Name: Ice Worlds
Released: 2017-03-10
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, David Attenborough

1) clifftop

The clifftop are soon stained pink with the droppings of tens of thousands of nesting penguins.
2) chinstrap

Vast numbers of chinstrap penguins come ashore to breed.
3) blowhole

Now they turn and blasting air from their blowhole and ascend towards their prey.
4) skua

The south polar skua is a formidable opportunist
5) trespasser

Arctic skuas will see off any trespasser even large vegetarians.
6) incognita

Terra incognita - the unknown land.
7) whiteout

In the whiteout, the threat is almost impossible to detect
8) squabble

Many of these squabble will end in tragedy
9) eider

Eider ducks break the silence.
10) ptarmigan

Flocks of ptarmigan make unusual grazing companions for the musk oxen
11) chink

There must be a chink in the armor somewhere.
12) blubber

The adults close ranks around their young, presenting a wall of blubber and hide.
13) scree

They use scree slopes to protect their eggs, burrowing up to a meter beneath the rocks.
14) shallows

The flailing walrus is immensely powerful and drags the bear away from the shallows
15) opportunist

The south polar skua is a formidable opportunist
16) wast

Flocks forty thousand strong sweep across the frozen wast.
17) krill

The whales are harvesting krill
18) centigrade

It's still minus 20 degrees centigrade, so the transfer must be done quickly or else the egg will freeze.

1) huddle

This light brings no warmth to the male penguins who are still huddling
2) trifle

but half a ton of mad hairy cow is not to be trifle with.
3) trample

as the poor chick is trample to death.
4) reunite

Reunited, at last.
5) injure

seemingly aware that the injure bear no longer poses a threat to them or their young.
6) shroud

The next day a sea fog shroud the island.
7) vanish

The male polar bear's ice world has finally vanish beneath him.
8) cram

Crammed into this scrum, the birds are remarkably good natured, but they have to be.
9) skim

but just skim the horizon before rising again.
10) shorten

As the day shorten, it's warmth is withdrawn from the continent.
11) reckon

Only in a land almost entirely covered in ice could bare rock be reckon an oasis.
12) loom

but nothing could have prepared them for the ice world that finally loom into view.
13) diminish

The sun's influence diminish and the ocean starts to freeze.
14) flee

Life flee from Antarctica...
15) endure

thanks to the extraordinary hardships endure by their parents.
16) tuck

With no bare rock to nest on the male tuck the egg into a special pouch
17) undergo

With the females gone the colony undergo a strange transformation.
18) abandon

Abandoned by the sun the males are left alone with their eggs

1) instinctively

but the musk oxen instinctively retreat to higher ground.
2) ashore

Vast numbers of chinstrap penguins come ashore to breed.
3) immensely

The flailing walrus is immensely powerful and drags the bear away from the shallows
4) indefinitely

He seems at home in the sea but he cannot swim indefinitely.
5) remarkably

Crammed into this scrum, the birds are remarkably good natured, but they have to be.
6) tightly

They lock together in tightly packed huddles as they struggle to keep warm.
7) seemingly

seemingly aware that the injured bear no longer poses a threat to them or their young.
8) surprisingly

In these new surroundings he is a surprisingly adept swimmer.
9) sooner

and the Arctic ice melts sooner each year
10) repeatedly

Once their eggs have hatched they'll be forced repeatedly to make the 600 mile round trip
11) inland

The birds have flown inland for over three hundred miles
12) nowhere

Nowhere else on Earth is seasonal change so extreme.
13) barely

Now the sun barely appears above the horizon.
14) briefly

and they briefly reunite where their home ranges overlap.
15) safely

Eventually, the transfer to the mother is safely made.
16) constantly

Speeding up the action reveals how these huddles constantly shift and change
17) largely

This frozen world is largely deserted until the start of spring.
18) rapidly

but the ice that has supported him all winter is rapidly disintegrating.

1) unearthly

Passing the towering spires they must've wondered what unearthly sights lay in store.
2) southernmost

At the southernmost extreme of our planet the continent of Antarctica
3) uncharted

giant cathedrals of ice marked their entry into uncharted territory.
4) pungent

drawn by pungent smells emanating from the island.
5) natured

Crammed into this scrum, the birds are remarkably good natured, but they have to be.
6) southerly

Antarctic petrels now join the most southerly colony on Earth.
7) fleeting

Their time together will be fleeting.
8) oblivious

they seem oblivious to the noisy crowd around them.
9) eerie

The eerie silence here is only broken in spring.
10) appalling

Their appalling trials have all been for this.
11) glacial

Glacial melt waters pour from the land
12) bleak

but this bleak wilderness remains locked in ice.
13) relentless

that provide refuge from the relentless battering of the southern ocean.
14) formidable

The south polar skua is a formidable opportunist
15) sheltered

The thaw unlocks sheltered bays
16) icy

In the Arctic, any breach in the icy barrier can be a lifeline.
17) adept

In these new surroundings he is a surprisingly adept swimmer.
18) fiery

fiery ribbons are illuminating the winter skies.

Planet Earth » Season 1 » Ice Worlds