United States of Animals

Along the 15-mile Tamiami Trail in Florida, bikers find themselves just a few feet away from hundreds of American alligators. For two months of out of the year, the town of Kaktovik, Alaska, is home to the country’s largest concentration of native polar bears. Gila monsters hide out underground in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, but come spring, residents get a rare glimpse of these venomous lizards.

Fall is rutting season and hundreds of elk descend on Estes Park, Colorado, looking for love. But the townsfolk don’t mind they throw a festival to celebrate! On the California coast, an influx of krill draws blue whales close to the shores of Dana Point. In Staten Island, New York, wild turkeys are taking the borough by storm and these tough birds live, fight and love like no other breed in town.

New York City is being invaded by a new mutt called a coywolf. In eastern North Carolina, you can camp with the biggest black bears out there. The city of Cape Coral, Florida, throws a festival honoring its 20,000 eccentric, underground celebrities: the burrowing owls. And tide pools in Moss Beach, California, reveal the creatures of the Pacific up close.

Come hang with a tribe of feral monkeys in central Florida, as a renegade clan of rhesus monkeys take over the shores of Silver River. Then hold on tight for an extreme adventure dog sledding through Minnesota in the musher’s stand. In San Francisco, a rowdy mob of sea lions has claimed Pier 39 as their own. And on Assateague Island, Maryland, gallop for the sea with a herd of wild ponies.

It’s the biggest game day of the year as bighorn sheep clash head to head in Georgetown, Colorado. Olive the oiled sea otter is on the front lines fighting climate change in the kelp forests of Monterey Bay, California. In the Sky Islands of Arizona, the tiniest birds in the world refuel on their epic migration. And a pod of dolphins hunt on land in Captain Sam’s Inlet, South Carolina.

Love is in the air all over the United States of Animals. Just a few feet from Highway 1 on the California coast, it’s the ultimate prizefight for elephant seals. Meanwhile, Operation Migration is winding down after a flock of whooping cranes follow their “mom” to St. Marks, Florida. And it’s a real fish-out-of-water story when grunions swarm the beaches of California.