All language subtitles for ABC39372C8A647610F9925D6E2C1A61A_eng

In winter, at the top of the
planet, lies an icy wilderness,

not of land, but of frozen
water, the Arctic Ocean.

Its surface forms an
almost solid platform that

is bigger than the whole
of the United States.

Its presence and condition
dominates the lives of all the

many and varied animals that
live both on it and beneath it.

In the coming months,
the Sun's warmth will

melt much and expose
the rich waters beneath.

To survive here,
life must adapt to this

world that alternates
between ice and water.

After three months of winter darkness,
the Sun rises across Arctic Norway.

A newly-emerged polar bear
mother encourages her cubs

to take their first tentative
steps on the sea ice.

Cubs will stay with their
mothers for two years,

learning the skills
needed to survive out here.

But thereafter, they will be on their own.

Further out on the sea
ice, this young female bear

less than six years old is
already fully independent.

She's superbly adapted
to life on the frozen ocean,

protected from the cold by
thick insulating fat and a double

layer of fur.

This time of year is
the best time for feeding.

The ringed seals on which
she depends feed on fish and are

swimming 40 meters beneath
her. But after 10 minutes down

there, they must return to the few
gaps in the ice to take a breath and rest.

She has acute hearing and one of
the most sensitive noses in nature.

She can detect the layer beneath
two meters of snow and ice.

Timing is everything.

Only one in ten attempts is
successful. So for a young bear,

each meal is very important.
But a male has picked up the

scent of the kill.

Large males pose a real threat

and could inflict
fatal injuries in a fight.

But she stands her ground.

Remarkably, rather than
fight, they start to play.

And then they set off to explore together.

Well fed and still young, these
two seem to be forming a friendship.

She shows off the
swimming skills that enable

her to move with ease
between water and ice.

She's behind you.

Dancing on ice.

Apparently, just for the joy of it.

After three hours together,
they part company.

And return once again
to their solitary lives.

Polar bears thrive at
this time of year, thanks to

the huge platform of sea
ice on which they can hunt.

The Arctic Ocean lies
across the top of the Northern

Hemisphere and over the North
Pole itself and is surrounded

by three continents, Europe,
North America and Asia.

In winter, the sea ice extends across
an area of over five million square miles.

But off the coast of Arctic Russia, a
tiny pocket of water has been kept open.

By the continuous stirring
of 30 trapped beluga whales.

These four meter long
Arctic whales are superbly

adapted for hunting far
beneath the surface of

the to breathe every 15 minutes or so.

But this cold spell is
exceptionally severe. And

there's not another
breathing hole within 20 miles.

Nearby fish and squid disappeared
long ago. These emaciated

whales have been imprisoned
by the ice for five months and

they're now starving.

Their only chance of escape will come
when there is a change in the season.

As spring finally
reaches the north of the

planet, air temperatures
creep above freezing.

The impenetrable ice
ceiling begins to fracture.

Small, life-saving channels open up.

Bringing freedom.

But spring is a dangerous
time for beluga. As tides and

currents pull ice apart, the
beluga find themselves in a

labyrinth of ice. A labyrinth
of shifting ice floes that

could close their breathing
holes at any point and so drown

them.

Using their sophisticated sonar, they
try to find a way through the icy maze.

And eventually reach a patch of open water.

They're not the only whales here.

Narwhal, the unicorns of the
sea, are closely related to beluga.

In a rarely seen encounter,
these two kinds of whales

appear to socialize. Who knows
what's going on between them?

But soon they set off together
through these shifting fields of ice.

A journey of up to one thousand miles.

Before they reach ice-free waters,
where they can rear their young.

As the spring sunshine
strengthens, the broken pack

ice off the coast of
Greenland becomes a nursery.

A harp seal pup. Born just a week ago.

He has little fat. His thick fur is his
only protection from the arctic chill.

In between doses, he
waits for his mother to return.

She has only one pup a year.

And will produce milk for only 12 days. One
of the shortest nursing periods in nature.

That is just long enough for
him to develop a thick layer

of blubber. Thanks to his
mother's milk, which is 50% fat.

And his mother stays
alongside, while he learns

an important survival
skill for any seal.

How to swim.

He may not be keen to
take the plunge. The salt

water is minus two
degrees Celsius after all.

Pups start with a doggy paddle.

Mum stays reassuringly close.

Still developing his
insulating blubber, a pup is at

risk of hypothermia. So
needs to rest and warm up.

Each day, he puts on another two kilos.

And practices swimming
for just a little longer.

Since birth, this pup
has tripled in weight. And

he's now at ease in
this curious other world.

12 days gone by. A mother's work is done.

In producing milk, she's
lost a third of her body weight.

Now she must return to her feeding grounds.

She will never see her pup again.

The next four weeks, he spends
alone, sticking close to the ice platform.

Surviving on his fat
reserves, as his downy fleece

is replaced by a sleek coat
more suited to swimming.

But temperatures in the Arctic are
now rising faster than ever before,

creating storms that break up
the ice floes earlier each spring.

Harp seal pups are being
tipped into freezing waters

before they're ready to
endure long periods at sea.

In some pumping areas, almost none survive.

As spring turns to summer, life on the
sea ice suddenly begins to proliferate.

The daylight increases
and algae that had remained

dormant within the ice
all winter begin to bloom.

This upside-down meadow
is now cropped by plankton.

For a little skeleton shrimp
living at the bottom of a

towering forest of kelp, the
best way to get a share of the

food is to climb.

If you're only two centimeters
long, this is like scaling a skyscraper.

And yet, it's not alone.

Hundreds of fellow shrimps
are attempting the same ascent.

A new mother has parked her brood halfway
up, and she's not about to give way.

This one is a determined
commuter, but the mother's

drive to protect her young
is now causing a traffic jam.

At last, many have made it to the
topmost branches of this underwater forest.

And it's been well worth the effort.

The prize is a plankton feast.

Raining down from above.

By midsummer, arctic
waters are filled with food,

making them into one of
the richest of all oceans.

Feeding billions of microscopic mouths,
as well as the biggest mouth on the planet.

The bowhead whale.

Its four-meter-long baleen
plates enable it to sieve out up

to six tons of plankton a day.
And it grows swiftly into an

18-meter, 100-ton giant.

In summer, the bowheads are so well
fed, they head for an annual get-together.

After a year of wear and tear,
their skin needs reconditioning.

This is a whale health spa.

Rocks and sand in the
shallows are used like pumice

stones, with which to rub
off dead skin and parasites.

Such places can become very popular.

This bay off the coast of Russia attracts
an immense gathering of over 50 bowheads.

They are the longest-lived of all mammals.

Some are 200 years old and have
been coming here for many decades.

Suddenly, their peace is shattered.

Killer whales have arrived from the south.

Nine meters long, weighing
nine tons, and renowned for their

exceptional intelligence,
this particular pack specializes

in hunting bowhead whales.

The bowheads retreat
into the shallows, where it

will be harder for killer
whales to launch an attack.

But the killers can swim
much faster than the bowheads.

The group tries to close ranks,

but the killers attempt to separate them.

They look for individual signs of weakness.

In the shallows, the bowheads lash
out with their seven -meter-wide tails.

But in the confusion, some run aground.

Others try to reach deeper water.

This youngster, half the size of
an adult, is extremely vulnerable.

The killer whales take
turns to ram into its sides,

cracking its ribs so that
it struggles to breathe.

Then they push the youngster
down until, finally, it drowns.

The battle is over. It lasted
an hour. Yet now, the killer

whales eat only one part of
their prey, the young bowhead's

soft, fatty tongue.

Today, more and more
bowheads are falling prey to killer

whales, as the warming climate
causes the protected barrier

of sea ice to melt earlier each year.

By midsummer, millions of
migratory seabirds, having flown

thousands of miles to get
here, are feeding in the Arctic's

rich waters.

Over a million crested auklets,
no bigger than puffins, now

descend on Alaska's St.
Lawrence Island and are preparing to

breed.

To win a mate, a male must
try to stand out from the crowd.

And auditions are already
underway. Males and females,

unusually, look very similar,
each adorned with an elvish

-like crest. But it's the size
of the crest that matters.

And this male's headgear seemed
to be no more than adequate.

A position on the ground is also important.

One large male wants this particular perch.

And having got it, he breaks into song.

He now releases a
potent tangerine scent from

the back of his neck,
and a mob of fans go wild.

This male, however, seems
to have nothing to offer.

But a gaggle of groupies
can be a dangerous distraction.

An arctic fox.

It's found an egg.

With the stage cleared, the
highest perch has become vacant.

This is a moment to shine.

His display doesn't go unnoticed.

And his tangerine
perfume attracts an admirer.

And not just one.

Now it's down to the
females to impress him.

In Auckland society, both sexes have a
say when it comes to choosing a mate.

At the height of
summer, with 24 hours of

sunlight a day, over half
the sea ice melts away.

The beaches of Stalbard
provide safe places to

haul out for one of the
arctic's special residents.

Walruses.

They forage for shellfish
for up to 17 hours at a stretch.

Now it's time for a rest.

Each adult male weighs more than a ton.

And heaving oneself over the sand, without
the support of water, is very hard work.

This male has a particular
sunbathing spot in mind.

Right in the middle of
the 50-strong huddle.

The prod helps in parting the crowd.

Almost in.

At last he can settle down
for a snooze, swaddled

on all sides by the
bodies of his neighbours.

But it's not a peaceful spot.

Sleep isn't easy when a
fidgety bedfellow decides that

he has an itch that needs
scratching. This is the time to

moult, to get rid of
one's old fur with all its

parasites, and expose the
healthy new coat beneath.

These days, Stalbard's summer temperatures
can soar to 22 degrees celsius.

Flushing red by bringing blood close
to the skin helps them to keep cool.

But some overheating is
unavoidable, especially for a big male.

Enough is enough.

Getting up here was a slog.
But this male has found a

better way of getting down.
Let gravity do the work.

Now that is cool.

Everyone is doing it. It
saves both time and energy.

But walruses will need
all the tricks they can find.

The Arctic is warming,
and these cold-loving

animals are facing
a precarious future.

For millennia, the Arctic
Ocean has frozen over in the

winter, and then gradually
melted throughout the spring and

summer. But in the
last 40 years, the extent

of the summer sea ice
has declined by 50%.

Some predict that it will
be ice-free as early as 2035.

This profound change is
already having an impact

on the Arctic Ocean's
highly specialized wildlife.

With less summer sea ice
from which to hunt seals, some

polar bears are now travelling
up to 400 miles, swimming

continuously for up to
10 days in search of land.

Wrangell Island off Arctic Russia,
the only land for almost 100 miles.

Each summer, more and more
polar bears come ashore here.

This newly arrived mother
needs to find food for her family,

but knows not to
approach other adult bears.

A full-grown male can kill
an eater cub, and will do so if

other food is in short supply.
There are over 1,000 bears on

this one island.

It's the greatest concentration
of polar bears on the planet.

And there is food to be
had on these remote shores.

A walrus colony. 2,000 strong.

The walruses panic.

And there are casualties.

Fights break out.

This is no place for a young family.

The mother calls her cubs away.

They must search elsewhere.

Grass is a poor meal for a growing cub.
And starvation in summer is a real threat.

But this opportunity to feed is
one she cannot afford to ignore.

It's time to gamble.

Her cubs follow her. She
urges them to stay back.

The males are twice
her size, but preoccupied

with feeding, they
tolerate her presence.

The distress calls of her cubs,
however, attract unwelcome attention.

Their mother rushes to
shield them with her body.

But she seems torn between
guarding her family and feeding herself.

Cubs left by themselves are
easy prey for a hungry male bear.

But now her maternal instincts take over.

Faced with a mother's fury,
the dominant male backs down.

Having fought her way in, her cubs
can now feed for the first time in weeks.

Polar bears were once the
supreme hunters on the sea ice.

Now, each summer, more and
more of them have to come to land

in search of food.

Whether the ice bear
survives into the next century

depends on what happens to
the sea ice on which they rely.

As with all of the Arctic
Ocean's remarkable wildlife, it's

how the climate changes
over the coming years that will

determine their future.

In today's unpredictable
and changing Arctic,

filming its wildlife is an
ever-increasing challenge.

None more so than trying to
capture the brief time that a

mother harp seal spends
preparing her pup for life at sea.

To find the seal's pupping
grounds, the crew have sailed to

a remote area of the Arctic
off the east coast of Greenland.

But here, they quickly
discover that its usually solid

platform of sea ice has broken
up into thousands of flows.

It's a surprising sight, even for
veteran captain Bjorn Caverno.

And with the sea ice so fractured,
there's no sign of any wildlife.

With mother and pup together
for just 12 days, it's a race

to find the dense pack ice on
which the breeding seals give

birth.

The team head a further
100 miles off the Greenland

coast to an area no film
crew has ventured into before.

Their gamble pays off.

From the smaller, more
maneuverable tender, cameraman Jamie

McPherson hopes to record
the precious time mother and pup

spend together on the ice.

With mum now calling it
into the water, this pup may be

ready for its very first swim.
It's the cue for underwater

cameraman Hugh Miller.
We're going to try something

different and actually get
into the water with the seals.

We're definitely in new
territory here. To film this rare

moment underwater, Hugh
will need to get a lot closer

without disturbing them. But
with Arctic waters at minus

2 degrees Celsius, even with
a protective thermal drysuit,

Hugh only has an hour before
he risks developing hypothermia.

It's now a matter of waiting
for the pup to take the plunge.

The guys have now been
in for about 20 minutes. I can

guarantee you they'll
be freezing cold. Hugh's

body temperature is
getting dangerously low.

Conditions have been really
hard. The cold has been very,

very difficult. With less
than a week to go before this

mother is likely to leave
her pup forever, Jamie

continues to capture
their intimate interactions.

While Hugh is yet to film a
single shot. To make matters

worse, temperatures fall to
minus 30 degrees centigrade. And

as the wind direction changes,
the flows are forced closer

together. That guys has just
come in from all around us. It

could flip the boat and that
would be the end of the shoot.

Hemmed in by blocks weighing
several tons, the small skiffs

are at risk of getting crushed.
They radio for help, but as

the mothership approaches,
she shunts even more ice their

way.

We've got these big chunks of ice either
side of us and they've got to go somewhere.

With help three days away, the
crew can't afford any mistakes.

In the nick of time, a lifeline.

Safety of all. That was a bit of a lot.

By the next day, the pack ice has
drifted apart. And not a moment too soon.

With the pup finally in the
water, Hugh seizes his time.

But what will the pup make
of this curious sea creature?

And this pup is fleeing with
fleeing with the camera. I can

see Hugh's smile from here.
Oh, lovely. Wow. That was great.

So nice.

Just as Hugh gets his reward,
the arctic conditions take a

turn for the worse. We're
getting some amazing stuff, but

now the wind's picked up,
so we're trying to get out. With

the storm brewing, not even
the mothership is safe among the

ice floes. The crew have no choice
but to leave the scenes behind.

It would roll in on a storm.
In the wind it would roll in

the water. And they drown?
Yes, yes. They are not able to

survive themselves. It's
terrible to see. Today, the

combination of reduced arctic
sea ice and heavy storms is

leading to more and
more tragedies like this.

Unless this trend is
reversed, the future for much

of the arctic's unique
wildlife hangs in the balance.

Thank you for watching.