Canada -
the second largest country on Earth.
Famous for its epic wilderness.
From the Rocky Mountains...
..to the Great White North.
Breathtaking...
..rugged...
..and immense.
It's a rich and varied wonderland...
..which supports some of North America's most iconic species.
Theirs is a world of extremes.
Their life...
..at the mercy of the elements.
Every season brings new challenges.
It'll take strength...
..and tenacity...
..courage...
..and resilience...
..skill...
..and good fortune...
..just to make it through...
..A Year in the Wild.
Summer finally arrives in the wilds of Canada...
..bringing longer days and warmer temperatures.
Babies born in the spring emerge into a world transformed.
The sunlight fuels an incredible surge of life.
And the race is on to make the most of it.
The Rocky Mountains run through South-West Canada
like a rugged spine...
..a land of long icy winters and brief summers.
Beyond the trees, a world of stony desolation prevails.
This is the realm of the pika.
This tiny relative of the rabbit lives among the jumble of rocks...
..his refuge from the cold of winter and the heat of summer.
The slopes below are bursting with fresh growth...
..fuelled by the July sun.
Rich pickings for this busy male.
He must harvest as much as he can before the snow returns.
Each mouthful is ferried back to his rocky retreat...
..and added to his growing store.
Here, in the shelter of the boulders...
..the sweet grass dries to make hay.
Food, which is key to his survival through the brutal winter.
SQUEAKING NOISE
A territorial call nearby puts him on the defensive.
There's an intruder on his patch.
Born just 30 days ago...
..this pale pika pup must grow up fast.
Over the next two months,
she needs to claim a territory and build a haystack of her own.
Or she won't survive winter.
SQUEAKING CONTINUES
Challenging an established male is a bad start.
He runs in to defend his border...
..scent marking the edge of his domain.
She does the same.
Boundaries established, it's back to work.
Making hay while the sun shines.
The pale pup makes a good start.
But her haystack is small and exposed...
..whilst the male's is vast.
And while she seems to lack a sense of urgency...
..he keeps going.
Every mouthful of grass could be the
difference between life and death once winter sets in.
A snack break helps to keep the energy levels up.
But it also means that his haystack is left unattended.
The pale pup quickly cashes in...
..and raids the larder of the hard-working male.
The longer he's away, the more she takes.
By the time he heads home with the next load...
..she's long gone.
And he is none the wiser.
The pale pup has no-one to guide her...
..but with guile and quick thinking,
she's learning to shape her own destiny.
For other mountain residents,
summer is when vital knowledge is handed down.
Every year, mountain goat kids
follow their mums on an epic journey.
Their final destination lies at the base of a 500-foot cliff.
Hidden amongst the rocks is a secret spring...
..rich in precious minerals the goats need to stay healthy.
The sure-footed nannies lead the way.
They make this journey every year.
But it's a steep slope for a first-timer.
Put a foot wrong up here,
and he'll plunge to his death.
It's summer in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.
And mountain goats are nearing the end of a perilous journey.
There's just one more steep descent to make
before they reach the ancient mineral lick below.
Kids follow the adults as best they can.
The nannies have had years to hone their climbing skills.
But the kids are still learning.
There's no room for error.
They've all made it down safely.
This mineral-rich water is an
important pick-me-up after a bleak winter diet.
But with hungry bears and wolves nearby...
..they can't stay long.
Dominant goats jostle for position...
..whilst nervous kids wait for a space to become free.
Once they've had their fill, the goats head back to safety.
Mothers stay below their kids to break a fall.
But a straggler has to find his own way.
Panic sets in.
And in the rush to re-join his mother...
..this kid makes a terrible mistake.
Even experienced goats sometimes fall to their deaths.
But somehow, this little one has survived.
Battered and bruised, he immediately tries again.
This time he makes it back to mum.
He's escaped death by the narrowest of margins...
..but his future is still uncertain.
In the Rocky Mountains, there are deadly drops round every corner.
1,700 miles east of the goats lies a vast wooded wilderness
known as Algonquin Provincial Park.
Every summer, 130 species of birds gather here to breed...
..including five types of woodpecker.
High in a birch, a yellow-bellied sapsucker lives up to her name.
She hammers holes in the trunk...
..and laps up the sap with her bristly tongue.
It's a vital source of energy...
..which other birds are keen to exploit.
With the coast clear,
a ruby-throated hummingbird takes his chance.
Sap is a good substitute for flower nectar
and will help fuel his migration
back to Central America in a few weeks' time.
It's not just other birds that plunder the wells.
A young squirrel arrives for his sugar fix.
And when he's finished, the insects move in.
A mourning cloak butterfly sees off intruders with a flap of her wings.
But these wells are also a death trap.
Some insects get stuck in the sugary goo.
And the sapsucker returns to reap the harvest.
A few feet below, her red-throated mate does the same.
Full of protein and energy...
..every beakful is the perfect meal for their growing chicks.
Picking off insects makes feeding time effortless.
After a month on this rich diet, the chicks will be ready to fledge.
And when they do, they'll have a living larder on the doorstep.
Whilst summer brings abundance to forest dwellers in the south...
..it means starvation for polar bears in the north.
This mother and her two cubs came off the ice in June.
And they may not eat again until November.
They slowly make their way north to where the ice will form first,
giving them access to seals again.
Some think they enter a kind of walking hibernation.
During this time they reduce their metabolism,
cutting down energy demands whilst food is in such short supply.
Every summer, this coast is home to around 1,000 polar bears...
..each one slowly starving.
Their weight can drop by 20 pounds per week.
So they pick at anything they can find.
With temperatures nudging 20 degrees Celsius,
they run the risk of overheating.
To help keep cool, some lie in wet kelp...
..then pump blood to an area around their shoulder blades
where the heat can radiate away.
Others choose to cool off by lying in shallow coastal waters.
Days are long...
..so a mother bear keeps her cub entertained
by playing tug-of-war with an old discarded fishing line.
But this only serves to attract the
attention of a desperate hungry male.
Female polar bears are fiercely protective.
And if he gets anywhere near her cub...
..all hell will break loose.
It's summer on the shores of Canada's Hudson Bay.
And a polar bear mum takes a chance to cool off with her cub...
..whilst a hungry male bear watches on.
Perhaps thinking they've found food, he approaches, head down.
Growling and snorting, she attacks.
He knows better than to pursue and quickly retreats.
As summer continues, bear numbers increase...
..and tensions start to rise.
With so little food around, these confrontations
waste valuable energy and seem to achieve little.
Females with cubs must choose their battles wisely.
Where male bears are concerned...
..it's often safer to just walk away.
900 miles due east of the bears, on the treeless tundra of
northern Quebec, animals will soon face an enemy they can't ignore.
These barren lands are home to the Leaf River caribou.
In summer, there's ample food for bulls and growing calves alike.
But these halcyon days don't last long.
Shallow pools of meltwater dot the land.
For the caribou, this is where the nightmare begins.
A multitude of mosquito larvae writhe in the water.
Feeding...
..growing...
..until they're ready to emerge.
Canadian mosquito swarms are the stuff of legend.
Every summer, they're emerging earlier
and living longer.
This year is no exception.
The tundra is now abuzz with clouds of these blood-sucking insects.
Caribou are the biggest warm-blooded animals here.
So when mosquitoes find them...
..they are relentless.
The only way to escape these blood-suckers...
..is to run.
Caribou herds gather and flee to the high ground, where cooler
temperatures and stronger winds bring them some respite.
But up here, the land is barren.
There is little quality food.
And soon, hunger forces them back down again.
A caribou can lose three pints of blood to mosquitoes in summer.
And with less time for eating, they lose weight
when they should be getting fat for the coming winter.
They keep moving, trying to evade the swarms.
Their flight brings them to the banks of the Leaf River.
For a young calf, it's a nerve-racking time.
This is the largest river he has ever encountered.
With over half a mile of fast-flowing water to cross...
..it's a formidable swim for the adults...
..and a potentially deadly one for the weaker calves.
They bunch up to shield their youngsters from the rapids.
And eventually, they're through.
But this mum and calf are lagging behind.
And now they have no protection from the current.
They're driven backwards.
The calf must stay in his mother's slipstream...
..or he risks being swept away.
She gives one final push...
..and they've done it.
There's no time to rest.
Until cold weather arrives to kill off the mosquitoes,
their journey must continue.
Back on the shores of the Hudson Bay,
a polar bear family are close to journey's end.
In the last month, they've travelled over 200 miles.
From south of Wapusk National Park...
..to the mouth of the Churchill River.
They've nothing to eat but grass and sedge...
..meagre pickings for the world's largest land predator.
The seals they crave are hundreds of miles away.
And they can't go hunting until the bay freezes over.
Summer will be tough for this family.
Whilst the hungry bears wait for the sea ice to return...
..other ocean creatures take advantage of its absence.
Every year, around 3,000 beluga whales
gather in Hudson Bay to feed and give birth.
They form tight-knit pods while their babies learn to swim.
When tired youngsters need to take a breath,
their mothers help them to the surface.
When the babies are strong enough, they'll follow their parents back to
their feeding grounds in the Arctic Ocean.
A casualty of the beluga migration washes up on shore...
..attracting the attention of a hungry male bear.
So far, he's had the carcass all to himself.
But polar bears can smell food from many miles away...
..and they're starting to home in.
A young bear rushes the carcass...
..and is quickly and aggressively put in his place.
There's enough to share, but it's an uneasy truce.
Tempers could flare up again at any moment.
The smell of flesh has also attracted a mother bear.
She's running a risk bringing cubs into such a volatile situation.
It's summer on Hudson Bay, and two male polar bears
rip into the carcass of a beached beluga whale.
A mother bear has been biding her time.
But when one male retreats, she advances.
She's taking a big risk.
Male bears have killed and eaten yearling bears on this beach before.
And soon there's another one to contend with.
This female is tough...
..and her cubs are cut from the same cloth.
None of them want to share with another bear.
Her cubs goad her on..
..and finally their mother's had enough.
She sends the interloper packing.
It's a good meal, but scavenging is nothing more than a stopgap.
If this family don't get another lucky break,
this might be the last food they have
until the bay freezes over and they can go seal-hunting again.
Over 800 miles southwest of the bears,
and close to the border with America,
lies a wind-blown wilderness known as Grasslands National Park.
This is the northern tip of the Great Plains
that once stretched southward from Canada all the way to Mexico.
Frequent fires and long periods of drought
have kept the plains virtually tree-free.
But grass thrives...
..sustaining Canada's biggest land animal.
Up to 30 million bison once roamed North America.
Today, there's fewer than 30,000.
Most were slaughtered for their tongues and their hides
when American settlers moved onto the plains.
Standing six feet at the shoulder and weighing over a tonne...
..each bull needs up to 30 pounds of grass daily.
But they don't have it all to themselves.
They share it with prairie dogs, one of Canada's smallest grazers.
Weighing about two pounds, an adult
prairie dog is a thousand times smaller than a bison.
But what they lack in size, they make up for in numbers.
There are over 25 families living in burrows
on this five-acre patch of grassland alone...
..including this female and her three two-month-old pups.
Kissing keeps the family bonded.
Out here, danger can come from any direction.
So in this town, they all watch each other's backs.
Sentries scan the plains,
ready to warn their neighbours whenever danger's spotted.
With long days, it's easy to let down your guard.
So prairie dogs regularly remind their neighbours to stay alert.
A call, known as the "jump-yip,"
spreads through the town like a Mexican wave.
And soon, it reaches the pups.
A neighbourhood watch is one of the benefits of living in a community.
But there's also a downside.
With so many animals in one place, it can draw predators in.
American badgers have been spotted.
The siren sounds.
And everyone dashes back to their burrows.
But badgers can dig prairie dogs up.
All the pups can do is sit tight...
..and hope they don't make it this far.
The badgers split up to cover more ground.
With poor eyesight, they head upwind to sniff out a suitable target.
Neighbours are powerless to help.
The badger digs...
..and nets himself a meal.
Once the badgers have fed and moved a safe distance away,
a prairie dog sounds the all-clear.
And life in town quickly returns to normal.
A good stretch relieves stress.
And with sentries back on duty...
..the pups can get back to cuddling Mum.
Danger is nothing new to this family.
They'll face it every day of their lives.
But the numbers still play in their favour,
with over 20,000 prairie dogs
spread over 350 square miles.
Most pups will survive their first year in the wild.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media