Mountains | Planet Earth Ep. 2

The second instalment focuses on the mountains. All the main ranges are explored with extensive aerial photography. Ethiopia’s Erta Ale is the longest continually erupting volcano—for over 100 years. On the nearby highlands, geladas (the only primate whose diet is almost entirely grass) inhabit precipitous slopes nearly five kilometres (3 mi) up, in troops that are 800-strong: the most numerous of their kind. Alongside them live the critically endangered walia ibex, and both species take turns to act as lookout for predatory Ethiopian wolves. The Andes have the most volatile weather and guanacos are shown enduring a flash blizzard, along with an exceptional group sighting of the normally solitary puma. The Alpine summits are always snow-covered, apart from that of the Matterhorn, which is too sheer to allow it to settle...