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Documentary, The Future Is Wild -4 Praries of Amazonia- 2002
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00:00Imagine a world millions of years in the future.
00:11A world where evolution has written a new chapter in the story of life.
00:24The world is inhabited by very strange creatures,
00:28like nothing the Earth has ever seen.
00:58In five million years' time, a huge grassy plain stretches for 3,000 kilometres across the South American landscape.
01:05And stalking through the grass, giant birds.
01:11But compared to what used to live here, this landscape is very sparsely populated.
01:18This vast prairie used to be a rainforest.
01:21The Amazon rainforest.
01:22Where there is grass, there were once trees stretching from the Andes to the Atlantic.
01:31The forests have gone because in five million years' time, the Earth has been plunged into another ice age.
01:41As the Earth's climate chilled, the ice caps expanded, spreading from the North and South Poles into lower latitudes.
01:55The climate became colder and drier, and starved of life-giving rain, the Amazon rainforest died out.
02:14In the future, only the Great River Courses support any forest at all.
02:25The rest has been replaced by grasslands.
02:29Today, the lush Amazon rainforests are teeming with life.
02:34One of the richest habitats on the planet.
02:44But most of the creatures that live here are far too specialised to survive the death of the rainforest.
02:50Creatures such as macaws, sloths and peccaries are all dependent on the complex forest ecosystem.
03:10Adapted to fit very particular niches.
03:13They stand no chance of surviving when the forest is replaced by grassland.
03:21And to make matters worse, the change from forest to grassland happened incredibly quickly.
03:26Only a few thousand years.
03:28A mere blink of an eye in the time scale of evolution.
03:36This Amazon prairie is very different from the rainforest.
03:40But there was a forest monkey adaptable enough to survive the change.
03:51These strange creatures are babukaris.
03:57At home on the prairie, babukaris live in big, loose troops scattered through the dense grass.
04:03But what kind of present-day Amazonian monkey could adapt to life on the grasslands?
04:17In five million years, most of the Amazonian rainforests will have disappeared.
04:22At the moment, there's a huge variety of monkeys that live in these forests.
04:25Some of them, at least, will have evolved into species and now colonise the grasslands.
04:28Perhaps something like the wakari.
04:30It's an adaptable animal.
04:31It lives in the trees, but it's also an omnivore.
04:34It spends time on the ground.
04:36It's got a highly evolved social system.
04:38And you need a social system if you're going to go out onto the grasslands,
04:42because you need lots of monkeys with you to help protect you from predators.
04:45As the trees thinned out, wakaris could adapt their social system to live in bigger and bigger groups.
05:02Behaviour like this can change quite quickly in evolutionary terms,
05:06so the wakari's social system could keep up with the rapidly changing habitat.
05:15In the future, the babukaris have also inherited the wakari's bright coloured heads,
05:21but have gone even further.
05:23Their faces and bottoms are both bright blue,
05:28to help the widely scattered troops stay in contact and so watch out for trouble.
05:33Bavukaris spread out through the grass as they move,
05:40searching a wide area for anything to eat.
05:43A large troop means lots of eyes looking out for food.
05:52But more important, it also means lots of sentries.
05:56Keeping a lookout for predators like the giant killer birds that stalk through the long grass.
06:01Karakilas.
06:03Like the babukaris, they live in groups.
06:04These are hunting parties.
06:05These are chasing and the birds.
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06:33Caracillers are fast, but they don't just run down their victims.
06:56Some of the birds split off from the main group.
07:03The babukharis are heading into an ambush.
07:13Once a babukharis is killed, the other caracillers join the feast.
07:25These long-legged monkeys could easily outmanoeuvre a single caracilla,
07:29so caracillers have to hunt in groups.
07:39Some stalk around the monkey troop unseen in the long grass and wait.
07:44Using their colorful crests as signals to each other,
07:47the rest of the pack drive the monkeys into the trap.
07:51Most of the troop will escape, but one or two will be caught.
07:55The ancestor of these giant birds is a grassland predator that's around today.
08:01Caracillers are one of the characteristic birds of this grassland.
08:14Ancestor of these giant birds is a grassland predator that's around today.
08:21Carrakillas are one of the characteristic birds of this grassland.
08:24They're big, much bigger than most modern birds,
08:27and certainly much bigger than their ancestors.
08:29They're about three metres tall,
08:31but they evolved from these small terrestrial falcons.
08:38Carracaras are common in South American grasslands today.
08:42They're fairly primitive falcons,
08:44but they're quite closely related to the peregrines and kestrels
08:47many people are familiar with.
08:49But they live on the ground,
08:51and they find their prey on the ground, not in the air.
08:55Though Carracaras can still fly,
08:57their long legs help them forage on the ground.
09:00But as the grasslands spread,
09:02they became even more efficient ground predators.
09:07The main way that Carracillas have become
09:09a really efficient terrestrial predator on the ground
09:11is by giving up flight.
09:13Flight's expensive,
09:15not only in the energy you use to get around,
09:17but in the fact that you've got to develop wings and muscles
09:20and all the systems that drive them.
09:22If you drop that,
09:23it then becomes much easier to invest the energy,
09:26evolutionarily, in becoming faster.
09:29And the best way of becoming faster is to be bigger.
09:33And that's exactly what happened to the Carracara,
09:36the ancestor of the mighty Carracilla.
09:39Size change can happen quickly in evolutionary terms,
09:44and five million years is plenty of time for the Carracara
09:47to evolve into a three metre tall Carracilla.
09:51It's also enough time for this bird to evolve some impressive ways
09:56of killing its prey.
09:58We know that by manipulating the genetics,
10:02you can very easily trigger a modern bird to develop a claw.
10:06The claw goes right back to their dinosaur ancestors.
10:09Same morphology, same position on the wings.
10:12This has been re-evolved in the Carracilla.
10:15It's developed this large sickle-shaped claw,
10:18just like the claws of dinosaurs,
10:20and it's using it in exactly the same way.
10:23It can catch and grab the prey and it can disembowel it
10:26and tear the prey up before it eats it.
10:32Carracillas are fearsome enough on their own,
10:34but in groups they're lethal.
10:39Babakari's social behaviour has evolved in response to such predators,
10:43but surviving in the grasslands has taken much more
10:46than just a change in behaviour.
10:48Life on the grasslands involves travelling long distances.
10:52Your food is widely scattered
10:54and you've got to be able to move faster
10:56if the predator approaches.
10:57So these animals have developed long, supple limbs
11:00to cover long distances,
11:01and it also helps them forage more effectively.
11:03They can put their hands into crevices,
11:05they can dig, they can look for food.
11:08Babakari's have a primate's dextrous hands
11:11and a primate's intelligence,
11:13and they use both to find food.
11:26There are small, shallow lakes scattered all across the grasslands.
11:30And around the edges of the lakes are strange woven baskets,
11:42that look almost man-made.
11:44These baskets are woven from grass and twigs,
11:56and provide shelter from predators for hordes of small fish.
12:05They are fish traps, made by the Babakari's.
12:11These lakes are full of fish,
12:15so it doesn't take long for the trap to fill up.
12:32The lakes are a regular stop for the Babakari's
12:35as they patrol their territory.
12:37The older monkeys are the most skilful at making the traps.
12:42The youngsters watch them and learn how it's done.
12:51The monkeys need this fish protein
12:53to supplement their rather sparse diet from the Amazon prairies.
12:58Food is not particularly abundant in these grasslands,
13:01and the Babakari troops have to travel long distances each day
13:04looking for food.
13:06They're basically omnivores, they'll eat plant material,
13:09they'll eat roots, tubers, insects,
13:11any small mammals they can catch.
13:13Basically they have to exploit any food source they can find.
13:17And one way they actually supplement their diet
13:19is at eating fish.
13:20There's waters out there on the plains, streams and ponds,
13:23and these things have managed to weave,
13:25small traps made out of bits of twig and grass.
13:29They throw them into the streams, they leave them there,
13:31and periodically as the troop passes they pull them out.
13:38Fish will shelter in them and they'll eat the fish.
13:40It supplements their diet,
13:42and it's a skill they need in this arid landscape.
13:56Other primates do much the same.
14:03Today chimps use tools to help them find food.
14:07Certain troops have learned to strip down twigs
14:15and poke them into termite nests to pull out the juicy insects.
14:20This skill needs intelligence as well as nimble fingers
14:24to manipulate the primitive tools.
14:26But using tools like this isn't instinctive.
14:37Mothers have to teach their infants how it's done.
14:47In the future, tool use, building elaborate fish traps,
14:51helps babukaris survive.
14:55And being large gives the carakilla an edge.
15:00But there are yet other ways of adapting to life here.
15:02This is a rattleback.
15:14Rattlebacks are very territorial.
15:19When two rattlebacks meet, they perform a noisy display
15:29by rattling large heavy plates on their backs.
15:32The loudest wins, and the loser retires gracefully.
15:48The rattleback is a rodent.
15:50Rodents are highly successful animals.
15:52About 40% of all the mammals alive today are rodents.
15:55They're adaptable.
15:56They can live in a wide variety of habitats.
15:59The rattleback probably evolved from some large
16:01South American rodent that lived on the forest floor.
16:03Something like a packer or an agouti.
16:06Moved out onto the grasslands as they evolved,
16:08but out on the grasslands is exposed to predators.
16:11The agoutis and the packers can rely on cover.
16:14They can hide in the forest.
16:15The rattleback's got nowhere to hide,
16:17so as it moved onto the grassland,
16:18it had to develop some form of protection,
16:20hence the plates on its back.
16:23The plates are used for territorial displays,
16:26but they're mainly for defence,
16:28as the rattleback's ancestors evolved
16:31to cope with the rapid loss of forest cover.
16:36But evolving armour wasn't that difficult
16:38for those forest rodents.
16:40The plates are only made from hair,
16:45but it's become matted and fused like rhino horn.
16:55There are creatures today with similar armour to rattlebacks,
16:58but they're not rodents.
17:01These are pangolins.
17:03They look like animated pinecones.
17:06And if threatened, curl into a tight ball,
17:11making themselves impregnable.
17:16In the future, rattlebacks don't just curl up.
17:19They have another way to protect themselves.
17:22A fringe of long, tough spines along each side of the rattleback
17:27stick into the earth as it hunkers down.
17:30Muscles at the base of the spines lock them in place.
17:35It's almost impossible for anything to dislodge it.
17:38They need this extra degree of protection because of what they eat.
17:45Eggs.
17:47But not just any eggs.
17:48This is a carakilla nest containing a dozen large eggs.
17:53Carakillas breed communally.
17:55It's essential for them.
17:57If they laid individual nests distributed over a big area,
18:01those nests would all be vulnerable to predation.
18:04But by nesting in a group and using a single nest,
18:07the animals have got much greater safety.
18:10The females lay their eggs in a single nest,
18:13each one laying an egg or two in turn.
18:17All the eggs are incubated by the male carakilla,
18:20who only leaves his duties briefly to find food.
18:25But it's enough time for the rattleback to find the nest.
18:44The nest isn't left unguarded for long.
18:46Being caught red-handed doesn't worry a rattleback.
19:02Those tough scales are strong enough to survive even an angry carakilla.
19:07Although the earth is in the grip of an ice age,
19:21the tropical summer is still warm and brings massive thunderstorms.
19:29Sometimes these storms bring rain to the parched landscape.
19:37But at the end of the summer, the grass is tender dry.
19:57Storms build up every afternoon,
19:59and everyone waits for some relief from the stifling heat.
20:03But these storms don't always bring rain.
20:08More often, they bring fire.
20:13One of the features of savannah habitat is it burns.
20:16Any number of events,
20:17perhaps a glint of sunlight off something shiny,
20:18perhaps a lightning strike,
20:19will trigger a fire.
20:20But these storms don't always bring rain.
20:22But these storms don't always bring rain.
20:25More often, they bring fire.
20:27One of the features of savannah habitat is it burns.
20:30Any number of events,
20:31perhaps a glint of sunlight off something shiny,
20:35perhaps a lightning strike,
20:36will trigger a fire.
20:37And fire is essential to the ecosystem.
20:38It's part of the life cycle of the vegetation,
20:39because the next generation of plants,
20:40the grass or trees or whatever,
20:41will only usually set seed after grass has burned.
20:43Fire is a crucial part of the vegetation.
20:44The vegetation is part of the life cycle of the vegetation,
20:46because the next generation of plants,
20:47the grass or trees or whatever,
20:48will only usually set seed after grass has burned.
20:51Fire is a crucial part of life in all grasslands.
21:02It may look destructive,
21:04but it's good news for many creatures.
21:07Today, stalks are drawn to the fire edge
21:10to feed on insects, reptiles or mammals,
21:13flushed into the open by the flames.
21:21But, more important,
21:25fire turns dead, dry grass into a rich ash.
21:33This fertilizes the ground,
21:35creating a flush of new growth,
21:37which in turn feeds grazers.
21:39So fire brings new life to the grasslands.
21:45Like stalks do today,
21:47carakillas of the future feed on the fire edge,
21:50running down anything that escapes the flames.
21:59Carakillas can use their speed
22:00to stay one step ahead of the wall of fire.
22:20The carakillas use their speed to head in the opposite direction.
22:30There's nothing for them amongst the flames,
22:34except, of course, the carakillas, their enemies.
22:38But some creatures can't outrun the fire.
22:57The Rattleback has no chance of escaping.
23:02As the flames pass, the Rattleback seems doomed.
23:14But the Rattleback's scales are fireproof, as well as carakilla-proof.
23:29As long as the fire moves quickly, the Rattleback can survive.
23:33Fire is not as destructive as it looks.
23:45Some animals survive it, others profit by it.
23:48Colorful and smart ground-dwelling monkeys.
23:55Huge killer birds that hunt in deadly packs.
24:03A bizarre armoured fireproof rodent.
24:09All living on a vast open plain where the Amazon rainforest once stood.
24:18Life in these grasslands is very different from life in the forest.
24:23But evolution has shaped new creatures
24:26with new ways of surviving on these Amazon prairies.
24:30A slab of CONVERSATION
24:47Not hasta a都 instead
24:49If you can understand the bird or migιism,
24:51am protected by Datadra
24:53Set down fireproof rodent.
24:55People are highly regulated by coastal ships.
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