BBC Wild South America_6of6_Penguin Shores
Transcript
00:30This is a journey up the coast of South America, following the ocean currents through stormy
00:42seas and some of the richest waters on the planet.
00:49Running over 3,000 miles from almost the Antarctic to the tropics, these shores are truly extraordinary.
00:57They support the greatest concentration of marine mammals and seabirds on earth.
01:08But what makes these waters so special?
01:23What feeds these teeming millions?
01:26From Antarctic to equator, one creature above all has unlocked the secret of life on these
01:32bountiful shores, the penguin.
01:53Our journey begins off the tip of South America, where the continent projects into the Southern
01:58Ocean.
01:59With little land to break their force, furious winds rage right around the world.
02:05These are some of the most tempestuous waters on the planet.
02:27It's hard to imagine how anything could live in a place like this.
02:38Penguins live here in their millions.
02:59The penguins spend months at a time out in the Southern Ocean, but once a year they're
03:04forced to return to land.
03:14But getting ashore is not going to be easy.
03:25The dangers of riding massive waves are nothing compared to the perils of trying to land on
03:30slippery rocks, armed with only strong feet, sharp claws and grim determination to get
03:37them ashore.
04:30These aren't called rock-hopper penguins for nothing, but why do they take such risks to fight their
04:37way ashore?
04:42They've come here to nest.
04:51Few islands break the vastness of the cold Southern seas, and those that do are seldom more than
04:57barren rock.
04:58But a handful are larger, like the Falklands.
05:02When sea levels were lower, they were connected to South America, but now they lie 300 miles off
05:08the coast.
05:10They're not just rock, but their interior is hardly more welcoming, a treeless expanse of windblown
05:16tussock grass.
05:18For the penguins, this will be home for the next six months.
05:22300,000 pairs of rockhoppers breed on the Falklands, almost two-thirds of the world population.
05:29With good breeding sites so scarce in the Southern Ocean, they jostle for space with all sorts of
05:34other seabirds, like black-browed albatross.
05:52It's a rush to rear their young while summer lasts, and the penguins face a tortuous trek every time
06:05they go back to the sea for food.
06:15At least the albatross can fly, but only with help from the elements.
06:20The Falklands' strong winds are just what these huge birds need to take off.
06:32But how do these cold, turbulent seas support such great numbers of birds?
06:36Surprisingly, the cold itself is a key to the ocean's riches.
06:53Cold water holds more oxygen.
06:56That, combined with nutrients stirred up by rough seas and the long summer days of sunlight,
07:01makes the water very fertile.
07:04It supports huge shoals of krill, shrimp-like crustaceans.
07:09They feed everything from whales to penguins.
07:35Porpoising like this reduces drag, so it uses less energy than normal swimming.
07:40And it lets the penguins see where they're going when they come in to land.
08:00These are gentoo penguins.
08:02They're twice the size of rockhoppers, so they're not as good at climbing cliffs.
08:07They nest on the beach or flat ground inland.
08:10The cliffs above are crowded with king cormorants.
08:14All the birds here have their own preferences, and good breeding sites are in short supply.
08:18Gentoos force their chicks to chase them for their food.
08:34It's a race that sorts out the weak from the strong.
08:39Like most penguins, they lay two eggs, but sometimes they can only catch enough food
08:43to rear one.
08:45When times are hard, the winner takes all, and the weaker chick dies.
08:52And there's competition from another quarter.
08:55Piratical skewers and gulls cash in on the penguins' hard work.
09:05The waters offshore may be prolific, but with so many birds breeding, all have to fight
09:10for their share of food.
09:16The southern ocean may be a tough place to live, but penguins are great survivors.
09:25Two months after hatching, the chicks make their first acquaintance with the sea, its
09:30riches and its dangers.
09:43Not a shark, but a killer whale.
10:01If the whale slips under the waves, the penguins can't see it through the surface reflections.
10:08They have no idea where it is.
10:35Rods of killer whales come here every summer to hunt penguins after their main prey, seals,
10:41have left the islands.
10:44Their technique of stealth in the shallows is passed on from parents to young, using
10:49dead penguins as target practice.
11:14As the frigid waters of the southern ocean surge around the base of the world, only the
11:18southern tip of South America interrupts their path.
11:24But it isn't an impenetrable barrier, it's a maze of channels and islands.
11:30Deep fjords extend far into the interior, letting rich, cold water reach right to the
11:35foot of the Andes.
11:51The forces that carve these channels begin high in the mountains.
12:03Large glaciers grind their way down from the great Patagonian ice sheet.
12:08When the ice sheet was even larger than it is today, these glaciers scoured deep trenches
12:12in the rock.
12:22The valleys they created filled with the rising waters of the sea.
12:28Some were gouged so deep that only just offshore, the bottom is an incredible 120 meters down.
12:38This labyrinth of channels is one of the least explored areas on earth.
12:43As the cold water pushes deep into the heart of Patagonia, it brings with it the animals
12:51of the southern ocean, like fur seals.
12:59Mostly they live on the exposed coast, but wandering young males are drawn into these
13:03sheltered fjords by the rich feeding here.
13:08They can dive as deep as 170 meters to hunt the seafloor, but they feed mostly at night
13:15when the fish come closer to the surface.
13:21Large eyes help them see in the dark, and they may also use echolocation.
13:35The fjords are often stormy, but they're less exposed than the open ocean, so these fur
13:40seals can take advantage of the calm waters to rest.
13:46On the edge of the channels are great forests of kelp.
13:51This giant seaweed is the fastest growing plant in the world.
13:54Its stems can be up to 30 meters long.
14:10Like any jungle, the kelp has its predators.
14:14These aren't fur seals, but sea lions.
14:18They prefer to hunt in these shallower waters, searching for animals hiding amongst the weed.
14:30Kelp beds are the rainforests of the sea.
14:33From sunlit canopy to shadowy forest floor, they support a wealth of strange creatures.
14:40It's an ideal hunting ground for sea lions.
14:48Like the rainforest, this is a world that has yet to be fully explored.
15:09Like birds of prey, the sea lions fly among the branches of this submarine forest.
15:26There's a forest on the land as well.
15:28These deep valleys give a degree of shelter from the relentless wind, and with the heavy
15:32rainfall, trees flourish.
15:44In the woods, something stirs.
16:03The cold waters of the fjords have even put a penguin in the forest.
16:10These are Magellanic penguins.
16:16Penguins may be elegant in the water, but they're not designed for clambering over branches.
16:22So what are they doing here?
16:32With no broad beaches or broken cliffs to breed on, these adaptable birds actually nest
16:37here, scraping a hollow for their eggs among the tree roots.
16:48Nesting in the woods gives them shelter from the elements and protection against predators.
16:53But when they have chicks to feed, they face a hard trek back to the sea.
17:14Those strange calls gather them into social groups on the shore before they head out to
17:18sea.
17:20It's no surprise that they're often called jackass penguins.
17:31To reach their fishing ground, the penguins have to cross the kelp beds.
17:38But that's where the sea lions are hiding.
17:44And some sea lions eat penguins.
17:53Lone males are the most dangerous.
18:02The penguins can't tell if the sea lion's still there.
18:06They can't see through the water surface in the dense kelp forest.
18:22They have to run the gauntlet or their chicks will starve.
18:26The only question is when to go into the water.
18:31It's time to chance it.
18:46There's safety in numbers, but this straggler's missed the group.
18:50This chick needs feeding, so he has to take a gamble.
19:17After killing the penguin, the sea lion skins it before eating it.
19:29Safely out in the depths of the fjord, the penguins become the hunters, not the hunted.
19:38Their prey here aren't krill, but fish, sardines.
19:47Groups of skewers, gulls and albatross follow the action.
19:51The penguins hunt as a group, herding the fish into dense shoals.
19:56In their panic to escape, they're driven to the surface where they're easy prey for the
20:00seabirds.
20:21On land, penguins look ungainly, even comical, but underwater, they're in their element.
20:30They may be flightless, but here they really fly.
20:41The fjords are more than just sheltered feeding places.
20:45They're highways for all sorts of travellers.
20:52One channel cuts all the way through from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Straits of
20:57Magellan.
21:02Peel's dolphins take advantage of this highway between the oceans.
21:06They're small, but strong and agile, perfectly designed for travel through kelp forests,
21:11narrow channels and strong currents.
21:15They can reach speeds of over 15 miles an hour.
21:45At the Pacific end of the Straits, the waters of the Southern Ocean mingle with the cold,
21:53Humboldt Current.
21:55It's channelled north for 2,000 miles by a deep ocean trench, as deep as the Andes are
22:03high.
22:04This current is the key to life on South America's west coast.
22:19The Humboldt is also a highway for sperm whales.
22:23Males feed in the frozen waters of the Antarctic, but the females and young live all year round
22:28in the tropics.
22:29So each year, these 50-ton giants swim 5,000 miles to find a mate.
22:48The depth of the ocean trench along which it travels is one reason for the Humboldt
22:53Current's fertility.
22:55The cold water in the abyss is rich in nutrients from the remains of dead plants and animals.
23:01It's drawn to the surface when the upper layers of water are displaced by strong winds.
23:07These enriched upwellings feed the most prolific fishing grounds on earth.
23:14The Humboldt Current brings the whole coast alive.
23:32As the Humboldt surges up the coast, the rain-soaked forests of the south are left behind.
23:40Trees give way to the driest desert on earth, the Atacama.
23:52It's a strange paradox that the world's driest land and richest sea are found side-by-side.
23:59But even with the Humboldt Current just offshore, how could anything possibly live here?
24:15Incredibly, this desert has penguins.
24:25They're Humboldt penguins, named like the current after the 19th century explorer Alexander
24:31von Humboldt.
24:33To take advantage of the shoals of fish just offshore, they have to nest in the desert.
24:56This appears to be the ultimate challenge for a penguin.
25:00The woolly chicks especially don't look as though they could cope with a hot climate,
25:03and squabbling for food must make it even worse.
25:09Penguins do have to be tough and adaptable to live here, but it's actually not as hot
25:13as it appears.
25:15The cold Humboldt Current keeps the narrow strip of land just inshore quite cool.
25:21So long as the penguins keep close to the water, they can survive.
25:29Penguins are here because of the fish.
25:32Just a little further up the coast are the richest fishing grounds of all, the richest
25:37in the world.
25:39The Humboldt Current runs close offshore, and here the vigorous upwellings feed huge
25:44shoals of anchovies.
25:51This paradise of surf and seafood is called Paracas.
26:21Paracas is a place of superlatives.
26:46Just one of its sea lion colonies can have 30,000 animals.
26:53With so many packed together, it's hard for the bulls to keep control of their harem of
26:57females.
26:58Disputes are inevitable.
27:27Paracas has more than sea lions.
27:30All kinds of bird flock here to take advantage of the huge shoals of anchovies, whose populations
27:35are estimated not in millions, but trillions.
27:53There are thought to be well over 5 million birds consuming 1,000 tonnes of anchovies
27:58a day.
28:08The cormorant colonies alone contain literally millions of birds.
28:13There are three nests to every square metre, and the colonies cover whole islands, the
28:18largest concentrations of birds in the world.
28:36There's standing room only for Peruvian boobies too.
28:40Nesting on islands keeps them safe from four-footed predators, but it's no defence against attack
28:45from the air.
29:04Humbled penguins take full advantage of the rich fishing offshore, but for them, living
29:09in Paracas has its own set of challenges.
29:16Knowing how to ski on sand comes in handy if you can't fly.
29:25But at the foot of the slope, they have a much bigger problem to overcome.
29:32Their way to the sea is blocked by potential penguin eaters.
29:36There are so many sea lions that there's no way round.
29:40They have to make a dash for it.
30:01In fact, the sea lions here are so well fed with fish that the penguins are in more danger
30:06of being squashed than eaten.
30:14Thanks to the cold, humbled current, Paracas is one of the wildlife spectacles of the world.
30:22But what happens if the cold water disappears?
30:26In El Niño years, a change in the prevailing wind brings in warm water from the tropics.
30:32The fertile upwellings are suppressed.
30:36The fish literally vanish.
30:48El Niño spells disaster for almost everything that lives here.
30:55With no fish to feed them, the animals must either leave or starve.
31:26In El Niño years, only scavengers like the condor grow fat.
31:35The fish move far out into the ocean, but the birds and animals are tied to their breeding
31:40colonies on land.
31:43All the young die and many of their parents starve too.
31:56El Niño's effect on the Atacama coast can be catastrophic.
32:13The only winners are the condors, which come down from the Andes to feast on the fallen.
32:19Yet even they find it hard to survive once the first glut of food from El Niño's victims
32:24has been exhausted.
32:37El Niño is part of a natural cycle.
32:40In time, the cold ocean current is restored.
32:43The fish return and slowly the seabirds and sea lions increase.
32:49But as the world gets hotter because of global warming, El Niño comes more often.
32:54There's less time for wildlife to recover before the next crash.
32:58The humbled penguin is already rare.
33:02Will it survive the next El Niño?
33:11The humbled current is the key to life in this barren land, and so far, it has always
33:16returned after El Niño.
33:30For over 2,000 miles, the current hugs the shores of South America.
33:37Now, deflected by the coast of Peru, it turns west, out into the blue.
33:57The bull sperm whales are still following this highway in the sea.
34:04They've swum more than 4,000 miles from the frigid waters of the Antarctic, and they still
34:11have several hundred miles to go to their rendezvous on the equator.
34:16For the last leg of their journey, they have new companions, bottlenose dolphins.
34:47Far out into the Pacific, the ocean floor is alive.
35:02The bubbles are signs of volcanic activity that's built mountains 4,500 metres high,
35:08so high that their summits now rise above the waves.
35:17Lying 600 miles west of the coast of South America, these barren cones are the Galapagos Islands.
35:34A visit to the Galapagos helped the young Charles Darwin develop his theory of evolution.
35:41He would have seen all sorts of strange animals, like giant tortoises,
35:45and the island's 13 kinds of finch.
35:49One does the job of a woodpecker, using a cactus spine as a tool.
35:58Another finch has become a bloodsucker, an avian vampire bat.
36:02All the finches have their own unique way of life, yet all are descended from a single seed-eating ancestor.
36:12Everywhere you look, there's something extraordinary.
36:17A lizard that lives in the sea.
36:21A cormorant that can't fly.
36:23Because the islands are so isolated, the few colonists that reach them have the place to themselves.
36:29With no competition, they could develop in all sorts of unlikely ways.
36:36The cormorant may be flightless, but it's an expert swimmer,
36:39superb at winkling out prey from submerged lava fields.
36:45It's also a great swimmer.
36:48The Galapagos lie right at the end of the Humboldt Current.
36:52It reaches the islands for only part of the year, and its arrival is erratic and unpredictable.
36:58Birds are constantly testing to see if the rich, cold water has arrived.
37:03When it does, the flush of food triggers an orgy of breeding.
37:09The Galapagos is a great place to live.
37:11The rich, cold water has arrived.
37:13When it does, the flush of food triggers an orgy of breeding.
37:19Blue-footed boobies are foot fetishists.
37:23The bluer your feet, the more healthy and fit you're likely to be.
37:27A sure turn-on for a potential mate.
37:30These are waved albatross.
37:32Almost the entire world population breeds on one island in the Galapagos,
37:37but only when the cold currents make conditions just right.
37:59Flightless cormorants also celebrate the arrival of the cold water.
38:03Like all the birds here, the secret of their success is irregular breeding,
38:08nesting only when cold water brings them food.
38:20With limited opportunities to breed, it's even more important to pick the right partner.
38:25Some birds go to extraordinary lengths to impress a potential mate.
38:34Like the boobie's blue feet, the male frigatebird's red pouch
38:38is a good, if slightly overblown, way of showing how fit he is.
38:44The female boobie can't spend forever choosing between subtle shades of blue.
38:49The humbled current is here.
38:51She must seize the day and pick a mate.
39:09Some boobies have well-grown chicks from an earlier time of plenty,
39:13when the cold water was last here.
39:17They take full advantage of the new flush of food.
39:21But they're not the only ones looking for a meal.
39:26The Galapagos have their own pirates, frigatebirds.
39:34In this land of opportunists, they'll stop at nothing to steal someone else's food.
39:52Down on the shoreline live the most extraordinary of the island's many strange inhabitants.
40:00Marine iguanas, the only saltwater lizards in the world.
40:22They eat algae, seaweed, growing on rocks between the tides,
40:26so they have to wait for the water to go down before they can feed.
40:33They live only on shores exposed to cold currents,
40:36but the arrival of the cold water is a double-edged sword.
40:41Its nutrients stimulate the growth of the algae they eat,
40:44but because the lizards are cold-blooded,
40:46the cold water slows them down and could even kill them.
40:52The best algae grow close to the low tide mark,
40:55so it's a race to eat all they can before the rocks are covered again
40:59and their bodies are chilled to danger point.
41:08Strong claws and a good grip are essential if you're not to be swept away.
41:21For most people, the sea is their home,
41:24but it's not always the case.
41:28The sea can be dangerous,
41:30but it's not always the place to be.
41:34It can be dangerous,
41:36but it's not always the place to be.
41:40It can be dangerous,
41:42but it's not always the place to be.
41:46It can be dangerous,
41:49but it's not always the place to be.
41:55For most iguanas, life is ruled by the tides,
41:58but the big males have another option.
42:08Below the low tide mark, the growths of algae are more luxuriant
42:12because the rocks are always covered.
42:16They expose the greatest possible surface to its warming rays.
42:20Because their bodies are larger,
42:22they can store more heat and don't chill down so quickly.
42:31When they've warmed to an optimum 35 degrees,
42:34they take to the water.
42:45Down here, they can take advantage of a food supply
42:48that's out of reach for the smaller iguanas.
43:04They can hold their breath for 20 minutes or more,
43:07but they have to feed fast.
43:09Every minute they spend here, the heat is draining from their body.
43:14If their temperature falls too low,
43:16they'll be unable to move, and they'll die.
43:24It's time to go.
43:27The cold waters of the Humboldt
43:29bring southern species all the way to the equator.
43:34But when cold currents give way to the warm equatorial current,
43:38sea temperatures almost double.
43:40A whole new set of fish appears.
43:44The fish are the only species that can survive
43:47in the cold waters of the Humboldt.
43:50They're the only species that can survive
43:54A whole new set of fish appears.
43:57This is an ocean crossroads
43:59with an amazing diversity of marine life.
44:14Hammerhead sharks are drawn here in their hundreds.
44:18It's thought they follow electromagnetic maps on the sea floor.
44:24They're the only species that can survive in the cold waters of the Humboldt.
44:36No-one knows exactly what attracts them.
44:39There's certainly an abundance of food,
44:41but their gathering in huge shoals suggests these mysterious fish
44:45may also come here to socialise and breed.
44:54Hammerheads are not the only ones that come to breed here.
45:00For the bull sperm whales, this is journey's end,
45:03the culmination of a 5,000-mile odyssey
45:06that's brought them all the way from the Antarctic to the equator.
45:10At last, they join the females they've come so far to find.
45:15Head-butting and tooth-rasping sort out who's dominant.
45:19The winning bulls will mate with several females.
45:22For others, the journey will have been in vain,
45:25and in just a few weeks,
45:27they'll take the long swim back to the southern ocean.
45:49This is the end of the road for the sperm whales,
45:52and for the Humboldt current, too.
45:55But the Humboldt still has one final surprise to spring.
46:08This cold flow has even put a penguin on the equator,
46:14the Galapagos penguin.
46:17They can thrive here in the tropics
46:19only because the current brings the rich cold water on which they depend.
46:31Over the course of our 3,500-mile journey,
46:35no creatures have proved so adaptable as penguins.
46:39On land, they can deal with everything from forest to desert.
46:44But it's underwater that their true genius is revealed.
46:48These are superb fish catchers.
47:14The Galapagos Penguin
47:16The Galapagos Penguin
47:18The Galapagos Penguin
47:20The Galapagos Penguin
47:22The Galapagos Penguin
47:24The Galapagos Penguin
47:26The Galapagos Penguin
47:28The Galapagos Penguin
47:30The Galapagos Penguin
47:32The Galapagos Penguin
47:34The Galapagos Penguin
47:36The Galapagos Penguin
47:38The Galapagos Penguin
47:40The Galapagos Penguin
47:43The Galapagos Penguin
47:45The Galapagos Penguin
47:46Penguins have colonized almost the entire west coast of South America,
47:50but they could never have done so without the Humboldt current.
47:54All the way from the southern ocean to the equator,
47:57that chill river in the sea feeds everything that lives here.
48:01It's the key to life on these penguin shores.