PLANET EARTH Seasonal Forests

It's so big and powerful, it can even bring down an adult caribou. For its size, it's said that the animal can eat more in one sitting than any other which is why it's also known as the glutton（狼獾）. Being gluttonous here is a very effective strategy. It's wise to eat all you can, when you can and when even a glutton can't eat more it stores what's left for later, in the surrounding deep freeze.



Spring in the ice forest. The capercaillie（松鸡） can also digest conifer needles but feeding is not it's priority at the moment. Like gladiators（格斗士）, the males square up for a battle. Each may have just a single chance to impress a female. Neither can afford a lapse in concentration. The injured loser may not survive. The inhabitants of this great wilderness may live and die without ever having contact with humanity. Long may it be that way.



The northern seasonal forest may be the largest on Earth but to see coniferous trees that have reached their full potential you must travel a thousand miles south of here. The Pacific Coast of North America. The land of hemlock, douglas fir and giant redwood. Here, water is never locked up in ice and even if rains fail the needles can extract moisture from the fogs that roll in from the sea.