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Europe.

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Home to 850 million people.

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This is a continent
that has been transformed by humanity.

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It is a crowded world.

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But not all of it.

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There are still precious areas
of wilderness

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and, living within them,
some very surprising animals.

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Forest once covered 80% of Europe.

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Now only half of it remains.

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A brown bear.

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One of only 1,500 that are left
in Finland's forests.

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Her cubs have recently emerged
from their nursery den.

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The long summer days
means there's plenty of time for play.

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With two boisterous cubs...

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...it pays to rest whenever you can.

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But their mother must be on her guard.

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The cubs have spotted something.

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A large male... looking for a mate.

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The cubs aren't his.

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So he might try to kill them.

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Bear cubs are excellent climbers.

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And now they're beyond his reach,
15 metres up.

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Their mother warns him
to keep his distance.

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But the cubs are coming down too soon.

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She can't take any chances.

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That was a close call.

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Finland's forests give us a glimpse
of what Europe was once like.

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A land of endless wilderness,
where large animals roamed far and wide.

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In the north, the continent extends
beyond the Arctic Circle.

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Here, the skies are illuminated
by the aurora borealis,

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the northern lights.

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Trillions of charged particles,

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ejected by electric storms on the sun,

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react with the Earth's atmosphere

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to create
this surreal nocturnal spectacle.

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But by day, this is a barren land.

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The Dovrefjell mountains of Norway.

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One of the last refuges
for an animal that once lived

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all across northern Europe.

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The musk ox.

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This bull is in his prime.

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He protects the herd
and fathers all the calves.

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H is is a greatly sought-after rank...

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...and that means that,
in the mating season,

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he has to deal with rivals.

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And here is one.

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Raking the ground is a warning
to other males to keep away.

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But some ignore it.

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He now has no choice
but to defend his crown.

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The challenger attacks.

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Each male weighs nearly half a tonne.

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These clashes are usually short
and intense,

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but not this time.

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As his family looks on, neither gives in.

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The bull will need to draw
on all his experience.

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But he's beginning to lose ground.

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Now he's broadsided.

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If he's defeated,
he will lose all his females.

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With one final effort,

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the bull pushes the challenger
back up the hill.

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It's over.

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The old bull successfully defended
his rights as head of the family.

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And the challenger has to return
to a lonely life for another year.

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One of Europe's last remaining areas
of wilderness lies at its heart.

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A mountain range spanning
750 miles across eight countries.

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The Alps.

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Europe's mountain ranges
may be inhospitable,

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but wildlife has shared this terrain
with people for centuries.

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It's dusk in the mountain villages
of Abruzzo, in central Italy.

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And deep in the surrounding woods,

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thermal-imaging cameras reveal
the continent's most elusive predators.

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Wolves.

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Right on the edge of the village.

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It's midwinter,
and food is hard to come by.

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This pack may not have fed for a week.

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They can travel many miles in a night,

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searching for prey.

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Red deer.

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It's pitch-black.

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Perfect conditions for an ambush.

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But even so...

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...the odds are stacked
against the wolves.

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One wrong footstep,

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and they have lost
the advantage of surprise.

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The deer scatter
right across the mountainside.

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And to make matters worse,

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the hunt is interrupted.

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The deer are now high up the mountain.

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But the wolves use the road
to travel faster and in silence.

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They manage to get above the herd.

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Now they make their move.

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The pack needs to single out one animal.

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A wolf is more nimble in thick woodland,

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but a deer can run faster on open ground.

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Once they're close,
the pack drive the deer

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straight down the mountain.

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And now it's more likely to stumble.

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In this case, the icy road proves fatal.

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But the commotion has attracted sheepdogs
from the nearby village.

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They have been bred to protect livestock
by chasing away wolves.

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With the kill lost to the sheepdogs,

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the wolves will go hungry

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for yet another night.

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Today, much of Europe's wildlife
has to live alongside people.

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The most adaptable can be found
in our towns and cities.

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Gibraltar, right on the southern tip
of the continent.

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Home to Europe's only monkeys.

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Barbary macaques.

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Four family troops live here.

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In macaque society,

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there is a strict hierarchy,

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and status within it is inherited.

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This female has just given birth
to her first baby.

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She is at the bottom of the pecking order.

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So her son is, too.

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They're bullied constantly...

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...and forced to live
on the fringes of the troop.

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As outcasts,
their only comfort is each other.

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He's been snatched,

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stolen by a higher-ranking female.

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She is childless,
and she wants a baby of her own.

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He's only a few metres away...

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...but if his mother approaches,

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the rest of the troop
could well attack her.

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The kidnapper
has never raised a baby before,

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so this one is in danger.

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They're headed
towards a cable car tower.

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The young mother can't let them
out of her sight.

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They're 30 metres up.

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If she tries to grab her baby and fails,

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he could fall to his death.

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The kidnapper refuses
to surrender him.

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There's one last thing a mother can try,

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and to do it

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she needs to recruit another macaque.

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Now the mother begins to groom
her companion

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in full view of the kidnapper.

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All monkeys love to be groomed,

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even by a low-ranking female.

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It's the basis for peace
in macaque society.

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Eventually, the urge to join in
is just too strong.

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The kidnap is over.

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And the youngster can climb back into
his mother's arms.

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There are pockets of wilderness
even in Europe's cities.

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Green oases among the urban sprawl.

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Vienna, in Austria, has over 2,000 parks,
gardens and cemeteries.

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And down in the undergrowth,
a rather unusual resident.

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A European hamster.

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Wild hamsters are found in grasslands
throughout central Europe.

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Here, in the city,
they're doing extremely well.

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This male is on a mission to find food,

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and he's set his sights
on one thing in particular.

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Fresh flowers.

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To survive the winter,
hamsters must fatten up.

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So there's no time to waste.

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The only problem - these flowers
are in someone else's patch.

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Graveside bouquets are worth fighting for.

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The winner gets to keep the territory
and all the food within it.

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The loser has to beat a hasty retreat.

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But the lure of fresh petals
is just too much.

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Plan B.

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Stealth mode.

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The coast looks clear.

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But best not take any chances.

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The trick is to get in and out
before you're caught.

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And now... dessert.

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Candle wax -
it's full of oil and high in calories.

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A hamster's cheeks can hold
a quarter of its body weight.

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Just one more mouthful.

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Oh, dear.

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Big cheeks and narrow bottlenecks -

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how very embarrassing.

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Mission accomplished.

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Europe's landscape
has changed dramatically...

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...but its temperate climate
is still good for wildlife.

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The continent has warm summers...

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...and mild winters.

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These conditions are a consequence
of its position on the globe...

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...and the influence of the Gulf Stream.

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This current of warm water
in the Atlantic Ocean heats the air

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that then flows over the land.

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And every year, Europe's unique climate

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helps trigger an extraordinary
natural event.

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The Tisza River, in Hungary.

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For a few days in June,

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when day length
and water temperature are just right...

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...the largest of all mayflies emerge.

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After three years of feeding
and growing on the riverbed,

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the males appear first.

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With new wings,
they can fly to the riverbank

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and there undergo a final moult.

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Now sexually mature,

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they have just one purpose in life -

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to find a female.

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Each male has only three hours to live.

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And now the females begin to emerge
on the surface of the river.

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The males scour the water surface,
searching for them...

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...each desperate to be the one
that fertilises her eggs.

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Every female is pounced on
as soon as she appears.

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With only minutes left
for each male to live,

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the competition becomes
increasingly urgent.

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And all too soon, the males' time is up.

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All of them die.

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But the females' journey
has only just begun.

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Now that they've mated,

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they start to fly upstream

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and continue for as much as three miles.

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At the height of the hatch,

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there may be as many
as ten million insects on the wing.

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Exhausted,

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the females now collapse
and rain down onto the water's surface.

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And as they hit it,
each releases thousands of eggs.

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As the eggs slowly sink,

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they drift downstream,

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so that by the time
each reaches the riverbed,

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it will be in exactly the same spot
that its parents emerged.

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Just hours
after the first mayflies appeared,

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this great eruption of life is over.

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Europe's extensive waterways
are a haven for wildlife.

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One of the richest of its wetlands

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lies on the edge of the Black Sea,
in Romania.

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The delta of the Danube River.

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Migrating birds are drawn here
from as far away as central Africa

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and Asia.

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Great white pelicans.

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Every summer, three-quarters
of the world's population

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flock to the delta.

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They've flown thousands of miles
to get here,

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and they will spend the summer
feasting on the delta's riches.

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To find the best fishing,

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they take to the air.

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From half a mile up,

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they search the entire delta,

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200 miles across.

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They can't see individual fish
from this height,

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so instead they look for others below
that have already done so.

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Cormorants.

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They are diving deep
to reach the biggest shoals,

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flushing them to the surface.

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A couple of pelicans land...

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...and others soon home in on them.

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The pelicans don't join the feast
directly.

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They mug the diners.

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This brutal tactic enables each pelican
to catch many more fish

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more quickly than it would do
if it worked by itself.

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Once the shoals of fish
have been plundered and dispersed,

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the cormorants make their escape.

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And the pelican pirates fly off
in search of their next meal.

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Water has shaped Europe's landscape
in another way.

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There is a vast wilderness lying
within the rocks of the continent.

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Caves.

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Over 12,000 have been discovered
in Slovenia's Karst region alone.

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Each has been eroded by water
over millions of years...

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...and shaped drip... by drip.

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The largest cavern is over 15 miles long,

256
00:43:01,997 --> 00:43:06,334
and there are certainly many more
still to be discovered.

257
00:43:19,806 --> 00:43:25,604
Down here live some of the most
specialised animals on the planet.

258
00:43:30,192 --> 00:43:35,614
New species of them are discovered
in Europe's caves every year.

259
00:43:44,122 --> 00:43:48,335
This is a world
that still holds many secrets.

260
00:43:56,676 --> 00:43:59,012
In the deepest pools

261
00:43:59,137 --> 00:44:03,892
lurk animals that were once believed
to be baby dragons.

262
00:44:25,664 --> 00:44:29,626
They have feathery gills
which enable them to breathe underwater,

263
00:44:29,751 --> 00:44:31,628
as well as on land.

264
00:44:36,091 --> 00:44:38,468
They are olms.

265
00:44:44,599 --> 00:44:47,644
They're completely blind,

266
00:44:47,769 --> 00:44:51,690
but sensory pits around the mouth
enable them to detect

267
00:44:51,815 --> 00:44:55,861
the faint electrical currents
emitted by their prey.

268
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:02,534
Food of any kind down here
is hard to come by.

269
00:45:04,202 --> 00:45:08,331
But an olm can go without a meal
for a decade...

270
00:45:08,456 --> 00:45:11,293
...and live for a century.

271
00:45:21,261 --> 00:45:26,391
The olms' world has remained
virtually unchanged for millennia.

272
00:45:28,268 --> 00:45:34,232
Above, however,
Europe has altered beyond recognition.

273
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:45,619
Its landscape has been transformed
by humans.

274
00:45:47,787 --> 00:45:53,710
Protected wilderness now covers
less than 4% of its surface.

275
00:45:56,212 --> 00:46:00,634
The disappearance of wilderness
has had catastrophic consequences

276
00:46:00,717 --> 00:46:03,219
for wildlife.

277
00:46:08,475 --> 00:46:13,313
One-fifth of Europe's animals
are now under threat.

278
00:46:21,571 --> 00:46:24,950
Some teeter right on the brink
of extinction.

279
00:46:29,871 --> 00:46:32,290
The Iberian lynx.

280
00:46:35,251 --> 00:46:39,297
One of the world's most endangered cats.

281
00:46:43,301 --> 00:46:45,345
In less than two decades,

282
00:46:45,470 --> 00:46:49,599
the lynx population decreased
by nearly 90%.

283
00:46:54,062 --> 00:46:59,109
At one point,
there were fewer than 100 individuals.

284
00:47:15,834 --> 00:47:17,877
Today, their last stronghold

285
00:47:18,003 --> 00:47:23,675
is in the mountains of
the Sierra de Andujar, in southern Spain.

286
00:47:26,052 --> 00:47:31,516
Here, a natural park was created
to help protect the lynx.

287
00:47:37,647 --> 00:47:42,318
Only 25 miles across, it is small.

288
00:47:45,405 --> 00:47:49,451
But for this male, it's just enough.

289
00:48:03,882 --> 00:48:06,509
He's lived here all his life.

290
00:48:08,762 --> 00:48:15,769
At ten years old, he's reached
a remarkable age for a wild lynx.

291
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:29,407
Once persecuted, he's now protected.

292
00:48:42,170 --> 00:48:47,383
For this old male,
and Europe's entire lynx population,

293
00:48:47,509 --> 00:48:51,638
this could be the beginning
of a new chapter.

294
00:49:01,189 --> 00:49:03,066
In this year alone,

295
00:49:03,191 --> 00:49:05,735
nearly 200 kittens have been born,

296
00:49:05,860 --> 00:49:10,907
and the population has risen to over 700.

297
00:49:17,789 --> 00:49:20,333
But the fate of the Iberian lynx,

298
00:49:20,458 --> 00:49:23,878
and indeed of all Europe's wildlife,

299
00:49:24,003 --> 00:49:26,548
is far from certain.

300
00:49:29,175 --> 00:49:32,846
The continent has now been so changed
by humanity

301
00:49:32,929 --> 00:49:37,350
that many of its animal species
are under threat.

302
00:49:41,354 --> 00:49:45,859
Only by protecting
the few wildernesses that remain

303
00:49:45,942 --> 00:49:49,737
and creating new wild spaces

304
00:49:49,863 --> 00:49:55,827
can we ensure a future
for Europe's precious wildlife.

305
00:50:06,588 --> 00:50:09,090
Next time...

306
00:50:09,215 --> 00:50:11,593
...a land of constant change...

307
00:50:13,511 --> 00:50:18,558
...where pioneering animals
make the most of every opportunity.

308
00:50:23,813 --> 00:50:26,149
North America.