River without frontiers on Animal Planet

MANILA, Philippines - The Morava’s flood plain is among the last untamed waterways in the heart of Europe. The river flows along the border, skirting Slovakia and Austria before reaching the Danube. Its vast wetlands, swamps, and backwaters that extend into all three countries provide refuge for countless species of plants and animals. Animal Planet takes a look at this river via River Without Frontiers. The river is a stepping stone for East-West migrations of many land animals and a stop-over for numerous birds on their annual migrations from northern Europe to Africa and back. Watch it today at 2 p.m.; on April 3, 4 p.m.; and April 4, 12 p.m.

Not long ago, the Morava was part of the great divide between Eastern and Western Europe, flowing along the Iron Curtain and marking the borders of three countries. Its course ancient, its bed much older than the Alps, when in spate its backwaters, swamps and wooded floodplains could be taken for Amazonia or the Orinoco. Today, the Morava runs right through the heart of Central Europe. Doing away with borderlines between dry land and water, countries and nations, mountain ranges, and even between continents, the Morava’s expansive green corridor runs from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

River Without Frontiers takes us deep into the heart of the Morava’s riverine wilderness, which is an invaluable sanctuary to many species of wildlife such as greylag geese, herons, storks, red deer, wild boar, the imperial eagle and a rich array of waterfowl. Be amazed by its natural beauty and the diversity of habitats that house a specific composition of animal and plant species endemic to Morava.