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00:30The sun is absent for up to half the year in the polar regions.
00:38When it returns at the beginning of spring, its warmth will transform this magical ice
00:44world.
01:05The greatest seasonal change on our planet is now underway.
01:17Antarctica is still locked in ice and surrounded by a frozen ocean.
01:23Nonetheless, there are signs of spring.
01:29The daily penguins are arriving.
01:37Just the males.
01:38They've spent five months at sea, where it's warmer than it is on land, and now they're
01:43in a hurry, for spring will be short.
01:48They have travelled 6,000 miles across the ocean since leaving their colony last year,
01:59and now they're returning to breed.
02:02They cannot lay their eggs on ice, for they would freeze.
02:05So they have to come here, where there is bare rock.
02:10Over the coming months, the few parts of Antarctica that are ice-free will be the stage on which
02:19five million Adelies will build their nests.
02:30To construct one, they need pebbles, and without a good-looking nest, a male will be unable
02:35to attract a female, when they at last arrive.
02:40An impressive property demonstrates your worth as a mate.
02:47It takes stones of all shapes and sizes to build a decent nest, and finding ones that
02:52are just right is not easy.
03:00So some penguins turn to a life of crime.
03:22The one who has been robbed seems unaware that the thief is just over his shoulder and
03:48looking for more.
03:59The thief's nest is coming along nicely, probably because he keeps a particularly sharp lookout
04:05for robbers.
04:07After all, it takes one to know one.
04:19It's still cold, but the early season sun does lift the temperature by a few degrees.
04:24That, however, can have unexpected, even dangerous, consequences.
04:37The sea is heating faster than the land, pulling cold air from the middle of the continent
04:42towards the coast.
04:48These katabatic winds are stronger than any hurricane.
04:53They are the coldest and the most ferocious on the planet.
05:06The storms catch many new arrivals by surprise, and are the reason that spring here is, in
05:11fact, the deadliest season.
05:36Here, early birds take a great risk.
05:46Some years, entire colonies are lost, buried beneath the snow.
05:51The survivors of this storm must hope that the females prove to be worth the wait when
05:56they finally decide to turn up.
06:07Spring in the north of our planet.
06:11The sun, after an absence of six months, breaks the horizon for the first time.
06:26A female polar bear emerges from her den beneath the snow.
06:30The sun must be a welcome relief after so long in the darkness.
06:40Her den is on a high slope, well away from hungry male bears who would kill her cubs,
06:46but close enough to the sea ice where she can find food for her extraordinary new family.
06:59Three young cubs.
07:08If she can raise them all to independence, it'll be a rare achievement.
07:34One of the cubs is underweight and will be fortunate to survive these early weeks.
07:55If the family reaches the sea ice, where the female can catch seals, her milk will be enriched
08:02and the smaller cub will quickly gain size and strength.
08:08The sea ice, though, is a dangerous place.
08:24The male polar bear has been out on the frozen ocean all winter.
08:29Cubs have been lean and a bear cub would certainly make a welcome snack.
08:34However, the mainstay of his diet is seals, and now is the time when they have their pups.
08:44The surface of the frozen sea is marked with pressure ridges and cracks created by the
08:49fluctuating tides.
08:51Both are good places to look for seals.
09:04He has detected a seal den beneath the ice.
09:09Now he must pinpoint it using only his extraordinary sense of smell.
09:18By treading lightly, he can avoid scaring his prey.
09:26He will need to punch through a meter of snow to reach the den, and if his aim is not exactly
09:32on target, the seal will certainly escape.
10:02In fact, the ringed seal abandoned her den just a few hours ago, and her pup has climbed
10:18up onto the surface.
10:20It's more exposed up here, but it's easier to see an approaching bear.
10:38The pup is well camouflaged, difficult to see when its mother has left it to go fishing.
10:51But he can still smell it.
11:15Nine out of ten polar bear hunts end in failure.
11:32The sun's warming effect on the Arctic is increasing, and the sea ice is showing the
11:37first signs of weakening.
11:44Greenland, the northern rivers, are still locked in ice.
11:50The frozen waterfalls are like dams, holding back billions of tons of fresh water that
11:55has not moved for almost six months.
12:02The vast watershed lies motionless, but as spring advances, it begins to stir.
12:14The frozen waterfalls start to weaken.
12:18Above them, the pressure is mounting.
12:24Now, from high above, whole sections can be seen to be on the move.
12:39The waterfalls are straining to hold back the force that is building up above them.
12:48The dam bursts, and the river is unleashed.
13:18Millions of tons of ice grind their way downstream, driven by the unstoppable force of the meltwater.
13:36Boulders and trees are plucked from the bankside.
13:46Within just a few days, the rivers of the north are all running.
13:53The Arctic's fresh water is flowing again.
14:06These vast floods contain 10% of the world's fresh water,
14:12and as they enter the ocean, they accelerate the breakup.
14:16Soon, an area of sea ice the size of Australia will vanish from the Arctic Ocean.
14:24As the huge ice sheet breaks up, wildlife returns to the north.
14:35The polar bear mother has made it to the edge of the sea ice, but the smallest cub is nowhere to be seen.
14:55It's a sad outcome, but the disappearance improves the chances of the remaining two,
15:01who now have more milk to share.
15:07Having led her cubs to the edge of the ice, the mother's next challenge is to catch a seal.
15:18Not easy with these two in tow.
15:35Her prey beneath the ice can detect the slightest vibration, especially from bears,
15:42and this is not the stealthiest of hunting parties.
15:49Leaving her cubs behind, however, is not an option.
15:53A male bear would eat one in a moment.
16:03This is not going to be easy.
16:19It seems that the cubs already see themselves as fearsome hunters,
16:26but they're still young enough to accept their mother's discipline.
16:31It's the naughty corner for you.
16:49This is not going to be their lucky morning.
16:52They saw no sign of a seal, and the cubs are hungry again.
16:57The mother has been nursing for four months without once eating herself, and now her milk is drying up.
17:05She must catch a seal soon, or the whole family will starve.
17:11The challenge of finding food is getting harder.
17:14She needs the sea ice as a platform from which to hunt,
17:17and it's breaking up faster with each passing day.
17:24Even the ice around the coast is starting to break.
17:29The first cracks here are equally large.
17:33Even the ice around the coast is starting to break.
17:38The first cracks here are equally awaited by some.
17:53Narwhals.
17:56The unicorns of the north are on a mission,
17:59to reach the new fishing grounds in the bays that have been frozen up all winter,
18:03but are now opening up.
18:14To get to them, the narwhals must travel down leads, temporary cracks in the ice.
18:20But these new roads could close at any time, cutting off the air that they need to breathe.
18:30The road narrows until there's barely room for one-way traffic.
18:35Then, a surprise. Narwhals coming from the other direction.
18:45It's a standoff.
18:48It's a standoff.
18:50Each team faces an armory of sharp tusks.
19:12Finally, one side concedes.
19:16And everyone continues in the same direction.
19:26Within a week, the remaining bays break wide open.
19:31And the narwhals turn their attention to social matters.
19:36No one knows exactly what the narwhal's tusk is for.
19:40Some say it's used for fencing,
19:42yet these exchanges are too gentle to be real fights.
20:06Perhaps these encounters are to remind each animal of where it stands in narwhal society.
20:14We may never know.
20:16We may never know.
20:33Bizarre creatures appear as if from nowhere.
20:39The tiny plankton they eat have been fuelled by the increasing warmth of the sun
20:44and fertilised by the nutrients brought down by the great rivers
20:48and released from the melting sea ice.
20:52Sea gooseberries strain the water with their stinging filaments.
20:56Their beating cilia scatter the sun's rays into dazzling bursts of colour.
21:03Beneath the breaking sea ice,
21:05a predatory sea slug flies through the water on translucent wings.
21:10It's on the trail of a peculiar swimming snail.
21:33And now the most voracious of the plankton eaters swim up from the depths.
21:39Arctic cod.
21:48The shells can be enormous, some containing 500 million fish,
21:52and predators travel hundreds of miles to feast on them.
21:57The cod harvest is the annual event for the birds and seals of the far north.
22:07For just a short period, the combination of the strengthening sun,
22:12the newly flowing rivers and the breaking sea ice
22:15make the Arctic Ocean teem with life.
22:27The land is also transformed by the sun's heat.
22:33The small patches of bare ground that appear are darker than the snow,
22:38so they absorb more of the sun's energy.
22:42This accelerates the melt.
22:46The Arctic tundra is unveiled.
22:59By tracking the sun, Arctic poppies catch its rays around the clock,
23:04so their flowers are always warmer than their surroundings.
23:09For early-season insects, this warmth is even more valuable than nectar
23:14if they are to stay active in the cold.
23:28The woolly bear catfish are the largest of the species.
23:32They are the largest of the species,
23:36The woolly bear caterpillar does not need the warmth from flowers
23:40to kick-start its spring.
23:42It's always the first insect to appear after the snow retreats,
23:46and the story of how it does so is truly astonishing.
23:54At the start of spring, the caterpillar eats as fast as it can,
23:58as indeed it must, for this far north the season will be brief.
24:05The days shorten only too soon,
24:07but the caterpillar has not yet got enough reserves to transform itself into a moth.
24:13It can't leave the Arctic, for it can't fly,
24:16so it settles down beneath a rock.
24:21The sun's warmth rapidly dwindles.
24:30Beneath the rock, the caterpillar is out of the wind,
24:33but the cold penetrates deep into the ground.
24:38Soon, its heart stops beating.
24:41It ceases to breathe, and its body starts to freeze.
24:46First its gut, then its blood.
25:04Spring
25:11Spring.
25:14After four months of darkness, the Arctic begins to thaw.
25:22And the caterpillar rises from the dead.
25:34By the time the first shoots of willow appear in the early spring,
25:38the woolly bear is already eating.
25:42But no matter how fast the woolly bear eats,
25:45it will not have time to gather enough food this year either,
25:49and the cold closes in once again.
26:04Spring
26:15Year after year, the caterpillar slows down in the autumn and then freezes solid.
26:22Spring
26:29But eventually, a very special spring arrives.
26:36This one will be its last.
26:44It's now 14 years old, the world's oldest caterpillar.
26:50Its remaining days now become frantic.
26:53It starts to weave a silk cocoon.
26:59Inside, its body is changing into one that can fly and search,
27:05abilities that will be crucial in the days ahead.
27:11It's waited over a decade for this spring, and now its time is near.
27:20All across the Arctic, moths are emerging.
27:24After completing their 14-year preparation,
27:27they now have just a few days to find a partner and mate.
27:37No life illustrates more vividly the shortness of the Arctic spring
27:42or the struggle to survive in this most seasonal of places.
27:50Spring
27:56As spring advances, the transformation of the tundra continues.
28:19Spring
28:50Migrants begin arriving from the south,
28:54and suddenly the tundra is alive with birds and chicks.
29:13The Arctic's transformation is complete.
29:19Spring
29:24This influx of life is good news for some permanent residents.
29:35Food is rarely plentiful out on the tundra.
29:39The Arctic wolves must make the most of this boom while it lasts.
29:50Water
29:56Water
30:02Water
30:09Water
30:19Water
30:40The wolves must gather as much food as they can.
30:43Many miles from here, other members of the pack are relying on them.
30:49Wolves
31:01This barren landscape is a hard place to make a living,
31:05forcing wolf packs to be smaller here than further south.
31:16Six hungry mouths to feed.
31:18The cubs are just over a month old.
31:32The ducks are devoured instantly,
31:35but on the long journey home they also caught an Arctic hare,
31:38a mainstay of the tundra diet,
31:40and one the cubs seem to be particularly keen on.
31:48Food
31:53Uneaten food is usually hidden for leaner times,
31:57but there will be no leftovers today.
31:59The cubs are growing fast and are always hungry.
32:19The good times are certainly back,
32:22but these white wolves remind us of the Arctic's less welcoming side.
32:28Their coats are pale to conceal them during the long snowy winter.
32:36It's easy to forget that one month ago this land was a barren white desert.
32:49At the southern end of our planet,
32:52the Antarctic sea ice is still at its greatest extent.
32:58But there are a few islands on its outer edge
33:01that the sea ice never quite reaches.
33:07South Georgia is washed by the rich waters of the southern Atlantic,
33:11and the comparative warmth of the sea
33:14takes the edge off the vicious southern winter.
33:25It's even possible for a few hardy animals like the wandering albatross
33:30to live here throughout the whole year.
33:34The enormous albatross chicks take 13 months to fledge,
33:38so they have no choice but to sit here throughout the winter.
33:42It can't be easy, but the thick layer of fluffy down
33:45keeps out the worst of the cold.
33:49Their parents travel thousands of miles
33:52to collect the fish and squid they need
33:54to survive the cold winter.
33:57The season is turning, and the storms blow in with little warning.
34:03King penguins have also been here all winter.
34:08The penguins have a special relationship with the sea.
34:13They are the main source of food and water for penguins.
34:19They are also the second largest animal on the planet.
34:25In the wild, they can reach up to 40 feet in length
34:28and weigh up to 22 pounds.
34:32Their chicks survive by huddling in creches to conserve their heat.
34:40A solitary bird here, standing alone, would quickly die of exposure.
34:46It seems for a hardy few, violent storms are a price worth paying for year-round fishing
34:53in the rich waters of the Southern Ocean.
35:03The penguins have had the beach to themselves all winter, but that is a luxury that will
35:09not last.
35:17As the winter storms subside, life begins to return.
35:32For half of the year, South Georgia has the greatest concentration of seabirds in the
35:37world, and most of them arrive in the early spring.
35:49Macaroni penguins make the most impressive entrance, over five million pairs of them.
35:55They are the world's most numerous penguin, and half of them are now here.
36:02The arrival is complete.
36:09Courtship is next on South Georgia's busy spring schedule.
36:19The wandering albatross has the most elaborate display.
36:29These two are renewing their bonds after being months apart.
36:38Wanderers pair up in their teens and can spend a further 50 years together, one of the longest
36:44partnerships in the animal world.
37:12By the middle of spring, the snows have cleared from the coves and the low ground.
37:18The beaches are almost free of ice, too, but that isn't the biggest change facing the
37:24king penguins.
37:26Their peaceful waterfront has turned into an obstacle course of blubber.
37:34The elephant seals have arrived.
37:39This beach now contains a greater mass of animals than any other in the world.
37:56The young seals were conceived here a year ago, and now that they've been born, their
38:01mothers are ready to mate again.
38:05The mating rights on this patch of the beach belong to a beachmaster.
38:10His harem contains 50 females, females that are coveted by others.
38:20His authority is being challenged.
38:28This rival means business.
38:42This could be the beachmaster's first serious test of his spring campaign.
38:56The beachmaster himself weighs four tons, but this rival is his equal.
39:17When these titans clash, bones crunch.
39:47He has won the first battle, but he may have to defend his harem every hour for the next
40:11month.
40:12If he can stay master of his beach for this period, many of the young born here next year
40:19will be his.
40:25It's the end of spring on the Wandering Albatross Cliffs, their season for fledging.
40:32Last year's chicks have lost their fluffy down and step up to the challenge of getting
40:37into the air.
40:51An albatross is not very competent on the ground, so until it can fly, it isn't good
40:57for much.
40:58And this makes the maiden flight the crucial event in an albatross's life.
41:07Managing the largest wingspan in the world takes practice.
41:15Lots of it.
41:33Weeks can go by like this.
41:36Certainly, the winds must be right, but it does appear that for some, the problem is
41:42something of a mental one.
41:58At last.
42:06The southern ocean beckons.
42:09This bird's feet will not touch land again for five years.
42:19One thousand miles further south, on the edge of the Antarctic continent, the sea ice is
42:25only just starting to break.
42:28But the Adelie penguins' activities are certainly warming up.
42:33The males have now finished their nests, by fair means or foul, and the females are finally
42:40returning, just as the weather is improving.
42:44Now their courtship can begin.
43:33No!
43:44The eggs are laid, and the females leave the job of incubating them to the males, while
43:50they go fishing out on the fragmenting sea ice.
44:03Killer whales.
44:13It's teamwork that makes killer whales so dangerous.
44:17And this is a big team.
44:33Oh no.
45:03Oh no.
45:33Oh no.
46:03Oh no.
46:15There is no real need for the penguins to be alarmed.
46:20These killer whales are a kind that only eats fish.
46:25Oh no.
46:29Rising out is simply the best way for the whales to work out which tracks lead towards
46:34the coast and better fishing.
46:38A new generation of Adelies steps forth into the short Antarctic spring to be nurtured
46:55by industrious parents who've taken great risks to give their young a head start.
47:01They will need to grow fast if they are to fledge and leave before the freeze sets in
47:11again.
47:12It's a battle they will win, or lose, over the approaching summer.
47:31To film the entire breeding cycle of the Adelie penguin, Frozen Planet sent a team
47:47to one of the world's largest colonies at Cape Crozier, Antarctica.
47:51We heard so much about it, read so much about it, finally we're going to get there.
47:56It's good.
47:57Cameraman Mark Smith and director Geoff Wilson plan to spend the next four months living
48:02amongst the penguins in a location first visited by the early explorers a century ago.
48:08So arduous was Scott's winter expedition to Cape Crozier that it became known as
48:13the worst journey in the world.
48:21Modern means make Mark and Geoff's journey a more comfortable affair, but once there
48:26they will be tested to the very limits of their endurance.
48:35The pair arrive in early spring with enough supplies to survive the next four months
48:40working alone in the Antarctic wilderness.
48:44We're here.
48:46Scott's legend of Cape Crozier tells of some extreme weather, to say the least.
48:52So Mark and Geoff take advantage of the clear conditions in the knowledge
48:56that the Adelie's arrival is imminent.
49:02But the next morning things take a turn for the worse.
49:07We've just come up to this ridge to go and check what it looks like down in the colony.
49:14But even here you can hear a huge kind of roaring noise up on the hill.
49:22I've never really heard anything like that before.
49:28Up there it must be blowing at the most almighty gale and that is, you know,
49:33just a mile away or something so that means that could get here very, very quickly.
49:38So yeah, it makes you slightly scared.
49:41It's weird, isn't it?
49:43The winds here are famously ferocious and with so little experience of this location
49:48Mark and Geoff retreat to the relative shelter of their hut.
49:53I was just today thinking, well it can't be too bad
49:57because we haven't seen rocks starting to blow around yet
49:59and just at that moment it was like a rock took off and rolled down there.
50:08Yeah, it's getting stronger.
50:13By the second day of the storm the winds reach 80 miles an hour
50:16and it's apparent that even getting lunch from the outside larder is too risky.
50:31To their increasing alarm the storm continues to build.
50:37All afternoon it's been blowing about, must have been 100 miles an hour
50:41and in the last half hour it's just got a lot stronger.
50:46Aside from being absolutely terrified,
50:48there's the added worry that our gear is stashed outside somewhere
50:51that we didn't have room for it in the hut
50:54and we just don't know whether it's going to be there in the morning or not
50:57which is about the end of our trip.
51:00On the third day of the storm the winds hit 130 miles an hour.
51:05The hut starts to shake from its very foundations
51:08and Mark and Geoff's situation becomes critical.
51:12The wind's so strong it's constantly blowing the pilot light out on the paraffin stove
51:17so the temperature's strong and the wind's rising.
51:22It's like the bloody rift's coming.
51:26The really scary thing is that had we gone out down to the colony
51:30and tried to film today
51:33there's a very high likelihood that we'd be dead by now
51:36and I don't say that lightly.
51:39There's no way we would have seen this through down there
51:43and that is quite sobering.
51:53After four terrifying days inside the hut the winds finally drop
51:57and Mark and Geoff are keen to see what, if any, equipment has survived.
52:02All the real important stuff, the camera stuff, is all still here
52:06and it's still strapped to this rock.
52:10You have no idea how much joy that gives us.
52:14We can get on with our jobs now.
52:21The first things to welcome us into the colony are these skewers
52:25which come in and batter us from above.
52:32Come on.
52:37At its height the colony will swell to over half a million penguins
52:41and in the 24-hour daylight of the Antarctic summer
52:44Mark and Geoff spend all of their waking hours filming.
52:49Unpredictable weather continues to force the team
52:52to climb the two miles back to the relative shelter of their hut
52:56and Mark devises a novel way of testing the wind speed.
53:02Come on.
53:09After six weeks the first sign that the pair might be tiring of their penguin neighbours.
53:15Over there's a leopard seal.
53:18It's the first non-penguin looking animal in two months.
53:22Look at that, it's a leopard seal.
53:25So I was down here filming the penguins coming in,
53:27followed this penguin that came out of the waves up the beach,
53:30very nice shot.
53:32Stopped the shot and there in the middle of the frame
53:34was this completely white penguin
53:37trying to get into the shot.
53:40We kind of suspect that he might be following us around now.
53:47Working around the clock for this length of time
53:49in the presence of half a million screaming penguins
53:52would test anyone's resolve.
53:56I hate carrying gear.
53:58Hear that? I hate carrying gear. I don't want to do it anymore.
54:03Midway through their trip,
54:04after more than a thousand hours amongst the penguins,
54:07their grip on reality is beginning to loosen.
54:12Here we are on the penguin superhighway
54:16where the penguins go down to the sea.
54:19It seems that they follow the American system
54:24driving on the right.
54:25Going down to the sea on the right,
54:28going back from the sea on the left
54:30as you're facing the sea.
54:34I'm fairly sure that yesterday they were doing the British system.
54:41The legendary Cape Crosier weather
54:43soon snaps them back into reality.
54:46We're just filming the penguins
54:48with this huge wind storm
54:52coming over the ice cap.
54:54This is the kind of thing we were warned about
54:56by the guy who was here before
54:57and has been here for several years
54:58and saying if you see skies like this
55:00then you should run for home.
55:01But of course we're just going to stay and film it.
55:04We're the BBC.
55:07But in this part of the world,
55:08working for the BBC doesn't count for much.
55:12Within minutes the winds reach hurricane strength
55:14and the crew are in serious trouble.
55:17We've got to now venture out
55:18and go up about a mile up this valley
55:21which looks like it's got about 80 mph
55:23winds blowing down it.
55:26So it's going to be quite an adventure.
55:28A bit frightening though really.
55:31After three months
55:32the pair are now fully aware
55:34of the strength the winds can reach.
55:38There is a very real danger
55:39that they could be separated
55:40and lost in these whiteout conditions.
55:51So
56:13Two terrifying hours later
56:15and their relief at finally reaching the hut
56:17is tangible.
56:21With a month still to go at Cape Crosier,
56:24Mark, Geoff and the penguins will face many more storms like this.
56:29But it seems that their greatest challenge will be to maintain their sanity.
56:35Here we are, travelling through the Antarctic.
56:38By sled, we're being pulled by a herd of huskies.
56:41Oh!
56:44Twelve of them, panting out front,
56:47breaths steaming from their mouths.
56:49And as we go along, we see the happy people waving at us.
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