The character of the forest changes as we descend, becoming ever darker and damper, favoring different kinds of animals and plants. Less than two percent of the sunlight reaches the floor. But even here there is extraordinary variety. In the Great Is...
The advance of the seasons brings constant change. As the suns influence diminishes in the north, so the deciduous forests of America begin to shut down, losing their leaves in preparation for the dark, cold months ahead. One season hands over to ano...
Deer are frequent casulties of the harsh winter. And these leopards are not above scavenging from a corpse. African leopards could never survive here. But the Russian cats have thick fur to shied them from the cold. There are only 40 Amur leopards le...
As we travel south, so the suns influence grows stronger. And at 50 degrees of latitude, a radical transformation begins. Summers here are long enough for broadleaf trees to replace conifers. Broadleaves are easier to eat and digest, so now animals c...
Midsummer on the tundra and the sun does not set. At these altitudes, the suns rays are glancing and not enough of their energy reaches the ground to enable trees to grow. Youll need to travel five hundred miles south from here before that is possibl...
They are constantly on the move. New-born calves have to be up and running the day they are born. But the vast herds do not travel alone. Wolves. Packs of them, eight to ten strong, shadow the migration. And they are hungry. Its the newly born calves...
Day 10. And the mother has let her cubs a mile from the den. Its time to put them to the test. Theyve grown enormously in confidence, but they dont have their mothers sense of urgency. At last it seems that they are ready for their journey. And they...
But they are hungry and eager to reach their mother whos delayed feeding them on this special day. Now she lures them with the promise of milk, the only food the cubs have known since they were born, deaf and blind beneath the snow some two months ag...
The penguins stay when all other creatures have fled because each guards a treasurea single egg rested on the top of its feet and kept warm beneath the downy bulge of its stomach. There is no food and no water for them. And they will not see the sun...
A hundred years ago, there are one and a half billion people on earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity. This series will take you to the last wildernesses and show you the...