be heading in a new direction.
38:51One challenge is to design a city that's in balance with nature.
38:58This is Masdar, a green city being built in the desert of Abu Dhabi.
39:05It's designed by architect Norman Foster.
39:11Masdar excites me because it's really the only true experiment on the planet at the moment
39:19in terms of seeking to achieve an environment, a community, a mini-city
39:26which is carbon-free and waste-free.
39:31Now, that would be a tough challenge anywhere in the world.
39:36To do it in a desert environment, you could say, you know, you must be crazy to even attempt it.
39:51Masdar will be powered by the sun.
39:57It will not waste a single drop of water.
40:02There will be no need for gas-guzzling cars.
40:07The starting point for Masdar was really working with nature in terms of the solar cycle,
40:14making the greenery not just a cosmetic greenery, but creating shade,
40:20burning the waste that we produce and out of that process creating energy.
40:25So, it's starting with nature and then it's using the technology,
40:30working with nature, in harness with nature.
40:39It is a noble ambition and it can be achieved.
40:45However, the immediate challenge is to try and change the way we live with nature in our existing cities.
40:55New York City, New York
41:13This is the Union Square Market in New York.
41:16It sells produce that's grown locally, often on the rooftops of New York's tower blocks.
41:23Hello, would you like to try some of our honey? Local, broad.
41:27Whipped honey, miss? No? You're sweet enough?
41:32Good morning. Honey for you, miss.
41:34Oh, you're doing the right thing.
41:38Andrew Cote is the guru of high-rise beekeeping and a third-generation beekeeper.
41:46Until recently, urban beekeeping was illegal in New York, but that didn't stop Andrew.
41:54Personally, in my case, I was never caught, even though I was very public about having bees.
42:01I didn't tell people exactly where they were.
42:03Yes, sir. Ten dollars, would you like a bag?
42:08Happily, New York changed its mind and Andrew's mission is to bring bees into everyone's lives.
42:16Today, he's on the balcony of a swanky Manhattan apartment with novice Vivian Wang.
42:22Now, you're going to have a problem with the outer cover because there are a lot of bees on the inside of it.
42:27Smoke them. Smoke them if you got them.
42:31Andrew is sort of the king bee, I think, of urban beekeeping, and those of us who are his students,
42:36I think of myself as the honey sorcerer's apprentice, in a way.
42:41What do you see? I see a lot of capped honey under here, and I see what looks like raw nectar.
42:49It's an unusual pastime for a New York lawyer.
42:52I think my friends, when I told them that I was going to start being a beekeeper, were amused.
42:57They thought it was quirky, but kind of wonderful, because it's a different way for us to all connect with nature.
43:03I think all of us need a little more sweetness in our lives,
43:06and it's nice to be able to cast our eyes skyward in this city, away and above the traffic,
43:13and to think about all these bees buzzing above our heads.
43:17But being a novice beekeeper has its ups and downs.
43:21Ow. Ow.
43:23What, what, what?
43:24Nothing. Sorry, I didn't know they could sting through pants quite like that.
43:28They're stinging me like crazy. I really want you to let go.
43:32There are now nearly 10 million bees living on the rooftops of New York.
43:38Over the river in Queens, it's a special day for beekeeper Stephanos.
43:43He's harvesting his first honey with Andrew's help.
43:50This one's perfect. Couldn't be better.
43:52Oh, yeah.
43:53Look, I think we should give the honey a taste, just to make sure.
43:59Oh, man, this is going to be so good.
44:02Oh, my God.
44:08It's like caramelized sunlight.
44:12It's just quality control.
44:13All right.
44:21Oh, my God.
44:22It's like caramelized sunlight.
44:24It's just quality control.
44:25All right.
44:32Bees make honey and they pollinate the city's parks and gardens.
44:37But most importantly, they bring New Yorkers back in touch with nature.
44:48I think a lot of people are beekeeping in the city
44:50because they want to feel a connection to nature.
44:53They live in tall buildings. They walk on asphalt.
44:57They ride around in trains under the ground.
44:59When they have a beehive on their roof, they can spend one or two hours a week
45:02and really be connected to nature
45:04and be creating their own food with almost no footprint.
45:07And I think that's great.
45:12Beekeeping in New York isn't going to save the planet,
45:15but it's a step in the right direction.
45:26There is just no doubt
45:28if we are to continue living in cities,
45:31we'll have to stop stripping nature bare with no thought for tomorrow.
45:37What we do in our homes and in our streets affects the entire planet.
45:47The future of our civilization depends on us restoring the balance
45:52between the natural world and the urban jungle.
45:58Can we do it?
46:04There are clear signs of hope from around the world.
46:08We do have the intelligence and ingenuity to adapt to a changing world.
46:14The ancient art of falconry now helps protect the modern city of Dubai.
46:20We can work hand in hand with nature to solve the problems we face.
46:27In India, we train fig trees to make living bridges.
46:33And we team up with elephants to extract valuable timber
46:37without trashing the whole forest.
46:41We can think as a community and plan ahead.
46:44In Mali, the fish in this lake are shared out only once a year.
46:56When we work together, it's incredible what we can achieve.
47:01Everyone in the mud city of Djenné collaborates to protect their sacred mosque.
47:07We have such spirit and such bravery in the face of adversity.
47:16If we combine these natural abilities with the best of our imagination
47:21and our biggest ideas,
47:24then surely our cities can adapt and change.
47:28The destiny of our planet is now in human hands.
47:59Over three years, the Human Planet team has filmed people around the world.
48:06All had amazing endurance, local know-how and ingenuity.
48:18Just keeping up with them proved to be a huge challenge.
48:23The demands on our teams and kit pushed them to the limit.
48:28And now they're ready to go.
48:37Filming on an active volcano in Java tested the cameras to breaking point.
48:45The crew were here to film sulphur miners.
48:49The air they breathed was a danger to both people and kit.
48:53Let's put a meter in with a gas meter and see what it does.
48:59It's reading 93 parts per million.
49:03It's going up to 194 now.
49:06So we're right in the middle of the cloud. We'd better get out.
49:10This is 40 times the safe working limit.
49:14The gas is a hydrogen sulphide mix that corrodes every surface it lands on.
49:23The gas masks protected the crew, but not the cameras.
49:30They've got an RF warning on the camera,
49:33which means that the signal's not actually getting onto the tape.
49:36It's usually a head clog.
49:39The crew found that sulphide particles had stuck to the tape head
49:43and open-heart surgery was needed.
49:46That's absolutely filthy.
49:48After cleaning, the camera lived to work another day.
49:54But the crew's problems were nothing compared to those faced daily by the sulphur miners.
50:06In the Sulu Sea off Borneo,
50:09cameraman Simon Enderby filmed a remarkable freediving fisherman called Sulbin.
50:23Here I was with the latest in scuba gear,
50:25and here was Sulbin in a pair of underpants and wooden goggles.
50:29We really made for a bizarre dive duo.
50:32To capture the perfect hunt, I had to match my scuba dive skills with those of Sulbin's freediving.
50:37Our buoyancy, our swimming, our search for food,
50:41and finally his successful capture of a fish all had to evolve together.
50:46Luckily, on the third dive, it all came together and we both came up happy.
50:51Oh, wow, mate, that's the one. That's definitely the one.
51:01In the Philippines, we filmed fishermen herding all the fish on a reef into a huge net.
51:08Here we found that fish can be adaptable too.
51:13Cameraman Roger Munns inadvertently saved one fish from becoming supper.
51:21He nicknamed him Nemo.
51:24Nemo sheltered in Roger's dive kit and hid there until the coast was clear.
51:32Eventually swimming off back home.
51:44We filmed in many locations where people had never seen film cameras before.
51:50In northern India, the children constantly looked into the lens.
51:56So, to get the shots he wanted, director Mark Flowers tried to distract the children by singing a song.
52:06Much to his surprise, the children knew the nursery rhymes better than he did.
52:20Like a diamond in the sky.
52:31Filming at height always involves complex safety measures.
52:37But in Central Africa, the crew had an added complication.
52:42Tim Fogg rigged ropes to film Tete collecting honey from a wild bee's nest.
52:50Unfortunately, the angry bees went straight for Tim.
52:55Smoke, smoke, smoke for Tim, quickly!
53:11The first thing I remember seeing was a bee right in front of my face,
53:15with its abdomen twisted as if it was ready to sting me.
53:24After 30 stings, Tim fully appreciated Tete's bravery in gathering honey for his family.
53:34When filming people with animals, nothing's entirely predictable.
53:42In Greenland, director Nick Brown wanted to film the Inuit catching the elusive Greenland shark that lives in these deep waters.
54:01After an anxious ten days, everyone was thrilled,
54:05when in the middle of the night, they finally felt something on the line.
54:09We're very excited, because we've all been playing with the line that's 800 metres down into the water,
54:16and you can actually feel the shark on the end of it.
54:21Somewhere down there we think we've got a Greenland shark on a hook, we're hoping.
54:27This is the hole for our underwater camera, and this is the hole for the shark.
54:33They discovered they'd underestimated the hole size,
54:37because the Jensen's had caught a huge four metre long shark.
54:54Coordinating helicopters with action on the ground is both expensive and difficult,
54:59but in Australia, director Susan Macmillan had to coordinate three helicopters at once.
55:05Two of them were flown by heli-cowboys Ben Tapp and his mate Rankin,
55:11dicing with death to corral their captain.
55:15The challenges of filming three helicopters in the air have been quite considerable on this trip,
55:19because I'm filming it for real, it's not a drama, there's no take two,
55:23I have to actually capture the events as it happens,
55:26and it's quite a dangerous situation, I've got three helicopters in the air,
55:29I've got quad bikes and horses on the ground, I've got stampeding cattle,
55:33so actually the biggest pressure I think has been safety.
55:42Working on the ground can be just as dangerous, especially when it comes to big cats.
55:49The crew wanted to film Dorobo tribesmen in Kenya chasing the big cats,
55:54Dorobo tribesmen in Kenya chasing lions off a kill.
55:59So cameraman Toby Strong offered to film with them on foot, to be in the thick of the action.
56:07The thought of getting out of a vehicle and walking towards lions on foot
56:12goes against every common sense bone in my body.
56:17I mean, and these guys are amazing, they've got their bows and arrows.
56:22But I haven't got anything, I've got a camera and a lens cloth to protect myself with.
56:30It's all getting a bit real though, it's a bit butterflies in the stomach.
56:39Having located the lions, Toby followed the Dorobo as they moved in to have a look.
56:47Walking down there towards thick bushes where you know there are lions,
56:51God, it's something very primal in the back of your neck,
56:54and everything hairs the back of your neck and you just feel these eyes on you,
56:59but you feel very, very alive, it's a magical feeling.
57:02I sort of recommend it to everyone before going to work,
57:05have a walk through lion country, it gets things in perspective.
57:09Amazing.
57:13Without the cooperation and support of all the people we filmed around the world,
57:18this series could not have been made.
57:23Their unique knowledge and survival skills have relevance for us all,
57:28in an increasingly human planet.