Upsetting scenes in his new series, which starts today, show a parched and psychologically damaged baby elephant — its adult relatives killed by extreme droughts — cry out as rescuers squirt water into its mouth.
Sir David Attenborough confronts viewers with some of the most shocking images of his 66-year BBC careerCredit: PA:Press Association
In his new series the veteran broadcaster outlines how animals are facing mass extinction because of humans
A koala, its fur and paws scorched, crawls through burning undergrowth during last year’s bushfires in Australia before it, too, is saved and bandaged.
Baby turtles are shown drowning in the Amazon as nests are flooded by early storms caused by changing weather, a sloth is saved in a town after its rainforest home is destroyed and poachers haul bloodied sharks from waters off Africa.
Sir David, 94, tells viewers the planet he saw “as a young man has changed beyond all recognition”.
And in A Perfect Planet he warns half of all species could die this century — the biggest mass extinction in 65million years.
The baby elephant, he says, is the victim of human influence “so powerful it threatens the future of life on Earth”.
But he insists it is not too late to help if we act fast to protect the natural world.
Scenes at an elephant orphanage in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park show keepers playing with the creatures and rubbing their trunks to soothe them.
Angela Sheldrick, whose trust has raised 262 young elephants, says: “They are in a sorry state. They are not only physically damaged but psychologically too.
“They’ve suffered such a loss . . . their elephant family, their mothers. The keepers provide the tender loving care and the nurturing that’s so important for them to heal.”
Reflecting on the koala footage, biologist Dr Niall McCann, 38, says there are more fires, droughts and floods today.
The koala was saved and bandaged but biologist Dr Niall McCann warns of more fires, droughts and floods
Dr McCann asks: ‘Do you want to be the generation that sees the last elephant killed, sees the last fish fished out of the sea, or do you want to be the generation that turns it around?’