All language subtitles for Yellowstone - s01e01-eng

In the winter of 1807,

a lone fur-trapper journeyed deep
into the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

Somewhere near the headwaters
of the Yellowstone River ...

he found a lost world.

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A wonderland,

ruled by ice, fire and brimstone.

A world of extremes that challenges
all that strive to live here.

A place that has become perhaps the
most treasured wilderness on Earth.

Winter in Yellowstone.

Minus 40 degrees.

Fahrenheit or centigrade,
it doesn't really matter,

at minus 40
the two scales read the same.

For half the year,
Yellowstone is frozen solid.

Yet in the middle of this ice
world there is scalding heat.

This is no ordinary place and
this is no ordinary winter.

The fate of everything here
lies in the hands of forces ...

of almost unimaginable power.

Yellowstone is deep in the heart of
the Rocky Mountains of North America.

An isolated high plateau
defended by rugged peaks.

And its location is
what makes it so different.

Right beneath Yellowstone a unique quirk
of geology means that molten rock

from deep in the earth comes
unusually close to the frozen surface.

No one knows
why it happens right here,

but its impact is what has made
Yellowstone world famous.

Yellowstone is the most extensive
geothermal area on Earth.

It has over 10,000 thermal wonders ...

and more geysers than the rest
of the world put together.

Old Faithful is Yellowstone's
most well-known geyser.

It shoots 5,000 gallons of water ...

150 feet into the air
almost every hour.

But the forces that fuel
this spectacular display ...

have an influence far greater
than we can see on the surface.

Paradoxically,
it's all this underground heat ...

that helps make the
Yellowstone winter ...

one of the coldest
and toughest in America.

It's November and
winter is beginning to take hold.

As it gets colder,
one animal here gets stronger.

Wolves. The winter is their time.

Gradually, it weakens their prey.

This is the Druid wolf pack,

one of the largest and
most powerful in Yellowstone.

The pack have
this bull elk surrounded.

But there's a problem.

The pack won't follow the bull
into the river.

They won't risk freezing to death
in the ice cold water.

What's more, now the elk's antlers
are at just the right height

to keep the wolves at bay.

It's stalemate.

But it's now the elk that
has a problem of his own.

Although it's only knee deep, he can't
stay in this freezing water forever.

A young female is not prepared
to let him go.

But the elk is strong.

One-on-one he has the advantage.

Her only support is another youngster.

They are neither strong
or experienced enough ...

to bring this elk down.

But it's enough to make
him turn and run ...

back to the river
where he knows they won't follow.

But the longer he stays
in the freezing water,

the weaker he will get.

Others before him
have waited here too long,

and wolves are patient.

Right now his strength
is his only advantage.

He has to try again.

This time even
the young wolves stay put.

Without the support of the pack
they never really stood a chance.

And the pack have already decided
that this early in the winter,

a bull elk in his prime
is just too strong.

But as the winter gets colder ...

and the snow gets deeper
the tables will turn.

By the end of November,

the arc of the sun barely breaks
above the trees.

As its angle decreases,
so does its power.

And as the sun loses its hold
over the land,

other forces begin to take over.

Yellowstone has a dark secret ...

that affects everything
that lives here,

especially in the winter.

It's only from high above ground ...

that we start to get a glimpse
of the true nature of this place.

Yellowstone is a giant bowl
50 miles wide ...

right in the middle
of the Rocky Mountains.

There's nowhere else like it.

And there's only one thing
that could have created it.

Three miles beneath
this frozen surface ...

is a colossal chamber of molten rock.

Today it powers Yellowstone's geysers.

But every million years or so,

the pressure in this magma gets
critical and the chamber explodes.

The last eruption, 640,000 years ago,

was more than 1,000 times larger
than Mount St Helens.

It blasted away mountains and ejected
hundreds of cubic miles of debris ...

into the atmosphere,
burying half the USA with ash.

The heart of Yellowstone is one
of the world's biggest volcanoes.

One day it will erupt again.

It could be today
or in another million years.

But even as the volcano is sleeping,

breathing quietly through its geysers,

it has a profound effect
on Yellowstone's winter.

The volcano made Yellowstone's
giant bowl but it didn't stop there.

Ever since, the huge pressure
below the surface ...

has been pushing it higher
into the air,

and as it gets higher it gets colder.

And now at its present altitude
of 8,000 feet,

this giant bowl simply
accumulates freezing air ...

from the surrounding mountains.

In the winter, the sleeping volcano
becomes a giant deep freeze.

On the open plateau, right in the
middle of this frozen volcano ...

is an animal that has lived here
since the last ice age.

Bison are exposed to the worst
of the Yellowstone winter,

but they are built for it.

Their thick coat is
such good insulation ...

that they only need a tiny
amount of energy to keep warm.

So they slow their metabolism right
down and concentrate on feeding.

With massive neck muscles they sweep
their heads down through the snow ...

to get to the grass beneath.

But the grass has long ago put its
summer goodness down into its roots ...

and now has about the same
nutritional value as cardboard.

They will need to do all they can
to save energy ...

if they are to ward off starvation
until spring returns.

As the winter strengthens its grip,

elk move into more sheltered valleys
at the edge of Yellowstone.

They don't have the bison's
ability to move deep snow.

But this brings them into
the territory of the Druid pack.

As the grazers are
beginning to weaken,

life for the wolves is getting easier.

They are now successfully hunting
about twice a week.

They even have the energy to play.

But their play has a purpose.

It fine-tunes their hunting skills ...

and helps bond
the all-important pack structure.

Though there are 16 of them,

they can only hunt an animal as
large as an elk if they hunt as one.

The strength of the pack is what
will get them through the winter.

Bald eagles spot carcasses
from miles away.

But there is strong competition
for a kill like this.

A coyote.

He has been shadowing the wolves,
and moves in now they have gone.

It's December, and even
the great Yellowstone River ...

is succumbing to the cold.

It's only where the water runs fast
that it still runs free.

It looks uncomfortably cold,

but then the water,
at around freezing point,

can be 50 degrees warmer than the air.

Under the ice there's a rich supply
of stone fly larvae ...

waiting to hatch in the spring.

Dippers make the most of these few
small windows to a liquid world ...

before they shut completely.

Where the water stands still
it is now frozen solid.

Yellowstone Lake is 136 square miles,

and now completely covered
in three feet of ice.

A coyote travels across this frozen
desert looking for something to eat.

It's a wonder that anything
can survive here at all.

Hundreds of feet beneath him
on the lake bed,

geysers erupt just
like they do on land ...

and they melt holes in the ice,

the only sign that
there is a lake here at all.

As the year comes to an end,

it seems hard to imagine
this winter getting any tougher.

But there's another twist
to the volcano's story ...

that is about to make
things even worse.

Over time the continent of
North America has moved,

inch by inch,
over many millions of years.

But deep down below
the Earth's moving crust,

the source of magma that fuels
Yellowstone's volcano ...

has stayed put.

As the crust has moved
over this volcanic hotspot,

eruption after eruption has blasted
a massive 500-mile-long scar ...

right through the Rockies.

In the winter this giant scar,
called the Snake River Plain,

funnels moist air
from the Pacific Ocean ...

right through the wall
of the Rocky Mountains ...

and up into Yellowstone's deep freeze.

Here it finally freezes
and falls as snow,

huge quantities of it.

Whilst everywhere around
gets 10 feet of snow a year,

thanks to the legacy of its volcano,
Yellowstone can get as much as 50.

Otters seem to thrive
in the Yellowstone winter.

But now that the rivers are not
only frozen but covered in deep snow,

they are struggling to find
open water to fish in.

They can't fish here, the fast
flowing water is too dangerous.

Somehow they need to find
a way past the falls.

With the falls safely behind them,
the otters are forced to keep moving on.

Open water has become a rare thing
in Yellowstone.

Out on the frozen grasslands,
the bison are struggling, too.

This year is already the snowiest
for the last decade,

snowier than many of this herd
have experienced in their lives.

Now, as the snow gets deeper
than a critical four feet,

the effort of swinging this massive head
back and forth for so little reward ...

is becoming too much.

Though the snow front
is passing through,

it's followed by the wind,

which now starts to scour
the heart of Yellowstone.

A bison's coat can keep it warm
down to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

The wind chill is now pushing
these bison to that limit.

But these are the last
wild bison herds in America ...

which have survived here
for tens of thousands of years.

They know what to do.

To move is risky, it will tap into
their now dwindling energy reserves.

But this year,
it's a gamble worth taking.

Their way out is a river
whose water is not frozen.

A thermal river fed by warm water
from Yellowstone's geysers,

an ancient route which leads to
a place where, if they're lucky,

they will be able to survive.

It's January, and night is
twice as long as day ...

in Yellowstone's deep freeze.

The wind and the storms have gone,

but now the clear skies suck
any last trace of heat into space.

As morning comes, something
extraordinary has happened.

All moisture in the air
has turned to ice,

diamond dust.

But this is a cruel beauty.

Minus 66 Fahrenheit was recorded
here in Yellowstone.

Off the record, it gets colder still.

This bison is still out
on the open plateau.

The deep snow with its windblown crust
has made it almost impossible to feed.

The extreme cold will now tip
the balance of survival further,

most likely too far even for a bison.

A red fox can stay in the cold
heart of Yellowstone all winter,

so long as it can find food.

It's looking for mice ...

that survive the winter insulated
beneath the blanket of snow.

The fox is light enough to move
about on the delicate crust ...

but the mice are six feet beneath it.

It listens for the tiny sounds
of its prey moving about below,

but must take great care
not to scare them away.

The otter family has arrived
at Yellowstone Lake.

Here they can fish in the holes
kept open by the underwater geysers.

But every time they catch something,

this coyote has been watching
and waiting.

The otter dives under the ice
to hide its fish from the coyote.

The coyote can't see the otter
because of the thick cover of snow.

But he can hear him.

The otter emerges without the fish.

He's stashed it somewhere
under the snow. But where?

A huge Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

With the help of the otters,
a wily coyote can catch fish, too.

The thermal river has led the bison
to one of the main geyser fields.

Here the heat from below comes close
enough to the surface to melt the snow.

And a bison can graze
as if it were spring.

The same volcanic forces, so massive
that they created the weather ...

that drove the bison here,
now offer comfort.

The only problem is, the grass
that the bison now relish ...

has such a high concentration of silica
that it wears down their teeth.

And it's laced with enough arsenic
to slowly poison them.

For these bison, it's not
an easy choice to come here.

But as long as they don't have to
stay here too long ...

it's a lot better than facing
the Yellowstone winter head on.

Incredibly, there is life
that thrives here.

In Yellowstone's thermal springs,

the temperature is
a constant near-boiling.

Yet here are huge colonies
of heat-tolerant microbes.

As the boiling water flows out
from the centre of springs,

it cools, forming bands
of different temperatures,

each with a different
collection of microbes ...

with a totally different colour.

Grand Prismatic Spring is one of
the wonders of the natural world.

It's thought that it was
in conditions like this ...

that life on Earth first started.

It's now February,

and when almost everything else
in Yellowstone is on its last legs,

the Druid pack
is reaching peak condition.

And it's now that the young
females come into season.

Hanging back from the pack
is a lone male wolf.

He has no territory of his own
but follows the pack,

scavenging from their successes.

But right now,
food is not his priority.

The young females won't mate
with the pack's alpha male ...

as he is their father.

So the intruder could well be in
with a chance,

as long as the alpha doesn't see him.

Whilst the pack are distracted,
one female sneaks away.

She won't give up
the security of the pack for him,

so they meet close by in secret.

But the pack are now coming their way.

The alpha male is on to him.

He won't tolerate any other male
in his territory,

let alone with one of his females.

When wolves mate, they become locked
together for up to half an hour.

The intruder can't break free.

For now the alpha male has done enough.

He's seen the intruder off
and he needs to return ...

to reassert his position in the pack.

The intruder retreats
to a precarious life in the shadows.

But whatever happens to him, so long
as he was coupled for long enough,

he will have young brought up ...

in the security of one of the
strongest packs in Yellowstone.

Since the beginning of winter,

Yellowstone's herds
have been getting steadily weaker.

Now at the end of February,

the tables have completely turned
to favour the Druid pack.

As February turns to March, it seems
like the winter will never end.

But now the clear,
cold days have gone.

The snow still comes,
but it's a wet snow ...

that strips the warmth
from you faster,

now, when you are right at the end
of your strength.

But there is hope.

Now is the turning
point of the winter.

At the spring equinox,
there are 12 hours of night,

and 12 hours of day.

From now on,
light starts to win over dark.

March is also the turning point
in the history of Yellowstone.

On 1st March, 1872,

American President Ulysses S. Grant ...

recognised the extraordinary
wonders of Yellowstone ...

by making it the world's first
national park.

The park's creation marked the
beginning of a new era ...

where the world's wild places
would be valued ...

simply for being wild.

Now, as the days lengthen,

the winter starts to loosen
its grip on Yellowstone.

But with the end of winter, also
comes the end of the wolves' reign.

On a mountain peak right on
the edge of Yellowstone,

footprints in the snow are the sign
that a challenger has appeared ...

to reclaim this land.

A grizzly bear mother with her
new cubs emerges from her den.

For six months, snow and ice
have ravaged Yellowstone,

but she has slept underground,
waking only to give birth to her cubs.

And then from time to time,
to feed them.

As winter gives way to spring,

she leads them out into the
wilderness for the first time.

In Yellowstone's great volcano,

in spite of everything
the winter has thrown at them,

most have made it through.

The forces that have helped
keep Yellowstone ...

in the grip of such a deep winter
have finally let go.

It is the sun that will
now dominate once more.

Its power will now take over,

bringing new life to this place.

But also it will
bring new challenges ...

that all will have to face ...

in the heat of Yellowstone's summer.

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