Human Planet

The higher you climb the tougher life gets on a mountain. In this particular episode Human Planet explores the extraordinary ways in which people survive at extreme altitudes where nature becomes utterly unforgiving.

In the Altai Mountains in Western Mongolia the vast open spaces make hunting for food almost impossible, so the locals have forged an astonishing partnership with golden eagles which can do the hunting for them. On the precipitous cliffs of the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia the programme joins a young boy locked in a dramatic battle with fearsome gelada monkeys which are hell-bent on raiding his family's meagre grain harvest. In the Himalayan state of Nepal - the roof of the world - the documentary makers witness a rarely seen ceremony: a sky burial. In a land where there is little wood to burn for cremation, and where burying the dead is virtually impossible, the dead are fed to vultures in the ultimate reverence of nature.

The Alps are the most populous mountain range in Europe. Whilst filming a story about the danger of avalanches with the ski patrollers of Grindelwald in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, the Mountains team took to the air to capture these breath-taking shots of two climbers scaling the Mönch ridge. Hans Rudi-Gertsch and Lorenz Frutiger are mountain guides and veteran climbers who have both conquered the North face of the Eiger.



Human Planet is an awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today.

Uniquely in the animal kingdom, humans have managed to adapt and thrive in every environment on Earth. Each episode takes you to the extremes of our planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle.

Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, creating many stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater. The result: a “cinematic experience” created by world-class natural history and documentary camera crews and programme makers.