Wild Europe

Europe – a stunning continent. From sun-drenched Mediterranean shores to bleak mountain wildernesses, from arctic tundras to arid plains, and from primeval forests to sprawling cities. With a population of 730 million in an area less than half the size of North America, no other continent on Earth has such a dense human settlement living in such a diversity of landscapes and wildlife. So how did Europe come to be? This epic story began an unbelievably long time ago. Search through the bleak, primeval landscape of Norway’s Lofoten Islands and you find Europe’s oldest rocks, formed three billion years ago! At this time our future continent was a collection of fragments resting near the South Pole. Moving at the stately pace of four centimetres a year it took them two billion years to unite.

The Ice Age. A period of extreme climatic change which profoundly shaped many of the stunning landscapes around us today - everything from the fjords of Norway to the dramatic peak of the Matterhorn, and from underwater caves in Majorca to sand dunes in northern Poland. Towards the end of the Ice Age new animals shared their world with our ancestors, modern humans, who arrived in Europe around 40,000 years ago. It was also a time of giants, both geological and biological. Kilometer-deep glaciers carved their way across the continent, sculpting the land before them. With real time-lapse photography and graphics we take you under a glacier to see how ice carves solid rock with glaciers growing and receding before your eyes. But this ice had another great power – it sucked up water. The English Channel and North Sea dried up, becoming vast tundral valleys roamed by reindeer, bison and mammoths. And even today, trawlers fishing off the cost of Holland regularly haul up their bones which have been lying on the ocean floor for tens of thousands of years.

As Europeans settled into communities, they emerged as the major force now shaping the continent’s landscape and wildlife. Where before people lived with the land, now they tamed it for their needs. The human population grew immensely from just a few thousand to many millions by the beginning of the 20th century and this had a profound effect on wild animals, plants and landscapes. The creation of towns and cities, and the need to feed the burgeoning population, has formed the diversity we see today. 10,000 years ago in the Near East a new and revolutionary practice was taking shape – agriculture. This soon crossed Europe, reaching the furthest parts 4,000 years ago. Where people had once cut small clearings to encourage prey, now livestock was reared and whole forests were felled to plant crops. These early farmers also created a range of massively impressive monuments across the continent – elaborate astronomical calendars which are clear evidence of people working together in a highly-organised way.