Inside the Perfect Predator

This is the inside story

of four extraordinary predators.

The peregrine falcon...

the Nile crocodile...

the cheetah...

and the great white shark.

With ground-breaking

computer graphics...

and incredible

close-up photography...

we reveal the inner alchemy

that gives our hunters the edge.

Reconstructing their intimate lives

as they make their kills.

But who is

the planet's perfect predator?

MVGroup

Living right above the heads

of the people of London...

...the fastest animal on the planet,

the peregrine falcon.

Man-made cliff tops

offer sanctuary to the peregrines...

...but they also present new dangers.

With the arrival of spring

come new demands

on the peregrines' hunting skills.

Demands that will stretch

them to their limit.

There are new mouths to feed.

If these chicks are to survive

long enough to fly the nest,

their parents will have to catch two

pigeons a day for the next month.

This will be the greatest

challenge of their mother's life.

Her secret weapon is speed.

But on the flat,

a pigeon can out-fly a peregrine.

She must use gravity

to reach her maximum speed.

For this, she rides the updraft.

Half a mile above the city,

she can now survey

the whole of her territory.

Of all the four predators,

the peregrine falcon

has the keenest eyesight.

At the base of each retina,

she has two concentrations

of visual sensors,

where humans have only one.

This gives her incredible powers

of triangulation.

From two miles away, she locks on

to her unsuspecting target.

The hunt is on.

While this peregrine falcon

must kill every day,

there's one predator that can

survive without food for a year.

It lives in the rivers of Africa.

Even when they have run dry.

Months ago a five-metre,

half-ton Nile crocodile

scraped out a burrow

to escape the heat.

Now he's in a state

of suspended animation.

His heart beats

only twice a minute.

Delivering just enough blood to keep his

vital organs from shutting down completely.

To survive, he draws

on the fat reserves...

...accumulated from

last year's hunt.

In this condition, he rides out

the worst of the drought.

When the rains finally return...

...the predator flickers to life.

But before the cold-bloodied reptile

can hunt, it must first power up.

The ridges of scales along his back

are more than just body armour.

They act like solar panels,

absorbing the heat.

Just beneath the surface, a web of

capillaries carries the warm blood

to the crocodile's core

activating his systems.

His eyesight sharpens.

His hearing tunes in

to the world around him.

For the next six months, he must

make do with only fish to snack on.

Then, it is the moment

he's been waiting for.

Inside his ears,

minute hair-like structures

detect a low-frequency...

...sound well beyond human hearing.

It's the rumble

of a distant stampede.

Hordes of wildebeest on their

never-ending quest for fresh pastures.

Finally,

he has his quarry in his sight.

The hunt is on.

While the crocodile

can wait for prey to come to him,

another predator must make

an epic journey to reach hers.

Deep in the Indian Ocean,

the world's largest predatory fish

is heading to her feeding grounds.

One ton and five metres long,

this female great white shark

left the coast of Australia over 100

days ago on a 7,000-mile journey.

She cruises half a mile down,

in a world of pitch black.

Up above,

fishing fleets are scooping out

the last of the big shoals.

Down below, the shark is burning

the last of her fuel supply.

She has almost exhausted

the fatty oils in her liver.

She must get to

her feeding grounds soon.

Highly sophisticated

electro-sensors in her nose...

...allow her to detect

the Earth's magnetic grid...

...and accurately

compute her position.

Occasionally, she returns to the surface,

possibly to get her bearings from the stars.

Finally, the near-starving shark

reaches her destination,

the coast of South Africa.

It's early winter and she has timed

her arrival to perfection.

Thousands of six-month-old

Cape fur seals are venturing

into deep water for the first time.

Thanks to their energy-rich blubber,

these seals would make

a perfect meal for most sharks.

But most sharks can't cope

with these cold temperatures.

They're cold-blooded

and lose body heat as their blood

passes through their gills.

The great white, however,

uses a specialised network of blood

vessels to reabsorb its body heat.

Because of this,

it can raise its body temperature

14 degrees higher than other sharks,

giving it superior strength,

speed and brain power.

She's crossed an ocean to be here.

It's time to eat.

From two miles away,

she can smell the colony,

able to detect one molecule

of blood in a million of water.

From 250 metres away,

she can distinguish the sound

of seals from the background surf.

From 25 metres, she can make out

surface objects only 15 centimetres across.

The hunt is on!

While the ultimate sea predator

can go without a kill for weeks,

the ultimate land predator must

kill almost every day to survive.

The fastest animal on land

has had the run of

the African plains for millennia.

But sometimes speed isn't enough.

The cheetah.

So far, this mother has succeeded

in keeping her three cubs alive...

...when typically, only one

would reach its first birthday.

Hyenas.

They will kill cheetah cubs.

Not only do they have strength in numbers,

they're also bigger with bone-crushing jaws.

To protect her young,

the cheetah must act as a decoy.

Inside, her body fires into action.

Adrenalin is quickly

flushed into the bloodstream.

Her huge heart doubles

its rate to 250 beats a minute...

...sending extra oxygen

and sugars directly

to her enormous leg muscles.

She is now ready

to engage the enemy.

This time, she has won.

But her cubs are hungry.

They need meat and milk every day.

She too is weakening.

To achieve her killer speed,

she carries little fat

and is constantly

on the verge of starvation.

She must eat.

Cheetahs have enhanced vision

in the horizontal plane...

and can spot a moving gazelle

from over a mile away.

Approaching downwind,

she creeps towards

her 30-metre striking distance.

Making the most of her camouflage.

Once again,

there's a chain reaction...

as she prepares for

the fastest chase on land.

The hunt is on.

All four predators

are poised for the attack.

Their insides a powder keg,

just waiting to explode.

But who will make the kill,

and who will go hungry?

THE CHASE:

Nature's top gun,

the peregrine falcon.

Desperate to feed her chicks...

...she locks onto her target,

a fast and agile pigeon.

Time to turn on the speed.

Tucking in her wings,

she shoots towards Earth.

Her teardrop-shaped body,

the height of aerodynamic design.

Within seconds, she has reached

her terminal velocity of 200 miles per hour.

The force of air

would explode her lungs,

if not for

the baffles in her nostrils,

a design so effective

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