(dramatic music) - Imagine the power of still photographic images.

Moments frozen in time that can change the way we perceive our place in the world.

(majestic music) "To the Ends of the Earth" isn't a new concept.

It began when people first started looking beyond the next ridge, the next valley, to the lands beyond the mountains.

They searched for the unknown, the unexpected, the surprising, to map, catalog and show to others.

Each explorer searched in their own way to push boundaries, expanding and sharing knowledge of what existed in the great beyond.

Here you will see through a photographic vision, a story, "To the Ends of the Earth," photographs by Todd Gustafson, a lifelong , personal search for the dramatic and the unexpected.

Traveling the world for decades capturing intimate natural history moments and dramatic wildlife action, Todd has brought to the viewer images from East Africa, Brazil, Namibia, Patagonia, Rwanda, The Galapagos Islands, India, Costa Rica, Madagascar, and the ocean realm, revealing common threads that exist between humanity and the natural world that forever bind our fates together.

Ancient map makers could only present what they knew.

Beyond the edge of the map was the unknown inhabited by monsters and dragons.

Todd still pursues dragons in his personal search for the ends of the Earth.

(exciting instrumental music) Through Todd's lens we see a vanishing natural world.

We can see a world we have the power to protect.

We have a collective voice that can change the course of destruction to one of stability and rebirth.

"To the Ends of the Earth" is more than a magnificent collection of wildlife photos.

Todd's photographs allow us to experience vicariously the very behaviors people most want to see.

"To the Ends of the Earth" is sharing the Earth's beauty to illustrate exactly what is at stake.

(upbeat music) - Many ancient civilizations worshiped gods in the form of birds.

Egyptians venerated the strength of Horus, and Greeks connected the owl of Athena with wisdom.

The son of Ra came in the form of a duck while numbers and magic were the domain of ibis-headed Thoth.

Ancient Greeks told the story of Daedalus and Icarus using the powers of flight as a metaphor for challenging humanity's limitations.

Winged-Nike was the goddess of speed, of strength and victory.

While Romans regarded the messenger Mercury as the inventor of all the arts.

Today we need to continue to embrace birds as an integral part of our world.

East Africa alone has more than 1,300 bird species, each with its own story to tell.

Through Todd Gustafson's lens, and "To the Ends of the Earth" series, we have an unparalleled eye-level photographer's view of avian species with whom we share our delicate planet.

(lively instrumental music) We have so much in common and share so many of life's imperatives with birds.

We all compete for mates and food.

We raise families and provide for them.

Some things we do for the sheer joy of it.

Raptors, waders, water birds, and bush birds all have a part in this story.

(lively instrumental music) Sharing the diversity and beauty of East African birds, and focusing attention on the need for conservation-based coexistence, goes hand in hand with creating a better way forward for humanity and the rest of the natural world.

Celebrate the beauty of East Africa's bird life and get an intimate glimpse into the life stories of these dynamic avians through Todd's vision, presented here in "To the Ends of the Earth: Birds of East Africa."

To give a perspective of how Todd's photographic vision and passion for wildlife began, Todd and his brother Brian return to their roots in Magamba, Tanzania, to visit the school built by their father in the 1960s.

- I'm gonna go back to 1962 when Dad, as a 40-year-old, with a family of three kids, somebody asked him to come and build a school in Tanzania and he said, "Yeah."

But building the school, and being the head master, and being a biology zoology teacher, and raising a family, that's a challenge.

I think right here is where I got my first love of nature, growing up in the Usambara Mountains at 7000 feet, and as a small child having this as my back yard.

Mom and Dad were doing their thing, running the school, keeping house, and I could explore this beautiful rainforest.

Inside it were colobus monkeys, chameleons, clouds of butterflies.

It was an amazing place to be.

Dad was the head master here, so when people came through looking for specific bird species, he would know where to find them.

They'd come through and they would say, "We need to find the Usambara scops owl," or, "We need the Usambara golden weaver," or, "Where's the special, only in this area "two-horned chameleon?"

And he knew where to get them, so he would send them on their way, but now I know where to find them.

- How does a successful wildlife photographer make the choices of which species to shoot, which subjects to stop for, and which to pass by?

- That is experiential.

I mean, I do have a lot of birds in my mind.

Some people may be calling me a bird brain, but I think I'm good with about 800 species here that I can just say "That's this, this is that and, "hey, we can ignore that because we've seen a gazillion "or we could expect to see them in a better situation."

So when I see a pearl-spotted owlet, I know that we'd better stop.

It's uncommon.

It's beautiful.

It has golden eyes and in the back of its head it has false eyes.

It's just an interesting bird, as are many of them.

So, I know which ones I want to go for and which ones to kind of pass on.

Each park is gonna have its specialties.

When you're looking at a park like Samburu in Kenya, you know you're gonna have red-billed, yellow-billed, gray hornbills.

You're gonna find those and you're gonna know their habits and their habitats, and you can drive by 50 of them because they're rooting around on the ground, or they're buried in the trees.

And I know in the afternoon they're gonna pop up, some of them on a dead branch, and look around, and maybe call a little bit.

So that's when I start looking for hornbills.

Not "Oh, there's a hornbill, let's photograph him."

There's a situation where the hornbill is beautifully photographable, and that's what I'll do there.

Lake Manyara has ground-water forest.

All the water coming off the escarpment makes this beautiful, rainforest-like habitat.

So you've got gray hornbills, crowned hornbills, ground hornbills, silver-cheeked hornbills which are just spectacular.

They like to be high in the trees, so if I see them high in the trees I can say, "There's a silver-cheeked hornbill," and drive on.

If there's one down low, stop the vehicle, and stop it like 10 feet ago so that we can approach it softly, quietly, and get in its zone and see if we can catch it doing some behaviors that we like.

- Todd has developed techniques in his photographic approach that allow him to build on an intriguing, dynamic portfolio.

- I always ask my drivers what their favorite subject is.

And you'll get an idea, then, of how they look for subjects.

I happen to like, I could consider myself an omnivore.

I'm not just an animal photographer.

It's not that only birds are what I like to photograph.

If it's a beautiful subject, I'll go for it.

Reptiles, mammals, scenery, flowers, plants, insects.

I really like to photograph all of them well, and I use a similar style when I'm doing those different subjects.

I love birds, man.

My brother and I have had this conversation many times.

People go on safari.

They want to see an elephant.

They want to see a giraffe.

They want to see lions.

Some of them ignore the 1,300, depending on who's counting, species of birds that are here in Tanzania and Kenya.

1,300 species.

And with that many phenomenal, and interesting, and infinite situations to photograph with birds, I mean, I'm ready any time to do that.

I like birds.

- The soda lakes of the Great Rift Valley support myriad bird species.

Among them are the strikingly beautiful flamingos of the Great Rift Valley lakes.

Flamingos are an iconic global species that include East Africa's greater and lesser flamingos.

When they gather in numbers, their behaviors are riveting, from flight, group mating dances, to rhythmic feeding with the best photographic angle being at eye level.

We begin our journey at Lake Natron, home to millions of greater and lesser flamingos.

Flamingo populations are dependent on water levels, chemistry, and food supply.

These two East African flamingo species court, nest, and raise chicks in the shallow, nutrient-rich waters of this remote lake.

(pleasant instrumental music) The pink and reddish colors of a flamingo's feathers come from eating pigments found in algae and invertebrates.

Dense concentrations of birds tend to gather at hot springs where algae and invertebrates proliferate.

Flamingo's beaks have evolved and adapted to what they eat.

Lesser flamingos have what is called a deep-keeled bill.

They mostly eat algae.

Greater flamingos have a shallow-keeled bill, which allow them to eat insects, invertebrates and small fish.

Watch them feed.

They stir up the bottom of the lake with their feet and dip their beaks into the mud and water to catch their meal.

(pleasant instrumental music) Flamingos gather in colonies or flocks.

The colony protects each other from predators and keeps the young safe.

A group of flamingos will mate at the same time so that all of the chicks will hatch at the same time.

The courtship dances are dramatic.

They can start with a few bachelors and can grow to hundreds of birds showing off as they march in step.

Flamingos are monogamous.

Once they mate, they tend to stay with that mate.

The little gray chicks get their colors as they eat more and more krill and algae.

The beauty of these elegant birds is multi-faceted.

Individually, their shape, feather textures, brilliant colors, and gait are intriguing.

In pairs and groups their coordinated movements are reminiscent of a ballet.

Flamingos in flight are equally dramatic.

Singly and in groups, the legs, neck, and wing patterns are simply riveting.

All of these factors go into the making of beautiful flamingo photographs.

What can make a great scene explode with color and texture is when a jackal stalks the flock looking for a meal.

(dramatic music) Even more dramatic is a predatory dive from a raptor.

In the Ngorongoro Crater the flamingo-filled lake is simply beautiful until a marsh harrier dives, and the scene has turned into a whirling mass of pink wings.

(dramatic music) Of all the dynamic traits that birds possess, the one most universally envied is flight.

Each species has a distinctive flight style, from gliding to swooping, to hovering, and everything in between.

(lively instrumental music) Out of all the photo subjects available in East Africa, how is it that Todd has such a rich, diverse portfolio of birds?

- Birds are flitty, and what's difficult is, (laughs) I was hiking last week along a stream, and there's an uncommon bird and tough to photograph.

It's the African black duck, and they were coming to a pool where there was a cascading waterfall, and I thought, I can catch up to them at that pool because they'll have to stay because there's a waterfall.

They got to the water fall and they flew off and I never saw 'em again.

I forgot they can fly!

So, they can go from here to there in a heartbeat.

But if you can establish some pattern of their habits.

There's a giant kingfisher down in Lake Manyara that I know where he lives.

I know where he likes to hunt.

Every time I pass by that point.

There's rocks and some green and some pools and some water.

Then there's some trees that have nice limbs over the water.

He likes to hang out there.

So, if he's there, I'm ready.

This is a place where we can see the giant kingfisher.

We don't always see him here, but today it seems like there are two.

I can hear him calling and you hear a response.

(upbeat music) (bird squawking) That a was nice turn of the head, there.

So, at this point we've positioned ourselves so that we're looking at the background with the bird in it.

He's at a bad angle in position, but if he re-shifts, we'll have a great background and a great subject.

(wings flapping) (bird squawking) That is it.

Oh, come on, come on.

Right here, right here!

He's on a new perch, single branch, and there's nothing behind him, yeah!

(camera clicking) It's a dead-on portrait of this beautiful kingfisher.

Full body, facing us.

There's a beautiful green leaf behind him.

A dead, dark green behind that.

And his whole chest is showing.

And every situation here has been different with the background.

One was the water, and one was green.

We had real dark green with a bright leaf and now this is sort of a uniform forest green.

(lively instrumental music) That's a fat cat.

Our first clue that there was a kill here was the number of hyenas that were in the long grass looking this way.

I can hear hippos in the river.

(hippos grunting) The Grumeti River.

This is a hippo carcass here that's been killed by, it looked like five or six lions of the Grumeti Pride.

I've never seen a hippo kill, and you can only imagine the battle this must have been last night where you have this massive hippo with flashing teeth and five or six powerful lions maybe a kilometer from the river.

I can't even imagine.

Right now we've got jackals doing their scavenging.

That's a lot of meat for that little jackal.

(gentle instrumental music) (camera clicking) Yeah, with this hippo kill, there are 8,000 things happening at once.

We've got all the vultures are coming in.

We've got the griffon vulture, we've got hooded vultures, we've got white-backed vultures.

There's the hyenas.

There, we've got the jackals.

Flight photography is tremendous.

Another aspect of a kill is the final scavenger group, the vultures.

When they fly in it can be spectacular flight photography.

(camera clicks) Oh, you hear the hissing when those white-backed vultures come in.

- The hyenas are coming in.

- Hyenas, too.

This is gonna be a feast.

(exciting instrumental music) Left.

Now you can get the flight line.

Here they come.

There's just squadrons coming in.

This is amazing, amazing.

Oh, this is just great.

With the wind angle, with the light, it's a great coordination for our photography.

(camera clicking) The goal here, I like is when they flair just as they land and all their wing feathers show.

Landing gear down.

I worked a lot with a long lens on this scene trying to get individual birds and hyena faces, but to capture the scene as a full kill I'm using a wider 80-200 millimeter one.

The wings are flapping.

There's a tree in the left corner.

And a termite hill in the bottom.

That's a well-organized kill.

The obvious shot here is a pile of feathers, but what are you gonna make of that?

Sometimes one vulture will come up and be the king.

Sometimes the hyena.

Oh, look at that.

The vultures are just on top of each other.

They're standing on each other.

Oh, then, when you get a hyena sticking its head up, taking ownership.

This is how different things can be in the matter of an hour.

This morning we had a hippo kill, and I mentioned at that point, "This is an organized kill."

It looks photographically elegant, and a lot of action.

Now it's broken up.

There are three parts of this hippo left over and there's just scads of vultures everywhere.

From that mess of birds and scavengers, I'm hoping for maybe three shots.

I took a lot of shots, but I want wings that are well-organized in some form around one of the hyena faces as a rock.

I have a panoramic view that I did of the whole thing.

And then some of the flight, all these vultures coming in in spectacular light.

It should be a nice thing for maybe three shots.

Bee-eaters are well-defined, sharp, colorful.

(playful instrumental music) When they fly their wings just go shoo, like this.

And they always come back to the same perch, and as always, they often come back to the same perch.

So you can be prepared when they fly off, that they're gonna come back here.

(pleasant instrumental music) They're searching for the bees, so you can get lots of different head positions.

It's not like a bird in a tree that's sort of, you know, asleep, or roosting.

Or just preening all the time.

They're active, they're cute, they're colorful.

(pleasant instrumental music) - Oxpeckers are the quintessential clean-up bird.

Their symbiotic relationship features a host animal who provides the oxpecker with parasitic insects to eat.

In return, the animal gets a nice cleaning, keeping the oxpeckers fed and the animals healthy.

Groups of oxpeckers descend on a hippo pod for their self-appointed rounds.

When the work is done they leave as quickly as they came, looking for a new herd to clean.

(lively instrumental music) Oxpeckers aren't the only birds who provide this service.

Certain shore birds and waders get in on the action.

It's common to see wattled starlings descend on a zebra herd for a meal and a free ride.

(lively instrumental music) Competition can be for nesting materials, food, a roosting spot, or a mate.

(exciting instrumental music) (birds squawking) (birds squawking) (pleasant instrumental music) Birds can have stunning courtship behaviors.

African crowned cranes perform a nuptial dance to attract a mate who they stay with for life.

(cranes squawking) In pairs and large groups, they call to strengthen their bond and stay in contact with each other.

(pleasant instrumental music) (birds squawking) Kingfishers feed their mates, here a spider delicacy.

Kori bustards puff air sacks in their necks, creating a visual signal to all females in the area.

They use the air sacks to emit a low frequency mating call that can be heard for miles.

(birds chirping) Oddly, ground hornbills mate and roost in trees.

(birds cooing) While flightless ostrich mate on the ground.

Plovers lay eggs among rocks and small stones that allow the nest to blend with its surroundings.

(pleasant instrumental music) This beautiful little crowned plover protects her nest.

As perceived threats come near her nest she stands and spreads her wings in a defensive display.

Bee-eaters make nests in hillside clay banks.

Male ostriches incubate as many as 20 huge eggs in a communal nest scraped and nestled into the soft earth.

(dramatic music) Secretary birds build nests together.

They both gather sticks and fly back to the nest, executing a mating dance of intricate, balletic bowing.

(pleasant instrumental music) Northern masked weavers build their nests in raucous colonies following the short rains.

Males select a branch, and build a nest.

(birds chirping) When the job is done they signal females by grooming and wing vibration.

(wings humming) Females fly into the new nests.

(birds chirping) If the nest fails this inspection, the male either redecorates or starts a new one.

Perhaps the most amazing nest is built by the hamerkop, named with the Afrikaans word describing the shape of its head.

The nest is absolutely massive.

An unexpected visitor gives an indication of the nest's size.

This huge male leopard relaxes the day away as the hamerkop patiently waits his chance to re-enter the nest.

The tiny chinspot batis male and female build a nest together.

The male uses water droplets trapped in his feathers to shape the delicate structure.

They both add to the nest by carefully weaving together gossamer spider webs and forest lichens.

(pleasant instrumental music) What is it that could possibly make the impressive hamerkop's nest, the intricate weaverbird's nest, or your house, or my house more important to us than the tiny, carefully constructed bowl of gossamer and lichens are to the chinspot batis?

(pleasant instrumental music) (gentle instrumental music) Chicks hatch and parents nurture and teach them survival skills.

Egyptian geese stay in tight formation as they swim and feed.

(pleasant instrumental music) Coltish crowned crane chicks follow their parents as they search for seeds and insects.

The chick feeds on plants near the ground as the adult browses at head height.

(birds squawking) Yellow-billed stork fledglings gather in nurseries until their parents take them to acacia tree tops for feeding and training.

They feed on the soft new acacia leaves, and at the same time, strengthen their wings as they struggle for balance.

(birds cooing) (gentle instrumental music) A community ostrich nest hatches and joins another set of hatchlings to form a nursery watched over by several adults.

Chicks grow to adults who understand how to hunt, eat, and provide for themselves and their families.

(pleasant instrumental music) - They were doing Maasai burning, they were burning all the grass.

And the bee-eaters were staying right ahead of the fire because all the insects were staying ahead of the fire, as well.

There were thousands of bee-eaters.

And there were thousands of lilac-breasted rollers.

You can chase lilac-breasted rollers around and try to photograph them, or you can find one on a perch that you like.

In this case we went to the edge of the fire and there were a thousand lilac-breasted rollers.

(exciting instrumental music) They were diving, you know, just swirling through the smoke and grabbing these grasshoppers and little creepy-crawly things and then they'd pop up on a branch, and then pound 'em, and eat 'em.

All we had to do was find the good perches, the birds came to us and it was really quite spectacular.

(dramatic instrumental music) (fire crackling) (camera clicking) I love the translucence of the smoke.

It gets really intense on the bottom but then the sun's peaking through.

You got the black trees and then green to the right where it hasn't burned.

All these rollers are coming in.

They're just eating all the insects as they fly in front of the fire trying to escape.

- The importance of dung beetles cannot be overstated.

They hatch after the short rains and use elephant dung as nutrient rich places to lay their eggs.

Compacting these balls by rolling them across the plains distributes seeds and fertilizes the grasslands.

(dramatic instrumental music) Entire species depend on this hatching.

White storks migrate from Europe to fatten up for the mating season.

Lilac-breasted rollers, Eurasian rollers, and kori bustards all thrive during this season.

One of the most voracious and efficient hunters on the plains is the ground hornbill.

(dramatic instrumental music) Families hunt in groups and will eat dung beetles, frogs, mice, crabs, or anything else that comes along.

A prized photo is to get the perfectly executed toss.

(intense dramatic music) (gentle instrumental music) Water birds and waders spend their time in shallow waters, probing, prodding, and filtering for aquatic plants and insects.

Elegant pied avocets often feed in pairs.

(playful instrumental music) Shovelers filter water through their wide bills.

Spoonbills use similar filtering as they feed in the shallows.

Pelicans patrol the waters using their unique, pouched bills to scoop up fish.

(exciting instrumental music) They often use cooperative hunting, a herding strategy to surround schools of fish.

Egrets, herons and these yellow-billed storks patrol reed-fringed shallows and Nile cabbage choked lagoons for fish, insects, and frogs.

(chirping) The saddle-billed stork delicately rinses his beak after eating a frog.

Another interesting shot is one of a yellow-billed stork drinking.

King fishers' hunting style is similar to bee-eaters'.

They have a favored perch, sight the pray, fly off, and return to the same perch with their prize.

(upbeat instrumental music) This malachite kingfisher isn't certain he likes the texture of the spider he just ate.

There are as many variations on feeding as there are types of birds.

Seed and fruit eaters browse areas where the food is ripe.

(birds squawking) Raptors are built to hunt, with their sharp, powerful talons and their massive beaks.

(dramatic instrumental music) Owls hunt mice, voles and other small mammals, keeping their populations in check.

What a battle it must have been when this eagle owl hunted this genet cat.

Secretary birds patrol the grass lands in constant search of snakes, rodents, and insects.

(dramatic instrumental music) (intense dramatic music) African harrier hawks have a unique way of hunting for insects.

They patrol in areas where there are stands of dead trees.

Their snake-like necks are suited to explore behind dead bark.

They hang onto the tree with their beak as they use powerful legs and claws to pry away the bark, and use their huge wings to keep balance.

Tawny eagles and steppe eagles look similar, but the larger steppe eagle weighs in at just under 11 pounds.

Here a steppe eagle uses its powerful beak and neck to rearrange an entire wildebeest kill.

What are the factors that go into the making of dynamic, story-telling bird images?

- I try to avoid taking birds that are high in trees 'cause the angle is awkward.

It's just, you're looking right up at them and they're looking down their nose at you.

So, I prefer when I see a raptor at eye level.

I just grab the driver and sort of, you know, signal that we need to stop without screaming because you don't want to scare the bird.

But when you can look dead on in the eye of a raptor, it's more intimidating for the viewer when they see that photo.

- East Africa is a land of superlatives.

Here lives the largest of all birds, the ostrich, the smallest raptor, the pygmy falcon.

Africa's heaviest raptor with the largest wing span, the martial eagle, the aptly named Goliath heron, the tallest of all wading birds, and the greatest diversity of vulture species including Ruppell's griffon vulture, lappet-faced vulture, the uncommon Egyptian vulture, hooded vulture, white-backed vulture, palm-nut vulture, and the multicolored white-headed vulture.

People say the lilac-breasted roller is the most beautiful bird.

So, statistically, they must be a most beautiful roller, whether it's breeding plumage, just after a rain, the perch, or the quality of light.

So, in the world of infinite improbabilities, there has to be a least attractive lilac-breasted roller.

Here is our chance to have a birds-eye view and the opportunity to enjoy some of the birds of East Africa's most dynamic behaviors.

(dramatic instrumental music) Elephants share news with the most delicate touching of trunks.

(grunting) A lioness calls for her cubs.

(pleasant instrumental music) Verreaux's eagle-owls call to each other welcoming the night.

(birds cooing) (birds chirping) A rose-breasted longúclaw and capped larks sing to welcome in the new day.

(birds chirping) (pleasant instrumental music) A black-bellied bustard has a well-orchestrated call to attract a mate.

(bird coos) (birds chirping) The diminutive three-banded plover calls to its mate.

There's no doubt why it's called the ha-da-da ibis.

(birds cawing) Bird calls echo across the plains, lakes, and woodlands.

Spurfowl call in the evening for the same reason there is a dawn chorus at sunrise.

What is the importance of communication to the survival of the family, the pack, or the flock that has allowed them to survive for millennia?

How vital is it for us to re-learn those communication skills and to have the human species reconnect with the natural world for the survival of all?

- And think how these wild creatures have so much in common with each other, and with us.

(gentle instrumental music) Through Todd's lens we see a vanishing natural world.

We can see a world we have the power to protect.

If we of all creatures can best understand consequences and plan far ahead, then let us do so.

- I choose to use my photography to stand with nature, our delicate planet, and the wildlife that are shown in this documentary.

- "To the Ends of the Earth" is sharing the Earth's beauty to illustrate exactly what is at stake.

Imagine a world without elephants, lions, giraffes, and those are just the obvious animals at risk.

Collectively these images explore different aspects of the animals' behavior, a visual commentary on what it means to be born free into the last wild places.

(majestic music) (heartbeat thumping) (exciting instrumental music)