Wild Britain

Episode 1

Mountains

44 mins

Our mountains and uplands are the most dramatic wilderness in Britain. Inaccessible, beautiful and brutal... only the hardiest of animals survive here. We open in the snowy Cairngorms, home to the Golden Eagle - our most impressive bird of prey. It can reach speeds of 180 mph - but catching a Mountain Hare isn't easy. An on-board camera offers a bird's eye view of the hunt. But these hares have survived in our uplands since the Ice Age... On the lower slopes, it's breeding season for Scotland's 400,000 red deer. We gain intimate insight into this ancient ritual, and witness a brutal battle between heavyweight stags vying for dominance and mating rights. When winter takes grip in the mountains, Ptarmigan and Reindeer vie for the crown of Britain's toughest animal, both supremely adapted to life above the treeline. Further south lie the Yorkshire Dales, home to the flamboyant black grouse. At traditional 'lekking sites' the males (or cocks) compete for dominance. Posturing, bubbling sounds and vicious fights allow the strongest cocks to take centre stage. We discover that there's more to Britain's uplands than meets the eye. Large parts of Snowdonia would be covered in trees if it weren't for the sheep that have grazed here for centuries. We discover an ambitious project to keep the sheep away from sensitive plants, like the carnivorous sundew. And every year, huge swathes of our mountains and uplands are deliberately burned to provide perfect conditions for red grouse. These native birds give the moors economic value, and by creating habitat for them some moorland managers maintain breeding grounds for rare waders, such as curlews. In Scotland, a bold project is attempting to re-tree the uplands and recreate the ancient Caledonian Forest. Trees for Life have planted almost 2 million trees as they attempt to revive this wildlife-rich habitat.