"IM REICH DER TIGER, BÄREN UND VULKANE" "RUSSLAND" "The biggest country on Earth." "The mountains of the Caucasus." "The Urals." "The infinite sweep of Siberia." "10.000 kilometers as far as the remote peninsula of Kamchatka." "An unforgiving world of snow and ice in the endless winter." "A flight over Siberia to the most distant point of this great empire, where Russia's Far East meets the Pacific Ocean." "This is the last chance to see the world's biggest cats." "Amur Tigers cope well with extreme temperatures, not so well with the presence of humans." "There are just 500 left in the wild." "In spite of traps, hunting and poisoning, these animals are found throughout Russia, especially in Siberia." "Winter is the time of the wolf." "They can smell dead animals kilometers away." "Deeping their snouts into the snow, they pick up the scent." "This wolf is pursuing a very special trail." "One of the most valuable quarries on Earth." "It's a sable." "He'll be safe back in his burrow." "The eastern forests are so vast, they conceal plenty of rare sights." "A deer with vampire's teeth, the musk deer." "He eats mostly lichen, and that needs a lot of chewing." "It's hard to imagine a Russian winter without ravens." "These intelligent birds are easily bored, always on the lookout for something new." "Snow, a slope, what can you do with that?" "Tobogganing, raven-style." "Practice makes perfect." "Ah, here is an expert, he tests the piste first." "This one's having a go." "Can't be that hard." "Okay, try again." "That will do for today." "Beyond the endless forests, further and further north, is the Russian Arctic." "There is life here, too." "A baby harp seal." "Babies are weaned in just 12 days." "The cubs are always hungry and always looking out for their mothers." "And no wonder, in those 12 days they must triple their bodyweight." "Their mothers' milk is pure cream, 40 percent fat." "The ice will soon start to break up, the seals only have a few weeks to learn how to swim." "Polar bears are now in their element." "They can smell seals more than a kilometer away." "On the ice, the cubs are easy pickings." "The cub would be safe in the water." "He is too late." "But he didn't particularly enjoy his early bath." "Down here, the seals have the polar sea to themselves." "Back south, down the Pacific coast." "Soon, we come to a mighty peninsula, the realm of volcanos at the end of the world." "Kamchatka." "The Steller's Sea Eagle, the heaviest eagle on Earth." "A golden eagle, a relative lightweight." "The raptors gather at the base of the volcano for the rich pickings." "Salmon." "The last fragments remaining from autumn are now highly coveted." "The heat from the volcanos means that Kurile Lake never quite freezes over." "Precious winter quarters for hundreds of raptors." "The bigger sea eagles and the darker golden eagles are vicious rivals." "The golden eagle seems to be losing." "But he can duck and dive." "It's not game over yet." "Kamchatka has more than a 160 volcanoes, 29 of them are active, the highest concentration on Earth." "Beside the volcanos, there are geysers and hot springs, the whole area seems to be boiling over, even in the depths of winter." "These volcanos never rest." "This Black-billed Capercaillie is looking for a mate." "The real courtship dance starts with the sunrise." "The soft dawn light shows off the cock's plumage in its full glory." "The fox hunts the Black-billed Capercaillie and the Willow Ptarmigan." "Let the hunt begin." "You got to have wings." "As soon as the temperature creeps above freezing, the landscape is transformed." "And there is no time to lose." "It's full steam ahead in the newly lush geyser fields." "This old brown bear knows and loves these warm meadows that come so early in the year." "Kamchatka is a vast and unique world of its own." "Flying over Kamchatka's mountains and glaciers, and on, 8.000 kilometers westwards across Siberia." "To the high Caucasus, mountains more than 5.000 meters high." "Mount Elbrus, at 5.640 meters it's higher than Mont Blanc." "Europe's highest mountain is also one of its snowiest." "And springtime is the time of avalanches." "There are rare animals in these mountains, like the last Caucasian Ibex or Tur." "The young bucks vie for supremacy." "Only a few thousand of these majestic animals remain, a tiny group, surrounded by a breathtaking landscape." "There is something magical about the Caucasus." "6.500 species of plants live on these hillsides." "A forgotten garden of Eden." "And another rare animal is found here." "This is the first time it has been filmed." "Europe's biggest mammal," "the highland bison." "In the 20th century it was extinct in the wild." "A few captive animals were released into the forest." "They have grown into today's herds." "One of these placid colossi can weigh up to a ton." "A picture of hope." "Long columns of highland bison broom the Caucasian pastures, as they did thousands of years ago." "The Caucasus is one of the wettest regions in Europe." "Clouds from the north-west dash against the towering crags and dissolve amongst the peaks." "On the eastern, downwind flank, the Caucasus shows its other face." "The desert." "The vast drifting sanddune of Sarykum in Dagestan, 260 meters high." "A habitat for specialists." "The long-eared hedgehog doesn't just hear well, his ears regulate his body temperature." "At dawn he's out, hunting insects." "As the shadows recede and the sun's rays warm the sand, the long-eared hedgehog goes back to his cool basement." "Today, there is another reason to lie low - a sandstorm." "This horrific interlude passes as suddenly as it arrived." "A toad-headed agama." "Strong feet for walking and a talent for concealment." "It doesn't just shimmy, it can sprint too." "The lush green grasses at the edge of the dunes attract more sedate reptiles." "A female Spur-thighed Tortoise at work." "And this is the male of the species, on the lookout for a mate." "A thrilling pursuit begins." "First, the male knocks up the female." "She strings him along for a while." "Till his tender foreplay wins her over." "Ecstasy in its primal form." "She could at least be grateful." "Beyond the Caucasus, looking east, endless swamps, steppes and forests." "A chain of mountains splits the continent - the Urals." "In this wilderness, almost devoid of humans, moose can raise their calves undisturbed." "These are rare pictures." "After weeks on its mother's milk, this calf must now adapt to adult food - bark, buds and fallen leafs." "Not bad, eh?" "A female bear with this year's cubs." "An adult male is the most dangerous threat to the cubs." "This is no time to hang around." "There is a mysterious place in the Ural mountains" " Manpupuner." "Legend says these rocks were a beautiful girl and her 7 brothers." "Frozen by fear for eternity as they fled from their enemies." "In fact, the elements created this monument in this lonely place." "Hundreds of thousands of years of incessant rain exposed these sentinels." "The forests of the Urals are so vast and impenetrable that wolves and bears can still hunt here, undisturbed." "The predators are drawn by a large carcass, but who will claim it?" "Without the pack, the wolf has no chance." "Deep in the Urals is an animal that has never been filmed in the wild." "It looks like it's stepped out of the fairy tale." "This is a Russian Desman." "This water mole lives in a burrow." "With his long and mobile snout he sniffs out tiny prey in the mud." "Like his cousins on dry land, his eyes have atrophied." "Only 200 water moles still live in the Urals, but there are more of them on the Volga." "Almost blind, he uses the long whiskers on his snout to detect snails and shrimps, even fish and amphibians." "Midsummer in the southern Urals, high season for the rare forest bees." "Beekeepers hang hollowed out trunks on the trees as rudimentary hives." "The bear cubs and their mother have found one." "All they have to do is work out how to get to the honey." "The cubs are light, they can climb." "Nothing doing up here." "The whole 200 kilo trunk has got to come down." "That was the easy bit, the heavy trunk is sealed tight, defended by its own private army." "And if that wasn`t enough - the big male is back." "He is quite happy to take it over." "But can he crack the trunk?" "He has the strength, but the bees know his weak spot - his sensitive nose." "No one could put up with that." "All clear for the baby bears." "They are not disturbed by a few angry bees." "This has been quite a day." "Beyond the Urals is the greatest expanse of forest in the world." "This is Siberia." "And right in the middle of it is Lake Baikal." "The oldest and deepest lake on Earth, the secret sea." "They say, ringed seals made their way here from the ocean more than half a million years ago." "They turned into a distinct species." "The water is icy cold, even in summer, so the sun beds are in great demand." "Baikal seals can dive up to half an hour, in an alien world that descends to a depth of 1.600 meters." "Baikal sponges, they could be corals." "This is an amphipod." "At 10 centimeters it's a giant of the genus." "Two thirds of all Baikal's animals live only in this ancient lake." "The seals spend long hours sunbathing in their favorite spots." "Latecomers are not welcome." "Further north, the treeles plains of the Russian tundra." "Huge reindeer herds roam this land, as they have since the ice age." "Snow geese." "The newcomers to the colony had better watch out." "There is an arctic fox about." "And he has picked up a scent." "It's a lemming." "The chicks won't have much time to rest." "When they are just a few days old, they have to move to the flatter tundra." "There, there are shallow lakes to swim in, where they will be safe from predators." "The brief northern summer is drawing to its end." "More survivors from the ice age - the musk oxen." "In September, the males battle for supremacy." "The duel releases enormous amounts of energy." "Solid horns, a padding of hollow fibers beneath, and a very thick skull." "Two 200 kilo oxen collide at up to 50 km/h." "The crumple zones hold." "The stakes get higher." "The one on the left makes a break for it." "The receptive females go to the winner." "Actually, musk oxen are placid animals, and pretty lazy." "That's how they survived the age of the mammoths with its food shortages and Russia's arctic winters." "Back, once more, over Siberia, to the Far East and the Pacific Coast." "This landscape is nothing like the Siberian taiga." "Ussuria has a variety of species seen in no other northern forest." "These are the greatest lotus fields in the whole of Asia." "The lake is home to exotic animals, too." "The heron can't make up his mind." "It's a Chinese Soft-Shelled Tortoise." "Good sunbathing spots are in demand here, too." "In the short Russian summer, these exotic visitors, more commonly seen in the tropics, have to top up with as much sunshine as possible." "The sunbather is getting on his nerves." "This is my spot, and that's non-negotiable." "Not far away, a herd of sikas." "For some reason, they keep going down to the ocean." "And getting more and more nervous, as they approach the shore." "The sound of the sea seems to exert a magical pull." "This is what they were looking for - brown algae." "The kelp is full of salt that the deer badly need." "They even lick the salt from the spray on their coats." "They are still uneasy, barely daring to eat." "This is what they were afraid of - the Amur Tiger." "He's returned to last night's kill." "These may be the first and the last pictures of this animal on the Pacific Coast." "The vultures are waiting." "Actually, he's had enough, but he will never share with vultures or crows." "But even this magnificent creature can't be sure the next hunt will be successful," "so he eats all he can." "He knows that as soon as he leaves, the scavengers will strip the bones." "Looks like he's had enough." "No, not the crows!" "That's too much." "But he is not hungry anymore." "The problems of an apex predator." "Late summer evening on Lake Khanka." "Time for a very special show." "Myriads of mayflies hatch, as though at a secret signal, and begin their mating dance," "the last and most important day of their brief lives." "At the same time in distant Kamchatka another multitude is on the move." "Right now everything is still peaceful." "Here they are at last." "Salmon, 6 million migrating from the ocean into the rivers." "Kamchatka's mighty brown bears wait patiently until enough salmon are in their sights." "Then, it's open season." "The plump salmon will help the bears survive the long winter," "and winter is coming." "The short weeks of autumn dip the whole landscape in a sea of color." "Then, overnight, brooks and rivulets are covered in a thin sheet of ice." "At first, life continues, sealed in a glassy coffin." "Winter's icy breath has started its work." "The first snowfalls blanket the land and everything edible." "The moose are used to these conditions, they are very frugal, they don't need much food now." "At 30 degrees below, the trees crack open - a concert of oriental percussion." "There seem to be more than enough trees to eat, but the moose still argue over the tastiest ones, generating a surprising degree of passion." "This bear is not yet hibernating." "Can he take down that moose in a surprise attack?" "Maybe he should turn in for the winter." "The long-legged herbivores might have been made to trot through deep snow." "All Siberia now falls into a deep sleep, for 7 months." "In the far north, winter never quite went away, not even in summer." "Between the giant icicles, seabirds brood." "The inhospitable north this may be, but the gulls are well-protected from the nest robbers on land." "Horned Puffin breed here, too." "This pair are still indulging in foreplay." "The offspring of the guillemot is fully fledged, but he can't fly yet." "He has to reach the sea first." "The pack ice came early this year, it's blocked their path." "Just what the arctic fox was waiting for." "But he is afraid of the water." "He can't go on without getting his feet wet." "But can he get back?" "An unplanned dip in the freezing water." "This young guillemot faces life in one of the harshest climates on Earth." "A world in constant change." "More and more ice floes come drifting down from the north towards the land, bearing a heavy cargo from the Arctic Circle." "Polar bears, the biggest land predators on Earth." "The superb swimmers leave the ice to cover the last stretch by themselves." "Now they'll go without food on land, until the sea freezes over in November." "Only then can the hunt resume." "Soon, the sun will no longer appear over the horizon." "Russia, the world's biggest country." "In many ways a land still undiscovered, vast, full of wonders." "May it be preserved for following generations, just as it is now." "Ensub and translate:" "Rubbiroid"