Original subtitles

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Earth is the only planet

we know of where life exists.

- And here, it does so in abundance. - (BIRDS CHIRPING)

The jungle is Eden.

It covers less than 6% of the Earth's surface,

but it's home to half of all the plants and animals on land.

Jungles have just the right amount of light, water and nutrients,

and they have had every day for millennia.

Life here should be easy.

This is an indri.

It's a primate like us,

and these forests in Madagascar are its home.

But to survive here

it has to face one major challenge.

Paradise is crowded.

(CROAKING)

Life fills every niche.

And at any one time,

a staggering variety of species and countless individuals

are striving for space and food.

Like every jungle animal,

indri have to find their own way to survive

in the most competitive place on Earth.

(HOWLING)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

Jungles are complex places.

Tangled, three-dimensional worlds created by lush tropical vegetation.

90% of the animals here spend their whole lives up in the trees,

and each of them has to find its own way of getting around.

Hanging 30 metres above the ground,

a spider monkey.

They travel in family groups and find everything they need

in the top storey of the jungle.

Up here isn't a place for the faint-hearted.

With long limbs and a prehensile tail that can grip like a hand,

they're built for climbing.

But imagine having to learn these skills as high up as this.

One-third of spider monkeys never make it to adulthood.

This youngster is only a few months old.

Her future depends on her ability to climb.

Playing on a practice tree with her older brother and sister,

she's already learning to use her tail as a safety line...

(CHITTERING)

...under her father's close watch.

(CHITTERING)

She's keen to join in the game,

but she's the youngest and, as is the way of things,

she's not always welcome.

So she chooses her own place to play.

But not all trees are the same.

This one is for more advanced climbers.

Enthusiasm?

Certainly.

Technique?

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

Room for improvement.

Meanwhile, some of her family have moved on

to look for a new patch of fresh food.

The top of the canopy isn't for youngsters.

But father's not looking

and the temptation to join the others is irresistible.

She'll need to be careful.

A fall from here will mean certain death.

It's the first time she's been as high as this on her own.

As she climbs still higher, the branches get thinner and thinner.

(PANICKED CHITTERING)

Her tail has caught her.

But now she's stuck in mid-air, unable to reach any other branch.

Father, however, was watching.

He's big and strong enough to form a bridge with his body

so that she can climb to safety.

Lesson learned.

But it's not just monkeys that live here up in the treetops.

And if you are small,

finding the right tree can mean a home for life.

He's a Draco lizard.

He's only the size of a pencil and he eats ants.

This one tree could provide him with all he will ever need.

A conveyor belt of food.

It's a perfect place to settle down.

Well, it would be...

...but there's already someone here.

This larger male is the tree's owner

and Dracos don't share.

The owner's flag is a warning.

Trespassers won't be tolerated.

The owner's not only intimidating,

he's prepared to battle.

A dead end.

Safety is a long way away.

Now he must choose.

Fight?

Or flee?

Only in the jungle do you find lizards that can soar like dragons.

He can travel over 30 metres in a single leap.

It's a very fast and efficient way to move through the jungle.

Maybe this new tree will have food

and no resident owner.

- (BIRDS CHIRPING) - (INSECTS SCUTTLING)

Everything in the jungle has to compete for space.

Only 2% of the sun's rays reach the ground,

so even the plants must battle

for the light they need if they're to grow.

300 years ago, this hura tree began its race for light,

and, every day since, it has absorbed the water and sunshine it needed

to grow into a giant.

It has succeeded in doing what every tree must do to survive.

Rise above the gloom of the jungle floor.

And, what is more, its success has given life to others.

Its branches now carry a thousand other plants.

These particular ferns, figs and orchids

live only on the branches of other trees.

A thousand plants growing on one single tree.

Throughout the forest, this story is repeated endless times.

As a consequence, jungles are home to more species of plants

than anywhere else on Earth.

And they, in turn, support a wealth of animals.

In Ecuador the competition is at its most intense.

Here they are a hundred species of hummingbirds alone.

All fighting for nectar.

Each flower only has a small amount at any one time

and so it's first come, first served.

One hummingbird has gone to great lengths

to avoid conflict with other species.

Sword-bills are the only bird with a beak longer than their body.

And some flowers are too elongated

for the other 99 species of hummingbirds here to feed from them.

A sword-bill's extraordinary beak, however,

enables it to reach the places that others can't.

The top of this flower, where the sweet nectar is produced.

It has found a solution that means it doesn't have to join the fight.

And as each long flower blooms,

it gives the sword-bill a fresh supply of food all to itself

But having a beak longer than your body does have its drawbacks.

For a start, it's tricky to keep it clean.

Harder still, how do you preen your body feathers?

Unlike the other hummers,

wword-bills can't reach their feathers with their beak.

The only option,

a good old scratch.

It's a little unrefined,

but a small price to pay for an exclusive food supply.

Especially when feeding times are only too frequently interrupted by storms.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

Jungles are the richest places on Earth because of one remarkable fact.

They make their own weather.

Every day water rises from the surface of the leaves as vapour.

It's as if the trees breathe out clouds.

They gather over the forest, until, finally...

...they burst.

Rain is the lifeblood of every jungle.

And all have to do their best to endure the daily downpour.

In some jungles, like here in Brazil,

it rains so much that for part of the year,

the trees are almost totally submerged.

The forest floor is ten metres below the water's surface.

This is a mysterious world.

A place few people have ever explored.

We have much to discover about the animals for which this is home.

Including some you might never expect to find amongst trees.

One and a half thousand kilometres from the sea,

are dolphins.

A newly identified species of river dolphin

found nowhere else on Earth.

In these black, tangled waters, they have become almost totally blind,

so they move slowly,

carefully using their sonar to scan the forest floor for fish.

If this forest can hide a new species of dolphin,

what else might there be here, awaiting discovery?

At the shallow margins of the flooded jungle,

rivers flow through lush vegetation.

Here, food is so abundant, it supports giants.

Capybara, the biggest rodents in the world.

Giant otters, the size of a man.

And the rulers of these rivers.

Caiman.

They grow to ten feet long,

and kill anything they get between their jaws.

But there are more artful hunters

drawn here from the surrounding forest.

A jaguar, the supreme jungle predator.

(SOFT GROWLING)

The river marks the edge of his territory.

But here, he has competition.

(GROWLING)

He's now in the territory of a female.

She has ruled this stretch of river for five years.

This is her place to hunt.

Capybara are strong and wary.

The key is stealth.

She needs to get within a metre if she's to pounce.

Not this time.

She's not the only female here.

Each part of this jungle's edge is ruled by a different queen.

Few places on Earth have enough food to support so many big cats.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(WHINNYING)

The male hunts in a different way.

Weighing almost 130 kilos, it's hard to be stealthy.

And with so many other jaguars around,

he doesn't bother with wary capybara.

He seeks a different prey.

He's become a killer of killers.

Jaguars have the most powerful bite...

- (BONES CRACK) - ...of any cat.

And he knows the caiman's most vulnerable point,

the back of its skull.

Hunters living in the dense understorey of the jungle

come in all shapes and sizes,

but they share a problem.

How to tell what is a plant and what is prey.

This is a game of hide and seek,

that can be won or lost in the blink of an eye.

The long contest between predator and prey

has produced mimicry of astounding accuracy.

A leaf-tailed gecko masquerading as lichen.

Some animals take camouflage a stage further still.

And these streams in Costa Rica are home to one of the most remarkable.

A glass frog.

A male, and tiny, no bigger than your fingernail,

and almost entirely transparent.

As he needs to be.

Almost everything that walks past here could eat him.

Even a cricket.

His best chance is to stay absolutely still,

and trust that the cricket looks right through him.

Danger passed,

and that's just as well,

because he is a father.

And he's guarding some very precious eggs.

For the last few weeks, females, one after the other,

have visited him and entrusted him with their offspring.

Some are now almost ready to hatch.

There are several clutches on the leaf,

and those at the top, the most recently laid,

are barely a day old.

But in the jungle, there's always someone out to get you.

This wasp is a specialist hunter of frog's eggs.

It's noticed the wriggling tadpoles at the bottom of the leaf

He mustn't move.

The youngest eggs are the most vulnerable,

and he can't guard them all.

But these tadpoles are not as helpless as they might appear.

Incredibly, the un-hatched tadpoles can sense danger,

and the oldest and strongest wriggle free,

and drop into the stream below.

The eggs at the top of the leaf, however,

are still too young to hatch,

and now the wasps know they're there.

But the male's back looks very like the youngest cluster of eggs.

And that seems to confuse the wasps.

Using his on body as decoy is a huge risk.

The wasps' stings could kill him.

He's managed to save most of his young.

He'll have to remain on guard for another two weeks.

But in the jungle, just surviving the day

can count as a success.

With the coming of the night,

a new cast of jungle characters takes to the stage.

Flying insects begin to glow as they search for mates.

Fungi, unlike plants,

thrive in the darkness of the forest floor.

They're hidden, until they begin to develop the incredible structures

with which they reproduce.

Each releases millions of microscopic spores

that drift invisibly away.

Many have fruiting bodies that reach upwards

to catch any feeble current there might be

in the clammy air.

But this one, as it grows, becomes luminous.

Why fungi light up has remained a mystery...

...until now.

Scientists studying the brightest fungi in the world

think they may have an answer.

Like a beacon, the light attracts insects...

...from far and wide.

To this click beetle,

a bright light means only one thing,

a female click beetle.

So, he flashes in reply.

But he doesn't get the reception he was expecting.

Confused, he starts searching for a female

and that helps the fungus.

By the time he gives up,

he's covered in the fungus' spores.

And as he continues his quest for a female,

he carries these spores to other parts of the forest.

And there are even stranger things glowing in the jungle night.

These are the multi-coloured lights of a railroad worm.

It's not really a worm,

but a poisonous, caterpillar-like beetle.

The yellow lights warn other creatures to keep out of its way.

It's hunting for millipedes.

When it finds the trail of one,

it switches off its yellow lights.

Now, it only has a red light on its head.

Millipedes can't see red light.

So, to them, the railroad worm in stealth mode

is virtually invisible.

And that is the end of the millipede.

Competition in the jungles

forces animals to specialise in every aspect of their life,

including courtship.

This has produced some of the most beautiful

and elaborate displays on the planet.

(CAWING)

A male red bird-of-paradise

competing to attract a female by dancing.

One has come to survey what's on offer.

(CAWING CONTINUES)

She is an independent lady

and she will select whichever male takes her fancy.

She makes her choice.

But now she doesn't seem quite so sure.

No.

Perhaps he's just a little too keen.

Maybe he'll have better luck tomorrow.

Red birds-of-paradise display in the tree tops.

Other members of the family dance in the gloom of the forest floor.

This is a Wilson's bird-of-paradise.

He's brightly coloured,

but about the size of a sparrow.

He's lived most of his life alone.

But now he's an adult,

and he too needs to attract a mate.

This little patch of light might help him do so.

First, he tidies things up.

Showing off in this jumble of leaves wouldn't be easy,

and his beauty will stand out better against a plain background.

He doesn't want bright leaves to divert a visitor's attention.

They all need to go.

Even the green ones.

Especially the green ones.

His stage is set.

A central pole and a little patch of light...

It's perfect.

And now he must hope a female hears his call.

(CAWING)

He can wait here for weeks on end.

(CAWING)

At last, a female.

Time to take up position.

She will judge him by the brightness of his feathers.

But for the female to see him at his best,

he needs her to perch directly above his stage,

under the light.

This might be his only chance to shine.

Now, when she's looking directly down on him,

he reveals a display for her eyes only.

In the gloom of the forest floor,

he is a dazzling blaze of iridescent green.

The brightest "leaf" in the forest.

And that does the trick.

Each animal must find its own way

of surviving the competition of the jungle.

This crowded world is so full of invention

that almost all kinds of animals on land can trace their origins back here...

Including us.

These forests in Madagascar are home to one of our distant cousins.

This female indri has fought to keep this particular patch of forest

safe for herself and her family.

(HOWLING)

Every morning, the family come together to sing,

their way of reminding others that this is their home.

Indri are so closely adapted to living here,

that now they can live nowhere else.

For them, and the billions of animals with whom they share their home,

the jungle is a sanctuary.

But this is changing.

Even in the ten years since the head of this family was born,

ten thousand sqaure kilometres of the rainforest have been destroyed

in Madagascar alone,

and, with it, half the indri families that once lived there.

The local people say the indris are our brothers

and their song is a call to remind us

that we too once depended on the jungle.

This Eden is still a place of wonder and magic.

Something surely worth protecting.

Next time...

A land of extremes, that pushes life to the limit.

Animals have extraordinary ways of dealing with the hostile conditions.

Creating the most epic survival stories on Earth...

These are deserts.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)