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The Amazon, the greatest
rain forest on Earth.
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It is home for one in 10 of all species.
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It may look like a vast, tropical paradise,
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but nothing could be further from the truth.
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This is a landscape that is as much water as wood.
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And each year, the two worlds collide
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when the forest fills with water.
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The Amazon is inconceivably vast.
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It covers an area of almost 3
1/2 million square kilometers.
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It is not a uniform landscape, but many,
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from lowland flood forest to
upland forests on dry ground.
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Within this green space, a huge number of animals
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strive to make a living.
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Each morning, howler
monkeys greet the day.
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They're advertising their ownership
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of a patch of forest.
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But their calls alert a keen-eyed killer.
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The harpy eagle is the most powerful
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bird of prey in the world,
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quite capable of carrying off a howler monkey.
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The harpy's wings are broad and rounded,
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which allow it to maneuver through the canopy
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with deadly precision.
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The harpy's legs are as thick as a mans' wrist,
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and it has the largest talons of any eagle.
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It can carry off prey the same weight as itself.
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But this time, the giant eagle's objective
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was only a branch.
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The leaves are for the nest,
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which is in one of the tallest
trees in the rain forest.
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The fresh twigs may not be there to build up
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or decorate the nest.
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The leaves of many plants in this forest
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contain chemicals, poisons,
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to stop animals eating them.
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And these leaves may act as an insect repellent.
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The eagles could be deploying chemical weapons.
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The uniform green of the
Amazon hides many differences.
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There are terra firme forests on high ground
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and flood forests alongside
the myriad rivers and lakes.
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Many of the trees are engaged in a hidden war,
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where they use chemicals for protection,
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something the woolly monkeys might wish for,
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especially from insects.
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When not scratching, the monkeys provide
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a service to the trees.
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Figs offer nutritious, soft fruits
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full of small seeds.
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As they feed, the woolly monkeys pass the seeds
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and so spread fig trees through the forest.
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In the unseen war, the trees
fight to keep their leaves.
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Many use poisons to stop animals eating them,
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but at the same time, encouraging creatures
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to eat their fruits.
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Most fruit is highly nutritious,
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and this has helped shape the
sex lives of one resident,
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the cock-of-the-rock.
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Each morning, after quickly filling up on fruit,
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the fabulously-colored males
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gather at a communal display area, a lek.
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Each male owns a low-level perch,
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and below it a small patch of ground.
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It is because they are fueled by fruit
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that the males can spend
most of the day displaying.
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The males compete amongst themselves,
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trying to drive other males from their perches.
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The arrival of a plain-colored female,
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and the males descend to their individual areas.
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Curiously, the males now stop calling
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and hardly move.
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They wait with all their feathers pumped up,
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hoping the female will visit their patch.
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Males try to disrupt each other's displays,
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barging into the scene mid-action.
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The female watches and assesses the quality
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of the males on offer.
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The males use patches of sunlight
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to heighten their splendor.
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She has chosen a male on the far edge of the lek,
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where mating discreetly takes place.
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The trees offer edible fruit
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as a reward to animals that spread their seeds,
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but many put up a chemical shield
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to defend their leaves from being eaten.
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There's an unseen war between
the trees and leaf-eaters,
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and the most important consumer
of leaves in the Amazon
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is this small insect,
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the leafcutter ant.
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Its jaws vibrate a thousand times a second
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as it slices through leaves.
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The cut leaves are not eaten by the worker ants
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for they may be toxic.
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Instead, the ants carry them back to the nest.
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As they travel, the ants lay down a scent trail
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to mark the way.
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The chemical, a pheromone, is so powerful
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that each ant produces only
one-billionth of a gram.
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The cut leaf can weigh 20
times the ant's own weight,
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the equivalent of us carrying a one-ton load.
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More remarkable still, these mini-Hercules
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range more than a hundred meters from their nest,
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the human equivalent of a 25-kilometer hike.
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As if the load were not enough,
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smaller ants ride on the leaf, shotgun style,
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to protect the carrier from parasitic flies.
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And flies are not the only danger.
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There is a fungus that enters an ant's body,
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eats it, then grows its own
mushroom from the dead ant,
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to spread its spores to yet more ants.
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The underground nest is huge,
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and may house as many as
eight million individuals.
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The leaves are taken to special chambers
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where a different class of ant
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cuts them into smaller pieces.
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The purpose of all this
industry is to feed a fungus.
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The ants are farmers, and
the smallest kind of worker
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tends the fungus gardens.
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This is the food for the colony.
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The ants and the fungus
depend totally on each other.
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If the ants bring leaves that contain chemicals
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that upset the fungus, somehow it tells the ants
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and they then gather different leaves.
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The queen is a colossus in this Lilliputian world,
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and weighs 1,500 times more
than the small gardener ants.
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Only she produces the eggs that will turn into
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the many kinds of workers.
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The colony is always busy,
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digging new chambers to grow more fungus.
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The spoil is brought out and dumped.
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The ants have found one method
of dealing with toxic leaves.
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Other animals have found different ways
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to overcome this challenge.
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The mother sloth has her own
way of finding edible leaves,
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very slowly.
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The reason for the sloth's famous lethargy
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is that leaves have little nutritional value,
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so the sloth saves energy by a very low,
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slow metabolism.
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The sloth uses her fine sense of smell
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to find leaves with little or no poisons,
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and the baby learns from its mother.
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Movement is a real giveaway to a predator,
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but this is no problem for the sloth,
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which rests and sleeps for much of the day.
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There is excitement at the nest.
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The eagle chick has hatched.
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The mother will do most of the nest duties,
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shading the baby from the fierce, tropical sun.
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The chick will spend five months in the nest
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as it grows to the size of its giant parents.
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In all that time, they will bring in branches
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as insect repellent.
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The mother sees something move.
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It's not the sloth, but a howler monkey.
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The monkey will be one of many
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that the parents bring to their single chick
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over the coming months.
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Only the largest trees in the forest
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can support the eagle's huge nest.
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And one of the bird's favorites
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is the Brazil nut tree.
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It is a forest giant, and its fruits too are huge.
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The fruit weighs over two kilos,
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and as the tree can grow to 50 meters,
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it has a long way to fall.
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There's even a record of a fruit
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hitting and killing someone.
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The fruit is immensely hard,
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and for a long time it was a mystery
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as to what animal could open it.
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But we know now that this rodent, the agouti,
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both eats the Brazil nuts
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and helps produce new trees.
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The agouti's sharp incisors and powerful jaws
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chip away at the case.
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But it takes a lot of patience and stamina
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before the rodent reaches the nuts inside.
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The agouti eats some and
buries the rest for later.
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Luckily for the tree, the agouti doesn't remember
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where all its buried treasure lies,
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and so in the agouti, the Brazil nut tree
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has a well-paid gardener
that even plants its seeds.
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The large seeds can lie dormant for over a year
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before they germinate.
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And the story doesn't end there,
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for there is another animal that relies
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on the Brazil nut fruit.
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This is a kind of poison dart frog.
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The frog gets its toxins from
the ants and mites it eats,
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which in turn get the poisons from the leaves.
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The frog concentrates the poison
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and advertises the fact with its bright colors.
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The female frog lays her eggs
on the damp forest floor.
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The male guards them and keeps them clean.
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When they hatch, he gives them a lift.
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The tadpoles stick to the
mucus on the frog's back.
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The frog carries the tadpoles, one by one,
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to empty Brazil nut cases.
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He checks the miniature pond
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to see that it has enough
food for the tadpole to eat.
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In a couple of months, young poison dart frogs
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will emerge from the safe nurseries
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of the Brazil nut cases.
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The Amazon forest is a tough place to live.
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No paradise, it is full of hidden poisons
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and unpalatable plants that its inhabitants
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have to cope with.
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The howler monkeys must rest and sleep for hours
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whilst they digest barely edible leaves.
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The night brings new challenges
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and a different cast of animals,
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creatures that tuck away out
of sight during the day.
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And there are different fruits
to be found and consumed.
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The four-eyed opossum prepares for the night.
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It's an omnivore, a generalist.
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It uses its sense of smell to find food
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in its dark world.
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But it has to compete with bats.
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A large fruit is an irresistible attraction.
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The four-eyed opossum needs to move quickly
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if it's to fend off the hungry bats.
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They are absorbed with feeding,
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but they must be wary of the opossum.
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The allure of so much fallen fruit is too much,
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and once the opossum has
left, the bats return.
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They are in the grip of a feeding frenzy,
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and fail to notice the opossum's return.
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The Amazon is a world where much is hidden,
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where the trees offer fruits
whilst defending their leaves,
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a world of poisons, where plants and animals
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fight an unseen war.
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But for both plants and animals,
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there is one huge challenge,
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the weather.
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The Amazon is a rain forest.
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As much as 2 1/2 meters of rain falls a year,
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and most is concentrated in the wet season.
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The trees and their leaves
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play a crucial role in the weather,
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for half the rain that falls
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comes from the forest itself.
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The leaves naturally release water vapor,
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which then forms clouds that returns as rain.
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The downpours are dangerous
for the harpy eagle chick.
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If the baby is drenched, it will chill and die.
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These are perilous times
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for the most powerful eagle on Earth.
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The rains transform the Amazon forest
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and its many rivers.
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The water swells the rivers, and as they rise
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they begin to enter the forest.
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The rainstorms are so intense
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that the forest becomes an amphibious world,
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halfway between air and water.
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The leafcutter ants are in trouble.
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00:25:36,279 --> 00:25:38,581
Their pheromone trails are washing away.
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00:25:47,976 --> 00:25:50,299
The ants are disoriented.
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Their highly organized world is disintegrating
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under the onslaught of the rain.
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And things are about to get even worse.
261
00:26:47,001 --> 00:26:50,219
It's not just the torrents of water from above,
262
00:26:50,220 --> 00:26:54,387
the rivers keep rising,
overwhelming the ants' trails.
263
00:26:55,964 --> 00:27:00,079
The ants, the greatest harvesters
of leaves in the forest,
264
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,747
are swamped by the rainy season.
265
00:27:04,199 --> 00:27:07,254
As the water rises, it spreads into the forest
266
00:27:07,255 --> 00:27:11,616
and creates some of the most
unique habitats in the world,
267
00:27:11,617 --> 00:27:14,183
the Varzeas and Igapos,
268
00:27:14,184 --> 00:27:16,684
or seasonally flooded forests.
269
00:27:24,172 --> 00:27:28,304
Almost a quarter of a million
square kilometers of forest,
270
00:27:28,305 --> 00:27:32,472
an area three times the size
of Austria, is submerged.
271
00:27:43,809 --> 00:27:46,142
The transformation is total.
272
00:28:05,410 --> 00:28:08,781
Where once birds perched and agoutis fed,
273
00:28:08,782 --> 00:28:11,449
there are now new opportunities.
274
00:28:13,723 --> 00:28:15,855
At its peak, the flood can reach
275
00:28:15,856 --> 00:28:18,773
over 20 kilometers into the forest.
276
00:28:29,445 --> 00:28:32,813
The water is green with microscopic plankton,
277
00:28:32,814 --> 00:28:35,240
which feeds schools of small fish
278
00:28:35,241 --> 00:28:38,324
as they move into the flooded forest.
279
00:28:40,309 --> 00:28:42,387
The fish set up home amongst the leaves
280
00:28:42,388 --> 00:28:45,973
of the forest floor, where ants once carried
281
00:28:45,974 --> 00:28:47,474
their heavy loads.
282
00:28:55,666 --> 00:28:59,249
This male rivulus is attracted by a female.
283
00:29:01,319 --> 00:29:05,486
She is larger and sends out
strong come hither signals.
284
00:29:11,953 --> 00:29:14,203
But all is not as it seems.
285
00:29:15,835 --> 00:29:19,580
The male is enticed, but
he is courting with death.
286
00:29:23,723 --> 00:29:26,522
The female was nothing of the sort,
287
00:29:26,523 --> 00:29:28,910
but another species, erithrynus,
288
00:29:28,911 --> 00:29:32,753
a fishy femme fatale that mimics a female
289
00:29:32,754 --> 00:29:35,671
and so lures the male to its death.
290
00:29:42,134 --> 00:29:44,907
As the water rises further into the forest,
291
00:29:44,908 --> 00:29:47,658
larger predators move in with it.
292
00:29:51,670 --> 00:29:54,361
The mata mata lives on the front line
293
00:29:54,362 --> 00:29:57,279
as the flood pushes into the trees.
294
00:30:02,740 --> 00:30:06,073
It has its own method for catching fish.
295
00:30:08,512 --> 00:30:12,345
Its technique is to blend into the background.
296
00:30:13,814 --> 00:30:16,981
It looks like an old weed-covered log.
297
00:30:18,481 --> 00:30:20,594
Its disguise is so complete
298
00:30:20,595 --> 00:30:22,845
that fish nibble its shell.
299
00:30:26,380 --> 00:30:29,133
This formidable predator's only limitation
300
00:30:29,134 --> 00:30:31,542
is that it must breathe air.
301
00:30:36,857 --> 00:30:40,345
This restricts the mata mata to the shallow edges
302
00:30:40,346 --> 00:30:42,429
of the encroaching flood.
303
00:30:49,030 --> 00:30:51,447
The turtle settles down again
304
00:30:52,729 --> 00:30:53,729
and waits,
305
00:31:03,345 --> 00:31:05,845
and then explodes into action.
306
00:31:16,926 --> 00:31:20,342
For most fish, the end is as unexpected
307
00:31:20,343 --> 00:31:21,676
as it is sudden.
308
00:31:38,370 --> 00:31:41,752
The Brazilian name mata mata may refer to
309
00:31:41,753 --> 00:31:44,449
the turtle's ability to kill.
310
00:31:44,450 --> 00:31:47,117
If so, it is highly appropriate.
311
00:31:54,528 --> 00:31:56,331
As the water fills the forest,
312
00:31:56,332 --> 00:32:00,499
it causes problems for some
of its slower inhabitants.
313
00:32:15,889 --> 00:32:18,878
The sloth faces the new challenge of moving
314
00:32:18,879 --> 00:32:21,562
from tree to tree as it searches
315
00:32:21,563 --> 00:32:24,146
for the least poisonous leaves.
316
00:32:49,109 --> 00:32:52,851
The sloth is a surprisingly good swimmer,
317
00:32:52,852 --> 00:32:54,916
which is just as well.
318
00:33:28,725 --> 00:33:30,725
Mother and baby can swim
319
00:33:34,479 --> 00:33:35,479
very slowly
320
00:33:39,750 --> 00:33:42,583
the short distances between trees,
321
00:33:48,289 --> 00:33:52,456
as long as their fur doesn't
become too water-logged.
322
00:33:56,635 --> 00:33:58,930
Curiously, the sloth's wet fur
323
00:33:58,931 --> 00:34:01,607
may be a blessing in disguise,
324
00:34:01,608 --> 00:34:05,037
for it encourages green algae to grow,
325
00:34:05,038 --> 00:34:08,038
which provides a kind of camouflage.
326
00:34:12,969 --> 00:34:16,638
As the water continues rising
up the branches of the trees,
327
00:34:16,639 --> 00:34:19,487
a male splashing characin moves in
328
00:34:19,488 --> 00:34:21,321
and sets up territory,
329
00:34:22,628 --> 00:34:25,128
and it soon attracts a female.
330
00:34:33,423 --> 00:34:36,002
The male guards an anonymous patch of water
331
00:34:36,003 --> 00:34:37,086
below a twig.
332
00:34:39,598 --> 00:34:42,534
The splashing characins are unique among all fish
333
00:34:42,535 --> 00:34:46,452
in laying their eggs on leaves above the water.
334
00:34:49,388 --> 00:34:53,158
The act of mating requires
extraordinary coordination
335
00:34:53,159 --> 00:34:54,742
and perfect timing.
336
00:35:12,324 --> 00:35:14,163
The reason for all this precision
337
00:35:14,164 --> 00:35:17,023
is that the fish's eggs are safer on a leaf
338
00:35:17,024 --> 00:35:20,524
out of the water, away from hungry mouths.
339
00:35:22,301 --> 00:35:23,813
Once all the eggs are laid,
340
00:35:23,814 --> 00:35:26,314
the male not only guards them,
341
00:35:27,354 --> 00:35:29,676
he also keeps them moist.
342
00:35:53,231 --> 00:35:55,369
The eggs develop quickly,
343
00:35:55,370 --> 00:35:59,537
and after two days, the babies are ready to hatch.
344
00:36:07,947 --> 00:36:12,114
They drop safely into the
waters of the flooded forest.
345
00:36:18,665 --> 00:36:20,998
The water continues to rise.
346
00:36:26,108 --> 00:36:29,858
In the Amazon, it rains over 200 days a year.
347
00:36:35,978 --> 00:36:37,732
All the animals of the forest
348
00:36:37,733 --> 00:36:39,900
have to live with the wet.
349
00:36:52,859 --> 00:36:56,520
The leafcutter ants are severely
handicapped by the rains,
350
00:36:56,521 --> 00:36:59,188
but their vast underground colony
351
00:36:59,189 --> 00:37:03,462
is in the terra firme
forest, safe from flooding.
352
00:37:05,306 --> 00:37:08,388
Even when the rains stop
the ants gathering leaves,
353
00:37:08,389 --> 00:37:12,056
they have their fungus gardens to feed them.
354
00:37:12,913 --> 00:37:16,580
Rain or no rain, there is always work to do.
355
00:37:18,614 --> 00:37:21,034
The smallest type of ant, the minion,
356
00:37:21,035 --> 00:37:24,535
looks after the eggs and feeds the larvae.
357
00:37:27,882 --> 00:37:30,632
But the underground city is vast.
358
00:37:34,775 --> 00:37:38,259
There may be as many as 1,000 chambers,
359
00:37:38,260 --> 00:37:41,207
all tended by gardener ants,
360
00:37:41,208 --> 00:37:44,208
and producing fungus for the colony.
361
00:37:50,911 --> 00:37:55,068
The ants, with their intricate
relationship with the fungus,
362
00:37:55,069 --> 00:37:59,236
have found a way past the
chemical defenses of the trees.
363
00:38:06,044 --> 00:38:08,408
The agouti stays on higher ground,
364
00:38:08,409 --> 00:38:12,576
close to the Brazil nut trees
and its buried food supplies.
365
00:38:30,175 --> 00:38:34,323
The cock-of-the-rock too
live on the higher ground.
366
00:38:34,324 --> 00:38:36,959
The males display all year round,
367
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,043
even in the rainy season.
368
00:38:41,892 --> 00:38:44,246
The males take exception to the agouti
369
00:38:44,247 --> 00:38:46,631
wandering through their display ground.
370
00:39:16,007 --> 00:39:17,578
Like the cock-of-the-rock,
371
00:39:17,579 --> 00:39:20,742
the woolly monkeys prefer to eat fruit,
372
00:39:20,743 --> 00:39:23,243
but it's not always available.
373
00:39:25,773 --> 00:39:29,495
In tough times, the monkeys
select the youngest leaves,
374
00:39:29,496 --> 00:39:33,246
for they're likely to be the least poisonous.
375
00:39:41,142 --> 00:39:43,555
Yet some trees fruit at this time,
376
00:39:43,556 --> 00:39:47,306
when they're surrounded by hectares of water.
377
00:39:59,115 --> 00:40:01,687
The rubber tree seeds seem to be wasted,
378
00:40:01,688 --> 00:40:04,100
falling into the floods.
379
00:40:06,932 --> 00:40:10,901
But nothing could be further from the truth.
380
00:40:14,248 --> 00:40:16,316
This fish, the tambaqui,
381
00:40:16,317 --> 00:40:18,650
swims below the rubber tree.
382
00:40:21,484 --> 00:40:25,644
It has evolved as a specialized
fruit and seed eater,
383
00:40:25,645 --> 00:40:28,876
with powerful jaws and teeth that can crush
384
00:40:28,877 --> 00:40:30,377
the hardest seeds.
385
00:40:44,753 --> 00:40:47,632
The strange relationship between fish and tree
386
00:40:47,633 --> 00:40:49,715
is mutually beneficial,
387
00:40:49,716 --> 00:40:53,543
for the tambaqui doesn't crush all the seeds.
388
00:40:53,544 --> 00:40:55,007
Those that pass through its gut
389
00:40:55,008 --> 00:40:58,425
are spread throughout the flooded forest.
390
00:41:01,628 --> 00:41:03,104
At the height of the flood,
391
00:41:03,105 --> 00:41:06,129
the Varzea is not a safe place,
392
00:41:15,263 --> 00:41:19,693
for the pirarucu, the largest fish in the Amazon
393
00:41:19,694 --> 00:41:21,611
prowls its deep waters.
394
00:41:23,511 --> 00:41:27,344
This monster can grow up to three meters long.
395
00:41:28,675 --> 00:41:31,743
The pirarucu is a strange giant,
396
00:41:31,744 --> 00:41:34,136
for the fish rises to the surface
397
00:41:34,137 --> 00:41:37,054
every 10 to 15 minutes as it hunts,
398
00:41:42,694 --> 00:41:44,694
for it must breathe air.
399
00:42:33,938 --> 00:42:37,907
The pirarucu is a member of a
primitive family of fishes
400
00:42:37,908 --> 00:42:41,472
that has been stalking and terrifying other fish
401
00:42:41,473 --> 00:42:44,056
since the age of the dinosaurs.
402
00:42:49,776 --> 00:42:52,452
And the pirarucu has a relative,
403
00:42:52,453 --> 00:42:56,527
another dinosaur fish that haunts the leafy,
404
00:42:56,528 --> 00:42:59,861
sub-aquatic world of the flooded forest.
405
00:43:02,335 --> 00:43:05,060
It has a very different target,
406
00:43:05,061 --> 00:43:07,382
the small creatures that are stranded
407
00:43:07,383 --> 00:43:11,383
on the trunks and branches of the flooded trees.
408
00:43:19,156 --> 00:43:22,145
At one meter long, the arowana is smaller
409
00:43:22,146 --> 00:43:25,729
than the pirarucu, but no less frightening.
410
00:43:27,653 --> 00:43:31,610
The flood brings it closer to the treetops
411
00:43:31,611 --> 00:43:32,694
and its prey.
412
00:44:05,687 --> 00:44:09,230
The floods are a time of plenty for the arowanas.
413
00:44:09,231 --> 00:44:12,648
For months they have access to the trees.
414
00:44:23,251 --> 00:44:26,461
But all good things must come to an end.
415
00:44:28,611 --> 00:44:30,861
The waters begin to recede.
416
00:45:04,758 --> 00:45:08,749
This is a dangerous time for
the fishes of the forest.
417
00:45:08,750 --> 00:45:12,756
It is all to easy to be
trapped in pools and puddles,
418
00:45:12,757 --> 00:45:17,042
stranded, as day after day, night after night,
419
00:45:17,043 --> 00:45:19,035
the forest dries out.
420
00:45:25,786 --> 00:45:29,629
Many fish suffer this fate, but in the Amazon,
421
00:45:29,630 --> 00:45:33,713
one animal's misfortune is another's opportunity.
422
00:45:39,089 --> 00:45:41,106
The four-eyed opossum takes the chance
423
00:45:41,107 --> 00:45:44,690
to add yet another item to its varied diet.
424
00:46:14,774 --> 00:46:17,099
But not all the fish are helpless.
425
00:46:23,178 --> 00:46:27,085
As the pools empty, erythrinus, the killer mimic,
426
00:46:27,086 --> 00:46:29,503
simply swims over the ground.
427
00:46:31,797 --> 00:46:35,214
Gravity carries it downhill to the river.
428
00:46:38,339 --> 00:46:42,422
In this remarkable way, it escapes certain death.
429
00:46:48,542 --> 00:46:52,047
Rivulus too has an escape strategy.
430
00:46:52,048 --> 00:46:54,523
It uses its powerful tail muscles
431
00:46:54,524 --> 00:46:57,024
to launch itself into the air.
432
00:47:00,095 --> 00:47:04,262
In this strenuous way, it
flips over the forest floor,
433
00:47:14,183 --> 00:47:17,433
eventually arriving at permanent water.
434
00:47:25,631 --> 00:47:28,294
The temporary inhabitants of the flooded forests
435
00:47:28,295 --> 00:47:32,462
are forced back towards the
streams, rivers and lakes.
436
00:47:38,042 --> 00:47:41,209
The pirarucu father guards his babies.
437
00:47:42,207 --> 00:47:44,333
They hatched as the waters rose,
438
00:47:44,334 --> 00:47:46,842
and have grown rapidly in the flooded forest.
439
00:47:49,269 --> 00:47:52,790
Now the monster fish shows his gentle side,
440
00:47:52,791 --> 00:47:55,874
watching over hundreds of his babies.
441
00:47:57,064 --> 00:48:01,461
They've already taken up the
habit of breathing air,
442
00:48:01,462 --> 00:48:05,629
and that ability is crucial
for babies and adult alike,
443
00:48:06,500 --> 00:48:09,878
for the warm waters have very low oxygen.
444
00:48:20,936 --> 00:48:24,859
The babies will stay with their
father for three months.
445
00:48:24,860 --> 00:48:27,617
The male secretes a pheromone from his head,
446
00:48:27,618 --> 00:48:29,643
which keeps the young fish close.
447
00:48:37,773 --> 00:48:41,083
They will grow to one meter long mini-monsters
448
00:48:41,084 --> 00:48:43,917
by the time they are one year old.
449
00:48:45,829 --> 00:48:48,753
Few of these babies will reach adulthood,
450
00:48:48,754 --> 00:48:50,612
but those that do will become
451
00:48:50,613 --> 00:48:54,725
the largest freshwater fishes in South America,
452
00:48:54,726 --> 00:48:57,559
and terrors of the flooded forest.
453
00:49:03,684 --> 00:49:05,723
The ebb and flow of the floods
454
00:49:05,724 --> 00:49:09,764
brings both feast and famine to fishes,
455
00:49:12,633 --> 00:49:15,220
and the rainy and dry seasons affect
456
00:49:15,221 --> 00:49:17,888
all the creatures of the Amazon.
457
00:49:20,724 --> 00:49:24,326
It's in the dry season, in the terra firme forest
458
00:49:24,327 --> 00:49:27,414
that another giant of the
Amazon reaches a key moment
459
00:49:27,415 --> 00:49:29,332
in its parental duties.
460
00:49:34,230 --> 00:49:38,292
The harpy eagle brings her last meal to the nest.
461
00:49:46,686 --> 00:49:50,436
It's five months old, and almost fully grown.
462
00:49:58,621 --> 00:50:00,900
Over the long period in the nest,
463
00:50:00,901 --> 00:50:04,323
its parents have brought monkeys and sloths,
464
00:50:04,324 --> 00:50:06,942
placed leaves to fend off insects,
465
00:50:06,943 --> 00:50:10,169
and protected it from the rains.
466
00:50:15,420 --> 00:50:18,985
Now it's time to take to the air.
467
00:50:23,691 --> 00:50:26,891
But first the chick must
strengthen its wing muscles.
468
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:57,758
The realm of the harpy eagle
469
00:50:57,759 --> 00:51:00,936
is one of the most complex in the world.
470
00:51:07,455 --> 00:51:11,057
The trees hold the key to many of its secrets.
471
00:51:11,058 --> 00:51:14,891
They guard their precious leaves with poisons,
472
00:51:16,763 --> 00:51:19,947
and those same leaves release the water vapor
473
00:51:19,948 --> 00:51:22,520
that in turn, produces the clouds
474
00:51:22,521 --> 00:51:26,354
that feed the most remarkable floods on Earth.
37085
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