Original subtitles

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Every winter, over half of Asia is transformed.

Snow and ice stretch across the continent.

Here in the north, forests, mountains

and even deserts freeze over.

And in the heart of Siberia lies a sub-zero world unlike any other.

Lake Baikal.

It's the oldest and deepest lake on Earth...

..with depths of over a mile.

For three months of the year, it's locked under a layer of ice

up to two metres thick.

WIND HOWLS

Powerful winds blast its surface...

..carving the ice into strange shapes.

But this beauty is created by a brutal reality.

This is one of the hardest places on Earth

in which to sustain life.

Here, beneath the snow and ice,

lives an animal that is found nowhere else.

SEAL COOS

Baikal seals give birth

to their pups in hidden dens.

SEAL CHITTERS

This pup is alone.

SEAL SNIFFS, CHITTERS

Its mother is away hunting for food.

SEAL SNIFFS, CHITTERS

The world above is no place for a newborn pup.

SEAL CHITTERS

But as the days get longer...

..and the sun rises higher in the sky...

ICE CRACKS

..30 billion tonnes of ice start to melt.

SEAL CHITTERS

SEAL CHITTERS

WATER SPLASHES

SEAL GROWLS

SEAL WHIMPERS, GROWLS

The pup is stranded alone.

SEAL GROWLS SOFTLY

SEAL WHIMPERS

Its calls travel across the lake.

SEAL GROWLS SOFTLY

Mothers recognise the cries of their young.

WATER SLOSHES

SEAL GROWLS, WHIMPERS

She must help it to swim away from its birthplace...

..to the edge of the ice sheet...

SEAL GROWLS SOFTLY

..and that could be over a mile away.

PUP GROWLS

Adult seals can stay under the ice for half an hour.

But pups can only hold their breath for a matter of minutes.

There is no air-hole in sight.

Now the mother does something remarkable.

She stops swimming...

..and appears to start blowing bubbles...

..which merge to create an air pocket...

..just big enough to allow the pup to take a breath.

This extraordinary behaviour isn't yet fully documented...

..but it may be that it enables the pups, with their tiny lungs,

to swim between air holes...

..and so reach part of the lake that is ice-free.

SEALS GROWL SOFTLY

As far as is known, this astonishing behaviour only occurs here,

in Baikal.

In winter, most of North Asia's lakes

and rivers are almost entirely frozen over.

But 2,000 miles away, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido,

there is a river where ice never forms.

As winter arrives, the air begins to glitter.

Rising steam meets extreme cold

and creates floating particles of ice.

These thermal springs are an important meeting

place for one of Asia's most handsome birds.

BIRD CAWS

Red-crowned cranes.

Here in Japan, they're regarded

as symbols of love and longevity.

THEY CAW

This nine-month-old chick

is on the verge of independence...

THEY CAW

..but still has much to learn.

One of the most important things is how to dance.

Couples, it's believed, pair for life.

THEY CAW

Dancing brings them together

and keeps their relationship alive.

The steps are complex and varied.

Leaps...

..high kicks...

..and bows.

BIRD CAWS

Maybe we don't fully appreciate the finer points.

BIRDS CHIRPING

But for the cranes,

dancing is an essential prelude to establishing a family.

THEY CAW

Juveniles practise the moves by themselves.

They watch the adults closely...

..then repeat them to potential partners.

BIRDS CHIRPING, CAWING

IT CHIRPS

Oh, dear.

IT CAWS

But they still have a few years in which to get things right.

Becoming one of Asia's most graceful dancers

does take time and a lot of practice.

Warm springs like these

remain open throughout the winter.

But to the west, in the heart of Asia,

there are no such havens.

Part of the Tibetan Plateau

is covered by a vast frozen desert.

It's one of the most hostile environments imaginable.

Very few animals can live here, 4,000 metres up.

The air is thin and dry.

And the temperature frequently drops

to well below -30 degrees Celsius.

Some animals stay permanently on the move

in a never-ending search for food.

A lone wolf.

SQUEAKING

He must find and take down prey entirely by himself.

SQUEAKS

And that is not easy.

WOLF PANTS

These are Tibetan antelope

known as chiru.

It's the rutting season.

ANTLERS CLATTER

Fighting is intense and energy-sapping.

A tired chiru will be easier to catch.

ANTELOPES GROWL

But these antelope have large, powerful hearts and lungs.

And when sprinting, they can reach speeds of 50mph.

That is almost 10mph faster than a wolf.

But the wolf's greatest talent is endurance.

And, given time, this one may be able to exhaust a chiru.

After being chased unrelentingly for several hours,

the chiru herd splits.

Now, it's one-on-one.

Himalayan wolves have probably lived at this altitude

for half a million years and, as a consequence,

they have evolved quite extraordinary stamina.

No other predator can match the wolf's endurance

in the extreme conditions of the Tibetan Plateau.

To the north lies an immense expanse of forest.

It encircles the globe, but the majority of it grows in Asia.

And the richest part is where

Russia, China and North Korea meet.

OINKING

There are wild boar here that can grow

to the size of European brown bears

and weigh a quarter of a tonne.

HOGS GRUNT

As prey becomes bigger,

so do the predators that hunt it.

The Amur tiger.

This corner of the forest is their last stronghold.

You could live a lifetime amongst these trees

and never see one...

..let alone two.

They are the undisputed rulers here.

But when night falls, other giants awaken.

HOOTING

OWL SCREECHES

These are the largest owls in the world.

OWL CHIRPS

The mother is keeping her chick warm...

..so the father must provide food.

He knows exactly where to find it.

But to catch it...

..he needs a set of special skills.

This is a Blakiston's fish owl.

He has exceptional night vision.

Even in the gloom,

he can spot the flash of a fin

in the turbulent water.

Parent birds share duties.

One patrols the river...

..while the other waits patiently

for a delivery of food.

It's a relationship built on trust...

..where one partner expects the other to play its part.

OWL SCREECHES

Somebody has waited long enough.

If you want something done,

it's best to do it yourself.

CHICK SCREECHING

SCREECHING CONTINUES

For this chick, dinner is now served.

And it seems that someone is out in the cold

for the rest of the night.

The larger you are, the better you are

at withstanding the cold.

The smaller, the more dangerous it can be.

Sometimes almost three quarters of all small birds

perish during the winter.

Long-tailed tits are amongst the most vulnerable...

..so they are always looking for something edible.

Deer, when really hungry, often nibble bark,

and that helps the birds.

Even the smallest of wounds...

..can release a dribble of sap.

Here, when temperatures drop,

the emerging liquid can freeze...

..and form...

..icicles.

And if the tree is a maple tree...

..then the icicles will be full of sugar.

A real delicacy.

A sapsicle.

It's rich in energy...

..and delicious.

These sweet treats could, in fact,

make the difference between life and death.

But they don't last long.

In only a few short hours...

..the banquet is over.

In the far north-east of Russia, the Kamchatka Peninsula.

It lies on the edge of what is often called the Pacific Ring of Fire...

..a circle of volcanoes.

Kamchatka has one of the greatest concentrations of them

to be found anywhere.

ERUPTION

7,000 years ago,

a series of massive eruptions

created a very special place. WATER SLOSHES

This colossal crater lake

is one of the largest salmon spawning

grounds in the world.

PANTING

But this mother bear is struggling to find enough to feed herself

and her cubs.

BIRD CAWS IN DISTANCE

They must hibernate soon...

..but if they are to survive their winter sleep,

these two cubs need to put on a lot of weight.

She must find food for them urgently.

But she must also keep her cubs safe.

There are males patrolling this area...

..and they don't like to share.

BIRDS CAWING

An adult male could easily kill her cubs.

This male wants these waters for himself.

And it's easy to see why.

A single salmon can contain 4,000 calories.

He needs all that, as fat and protein,

to sustain himself through the winter.

And her cubs do, too.

But it is too dangerous to stay here.

In winter, there is barely anything to eat in these woods.

They will have to find a new place to fish.

And with each passing day,

the weather is getting worse.

Her daughter seems to be coping...

BEARS HUFF

..but her son is becoming increasingly exhausted.

He is struggling...

HE GROWLS

HE WHEEZES

..and losing strength.

HE WHEEZES

THEY GROWL

BIRD CAWING

HE PANTS

Despite her very best efforts,

she simply can't find enough food for all three of them.

HE GROWLS

BIRD CAWING

HE GRUNTS

For her son, it may already be too late.

HE GRUNTS

SHE HUFFS, PANTS

SHE GROWLS

SHE GROANS

She refuses to give up.

GRUNTING

She has done all she can.

SHE GROWLS

Even finding the strength to feed

seems to be an effort for him.

HE GROWLS

THEY GROWL

GROWLING CONTINUES

SHE GROWLS

With winters like this,

only half of the cubs will survive their first year.

But this mother's determination...

..has given both her cubs a chance.

To the west, further inland in central Siberia...

..temperatures can drop well below -60 degrees Celsius.

It's colder than much of Antarctica.

The freezing Siberian winds travel all the way to Japan,

where they combine with moisture from the ocean...

..and there they create drifts

deep enough to bury a house.

This tiny mammal was buried alive five months ago.

It's now entombed in snow.

But, remarkably...

..it's alive.

It is an Ussurian tube-nosed bat...

..which hibernates in the snow,

safe from predators.

They manage to survive by slowing down their hearts

to one beat a minute.

In the spring, the bats awake from their long sleep.

But their body temperature has dropped to near-freezing,

and they can't produce sufficient energy

to fly until they've warmed up.

Intense shivering heats their muscles to 30 degrees Celsius...

..and their pulse rises from one beat a minute...

..to over 300.

Animals that live in places that are snowbound for half the year

need very special survival strategies.

And no part of northern Japan

is safe from the deep freeze of winter.

Even the seas turn to ice.

Red foxes have learned that, despite appearances...

..there is food to be had here.

ENGINE RATTLING

You just need to wait

for the right moment.

ENGINE STARTS

Opportunities like this don't stay secret for long.

BIRDS CAWING

Birds.

THEY CAW

They arrive in great numbers.

Black kites, white-tailed eagles...

BIRDS CHIRP AND CAW

..and most powerful of all...

..Steller's sea eagles.

With a wingspan of over two metres,

they are one of the largest and most formidable

of the world's raptors.

BIRDS CAW AND CHIRP

CAWING AND CHIRPING CONTINUES

A real threat to any fox.

BIRDS CAW

If it is to eat,

this fox will have to ignore their attacks.

BIRD CHIRPS AND CAWS

BIRD CROAKS

BIRDS SCREECH

Collecting a fish is one thing.

Keeping it is quite another.

BIRD SCREECHES

FOX GROWLS

This is impossible.

BIRDS CAWING

The birds are just too aggressive.

But occasionally, their continuous fighting

works to a fox's advantage.

BIRDS CHIRP

FOX GROWLS

For many in the far north of Asia,

sea ice is essential to survival.

Off the coast of Arctic Russia,

an enormous area of the sea

freezes each winter.

It can cover an expanse

twice the size of Australia.

But lately, this has become one

of the most unpredictable of habitats.

POLAR BEAR PANTS

This polar bear is swimming in search of sea ice

from which to hunt.

Polar bears can swim for days at a time

and travel over 100 miles without leaving the water.

Yet recently, the ice has been hard to find...

..and the bears have been forced instead...

WAVES CRASH

..to take to dry land.

Coming ashore here... POLAR BEAR GROWLS

..could be risky.

But there's nowhere else to go.

And there is, in fact,

plenty to explore on this strange island.

It is an abandoned Soviet weather station...

..and a dozen or so other bears have strayed here.

The usually solitary animals are now sharing this village,

here, at the end of the world.

And it seems that newcomers are tolerated.

Slowly starving,

they must wait and hope that conditions will improve.

Strong winds usually blow the sea ice away from these islands.

But occasionally, the opposite happens.

Arctic winds blow ice eastward from Greenland

along the northern coast of Asia.

It gathers around the islands...

ICE SHATTERS

POLAR BEAR GROANS

..and creates a polar bear playground.

POLAR BEAR GROWLS

POLAR BEAR GRUNTS

Favourable winds like these are an unreliable lifeline.

But for now, the bears are in their element.

Despite the lethal extremes,

some animals have found truly extraordinary ways

of surviving

and even triumphing...

WATER SPLASHES

ICE SHATTERS

..here in Asia's frozen north.

When the Frozen crew travelled to the Tibetan Plateau...

..they were met by some ominous weather conditions.

I don't know how the driver can keep driving. I can't see anything.

Wow.

We're coming in and out of, like, these dust storms,

and it's really, really bad.

Not looking forward to going out there, not going to lie!

Jacky's mission over the coming weeks

is to film the elusive chiru antelope.

But he's got his work cut out.

Just getting to the filming location every day means negotiating

this huge, frozen area.

The crew's first strategy is to set up a hide on top of a lake.

Chiru have been known to come here to eat minerals in the soil.

It's a pretty good spot.

Right on the ice.

Pretty good place.

I think today's about -25,

and the hide is actually frozen.

Just beneath my feet and the tripod is just really thick ice,

and I don't think that helps.

I'm just going to try to keep warm as much as I can,

and hopefully chirus will come along sometime soon.

As each day goes by...

..still no luck.

WIND HOWLS Argh. Whoa!

Argh!

Woo. Argh, God.

Just absolutely freezing, like, sitting in the hide all day.

The conditions are taking their toll.

And back at the hotel,

there's little relief from the altitude.

I heard a big explosion in the middle of the night.

We bought some supplies to eat in the tent,

and because of the altitude, it exploded.

HE CHUCKLES

Everything is super pressurised.

Jacky's sleep-tracker shows a disrupted pattern.

Just... Just... You just can't really sleep.

You're lacking oxygen and struggling for breath every morning.

HE GROANS

Oh, I've got a headache.

Maybe being in the great outdoors

will help clear Jacky's head.

We have been sitting in the hide for the last few days,

and we haven't seen any chiru willing to come close.

We might have to change the strategy unfortunately.

If the chiru won't come to the team,

the team must go to the chiru.

But this is easier said than done.

Yeah, it's really difficult.

Every time we get as close as maybe 500 metres to a herd,

they run away,

so we can't really film any action.

We really need to think of a strategy to get close.

Otherwise we're probably not going to bring home anything.

Frustratingly, the only approachable chiru

is a dead one...

..killed by a wolf.

Such a shame. We're, like, a day late.

Such a shame.

So fresh as well.

Two weeks go by

with little more than glimpses.

THEY SPEAK CHINESE

Until one morning...

..an opportunity comes out of the blue.

Look at that guy! Just right there on the window, over there.

It's still walking towards us.

What?!

Most wolves run from humans.

It's very rare to get close to one in the wild.

Perfect.

I don't think we're going to get any lunch by this rate,

because if this individual's not afraid of people, then we'll

probably follow him the whole day.

Let's go. That's awesome. Very exciting indeed.

After four weeks of failure with the chiru,

the wolf is an appealing alternative.

WOLF PANTS

It's just really odd how we get out of the car,

try to film him,

he'll walk away.

But then, about 100 metres,

he'll stop, wait for us.

Literally just looking at us as we approach.

And he just stays there, and then maybe another 100 metres,

he'll wait.

I don't know, it feels like he's trying to tell us

something or lead us somewhere, you know?

I'm hoping that that's the case.

Jacky launches the drone to get closer.

To the team's surprise, the wolf shows no reaction.

Ha-ha!

That is not what we set out to do,

but we did manage to get some awesome shots.

But then, suddenly, the wolf picks up the pace

and starts to hunt.

Right there, we can see the wolf. It's just been crazy.

And he doesn't stop.

He's been chasing forever.

DRONE WHIRS

With the sun about to set...

We changed twice on the battery.

..and the crew on their last drone battery,

they hope it'll keep working long enough to record the entire hunt.

DRONE: Low battery warning. Oh, my days!

I mean, honestly, this is absolutely unbelievable.

I was thinking, "There's no way he's going

"to be able to catch that, no way."

It was just chasing the chiru all over the place,

and then suddenly just caught one.

Crazy! I can't believe it.

We almost gave up. The drone had low battery.

I... It literally...forced landing.

It's something that we dreamt of, but just think, "That's impossible,

"there's no way we can film anything like that. Not a hunt, not here."

But, in fact, just... Ha!

Yeah, words can't even describe how excited I was.

The team's patience and persistence...

..has allowed them to capture something far greater

than they ever hoped.

Next time, we journey into the tangled world of Asia's jungles...

..home to the continent's most iconic species...

..all perfectly equipped for a life amongst the trees.

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