Germany's Mystic Forest | Full Documentary

foreign [Music] hardly anywhere in Germany gets as much rain as the region called the baggishus lamp a blessing from above [Music] water serves both man and Beast [Music] water has always powered the economy foreign the traditional cultivated landscape here is rich in streams and rivers and full of life modern Invaders feel as much at home here as long-established Warriors embedded in its dense forests are many lakes man-made but a magnet for countless creatures that have become rare elsewhere [Music] gently Rolling Hills characterize the Berger slant the name though doesn't come from Berg meaning Mountain but from the counts of berg the castle schlossborg on the river near zollingen was their ancestral home from the 12th to the 14th century before they moved their residents to Dusseldorf What Remain are the name the castle a popular tourist attraction and the vopper the best known of the Region's 2000 or so rivers and streams [Music] few regions in Europe are as verdant as the bags of slant it belongs to the renish Slate Mountain range on which the heavy rain clouds from the North Sea in the Atlantic release their precipitation since 1945 it's been a part of North Rhine West failure the region extends from the Rhine Valley in the west to the Zara land in the East and from The rhinezig District in the South to the roar District in the North 13 reservoirs are kept topped up by the rain in the baggage slant the best known thanks to a beer advertisement is the veal Tower Reservoir in the southeast [Music] the clear waters of the man-made lake are home to many fish species but they have to keep their wits about them down below the pike is lurking foreign the great crested grebe [Music] and dive over 30 meters meter and hold its breath for nearly a minute time enough to hunt out fish hiding among the water plants [Music] up above the female is waiting to be relieved the pair take it in turns to incubate the eggs [Applause] frogs are also part of the Grebe's prey depending on the temperature tadpoles take two to three months after hatching to develop into young frogs [Music] their Journey Through the lake is fraught with dangers the black stork is just one of them but it prefers to go after bigger prey like fish and fully grown frogs black stalks feed mainly on animals living in the water or at its edges which makes them much more like the gray Heron than their cousins the white stalks [Music] the water-rich Burgess land is the perfect habitat for black storks come on there are plenty of dense forests here too which these timid Birds need for breeding [Music] every nest full of chicks is part of a success story because the black stork was extinct for over a hundred years in the whole of the Rhineland and Westphalia the first ones reappeared in the 1980s [Music] there are now about 20 pairs breeding in the Upper baggishus Land alone the eastern part of the region [Music] both parents feed their young with a pre-digested mush of all sorts of water creatures foreign less than pleased that all the air traffic on his doorstep although he is more of a danger for the young black stalks then the frog catches are for the owl brood in past years there were young black storks living in this nest the owl had the advantage of not being a migratory bird which this one took advantage of and moved into the ready-made nest in early spring when the rightful owners returned from Africa they found it occupied and had to relocate owls of the typical owl family are usually active at dusk and at night but with hungry chicks to feed they sometimes go hunting earlier Reservoir holds nearly 33 million cubic meters of water and is one of the more recent reservoirs completed in 1973 foreign [Music] in contrast is historic testimony to the fact that water has long been the driving force behind economic development in the Bagus land the water wheel here was for driving not millstones but forging hammers in today's Museum visitors can experience what work used to be like here the Furnace Man prepares the workplace and ensures that the Steels are kept hot [Music] the blacksmiths shapes the tool with the water-driven hammer [Music] and the sluice operator regulates the amount of water flowing over the mill wheel according to the speed the Smith needs [Music] it takes coordinated teamwork for everything to run smoothly [Music] 30 iron Hammer Works used to operate along a 12 kilometer stretch of the river leper which itself is only a good 19 kilometers long in an eroded River Bank young Kingfishers are waiting for their next feed The Nest cavity they can be up to 80 centimeters deep has been hollowed out by the parent Birds using just their beaks their work is never done they now have to dive tirelessly for fish and only one in ten fishing attempts is successful [Music] each nestling gets about one fish an hour with four chicks that comes to about 40 fish just for the young ones including failed attempts that means up to 400 Dives a day [Music] these flying gems conduct a monogamous pairing and share the strenuous work of feeding between them [Music] foreign s Germany's smallest type of owl the division of roles is rather different during the breeding season it's the male that feeds the family the female is already waiting foreign [Music] all the young are already hatched in size they could easily fit into egg cups [Music] the female feeds the young while the male hunts for replenishment gold crests the smallest of Germany songbirds are a particular favorite of the pygmy owls it takes a while for the female to divide up the prey into beak-sized pieces [Music] thanks to the heavy rainfall lots of forest ponds and bogs have formed in the burgisher slant thank you the grass snake is sometimes called the ring snake from its neck markings [Music] it like swampy surroundings and hunts both on land and in the water mainly for amphibians but also for small mammals foreign [Music] Mouse checks if the coast is clear again [Music] it seems reluctant to venture out [Music] its fellow harvest mouse one floor lower apparently hasn't noticed the snake Harvest mice feed mainly on grass seeds they can even digest dry grasses it's taken just one night for the harvest mouse to weave its spherical Nest from grass stalks he keeps checking that everything's still waterproof there could well be rain again soon small animals have a high metabolism and need to eat almost Non-Stop the other Mouse continues its interior refurbishment the dry food has given it a thirst [Music] now it's clear why the mouse was so cautious her Nursery is full this is already her third litter [Music] Harvest Myers have up to six letters a year meanwhile the neighbor is demonstrating that Harvest mice are not pure vegetarians [Music] the mother is feeling a bit crowded Harvest mice are loners and really get upset when neighbors don't maintain social distancing fire buried toads like to spawn in small ponds that sometimes dry up for longer periods the advantage of this is that there are hardly any fish to eat up The Offspring ponds like this often attract whole colonies of tube worms they live on the bottom of the pond in tubes they build from mucus and sediment it's their rear end that sticks out of the tube and the longer it is the less oxygen there is in the water their swirling movement is an attempt to waft in more oxygen-rich water [Music] worms that protrude too far are running a risk veritable Veterans of the Earth's history lie in wait for the worms triops three-eyed living fossil is regarded as the oldest type of animal in the world they were already floating through the Earth's fresh waters as long ago as 220 million years [Music] the tube worm doesn't give in easily to its adversary for their size many worms are among the strongest creatures in the world like all Crustaceans the triops sheds its shell from time to time as it grows [Music] they don't have much time to ensure the arrival of the Next Generation their watery home will soon dry out they have up to 70 pairs of legs with which they dig out Hollows in the sand for laying their eggs [Music] when the pond water disappears so do they but not their offspring what are known as resting eggs can survive for over 20 years when the pond fills up again the larvae hatch out develop into Crustaceans within two weeks and must then make haste to provide once again for the Next Generation obviously a highly successful strategy [Music] less successful in the survival Stakes was the eye back moated Castle from The 14th Century in the lindler district of the upper Burgess after a fire in the 18th century nature quickly reclaimed its territory water had served as protection against aggressors since time immemorial in the mode here carp were introduced as was often the case neuenberg Castle which is also near lindsar was built by the counts of berg in the 12th century and destroyed by Swedish forces in the 30 Years War [Music] thank you today the ruins once again have a lord of the castle [Music] its Offspring have already moved out and made their way on foot as is typical of young owls to another hiding place in a tree route free maybe not the best choice they're easy prey here on the ground for foxes and Badgers [Music] the forests in the burgish's land offer many places to hide for a wide variety of young animals [Music] this young raccoon has survived its earliest dangers and is boldly exploring the world quickly followed by its sibling [Music] the small bears are the descendants of escaped raccoons which were introduced from North America for fur farming in the 1920s since then they've spread slowly but surely throughout most of Germany [Music] in the baggage has land too they're advancing strongly [Music] the mother keeps a close eye on her adventurous youngsters the more the young animals explore the better they'll be at coping on their own later childhood curiosity is a strategy for survival what's that in the bush mother coming back but she smells quite different foreign [Music] [Music] its nose tells the youngster it's not a relative although it's four Bears also came from animals grown for their fur the raccoon dog was brought to the Ukraine from China and has since made its way further and further west for some years it's also established itself in the biggest land the young raccoon shows no fear and it's in luck raccoon dogs mainly hunt smaller prey by now the black stalks have grown significantly and are gradually turning from White into black stalks [Music] their appetite is also growing by the day tirelessly the parents have to keep the food coming [Music] the neighbors Young have already left the nest and are hiding somewhere until they're fledged the young stalks on the other hand are not built for climbing and have to wait until they can fly [Music] water is everywhere in the burgitious land in some places there are still alluvial forests with old branches of rivers if the water level rises trees which can't stand in water die off that's good for stag beetles they need dead wood for their brood but how to get past the Rival to reach the female she is preparing for mating the tree sap contains certain fungi which the beetle needs for her reproductive cells to mature the male's antlers look impressive but are no good for cutting but thanks to the females work it can now also strengthen its virility [Music] yeah from up above the scent of the female energizes the rivals but one of them has to go [Music] now becomes clear that the antlers can come in useful [Music] foreign [Music] the loser doesn't give up [Music] but inevitably he's too late [Music] the female will lay the fertilized eggs in the soil at the roots of dead trees the larvae feed off the dead wood for between five and eight years before they transform into fully fledged beetles and then after just one month in all their Glory their life is over [Music] many centuries the biggest land has been shaped by human beings the Lush grassland is well suited for pasture Wildlife does not need a Wilderness at least much less than is often thought the fox is one wild animal that manages very well in cultivated Landscapes the fields provide young foxes with ample mice for food and room for playing they move away from their mother more and more and soon sit out on their path to Independence in boisterous play they train themselves in everything they'll need in the future [Music] the siblings will split up and search out their own territory as typical adapters to human intervention they even cope well with City Life they'll have no trouble at all in finding their place in the bagishus land [Music] not far away a veritable giant soars up to the heavens altenberg Cathedral is one of the landmarks of the baggage's land Building began in the mid 13th century so it's the same age as Cologne Cathedral though it was completed much earlier it serves not only the faithful kestrels have made themselves at home here they too are excellent adapters to the human environment their name in German means Tower Falcons reflecting their preference for tall buildings originally cliff dwellers they use them nowadays as breeding places foreign this pair is not alone one floor further down a second male has just arrived back with prey and calls for its mate [Music] it's getting a bit crowded for the first pair kestrels sometimes breed in colonies but that doesn't mean that things are always harmonious [Music] not easy to keep your composure with so much commotion [Music] the message is clear this is our place [Music] pair number one has clearly got the message and concentrates again for the time being on more important things [Music] foreign was built on the banks of the river Dune perhaps this is the real River Duna of The niblong Saga and not the Danube [Music] foreign [Music] the river that has most shaped the baggage's land since time immemorial like most rivers it begins as a small stream or rather as many small streams it has 40 or so sources [Music] the rivulets unite in the Viper as the rivers called for its first 15 kilometers its maiden name as it were in its upper reaches it's Crystal Clear before being subjected to quite a bit of pollution further down wash your hands before eating appearances are deceptive the female raccoon is neither washing its paws nor its food its sensitive Palms are feeling the riverbed for shellfish snails and other Delicacies the young raccoon too has no fear of water it doesn't even need to swim here though it's a good swimmer when it needs to be [Music] raccoons Avail themselves of anything they can get their paws on from plants and insects to birds mice toads and fish the young raccoon is already skilled that the hand washing ritual it's close to water that the small bear with the highwayman's mask feels most at home there's so much to discover here [Music] near the town of radiform Vault the vipper has already turned into the vopper [Music] here it's still showing its changeable natural face there's nothing to indicate that further along its course it will flow through one of the most densely populated landscapes in Germany [Music] for some years now though a homecomer has been gnawing away at the standard image of this landscape [Music] in the daytime we just see the fruits of its labors [Music] usually it only appears itself at dusk and at night for a century the beaver was regarded as extinct in the bags of slant its fur was much sought after then in April 2017 the producer of this documentary The Wildlife filmmaker ziegor tescher who died in January 2020 reported the sighting of a beaver in the vopper this large rodent had swum past the lens of a night vision camera set up by his cameraman Ralph Steinberg the beaver seems very much at home and has since been cited at many other places as well in summer it mainly eats green vegetation it's usually in Winter that the beaver takes up its logging activities in order to get at the bark of twigs it's highly likely that the vupa Beavers come from animals that were released into the wild in the Eiffel region in the 1980s so they must have crossed the river Rhine at some point no great problem for these outstanding swimmers [Music] foreign [Music] Mills still recall the former Heyday of forges the disused mill ponds attract amphibians like the fire salamander [Music] Hilbert's mill on the lionbach was still producing sheer steel or refined iron up to 1943. the Hammer is now preserved as an engineering Monument foreign [Music] the fire salamander is something of a straggler in one of the most spectacular animal migrations in the burgers land in Spring the amphibians migrate to small bodies of Still Water and give birth to their young underwater they don't lay down spawn like most amphibians for four months the young live in the water and breathe through their crests like gills then they're ready for Shore leave [Music] in vopital the biggest town in the burgessland with its famous suspension Railway the salamanders wouldn't send much of a chance among the streets and buildings but just a few kilometers down river the vupa shows its idyllic side again [Music] near zollingen it flows past the diedrichs temple up on the hill and then comes the next landmark the mungston bridge spans the vupa valley between REM scheide and zollingen at a height of 107 meters it's Germany's highest Railway Bridge before it was built trains had to take a detour of 44 kilometers to reach zolingen [Music] the raccoons of course have long since discovered this part of the vapor for themselves too the youngster still hasn't got its balance quite right and returns to its mother for reassurance but it won't be long now till it's making its own way through life [Music] thank you raccoons are very happy to take care of the crayfish in the river which is very welcome for conservationists most of the vupa crayfish are descended from an American species which is endangering indigenous species through an imported disease in the north of the baggishus land near Wilfred a completely new Rocky landscape has been created by man since the end of the 19th century [Music] ago there was a tropical ocean here where corals built up huge reefs their fossilized remains in the form of limestone and Dolomite Rock are still being quarried today the clear waters of the decommissioned quarries are home nowadays to a host of perch [Music] the man-made Lakes have become a natural Paradise as have the rocky slopes surrounding them the owl has long understood that its young are very well protected here the disadvantage on The Cliff face unlike in trees the young can only leave the nest using their own wing power [Music] [Music] flying is one thing finding a safe landing place is something else [Music] the last one doesn't want to be left alone foreign courage [Music] we've been doing for ages [Music] apart from water it's Forest that typifies the burgasus land today it takes up about a third of the area the forest management is increasingly moving from Spruce to deciduous trees and in more and more places it's leaving dead trees to rot naturally on the edges of the deciduous forests Hazel bushes are spreading again good news for the Hazel dormouse blackberries are also on the menu along with the nuts [Music] the sugary fruits are ideal for putting on a layer of fat ready for hibernation and it's a long hibernation here at least seven months actually the Hazel dormouse is a relative of the edible Dormouse both rodents noted for their long months of sleep in winter [Music] is still relatively rare in the Burgess land because species-rich Forest edges and hedges are only gradually increasing [Music] as recently as 150 years ago there was much less forest in the bag's just land than there is today for one thing the many forges needed large quantities of charcoal then there was mining and wood pasturage broad areas of forest disappeared Heath and more land spread nowadays heathland areas are rare and add variety to the landscape very different animals can live here than in the forests different plants grow producing different fruit from time immemorial heathland has resulted from human activity now it's humans who are ensuring their survival preventing them from reverting to Forest that's how warmth loving species like the sand lizard have found a home in the bagusa slant [Music] they feed on insects and spiders under especially fond of fat grubs [Music] the male wears a bright green Garb whereas the female and the young are more soberly dressed [Music] due on Plants generally provides all they need to drink foreign animals they have to fill up on warmth especially in the morning hours until the next shower comes along [Music] [Music] at least 800 millimeters of rain falls in the burgitious land every year up to 1500 millimeters in the Uplands the arrival of autumn is usually heralded by downpours foreign by the burgers land emerges again in all its beauty [Music] the Autumn Reigns fill up the streams that have dwindled to a trickle in summer and ensures replenishment at least until now in times of climate change the dry periods are lasting longer the rainfall is heavier some animals will disappear others will be added [Music] so far the veil tile Reservoir can still fulfill its task and supply around 200 000 people with drinking water [Music] The Feathered Anglers also find ample food here for most of the year foreign [Music] black storks have also joined in recognizable by their dark beaks it won't be till next year before they're as bright red as their parents [Music] [Music] they need to build up their strength for a long journey the gray Heron will spend the winter here but the black stalks will soon be heading off to Africa [Music] thank you just a few weeks later the landscape has lost its flamboyant Autumn color winter comes early in the back slant and transforms it into a frosted Wonderland [Music] The Damp air means that mist and [ __ ] Frost are particularly frequent foreign S A lot it also snows quite often too at least as long as it's cold enough winter in the burgessland is relatively mild typical of regions where the climate is shaped by the Atlantic [Music] it's rare for the streams to freeze over completely raccoons don't hibernate at this time of year when plants are wisened berries and nuts have been eaten up mice are tucked away under the snow and birds nests are empty they're very much dependent on the streams albino Tawny owl a genuine Rarity watches the raccoons efforts [Music] foreign [Music] s are masters of adaptation and have long moved into towns and cities as well but Landscapes like the bagisha slant correspond most closely to their natural requirements wherever they can whenever they wish they prefer to live near water and feed on all it has to offer some scientists believe that a raccoon's Paws become even more sensitive when they're wet so they're even better able to feel for food [Music] things only really get difficult if the streams actually freeze solid but climate change makes that more and more unlikely for the American immigrant the bagishus land is an ideal new home whether it's welcome here or not [Music] water and Forest half-timbered buildings slate tradition and a rich Animal Kingdom a region in which so much is combined naturally the baggage has land [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Free High-Quality Documentaries

Views: 920,845

Keywords: Free High-Quality Documentaries, HD, Full HD, Quality, Wupper, Wild Amazon, river, water, reservoirs, forests, rivers, heathlands, moors, Martens, badgers, wild boars, hares, roe deer, red deer, black grouse, hazel deer, wollves, lizards, bats, snakes, Bergisches Land, cave, crystal clear, flora, fauna

Id: UdFRxW5jvHE

Length: 51min 47sec (3107 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2023