ANDREW LINCOLN: For three years...
..the Force Of Nature team
filmed nature's fight...
..against today's extreme weather...
..through mega monsoons...
Look at it.
..and raging wildfires.
It just shows how brutal it is out here for the chimps.
RETCHING The crew were pushed to the limits
as they faced...
..the full fury of the elements.
Whoa!
Teaming up with the world's top scientists...
WHISPERING: At least two males walk here.
Yeah, it's definitely here somewhere.
..they discovered...
..that resilience
and ingenuity enable many species to pull through.
LAUGHTER Yes!
But some desperately need a helping hand...
..revealing a hopeful truth...
..even small actions...
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS ..can have a far-reaching impact...
..for all our wild animals...
..facing the full Force Of Nature.
THUNDER CRACKS
THUNDER RUMBLES
The biggest weather events on the planet
are getting wilder.
You see it? Look at it.
The Force Of Nature team is in Borneo...
..to film how the worsening monsoon
is affecting the rarest elephant on Earth...
GROWLS DEEPLY
..the Bornean elephant.
The small pockets of forest the elephants rely on
are beginning to flood.
THUNDER RUMBLES DISTANTLY
It won't be long before they have to cross the swollen river.
The elephants are getting close.
They've been in one area for quite a long time,
so they'll probably have to cross soon,
as they're running out of food.
Crossing in water this high, and the current is so strong,
yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see.
After three months of rainfall in just three days,
the river has burst its banks.
The crew have turned to Dr Farina Othman
to help them work out
when and where the elephants will cross.
The forests are too small,
and they will cross,
and then they will go to the next forest,
and then cross again.
But during flooding season, this could be dangerous,
and they might get drowned.
Farina has put GPS collars on select elephants...
..helping the crew to narrow down where they might be.
This is where they were,
and it's looking like they're heading across here,
to this crossing point over here.
It's a sure sign that the elephants are close by.
DEEP GROWLING
A herd of 20 elephants is preparing to cross a river
that now stretches more than 100 metres wide.
The stakes could not be higher
as the drone reveals a young baby in the herd.
It looks like they're trying to huddle around the baby.
I think they're trying to pick the right time to go, but the...
ELEPHANT TRUMPETING Ooh. The current is pretty strong.
To get the baby safely across,
the herd will have to form a protective barrier around her.
Holly, Holly, we're going to go in, so we can cross you the baby.
MAN: 'Copy that.'
To keep a safe distance,
the crew position themselves downstream.
BABY MEWS Not too close yet.
ELEPHANT TRUMPETING
Where's the baby, Will? At the front.
The baby looks like it's getting really tired now.
The current's really strong.
ELEPHANT SCREECHES
The current pulls the family apart.
And the baby starts to panic.
She's swimming in the wrong direction.
FARINA:
But just when the crew fears the worst...
..the current weakens its grip...
..and the baby is able to swim back to her mum...
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
..who guides her to the safety of the river bank.
She's crossed, and she's clearly tired.
That was incredible. That's just magic.
My heart is going very fast - still. LAUGHS
To prevent dangerous river crossings like this in the future,
we have to tackle the root of the problem.
Up to 80% of the elephants' forest
has been lost to palm oil plantations.
Imagine, after crossing a very strong current,
and now they have to face another challenge,
which is, you know, people try to push them away again.
Farina's life's work is dedicated to educating plantation workers...
SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
..in the hope they will allow the elephants
to cross safely through their land.
If we can make them understand a little bit of, you know,
simple signs of elephants,
how the elephants looks like when they are angry,
how the elephant looks like when they are relaxed,
so at least we can give them a bit of confidence
during the encounter with the elephants,
so that there will be no incidents to people, and also to elephants.
But the most important part of Farina's work
is convincing plantations to remove the barriers to the elephants...
..so they can reach the remaining fragments of forest
without ever having to cross the river.
Thanks to Farina,
four out of seven plantations are now committed
to creating corridors through their land.
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS
But her team won't stop campaigning
until they've persuaded the rest.
We are losing so much right now that God knows,
like, what will happen to the next generation.
But there's still hope.
Little efforts together
will bring help for the next generation.
As the planet warms,
weather patterns around the world are shifting.
The team is in Mexico
to film how breeding flocks of Caribbean flamingos
are coping with the early onset of the hurricane season.
Cameraman Miguel is trying to sneak up
on a colony of 45,000 birds.
MIGUEL: 'Pretty close to 6'2",
'and the hide's probably about five foot high,
'so I can't stand up straight.'
He's joined by flamingo scientist Alex Dzib.
FLAMINGOS SQUAWK
ALEX: Flamingo is my favourite bird.
When I was growing up,
I used to go and see the flamingos with my father,
taking tourists, taking the biologists.
And then I decide, "Oh, I'm gonna be a biologist."
The colour is really outstanding.
The babies are beautiful, like a cotton ball with pink legs,
so they are kind of like the cutest thing.
CHICK SQUEAKS
And I think it's one of the most interesting birds on Earth.
The lagoon is unusually hot for this time of year -
an early indicator that the hurricane season
could start any day.
The flamingos, they will be trying to have the chicks
before the hurricane comes.
But now, with the changes of weather,
things are more adverse for flamingos.
THUNDER RUMBLES
It's not long before the first signs of trouble
blow in from the ocean.
Not the most waterproof hide, so...
..this is my, erm, solution.
The crew are here to film extreme weather.
THUNDER CRACKS We're... Whoa!
But it quickly becomes clear
this is no ordinary storm.
It's the outer edge of a hurricane.
As the storm interferes with radio comms,
director Fernanda becomes concerned for Miguel.
He's now completely cut off.
ANDREW LINCOLN: At the flamingo colony,
the hurricane is battering Miguel's camera hide.
But he's more concerned for the chicks.
MIGUEL: Water level's been rising.
Some of the chicks are looking pretty precarious, I'd say.
It's quite hard watching the mum and the chick as the water's rising,
trying to keep the chick safe.
WIND HOWLS
THUNDER RUMBLES
So, I've got a little, er, guest in the hide.
The hurricane may have passed,
but the colony has been hit hard at its most vulnerable.
When we have these big rains like we are been having,
the rains are very, very strong,
and the flamingos,
then they end up on their own.
Scattered by the strong winds,
hundreds of chicks are at risk of hypothermia.
It's a tough thing to witness.
Aw. Ay, ay, ay.
But flamingo fanatic Alex has a bold plan.
These birds mean so much to the local community...
..Alex has no problem assembling a small army of volunteers...
LAUGHTER
THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
..to help reunite the lost chicks with their parents.
SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
'My family always says,
' "You care more about flamingos than us." '
But they do it in a great, positive way,
because they also love flamingos.
I feel like flamingos are part of my family.
Every chick collected is vital to the colony's future.
CHICKS CHIRP
And although so many have been lost to the early hurricane season...
..the flamingos are fighting back -
by starting to breed for a second time.
Even so,
Alex is fearful for the future of his beloved flamingos.
They are so fragile.
In the other way, they are really, really strong.
Slowly, slowly, they are adapting to face adverse environment,
and this is basically something that nature always teach us,
which is survival of the fittest.
If the flamingos find a better place where they can nest,
that would be really devastating, because then I won't have flamingos.
And I won't have...
..any more friends, and that's really sad.
As hurricanes intensify in the Caribbean...
..across the Atlantic...
..rising temperatures fuel another weather extreme.
Botswana is in the grip of a record-breaking drought.
The Force Of Nature team is battling the elements
in search of a lioness that has become a local legend.
Jeez! BOTH LAUGH
But finding her in these conditions won't be easy.
It's been about a two-hour-long dust storm
that we've been driving through, with probably 100-metre visibility.
Unable to see far at ground level, the team changes tactic.
There they are.
Her name's Motlhokomedi. It means "protector".
She seems to have fully taken over both of her sisters' cubs.
Which is a first for me.
I've never seen this before, a lioness taking care of eight cubs.
She's now kept all eight of them alive
for the past month, by herself.
The drought is taking its toll on the family.
But remarkably, the desert delivers a lifeline.
Rainwater from distant mountains
travels hundreds of miles to form an oasis...
..drawing in the largest herd of Cape buffalo in Africa.
It would normally take a whole pride to bring one down.
ON RADIO: 'The lions to my left are about 150 metres now.'
OK, copy that. We're gonna follow your line and around to your side.
Motlhokomedi is going to take on the whole herd... solo.
Look at this. It's a massive herd.
First, she taunts them.
Oh, she's going, she's going, she's going.
Then she drives them into a panic.
Yeah, she's on it. She's on it, she's on it, she's on it.
As the herd runs, it kicks up a dust storm.
This is insane.
That dust is epic.
Using the smokescreen as cover...
..she makes her move.
DEEP GRUNTING
Motlhokomedi has taken down a buffalo...
..on her own.
She brought down quite a bit of an older calf,
but the herd rallied and came in and smashed her pretty hard.
So we're gonna go check on her now
and see if she got any damage from that.
It looked like a really hard whack, so I hope she's OK.
The hunt has left her with a serious eye injury.
The following day, she and the cubs disappear.
For days, Tem and the team search...
..in vain.
Our biggest concern is that lions have been known
to prioritise their own health over their cubs,
so Dan and I were really worried that she abandoned her cubs.
But then, a sighting.
She's a bit of a distance away,
so we're racing off to go find her now.
Fairly exciting.
I hope all eight cubs have been able to make it.
This is really good news.
They should be close by
because their tracks were fresh, fresh, fresh.
I've got her tracks again here now.
Oh, my gosh. There they are.
Oh, wow.
It's so heart-warming to see all of them together now.
And that injury is healing so nicely.
It's unbelievable.
It's almost like just a baby scratch on her face now.
We've really gotten quite attached to her
because we've never seen a female lion so committed
to the cause of keeping all the cubs alive.
She is a real fighter.
Awesome. Awesome, awesome.
I'm so stoked.
TEM LAUGHS
ANDREW LINCOLN: The Force Of Nature team
has swapped extreme heat for the icy peaks of the Himalayas.
Oh!
For three weeks,
they've been playing a game of cat and mouse
with a young male snow leopard
who's been ousted from his territory.
Over 4,000 metres, there's less oxygen in the air.
Everything is harder.
RADIO CHATTER
SIGHS
And after a mammoth climb,
the team gets some unexpected intel.
We've just walked up a... 800-metre hill,
and as we get to the top,
they tell us there's a snow leopard at the bottom of the hill.
So now we've got to go back down to where we started.
The young snow leopard has been seen
making his way down to local guide Namgail's village.
As the mountains warm and the snow line retreats,
snow leopard and human territories are increasingly overlapping.
IN OWN LANGUAGE:
The atmosphere is tense
as the crew set up on either side of the valley.
Yeah. Got it?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Wow. Look at you.
CATTLE LOW
Er, keep an eye on the road.
More to your left, more to your left.
But what the leopard sets his sights on
takes everyone by surprise.
DOGS BARKING
DOG WHIMPERS
The snow leopard attacking the dog has shocked the villagers,
who call in the local wildlife protection team.
DEEP GRUNTING
GROWLS
And the young leopard is taken into their care.
The young male will be released in a safe location,
far from the village.
LEOPARD GROWLS
And as for the dog that was attacked,
she also survived and was taken to a rescue centre.
Are you feeling better now? Eh?
It's amazing that she's actually back to full health now,
as you can see. Hello!
SIREN WAILS
In the back of this truck
is a wild, and awake, and alive snow leopard
that we are trying to get to its location.
They want to get it released as quickly as possible.
At a carefully selected site,
far from the village and other competing males,
he'll have the best chance of finding a territory of his own.
As the Himalayas warm,
the work of the wildlife protection team
has never been more critical...
..if India's last 750 snow leopards are to survive.
Across the world,
record temperatures are setting animals
on a collision course...
with humans.
The crew is in Senegal...
..following a family of savannah chimpanzees...
..our closest living relatives.
To keep up, they must run over ten kilometres a day
in 45-degree heat.
Too much for assistant producer Chris...
HE RETCHES
You OK?
..who quickly succumbs to heat exhaustion.
CHRIS: They are so much better adapted to the heat than we are.
It's kind of remarkable.
I sort of don't know how it's possible for them to survive.
Helping the crew to interact safely with the chimps
is local scientist Michel.
Then we go that way.
IN OWN LANGUAGE:
The family Michel studies
is led by an alpha male named Cy.
It's his responsibility to find the troop water
during the worst drought in a hundred years.
With all their natural water sources run dry,
he leads the troop into uncharted territory.
A gold mine.
Filled with risk...
..and reward.
As soon as the workers down tools,
Cy makes his move.
In a daring raid, never filmed before...
..he lowers himself into an unstable mineshaft.
That is brilliant.
This whole area has been, like, completely devastated by mining.
But actually, the chimps have turned that to their advantage.
And in that hole, cos they've dug down below the water level,
there was water, and the chimps have just gone in and drunk from it.
This remarkable behaviour shows chimps, just like us,
will go to extraordinary lengths to provide for their family.
But taking from the human world comes with danger.
WHISPERS: A guy has just walked out, and he had a catapult.
He just got the catapult ready.
CHIMPS SCREECH
I mean, I don't know what he was thinking.
That's pretty scary, though.
MICHEL:
Without a safe supply of water,
these chimps could disappear in just two generations.
But the local villagers are determined not to let that happen.
The Neighbor Ape project was set up
to help chimps survive today's extreme drought.
By digging a well away from the dangers of the mine...
..the chimps can safely access the water
they so desperately need.
This river that's just at the edge of the village
is a really important water source for the chimps.
But this year, it's dried up pretty early,
and they're digging a well for the chimps to drink.
It's an amazing collaboration between the villagers here,
who really care about the chimps.
Finally, the chimps can drink in safety.
Michel knows that by providing a permanent water source,
the family he's grown to know so well
will have a future here.
MICHEL:
ANDREW LINCOLN: 90% of the world's excess heat
is absorbed by the ocean.
It's having catastrophic consequences
on the largest living structure on Earth...
..Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Home to over 9,000 species...
..including the world's most famous little fish...
..the clownfish.
This pair is struggling to raise a family
in one of the fastest-changing habitats on the planet.
Underwater cameraman and biologist Richard Fitzpatrick
has been filming on the Great Barrier Reef
for over 30 years.
But he has never witnessed
a marine heatwave like this before...
..the worst in recorded history.
The water is really warm.
It's actually too warm, to be honest.
So you know, straight away, that something is really wrong.
When he arrives at the clownfish's home,
his worst fears are confirmed.
The heatwave has caused the clownfish's anemone
to expel the colourful algae that feeds it,
and it's turned a deathly white.
Those fish that are larger and more migratory
will go to deeper water or leave the reef,
go somewhere cooler, but some fish can't leave.
And a classic example of that is the clownfish.
You know, it lives with the sea anemone.
It can't go anywhere else.
And if their anemone dies, they've got no safe home,
and the clownfish will die.
And it's not just the anemone that's in trouble.
Richard discovers that most of the coral reef
has now bleached.
Must say, it's pretty depressing to see the coral's dying.
Thing that's becoming more obvious to me is,
when I go back to all these sites,
is that we're just getting less and less diversity,
less and less size ranges.
Less and less life.
But not all hope is lost.
Scientists are racing to come up with solutions
to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Some are developing heat-resistant coral.
Others are freezing coral spawn,
to be stored for when more favourable conditions return.
And once a year,
people travel from all over Australia
to take part in a mass coral-planting event
called Coralpalooza.
It's a chance for Richard to help restore his part of the reef.
Towards the end of filming,
there are encouraging signs of recovery.
The clownfish can help the anemone
by defending it from potential predators
and keeping detritus off it,
trying to keep the anemone as low-stressed as possible.
And then, if the water temperature does drop,
the anemone can actually recover.
It is now known that anemones with clownfish
are far more likely to survive a bleaching event
than those without.
Richard believes that by digging deep
to protect their patch of the reef,
clownfish can be an inspiration to us all.
I hope there is hope. You know?
I've always been a fan of sci-fi movies where, you know,
when it comes to the crunch, humanity gets behind
and, you know, we come up with the solutions.
Every person on this planet has to take responsibility
for their own carbon cost.
You know, switching off the light bulbs
will literally save a coral.
Across this series,
we've revealed extraordinary ways animals can fight back...
..from lizards evolving bigger feet...
..to polar bears hunting on land.
But some animals need a helping hand.
The world's scientists all agree -
climate change is a complex problem.
But solving it is a shared responsibility
that we can all play a part in.
Climate change affects the mountains and the sea first,
so it affects the animals a lot.
We must accept that they are living on this planet,
and they have the same rights as us.
Let's allow the elephants to migrate or use the water
that we use to water our crops with as well.
A bit of a balance between the two.
Little efforts together
will bring more hope for the next generation.