Prehistoric Planet (2022) s03e05 Episode Script

1
[Hiddleston] A family
of scimitar-toothed cats.
For millennia they've thrived here
in the icy north.
But right now, they're starving.
The prey the cats hunt
is becoming scarce in these valleys…
because the climate is warming,
forcing grazing animals
to find new feeding grounds.
Today, they might be in luck.
A mammoth herd, trying a new route south.
Taking on such powerful creatures
is a huge risk.
But they don't have a choice.
It's the end of the Ice Age.
As the planet heats up,
every habitat on Earth is changing.
As ice retreats,
water returns to the landscape
and forest animals thrive.
But the rulers of the Ice Age
are facing the end of the world they know…
- and struggling to survive.
- [barks]
[hissing, growling]
[rumbling]
[Hiddleston] The cats make their move.
The biggest danger?
A huge male.
[trumpeting]
[trumpeting continues]
Unpredictable and powerful.
[snarling]
[screeches]
[cats snarling]
[mammoth trumpets]
She's injured
but these cats won't give up.
The warming climate
has changed migration routes
in this part of the world.
On the coast, its effects are spectacular.
Mineral-rich ice is falling
in huge quantities,
filling the shallow sea with nutrients.
This family of sea cows have come here
to feed on a forest of lush kelp
fed by the meltwater.
These Ice Age giants
are relatives of manatees…
but the size of a whale.
Kelp is their favorite food.
But it only grows
in shallow coastal waters…
so feeding here can be risky.
[bird chirps]
When the tide goes out,
strandings are common.
Out of the water, he's too heavy to move.
And today,
this beach is not a good place to be.
A short-faced bear.
500 pounds heavier than a polar bear
and even more deadly.
[grunting, sniffing]
One of the biggest predators
to walk the Earth since the dinosaurs.
[sniffing]
He's picked up a scent.
[birds chirping]
- [sniffing]
- [flies buzzing]
He's never seen anything like it.
But it smells like food.
It's all very confusing.
[bellowing]
A short-faced bear
could tear most animals to shreds.
Luckily for the sea cow,
he's protected by
tough skin an inch thick.
- [sea cow rumbles]
- [bear grunts]
The bear's attack is just an irritation.
Or maybe, a welcome back scratch.
The tide's coming back in.
Fast.
For the bear,
the chance of a meal is slipping away.
Time to rejoin his family.
He's got plenty of eating to catch up on.
Here on the coast, the Big Melt means
more nutritious kelp for sea cows…
- [growls]
- …while for many Ice Age giants
life is getting harder.
[owls hooting]
For animals living thousands of miles
to the south,
the warming climate is turning
this scrubland into a dangerous place.
[owl hoots]
[mammoth rumbling]
At night, a Columbian mammoth
is safe enough feeding here.
But once the sun comes up…
even this giant is in danger.
A lake of tar.
[roars]
It seeps to the surface
from deep within the Earth's crust.
When cold, it's hard and safe to walk on.
But when the temperature
reaches 64 degrees…
it turns into a sticky death trap.
Today it's claimed a new victim.
[rumbling]
[whining]
North American saber-toothed cats
are powerful hunters.
But they won't say no
to scavenging an easy meal.
The sun is low,
so the tar is still solid underfoot.
Dire wolves.
The saber-toothed cats' deadly rivals.
[sniffing]
Pack hunters with a bone-crushing bite.
The pack will kill the cubs
if they get the chance.
Sabertooths and dire wolves
are an even match.
[wolf bellows]
But the tar has changed everything.
[growling]
The dire wolves use their powerful
sense of smell to find a safe path.
[sniffing]
[whimpers]
[snarls]
[growling]
[growls, yelps]
[growling]
[dire wolf barks]
[snarls]
With her cubs in mortal danger…
[growling]
…she finds the strength to break free.
[snarling, growling]
The pack are powerless to help.
Tar pits caused the deaths
of thousands of Ice Age creatures.
This family has been lucky.
As the temperature rises around the world,
life is also changing dramatically
on Ice Age grasslands.
These reindeer are managing.
But survival is getting much harder
for Megaloceros…
a giant Ice Age deer.
He needs open ground to thrive.
But as water returns to the landscape,
forests are taking over once again.
He's the proud owner
of the biggest antlers of all time.
Twelve feet across.
In breeding season
they help attract a mate.
At this time of the year, though,
they're a burden.
Cave hyenas.
Ferocious predators
twice the size of a wolf.
They've hunted these giants
for thousands of years.
[hyenas howling]
Megaloceros are fast.
Once they get going they can reach
over 50 miles per hour.
With a head start
he can outsprint the hyenas.
But they don't give up.
They have an age-old strategy.
If they can stay just close enough
to keep him running…
and never let him catch his breath…
they might run him down.
Maybe sooner than they think.
There's only one way out.
[panting]
Safe…
[hyenas howling]
…for now.
As the ice sheets melt,
the Earth's atmosphere
gets wetter and wetter.
Here in the tropics,
forests are expanding
even faster than in the north.
And they're full of strange animals…
like this tenrec.
They love to eat insects…
and birds' eggs.
But this one is out of his league.
- [squeaks]
- It is after all
the biggest egg of all time.
And it belongs to
the biggest bird of all time.
An elephant bird.
Their brightly colored neck wattles
help attract a mate.
This giant is about to become a father.
But something is wrong.
His chick is taking its time.
They're running late.
Elephant birds
synchronize their egg laying
so the chicks hatch at the same time.
[cooing]
The flock heads off together
on a road trip.
When you weigh one ton,
flying isn't an option.
No one likes to be left behind.
But this chick just won't be hurried.
The others have already left,
heading for their
summer home in the wetlands.
[squawking]
But she's still a bit wobbly on her feet.
For the next nine months
he'll be her sole provider and protector.
[rumbling]
They need to catch up with the convoy.
Elephant birds travel together
for good reason.
The forest is a dangerous place.
Stragglers are a prime target.
Giant fossa.
An ambush predator, fast and agile.
[lemurs squawking]
This is no time for a snack.
[snarls]
[hissing]
The convoy has arrived at its destination.
Rain has returned here…
creating these wetlands…
with plenty of food and drink for all.
But what about the stragglers?
Even the very last chick to hatch
has made it.
As wetlands expand,
their numbers are growing every year.
The Big Melt is the start of a golden age
for elephant birds.
But for the giant stag,
the world is closing in.
In a forest,
12-foot antlers are a liability.
[hyenas howl]
Downstream, the hyenas have found
a place to cross.
Trapped.
[panting]
[huffing]
[growling]
- [snapping]
- [hyenas whimpering]
A miraculous escape.
- [sniffing]
- Shedding his antlers saved him.
A new set will grow
for the next breeding season.
But the time for his kind
and the hyenas is running out.
The saber-toothed cats have been
tracking the mammoth herd for two days.
[mammoths rumbling, trumpeting]
Their patience has paid off.
The male,
injured during the cats' first attack,
has fallen behind.
He's vulnerable.
In the cat world, her kind are unique.
She has the power of a lion…
and the agility of a leopard.
[mammoth rumbling]
[cat roars]
The cats will survive another winter.
The mammoth herd too.
[trumpets]
But their world is changing.
[mammoth trumpets]
A new predator born of the Ice Age
is spreading to every corner
of the planet.
And that story is still unfolding.
[Hiddleston] Giant mammals
ruled the Ice Age.
But almost all of them died out
during the Big Melt.
It's wild and super weird to think
that all the big animals
that used to exist completely disappeared.
[Hiddleston] What happened to them?
And why?
One surprising place has some answers.
Los Angeles.
[Lindsey] If you came to LA
and saw the massive network of freeways,
it would never occur to you
this had one of the richest records
of the Ice Age anywhere on the planet.
Like the African savanna on steroids.
Most people don't move to LA
to be paleontologists.
But some of us do.
That's why I'm here.
[Hiddleston] Emily's here
because of an extraordinary place.
An ancient pool of tar
called the La Brea Tar Pits.
[Lindsey] La Brea Tar Pits is the richest
Ice Age fossil site in the world.
We've found close to five million fossils
and we are still excavating
new ones almost every single day.
These pools of tar
have acted as traps
that have caught and preserved
anything living that has walked into them
and built up the most
incredible record of Ice Age life.
[snarls]
[Herridge] You have this unbelievably
rich fossil record at La Brea.
The number of bones
that have come out of this site
is extraordinary.
[Lindsey] We have probably close to
3,000 saber-toothed cats.
5,000 dire wolves.
This is like an Aladdin's cave of fossils.
[Hiddleston] What's odd is that
the fossil record suddenly stops…
as if the animals just
vanished off the face of the Earth.
[Lindsey] We are able
to radiocarbon date the bone
and pinpoint exactly
when they disappeared.
What was surprising
was that almost all of these species
disappeared exactly
the same moment in time.
They all hit this wall at 13,000 years ago
and they never show up again.
Those vast landscapes
teeming with herds of enormous
Ice Age creatures and
they're suddenly just gone.
[Gilbert] The disappearance of
these animals makes us wonder,
"Why did this happen so suddenly?"
[Hiddleston] One reason
was that the climate changed
too fast at the end of the Ice Age.
California warmed ten degrees
in just a few thousand years.
Half of the trees disappeared.
Droughts lasted for decades at a time.
It's possible that the animals
were just simply not able to adapt
fast enough to this changing climate.
[Hiddleston] But the work at La Brea
shows something else was going on.
[Lindsey] The team started looking at
core samples from a nearby lake
to understand what was going on
with the environment at this time.
And what's really surprising is
there was a huge increase in charcoal.
[Hiddleston] A new species had arrived.
And with it a devastating new force.
Fire is the most powerful tool
people have ever invented.
We set fires to cook, to see at night,
to clear land for hunting.
The first people to arrive in this area
were living in a complete tinderbox.
People brought in the ignition source.
In tens of thousands of years
there had never been any level
of fire activity anywhere close to this.
[Gilbert] It's like a bomb going off.
That can completely decimate
the environment
and puts huge amounts of pressure
on the animals that were living there.
[Hiddleston] Whether the fires were
intentional or accidental isn't known,
but they destroyed animal habitats.
And combined with the hunting skills
of our ancestors
it was the perfect storm.
Across the planet,
this combination of climate change
and human activity
killed off almost all the Ice Age giants,
leading to the world we know today.