Wild Scandinavia

As spring arrives in the Arctic, a male polar bear's attention turns to finding a mate. With the vast frozen landscape providing little in the way of clues, he must use his highly sensitive sense of smell to track down the faint scent of a female. But winning her over won't be easy.

Dr. Heidi Sevestre studies the surging Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, which has accelerated in recent years. Using time lapse footage, she and her team monitor the glacier's movements and find it's moving at an incredibly fast pace of four to five meters per day.

Laugakönguló, Iceland's pool spider, may only be the size of a thumbnail, but it's adapted to the extreme temperatures of Iceland's hot springs to survive the winter months. Normally dormant during the winter season, the constant heat in these hot springs allows these wolf spiders to thrive year-round. However, their survival is not without peril, as one wrong step can lead to being boiled alive.

Scandinavia’s extremes are kingdoms of ice and fire. Awake under the long polar night, Muskoxen, polar bears, and arctic foxes must navigate the dramatic transformation of their world as it melts into a sleepless rush of life under the midnight sun.

In the scorching heat of the Norwegian summer, the leader of a muskox herd must move his harem to higher ground to escape the stifling valleys. But with this move comes the challenge of defending his rank in the upcoming muskox rut. As a rival male presents himself, a violent and intense battle ensues, with each using their thick skulls and massive bulk to try and outdo the other.

In the forests of Finland during early spring, a mother brown bear has emerged from hibernation with her cubs. She starts to teach them some important life lessons, such as how to climb trees away from danger. Climbing up the towering pine trees seems to be easy enough, but it is harder to get back down.

In Sweden, a group of skaters search for black ice: The freshly formed ice is only just thick enough to hold a skater’s weight and is perfectly smooth. This is a very dangerous activity that should only be attempted by at least two expert skaters. The sounds generated by skating over black ice are out of this world.

Magical forests wrap around a labyrinth of waterways in Scandinavia’s heartlands. Elusive wolves and lynx stalk this secret world, while osprey and reindeer survive the ever-changing seasons through surprising and ancient alliances.

This male brown bear in Finland could eat 80 lbs of this reindeer carcass in one sitting, but a pack of 10 hungry wolves have other ideas.

Margret Fjellström and her family are indigenous Sami reindeer herders, relying on their herds for generations. During harsh winters, where temperatures can drop below -40 degrees Fahrenheit, the reindeer depend on energy-rich lichen.

Male black grouse battle over a coveted central position on a display lek in Norway, with some fights lasting for hours.

Follow the challenges faced by a latecomer trying to secure a nest hole in a colony of 8,000 puffin pairs on Hornøya. As birds fight to defend their patches, tensions rise and the newcomer faces a dangerous fight for survival.