Arte Distribution

All along the Arctic coast of Norway, there's a bloody battle going on between three different species: orcas, whales…and humans! And it's all over the vast schools of herring that migrate to the Frozen North to seek shelter there in the fjords.! 

Follow Didier Noirot, one of the world's greatest underwater cameramen, as he tracks down the giants of the deep - using 8K underwater cameras and drones - and dives right into the heart of the hunt. Orcas – or "killer whales" – have developed what is called the "carousel" technique for catching herring: they surround them with bubbles then drive them up to the surface. But now the other whales are no longer scared of joining in to claim their share of the booty. Then there are the humans, with their huge nets: they too are after the same prize. Who is going to win the Herring War?

As soon as the fishing season opens in October, fishermen set off upstream from the Amazon in Brazil. Aboard rickety boats and armed with harpoons, they go hunting for arapaima...

... a fish that can reach 3 meters long and weigh up to 200 kilos...

Declared as the national sport in homage to the fighters of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, "charrería" is a discipline that is similar to rodeo.

It gives cowboys – the "charros" – the opportunity to prove their talents in horseback riding, lasso throwing and their ability to ride bulls and fiery horses.

A ruminant mammal of the camelid family, like the alpaca of which it is the ancestor, the vicuna lives on the high plateaus of the Andes mountain range. 

Forcenturies, these graceful animals have been hunted for their meat. Threatened with extinction and now protected, they are only caught for their precious coat, an extremely fine, warm and light wool.

Hemiones, or wild donkeys in Asia, inhabit barely 1% of their original habitat. To prevent their disappearance, a spectacular and risky rescue plan has been implemented. 

The aim: to reintroduce the species into the Turgai steppe in Central Asia, from where it has disappeared for a century, by transporting a few dozen captured specimens by helicopter.

In the freezing cold of the taiga, on the borders of China, lives the powerful Siberian tiger – the largest of its kind.

 Thanks to a state protection program, its population – once decimated by hunting – now numbers some 560 individuals. But a new phenomenon is now threatening its survival, an effect of wild deforestation from China. With the massive felling of Mongolian oaks and the reduction of glands – wild boars’ main food source – they perish en masse and the tiger is in turn deprived of its basic food. Hungry, he then becomes a danger to humans...

Sona is an Ethiopian mountain village perched at an altitude of 3.500 meters in the heart of the Simien Mountains National Park. There the men share their territory with voracious neighbors, the geladas. 

These monkeys wreak havoc on local wheat fields and compromise the inhabitants' main source of food. However, these Ethiopian primates are a protected endemic species.

Virunga National Park lies in eastern Congo, on the borders of Rwanda. It is a place rife with conflicts that go beyond its borders. It is home to the last mountain gorillas, which are the subject of much envy in times of war. 

The lives of these 500 endangered individuals seem more precious to the international community than those of the local residents who are deprived of access to the most basic resource for their survival: the park's lumber. Caught between poachers and rebel groups, poorly seen by the locals, the park's rangers put their lives at risk every day to protect the gorillas. But will they succeed in the long term?

Among the Sámi people of Finnmark County in Norway's far north, reindeer herding is an ancestral activity that has long been the only source of income and the main source of food for this last indigenous people of Europe.

This work has given rise to a hobby that is widely acclaimed by all: reindeer driving, a fun sport that even has its own world championship. Every year, the Sámi people gather at the Easter festival in Kautokeino to celebrate it. Very few women participate, but Anne Risten Sara has already been crowned multiple times...

After disappearing from the region because of relentless hunting, the jaguars are about to be reintroduced in northeastern Argentina.
 

 A breeding station has been set up on a remote marshy islet to raise jaguars; they will later be released into the wild. This endeavor is unique not only for Argentina, but also for the world.

New Zealand's exceptional biodiversity is relatively unspoilt and includes a large number of endemic animal species. 

Despite the protection measures, some of them are now threatened with extinction, such as royal albatrosses, antipodean penguins and Maui dolphins.

Delve deep into the heart of the wild Pyrenean fauna with one of the most well preserved collections in France: get up close and personal with a bear, a golden eagle, a bearded vulture, a chamois and a wolf! Discover wildlife filming behind the scenes and find out that more often than not, animals are much more cunning than men.

Unfortunately, this lush world is still not very accessible – the animals fear the presence of man in this emblematic massif. To discover them, you have to investigate, find clues, follow tracks and be very patient before you finally get the chance to see them.
Luckily, the journey proves to be just as exciting as the objective: chance upon a mountain-size game of hide-and-seek where man must understand nature and tame it in order to discover its secrets.