Wild River Rhine

Countless natural treasures are strung together like pearls on a string along the Rhine. Although the Rhine has been densely populated for thousands of years and has been used continuously as a waterway, the typical habitats still exist along its banks: sun-drenched riparian forests and thundering waterfalls, lush meadows and shady gorges, sun-scorched steep slopes and cool oxbow lakes. This diversity of landscapes is the reason why the Rhine provides a habitat for so many creatures like no other river in Europe - despite river straightening and regulation, chemical accidents, water pollution and fish kills in recent decades. The film follows the Rhine upstream from its mouth in the Dutch Wadden Sea through six countries up to the sources of the Rhine in the Swiss Alps and shows the animals that live on or in the Rhine: Long-time residents like the pike, returnees like the beaver and new arrivals like the collared parakeet. Seals frolic in the estuary delta and ibex look down on its waters in the upper reaches. Emerald lizards, eagle owls, wild boars and grey partridges are among the animal stars of the show, as are dippers, dormice, mouse-eared bats and hundreds of thousands of waterfowl that rest along the Rhine during the cold season and spend the winter here.