The Iron Forest - Go Wild

[Music] the northern rim of the Alps is a craggy limestone range an ancient petrified sea floor that has been folded broken and lifted sky-high by Titanic forces [Music] for millions of years water has shaped this rock and for thousands macho it has been hidden under lush vegetation the mountain forests of Upper Austria make up the largest woodland area of one of Europe's most densely wooded countries these forests are full of life and history much of what men have found and built here in times past has been forgotten and fallen to ruin [Music] Nature has silently regained lost territory where furnaces and founders who inspired a thriving industry that iron era is still echoed in myth and memory as wild woods draw a veil over the land of iron even in summer the woodland between the rivers styie and ends is among the most solitary regions of Central Europe but in winter when the migrating birds have deserted the mountains and every path has vanished under feet of snow the land is shrouded in almost total silence the pygmy owl is one of the few who hold out all winter it hunts even in broad daylight small songbirds who also spend the winter in the mountain forest like chaffinches or great tips these birds live on the fruits of the forest just like the red squirrel the masses of snow that fall along the north rim of the alps tax the hardiness of the wildlife more than the actual cold here the chinois cannot count on winter pastures on windswept grassy ridges like in the high central Alps the towering windy limestone crags are free of snow but offer little in the way of food [Music] not on the prowl for prey this male Lynx is looking for a partner it's the mating season and now the calls of this otherwise secretive cat echo through the forest practically extinct for almost a century the Lynx is seen once more from time to time in the Alps when forests are allowed to grow wild there is hope that Europe's largest cat might come back to stay Lynx is are quite particular about their habitat they look for large ancient forests with both conifers and hardwoods they need sufficient prey and especially in the case of this male a chance to find a partner when the sun's first Ray's brightened the forest valleys it's hard to say whether this is late winter or early spring until a loud and sudden answer Wells up from the deep all winter the numerous cast Springs in the canyons lie dry and still but as soon as the snow up on the high slopes begins to melt the waters come gushing from the lower outlets of elaborate cave systems in the cast rivers do not begin as small creeks they start big a female salamander has just released her larvae into the icy water salamanders are born with gills after a few weeks they leave the water with fully developed lungs in the damp mossy limestone gullies helix snails congregate in spring these animals are hermaphrodites male and female in one so they can fertilize each other's eggs as they made each penetrates the other's skin with a minut sharp hook that holds them together for a slow dance that lasts four hours you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when by mid-june the last snow has disappeared from the mountaintops many of these powerful Springs will run dry but heavy summer rain storms may make can flow again for a few spring weeks the forest floor is sprinkled with a wealth of flowers they must blossom and bear fruit before the dark canopy of the beech forest shuts out the sunlight in the course of the warm season botanical gems like this rare orchid gleamed briefly on the forest floor for more than 50 generations the fate of this landscape it's woods and rivers and of its inhabitants was closely tied to a mystic mountain [Music] layer-by-layer gallery by gallery thousands of miners dug out the all from this iron mountain and the iron brought work to thousands more [Music] for centuries the fiery smoke of molten iron filled the valleys around the iron mountain this was the cradle and heartland of the Habsburg Empire's heavy industry from the Middle Ages until this century the rivers were lined with furnaces and iron meals [Music] in periods of peace steel tools were exported from here to far beyond Austria's borders in times of war entire armies were supplied with weapons from here [Music] [Music] for generations the powerful beat of iron hammers set the region's rhythm men were shaping iron but the iron all associates the people and the landscape part of the limestone apps is literally called the scythe range after the numerous scythe Mills whose hunger for charcoal greatly affected the forests until the 19th century wood was as essential for iron making as the ore itself the furnaces were fired with enormous amounts of charcoal that came from the mountain forests although total exploitation was finally prevented by law natural woodland all but disappeared and was replaced by man-made forests [Applause] ten million trees now grow in the area of limestone National Park for the greater part this sea of green is a patchwork of manmade forests some of them quite old most of these mountain sides and valleys wordy and reforested as early as the Middle Ages but in the labyrinth of Palace Kenyans and gulches there are still islands of wild forest as wild today as they were a thousand years ago a wealth of plant and animal life has survived in such places and from here many species are spreading out again [Music] during the mating season capital ease need forests with tall old trees and little or no underbrush a fighting arena requires clear space the hens watch the male's fight each hen chooses just one partner from among the rivals and the more victories he has won the better after mating the hens retreats to areas where they can find cover and food in order to build a well-hidden nest on the ground and hatch their chicks the monotony of manmade forests hardly meets the complex needs of these large birds they can only thrive where the forest is in a fairly natural state paradoxically the clearest indication of a living forest is its deadwood in fact a dead tree seems to be much more alive than a living one for our for its death it becomes home to a profusion of organisms the white backed woodpecker is one of the rarest birds in the Alps and in all of Europe it gathers insect larvae for its young and most of these insects live in dead wood only in natural forests through such insects and the bird that feeds on them find enough dead trees to survive woodpecker holes serve all kinds of animals as living space the fat dormouse for instance is a frequent successor to a woodpeckers family for many plants dead wood on the forest floor is like a nursery very often saplings of the dead trees own kind will sprout here young spruces for instance grow best on moist rotting timber that is being decomposed by fungi lichens and bacteria not only plants and fungi thrive on the forest floor [Music] it's a paradise for shrews with plenty of food and hiding places the tiny common shrew is a voracious hunter which devours several times its own weight of insects every day it needs to hunt day and night without food it will starve in a few hours the flat larva of a Cardinal beetle lives under the bark of dead beech trees hunting for wood eating insects when a white backed woodpecker finds a dying tree it chisels many holes into the trunk over the years such a tree may have several Bernarda mammal species at the same time in forests with plenty of dead wood the housing situation is a buyers market yet for some real estate that competition is especially hot if door mice have nightmares the bass drone of an approaching Hornet is one of them [Music] [Music] this young Hornet queen is looking for a place to found a colony and this hole looks just perfect [Music] [Music] for a hostile takeover there's no need to use one sting it's enough to have one and for the victim to know it ten weeks later in mid-summer a formidable hornet colony has established itself the Queen began alone to build a nest all by herself she laid some eggs and raised the first workers these workers then extended the nest by several stories the queen is larger than the workers by about a third she lays eggs into the fresh cells sexless workers develop from the eggs only later in the year will there also be new queens capable of reproduction the eggs hatch into larvae returning from their hunting flights the workers bring home flies and other insects to feed to them [Music] [Music] anyone entering the nest must pass by a century before the larvae are fed the flies must be tuned to pulp as soon as the larvae are large enough they cover their cells with webs and change into immobile pupae the largest will emerge as Queens whereas the Queens will live through the winter and found new colonies in spring the workers will die when the cold weather comes between their hunting flights the workers gather building material they need standing Deadwood of a very particular consistency the wood is chewed to pulp mixed with saliva and applied in layers each hornet colony is a tiny paper Factory [Music] [Music] in late summer the nest has reached its maximum size approximately that of a soccer ball it consists of several hundred cells neatly arranged in several stories when on hot summer days the air in the nest becomes stale the workers fan fresh air inside they also carry in water and sprinkle it over the larvae the outer shell of the nest can be opened for better ventilation and closed again as needed these fascinating woodland insects are feared by many people but unjustly so they are very peaceful and if a hornet that feels threatened should sting the consequence is no worse than a bees sting Hornets are endangered in Europe because they have lost much of their natural habitat the Wildwood my tea old beech woods are like cathedrals and they too have become rare [Music] the female dormouse that could not stand its ground against a hornet colony was pregnant it found a new home a black woodpeckers burrow and gave birth to a litter at the age of four weeks the little rodents roam about all night during the day they sleep as if drugged late spring snows often break large branches off beech trees on the fragrant broken surface a veritable giant of a beetle has taken possession it's a male Rosalia Alpena the very rare Alpen bach 4 centimetres long he's not the only one around his long antennae have registered the presence of another male like two knights in armor the pair begin their duels sooner or later the scent of the brokenwood will also attract a female then each of the male's would like to be alone to greet her a female has landed distinct from the males in that her antenna is shorter the male spends no time on preliminaries and comes straight to the point another pair is also very busy at their mating ground is ill-chosen such an abundance of fresh wood must be paradise 12 and Bach beetles they need freshly broken beechwood to lay their eggs in the charcoal burners however have different plans immediately after mating the female searches for a small crack in the wood to lay an egg in the larvae will live inside the wood for three to four years until it develops into a mature beetle but freshly cut beechwood left to dry in the forest is a treacherous and deadly trap for this once prolific but now endangered species especially in tidy forests with little or no natural Deadwood until the beginning of the 20th century hundreds of charcoal kilns were constantly burning in Austrian forests the burners lived in small huts way out in the woods to keep an eye on the fire day and night charcoal was much easier to transport from remote mountain forests than beechwood until the iron industry started to use mineral coal the demand for charcoal was enormous and eat away at European forests at a frightening rate [Music] the most precious landscape jewels of the limestone National Park are well hidden away difficult to see even from the air a labyrinth of narrow canyons cuts through the mountains only two decades ago these picturesque canyons 200 kilometres of wild rivers were to be drowned in a giant hydroelectric reservoir today they're protected and recognized as being among Austria's most beautiful natural scenery [Music] when the bright midday Sun floods the Borgias with light millions of mayflies dance above the water they have risen from the bottom of the river and a flying up river to mate on such days the yellow wagtail does not hunt on the riverbanks as usual but in the air this bird needs wild natural rivers to survive just like the Dipper both species find in these canyons all they need pure water rivers with large rocks and gravel banks plenty of water insects and shaded Riverside rock walls where their nests are safe from predators and high water here the wagtail and the dipper our next-door neighbors their nests being only a few meters apart the dippers nest is spherical artfully woven from moss under an overhanging rock [Applause] when the young dippers are three weeks old their mother calls to them to make them leave the nest the great jump into the world out there must be terrifying it may take several days until the last of the nest wings can summon up enough courage to leave its shelter although the young dippers are able to swim before they can fly they're hesitant to enter the water as soon as the young have left the nest the mother keeps diving in front of them returning every time with fresh food and encouraging them to try it for themselves a short distance down river where the valley widens and the banks are not as rocky a pair of kingfishers has had a nest for many years in contrast of a dipper who searches the river bottom for insects the Kingfisher torpedo is fished from the air sometimes these birds hunt from midair mostly however they launch their attacks from branches this pair has dug a nesting burrow about one-and-a-half metres long into the soft clay of a steep river bank immediately after feeding the young the parents take a quick dip to clean their feathers soiled in the narrow tunnel like the dipper kingfishers often read twice sometimes even three times in a summer season as the summer is short the female may even lay eggs while the first nest earrings are still being fed for these birds summer is not a time of recreation raising five hungry children is extremely stressful nevertheless this dipper will start its next family in only a few days wag tails and dippers did not always have the rivers to themselves as they do today for centuries small and large rivers were highways for raw materials wood and iron many large rafts would pass down the river ends every day [Music] [Music] a river had to be big to carry rafts and ships but millions of trees were cut in mountain areas miles away from the Great Rivers [Music] [Music] [Music] in the narrow canyons dams were built of timber and rock twice a year in spring and in autumn these dams were blown open to create artificially high water thousands of logs were washed through the canyons many miles down to larger rivers the Lumberjacks had to avoid by any means they could logs jamming and blocking the flood it was a dangerous job and many lives were lost [Music] no other region in the Austrian Alps has such an abundance of water as the northern limestone Alps and no other region is as arid as their high plateaus there is rain enough as heavy clouds from the Atlantic push against the northernmost barrier of the Alps yet in spite of extreme amounts of precipitation the higher regions of the limestone Alps are a moonscape central Europe's largest desert area limestone rock is so porous that all the rainwater immediately drains into the depths of the mountains for large plant eaters like the Shinhwa this does not seem very inviting however the craggy ridges do offer them the seclusion and sense of security they need in summer Shinhwa mothers and their young kids gather in large herds such kindergartens are only found in very remote high places where they feel safe the only threat here is from the air day after day the Golden Eagle patrols the sky in search of a sick or wounded kid as soon as he spots a kid that can't keep up with the herd he will attack the Golden Eagle hunts by surprise it stands very little chance of snatching a kid from an attentive herd with many eyes constantly observing the sky alone with her kid a mother will immediately lead it to cover when an Eagle is near [Music] 3,000 feet below the golden eagle another large bird glides over the canopy of the beech forest [Music] on a rock pillar high above the forest floor but still in the shade of the canopy a black stalk a shy and rare bird has made its nest black stalks have gradually extended their Eastern European habitat into Central Europe since the 30s and 40s the parents hunt for frogs fish and water insects within a radius of almost 10 miles in contrast to many other birds they do not feed their chicks individually but empty the food from their large crop into the nest for the young birds to feed on unlike its white cousin the black stork leads a secret of life and therefore needs large undisturbed forests birds of this size take a long time to develop after brooding the eggs for an entire month the parents feed their young in the nest for eight to ten weeks only by the middle or end of August will the young birds learn to fly and a few weeks later they set out on their long journey to Africa deep in the forests of the limestone Alps ghost mines and remnants of ghost towns can still be found slow decay erases the memory of a once bustling industry of settlements were a hundred miners families once lived of River dams bridges mine shafts and even cable cars [Music] nature is again filling the man-made gaps but not everything that stirs in these ruins really belongs to the forest the east school appium snake only moved into the forest after man had created large and numerous clearings and built settlements these beautiful and harmless reptiles often lived and still live in and around human structures nor is the stone Martin at home in the dense forest islands of human civilization lured this inhabitant of the rocky timber les heights deep into the woodland for decades hardly a human footstep has disturbed the silence of such forgotten places the forest is closing in on the relics and it's only a question of time until the last of them will have disappeared the stone Martin is a hunter and snakes are among his prey this one would be an easy catch in spite of its size but the Marten does not know it he's young and inexperienced [Music] Lufkin save lives the feigned attack and a cloud of pungent scent have alarmed the Marten just long enough for the snake to make an escape to survive the Marten will have to learn fast the very next encounter may end differently the summer green of the beaches has lost its Sheen but before it all goes bleak the forest burns in a final flare of colors that do full justice to the land of iron [Music] on such crisp clear autumn days the Shinhwa climbed to the highest ridges the bucks and our restless and aggressive ready to discharge the energy saved up all summer storming towards arrival or standing defensively with lowered horns they defend their mating grounds chasing each other away from the females such conflicts often have a fatal outcome with one of these otherwise expert climbers falling to his death as each year comes to its end it's time to draw up a balance year after year the question is raised what of the links [Music] it is an unforgettable experience to hear a lynx is mating call when a male patrols the vast woodlands in late winter [Music] the secretive hunter is sometimes heard but hardly ever seen a track in the snow is a lucky find sometimes the remnants of a kill are discovered sufficient evidence that the Lynx has at least visited the area [Music] will he come to stay will he once more establish a territory in these mountain forests will the Lynx be able to multiply it takes at least two for a start [Music] an evil like this is almost too good to be true yet it already exists elsewhere so why not again in limestone National Park Austria's largest mountain forest here the much persecuted cat is safe from hunters more than that the Lynx is return would be most welcome one spree after a hundred long years the miracle no one would have thought possible a few years ago will surely happen not until then will we have proved that there is once more a place for wild animals in Central Europe what would better symbolize nature's return than the Lynx and what better place to demonstrate our changing attitude towards nature than limestone National Park the wilderness that was once the iron forest [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 1,102,694

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, natura, naturaleza, documentales, wildlife, iron, forest, vienna, austria, labyrinthine, national park

Id: ziV_OBwu3E4

Length: 49min 9sec (2949 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 30 2015