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  • 7/5/2025

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00:30A third of the land on our planet is desert.
00:52These great scars on the face of the earth appear to be lifeless, but surprisingly, none
00:59are.
01:01In all of them, life manages somehow to keep a precarious hold.
01:13Not all deserts are hot.
01:35Fifty mile an hour winds blowing in from Siberia bring snow to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.
01:42The Gobi Desert in Mongolia
01:49From a summer high of 50 degrees centigrade, the temperature in midwinter can drop to minus 40,
02:15making this one of the harshest deserts of all.
02:19Few animals can survive these extreme changes.
02:32Wild Bactrian camels, one of the rarest mammals on the planet, and perhaps the hardiest.
02:46Their biggest problem is the lack of water, particularly now in winter, when the little there is is locked up as ice.
02:59Surprisingly, snow here never melts.
03:06The air is just too cold and too dry for it to do so.
03:12The sun's rays turn it straight into vapour.
03:19It evaporates.
03:21But it is the only source of water, so Bactrian camels eat it.
03:34Elsewhere in the world, a camel at a waterhole can drink as much as 200 litres during a single visit.
03:45Here, the strategy is to take little and often, and with good reason, for filling the stomach with snow could be fatal.
03:58The camels must limit themselves to the equivalent of just 10 litres a day.
04:05The brine is to take little and often for a year.
04:15Winter is the time for breeding.
04:28This extraordinary performance is a male Bactrian camel's way
04:33of attracting the attention of a passing female.
04:38In summer, the camels can't stray far from water holes.
04:42But now, with mouthfuls of snow lying everywhere,
04:46they can travel widely in search of mates.
04:53Today, less than a thousand of these desert specialists
04:57remain in the wild.
04:59The Gobi, hostile though it is, is their last stronghold.
05:04There is no other desert quite like the Gobi,
05:11but why is this place a desert?
05:16There is one simple and massive cause, the Himalayas.
05:22Clouds blowing from the south hit this gigantic barrier,
05:29as they are forced upwards,
05:31so they empty their moisture on the mountain slopes,
05:35leaving little for the land on the other side.
05:41From space, deserts are very conspicuous.
05:45Dunes of sand hundreds of miles long streak their surface.
06:00With no cloak of vegetation to conceal them,
06:03strange formations are exposed in the naked rock.
06:07Africa's Sahara is the largest desert of all.
06:17It's the size of the United States
06:19and the biggest source of sand and dust in the entire world.
06:37of the Great State Department.
06:40of the Great State Department.
06:42The Gobi, horrible at the Great State Department,
06:43of the Great State Department,
06:46of the Great State Department.
07:03Sand storms like these appear without warning
07:06and reduce visibility for days over areas the size of Britain.
07:20Dromedaries, single-humped camels, take these storms in their stride.
07:28The heavy sand rises only a few metres above the ground,
07:32but the dust can be blown 5,000 metres up into the sky.
07:43The ferocious wind, armed with grains of sand,
07:46is the agent that shapes all deserts.
07:49Reptiles have armoured, scaly skins that protect them from the stinging grains.
08:07For insects, the bombardment can be very severe indeed.
08:14The only escape is below the surface.
08:16As the winds rise and fall, swirl and eddy,
08:20so they pile the sand into dunes.
08:27These sand seas are the same as the surface of the surface.
08:34As the winds rise and fall, swirl and eddy,
08:38so they pile the sand into dunes.
08:41These sand seas can be hundreds of miles across.
08:53In Namibia, the winds have built some of the biggest dunes in the world.
08:57Star dunes, like these, can be 300 metres high.
09:08Grains swept up the flanks are blown off the crests of the ridges,
09:14so it's only the tops that are moving.
09:15The main body of these dunes may not have shifted for 5,000 years.
09:24The main body of these dunes may not have shifted for 5,000 years.
09:28But they will not do so for much longer.
09:29They are being inexorably chiselled away from the sand.
09:30They will not do so for much longer.
09:31But they will not do so for much longer.
09:32They are being inexorably chiselled away from the sand.
09:33More sand.
09:40Few rocks can resist the continuous blast of the sand-carrying wind.
09:46These outcrops are standing in Egypt's wide desert.
09:51But they will not do so for much longer.
09:56They are being inexorably chiselled away and turned into more sand.
10:03However, make this beautiful sea,
10:05it is possible.
10:07To a place that stood up,
10:08they are always from the king aloneound to come loomed in fact
10:12and he is doomed to fall in the seguirily bone,
10:13who knew about the gross majesty.
10:17If the mittens dried angels or through other art,
10:19the queen buds truly loved them.
10:22But the queen buds chiselled away...
10:26And the princess soul knows anything.
10:29The brothers and the copper drovers were extreme bone...
10:32Now, lumps of heavily eroded rocks have been marooned in a sea of sand.
11:02These jagged pyramids, 100 metres tall, were once part of a continuous rocky plateau.
11:09The blasting sand will eventually eliminate them altogether.
11:22The relentless power of the wind ensures that the face of a desert is continually changing,
11:28but there is one constant presence.
11:32The desert sun.
11:55The sun's heat and power to evaporate water
11:58has had a profound effect on the bodies and habits of everything that lives here.
12:03This sun, potentially, is a killer.
12:10And the red kangaroos must acknowledge that.
12:15Right now, while the sun is low, there's no immediate cause for concern.
12:22But this situation won't last long.
12:27Australia is the world's most arid continent with blistering daytime temperatures.
12:32Every hour, the temperature rises by five degrees centigrade.
12:44Soon, the heat will reach a critical point.
12:55Any kangaroo out in the open is in serious danger of overheating.
13:10In the full sun, the temperature on the ground soars to 70 degrees.
13:27By midday, the radiation is so intense they must take shelter.
13:32In the shade, they're shielded for much of the sun's energy.
13:55But their body temperature can still rise.
14:01So, they lick saliva onto their forearms,
14:04where there is a network of blood vessels close to the surface of the skin,
14:08and as the saliva evaporates, their blood is cooled.
14:12This thermal image shows just how effective the process is.
14:21The blue areas on the body are the cooler parts.
14:33As the saliva dries, it has to be replaced.
14:37And this is a real drain on the kangaroo's body fluids.
14:51Even in the shade, the earth is baking hot.
14:55So, the kangaroos dig away the warmed topsoil
14:59to get at the cooler ground beneath.
15:01By staying in the shade, and licking to control their body temperature,
15:19kangaroos manage to get through the hottest part of the day.
15:22without heat stroke.
15:24But for the majority of desert animals,
15:25this strategy would not be enough for survival.
15:26.
15:31.
15:44.
15:49.
15:53The extraordinary ears of the fennec foxes of Africa radiate heat,
16:06but the animals have another way of keeping cool.
16:10They spend their days underground, and only emerge at sunset.
16:36Darkness brings huge changes.
16:40In the Sahara, the temperature can drop as much as 30 degrees during the night,
16:44so it's cool enough to allow these desert fox cubs to play.
16:56All sorts of creatures now appear, including some really unexpected ones.
17:05Toads have permeable skins,
17:07and would quickly die from desiccation out in the daytime heat.
17:10It's only now that they can leave shelter.
17:16The same is true for scorpions,
17:18even though their shells are actually watertight.
17:20In fact, most small desert creatures are nocturnal,
17:32so it's only now that you can judge just how much life there can be in a desert.
17:38But moisture, lost even at night, has to be replaced sometime, somehow.
17:49And that problem dominates the lives of all desert dwellers.
17:53The Atacama in Chile, this is the driest desert in the world.
18:09Some parts may not see rain for 50 years,
18:12and with such a record, you would expect the place to be completely barren.
18:16Some parts may not see rain for a while.
18:22These are South America's camels, guanacos.
18:27They're very good at conserving moisture,
18:30but they nonetheless need a regular supply of water.
18:32They get it partly from cactus flowers,
18:49but that explanation raises another question.
18:54How do the cacti survive without rain?
19:02The secret is a cold sea current that runs parallel to the land.
19:32The cold water cools the moist warm air above it,
19:42and that produces banks of fog.
20:02The cold water cools the moist warm air above it,
20:04and that's the cold water cools the moist air above it.
20:08At the same time, wind blowing onto the shore sweeps the fog inland.
20:13Before long, the cacti are dripping with dew.
20:32The fog is so regular that moisture-loving lichens are able to grow on the cacti,
20:47and they absorb liquid like a sponge.
20:53In the land of almost no rain,
20:55these precious drops are life-savers for many different creatures.
21:02The air remains so warm that its moisture does not condense,
21:15so this slender strip of desert is virtually the only part of the Atacama where life can exist.
21:26And without the fog, this land too would be empty.
21:32The Juanacos make the most of the dew, but it will not remain for long.
21:50In an hour or two, the sun will have burnt it off and dried the surface of the cacti.
22:02The Sonoran Desert in Arizona is not quite so dry as the Atacama.
22:09Some rain does fall.
22:12But it is infrequent, and when it does arrive,
22:16animals and plants have to be ready to make the most of it.
22:18When the summer monsoon blows in, the giant saguaros, one of the biggest of all cacti,
22:36are ready to take full advantage of it.
22:38The of the
22:41yang
22:42smoke
22:42if you will
22:48go to the middle limit of the water charge orders.
22:56Of the wind
22:58get up!
22:59But it is important.
23:01pat
23:02After a rainstorm, the saguaro's long shallow root system sucks up the water, and the pleats
23:19on its trunk enable it to expand rapidly.
23:31In full, a saguaro stem can store up to five tonnes of water, and that's enough to see
23:37it through many months of drought.
23:45The trunks of these huge plants provide homes for the gila woodpecker.
23:50But birds are not the only animals to benefit from the presence of the cacti.
23:59During four weeks of the summer, the saguaros bloom at night to attract visitors.
24:20The pollen and nectar with which these flowers are loaded attract long-nosed and long-tongued
24:29bats.
24:30The bats left Mexico a few days earlier to escape the heat of summer and are on their way north
24:36to the southern United States.
24:37To get there, they have to cross the Sonoran Desert.
24:43But the desert is so big that for most of the year they would be unable to cross it.
24:50Now, with the saguaro in bloom, they can refuel on the way.
24:57To get there, they have to cross the Sonoran Desert.
25:04But the desert is so big that for most of the year they would be unable to cross it.
25:12Now, with the saguaro in bloom, they can refuel on the way.
25:27Now, the saguaro's success in developing a way to store water is now crucial to most of
25:32the animals that live or even travel through this land.
25:36We have one.
25:37Now, the sacred saraats recordings of the land where they are going to be
25:42very difficult because of how many animals are just the natural animals.
25:45Now, they're dealing with the water.
25:46They're dealing with the water.
25:48They have to be together, though.
25:49But they're doing some of the water from the river.
25:52And for us, we can't wait to see them.
25:55We can see them.
25:57The river is in the sea.
25:59That's the river.
26:00The river is in the sea.
26:01And they've been trying to make us to a river.
26:03The scarcity of rain determined the shape of this icon of the desert, but water, scarce
26:22though it is, has also, like the wind, shaped the land itself.
26:33In the deserts of Utah, ancient rivers flowing across sandstone country steadily widened
26:49their canyons, until now the land between them has been reduced to spires and pinnacles.
27:03With little or no soil to retain the water on the surface of the land, life here is scarce
27:31indeed.
27:35And when resources are limited, conflict is never far away.
27:50These are Nubian ibex, and they're squaring up for a duel.
28:01And when trouble starts, a smart ibex knows that the best thing to do is to gain higher
28:06ground.
28:24These are actually subordinate male ibex, but their fights are nonetheless serious.
28:30Nusing one might mean never getting the chance to breed, ever.
28:37When competitors are evenly matched as they are here, duels can last for an hour.
28:44When competitors are evenly matched as they are here, duels can last for an hour.
29:10In this heat, the effort is truly exhausting, but victory here will gain important ranking points
29:31on a male's way to the top.
29:32On a male's way to the top.
29:38There's so much at stake that not all play fair.
30:06The battle has produced a winner, but the ultimate prize is not his yet.
30:11That currently belongs to the dominant male ibex.
30:18His rank earns him the loyalty out of a harem of females, and they follow him closely as he
30:19travels across this desert, searching for food and water.
30:25He doesn't have to waste time looking for mates.
30:26He doesn't have to waste time looking for mates.
30:32They're his for the taking, so he can concentrate with them on keeping fit and healthy.
30:39He doesn't have to waste time.
30:40He doesn't have to waste time looking for mates.
30:46They're his for the taking, so he can concentrate with them on keeping fit and healthy.
30:53Lizards are desert specialists.
31:16But here their numbers are extraordinary.
31:29These crevices in South Africa contain the highest density of lizards in the world.
31:43They're called flat lizards, for obvious reasons, and they flaunt their multicolored bellies
31:50in territorial disputes.
31:55He's made his point, and now it's time to find some food.
32:01As the day warms up, the lizards move away from their cracks and head down to the bottom of the gorge.
32:08Their goal is the river.
32:13There is no food at the edge, but this desert river holds a secret.
32:20Each day, black fly rise from turbulent stretches of the river.
32:30This is what the lizards have come for.
32:33The black fly never lamb, so the lizards have to leap for their fruit.
32:52In one day, each of these acrobatic little lizards may catch 50 flies.
33:11There are plenty of flies to go round, even with hundreds of lizards competing for them.
33:26Away from these rapids, flat lizard populations are found in much smaller numbers.
33:46But here, one unusual abundance has produced another.
34:02Deserts are created by the lack of water, but what actually kills animals here
34:07is not heat or thirst, but lack of food.
34:28So, how on earth does a plant eater this size survive in a place
34:34apparently totally devoid of vegetation.
34:44Elephants in Namibia are the toughest in Africa, and they need to be.
35:04What little food exists is so dispersed that these elephants walk up to 50 miles a day
35:13as they travel up the dry river channels searching for something to eat.
35:18At times, the task looks truly hopeless.
35:36The End
35:37The End
35:38The End
35:39The End
35:40The End
35:41The End
35:42The End
35:43The End
35:45The End
35:46The End
35:47The End
35:48The End
35:49The End
35:50Elephants may seem out of place in this landscape, but they're not the only ones.
36:20Amazingly, lions live here too.
36:41In savannah country, huge herds of game support prides containing 20 lions or more.
36:47But to live here, lions have had to change their habits.
36:51Prides are much smaller and their home ranges are very much bigger.
36:57And there's an added problem.
37:00Their food is always on the move.
37:03Like the elephants, the lions must travel great distances to find enough to live on.
37:22But lions can't go everywhere.
37:36They won't attempt to cross this field of sand dunes, and the oryx know it.
37:41They won't attempt to cross this field of sand dunes.
37:51They won't attempt to cross this field of sand.
37:56They won't attempt to cross this field of sand dunes.
38:00They won't attempt to cross this field of sand dunes.
38:15The lions must wait for the oryx to leave the safety of the dunes, which eventually they must, to find food of sand.
38:34And then the lions will ambush them.
38:55The lions must being subject from sand dunes.
39:10They won't attempt to cross this field of sand dunes, which is for free.
39:16Oh, my God.
39:46The elephants have found some of their favourite food.
40:02Grasses are the staple diet of all elephants, but this herd concentrates on digging up
40:08the roots, which have more nutrition and moisture than the stems.
40:13That's the sort of behaviour that can make all the difference in a place of serious shortages.
40:19Yet all this can change in an instant.
40:22The fortunes of many deserts are ruled by distant rains.
40:44This water fell as rain in mountains more than 100 miles away.
40:54It's known as a fresh flood and call that because the water may run for just a single day.
40:59It's an event that only happens once or twice a year at the most.
41:03The sandy riverbed acts like a giant strip of blotting paper sucking up the water as soon as it appears.
41:10The sandy riverbed acts like a giant strip of blotting paper sucking up the water as soon as it appears.
41:31But every square metre of soil moistened by this river will increase the chances of survival for those that live here.
41:50Water holes are filled temporarily.
42:02Elsewhere in Africa, elephants drink every day.
42:05But the lack of water here means that desert elephants can only refill their tanks once every four or five days.
42:14Within a week, the flash flood has produced a flush of green,
42:18more than enough to draw the oryx out of the dews.
42:24It's a rare chance for them to build up their food reserves.
42:36The flood has made life easier for the lions, too.
42:40The flesh of this oryx will keep the family going for a week at the most.
42:47But for a while, the hunting will be easier now that the river channel has turned green.
42:57The good times for lions and oryx are brief,
43:00but these are the short moments that make it possible to live in deserts the year round.
43:05Death Valley is the hottest place on Earth.
43:15Yet even this furnace can be transformed by water.
43:19a single shower can enable seeds that have lain dormant for 30 years or more to burst into life.
43:36And there hasn't been a bloom like this one for a century.
43:48The periods of boom in Death Valley are short, but they're just frequent enough to keep life ticking over.
44:06A sudden flush of vegetation is what every desert dweller waits for.
44:20And when it happens, they must make the most of it.
44:23There is no other species on the planet that responds as quickly and as dramatically to the good times as the desert locust.
44:51Eggs that have remained in the ground for 20 years begin to hatch.
44:57The young locusts are known as hoppers for at this stage they are flightless.
45:14They find new feeding grounds by following the smell of sprouting grass.
45:26Normally it takes four weeks for hoppers to become adults.
45:30But when the conditions are right, as now, their development switches to the fast track.
45:42As the vegetation in one place begins to run out, the winged adults release pheromones, scent messages, which tell others in the group that they must move on.
45:52And when groups merge, they form a swarm.
46:06An adult locusts eats its entire body weight every day.
46:20And a whole swarm can consume literally hundreds of tons of vegetation.
46:39They have to keep on moving.
46:41The swarm travels with the wind.
46:45It's the most energy-saving way of flying.
46:51Following the flow of wind means that they're always heading toward areas of low pressure.
46:57Places where wind meets rain and vegetation starts to grow.
47:01As they fly, swarms join up with other swarms to form gigantic plagues several billion strong and as much as 40 miles wide.
47:16They will consume every edible thing that lies in their path.
47:20This is one of planet Earth's greatest spectacles.
47:37It's rarely seen on this scale and it won't last long.
47:41Once the food has gone, the steady roar of a billion beating locust wings will once again be replaced by nothing else.
47:49more than the sound of the desert wind.
48:08Of all the places visited by the Planet Earth team, the most remote was Mongolia's Gobi Desert.
48:15But this was the location for one of the most remarkable desert animals of all, the elusive wild Bactrian camels.
48:28The trip required months of planning, but arriving in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, was merely the start of what was to be the most challenging of shoots.
48:37OK.
48:38We're going for a two-month trip, and basically this area is so remote that we have to take everything that we need with us.
48:44So we need two months' supply of food, fuel, and in the area we're going to, there's no viable source of water, so we have to bring that in too.
48:52So it really is a quest, and the quest for camels begins today.
48:57From Ulaanbaatar, the team were going to have to travel for a further five days to get to where the camels live.
49:04Despite its huge size, Mongolia has only 500 miles of paved road, so it wasn't long before they were heading cross-country.
49:16But even their off-road vehicles were to struggle in this terrain.
49:21And with few vehicles, petrol stations were rather Heath Robinson affairs, without any of the usual safety considerations.
49:39The Gobi Desert is as large as Holland, but surprisingly difficult to find without any roads or signs.
49:46The team were heading for the outer part of outer Mongolia, and in this vast, remote and rugged wilderness,
49:58they were going to have to find a group of animals whose population numbered a mere 800.
50:03The small community of Bayan Toro was the gateway to the Gobi Desert, and home to an expert tracker called Choi Jin.
50:20His skills were vital in the search for wild camels, and it appeared the camels needed him too.
50:25He actually killed two wolves, which killed five camels, tower camels.
50:3850 camels.
50:4150 camels, okay. Two wolves killed 50 camels. This is what he tells us now.
50:46Choi Jin has been tracking wild camels for 50 years, so if anyone was going to get Henry to within filming distance
50:52the filming distance of these elusive animals, then it was him.
50:58Reliable vehicles were also vital to the success of the trip.
51:03The team's Russian-made supply vehicle
51:05may have needed to be warmed up with a blowtorch each morning,
51:09but in the event of a breakdown,
51:11they would be more than covered by the collection of spare parts
51:14brought along by the Mongolian drivers.
51:19It was comforting to know that here was a vehicle
51:22whose engine could be rebuilt by a man with a file
51:25in the middle of the Gobi Desert.
51:29Fortunately, they weren't depending on it for a quick getaway.
51:38Since leaving Ulaanbaatar,
51:40the team had driven 1,500 miles through the middle of Mongolia.
51:44The supply vehicle had done the same,
51:46but they'd had to give it several days' head start.
51:52But before leaving Bayan Torrol,
51:57the team had had to deal with some local politics, as Tom explains.
52:02Our...
52:04interpreter, erm...
52:05decided to pick a fight with the stand-in head of the park
52:11and head-butted him in the face.
52:16Which is not ideal for relations.
52:18Erm...
52:19Anyway,
52:20our driver, who was also very drunk,
52:23decided to, erm...
52:25that this was his chance to step in.
52:27And he's a big lad.
52:28And, erm...
52:29He then punched our interpreter in the face.
52:33Erm...
52:36And, erm...
52:37Yeah, knocked him flat.
52:40Luckily, there were no hard feelings the following morning,
52:43and the team were able to get on with the serious business
52:45of finding wild camels.
52:47It wasn't long before Choi Jin spotted some promising signs.
52:54Apparently, one of the ways in which you can tell how fresh the prints are
52:58is very, very small detail.
53:00Erm...
53:01If he sees a little, small stone in the print,
53:04and it's got some sand on it,
53:06like that,
53:07he knows that it's very recent,
53:09because otherwise that sand would have blown away,
53:11because it's just very loose little grains of sand.
53:13But it's very small, tiny little signs like that,
53:16and that's why he's walking across such a large area.
53:18Sure enough, up ahead,
53:20the team finally had their first sighting of wild camels.
53:24They were already running.
53:26Poaching has made wild camels very nervous of people.
53:29They're about three or four kilometres away.
53:31They spotted us from that distance,
53:33and that's going to be our real problem, getting close to these animals.
53:36I mean, they're capable of spotting us from about five kilometres.
53:39I'm running for 70 k's in the opposite direction.
53:41So this is what's going to make this filming incredibly difficult.
53:45But we're going to need all Henry's extremely accomplished field skills
53:50to get us close, and we know he can do it.
53:53What do you think, Henry?
53:55I don't know.
53:58It was easy to understand Henry's doubts
54:01when faced with the sheer scale of the landscape,
54:03the scarcity of camels, and their fear of people.
54:06After their first sighting, the team saw nothing for five days.
54:17So, Church and South is hurt, but it is hurt three, four miles away, very far.
54:24You can barely tell what it is.
54:27Sometimes I wonder how he do it, how he does it,
54:30because he's just watching patterns, changing patterns, and the heat haze on the horizon.
54:36But at this distance, they weren't going to get any useful footage.
54:39A lucky break was needed.
54:43And an overnight snowstorm didn't seem to be it.
54:46With the temperature plummeting to minus 20, the team and breakfast needed thawing out first.
54:53We're having a competition to see who warms up first.
54:56My hands wore this frozen can of pilchards.
55:00That's what it's come to, eating frozen pilchards straight out of the tin.
55:05That's all we've got for breakfast.
55:08I think I might pass on breakfast.
55:09The vehicles were useful for spotting camels, but to get close, the team had to be on foot.
55:19After walking hundreds of miles, they were still no nearer to a sequence,
55:23and it wasn't helped by having one less camel to film.
55:29Gobi wolves had got to this one first.
55:32I saw the car. Obviously, I mean, that's a window.
55:44The reflection. Low sun.
55:47The rear ends of running camels continued to dominate the team's filming,
55:53and it was beginning to cause frustrations.
55:56So, no footage today.
55:59They're supreme long-distance travellers, these animals,
56:04and we're finding it difficult to keep up in the vehicle, let alone by foot.
56:10So I'm absolutely knackered.
56:12Slightly annoyed that we haven't really got the footage that we want the last couple of days.
56:18So I guess it's camels one, film crew nil.
56:25I guess it's time to get a shot.
56:29Fortunately, Choi Jin's sharp eyes remained on form,
56:33and when combined with sheer dogged perseverance,
56:36the team's luck finally began to change.
56:45Not only did they start getting headshots of camels, but fascinating behaviour.
56:50strange mating rituals and snow eating.
56:58Wild camels remain one of our planet's least known animals, so this unique footage was
57:07much needed publicity for a species on the verge of extinction.
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