BERTIE: Oh! There's so many bats!
So, this eagle needs to hunt now or he'll probably just wait for me
to run out of battery and then hunt.
-(DRONE BEEPS) -FEMALE VOICE: Battery level is low.
BERTIE: Do I come back now and change the battery
or stay out and use the rest of the battery.
(DRONE BEEPS)
Come on, Mr. Eagle.
Now or never, buddy.
(DRONE BEEPS)
(BERTIE LAUGHS)
You ready?
BERTIE: I'm Bertie. Filming animals is my job.
That is not a chase you see every day.
BERTIE: And I take it really seriously.
I'm trying to film penguins.
(GROWLS)
And I've missed it.
Well that was quite close.
BERTIE: I want to tell wildlife stories in a rapidly changing world.
That sounded like a big crack!
These are my adventures.
BERTIE: I'm heading to Zambia,
to film Africa's most powerful aerial predator...
the crowned eagle.
They're strong enough to kill an antelope
and wily enough
to rip a monkey from a tree.
But filming this predator in action won't be easy.
They lurk in the forest and hunt in the shadows.
Being in the right place when it kills is almost impossible.
There's only one place they're tied to.
Somewhere in this park is an eagle nest.
We're searching a very big area. (CHUCKLES)
But I finally got a lead.
(WHISPERS) That's the nest tree there.
Our fingers crossed it's in use.
So then we can start to figure out what they're up to.
Whoa! (CHUCKLES)
That's a crowned eagle nest and a half.
That nest is huge.
No way, just in the middle,
the top of the pile of sticks,
I can see an eyeball.
It's head of an adult, and I'm guessing
the fact that it sat down low in the nest like that,
I'm guessing it's a female.
Hopefully, that means, she's sat on something.
Either a little egg or maybe a little chick.
BERTIE: I need to get up high for a better view.
And we're in luck.
There's another tall tree nearby and it's the perfect place
to build a treehouse.
Here comes platform.
If I can see what prey comes back to the nest,
it'll help us figure out their hunting strategy.
Home sweet home.
(WHISPERS) It's lovely in here.
All right let's see what we got here.
Oh, wow.
I've got the female on the nest.
Oh, she's just beautiful.
Oh, she's getting up.
What she got there?
She's pulling little chunks off
and offering them down at the nest.
That means there must be a chick there.
There it is.
I just saw a little white head.
We've got a chick!
It can't be more than a few days old.
But that little ball of fluff will be the same size as Mum
-in just four months. -(CHICK CHIRPING)
BERTIE: That is crazy!
Oh, that is just the most magical view.
You need a lot of food to grow so big so fast.
Lucky it's parents are such incredible hunters.
They smash over 130 mammals a year.
That's about 1,000 pounds of meat.
Oh, another adult, another adult, another adult.
That must be the male.
(BIRD CALLING)
BERTIE: It's got something.
Oh, it's got a monkey. It's got a monkey.
Whoa! He's just ripped that monkey in half!
They'll do that if their kill is too heavy to fly home with whole.
Is he gonna bring the monkey into the nest?
Female certainly wants it.
She's gonna go. She's gonna go get it off him.
Here she comes. Here she comes.
"Are you gonna bring in the takeout, honey?"
She's got it, she's got it, she's got it. He's not letting go, he's not letting go.
Whoa! (CHUCKLES)
Didn't make any sense. They're gonna come back.
Here she comes, here she comes.
(CHUCKLES)
I thought the-- the female when she ran up the log,
I thought the male was just gonna let it go but he didn't.
He held on to it and they had this weird tussle.
BERTIE: There's clearly a lot more to these eagles than meets the eye.
And if we can put a remote camera right by the nest,
we'll see even more.
(EAGLE CALLING)
BERTIE: Once mom leaves the nest,
we'll have a maximum of 30 minutes for the rig.
We'll need to work with military precision.
-This is Olly. He's our ropes ninja. -Hello.
And he's gonna be getting us up into the trees.
BERTIE: We also have Leslie with us.
He's a eagle wizard and here to ensure their safety.
She's still there.
BERTIE: Our first challenge is to get a line up into the tree
using a great big catapult.
We're entering the personal space of a powerful predator
and although experts say they rarely attack people,
I'm taking a few extra precautions.
These might look pretty ridiculous,
but these eagles hunt using the element of surprise,
they love to come up behind stuff. So we figured...
if we put our faces on our backs
they won't come up behind us.
BERTIE: With their powerful talons, crowned eagles can pierce
the skull of their prey in a single blow.
I don't think a final safety briefing will do much to settle the nerves.
If it's a hole, you know, on the head, get this open and stuff that inside,
and then put a lot of bandage on it.
If it's ridiculously messy, like...
open that up and sprinkle all the granules in that wound.
LESLIE: She's moved.
BERTIE: Should we climb?
Yeah, confirmed. Carry on.
BERTIE: Okay, climbing.
We're being watched.
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
Okay, she's in the nest tree, up to the right.
All right, we've gotta be quick.
Okay, let's do this a bit quickly, guys.
Okay, that's very solid.
She's moved.
She's landed above you on the right.
BERTIE: Yeah, I'm just keeping my eye on her.
(WHISPERS) I'm gonna take that over there.
Sam, you there?
Okay. Bertie, I have a picture.
BERTIE: Can you turn the camera? Yeah, camera's moving-- camera's moving.
Tell me when you're framed up on me and rolling.
Okay, I'm rolling on the nest.
BERTIE: Sam, you happy with that view?
SAM: (OVER RADIO) Yeah, very happy.
BERTIE: Okay, let's bounce. You ready, Olly?
OLLY: Right behind ya, buddy.
Good stuff, guys, well within time.
She's gonna come back on the nest and that's gonna be a heck of a show.
BERTIE: Mom and chick reunited.
I'm gonna leave them alone to get used to the camera now.
I'll check on them in a few days.
This place has taught me a valuable lesson.
Our eagle family are accomplished killers.
But which tree dad pluck that monkey from is anyone's guess.
My chances of seeing an actual hunt here are slim.
But there's another forest 200 miles northeast of here
with ten million eagle meals
in a much smaller area.
And our timing couldn't be more perfect.
One of the greatest mammal migrations on Earth is just beginning.
Every rainy season, straw-colored fruit bats
from all over Central Africa flock to Kasanka
to take advantage of a fruit bonanza.
(BAT SCREECHING)
BERTIE: It's an extraordinary wildlife spectacle,
and we've been given special access to a tower to film it from.
-(SCREECHING CONTINUES) -(BERTIE CHUCKLES)
BERTIE: Just look at all of these bats.
They're streaming in from all directions.
It's just
madness.
I've seen some epic migrations, but this is on another level.
You get told that there are ten million bats here,
I thought that's a big exaggeration. But, it's completely believable.
And it's not like the sky just goes dark for a few seconds
as a big group flies past.
It just goes on and on and on.
And if you think about it too hard, it really does make your brain explode.
(EXHALES DEEPLY)
BERTIE: I can feel the vibration from two and a half thousand tons of bats
beating their wings.
If these were birds, it would be crazy enough.
But each one of those silhouettes is a furry mammal.
BERTIE: It's estimated
that they can go through 5000 tons of fruit every night.
So, they won't be here for long.
Once they've stripped the trees bare, they'll move on.
And when they go,
so do my chances of filming a crowned eagle hunt.
These bats are in a race against time.
The safest places in the forest get taken quickly.
When the sun comes up, hungry eagles start to hunt.
That's extraordinary.
Just the number of animals...
in a single field of view.
I mean, I say single field of view, they're everywhere.
They're just filling the sky.
And the way that their wings are all twinkling in the morning light.
I-- I just don't feel like I have any words to do that justice
other than look. (CHUCKLES)
(BATS SCREECHING)
BERTIE: If you're a crowned eagle, why go through the trouble
of hunting monkeys when you've got all of this food in one place?
I reckon they'll definitely be staking out this bat roost,
so I'm going to do the same.
Time to put my plan into action.
Oh, there's Sam. I can just see...
our other camera man, Sam.
(CHUCKLES)
BERTIE: I've got Sam here to help me film the hunt.
We'll be working from separate lookout towers
at opposite ends of the bat forest.
With his powerful lens, Sam's chief spotter.
And if a crowned eagle does rock up, I'm gonna film it on my drone.
It's an hour since sunrise, and most of the bats
have already settled into the roost.
Now, it's just a waiting game.
Bertie, do you copy?
BERTIE: (OVER RADIO) Go ahead.
SAM: (OVER RADIO) There's a martial eagle right in front of me in the dead tree.
Okay, roger that. Thank you.
Finally!
Oh, got it, got it, got it, got it.
Whoa! (CHUCKLES)
That is a beast.
All right, well, it's not the species we came for,
but the martial is Africa's biggest eagle.
Get in.
And it has got a really nice perch in the dead tree
right above where all the bats are.
These eagles will take just about anything from a snake to a jackal.
But this one definitely looks like he fancies bat for breakfast.
Sam, Sam, you there?
Yeah, roger.
Dude, I've got two fish eagles in about 200 meters,
slightly to your right-hand side.
Yeah, affirmative.
Very hard for me to see him. I can just make him out.
But he's sat about a meter above a huge group of bats roosting below him
and he keeps looking down as if he wants to try and grab one.
BERTIE: These bats are just a massive eagle magnet.
There's even a juvenile fish eagle perched above that adult.
This place is just eagle central.
Hang on a second. That's the-- That martial's still there, right?
The one on the tree.
Yeah, that's affirmative. He's on the far side.
BERTIE: (OVER RADIO) Roger.
Okay. I've got a bird way up in the sky.
Ah-ha! It's a different eagle.
See those wings, they're short but really chunky.
The tail's long and it's got those stripes on it.
Bingo, this is why we're here.
Sam, do you copy?
Yeah, hey, Bertie.
Okay, I got a crowned eagle.
About halfway between you and I, in the top of a bushy tree
that has a dead top.
SAM: (OVER RADIO) Yeah, okay, yeah, I can see it.
BERTIE: These crowned eagles are the leopards of the eagle world.
They're compact and powerful.
This is tense.
Got the crowned eagle in hunting mode and both Sam and I have good angles.
Come on.
Okay, he's going, he's going, he's going.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
BERTIE: Whoa! He's skimming right over the trees! He's so close!
Oh! He's gonna grab one!
(CHUCKLES EXCITEDLY)
Oh! Where have you gone?
He's got one, he's got one.
Ah! My view is blocked by trees.
Missed the hit.
(MUSIC ENDS)
That thing is just an aerial killing machine.
BERTIE: And to make matters worse...
(LIGHTNING CRACKS)
Whoa! It's going off!
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I'm sure I remember being told something about how
if you're in a lightning storm, you shouldn't be connected
to a very tall object covered in metal.
African storms are brutal.
While I love filming cool things, I also don't like dying.
(THUNDER CONTINUES)
BERTIE: The bats are hunkered down.
And now it's fed, this eagle won't hunt again anytime soon.
Tomorrow, we'll try again.
(TRANQUIL MUSIC PLAYING)
BERTIE: There aren't many places in the world where a wildlife spectacle
of this magnitude happens every day like clockwork.
The first bats returned to the roost at 5:15 am.
Followed for the next half an hour
by the other ten million... ish.
It's amazing to think that these bats have been on an epic adventure at night
in search for fruit.
Just look at them all. What a scene.
I could film this forever.
(MUSIC FADES)
-(DRONE BEEPS) -FEMALE VOICE: Battery level is low.
BERTIE: But I need to remember that I need to save my batteries
for when the eagles turn up.
SAM: Bertie, do you copy?
BERTIE: Yeah, go ahead.
-SAM: I've spotted the martial eagle. -BERTIE: Copy, thank you.
Whoo. (CHUCKLES) Here we go.
BERTIE: My ultimate aim is to film a crowned eagle hunting from the air.
But the drone doesn't have a powerful zoom.
So, just finding this martial is hard enough.
I rely on Sam and eagle-eyed spotters, like Rustin, to guide me in.
Is he at the top of the tree?
RUSTIN: (OVER RADIO) One at the top,
I think he's probably one of those burned trees.
There's a tree behind.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
RUSTIN: You see another tree behind. It's sitting there.
BERTIE: Oh, got it, got it, got it, got it.
It's super tricky trying to predict which way it's gonna take off.
And what I'm doing is I'm positioning, so I'm over the shoulder of the eagle.
So, I can see what it can see.
And what I'm trying to do is being in position
for when it takes off and goes for a bat.
But hanging around hovering, burns batteries.
It's the odd bat up fluttering around but most of them are settled.
Come on, Mr. Martial.
Martial eagles and crowned eagles have very different hunting strategies
but getting to film either is bonkers.
Such a cool view, being over his shoulder.
Bats spooking in front of him.
Breakfast time.
Come on Mr. Eagle.
Okay, there he goes.
Find a target! Find a target.
I feel like this is a view that you're not allowed to get,
way above the forest, flying with the eagles.
Here he goes! There's a bat right in front of him!
He's got it! He's got it! He's got it!
He made that look very easy. (CHUCKLES)
-(DRONE BEEPS) -FEMALE VOICE: Battery level is low.
BERTIE: Uh-oh, drone's out of juice.
Right, time for the fastest battery change of our lives.
Coming in hot.
Come on, landing gear down.
BERTIE: (OVER RADIO) Sam, I'm grounded. Shout if he jumps.
The eagle is in a dead tree right at the other end of the forest,
really near to where Sam's position is.
So, I gotta get in the air as quick as possible
and get back over there.
Let's just do checks.
Confirm he's in the same tree still?
I think there might be another one. You know, he's behaving quite strangely.
Here we go.
Wow, there's a young fish eagle.
BERTIE: (OVER RADIO) Could you line me up?
SAM: Keep going another 100 meters or so.
BERTIE: (OVER RADIO) Okay. Roger.
Okay, I'm up alongside...
the fish eagle.
Okay, the fish eagle is perched right above the martial eagle
that has the bat, and the martial eagle's mantling.
Oh, that's crazy!
It's when it puts its wings out in a big protective shield.
And it's staring right up at the fish eagle going,
"No, no, no, this is my dinner."
(EAGLE SCREECHES)
Well, that is a brave fish eagle.
Those martial eagles are big and powerful,
and this one does not want to give up its lunch.
I think it's finally got the message.
Oh, funny style, it's like,
"Well, I'm not very good at hunting myself.
But I saw you nail that bat, so I'm gonna come and get a free lunch."
We caught some really rare behavior on the drone.
And I'm starting to build up a picture of how this bat forest works,
and what triggers the eagles to hunt.
The really weird thing to me about these bats
is that having settled in the forest, in the safety of the trees,
they'll sometimes, just randomly spook up into the air.
And that's when, often, the eagles will zoom in and catch one.
So, why would you leave the safety of the trees and go up into danger?
If I can figure this out, it will help me decide where and when
to launch the drone.
But there must be something going on in that forest that we don't know about.
And the only way we're gonna have any chance of figuring that out,
is to put cameras in the forest.
BERTIE: Sounds simple, but we'll have to do it after dark,
when the bats are out feeding.
Apparently, there are snakes and crocodiles in there.
Sounds like a fun night out.
It takes an hour to hike in.
And it turns out,
killer reptiles aren't the only thing we have to worry about.
It's crawling with army ants in here.
Ooh, there's one.
-Come on, mate. Oh, God. -Oh, look at that.
BERTIE: And when it's not bitey bugs slowing us down...
-(THUNDER CRASHES) -BERTIE: Whoa!
Big storm's rolled in, so if it wasn't already spooky enough,
it just got next level.
-Here comes the rain. (CHUCKLES) -Here comes the wind.
Yeah, the wind.
BERTIE: The camera's finally going up.
And with a bit of luck, it'll show us why the bats spooked.
If I can predict where and when it happens,
it'll help with our crowned eagle mission.
Okay, cool. Yeah. Had back to the heights.
Nice one, guys.
What I thought would be a quick in and out job,
has taken all night.
And by the time we finish, the bats are flooding back in.
(BATS SCREECHING)
BERTIE: They make this place feel wild and primeval,
like something from Jurassic Park.
But it's far from it.
From the air, I've seen how fragile this place is.
Even though the park and the bat roost itself are protected,
the buffer zone that surrounds them is in terrible danger.
Huge areas of forests have already been felled
for illegal industrial farming.
Less forest means less fruit. Less fruit means fewer bats.
And if the bats stop coming all together, it'll be terrible news for the eagles.
(BATS SCREECHING)
Come on. Give me a picture.
Give me a picture.
Whoa!
(BATS SCREECHING)
BERTIE: We are inside the bat colony.
And they are perched all around the camera.
I'm sorry, anyone that thinks bats are creepy
needs to look at them this close.
You can see they've all got little personalities,
they're all individuals and...
their little faces look like little foxes or little dogs.
BERTIE: While I film the bats, Sam scans for eagles.
And it appears we're being watched.
It's our old friend, the martial eagle.
Give me a shout the moment it takes off.
SAM: (OVER RADIO) Copy that, we will.
BERTIE: So there's very little movement in the roost.
Just bats hanging out with their buddies.
Does the eagle know something we don't?
Whoa, these two are going for it.
(SCREECHING)
Oh, bat life isn't as touchy feely as I thought.
There's quite a lot of fights going on.
And it's really interesting, every now and again,
there'll be a fight between two that are near some sleeping bats,
and those sleeping bats will get... get a fright and spook.
(BATS SCREECHING)
BERTIE: Whoa! Look at all of them!
This is what we've been waiting for, they're spooking.
Now they're up into the sky. They're in the martial eagle's world.
Okay, he's going. He's taking off. Yeah, he's gone.
This is crazy! I can see him on the bat camera.
He's got one!
BERTIE: We've solved the mystery of the spooking bats.
But filming of the martial eagle hunt was a real bonus.
I didn't think I'd see that today.
(SCREECHING)
BERTIE: With ten million bats here, a fight could break out anywhere.
Something so random won't help us film a crowned eagle hunt.
I need to glean more information from the birds themselves.
It's time to check in on our nest.
While I set up in the treehouse...
It's a little blowy up here.
...Sam's gonna operate the nest camera from the ground.
Sam, she looks pretty close to your camera.
Yeah, man. This camera could not be in a better spot.
It's like being in the nest.
(WHISPERS) Oh, that's so cool.
BERTIE: Now we can get a close-up view of what makes these eagles
the ninjas that they are.
Those mottled feathers help them blend in
with the dappled light you get in a forest.
It's like having an invisibility cloak.
And she's got that massive hooked beak to tear prey up into chick-ready chunks.
(CHUCKLES) Full frame eyeball.
BERTIE: Eagle eyes, of course. Need I say more?
Have you seen how big their eyebrow is?
Yeah, it's enormous. Super thick, like a crusty leather eyebrow.
BERTIE: Yeah, it's pretty unique to crowned eagles,
'cause they hunt under the canopy in the undergrowth.
It... It provides a really good bit of protection for them,
when they're piling into a bush after a monkey.
Whoa! Nice shot of her rear talon.
Whoa, my God, that's massive!
Yeah, dude, that rear talon is bigger than a lion's tooth.
And that makes it the biggest natural killing weapon in Africa.
Don't stand on the kids with your big knives, Mom.
I would not want to be a little monkey around here.
(SCREECHES)
-BERTIE: Oh, she's calling. -(SCREECHES)
-Why is she calling? -(SCREECHING CONTINUES)
There's a hornbill above her, I think.
BERTIE: Oh, that's a big trumpeter hornbill. She is not gonna like that.
Yeah, hornbills usually eat fruit, but they'd chomp on a baby eagle
if given half the chance.
Whoa, that is crazy, look at her.
That hornbill flew past, she's just got total missile lock.
The feathers on her head just went "Ping!"
Yeah, that's why they're called crowned eagles.
It's an automatic response, like an angry scowl, or a death stare.
As soon as the danger is gone, that crown, look! It's gone back down again.
That said, she's clocked something out to the right.
Ah, now we've got more visitors, malbrouck monkeys.
The monkeys are on the ground and in the trees,
back behind my right-hand side.
If they aren't small monkeys, they can weigh almost twice as much as her.
(WHISPERS) The female's looking shifty.
We could be in for some action here.
She's gonna go for it. Here she goes, here she goes.
Jeez!
We have never seen her leave that fast, that low into the bushes.
-(CHICK CHIRPING) -BERTIE: Chick is making a racket.
(MONKEYS CALLING)
Just monkey alarm calls everywhere.
There's definitely a rumble in the jungle.
Here she comes. Here she comes. Here she comes.
Whoa,
that... is a big monkey.
It's like, mom just brought home the biggest takeaway of all time.
And that chick is gonna get a really good meal.
(CHICK CHIRPING)
BERTIE: Ah, she's panting.
She looks totally exhausted.
No wonder.
She must have fought it, killed it, chopped it up and flown it back here.
Monkeys are smart, social mammals, so
she probably had other angry monkeys to deal with too.
What an absolute legend of an animal.
I'm so happy for her.
BERTIE: She's taught me so much.
The head bobs she gives when she locks on to prey.
That little shuffle before launching.
The way she banks and turns in the air like a fighter jet.
It'll be the same with the crowned eagles at the bat forest.
So, I'm heading back there, with a new game plan.
Here we go.
Sam's setting up on the long lens.
But the thing that truly defines this mission,
is to film a crowned eagle hunting from the air.
But it turns out, the drone is also my Achilles heel.
It burns through batteries, limiting each flight
to less than 20 minutes.
So, to maximize my chances of filming a hunt,
I'm not even gonna look for a crowned eagle until the bats spook.
So, instead of being hovering ready, I'm gonna be waiting,
and if the bats go up, then I'll take off, get out there,
and hopefully film the moment.
What could possibly go wrong?
SAM: At the moment, most of the bats
are staying pretty curtained in the vegetation.
So, I guess the bats just need to hold their nerve and stay put.
That's what I would do if I was a bat.
There's quite a few taking off now.
Okay, roger. Taking off.
Come on, quick!
Ooh, come on!
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
BERTIE: Oh, this is crazy!
This, just, wave of panic
has spread through the colony, and they're all blasting up in the air.
I want the eagle, just to get on with it, before the battery dies,
and I have to fly home.
No pressure.
(EAGLE SCREECHING)
BERTIE: What was that that just landed? It's just below where the drone is.
Whoa! The eagle gods have answered my prayers.
We have got a crowned eagle.
Sam, look at the drone.
Yeah, roger. I'm just trying to locate your drone now.
BERTIE: I've seen how fast these birds hunt,
so I'm not looking away from this monitor.
Still can't see the drone.
The tree that it's in bends up, just, it leans to the left.
SAM: (OVER RADIO) No, I see it, yeah.
BERTIE: Awesome, good luck, mate.
(EXHALES DEEPLY)
I'm so excited.
Following these birds is so difficult, this would be a really bad time
to spank the tree.
so I'm gonna keep my distance until it decides to hunt.
Come on, buddy. Come on.
Grab one.
BERTIE: This battery is not gonna last forever. Come on! Go!
Oh, there's so many bats.
Oh, you can see he's locked on.
His head bobbing, he's trying to find a target.
-(DRONE BEEPS) -FEMALE VOICE: Battery level is low.
"Is it going to go in the next four minutes?"
is the big question.
(DRONE BEEPS)
Here we go. Here we go.
-(DRONE BEEPS) -Two minutes to hunt, Mr. Eagle.
Come on. There's so many bats around him.
Thirty seconds.
Now or never, buddy.
We can see his head jiggling.
He's gonna go. Surely, he's gonna go!
(CHUCKLES)
Into the bats. Into the bats.
Oh, he's got one! He's got it! Yes!
SAM: Yeah, I've lost sight of him behind this tree.
Has anyone got eyes on?
BERTIE: There he is, flying left to right, left to right.
That is unreal.
FEMALE VOICE: The aircraft will go to the home point in ten seconds.
BERTIE: Well, that was a pretty tense few minutes.
The bats spooked up and then, I got a low battery warning on the drone,
classic.
So, sort of deciding, "Should I come back? Should I go?"
And then he went, and... and I could just see he nailed the bat.
I mean, just... just to see
a crowned eagle is an extraordinary sight.
You know, I never thought
we'd get one actually hunting a bat.
Amazing.
(SERENE MUSIC PLAYING)
BERTIE: While the lions might be the top predators on land,
crowned eagles definitely rule the sky.
What a hunter.
(THEME MUSIC BEGINS)
BERTIE: Since making this film, there's been some good news.
A judge in Zambia has granted an injunction
stopping two companies from cutting down forests
on the edge of the National Park.
It's a small but vital step in the long battle
to save Kasanka's wildlife.
(THEME MUSIC ENDS)