Our Planet: Netflix defends ‘devastating’ walrus scene in David Attenborough documentary

Netflix has defended a controversial scene in David Attenborough’s new documentary series Our Planet, which features a walrus falling from the top of a cliff.

The moment that's left many viewers distraught is part of the second episode, Frozen Worlds, and focuses on a large group of walruses in northeast Russia.

Producers of Our Planet have presented the scene as a painful illustration of the impact of climate change - and Netflix has now waded in on the controversy.

According to TMZ, the streaming service is assuring those concerned that it worked with a Russian biologist who has experience working on that particular coastline for 35 years and that the scene serves as a warning: walruses are being forced to gather on land due to less ice being available.

According to Attenborough’s narration, the more than 100,000 walruses are left gathering on a single beach ”out of desperation”, because their natural habitat, the sea ice, has moved to the north.

“Under these conditions, walruses are a danger to themselves,” Attenborough says before the documentary shifts its attention to a group of walruses who have scaled an 80-meter (262-foot) cliff, in search of “space of rest”.

The segment highlights that walruses have poor eyesight out of water, but can feel the presence of the other animals at the bottom of the cliff – and are left looking for a way to return to the sea in order to search for food.

A walrus is then shown half-jumping, half-falling down the cliff, painfully bouncing against the rocky surface. Several other animals follow suit, suffering the same tragic fall.

“In their desperation to [return to the sea], hundreds fall from heights they should never have scaled,” Attenborough narrates.

The sequence ends with close-ups of the walruses’ still bodies lying at the bottom of the cliff.