Summary:

The second episode starts with the Himalayas where endangered snow leopards roam across the range for survival. Across the steep sun-baked mountains of the Arabian Peninsula, Nubian ibexes settles on the steepest cliff to raise their young while avoiding predators. The ibexes climb down the slope to drink while the kids learn to evade Arabian red foxes. A female golden eagle glides 100 miles across the Alps slopes in a single day to find food in winter before spotting fox carrion, infested with scavenging crows, that can sustain her days. However, the carrion attracts other eagles forcing her to continue her search. Meanwhile, thousands of avalanches from the Rocky Mountains occur every year resulting in catastrophic effects of debris; grizzly bears make their dens for hibernation at 10,000 feet in the deep snow of leeward slope. In spring, a mother bear and her cubs descend into the valley in search of food and to evade avalanche debris. As marmots make warning calls, the bears scratch themselves on trees, marking their scents before they continue their foraging. Winter in the Rockies will reach at least -54 °C after the creation of diamond dust. A bobcat leaves its territory to hunt and finds a suitable valley where the river doesn't freeze and volcanic hot springs where other animals have arrived to feed. From the equator of Africa lies the snowy Mount Kenya which is 30 degrees colder than the African savanna, and is also the home of giant heathers, Lobelias, and groundsels growing on the upper slope as they adapt hot summer day and freezing night. As the sun rises on the Andes of Bolivia, southern viscachas settle at the sun's ray to get warm while the largest colonies of Andean flamingos are trapped in the icy alkali lake at night as they struggle to break free. But as the sun gets hotter, the viscachas retreat towards the shade, and the flamingoes who are immune to the sun's heat start parading across the lake for breeding. Human activities and climate changes start to affect the mountainous ecosystem, resulting in infrastructure buildings in the Alps, shortening hibernation seasons in the Rockies, and melting glaciers in the Andes, including snow decline in the Himalayas. Somewhere in the Himalayas, the mother snow leopard fends off against two male leopards while protecting her adolescent cub, resulting in her injuries. After months of recovery, the mother ventures off across the Himalayan slopes on her own while departing her cub, who is now old enough to fend for herself. The narrator states that they will soon be reunited before facing their time alone.

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