ANDREW LINCOLN: Our weather is wilder...
..fiercer...
..more unpredictable...
..than ever before.
REPORTER 1: Rare red weather warnings,
meaning there's a potential danger to life.
REPORTER 2: Such weather is more frequent and intense.
REPORTER 3: I think we had this conversation in our newsroom,
you know, when they were evacuating all the people.
What about the animals?
For the first time...
..we see the planet's most extreme weather...
..through their eyes.
When nature turns against them...
..they're not just enduring...
..they are fighting back...
..in remarkable ways.
The bigger the storm...
..the greater the heroes.
GROWLING, TRUMPETING
These animals are...
..a force of nature.
INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER
REPORTER 1: The worst flooding Malaysia has seen in decades.
Torrential rain has submerged entire towns.
REPORTER 2: It burst its banks after three months' worth of rain
fell in just three days.
REPORTER 3: The water came in so quickly,
they really didn't have much time to prepare.
This river can be deceivingly dangerous.
TRUMPETING
The current often catches swimmers off guard.
The Kinabatangan is one of the richest rainforests on Earth.
Home to 6,000 species found nowhere else on the planet...
..including the rarest and smallest elephant...
..the Bornean elephant.
This tight-knit family spans generations...
..from a 70-year-old grandma...
..to a brand-new arrival...
..a three-week-old calf.
With just a thousand of their kind left,
she's not just precious to her family,
but the entire species.
But today, their survival is under threat.
Their forest home has been heavily fragmented
by palm oil plantations...
..with just narrow strips of forest left to provide food.
Facing starvation,
the family must cross the river.
It's dangerous for a baby this young to be in water.
But at two metres tall, Mum can wade across the river
and lend a helping hand.
Today, Borneo's rainfall is decreasing.
So the river is running low...
..leaving high, treacherous river banks to navigate.
Three-tonne elephants are not built for climbing.
Mud turns to quicksand.
Everyone must keep moving.
But the inexperienced mother suddenly turns
to check on her calf...
..causing the grandmother to almost trample the baby.
She has to force her daughter out of the way
to keep the herd moving.
Slippery mud causes chaos for the adults.
Some tough love keeps her moving in the right direction...
..encouraging her on to where her family is waiting to help.
Mother and grandmother lift the baby to safety.
A plantation, not a thick forest full of food.
It won't be long before they have to cross again.
Only, now the annual rainy season, the monsoon, has arrived...
..with an intensity even the elders have never experienced before.
THUNDER RUMBLES
To find food, they will now have to battle the rising flood waters.
REPORTER: If it feels like extreme flooding events are getting worse,
it's because they are.
REPORTER: A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture,
meaning storms can produce heavier rainfall and flooding.
REPORTER: The worst of our summer rainstorm
has now passed South Australia,
but only after the tropical weather system
delivered a third day of heavy downpours,
once again breaking apart roads and rainfall records.
REPORTER: Hundreds of properties are under threat
of being swallowed by flood waters.
It means evacuated residents won't be allowed home.
REPORTER: Keep in mind, not only are people displaced
but wildlife are displaced in large numbers
across this region that have been pushed
out of their usual habitats into, essentially, people's properties.
Rarely seen let alone filmed...
..platypus have patrolled Australia's rivers
long before Tyrannosaurus rex ever walked the earth.
With the body of a beaver...
..and the face of a duck...
..she has to be one of the strangest animals on the planet.
She usually prefers the single life...
..but today...
..she's putting herself out there.
Scratching her scent glands,
she uses the river to disperse her feminine pheromones far and wide.
It's not long before the message is received...
..loud and clear.
This is his big chance.
Platypus only breed every other year.
Courtship is swift...
and, like all things platypus...
..a little bizarre.
For him, it's a brief affair...
..but her work is just beginning.
This prehistoric creature is one of the very few mammals to lay eggs.
And she has just 11 days to find enough food to produce them.
Her calm and clean stream is packed full of small invertebrates.
But with her head underwater...
..she's completely unaware of the storm brewing upstream.
REPORTER: Caught off guard when what began
as a drizzly day escalated into severe storm activity.
REPORTER: We are being challenged by nature.
REPORTER: This is a once-in-a-generation weather event.
REPORTER: We could see a month's worth of rain in just a single day.
THUNDER CRASHES
The impact will be widespread with residents who are staying behind.
They're being warned to prepare for flash flooding.
Nowhere does floodwater rise faster...
..than in the smallest streams.
Flash floods are becoming more frequent...
..and their consequences can be catastrophic.
Platypus may be strong swimmers...
..but a flood of this magnitude...
..will test her to the limit.
REPORTER: Quite a sight in this desert,
one of the driest places on Earth has flooded.
REPORTER: We do not yet know for how long it will last.
REPORTER: Experts say this boom will soon go bust
in nature's cycle of predator and prey.
ANDREW LINCOLN: In the Kalahari, the rainy season has failed...
..again.
This lioness is fighting to stay alive...
..through the driest period in a century.
Abandoned by her pride...
..leaving her to fend not just for herself...
GROWLS
..but for all of the cubs they left behind.
Raising eight alone is tough at the best of times...
..especially in a land this barren.
CROWS
In a drought, survival seems impossible.
Then... nature changes the rules.
The rains may have failed...
..and yet...
..the miracle of water.
A stream that has travelled six months to get here...
..from seasonal rains...
..that fell on mountains 500 miles to the west.
Not a cloud in the sky...
..but there's a flood in the desert.
While most floods bring devastation...
..this flood delivers life.
The largest gathering of Cape buffalo on the planet.
Marching south from distant grasslands...
..they form a queue four hours long...
..to drink from the only standing water for over a hundred miles.
Just one buffalo...
..would be enough to feed her family for weeks.
A solitary lioness is no match...
..for a half-tonne bull.
But in the marsh, she has an advantage.
MOOING
Heavy bodies sink in deep mud.
She is lighter on her feet.
BUFFALO GROANS
LIONESS SNARLS
Her first proper meal in weeks.
But she has company.
A rival pride of lions, 15 strong.
They'd not just steal from her...
..they'd kill her.
She will have to find a new way to hunt if her cubs are to survive.
PRINCE WILLIAM: Communities around the world
are already facing extreme heat, wildfires, floods...
..and increased frequency of extreme weather.
REPORTER: It's thought to be the worst monsoon season in decades.
REPORTER: Couldn't come at a worse time right now,
and this storm is really starting to pack a punch.
The threats going forward - landslides, urban flooding.
And it is still rapidly intensifying.
REPORTER: This is a country used to storms,
but no-one can become used to this intensity.
REPORTER: Climate change is making extreme weather events more intense,
this one exceptionally rare in its ferocity.
Only when the storm passes are its consequences revealed.
The runoff from three months of rain...
..in just three days...
..leads to record flooding.
Confined to a tiny patch of forest...
..the herd are desperate for food.
But to reach it, they now face crossing an unrecognisable river.
It has risen by 12 metres.
Running fast, concealing dangerous currents...
..and now stretching over 100 metres.
Elephants are good swimmers...
..but this is impossibly far for those with the littlest legs.
She'll need the help of her whole family if she's to make it.
Sticking tight, they begin the marathon swim.
CRIES
CALF SHRIEKS
At any moment, the powerful current
could separate the baby from her family.
So the herd forms a protective shield around her.
Halfway across...
..the current is at its strongest.
Even the adults struggle to make headway.
The river starts to pull them apart.
The calf starts to panic.
Drowning is a major cause of death in calves.
She needs to get back to her family...
..fast.
REPORTER: The SES has responded to hundreds of calls for help.
Torrential rain led to flash flooding
with dozens of people rescued from rising waters across the state.
REPORTER: Upstream, flood waters are slowly receding,
laying bare the extent of the devastation.
ANDREW LINCOLN: Somehow, the platypus managed
to ride out the flash flood.
But the return to calm hides a devastating truth.
Tonnes of sediment has washed into her river...
..suffocating her prey.
With just eight days left to lay her eggs...
..she needs to find food fast...
..and leave behind the only home...
..she's ever known.
But where her ancestors could easily move between rivers...
..in the modern world, she's never far from humanity.
A very public park. QUACKING
She may be safely back in water...
..but she hasn't eaten since her river flooded.
And producing platypus eggs takes a lot of energy.
Maybe a bit of fish food could be just what she needs.
But to get enough of it...
..she's setting off on a high-risk...
..high-calorie heist.
She breaks into pond...
..after pond...
..stealing everyone else's food.
QUACKS
Her species didn't outlive the dinosaurs
without a bit of ingenuity.
She may have all the food she can eat...
..but surrounded by concrete...
..there is no river bank to dig out a nest.
With little time to go before laying her eggs...
..she must hurry to find a more suitable home.
In the Kalahari...
..the huge oasis provides relief...
..from the merciless desert on its borders.
But the water is a dangerous place...
..for a single lioness and her eight cubs.
She's kept them all alive on milk and scraps.
But if they are to survive,
she needs to provide a substantial kill.
The marsh is now under the control...
..of the hostile pride.
SNARLING
And they'll kill to keep it.
So she must change strategy.
Every afternoon, the buffalo are drawn to the flood to drink.
And this time...
..she'll intercept them before they reach the water.
Each buffalo is deadly.
And she's drawing the attention...
..of the entire herd...
..goading them to charge.
But there is method in her madness.
The drought has turned the ground to dust...
..driving the herd into panic.
Thousands of hooves churn the earth...
..providing the perfect smoke screen.
Her first fresh meat in weeks...
..in a place safe enough to call in her cubs.
GROWLS
Taking down the buffalo wasn't without cost...
..but her cubs will eat their fill today.
Thanks to this clever mother's hunting strategy...
..the cubs stand a fighting chance...
..in the grips of a record-breaking drought.
In Borneo...
..the flooded river has put the elephants in mortal danger.
The strong current has separated the baby from her family.
TRUMPETS
But instead of surrendering...
..she swims for her life.
Finally, the river releases its grip...
ROARS
..and she's able to swim back to Mum...
..and is chaperoned to the safety of the bank.
The family has survived...
..one of the most dangerous crossings of their lives.
In her short life, the baby has already faced challenges...
..that even her grandmother hasn't experienced before.
And it hasn't been in vain.
A patch of forest this large will feed the family for weeks.
And she can finally do what babies do best.
The herd's unbreakable bond helped them survive the crossing...
..but their future hangs in the balance.
With today's weather extremes,
dangerous river crossings are on the rise.
In Australia...
..the platypus mum has followed her nose to a new river.
First impressions are promising.
Crystal clear...
..and full of food.
It has everything...
..an expectant platypus could need.
And this is no accident.
This river was once devastated...
..by building a dam that held back 99% of its water.
But now, we are giving it back...
..returning life to the river.
This is a flood for good.
Controlled releases of water
ensure a stable environment for the platypus...
..and just in time to collect the bedding she needs to build her nest.
It's unclear how this ancient creature will fare into the future.
But in this river,
a small change means she has everything she needs
to start her family.
As animals face the growing extremes of flood and drought...
..it's up to us to make sure there's a safe future for all...
..who depend on our precious fresh water.