1 00:00:00,750 --> 00:00:04,059 I'm a very lucky person. 2 00:00:04,059 --> 00:00:08,537 I've been privileged to see so much of our beautiful Earth 3 00:00:08,537 --> 00:00:10,865 and the people and creatures that live on it. 4 00:00:10,865 --> 00:00:14,485 And my passion was inspired at the age of seven, 5 00:00:14,485 --> 00:00:16,820 when my parents first took me to Morocco, 6 00:00:16,820 --> 00:00:18,946 at the edge of the Sahara Desert. 7 00:00:18,946 --> 00:00:21,321 Now imagine a little Brit 8 00:00:21,321 --> 00:00:24,442 somewhere that wasn't cold and damp like home. 9 00:00:24,442 --> 00:00:26,718 What an amazing experience. 10 00:00:26,718 --> 00:00:29,211 And it made me want to explore more. 11 00:00:29,211 --> 00:00:31,814 So as a filmmaker, 12 00:00:31,814 --> 00:00:34,625 I've been from one end of the Earth to the other 13 00:00:34,625 --> 00:00:37,333 trying to get the perfect shot 14 00:00:37,333 --> 00:00:41,125 and to capture animal behavior never seen before. 15 00:00:41,125 --> 00:00:43,757 And what's more, I'm really lucky, 16 00:00:43,757 --> 00:00:46,875 because I get to share that with millions of people worldwide. 17 00:00:46,875 --> 00:00:52,125 Now the idea of having new perspectives of our planet 18 00:00:52,125 --> 00:00:55,958 and actually being able to get that message out 19 00:00:55,958 --> 00:00:58,816 gets me out of bed every day with a spring in my step. 20 00:00:58,816 --> 00:01:01,958 You might think that it's quite hard 21 00:01:01,958 --> 00:01:04,208 to find new stories and new subjects, 22 00:01:04,208 --> 00:01:08,539 but new technology is changing the way we can film. 23 00:01:08,539 --> 00:01:12,375 It's enabling us to get fresh, new images 24 00:01:12,375 --> 00:01:14,492 and tell brand new stories. 25 00:01:14,492 --> 00:01:17,375 In Nature's Great Events, 26 00:01:17,375 --> 00:01:20,917 a series for the BBC that I did with David Attenborough, 27 00:01:20,917 --> 00:01:23,167 we wanted to do just that. 28 00:01:23,167 --> 00:01:26,208 Images of grizzly bears are pretty familiar. 29 00:01:26,208 --> 00:01:29,458 You see them all the time, you think. 30 00:01:29,458 --> 00:01:33,542 But there's a whole side to their lives that we hardly ever see 31 00:01:33,542 --> 00:01:35,250 and had never been filmed. 32 00:01:35,250 --> 00:01:39,500 So what we did, we went to Alaska, 33 00:01:39,500 --> 00:01:41,868 which is where the grizzlies rely 34 00:01:41,868 --> 00:01:44,854 on really high, almost inaccessible, mountain slopes 35 00:01:44,854 --> 00:01:46,789 for their denning. 36 00:01:46,789 --> 00:01:52,137 And the only way to film that is a shoot from the air. 37 00:01:54,304 --> 00:01:58,917 (Video) David Attenborough: Throughout Alaska and British Columbia, 38 00:01:58,917 --> 00:02:04,129 thousands of bear families are emerging from their winter sleep. 39 00:02:04,129 --> 00:02:08,083 There is nothing to eat up here, 40 00:02:08,083 --> 00:02:11,583 but the conditions were ideal for hibernation. 41 00:02:11,583 --> 00:02:17,014 Lots of snow in which to dig a den. 42 00:02:19,450 --> 00:02:25,440 To find food, mothers must lead their cubs down to the coast, 43 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,292 where the snow will already be melting. 44 00:02:32,502 --> 00:02:39,650 But getting down can be a challenge for small cubs. 45 00:03:05,723 --> 00:03:09,458 These mountains are dangerous places, 46 00:03:09,458 --> 00:03:12,917 but ultimately the fate of these bear families, 47 00:03:12,917 --> 00:03:16,431 and indeed that of all bears around the North Pacific, 48 00:03:16,431 --> 00:03:21,048 depends on the salmon. 49 00:03:21,064 --> 00:03:23,625 KB: I love that shot. 50 00:03:23,625 --> 00:03:25,917 I always get goosebumps every time I see it. 51 00:03:25,917 --> 00:03:27,958 That was filmed from a helicopter 52 00:03:27,958 --> 00:03:30,750 using a gyro-stabilized camera. 53 00:03:30,750 --> 00:03:33,208 And it's a wonderful bit of gear, 54 00:03:33,208 --> 00:03:37,167 because it's like having a flying tripod, crane and dolly all rolled into one. 55 00:03:37,167 --> 00:03:40,375 But technology alone isn't enough. 56 00:03:40,375 --> 00:03:42,875 To really get the money shots, 57 00:03:42,875 --> 00:03:45,917 it's down to being in the right place at the right time. 58 00:03:45,917 --> 00:03:48,875 And that sequence was especially difficult. 59 00:03:48,875 --> 00:03:52,375 The first year we got nothing. 60 00:03:52,375 --> 00:03:55,958 We had to go back the following year, 61 00:03:55,958 --> 00:03:58,958 all the way back to the remote parts of Alaska. 62 00:03:58,958 --> 00:04:01,583 And we hung around with a helicopter for two whole weeks. 63 00:04:01,583 --> 00:04:04,625 And eventually we got lucky. 64 00:04:04,625 --> 00:04:08,958 The cloud lifted, the wind was still, 65 00:04:08,958 --> 00:04:10,708 and even the bear showed up. 66 00:04:10,708 --> 00:04:13,292 And we managed to get that magic moment. 67 00:04:13,292 --> 00:04:15,167 For a filmmaker, 68 00:04:15,167 --> 00:04:19,340 new technology is an amazing tool, 69 00:04:19,340 --> 00:04:22,546 but the other thing that really, really excites me 70 00:04:22,546 --> 00:04:25,500 is when new species are discovered. 71 00:04:25,500 --> 00:04:27,787 Now, when I heard about one animal, 72 00:04:27,787 --> 00:04:30,750 I knew we had to get it for my next series, 73 00:04:30,750 --> 00:04:33,500 Untamed Americas, for National Geographic. 74 00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:39,811 In 2005, a new species of bat was discovered 75 00:04:39,811 --> 00:04:42,083 in the cloud forests of Ecuador. 76 00:04:42,083 --> 00:04:44,167 And what was amazing about that discovery 77 00:04:44,167 --> 00:04:46,583 is that it also solved the mystery 78 00:04:46,583 --> 00:04:49,620 of what pollinated a unique flower. 79 00:04:49,620 --> 00:04:51,583 It depends solely on the bat. 80 00:04:51,583 --> 00:04:54,317 Now, the series hasn't even aired yet, 81 00:04:54,317 --> 00:04:56,744 so you're the very first to see this. 82 00:04:56,744 --> 00:04:57,859 See what you think. 83 00:05:01,590 --> 00:05:07,548 (Video) Narrator: The tube-lipped nectar bat. 84 00:05:10,536 --> 00:05:12,877 A pool of delicious nectar 85 00:05:12,877 --> 00:05:15,042 lies at the bottom of each flower's long flute. 86 00:05:15,042 --> 00:05:19,887 But how to reach it? 87 00:05:19,887 --> 00:05:25,083 Necessity is the mother of evolution. 88 00:05:25,083 --> 00:05:48,489 (Music) 89 00:05:48,489 --> 00:05:51,496 This two-and-a-half-inch bat 90 00:05:51,496 --> 00:05:58,221 has a three-and-a-half-inch tongue, 91 00:05:58,221 --> 00:06:02,119 the longest relative to body length 92 00:06:02,119 --> 00:06:04,438 of any mammal in the world. 93 00:06:04,438 --> 00:06:11,577 If human, he'd have a nine-foot tongue. 94 00:06:16,122 --> 00:06:18,612 (Applause) 95 00:06:18,612 --> 00:06:20,677 KB: What a tongue. 96 00:06:20,677 --> 00:06:25,542 We filmed it by cutting a tiny little hole in the base of the flower 97 00:06:25,542 --> 00:06:30,167 and using a camera that could slow the action by 40 times. 98 00:06:30,167 --> 00:06:33,250 So imagine how quick that thing is in real life. 99 00:06:33,250 --> 00:06:38,462 Now people often ask me, "Where's your favorite place on the planet?" 100 00:06:38,462 --> 00:06:40,995 And the truth is I just don't have one. 101 00:06:40,995 --> 00:06:43,542 There are so many wonderful places. 102 00:06:43,542 --> 00:06:47,042 But some locations draw you back time and time again. 103 00:06:47,042 --> 00:06:49,790 And one remote location -- 104 00:06:49,790 --> 00:06:51,810 I first went there as a backpacker; 105 00:06:51,810 --> 00:06:54,125 I've been back several times for filming, 106 00:06:54,125 --> 00:06:55,875 most recently for Untamed Americas -- 107 00:06:55,875 --> 00:07:00,625 it's the Altiplano in the high Andes of South America, 108 00:07:00,625 --> 00:07:05,792 and it's the most otherworldly place I know. 109 00:07:05,792 --> 00:07:08,894 But at 15,000 feet, it's tough. 110 00:07:08,894 --> 00:07:10,417 It's freezing cold, 111 00:07:10,417 --> 00:07:15,083 and that thin air really gets you. 112 00:07:15,083 --> 00:07:17,394 Sometimes it's hard to breathe, 113 00:07:17,394 --> 00:07:20,437 especially carrying all the heavy filming equipment. 114 00:07:20,437 --> 00:07:25,042 And that pounding head just feels like a constant hangover. 115 00:07:25,042 --> 00:07:29,333 But the advantage of that wonderful thin atmosphere 116 00:07:29,333 --> 00:07:33,271 is that it enables you to see the stars in the heavens 117 00:07:33,271 --> 00:07:35,710 with amazing clarity. 118 00:07:35,710 --> 00:07:39,896 Have a look. 119 00:07:39,896 --> 00:07:43,552 (Video) Narrator: Some 1,500 miles south of the tropics, 120 00:07:43,552 --> 00:07:45,237 between Chile and Bolivia, 121 00:07:45,237 --> 00:07:50,413 the Andes completely change. 122 00:07:50,413 --> 00:07:55,042 It's called the Altiplano, or "high plains" -- 123 00:07:55,042 --> 00:07:58,925 a place of extremes 124 00:07:58,925 --> 00:08:02,614 and extreme contrasts. 125 00:08:02,614 --> 00:08:07,125 Where deserts freeze 126 00:08:07,125 --> 00:08:10,958 and waters boil. 127 00:08:10,958 --> 00:08:14,458 More like Mars than Earth, 128 00:08:14,458 --> 00:08:16,881 it seems just as hostile to life. 129 00:08:25,196 --> 00:08:28,865 The stars themselves -- 130 00:08:35,065 --> 00:08:38,786 at 12,000 feet, the dry, thin air 131 00:08:38,786 --> 00:08:46,929 makes for perfect stargazing. 132 00:08:46,929 --> 00:08:52,813 Some of the world's astronomers have telescopes nearby. 133 00:08:52,813 --> 00:08:56,885 But just looking up with the naked eye, 134 00:08:56,885 --> 00:09:00,130 you really don't need one. 135 00:09:00,130 --> 00:09:47,140 (Music) 136 00:09:47,140 --> 00:09:53,167 (Applause) 137 00:09:53,167 --> 00:09:56,484 KB: Thank you so much 138 00:09:56,484 --> 00:09:58,958 for letting me share some images 139 00:09:58,958 --> 00:10:01,867 of our magnificent, wonderful Earth. 140 00:10:01,867 --> 00:10:03,764 Thank you for letting me share that with you. 141 00:10:03,764 --> 00:10:07,296 (Applause)