Flooded Forest - Brazil: A Natural History 5/5 - Go Wild

foreign [Music] the greatest rainforest on Earth it is home for one in ten of all species [Music] it may look like a vast Tropical Paradise but nothing could be further from the truth [Music] this is a landscape that is as much water as wood and each year the Two Worlds Collide when the forest fills with water [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is inconceivably vast it covers an area of almost three and a half million square kilometers it is not a uniform landscape but many from lowland flood Forest to Upland forests on dry ground within this green space a huge number of animals strive to make a living each morning howler monkeys greet the day they're advertising their ownership of a patch of forest but their calls alert a keen eyed killer foreign Eagle is the most powerful bird of prey in the world quite capable of carrying off a howler monkey [Music] the Harpy's wings are Broad and rounded which allow it to maneuver through the canopy with deadly precision [Music] the Harpy's legs are as thick as a man's wrist and it has the largest Talons of any eagle it can carry off prey the same weight as itself [Music] but this time the Giant Eagle's objective was only a branch foreign the leaves are for the nest which is in one of the tallest trees in the rainforest the fresh Twigs may not be there to build up or decorate the nest the leaves have many plants in this Forest contain chemicals poisons to stop animals eating them and these leaves may act as an insect repellent the Eagles could be deploying chemical weapons [Music] the uniform green of the Amazon hides many differences there are terrafireme forests on high ground and for flood forests alongside the Myriad rivers and lakes many of the trees are engaged in a hidden War where they use chemicals for protection something The Woolly monkeys might wish for especially from insects when not scratching the monkeys provide a service to the trees figs of her nutritious soft fruits full of small seeds thank you as they feed the woolly monkeys pass the seeds and so spread fig trees through the forest in the Unseen War the trees fight to keep their leaves many use poisons to stop animals eating them but at the same time encouraging creatures to eat their fruits foreign is highly nutritious and this has helped shape the sex lives of one resident the of The Rock each morning after quickly filling up on fruit the fabulously colored males gather at a communal display area a leg each male owns a low-level perch and below it a small patch of ground it is because they are fueled by fruit that the males can spend most of the day displaying the males compete amongst themselves trying to drive other males from their purchase the arrival of a plain colored female and the males descend to their individual areas curiously the males now stop calling and hardly move they wait with all their feathers pumped up hoping the female will visit their patch males try to disrupt each other's displays barging into the scene mid-action [Music] the female watches and assesses the quality of the males on offer the males use patches of sunlight to heighten their splendor ah she has chosen a male on the far edge of the lake where mating discreetly takes place foreign s offer edible fruit as a reward to animals that spread their seeds but many put up a chemical Shield to defend their leaves from being eaten there's an unseen war between the trees and leaf eaters and the most important consumer of leaves in the Amazon is this small insect the leaf cutter ant it's Jaws vibrate a thousand times a second as it slices through leaves the cut leaves are not eaten by the worker ants for they may be toxic instead the ants carry them back to the nest as they travel the ants lay down a scent Trail to Mark the way the chemical of pheromone is so powerful that each ant produces only one billionth of a gram the cut Leaf can weigh 20 times the ant's own weight the equivalent of us carrying a one ton load more remarkable still these mini Hercules range more than 100 meters from their nest the human equivalent of a 25 kilometer hike as if the load were not enough smaller ants ride on the leaf shotgun style to protect the carrier from parasitic flies and flies are not the only Danger there is a fungus that enters an ant's body eats it then grows its own mushroom from the dead ant to spread its spores to yet more ants the underground Nest is huge and may house as many as 8 million individuals [Music] the leaves are taken to special Chambers where a different class of ant Cuts them into smaller pieces [Music] the purpose of all this industry is to feed a fungus the answer farmers and the smallest kind of worker tends the fungus Gardens this is the food for the colony the ants and the fungus depend totally on each other if the ant Spring Leaves that contain chemicals that upset the fungus somehow it tells the ants and they then gather different leaves [Music] the queen is a Colossus in this Lilliputian world and weighs 1500 times more than the small Gardener ants only she produces the eggs that will turn into the many kinds of workers the colony is always busy digging new Chambers to grow more fungus the spoil is brought out and dumped [Music] the ants have found one method of dealing with toxic leaves other animals have found different ways to overcome this challenge the mother's sloth has her own way of finding edible leaves [Music] very slowly [Music] the reason for the sloth's famous lethargy is that leaves have little nutritional value the sloth saves energy by a very low slow metabolism [Music] the sloth uses her fine sense of smell to find leaves with little or no poisons and the baby learns from its mother movement is a real giveaway to a predator but this is no problem for the sloth which rests and sleeps for much of the day there is excitement at the nest the eagle chick has hatched the mother will do most of the nest duties shading the baby from the fierce Tropical Sun the chick will spend five months in the nest as it grows to the size of its giant parents in all that time they will bring in branches as insect repellent the mother sees something move it's not the sloth but a howler monkey [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] of many that the parents bring to their single chick over the coming months [Music] only the largest trees in the forest can support the Eagle's huge nest and one of the birds favorites is the Brazil nut tree it is a Forest Giant and it's fruits too are huge the fruit weighs over two kilos and as the tree can grow to 50 meters it has a long way to fall there's even a record of a fruit hitting and killing someone the fruit is immensely hard and for a long time it was a mystery as to what animal could open it but we know now that this rodent the agouti both eats the Brazil nuts and helps produce new trees the agout is sharp in sizes and powerful jaws chip away at the case but it takes a lot of patience and stamina before the rodent reaches the nuts inside the agouti eats sun and buries the rest for later luckily for the tree the aguti doesn't remember where all its buried treasure lies and so in the agouti the Brazil nut tree has a well-paid gardener that even plants its seeds the large seeds can lie dormant for over a year before they germinate and the story doesn't end there for there is another animal that relies on the Brazil nut fruit this is a kind of poison dart frog the Frog gets its toxins from the ants and mites it eats which in turn get the poisons from the leaves the Frog concentrates the poison and advertises the fact with its bright colors the female frog lays her eggs on The Damp forest floor [Music] the male guards them and keeps them clean when they hatch he gives them a lift [Music] the tadpoles stick to the mucus on the Frog's back the Frog carries the tadpoles one by one to empty Brazil nut cases [Music] he checks the miniature Pond to see that it has enough food for the tadpole to eat in a couple of months young poison dart frogs will emerge from the safe nurseries of the Brazil nut cases [Music] the Amazon forest is a tough place to live no Paradise it is full of hidden poisons and unpalatable plants that its inhabitants have to cope with the howler monkeys must rest and sleep for hours whilst they digest barely edible leaves foreign [Music] brings new challenges and a different cast of animals creatures that tuck away out of sight during the day and there are different fruits to be found and consumed the four-eyed opossum prepares for the night it's an omnivore a generalist it uses its sense of smell to find food in its Dark World but it has to compete with bats a large fruit is an irresistible attraction the four-eyed a possum needs to move quickly if it's to fend off the hungry bats they are absorbed with feeding but they must be wary of the opossum the Allure of so much Fallen fruit is too much and once the opossum has left the bats return they are in the grip of a Feeding Frenzy and failed to notice the opossum's return thank you the Amazon is a world where much is hidden where the trees offer fruits whilst defending their leaves a world of poisons where plants and animals fight an unseen War but for both plants and animals there is one huge challenge the weather [Music] [Music] the Amazon is a rain forest as much as two and a half meters of rain falls a year [Music] and most is concentrated in the wet season the trees and their leaves play a crucial role in the weather for half the rain that falls comes from the forest itself the leaves naturally release water vapor which then forms clouds and returns as rain the downpours are dangerous for the harpy eagle chick if the baby is drenched it will chill and die these are perilous times for the most powerful eagle on Earth foreign s transform the Amazon forest and its many rivers the water swells the rivers and as they rise they begin to enter the forest the rainstorms are so intense that the forest becomes an amphibious world halfway between air and water the leafcutter ants are in trouble their pheromone trails are washing away thank you the ants are disoriented they're highly organized world is disintegrating under the onslaught of the rain foreign things are about to get even worse [Music] [Music] thank you it's not just a torrents of water from above the rivers keep Rising overwhelming the ants trails the ants the greatest Harvesters of leaves in the forest are swamped by the rainy season as the water rises it spreads into the forest and creates some of the most unique habitats in the world the varicias anigapos or seasonally flooded forests [Music] almost a quarter of a million square kilometers of forest an area three times the size of Austria is submerged [Music] the transformation is total [Music] thank you where once birds perched and a Goot is fed there are now new opportunities at its peak the flood can reach over 20 kilometers into the forest the water is green with microscopic Plankton which feeds Shoals of small fish as they move into the flooded Forest the fish set up home amongst the leaves of the forest floor where ants once carried their heavy loads this male rivulus is attracted by a female she is larger and sends out strong come hither signals but all is not as it seems the male is enticed but he is courting with death the female was nothing of the sort but another species erythrinus a fishy fam fatal that mimics a female and so lures the male to its death as the water rises further into the forest larger Predators move in with it the mata mata lives on the front line as the flood pushes into the trees it has its own method for catching fish its technique is to blend into the background looks like an old weed-covered log its disguise is so complete that fish nibble its shell [Music] this formidable predator's only limitation is that it must breathe air [Music] this restricts the matamata to the shallow edges of the encroaching flood the turtle settles down again and waits and then explodes into action [Music] for most fish the end is as unexpected as it is Sutton foreign the Brazilian name mata mata May refer to the turtle's ability to kill if so it is highly appropriate as the water fills the forest it causes problems for some of its slower inhabitants so [Music] the sloth faces the new challenge of moving from tree to tree as it searches for the least poisonous leaves [Music] [Music] the sloth is a surprisingly good swimmer which is just as well [Music] thank you [Music] mother and baby can swim very slowly the short distances between trees [Music] as long as their third doesn't become too waterlogged [Music] curiously the sloths wet fur may be a blessing in disguise for it encourages green algae to grow which provides a kind of camouflage [Music] as the water continues rising up the branches of the trees a male splashing charison moves in and sets up territory and it soon attracts a female the male guards an anonymous patch of water below a twig the splashing charisons are unique among all fish in laying their eggs on leaves above the water the act of mating requires extraordinary coordination and perfect timing thank you the reason for all this Precision is that the fish's eggs are safer on a leaf out of the water away from Hungry mugs once all the eggs are laid the male not only guards them he also keeps them moist the eggs develop quickly and after two days the babies are ready to hatch they drop safely into the Waters of the flooded Forest the water continues to rise in the Amazon it rains over 200 days a year all the animals of the forest have to live with the wet the leaf cutter ants are severely handicapped by the Rings but their vast underground colony is in the terror firmay Forest safe from flooding even when the rains stop the ants Gathering leaves they have their fungus Gardens to feed them rain or no rain there is always work to do the smallest type of ant the minion looks after the eggs and feeds the larvae the underground city is vast there may be as many as one thousand Chambers all tended by Gardner ants and producing fungus for the colony the ants with their intricate relationship with a fungus have found a way past the chemical defenses of the trees the agouti stays on Higher Ground close to the Brazil nut trees and its buried Food Supplies the of the rock too Live On The Higher Ground the males display all year round even in the rainy season the males take exception to the agouti wandering through their display ground [Music] [Music] like the of the rug The Woolly monkeys prefer to eat fruit but it's not always available in tough times the monkeys select the youngest leaves for they're likely to be the least poisonous yet some trees fruit at this time when they're surrounded by hectares of water the rubber tree seeds seem to be wasted falling into the floods but nothing could be further from the truth this fish the tumbakui swims below the rubble tree it has evolved as a specialized fruit and Seed Eater with powerful jaws and teeth that can crush the hardest seeds it's a strange relationship between fish and tree is mutually beneficial for the tumbakui doesn't Crush all the seeds those that pass through its gut are spread throughout the flooded Forest at the height of the flood the varsier is not a safe place [Music] the largest fish in the Amazon prowls its deep Waters this monster can grow up to three meters long [Music] the piraraku is a strange Giant for the fish Rises to the surface every 10 to 15 minutes as it hunts [Music] for it must breathe air [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] the pararoku is a member of a primitive family of fishes that has been stalking and terrifying other fish since the age of the dinosaurs [Music] and the pirataku has a relative another dinosaur fish that haunts the leafy subaquatic world of the flooded Forest [Applause] it has a very different Target the small creatures that are stranded on the Trunks and branches of the flooded trees add one meter long the arowana is smaller than the piraraku but no less frightening the flood brings it closer to the Treetops and its prey thank you the floods are a time of Plenty for the arowanas for months they have access to the trees but all good things must come to an end the waters begin to recede [Music] [Music] this is a dangerous time for the fishes of the forest it is all too easy to be trapped in pools and puddles stranding as day after day night after night the forest dries out fish suffer this fate but in the Amazon one animal's Misfortune is another's opportunity the four-eyed opossum takes the chance to add yet another item to its varied diet but not all the fish are helpless as the pool's empty erythrinus the killer mimic simply swims over the ground gravity carries it downhill to the river in this remarkable way it escapes certain death rivulus 2 has an escaped strategy it uses its powerful tail muscles to launch itself into the air in this strenuous way it flips over the forest floor eventually arriving at permanent water the temporary inhabitants of the flooded forests are forced back towards the streams rivers and lakes the piraraku father guards his babies they hatched as the waters Rose and have grown rapidly in the flooded Forest now the monster fish shows his gentle side watching over hundreds of his babies they've already taken up the habit of breathing air and that ability is crucial for babies and adults alike for the warm Waters have very low oxygen [Music] the babies will stay with their father for three months the male secretes a pheromone from his head which keeps the young fish close [Music] they will grow to one meter long Mini Monsters by the time they are one year old few of these babies will reach adulthood but those that do will become the largest freshwater fishes in South America and Terrors of the flooded Forest [Music] the Urban Flow of the floods brings both feast and famine to fishes and the rainy and dry seasons affect all the creatures of the Amazon it's in the dry season in the terrafirme forest that another giant of the Amazon reaches a key moment in its parental duties [Music] brings a last meal to the nest foreign it's five months old and almost fully grown over the long period in the nest its parents have brought monkeys and sloths placed leaves to fend off insects and protected it from the rains now it's time to take to the air [Music] but first the chick must strengthen its wing muscles foreign [Music] the realm of the harpy eagle is one of the most complex in the world [Music] the trees hold the key to many of its secrets they guard their precious leaves with poisons and those same leaves release the water vapor that in turn produces the clouds that feed the most remarkable floods on Earth [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 174,234

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, wildlife, free documentary, watch full documentary, nature films, wildlife films, go wild, nature, natura

Id: K_S9hepeFeY

Length: 50min 1sec (3001 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023