Raw, picturesque landscape

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 18

Raw, picturesque landscape

Two 8.8. C. items on wildlife will be shown in the “Our World” slot on Two tonight. The items are “Yellowstone Below Zero” and “Grizzly.” In summer Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States, receives about two million visitors. They come to see the wildlife, the raw, picturesque landscape and the hotwater springs; particularly the spectacle of “Old Faithful,” a hot-water geyser which has erupted with predictable regularity for hundreds and maybe millions of years. But the days of summer are shortlived, and in the winter the temperatures can plummet. By mid-November snowfalls have put an end to the tourist season and the animals make their preparations for the long winter. Beavers gather riverside aspens for their dams and wean their young. Chipmunks store their berries. The North American elk or wapiti comes down from the high forests to the more sheltered valleys; and migrating geese move southward. It is a landscape of devastating beauty as the silent blanket of white is broken by gurgles from the hotpots, fumeroles and geysers below. Here at the point where freezing cold meets boiling heat, the brine fly lives and thrives on green algae. The flies provide food for birds such as the plover and the dipper. Hot-water springs give the bald eagle access to trout and the river otter fishes through openings in the ice. The warmth beneath the ground keeps areas of grassland free of snow, pro-

viding grazing for herds of bison. By February, the easy grazing for the bison is exhausted. Masters of winter survival, the herds move on to deeper drifts, conserving energy by treading in each other’s footprints, to dig for grass as much as two metres below the surface. The spring thaw brings fresh hardships. This is the time of “winter kill” when fat reserves are exhausted and weaker animals die. Melting ice over the lakes can trap the larger ones and many bison perish in the freezing water. The film shows stark pictures of carcases picked clean by scavengers such as the coyote and the raven. Although Yellowstone Below Zero is something bleak it can also be moving. An American cameraman, Wolfgang Mayer, braved the sub-zero temperatures to capture on film sights such as a wapiti taking a steam bath to combat the cold winter. Elsewhere, the camera shows the mating displays of rutting bighorns, and the hardy endurance of

the bison. These animals were nearly extinct in 1900, numbering only about two dozen. Today they are estimated at 2000. The grizzly bear has a reputation for ferocity, but few people realise that grizzlies prefer to lead a quiet life. They enjoy the odd bit of fishing and will go out of their way to avoid confrontations. A cameraman, Bob Landis, a teacher from Montana, spent a great deal of time filming these animals in the Denali National Park in Alaska. He says his “love affair” with the grizzly began several years ago when he happened upon a dramatic scene. He filmed a female bear and her two small cubs as she attacked and killed a fully adult caribou. Such a kill rarely happens and having filmed it, Landis was filled with admiration for his subject. His experience led to the making of this

film, possibly the most detailed ever seen, on the life of the “Grizzly.” The film starts in the spring, and as the cover of snow and ice melts, the young cubs born in the den in midwinter take their first romps in the fresh air. Grizzlies are carnivores who have adapted to be general-purpose food gatherers. They do feed on live prey occasionally — ground squirrel is a favourite and a test of their agility — but the mainstay of their diet consists of vegetable roots, flowers, grass and the fruits of autumn. For those living near the coast, however, the fresh, water rivers offer a bonanza in midsummer when the salmon move upstream to spawn. The film shows grizzlies snatching salmon from the icy rapids of the coastal rivers while their timid young cubs look on from the safety of the bank.