ORF-E
English
1 x 43min / 1 x 52 min
Worldwide except for Germany, France and the USA

Native Americans called the Hudson River “Mahicantuck – the river that flows both ways.” For here, the currents run both north and south, as the mighty tidal waters of the Atlantic meet mountain brooks, streams and rivers, and roiling brackish waters shape life throughout the Hudson Valley. This could be just another industrial river, where tree-lined banks and fields alternate with bridges, docks, factories or brickyards. But look closer – there are sandbars, marshes, waterfalls, lakes, surging rapids, and dense forests; there are coyotes, black bears, Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon, beavers, deer, fisher cats and sparring moose! There are wood frogs, wood ducks, and woodpeckers. While salamanders remain in their dynamic vernal pools, glass eel nymphs, born thousands of miles away in the Sargasso Sea, battle currents, rapids and dams, struggling upstream in search of a freshwater nursery. Hawks ride the thermals over the Adirondack and Catskill mountains; peregrine falcons intercept songbirds with deadly accuracy; bald eagles dive for fish. From the peaks and forests of the Adirondacks to the Atlantic depths, the Hudson’s vast, untamed wilderness never ceases to astonish with each breeding cycle and season. It’s a testament to humans’ efforts to conserve nature, and to nature’s ability to thrive in the shadow of a giant metropolis.