A young predator braves the bitter January winds.
年轻的掠食者勇敢地面对一月里凛冽的寒风。
The Arctic fox is about the same size as a large domestic cat, but its thick coat makes it look much bigger.
北极狐和大个的家猫差不多大，不过厚厚的外衣把它显得大很多。
A stubby nose and short ears help conserve precious heat.
短粗的鼻子和短耳朵有助于贮存珍贵的热量。
So does its amazing ability to reduce blood flow to exposed body parts.
它还有个神奇的能力即减少暴露在外的身体部分的血流。
But the real secret of its success is its fur which covers its entire body including the soles of its feet.
但成功的真正秘密，则在于它那覆盖全身的绒毛连脚底也都被保护起来。
In winter, the fox's fur trebles in length giving it the warmest coat in the animal kingdom.
冬季，狐狸毛长到原来的三倍长，是动物王国中最保暖的外衣。
It can survive weather that will kill most mammals within minutes.
它能挺过大部分哺乳动物挺不了几分钟的天气。

If the going gets tough, the fox can just curl up into a furry ball and wait for conditions to improve.
如果情况很糟糕，它可以干脆蜷成一个毛绒球等着天气好转。
The Nordic lands bearing the brunt of winter lie furthest north inside the Arctic Circle.
北欧遭受冬季侵袭最强烈的地方位于最北边的北极圈之内。
This area is vast.
这一地区极为辽阔。
Spanning the globe from the frozen shores of North America to the Russian border,
从冰冻的北美海岸到俄罗斯边境，
five countries of nearly 100,000 kilometers of coast line make up Scandinavia.
五个国家将近十万公里的海岸线围成了斯堪的纳维亚。
Over the millennium, the landscape has been gouged and crumpled by colossal corridors of ice and collisions of the earth crust.
千年来这里的地形是由巨大的冰廊冲凿摧残而成，还有地壳的相互撞击。
It's a cruel place to eke out an existence.
环境严酷之极，只可勉强生存。
In Iceland the landscape itself is still in a state of flux.
冰岛大地本身仍是一派奔涌的景象。
Where underground water waves meet hidden lava flows, super heated water turns to steam and explodes as high pressure geysers.
当地下水波遇到隐秘的熔岩流时，过热的水变成蒸气，然后突然迸发出来，形成间歇喷泉。