My name is Gordon Buchanan.
As a cameraman, I've filmed
wildlife all over the planet,
but there are limits
to where I can go.
She's returning to the place
that I can't follow her.
So in this series,
it's the animals
that are doing the filming,
to reveal the secret side
of their lives
we've never seen before.
- Oh, that's so cool.
- That is lovely.
Over the years,
we've designed
pioneering mini cameras
for a huge range of animals.
It's like a job interview.
Everything is made to measure.
Just figuring out
what her new bit of bling is.
And we've teamed up
with scientists
who want to learn about
the challenges animals face
to help protect them
in the future.
She is potentially
showing us parts of the ocean
that no one has seen before.
In this special episode,
we dive
into the ocean to find out...
What do turtles
get up to at sea?
Can sharks help protect
coral reefs?
How do gannets find their food?
And how do seal pups survive
after being abandoned
by their mother?
This is "Animals with Cameras."
My first adventure
starts here...
Cape Verde...
a cluster of tropical islands
off the west coast of Africa.
I'm on Sal, one of the driest
and most barren.
This really is
a true desert island.
First impressions as a wildlife
cameraman, looking around...
There aren't that
many wild animals.
But for just a few months
each summer,
the sandy beaches in the south,
where I'm heading,
are inundated by a very,
very special reptile...
the loggerhead turtle.
Loggerheads can weigh twice
as much as an adult human
and live for up to 50 years.
They spend their lives
traversing the world's oceans
all on their own,
traveling thousands of miles
between feeding grounds.
Because they spend so much time
in the open ocean,
extremely little
is known about them.
So what do these creatures
do at sea?
Hopefully the cameras
will find out.
Biologists Albert Taxonera
and Christophe Eizaguirre
have been studying
the loggerheads on Sal
for the past decade.
What we are trying
to do is to learn more about
the conservation status of these
animals, learn more about them
so we can actually
protect them better.
Cape Verde hosts
one of the world's
largest populations
of nesting loggerheads.
During the breeding season,
up to 7,000 females
return to Sal's beaches
where they were born.
Each can lay up to 6 clutches
of 80 eggs.
It's widely believed that during
their nesting season,
loggerheads will not feed
for five months.
But is this actually true?
Do turtles feed in
the surrounding ocean or not?
Albert and Christophe
need to use the mini cameras
to find out.
I've been working
in Cape Verde for 10 years,
and for almost as long
as this time,
we had the speculation
that turtles feed locally.
So why is it important
to know if they're feeding?
The beaches of Sal
are already protected
to safeguard the turtles,
but the surrounding
coral reefs are not.
So, if the turtles are
feeding here,
the marine ecosystem
needs protecting, too.
If we understand
what they do,
we can always push for
better conservation strategies.
But to safeguard the waters,
first they need evidence,
something I hope
the cameras can help with.
This morning, I'm heading
a few miles offshore with Albert
to a reef location
where he suspects
the turtles could be feeding.
Seeing the turtles
on the beaches,
and you've got this opportunity
to be very close to them
to study them intimately,
but then they get into the water
and they are gone.
This is true,
'cause we see the data,
we study a very small,
tiny portion of their life.
That's when they come
to lay the eggs,
but we don't know
what's going on in the ocean.
I think that the footage
from the cameras will help us
improve much more our knowledge.
It's a free dive
of 30 feet to reach the bottom.
And within seconds, we get
our first glimpse of a turtle,
swimming into the blue.
And just a few feet away,
another resting on the seabed.
Amongst the shoals of fish,
these rocky outcrops
are the perfect environment
for crustaceans and seaweed,
which loggerheads
are known to feed on elsewhere.
It's a brief dive,
but it gives me
a tantalizing insight
into the turtles' world.
But even if I had a scuba tank,
I couldn't follow them
for long enough to answer
Albert's questions.
So I'm hoping the cameras can.
We just need a suitable
loggerhead to join the team.
As night falls, the turtles
begin to arrive on the beaches.
It's Albert and Christophe's
opportunity
to survey the nesting females.
And I'm joining them to find one
for our all-important
camera deployment.
So how many turtles do you think
are on the beach?
- Right now?
- Yeah.
Every night, we are
counting around 100 nests.
Wow.
Around, so that's 100 turtles.
So we should
trip over one fairly soon.
Definitely.
I show you.
We can see one from here
already.
Shall we go
and have a look?
Albert makes a quiet approach,
so not to disturb this female.
We're looking for a turtle
that's big enough
to carry the camera with ease.
She looks big.
She's around 80,
That's big enough for us.
We've found our new crew member.
And this is the camera
she'll be wearing.
This is the camera end.
We've got
a high-definition camera
that's tilting forward and down
that's going to give us that
over-the-shoulder view...
A turtle's eye view.
And we've got
attachment points here.
After a day at sea,
this magnesium swivels,
it dissolves in salt water,
and that's when the camera
floats back up to the surface.
Once the turtle has finished
laying her precious eggs,
Albert and Christophe
work swiftly and silently
to collect valuable data
for their ongoing research.
Then they place a temporary box
around her to keep her safe.
This is an exciting moment
for me,
because this female is soon
to go
from just being one of the many
thousands of turtles
that visit these nests
to becoming a member
of our film crew.
Her shell, or carapace,
is given a clean,
and the camera is attached
using an environmentally
friendly resin.
Once the camera anchors have
eroded away,
this too will be shed
over the coming days.
Just over an hour
after she first heaved herself
onto the beach,
our turtle is reunited
with the ocean.
Here she comes.
Now it's over to her
to film her secret world,
but only if all of this
technology works.
Fingers crossed we'll get
our camera back
in 24 hours' time.
More than 80% of the ocean
is unmapped and unexplored.
Even the lives of the most
notorious marine animals
harbor secrets.
You might think we know all
there is to know about sharks.
But as they live at sea
and can swim at high speeds,
they're incredibly
tricky to study.
So our understanding of their
lives is actually quite limited.
But onboard cameras
can help change that.
Scientist Dr. Tristan Guttridge
has been studying sharks
in the Bahamas
for the past 15 years.
I have been literally
obsessed with sharks
since I can remember,
and it's just grown and grown
and grown
and I'm now a 38-year-old
marine scientist
that still has that little-kid
passion to work with sharks
and to learn more about them
and to try
and hopefully conserve them
and protect them.
Tristan has come
to the island of Andros,
home to one of the largest
coral reefs in the world,
measuring over 130 miles long.
It's a magnet for
several species of shark
who rely on it
for food and shelter.
Reef sharks, lemon sharks,
and great hammerheads
patrol the area.
Even one of the biggest
predators in the ocean,
the tiger shark, lives here.
Around the world, coral reefs
are dying at unprecedented rates
due to pollution
and climate change.
Tristan needs to check
the health of the Andros reef
to ascertain if these sharks
will have a home in the future.
Doing this with a team
of scuba divers
would be an enormous task
that could damage the coral.
So the best guides to this vital
underwater habitat
are the sharks themselves.
As a human,
I can only spend
about an hour underwater
and I'm limited
to certain depths as well.
But a reef shark... it can act
as essentially a surveyor
for many, many hours.
And so we can actually look
at the health of the system
that it's swimming in
and patrolling.
Tristan wants
to enlist the help
of Caribbean reef sharks.
They spend most of their time
around the coral,
making them perfect
to carry the cameras.
Tristan is tagging sharks
as part of his ongoing research,
so this is a good opportunity
to add the onboard technology.
He's helped by
shark expert Grant Johnson.
And to catch the sharks,
they're using
a simple float system.
The beauty
of these things is that
if the float
starts moving up and down,
then you know
you've caught a shark.
So we can actually get to
that animal really quickly,
so it's a very effective way
and safe way of fishing
for these animals
because we can bring the shark
to the side of the boat,
work it up, measure it,
place our camera tag
in a short period of time.
And within minutes,
they're in luck.
We've got something already.
We got a shark.
Yeah, we've got
something moving already.
Look at that.
Five minutes,
and we've already
got something hit a bait.
This place is just littered
with sharks.
How much the float moves
is an indication
of how big the shark is.
Look at the buoy, man.
The buoy is getting pulled down.
That is not small
that's towing that around.
That is definitely not small.
- I'm saying bull.
- You're going bull?
I'm predicting...
Look at that!
I mean, if it is a bull...
Look at that.
Look at that.
Oh, my God, dude.
That is a 3-meter tiger shark.
Okay.
Tiger sharks are at
the very top of the food chain.
They'll even eat other sharks.
But its own safety
is top priority,
so the team works carefully.
We got her, we got her.
It's incredibly rare
to catch this species,
and Tristan wants
to make the most of it.
Like reef sharks, tiger sharks
use coral habitats,
but they explore
other environments, too.
So, if we can attach a camera,
we can analyze the wider
ecosystem through the eyes
of one of the world's
greatest predators.
The onboard system
has been designed
with the anatomy
of the shark in mind
and it can operate down
to 1,600 hundred feet,
film in HD, and it can even
record depth and temperature.
With everything safely attached,
it's time for this
incredible predator
to capture its underwater world.
Away she goes.
Away she goes.
Unbelievable.
Wow!
Good work.
How's your back?
Totally fine.
Totally fine.
I was not expecting that.
This is becoming
very interesting indeed.
Wow.
Five hours later,
the camera
automatically comes off,
but finding it in the open ocean
is a tricky task,
so Tristan is relying
on more technology.
Another 20 seconds.
The camera is equipped
with a satellite beacon,
which Tristan can detect
on this handheld device.
That satellite tag
is emitting its code
every 90 seconds,
and I'm getting a bearing on
where it actually is.
Another 15 seconds,
and we should be good.
You can see the water
is much clearer here,
so hopefully the tiger shark
got us some good...
Oh, oh. Oh, yeah.
This way, slightly this way.
Suddenly,
a flash of orange
stands out against the blue.
How did I know
Grant would spot it?
Camera still on it?
Yeah.
The LED's still on!
Disco, disco!
I'm very happy.
The tag's intact.
No evidence of rubbing
or anything.
The satellite tag
worked perfectly.
Let's hope there's
some magic in here.
It's gonna be amazing
to see what's on that, dude.
It just went down
to the bottom of the ocean.
I know, I know.
I'm very excited.
It's a brilliant success.
And back on dry land,
Tristan and Grant
take a look at the footage.
She's moving quick.
Oh, you see some little...
What is it, little coral
heads or sargassum
that she's starting
to pass through?
There's the wall,
there's the drop-off.
Yeah.
She gonna go down it?
She's just going off the edge.
This reef wall
is the edge of a deep-sea basin
known as the tongue
of the ocean.
And this tiger shark heads
straight to the bottom.
From the depth gage
built into the camera,
we know that it's 520 feet deep.
That's more than 5 times deeper
than the average scuba diver
is allowed to go.
So this shark is potentially
showing us parts of the ocean
that no one
has ever seen before.
This footage has helped Tristan
see what the shark sees.
And he thinks it may have
dived deep
to search for the prey
in the water above.
To me, it makes sense.
If you're a, you know,
a fast-moving,
ambush kind of predator,
you go along the bed like that
and then you can launch an
attack without being detected.
Right.
An in-built thermometer
also shows it's 9 degrees
Fahrenheit colder down here
than at the surface.
My suspicion
is that they're making
these excursions onto the flats
to hunt for turtles,
stingrays,
smaller coastal sharks
and then going back into
the deeper water to recover.
This cold, deep water
helps the shark cool off
after hunting on the warm,
shallow sand flats,
letting it stay
in peak performance mode.
Critical for an apex predator
like this.
It's a promising start,
but Tristan still needs
to deploy the camera
on one of the most important
species in the ecosystem...
Caribbean reef sharks.
He hopes they'll take us close
to the coral,
letting us see how healthy
the local reef is.
And it doesn't take long
to find one.
Oh, boy.
Perfect size once again.
Every shark
that Tristan catches
is measured and tagged
as part of his long-term study
to understand the abundance
and distribution of sharks
in the area.
And 189.
We try and be as gentle
as we can.
We're also trying to do this
as quickly as possible
so we can get that shark off
and swimming.
The camera mount
has soft pads
on the inside of the clamp,
which gently hold it in place.
Over the next few days,
Tristan and Grant
manage to deploy
four more shark cameras
along different sections
of the reef
to help get a good overview
of the area.
Perfect.
Alright, I think
we're ready to release.
In total, the sharks
have captured almost 25 hours
of onboard footage,
giving us a much more detailed
look at their world
than any diver could achieve.
This is pretty cool.
Look at that, look at that.
- Oh, big 'cuda.
- Oh, big barracuda.
I love being able
to see what they're seeing.
But what the sharks
have filmed is worrying.
There's a layer of algae
covering much of the reef.
Too much algae can reduce
the oxygen levels
and block the sunlight,
k*lling the coral,
which then has a negative effect
on everything in the food chain,
from wrasse to reef sharks.
There's a lot of fishermen here,
so they could be putting
a lot of pressure
on some of those reef fishes
that would be normally
eating the algae
and then maintaining
the health of the system.
You've got, obviously,
pollution as well
and then on top
of that, global warming.
Overfishing,
pollution, and climate change
could all contribute
to this thick algae.
They're global issues
and will only get better
if we continue to reduce
our impact on the natural world.
The cameras have provided
a great insight into the health
of some of the most
remote corners of this reef.
But they've also revealed
some surprising shark behavior.
- Oh, this is cool.
- Look at that.
Tight little tunnel.
Don't tell me
it's gonna go through there.
Wow! That's amazing.
Right under
the cave, through the archway.
That's really amazing.
I mean,
I don't know about you,
but I've never really seen one
swimming this deep
into the reef,
like down these little gullies.
Makes you wonder
if he's looking for food.
That could be
a strategy, I guess.
Stay close to the floor,
search around the reef structure
and basically ambush
a reef fish.
It can't be easy hunting
reef fish on the reef.
There are so many hiding places.
Reef sharks can sniff out prey
or use special electroreceptors
to detect the heartbeat
of their next meal.
But it's hard to catch a fish
before it escapes into the reef.
So, by weaving through
the coral,
there's a chance this shark
can sneak up on its next victim.
It might also keep them hidden
from bigger predators
like tiger sharks who,
as we know, patrol this area.
Seeing this behavior
is something
that only onboard cameras
could reveal.
As soon as a diver
enters the water,
the sharks behave differently.
And there's no way a human
could keep up
through these tight
coral corridors.
- Oh.
- Whoa.
Oh, that's
when the tag came off.
No matter
how much scuba-diving you do,
you're never gonna be able
to spend that much time
with a shark.
Exactly, and
that's the big difference.
That's the thing
that these tags do for us
is we get five hours
of uninterrupted footage
of where these animals are going
and how
they're using the habitat.
The cameras
have been a success,
showing us that these sharks
can hunt among the coral
in ways Tristan
had never seen before.
And the footage proves that this
reef needs further protection
from the global impact
of mankind
if it's to remain a shark mecca.
Back in the Atlantic Ocean,
on the island of Sal,
our turtle-cam
has been deployed for 24 hours.
Biologists Albert and Christophe
need to find out
if the loggerheads feed here
during the nesting season.
If we can film this behavior,
it will prove
that this marine ecosystem
is vital
for the turtles
and needs protecting.
But first we have to get
the camera back.
It's 7:00 in the morning.
We've just had a ping from
the GPS on the turtle's camera,
so it must have come off
and floated up to the surface.
We're heading out on a boat
and hopefully we can find it.
We can only get a satellite
location every few hours,
so it's a race to find
the camera before the current
carries it off course.
To help us, we're also using
a VHF radio antenna.
But sometimes our own eyesight
is better
than the latest technology.
I cannot believe that.
Our keen-eyed
skipper spotted it.
Amazing.
It's still largely intact.
It's quite something that
this has spent 24 hours
on the back
of a loggerhead turtle.
But will our footage
provide the insight
that Albert and Christophe
have been waiting for?
Will it show her feeding
in local waters?
Time to take a look with Albert
and Christophe back at the lab.
So this really is
the big moment,
all of those long nights
on the beach
deploying these cameras
and we've got the footage here
that we are gonna see
for the very first time.
Tell me about it!
Just press play, let's go!
Okay, here we go.
Nice.
Wow!
The view from the camera
is crystal clear,
and straightaway,
our turtle rewrites
a common scientific theory.
Female loggerheads were thought
to be solitary
during the nesting season.
But this footage proves they do
interact with one another,
far more than was ever expected.
And there's another surprise
discovery
when this turtle encounters
a sunken anchor.
Oh, my God!
What's she doing,
is she feeding?
- She is.
- Wow, she is.
She is feeding
on the seaweed on the anchor.
That's unbelievable.
And one of the really, really
interesting elements
is that it's so soon
after the nesting.
I certainly did not expect that.
It's the first time ever
that we've seen this behavior.
Exquisite.
This turtle's gonna
put me out of a job.
Put every underwater
camera person out of a job.
This is the evidence
we were looking for.
It proves that these turtles
do feed
during their 5-month
breeding season,
so this marine ecosystem
needs more protection.
And that can't come soon enough,
based on what she films next.
It's a discarded fishing net
that's smothering
a large part of the reef.
The turtle is clearly trying
to feed through the net,
but if she accidentally
swallows it,
it could have a negative effect
on her health.
It's a stark reminder of why
these waters need safeguarding.
Thankfully our turtle swims off
and out into deeper waters.
And she feeds again, this time
on a jelly-like sea-squirt.
I mean,
this is sort of foraging,
sort of constantly grazing
that she's doing here.
You can see, like,
pieces floating around,
so she is definitely
feeding on that.
Feeding in this way,
is that enough sort of food
for her in a day,
if she is constantly
just browsing her way
through the ocean?
I want to say no.
As you know and you've seen...
nesting is really, really
energy-consuming.
So I believe they top up
their reserves right now.
Dive and feed complete,
she heads towards the surface
for a breath.
But before she gets there,
she encounters another turtle,
and this one is covered
in barnacles and seaweed...
An indication
that it's very old.
It's amazing to see so much life
growing on that turtle
but also following
the turtle around,
this sort of moving ecosystem.
Totally.
When you actually protect
the turtle, you also protect
all the ecosystem around them,
the fish, the entire habitat.
You see, if we did not have
the camera
but only a tagging device
like a GPS system,
we would never know that
that turtle spends so much time
at the surface
with another turtle.
Yeah.
So does this, in some way,
rewrite the science books
on what we know
about these animals?
It certainly
rewrites my knowledge.
From what we've
learned from this turtle,
can that be used to help protect
different turtle populations
around the world?
Showing this footage,
these behaviors is beautiful,
Like, it will help
people understand
why we need to protect them,
why we need to stop
polluting our oceans,
why we need to stop overfishing.
The Cape Verde aggregation
is probably the second largest
aggregation in the world.
If we lose this aggregation,
the entire species is in true
danger of extinction.
This turtle's footage
brings new insight
into the loggerheads'
hidden world,
revealing that they're more
social than we ever imagined
and that they do feed
during the nesting season...
a world first for science.
And it's the proof that Albert
and Christophe needed to push
for greater protection
of these vital waters.
And I hope it safeguards
the future
of this beautiful species
on Cape Verde
for many years to come.
It's not only animals that live
beneath the waves
that have a hidden side
to their lives.
I'm about to meet some animals
who will take the mini cameras
on land,
in water, and up in the air
to solve some mysteries.
Gannets!
They're one of the most
aerobatic seabirds in the world,
renowned for their spectacular
high dives.
They can drop like an arrow
from over 100 feet up
and strike the water
at 50 miles per hour.
These feathered torpedoes can
plunge 65 feet underwater,
where they can pick off
their meal.
To protect themselves during
these legendary stunts,
they're equipped with
extremely strong neck muscles
and a spongy plate of bone
at the front of their skull
to cushion the impact.
They're famous for their
incredible hunting skills,
but how do they find
small shoals of fish
hidden underwater
in the wide-open ocean?
I can stand on a gannet colony
like this
and with a big, long lens
get quite intimate views,
but that's just half
the story really.
Given that gannets can fly
up to 250 miles away
from their nest,
it would be impossible for me
to follow an individual
to find out exactly what
it's doing that far away.
So, this is a job
for the mini-camera technology.
I would say that we are
pretty much guaranteed
to get some dramatic footage
from an onboard camera.
And when they're not flying
around
dramatic clifftop
colonies like this,
they're soaring over
or plunging into the ocean.
In Ireland, Dr. Mark Jessopp
is trying to unravel
some of the gannet's mysteries.
For a number of years,
we've been able
to put GPS tracking devices
on birds
and that effectively tells us
where animals are going
when they're out at sea
and where they go to forage,
but we're still not sure
how they forage
or what the cues are
that they might use
to say "There's food here."
In 60 years,
seabird populations in general,
including puffins,
have declined by 70%,
but not gannets.
They are thriving.
Mark wants to use
onboard cameras
to see how gannets
find their food,
because he thinks that's
what makes them so successful.
Gannets are a really
fascinating species.
You know, they're one
of those species
that have bucked the trend
of global seabird declines,
and gannets tend to be
increasing in populations,
so we really want to understand
how and why they're doing it.
One of the theories
is that they're getting
supplemental food from humans
through fisheries discards.
Ideally I'd love to see
something like fishing vessels,
perhaps other animals,
you know, pie in the sky,
maybe we'll see some dolphins
and feeding associations
with dolphins.
You know, the sky's
the limit here really.
If Mark can discover
how gannets find their food,
he can work out
how to help other seabirds
that are in decline.
So, we need a camera that's
waterproof and lightweight
yet strong enough
to withstand a big impact.
It's one of the hardest
challenges we've ever faced.
Tackling the task
is tech wizard Chris Watts.
He's built cutting-edge cameras
for an incredible variety
of animals.
And he's spent three months
developing
a bespoke gannet camera.
So this has been our solution.
It can record in HD.
It can do slow motion.
We've also fitted it with
the widest angle lens we can,
and we're hoping
that we can get it
on the back of the bird
sort of base of the tail,
which means we're just not
gonna miss any action.
It's coming in at... 60 grams,
which is pretty much perfect.
That's 2%
of the gannet's body weight,
easily light enough
for them to fly with
and the battery should last
for almost two hours.
Packing this much technology
into such a small space
is an incredible achievement.
But can it deal with the impact
of hitting the water
at high speed?
When gannets strike
the surface of the sea,
they experience almost 9G
as they decelerate,
which is more than most
fighter pilots can contend with.
To see if the camera
can withstand such high forces,
Chris is going to some
extreme measures
to put them to the test.
Today this is the moment
of truth really.
If it's not waterproof
and it can't take the impact
of hitting the water,
then it's all for nothing.
To simulate a gannet's dive,
Chris is strapping the camera
to an arrow,
ready to be fired out to sea.
So there we have it...
The camera arrow.
It seems slightly a crazy way
of testing a camera,
but I can't think
of a better way.
A fishing reel
brings it back to shore
for inspection.
So does it look like
it survived?
Nothing in the front port,
so...
Yeah, good.
A triumph.
Even after repeated trials,
the camera remains intact.
Now it's time
for the real thing.
Mark and his team are heading
to the remote Saltee Islands...
Home to over 7,000
breeding gannets.
The onboard camera
will only record for two hours,
so the team needs to recruit
a gannet
that's just about to go fishing.
Birds can sit here at
the nest for three or four days,
and the batteries
will only last so long.
And so we want to make sure
we're getting a bird
just as it's about to leave.
The parents work in shifts.
While one guards the chick,
the other goes foraging
for up to four days.
They then swap over, and that's
the moment Mark is looking for.
MAN
Do you want...
The one on the left
has just fed the chick.
So we want the one
on the right?
MAN
MAN
Mark's research
project means he has
special permission
to catch these adults.
Ready?
MAN
The chick is safe
with the other parent.
And when our bird is bagged,
it relaxes
and Mark can do
a few essential health checks.
And that's 3 kilos exactly.
This one is in top condition,
a perfect candidate
for carrying the camera.
So we attach it
to the central tail feathers,
and that means
it is far enough away
from where the head goes hitting
into the water at high speed.
So the tags don't get ripped off
by that hydrodynamic drag.
This tape should hold
the camera in place,
but it's soft enough
that the bird could rip it off
if it's not comfortable.
Which means
there's a very real risk
these cameras
won't come back at all.
MAN
With everything in place,
it's time for this bird
to reveal
its secret life at sea.
Flying away quite nice
and strong.
MAN
Going off,
hopefully on a nice
foraging trip for us as well.
MAN
I think we should.
MAN
And after just 24 hours,
the first gannet returns
with the camera intact.
Over the chick
and around the bird. Go!
Really looking forward to seeing
what's on the camera.
We have no idea.
He's had a very successful
foraging trip, I think.
He feels very heavy.
Oh, you fatty.
This gannet has put on 14 ounces
since it was caught yesterday.
So Mark knows it's been fishing.
We just hope that the camera
was running at the right time.
I'd love to know
what prompted that dive.
You know, what did it see
that says,
"This is where I need to dive
to successfully get food"?
The bird is given
a careful health check
and released back into the wild.
Then the team can take a look
at the first batch of footage.
What immediately surprises them
is just how close to the water
the gannets seem to fly.
- Oh, look at that.
- Oh, wow.
This is great
for people
who've been doing a lot of work
looking at things
like gannets' vulnerability
to wind farms.
And obviously,
when they're flying that low,
they're well outside of
the sweep area of any turbine.
So you would say there would be
very little risk of collision.
And to their delight,
the team have captured
some diving behavior.
Oh, plunge dives.
Head.
Oh!
- My goodness me.
- That is so cool
MAN
I have always wanted
to see that.
Yup, the trip was
worth it for that one alone.
It's a brilliant start,
but because
the action happens so fast,
it's hard to see how the gannets
are finding their food.
So the team sets out to get more
onboard footage,
but this time the cameras are
set to record in slow motion.
So this time,
we should see precisely
how they're finding the fish.
In total, seven gannets
take the cameras out to sea
and return them safely back
to the colony.
And after carefully
analyzing the footage,
Mark can see exactly how the
gannets are finding their food.
So we're looking at one
of my favorite sequences here.
It's one where, all of a sudden,
we start seeing common dolphins
up at the surface.
And within seconds, the gannets
are going straight towards
those dolphins and diving.
It's really exciting
to see them,
and I never thought we'd get
footage that was of a resolution
that we could identify
the species,
and, you know, they're
quite clearly common dolphins.
Underwater, the
camera's in-built microphone
has even recorded their calls.
Mark believes the birds
are using the dolphins
to help find their food.
And he's found evidence
that they're following
other marine animals, too.
We had to go through
essentially frame by frame here
to see this, but you can quite
clearly see two whales,
at least whale blows,
and we see that the gannet
is immediately
turning towards those.
And easily within 15
to 16 seconds, that gannet
is now diving right where those
whales were at the surface,
so it's indicating
that those gannets are perhaps
using the whales themselves
there as a visual cue to say,
"This is where
other predators are.
Therefore this is probably
where there's food."
Fantastic to see
these odd bits of behavior
that we would have
ordinarily missed.
The footage shows that
gannets are using other species
to effectively find
small patches of food
in a large, open habitat.
And this has big implications
for how we conserve them.
If we want to preserve gannets,
we need to preserve the visual
cues that they're using,
which means protecting
our dolphin populations.
It means protecting
our whale populations.
All of these populations
are interconnected,
so we need to take
an ecosystems approach
to our conservation objectives.
In general, seabird
populations are declining,
partly because of a drop
in fish stocks,
but gannets
don't seem to be affected,
and the footage shows why.
So there's this
wonderful sequence
where we can see, just out on
the horizon, a fishing vessel,
and the gannet pretty much
instantly starts to orient
towards and fly towards
that fishing vessel.
There must be at least
around the fishing vessel here,
which might indicate
that gannets
have learned to use fishing
vessels as a foraging cue
or as a cue that there is food
to be had here.
Importantly, there are
very few other seabird species
capitalizing on this free meal.
It's almost exclusively
gannets around here,
and they're quite
an aggressive species,
so they're managing to
successfully outcompete
other sea birds
for that fisheries resource.
By exploiting fishing
vessels, they get access
to a steady supply of food even
when their prey is in decline.
The onboard cameras
have been a success.
They've shown us how these birds
use other animals
and even fishermen
to find their next meal.
The oceans support
some truly gigantic animals.
And the next mission is
on the coast of California
in Año Nuevo State Park,
where giants come ashore
to breed.
These are northern
elephant seals.
The bulls can reach 13 feet long
and weigh over 2 1/2 tons.
They battle to become
beach master.
Despite their blubbery
appearance,
these animals
are extreme athletes.
They swim 5,500 miles a year and
can dive 1 mile deep,
drop their heart rate
to just three beats per minute,
and can hold their breath
for two hours.
Every winter, this area
becomes a huge crèche,
filled with over 2,000 females,
each giving birth
to a single, precious pup.
But after just four weeks,
the mums head out to sea
and abandon their young forever.
Scientists Roxanne Beltran
and Patrick Robinson
know a huge amount
about the lives of the adults,
but very little is understood
about the pups
and they want to find out more.
The moms actually leave
before the pups
ever go into the water,
so these juveniles,
when they become
independent from their moms,
are trying to figure out
how to be seals.
They live off
their fat reserves
from their mother's milk
for the next two months
before they head out to sea
and fend for themselves.
During this time, they train
for adult life,
much of which is done
underwater,
where they can swim faster
and further than we can,
making it hard to study them.
When they're in the water,
as soon as they dip below
the surface,
we can't actually see
what they're doing.
And so there's been this
huge gap in our knowledge
of what these seals are actually
doing in the two months
before they leave
for that trip to sea.
With any luck,
the onboard cameras will show
what these pups are doing
to prepare themselves
for adult life.
Roxanne and Patrick
find four young seals
to carry the cameras.
Although the pups are only
a few weeks old,
they're already enormous.
They put on 200 pounds
in their first month,
fueled by milk which is 55% fat.
That's more than whipping cream.
After a few health checks,
the specially designed
onboard cameras
are attached with a temporary,
non-toxic glue.
During the procedure,
we're monitoring everything
from heart rate
to respiration rate.
We're making sure
that everything
is going appropriately
with the seal.
I've spent the past 15 years
studying the adult animals,
and we know so much about
what the adult females do
when they're out at sea
and we don't know very much
about what the young ones
are doing right here
next to the colony, so this is
an amazing opportunity for us.
The cameras
will record for 16 hours
and have been designed
to withstand
the crushing pressure
of deep water.
Once they've returned safely,
Roxanne and Patrick
are able to analyze the footage.
Oh, wow.
What is she doing?
They're more graceful
than I thought,
based on how they are on land.
Swimming with the seals
gives Roxanne and Patrick
an entirely new perspective.
And the footage provides
a real revelation
about how social the pups are.
I'm surprised by how
active and interactive they are.
Yeah, I think
when adult elephant seals
go out to sea,
they don't interact at all,
right?
That's what we think at least.
I don't think there is
any evidence for that.
Right, they're
completely solitary at sea,
so the fact that these guys
are interacting in the water
is weird.
I wonder if they are just
learning from each other.
I guess because they
get no parental instruction,
this is helpful for them
in their development.
In all of the footage,
the pups only ever swim
in shallow water.
Roxanne and Patrick think
that's because
they're too fat to dive deep.
Despite being so heavy,
all of their blubber
makes them really buoyant.
Without doing anything,
she automatically floats
to the surface.
I think that's why
she's working really hard
to stay down to explore
the bottom of the ocean.
It may be why she's interacting
with other seals.
I don't know if they're sort of
helping pin each other down
or what they are doing.
They need the fat
in order to survive
a long period of time
while they're learning
how to forage,
but it's actually bad for them
because if they are too buoyant,
it's difficult to forage, so...
It's a trade-off.
It's a trade-off, yeah.
Swimming around these shallows,
the pups seem to investigate
anything they come across,
even bits of rubbish.
- Is that a plastic bag?
- Plastic?
It's unlikely to mistake
this plastic bag for food.
But they have been known
to get tangled up in waste
and this playfulness
could explain how that happens.
The cameras also reveal
that these mischievous pups
often chase the local fish.
They're not catching them,
but it's all good practice.
And it's not just the fish
they're toying with.
Surprisingly, they spend a lot
of time playing with seaweed.
- What is she doing?
- Did she grab it?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
She was
dragging it around.
What?
Playful practice is important
in the development
of many young animals.
For these seals, it may help
build those important
diving skills
which later they'll rely on.
After their in-water training,
it looks like they come out
for a rest on the beach,
but the scientists have
a very different theory.
It's hard to see
to the untrained eye,
but the seals seem to be
holding their breath.
It doesn't look like
they're doing much here,
but I think what they are
actually doing
is figuring out how to
become breathless divers
so that they can find food
during their first trip to sea.
Developing their physiology.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you can see
that seal holding its breath.
And it will probably hold
its breath for a long time.
I wonder if just like
we would train
for a marathon
by doing little runs,
they're doing little breath
holds to basically figure out
how they can get down
to food on breath hold.
This seal holds its
breath for almost 12 minutes.
So it's got some practice to do
before it can manage two hours
like the adults.
By filming themselves,
these pups have shown us
how they prepare
for life at sea.
After being left alone
without a mother,
they seem to train together.
Trying to hunt,
exploring their environment,
and practicing
to hold their breath...
key skills that will make them
elite ocean divers.
Next time...
we travel Down Under
to solve the mysteries
of some iconic
Australian animals.
We discover the surprising
nightlife of koalas...
Oh, wow, look at that.
reveal how kangaroos
are affected by urbanization.
WOMAN
do we want to live
alongside kangaroos?
And we create our most
advanced camera yet
to find out what's drawing
thousands of flying foxes
to a new life in the city.
MAN
The "Animals with Cameras"
adventure
continues in Australia.
where some of the country's
most iconic creatures
take over filming.
MAN
The footage could hold
vital information
for scientists trying
to safeguard these animals.
WOMAN
we might be able to unravel
this mystery and figure out
what they're doing.
To learn more about what
you've seen
on this Nature program,
visit pbs.org.
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