The Arctic, locked in darkness for nearly seven months, springs to life once the sun rises above the horizon. Ideas of migration, hibernation, the food web, habitat change are explored, and we are introduced to some of the Arctic's most magnificent and iconic creatures and its most dramatic landscapes.
The Western Arctic's mammoth Mackenzie Delta is the second largest in North America after the Mississippi. It is a biological "hotspot", a transition zone between ecosystems - from the familiar boreal forest, across the tree line to the ever-frozen tundra. Here we find strange and mysterious landforms above an immense underbelly of permafrost featuring a phenomenal diversity of microorganisms, and strange creatures that tell a story of an ever changing Arctic. This is the migratory destination - and summer home - to several million birds, fish, animals...and humans.
Nunavik is a pristine wilderness of water, forest, and tundra, and home to the Inuit of Northern Quebec. In the fall, the tundra erupts in all shades of red, orange, yellow and purple. Wildlife and people get ready for the winter. The Ptarmigan spends fall's shortening days eating plants and berries in a hurry. Like all wildlife that winters in Nunavik, it is fattening up for the hardship ahead.
On the north-east coast of Baffin Island, in Canada's Arctic, lies Ninginganiq, a blustery wilderness where only the intrepid travel. The Inuit have lived here for thousands of years navigating around the dangerous sea ice for hunting and fishing in their umiaks and kayaks. As winter nears, one of nature's great spectacles unfolds here, rarely witnessed by humans. Giant bowhead whales gather to feed and socialize. This area is also impacted by El Nino. With climate change, the wild seas of Ninginganiq grow more savage every year.