From the North and South Poles to the highest mountain peaks, there are surprising frozen worlds on every continent — each one home to unique and remarkable wildlife.

At the top of our planet lies the Arctic Ocean, a shape-shifting world of ice and water that’s home to unique animals like polar bears, harp seals and bowhead whales.

Found on every continent, mountains form unique habitats — icy “islands in the sky” where life must endure crushing conditions. These high-altitude worlds pose a range of challenges for the remarkable animals who live there.

Antarctica is one of the most hostile and extreme places on Earth. At first glance it may appear lifeless, but miraculously, life finds a way.

In the far North of our planet lies the largest land habitat on Earth — a vast area of snow-covered forests and open tundra. These are lands of extremes, where the seasons bring both challenges and opportunities, and animals are pushed to their very limits.

Earth’s frozen worlds have reached a tipping point — their future hangs in the balance, and so does ours. In this episode, scientists explain what climate change and rapid ice loss mean for wildlife, people and the planet as a whole.

This episode goes behind the scenes with the production team, revealing the dangerous conditions and astounding challenges they encountered while on location.