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All around the planet,
billions of animals are on the move...
...making incredible journeys.
The most amazing of these...
are the smallest.
This series uses the latest camera technology
to follow six tiny animals
on the biggest adventures of their lives
as they travel through extraordinary landscapes...
...where every little step counts.
The greatest adventures are the smallest.
This painted turtle hatchling
is the size of a walnut.
Her nest, in Algonquin, Canada,
has been in the perfect place for incubation.
Made of loose, sandy soil, and bathed in sunshine,
it has kept her safe for three months.
But now she must leave
on a mission to find a lake she can call home...
...unaware of what lies ahead.
Only 1% of hatchlings will make it to adulthood,
so her destiny is far from certain...
It is autumn, and nighttime temperatures are unpredictable,
so she must make it to water in just eight hours.
Because if there is a frost,
the rapid drop in temperature will kill her.
For most hatchlings, eight hours is plenty of time.
But her mother selected an unconventional spot
to nest in...
...the roadside verge of Highway 60.
Built in 1936, it transects the southern portion
of Algonquin Provincial Park.
The sandy roadside edges have become favored sites
for nesting turtles.
But it puts this newly-emerged hatchling in mortal danger
as she tries to reach the lake.
Instinctively, she heads for the horizon.
Turtles are hardwired to associate horizons
with the presence of water.
Here, it takes her on a direct path up to the road.
It's not just the traffic she needs to worry about.
Predators patrol the highway searching for an easy meal.
Her body is adapted for swimming,
not climbing,
with webbed feet too tiny to grip the gravel.
All the slipping and sliding wastes valuable time.
A red fox...
Instinct kicks in, and she freezes.
She is camouflaged amongst the pebbles.
The forest lies thirty feet ahead of her...
...the equivalent of half a mile for a human.
Out here, there's no hiding.
On this flat ground she can travel much quicker,
at a quarter of a mile an hour.
But with vehicles traveling at 50 miles an hour...
...the odds are stacked against her.
One lane down...
...one more to go.
More trouble...
...a raven.
These intelligent predators have a keen eye.
Saved by a truck.
Sometimes, being little pays off.
Most hatchlings don't make it this far.
Having succeeded against the odds,
she is about to enter a completely different world.
8,000 miles away, in South Africa,
the sun is setting over a vast acacia forest.
An old tree hollow is home to a family of pint-sized
nocturnal primates-- mohol bushbabies.
This 10-month-old male is waking up alongside his mom
and twin sister.
They will soon set off to scour their territory
on the hunt for insects.
But it is winter, and with the colder,
drier weather, food is becoming scarce.
His mom is also pregnant,
more than likely with twins again.
With more mouths to feed,
the territory cannot support them all.
Having done all that she can, and with no other option,
his mother turns on him...
...driving him away.
Now all alone, he must find a new home before he starves.
He needs around 200 unclaimed acacia trees
to create his own territory.
But first, he must find food to fuel his journey.
He has learned from his mother where to find
an important winter food-- acacia gum.
A large and reliable source can be found half a mile away.
He must navigate through the dense forest to get there.
As he goes, he uses another skill
he learned from his mother--
to pee on his hands.
It is a way of scent marking,
and the super sticky urine gives him grip.
A special membrane at the back of his eye
reflects and amplifies the moonlight,
helping him find his way in the dark.
He makes fast progress.
Bushbaby hind legs are super-powered,
with stretchy tendons
and extra-large muscles.
They catapult him from tree to tree at six feet a second.
He's nearly made it to the acacia gum.
But after the moon sets, his vision is limited.
It is risky to keep going when he can't see.
His hearing is now
all he has to keep himself safe from predators.
Bushbabies hear higher frequencies than humans,
a range that is perfectly attuned
to detecting noises in the forest.
His enormous ears respond to every sound...
...every creak...
...as he tries to work out who is friend...
...who is foe...
...and what is food.
The coast appears to be clear, and food is just one jump away.
Acacia gum is formed when a tree is cut or damaged,
as it releases sap to seal the wound.
It is a vital food source for bushbabies
during the winter months,
but it only provides ten calories per ounce.
He must lick a lot if he is to replenish
his dwindling energy levels.
He is distracted enough to let his guard down.
Not wise when danger lurks in the shadows...
Back in Canada, the hatchling has made it across the road,
But she has entered a completely new environment.
An ancient, deciduous forest lies between her and the lake.
With only six hours of daylight remaining,
it's a huge task to make it to the lake by nightfall.
Beech, maple, and pine trees tower 150 feet above her.
Her minute body, with its cumbersome shell,
isn't adapted for this assault course.
But she is resilient.
Every time she falls over,
she uses her head to flip herself back.
Like her, the animals here have their own challenges
before winter sets in.
A pileated woodpecker feasts on as many Medeola berries
as it can before they become buried by snow.
And chipmunks must stash up to 150 nuts a day
to feed on through the winter months.
But the little turtle won't need to eat until Spring.
She is fueled by the yolk she fed upon
when she was still inside her egg.
Although she might not be hungry,
she is at risk of being eaten.
There are plenty of predators here who would snatch her up.
So the quicker she can get through the forest,
the better.
Navigating the forest floor
is much harder with no obvious horizon.
If she could just get a little higher,
she might get a better view.
Digging in with her claws, she hauls herself to the top.
After getting her bearings, she begins the descent--
not as easy to control.
Water...
at last...
...in a black bear's paw print.
It gives her skin a welcome refresh,
but it's no substitute for the lake.
She must keep moving.
Time is still her biggest enemy.
Minutes...
then hours...
tick by.
The woods at night are no place for a tiny turtle.
She risks freezing to death or being attacked
by nocturnal predators.
It is vital she makes it to the lake by sunset.
But nightfall is still one hour away...
and the lake is nowhere to be seen.
Under a starlit sky in South Africa...
The young male bushbaby is only half a mile
into his journey for a new home,
but distracted by food, he's left himself open to attack.
In these forests, for one so small,
danger lurks around every corner.
His scent has been picked up by a genet...
...one of the few predators adept enough in the trees,
to catch a bushbaby.
Its flexible, slender body allows it to creep
closer to its prey.
Its tail provides vital balance.
If it gets within striking distance,
it can kill with a single bite to the neck.
But it makes one tiny slip...
Saved by a super-powered jump.
Using stored energy in his tendons,
the bushbaby leaps 30 times his body length.
His rapid response has saved his life...
But he's now in a completely unfamiliar part of the forest.
An eerie glow in the distance...
and the unmistakable buzz of insects.
A light outside a remote bush lodge...
surrounded by his favorite food.
It draws him closer.
Being a nocturnal animal, he is wary of the light...
But in winter, with insects harder to find,
this is a unique opportunity for the bushbaby.
Hunger drives him on.
Moths not only provide the bushbaby with twice
as many calories as acacia gum...
...but also valuable protein to build and maintain his muscles.
The human world has given him an opportunity,
but it also brings new dangers...
Domestic dogs can kill bushbabies.
It is too risky for him to stay here.
But with sunrise rapidly approaching,
he needs to find somewhere to sleep.
He spies a box.
It's out of the ordinary,
but perhaps this could be his new home.
Dawn reveals the occupants...
...a yellow-billed hornbill family.
The mother is sealed inside with the newly hatched chicks...
...while her mate dutifully brings them food
numerous times a day.
Bedded down in a makeshift tree hole,
it's not quite the new home the bushbaby is after.
He will have to resume his search when night falls.
The turtle hatchling
is three quarters of a mile into the forest...
...struggling through the leaf litter...
...with no sign of the lake yet.
Eight hours since she left her roadside nest,
and the sun is now setting.
And without its warmth, the temperature rapidly drops,
and her pace slows.
She is out of time.
The sharp autumn frost could kill her...
...if the nocturnal predators don't sniff her out first.
At 50 degrees, her body temperature is dangerously low.
Instinct kicks in...
and she buries herself.
Using the leaf litter as a blanket
will keep her a few degrees warmer
and hide her from predators.
It is her best chance of surviving the night.
A raccoon.
With dexterous paws, it is skilled at finding food
amongst the leaf litter.
Being an omnivore, it isn't fussy about what it eats.
It just needs to pile on the pounds ahead of winter.
A turtle hatchling would be a welcome find...
...but nuts are a great alternative source of protein.
The hatchling is safe...
for now.
Dawn in South Africa.
The bushbaby has travelled across six miles
of acacia forest over three nights.
Having made a connection between light and food,
he is heading in a new direction...
...towards the human world.
Delicious food is laid out for the taking,
including something he has never come across before--
banana.
This is a safari lodge,
where all wildlife is welcome to come and dine.
Not only that, the owners have put up
a specially-designed bushbaby box.
Another bushbaby...
And another.
A third.
He's stumbled into hostile territory.
An adult male rules this roost
and has no intention of letting another male onto his patch.
Once they notice him, he'll be in trouble.
Their alarm calls are a warning for him to keep away.
But the lure of the sweet-smelling banana
is too much to resist.
Having escaped, he takes his first bite of the stolen banana.
With so much sugar in it,
it's unlike anything he has tasted before.
Powered by this new rocket fuel,
he can continue his search for a new home...
Daybreak in Canada.
The hatchling's instinct to bury herself overnight has paid off.
Being cold-blooded, she basks in the autumn sunshine.
She must warm up to at least 60 degrees
before she can continue with her journey.
There are signs she is close.
Little did she know last night
that she was only 50 feet from the lake.
But it still takes her half an hour to make it to the water.
This is Whitefish Lake.
Finally, she is somewhere she belongs.
No longer clumsy and slow,
her streamlined body and webbed feet
enable her to glide through the water
much faster than she was on land.
This could now be her home for the next 50 years or more.
But she hasn't reached the end of her journey just yet.
She now needs to find a spot in which to hibernate.
She heads towards the deeper, darker, cooler waters
where she will be safe over the winter.
But she is not alone...
A moose has come to feed here.
The turtle is as small as its eye
and practically invisible amongst the pondweed.
She dives out of reach.
But she must return to the surface one last time...
...to take her last breath for five months.
Then, she dives down to the bottom.
Here, the water won't freeze, even in the middle of winter.
But lurking down here
are monsters a thousand times her size...
...snapping turtles.
In these waters, they are the top predators...
...and painted turtle hatchlings are on the menu.
For once, time is on her side.
At 60 degrees, snappers start to slow down
as their bodies prepare for hibernation.
It's becoming too cold for hunting little turtles.
She must hurry to find a good place to hibernate
before her body shuts down, too.
The cold water is already taking effect.
But hibernation will trigger
even greater physiological changes.
Her heart rate can drop as low as eight beats an hour.
Her metabolism will fall to 10% of its usual rate.
She finds a sheltered spot.
She'll hibernate here for five months,
protected from the freezing temperatures at the surface...
...only becoming active again
when spring brings warmer weather.
And in 12 years, when she is sexually mature,
she'll venture back out of the lake to lay her own eggs...
...a journey that may see her make the same perilous trip
through the woodland and across the road
to the nesting grounds along Highway 60.
Over the last few nights,
the bushbaby has travelled five miles,
moving closer to the lights on the horizon.
But he still hasn't found a new territory.
Unbeknownst to him,
the lights are those of a huge city--
Pretoria,
home to nearly 3 million people.
In the suburbs, local conservation groups
have created a novel way for bushbabies to move
between the surrounding patches of forest...
...ropes.
For this bushbaby, it's a new way to travel.
He catches a whiff of sweet-smelling banana...
...the rocket fuel he first encountered at the safari lodge.
It has been left out by a bushbaby-friendly resident.
He is unaware he is being watched.
A gang of city-savvy bushbabies regularly feeds on this balcony.
He may be driven away yet again.
But he can tell from their calls that they are friendly.
Instead of chasing him away,
this time, they tolerate his presence...
...even grooming him,
accepting him into their tribe,
something that would never happen
in the wild acacia forests.
Although interactions with people, pets,
and vehicles can be stressful for bushbabies,
there is an abundance of food here,
and urban bushbabies can weigh a quarter more
than their forest counterparts.
Because there is less competition, their social system
has adapted to be more welcoming to strangers,
and unrelated bushbabies band together
to form a different type of family.
The bushbaby follows his new friends...
...and they lead him deeper into the metropolis.
They are taking him to a secret location...
...a place with 24/7 security,
fortified with high walls,
razor wire,
and CCTV.
The gang is undeterred.
This is somewhere worth breaking into.
Once inside...
he discovers what the gang have come to raid.
Pristine white bird of paradise flowers...
full of nutritious nectar
and still blooming in the middle of winter.
Busted!
As they flee, he jumps past some familiar-looking animals...
...and some less familiar.
This is Pretoria Zoo,
a 200-acre site in the middle of the city
where the gardens are watered year round,
giving the bushbaby gang access to nectar even in the winter.
With sunrise fast approaching, he joins his new bushbaby gang
as they follow their urine scent trail home.
Located at the top of a huge palm tree,
their nest is quite the penthouse suite.
The male bushbaby ventures inside.
Having traveled 15 miles from where he was born,
he has found a life of plenty in a new world.
By leaving space for nature,
humans can give wildlife a chance to thrive.