Original subtitles

(neighing)

narrator: This is a land of legends...

Frontier icons...

And the creatures that still put the wild

into the wild west.

(whip crack)

now, go where the buffalo roam.

(elk bugles)

discover the living symbols of america.

And the drama at play across south dakota.

Climber: It's really nice up there.

Narrator: From the black hills...

Climber: Woo-hoo!

Narrator: To the badlands.

(bird screeches)

(music)

(music)

(music)

step back in time.

These are the black hills and the badlands of the wild west.

Towering spires.

Sweeping plains.

(grass rustling)

(music)

and a land of lumbering nomads.

(grunting)

(grunting)

buffalo.

Officially known as bison.

Names mean little to america's largest land animal.

(music)

(music)

(music)

about 1,300 run wild

in south dakota's custer state park.

They eat grasses on the go, and can grow to a ton.

(music)

most of the year, the gals hang with the gals,

and the guys with the guys.

But late summer is a mixed social.

And this big bull owns the dance floor.

(music)

(music)

other males may spread a sexy scent.

(snorting)

but none of them can match the moves of the boss.

He has it pretty good until the end of the breeding season.

Then...

(horse whinnies)

there's a posse coming his way.

(horse whinnies)

a showdown.

It's a band of cowboys and cowgirls with one aim.

(buffalo snorting)

to get these wild buffalo into a corral.

It's roundup time.

(whip cracks)

(horse whinnies)

(hollering)

they need to bring in nearly all 1,300 head of buffalo.

It's a once-a-year event,

where they get to check on the health of the herd.

(whip cracks)

(horse whinnies)

(hollering)

buffalo only barely survived

decades of slaughter in the 1800s.

Their numbers dropped from 60 million to less than 1,000.

This herd is wild.

But it gets just enough tender, loving care to keep it viable.

(horse whinnies)

for those on horseback, it's the biggest ride of the year.

(whip cracks)

woman: Yah!

Narrator: The roundup takes a full day.

But they must get the buffalo to the corrals before dark.

(whip cracks, hollering)

(snort)

the cowhands ride through an area of south dakota

known for its stunning landscapes.

(music)

the southwest corner of the state is framed

by the eroded bluffs of the badlands to the east,

and the black hills national forest to the west.

This iconic wild west terrain stretches all the way

to the town of deadwood, and nudges into wyoming.

The green is custer state park in the south, 71,000 acres.

The ten-mile muster from top to bottom

will take them from sunup to sundown.

Wherever they move,

in their wake, clouds of dust.

And not-so-little reminders that something big was here.

Let's call 'em buffalo cakes.

And not like little cupcakes,

no bite-sized bison biscuits here.

This is more like a 12-layer

'get out of my way, here I come' cake.

For some tiny critters, these are mountains,

and tasty ones at that.

Within hours of a bison cake hitting the ground,

beetles move in to scoop the poop.

They bore into the depths of the dung.

But not so deep that they can't be pecked off

by a probing western meadowlark.

(music)

it's a prairie party.

The black hills takes the cake, uses it as fertilizer,

and gets the gift of green.

One animal has this prairie in its blood and in its name.

The prairie dog.

(squeaking)

these rabbit-sized rodents are all about kinship.

Each family has a dad, a mom or two, and three or four pups.

(music)

(music)

grooming is strictly a family affair.

They'll kiss to find out who's kin and who's not.

It can get confusing.

(squeaking)

immediate family is only the beginning

of their social network.

From two to a hundred families get together to form a town.

Each family takes up an acre or two.

They're the quintessential wild west settlers,

complete with scouts,

and most importantly, lookouts.

(chirping)

eagles, badgers and ferrets all hunt prairie dogs.

(chirping)

so does this guy.

A hungry coyote.

A quarter mile out and closing in.

(music)

(chirps)

one prairie dog lookout spots the coyote

and alerts all of prairie dog town with a distinctive call.

(chirping)

(chirping)

yips and jumps may tell other prairie dogs

even more than you think.

They may spell out the location,

size and speed of the approaching threat.

(music)

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they scramble to get the kids to safety.

(chirping)

(music)

(music)

these lookouts wait until everyone is safe to take cover.

(music)

but the coyote is a patient hunter.

He's willing to wait for his supper.

It's a frontier standoff.

(music)

the creatures of south dakota's badlands and black hills

are persistent.

The coyote quietly changes position,

hoping a prairie dog will pop out of its den.

(chirp)

some pop up farther away, but never close to him.

(music)

for nearly an hour it's a game of whack-a-mole...

Without a single whack.

Then...

(hooves thundering)

the roundup.

The coming commotion forces the coyote to move on.

The buffalo charge right over prairie dog town.

A hoof in a hole would bring down one of these giants.

But somehow they seem to avoid them.

This annual roundup has been going for more than 50 years,

and no one has ever seen a buffalo

step in a prairie dog hole.

(snorting)

these cowhands now have all but a few dozen

of their buffalo together.

(music)

it's still seven miles to the corrals of custer state park.

At a normal buffalo mosey,

that'd take several hours more.

So they give them another little giddy-up.

(whip cracks)

(hollering)

(horse neighs)

(hollering)

(hollering)

(whip cracks)

once the big guys pass by prairie dog town,

the lookouts give a very specific signal.

(chirps)

(chirping)

these chirps, while stretching up high,

spell it out:

The coast is now clear.

Resume life as normal.

(music)

but stay alert.

There are still threats harder to combat.

Snakes can follow them down their burrows.

(music)

and aerial attacks can be hard to see coming.

(music)

this is a golden eagle.

(music)

(music)

and he wants prairie dog for dinner.

(chirping)

the golden eagle is one of the world's largest raptors.

They've been known to take down prey

much larger than themselves.

He is the giant of south dakota's skies,

and the prairie dogs below know it.

(chirping)

(chirping)

quick chirps alert most of the town to the new threat.

(chirping)

it's hard to hide a wingspan of almost eight feet.

(music)

(chirping)

(music)

(chirping)

even a fearless blackbird tries to force him out.

But the golden eagle has speed on his side.

He can dive at up to 200 miles an hour,

close to peregrine falcon speeds,

making him the second fastest animal on the planet.

(music)

(music)

it's not good news for a distracted rodent

who's missed the alert.

Golden eagle versus prairie dog.

(music)

south dakota sees this scenario every day.

(music)

(music)

the king of the sky takes a bite of the prairie.

(music)

and saves some to share with his mate.

(music)

(music)

the population of prairie dog town is minus one.

(music)

(music)

(music)

the colony as a whole will endure for years to come.

(music)

more than 100 other species share their habitat.

(music)

and some, like the burrowing owl,

will even move in on their old homes.

Burrowing owls live in the ground

and line their holes with bison dung

just to attract beetles for dinner.

They only weigh six or seven ounces,

not much more than a baseball.

But down here, close to the ground, they rule the roost.

These two are a couple,

and they've selected a hole to call home.

The female stays put and prepares to lay her eggs.

She sends the male out to bring home the bacon.

(music)

there are a lot of insects to choose from

in the thick of the prairie.

Grasshoppers are rich in protein...

And worth a chase.

(music)

(music)

(music)

deeeee-licious.

And like any good snack, one is just never enough.

(music)

(music)

(music)

but he's forgotten something.

Or rather, someone.

(chirping)

he's meant to bring that bacon home.

(music)

share and share alike.

Burrowing owls don't dig their own holes out here.

They rely on prairie dogs, who leave behind burrows

with nurseries, sleeping quarters, bathrooms,

and 30 or more entrances each.

Craters at some of the doorways protect against flooding.

And in the black hills, just a little farther below,

nature has made even larger and more elaborate tunnels.

(music)

south dakota has some of the longest caves in the world,

including wind cave,

the first cave to be protected as a national park.

A whopping 140 miles of it have been mapped.

And that's just a small fraction

of its estimated footprint.

On the ceiling,

rare honeycomb-like mineral formations called boxwork.

95 percent of the world's known boxwork is here.

Also bubbling formations called cave popcorn.

(music)

and a kid favorite, cave snot.

(music)

(music)

this cave was long explored by native americans

and revered as sacred.

But it's two settlers, brothers,

who are credited with having found wind cave in 1881.

That was a time when the black hills and badlands

became a draw to many a legend.

(music)

(music)

just north, deadwood was a famous wild west town.

Buried here, wild bill hickok,

a lawman, a gunfighter and a gambler.

He was killed while playing cards.

His last poker hand lives on in infamy,

aces and eights,

forever known...

(gunshot)

as the deadman's hand.

(music)

(music)

nearby, the famous granite faces of four u.S. Presidents

attract more than two million tourists

to mount rushmore every year.

(music)

today, just under abraham lincoln's chin,

visitors with their own stately beards.

More than four score and seven mountain goats

scale the slopes of mount rushmore.

They munch on just about any greenery up here.

These rock climbers aren't native to south dakota,

but descended from six animals that broke loose from a zoo

in the 1920s.

(music)

and less than 20 miles away, another monument takes shape

that suits mountain goats just as well.

It's taken more than 70 years

to get the crazy horse memorial this far.

(jackhammering)

with many more lifetimes to go before completion.

(jackhammering)

(music)

(music)

it stands to be the largest sculpture in the world

when complete--563 feet high.

It's a tribute to a native american warrior

who resisted oppression till his dying day.

He gestures southeast,

towards the great plains and plateaus of the black hills.

(music)

(music)

when crazy horse rode this unfenced land,

it looked much like it does now.

(music)

(music)

wide open spaces.

Hills checkerboarded with pines and meadows.

(music)

that all eventually flatten into plains.

(music)

perfect for one of the most enduring and iconic creatures

of the wild west.

(horse whinnies)

(whinnying)

(whinnying)

the badlands and black hills of south dakota

are the perfect backdrop for a creature emblematic of freedom.

(whinnying)

an 11,000-acre sanctuary here holds around 500 mustangs,

with new foals every spring.

(snorts)

paleface here was born just a week ago.

One day he'll likely start his own herd,

and will never feel the weight of a saddle

or the pull of a bit.

(whinnies)

all he has to do for now is keep up with mom.

But that's quite an effort.

(neighing)

these mustangs may travel more than 10 miles a day, grazing.

They carve trails between their waterways

and their favorite grasslands.

In the 1800s as many as two million wild horses

roamed the united states.

Now around 750,000 remain.

Horses were absent from north america

for more than 10,000 years,

until the spanish reintroduced them in the 1500s.

Now, once again, they are part of the land,

part of the culture.

Both those roaming the prairie and those used to work it.

(snorting)

(whinnies)

(bison grunting)

the cow folk have their sights

on the rest of the bison they need to bring in.

Then...

Some make a break for it.

(horses neighing)

buffalo have gored and killed horses in the past,

one just a few years ago.

The cowhands must rely on intimidation.

(whip cracks)

(bellowing)

(whip cracks)

it's a game of bluff the buffalo.

(whip cracks)

those whips never hit them, but the sound is enough

to get them going in the right direction.

(whip cracks)

now the cowhands can herd the group as one.

They just have to weed out some hangers-on.

(music)

(music)

this is a native american creature that would feel

just as at home on africa's serengeti.

(music)

the pronghorn likes lots of room to roam.

About 50,000 of them thrive in south dakota.

But the young are vulnerable.

Even an eagle could take down this newborn.

Mom keeps junior close.

And there's no relaxing for the lead males.

There's always some young buck who thinks he's better.

(music)

(music)

that's where those prongs get put to use.

They're fixing for a fight.

(music)

(music)

face to face with foot-long horns.

(music)

(music)

(music)

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(music)

the lead male wins the day and the girls.

(music)

(music)

his young will inherit his genes,

which include a super skill.

Pronghorn can dash up to 60 miles per hour.

(music)

only one land animal on earth is faster: The cheetah.

(music)

there are no cheetahs around here.

But a fast-moving cousin.

(music)

this bobcat is on the hunt.

Dashing through the black hills of south dakota,

a mighty predator.

In winter, when food is scarce,

this bobcat will take down an animal

eight times his own weight.

Today the sun is shining on one of his favorite meals: Rabbit.

(music)

a rabbit hunt calls for a specific strategy.

The bobcat keeps on the move.

He slinks as close as he can without attracting attention.

(music)

he needs to creep within striking distance.

(music)

he pushes his luck too far.

He finds a smaller target

and uses a new strategy.

For a ground squirrel, bobcats hide and wait

for just the right time for an ambush.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

then it's down to speed and luck.

(music)

(squeaking)

(music)

luck for the cat, not the ground squirrel.

His work is done for the day.

Not so for the cowhands.

(hooves thundering)

(horses neighing)

(hollering)

they turn most of the 1,300 bison toward the corrals.

(hollering)

they can smell home now,

but it may not be quite the quiet country welcome

they expect.

(horn honking)

(music)

more than 20,000 people have driven in

to see the annual roundup.

(snorting)

(horse whinnies)

(music)

(music)

(hollering)

(music)

the cow folk turn the bison in toward the corrals

for a new game.

This one is called 'buffalo shuffalo.'

the cowhands stack the deck.

They let just a few in at a time,

and force them forward with a tractor.

Only one is allowed through the chute at a time,

no matter how much they protest.

The adults get a quick check.

Man: I got 8544.

Narrator: An ear tag.

Man: Coming out!

Narrator: And off they go.

The calves are in for a much rougher deal.

(music)

(music)

the cowboys of custer state park

hit the young buffalo with everything at once.

They are ear tagged, dewormed,

tested for disease,

and branded.

It's a tough game, but it's over fast.

Then a new deal.

They're returned to the corral,

soon to be released with the herd.

(music)

thousands of people come to see this unique annual event,

but it's not all one-way viewing.

One creature comes here every year

specifically to see the people.

Driver: Hi.

(brays)

(brays)

(brays)

narrator: These wild burros in custer state park

move in from across the plains.

(braying)

they know where there are tourists,

there'll be free handouts.

These cheeky freeloaders are known for miles around

as the beggin' burros.

Visitors feed them at their own risk.

They're friendly, but still wild animals.

Some working donkeys were set free last century

and left to find their own way.

(braying)

they've survived and thrived in the black hills now

for generations.

(braying)

these burros are descended from pack animals

that used to help hikers climb nearby peaks,

peaks that still attract visitors today.

(music)

they call these needles.

Granite outcrops eroded by wind and water

for millions of years.

Whether you call them pillars or spires, it's all the same.

Some just call them a challenge.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

these towers of rock are among the most photographed

and climbed structures in america.

(music)

(music)

climbers name their areas and their routes:

Totem pole, ten pins,

monster, chopping block.

This needle is called shipyard rock.

Climber: Yeah, that is really nice up there.

(music)

(music)

narrator: Some of the outcrops here are nearly 500 feet high.

Climber: Now another one. A succession to deal with.

Right up there.

Ha ha ha!

She says, 'yeah, screw that.'

team high five! Woo!

Narrator: Enough to take your breath away.

(music)

(music)

climber: Wow. Gorgeous day. Cool breeze, but.

Narrator: The reward: A bird's-eye view

of this spectacular landscape.

(music)

the black hills and the badlands

have long been the home of the brave

and the land of the free.

(music)

(horse neighs)

(hollering)

the buffalo roundup is now complete.

(whip cracks)

the cowhands open the gate.

(music)

the herd returns to the prairie,

free for another year.

(screech)

they join a wild mix of animals,

from the mighty elk...

(elk bugles)

...To the minute dung beetle.

For them, the black hills and badlands

aren't so bad after all.

This is their home...

Just how they like it...

Untamed...

And a living symbol of america's great frontier.

(music)