It's Europe's largest wilderness,
untamed rivers, mountain ranges with mystical rock formations
and inaccessible forests.
The home of the wolf, wolverine
and brown bear.
Russia's border with Asia - the Urals.
At Europe's most easterly edge, far beyond Moscow,
a range of mountains extends more than 2000 kilometers
from the Arctic tundra to the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The Ural mountains are the dividing line between two continents,
Europe and Asia.
The end of winter.
Every year the Urals are the scene of a very special animal migration.
Moose on their way to fresh pastures.
The many rivers on their way are dangerous obstacles.
Moose often migrate in groups.
Most head south,
but some move to the eastern,
more sheltered side of the mountains.
Now, in spring, they are returning.
While one young moose takes on some sustenance,
others plunge bravely into the cold stream.
Moose are naturally good swimmers,
but the strong current is threacherous
and claims lives every year.
Harsh winters and scarcity of food accounts for many more deaths however.
One of the main reasons why the majority of moose put themselves through the exhausting trek every year.
The youngster has grazed enough and now hastily follows sibling and mother across the river.
He must on no account loose sight on them.
At last, the safety of the far bank.
The moose cover up to 300 kilometers on their way.
The plains and foothills of the northern Urals.
This is where the Taiga begins.
Spruces and pine trees characterize the forest
of the northern hemisphere.
Soon the spring will finally arid
the taiga and swamps of frost.
The first sign is the Black Grouse's courtship display.
The handsome male artfully circles the plain female.
Often dozens of males perform in a kind of arena,
but here the cock has no rivals.
But danger threatens from elsewhere - a wolverine is on the prowl.
And wolverines love poultry.
The predator will have to go elsewhere for his lunch.
Spring is now irreversibly on the way.
Meltwater flows in all directions
and fills the rivers to the brim.
The first insects crawl out of the crevices.
Seed bugs sunbathe and at once begin mating.
They have no time to loose.
The spring here is short.
And still she needs some gentle persuasion.
The active mating can take up to 24 hours,
and going on separate ways afterwards presents problems.
With the snow melt, the Ural rivers have been transformed into raging torrents.
One last moose hurriedly leaves its winter quarters.
One more river crossing, and it's back in its own territory.
Nevertheless the late comer is in danger, meltwater has made the crossing unpredictable.
Time and again, moose drawn after being carried away by the current
an opportunity for predators. A wolf senses its chance.
This brown bear overpowered a weakened moose a few days ago
and is now returning to its prey.
Bears bury their catch
to hide it from ravens, seagulls and other thieves.
The wolf has been following the bear for some time now,
hoping to get lucky.
Slowly, the owner unearths its booty.
Finally a portion is uncovered.
A test of patience for the wolf,
who then... fall to sleep.
Cautiously, the male wolf approaches.
Together they have a better chance of tricking the bear.
But how will it react?
Indignantly, it chases the intruders away.
No sharing today.
The catchment area of the Urals is a waste wilderness,
twice the size of Germany.
Here there is not only forest as far as the eye can see, but also huge moors and swamplands.
Late April. Spawning season for the moor frogs.
The males are now dressed in blue
and vie for the attention of the females.
Stumbling into the frog's pond unawares can lead to all sorts of confusion and mistaken identity.
In their frenzy, the male frogs will jump on everything that moves,
including toads.
The stately brown bear drinks,
but does not eat.
For a good reason.
Like the moor frogs, he has only one thing in mind -
females, looking to mate.
If it wants to produce offspring,
the bear needs to mate a few times with the female,
whose ovulation only begins after such stimulation.
Then they get serious.
The couple will stay together for about two weeks before parting again.
Once the ovum is fertilized, something very special happens.
The reproductive process stops
until the start of the bear's hibernation.
Then the development continues at a rapid pace.
After only 6 to 12 weeks the cubs are born inside the winter lair.
The bear's mating period is anything but peaceful.
On the western slopes of the northern Urals
stretches Europe's largest primeval forest.
Its artery is the Pechora river with its many tributaries.
The source of the Pechora is a very mysterious place
high up in the mountains.
Manpupuner, the little mountain of the gods.
The rocky columns are the sight of the legend of the seven strong men,
the brothers of a beautiful girl coveted by a rich bad man.
They fled with their sister into the mountains.
Then the suitor turned violent.
The brothers fought bitterly against the superior numbers of their pursues,
when the girl prayed for a miracle.
She and her brothers were turned to stone,
and their attackers fled in terror.
The beautiful sister at the front, the eldest brother at the back
and the six younger ones on the left.
Manpupuner is a natural wonder with a very special atmosphere,
especially at night.
The time of the hunters.
A Ural Owl.
Today the dish of the day is frog.
The owl has 2 chicks.
The parents are kept busy, the chicks can't stop eating.
A grass frog is swallowed whole.
The chicks are five weeks old.
Time to leave the nest.
They can't fly yet,
but their wings are just as useful for climbing.
From now on the parents will feed the youngster outside the nest,
if it finds a suitable perch.
First steps in a new world.
In the northern Urals the headwaters of the Pechora river
are home to an almost extinct species,
the European Mink.
It's early June and the female is pregnant.
High time to line the birth nest.
Up at the seven brothers a storm is brewing.
Dramatic changes in weather are the order of the day here.
The rain is not critical for the rock formations,
as quartzite slate doesn't dissolve easily.
All around them a limestone has long been washed away.
With its heavy warm fur
the brown bear is equally unperturbed by the change in the weather.
The rain stops again as abruptly as it started.
The taiga dwellers are used to it,
even the young Ural Owl.
The mink's time has come.
A precious addition to the small population is born and the umbilical court is immediately severed.
The female is exhausted.
There is more than one baby crawling around in her fur.
A stranger close by the den.
The situation has to be investigated at once.
She has given birth to five young.
Both chicks of the Ural owl have now left the nest.
The vole is devoured hastily.
Three meals per chick per day are the minimum.
Plenty of work for the parents.
A large bull moose has scented something.
It's a female moose,
unlikely to be intetested in the male yet,
as the mating season doesn't begin until the autumn.
The female moose is not alone.
The mother suckles the calf up to eight times a day,
which requires about three liters of milk.
That's enough for today.
The bull tastes the air.
The female has aroused his interest.
She however gives him the cold shoulder
preferring to do her toilette.
The calf is already trying bark and lichen,
which will later be his main food.
Summer in the Urals.
A hand-shaped rock called Lyok-Iz projects from the Ilytch river
in the nature reserve that is since 1995
being part of the "virgin Komi forests" UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The mother mink is now permanently on the go,
hunting to feed her young.
They are now about 5 weeks old.
Their eyes are open,
and they eagerly await their share of the prey.
With one well-aimed bite she paralyzes the roach
and puts it to one side.
Hunted excessively for many years for their fur in Russia and Europe,
today the European mink is mostly threatened by his farmed American cousin.
Bred in large numbers
escapes are now displacing the native species.
Not every dive by the mink is successful.
And so the offspring have to make do with just the one fish for now.
Further along the stream
a wolverine has made its ladder beneath a root.
The remains of a reindeer are awaiting storage.
A Siberian Jay takes advantage of the situation to take a look inside.
Hard fare.
For the wolverine no problem.
Its powerful jaws will crack almost anything.
The animal can also digest bones.
The mink has no time to rest.
Her young don't care whether the food is solid or liquid,
the main thing is it's edible.
Then, while the mother is suckling, one of her babies makes itself scarce.
Leaving the watchful eye of the mother is a risky business.
Inside, the mink stimulates her babies' digestion by licking their stomachs
and only now notices that one is missing.
It seems this is not the first time.
The nest contains only two young.
Then the mystery is solved.
The mother is in the middle of moving to another den.
The youngster is supposed to follow.
All just a safety precaution.
Up on the little mountain of the gods
the rocks withstand the weather as they have done for thousands of years.
The bizarre crags rise 50 meters into the evening sky.
Late summer in the southern Urals.
The Belaya, the White river
in the Shulgan-Tash nature reserve,
created in 1986.
One of the animals for which the reserve was created
is at first glance inconspicuous.
A rare species of wild bee.
Achtyam and Anis have known the reserve since its founding.
The park management have put them in charge of the bees.
Beekeeping has a long tradition in this area.
The two men cultivate around 40 beehives of the rare Burzyan honeybee
that occurs only in the Urals.
Hollowed out tree trunks with landing areas
are hung in pine or lime trees as breeding aids.
A brown bear marks its territory
by robbing his fur against the tree
and catching loose hairs in the bark.
Other bears will now know
that this animal was here.
This is now "its" beehive.
Even though it's a tick too bulky to climb the trunk.
The bee rangers usually come from families with a long bee keeping tradition.
Achtyam learned it from his father.
The beehives are fairly isolated
and often kilometers apart.
The two brothers are in the saddle for days at a time.
A bear motherwith her cubs
is unable to resist the scent.
A dangerous undertaking in the male's territory.
For the cubs climbing is child's play.
High up in the trees they're out of harm's way.
But now danger threatens from above.
200 kilos of beehive falling on her
would create a serious headache.
As all baby animals,
bear cubs are playful and curious.
Sitting on the beehive however
is fairly daring.
Much to someone else's joy,
the male bear.
But the bees are less happy about the situation,
which is why the bear approaches the angry colony with the upmost respect.
But the scent of honey is just too tempting.
The consequences are immediate and painful,
especially for the bear's sensitive snout.
Achyam an Anis have almost reached their destination.
What will they find?
At the edge of the forest stands the remotest tree with the bee colony.
The bears have not been here yet.
Climbing is an essential skill for a Bashkirian beekeeper.
The brothers will begin with the annual harvest here
and then work their way from hive to hive back to the village.
The cost of protecting the bees is covered by selling the honey.
Smoke is supposed to reduce the bee's tendency to sting.
What it doesn't do is calm them down.
Any minute now Achtyam will need his beekeeper's hat,
when all hell breaks loose.
The reason why smoke is so effective
to the bees it imitates the forest fire
with the result that their stings remain shield.
The brothers hope for 10 to 15 kilos of honey per tree.
In Moscow the rare burzyan honey can fetch top prices
of up to 210 euros per kilo.
The bees are very resilient against cold
and highly productive.
They make the most of the short 2 to 3 weeks of lime blossom.
The brothers Achyam and Anis
leave enough honey for the bees to withstand the coming winter.
A happy ending at least for the bears.
The family seems not as sensitive as the big male.
There will be plenty of honey and most importantly the bee larvae.
A great loss for Achyam and Anis.
But as rangers they also have a duty to protect the bears.
Shulgan-Tash a paradise not only for bees.
The landscape in the southern Ural region
is characterized by huge tracks of birch forest.
Weeping birches and downy birches
in close company with aspens.
Particularly in hollows and swamps,
river terraces and less deep mountainsides the birches grow close together.
Further east the Siberian steppes begin.
The border between Europe and Asia is clearly visible.
The south-easterly foothills of the Urals show both faces.
To the west, there is still densely fotested European taiga,
to the east, Asian mountain steppes.
All at once the vegetation changes,
thistles now dominate the landscape.
Autumn in the southern Urals.
Maple, lime and birch now shed their golden leaves.
Rutting-time for moose.
A four year-old bull
gets too close to an elder colleague,
whose impressive gallop has the desired effect.
Fights between moose are rare.
Usually, a threatening gesture is enough.
The Asian part of the southern Urals.
The Ural river is home to a strange
almost mythological animal.
The Russian Desman.
The semi-aquatic mole is sociable
and lives on the riverbank
in burrows with underwater entrances.
The striking whiskers on the trunk-like snout
are a clue to his functional blindness.
Like its terrestrial relatives their eyes are very weak,
but they are excellent divers.
Today, Russian Desmans only exist in the drainage areas
of the Volga, Don and Ural rivers
with a population of between 100 and 200.
They're almost extinct in the Urals.
The majority of the remaining 25, 000
live on the East-European plane around the Volga.
The desman lives on fish and amphibians,
as well as raking up the riverbed in search of insects and crabs
or snails.
With its two oversized upper teeth
it chops open their shells.
The desmans have been successful both in the water and on land.
The great ramshorn snail melts in his mouth as it were.
The other desman can only hope there'll be something left over.
This is the first footage ever captured of wild Russian Desmans.
Re-invigorated they return to the burrow.
At the end of a long passage a cosy nest of moss awaits.
The first snows of the year.
Soon the moose will have to look for fresh feeding grounds again.
A sudden cold spell sends the temperature plummeting to under -30°C.
This causes trees to burst.
A rare acoustic experience.
The moose get quarrelsome.
A kick from one of their sharp hooves can be extremely painful.
Two other rivals get hot under the collar.
The disagreement does not go unnoticed.
The sudden cold spell has taken the bear by surprise.
Maybe it can catch a moose before finding its winter quarters?
But it is pointless.
With their long legs the moose can reach the solid ground
much faster than the short-legged bear.
More than a dozen moose have already assembled for the migration.
This bear however will catch none of them,
cumbersome as it is at this time of year.
For the next 7 months snow and cold will have the country in their grip.
Not until the rivers thaw in April
and the taiga resumes its song
will Europe's largest wilderness return to life -
the Urals.