In the South West of Africa,
where Namibia meets the Atlantic Ocean,
lies the Namib,
a desert half the size of Oklahoma.
In this remote and arid realm,
temperatures can exceed 120 degrees.
In places, annual rainfall
is less than a quarter inch.
Seemingly untouched by humans
in 55 million years or more,
this timeless desert,
possibly the oldest on Earth,
has given rise to more life
than any other.
Strange and marvelous specialists...
share this wondrous Eden
with giants.
ELEPHANTS TRUMPETING
From its Skeleton Coast...
SQUEALS
...through the sea of sand...
to the haze of distant mountains...
this apparently forbidding desert
hides secret water sources.
And if you know where to look,
enough moisture can be found to survive...
even thrive.
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
There are still places on Earth
that remain pristine.
Where wildlife flourishes.
These are the last regions that could be called...
Eden.
This land appears to be so dry
that it's almost inconceivable
that it could be an Eden...
and yet, it is.
This is the only desert
that supports a population of lions.
GROWLING
Closely monitored by scientists,
this five-year-old female has been living alone
these past months.
She hasn't eaten for a week.
Her solitary prowling
may take her up to 50 miles a day
in search of prey.
And finally, she's caught up with a herd
of the only antelope
that can survive the intense heat of the dunes.
BLEATING
South African oryx.
BLEATING
As many as 100,000 live here.
A system of blood vessels
under their black and white faces
allows them to keep cool heads
when others can't.
GROWLS SOFTLY
Standing nearly 4 feet tall at the shoulder...
they outweigh her by 100 pounds.
And those yard-long rapier horns
have been known to impale a lion.
Without cover to hide an approach,
the odds are stacked against her.
GRUNTS
Over distance,
she can't outpace an oryx.
In a sprint,
she has the edge.
GRUNTS
But only if she can close the gap
to 50 feet or less.
SQUEALS
Once oryx get into their stride
at 40 miles per hour...
further pursuit is futile.
In the fine balance between predator and prey,
the scales have tipped in favor of the antelope...
for now.
By midday, temperatures exceed 110 degrees.
SOFT GROWLING
If she launched an attack now,
she'd face heat exhaustion.
But she's survived this long
by listening to the rhythms of the desert...
WIND BLOWING SOFTLY
In the early afternoon,
the sands begin to whisper.
As air is heated by the sun, it rises...
and cooler air rushes in to replace it.
The Namib's wind-whipped sand
skews the odds
to her advantage...
and she knows it.
WIND HOWLING
With oryx sheltering nearby,
once again she must close the distance.
Now the drifting veil blurs her outline.
BLEATS
The incessant hiss
muffles her footfalls.
WIND HISSING
BLEATS
GRUNTING
ORYX GRUNTING
LION ROARING
ORYX GRUNTS LOUDLY
This will supply the food
and, crucially,
the moisture a lion needs
for a week.
Uniquely, this desert
can even provide for a big cat...
that's mastered its mysterious ways
to triumph in an age-old conflict.
Rolling plains make up around half of the Namib.
They may look bone-dry and barren...
but water still finds a way
to trigger new life in this Eden.
This is a paradise
to the giant of the bird world.
Standing 8 feet tall...
the ostrich.
They may seem conspicuous out here,
but mounted on that periscope neck
are the largest eyeballs
of any land animal.
Bigger than their brains.
They can spot a predator
a mile away.
CHIRPING
And since the Namib provides scant cover
for would-be hunters,
ostriches abound here
in the tens of thousands.
Those featherless drumsticks help radiate heat...
allowing these birds to tolerate temperatures
of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
With little or no competition,
they have the pick of the juiciest insects and roots...
supplying them with all the water they need.
But for this four-year-old male, just coming of age...
it's females, not food, that preoccupy him!
It takes succulent shoots
to sustain a brood of chicks.
And new vegetation
only arrives after rainfall.
Until then,
despite explicit advances...
he's got little hope of breeding.
Yet...
his luck could be about to change.
Storm clouds are gathering.
THUNDERCLAP
THUNDER CRACKS
A quarter inch of rainfall.
And it could be all they get this year.
Still, it's enough.
The ostrich females
are now in the mood for romance.
Just what a lusty youngster was hoping for.
# COMICAL MUSIC PLAYING
But that's not what she has in mind.
He doesn't know it yet...
but he's already lost the mating game.
DEEP BOOMING CALL
HONKS
DEEP BOOMING CALL
A booming amplified call
announces the arrival
of an alpha male.
DEEP BOOMING CALL
That's how to make a big hit with the hens.
All eyes are on him.
# ROMANTIC TANGO MUSIC PLAYING
Impeccable poise...
an elegantly executed waft of the wing...
and a neck-dip to die for.
It's a shimmying showstopper of a performance.
He scores a perfect ten.
Won over by his masterful moves,
a female lowers her wings in acceptance.
He better start rehearsing his song-and-dance routine.
He'll be ready the next time the rains come...
in a year.
Maybe more.
Every desert yearns for the promise of rain...
but in the Namib
it's the cue for a magical display...
as seeds that have lain dormant for up to 15 years...
turn desert into wildflower meadows.
BIRDS CHIRPING
Far downstream,
another amazing transformation takes place.
Sleeping riverbeds awaken...
and are flushed by rain
that may have fallen two days ago...
over 150 miles away.
A long-awaited respite
from dust and drought.
For a female ostrich,
it's a baptism for her new brood.
Now, even the largest animals to walk the Earth
can quench a giant thirst.
Desert elephants.
ELEPHANTS TRUMPET
Around 150
have chosen to live in the Namib.
Seeping away within days,
the runaway waters
are a fugitive memory.
But in this desert,
they continue to make life possible.
GRUNTING
It's said that an elephant never forgets.
And to find their daily food,
this herd relies
on the 34-year-old matriarch...
GRUNTS
...and her powers of recall.
None more so than her calf.
In the driest years,
all calves may perish.
GRUNTS SOFTLY
As she leads the herd down a sunbaked riverbed...
things don't look promising.
But under their feet
lies another of the Namib's secret water sources...
A hidden oasis.
An aquifer locks surface rainwater
in the rock itself.
Throughout Namibia, these underground reservoirs,
some of the largest in the world,
sequester around a third as much water
as flows in its rivers.
It may be more than 100 feet down,
but one type of tree...
the Ana...
has roots long enough
to tap into this precious groundwater.
LOUD GRUNT
And the matriarch knows
that their branches are festooned
with succulent, protein-rich pods.
The problem is...
someone got here first.
DEEP GRUNTING
A solitary bull.
At 14 feet tall...
plus that trunk...
he's plucked pretty much all the pods
within his 20-foot reach.
GRUNTING
Just a few more up there.
GRUNTING
But the patient matriarch
knows she can make the most of his impatience.
GRUNTS
Pretty soon, he'll get frustrated enough
to shake things up a little.
GRUNTS
At up to twice her weight,
he has the bulldozer-power
to dislodge all the pods he needs...
and more.
This welcome shower of pods
does more than whet their appetites.
It refuels the herd
for their commute to the next food stop
the matriarch has in mind.
GRUNTING
Unlike other deserts...
the Namib's life-sustaining groundwaters
have made possible
the seemingly miraculous survival
of elephant families...
that pass down their wisdom
from generation to generation.
Beyond the dry riverbeds, with their hidden aquifers...
the Namib's western realm
rolls away to the horizon.
This scorched land may never see a drop of rain.
Braving the 120 degree furnace heat...
a yearling black-backed jackal.
Leaving family behind,
at her age,
she has to forge a new life.
Food here is scarce...
but she knows the far horizon
offers an unexpected promise of plenty.
After ten miles...
a breath of welcome sea breeze.
The Atlantic Ocean.
The desert stretches for a thousand miles
along Namibia's west coast.
Treacherous seas led early mariners
to name this place the Skeleton Coast.
But these storm-churned waters are fertile
and teem with fish...
making this desolate coastline a paradise
for up to a million cape fur seals...
SEALS BARKING
...in some of the largest colonies on the planet.
ROARS
Drawing in hundreds of jackals from far and wide...
the pupping season offers her the chance
to found her independence
on the biggest feeding opportunity of the year.
SEALS CALLING
So surely a jackal can just help itself?
SOFT BARKING
But some of the pups already outweigh her...
SQUEALING
They have teeth at one end.
BABY SEAL SQUEALING
MOTHER SEAL GRUNTS DEEPLY
GRUNTING
MOTHER BARKING
BABY SQUEALING
And she can't risk tangling
with 250 pounds of angry mother.
Youngsters are just not experienced enough
to hunt on their own.
GROWLING FIERCELY
Could she join a pack?
FIERCE GROWLING
SHRIEKING
WHIMPERING
ROARING
GROWLING
This family is not about to share their kill.
She needs a different strategy.
Jackals are the ultimate scavengers...
a service that can help limit
the spread of disease.
CALLING SOFTLY
Since as many as one in five seal pups
die of natural causes...
CALLING SOFTLY
...it's a trade-off between species.
CALLING SOFTLY
Yearlings are feeding on carcasses...
and they're too hungry to care about hierarchy.
GROWLING
Now she can eat...
and slake her thirst.
GRUNTING
But jackals are not at the top of the food chain.
This brown hyena
comes equipped with a jaw
that can crack bones.
JACKALS SQUEALING
He takes any kill he wants.
HYENA GROWLS
And she can't afford to be reckless.
HYENA GROWLS
JACKALS WHIMPER
She may have lost her meal...
but she's found her place in the social order here...
and has proven she can make it on her own...
thanks to this annual offering
from ocean to desert.
But, by remarkable alchemy,
the chill waters of the Atlantic
have a more profound effect on life in this desert Eden.
Here, vital fresh water
is offered up to creatures far inland.
Rolling away from the sea for as much as 40 miles
and cresting 800 feet high...
the tallest dunes on the planet.
By the withering heat of day,
without a scrap of shade...
they're seemingly uninhabitable.
Yet, as night falls
and the Namib's temperatures
drop to a comfortable 50 degrees Fahrenheit...
they come alive...
to become the richest dune habitat on Earth.
The size of a ping-pong ball...
the desert rain frog.
To avoid frying to a crisp,
by day this amphibian hides deep in the sand...
But when the conditions are just right,
he emerges to feed.
Trudging up to 50 yards...
he calmly noses around for insects.
While a Namaqua Dwarf Adder...
primes itself for ambush.
This tiny snake
can only strike prey closer than four inches.
A parabuthus scorpion
uses hairlike feelers
to detect the tiniest movement.
And frogs are also on his menu.
The frog mustn't stir...
or he'll trigger a deadly attack from that stinging tail.
But waiting is what he's good at.
FROG GULPS
At last!
A colony of termites
busily harvesting dune grass.
They're packed with protein and fat.
He'll force down up to 100 in a sitting.
But lingering can be dangerous.
It's just a harmless golden mole
snaffling his share of the termites.
Before he can go back into hiding,
the frog must hold his nerve
and wait until dawn draws near.
Only then will the desert give up
its most precious gift...
Coastal fog...
creeps up to 40 miles inland
over the dunes.
As it condenses on grass stems...
dew droplets wet the ground below.
Pressing his belly onto the damp sand,
this amphibian absorbs all the moisture he needs
through his skin...
before retreating
into the safety of his burrow once more.
For a few hours at dawn,
before the sun burns higher and hotter...
the dunes are bathed in the cool sea mist...
dousing this thirsty land
with twice as much water as rain...
for 100 or so days a year.
At least 48 different creatures
rely entirely on the fog,
many found nowhere else on Earth.
A headstand beetle hikes to the highest
and wettest point of the dune.
The equivalent of you or me climbing Mount Everest...
twice.
It tips hard-won dewdrops down its back...
and provides the mouthwatering meal
a Namaqua chameleon needs to survive here.
Incredibly, the Namib's fog
also offers life...
to giants.
Towering 19 feet high,
the tallest animal on the planet,
even a giraffe can get all the moisture it needs...
from fog-drenched leaves.
With the help of this most ethereal
of the Namib's water sources...
around 360 giraffes prosper
in one of Africa's most hostile regions.
In the past,
their numbers were managed...
by lions.
Our solitary female and her family
specialized in hunting
these 1.5 ton herbivores.
Old habits die hard.
But without backup,
she has no chance of taking one down.
Over the years, human persecution
not only took the lives of her pride...
but brought Namib's lions
to the very brink of extinction.
Now, with careful protection,
the population is stable
at around 150.
But today,
there's an even greater threat.
The latest data suggests the temperature here
has increased by almost three degrees.
The precious and unexpected water supplies
that sustain this place could dwindle and disappear.
From this ancient landscape
has sprung one of the most marvelous collections
of desert creatures on Earth.
With our help...
the ageless rhythm of life...
could prevail...
in this magical mirage
of an Eden.
Filming over a period of a year,
the Eden team braved the hostile conditions
of the Namib desert.
It's very easy to get caught out here
and get completely cut off.
They came here to capture ground-breaking behaviors...
from the small and rare....
the plentiful but wary...
Do I look utterly ridiculous?
...and the largest mammal on Earth.
The team's greatest challenge was to tell the intimate story
of how a family of desert elephants finds sustenance...
in an unforgiving landscape.
With only 150 inhabiting an area
of 50,000 square miles...
the first job is working out where to look.
So the crew team up
with wildlife field guide Paul Brehem,
who has been living and working in the Namib desert
for over 30 years.
Yeah, we've got fresh tracks here from the south.
You guys can turn and come back and help us, yeah?
MAN OVER WALKIE-TALKIE: Copy that. Coming back.
There's a huge amount of pressure to get enough food,
to get enough water in this area,
so the pressure's on them.
Their search takes them through
one of Africa's remotest regions.
Across the roughest of terrains.
But cameraman Louis Labrom
has come equipped with a specialist camera system
that's designed for just this sort of task.
LOUIS: This is a gyro-stabilized gimbal,
more commonly found on helicopters,
but in this instance we're using it
on a vehicle with this arm
that will take out most of the bumps, it's spring-loaded.
This really allows us to get
some intimate shots that otherwise we might miss.
As Paul's team guides them
to the most likely area to find elephants...
a dried river bed...
a desert miracle unfolds.
There's a river in the desert. Quite bizarre.
It is really weird
to hear the sound of running water in the desert.
This is absolutely amazing.
Then the last thing
you'd expect to happen in a desert...
Getting stuck in the mud!
We under-anticipated how deep this little patch was
and we need to dig ourselves out the back
in order to reverse out.
As the water levels rise,
Louis is concerned about his precious camera.
Just can't get enough traction.
Just need to try and get out as quickly as possible.
ENGINE REVVING LOUDLY
Go, go, go! Yeah.
At last their luck changes.
Fortunately, the appearance of water
has brought an elephant herd
right to the film crew.
LOUIS: A really lovely moment and it's really nice to see
elephants actually having life a little bit easier.
Yeah, it looks really happy.
But In a matter of days, the river dries out.
For desert elephants, the quest
for food and water is endless.
Sometimes leading these intelligent mammals
to cash in on more reliable sources.
With increased human settlement and farming,
more and more bore holes are being sunk
to tap into the Namib's groundwater reserves...
drawing these thirsty giants into villages.
At times, this can cause conflict.
Efforts are underway to promote tolerance
and learn how best to live alongside
such an imposing neighbor.
HENDRICK: I've come to teach you about elephants.
HENDRICK: Education school children,
you are investing in the future.
When children are not having a lot of fear,
they are very easy to live with elephants
and they'll take care of them.
Fortunately, the herd that resides
in the riverbed
has knowledge,
passed from generation
to generation,
that allows them to make the most
of what this desert has to offer.
And they lead the crew...
to a grove of Ana trees,
laden with protein-rich pods.
A welcome meal
for even the youngest members of the herd.
After four weeks of tireless tracking,
Louis finally gets the shots he needs.
LOUIS: Amazing to see someone so little being able to survive
in what seems like a really inhospitable place.
It's testament to their mother because obviously
the matriarchs know where the water is,
where the food is.
And so without them,
they would all pretty much just perish.
And Hannah's reward
is a close encounter
with a curious mother elephant.
HANNAH: Gosh, that is a very close elephant.
Oh my word.
Hello.
ELEPHANT RUMBLES
HANNAH: It's okay.
It's okay.
Wow!
That was amazing.
This miracle Eden has existed in harmony
for millions of years.
Today, with fewer than 150
of these highly-specialized desert elephants
living in the Namib,
it's critical that this place
is kept safe from both human expansion
and the rigors of climate change.
The key is to protect the whole ecosystem
for all of the species that exist here.
And I think what's really important
is to start seeing places like these
as a World Heritage
for the entire planet,
to all the people in all the future generations,
this is really important to protect.