Original subtitles

There is a forest that is older and richer than the Amazon.

Even though it was discovered by Europeans

centuries ago, it still keeps many of its secrets.

A large number of the animals of this forest

live nowhere else.

Much about their lives remains cloaked in mystery.

And within the forest's green embrace

lies one of the wonders of the world.

The Mata Atlantica stretches 1000s of kilometers

along the coast of Brazil.

From the temperate South of the country

to the tropical North.

From the coast, the forest extends

as far as 600 kilometers inland

creating a wide range of habitats.

There are lush lowland rainforests,

steep mountain woodlands,

and open areas of rock and grass.

Over the last 500 years, much of the Mata Atlantica

has been converted to pasture and farmland

but the remaining patches of forest

still support extraordinary animals.

Muriquis are found nowhere else on earth.

They can spend their whole life in the treetops.

They share the forest with a bewildering array

of other animals.

It is the many habitats of the Mata Atlantica

that have produced a rich variety of plants

that in turn support a wide range of animals.

A kaleidoscope of butterflies.

Nearly a 1000 species of birds,

more than in the whole of Europe.

While the muriquis inhabit the canopy,

other monkeys live in complex layers of branches below.

Marmosets and Capuchins live alongside the muriquis.

Each adapted to their own part of this complex

and varied forest.

Unlike other monkeys in the forest that have hierarchies,

muriquis live in a more egalitarian society

where peace is maintained by much touching,

hugging, and reassuring cuddling.

The monkeys live in groups

where the males are often related

and brothers form close bonds.

But the strongest bond is between mother and infant.

The muriquis are highly adapted for living in trees.

They have long hands for grasping the branches.

Their tails are prehensile

able to grip like an extra hand

as they move across the tree tops.

The band of brothers

with their mothers and younger siblings

live in harmony in canopy.

But why muriquis are so friendly

is still somewhat of a mystery

like so much in this forest.

It is not the just the monkeys

that are unique residents of the Mata Atlantica.

Many of the forests' birds are found nowhere else.

Most depend on the forest.

Like the blue manakin.

It has a very different social life

to the muriquis.

The males are splendidly colorful

while the female is a more modest olive.

But when she arrives at a particular branch

a group of males quickly assembles.

Their dance display was not good enough this time.

It is the riches of the Mata Atlantica

in particular the easy availability of fruit

that allows the male manakins to spend

so many hours each day dancing.

Even without a female, the local males

will gather to practice their dance routine.

These males are not related

and yet they work as a team.

Only a coordinated effort will impress a female.

Without a good team display,

none of these birds will get the chance to mate.

Manakins are widespread in the Mata Atlantica

often living where the forest borders other habitats

like marshes and grassland.

And the forest that runs along swamp and stream

is the favorite habitat of the bushdog.

This one of the smallest members of the dog family

is extremely rare and very little is known

about its life.

What we do know is that they are highly social

like many creatures of the Mata Atlantica.

In bushdog groups, there is an alpha male and female

that lead the pack.

They are the only ones that breed in their society.

These rare wild dogs prefer to live near water

and in particular rivers.

Much of the water that flows westwards

from the forested slopes

meets to form the Iguazu river.

And it creates one of the greatest spectacles on earth,

the Iguazu falls.

The water from over six million hectares

over a 1000 tons per second pour over the falls.

The falls stretch nearly three kilometers

and in places, the water plunges over 18 meters.

Yet this raging torrent is just

another habitat in the forest

and fragile swifts have made the falls their home.

Incredibly they fly straight through the waterfall.

Great dusky swifts are waterfall specialists.

They roost on the sheer walls alongside

and behind the falls.

Even with kilometers of cliff,

the birds fight to have a prime roosting site.

They seem to be naturally aggressive.

The birds fly through the wall of water

and fight for space on the sheer rocks

because here they will be safe at night.

Vultures return to roost in the trees

surrounding the falls.

At night the forest is not a safe place.

Killers are on the prowl paroling the forest floor.

The muriquis are safe in the treetops

and the swifts can sleep soundly

sheltered by the falls.

The waterfall is the lynch-pin

in the lives of the swifts

but each morning they must depart

the security of their home.

Like other swifts, they are aerial predators

spending the day on the wing

snatching the many insects that fly out of the forest.

Coatis relatives of the raccoon

are found throughout the Mata Atlantica

and far beyond.

Unlike the swifts, they are opportunists

aided by a great sense of smell

they snuffle out all kinds of insects and bugs.

Coatis are highly social animals.

The babies are born in a nest in the treetops

and when just six weeks old,

they descend to join other families.

There are several mothers and each one keeps an eye out

for all the youngsters.

Lead on by their noses,

the young ones are endlessly curious.

In this band, the adults are all females,

a supportive sisterhood

where mothers will even suckle each others' babies.

Coatis are smart,

but the youngsters have much to learn

including what constitutes food and what doesn't.

This is when it is good to have your mother

and aunties around.

The coatis may live alongside the manakins

but in reality, they inhabit different worlds.

While the coatis spend most of the day

rummaging for food,

the manakins are free to practice.

The moment of truth of female has arrived.

There is a strict hierarchy amongst the manakins

and the alpha male is often the oldest bird.

Only he has a chance of mating.

The others are just the support act.

Why do they dance when they have no prospect of mating?

They have no choice.

For a female will not mate with a lone dancer.

So every male must join a group and wait his turn.

It may take as long as 10 years to become top bird

and in that time a male will have danced

for 1000s upon 1000s of exhausting hours.

The alpha male calls an end to the display.

The others bow and he goes to the mating perch.

The female is not impressed.

Obviously more practice required.

Back to the training ground.

Females are very choosy for a reason.

They do all the work of building the nest

and incubating the eggs.

She has dowdy plumage to reduce the chances of being seen.

But the coatis are adept at sniffing out a meal.

Eggs are as acceptable as insects

to these generalists.

The male and female manakins

lead very different lives.

Whilst males have to wait many years,

the females start breeding when they are just one year old.

They need to, for very few nesting attempts are successful.

A mother with chicks is a rare site.

In the treetops, the muriqui mothers

lavish care on their babies for more than two years.

These monkeys are so specialized

that they need never leave the canopy.

It supplies everything they require.

There are leaves and fruit.

When a vine flowers, there is even sweet nectar.

The muriquis maybe gentle creatures

but not from a plant's perspective.

Its flowers are destroyed

and without them, the vine will not be able to reproduce.

The muriqui's world is not the natural paradise

it might at first seem

for their forest home has been shrinking for centuries.

The trees were fell to create fields for cattle

and for coffee and sugarcane,

the most Brazilian of crops.

Even with the loss of trees, the Mata Atlantica forest

that supports the manakins and the muriquis

still contains over 20,000 different kinds of plants.

And that wealth of species supports

vast numbers of insects including over

2000 different kinds of butterflies.

The iridescent morpho males

will patrol forest streams

trying to drive off alpha males

and attract a female.

Mineral salts can be in short supply

in tropical forests

but they are essential for growth.

So many species of butterfly

gather at evaporating puddles along the rivers.

The butterflies suck up the salty water.

They concentrate the salt in their bodies

and pump out the excess water.

What is peculiar about this mass of butterflies

is that they are all males.

They will use the salts as a gift

for the females when they mate.

It is thought that the salts are important

for the correct development of the eggs.

But the mystery is why doesn't the female

gather the salts herself?

The salts maybe important for breeding,

but most butterflies feed from flowers

like this bromeliad.

This is very ancient and successful relationship.

The butterfly transfers the plant's pollen

and receives nectar as a reward.

But butterflies have one weakness as messengers.

They are fair-weather fliers.

When it is cloudy or rains,

they have to find somewhere to shelter.

As much of the Mata Atlantica is a rainforest,

this can be a problem for the plants.

A new messenger was needed.

Hummingbirds.

They are warm-blooded

and can fly through the worst rainstorm.

While the butterflies are grounded by bad weather,

the hummingbirds get through with the pollen.

The combination of sticky pollen and sugary nectar

means the birds feathers get matted and messy

but in the Mata Atlantica

there is always a stream nearby.

The many hummingbirds that live in the forest

are undeterred by the frequent rain.

And the bushdogs too live with the rain

and the wet vegetation.

In fact they are almost amphibious

with little webs between their toes

that help them to move over the soft wet ground.

The alpha pair mark the ownership

of their piece of forest.

The urine smells strongly of vinegar.

And this has given the diminutive dogs

their other name, vinegar hounds.

The dogs are only as big as a terrier

but by working as a team

they can hunt animals like coatis.

The coatis are safe from the bushdogs

as long as they remain in the trees

and there is food here in the bromeliads.

Unlike the muriquis, the coatis

can't leap across the tops of the trees.

There is only one way out.

Down, nose first.

Now they are in real danger.

For a generalist like the coatis,

the Mata Atlantica is a hugely complex place.

So much for the young coatis to learn

about predator and prey.

The many streams and rivers

are the highways for the

far-ranging coatis and the bushdogs.

But for the swifts, the might Iguazu is home

for they not only roost behind its wall of water

but make their nests there too.

The narrow ledges are in great demand

and swifts may use the same nest year after year,

which means new couples are forced to use

less suitable locations

and some young birds seem to

struggle with the basics of breeding.

Older birds have the benefit of experience

but even a changeover can be aggressive for the swifts.

The nests are constructed of mud and moss

which the birds gather from the waterfall itself.

Nest building is a complicated business

and inexperienced birds can get things hopelessly wrong.

Even starting to build a nest

on the back of your partner.

While some swifts are getting in a real mess

construction is going well elsewhere.

After the dirty work of nest building,

the birds take a welcome wash

courtesy of the greatest power shower in the world.

Feathers cleaned and spruced up,

the swifts fly out to search for more insects.

The breeding swifts seem unaffected

by the consonant roar of the falls.

But nearby another creature has found

a novel way to live in a noisy environment.

The torrent frog.

Like most frogs, he calls out to attract a mate.

But when his peeps are drowned out,

the male has another way of enticing a female.

If you can't be heard,

then a little leg wave might work.

Surely irresistible to any female.

Waving your legs is a great way

to draw attention to yourself.

But not only from frogs.

The highly venomous jararaca.

If the snake comes too close,

the frogs use their legs in a more conventional way.

The frogs and swifts specialized creatures

that depend on the streams and cataracts,

face a real threat after storms and heavy rain.

The rivers fill

seven times as much water,

10,000 per tons per second thunder over the falls.

Now the location of the nest ledge becomes critical.

The experienced couple are still safe.

But the young pair are in trouble.

The rising waters have flooded their nest.

All is lost.

The young birds will try again next year.

For these birds, nesting is all about location.

The older pair are safe and dry

even if they are still squabbling.

The swifts depend on the waterfall

and the surrounding forest.

Luckily, even when the floods recede

there will be water enough to protect these

strange and specialized birds.

The source of all this water,

the montane forest is the home of the muriquis.

The great variety of trees

as many as 450 different species in a single hectare

means there is fruit to eat most of the year.

The muriquis are quite safe in their treetop fortress

but even so the presence of a jaguar

causes them concern.

Jaguars are powerful climbers.

But no match for the muriquis.

On the occasions when there is no fruit,

the muriquis can eat the leaves of the

cecropia tree

for they have no toxins

unlike many of the other plants of the forest.

But they are not unprotected

for the cecropia provides accommodation

in its hollow stems for hordes of

fierce azteca ants.

The ants attack any reckless intruders

like this black Capuchin.

The monkey pays a terrible price for his snack.

The muriquis have a different approach.

They avoid the tree and its ferocious ants.

The technique is foolproof.

Almost.

The muriquis are so completely at home in the treetops

that they even find water here.

A handful of leaves acts like a sponge.

Life seems easy for adult and young alike.

For the other inhabitants of this multi-layered world

finding food is a more tricky business.

A fallen tree holds many grumps

to tempt a young coati.

But he must be careful.

For the group has disturbed a Brazilian wandering spider

that was sleeping under the log.

Normally nocturnal, this spider is a serious danger

for it is the most venomous in the world.

Young noses must be wary.

The growing coatis have learnt another important lesson.

Some things in the leaf litter are best left alone.

None more so than these, army ants.

There maybe as many as half a million ants in the swarm.

They attack everything they encounter.

These are the true top predators of the forest.

Even the wandering spider is overpowered.

Animals much larger than the ants

are pinned down and then dismembered.

Even those that manage to escape the ants are not safe.

There are birds that are camp followers.

They capture the insects that flee the swarming ants.

Yet more specialized lives

inside this little known forest.

For part of the time, the ants are nomadic

and the workers and soldiers carry the precious larvae,

the colony's next generation.

After hunting all day,

they construct a shelter, a bivouac

from their own bodies.

This will be their shelter for the evening.

The larvae are safe inside the living walls.

High above the dark and dangerous forest floor,

there is still a little light for the muriquis

but they too are preparing for the night.

Even if a youngster still wants to play.

At night the forest is a very different place.

Porcupines awake and set out in search of food.

Little is known of these secretive creatures.

The Mata Atlantica is home to at least five different kinds.

One species was only discovered in 2013.

In the centuries since europeans landed on Brazil's shores,

the forest has continued to be cleared.

Now some of the remaining pieces

are too small to support animals like the porcupines.

They may become extinct before we know

anything about them or their nocturnal lives.

93% of this unique forest has been lost.

The Mata Atlantica once covered a million square kilometers

but much of the forest has been converted into grassland.

Despite what would appear impossible pressure,

the remaining patchwork of forest

still supports many animals.

They are benefiting from a modern movement

to save what remains of the Mata Atlantica.

The immense Iguazu is protected.

The falls mark the boundary between Brazil and Argentina

and both countries created national parks

that surround the falls.

Luckily for the swifts,

the parks safeguard many 1000s of hectares of forest

where they can still catch insects to feed their young.

The chick grows rapidly nourished on a high protein diet.

As it approaches the time to leave,

to fly through the waterfall to a world

it has never seen, the chick moves out of the nest

and climbs to the rock nearby

along with the other nestlings.

Then triggered by some stimulus we may never know,

the young birds release their grip.

Some instinct impels the birds

and in an instant, they transform into creatures of the air.

One of the greatest threats to the remaining forest

is the growth of the cities.

Today, over 70% of Brazil's population

lives within what was Mata Atlantica forest.

140 million people.

Brazil's towns and cities continue to expand

into the forest.

Blue manakins display with an earshot of the traffic.

They can survive in small pockets of forest

but for young male like this,

there is an uncertain future.

It will be 10 years before he will have a chance

to lead his own display team.

By the time he has learned from his elders

and is ready to breed,

the forest may no longer exist.

He could be dancing into oblivion.

But there is hope,

for there is a determination to save what remains

of this rich and unique forest.

Even with just 7% left, the Mata Atlantica is still

one of the richest habitats on earth.