(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: Welcome to North America.
The most diverse continent on Earth.
The only place where you can find every landscape from polar ice cap...
to baking desert, and everything in between.
Whatever the neighborhood, there's a hero who can make it a home.
Smart, tough, brave, you name it.
They all have what it takes to thrive
in the wildest, most beautiful continent on Earth.
SINGER: Patchwork quilt of life
Wildness never dies
Beauty always thrives
Under these spacious skies
(MUSIC FADES)
(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: The wild Northwest of America.
Majestic mountain ranges march north for over 2,000 miles,
from Wyoming to Alaska,
and onwards into the great wilderness of the Arctic.
This is a world of epic winters
and brief, spectacular summers, where timing is everything.
(MUSIC FADES)
NARRATOR: There's a new ruler in the Arctic.
The pack's relying on her to find the food they'll need
to get through the tough months ahead.
Their home is Ellesmere Island, as far north as you can go.
-(WOLVES HOWLING) -(BIRDS CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: Food is scarce.
The wolves search a territory larger than any other wolf pack on Earth.
Forty times the size of Washington, D.C.
They're in luck.
-(SNIFFING) -She's picked up a scent.
(HOWLING)
NARRATOR: But this prey will test the pack to their limit.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Musk ox. Relics of the Ice Age.
Five foot high and 800 pounds of pure attitude.
(MUSK OX GRUNTING)
(GRUNTS)
NARRATOR: An adult ox could definitely kill a wolf.
(GRUNTS)
NARRATOR: But this herd has calves, and with the right game plan,
the pack could take one down.
(WOLF HOWLING)
NARRATOR: The howl says, "It's time to hunt."
(TENSE MUSIC SWELLS)
NARRATOR: The alpha female goes out front to spook the herd.
She wants to get them running, to tire them out and separate the young.
(GRUMBLES)
NARRATOR: She chooses the two fastest wolves to help her push the herd
into a 40-mile-per-hour sprint.
She's got a calf,
but her teammates aren't watching her back.
(WOLF WHIMPERING)
NARRATOR: The wolves' mistake gives the musk ox time to regroup.
(MUSK OX SNORTING)
NARRATOR: A wall of horns surround the calves.
Shoulder to shoulder, they're unbreakable.
(MUSIC SETTLES)
This hunt is over.
It's a stalemate.
A strong leader knows when to back down.
(MUSK OX GRUMBLING)
NARRATOR: With this opportunity lost,
it's going to be a long and hungry winter for this wolf pack.
In Alaska, the first snow covers the peaks of the Aleutian Range.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Where these mountains meet the sea,
another northerner needs to pack on the pounds before the winter comes.
(BEAR GROANS)
NARRATOR: A brown bear.
Survival superpower? An iron stomach.
The smell of this rotting whale carcass is attracting bears
from as far as 20 miles away.
Males are usually bad-tempered loners.
(BLUESY GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)
But each bear needs up to 60,000 calories a day
to get fat enough to make it through the winter hibernation.
So, they've called a truce.
It's pretty rare to see this many together on a carcass.
Thirty tons of rotting flesh doesn't just wash up every day.
(BIRD CALLING)
NARRATOR: When bulking up, brown bears can eat for 20 hours straight.
(BEAR GRUNTS)
NARRATOR: Oh, whoa. I think he's overdone it.
Time for an ice bath.
Oh, man.
These guys have timed things just right,
fattening up before the Alaskan winter strikes.
(MUSIC FADES)
(MAJESTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
In the Teton Mountains of Wyoming,
another American icon is planning even further ahead.
(BIRDS CALLING)
NARRATOR: This female moose has spent the year alone.
With fall here, she wants to become a mom.
And now, she's the center of attention.
(JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYING)
This huge male has been on her for days.
(MOOSE BELLOWS)
NARRATOR: Sure, he's got five-foot antlers.
But they can hit six-foot.
Let's just say she's keeping her options open.
Now, this guy has got her attention.
Tall, dark, and handsome.
He's got moves.
Impressive!
These two will fight over the right to mate with the female.
But only when she decides the time is right.
If she mates right now, her calf will be born in the middle of winter
and may not survive.
If she holds out just a little bit longer, it could be born in the warmth of spring.
(MUSIC FADES)
Timing is everything.
After a month, things get a little... hmm, weird.
-(MOOSE CALLING) -(WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: Sniffing...
thrashing...
(GULPS)
NARRATOR: And quite a bit of this.
(URINE TRICKLING)
NARRATOR: Male urine is full of pheromones,
sort of a moose aphrodisiac.
She has to resist it, though. It's still too early.
-(MOOSE SNORTS) -NARRATOR: Just be patient, big guy.
Two months in, and winter shows its hand.
(MUSIC FADES)
With colder temperatures...
come shorter days.
That's the cue she's been waiting for.
Now, she's ready.
And the bulls know it.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)
(ANTLERS CLATTERING)
(MOOSE SNORTING)
NARRATOR: Their neck muscles have doubled in size over the summer
in preparation for this exact moment.
(ANTLERS CLATTERING)
NARRATOR: They leverage 1,600 pounds of power...
to breaking point.
-(ANTLER CRACKS) -(MOOSE GROANS)
(BIRD CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: The antler will grow again.
Now, his pride? That'll take some healing.
(MOOSE SNORTS)
NARRATOR: Our female's got her timing right.
Her calf will be born eight months from now,
at the best possible time.
But first, there's winter to deal with.
(WINDS HOWLING)
NARRATOR: The mountains of the Northwest are the tallest in North America.
Many over 14,000 feet.
And they see some of the most extreme winter weather on Earth.
(MAJESTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Humid air blows in from the Pacific.
It crashes against the frozen peaks.
Resulting in epic snowfall. Up to 100 feet in a single year.
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES)
NARRATOR: The further north you go, the harder the winter hits.
Alaska is the northernmost state in the U.S.,
though even here, there's one place which doesn't freeze.
The Chilkat River, heated from below by geothermal vents.
Chilkat means "salmon storehouse"
in the language of the local Tlingit people.
And one hungry American hero knows just why.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: This young bald eagle's been struggling to find food.
Most eagles don't make it through their first winter.
But here, because the river doesn't freeze,
he can access dead fish from the salmon run...
(EAGLE CALLING)
NARRATOR: ...to boost his chances of survival.
Only problem is, he's got company.
(FOREBODING MUSIC PLAYING)
Well, that's intimidating.
Almost 4,000 bald eagles come to feed here every winter.
The largest gathering in the world.
And it's every eagle for itself.
(EAGLE CALLING)
NARRATOR: With a wingspan of eight feet,
the females are the largest and the most aggressive.
(EAGLE SCREECHING)
NARRATOR: That head tilt tells him,
"You don't want any problems. Back off. The fish is mine."
(EAGLE SCREECHING)
NARRATOR: He's hungry, but he's also afraid of getting hurt.
(MUSIC SETTLES)
From the sidelines, he can see that around here,
you have to fight to survive.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(CHIRPING)
(EAGLES CHATTERING, SQUAWKING)
(CHIRPING)
(EAGLE CHIRPING)
(SCREECHING)
(FRANTIC CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: He could hold back, stay safe, and face starvation.
But he decides to risk it all.
(SCREECHING)
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS)
(EAGLES CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: Through sheer determination,
he’s fought off the elders and staked his claim.
These vital calories will help him through the hard months ahead.
Nowhere does winter like here.
Denali, the highest mountain in North America,
and at minus 100 degrees, the coldest on Earth.
(WINDS HOWLING)
NARRATOR: With the last light disappearing over the horizon,
the clock starts on the hardest, darkest months of the year.
Though sometimes, there's magic in the air.
The absolute dark makes Alaska one of the best places on Earth
to witness the aurora borealis.
(GRANDIOSE MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: In Ellesmere, polar winds rip through the barren hills.
(WINDS WHISTLING)
(MUSK OX GRUMBLING)
NARRATOR: You can’t complain about the cold
when your ancestors survived the Ice Age.
(MUSK OX GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: Under their long guard hairs, the musk oxen have grown a fine underwool,
the warmest fiber in the world.
In the dead of winter, they slow their metabolism by 30 percent.
(OXEN GRUMBLING)
NARRATOR: They're the ultimate arctic survivors.
Staying slow to stay alive.
-(WINDS WHIPPING, WHISTLING) -(ETHEREAL SINGING)
NARRATOR: Winter takes northern heroes to their limits.
But eventually, the good times return.
Spring.
(VOCALS, MUSIC SWELL)
NARRATOR: The warmth sweeps northwards into Alaska.
A wake-up call for brown bears.
(MUSIC FADES)
A mom and her two new cubs.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
(BEAR GRUNTS)
NARRATOR: She nursed them through the winter inside her den...
but it cost 30 percent of her body weight.
She needs to eat fast.
(CUBS GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: The cubs are just enjoying their newfound freedom.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
A snow day. It's the ultimate cure for cabin fever.
Gotcha!
(CUBS GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: The only way to get these little guys' attention is milk.
(CUBS WHINING, GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: Out of the den, their intake quadruples.
They’ll need over a half gallon a day.
To keep the family fed, she follows her nose.
Two thousand times more sensitive than ours.
Jackpot! A termite nest, full of protein-packed insects.
(CUB WHINES)
NARRATOR: It’s their first taste of solid food.
(CUB GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: Though this meal bites back.
This snack buys Mom some time, but there’s not much else up here to eat.
She knows that if she can just get them down the mountain, a feast awaits.
(WINDS HOWLING)
NARRATOR: She’s not the only new mom who needs to step up for her family.
(WOLF HOWLING)
NARRATOR: The Ellesmere wolf pack made it through the winter.
(PUP YELPING)
NARRATOR: They got four new pups to feed.
A musk ox calf won’t feed them all this time.
Taking on an adult is high risk.
But the alpha knows there’s no other choice.
In 24-hour daylight, there’s nowhere to hide.
So, the pack stalks downwind to hide their scent.
(MUSK OX GRUNTS)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: Like before, the fastest split the herd
and single out a weak adult.
This time, the rest of the pack closes in.
-(MUSK OX GRUMBLES) -(WOLVES WHINING)
-(MUSK OX GROWLS) -(WOLVES CHATTERING)
NARRATOR: It’s an ancient battle between two heroes of the frozen north.
-(WOLVES YELPING) -(MUSK OX GROANING)
(WOLVES BARKING)
NARRATOR: And the pups, they're learning the art of the hunt through their elders.
-(WOLVES GROWLING) -(PUPS YELPING, HOWLING)
-(WOLVES GROWLING, BARKING) -(MUSK OX GRUNTING)
(CHEWING)
(MUSK OX GROANING)
NARRATOR: Thanks to the alpha's leadership,
the pack will thrive on the arctic edge of America.
On the Cascade Range in Washington State, the snow has almost disappeared.
Even Mount Baker,
holder of the world record for highest snowfall in a single winter,
is shedding its coat.
The 50-foot winter snowpack feeds huge glaciers.
And as the spring sun shines down, the snow and ice begin to melt.
-(ICE CRACKING, WATER DRIPPING) -(GLACIERS RUMBLING)
NARRATOR: Drops become trickles, trickles become streams,
until a flood of water lubricates the glacier.
A river of ice slides down the mountain...
(ICE, ROCK RUMBLING)
NARRATOR: ...forming condo-sized crevasses,
and relentlessly grinding stone to rubble.
Glaciers carve some of America’s most iconic landscapes.
From the Alaskan Range to the Cascades,
where 26 glaciers flow down the volcanic slopes of Mount Rainier.
As the weather warms, more and more ice melts,
pouring down the mountainside.
Transforming alpine valleys.
-(BIRDS CHIRPING) -(INSECTS BUZZING)
NARRATOR: After eight months of snow, the meadows erupt with color.
As thousands of wildflowers bloom...
the slopes of Mount Rainier are known as “Paradise.”
The perfect home if flowers are your favorite food.
A marmot and his mate.
Just awake after nearly eight months of hibernation.
Like the bears, they’ve lost a third of their body weight underground,
and need to eat.
Right now though, they’re running on empty
and just the thought of a flower is... exhausting.
(EXHALES)
NARRATOR: Cool mountain mornings make it extra tough to get going.
The grown-ups catch some rays to warm up.
(BEE BUZZING)
And the kids beat them down to breakfast.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
These growing boys have to do all their eating for the whole year
in the four months while they’re above ground.
They can eat half their body weight in flowers every day.
Those flowers are packed with sweet nectar,
so it’s not long before the sugar rush.
(MARMOTS SQUEAKING)
NARRATOR: Roughhousing provides a long-overdue workout.
(CONFRONTATIONAL MUSIC PLAYING)
It's the fastest way to build muscle tone and strength.
(BOTH SCREECHING)
NARRATOR: Oh, come on! No biting!
Some nice moves! Not bad.
(BOTH SCREECHING)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
NARRATOR: A clear winner.
Now, back to the buffet.
The marmots will make every moment and every mouthful count,
while paradise blooms.
On the neighboring mountain, a cousin of the marmots is even busier.
An all-American architect.
-(BIRDS CHIRPING) -(ENERGETIC MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: A beaver.
He's doing what beavers do best.
He’s building a dam to create a pond.
A family of four can build almost five feet of dam a day.
Their pond is a barrier, keeping predators away from their lodge,
their family home.
And pond-building here has other significance,
as this is no ordinary mountain.
This is Mount Saint Helens.
In 1980, this volcano erupted
with the power of 25,000 atomic bombs.
(EXPLOSIONS)
NARRATOR: Thirteen hundred feet blew off the summit...
leaving a crater the size of a thousand football fields.
The explosion ripped through the forest...
leveling an area as large as Chicago.
Thousands of trees were blown from the hillside
and plunged into Spirit Lake.
Nothing survived.
It looked like a wasteland.
(HOPEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
But amongst the devastation, the beavers saw potential.
With running water and plenty of shattered wood for building materials,
they moved in and got to work...
the population soon growing as their network of dams and ponds spread.
In just 40 years, these eco-engineers transformed Mount Saint Helens
into a wetland paradise.
Their dams hold back water that would otherwise flow away.
They provide water for plants and a home for hundreds of animal species.
(DUCKLINGS CHIRPING)
(BIRD SQUAWKING)
NARRATOR: The beavers have brought nature back, big time.
(BIRD CALLING)
NARRATOR: And the benefits of their hard work
are felt far beyond this neighborhood.
By slowing the flow of water down the mountain,
their ponds keep rivers running year-round...
feeding lush forests with nutrient-rich water
all the way to the Pacific...
where one of the greatest shows on Earth is about to begin.
Every fall, the Pacific Northwest is the setting for the salmon run.
After years at sea, millions of salmon gather,
driven by the instinct to swim upriver and breed.
In Northern California,
they must squeeze through the narrow mouth of the Klamath River.
Predators swim in from hundreds of miles away,
timing their arrival for this event.
Sea lions, they’re just waiting for the fish to make the first move.
As the tide rises, the salmon surge towards the river's mouth.
Squeezed together, they have no room to maneuver.
The sea lions use the waves to turbo-boost their chase.
(GULLS CAWING)
NARRATOR: They single out individual salmon...
and drive them onto the beach.
Around here, you gotta eat fast.
There could be a larger sea lion on the next wave.
A thousand-pound thief
looking to muscle in and steal your hard-earned lunch.
(SEA LION SNORTS)
(SEA LIONS BELLOW)
(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS)
(SEA LIONS ROAR)
NARRATOR: For a month, every high tide is a feeding frenzy...
as sea lions and seabirds gorge themselves.
(SEA GULLS CALLING)
(SEA LION ROARS)
NARRATOR: Every sea lion eats up to 35 pounds of fish a day.
But there are so many salmon that 98 percent make it through.
By late summer, the fish are returning to rivers all along the northwest coast.
Alaska’s Bristol Bay hosts the largest salmon run in the world.
Up to 65 million sockeye salmon are swimming upstream.
Their journey might be several hundred miles.
And these amazing navigators use their sense of smell
to guide them back to the exact patch of river
where they hatched four years ago.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
NARRATOR: But they don’t quite have the place to themselves.
Mama bear and her two cubs have made it down from the mountains.
(CUBS GRUNTING)
(CUBS GROWLING, GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: She’s done well to keep both cubs alive.
Up to 40 percent don’t make it through their first year.
-She’s exhausted though. -(BEAR GRUNTS)
NARRATOR: It’s time they learned to stand on their own four paws.
(CUB GROANS)
NARRATOR: Time for Fishing 101.
Just watch me, kids.
(WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)
Oh! So close.
Nope.
Termites were way easier than this.
(CUBS GRUMBLING, GRUNTING)
NARRATOR: Mom's not worried.
She knows it will soon be much easier to catch a meal here
because the salmon are changing.
They’ve stopped eating,
and all the males have become mating machines.
That hunched back? It's kind of like a sockeye six-pack.
Check it out, ladies.
And those teeth? Mmm, irresistible.
While the males show off, the females are being more practical,
looking for the best patch of riverbed to lay eggs.
They fight over the shallow spots where the water’s cool and rich in oxygen.
Then each prepares a nest,
clearing away silt that could suffocate her eggs.
She lays over 4,000...
and the male adds clouds of sperm.
Across Alaska, millions of salmon nests hold billions of eggs.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
Exhausted and starved,
the salmon die soon after spawning.
But even in death, they bring life.
The decaying bodies merge with the riverbank.
The biggest transfer of nutrients from ocean to land on Earth.
(MAJESTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Plant food for the great forest of the north,
where trees grow three times faster along salmon-stocked rivers.
Dead fish are an easy meal for patient cubs.
These two will fatten up quickly now,
just in time to climb the mountain back to their den.
Winter will come again, hard. But they’ll be ready.
The snow, though fierce, will be the lifeblood of next summer,
allowing life to thrive across the northlands of America.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)