Darkwoods - Where Nature Survives

[Music] Dark Woods Canada's Black Forest had been the property of the German House of wurttemberg for 42 years here survived the last Mountain caribus the rare fresh water salmon spawn and endangered bats hibernate thank you foreign hectares of nature are back in Canadian hands instead of German Foresters The Nature Conservancy organization and scientists take care of dark woods now Corey Lawson bat expert [Music] Jerry nilleston The Keeper of the streams [Music] and botanist Adrian Leslie together they want to preserve this unique natural landscape and turn it into a flagship region for Canada [Music] [Music] Dark Woods is situated in the south of British Columbia and adjacent to the Rocky Mountains it's old woods with Mighty coniferous trees stretch all the way to the banks of Lake Kootenai [Music] the lake collects the water from the surrounding mountains together with the Pacific it shapes the climate with lots of clouds and precipitation foreign [Music] s is a special Forest a cold rain forest with colossal hemlocks and giant Cedars most of the animals herbivores or Predators spend the winter in The Valleys due to the extreme snowfall [Music] only one species dares to go up the mountains even then this is how it has avoided competition for food and the hunt by Predators for millennium biologist Leo de Groot is searching for it right now the mountain caribou the helicopter flies over Mount vertenberg its name commemorates the home of its former owner Carl Herzog van wertenberg again and again the scars of Forestry are visible the Germans only selectively cut down trees and reforested the empty areas some of the regions however have been left untouched until today they're a refuge for some of the last Mountain caribous while all around them their habitat shrinks due to the logging of Canadian Forestry Leo wants to take stock of these rare animals he wants to know if the protection of their trails and of their ancient food trees has made an impact if they get it here at nine o'clock they just end all right there are as many of them as in the Autumn Lopes Leo that's a good sign the biologist records the exact position of the animals Putin caribou's are all in good health and seem to have found enough food during the winter high up in dark woods Leo has fitted many animals with transmitters only if he knows their whereabouts can he protect them with their huge fur-covered plate-shaped feet Mountain caribus reach regions that are closed off to other large animals predators don't make it this far either they sink in the deep snow but when the Forest roads used to lead all the way up to the mountains the Wolves were able to follow the caribus and cause immense damage among these rare animals nowadays the roads in dark woods are closed to traffic and are becoming overgrown now the caribou's are safe again up here [Music] winter shoes have evolved in the animal kingdom in multiple cases [Music] rabbits feature a good few sizes smaller than the Hooves of the Caribou but the principle is the same a light body on a large foot and when you spread your toes the Snowshoe becomes huge [Music] the great gray owl also specializes in deep snow by means of an extremely good ear one of the snow hairs has decided to put on its summer coat too early and lost its camouflage the great owl could easily spot it but from a great distance the owls Keen ear detected quiet scurrying under the snow [Music] small prey is easy prey [Music] however there are those who are envious with Speedy reflexes the owl gets itself and its prey to safety [Music] it looks like the competition must go on the hunt itself in Dark Woods there are also animals who have not adapted to life in ice and cold they have to find a place to hibernate bats spend their winter in dead wood or under the thick bark of old trees but where to go if there is no old wood biologist Corey Lawson knows where they are hiding in disused Gold and Silver Mines here only the scientist has access for the biologist it's easier to find the animals and take stock of them in the caves than outside but reaching the bats is far from simple the Frozen waterfalls turn the path into a slippery slope and in early spring there is a growing risk of melt water breaking the ice the man-made tunnels make for ideal hiding places for the bats the tunnels cover hundreds of underground kilometers of dark woods for Corey it's always a miracle how these little animals can find their way in the Maze of the tunnels changed her destination the biologist doesn't just want to find out which species of bats survive in dark woods but also how these animals behave in these new quarters in winter this is a really interesting cluster of probably two species to be together this is California myotis and silver-haired now these two species I do typically see in these warmer moisture chambers of Mines but interestingly I don't usually see them clustering together the Townsend's big-eared bat on the other hand doesn't like company it is the first awake in early spring and will pump its blood into the finest vessels of its body this way it reaches operating temperature the Californian myotus obviously have another trick up their sleeve they said piggyback on the backs of the larger silver-haired bats to warm themselves up my winter research is also looking at how they are roosting and behaving in the winter or not you could actually see a transmitter very faint wire there from the antenna that I've glued on one of the parts most bats don't fly around in winter only when it gets warmer they hunt every now and then but at first only in the cave the hibernating insects which keep still will survive those who move risk being discovered foreign following almost eight months of winter spring slowly arrives in dark woods [Music] melt water turns dark woods into watermarks [Music] now hunger drives the Bears from their winter quarters down into The Valleys because here the ice of the rivers melts first and the grass can grow foreign the deer will also have it easier when the rivers are free of ice and bring juicy Flotsam down from the mountains the floodplains of Lake Kootenai at the foot of the mountains are now in important resting place for migrating birds it is the largest in all of British Columbia thanks to the mild climate the birds find plenty of food early in the year flocks of snow geese recover on Lake Kootenai before flying onto the Arctic trumpeter swans and flocks of Coots feed on the juicy grasses under the surface of the water while an enemy tries to creep up or not [Applause] [Applause] foreign however its attempt turns out to be a less than fortunate start to the hunting season for this young eagle [Applause] [Applause] now however its prey is in abundance a successful hunt should be Child's Play for it [Music] strategy they confuse the attacker by forming groups and changing course and by turning the water into a thick wall of spray the young Eagle loses its bearings and eventually its appetite for a coot [Music] as spring is so short one animal you wouldn't expect in Canada also has to get a move on with procreation it's the Western painted turtle there used to be a lot of them in British Columbia but today they are deemed an endangered species however in the marshy area of Lake Kootenai they find a safe Refuge foreign [Music] the few places in the sun are actually overcrowded [Music] these reptiles can live to an old age of 30 years and they have traveled across many kilometers to this place to find a partner now everything has to be fast goes for the Canada geese too change of scene for a nursery group in front they are shown the way in the back they are pushed forward so that no youngster gets lost is the red winged blackbird just belting out its spring song or does it want to startle the turtles no one knows in any case there is a lot going on in spring on the banks of Lake Kootenai thank you in June the temperatures are warm enough for the cherry blossom [Music] the floodplains of Lake Kootenai are extremely fertile people live off fruit farming and livestock breeding around this time the inhabitants of the valley always have visitors from the mountains no wonder but the fresh protein-rich grass is as high as a bear it's a power meal after the long hunger period throughout the winter [Music] [Music] for some bears the grass doesn't seem to be enough they attempt to get closer to man and thus close to Danger that's despite the fact that they only want fresh grass for they are grazers rather than carnivores Grizzlies have been coming to the fresh Green Valley of spring for millennia however nowadays roads and settlements break up their Trails so that males and females from different regions of the Rocky Mountains can't find each other anymore small encapsulated groups of bears are created with no chance of renewing their genetic material this is why a team of bear researchers are looking for the old trails and want to give the animals free access to them Michael Proctor the head of the research group is mainly interested in the female Bears they use their old Trails regularly yeah we can get it in a minute though we just need to remember it the researchers have been refining the setting of their traps for many years this way they make sure that they won't injure the animals we're trapping in this half natural valley with a management area in it and a half human settled Valley and the human settlement is fractured the bear the larger once historic bear population in this region and the Selkirk mountains on our left that has a historic Dark Woods property is a very important conservation property and we're trying to link up from the dark woods through the management area in Crescent Valley bears in into the Purcell mountains and we're trying to facilitate female movement across the human settled Valley Michael Proctor wants to create paths with Bridges and underpasses through the inhabited area for the Bears the plan is that the animals can migrate again safely as they did thousands of years ago in Spring to their pasture grounds in the valley and in the Autumn back to the old Woods their winter quarters the next day a motion sensor alerts the researchers of a Grizzly Court in the snare the team is excited to see if it is a male or a female the animal is immediately sedated pretty young beer molars are very good incisors are terrific and they tell Michael the age of the animal because they keep growing all their life the she bear is about seven years old the transmitter collar must be fitted accurately in two years time it will undo itself and fall off until then the she bear will deliver enough data to Michael's computer for the scientist to know which path she takes and where she likes to spend her time he is already ascertained that many other females with transmitters use the same paths and resting places time to go in the safety of night the she-bear will leave the wake-up cage from now on she is under observation [Music] um in Spring of every year a lot of bears are caught [Music] they are often put in transport cages and taken to assembly points so they can be cared for appropriately the sedated females are waiting for their transmitter everything's going like clockwork here Michael Proctor's team is experienced the bear conservationists handle the animals with great care they make as little noise as possible so not to scare the Grizzlies even anesthetized they might notice things aggression towards and fear of people must be prevented or else the Grizzlies wouldn't stand a chance in Kootenai Valley before they get the transmitter the Bears are weighed and examined foreign the state of health age and most importantly their sex are recorded for the statistics this year only females some of them with their cubs have walked into the traps foreign only the young females are given a transmitter collar their male siblings don't get one while the mother is still being weighed her Offspring is already looked after the young male without a transmitter will soon leave his family and find himself a new territory far away from his mother and female siblings spring brings abundant rainfall in her winter quarters the female black bears had her Cubs [Applause] the little ones are not daunted by wetness From Below or above their mother is with them and gives them comfort and protection porcupines are loners this animal is seeking cover in a giant Cedar but the fine leaves don't shield from the rain soon it is wet through spikes don't make for a good raincoat after all pray for the bald eagle no much too prickly [Music] the clear spots at the foot of the giant trees are now covered by a lush layer of herbs and shrubs Pine squirrels are the busy Gardeners of the forest they look for collect and harvest seeds and therefore spread the seed of old giant trees and young shrubs [Music] a family of otters have moved into a strategically favorable spot and they have already caught some prey in the shallow water very close by is estella's J who is trying to get a share of the catch [Music] [Applause] come on thanks to the abundance of water animals like the auto who are more water than forest dwellers also find a home in dark woods it's the combination of Old Woods and large bodies of water which make this Forest unique giant trees shape its image but it's also the little hardly visible plants which keep the water Circuit of this cold rainforest going [Music] bosses with their millions of sprouts and leaves are an ideal water reservoir as our language they collect water in thousands of little buckets around here orchids like the striped Coral root are the Heralds of spring [Music] devil's club is a characteristic plant of the cool rainforest a delicate bird weighed barely four grams which you wouldn't expect to find in Canada makes use of the Sumptuous flowers in the undergrowth Anna's Hummingbird the female has plain colors [Music] the head of the male on the other hand shimmers in the light [Music] a splash of color against the Green of the forest [Music] in Spring Dark Woods becomes the water reservoir for the entire region [Music] the common maganza likes plenty of water [Music] it's mating season now and the courting for the females is on in the water with an energetic display foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Waters combine in Spring to form roaring streams and Supply the forest until deep into the summer [Music] this is the time for Jerry Nelson the stream Keeper in the Black Forest he is responsible for the rivers and the life within them streamkeeper is a profession which only exists in Canada here the rivers are still full of primordial life in Europe dams and veers block most of the river courses so that fish can no longer migrate to their spawning grounds year they have to be refilled with farmed fish Canada's Dark Woods this isn't necessary in June the bull trout one of the largest trout species of the world climbs up from Lake Kootenai into the surrounding rivers to spawn Jerry counts the animals in the individual River segments well it's done what in there today I saw 130 centimeter Seminole pull trout was trying to make its way up a little bit too small I think to make it up there this year maybe next year for him lots of rainbow trout in there probably about 40 of them [Music] at the bottom most of the bull trout are waiting for another rain shower so that the water level will rise only then can they get through the narrow Gorge and still it is an incredible feat of strength and determination for the bull trout to master these steep Rapids the rare Mountain caribus have also had their young apart from the long-established forest dwellers there are also some newcomers wild turkeys only moved into Dark Woods a few years ago the rising temperatures in the south of Canada lure them further north a result of climate change by now spring has also arrived in the mountains up here it lasts barely a month Adrian Leslie is a botanist and takes care of the trees in dark woods he pays special attention to the white bark Pine the tree is endangered and finds one of its last sanctuaries in the mountains here Adrian tries to resettle it by hand this tree grows extremely slowly and it needs a harsh climate but the climate change might soon be a discomfort [Music] lightning has been causing more and more forest fires because some regions of dark woods are drying out due to no rainfall Adrian also discovers the charred remains of the valuable white bark Pine but fires are not the only challenge for this special tree [Music] in high valleys of dark woods dozens of lakes have formed unlike in the Alps the tree line is about 2 000 meters in contrast to the Alps the Rocky Mountains are not a weather Divide therefore Warm Winds reach Higher Grounds foreign of Summer the mountain pastures turn into a paradise of nature [Music] the raft Grouse must hurry up with the rearing of its chicks somewhere in the Dark Woods Forest only lasts about six weeks [Music] in the short span of spring many more butterflies than women would expect look for neck to high up in the mountains [Music] the marmots also only have a few weeks to grow fat [Music] here the bark Beetle struck a few years ago they're the next challenge for the rare white bark Pine it is irreplaceable for the high altitude for it stabilizes the slopes and keeps the ground moist those who survived the bark Beetle are now under Threat by an imported foe most Pines are powerless and at its Mercy here's another Wayback plan about 20 years old freshly infected with blister rust you can see the canker right here so the fungus the Spore would landed on the needles of this branch and worked its way up in into here and create these things and you can see got spores coming out and this is this canker is going to kill everything that's above and work its way down and kill this entire tree this year or next year however little trees seem under threat so far a few pockets in the mountain forests have not succumbed to the bark Beetle nor to the fungus it seems that the trees here possess a very special resilience without the Clark's Nutcracker they would never have made it this far in Autumn it collects their seeds and hides them but the birds also have a tendency to forget quite a few stockpiles and thus unwittingly spread the rare tree now in summer the cones aren't ripe yet and the Nutcracker prefers to Avail itself of a protein meal in the shape of a bumblebee is late summer now it's time for a very special fish to take care of its offspring normally salmon travel from the sea to their spawning grounds in the rivers but during the last ice age the Pacific sockeye salmon found its way back to the Sea cut off and thus in the following Millennia the locked in Salmon of Lake Kootenai evolved into a kookeny salmon the red fresh water salmon like their ocean ancestors in late summer they also travel Upstream into the surrounding rivers to spawn in large schools they now wait by the river mouths but the water levels to rise High Enough Jerry Nellis didn't the lord of the dark woods Rivers is doing another inspection route the onset of rain is the signal for the Salmon Run other animals also know the meaning of the downpour and travel to the river to catch some fish the berries along their path serve as their entree they the fruit supplies the important sugar for padding the winter fat the bald eagle can also hardly wait for the salmon to arrive they will supply it with an important energy reserve for the meager winter months [Music] the water level of the spawning Rivers is now High Enough the red salmon are now able to get through the Rapids and rock barriers foreign by the urge to procreate black bears arrive early at the spawning grounds of the red salmon to get their share before the Grizzlies get there they the fish in the woods and leave the remains behind certain mosses can decompose animal protein this way the salmon fertilizes the forest with its core it seems the eagle is inviting everyone to the big feast the Grizzlies are taking a more low-key approach they know that there is still enough for everyone but the number of salmon in the rivers around Lake Kootenai has fallen dramatically a virus has strickened the salmon and other species of fish at this shallow spot there are just a few hundred salmon spawning it's far too few a few years ago there were tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands in the entire river system but it's still enough but hunting practice of this young eagle [Music] the parents don't have to feed their offspring anymore but share with their partner perhaps no why should they the bald eagles don't even hunt themselves now they collect what the Bears have left behind of the salmon each day they consume many thousands of calories and are fortified for winter [Music] in Autumn there is an extreme difference in temperature between Lake Kootenai and the mountains The Mists bring wetness and snow to dark woods the bottom floor of the forest is gradually dying off everything organic is returned to the ground nothing is lost [Music] this way the old giant trees live on and new virgin Forest grows back [Music] bad scientist Corey Lawson does her last checks in the Gold and Silver Mines ahead of the approaching winter as always she is wearing a protective suit which will be burnt after the job it's a precaution because the bats could be sick Corey wants to avoid spreading the disease to other caves unlike in Spring it is now not very dangerous to step into the caves and Mining tunnels as the water is not frozen yet Corey notices that some of her Protege are already in their winter quarters her first impression is that they seem healthy periodically throughout the winter hibernation mode and start to fly around we don't know why they do this it might be in Minds like this they fly around looking for mates they might also be flying around looking for some food since bats also come here from far away regions where diseases have been spreading for some time Corey is on guard were she to find sick animals Corey would quarantine them over the winter there's a fungus that has spread to Western North America and that will grow during the winter on their wings and on their face it's called white nose syndrome eastern North America the white nose syndrome has actually killed millions of bats now that it's in Western North America we just hope that these species that are specific to Western North America will not be destroyed in such large numbers by this invasive fungus so far the dark woods populations show no signs of the deadly disease Autumn has many faces Indian summer in the Dark Woods Forest is one of them the golden yellow larches are its emblem latches are the only coniferous trees which drop their needles when winter approaches it protects them from perishing in the cold and saves energy [Music] now the time has come for the white bark Pines Little Helper the Clark's Nutcracker zealously harvest the seeds of its partner tree needs to hurry and bury its winter reserves under the trees before the first snow thus sowing the seed for a new generation of White Pines it's high time for Adrian Leslie to check up on the white bark Pines plan how he can save the species from the dangerous fungus which is threatening them in Dark Woods too in Spring Adrian already put little net bags over the cones so that the J's or squirrels can't gather them some trees which were once looked after by German Foresters seemed to defy the dangerous fungus Adrian wants to collect their seeds the resulting seedlings are the future of the white bark Pine this is a mature cone because it's uh very dry and you can actually break these brats off and underneath each Brack there's two little seeds that um you can see are mature because they fall out and um and so these will grow in a greenhouse over the next couple of years and we'll plant these seedlings at a restoration site here on Dark Woods probably in 2018. and so from this cone we'll probably get about 50 to 60 seeds and with any luck we'll get about 40 little seedlings out of this one Adrian hopes to preserve the white bark Pine at least in dark woods it is one of their last habitats worldwide [Music] after just three to four weeks of Autumn it's getting cold and the Pacific sends thick snow clouds to dark woods [Music] months and months of cold and life in want begin foreign [Music] deer getting away is arduous again they and the elk are not particularly well adapted to deep snow they have to stay in the valley for nearly nine months they will now live off bark and Frozen shoots wolves know how to take advantage of this [Music] for the mountain caribou however the snow is no problem they have long since left for the high mountains to a place where they are the only ones to find very special food far away from the wolves in the valley the last Mountain caribus make their way to the Pines in the Mountain Forest the ones the endangered Clerk's Nutcracker is closely linked to The Nutcracker is now digging up the sea Depots it had created in the autumn Pine and bird are a team even in winter in this region there used to be an abundance of seeds but with the white bark Pine The Nutcracker is disappearing too but they are still helping the few healthy Pines to survive the birds are clever we know that they can remember far more than 30 000 stashes but with the current Pine dilemma not that many had been created there are but a few now and those in competition have cast their eye on them The Raven has watched The Nutcracker searching and is now looting its Granary [Music] the white bark Pine houses an organism which in turn ensures the mountain caribou's survival for these inconspicuous beard lichens mysterious hybrid beings between fungus and algae animals undertake travels of several days through deep snow uphill to a height of over 2 000 meters up here there is no bigger animal which will challenge them over this albuvinist treat [Music] but the legends grow on ancient trees they need many decades to grow this big the old forests in Dark Woods secure them an Airy hanging place with enough light most lichens hang on the middle floors the snow is like a pedestal with which the mountain carabus get to this height it is exactly those old lichen forests high up in the dark woods which are vital for the survival of the small population of mountain caribus that still remain the last mountain caribus of North America are an example for how important it is to preserve the uniqueness of the dark woods mountains and Lake landscape thanks to its careful forestry the house of Burton Berg succeeded in this for many decades the aim of the new owners The Nature Conservancy of Canada goes beyond that they want to transform the forest back into a wild forest together Old and New Forest will form a region of inestimable value for many rare animals Canada's dark woods [Music] foreign

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Id: AT3t6dK42AQ

Length: 52min 0sec (3120 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 30 2022