♪
The Arctic - five and a half
million square miles
of land, water, and ice.
It's home to some of the
world's most
spectacular landscapes and
most magnificent creatures.
♪
Spring's arrival triggers
a mass migration north.
♪
For a few months, the
Arctic teems with animals -
feeding, breeding,
nurturing their young,
and battling for survival.
♪
But the Arctic
is changing.
The climate is warming.
The ice is retreating.
The delicate natural
balance is threatened.
And what happens here in
the Arctic affects us all.
♪
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The Arctic has inspired
the imagination
in legend and myth.
♪
Many picture the Arctic
as a barren wasteland -
frozen and lifeless.
But it's home to a
surprising diversity
of plants and animals.
♪
The Arctic encompasses all
land and sea north of the
66th parallel -
The Arctic Circle -
and the boundaries
of eight nations.
♪
Two features characterize
the Arctic:
fiercely freezing
temperatures and
extremes of day and night.
♪
For much of winter, while
the northern hemisphere
tilts twenty-three degrees
away from the sun,
the Arctic is cloaked
in darkness.
When the northern
hemisphere begins to tilt
towards the sun,
the Arctic enters spring.
The days grow longer,
culminating in summer's
twenty-four hours
of daylight.
♪
On the western shores of
Hudson Bay,
the warming sunlight draws a
hungry polar bear and
her two cubs from their
winter den.
The cubs were born in the
depth of winter,
between November and January.
In March, they emerge onto
the ice and search for food.
♪
For the cubs, walking
for long periods is exhausting.
But they're discovering
and learning,
as their mother teaches
them to survive.
One of the first lessons
will be how to hunt seal.
The mother hasn't
eaten in months.
She's ravenous to capture
her first prey since fall.
Seals are a polar
bear's staple food.
But they are hard to catch -
especially with
these two clowns in tow.
♪
Her best chance will be
to catch a baby seal.
♪
Below the sea ice off
the coast of Greenland,
pregnant harp seals
congregate in huge numbers.
♪
Harp seals dance between
the worlds above and below,
supremely
adapted to both.
♪
As many as five thousand
females may gather in a
square mile
to give birth.
Seal pups are among the
fastest-growing infant
mammals, nurtured by
milk that's 45% fat.
♪
The pup weighs around
twenty-four pounds at birth
and can triple its weight
in twelve days.
It has to grow fast.
This is when the pup
is most vulnerable.
♪
The mother leaves her
offspring unattended all day,
returning
occasionally to nurse.
♪
The pup is camouflaged,
but helpless should a
sharp-eyed polar bear
or fox come along.
♪
The mother will soon leave the
pup to fend for itself.
♪
While the pup
lies on the ice,
the surrounding
landscape transforms -
the Arctic Ocean is thawing.
♪
Expanses of ice break in a
churning,
often violent, cataclysm.
As the temperature rises,
wind and tides
smash vast ice sheets together.
Ice, several feet thick,
is heaved into the air.
♪
Across the Arctic,
the ice is moving.
♪
The spring days launch one
of the great events
in the natural world -
The massive northward migration
of millions of creatures.
♪
The cold, dark Arctic
becomes a haven
bathed in sunshine,
where animals
feast on lush vegetation.
♪
A primal urge drives them
on arduous journeys over
thousands of miles
to reach this
land of abundance.
♪
Exactly how these
creatures time their journey
and precisely navigate their
way remains a mystery.
♪
The caribou tackle one of
the longest migrations
of any land mammal.
This herd's journey north
can be more than 930 miles.
♪
They've wintered,
safe from storms,
in the northern edges
of Yukon forests.
♪
Now that spring is coming,
they venture further north,
along paths
migrating caribou hooves
have etched into rock
over thousands of years.
They cross mountain passes
still gripped by winter.
They ford rivers
and cross plains.
♪
Further and further,
on to the open tundra.
♪
During the weeks
they've travelled,
snow and ice have melted away.
♪
They have one goal:
to reach their
calving grounds on tundra
near the Arctic Ocean.
♪
Timing is critical.
Female caribou are
pregnant during the migration
and give birth
soon after arriving.
They must reach their
destination in time to
feast on tender spring
grasses and buds.
♪
The wide, rolling tundra
becomes a nursery for
thousands of calves.
♪
Caribou in a herd give
birth within
hours of each other.
Newborns can walk
almost immediately.
They must move quickly to
keep up with the herd.
They're born into
a dangerous life.
Almost half die in
the first year -
from sickness, drowning,
abandonment, or as victims
of hungry wolves
and grizzly bears.
The skies are thick
with millions of birds,
flocking from all
over the Americas,
returning to their summer home.
♪
Thick-billed murres spend
their winters on the
open seas of the
North Atlantic.
♪
In May, they migrate over
twelve hundred miles
back to their birthplace -
steep cliff faces on
Coats Island in northern
Hudson Bay.
♪
Over thirty thousand
birds nest here.
By June, the barren cliffs
are alive with the
chatter of their voices.
They come to mate
and raise chicks.
Within a few weeks,
the female lays one egg.
Both parents keep it warm.
When the chick hatches,
mother and father take turns
watching and feeding:
the mother during the day,
the father at night.
The waters around Coats
Island teem with young cod -
rich in nutrients and the
hatchlings' favorite food.
The murres spend their
summer preparing their
offspring for a migratory
life in the skies.
♪
Further north still,
on high seas off Baffin Island,
icebergs calved
from Arctic glaciers are
on a two-thousand mile journey.
♪
They drift south about
six miles each day,
moved by winds,
currents and tides.
♪
From the moment the
iceberg calves off the glacier,
nature
begins sculpting.
Wind and water chisel and
polish the mass of ice,
molding soft hollows,
cutting sharp angles.
♪
Among the bergs,
one of the world's largest
mammals comes to feed -
the bowhead whale.
Diving over five hundred feet
their giant mouths wide open,
they can stay in these depths
for over forty minutes,
feeding on tiny plankton.
♪
In recent years,
a sleek predator,
the orca, has intruded into
their waters.
♪
Orcas are at home in all
the world's oceans,
but are not typically seen so
far north because
they're not best-adapted to
heavily-iced waters.
♪
Unlike native Arctic
whales, orcas have big
dorsal fins that scrape
against sea ice.
♪
But climate change has
caused longer ice-free
periods in the Arctic.
The orcas can roam
freer in northern seas.
And there they hunt, kill,
and eat bowhead whales.
♪
The increase of orcas in
these waters poses a new
threat to the bowhead,
which is already endangered.
♪
In the waters around Coats
Island in Hudson Bay,
walrus hunt for mollusks and
crustaceans on the sea floor.
Between dives, they rest
on ice floes or small islands.
But,
like the bowheads',
the world of the
walrus is changing.
♪
In the last twenty-five
years, rising temperatures
have caused sea ice to
melt much earlier in spring.
♪
Diminishing ice affects
polar animals
in a number of ways.
Polar bears use ice floes
as platforms for hunting seals.
In many areas, the sea ice
has completely disappeared.
♪
Bears like this one must
swim further and more often
to find food.
Bears are used to
fasting in summer,
but as summers last longer,
the bears grow famished.
♪
This bear is desperate
to satisfy its hunger.
It's willing
to take risks.
For any polar bear,
a walrus is a formidable foe.
♪
Their sharp tusks and
strength can easily,
fatally wound
a polar bear.
♪
It's rare for a polar bear
to attack a grown walrus,
let alone a colony.
Chaos ensues...
leaving a calf unprotected.
♪
Polar bears are
excellent hunters,
but as their world is changing,
they seek new ways
to feed themselves.
Some on Coats Island
are desperate enough to
scavenge the murre colony.
♪
It's a lot of work that
yields a small amount of
protein, and a few
bones and feathers.
But it must be worth it.
In recent years polar
bears have wiped out a
third of this colony.
♪
Cubs are learning from
their mothers and bears
now return here
every year.
♪
It's the peak of
summer in the Arctic.
The sun is high
in the sky.
Land and sea are bathed
in twenty-four hours
of sunlight.
Bushes and grasses bloom.
♪
Creatures rush to take
advantage of the
weeks of plenty.
♪
On the shores of Ungava Bay,
muskoxen slip into
the rhythm of summer, as
they have for millennia,
nurturing their young and
fattening while they can.
The muskox was here when
the wooly mammoth and the
saber tooth cat
roamed the terrain.
♪
They are gone.
But the muskox remains.
♪
A herd moves slowly
across the landscape -
as muskoxen have for
thousands of years.
Calves born earlier this
spring graze and play.
They won't be weaned
for another year or so.
They closely follow
their mothers.
♪
And while they nibble on
leaves and grasses,
they still drink their
mother's milk.
♪
The muskoxen are perfectly
adapted to this severe land.
Their biorhythms shift
with the seasons,
conserving energy
to survive winter.
♪
And no wool is more
insulating than the
qiviut that covers them.
♪
♪
Grizzly bears used to
range throughout North America -
until hunting and the
destruction of their habitat
pushed them to the last
vestiges of wilderness.
♪
Across the entire Arctic
mainland, the grizzly has
made its home from
northernmost forests,
across open tundra, to
the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
♪
A grizzly bear can eat
virtually anything
this land has to offer.
This female grizzly on the
Yukon North coast learned
from her mother where
to dig for clams.
Now she's passing on that
knowledge to her cubs.
They don't know it, but
everything she does is a
lesson that can make the
difference between
life and death.
♪
This male grizzly is
pursuing a female in heat.
He's been wooing her for days,
following her every step.
She is now ready to mate.
Exhausted by the effort,
he naps on the tundra.
♪
He's the predator on top
of the food chain,
has little to fear, so rests
wherever he pleases.
♪
His sensitive ears and
nose provide quick alerts
to any change around him,
even in the deepest sleep.
♪
Here on the tundra,
the Arctic summer flaunts
its lushest greens.
♪
Meadows of flowers and cotton
grass wave in the breeze.
Fields of fireweed
brighten the hills.
♪
Herds of caribou graze
across the tundra.
♪
This spring's calves are
almost independent and
have begun to feed,
alongside their mothers,
on grasses and sedges.
♪
The warming lakes and
channels of the Mackenzie
River Delta produce one
of the Arctic's most
ferocious creatures.
The mosquito -
unchallenged ruler
of the Arctic summer.
♪
Stagnant ponds teem with
millions of mosquito larvae.
They hang upside down,
feeding on microorganisms.
♪
The larvae turn into pupae,
from which adults emerge to
rest on the water's surface,
waiting for their bodies
to harden.
♪
Their wings must dry and
spread before they can fly.
♪
With Arctic temperatures
rising twice as fast as
the rest of the globe,
ponds and lakes on the
tundra are melting several
weeks sooner than before.
As a result, adult
mosquitoes are emerging
and taking flight
earlier in the season.
♪
They threaten entire herds
of caribou, which run to
snowy pockets or windy
ridges to escape the onslaught.
♪
But the more time they
spend fleeing swarming insects,
the less time
they spend eating.
A caribou can lose a pint of
blood a day to mosquitoes.
♪
For calves the
attack can be fatal.
♪
In the precious few weeks
of summer, plants make the
most of the
generous sunlight.
♪
Low growing vegetation
and trees have
adapted to survive the
Arctic's harsh conditions.
♪
Shallow, expansive roots
grip the meager soil.
Despite their small size,
some of these trees are
hundreds of years old.
♪
They're armed with
strategies for
surviving the chill.
Woolly stems and thick,
small leaves retain moisture.
♪
Lichen has adapted
to live on bare rock.
It's an important food
for caribou,
the only creatures that can
completely digest
its fibrous mass.
♪
Climate change is
threatening this vital
food source in two ways.
Warmer temperatures push
shrubs and bushes
further north, displacing
the lichen.
♪
Now, freezing rain,
instead of snow,
often covers the remaining
lichen and
thick ice blocks caribou
from their food.
♪
As a result, during the
last thirty years,
Arctic caribou populations
have plunged
by nearly sixty percent.
♪
In the golden light of
late summer,
the land presents the
last of its bounty -
blueberries,
cranberries,
and cloudberries.
♪
The ptarmigan enjoys
the late summer fruit.
♪
Its changing plumage
foreshadows the
arrival of winter.
The feathers change from
brown in summer to white
in winter, camouflaging
it from predators.
It's only the
beginning of September.
But fall comes
early to the Arctic.
There's a chill in the air
and frost on the ground.
The sun rises
lower in the sky.
Leaves are changing color.
♪
Ponds start to
freeze over.
Hoar frost covers
grass and bushes.
Shadows grow longer.
♪
In about a month, the
grizzly bears will dig
their dens and hibernate.
They must consume an
immense amount of food
before their winter sleep.
Caribou calves, now four
months old, are strong
enough to start the long
journey south
for the first time.
♪
Though they may not know
their destination,
the drive to go is
inscribed in their DNA.
♪
Mature caribou bulls have
fully grown their antlers.
♪
They'll fall off in
winter or spring,
but are important now.
The size of the antlers
signals a bull's virility
and dominance.
Bulls use them to
challenge each other in a rut.
These sparring matches
determine which males are
worthy to mate
with the females.
The rut starts when the
herd begins
its southward migration.
♪
With the herd on the move,
bulls don't stake out
a fixed territory.
They become increasingly
aggressive, and display
their dominance in brief,
ferocious outbursts.
♪
Weak bulls are
quickly dispatched.
♪
For two weeks in October,
alpha bulls with the
largest, most robust
antlers fight sparring
matches that can
seriously injure them.
♪
One match after another
decides the dominant bull.
♪
♪
The victor wins the right
to mate with most of the
females in the herd.
♪
As the days shorten and
temperatures drop,
birds prepare for the
long journey south.
At Coats Island,
the thick-billed murre
colony is crowded.
Chicks have grown and are
almost too big for their ledges.
It's time to follow their
parents out to sea and
take their first
flight ever.
This chick has never flown
but knows instinctively
it must make the jump.
♪
The first landing may be
rough, but soon enough,
water becomes a
natural element.
♪
The murres fly away over
twelve hundred miles
southeast to their winter
home, the high seas
of the North Atlantic.
♪
Throughout the Arctic
the days grow shorter.
The brutal winter
is advancing.
The ocean churns
with high tides.
The seas and weather
are volatile.
Storms thrust ice floes
into coves and bays.
The big freeze has begun.
Snow begins to fall.
♪
Wind drives the snowflakes
into interlocking
formations of
ice crystals.
♪
The gathered blanket
shelters and warms
small mammals that live and
forage close to the ground.
The snow cover insulates
heat from the earth,
while above it is brutally cold.
♪
In the bush of the
Northern Yukon,
fast-flowing waters keeps
some creeks open,
long after the lakes they
join have frozen solid.
♪
These streams are known to
wolves and otters
whose tracks cross the
distances between them.
Here, even weak sunlight
reaches the bottom,
where plants, algae, and
bacteria feed a diversity
of insects,
crustaceans and fish.
♪
As the days wane,
early in the afternoon,
grey shapes move
into the riffles.
Whitefish have swum to
these gravel beds from
nearby lakes to
lay their eggs.
♪
In a few weeks, the
whitefish run is over.
In the gravels, the
fertilized eggs will
hatch into tiny fry
and the creek will
become their nursery.
They share the creek with
the tiny American Dipper,
which is hardy enough to
stay in the Arctic all year.
When most other birds
its size have long-since
migrated, the dipper stays
by its favorite streams.
♪
It's the only North
American songbird to spend
all its time on
or beside water.
It fearlessly dips into
freezing water up to
sixty times a minute.
Staying warm and dry
in a feathered suit,
waterproofed with oil.
♪
Dippers have unusual
eyelids, protected with
tiny feathers that make
the eyes flash white
when it blinks.
♪
The dipper feeds on rich
aquatic insects to keep it
warm when temperatures
plunge to negative sixty.
♪
As the days grow shorter,
animals that remain for
the winter hunker down.
♪
Over millennia, muskoxen
have evolved to endure
near-starvation and
blinding Arctic blizzards
in temperatures
sixty below.
♪
In recent years they've
been fighting a foe even
more treacherous
than Arctic winter.
Warming temperatures have
encouraged the growth of
a parasite -
the muskox lungworm.
It infests their lungs
and weakens them.
♪
They seek areas with
shallower snow and
forage persistently
through winter.
Their fodder has little
nutrition, but their
strategy is to eat a lot
and conserve energy
by moving very little.
Their metabolism slows to
half the rate it is in summer.
♪
It's December.
The ptarmigans' plumage
has turned almost pure white,
blending with the
snow banks that now carpet
their home.
They seek shelter along
slopes facing away from
the wind and usually stay
close to patches of Arctic
willow, where they nip off
twigs and little leaves.
Sometimes their presence
can only be detected by
the elaborate pattern
their feathered feet
draw in the snow.
♪
Day by day, the northern
hemisphere grows darker.
♪
But new light brightens
the winter sky...
The Aurora Borealis -
the Northern lights.
♪
The Arctic's inhabitants
have evolved through
millennia of
seasonal rhythms.
♪
Now, with each passing
year, the weather
fluctuates more wildly.
♪
Summers lengthen,
temperatures warm,
and the ice retreats further.
♪
Animals may not be
able to adapt to this
unprecedented change.
♪
We've wounded the Arctic.
♪
Our challenge is to
restore the balance -
to mend and preserve this
Land of Extremes.
♪
♪♪
