Original subtitles

-Europe... a continent renowned for its spectacular cities

and civilizations.

But this is a surprisingly wild land,

with over 10 million square kilometers

of diverse natural habitat...

stretching from the northernmost reaches of the arctic...

to the crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

And across this extraordinary continent,

an epic transformation is under way...

as the wild heart of Europe is unleashed once more.

People are supporting the natural world.

-Let's go to the nest and see how the chick is.

-Species are being reintroduced.

-He's not sleeping very well, so we have to be really fast.

-And nature itself is bouncing back.

[ Growling ]

[ Roaring ]

The circle of life is bring reforged...

as the wild returns to Europe.

In Spain and Portugal,

an astonishing project is under way...

to reverse the effectsof a centuries-old extinction...

and secure the future of one of the rarest cats in the world

here in Europe's new wild.

-Iberia.

Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean...

and the Mediterranean Sea.

On the west coast of Europe...

this vast peninsula is home to Spain and Portugal...

...as well as some of the most diverse landscapes

on the continent.

♪♪

Scores of unique species live here.

[ Birds chirping ]

Its national parks host millions of migrating birds

and hundreds of mammals...

...including the rare Iberian wolf...

♪♪

...as well as the most endangered cat in the world...

...the elusive Iberian lynx.

These cats are known for their black ear tufts...

...and their long cheek fur, called ruffs.

♪♪

Specially adapted to Iberia's dry, arid landscape,

the lynx's sandy coat

allows it to camouflage amid brush and rock.

Lynx are generally nocturnal.

But in the winter, these solitary cats

become active during the day.

A highly effective predator,

its hearing is eight times sharper than a human's.

And its large eyes allow it to see well, night and day,

advantages it uses to stalk its prey.

♪♪

♪♪

European rabbits evolved here in the Iberian Peninsula.

And many of the region's predators

specialize in hunting them.

♪♪

[ Squeals ]

They're a lifeline for hungry hunters.

[ Chirping ]

But in the northern peninsula, like other parts of Europe,

there's a place where the predator-prey balance

has been disrupted...

...where the circle of life has been broken

and where the lynx has not been present for many years.

The Côa Valley in Portugal lies nestled

between the Douro River and the Malcata mountains.

Its dramatic river gorges and vast grasslands

may look vibrant.

But as the land degraded,

many animals disappeared from the area.

And predators are rarely seen.

The Côa Valley is ripe for rewilding...

♪♪

...helping native species return...

so nature can take care of itself

and work as it's meant to.

In Portugal, efforts began

in the Valley's Faia Brava Reserve.

Pedro Prata is a conservation biologist

and the Rewilding Portugal Team Leader.

-What we want to achieve

is a habitat where wildlife is abundant

and prey and predator and scavengers

can be commonly seen in this landscape.

-Pedro and his team are on an urgent mission...

To start building from the ground up

and transform the land and lure back wildlife,

like the Iberian lynx.

[ Birds chirping, animals croaking ]

The key to this transformation...

is grazers and prey animals...

...like those in Spain's Doñana National Park.

Here, large herbivores, like red deer, help shape the landscape.

Their constant grazing creates open meadows,

which makes food available for smaller animals.

[ Deer grunting ]

Female red deer gather at the best grazing sites

where food is plentiful.

In mating season, savvy males seek out these open meadows.

[ Grunting ]

♪♪

A dominant male tries to round up fertile females

to create a harem.

[ Grunting continues ]

♪♪

He's persistent...

[ Roaring ]

...roaring to show his dominance...

[ Roaring continues ]

...and flicking his tongue tocatch scent of their pheromones.

♪♪

[ Roaring ]

His roaring is a warning to other mature males

and potential competitors.

Finally, his hard work pays off.

♪♪

In the Côa Valley, the loss of wild herbivores

has had a huge impact.

And now livestock herds are vanishing, too.

Just like deer, livestock animals graze constantly.

[ Sheep bleating ]

Each sheep eats about 2% of its body weight per day...

♪♪

...which means they spend most of their life

tucking into greenery.

♪♪

This constant eating eventually creates open spaces...

...which can provide micro-habitats

for other animals.

But as domestic animals disappear from the landscape,

brush and scrub quickly takes over.

♪♪

The Côa Valley has some of the highest rates

of land abandonment in Europe.

As farmers left the countryside to start lives in the city,

livestock disappeared.

Land that was once clear transformed.

The dense shrubs and bushes that grow back

limit the variety of plants and trees that can grow.

And that leads to less wildlife.

It also produces dry brush,

which helps fuel devastating wildfires...

like the one in southern Spain.

In June 2017, a forest firebegan near Doñana National Park.

It quickly spread.

Firefighters tackled the blaze throughout the night.

[ Flames crackling ]

But by daybreak, it was clear they were losing the battle.

The El Acebuche Lynx Breeding Centre

stood directly in the fire's path.

It's one of five lynx breeding centers in Iberia.

In the year 2002,

there were only 94 Iberian lynx left on the planet.

The Spanish government started a program to breed cubs

that could be released to live wild

and save the cat from extinction.

As the fire approached, staff at the breeding center

took the unprecedented decision

to evacuate the lynx.

The cats are housed in individual dens.

They have limited contact with people,

so they're cautious,

which makes catching them difficult.

[ Lynx hisses ]

♪♪

Among the cats evacuated

were Homer and her two 5-week-old cubs.

♪♪

Staff managed to catch the three

and move them to safety outside the fire zone.

♪♪

After burning for three days,

the fire was finally brought under control.

Forest fires are natural processes.

But this fire's intensity was fueled

by an ungrazed landscape.

♪♪

Fortunately, the breeding center was spared.

But not all of the evacuated lynx survived the ordeal.

In the aftermath of a 2017 wildfire in southern Spain,

staff returned to the Iberian Lynx Breeding Centre

and to devastating news.

One of the lynx, Homer, died in transit.

Already weak after giving birth to cubs,

the stress of the move proved too much for her.

Paco Villaespesa is the director of the breeding center.

-[ Speaking native language ]

-Homer's two little cubs, Oslo and Opilano,

lost her at a very vulnerable age.

If her cubs are hand-fed,

there's little chance they can live wild,

and they'll spend their lives in captivity.

And this meant the cubs still had a chance of living wild.

[ Purring ]

Iberian lynx generally give birth between March and April.

The average litter size is three,

but rarely do more than two cubs survive weaning.

They stay with mom until they're about 10 months old.

And they spend most of the time playing.

[ Cubs squealing ]

♪♪

It may look like fun and games,

but this helps the cubs develop skills they need in the wild.

Play between siblings

strengthens their social bonds...

and develops physical abilities

for breeding and hunting.

[ Cubs growling ]

♪♪

♪♪

At 4 weeks old, cubs start eating meat.

A lynx needs between 600 and 1,000 calories a day...

...about the same amount of energy

contained in a single rabbit.

A mother lynx will need to catch several rabbits each day

to feed herself and her cubs.

♪♪

They may be small, but rabbits prop up the entire ecosystem.

Their grazing clears the ground so new plants can grow.

Rabbits also make a tasty meal

for a range of Iberian predators.

So their excellent hearing,

which captures sound from up to three kilometers away,

comes in handy when hungry wolf...

and fox are nearby...

[ Animals chattering ]

♪♪

...as well as the Spanish imperial eagle,

which favors anywhere with rabbits.

Just like the lynx,

more than half of the eagle's diet is rabbit.

The eagle is one of Iberia's many predators

that rely on rabbits to survive.

♪♪

♪♪

But then the rabbit population crashed.

Rabbits were once so numerous across Europe,

they became an agricultural pest.

So humans introduced a virus... Myxomatosis.

It ran out of control and killed 90% of Europe's rabbits.

Carnivores like the imperial eagle

started taking other prey.

But not all predators could adjust,

and their numbers plummeted.

To lure predators back to the Côa Valley,

the area needs rabbits.

♪♪

Rather than reintroducing them,

Pedro wants to build up the existing population,

one that has an inbuilt resistance to the deadly virus.

But even estimating the Côa Valley's rabbit population

is a challenge.

-So there's some droppings of rabbit.

Only a few, so it's recent.

-It's an important discovery...

proof that rabbits are in the area.

-See?

So this would be an adult, and this would be a younger one,

two different ages.

-A potential den site nearby explains why.

-There's rocks... loose rocks.

There's bramble and bush,

and so they can do their burrows and breed.

-To encourage the rabbits to breed,

Pedro builds them shelters.

These provide safe spaces for rabbits to hide from predators

and raise their young.

Camera traps...

will catch any animals that come to the site.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

It's a start.

And a promising one.

Because these guys breed like rabbits.

Other species make use of the shelters.

They're ideal perches for birds...

and the perfect resting spot...

for nighttime hunters.

[ Animals chirping ]

Two species of hedgehog make their home in Iberia.

These solitary, nocturnal omnivores

cover more than a kilometer a night foraging for food.

They're covered in thousands of sharp spines, hollow hairs,

which are their defense against predators.

Relying on their senses of smell and hearing,

they search for invertebrates, like slugs and snails...

which make a tasty midnight snack.

♪♪

♪♪

In southern Spain, two cubs orphaned by the wildfire

urgently need the care of an adult lynx.

But with no female available to take them on,

the team makes an unprecedented decision.

A male lynx has never been known to raise cubs.

But the team plans to place the little cubs

with their father, Esparto,

hoping he'll step up and care for them.

They just need to wait for the right moment.

The breeding center's goal is to avoid hand-raising the cubs

so they can live wild one day.

[ Bird squawking ]

While the lynx are prepared for a life in the wild...

the wild also needs to be prepared to support them.

A key measure is preventing wildfires.

Portugal has one of the highest forest-fire rates in Europe.

In Iberia's dry, hot summers,

this vegetation becomes a tinderbox.

But local groups fight fire...

with fire.

Strategic areas are burned to create fire breaks.

These controlled burns

produce 10 times less heat than wildfires...

meaning that plant roots and soil remain undamaged...

...while dry and dense vegetation is burned away.

♪♪

Burning brings other benefits to the land,

as wildlife technician Joao Quadrado explains.

-This will become like an oasis for wildlife.

-These burns increase biodiversity

by making space for new species to grow.

-Just a few weeks after the fire,

we can already see some vegetation growing up.

Roots and the water that's in the ground,

it's completely untouched

and available for the plants to grow fast.

-Controlled burns protect and revitalize

small patches of land.

[ Horse neighs ]

But larger areas need a different approach...

...big herbivores,

like those in Iberia's national parks,

to eat the scrub and clear the land,

creating natural fire breaks.

Garrano wild horses, an ancient local breed,

were reintroduced by Rewilding Europe,

and now 30 roam the Côa Valley.

♪♪

Along with grazing unwanted scrub,

they also provide soft benefits,

which can unleash a chain reaction.

[ Insects buzzing ]

Using its powerful sense of smell,

this dung beetle locates fresh horse droppings

and rolls it into balls.

Often transporting more than1,000 times its own body weight,

the beetle moves the ball over vast distances...

...leaving behind seeds as he goes.

He buries the dung ball, which fertilizes the soil

and helps other plants to grow.

Insects are essential for a healthy ecosystem

and for many of the peninsula's predators...

...like Iberia's little owl.

♪♪

These tiny owls, 20 centimeters tall, favor open countryside.

She hunts in daylight, perchingup high to scan the ground below

for small mammals and insects.

She needs to be alert when there's a hungry brood to feed.

[ Birds chirping ]

Little owls lay their eggs in tree hollows.

Chicks hatch a month later and, within weeks,

gather at the nest's entrance, calling for food.

They won't fledge until they're a month old

and aren't independent till a month after that.

[ Chirping ]

Until then, they rely on their parents for food

at any time of day...

or night.

♪♪

Dinner at last.

And it's delicious!

♪♪

♪♪

Another initiative by the Rewilding Portugal team

is helping creatures return to the area.

Artificial ponds have been established

throughout the reserve.

These provide water for thirsty animals

and habitats for others.

♪♪

Amphibians and insects are attracted

to the humid, moist conditions...

♪♪

...and the plant life thatthrives on the edge of the pond.

Which is ideal for the local frogs.

They can chill out...

...and catch a meal with minimal effort.

Along with the usual suspects,

these small but essential bodies of water...

support a range of birds...

♪♪

...who can prey on the pond's inhabitants.

[ Bird chirping ]

By bringing animals back to the Côa Valley,

natural processes can begin to work again.

The wild horses that the Rewilding Europe team

has introduced

are already transforming the landscape with their appetites.

But they need more muscle...

and more mouths.

So science is turning to a once-extinct species.

At the Côa Museum, copies of cave art show the aurochs,

an extinct wild cow

which once shaped the landscape of all of Europe.

-What you see here actually is a pretty good representation

of what an aurochs was.

It was a huge animal.

They also had this typicallycurved back with a white stripe.

We think the animals were a bit more slenderly built

because they were made for running.

-Hunting and habitat loss pushed these creatures

to remote European forests,

where the last aurochs died in 1627.

But traces of their DNA were left behind.

And with it, scientists had a chance to create an animal

that resembled the aurochs.

-There are so many aurochs skeletons everywhere in Europe.

But you need to have high-quality ancient DNA,

and they found a skeleton in a cave in the U.K.

which was... where the bones are very good conserved

and they could extract quite good amount of DNA.

-Bones from an 8,000-year-old aurochs skeleton

were sequenced to extract DNA.

The genetic material revealed

can then be compared against DNA samples

from modern breeds of wild cows.

This way, scientists can find different breeds

that have similar traits to the aurochs.

-So, if you want to go back to an extinct species,

you want to go and look for all the traits...

horn size, coat colors.

And then we're going back to the traditional breeds,

the primitive breeds.

If they have also ancient looks, they also have ancient material.

And then we say, "Okay, this breed has these nice horns,

which is interesting.

And if we use that breed, we can use it with these and these

and these breeds, 'cause this has nice hair... skin color.

Another one has a nice hair color thing.

The other one has the height, which is very nice."

So all these kind of things we try to combine

and then we can make crosses.

The goal is not to create back the aurochs,

but to create or to bring back an animal

which is self-sufficient.

♪♪

-Today, 100 kilometers outside Amsterdam,

scientists are rebuilding this extinct species.

By crossbreeding cattle that carry aurochs genes,

they're creating a new breed of wild cow...

the Tauros.

-There are still quite a few cattle breeds around

with a lot of features of aurochs.

We try to find those breeds and get them breeding together

to find the way back to an animal

that looks as much like an aurochs as could be.

-With their massive appetites,

they eat nearly 10 kilos of vegetation per day.

And they're just what the Côa Valley needs.

Rewilding Portugal already introduced 20 of them.

And with wild births,

there are now 35 Tauros living in large corrals.

While the plan is to release them to a wider area...

the corrals are an opportunity

to see how Tauros impact the landscape.

♪♪

This is the change in one small area in less than a year.

And this new patchwork landscape

provides niches for many different animals...

...like the partridge.

The red-legged partridge isa key species in this ecosystem.

It needs a varied habitat...

brush and bushes where it can hide from predators...

and make ground nests to lay eggs...

...and also dry, open areas to feed on seeds and insects.

[ Chirping ]

Sara Cascado studies theCôa Valley partridge population.

It's a key food source for many of Iberia's predators.

-Partridge, together with rabbit,

they have many different animals preying on them,

so they are key in the food chains.

We really need to have a healthy population of partridges

for the rest of the ecosystem to be healthy, too.

-So Sara and her team set out to create a partridge census,

which is easier said than done.

Partridge numbers here are low, and the birds are elusive.

♪♪

So Sara must use every trick at her disposal.

She follows any lead, from prints in the sand

to partridge calls.

-We spot... like, we observe individuals and count them

and identify the age

and also we listen, like, try to identify the songs,

listen to the songs

and also determine the numbers of individuals like that.

It's a very important way to verify the conservation actions

and also to understand how the changes in the population

can affect also the population of raptors.

-Herbivores reintroduced here are also doing their part

for the partridge population.

-These animals help out reducing the amount of vegetation

that could potentially burn in case of a fire.

They also help maintaining open areas

that partridges can use for feeding.

-Partridge here once relied heavily on cereal crops.

But as farmers left, this food source disappeared.

And as partridge numbers dropped...

...predators like fox and eagles had less to feed on.

[ Birds chirping ]

So did the lynx.

Lynx mothers must hunt for themselves and their young.

They need large territories to find enough prey.

Even then, keeping cubs fed is a full-time job...

...and a chance for the little ones to learn.

♪♪

♪♪

Watching her hunt is a master class.

♪♪

As they look on, she silently stalks her prey...

...until it's finally in reach.

Then she pounces...

...killing it with a single bite to the neck.

♪♪

Back in Spain, two little cubs who lost their mother

urgently need an adult lynx to care for them

and teach them.

Otherwise, they'll have to be raised by humans.

And that means they'll never live wild.

But with no adult females available,

staff come up with a remarkable plan.

For the first time ever,

lynx cubs will be placed with their father.

The team has no idea how the cubs' father, Esparto,

will react.

He could accept them...

or reject them.

♪♪

But he bonds with them instantly.

And for the first time ever,

a male lynx is seen parenting his offspring.

And he takes the job seriously.

♪♪

♪♪

Hunting is a key skill for captive lynx.

Learning to hunt is a long process...

even with an adult around.

At first they seem intimidated by the prey.

♪♪

Then they try to master the art of ambush...

[ Screeching ]

...which doesn't go very well at first.

And even when they manage to get close,

they come out empty-handed.

The rabbit doesn't even look worried.

It will be a while before these guys can catch a meal.

♪♪

Back in the Côa Valley, anotherspecies needs help finding food.

Vultures nest on steep cliffs like these.

They're perfect for catching rays...

...and hiding precious treasure from predators.

♪♪

Here on the cliff's ledges, vultures lay a single egg

and tenderly nurture their offspring.

♪♪

♪♪

Chicks exercise their wings in preparation for fledging...

...which they'll do between 3 and 4 months of age.

But it's never too early to start practicing.

But there's a problem.

Without any predators around to make kills,

there's not enough food for the vultures to scavenge.

So the Rewilding Team sets up temporary vulture restaurants

to help the vultures until wild prey and predators return.

[ Squawking ]

It may look chaotic, but there's a rigid pecking order.

Larger vultures open up the carcasses,

allowing smaller birds to feed.

Their table manners may leave something to be desired.

But everyone is fed.

Until predators return to the Côa Valley,

these restaurants ensure the vultures' future.

It's not just scavengers that need predators.

Oak forests rely on them to grow.

In autumn, oak trees produce acorns

that fall to the base of the tree.

[ Birds chirping ]

They don't go to waste.

If there are no predators about, the Western Mediterranean mouse

gobbles them up where they find them.

♪♪

♪♪

But if predators are in the area...

...the mice take the acorns far away to eat them in safety

and bury them in burrows.

These acorns can grow into oak trees

a great distance away from where they fell.

Named for their thick bark, cork oaks are native to this region.

And Portugal is home

to the largest cork oak forests in the world.

Cork is more fire-resistant than normal bark,

so these trees are natural fire breaks.

They also support more than 200 animal species...

♪♪

...and dozens of plants.

-A cork oak is an ecosystem in itself.

It harbors many different species.

Lots of bird species use it to nest.

There's all the different crevices of the cork

and the root system and the foliage

that makes different niches for species to thrive.

-By protecting cork trees,

rewilding teams shield the region

and its animals from fire,

helping avoid its devastating effects.

In the nine months since the wildfire in southern Spain,

the land is showing signs of recovery.

And 10-month-old cub Opilano...

taught by his father...

is now a hunter.

♪♪

♪♪

He can feed himself.

It's time to be set free.

♪♪

Across Europe, efforts are under way

to rewild huge areas

of the continent's most important habitats...

...allowing key species to return.

♪♪

At the lynx breeding center in Spain,

cats ready for release undergo a health check

to ensure they won't pass on any illnesses to wild lynx.

To track their movements,

they're fitted with a GPS collar.

Opilano the cub, who lost his mother in the wildfire,

has a clean bill of health and is ready for release.

But his brother, Oslo, fails the test,

forcing him to stay behind at the center.

Once they're freed, lynx can travel great distances...

like Kentaro, a male lynx that was released in 2014...

where he began an epic journey

of nearly 1,000 kilometers.

One of his last locations

was the Côa Valley.

♪♪

Kentaro's visit here brings hope

that lynx could one day resettle the area.

♪♪

But despite such a promising start, things didn't end well.

Just nine months after his journey to the Côa Valley,

Kentaro was struck by a car and killed.

Traffic is one of the leading causes of death

for the Iberian lynx.

♪♪

But there's hope.

Pedro and his team are setting up

new rewilding zones in the Côa Valley.

This network of protected areas near Faia Brava

will allow a host of animals to safely migrate,

settle, and breed.

This year, the Côa Valley rewilding area

is increasing by 300%to more than 120,000 hectares...

♪♪

♪♪

...in the hope that one day

this elusive cat resettles the Côa Valley.

♪♪

♪♪

In southern Spain, months of hard work

are about to pay off

as crowds gather to witness the release of an Iberian lynx.

♪♪

Opilano, the cub who lost his mother in the wildfire,

is being freed,

just like hundreds of captive-bred lynx before him.

♪♪

♪♪

Opilano is free...

...another player restored to Iberia's ecosystem.

♪♪

♪♪

One of the most successful

wildlife reintroduction programs in the world,

now with nearly 600 Iberian lynx,

their conservation status has downgraded

from critically endangered to endangered.

♪♪

-For me, rewilding is a positive outlook into the future.

It brings a new hope,

a new perspective that we're notjust trying to slow down decline

but actually to provide means and opportunity

to reverse that trend.

I think as a human, it brings dignity back to the equation.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-To order "Europe's New Wild" on DVD,

visit ShopPBS or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

Also available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪♪