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  • 7/6/2025

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00:00To be continued...
00:30This is our planet's hothouse, the jungle, the tropical rainforest.
00:42Forests like these occupy only 3% of the land,
00:46yet they're home to over half of the world's species.
00:51But how do so many different kinds of plants and animals
00:54find the space here to live alongside one another?
01:00On the dark, humid forest floor, the jungle appears to be lifeless.
01:17Often, the only signs of life are what you hear.
01:20A male bluebird of paradise is advertising for a mate.
01:34It's quite a performance, but he's not the only bird of paradise here keen to make an impression.
01:39There are nearly 40 different kinds on the island of New Guinea,
01:45each with a display seemingly more bizarre than the rest.
01:49A rifle bird of paradise.
02:00A rifle bird of paradise.
02:00Like many jungle animals, birds of paradise avoid competing with each other,
02:15and these do so by living in different parts of this jungle-covered island.
02:26The six-pruned bird of paradise displays in his special clearing on the forest floor.
02:32The magnificent bird of paradise favours the low branches of bushes.
02:48His female is modestly dressed.
02:50The male has a good set of lungs, but he'll have to do more than flutter his eyelids if he wants to impress her.
03:10It'll all depend on his performance.
03:24The females may be dull looking, but they're very picky.
03:30And it's time for a really close inspection.
03:32His right side looks fine, but what about his left?
03:47Pretty impressive, but is he magnificent enough?
03:53Oh dear, her departure says it all.
03:56Generations of choosy females have driven the evolution of these remarkable displays.
04:04The more extravagant a male is, the more likely he'll be noticed.
04:26New Guinea lies in a warm tropical belt that girdles our planet around the equator.
04:40With abundant rainfall and 12 hours of daylight, 365 days a year, it's here that rainforests flourish.
04:48The more extravagant a year, the more extravagant a year, the more extravagant a year, the more extravagant a year.
04:54Surprisingly, only two percent of the sunlight filters down to the forest floor.
05:02Down here, seedlings struggle to grow.
05:07But the gloom is not eternal.
05:18The death of a forest giant is always saddening.
05:45But it has to happen if the forest is to remain healthy.
05:52The sudden blaze of sunlight will bring life to the forest floor.
06:01A single hectare of rainforest may contain as many as 250 species of tree.
06:07That's nearly ten times the number that grow in Britain.
06:10And the thirst for light triggers a race for a place in the sun.
06:15There's no time to waste.
06:32A seed that may have fallen only a few days ago now bursts through the leaf litter.
06:38With so many competitors, getting a good start is critical.
06:56But each plant has its own particular strategy for making the most of this rare opportunity.
07:07The seeds of hardwoods are quick to germinate.
07:10But like the fabled tortoise, their strategy is to be slow and steady.
07:15Fines and other climbers put all their energy into rapid vertical growth rather than girth.
07:27Though they'll need to be well supported.
07:29The climbers' strategy looks chaotic, but there's method in their madness.
07:40Their growing tips circle like lassoes, searching out anchors for their spindly stems.
07:46They put coils in their tendrils so that if their support moves, they will stretch and not snap.
08:02But the frontrunners at this stage, the first to fill the clearing, are pioneers like the Makarangas.
08:09Their immense leaves capture huge amounts of sunlight, so fueling their growth.
08:22As a result, the Makarangas grow a remarkable eight metres a year, surging ahead of almost all their rivals.
08:37In the race for the top spot, hundreds will start, yet few will ever reach the finishing line.
08:49Their growth cut short by the diminishing light.
08:55In less than four years, the gap will have gone.
08:59But that's not the end of the race.
09:07The ultimate winners are the tortoises, the slow and steady hardwoods.
09:19When the short-lived pioneers have fallen, it's the hardwoods that take their place.
09:25And a 50-metre giant like this one, may keep its place in the sun for another 200 years.
09:38The mind of the world is the wildest ocean, the previous to the Solomonov.
09:50When one herself is happy to reign more than she is happy to reign.
09:56When one man tries to walk around, it hurts the meanwhile.
09:57And nobody needs other ë©‹
10:08At the top is the canopy, the engine room of the jungle.
10:13It's up here that most of the animal life in the rainforest can be found.
10:19But despite the apparent abundance of vegetable food,
10:23gathering it is seldom easy.
10:39With no real seasons,
10:42each tree flowers or fruits at a different time of the year,
10:46which means that food is very widely spaced.
10:55Monkeys, like these tamarinds,
10:57must search the canopy for all kinds of food if they're to survive.
11:04But across the world's rainforests,
11:07there's one type of fruiting tree that always delivers, the fig.
11:22Wherever they grow, figs are a magnet for a great diversity of animals.
11:31In the Amazon, the first to appear are the spider monkeys.
11:35These large primates are big fig eaters,
11:40but they won't have the tree to themselves for long.
11:43Others will want to share.
11:46Like the diminutive emperor tamarinds.
11:52The tamarinds love figs too,
11:55but being petite means they're easily scared off.
11:58Squirrel monkeys are also small, but they have strength in numbers.
12:15Their timeshare on the tree may be short,
12:18so their tactics are more smash and grab.
12:30Capuchin monkeys are the bully boys in these forests,
12:33and they want the right figs for themselves.
12:54Figs are one of the few trees that fruit the year round.
12:57So when other food is scarce, these fruits are always available somewhere or other.
13:08Even for leaf eaters like howler monkeys, the ripe figs are just too good to miss.
13:14And howlers are too big for the capuchins to chase off.
13:28Figs are so popular that as many as 44 different kinds of bird and monkey
13:34have been seen working a shift system on a single tree.
13:47Because fruiting trees are so valuable, many monkeys are territorial.
13:53And if you live in the treetops,
13:54there's perhaps no better way of staking your claim to a territory than this.
14:04The calls of the Siamang gibbons begin as a duet between the dominant male and female.
14:24The rest of their families soon join in, and it results in a frenzy of activity.
14:34The calls can carry over a mile, and their message is clear.
14:48They tell any neighboring Siamangs, this is our territory, keep out.
14:53Up here, the calls of Siamang gibbons seem to dominate the airwaves.
15:09But with the jungle's incredible diversity, there are countless others trying to be heard too.
15:14Every lair seems to beat to a different tune.
15:33In the early morning, the forest's chorus is particularly rich.
15:46Sounds travel further in the cooler air.
15:49But few calls can penetrate as far through the dense vegetation as this one,
16:00the deep bass solo of a male orangutan.
16:19In the middle of the day, little stirs in the jungle,
16:23and the hot, dense air muffles the sound.
16:30As the afternoon wears on, a different set of players begin to warm up.
16:37Insects work in harmony, timing their calls to fall between the notes of others.
16:49Many singers stick to precise schedules, and right on cue, the six o'clock cicada.
17:10Night brings out a whole new orchestra.
17:19The cacophony of competing calls seems deafening to us,
17:41but frogs' ears are tuned to hear only the calls of their own kind.
17:49The songs of courtship echo from all around.
17:57Male gliding leaf frogs leap from the treetops.
18:11Male gliding leaf frogs leap from the treetops.
18:15nivel-spersie
18:20Who Mermaid
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18:23I agree because of theš.
18:24Of course.
18:25I care and pass in the better sense of theneš
18:27We're totally glad because of the sea giant size up.
18:28We're just dell'is boiz.
18:29Yeah, the oldæž— varsity.
18:29I know the fabulous mus layouts.
18:31Now here's what we are doing.
18:32Inyse.
18:32I know that.
18:33We need to start or have a wholee of theыrobe.
18:34I know that.
18:37Now here's what weComCo
18:41To slow their descent, they use their huge webbed feet as parachutes.
19:00These large tree frogs spend most of their lives in the high canopy
19:05and only come down when it's time to breed.
19:11Once settled, they begin to serenade their unseen females.
19:30Now it's time for the females to make their move.
19:34There's no shortage of suitors, but this female has already made her choice.
19:43She's heading towards the loudest call because loud calls come from big frogs,
19:49and big is best.
19:52But to reach him, she must run the gauntlet of a gang of smaller suitors.
19:57Their only chance of mating is to make a sneaky interception.
20:02He's scored.
20:08But with more females arriving all the time, it's not over until the fat frog stops singing.
20:21Feet, so vital for gliding, are now put to other uses.
20:26Two's company, three's inconvenient.
20:36But in any case, all male frogs are equipped with dry thumbs
20:41which enable them to get a vice-like grip on their moist partners.
20:45It's a case of first-come, first-served.
20:50Living in such a humid environment means jungle frogs are less tied to puddles and pools,
21:05and these even lay their eggs out of water.
21:18There's little chance of them drying out,
21:21and up here, they're safer from predators.
21:24And up here, they're safer.
21:32Surprisingly, it doesn't rain every day in a rain forest.
21:37But more still falls here than anywhere else on Earth.
21:41On average, over two meters a year.
21:54A single tree can suck up hundreds of tons of water each year.
22:02But the trees can't use all this water,
22:04so much of it returns to the air as vapor, forming mist and clouds.
22:10In the Amazon, the largest unbroken stretch of rain forest in the world,
22:20half of all the rain water that falls comes from clouds produced by the trees themselves.
22:26As a problem means there may be a lot more than the ã‚‚ encounter,
22:29who have won the moon for수를 Gladiarsh to met.
22:30!!
22:36The
22:48eling
22:53With so much rain, it's not surprising that many of the world's largest rivers are found in rainforests.
23:07Inside the forest, the high humidity creates the perfect conditions for a strange world where life is built on decay.
23:37Amoeba-like slime molds cruise the surface feeding on bacteria and rotting vegetation.
24:07Fungi also flourish on decay.
24:13These are the fruiting bodies of the fungi, the only visible sign of a vast underground network of fungal filaments.
24:23It's a minha h bulunante.
24:25It's a little of a different size of the fungi.
24:29It's very nice and great.
24:35This day, the first time we put together, we put together a bunch of different things that we put together.
24:39You can't have any more from a Elsa.
24:41You can't mix it together.
24:43It's 25 years old.
24:45You can't mix it together.
24:47You can't mix it together.
24:49In temperate forests, the build-up of leaf litter creates rich stores of nutrients.
25:00That however doesn't happen here.
25:06Nutrients that reach the soil are leached out by the rain, but fungi are connected to
25:12tree roots by their underground filaments, and by quickly consuming the dead, they help
25:17to recycle crucial minerals straight back into the trees.
25:28And this recycling happens faster here than anywhere else on the planet.
25:37There are thought to be nearly a million different types of fungi in the tropics.
25:59The vast majority still unknown to science.
26:09But one thing's for certain.
26:11Without fungi, rainforests could not exist.
26:24Nothing goes to waste in a rainforest.
26:30The fungi become food for others, like these beetle larvae.
26:39Finding the fungus isn't a problem for the grubs, since their caring parents actually show
26:44them the way.
26:59Incredibly, 80% of all insects live in jungles.
27:05Fewer more successful than the ants.
27:07There can be eight million individuals in a single hectare.
27:12But jungle ants don't have it all their own way.
27:23These bullet ants are showing some worrying symptoms.
27:29And the claws from a parasitic fungus called cordyceps have infiltrated their bodies and their minds.
27:42Its infected brain directs this ant upwards.
27:48Then, utterly disorientated, it grips a stem with its mandibles.
27:53Those afflicted that are discovered by the workers are quickly taken away and dumped far away from the colony.
28:03It seems extreme, but this is the reason why.
28:09Like something out of science fiction, the fruiting body of the cordyceps erupts from the ant's head.
28:23It can take three weeks to grow, and when finished, the deadly spores will burst from its tip.
28:39Then, any ant in the vicinity will be in serious risk of death.
28:46The fungus is so virulent, it can wipe out whole colonies of ants.
28:51And it's not just ants that fall victim to this killer.
28:57There are, literally, thousands of different types of cordyceps fungi,
29:01and remarkably, each specializes on just one species.
29:20But these attacks do have a positive effect on the jungle's diversity,
29:33since parasites like these stop any one group of animal getting the upper hand.
29:53The more numerous a species becomes, the more likely it will be attacked by its nemesis,
29:59a cordyceps fungus.
30:12It's a colugo, or flying limo, though this is something of a misnomer,
30:16as it doesn't actually fly, and it certainly isn't a limo.
30:19It's a colugo, or flying limo, though this is something of a misnomer,
30:25as it doesn't actually fly, and it certainly isn't a limo.
30:29In fact, nobody's quite sure who its closest relative is.
30:44It's a colugo, or flying limo, though this is something of a misnomer,
30:48as it doesn't actually fly, and it certainly isn't a limo.
30:52The colugo depends on a diet of young leaves,
31:13and to find enough of them, it must move from tree to tree.
31:16The leaves are not very nutritious,
31:21but then getting around doesn't use much energy.
31:31In a single night, a colugo might have to travel as far as two miles,
31:35but that task is made easier by its superior gliding skills.
31:46The secret of success in the competitive jungle is specializing.
31:52The secret of success in the competitive jungle is specializing, and this has led to the evolution
32:18of some very intimate relationships between plants and animals.
32:25These are pitcher plants, also from Borneo.
32:34Adapted to living in very low nutrient soils, the pitcher plant gets most of its nourishment
32:40from insects lured to nectar glands on the underside of the lids.
32:47Once on board, the waxy sides of the pitcher ensure there's little chance of escape.
32:57Most slip to a watery grave.
33:07At the bottom of the pitcher, glands secrete enzymes which help to digest the corpses,
33:14although feeding the plant.
33:17But not all visitors have a fatal attraction to the pitchers.
33:22The red crab spider spends its entire life in the pitchers, hanging on with threads of silk.
33:30Instead of building a web, it relies on the water-filled pitcher to trap its food.
33:47When an ant falls in, the spider simply waits for it to drown, and then abseils down for
33:54a spot of fishing.
33:54Alive, this ant would be far too dangerous for the spider to tackle, so using the pitchers
34:08as traps means it can get bigger meals.
34:14And the spider doesn't rob the pitcher of everything.
34:18The digested remains of its booty will end up in the water, providing instant food for
34:23the plant.
34:29Other food, like mosquito larvae, seems to be out of reach.
34:33But the spider has another surprising trick.
34:37By taking its own air supply trapped in a bubble, the crab spider can actually dive to the very
34:42bottom of the pitcher.
34:48Once the prey is captured, the spider hauls itself back up its silken safety line.
35:02The pitcher is a one-stop shop for this spider, but it's not alone.
35:07In the jungle is competition for everything, even a small water-filled pitcher plant.
35:16Such specialists create the jungle's remarkable diversity, but finding enough food to survive
35:36is so challenging that most animals living here tend to be small, though there are exceptions.
35:42This is the Congo in Africa.
35:49It's a vast wilderness, and the least explored of all jungles.
36:01From up here, the forest looks similar to the ones that grow in the Amazon or Southeast Asia.
36:08But down below, there are some unexpected sights.
36:16Criss-crossing this forest are countless miles of highways, and they were made by something
36:36big.
36:47Forest elephants roam great distances in their search for food, but to survive, they must emerge
36:54from the gloom of the forest.
36:59And clearings like this one are a magnet for elephants from far and wide.
37:13Forestinhas are almost as low as the forest.
37:28What does the bird seem to do?
37:321
37:58These elephants live in much smaller groups
38:01than their savannah cousins.
38:04This might be the first time that one group will have seen another for a month.
38:19For the adult males, it's a welcome break
38:22in an otherwise largely solitary existence.
38:31And they're not the only animals attracted to the clearing.
38:40Forest buffalos and Red River hogs are also regular visitors,
38:46as are bongos, which are very difficult to see outside these clearings.
38:52All these large forest animals have come here
38:55to collect an essential element of their diet
38:58that lies buried beneath the mud.
39:01And the elephant's trunk is the perfect tool for reaching it.
39:23To get what they seek,
39:25the prospecting elephants must first blow away the covering layer of silt.
39:31And a much more interesting experience.
39:33Let's see.
39:33I'm not good at all.
39:34I'm not good at all.
39:34I'm not good at all.
39:52Satisfaction at last.
39:53They're collecting a particular kind of clay that contains vital minerals scarce in their natural diet.
40:05It may be mud, but there's just nothing quite like it for enriching the blood.
40:11The clay also helps to absorb the toxins found in many leaves that the elephants eat.
40:23There are other benefits to coming here.
40:28These clearings are the only places where the forest elephants can get together in such numbers.
40:34When they return to the forest, they will have to go their separate ways once more.
40:53If large animals are rare in jungles, then groups of large animals actually living together are even rarer.
41:09This posse of hunters is not only formidable, it's also very large.
41:33In their search for food, chimpanzees move effortlessly between the forest floor and the canopy.
41:59They're one of the few jungle animals able to do so.
42:17Figs are a vital part of a chimpanzee's diet, and some just can't seem to get enough of them.
42:25But there's something special about this stretch of forest in Uganda.
42:39Fruit is actually abundant.
42:43And a lot of food supports lots of chimps.
42:55At 150 strong, this community of chimps is the biggest yet found in Africa.
43:15Their numbers are so large that they need a big territory, lots of fig trees.
43:20And they're willing to fight for it.
43:32These calls announce the start of a raid into land controlled by their neighbors.
43:38As they leave their core zone, the patrol goes silent, occasionally stopping to listen.
43:54Signs of the enemy are detected and examined closely.
44:00The chimp militia are now at the very edge of their territory.
44:18All need to be on maximum alert.
44:30They must wait and listen.
44:34An unfamiliar chimp call raises the tension.
44:46It's an uncertain time.
44:48The size of the rival group is as yet unknown.
45:04Not far away, their neighbors are feeding in a fig tree, oblivious to the approaching dangers.
45:10The patrol moves off with a sense of purpose.
45:20They must remain silent until they close in on their rivals.
45:24The attack is on.
45:40To intimidate their opponents, the aggressors scream and drum on buttress roots.
45:46It's a ferocious attack and she's lucky to escape with her life.
46:14Others are not so fortunate.
46:32The battle won, a grisly scene unfolds.
46:42An enemy youngster has been caught and killed.
46:46The carcass is shared between members of the group and eaten.
46:56Killing a competitor makes sense if you want to protect your food supply.
47:00But exactly why they cannibalize the dead chimp is not fully understood.
47:10It may simply be a chance for some extra protein.
47:14The team work has brought this group of chimps great success.
47:30But they'll soon reach the limits of their power.
47:34The competition for resources ensures that no one species dominates the jungle.
47:48The green forest's great diversity has come at a cost.
47:52It has made them the most finely balanced ecosystems in the world.
47:56Only too easily upset and destroyed by that other great ape,
48:00the chimpanzee's closest relative, ourselves.
48:12Only too easily upset and destroyed by that other great ape.
48:24Filming unique behavior for the first time often means long periods in hides.
48:30And nothing demanded more patience than cameraman Paul Stewart's trip to film displaying birds of paradise.
48:42The location for the bird of paradise filming was the Tari Valley in the remote jungle-covered highlands of New Guinea.
48:50A place completely cut off from the outside world until the 1950s.
48:58It's home to the Huli people, whose support was going to be vital to the success of this shoot.
49:06After negotiating with the local landowners for access to the neighboring jungle, the team were ready to begin.
49:15The first job was building the hides.
49:17This had to be done quickly to avoid disturbing the birds.
49:22Each bird of paradise has its own favorite display site.
49:26Finding them would have been almost impossible without local expert Joseph Tarnow.
49:33The plan was to film three species of birds of paradise here, which meant setting up three different hides.
49:40The next morning the team were up bright and very early.
49:49It seems the bird of paradise is the original early bird.
49:53It displays very, very early in the morning.
49:56And that means we have to get up even earlier, normally about 3.45.
50:00If we don't get up earlier than the bird, we're going to scare it.
50:04And that means eight hours sat in a hide for no reason.
50:13Obstacles to progress appeared sooner than expected.
50:17Look at what the bridge is made of.
50:19It's not going to support...
50:21I don't think that's going to support the truck.
50:26With the vehicle stuck, the last part of the journey had to be made on foot.
50:33Arriving later than planned meant extra care was needed getting into the hide if the birds were not to be disturbed.
50:39Paul's solitary vigil was about to begin.
50:44You might think that to film something as showy and as exotic looking as a bird of paradise,
50:49you'd need to trek into the deepest, thickest rainforest.
50:52Funnily enough, Paul's hide is just at the bottom of this field, about 100 metres away.
50:58It's funny that while we have blue tits in our back garden, the hoolies have birds of paradise.
51:03For the next six hours, Paul sat in the hide.
51:08And at midday, when there was no chance of disturbing the birds, it was time for an update.
51:19Trapped in a roof.
51:21Good news or bad news?
51:23Good news first.
51:24Good news it's not scared of the hide.
51:26Bad news we're in the wrong place.
51:28So we're going to have to move it.
51:29We need to do it quick before it moves on.
51:35It's really frustrating.
51:36I can see it if I crouch down there.
51:39It's somewhere in a line up here, but I just couldn't move the camera too.
51:44It's just really been way too easy.
51:47While the hide was being moved, the rest of the crew busied themselves with some bridge building.
51:53Well, due to the incident this morning, we've decided to do some running repairs to this bridge.
51:57Unfortunately, these beautifully hewn planks won't necessarily be here in the morning since the original planks were taken by an enterprising local to build a house apparently.
52:08And this is premium firewood.
52:10The gaps filled, a man and his pig were willing to give it the once-over.
52:18The pig looked none too sure.
52:25Back at the hide, things were looking up.
52:28Here, at least, was one of the birds of paradise the team wanted to film.
52:32The male six-plumed bird of paradise.
52:38But Paul needed him to display and he wasn't going to do that unless a female showed up.
52:45So both bird and cameraman were now waiting for the girls.
52:49Exactly how long they would both have to wait was anyone's guess.
52:58Hours ticked by without any development and the boredom was beginning to take its toll.
53:04One of the things about sitting in a hide for eight hours in a day is that you start to mull things over in your head.
53:14And it's the classic scenario where a song that you don't even particularly like or in fact could even hate comes into your head.
53:19And while I was waiting for these birds of paradise, I had this kind of a one-hit wonder from the eighties, which was my bird of paradise.
53:29I just sit and wait.
53:36And it was going around and around and around and it was like my own brain was sabotaging me.
53:41The male kept busy tidying up his display site, but sadly all his efforts went unnoticed.
53:59Ten days went by without a hint of a female.
54:03And when things go wrong, one can't help speculating why.
54:06Was it the weather or the amount of food in the forest?
54:13I think if one of the problems is that with the lack of rain, the fruits hadn't ripened.
54:21Now we've got rain and it's getting a bit warmer, I think the fruits may ripen.
54:25And we're going to eat all three species in one day.
54:28Yes.
54:29Do you reckon?
54:31I think optimism's good, Paul, because otherwise we sink into despair.
54:35How you can see me to you?
54:38Judging from some of the looks, the hooli seemed to share our disappointments.
54:45But there were other things to feel positive about.
54:49The bridge remained intact.
54:51And when the trunk got stuck in another rut, there was a group of villagers only too willing to help out.
54:59If only the female birds of paradise could be half as obliging.
55:14Paul had now spent more than 90 hours in this hide.
55:18My bird of paradise.
55:19But if birds of paradise weren't in the displaying mood, that wasn't true of the hoolis.
55:26Just a short distance from where Paul sat, a festival was taking place.
55:32The hoolis have been using birds of paradise feathers in their headdresses for centuries.
55:39And the traditional dance has an unmistakable similarity to that performed by the original owners of the feathers.
55:48It was certainly very impressive, though naturally no substitute for the real thing.
56:09A hundred hours on, both Paul and his subject were becoming equally frustrated by the lack of females.
56:18The shoot was beginning to go down, and news that the team now had to film the displays of three birds of paradise in one week filtered back to the locals.
56:36All very amusing, unless you were poor.
56:50I'm surprised he's not a gibbering wreck by now.
56:52He's had eight to nine hours in a hide a day for just under five weeks.
56:56I think he's had about five filming opportunities.
56:59I mean, even by the standards of wildlife filming, that shows a high degree of patience.
57:04And the sighting of one hide meant he actually had to stand up for about a week.
57:08Most of that was in the rain.
57:10I mean, that seems more like a cruel and unusual punishment than an opportunity film one of the great natural spectacles.
57:16Fortunately, when it comes to wildlife filming, patience sometimes pays off.
57:24And a female bird of paradise finally appeared.
57:31A hundred and twenty hours on, it was, at last, something to dance about.
57:36Filming the displays of the other species was barely any easier.
57:52And after nearly three hundred hours in hides, one can only wonder how many times Paul sang My Bird of Paradise to himself.
58:01He's a robber.
58:02He's a murderer also, I mean, a living in the park!
58:03Awiad tribe must always name himself!
58:04.
58:12He's a living in the snow, he says he is being four times bigger.
58:18And because of drivingада was paling cool, he had his first time, heimizeategic.