(calm music) - [Narrator] The sheer abundance of life on earth is breathtaking, the diversity nothing short of miraculous.

To date we've named around two million species, but millions more are thought to exist.

Our forests and woodlands are bound to harbor many of the creatures that elude us.

But while we wait for them to make their debut, other animals appear eager to step into the world's greatest spotlight.

From the dry eucalypt forests of Australia to Canada's great swathes of maple, woodlands provide a truly majestic setting for many of the world's greatest animal encounters.

(birds chirping) (dramatic orchestral music) (birds chirping) (uplifting music) Forests and woodlands are the green lungs of the earth and vital to mankind's survival.

(uplifting music) The air we breathe, the timbers we build with, the medicines we take.

(uplifting music) The list of benefits they provide is exhaustive, as is the list of other animals making a meal of these resource-rich environments.

One of the largest can be found in the wilds of British Columbia.

British Columbia or BC as the locals like to call it, is the westernmost province of Canada, sitting between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains.

There are still incredible expanses of untouched wilderness here.

Thousands of islands, tens of thousands of rivers & lakes, and forests that stretch as far as the eye can see.

With its mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, the landscape changes dramatically with each passing season.

Providing a magnificent backdrop and perfect stage for these remarkable omnivores.

(uplifting music) Two species living here in BC are the grizzly and the nimble black bear.

(uplifting music) (ambient music) Smaller in size than the grizzly bear, black bears are still big animals.

Males weigh in at 270 kilos and on their hind legs, can stand a good head and shoulders taller than a person.

Between 120,000 and 150,000 black bears live in British Columbia, so the province can easily lay claim to having one of the highest black bear populations in the world.

And black bear skeletons found on Vancouver Island would indicate they have been living in this neck of the woods for at least 10,000 years.

(dramatic music) (uptempo music) Grizzlies are well outnumbered here, with 15,000 in total.

But nonetheless, that still amounts to a quarter of the entire North American population.

While lone male grizzlies will actively stalk and kill humans, the bears along this stretch of river have a very different type of prey in their sights.

The salmon run is in full swing.

A feast for the bears and for humans seeking a close but relatively safe encounter with them.

Every July, salmon rush in from the sea and frantically swim up river to breed.

But many won't make it past these ravenous predators, waiting to cut them off at the pass.

This is an important event for black and grizzly bears, as they need to fatten up before winter kicks in.

Aside from salmon, berries, seeds and vegetation make up the bulk of a bear's diet, so these forests are as vital to their survival as the rivers that run through them, providing habitat and sustenance year round.

(uptempo music) (dramatic music) Grizzly bears have an amazing sense of smell, even better than a dog's, and can sense food from many kilometers away.

They can easily be distinguished from black bears by their small round ears, classic teddy bear looks, strong shoulder humps and four-inch claws, perfect for foraging and digging for food, or taking on feisty prey.

Beyond North America, they're known as brown bears, but here, everyone calls them grizzlies, a name that references the long guard hairs that grow on their backs, giving them a grizzled appearance.

(dramatic music) Khutzeymateen Provincial Park is a well-established sanctuary for grizzly bears in British Columbia.

It contains a complete river system, fed by streams high in the mountains that flow out into this estuary, then on to the Pacific Ocean.

The Sitka and Spruce Forests surrounding the inlet provide shelter and an abundance of seasonal fruits and berries, so, all things considered, Khutzeymateen is grizzly bear heaven.

It is the only sanctuary of its kind in the world, where human access is quite restricted.

(uptempo music) Grizzlies are generally solitary animals but they're not particularly territorial, so they will comfortably come together whenever and wherever food is ripe for the picking.

(uptempo music) Like most bear species, grizzly cubs are born in their mother's forest den during winter, only emerging when they have opened their eyes and grown a warm coat.

By this time, they are a decent size and ready to have a go at getting their own food.

Mother bears will stay with their cubs for two or three years.

(uptempo music) But once they split up, her offspring invariably set up a home range for themselves nearby, just to stay loosely in touch.

Because bears live in and use a variety of habitat types, wildlife biologists refer to them as umbrella species.

In ensuring their protection, many other species are indirectly protected as well.

(uptempo music) (dramatic orchestral music) (mellow orchestral music) The forests on Kangaroo Island, 13 kilometers off the coast of South Australia, harbor a number of rare or threatened species.

(mellow orchestral music) Kangaroo Island was cut off from the mainland by rising sea levels 9,000 years ago, so pests such as foxes and rabbits, introduced by European colonialists are absent here so the native wildlife has an opportunity to thrive.

As its name suggests, the island does have a lot of kangaroos, but it's also home to echidnas, kookaburras, platypus and possums.

The list of native species here reads like a who's-who of iconic Aussie animals.

(mellow orchestral music) But the nation's favorite forest dwelling local is the koala.

(mellow orchestral music) Koalas live in pockets of dry eucalypt forest on the island.

Typically, eucalypt trees have fire-resistant bark and thick, leathery leaves that are full of oils that prevent them from drying out in the hot sunshine.

These leaves are tough and poisonous, but the koala has evolved an unusually long digestive organ, which allows them to break down the toxins.

Eucalypt leaves are low in nutrition, so koalas need to conserve their energy.

When they are awake, they'll almost always be eating, as they need to get through half to one kilo of leaves per day.

(mellow orchestral music) (upbeat guitar music) This is not as straightforward or as easy as it sounds... for even though there are 700 species of eucalypts in Australia, koalas are seriously fussy, preferring to eat the leaves of only two or three varieties.

(upbeat guitar music) Unless there's a drought, koalas don't need to drink.

The gum leaves provide all the moisture they need.

Each adult koala's habitat is made up of several trees, located within a specific home range.

Home ranges may overlap, but unless koalas are breeding, they won't visit one another's home trees.

Males will mark the territories of potential mates by rubbing their scent, exuded from glands on their chests, onto the trunks of their trees.

They then attract females living within that area by bellowing, loudly advertising their genetic superiority through vocalizations.

(koala bellows) (upbeat guitar music) Koalas, like many Australian mammals, are marsupials, and like most marsupials, the females have pouches where their young develop.

(upbeat guitar music) Joeys are blind and only two centimeters long when they're born.

They stay in their mothers' pouches, suckling for six or seven months before they're big enough to emerge into the big wide world.

Joeys spend the next few months riding on their mother's back, learning all about life in the animal kingdom slowly... where sleeping up to 20 hours a day is not only acceptable behavior for a teenager, it's mandatory.

(upbeat guitar music) (playful music) Sharing the forest trees on Kangaroo Island are tawny frogmouths.

They are a nocturnal species that look a lot like owls, but lack their distinctive curved talons.

(playful music) By day and night, tawny frogmouths are well-camouflaged, often appearing to be part of the tree they're roosting in.

(playful music) They can be difficult to spot in the wild, but Kangaroo Island has a facility where all the large birds that naturally occur in the island's secluded forests can be more easily encountered.

(playful music) And one of star attractions is the barn owl.

Barn owls have made a home for themselves in forests all over the world.

By day, they will roost in hollow logs, caves or dense trees.

But at night, when they're looking for food, they will move to lightly wooded forests to hunt... perching on branches that provide a direct launching pad to the banquet table below.

On tonight's menu, a small rodent, quickly seized in the talons and dispatched of in under a minute.

Barn owls will also hunt on the wing, using their exceptional hearing to detect prey.

The shape of their facial discs channels sound waves towards their ears, so owls can effectively pinpoint moving prey, even on nights when there is little to no moonlight.

(playful music) (dramatic orchestral music) (crickets chirping) There are 216 owl species in the world and most favor a forest habitat.

The great horned owl, with its whopping three foot plus wingspan and distinguishing plumicorns on its head, is the most common owl species in North America and readily encountered here in Denali, one of America's most impressive national parks.

Covering two and a half million hectares, this remote haven for wildlife straddles the Alaska Range.

The stand-out feature in this landscape is North America's tallest peak, 6,194 meter Denali.

Most of the terrain in this vast wilderness is tundra... but at lower elevations the subalpine forests support a remarkable number of animals.

One species taking that all in its rather long-legged stride is the moose.

(ambient music) At over two meters tall, the moose is the largest deer in the world and it's brilliantly adapted to the Denali environment.

The moose's large size helps it to conserve body heat.

When the snow is deep, those impressive legs enable moose to dig deep for moss and lichens.

(upbeat music) And as spring approaches, they use their long legs to wade deep into lakes and marshes to forage on water plants.

(upbeat music) Once summer arrives, the land bursts into life and moose can be found browsing on trees and shrubs which, given the climate and poor quality of the soils, never reach their full size.

(upbeat music) Moose lips are prehensile.

They can grip their food, allowing the animal to carefully select the most nutritious tips growing among the tough woody branches.

(upbeat music) As with all deer, those colossal antlers are used for sparring during mating season.

Even antlers this size must be grown anew every spring in preparation for the battle to become a father.

(dramatic orchestral music) (slow tempo music) A small, but significant population of some 150 moose live in and around the forests in Jasper National Park, the largest wilderness area in the Canadian Rockies.

The subalpine forests in Jasper have a hard time competing for attention amid such splendor.

Colossal peaks, tranquil lakes and crystal clear rivers.

(uptempo music) But these magnificent trees protect the park's watershed by preventing soil erosion and provide food and shelter for a great diversity of wildlife.

(uptempo music) If danger threatens, these mule deer will take cover deep inside the forest.

And to ensure young fawns are not separated from their fleeing mothers, they have evolved the perfect beacon to follow, a bright white rear end.

(uptempo music) Another animal living in Jasper is the wapiti.

It too is a deer, marginally smaller than the moose, but no less impressive to observe in the wild.

With over 1,300 living in the park, they are easily encountered.

During winter, they shelter deep in the forests, which afford them a measure of protection from the elements, and a ready source of bark, which they strip from the trees when other food sources are scarce.

Adult wapiti usually stay in single-sex herds for most of the year, until it's time to breed.

Bulls will challenge each other for the right to mate with an entire harem, and if push comes to shove, they will wrestle with their antlers to assert dominance.

(intense orchestral music) Male bighorn sheep will use their large, curled horns as a weapon too.

Weighing up to 14 kilograms, horns can be heavier than the combined weight of all the bones that make up a bighorn skeleton.

Unlike deer, bighorn sheep hold onto their hardware, with the number of rings present in their horns indicating their age and status.

Rams will live in bachelor herds, only coming together with the females when it's time to mate.

They are related to goats and perfectly adapted to the rocky, mountain terrain beyond Jasper's forests, with split hooves to help them balance on uneven ground.

In the winter months, though, they will move to lower elevations to graze on shrubs and woody plants near the forest edges, and like all ruminants, will regurgitate their food and chew it as cud to aid digestion.

(gentle music) A key predator in the Canadian Rockies used to be one of the most populous wild mammals in the world, but now, it is somewhat elusive.

The gray wolf... also known as the timber wolf in deference to its preferred habitat.

They're not easily encountered in the wild, but just beyond the township of Golden in British Columbia, there's a place dedicated to raising awareness and promoting the conservation of these magnificent animals.

These captive born individuals live a semi-wild existence.

Every day, they're taken into the wilderness and encouraged to wander free for a couple of hours.

(uplifting orchestral music) Wild wolves live in social family groups of about seven or eight animals, with an alpha male and female in command.

They cannot run as fast as their prey, so they hunt as a pack using a combination of tactics to outmaneuver their target.

(bird squawking) (dramatic orchestral music) (dramatic music) In Australia, dingoes play a very similar role in the ecosystem to wolves and employ many of the same tactics when hunting.

(dramatic music) They've lived on the Australian mainland for at least three and a half thousand years and are descendants of a South Asian breed of gray wolf.

They can live in a variety of habitats in Australia but prefer the edges of woodlands where water and prey are plentiful.

The lowland temperate forests that cover much of the great dividing range, separating the east coast from inland Australia, are a key stronghold, providing shelter and plenty of food.

(dramatic music) Opportunistic carnivores, the dingo's diet includes native animals such as kangaroos, wallabies and wombats, as well as small reptiles and insects.

They are solitary hunters, but will form packs when they're hunting larger game.

(growling) Producing between four and nine pups every year, dingo parents will raise their young in a hollow log or disused wombat burrow.

Only the dominant members of an established dingo pack will breed and once the pups have been weaned, other adults help ensure the youngsters have enough to eat and do their best to keep them out of harm's way.

Their key predator in this part of the country is the wedge tail eagle.

These pups are blissfully unaware of the threat they pose but fortuitously, their mother has their backs.

She can't afford to be anything but vigilant.

Even when she's away from her brood hunting for food to fill their bellies, she will keep one eye on the sky, raising the alarm and racing to the rescue at the first sign of danger.

(playful music) These pups will be fully grown by seven months of age but may stay with their parents for a year, learning to live the wild life of Australia's undisputed top dog.

(dramatic orchestral music) As autumn descends on North America, millions of butterflies prepare to embark on the journey of their lives.,, a migratory marathon some 5,000 kilometers long.

Making use of the air currents, this super-generation of monarchs will fly up to 150 kilometers a day... as they head en masse from their summer breeding and feeding grounds to a place where they can ride out the winter... (ambient music) huddled together on the branches and trunks of great stands of oyamel fir trees, such as these grand specimens in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, 100 kilometers northwest of Mexico City.

(ambient music) Most of the sites favored by the monarchs for their winter hibernation are kept secret, but ecotourism is an increasingly important source of income for the local people here, so it is possible, at their discretion, to experience this great natural spectacle in all its glory.

(ambient music) To save energy, the monarchs cluster together on the trees, creating a microclimate that protects the insects from the cold.

When it's time for these butterflies to leave their roost, they will follow the same migratory route in reverse, but no single individual can hope to make it all the way back.

This phase of the monarch's migration is more of a group effort, to ensure the perpetuation of the species... a relay where the baton for life is passed from one generation to the next.

Those that have wintered over in Mexico fly the first leg, stopping when they find a patch of milkweed plants, suitable as a nursery for their young.

Shortly after they have mated and laid their eggs, the adult monarch butterflies die.

After a few days the next generation hatch as caterpillars, greedily feasting on the milkweed before forming a chrysalis and transforming into adult butterflies themselves.

(lively music) This next wave of monarchs takes wing, flying another few hundred kilometers in search of the next viable patch of nutritious milkweed.

They mate and lay their eggs and in so doing, set the cycle in motion once again.

Since each individual butterfly on the return journey will only live for four to five weeks, it can take four or five generations for the monarchs to complete their migration back to Canada.

(lively music) There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding this extraordinary migration and a lot of scientific debate about how and why it occurs.

(lively music) But it's fair to assume there's a general consensus that this is one of the most inspiring and intriguing natural events on mother nature's calendar.

(lively music) (dramatic orchestral music) (bouncy music) Another tiny forest creature that serves the greater good is the green tree ant.

Each individual is no more than 10 millimeters long, but when thousands of them get together, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Also called weaver ants, these little insects live across the entire tropical north of Australia, in rainforests and in woodland environments.

They are one of the most dominant and visible ant species in the country due to their incredible balloon-shaped nests.

The construction of these enormous structures is a true wonder of nature, a tribute to the power of cooperation.

First, a group of worker ants will pull together a number of leaves to form a chamber.

These are living leaves that remain attached to their branches, so the nest will stay green and strong for a long time.

(bouncy music) A second group of workers then come along to secure the leaves in place, each carrying a younger ant or grub.

These grubs can spin silk so the workers use them like glue sticks to bind each nest for the colony together.

(bouncy music) The green ants will fiercely defend their nest, swarming out to bite anything that's perceived as an attacker.

This jack jumper ant doesn't stand a chance, even one on one... for the green ant can add insult to injury, squirting acid directly onto the wound he's already made with his jaws.

One green ant colony can contain many nests, each with a designated function, to protect growing larvae, house the workers, or most importantly, house the queen.

In addition to protecting their own, green ant nests aid other species in the environment.

The host tree is protected from leaf-eating insects, who are deterred by the ants.

Some butterflies deliberately lay their eggs in ant-inhabited trees.

The ant protects the emerging caterpillar in return for a meal.

The caterpillar secretes a delicious sugary liquid, which the ants adore.

(bouncy music) (dramatic orchestral music) From one of the smallest forest animals on the planet, to one of the largest-- the magnificent Asian elephant.

Growing to just under six and a half meters in length and weighing in at 2,000 to 5,000 kilograms, Asian elephants are smaller but no less impressive than their African cousins.

(uptempo instrumental music) They have five toenails on their front feet, whereas the African elephant only has four.

Their ears are significantly smaller, but just as effective when it comes to radiating heat to keep their body temperature cool.

They use their trunks for smelling and breathing, but also for eating and drinking, and with 100,000 different muscles and tendons in play, they are clearly very flexible organs.

(elephant trumpets) (lighthearted music) Elephants will nap for a few hours at a time at night, but given the amount of food they need to consume to survive, most of their lives are spent on the move, foraging.

(lighthearted music) Elephants are revered in some Asian cultures but equally prized by others for their strength.

For thousands of years, they were fair game to capture from the wild and domesticate.

Now this practice has been widely banned in order to conserve the few natural herds that remain.

Laos was once known as Lan Xang, the land of a million elephants.

Today, there are around 1,800 but only half of them live in the wild.

(grumbling) These elephants were rescued from an unregulated logging camp in Northern Laos, where they were used as a low-budget alternative to industrial, heavy lifting machinery, destroying the very habitat they needed to survive.

(uplifting music) Now they lead a far less stressful working life, here on the outskirts of Luang Prabang.

Many conservationists would argue that elephant rides should also be a thing of the past but they currently give communities such as this an income, and good reason to protect these beautiful animals, that might otherwise be killed for damaging farmlands or slaughtered for their tusks, meat and skin.

(uplifting music) While these rescued elephants are not free to venture through the forests on their own, they are treated with compassion and kindness.

And clearly have a far better working life than they were previously condemned to endure.

(uplifting music) (dramatic orchestral music) (uptempo music) The Tasmanian devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world.

It lives in Tasmania, Australia's main island off the southeast coast of the mainland.

(dramatic orchestral music) A favorite haunt is the Tarkine wilderness, the second largest tract of coastal temperate rainforest in the world.

(dramatic orchestral music) Much of the forest here is inaccessible, to all but the most determined.

Hidden valleys and thick forest support ecosystems that haven't altered for thousands of years.

(dramatic orchestral music) About the size of a cat, the devil prefers carrion to live prey.

Tasmanian devils will eat the carcass of almost anything they find, happily devouring flesh, fur and bones.

They perform an important service by getting rid of any corpses that would otherwise rot in the forest, potentially spreading disease to other animals.

(dramatic orchestral music) Devils have a ferocious appetite and can eat 40% of their body weight in just 30 minutes.

They're famous for their rowdy behavior and aggressive noises.

(dramatic orchestral music) Devils have a range of postures and vocalizations they use to locate, communicate and compete with one another: growls, screeches and vibratos.

When eating communally, devils avoid crowding each other out by using their whiskers to determine a sufficient space between themselves, and in so doing, they avoid the risk of being bitten during the feeding frenzy.

(playful music) Tasmanian devils are hard to find during the day, as they're largely nocturnal, so encountering them in the wild is easier after dark, especially from a purpose-built, camouflaged shelter.

Every night, individual devils will wander up to 16 kilometers through their home range in search of food, using very well-trodden trails.

(playful music) (uptempo music) One of Australia's most familiar marsupials can be found in forests throughout Tasmania and the mainland-- the possum.

(uptempo music) There are 23 different possum species in Australia and at least as many more in New Guinea.

Possums are mainly herbivorous, spending most of their time high in the boughs of large trees or searching for grasses, flowers and juicy shrubs.

Brushtail possums are the largest species in Australia and the most common.

They are nocturnal and will often retreat into tree hollows to snooze during the day but even these provide little guarantee of protection.

Brushtails are a feisty species and will put up a fight to defend their territory but against a larger, more formidable opponent such as this aggressive lace monitor, this mom was destined to lose the battle to protect her young.

(suspenseful music) (slow tempo music) Ringtails are another relatively easy possum to encounter.

They will build themselves spherical nests or dreys, fashioned from shredded bark and grass.

They are agile climbers and will use their tails as an extra hand, enabling them to more effectively gather food.

Ringtails usually only eat the fresh tips of leaves and are partial to the nectar on flowers.

Australia's most spectacular possum can fly.

This is the sugar glider.

A flap of loose skin between the glider's fifth finger and first toe can stretch out to create a kind of wing suit, that allows the glider to sail almost effortlessly through the trees.

But while they're still too young to be airborne, they must retreat from forest bullies by more conventional means.

(playful music) (dramatic orchestral music) With good reason, pandas are probably the most adored forest animal in the world.

Many zoos have panda enclosures, where it's possible to observe them at close range.

But nothing beats seeing this magnificent bear in the wild.

Pandas once lived throughout Southern China, but today their habitat is restricted to the Sichuan province.

(ambient music) The World Heritage-listed landscape here is breathtaking.

(uplifting music) A wonder of waterfalls, mineral-rich lakes and diverse forest ecosystems that vary with the altitude.

(uplifting orchestral music) The entire province is surrounded by mountains which receive heavy snowfall in the winter but the climate in the valleys is unusually mild, allowing lush corridors of bamboo to grow between the region's thick, deciduous forests.

(uplifting orchestral music) An adult panda can eat 40 kilos of bamboo per day, a formidable task, aided by big wrist bones that function like opposable thumbs.

They are great for grasping bamboo and climbing.

Biologists are convinced that like their grizzly and polar bear relatives, pandas were once carnivorous.

Indeed they still have the teeth and digestive system of a committed meat-eater.

They will eat the occasional mouse or insect but otherwise modern pandas subsist almost entirely on bamboo.

(lighthearted music) Even though pandas are considered a national treasure in China, there are fewer than 2,000 left in the wild.

(lighthearted music) To stop their numbers falling further still, pandas are now protected and several rehabilitation and breeding centers have been established to help build the population.

These are staffed by local scientists and volunteers from all across the globe, animal lovers who are intent on making a difference to the lives of China's pandas, no matter how menial the task may seem.

With a view to raising as many captive-born pandas as possible, the panda nursery in Chengdu actively monitors the growth and health of all cubs born at their facility.

The more pandas they can breed and successfully raise here, the more pandas there will be in the wild.

China's breed and release program is slowly but surely helping wild panda numbers to rebound after decades in decline.

So much so, the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, recently announced the giant panda has had an upgrade to their status, moving from the endangered species list to the less onerous vulnerable one.

They're not quite out of the woods yet but with animal lovers all around the world rallying to support their cause, they are well on their way to salvation.

(lighthearted music) (mellow orchestral music) Forests throughout the world are rich and complex environments, and they support an equally rich and complex menagerie of animals... roaming through the undergrowth, sleeping in the tree tops, eating their way through nature's great smorgasbord.

Wherever and whenever they choose to reveal themselves in all their wild, untamed glory, they truly do leave us in awe.

(elephants grumbling) (dramatic orchestral music)