The Americas (2025) s01e03 Episode Script

1
This is The Americas,
an extraordinary journey
across Earth's great supercontinent.
The widest variety of life on the planet.
The untold story of our home.
Tonight on The Americas
The Wild West.
The stage for 1,000 legendary stories.
Where mountains shape
the lives of all who live here
in some of the planet's
most iconic landscapes.
Yellowstone.
The Sonoran Desert.
And the spectacular Great Plains.
This isn't a place for the fainthearted.
To call this home takes ingenuity
resilience
even true grit.
The Wild West forms
the vast heart of North America,
home to fertile prairies
and sun-scorched deserts.
All of this is shaped
by a spine of mountains.
The Rockies.
Towering over 14,000 feet.
Some of the highest mountains
in North America.
Hidden in the peaks of Wyoming
lies a place of spellbinding beauty.
Yellowstone.
In winter,
temperatures can plummet to 60 below.
Rivers 100-feet wide freeze,
leaving just a trickle
and a blanket of snow
lies four feet deep.
Survival in this magical world
is tough.
Even for the most wily of animals.
A coyote.
In this snowbound world,
he can still pick up a scent.
His nose is many times
more sensitive than ours.
After an hour of searching,
a frozen bison bone.
Better than nothing.
Coyotes are always
on the lookout for an opportunity.
Now is his arch-rival,
a red fox,
onto something?
Voles hide in a network of tunnels
beneath the snow.
Time to try this out.
Okay
That fox made it look easy.
Ugh, what a show-off.
There are other places worth a look.
Not everywhere is covered in snow.
Yellowstone sits above a super volcano,
creating its world-famous hot springs.
This is one of the largest on Earth,
known as Grand Prismatic.
The Crow Tribe called this place
the Land of the Burning Ground
where steaming geysers
erupt 150 feet into the air.
All this heat is just enough
to thaw the river.
An ice-free haven
for cutthroat trout.
But how to catch one?
Maybe stealing dinner would be easier
if he can get close enough.
But river otters work as a family.
Combined, that's more
than 100 pounds of angry otters.
It was worth a go.
Now he's on thin ice.
Perhaps it's time to show
that Wild West never-say-die spirit
and try fishing for himself.
Not bad.
Not bad at all.
Here, there's always somewhere to warm up,
but every day is tough in these mountains.
And not just for a coyote.
In the peaks of Colorado,
winter weather lasts eight long months.
It's May before spring finally arrives.
And the villain from many a Western
makes its entrance.
On this rocky peak in Colorado,
8,000 feet up,
spring comes fast.
And an animal you might not expect
to find up here is stirring.
A prairie rattlesnake.
This female has spent the winter
deep underground,
sheltering from the cold.
And she's not alone.
As the sun warms their bodies,
hundreds are coming back to life.
They may not have eaten for eight months,
so they immediately head down
to the plains to feed.
But even though
there's almost no food or water up here,
this female stays behind
because she's pregnant.
With a growing belly,
she's becoming slow and vulnerable
to predators.
So she remains up here
where she can easily escape
into the rocks.
Already dehydrated and starving,
it's a strategy that could kill her.
For two months, she'll barely move,
conserving all her energy.
But for her babies
to continue to grow inside her,
she does need water.
Droplets cling to microscopic grooves
in her scales
so she can suck moisture
from the surface
of her three-foot-long body.
It's just enough
to keep mom and babies alive.
Three months into her pregnancy
and a year since her last meal,
her due date is finally here.
Her contractions begin.
She doesn't lay eggs.
She gives birth to live young.
Each is a perfect rattlesnake
in miniature,
coiled inside a thin membrane.
A first breath.
Although its tiny fangs
are already loaded with venom,
a baby's rattle is too small
to make its trademark sound.
By the end of the night,
mom delivers six more babies.
They'll all spend the winter in the den.
By next spring,
mom will have starved herself
for 20 months.
She's a real-life Western heroine.
On lower mountain slopes,
time has softened the jagged peaks
into gently rolling hills.
In the Sierra Nevadas of California,
ancient oak trees
are scattered across the landscape.
And come the fall,
they're laden with treasure.
Acorns.
And this is an acorn woodpecker.
He relies on these nuts
to survive the coming winter.
But he'll need to store away thousands.
Every acorn must be wedged
into its very own storage hole.
Each takes
a full 20 minutes of chiseling
and that could be a real headache.
Fortunately,
their brains can tolerate forces
thousands of times greater than ours can.
He and his family work as a team.
One of the only birds in the world
to do so.
Teamwork is also handy
to keep an eye out
for thieves.
They might not share food
but they have shared
these fertile hills with people
for 10,000 years.
Ranchers brought change,
along with new opportunities
for the birds.
The side of a barn
might offer a labor-saving shortcut.
And another woodpecker family
is taking advantage.
Redwood cladding is softer
than an oak tree,
so they can work twice as fast.
But it's not all going to plan.
The cladding may be soft,
but it's also thin.
Not so clever now, huh?
How frustrating.
All those acorns
piled up behind the boards
until
At least now they've got
another chance to
do it right.
Sometimes, the old ways are the best ways.
For the oak tree family,
their work has paid off.
Time to sit back and take inventory.
They've safely stored
more than 4,000 acorns.
And since they prefer dead branches,
the trees are unharmed.
Known as a granary,
this is unlike anything else in nature.
It will see this top team
through the Wild West winter.
The peaks of the Sierra Nevadas
block rainclouds
sweeping in from the coast.
The result?
Vast deserts
that set a very different challenge
to life in the Wild West.
Monument Valley,
the breathtaking landscape
in which 1,000 movies are set.
This has been home to the Navajo Nation
for 800 years.
These Western deserts are the hottest
and driest in all of North America.
Here in the Sonoran,
the temperature often hits 120 degrees.
And to cope,
one animal has a survival strategy
that seems
straight out of science fiction.
An all-female team of ants.
They know that lean times lie ahead.
So these worker ants
are rushed off their feet,
collecting nectar and water
to store away deep underground.
The ants build a nest
nine feet beneath the surface,
packed with bizarre-looking storage pots.
But here's the plot twist.
The pots
are alive.
They start life as ordinary worker ants,
but then are constantly fed
nectar and water.
As they swell,
the black bands
of their abdomens are forced apart
until they end up the size of a grape.
Now they're destined
to spend the rest of their lives
hanging from the ceiling
as a living pantry.
And that's why this species is called
the honeypot ant.
Every ant plays their part.
This giant is the queen.
Three times the size of the workers.
All she does is lay eggs,
millions during her reign.
For the last five years,
she produced worker eggs.
But now, she's making something new.
Princes and princesses
with wings.
Flying ants.
Their sole mission is to leave
and start fresh colonies.
However, they can only dig a new nest
in earth that's been softened by rain.
And in this desert,
that could mean a long wait.
As the sun beats down,
the colony's food supply dries up.
Now the honeypots' sacrifice pays off.
Each begins to regurgitate the nectar
stored within its body.
Shared around by the workers,
it's just enough
to keep the whole colony alive
for now.
But in the Sonoran,
not everyone has a team to back them up.
Especially this single mom.
A bobcat
with double trouble twins.
Her kittens are just a few weeks old
and totally dependent on her milk.
Mom needs to feed them four times a day.
And to do that, she urgently needs water.
Unlike the ant colony,
she doesn't have a store to fall back on.
So she must leave her family
and venture out alone.
This land hasn't received
a drop of rain in two long months.
She's got her work cut out.
The survival of her kittens
depends on her.
Despite their stores,
even the honeypot ants
are getting desperate.
With so many extra mouths to feed,
if the drought continues,
their supply will run dry
and they'll all starve.
In the bone-dry Sonoran Desert,
everyone is waiting for one thing.
Rain.
The storm doesn't last long.
But it's enough.
A bobcat will gulp water
for five minutes straight.
The tiny kittens
are anxiously waiting for mom's return.
About time too.
Now they can get a drink at last.
Fully revived,
they're back to what they do best.
What little they know
of the dangers of the desert.
For the ants, the rain-soaked ground
is exactly what they've been waiting for.
The workers complete
last-minute flight checks.
And they are cleared for takeoff.
Within minutes, the air is filled
with hundreds of fluttering wings.
They can do what they were born to do,
set up new colonies across the desert.
1,000 miles to the east
lie the Great Plains,
covering 500 million acres
and 10 different states.
They're flanked by the Rockies,
which funnel air north and south,
creating the windiest place in the US.
When warm winds from the south
collide with cold northerlies,
monsters are born.
Thunderstorms.
Some of the most powerful in the world.
They can contain the same energy
as 100 nuclear bombs.
Dry grass is ignited in a flash.
Fire in the Midwest can ravage
over a million acres every year.
And in its wake, life here is transformed.
Wildfires may seem like a disaster,
but in fact, they make
the Great Plains what they are.
Fire prevents trees from taking over
and sparks off a natural cycle of rebirth.
The grasses may appear to be dead,
but by extending more than 15 feet
below the surface,
their roots live on.
Now, they absorb nutrients from the ash.
And within weeks, fresh new growth
attracts eager herds of bison.
The largest of America's land mammals,
weighing in at a ton
and standing six feet tall
at the shoulder.
Vast herds cover 1,000 miles a year
in search of the best grazing.
These beefcakes demand a lot of calories.
But here in South Dakota,
this old male has no time to dine.
He's too focused on fighting
for the chance to mate.
He's lost almost 200 pounds trying
and still
no success with the ladies.
Confirming a female is in heat
isn't subtle.
She could be his last chance
in this year's rut,
so he'll stay by her side.
But he has competition from a rival,
and a younger one at that.
This old bull needs to stand his ground.
If neither backs down,
a brawl is inevitable.
They are closely matched,
but the old bull uses the terrain
to his advantage.
Victory.
And with it, he does get the girl.
200 years ago,
there were around 60 million bison.
After just 30 years of intensive hunting,
there were fewer than 1,000 left.
Now they're protected,
and with their numbers recovering,
people flock to watch the rut.
But we've had an even greater impact
all across the prairie.
The flat open land
is perfect for agriculture
on an industrial scale.
It's America's breadbasket.
More than 80%
of all North American prairie
is now farmland.
It's a difficult place for most wildlife.
But there are exceptions.
Descendants
of dinosaurs.
Here, in the fields of Nebraska.
Sandhill cranes
make a pit stop on their migration north.
They've been coming to this part
of the Great Plains every year
since the end of the last Ice Age.
Their ancient feeding grounds
are long gone,
but they've now taken advantage
of a new opportunity,
corn kernels left over from the harvest.
As dusk falls,
the cranes head off to roost
on the Platte River,
a tributary of the mighty Mississippi.
It's unusually wide and shallow.
Perfect for cranes.
They can wade right out into mid-water.
So coyotes can't sneak up on them.
They make do with the odd one
that succumbed to the elements.
While they're here,
the courting season begins.
This young male is hoping
to make an impression.
And the females are checking him out.
For cranes,
the language of love is dance.
He's caught one particular female's eye.
If his moves impress her,
she'll copy them.
The routine builds to its balletic finale.
For better or worse,
they'll be together now
for the rest of their lives.
And that can be over 30 years.
As the light fades,
more and more birds arrive
to join the chorus.
80% of the world's sandhill cranes
roost on the Platte River.
That's over half a million cranes.
One of the greatest wildlife spectacles
on the planet,
but just another day
in the extraordinary world
of the Wild West.