06: Svalbard | Nature’s Microworlds

Duration: 29'00''

Synopsis

In the northerly region of Svalbard, Steve Backshall unravels the secrets that lie covered in ice for most of each year in the home of the world's largest land predator.

Further Information

More clips from Nature's Microworlds

01: Galapagos | Nature's Microworlds

01: Galapagos | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'02''

The Galapagos is home to a myriad of bizarre and unique creatures endemic to these islands, but how did they get here and what is the ke...

02: Serengeti | Nature's Microworlds

02: Serengeti | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'01''

A look at one of the most famous habitats on the planet, the Serengeti in east Africa, a vast grassland that is home to some of the grea...

04: Monterey Bay | Nature's Microworlds

04: Monterey Bay | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'05''

Steve Backshall looks at the unique geography of California's Monterey Bay, its kelp forest bursting with life from microscopic plank...

05: Okavango | Nature's Microworlds

05: Okavango | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 28'59''

Steve Backshall reveals the secret to the existence of the Okavango, the world's largest inland delta and home to one of Africa's greates...

07: Canada's Coastal Forests | Nature's Microworlds

07: Canada's Coastal Forests | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 28'59''

Steve Backshall reveals why Canada's coastal forest is home to huge trees and some of the greatest aggregations of top pr...

08: Great Barrier Reef | Nature's Microworlds

08: Great Barrier Reef | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 28'59''

Steve Backshall visits Australia's Great Barrier Reef to discover the conditions that let a tiny coral building block create Ea...

09: Namib Desert | Nature's Microworlds

09: Namib Desert | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'03''

Steve Backshall visits the Namib in Africa, where animals use clever tactics to combat the heat. He reveals the unique secret that al...

10: Yellowstone | Nature's Microworlds

10: Yellowstone | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'02''

In Yellowstone National Park, where wolves, bears, coyotes, bison and elk roam vast grasslands, wetlands and forests, Steve Backshall ...

11: The Deep Sea | Nature's Microworlds

11: The Deep Sea | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'06''

Steve Backshall plumbs the ocean depths to find an array of beautiful and bizarre creatures, from 40m-long jellyfish to grotesque ang...

12: Australia's Red Centre | Nature's Microworlds

12: Australia's Red Centre | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'07''

Steve Backshall reveals huge kangaroos, the world's most venomous snake and a burrowing toad living among the throng of ani...

13: Scottish Highlands | Nature's Microworlds

13: Scottish Highlands | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 29'03''

Steve Backshall shows how the two contrasting landscapes of open moor and Caledonian forest are both crucially important to the...

Amazon | Nature's Microworlds

Amazon | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2012 | 28'58''

Steve Backshall lifts the lid on an incredible world of intricate relationships and unexpected hardship in the Amazon rainforest, explores the ...

Keeping cool | Nature's Microworlds

Keeping cool | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2013 | 2'12''

The Namaqua chameleon has developed an ingenious tactic to avoid the heat of the Namib desert.

More resources about Cold environments

03: Arctic - Life in the Deep Freeze | Human Planet

03: Arctic - Life in the Deep Freeze | Human Planet

BBC One | 2011 | 58'48''

The remarkable stories of some of the extraordinary people who make their homes in the Arctic, the harshest environment o...

02: Greenland | Arctic with Bruce Parry

02: Greenland | Arctic with Bruce Parry

BBC Two | 2011 | 59'07''

Bruce Parry journeys to the far north of Greenland, home to the last traditional Inuit hunters, and learns how climate change is thre...

Antarctica | Seven Worlds, One Planet

Antarctica | Seven Worlds, One Planet

BBC One | 2019 | 59'05''

Antarctica - the coldest, windiest, most hostile continent. Only the toughest can survive here. But the ocean here is warming and with ...

Tibetan sky burials | Human Planet

Tibetan sky burials | Human Planet

BBC One | 2011 | 7'46''

In the Himalayan state of Nepal we witness a rarely seen ceremony - a sky burial. In a land where there is little wood to burn for cremati...

The Secret Life of Ice

The Secret Life of Ice

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'05''

Dr Gabrielle Walker looks deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, preserve the p...

Episode 1 | Scandinavia with Simon Reeve

Episode 1 | Scandinavia with Simon Reeve

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'48''

The first leg of Simon's Scandinavian journey takes him from the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard to the frozen wilderness of Lapland ...

Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue | Horizon

Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue | Horizon

BBC Two | 2017 | 59'10''

Documentary which follows the everyday people battling in the most extreme environment on earth to move Halley VI, a vital polar re...

02: Frozen Ocean | Frozen Planet II

02: Frozen Ocean | Frozen Planet II

BBC One | 2022 | 58'05''

At the top of our planet lies the Arctic Ocean - a shape-shifting world of ice and water, home to unique animals like polar bears, harp s...

03: Frozen Peaks | Frozen Planet II

03: Frozen Peaks | Frozen Planet II

BBC One | 2022 | 58'12''

A look at how mountains create unique frozen worlds, home to extraordinary animals that must overcome the crushing conditions of the cold.

Life in Polar Bear Town with Gordon Buchanan

Life in Polar Bear Town with Gordon Buchanan

BBC Two | 2016 | 58'58''

Gordon Buchanan heads to Canada at the peak of bear season to discover what life is really like in the tiny town that's become k...

01: Frozen Worlds | Frozen Planet II

01: Frozen Worlds | Frozen Planet II

BBC One | 2022 | 57'53''

From the poles to the highest mountain peaks, there are surprising frozen worlds found on every continent, and each is home to unique an...

01: To the Ends of the Earth | Frozen Planet

01: To the Ends of the Earth | Frozen Planet

BBC One | 2011 | 58'36''

David Attenborough sets out on an extraordinary journey across the earth's polar regions, exploring the Arctic and Antarctic.

04: Canada | Arctic with Bruce Parry

04: Canada | Arctic with Bruce Parry

BBC Two | 2011 | 59'39''

Bruce travels to the far north of Canada to live with the Caribou people and witness their annual spring hunt. He then heads south to th...

S04E01: ION Adventure Hotel, Iceland | Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby

S04E01: ION Adventure Hotel, Iceland | Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby

BBC Two | 2021 | 59'04''

Monica and Giles work behind the scenes of a hotel that is all about getting out into Iceland's ...

01: Siberia | Arctic with Bruce Parry

01: Siberia | Arctic with Bruce Parry

BBC Two | 2011 | 59'12''

Bruce Parry meets the Sakha horse people and Eveny reindeer herders in Siberia's Verkhoyansk Mountains to see how they are embracing th...

03: Alaska | Arctic with Bruce Parry

03: Alaska | Arctic with Bruce Parry

BBC Two | 2011 | 59'26''

Bruce travels to Alaska, America's last great wilderness, where modern-day pioneers are harvesting the vast natural wealth of the seas.

04: Frozen South | Frozen Planet II

04: Frozen South | Frozen Planet II

BBC One | 2022 | 58'02''

Antarctica is the most hostile of earth’s frozen worlds. Yet even here, life finds a way not just to survive, but thrive.

05: Mountains - Life in Thin Air | Human Planet

05: Mountains - Life in Thin Air | Human Planet

BBC One | 2011 | 58'54''

Film exploring the ways in which people survive at extreme altitudes where nature becomes utterly unforgiving, from lush clou...

06: Our Frozen Planet | Frozen Planet II

06: Our Frozen Planet | Frozen Planet II

BBC One | 2022 | 58'19''

Our frozen planet is changing. We meet the scientists dedicating their lives to understanding what these changes mean for animals, p...

Ice and climate change | The Secret Life of Ice

Ice and climate change | The Secret Life of Ice

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'45''

Dr Gabrielle Walker investigates the ability of ice to preserve carbon dioxide and thus demonstrate how our climate has chang...

More from Steve Backshall

Devil rays leaping | Nature's Greatest Dancers

Devil rays leaping | Nature's Greatest Dancers

BBC One | 2015 | 1'19''

Devil rays do acrobatic leaps out of the sea at the edge of the shoal to encourage shrimp into the mouths of the other rays.

S01E01 | Our Changing Planet

S01E01 | Our Changing Planet

BBC One | 2022 | 58'05''

Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and Ella Al-Shamahi visit the Maldives, Iceland and Cambodia, charting the fight to save the planet’s most endang...

02: Great Barrier Reef | Blue Planet Revisited

02: Great Barrier Reef | Blue Planet Revisited

BBC One | 2020 | 59'02''

To find out what the future holds for the Great Barrier Reef, scientists monitor green turtles, follow families of breeding bi...

Bat Doctor | Lost Land of the Volcano

Bat Doctor | Lost Land of the Volcano

BBC Two | 2020 | 3'07''

An injured bat needs nursing back to full health and the team examine the rare adaptation of the striped possum.

S04E07: Borneo | Deadly 60

S04E07: Borneo | Deadly 60

CBBC | 2020 | 28'14''

Although we can't just stop using palm oil - farmers need to grow it to provide an income for their families and as a product it's highly efficien...

04: Mexico Part 2 | Undiscovered Worlds with Steve Backshall

04: Mexico Part 2 | Undiscovered Worlds with Steve Backshall

BBC Two | 2019 | 58'25''

Steve Backshall is in Yucatan, Mexico, on the trail of the ancient Maya. His team of explorers uncover macabre a...

Japanese macaques have a lifestyle unlike all other monkeys | Japan's Northern Wilderness

Japanese macaques have a lifestyle unlike all other monkeys | Japan's Northern Wilderness

BBC Two | 2017 | 1'16''

Naturalist Steve Backshall and double Olympic gold medallist Helen Glover take a lo...

Episode 1 | Wild Alaska Live

Episode 1 | Wild Alaska Live

BBC One | 2017 | 58'38''

A new series on a spectacular wildlife event, live from Alaska with Steve Backshall, Matt Baker and Liz Bonnin. Bears, eagles and orca are gathe...

Live interview interrupted by a blue whale | Big Blue Live

Live interview interrupted by a blue whale | Big Blue Live

BBC One | 2015 | 3'08''

Steve Backshall's interview with whale expert Doris Welch is cut short when, against all odds, the team spot a Blu...

25: Antarctica | Deadly Pole to Pole

25: Antarctica | Deadly Pole to Pole

CBBC | 2014 | 28'28''

Steve's journey finally comes to an end at the land of extremes - the least inhabited, remotest, highest, driest, coldest and windiest c...

Keeping cool | Nature's Microworlds

Keeping cool | Nature's Microworlds

BBC Four | 2013 | 2'12''

The Namaqua chameleon has developed an ingenious tactic to avoid the heat of the Namib desert.

Secret Wilderness - Japan | Wild

Secret Wilderness - Japan | Wild

BBC Two | 2007 | 39'10''

Steve Backshall discovers Japan's wilderness, from majestic cranes dancing in subzero temperatures in the north to giant salamanders hanging...

Episode 4 | Expedition Borneo

Episode 4 | Expedition Borneo

BBC One | 2007 | 29'08''

Wildlife adventure series following a team of explorers in the heart of the tropical island of Borneo. They find extraordinary cave paintings m...