Original subtitles

[narrator] This is The Americas,

an extraordinary journey across Earth's great supercontinent.

The widest variety of life on the planet.

[chittering]

The untold story...

of our home.

[epic orchestral music playing]

Tonight on The Americas...

The Amazon.

The largest, most diverse rainforest on Earth.

A wonderland...

ruled by giants,

teeming with curious creatures,

and swarms of predators.

At its heart, the world's biggest river...

and greatest tropical wetland

where the waters dance.

This is a forest

where the trees themselves can make it rain.

- Welcome... - [shrieking]

...to the jungle.

The Amazon covers 40% of South America

and spans nine countries.

Its lifeblood is a mighty river

longer than the journey from New York to London.

With 1,100 tributaries,

the River Amazon holds 15 percent of the Earth's fresh water.

[birds chirping]

In this water world live South American icons.

Jaguar.

River monsters that grow over 400 pounds,

anaconda.

And capybara,

the biggest rodent in the world.

[calling]

But some river giants... are hardly ever seen.

In Brazil, one particularly shy animal

is reaching the end of a 250-mile journey.

[water sloshing, splashing]

Almost three feet long,

she is a giant river turtle.

And she's not alone.

[majestic music playing]

Tens of thousands of females have synchronized their arrival.

Each year, the river waters drop,

exposing beaches for just a few months.

And all these females have come here...

to lay their eggs.

Each one wants the best spot.

Too near the water, the eggs might drown.

[rustling]

Too isolated,

and vultures will make a meal of them.

[vultures screeching]

There is a lot at stake.

[grunts]

She has to dig two feet down

where the humidity and the temperature are just right.

[exhales heavily]

Finally, it's time.

[exhales heavily]

She lays close to 100 eggs into her nest.

And gently buries them.

She and the others must now return to the river...

leaving their young to their own fate.

[pensive music playing]

Two months later...

[light rustling]

...the eggs have hatched.

These baby turtles are tiny,

3,000 times smaller than their moms.

And they're trapped.

The sand above them has baked hard.

- [insects chirping] - [birds chirping]

[thunder rumbling]

There is only one thing that can free them.

- [thunder rumbling] - [rain pattering]

As the sand softens, something remarkable happens.

[chirping]

It sounds like the hatchlings are talking to one another.

[chirps]

[hatchlings chirping]

They seem to be saying, "It's time to go."

[gentle music playing]

[uplifting music playing]

And every nest on the beach begins to open.

Over a million tiny turtles

make their way towards the river...

and safety.

Or so... they think.

[sinister music playing]

On an Amazonian beach,

a million newly hatched turtles are heading for the river.

But...

this is the realm of the Amazon's largest predator.

[sinister music continues]

[snarling]

- [crunches] - Huge black caiman.

[suspenseful music playing]

[crunches]

The hatchlings have no choice. They have to get to the water.

Each must choose their own moment.

[dramatic suspenseful music playing]

[crunches]

[snarls]

[gentle music playing]

Their overwhelming numbers mean most do make it.

The lucky ones will return here one day to lay their own eggs.

[thunder rumbling]

As the seasons turn and rains arrive...

the rivers of the Amazon change.

In some places, they burst their banks...

creating a flooded forest.

In this new world, many animals take to the trees.

Others arrive to feed,

including infamous piranha.

Their razor-sharp teeth can strip a carcass to the bone.

[birds chirping]

[animal calling]

Above the flood waters,

extraordinary-looking hoatzin

choose this time of year to breed.

Whilst pink botos,

- the largest river dolphins... - [clicking]

...in the world...

use sound to hunt between the treetop branches.

[majestic music playing]

At their peak, the floodwaters cover an area larger than Montana,

in water 40 feet deep.

[animal calling]

And they carry nutrients far into the rainforest.

[birds chirping]

The wealth of life in these rivers

supports super-sized hunters.

Giant river otters.

At nearly six feet long, the world's biggest.

And boy, are they powerful,

- muscular and agile too. - [chitters]

[grunts]

Each one eats eight pounds of fish a day.

These are just quick bites.

They'll need something much more substantial,

like 20-pound peacock bass.

[otters snorting]

The fish seek safety by hiding amongst submerged branches.

[suspenseful music playing]

But together, the otters flush them out...

driving them into the shallows.

[music fades]

But not all this fish is going to be eaten right now.

The family starts heading back upstream.

Someone has been missing out.

[gentle music playing]

[squealing]

He's too small to join the hunt.

And he's hungry.

[squealing]

[squealing continues]

[squeals]

There may be fish all around him,

but pups don't think of them as food...

yet.

This is just...

an adventure.

[squealing]

He's got a lot to learn.

Not sure this tapir is gonna be much help.

[birds chirping]

[squealing]

At last, his family has returned with the catch of the day.

[squeals]

That does look good.

[crunching]

And he's not going to wait to be offered it.

In a couple of months, he'll be hunting for himself.

[animal howling]

Venture beyond the riverbanks,

and it's easy to get lost in the jungle.

Lost in the hunting ground

of the most notorious predators...

in the Amazon.

[sinister music rising]

[serene music playing]

[animal calling]

The Amazon rainforest is home to a tenth

of all known species on Earth.

Of those, most in fact,

are insects.

Enough to feed a monster,

the most voracious hunter in the Amazon.

[dramatic music playing]

One that takes down 30,000 victims a day.

Army ants... the ultimate swarm raiders.

They're almost totally blind, but they have a super sense

to search out and feel for their prey.

[chirping]

The slightest motion draws an attack.

So if you're surrounded,

hold your nerve.

And don't move

a muscle.

[tense music rising]

If just one ant senses prey...

it calls in the troops.

And it's game over.

[dramatic music playing]

Venomous stings immobilize their victims,

then liquefy their tissues from within,

making them easier to butcher.

But behind the carnage, there is a plan.

Soldiers, over half an inch long, guard the trails.

Whilst specialist porters with longer legs carry the food home.

With so many mouths to feed,

they'll even take on dangerous prey...

like wasps.

[suspenseful percussive music playing]

The wasps drum their wings as a threat.

They would normally attack anything that comes near their nest.

[buzzing]

But they are overwhelmed.

What the army wants...

is their young.

Hundreds of soft, protein-filled packages.

It's the jackpot.

[music fades]

Raid over.

Now, to get all this food back to base.

The smallest ants, called minims,

help out by offering a leg up,

even if it can cause a bit of a headache.

[soft suspenseful music playing]

They also join the workers to close any gaps in the trail...

forming living suspension bridges.

It's a masterpiece of organization.

Scent trails guide them home

to their astonishing nest.

[majestic sting]

A jungle bivouac.

[ants clicking, rustling]

Over half a million ants bind together,

forming the walls, floors, and ceilings

of a precisely temperature and humidity-controlled palace.

But before long,

the forest around their nest... is wiped clean.

There's no food left.

And the bivouac is dismantled ant by ant

as the entire colony moves to fresh hunting grounds.

[ants clicking, rustling]

It's the equivalent of a city the size of, well, Sacramento

moving 25 miles on foot overnight.

Army ants help keep the forest in balance,

leaving behind a vacant lot

ready for new life

to move in.

- [animal calling] - [insects chirping]

From the jungle floor to the tops of the trees,

everywhere in this rainforest is alive.

And in a rainforest,

the key life force is, of course, rain.

Like giant drinking straws,

each tree draws moisture upwards to their leaves...

- [tranquil music playing] - [soft hissing]

...where it is exhaled

as water vapor.

Scaled up across the Amazon's 400 billion trees,

the effect is simply... phenomenal.

[epic music playing]

And the trees have another trick.

By releasing special compounds into the air,

they can make it rain.

- [thunder rumbling] - [epic music continues]

These compounds draw moisture into droplets.

And when those droplets are big enough...

they fall.

Research has shown that the trees choose to do this

exactly when they need it.

[rain pattering]

Water is the jungle's life support.

[frog croaks]

Where all this rain

combines with the intense sunlight of the tropics,

trees can grow into giants.

[dramatic music playing]

To survive way up here,

you've got to be...

[music stops]

...on top of your game.

- [calm music playing] - [birds squawking, chirping]

The seemingly endless canopy of the Amazon rainforest

towers 150 feet high.

And the remarkable animals that live up here

rarely, if ever,

touch the ground.

[animal squeals]

They all have their own ways of adapting to

the high life.

In deepest Peru

live some of the strangest-looking monkeys in the world.

If you can catch a glimpse of them.

In fact, they're so hard to spot,

they've rarely been filmed.

[playful music playing]

Emperor tamarins...

barely the size of a squirrel.

They live in small family groups.

To find enough food, they're constantly on the go.

But that's a problem when you've got not one

but two babies on board.

[soft quirky music playing]

Tamarins regularly have twins, which is rare for primates.

Mom has to piggyback her toddlers everywhere.

Imagine that.

[music intensifies]

[music fades]

Close call!

There's just one way a mom can raise these twins.

She needs backup!

[chirping]

Only one female in a tamarin family gets to breed.

So the others become...

[chirping]

...babysitters.

And that's very handy.

Her calls bring the family into help.

[chirping]

Free of the kids, Mom can, at last, head off to find food.

[lively music playing]

There is plenty of fruit around.

And just as well,

she needs to double her calorie intake

to feed herself...

and the twins.

[toddler squealing]

Now how's that babysitter doing?

Looks like it's all under control.

So there's time for more fruit.

But the youngsters are getting restless.

They've gone exploring...

three stories up.

Just one slip

could be fatal.

The sitter needs eyes in the back of its head.

Now, they're out on a limb...

[squealing]

...and starting to panic.

[suspenseful music playing]

Time's up for Mom.

[bright music playing]

[shrieks]

[music fades]

She's back on duty, but at least refueled.

- [squeals] - [calm music playing]

Mastering life in the canopy is all about teamwork.

[animals calling]

At the top of one of the tallest trees in the Amazon

is another mom

with a much bigger problem to face.

[sinister music playing]

[animals calling]

In the Venezuelan Amazon,

the very top of the canopy

is the haunt of one of the largest

and most powerful birds of prey

in the world.

[soft tense music playing]

A three-foot-tall harpy eagle.

Ten stories up,

her home is the ideal lookout for a hunter.

But she's stuck here

because she's tied to the most precious thing in her life...

her young chick.

[soft music playing]

[chick chirping]

He hatched just a couple of days ago.

Her five-inch talons,

longer than a grizzly bear's claws,

now need to be childproofed.

A wrong step

could be fatal.

Up here, they are exposed to the elements.

If she left him alone,

he would soon die.

[shrieks]

So she's reliant on a partner to bring back food.

[shrieking]

But he's arrived empty-handed.

[shrieks]

[shrieks]

The chick is still waiting for his first meal.

- [wings flapping] - [shrieks]

The pair breed only every three years,

so have invested everything in the chick.

[tense music playing]

But the rainforest is a challenging place to live.

As the tropical heat builds,

mom and chick are struggling.

[sharp inhale]

Her body provides some shade,

but she has another strategy.

She uses her immense strength to grab a branch...

[branch snaps]

...almost as thick as your wrist.

It offers cooling shelter from the sun.

But there's a greater threat.

[thunder rumbling]

Rainstorms in the Amazon can last for a week.

[tense music playing]

And they are one of the biggest killers of baby eagles.

[rain pattering]

His feathers aren't waterproof,

so he could freeze to death or even drown.

The temperature has dropped by ten degrees.

[thunder rumbling]

Now, the only warm, dry spot in the nest

is directly beneath her.

Eventually, the rain passes.

But has the storm taken a terrible toll?

Thanks to her, he's made it.

But now, she urgently needs her partner...

- [eagle shrieking] - ...to bring food.

[shrieking continues]

[uplifting music playing]

At last...

fresh meat.

- [shrieks] - [wings flapping]

[light music playing]

The chick will rely on his parents for another 18 months.

[squelching]

But for these rare giant predators,

finding food is becoming more and more difficult.

[intense music playing]

This is now the scene around her nest.

In the last 50 years,

over an eighth of the Amazon has been cleared.

[music fades]

Some places are approaching a point of no return,

where the rainforest will be no more.

The impact will be felt right across South America

because fewer trees mean less rain.

The forest doesn't just make its own weather.

It creates a vast sky river of cloud

that carries more water than the mighty Amazon River below it.

It flows overhead, providing water for millions.

[soft music playing]

While it still flows, it helps create

the largest tropical wetland in the world.

[majestic music playing]

This is the Pantanal,

20 times the size of the Everglades.

It's a sparkling mosaic of shallow lakes,

marshes, grasslands, and forests.

[animals calling]

And famed for its staggering diversity of wildlife.

[squawks]

Hyacinth macaws, the biggest of their kind.

Green Anaconda, over 15 feet long.

More jaguar than you'll find anywhere else.

And a stronghold for an animal with the power

to make the water... dance.

[water sloshing, splashing]

[animals chirping]

[sinister music playing]

The Pantanal is a paradise

for predators.

Yacare caiman.

There are more than four million of them in this vast wetland.

They're normally lone hunters,

but now countless males have gathered

to mate.

[dramatic percussive music playing]

Tensions begin to run high as they jostle for the best place.

[animal calling]

One male has already claimed his patch.

He's in his prime

and readies himself.

[soft snarling]

- [soft rumbling] - [gentle music playing]

[water sloshing, splashing]

A love song...

that makes the waters dance.

[soft roar]

As a male caiman roars,

the vibrations from his body send low-frequency sound waves

pulsating through the water.

[soft rumbling]

[water sloshing, splashing]

An exquisite Pantanal performance.

And it's working.

A nearby female picks up on these good vibrations.

He seems delighted.

[gentle music continues]

Time to bring it home.

Oh...

Oh, dear...

That's... not supposed to happen.

But he hasn't lost his audience yet.

Let's try that again.

- [soft snarling] - [water sloshing, splashing]

Yes.

Now, he's back in the swing of it

and she...

is... mesmerized.

As she slips underwater,

he wraps her

in a tender embrace.

[gentle music playing]

- [bubbling] - [huffs]

And while the other males struggle to be heard,

this crooner got his girl.

[thunder rumbling]

Once more, high above,

the sky river delivers rain.

[rain pattering]

[ethereal music playing]

The lifeblood of the Amazon and Pantanal.

All that live here

depend on the essential flow of water...

from the greatest river and greatest rainforest on Earth.

[epic orchestral music playing]

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0