Natural World (1983) s27e05 Episode Script

This white falcon, a gyrfalcon, is the largest in the world A pair live on an island here in the high arctic Last summer, they failed to raise any young A pack of white wolves also live in this cold, desolate place Last year, they were luckier than the falcons and produced 3 cubs Breeding in the arctic is difficult when the season is so short For up here, June is spring, July is summer and August is already autumn It's a precarious window in which they must breed before the snow and bitter cold return This film is the story of this summer's fortunes, for these two remarkable animals This is one of the most remote places on earth Ellesmere Island It's spanned by rugged mountain ridges and scoured by freezing winds The island lies at Canada's most northern tip extending right up to 84 degrees north It crowns some of world's most pristine wilderness For 9 months of the year, the whole island lies buried beneath a cloak of snow and ice Now, at the beginning of June, the temperature rises just enough to start a snow melt And the race to make the most of the short but productive arctic summer can begin Gyrfalcons can weigh over 2kg, even bigger than peregrines Their sheer physical bulk makes them the most powerful falcons in the world They can turn into a 200 mile an hour stoop in the blink of an eye This is the male He's a 3rd smaller than a female falcon He's not hunting right now, just showing off This cliff on which the falcons breed looks out over the sea From this high, sheltered vantage point he can spot intruding males will be a target The absence of his bigger, more powerful mate is a good sign She is incubating eggs, deep behind this overhang in the cliff This nest site is known to be ancient The bones of prey found deep within it suggest it's been in use for several hundred years Though it's a great place to nest the falcons aren't always successful In the arctic, every summer is different nothing is ever certain This pack on Ellesmere comprises 8 wolves the dominant male, 3 of his now grown up young from previous years And 3 wolves that were born just last spring, now a year old These yearling wolves have a lot to learn They still have puppy-like traits particularly this one She's quite a character If she's to become a useful member of the pack she's got a lot growing up to do before the winter The breeding female wolf has spent a lot of time in this den recently We think she must have cubs down there They won't appear above ground until they're about a month old usually in late June That's any time now but how many heads might emergy is her secret alone Wolves are extremely sociable animals and they are excited by the prospect of new family members Still, no sign of them yet The breeding female goes back underground while the breeding male leads the pack off to find food Sometimes they chase arctic hares However the real threat to the hares comes from above The male has caught a young hare he passes it to the female who will take it back to the nest Elsewhere, gyrfalcons feed mainly on seabirds but here, on Ellesmere, they rely on hares And their abundance will be the key to the survival of this year's brood One chick is hatched Two Three This is a very good start to the summer The female will stay at the nest, protecting and feeding the chicks while the male goes hunting Last year, only two hatched and they both soon died of starvation It's all about timing The young falcons hatch very early in the season when small, young hares or leverets are plentiful Once these grow big, the male falcon won't be able to kill them or lift them off the ground The parent falcons need to make the most of these early weeks of summer or their chicks won't make it It's a very finely balanced world up here A few days early or late can make all the difference The pack hears mom calling and returns Something isn't right There should be cubs by now but she is alone Maybe she had a false pregnancy or perhaps the cubs died underground Whatever happened, the fortunes of the pack have changed New cubs would add pressure on the playful one-year-old daughter to grow up Instead, she remains very much the baby There's no reason to stay close to the den now The pack can spend the summer on the move The dominant male wolf calls his mate and they all slowly move off The young female spends much of her time play but if she's distracted this easily she'll find it hard to keep up with the pack that covers 40 or 50 miles a day They need her to pay attention By winter, she needs to have learned her part in hunting down animals a lot more challenging than arctic hares Musk oxen may look like bulls in hula skirts but they are actually muscle-bound powerhouses The calves or lone elderly bulls are most easily brought down by the pack There's good reason for them to stay away from the shoreline The wolves are using it as a highway to find easier things to catch As there're no trees here birds nest on the ground But each bird has developed a different strategy to protect its vulnerable young An angry arctic skua can easily spook a naive young wolf The skua successfully moves the wolves on A mile or so further, and it's an arctic fox who's keeping a wary eye on the pack They are not much larger than a domestic cat and an easy meal for a wolf The female fox is out of sight she's probably under these rocks at the moment perhaps with cubs There's one neighbor that can give the wolves a real punch Snowy owls have little fear of anything or anyone This female has good reason to drive the wolves out of her valley She's protecting a very large number of eggs Snowy owls breed much later than falcons They're synchronizing hatching not to hares, but to lemmings And the fact that there are this many eggs suggests they're banking on a good year June turns to July the snows can settle again as early as late August For anything growing, there's a little time left Arctic willows, the only trees, grow centimeters long and hug the ground like grasping fingers Sudden ice melt brings a flurry of color to the ground As flowers of all kinds race through their own breeding cycle Waders like this Baird's sandpiper have come up to Ellesmere island to raise their young on the abundant insect life In the past month, the young hares have paled in color but crucially, they doubled in weight Their larger size is now proving difficult for the smaller male falcon But the chicks need more food than ever the female is much larger than her mate but she still has to stay with the chicks to help them feed She needs the male to go out hunting again and again These two weeks are when they're under the greatest pressure Further up the hill, the snowy owl eggs hatch over a 10-day period just as the lemmings appear This year, they're everywhere All predators need to time breeding with the greatest abundance of their prey This year, the owls have got it spot-on The male fox brings home a mouthful of lemmings It means one thing cubs Unlike the wolves the foxes have had young The supply of lemmings is so plentiful that the cubs don't even seem hungry They bury the surplus and have time to play They must build up their strength and stalking skills quickly so they can start catching lemmings for themselves The owlets have sorted out their own pecking order There's no fight to get to the front There are plenty of lemmings for everyone Day after day, the wolf pack continues to patrol the shoreline If they had cubs, the pack would have to hunt large mammals Instead, they can get by on the abundance of lemmings and ground-nesting birds The musk oxen and their calves get a reprieve for now But if next winter is harsh and the vegetation too deep under snow grazers like musk oxen will suffer Many may starve, weaken and die an opportunity for the wolves The young female has lagged behind again She's playful and curious bubbles birds She hasn't noticed that the rest of the pack's moved on, out of sight Her reflection seems to mesmerize her When the spell is broken, she finds herself separated from her family If this is for long, it could be disastrous for her She has little knowledge of where and how to find food At least, she has the light on her side At the height of summer, the sun never sets up here All animals need to take a break from hunting at some point in the day The falcons cannot afford to stop Despite the needs of his ravenous chicks the male who still does all the hunting is slacking off Most of the hares are now too big for him to kill The hares appear to be temporarily off the hook Some birds are better at hunting than others and this male clearly isn't the best He was her mate last year as well Could his idle nature be the reason why last year's clutch failed? The chicks should be growing exponentially yet they're getting noticeably hungry The female is agitated She looks for food that he may have stashed away but there's nothing It was at this time last year that their two chicks died But he is now spending this critical time preening Their flight feathers are beginning to grow and prolonged hunger at this age could weaken them For a gyrfalcon, strong flight feathers are vital It's time for the mother to take things into her own hands and start hunting too She uses her immensely powerful wing beat to gain height Her incredible eyesight allows her to watch the ground below without being seen herself Even at 500m, she can detect the slightest movement below If the hares don't move, they are safe Once she identifies a target, she moves into the sun so she can't be seen That's only half the battle won She now has to carry this miles back to the nest The young wolf is also struggling she's a pack animal but she's having to make every little decision alone She comes to a freshwater pool where an eider duck has brought her 4 tiny ducklings Surely these should make a straightforward meal even for her But like the skua, the mother duck has a clever tactic She diverts the wolf towards her by pretending to have a broken wing Meanwhile the ducklings stay still and hidden by the shore She lets the wolf come really close to her and tempts her further and further away from her ducklings Exhausted from this impossible chase, the wolf gives up Everyday, she remains separated from her family The more energy she'll waste, and the hungrier she'll become The female gyr is airborne Amazingly she has butchered a hare into smaller portions which is the sort of thing eagles do but not falcons Even so, the hare's huge hind quarters are dragging her down She's exhausted She can't even make it as far as the nest She has to land below the cliff She takes 10 minutes getting her breath and strength back before she can carry the food up to her starving chicks Now that she's hunting as well as the male the clutch may live The pack seems to be missing their youngest member Cold snaps can occur throughout the summer Temperatures can drop very dramatically and within hours it can be well below freezing A stilly reminder that winter is never far away The older owlets now roam on foot some distance from their nest Their grave feathery dawn is some of the best insulation in the natural world and they're still under the watchful eye of mom unlike the young wolf Alone on the shore, our young wolf continues her search for food A long-tailed duck has young It's not just mom that's clever even the ducklings seem to be outwitting her They bob up for air at exact the moment that the young wolf is looking the other way She looks frustrated and she's getting hungry by the day Back on the cliff, the female falcon is hunting hard the chicks are growing well The male is doing something at least even if he's just bringing in smaller prey As soon as she's taken the food parcel off him, she sends him out hunting again Time is running out The wolves move over a ridge toward a lake They spot white snow geese They also notice a different white head swimming out on the water It's the lost daughter She just hasn't twigged, that she can't swim as fast as geese This extraordinary stamina and boundless curiosity are the traits that make all wolves so adaptable and successful The rest of the pack stares from the shore in amazement Her siblings greet her back with excitement The older wolves seem to scold her for her antics Now that they're reunited her chances of getting a regular meal are dramatically increased By the middle of July, the young gyrs are already looking like adults Their personalities are starting to show One is aggressive and snatches food from her siblings A pale female dominates her smaller brother The time is fast approaching when this year's chicks are going to have to take to the wing themselves They're all close to flying now But before they dare try, they've got to strengthen their wings The pale female falcon is the most curious and steps closer to the dangerous edge Even for the queen of the falcons, this first flight takes courage and determination It doesn't go well This bad landing could have broken feathers particularly if they were weakened earlier in their lives Any injury will affect her hunting ability and drive her to starvation For the moment, there're more pressing concerns The wolves are mopping up birds especially any that are slow to take off The young falcon is exposed and vulnerable A careless long-tailed skua has been caught The young falcon climbs back up to the safety of the cliffs The pack is reunited The young female can now learn some proper teamwork A whole pack of wolves in the water confuses the prey and makes catching a great deal easier In this case, snow geese and their young our young female catches a gosling Fully gorged on goose, she has an opportunity to play Days later, back on the eyry all the young falcons are keen to fly The pale female is ready to give it another go The others quickly follow her example These young will soon leave this area and spend the winter wandering over vast areas of the subarctic in search of a territory of their own Both the adults will remain much closer by With 3 chicks on the wing, the misfortunes of the previous season have been overcome This has been a good year for the mother gyr The wolves and the falcons have now had their chance to breed Though the wolves didn't raise another litter this year the pack is still together They will remain on the island for the winter working together to hunt musk oxen Our young female survived her adventures She might well become a breeding female herself in a few summers' time and start up a new pack By late August, the temperature starts to drop quickly For all the characters that share this brightly lit summer stage those lights are now dimming Many of the birds have flown south and the other animals are dispersing By early September, the snows are returning daily and settling And for the next 7 months, this valley and its ancient nest will be deserted As the bitter cold and endless dark close in once more Next week, Natural World reconstructs two remarkable incidents where dolphins appear to have protected people from sharks and reveals why a dolphin could save your life