BBC Earth Yellowstone Battle for Life Blu-Ray Review

In 1988 our plane flew over Yellowstone as forest fires devastated it. It took one-third the pines. We could see the fire clouds from the sky.That blaze set by a lightning match burned for weeks.

A year later our family drove there to see for ourselves the world’s first national park.  The rangers told us at the time that the forest would regenerate and bring new life. The dead trees did open up the land to sunlight, but it was hard to understand how ashes could fertilize. It was the end of June. We took pictures of our boys playing in the last of the winter’s snow. That summer night coming down the mountain from Old Faithful, going into the Tetons, the temperature dropped to 31 degrees. We saw snow flakes falling.

Hubby and I have often spoken about going back but one thing or another always sees to get in the way. When I was offered me the chance to review BBC Earth’s Yellowstone:  Battle for Life in BluRay  I accepted immediately. Hubby and I just sat down this afternoon and watched it. It was as good as being there if not better. The places that are inaccessible and its animals were there. Awesome!

Yellowstone lies isolated in the Rockies. Half the year it is frozen solid. Its winter temperatures drop to 40 degrees below. It is a giant bowl fifty miles wide. In its heart is one of the world’s biggest volcanoes. It last erupted 640,000 years ago; however, someday it will erupt again. That sleeping volcano height brings a giant deep-freeze effect to the sheltered valleys at its edge.

December brings freezing to the Yellowstone river waters which, ironically, can be fifty degrees warmer than the air. Three feet of ice cover its 135 square mile lake. Erupting geysers will melt holes in it. Long ago the effect of the earth’s moving crust and magma caused the Snake River. It brings fifty feet of snow.

Some winter days are twice as long as its nights. Moisture in the air turns to diamond dust ice, cruel beauty at minus 66 degrees. As bison travel a thermal river route , grass is tainted with silica and its hidden content arsenic. Yet life thrives for microbes at least. Elk await mating season as the herd’s alpha male literally locks horns with the young males. At the equinox the grizzly bear will awaken to give birth and feed its cubs. This is a turning point as the again the sun dominates and water flows.

With summer the southern area warms first. A thick natural grassland starts to appear beneath thick snow. Cascading melts swell streams and rivers ten fold. Food is everywhere. Even Artic and Canadian animals flock to it. The landscape of Yellowstone’s plateau showcases rainbows and geysers formed when super-heated water erupts. As time goes on, rain evaporates before it even hits the ground. This aridity brings drought and peril to the forests.

Autumn is spectacular in this two million acre wilderness. White bark pines change colors. Soon it will be winter. Some animals venture forth outside the national park’s boundaries. They push to the foot of the Rockies. It is part of an instinctive migration to find hospitable lands. This migration brings with it the uncertainty of the world beyond and its dangers, especially hunters.

Yellowstone shows its extremes. Here diversity is at work. Parks like this give us an experience we cannot get elsewhere. They show us life in nature. No picture can equal real life experience with live animals. Still this DVD comes close. Savor watching the bison, wolf, bear, and elk. Enjoy being up close to the prong horn antelope, big horn sheep, otter, and beaver. Get close to hummingbird, osprey, cowbirds, and, yes, moths. Spend time, however fleeting, with squirrel, coyote, moose, and red fox. Swim with ducks and swans. Fly like an eagle.

This is Yellowstone. Find out for yourself why so many people consider it one our own country’s seven wonders

Yellowstone:  Battle for Life

Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Number of discs: 1
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009
Run Time: 150 minutes

EPISODE SYNOPSES:

Winter: The Wolf’s Story

The Druid Peak wolves are adept hunters in the depths of harsh Yellowstone winters, proving agile enough to defeat a fully-grown buffalo. However, with spring approaches crisis for this group as rival wolf packs and hungry bears emerging from hibernation jeopardize their survival.

Spring: The Grizzly Bear’s Story

As the new life of spring emerges so does the grizzly bear mother with her cubs. She is on the prowl to find nourishment to feed her growing family, but she must compete for their survival with packs of wolves and coyotes as well as the ever-looming bald eagles.

Summer: The Great Herd’s Story

Experience the splendor as herds of buffalo, elk and moose gather by the thousands across the plains of Yellowstone. BBC reveals the intensity of the fighting between bulls that is often so brutal it ends in severe injury and even death, as Yellowstone’s inhabitants prepare for the return to winter once again.

Here’s a clip called Bears.

Yellowstone: Battle For Life

Own it on DVD and Blu-ray on September 29, 2009