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From the prairies to Canada's vast boreal forest that stretches almost from coast to coast, we reveal a huge wilderness of extremes that has been shaped over millennia by both humans and wildfires. Here pronghorn antelope, the fastest hoofed land animal on earth, still haunt the grasslands, the elusive wolverine thrives in the icy remote northern forests and beaver share their cozy lodges with grateful muskrats.
Watch the full episodeMedicine Hat, Alberta
Jeff Turner

One of them – bison.
Algonquin Park, Ontario
Kieran O'Donovan

Cardston, Alberta
Amanda McNaughton

Cardston, Alberta
Sue Turner

Cardston, Alberta
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

This shot is a recreation of the flotilla of the one hundred canoes that returned from the expedition. But it's actually the same team of six canoeists – paddling up and down that lake dozens of times. After every trip they changed their costumes and props slightly to create a new, unique silhouette.
In the edit suite the director had to composite them all together. An exhausting day for the paddlers – but a great sequence that captured a sense of what it must have really looked like then.
Trois-Rivières, Québec
Jeff Turner

Researcher Chelsea Turner searched high and low for those three birch bark canoes – replicas of what would have been used for the journey hundreds of years ago.
"These canoes were built for the feature film 'Black Robe' that was shot in eastern Canada a decade ago. It told the story of a Jesuit priest who spent time among the First Nations people of this region."
- Chelsea Turner
These canoes are fibreglass replicas that look like birch bark, but are much hardier, and can stand up to the demands of filming.

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Trois-Rivières, Québec
Amanda McNaughton

Elk Island, Alberta
Phil Chapman

...but it was much more challenging to see them in the dead of winter - under all that lake ice.
Watch assistant producer Ben Wallis tell us how - very patiently - he captured footage of beavers swimming under the lake ice.Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec
Kieran O'Donovan
