Original subtitles

Forests at first sight may seem quiet and tranquil.

But today we can explore them in new ways.

And from a new perspective.

And in fact, they're full of unexpected connections.

relationships, and even secret messages.

Only now are we discovering how strange and complex

forests actually are.

The rainforests of Borneo.

A pair of oriental pied hornbills are renewing their partnership.

They mate for life.

And this year's nesting season is just starting.

Before they face the challenges ahead they reaffirm their bond.

And they do so with an unusual ritual.

at the entrance to a bat cave that they know well.

This rather curious gift isn't normally on their menu.

But it both demonstrates devotion and reassures the female that her mate

will provide for her.

In the coming weeks, she will depend on him in the most...

extraordinary way.

Nesting is a dangerous time for any bird.

The hole in this tree trunk will provide vital protection.

Just what she wants.

Once settled inside, the female does something truly bizarre.

She pulls out her flight feathers.

She is not going to need them because she will be staying in here for quite

time.

It's not only a little cramped, it also lacks basic amenities.

Now her partner brings her a beakful of mud.

And she begins to seal herself in.

She has turned the tree hole into a predator -proof fortress.

But it's also a prison.

Her partner, however, is a regular visitor.

For the next two months, he will deliver all her food directly to her

door.

But she can be fuzzy.

He's going to have his work cut out.

It may seem that he has been doing all the work, but she too has been fully

occupied.

The food he has brought has enabled her to produce two precious eggs.

She will keep them safe for another six weeks until the young have grown and

fledged.

And then both she and they will break out of their confinement.

But until then, this devoted couple are going to be very

busy indeed.

Join us on an extraordinary journey.

To a world never revealed before.

Who knows what is still out there to be discovered.

The warmth and the moisture of rainforests enables their inhabitants to

in both numbers and variety.

And here in the Amazon live many strange species.

This is a tree hopper.

one of hundreds of different types in this forest.

They not only have a bizarre appearance, but they also communicate

in a remarkable way, too.

Vibrating their bodies, they send signals through the forest plants they

on.

Most of these messages we can only hear by using special microphones.

The treehopper species has its own repertoire.

And every sound

has its own particular meaning.

Whether it is to attract a mate, share information about food,

or warn each other about the arrival

of predators.

This treehopper mother communicates with her young, encouraging them to stay

together so that she can protect them.

For there are plenty here waiting to eat young treehoppers.

Ants on the hunt.

Treehoppers know how to defend themselves.

But not all threats are so easily dealt with.

An assassin bug.

Armed with piercing mouthparts, and sticky front legs.

Capable of literally sucking the life out of her entire broom.

He can try to block the assassin's path.

But she can't guard them all.

She needs help from friends in high places.

They're very aggressive.

This is more than the assassin bug bargained for.

Mission accomplished.

Her brood are safe.

The bees don't protect the treehoppers for free.

A little tickle on a treehopper's back.

And they exude a sugary liquid.

Honeydew.

A sweet reward for protecting them.

It's just one of the countless ways in which forest species work together.

and truly extraordinary sound.

These are doles.

Wild dogs that whistle.

Like treehoppers, they too communicate in secret.

but for a different reason.

Hunting in a dense teak forest is difficult,

especially so if your prey is three times your own size.

The only way for doles to succeed

is to work as a team.

This family has four growing pups.

And Chitaudea could feed the entire pack.

The pack must get close.

Without being detected.

But with eyes and ears everywhere, the deer are soon

aware of the dog's presence.

The back can't afford to give up.

They may have better luck here.

The vegetation is dense and provides better cover.

But the dolls could easily lose track of one another.

So they use their unique whistles.

understand these quiet, unobtrusive calls.

Now, they take up their hunting positions.

even though they can't see each other.

With the deer surrounded,

The doles wait for the signal to attack.

Some of the doles spit the herd.

and drive a stag towards others waiting in ambush.

The dole's ability to communicate so quietly enables them to stay connected

so hunt successfully in the tangle of their jungle.

the mountainous forests of central China.

Until recently, these were among the least known of forests.

They're full of swirling mists and few outsiders had any idea of what they

contain.

Living in such dense vegetation, it's difficult to make yourself seen.

Even when you want to be.

And that's a problem for this male Chemex tragopan.

He has lived most of his life alone.

And this is his first mating season.

He needs to make himself conspicuous in the gloom of the forest floor.

And he's found a clearing where he might do so.

A female.

She too is looking for a mate.

This could be his moment.

And who is this?

A male golden pheasant.

He too has come to this clearing to attract a female.

Seems a little more confident.

That is how it's done The

dragopan might still have a chance here is a

new female But is she interested

It's

time to be bold

He bumps up a pair of horns and a multicolored bib.

It's a sight to be wondered at.

And it has never before been filmed in the wild.

Not today.

How deflating.

The temperate rainforests of Western Canada.

Some of the trees here are a thousand years old.

It's autumn, and the beginning of a spectacle that each year transforms this

forest. and all that lives in it.

After years at sea, thousands of Pacific salmon are returning to these streams

to breed.

and they attract the forest's rarest resident.

A spirit bear.

A white variant of the black bear.

Fewer than 150 exist, and they're found only here.

This female has fished for salmon here for 20 years.

timing right.

And there can be great rewards.

In her youth, she was in fact even more successful than the black bears.

Perhaps her pale coat.

makes it difficult for the fish to see her against the bright sky, and that

could give her an advantage.

But now she is old, and this year she's finding it

hard.

Her fishing skills, however, haven't totally deserted her.

This annual feast helps her to fadden ready for the winter ahead.

But it also helps the patch of forest where she lives.

This female has an unusual relationship with the forest.

Every fish carcass she leaves behind decays, releasing nutrients

that soak into the soil.

And there they are collected.

by a network of fungi.

The threads attach themselves to the tree's roots and

nutrients from the fish collected by the fungi are then passed on

to the trees.

As a consequence the forest around the river grows three times faster than

elsewhere.

And some trees here become as tall as any in the world.

and provide spirit bears with a healthy forest home.

We now know that such relationships exist in forests all over the world.

It started life as a seed some 200 years ago.

Now it towers 60 metres above the forest floor and

transports 1 ,000 litres of nutrient -filled water from its roots

up to its canopy every day.

So this giant gives life to others.

A whole community of animals and plants depends on the well -being of this one

tree.

A single cut, made in just a few moments, has broken thousands of long

-established connections.

Across the world's forests, this story is being repeated endlessly.

15 billion trees are cut down every year.

Every one of these trees is in itself an intricate ecosystem.

But here in the Amazon, they're being replaced by plantations of a single

species of tree.

Originally from Australia, these eucalypts are unable to build

relationships with most of the native plants and animals.

And worse, these newcomers grow so rapidly, they extract nutrients from the

faster than they can be replaced.

And what was once a rich and complex world

becomes little more than a green desert.

And at just five years of age, their lives are ended.

They're felled and taken away.

Their wood is then pulped to make paper.

And all that remains of the rich rainforest are a few tiny patches.

Patches so small that few of the original inhabitants are able to survive

them.

Uganda, East Africa

This

small group of chimpanzees have a detailed

knowledge of the forest territory that they inherited from previous

They know the best places to shelter, to raise their young,

and to feed.

This fruiting tree cannot by itself sustain the chimps for

long.

The alpha male signals that it's time to move on.

Where he goes, others will follow.

He leads them not to another fruiting tree, but into

a new world.

This road, only recently built, has cut through their territory.

The alpha male is cautious.

His own mother was killed on this road

He

makes sure it's clear before

crossing with the slower members of his family.

If the group is to get what they need,

They will have to go against their natural instincts and

approach humans.

But their new neighbors are friendly.

And they allow the chimps to collect

jackfruit, the largest of all tree

fruits.

Jackfruit grow all year round in people's gardens.

And they're more nutritious than the limited amount of wild food the chimps

now find in what remains of their forest.

But this is a new world and a new relationship.

New boundaries need to be established.

Some of the chimps start to help themselves to people's crops.

They have outstayed their welcome, and the alpha male decides that it's time to

leave.

The chimps make this dangerous journey,

But these highly intelligent animals, our closest living relatives, have

managed, just about, to carve out a place for themselves.

in this changing world.

Animals have maintained a long -established relationship with forests.

But as we continue to break our connections with them, the question is

for how much longer will they survive?

Surely the time has come to rebuild them.

Over many years, I've been

lucky enough to watch chimps in their natural home, such as here in the thick

forests of West Africa.

Chimpanzees. A peaceful scene of jungle harmony.

The experienced male is sitting right there.

But the lives of many chimpanzees are now changing dramatically.

Here in Uganda, over the last decade, they have lost over 80 % of their forest

home.

They don't live in a protected area.

To survive here, they have to live alongside the 200 or so human families

who farm here.

To tell the story of this remarkable chimp group, the Planet Earth team are

working with these residents.

Who was that, Tom?

This one was Arad.

Tom is part of the Burundi Chimpanzee and Community Project.

He's been studying the chimps every day for the last 15 years and has

seen the change firsthand.

Very many things have changed.

When chimpanzees were seeing people, they would run.

Run very quickly and go. But now they just stand.

Because everywhere they go, they find a pathway.

Chips are normally tricky to film in the wild.

But in this human world, the crew are surprised by how easy it is to approach

them.

Another one coming up, Park.

But back in the forest, it's a different story.

Here the chimps seem wary of the newcomers.

All the crew get to see is a lot of bottoms.

This afternoon, the chimps have been taking us on a wild goose chase.

They've crossed the river, and then they've crossed back, gone past us while

were in the woods, and then now they've disappeared again.

When we don't have chimps, we film goats.

Here in the chimp's forest home, it's going to take time to earn the group's

trust.

I think it's time to move this.

And get to know one another.

This is Jack.

After two weeks, things are improving on the ground.

But what will the chimps think of the crew up in the trees?

You can see a bunch of chimp faces looking up at me.

This is a new experience for them. I doubt they've ever seen a human in a

before.

So hopefully they accept me.

to hours of waiting.

Success.

All the chimps that were on the ground looking up at me are now happily in the

tree, which is a really good sign that they've accepted me.

It's the first time that I've been able to see at their level while they're

feeding.

For the crew, it has taken a long time to gain the chimps' acceptance.

But in fact, the chimps here have shown that they can respond quickly to the

presence of people.

Chimpanzees are highly intelligent.

If you cut down the forest, well, chimps will start eating human crops.

If you divide their range up with roads and, you know...

The chimps will end up just learning to cross the roads.

The animals can adapt to an increasingly human environment.

The question is, can people accommodate an animal like a chimp?

Chimpanzees can be dangerous.

Living alongside them is a mixed experience.

The local community

and the project have been working together to try to decrease the impact

these problems.

Over the last eight years, Lillian and her family have planted native seedlings

on her land and left her patch of forest to regrow.

If we cut it, they come and sleep in our houses.

So we should leave that place for them.

If you leave them and you don't disturb them, they are peaceful animals.

With other residents following suit, more of the forest is showing positive

signs of return.

There is a long way to go, and the future for these chimps remains

But where peaceful coexistence can be built, there is hope.

harshest conditions that exist on planet Earth.

Extraordinary places inhabited by some of Earth's most resilient species.

This is Planet Earth 3.