How America saved its most dramatic wild frontier

Hours of flight without a single road or cabin.

Aerial views reveal the vast scale of Alaska's wildlife refuges where millions of birds, wolves, bears, and walruses thrive untouched by human infrastructure.

The Untouched Wilderness of Alaska

The film describes concern about wildlife disappearing through unregulated hunting and habitat loss.

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Why America Began Protecting Its Wildlife

How Fashion Almost Wiped Out America's Birds

From the brink of extinction back to 30,000 birds.

After being decimated by introduced predators on nesting islands, dedicated conservation efforts revived the Aleutian Canada goose population back over 30,000.

The Comeback of the Aleutian Canada Goose

Kodiak brown bears can weigh up to 1,500 pounds

Kodiak brown bears gather along rushing Alaskan streams from spring to autumn, feasting on massive salmon runs to fuel their immense size.

Massive Kodiak Brown Bears Hunting Salmon

A thousands-year-old salmon harvest tradition

Yup'ik families set up summer fish camps on the Yukon Delta to harvest and slice wild salmon for subsistence drying ahead of the harsh winter.

Ancient Salmon Traditions of the Yup'ik People

A 10,000-year-old Alaskan survival method

Subsistence fishermen pull salmon from the river and cure them in traditional smokehouses, preserving a survival tradition unchanged for millennia.

A 10,000-Year-Old Alaskan Survival Method

Biologists inspect yellow-cheeked voles that colonize burned taiga first, providing food that draws predators back into scorched forests.

Why Wildfires Actually Save Alaska's Wildlife

A traditional river-driven fish wheel rotates continuously in the current to capture migrating salmon without nets or rods.

The Ingenious Alaska Fish Wheel in Action

These tiny birds travel across 11 countries.

Biologists recapture banded songbirds to uncover their incredible migration routes. Birds banded in Alaska have been recovered across 11 countries and 45 US states.

Tiny Songbirds Traveling Across the World

Glacier-fed waters in Alaska produce massive trophy salmon, drawing fishermen from all over the world.

Reeling in Giant Salmon on the Kenai River

[00:26] The Untouched Wilderness of Alaska
[02:05.500] Why America Began Protecting Its Wildlife
[05:40] The Comeback of the Aleutian Canada Goose
[09:53] Massive Kodiak Brown Bears Hunting Salmon
[12:19] Ancient Salmon Traditions of the Yup'ik People
[14:39] A 10,000-Year-Old Alaskan Survival Method
[15:18] Why Wildfires Actually Save Alaska's Wildlife
[20:21] The Ingenious Alaska Fish Wheel in Action
[21:24] Tiny Songbirds Traveling Across the World
[25:08] Reeling in Giant Salmon on the Kenai River

How America saved its most dramatic wild frontier

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