All language subtitles for Wild Europe Episode 2 Ice Ages

Europe 3 billion years ago...

born of violence and upheaval...

scoured by wind-blasted deserts...

swallowed by the oceans...

and cloaked in tropical swamps...

these sweeping changes
laid the foundations

for the most diverse of continents.

But then,
some two and a half million years ago,

this virgin world faced
a fresh assault.

Triggered by the
most unusual combination

of cosmic and global events,

europe was now confronted
by a radical change in climate.

The landscape was transformed
beyond recognition...

...locked in a tomb of ice.

These were the ice ages,
a raw and challenging time.

This onslaught of climatic change had
a profound impact on the land.

How did this new era of extremes
shape the europe we know today?

The alps -
the very heart of europe.

Millions of visitors
come here every year

to enjoy the exhilaration
of winter...

...a glimpse of a time when much

of europe was gripped
in the big freeze.

Remnants of the ice ages are found
right across the continent,

but this is the most spectacular...

...the matterhorn-
an iconic pyramid of rock

jutting almost 4,500 metres
into the sky.

Travel back through time,
over a period of

just twenty thousand years,

and the landscape
was very different indeed.

An island in a sea of ice.

Only its tip would have been visible.

Back then, conditions in the

alps and in northern
europe were extremely harsh.

Relentless icy storms
swept the land.

Temperatures plunged to well below
minus 50 degrees celsius.

What triggered
this climatic onslaught?

As the earth goes about its orbit,

its pathway periodically
shifts taking it closer to...

or further away from...
the sun.

As well as this -
in a rhythm of its own-

the earth's axis tilts.

About two and
a half million years ago

these factors combined to cause
cooling in europe's higher latitudes.

Summers became shorter...

...and winters more severe.

But cold alone does not
constitute an ice age.

This chill was dramatically
intensified by a range of other events...

one of which happened thousands

of kilometres away on the
far side of the atlantic.

As north and
south america began to join,

they blocked the flow of water
from the atlantic to the pacific,

diverting a warm, tropical
current back towards europe:

The gulf stream was born.

And with it came masses
of moisture-laden air.

When these clouds reached the
colder atmosphere of northern europe,

they delivered enormous
quantities of snow.

As temperatures plummeted,
survival became increasingly hard.

A whole new cast of
cold-adapted animals moved in...

rather like today's
musk oxen... with their shaggy,

windproof coats and stocky frames.

In the ever-shortening summers,

animals like reindeer
too would have eked out

a living on lichens and mosses.

But as temperatures dropped
below minus 40 degrees

celsius even these
hardy creatures would have

been forced south
to warmer climes.

Year after year,
snow built upon snow,

compacting into solid ice,
engulfing the continent.

Even the sea began to freeze.

The expanse of ice acted
like a giant mirror,

reflecting the sun's
warmth back into space.

Colossal ice sheets up
to two thousand metres

thick spread across
the continent covering siberia,

scandinavia and scotland.

We now know how far south
the ice sheet reached,

thanks to evidence found
in some surprising places.

During the construction
of the london underground

in the late 19th century,

scientists unearthed
unusual sediment patterns

in the very centre of london.

They revealed that the edge of
the northern ice sheet was more

or less here - at the
finchley road tube station.

Just imagine how london might
have looked about half

a million years ago when the ice
ages were at their most extreme.

Other glacial deposits
indicate that the edge

of the ice spanned
the european continent...

...touching on amsterdam...

...and also berlin...

a freeze-up of this scale will change
the whole shape of a continent.

This is the north sea,
off the coast of holland.

Although this may seem
a normal fishing trip,

these dutch trawler men
aren't after sole or plaice.

They're actually scientists
on an unusual mission,

in search of a far more
intriguing catch.

Among the piles of starfish,
crabs and driftwood

they find the long-submerged remains
of a far larger animal.

When bones like these were first hauled
out more than a century ago,

they were presented to a local
doctor for identification.

He declared them to be clear
evidence of noah's flood.

Whatever your belief about noah,

the doctor was right
about the flood

because these are the bones
of land animals...

massive ones at that...
woolly mammoths.

What are they doing in the
middle of the north sea?

During the ice ages the sea level was
around 100 metres lower than today.

Back then the north sea
was all dry land...

its water locked up
in the ice sheets

to the north
and in mountain glaciers.

These mammoth bones tell us
something else, too:

Not all of europe was
buried in ice.

The north sea was one vast
green valley- a tundra.

Standing 3 metres tall
and wrapped in dense fur,

woolly mammoths were well
adapted to life on these cold,

grassy plains,
which they shared

with relatives of today's
saiga antelopes.

Their over-sized noses help to warm
the chilly air as they inhale,

and to preserve precious
moisture as they breathe out.

Saigas came to eurasia from

north america across
the bering straits,

an important land bridge
when sea levels were lower.

And with them came
przewalski's horses-

the ancestors of
our modern horse.

As the climate kept changing,

the edge of the ice sheets shifted,
and so did entire eco-systems.

But the most surprising ice age
immigrants came from the south.

Here in london during the 1830's,

builders constructing
nelson's column in

trafalgar square made some
extraordinary discoveries.

They unearthed the bones
of some very un-ice age

and indeed un-european animals:

Hippos, rhinos, hyenas,
and even lions.

Around 120,000 years ago,

western europe must have looked more
like east africa.

Over the past 2? Million years,

the climate has sea-sawed from
subtropical to arctic and back again.

These warm
"interglacial periods"...

lasting as long
as 100,000 years...

have allowed plenty
of time for new waves

of life to establish themselves
on the continent...

before being driven back again
by the next cold spell.

This thermal pulsing
was rapid and extreme,

with at least 20 different
climatic cycles.

Right now we're enjoying one
of the warmer periods in between.

It's a sobering thought
that this extreme climatic

change has not been an exception,
but the rule.

The last major glacial period began
115,000 years ago.

It was to have an immense impact in
shaping the continent we know today.

Back then, much of the land
would have been inhospitable.

Natural shelters were highly prized.

One ice age creature totally depended
on these caves: The cave bear.

In an ice age winter, deep caves were
vital for hibernating bears.

But their peace-
and indeed their future-

was about to be shattered by others
who also sought refuge here.

Neanderthals - ice age specialists
like the cave bear.

They braved the continent's
harshest climate ever.

For over 150,000 years,

neanderthals remained
europe's top predators.

But now a new force
was on the move...

a force destined to have a
profound impact on the continent.

Modern humans - our ancestors.

Some 40,000 years ago
homo sapiens began to advance

into asia and europe from
their homelands in africa...

living a nomadic existence...
following the migratory herds.

For these inventive and adaptable
hunters, this new land,

in spite of its harsh climate,
offered a wealth of big game.

Although neanderthals and modern
humans certainly crossed paths,

in this vast continent encounters
between them must have been rare.

Yet for neanderthals,
time was running out.

Their populations were shrinking.

About 30,000 years ago they vanished
from the face of the land,

possibly decimated
by disease or conflict

or an inability to deal
with climate change.

15,000 years ago the shape
of the earth's orbit-

and the tilting of its axis-

would come to spell the end
of the last great ice age.

In the northern hemisphere
summers now became longer...

and winters less severe.

As temperatures rose rapidly
in northern europe-

by as much as 10 degrees celsius
in less than a century-

the melt gathered momentum.

Massive volumes of water,

a hundred thousand years
worth of snowfall,

cascaded off the ice sheets.

This great melt swelled
vast river networks.

Old rivers found new courses
where the ice had once been.

Violent torrents carried
a massive cargo of debris,

filling low-lying valleys with rubble,
thus creating europe's plains.

Rivers like the elbe and
volga would have been many times

their current size and power.

From the smaller ice caps of the

alps and pyrenees to the
great northern ice sheets,

rivers flowed in spate.

Much of this melt water was trapped
before it reached the sea.

Tens of thousands
of new lakes were created.

The most impressive of them all
- 18,000 square kilometres-

is lake ladoga on the
finnish-russian border,

europe's largest body
of freshwater.

Free from the weight
of the scandinavian ice cap,

the land began to rise,
cutting lake ladoga off from the sea.

Today, it is a remote natural refuge-

one of the wild fringes
of europe.

Lake ladoga is also home
to a rare animal

which became trapped here
about 9000 years ago

when the lake was finally
isolated from the sea.

Ladoga ringed seals.

Today, just a couple
of thousand of them remain.

They once inhabited the
open sea but have adapted

to life in this freshwater lake.

Ice age relics like
these are found

in cold enclaves across
the continent.

As the climate warmed up,
they retreated to

europe's highest latitudes
and highest altitudes...

wherever the arctic
climate lingers on.

From the alps to the highlands of

scotland - mountain ranges across
europe are arctic islands.

Ibex are ice age immigrants from the
mountain ranges of central asia.

Ibex would have followed
the edge of the

ice sheets to the west and remained
here after the ice retreated.

During the cold periods,
some of these

ice age immigrants were spread
across most of the continent.

Now remnant populations are thousands
of kilometres apart.

The ptarmigan, a bird
of the arctic tundra,

now inhabits the alps,
northern scandinavia and scotland.

Their winter plumage-

perfect camouflage and insulation -
is an echo of the icy past.

Ptarmigans share these mountaintops
with another ice age character,

the mountain hare.

It has shorter ears than brown hares,
helping reduce heat loss,

and its broad feet make
perfect snow shoes.

Snow buntings nest
both in the high

arctic and 3000 km south
in the high alps.

But it's not only ice age animals that
remind us of our frozen past.

Europe still bears the scars
of the mightiest,

most dynamic ice age force of all-

a force that created much
of the landscape

we're familiar with today:
Glaciers.

This is how europe may have looked
tens of thousands of years ago.

Glaciers may appear rigid
and sedentary,

but they're quite the opposite,

particularly those
on steep mountain slopes.

By condensing time they come to life.

Glaciers slip and slide at

a surprising rate- up
to 20 metres a week.

Like a river of ice.

The glacier's enormous weight makes

the ice masses glide on
a film of water.

As it glides, it rips rocks
and boulders from the

ground and pulls them along.

Like giant sandpaper,
the glacier smooths its

rocky bed.

The impact of glaciers on the
landscape is all too clear...

from the wide, u-shaped valleys
of scotland...

...to the deep fjords of norway.

And from spain's picos de europa.

...to the gorges of the alps.

But glaciers do more
than carve out valleys.

Like super-sized conveyor belts,

they carry massive loads
of rocky debris,

sometimes hundreds
of kilometres from their source.

This rocky load piles up
where the glacier ends

or is left behind when it melts...

forming distinctive piles
of rubble known as "moraines".

Some of the best evidence of this
can be found here at segonzano,

in the dolomites of italy.

Lurking in the forest is a group
of bizarre collection of pillars.

Legend has it that
once these were trolls,

punished for their carelessness.

They're actually
the remains of moraine,

dumped here by
an ice age glacier.

Over thousands of years,
rain has washed away

the soft clays
and gravels except

where it was protected
by a hard stone cap.

Strangely enough, even some
seemingly desert landscapes

owe their whole existence
to the last ice age.

Where has all
this sand come from?

When the baltic ice sheet
melted an enormous heap

of rubble was dropped
into the sea...

eroded into sand...

and then washed ashore along
the northern flanks of poland,

like here at
slowinski national park.

The process continues today...

the glacial dunes are expanding
by 9 metres a year...

and swallowing everything
in their path.

During the last ice age,
mineral-rich glacial dust,

known as "loess",
was blown from the alpine ice cap

as far as the black sea.

Millions of tonnes of it
were spread across

eastern europe along
the danube valley laying

the foundations for what has now become
a rich agricultural landscape.

These super-fertile plains are the
largest on the continent-

almost 50,000 square kilometres

of cropland yielding wheat,
rye, barley and oats.

The breadbasket of europe.

All this productive land
we're so familiar with today,

only exists because the peaks

of the alps were ground
to dust by glaciers

and carried here by the
ice age winds.

After the great melt,
when the ice sheets covering most

of northern europe had disappeared,

they left behind a barren,
rocky moonscape.

But as temperatures rose,
pioneering plants and lichens,

which can cling to bare rock,
began to re-colonize the land.

Gradually, in sheltered spots,

more complex plants took hold...
their seeds carried on the wind.

In time the soils were restored...

...and the re-greening
of europe had begun.

Soon the continent lay swathed in
grassland, peat bog and tundra.

For a while, animals like reindeer
were in their element,

exploiting these
verdant pastures.

But as temperatures
continued to rise,

the reindeer retreated north.

The tundra on which they
depended would soon be forest.

Conifer trees, like larch,

spruce and juniper rapidly
advanced north across

the continent
at about 500 metres a year.

Europe became cloaked
in forest and echoed to

a new chorus of life.

The spring mating dance
of the capercaillie...

a sure sign the seasons
were in full swing...

with the trees, came new settlers
who also found their niche here-

from tree climbers like pine
martens to birds of prey...

all seeking out the small
mammals sheltering in the forest.

Red deer, grazers of the open tundra,
now browsed in the woods.

Around 10,000 years ago
these early coniferous

woodlands were at their peak.

By then, the flanks
of europe had also

undergone a radical transformation.

Sea levels had risen and risen...

by a 100 metres or more...
defining the outline

of the continent as
we know it today...

with around one and a half
million kilometres of coastline.

One of the most impressive
new coastal landscapes

of all lies in northern norway.

Here, deep valleys were scoured
out by glaciers

and then drowned by rising seas,
creating a network of fjords.

These waterways are as deep as
the mountains are high.

Blessed by the nutrients and warmth
carried here by the gulf stream,

they teem with life and remain
ice-free all year round.

Each year, the north norwegian fjords
lure hundreds of killer whales.

They come for the enormous shoals of
herring that over winter here.

The impact of the gulf stream
and the rising seas

is felt right across western europe,
from norway all the way to ireland...

france... and scotland.

Pounded by the atlantic,
this rugged coastline is home

to some unique concentrations of life.

Around 120,000 grey seals
inhabit these waters...

...also exploited by otters...

in the british isles alone,
some 6000 new islands

were born during
the postglacial melt.

The remote craggy cliffs offer
perfect nest sites

for birds like fulmars,
guillemots, and gulls.

These are some of the most impressive
seabird colonies in the world.

And because they're so inaccessible,
predators pose little threat.

In the summer the skies come alive.

Along the northern rim of germany is a
very different wildlife haven.

These are some of
europe's youngest coastlands...

and a vital stopover for birds
migrating up and down the east atlantic.

More than 2 million
visit every year.

For waders they offer
a gastronomic treat of

shellfish and worms.

But feeding here is always
a race against time

and tide.

And - there's another drawback.

All this commotion attracts
one of the fastest

and most agile hunters in the world.

The peregrine falcon.

After the last glacial period,
these new coastal fringes,

with their prolific supply of food,

were also vital corridors
for new arrivals,

making their way up
the atlantic coast.

Here, from around 10,000 years ago,

stone age people began to find a
foothold along europe's shores.

This was a brand new way of life...

a diet based almost entirely on
protein-rich shellfish...

scallops, limpets,
dog whelks and winkles.

And with food
so readily available,

they had time to
develop cultural pursuits...

making music
and decorative jewellery.

While the northern margins of the
continent remained a bleak place,

the interior
was changing radically.

Unsuited to the warming climate,

the coniferous forests
were now retreating,

replaced by seasonal,
deciduous woodland.

A diverse mix of trees
like hazel, oak, elm,

lime and beech spread their way north.

All sorts of different animals aided
this re-forestation...

by over-stocking
their winter stores.

For a time access to the interior

was only open to those that could fly
or take advantage of waterways.

Fish like atlantic salmon moved
upriver from the sea to spawn.

This was now a pristine wilderness

of endless forest broken only
by rivers and lakes.

Soon the rivers would provide
access to the forest.

It wasn't long before coastal
dwellers began to head inland...

to find a wild new world
to explore and exploit.

Mature silver eels
were another enticing lure.

The most efficient
way of catching the eels

was by intercepting them during
their autumn migration to the sea.

People constructed elaborate
basket traps

of stakes and wickerwork
to divert the large shoals.

Eels provided them
with a reliable

and highly nutritious
source of food.

Large quantities could be kept
alive or smoked for later.

While these corridors offered
reasonably safe access

to the fringes of the forest,

the deep interior must have
seemed a very foreboding place.

Impenetrable,
gnarled and twisted...

...and roamed
by dangerous predators.

But in time it would
be conquered.

For now, as the climate
released its grip,

a new force was on the rise...

one which was destined to tame

and transform europe more
rapidly than ever before.