Earth's Natural Wonders

In Brazil, indigenous peoples use a natural plant toxin to paralyze hundreds of fish. The fish are needed for a festival to appease a "spirit" who can protect them if things go well. For the festival to be a success, they need hundreds of fish to feed the dancers and act as an offering. The natural toxin is a great help, but the lake where they fish also contains piranha, electric eels and caiman.

In Ethiopia’s Gheralta mountain villagers climb sheer cliffs for a baptism. Their churches are built high in the mountains to bring them "closer to God," and reaching them is a real test of faith. They believe that male children must be baptized on the 40th day after birth in order to be blessed, but this is a long and perilous journey to make with a newborn.

In some natural wonders, people must push themselves to the absolute limit in order to survive. For the people who call these extraordinary places home, survival requires great skill, ingenuity and bravery.

In the Faroe Islands, locals collect a traditional delicacy, Fulmar eggs, from high cliffs. They use only traditional woolen harnesses and slippers as climbing equipment, and are lowered on a rope down hundreds of feet of cliff-side. First, however, they must identify the best spot to find these nesting seabirds.

In Australia Aboriginal peoples risk their lives collecting saltwater crocodile eggs. They use their traditional skills collect eggs from the nests. These saltwater crocodiles are among the most dangerous predators in the world and it is not easy to drive them off their nests.

In some of the world’s most extraordinary natural wonders, it is wildlife that holds the key to survival for the people who live there. But animals can be our foes, as well as our friends.

The Nenet people of Siberia migrate 500 miles across the ice with their reindeer herds. They have followed this way of life for centuries, but the migration is getting harder as the climate becomes more unpredictable. This year, the weather is bad, and the herds become mixed together as they move along the trail.

In Vanuatu islanders depend on fishing to provide them with food from the sea. This way of life is becoming harder as fish stocks decline and young people leave the islands. The remaining youth must learn these ancient skills: most challenging of all is to free-dive down to the sea-bed in search of lobster.

In the Canadian Arctic, Inuit peoples still follow ancient traditions of foraging for mussels. At the lowest tides of the year, they venture into caves below the sea-ice to hunt for them. As the tide turns, the sea ice can shift and there is a risk of them becoming trapped below the ice.

Earth's natural wonders are parts of the natural world that nature has carved on such a scale that they defy belief. For human beings, survival within these extraordinary places can pose great challenges. Yet human ingenuity makes this possible.

In Nepal herders bring their yaks down one of the steepest mountain passes in the region. The ground is treacherous and it is easy for the animals to become injured. This year, the yaks have given birth late and it is hard for the younger animals of the herd.

In the Australian Outback, helicopter cowboys round up cattle from the air. It’s the only way to get the job done on these enormous farms, but the job is dangerous – pilots die every year. Modern technology is what makes survival possible in this inhospitable part of the world.