All language subtitles for CBF719AD87A7BD08D8B86945280B6CD2_eng

The very centre of Africa.

And the centre of two million square miles
of dense tropical rainforest.

At first glance, it seems deserted and
eerily still.

Not an easy place to live.

But

there is a greater concentration of
animals here than anywhere else in Africa.

And in this world, they must grab every
opportunity.

Competition is intense and unrelenting.

Even the forest itself fights its corner
with spines and claws.

And poisonous sap.

Here, every living thing must fight for
its space.

Such beauty.

But the flower is self-serving, enticing
animals into an unwitting alliance.

Stingless bees.

They have to work hard.

The forest flowers make them do so by
rationing their nectar.

Forcing each bee to visit and so pollinate
at least a thousand blooms each day.

For the bees, it's worth the effort.

They need the nectar to make honey,
which they store in pots.

It's so precious they keep it hidden
beneath the bark of a tree.

But their secret is out.

Nothing is safe in this forest.

Chimpanzees love honey.

She seems oblivious to danger.

A fall from up here could be fatal.

But she does need a bigger stick.

Only a chimp has the
ability to break into a

stingless bee's nest
as well hidden as this.

Chimps are extremely intelligent, but
none is born with the skill to use a tool.

Youngsters like this one must learn by
watching.

She uses special tools, one after another,
to get all the honey she can.

And in a few minutes, she destroys what
took the bees years to build.

In the rainforest, there are many
different kinds of honey.

But in the forest, nothing is safe.

Here in the Congo, there can be as many as
500 trees crammed into every acre.

In the battle for space, some will rise to
over 60 meters high in just a few decades.

In a valley like this, there could be
close on 1,000 different species of tree.

Up here, the crowns barely touch.

Each tree seems to respect its neighbor's
space.

When they germinate
down on the forest floor,

young trees and plants
are less restrained.

But every new generation fights it out in
battles we can see by accelerating time.

They must get light if they are to
survive.

And they squawk.

Squeeze, crush, and even slash one another
in order to reach it.

Despite the thick canopy above,
some sunlight does filter through and

allows a few low-light specialists to
bloom near the forest floor.

Down here, there are animals, too,
that seek out the sunlight.

The forest's largest predator.

A female rock python.

Her body is five meters long,
weighs 100 kilos, and has 4,000

muscles that she uses to
crush the life out of her victims.

But right now, her need is not for food.

It's for warmth.

She finds a rare patch where a shaft of
sunlight strikes the ground and breaks it.

And... and she begins to bask.

She's cold-blooded, so this is the only way
she can raise the temperature of her body.

But now, she's becoming very warm indeed.

More than 10 degrees hotter than usual.

At 40 degrees centigrade, she's in danger
of killing herself.

Just in time, she moves off.

She disappears below ground.

This is her nest.

And it's full of giant eggs.

It's critical for the eggs' development
that they stay above 30 degrees.

Here, in this special filming burrow,
she gently wraps her superheated body

around the eggs, passing on to them the
warmth of the sun.

She has done this every day for three
months.

The repeated heat stress on her body is so
great, it could be lethal.

And at the very least, it
will take three years for

her to recover from incubating
this one clutch of eggs.

Her parchment-shelled eggs carry the
pressed imprint of her scales.

An indication of the strength of her
embrace.

At last, her efforts are rewarded.

But the babies can't stay here.

They must leave their sanctuary and find
food in the Tangled World above.

They're over 60 centimeters
long, already big enough to

be a threat to the smaller
inhabitants of the forest.

But they are themselves vulnerable.

They have to fight...
particularly to other snakes.

But this one is their mother.

Unusually for snakes,
her maternal instincts

continue for days
after her eggs hatch.

Even so, the forest is such a
dangerous place that only one

in a hundred of her youngsters
is likely to reach adulthood.

Just occasionally, the competition eases,
and...

A tree suddenly produces fruit.

It's a magnet for the creatures of the
canopy, and they, in turn, as they feed,

create a bonanza for those on the ground
below.

A mob of red river hogs.

They have travelled
over two miles through the

thick undergrowth
to get this fall of fruit.

But in the African forest, little comes
for free.

This feast is a bribe.

The hogs will carry the
seeds in their stomachs

and deposit them far
from the parent tree.

Night falls.

But one living community,
which is neither animal nor

plant, continues its
never-ending work in the darkness.

This ground is alive with fungi that digest
all the litter discarded by the forest.

Some rare fungi do so with enzymes that
are luminous.

The local people call them chimpanzee
fire.

Without the fungi, the
dead vegetation would pile

so high, the living trees
would be submerged.

Dawn.

And a new day reveals just how much control
the jungle has over its own environment.

The forests of the Congo are the lungs of
Africa.

As they use the sunlight
to build their tissues, so

they release oxygen and
water vapour into the air.

Each hectare of forest produces, as vapour,
almost 190,000 litres of water a year.

So much that it creates its own weather.

Clouds blanket the forest, driving up the
humidity and temperature.

A storm is brewing.

The Congo might be the richest part of
Africa, but it's also the most violent.

Each year, as many as 100 million
lightning bolts strike the forest.

That's more than anywhere else in the
world.

And with the lightning comes the rain.

Up to 95% of the year,
the amount of the rain

that falls here is generated
by the forest itself.

With the deluge will come change to the
animals and to the forest.

It's certainly perfect weather for frogs.

The big storm is the cue for the most
important climb of this frog's life.

It's a male in search of a mate.

But if he is to find one, he has to get to
the top.

He needs to keep his wits about him,
for the rain also brings out hunters.

Easy does it.

The top at last.

But he's late to the party.

The higher a male sits, the further his
voice will carry.

So the top slots are worth fighting for.

And he's won.

He has the top place.

So now it's time to sing.

And a white-bellied female responds.

They join together to mate.

The loser will have to wait for the next
storm before he sings again.

She lays her eggs on a blade of a long
leaf.

And he, using his back legs, folds it over
and glues its two edges together,

shutting the eggs inside.

This sealed nest is the
safest place these leaf-folding

frogs can find to protect
their precious brood.

Within days, the eggs are developing.

The timing is perfect.

The rain washes away the
glue and the tadpoles slip

out of the leaves into the
growing puddles below.

The rainy season reaches its peak and the
ground has been transformed.

The forest is flooded.

It's a new world.

It's a sport to be in.

Fish swim in from the swollen streams,
exploiting this newly created space,

snapping up the drowning insects.

This is a butterflyfish.

A Congo bichir.

The hunter becomes the hunted.

DARK, CHEAP WAVE

DEEP WAVE The butterflyfish is too quick
and leaps out of danger.

The floods gradually drain
back into the established

waterways that run through
the forest like blood vessels.

There is so much water flowing
through the forest that even

little rivulets can carve out the
soil around an ancient boulder.

This is the home of one
forest creature that has

lived here in the Congo
for 44 million years.

Picathartes.

These birds mate
for life, and the male

reaffirms the bond by
displaying to the female.

They're building a mud
nest on the underside of the

boulder's overhang where
it'll be protected from the rain.

The female takes the lead.

The male doesn't seem quite so skilful.

Oh, dear.

Luckily, she can put things right.

Now she's collecting the soft furnishings.

He's brought some too, but he still can't
get it right.

In the end, the female seems satisfied
with the work.

It's the finish, and just in time.

It might look as if he
has been banished into

the rain, but in fact,
they're a great team.

They share the incubation, 12 hours on,
12 hours off, for the next three weeks.

In due course, there are mouths to feed,
and now the male must prove his worth.

Worms are a good start, and he's doing
well.

But the chicks are insatiable.

Fortunately, other things are on the menu.

He might be a poor nest builder,
but he is redeeming himself now.

He's got a lot of domestic bliss.

Rocky overhangs are the only place where
Picathartes will build their nest.

So they owe their home to the stream that
revealed the flank of the giant boulder.

This stream encounters
others like it, merged

to form the great
rivers of Central Africa.

More than 450 billion litres of rainwater,
travelling down thousands of rivers,

are heading west.

The waters pick up speed as
the rivers spill over the edge of

the central plateau and create
giant cascades of white water.

The Congo forces its
way through the wildest,

most untouched forest
in the whole of Africa.

The Congo River system
drains an area the size of India,

carrying the waters
westwards towards the Atlantic.

But before it reaches the coast, the
rivers broaden, forcing back the forest.

And here, for the first time, there is
space.

Wide, flat and safe.

These stretches of sand attract visitors
from the coast.

Skimmers.

Searching for somewhere safe to settle.

The lower mandible of their beaks is
greatly elongated.

They slice it through the surface of the
water at 10 metres a second.

If and when it hits a tiny fish,
it will snap shut.

But why come up river to these open sand
flats?

This is the answer.

But this nursery will not exist for long.

Four weeks from now, it'll be under 10
metres of water.

If by then these chicks can't fly,
they will drown.

The problem for young skippers...

is that when they hatch, the lower part of
their beaks...

is the same size as the upper.

While they wait for it to grow, they do
their best to learn the skimming technique.

Open spaces may be safe, but they give no
protection against the driving rain.

These storms are a warning.

That the skimmers must soon leave.

The river is already rising.

This year, the chicks get away in time.

It's not just water that has the power to
clear a way through the forest.

There are animals that can do that too.

They have created a network
of pathways... that criss-cross...

that run through the lowland forest...

and run for thousands of miles in all
directions.

These pathmakers are surprisingly
stealthy.

But as night falls, there's a chance of
catching a glimpse of them.

Forest elephants are very social
creatures.

But in dense jungle, it's hard for them to
find one another.

How Does it work?

These elephants are lucky!

Here in the Congo, there is one special
place where they can meet and mingle.

Let's do a quick look around...
Petrified by the sound of the cryaler.

A place that the elephants have created
for themselves.

Zangabai, the legendary Village of
Elephants.

As well as being a place where
they can enjoy one another's

company, this great clearing
satisfies another craving...

for salts.

The salts lie deep under the mud,
so the elephants have got to mine for

them, which they do with high-pressure
water jets from their trunks.

The precious salts and
the chance to socialise

bring in elephants
from far and wide.

If an elephant is in there, in the mood to
mate, this is the place to be.

This young bull is in a state of musth,
a kind of sexual fury.

He is so pumped up by hormones
and the excitements of the

crowd that he seems to
have taken leave of his senses.

But

will throwing his weight about impress the
females?

The cows only become
fertile once every two years, so

opportunities to encounter one
at the right time are not common.

This could well be the first chance this
young male has had.

He's lucky, and there are no older bulls
around to play with.

But the young bull is the only one to put
him in his place.

Just for a moment, he is king of the by.

But his rule doesn't last for long.

Enter another lusty bull.

And a much bigger one.

But the young bull is still charged up
with testosterone.

Bold or foolish, he's going into battle.

He's got a spirit.

He's got a passion.

He's

got the strength.

He's got a lot of them.

He's got the guts.

He never really had a chance.

Zangabai is a huge clearing, but it's still
just a speck in this vast expanse of green.

Elephants might fell trees
and carve pathways, but

nothing natural can hold
back this forest forever.

Nothing but the air.

The Atlantic Ocean.

Luango Beach on Africa's west coast.

One of the last truly wild places where
the Congo jungle meets the sea.

Here the forest gives way to sand,
surf and fresh sea air.

The cool breezes and warm sunlight entice
creatures out of the dark forest.

Forest buffalo appear first.

And here in the surf, they're a hippo.

Spray blows in from the sea, making the
grass salty.

So here elephants can get their tasty salt
without having to dig for it.

This mother with her tiny baby can feel
the sun on her back.

Here it's safe for her little one.

They're free to eat in peace.

The bulls have all the room they need,
so there is less risk of a fight.

Everyone, from gorillas to forest hogs,
ventures out to relax on the beach.

But the forest creatures can't stay out
here forever.

Despite everything, the intense
competition, the threats, the darkness,

they need their forest just as their
forest needs them.

The Congo Rainforest.

A four-day journey to the heart of Africa.

Once the plane leaves, you're on your own.

This expedition planned to film two of the
Congo's best-kept secrets.

But to even find them, the crew would have
to work very hard indeed.

You might as well be on a different planet
coming to a place like this.

Planet Congo.

Mysterious.

Difficult.

Complex.

Challenging.

You know, everything's trying to bite you.

Suck your blood.

I've been tickled by a million feathers at
the same time.

The insects might be torture, but that's
the least of their worries.

The only way to get deep into the jungle
is to follow these trails.

Trails made by dangerous forest elephants.

Well, the first thing
you need to know about

forest elephants is you
don't want to meet one.

Because running away
can elicit a charge, and

it could be exactly
the wrong thing to do.

Our team are completely dependent on their
Bayaka guides for safety.

But it's these same forest elephants that
James has come to film.

And just to make the challenge harder,
he's here to film them in the dark.

Nobody knows exactly what they get up to
at night.

They haven't been filmed like this before.

I couldn't rig this place if the Bayaka
weren't here, watching my back, really.

James needs to operate the remote cameras
from somewhere out of the elephant's reach.

A tree platform seems like the best
option.

Apparently, they have very big elephants
around here.

They want us to put it a bit higher,
so I think I'll do what they say.

But no one wants to stay out at night and
help James with the filming.

So, James will be alone until morning.

If anything goes wrong, he's on his own.

If they really wanted to, they could push
these trees over.

I can't imagine that's going to be an
issue.

As James settles down
for the night, he's got

no idea of the trouble
that's coming his way.

What's going on?

Twenty miles away, Mark McEwan is also up
in the middle of the night.

The animal he's after is proving
impossible to find.

So we get up in the darkness and we walk
through the jungle at night, hoping to

hear the sound of cracking branches or
leaves moving up in the trees.

That means chimpanzees
are stirring in the treetops,

and Mark is here to film
chimps hunting for honey.

There's one chimp in particular he needs
to find, a teenager with a very sweet

tooth, known to go further in the pursuit
of a bee's nest than any other.

I've spent six days walking probably the
equivalent of half marathon every day in

100% humidity and about 95 degrees in the
shade.

And we just can't find our chimpanzee.

Time is ticking away and Mark is running
out of filming days.

At the moment I just need some good luck.

We've come an awfully long way to get this
sequence.

We've got probably 10, 12 days left.

But it's hard work at the moment.

All Mark can do is persevere and hope for
a break.

But not all the forest creatures are so
shy.

Perched high in his
tree, James Aldred is

waiting patiently for
the elephants to come in.

At last, the elephants are here.

But they're behaving strangely.

The elephants seem agitated.

I just want to get rid of you.

One begins to thump the tree with its
head.

James has no option but to weather the
attack.

Let's lean forward and keep headbutting,
keep headbutting, keep headbutting.

Suddenly the camera's cut out.

And James is left in complete darkness.

After three weeks searching, Mark has lost
nearly two stone in weight.

But he hasn't given up.

He can't afford to put down his camera for
a second.

Suddenly the guide spots the honey hunter.

This is it.

Where is she?

She's inside the tree.

Just for some honey, she's risking her
life.

It's amazing.

I think I just need to stop smiling for
several days after filming that.

The relief is just unbelievable.

Back at the camera platform, James has had
a long night.

For over four hours, the elephant tried to
shake him out of the tree.

But when it came the pull, the camera was
off.

He got down this morning when the biaker
came to collect me.

Went to look at the camera and he pulled
it out of the tree.

And he chewed through the power cable.

He must have gotten a bit of a shock.

I mean only 12 volts, but it serves him
right quite honestly.

But at least we got a shot of him before
he trashed the camera.

Silver lining.

Despite this bumpy start, In the heart,
the elephants soon got used to James,

and James got used to the elephants.

Filming here was never going to be easy,
but we were soon able to reveal the

nightlife of forest elephants like never
before.