All language subtitles for Equator 3 Rivers Of The Sun 2005 1080p

The sun.....

giver of light and life,
shines most powerfully at the Equator

Here, it powers an
extraordinarily rich zone of life.

Brilliant and bizarre species from
3 continents ..... 3 oceans.

...more than a line on a map...Equato
is a powerful force of nature.

EQUATOR

Rivers of the Sun

At the Equator, the sun rises over
the greatest rainforest on earth.

Amazonia is unified by over a
thousand rivers of the sun ...

they flow like blood
through its body ...

they are its life force.

Sunlight and water create the energy
to sustain life on a vast scale.

But all that life, all that richness
comes from the miracle of the leaf.

This one vast rainforest, may contain
half of all the world's species

Here predator and prey

act out the ancient struggle to eat
and avoid being eaten...

But the jaguar's forest is
only one part of Amazonia.

There's also a rich and
remarkable waterforest.

...Much of Amazonia floods
for half of each year,

creating a world that is strange
... and unique.

An animal looking like a cross
between a fishand a cow

drifts slowly through a river meadow.

River wolves streak
through the water forest...

they hunt fish among the branches.

A fish that is like a monkey.

And a survivor from
the ancient past.

Pirarucu is an armoured
dinosaur among fish.

This lightning fast hunter

has survived in this region
for 100 million years.

Pirarucu has endured great
upheavals during Amazonia's past...

and must now accept great
changes that will soon take place.

In November storm clouds gather...

The Equator offers its greatest
gift to Amazonia... rain.

The rain comes as the sun's energy
focuses more strongly on Amazonia...

intense heat brings a change

in weather patterns across
the entire region.

Out in the Atlantic Ocean,

the sun warms surface waters
that evaporate into clouds.

At the same time,

strengthening trade wind spush the
clouds inland,across the Amazon basin.

As the heavy air moves

over the vast forest, it gathers up
even more moisture from the trees ...

clouds fatten and it rains...

Finally, the super saturated

air encounters the 6,000 meter
barrier of the Andes Mountains...

As the clouds rise, they cool,

releasing their water
as rain and as snow...

all this then flows down the
mountains ... back to Amazonia..

The vast river system receives 20%

of all available freshwater
in the world...

and nearly all of it comes
in the wet season.

Amazonia covers the northern

third of Latin America
...and is almost perfectly flat.

All the water that enters the vast
drainage basin at this time,

fills rivers faster than
they can drain away...

and so Amazonia
slowly begins to flood.

The rainy season
will last for half a year.

It will transform the lives of the

creatures here like
nowhere else on earth.

Where a beautiful butterfly basked
and glided among the sunlit branches,

fish dart in a flooded woodland...

Fish migrate from rivers and streams

to feed among branches of trees that
may be 15 meters underwater...

and will be for months.

Flood waters greatly expand
the feeding prospects for fish,

but they have forced
the land animals to flee...

Just as the jaguar has moved on,
so has its prey.

Along with the giant rodents
and other mammals,

many lizards, birds,
and insects have departed.

But now there is new prey...
and new predators.

The flooded forest has become
the realm of river wolves.

Giant otters now occupy much
of the jaguar's hunting ground...

and it is vast.

Hundreds of thousands of square

kilometers of rainforest
are submerged...

Just as plants and animals must find

strategies for surviving
in dry forest,

so they must have ways
to survive the flood.

As the waters rise,

insects from the forest floor
climb desperately to safety.

Up here,

there are few places to hide
and even fewer places to overtake.

Any struggles are quickly detected.

High above the water,
clinging to a tree,

this insect should be safe enough...

One-meter long Arowana,
are as agile as monkeys... in fact,

they are known as water monkeys.

They usually hunt small fish,
but during the flood,

water monkeys also feast on insects.

They patrol close to the surface,

scanning the branches
for possible prey...

During the wet season,

water monkeys live in one world,
and hunt in another.

Arowana have a brilliant strategy

for reaping the rich
insect rewards of the flooded river.

Just as water monkeys
benefit from this

'time of plenty',
so do other fish.

When the forest floods,
strange sounds are heard...

It is the sound of trees in fruit.

These exploding nuts
are from rubber trees,

one of amazonia's most famous.

As they ripen,
under the heat of the glaring sun,

their surface skin shrivel...
releasing the nuts.

Nuts are spread far
and wide by flood waters.

Even when soaked in
water for a long time,

the nut's waterproof
shel prevents rot...

and protects them from predators.

But the Tambaqui has found
a way to crack this problem.

The Tambaqui, uses its funnel shaped
nostrils to help it find ripe nuts...

that are its passion.

Its powerful jaws and teeth
are perfect nut crackers.

Nuts are rich in protein,
fat and minerals...

they are excellent food
if you can get them...

Tambaqui eat nuts from
several kinds of trees.

They are so dedicated
to nut cracking

that small fish accompany
them to dine on the crumbs.

Most trees produce fruit
and nuts during the wet season,

so Tambaqui do most of
their feeding at this time...

later in the year they must
use other strategies to survive.

Another dedicated fruit and nut eater
lives high up in swamp forest trees.

Uacari is one of the few monkeys
in the world with teeth and

jaws strong enough
to crack nuts and seeds.

They form most of its diet.

In Amazonia,
a fish and a monkey

have both become specialized to
gain the riches of the nut harvest.

Another mammal living in the flooded
forest is the three toed sloth.

Sloths devour the leaves
of Cercropia trees.

The tree is protected
by stinging ants,

but they are no deterrent
to thick furred sloths.

The leaves offer little nourishment,

so sloths must spend
most of their time eating...

and use as little
energy as possible,

apart from holding on...
as this baby is doing.

Sloths are not good walkers and
rarely move from their home tree...

but when a sloth does need to move,

it much prefers to swim.

During the floodthe waters are safe,

there are no enemies...

This is the best time to move
from tree to tree to seek new food

or maybe to strike
out in search of a mate.

It has been 2 months

since the waters began to rise and
the forest trees became submerged.

They will remain submerged
for months to come.

Normally, trees would die after
just a few weeks of flooding.

Because their roots
cannot receive oxygen.

But the roots of these
Amazonian trees can survive

being submerged for much longer
due to a special adaptation...

When their roots
become waterlogged,

a membrane forms
on the outside of the root.

But inside, there is partial cell
death and that creates air spaces.

These spaces act as air holes to
transfer oxygen and remove toxins.

This strategy allows the trees to
succeed in 2 very different worlds...

Amazingly,
there is greater diversity of trees

where the forests are submerged
than anywhere else in Amazonia.

The coming of the floods
and submerging of the forests,

is the trigger for
another important event.

It's the time when
many fish begin breeding.

This discus fish uses its
narrow body to penetrate

deep within the foliage to lay eggs
where enemies won't find them...

It constantly watches
over the precious brood

for two days until hatching.

Of all tropical fish,

Discus are among the
most beautifu and highly prized

because of
their rich colours and patterns ...

but during spawning,

their bodies lose
the rich pattern and become darker...

as they prepare to give
their offspring a precious gift...

A day after they hatch,
the fries start swimming...

They keep very close
to mother and father...

so close, some appear to be
mouthing the bodies of their parents.

In fact, the first meal for
young Discus is a mucous secretion

from the skin of their
parents called "Discus milk".

This special meal gives
the young a great start in life...

At breeding time, some
fish go to extraordinary efforts

to find a safe
place to lay their eggs.

Close by overhanging leaves,
pairs of Copella arnoldi, gather.

These tiny fish have a
huge challenge ahead of them.

The male has the long tail...

the female is ready to spawn,
the eggs visible through her skin.

The pair move
together near the surface ...

sometimes pausing, sometimes
darting back and forth with urgency.

What is about to happen is a most
remarkable spawning achievement.

Prompted by the male, the two fish
leap together high out of the water,

where they cling to a hanging leaf.

They hold on for about
3 seconds before first the female,

then the male drop back,leaving
behind a small cluster of eggs.

They are called jumping characin...

and each leap adds
more eggs to the cluster.

The males fully expanded pectoral
and abdominal fins act as suckers,

allowing the pair to
hold on to the leaf.

They continue until
there are about 50 eggs,

all covered with gel
to keep in the moisture...

but the performance isn't yet over.

The male chases the female away ...

then begins the job
of preventing the eggs

from drying out in the hot sun.

He does this by splashing them!

As he 'smacks' the
water surface with its back fin,

water splashes onto the leaf above.

He is amazingly accurate
and continues until the eggs hatch

By the next day,

they have already developed eyes
and the following day,

prompted by the water splashes,
the eggs begin to hatch.

The fries enter the
river within the falling water

drops of their father's splashes.

As they hit the water,
the young fish seek out

a hiding place among the leaves...

Young copella arnoldi
have inherited a bizarre

but successful strategy
for spawning above the waters

of the flooded woodland
that now becomes their protector.

Amazonia is not
one continuous forest;

close to the rivers,

there are broad grassy
plains that are rich in sediment.

In the wet season,
these plains are transformed

into fields of floating
aquatic plants of many kinds.

Once the waters have risen,

plants grow quickly in the
intense heat of the Equatorial sun...

but without doubt,
the most spectacular is the Queen

Victoria water lily with leaves
of 2 meters or more in diameter.

Their leaves expand over the
water surface pushing others aside...

as if each mighty leaf is striving

to take as much of the
sun's energy as possible.

The fringes are raised

to prevent flooding
and armed with toxic spines...

probably as defense against
animals that would eat them.

It takes one month for plants
to grow out of the submerged

plain and for new
leaves to completely open...

As Amazonian flood waters expand
dramatically and spectacularly,

so do the leaves of
Queen Victoria water lilies...

with help from the Equatorial sun.

"Water lettuce”
has a different growth strategy

to the water lily...
during the wet season,;

it expands by producing new
young 'heads'at a spectacular rate...

...but water lettuce has no
protective spines and no toxins...

and that makes it most appealing
to Amazonia's largest herbivore.

The Amazonian
manatee or 'fish cow',

is related to the elephant...

One thing the 300kg manatee share

with its land bound
relative is a voracious appetite...

each animal consumes
30kg of water plants a day...

fortunately there
is plenty of water lettuce.

As flood waters rise, a few
small plant heads appear... Soon,

those heads double
and redouble again and again.

And Within weeks, cover vast area.

Water lettuceand the other floating

plants of Amazonia
grow mainly in the wet season...

SO manatees must
eat huge amounts of food now

in order to build up enough reserves
to survive the coming dry season.

Another reason for the manatee's

enormous appetite is that water
plants contain so few nutrients...

that close to half of
all they eat remains undigested...

The manatees give
the undigested material

back to the river ... as feces.

But in Amazonia, Manatee
waste is not wasted... far from it...

their feces rain down
like riches from above.

Many fish feed
on the waste directly...

and it also helps support the
lives of thousands of other species.

Most nutrients in manatee waste

dissolve to fertilize the water and
helps the growth of more plant life...

But in addition, manatee grazing

creates gaps in
the layer of floating plants.

This allows the
intense heat and light

of the Equatorial
sun to penetrate ...

Sunlight and nutrients
can now trigger the growth

of vast amounts of plankton...

which is the basis of
another aquatic food chain.

...SO fish cows,
simply by eating and digesting,

help maintain More
than 3,000 species,

or nearly a third of
all freshwater fish in the world.

Those fish include the beautiful...

like Cardinal
Tetra and Angel Fish...

there are the bizarre...

like the surface
hugging Hatchet fish

and there are the
bountiful, like catfish.

Catfish are the largest
fish family in Amazonia.

Nearly 1500 species or half
of all fish here are catfish...

and their shape is as varied
as their size and their lifestyle...

A streamlined shape
reduces water resistance.

A sleek body can
flee quickly from enemies...

Armored scales,
offer protection from enemies...

Sail Fin pleco hide
among submerged trees...

Leaf catfish drift undetected...

And Imperial Zebras
feed hidden among rocks.

Catfish, more than other fish,

exploit the great variety
of environments in Amazonia...

which means that catfish,
more than any other fish,

end up on the
menu of the river wolf.

Giant otters are
dangerous and aggressive

and often hunt in family groups...

A giant otter brings its
catch to a favorite eating place...

To fuel its active
and energetic lifestyle

an otter eats 10%
of its own body weight ...

or 3kg of fish each day.

It eats everything,
even crushes bones.

But even the otter's powerful jaws
cant crush a big catfish's skull...

this will feed others.

What an otter discards... a
school of piranhas quickly devour.

Like catfish, piranha
are a large family of fish,

there are over 30 species here...

the red piranha is the
most common, and most feared...

But even they are
on the river wolf's menu.

And what's left of the pirhana...

other pirahana will dispose of.

As predatory king of Amazonia,

the giant otter can choose
from a huge variety of fish...

but below, there are
other predators also eager

to take advantage of
this variety and abundance.

The one meter long peacock bass is
a top hunter in the flooded woodland.

To hide from predators
some fish use camouflage...

one of the most
effective is the leaf fish.

But there is a double
advantage to its disguise.

By drifting like a fallen leaf,
it not only hides from its enemies;

it may also hide from its prey.

There are many predators
among the fish of Amazonia,

but there is none
so expert as this ancient hunter.

A fully mature Pirarucu is
3 meters long and weighs 200kg.

It is one of the largest
fresh water fish in the world

and a masterful predator.

It quietly stalks the unwary...

and then snatches its
prey with blinding speed.

Nothing is safe from
its enormous mouth..

Victims on the surface are
sucked in with a rush of water

and air that'sthen
expelled from its gills..

This ancient predator has survived
for about 100 million years ...

during this time,
it has endured and survived

great upheavals of the land and ...

enormous disruption to the
flow of the rivers of Amazonia.

The flooded forest is also home
to another relic of those upheavals.

The Amazonian stingray has
venomous stinging spines on its tail,

its ancestors once
swam in the Pacific ocean...

The 20 species of
stingrays still found here

provide a clue to how
Amazonia was created.

It is thought that
the rivers of Amazonia

once flowed west
into the Pacific Ocean

but tens of millions of years ago

enormous geological forces
buckled and pushed up the land,

cutting off the sea and
creating the Andes Mountains...

The young mountains dammed
the rivers of Amazonia which formed

a vast low lying network of
lakes and wetlands to the east..

Where stingrays and other
marine species became trapped.

Around 5 million years ago,

further upheavals
sloped the land eastward

until the waters finally
burst through into the Atlantic,

creating the new Amazon River.

But even to this day, the flat
lands of Amazonia drain slowly,

until finally, after months of flood,

the region enters its dry season.

It has been 4 months
since the first rains fell...

water levels have now begun lowering
as flood waters slowly find thei

way back into rivers that
haven't been seen for half a year.

The creatures of Amazonia must now

confront a new and even
more difficult challenge...

if you are adapted to wet,
how do you survive the dry?

By September, the long dry season
is now entering a critical phase.

As the hot sun dries up the pools,
many river dwellers suffer.

The small pools are now stagnant
and have little oxygen in the water.

This causes great stress
to the many fish confined here.

As the water evaporates,

many fish die.

During the floods a water monkey,

or Arowana, lived in two worlds,
hunting insects among the branches...

now it dies just
another fish out of water

At the end of the dry season,

scenes of death are
attended by black vultures...

Although there is water,
it has little or no oxygen left,

in pools and ponds across
Amazonia fish die in huge numbers.

To survive, species must somehow
survive seasons of wet and dry...

and finding a deep
pond will certainly help.

The giant Pirarucu
uses an ancient strategy

to endure the harsh dry season..

It is one of the very few fish

that can take air directly
from the atmosphere.

Pirarucu can breathe...

in fact, without air,
it will soon drown.

Long ago, the ancestor of the
Pirarucu evolved a lung like organ.

It gulps air from the
atmosphere that is absorbed

into its bloodstream
as if through a lung.

This remarkable ability
helps Pirarucu to withstand

the long dry season...

an ability that was
developed during the drastic

changes of Amazonia's long history.

During the ancient past,
other Amazonian fish developed

strategies to help
survive difficult times ...

and during the dry season,
these become very useful...

During the flood,
the Tambaqui gorged on nuts,

using powerful
jaws to crack them open.

Now there is nothing to eat...it
rest on the bottom of the pond.

The Tambaqui can survive
these months of starvation

because it has converted
the nutritious nuts into fat...

beneath its skin, the lower third
of its body has a thick fat layer,

and as it waits out
the long dry season,

it slowly consumes its fat reserves.

In the Tambaqui's deep pond,

a similar strategy is used
by a much larger animal.

The Amazonian manatee
is the only manatee in the world

that lives in freshwater
throughout its life.

But in the dry season,
very few floating water plants grow.

There's very little to eat.

Like the Tambaqui, manatees gained
weight during the wet season.

But now, during the dry,

they must live off
their fat reserves.

While most manatees
are losing weight,

this one's belly is swollen...

it's a female and she is pregnant

and will give birth
when the rains return.

As the water in the
rivers of Amazonia recede,

numerous lakes become
isolated from the main flow.

In one of these
cut off or 'oxbow' lakes,

a family of giant
otters enjoys easy hunting

because the fish are confined
and have nowhere to escape.

This Giant otter family
group has been hunting together

in the deeper parts of the lake.

During the hunt,
some family members

drive fish toward
others that lie in wait.

Some months ago,

the giant otter family
set up their burrow or holt

on the edge of the lake... and now,
3 new members are to be seen.

After 2 months in the burrow,

they are old enough to come outside
and splash about in the shallows.

The pups will grow up with not only
their parents to look after them...

but their extended family
of older brothers and sisters

will also continually
looking out for their safety.

The otters share the lake
with some unfriendly neighbours...

The caiman, the
South American alligator,

grows to 2 meters and is dangerous

If this one gets too close,
without the otters noticing,

it could take one of the pups.

It's been spotted.

Most of the family takes to
the water to chase it away...

and the mother
quickly moves the pups back

to the safety of the burrow.

Having chased off the
one that came too close,

the otters now evict all caiman
anywhere near their part of the lake.

They make snorting sounds
as a warning to the caiman...

Their whining sounds are a contact
call between members of the group.

They have little fear of the
caiman and harass it until it leaves.

The otters claim
priority over the lake...

they move about freely
and hunt wherever they like...

As the day ends, the family gathers...

Caiman are no longer
a threat and it's safe

for the 3 pups to come out and join
their older brothers and sisters.

The otters like many other species

time their breeding
to the seasons of wet and dry...

during the dry these pups
are dependant on their mother,

but in a short time, they will be
big enough to hunt for themselves,

and that time will coincide
with the return of the wet.

Finally in November,
the cycle of equatorial sun

and wind draws the
long dry season to an end.

At first, the rainwater
from the Andes Mountains

fills the Amazon River
and its many tributaries.

The flow into the low lying
vast flat Amazon basin continues.

Then slowly the waters
overflow the river banks

and once more huge areas
of forest, become flooded.

Again for half a year,
the greatest wetland in the world

will sustain the lives of those
adapted to the cycle of change.

As waters rise in the forests,
a great array of fish enter ...

they are eagerly pursued
by their predators.

The hunting pack of the river
wolf family has increased in number.

The 3 youngsters that grew up beside
the lake are now active hunters.

But the offspring of
other predators are still

far too young to
leave their parents care.

If these young 10 cm long Pirarucu
survive the perils of growing up,

they will grow into 3 meter giants,
like their red scaled parents.

Both parents care
for their large family

that numbers around a thousand.

Though the Pirarucu is
the largest fish in the Amazon,

their small
offspring are vulnerable.

They rise to the surface as one.

Already they can breathe air,
just like their parents.

When moving off to feed,
young fish gather like an obedient

class of school children...

they come together as an
orderly group, no one falling behind.

They feed as a wall
of wide open mouths...

They move out of
formation only to breathe.

By swimming in a line,

they don't disturb
the water current ...

and so can feed more
efficiently on plankton.

Young Pirarucu are
inheritors of a way of life

that their ancestors have known
for more than 100 million years...

feeding on plankton,
and protected by their parents,

young Pirarucu grow very quickly.

Before long, the young reach a size
where they need more substantial food

The parents now lead
the young Pirarucu

into the fields of floating plants,

here vast numbers of
shrimp are to be found...

As young fry swim
among water plant roots,

shrimp rise to the surface,

some leap for their lives...

but to no avail.

A loud cracking sound
is heard as young Pirarucu

consume a hearty shrimp meal.

At about six months,
surviving Pirarucu will begin

independent lives as
hunters in these rivers of the sun.

During the flood,

the sun promotes the most
rapid growth of water plants...

and manatees time their breeding
to take advantage of the increase.

This female must eat well;

she has a 2 month old calf to feed.

The calf is a meter long
and weighs around 30kg.

It feeds on very
rich milk from nipples located

just behind the
mother's front flippers...

it suckles liquid sunshine
from the equator..

Like all creatures, manatees have
found ways to adapt their lives

to the seasons of change
that rule the rivers of Amazonia...

The sun dominates
the change of seasons

and forges powerful
connections between animals,

plants and the greatest
river system on Earth.

And here, life has
found many different ways

to survive and thrive in
Amazonia's seasons of contrast.

Flood and dry, fortune and famine...

two amazingly different worlds,

created by the power
of the Equatorial sun.