Wild South America (2000–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode #1.1 - full transcript

South America is a continent of extremes.

It has the world's longest mountain
range... the Andes.

In Amazonia, it has the mightiest river

and the greatest expanse of rainforest
on the planet.

And the driest desert on earth

the Atacama, lies beside one of
the world's richest seas.

South America also contains
incredible variety.

Almost no other continent can boast
such a wealth of wildlife

living in such a range of
different landscapes.

Almost everywhere you go

there's an extraordinary
diversity of life.



But how did all these unique worlds
come about?

To understand the natural history
of South America

we must go back in time
back to the age of the dinosaurs.

South America was then part of Gondwana

a massive continent

that also included what are now Africa
Australia, India and Antarctica.

This was a world dominated by reptiles.

Descendants of those ancient creatures
still live in South America today.

And the forests of southern Chile
still have plants

that the dinosaurs would have recognised

tree ferns
and the bizarre monkey puzzle tree.

Then, a new group of animals appeared
animals like this.

The early mammals were small

and many were marsupials
like this shrew opossum.



It lives in the cold
damp forests of southern Chile

where it hunts for insects
and earthworms.

The shrew opossum shares
these ancient forests

with this other small marsupial.

Local people call it
the 'monito del monte'

or 'monkey of the mountains'.

It's so tiny you could hold it
in the palm of your hand.

It too eats insects
but also has a taste for fruit.

When we think of mammals with a pouch

it's perhaps Australia with its kangaroos
that comes to mind.

But South America also has over
eighty species of marsupial

a legacy of the time

when the two continents
were joined together.

Around a hundred million years ago

the giant continent of Gondwana
slowly split apart.

South America became an enormous island

cut off from the rest of the world.

The next chapter in South America's
history was violent and prolonged.

It changed the face
of the continent for ever.

Starting some eighty million years ago

the island was convulsed by a series
of massive volcanic eruptions

that continue today.

Forced up by movements
deep in the earth's crust

a huge chain of mountains arose

spanning the length of the continent
The Andes.

Running over five thousand miles

this is the longest mountain
chain on earth.

At its northern end
tropical cloudforest covers the slopes

yet its peaks are so high

that even on the equator
they carry permanent snow and ice.

In the central Andes

there's a high
dry desert the altiplano.

As you travel further south

the mountains are lower

but they're that much closer
to the Antarctic.

In the far south

the Patagonian ice sheets
are the largest

expanse of ice
outside the polar regions.

They cover more
than seven thousand square miles

and their glaciers
flow all the way to the sea.

But even here

in the shadow of the ice
animals survive.

In the shadow of the Patagonian icecap

animals must survive ferocious winds
and winters of heavy snow.

Only the hardiest animals
can live here

like guanacos South American
relatives of the camel

and foxes.

Even for them

surviving the winter is a challenge

Patagonia may be severe

but it's not the most extreme part
of the Andes.

That's back in the heart of the range

an oxygen-starved plateau more
than four thousand metres high.

Here, in the Altiplano

meltwater from the surrounding peaks
evaporates in huge salt lakes.

Frozen by night and baked by day

these caustic saltflats must be

one of the most inhospitable places
on earth.

This is Salar Uyuni
in the Bolivian Andes.

Covering four
and a half thousand square miles

it's the largest expanse of
salt on the planet.

Incredibly, islands in this sea of
salt actually support life.

Viscachas.

These rabbit-sized rodents have to contend
with thin air, bitter cold,

and an almost total lack of water.

They get just enough moisture to survive
from their food.

Thick fur keeps them warm

and extra red blood cells help to
absorb sufficient oxygen.

The thin air's a problem
for this hummingbird too.

To conserve energy when it's feeding
it has to perch, rather than hover.

The high altiplano may seem hostile

but some animals actually
choose to come here.

Flamingos come here to breed

because these caustic waters
are full of their favourite food.

They display to each other
with a massed courtship dance.

The rise of the Andes created

whole new environments
within the mountains

but it also had
more far-reaching effects.

This great barrier changed
the climate of South America.

It also re-drew the map of
the entire continent

radically altering the course of
its major rivers.

The Iguazu Falls are one of the wonders
of the world.

Four times as wide as Niagara

they carry sixty thousand tons
of water a second.

Part of Amazonia was once a huge swamp

connected to the Pacific
and the Caribbean.

The rise of the Andes broke those links

forcing the major rivers to flow east.

One massive river now drains forty percent
of South America... the Amazon.

This is the mightiest river on earth.

Running over four thousand miles
from the Andes to the ocean

it carries a fifth of all the
river water on the planet.

A thousand miles
before it reaches the sea

its main channel is already
ten miles wide.

Every year the mighty Amazon
bursts its banks

flooding an area of forest
the size of England.

At the height of the flood

the trees can stand in water
ten metres deep.

The floodwaters bring
with them the animals of the river

like boto dolphins.

Their origins are a mystery.

Could they be a relic of Amazonia's
ancient links with the oceans?

These river dolphins are almost blind

no handicap in water
that's often very muddy

because they navigate by echolocation.

Unlike marine dolphins
they have a flexible neck

so by sweeping their head

from side to side
they can scan their path ahead.

Their sonar is so precise
that they can weave their way

through a maze of submerged branches
in search of fish.

Whisker-like bristles on their lips
help them zero in on their target.

The botos' origins may be mysterious

but some of the Amazon's fish certainly
have a marine ancestry

like stingrays.

Their nearest living relatives
are in the Caribbean.

The Amazon has over
three thousand kinds of fish.

This is the pirarucu
the world's largest fresh water fish.

And these are the most notorious...
piranhas.

The variety of life in these waters
is extraordinary...

and with so many fish
there are bound to be fish hunters.

In this water world

Caiman are the top of
the food chain...

the aquatic equivalent of the jaguar.

Red-bellied piranhas are
predators themselves

but to a caiman
they're just another mouthful.

The Amazon river and its tributaries

drain the largest expanse of
tropical rainforest on earth.

Stretching almost unbroken
from the Andes to the Atlantic

the Amazon jungle
has a greater variety of life

than any other forest on the planet.

In just over two square miles of forest

scientists have counted
three thousand varieties of plants

five hundred and thirty kinds of birds

and eleven different species of monkeys.

There are countless reptiles
amphibians and insects.

Six hundred and fifty species of beetle

and eighty kinds of ant have been found
on a single tree.

Scientists disagree about the reasons
for this diversity

but in almost every group of animals

the number of different species
is extraordinary.

Because there are so many species

most of them have to specialise.

Pygmy marmosets are
the world's smallest monkey.

They live on the sap of
just a few kinds of tree

gouging the bark with special teeth
to release its flow.

They're just one of
over thirty species of marmoset

and tamarin in the Amazon basin

a group of monkeys unique to the
lowland rainforests of South America.

Like these tassel-eared marmosets
most live in family groups.

A breeding female lives with one
or more adult males

and several youngsters.

Females typically
give birth to twins

and unusually among monkeys

it's the father
who's left holding the babies.

Tassel-eared marmosets
are opportunists.

As well as gum, they eat insects
fruit, birds' eggs

small snakes and lizards...

almost anything
they can get their hands on.

The youngsters must develop fast

if they're to survive in the dangerous

and competitive world of the rainforest.

Amazonia lies on the eastern
side of the Andes

and here torrential tropical
rains water the prolific jungle.

But the mountains block
the moisture-bearing winds

so some of the western side receives
almost no rain.

Here lies the world's driest desert...
the Atacama.

The Atacama can go for years
with literally no rain at all.

It's hard to imagine
how anything could survive here.

And yet it does.

Guanacos.

These South American camels can
tolerate extremes of heat and cold.

A desert might seem a better place
for a camel

than the snows of Patagonia

but the Atacama is a challenge
even for them.

Daytime temperatures
can rise to forty degrees.

Their only relief is a dry dustbath.

But what can they live on?

With hardly any water here
how could plants possibly grow?

This is the key to survival in the Atacama
the Pacific Ocean.

The desert is a narrow strip
between the mountains and the sea.

Moist air over the water is chilled

by a cold ocean current just offshore

so every day

a blanket of fog rolls
in from the Pacific.

The fog is almost the only source
of water in the desert.

Moisture condenses on the cactus spines
enough for lichen to grow.

And every morning

the lichen is covered
with the precious droplets of water.

This water provides a life-giving drink

for the few hardy inhabitants of
the Atacama

like diuca finches.

The guanacos obtain moisture
by eating the lichen

delicately extracting it

from between the cactus spines
with their soft, sensitive lips.

They also eat the flowers
of a parasitic plant

that grows on the cactus.

Called quintral
it's sweet and full of nectar.

Guanacos
and everything else in this desert

are living on the edge.

Without the moisture
from the early morning fog

life in the Atacama
would be almost impossible.

As you travel South

the prevailing weather
comes from the opposite direction

so the eastern side
of the continent is dry.

But here lack of water
is not the most extreme problem

it's the wind.

This is the land of the Roaring Forties

ferocious winds that batter
the dry grassy steppes of Patagonia.

Anything that lives here has to contend
with almost incessant gales.

These are maras
large rodents unique to South America.

Adult maras live and give
birth to their young in the open

but they rear them in
an underground burrow

sheltered from the cold winds
and predators like foxes.

Mara territories overlap

so often several pairs share a burrow.

These warrens act as a community creche.

The parents can leave their young
to go and feed

but there's always someone
to keep an eye on them.

The nursery can have twenty
or thirty young.

Sometimes hungry infants try to suckle
from the 'baby-sitter'.

She tries to drive them off

but they can steal a tenth
of their milk this way.

In windswept Patagonia

a hole in the ground counts
as prime real estate

and it's a magnet for squatters.

Here even the birds nest underground.

As soon as the maras backs are turned

burrowing owls try to
take over their home.

Could this be the moment to move in?

But they're soon spotted.

This time, the squatters are evicted.

The maras keep their burrow.

In Patagonia

burrowing owls aren't the only birds
that nest underground.

With no trees to nest in

burrowing parrots excavate holes
in a sandstone cliff.

There can be over fifty thousand birds
in these colonies.

This is one of the few places on earth

where parrots nest by the seaside.

The diversity of South American wildlife
doesn't end at the coastline.

The seas that surround the continent
are some of the richest in the world.

Upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich water
feed huge shoals of fish...

food in turn for seabirds
and marine mammals.

The sheer numbers of fish here
are astounding.

A single shoal of anchovies can be
hundreds of thousands strong.

These huge concentrations inevitably
attract predators... dusky dolphins.

The dolphins' migrations are synchronised
with the anchovies' movements.

For the defenceless anchovies
there seems to be safety in numbers.

When they come under attack

they bunch more tightly together...

to form a dizzying ball of
swirling fins and scales.

The dolphins find it harder to target
any single fish in this dense mass

so they try to break up the shoal...

by swimming through it.

Once the shoal has been split

the dolphins confuse the fish

and scatter them even more
by blowing bubbles...

and by emitting high frequency sounds
that stun them.

This drives them to the surface

where they become easy prey
for seabirds too.

Attracted by the disturbance

yet more hunters join the attack...
southern sealions.

Under assault from all sides

the fish are now totally disoriented.

Trapped at the centre of
this feeding frenzy

they don't stand a chance.

Magellanic penguins mop up
the last survivors.

At the end, all that's left
are tiny fish scales...

drifting down into the deep.

For almost a hundred million years
South America was an island.

Its animals evolved in isolation

cut off from the rest of the world
by the surrounding sea.

But around three million years ago

the same kind of movements of
the earth's crust

that built the Andes raised a land bridge
joining North and South America.

Animals could now pass easily
between the continents.

The impact on South America
was profound.

Among the first mammals to arrive
were these... coatis.

Relatives of the North American racoons

they're active, agile
intelligent and adaptable.

They quickly colonised this land
of new opportunities.

Today they're found as far south
as Argentina.

These early invaders soon made
South America's forests their own.

For the continent's original inhabitants
like the sloth

life would never be the same again.

These brash newcomers
were just so fast.

Sloths are lethargic by nature
as well as by name.

They have a low body temperature
and very slow metabolism.

Sloths have hung on by doing
one thing supremely well

eating and digesting leaves.

Coatis succeed
because they're opportunists

quick to seek out any new snack.

They leave sloths behind
at the starting line.

They're social animals
living in bands of up

to twenty females and their youngsters.

And they're omnivorous eating fruit

insects, spiders, slugs, fish, snakes
birds and mammals...

almost anything they can find.

A flexible nose
and a good sense of smell

help them sniff out the slightest chance
of a meal.

These early colonists were soon followed
by others larger

and more deadly
like the jaguar.

South America had large carnivores
before cat and dog-like marsupials.

But many had already died out
before the newcomers got here.

Coatis may have had it easy
when they first arrived

but once large hunters followed
life became tougher.

On the whole, the invaders
were very successful.

Some may have out-competed
the original inhabitants

others may have eaten them

but many of the new animals simply
moved into spaces

that were already empty.

Today, almost half of
South America's mammal families

are North American in origin.

Eventually the immigrants
in this new found land

spread to all corners
of the continent.

As the invaders adapted to
their new surroundings

some evolved into new forms.

A simple, dog-like ancestor gave
rise to this the maned wolf.

Like a fox on stilts

this long-legged predator hunts
the grassy plains of southern Brazil.

It eats small animals and must
travel far to find enough to eat.

The great plains are one of South America's
most ancient landscapes.

Throughout the continent's history

they've remained relatively unchanged.

Today they have a strange mixture
of animals the old and the new.

Deer are relatively recent arrivals
from North America.

On the plains they rub shoulders
with animals

that have been here
for tens of millions of years...

Like the rhea

South America's equivalent
of the ostrich.

If the maned wolf is one of the most
recent animals on the plains

this is one of the oldest

The giant anteater.

It's one of the most specialised
insect-eaters on earth

and that bizarre snout is one of
its secret weapons.

The snout houses a long sticky tongue

ideal for delving into termite mounds.

But first you've got to break in.

Termite mounds can be almost
as hard as concrete

so you also need a set of
very powerful claws.

The giant anteater is one of
the few surviving members

of a group of animals

that has lived in South America
for over fifty million years.

This is another one, the armadillo.

Armadillos and
anteaters survived the invasion

because they specialise in food
the invaders can't tackle.

They eat mostly ants and termites.

The maned wolf doesn't compete
with them because it prefers mice.

But catching them isn't easy.

All that effort
for just one tiny mouthful.

The animals of today's South America

are a pale shadow of what was once
here two ton armadillos

flesh-eating birds three metres tall

a giant ground-living sloth
the size of an elephant.

The ground sloth disappeared less
than ten thousand years ago.

What drove these giants to extinction?

Long after the land bridge linked
North and South America

there was one last great invasion

the most far-reaching of all.

No one knows exactly
when the first people arrived

or even how they came
by boat along the coast

or overland from North America.

We do know they've been here
for at least twelve thousand years

and they soon penetrated
every part of the continent

from the sea coast to the high peaks
of the Andes.

The first hunter-gatherers
may have hastened

the extinction of creatures
like the giant sloth

but they made little direct
impact on the landscape.

But the development of
settled agriculture

eventually changed
the face of South America.

Elaborate civilisations flourished

in the most remote corners
of the mountains.

Their last monuments can still
be seen high in the Andes

in the ruins of the legendary Inca city
of Machu Picchu.

People even changed the animals.

Around seven thousand years ago

they domesticated wild relatives
of the guanaco

to produce Ilamas and alpacas.

As sources of meat and wool
and beasts of burden

these were the key to survival
in the high Andes.

These domestic animals
are still important

to the people of the altiplano today

and are an integral
part of their culture.

By selectively breeding
from their wild ancestors

the mountain people have
developed different aspects

of the animals to suit different needs.

Llamas are better pack animals
and have good meat

whereas alpacas are more valued
for their dense wool.

Llama fairs, and even races

are a high point
on the local calendar.

And they're more than
just an excuse for a party.

The animals carry weights

so the race is a test of stamina

especially at this high altitude.

Traditional cultures have survived
in places like this

because they are so isolated
from the outside world.

Wildlife too survives

because much of the continent remains
isolated and remote.

People may have irretrievably changed
parts of South America

but it's a vast continent

and much of it is too extreme
for people to settle.

So it still retains huge areas of
stunning wild landscapes.

For sheer variety it's
without rival anywhere on earth.

South America's natural landscapes

and their wildlife owe their existence
to the continent's unique history.

They're the latest spectacular chapter
in a story

that has been unfolding
for over a hundred million years.