Original subtitles

Florida...

..famed for its beaches...

..blue water...

and year-round sun.

But away from the crowds...

..Florida hides a wild side.

Home to some iconic residents...

..every year, they face the full forces of nature.

And now, the pressure is building.

A rising human population and a cast of animal invaders

are threatening the natural order.

While some are fighting hard to save it...

the native wildlife is finding surprising ways to adapt.

But can this corner of paradise continue

to weather the growing storm?

Florida lies to the southeast of mainland America.

It's almost in the tropics.

Which means it's affected by both subtropical and tropical climates.

So, while there's plenty of sunshine...

..torrential rains pour down in the humid summer months...

..hurricanes rage across the land.

It's a dynamic mix that for millennia

has supported a huge variety of wildlife...

..and shaped unique habitats...

..from pine forests in the north...

..to the famous wetlands of the Everglades in the south.

And at its tip, the coral reefs of the Florida Keys.

And now, all life here is looking to the future.

It's early April.

The height of the dry season in the longleaf pine forests.

These native trees once covered most of the state.

But after years of logging,

just a fraction are left in the Apalachicola region

of Florida's panhandle.

On the forest floor,

one of its most unassuming residents is out looking for food.

A gopher tortoise.

Habitat like this is his paradise.

The open savannah beneath the trees makes it easy

to move around and feed.

He takes his time

to pick through his favourite herbs and succulent grasses.

But at this time of year, the wire grass is tinderbox dry.

And the weather can change in an instant.

THUNDER RUMBLES AND CLAPS

Florida is the lightning capital of the United States.

Over a million bolts strike each year.

And just one can ignite the parched landscape.

But this isn't the disaster that it looks.

This forest needs fire to survive.

The trees can take the heat

as the flames clear the forest floor of unwanted scrub.

This allows new longleaf pine to germinate

and grow without competition.

Everything living here has to find a way to cope with the inferno.

Including the gopher tortoise.

He uses his shovel-like feet to dig burrows.

These are a refuge from the flames.

And it's not just the tortoise that relies on them.

Over 300 species use these tunnels

to shelter from fire, hurricanes,

and all the extremes Florida's climate can throw at them.

That's why the gopher tortoise is one of the most important animals

that lives in these forests.

But a landscape that needs fire creates major conflict

in a state with a growing human presence.

Almost 900 people move here every day,

adding to a population of 20 million.

To protect homes, lightning-strike fires must be put out immediately.

We can't have fires just moseying around the landscape.

There is people that would be in harm's way.

Their houses and people's livelihoods would be affected.

To keep longleaf forests alive,

here, burns are man-made

and carefully controlled by organisations

like The Nature Conservancy.

Fire needs to be addressed really anywhere through prescribed fire.

We have to manage this fire, we have to keep it safe.

However, we do our best

to mimic what Mother Nature would have done

with naturally-ignited fires.

The idea of fire is an ecological disturbance,

but that really puts a negative spin on it.

This chaotic, seemingly destructive force

is Mother Nature's great rejuvenator.

By replicating nature, Floridians are leading the way

in fire management across the United States.

They've reduced the risk of wildfires and restored thousands

of acres of longleaf pine.

A unique habitat that more than 900 species call home.

One of these is the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.

It nests almost exclusively in longleaf pine.

And where the trees vanish, so do they.

Thanks to fire restoration,

they're now making a comeback.

The mighty Apalachicola River runs through the heart

of this longleaf stronghold.

It's one of 20 major rivers in the state.

They create the enchanting swamps and wetlands Florida is famous for.

Trillions of litres of rain fall each year.

And even in the dry season,

few rivers ever run completely dry.

They're home to some of Florida's most iconic animals.

And, as you travel south, these become ever more present.

This is Silver River in Central Florida.

One of the largest freshwater springs in the United States.

90 million litres of water forced up out of the ground every hour.

Enriched with minerals from the Earth,

the spring water is crystal clear.

It's a balmy 22 degrees Celsius all year round...

..which attracts one of the state's most magical animals.

A Florida manatee.

They spend most of their lives around the coast.

But can't survive in water below 20 degrees Celsius.

So, in winter, they head inland

to Florida's springs.

Here, they graze for up to eight hours a day,

feasting on freshwater grasses.

They were critically endangered,

partly because routes to warm waters like these were blocked

by increasing development.

But in 2016,

thanks to efforts across the state,

their numbers exceeded the 8,000 mark.

And are becoming a common sight once again.

But this winter refuge doesn't just attract manatees.

Residents and migratory birds come here to rear their young.

And as April unfolds, the river banks become a nursery ground.

Parents must be on their guard.

As danger is never far away.

This moorhen has seven young chicks.

And they're all eager to explore.

But they don't realise the peril they're in.

CHICK WHIMPERS

These baby alligators are last year's hatchlings.

And, at eight months old,

they're already expert ambush predators.

While animals here are finding their feet,

elsewhere, others closer to the tropics are turning to courtship.

To the far south lies the state's most iconic landscape...

..the Everglades.

A 2 million-acre wetland on Florida's southern tip.

This is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States.

It can hold an estimated 4 trillion litres of water.

And it's brimming with life.

Including one of the most endangered mammals in the USA...

..the Florida panther.

Hundreds of marshland species

live here all year round...

..alongside the greatest

congregation of alligators in the state...

..while thousands of visiting birds nest in the tree tops

during winter and spring.

It's called a wetland.

But, in fact, this is a giant slow-moving sheet of water.

Earning it the name the "river of grass".

In late spring, water levels are at their lowest

and there's a strange sound in the air.

LOUD GROWLING

ALLIGATOR GROWLS

Male alligators are bellowing.

To find each other in this vast expanse of water...

they vibrate their larynx to let out deep growls.

GROWLING INTENSIFIES

Low frequency sounds,

inaudible to human hearing,

make the water dance.

GROWLING ECHOES

It tells other alligators how big and strong they are...

..and can be heard over a mile away.

The sound wards off competitors...

..and, hopefully, attracts a mate.

Females can be quick to respond...

..but they're not always quick to pick a partner.

They lead males on a merry dance,

before finally deciding he is the one.

The wooing can last for days...

..with couples mating multiple times...

..before going their separate ways.

The males might partner again.

But females now turn their attention to building a nest.

In just a month's time, it needs to be ready for their eggs.

Alligators are so successful in Florida,

they're found almost everywhere there's water.

But it wasn't always this way.

Reviled... GUNSHOT

..and misunderstood.

By the 1960s, they'd been hunted to near extinction.

Realising they could lose their most iconic native animal,

state wildlife agencies took action.

Hunting was banned,

and re-education programmes established.

Floridians brought alligators back from the brink.

An epic wildlife success story.

But now, they're under serious threat again.

In the last century,

65% of this wetland has been drained for human use.

And more than 8 million people rely on the Everglades

for their drinking water.

But the latest problem for indigenous wildlife

is non-native residents moving in.

Florida's climate means exotic animals thrive here.

Green iguanas.

Lionfish.

Cane toads.

There are now more than 500 non-native species

plaguing the state.

And with the Everglades bordered by Miami,

a city of almost half a million people...

..this is a hotspot for unwanted exotic pets.

Perhaps the most destructive...

..is the Burmese python.

Originally from the jungles and marshes of Southeast Asia...

..the Everglades is now estimated to be home to a staggering 100,000

of these invasive reptiles.

They're one of the largest snakes in the world.

And they'll eat almost anything...

..including alligators.

With few natural predators,

these invaders are an almost unstoppable force.

But people are fighting back.

Burmese pythons came here in the '70s from the pet trade,

and they can get to be 18-20 feet long.

People didn't know what to do with them,

so they came out here and let them go.

Once established, the pythons rapidly started breeding.

They've been eating their way through Everglades National Park.

Literally 98% of the mammals have been eaten

by these Burmese pythons.

They're eating deer, they're eating alligators...

We brought them here, we need to take them out.

And that's what I'm here to do.

Paid contractors patrol the levees around the Everglades day and night.

All of the pythons create a problem here.

Everything from a small python that comes out 26 inches

up to anything over ten feet that's breeding.

After about 14 feet, they're monsters.

You know, they're monster snakes.

The females can lay over 100 eggs a year.

So getting on top of this problem is a daunting task.

Stop, stop for a second.

Grabbing a big constrictor like that is an experience.

You definitely have to go in, grab it with both hands,

make sure you know what you're doing.

You don't want it to wrap around your neck cos they can kill you.

You definitely want to have backup.

SNAKE HISSING

In the first two years of the removal programme...

..25 teams...

..took out almost 2,000 adult snakes.

But there's much more to be done.

The war that we're fighting is bigger

than the battle that we're winning.

You're not doing your pet a favour by letting them go

out here in the wild.

You think, you know, "Here - be free, have fun!"

It doesn't work that way.

The introduction of these snakes has caused unimaginable damage

to Florida's natural ecosystems.

So, the pythons have to be humanely destroyed.

I love these Burmese python,

they're really a fascinating creature.

It's just that they don't belong here.

We brought them in, we need to take them out.

Humans have had a big impact right across the state.

The dry season is peak holiday time.

When the weather is calm...

..tourism brings 100 million people to Florida's shores each year...

..putting even more pressure on this fragile land.

But it also accounts for 10% of the state's economy.

And it's natural environments are very much part of the draw.

One of its biggest attractions lies

at the southernmost tip of the state.

The Florida Keys.

An archipelago of more than 1,700 islands...

..stretching south toward the tropics.

They're strung together by bridges...

..and carpeted in mangrove trees.

A tropical paradise - for marine life...

..and people alike.

Beneath the waves lies the Florida Reef Tract.

It's the third largest barrier reef in the world...

..and the only one in North America.

But space here is at a premium.

With rising sea levels...

..and increasingly powerful storms...

..life in the Keys is precarious.

And it doesn't take much to tip it over the edge.

THUNDER RUMBLES

In 2017, Irma, a massive Category 4 hurricane,

swept in from the Atlantic...

..with catastrophic effect.

It stripped mangrove trees bare...

..and contaminated fresh water across the lower Keys.

Six months on, the damage is still visible.

Residents feared one of the Keys' most precious species had been lost.

Yet, remarkably, it's holding on.

These are Key deer.

A tiny subspecies of white-tailed deer

found only on these islands.

At just 70 centimetres tall,

they're a third smaller than their mainland cousins.

Almost 1,000 of these miniatures live across a cluster

of islands to the south of the Keys.

They may be small,

but these canny little deer are survivors.

Picking through plastic and hurricane debris

to make the most of washed-up seagrass.

They'll even venture into open water

to reach their most important food...

..the mangrove trees.

But life is still uncertain here.

With their drinking water full of salt

and many of their feeding grounds destroyed.

The Key deer are now seeking refuge in urban areas.

DOG BARKS

Unfazed by people...

..they're making themselves at home.

Some residents provide fresh drinking water.

But this reliance on humans is far from ideal.

It brings them closer to roads.

And, in fact, hurricanes are not their greatest threat.

It's collisions with cars.

In late spring,

these deer make the most of the calm weather,

saving energy for the turbulent months ahead.

All too soon, things are going to change.

June marks the arrival of summer.

Trade winds blow in from the southeast Atlantic.

Bringing a continuous stream of warm, moist air.

Hurricanes are now possible at any time.

Every day as temperatures rise, humidity builds and competes

with cooler air high up in the atmosphere.

And every afternoon, like clockwork,

the clouds dump their contents.

The wet season has begun...

..dousing Florida in 60% of its annual rainfall in just four months.

The rain restores battered mangroves...

..fire-scarred forests...

..and fills the Everglades to their brim.

With an average of 1.5 metres of rainfall each year...

..the Everglades is now the wettest place in Florida.

And, suddenly, there's a lot more water on the move.

But there's a problem.

Highway 41.

Built in the 1920s before people realised the Everglades

was a moving sheet of water.

This road intersects the vast wetland east to west.

And, inadvertently, stops the flow.

In the summer, the north side

of the road is far fuller than the south.

It's thought that disruption to water levels like this

is responsible for the disappearance of 90%

of the area's wading birds.

Now, in an attempt to restore the balance,

giant pumps shift billions of litres of water north to south.

And raised bridges allow the water to flow naturally once more...

..essential to animals like alligators

that call this wilderness home.

Tucked away amongst the saw grass,

alligator nests have been incubating eggs for two months now.

They're built around the roots of small trees,

which anchor them as water levels rise.

A female guards each one,

patiently waiting for her young to emerge.

And by August, the first babies have hatched.

At just a week old, they're perfectly camouflaged.

Bright yellow stripes make them invisible amongst the dried grasses

the nest is built around.

At this age, they spend their days close together

in groups called pods...

..under the gaze of their watchful mother.

At just 20 centimetres long, they're defenceless.

An easy meal for a passing bird

or a hungry male alligator.

But when darkness falls,

these hatchlings show a different side.

With fewer predators around,

the youngsters take on a new confidence.

They break away from their pods and set out alone.

And while they might look cute,

even at this tender age,

they already have the instinct to hunt.

Their mother will protect them, but she won't feed them.

So they have to get the hang of it first.

At this age, they hunt almost constantly through the night.

Pouncing on their prey of tiny insects and fish

with not quite expert precision just yet.

They'll perfect these skills over the next year...

..until they're big enough to go it alone.

THUNDER RUMBLES

As the wet season continues, winds pick up...

..and more humid weather is blown in from the Atlantic.

Storms are building far out in the ocean.

Still recovering from last season's onslaught,

residents of the Florida Keys batten down the hatches.

But powerful storms don't just impact the land...

..they disrupt life beneath the waves too.

Florida's barrier reef is a vital natural defence.

It rises up from the ocean floor

and bears the brunt of storm surges as they roll in...

..absorbing the impact before it hits land.

Historically, these storms sheared off pieces of coral,

but would re-attach elsewhere, creating a healthier reef.

But now, the reef doesn't have enough time

to recover between storms.

And along with pressures like pollution, bleaching

and ocean acidification,

it's in trouble.

So scientists are stepping in.

If Florida lost the Florida Reef Tract completely,

it's likely that we would see a place like Florida Keys

completely washed away.

The Coral Restoration Foundation is leading the way

in saving reefs around the world.

The main corals that we'd worked with are staghorn and elkhorn.

And the reason why we started there is those are the dominant corals

that were found in Florida.

They've actually lost about 97% of their populations.

So we've really focused our efforts into growing thousands

upon thousands of these corals in a nursery setting.

They've developed a pioneering system.

By suspending coral fragments in the water column,

they give them 360 degrees of food and sunlight.

This speeds up growth and produces new coral to restore the reef.

So we'll actually harvest them when they're ready from the nursery,

and then we'll attach them directly onto the reef substrate

in a process that we call outplanting.

Once we have a clean area, or clean limestone, we then use this two-part

marine epoxy, and we attach that epoxy to the reef

and then we gently press the coral directly into that epoxy.

The fragments fuse with the exposed limestone,

forming new growth.

The team grows a genetically diverse mix...

..in the hope that at least some will withstand

the different pressures the reef is under.

They've planted more than 70,000 fragments in the past decade.

It's now widely understood that active intervention is a necessity.

We're past the tipping point where they could recover naturally.

So, the point of a restoration programme is to produce

the abundance of corals and the diversity of corals that

these reefs need to be able to keep up with their changing environments.

While people work to restore these fragile landscapes...

..above the waves, the turbulent weather continues to build.

September and October are when hurricanes are most likely to hit.

So, before they do, the last of the springtime visitors must depart.

Swallow-tailed kites have been here since March.

Two-thirds of the North American population come to Florida

each year to breed.

Courting, feeding,

drinking and even bathing on the wing...

..the feet of these extraordinary birds almost never touch the ground.

They're about to make the 5,000-mile journey

to their winter feeding grounds in South America.

And thousands of birds come together to prepare.

As they store up energy for the flight,

it's vital they aren't disturbed.

So they gather in remote roosts...

..far from people.

After a morning bath...

..the kites preen their feathers, to keep them in condition

for the long journey to come.

They appear to sense atmospheric changes

as hurricanes begin to approach.

But far from avoiding these storms...

..researchers suggest the birds capitalise on their headwinds.

And when the time is right...

..they take flight.

Hundreds, even thousands, soar above roosts at this time of year.

Their journey south can take up to four months.

And there's time for one last feed.

Now the birds head straight to a landscape created by us.

Agricultural pasture is alive with insects.

And this is where their forked tail comes in.

Able to rotate almost 90 degrees...

..they use it like a rudder.

They discard the wings and fuel up on the protein rich-bodies

of their prey.

Once they've had their fill, it's finally time to leave.

Their roosts are left eerily empty.

The Miccosukee Tribe of Florida

call them the leaders of the hurricanes.

As they vanish, the storms roll in.

They've been forming thousands of miles away, far out in the Atlantic.

Summer temperatures have warmed the ocean's surface.

And as warm air rises from the water, it lifts moisture with it,

creating giant stacks of cloud.

THUNDER CLAPS

As more air is sucked in below...

..winds begin to spiral inward...

..and a vortex is formed.

The storm gathers pace and power with every mile.

And when its winds reach 74mph, it becomes an unstoppable force.

The warmest waters create a path for these monster storms to follow.

This is Hurricane Alley,

and it brings many of them barrelling straight into Florida.

This state has experienced more direct hits by hurricanes

than anywhere else in North America.

And they're getting stronger.

Research suggests human-induced climate change is the driving force.

Our oceans are the hottest they've been since records began,

and this energy makes hurricanes more powerful than ever before.

When Hurricane Michael struck in 2018,

it was one of the most powerful storms to ever

make landfall in Florida.

With winds of 155mph...

..it flattened entire towns...

..and ravaged the landscape.

The longleaf pine forests in Apalachicola...

..were hit by the full force of the storm.

Yet, remarkably, not only do these trees cope with fire...

..they can survive hurricanes too.

Where non-native species have snapped and fallen,

the longleaf pine's supple trunks have bent with the winds.

Young growth has also survived.

And the animals here have weathered the storm too.

The gopher tortoises' burrows have once more provided shelter

for hundreds of forest species.

This is where native Florida comes into its own.

Its plants and animals have evolved

to cope with the harshest forces of nature.

As the rains recede...

..and hurricanes blow over...

..in the face of the growing pressures...

..life goes on.

Male Key deer battle for the right to father the next generation.

Alligators prepare to slow down

and disappear for the cooler months of winter.

And the people of Florida continue to pioneer new ways

to help this state's native landscapes...

..putting them in a better place to cope with an uncertain future.

With their help, for now,

the animals and landscapes are holding on...

..riding the storm in this rapidly changing corner of paradise.