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00:00These lofty peaks are among the most revered in history.
00:12Their very name defines every mountain habitat the world over.
00:17Alpine forest, alpine lakes, alpine tundra.
00:22They are a battleground of ice against rock,
00:26wind against water,
00:28winter against summer.
00:35And yet remarkable mountaineers thrive here,
00:39busy with battles of their own.
00:44While others are slowly returning to reclaim their place.
00:51All must seize the high life of summer
00:54before these peaks become winter's fortress.
00:58Soar into the Alps, a realm of white brightness and thunder.
01:07All right.
01:07They are now waiting for you.
01:08All right.
01:09All right.
01:10All right.
01:11All right.
03:12Their majesty and their dimensions.
03:15This is the realm of the Golden Eagle.
03:31In Alpine lore, the realm of winter.
03:34Arching across some 600 miles, this crumple zone between converging plates rises steadily from eastern lowlands to Europe's highest pinnacle.
03:49Major rivers rising on the roof of Europe, often separated by narrow watersheds, reach three different seas.
03:57Eight nations share the Alps, three of them their highest mountain.
04:05Monumental towers guard the king of the Alps.
04:09Dwarfing Europe's ancient fortresses, this martial architecture bears witness to an age-old battle, the elements against a rising mass of rock.
04:20These ramparts are granite, the rock that sets this mountain apart from the rest of the Alps.
04:32Looking east from its top, a skyline of majestic yet lesser peaks.
04:39To the west, nothing but big skies.
04:46Mont Blanc, the ancient patriarch of the Alps, the highest point.
04:56Other parts of the Alps were thrust together from far and wide, stacked, folded, and jumbled in the vice of colliding continents.
05:06But these granites rose straight from the deep, and they are still rising.
05:11It may seem strange, but glaciers accelerate their eyes.
05:21In high valleys, the snowfall of millennia accumulates.
05:25Snow turns into solid ice.
05:27But solid is not rigid.
05:30Ice under pressure begins to flow downhill.
05:37As the valley widens and the ice flows over edges, it's stretched and torn.
05:49At the height of summer, once the blanket of snow is gone, the sun can reach deep down.
05:56For decades, summers have been getting hotter, with a new record nearly every year.
06:03Today, glaciers are melting, but for eons, the scraping, scouring, plucking, and polishing action of massive ice flows,
06:12many times mightier than those we see today, have worn down the Alps.
06:18Thousands of feet of rock have been removed, an enormous weight loss enabling the Alps to rise.
06:26Below the glaciers and above the treeline, sprawling grasslands are the summer resort of red deer.
06:39But the summer is gone, and the rut is all but over.
06:45The stags are totally exhausted, worn out and bruised like warriors returning from combat.
06:59And combat, it truly was.
07:04Many hinds have gathered on this rutting ground, and attracted many stags.
07:22Where strong stags compete for females, there are battles.
07:27For dominant stags defending a harem, that means relentless stress.
07:52After two weeks of total exertion, the stags stay on for a few more quiet weeks,
08:12to heal their wounds and regain strength to face the winter.
08:17And if you maintain steps for females, the 놀ice is running out.
08:31Clear frosty nights and frigid morning mists mark the change of the season.
08:37In the skies, the tide has turned.
08:40From now on, the northerlies prevail.
08:58Returning from a reconnaissance flight, the eagle has seen all he needs to know.
09:03A marmot den is something an eagle will remember, even until next spring.
09:20Marmots are twice as fat now as in the spring, unlike stags who've just lost one-fifth of their body mass.
09:28For half a year, these alpine rodents have stuffed themselves.
09:46Now it's time to make the den cosy for a long winter underground.
09:51To hold out six months underground, you want a comfy home.
10:03In this den, the male prepares the bedding.
10:07His mate supplies the hay.
10:11Out there, it's risky.
10:13But as long as the chuffs are watching, one can relax.
10:17A safe, well-furnished den is a marmot's dream.
10:35But it's not quite there yet.
10:38More padding is wanted.
10:39Even when the bed's perfect, with a restless bedfellow, a good rest is hard to get.
11:02Marmots have to stay put all winter.
11:05While the chuffs can escape to a milder sphere.
11:16Way below, at the foot of the mountain, autumn still has a few short but sunny days in store before winter arrives.
11:25Magically, overnight, maples and larches have turned to gold.
11:41Rooted in the sediments of an ancient ocean, vertical forests now shine in the brightest hues.
11:49But soon, the scenery will be monochrome.
11:55In hidden valleys of the southern Alps, a revenant has been secretly about for a few decades now.
12:17The Slovenian, Italian and Austrian Alps have seen the cautious, gradual return of an old native who had been missing from almost the entire mountain range for a century.
12:29A brown bear mother and her nearly grown-up cubs, feeding on beechnuts.
12:40They're getting ready to hibernate in a well-hidden cave, maybe together, for one last winter.
12:51When ravens appear, it may be taken for a sign.
12:55Alerted, one of the youngsters tests the wind.
13:07The mother lets him take the lead.
13:10A teaching moment.
13:14That's what the ravens meant.
13:16A stag, goled in the rut.
13:24Something the cubs have never seen before.
13:28Warily, they explore.
13:30But then they really go at it.
13:43Every extra pound on their ribs will help to get over the winter.
13:47This might be the family's last shared meal, before they go their separate ways.
14:00Ravens, early birds at any carcass.
14:22But they need big predators to carve it up.
14:25It's best to wait a while.
14:27These wise birds know, first come, first served, is not a natural rite.
14:40The wind is getting colder, sharper.
14:44A thousand mountain streams have fallen silent.
15:03Warm hues of fall belie the coming cold.
15:07Glowing in the sunset, the cold rocks of these famous peaks conjure up memories of a distant, much warmer past.
15:16A young eagle, in search of a territory of his own, explores the southern limestone Alps, stretching across Slovenia, Austria, and Italy.
15:36The limestone of Italy's Dolomites has nothing in common with the granites of Mont Blanc.
15:47The Dolomites are only half as high, yet their breathtaking panoramas can vie with any icon of the Alps.
15:55Erosion grinds its sculptures down to what they once were, sand and silt in a warm, shallow sea.
16:05Layer by layer, over more than 200 million years, skeletons of marine organisms accumulated enormous bodies of sediment on the ocean floor.
16:26Africa's collision with Europe pressed them up into the sky.
16:29Thus, a tropical seafloor became the habitat of an Ice Age remnant.
16:44Arctic, or mountain hares, once inhabited the cold plains of Ice Age Europe.
16:50When the climate turned warm, they retreated northward to the Arctic and up to the higher regions of the Alps.
16:56Scandinavian and Alps, Scandinavian and Alpine populations are now 1,200 miles apart.
17:07Adapting their camouflage, mountain hares change their fur twice a year.
17:13A few more weeks, and their winter coats will be as white as snow.
17:17Meanwhile, it's best to stay alert, and near hiding places.
17:39With marmots already underground, the eagle has set his sights on hares.
17:53An eagle's eye works like a powerful zoom lens.
17:58He can spot his prey long before it can spot him.
18:01��ze the land on the�r e birds as the windу by their ans.
18:15And on Earth is a great diversity ofBMs.
18:18One of them is a funny bosom.
18:19But with their como to rise, and those canaya be,
18:24they have также donated to the air.
18:27A bungled stealth attack.
18:38This eagle is still a rookie.
18:46A majestic rookie by any means.
18:57The low sun dazzles the eyes.
19:07But the moment it's hidden, the cold breath of the mountains makes the body shiver.
19:18Those who remain up high and out in the open must be well prepared for harsh days ahead.
19:24Down in the valleys below the fog, it's now often colder than on the high slopes.
19:33Soon the bears will have disappeared into their winter dens.
19:40Deer descend to their winter quarters in the forest.
19:43Long before the first snowfall, winter sends its harbingers.
19:56Each night now, the temperature plummets below freezing.
20:15The mirrors of a thousand mountain lakes will soon go blind.
20:29Up among the crags, the snow is here to stay, setting the stage for a breathtaking spectacle.
20:48Shamwa don't fear the cold, quite the opposite.
20:57After languishing in humid summer heat, they are now in their element.
21:03On high slopes and crests, the wind will sweep away the snow,
21:07so that the Shamwa can find grazing even in winter.
21:10One who has prudently prepared for a long winter is the spotted nutcracker,
21:24having stashed thousands of pine seeds in hundreds of deposits in the ground along the timberline.
21:32The challenge is to find these larders under the snow.
21:36This takes nearly magic memory.
21:40His bird brain has stored a precise topographical map.
21:49A 3D map of a vast and complex terrain,
21:53which looks very different now than it did in autumn.
21:59Sometimes the ground is frozen so hard
22:02that the nutcracker cannot get all the seeds he has buried.
22:06These seeds will sprout in spring.
22:13Thus the flying forester rejuvenates the stock of pines,
22:16from which his own species will profit for centuries to come.
22:20Among the Shamwa, the mood is tense.
22:22Among the Shamwa, the mood is tense.
22:44Bucks and females are now coming together.
22:47It's all about the future of their population.
22:58Bucks spray their coats with sperm and urine.
23:03Personal perfume any female will remember.
23:05A secretion from glands at the base of a buck's horns
23:12marks his claim near the female stamping ground.
23:15Rivaling bucks attacks each other.
23:22Rivaling bucks attacks each other.
23:32Each buck needs to decide, attack or retreat.
23:36Counterattack or exhaust the opponent.
23:52Anything but surrender.
23:59Counterattack or exhaust the opponent.
25:33This is the sovereign airspace of a pair of golden eagles.
25:49Over the years, they've built a number of nests around here.
26:10They do not breed each year, but soon there will be two eggs in one of the nests.
26:18Across the Alps, well over 1,000 breeding pairs are occupying all the suitable territories.
26:24Breeding success greatly depends on how well a pair gets through the winter.
26:41Golden eagles stay together for life for three decades and more.
26:46Being born up here means being born to climb and to flourish in arctic conditions.
27:16Each morning, the females scramble up to the ridges, where the wind has cleared away the snow, and they can feed.
27:32The bucks follow. It's not an easy climb.
27:39A film of frozen fog covers these limestone rocks in the Southern Alps.
27:51This is dangerous terrain.
28:01In early winter, bucks become obtrusive stalkers.
28:06Every move she makes, every move she makes, every step she takes, a buck will be watching.
28:17There's no liquid water up here.
28:19A gang of young bucks has closed in on a female leading a kid.
28:36With their tongues and a special organ on their gums, they taste the scent she emits, which signals her readiness to mate.
28:44She's the focus of attention, but indifferent to these youngsters.
29:00Before it look, it's not boring, but it's not boring.
29:01Midnight
29:02Boys
29:03Men
29:03Boys
29:05Ladies
29:08Boys
29:09Boys
29:10Women
29:11Boys
29:17Boys
29:18乏
29:18iert
29:19By
29:24churches
29:26ch Gao
29:27ells
29:27Mix
29:27gj
29:28j wore
29:29dır
29:30To be taken seriously as a suitor, a buck must be at least six years old.
29:56But it's rare that bucks under nine or ten years get to mate.
30:04Two mature, strong bucks have been standing back and watching.
30:08One of these she might choose.
30:26But the choice is often made by fate.
30:33He's out of the race, for good.
31:02A broken leg up here means death.
31:16Fate and the weather turn quickly in the Alps.
31:24Within an hour, a calm and sunny day can turn into a howling white inferno.
31:31A humid southerly from the Mediterranean hitting the high ridges can bring gale-force winds and masses of snow.
31:42In an airborne life, whims of the atmosphere are not the only challenge.
31:53Bearded vultures, giants of the sky, are claiming their share of space.
32:00To avoid nasty weather from any direction, Ibex and Shamwa try to be in the right place at the right time.
32:22Mountain hares let the wind work for them, exploiting snow drifts for shelter.
32:43In the same way, ptarmigans will calmly sit out any storm for days.
32:50Not even an eagle can see them now.
32:56For the golden eagle, neither an arctic nor a high mountain species, these are hard times.
33:10Six feet under is the perfect place to truly rest in peace.
33:15Marmots cosy up as families to keep warm.
33:19The temperature inside the den decreases gradually from 60 degrees in autumn to freezing in spring.
33:30The animals also lower their body temperature down to about 40 degrees plus.
33:35They survive on their body's storage of fat and water.
33:49With thick layers of snow and soil on top, the entrance to their extensive den securely blocked.
33:55The marmot is nature's paragon of bunker mentality.
34:01There's not the slightest draft down here, no matter how hard the storm may blow outside.
34:14In such weather, the zone above the tree line is a hostile place.
34:18Roe deer and red deer are seeking shelter in the mountain forest.
34:23But more and more often in recent years, they are not alone here.
34:35Wolves had almost become extinct in the Alps by the early 20th century.
34:39About a century later, their tracks in the snow appeared again.
34:48For thousands of years, red deer would migrate from the high Alps down to the flood plains of big rivers.
35:01But their migration routes are now cut off by roads and towns.
35:05So they stay in the mountain forest.
35:07Covered in water repellent top hair, over a fluffy layer of wool, they can deal with the cold.
35:22It's the deep snow that wears them down.
35:25And the lack of forage, forcing them to subsist on a meagre diet of bark and branches.
35:31Their bodies are now in energy conservation mode.
35:39In this state, having to flee from a threat will critically tax their reserves.
35:44For fast flowing mountain rivers to freeze over, temperatures must drop further.
35:59And they will.
36:05The deer limit their movements to trampled paths between resting and feeding areas.
36:09and nearby drinking places.
36:16In contrast to deer, a wolf's energy level stays high.
36:22Blood circulation never slows.
36:28Being much lighter than deer, wolves do not sink into deep snow as easily.
36:33After generations without wolves, bears and lynx in the Alps, deer are beginning to learn again about big predators.
36:48For a deer, the extra stress of a chase lowers the chances of surviving the winter.
36:54Remote valleys of the Alps have been abandoned by people in recent decades.
37:03Fortunate for red deer, the new wilderness offers alternative prey.
37:08с
37:10roars
37:25Tee
37:31Tee
37:34Tee
37:35One particular species has invited back the wolf.
38:05A burly wild boar would be too risky a quarry for a single wolf, but as a team, the pack is confident it can take on a single animal.
38:35Poor judgment. This individual seems rather powerful. Better to let it go.
39:05But somewhere, there's always a ready meal.
39:10Worn out by the rut, the trials of winter have proved too much for an old stag.
39:29Winter is a hostile season. Up among the peaks, it never really ends.
39:34The monumental Matterhorn and the massive Mont Blanc have featured as the thrones of winter in ancient Alpine lore.
39:45No matter how often the sun has risen during past millennia, so far it's never thawed away the snow on these iconic summits.
39:57Never stripped them of their mantle of majesty.
40:00However stunning the snow-capped Alps may appear from distant lowlands.
40:06To fully appreciate their glory, their vastness and complexity, one must ride the winds like an eagle.
40:19But the face of the Alps is changing. A thick new layer of fresh winter snow veils the rapid melt of what used to be called the Eternal Ice.
40:34Over eons, at a glacial pace, ice has been grinding down the rocks.
40:49Now, a warming climate bears down on the glaciers. In their rapid demise, winter is just a minor break.
41:06Even the harshest winter has its balmy days. The storm is over.
41:25But other risks persist.
41:35Ptarmigans and hares are now replacing marmots on the eagle's menu.
41:40But the little animals in their winter suits are lucky. The eagle is distracted.
41:55A huge bearded vulture allows no stranger near his nest.
42:00A beautiful little eagle to chase avärld.
42:13Ignoring the sky, the youngsters are caught up in a play fight.
42:19In the eastern Alps, tracks in the fresh snow are evidence of chamois on their way back
42:31up to the high ridges.
42:38The forest offered shelter from the wind, but little food.
42:47The snow now lies deep.
42:55It's only on windswept hilltops where some grazing might be found.
43:06After a blizzard, the steep lee side of a mountain can turn into a hazard zone.
43:11The wind, the architect of avalanches, has moved enormous volumes of snow.
43:31Along the edges, it has piled up huge drifts.
43:37Tons and tons of wind-pressed snow projecting from sheer cliffs are a threat to every living
43:45thing below.
43:51Impossible to say when the spell will break.
43:54It's a very dangerous thing.
44:07It's an interesting thing.
44:09It's a very difficult thing to find.
44:15The speed and force of the White Death is beyond comprehension.
44:45Hard-stopping violence fades into peaceful silence.
45:15A new sunrise, an expression of nature's indifference.
45:33The misfortune of some is fortunate for others.
45:53Ravens as always, the first to descend on a funeral feast.
46:03A frozen chamois is not exactly fast food, yet the ravens must be quick before the sovereign
46:09claims his own.
46:12Both ravens and eagles depend on avalanche victims to make it through the winter and get ready
46:23for an early breeding season.
46:35Cleanliness is next to godliness, the old saying goes.
46:42Cleanliness is next to godliness, the old saying goes.
47:04Then why not mix in a little playfulness?
47:26When dense fogs fill the valleys, they give a vague impression of an ice-age panorama of
47:31the Alps some 20,000 years ago.
47:44Back then, only the highest peaks would protrude from the ice.
47:49Such as the Grossglockner, Austria's highest mountain.
47:53It's been the ice ages that sculpted the rising Alps and ground them down to their present size.
48:03Where the ice has vanished, grassland and woodland has conquered the ground, inviting new inhabitants.
48:22Europe's biggest cat.
48:33The Eurasian lynx is another revenant to the Alps, after a century of absence.
48:43The lynx is an elusive solitary hunter.
49:05Roe deer, abundant in alpine forests, are his preferred prey.
49:12Like most cats, the lynx hunts by surprise, not chase.
49:27Between hunter and hunted, it's a battle of the senses.
49:37Both animals pick up the slightest sound, the smallest movement.
49:49Cats can move noiselessly, like ghosts.
49:54Crackets can move noiselessly, like ghosts!
49:55Or do they?
49:56Instead, a long duck.
49:57Can they move noiselessly, like ghosts as their own?
49:58Been a great innit?
49:59Too long, a long duck.
50:00The LPP, when they are a big fox?
50:01Do they have a dominant figure?
50:02The LPP, when they are a small fish?
50:03The LPP, when they are on a giant horse.
50:04The LPP is an lagoon.
50:05The LPP, when they are 13.
50:07High 11,000 years old.
50:08Just make them sleep...
50:09...you may be a little salty.
50:10If you have a little bit, they have a little bit of a thing.
50:11Success depends on getting close enough for a surprise attack.
50:15surprise attack.
50:42The frustration is shared.
50:54The waters are beginning to flow again.
51:04The ice is gone.
51:06Some winds set off the snowmelt.
51:20Even under the snow, the marmot's inner clock is right on time.
51:32There's nothing in these mountains that would escape an eagle's eye.
51:43High up on a tiny ledge, two delicate new lives have just begun.
51:55As spring cascades towards another alpine summer, thousands of parents will again raise the
52:03next generation of wildlife in the Alps.
52:08To be continued...
52:18I don't know.
52:48To learn more about what you've seen on this nature program, visit pbs.org.
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