The Door Closes Life in the Freezer


The Door Closes

Similar Content

Browse content similar to The Door Closes. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

The pounding surf of the Great Southern Ocean beating on the rocks of South Georgia.

0:01:070:01:11

Few creatures, you might think, could survive it.

0:01:110:01:16

But macaroni penguins are desperate to get ashore.

0:01:160:01:20

Their flippers are of little help out of water.

0:01:350:01:39

All they have to give them a grip on these slippery rocks

0:01:390:01:43

are the small claws on their feet.

0:01:430:01:47

Now, at the end of summer, life is becoming increasingly difficult for these macaroni penguins,

0:02:030:02:10

struggling to feed chicks that are almost fully grown and have massive appetites.

0:02:100:02:16

With autumn coming, the weather will worsen.

0:02:160:02:21

Massive depressions rush around the fringes of the Antarctic continent,

0:02:210:02:26

creating gales that gust to 100 miles an hour and lash the sea into a frenzy.

0:02:260:02:30

Soon temperatures will drop to below freezing and all the wildlife of Antarctica

0:02:300:02:36

will run a desperate race to complete breeding before the ice closes everything down.

0:02:360:02:43

In the deep south, the sea stays frozen all summer.

0:02:480:02:52

The penguins here face an even greater challenge, for this is where the door closes first.

0:02:520:02:59

Here at Cape Royds, I'm 1,400 miles closer to the Pole

0:02:590:03:04

and this Adelie colony is the most southerly nesting group of any penguins anywhere.

0:03:040:03:11

The summer here is very short indeed and these penguins must breed very swiftly if they're to be successful.

0:03:110:03:18

They're well ahead of the macaronis up in the north

0:03:180:03:21

and the chicks are already losing their down.

0:03:210:03:26

Beneath the woolly coat lies the waterproof layer of feathers that will protect them in the icy seas.

0:03:260:03:34

The season is so short that things have to move fast.

0:03:400:03:45

Over a mere two weeks, the jam-packed colony virtually empties

0:03:450:03:49

as the newly-feathered young follow their parents down to the sea for their first encounter with water.

0:03:490:03:56

And their first swim will not be easy.

0:04:080:04:12

The bay is filled with surging, sharp-edged brash ice.

0:04:120:04:17

Even getting down to the water poses problems.

0:04:170:04:22

Soon, the edge of the sea is thronged

0:04:260:04:30

by apprehensive youngsters nervously waiting for someone to take the plunge.

0:04:300:04:37

The brash is so thick and extensive that on its seaward side,

0:04:370:04:43

adults returning with food for their chicks can't get through.

0:04:430:04:47

They turn back.

0:04:580:05:00

The hungry chicks have no choice -

0:05:080:05:11

they have to get to sea to feed.

0:05:110:05:14

It's easier for them to cross the brash than for their parents.

0:05:190:05:24

Being much lighter and more buoyant,

0:05:240:05:27

they can skitter across the surface of the broken ice.

0:05:270:05:33

But moving so slowly and so clumsily

0:05:410:05:45

puts them in real danger.

0:05:450:05:48

WARNING CRY

0:05:500:05:53

A leopard seal!

0:05:580:06:00

The majority of the chicks make it to open water, where they're a little safer.

0:06:110:06:17

The leopard seal stays with its victim.

0:06:170:06:22

This game of cat and mouse goes on for 20 minutes.

0:07:160:07:21

Like so many other large predators on land and on sea,

0:07:210:07:26

the leopard seal seems to feel no urgency to complete its kill.

0:07:260:07:31

At last, the penguin is dead.

0:07:330:07:36

Now the process of stripping off its flesh begins.

0:07:370:07:42

The carcass drifts down to the sea floor

0:08:120:08:16

but it won't be wasted.

0:08:160:08:19

A nemertean worm, a metre long.

0:08:360:08:38

It has detected the taste of penguin flesh drifting through the cold water.

0:08:380:08:45

Another scavenger arrives -

0:08:530:08:56

a giant isopod, 10 centimetres long,

0:08:560:08:59

the equivalent of crabs in warmer waters.

0:08:590:09:03

The isopod strips off the meat with its hooked legs and strong jaws.

0:09:110:09:16

The worm turns its stomach inside out and envelops the food.

0:09:160:09:21

Within hours, the carcass is covered by a writhing tangle of worms.

0:09:230:09:29

Within days, there is nothing left but bare bones.

0:09:320:09:37

The first snows of winter have fallen.

0:09:400:09:45

The last chicks to hatch are doomed. Their parents have to abandon them before they're fully grown.

0:09:450:09:52

The adults must go to sea to build up their strength

0:09:520:09:57

before returning to the colony for one last ordeal before winter sets in - the moult.

0:09:570:10:04

All penguins need a new coat of feathers for the winter.

0:10:040:10:11

That means shedding the old one. Colonies across the continent fill with shed feathers.

0:10:110:10:18

On Deception Island, chinstrap penguins stand silent and motionless.

0:10:180:10:25

Only a month ago, these steep slopes of volcanic ash

0:10:300:10:35

were noisy with the squawks of 80,000 pairs of them coming and going and caring for their chicks.

0:10:350:10:42

Now, they've little energy to spare.

0:10:420:10:46

They can't go to sea with their coats in this condition, so they can't feed.

0:10:460:10:53

For three weeks they stand fasting, losing half their body weight

0:10:560:11:01

but at the end they'll have warm, watertight coats and be ready for the icy blasts of winter.

0:11:010:11:08

By the end of March, most of them have left

0:11:140:11:18

and the remainder are on the move,

0:11:180:11:21

making their way across the emptying slopes, back to the sea.

0:11:210:11:27

Escape to the north, to open seas, is the driving force -

0:11:490:11:53

to move where the food should be.

0:11:530:11:57

But the obstacles are formidable.

0:11:570:11:59

At minus 1.9 degrees centigrade, the sea begins to freeze.

0:12:240:12:30

A slight swell on the surface produces pancake ice.

0:12:300:12:34

In the frigid air, the ice above water grows into crystals.

0:12:400:12:45

The early explorers called these fantastic shapes "ice flowers".

0:12:460:12:52

As it gets colder and colder, the ice thickens.

0:12:580:13:03

On the coast, it freezes fast to the margins of the land.

0:13:030:13:08

Farther out, the pack-ice consolidates into sea-ice.

0:13:110:13:15

The belt of ice surrounding the continent widens,

0:13:150:13:20

advancing northwards two miles a day and driving life before it.

0:13:200:13:25

But the ice front has not yet reached all the islands

0:13:270:13:32

and there are still some that can provide a refuge for wildlife well into autumn.

0:13:320:13:39

Here on South Georgia we are on the northern edge of Antarctica.

0:13:440:13:50

The sea here doesn't usually freeze over. Only once or twice in a century does it do so.

0:13:500:13:56

This floating ice has all fallen from the glacier behind me.

0:13:560:14:01

But although at 54 degrees south we are as far away from the South Pole as Britain is from the North,

0:14:010:14:09

the immense ice-cap of Antarctica still dominates the climate.

0:14:090:14:14

Glaciers cover over half the island.

0:14:140:14:17

They blanket many of the peaks,

0:14:170:14:20

the tallest of which are 2,700 metres high,

0:14:200:14:24

and in some places they run right down into the sea.

0:14:240:14:28

During winter, the temperature falls to minus 10 degrees at the coast,

0:14:280:14:34

so the need for animals to complete their breeding in the short summer season is still very intense.

0:14:340:14:41

Two million fur seals breed here

0:14:430:14:46

and at the end of summer, the beaches are thronged with young pups and their mothers.

0:14:460:14:53

The pups suckle for 4 months, until late March.

0:14:530:14:58

That's longer than fur seals that live in warmer waters farther north.

0:14:580:15:03

It's a measure of how strong young animals have to be to survive down here.

0:15:030:15:10

A pup, if it is to get all the milk it's due,

0:15:160:15:20

has to recognise its mother's call when she returns from feeding at sea

0:15:200:15:26

and is ready to provide a feed.

0:15:260:15:29

CALLING TO PUP

0:15:320:15:35

Three months earlier, this shore was a battlefield

0:15:400:15:45

as bulls fought for the right to dominate a stretch of beach - and all the females on it.

0:15:450:15:52

Now the mating has finished and the bulls have gone to sea.

0:15:520:15:56

The pups are left to test their strength with MOCK fights.

0:15:560:16:01

Many of the youngsters playing here will not survive their first year.

0:16:500:16:55

The weaker ones will not get enough food.

0:16:550:16:59

There will be accidents and orphans. By the end of the breeding season,

0:16:590:17:05

corpses lie scattered over the beach - food for skuas and giant petrels.

0:17:050:17:10

The petrels with their great, hooked beaks,

0:17:400:17:45

are usually the first to rip open a carcass.

0:17:450:17:50

They are the Antarctic's equivalent of Africa's vultures. Their huge wings are 2 metres across.

0:17:500:17:57

But unlike vultures, they don't just scavenge.

0:17:570:18:01

They tackle young penguins and small sea-birds while they're still alive.

0:18:010:18:06

The whalers in the old days used to call them "gluttons".

0:18:330:18:39

It's easy to see why. Their dirtiness gave them another name - "stinkers".

0:18:390:18:46

Surprisingly, there are ducks at this feast too.

0:18:460:18:50

These are South Georgia pintails.

0:18:500:18:53

Alone among ducks, they've acquired a regular taste for meat.

0:18:530:18:59

An elephant-seal wallow. This is an all-female gathering.

0:19:350:19:39

They clearly like one another's company, for they congregate in great assemblies.

0:19:390:19:46

That doesn't mean they don't, on occasion, get irritated with one another.

0:19:460:19:52

GRUNTING NOISES

0:19:540:19:58

Like the penguins, they went to sea after rearing their young,

0:19:580:20:04

fed intensively to put on the weight they lost during breeding and now they've come back in order to moult.

0:20:040:20:11

Large chunks of skin and hair peel off their bodies

0:20:160:20:21

and it seems to make them tetchy.

0:20:210:20:23

It takes a month for them to grow new coats.

0:20:230:20:28

Then, as the temperature falls still lower and winter closes in,

0:20:280:20:33

they will return to the place where they are most at home - the sea.

0:20:330:20:39

Grey-headed albatross also nest on South Georgia

0:20:420:20:47

but they stay a little longer.

0:20:470:20:50

The waters are still ice-free,

0:20:510:20:54

so they can catch food for their young well into autumn.

0:20:540:20:59

An adult bird, caring for its chick,

0:21:180:21:21

may travel 600 miles or more to find food, which it brings back in its crop.

0:21:210:21:27

That was a squid

0:21:370:21:39

and very nice too.

0:21:390:21:42

Above the grey heads, another kind of albatross -

0:21:430:21:48

the largest sea-bird in the world, with a 3-metre wingspan, the wandering albatross.

0:21:480:21:55

It nests a little further inland on South Georgia's meadows and ridges of tussock-grass.

0:21:550:22:02

In marked contrast to the other birds,

0:22:070:22:11

that have almost finished their breeding and are preparing to leave,

0:22:110:22:15

this wandering albatross has come to start a courtship that may take two or three years.

0:22:150:22:22

SHRILL CRIES

0:22:260:22:32

These young birds have spent the first three years of their adult life at sea.

0:22:320:22:39

Now they've returned to the colony where they were reared and are looking for a partner.

0:22:390:22:47

And the way they do this is by taking part in dancing parties.

0:22:470:22:52

Young, unmated birds court like this for several years

0:23:130:23:18

before they decide who their partners shall be

0:23:180:23:22

and together start work on a nest mound.

0:23:220:23:27

But as the winter sets in and its icy door closes,

0:23:400:23:44

the young albatross too have to return to sea.

0:23:440:23:49

The sea won't freeze here around South Georgia

0:24:190:24:23

but as the sun moves north and the days darken,

0:24:230:24:28

the temperature of the ocean falls lower still and life in the water becomes increasingly scarce.

0:24:280:24:35

The shoals of krill disperse and for sea-birds, food becomes more and more difficult to find.

0:24:350:24:42

By April, winter storms are beginning to sweep across the Antarctic.

0:24:510:24:58

The winds rise to above 100 miles an hour.

0:25:210:25:27

The temperature falls to 70 degrees below zero.

0:25:270:25:32

And then, the sea freezes.

0:25:350:25:37

The door has shut.

0:25:370:25:40

Throughout the winter, the ice continues to advance northwards.

0:25:420:25:47

The area it covers increases at the rate of 40,000 square miles every day.

0:25:470:25:54

Before the winter is over, it will have almost doubled the size of the continent.

0:25:540:26:01

Now, at the end of autumn, practically all the wildlife has escaped to the north.

0:26:310:26:38

The whales have gone to find warmer waters in which to breed.

0:26:380:26:42

The seals, albatrosses and most of the penguins have also gone out to sea, though no-one is sure where.

0:26:420:26:50

But there is one truly remarkable creature that turns all these rules upside down - the emperor penguin.

0:26:500:26:58

Largest of all the penguins,

0:26:580:27:01

the emperor stands over a metre high

0:27:010:27:05

and weighs, on average, 33 kilos.

0:27:050:27:08

Most creatures are forced by the worsening weather to retreat north to warmer latitudes

0:27:080:27:15

but the emperors are gathering at the ice edge to start travelling into the deep south,

0:27:150:27:22

where they will mate and rear their young.

0:27:220:27:26

Now the emperors start their long march, maybe tens of miles,

0:28:060:28:11

to reach their traditional nesting site on the sea-ice.

0:28:110:28:14

Subtitles by Donna Jordan BBC Scotland 1993

0:28:380:28:42

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS