All language subtitles for Our Planet-Jungles

Just 50 years ago,

we finally ventured to the moon.

For the very first time,
we looked back at our own planet.

Since then, the human population
has more than doubled.

This series will celebrate
the natural wonders that remain

and reveal what we must preserve

to ensure people and nature thrive.

[animals whooping]

This is a tropical forest.

A rain forest.

The richest habitat on Earth.

Exactly how many species
rain forests contain is unknown,

but it runs into millions.

And new ones are discovered every week.

There are some, like this clouded leopard,
we still know virtually nothing about.

Although they cover just seven percent
of the world's land area,

jungles play a vital role
in the health of the planet.

In the heart of Africa lies the Congo.

It is our planet's youngest rain forest,
a mere 18,000 years old,

and it's the jungle
with more big animals than any other.

A family of lowland gorillas.

They're led by this silverback,
the dominant male.

He's as tall as a man,
but twice the weight.

His family depend on him for survival.

As their guardian,
he must keep a lookout for danger.

A rival male might usurp him
and tear his family apart.

But there is one threat
beyond his control.

In the last 20 years,

poaching for bushmeat has halved
the Congo's gorilla population.

His kind are now critically endangered.

[grunts]

[elephant huffs]

It's only a forest elephant,
which needn't concern the silverback.

[low trumpeting]

But the elephant
has reason to be wary of poachers too.

Their long straight tusks
are even more sought after

than those of their grassland cousins.

He follows paths

made by generations of elephants
before him,

searching for food.

Like the elephant, the silverback's family
will travel several kilometers a day,

looking for fruits and seeds.

They and the elephants
are the gardeners of this jungle.

The seed dispersers.

And many of the trees here

owe their existence
to these large animals.

Here,
all paths eventually lead to Mbeli Bai.

Open areas like this are a unique feature
of the Congo's jungles,

and there are more than a hundred
dotted throughout the forest.

Known as bais, these clearings attract
many of the jungle's inhabitants.

[elephant brays]

The silverback
cautiously leads the way,

but his family are close behind.

The gorillas come to feed
on aquatic plants rich in salt,

a mineral in short supply
inside the forest,

but crucial to their survival.

Elephants mine salts from the mud
using their trunks.

Or just drink the mineral-enriched water.

The silverback's family
are not the only gorillas here.

Nearly 200 others also use this bai,

as well as more than 530 elephants,

a measure of Mbeli's importance.

For the elephants,
the bais have another vital role.

Most of their lives are spent

roaming the vast forested interior
on their own,

so it's only here
they get a chance to meet others.

Unlike most of the Congo's other bais,
Mbeli is well protected,

making it a refuge from poaching.

It's only when they leave
that the danger returns.

And as the Congo's main seed dispersers,

the loss of its megafauna
could have a far-reaching impact

on the future of our planet's
second-largest rain forest.

Jungles may look the same,

but each is home
to a unique cast of characters.

New Guinea is the world's largest
jungle-covered island,

and more than half
of its plants and animals

are found nowhere else on Earth.

Its turbulent geological past
has shaped this vast island

into a dramatic landscape
of mountains and valleys.

A process
that isolated one species from another.

Separated in this way,

New Guinea's animals
have become truly bizarre.

The male twelve-wired bird-of-paradise

is the only bird in the world
that has tail ornaments like this,

used to tickle
the face of a prospective mate.

From one crow-like ancestor,

birds-of-paradise have evolved
into 40 different kinds.

Every corner of this island
has its own version.

Meet the black sicklebill
of New Guinea's highlands...

[croaks]

...able to morph
into some very un-birdlike shapes.

Each male bird-of-paradise
has a unique display for attracting mates,

and none is more extraordinary

than the one that takes place
on this stage.

For the owner, a western parotia,
there's work to be done first.

Every morning, he clears his court
of the night's fallen debris.

It's a vital chore
if he wants to attract a mate.

Females only visit the tidiest courts,

so one rogue leaf might ruin his chances.

[squawks]

Perfect.

His obsessive housework pays off,

and a female drops in for a closer look.

Now is his chance to really impress,

but it won't be easy.

Females are very fussy,

and she'll expect
his carefully choreographed routine

to be faultless.

He opens with a bow.

Next, his blue eye must flash yellow.

So far, so good.

He has all the moves.

Fancy footwork.

The whirling dervish.

The head plume shuffle, with spin.

Her erect head feathers
and quivering wings

are a very encouraging sign.

His sidestep and head bob
look good from any angle,

but his crowning glory

can only be appreciated
from her perspective.

Wait for it.

There it is.
A flash of his iridescent throat patch.

Her excitement grows.

His performance has been a triumph,

and he wins her approval.

New Guinea's isolation
has created a unique variety of animals,

but the age of a forest
has an even greater impact

on the diversity of life it contains.

The jungles of Borneo, in Southeast Asia,

have grown here
for nearly 130 million years,

making them the oldest on Earth.

This limestone mountaintop
in Borneo's highlands

was originally formed under the sea.

Time and rain
has slowly shaped this jungle fortress

into these 40-meter towers.

The great age of this island's jungle
is best illustrated

by one of the oldest predators on Earth.

A velvet worm.

Completely at home
on the humid forest floor.

They've been here
since the age of the dinosaurs,

and have remained virtually unchanged.

It detects its insect prey
through vibration and touch.

But with no turn of speed,

how does it capture
these fleet-footed critters?

The answer is stranger than fiction.

Glue guns.

The sticky slime hardens on impact,

trapping the luckless insect.

The velvet worm will inject the cockroach
with digestive saliva,

and then suck out its insides.

The high humidity of the forest floor
isn't just good for velvet worms.

It's perfect for fungi, too,

and Borneo's ancient jungles
are rich in species.

By decomposing the dead,

the slime molds and fungi
recycle scarce nutrients.

Time has made Borneo's jungles
extraordinarily rich and diverse.

Here, in just a few hectares of forest,

there may be more kinds of plants
than in the whole of Europe,

including
some of the most specialized on Earth.

Over several weeks,

these growing tips inflate
to form jugs or pitchers.

There are 39 kinds of pitcher plant
in Borneo,

and most are found nowhere else.

To get the nutrients they need to survive,
pitcher plants rely on animals,

often in surprising ways.

This is the mountain treeshrew,
an animal found only in Borneo.

Every morning, the treeshrew visits
his neighborhood pitchers.

It depends on the sugary solution

that exudes
from hairs on the pitcher's lid.

When he's licked this lid dry,
he'll move to another.

And then another.

Eventually, all that sugar
can have only one result.

[splat]

In return for the free food,
the treeshrew leaves a gift.

Fertilizer for the plant.

All that's needed is an afternoon shower

to flush the shrew poo
into the pitcher's bowl.

Without these added nitrates,
the plant couldn't survive.

And the quest for nutrients has led
some pitchers down a sinister path.

A gracilis pitcher plant

attracts ants to the underside of its lid
with drops of nectar.

But what do the ants give in return?

It's a story that also depends on rain.

The force of the raindrops

make it impossible
for the ants to hold on.

It's the plant world's
only springboard trap.

This pitcher plant
feeds on ant bodies.

All pitcher plants
depend on animals for survival,

and one has even gone into business
with a bat.

The woolly bat finds hemsleyana pitchers

because the plant's broad back wall
reflects the bat's ultrasound.

The tube-like pitchers
are the perfect roosting site.

The pitcher provides secure accommodation

and the plant is enriched
by its guest's deposits.

Relationships like these
have taken millions of years to evolve,

but many could be gone in a decade.

In the last 50 years,
Borneo has lost over half of its jungle.

And it's even worse

on the neighboring islands
of the Philippines.

Here, 90 percent
of the primary rain forest has gone.

What's left is the last refuge
for the world's rarest bird of prey.

The mighty Philippines eagle.

[caws]

With just 400 pairs remaining,

a chick on a nest is a very scarce sight.

Scientists have tracked the mother
since she was a year old.

Now aged ten, this is her first chick.

It's four months old,
already nearly a meter tall,

and increasingly confident.

Although Mother still likes to give
a helping hand.

The chick is very demanding.

She expects regular food drops,

but, like a toddler having a tantrum,
she doesn't want any help at mealtimes.

[cawing]

Already, she's the same size as her father

and too big to argue with.

But if his youngster
is to take her next steps,

he knows it's time for some tough love.

From now on,
visits will be less frequent.

[caws]

The parents drop by
with an occasional food parcel,

but a small fruit bat
isn't much to get excited about.

It's confusing

when your parents don't visit
as frequently as they once did.

[caws]

Every day, she calls,

but no one is paying any attention.

She's hungry,

and all that's left are scraps.

It's time to become a proper eagle.

Flapping strengthens flight muscles
in two-meter wings.

Wings that will be used
to carry off her hefty prey.

Though that skill is still some time off.

So far, she's never ventured
beyond the security of her nest.

And with good reason.

There's a 70-meter drop
to the forest floor.

A fall would be fatal.

It's a nervous moment,
but she must persevere.

Right now, she's all toes and talons.

Sudden gusts of wind are not helpful
when balancing over a death-defying drop,

and the daily downpours
don't make it any easier.

Every day, she gets a little stronger
and more confident.

Then, the day comes when confidence
finally matches know-how.

Now is the moment to reach for the sky.

Her first ever flight from her nest tree.

It'll be nearly a year
before she's fully independent.

Then, her survival
will depend on finding a territory

with large stretches of unspoilt jungle.

In the Philippines' fragmented forest,

there's just too little prey
for a supersized eagle.

But there is one jungle
whose size is still legendary.

The Amazon basin
is over 3,000 kilometers across

and home to half of our planet's
remaining rain forest.

But there are challenges for those
living in the Amazon's deep interior.

[birds hoot and chirp]

Black spider monkeys,

with eyes on a salt lick.

Being so far from the sea,
salt is in short supply here,

so a visit to a lick is essential.

But first, they must be sure
there are no predators lurking below.

A harmless agouti is a good sign.

This is the only time a spider monkey
ever sets foot on the ground.

And if you have your head in a hole,

best to have a lookout.

Monkeys can't survive
without these minerals,

and predators know it.

[chitters]

A warning from the lookout.

It's not a false alarm.

A jaguar.

Rarely seen,
but the Amazon's top predator.

With the jaguar gone, the monkeys return,

but it's a risk.

Nobody knows
when the predator will be back.

It's not just spider monkeys
for whom fear must give way to need.

In the Amazon, salt licks are as vital
as an oasis in a desert.

Noises could be friend or foe,

so every visitor
must remain poised for flight.

[rustling]

[cawing]

It's a false alarm.

Just the harmless agouti again.

In the Amazon, every animal group
has more species than anywhere else.

And that includes frogs.

There are thought to be over a thousand
different kinds of them here,

and new ones are still being discovered.

Frogs are an indicator
of a healthy forest,

but its most important residents
are the jungle's smallest inhabitants.

There are thought to be over two million
kinds of insect in the Amazon.

These are the most numerous.

A colony of leafcutter ants
can run into the millions.

Each colony is a superorganism
with a collective function...

to gather leaves and carry them back
to their underground nests.

Within the territory
of a leafcutter colony,

as much as a fifth of all new plant growth
will be harvested by the ants.

Slicing through leaves
with specialized mandibles,

they produce high frequency vibrations,
which stiffens the leaf,

making it easier to cut.

Working together,
they can strip a tree bare in 24 hours.

The trick is holding on to your leaf
as you fall.

Easier said than done.

But best not to return to the nest
empty-handed.

A leafcutter colony
is like a mega-herbivore,

not dissimilar
to an elephant in the Congo,

and their impact on the ecosystem
is just as important.

The ants follow scent trails
back to the nest,

dodging unexpected obstacles.

But to increase efficiency,
the ants keep their paths clear of debris.

A leafcutter nest
can be up to eight meters deep

and have thousands
of interconnected chambers.

The workers
carry the freshly harvested leaves

to special rooms for processing.

The leaves are not food,
but used to create gardens of fungus,

which they feed to their larvae.

The success of the colony depends on
keeping their gardens disease-free.

So, the ants have teamed up
with bacteria to help control pathogens,

which would destroy their precious fungi.

Scientists now believe

these bacteria could provide
new solutions to human diseases.

But as successful as these ants are,

the rain forest's diversity depends on
no one species gaining the upper hand.

[animal hoots]

Here,
ants don't have it all their own way.

This one is behaving oddly.

It seems compelled to climb upwards,

and is already
several meters above the forest floor.

Something has taken control
of its movements,

like a puppeteer
pulling at the strings of a marionette.

There's just one final act,
for which the ant has no choice.

It must find a place to bite down,
tethering it to the vegetation.

With the ant in its death grip,

a parasitic fungus, Cordyceps,
erupts from its body.

Finally, the fruiting body of the fungus
bursts from its head.

From this bulbous container,
spores will be cast into the air currents,

where they will claim more ant victims.

But it's not just ants.

Many others are infected
by the Cordyceps fungus.

The more numerous a species is,

the more likely it is to fall victim
to the killer fungus.

Checks and balances like these
means no one species can ever dominate,

so protecting
the jungle's incredible diversity.

But today,
the diversity of the world's rain forests

is falling at an alarming rate,

and that is because of us.

We have now replaced
up to 27 million hectares of virgin jungle

with a single species of tree.

This is oil palm,

one of the world's most productive crops.

But these monocultures

support only a fraction of the diversity
found in primary rain forests,

and it is pushing many animals
to extinction.

In the swamp forests of northern Sumatra,
in Indonesia,

time is running out
for one of our closest ancestors.

The orangutan.

A baby orangutan takes more than ten years
to become independent.

Everything must be learned
from its mother.

Like how to bridge the gaps between trees.

Survival depends on each orang

understanding its patch of forest
perfectly.

Watching scientists
have named this pair Ellie and Eden.

Ellie is 18 years old,

and Eden, her first baby, is three.

Right now,
he needs a little bit of encouragement.

Like all orangutans,

Ellie has a mental map
of her surroundings,

including the location
of every fruiting tree.

Eden needs to learn this, too,

but for now,
he must watch everything his mother does,

learning not just what's edible
but also how to eat it.

Every day is a new lesson for Eden.

Here, ants are a big part of their diet,
and there's a knack to gathering them.

Once tangled in Ellie's fur,
they're easy to pick off.

For little Eden,
it's all about watching and learning.

Eden's cousin, Louis, is more experienced.

Four years older than Eden,

he can move through the branches
with ease.

It's taken a few years to master,

and it's clearly a skill
he feels is worth showing off.

Conquering the treetops is just stage one
in an orangutan's education.

To survive, Louis must learn more.

Much more.

His mother, Lisa,
has found a rotten tree trunk

with lots of ants.

But this anting opportunity
requires more know-how.

To get them, Lisa must break sections off.

At his age, Louis must do more than watch.

He must copy.

Not a bad effort.

But even at the age of seven,
he's yet to master the art of ant capture.

Louis has much to learn.

Pluto, on the other hand,
graduated a long time ago.

Thirty years old
and nearly a hundred kilograms,

he is king of this jungle.

His cheek flanges are a sign of power,

something for Louis to aspire to.

Pluto is constantly
on the lookout for food,

and he's just spotted
a promising opportunity.

These wasps mean one thing to him.

Tasty grubs.

To get at them,
he favors a smash-and-grab technique.

His thick fur protects him
from most of the angry wasps,

but the rewards
are worth risking a few stings.

Louis keeps his distance.

He would need to be
a lot bigger and hairier

before he could do battle with wasps.

But here, there's one trick that can take
half a lifetime to get to grips with.

Louis' mother, Lisa, has learned
how to make tools from sticks,

to winkle out insects.

The orangutans living here

are the only ones in the world
to have discovered this skill.

Louis must try and learn it too,

but it may be another eight years
before he's as good as his mother.

This long education has made orangutans

particularly vulnerable
to changes taking place in their forest.

It's now estimated that we lose
100 orangutans every week

from human activity.

Louis and Eden's generation
could be the last wild orangutan.

When Pluto was their age,
his jungle home stretched to the horizon.

Not anymore.

In the last four decades,

the pristine lowland jungle
that orangutans depend on

has declined by a staggering 75 percent.

Across the world,
we are losing tropical forest

at the rate
of nearly 15 million hectares every year,

and with it,
the planet's treasure trove of diversity.

Jungles store and capture more carbon
than any other habitat on land.

They cool our planet,

provide food and medicines.

We lose them at our peril.

Please visit ourplanet.com

to discover what we need to do now
to protect our jungles.

♪ I can hear the whole world
Singing together ♪

♪ I can hear the whole world
Say it's now or never ♪

♪ 'Cause it's not too late
If we change our ways ♪

♪ And connect the dots to our problems ♪

♪ I can hear the whole world
Say we're in this together ♪

♪ We're in this together ♪