Original subtitles

Look over the appalachian mountains

and into the valley below

to find a special slice of america.

Birthplace of frontier heroes...

And a challenge for some iconic critters.

Now, spring in down south,

from tennessee to pennsylvania...

...Where the pace of life is closely followed

by the shadow of death.

(snake rattling)

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if you're a crayfish, hanging out in a babbling brook,

there's one thing you really don't want to see.

And this is it.

(music)

the paw of death.

(music)

it belongs to a bandit.

This is trouble.

How did any self-respecting, crepuscular crustacean

get into this mess?

To find out...

You have to go back a few steps.

First, the location.

The appalachian mountains.

They are world famous, thought to be the oldest mountain range

in america, maybe the world.

But what's less known is what lies among them:

A chain of secluded valleys, more than 1,000 miles long.

Together, they are known as the great appalachian valley.

(music)

its southern half holds wildlife

that is quintessentially american.

Life is not always easy for these creatures.

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towards the end of summer, and into the fall,

where water levels in the great valley's streams drop,

life becomes perilous for crayfish.

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they need clear, flowing water to survive.

But the shallower it gets, the more they are exposed.

In some places the water stops...

And streams become pools.

(insects chirping)

the cover of darkness helps protect crayfish

from many predators...

But not all.

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when it comes to fishing for food,

raccoons don't rely so much on sight or smell.

They're a touchy-feely kind of critter.

The most important sense for a raccoon is touch.

Its front paws have a leathery layer

that becomes more pliable and sensitive when wet.

And that's how a hapless crustacean becomes the target

of a tactile tormentor.

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raccoon paws have refined nerve endings.

Sensitive, like whiskers on a cat.

They tell her if an object is edible.

(music)

raccoons have more of their brains

dedicated to the sense of touch than a cat or a dog.

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she may risk getting a pinch or two.

But a good seafood dinner is worth it.

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(chittering)

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for part of the year,

up to a third of a raccoon's diet can be shellfish.

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raccoons roam the full length

of the great valley's southern section.

Sandwiched between the appalachian plateau to the west

and the blue ridge mountains to the east,

the great appalachian valley southern section

cuts through tennessee and stretches up to pennsylvania.

(music)

as summer winds down, the weather cools.

This is a cue for some creatures in the valley

to up their game.

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this old possum usually prefers after-dark activities.

He roams like a ghost in the night.

His work is to stock up on calories.

Fat will help keep him warm in the cooler months ahead.

So he haunts the valley floor, scrounging for food,

a lone wanderer.

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fruit and grains are nutritious,

and insects are a favorite.

But he's not fussy.

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he'll kill a rodent or a frog if he can.

He's also happy to eat just about any animal

that's already dead.

He has the chompers to handle it.

There are 50 teeth crammed into that slender snout,

more than any other mammal in north america.

He is unique in many ways.

The possum is the only marsupial in the united states.

The females have two vaginas

and the males have a double-headed penis to match.

When he was younger, he could hang from a branch by his tail.

Now, he's too big for that.

There are more opportunities on the ground.

But also more danger.

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(hiss)

the timber rattlesnake is the most venomous snake

to live in the great appalachian valley.

He is well-camouflaged in the leaf litter.

And he also has an impressive mouth.

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this ambush hunter kills with venom

that destroys blood cells.

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pregnant females prefer the warmth of rocky outcrops.

But this male hides in the shadows.

Today that means a face-off with mr. Possum.

(rattling)

it's a bold battle beneath the appalachian mountains.

The timber rattlesnake's vertical pupils

adjust for daylight,

and pits under those eyes sense the possum's body heat.

But in a strange twist of nature,

it's the snake who feels threatened.

It puts out the warning: Stay back.

(rattling)

(rattling)

the possum knows the snake is there now.

But he's not alarmed.

It's an even match-up.

(rattling)

possums have a protein in their blood

that makes them highly resistant to snake venom.

A bite would not kill him,

but it would still hurt.

Best to move on.

(rattling)

they both head off, through the great valley,

to inflict their carnage elsewhere.

(rattling)

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the weak don't last long.

This old raccoon couldn't go any farther.

(flies buzzing)

death in the valley is closely followed by its clean-up crew.

(music)

here they stand tall and at the ready.

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turkey vultures gather to work out their pecking order.

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their squabbles are full of grunts and hisses.

(hissing, grunting)

they're the only noises they can make.

Turkey vultures lack a syrinx,

meaning they don't have a vocal organ.

(hiss)

no songbirds here.

But the dead don't need a serenade.

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they have no qualms about digging into the guts,

but are surprisingly hygienic.

They have no feathers on their heads to catch bacteria.

And they regularly use their giant, six-foot wingspan

to soak up the sun.

It's a drying out of sorts.

And it's a reminder for all who can see,

no matter how long you live in the great appalachian valley,

it's the turkey vulture that'll have the final word.

When early settlers first came to the appalachians,

they dined on the same critters as the turkey vulture,

even some that would seem most unsavory.

(music)

skunks are said to be better-tasting

than coons or possums...

Just a little bony.

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he digs around for insects, larvae, worms;

even lizards and rodents are on the menu.

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there's plenty of wilderness in the great valley for him.

But it's interspersed with human habitat.

Clashes are inevitable.

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one of the skunk's enemies: The domestic dog.

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(whines)

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(panting)

it's early spring, and the trees are still bare.

That makes a streak of white easy to spot.

(sniffing)

(panting)

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(panting)

(panting)

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(squeak)

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he can run, but nowhere near as fast as this german shepherd...

...Who finds him quite fascinating.

(sniffing)

you know what's coming, right?

It's another face-off in the great valley.

(sniffing)

(music)

only the skunk isn't using his face.

Curiosity may kill the cat.

The domestic dog...

It just makes really stinky.

(dog whines)

the yellow spray from a couple of glands in his butt

is the ultimate defense for this skunk.

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he can hit a target from 10 feet away

and shoot five to eight times in a row

to really drive that message home.

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(barking)

too pungent for this pooch.

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no need to feel too bad for a skunk on the run.

He's quite a formidable predator himself.

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one of his favorite meals can be found hiding

throughout the appalachians: Wild turkey.

Wild turkey chicks to be precise.

But that skunk delicacy is still weeks away.

Right now, chicks are just a twinkle in mom's eye.

(music)

in April, these valley girls are more interested

in finding places to fatten up on seeds and insects.

(music)

and maybe checking out possible partners.

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this male does his best to attract the ladies with a show.

(music)

a strut...

A fan...

A shimmy.

(gobbles)

(clucking)

(gobbles)

come on, girls; someone's got to notice.

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he homes in on a good-looking gobbler.

(gobbles)

and shows off his best spread.

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(gobbling)

(gobbling)

the response:

Back off, buddy, I'm not a tammy, I'm a tom.

(gobbling)

(gobbling)

(music)

while many of the creatures here

read like that frontier restaurant menu,

it's not all prey.

There are predators, too.

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one of the most formidable hunters in the great valley

is the coyote.

This one searches the grasslands for his next meal.

He may look like a loner, but he's not.

Coyotes are monogamous.

He'll eat some of what he finds

and bring some back for his pregnant mate.

He's hunting for two,

but the pickings here are particularly good.

The great valley's soft, alluvial soil is a favorite

for small burrowing mammals.

He listens carefully

for anything digging through the earth and grass.

Voles, moles, groundhogs,

shrews, rats, mice.

Something has to be here.

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then, he smells it.

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time for his signature move.

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tennessee's section of the great appalachian valley

is fertile,

lots of rodents on offer for a persistent coyote.

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each jump is a surprise attack.

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it's a lot of hit and miss.

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but he only needs one hit to make it mealtime.

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he's on to a vole, but doesn't have a good grip.

A hasty move and he may lose it.

He holds firm, head in a hole, and waits...

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...Until his victim weakens.

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down in a couple of gulps.

Coyotes have been known to eat more than a dozen voles

in a single morning.

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he moves on with confidence

the great appalachian valley will provide.

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to travel the great valley

is to take a walk on the wild side.

The tree-covered appalachian mountains

shadow it from above.

And fast-flowing streams cut through its core.

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there's a rugged edge here...

An element of hidden danger.

(music)

it has long been home to wild critters

and some wild men.

(music)

davy crockett trapped and hunted all around tennessee.

Pioneer daniel boone was born right here,

near reading, pennsylvania, in the heart of the appalachians.

The legends are long gone.

But the wildlife they knew so well still thrives.

Like some of the creatures here,

some of those frontier folk didn't always get along.

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in the 1800s, the hatfields and the mccoys attacked each other

along the kentucky and west virginia border.

They crisscrossed the appalachians

to kill family members on both sides--

in total, a dozen dead.

(moo)

the hatfields left another memorable mark on the land.

The hatfield timber company cut swaths of appalachia bare.

(music)

today's timber and mining interests

leave their own marks.

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but when allowed to recover,

areas of regrowth include flower-filled meadows.

This is welcome habitat for the humble bumblebee,

a native pollinator vital for our survival.

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they fly from flower to flower,

sucking nectar and incidentally pollinating the plants

so new generations of vegetation can grow.

With the bumblebee now is the honeybee from europe.

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they aren't as good at pollinating,

but they are outstanding at producing honey.

(buzzing)

every box has a queen inside,

and just a few male drones with which she'll breed.

The rest are female.

Thousands of working daughters care and defend the hive

like amazon warriors.

These females return from their floral escapades

with their legs caked in yellow grain: Pollen.

It's the honeybees' main source of protein.

Sometimes in here, it gets hot...

Too hot.

So these lady bees use the power of their numbers

to do something extraordinary.

(buzzing)

to beat the heat in the great appalachian valley,

these bees must create their own air conditioning.

(music)

they position themselves by the hive and beat their wings,

extracting the hot air from inside

and letting fresh, cooler appalachian air flow through.

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honeybee numbers have fluctuated in recent years.

But in the appalachians,

there's enough to support a sweet little business.

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logging and industry pepper the great appalachian valley.

But the animals persist.

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forests intersperse with grass-filled meadows

that attract deer by the thousands.

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less than a century ago,

deer were nearly hunted to extinction

throughout large areas of the valley,

including all but a few hundred in pennsylvania.

It took an intensive conservation effort

to bring them back.

And now it's like they were never gone.

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(thunder)

this part of appalachia has the highest annual rainfall

in the southeast of the country.

(distant thunder)

the critters are used to it.

Even these black bear cubs know

there's no sense in hiding from it.

It can rain while mom stretches...

While the young'uns practice their tree-climbing skills.

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yep, easy to grip...

Even when wet.

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(squawking)

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(roar)

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(cub squawking)

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these two cubs will be done with mom

a few months after their first birthday.

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then they'll head out to stake their own claim

in the great valley.

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that water they're shaking off keeps moving, too.

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not all of it makes it to a stream.

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some of it gathers in the valley's low points.

These calm, temporary pools are crucial habitat

for spotted salamanders.

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on just one night each year,

a majority of these speckled beauties come out, all at once,

and use the exact same pool of water they were born in

for a spectacular ritual.

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when the temperature in the great appalachian valley

is just right,

salamanders lay thousands of eggs

in the stagnant pools.

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there are no fish here to eat them.

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a month later, they hatch.

After just a couple of months in the water,

the young will lose their gills

and join the adults for a life in the woods.

Most of their time is spent underground,

hunting for worms and insects.

But at night, when the humidity is high,

they can come up into the moist air.

But these are the little guys.

(rushing water)

the big daddy of salamanders prefers hiding out

almost exclusively

in the great valley's faster-moving waters.

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this is the hellbender.

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he's built to blend in with sandy bottoms,

where he depends on clean, moving water for oxygen.

He absorbs it through his skin.

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another hellbender encroaches on his territory.

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they're loners,

so fight for land rights.

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now he's secured his claim.

He can hunt for food like fish, crayfish, and worms.

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with a good diet,

he can grow to more than two feet in length

and live up to 30 years old.

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his eyesight is poor.

But he has light sensors all over his body.

Lateral lines that detect movement in the water,

and most importantly, a remarkably keen sense of smell.

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that makes a dead fish easy to find.

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and down the hatch.

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most of the fish species in the great valley

are not going to wind up on your dinner plate

or break any size records,

but the scaled fish share this waterway

with those freshwater crayfish, or crawfish.

Of the 600 species of crayfish worldwide,

close to half live here, in the appalachians.

Most, like this spiny wrist crayfish,

only grow to about three inches long.

Then, there are the giants.

The tennessee bottlebrush crayfish is new to science,

only identified less than ten years ago.

And there are more on the way.

This female carries more than a hundred eggs,

and after three to four weeks of growing on her tail,

they're close to hatching.

Unlike her saltwater cousins,

this freshwater mom will spend at least some time

trying to protect her young.

(music)

and just as well.

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there are many threats from in the water and above.

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that's part of the nature of the great valley.

A sense of mortality seems to hang here,

like mist in the morning.

(music)

like the appalachian leaves that give the valley

a famous burst of color every fall

before fading and dying.

(music)

the struggle of life and the finality of death

are deeply woven into the land.

This is what animals and people have found here

for thousands of years.

But they wouldn't have it any other way; it's home.

Traveling through the great appalachian valley

is like stepping back in time.

It's still an experience that is rugged and raw

and uniquely american.

(snake rattles)