[Tom Hiddleston] The night.
A shadowy world that hides more than half the animals on our planet.
Until now, cameras only offered a glimpse into their lives.
But with next-generation technology,
we can see the night as clear as day.
With cameras a hundred times more sensitive than the human eye...
we can now capture the beauty of night...
in color.
Alien landscapes.
Strange creatures brought to life by the darkness.
Unseen behaviors.
Now we can follow the lives of animals
in Earth's last true wilderness.
The night.
Sunset over Namibia's Skeleton Coast.
Where the African desert meets the Atlantic Ocean.
It appears lifeless.
But, for a few months each year,
the beaches here are taken over by oceanic visitors.
Cape fur seals.
Each spring, over half a million come ashore to breed.
It seems the perfect place to raise newborn pups.
[barks]
-Just a few weeks old... -[barks]
...this youngster is still totally dependent on his mother.
For the first four months,
he'll feed only on her high-calorie milk.
But nursing a hungry pup is exhausting work.
So the mothers must regularly return to the ocean to feed,
often for days on end.
Leaving their pups...
[barks]
...home alone.
But dusk is a dangerous time.
[barks]
A pair of black-backed jackals.
[barking]
Without their mothers to protect them...
the pups must fend for themselves.
Sharp teeth are their only defense.
[howls]
In the daylight, the pups can usually see the jackals off.
But as light starts to fade, the tables turn.
After dark, the jackals will have the element of surprise.
For these young pups, it's going to be a long and dangerous night.
We've never been able to see the dramas
that take place along this coastline after dark.
But now new technology...
allows us to reveal its mysteries...
like never before.
[barking]
For the first few hours after dark, the colony is a noisy place.
[barking]
In the hubbub, a lone pup calls for his mother.
But the adults nearby offer him no comfort.
Cape fur seals only care for their own pups.
He must look after himself.
But luckily the beach is full of youngsters whose mothers are away fishing.
In the moonlight, they all huddle together in a seal pup nursery.
It's the youngsters' best chance of staying safe.
And at night they're right to be wary.
Along the coast, a shipwreck has been swallowed by the sand.
It's now a den for the most powerful pack of jackals on this beach.
Over 95% of their diet
is made up of one thing: seal pups.
[howling]
These haunting howls are a rallying cry to start the hunt.
Filmed for the first time,
night cameras follow the jackals on a nocturnal raid.
Adult seals are too big to take on.
So the pack sneaks into the heart of the colony, searching for pups.
To our eyes...
the pups are hidden in the darkness.
But jackals have excellent night vision...
allowing them to seek out any opportunity.
[pup barking]
A sleeping pup.
-[seal bellows] -[pup barks]
With an adult close by,
this time, the jackal backs off.
But another pup has wandered from the safety of the nursery.
And it's been spotted.
[pup barking]
Its only chance is to make it to the sea,
where the jackal will not follow.
A lucky escape.
[animals chattering]
Away from the waves...
a strange chorus rises from the desert.
[chattering continues]
Having sheltered from the sun's heat all day,
the cooler nights are when small desert dwellers emerge from their burrows.
[chattering]
A male barking gecko, looking for love.
But in the darkness, it's hard to find a mate.
[gecko barking]
So he barks.
[barking]
[barking continues]
This female likes what she hears.
But to follow her heart...
she must risk her life.
A white lady spider.
A gecko-hunter...
with a deadly venomous bite.
In the pitch black, it detects prey through tiny vibrations in the sand.
She's too quick for the spider, that retreats to its underground lair.
For the barking gecko, finding love is a risky business.
[barking]
But it's worth the gamble.
[muffled barking]
At night, this desert coastline hides other surprises.
The sand has not only swallowed ships...
but also whole towns.
An old abandoned mining outpost...
haunted by strange night spirits.
A brown hyena, known to the locals as a strand wolf.
This is the first time we've been able to see
into the nocturnal lives of these animals.
The ruins of an abandoned casino provide a den for a small family.
A mother...
and her two daughters, hyena teenagers.
The youngsters haven't eaten all day.
They're hungry.
[growls]
And cranky.
[shrieking, growling]
This bizarre nocturnal fight is known as muzzle-wrestling.
It's how young hyenas test each other's strength.
[shrieking, growling continues]
As they battle it out, it's up to their mother to provide food.
Brown hyenas are considered scavengers.
But on this one stretch of coastline, they've also learned to hunt...
seal pups.
[seals barking]
Now, for the first time,
we can reveal how the darkness helps them catch their prey.
[barks]
Without our cameras...
the hyena is almost impossible to make out.
Hiding in the shadows...
she doesn't chase the seals...
she waits for the seals to come to her.
Just out of reach.
But conditions are about to change in the hyena's favor.
In the hours after midnight,
a fogbank rolls in off the ocean, obscuring the moon.
Now it's harder than ever for the seals to spot the hyena.
She repositions amongst the rocks...
and waits.
[barks]
[seals barking]
Finally, the perfect target.
[crunch]
Her powerful jaws finish the job.
The kill soon attracts unwanted attention.
-[growls] -[whimpers]
[snarling]
The jackals, still desperate for food, surround her 20-to-1.
But even a whole pack is no match for this powerful night hunter.
Hunting is over for the night.
In the first glow of dawn...
the jackal pack returns to their shipwreck den.
And the seal colony is starting to stir.
[seals barking]
By huddling together, the vast majority have survived the night.
-And one pup hears a call he recognizes. -[seal barking]
[barks]
[pup barks]
[seal barks]
Mum is back.
[barks]
He finally gets to feed.
In a few months, the pups will be big enough to leave these beaches...
and start the next chapter of their lives at sea.
And Namibia's Skeleton Coast will be peaceful once again.
[vehicle engine revving]
The most daunting challenge the Earth at Night team faced
was filming the elusive brown hyena,
which meant braving an abandoned ghost town.
We are the only people around for miles and miles.
And it is pretty creepy at night.
[Hiddleston] And the spooky feeling was heightened
when they came face-to-face with a large hyena.
[Thomas] So close.
[Hiddleston] Nobody knew what to expect from these predators at night,
even hyena scientist, Dr. Ingrid Wiesel.
I've done years of work observing them during the day.
But behavior at night might be different.
I'm very excited to see this footage.
[whirring]
A night-vision drone allowed the crew to explore the ruined buildings
and figure out where best to set up their cameras.
They discovered a den in the old town casino.
That's amazing.
Twenty years that I've been here and studying hyenas,
it's the first time that I'm working with a film company that can film at night.
[Hiddleston] Staking it out over several weeks,
the crew was often surprised by the hyenas' nocturnal behaviors.
[hyena shrieks]
Some even Ingrid hadn't seen before.
Wow, this was absolutely amazing footage for tonight.
I can't believe it.
But what interested her the most
was how the hyenas' neighbors, the jackals, also joined in the action.
[Wiesel] These jackals are really hassling this hyena.
I think that happens a lot more at night.
[Hiddleston] One jackal was even bold enough
to attempt a sneaky raid on the hyenas' den.
-[snarl] -[yelp]
Never a good idea.
So nice to see what they do at night. It's so special.
[Hiddleston] Working with scientists and the latest technology,
the team was able to capture never-before-seen moments
in the lives of these secretive nocturnal animals.