Winter in the Swiss Alps | Wild Faces of Switzerland | Go Wild

[Music] at the heart of Europe lies Switzerland [Music] it's a surprisingly big little country small in area but big on natural beauty and like its many languages and cultures its Landscapes vary widely too [Music] Mighty Alps and dense forests to mysterious Moors and roaring waterfalls Switzerland has many faces some familiar some hidden [Music] it's a country that's astonishingly rich in variety Wilderness and Scenic Wonder [Music] thank you foreign to the east of Switzerland bordering on Italy and Austria lies graubundan its best known towns are cool Davos and Saint Moritz the entire Canton is situated in the Swiss Alps [Music] these images make the hearts of skiers and snowboarders beat faster a picture-book winter with Sunshine biting cold and plenty of snow graubundan is a winter wonderland [Music] oh [Music] but fun on the slopes and apres ski Pleasures are only one aspect of a Swiss winter [Music] winter in the Alps can also be deadly it Heats snow and ice mercilessly over everything in its path anything not properly prepared will find it difficult to survive sight of this is enough to make humans freeze yet these cold Rocky valleys and inhospitable forests are wildlife habitats even at Sub-Zero temperatures and in Lethal winter storms [Music] oddly for a Highland region animal the Ibex doesn't actually like snow it will go out of its way to avoid it but in very snowy Winters that's pretty well impossible in addition to frozen food an itchy winter coat is a constant irritation in the cold season but the Ibex can always find a good solution foreign [Music] as for smaller more delicate or sensitive creatures they're best advised to take refuge under the snow despite snow being nothing more than frozen water it actually works as a kind of thermal insulation nature can be a ruthless killer but it can also be an inventive Lifesaver it offers plenty of options for animals to survive the winter [Music] for marmots their survival strategy is hibernation [Music] however hibernation isn't actually sleep it's anything but restful it's an emergency situation in which animals shut down most of their bodily functions to save energy hibernating is so exhausting for the animals that they have to wake up periodically to get some proper sleep without these breaks from their hibernation they would perish some creatures don't sleep they chill this way even the most delicate summer Beauties can survive the winter including the brimstone butterfly it's a kind of alcoholic its body's sugar alcohol Glycerine helps it to survive the winter there's an entire Kingdom spending winter in this Heap workers larvae and of course a queen ants also spend the cold months hibernating many survival experts spend their Winters well protected underground or in Hollows they've chewed into dead wood [Music] they're not worried about the cold a warm winter on the other hand would be a death sentence fungi and bacteria would decompose them like rotting wood inside a reptile's cave it can be up to five degrees Centigrade even though outside it might be snowing and stormy but even an internal anti-freeze system or a cozy cave can be insufficient protection against extreme Winters if ice crystals form inside their bodies the cells burst and then it's all over for the hibernating creature [Music] in Winter the days might be cold and hostile to life but the nights often turn into an icy hell foreign [Music] it can plummet to 30 degrees below zero and colder not much fun for anyone or anything this is when the Ibex switched to energy saving mode they sink their body temperature down to 15 degrees centigrade in their legs for other animals that would be fatal but it enables the Ibex to survive [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] the first light of the Rising Sun not only Heralds a new day it also means spring is a Little Closer [Music] finally the icy night is over this time without claiming any victims with a kind of stubborn tolerance the animal kingdom has survived another brutally cold night foreign the Ibex have spent the night sheltered from the wind now they have a specific goal in mind they plan to reach it during the morning but they're not heading down towards the warmer valleys they're going uphill higher and higher they go on legs stiff with cold they'll need a bit of luck what this Ibex procession is hoping for doesn't appear every day thank you [Music] only if they can occasionally drive out the cold from their freezing Bones by sunbathing can they survive the winter time they'll even tolerate the scanty food supply among the Steep rocks just to spend some time in the Sun [Music] foreign [Music] take until afternoon for these Alpine Ibex to warm up and get their stiff joints Supple again only then do their Spirits return to [Music] by this time other animals have long been busy finding their breakfast the fox needs around 20 mice a day to survive but in winter it's not that easy to catch them yeah its sharp sense of hearing reveals even the quietest Mouse [Music] by fine-tuning its hearing it can locate a mouse to the millimeter next comes the mouse jump a miracle of precision and accuracy nothing can save the mouse now apart from a frustratingly hard snow crust but the fox isn't about to throw in the towel that easily [Music] this mouse and 19 of its Brethren won't have much of a chance today a thousand meters higher up another act unfolds in the drama of life now in December and January it's the rotting season by a special kind of sniffing known as the flamen response the Ibex males can smell which goat will soon be ready to mate or which one is already estrus foreign fights that take place in Winter are mostly playful skirmishes the animals have to conserve valuable energy so the males only push each other around a bit they already know which of them is strongest and therefore allowed to mate they established that back in summer when they were all well fed [Music] [Music] but these two apparently have more issues to sort out between themselves the fight even continues the next morning a blow just 1 60th of the force of these would fracture a human skull but Ibex skulls are made up of movable plates with a cartilaginous buffering substance between them that cushions the blows foreign [Music] bucks aren't the only ones that indulge in skirmishes sometimes the females fight as well [Music] are these also ranking fights or just bad tempered female spats humans would call catfights no one knows but they certainly look serious [Music] [Music] [Music] the loser is chased away humiliated [Music] in Winter the world might appear empty lifeless and lonely there are very few animals about they're mostly hiding from the cold or have dug themselves in underground the only Birds to be seen are the ones that usually stay behind Birds of Prey like the eagle the migrating birds have all gone fleeing not only from the cold but also from Hunger there's not much nourishment about for insectivores in this icy world the only survivors here are survival experts and those who have helped in a hard winter with permafrost freezing rain or a closed blanket of snow bird feeders help songbirds survive domestic Birds such as tits would probably survive without food despite the harsh conditions thank you foreign standing around in the snow for too long gets frozen feet the tits are no exception the feeding of songbirds is a controversial issue in many cases it supports species that are already very common and some bird feeders become infested with germs spreading deadly diseases [Music] touch wedges its food in tree bark cracks that way it can crack things open in summer insects in Winter seeds and nuts this squirrel is doing well it lives in a coniferous forest where it can find food all year round so it can be quite lazy during summer unlike its relatives that live in deciduous forests that have to lay down supplies of food the Red Cross bill has the perfect survival tool Nature has shaped its beak like crossed Spruce seed pincers the Red Cross Bill's life is closely intertwined with the spruce in years where the trees carry few seeds the birds migrate away in intensive fruiting years forests can experience actual Crossbill invasions so the cross bill is a sporadic migrant [Music] thank you [Music] one third of Switzerland is covered in Forest that's around half a billion trees which works out to around 60 trees per Swiss citizen [Music] forests are so important to the Swiss that they have a unique Law whatever was once Forest may never be cleared because Forest equals protection protection against Avalanches landslides and floods the forests prevent damage worth 4 billion Swiss Francs every year [Music] 25 000 species of animals depend on forests [Music] Switzerland's largest wild animal is also a forest dweller [Music] as soon as the first snow falls the Red Deer move from the mountains down to the valleys their survival strategy save energy to protect themselves from the cold they grow a warm top coat of long fur they also reduce their body temperature shrink their digestive organs lower their pulse and stand still a lot of the time their lives depend on them staying quiet every time they have to gear up their cooled down bodies to flee for instance a stag can use up so much energy that it's no longer able to survive through until the end of the winter weaker animals haven't a chance of survival but their death provides a source of food for others there are around 200 lynxes in Switzerland the result of a successful reintroduction program this links seems to be an accomplished Hunter it's apparently so full that it's going to freeze the rest of the carcass for later [Music] thank you this herd of deer is lucky they've found a south facing slope where they don't need to dig around much for their food these deer will stay here all winter 150 years ago the Red Deer was extinct in Switzerland today there are around 35 000 of them here the first to return were fugitives from stag hunts in Austria [Music] some forests in this region are rather special their Swiss Stone Pine forests and very rare only one hundredth of the forested land in graubundon consists of stone or arola Pines here they're known as Queen of the Alps the Swiss author alloy schneidrick wrote The Stone Pine Forest is the adornment of the mountains whose bold skull it decorates with incense perfumed curls the stone Pine is an astonishing tree alone among trees it can Brave temperatures of minus 45 degrees centigrade and flourishes in an area in which winter rules for most of the year [Music] the stone Pine's life happens in slow motion it doesn't bear a single pine cone before it's 40 years old then when they appear they take three years to ripen and the stone Pine can live for over 1 000 years [Music] to the people here this Forest is almost holy the god tamangur or Forest over there lies in the Far East of graubunten just a stone's throw from the Italian border it's a symbol of tenacity strength and the will to survive the rations also lay claim to these characteristics for centuries people mined silver and lead in the area the mines and the smelting of the ore consumed vast quantities of wood but this special Forest survived this era undamaged and today no one may touch it the God tamangur one of the world's highest Stone Pine forests is a forbidden zone for axes or saws [Music] because they grow so slowly the trees have wafer thin annual growth rings the age-old wood is therefore very fine-grained and highly prized and it smells better than almost any other wood too but it won't come from here it's more than 50 years since a pine tree was felled in the god tamangur thank you [Music] Stone Pine forests are profoundly peaceful places but they would never even exist where it not for a manically active creature [Music] the spotted Nutcracker it's obsessed with stone pine nuts to the exclusion of almost anything else it can eat so many that it was feared for a long time that the trees would be forced into Extinction precisely the opposite proved to be true and that's because this bird has an ability that is unique in the animal world the story of the spotted Nutcracker and the stone Pine Forest begins in summer [Music] the spotted Nutcracker is a hard worker during the summer months it gathers around a hundred thousand Stone pine nuts transporting the pine cones to one special spot to hack them out of the cones like Scrooge McDuck with his money the spotted Nutcracker thinks only about its pine nuts it's a wonder that it can find any time at all for life's trivia like eating or breeding the spotted Nutcracker sets up around 10 000 stashes of nuts and will find almost all of them again in winter [Music] a few of its stores do go undiscovered however and those nuts germinate the following spring the saplings protect each other against chill winds excess rain or from being eaten with any luck one of them will grow to be a proud thousand-year-old Stone pine tree [Music] if the spotted Nutcracker didn't exist these seeds wouldn't get taken up the mountain the stone Pine would only germinate Down The Valleys where they cannot Thrive without the birds these trees would long have vanished from the earth including the magical forest of God tamangur oh below the forest the river Columbia winds through the valley the water Azle seems to be the only creature here that isn't hibernating but it's living proof that the river itself is actually brimming with life it's constantly diving to take its prey especially insect larvae and it's a very successful Hunter thank you not many know the water Azle although it's very widespread once noticed they seem to turn up everywhere [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] indicates conditions are much harsher in the higher mountain regions Stone Pines do grow at up to 2 800 meters above sea level very high indeed but they actually thrived best at below 2000 meters above that living conditions are too tough even the resilient Swiss Stone Pine [Music] very cold Winters will drive animals that actually prefer a high mountain habitat down into the lower regions the Chamois can find food more easily here and it's more plentiful than up in the mountain but the dry grass is not very nutritious to get enough nourishment the animals have to eat almost all day long [Music] foreign [Music] but the fodder isn't free the price is interference by human beings skiers and snowboarders are the reason why not all the Chamois head down into The Valleys when food rations become scarce [Music] foreign s prefer to stay further up the mountain whether are no human beings but where life is tougher and more challenging unlike the Ibex they don't Sun themselves preferring to stay in the shade [Music] now in January it's closed season so the Chamois have no need to fear Hunters not the ones with guns at any rate for the links it's open season on Chamois all year round and golden eagles are especially fond of Chamois kids [Music] but sometimes the greatest Hazard for Chamois is neither man nor animal all year round avalanches and landslides pose a tremendous danger for chamois lounges in Winter and rock and Boulder slides the rest of the year bigger animals than these Chamois or even the Ibex may be regularly spotted in the Swiss mountains one just has to be observant however some animals spend their lives in secrecy even the hardiest hikers never encounter them it's as if they simply weren't there and yet every year there are more of them foreign [Music] since the mid-90s it's been back in Switzerland canis lupus the bane of Little Red Riding Hood the fairy tale monster the Big Bad Wolf foreign [Music] following the acrimonious discussion about the wolf might assume that there were hundreds of them roaming about Switzerland and yet there are only around 30 in three packs some of the alleged wolves that have been spotted have in fact been dogs and wolf researchers hardly ever get to see the object of their research programs anyone wanting to study wolves Behavior or film them has to rely on an animal park those who try researching them in the wild generally end up examining what they've left behind [Music] should the Swiss Wilderness be home to Europe's biggest predator the question prompts Fierce debate and is almost as old as Switzerland itself and it's not only conducted verbally but with shotguns wolves are constantly being shot by faceless poachers [Music] [Music] many experts believe that fear of wolves is unwarranted that the only dangerous wolves are found in children's fairy tales across the expanse of the Swiss Alps there's actually enough room for 150 wolves not just 30. others say that wolves are dangerous to both man and Beast and that they have no business in such a densely populated country at all now gamutlish kite or conviviality and comfort settles on the towns and villages [Music] laughs the livestock spend the cold season in pleasantly warm stalls well stocked with feed the long nights and low temperatures in Winter also cause problems for the wolves their prey is hard to catch in the deep snow winter is a time of Hunger and privation for the alleged monster The Valleys however seem like a land of milk and honey foreign [Music] extreme Winters some wolves make their way down into the valleys [Music] they're not welcome though any wolf that approaches a settlement should beware of shotguns if the pack living in the calendar range gets too close to town a young wolf is meant to be shot to scare them off but the calendar wolves are as invisible as if cloaked by Magic come on can one protect livestock from wolves especially in summer or are they all helplessly at the Wolves Mercy there is actually something that keeps Wolves Away from the herds when they're outside and it lives right in the midst of the herd foreign [Music] guard dogs more and more Shepherds goat herds and cattle herders rely on them it seems somewhat paradoxical at first glance that the very creature that protects herds from being attacked by Wolves is the wolf's close cousin but these animals are famous for their unconditional loyalty and protective instincts and so many guard dogs are born among the sheep or cows the puppies are raised with their charges the animals they will be protecting so there's not the slightest doubt in their minds that they are part of the herd and they will protect their herd at all costs thank you [Music] heard guard dogs are not cheap dogs they don't know how to gather and run a herd that's a job for Specialists like the Border Collie herd guard dogs learn another skill to protect their herd independently and without human intervention as well as Chase off predators the dogs might sometimes mistake an innocent hiker for a predator in that case the clever hiker is well advised to beat a hasty retreat [Music] wolves that rarely attack domestic animals are persecuted by humans less often so herd guard dogs as simultaneously wolf pack protection dogs [Music] winter is the quiet time of year supposedly it's just silently falling snow and peaceful still Lakes but that's not true all the time or everywhere [Music] every year 13 000 cross-country skiers turn the Upper engadine Valley near Saint Moritz into sporting pandemonium for a couple of days peace and quiet take a back seat an unusual feature of the engadine skiing Marathon the course crosses two frozen lakes lake Sills and Lake Silver planner [Music] foreign centimeters below the skiers the commotion above can't even be heard under the ice the lake is quiet and still the fish have disappeared to hibernate in the deepest Waters even the plants seem to languish in the dim light that penetrates the ice Shield [Music] seems as if all of nature is holding its breath waiting for spring to arrive [Music] good but spring takes its time here [Music] Frost ice and snow still have the upper hand foreign [Music] yet the middle of winter is the hottest season for the Ibex there in rut it's a busy time for the bucks they pursue the females tirelessly [Music] using their tongues and the Jacobson's organ in their nasal chamber the Ibex box scan the female scent for pheromones and some of them discover the hard way that if the back end doesn't smell right there's likely to be trouble from the front end foreign [Music] are now following the scent of nature the bewitching aroma of the ladies has a magical attraction for them even those who haven't a chance of actually mating being too far down in the herds ranks [Music] [Music] a ticklish situation for the female that isn't yet ready to mate [Music] [Music] the eager bucks Corner the female [Music] they are obeying the call of Nature and it's telling them to be more insistent passing on their genetic material to the next generation is the Buck's highest priority foreign [Music] by her love-stricken suitors is getting more and more unpleasant [Music] she senses that the cave isn't going to offer her protection for much longer finally she's had enough it makes a dash for it but she can't shake off her admirers the chase ends in tragedy for the female [Music] hours later she is spotted injured with a split hoof [Music] she will only survive this harsh winter if it comes to an end soon [Music] and indeed spring arrives one day in full force [Music] the Alpine Snowbell is an early Harbinger it starts blossoming under the snow and rings in the spring from there [Music] and with the melting of the snow and ice everything else follows soldiers report for Duty workers start spring cleaning and the queen buses herself with breeding [Music] the animals have long forgotten winter they've forgotten the months of privation hardship and torpo forgotten two are those that have fallen victim to the cold [Music] for this wretched winter coat it's still itchy foreign and their kids now form herds of up to 30 animals the males are loners and stay away from the herds seems that in Spring some Chamois have a luxury problem they're too warm the experienced mothers now want to head for the highlands where they don't perspire as much and where food has started to grow in abundance [Music] oh but sheer High Spirits put paid to that idea for a while [Music] the higher the altitude the longer the wait for spring and warmth to arrive the higher regions are still covered in deep snow winter seems to want to retain its Stranglehold despite blue skies and sunshine [Music] but for some hibernators it's high time for them to wake up [Music] the Marmot summer is so short they're constantly in a hurry some of the males will even mate with females while they're still sleeping depending on the summer they have just 12 weeks to work their way through the Marmot to-do list [Music] there's hardly any time for lengthy relaxation or sunbathing sessions whatever happens now in nature everything is oriented towards preparing for the next possibly lethal winter summer is spent Gathering stores eating to set up protective layers of fat breeding the Next Generation in short guaranteeing the future because winter in grauberton can be deadly while still being strikingly beautiful [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 27,002

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: YlYmodRasG4

Length: 50min 36sec (3036 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 15 2023