The Meteorite - Chiemgau, A Changing Landscape 1/2 | Go Wild

rare Eurasian curlers are a common sight here and they've been joined by some exotic newcomers flamingos in the waters of the king GAO I call the wildlife here they have to deal with violent Stormy Weather more frequently what does the future hold for this extraordinary natural region [Music] according to Nature photographer Andreas hartel this area at the foot of the Bavarian Alps between Tron and Inn is one of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable for me is simply the most beautiful places where I love to go when I'm out around the lake with my camera I think my God it doesn't get much better than this I see animals I see plants but I just don't find anywhere else and I come here as often as I can you can't ever really get enough of such beautiful things yeah a realm created in the last ice age a few thousand years ago the landscape here consisted of bam Marine ridges and Bleak melt water valleys this also gave rise to the edge that himhofer Lake District Northwest of the kimsey a chain of kettle holes filled with groundwater and then gradually the first humans began to settle here as historian Barbara tells us being settled for several thousands of years and we need to remember that the population was significantly smaller than today the first phase was the hunter-gatherer group and then of course came agriculture as well around 2500 years ago humans encircled occult side near toddlarink using a wall of Earth and wooden posts [Music] an Epoch in which a remarkable incident took place in the Kingo are also their predecessors here witnessed a truly blood-curdling occurrence in this region a massive media strike we're standing right here at the greatest Testament to this event Jesus namely the tutancy which fills the huge crater left by the meteor if a cosmic Boulder really did crash down to earth here and vaporize and that's also been confirmed recently by geophysical measurements taken by International scientists then the devastation must have been considerable [Music] fire and tidal waves swept the landscape had a single blow live for the population of the king GAO was turned upside down upheavals left traces that are still around today that's a complete contrast to the other upper Bavarian Lakes where there's plenty of evidence of such houses we don't know whether this is due to the frequent recurring flooding or whether there's another reason one possible explanation could even be the meteor strike here at the queensay that could have simply destroyed all the possible dwellings yeah meanwhile however there is a kind of Lake dwelling at the kimsey the boat houses and the constant change that happens here assigns every Lake resident a place in Autumn vast numbers of fish seek shelter under the houses shelter from all kinds of predators looking to fatten themselves up for the winter in the past Shoals of young fish used to hide under Fallen trees in the water but there's none of them left so they swim under the quaint boathouses protected from Gray herons and other Hunters like the large maganza the northern pike also lies in weight for them [Music] European eel also tries his luck but the swarm of young Danube bleaks common roaches and vimbers bewilder the attacker [Music] the large maganza is an expert fish eater thanks to its hooked serrated beak a bird like this needs 300 grams of fish per day which must be painstakingly sought out and caught here on the other hand is an opportunist [Music] the common Mohan is perhaps the least gifted fish catcher on the lake he doesn't even have webbed feet [Music] but he has a big appetite [Music] just like the great crested grebe which thanks to having lobed toes can swim and dive foreign but normally still comes away empty-handed and the more hen while all the plumed professionals are put off by the swarming effect the Mohan makes a sudden stat and is successful [Music] [Music] but it's not only the animal life that's attracted by the charms of the kimsey today who wants to go swimming actually and I've never been here although I'm a local so I'm taking a look today and then I want to take a dip in the water and go for a drink the best place in the Kinko really is that's a must-seeing it's just great you have everything here that you need so I really love this spot I also found my home here the view is beautiful the people are friendly the water is mostly actually nice I think the keems here is just awesome had almost 80 square kilometers the Kim's a the heart of the Keem GAO is the third largest lake in Germany and has always been enormously popular the lake islands are major attractions with monasteries and Royal palaces drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists each year [Music] it wasn't always like this even the most famous incomer to the king GAO took some persuading guide knows all about the fascinating history of the region King Ludwig II really wasn't so impressed by the landscape here he loved the Romantic Mountain Vistas like a Neuschwanstein but the solitary location of the heaven insul that was the right place for his castle the king Clinic had the island in 1873 and then five years later in 1878 the building began after seven years the money ran out even your construction was discontinued [Music] back then no one could have imagined how effective this secluded Palace would be in attracting visitors foreign [Music] and even before the time of the Celts the first people had settled in the king gown discoveries of hunting weapons from the Neanderthal period have proved that the land was populated as far back as the Ice Age probably since there was plenty of game around to hunt during the Bronze Age one of the most important trade routes out of the Alpine Foothills came through here new types of tools and weapons were being fashioned from bronze and a new era was beginning the land around the kimsay has probably been continuously settled since then up to the present day so how is it possible that such a heavily visited populated area can continue to support a diverse wildlife [Music] in the year 15 BC the Romans arrived from Over the Alps and trade and culture in the king GAO developed further nature however kept on presenting the human settlers with challenges the early humans attached great importance to Natural phenomena in particular exceptional incidents as they had to try sir somehow integrate these into their view of the world what we explained through scientific theory today had to be built into a holistic world view and a belief system back then which is not to say that certain celestial events today leave us completely unmoved at a so-called blood moon the sun earth and moon are aligned and our Blue Planet throws a shadow over the moon because the light of the sun is refracted and our atmosphere the light which reaches the back of the earth throws mostly long wave red residual light onto the moon until the moon moves out of the complete shadow of the earth after an hour or so our Fascination for such events is unchanged even if we know today that there is an ultimate explanation for all natural phenomena like for the autumnal coloring of leaves which occurs when trees break down their precious chlorophyll when the tree finally sheds its leaves it's making provision for the arrival of the cold season when there is a lack of available water a 100 year old beech tree evaporates around 400 liters of water per day something the tree tries to avoid in winter while many life forms are preparing themselves to survive the winter right now others are concentrating on breeding the brown trout for example a male with his spawning hook mouth or kipe and a smaller female float beside their self-built breeding layer they're literally quivering with excitement brown trout are among the Autumn spawners attracted by Falling temperatures in the already cold water of the foothill streams they beat the breeding Lair down even further then suddenly they released their row and melt into the water the fertilized eggs sink down into the ground which has been loosened and scoured by the beating of the fish [Music] pier in the waters of the king GAO are not the same ones as before this time it's not celestial events but rather the actions of humans which are to blame for the changes fish have been intentionally introduced to the region including non-native species such as the eel others such as the rootless medingery have died out their spawning grounds have disappeared through siltation and pollution like here in the river alts today professional fishermen stock the lake with rare fish even if there of No economic importance in the last few decades gamekeeping and preservation Concepts have been increasingly combined as a beneficiary interest attitudes towards the bird life have also changed significantly one in the past common buzzards and Ravens were seen as pests and mercilessly persecuted today the fishermen tossed a treat or two onto the bank for them Live and Let Live our respect for Nature has increased to the benefit of many animal species winter is coming the kimgo landscape is blanketed in snow this season also brings with it a noticeable change Winters are becoming milder and snow levels falling scenes like this are far less common more and more species are adapting to the changing climate and spending the winter here like the great white Egret on the Eurasian colonel even flamingos are living here now just a few years ago these exotic thermal files wouldn't have survived a winter at the kimsa historic footage from the 1970s shows how much harsh of the cold periods were at the Kim's a not that long ago the Bavarian Lake froze over Birds who hunted for food in the shallow water would have almost starved today searching for ice on the kimsay is mostly in vain the flat rays of the winter sun illuminate these strange Boulders which slightly resemble organs these so-called hernsteiner or brainstones get their furrowed surfaces from blue green algae which form and also feed on limestone [Music] mussels also inhabit the brain stones viewing in fast motion one can see how the wandering muscles got their name foreign muscles were imported here from the Black Sea region in the mid-20th century they quickly expanded over the entire Lake much to the Delight of the many water Birds muscle Gathering is no easy matter however using sticky Bissell secretions produced by a special gland the muscles anchor themselves to the Rock the black coot has to patiently pluck at every single morsel [Music] [Music] flamingos don't eat mussels they filter Plankton from the water thank you through this variety of specialisms a diverse range of species can inhabit the same environment without the need for competition competition rather occurs between animals from the same species [Applause] black coats fight mercilessly when a rival suture appears [Applause] things are less Furious between the Great Crested Reeves over 320 types of bird have been observed at the kimsen around half of them also breed here while many birds migrate in Winter other chemgo inhabitants can be encountered the whole year round even if some of them are sometimes pretty well hidden foreign ERS of a truly detested creature [Music] it seeks shelter from Hungry Birds in dark cracks a female mosquito has slept out the winter in a rigid state now she wakes up along with an estimated 250 million of her co-species around the lake the mosquito copulated the previous year now she begins to lay her eggs and procreate Reeds only serve as a sleeping place not as a laying ground the banks of the lake would make a poor kindergarten due to the many predators lurking around the role of the mosquito in the ecosystem is often undervalued the mosquitoes are important food for lots of young birds for European Stone chats for blue throats but also for lots of species of fish like for instance the northern plate they young live almost entirely from mosquito larvae so it's also really important that the environment has not changed so much that the mosquitoes disappear because then we'd also lose the birds and the fish mosquitoes and songbirds depend entirely on one another many birds feed mostly on insects inside the Reed stalks live the larvae of the fragmite's green-eyed fly in huge numbers they're the staple diet of many reed-based birds above all the titmouse the blue throat also only sings in places with enough insects around to eat otherwise his offspring couldn't survive here in the past after 100 kilometers the windscreen was covered in insects today you can drive a thousand kilometers and the screen's totally clean at some point my Gregory Birds won't come here anymore either I wonder why they should bother flying from Africa to Central Europe when there's no more to eat here then there just won't be any swallows left still swallows at the kimsa however [Music] hear the chatty twittering of these feathered Charmers from their roosting areas sometimes in places where their little waste packages aren't totally appreciated [Music] while spring is Awakening down in the lowlands snow is still lying in the kimgar mountains the black Grouse lives here just a few decades ago the cooing noises of the mating Grouse could also be heard in the marshes around the kimsey but those days are over the Keem GAO are least noticeable in the mountains probably because the cold Rock cannot be cultivated and because there are no larger settlements this high up foreign seems to stand still here [Music] things are different in the lowlands down here hardly a square meter escapes change the gray Heron lands on a man-made Femme on the Southern Bank of the kimsen this area is a kind of accidental product which is appreciated by several animal species [Music] grass frogs can also be thankful to the area for their spawning ground their current habitat was once submerged under the surface of the king's a humans lowered the lake level unintentionally creating wet Meadows and rocks an environment in which natural processes take place just like in a true wilderness today this is a natural Conservation Area in which Hunter and Hunted invariably meet hard to take for amphibian lovers but in an undamaged habitat there are enough frogs and it will be eaten is after all part of a functioning ecosystem for the mosquito female the end is in sight areas of shallow water which are only sometimes filled are ideal for laying eggs as there are no fish around and hardly any other predators only swamp plants like Reeds compete for nutrients the marshes are of course perfect for lots of birds and for a photographer it's a special attraction if you're on the lookout for particularly beautiful bird shots whether that's the marsh Harrier the blue throat or something really special the little bitter which you can still find in the reeds just a bit bigger than the black bird they have a nest an amazing Nest right in the middle of the reefs with snow white eggs one of them always stays at the nest the male or the female when the male comes he normally brings a little gift for the female a reed stock or something to keep building the nest with and that's a total highlight when you manage to get a photo of a little bitter at the Queensland little bittens and harvest mice both are the smallest representatives of their tribes their Rarities in the Indigenous animal population and are being seen around the keems a more and more also both specialized at living around the REITs building their nests out of and among the stalks of this large native grass the great Krusty greb also loves the weeds as the hollow stalks are buoyant and good to build floating nests small fish such as the European perch formed the basic diet of the Greeks only in places with abundant food sources can species further up the food chain also reproduce mayflies appear at the queensay in Spring often as a downright Invasion on sticky hot days the Primitive insects emerge from the lake in huge numbers and alongside the large mayflies myriads of kironments [Music] on a few days in Spring the sky truly darkens when the insects take off on their evening mating flights [Music] the air is filled with smaller and smaller insect bodies just like Plankton but up in the sky over the Bavarian Lake rather than in the ocean [Music] in the evening the importance of this Mass Invasion for the ecosystem is displayed mayflies lay their eggs on the surface of the water many Lake dwellers have been waiting for this as they can now almost effortlessly eat their food [Music] almost 100 types of bird profit from the annual mayfly hatch Fest [Music] yet is not only the birds that benefit from the generous offer the impending darkness of night lures some ravenous beasts from the depths [Music] thank you Daniel bleaks plucked the mayflies from the water surface and quickly before they become prey themselves spawning time lies ahead so a full stomach is especially important [Music] all this is played out in a cultural landscape steadily populated since the Ice Age the region has changed significantly since however and continues to change today but the change has occurred so gradually that the plant and animal life has kept up and adapted whether Predators whose numbers are dwindling elsewhere can keep hunting around the keems a perhaps depends on how quickly we humans are shaping the environment in the future [Music] the most dangerous of the Predators is the northern pike thank you Anglers are frequently catching Pikes almost a meter and a half long at the kimsay and this one is also an impressive size this common roach doesn't dare to move a muscle the pike braces [Music] evening meals are also being eaten on the banks under piles of branches twigs and silt looks the offender who spares neither the bankside Promenade nor the bathing beak in his Relentless pursuit of treats okay only recently have beavers returned to the kimsay for a hundred years the giant rodents were considered extinct in the region [Applause] but now numbers here are increasing again they especially like to build their layers by the lake inlets where parents often live together with two generations of offspring the living quarters inside the lair are almost a meter across and half a meter high and The Offspring are snug and warm here in any weather will the Beavers once again remain part of the animal world around the keems a that depends not least on the acceptance of local residents who now and then have to endure the odd Poplar or willow tree falling into the water anyway many people have indeed become rather more tolerant at least the days are long gone when fish stocks were plundered and great crusty grapes were hunted down as competitors especially because the kimsey has plenty of fish [Music] 50 million Whitefish alone are bred at the Kinsey every year and released into the water and simply fishing the lake empty is not quite as easy as it was before and the lake actually had a higher water level in the past in medieval times that's because the keems a fisherman blocked the water from running off using a so-called vest this was a barrier made from older bushes a kind of large weird so the fish were caught but the lake water was also chopped off this was then forbidden after the lake was gradually fished empty a set of regulations were put in place under Duke Heinrich the rich who was responsible for us back then since then the fish stocks have recovered fish there are still a lot of fish in the kimsa it's worth the fishing we have 17 professional fishermen but of course there's something else here where money can be made if we can open up this beautiful landscape and the culture we have here to tourism [Music] can enjoy culture and nature and splash in the warm water of the Kim z a virtually unique experience like here in the shallow Waters by the ex-roman settlement of Bedale present-day zaybrook by May the water has already reached bathing temperature and is clean and oxygen rich the Danube bleaks also appreciate this and are now eagerly reproducing they lay countless millions of eggs within a single week in the loose gravel bed and numerous other animals profit in turn from this abundant Supply since ancient times ducks have gorged themselves on Danube bleed caviar during this time of year on a changing Lakefront yes the lake has changed dramatically right after the melting of the glacier the king say was four times as big as today bit by bit the lake has silted up so that we only have 80 square meters of water surface left compared to around 300 right after the ice age is the main tributary of the kimsey and discharges more than 300 000 cubic meters of suspended load and gravel into the lake each year as a result the lake will gradually fill up and at some stage disappear this gravel comes from the kimgo mountains and although humankind has engineered the flow of the aachen the load keeps on coming is not only this natural silting through the tributaries that's changed the length that humans have also interfered people have actually lowered the water level they hope that they'd create agricultural land what is actually being gained first of all a large Marsh around cravenstead which was very unhealthy for the inhabitants at the beginning because a huge infestation of mosquitoes developed which even led to malaria yeah from the malaria breeding grounds a vital natural Conservation Area has long since been created marshes like this are rare these days once an almost closed chain of raised bugs lay at the foot of the Kingdom mountains most of them have been harvested for peat through the centuries yet even exploited hillmors like these are valuable habitats full of Specialists from the animal and plant kingdoms from dried peat as is found in dehydrated bogs the Heather grows especially well bursting with purple blossom in summer and in turn the Heather is home to the drab assassin bug which hunts spiders this rare insect is only found in Marshland the carnivorous sunduke plant is notorious for gaining its necessary nitrogen from insects allowing it to survive in the nutrient deficient peat soil it lures its victims with a sweet scent and traps them using a sticky substance finally the prey is digested through the surface of the leaves There's No Escape on every single Sun due Leaf there are over a hundred adhesive tentacles the black bug ant takes advantage a relic of the Ice Age it can still be found in some Kinko marshes Black Bog ants don't hunt much for themselves they'd rather plunder the sticky tentacles of the sundew plant two-thirds of the trapped insects are robbed by the ants an astonishing diverse range of creatures exists in the small pools and ponds which glitter on every Marsh a world all of its own unknown and under-researched please a water flea scuttles over a mini school route which is being used as a nursery for water mites these oddly symmetrical desmids catch sunlight like a tiny solar power station while the paramecium goes on the hunt for bacteria the microscopic creature discards indigestible substances and excess water another miniature Predator lurking in the dark Marsh pool is the ciliates okay [Music] Marshland is not only a valuable habitat however it also functions as a kind of sponge it sucks up and retains the rainwater releasing it again slowly fluctuating water levels have always been a part of life at the kimsey from its formation around 10 000 Years Ago by a dying Glacier and ever since when it has continuously shown its own power as a considerable force of nature The Majestic lake has always inspired all day the world of the Celts here in the king GAO changed suddenly with the meteor strike here the forests burned down ashes were hurled into the atmosphere and then it rained down with acid rains pieces of the meteor which landed in the lake set off a 25 meter high tsunami which tumbled over the banks so this region has seen a lot of action and that could have something to do with the old thing that the Celts did nothing except the sky falling on their heads this guy over the keemgar is unlikely to fall on anyone's head but the current changes in the region are nevertheless profound the Keen gowns they will develop over the next decades or even the next centuries no one can say but it's important that people get their priorities straight and accept that the kimsey the king gal is a major results and we want to keep it that way this would be a very good approach for the future some of that fate doesn't rest in our hands however in the keemgar region There is almost twice as much rainfall as the German average flooding is more and more common submerged forests piles have broken branches and trees pure chaos but many creatures continue to find the most marvelous strategies for survival European fire ants forced out of their nest drift across the meadow like Shipwrecked Sailors protecting their Queen on all sides there are also losers however a little ringed plumber's eggs fall victim to the wet and cold landscape nature climate the change continues hopefully not so fast so that humanity and the animal kingdom can continue to keep up [Music] foreign

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 11,844

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, wildlife, free documentary, watch full documentary, nature films, wildlife films, go wild, nature, natura

Id: 4eFdEFeho9s

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023