Pantagonia is one of the natural world’s most resplendent treasures, teeming with life on the one hand, mourning its wildlife and glacial losses on the other. Its massive size - 402,700 square miles, shared by Argentina on the east and Chile on the west coast - means it is hard to pin down. The tragic climate change-enduced ramifications on its glaciers in the west will break your heart; the Andean cat’s brilliant hunting techniques in the steppe region of the east stir other emotions, like fear and lust.
The new BBC Earth film-cum-documentary explodes with Episode 5, “Pantagonia: The Ends of the Earth” August 21, following an episode on the Galapagos (see
here for a list of all episodes). If you think you know anything about this part of the world, you are wrong.
The photographers, camerawomen and men spent a year traipsing around impossible-to-reach fjords and desert steppes, searching for flamingo babes or tiny monkeys. They risked their lives and were constantly exhausted, but rewarded again and again with the most brilliant finds, such as “the last track of monkey puzzle trees on earth” or the flight of a 30-pound Andean Condor. I particularly enjoyed seeing the hundreds of flamingos pierce through a tragic, frozen landscape, or the puma stalk his penguin prey (thanks to cool nightvision techniques.) If you are squeamish about the reality of life in the animal world, this may not be for you.
Other highlights included seeing a range of llama-like guanacos (camelid natives) or the sweeping views of a lake, developed after glacial melt. Temperature extremes are shown up close and through the prism of cli
mate change that will make you appreciate humanity’s assault on the natural world. Some creatures will not make it, and as one photographer explains in a piece for journalists following the film, emotions evoked in following wildlife up close can be overwhelming.
“In this world of extremes, adaptability is the key to success,” says narrator Helena Bonham Carter. These words could not be more pertinent in modern times.
The episode will air on BBC America at 8:00 p.m.Eastern.
Photo:https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1810877.
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