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00:00Only one creature has carved a life for itself in every habitat on Earth.
00:13That creature is us.
00:19All over the world, we still use our ingenuity to survive in the wild places, far from the
00:25city lights, face to face with raw nature.
00:31This is the human planet.
00:48Grass is a remarkable plant.
00:50It supports a great abundance of life.
00:54Wheat, rice, barley and corn, they're all grasses and they feed us.
01:05And the grasslands feed the animals that feed our world too.
01:12Our lives on the grasslands have transformed the planet from the prairies of America to
01:18the rice terraces of China.
01:24But it's not been easy.
01:26It's taken every last ounce of human courage and ingenuity to become masters of the grasslands.
01:48Dawn on the savannah in southern Kenya.
02:17It's the moment Rakita and his mates have been waiting for.
02:24The wildebeest migration has arrived.
02:31Here lush grasses support the largest herds of animals in the world, a bounty of opportunity
02:37for these Dorobo hunters.
02:43But there's fierce competition for all this meat on the hoof.
02:47From some of the world's most efficient killers.
03:18So how do mere humans without fangs or claws, who can't outrun a wildebeest, get a meal
03:26around here?
03:30Rakita uses brains and teamwork.
03:39His plan is to let the lions kill the wildebeest, then he'll steal their dinner from right under
03:44their noses.
03:49His two friends are essential.
03:52Lions aren't easily intimidated.
03:56First, Rakita must find the tracks of a lion pride on the hunt.
04:09At 65, he's a veteran hunter and takes the lead.
04:15They must watch their backs.
04:17This is man-eater territory.
04:39All the signs point to a fresh kill nearby.
04:45Rakita's been attacked by lions before.
05:11He knows this couldn't rally.
05:37They're up against 15 hungry lions.
05:46But if they act as one, they might just intimidate the lions and push them off their kill.
05:59They make their move.
06:01Self-confidence is everything.
06:10This is the ultimate face-off.
06:21Suddenly, the lions back off.
06:39Rakita has just minutes before the lions realize it's a bluff.
06:57In a matter of seconds, he butchers the haunch of the wildebeest and they beat a hasty retreat.
07:07This is a scene which has played out throughout human existence, hunters using brains not
07:33brawn to outwit their mighty competitors.
08:03Getting another animal to do the killing for you is clever, but making the kill yourself
08:27is an even bigger challenge.
08:33At the other end of Africa, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, lies a much drier grassland,
08:40supporting far fewer animals.
08:44There's no free lunch here.
08:49Kung and Nau are Junghausi bushmen.
08:53Kung is a master hunter, one of a handful of Junghausi who still have the skills to
09:00hunt big game.
09:02So Kung is teaching his apprentice to keep this precious knowledge alive.
09:15The hunt begins by kindling fire.
09:28They burn the grass from around the only waterhole for many kilometers.
09:36They know the animals will ultimately come to drink here, and when they do, they'll have
09:42nowhere to hide.
09:49Their bows and dart arrows are too small to kill outright, so they refine their weapons.
09:57Kung, the master, knows exactly where to find poison.
10:06Within this hardened sand shell is a beetle grub.
10:10If just one drop of beetle juice gets into the tiniest cut, it will kill him.
10:17He anoints his arrows with great care.
10:25But their prey are wily too, so they build a grass hide.
10:30This is an ambush.
10:36Kung wants his apprentice to get his first kudu.
10:52The antelope's acute hearing and sharp eyes mean he must learn to move silently and without
10:57being seen.
11:03Kung now has been spotted.
11:07The moment is lost.
11:26Two days later, the bushmen are still in their hide, hoping that the kudu's thirst will overcome
11:32their fear.
11:35But they stay away.
11:37Then, even the master is caught unprepared.
11:45It's a leopard.
11:47Suddenly the hunters risk becoming the hunted.
11:53A leopard's jaws have the power to crush a human skull.
12:24They're praying the leopard hasn't seen them.
12:30Now lies low in the shadows.
12:42This time, they've managed to remain undetected.
12:55It's day six in the hide, and the apprentice is no closer to getting a meal.
13:03A new group of kudu come in.
13:09They've got one chance.
13:13Both men raise their bows.
13:17Bullseye.
13:19An arrow has hit home and the kudu scatter.
13:37The injured kudu will run for many kilometers with the poison arrow in its flank as the
13:42toxins slowly take effect.
13:46The pursuit begins.
13:50First they must find the arrow shaft.
13:52It will show them which tracks to follow and also who made the hit.
14:18From here on, it's all about tracking.
14:22The ground is crisscrossed with hoof prints.
14:52While tracking, the hunters look at the landscape through the eyes of their prey.
15:17After ten hours, they finally catch up with the kudu.
15:30The poison has weakened it.
15:32She's exhausted near death.
15:40Now aims a spear to the heart to deliver a swift end.
16:07After seven days, Nau has finally killed his first kudu.
16:19Now there is one more person in the world who can do this.
16:23The meat they'll carry home will feed their whole village, and every part of the animal
16:28will be put to use.
16:33This burnt landscape looks dead, but grass is incredibly resilient.
16:41With the first drops of rain, it regenerates.
16:47And where these rains become floods, grass grows to keep pace with the rising waters.
16:57Around the world, many grasslands undergo such extreme seasonal changes, bringing new
17:02opportunities, but also lurking dangers.
17:12In Cambodia, the grasslands around Tonle Sap Lake are flooding.
17:18And for a few short weeks, there are rich pickings to be had.
17:25It's Varner's big chance to make a killing.
17:30He's here to hunt an unexpected, hidden, and potentially fatal wild prey.
17:38Varner's hunting skill lies in recognising the difference between an easy meal and a
18:07deadly catch.
18:17But it's not fish he's after, it's snakes.
18:26There are many millions of them in this flooded grassland.
18:30Most are edible water snakes, but some are venomous.
18:36If he pulls up a cobra, its bite could kill him.
18:42It's a game of Russian roulette.
18:50Even his five-year-old son has to be a snake expert.
18:54Knowing which is which means survival here.
18:59The snakes gather in these huge numbers to hunt the fish which spawn in the submerged
19:04grass.
19:16It's no time to be squeamish.
19:18Every escapee sees Varner's profits slither away.
19:34Varner's whole family must get to grips with snakes.
19:45For the kids, they are welcome new toys.
20:16Varner's catch is destined for the biggest snake market in the world.
20:31Over six million snakes change hands in a matter of weeks.
20:59His payment for a week's snake wrangling, 60p.
21:19But survival in the grasslands isn't all about hunting.
21:27In East Africa, the Maasai have learnt how to collaborate with a wild bird to get a sweet
21:33treat they can only get if they work together.
21:42Laitato is whistling to attract a honey guide.
21:48It's a bird that is aptly named.
21:57The honey guide answers their whistles with a call it only uses to talk to humans.
22:15She starts a game of follow my leader.
22:23Since only she can smell the food they're after.
22:33When she's close to the prize, she changes her call, letting them know they're getting
22:38hotter.
22:53The boys have hit the jackpot, a beehive.
22:56The bird's job is done.
23:11Now they have to fulfil their part of the bargain, getting the honey out.
23:21It's hidden deep in the tree protected by hundreds of angry African bees.
23:31They use smoke to calm them.
23:38But it doesn't make the stings any less painful.
23:57The boys know they have to pay their guide, honeycomb with added grubs.
24:18It's the perfect partnership, but as every Maasai boy knows, if you don't give the honey
24:23guide its reward, next time it will lead you to a lion's den.
24:35So we've learnt how to find food in the wild grasslands, either on our own or with a bit
24:40of help from others.
24:44But our mastery of the grasslands took a huge leap forward when we learnt how to exploit
24:49the grass itself.
24:52Wheat, maize and rice all started life as wild grasses, which we've bred into crops.
25:07This has enabled us to feed millions of people every year, and so we've settled down and
25:13built homes beside our fields.
25:19But this man-made abundance is irresistible to many animals we now call pests.
25:32On the African plains, these serial killers come in plague proportions.
25:43Isaiah lives in Tanzania.
25:46His rice harvest is just days away, but he knows an aerial attack is imminent.
26:03He must be vigilant, ever alert to the sound he dreads.
26:10The noise comes first, then the advance party, followed by the swarm.
26:29They are qualia.
26:31They come in their millions, and people call them locust birds.
26:51They are the most numerous bird species on earth, ravenous for grain.
27:05Isaiah and his neighbours must try to prevent the qualia from settling, otherwise the flock
27:10will strip their crop in an hour.
27:17It's not a battle he can win, it's about limiting his losses.
27:28As the seeds ripen, these migrant flocks never stand still.
27:33But they do have an Achilles heel.
27:37In order to breed, the qualia must stop, weaving thousands of nests in tight colonies.
27:46This is the farmer's chance to strike back.
27:59While most of the flock is away feeding, a deadly trap is laid.
28:17The birds return as dusk falls.
28:45So far, we're one step ahead in the arms race with the pests.
29:03And our ability to manipulate the grasslands has gone from strength to strength.
29:11We have supersized these man-made grasslands, sculpting mountains, felling forests, and
29:19redesigning the very surface of our planet.
29:26Seven grasses feed almost seven billion people.
29:32They supply three quarters of our carbohydrates, bread and pasta, noodles and porridge.
29:46These artificial Great Plains are making wild grasslands amongst the most endangered habitats
29:51on earth.
29:57Yet it was on the wild grasslands, which support vast grazing herds, that we achieved perhaps
30:03our greatest triumph, to subjugate these animals to our needs.
30:10Controlling a plant is one thing, but dominating a creature with its own free will requires
30:17a far higher level of manipulation.
30:23The Mongolian steppe is the biggest grassland on earth.
30:28There are more horses running wild here than anywhere else in the world.
30:38The Mongols' ability to tame horses has made these nomads masters of the steppe.
30:45And in a family of horsemen, Ulana is the best.
30:54He's got riding in his blood.
30:56His ancestor, Genghis Khan, used horse power to build an empire.
31:01But today, Ulana's family face a different challenge.
31:11They must use their horses' speed and stamina to capture wild mares.
31:23Driving the wild herd back to the gare camp is only the beginning of a day that will test
31:28Ulana's agility and strength to the limit.
31:38Ultimately he's after the mare's milk, but it's not that straightforward.
31:54These wild mares don't give up their milk easily.
31:57They have to be tricked into it.
32:00Their success will depend on total partnership with his horse.
32:23First Ulana lassoes the foals, so the mares will stay close.
32:28But even the foals are feisty.
32:37Ulana leans behind his horse, using its strength and weight to resist the pull of the foal.
32:49He must balance at a gallop, using only his knees.
33:07Once he's caught a foal, his cousin Tunga must get a halter on before it escapes.
33:15It is the first time they have felt the touch of a human hand.
33:22Once they're tethered, Ulana can move on to the mares.
33:27This is the real battle.
33:30Foals are five times his weight.
33:59With Ulana at full stretch, everyone lends a hand.
34:26After two exhausting hours, the men begin to get the upper hand.
34:51Altered and hobbled, this mare is finally subdued.
34:58Then they're left to calm down with their foals.
35:05Only with the foal suckling will the mare let down her milk, and then Tunga has a brief
35:09chance to draw some off for the family.
35:20But Mongolians prefer their milk with a twist.
35:27Their innovation has been to ferment this sugary milk into airak, a slightly alcoholic
35:33yogurt.
35:43The yogurt bacteria turns the milk into their most nutritious summer food.
36:10Without harming their animals, Ulana's family can live off them year after year, turning
36:30the goodness of grass into yogurt.
36:33But having bound their lives to the grazing herds, they are nomads, following the herds
36:39on their perpetual search for fresh pastures.
37:09In other cultures, we have taken this mastery a step further, taming and breeding the wild
37:25herds, making them docile and easy to handle.
37:31In the African savannah, herders keep their cattle close.
37:35They are owned now, and like property owners everywhere, men will fight to protect them.
37:44In the grasslands of southern Ethiopia, the Suri take this protection to extremes.
37:51Here, rival tribes even fight battles over cattle.
37:57So Suri herders must become warriors.
38:07Chuhuri will stop at nothing to defend his herd.
38:28For the Suri, cattle are currency, too valuable to kill.
38:33They care for them intimately.
38:43Every year, Chuhuri must undergo a ritual trial of courage to prove he's got what it
38:48takes to be a cattle warrior.
38:54He gets strength for the combat ahead directly from his cows, by drinking their blood.
39:00It may look brutal, but it doesn't kill them.
39:08This rich blood gives Chuhuri essential protein and iron, and his prize animal will recover
39:14quickly.
39:26The vicious ritual of Donga will make or break Chuhuri's reputation as a cowboy.
39:35It's the day of judgment.
39:37The rival Suri clans arrive, psyched up and ready for Donga.
39:50It lasts a day.
39:52You pick an opponent from the neighboring village for a duel.
39:56The more victories you win, the greater your courage.
40:05Chuhuri walks to the ring.
40:07Even taking part in this ritual takes serious guts.
40:12He has no armor.
40:13His only defense is a lucky sun hat.
40:23Chuhuri watches and waits.
40:45The Donga sticks are two meters long.
40:47They can cause serious injury.
40:50To win, you must thrash your opponent until surrender.
40:59Finally, Chuhuri is ready for battle.
41:27It's a victory, but not emphatic.
41:30To prove himself, he fights again.
41:40Suddenly his opponent backs down.
41:42Chuhuri is the champion.
41:56Lifted high, his clans celebrate his victory.
42:10His cattle have their protector.
42:13Chuhuri has proved he can be a cowboy Ethiopian style.
42:25But in the Australian outback, they've reinvented the cowboy big time.
42:31Here supersized ranches across the country hold 30 million cattle.
42:37This is the total mastery of man over beast, our ultimate ingenuity in the grasslands.
42:48To get up used to take a month, not anymore.
43:05Ben Tapp is a muster pilot, and he must bring in 2,000 of his best cattle in just five days
43:11to get paid.
43:15He'll need all his flying skills, his ability to read the cattle, and his mate Rankin if
43:21he's to succeed.
43:22If you can understand the cattle, you can already anticipate what they're going to do.
43:36Like a good cattleman, you can identify every single beast, and every single beast is different.
43:43His cattle are out there somewhere.
43:46Scouting by air allows Ben to home in on them fast.
44:00When they find a group of cows, they drop down to the death zone to flush them out.
44:05Dropping any tree will be fatal.
44:28There are always some troublemakers.
44:55The choppers work together, pushing the growing herd, but they've got 50 kilometers and billabongs
45:10to cross before they get to the ranch.
45:20These cattle really don't like swimming.
45:40Every year, about 10 muster pilots crash and burn.
45:53From eight kilometers out, the ground crew joins the drive.
46:03Ben's still calling the shots.
46:33Now, we don't need to wait for the wildebeest migration.
46:44We create our own.
46:51Grasslands have allowed us to dominate the planet.
46:55They are the landscape of phenomenal human achievement.
47:02They underpin our present global existence.
47:08These cattle, native to India, raised in Australia, will soon be shipped out to feed the international
47:14appetite for beef.
47:17And over the season, they'll make Ben a millionaire.
47:22Are you making much out of it?
47:24Yeah.
47:26This is about 1.3 million bucks.
47:28Well, it's worth getting out of bed for.
47:30Yeah.
47:37Our ingenuity and teamwork, intelligence and courage have all been refined in the grasslands.
47:49And this uniquely human combination of skills has enabled us to conquer the world.
48:01Without the grasslands, planet Earth would never have become the human planet.
48:07Trying to steal food from the jaws of the most powerful predator in Africa may seem to us like lunacy.
48:17But this extraordinary and dangerous feat has been practiced in Kenya for thousands of years.
48:27But it has never been filmed before and may never be filmed again.
48:35The Derobo are an ancient tribe who live in the grasslands of East Africa.
48:41Conservation laws now stop many of their traditional practices and so threaten their whole way of life.
48:54To record this unique sequence, the grasslands team have been trained by the Derobo.
49:01To record this unique sequence, the grasslands team needed a man who understands both lions and the Derobo people who live here.
49:12Jackson Lusea, the crew's guide, has a deep understanding of this way of life, having grown up nearby in the Masai Mara.
49:22When I was asked by the BBC if they are able to document this story, I said,
49:26Yeah, because it's something that I practiced myself.
49:30I've chased lions on foot when I was growing up.
49:33I knew this lifestyle is possible.
49:35It's just a matter of if the BBC are able to capture this before it is gone.
49:44It won't be easy as the lions here aren't used to cars, so they're difficult to approach.
49:50They mainly hunt at night when it's too dangerous to get close on foot.
49:56So the challenge is to find a lion kill at dawn to enable the Derobo and Big Cat cameraman Warren Samuels to do their jobs.
50:07We've got to wait for the lions to make the kill and it's got to be at a time where we can still come out early morning and still have enough light to film them on the kill.
50:16We hope for a lot of luck.
50:19At first light, Jackson joins the Derobo in the hope of tracking down a fresh lion kill.
50:25You can see this is a footprint of a lion. It's a very big lion.
50:29And you can see there's a footprint of a wildebeest.
50:33This is a very, very big pride, looking at the number of footprints and the number of places that they like to drink.
50:42Because lions often hunt just before dawn, the team have to follow them both day and night.
50:53In Africa, night is everything. It's terrifying, it's scary, but there's so much light.
50:59But there's so much light.
51:09There are the lions. We've found them.
51:12Sharing the night shift with Jackson is human planet researcher Jane Atkins.
51:17We've just come across the lionesses with their eight cubs, quite local to where the Derobo guys live.
51:23But the downside of that is that when the Derobo do come across a kill,
51:27if it's in this area with this pride, these lionesses are going to be a lot more aggressive and protective.
51:39The struggle to try and keep up with this pride at night is because they cross in places that a vehicle would not be able to cross.
51:45Once you lose them, they do stop behind your back.
51:48So you're having to be on the go the whole time.
51:53After following the lions all night, they still haven't seen a kill.
52:00Warren, on the day shift, discovers there's a very good reason why.
52:05Ideally the situation we wanted here were big herds of wildebeest.
52:09We wanted to get lions making kills.
52:11The rains had come a little early, so most of the animals are up on the plains.
52:15All we've got now are small groups of five or six wildebeest.
52:18So we're really hoping that one of those groups of lions get lucky and manage to kill one of them.
52:27Four more days pass and no lion kills have been seen.
52:33Finally, they get a shred of luck.
52:36We've got a big herd of wildebeest going through the horizon, heading to the crossings again.
52:42We may have a chance again of a kill.
52:48The crew head off on the heels of the Dorobo.
52:53But after hours of tracking, again there's no sign of a kill.
53:01Jane and the night shift take over.
53:08We've just come across the lionesses and the male and all their cubs on a kill.
53:14And we're about five metres away.
53:20The adult male is sitting there on a wildebeest kill.
53:26We're not going to be able to film this because by the time it gets light, they'll have finished it.
53:32But it's absolutely amazing to be able to see so close.
53:38The vehicle is now surrounded by 23 hungry lions.
53:4323 hungry lions.
53:53What's that just next to you?
53:57Oh, God.
53:59Oh, God.
54:06We've just had a lion chewing at our back tyre.
54:11And I absolutely catch myself.
54:14Oh, God.
54:24There's no way that I would walk up to lions or try and take their meats.
54:28Look at them.
54:29That's the Dorobo.
54:30They say they do it all the time.
54:32I don't know how they do it.
54:36It's terrifying.
54:44By dawn, the lions have finished the kill.
54:49At the shift change, the power of the lion's bite is revealed.
54:55Look at that. It's amazing.
54:57Quite an adrenaline-filled night, really.
55:03It's eight in the morning. I've just finished my night shift.
55:06And although we found lions on a kill by the time Warren came out,
55:10and it was light enough for him to film,
55:12the carcass was pretty much ripped apart.
55:17We've only got a few more days left.
55:23At last, they get the news everyone's been waiting for.
55:26The pride they've been following has made a fresh kill.
55:29It's light enough to film, and the Dorobo are ready.
55:40Just trying to find a position that we can get a clear view.
55:43There's too much brush in the way.
55:46The crew were still worried about the Dorobo's safety.
55:50There were no more signs of the Dorobo's.
55:53Now, all we can do is wait.
55:57The night's a bit long, but we'll be home in about an hour or two.
56:04It's going to be a long night.
56:08We're not in the mood to wait, but we'll be home soon.
56:14We're going home.
56:17BOTH GIGGLE
56:19SHEEP BLEAT
56:46I didn't believe that we'd get this shot.
56:56I thought the lions would attack these guys, especially when they had the cubs.
57:01But all of a sudden, when the big male got up and ran, I was relieved because I thought
57:06he would be the one which will attack us.
57:09But I'm really, really chuffed.
57:11Great stuff.
57:15A special connection I've got with Ndorobo is the lifestyle.
57:19It's pretty sad to know that it's about to disappear.
57:25The time that I've spent with these guys, I think it's too short.
57:31I've realized how much I have lost and how much I have learned so far since I've been
57:36with them in the last two weeks.
57:41I'll be very happy if this has been captured for my kids and the rest of the generations
57:48of the Ndorobo kids, and be proud that our ancestors, our fathers, our elders, did practice
57:54this scary, scary experience.