Expedition China (2017) - full transcript

Teams of international film crews

are traveling all over China

to film a unique Disneynature movie.

Born In China

is an ambitious natural history film

never attempted before.

These rare creatures are hard to film.

Located in remote corners

of this amazing country.

Notoriously camera shy.

They show up.

This is the story of the film crews

as they travel around China.

The amazing animal cast

they are privileged to film.

The next dust storm is coming,

it makes our work really hard!

The extreme conditions they face.

I can't see a road anymore.

And how the teams discover a country

making great strides to protect

remote landscapes and wildlife

found nowhere else on earth.

Disneynature'sBorn In China

follows the early life

of the country's rarest creatures.

To succeed, the crews must capture

the first faltering steps of a cast

of endangered animals seldom filmed

and then follow them as they grow up.

From the wetlands of the North East,

through the central mountains and up

to the highest plateau in the world,

filming crews head out

to remote corners of China.

The first behind-the-scenes

documentary,Ghost Of The Mountains,

focused entirely on finding

the elusive snow leopard.

That's a big cat. Damn.

One of the biggest challenges

ever faced by a wildlife film crew.

It's really difficult for us

to climb the mountains around here.

Over 250 days in the field using

the very latest camera technology

from drones to camera traps...

- Cubs! Yes!

- Oh, man!

Oh, there we go!

...led to filming snow leopard cubs

in the wild for the very first time.

Months of relentless searching

gave the crew the unique opportunity

to film the life of the cub's mom,

Dawa,

and revealed her struggle hunting

blue sheep to provide

for a growing family.

A very difficult task,

even for the top predator here.

Thanks to the protection

of this boundless remote area,

China now has the largest population

of snow leopards in the world.

Helped by monks,

working with conservationists

to protect the cats

and the other animals that live here.

For the other film crews,

life is just as tough.

Disappointing, difficult, frustrating,

anything you can think of really.

Working in remote locations

in search of endangered animals,

this is their story.

The expeditions begin with a journey

to north-east China

in search of one the country's

rarest and most iconic birds.

The red-crowned crane.

If in Beijing you were to go

to the Imperial Palace,

you would see a lot of

amazing fantasy animals represented.

But you can't help but be struck

that one of the commonest animals

you see is the red-crowned crane.

The heaviest crane in the world

is hugely significant in China.

It represents

faithfulness and longevity.

The effort put into

protecting it by China,

is a testament to its value

as a cultural icon.

For theBorn In China team,

it's their first big challenge.

Very little footage exists

of these birds in the wild.

Paul Stewart is one of main directors

of photography on this film.

The clever thing is to get something

that stands up here,

and that stays standing vertical.

That could be quite hard actually.

A multi-award winning cameraman.

For over 20 years, he has filmed

wildlife all over the world.

Paul's knowledge of birds,

especially rare ones hardly filmed

makes him the perfect cameraman

to lead the team.

The crew's ambition

is to film crane chicks,

and so they arrive at the start

of the birds' hatching season.

At 810 square miles,

almost twice the size of Los Angeles,

this is the largest wetland in China,

home to one of the biggest nesting

populations of these wild birds.

This place is really, really flat.

And at first I thought

that would be great,

but the flatness

of this place is deceptive.

It's flat but it's marshy, so

it's still actually quite a challenge

to get anywhere.

And even a bird as tall

as the red-crowned crane

with a red mark on top

is actually quite hard to find

when they're spread out

in a few pairs across the marshes.

Their best chance to film

chicks is to find a nest.

Even if they find one,

it won't be easy to get close.

That's because the crew

are being watched.

These birds have astonishing eyesight.

If you put a group of cranes

together you've got a united front

that's almost impossible

to creep up on.

The team will have to

outsmart the birds.

When we wanted to get very close

and very intimate

with birds and their chicks,

what we needed to find was somewhere

where birds would allow that approach

because the last thing you want to do

with a rare species

like this is disturb it at the nest.

Then, amongst the reeds,

two eggs.

A tiny movement suggests

they are ready to hatch.

Paul spends every daylight hour,

eyes and camera, focused on the nest.

A few days later,

his patience is rewarded.

Two fragile chicks.

Paul and the team now filming

an event rarely witnessed.

We felt actually very lucky

to find that there were two

tiny chicks that had just hatched,

and realized that

we were at the right time

to film something

that really hasn't been seen before.

Very little footage of wild

red-crowned crane chicks exists.

Partly because of their rarity,

but also because they don't stay

on the nest very long.

We knew that

as well as having to get close,

we didn't have a huge amount of time,

just a few days.

The chicks are very quickly ready to

leave the nest once they've hatched.

The very first glimpse we saw

of a crane chick I was amazed at

how small they are.

The adult bird is really imposing

and in contrast to that

the chicks are absolutely tiny,

and just seeing the adults on the nest

with their huge feet walking around

their chicks you couldn't help

but be worried for the chicks.

Paul and the team are so much closer

to the nest than they dared to hope.

By moving very slowly

and very quietly towards the birds,

they're able to film

without causing them any disturbance.

Despite their rather elegant beauty,

they're actually quite aggressive,

and so if they are not happy

with you they make it very clear.

But we've been delighted that actually

the red-crowned cranes

have very much accepted our presence,

and allowed us a real privileged

glimpse of the life of the chicks.

The chicks have an amazing ability.

Shortly after being born, they are

able to walk, run, and even swim.

These tiny little chicks,

small little balls of fluff,

are able to follow their parents

through the marshes

as they look for food.

As Paul films the birds,

he notices the crane's doing

something he's never seen before.

When the chicks were first born,

the adults were trying

to feed them bits of fish,

and that was clearly too much

for the chicks to swallow,

but something seemed

to have clicked in the adult's mind,

perhaps these were

relatively inexperienced birds

we were dealing with,

and so very shortly,

they were going off into the reeds

and picking the

tiniest little insects,

insects that clearly

the adults themselves wouldn't eat,

they don't represent a meal.

But they'd bring those back

one at a time to the chicks,

and that was something

the chicks could swallow.

So I was quite impressed

how the adults

adapted to their choosy-eating chicks.

For the team, it's amazing

to film the next generation

of such a rare bird

growing up in the wild.

Much work has gone into studying

the birds breeding biology,

and the preservation of their habitats

that the birds need

to survive in greater numbers.

The expedition is seeing

this work directly contributing

to the survival of the birds.

This is a special place for the

red-crowned cranes because it's one of

their breeding sites

and more importantly

probably it's

one of their breeding sites

that's being conserved and

actively managed for their benefit.

So it's a place where

the red-crowned cranes can feel safe

and where they can bring up chicks

with a really good chance of success.

Paul and the team have filmed

a cultural icon

and are left with precious memories.

The chicks are growing well,

preparing for their long migration

south later in the year.

A journey of thousands of miles

across China.

Encouraged by the success

of the crane team,

anotherBorn In China crew

are starting their filming

1,600 miles to the south west.

They're also in search of babies,

but of a different nature.

Thanks to conservation efforts

within China,

these mountain forests harbor

a colorful endangered primate

full of character.

These are golden snub-nosed monkeys.

Amongst the rarest of primates

and only found in central China.

The crew hope to get a privileged look

into the life of a wild monkey

that lives at an elevation almost

as high as any primate on Earth.

The challenge for this team

is to keep up with these agile,

tree-swinging monkeys

living on wild steep-sided slopes.

The area we've been

principally filming

the golden snub-nosed monkeys in

has been

in the highest mountains

in central China.

They are very dramatic

steep mountains,

forested, and incredibly beautiful.

China has set aside a number of wild

forest areas to protect the monkeys.

The filming location

is over 1,200 square miles in size,

as large as the state of Rhode Island.

Justin Maguire has filmed

on all seven continents.

He's a multi-award winning cameraman

with many years of experience

in the field.

In order to film the monkeys

in a way that we didn't disturb them,

we tried to film

with as few people as possible,

which involved my crew carrying

a very large tripod,

and me having to carry the camera.

The ground is incredibly steep,

there's lots of branches

and brambles and thorns.

It can be cold and wet and miserable,

and those were

our biggest physical challenges

on the location, it's just carrying

all this heavy gear up and down,

and keeping up with the monkeys who

move much faster than us with ease,

and we are sort of flopping

around just trying to stay steady.

Jess Tombs is a primatologist

who's spent many years

working with primates,

but none as cute as this.

Golden snub-nosed monkeys were chosen

because they are the only character

in the film that is a social animal

so you've got lots of interactions

between individuals going on.

They're beautiful, they're amazing,

they're charming, they're funny.

They're very entertaining.

Jacky Poon is a Chinese Emmy-nominated

wildlife cameraman.

He's filmed all over China,

specializing in primates.

What is very amazing and fascinating

is that we frequently

see that the father would carry

a young baby and try to keep him warm

by huddling together

and grooming each other,

and that's something

that a lot of males don't do

to their younger juveniles

in other primate societies.

What people really relate to

with these monkeys is that they'll see

themselves in the monkeys.

They'll see the monkeys

being cold and miserable,

and they'll see them happy

with the first sign of spring

and be pleased when they're groomed

by a family member,

and ecstatic when they get to play

with their friends,

and I think we all relate to that.

They entertain themselves all the

time, particularly the youngsters,

and that's what they spend

a huge portion of their day doing,

is having fun.

Swinging, chasing each other,

you know just doing silly things.

The crew quickly become

attached to the monkeys,

and are now in the right place

at the right time

to capture a special event.

It's baby time.

Only once every two years in the

spring, there's a flurry of newborns.

Most arrive between April and June.

A time when the forest explodes

with color and new life.

At this time of year,

there are babies everywhere.

The newborns won't leave their mom's

side for at least three months.

But it's not a time of celebration

for everyone.

This is Tao Tao,

a two-year-old male

whose mom has just given birth.

At first, he welcomes

the arrival of a baby.

But this little one

takes up mom's entire time.

Tao Tao feels left out.

He's the center

of his family's attention

until his mum

has a little baby sister.

His world is about to change forever

and he's gonna have to grow up,

and we follow him on this journey.

Tao Tao finds himself no longer

the apple of his parents' eye.

It's a tough lesson

at such a young age,

and while Tao Tao's sister

is being nursed,

there's little room for him

within the family.

But there's a safety net.

The all-male troop.

A gang of Lost Boys,

the perfect place for Tao Tao

and other young males

to hang out as they grow up.

It's a boisterous, adventurous,

and fun crew.

With the emphasis on fun.

And Tao Tao is getting into

the swing of things!

By making these adorable

golden snub-nosed monkeys

a conservation priority,

it's the Chinese themselves who are

discovering the amazing wildlife

their country has to offer.

Ultimately the understanding

and appreciation and enjoyment,

of the natural world

and wild animals

is one thing that will hopefully lead

to the preservation and protection.

As the seasons change across China,

the freshness of spring

turns to summer,

and with it comes

a unique filming opportunity...

to film the birth

of a very special antelope

on China's high plateau.

Fourteen hundred miles to the

north west of the monkey location,

the nextBorn In China

expedition is underway

into one of the remotest

and highest corners

of the country to find this antelope.

It's called a "chiru."

Decimated by poaching

in the 1980s and '90s

for its warm fur to make

luxurious shawls known as "Shatoosh,"

the chiru are now recovering

from the brink of extinction

thanks to its protection

and the establishment

of a vast wild area.

Weeks ago, the pregnant females

left the males behind

to begin a migration

to their birthing grounds.

The challenge is to be

the first international crew

to film a chiru birth.

Because of the remoteness of it, we

couldn't access any local facilities.

We had to take all our stores with us.

From fuel to food to bedding.

You name it, we took with us.

Steven Ballantyne is an expert

in remote location filming.

He's managed crews

from the jungles of Papua New Guinea

to the vast grasslands of Mongolia.

Above 8,000 feet, altitude sickness,

which can be fatal,

is the biggest threat

to the expedition's safety.

The team's final destination

is nearly twice as high.

To minimize its effects,

the crew must rest

after every 1,600 feet they climb.

Already at Camp 1, the team are

nearly 10,000 feet above sea level.

The thin air making the crucial and

simple task of breathing difficult.

Any physical work on top of that, even

setting up a tent, is really tough.

The crew must stay here for 24 hours

to allow their bodies

to get used to the thin air.

The chef insists on wearing

his best whites.

He knows how important he is

to the welfare of the team.

A high-calorie diet is crucial

at these altitudes.

The food is a huge hit.

They journey on.

Beyond the last gas station,

the team have to

fill the trucks by hand.

Rolf Steinmann is the director of

photography for the chiru expedition,

specializing in filming skittish,

endangered animals

in remote corners of the world.

He's used to cold conditions,

but sub-zero temperatures

inside the car

is something else.

I just wanted to drink

a little bit of water and...

this happened.

So... it's getting pretty cold.

Camp 2 at over 12,000 feet

is even more remote.

The crew will be here for 48 hours

to get fit enough for the final stage.

It's a chance for Rolf to brush up

on his wildlife knowledge

as he waits for dinner.

He's not the only one.

All are eager for essential calories.

The last day of the journey.

Today the team will push inland

to where they hope to find the chiru.

Once we actually got

to the entrance of the reserve

of which there is no actual entrance,

it's just like this huge open plateau,

you then turn off the tarmac road

and enter the plateau region

From here, it's another 120 miles

off-road driving

across the highest plateau on Earth.

This is Kekexili.

A place where

few Westerners have traveled

and one of the most sparsely populated

regions on the planet.

The overwhelming sense of space

was the first impression that really

struck me and always stayed with me.

There's no trees,

there was literally no mountains

except way off in the distance.

I come from a city,

so to suddenly have

acres of land

with these massive beautiful vistas

was just breathtakingly beautiful.

This area is over

17,000 square miles in size,

larger than the state of Maryland.

Over 15,000 feet above sea level

higher than the Rockies

with only a few human inhabitants,

it protects the unique plants

and animals that live here.

The team are heading to a camp

on the shores of Zhuonai Lake.

A beautiful remote

60 square mile body of water.

Just 15 years ago,

this area was discovered to be

the key birthing ground of the chiru.

So difficult to access,

it remains seldom visited.

After 48 hours driving off road,

this team are the first international

film crew to reach the lake.

The heart of what was

the chiru poaching area.

We were able to use a ranger station

which had been

near enough abandoned really.

It was surrounded

by a 14-foot steel fence.

As the crew unpacks,

an immediate reminder

of how wild this place is.

A bear.

The reason for the fence is clear.

The Himalayan Blue Bear is one of the

rarest bear subspecies in the world.

It is thought by some to be the origin

of the legendary Yeti.

A creature rarely seen,

let alone filmed, in the wild.

It's just very amazing to see the bear

in this vast beautiful landscape.

It's a very special moment.

An early sign for the team

of the amazing and rare animals

who call this

huge wild reserve "home."

This area became a sanctuary

just over 20 years ago

at the peak of the chiru

being poached,

and when their population

had collapsed

from around 1 million

to less than 100,000.

Their numbers

have increased since then,

but the chiru are still

wary of humans.

Their shyness is a problem

for Rolf and the crew.

It's pretty intimidating because...

if you use binoculars you can see

these groups of chirus

all over the place, but...

the question will be

how to get close to them

because I have to be like

20, 40 meters close

to get good shots.

The team decide their only option

is to position several hides

at strategic points

from which Rolf can film.

Okay.

Dug into the hard ground

and designed to blend

into the landscape

as much as possible,

these will give the team

a fighting chance

to get a camera close to the chiru

without disturbing them.

But setting up a number of hides

on the plateau,

doesn't go unnoticed by curious bears.

Well, we actually just

wanted to inspect

our hide here on the calving grounds

or the potential calving grounds,

and we recognize

the bear has visited our hide.

And yeah, bears are powerful animals

so if he inspects a hide like that,

he leaves his tracks

so...

But you know

you always have to consider

these bears out here they don't have

TV, they don't have computer games,

so a hide like that

is something really interesting.

And that's why I have

no problems to forgive him

and we just have to repair

the little stuff here.

Alone in a tiny hide

in the middle of bear territory

it's a nerve-wracking time for Rolf.

He's spending days on end

hoping the chiru will turn up.

There is absolutely no sign

of life out there.

Not a chiru, not a yak, no nothing.

And the weird thing is

this is an open grassland.

I can see really far,

but there is absolutely nothing.

All this at 15,000 feet

on the largest and highest

plateau in the world.

For most of us

this would be punishing,

but Rolf's sense of humor

hasn't been dented yet.

He's come to appreciate

the simple things in life.

Well, after

12 hours

in the hide

at, yeah, kind of serious

sub-zero temperatures,

it's quite nice to be back in the open

and heat up

and have hot water.

Yeah it's the...

little things

which are the biggest things out here.

Even with changes of brutal

and unpredictable weather,

the team aren't giving up.

If I was a mother I wouldn't give

birth to a baby in these conditions.

There's no grass, it's really cold,

it's snowy,

it's not a good start in life.

Then at last...

Rolf has something to film.

One by one,

thousands of female chiru

are arriving at the lake after

a journey of nearly 200 miles

over the last three weeks.

The highest mammal migration on Earth.

The lake is the perfect place

to have their young.

Temperatures are pleasantly cool

and the grasses and water abundant.

As more and more expectant moms arrive

and the numbers swell,

this is the moment

Rolf has been waiting for.

The birthing begins.

Hundreds are born

within days of each other.

It's a remarkable achievement

for the Chiru team

and one of "the" defining moments

of theBorn In China film.

An endangered skittish antelope

confident enough to give birth

right in front of the team's hide.

To see new life

come into this world

was just breathtakingly beautiful.

The babies are extraordinary.

Within just 15 minutes of being born,

they can already stand

and feed themselves

almost immediately.

Although clearly,

it takes a little practice.

But even the straddlers are soon up

and confident on their feet.

All the young staying close to their

moms as they learn their way around.

As soon as the birthing is over

and the females and young

are strong enough,

the herd begins the long

200-mile journey home

to reunite with the males.

The film crew will meet them

there later in the year

as the 100,000 strong chiru herds

complete their

high-altitude migration.

Over 900 miles away,

another Born In China crew

are traveling through

the steep-sided valleys of Sichuan

to find a very special

and famous animal.

The panda.

The task for this team

is to film the intimate relationship

between a mother panda

and her cub for the first time.

As a symbol of good luck,

friendship, peace,

and invincibility,

the panda holds a special place

in Chinese culture.

One of the rarest creatures on Earth,

largely due to habitat loss,

it lives in the forest,

surviving almost exclusively

on bamboo.

For over half a century, the panda

has been a flagship for conservation,

a global ambassador for China,

and a bear that's had millions

of dollars spent on it

to restore its numbers in the wild.

This is Ya Ya.

She's pregnant, against all the odds

Female pandas are fertile

for just three days a year,

and can only have one cub

every second year.

Each birth is precious.

Ya Ya's now at the end

of her five-month gestation,

and is looking for a den

in which she can give birth safely.

But pandas

don't do anything in a hurry.

One last drink,

a scratch,

a sniff.

And in she goes.

A quiet safe den,

the floor covered in grasses

and branches to keep her warm.

The panda's story inBorn In China

seeks to follow a mother bear

as she seeks to find a place

to give birth to her young.

And then get

a privileged glimpse of that young

really when it's quite recently born.

They're born incredibly tiny

and then they are kept

in that den for quite some time.

A tiny cub.

Just seven inches long.

A thousand times smaller than her mom,

this is Mei Mei.

She can hardly move

and it's eight weeks

before her eyes open.

A baby panda that will,

hopefully in a few years' time,

boost the population of pandas

that remain in the wild.

For almost 80 years,

China's been working hard

to protect the panda,

and establish areas of habitat

where they can roam free.

As an animal out there in the wild,

kind of on the edge,

physically and metaphorically

in terms of conservation,

it's not an animal

we want to disturb too much.

Pandas are found

in large wild mountain reserves

in the central southern

part of the country.

Access to these areas

is tightly managed.

Designed to be as wild as possible,

there are some zones

where any human entering

has to permanently wear

a full panda costume.

This is how serious the Chinese are

about panda conservation.

It's a way for us to get

a little bit closer

without worrying

that we're disturbing an animal.

Paul and the team will spend

the next few months dressed as pandas

hoping to get close and intimate

footage of a very rare bear.

It's a conservation program

that's working.

Logging was banned in panda habitats

almost 20 years ago

and their numbers are increasing.

But China's ambition

doesn't stop there.

There are plans for a wild reserve

three times the size of Yellowstone.

Linking almost 70 panda habitats,

it will allow more pandas

to mingle and mate

in the hope of boosting

the panda's population.

This is conservation

on a truly epic scale.

In the mountain range above Paul,

a second filming unit

led by cameraman Jacky Poon

is about to experience first-hand

how large these wild reserves are.

People sort of nodded when we said we

were looking for wild snow leopards.

They nodded "yeah sure"

with red-crowned cranes.

The monkeys "no problem,"

but when we said

we wanted to film pandas,

everybody sort of had

a slight intake of breath,

and wanted to assure us

that that was not going to be easy.

Pandas live in the most remote,

thickest, densest, highest sort

of habitats you could hope to find,

and to track down a panda really takes

a lot of perseverance

and a lot of luck.

At the last official count,

there were nearly 2,000 pandas

living in the wild,

almost 20% more than a decade ago.

Although locating them

remains extremely hard,

Jacky and the team

are determined to film

the country's most iconic creature.

Going to try and find pandas

is physically very tough.

They live on mountain sides

that are kind of vertical.

And at the sort of altitudes

where oxygen is noticeably thin,

so actually getting your breath

is quite difficult.

Add to that, in the times

that you might meet them,

it can be very cold in those habitats.

Big snow storms, freezing weather

can come in at any time

and you're pretty exposed

on those mountains

and you're likely to be cut off.

The terrain is extremely difficult.

What we have to do is ascent from camp

every single day to go in to a hide,

waiting for a panda to approach us.

And there's essentially

no path, no trails,

we have to make our own

trails to look for pandas.

It just makes the whole operation

extremely hard.

The only way Jacky can haul himself up

is to grab the sharp bamboo.

So he has to wear gloves to prevent

his hands from being cut open.

He climbs this route every morning

at first light to reach a filming hide

placed in

the only clearing he can find.

It's over 10,000 feet above sea level,

higher than the Appalachians.

Today on the way up,

he discovers a tunnel in the bamboo.

These paths

can only be made by pandas.

These are scratch marks by pandas.

And...

you can see here there's

also some fresh droppings.

Moments later, further signs.

So we've got panda's poo

three to four days old.

Exciting news for the team.

Pandas are definitely here.

But even with promising signs

on the ground,

the ever-changing weather

is not helping filming.

Visibility is reduced

to less than 30 feet.

I got here five hours ago

this morning, early.

And I've been sitting

in a hide looking

to hopefully spot a panda

and be able to film it.

It's proving to be

very difficult though,

especially with the weather

condition now.

Filming pandas in these conditions

is almost impossible.

Nothing left to do, but to head

back over the ridge to camp.

A three-hour scramble home.

Oh, oh, I'm wet through.

Soaked through.

Oh man.

Another day.

Another early start.

As the days and weeks progress,

Jacky and the team repeat the climb,

determined to succeed.

Come on, pandas. Where are you?

Almost May.

It's meant to be like

20 degrees Celsius.

Oh, gosh.

Instead, it's colder than an icebox.

And getting around is treacherous.

Oh, man...

Again?

Still waiting.

A month passes

without a single sighting.

Yeah, it's quite frustrating,

to be honest.

I guess this is wildlife film-making.

You get lucky or you don't.

I don't know what,

what we can do really, just a...

Yeah.

But then some news reaches the team.

A panda's been spotted.

The first confirmed sighting

Jacky and the team

have heard about in four weeks.

They relocate as fast as possible.

And sure enough

hidden amongst the greenery.

We are finally able to film

a panda in a wild environment.

Amongst the thick undergrowth,

a very special bear.

Still remarkably rare to see,

China is working tirelessly

to increase their numbers.

This panda, the next step

in that success story.

A panda bear is really special insofar

as they're probably the most iconic

endangered species that we have.

If you preserve the panda,

you preserve these amazing forests

over huge swathes of China.

And with the panda, all the species

that are in those forests.

So it seems only right

that these wonderful,

remarkable, amazing animals

are guaranteed a place

by our conservation efforts.

As summer turns to autumn,

Ya Ya and Mei Mei venture out.

The main thrust of our story

is the first year

of that baby panda's life.

And to witness

the really very special relationship

that mother panda bears

have with their cubs.

As Mei Mei grows up,

the crew follow her adventures.

Panda bear mothers and cubs have a,

I think genuinely unique relationship.

I've never filmed an animal

where the bond seems as strong

as between a mother panda bear

and her cub.

And it's a really fun bond.

Mum really seems to see her cub

as this fantastic play partner,

and sometimes I have to say

almost seems to treat it as this toy.

The cubs for their part

are incredibly boisterous,

very roly poly.

They get into all sorts of trouble.

And the incredible thing

about a panda is

it seems to be able to fall

huge distances,

to roll into rocks,

to bounce off trees,

and it's almost like

they're made of rubber,

there's a little moment of shock,

and then they're straight

back into the play.

I just think that's a,

that's a wonderful thing about pandas.

We've been filming panda cubs

since the beginning,

since they were really young

and follow their livelihood

until they are grown up.

So you know every part we've seen,

every part we've filmed

is always ultimately we get

an "ahh" out of it.

They are pandas.

They are just beautiful,

cuddly and adorable.

I think it's hard not to

look at a mother animal

to see the sheer effort

she puts in to bringing up her young

and to not feel a little bit

of that care yourself.

So if by showing

these species' first year

in their journey towards adulthood,

we make people care

a little bit about them as individuals

and hence care about

the species as a population,

then it won't be a bad thing.

The autumn leaves are in full display.

The trees as colorful as any

New England fall in North America.

Across the country,

theBorn In China crews

stay with their stars,

following their every move.

Tao Tao is thriving

outside the family group.

But every day is a lesson in survival.

The goshawk is a proven hunter

of golden snub-nosed monkeys.

All must be careful here.

These are amongst the fastest and most

agile birds of prey on the planet.

Armed with the best eyesight

in the animal kingdom,

eight times more powerful

than a human's.

The goshawk is capable of tucking

in its wings during flight

to pass through the smallest gaps

in pursuit of prey.

Fortunately,

there are enough eyes on him today

to keep Tao Tao

and the other monkeys out of danger.

The chiru herds are also

keeping an eye out for predators

on the long walk back

from the birthing grounds.

And for good reason.

The herds are relentlessly

pursued by wolves.

But these young chiru

are already strong enough

to outrun their predators.

Again safety in numbers

wins the day.

And Mei Mei, well,

she's just a danger to herself.

But she'll be okay.

Mom knows that falling down

for a young panda

is all part of growing up.

All is well

with theBorn In China characters.

And as winter approaches, the filming

expeditions become more frequent

as the animals prepare for the cold.

At the monkey location,

the crew are hoping to film a battle

over a seasonal delicacy.

Pine cones are a prized source

of energy before winter sets in.

And it's one of Tao Tao's

favorite foods.

His gang are making the most

of an autumn bonanza

at the edge of their territory.

But there's tension

amongst the monkeys.

With the cones

such a precious resource,

everyone wants in on this patch.

Grazing rights for the pine cones

will only be sorted out one way.

The main fight is between Tao Tao's

dad and the leader of the Lost Boys.

Loyalties divided

between his family and the gang,

Tao Tao looks on anxiously.

It's a fight of tooth and claw.

Tao Tao's dad emerges victorious

and the Lost Boy's leader is defeated.

Tao Tao survives another drama.

Back up on the high plateau,

it's the turn of the chiru crew

to find their stars.

The team are 200 miles

south east of Zhuonai Lake,

the first filming location,

to film a special event

that only happens once a year.

It's the chiru courtship season.

After three weeks of walking

from where the chiru gave birth,

the moms and babies are arriving

at the courtship grounds.

Where the males,

who have been alone for many weeks,

are waiting patiently.

It's time for the antelope

to start a new family again.

For the next few weeks,

the males will be

thinking of nothing else

than getting together

with the females.

But unlike at the lake

where the herd was concentrated

in one place to give birth,

the females are now spread far

and wide across the high plateau.

Both film crew and male chirus

are going to have to track them down.

At least the team are in expert hands.

Jiaxi is a ranger

for this wild reserve.

He knows this place and how the chiru

behave better than anyone.

Now the chirus are on the plateau,

the males start to try

to capture the females.

They will all move to that area,

close to our camp.

- So we are actually...

- ...in a good spot.

It's great local knowledge,

but actually filming

the chiru courtship

is a different matter altogether.

Especially as the males are still

seeking out the females.

But right now the male's advances

aren't impressing any of them.

The best tactic for the film crew

with the chiru spread so far and wide

is to try on foot.

And it's still before sunrise.

We try to find the chirus to get them

in the nice light in the morning.

It's minus 18 degrees,

so it's quite cold.

Fingers crossed.

But any chance of filming

is quickly dashed.

It's amazing how chirus survive

in this plateau.

It's very windy again.

And there in the background,

you can see the dark clouds,

brownish clouds, it's all dust storm.

So the next dust storm is coming,

it makes our work really hard, so...

Yeah, we have to wait it out.

For the next few hours, the team

will be going nowhere on foot.

And even in the vehicle,

getting around is becoming impossible.

I can't see the road anymore.

The wind gradually subsides,

the dust settles,

and the skies clear bringing

not only fine weather,

but also good fortune.

The courtship begins.

We have a male there

with a harem of eight females

and he's pretty active trying to keep

the girls together

and chasing other males away

and we start to get behavior

which is really uplifting.

With his harem of females in place,

this male will now do everything

he can to keep them.

He must herd his females

away from other males

to give him the best chance

to play his part

before the females leave

for the lake again

to give birth.

Now so determined

to impress the females,

he won't stop chasing them for weeks

in a bid for mating rights.

All his energies are spent

on this courtship ritual

dominated by calling and prancing.

He won't even stop to eat.

There's nothing else on his mind.

Any of the other males

that dare enter his space

are chased off at lightning speed.

This is his territory.

The loudest, fastest,

and most imposing male

wins the day.

The chirus were really undisturbed

and did their thing.

So...

it was a pretty good day

and we got the start

of the males chasing each other.

Filming the chiru

has been an epic effort.

Over 150 days,

the team have ventured

into areas few people have ever been,

experienced isolation

and extreme cold.

My fingers are incredibly cold.

But successfully filmed an animal

which lives at extremes

and is fighting back

from the edge of extinction.

For the first time, the lives of the

chiru have been captured on film.

The team's achievement is unique,

to say the least.

Far to the east,

the family of cranes are ready

to begin their migration.

Paul and the team

are there to see them off.

Now nine months old,

the crane chicks

are almost unrecognizable.

Already nearly

as tall as their parents.

Before the first signs

of winter hit their birthplace,

they will leave for warmer pastures.

A migration that will hopefully remain

possible for years to come.

Red-crowned cranes find themselves

where cities are being built,

where populations are expanding

and industry is working.

Hand in hand with that development,

there has to be, and I would say,

there is a sensitivity

to preserving the wetlands

and the marshes that the cranes need.

Now that's important for the cranes,

but obviously one day,

it will also be important

for the populations of people here.

Because having

big cities is important,

but you also need somewhere

to escape from those big cities,

and experience the wild.

And there couldn't be a more rewarding

summit to that experience

than to see the beautiful red-crowned

cranes out in these marshes.

The first flakes

of winter snow arrive.

Soon vast areas

of the country are covered.

Winter is here.

TheBorn In China film crews

capture picture-perfect images

of a winter wonderland

from the ground.

And from the air.

These aerial shots filmed from

a state-of-the-art stabilized camera

mounted to a helicopter,

are the first of their kind.

No crew

has filmed this high over China.

Back on the ground

and baby Mei Mei continues to flourish

doing her best to become

independent from mom Ya Ya.

Like all pandas,

Mei Mei is born to climb.

Under the watchful eye of Ya Ya,

she's spending her days exploring.

But Mei Mei's trying to reach

too high too soon.

It will be a few more months

until she is strong enough

and wise enough to survive on her own.

For now, her mom is not

going to let her go.

For the monkey team, this is

their most important time of year.

They only have one winter

to try and capture on film

an extraordinary

and very rare behavior.

Something that's special

about golden snub-nosed monkeys

is they live

right up into the snowline

and this is something

we really wanted to show.

In the winter shoot,

we were really hoping to

film something we were told about

that happens specifically in winter,

and that's the monkeys

walking bipedally

on two feet like we do.

And it seems as if

they do this to avoid

putting their hands on to the ground

because it's cold.

This was our goal

for the winter filming.

What the crew need

is cold temperatures

and enough snow to settle.

A few days later,

the perfect conditions arrive.

We have to go

and find the monkeys now,

they're somewhere up the mountain.

But for Justin and the crew,

following fast moving monkeys up steep

snow-covered slopes

with heavy filming gear

isn't easy.

More than two hours into the climb,

the team eventually find the monkeys

and set up to film.

There was one particular moment

which I loved was

which I found funny as well,

we were filming our very first snow,

and I just happened

to be standing right by a tree

and the monkeys decided

to use me as a perch.

Do I have two on me?

- Yeah, you have two.

- Feels like it.

- I've got two tails anyway

- You have two monkeys now.

Oh, yeah, he's just trying to

get right on your head.

So, how's filming going today?

I've got a very good view

of a monkey's bottom right now.

The conditions stay perfect

for the next few days.

And the team are seeing glimpses

of the monkey behavior

they are hoping for.

- Oh, my God!

- That is so sweet.

Oh, you are like the cutest thing.

That is just the sweetest thing

you could ever possibly see.

It happens so quickly,

and it's not necessarily

in the right setting,

so getting all of the things right

to capture it is really hard.

You might, you know,

we're starting to see it now,

but actually getting it on camera

is a whole different story.

Not a good angle and

there's lots of scruffy vegetation.

It needs to be more attractive and

a better camera angle would be good.

It's not really working

because we are too close.

I wasn't fast enough.

Finally, it all clicks into place

and the team capture

the monkeys walking on two feet.

It was definitely a moment,

the best bit is the mum

with the baby attached to her.

- ...running along.

- There's another one.

That one in the back.

It's been a very successful year

for the monkey team,

full of fond memories

thanks to these amazing wild primates.

A bit of warmth and the monkeys

are just so much more

relaxed and happy.

And just before the crew up pack up,

a bonus.

We had one that particularly liked

doing back flips

I mean he doesn't need to do

back flips but...

obviously doing it for fun,

I can't think what other reason.

Oh, my goodness.

We were very privileged

to be spending time

with these animals

which are very habituated.

They knew us,

each crew member as individuals.

And they were cheeky at times.

They would jump onto the camera,

and push bits

or want to interact with us,

and mostly we were trying

not to distract them in any way,

you know we wanted to observe

purely natural behavior.

But I loved the moments

when they were engaged with us

and wanted to be engaged with us.

I'm not quite happy

with the position of my camera flag.

It's really hard to pick

a favorite moment

with the golden snub-nosed monkeys

because there were so many.

The thing I found probably

the most entertaining about them

was the youngsters,

they just love to play so much

and they would often come and play

near us and jump on the camera bags

and the camera and us.

And I could just sit

and watch them for hours.

Those were my favorite times.

The filming of Born In China

is a remarkable achievement.

Teams of experienced

international crews

often working in little explored

corners of this amazing country,

successfully filmed rare endangered

animals and landscapes.

Tao Tao survived being pushed out,

returning happily to grow up

with his sister and his family.

The crane family completed

their journey south.

Once again, the chiru herds set off on

the highest mammal migration on Earth.

And Mei Mei, finally,

grew strong enough to branch out

on her own.

These expeditions revealed a country

working to preserve

its wildlife and habitats,

and those striving to make it happen.

The people we've met

in the areas that we've been filming

have been really

wonderful and helpful.

Of course, we've needed

their help with bags,

just the sheer amount of kit.

But more importantly,

we've needed their expertise.

They know those animals so well.

They can spot an animal at distances

that frankly I couldn't see an animal

through binoculars at.

We were really lucky to find

some brilliant local crew.

They were absolutely instrumental

to the footage that we were

able to capture.

Without them we just wouldn't have

been able to do what we've done.

We could not have achieved what

we've done without the local support.

In fact, we wouldn't have achieved it.

During the filming ofBorn In China,

the team spent

1,000 filming days in the country.

Alongside the biggest human

population on the planet,

they filmed vast remote habitats.

Home to rare creatures

unfamiliar inside the country,

let alone to the rest of the world.

The expeditions have opened

a window onto the rarely seen

animalsofChina.