The Sanctuary, Story of Survival in the Alps

There are wildlands where nature still conceals some of her most beautiful secrets. The Alps. A colossal mass of rock, 1,300 kilometers long.

Hundreds of 3,000 meter peaks hold millions of cubic meters of ice within. Steep slopes. Patches of rock exposed to the winds.

Air that is truly low on oxygen. How have living creatures adapted to these extreme conditions in this world where winter lasts eight months, where the temperatures can plummet to minus 40 degrees? How are they able to mate.

Raise their young. Conquer new territories Cover vast distances? How do they withstand these brutal conditions?

From the highest mountain peaks to the deepest valleys. These are the astonishing stories of animals at one with the violence of the elements. An epic voyage in the last sanctuary in Europe.

This is Italy, the Dolomites. This rock is an ancient coral reef. It was pushed out of the sea millions of years ago.

Petrified coral at 3,000 meters. Winter is almost over. There is nothing to eat.

Many animals are weak. This young deer is looking for any food he can find. This is the worst time of the year.

A she-wolf is on the hunt. However, she is not alone. She has her family all around her.

She-wolf leads the pack with her mate, her alpha male. This young deer isn't easy prey, but She-wolf has a plan. On her signal, the action can begin.

This young deer has never seen a wolf, but he knows what he has to do. It's in his genes. He has a trick to escape.

He draws them right into his herd. That's exactly what She-wolf had planned. Now, she can identify the easiest prey, a sick deer.

This young deer was able to escape the wolves by sacrificing one of his own. A very effective response to wolf attacks. Not the most glorious strategy perhaps, but it does have an advantage.

It removes sick deer and stops the spread of disease. That is the wolf's role in the natural world. At this time of year, deer gather in large herds.

More ears to hear any dangers. More eyes to see them coming. To battle against the cold, they put certain parts of their body into hibernation and lower their heart rate.

Conserving energy is the key to survival in these glacial conditions. This wolf pack has just captured its prey with a minimum of effort. This is their first meal in days.

Excited by the food, the eldest son tests the limits of the family hierarchy. He challenges his father, the alpha male. He must follow the rules.

Parents eat before their cubs. However, the son does not want to obey. He must wait his turn just like the others.

Wolves only have one competitor in the Alps. Brown bears. This one smelled fresh meat from miles away and he's hungry.

Alpha is in no mood to back off. Normally, he would have retreated like She-wolf. Today, Alpha wants to show his offspring that he's still in charge.

Alpha wants to stop the bear from eating and harass him until he leaves. Brown bears aren't afraid of wolves. He's the strongest and he knows it.

Alpha is no longer able to lead. Immediately, all eyes turn to the other son. Everyone submits to the new leader but not she-wolf.

She will not abandon her lifelong companion. When wolves find a partner, the bond is for life. In the Alps, finding food in the winter is a daily challenge.

To manage it, some animals have come up with rather surprising strategies. This is the Gran Paradiso Massif. There is hunger in the valley.

Most of the trees have been stripped. No more fruit, no more seeds, and the insects are hidden under the bark. To avoid dying of starvation, some small birds have come up with a very clever technique.

They gather in groups of several species. They start by looking for an unexplored tree. Whoever finds one alerts the others.

Now, they can all take their positions on that day's tree. At the top, is the crossbill. They keep a lookout.

Below them, willow tits break pine cones to extract the nuts. Lower down on the branches, crested tits, and tree creepers, search for the tiny spiders hiding under the lichen. At the bottom, coal tits and blue tits, are getting excited about a butterfly larva.

All these different species have found a very effective way of feeding themselves by helping one another. At the first sign of danger, they warn each other. When they are fed, they can return to their individual nests to protect themselves against the harsh conditions.

A snowstorm. It quickly becomes brutally cold. A few hours of this can be lethal.

What protection do they have? Some have specially adapted coats. They are capable of withstanding temperatures of minus 50 degrees.

Some prefer to spend the winter underground. They maintain their body temperature at four degrees. Their heart beats once a minute, and above all, they sleep for a long time.

A very long time. Except when they're cold. Marmots know that the more of them they are, the easier it is to stay warm.

To have a lot of marmots, you need to have a family. This brings us to another challenge in the high mountains, how to find a mate when spring arrives. Some have found a rather unusual way, mountain speed dating.

This is the Beaufortain Massif. Once a year there's a gathering here, on a precise date known only by the population of European common frogs. After nine months of deep sleep, this young male has just woken up with an irresistible urge, to find a mate.

This bachelor knows exactly where he needs to go. A peat bog three kilometers away. Why is he in such a hurry?

Where he's going, there will only be one female for every five males. Everyone's going there at the same time, so only the first to arrive will find a partner. A female.

The idea is to grab her and not let her go. Oh, it's a male. This is it, we're here.

A melted spot in the middle of the ice. Look at that beauty. Those golden eyes.

That brown skin. She's the one. He's sure of it.

Now she must accept him on her back. The secret is to show off your smooth moves. She's moving too much.

Now, the problem is this gang of suitors who will stop at nothing to steal his sweetheart. It might be better to look elsewhere. Here, can he cut in?

The young male will not find a mate this year, and yet he is not defeated. In a place full of eggs, he is able to spread his sperm by himself. He will have offspring, and that is the most important thing.

Common frogs do not live in pairs. They couple up for one week a year and then go their separate ways. As the snow melts, the season of birth begins.

Suddenly, throughout the landscape, delicate, defenseless creatures are brought into the world. To protect their little ones, parents make inaccessible homes in the trees. They dig impenetrable dens underground.

They build nests on the sheer cliff faces. For those that live on open ground, there is no refuge. Their young are vulnerable everywhere.

This is the Ecrins National Park. Here, the Ibex have developed a collective surveillance system. This is an adult female.

She is on duty for her community. This young ibex has just been born. He is not the only one.

All the births have taken place in the last few days. The matriarch's job is to look out for the baby snatcher. The golden eagle.

Female ibex keep watch in groups over the herd's young. A kind of high-altitude nursery. The alarm is raised.

Too fast. Despite their dedication, the females regularly lose little ones. During the warmer months, the males settle higher up.

Raising the young isn't their thing. They prefer doing nothing really, apart from scratching their back with their horn. While the male works tirelessly, the females move on to another activity.

Educating their young. A young kid and his mother have set off on a journey, one that will lead them to a scarcely believable feat. For the last 50 years, all the mothers in this region have led their young on a two-day march to carry out what appears to be an initiation ceremony.

The young kid is learning the mountain and is enthralled by the agility of his feet. The incredible grip of his hooves. He tests his abilities and cannot see their limit.

However, he has no idea what is in store. He follows his mother with total confidence. The kid suddenly realizes that he is standing above a sheer drop.

What are they doing here? They are on the dam at Lake Cingino. A wall 50 meters high.

The kid doesn't know it yet, but he is a master of balance. Why did his mother bring him here? To reach the mineral salts that seep through the dam.

The kid has conquered his fear, and now he can copy his mother and taste the succulent nectar of the rock. Their concave hooves act like ultra-powerful, non-slip shock absorbers, suckers that stick to the rock face. Their sense of balance is an evolutionary marvel.

Little Ibex has just learned something that will be essential to his survival. He will return here every year to maintain his health. All the mothers here have passed on this knowledge to their young since the dam has existed.

For the kid, it's the beginning of his passage into adulthood. In a few months, at the beginning of autumn, he will be weaned and ready to leave his mother for the winter. He will go with the males, and when his horns have grown, he will be able to scratch his back with them like a proper adult.

The education of offspring is a huge challenge in the high mountains. The main obligation is the length of time, just four months to teach them to look after themselves before winter. Most parents spend considerable time and energy on this task.

What about their young? Do they give the same back to their parents? Do the young look after their elders when they are less fit and healthy?

Thanks to advances in knowledge, the veil is slowly being lifted on a world whose richness we could scarcely have imagined. The world of trees. In the great beech forests of the Alps, we have recently uncovered a story of parents and their children that only exists in fables.

The story of the immortal tree stump. Hidden under moss, this tree stump is all that remains of a giant tree that fell more than 500 years ago. It must surely have died by now, but it hasn't.

However, it has no more leaves to capture the sun's energy. How is it still alive? Science has uncovered the answer.

The surrounding trees have decided to help and keep it alive. They give it food. Who are these kind trees?

First, is the inner circle. The direct descendants of the stump. They grew from its fruits.

Further out are its grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There are even trees that aren't from the same family, nor even the same species. They all form a support network to feed it.

Why have they protected it from death? A useless old stump. Perhaps they care about it.

Affection from one tree to another. The story of this immortal tree stump opens our eyes to an unexpected world. Why do trees help each other?

One tree on its own cannot protect itself against the cold and the wind. It can't conserve the water it needs nor fight off attacks by parasites, but a forest can. The trees depend on one another.

Together they can live for hundreds, even thousands of years. They bring benefits to a considerable number of living creatures. They act as homes, food stalls, shelters, and restaurants.

This generosity is the fruit of one of nature's most extraordinary forces. The solidarity between trees. With these model parents and incredible children, we might start believing in an ideal world where everyone treats each other with kindness.

That is not the case. Some parents do nothing for their young but manage completely fine. Let's take a look at the absolute worst of them.

His name is Blue. Behind the facade of a pretty inoffensive butterfly lies the greatest con artist on the mountain. To start off with, he has good intentions.

Seduction starts with coupling up. Once she has been fertilized, the mother seeks out the purple flower of the Burnet. She deposits her egg and abandons her little one, who becomes a caterpillar.

Who will feed and protect it? Now, begins the great con trick of the baby Blue. Operation Scent Disguise.

He takes the scent of an ant larva. This is it. Intrigued by the scent, a worker ant investigates.

What is this young ant larva doing here? Back to the anthill, quick! The trick has worked.

The shortsighted ant brings the baby back to the nursery. Now the ants feed the trickster by mouth, day after day, month after month, throughout the whole winter. The baby turns white and grows big.

The ants don't even notice the gigantic size of this larva. In spring, the metamorphosis occurs and on the crucial day the baby leaves his cocoon. The scent disguise immediately vanishes.

He only has seconds before the ants turn and cut him into pieces, so he gets out quickly. He unfurls his wings and that's it. The imposter can finally become a butterfly.

There are those that take advantage of the work of others, like Blue. There are those who sacrifice everything for the collective, like the ants. There are those who fly solo and take whatever falls at their feet, like bears.

Even if it itches. What is the best strategy for surviving in these mountains? To act alone or in a group?

Bears are solitary, but they still help others, like their beloved raspberries, for example. After digesting them, they disperse their seeds throughout the mountains in their droppings. They help the raspberries without realizing it.

There are also creatures with mutual relationships that depend on one another. The next story is barely believable. It is a story of an alliance between a tree and a bird.

The tree is the Swiss pine. It grows right on the limit of where is possible, beyond 2,000 meters. The hardiest of trees.

It can live for hundreds of years but it has a huge problem. Its cones do not open on their own. Their fruits are imprisoned within.

This means a Swiss pine cannot reproduce on its own. This is where the bird comes in. A rather peculiar bird at that.

The nutcracker. The nutcracker has one great passion in life, hoarding. Small ones, medium ones, rough ones, chubby ones.

He knows exactly how many there are and checks they're all in their place. That one is a medium. Where do they go?

There. A little one, it can stay there. A big one, there.

That one, on the side. Mid-September is the beginning of pine nut season. By instinct, the nutcracker heads to the largest food store in the area.

The Bernoises, one of the highest forests in Europe, home to a community of centuries-old Swiss pines. At this time of the year, they produce vast quantities of fruit. This is what the nutcracker is here for.

First, to detach the cones. Put them on the block. Then to get to work.

His powerful beak is the perfect tool. With surgical precision, he can extract 200 pine nuts an hour. He stores them behind his tongue.

In his crop, he can carry 30 at a time and store them in a safe place. There is a method for hiding them well. First, dig a hole.

Then, bury them deep. No, not that one. One, two, three.

What he doesn't realize is that this wood is also a magnet for all the thieves in the region. They are waiting for the right moment. The nutcracker covers the hole with a bit of moss and that's it.

The nutcracker works relentlessly from morning to night. He picks, transports, and stashes 100,000 pine nuts in three weeks. As soon as his back is turned, thieves ransack all his stashes.

They rob him of three-quarters of his fortune. Faced with the theft of his pine nuts, the nutcracker has a solution. He covers many kilometers to hide his riches.

He even hides them in the most remote places. The good news is that he forgets a large number of his hiding places. That's how Swiss pines produce offspring and how they move around.

A tree that teams up with a bird to reproduce. We now know that helping one another is a powerful force in the natural world. The other force is competition.

Until now, it was believed that survival of the fittest ruled the world but we are beginning to change our minds. Competition is everywhere, but at its most visible during the mating season. A stag gathers his does.

A rival appears from the neighboring valley. Will the victor take the does? Officially, yes.

However, while the two challengers are busy fighting, a young pacifist begins his courtship. He manages to woo a doe without fighting. With all due respect to the two fighters, the rule that might makes right isn't always observed.

In reality, in more extreme environments, competition is less decisive because it has one great drawback, it uses up a lot of energy. In the mountains, energy is a commodity one must manage with care. As soon as the stag's fighting is finished, the ibex rams begin their duels.

The issue is the same. The marmots are preparing for sleep. The hares are changing color.

One day the great white blanket is back. Winter descends on the world. Those who are not prepared will not survive.

Wolves are among the best-adapted for the grueling life that is about to begin. Their power comes from their strong family structure. What happens if it disappears?

It's time to return to the story of the she-wolf and her alpha male. We must go back a year to the tragic end of She-wolf's winter. That accident marked the start of an adventure that changed her life in the Alps.

She-wolf's companion has succumbed to his wounds and She-wolf hasn't summoned the strength to leave his body. Her place in the pack has already been taken. The absence of the other female has caused one of her daughters to go into heat.

She is ready to have cubs. She is the new alpha female. What will she do?

If she returns to her pack, she will have to confront her daughter. She must leave. Why does she make this choice?

It's because she isn't really alone. In a few weeks, she will bring another litter of cubs into the world. In a wolf pack, only the alpha female is allowed to reproduce.

If she stayed, her cubs risked being killed at birth. She-wolf was born in these mountains but her instinct is telling her to leave. As far away as possible.

To find a new land for her future family. Where to? What lies beyond these mountains?

She's yet to find out. She-wolf heads north. To avoid any encounter with other wolves, she takes a route along the mountain tops.

She-wolf is not the first. Many wolves leave their packs each year in search of a new life. They travel vast distances.

Hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Scientists can follow their movements with tracking collars. She-wolf leaves the Dolomites in March and enters Austria.

In a few days, she crosses several mountain ranges. Then, she turns west toward the Tyrol. She only has three weeks to go.

Then, she will give birth. A lone wolf is never really alone. She has many eyes on her.

Like the lammergeier. What is this huge bird after? The lammergeier is returning to the Alps after a century of absence.

Like wolves, they had been wiped out by humans. People saw them as evil dragons and child killers. Was it the eyes circled in red?

The strange beard? With a wingspan of three meters, the largest vulture in Europe is also the best glider. This male is six years old.

He was born in the Mercantour Massif but left when he was very young. Every year he covers thousands of kilometers high above the Alps. What is he looking for?

For now, he is following She-wolf. Is he waiting for her to die from hunger? When it comes to diet, as you will see, the lammergeier has quite particular tastes.

Now, we know why the lammergeier is following She-wolf. Her nose. His efforts are finally rewarded.

The lammergeier is not like other vultures. Its diet does not contain flesh or skin. He has his own special recipe.

First, he breaks the carcass into smaller pieces. Then, he takes the chosen morsel 50 meters up in the air, drops it delicately on a protruding rock, and that's it. Dinner is served.

Broken bones. That's all the bearded vulture eats. His stomach contains the most powerful digestive acid in the living world.

He only eats fresh bones, not old dry ones. She-wolf keeps moving 50 to 60 kilometers a day. From the Zillertal in the Tyrol, she crosses Austria from east to west.

Then, she enters Switzerland through the Canton Crescent and passes through Saint-Gotthard and Monte Rosa. She skirts the imposing Matterhorn. In only a few weeks, she covers more than 1,000 kilometers.

She is now in France, in the Mont-Blanc Massif. She's exhausted and weakened from the journey. She must find somewhere to rest.

She will soon give birth. Wolves give birth in the family's den. Dug by the ancestors deep under the ground.

It lies at the heart of their territory. It is passed down from generation to generation. She-wolf does not have a territory.

She has to find a nice dry spot with access to fresh water nearby. Halfway up a hill to see any incoming danger. A hole under an old tree stump.

Perfect. She gave birth during the night. A litter of eight cubs.

Two of the little ones died at birth. She ate them so as not to attract other predators. Many other animals would eat her cubs if they could.

Foxes, crows, martens, wild boar. A lynx, the hardest predator to detect in the mountains. She can smell it, but can't see it.

Lynx can lay in wait for hours. It is waiting for her to leave in search of food. She knows it, but she's hungry.

For three weeks she has eaten nothing but grass and earthworms. If she was still with a pack, she could leave her cubs with the other females. When the alpha mother gives birth, her daughters all start producing milk.

The lynx is giving up for today, but it could be back at any time and kill her young with one flash of its claws. She-wolf is trapped and there is an intrepid explorer in her litter. A nightmare for a lone she-wolf.

What about the lynx? Three hungry little ones are waiting for her too. She's a mother and works like all other parents in spring.

Protecting and feeding her young. In the 20th century, lynx totally disappeared from the Alps. Then, several survivors were reintroduced in Switzerland.

Thankfully, the plan worked. Today, lynx can be found across the alpine region. The cubs are now two months old.

It's time to discover the world and learn by watching the adults. She-wolf must be careful not to lose one along the way. Little adventurer is the most dangerous.

Led by his curiosity, he can wander off without warning. Their predatory instincts are still completely dormant. They will not learn to hunt before they are a year old.

At two months, the cubs are ready to be weaned off their mother's milk. Their mother gradually reduces the amount and begins to feed them instead with regurgitated meat. Prey hunted by the pack.

None of that is possible for She-wolf. A wolf's education is a mixture of leniency and limitations. Nothing is out of bounds for a young wolf.

He has to have his own experiences and learn to handle the consequences of his actions. Like learning how to recognize friends and enemies. She-wolf has found a new den, but there still isn't anything to eat except for a few insects.

This is the most difficult time. She is running out of milk. The more they need, the less she can provide.

They lick her mouth to make her regurgitate food but her stomach is empty. She's got to find a solution. There's one possibility.

Sheep. They are easy to catch. However, if she wants to eat a sheep, she will have to overcome an old adversary.

Humans. The first people to live in the Alps settled here during the Bronze Age, four thousand years ago. They were shepherds.

This was the beginning of the long battle with the wolves. Today, in order to protect their animals, some people have decided to kill the wolves. However, there is a man fighting in a different way.

He is a considerable challenger for any wolf that wants to feed on livestock. This man has chosen to combat them in his own way. Matthias Korneli.

This year, Matthias has agreed to take a flock in the most dangerous summer pastures in the Alps. To face the wolf packs of Vago. Last year, 35 sheep were killed here.

Local farmers have entrusted him with 650 sheep. They have spent the winter sheltered in pens, and now they need to eat soft, tender grass to fatten up and give birth. Matthias' mission is to take them up to the pasture and protect them from all dangers for two months.

His challenge, to return at the end of the summer with all the sheep. Something no shepherd has managed here for years. The wolves are back.

She-wolf is waiting for her chance. A single sheep could feed her cubs for days. The high plateaus of Vago between the mountain ranges of Albris and Deboli.

Lago delle querce is just behind the pastures assigned to Matthias. To accompany him on his mission, he has a crack team that he has selected and trained himself. He has two types of dogs.

Herding dogs, light and fast, and those that guard the flock, heavy and powerful. Raga is a female Beauceron. She loves her job and is by far the most active.

She spends her time looking out for sheep that stray from the flock and guiding them back. She does it all to please Matthias. Leo is a little Pyrenean shepherd, light and quick, with the heart of a lion.

They can count on his vigilance at all times. He doesn't miss a thing. The elderly Kay is retired.

She doesn't work anymore, but everyone still pretends she's essential to the team. Soon, she won't be able to make the journey up into the mountains. Matthias is leading his flock onto the most dangerous ground, where the highest number of attacks have taken place.

This is the Valley of peril. This has a purpose. They must be clear right from the start.

Matthias and his dogs are here and they're not afraid. She-wolf has heard the message but she has sensed a greater danger. A wolf pack is close by.

They are many and ready to attack. The guard dogs take their positions. Thor takes the higher ground.

He watches everything, smells everything, hears everything. Rea goes into the middle of the flock. She is attached to the sheep and mothers them as if they were her own pups.

Mora takes care of the outer areas. Sometimes she ventures far from the flock to leave her scent, mark her territory, and challenge any wolf that tries to get close. What about Marsden, the young Molossus?

He patrols their territory around the perimeter of the flock. The Wolves work as a team. They observe and surround their prey.

The scent of the sheep whets their appetites. The wolves aren't looking for a fight. They prefer to find food without running into trouble.

If the dogs hold their ground, the wolves will look elsewhere. The first meeting will stay in the wolves' memories. They will remember the scents of Thor, Mora, and Marsden.

Next time, they'll pass them by. Matthias and his dogs guard the flock and protect each other. They act instinctively like a pack thanks to the genes of their common ancestor.

The wolf. This is Matthias' pack. Since he's been doing this job, he has looked after more than 15,000 sheep and has only lost three of them to wolves.

Matthias is never for or against the wolves. To him, all life is sacred, even that of the wolf. The wolves are back.

He'll handle it. She-wolf hasn't come back. She is still looking for food.

At ten weeks old, Adventure is the most active in the pack. He is drawn to anything that moves. Now, he's on the trail of a delicious meal.

An ibex bone, all for himself. Personalities are forged during play. There are leaders and there are followers.

Those that give up easily, and some that never let go. She-wolf continues her journey in search of more hospitable lands. She crosses the Vago, the Chartreuse Massif, and reaches La dent de l'Ours.

She is looking for a peaceful place where she can settle down. Today she picked up a urine scent. This is a sign that marks a boundary that shouldn't be crossed.

She-wolf has just entered the territory of another pack. They are close. Wolves will kill if they spot an intruder, but there is another danger.

They are coming up from the valley. There are many of them too. Humans and wolves do not get along.

She-wolf knows. It's in her genes. She senses that she must flee.

She has reached the end of the road. Behind her, a mountain riddled with dangers. In front of her, an unknown world.

We now know that many wolves travel across our cities and villages. They move at night. Without making a sound.

Since they have returned, the trails of many different wolves have been studied. They cross anything in their way, rivers, motorways, and even high-speed railway lines. They take astonishing risks.

Nothing can stop them. She-wolf has managed to cross the Ubaye Valley. She's found a new and more peaceful territory.

No scents of humans. No dogs. It's a land of plenty, with abundant food.

She-wolf has just found a wildlife reserve, the Mercantour National Park, a manmade sanctuary that protects all species. It is a new territory but there is another presence, the lammergeier. He has returned to the precise spot where he was born and he has started a family.

She-wolf has succeeded in keeping her six cubs alive and well but winter is coming. She's going to need some help. It's time for her to call out to other wolves.

A wolf's call is so powerful. It can be heard for dozens of kilometers. Tonight, no one hears her.

Far away in another valley, a young wolf has heard her calls. They meet in the early hours. She-wolf has traveled 1,300 kilometers.

She left the Dolomites in the winter, and crossed almost the entire range of the Alps all on her own. She gave birth in the Mont Blanc Massif, then turned south, crossed the Vago, the Ecrins, and settled in the Alps of Haute Provence. Several weeks later, a camera trap took these images.

She-wolf has started a new pack and now has her own territory. She-wolf's journey tells an even greater story. Wolves almost disappeared from Europe in the 20th century.

Only a few isolated families survived in the Italian Alps. Then, in the 1990s, a few lone wolves, just like She-wolf, began to reconquer the territories their ancestors had lost. By traveling, by forming new packs far from home, they gradually repopulated the mountains.

Today, they number almost 2,000. Wolves are the symbol of the regeneration of the Alps. What can we learn from all these stories?

What have all these mountain dwellers taught us? Before answering that, we must ask the wise elders, those who were there before the animals and the humans who have lived in the mountains for millions of years, the plants. How do they survive for months, covered by snow, in darkness and freezing cold?

During their short time in the light, how do they share out the scarce resources available? Two thousand species of high-altitude plants live here under the watchful eye of Pascal, their gardener. They have developed a number of strategies to endure the extreme conditions of the high mountains.

Between one and two thousand meters high, many of them are engaged in combat. To assert its dominance, the Jacob's Ladder colonizes entire areas and suffocates its rivals. The yellow rattle latches on the root of a neighboring plant and draws out its sap to feed itself.

The most dreaded of them all, shaggy hogweed, poisons its neighbors. Here, quite clearly, the strong eliminate the weak. We assume that's how nature works but that's not entirely true.

Up above the clouds, the rules are different. Up there, where nothing else can grow. When the poverty of the soil is compounded by extreme climate conditions, the rules change and life reveals one of its most wondrous secrets.

Moss campion is a plant shaped like a cushion. Inside, the temperature is ten degrees warmer than outside, a microclimate that allows several species to take refuge there. Like this blue gentian that would perish without its help.

Each little flower presses against its neighbor not to kill it, but to conserve and share water and heat. The strangest of them all also lives at the highest altitude. The mysterious rock jasmine and its pleasant honey scent.

This one is perhaps a hundred years old. It may appear to be a single plant, but in fact it shelters a multitude of tiny, invisible creatures. Bacteria, mites, and insects live as a community with the rock Jasmine.

It is itself an entire ecosystem capable of living completely autonomously. These plants demonstrate one of the fundamental mechanisms of the natural world. When there is nothing left, it isn't the strongest that succeed, but those that held one another.

The tougher the conditions, the more vital it becomes to work together. That's the lesson from the inhabitants of the Alps. Here, they all know it.

The female ibex that help each other look after their kids. The mischievous birds that gather together to find food. The deer that keep warm by huddling together.

The lammergeier that rely on wolves to find their bones. The trees that give to their elders. The wolves that sacrifice everything to protect their power.

The Swiss pines that rely on the nutcracker to sow their seeds. The wolves that overcome remarkable challenges to share their life with other wolves. The men who rely on their dogs to watch over their flocks.

All of them know that they are not the strongest. That the mountain is much more powerful than them. That's why they help each other.