Russia.
In the south-west of the biggest country on Earth
snow-covered peaks tower over 5, 000 meters into the sky.
This impassable remote landscape
is the habitat of rare animals,
home to exotic bee-eaters and the world's last highland bison.
The Caucasus.
This mighty mountain range
stands on the border between Europe and Asia,
between the Black Sea and the Caspian.
The Caucasian Mountains extend
for over a 1, 000 kilometers from west to east
and cover an area almost one and a half times as big as Germany,
including the highest point in Russia and the lowest.
The northern part of the craggy chain, the Greater Caucasus,
belongs to Russia.
The tallest summit is Mount Elbrus at 5,642 meters.
If one counts the Caucasus as a part of Europe,
then Mount Elbrus is the continent's highest peak,
over 800 meters higher than Mont Blanc.
Below the snowy slopes lies the realm of the Caucasian tur.
The animals live on rocky cliffs and steep escarpments
between 800 and 4,200 meters high.
The males form groups away from the females and young animals,
grazing on the mountain pastures.
The powerful bucks weight over 100 kilograms
and have imposing horns of up to 75 centimeters in length.
In late autumn they begin to pit their strength against each other.
Soon the mating season will begin.
Only the strongest highest ranking males will reproduce.
Rugged summits, vast forests and isolated high valleys
make the Caucasus
one of the 25 most biodiverse areas on Earth.
This diversity is mostly due to the rich variety of the landscape.
There are more than 6,500 species of plant in the region,
a quarter of which exist only here.
A red deer hind with its foal.
The young one is just a few weeks old.
Generally, hinds bear only one foal.
With their spotted coats the little ones are perfectly camouflaged.
Although the lynx's call makes the foal uneasy,
the predator will not attack it,
as long as the mother is close by.
As a solitary hunter
lynx usually only prey young or sick deer.
Right now, however, this female lynx is not hunting,
but on the way to her cubs.
They're still so young that they feed almost exclusively on her milk.
At about 8 weeks
the little ones are already testing their strength.
Harmless play fighting trains their muscles for the future.
Only the female lynx looks after the offspring,
which means she is on duty round the clock.
All that playing has made the cubs hungry,
and they gorge themselves on their mother's milk.
In the typically tall Caucasian bushes
Zamudin Guchev is searching for something special.
He belongs to the Adyge,
one of 80 different peoples in the Caucasus.
The Giant Hogweed,
the object of Zamodin's quest.
Originally at home here, the over three meters high plant
has become a pest in Central Europe,
out growing all other vegetation.
To make matters worse, the hogweed's toxic sap
destroys the skin's natural ultraviolet protection.
Zamudin Guchev however knows
that well dried, the plant is ideal for making flutes.
The traditional music of the Adygea is in danger of dying out.
Only 100,000 of the indigenous people are left
on the northern edge of the Caucasus,
in Adygea, a Russian republic.
The Caucasian national park is home to very special animals:
Highland Bison.
An extremely rare sight.
The old bull weights almost a ton.
The male bisons are usually loners.
The region was the traditional home of the Caucasian Bison,
before the last were killed in 1927.
Only rebreeding and introducing the animals into the wild
enable them to establish a population again.
The numbers however are now unstable and threatened by poaching.
Mountain meadows characterize the landscape of the higher regions.
With many familiar flowers:
Checkered Daffodils and Gentian.
And Rhododendrons.
The Caucasus is also bear country.
A Syrian Brown Bear.
With its light-coloured fur and comparatively small build
it is easily distinguishable from other brown bears.
The animals like to spend the summer above the tree line.
Their territories can extend over 1,000 kilometers.
Originally their habitat stretch from the Caucasus
to the Middle East.
Today, however, Syrian Brown Bears are rare,
and the Caucasus is one of their last refuges.
A herd of female turs with their young come dangerously close to the bears.
In this open country, however, the turs quickly spot the predators,
besides, they move much too quickly to be in serious danger.
In the summer
large groups of females roam the highlands
on the lookout for the best pastures.
Apart from grasses and herbs turs also need minerals,
and for this reason gather at salt licks.
In the autumn they move to the last snow-free bluffs
to graze on the dry grass there.
The Caucasus is a region of superlatives,
with more than a dozen peaks taller than the highest Alp.
Towering over all a ranges is the twin summit of Mount Elbrus,
also known as King of the Spirits or Throne of the Gods.
Just a little way below begins the realm of the Caucasian Chamois.
These relatives of the goats have adapted perfectly to life at great heights
and developed much larger lungs than their lowland cousins.
Nowadays the Caucasian Chamois is endangered by poaching,
and the remaining animals have retreated into the most inaccessible regions.
The mountains of the West Caucasus are among the rainiest regions in Europe
with the precipitation of 4,000 millimeters.
Huge banks of cloud press against the southwestern flanks of the mountains,
collide with the peaks.
In trying to get across this barrier
they release their moisture as rain
and become ever smaller and lighter.
Only a fraction of the rainfall reaches the other side of the mountains,
which can be seen from the landscapes on the northeast.
Bizarre rock formations reminiscent of the Wild West.
This big sky is the realm of vultures.
On a rocky crag griffon vultures have built their nest.
The female rarely leaves its single chick.
So it's up to the male to supply the family with food.
An adult vulture eats up to 5 kilos of carrion at a single sitting,
so the male is kept very busy in it's search for food.
In the meantime the female spreads its wings to protect its chick
from the scorching sun.
A Levant viper.
Even though this poisonous snake preys on birds,
as well as small mammals and reptiles,
the young vulture has nothing to fear
as long as its mother stays alert.
The Levant viper can reach up to 2 meters in length
and is the longest of its kind in Europe.
Dagestan.
The Russian republic in the lee of the Greater Caucasian Peaks
is herdsmen's country.
With their huge flocks they roam across the hills and plateau
as their ancestors have done for thousands of years.
Their goal is the higher summer pastures which still offer enough to eat
when everything further down has dried up.
On their way the flocks pass a city made of clay.
Bee-eaters have done nests in the cliff face.
The beautiful birds have just returned from Africa
and now begin their courtship.
Once a male has caught a bee or wasp,
it beats the insect against the branch,
until it looses its sting.
A present for its intended without a nasty surprise.
Bee-esters choose a new partner each spring,
then bring up their young together.
Only when she accepts his bridal gift will he be allowed to approach.
Even before they mate the two birds start to build a home together
and dig a nesting tube in the cliff face.
Like a mini-Sahara, the vast Sarykum shifting dune
rises in the east of Dagestan.
Its crest is more than 260 meters high.
This is a very special biotope with its own particular inhabitants.
A Long-eared Hedgehog.
The nocturnal animal makes a good use of the cool hours of morning
to go hunting.
Its ears grow to a length of 4 centimeters
and provide not only an acute sense of hearing,
but also help the animal regulate its body temperature.
Thanks to its long legs, the Long-eared Hedgehog is a very fast mover
and often travels up to 8 kilometers during its forays.
The animals feed mainly on insects.
As real desert specialists,
Long-eared Hedgehogs can survive for weeks without water.
Without food, however, only a few days.
In the morning, when the temperature rises,
the animals retreat to their burrows.
The holes lead almost a meter into the ground.
The giant dune has long fascinated the people of the region.
Sarykum means golden sand in the Tartar language.
A Toad-headed Agama.
This masters of disguise live in steppe and desert regions
from the Sahara to Tibet.
When other animals are out hunting
the agama prefers to take cover.
Belly dancing its way out of sight.
From the planes of Dagestan
we return to the mountain world of the Greater Caucasus.
Well over 2000 glaciers cover the higher region of the Caucasus,
most concentrated in the western and central parts.
Due to global warming here too the glacials are slowly receding.
But there are still some giants left.
The largest lies in the Kabardino Balkarsky nature reserve.
Its tongue begins at the Bezengi Wall
and stretches 13 kilometers into the valley.
Down in the lowlands, the deer's brand new antlers protrude from the thick undergrowth.
They're not yet full-sized
and still covered in soft velvet.
The foals have grown steadily, but still rarely leave their mother's side.
The little group is being watched closely by a bear.
Bears rarely hunt fully grown red deer,
hinds in particular defend their young vigorously
with strong kicks from their forelegs.
And anyway, they've long since got wind of the predator.
So the brown bears have to content themselves with vegetation,
which makes up the majority of their diet.
In the meantime, a different hunter has been successful.
The mother lynx has killed a foal for it's young.
By now the cubs are about 5 months old
and only rarely feed on their mother's milk.
After just a few weeks the young lynxes begin sharing their mother's kills.
A fully grown lynx consumes up to 2.5 kilos of meat at a time.
The cubs cannot yet look after themselves
and will stay with their mother until next spring.
Only then will they seek their own territory.
Tomorrow the lynx family will return to the kill.
Until then the mother camouflages it with some branches and leaves.
The sight of a single Mountain Bison is spectacular enough,
to get a whole herd of these extremely shy animals on film is a sensation.
Unique footage.
Caucasian bison form herds of up to 80 animals,
cover 40 kilometers a day.
After the re-establishment of the bison in the 1930's,
50 years later, about 1500 of these primeval wild cattle existed in the Caucasus.
Nowhere else in the world are there as many European Bison in the wild.
The animals have adapted completely to this life.
A handsome bull prepares its dust bath
and marks the hollow with its urine.
lt spreads its scent all over its body.
A perfume much appreciated by the ladies.
The return of the mountain bison is a story with highs and lows.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union
poaching increased dramatically,
and the population collapsed
with only 200 animals surviving the onslaught.
Today there are 440 bison roaming the highlands
of the North-Western Caucasus.
Sudden changes in weather,
plenty of rain and spontaneous bursts of winter are typical for the region.
The higher parts even get snow in the summer.
A seven meter thick blanket of snow is not unusual.
The Caucasus is one of the snowiest mountain ranges in the world,
and the extreme weather conditions make it one of the most dangerous as well.
Massive avalanches race down the hillsides all year round,
but increased towards the end of the winter.
Far from the snow-covered summits of the high Caucasus,
in the shadow of the Sarykum-Dune in Dagestan,
the climate is milder.
Spur-thighed Tortoises enjoy the warmth of the sun.
These primeval creatures enjoy the blooming meadows in their own way.
Immediately after their winter torpor between Mid-February and the beginning of May
the males start their courtship rituals.
Love's rapture a-la tortoise.
One single successful copulation is enough for several clutches of eggs.
The lucky lady does not seem especially enthusiastic.
The broad steppes of the Caspian Depression north of the Caucasus
form Russia's lowest point,
nearly 30 meters below sea level.
In this endless sea of grass
lives an animal as if from anotherworld.
The only clue is bizarre skulls along the way.
Saiga Antelopes.
The Saigas' distinguishing mark is their strange trunk,
which is used to warm the icy winter air.
Once millions of Saigas roamed the Central Asian Steppes.
Today these animals are on the brink of extinction.
Bucks are the main target for poachers because of their horns,
coveted in Asia as potency remedies.
The Saiga Antelopes are now under protection in Russia
and hunting is prohibited.
Whether the population will recover or not, is unclear.
There is a sandstorm brewing.
High time to look for shelter.
The Toad-headed Agama goes underground again.
While others just duck their heads.
The Asia Minor Dwarf Racer just manages to find refuge,
before everything is swallowed by the sand.
Spring in the Caspian Depression transforms the steppe
into a sea of pink blossoms.
The Long-eared Hedgehog is on the hunt again.
This time it's chosen an especially awkward titbit -
a poisonous centipede.
The hedgehog is a fearless fighter and overcomes its prey.
lt has to watch out for the centipede's claws,
which contain poison strong enough to cause mild paralysis in humans.
On its sun bed, the Caucasus Agama remain unimpressed.
Close by, the pair of Demoiselle Cranes.
These graceful birds are the smallest in the crane family.
They come to the Dagestan steppe to hatch and raise their offspring.
Usually the clutch consists of two eggs.
In sweltering temperatures of over 30 degree centigrade
the chicks try to walk in their parent's shade, which doesn't always work.
Demoiselle Crains are migratory birds.
In the late summer they begin their long flight
thousands of kilometers southwards to their winter quarters in Sudan.
The Caspian Sea.
The biggest inland lake on Earth.
On the shore the is a sheltopusik.
This primeval creature can be up to a meter long.
Its name is of russian origin and means yellow belly.
The reptile looks like a snake,
but is in fact a lizard
with almost completely degenerated legs.
A landscape like on another planet.
There are more than 300 mud volcanoes that bubble near the Caspian Sea.
The vents eject the mixture of clay, water and gases,
mainly methane.
Mud volcanoes are especially common along tectonic fractures.
The west bank of the Caspian Sea is one of these unstable zones.
Its waters are home to a primeval creature -
the sturgeon, world famous as provider of the finest caviar.
Today the living fossil is highly endangered.
While in the late 1970's the Caspian Sea yielded over 10,000 tons of sturgeon a year,
it's nowadays only a few thousand and the figure is falling every year.
Sturgeon can live up to 150 years -
the Methuselahs of the deep.
But the future of the primeval fish remains uncertain.
The Caspian Sea's reed belt
houses another rare species, extremely shy
and hitherto only rarely captured on film -
the Jungle Cat.
Because of its habitat and black ear tufts
it's also known as the Swamp Lynx.
In fact, they are more closely related to wild cats than lynxes.
The alert hunter has discovered a quail.
Carefully, it creeps closer.
Better luck next time.
Formation flying against the backdrop of the Caucasian Mountains,
a huge flock of Little Bustards.
Meanwhile winter has returned to the highlands.
Rutting season for the Bezoar Goats.
These sure-footed climbers live in inaccessible parts of the mountains.
This is the most northerly habitat of the wild goats.
For the rut at the end of November
the bucks join the females and their young,
forming herds of several dozen animals.
The males drive the females into a sort of rutting arena.
Ready or not?
For the answer, the males rely on their noses.
Not all will get the opportunity though.
A handsome buck has watched proceedings for long enough
and comes to join the herd.
This is the highest ranking male.
Mating with the most females is its prerogative and its alone.
After a gestation period, lasting 5 months,
the kids will be born the following spring.
The snow-covered summits of the Caucasus,
one of the world's last unknown natural wilder nesses.
There is scarcely another mountain range on Earth,
that offers living space for so many animals.
Russia's mighty mountains,
straddling the border of Asia and Europe.