Round Planet S01E04 Wildebeest 1080p NF WEB-DL DD+2 0 x264-AJP69_Subtitles01.ENG Subtitles

00:00:06,520 --> 00:00:08,This is planet Earth.

00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:14,And this is planet Earth. So is this.

00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:18,And so is this, too, but a bit closer up.

00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:24,On land and in ocean,
there is an abundance of life,

00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:28,without which this series
would never have been commissioned.

00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:34,Now, after 23 years of painstaking work,

00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,we have finally edited it.

00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,And you are watching it.

00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:43,This is Round Planet

00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,The Story of Everything.

00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,If you edit out humans and boring stuff.

00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:00,This is Africa.

00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:07,In the shadow of the mighty Ol Doinyo
Lengai volcano, an immense and fertile

00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:14,grassland stretches 30,000 square
kilometres across Tanzania and Kenya.

00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,Oh! Where… where’s the producer

00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:24,My script is… oh… don’t worry,
don’t worry; I’ll just wing it.

00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,I’ll wing it.
Come on big boy, here we go.

00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:39,The Serengeti.
This vast and stunning landscape is home

00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:44,to possibly more ungulates and cud
munchers than anywhere else on the planet,

00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,including shitloads of wildebeest.

00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,This is the story of their epic migration.

00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,A circle of life.

00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,That’s not a metaphor;
it’s an actual circle.

00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,These prannies spend six months walking
around in a circle.

00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:16,This is "The Greatest Journey on Earth".

00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:18,Hmm.

00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,And what about our ancestors walking all
that way from Africa, Tabitha?

00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,Or when I did that fun run
to Great Yarmouth?

00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,This species are known as
"brindled gnus".

00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:35,Or "blue wildebeest".

00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,Even though they are quite clearly brown.

00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,It’s May.

00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,The plains are verdant now,
but they’ll soon die back,

00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:54,and this mega herd of over a million
wildebeest will have no choice

00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,but to set
off on a life and death journey:

00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,an epic quest for grass.

00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,Much like my cameraman,
Garth Delaspong undertakes every Friday.

00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,Still, he gets the job done.
Most of the time.

00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:17,A treacherous
journey that will cover a thousand miles.

00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:21,Oh, kilometres? Oh, yes, I see.

00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:23,Yes, of course,
we’re all European, now, aren't we?

00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:29,Yeah. So that’s, uh... minus the cross,
uh... times by four…

00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:33,add the… and that’s…
and that’s a lot of kilometres.

00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:40,So the wildebeest need to get
a certain number of steps in for the day.

00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,My lovely wife’s always on at me about it.

00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:44,I done it, darling!

00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:46,I haven’t.

00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,Over 200,000 jazzy zebras

00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:56,and about half a million
Thomson’s gazelles join the parade.

00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:02,Oh, I've no idea who Thomson is either,
but all his antelopes are loose.

00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:08,Not all four-legged animals

00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,on the Serengeti are
on this relatively long walk.

00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:21,These cheetahs and lions are
staying behind to defend their territory.

00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,To them,
these animals are walking sausages.

00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:31,And lions like sausages.
So they are sad to see them go.

00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:40,Back where the wildebeest started,

00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,no gnus is good
news for these quelea birds.

00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:48,Very good.

00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:52,They have gathered together
to celebrate the start of the dry season.

00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,Oh, talking of "dry",
can I have a top

00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:57,Tabby?

00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:03,As the temperature rises, the arid land
becomes laden with grass seed. To the queleas, the Serengeti is
now the world’s biggest little old lady,

00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:12,putting out infinite bird food.

00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:18,The sky turns black with birds.

00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:22,If you tried to count them, you'd go mad.

00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:23,I know I **.

00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:28,In what appears a defensive measure,

00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:32,the tiny birds gather
into the shape of larger animals.

00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:35,A sky panther.

00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:38,A horizon elephant.

00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:47,Following the rain, the wildebeest take
the scenic route across the plains.

00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:52,But here in Africa,
every route is a "scenic route".

00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,Wildebeest do everything on the move.

00:05:58,280 --> 00:05:59,Even mating.

00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,To us,
the male wildebeest all look the same.

00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,And to a female wildebeest,
they also all look the same.

00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:14,So, to stand out from the crowd,
they don’t pretend to like French cinema.

00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:16,They get a bit fighty.

00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:19,Like the last time me and Packham rumbled

00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:21,at the
Wildlife Presenter of the Year awards.

00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:27,“Oh, look at me.
I’m Chris Packham with my lovely hair.”

00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,The only reason he didn’t win all
the awards is because the last one

00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,was for
Female Wildlife Presenter of the Year.

00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:35,And even then, he came second.

00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:38,-Alright! I’ll get on with it.

00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:45,The male wildebeest work hard
to draw attention to themselves

00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,and entice females
onto their patch of turf.

00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:52,Personally,
my money’s on the one on the left.

00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:59,Go on! Put some welly into it! In the
nads. Yeah, that’s the stuff.

00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,Oh, it’s really quite erotically charged.

00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:03,Hmm.

00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:12,With a twitch of her tail, the
female signals to the male that he is in.

00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,But he misses.

00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:19,Well, we’ve all been there.

00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:24,Yes, I...
Better luck next time.

00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:28,Not that I think there’ll be a next time
once she’s told the rest of the girls.

00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:35,Well, don’t worry, chap. Plenty more
wildebeest on the Serengeti.

00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:45,By June, the females
are pregnant and the males exhausted.

00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,And the ones that aren't are
just awkwardly hanging around.

00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:05,Meanwhile,
back where the wildebeest started,

00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,the dry season is now really starting
to grip.

00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:15,Boredom is setting in. Loneliness.
Feelings of existential dread.

00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:22,This giraffe is about to
melt into a puddle of camouflage.

00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,This young lion
is hallucinating an ostrich.

00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:30,Yeah, we’ve all been there too.

00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:38,These acacia trees are one of the few
bits of greenery in this barren landscape.

00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,They are spiky and unpleasant,
but these giraffes eat them all the same.

00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:49,Their industrial strength teeth can grind
up the thorns.

00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:52,And with half-metre long tongues,

00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,they can reach higher
than any other animal in the Serengeti.

00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,What?
He’s going in for seconds?

00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,Huh, he’s g***t neck.
Down to his arse, it would seem.

00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:10,It’s now September.

00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,I mean, we call it "September", but
wildebeest don’t really see it that way.

00:09:16,000...