A Perfect Planet showed the heartbreaking moment a stork ate a baby flamingo (Picture: BBC)
Viewers of Sir David Attenborough’s A Perfect Planet were not ready for the heartbreaking scenes, just minutes into the episode, where a stork ate an adorable baby flamingo in one fell swoop.
Sir David returned to screens on Sunday to narrate episode one, titled Volcano, of his new series to explore how without volcanoes life wouldn’t exist.
However, it was the moment a flamingo chick fell prey to a Marabou Stork which left viewers sobbing.
A fleet of chicks were shown making an exhaustive three-mile trek over razor-sharp flecks of soda and sticky caustic mud to join the adults who spend most of their days at the springs.
In one heartbreaking moment, one baby flamingo was seen collapsing in the mud, completely exhausted by the march.
Before long, a group of storks were seen descending on the chicks and eyeing up their easy targets.
One stork circled in one a baby chick who had been on the outside of the group and therefore exposed.
The devilish stork found its target (Picture: BBC)
Then picked up the baby flamingo in one fell swoop (Picture: BBC)
The chicks embarked on a torturous three-mile trek to join the adult flamingos at the springs (Picture: BBC)
‘They have storks like a flamingo but beaks like a Roman sword,’ Sir David warned, adding: ‘ Their very presence creates panic among the chicks.’
It was then that the stork crept up behind the chick struggling in the mud before swooping it up in its beak.
The baby flamingo is seen dangling helplessly from the predator’s mouth before being devoured.
Needless to say, viewers strugged to watch the tear jerking scenes.
‘I think today is going to mark the exact moment in history people stop telling cute stories about Storks & babies,’ one viewer quipped.
One emotional viewer commented: ‘A baby bird just got eaten on @bbc #aperfectplanet!!! Between this and a pandemic, I now know the meaning of trauma.’
‘#APerfectPlanet so 15 minutes in and we have dead baby flamingoes and assassin maribou storks Happy New Year,’ one viewer weighed in.
A particularly upset viewer said: ‘#APerfectPlanet I wasn’t ready for that baby flamingo being eaten. I’m an emotional wreck getting ready for going back to work tomorrow!! The ball bag chin bird needs to f**k off.’
David Attenborough’s A Perfect Planet continues next Sunday at 8pm.
