Wildest Arctic

A year in the High Arctic, where life is exceptionally entwined with the seasons. During the winter, the sun doesn't rise for months on end, creating perpetual night. But in the summer, the Arctic thaws out in an explosion of life. In the winter months it's the kingdom of the polar bear, but summer brings the ice whales: narwhal, beluga and bowhead.

Containing one third of the world's trees, the frozen forests of the Taiga are the lungs of the planet. This great forest spans right around the globe: across North America, Scandinavia, and extending across Siberia to the shores of the Pacific, sheltering some of the Earth's most majestic animals, and some of its most secretive.

Covering a fifth of the earth's surface, the Arctic tundra is one of the coldest places on the planet. The piercing temperatures and powerful winds challenge even the hardiest of creatures. Life here must adapt or perish. The remarkable diversity of life in the Tundra includes the snowy owl, Arctic foxes, millions of migrating birds and the lemming.

Iceland is a land born out of fire, sculpted by ice. This unique island is home to some of the planet's rarest and most spectacular creatures and it harbours some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Yet in the highly volcanic mid-Atlantic ridge, new land is forged every day in Iceland’s heart of fire.