Alaska Deadly 60

My name is Steve Backshall.

Woo!

And this is my search for the Deadly 60.

That's not just animals that are deadly to me,

but animals that are deadly in their own world.

My crew and I are travelling the planet.

And you're coming with me, every step of the way.

This deadly mission brings us to Alaska,

one of the best places on Earth for a big adventure.

It's the largest state in America,

more than six times the size of the UK.

It's one of the wildest, most rugged wonderlands you'll ever see,

graced with towering mountains, icy lakes, forests and rivers.

And the wildlife is pretty spectacular, too.

Alaska's Pacific coast

is absolutely laden with life.

The seas around us are stuffed with fish,

from shoals of tiny ones that can be miles across

to halibut, that can be bigger and heavier than I am.

And all of these boats here have come here

to take advantage of all that bounty.

But it isn't just human beings who like eating fish.

With fish-filled seas come mega predators

in search of full stomachs.

And these include the largest animals on Earth - the whales.

Humpbacks come here to feed in the summers,

offering some of the greatest spectacles imaginable.

The boat's made its way out into very deep sea.

It's not really ideal conditions for spotting in -

it's quite foggy, windy, wavy and pretty damp as well.

And the animals we're looking for

are amongst the largest animals on Earth,

but the sea is a very, very big place.

So I think we're relying on a bit of Deadly 60 luck.

And I'm also hoping to get my sea legs some time soon.

'The whales fatten up here on herring,

'so we're looking out for their spouts and flapping tail flukes.'

OK. Keep an eye out and if you see any whales, relay it back to us

cos these folks are very interested in filming them.

This high-tech machine here is called the fish finder.

And what you can see here are solid areas in the sea in front of us.

Essentially, a sonic click is being sent out

and it's bouncing off any objects in the water

and then coming back to us

so we can build a picture of what's in front of us.

This here is the seabed

and these dark areas here are shoals of fish.

First of all, this is very good,

as it means there are likely to be predators feeding on those fish,

and that could mean our whales.

But also, this is very similar to the way

that whales and dolphins find their own food.

So, looking at this, hopefully, we're in the right spot.

All the essential undersea elements are in place.

Now, we just need to spot some whales.

There's quite a lot of bird activity here.

You see lots of different seabirds all off the side of the boat.

And this is all down to the fact that these seas

are just stuffed full of life.

They are very cold,

but as the tides are so heavy and there are so many currents,

it brings up nutrients from down low.

The small fish feed on that, the bigger fish feed on those,

and the predators feed on them.

And that's why these seas are so full of some of the largest,

some of the most spectacular animals in the whole world.

Which certainly applies to the humpback.

Humpbacks are perhaps the most playful and dynamic of all whales,

breaching their bodies clear of the water.

Obviously, they're no danger to us.

Well, unless they were to land on you.

However, to small fish, like sardines and herring,

humpbacks are undoubtedly death from the deep.

-Straight ahead.

-Oh, yes, yes! I see one!

There's, there's the spout again.

Oh, yes!

There's two.

About 200 metres in that direction.

Yes, yes, there we go.

Just there, Johnny.

It's a humpback.

And it looks to me like...

probably a mother and calf.

And they just dropped down,

just off to the side of us here.

Just here, Johnny, look.

That's definitely a calf.

Humpback whales migrate throughout the year,

so in the summer months they come up here where it's really, really rich

and the sea is full of food and gorge themselves,

they get really, really fat.

And then, there... That's...

the large one heading off into the distance.

Oh, that looked like a dive.

When they go up almost vertically like that

and straight down with their tail really displayed,

it usually means that they are going down.

That either means they are going for quite a long dive

or they are going to come rushing out to the surface

and possibly breach afterwards.

But, generally, it means they'll be down for a good few minutes.

After not eating all winter,

the whales here will be really ready to feed up.

Their pleated throats expand as they gulp in huge mouthfuls of water,

full of krill, plankton and small fish.

Then they filter the water out

through their sieve-like baleen plates.

Tons of seafood chowder in a gargantuan gulp.

But to capitalise on the food bonanza of the Alaskan summer,

the humpbacks here have developed a unique way of hunting cooperatively.

In this coordinated attack, each whale plays a crucial part.

After diving down and taking up their positions,

the herders begin to circle the fish to keep them contained

before another whale dives beneath the shoal and emits a deafening cry

that's as loud as a rocket launch.

WHALE CRIES

This terrific sound confuses the fish,

driving them upwards as they try to escape the noise.

Next, another whale begins blowing a net of bubbles around the shoal,

the fish won't swim out of this shimmering curtain

and are corralled like sheep in a pen.

The team of humpbacks then race up through the tunnel of bubbles,

engulfing the fish in their massive mouths.

They can eat more than ten times my weight in food every day.

Working as a team,

their hunts bring in an unprecedented volume of fishy food,

enough to put most other predators to shame.

'For now, the seas have quietened and there's nothing to be seen.

'But below us are lurking the ocean's true heavyweight hunters.'

These immense marine mammals can weigh up to 40 tons,

coming together to hunt as a coordinated team,

and funnelling tonnes of fish into their guzzling gullets.

The glorious humpback,

with a taste for fish by the truckload.

So from whales, the largest of marine mammals,

to the very smallest.

And this contender could not be more different.

On Deadly 60, there's one group of animals

that we just keep on coming back to, because they are so aggressive

and so well-known for punching above their weight.

It's the weasel family.

We've had giant river otters...

..the wolverine...

Ow!

..the honey badger...

..even stoats and weasels.

But there's one that we haven't managed to film yet

and I'm hoping it's in there somewhere.

This is the sea otter,

one of the cutest animals we've featured on Deadly 60.

But that cuddlesome image hides a diving master.

They're quick, resourceful, manoeuvrable and hungry.

Wow!

There's a pretty good raft just over there!

Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten...

11, 12... Oh, my goodness! That's unreal!

Wow!

The recovery of sea otters has been a real success story.

This is an animal that was hunted almost to extinction for its fur.

And now, it's doing really well, particularly here in Alaska.

Probably around 90% of the world's sea otters

are found right here in these seas.

And just off our bow here, there must be 20 animals,

all tied into the kelp in what's known as a raft.

What they are doing is making sure they don't drift away

so they can just rest easy at the surface.

And some of them are watching us.

Superb!

There are just wonderful animals, aren't they?

Like little floating bears.

Sea otters breed all year round

so there are plenty of fluffy pups around.

See this slick of weed on the surface here?

It's kelp. And this is really like a forest beneath the water.

And the sea otters' life is totally bound to this kelp.

I mean, it's a place where they can find security,

where they can raft up, like now,

but it's also a place where they can hunt.

And to show you why the kelp is so special

and why the sea otters love it so much,

there's only one thing I can do.

I can't quite believe I'm saying this,

but I'm going to need to get in, and it looks really, really cold.

Oh...crumbs.

It really quite takes the breath away.

It's very, very, very cold.

Of course, the sea otter has such thick, dense fur,

the densest fur of any animal,

that they can actually live in these waters with no problem whatsoever.

Even with my wet suit, this is a bit unpleasant.

OK. I'm going to dive down, have a look.

This plunge into their icy world

is a taste of how challenging it must be to be a sea otter.

There's evidence of they're feeding everywhere

but it's quite dark and hard to find your way around.

Yet almost every time they dive, they come up with food.

And this alone makes them clear contenders.

Ah! Oh, my head! Oh!

I've got the worst ice-cream headache I've ever had!

Oh, it's so cold! Oh!

So much life down there.

There are shells everywhere.

So much food!

But these animals really need it.

Sea otters have such rapid metabolisms

that they need to feed almost constantly.

And this kind of area in here, in the kelp,

just offers so many opportunities for them.

It's great -

They're all just popping up to spy on me from a distance.

They're very cute, but I think if you went in for a cuddle,

you'd get a nasty surprise.

Like all members of the weasel family, they do have a dark side.

Sea otters are purely carnivorous and find their food down deep,

diving to as much as 75 metres

and staying under for up to ten minutes at a time.

Their stout, crushing teeth make easy meals of clams, mussels,

spiky sea urchins, crabs and other crustaceans.

They need to eat a quarter of their body weight a day.

That is a whole heap of crabs!

And they also need to watch their backs.

Sea otters are territorial

and males will fight ferociously to defend their patch.

Look at that!

They really do look like fighting, swimming bears!

Oh...

You can see why the kelp

is such an important environment to the sea otters.

But the water is just way too cold for me.

I think I'm going to head for a sea kayak,

much more my kind of thing.

So far, so cuddly.

In order to put sea otters on the list,

I'd really like to show them at work.

And on the outskirts of the rafts of resting otters,

there are bound to be some foraging.

Ho-ho!

Hello, fella!

This is an adult male sea otter.

Larger than the females.

I can tell it's an adult because he's got that wonderful blonde head.

I know this animal looks impossibly cute and cuddly right now

but actually what it's doing

is the very reason why it has to go on the Deadly 60.

Look at that.

I mean, I can't quite see what he's got,

but I can hear the crunching sound.

Their front teeth are very, very sharp canines.

But towards the back of his mouth, he has cheek teeth,

which can be used to crunch right through

the thick shells of certain kinds of shellfish.

But if they're too hard, what the sea otter will do...

is lay a flat stone on its chest.

and smash shellfish on it

using this kind of motion.

Yeah, sea otters use rocks as tools.

They dive down and choose a nice, flat rock,

place it on their chest

and repeatedly smash shellfish against it

to get at the flesh inside.

They've even been known to hammer open shells

on the side of expensive yachts.

This is wonderful!

I can't believe he's just sitting here,

feeding just in front of me.

Totally unbothered.

And the crunching sound from his teeth...

..is just amazing.

Wow!

What a creature!

The sea otter.

It might well be the cutest animal we ever deal with on the Deadly 60,

but that doesn't make it any less lethal.

Definitely going on my list.

The deceptively cuddly sea otter -

impressive divers that can hold their breath for up to ten minutes.

Resourceful enough to use rocks as tools,

and as far as their appetites, they're just plain greedy.

Crab-smashing, tool-using, stomach-stuffing sea otters.

For our next candidate,

we need to take a plane ride further into the wilderness.

Where we're headed now is about as far away from civilisation

as you can get in the modern world. There are no roads, no neighbours,

but there should be some extraordinary wildlife.

'The views are initially stunning.

'But then, banks of cloud and fog roll in,

'until we can barely see anything at all.'

Visibility is really coming in, and that's a concern,

because then our pilot will struggle for us to land,

and we're rather desperate to get to where we're going to.

It'd be a disaster if we can't land.

This is not looking good.

Looks like we're probably going to have to turn back.

Oh!

'This is a major setback in our quest to find Alaska's deadly icon,

'the grizzly bear.'

Well, I do love Alaska,

but the weather is always your worst enemy here.

Luckily, pretty much anywhere in this state can be bear country,

so now we've got to get inland and see what we can find.

So, now it's a road trip!

Things like this happen all the time when you're trying to film wildlife,

so you need to be as resourceful as a sea otter, as cunning as a coyote.

Basically, you need a plan B!

'We had a tip-off that the Kenai River was a good place to try,

'so we headed that way, and got ourselves a boat.'

I don't think I've ever seen quite so many fishermen

in one place at one time.

The reason for that is that there is just so much salmon in these rivers.

A lot of the fish are quite tired,

they've battled their way up against the flow,

I guess it's an easy source of protein,

not just for the people, but for the animals around here as well.

That can be the wolves, the eagles, and, of course, the bears.

It's going to be very difficult for us to film bears

while moving along at this speed - the river's running quite fast,

so we'll have to find somewhere that's easy to pull up,

and looks like a good spot, and just sit and wait it out.

At this time of year, tens of thousands of sockeye salmon

are making the mammoth journey upstream

to reach their spawning grounds,

so the river is absolutely thick with them.

And where you find a river swarming with salmon,

there's a pretty good chance of bear.

This looks like a pretty good spot up here.

Lots and lots of gulls, no people.

Gulls, as everyone knows, will take an easy meal where they can find it.

I'm sure you've all had one trying to nick your chips down the beach.

And here...

..they're feeding on the remnants of the salmon.

Look at that, what a gorgeous colour!

Looks almost good enough to eat.

You can see the gulls have gone straight for the eyes.

This, though, has been cut by an knife,

this has been cleaned off by the fishermen.

They've taken the choice cuts of the salmon, thrown them in the river,

and they've drifted down here and got stuck on this corner.

So the gulls know to come in here and feed on it,

this could well be a place that the bears know, too, has free food.

'And the gulls aren't the only indicator

'that bears might be around.'

Oh, yes!

Well, there's only one animal that can come from.

That is a big, fat bear scat.

And very, very fresh.

Very black in colour,

which means the animal's been feeding on a lot of meat,

most of it's going to be salmon.

There's also just some flies' eggs,

so it's probably within the last couple of hours.

Oh, yes!

That's great!

I know it might seem a bit crazy getting so excited about fresh poo,

but to me, that is as good as a signpost saying,

"A bear was right here."

Good spot, guys. Very good spot.

Hopefully, it's only a matter of time before one makes an appearance.

There he is.

We have our first bear,

in the river, about 100 metres ahead of us.

What a wonderful sight.

Oh, it's another one!

There's another one coming in from the right.

Now these both, to me, look like young bears.

So possibly, what we could have is two, maybe three-year-old cubs,

which means that mum could be around here somewhere.

Look at that!

That one's almost gold!

You can see, they're just picking up scraps of salmon from the stream.

Obviously, these bears are capable of being superb predators,

if they've got the chance of an easy meal, they'll take it,

they're not stupid.

Look at that, just standing up out of the water.

And there's another one beyond it!

This is unbelievable!

OK, this is definitely two cubs and mum.

Yeah, you can see the one over to the right,

much broader at the back...

that's the female.

And the two in front of the cubs.

She's really impressive.

It's such a wonderful sight,

this is an animal that won't necessarily tolerate other animals

around it, apart from when you have a mother and young,

and they'll stick with her for a good few years.

These two here look almost like adult bears,

they're really big and sizable, but they're still keeping close to mum.

Quite a touching sight, really.

They're incredibly cuddly,

I almost want to run up and give them a great big cuddle.

But that wouldn't be a good idea. I wouldn't advise it.

# I want to give you a bear hug. #

That was a very good start. If I was being picky,

I'd have to say it was a little bit public,

there were a lot of people around, and also, the bears were scavenging,

so we didn't really get a chance to see them doing what they do best,

that is, being deadly.

There is, though, a falls up this way,

and if we head up there on foot,

we do stand a chance of seeing them in action.

I hear waterfall!

'Now, we just need to find a good vantage point.'

This looks like a really good spot, actually,

there's a big pool over there that's absolutely full of salmon,

and any salmon jumping up here could be following that salmon ladder

on that side, that's an artificial way to help the salmon up here,

and they're going to be really vulnerable.

This is the kind of place that, if I was a bear,

I would choose to come and hunt.

I think if we sit here and wait for a while, we might get lucky.

'Well, the salmon are here, there's only one thing missing.'

THE CREW SHOUT

The size of that!

It's come straight down, it's going to head straight into the water,

and it's got a young cub, two young cubs! Yearlings!

She's gone straight in.

How about that?

The two cubs are right up behind her, they're absolutely beautiful.

Look at the size of her!

She's just jumped right into the water, scattering salmon everywhere!

She's got one, she's got her first fish! Look at that!

'So much bulk, strength and power, but in the end,

'you'll need skill and accuracy to snare a slippery salmon.'

You see her shredding that red salmon meat,

but it has really, really strong, powerful teeth,

great for catching their food,

and remember, that's a very slippery fish.

OK, the two cubs, they're still quite young,

these would actually have been born at the beginning of this year,

and they still have quite a little bit of white around the collar.

And they're not quite sure, but they're going to come in,

she's going to allow them some food any second now.

They are so cute!

I don't believe how quickly this has happened, this is just unbelievable.

You see the cubs are actually just practising their fishing.

They're certainly not as good as mum, though.

This is one of the great wildlife sights

you'll find anywhere in the world.

The grizzly bear vies with the polar bear

for the title of the largest land carnivore,

and it's such an impressive, massive, bulky, powerful animal,

but yet they can run and move surprisingly quickly.

They've been clocked running as fast as 35, even 40 miles an hour.

So now, I think, you can see why

grizzly bears have to be on the Deadly 60.

Even though they spend so much of their lives

just feeding on things like berries, insects, moths,

when they have the opportunity, when the food is there,

when the salmon are running, they are so efficient.

She's going in for another one, look at that! Look at the weight of her!

The water just erupts as she leaps in, and she's got another one!

Absolutely perfect.

The grizzly bear has a long, dog-like muzzle, 42 teeth,

the front ones, canines, are used for snaring those fish,

and remember, this is a very fast-moving and slippery fish,

so it really needs to be snagged with incredible precision,

and then the rear teeth - the crunching cheek teeth -

are used to munch it down,

and she can shred even a huge salmon and eat it within a minute or two.

Going in for another go.

Here she goes, she's wading in.

These are really, really large animals,

so they need a lot of food,

particularly now in the summer, when they're fattening up.

The nose has gone into the water -

she's sniffing around, locating the fish.

And completely immersing herself... and another one!

Three hunts, three fish!

And the youngsters are just standing back

and letting Mum do all the work.

Wow. Wow!

The grizzly bear - they may be cute and cuddly,

but they are a salmon-snatcher extraordinaire.

And they're definitely going on the Deadly 60.

Yes!

Weighing in at up to 600 kilograms,

they're one of the largest carnivores on earth.

With long, curved claws,

clocking running speeds of up to 40 miles an hour,

we've got a deadly list,

and there's no question that the bear is there.

This is absolutely incredible!

Listen to that crunching!

Join me next time, as I continue my search for the Deadly 60.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd