33x02 - Penguins: Spy in the Huddle: First Steps

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: The Arctic
is rapidly changing.

And with this change comes
a remarkable shift in power

at the top of the world,

as solid ice turns to open sea.

One iconic Arctic hunter

may soon have to give way

to the surprising invasion
of another.

MAN: This is probably
the most terrifying predator

since Tyrannosaurus Rex.

NARRATOR: Stories have
just started to emerge,

from those that live here,

of these changing fortunes.

For the first time,

Western science

and Inuit knowledge
are combining

to witness and document
the arrival in the Arctic

of the most successful
ocean predator of them all.

Narrator: This is the Arctic
as we know it.

An ocean locked in ice.

Everything that survives here
is supremely adapted

to this frozen world.

Bowhead whales live here
year round.

Wrapped in two feet of blubber,

they are insulated from water
temperatures of 30 degrees.

The narwhal's smooth shape
and lack of dorsal fin

allow it to swim easily
among the ice floes.

Seal pups use the ice
as a platform

for resting and being fed...

...enticing the largest

land carnivore on Earth

out across the frozen sea.

The polar bear.

All through the winter,

it st*lks hunting grounds
a thousand miles from land.

Without the ice,

the polar bear
could not survive here.

The ice is home.

With a solid surface
beneath them

and a strong sense of smell,

polar bears have a great
advantage over prey

that sooner or later
must come up to breathe.

It's the ice

that lets them close in
on their quarry.

Attacking from above,

they smash through to get
to seals hiding below.

Good hunting
at this time of the year

is essential to surviving
the lean Arctic summers.

All animals that live here rely,
in some way, on ice.

It's not just the polar bear.

But ice is becoming
a fragile player

on the Arctic stage.

This is

one of the fastest-warming
regions on Earth,

and it's melting
at a breathtaking rate.

Large parts of the Arctic
that were once frozen all year

are now free of ice
in the summer.

There are many opinions on
how much this place is changing,

but it's well-documented that,
in the last years,

there's dramatically more water
and less ice each summer.

And without sea ice
throughout the year,

polar bears are unable to hunt.

Hunger is forcing some bears
to improvise.

In a desperate attempt
at a meal,

they climb up steep slopes to
get to thick-billed murre nests.

It takes a lot of energy
to reach these birds,

and often there is no reward.

But this isn't just a story
about melting sea ice.

On land, the effects of warming
are also startling.

Just beneath the Arctic tundra

is a layer of permanently
frozen soil.

Only mosses, lichens,
and grasses can take root here.

But as temperatures increase,

parts of this frozen substrate
are melting,

allowing trees to grow,
sometimes with dramatic results.

In the far Western Arctic,
the summer of 2008

produced the first forest fire
ever recorded here.

This in a region where
local Inuit dialects

don't even have a word
for "forest fire."

In September 2012,

Arctic summer ice cover
reached a record low.

The polar bear's world

is disappearing
beneath its feet.

And as it does,

stories are emerging of
the most powerful marine mammal

on the planet taking advantage.

For thousands of years,

the sea ice has kept this
predator out of the Arctic.

Their immense dorsal fins
can't break through the ice.

But increasingly,

there is no such barrier.

And this is
no ordinary predator.

Armed with the second largest
brain of all ocean mammals,

and with the ability
to learn from one another,

k*ller whales --
also known as Orcas --

are remarkably intelligent
and social hunters.

The Inuit were
the first to witness

their arrival
into Arctic waters.

Sam Omik
and Gamailie Kilukishsak

can testify
to the changing scene.

[Speaking native language]

INTERPRETER: There are more
k*ller whales now.

In the past, we would see them
maybe once in the summer.

Now we see many more than that.

NARRATOR: Inuit spend a lot
of time hunting at sea,

and their firsthand experience

began to shed light
on this marine predator.

[Speaking native language]

INTERPRETER: We know they eat
seals and narwhal.

And as they are predators
like us,

they can probably eat anything
they can get their hands on.

NARRATOR: For Inuit
who live here,

the summer Arctic has always
been home to a natural bounty

that may now also be on
the k*ller whale's menu.

The narwhal.

Narwhal spend all their lives
in the Arctic,

navigating shifting ice packs
and channels

both winter and summer.

This is one of the most
mysterious animals

on the planet.

Known as the unicorn of the sea,

they have a single tusk that can
reach up to 10 feet long.

Until recently,
narwhal have faced

polar bears and human hunters.

But now a fearsome new presence
has entered their waters.

INTERPRETER: I was hunting
these narwhal,

and they were fleeing
from some k*ller whales.

The k*ller whales were
traveling fast and upside down,

and they breached the water
chasing the narwhal.

When they got close to the shore

where the narwhal were,

they took bites out of two
of the narwhal very quickly.

This is when I realized

that they are supreme hunters.

NARRATOR: A report released
in 2012

was the first to detail
the recent arrival

of k*ller whales,

predators that were formerly
unknown so far north

in Canadian waters.

That study was led
by Steve Ferguson,

a marine biologist at
Fisheries and Oceans Canada,

with a wealth
of Arctic experience.

FERGUSON: I've worked in
the Arctic for over 30 years,

and over that time,
I've seen a lot of changes.

For most scientists,

I think we looked at the Arctic

and knew that changes
were happening

and wanted to understand
how they were changing,

and we anticipated it to start
from the bottom up.

NARRATOR: Warming waters
usually affect organisms

at the bottom
of the food chain first,

which in turn impacts the diets
of animals higher up.

But here, something else
is also happening.

Changes are underway at
the very top of the food chain

as access to Arctic
waters opens up.

k*ller whales have begun turning
Arctic ecology on its head.

FERGUSON: We really recognized
the k*ller whale

as that top predator
that, all of a sudden,

was making these huge changes
in the Canadian Arctic,

and it was something we didn't
really think about at the start,

but there it was,
staring us in the face.

NARRATOR: Steve's team
became interested

in the firsthand reports
of k*ller whale sightings

that were starting
to reach them back in 2007.

Since then,

they've interviewed
more than 100 Inuit hunters

in over 10 communities

and have opened up a gold mine
of information.

Charlie Inuarak has been living
in this part of the Arctic

all his life, and he's one
of the region's best hunters.

[Speaking native language]

INTERPRETER: Last year,
we headed out on a hunting trip

to get some narwhal.

We were sitting at camp,
and soon,

large numbers of narwhal
began to arrive close to shore.

Soon after, we saw a pod
of k*ller whales.

there were six
or seven or of them.

We started to pack our gear,

and we followed
the k*ller whales.

We knew we would catch narwhal

if we followed them.

NARRATOR: Narwhal
have always been key

to the survival of the Inuit.

Their skin contains large
amounts of Vitamin C,

essential to the human diet.

For the last few summers,

Charlie has seen
tantalizing evidence

that k*ller whales are also
hunting and eating narwhal.

And this was backed up
in the summer of 2013,

when Charlie's son managed
to grab this footage

of k*ller whales in action.

INTERPRETER: By the time we got
to where the narwhal were,

the k*ller whales
had already k*lled some.

Over the next few days,

the k*ller whales stayed
in the same area,

hunting and eating many narwhal.

NARRATOR: This footage
is probably the first time

k*ller whale predation
on narwhal

in this part of the Arctic

has ever been captured.

INTERPRETER: What we saw
was the bigger k*ller whales

eating the floating blubber.

The rest of the k*ller whales

were eating the narwhal
from underwater.

Even after the k*ller whales
were full,

they continued to hunt
and k*ll narwhal.

NARRATOR: Charlie
isn't the only one

to have seen k*ller whales here.

Sightings have now been recorded
throughout the Canadian Arctic.

INTERPRETER: My experience is,
in August,

when the ice
is completely broken up

and mostly gone, that they start
arriving in force.

NARRATOR: What has become
evident from Inuit interviews

is that k*ller whales
have started appearing

at very specific
times of the year.

FERGUSON: The summary here

is all sightings of k*ller
whales in the Canadian Arctic,

and we have a really obvious
pattern here where

there's very few k*ller whale
observations during the winter,

but they start to arrive
in the spring --

June, July, August
peaking in the sightings --

and then, after that, they start
to decline in sightings,

and this pattern
that relates to the sea ice.

So we have the loss of
the sea ice in the spring

brings the k*ller whales in,
and this is the time of year

when they're playing around
in the Canadian Arctic.

NARRATOR: Several pods
of k*ller whales

are travelling into the Canadian
Arctic in the summer,

from points deep in
the North Atlantic.

They're swimming thousands
of miles to get here.

It's a journey
that appears full of intent.

In August 2013,
Steve launches a new expedition

to satellite tag the whales
and track where they're going.

It's the fifth season
they've set out to sea

to learn more about k*ller whale
movements in the region.

This year, the science team
will be followed by a film crew.

Armed with the latest
technology,

they'll attempt to document

changes in animal behavior

happening as a result
of a more ice-free Arctic.

With some Inuit knowledge
to draw on,

but knowing that
k*ller whale sightings

are limited to
a few weeks each summer,

the team's task is formidable.

MAN: There's sporadic sightings
throughout a lot of communities

throughout the Arctic,

throughout the Eastern
side in particular,

but it's quite a large area,
so, you know,

it's kind of like finding
a needle in a haystack.

NARRATOR: The team is led
by Cory Matthews.

He is accompanied
by Natalie Reinhart,

who is at the start of her PhD
on k*ller whale predation.

REINHART: Very little is known

about k*ller whales
in the Arctic,

and there are a few
key questions

that we hope to answer
with our work.

In particular, where k*ller
whales are coming from

and what they're feeding upon.

So what I'm really interested
in determining

is whether k*ller whales
are coming in

and focusing exclusively
on one prey type,

or if they're preying on
a wider variety of prey type.

NARRATOR: The team
will be helped

by Charlie and other Inuit.

They've seen k*ller whales
before in this very area

at this time of year.

So there is hope for the film
crew and the scientists

that this summer will
be successful.

They start out from Pond Inlet

on the northern coast
of Baffin Island.

They're heading west in the hope
of being in the right place

when the k*ller whales
pass through.

With hundreds of miles to cover

and the chance that
the k*ller whales

could appear at any time,

everyone is on constant watch,

helped by regular updates
from other Inuit hunters.

[Speaking native language]

NARRATOR: The team will use
crossbows to dart the whales

with satellite tags.

If successful, these tags will

enable the team to follow
their every movement

for about three months.

This year, they get lucky
on their very first day.

The k*ller whales make

a dramatic entrance.

REINHART: She's upside down!

MAN: Look at that.

WOMAN: Oh, my God! Look at her!

MAN: Oh!

WOMAN: Oh, my God!

MAN: Oh! [Chuckling]

MAN #2: What?!

MAN: Whoa!

NARRATOR: In order to tag
the fast-moving whales,

they must get
as close as possible.

MAN: Like that?

-Did you get it?
-I got it.

MAN: She's going behind us.

MAN #2: Good shot!

NARRATOR: This has been
an amazing day for the team.

They've not only found
and tagged the whales,

but the film crew
has also captured footage

of k*ller whales here
for the first time.

Over the next two days,

the team manages to satellite
tag five k*ller whales

and biopsy and photograph

much of the pod.

REINHART: I was fully expecting

to come up here and potentially
not even find them.

I was kind of preparing
myself for the worst,

so that when we did see them,
I felt pretty lucky.

It does feel like
you've seen something

that not many people have
witnessed or seen up here.

NARRATOR: It's a remarkable
achievement

and a great start
to the research program.

Now the team must follow
the k*ller whales

and discover
what they have come to hunt

and how they are doing it.

In the rest of
the world's oceans,

k*ller whales have been
extensively filmed and studied.

It's well known
that they develop

specific strategies
for different kinds of prey.

On the west coast of Canada,

they follow
the annual salmon run.

In New Zealand,

they deliberately
sink to the bottom,

taking rays with amazing
precision to avoid being stung.

In Patagonia,

they charge straight at
the beach to hunt seals.

They're the dominant predator

wherever they go.

And for the first time,

these mysterious new Arctic
k*ller whales can be tracked.

Almost immediately,

the satellite tags

reveal new information
about what they're up to.

FERGUSON: So, with the tagging,

it looks like they've continued
to stay together as a group,

these five whales
that were tagged.

The satellite locations

are all showing them
sticking close together,

and this is something
we weren't sure about

as to whether the k*ller whales
are going to group

and disperse as small groups,
come back together.

But it looks like these guys are
sticking really close together

and staying as a group of maybe
about 20 k*ller whales in total.

NARRATOR: With the tags

pinpointing
the whales' location,

the film crew sets out
to follow the pod

and try to film them hunting.

MAN: The radio tags indicating

they're in Admiralty Inlet,

so it's going to take us

probably two and a half days
to get there.

NARRATOR:
But the whales are moving

much faster than their boat can

and often travelling

through uncharted waters.

FERGUSON: It looks like

the k*ller whales
really move fast,

and they'll make some very
directed movements

to a next area.

They seem to know
this region of the Arctic,

and they know where
they're going, and they know

probably where they next
are likely to get a meal.

NARRATOR: And what
the k*ller whales

have in their sights
are narwhal.

Right now, the narwhal are on
their way to the tranquil bays

and inlets that form summer
nurseries for more than half

the global population of roughly
to 25,000 to 45,000 individuals.

But there are now
few places left to hide.

For narwhal, the summer
has suddenly become

a dangerous time.

Steve's keeping track
of the tagged k*ller whales,

and their movements suggest
that they know

where the narwhal are.

FERGUSON: k*ller whales moved

all together as a group
of five of them

at fairly rapid speed again,

probably in the range
of 200 kilometers a day.

And very quickly, they get down
into the next inlet,

and from an aerial survey,
we found out that

most of the narwhal were down
near the bottom of this inlet.

NARRATOR: It's in these
very inlets

that the narwhal have always
found security.

These calm waters are their
traditional summering grounds

where they bring their young,
born just a few months ago.

It's the final stop on
their summer migration.

It appears to be a time

and place for
friendly socializing.

This gentle jousting
is known as "tusking."

It's thought to be a way of
communicating with each other

and establishing hierarchy.

Swimming in circles and tusking

is a sign of relaxation
and well-being.

But how long
will this peace last?

Chasing k*ller whales capable
of traveling 125 miles a day

has been tough
for the film crew.

Since the tagging event,

they haven't been able
to get anywhere near them.

But 12 days into their trip,

they finally manage
to track them down.

MAN: Wow! Look at that!

Got probably, I don't know,
10, 12 Orca

going all the way
round the boat.

Some that have gone
underneath it.

It's quite an amazing sight.

NARRATOR: And as the satellite
tags indicated,

the k*ller whales are headed
straight towards

the narwhal nursery grounds.

We've still got them.
They're still there.

NARRATOR: In the far distance,

a large group of narwhal appear,

swimming fast
and close to the shore.

And not far behind,
the tagged k*ller whales,

clearly in hunting mode.

Steve is gripped
by what he's seeing.

FERGUSON: The prey has to do
something different.

They're not going to outrace
k*ller whales.

NARRATOR: The narwhal
are hugging the shoreline,

desperately doing all they can

to get away from
the k*ller whales.

It's incredible how packed
the narwhals' behavior is.

It may not be the best strategy,
but I think it's --

when you're scared,

you get close to your neighbor.

NARRATOR: It seems
the narwhals' only recourse

is safety in numbers.

FERGUSON: And I'm sure
they're terrified.

This is probably the most
terrifying predator

since Tyrannosaurus Rex.

NARRATOR: The k*ller whales'
movements

are organized and coordinated.

This is a ruthless hunting
group, ready to strike.

Working together,

the k*ller whales
seem to be herding

the narwhal closer to the shore.

FERGUSON: k*ller whales,
typically, as a predator,

will be quiet and not make
a lot of communication sounds

because the prey can hear them.

But once they've been
discovered,

they can start using
communication

to coordinate their activities.

NARRATOR: But it's what
the hunting whales do next

that comes as
the biggest surprise.

Lunging themselves at the beach,

the entire team
of 20 k*ller whales