♪ Gaffet: First time I saw orca was quite unexpected.

A quite large group was hunting.

♪ ♪ It was this combination of feeling awe and at the same time, a little bit of horror and shame.

It goes into your heart and into your mind, and it doesn't leave you.

♪ Narrator: At the ends of the Earth is a land of extremes... ...home to spectacular wildlife.

For centuries, people and animals have battled for supremacy.

But now enemies are becoming allies.

Together they face new challenges... ...in our rapidly changing world.

You are at the mercy of the elements.

Narrator: This is the story of what it takes to survive... ...on the edge of the world.

♪ [ Wind whistling ] [ Birds cawing ] The land along Patagonia's eastern coast is barren.

But the sea is rich with life.

♪ The Andes cut through Patagonia, blocking moist air flowing from the Pacific, creating the eighth-largest desert in the world.

But off the Atlantic coast, a cold southern current mixes with a warmer Brazilian one, producing the perfect conditions for marine life.

♪ [ Thunder crashes ] On land, a wild patchwork of desolate beaches... ...rocky outcrops, and towering cliffs overlook one of the most important marine reserves on the planet.

The top predator patrolling these waters?

Orca.

Also known as killer whales, the largest members of the dolphin family.

This pod of 10 is a close-knit group that will stay together their entire lives.

The leader of this family is wise old grandma, known as Maga.

It's high tide, and the 40-year-old matriarch leads her family towards shore.

Their target?

Unsuspecting seals and sea lion pups.

[ Squawks ] But how to get to them on the beach?

♪ The family has perfected an ingenious way to hunt here.

♪ First, they swim sideways to hide their telltale dorsal fins.

♪ The seals have no idea that these six-ton killers are so close.

Then the orca do something extraordinary.

They beach themselves.

♪ ♪ It's a remarkable technique.

♪ Beaches are death traps for whales and dolphins.

It's too easy to get stranded.

But not for this family.

They've learned how to expertly maneuver back into the sea.

Maga and her pod are one of only two orca families in the world known to pull off this dangerous feat.

♪ Ever since she first laid eyes on them, orca expert María Leoní Gaffet has been fascinated by these predators.

Gaffet: I was born here in Patagonia, quite close to the Península Valdés.

It was quite a strong experience to see them for the first time, especially, you know, hunting in this manner.

And I guess that's when they started to exist for me.

♪ Narrator: María Leoní was determined to understand their behavior.

She decided to camp out along this desert coastline for three months a year when the orcas hunt the most.

For 20 years she's observed Maga and her family and can identify individuals by their unique markings.

Gaffet: You take photos of their fins, of their saddle patches.

The idea is to do observation of this population and of their behavior over long periods of time.

Narrator: María Leoní realized their hunting technique was not instinctive, but learned.

Gaffet: They start teaching the calves when they are really tiny.

You know, they start to bring them to the shore slowly and safely until eventually they can do it on their own.

Narrator: It's an incredible skill taught by one generation to the next.

♪ This morning, Maga's hunting class is in session.

She's working with her grandchildren on their stranding technique.

Gaffet: She's a great teacher.

She's really proficient and professional.

Narrator: Today's challenge -- the young calves are to swim into the shallows, grabbing clumps of seaweed.

A practice run like this is critical.

If they master this skill, they'll never go hungry.

But one wrong move and they could beach themselves and die.

♪ Maga leads her class up to the breakers, daring them to grab some seaweed.

And one bold student goes for it, launching into the shallows.

♪ Success.

♪ María Leoní has discovered that it takes four years for each new generation to master this behavior... ...allowing this orca pod to thrive along the desert coast.

While Maga and her family return to open water, on land, a real-estate dispute is about to get bloody.

♪ ♪ Narrator: The beaches along Patagonia's desert coast at El Pedral are wild and exposed.

It's not an easy place to raise a family.

Just ask some of its more iconic residents... [ Penguin honking ] ...Magellanic penguins.

♪ Each spring, these migratory waddlers return from their feeding grounds up north to breed... ...under the watchful eye of conservationist Popi García.

García: The first time I heard about something called a penguin, it was through my grandmother.

She used to tell me very, very warm and nice stories about penguins when I was a small boy.

Narrator: When Popi finally saw them, he was captivated.

García: I was 19, 18 years old.

I came to one of the colonies here in Patagonia, and that was an epiphany moment because I had the feeling that I had to dedicate my life to their conservation.

♪ Narrator: Today, the beach is busy.

But it wasn't always like this.

García: The first time I came, there were only six pairs of nests.

This place was a real mess.

There were a lot of reckless people and careless fishermen coming here, throwing garbage everywhere.

We needed to protect this colony because otherwise they would leave and they would never come back.

Narrator: It took several years of clearing trash and getting local support to turn this polluted beach into a protected area.

Popi's efforts paid off.

♪ And the penguins returned.

García: The colony grew from those six original pairs of penguins to over 3,000 pairs now, so that was a home run.

♪ ♪ Narrator: Popi now lives nearby with his wife, Laura.

During breeding season they regularly monitor the penguins.

García: When you work with them and you visit them very frequently, you get to know them better.

And one of the favorite penguins in this colony is called Clarita.

Narrator: She is one of the original few that restarted the colony.

[ Both speaking Spanish ] García: We know that she's about 16 years old.

She was able to raise 14 chicks, and the last two chicks are hatching right now.

[ Penguins squawking ] ♪ Narrator: Popi weighs and measures Clarita's newborns to make sure they're in good health.

♪ [ both speaking Spanish ] García: Clarita, for me, represents the hope for this planet.

Whatever we do in terms of conservation is really worthwhile, because this colony is showing us that a small action that we decided to do a long time ago is having a big impact.

♪ Narrator: The penguins are doing so well here they're running out of nest sites, leading to a real-estate crunch.

This male has decided to move in on another family's burrow.

The resident female watches on, concerned.

She calls for her partner.

[ Trills ] ♪ ♪ [ Squawking ] His guttural squawks are a show of dominance.

[ Continues squawking loudly ] But the intruder isn't taking the hint.

The two square off, beak to beak.

♪ ♪ The resident on the left gets in some good jabs.

♪ Finally, bloodied and battered, the home invader is sent packing.

Next time, maybe he'll think twice about moving into someone else's burrow.

♪ Thirty miles to the north, on Península Valdés, another colony's numbers are not doing so well.

♪ The small settlement of Playa Larralde has a population of about 200 people and shrinking.

Those that remain make a hard living from the ocean.

One of them is Lucas del Río.

[ del Río speaking Spanish ] ♪ Narrator: Lucas forages for shellfish on the sea floor.

♪ He doesn't use expensive scuba gear.

Instead, air is pumped from a compressor... ...through a rubber hose, directly into his mouth.

♪ Sixty-five feet below the surface, he painstakingly collects mussels and scallops.

It's a good harvest.

Lucas can gather up to 60 pounds in just a few minutes.

♪ But over his shoulder, there's another creature lurking.

♪ ♪ Narrator: The beaches along Patagonia's Península Valdés offer little in the way of sustenance, but its rich waters teem with life.

Below the surface, diver Lucas del Río is collecting mussels.

And he has company... ...42 tons of it.

♪ There's never a dull moment when you're working alongside giants.

♪ Lucas takes his haul back to dry land, avoiding whales as he goes.

This bay is home to hundreds of them.

It's one of the largest nurseries on the planet for southern right whales.

♪ Their name is a reminder of a darker past when these slow-moving whales were considered the right ones to hunt.

They were driven to the brink of extinction.

By the end of the whaling era in the 1960s, less than 1,000 were left worldwide.

Researcher Mariano Coscarella has been monitoring their population for decades.

[ Coscarella speaking Spanish ] Mariano is now dedicated to protecting these whales.

♪ Taking skin samples is a key way to monitor them.

But getting one isn't easy.

His crossbow fires a special dart designed to collect a small amount of skin.

He needs to time his shot perfectly.

♪ ♪ This single sample will provide Mariano with a wealth of data -- the whale's genetics, age, and exposure to pollution, information crucial to both understanding more about the species and helping its survival.

The southern right whales have bounced back, but their healthy population has attracted unwanted attention.

A mother and her calf are being tailed by a family of killers -- orca.

Mom heads for the safety of the shallows.

But the orca pod quickly catches up with them.

♪ The young orca is given the chance to hone its hunting skills.

♪ ♪ The right whale mom twists and turns, putting herself between her baby and the attackers.

♪ ♪ In desperation, she wedges her calf on the sea floor, protecting its soft underbelly.

♪ Her defensive maneuver works.

The orca call off the attack.

♪ The calf is exhausted... ...and comes in for a much-needed feed.

He can drink up to 150 gallons of milk a day.

He'll rely on mom for food and protection for at least a year.

♪ ♪ But the right whales aren't the only species making a comeback here.

This corridor from Bahía Creek to Bahía San Blas is a haven for several of the ocean's most misunderstood animals -- sharks.

♪ Blue sharks hunt along this coast.

Their 5,700-mile journey around the Atlantic is one of the longest of any marine animal.

But there's another dangerous predator in these waters.

[ Speaking Spanish ] ♪ ♪ Narrator: Ramiro Cambareri is one of the most skilled shark hunters in Patagonia.

[ Speaking Spanish ] Narrator: He's fished these waters since he was a boy.

♪ Leopard fish is used to bait the hook.

Its scent will lure in any sharks in the area.

♪ Each line is attached to a float on the surface.

It's now a waiting game.

♪ ♪ Something has taken the bait.

♪ [ Speaking Spanish ] A sevengill shark.

They normally cruise close to the sea floor.

However, this one was tempted by Ramiro's bait.

But this shark has nothing to fear.

Ramiro's no longer in the shark-killing business.

He's now working to save them.

♪ Sharks have been pushed to the brink of extinction by overhunting.

Ramiro didn't want to continue being a part of the problem, and so teamed up with Juan Martín Cuevas from the Wildlife Conservation Society Argentina.

[ Speaking Spanish ] Narrator: For the last five years, Ramiro has worked with Juan catching sharks off the desert coast... ...like this rare tope shark, which is critically endangered.

Then they insert an acoustic tag.

It transmits a radio signal, which can be picked up by a network of underwater receivers.

These trackers help the team to protect the sharks from other hunters and teach them about their migration patterns.

[ Men shouting excitedly ] They check if the tracker is working.

[ Water rushing ] The signal is loud and clear.

♪ Back on land, thousands of elephant seals have come ashore on the beaches of Península Valdés.

♪ These massive seals spend more than 80% of the year feeding out at sea.

When they come back to land, they've got one thing on their mind... ...breeding.

[ Seals grunting ] This patch is the domain of one huge male.

He's master of this beach and has a harem of two dozen females.

He wants to mate with all of them.

[ Seals grunting ] But a young hotshot is trying to sneak in on the action.

♪ The beachmaster keeps a watchful eye.

♪ This new male is taking a big risk, but it might be his only chance to breed this year.

The beachmaster has seen enough.

Time to show this young pretender who's boss.

♪ ♪ Narrator: The beach on the Península Valdés coast is about to become the scene of a heavyweight clash.

Two 5,000-pound contenders are going head to head.

The prize?

The chance to breed with two dozen females.

[ Seals grunting ] ♪ They jab at each other's necks with their canine teeth... ...followed up with a two-and-a-half-ton body slam.

♪ This fight is going the distance.

♪ But in the end, the rookie backs down.

♪ The big male remains the master of the beach, for now, at least.

When the breeding season is over, the seals are hungry and return to the open ocean to feed.

They swim east, heading hundreds of miles off the Patagonian coast to their hunting grounds, where there is an abundance of one of their favorite foods -- squid, an otherworldly creature that spends daylight hours hiding at depths of more than 2,500 feet.

At night, millions of them rise from the deep, looking for food... ...guided by the light of the moon... ...or so they think.

♪ It's actually the light of a 420-foot fishing vessel.

♪ And it's not alone.

Around 150 ships work these waters.

♪ Each one has 100 powerful lights... ...luring the squid up to the surface... ...where they're snagged by a long line of hooks.

Desperately trying to wriggle free, the squid squirt jets of water.

But it's no use.

Every day, this fleet can catch 7,500 tons of squid to be sold in Europe and Asia.

It's a brutally efficient operation.

But these underwater creatures do have some protection.

♪ The Argentine Coast Guard is here in force.

[ Speaking Spanish ] ♪ Narrator: Captain Jose Rafael Quinteros is in charge of this Coast Guard destroyer.

His mission is to make sure the fishing fleet doesn't stray into Patagonia's waters.

[ Speaking Spanish ] Behind the border, marine life is protected from this super fleet.

The crew of the destroyer has their work cut out for them... ...because this industrial-scale fishing is relentless.

Large support ships come to meet the fleet, taking the squid away, refueling, and resupplying.

The fishing boats rarely return to port and can spend years at sea.

♪ ♪ The Coast Guard destroyer is not alone inside the protected zone.

Nearby are two endangered ocean giants -- a pair of sei whales.

♪ And closer to shore, hundreds of dusky dolphins.

But it's not just Patagonia's waters that are busy.

The skies above these cliffs are some of the region's most crowded airspace.

[ Parrots squawking ] ♪ Narrator: At the northern tip of Patagonia's desert coast is El Cóndor.

Here, the Atlantic Ocean has been carving the sandstone coastline for millennia.

These crumbling cliffs are now the last refuge of a bird that used to be found all over South America... ...the burrowing parrot.

[ Parrots squawking ] After wintering up north, pairs return to the same nest every spring.

It makes sense, given how hard they've worked to dig out these homes.

Some stretch back 10 feet into the cliff.

♪ Mauricio Failla is leading the charge to understand and conserve the parrots' last stronghold.

♪ [ Speaking Spanish ] Narrator: Mauricio first encountered these parrots while traveling around Patagonia 20 years ago.

He was smitten, and he's been here ever since.

Mauricio routinely monitors and counts the nests.

Inside most of these nests are hungry chicks.

Today, it's this mom's turn to head out on the food run.

♪ The native vegetation she depends on is disappearing as fast as the Amazon rainforest.

To stand any chance of feeding her family, she must fly three hours inland to find seeds and berries.

♪ But the long trip isn't the only thing our mom needs to worry about.

As she returns, she must deal with the neighbor from hell... ...the fastest animal in the world -- a peregrine falcon.

♪ Swooping in at over 200 miles per hour, it terrorizes the colony.

♪ ♪ Our mom waits for her moment.

♪ ♪ One parrot doesn't make it.

♪ But our mom gets home safely.

♪ ♪ Above Mauricio, the skies are full of parrots.

And future generations of these iconic birds will continue to return here to nest.

♪ At first, this desert coast may seem a barren place.

But its rich waters offer life to a vast number of incredible animals.

♪ And the continued protection of these threatened creatures is now more important than ever.

♪ ♪ Next on "Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World," as summer arrives, animals are gathering in Patagonia's fjords.

♪ But these remote, rich waters are in high demand.

♪