Back in 1957, David Attenborough was one of the first documentary filmmakers to land on Raine Island, the paradise in the Pacific Ocean where tens of thousands of green turtles lay their eggs. The BBC cameras have returned after 66 years, this time to verify the tremendous impact of climate change.
Rising temperatures have altered the gender balance in the eggs, so that 99% of the new hatchlings are now females, and the lack of males is causing a dramatic drop in the population. On the other hand, the rise in sea level is causing a lack of sand, to the point that the island could disappear under the water within a decade.
“The natural world continues to surprise us, but since Darwin’s time everything has changed so much that it is difficult to recognize it,” warns Attenborough at 97 years old as a cover letter for Planet Earth III, the return of the great BBC documentaries that it broadcasts. in Spain Movistar Plus. “Everything is being transformed by a powerful force: us. And we are seeing how animals have to adapt in an extraordinary way to be able to survive in the face of new challenges.”
“At this crucial moment in our history we must learn to look at the world with new eyes,” concludes the revered naturalist with that almost century-old voice with which he has been reporting for more than half a century on “the spectacular wonders, the mysterious creatures and the amazing dramas starring animals”.
“The voice is the same because without it it is almost impossible to conceive this series,” attests Planet Earth III executive producer Mike Gunton. “But this time we wanted to raise the bar… In the first installment we wanted to offer something like the vision of God from above. In the second, we sought the greatest possible approach. Now we have mixed those two points of view with a new ingredient: the human element, which has introduced what Darwin would surely consider ‘selective pressure’.”
Five years of filming have been necessary to complete the adventure: from the abyssal depths to the most inhospitable deserts, from the most remote islands to the environments most threatened by the hands of man. Eight production teams with the latest technological advances – from ultralight drones to high-definition cameras and remote control – have achieved unprecedented images that have already marked a milestone in natural history, which are presented to the viewer with Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack, two-time Oscar winner for The Lion King and Dune.
“This rhinoceros is not lost, it is simply looking for food,” narrates Attenborough’s voice as the enormous pachyderm passes through the streets of Sauraha, in Nepal, in the middle of the night, to the astonishment of dozens of neighbors who follow the unexpected guest with their cell phones. .. “Across the globe, wild animals have to compete with the dominant species. The rules have changed in order to survive in a world created by humans.”
And from the hungry rhinoceros, he passes to the gentle elephants. 95% of these animals disappeared from Zakouma National Park in Chad at the hands of poachers and the illegal ivory trade. In recent years, however, there has been a “miraculous” recovery of the population thanks to the zeal of forest guards like Abakar, who has created an intimate bond with them and is even able to communicate with their eyes: “They have forgiven the human species; they have confidence in us again.
The documentary series then sets its cameras on a spectacular image. Every year, more than 10,000 pink flamingos choose the lagoons of the Lagartos River, in the Yucatán Peninsula, to nest in the salt flats between May and September. Climate change is causing storm and hurricane seasons to come earlier each year. The images capture the fight for survival of a chick that manages to climb with its mother to a mound. But the colonies are increasingly decimated by rising waters that sweep away the chicks and threaten to destroy the flamingos’ habitat.
Planet Earth III manages to capture something never seen before in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. A white shark approaches the coast and attacks a herd of seals. The prey not only escape, but organize themselves into a kind of aquatic mob and become pursuers, in chilling images captured simultaneously from the water and from the air by a drone. Against all odds, they end up intimidating and expelling the largest predator of the seas from their territory.
In another scene, a planes minutus, also known as Columbus crab due to its pelagic habits, navigates on a plastic in an abandoned fishing net near the Canary Islands. Suddenly he sees a turtle passing by and jumps in without thinking… With such good luck that in the shell he finds a female of the same traveling species and they mate right there.
At more than 3,000 meters deep, off the central coast of California, is what is known as the octopus garden. Scientists have discovered the existence of springs that act as underwater spas, with temperatures of 11 degrees that attract up to 20,000 ectotherms at the same time. This increases the metabolism of the females and reduces the incubation period. Although the mothers end up sacrificing themselves in the end for the survival of their offspring.
One of the star moments of the series, filmed in the Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, comes when the marsh crocodile stealthily camouflages itself among the aquatic plants and waits patiently for the deer to come down to drink water. None of the potential prey notices at first, until one of them notices something strange and runs away. There is no possible escape from the very powerful jaws that suddenly burst into the swamp.
On the Canadian island of Ellesmere the temperature can drop to 40 degrees below zero. In these extreme conditions, the Planeta Tierra III team has managed to film the arctic wolf, which uses howling to mark its white territory. Its fur consists of two thick layers of skin, perhaps the mammal best equipped against the cold next to the polar bear. In any case, it is a species in danger of extinction, due to the lack of hunting and the extension of human activities to its habitats.
The impressive visual experience is completed with the Balinese mafia macaques, inhabitants of the Uluwatu temple, who have been “humanized” in such a way that they act like a real mafia gang, stealing glasses, bags, rubber slippers and even phones from visitors. mobiles, with the oldest godfather running the show while his henchmen perform. They used to settle for bananas, but now they demand processed foods and bags of snacks to return their loot to tourists.
