Dead Trees, Wild Lives: What the Forest Hides — Full Documentary

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We all love the forest. It's a place to relax. It gives us timber and it's so beautiful. But do our forests count as wild nature? Are they the ideal habitat for animals and plants? [00:00:30] Speaker ?: . [00:00:50] Speaker 1: Follow me as I seek out the evidence in some of our German forests. I grew up on the edge of one of Germany's biggest forests at Ibersberg near Munich. I didn't know then that this was no wilderness, but a highly managed plantation. It was the best playground I could imagine. A place for endless adventures and discoveries. Holding a golden ground beetle in my palm simply made my heart beat faster. And nothing has changed since then. My name is Jan Haft. I've been making wildlife films for more than 20 years now. Finding animals and understanding how they live is my passion. It never worried me that the Ebersberg forest was a commercial plantation. It was a place of exciting encounters and magical moments. A wild boar appears from nowhere. It passes and disappears as abruptly as it came. A grid of service roads crisscrosses the forest of my childhood. They planted a lot of deciduous trees here after the storms of the 1980s devastated the spruce plantation. There were spaces cleared of trees everywhere. This was where the nature-obsessed boy that I was found rarities like yellow-bellied toads. Why does a damaged forest like this attract so many species? How does destruction give these creatures a better chance of survival? There was plenty to see in parts the storms hadn't touched too. The functioning of the forest riveted me, even though I didn't fully understand it. Once, I found a curious creature on the forest floor. The Earth Star is a fungus. It rears up on tentacle petals to reproduce. A rhodia sniffing an unfamiliar scent helps. By releasing millions of spores from the fruit body. Imagine, a rhodia deer as midwife for fungi. But the deer can also be the forest's grave digger. Well, that's what our neighbor the forester used to say. If they're constantly stripped bare, these young spruces can't develop into tall trees suitable for harvesting. How did the forest look before foresters and hunters protected saplings from the deer? Even as a child, I wondered about that. Aren't shoots and buds simply what wild animals eat? And in spite of that, so many of the saplings recover from the mangling they receive. In the 1980s, I really thought I was watching the death of the forests. Germany even invented a name for it. "Walt sterben." "Forest dieback." Everywhere, machines were tearing the trees out of the forest. [00:05:40] Speaker ?: The reason? [00:05:42] Speaker 1: Tiny creatures were attacking the forest just behind our house. Bark beetles multiplied in millions beneath the bark of the spruce trees. Gnawing tunnels and galleries reproducing exponentially, safe from predators. Until every trunk they attacked had thousands upon thousands of beetles waiting to scrape through tiny holes to the outside. Their elegant, glossy wings carried them through the forest to other trees. Lowland spruce plantations were worst. Spruce wouldn't grow here naturally at all. Weakened by dry, warm summers, these evergreens were the perfect target for beetles. The result was a damaged forest that hardly deserved the name. But nature wasted no time responding to the invasion. If the dying forest was overwhelmed by swarms of bark beetles and their larvae, woodpeckers and other insectivores were soon eating their fill. Their waste materials, hat-toff bark and pith, supplied lunch on the forest floor for anyone who couldn't climb as well as the woodpeckers. Red wood ants dug in too, hauling away the larvae, an especially good source of protein. Lots of nutritious prey, perfect food for young ants. This colony is flourishing. [00:08:05] Speaker ?: More bark beetles. [00:08:05] Speaker 1: More hungry mouths benefit. One of the places worst hit by the invasion of the bark beetles was the Bavarian forest. With its iconic mountain, the Lusen. After centuries of constant exploitation, humans no longer manage this forest. "Let nature be natural" has become the watchword in Germany's oldest national park. But what actually happens if roe deer and bark beetles reproduce unhindered? Here too, the woodpeckers get more and more to eat. Ever since this forest was first attacked and then left to itself, many other animals that were becoming scarce have also bounced back. Like the lynx. There are now two dozen of these little big cats in the national park, and 120 over the whole region. Their numbers have grown because their prey have multiplied. Like the Capa Chales. The once decimated forest is now bathed in sunlight, and that stimulates life. I'm always fascinated by the speed at which nature can recover from apparent disaster. Death means life. Here, the red-belted conch is growing on weak and dead evergreens. If the fungus absorbs too much water while imbibing nutrients, it expels it through its pores. Many organisms live in and on the red-belted fungus's fruit body. Some are even more endangered than the lynx once was. And some of these are genuine forest species. Where there are dead trees, they thrive. Take, for example, this bark-gnawing beetle called Peltis grossa, no bigger than a fingernail. For a century, it was thought to be extinct. And just when the forest had almost disappeared, it turns up again. Why does a forest have to die for rare species to return? For biodiversity to increase? Scientists' hearts also beat faster on seeing this click beetle back in the Bavarian forest. It returned because this species couldn't live in a dense, intact forest. We know how badly red deer need forest clearings, especially during the rut. When they claim their territory at maximum volume. And another call echoes through the forest. The hazel grouse, seeking its partner for the winter. Neither the grouse nor the red deer are exclusively forest species. Too many trees will make their life just as difficult as too few. What they need is a mosaic of dense forest and sparse woodland. And that's exactly what the storms and bark beetles provide. Without them, no part of the national park would be free of thick forest, except for the mountain peaks and the marshlands. There's no relief for a stag's antler itch, except low-hanging spruce branches. [00:13:32] Speaker ?: The capycalae is also happier. [00:13:37] Speaker 1: The capycalae is also happier. In a thinner forest, there's simply more to eat. But both bird and stag have to be on their guard. Opening up the forest means more danger from competitors and predators. A lynx looks on, targeting places where game waits. [00:14:16] Speaker ?: The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is also happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. [00:14:38] Speaker 1: The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. [00:14:44] Speaker ?: The capycalae is happier than the sun. [00:14:45] Speaker 1: The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. [00:14:48] Speaker ?: The capycalae is happier than the sun. [00:14:49] Speaker 1: The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. The capycalae is happier than the sun. An ever-present danger. One of their number, torn apart by wolves. The ranger who found the carcass allowed me and my team to set up a hide nearby. The wolves never came back, but it was worth staying to see this fairytale landscape. It turned bitterly cold that night. 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And baby woodpeckers are well protected in their holes high in the trunks of beech trees. Many forest species spend almost their whole lives inside dead wood. So it's crucial it's left on the ground to rot. This larva is a real rarity, a special favorite of beetle lovers like me. This species of Leuconid is the smaller, rarer cousin of the stag beetle. Happiest in a fallen tree trunk deep in the shadows. As long as there's plenty of dead wood decayed by fungi. In the night, while songbirds sleep, beetles are busy. This one will use every millimeter of its jaws. Males engage in duels where only one can triumph. It's not about killing. The fights are very rarely fatal. The idea is to expel the enemy from the arena as far as possible from the females. Trees fight duels too, but for them, it's always a fight for survival. Where beech trees grow, it's soon too dark for other species. If the ground gets too wet for oaks, mildew, a fungal carpet, will cover the upper surface of their leaves and smother the saplings. Where many beaches stand side by side over a larger area, the forest slowly becomes impoverished. Most flowering plants need plenty of light to attract pollinators to germinate their seeds. The red hellebarine is one of the species that suffers in dense forest. Where trees grow unchecked, it can go extinct. It's the same with animals. Only a small proportion of our native species can live in forests. Less than one in a hundred native spiders is suited to this environment. A forest where trees face no restraints, deprives its inhabitants of vital energy. The euro owl can live in a beech forest, but that shouldn't blind us to the fact that many other species are missing. This rare owl raises its young here, but like so many others, it finds food for them in the clearings, because more vertebrates live there than in the forest. The euro owls need old sparse woodland we rarely find in our national parks. Places where their chicks have time and space to grow to independence. The golden ground beetle likes a cool, damp forest floor, where it can hunt worms and snails. In the mountains, where it's cooler, it can also live in treeless areas. Animals that can cover broad areas have an advantage in the forest. One species travels great distances at speed. It lives high in the canopy. The eerie of the white-tailed eagle is 30 meters up in the tree. It's young as safe in dense forest. But the eagle has to leave the forest to find food, hunting in rivers or lakes, sometimes far away. [00:44:50] Speaker ?: The eagle has something in common with a far smaller creature that usually gathers in swarm. [00:45:08] Speaker 1: The eagle has something in common with a far smaller creature that usually gathers in swarms. The honey bee, a colony in an ancient beach. Escaping from a beekeeper, it found its way to an abandoned black woodpecker hole. The queen has already moved in, summoning her workers with special pheromones. She uses scents to direct activities inside the nest as well. Returning workers extrude wax from their abdomens to build honeycombs. As though the bee colony is working as a single organism. Completed cells are filled with eggs or with honey for the larvae and for the workers. This colony is growing. There's just one problem. There are barely any flowers in the forest for the bees to harvest. An old woodpecker hole deep in the beech forest is a safe home. But the bees have to leave the forest to find enough food. Almost all the flowering plants that need pollinating live in clearings at the forest's edge. Only here can they find light and warmth enough to grow. Only here can they find light and warmth enough to grow. Honeybees look for food several kilometers from their hive. The development of wings was one of evolution's most astounding achievements. And not only for insects. The bees are the most astounding and the bees are the most astounding in the forest. [00:48:01] Speaker ?: The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. The bees are the most astounding in the forest. [00:48:27] Speaker 1: Learning that so many species live part-time in the beech forest has made me realize the ideal forest is more than just an agglomeration of giant trees. I'm convinced that an absence of trees is just as important for a healthy forest. Not even one animal species in ten can live in the forest. And of those that can, very few indeed really need a dense forest. I live quite close to a beech forest with giant trees, and I really love setting up my camera at the edge and waiting. Even when I was a boy, I wasn't just fascinated by the big animals, but the small, inconspicuous ones. Like our tiniest mammal predator, the pygmy shrew. Yet another species that can live in a dense forest, but definitely doesn't have to, to survive. I have understood two things. In a commercial forest, it's good for trees to be planted close together, but it certainly isn't natural. And in the long run, leaving forests to their own devices, where trees have no competition, does not lead to more species. If we want to help the forests and foster biodiversity, we need to mind the gaps. To be continued... [00:50:01] Speaker ?: To be continued... To be continued... To be continued... To be continued... To be continued...