Germany's Wild Wolves: As they really are | Full Documentary

foreign [Music] [Music] some would say even for humans [Music] the weakest in the pack is The Whipping Boy it only survives by extreme subservience the dominant pair rule over the others these phenomena have often been observed in captivity but does this struggle for Supremacy in the pack also exist in the wild [Music] for many years it wasn't possible to study wolves in Germany in their natural surroundings now they've been back 10 years and are spreading out film shows how wolves live in the wild footage of a Kind never before shot in Europe [Music] since 2003 Sebastian Kerner has been documenting the Wolves return with his camera and at every attempt the watchword is patience at first the only Wildlife he can film is what the Wolves usually regard as prey red and roe deer now and then the biologist also manages to catch wild boar on camera like the cautious rare wolves they are mostly active at night um hitherto the behavior of wolves has mostly been studied in captivity in the 1970s the Swedish biologist Eric ziemann bottled red wolf pups and was able to show that wolves are socially organized animals with a wide range of forms of expression [Applause] Seaman also observed that his wolves formed a strict hierarchy once the leader of the pack tried to rebel against him Alexander when Alexander got down from my shoulders he went some distance away and sent Mark to Bush then so as not to lose my wolfish face as it were I had no choice but to go to another Bush and urinate on that [Music] on the other side of the Atlantic someone else had begun studying wolves even before Eric zemen [Music] from the start however American scientist David meech has been observing wolves in the wild hmm to do so he had to follow them to the remotest places like the Arctic tundra meech is one of the world's leading experts on the behavior of wild wolves an ellsmere island what makes it so beneficial to advantageous to study wolves error is that their their team they're not afraid of humans whereas every other place they're very afraid of people so I can just sit there and watch their natural behavior at first David meets tried to get his observations to fit the thinking of the time on pack hierarchy and so we thought when I did the original book that that's the normal behavior of wolves but as I learn more and more about wolves I found out that really that's not the way packs form [Music] this is no wolf in the Canadian wilderness but in the German state of saxonia at the end of the 1990s conservation measures started to take effect now there are populations in most European countries with about a hundred wild wolves in Germany [Music] appleization idyllic Countryside borders on gigantic open cast Brown coal mines [Music] scientists from lupus Wildlife Consulting are on the trail of Germany's wolves they're collecting data for the saxonian environment Ministry the danger of mistaking dog for Wolf tracks is quite large so geyserclude takes special care to document the tracks otherwise it would be hard for other experts to evaluate her data Giza is sure the returnees will stay the Wolves will spread across Germany and settle in other federal states which are at the moment will free and I'm convinced that they will become a normal part of the wildlife in many parts of Germany in future for many years this was not the case the last wolf in Germany was killed about 150 years ago they returned across the Polish German border and were caught on camera by the German border Authority [Applause] after crossing the river order they slowly gained a foothold [Music] the areas they settled in seemed at first glance unusual if not unsuitable the moscower height in military training area in saxonia Winter 2001 Giza Klute is looking for traces patience rewarded the first wolf tracks on German groundswiper no doubt no no doubts Giza can scarcely believe her luck this is really sensational [Music] several months were to pass before these tracks led to the first wolf [Music] a wolf catching a mouse back then these pictures were A Feast for the media from saxonia the Wolves went on to colonize rural areas of Germany and have even been cited close to the big cities of Berlin and Hamburg and their numbers are rising [Music] it is thus becoming ever more important to know how these large Predators behave and spread at the beginning of June Giza Klute found traces of a wolf pup and at once informed Sebastian Kerner [Music] Sebastian has never filmed such young pups at just six weeks old they're already roaming around on their own [Music] if there is a hierarchy among wild wolves then surely it must be visible at an early stage [Music] but maybe these pups are just too young [Music] at lupus all the data on the lization Wolves is collected Giza discusses with her colleague Reinhardt wherewolf pups have been identified this year this allows Erica to deduce where the Wolves territories are located this map shows where there's been evidence of pups and where their presence has been proved from the last monitoring year the places where we found this evidence are as a rule at the center of the wolf's territories where the individual packs bring up their pups a wolf Pack's territory in Los Asia covers about 250 square kilometers in late summer Giza and ilka are looking for a den in which a female bore four to eight pups at the beginning of May the pack has long since left and the biologists want to know how deep she had dug well-equipped ilka crawls into the den there's something lying here maybe some leftover food now I'm measuring the chamber 60 centimeters wide one meter long and 45 centimeters high the entrance alone is two meters long a successful day for ilkan Giza Sebastian however has to go on looking for wolf pups [Music] Once Upon a Time Brown coal was mined here now it is hoped that a new lization Lakeland will fuel an upsurge in tourism the region even gave the local wolves their name the Lakeland pack it is August and at the meeting point the so-called Rendezvous site the three and a half month old pups are waiting to be fed Sebastian finally has some new subjects for his camera and can further pursue the question of hierarchy among wild wolves maybe the older pups teach the younger ones the ropes the biologist decides to call the young female with a slight squint silverblick she seems particularly cheeky over and over again zilba Blick entices her siblings with a half-chewed mouse only to their not handed over after all even though she's obviously not the strongest in the group foreign by way of greeting and other strong pup is given some roughhouse by its siblings only then can it join in silverblick has found an old ball probably lost by some dog being taken for a walk this play fighting also has nothing to do with establishing a hierarchy and those on the bottom poke those up top if the horse play should suddenly stop thank you at the end of September zilber Blick and her siblings almost look like fully grown wolves Sebastian is pretty certain that there is no hierarchy among them but what about older wolves how many adult wolves does a pack actually have [Music] once again Sebastian needs all his patience not until the following February does he managed to film The Adult wolves in the Lakeland pack the she-wolf is an old acquaintance years before she was leader of another pack now with a new mate Sunny has founded the Lakeland pack Sebastian gives Sunny's mate the name Rufus because of his red coloring he is followed shortly by two of the pups that were born last May a big male greets Rufus the sun confirms to the father that he is still dependent on him for his welfare and who is still the liveliest pup tenaciously zilba Blake demands that her siblings play tag with her and finally her persistence pays off [Music] wow the widely accepted image that wolves form large packs containing many adult animals is thus proved wrong a wild wolf pack is usually a family quite similar to a human family in fact two wolves meet mate occupy a territory and then start a family foreign [Music] the Lakeland pact relocates its Rendezvous site to a large field of rye [Music] the Red Deer does don't seem bothered until silver Blick turns up just the right thing for the cocky she-wolf still less than a year old the outcome of the chase is unknown by evening peace and calm have returned [Music] one of silverblick's Brothers is still occupied with smaller tidbits and tries to catch a mouse the young male is looking for its siblings and above all its parents and what's this an experienced wolf would have gone long ago the young animal is nervous [Music] uncertainly it calls its family [Music] [Music] all right okay but the only animals in the vicinity are a few grazing roe deer [Music] [Music] one of silverblick's sisters is drugged and fitted with a GPS collar which will now send text messages on the animal's location [Applause] the German Federal agency of nature conservation has asked the lupus biologists to find out how long young wolves stay with their parents whether they migrate and if so where to Giza and ilka called the GPS wolf Mona [Music] one week after getting the collar Mona apparently feels just dandy [Music] it is now June a month ago in a well-hidden den the Lakeland mother wolf Sunny gave birth to another litter Sebastian has not seen the little ones yet [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] silver Blick turns up she's limping maybe she got hurt in an altercation with a red deer the fox does the sensible thing and clears off wolves are very intolerant of their smaller cousins the young wolves now over a year old are collecting valuable experiences still in the safety of the parental territory a Kestrel has spotted a cricket someone else also seems interested but the cricket doesn't have to worry no longer a pup but not yet an adult sometimes the life of a so-called gearling can be pretty boring something is happening in the Rye field Harvest Time [Music] noise and dust from dawn to dusk mother wolf Sunny inspects the State of Affairs [Music] shortly afterwards she's joined by most of the rest of her pack [Music] Rufus the father wolf [Music] one big brother takes care of his little sister [Music] Blake has only just missed her pack she's no longer limping and makes a strong healthy impression then her sister Mona turns on silverbrick takes up a submissive position towards her sister so is there a competitive hierarchy in a wild wolf pack after all it was pretty tough the way Mona rode roughshod over her sister that quarrels between siblings are quite normal we're not talking about a long-term hierarchy in the pack the only hierarchy that exists is between the parents and their offspring with the parents dominating there isn't anything like a competitive ranking whereby individual adult wolves try and fight their way to the top took him [Music] the morning after the Harvest the conflict between Mona and silverbrick seems forgotten [Music] for Sebastian and the scientists it's becoming ever clearer that the popular school of thought about hierarchies in wolf packs in captivity does not apply in the wild this year Sunny is bringing up only three pups at 10 years the mother of the Lakeland pack is already fairly old for a wolf in the wild the pups can't deal with the bone this big at last Sunny regurgitates the meat Big Brother again brings up the rear [Music] Early Autumn at the brown coal mine [Music] a one and a half year old female plays with her younger siblings this babysitting is good practice for a successful later Life as a mother the young female is strong she could already look for her own territory so why do her parents tolerate her for so long in their hunting grounds the answer is as simple as it is practical while the older Offspring look after their little brothers and sisters the parents can hunt or rest another aspect that made the wolf so suitable to become man's best friend yelling wolves help their parents dogs help their masters and mistresses when the car from the security company approaches big sister organizes an orderly retreat at some point it is time to leave the parents but when and where do the young wolves migrate to because this is Alan mt3 whom we caught on the 13th of March 2009 and fitted with a GPS collar first he spent six weeks at home with the pack and then at the end of April he left and migrated at the age of 12 months and surprisingly he quickly migrated all the way to Belarus he covered a total distance of 1550 kilometers just before Alan we fitted one of his brothers Carl with a collar and he did something fascinating in March 2009 he made an Excursion of about 150 kilometers from home and then came back after that he was mainly at home but went on all kinds of expeditions in different directions from his parents territory and had a good look around in other territories and covered nearly 200 square kilometers on the way office in Germany encounters between wolf and human are ever tall only dangerous for the animal since the year 2026 wolves have been run over [Music] this young female didn't die as Roadkill there's a round hole here since the year 2008 illegal shootings have been registered in Germany the actual number of cases is probably much higher foreign [Music] the military training ground at Alton Garbo near magdeborg home to the first wolf pack in Germany outside lusatia here too the wildlife does not live in constant fear of the Wolves vigilantro deer disappear quickly into the undergrowth while boar sometimes even turn the tables and attack wolves in order to protect their young High summer [Music] the Wolves meeting place in Alton grabo is next to a pond the pups are out on their own a refreshing bath is just the thing foreign [Music] at first there's no sign of the older wolves [Music] in the end the father misses his offspring by just a few minutes their scent still hangs in the grass this penetrating look made to some people seem evil others say that wolves can see straight into the soul biologists however regard wolves as a normal and important part of our wildlife back in appaloosasia in the territory to the east Giza and ilka check a camera trap that is triggered automatically at night it takes pictures with an invisible infrared Flash 56 56ers and 65 battery the photos are stored on a memory card look here he comes hmm that's the mail and he's reacting to Jacques look he's having a week and now he's marking above it look here she comes the female pairs of wolves regularly mark their territory it has to be big enough to enable the parents to catch enough prey every year to support a family when The Offspring are old enough they migrate that's why there are relatively few wolves over a wide area the pair go on patrol there is no howling to announce the hunt and no yellings are called to join in the wolves have to roam their territory until they find prey that isn't looking out properly usually prey that is Young sick injured or very old the Stag notices the wolves in time and immediately move some distance away not every encounter between wolf and potential prey leads to an attack far from it but to wild wolves behave similarly in other parts of the world to find out Sebastian travels to North America to the oldest National Park in the world Yellowstone Mighty even be able to film wolves on the hunt here [Music] humans don't hunt in Yellowstone that's why the Elks and other Wildlife are also active during the day and don't mind being watched wolves were eradicated in the park to protect the peaceful herbivores which promptly multiplied unchecked and destroyed their own habitat to bring nature back into balance wolves were reintroduced in 1995. laughs winter is the hardest season for Elk and the best for wolves oh six the mother wolf of the Lamar pack tests an elk can she attack without risk but the elk cow is determined to defend itself David meech assumes that the prey doesn't live in constant fear of the Wolves if you were to look at the life of an individual prey animal you want to survives being young most of these prey animals live for a long long long time and it isn't until their life's end that they end up getting killed by those so they really don't have I don't know why they would have a fear because they survive survive survive survive survive it's hard to believe that they're stressed the cow is surrounded but do wolves only hunt in packs it's soon obvious that for the young Wolves of the Lamar pack this is more of a game they still have a lot to learn foreign the father wolf turns away in the meantime the mother wolf is moving around on her own again she spotted some potential prey an elk calf she quickly wrestles The Elk to the ground to avoid dangerous hoof kicks within two minutes the prey is dead foreign the mother didn't need the pack to hunt successfully experienced parent wolves usually hunt on their own or as a pair two adult animals can provide for their large families well enough the female brings her family to the dead prey do the adults nip at the Young to keep them away so they can eat first no because the parents want their offspring to grow up big and strong so why is the idea of a bitterly competitive hierarchy in the wolf pack so enduring there is the whole idea in humans of leaders and people who are dominant to others in that and I I think that when they see this in wolves they seem to see a similarity or something and yet in a lot of cases the Wolves seem to be more peaceful than humans in a lot of respects [Music] a cold February day in luzacia it's mating time for the wolves GPS wolf Carl has grown into a fine specimen of a young adult The Wolf on the ice with his family is the territory owner and also fitted with a GPS collar [Music] audaciously Carl puts down a scent Mark right in the middle of his rival's living room the wound in the face May well have come from a fight with Carl the message of the pack is clear we don't want you here [Music] [Music] Carl has lost the fight for the foreign territory and now has to look for his own hunting grounds ilker Reinhardt will continue to monitor his progress I'm very happy to see that things have developed so positively that was by no means certain at the beginning from one pack in the year 2000 and now 11 years later there are eight packs in the region that's certainly a success story it's especially interesting and satisfying to be able to track individual works over a period of years and observe their history as it unfolds and to really understand how wolves live and how they live here in the region back to the Lakeland Pax Rendezvous site Mona is now over two years old and still lives at home two one-year-old sisters are close behind together they wait for their parents foreign [Music] weeks and months spent in the immediate vicinity of wild wolves Sebastian now knows they aren't as we once thought individuals fighting for Supremacy in the pack wild wolves are above all friendly family creatures [Music] thank you [Music] in Los Asia the ancient interplay between hunters and hunted continues there are only ever as many wolves as the amount of prey can support [Music] the prey even benefits the strongest and cleverest survive and pass on their genes to the Next Generation foreign the Aging mother wolf Sunny had another litter this year as gay as a Clute sees it it's up to all of us how life were the Wolves develops long-term competence between humans and wolves requires a willingness on our part to tolerate the fact that the wolves are here and to solve any problems that may arise we have to be constructive and open to the fact that this aspect of nature is returning to Germany in Deutschland um 18 months after losing the howling contest Carl has done it he has his own territory and a mate and his first major deed has been to Father six pups Germany's wild wolves will continue to spread so far their return has been a success story and a chance for nature with it is to be hoped many new chapters to come [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Get.factual

Views: 81,763

Keywords: Documentary, Documentary series, Full Documentary, Nature, science, history, biography, biographical documentary, historical documentary, wildlife, wildlife film, wildlife documentary, science documentary, nature documentary, Documentaries, get factual, get.factual, getfactual, get factual documentary, wolves, germany, wild germany, wild berlin, wild wolves, wolves in europe, europe, wildlife in germany, german wildlife, germany nature, wolf, wild animals, wild wolves film, wolves film

Id: Z1yrJqfyAB0

Length: 50min 14sec (3014 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023