For centuries, the Grand Canyon and its river were thought to be impassable, but in the nineteenth century, steep paths were carved into its walls. However, for the agile bighorn sheep and summer visitors like the violet-green swallow, this is still nature’s playground.

Tourists come to raft the immense Colorado River rapids, but this is no amusement park and there are very real dangers within the canyon’s gorge. Meanwhile, a graceful osprey fishes the turbulent waters, but must also contend with the cunning raven, who is determined to steal his hard-won catch.

People have traveled through the canyon for millennia, and some even made this place their home. However, in the extreme weather of the monsoon season, this is a perilous and inhospitable environment for all but the best adapted native wildlife.

The rare California condor has been successfully re-introduced in the Grand Canyon, and scientists monitor their progress by tagging the individual birds to identify them. As scavengers, they feed on the carcasses of dead animals, but are actually very clean creatures.

Pronghorns are extremely fast and can easily outrun a mountain lion! Even so, they must watch where they tread as the canyon floor is littered with holes... prairie dogs live here and may share their burrows with some unusual birds that nest underground.

A fearsome American badger is on the hunt, and the prairie dogs are not even safe in their burrows. The north rim of the canyon thunders with rutting bison, as the big males lock horns to establish superiority.

With the winter drawing in, the animals prepare once more for that harshest of seasons within the breathtaking confines of the world’s greatest gorge, the Grand Canyon National Park.

Forged by the volcanic heat that still bubbles at the heart of this great American wilderness, the mighty Yellowstone was the first of America’s National Parks. Located mostly in Wyoming, it is a place where bison roam free and the gray wolf has returned, re-establishing the natural order of the ecosystem.

Food is scarce during the harsh winter months, and the battle to survive is intense. The successful wolf pack hunts constantly to feed each hungry mouth, and the weary bison must dig through layers of snow if they are to feed at all.

Creatures large and small, from the bison to the ephydrid fly, make use of hot springs to survive the coldest winter months. Others, like the bears, hibernate, emerging ravenous when the weather finally warms, and ready to scrap for whatever food they can find.

Warm sunshine melts the last of the winter snow, and in the valleys of Yellowstone, animal mothers give birth to their young, bringing them into a beautiful yet perilous world.

Yellowstone is home to a small cougar population, but theyare rare and seldom seen. The noisy ruffed grouse or “thunder chicken” is far less elusive, as the males “drum” their wings loudly in the breeding season, advertising their presence to any nearby female birds.

As soon as it can stand, a young bison calf follows its mother and the herd, even through rivers of ice cold melt water. Meanwhile, the carcass of a bison that did not survive is fought over by wolves and grizzly bears.

A young bison calf is swept away by the icy torrent as the herd crosses a river. Against the odds, it washes up on a small island, but with night approaching, and its mother nowhere in sight, the outlook seems bleak for this little one.

Without its pack, a wolf is a far lesser threat, and the other animals know it. However, for the lost bison calf, trapped on a small island, a lone wolf is a mortal danger, one that would take a minor miracle to survive.