Episode 1 Wild Alaska Live

We are coming to the from the Alaskanp wilderness. 4,500 miles

away from the UK. Brown bears, black bears, Eagles, orcas, they are all

coming together for a spectacular summertime feast that's fuelled by

300 million salmon. One of the greatest gatherings of wildlife on

our planet is happening right here, right now. We're ready. They're hung

ri, this is Wild Alaska Live. -- they're hungry.

Hello to you all in the UK and welcome to Wild Alaska Live. Now

these are live pictures of brown bears looking for a late breakfast

here, as it is 10.00am in Alaska. He's already had his breakfast and

just relaxing. These magnificent creatures, they are one of the many

reasons why we are here and we'll be Keegan eye on them throughout the

whole programme from our face here at a national forest. Now this is a

rich landscape full of stunning trees. Some 1,000 years old and this

is a place where wildlife, of course, can emerge at any moment. As

you can see, I have found quite a nice place to hang out here at the

foot of this enormous glacier. And, yeah, it's real. It looks like green

screens, doesn't it? I can tell you we are here at a very, very special

time. Summer is short here in Alaska and the native wildlife has to make

the most of this very narrow window. Hopefully we'll witness some

incredible sights over the next week. Where in the world are we?

Alaska is at the top auto of the United States. We are in the

south-east corner of the state near to Juno, which is the capital in

order to bring you the best of what is here. We have live-cam radios

across the wilderness. Our intrepid crews have been venturing out into

the middle of nowhere. Camping out. We have a helicopter. We have a live

crew up there as we speak, so we can say a very good morning from our

perspective from Debbie and Dan. Let's see if we can get a wave.

Well, first let's look at the shots that Dan in the back is getting.

Debbie is flying all over the landscape an Daniel is in the back

filming the bears fishing. Cheers, Dan, thank you so much. They are

basically herding the salmon into the shallow so they can pounce, grab

and pick off the best bits and enjoy that feast. Steve, surely, are you

getting this? Can you see what we are seeing? Hi, I am totally getting

it, Matt. A bunch of brown bears, nonchalantly wandering around in the

shallows. An extraordinary sight. I can't believe how lucky we are to be

watching this live, now, it is phenomenal. To have an eye in the

sky is important here in Alaska. It is the only way you get any sense of

the true scale of the place. When you are up in the air, flying, you

can go for hours and see nothing below you, apart from rivers, lakes,

mountains that have never been climbed and all relies on one

particular animal, salmon. These ponds are absolutely filled with

them. I'm going to be following their journey, learning some more

about them but also getting a sevenths predators that rely on

them. And we're 700 miles away from you, Steve, you are in that

direction but we are in Katmai National Park, a remote, wild and

stunning place and home to one of the highestentities of brown bears

on the planet. The salon run has begun. The brown bears are

everywhere. We have three behind me on the coastal flat. You saw the

magnificent images from Daniel, our helicopter pilot flying overhead.

The coast is covered with brown bears, we will bring you this

incredible feast live. You can follow the action live around the

clocks you can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Send in your questions

and join the conversation with the hashtag Alaskalive. We have Pete

snider who will be covering biology for us and Carla, native culture and

John, who is our head ranger. We are not just looking at brown bears, we

can look at footage of live salmon swimming up the rivers at the

moment, just against the tide. Really this is the whole keystone

species. The reason why we are seeing an abundance of wildlife at

this time of year because the salmon are on the move, coming from the

north, south, west into the esturaries here. So I'll give you an

idea of where we are going. They are born at the top and then grow occupy

in the Pacific. This is enormous this Y 2,700 miles, the Gulf of

alasica. And after growing up the salmon have swim thousands of miles

to try to get back it the place where they were born. There is an

enormous culmination here and a huge number here. We are talking about

12,000 different rivers that they are trying to get to the top of. As

you can see, from where I'm standing, Alaska is enormous. It's

the largest state. It is vast. You could fit seven UKs into Alaska but

bizarrely it has a population the same size as Leeds. I'll leave you

with that for a moment. Everybody knows their neighbours here, even

the wild ones, who better to tell you more about it, than the people

that live here. The magic of Alaska to me is the natural beauty. I think

I've got one of the best offices in the world, to be honest. Salmon in

summer go hand-in-hand. It's the highlight of everyone's summer. Here

in Alaska there's always a surprise around the corner. We've got bears,

eagles, whales. It's wonderful to share this with people from all over

the world. When you are out here on the water, it is like nowhere else

I've ever been. A chance to live freely. I think everybody who lives

out here, and working together, it takes teamwork. I think that's what

I love the most. I don't think there is a day that

goes by that I don't feel like the luckiest person on the planet. It

can't get better than this. So in a nutshell this is a pretty

special place to live, you guys. Well Pete, talking of living and

around the corner we have a beaver lodge. This little fellow who is

inside has had a busy night. The water levels, Pete have risen here,

so this beaver is just relaxing after a busy night of carpentry. We

had quite a bit of rain. They probably worked all night trying to

make sure everything was nice and stale and they're sleeping it off

now. John we have to make noise as we walk around because in this spot

where we are in, we know there are black bears, we have watched footage

of brown bears this morning but black bears in particular and we saw

this shot. You can talk us through who this wonderful cub is. This

cheeky chap made an appearance a few days ago. That was a cub that was

born this year. You can see its femalemom in front of it in the

mid-yes, which is really just over next to us here. I'm not sure which

one that is but they've been fishing just up the creek, because the

salmon have arrived up there. The reason they have arrived up there is

because of the water levels. We are talking about this enormous glacier

behind us but a glacial melt happened in the last few weeks. We

had a glaicer outburst flood which happens when we get enough rain and

it pulls up and the Mendenhall rises. It floats the glaicer and

rushes in the lake and lake levels come up high enough so the salmon

can come over the dam and into the pond behind us. These are the salmon

making the most of this and we see the mothers coming out to grab the

salmon to feed their young. It is a really important time of year for

the bears, they are putting on the fat they need to store for the

winter. They have to get a year's worth of food in six months. It is

an important time. And these wonderful cubs, born in

the winter, they are coming out and experiencing this at the rate

rainforest. It is a rainforest and so much for their senses to explore.

This is their first time out in April, when we first saw them down

here eating cotton and other vegetation. I think he is going to

come and have a little... There you go, he is adorable. It is difficult

to compare brown bear and black bear cubs but these, Carla, are very

cute. They are. We haven't got live footage of black bears yet but we

know we have footage of the brown bears, we have seen them since the

start of the programme. Magnificent. Wonderful auras and Liz has been

living amongst them for the last five days. Days. The brown bear, one

of the largest land predators on the planet. At ten feet tall on its hi

in, d legs, 700 kilos of explosive muscle. Formidable hunters, they can

sniff out food from more than six miles away. Reaching top speeds of

30 miles per hour as they chase down their prey. They're found all over

the northern hemisphere but by far the biggest are here in Alaska.

Hibernating for significance months of the bitter winter they lose

one-quarter of their body weight and emerge starving. Right now, as

millions of salmon invade the rivers, the bears cash in. -- six

months of the winter. Winter. They eat the salmon and it returns them

to their breath-taking best. And that's why we have come to Katmai.

To this very coastline. Take a look at this. Brown bears are everywhere.

They have been fishing this mornings they are taking a rest in between

bouts. What a sight. Look at him. Having a stretch. They are

mesmerising, we are on the south-east coast of Katmai, one of

the most protected and pristine places on Earth. It is rugged bear

country that stretches for over 6,000 square miles. Now I am flanked

to my left by a strait a treacherous part of water and over there at

least 14 active volcanos, you can only get here in a plane that lands

on the beach. Anyone following us online knows we almost didn't yet

here. It is as isolated as it gets but it is why we have come here to

witness this and brung you this magnificent wildlife. We're sharing

this coastline with, as you have already seen, one of the largest

land predators on the planet, the brown bear. When you decide to share

your home with the brown bear for a couple of days, you have to take

precautions. Look at our camp, we have about 20 tents a satellite dish

and it is surrounded by 300m of electric fencing. Now sport hunting

of brown bears here hasn't been allowed since 1917 which means if

you behave correctly the brown bears here will consider you part of the

furniture, you are another animal in their home which means sometimes

they can get a bit close. A couple of days ago as we were hanging out

in camp, getting our gear ready, a bear was walking down the beach,

close to the fence and then another one strolled along, took a look in.

Unfazed by us. But we were completely mesmerised by them. Now

that's just two bears but Katmai is home to 2,200 of them. So, with so

many bears around, obviously we couldn't go it alone. But don't

worry, we are in the very capable hands of one of the best guides in

the business. Thank you so much for taking such good care of us already.

You have been studying bears here for almost 20 years. You know them

well. How do you behave when you enter a bear's world. What do I need

to learn? Respect. Respect the bears, respect their environment and

read body language. If it is about body language, how difficult is it

to understand bear body language? That's how they communicate with

each other, so that's how we communicate with them. Years of

research and watching them. So basically you have to act like a

bear around them? We do. We have footage of a bear that came

incredibly close to one of our team members. How close can they get and

what do you do, if they get really, really superbly close like that? It

is all body language. We let them get to a certain distance, depending

on the bear and with our body language we deter the bear. So, they

can come to us, but we don't come to them. Correct that's how you behave

in bear country. So do bears have individual personalities to add an

extra layer of confusion, with understand what he or she is going

to do next? Yes the cubs and juveniles and males will act

differently. Every day they will be different. It is a big dynamic every

day is different. I'm looking forward to learning

more. This landscape is perfect to view all the natural, unhindered

behaviours of bears so we have got this place covered with cameras. As

you saw earlier, Daniel is in the helicopter as well, capturing all of

this beautiful action on the coast of Katmai. I'm going to be heading

up the coast over theirs because those three brown bears are still

there, hanging out waiting for some salmon but Brown bears are not the

only animals that rely on the salmon run. In fact, this entire ecosystem

would not exist without it. This is one hugely important and fascinating

fish. Salmon. These extraordinary fish are

the lifeblood of Alaska. From 1000 miles out at sea, there are

unstoppable need to breed is calling them home. Right now, 300 million

are sprinting back to the exact spot they were born. 12,000 Alaskan

rivers to choose from, yet every single salmon knows exactly which

one it came from. By Midsummer, the waterways will be choked with

salmon. One group of fish underpinning the whole Alaskan

ecosystem. Everything from bears, Eagles, and even humans owe their

very existence here did this phenomenal fish. -- to this

phenomenal fish. When you are actually sat here in amongst this

torrent, you really get a sense of what it is these fish have to take

on, spectacles like this are playing out all over Alaska in the rivers

with fish just like this going upstream to where they were bored or

as part of a local management plan, were released. I have the added

benefit here of a pole camera, a camera on a stick in the best

possible traditions of live TV, it is 95% high technology and 5% sticky

tape but you can see the fish thrashing against the camera lens.

They are here in phenomenal numbers. It almost feels like you could walk

across these ponds on the back of the salmon. You can probably make

out in amongst the bubbles and the thrashing tales and fins, one coming

right up alongside me, leaping up through the waterfall, the calico

markings, the dark purple bars that mark these out as charmed salmon,

also known as dog salmon because they have very prominent teeth,

which you can probably see flashing on the camera. They are

predominantly on the mails and they are used for fighting, we have seen

quite a lot of dog salmon fighting with each other, obviously overlook

the males. They are undergoing an incredible transformation, out at

sea, they would be silver in colour but as they start coming up to land,

they have a metamorphose is which is probably as stunning as that of any

butterfly. Even more dramatic perhaps are the salmon we see right

up close to base camp, in the beaver ponds beyond where Matt is right

now, we have these sockeye salmon and look at the colours they take

on. They are incredible, one of those is a male in the centre with a

hump back and a curved snout, and the jaw, that they also use for

battling. The reason for the colour is that they are absorbing the

scales. You can see the skin and flesh beneath. This is all about

this animal transforming into a seaborne predator, into a freshwater

fish that is a biting, swimming, breeding machine. They are battling

up into the rivers where they were born and the way they find them is

incredible. They navigate using the sun and stars but also by smelling

the river that they were born in. One single drop of water from their

home river is enough for them to find their way. And obviously, when

you have this amount of fish, this incredible amount of protein,

thundering against my legs right now, swimming right through them,

practically landing in my lap, it is obviously a way of attracting an

enormous amount of predators and that is why I'm going to head

downstream, to try to find them. Doing incredibly well, there, Steve,

trying to hold off against the power of the water, a testament to show

what the salmon swimming against and lovely to see the brown bears as

well, the mother suckling her cubs but we are now on our way down on a

kind of bear hunt on our own, John. A bit earlier, we know that black

bears have been in this area because we have got cameras all over the

shop. We have a camera underneath a bridge and this happened about six

hours ago. O come you. The mother bear. Looks like she's looking for a

sockeye salmon in the creek. Excellent. And those are the Cubs!

The Cubs come along and they reposition their cameras for us.

Needless to say, we did not get much would it after that. Thanks, Cubs!

Let's work our way deep into this temperate rainforest. John, you are

basically giving us an explanation of how black bears live here and how

much vegetation they eat in relation to salmon because they are

omnivores. They are and we are on a bare trail, this is not a people

trail and the reason it is here is because this meadow right behind us

as all this great vegetation, Cal parsnip and horsetails. I saw them

eating lots of horsetails earlier, in fact, most of their diet is

vegetarian until the salmon arrived. We saw that mother fishing but how

active are they in the day and how does the 24 hours pan out? They are

out all day long. In fact, we have seen because the salmon are in the

upper creek, that is where they are focusing right now. That bear was

out last night doing the same thing. She's got three cubs and only six

months to put on the weight she needs for a whole year worth of

nursing them so the pressure is on. You have brought us to this

particular area just to give us an idea of what happens during the day

when they want to rest. This is what we call a day bed. It is great to

see this. A day bed, I love that concept! It is great to see this

because when the bears are feeding in the meadow or even fishing in the

creek for another week or so, they use a trail like this to go out and

rest. You can see it, looked down here, markings. Ryder if I were the

bear, I would be walking in just like this up the trail, as I'm going

in, I'm twisting in my pores, leaving my scent on the trail from

my pads and getting up and maybe having... If the question is does a

bear... In the woods, the answer is, it does. Seeds, vegetative bits,

horsetail, cow passbook, all of that food and there's multiple other ones

around this depression in the woods, the day bed. That is the day bed you

are talking about? Reg Walker yeah, she has a big old belly down, the

cubs beside her, or maybe just taking a rest. It looks pretty

comfortable over there. Do you want to try it out? Yes, she disappears

to go over the creek over there. We have seen some remarkable footage,

John, of all of the brown bears off by the coast where Liz is. Let's

talk a bit about the differences between black bears and brown bears.

Brown bears are bigger, that is a key part, they are not always just

Brown, I have seen black ones, too, so be careful but the black bear on

the right, 153, from this Greek and the size of her ears, her style is

different to the brown bear, she has more of a Labrador retriever than a

colleague skull that you see on the brown bear. We can see what you are

talking about. From the forehead to the tip of the nose, there's a

distinct break in the brown bear skull where is the black bear's is

more continuous. Look at the years and the clause, on the black bear,

they are shorter and curved because they are tree climbers. Would they

spend much time in water, black bears because brown bears swim a

lot? We have some swing black bears but for the most part, they prefer

to be in the water just when the salmon are there. Some swimming

black bears. You have great stories about how mothers have used you to

protect their cubs. It is a bit of a nursery in the sense we have

elevated platforms around the meadow and people come onto them and the

bears get used to them after a while and then the big bears, like the

scary bears, males especially, tend to shy away unless it is breeding

system -- breeding season. Otherwise, they another female to

have protection for her cubs when she hangs around people. Quite

amazing, let's have a look at the live salmon again because it is

swimming up from the Pacific Ocean and a few weeks ago, marine

biologist Dan Olson went in search of killer whales and the first sign

that these very fish were on their way.

Orca, the Wolves of the sea, have a fearsome reputation, sleek pack

hunters, up to eight metres long, with a top speed of 30 mph. They are

perfectly designed for hunting. But there are formal to these pods than

meets the eye. Each one is a unique family unit. And right now, the

salmon have arrived to the coastline, bringing dozens of Orca

families here to enjoy the feast. And giving researchers a chance to

document their numbers and behaviours close-up. Here we go, two

o'clock, looks like a dorsal fin. Scientist Dan Olsen is studying

communication within these incredible family unit. It is late

May and the first day of the research year. Dan's priority is to

establish who is here. Let's come to port a bit. Here we go. Oh, that

might have been what we are looking for. Come on, one more breath. Each

orca has a unique fin shape and pattern and for each sighting, Dan

needs photographic records. They just -- can't they just surface five

times in the same spot? I can see them underwater, coming up now. Yes.

Recording this family's behaviour and the indications are only useful

to down if he can work out who they are but this sport has him stumped.

I'm getting the sense these individuals are not going to be easy

to identify. It is possible these are brand-new to all of us which is

super exciting and it is an awesome way to start off the research year.

With a possible new family added to the archives, Dan drops a hydrophone

below the surface and soon recognises voices of a different

pod. That is the call. One that he already knows well. That was

awesome. That is the 88 pod. I've been listening to these calls for

probably 15 years and it is kind of like your favourite rock group. You

just kind of know the voices of it. Dan's researches revealing how much

of orca communication is unique to each family. The calls get passed

down from mother to offspring and stay within the family so they have

a repertoire of ten or 15 calls which belong only to that family.

Hearing one right now. They do a lot that goes... It would be great to

get photographs of this pod this year. We had one that was missing

during two encounters last year and we are fearful it is passed on. It

is a little bit like detective work which is an Golubic... Oh, right

here! That is a 13-year-old offspring of the grandmother in this

group. I can see from a notch down low, I know who this is. That is a

cap that we thought was missing. We are excited to see this calf still

alive. That is awesome. And more good news for this group. Oh, wow.

Over the winter, there's been another addition to the pod, a new

calf enjoying its first-ever Alaskan summer feast. And Dan will be

studying it for years to come. It is always exciting to see a new calf,

it gives us the idea that this pod is healthy and vibrant and gives us

good Hope for the future. Thanks to Dan for allowing us to join a

research. We have got very special access and permission to film the

orca the US a big thank you to the organisation that look after the

fees, NOAA. That was down in this area and later in the week, Steve

has his own mission to try to get orca for us alive and that is

because they have been spotted in this area down here. We will see

what happens later in the week, fingers crossed for a living. Let's

give you an idea of what we have seen where. Liz is in Katmai here,

so we will put brown bears there, we have seen the lovely stuff with the

mother suckling her cubs. It is remarkable how they manage to feed

them through the winter hibernation without even feeding. A remarkable

species from that perspective. Also, bald eagles, hundreds of them flying

above our heads so we will put them here. And as we were seeing, the

wonderful daybed of the black bears, and we will pop them on there. Let's

check in with what else is going on, actually, let's go to the helicopter

and Debbie and Dan who are scanning the seas as well so any marine life

that turns up, we will bring it to you, looking for blowholes or any

signs of whales, we might even be able to put humpbacks on the map

later in the week. But if we just pan around because Liz is down there

somewhere on the coast at the Katmai national park.

Different. Whack back to the coast of Katmai

National Park. Take a look at this, we are moving closer to the bears

every time. We are going to try to get a little bit closer later on.

Keeping a settled distance of course.

The tide has gone quite far out. It is about to turn shortly. They are

biding their time, really. They were fishing earlier on this morning. Now

they look like, if a salmon showed up, they wouldn't notice but that's

not the case. They are conserving energy but any movement in the water

and they'll be on it. They'll hear the noise and that's it and they'll

bound through the tidal flat. Hopefully we'll capture that for you

live later. Mark, our live-cam Rahman is close to the bears now, --

our live camera man is close to the bears now. How important is it for

them after six months in hibernation? It is really important

for them. What state are the males in? Thief last weight. They have the

meadows to graze on but they want meat, they want the fish. The fat.

Howedes separate are they for the salmon Well, they'll condition

superthe entire lot. No leftovers. How much does this huge tidal range

dictate their behaviour on any one day? They can't fish on high tides,

they have to come out on the low tides. There are huge tidal floods,

from minus-5 to plus-26. A wonderful sight it see. They'll try to get as

close to the bears as possible over the next day and of course over the

next week or so. Something else I wanted to show you. This has

fascinated our team. A six-year-old male we come across a couple of days

ago. We called him Scrawny. At first glance, he looked skinny. We saw him

on the tidal flats, walking around, not fishing for salmon. A big male

there, whose posture is telling the six-year-old - no, this is my patch,

you have to move on but this is key, the way the six-year-old walks away,

is showing the male - I'm respectedful but not scared of you.

That's important because other bears his age might run away. This shows

it might serve him well to be that confident and help him move up the

hierarchy as he gets older. We lost him for a bit but that afternoon we

found him at the river. Again, there is a male bear here, a bigger one

and the way the six-year-old walks away from this guy is more

interesting. Look at the posture, it tells the guys here they've had a

serious encounter before but the way he walks up the bank and behind the

dominant male is signalling to him -- I'm as much of a pushover as

other guys my age. We lost him for a couple of days and then we found him

on the meadows, there he is looking at first glance, Scrawny and eating

glance but everyone is convinced here this is the type of male that

will end up being dominant T goes to show, you need look carefully at the

subtle body language of bears to understand what happened is going

on. -- it goes to show. He was feeding on nutritious grass but

ultimately this guy and all the bears have one thing on their minds

- the salmon. They need to feed up on it as quickly as possible,

especially considering what they have been through this winter. Brown

bears in North America spend six months of the year deep underground

sheltering from the bitter cold. Cold. And they don't emerge until

late spring. They've been living off the fat reserves they built up over

the previous summer and autumn and mothers have given birth to new cubs

inside their winter dens. They'll have lost at least one-quarter of

their body weight. A mother who's feeding young cubs, even more. Their

priority is food. In Katmai National Park, there is a lot of new

vegetation around. An adult brown bear will eat over 40 kilos of young

grass shoots a day. For this female, the challenge to eat enough is

tripled. Her two-and-a-half-year-old cubs are still demanding milk and

will do so for another six months or more. It's a huge investment for her

and she must keep them safe. So while they play, she's on the

lookout for danger. This adult male losing his winter coat, could kill

and eat a cub. To avoid any conflict, the mother instinctively

moves her family on. But he's not interested in them. He's with a

female he has claimed already and they're courting. Males can trail

females for up to two weeks. Guarding against rivals who might

approach, until she is finally ready to mate. It's one of the few times

brown bears choose to be sociable. Safely back on the beach away from

danger, the mother and her cubs can relax but with more and more bears

gathering for the feast, she's going to have her work cut out keeping

these little ones safe until the salmon finally arrive. Arrive.

We've been on the lookout for Anna and her cubs since we arrived and

look at the shots from Daniel in our helicopter. We are not sure yet

whether that is Anna and her three cubs, we'll keep a close eye on

that. Can we spot a collar on that bear? Difficult to see from that

height. Well done Daniel what magnificent images of the bears on

the coastline. Anna is part of a project called the Changing Tides

project. That that is why she has a collar. I'm trying it see if this

one does? I don't think she does. It is another bear doing fantastically

well with her three cubs. It goes to show how much food is here and how

special this place is. Anna is helping conservationists to amass

data about bear behaviour and movement in order to help to

understand them better and protect them better. Simirya, you are

familiar with Anna, how wellers haved is she in motherhood s this

her first litter? -- how well versed is she is motherhood? Her second

litter. How difficult is it for a mum bear to rear cubs past the age

of one? In most areas it is a little difficult but Katmai is a great

environment to raise cubs in, a healthy environment. Lot of food, so

they have a fighting chance. They are two-and-a-half, not out of the

woods yet. What threats do they face? Large male bears, predating on

them. Illness, falling off a cliff, Wolves can get them. Where do adult

bears predate on clubs? They are hungry, if they are desperate and

hungry, a spring cub is fair game. We know the salmon are arriving but

before the salmon run reaches its peak here, they have a taste for

clams? They do a lot of clamming. They can get anywhere from two tow

three a minute. A good intake race. How does a bear with huge paws get a

little clam burrowing into the sand? They move quick. They walk along the

sand. The clam feels the vibration of the bears walking and it tries to

get awane the bears see that squirt of water and start digging. It maybe

only takes two or three attempts and they get T Not a great escape

mechanism for the clams. Here I am. How important is that food source

before the salmon arrive in earnest? Well the bears are hungry, they need

something to eat so. They are trying to add a bit more into their diet.

Do all bears make use of clams here on the tidal flats? Most do but we

find that the adult male bears no longer clam. It is a work ratio.

That would help the mums and cubs, if the big bears aren't here while

they are clamming? Yes, and they can see what is coming towards them,

quickly, if a male is coming towards them on a tidal flat. Daniel, doing

a great job for us on our fist episode. He is finding bears

clamming. quickly, if a male is coming towards

them episode. He is finding bears

clamming. The bears are performing. - let me show you how I clam, they

are saying, head down, waiting to see the squirt of water and two or

three paws and they get them. Look at that mother teaching her cubs to

do that. How important is that? How quickly can they learn? Within the

first year. The mother when they have a spring cub, they'll learn

everything they need to survive have a spring cub, they'll learn

everything they need to survive within the first year. Amazing.

We'll stick with these cubs, move closer. Come back to us soon, but

for now, back to you, Matt. If off stressful week ahead, you

want to pick up on the aura of those bears, follow that vibe if you can,

it is quite something. From the beaches of Alaska to the lakes.

Let's talk about when this place starts to melt. We have incredible

footage just from springtime. So only a few months ago when this was

frozen solid. When does it start to melt? By April usually, it melts up,

people don't go out on the ice until after that. You spend time out

there, before that? Great recreational spot, cross-country

season, fantastic. Then the animals appear about a month or so ago Yes,

once the break-up, the fist thing that happens is the gulls. The

birdlife come in and then when the salmon comes in everything turns on.

We talked about your resident beaver earlier on. He is such a great

little character. And he has to be so hardy, because through the winter

they don't necessarily hibernate and we can see a shot of his little

lodge covered in snow They have to work real hard in the fall to get

every pressing taken care of. They have to have the food for the winter

and the dam has to be set, it inslates their lodge, they don't

hibernate. They are a busy. We have icebergs floating around behind us

and look at the make-up of this ice. It is almost like crystals, very

different to the kind of ice we get. Let's wander around, Pete, we have

evidence of the beaver around here. You can see this dam. And the

geography. They create all of these pools and ponds and when the water

level rises, they have to be incredibly busy. Yes, incredibly

busy. They create the dam and it gives them a protected area. When

they are in their water they are protected and it helps flood some of

the areas and encourages plant growth which is their food base. You

see the willow, that's what they eat. We'll talk more about them as

the week goes on but let's look at them relaxing at the moment. Nice

and relaxed. Can we go inside? Taking a well-earned rest as we

said. This little creature has a lot of respect for you, being knee-deep

in this icy water. Kind of looking snug there. Here in

the estuary you get a sense of how much this feast is kicking off. It

is more than anything from the sound. You know the sound of the

fish thrashing away around you. The sound of the gulls who are here

feasting on the dead and dying fish, the ones that have already spawned.

Some are beautiful. The black-headed gulls that are too small it pick

apart the adult fish. Right now they are snatching the eggs pretty much

as soon as they are being released by the females. Honestly, who would

be a salmon? Absolutely everything wants to feed on you or your young.

But I sound I like the most is the sound of the most majestic bird

here, the bald eagle. It is call that is quite serious. Not like a

bird of this size t sounds more like the braying of a donkey. They are

here in incredible numbers. Towards the shoreline, you can see several.

These ones are youngsters, they have not acquired the full adult

colouration with the Whitehead and black body. But as impressive.

Difficult to tell the females and males apart. Girls are bigger than

the boys. Hang on a second I'm just hearing something remarkable - we

have a live wolf. This is incredible. This could well be the

first time this have a live wolf. This is

incredible. This could well be the first time this has ever been seen,

live on our cameras. It is a wolf strolling down, up there at Katmai

seen from the air. A lot of people expect Wolves will be always in

packs but like the predators around me they are brought in by the fish

and males like this have probably been driven out from their pack T

could've been an alpha male driven away by a younger male and it is

here now, looking out for salmon. The fact it has such a surface of

prey allow it is to live on its own without the need of a pack, to hunt

for larger prey. This one is sitting here in the sand looking around it,

Saab salutely content. Probably with a very full belly having fed really

well on salmon. What a wonderful sight. We were hoping we would get a

chance to show you this over the course of Will of Wild Alaska Live

but to see it there in the sunshine looking happy, what a wonderful

sight. It is not just the animals like Wolves and bear

sight. It is not just the animals like Wolves and bear and bald Eagles

that are reliant on the fish. The management of the fish is so

important to make sure they are here in numbers like that and we had the

privilege of meeting the wonderful local people who from 10,000 years

have been stewards of these lands and we met up with a group living on

the brink of the largest salmon migration in the world, the Salmon

Centres. We live on the greatest sockeye

salmon run in the world, where we see up to three 4 million salmon out

of our front doors every summer. -- three or 4 million. Just beautiful.

You nowhere in the salmon are coming because you can smell it in the air.

-- you know when. I know it sounds goofy but the others used it as, the

wind changes, it smells rainy and the wind picks up and you know the

salmon are coming. You can, like, the smell of fish is in the air.

Salmon and some go hand in hand. It is the highlight of everyone's

summer, I believe. How many have we got today? I guess 45. 47. 44. 43.

It brings out new excitement in all of us. You know you are putting away

food that is going to sustain your family for the whole winter and that

is a good feeling. Seven, eight, nine, ten. In our language, the word

for food is the same as for fish. It is just a general term for fish but

it is also the word for food. 39, 14. Oh, no. 41, 42 and I am the

winner! Big wins today. I think everyone living out here, it all

takes teamwork. We are all independent but we depend on each

other for survival out here. I think that is what I love the most,

really, that we are like one big family. We are teaching the younger

generations to carry on the way we have forever. We use traditional

knives and we practise our traditional ways of storing and

hanging salmon which is very important to keep our culture alive,

especially in our younger generations. We do rely heavily on

what nature provides us and from childhood, you are taught to treat

the land with respect and in return, it will take care of you. All fish

and animals are well respected. There is no waste. You have too,

otherwise the Earth won't take care of you and your family would not

survive. It means everything to us. Carlo, together, we are just

enjoying the pictures of the live wolf and this is quite emotional for

you because as far as your tribe is concerned, they are a very special

animal. Yes and particularly to my family, my clan crest is the wolf.

It is very rare, especially where I live in Juneau, I don't often get

treated to seeing a live wolf so it is a special treat. When you say

they are the icon of your tribe, what does that mean? They are the

clan crest which is where I derive my identity from, where I can say I

belong to the Wolf plan. I belong to the Wolf plan. For you to be seeing

the footage that Debbie and Daniel have. It is very exciting. And the

brown bear which is a creature rooted in your community? The brown

bear is definitely rooted in my culture primarily because we revere

them as our grandparents. They are the ones who taught us how to live

on the land over 10,000 years ago. By watching them and observing them,

we learned what kind of food to eat and what medicines to use. How do

you pass those messages onto your children? Like I did to you now,

talking about it on a consistent and regular basis with the children, any

time we are out in nature or even just sitting around, we will talk

and share stories about what I learned from parents my

grandparents. I passed that down to my children and grandchildren. You

obviously have a special relationship with your surroundings

in Alaska but do you worry for your children when you are sending them

out to play? How do you cope with it as a mother? Very early on, we teach

them do have a healthy respect for the landscape and knowing their

surroundings so they are not lost in their own little world but paying

attention to what is around them so that if an animal comes across their

path, they back off and give the animal the respect it deserves. I

can imagine having pets is a slight issue. Definitely! I have seen with

my own eyes and American bald eagle swooped down and picked up a house

cat. Really? Rhodes for its meal, yes. So no one has cats all small

dogs out here! No, another case of a small dog being taken off by an

eagle. We will let you enjoy the pictures like the rest of us and

talk about a unique gathering that happens out to the west and a couple

of weeks ago, Steve went camping to find out a bit more.

Weighing up to 2000 kg and with two giant front teeth forming metre long

tusks, there's nothing on earth quite like the walrus. Bristol Bay,

over 900 miles to the west of this national forest, is home to

thousands of these blubbering beasts. At this kind of year, round

Ireland is the place to see what could be Alaska's most unusual

spectacle. 35 miles out to sea, exactly the kind of place you would

expect to see some kind of weird monster. The sea ice in this bay

melted a few months ago, giving thousands of walrus axis to the

bounty of food under the waves. -- walrus access to the bounty. I've

come to see how vital they are to the ecology of Alaska. That is

insane. These animals are essentially bottom feeders. What

they are doing is heading down to the silty, marquee bottom and then

feeling around using their whiskers, that cover their lips, to try to

find prey like these clams. Once they have found them, they use their

big, blubbery lips to create suction power and literally suck the clams

out of their own shells. Each one of these two tonne tasked animals can

eat up to 4000 clams in a feeding trip and there are searching has a

surprising benefit. Disturbing the sea bed releases tiny invertebrates

into the water, food for other animals. It contributes to the whole

food chain here which even salmon benefit from. When you see how many

walrus there are common here, you can imagine there has to be an

enormous amount of food in these seas. I have come ashore to get a

closer look at these curious animals, where they are hauled out

in their hundreds. That is really something special.

First of all, the smell of it hits you immediately, not surprisingly,

really, when you have that many big animals together, letting rip with

some really eye watering smells! As if it wasn't weird enough seeing

this mass of blubber and tasks, there's an extra added element to it

all. This is a big bachelor party. Every single one of these is male.

The females have pups at this time of year and are far north on the

edge of the Arctic sea ice, giving mates space to raise their young,

the males come south where the warmer air helps them moult,

renewing their hair and skin after winter. Look at this one rubbing

down the bottom, there. Look at that. It looks like a bear against a

tree, scratching itself. This time up here on these beaches is really

important as they get rid of excess skin, rubbing it off and leaving it

behind on the beaches and that in turn will become food. And as. So

not only are the walrus integral to the food chain in the water but they

also play an important role online. When you look at this amount of

animals, at the count, there were 14,000 walrus on this island and

they are absolutely vital to the ecology of Alaska.

What magnificent, almost improbable animals, testament to the beauty,

the success story of conservation in Alaska. We don't have walrus on this

coastline but as you have seen, there are wolves up the coast on the

bay and just behind me, there is a male bear, another one further back,

waiting for the salmon, the tide is about to turn so they are biding

their time. This guy was rolling over, there was steam coming out of

his mouth a moment ago, he is hot but he is not going to move because

he knows the salmon will enter the shallows shortly. Such a beautiful

sight. I can't quite believe what I'm looking at, it is almost surreal

to see these magnificent creatures so close up. We are still on the

lookout for Anna and her cubs but earlier we saw another mother with

three cubs which is testament to the success of this place, the wealth

and abundance of food here but the day I arrived, we set out from camp

about a mile down the road into a meadow looking for Anna and guess

who we found? I can't believe on my first day, I'm

seeing a mother and three cubs but not only that, it is Anna. She is

magnificent. She is looking at us now. She is letting us take it all

in, incredible. We are just another form of wildlife to her. You can't

help but care for the individuals, can you? You become attached when

you see them year after year, growing up and having their own cubs

which then grow up and continue on. It is such a treat to see them in

the spring and know they made it through hibernation and everything

was fine. I've only been here a couple of hours and that's it, I

care too much already. Such a thrill to see the bears and

the cubs doing so well. Take a look at the helicopter shot from Daniel,

the mother bear teaching her cubs to fish for salmon but this is where it

gets treacherous as the tides turn, the cubs are in a precarious

position. Bears often lose one of their cubs when the tide changes so

we are hoping this mother is old and experienced enough to make sure she

keeps track of those three very special Bears. We are thinking it

might be an but it is hard to tell whether she has a collar around her

big, very next. We're not 100% sure but we will keep an eye on that. --

Herbig, fairy neck. We have got word that more male bears, the big,

dominant ones are coming down from the mountains which is when

everything changes. They will be vying for top position and we will

try to get you that and understand what happens when they battle it out

for the top position at the river. Not only that, you have seen them

before, it is a world first, we got you live wolves but just outside

camp yesterday and the day before, we had a couple of sightings of

wolves, very close to camp. There was one on the shoreline and one in

the meadows and we are going to try very hard to get you more wolves

live on Wednesday. We will be looking out for Anna, we will keep

and I on this very happy, full bear, and we will see one Wednesday.

I can't believe the shots of those three cubs in the surf, it was

wonderful. But stick around because after the show we will do a live

Facebook question and answer session and here is what else you can look

forward to next time. There is the glacier that Steve, believe it or

not, will be abseiling into, live on the programme. We will take you even

closer to the biggest predators and show you what will be turning up.

You could never get tired of watching these pictures. We have

seen some incredible live footage this evening. We will be back on

Wednesday but before that, you can watch Wildie UK, a brand new series

starting tomorrow at 915 M, Lucy Cooke and Colin Stafford doesn't

looking at the wild Wilderness in the UK with exclusive

behind-the-scenes from Alaska. We will see what Wednesday but from all

of us and all of the crews across Alaska, goodbye.

We've got a wild week of adventure planned, UK-style...

Join us to celebrate our own home-grown wilderness.