Frozen Planet II
The skilled hunters seeking prey in the icy northern forests and tundra regions…
Sunday, 8pm, BBC1 Factual
Killers are on the prowl in the icy north of the planet in yet another stunning episode, which features the wily Arctic fox diving head first into the deep snow to catch lemmings. The Amur leopard is among the big cats we’ll follow, as well as the majestic Siberian tiger – both have amazing survival strategies for winter in the frozen wastelands where they hunt. We’ll also see what it’s like to be hungry like a wolf!
FROZEN PLANET II
Sunday, 8pm, BBC1 Factual
Its snow-covered forests and icy open tundra make the far north of our planet an inhospitable landscape. But somehow, as this episode of Frozen Planet II demonstrates, the region’s creatures have found ingenious ways to survive.
Among those we follow are a ‘superpack’ of 25 wolves who’ve come together to hunt for American bison, the only large prey available to them during the winter.
‘Bison are formidable animals, not easy to attack,’ says narrator Sir David Attenborough. ‘The bulls are 10 times the size of a wolf and have horns with which they could rip any attacker to pieces. But the pack must feed.’
Hope
The Arctic fox, on the other hand, hunts alone on the tundra, using a unique headfirst diving technique to catch lemmings hiding deep underground. The Amur leopard and the Siberian tiger, whose numbers are rapidly declining, generally hunt alone, too. ‘For
Siberia’s big cats, each spring could bring new hope,’ says Sir David. ‘Each cub increases the chance that both species might recover.’
Sadly, in the frozen north, hope is a rare commodity and we hear how climate change is melting the permafrost deep within the soil and putting the survival of species at risk.
‘The seasonal extremes of the north have always tested its inhabitants to their limits,’ says Sir David. ‘But climate change could present them with one challenge too many.’