In the Arctic, the Woolly Bear Caterpillar is the first to appear after the winter’s snow retreat. He begins eating as much and as fast as he can with the spring months he has. As the snow returns, and sun appears for shorter days, he crawls beneath a rock out of the wind. Beneath the rock, the cold spreads over the caterpillar, and soon its heart stops beating and it stops breathing. The little caterpillar actually freezes. It won’t thaw out until early spring, during which it begins again, repeating the process. Freezing, thawing out, consuming vegetation, year after year, until it is 14 years old. This year will be it’s last. The year’s oldest caterpillar, It weaves a cocoon, from which it will emerge, with only a few short days to find a mate and breed.

                    The BBC’s Frozen Planet on 2 Nov