Original subtitles

WIND SOUGHS

It's the first day of spring...

..but it feels more like an Arctic winter.

WIND HOWLS

The Beast from the East has blanketed Wales with snow.

SHEEP BLEAT

Across the country...

..from the eastern borders...

..to the valleys of the south...

..and the mountains of the north...

..winter is refusing to release its icy grip.

Such bitterly cold weather is dangerous for much of our wildlife.

But for scavengers,

there's a chance to feast.

It's a dramatic start to a truly wild year.

Wales.

A land of mountains...

..and rugged shoreline...

..where lush meadows border ancient forests.

And where you're never too far from wildlife.

Home to 50,000 species.

The spectacular.

And the surprising.

Each season brings its own challenges.

Finding a mate,

raising a family...

..or simply surviving.

Filmed over a year of extremes...

..through storms...

..and drought...

..and wonder.

Welcome to the Land of the Wild.

HORSE NEIGHS

WIND SOUGHS

Spring's on hold as bitter winds blow in from the east.

These wild ponies are an ancient breed

which have lived in Snowdonia for thousands of years.

Low temperatures here in early March can fall below freezing.

The ponies are perfectly adapted for the harsh conditions.

Even so, it takes a strong mare to survive up here.

Especially if she's heavily pregnant.

It won't be long before she gives birth.

If it doesn't warm up soon,

the foal will struggle to survive.

She needs spring to get a move on,

and fast.

Cold weather brings clear night skies in the Brecon Beacons.

The National Park was recently designated

an International Dark Sky Reserve -

one of only 13 in the world.

During cold snaps like these,

it's so clear that just now and again

the mountains are lit up by one of nature's most magical displays.

The Northern Lights.

Further north, on Anglesey,

the light show is even more spectacular.

It's mid-March on Llandegla Moor,

just a few miles west of Wrexham.

BIRDS CHIRP

As the sun rises,

this is the scene of one of Wales' rarest wild spectacles.

GROUSE BURBLES

The black grouse lek.

Male birds fly in from the surrounding area

to strut their stuff

and hopefully win a chance to mate.

There are only a few hundred such birds in Wales...

..so this gathering is a special sight.

This female might look plain and drab,

but she's very choosy.

She'll only mate with the most impressive males.

One of the largest of her suitors holds the centre of the lek

where females gather.

GROUSE BURBLES

But he has a challenger.

The rules of engagement are clear.

First, a parallel walk to size up the opposition.

Then some posturing,

with a bit of burbling thrown in to impress and intimidate.

GROUSE BURBLE

But this challenger won't back down.

GROUSE SQUAWKS

They're too evenly matched.

SQUAWKING

The fight is on.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

LOUD SQUAWKS

All of this is for her benefit.

But she doesn't seem very impressed.

The breeding season has only just begun.

There's no rush to find a mate,

so she heads off to feed.

SQUAWKING

The would-be suitors carry on,

unaware that they've lost their audience.

But then, suddenly,

it's all over.

The warming air has sent up a cloud of insects.

Time to eat.

Hostilities are suspended.

Until tomorrow morning, at least.

As the sun returns and strengthens,

all kinds of animals begin to stir.

Further downslope, the warmth has drawn an adder out of hiding.

After six months of hibernation,

he's weak and needs to recharge.

He searches for a safe place to bask in the winter-beaten bracken.

He flattens his body and spreads his scales,

exposing his black heat-absorbing skin to the sun.

Adders are becoming increasingly rare across much of Britain.

Wild Welsh moorland like this is one of their last strongholds.

Warmed and re-energized,

he speeds off.

Mice, beware.

The cold weather has delayed much of the breeding season.

But in the Wye Valley, in the more sheltered south,

a pair of dippers are busy nest-building.

Or, at least, one of them is.

While the male gathers suitable material,

the female is more interested in preening.

She needs to keep herself in good condition.

She's about to spend more than two weeks sat on the nest.

She's also spreading a waterproofing oil through her feathers...

..which is going to come in handy,

because they've chosen to nest behind a waterfall.

Dippers are found on the upper reaches

of most of the country's rivers.

They're a testament to the health of Wales' wild waterways.

In Snowdonia, the spring sunshine is finally warming

Wales' highest mountains.

And with it comes new life.

FOAL NEIGHS

Only a few days old, this foal relies on mum...

..who is a source of comfort,

food...

..and a much-needed windbreak.

His new family is a herd of 25 wild Carneddau ponies.

One stallion.

12 mares.

A few yearlings.

And lots of newborn foals.

This youngster has competition for his mother's affections.

The herd's stallion.

It won't be long before she's ready to mate again.

He checks if she's in season.

Known as the flehmen response,

he lifts his top lip, enhancing his sense of smell.

He's got his work cut out.

All of his mares are coming into oestrus at the same time.

NEIGHING

If one is not quite ready, she'll let him know.

MARE SCREECHES, STALLION SNORTS

But it's not just the mares he has to keep an eye on.

He's surrounded by rivals

who'll sneak a chance to mate with his females.

Or even steal them for their own herds.

STALLION NEIGHS

Another stallion has entered his territory.

He's younger and much smaller...

..but still a threat.

After sizing each other up,

it's the young stallion that lands the first bite.

DRAMATIC MUSIC

NEIGHING

The big stallion has had enough.

Time to see this upstart off.

STALLION NEIGHS

Job done.

He heads back to his mares.

And in the nick of time.

The breeding season is finally getting started.

The stallion has a busy few weeks ahead of him.

It's April.

Wales is bathed in sunshine.

Warm winds from the continent bring hundreds of thousands of birds,

which have migrated all the way from Africa.

The Dyfi Estuary, just north of Aberystwyth,

welcomes the largest of these long-distance travellers.

Ospreys.

Every day brings more arrivals from the south.

Disused ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil provide the perfect nesting sites

for hundreds of sand martins.

CHIRPING

Hot on their tails are their more familiar cousins.

One swallow may not make a summer,

but it is a sign that spring is under way.

On the north coast, not far from the Dee Estuary,

is a very special habitat.

A series of freshwater pools among the sand dunes.

It's the end of the first properly warm day of spring...

..and the water in this pool has reached a critical temperature.

It's about to host an extraordinary gathering.

And like all the best parties, it'll start when the sun goes down.

CROAKING

A natterjack toad.

There are less than 300 in Wales,

making it one of the country's rarest animals.

CROAKING

The males are singing to attract a mate.

But this small one has a problem.

He's surrounded by bigger rivals that can sing louder and longer

and draw in more partners.

Singing this loud takes a lot of energy.

And our little Casanova

just hasn't got what it takes.

But he does have a plan.

First, he needs to locate a particularly loud male.

LOUD CROAKS

This one should do nicely.

He needs to get as close to him as possible.

The pond is full of males in mating mode,

but, as yet, no females.

On a night like tonight, it's easy to get things wrong.

Even the biggest, loudest males get mistaken.

Awkward.

Our little natterjack is also getting some unwanted attention.

Free at last.

He's nearly reached his goal.

Finally, he's in position and ready for action.

The song of the large male can be heard more than a mile away.

This female is homing in on his call.

CROAKING

Quietly, patiently,

the little male waits.

He's spotted her.

The big toad seems oblivious to her approach.

Our little hero wastes no time.

While the big male appears lost in his own song.

CROAKING

Sometimes, size really doesn't matter.

In Wales, you're never too far from wildlife.

Even in Cardiff, the capital city.

People rush past,

unaware of the urban romance playing out alongside them.

Great crested grebes - arguably one of Britain's

most flamboyant and beautiful water birds -

are a regular sight on Bute East Dock.

The pair bred here last year,

but then separated to spend the winter feeding apart.

Now it's time to rekindle their relationship.

And they do that with a dance.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

First, they mirror each other's movements.

The exchange of gifts is a key part of any long-term relationship.

And for grebes, nothing says commitment

better than a beak-full of pond weed.

With their bonds renewed,

the pair are ready to begin nest-building.

They're a bit behind their neighbours, the coots -

proud parents of five colourful chicks.

CHICKS SQUAWK

But with their partnership strengthened by the weed dance,

the grebes are working as one.

It won't be long before they have a boisterous brood of their own.

For many, a favourite sign of this season

is the ever-vibrant daffodil.

Their emergence is several weeks late,

but, finally, gardens and parks are lit up

by Wales' national flower.

These large blousy daffodils are very different

from their wild ancestors.

In ancient glades across the country,

wild daffodils' tender shoots have had to cope

with unusually harsh weather.

Small and delicate,

they're less than half the size of their domesticated descendants.

In folklore, wild daffodils are said to represent hope...

folly...and unrequited love.

A true folly would be to eat one.

The daffodil is highly poisonous

with most of the toxins stored in the bulb.

It's early May.

The daffodils may have been late, but spring is back on track.

The bluebells...

..and wild garlic emerge right on time.

An ancient deer park in west Wales.

For centuries, this land has been the territory

of the same family.

And here, in this glade of venerable oaks,

is their ancestral home.

The first of the clan emerges.

A big boar.

At eight years of age,

he's the oldest in the family.

Other adults are quick to follow.

They're making the most of what spring has to offer.

The younger badgers are more tentative.

Several generations of badgers are living here.

Like many family get-togethers,

there's always the odd squabble.

BADGERS SQUEAK AND GROWL

For such social animals, badgers can be surprisingly bad-tempered.

BADGERS GROWL

This evening is a very special occasion.

For more than two months,

the clan's youngest members have remained hidden.

Mum coaxes them out of the set.

This is the newborn cub's first look at the outside world.

There's lots of new sights to take in.

And smells.

The bigger cub is minding his own business,

while his little sister just wants to play.

The cub's antics might look light-hearted,

but jostling for position in the family's pecking order starts here.

But they need to be careful.

Older badgers have been known to kill young cubs

which step out of line.

Mum's not taking any risks.

Time to put the youngsters back to bed.

Around the Welsh coast,

the return of the sun is also warming the sea

and marine creatures are getting ready to breed.

A lesser-spotted catshark.

A nudibranch.

And an octopus.

The underwater world will soon be filled with new life.

And above the surface, the season is moving up a gear.

Four miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire

lie some of Wales' wildest places.

Isolated and barren,

for most of the year these islands are quiet.

On Skokholm, herring gulls patrol empty cliff tops.

But in spring,

the island becomes one of the world's most important

sea bird breeding sites.

And home to some iconic visitors.

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

Puffins.

10,000 of them.

For the last eight months, they've been far out at sea,

but now they've returned to the island to breed.

They head to the exact same burrow they used last year.

But not everyone has made it back.

Puffins pair for life.

But at the end of last summer, they separated

and spent the winter apart...

..foraging alone in the open ocean.

It's only now that some discover that their partner

hasn't made it through the long, stormy winter.

PUFFIN CHIRPS AND MOANS

The cliff tops are full of lonely puffins.

For the lucky pairs that have made it back,

it's time for a romantic reunion.

The burrows closest to the sea with easy access to the rich waters

are prime real estate.

Any young couples looking for their first home

will find this a very competitive market.

PUFFINS GROWL

PUFFINS GROWL

Disputes over,

the puffin pairs settle back into their underground nests.

Like any property abandoned for most of the year,

the burrows could do with a little maintenance.

Cleaning out a collapsed chamber

is a necessary, but messy business.

Once the digging is done,

it's time to spruce the place up.

Although some parents may be a little ambitious

with their interior design.

In a few days' time, they'll lay their single egg.

But this island is no paradise.

The puffins have one big problem.

The neighbours from hell.

These gulls will steal the puffins' food...

..and eat their young.

PUFFINS GROAN

Skokholm, Skomer and the other wild Welsh islands

are internationally important breeding sites for sea birds.

Razor bills.

Fulmars.

Guillemots.

More than a million birds in all.

It's going to be a busy summer around the Welsh coast.

This has been a season of extremes.

After a freezing start,

spring has warmed rapidly.

It's now the second week of May

and temperatures are soaring.

The dunes of Ynyslas, just north of Aberystwyth on the west coast.

One of Wales' most extreme environments.

The sun-baked sand reaches scorching temperatures.

And it's so dry that only a few specialised plants grow here.

It is, in effect, a desert.

And here be dragons.

Or, rather, a sand lizard.

One of Wales' rarest reptiles,

found in only a handful of places along the coast.

This one's a male and he's a bit of a player.

His testosterone levels are peaking.

Now he wants to mate with as many partners as possible.

He's in luck.

The dunes are full of females.

They're much less showy...

..and remain hidden.

With good reason.

But our reckless Romeo is ready to risk all...

..and breaks cover.

He has little chance of spotting a female,

but he's not giving up.

He tastes the air

and picks up her scent.

She's hiding somewhere in this clump of marram grass.

But there's another reptile in the dunes.

A grass snake.

And he's hunting lizard.

A deadly game of hide and seek begins.

Like the lizard, the snake has sharp eyes.

And an amazing sense of smell.

But our lizard has something the snake does not.

Ears.

RUSTLING

TWIG SNAPS

A lucky escape.

But there's no time to rest.

He's immediately back on the hunt for females

in Wales' miniature Sahara.

With every passing day,

the sun grows in strength,

warming land and sea.

Migrants have returned.

Bonds have been renewed.

Food is abundant.

A stormy start to spring is long forgotten.

Now it's time for the breeding season to get properly under way.

To capture Wales' animals in all their glory,

the team relied on passionate people

who study, live and work alongside wildlife.

And filming the Carneddau ponies was no different.

For hundreds of years, these wild animals have shared their mountains

with generations of farmers and their livestock.

Steady, girl.

Gareth Wyn Jones' family have lived here

for more than three centuries and his sheep still graze these hills.

Right, let's have a look if you've had a drink.

Heh-hey!

LAMB BLEATS

Yeah, that adoption is successful.

Happy days.

Gareth has grown up with these wild animals and knows the herds

that roam this side of the mountains better than anyone.

He's taking cameraman Ben Tutton up to film the ponies.

So, the farm's just under me here

and the open mountain here, you know, is a big back garden.

It's really, really massive.

But the ponies stay in their same groups, social groups,

and stay in what we call a heft or an area of mountain

where they'll always graze,

and that's what we'll try and look for today.

We'll look for these individual groups and these young foals -

some that have just been born in the last few days.

As well as filming newborn foals, Ben wants to focus on one stallion

and his struggle to keep his herd together.

But the 300 ponies that live here

are spread out across 27,000 acres

and are constantly on the move.

Ben is relying on Gareth's intimate knowledge

to put him in the right spot.

There we go.

Young foal.

Just under us here is one of the older mares, a white mare,

and she's foaled about a week ago.

What she's done is, the wind's coming this way,

so she's come into this dip just for a little bit of shelter.

If they think you're a threat or going to be hunting them,

they're going to run away,

so once you build a little bit of confidence, make yourself low,

and you get closer and closer to them

without making too much noise

and then you can really, you know, you can really get very, very close.

Though there's no sign of any stallions,

Gareth is delighted to see the herd's new additions.

My family's been making a living

off this land for over 350 years,

when the parish records began in the village,

and I feel very, very connected to this land

and something that connects me more than anything

are these ponies.

To think it's been such a hard, tough, wet winter, you know,

they're really, really looking well.

But not every winter has treated these ponies so kindly.

2013 took a particularly heavy toll.

I'll never forget the day we buried them.

Over 100 altogether, which was very, very depressing.

Very, very...soul destroying.

But after finishing burying them, I came down,

and my father was in the window

and he knocked on the window and he says, "Come in."

And he said to me, "Don't forget one thing.

"This happened in 1947 and 1963."

He'd seen 200 ponies frozen on their feet up on the mountains.

And he said to me, "This is how nature works. It culls them."

And what you'll see is the strongest, that nucleur herd,

will survive and it will make them stronger.

And that's what it is. This is what makes these ponies special.

Gareth is confident the herd stallion will be nearby.

You'll see. You'll know the difference, Ben!

Gareth was right.

A stallion is never too far from his mares.

But tomorrow, Ben will be on his own,

so Gareth gives him some top tips.

Search this area. He won't be far.

Look for these younger foals.

Look for that mare particularly. Uh-huh.

Yeah? Just scan the whole area first.

Just get an idea.

And then once you've got that, focus on these and keep following.

And then we should find him. GARETH LAUGHS

It is a needle in a haystack, I have told you.

It's quite a big haystack. Yeah!

27,000 acres of haystack.

So not...not too much driving around! No!

Over the next few days, Gareth's guidance enables Ben

to capture some of the most intimate moments

of these wild animals' lives.

Wales is one of Europe's more mountainous countries

and the views from its many peaks are breathtaking by day

and by night.

To film after dark, the team needed the help of a nocturnal cameraman.

ALARM PLAYS

Alyn Wallace is heading out to work

just as everyone else is commuting home.

Not far from Alyn's base in Pontypridd

is one of the darkest corners of Wales.

We've got a beautiful clear sky forecast tonight,

so I've come up to the Elan Valley and mid Wales,

which is a dark sky park.

We should enjoy a nice moonset and then, once the moon does set,

the Milky Way should come up

and we'll see a lot more stars in the sky as well.

Because there are no major towns or cities in mid Wales,

you just get 360 degrees of dark skies.

You've just got complete darkness.

It's one of my favourite places to come and shoot.

We're quite lucky in Wales, because we have a lot of dark sky areas

and we are a world leader in protection against light pollution.

So it doesn't matter where you are in Wales,

if you're in the north, the south, mid, east or west,

there are dark skies right on your doorstep.

And even if you're in our capital city, Cardiff,

you can take a 30-minute drive to the Glamorgan Heritage Coast

from where you can see the Milky Way.

So I've grown up with a passion for space

and just all things, sort of, astronaut and observing,

and I've always been in love with the night sky,

especially living here in Wales.

Though Alyn uses a regular stills camera and lens,

it's his expert knowledge of the night sky

that enables him to get such stunning footage.

So we've got some noctilucent clouds out tonight.

These are the highest known clouds in existence.

They're about 85km up in the mesosphere.

So, these clouds are actually over the polar regions right now.

They're really far away.

As the sun goes below the horizon,

it catches the underneath of these clouds

and lights them up and causes them to glow in the night sky.

You just get this really gorgeous glow

and all the tendrils and, sort of, ripples in these clouds.

You can't mistake them.

It's absolutely beautiful.

Sleepless nights are, sort of, part and parcel with this.

Once you're out under the stars you just don't want to go to sleep.

You want to spend as long as you possibly can under the night skies.

You do sacrifice things like a social life

and I do spend a lot of my days like a zombie,

but it's always worth it.

Alyn's work has attracted the attention of NASA

and his dedication has enabled him to capture

some truly extraordinary sights.

Seeing the Northern Lights in Wales is very rare.

You really have to keep an eye on the sun's activity.

The sun will send charged particles towards Earth

and then, once there's a possibility that there might be Aurora,

you also have to have clear skies, which is also quite rare in Wales.

It was one of the most surreal nights of my life

just watching pillars of light, sort of, dancing and ebbing

and flowing in the night sky.

And I think spending a night under the stars

is one of the most therapeutic ways that you can spend your time

and it just completely de-stresses you

and all your sort of worries just fade away

and you just can't go wrong with a night under the stars.

Next time, Wales is full of new life.

Predators are on the hunt.

The race to breed is on.