Take a peek behind the scenes of Frozen Planet 2 as the team battle conditions to film the hunting behaviours of leopard seals. The extreme cold and icy weather weren’t the only factors the team had to deal with, as some leopard seals got a little bit too curious for the crew’s liking…
The leopard seal, also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic. Its only natural predator is the orca. It feeds on a wide range of prey including cephalopods, other pinnipeds, krill, birds, fish and penguins. It is the only species in the genus Hydrurga.
“Sunday Morning” leaves us this morning with elk bugling at Yellowstone National Park. Videographer: Doug Jensen.
Yellowstone’s autumn is defined in many ways-frost on morning grass, color creeping into shimmering aspen leaves, ice rimming mountain ponds. There are sights and smells to a Yellowstone autumn, elements that, if you’ve visited here many times, become as familiar as old friends. But nothing etches the lens through which we see fall as much as the rut of the elk, Cervus alaphus. The reason for this is almost entirely auditory.
The Sound of a Bull Elk in Autumn
If you’ve never heard the bugle of the bull elk during the fall rutting period, you are in for an experience that is at once thrilling and haunting. The sound of a bull elk bugling is something that draws many visitors to Yellowstone each autumn, for it is an experience as memorable as anything you are likely to have in the park. In most cases, the bugle starts low and throaty, rising to a high whistle, then dropping to a grunt or a series of grunts. It’s a sound that is difficult for the human alphabet to imitate, a guttural bellow, a shrill pitch, and a hollow grunting. A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-eeeeeeeeeeeeee-oh. Ee-uh. Ee-uh. Ee-uh. It’s an odd combination that, like the buzz of your first rattlesnake, you’ll never forget.
“Sunday Morning” takes us to Florida’s Sanibel Island, in calmer times, at the J.N. “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge. Videographer: Charles Schultz.
J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, on the subtropical barrier island of Sanibel, is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States. President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order creating the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge in 1945 for the purpose of and in 1967 was renamed in honor of Jay Norwood Darling. It is world famous for spectacular migratory bird populations.
In Zimbabwe, the mighty rhino is making a comeback. In southern Africa, the animal was poached to near extinction in recent decades. We visit a wildlife sanctuary, with an elite anti-poaching team, to see how the animal is being bought back from the brink.
It’s one of the most successful rhino conservation projects in Africa. In south-eastern Zimbabwe, a private wildlife sanctuary is working hard to bring endangered rhinos back from the brink. In decades past, the mighty Black Rhino was poached to near extinction in southern Africa. Its horn, almost worth its weight in gold, makes it a target for organised poaching gangs.
In 1998, the privately-funded Malilangwe Trust had a population of 28 white and 28 black rhinos, imported from South Africa. Today its rhino population numbers in the hundreds. Reporter Michael Davie, an Australian born in Zimbabwe, returns home to witness this extraordinary wildlife success story. He spends time with the sanctuary’s highly trained anti-poaching team, the Malilangwe Scouts, the tip of the spear against the ever present poaching threat.
“Individually you can’t win against poaching and we need every one of us to fight against poachers,” says Patrick, a Sergeant in the Scouts. “You have to be a team, a strong one.” Davie captures all the incredible action of the hectic “rhino ops” where specialists dart the animals from helicopters then move in on 4WDs as they dash across the park. Led by ecologist Sarah Clegg, the rhino ops team collect vital data on the herd.
“They’ve got this reputation of being bad-tempered and dangerous and they are, but I think it’s mostly that they’re just such emotional creatures,” says Sarah, who’s studied the animal for more than two decades. “They’re just insecure, you know? And so they need more love.” Malilangwe increased its rhino population to such an extent that last year, it relocated some of its Black Rhino herd to nearby Gonarezhou National Park — a former killing ground for rhinos.
“It’s what we all aim for in our careers as conservationists,” says Sarah. “It’s a wild park, so being able to put the rhino back into that park is like waking it up again.” This visually stunning story has a powerful message of hope. “Everyone needs to know the rhino is special,” says Patrick.
A Great Blue Heron strikes a pose as they walk down the log runway.
A Blue Jay challenges a female Red-bellied Woodpecker. She was startled off the railing, but she immediately flew back to her spot and the Blue Jay gave way.The unusual pairing of a sandhill crane and Canada goose
In these frozen peaks, a chameleon gives birth to live young as it is too cold to lay eggs out in the open.
In East Africa, during the day, on the high slopes of Mount Kenya the tropical sun keeps the cold at bay – but at night the frost descends. During this cycle of freeze and thaw, a pregnant high casqued chameleon must choose the right time to give birth, if her new-borns are to escape the deadly night freeze.
Dinnertime is a gamble for Pallas’s cats, and this one’s hangry. Relative to their body size, they have the shortest legs of any cat, which makes attacking prey in a timely fashion somewhat tricky…
The Pallas’s cat, also known as the manul, is a small wild cat with long and dense light grey fur. Its rounded ears are set low on the sides of the head. Its head-and-body length ranges from 46 to 65 cm with a 21 to 31 cm long bushy tail.
A 360° underwater view in the waters off Marsa Alam, Egypt.
Marsa Alam is a resort town on the Red Sea in Egypt. It’s renowned for its sandy beaches and coral reefs. The U-shaped Abu Dabab Bay is known for its sea turtles and dugongs (sea cows). Kite-surf site El Naaba Lagoon is separated from the open sea by a coral reef. Wadi el-Gemal National Park, south of the town, encompasses desert, seagrass beds, reefs and islands.
In a race against time, the crew works to microchip a pack of wolf pups and return the pups to their den as quickly as possible—all while setting up their cameras in time to capture some truly heart-melting shots. Witness the wildlife of North America as you’ve never seen it before on #AmericaTheBeautifulSeries, narrated by Michael B. Jordan.
Filmed in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. Voyageurs National Park is in northern Minnesota, near the Canadian border. It covers a vast area and is known for its forests, waterways and huge, island-dotted Rainy, Kabetogama and Namakan lakes. The Ellsworth Rock Gardens, created by artist Jack Ellsworth, are a series of abstract sculptures on a terraced outcrop. The remote Kettle Falls area has a dam and a red-roofed hotel, both from the early 20th century.
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