World's Wildest Encounters With German Survivalist Andreas Kieling - Part 2

In a world of harsh extremes, wildlife cameraman Andreas Keeling sets out to film some of the rarest, most elusive, most misunderstood animals on earth. From snow-capped mountains, to sun-baked deserts, into jungles, forests, and wave-tossed waters, Keeling is in rugged pursuit of the world's wildest encounters. The Sunda Islands of Indonesia dot the waters between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Andreas Keeling has come here in search of a killer, the biggest and most dangerous lizard on earth, the Komodo dragon. Komodos inhabit just six of the 17,500 Indonesian islands. The human population has likely banished the dragons from most of the others, but on these last six, the Komodos and humans have come to terms. First stop, the island of Flores, not for the dragons, but to gather provisions for the days ahead. Ah, this is a twin peg. He looks sick. The best way to keep meat fresh here is to keep it alive. But on second thoughts, Andreas decides to go vegetarian. That evening, he sails to the island of Rinka. He has everything he needs now, except the Komodo dragons. He's optimistic. Andreas has heard that dragons and people live side by side on Rinka. It's an exciting moment. One of Andreas' childhood dreams is about to come true. And there's my first dragon. I can't believe it. It's a young one. Komodo dragons sleep at night. They are not nocturnal. At night, they dig pits and lie in them. Every morning, they have to warm up again. He's drinking from the toilet. When the sun came up, this groggy fellow dragged himself out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He hasn't warmed up yet, so he can't move too fast. Hey, this is my toilet. Come on out. He's still a little guy. The biggest dragons can grow to over three meters. They can live 30 years or more, learning to adapt to a changing island. All the water holes around here are drying up. There's only salt water left. That's why they seek out places like this. Later, Andreas sets off to find Komodo dragons in their hunting grounds. They like to ambush their prey in the brush and the long grass. This place looks perfect. This whole area looks like a big buffalo graveyard. Bones everywhere. When a water buffalo is bitten by a Komodo dragon, it comes back to this mud hole. To cool his wounds and brings the fever down. But this one's okay. Andreas finds baby Komodos scrambling in the trees, and for good reason. Adult Komodos love their babies to death. Given the chance, the adults will eat their own young. Though grown-up Komodo dragons can climb trees, most are too heavy even to try. When food grows scarce, it makes sense to eliminate potential competition by snacking on the young. Adult Komodos mostly tolerate each other when their paths cross. All they really care about is their next meal. The dragons use their moist forked tongue to sweep sand particles out of the air. They have an internal nose in their palate where they process the sand. Komodo dragons can smell carrion from four kilometers away or more. And because they have no fixed territory, they'll go anywhere to find a comfortable spot and a handy meal, including people's homes. The islanders build their houses on stilts. That provides a small amount of defense against poisonous spiders, snakes, and bold Komodos. But dragons are perfectly capable of climbing stairs, and when they do, the islanders use these long forked sticks to send them Komodos usually live alone. Males fight over only one thing, the right to mate. These cold-blooded killers don't bite each other. Instead, they use their enormously powerful neck muscles to wrestle one another to the ground. The Komodo's greatest threat comes from grass fires, natural disasters, and human encroachment. They can swim well enough to occasionally cross between islands. Now it's Andreas' turn to cross. He heads to the main island of Komodo, where the dragons have much more space to live further from humans. Komodo isn't far from Rinca, but the boat wouldn't make it if the crew didn't keep pumping. Komodo has a poor population. A rare visitor like Andreas excites the children, and perhaps brings business to the fishermen. That's a little cat. It's maybe eight to ten days old. So where's the mother from the cat? Where's the mother from the cat? I don't know. They suspect she was eaten by a Komodo dragon, or perhaps something else. This is a place with the highest density of poisonous snakes on earth. That's why I'm wearing baggy trousers. Most of the poisonous snakes here aren't very big. But when a snake bites, it begins to inject poison right away. So now the poison can run down the inside of my trouser leg, and that's much better than in my leg. There could be something under here. I don't want to meet. There we are. Okay, this is a Russell viper. It's one of the really poisonous snakes here. So any poisonous snake you have to hold like this with three fingers, and it's always good with the second hand to hold the body so they cannot move too much, otherwise if you came in panic. So this is much more safer. The venom thins the blood and can cause kidney failure. This is the most dangerous moment if you release a snake because sometimes they turn very quick, and then you get a bite. With extreme caution, Andreas heads into dragon territory. Here's a dead animal. It's a wild goat. It's been dead quite a while. No more rigor mortis. Andreas waits for the komodo to return. It's a big one. The dragons don't often kill their prey immediately. Their saliva is so full of bacteria, one bite delivers a slow death through blood poisoning. The victim usually dies within three days. Then the komodo's sharp sense of smell tells him dinner is ready. It's pulled off his head with one bite. Komodos like their meat rotten, and their poisonous saliva guarantees it. Komodos don't fight over a kill, but graciously share the bounty. An adult komodo can devour up to 80% of its body weight in a single meal. After the dragons have had their fill, they'll spend the next few weeks digesting it. These komodos have a kind of blood rush. When they finish the goat, I could be next. They will still be hungry. Komodos seldom attack humans, but it does happen. A Frenchman bitten by a dragon took two years to die. Antibiotics didn't help. His wounds simply would not close. And in 2007, an eight-year-old boy was mauled to death by a komodo dragon. The komodos have eaten a lot. I think I go now. For now, the islanders and the komodo dragons share the islands, but no one's sure for how long. Only about 4,000 of these protective lizards remain, and about three quarters of them are male. With just a thousand fertile females, the future of these prehistoric looking creatures looks truly frightening. The komodo dragons certainly aren't alone in their predicament. All over the world, animals feel the crush of human encroachment. And now, Andreas wants to find some creatures that have hardly seen any humans at all. Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, Central Africa. In the 1990s, a civil war tore this nation apart. Now, with peace restored, the capital city is booming. Before the civil war starts, Kigali has 150,000 people. And now, after the war, more than one million people live here in this town. So it's pretty crowded. Just as human refugees have found a haven in Rwanda's capital, the nation has become a last refuge of Africa's mountain gorillas. Roughly 700 gorillas live in the Virunga volcano range, stretching 80 kilometers from Rwanda into Uganda and Congo. They suffer terrible pressure from the human population. Andreas wants to see if and how they can survive. Armed guides accompany every visitor to the gorillas as a precaution against poachers. Here, on the Rwandan side, the farmland stretches right up to the foot of the volcanoes. The Rwandan government built this wall between the fields and the national park. The farmers aren't allowed to cross, but the gorillas do. At night, they come down and grab their share of potatoes and corn. We are walking up through several different vegetation zones. This is a bamboo forest. We are going up now into the mountain rainforest. There are a lot of mosquitoes around here, but they are not dangerous because we are above the malaria zone. These golden monkeys are found only in the Virunga mountains. Like the gorillas, they are listed as an endangered species. Zoologists still know very little about their behavior. Everything is a bit bigger in the jungle, the gorillas, but also the rainworms. No one can guarantee a gorilla sighting, and today the gorillas aren't cooperating. The scouts three hours ahead of us have lost the gorillas. I think we went wrong. We have to find a new trail. They hope to catch up with a tourist group having better luck. And it works. Now, at last, Andreas has a chance to film. As the gorilla approaches, the tourists anticipate the experience of a lifetime. And get it. This is a shake, huh? Yeah, yeah, definitely. A friendly pat. And how do you feel after this? I feel good. I feel really good. I'm never going to wash my back again. Okay. But the force just came like that. Yeah. Get out of the way. Looks like he likes to take you with. The tourist dollars can save the gorillas and provide jobs for Rwandans. But these gorillas have grown too accustomed to humans. They wouldn't behave like this on their own. It's clearly stressful for the alpha male. This group will stay with the gorillas for only an hour. Often the gorillas decide when it's time to go. A glance down makes it clear just how little space the gorillas have left. Farmers use every available parcel of land to grow food for the expanding human population. If Andreas wants a truly wild encounter with gorillas under more remote conditions, he'll have to travel across the country to the furthest and highest volcanoes in the Virunga range. They rise to 4,000 meters. Down here in the villages, everyone wants to help. There's nothing like a camera crew to get people excited. It's very crowded here. The joints really jumping. After getting directions, Andreas continues on his way across the country. In the last settlement before the mountain, he's arranged for a new guide who'll take him to the wild gorillas. This guide, Fidel, comes highly recommended. Andreas will meet him for the first time at this bar. They seal the deal with freshly fermented banana beer. Everyone has to drink, even the last one. They drink it like this? Really? Okay, I'll try. Oh, it's a lot of alcohol. It's special. Let's say this. Looks good. A bit like washing up water. Next step, selecting the bearers, men used to the rugged terrain. They'll earn $5 for four days work, a good wage in these parts. They'll help carry equipment and provisions up the steep slope. He needs something for his head. No problem. Besides Fidel and the bearers, Andreas gets more than he bargained for. But this looks for me like half of the Rwandan army comes with us. Why we have him with? This is for tanks. It seems excessive, but Andreas isn't the only one in search of gorillas. The soldiers worry about poachers who kill gorillas for their meat or slaughter their mothers and sell the babies. Poachers can resort to ruthless tactics and they don't like witnesses. It's a long way up for the crew. Andreas won't run into any tourists this time. So far, they're off to a good start. It's rare to find a group of young gorillas playing and eating like this. Gorillas are primarily vegetarian. An adult male will eat about 25 kilos of vegetation a day. Like the gorillas Andreas observed earlier, these have gotten used to seeing humans. But people come here less often and so the gorillas don't get as stressed. Still, Andreas wants to see gorillas living as far from civilization as possible. Everything falls out of the trees here. This is a dwarf chameleon. The mountain holds its share of small delights too. And unexpected hazards. I landed in stinging nettles. It's really painful. It's gone through my shirt. This is the grave site of Diane Fossey. The villagers call her Niriam Mahabeli, the woman who lives alone on the mountain. But Fossey was never alone. She lived among the gorillas and devoted her life to protecting them until she was murdered by poachers. She's buried next to the gorillas she loved, including Digit, her favorite. After poachers killed Digit, Fossey set up a gorilla protection fund. Without her, there might be no mountain gorillas left. Now they're 3,800 meters up in the chilly and damp sub-alpine zone, where the temperature hovers around 8 degrees Celsius and the humidity is 90%. I built up my tent, so it's fine. We don't need you. The group settles in for the night. The porters break out the food they carried up the mountain. Corn, beans, potatoes and bananas. There's no meat on the menu. Meat is a luxury here and bushmeat, game hunted on the mountain, is restricted. Andreas just wants to sleep. Tomorrow could be a big day. Then gunfire shatters the quiet. The guides and soldiers spring into action. It could be anything, rebels, poachers or tribal warfare. Three countries meet here and the two neighbors, Congo and Uganda, both have had simmering civil wars. Now Andreas sees why so many soldiers insisted on escorting them. But the trouble dies down and the group passes a quiet night on the mountain. Andreas has three days left, 72 hours, to find and film gorillas that have barely seen a human. The terrain gets more and more precarious with every step. We can go under. What's easier? Under. Progress takes patience and good balance. This looks like virgin territory. But someone got here first, the poachers. They hunt these forests for fresh meat. Some of it legal, some of it not. And sometimes a gorilla gets snared. And then he hangs like this. And then this goes close. Many gorillas lose their hands or die of infection or starvation when the wire tightens. If poachers have come here, then gorillas can't be far off. And then Andreas finds them. These gorillas show a wide range of ages, a healthy sign. The only humans they've seen recently are scientists, so they're neither scared nor especially curious about today's visitors. Andreas approaches them cautiously, slowly building trust. The alpha male stays calm so Andreas can relax a little. When a male gorilla reaches sexual maturity at about 10 years, the hair on his back lightens and he's called a silverback. On the second night, the available light camera allows Andreas to move in close and capture nighttime behavior. The gorillas realize that Andreas is there, but they don't feel disturbed. With 11 hours of darkness, they have plenty of time to rest. And during the day, the gorillas return to their nests for a nap. At some point each day, after soiling their old nest, they'll quickly make a new one. The next morning, Andreas' last day, the gorillas descend to enjoy the breakfast buffet. They can eat nearly 40 kinds of plants on this mountainside. Those are two big males, two silverbacks. The gorillas aren't quite sure what to make of Andreas. This was pretty close. Andreas has the privilege of being one of the few to see gorillas truly in the wild. And apparently, they're just as honored to see Andreas. Now that he has shared this wild encounter with the gorillas, Andreas is ready to find an even more elusive target on America's last frontier. Andreas flies to southeast Alaska, where the mountains meet the North Pacific Ocean. And it's freezing. It's so cold! Andreas has come in search of the legendary blue bear, also called a glacier bear, a creature so rare that few people have ever seen one. Biologists believe that thousands of years ago, glaciers trapped the blue bears here. Their color was ideal camouflage against the backdrop of glacier ice. And they flourished. But over the centuries, as the glaciers retreated, the blue bears spread out and interbred with the black bears, whose darker pelts soon dominated. And now the black bears flourish. This mother looks nervous. She doesn't like being exposed on the mountainside where a grizzly bear can spot her. Grizzlies have been known to kill black bear cubs and even adults. This rocky ground makes it difficult to track bears. But Andreas finds some telltale signs. A bear ductus, for sure. A grizzly or a black bear. They try to dig the roots out of the ground. They are old willow roots. And the bark contains lots of acids that make aspirin. And the bears get high on that. The Native Americans know about it. And they use the roots as a painkiller. This moose has just molted the velvet on his antlers. He'll guide Andreas through the brush. The only way to get through the brush is to follow the tracks of the moose. There are plenty because they love willow leaves and the valley is full of them. But you can bump into a grizzly and this is really dangerous. Every year, bull moose gather here weeks before the mating season. The mating call of a bull moose isn't exactly spectacular. Not very impressive for the world's biggest deer. But he will react to it. The bull moose's antlers do double duty. First, they signify his strength and status. And if that's not convincing enough, they make formidable weapons. Andreas takes a huge risk approaching a bull moose like this. Especially in the mating season. The moose may be curious or he may see Andreas as a rival. More people have been killed by moose than have ever been mauled by grizzly bears. By brushing his antlers through the undergrowth, the moose tells Andreas to back off. Having sent his message, he saunters away. The terrain here is often exceedingly rugged. But not always. A true wonderland unfolds within the great valleys between the glaciers. An extraordinary primeval temperate rainforest. Perhaps the blue bears have made their home here. But the first bears Andreas finds are coastal brown bears or grizzlies. A mother and her cubs. It's amazing how the brown bear cubs play. Play means the same to bears as it does to humans. It's necessary for learning skills and how to become one of the group. Normally grizzlies prefer open country. But maybe they're getting a jump on the coming salmon season. The salmon swim up river to spawn the same time each summer. Except for a mother tending to her cubs, bears usually live alone. But salmon season will bring them out in force. This is the last summer the bears will spend with their mother. They are already very big, two and a half years old. In some areas they would be ready to go now. But I think she will keep the cubs another year. And next spring, when she is on heat again, she will reject the cubs very brutally. Again and again in the past few days I've seen hummingbirds here. I can hardly believe it. The rufous hummingbird is one of the few species big enough and strong enough to make it up to here. Every year they come from Mexico to the coast of British Columbia and Alaska to breed. And there's another one. No other hummingbirds fly this far north. The farthest migration of any birds this size. 150 frames a second takes up a lot of film. I've got to change roles. It's a magnificent forest with magnificent creatures. But Andreas has to concede that if he wants to find the blue bear, he'll have to hit the road. Hunting guide Lance Goodwin may help. I mean, I've got black bear and glacier bear in the same picture. Really? Yeah, and it's one of the black bears, a young boar. And I ran into him a couple of times and he's an old boar now. I mean, he's a big bear now. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm really curious to see. Yeah, well, let's go over and take a boo, take a look at it. It's pretty silver. He's got, his head is a little darkened up. But when there's some closer up shots here that... Even people that live around this area here have no comprehension of what it is or... They might have heard of it, but that's about all because there is no information on them and nothing's ever been done with them. Therefore, people don't know anything about them, you know, so. No one will ever get that shot again where there's a black bear and a glacier bear in the same picture. No. Well, look at a black bear. Lance suggests a trip south along the coast where black bears gather for the salmon run. Rumour has it a blue bear was once spotted there. It's worth a look. Brenda Schwartz runs the local travel company. To ask you something about you ever saw a light-coloured black bear, It's a refrain Andreas hears over and over again in these afterstorms. They're spotted everywhere. This one's trying to escape the grizzly. Rains have swum in the river. The steep banks challenge Andreas and he's travelling. This year, the bears will really have to earn their supper. Males take the best fishing spots, while the females withdraw to the banks to feed their cubs. For the little ones, it's a learning opportunity. Their first fishing trip. Fresh salmon. And this mother bear became separated from her cub. He promises to be a little more dependable as he heads to the tropics to witness a spectacular annual event. When people think of the Dubno Mechanic Republic, they think of palm trees and white beaches. But here on Cape Savannah, it's always really rough weather. And this is a very unique place. About 5,000 humpback whales show every year up here for the mating season and for the birth of the calves. About 5,000 whales. That's almost the Atlantic's entire humpback population. Filming them should be one wild encounter. And one really tough assignment. The swell that makes this spot so enticing to the whales creates a nightmare for a filmmaker. We can turn around. It's so rough here, you don't believe this. Creatures the size of buses shouldn't be hard to spot. But the whales vanish in the waves before Andreas can get a clean shot. Like paparazzi, he just keeps shooting and hoping for the best. Sometimes he gets it. Leon is a very experienced captain and he drives me very well to the whales. The problem is the rough sea. So it's very hard to film a very smooth sequence. Humpback whales have the longest fins of any whale anywhere, measuring up to five meters or a third of their body length. And they're not shy about showing them off by slapping them in the water. No one is sure why they do it. Some say it serves to stun the fish below, which they can then hoover up. Andreas prefers another theory. We don't know exactly what it's all about, but it has something to do with communication and probably also with pure joy. The sound travels many miles through the water, more than three times faster than it would travel through air. Now the whales are swimming along close to shore. They're not too easy to follow. There's a huge reef in front of us. Now is a good time to go ashore for a while. The island shares an indelible connection with the whales. But it's hidden a long way inland, close to the peak of the island, here on the roof of these caves. When in the 15th century the Spanish conquistadors arrived this island, they come together with the aboriginal people here. They are called Tainos. But they survive only 150 years. Then they are all killed. All what we can see now is some tools and the rock painting. And this is definitely a humpback whale. Flipper, blow and tail. Painted by a lost culture. Whales, they are right here in front of the reef. I like to dive down. And this here is a special mask where I can talk with underwater. It's a first for testing this radio system too. The rough sea has churned up the sand, reducing Andreas' visibility and his enthusiasm to zero. It may look clear from up here, but as soon as you dive, the water is cloudy. There's lots of sediment. I lost the whales within 30 seconds. I don't know where they are. But at last, on Andreas' final day of shooting, the weather settles enough to smoothly maneuver a boat and a camera. All that's left is the waiting. And the waiting. Just to get a glimpse of what makes these endangered animals so utterly breathtaking. And to get that perfect shot.