Original subtitles

Looking down on our planet, it may come as a surprise to

find just how much of it is blanketed in snow and ice. These

vast frozen wildernesses cover more than a fifth of the

Earth. Yet some areas are so remote and inhospitable that

even today the closest we've come to exploring them is from space.

More than a decade ago, the first series of frozen planet

examined life in the Arctic and the Antarctic. In this

series, we will explore all of Earth's frozen habitats.

From its highest peaks, to its snowbound deserts,

to deep beneath the ice.

Between them, they contain an astonishing array of animals,

many that are found nowhere else on Earth.

We will watch the extraordinary ways by which they manage to survive.

Using new technology, such as racer drones, we'll

gain a new insight into their remarkable lives.

But just as we're beginning to understand its wildlife,

we're recognising an alarming truth. Our frozen wildernesses

are disappearing at faster rates than ever before.

Never has it been more important to understand

what is going on in these icy territories.

In this first episode, we will travel from pole to pole

to celebrate the precious wildlife found in our frozen

wildernesses.

And witness their wonders, while there is still

time to save them. This is Frozen Planet 2.

We begin our journey in the far south of the planet. After

six months of darkness, the sun is starting to return to the

largest frozen expanse on Earth. Antarctica. A

continent almost twice the size of Australia.

Here, temperatures fall to minus 80 degrees

centigrade. It's the coldest place on Earth.

There is only one animal here hard enough to raise its family in winter.

The emperor penguin.

Winds here can reach speeds of over 100 miles an hour,

and a chick is in real danger of freezing to death.

But his parents are possibly the most devoted in all nature.

They shield him from the full force of the icy blast, and

huddle together to create a tight crash. Within it, the

chicks remarkably can maintain their body temperature of 37

degrees Celsius.

Until one spring day, when the chicks have grown to almost a meter tall,

the parents simply walk away.

Their parental duties are complete, and

they will never again return to their chicks.

As the days pass, the chicks grow hungry.

And their only chance of finding a meal is out at sea.

But that could be 30 miles away across the frozen ocean.

When one makes the first bold move,

the rest follow.

They set off at a steady pace.

But sliding on your belly is an easy option.

Out on this ever-changing platform of the frozen

sea, towering walls of ice stand in their way.

This will require mountaineering skills.

Beaks coming useful as ice peaks.

And tobogganing is a quick way down.

As they near the sea, the ice becomes more unstable.

Even the smallest crack is met with suspicion.

And with good reason. A crack can quickly turn into a gaping chasm.

If they can't escape, the panicked chicks will be doomed.

Made it!

Finally, the end is in sight.

The Southern Ocean.

In some years, the sea ice is so unstable that none make it as far as this.

These chicks are the lucky ones.

Not the most placeful entry.

But they are in their element. The sea.

They may have endured the toughest of upbringings, but now

they can reap the benefits of the long summer ahead and feed

in the richest waters on Earth.

In winter, the seas around Antarctica are so cold that

they form a platform of ice twice the size of Europe.

But in summer, just off the shores of the Antarctic

Peninsula, the ice cover breaks up into millions of tiny ice

flows.

It's an excellent place for a weddle seal to rest up after a night's feed.

The bay is sheltered. And the water calm.

But there are great dangers here.

And there are great dangers here.

Killer whales. This pair of 15-year-olds are learning what

is perhaps the most complex hunting technique in nature.

After sizing up their prey, they assemble 30 meters away.

And then launch an attack. They swim in tandem,

synchronizing their tailbeats to create a wave.

The seal is washed off, but

it won't give up without a fight.

The seal has escaped. This time.

But for the young killer whales, help is at hand.

They live in multi-generational family groups, led by an

experienced female who can be over a hundred years old.

Helped by her accumulated knowledge, the whales have become ruthlessly efficient.

They have a 90% hunting success rate.

But a killer whale needs to eat a seal a day. So

this 14 -strong family has a lot of hunting to do.

Spreading out, they spy hop to search the ice floes.

When a seal is spotted, the scouts alert the family with a rallying call.

But if they are to catch a seal resting on such a large

piece of ice, the hunters need to change their tactics.

This time, they produce a subsurface wave.

It breaks the ice into smaller pieces.

But the seal still has a raft. And appears to be protected from any oncoming wave.

The matriarch whale, however, has a plan.

Working in a coordinated way, the pod push the seal's ice platform into clearer water.

The matriarch now tries another tactic, which will avoid injury.

Blowing bubbles.

They disorientate the towering seal.

And the whales move in for the kill.

Only about 100 killer whales in the world hunt using this technique.

It's an ingenious solution to the problem of finding

prey, here in the most extreme frozen habitat on Earth.

Antarctica is so cold because of its position at the far

south of the planet. But travel north and you'll find other

icy worlds that are created by altitude in the mountains.

The Andes in South America, with its 4,500 miles of snow

-covered peaks, is the longest range on Earth.

These high icy worlds even exist close to the equator, where

the sun is at its hottest, as on Mount Kenya in Africa.

But the highest mountains of all stretch 1,500 miles

across the north of subtropical Asia, the Himalaya.

At the western end, bordering Pakistan, stand the Karakorum.

They contain more peaks over 8,000 meters high than any other range on Earth.

And include K2, which stands over 8,600 meters tall.

The slopes of the Himalaya carry the greatest

accumulation of snow and ice outside the polar regions.

It's an area known as the Third Pole.

But north of the Himalaya, there are even more

surprising frozen worlds created by altitude.

A remote snowbound desert, the Gobi.

And beyond it, a grassy plain that stretches for 5,000

miles across Central Asia. It's known as the Great Steppe.

Here, sheltering from the elements in his bolder den, is a somewhat grouchy resident.

A palace's cat. He has the densest fur of any cat in the world.

Nonetheless, to keep warm, he must cat up to five rodents a day.

Top of the menu are voles and gerbils.

Relative to body size, palace's cats have one of the shortest legs of any cat.

And that helps by giving them a low profile when stalking.

But it's not so good for wading through deep snow.

Never mind, there are plenty more.

He just needs to stay focused.

Unfortunately, the longer he's out in the snow, the colder his paws become.

And he has only one way to get the blood circulating again.

That could be one shape too many.

Only one hunt in three by a palace's cat is successful. No

wonder he has the reputation of being the grumpiest cat in

the world.

To the north of the steppe, in higher latitudes, lies yet another frozen world.

The Boreal Forest.

750 billion snow-covered trees.

It's the largest forest on earth, encircling the top of the

world from Europe to Russia and across to North America.

At the far eastern end of this vast Siberian forest lies

the hunting ground of one of the world's rarest big cats.

The Siberian tiger.

Illegal hunting and destruction of its habitat have driven

this tiger to the very brink of extinction. Now, fewer than

500 remain in the wild.

Weighing nearly 200 kilograms, it's the largest of all the big cats.

To keep warm, this male must eat 10 kilograms of meat a day.

But in winter, any prey remaining here is all too easily alarmed.

He must patrol his entire 700 square mile territory if he's to find enough to eat.

His acute sense of smell tells him that wild pig were here.

He's so hungry that he would tackle even a 150 kilo bear.

But it left here months ago, leaving only a faint trace of its scent.

In the autumn, black bears here escape the coming winter by hibernating inside caves.

But that wouldn't stop a tiger from trying to catch one.

Remote cameras reveal the bear's whereabouts.

It retreated into the farthest recess months ago.

The tiger is simply too big to reach it.

But ready for every opportunity, this big cat

is able to endure the long Siberian winter.

And as long as this forest is kept free from poachers,

these magnificent tigers have a good chance of surviving.

In the northerly reaches of the Boreal Forest,

a strange phenomenon illuminates the night sky,

the aurora borealis.

Electrically charged particles from the sun collide with

the Earth's atmosphere, creating this otherworldly display.

Viewed from space, the aurora brings light to the frozen

poles, which otherwise would remain in darkness for almost

three months.

This is the Arctic tundra,

where temperatures can fall to minus 50 degrees Celsius.

With little or no shelter, few animals can survive the

winter here. But some do.

Musk ox, relics from the last ice age.

Two layers of fur protect them from temperatures of minus 30 degrees.

This allows them to give birth in early spring.

At six hours old, a calf is already able to stand.

Ready to follow the herd in the search for fresh grazing.

But until they gain in strength, they are very vulnerable.

They're being stalked. Grizzly bears.

Weighing up to 300 kilos, they have emerged after

six months of hibernation and are extremely hungry.

One gets to within just 10 meters and then attacks. One gets

to within just

10 meters and then attacks.

Separated from their mothers, the newly born

are unable to distinguish friend from foe.

The bear instinctively kills every calf it can.

Only a few escape.

But the herd is now far away.

And he is too weak to follow.

90% of calves do not survive their first year.

Even one without injury stands little chance

without its mother. The bear instinctively

kills every calf it can.

One gets to within just 10 meters and then attacks. Reunited.

If just a few calves survive to adulthood, the future of the herd will be secure.

North of the tundra lies the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by

three continents, Europe, North America and Asia. In winter,

it remains almost entirely frozen.

But as the spring sunshine finally reaches the northernmost

part of the planet, the sea ice begins to break up. This

marks the start of the breeding season for male hooded seals.

When they're six years old, the males develop an inflatable nose.

They're ready to breed. And the bigger their nose, the more

attractive they will be to a female. And now this one is

eager to prove it.

A female has just given birth.

A mother spends a mere four days feeding milk to her pup.

And then, and only then, will she be ready to mate again.

That is too long for an impatient youngster to wait around.

These females seem to have been claimed by a larger male.

But if this youngster is to breed this year, it's worth a

try.

An inflatable nose can also be used to intimidate a rival. His bravado pays off.

He must now woo the receptive female.

She seems unimpressed.

But he has another trick.

He has an expandable sac within his left nostril.

What is her verdict?

A sharp nip on the tail.

And that means no.

With only one day in the year in which to mate, the female is understandably choosy.

And until the youngster has grown a more impressive balloon,

he's unlikely to be chosen. No wonder he's deflated.

The spring not only transforms the ocean, it also triggers

an important event on the biggest of the Arctic's islands.

Greenland, over 1,600 miles long.

It's covered by a single gigantic ice sheet,

the largest in the northern hemisphere.

As spring advances, the surface of the ice melts, forming

crystal clear lakes, up to five miles wide. Climate change

is bringing higher temperatures, so there is more and more

melt water. It drains down into the mild thick ice sheet.

And a whole chain of events is then triggered. Time-lapse

photography from space reveals what happens next.

The increased melt water accelerates the ice sheet's slide downhill.

Eventually, it reaches the ocean.

It breaks up into icebergs, some taller than the Empire State Building.

Greenland is losing its ice six times faster today than it was 30 years ago.

It alone is responsible for a quarter of the rise in global sea levels.

Changes in the Arctic are already affecting

the lives of its highly specialized wildlife.

Polar bears.

These one-year-old twins still rely on their mother

for her milk, protection, and crucial survival lessons.

But they have yet to perfect their swimming technique.

The cubs need to be as at home in the water as they are on the sea ice.

Their mother calls them out. Until they've accumulated a

significant layer of body fat, they feel the cold. A roll in

the snow is a good way to dry off.

Then it's back to play.

While their mother heads off to hunt.

Over the coming months, a mother must provide her

cubs with not just milk, but meat and lots of it.

By midsummer, the sea ice has become so thin that

her best chance of catching her preferred prey is by ambushing it from the water.

It's a technique known as aquatic stalking.

She approaches downwind and tries to get within a meter of a bearded seal.

But today, there is less sea ice to provide

cover, so she is having to target riskier prey.

A hooded seal.

They are about the same size as the bearded, but more

aggressive and dangerous. They are about the same size, but

more aggressive and dangerous.

They are about the same size, but more aggressive and dangerous.

They are about the same size, but more aggressive

and dangerous.

The Arctic is now warming more than twice as fast as the

rest of the world. The sea could be ice free in summer by as

early as 2035.

That will make it harder for mother polar

bears to feed themselves, let alone their cubs.

Well adapted to live in the cold. The animals that inhabit

our frozen lands and seas need one thing more than any

other.

And that is for the planet to stop warming.

It's now up to us to make that happen.

Filming across the length and breadth of our frozen planet,

one of the team's greatest challenges was to capture the

enormity of Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet.

To do so, the crew launched five separate filming

expeditions. Installing specially designed cold proof time

lapse cameras that were to run for three years.

Even commissioning satellites to record the big picture changes.

But the story would be incomplete without documenting the

finale of this event, the carving of Greenland's store

glacier. A wall of ice over three miles long and towering 120 meters high.

The crew arrive at the height of the summer thaw, when at

any moment fracturing ice blocks the size of a small town

may be cast into the sea.

Camping out for the next three weeks, the team takes

advantage of the constant daylight offered by the far north

at this time of the year.

Got a lot of ice on the glacier, 24 hours a day. So yeah,

we're poised. I started at about 8 p.m. and it's currently,

yeah, just after 2. I've got until 4 a.m. this morning, I think.

They're hoping to be one of the first film crews to use a

camera drone for unprecedented proximity and a brand new

perspective. It's not long before their new technology is put to the test.

But it quickly reveals its limitations.

The issue with the drone, you've got to turn it on, get

it in the air and fly it one and a half kilometers to the

glacier front. So if you see a carving happening, then

you're too late. With a flight time of just 20 minutes,

gauging the moment of takeoff is critical. Yeah, I feel like

today just every decision I've made has been the wrong one.

It's really easy to trick yourself into thinking, oh, it's

going to go, it's going to go. So you get out there, use up

a whole drone battery hovering, come back and as you're heading back.

Soon, the team face another problem that comes with today's warming Arctic.

Unseasonably wet weather makes it impossible to fly

the drone and acts as a catalyst for further melting.

Absolute rocket happening down in the glacier. Oh, my goodness.

Even if it is a major carving event.

Can't see a thing.

That sound just went on and on.

That one was huge.

After five days of frustration, the fog finally lifts

to reveal the bay choked with the giant icebergs.

It appears the crew have missed their opportunity.

Morale, the crew has taken a little bit of a downturn. Do

you know what? I just don't know what to say. I'm so tired.

To make matters worse, a plague of mosquitoes

descends, further disheartening the exhausted team.

All your senses all go all the time, even when you're trying

to sleep. So it's just a bit emotionally draining sometimes.

Then, with just a few shooting days left under a warming

sun, the glacier groans and rumbles back into action.

Guys, big one going. This could be the opportunity

they've been waiting for. Oh, my gosh, look at that.

The carving event lasting long enough to film from the drone.

But no one is prepared for the sheer scale of it.

Just layer after layer of ice broke away and fell into the

sea. And they now came at this enormous skyscraper sized

iceberg, displacing vast quantities of water and throwing

enormous blocks of ice around like they were nothing.

Sitting here day after day, crossing your fingers and hoping

that you get a big carving and you see a big event and you

manage to film it. And when it does happen and when it

doesn't go off, it's so exciting and you get the adrenaline.

And then afterwards, as you sort of you're coming down from

that, there's a bit of sweetness to it as you realize that's

another piece of ice that's slowly raising the sea level.

Such imagery provides an invaluable record of the rapid

changes that are now taking place across our frozen planet.

Thank you.