Earth: One Amazing Day Page #2

And finally, a way out.

There is a saying in Africa,

"if you wanna go quickly, go alone.

If you wanna go far, go together."

After this,

the zebra foal and her mother can surely

handle anything the day throws at them.

The Sun is approaching

its highest and most powerful.

In the far north, in the Arctic,

ice has held land and ocean

in its grip for months.

The Sun near the poles is always lower

and weaker than anywhere else.

[ice rumbling]

But still, its energy will transform.

Narwhal.

One of the most mysterious

animals on the planet.

For the moment they can't travel far,

only small openings in the ice

allow them to surface and breathe.

But the power of the Sun

is coming to their rescue.

For many days

the Sun's heat has been gnawing away

at the ice's hold on sea and land.

Now, approaching its highest

and strongest, the Sun begins to triumph.

[ice crackling]

And the battle of heat against cold,

becomes a rout.

On land, rivers flow again.

In the oceans, where the ice is now weak,

the Sun's warmth, opens cracks.

And the cracks become channels.

Roadways along, which the narwhal

can traverse their icy kingdom.

In Inuit legend, the first narwhal

was a brave female hunter.

Caught up in a deadly embrace

with a whale she hunted,

Her braided hair flung out,

becoming the twisted tusk.

For these narwhal, what an amazing day.

They are free again,

to roam their ocean home.

The strength of the Sun becomes greater

and greater, the further south you go.

[animal calling]

In the mountains of North America,

the sunlight of a spring day,

brings the freshly thawed world to life.

-[distance grumbling]

-[insect buzzing]

[bear grumbles]

[bear growls]

[bird calling]

If you're still wearing your winter coat,

the heat during the middle-of-the-day

can get a bit uncomfortable.

You need to find a tree

and give yourself a good scratch.

[playful dance music playing]

Rubbing against the bark

not only gets to the itch,

it helps a hot bear shed its winter fur.

It's also a chance to mark the territory

with your personal scent.

So everyone knows exactly who's in town.

[bear grumbles]

[bear grumbles]

[bear farts]

[bear growls]

It's now midday,

and the world feels the full force

of our friendly neighbourhood star.

The sun is now at its highest in the sky.

Its light penetrates even

the deep hidden folds of the Earth.

[wind whispering]

In Africa, near the equator,

its energy creates a furnace.

This zebra foal and her herd

still need to move on.

But every step is tough in heat like this.

[zebra snorts]

Any scrap of shade...

is an oasis.

[insects buzzing]

In full sunlight,

the herd are easy for hunters to see.

But there is one blessing

about the midday sun.

It's simply too hot for lions to hunt.

[lion farts]

[lion snoring]

There is something, however,

that doesn't take a break,

even in the heat of the day.

The struggle for power.

[low grumbling]

Rivalry between males for territory

and for the attentions of females

is so overpowering, it drives even

the most placid of creatures to combat.

At high noon in the desert heat,

a young male giraffe is challenging

the resident bull for prime territory

and the females that go with it.

At first they just push and shove,

trying to intimidate each other.

Normally, this would be an end to it,

but the young rival seems to think

he has a chance and attacks.

Neither will back down.

The old bull is down.

He knows the final blow is coming.

So, he ducks...

and hits back.

It is over.

The day still belongs to the old master.

For the loser, it's exile in the desert.

The land and the creatures that live

on it, toast under the noonday sun.

But one habitat remains cool, even now.

Over the course of a single day,

even the enormous power of the Sun,

isn't strong enough to warm

the great oceans by much.

Here, some of the largest

creatures on Earth,

live lives as long,

and perhaps as complex, as our own.

This is a family of sperm whales.

[whales clicking]

And at its heart, a rare sight.

A calf.

Already 15ft long, she's about a year old,

and very inquisitive.

For two or three years,

she will feed on her mother's milk.

It's so rich in fat,

it has the consistency of cottage cheese.

So it doesn't dissolve in the sea

water as it's being gulped down.

The great whales are the biggest

predators that have ever existed,

yet, they make

the most protective parents.

And very talkative ones,

chatting in a language of clicks.

They're the loudest

creatures on the planet,

capable of sounds,

far louder than a jet engine.

[clicking continues]

But right now, it's time for silence.

Hanging vertically,

the giants of the sea...

take an afternoon nap.

These whales have brains larger

than any other animal.

Who can guess with what richness

they dream away the day.

In the tropics, the oppressive heat

of midday lingers well into the afternoon.

On a tiny island, off the coast of Panama,

in Central America,

everything takes life slowly.

[birdsong]

[animal snoring]

A pygmy three-toed sloth.

At his best, he is slothful.

At this time of day,

he's pretty much comatose.

[snoring continues]

Only one thing might rouse him.

And it's this...

[sloth calling]

The call of the female sloth,

out there somewhere.

[water splash]

And since it's high tide,

why not take the short cut.

The only problem is from down here,

it's not easy to tell where

the potential mate is calling from.

[female sloth calling]

[female sloth calling]

Could this be her?

Sadly for him,

this female is not looking for a date.

While she's nursing her cub,

she's quite happy to stay single.

As they say, mafiana.

There's always tomorrow.

[snoring]

Though island life here moves slowly,

the pace of the afternoon is very

different in other parts of the world.

[water rumbling]

This is Zavodovski Island in Antarctica,

home for 1.5 million chinstrap penguins.

It's an extraordinary place.

An outcrop of rock,

spewed out by the volcano at its heart.

The oceans beat against it night and day.

And the penguins

are caught in the crossfire.

All day, the adult penguins

struggle against the waves

as they journey between home

and their hunting grounds, offshore.

[penguins chattering]

It's an ordeal they can't avoid.

Their families depend on them.

Chinstrap penguin chicks

are completely helpless,

without the support

of both mother and father.

[chicks chirping]

They need fresh food every day.

And their parents take turns to fetch it.

It means an awful lot of hunting...

[penguins chattering]

...for an awful lot of moms and dads.

This mother has no food

left to feed her chicks.

They now need their father to return,

and soon.

[waves crashing violently]

At mid-afternoon,

the first wave of hunters,

who left early this morning, return.

Amongst them is the chick's father.

He's been fishing 50 miles offshore,

but now he's not far away.

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