NARRATOR: 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
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.
GROWLS, ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
These animals are...
..a force of nature.
REPORTER 1: The monster hurricane now at category 5 strength,
shattering records.
REPORTER 2: We still are tracking a monster of a hurricane
as it continues to move through the Caribbean.
THUNDER RUMBLES
REPORTER 3: Warmer ocean temperatures
are already having immediate effects on your daily life.
There's always been hurricanes, yeah,
but they're really strong these days.
They're really damaging.
This is the earliest category 5 hurricane ever recorded.
Every May, Caribbean flamingos flock to the coast of Mexico.
45,000 have come here to breed and raise their young.
This four-year-old female
has completed her mud nest in good time...
..ready to bring up her first chick.
Out here, the young family will be safer from crocodiles
lurking in the surrounding mangroves.
But on the ocean's edge... she has her work cut out...
..keeping her half-a-metre-tall nest high and dry...
..even if it means stealing mud from her neighbour.
Her preparations have paid off...
..and just in time.
For the first ten days of his life,
her helpless chick is confined to the nest.
Time enough to grow up and find his legs.
Or so it used to be.
With today's warming seas, trouble is brewing.
Thousands of miles out in the Atlantic...
..record-breaking temperatures...
lead to rapid water evaporation...
..forming the largest and deadliest weather event on the planet...
..a category 5 hurricane...
..heading straight for the flamingos
at the height of their breeding season.
First in its path... a Caribbean love island.
In blissful ignorance...
..an amorous male anole lizard shows off his wares...
..by flashing his dewlap...
..a colourful flap of skin to catch the female gaze.
But the male has competition.
Now... who to choose?
He'll have to face off his rival.
And she approves.
The weather then kills the mood.
The hurricane...
..has arrived.
THUNDER RUMBLES
These monster storms
now reach their maximum strength weeks earlier than ever before.
Those that can... seek shelter.
Others cling on for dear life.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Wind speeds now exceed 160 miles per hour.
To survive, the lizards must hold tight...
..or be swept out to sea.
But there's something special about this female...
..and her lovestruck partner.
Their survival...
..is won by a fingertip.
REPORTER 1: Human activity is producing
five atomic bombs' worth of heat every second.
Most of that heat is absorbed by the Earth's oceans.
This extra energy has doubled the number of severe winter storms
hitting Northern California in the last 30 years.
REPORTER 2: Over the open ocean, we have 30- to 50-foot waves.
That means very rough surf expected along the west coast.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
REPORTER 3: The California sea otters
are losing ground in their struggle to survive.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
The storm is becoming very strong very rapidly,
and when you get rapid intensification like that...
..bad things happen.
A sea otter mum and her days-old pup.
He can't yet swim...
..so relies on Mum for everything.
PUP SQUEAKS
Blowing into his coat,
she traps pockets of air between his hairs...
..inflating his very own life jacket.
Sea otters raise their pups in the middle of giant kelp forests.
This thick tangle of seaweed helps dampen waves...
..and hides them from their deadliest predator...
..great white sharks.
Here, Mum can leave her baby in safety
while she goes foraging for food.
Giant kelp forests can grow as high as a 15-storey building...
..and are home to nearly 1,000 different species.
But today, they are under threat...
..as rising sea temperatures draw out a plague from the depths...
..purple sea urchins.
Millions of them devouring the kelp...
..uprooting entire forests.
In the last 12 years,
96% of California's kelp has disappeared...
..leaving the sea otters dangerously exposed.
And warming waters come with added danger...
..fuelling huge waves...
..sweeping in from the Pacific.
Nothing stands between them...
..and the mother and pup.
Even the smallest rise in sea temperature can be catastrophic
for the richest ocean habitat of all.
REPORTER 1: Coral bleaching occurs
when corals expel the colourful algae
living in their tissues, causing them to become pale
and vulnerable to starvation and disease.
REPORTER 2: Back-to-back bleaching events
has destroyed the homes of many fish species,
and now their future hangs in the balance.
More than twice the length of the UK
and famously visible from space,
Australia's Great Barrier Reef
is the largest living structure on Earth...
..and home to more than 9,000 different species...
..including the most famous fish in the sea...
..a clownfish.
The ultimate homebody, this female has lived in the tentacles
of her anemone for 20 years...
..and has never left...
..with good reason.
For a two-metre-long humphead wrasse,
a clownfish would make a tasty snack.
But thanks to her thick coat of mucus,
she is immune to the anemone's deadly sting
and perfectly protected...
..which is just as well.
She and her partner are preparing a nursery.
Over the next two hours...
..she lays around 300 eggs.
But it's Dad who takes on the childcare,
gently aerating the eggs with his mouth...
..while Mum stands guard.
But today, she faces a far greater threat.
The seas around Australia are warming.
A deadly oceanic heatwave is enveloping the entire reef.
Just a one-degree rise could spell disaster...
..for everyone living here.
THUNDER RUMBLES
The earliest category 5 hurricane ever recorded in a season
is closing in on Mexico...
..striking the flamingo colony
while the chicks are still on the nest.
CHICKS SQUEAK
THUNDER RUMBLES
First comes the rain.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Category 5 hurricanes can dump three months of rain
in a matter of hours.
The young mother tries to bail out the nest
to prevent her chick from drowning.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Next comes the wind...
..already reaching 60 miles per hour,
100 miles from the eye of the storm.
But the biggest danger is now upon them...
..storm surges...
..with the potential to drown the entire colony.
Many choose to save themselves...
..leaving the young to their fate.
Older chicks manage to escape to higher ground.
But this young mother refuses to abandon her chick.
As long as she remains, her baby still stands a chance.
Over in California,
the sea otter mum is bracing herself for a storm of her own.
REPORTER 1: Experts are calling the conditions right now
life-threatening.
REPORTER 2: If you are not an experienced swimmer,
today is not the day to go ahead and try.
The protection of the kelp forest may have gone,
but Mum still needs to feed.
Leaving the pup exposed, she heads out into the surf.
This is the biggest winter storm she's ever faced.
She desperately tries to gather muscles
against the ripping swell...
..biting through the tough shell to get to the flesh.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
Every huge wave saps her energy.
Even a sea otter can drown...
..so she deploys a remarkable trick.
She uses a tool.
Smashing muscles on a stone anvil saves her precious seconds.
Now she must get back to her pup.
But he's being swept away.
PUP SQUEAKS
When Mum returns...
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS ..he's nowhere to be seen.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
The marine heatwave has engulfed the entire Great Barrier Reef.
REPORTER: These tropical waters are calm and pristine...
..but it doesn't take long to find signs of an ecosystem in distress.
Despite the impending disaster...
..the doting clownfish carry on their parental duties...
..while the coral is fighting for survival.
Living inside are tiny algae
which harvest sunlight to produce 90% of the coral's food.
But a two-degree rise in temperature...
..is enough for the algae to be expelled...
..leaving the coral to lose its colour and starve.
Today, coral bleaching is overwhelming
the Great Barrier Reef...
..on an unprecedented scale.
And it's not just the coral that can bleach.
The sea anemone also expels its algae...
..and could even lose the potency of its sting...
..leaving the clownfish and their eggs defenceless.
Opportunists waste no time.
She's lost her brood.
But she's not ready to give up just yet.
THUNDER RUMBLES
REPORTER 1: The storm was the earliest category 5 hurricane
to be recorded in an Atlantic hurricane season.
REPORTER 2: From the air,
devastation and ruin as far as the eye can see.
Calm has returned to the Caribbean.
The amorous male anole lizard made it...
..thanks to his unusually big feet...
..allowing him to hold tight against the hurricane...
..along with the equally big-footed female.
Time for flirtations to resume.
Now the trait that helped them survive
will be passed on to their young.
Astonishingly, a single hurricane season
can change the toe size of an entire population...
..an example of accelerated evolution
in the face of today's extreme weather.
In Mexico, the early hurricane hit the flamingos
at the peak of breeding season.
Of the 15,000 nests,
less than a third of the chicks survived.
But the young flamingo mum's refusal to abandon her nest
has paid off.
FLAMINGO SQUEAKS
And those who lost their brood haven't given up.
In the past, these flamingos raised just one brood a year.
Now they're adapting to extend their breeding window.
So those who lost their young...
..have another chance at parenthood.
Just one month later...
..there's a whole new nursery of chicks to look after.
There's no doubt
that powerful hurricanes will continue to strike early.
But these flamingos now stand a chance of weathering the storm.
As oceans become more violent,
finding shelter has never been tougher.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
The sea otter mum has lost her pup.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
Nearly half of all pups perish
in the first three months of their lives.
All she can do is cry out for him.
SEA OTTER SQUEAKS
Then, defying the odds...
..mother and pup are reunited.
But if they're to survive...
..Mum must find shelter.
She can swim more than 20 miles in a single day...
..searching for a special place...
..where sea otters gather...
..in their hundreds...
..forming living rafts for protection against winter storms.
This sea otter mum and pup are finally safe.
A remarkable response
as oceans become warmer and more treacherous.
The marine heatwave has now bleached
more than three quarters of the entire Great Barrier Reef.
Once thriving coral gardens reduced to rubble.
Countless marine creatures have lost their homes.
The clownfish's anemone is close to death.
But not if she can help it.
Using her fins and tail...
..she aerates its tentacles, making sure it has plenty of oxygen.
Dirt is swiftly dealt with...
..to keep the anemone clean and disease-free.
Tirelessly, she nurses her anemone... back to life.
An anemone this size may be over 80 years old...
..but it has never experienced water temperatures like today.
If a few resilient creatures like these can hold on...
..the reef stands a chance of making it through to better times.
As for the clownfish, she has one last surprise...
..a new generation.