- 33 minutes ago
A looks at the Arctic Ocean, as after 4 months of winter darkness the sun returns. Mother polar bears emerge from their dens, a pod of beluga whales confined to an ice hole wait for release, harp seal mothers teach their pups.
野生动物与自然景象：——
北极熊：熊妈妈带着幼崽走出山坡上的巢穴，领它们前往海冰区捕猎。镜头还捕捉到了幼熊之间那些充满嬉戏乐趣且令人惊喜的互动瞬间。
白鲸：一群由30头白鲸组成的鲸群被困在一个狭小的冰洞中长达五个月，它们等待着春日的阳光破开冰层，以便逃出生天。
弓头鲸：50多头巨大的弓头鲸聚集在俄罗斯沿海的一处“天然水疗场”，利用浅水区的岩石和沙地摩擦身体，以去除死皮和寄生虫。
格陵兰海豹：格陵兰岛东海岸漂浮的浮冰区是至关重要的育幼地，海豹妈妈会在这里教导幼崽学习游泳。
野生动物与自然景象：——
北极熊：熊妈妈带着幼崽走出山坡上的巢穴，领它们前往海冰区捕猎。镜头还捕捉到了幼熊之间那些充满嬉戏乐趣且令人惊喜的互动瞬间。
白鲸：一群由30头白鲸组成的鲸群被困在一个狭小的冰洞中长达五个月，它们等待着春日的阳光破开冰层，以便逃出生天。
弓头鲸：50多头巨大的弓头鲸聚集在俄罗斯沿海的一处“天然水疗场”，利用浅水区的岩石和沙地摩擦身体，以去除死皮和寄生虫。
格陵兰海豹：格陵兰岛东海岸漂浮的浮冰区是至关重要的育幼地，海豹妈妈会在这里教导幼崽学习游泳。
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TVTranscript
00:34In winter, at the top of the planet, lies an icy wilderness, not of land, but of frozen water, the
00:47Arctic Ocean.
00:50Its surface forms an almost solid platform that is bigger than the whole of the United States.
01:03Its presence and condition dominates the lives of all the many and varied animals that live both on it and
01:13beneath it.
01:21In the coming months, the sun's warmth will melt much of it and expose the rich waters beneath.
01:31To survive here, life must adapt to this world that alternates between ice and water.
01:58After three months of winter darkness, the sun rises across Arctic Norway.
02:14A newly emerged polar bear mother encourages her cubs to take their first tentative steps on the sea ice.
02:32Cubs will stay with their mothers for two years, learning the skills needed to survive out here.
02:42But thereafter, they will be on their own.
02:50Further out on the sea ice,
02:54This young female bear, less than six years old, is already fully independent.
03:05She's superbly adapted to life on the frozen ocean,
03:09protected from the cold by thick, insulating fat and a double layer of fur.
03:23This time of year is the best time for feeding.
03:31The main seals on which she depends feed on fish and are swimming 40 meters beneath her.
03:41But after ten minutes down there, they must return to the few gaps in the ice to take a breath
03:47and rest.
03:53She has acute hearing and one of the most sensitive noses in nature.
04:03She can detect a seal's lair beneath two meters of snow and ice.
04:11Timing is everything.
04:34Only one in ten attempts is successful.
04:39So for a young bear, each meal is very important.
04:45But a male has picked up the scent of the kill.
05:03Large males pose a real threat.
05:10And could inflict fatal injuries in a fight.
05:19But she stands her ground.
05:35Remarkably, rather than fight,
05:41they start to play.
05:55And then, they set off to explore, together.
06:08Well said and still young,
06:11these two seem to be forming a friendship.
06:24She shows off the swimming skills that enable her to move with ease between water and ice.
06:55She's behind you.
07:21Dancing on ice.
07:26Apparently, just for the joy of it.
07:49After three hours together, they part company.
07:57And return, once again, to their solitary lives.
08:15Polar bears thrive at this time of year, thanks to the huge platform of sea ice on which they
08:22can hunt.
08:28The Arctic Ocean lies across the top of the Northern Hemisphere and over the North Pole
08:33itself, and is surrounded by three continents, Europe, North America, and Asia.
08:45In winter, the sea ice extends across an area of over five million square miles.
08:58But off the coast of Arctic Russia, a tiny pocket of water has been kept open.
09:12By the continuous stirring of 30 trapped beluga whales.
09:30These four-meter-long Arctic whales are superbly adapted for hunting far beneath the surface
09:37of the sea ice.
09:45Nonetheless, being mammals, they must return to the surface to breathe every 15 minutes
09:51or so.
09:57But this cold spell is exceptionally severe.
10:02And there's not another breathing hole within 20 miles.
10:12nearby fish and squid disappeared long ago.
10:18These emaciated whales have been imprisoned by the ice for five months, and they're now starving.
10:31Their only chance of escape will come when there is a change in the season.
10:44As spring finally reaches the north of the planet, air temperatures creep above freezing.
11:06The impenetrable ice ceiling begins to fracture.
11:14Small, life-saving channels open up.
11:17Small, life-saving channels open up.
11:24Bringing freedom.
11:29But spring is a dangerous time for beluga.
11:35As tides and currents pull ice apart, the beluga find themselves in a labyrinth of shifting
11:42ice flows that could close their breathing holes at any point and so drown them.
12:00Using their sophisticated sonar, they try to find a way through the icy maze.
12:19And eventually reach a patch of open water.
12:29They're not the only whales here.
12:33They're not the only whales here.
12:42They're not the only whales here.
12:53If you're missing whales, you can see the Wamuko's
13:15Drifting fields of ice.
13:26A journey of up to 1,000 miles.
13:33Before they reach ice-free waters, where they can rear their young.
13:54As the spring sunshine strengthens, the broken pack ice off the coast of Greenland becomes a nursery.
14:08A harp seal pup, born just a week ago.
14:17He has little fat.
14:20His thick fur is his only protection from the Arctic chill.
14:28In between doses, he waits for his mother to return.
14:41She has only one pup a year.
14:50And will produce milk for only 12 days, one of the shortest nursing periods in nature.
15:01That is just long enough for him to develop a thick layer of blubber.
15:07Thanks to his mother's milk, which is 50% fat.
15:17And his mother stays alongside while he learns an important survival skill for any seal.
15:38How to swim.
15:42He may not be keen to take the plunge.
15:46The salt water is minus two degrees Celsius after all.
16:01Pups start with a doggy paddle.
16:07Mum stays reassuringly close.
16:24Still developing his insulating blubber, a pup is at risk of hypothermia.
16:30So needs to rest and warm up.
16:39Each day, he puts on another two kilos.
16:48And practices swimming for just a little longer.
17:06Since birth, this pup has tripled in weight.
17:11And he is now at ease in this curious other world.
17:2812 days gone by.
17:32A mother's work is done.
17:44In producing milk, she's lost a third of her body weight.
17:52Now, she must return to her feeding grounds.
18:22She will never see her pup again.
18:42The next four weeks, he spends alone, sticking close to the ice platform.
18:51The next four weeks, he spends a lot of time.
18:52Surviving on his fat reserves.
18:54As his downy fleece is replaced by a sleek coat more suited to swimming.
19:07The temperatures in the Arctic are now rising faster than ever before.
19:15Creating storms that break up the ice flows earlier each spring.
19:31Harp seal pups are being tipped into freezing waters before they're ready to endure long periods at sea.
19:48In some puppy areas, almost none survive.
20:18As spring turns to summer, life on the sea ice suddenly
20:23And the ice suddenly begins to proliferate.
20:28The daylight increases.
20:31And algae that had remained dormant within the ice all winter begin to bloom.
20:43This upside-down meadow is now cropped by plankton.
21:04This upside-down meadow is now cropped by plankton.
21:12That's a big, grass, or a big part of the sea.
21:14It is a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big,
21:16big, big, big, big, big, big.
21:21If you are only two centimeters long, this is like scaling a skyscraper.
21:30And yet, it's not alone.
21:36Hundreds of fellow shrimps are attempting the same ascent.
21:46A new mother has parked her brood halfway up.
21:51And she's not about to give way.
22:08This one is a determined commuter.
22:13But the mother's drive to protect her young is now causing a traffic jam.
22:27At last, many have made it to the topmost branches of this underwater forest.
22:36And it's been well worth the effort.
22:40The prize is a plankton feast.
22:49Raining down from above.
22:57By midsummer, Arctic waters are filled with food.
23:13Making them into one of the richest of all oceans.
23:21Feeding billions of microscopic mouths.
23:26As well as...
23:28The biggest mouth on the planet.
23:36The bowhead whale.
23:42Its four-meter-long baleen plates enable it to sieve out up to six tons of plankton a day.
23:52And it grows swiftly into an 18-meter, 100-ton giant.
24:05In summer, the bowheads are so well fed, they head for an annual get-together.
24:23After a year of wear and tear, their skin needs reconditioning.
24:35This is a whale health spa.
24:48Rocks and sand in the shallows are used like pumice stones.
24:53With which to rub off dead skin and parasites.
25:02Such places can become very popular.
25:12This bay off the coast of Russia attracts an immense gathering of over 50 bowheads.
25:25They are the longest-lived of all mammals.
25:36Some are 200 years old and have been coming here for many decades.
25:47Suddenly, their peace is shattered.
25:54Killer whales have arrived from the south.
26:00Nine meters long, weighing nine tons.
26:05And renowned for their exceptional intelligence.
26:10This particular pack specializes in hunting bowhead whales.
26:28The bowheads retreat into the shallows.
26:33The bowheads retreat into the shallows, where it will be harder for killer whales to launch an attack.
26:42But the killers can swim much faster than the bowheads.
27:01But the killers can swim much faster than the bowheads.
27:14They look for individual signs of weakness.
27:24They look for individual signs of weakness.
27:29In the shallows, the bowheads lash out.
27:34With their seven-meter-wide tails.
27:38With their seven-meter-wide tails.
27:51But in the confusion, some run aground.
28:09Others try to reach deeper water.
28:15This youngster, half the size of an adult, is extremely vulnerable.
28:30The killer whales take turns to ram into its sides, cracking its ribs so that it struggles to breathe.
29:06Then, they push the youngster down until, finally, it drowns.
29:21The battle is over.
29:25It lasted an hour.
29:29Yet now, the killer whales eat only one part of their prey.
29:34The young bowhead's soft, fatty tongue.
29:52Today, more and more bowheads are falling prey to killer whales.
29:58As the warming climate causes the protected barrier of sea ice to melt earlier each year.
30:23By midsummer, millions of migratory seabirds, having flown thousands of miles to get here, are feeding in the Arctic's rich
30:34waters.
30:39Over a million crested orklets, no bigger than puffins, now descend on Alaska's St. Lawrence Island, and are preparing to
30:48breed.
30:54To win a mate, a male must try to stand out from the crowd.
31:01And auditions are already underway.
31:05Males and females, unusually, look very similar, each adorned with an Elvis-like crest.
31:14But it's the size of the crest that matters.
31:21And this male's headgear seemed to be no more than adequate.
31:30A position on the ground is also important.
31:39One large male wants this particular perch.
31:54And having got it, he breaks into song.
32:08He now releases a potent tangerine scent from the back of his neck.
32:14And a mob of fans go wild.
32:23This male, however, seems to have nothing to offer.
32:31But a gaggle of groupies can be a dangerous distraction.
32:39An arctic fox.
33:08It's found an egg.
33:13With the stage cleared, the highest perch has become vacant.
33:40This is a moment to shine.
33:55His display doesn't go unnoticed.
34:04And his tangerine perfume attract an admirer.
34:17And not just one.
34:24Now, it's down to the females to impress him.
34:31In Auckland society, both sexes have a say when it comes to choosing a mate.
34:48At the height of summer, with 24 hours of sunlight a day, over half the sea ice melts away.
35:02The beaches of Stalbard provide safe places to haul out for one of the Arctic's special residents.
35:17Walruses.
35:21They forage forage for shellfish for up to 17 hours at a stretch.
35:33Now, it's time for a rest.
35:40Each adult male weighs more than a tonne.
35:49And heaving oneself over the sand, without the support of water, is very hard work.
36:04This male has a particular sunbathing spot in mind.
36:11Right in the middle of the 50-strong huddle.
36:24The prod helps in parting the crowd.
36:41Almost in.
36:53At last, he can settle down for a snooze.
36:57Swaddled on all sides by the bodies of his neighbours.
37:04But...
37:05It's not a peaceful spot.
37:17Sleep isn't easy when a fidgety bedfellow decides that he has an itch that needs scratching.
37:27This is the time to molt, to get rid of one's old fur with all its parasites,
37:32and expose the healthy new coat beneath.
37:49These days, Svalbard's summer temperatures can soar to 22 degrees Celsius.
38:03Flushing red by bringing blood close to the skin helps them to keep cool.
38:14But some overheating is unavoidable.
38:20Especially for a big male.
38:33Enough is enough.
38:42Getting up here...
38:44Was a slog.
38:47But this male has found a better way of getting down.
38:52Let gravity do the work.
39:10Let's go.
39:25Now that...
39:28Is cool.
39:39Everyone is doing it.
39:41It saves both time and energy.
39:48But walruses will need all the tricks they can find.
39:55The Arctic is warming.
39:58And these cold-loving animals are facing a precarious future.
40:14For millennia, the Arctic Ocean has frozen over in the winter,
40:19and then gradually melted throughout the spring and summer.
40:25But in the last 40 years, the extent of the summer sea ice has declined by 50%.
40:35Some predict that it will be ice-free as early as 2035.
40:45This profound change is already having an impact on the Arctic Ocean's highly specialized wildlife.
41:00With less summer sea ice from which to hunt seals, some polar bears are now traveling up to 400 miles.
41:09Swimming continuously for up to 10 days in search of land.
41:21Wrangle Island off Arctic Russia.
41:25The only land for almost 100 miles.
41:33Each summer, more and more polar bears come ashore here.
41:45Each summer, more and more polar bears come ashore here.
41:56But knows not to approach other adult bears.
42:03A full-grown male can kill and eat a cub.
42:08And will do so if other food is in short supply.
42:14There are over 1,000 bears on this one island.
42:21It's the greatest concentration of polar bears on the planet.
42:32And there is food to be had on these remote shores.
42:41A walrus colony.
42:442,000 strong.
42:532,000 strong.
42:57A rocket.
42:583,000-line tree.
43:37Fights break out.
43:46This is no place for a young family.
43:57The mother calls her cubs away.
44:16They must search elsewhere.
44:37Grass is a poor meal for a growing cub.
44:43And starvation in summer is a real threat.
44:58But this opportunity to feed is one she cannot afford to ignore.
45:10It's time to gamble.
45:17Her cubs follow her.
45:21She urges them to stay back.
45:39The males are twice her size.
45:42But preoccupied with feeding, they tolerate her presence.
45:53The distress calls of her cubs, however,
45:57attract unwelcome attention.
46:16Their mother rushes to shield them with her body.
46:27And she seems torn between guarding her family and feeding herself.
46:49Cubs left by themselves are easy prey for a hungry male bear.
47:04But now her maternal instincts take over.
47:32Faced with the mother's fury,
47:34the dominant male backs down.
47:38Cubs left by themselves.
47:41Cubs left by themselves.
47:51Cubs left by themselves.
48:36Cubs left by himself.
48:37survives into the next century depends on what happens to the sea ice on which they rely.
48:47As with all of the Arctic Ocean's remarkable wildlife,
48:52it's how the climate changes over the coming years that will determine their future.
49:15In today's unpredictable and changing Arctic, filming its wildlife is an ever-increasing challenge.
49:24None more so than trying to capture the brief time
49:27that a mother harp seal spends preparing her pup for life at sea.
49:36To find the seal's pupping grounds, the crew have sailed to a remote area of the Arctic,
49:42off the east coast of Greenland. But here, they quickly discover that its usually solid platform
49:49of sea ice has broken up into thousands of flows. It's a surprising sight even for veteran captain Bjorn Caverno.
50:11And with the sea ice so fractured, there's no sign of any wildlife.
50:17We've been at sea for well over a week now. We still haven't filmed nothing.
50:25With mother and pup together for just 12 days,
50:28it's a race to find the dense pack ice on which the breeding seals give birth.
50:36The team head a further 100 miles up the Greenland coast to an area no film crew has ventured into
50:43before.
50:47The gamble pays off.
50:53A burst out seal baby!
50:57From the smaller, more manoeuvrable tender,
51:00cameraman Jamie McPherson hopes to record the precious time mother and pup spend together on the ice.
51:07I've been filming probably one of the cutest animals in the world, and they were suckling.
51:12It was really cool, wasn't it? It was really funny.
51:14If the baby goes from one nipple to the other nipple, it just goes backwards and forwards.
51:22It's one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.
51:29With mum now calling it into the water, this pup may be ready for its very first swim.
51:38It's the cue for underwater cameraman Hugh Miller.
51:42We're going to try something different and actually get into the water with the seals.
51:47We're definitely in new territory here.
51:51To film this rare moment underwater, Hugh will need to get a lot closer without disturbing them.
52:00But with Arctic waters at minus two degrees Celsius,
52:04even with a protective thermal dry suit, Hugh only has an hour before he risks developing hypothermia.
52:15It's now a matter of waiting for the pup to take the plunge.
52:20The guys have now been in for about 20 minutes.
52:28I can guarantee you they'll be freezing cold.
52:33Hugh's body temperature is getting dangerously low.
52:43The conditions have been really hard and the cold has been very, very difficult.
52:53With less than a week to go before this mother is likely to leave her pup forever,
52:58Jamie continues to capture their intimate interactions.
53:07While Hugh is yet to film a single shot.
53:11To make matters worse, temperatures fall to minus 30 degrees centigrade.
53:19And as the wind direction changes, the flows are forced closer together.
53:25Pack ice has just come in from all around us.
53:27It could flip the boat and that would be the end of the chute.
53:33Hemmed in by blocks weighing several tons, the small skiffs are at risk of getting crushed.
53:40They radio for help, but as the mothership approaches, she shunts even more ice their way.
53:51It's weird, we've got these big chunks of ice either side of us and they've got to go somewhere.
53:58With help three days away, the crew can't afford any mistakes.
54:10In the nick of time, a lifeline.
54:17Safety of old. That was a bit of a lot.
54:25By the next day, the pack ice has drifted apart.
54:30And not a moment too soon.
54:47We just saw it go for its first swim.
54:52It was amazing.
54:53We just saw it flops about on the surface.
54:55It was very cool.
54:59With the pup finally in the water, Hugh seizes his chance.
55:04But what will the pup make of this curious sea creature?
55:12And this pup is playing with playing with the camera.
55:17I can see Hugh's smile from here.
55:22Oh, lovely.
55:23Wow.
55:26That was great.
55:28So nice.
55:34Just as Hugh gets his reward, the arctic conditions take a turn for the worse.
55:41Going to get some amazing stuff, but now you can see the wind's picked up, so we're trying to get
55:47out.
55:49With the storm brewing, not even the mothership is safe among the ice flows.
55:55The crew have no choice but to leave the scenes behind.
56:07It would roll in and a storm?
56:09In the wind, it would roll in the water.
56:11And they drown?
56:11Yes, they are not able to survive themselves.
56:17It's terrible to see.
56:20Today, the combination of reduced arctic sea ice and heavy storms is leading to more and more tragedies like this.
56:32Unless this trend is reversed, the future for much of the arctic's unique wildlife hangs in the balance.
56:45Next time, we explore the unpredictable world of frozen peaks to discover the surprising animals
57:01that live life on the edge.
57:12The Open University has produced a poster exploring how animals adapt to life in the world's coldest environments.
57:19To order your free copy, please call 0300 303 0553
57:25or go to bbc.co.uk forward slash frozen planet 2
57:30and follow the links to The Open University.
57:41Mas
57:41Tempo
57:41Tempo
57:42Tempo
57:42Tempo
58:00Tempo