Autumn Yellowstone


Autumn

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Yellowstone.

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Volcanic wonderland.

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Two million acres of wild space...

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right in the heart of North America.

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The heat of the summer

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has unveiled the full extent of the Yellowstone wilderness,

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and for a few precious months, it has blossomed.

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But now, Yellowstone is changing.

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In just a few weeks, the snow and ice of winter will be back.

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As the animals of Yellowstone now turn to face

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perhaps the biggest challenges of their year.

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The true value of the world's first national park

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is about to become clearer than ever.

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It's late August.

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On Yellowstone's peaks, there is already a dusting of fresh snow.

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Now a new sound marks the new season.

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ELK BELLOWS

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Fuelled by testosterone,

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the bugle call of this male elk is a boast of his strength.

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All over Yellowstone,

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male elk are challenging each other for dominance.

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ELKS BELLOW

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The sound of Yellowstone's autumn.

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BELLOWING CONTINUES

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They are trying to win the admiration of females

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and gather them into a harem.

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Only then do they stand a chance of mating with them before winter.

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But the females are not yet in season,

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so they are not really that interested.

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And for now, they have a more practical concern.

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Winter will soon be here.

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They are eager to head down to lower ground

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before the snow comes in earnest.

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Some will move down into nearby valleys...

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..whilst others will journey much further -

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even beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone itself.

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Yellowstone is deep in the Rocky Mountains of North America.

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An isolated high plateau, defended by rugged peaks.

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In the middle is the national park.

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The park and the surrounding mountains

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form one of the most important

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and spectacular wilderness areas on Earth.

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In just two months,

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this great plateau will become a deep freeze once more.

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Before then, the animals of Yellowstone have to get ready...

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..or get out.

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But for now, below the snow-dusted peaks,

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summer still lingers in the heart of Yellowstone.

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The sun has revitalised this place

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and now there are more living things here than at any time of the year.

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The summer has brought visitors too...

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..who are enjoying Yellowstone at its most vibrant.

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As the sun now starts to get lower in the sky,

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the rich colours make this one of the best times to see the geysers.

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On the grasslands, the good times are already over.

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These bison are making the most of the grazing

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but it is now dry and parched.

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From now on, they will have to rely heavily on stored fat

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to keep them going

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as these meadows become covered in more than four feet of snow.

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Others are already thinking of leaving.

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Pronghorn evolved to outrun a now-extinct North American cheetah

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and so are the fastest antelope on Earth.

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But unlike bison, their lightweight bodies can't store enough energy

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to keep them here through the winter, so now they must head out.

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Their journey will be the longest of all.

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But as many are preparing to get out,

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some have no choice but to stay.

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In the remote north-east of the Yellowstone wilderness are the Beartooth Mountains.

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Here, surviving above 8,000 feet,

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a tree now welcomes the change of season.

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The whitebark pine.

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All summer, these trees have been soaking up the energy of the sun,

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preparing for this moment.

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Now they offer the animals a bumper crop of pine cones.

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The whitebark pine is gambling on the fact that animals now need

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all the food they can get before winter

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and is hoping it can entice them to spread its seeds

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far and wide across Yellowstone.

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So, inside the cones, it has put tasty, nutritious pine nuts.

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A pine squirrel.

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It snacks on a few of the nuts to keep going.

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And then buries them, one by one, in a sheltered hollow beside the tree.

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If it hides them well and packs them carefully,

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they should last through the winter.

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But this is not much good for the tree.

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Its seeds have gone nowhere.

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A grizzly bear mother and cubs.

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It's unusual for a grizzly to have so many cubs.

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This mother has found two orphans and adopted them.

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Now she has four cubs to fatten up

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before they go into the den to hibernate this winter.

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She's after pine nuts too. They are 50% fat.

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In a good year, a grizzly can put on five pounds a day eating nuts alone.

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If squirrels have done the hard work,

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it doesn't matter that grizzlies can't climb trees.

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The squirrel will just have to start again.

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Luckily, this year, the trees are being particularly generous.

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A Clark's nutcracker.

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This is what the tree has been waiting for.

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With its perfectly-shaped beak,

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it prises the nuts from the cones

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and tucks them, one by one, into a special pouch under its tongue...

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..up to 150 at a time -

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a fifth of its entire body weight.

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Then it flies as much as 15 miles away

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and drills the nuts into the ground in sets of ten...

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..placing a stone on top of the stash to mark the site.

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It goes back for more...

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and more.

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Over the autumn, a single bird can bury 30,000 nuts

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across an area of 100 square miles.

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When the winter comes, it will remember the location

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of a staggering 70% of these seeds,

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even when hidden beneath the snow.

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But as it remembers its way into surviving the winter,

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it becomes the whitebark's greatest ally.

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Although its feat of memory is extraordinary,

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for every 1,000 seeds it buries,

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it still forgets 300.

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From all those missed seeds,

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carried far and wide across Yellowstone,

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new whitebark pines will germinate next spring.

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It's now September and the elk have made their way down to graze

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where the grass on the river banks is still green

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and they can browse the nutritious shoots of young willow trees.

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The males are now upping their game.

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This bull urinates on himself to increase his masculine appeal.

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And by thrashing his antlers to decorate them,

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he hopes to make himself look more impressive.

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ELK BELLOWS

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The females are paying a little more attention now.

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The bull has succeeded in gathering a fair-sized harem.

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But the females are still not quite ready to mate.

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They are now focused on feeding as much as they can

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before moving lower still.

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But the elk are being watched.

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WOLVES HOWL

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Over the summer, wolves have been less mobile because of their young pups.

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But their strength is building again.

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The elk get twitchy and head for the cover of trees.

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They may be a little safer here.

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But the food in the forest is far less nutritious than on the river banks.

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If they want to eat well and avoid wolves this winter,

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they'll need to keep on moving.

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As the elk move gradually downwards,

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they follow the rivers out of Yellowstone's central plateau.

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The rivers, in turn, follow the path of glaciers

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that flowed from this great bowl in the last ice age

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and carved their way right through the surrounding mountains.

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Today, these valleys are escape routes for animals

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from the returning ice of winter.

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Lower down, the valleys broaden,

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the rivers slow,

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and a richer variety of trees grows in the alluvial soils.

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The perfect home for Yellowstone's most industrious creature.

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A beaver can fell a cottonwood tree in just a few hours...

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..hundreds in a year.

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The beaver doesn't chew through the whole trunk -

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just enough to make the tree unstable.

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It then retreats...

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and lets the wind do the rest.

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It cuts branches into more manageable lengths

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and swims them down a network of purpose-built canals towards a dam.

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The pond gives this beaver protection from predators

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and the canals allow it to forage far into the forest,

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carrying many times its own weight with ease.

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Autumn is the busiest time of year for beavers.

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It won't be so easy to make repairs when the pond is frozen over.

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The sound of running water is their stimulus

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to shore up gaps with timber and plug leaks with mud.

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But the dam not only serves the beavers.

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Moose come here from the forests around to feed on weeds

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that thrive in the beavers' shallow pond.

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The weed is rich in vital sodium

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that the forest can't easily provide.

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But now that winter is approaching,

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another essential role for the dam is revealed.

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These smaller branches are not for fixing the dam...

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..they're for eating.

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The beaver secures them to the mud in the lake bottom.

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In just a few weeks, this lake will be frozen

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and the beavers won't be able to cut and move trees

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but they will be able to swim right under the ice

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to feed from this underwater larder.

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Moose also eat twigs and branches

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and often try to take advantage of the beavers' hard labour.

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This young male is getting a little too close to the beavers' larder.

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Autumn is not a time for sharing.

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It's mid September.

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As the sun drops further in the sky,

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the aspens, cottonwoods and maples start shutting down for the winter.

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They now digest the green pigments in their leaves,

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to claw back what nutrients they can into the trunk and roots.

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What's left behind make the colours of Autumn.

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Groves of aspen all turn at the same time.

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Each grove descended from one tree,

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interconnected by roots,

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colour co-ordinated.

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As cold air sinks further down from the mountains,

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it brings Autumn mists to Yellowstone's valleys.

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It was in the Autumn of 1870

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that the first official exploration party to Yellowstone

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began to plan for the creation of the world's first national park...

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..the beauty of Yellowstone's autumn

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inspiring a complete change in the way we value the wild.

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ELK BELLOW

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For the last six weeks of strutting and herding,

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male elk have eaten almost nothing.

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They are exhausted.

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MALE ELK BELLOWS

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This bull has done well.

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He has successfully held on to his harem

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and now the females are finally coming into season.

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But they are being distracted by another male.

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If a bull elk can't dominate all rivals,

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he can't have access to the females

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and all his effort will have been in vain.

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Now he must gather the last of his strength.

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The rival wants to take him on.

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The aim is to get an antler point into his neck.

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But they are evenly matched.

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Neither can penetrate the other's guard.

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Now it's all about power.

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A well-aimed thrust or a broken neck will kill.

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This challenger is lucky to get off with a parting stab in the rump.

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The victor returns to his females.

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His young will be born next spring.

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But the prospects are not so good for a defeated bull.

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After all his effort,

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he will now have to wait until next autumn to try his luck again.

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That's if he even makes it.

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Bull elk, exhausted by the rut,

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struggle to survive the Yellowstone winter.

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It's now October and the winter is catching up with the elk once more.

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An early flurry of snow is a sign that it's time to make a decision.

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To stay is to face the certainty of snow and wolves.

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To go offers the chance of an easier life

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but the uncertainty of the world beyond Yellowstone.

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ELK BELLOW

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Every Autumn, thousands of elk do leave Yellowstone

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and as they go they cross an invisible line

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out of the protection of the national park.

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Here, they confront new danger.

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Dressed in orange to avoid each other,

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but a colour that elk can't see, hunters come to the forests

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just around Yellowstone in October to shoot elk.

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GUN FIRES

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Elk, of course, have no understanding of park boundaries

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or of Yellowstone.

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To them, this is simply an instinctive migration

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to find more hospitable land and so they just keep going.

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Beyond the ring of hunting lands,

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the natural mosaic of forest and grass

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is replaced by an alien geometry.

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Circles of irrigated grass.

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Squares of maize.

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Golf courses.

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The signature patterns of mankind.

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It's unlikely they'll be welcome here.

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By now, the pronghorn have pushed further

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than any of Yellowstone's animals.

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Out of forests, through farmland and down into the wide prairies

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at the foot of the Rocky Mountains themselves.

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Their search for winter grazing takes them over a hundred miles

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to the south of Yellowstone -

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the longest migration of any American mammal.

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They have made this journey every year since the last ice age.

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But nowadays they have a problem.

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HORN BLARES

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Their traditional winter refuges lie right above

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some of the richest natural gas deposits in America.

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The wells are no direct threat to pronghorn.

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HORN BLARES

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But pronghorn are timid.

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At the slightest noise they run

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and when they run, they run at 60 miles per hour.

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They evolved to avoid cheetahs, not juggernauts.

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Trucks, fences,

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and the disturbance from the wells have put pronghorn at risk.

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There are 1.2 million acres here

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but 75% of it has now been earmarked for gas and oil.

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Back in the farmland, the elk have found food.

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But this grass is not meant for them.

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CATTLE MOO

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Ranchers will tolerate elk,

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as long as they don't compete too much with their cattle.

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But as the elk move in,

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their old enemy follows them out of Yellowstone -

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an animal that's more difficult for ranchers to accept.

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In their minds, fear of the wolf runs deep.

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Even Yellowstone lost its wolves.

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They were wiped out over 80 years ago.

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After years of prejudice, they were reintroduced in 1995...

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..brought back by the authorities

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to restore Yellowstone's natural balance.

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But the wolves have done so well

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that now they are moving out of the park looking for new territories...

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..and prey.

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Out here, it's clearer to see why wolves have a bad reputation.

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If ranchers' cattle are at risk, by law, wolves can be shot.

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As wolves come back, ranchers are being forced to return to the old ways...

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..to get back into the saddle and protect their herds.

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GADGET BEEPS

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But opinion is changing.

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Working with scientists, who have radio-collared Yellowstone wolves,

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ranchers can now keep track of them

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and when they know they are near, shoot not to kill

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but to scare them away.

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GUNFIRE ECHOES

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The return of the wolf will always be controversial.

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But evidence is now emerging

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that wolves are far more important than anyone imagined...

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..especially back in the heart of Yellowstone.

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It's nearly the end of October.

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The cold autumn nights have brought a thin crust of ice

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to a beaver's pond.

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Unlike in the river valleys below, up here,

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there are not many tall cottonwood trees,

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so this beaver has built his dam from the shoots of young willows

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sprouting all along the side of his pond.

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But he is something of a novelty.

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Even by the time Yellowstone was made a national park,

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beavers had been virtually hunted to extinction by fur trappers.

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They only began to reappear here in 1995 -

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the year the wolves came back.

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Now wolves are chasing elk again,

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elk have less time to eat willows,

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so willows are sprouting everywhere.

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Today, as winter approaches, all over Yellowstone,

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beavers are using those willows

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to put the finishing touches to a dam-building renaissance.

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And for every dam, there is a new habitat for new life

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and a richer, more diverse, Yellowstone.

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SWANS HOOT

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But just as Yellowstone reveals the complexity of life,

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it also exposes its fragility.

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On its lofty ridges,

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there are signs that all is not well with the whitebark pine.

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From above, it looks like autumn colours in an evergreen world.

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But these trees are dying.

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Small eruptions of resin dot the trunk of the tree -

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evidence of an invasion.

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Tiny beetles are chewing through the tree's outer defences.

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Once inside, they lay eggs that turn into larvae that eat the tree.

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Each tree that is lost threatens all the animals

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that rely on its autumn bounty.

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The only thing that can stop the beetles is extreme cold.

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But recently, the climate here

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has been getting warmer and warmer.

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No national park can protect against that.

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This is a tree that needs a cold winter.

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It's November and the elk have found their feeding grounds just in time -

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the snows of winter at their heels.

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Here they join other herds who come to this place every year,

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where the snow will be less deep and life a little easier.

0:42:410:42:45

But today, they graze on an island of grass surrounded by development.

0:42:540:42:59

As they run from winter, their fate outside the national park

0:43:040:43:09

is decided not by the cold but by people.

0:43:090:43:14

These elk are lucky.

0:43:190:43:21

This refuge has been kept aside to give them some degree of sanctuary.

0:43:210:43:25

So although the park isn't big enough

0:43:320:43:34

to protect all its animals all the time,

0:43:340:43:37

its influence can spread beyond its boundaries

0:43:370:43:41

and if even ranchers can come to tolerate wolves,

0:43:410:43:45

then anything is possible.

0:43:450:43:46

In the mountains of Yellowstone,

0:44:040:44:06

where the elk's bugle signalled the beginning of autumn

0:44:060:44:10

just two months ago, all seems deserted.

0:44:100:44:14

But now, the final act of the season is about to take place.

0:44:200:44:25

From out of apparently nowhere come the bighorn sheep.

0:44:250:44:30

The toughest of all Yellowstone's animals,

0:44:320:44:34

they can stay here all winter on slopes and crags

0:44:340:44:38

that the biting wind keeps clear of snow.

0:44:380:44:40

WIND HOWLS

0:44:400:44:43

Now, they are coming together to rut.

0:44:490:44:53

Like elk, the males battle for females,

0:44:530:44:58

but where elk do their best to avoid fights,

0:44:580:45:02

bighorn relish them.

0:45:020:45:04

A quick test of horn size

0:45:130:45:15

and of other important bits of anatomy,

0:45:150:45:19

and the males get straight to the point

0:45:190:45:21

of sorting out who is toughest.

0:45:210:45:24

As the sound of their battles echoes across the Yellowstone wilderness,

0:46:000:46:05

it marks the end of autumn.

0:46:050:46:07

Now, the great change is coming again.

0:46:140:46:17

Winter is here.

0:46:190:46:21

As the snow returns to Yellowstone,

0:46:520:46:55

it seems like the clock is turning back.

0:46:550:46:58

All traces of the human world are covered up.

0:47:020:47:06

A reminder that when the heart of this great wilderness

0:47:110:47:14

was made a national park nearly 140 years ago,

0:47:140:47:17

it was one of the most remote places on earth.

0:47:170:47:20

But as the human world has crept up on Yellowstone,

0:47:220:47:26

the true value of this remarkable space has become ever clearer.

0:47:260:47:30

Though in many ways, Yellowstone is not big enough, its influence

0:47:380:47:42

reaches far beyond its boundaries,

0:47:420:47:44

not just to the land around,

0:47:440:47:46

but wherever there is a wilderness preserved for its own sake.

0:47:460:47:50

Here, in the heart of America,

0:47:580:48:01

the first national park was born.

0:48:010:48:04

An idea that has led the way

0:48:080:48:10

in re-defining our relationship with the wild all over the world.

0:48:100:48:16

Some say America's best idea.

0:48:190:48:23

Bringing Yellowstone's unique natural beauty to the screen

0:48:410:48:45

would have been impossible

0:48:450:48:47

without the tireless help of the local experts that know it

0:48:470:48:51

like the back of their hand. Each has their own story to tell.

0:48:510:48:55

Howdy, my name's Mike Kasic.

0:49:100:49:12

I'm the sound recordist for the Yellowstone programme.

0:49:120:49:15

I live in Livingston, Montana,

0:49:200:49:22

just north of the Yellowstone National Park

0:49:220:49:25

right by the Yellowstone River.

0:49:250:49:27

Being a sound recordist isn't the only thing that I do.

0:49:270:49:32

My friends say that I'm half fish.

0:49:320:49:33

Yeah, he's half fish.

0:49:330:49:35

I like to spend my days swimming the Yellowstone River.

0:49:440:49:48

I just let the current take me.

0:49:550:49:57

And sometimes when I want to stop, I catch an eddy just like the fish.

0:50:070:50:12

This is the Yellowstone River.

0:50:170:50:19

This is the same river that flows out the heart of Yellowstone,

0:50:210:50:24

past geysers, and bison to just outside my door.

0:50:240:50:28

This is heavy traffic.

0:50:380:50:39

Sometimes I have to share the water.

0:50:430:50:45

Brr!

0:50:520:50:53

This is the heart of the wild.

0:51:020:51:05

A life blood that courses through wilderness and ends in the prairie.

0:51:060:51:11

Not a single dam holds back its waters -

0:51:150:51:17

it's the longest free-flowing river around.

0:51:170:51:21

It's what many rivers long to be, unstoppable.

0:51:210:51:25

This is the West as it was meant to be.

0:51:270:51:29

One of the reasons I love to do this

0:51:540:51:56

is because beneath the waves swims a creature that I've grown fond of.

0:51:560:52:01

The Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

0:52:010:52:04

They just have an aura about them.

0:52:050:52:08

With big red slits under their jaws, they are simply unmistakeable.

0:52:080:52:12

The Yellowstone cutthroat trout is the soul of this river.

0:52:150:52:19

It's been here for thousands of years.

0:52:190:52:22

They're a wild animal,

0:52:240:52:27

they're in an underwater wilderness that is spectacular and amazing

0:52:270:52:33

and I think it's the best part of Yellowstone.

0:52:330:52:36

I know it's a little quirky,

0:52:550:52:57

but looking for fish is what I like to do.

0:52:570:52:59

When I'm in the river I see the world from a fish's point of view.

0:53:030:53:06

When they look up, what they're looking for is food.

0:53:060:53:11

This is the Mother's Day Caddis Fly hatch.

0:53:200:53:24

Trout food.

0:53:240:53:25

This is another of the Yellowstone's amazing events.

0:53:270:53:31

I'm swimming along and there's not a fly to be seen

0:53:310:53:34

and suddenly there's millions, and a few hours later it's back to nothing.

0:53:340:53:40

Caddis flies are not the only food in this river.

0:53:430:53:47

Many animals need a cutthroat trout to survive -

0:53:470:53:51

ospreys, grizzly bears, otters, the list goes on.

0:53:510:53:55

But the more I see this world like the cutthroat sees it,

0:53:590:54:02

the more I see that things are not quite right.

0:54:020:54:05

Long ago the US Fish Commission

0:54:060:54:08

wanted more fish in Yellowstone for sport fishing,

0:54:080:54:12

so they stocked 310 million fish from Scotland and the Great Lakes

0:54:120:54:17

and one of the fish they chose was a lake trout.

0:54:170:54:20

The trouble with lake trout is they like to eat cutthroat.

0:54:200:54:24

In fact, 80 to 90% of their diet is cutthroat trout.

0:54:240:54:28

I'm not sure how cutthroats like these stand a chance.

0:54:280:54:34

The cutthroat are up against a lot of things besides lake trout -

0:54:340:54:37

warming river temperatures, pollution, industrial development.

0:54:370:54:41

And if they can survive all these things,

0:54:410:54:44

will they then survive being gobbled up by lake trout?

0:54:440:54:48

This is Yellowstone Lake - it's nearly 2,200 metres.

0:54:480:54:53

Right here's Carrington Island which is...

0:54:580:55:02

the primary spawning grounds for the lake trout

0:55:020:55:08

and it's the kind of site of the big battle that the biologists

0:55:080:55:11

and the National Park Service has going against these fish.

0:55:110:55:14

So this is the National Park Service boat, the drift gill net boat,

0:55:200:55:24

and they are out here gilling, fishing for lake trout.

0:55:240:55:31

By the end of the season,

0:55:540:55:57

they will have taken about 350,000 lake trout out of Yellowstone Lake.

0:55:570:56:02

It's hard to see so many fish dying,

0:56:050:56:07

but watching a species disappear would be even harder.

0:56:070:56:09

They caught this fish before she had time to spawn this year.

0:56:130:56:17

They're getting many more fish every year,

0:56:200:56:22

so they're making progress, but they haven't won the war by any means.

0:56:220:56:27

But now the cutthroat trout

0:56:370:56:39

are spawning, one of the natural world's most fantastic spectacles.

0:56:390:56:43

These fish swim up this creek every year to spawn and it's here

0:56:430:56:48

in their native gravel that more fish will begin the cycle again.

0:56:480:56:53

With that there's hope,

0:56:530:56:55

hope that against all odds these fish will survive.

0:56:550:56:59

In 1,000 years,

0:57:050:57:06

I hope the cutthroat trout will swim these waters.

0:57:060:57:10

The river is more than just its water.

0:57:130:57:16

The Yellowstone is a river flowing fast and free like no other,

0:57:160:57:22

a wilderness underwater.

0:57:220:57:24

I need this kind of wilderness,

0:57:280:57:31

I need it for my heart to beat right.

0:57:310:57:33

Take it away,

0:57:330:57:35

and I think we all lose the ability to understand the world.

0:57:350:57:40

The secret to swimming in the river

0:57:470:57:50

is to let go, let the river take you wherever that may be.

0:57:500:57:55

I think that is a lesson we could all learn from.

0:57:550:57:58

I guess for now I just feel lucky that I've had the chance to swim

0:58:140:58:17

in a wild river with the Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

0:58:170:58:21

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:460:58:49

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:490:58:52

Spring is arriving - in a whirlwind of pink.

0:58:590:59:01

We're in Japan to celebrate the sakura.

0:59:010:59:04

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