Frozen Planet – New Series on the BBC

The BBC’s latest nature documentary series, Frozen Planet, will be hitting the screens of viewers in the UK at 9pm tonight. Hailed as the ultimate portrait of Earth’s polar regions, Frozen Planet looks set to transport us to the frozen realms of the Arctic and Antarctic, to reveal the secret lives of the species that call these wild ice worlds home.

Frozen Planet is narrated by Wildscreen patron Sir David Attenborough, who himself travelled to both polar regions in the making of the series. The first episode, “To the Ends of the Earth”, is a journey from the North to the South Pole, across the least known wildernesses on our planet. We hope that you are as excited about the series as we are in the ARKive office, and will enjoy a little taster of what is to come….

The stars of the first episode are likely to be a pair of courting polar bears, who we think will steal the show with their surprisingly tender behaviour. Be prepared for some stunning shots of the giant Greenland ice cap too. 

Polar bears play fighting

The Greenland icecap, where two glaciers join and flow to the sea

Next up, we find humpback whales feeding in the rich polar waters, while on land a large group of wolves attempt to tackle a formidable group of bison. You can check out a video of feeding humpbacks on ARKive, as well as a clip of an Arctic wolf hunting some slightly smaller prey!

Humpbacks travel thousands of kilometres from summer feeding grounds in polar waters to winter breeding grounds near the tropics

The Arctic wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf, the world's largest wild canid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the other end of the world we find leaping gentoo penguins trying to evade prowling sea lions, and orcas displaying some spectacular hunting behaviour, possibly caught on film for the first time ever - prepare to be amazed! You can check out our gentoo videos on ARKive too.

Masters of the waves, gentoo penguins face a number of predators in the water

The orca is the only cetacean to routinely hunt marine mammals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is plenty more in store too, but I’m afraid you’ll have to watch it tonight - we wouldn’t want to spoil it for you!

 

If you just can’t wait, or the series is not showing where you live, why not check out our new polar eco-region pages, and explore the fantastic array of photographs and footage of all these species and more on ARKive.

Sneak previews, episode guides and behind the scenes stories from the series can all be found on the BBC Frozen Planet page.

Claire Lewis, ARKive Media Researcher

Add Comment (1) Share