Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00 These curious animals have lived in the Amazon for 3 million years.
00:05 Although they're most closely related to horses and rhinos,
00:11 they look more like long-legged pigs, but with a snout like an elephant's trunk.
00:17 They're tapirs.
00:19 South America's largest terrestrial mammal.
00:23 They eat up to 85 pounds of plants a day,
00:28 and can live up to 25 years in the jungle.
00:31 If they can avoid falling prey to the big cats, caiman, and giant snakes that target them.
00:39 This noisy family of giant river otters has been up since dawn.
00:47 Don't let these cute faces fool you.
00:52 These are ferocious killers in their own right,
00:55 earning them the nickname "river wolves".
00:58 While hunting, the adult otters try to keep an eye on some lively additions to the family.
01:04 Their two young pups have just emerged from their underground burrow after two months in hiding.
01:12 Either pup or adult would make a satisfying meal for a jaguar,
01:17 but giant river otters are not an easy catch.
01:21 The adults weigh up to 70 pounds, all sleek and powerful agility.
01:26 These highly sociable creatures live and hunt in family groups of up to eight members,
01:34 and fiercely protect their territory and each other.
01:37 They'll mob and potentially kill any predator that dares to attack,
01:43 including hunters as large as caiman.
01:46 They'll even attack jaguars.
01:50 This cat uses stealth to ambush an unsuspecting prey.
01:55 The otters are enjoying their own fishing expedition too much to notice that they're being watched.
02:02 It's the dry season, and the shrinking river concentrates prey, making for happy hunting.
02:14 They're fantastic swimmers with webbed feet, dexterous claws and razor-sharp teeth.
02:20 They mainly eat fish, but they'll try for a young anaconda, the Amazon's largest snake, if they get a chance,
02:33 or even a small caiman.
02:35 They can attack from above and below.
02:41 Their whiskers picking up vibrations, helping them to locate their targets.
02:45 And their eyes can change shape to improve their vision when moving from land to water.
02:52 The pups definitely need some practice, even in the fish-rich shallows of the dry season river.
03:06 The river otter's thick fur coat is so dense, its skin never gets wet.
03:11 It was this velvety pelt that almost spelled their doom.
03:16 In the 50s and 60s, they were hunted nearly to extinction.
03:21 But against the odds, a few tiny populations survived, one of them here in the Peruvian Amazon.
03:30 They've been steadily recovering ever since.
03:34 These otters spent half their time in water.
03:39 But the alpha male slips onto the bank to mark his territory.
03:46 His huge clawed and webbed feet leave paw prints about the size of a human hand.
03:54 On the riverbank, he scent marks, leaving urine to signpost the family's stretch of river.
03:59 Putting other otters on notice to fish elsewhere, or face the gang's wrath.
04:07 Squirrel monkeys are a favorite meal for a whole host of birds of prey,
04:14 including the most powerful raptor in the rainforest.
04:18 The harpy eagle.
04:19 These birds can weigh up to 20 pounds and have a wingspan of just over 7 feet.
04:26 A female welcomes her mate, returning from a successful hunt.
04:32 The 4-inch talons of this huge bird dwarf his prey.
04:38 An unlucky squirrel monkey.
04:43 Their nest sits just beyond the Tambopata Reserve, in the neighboring Refugio, Amazona,
04:48 where researchers installed a camera 100 feet up in the canopy.
04:52 Scientists have been watching this harpy eagle couple for six months,
04:59 since they hatched their single chick.
05:01 These raptors pair for life, and are the only species to survive.
05:10 These raptors pair for life, and look after their young for up to a year and a half.
05:16 They're raising one of the most powerful birds of prey on Earth.
05:21 Over the past six months, their chick has survived everything from burning hot sun to lashing storms.
05:29 As she's grown older, they've begun leaving her for up to two weeks at a time while they hunt.
05:37 [Music]
05:44 They must fly below the forest canopy, as the sloths and monkeys they prey on inhabit the understory.
05:51 With powerful talons, they can crush the bones of victims, instantly killing them.
06:00 [Music]
06:11 The chick's six months old, and now ready to fly, so free meals will become few and far between.
06:18 [Music]
06:28 She's starting to display adult behavior, like mantling, spreading her wings over her prey to hide it from other raptors.
06:35 And she's beginning to look like her impressive parents, with a crown of feathers and darker wings.
06:45 Soon she'll be vulnerable to poachers, seeking both her meat and her decorative feathers.
06:53 She must learn to fly.
06:57 At first, it's perilous.
06:59 If she goes over the edge, a hundred feet up, she'll likely die.
07:05 [Music]
07:11 Within days now, she'll have mastered flight and be well on her way to becoming a proficient aerial hunter, just like her parents.
07:19 Striking fear into the hearts of animals across the jungle.
07:24 [Music]
07:30 Looking like something thrown together by a disjointed committee, the giant anteater is a hunter who's all about quantity over quality.
07:39 Ungainly, lumbering, toothless and nearly blind, nothing about this weird beast says "fearsome killer".
07:48 But he's one of the most prolific predators in the jungle.
07:52 This mass murderer can rack up 30,000 kills in one day.
07:58 He's over six feet long.
08:01 With his poor eyesight, he forages for prey using scent.
08:07 His sense of smell is around 40 times more powerful than a human's.
08:14 He moves with a slow shuffle, walking on his knuckles like a gorilla to keep from wearing down his four-inch razor-sharp claws.
08:22 These he uses to rip open an ant mound, one of 200 nests he'll pillage today.
08:31 His whole body is an evolutionary miracle designed around his diet.
08:42 His long snout can easily probe any nook and cranny, but his tiny mouth can only fit the smallest prey.
08:50 His amazing weapon, a two-foot long tongue.
08:55 It scoops up harmless worker ants before the stinging soldier ants can launch their painful attack.
09:03 The tongue has tiny backward-pointing spines covered in sticky saliva.
09:10 It darts inside the mound up to 150 times a minute.
09:15 He feeds at each mound for less than a minute, careful not to devour all so he can return again and again.
09:24 One mound down, 199 to go.
09:29 The Colombian brown tarantula is an expert ambush predator with a ghoulish reputation.
09:38 This experienced huntress has been honing her grizzly technique for more than ten years, though her kind has been at it for millions.
09:48 She measures eight and a half inches across and weighs as much as a newborn puppy.
09:56 She's far too big to hang on delicately spun webs.
10:01 She launches her ambush on the ground, lurking in a lair high up on the riverbank.
10:08 She can blend into the brown mud.
10:11 She has eight eyes, but she's almost blind.
10:18 So she depends on touch for hunting.
10:24 The delicate spines on her legs are sensory hairs, letting her know that prey is nearby.
10:31 They detect the slightest vibration.
10:36 She's spun a series of silken tripwires that run from her burrow to the riverbank.
10:50 Maintaining her touch on the end of these fine lines, she waits patiently for some unsuspecting creature to trip her alarm system.
10:58 She's in luck.
11:02 An injured moth makes a fatal error when it lands close to her lair.
11:08 The vibrations it makes are like a morse code menu.
11:14 [Music]
11:43 The tarantula bites into the moth, using her huge strong jaws equipped with fangs that are connected to venom glands.
11:51 She pumps her toxins into the moth's body, along with a mix of digestive enzymes.
12:11 [Music]
12:14 The lethal cocktail stuns it and dissolves it from the inside while it's still alive.
12:20 Turning it into pre-digested soup.
12:27 She wraps the moth up.
12:37 She'll add it to her gruesome larder, ready for when she's in the mood for a snack.
12:42 The world's largest ant is busy hunting from dusk till dawn.
12:51 This little monster can grow to over an inch long.
12:56 But the really big thing about her is her sting, which packs one of the most painful punches on earth.
13:06 Often likened to being shot, thus her name, the bullet ant.
13:11 Unlike the other species of ant, the bullet ant hunts alone.
13:18 Her usual diet is sugar water, but she needs the occasional protein fix.
13:26 A caterpillar, another insect, or even an ant of another species will do.
13:34 Two grasshoppers locked together in a mating embrace would be perfect.
13:39 Their coupling takes some time to be successful.
13:46 A sting from the ant will mean certain death.
13:52 She goes in for the kill.
14:02 But she's no match for their lightning reflexes.
14:05 One animal on the forest floor is contentedly oblivious.
14:16 This giant South American land snail is a mammoth mollusk.
14:22 Measuring a foot long.
14:26 It's also completely deaf.
14:34 It has no ears and no need for sound.
14:38 Instead, it plays the mating game with a different rule book.
14:44 Any potential mate will do.
14:55 It's not fussy, but the only way for it to find another snail is to track down another snail trail.
15:04 This is not an easy world for a creature with just one foot to navigate.
15:21 Even this giant, one of the biggest snails on the planet, is dwarfed by the obstacles of the rainforest floor.
15:29 Besides being deaf, it's got pretty poor sight.
15:43 Tiny eyes on the tips of stalks that can retract for safety and unfurl when the coast is clear.
15:51 Its strongest senses are taste and smell.
15:56 Lower tentacles sense the way, detecting traces of food and mates.
16:09 Once it's found another giant snail, its journey is over.
16:19 Thanks to a secret weapon.
16:21 The giant snail is a hermaphrodite, both male and female.
16:27 Each individual lays eggs and also produces sperm.
16:34 If it's lucky enough to find a mate, they'll both fertilize each other's eggs at the same time, producing two sets of new offspring.
16:46 It still takes two snails to tango, but making the most of every mating opportunity sure helps guarantee success.
16:54 A neighboring palm is playing host to a far more relaxed creature.
17:01 A two-toed sloth.
17:07 Like the monkeys, he spends his life in the trees.
17:14 But his closest living relatives are anteaters and armadillos.
17:20 The sloth's pace of life is among the slowest in the rainforest.
17:29 There's no need for speed. His food is in plentiful supply and within easy reach.
17:39 Leaves.
17:41 But while trees encourage fruit-eating to spread seeds, their leaves are a different matter.
17:52 Leaves are their solar panels.
18:02 In the crowded forest where trees compete for light, leaves are essential to harvest the sun and synthesize food.
18:09 So, to fend off herbivores, most trees have developed defenses.
18:16 The most common weapon in their arsenal is to fill their leaves with noxious chemicals.
18:23 The sloth gets around this by targeting only the youngest leaves, which have fewer toxins.
18:32 But there's a downside. Young leaves are nutritionally poor, so the sloth must eat almost constantly.
18:39 When he's not eating, he's sleeping.
18:43 This gives the four chambers of his stomach time to deal with the toxins and absorb as much nutrition as possible.
18:52 Sloths have the slowest digestion rate of any mammal.
19:00 However, the sloth does give something back. Fertilizer.
19:06 Once a week, he climbs down to the roots to defecate.
19:11 There's only one other reason this tree-dweller will descend from on high.
19:17 To find a mate.
19:27 This 82-million-year-old king of the waterways, older than the river itself, is the Amazon's top water predator.
19:36 Closely related to crocodiles and alligators, caiman can reach over 16 feet in length and weigh nearly 900 pounds.
19:55 Baby capybara would make a satisfying snack.
19:59 But it won't be an easy catch. Dad is keeping a watchful eye on his only offspring.
20:08 [Music]
20:25 This hunting machine, on earth since the time of the dinosaurs, has evolved to be patient.
20:31 He'll wait for the perfect moment to strike.
20:35 [Music]
20:46 Although he breathes air, the caiman can stay just under the surface of the water for up to an hour at a time.
20:53 Dropping his heart rate to just two or three beats per minute to reduce his need for oxygen.
21:02 [Music]
21:08 All the time moving steadily and silently closer to his target.
21:14 For some creatures, the biggest challenge of dry season is finding somewhere wet enough.
21:28 One of the smallest amphibians in the forest can get into real trouble at this time of year.
21:33 Normally, this kind of frog can take good care of himself.
21:43 He's a poison dart frog.
21:46 He's less than two inches long and weighs under an ounce, but he's potentially one of the biggest killers in the jungle.
21:56 [Music]
22:02 He eats a diet of poisonous beetles, mites and ants.
22:06 [Music]
22:13 Scientists think that they can metabolize and isolate the poisons in their prey, then accumulate them to use for their own defense.
22:21 Excreting them through their skin.
22:24 [Music]
22:27 The most poisonous of them has enough toxins to kill ten men.
22:32 [Music]
22:44 But these toxic tough guys have a soft side.
22:48 They're dedicated parents.
22:50 [Music]
22:53 This three-striped poison dart frog is a brand new dad.
22:57 [Music]
23:03 The female has nothing to do with the eggs once she's laid them.
23:07 Dad is literally shouldering all the responsibility.
23:11 [Music]
23:19 These frogs breed year round and this new dad has chosen one of the toughest times to raise a family.
23:26 [Music]
23:28 His babies are just at tadpole stage.
23:31 He must find a suitable nursery.
23:34 [Music]
23:39 He needs a small, fresh pool of water nestled away in a hiding place he can protect.
23:45 That will stay around long enough for his precious cargo to safely develop.
23:49 [Music]
23:51 But in the dry season, finding the perfect spot is no easy task.
23:56 And time is running out.
23:59 If he can't find a location soon, his babies will dry out and die.
24:05 [Music]
24:09 Luckily, this dad is enterprising.
24:13 He zeroes in on a leaf on the ground.
24:16 Just enough water to make a sheltered nursery pool.
24:20 [Music]
24:27 These tadpoles will take around six weeks to develop into fully formed frogs.
24:32 [Music]
24:38 And this dedicated dad will be on guard duty the whole time.
24:42 [Music]
24:46 If he's timed it right, the next generation of toxic tots should be fully grown and able to look after themselves by the time the dry season is over.
24:55 [Music]
25:00 Watsons are 64 million year old living links between modern birds and dinosaurs.
25:07 [Music]
25:11 At first glance, they don't have much going for them in the survival stakes.
25:16 [Music]
25:19 Crazy mohawk, blue faces and ungainly movements.
25:23 These birds aren't fierce or cunning like many other Amazon species.
25:28 [Music]
25:34 Although they have big wings, they're dreadful flyers, preferring to creep their way along branches.
25:41 [Music]
25:43 In spite of their apparent vulnerability, they've survived to the present day in healthy numbers, thanks to a unique survival strategy.
25:53 [Music]
25:57 They stink.
25:58 [Music]
26:01 In fact, they smell so bad, their informal name is stink bird.
26:07 [Music]
26:11 It's all down to their diet.
26:13 [Music]
26:15 Unlike other birds, watsons diet consists mainly of leaves.
26:19 [Music]
26:21 They're vegans, the cows of the avian world.
26:24 [Music]
26:27 The only birds with this strange diet.
26:29 [Music]
26:35 The tough, rubbery mangrove leaves are so hard to digest, that a single leaf can take almost two days to pass through their guts.
26:44 Thanks to this, they smell of rancid manure.
26:48 [Music]
26:50 Their stench is the secret to their survival.
26:54 [Music]
26:56 Virtually nothing wants to eat them.
26:59 [Music]
27:04 These curious animals have lived in the Amazon for three million years.
27:09 [Music]
27:12 Although they're most closely related to horses and rhinos, they look more like long-legged pigs, but with a snout like an elephant's trunk.
27:21 They're tapirs.
27:24 South America's largest terrestrial mammal.
27:28 Weighing up to 660 pounds, they forage non-stop for the huge quantities of vegetation they need to survive.
27:38 They eat up to 85 pounds of plants a day, and can live up to 25 years in the jungle.
27:47 If they can avoid falling prey to the big cats, caiman, and giant snakes that target them.
27:54 [Music]
27:58 After breakfast, it's time for a dip.
28:03 In the water, their prehensile snout becomes a snorkel.
28:09 Fast and agile swimmers, tapirs can hold their breath for three minutes, and even walk on the bottom of the river.
28:16 [Music]