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The Incredible
Scottish Highlands Episode 1
Spring is the most unpredictable of all seasons in the Highlands. It's all
about timing. Red squirrels, osprey, roe deer and dippers make the most of
this fleeting opportunity to raise a family. In the Caledonian pine forest,
capercaillie perform a striking display to compete for breeding rights
while, on the forest floor, a timberman beetle searches for a mate with
antennae four times the length of its body. In the Moray Firth, a pod of
bottlenose dolphins gathers to feed on the spring run of salmon; it's a
bounty but only if they can swallow it.
The Incredible
Scottish Highlands Episode 2
By midsummer, the sun rules here for nearly 18 hours a day. For the animals
of the Highlands, it's a race to raise their families before the nights
close in and the autumn storms arrive. Golden eagles and Slavonian grebes
work together in pairs while otters and pine martens are single mothers,
hunting ceaselessly to feed their young. As summer draws to an end, the
guillemot chicks of Handa Island face a death-defying leap as they tumble to
the sea, fledging from 400-foot cliffs.
The Incredible
Scottish Highlands Episode 3
https://youtu.be/7OieyQVRzzI
With the brief summer now passed, the animals of the Highlands are in for
the long haul. Only the toughest will survive the Highlands' darkest and
most overwhelming season. Reindeer, ptmarigan and mountain hare are well
adapted to these extreme conditions while red squirrels and crested tits are
pushed to the limit. Atlantic salmon return to spawn in the rivers in which
they were born while on the Orkney island of Copinsay, grey seals haul onto
the beaches to breed and give birth.
The Incredible
Scottish Highlands Episode 4
Wild animals and people have always lived side by side in the Highlands,
sharing the same landscape and experiencing the same seasons. Over the
centuries, many of the riches of these wild places were lost as forests were
cut down and wild animals driven to extinction. But now the balance is
changing. There have been success stories osprey and red kite are thriving
in Highlands after years of persecution while conservationists are working
with locals to monitor the marine mammals on Scottish coasts. But for
others, like the Scottish wildcat, there is still much more to be done. If
we can learn to respect and take responsibility for this place, then the
Highlands have every chance of staying wild and wonderful, for people and
for animals. |
