Frozen Planet.S1.E2 ∙ Spring

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Transcript
00:30The sun is absent for up to half the year in the polar regions.
00:39When 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, so they have to come here, where
02:07there 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.
02:37When they at last arrive, an 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 look-out
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.
04:25The climate, 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
05:12fact, the deadliest season.
05:39Here 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,
06:47but 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.
07:24One of the cubs is underweight and will be fortunate to survive these early weeks.
07:50If the family reaches the sea ice, where the female can catch seals, her milk will
08:01be enriched and 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.
08:29Times 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.
08:52Both 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.
11:16Nine 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
11:56has not moved for almost six months.
12:02The vast watershed lies motionless, but as spring advances, it begins to stir.
12:15The 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.
12:34The 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.
13:42Trees and trees are plucked from the bankside.
13:48Within just a few days, the rivers of the north are all running.
13:53The Arctic's fresh water is flowing again.
14:08These vast floods contain 10% of the world's fresh water, and as they enter the ocean,
14:14they accelerate the breakup.
14:16Soon, an area of sea ice the size of Australia will vanish from the Arctic Ocean.
14:29As the huge ice sheet breaks up, wildlife returns to the north.
14:45The 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, who 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, and this is not the stealthiest of hunting parties.
15:54Leaving her cubs behind, however, is not an option. A male bear would eat one in a moment.
16:07This is not going to be easy.
16:21It seems that the cubs already see themselves as fearsome hunters, but they're still young enough to accept their mother's discipline.
16:32It's the naughty corner for you.
16:55This is not going to be their lucky morning. They saw no sign of a seal, and the cubs are hungry again.
17:03The mother has been nursing for four months without once eating herself, and now her milk is drying up.
17:11She must catch a seal soon, or the whole family will starve.
17:20The challenge of finding food is getting harder. She needs the sea ice as a platform from which to hunt, and it's breaking up faster with each passing day.
17:33Even the ice around the coast is starting to break.
17:38The first cracks here are eagerly awaited by some.
17:53Narwhals.
17:59The unicorns of the north are on a mission to reach the new fishing grounds in the bays that have been frozen up all winter, but are now opening up.
18:17To get to them, the narwhals must travel down leads, temporary cracks in the ice.
18:23But these new roads could close at any time, cutting off the air that they need to breathe.
18:33The road narrows until there's barely room for one-way traffic.
18:38Then, a surprise. Narwhals coming from the other direction.
18:49It's a standoff. Each team faces an armory of sharp tusks.
19:12Finally, one side concedes, and everyone continues in the same direction.
19:26Within a week, the remaining bays break wide open, and the narwhals turn their attention to social matters.
19:42No one knows exactly what the narwhal's tusk is for. Some say it's used for fencing, yet these exchanges are too gentle to be real fights.
20:08Perhaps these encounters are to remind each animal of where it stands in narwhal society. We may never know.
20:33Bizarre creatures appear, as if from nowhere. The tiny plankton they eat have been fueled by the increasing warmth of the sun, and fertilized by the nutrients brought down by the great rivers and released from the melting sea ice.
20:52Sea gooseberries strain the water with their stinging filaments. Their beating cilia scatter the sun's rays into dazzling bursts of color.
21:09Beneath the breaking sea ice, a predatory sea slug flies through the water on translucent wings. It's on the trail of a peculiar swimming snail.
21:33And now the most voracious of the plankton eaters swim up from the depths. Arctic cod.
21:48The shells can be enormous, some containing 500 million fish, and predators travel hundreds of miles to feast on them.
21:59The cod harvest is the annual event for the birds and seals of the far north.
22:09For just a short period, the combination of the strengthening sun, the newly flowing rivers, and the breaking sea ice make the Arctic Ocean teem with life.
22:28The land is also transformed by the sun's heat.
22:34The small patches of bare ground that appear are darker than the snow, so they absorb more of the sun's energy.
22:43This accelerates the melt.
22:53The Arctic tundra is unveiled.
23:05By tracking the sun, Arctic poppies catch its rays around the clock, so their flowers are always warmer than their surroundings.
23:19For early season insects, this warmth is even more valuable than nectar if they are to stay active in the cold.
23:37The woolly bear caterpillar does not need the warmth from flowers to kick-start its spring.
23:43It's always the first insect to appear after the snow retreats, and the story of how it does so is truly astonishing.
23:55At the start of spring, the caterpillar eats as fast as it can, as indeed it must, for this far north the season will be brief.
24:05The days shorten only too soon, but 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, so it settles down beneath a rock.
24:21The sun's warmth rapidly dwindles.
24:30Beneath the rock, the caterpillar is out of the wind, but the cold penetrates deep into the ground.
24:38Soon, its heart stops beating. It ceases to breathe, and its body starts to freeze.
24:46First its gut, then its blood.
24:50Spring.
25:15After four months of darkness, the Arctic begins to thaw.
25:23And the caterpillar rises from the dead.
25:36By the time the first shoots of willow appear in the early spring, the woolly bear is already eating.
25:43But no matter how fast the woolly bear eats, it will not have time to gather enough food this year either, and the cold closes in once again.
26:14Year after year, the caterpillar slows down in the autumn and then freezes solid.
26:29But eventually, a very special spring arrives.
26:36This one will be its last.
26:45It's now 14 years old, the world's oldest caterpillar.
26:50Its remaining days now become frantic. It starts to weave a silk cocoon.
26:59Inside, its body is changing into one that can fly and search, abilities 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, they now have just a few days to find a partner and mate.
27:37No life illustrates more vividly the shortness of the Arctic spring or the struggle to survive in this most seasonal of places.
27:56As spring advances, the transformation of the tundra continues.
28:08In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:13In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:18In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:23In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:26In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:30In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:33In the middle of the winter, the tundra is in full bloom.
28:51Migrants begin arriving from the south, and suddenly the tundra is alive with birds and chicks.
29:03The Arctic's transformation is complete.
29:24This influx of life is good news for some permanent residents.
29:34Food is rarely plentiful out on the tundra.
29:39The Arctic wolves must make the most of this bloom while it lasts.
30:03The Arctic wolves must make the most of this bloom while it lasts.
30:33The wolves must gather as much food as they can.
30:38Many miles from here, other members of the pack are relying on them.
30:43Many miles from here, other members of the pack are relying on them.
30:49This barren landscape is a hard place to make a living,
31:00This barren landscape is a hard place to make a living,
31:05forcing wolf packs to be smaller here than further south.
31:12Six hungry mouths to feed, the cubs are just over a month old.
31:33The ducks are devoured instantly, but on the long journey home they also caught an arctic
31:38hare, a mainstay of the Tonto diet, and one the cubs seem to be particularly keen on.
31:53Uneaten food is usually hidden for leaner times, but there will be no leftovers today.
32:00The cubs are growing fast and are always hungry.
32:20The good times are certainly back, but these white wolves remind us of the arctic's less
32:25welcoming side.
32:29Their 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.
32:51At the southern end of our planet, the Antarctic sea ice is still at its greatest extent.
32:59But there are a few islands on its outer edge that the sea ice never quite reaches.
33:08South Georgia is washed by the rich waters of the southern Atlantic, and the comparative
33:13warmth of the sea takes the edge off the vicious southern winter.
33:26It's even possible for a few hardy animals, like the wandering albatross, to live here
33:32throughout the whole year.
33:43The enormous albatross chicks take 13 months to fledge, so they have no choice but to sit
33:49here throughout the winter.
33:52It can't be easy, but the thick layer of fluffy down keeps out the worst of the cold.
33:58Their parents travel thousands of miles to collect the fish and squid they need to stay
34:04warm and to grow.
34:15The season is turning, and the storms blow in with little warning.
34:29King penguins have also been here all winter.
34:36Their chicks survive by huddling in creches to conserve their heat.
34:41A solitary bird here standing alone would quickly die of exposure.
34:47It 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.
35:50Macaroni 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.
37:19The 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.
37:40This 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.
38:11His 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.
40:44An 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.
41:08Managing the largest wingspan in the world takes practice.
41:15Lots of it.
41:28Weeks 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.
41:59The southern ocean beckons.
42:09This bird's feet will not touch land again for five years.
42:16One thousand miles further south, on the edge of the Antarctic continent, the sea ice is
42:25only just starting to break.
42:29But the Adelie penguin's activities are certainly warming up.
42:34The males have now finished their nests, by fair means or foul, and the females are finally
42:41returning, just as the weather is improving.
42:44Now, their courtship can begin.
43:29The 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.
43:59Killer whales.
44:13It's teamwork that makes killer whales so dangerous.
44:18And this is a big team.
44:59Killer whales.
45:09Killer whales.
45:22Killer whales.
45:29Killer whales.
45:38Killer whales.
45:50Killer whales.
45:59Killer whales.
46:16There is no real need for the penguins to be alarmed.
46:21These killer whales are a kind that only eats fish.
46:29Rising out is simply the best way for the whales to work out which tracks lead towards
46:34the coast and better fishing.
46:49A new generation of Adelies steps forth into the short Antarctic spring to be nurtured
46:56by industrious parents who've taken great risks to give their young a head start.
47:06They will need to grow fast if they are to fledge and leave before the freeze sets in again.
47:14It's a battle they will win or lose over the approaching summer.
47:26Adelie Penguin
47:43To film the entire breeding cycle of the Adelie penguin, Frozen Planet sent a team to one
47:48of the world's largest colonies at Cape Crocea, Antarctica.
47:52We heard so much about it, read so much about it, and finally we're going to get there.
47:56It's good.
47:58Cameraman Mark Smith and director Geoff Wilson planned to spend the next four months living
48:02amongst the penguins in a location first visited by the early explorers a century ago.
48:09So arduous was Scott's winter expedition to Cape Crocea that it became known as the
48:14worst journey in the world.
48:17Wow.
48:22Modern 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.
48:36The pair arrive in early spring with enough supplies to survive the next four months working
48:41alone in the Antarctic wilderness.
48:45We're here.
48:47Scott's legend of Cape Crocea tells of some extreme weather to say the least.
48:52So Mark and Geoff take advantage of the clear conditions in the knowledge that the Adelie's
48:57arrival 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 exactly what it looks like down in the
49:11colony.
49:12Even here, you can hear a huge kind of roaring noise up on the hill.
49:22Never really heard anything like that before.
49:27Up there, it must be blowing up the most almighty gale and that is, you know, just a mile away
49:34or something.
49:35So that means that could get here very, very quickly.
49:37So yeah, it makes you slightly scared.
49:40Weird, 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 because we haven't seen rocks starting
49:58to blow around yet.
49:59And just at that moment, it was like a rock took off and rolled down there.
50:04Here, it's getting stronger.
50:12By the second day of the storm, the winds reach 80 miles an hour and it's apparent that
50:17even getting lunch from the outside larder is too risky.
50:21To their increasing alarm, the storm continues to build.
50:35All 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, there's the added worry that our gear is stashed outside
50:52somewhere, that we didn't have room for it in the hut.
50:55We just don't know whether it's going to be there in the morning or not, which is the
50:59spell the end of our trip.
51:01On the third day of the storm, the winds hit 130 miles an hour.
51:06The hut starts to shake from its very foundations and 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.
51:18So the temperature's strong, the wind's rising.
51:22It's like the bloody roof's coming off.
51:27The really scary thing is that had we gone out down to the colony and tried to film today,
51:33there's a very high likelihood that we'd be dead by now.
51:37And I don't say that lightly.
51:40There'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
51:58and Mark and Geoff are keen to see what, if any, equipment has survived.
52:03All the real important stuff, the camera stuff, is all still here and 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.
52:30At its height, the colony will swell to over half a million penguins.
52:34And in the 24-hour daylight of the Antarctic summer,
52:38Mark and Geoff spend all of their waking hours filming.
52:42Unpredictable weather continues to force the team
52:46to climb the two miles back to the relative shelter of their hut.
52:50And Mark devises a novel way of testing the wind.
52:54After six weeks, the first sign that the pair might be tiring
52:58of their penguin neighbours.
53:01Over there's the leopard seal.
53:03It's the first non-penguin-looking animal in two months.
53:07Look at that, it's a leopard seal.
53:10It's a good one, isn't it?
53:12It's a good one, isn't it?
53:14It's a good one, isn't it?
53:16It's a good one, isn't it?
53:18It's a good one, isn't it?
53:20It's a good one, isn't it?
53:22Look at that, it's a leopard seal.
53:25So I was down here filming the penguins coming in,
53:28followed this penguin that came out of the waves up the beach,
53:31very nice shot, stopped the shot,
53:33and there in the middle of the frame was 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
53:50in the presence of half a million screaming penguins
53:53would test anyone's resolve.
53:56I hate carrying gear.
53:58Hear that? I hate carrying gear.
54:00I don't want to do it anymore.
54:03Midway through their trip,
54:05after more than 1,000 hours amongst the penguins,
54:08their grip on reality is beginning to loosen.
54:13Here we are on the penguin superhighway
54:16where the penguins go down to the sea.
54:19It seems that they follow the American system,
54:23driving on the right,
54:25going down to the sea on the right,
54:28coming back from the sea on the left as you're facing the sea.
54:34I'm fairly sure that yesterday they were doing the British system.
54:41The legendary Cape Crozier weather soon snaps them back into reality.
54:46We're just filming the penguins
54:48with this huge wind storm coming over the ice cap.
54:54This is the kind of thing we were warned about
54:56by the guy who was here before,
54:58who's been here for several years,
55:00and saying, if you see skies like this,
55:02then you should run for home.
55:04But, of course, we're just going to stay and film it.
55:06We're the BBC.
55:08But in this part of the world,
55:10working for the BBC doesn't count for much.
55:13Within minutes, the winds reach hurricane strength
55:15and the crew are in serious trouble.
55:18We've got to now venture out and go up about a mile
55:21up this valley, which looks like
55:23it's got about 80-mile-an-hour winds blowing down it.
55:27So it's going to be quite an adventure.
55:29A bit frightening, though, really.
55:31After three months,
55:33the pair are now fully aware
55:35of the strength the winds can reach.
55:39There is a very real danger
55:41that they could be separated and lost
55:43in these white-out conditions.
56:11Two terrifying hours later
56:13and their relief
56:15at finally reaching the hut
56:17is tangible.
56:21With a month still to go
56:23at Cape Crozier,
56:25Mark, Geoff and the penguins
56:27will face many more storms like this.
56:29But it seems that their greatest challenge
56:31will be to maintain their sanity.
56:35Here we are, travelling through the Antarctic.
56:37By sled, we're being pulled
56:39by a herd of huskies.
56:41Oh!
56:43Twelve of them
56:45panting out front.
56:47Breaths steaming from their mouths.
56:49And as we go along,
56:51we see the happy people
56:53waving at us.
56:55Oh, my God!

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