The Unknown Life of Antarctica

Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth.

For humans, a hostile terrain.

During the summer, researchers come here from around the world

to unlock the secrets of the eternal ice and its inhabitants.

Provision supply is a masterpiece of logistics.

Even families with children live here at the end of the world.

The really extreme time begins with the Antarctic winter.

Even the penguins have already left.

Yet more than 100 people hold down the fort in the Antarctic stations.

It will now be dark for months.

The Fildes Peninsula on King George Island is free of ice in summer.

It is the perfect place for the Antarctic stations of four countries.

One of them is the Russian station Bellingshausen.

During the Antarctic summer, a group of German researchers from Jena is also stationed here.

In the early morning, expedition leader Dr. Hans-Ulrich Peter

and five young scientists prepare for a day in the wilderness.

In the Antarctic summer, from December to February, the sun shines to up to 20 hours a day.

Temperatures hover around freezing.

The researchers can largely move about safely in the ice-free areas of the island.

To gather as much data as possible, the group splits up.

Some head for the penguin reserve, others for the hills.

And seabirds, known as south polar skewers.

Marie-Charlotte Röhmler and Christian Pfeiffer are testing to find out at which

point the use of drones will become stressful for the penguins.

To do this, Marie-Charlotte must briefly

take eggs away from brooding Gen 2 penguins.

They will be protected from the cold and the skewers during the experiment.

The penguins are given plastic eggs with

hidden microphones in place of their own eggs.

As soon as the penguin sits on the prepared egg, Marie-Charlotte can hear its

heartbeat over the microphone.

Christian prepares the first drone, a fixed-wing aircraft.

It depends a lot on it.

Christian tests altitudes of 100 to 10 metres.

The lower he flies, the faster the penguins' hearts beat.

Starting at 40 metres, they are noticeably stressed.

The drone causes excitement in the air, too.

Skewers perceive them as invasive fellow birds.

For Christian, this means a quick landing.

Christian now tests a second drone, an octocopter.

The researchers are not allowed to enter the protected area without a permit.

They must also keep a certain distance from the penguins.

Only with an additional permit for experiments

is Marie allowed to get really close to them.

For instance, to exchange the plastic eggs for real ones.

Antarctica is comprised not only of the white continent and the southern hemisphere,

but everything south of the 60th parallel.

Off the Antarctic coast lies King George Island, which is

nearly covered with glaciers, but has a few ice-free coasts.

For this reason, nine nations have stations located here.

Brazil, Peru, Poland, Argentina with a German summer camp, South Korea,

and on the Fildes Peninsula, China, Uruguay, Chile,

and Russia host to the German researchers from Jena.

The Chilean Air Force is stationed at the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base.

Commander Sergio Copillos summons his troops at dawn.

He's only been in Antarctica a few weeks, and has

recently been promoted to the rank of commander.

The troops' morale hit a low point under the previous commander.

Now, it's time to get the station back into shape.

Sergio Copillos builds on military polish.

Fifty-four men and two women report to Sergio Copillos.

They swear an oath of allegiance to the fatherland, which they have committed

their lives to serving, even on the seventh continent.

A decommissioned oil tank and 152 tons of scrap

metal from previous years are rusting on the beach.

All of it is going to be shipped to Chile today.

A task like this cannot be managed alone.

Chen Bo, the commander of the Chinese station,

assists in moving the 12-ton tank with his crane.

Today, luck is not with Commander Sergio Cubillos, a snowstorm is forming.

Moving objects weighing tons is one of the most dangerous challenges in the Antarctic.

Machines can easily tip over on the sandy ground, crushing limbs.

And evacuation is impossible during this weather.

The Chileans and the Chinese keep at it nonetheless.

In the eternal ice, it goes without saying that nations help one another.

But then ice floats into the bay, and the oil tank gets stuck

in one of the summer's worst snowstorms.

The wind reaches 100 kilometers per hour.

The wind-chill temperature is 25 degrees below zero.

For the German researchers, this means house arrest.

The researchers use their downtime to get their equipment ready for its next use.

Nothing else can be done.

The data they've collected will only be evaluated in Jena, 13,000 kilometers away.

During storms, the researchers are cut off irrevocably from the rest of the world.

Palladi is the priest in the world's most southerly Russian Orthodox Church.

He provides pastoral support when extreme isolation

renders the Antarctic a psychological prison.

He attempts to give people strength through

familiar rituals from their distant homelands.

For instance, with a great blessing of the waters

in remembrance of the baptism of Jesus.

Palladi baptizes everything and everyone in the Russian station.

In this way, even pots, the stove, the machines and the buildings benefit

from the renewed energy needed for everyday life in the Antarctic.

Antarctica is the only continent that does not belong to anyone.

With the Antarctic Treaty System, more than 50 nations

agreed to the peaceful use of the region.

But still, many nations have a permanent presence.

Not least, to secure territorial claims should the Antarctic pie someday be cut up.

In addition to the research stations on King George Island, there is a civilian settlement,

Villa Las Estrellas, the Star's Town.

The families of Chilean officers live here.

This is how four-year-old Sebastian Castro and his 11-year-old sister, Sofia,

came to be here.

Sofia's appendix was even removed as a precaution.

Sara Castro also had her appendix removed.

And she had to prove her mental fitness in psychological tests.

But to her, the move to the Antarctic island was worth it.

The only airport is one kilometer away.

Carlos Castro, the head of the family, works here as a pilot.

He has become familiar with King George Island

through countless supply flights over the course of 15 years.

This is the first time he has been stationed here permanently.

For all the nations on King George Island, the Chilean airport

is the umbilical cord to the outside world.

Fresh vegetables only come by air freight.

And sick people can only be evacuated by air.

Carlos pilots a twin otter.

It is considered indestructible and particularly reliable.

Today, Carlos Castro has spare parts on board

that are desperately needed on the Antarctic mainland.

He is heading 140 kilometers towards the South Pole.

Temperatures hovering around freezing.

and an acute lack of movement.

represent a big adjustment for the Castro family.

They have to be regularly checked out in the station's clinic.

Doctor Denise Echeverria is guiding the family

through a study on vitamin D deficiency.

She must be versatile, and serves as an emergency physician, family doctor,

dentist, and pediatrician.

It's Sofia's turn for a blood test today.

The checkup is meant to prevent iron or vitamin deficiencies.

Less than five hours after taking off, Carlos Castro is back on King George Island.

Before he was stationed in the Antarctic,

Carlos' assignments often lasted several weeks.

Eating lunch at home was a distant dream.

The family almost fell apart because of it.

Antarctica is one of the last largely intact ecosystems on Earth.

Extreme cold has preserved the glacial ice for millions of years.

Yet advancing climate change is already affecting the population of native animal species,

as constant monitoring by polar researchers has shown.

Rules of behavior apply with respect to untouched nature.

And exhibition leader Hans-Ulrich Peter follows them precisely.

Nothing can prepare you for the attacks by the skuas.

These piratical seabirds use all possible means

to drive the researchers from their nests.

Masters student Daniel Provasnik practices catching them.

To accurately determine the skua population, the birds are ringed and measured.

The researchers also draw blood to determine their sex.

The best time for this is when the skuas have chicks.

Their flying attacks are especially aggressive then,

which makes catching them possible.

Daniel has to wait for just the right moment.

Many researchers have already been knocked out.

The wound can easily become infected.

Skuas are hunters and scavengers.

Their beaks, full of bacteria.

Now Daniel is by himself.

High in the hills is one more nest.

Daniel has to measure the chicks to document their growth.

They just hatched ten days ago.

An Antarctic evening buffet for the whales.

Now, in the summer, there's a lot of krill.

The whales follow it into the ice-free bays, close to the stations.

Yet the summer is coming to an end.

During its last mild days, a strange event is taking place on King George Island.

The White Continent Marathon.

Newly landed organizer Steve Hibbs from Minnesota is marking the running course.

For Americans Lisa Davis and Dave Jones, the marathon on the White Continent

represents the fulfillment of a very special dream.

This was given to me by my husband for a birthday present.

Because I completed 50 states, a marathon in every state, plus DC,

and 100 marathons.

And I wanted to do one more goal, which was to

complete a marathon on every continent in seven days.

And this is it. This is the culminating point. This is what we work for.

Finally here. It's gonna happen.

This is the start and finish area.

Well, actually, we have some banners that will eventually get posted right,

tied up over there.

But we're gonna go out this way, back to the landing strip.

I was setting up the cones that would go around.

There are four cones that would go around.

Everybody turn around and look at the Chinese base.

Say, hi, Chinese base!

We're gonna keep going straight towards the Chinese base.

You'll see orange cones on your left-hand side.

That has never been done before.

So this is the first time in all of the humans that have ever lived that

seven public marathons, seven continents, seven days.

We're going to be able to do it.

When this watch says 6-17, the seven days are up.

168 hours is over.

So it says 23.46 right now.

So we've got about six and a half hours to

get in under seven days and be the first ever.

Go!

The runners have already completed six out of seven marathons.

Day one in Australia at 40 degrees Celsius.

Day two in Singapore at 100% humidity.