Wild Brazil (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Enduring the Drought - full transcript

Brazil.
The beating heart of South America.

Vast landscapes, carved by the
irresistible forces of nature.

More animals live here
than in any other nation on Earth.

This is the story of three of them.

SQUEAKING

As the seasons change,

animal families face
extreme challenges.

THUNDER ROARS

Immense floods.

Brutal drought.

Surviving and raising young.



LOUD SQUEALS

Through the good times
and the bad...

SCREECHING

...this is an intimate journey

to the heart of a spectacular
country.

The monsoon floods are over
and the land is drying out fast.

CAPUCHIN SQUEAKS

The baby tufted capuchin has
found his place in his group's

complex society.

The young coatis have worked out
who's friend and who's foe.

And the otter kits have learned to
swim in Brazil's most

dangerous waters.

With the youngsters becoming
independent,

their parents are thinking about
the next generation.



But finding a mate won't be easy.

They're about to be faced with
Brazil's harshest season...

...drought and fire.

INSECTS BUZZ

This is the hottest, driest
part of Brazil - northeast Piaui.

The temperature here
exceeds 40 degrees centigrade.

It hasn't rained for months.

PERSISTENT STONE CRACKING

CRACKING CONTINUES

These canyons are home to
a group of tufted capuchin monkeys.

SCREECHING

The young ones are growing up fast.

This female no longer has
a baby to look after,

and her biological clock has
started ticking again.

CHIRPING

In her eyes, her perfect partner
is the dominant male.

He's strong and healthy,

and he's been head of this troop
for five years.

Soon she'll be ready to mate,
but she's chosen

just about the toughest time of year
to start courting him.

It's not easy living
here at any time of year,

but in the dry season,
finding food is incredibly hard.

The only reason these monkeys can
survive here at all is

because they've worked out
how to use tools.

Even so, they must spend
a lot of their time foraging.

It takes a lot of practice.

Capuchin females need to give birth
when there's more food around,

in the wet season.

To do that, she needs to mate now.

Timing is everything.

Unfortunately,
he doesn't share her enthusiasm.

Female capuchins have to be
persistent.

She tries to seduce him.

But he's playing hard to get.

CHIRPING

FEMALE CAPUCHIN SQUEAKS

MALE CAPUCHIN HISSES

MALE HISSES

He's got all the time in the world.

She doesn't.

She'll have to do more to
impress him, and soon.

Meanwhile,

her world grows hotter

and drier.

Hundreds of miles to the southwest,

whole landscapes
are changing dramatically.

A few months ago,

vast floods
covered Brazil's Vazantes.

Now the land is turning to dust.

BIRDS CALL

Pools are becoming
desperately scarce.

This tiny water hole is now
the only one for miles around.

It's a lifeline for many creatures,

including this family of coatis.

They survived the flood
by taking refuge in the trees.

Now they face a long trek,
every day, just to get a drink.

This group's largest coati

is a dark male.

But he's just a guest
in this all-female group.

He's come here to find a mate.

Their youngsters
are almost fully grown.

So this male knows that the females
will soon be ready to breed.

Just like the capuchins,
for the coatis,

the dry season
is all about courtship.

The females must conceive now,

so their babies
are born with the rains.

But right now
they don't seem to be in any hurry.

And even the male
seems happy enough to wait.

But there's trouble ahead.

A rival male.

He's not attached to any group
at the moment, but he'd like to be.

If the dark male wants to stay here,

he may have to fight for it.

He sizes up his rival.

Male coatis
pack a serious set of teeth.

And the intruder makes himself
bigger by bristling up his fur.

He means business.

HE has nothing to lose.

The dark male has a simple choice,

stay and fight or walk away.

He's lost his females.

If he wants to be a father this
year, he'll have to win them back.

And soon he'll be out of time.

The dry season
is almost at its peak.

The tropical sun bakes the land.

What few clouds remain
offer no chance of rain.

And with no rain to feed the rivers,

the Pantanal,

the largest freshwater wetland on
the planet, is starting to dry out.

The flood season
seems like a distant memory.

At this time of year,
keeping cool is a real problem.

At over 100 kilos,
almost as big as a lion,

this male jaguar feels
the heat more than most.

In the coming weeks,
he too must find a mate.

But for now, he can't even find
a bit of peace in the shade.

OTTERS CRY

This giant otter family
are noisy neighbours

and fiercely protective
of their favourite sandbanks.

Unlike jaguars,
the parents of this young otter

aren't thinking about mating,

they've still got
some more parenting to do.

Soon it'll be time for this one

to learn how to catch her own fish.

Her mother's milk is running dry.

So now, when the rest of the family
bring fish back to the holt,

she's determined to grab
a piece for herself.

Getting fish
from the adults is easy.

Keeping it from her siblings
is much trickier.

THEY SQUEAL

Fights like this
aren't just about food.

Giant otters live in large families.

This will help establish
their position

in the group's pecking order.

Oh, dear.

Mother's milk
won't be enough for much longer.

The sooner she can catch
her own fish, the better.

The dropping water levels

mean fishing should
become easier for the otters.

But for the jaguars,

it makes life harder.

This male is now
searching for a mate.

Scent marks tell him if any
receptive females have been here.

What he can't tell
is where to find them.

A female's territory can stretch
for 50 square kilometres.

And the falling water levels
mean that with every passing day,

he has to cover more and more
ground to try and find her.

As the dry season wears on,

some of the rivers
stop flowing altogether.

Most of the fish trapped in this
pool were snapped up long ago.

It's a challenging time for caiman.

This one must have been desperate

to tackle a porcupine.

For the animals that live here,

the pressure is intense.

But for one creature,
this is their moment.

During the wet season,

millions of caterpillars grew fat
on an abundance of leaves.

Now they've emerged as hawk moths.

They'll mate and lay eggs
in just a few days.

But first they must drink,

and there are very few places
left to do that safely.

More and more moths emerge
from the surrounding trees.

Hatching all together

means that enough of them
will survive to find a mate.

The females will lay eggs
ready to hatch

when there's plenty of greenery

for a new generation
of caterpillars.

In the dry canyons
of Serra da Capivara,

all the capuchins
are feeling the heat.

For this female capuchin,
things have become even more urgent.

She has come into oestrus.

She must mate in the next four days
if she wants to have a baby.

She's now so obsessed,

that she's barely eating,

or even drinking.

That's got to be tough in this heat.

For the troop's youngest member,

just finding food is a struggle.

Even the adults find it hard.

But these monkeys aren't after food,

they're after minerals.

And they get those by licking
or even inhaling this dust.

No-one knows why they do it.

But this group are probably
the smartest monkeys in the world

and they may be using this
for medicinal purposes.

Quite how they learned
to do this is a mystery.

But capuchins learn by example.

One monkey starts...

...and soon they're all doing it.

But despite
their obvious intelligence,

this male seems incapable
of taking a hint.

Males of most species rarely need
to be asked more than once.

But no matter what she tries,

she just can't get his attention.

She has just days
to change his mind.

Drought tightens
its grip across the country.

The Pantanal's rivers shrink
further in the baking sun.

Silt from the last floods
dries into dust.

The sand is almost too hot
to walk on.

Even the caiman
take cover in the shade.

This male jaguar can't rest.

He has too much ground
to cover in his search for a mate.

With so little water left,

the chances are that any females
will be somewhere along this river.

And although he doesn't realise it,

there is a female,

just a few miles away.

She too has a one-track mind,

but food is what she's after.

Like many of the Pantanal's jaguars,

she specialises in hunting caiman

which is why adults will flee
at the first sight of a jaguar.

But baby caiman
have yet to learn this.

At this time of year

they're hiding in the nooks
and crannies of the exposed banks.

Easy pickings,
IF she can dig one out.

They may not be much of a meal,
but they're easier to catch

and she needs all the food
she can get.

That's a lot of work
for a little caiman.

She'll need plenty more
if she's to breed successfully.

The lower water level should
make our baby otters' lives easier.

After all, less water
should make fish easier to catch.

But less water means more mud.

And that makes fish hard to see.

She must learn
to use her whiskers instead.

It could take a while
to get the hang of it.

The adults make it look easy.

But the days
of free hand-outs are over.

Perhaps temptation
will encourage her to hunt.

There are over 200 species
of fish in these rivers,

she just needs to catch one of them.

Her mother keeps a close eye.

Success.

It's an important moment -

one of her final steps
towards adulthood.

Her parents' duties are almost done.

Soon her mother will turn
her attentions back to her partner

and will look to expand
the family once more.

For now, the drought intensifies.

In the Vazantes,
all the water holes have dried up.

Life for many animals
would be impossible

were it not for one special tree.

Even in the toughest drought,

acuri palms produce
an abundance of fruit.

And it's not just coatis
enjoying the feast.

But this male coati
isn't interested in food.

He really wants to mate.

Having lost a fight to a rival,

he's no longer allowed
anywhere near the females.

The chances of him breeding at all
this year are getting slimmer.

For the intruder,
things look very different.

He now has access
to lots of females.

But for them,
mating can be a painful affair.

And if the male's too rough,
he's swiftly punished.

The females have pushed
the intruder away.

This could be the chance
the dark male has been waiting for.

Now HE's the one
who has nothing to lose.

But if he thought his rival
would just give up, he's mistaken.

A standoff,

again.

With everything to play for.

The fight has cost the dark male
a nasty cut on his nose.

But he's won back
the affection of his females,

and the chance to father
a new generation.

As the days pass,
the temperature rises further.

In some places, the land
is now becoming dangerously dry.

Almost a quarter of this
vast country is covered in savanna.

Two million square kilometres
of grassland, the Brazilian Cerrado.

It's one of the oldest
and most diverse

tropical ecosystems on the planet.

A third of all
Brazilian species live here.

Drought has dried
these grasses to a crisp.

Now this entire landscape
is a tinderbox.

All of the animals here

are adapted to survive
in these harsh conditions.

But there's one force of nature
that no creature can survive.

Thunderstorms can create
lightning without rain.

One strike is all it takes.

At the height of the dry season,

hundreds of fires a day
may burn across Brazil.

Once they've started,

these fires can take on
a momentum all of their own.

Slowly, the animals return.

But their home
has been turned to ash.

They've survived the fire,

but how long can they survive now?

At the height of the fire season,

much of Brazil
wakes to blood-red skies.

Landscapes hundreds of kilometres
away are bathed in eerie light.

The Pantanal has escaped the flames,

but here most of the rivers
are now barely recognisable.

It's at this toughest time
of the year

that the female jaguar
is ready for mating.

Finally, the male's search is over.

They'll mate repeatedly over
the next few days.

Until recently, jaguars
were thought of as solitary,

only ever getting together briefly.

But the jaguars in the Pantanal

are now revealing
a different side to these cats.

This pair may stay together
for weeks,

or even months.

In the canyon lands,
the drought has reached its height.

It's been four days

since this female first set eyes
on the object of her desire.

She's been pursuing him relentlessly

and he's stubbornly ignored her.

Today, her world has changed.

At last,
he's allowed her to groom him.

And for the first time,

her affections are returned.

They move away
from the rest of the troop.

It's time for a little privacy.

She is exhausted.

And he is a changed male.

This little one won't be the
troop's youngest for much longer.

All of our animal families

have survived this season
of drought and fire.

Drawing on
their resilience, ingenuity

and teamwork.

Soon the rains will return

and with the harsh days
of drought over,

Brazil will burst into life
once more.

This land of extremes
has swung from flood to fire,

and these animals have done
more than just survive here.

They've flourished.

They've nurtured.

They've grown.

And now,
a new generation is on its way.

They too will have to find their way
in this extraordinary country.

Of all Brazil's animal families,

one in particular captured
the hearts of the Wild Brazil team.

They'd been amazed by the
ingenuity of the tufted capuchins.

But what would happen

when their intelligence
was really put to the test?

Cameraman Ted Giffords
was following the monkey family

in Serra da Capivara National Park.

They're usually
rather difficult to find.

So we're driving to find the monkeys
and one's just ran across the road.

That's really funny, so...

Oh, that's Chica. That's Chica.

You can recognise her
because she has got an amazing quiff.

Soon everyone followed Chica
to explore Ted's car.

I think this car must be
a very strange object to them

because it's completely
smooth and slippery.

It's fascinating watching
their thought process

because they are sliding
around on it and tapping it,

thinking, "Well, what is this?"

But they know it contains
something worth having.

It's this amazing curiosity towards
anything new in their environment

that primatologist
Camila Coelho is using to test

how capuchins learn new behaviours.

This is the first time
a study like this

has been tried with wild capuchins
anywhere in the world.

But how would Chica
and her family do?

Chica is trying to get
the experiment started

before we're ready.

So we have to distract her
off somewhere,

so that I can get it all set
and the cameras rolling.

It's actually quite good

because it means
we have always a keen participant.

Now at the peak of the dry season,

the smell of the mango juice
in the tubes

was definitely
getting their attention.

But how would they adapt their
foraging techniques to get to it?

First a "tail drinking" method

that they use to get water

hidden deep inside tree holes.

Teeth that work so well on bark
are also great on plastic.

And the stone tools that crack seeds
work even better here.

But one monkey was inventing
a completely new approach.

She undoes tube number three

and carries it away.

Trust Chica to come in
and literally steal the show.

Well, it's a solution.

Not the one
we were hoping for, but...

They could clearly adapt their
behaviour to get new resources.

But could they learn
completely new skills?

To really getting them thinking,

Camila had devised
something a bit more taxing.

Enter the monkey-proof box.

A simple pull of the latch
would release the food inside,

but the capuchins had never
seen anything like this before.

Ted was there to see
if they could crack it.

Rather like investigating Ted's car,

at first, a quick feel
to figure out what it's made of.

But how to get at what's inside?

Clever tool use wasn't cracking it.

The dominant males muscled in.

Brute force
didn't seem to work either.

No-one could figure it out.

But one monkey had other ideas.

Making sure she had the box
just to herself,

Chica tried her own investigation.

Success at last.

It wasn't any more difficult

than what she's used to,

just different,
and that's the point -

Chica had learnt something new.

Much to her amazement,

a lift of the latch
delivered the nuts again and again.

The question now was would she share

the secret with the others?

Because she definitely
wasn't sharing the nuts.

As she moved back to the box,

one youngster
was taking a keen interest.

Chica appeared happy enough

to reveal the technique
to this onlooker.

He watched carefully and learned.

The secret was out.

And then it spread like a craze
throughout the group.

Even the old dogs
learnt the new trick.

It's actually quite funny,
how frantic they are.

They take their handfuls
and they run away with handfuls.

They're like naughty school children
running away with food.

The experiment had worked.

Camila had seen how new ideas
spread throughout the entire group.

It's all down to
the capuchins' winning formula

of insatiable curiosity and their
ability to learn from each other.

By getting really close
to each animal family

and using the insights
of Brazil's top scientists,

the team were able to give us
a truly unique

and intimate view
of life in Wild Brazil.