Experience the breathtaking wilderness of Alaska in its most vibrant season. From majestic wildlife to endless landscapes, Alaskan Summer captures the raw beauty and untamed spirit of the Last Frontier.
#AlaskanSummer #WildAlaska #NatureLovers #TravelDocumentary #WildernessVibes #ExploreAlaska #NaturePhotography #AdventureAwaits #Earth #Life #Alaska
#AlaskanSummer #WildAlaska #NatureLovers #TravelDocumentary #WildernessVibes #ExploreAlaska #NaturePhotography #AdventureAwaits #Earth #Life #Alaska
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Short filmTranscript
00:00In a frozen land of long, unforgiving winters, survival isn't easy.
00:19But a harsh climate, a varied landscape, and stiff competition have created a surprising
00:28diversity of wildlife.
00:37Each species carves out its own space.
00:48Waiting for one time of year, when water flows and the day all but swallows the night.
00:58This is Alaskan summer.
01:03It's late July, mid-summer on Admiralty Island in Southeastern Alaska.
01:13It's late July, mid-summer on Admiralty Island in Southeastern Alaska.
01:28This mother brown bear is searching for food.
01:42She gave birth to her cubs in the middle of winter, during hibernation.
01:49In the safety of her den, she nursed them till spring, without eating or drinking herself the entire winter.
01:59And she's lost 40% of her body weight.
02:08The trio emerged in April, ready to forage.
02:11Since then, they've been eating whatever she can find.
02:21Berries.
02:23Insects from rotting logs.
02:26Even carrion.
02:27She needs to gain enough weight now to be able to continue nursing her cubs through next winter.
02:37She's brought her cubs to her favorite fishing spot.
02:41But instead of dinner, she finds danger.
02:46Another adult bear.
02:50Cannibalistic males and competing females can kill cubs.
02:57So mom's not taking any chances.
03:00Her cubs are safe.
03:16For now.
03:17Her cubs are safe.
03:18For now.
03:19But Admiralty Island is full of adversaries.
03:40Eighteen hundred bears call the island home.
03:44At one per square mile.
03:46It's the highest density of brown bears in North America.
03:51Eighteen thousand years ago, the area was covered by a glacial ice sheet,
03:57with bears roaming freely as far south as Sitka.
04:01When the glaciers retreated, they exposed over a thousand islands, the Alexander Archipelago.
04:07Cut off by the rising sea level, the bears became isolated on Admiralty Island.
04:16The Comisian Rye.
04:19The Comisian Rye.
04:20The Sand区 Recipe.
04:24The Sand区 Recipe.
04:25Their high density today is only possible thanks to the annual salmon run that arrives in the summer.
04:55But there's a problem this year. The salmon are late.
05:09The bears need them to fatten up before winter.
05:19Luckily for the mother and her cubs, they live close to the land of the midnight sun, which means more daylight hours for foraging in the summer.
05:34Admiralty Island lies less than 650 miles from the Arctic Circle.
05:41Midsummer, that means 18 hours of sunlight a day.
05:48A neighboring Baranoff Island, it's 10 p.m. and the sun is just starting to dip.
06:03Twilight descends, but the sun never sinks far below the horizon.
06:10It brightens the sky again by 2.30 in the morning.
06:18The long daylight hours are crucial to survival in the Arctic.
06:28Until the summer sun provides a release, the key to all life, water, remains locked in ice.
06:40There are some 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, including Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.
06:55It's a remnant of the Little Ice Age, which began 3,000 years ago.
07:02Mendenhall reaches 13.5 miles inland, and its runoff ends in a 200-foot-deep lake.
07:10The largest moving objects on Earth.
07:21Glaciers advance under the sheer force of their own weight, like a river of ice flowing downhill.
07:28Giants with long, slow lives.
07:35They begin forming when snow doesn't completely melt away in the summer.
07:41Each winter's new snowfall builds on the year before.
07:47And as the layers grow and compress, glacial ice is formed.
07:54Like rivers of ice that ebb and flow, glacial movement is driven by freezing, melting, and gravity.
08:09As new layers of ice are formed, the glacier grows, while tremendous pressure and gravity slide it downhill.
08:18Sometimes trapping rocks, sediment, and plants, which can make them look dirty.
08:25When the front of the glacier melts, it drops trapped debris.
08:31And when this glacial front melts faster than new ice is formed, the glacier appears to retreat uphill.
08:40As the daylight hours grow in summer, surface melt seeps into the glacier through cracks, crevices, and mulans.
08:57Circular, well-like shafts that sink into the glacier, forming rivers that travel through or under the ice.
09:11In some cases, these carve out breathtaking glacier caves.
09:18Warm meltwater and air movement open the caves.
09:35They can reach for miles into a glacier.
09:41They can reach for miles.
09:45Mature caves, often thousands of years old, become spectacular tunnels with beautifully sculptured walls.
09:54Glacial ice is different than regular ice.
10:10The compressed crystal structure absorbs all colors except blue, producing the stunning turquoise.
10:23In the end, even the oldest of caves are only temporary.
10:29When the summer sun in Alaska begins to melt the snow and ice, it unleashes life.
10:48Once-frozen waterfalls tumble down rock faces.
11:02Rivers swell.
11:05Marshes fill.
11:10And temporary lakes form.
11:16The high water levels provide the perfect conditions for migrating salmon to scale rapids and reach their spawning grounds upstream.
11:28But to get into the rivers, they first have to make it past a coastline predator.
11:35The stellar sea lion.
11:42These noisy males began aggregating in May.
11:45They bark at one another almost continually, protecting territories they've staked out for breeding season, letting other males know it's their dominion.
11:54Males can grow up to 11 feet long and weigh up to 2,500 pounds.
12:02Even in all fours, this adult male is an impressive six feet tall.
12:07Of the seals, only walruses and elephant seals are bigger.
12:14While these might seem like barren rocks, these isolated islands and beaches are important reproductive rookeries.
12:22Stellar sea lions are polygamous.
12:26But, unlike some species of seals, the males don't coerce females into harons.
12:31Instead, the females move freely between the males' territories.
12:37Which explains why the males put up such a clamor to own the best real estate.
12:54The adult females swim in nonchalantly a week after the males.
13:01Smaller than the males, they can still grow up to nine feet long and weigh in at up to 1,000 pounds.
13:10Once these noisy summer colonies are established, they can have hundreds of individuals.
13:17In amongst the din, males try to woo females with a call known as weedling.
13:26The females pup soon after arriving.
13:29The product of last year's mating and calling between mothers and pups adds to the clamor on the rocks.
13:38One to two weeks after giving birth, the females will mate again.
13:43Timing the birth for next spring.
13:46Busy defending their territories and waiting for available females to mate with, males often fast throughout the breeding season.
14:00Some won't enter the water even once from mid-May till August, when the rookeries begin to fall apart.
14:07While stellar sea lions don't migrate, they will move between resting and feeding areas, eating a variety of squid, crabs, clams and fish.
14:21During the Alaskan summer, that means feasting on the salmon run, which has finally arrived.
14:30The swollen rivers create superhighways for millions of salmon that come to spawn.
14:48Once they make it into fresh water, most species of salmon stop eating.
14:53They must run the riverine gauntlet of waterfalls, eagles and bears, using their fat reserves for energy to travel upstream and spawn.
15:08Depending on the species, salmon can spend anywhere from only 18 months to an incredible eight years in the open ocean before the urge to reproduce kicks in.
15:23And they head back into the river systems to spawn.
15:31Over 5,000 salmon streams wind their way into Alaska from the coastline.
15:36Some up to 400 miles long.
15:47Like migratory birds, it's thought that salmon detect magnetic fields to navigate.
15:56It leads them from the ocean to the coast of their natal rivers.
16:00From there, they smell their way to the entrance of the exact river, and eventually the precise spawning grounds of their own birth.
16:13Fighting currents, avoiding predators, and charging up waterfalls.
16:23It's a one-way trip they're programmed to complete or die trying.
16:27For the hungry mother bear and her cubs, the moving sushi buffet has arrived just in time.
16:42The cubs haven't learned to fish yet, so mom spends up to 20 hours a day fishing for all of them.
16:56By the peak of the salmon run, leaves and berries will be off the menu, and high-calorie fatty salmon will make up most of their diet.
17:06The female will eat up to 90 pounds of food a day, almost doubling her weight before hibernation.
17:14The cubs have figured out that salmon is pretty tasty.
17:29Though they'd rather not share.
17:33While she's busy working, scouting the river for her next fishy target, the cubs play fights silently.
17:52No point in attracting unwanted attention from other bears.
18:11Eventually, the cubs will start mimicking their mother's behavior and learn how to fish.
18:17But for now, it's nice when she brings dinner to them.
18:35Though she seems to have decided that this piece is hers.
18:47Most bears stay close to where they were born.
19:05And for these cubs, they couldn't have chosen a better home with its conveyor belt of fresh salmon.
19:12Natives call Admiralty Island, Kutsnuwu, the Fortress of the Bears.
19:37These coastal brown bears are larger than mainland brown bears, and even their grizzly bear cousins.
19:49They share more DNA with the world's largest bear, the polar bear.
19:54Though the evolutionary relationship isn't fully understood.
19:59It's thought that polar bears were stranded on Admiralty Island after the last glacial retreat.
20:14And that brown bears swimming into the archipelago from the mainland mated with the polar bears,
20:20eventually creating the island's extra-large brown bears.
20:41While bears do have home ranges, they don't defend territories,
20:48though they may defend food or a favorite fishing spot.
20:51Even on crowded Admiralty Island, bears tend to be tolerant of one another,
21:04unless they have cubs or resources are low.
21:13When the salmon run hits Admiralty Island, resources are anything but scant.
21:19This season of plenty isn't isolated to the rivers.
21:35These humpback whales have migrated north from Hawaii and Mexico to Alaska for the summer.
21:52Lured by high levels of phytoplankton, krill, and small fish.
21:57They do most of their feeding here, in cold northern waters in the south.
22:26Building up their reserves of blubber for migration and mating down south in the winter.
22:33This season of
22:42home
22:50Along the coastline, 140 million seabirds migrate annually to Alaska for the summertime
23:12Feast. About half of all birds in the Northern Hemisphere.
23:22Having flown into the shelter of Finger Bay on Admiralty Island, this black oyster catcher
23:27is keeping his eye on the tide. When the tide runs out, the intertidal zone becomes his buffet.
23:37When it comes back in, he returns to his mate. It might seem a bit barren, but it's home
23:45for the summer. Tide goes out, and it's back to prying limpets off the rocks and searching
23:57for muscles.
24:07Till the tide comes back in again.
24:09Not dependent on the tides, these almost fantastically painted harlequins are taking advantage of
24:36the Alaskan summer. They're diving for insects, fish, and marine invertebrates.
24:44These ducks are a bit of an enigma.
24:48They migrate east and west, rather than north and south, and adult females,
24:54almost salmon-like, return to their natal streams to reproduce.
25:08Further north, off South Marble Island, the puffins have returned.
25:14The horned puffin and the tufted puffin are here to nest.
25:19For a bird that weighs about as much as a can of soda, they're well adapted to life at sea.
25:30They normally call the open water home over the continental shelf and the North Pacific.
25:38Wing flapping, fluffing the feathers, and dipping the head make for a good bath.
25:43Their feathers are waterproof, so long as they're maintained, and help keep out the cold.
25:54Of course, they also help with flying.
26:00While the birds come and go, sea otters live here in Sitka Sound off Baranoff Island all year long.
26:08While they may be the smallest marine mammal, adult males can still weigh up to 100 pounds and grow up to 5 feet long.
26:27They like shallow areas with lots of kelp.
26:30Wrapped around their bodies, it acts like an anchor so they can rest and sleep on the surface in their own water hammocks.
26:40Though these guys don't seem particularly tired.
26:44Otters are extremely curious and have been listed as one of the world's smartest animals, on par with dolphins.
26:52Highly social, sea otters tend to rest together in single-sex groups called rafts.
26:59Like this one, most rafts have about 10 to 100 individuals, though the largest raft ever seen had more than 2,000.
27:10Unlike other marine mammals, they have no blubber.
27:13Instead, to keep warm in cold water, they have the densest fur of any animal on earth, about 1 million hairs per square inch.
27:27Their thick fur also traps air and makes them buoyant, helping them to float around their kelp kingdoms.
27:34Because it's so critical to their survival, they spend a lot of time cleaning and grooming their fur.
27:46With no blubber, they also need to eat 25 to 40 percent of their body weight every day to help them keep warm.
27:57Their food strategy? Diversity.
27:59Eating about 50 species of marine animals, including mussels, clams, crabs, and urchins.
28:11Without these sea otters to keep their populations in check, urchins would devour the kelp forests that provide critical habitat for other marine life.
28:21This makes the sea otter a keystone predator, crucial in maintaining the balance of the shoreline ecosystem.
28:29This sea otter seems pretty relaxed, and he can afford to be.
28:37Predation on sea otters is rare.
28:40They have a bit of a secret weapon, or repellent.
28:44Scent glands so pungent, they just don't taste good to most predators.
28:50But they still have some natural enemies, like sea lions and killer whales.
28:59Thankfully for the Sitka Sound sea otters, these transient killer whales are searching for prey closer to the mainland, in the channel off Point Adolphus.
29:12They spend 90 percent of the day hunting, eating up to 375 pounds of food a day.
29:25They roam large areas of coastal waters, but their movement isn't predictable.
29:31They could pop up anywhere.
29:38While they'll occasionally make a meal of a sea otter, they prey mainly on larger marine mammals.
29:44They're favorite, being the abundant seals and sea lions along the coast.
29:51The summer in Alaska provides more than just a bounty along the coast.
30:08When water is unleashed into the landscape, plants make up for the lengthy winter darkness.
30:25During the long summer days, the land transforms into a rich, green oasis.
30:36There are about 1,700 species of plants in Alaska, most in the lush southeast.
30:51They take advantage of every habitat available and burst to life under the summer sun.
30:56Fluffy arctic cotton is found in acidic bogs and is common on the tundra.
31:09The cotton tops act like down, trapping solar radiation, increasing the temperature of the reproductive organs during the summer.
31:18The fluffy seed heads have evolved to be carried by the breeze, and they can travel great distances.
31:31Found throughout the arctic, subarctic, and temperate zones, it's the most widely dispersed flowering plant in the northern hemisphere.
31:39Fireweed is like a blossoming calendar throughout the summer, opening its flowers from the bottom up, starting in the spring.
31:57It's named for its ability to colonize areas quickly after a fire.
32:02A single plant can produce 80,000 seeds, each with a long, silky hair that allows the plant to spread easily in the wind.
32:16High in vitamins A and C, Native Americans traditionally ate them in the spring.
32:21Peat bogs, known in western Canada and Alaska as muskeg, covered 10% of southeastern Alaska.
32:43This ecosystem filters and purifies water and acts as a carbon sink.
32:51Storing about 30% of the world's carbon.
32:56But these bogs also produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
33:02And they play a complex role in influencing the Earth's climate.
33:10The wet, temperate summer here makes perfect conditions for them to develop.
33:16They form in areas where the water can't drain.
33:19Melt water and rain collect, creating stagnant, acidic bodies of water that are relatively infertile.
33:35Water and decaying vegetation covered by peat moss and other plants are the basis of the muskeg.
33:42Nutrients are in short supply here, and the round leaf sundew is working to tap into a less competitive source of food.
33:57Glistening droplets that look like nectar cover the plant and entice unsuspecting insects.
34:03The sticky droplets trap the insects and digest them with enzymes, releasing their nutrients for the sundew to absorb.
34:15Though this dragonfly is too large for this plant.
34:17The raven is worshipped as a deity.
34:31Seen as the bringer of daylight in native Alaskan folklore, the raven is worshipped as a deity.
34:37According to legend, the raven showed pity for naked people he found in a clamshell and gave them food, fire, clothing, shelter, and rituals to protect them from dark spirits.
34:55Like the raven in the story, these adaptable animals are among the most intelligent of all birds.
35:06They can recognize different individuals, learn through observation, and even use logic.
35:12Found throughout the state, Alaskan ravens are the largest member of the crow family, averaging two feet tall with a wingspan of almost five feet.
35:28These opportunistic omnivores eat everything from insects and fruit to rodents and fish.
35:35And this guy is definitely not going to pass up some leftovers of dead salmon.
35:50They're smart enough to find food, even in the dead of winter, and are year-round residents in Alaska.
36:05Covering most of southeastern Alaska, encompassing everything from the islands of the Alexander Archipelago to fjords, glaciers, and the peaks of the coast mountains,
36:26is Tongass National Forest.
36:35At 17 million acres, this vast expanse of wilderness is the largest national forest in America.
36:53It's also home to Earth's largest remaining temperate rainforest.
36:59Larger than Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts combined.
37:05Even in the winter, the area stays relatively warm compared to the rest of Alaska, hovering just above freezing.
37:27Drenched in fog, rain and meltwater,
37:30Thousand-year-old trees dominate the ancient forest.
37:42Two hundred-foot Sitka spruce and western hemlock tower above the forest floor, creating living cathedrals.
37:49The trees here are as tall as those in the south, but do all their growing during the short, wet summer months.
38:05SONG PLAYS
38:09SONG PLAYS
38:10SONG PLAYS
38:11SONG PLAYS
38:19SONG PLAYS
38:25SONG CONTINUES
38:27Draped throughout the forest, lichens absorb water and nutrients mostly from the air, rather
38:43than the soil.
38:46They are extremely sensitive to pollution and only grow in pristine environments.
38:55Down on the lush forest floor, plants soak up the moisture of the summer.
39:02Out in exposed, windy areas, most plants opt for being short to keep warm.
39:09But here in the shelter of the forest, Prickly Devil's Club grows up to eight feet tall.
39:20Its berries are a favorite amongst bears and other animals.
39:24Despite it being covered in stinging hairs with dense spikes along the stems.
39:33This prickly plant grows slowly, is sensitive to the environment and mainly does well in
39:38mature forests.
39:44The scent of rotting flesh and skunk sometimes wafts through the forest.
39:50But it's not always carrion or even a skunk.
39:55Closer to the river, growing in clumps along the forest floor, skunk cabbage produces striking
40:01yellow flowers that emit the repulsive odor.
40:06A clever way for the plant to attract pollinating flies and mitges.
40:14Back in the river, an American dipper bobs up and down looking for insects and small fish.
40:20It has no problem skipping about on the slippery rocks and fast flowing water.
40:26As the only truly aquatic songbird in North America, it comes equipped for the territory.
40:34Strong toes grip the slippery rocks and special nasal flaps stop water from going up its nostrils.
40:42It even has its own built-in goggles, extra clear eyelids called nictitating membranes that
40:49allow it to see underwater.
40:55With all this equipment, it can even dive under ice and won't need to migrate south when
41:00the winter comes.
41:08This female kingfisher, on the other hand, is only here for the summer.
41:14She and her partner have established a half-mile long fishing territory along this river.
41:23Perching on a watch point along the water, she watches for prey, fish, crustaceans, even
41:30small mammals.
41:35They're very territorial, and when another kingfisher enters their turf, she immediately
41:40chases it off.
41:45Watching the kingfisher below, an adult bald eagle surveys the area.
41:52It's one of over 2,000 bald eagles living in Alaska, the largest population in the world.
42:01This adult has migrated north for the summer to nest and fish.
42:07Built for hunting, its eyes are almost as large as a human's, but its vision is at least four
42:14times sharper.
42:17Two inch long talons, three facing forwards and one backwards, are sharp and perfectly
42:24curved for grabbing prey.
42:27When its leg muscles contract, its talons close together in a vice-like grip.
42:36While it will hunt everything from waterfowl, like the puffin, to small mammals and rodents,
42:42it will also scavenge on carrion.
42:45At this time of year in Alaska, like many predators here, its favorite food is salmon.
42:53Bald eagles usually choose large trees overlooking the water, where they can easily spot prey.
42:59They're typically solitary, but in areas with a lot of food, like the Alexander Archipelago
43:05in summer, they'll gather in large numbers.
43:11Salmon migration routes are prime feeding areas.
43:18Young bald eagles are mottled brown, not developing the striking white head and dark brown body
43:24of adulthood till around age five.
43:31Their beaks also change color, turning from black to bright yellow around age four.
43:40Once its adult plumage is developed, though, it's difficult to tell a bird's age.
43:48While they typically live 15 to 20 years in the wild, the oldest wild banded bald eagle
43:54was 38 years old.
43:59Kept warm by feathers and down, this adult is well adapted to tolerate the cold.
44:06Its feet are predominantly cold-resistant tendons, and its bill mainly keratin, like human nails
44:13and hair.
44:16This won't migrate south until the water freezes over.
44:23Though juveniles leave earlier, how they know where to go, no one really knows.
44:32With up to an eight-foot wingspan and weighing up to 14 pounds, they often take advantage
44:38of thermal upwellings during their seasonal migrations.
44:52By the end of summer, the last of the fireweed's blossoms open.
44:59Like the northern groundhog of the fall, they herald a change of the seasons.
45:06An old Alaskan saying claims that when the fireweed's top blossom opens, the first snowfall
45:13is only six weeks away.
45:19At the end of August, there are only 14 hours of daylight.
45:27Six less than in the peak of the summer.
45:34By September, the evening temperatures dip to 48 degrees Fahrenheit.
45:41The vegetation changes color and leaves drop to the ground.
45:55When winter finally does close in, the kingfishers will head south, some as far as South America.
46:05The tipper will stay, able to swim beneath the ice to look for food.
46:13The stellar sea lions will disband from the rookeries and develop a thick coat of fur for the winter.
46:23And having fattened up on krill, the humpback whales will head south to breed and calf.
46:34Back at her favorite fishing spot, the mother bear and her cubs have spent the summer fattening
46:39up.
46:44By November, they'll search for a den to hibernate until next spring.
46:57Across southern Alaska, species have found different ways to survive and thrive, colonizing
47:05every habitat, and capitalizing on every food source.
47:17All taking advantage of this brief, abundant, and wet Alaskan summer.
47:26At least 5 o'clock,ì…¨ Spendium re moje seagulls.
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