Netflix’s Our Planet shows heartbreaking moment ‘desperate’ walruses fall to their deaths from cliff after their natural habitat is destroyed
The nature series at first depicts a single walrus clinging on for dear life as he teeters on the edge of the cliff before falling to it's death
OUR Planet has showcased hundreds of walruses falling off a 260ft cliff to a slow, agonising death in heartbreaking scenes.
Sir David Attenborough nature series’ at first depicts a single walrus clinging on for dear life as he teeters on the edge of the cliff.
Tragically, the large marine mammal loses its grip and falls down the rock face, bouncing off the jagged rocks before suffering an agonising death on the beach below.
And the distressing scene continues as hundreds of walruses, who are half-blind when out of the water, follow and topple to their demise from the precipice.
The scene highlights how man-made global warming has destroyed their natural habitat and explains why they’ve been forced to find refuge on the rocky outpost.
Narrating the disturbing scene in the second episode, Sir David began: “They do so out of desperation not choice.
“Their natural home is out on the sea ice, but the ice has retreated away to the north and this is the closest place to their feeding grounds.
He continued: “Every square inch is occupied, climbing over the tightly packed bodies is the only way across the crowd – those beneath can get crushed to death.
“In a desperate bid to avoid the crush they try head towards the cliffs.
He added: “But walruses’ eyesight out of the water is poor, but they can sense the others down below, as they get hungry they need to return to the sea.
“In their desperation to do so, hundreds fall from heights they should never have scaled.”
As the ice continues to retreat, the gathering of 100,000 walruses on the land – the biggest of its kind on the planet – is happening more and more.
And at every congregation, hundreds of the creatures now plunge to their deaths on the cliffs, which are in north-east Russia.
The scene proved to be a poignant reminder to viewers who commented on Twitter in their droves.
One viewer penned: “#ourplanet the tag adds a walrus for good reason.
“Giant walruses fall to their deaths off cliffs they never should have been on, you see tusks being broken; imagine the sheer force of all that weight dropping 80m onto sharp rocks because humanity has failed them.”
“That walrus scene broke my heart,” another shared. “#OurPlanet, broken hearted seeing them poor walrus”.
A fourth wrote: “I was and will never be emotional ready to watch a walrus fall to its death.”
The scene is the most heartbreaking since Sir David’s 2017 show Blue Planet II, which showed a grief-stricken pilot whale carrying around its dead calf.
In the scene, the mammal was refusing to accept it had passed away.
Viewers were left in tears as they heard how industrial chemicals in the mammals could build up to lethal levels, and the mother may have passed on poisons through her tainted milk.
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