White Falcon, White Wolf Natural World

WIND WHISTLES AND WOLF HOWLS

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 three 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 the world's most pristine wilderness.

For nine 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 slow melt.

And the race to make the most of the short, but productive, Arctic summer can begin.

Gyrfalcons can weigh over two kilograms,

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 third smaller than the 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...

as well as potential prey.

Any duck that takes to the wing will be a target.

The absence of his bigger, more powerful mate is a good sign.

She's 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 eight wolves -

the dominant male, three of his now grown-up young from previous years,

and three 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 of 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 emerge is her secret alone.

Wolves are extremely sociable animals,

and they're 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.

SHRILL RAPID CRIES

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 sea birds.

But here on Ellesmere they rely on hares,

and their abundance

will be the key to the survival of this year's brood.

HIGH-PITCHED SHRIEKS

One chick has 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.

WOLF HOWLS

ANOTHER HOWL

The pack hears mum calling, and returns.

SHE HOWLS

Something isn't right.

There should be cubs by now.

But she's 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 have put 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.

HE HOWLS

The dominant male wolf calls his mate and they all slowly move off.

The young female spends much of her time playing.

But if she's distracted this easily,

she'll find it hard to keep up with a 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're 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 are 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're 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 neighbour that can give the wolves a real punch.

Snowy owls have little fear of anything or anyone.

WOLF BARKS

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 little time left.

Arctic willows, the only trees,

grow centimetres long and hug the ground like grasping fingers.

Sudden ice melt brings a flurry of colour 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.

SHRILL PIPING CALL

In the past month, the young hares have paled in colour,

but crucially, they've 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 ten-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 that 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.

WOLF HOWLS

Day after day, the wolf pack continues to patrol the shore line.

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 has 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 are 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's 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 500 metres, she can detect the slightest movement below.

If the hares don't move, they're 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 four 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.

Every day 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 ten minutes getting her breath and strength back,

before she can carry the food up to her starving chicks.

Now that she is hunting, as well as the male,

the clutch may live.

WOLF HOWLS

DRAWN-OUT HOWL

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 steely reminder that winter is never far away.

The older owlets now roam on foot some distance from their nest.

Their grey feathery down is some of the best insulation in the natural world.

And they are still under the watchful eye of mum.

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 mum that's clever -

even the ducklings seem to be outwitting her.

They bob up for air at exactly the moment

that the young wolf is looking the other way!

She looks frustrated, and is getting hungrier 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 are 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 its 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 are more pressing concerns.

The wolves are mopping up birds,

especially any that are slow to take off.

The young falcon is exposed and vulnerable.

REPEATED CRY

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 eyrie, 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 sub-Arctic

in search of a territory of their own.

Both the adults will remain much closer by.

With three 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.

WOLF HOWLS

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 shared 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 seven months,

this valley and its ancient nest will be deserted

as the bitter cold and endless dark close in once more.