Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In the land of jungles and caves,

night brings out horrors...

...beyond imagination.

Lurking in the filth...

...creeping in the shadows...

♪

...killers that have evolved

to win the nightly game of death.

Nowhere is safe,

not even the city.

♪

♪

The jungles of Indonesia,

a world of beauty and mystery.

As night approaches,

the jungle's inhabitants get on edge

because strange creatures emerge in the dark.

♪

♪

[hissing]

As darkness falls, the cries of two million winged predators

pierce the jungle sky.

[hissing]

Mammals who fly like birds...

...wrinkle-lipped bats.

[squeaking]

♪

♪

♪

This cave is their dominion.

While they only average a foot in length

from wing tip to wing tip,

what they lack in size they make up for in numbers.

Millions roost in the darkness of this cave,

resting and waiting,

preparing for dusk

and the chance to feed.

[screeching]

♪

♪

♪

♪

Their ceaseless cries aid them in echolocation.

[hissing]

This sixth sense works like sonar,

and they use it to find their prey.

Echolocation helps each half-ounce bat

devour around one ton of insects per year.

[water dripping]

But the bats are not alone in their cave.

Others have been waiting for this moment...

...water monitors.

These massive lizards are usually most active

during the day,

but the ones in this cave

have learned of the bats' schedule...

...waiting every night for their flying neighbors

to take to the sky.

♪

♪

Water monitors can grow over six feet long,

making them the second largest lizard species in the world.

♪

They patrol this lake of guano,

which the bats overhead drop a ton into every month.

♪

♪

♪

The pool of filth doesn't deter the lizards,

who are considered one of the most intelligent reptiles

on the planet.

And they are here for one reason.

With millions of bats in a frenzy,

accidents are bound to happen.

[splash]

♪

♪

Every stroke this bat takes

alerts the monitors to his position.

[dripping]

His only hope for survival,

reaching shore before these hunters reach him.

♪

♪

♪

It's the first bat to fall tonight.

The killing has only begun.

♪

♪

♪

Falling into a lake of guano is a death sentence,

and only a lucky few make it to shore.

But there is more than one way to die in this cave.

Even the ground here will eat you

because the nutrient-rich bat guano

is home to trillions of flesh-eating organisms.

Cockroaches embrace disease-ridden environments

like this.

And the ones in this cave are hunters.

Packs of them descend on bats who wander from the colony,

to eat them...

...alive.

With wings weighed down by sticky guano,

flying's not an option,

but neither is staying on the cave floor.

This exhausted female has only one avenue of escape left.

She has to climb.

But the risk is worth it.

If she can reach the protection of the colony,

she has a chance.

But she has a long way to go.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

Reticulated pythons and white-lipped pit vipers

perch in silence on the cave walls

to catch unsuspecting prey.

[screeching]

To succeed, their timing must be perfect.

[screeching]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

The slightest miscalculation

is the difference between life and death.

♪

This python locks on to a much easier target.

♪

♪

♪

[screeching]

But the python is too slow.

His target disappears back into the mass of bats...

...safe within her colony.

But as long as night consumes the jungle,

bats run the gauntlet as they leave to hunt.

[hissing]

The python only has to wait...

♪

...for the perfect moment...

...to strike.

♪

[screeching]

NARRATOR: In an Indonesian jungle cave,

a gauntlet of snakes wait for the perfect moment

to strike a flying target.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

This python constricts its dinner,

cutting off the bat's blood flow

and squeezing the very life from it

before swallowing it whole.

♪

♪

♪

A meal like this could sustain him for more than a week.

For the bats who survive this deadly gauntlet,

the full moon hanging above the jungle

continues to beckon them into the night sky.

♪

There are still several hours before dawn.

[sniffing]

And another hunter looks for her next meal.

[sniffing]

This Asian musk shrew sniffs the air

with her long nose to find food.

♪

♪

And while she's not above scavenging off the cave floor,

she prefers fresh meat only the jungle outside offers.

♪

[sniffing]

She can grow to be almost a half foot long,

one of the largest shrew species in the world.

[sniffing]

But her large size requires a ferocious diet,

eating up to 60 percent of her body weight every night.

[sniffing]

And right now, a delicious aroma drifts from the jungle.

Vampire crabs.

[sniffing]

Named for their bright yellow eyes

and their penchant for nightly hunts,

these tiny, agile crustaceans

will devour nearly anything on the forest floor.

But in the jungle,

the line between predator and prey

is constantly shifting.

[sniffing]

The crab's armor provides little protection

against the musk shrew's gnashing teeth.

But she must finish her meal quickly

or become one herself.

[owl hooting]

♪

♪

[sniffing]

[sniffing]

[owl hooting]

♪

♪

Tonight, this owl isn't interested in small mammals.

He specializes in aquatic prey.

♪

He's a buffy fish owl.

[hooting]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

With razor-sharp talons,

powerful wings,

and a vicious hooked beak,

he waits for the perfect opportunity

to descend on his prey.

On tonight's menu,

one of the oddest creatures in the entire jungle...

...a slimy, slithering hunter,

a true fish out of water.

The snakehead,

a fish who can travel for up to three days across land

in search of new hunting grounds.

But its adventures out of water expose it to grave risk.

And this one's wandered into the wrong neighborhood.

♪

♪

The buffy fish owl locks on,

ready to fire like a missile of sharp beak and talons.

NARRATOR: In an Indonesian jungle,

a buffy fish owl prepares an aerial assault.

The target--

a fish that walks on land,

the snakehead.

♪

♪

The snakehead's one chance of escape is to reach the water.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

The owl blocks the snakehead's path,

but he might have bitten off more than he can chew.

This snakehead is nearly two feet long

and won't give in without a fight.

♪

The owl opts for something a little more bite-size.

♪

♪

The snakehead slips back into the pond undetected.

♪

♪

[splash]

♪

[splash]

Another aquatic hunter stalks nearby.

[splash]

For her, death is nothing more than a game,

a game she plans on winning.

♪

♪

♪

She's a versatile hunter,

both on land and in the water.

And this is her playground.

♪

She's an Asian small-clawed otter.

While known for her curiosity and playfulness,

don't let her cute face fool you.

She's one of the deadliest creatures in the pond.

♪

♪

[croaking]

She will spend over half her waking hours

killing and eating.

♪

♪

She uses her dexterous paws to hold her catch in place...

...while tearing it apart with sharp canines and molars.

But a small fish won't satisfy her hunger.

She desires something with a little more meat on its bones.

♪

♪

♪

The snakehead escaped the owl,

only to land in the center of the otter's hunting grounds.

♪

♪

♪

The otter uses her whiskers

to detect faint underwater movements.

♪

♪

If the snakehead is to survive, it must remain perfectly still.

But she has a plan.

Hoping to spook her prey,

the otter stirs up the pond water.

[squeaking]

♪

It works.

♪

♪

♪

She's got a prize.

But her meal isn't going down without a fight.

[squeaking]

[squeaking]

♪

♪

♪

For the snakehead, the night is over.

♪

The otter eats quickly.

While she feeds, she's vulnerable.

There are much larger predators stalking nearby,

strange solitary creatures...

...who will eat almost anything on the ground

or in the trees.

They're unlike anything else in the animal kingdom...

...and one is on the hunt.

♪

NARRATOR: Only four hours until dawn,

and in the canopy above the jungle floor,

one of nature's most bizarre creatures is on the prowl.

♪

[growling]

This jungle dweller looks like a creature of fantasy.

With a tail like a monkey,

a body like a bear,

and the face of a cat.

But he's real as can be.

He's a binturong,

the jungle's bearcat.

[growling]

Even though he smells like buttered popcorn,

he is armed with powerful, sharp claws

that shouldn't be taken lightly.

[squeaking]

The otter's not on his menu,

but there are plenty of other options in the trees.

♪

Life up here can be hard,

especially when you're less than a half a foot long.

♪

This gecko can remain motionless for hours,

relying on its camouflage skin to keep it hidden.

But the bearcat can smell what it cannot see.

♪

♪

This gecko has one more trick up its sleeve.

An emergency escape plan.

♪

♪

He can fly.

He's a Kuhl's flying gecko, a jungle daredevil.

As he leaps, flaps of skin on his sides

deploy like a parachute.

But this is a leap of faith.

He has little control over where he lands.

A deadly tokay gecko occupies this branch...

...a giant compared to his smaller relative.

The tokay won't hesitate to devour his own kind.

♪

The flying gecko has to risk another leap of faith.

♪

♪

♪

♪

Not the most graceful landing...

...but he's escaped the jaws of the tokay and the binturong.

♪

The binturong settles on a piece of fruit

to satisfy its hunger.

♪

The Kuhl's flying gecko escaped from the predators above.

[rustling]

But the forest floor isn't much safer.

[grunting]

[grunting]

Warty pigs travel in groups...

[grunts]

...some armed with sharp tusks.

But even with these protections,

they're always on edge.

[squealing]

♪

♪

[grunting]

These scales belong to one of the most prolific killers

in the jungle,

and she's come to feed.

[pig squeals]

NARRATOR: The nightly dance with death

unfolds in the jungles of Indonesia...

...home to some of the deadliest predators

on the planet.

Sunrise is quickly approaching,

but there will be more death

before the light of day.

♪

♪

♪

Fierce competition for food

leads to many unique adaptations.

But few compare to those of one of the most prolific killers

in the jungle...

♪

...the only mammal on the planet with scales.

A pangolin,

whose armored hide is made of keratin,

the same material as human nails.

She spends her nights searching for colonies of insects

that she slurps up with her long, sticky tongue.

♪

♪

Relying more on her sense of smell than eyesight,

her nose leads her through the jungle.

♪

♪

For termites and ants,

there are few creatures more ferocious.

It's estimated that a single pangolin consumes

up to 70 million termites, ants, and larvae a year.

But insects are not the only thing hiding in these logs.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

[hissing]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

A spitting cobra.

He sprays venom up to eight feet away,

and he aims for the eyes.

♪

♪

The cobra's venom temporarily blinds the pangolin.

She curls into a defensive ball,

waiting for the threat to pass.

♪

♪

[sniffs]

With the cobra gone, she seeks safety deeper into the jungle.

But a far greater threat lurks in this dense wilderness.

The reticulated python,

the longest snake species in the world.

This female can grow to be more than 20 feet long,

and, at that size,

she could swallow an adult human whole.

She slithers along the jungle floor,

searching for her next meal.

[pig grunts]

[hisses]

[grunting]

A moving mass of bone and muscle,

she kills by constricting her prey

in powerful crushing hugs of death.

[hisses]

♪

♪

She's feared throughout the jungle.

But tonight, her appetite leads her

to strange new feeding grounds.

NARRATOR: In the last remaining hours before dawn,

a fierce predator heads into the city.

♪

As human populations continue to expand,

the boundaries between urban areas and the wild blur.

♪

♪

For this reticulated python,

the world of humans provides new opportunities...

...and dangers.

♪

♪

[meow]

♪

[motor scooter starts]

♪

[motor scooter passing]

[meows]

Stray cats dominate this urban jungle...

[cat growls]

...and are potential prey.

♪

[car starts]

[motor scooter passing]

♪

♪

♪

Jackpot.

A nice cool bath.

Pythons soak in water to help shed old skin and hydrate.

♪

♪

Her detour to this bowl places her near a house

with the enticing scent of prey.

♪

[muffled voices on television]

♪

While the home's human inhabitants sleep,

the giant enters for a kill.

[baby crying]

But people aren't on the menu.

She's come here for pest control.

♪

♪

[squeaking]

Disease-carrying rats thrive in urban environments,

and these ones have fattened themselves

on the bounty of human civilization.

Perfect targets for a giant python.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

Her trip to the city paid off,

but with sunrise just moments away,

it's time to return to her jungle home.

♪

♪

[birds chirping]

Dawn breaks,

ending the nocturnal hunt.

For those who survived another violent night in the jungle,

it's cold comfort

because here, there is always someone ready to strike.

Captioned by Side Door Media Services

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0