All language subtitles for vialo s01ex2

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
The power of the sun drives the seasons,

transforming our planet.

Vast movements of ocean and air currents

bring dramatic change
throughout the year.

And in a few special places,
these seasonal changes

create some of the greatest
wildlife spectacles on Earth.

Here on the western coast
of North America

in the spring of each year,

one of the Earth's greatest travellers
comes home.

Over half a billion salmon
in the Pacific Ocean

start on a 3,000-mile journey,

returning to spawn
in the rivers where they were born.

Travelling deep into the continent,

these fish will not only provide food
for millions of animals,

they will also bring life

to one of the richest habitats on Earth.

The coast of British Columbia and Alaska

is rimmed by spectacular mountains.

Although it will be months

before the salmon enter the rivers
below these frozen peaks,

one species that has spent the winter
sleeping up here

is already anticipating their return.

In January, snug in their dens,

the females have given birth

and now the family is beginning to stir.

Grizzly bears.

Whether the cubs will live or die
depends largely on one key event,

the salmon run.

For the next five months,

the bears will be focused
on making their appointment

with the returning salmon.

Surviving the first year is hard.

Half of all grizzly cubs don't make it.

Throughout Alaska and British Columbia,

thousands of bear families are
emerging from their winter sleep.

There is nothing to eat up here,

but the conditions were ideal
for hibernation -

lots of snow in which to dig a den.

To find food, mothers must
lead their cubs down to the coast

where the snow will already be melting.

But getting down
can be a challenge for small cubs.

These mountains are dangerous places.

But ultimately,
the fate of these bear families

and indeed that of all bears
around the North Pacific,

depends on the salmon.

Right now, those salmon
are more than 2,000 miles away.

After four years at sea,

half a billion Pacific salmon
are going home,

back to fresh water

to lay their eggs in the rivers
where they themselves were hatched.

How the salmon manage
to find their way back home

across the open ocean
is still largely a mystery.

It has only recently been discovered
that a salmon's brain

contains small particles of iron
that, like a compass,

help it steer the magnetic lines
of the Earth,

showing them exactly where to go.

For many of these salmon,
that destination is here

along the western coast
of North America in British Columbia.

They are making their way back
to their birthplace

in one of its many
freshwater rivers and streams.

Here, amongst the network
of lakes and waterways,

lies the largest expanse of temperate
rainforest left in the world.

It stretches from
southern British Columbia to Alaska.

It's one of the most fertile landscapes
on the planet.

The temperate rainforest supports even
more life than its tropical counterpart.

For thousands of years,
salmon have returned to this country

because of the abundance of one element:
fresh water.

This is some of the purest water
in the world,

thanks to these forests.

Where the forests are still undisturbed,

the soil,
held by millions of tree roots,

filters the water, keeping the rivers
flowing clean and pure.

In May,
grizzly bears come down to the coast

to find something to eat while
they await the arrival of the salmon.

This is where spring arrives first.

The cubs, still feeding on nothing
but their mother's milk,

have grown considerably.

But it has been six months
since their mother had anything to eat.

Now they need other food

and the search for it
can lead them into danger.

Some males will try to kill cubs.

The breeding season has begun,

and big males are here
looking for females.

(GROWLING)

But at least there is
something to eat here,

even if it's only grass and sedges.

These greens, in fact,
can keep them going for months,

but they will need
something more nutritious

if they are to put on enough fat

to enable them
to survive the next winter.

In some places along the coast,
bears find much richer food.

It's buried, but bears have
an extremely acute sense of smell

and can sniff out a meal
even if it's beneath the wet sand.

Clams.

It's not only bears
that are drawn to the coast

in search of food.

There are more than 2,000 grey wolves
in the Great Forest.

They leave their cubs in the tidal areas
while they hunt.

This wolf is the pups' eldest brother.

He's baby-sitting
while the adults are away hunting.

He doesn't have any food for the cubs,

so they eat whatever they can find,

even chewing the barnacles
off the rocks.

They, like the bears,
are awaiting the arrival of the salmon.

(HOWLING)

The adults return and find an intruder.

A hungry bear
has wandered into their patch.

(GROWLING)

Coastal wolves will often kill
and eat small bears.

But this bear is very big.

Eventually, they decide
that this one is just too big.

By July, the bears are all
getting very hungry indeed.

And still the salmon are not here.

And then, after two months
of travelling across the open ocean,

the salmon reach the coast.

As they near the shore,
they begin to smell fresh water.

There are thousands of rivers
flowing into the sea,

and the salmon have to
find the particular one

that will lead them to their birthplace.

They have a truly extraordinary
sense of smell.

They can distinguish a single drop
from their home river

amongst eight million litres
of sea water.

As they detect the waters of home,
they converge into the narrow fjords,

which act as underwater corridors.

But other creatures
also know these corridors.

Killer whales. They eat a lot of salmon.

And so do Steller sea lions.

Salmon sharks are here, too,
specifically to feed on salmon.

But there is one predator
that they can never see coming.

The bald-headed eagle.

Once past these coastal predators,

there is little to prevent them
from reaching their home river.

It's now late July

and the salmon are poised
at the edge of their inland realm.

In the estuaries of the larger rivers,

all five species of Pacific salmon
mingle together.

Pink, chum, coho, sockeye and Chinook.

The drive to get into the rivers
is strong.

Their eggs will only survive
in fresh water.

In late July, however,
the water level is often too low

for the first salmon
to enter the smaller rivers.

That doesn't stop them trying.

But the very water
that has drawn them back home

will eventually kill them.

As their kidneys and other organs
adjust to the sudden lack of salt water,

they stop eating and even drinking.

So the energy stored in their bodies
is all they have

to power their swim upriver and spawn.

However, the salmon
in the smaller streams

have a more immediate problem.

The low water has stopped them

before their journey upstream
can even begin.

But their coast, every year,
is swept by great storms.

In the skies above the North Pacific,
a huge eddy is forming.

It moves towards the coast
and the high coastal mountains.

The clouds are driven up
and over this massive barrier,

and they drop their load of water.

The Great Forest gets up to
three metres of rainfall a year.

Bears have thick coats

and the heavy rain
doesn't seem to bother them at all.

The steep Rocky Mountains
funnel the rainwater into the rivers

and levels quickly rise.

This is what the salmon
have been waiting for.

The first wave of travellers
advance upstream.

No sooner do they start

than they are faced
with another challenge.

But six million years of evolution
have prepared the salmon well.

Their bodies are solid muscle
and perfectly streamlined.

Clearing these falls for a salmon

is like a human being jumping over
a four-storey building.

In many of these falls, however,
the salmon face more than just water.

The bears know that this is

where they can get
the first proper meal of the season.

But it's not easy.

There is an art
to catching a leaping salmon.

And this young bear
hasn't yet acquired it.

This is what salmon were born to do.

They are driven to get up these rivers
to their spawning grounds.

Their parents made it up here,
and nothing short of death

will stop them from
repeating that journey.

They are trying to get to the exact
stretch of gravel where they hatched.

Some lucky ones may only
have to go a few miles inland.

But others are faced
with a truly daunting journey.

The farthest that salmon have been
known to swim upriver

is 2,000 miles.

Summer rains can be short,
and when they stop

the water levels in many of the rivers
along the coast drop quickly.

The first salmon in the rivers
are once again trapped by shallow water.

And worse, they're in bear country now.

In early August, mother bears begin
to patrol the rivers looking for fish.

Like this one,
they are usually skinny and starving.

She and her cubs
have eaten nothing but plants

since they emerged from their den.

They are in desperate need
of a proper meal.

Bears of all ages and experience
come to the rivers to look for salmon.

The first fish of the season, however,
are hard to catch.

This young bear
is still learning how to do it.

Step number one is spotting a salmon.

A higher perspective usually helps.

In these early days,
fish are few and far between.

And when they do appear,
they are moving very fast.

The salmon also have
lots of places to hide.

The rivers are only shallow
in short stretches

and they can quickly shoot across them
and escape into the deep pools.

This mother and her cubs

are going to have to
wait a little longer

for the conditions to change
before they can get the meals

they so badly need.

But for the salmon,

these deep-water refuges
are becoming prisons.

It may be weeks before it rains again
and they can move on.

Their bodies are now
beginning to change.

As their sex hormones stimulate
the production of eggs and sperm,

their skin changes colour.

Some develop a humped back
and a hooked nose.

All these changes
use up precious energy.

The longer the fish wait in these pools,

the less likely they will be able

to complete the journey
to their spawning grounds.

The mother bear and her cubs,
finding little in the shallows,

now try their luck
in the deeper salmon-filled pools.

The salmon are easy enough to see.

With so many fish here,

this young bear should surely
be able to catch something.

But finding the salmon
is only part of the problem.

Bears must pin a salmon
to the stream bed

in order to catch it.

Not easy in deep water.

Older bears know that
it's almost impossible

to get a meal this way.

But while the salmon here may be
relatively safe from the bears,

they are not out of danger.

The late summer sun is warming the water
so that levels are dropping

and the amount of dissolved oxygen
is decreasing.

The time spent in these worsening
conditions is beginning to show.

The experienced bears
show the youngsters what to do.

Catching live salmon in these pools
may be difficult,

but there are dead ones for the taking,

if only the bears can reach them.

The problem is that most bears
don't like to get their ears wet.

However, the old bears
know a trick or two.

It just needs a little fancy footwork.

This year, the water levels
are particularly low

and by September,
the salmon are in real trouble.

In the confined oxygen-poor water,

there is an increased risk
of parasites and infections.

In some years,
these conditions can get so bad

that most of the salmon die before
they even reach the spawning grounds.

What they need is more rain. And soon.

Luckily, this year
the autumn rains arrive on time.

The salmon can set off once again.

However, so much rain
brings different challenges.

The fish now have to battle
against powerful torrents.

But the salmon know how to
turn this swift, turbulent water

to their own advantage.

Scarcely beating their tails,
they manage to propel themselves forward

by using the energy of the water,

much as a sailboat does
when tacking into the wind.

But that doesn't mean
there will be no further problem

in reaching the spawning grounds.

This is going to be the end of the road
for a lot of salmon.

These bears are really hungry.

They haven't tasted salmon for 1 0 months

and the big males battle
for the best fishing spots.

(GROWLING)

The longer the salmon take
over their journey upstream,

the weaker they become.

And these falls present them
with their biggest challenge yet.

Although the falls aren't very tall,
the bears hold the high ground.

The salmon make short exploratory leaps
to see where the bears are.

But they don't always get it right.

This mother bear has been waiting months
for this moment.

Competition is fierce
for these first salmon,

even between a mother and her own cubs.

More and more fish arrive
at the foot of the falls.

Eventually they have to go for it,
regardless of the danger.

But numbers are on their side.

For every salmon that gets caught,
hundreds make it past the bears.

By early September,

the salmon have almost reached
their spawning grounds,

that one particular patch of gravel
where they hatched four years ago.

The salmon have now travelled far inland

and can be found from California
to the Arctic Ocean,

across a fifth of the entire
continent of North America.

But the journey has taken a heavy toll.

For every thousand that hatched,
only four manage to return.

And even for those salmon
that have made it back,

there are still more dangers.

They have finally reached
the end of their road

and are so tired and battered
that they are easy prey.

The advantage is fully to the bears now.

The bears are spoiled for choice.

In the best spawning areas,

there are thousands of salmon
in every mile of river.

The bears here will gorge themselves
for the next two months

and the mothers with their cubs
can now gain the weight they will need

if they are to make it
through the coming winter.

The salmon are so abundant
that even the little cub is having a go.

He has caught a female pink,
the smallest of the salmon species.

He is already learning the skills
he will need to survive as an adult.

But he's got a little way to go yet.

Although the salmon are now
at the mercy of the bears,

they will not leave this place.

Their nature impels them
to lay their eggs

where they themselves were born.

Even though the bears eat their fill,

there are so many salmon
that most will survive to spawn.

The sockeye salmon's brilliant colour
signals that they are ready to breed.

Males battle with each other
for position behind the females.

The female digs out a shallow scoop
as a nest.

The male nestles up against the female,
stimulating her to release her eggs.

When she's ready,
she lowers herself over the nest.

She begins to turn out her eggs

and the male releases a cloud of sperm
into the water.

These salmon are the lottery winners,

the lucky ones that have succeeded
in returning here to spawn.

But there are enough of them
to seed the next generation.

The spawning season
is a time of extreme abundance,

for in the course of
ensuring their own survival,

the salmon provide food
for a horde of other creatures.

These Bonaparte gulls are collecting
one of the season's great delicacies...

salmon eggs.

For the bears, the salmon spawning
season is the pinnacle of the year.

But for the salmon,

it's the pinnacle of their entire lives.

All that have reached it

will end their days in the very place
where they began them.

The wear and tear of their long journey
is now showing.

Their bodies have been
deteriorating for weeks

and with this last act of reproduction,
they are finally spent.

But even in death,

the salmon continue to benefit
the animals of the forest.

The mother and her cubs will continue to
fatten themselves on the carcasses

until they are ready
to head back up the mountain

to den in November.

Why Pacific salmon have to die
after they reproduce

is not clearly understood.

Atlantic salmon don't.
They return year after year to spawn.

But the Pacific salmons' decaying bodies
nourish the rivers,

providing abundant food
for their growing eggs.

And that is what it has been all about
for the salmon.

All their trials and tribulations
have ensured that the baby salmon,

when they emerge from
these beautiful orange globes,

will have everything they need
to begin this incredible journey

all over again.

But the legacy of the salmon extends
far beyond the rivers and streams.

They are at the heart of
a massive network of life.

There are more than 200 species
in the Great Forest alone,

plants and insects, birds and mammals,
that depend on the salmon.

It's possible that Pacific salmon,

between their time out at sea
and their time inland,

feed more life than any other
animal species on the planet.

And there is one more beneficiary
of the salmon's legacy.

The fish are a unique link
between the ocean and the forest.

Born in fresh water,
they live their life in the sea

and there gather nutrients with
which they build their bodies.

Now, scattered
by feeding bears and wolves,

the last bequest of these salmon
is to the forest.

Nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus
that was gathered in the ocean

is now released
from their decaying bodies,

providing the nutrients
that enable these trees,

Sitka spruce, red cedar,

and western hemlock,

to grow to such prodigious heights.

It is now known that 80%
of the nitrogen in these coastal forests

where the salmon spawn,
comes from the sea,

carried in the bodies
of the returning fish.

The trees may be growing
hundreds of miles from the ocean,

but they are still nourished
by its richness.

The rivers of the Great Forest,

like the veins and arteries
of an animal, carry its lifeblood,

the Pacific salmon, throughout.

And no animal relies on them
more than the grizzly bear.

Thanks in large part to the abundance
of the salmon run,

these cubs have survived their first
and most difficult year.

The bears will sleep easy each winter

as long as the Pacific salmon
are able to continue their epic run.

One of nature's great events.

In making The Great Salmon Run,

filmmaker Jeff Turner wanted
to discover exactly how grizzly bears

caught salmon underwater.

But his quest was to take him
deeper into the world of the grizzly

than he had ever imagined.

The first challenge
that Jeff and the team faced

was to get their latest
high-definition camera systems

into the wilds of British Columbia.

This is modern-day
wildlife filmmaking.

You can't go anywhere
without about half a ton of gear.

It's very discreet.
Animals don't notice us at all.

Jeff has more than 20 years'
experience of filming grizzlies

and knows how to work with them
in the wild better than anyone.

I was just talking to Justin.

He was telling me he just came back
from a shoot in Indonesia.

He said he had 1 5 porters.

I think we must be
doing something wrong.

ATTENBOROUGH: Jeff knows
that the only way to film wild grizzlies

is with a small crew
and a very sensitive approach.

In order to get the shots he wanted,
he used a new digital camera

in a specially built underwater housing

that he could set up
close to the fishing bears

without disturbing them.

Getting the camera in place
can be tricky, however.

Experience has taught him
how to put them at their ease

with just the right tone of voice.

Hey, bear, how ya doin', hey?

I'm gonna scare some fish up there
for ya.

That's a good bear. I won't bother you.
I won't be long.

This is when you need six hands.

ATTENBOROUGH:
The wild bears seemed intrigued

by this visitor to their river.

You guys are as excited about this
as I am.

MAN: Okay, and now to the left.

ATTENBOROUGH: What Jeff
was hoping to capture

was a shot of bears catching salmon
from both above and below water.

He needed to operate the camera
from a distance

so that the bears would be so relaxed
they would continue fishing.

But that meant connecting
the camera to his computer,

using fibre-optic cable.

..or if they come through here,
you know, catching it.

ATTENBOROUGH:
And all that cable in the river

proved too much of a temptation for one
particularly mischievous young bear.

A situation that called for
some firm bear-talk from Jeff.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Drop it. Drop that!

Yah! Yah! Yah!

You guys can't bite the cable.

Jeez!

(JEFF SIGHS)

ATTENBOROUGH:
Luckily, the camera was still working.

But Jeff soon realised that the salmon
were avoiding the shallow waters

and he wasn't getting
the shots he wanted.

The bears were being drawn
to the deep pools

where the salmon were hiding out.

He had to try a new approach.

The water levels in the creek are low
and dropping.

It means that the salmon
that are in the system now,

they're not moving.

They're just sort of staying
in the deeper pools.

So it means that
if the fish won't come to me,

I'm gonna have to go to the fish.

ATTENBOROUGH: Since he didn't have
a shaggy fur coat,

Jeff squeezed into a dry suit to
protect himself against the icy water.

The camera needed to be
on the bottom of the pool,

some three metres deep.

But getting down there in an
air-filled dry suit was no easy matter.

(CHUCKLES)

I'm bobbing.

ATTENBOROUGH: Jeff clearly needed
to put on some weight.

I feel like I'm in some sort of
old medieval movie or something.

-MAN: Yeah?
-Yeah.

Mel Brookes or something.
Young Frankenstein.

Okay.

ATTENBOROUGH:
With his improvised diving belt,

he could now get down deep enough
to position the camera.

The bears were learning very quickly

that Jeff and his crew
were not a threat.

They watched him curiously as
he retreated to a respectful distance

and controlled his camera
from his laptop.

What would the bears do next?

He didn't have to wait long before
the first bear waded into the pool.

But this youngster seemed
totally out of his depth.

This is really funny. This little guy,
he doesn't know how to get down there

so he can't quite reach the bottom.

So he is just hanging,
bobbing along here.

He's got his paw on it. Aw, damn it,
he knocked it over,

I think he used it to stand on
to kick himself off.

(CHUCKLES)

The fish
are going straight downhill.

It's a really steep river.

ATTENBOROUGH: It was back into
the chilly water

for Jeff to realign his camera.

Soon it was up and running again
and getting some intimate shots.

JEFF: Got a good shot
of his privates there.

ATTENBOROUGH: Although the salmon
were still just out of the reach

of this persistent young bear,
the camera wasn't.

JEFF: Oh no, he's getting close
to the camera.

Be careful, bear. Ah, shoot!

He totally knocked it over.

I'm going to have to go
reposition that camera.

ATTENBOROUGH: The youngster
continued to cause problems.

He kept on knocking over the camera.

Then two bigger, more experienced bears
appeared on the scene,

right in front of Jeff.

But the remote camera was having trouble
keeping up with the action.

To discover exactly what was going on,
Jeff needed a new perspective.

These bears were so unfazed
by his presence

that he decided to stay in the water

and hand-hold the camera
on the end of a long pole.

The bears were learning to trust Jeff,
allowing him to get even closer.

To get as intimate as this
with wild grizzlies

is potentially extremely dangerous

and required all of Jeff's
many years of experience.

That was good.

Okay, we've got this other guy
coming out too now.

He's gonna check it out.
Okay, you can have a look at it.

ATTENBOROUGH: He was now close enough
to observe their technique in detail.

This was something
that Jeff had never seen before.

By kicking the salmon into the shallows,

the more experienced bears were able
to grab themselves an easy meal.

And by hand-holding the camera,
Jeff could follow the action.

Okay, we're getting close here.

He's coming up to you right now. Roll.

ATTENBOROUGH: To get as close as this
to an adult grizzly bear

is truly remarkable.

Jeff makes it look easy,

but it takes years of experience
and understanding.

Okay, good show, guys. Thank you.
That's it. We're done.

Yep, time to go, that's it.

ATTENBOROUGH: Jeff had managed
to enter the bears' world, giving him

the most intimate shots of grizzlies
fishing underwater ever filmed.

He had achieved this
not just by using new technology,

but through his own
special understanding

of these incredible animals.

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