Arctic Deadly on a Mission: Pole to Pole

-SLIGHTLY BREATHLESSLY:

-These are the first few steps

of an expedition that's going to take me right round the planet.

We start here...

on a glacier in the high Arctic

at the very top of the world.

And then we head south

through jungles, oceans and mountains

until we reach the greatest wilderness on Earth - Antarctica.

My name's Steve Backshall.

Whoa!

And I'm on a mission, searching for...

Deadly places.

Deadly adventures.

And deadly animals.

Oi, you...!

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

Aghhh!

Journeying over 10,000 miles, from the top of the world to the bottom,

the team and I will start in the frozen Arctic,

travel down through the North American continent,

through Central and South America, until we reach the end of the world.

Antarctica.

We'll focus on all things deadly, from the most intelligent killers...

Oh, so close!

..to mighty leviathans.

Oh!

We'll investigate lethal forces of nature...

Come on!

I've never seen anything like it in my life.

..see predatory behaviour in new ways...

..and face our most primeval human fears.

Coming back towards us, Johnny.

Go, go, go!

It will be the globe-spanning journey of a lifetime.

We begin in Svalbard, well inside the Arctic Circle,

not far from the North Pole.

Incredible!

Svalbard is an archipelago,

a group of islands surrounded by the Arctic Ocean.

There are 24 hours of sunlight

and we're going to use every single one of them to find deadly wildlife.

And I've got a rendezvous with our floating home.

She's called the Havsel, and she's our ticket to the extreme north.

Well, that was a pretty dramatic way to get started.

But from here on in, we're all at sea.

The Havsel is an ice-breaker and can batter its way into the pack ice.

A blanket of white cloaks the Arctic Ocean all the way to the pole.

Despite the light, it's 2am, and we're all trying to sleep,

when a spotter on deck sounds the alarm.

Where is it?

Yes!

-We have a bear.

-Yep.

-On the move.

The polar bear is THE great icon of the Arctic.

It is the archetypal Arctic predator.

At ease with life in the freezer,

they hunt this subzero land in search of warm-blooded prey,

and this bear has scented food.

He's sniffed out an old seal carcass.

Polar bears have been observed

going in a dead straight line for 20km to the carcass of the seal.

The only way they could have detected it has been through smell.

No pollution, completely clear air.

It's no wonder they can actually pick up scents from so far away

and why smell is so important to them.

No way of knowing whether this bear actually made the kill himself.

It could be two or three days old, and all of the blubber, the fat,

the most energy rich part of it, has already been eaten away.

So, this bear must be quite hungry.

Usually, bears will only focus on that really fatty, fatty layer.

It's valuable stuff,

and that's the choice bit that the bears will eat first.

I reckon he is now having a good old roll around,

getting rid of that blood from his face,

making sure that the pure white camouflage is back in full effect.

With its stomach full, this bear could sleep for many hours.

So, we leave him to his slumber and steam on.

And soon, we sight another.

We decide to keep our distance with the big boat

while I approach alone in a kayak.

I think the best way for me to approach is in the kayak,

because I'm much more manoeuvrable and really quiet as well

so, hopefully, the bear should just be completely cool

with me getting close to it, and let him dictate how close we can get.

The bear's out in the open, swimming.

He could merely be travelling between these ice floes.

He could also be hunting.

They have a great way of managing to keep hidden

with almost all of their body below the surface

and just the eyes and the nostrils above it,

and it's a fantastic way

of being out of the view of seals which are up on the ice floes

and, all of a sudden, caught unawares by this enormous beast

which will just come out of nowhere.

The first time I can really feel how it must be to be a seal out here.

Looking right at me.

Ooh. He's diving under it.

Bears often dive before launching an ambush.

I must not lose sight of him.

There he is.

Watching me very, very closely.

Looks like he might just swim... right in front of me.

Hey there, big fella.

He's OK. He's just keeping a very careful eye on me.

He's just watching me.

Wow. I certainly didn't expect to get that close.

HE PUFFS OUT

Just for a second there, he had me in his sights,

and a lot of the bears in this part of the world

will never have seen a human being before.

Polar bears are one of the only wild animals

that will deliberately target and hunt a human being.

It's desperately rare, but it's something

that you really need to have in the back of your mind at all times.

That is truly extraordinary.

We return to the safety of our ice-breaker

and continue through the floes and bergs

under the thin light of the midnight sun,

continuing our search for the toughest polar predators.

A group of walrus. There's a group of walrus there on the end!

These mighty seals can weigh two tonnes.

Both sexes bear these fearsome tusks,

although they're bigger and stouter in males.

They're used for battling over mates, cutting holes in the ice

and for protection.

So, we approach with caution.

But we're not the only ones taking a closer look.

The bear is just wandering straight towards the walrus

that are laid out on the beach

and they really don't seem bothered by his presence.

Polar bears usually avoid walrus.

They're armoured in blubber and protected by those scimitar tusks,

but a desperate bear may take the chance.

The marks on this bear

are the right size and shape to be from walrus tusks.

Perhaps she's tried before.

Well, this is absolutely out of this world.

You can see they're just lying there,

they really are not bothered by it at all.

They're getting very, very close, though.

That male walrus is starting to show some interest,

and I'm not surprised.

Just showing off those tusks, and that's enough...

..to send the polar bear packing.

'Beating a sensible retreat,

'the bear is enticed by another scent.'

He's coming back our way.

'That's us.'

Polar bears are, on average, the largest land carnivore on Earth.

And as she's striding towards me,

getting closer than, actually, I'm totally comfortable with...

She could certainly cover that distance in a matter of seconds.

I'm quite glad that the engine's running again.

And, for a second there, she was strolling towards us

as if she thought we could be her next meal.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one in the boat

that wasn't a little bit nervous.

There's a lot of heads nodding behind me right now!

What a staggering sight.

The polar bear, the great white hunter that truly rules the Arctic.

One of the most magnificent beasts on the whole planet,

and definitely deadly.

And the ice bear may yet have a few surprises in store,

but we can't move on without giving some time to those walrus.

Cumbersome and sluggish on land, in the water,

all that bulk's supported and they can be surprisingly mobile.

So, I set off to meet some.

Oh, I see one! I see one.

That is enormous.

Oh, wow!

I've just got to hope that they see me and my little plastic kayak

as an interesting plaything.

They're a very imposing presence.

Converging on me in a rather intimidating mass.

And I didn't think for a second that I'd get to see one this close.

Look at that!

They're simply immense.

And a lot of that weight is made of blubber.

It's a thick fat that sits below the surface of the skin

and helps insulate them in these freezing cold Arctic waters.

Walrus have only tiny, stubby little whiskers.

They're used for foraging on the very sea bed.

They'll dive down and feel around with those tactile whiskers,

just hoping to find clams and molluscs on the sea bed,

and the way they feed on them

is by sucking them clean out of their shells.

An adult walrus has literally nothing to fear

in its natural environment.

It's even said that orca, killer whale,

if they hear the bellow of a walrus,

will get out of there quick smart.

And you can see why.

When you have this many animals together in a tight-knit clan,

they're a truly ferocious prospect.

And they're certainly eyeballing me.

And I've just got a puff of walrus breath.

-I don't know about you...

-WALRUS GRIZZLES

I barely want to move.

I'll tell you what,

they are getting a little bit too bold for my liking right now.

OK.

Well, that animal has definitely decided to show me who's boss.

And I think he's made his point.

Massive, pugnacious, armoured and deadly.

In the summer, Svalbard is a cacophony of life

fuelled by the bounty beneath the waves,

and these sea cliffs are evidence,

with the millions of fish-feeding breeding birds.

Only just been woken up

to one of the most extraordinary sights I've ever seen.

The air is just thick with sea birds.

Most of them are guillemots, I think.

The steep cliffs offer sanctuary,

allowing the birds to raise their chicks safe from predators.

But there's simply nowhere that's 100% safe.

Certainly not against the most resourceful

and tenacious of hunters.

This is out of this world. Absolutely out of this world.

Really, I think we have to try and get in the kayak

and be alongside them.

'But as I get ready to get into my kayak,

'something extraordinary happens.'

I...I really can't quite believe what's happening.

'The polar bear starts to scramble up an almost vertical cliff.'

I don't think there's going to be much point

in me getting into a kayak.

It looks like he's going to go right up and over the top of these cliffs.

Just seems to be absolutely no limit to what this bear can do.

Here in the Arctic, they just so totally dominate the environment.

They can go absolutely anywhere,

they can feed on absolutely anything,

from a bird's egg to a whale.

They are one of the most extraordinary predators

on the planet.

No way.

No way!

He's picking his way up through the compacted snow,

just exactly the way that a climber

would use their crampons and ice axes,

those curved claws cutting into the snow.

I honestly would not believe this

if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes.

I never thought in my wildest dreams I would see this for myself.

This was very worth waking up for.

It's just going to go right up over the top of the cliff.

It's pretty unbeatable.

The ice bear crests the cliff and out of sight,

and we need to keep going too.

This pole to pole adventure has barely begun.

Our next stop is Somerset Island.

Still within the Arctic Circle,

we're here to find some truly unique animals...

..from an Arctic head-banger to a ghostly white whale.

But as we approach it from the air, it's clear all is not well.

For the first time in 17 years, the summer sea ice hasn't melted

and Somerset is sealed in white.

Filming wildlife in the Arctic is always a challenge,

but we're no stranger to that on Deadly.

Unfortunately, this is a challenge we can do nothing about.

Right now, all of that should be an expanse of open sea, and it's not,

it's sealed in with thick pack ice,

and the animal we came here to find

is a marine mammal which lives at sea.

It's an extraordinary beast, totally unique.

It's the pure white beluga whale.

Every year, thousands of beluga whales

come into this bay on Somerset Island.

But this year is a different story

and our chances of seeing them are not looking good.

So, in order for the belugas to come into this bay,

all of this ice has to go,

and it stretches off as far as the eye can see in every direction.

We need sun, wind, tide, everything on our side

and, even then, our chances are still pretty slim.

So, while we keep our fingers crossed for an ice-melting miracle,

we decided to head inland

on a mission to find the Arctic's top deadly defender.

This plateau is what most of the Arctic looks like in the summer.

It's called tundra, and it is a brutal environment.

For most of the year, this would be covered with snow

and blown with hurricane-force winds.

Any vegetation is very low.

There's certainly no trees and not much to feed on.

An animal that can survive here has to be very, very tough.

Only creatures like the musk oxen

stand any chance of making a living here.

This is a half-tonne heavyweight bovine battering ram.

They have one of the thickest of animal fur coats

to protect them from even the most ferocious weather,

and are surprisingly swift, even across snow.

So, we've parked up

and are making our way towards where we think the musk oxen will be.

The ridgeline in front of us

is giving us a certain amount of natural cover,

probably hiding not just ourselves,

but also our smell and the sound that we make.

But, once we get over that,

we have to stay very low down to the ground

and approach carefully, cautiously and, above all, quietly.

This is musk oxen droppings. It's really unusual.

It's more like what you'd expect to see

coming out the back end of a goat, almost a rabbit.

They're certainly very different

to the cowpats you see from domestic cows.

The reason for that is

is that there's so little nutriment to be gained

from all the vegetation around here.

They have to make the absolute most of it.

They can't let any go to waste.

And so these are just basically little bundles of indigestible goo.

I mean...it just tastes like soil.

That's pretty much exactly what it is.

And there's the culprit.

Superb.

So, this musk oxen has spotted us and turned round to face us,

and he's doing something really classic,

which is rubbing a gland just in front of his eye on the foreleg.

This is thought to be a way

of releasing chemical smells into the air, and it's a threat.

He saying, OK, I see you. Keep that distance, don't get any closer.

As the musk oxen moves away, I edge in,

but always keeping that same safe distance between us.

It might seem like I'm being overly cautious, but in the Arctic,

this animal is potentially one of the most dangerous to a human being.

-Steve...

-He's just... He's just seen him.

So, this is a male. The horns are slightly differently shaped.

He's a larger, bigger animal.

At the moment, grazing on his own.

In the winter, they're much more likely to keep tight herds

with all the other animals.

But now it's coming up to breeding season

and that's when musk oxen really show their deadly side.

These bad-tempered oxen are built to batter.

Their thick skulls and muscular necks help to absorb the shocks.

But even so, in as many as one in ten battles,

one of the combatants will be killed.

They may look like a big walking carpet, but don't be fooled.

This is a high-octane head-banger

and it has the potential to be deadly.

Not far from the Arctic's largest land creature,

we find one of the smallest, but it's just as hairy.

It's a woolly bear caterpillar. This is one of nature's great survivors.

It's also one of the oldest living of all insects

and certainly by far the oldest living

of any moth or butterfly caterpillar.

It takes woolly bears 14 years before they transform into a moth,

and that means getting through the Arctic winter again and again.

When the polar winter strikes, they shut down their body

and freeze solid.

But when the summer comes,

they rise from the dead and race to eat as much food as they can.

Finally, they weave a cocoon, metamorphose as a winged adult

and head off to find a mate.

The reason that I'm putting this on a pebble rather than on my hand

is that all of these hairs can be very, very irritating.

They're almost like a nettle sting,

so better off just letting him wander around on a rock.

A normal creature that needs extreme adaptations

to make it in the frozen north.

Over the last few days, the sun has been shining

and the wind gusting across the inlet

and now, against all the odds, the ice is melting and moving away,

offering a way in for the belugas.

I've never been so excited

to see something as simple as ice melting in my entire life.

Just four days ago, this was a blanket of solid ice

that you could have driven a truck over, and now it's open.

This is a lead, a channel that the belugas could easily use

to get into our bay.

This is perfect.

Day five on Somerset Island.

The belugas surge into the bay.

Yes!

Yes!

There are splashes, waves, eruptions of white water

no more than about 30 metres up in front of us

and every once in a while, a white head breaks the surface.

The belugas are finally here.

I don't think I've ever been quite so relieved

to see a wild animal in my entire life

and there could be a hundred animals right in front of us.

OK, these animals are very, very sensitive to sound

and vibration moving through the water,

so as I move up to the edge, I'm going to go quite slowly

and we'll place ourselves just here.

It's kind of difficult to tell what's going on from the surface

but this, in front of us, is a beluga whale beauty salon.

Essentially, we've got a very shallow river here

and the bottom is covered with stones.

The whales are coming in

and they're grinding their bodies on the stones

to get rid of loose skin - they're moulting.

This is the only species of whale

that will lose all of its skin in one go like this.

To begin with, they're a kind of yellowy colour,

but they come out at the end sparkling white.

It certainly looks like they're having an awful lot of fun.

Belugas are one of the most vocal of all whales.

Their charming chatter of clicks, squeaks and whistles

is used not only to communicate, but also to locate their prey.

The bulbous melon shape on their forehead

contains a waxy fluid

which concentrates their echolocation clicks.

These sounds bounce back off objects in the water

and are sensed in their jawbones.

This enables the beluga to pinpoint fish.

Once they've honed in on their prey,

they'll hoover them in with vacuum suction power.

They may be smiley, but they're still every inch a predator.

These ones are getting closer. They're coming right towards me.

I reckon they're going to come into this channel right here.

The belugas splash alongside us,

grinding dead skin from their flanks.

When they break the surface, all you see is the ridgeline of their back.

They don't have a dorsal fin

like you see on dolphins or on killer whales,

because they're living underneath the ice.

Anything extra that would be on top of the body

would be crashing into pack ice and icebergs.

It would just get in their way.

We found this place a challenge in the middle of summer.

Belugas make a living below the ice

even through the endless nights of an Arctic winter,

and that demands respect.

This white whale is truly a master of its white world.

Belugas living underneath the frozen ice,

hunting down in the depths in the darkest ocean in the world,

to my mind, deadly.

Our last-minute beluga success

is the perfect way to say goodbye to the Arctic

and continue south to Alaska.

Join me next time for more Deadly On A Mission.