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02:59Mount Nyaragongo is one of the most active volcanoes in Africa
03:04Its eruptions can be seen from space
03:15As magma churns below the Earth's crust the land to the East...
03:20of here is being torn apart.
03:42Volcanoes like this are continually changing the face of Eastern Africa.
04:00The volcanoes here may have a violent side, but life flows from these infernos.
04:18Fertile ash from countless eruptions carpets the land, creating the ideal conditions for
04:26grasses to flourish, on an immense scale.
04:36And with the grasses come animals in numbers found nowhere else on earth, wildebeest.
04:49Nothing stands in their way.
05:08All this just to reach fresh grass.
05:28The ever-travelling herds are only one element of life here.
05:36Get closer and there are new stories to tell.
05:44Living on the savannah is about making the most of the hand the landscape deals you.
05:49But here it's always a gamble.
05:53Everything may change tomorrow.
05:56From their vantage point, agama lizards wait for the arrival of the herds, ready to seize
06:02their moment.
06:06It's payday.
06:07Over a million wildebeest on their doorstep.
06:17And with the wildebeest come flying insects, billions of them, food, if only they could
06:27catch them.
06:53Time for a rethink.
07:04This agama lizard has spotted an opportunity.
07:20Only one thing attracts more flies than the wildebeest, lions that have eaten wildebeest.
07:36Lions are famously bad-tempered.
07:38They could swap the lizard like the flies he's hoping to ambush.
07:51He will need to pick his target carefully.
08:09Not her, or her, maybe, but no.
08:35To be within striking distance, he's got to hold his nerve.
08:44Got one.
08:52Now he's getting his eye in.
09:08This might be a bit ambitious.
09:31It may take courage to hunt on the back of a lion, but it takes sense to know when to
09:44run away.
09:51The wildebeest won't stay for long, and when they leave, most of the flies will follow.
09:59This grassland was once covered by a forest that ran unbroken from west coast to east
10:09coast.
10:12Today, high above the plains, swirling clouds hide mountains that tower three miles into
10:21the sky.
10:37These frozen summits now form part of a mountainous barrier separating the ancient jungles in
10:42the west from the savannas of the east.
10:55Up here lies the largest glacier in Africa, just a few miles north of the equator.
11:17These are the legendary Mountains of the Moon.
11:31The height of these peaks means they create their own weather.
11:44The local name for these mountains is Ruanzori, the Rainmaker.
12:13Meltwater flows down from the glaciers.
12:23And on the lower slopes, all this water supports thick jungle, remnants of the dense, steamy
12:37forests that once dominated the whole of East Africa.
12:46But driven by a drying climate beyond the mountains, the forests began to wither away.
12:52Today, only small pockets of upland jungle remain, home to animals who once roamed the
13:00ancient forests.
13:06The largest living primates on earth.
13:13Mountain gorillas.
13:19This little one's ancestors have lived in forests like these for millions of years.
13:45But all around, the world has changed to swamp and savanna.
14:15This is the furthest these mighty giants now venture into Eastern Africa.
14:21They are marooned on their islands in the African sky.
14:45Below the highlands, vast wetlands cut swathes through the open savanna.
15:16Banguelo Swamp is huge.
15:20Its name means where the water meets the sky.
15:30Hidden amongst this maze of waterways is a creature like no other.
16:00A giant, prehistoric-looking bird.
16:06A shoebill.
16:12Standing well over a metre tall, she roams these swamps, trying to catch catfish.
16:30Not exactly what she was after.
16:54Deeper into the swamp lies the reason for all this fishing.
17:04This chick is just three weeks old and a little bit wobbly on its feet.
17:11Its vast bill means it has trouble balancing.
17:15It won't be able to fly or even walk properly for several weeks.
17:23It's entirely reliant on its parents for food and water.
17:38There is also a smaller chick who isn't doing so well.
17:53The larger chick pesters its mother for a drink.
18:08While she goes off to fetch water, it reveals a dark side to the relationship with its nest mate.
18:30It's three days older than the other chick and has always won the race for food and attention.
18:40This is more than just a scrap between two siblings.
19:00As their mother returns, she sees what the larger chick has done.
19:15The smaller chick seeks its mother's comfort.
19:22But she has already made her choice.
19:35Only her firstborn will get a drink.
19:49Two bills very rarely raise more than one chick.
19:58The younger chick was only ever an insurance in case the elder didn't make it.
20:16Now it's old enough, the adults know that they're better off putting all their efforts into bringing up just one fit and healthy youngster.
20:29The swamp's changing water levels mean fishing is too unpredictable for them to gamble on trying to raise two chicks.
20:47Nothing here stays the same for long.
20:54This is the time of year when eastern Africa is beginning to dry.
21:04The rivers and water holes are shrinking.
21:13The land continues to dry out.
21:20Tensions rise.
21:26Hippos seek what relief they can.
21:33This time of relentless drying is a time of great strife.
21:41Hippos seek what relief they can.
21:48This time of relentless drying is also when another force of change ravages the land.
22:01Without warning, fires rip through these tinder-dry plains.
22:13The flames sweep across the savannah at 50 miles an hour,
22:19reaching temperatures of nearly 1,000 degrees, consuming everything in their path.
22:25The flames sweep across the savannah at 50 miles an hour,
22:33reaching temperatures of nearly 1,000 degrees, consuming everything in their path.
22:41Each year, an area larger than Britain goes up in smoke.
23:11But this destruction can bring opportunity, if you're prepared to take a risk.
23:19The flames sweep across the savannah at 50 miles an hour,
23:27reaching temperatures of nearly 1,000 degrees, consuming everything in their path.
23:35Each year, an area larger than Britain goes up in smoke.
23:43Drongos, bee-eaters and rollers bravely pluck fleeing insects from amongst the flames.
23:51Drongos, bee-eaters and rollers bravely pluck fleeing insects from amongst the flames.
24:13There's little better than a char-grilled grasshopper.
24:24These fires may appear devastating, but they are in fact part of a natural cycle
24:30that is essential for the regeneration of East Africa's grasslands.
24:36But sometimes, the cycle is broken just when a change is most needed.
24:43Sometimes, the cycle is broken just when a change is most needed.
24:49Here, on the plains of Amboseli, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro,
24:55the seasonal rains have festered.
25:01The winds have become more and more violent.
25:07The winds have become more and more violent.
25:13The winds have become more and more violent.
25:17Meanwhile, the seasonal rains have failed for the last two years.
25:25And this year, they are already long overdue.
25:31It's the hardest drought for half a century.
25:47Amboseli
26:07Amboseli is usually a haven for elephants.
26:13These plains should be green and covered with grass.
26:19Now, there is nothing but dust.
26:28This family is forced to travel constantly, searching for anything they can eat.
26:34The young must keep up.
26:40Sometimes, there's not even time to suckle.
26:53With the grass gone, all the elephants can snatch from the dust is withered twigs.
27:04The adults might just survive on this,
27:10but it will not support a calf for long.
27:34Every mother in the herd is struggling to provide milk for her calf.
27:46The search for food is increasingly urgent.
27:56As the herd moves on, this female faces a terrible choice.
28:04To carry on with her family,
28:10or stay behind with her calf, who's becoming too weak to even stand.
28:22They will soon be out of sight.
28:28But her instinct is to stay.
28:34She wants to be with her child.
28:41She has to be calm.
28:48To stay.
28:55She won't abandon her baby.
29:01She won't abandon her baby.
29:31She won't abandon her baby.
30:01With the calf's last breath, she knows that her battle is lost.
30:31With the calf's last breath, she knows that her battle is lost.
30:46With the calf's last breath, she knows that her battle is lost.
31:16There are places even more hostile than the dust-choked plains.
31:39These alien landscapes are actually the sun-baked salt crusts of a chain of lakes that run through
31:46East Africa.
31:50The face of these soda lakes changes day by day as the sun evaporates the water, leaving
31:55the salts behind.
32:01The waters here are toxic, poisoned by volcanic springs.
32:07But life does exist even here.
32:14The strange colours are created by algae specially adapted to live in this corrosive liquid.
32:22And it is these algae that attract one of the most astonishing animals found in East
33:27Africa.
33:34Among the steaming geysers of Lake Bergoria, over a million lesser flamingos bathe and
33:41feed in the caustic water.
33:47They gather whenever the algae bloom.
34:00These huge numbers create one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth.
34:28But all the world's lesser flamingos live on this chain of lakes, moving from one lake
34:58All along the lakeshore, volcanic vents are a reminder of the forces that continue to
35:13change this land.
35:19And a streak of colour on the horizon signals that relief for the parched plains is on its
35:26way.
35:39At last, countless storms drench the thirsty ground.
35:50Rain changes everything yet again.
36:08A crowned eagle has been desperately waiting for what she hopes the rain will bring.
36:16She's looking for food for her hungry chick.
36:20Nesting here has been her biggest gamble.
36:25Her chick's life depends on the arrival of creatures from the far rainforests of the
36:31Congo.
36:41Her wait will soon be over.
36:44The largest mammal migration in Africa is on the move.
37:10Ten million fruit bats are drawn to this tiny forest on the edge of the eastern savannah.
37:18The bats flock here to gorge themselves on fruit.
37:27It's what the crowned eagle and her chick have been waiting for.
37:33But they're not alone.
37:35Other eagles have flown in from miles around.
37:39Fish eagles, marshal eagles, and they're all after the bats.
38:53But the gamble the crowned eagle took months ago by nesting here has paid off.
39:05She is the only eagle to actually nest in this forest.
39:20The only one who took the risk to breed here well before the trees came into fruit and
39:26the bats flooded in.
39:39She only breeds once every two years, so her timing must be perfect.
40:04In a few months, the bats will leave, but her gamble means her chick will have the best
40:09possible start in life.
40:18These grasslands have been grazed and burned and have endured the harshest drought in generations.
40:30But with the rains, they're beginning to recover.
41:00And on the once dust-choked plains of Amboseli, there's a return to the good times.
41:31The drought here killed hundreds of elephants, but the survivors are now returning home.
41:50And with them, there's a surprise.
41:57A baby is born.
42:23Surrounded by food, the youngster can concentrate on more important things,
42:33like chasing egrets.
43:03The bulls also return.
43:32This bull has waited many years for his chance to father the next generation.
43:47Now he must fight his way to the top.
43:54But his rival is massive.
43:57Each of their heads weighs as much as a car.
44:02They have been dueling for days.
44:19Now, in its third day, the contest is reaching a climax.
44:39Soon, one will be forced to concede.
45:08The power of these clashes can even shatter tusks.
45:35Three days of battle is at an end.
45:41The victor has won the right to the females.
45:50The process to replace what the drought took away has begun.
46:00Soon, the elephants will be at full strength again.
46:14Every day, the animals of eastern Africa gamble with their lives,
46:19but despite the continual changes they face,
46:22their extraordinary adaptability just tips the odds of survival in their favor.
46:35East Africa may seem very cruel,
46:38but there's nowhere else that provides such rich opportunities for those that are prepared to take them.
46:44And in the end, it was these ever-changing savannahs
46:48that produced the most adaptable species of all,
46:52ourselves.
47:22Filming in East Africa would take the team on both a physical and emotional journey
47:47through the extremes of this landscape.
47:52These are the legendary Mountains of the Moon,
47:56towering over 5,000 meters into the African sky.
48:02Just miles from the equator, they're the highest mountain range on the continent
48:06and home to the largest glacier in Africa.
48:14To reach the summits, the team had to travel on foot,
48:17the same way as climbers did when they first reached the top just over a hundred years ago.
48:28It would take more than two weeks, climbing over 3,000 meters from the valleys below.
48:37Six days into their trek, still well below the summits,
48:40the team come to realize why Rwenzori, the mountain's other name, means the Rainmakers.
48:48Just after we set off, it started raining and it started hailing.
48:52And the idea had been that we'd stop here for an hour or two and do some shots,
48:56but as you can probably see, there's not a great deal of view.
49:00Brilliant shots of rain and hail and fog.
49:04Beyond that, we're pretty stuffed, so just pulling a bit of a theme.
49:09With a crew and over 75 guides and helpers,
49:12it's hard going, carrying nearly a tonne of kit through the marshy valleys.
49:18Mud, mud, there's a little bit more mud.
49:24But it's not just the bogs they have to deal with.
49:27There's a bit small but slightly disconcerting earthquake last night,
49:31so let's hope we don't get any of those below any rocks.
49:36The team continue to climb and before long, the rain turns to snow.
49:46They eventually arrive at the highest hut, surrounded by ice and nearly three miles up.
49:52This will be base camp for the crew.
49:55We've got the kitchen over there.
49:59Over there, down a really treacherous precipice, is the toilet,
50:05which is just a shack with a big hole in the floor.
50:11From here, they'll make the hardest part of the ascent, right up to the glaciers.
50:23Well, this is, believe it or not, one of the better viewpoints,
50:26so we're going to hang around here for a little while to wait until the fog clears.
50:33But the weather isn't on their side.
50:38So much for hoping the weather was going to get better.
50:42All that optimism now seems completely ill-founded.
50:47With the storm clouds closing in, the team are forced to retreat.
50:57We've had this enormous weather front come in, as is entirely unusual.
51:01We're just coming down as the thunder bursts around us.
51:05So it's time to get back and go and get inside the hut and hopefully weather it out.
51:11After days of climbing and finding the peaks hidden by fog,
51:15filming the summits is looking increasingly impossible.
51:20It can be pretty frustrating at times,
51:22a group of maybe 70 people that we've involved with doing this directly.
51:26We come out of here and then we can't film anything because of the weather.
51:29So it is just a matter of sitting out and waiting,
51:32and you have to sort of hope that things come right in the end.
51:37The rainmakers are certainly living up to their name,
51:40but by complete contrast, other parts of East Africa were gripped by drought.
51:47At the beginning of the production, Mark Diebel travelled to Amboseli,
51:51just a few hundred miles from the Ruins Oreys, to film the plight of the animals there.
51:58I mean, I've never seen anything quite as bad as that drought.
52:05Can we talk to some of the Maasai elders?
52:07They said it was the worst drought they'd seen in 50 years.
52:12Amboseli is famous for its huge herds of elephant,
52:15but the drought had dispersed them far and wide.
52:19Those that remained were struggling to find what little food was left.
52:26When we first saw the group, we could tell instantly that they were in a really serious condition.
52:33They were thin and obviously starving.
52:39Mark knew that many of the calves would not survive.
52:43Although desperately painful to witness, nothing would convey the cruel power of the drought
52:49more than this mother's struggle to keep her baby alive.
52:57The thing about filming a situation like that, you know, when an elephant calf dies,
53:01is that when you're actually filming it, you're so caught up in the moment.
53:07But it was only after filming, when I put the camera away,
53:11when I looked there and there was this dead calf and the mother sort of standing there grieving,
53:14that the full impact of what I've just filmed hit me.
53:23People often say to me, you know, could you not have intervened in a situation like that?
53:29There are times when you can help, but in that time in Kenya, there was no food available.
53:35You have to also consider the mother.
53:37If we'd gone in there and tried to take the calf away, it would have been absolute mayhem.
53:41She'd have got incredibly stressed and that would probably have jeopardised her survival.
53:47In that particular situation, when everything around us was dying,
53:51there was absolutely nothing we could do to help that young elephant.
53:59Although too late to save the calf, a few months later, the reins did finally return.
54:08When we returned, it was amazing. It was lush and green again.
54:13And the elephants in the reins, they all tend to come together.
54:16So it was like all these groups which had been dispersed,
54:19which had been just somehow coping on their own, all got back together again.
54:23So it was almost a sort of festival-type atmosphere.
54:37That was when essentially they come together, they mate,
54:40and then after that, lots of young calves are being born.
54:46Since the end of the drought, over 220 calves have been born in Amboseli
54:51and that number is still rising.
54:55It's the biggest elephant baby boom on record.
55:00I think what's lovely to see in that situation is that having been through such a terrible drought,
55:06to see the way in which, you know, if you let things alone,
55:09they do have incredible capacity to bounce back.
55:21Back in the mountains and several failed ascents later,
55:24the team were still battling through the whiteout.
55:29They try one last time.
55:32There's cloud below us and cloud above us.
55:34It somehow seems slightly like we're heading nowhere, slowly.
55:43Then, as they reach the top, finally the clouds begin to part.
55:49There's absolute magic here.
55:51We've just come through the densest, densest cloud,
55:54having absolutely no idea what's surrounding us.
55:58The past few days have just been rain and cloud and rain and cloud
56:02and, as if by magic, there's the most spectacular view of the world.
56:07It's just so beautiful.
56:09It's so magical.
56:11The past few days have just been rain and cloud and rain and cloud
56:14and, as if by magic, there's the most spectacular view of ice and glaciers and mountains
56:22that you just wouldn't think was on the equator.
56:24It's just amazing.
56:42It's the most spectacular mountain scenery I've seen.
56:46To think it's in Africa is just mind-boggling.
56:58These mysterious mountains have finally unveiled their secrets
57:02and, on the plains beyond, the elephants have returned.
57:06Despite having been explored by filmmakers for over a century,
57:10East Africa still has the power to enchant and surprise us all.