Plot Synopsis

GREAT YELLOWSTONE THAW is a three-part series that showcases the stories of different animal families as they attempt to survive the toughest spring on Earth, where wolves, grizzlies, beavers and Great Gray owls survive one of the greatest seasonal changes on the planet. As the temperature swings 140 degrees, cameras capture how the animals cope. Dr. Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and a renowned paleontologist and author, hosts the series. Johnson and a team of Yellowstone experts explore how these animals fend off floods, starvation, and fires, as well as the area's extreme evolution from cold to heat during the spring season. GREAT YELLOWSTONE THAW showcases the extraordinary survival instincts the park's natural species possess. Viewers will learn how the early thaw brings the bears of the Rocky Mountain region out of hibernation prematurely, creating concern over food supply. The wolves, which have recovered from their extinct status in the 1990s, are now beginning to thrive, but the fluctuating temperatures pose a threat to the species once again. While the beavers have to make their homes in freezing rivers, the great gray owls must migrate to find food in thawed areas in order to survive.