Best of North American Animals | Top 5 | BBC Earth

the adults focus is now set on a ruthless competition to mate a male bids to enter a herd with females in season he uses dust to accentuate all his size and power [Music] another male already established in the herd answers the display and weights the newcomer responds by scent marking and moving even closer [Music] this challenge cannot be tolerated [Music] [Music] the resident male has one having seen off his rival next summer's Cavs will likely be his one family here can't wait for winter to really arrive these polar bears need the sea to freeze completely so they have a solid platform from which to hunt seals right now they're hungry the Cubs mother can sniff out a meal from 20 miles away the rotting remains of a bowhead whale it may not look too appetizing but this blubber is packed with calories and vitamins an adult bear can eat sixty kilos at a single sitting the problem with a feast like this is that it will bring in hungry bears from miles around [Music] they might not be a threat but she's not going to hang around to find out [Music] soon the sea will be frozen solid and the Bears will be back in their element bald eagles spot carcasses from miles away but there is strong competition for a kill like this a coyote he has been shadowing the Wolves and moves in now they have gone the effect of the turning tide can be totally different on a rocky shore here on the coast of Vancouver Island in Canada the Sun bakes the exposed rock it's virtually impossible to dig underground when the sea retreats so these mussels and barnacles are fully exposed to the heat of the Sun literally cooking in their own shells and the seaweed simply dry to a crisp it can be a weight of many hours before the water returns throughout each month the size and strength of the tide changes the biggest tides of all happened when the gravities of the Sun and Moon pull in unison that happens immediately after the new moon and again after the full moon [Music] these are called the spring tides they revealed vast tracts of seabed that would normally be covered for these raccoons it's a chance to look for a seafood feast the mother ventures forth with her kits with the spring tide they've come further down the beats and smaller tides would normally allow searching with their extraordinarily sensitive paws they look for suitable prey with the extreme low tide they could find something special and what could be better than a Red Rock crab that is if it weren't for the risk of a painful pinch with large crabs there's no substitute for experience the mother makes an expert sketch but the kids learn fast and for those that don't begging is always worth a try all too soon the returning tide will cover the raccoons table for all in vertebrates it's a welcome relief but in rough weather they are exposed to the worst of the waves a beaver the family that lives here in this lake at the foot of the Teton Mountains in Wyoming while beavers can get around perfectly well on land they're most at home in the water where their webbed hind feet at large Pavelec tail make them powerful swimmers above and below the surface [Music] like marmots Reavers feed on all kinds of vegetation and eat wood as well as leaves and they're accomplished engineer's this great pond is entirely their own creation only a few years ago this shallow pebble is stream flowed straight down the valley then a family of beavers moved in and built a dam the main body of it is built of boulders on the downstream side it's been lined with logs some of them big and quite heavy and on this side it's been packed with mud and vegetation it's been built so accurately that it is to within a few inches horizontal across its entire length of about 150 yards from one side to the other and the lake it created stretches upstream for almost a mile so important is their damn to them that if they detect the slightest leak usually by hearing the sound of trickling water they start repair worked immediately mud is needed as well as logs [Applause] the repair team will labor away until the leak is fully repaired maintaining the water at a high level brings beavers several advantages one of which is that it floods the surrounding woodland and so enables them to swim in safety to their main source of food they increase the distance they can swim by digging channels that lead into the very heart of the woodland here they can use their sharp incisor teeth to strip off the bark from a fallen tree trunk and nibble at it while still being cursed enough to water to slip away should a bear or a mountain lion turn up their network of channels also enables them to ferry whole branches back to their pond [Music] and there where the water is deepest they dive down and push each branch firmly into the mud at the bottom this is the beavers fridge where the vegetation will keep fresh through the long winter when the pond is covered with ice [Music] stocking the fridge takes a lot of work and the beavers are at their busiest in autumn [Music] [Applause] [Music] at one side of the lake sands their Lodge a fortress built of branches and boulders that so strong that not even a bear could break into it the only entrance is through tunnels that open under water and the Beavers take refuge here whenever they are alarmed that was a warning signal to say that danger was around let's say me and now I may not see the Beavers for some time they can stay underwater for five minutes at a time up to 15 if they need to they can actually get back to the safety of their Lodge without putting their head above the surface for a single second most lodges have at least two different entrances by October winter is well underway but whereas marmots would now be hibernating the Beavers are still active and will remain that way throughout the winter even when the pond ice is ever completely they're still able to swim under the ice to get back and forth to their Lodge no one knew exactly what went on inside the lodge during winter so when the Beavers were away we installed a couple of infrared cameras in order to find out a branch from the fridge is being brought back to the lodge for the whole family to feed on and another no wonder they don't need to hibernate with this ingenious set up the largest warm and safe even in midwinter and the only sign of activity in the snug home beneath the snow is hot air rising from the vent of the top inside our cameras catch a glimpse of what at first sight looks like a very small beaver it's a muskrat they're a pair of them in here this is a new observation to the Beavers actually no in the pitch blackness that there are strangers among them we noticed that the muskrats regularly left the lodge to forage under the ice and on several occasions they returned a few minutes later with a load of fresh reeds perhaps the muskrats are paying rent by regularly providing fresh bedding from the lodge [Music] maybe that is why the Beavers accept them and even allow them to share their food [Music] ah infrared lights are no longer welcome it seems [Music]

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 488,810

Rating: 4.8560534 out of 5

Keywords: bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, polar bear, polar bear feeding, polar bear eating, polar bear whale, what do polar bears eat, polar bear feeds on whale caracass, david attenborough narrating, david attenborough, bison fight, bison battle, bison headbutt, bison head to head, coyote vs eagle, coyote eating, north american animals, north american animal, north american wildlife, raccoon vs rockcrab, beaver build a dam, why do beavers build dams

Id: 4zNsGgPGJ4U

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019