Under the shadow of the Himalayas hide rhinoceroses, wild buffalo and Asian elephants. Through the eyes of a newborn elephant calf, explore this land of unexpected contrasts and natural beauty.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00India, a country swathed in mystery.
00:30Each dawn unveils a land exploding with life, populated by giants and predators, a place of beauty,
00:57clarity, conflict and vulnerable new life, all wrapped up in a land of extremes.
01:27January, it's still cool, but summer temperatures will eventually exceed 38 degrees.
01:44For now, an early morning mist cloaks a primordial world of forests, hills, rivers and pools.
02:04In a remote clearing, a 30-year-old Indian elephant, heavy with milk, guards her newborn calf.
02:16Only hours old, she was born under the cover of darkness.
02:24The females of the herd gather to witness her first tentative steps.
02:39They will stop at nothing to protect her.
02:46Even with their vigilance, she faces six months of drought, fire and flood.
02:53And two of the most extraordinary predators, the Bengal tiger and the king cobra.
03:07She's been born into an ancient land where civilizations lie one on another back into the mists of prehistory.
03:33India is home to over a billion people, almost one-fifth of the world's population, living on only 2% of the Earth's surface.
03:50Congestion, madding crowds, religious devotion, all on an epic scale.
04:05But India still has a wild side.
04:11Secreted away in the state of Assam, 160 kilometers south of the Himalayas, live the last herds of giant grazers.
04:33Indian elephants, the largest land animal in Asia.
04:38The endangered one-horned rhinoceros, a survivor of 37 million years of evolution.
04:51The Indian wild buffalo, a volatile temper, makes it one of the most dangerous animals anywhere.
05:03Their story begins over 6,000 meters up in the Himalayas.
05:10This is the source of one of Asia's great rivers, the Brahmaputra.
05:16Fed by billions of drops of melting ice, it winds its way across Tibet into India, where its nutrient-rich waters create grasslands that range over an area larger than California.
05:33These are India's wild plains.
05:52Wild plains.
05:53A savannah more African than Asian.
05:59A place of contrast and variety.
06:05The early morning sun warms the family of smooth-coated otters.
06:24These are the largest otters in Asia.
06:39This group is made up of a breeding pair, and they're young from last year.
06:44So let's live here in a little nuisance.
06:48If you like this ones to go to the top of the mountain, if we can stretch out what's happening, they'll pass through different kind ofrops.
06:56And yet there's that place over time around him.
07:00If you keep村 arraified by the south, I want to find a small town where I picked up race 어머ans.
07:05BIRDS CHIRP
07:35Standing two metres tall and weighing 2,000 kilograms,
07:46the Indian rhino is a formidable beast.
07:55These plains are the only place in the world
07:58where rhino and otter exist together.
08:05Two very different creatures,
08:13both beautifully adapted to their environment.
08:27Leaving the rhinos behind,
08:29our otter family swim into a bire where they begin to hunt.
08:44Thick, soft, insulating fur keeps them dry and warm.
08:49Nostrils and ears close when diving.
08:58Powerful tails propel these perfectly evolved hunters.
09:06Special muscles make the lenses in their eyes more spherical,
09:11improving their underwater vision.
09:13Herding fish into the shallows, the group pick them off.
09:27Waters teeming with catfish keep the family fed and playful.
09:32The rich variety of environments
09:41has led to rich diversity of bird species,
09:45each with its own unique way of feeding.
09:47From a distance, a palace's fish eagle watches and waits.
10:08It can see prey from over two kilometres away.
10:12Closer to the action, an egret shuffles through the shallows,
10:23spooking fish and frogs.
10:25A vise-like grip prevents the fish wriggling free from the eagle's talons.
10:41Close by, a flock of cormorants employ otter-like fishing tactics.
11:11Surprisingly, for aquatic birds, cormorant feathers are not waterproof
11:20and need regular drying.
11:26They don't have external nostrils,
11:29so must breathe through their open mouths.
11:34After such energetic feeding,
11:37they cool off by flapping their throats.
11:41Having exhausted this body of water,
11:53the team moves off to fish elsewhere.
11:58There are countless beals, small lakes,
12:01dotted across the plains,
12:04each surrounded by dense tropical forest.
12:11a refuge for some,
12:17killing ground for others,
12:23prime territory for ambush specialists.
12:30and home to the world's largest venomous snake.
12:50The King Cobra's Latin name,
12:52Ophiophagus, means snake-eater.
12:55It hates almost nothing else.
12:58It eats almost nothing else.
13:20It eats almost nothing else.
13:20Consuming them head-first in one long, slow, methodical mouthful.
13:43Just as the beals are rich in birds, the forests are a paradise for insects.
13:50Cotton-stainer bugs insert long, straw-like mouthparts into fruit and suck out all the juice.
14:09Beyond the forest shade, the plains are baking hot.
14:25It's 32 degrees and rising.
14:29Indian elephants can eat 130 kilograms of vegetation every day.
14:36Indian elephants can eat 130 kilograms of vegetation every day.
14:54They have a prehensile lip at the end of the trunk for grasping.
15:06The herd keeps moving, and our month-old calf must keep up.
15:18The herd keeps moving, and our month-old calf must keep up.
15:30The deep sun-baked tracks of last year's wet season make it tough going for her.
15:44They can drink 100 liters of water every day just to survive.
15:57A buffalo matriarch leads her clan to water along corridors created by generations of elephants.
16:26On the outskirts of the herd lurks a colossal male.
16:44These leviathans weigh over a ton and are armed with the biggest horns of any animal on earth.
17:00Brazers are rarely alone at waterholes.
17:22Brazers are rarely alone at waterholes.
17:25The herd gathers around the calf.
17:35This rhino sniffs the air.
17:44Danger.
17:46Danger.
17:47The large male tiger alarms even the mightiest of beasts.
17:56Tigers will attack and kill young elephants.
18:20But with this mobile fortress the calf is safe for now.
18:30However, there is one threat out here that even her aunties can't protect her from.
18:43The dry hot wind fuels a fire.
18:59It spreads rapidly through the tall elephant grass.
19:06Embers carry on the wind.
19:11New fires spring up all around.
19:14Crisis for some, opportunity for others.
19:24Birds gather around the fringes to feed on insects and small creatures flushed out by the flames.
19:31Time for flames.
19:332021
19:34Thanksgiving
19:35Freshman
19:51to flood
19:56Our calf has escaped, but the struggles for survival never end.
20:18The plains resemble a barren wasteland.
20:22But, almost magically, the land regenerates.
20:28Red silk cotton trees burst into life,
20:32their large flowers dominating the landscape
20:35and attracting pollinators from kilometres around.
20:39A clearly successful strategy, bringing salvation to smaller species
20:54while keeping their prizes beyond the reach of the larger grazers.
20:58For the next two months, daytime temperatures will reach 35 degrees.
21:22Excellent for cold-blooded creatures that bask, converting the sun's rays into energy.
21:38Temperature regulation is everything,
21:40and during the hottest part of the day,
21:43this Indian monitor and rock python are forced to hide away in the shade.
21:48The Brahmaputra River is now perilously low.
22:12The Brahmaputra River is now perilously low.
22:18But at nearly 3,000 kilometres in length and 3 kilometres wide,
22:23it's still an impenetrable barrier for most animals.
22:31Many species on one bank have never been seen or heard on the other.
22:35Restricted to the south bank, the Hoolock Gibbon is India's only ape.
22:50Thirty metres up in the treetops,
22:52their hook-like hands and incredible strength
22:55propel them through the trees with leaps of over six metres.
22:59Females are brown and the males black.
23:04With only 5,000 left alive, this exhilarating sight is now rarely seen.
23:21On the north side of the river, India's most endangered monkey,
23:24the Golden Lankar.
23:29On the north side of the river, India's most endangered monkey,
23:33the Golden Lankar.
23:35They're also confined to a life in the trees,
23:37but their movement could hardly be more different
23:38to that of the gibbons.
23:39Using all four legs and their long tails,
23:41using all four legs and their long tails.
23:43They're also confined to a life in the trees,
23:46but their movement could hardly be more different
23:47to that of the gibbons.
23:48Using all four legs and their long tail for balance.
23:57They're also confined to a life in the trees,
24:01but their movement could hardly be more different
24:03to that of the gibbons.
24:05The Brahmaputra ensures that the hulak and the Golden Lankar
24:27will never meet.
24:28On the forest floor, an untidy pile of sticks
24:39is home to one of India's rarest mammals.
24:45The world's smallest pig, until recently thought extinct.
24:51They spend their days rooting for nuts and insects.
24:58Newborn piglets weigh less than 200 grams,
25:06about the size of an apple.
25:09They're perfect prey for many of the plains' many predators.
25:14Indian rock pythons can weigh 90 kilograms,
25:30and grow to five meters long,
25:33or nine pygmy hogs nose to tail.
25:41They hunt by stealth.
25:44They hunt by stealth.
25:47Parental grunts keep the piglets close.
25:49It doesn't pay to fall behind.
25:51It doesn't pay to fall behind.
25:53Feed the pig as a Leon and to the
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26:01Comp Sicherheit Castle
26:03Nextảng所
26:12Pythons seize the head and kill by constriction.
26:16constriction. The lower jaw works its way over the body, swallowing the prey whole.
26:33The summer grinds on.
26:36The silk cotton's flowers that once fed the climbers and perches now die and fall to earth.
27:06The silk cotton's flowers.
27:16The metal's a kind with a slur and a feather.
27:20The silk cotton'siantes are strong, for example, and the golden calf.
27:28Like a scene from a bygone era, elephant herds gather by a beale.
27:46But they're not here just to drink.
27:50A bull is in musts and has detected the scent of a receptive female.
27:58This is an unpredictable time of heightened sexual tension.
28:09Testosterone levels rise to 60 times more.
28:16He smells the ground, searching for the scent of the right female to mate with.
28:24Then moves through the herd.
28:28It's now that placid elephants can turn violent and even kill.
28:41The calves need to be alert.
28:50Big bull elephants can weigh six tons, almost twice that of a female.
28:56Eventually, the herd moves to the safety of a beale.
29:08Eventually, the herd moves to the safety of a beale.
29:25Getting about in the water proves just as difficult as it was on land.
29:29Big bull.
29:45Our young calf quickly gets herself into trouble.
29:49And then... out again.
30:04Even young elephants can swim, using their trunks as snorkels.
30:19Afterwards, reassurance is given by suckling.
30:31Another, exhausted newborn is tenderly helped to its feet.
30:42At the end of a long, hot, stressful day,
30:46the older calves are in high spirits.
30:48Unaware of the dangers the undergrowth could hold.
30:56Not so the females, who are taking no chances.
31:03Even a harmless family of wild pigs are driven off.
31:18Raising calves within a herd increases their survival chances.
31:34Unlike elephants, rhinos don't have an extended family and rear their young alone.
31:48This rhino has just given birth.
31:53They are alone, and the calf is vulnerable.
31:58This rhino has just given birth.
32:10They are alone, and the calf is vulnerable.
32:13The bond between rhino mother and calf lasts four long years.
32:24She will need all of her wits about her to keep her safe.
32:28They have very poor vision, with small eyes positioned on the side of the head.
32:34As well as their incredible sense of smell, they have acute hearing.
32:41They scan the airwaves for danger.
32:47They scan the airwaves for danger.
32:49They scan the airwaves for danger.
32:51They scan the airwaves for danger of killing birds.
32:55A troop of rhesus macaques descend to feed on plants made available by the shrinking pools.
33:25The young are not aware of dangers posed by being on the ground.
33:40A python would make a quick meal of a macaque.
33:51They quickly return to the canopy.
33:58Up here is one especially bountiful food source.
34:03Figs fruit around the year and form a major part of their diet.
34:10There are close to 1,000 different species of fig in the world.
34:17Each has its own symbiotic relationship with its own species of tiny wasp that has evolved over the last 80 million years.
34:29The female wasps enter the fig and lay their eggs through a long ovipositor.
34:53As they move they brush against the flowers pollinating the fruit.
35:08After laying their eggs they die and the fig absorbs the female, its task complete.
35:20In some forests up to 70% of the animals rely on figs.
35:34They target the ripest fruits.
35:44Then hornbills disperse seeds across 40 square kilometres of plains.
35:56With the land baked hard and the grasses now in short supply, the elephants feed on rafts of water hyacinth, fastidiously cleaning the roots first.
36:14For our calf it's another survival lesson.
36:33The rhino makes the most of a rich soil.
36:43They produce a rich source of food.
36:50They produce prodigious piles of dung which they deposit in latrines to mark their territories.
37:08Nothing goes to waste on the plains.
37:13Butterflies ingest the minerals.
37:16Seeds germinate and beetles nibble at the fresh new shoots.
37:23But hidden deep in the dung is the best adapted of all the dung pile's inhabitants.
37:30Dung beetles create hundreds of dung balls which they bury to feed on later.
37:45Dung beetles create hundreds of dung balls which they bury to feed on later.
38:00This may look speeded up, but this is real time for the industrious dung beetle.
38:10The dung balls act as grow bags and any seeds not eaten by the beetles will germinate into new plants.
38:17The most industrious recyclers on the plains have to be the termites.
38:29There are maybe 100,000 living in this one colony.
38:38The workers gather mud from deep underground and regurgitate it to build the walls of their mound.
38:57They clear the plains of dead wood, turn it back into nutrients which are absorbed back into the soil.
39:13The riverbed resembles a desert.
39:26It has not rained since November.
39:33The plains bake.
39:35The rhino find comfort wallowing in thick mud.
40:00Their armor-plated hide is in fact quite sensitive and in certain places soft.
40:13The mud provides relief from biting insects, keeps their skin in good condition,
40:19and protects them from the sun's punishing rays.
40:22Pressure mounts for wallowing space, and tensions rise.
40:29Pressure mounts for wallowing space, and tensions rise.
40:32Pressure mounts for wallowing space.
40:33Pressure mounts for wallowing space, and tensions rise.
40:35Pressure mounts for wallowing space, and tensions rise.
40:39Despite the heat of the day, sub-adult rhinos quarrel, biting rather than using their horns.
41:09The adults are fully equipped, and battle is fierce.
41:16Wounded and half-blind, the defeated rhino heads off to recover.
41:40Accompanied, as ever, by minor birds, which clean up festering wounds and remove bits of loose skin and ticks.
41:52For some, the stresses of life on the plains is too much.
42:11The scavengers clean up.
42:20At the peak of the summer, there is still food, if you know where to look for it.
42:26An army of black ants invade the nests of a much larger ant species.
42:32They kill and steal all they can carry, including their rival's larvae.
42:38Temperatures continue to climb.
42:58The clouds build.
43:01The monsoon arrives.
43:05Storm clouds build to 16 kilometers tall and can contain 4 million tons of water, equal to 10,000 Boeing 747s.
43:19And it's all about to fall on the parched plains.
43:48The once-shrinking pools begin filling.
43:55This will last for three months, leading to an explosion of new life.
44:13Fish return, restocking the beals.
44:18The splayed hooves of the highly adapted endemic swamp deer allow them to negotiate the thickest mud.
44:38But although this water brings relief in the short term, the land requires food to continue its existence.
44:56Glacial meltwaters from the Himalayas mix with the monsoon rains.
45:15The Brahmaputra River bursts its banks and floods an area of 30,000 square kilometers, the size of Belgium.
45:26So begins the final cycle.
45:31Barren plains change into wetlands.
45:36Dry land becomes scarce.
45:41The exodus starts.
45:54Marooned concentrations of prey species makes life easier for predators.
46:00The rhino and her calf leave the banks of the Brahmaputra, joining the elephants to find sanctuary in the surrounding hills.
46:19Our young elephant calf has survived the ravages of her first long, hot, dry season.
46:30Only to be forced away by the river that now covers the land.
46:35But what at first appears to be destruction is actually creation.
46:50Without this flood cycle, such productive plains could not exist.
46:57The nutrients brought down from the mountains spread across the land, bringing fertility and fecundity to the plains.
47:08As soon as the waters recede, the grazers will return to an abundance of new growth.
47:15On a land heaving with human life, there are still places where giants are at one with their world.
47:35The Brahmaputra River has created an exceptional place of astonishing richness, unique to India and to the Earth.
47:44The Brahmaputra River has created an endless infinite construction Lexington site,
47:49the