Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:06His ears rotate independently,
00:00:09always listening out for the ominous crunch of
00:00:13footsteps in the
00:00:14snow.
00:00:14spotted,
00:00:43of of
00:00:47links are agile
00:00:49hunters, though not
00:00:53quite as light on their
00:00:56of feet, which buys the hair.
00:01:00Precious
00:01:00seconds.
00:01:30but no hiding place will be safe for
00:01:35of long.
00:01:41deep in the ucon, snow shoe hair
00:01:44freezes, not from cold, but from
00:01:47fear. Canada links don't
00:01:50of give up on dinner
00:01:51easily,
00:01:55so escape must be timed to
00:01:58perfection.
00:02:13With the help of those snow shoes, he can hit a top
00:02:17speed of 30 mp
00:02:19hour,
00:02:26a clean getaway.
00:02:31"and that's
00:02:33unusual.
00:02:37Canada links rarely
00:02:39miss. This
00:02:43is one lucky
00:02:45bunny.
00:02:49When the breeding season arrives, there will be
00:02:53more hairs to take the
00:02:54heat. Until
00:02:57then, he'll need to stay. on his
00:03:00toes,
00:03:15by late winter in Alberta,
00:03:18of 12,00 feet up, the towering mountains
00:03:22of the Rockies are coated in layer upon layer
00:03:26of snow.
00:03:30In places more than 20 feet
00:03:32deep,
00:03:45a playground for millions of visitors every
00:03:48year,
00:03:56a but be careful.
00:04:00The spring sunshine weakens the vast shelves
00:04:04of mountain
00:04:05snow,
00:04:10priming one of nature's most destructive
00:04:13events.
00:04:28Avalanche.
00:04:53million tons of snow and ice
00:04:56race down hill at speeds of For
00:05:00100 miles an
00:05:01hour.
00:05:15More than 2,000 avalanches are reported in
00:05:19the Rockies every year,
00:05:23many more go
00:05:24unwitness.
00:05:33As the planet warms, avalanches are becoming
00:05:37ever more
00:05:39unpredictable.
00:05:54In the shadow the rockies, even in late
00:05:57April, snow still falls across these vast
00:06:01grasslands, but make no
00:06:04mistake, spring has
00:06:07arrived, and so have a
00:06:11group of determined.
00:06:17answers,
00:06:17but will all this be enough to melt the hearts of ice
00:06:21queen?
00:06:28standing high over the plains of Alberta, the
00:06:32rockies channel warm winds down their eastern
00:06:35flanks, winds known as
00:06:38snow-eaters.
00:06:42As they descend, they heat up,
00:06:46raising the temperature the planes below by as much as 20
00:06:50degrees.
00:07:00Out on the prairies, pretty much everyone is early
00:07:03riser.
00:07:12or so than sharp tailed
00:07:14grouss. They're here to
00:07:18catch the very first rays of sunshine,
00:07:22but they can't resist any
00:07:24spotlight.
00:07:32The males gather every April for mating
00:07:36dance
00:07:36off.
00:07:40The females are the judges. and the prize
00:07:43is, well, bet you can
00:07:46guess.
00:07:54as dawn breaks, it's
00:07:56showtime.
00:08:05stopping their feet 20 times per
00:08:08second, with a shake and a shimy.
00:08:12It's all about
00:08:14seduction,
00:08:20they look their best at this very
00:08:22moment, and they know
00:08:25it, she'll be looking for
00:08:29style
00:08:35and
00:08:35stamina,
00:08:40very nice. He's
00:08:44not bad
00:08:44either,
00:08:49the choice is
00:08:50bewildering,
00:09:08but without clear winner, fights break out on the dance
00:09:12floor.
00:09:23With all this testosterone flying
00:09:25around, she's losing
00:09:29interest,
00:09:40they seem to want the fight. more than the
00:09:44priz,
00:09:49the males need to up their
00:09:52game.
00:10:00By June, under a sun that no longer
00:10:04sets,
00:10:08even the most stubborn snow melts away.
00:10:25transforms the frozen
00:10:27north.
00:10:31This is America's largest wildlife
00:10:34refuge. 30,000 square miles
00:10:38of
00:10:38Alaska.
00:10:43The Arctic
00:10:44Refuge.
00:10:51In summer, one animal dominates these.
00:10:55science,
00:10:58caribu, you
00:11:02might know them as reindeer. there are
00:11:06nomads, following the retreating
00:11:08snowmelts, sometimes for a thous
00:11:11miles, the longest land migration in the
00:11:15world.
00:11:20every summer, for centuries, karibu have been coming
00:11:23here to have their...
00:11:25has,
00:11:32this little male is only three weeks
00:11:35old, but he can already run
00:11:38faster than an olympic
00:11:41sprinter.
00:11:47It's easy to lose track of whose mom is
00:11:51whose.
00:11:57Wanting to explore can get you into
00:12:01trouble around
00:12:02here,
00:12:05anyone who can't keep up with a herd will be
00:12:09left
00:12:10behind,
00:12:23but their unique calls. and send
00:12:27usually mean they can find each
00:12:28other, come winter
00:12:32time, he will be
00:12:34independent, but until
00:12:38then mom is his whole
00:12:41world, whether she likes it or
00:12:45not,
00:12:51as the herd eat their way through more than a thousand times... of
00:12:55tunder grasses every
00:12:57day, they move
00:13:01further west across the coastal
00:13:03plins,
00:13:10but hunger is driving them towards
00:13:13danger,
00:13:19the snow that blanketed the frozen
00:13:21north now descend. from the
00:13:25mountains as billions of gallons of
00:13:28melkwater channed into
00:13:32raging torrents, cutting
00:13:36across the caribos
00:13:37path.
00:13:42These rivers are deeper and faster than ever
00:13:45before, and the
00:13:49feeding grounds lie on the other
00:13:52side.
00:13:56This crossing is more than young calf is ready
00:13:59for,
00:14:05but survival depends on
00:14:08it.
00:14:31The current takes them by
00:14:33surprise, sweeping him off his
00:14:37feet.
00:15:06This mother now has tough choice to
00:15:08make.
00:15:17On the river banks of Alaska's arctic
00:15:20refuge. This
00:15:23caribu mother. stands the water for any sign of her
00:15:27missing
00:15:28calf.
00:15:40The herd is moving on, her instinct
00:15:44to follow is just too
00:15:47strong.
00:16:03Down river, the calf is still alive.
00:16:29He has fighting
00:16:31spirit,
00:16:34but he's exhausted.
00:16:40Mom's nowhere to be
00:16:41seen,
00:16:47as the herd slows down to feed, all
00:16:51lost calf can do is try to catch
00:16:54up.
00:17:12Female karibu rarely adopt, lost orphan
00:17:15young.
00:17:49Mom recognizes a familiar
00:17:51leader
00:18:00reunited.
00:18:17You have to grow up quickly in the far
00:18:19north.
00:18:24These ancient roots will soon be ingrained in his
00:18:28memory.
00:18:34His destiny is to endlessly. wander this
00:18:38vast american
00:18:40tundra,
00:18:52as summer warms the north, hundreds these
00:18:56swallen rivers carry soil and nutrients from the
00:19:00land to the
00:19:01sea.
00:19:08And for some this becomes a time of
00:19:12plenty.
00:19:32In July on Alaska's isolated round
00:19:35island. A strange
00:19:39sound is carried on the wind. Just
00:19:42listen,
00:19:57this is the surprising
00:19:59song
00:20:04of male walnusses.
00:20:08known as
00:20:09chiming,
00:20:13it's made by pockets of air in their
00:20:15throats. usually they sing
00:20:19to impress females during the winter mating
00:20:22season,
00:20:26but there's no ladies in
00:20:28sight,
00:20:34which probably suits the ladies. Just
00:20:37fine,
00:20:45on Alaska's warm summer evenings,
00:20:49perhaps this is... is nothing more than their very own
00:20:52lulobby,
00:20:57for walrises, the short summers are all
00:21:00about down
00:21:02time,
00:21:07but in the shallows of Alaska's
00:21:09mainland, there's no
00:21:12time to
00:21:13rest.
00:21:20salmon, gather at the starting line of race that will
00:21:24test them to their limits.
00:21:27driven by an urge they cannot ignore. salmon
00:21:31arrive at the entrance the very same stream in which
00:21:35they were born. now
00:21:39two years later, it's their turn to
00:21:42breed, all 200
00:21:45million them.
00:21:50This female is carrying at least 2,0
00:21:53eggs, returning
00:21:57to the same spot in which she was born, will give her
00:22:00offspring the best chance of survival,
00:22:04but ahead of her lies killer
00:22:08assault
00:22:09course.
00:22:18She must succeed. or die
00:22:21trying.
00:22:25Prince William Sound,
00:22:27Alaska. As the tide races
00:22:30out, countless pink
00:22:33salmon are
00:22:35waiting.
00:22:39The scent their spawning grounds grows
00:22:43stronger.
00:22:48Now it's a race. to cross the shallows before
00:22:52the tide cuts them
00:22:54off,
00:23:05one wrong turn and it's game
00:23:07over,
00:23:15for Gulls, the banquet has
00:23:19begun.
00:23:24They can be picky at this
00:23:26stage,
00:23:30only selecting the most tender
00:23:32flesh.
00:24:00This female has made serious
00:24:03error and is now
00:24:06dangerously
00:24:07exposed.
00:24:24Her determination seems to confuse her
00:24:27attacker,
00:24:38this is only the beginning,
00:24:42every salmon is now unborrowed
00:24:45time.
00:24:51From here on out, they barely eat or
00:24:55rest as they forge
00:24:57upstream.
00:25:06This journey takes a grim
00:25:09toll, as their
00:25:12bodies begin to shut down and
00:25:15decay, some faster than
00:25:18others.
00:25:22Finally they arrive at their spawning
00:25:25grounds, but it's not over
00:25:28yet.
00:25:34This female needs to construct a shallow
00:25:37nest known as a
00:25:40red.
00:25:45She flicks away fine sediment to prevent her eggs
00:25:49from being...
00:25:49smuttered,
00:26:02she will... will fiercely defend her nest from other
00:26:05females,
00:26:11by now some males look like the swimming
00:26:14dead, they're zombie
00:26:18salmon,
00:26:23desperate to mate before they
00:26:25die,
00:26:30kind of gross.
00:26:45After all she's been through, she's not going to
00:26:49settle for anything less than
00:26:51perfect.
00:27:03Males fertilize eggs in as many reds as
00:27:06possible, but this will be her only
00:27:10chance.
00:27:15She will only release her eggs when she's
00:27:17ready. It's the
00:27:21moment that will seal her
00:27:24fate. Spawning and
00:27:27dying on the same stretch of river as her mother
00:27:31is female. salmon's
00:27:33destiny.
00:27:40Though their journey ends here, these salmon leave
00:27:44behind millions of eggs that will become the
00:27:48next
00:27:48generation.
00:28:00Life.
00:28:04dictated by the
00:28:05seasons,
00:28:13in just two months, winter
00:28:15returns,
00:28:27some begin the long track
00:28:28south,
00:28:33Others surrender to many months in the
00:28:37den,
00:28:46but there are those who are perfectly at home in
00:28:50this snowbound
00:28:51world,
00:28:58the place full of
00:29:01magic.
00:29:07One thing is certain here in the frozen
00:29:10north,
00:29:15nothing stays the same for
00:29:19long.