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00:13There's a story unfolding on the west coast of Costa Rica.
00:18A story both ancient and new.
00:22A tale of two creatures from opposite worlds,
00:25each on a comeback from their own devastating declines.
00:31One is a sea turtle, a global ocean traveler.
00:40The other, a magnificent cat,
00:43the top predator in Central America.
00:49The return of an endangered forest will bring them together
00:52in an uncommon clash of land and sea.
00:57A surprising encounter of a rare predator
01:01and a most unusual prey.
01:06How will their fates play out when they finally meet
01:09on one special crescent of sand called Jaguar Beach?
01:22If you turn, they go to me.
01:27You all have to say anything to them.
01:34I am not sure what theyimятно care about.
01:38Next slide, Mars.
01:41Off the shore of Central America,
01:43in the shallows of the Pacific,
01:45An ancient ritual is underway.
01:54After more than a decade at sea, an olive ridley sea turtle nears the end of her long migration.
02:04Guided by the Earth's magnetic field, she has navigated thousands of miles,
02:10seeking out the very beach where she was born.
02:15This secluded crescent of sand has long provided a refuge for one of the world's most beloved creatures,
02:37and is home to a wild coastal community.
02:40Shorebirds flock to its shallows to feed, under the pterodactyl silhouettes of magnificent frigatebirds.
02:53American crocodiles slip out of their swampy lagoons for an occasional saltwater splash.
03:06Rising up from the beach is one of the last habitats of its kind on Earth.
03:15A tropical forest that's dry for half the year.
03:20Restored as a national park, after it had been clear-cut for agriculture,
03:27its tangled woodlands sprawl nearly 200 square miles across Costa Rica's mountainous west.
03:34The forest stretches all the way to the ocean's edge,
03:42where its mangrove tendrils filter fresh water from salt.
03:46The hardy trees provide a home for over 250 species of birds.
04:02Yellow-naped parrots nest in the heights.
04:14Orange-fronted parrots feast on its floral buffet.
04:20They share the canopy with gymnastic spider monkeys and howlers.
04:34And in the understory, lumbering baird's tapirs forage for fallen fruit.
04:43The unusual forest opens onto a pristine strip of sand.
04:53One of only a few in the world where olive-ridley sea turtles nest en masse.
05:00For nearly two decades, biologist Luis Fonseca has been trekking to this remote alcove
05:06to monitor nesting sea turtles.
05:08But after five years on the beach, he arrived one morning to a shock.
05:15Signs in the sand that he and the turtles were not alone.
05:21We started to find waves on the beach and jaguares.
05:27The first tracks were no aberration.
05:29He soon saw more evidence that one of the most formidable predators in the Americas
05:34was making a comeback in the dry forest.
05:39The jaguares population has started to increase almost exponentially in the last decade.
05:46We can say that we have almost zero jaguares in the first years
05:52to have almost 40 individuals in the last decade.
05:59The return of an apex predator was bound to send ripples through the ecosystem.
06:04So Luis decided to expand his research to include the jaguars.
06:14Hoping to learn what impact they would have on the turtles,
06:18he set up hundreds of camera traps to capture their movements and behavior.
06:23And then he waited for the turtles to emerge from the ocean.
06:37For years at a time, Olive Ridley sea turtles live a solitary, nomadic life at sea.
06:56Their world is one of mighty behemoths.
06:59And lively schools of dolphins.
07:02Then, every year or two, a primeval instinct draws them home to these shores.
07:17Male turtles, identifiable by their longer tails, rarely return to land after hatching.
07:23But during nesting season, these ancient mariners patrol the shallows looking for mates.
07:48Seduction begins with a tender but clunky embrace.
07:54The male uses long claws on his front flippers to hook onto the female's shell.
08:04The courtship is quick, but the coupling can last for several hours.
08:08The female does most of the work, constantly pushing to the surface, so they both can breathe.
08:24For these two ocean wanderers and their species, it's a fleeting but critical connection.
08:42and the plane is a遊乐 region.
08:43It's an octopus, a queen- screaming.
08:45It setsgate- normalized swing from lo Anfangs rodzajuels and l retour.
08:50A few weeks later, the female drags herself from the comfort of her weightless, watery
09:13world.
09:15With her hundred-pound frame and short flippers, she's far more graceful at sea than ashore.
09:28But she's determined to find a good spot for her nest.
09:39Then she starts to carve out a deep, protective cavity.
09:52As she digs, another mother-to-be emerges from the surf, carrying her own precious cargo.
10:02In a few months, this sliver of beach will draw thousands of sea turtles for a mass nesting
10:08event.
10:09But for now, she and the other female seem to have it all to themselves.
10:33In the forest, the area's dominant male jaguar, named Alonso by Luis, sets off on a midnight
10:40hunt.
10:41On the beach, the first female turtle puts the final touches on her nest.
11:06Her eggs are now hidden, but she is still very much exposed.
11:13No stalking, no pouncing.
11:39Just a quick and easy bite to the back of the head.
12:05Back in the mangroves, Alonso settles down to his meal.
12:17His powerful jaws make quick work of the turtle's hard shell.
12:22The jaguar has the most powerful bite of any big cat.
12:26His jaws work just as well on the shell as they do on other animals' skulls.
12:46His tongue isn't just for tasting, it's lined with back-facing barbs that may aid with stripping
12:52flesh from bone.
12:58With Alonso otherwise occupied, the other nesting female is still hard at work.
13:18Around a hundred eggs tumble into the nest, soft leathery shells cushion their fall.
13:33In her final maternal act, she carefully conceals them.
13:46Then, she returns to her ocean world, never to know what becomes of her clutch.
13:56Her eggs must now survive the next 45 days, hidden in the sand, on a beach where everyone
14:03is looking for their next meal.
14:14Back in the mangroves, the turtle will feed Alonso for two days.
14:19For now, he has eaten his fill, but he's not the only one dining tonight.
14:35As he takes a break, hungry scavengers move in from the shadows.
14:47The scent penetrates the forest.
14:59A resourceful opossum is in luck.
15:02He's so taken by his windfall, he fails to notice that someone has come back for seconds.
15:15The jaguar's leftovers will nourish a whole forest community.
15:39But Luis is concerned for the turtles, because olive ridleys are in decline around the world.
15:47How will the growing jaguar population affect the vulnerable turtles staging their own comeback
15:52here on this critical beach?
16:00Luis hopes his camera traps can offer some clues.
16:05So, we know that the jaguar's possibly in the night can walk here, even to sleep, to
16:12rest, and to wait for a turtle.
16:14So, that's why we know that this is a good place to put a camera traps.
16:20The cameras reveal a secret no one expected, constant traffic of jaguars moving between the dry
16:38forest and the beach.
16:53What was once a sanctuary for Luis's nesting sea turtles has become a favorite hunting ground
17:00for a forest predator.
17:05It's an amazing comeback story for the big cats.
17:19During the 1950s and 60s, Costa Rica's northwestern coast was stripped of its trees, replaced by
17:26by a patchwork of cattle ranches, jaguars and other forest animals all but disappeared.
17:37Then, in 1971, Costa Rica created Santa Rosa National Park and let nature rebuild the forest.
17:51New growth stretched across the province, eventually connecting the coast to an inland jaguar habitat.
18:14One by one, the cats followed the lure of the resurrected forest.
18:19They found their way deeper into the park, expanding their territory, all the way to the beach.
18:28To monitor the effects of this surge of predators, Luis assembled a small team with a passion for jaguars.
18:41And the patience and fortitude to work in extreme isolation.
18:48When you're a child, everyone asks you what you want to do with the biggest work.
19:03When you're a child, everyone asks you what you want to do with the biggest work.
19:07You want to be an astronaut, you want to be a dancer, you want to be a dancer.
19:14I wanted to work with animals.
19:20Being biologist and working in the field is what allows you to live with animals and learn a lot of them,
19:28without having to be behind a screen or reading in a book because it's much more different.
19:39Also, here we are in a place where we can study one of the most elusive animals that exist.
19:46These elusive animals are what drew Carolina Perez from her home in Italy to this rugged coastal outpost.
19:54Several hours drive and a mountain hike from the nearest town.
20:01With only a flashlight and a bag of batteries, she monitors the project's cameras.
20:10They have captured some fascinating consequences of the jaguar's return.
20:15The jaguar eats a turtle, takes a few hours eating, and when it's full, leaves the turtle in the carcasa.
20:25This carcasa is available for a large number of species that normally do not act like scavengers.
20:32The presence of the jaguar gives the opportunity to other species to feed themselves.
20:37Even pumas, top predators themselves, have altered their behavior.
20:50They've become more active during the day, to avoid the new rulers of the night.
20:56And they're not above jaguar leftovers if it means a free meal.
21:00What we're seeing, thanks to the work of tramp cameras, is also the importance of the jaguar in the ecosystem.
21:10It's not just the turtle and the jaguar, but everything that happens in the area around the beach.
21:21The team's cameras are offering other revelations as well.
21:25Normally, a single male jaguar needs 50 square miles of territory to himself.
21:38Here, an abundance of turtles keeps competition for food low.
21:43And these intensely solitary cats live in much closer proximity.
21:47This gives Luis's cameras an unprecedented view into their social lives.
21:53Luis has recorded jaguars mating, wrestling, and even carting off an ill-fated dolphin.
22:14The project identifies the individual cats by their rosettes, the spots on their fur.
22:29Each jaguar's pattern is as unique as a human fingerprint.
22:34In the last 10 years, Luis's team has documented and named around 40 individual jaguars.
22:49And they're capturing not just behaviors, but personalities.
22:53Alonso, the 12-year-old dominant male, asserts his right to any female or food on the beach.
23:03Amanda, highly territorial.
23:06She seems to be the dominant female.
23:08And Jorge, a young tough on the cusp of adulthood.
23:20He's been gravitating towards the females in heat.
23:23Tonight, Jorge is on the prowl, heading to the beach in search of an easy meal.
23:41And he's well-equipped to spot one.
23:46His eyes are backed with a mirror-like tissue that reflects light into his retinas,
23:52and gives all cats their famous night vision.
23:55Tonight, he finds no turtles, but something for other appetites.
24:08It's Amanda, enjoying her own turtle catch.
24:13Jorge is eager to put his adolescent prowess to the test.
24:18In this rare peak into Jaguar courtship, Jorge and Amanda take playful breaks between couplings.
24:43But the interlude is cut short when Alonso arrives.
25:00Jorge beats a hasty retreat.
25:20Still outranked by Alonso, he'll have to settle for a fleeting tryst.
25:28For now, he heads back to the forest to wait out the heat.
25:43Early April.
25:45At the peak of dry season, the sun bakes the canopy.
25:49As streams dry up, tensions rise.
25:59A trip to one of the few remaining watering holes now means risking a run-in with a thirsty predator.
26:08A family of white-faced capuchin monkeys shelters high in the canopy.
26:23But the heat is unrelenting, and while mum naps, a young capuchin takes his brother on a daring mission.
26:30To drink from a small seep in the ground.
26:35Bees have beaten them to it.
26:53He endures the thirsty swarm for a few precious drops.
27:00His brother isn't quite convinced it's worth it.
27:13The sun beats down across the park.
27:16From the forest to the beach, life slows to a crawl.
27:25Even offshore, the coastal breeze offers little relief to a colony of magnificent frigate birds.
27:37A young mum-to-be languishes in the heat, shielding her single egg from the relentless sun.
27:43She'll remain on the nest for the next eight weeks, leaving only for brief spells to find food and water.
27:57Inside the forest, Amanda is also looking for water.
28:22But Luis's cameras catch someone else on the hunt.
28:33Jorge is more interested in a private moment than a drink.
28:49Amanda puts on a half-hearted show of resistance.
29:10The coupling takes less than a minute.
29:22Fast work.
29:23But jaguars can make dozens of times a day.
29:26In between mating, the couple takes a stroll.
29:45Using scent glands in his cheeks, Jorge lays his claim to this swath of forest.
30:04It seems the young upstart has stepped out of Alonzo's shadow.
30:19Late May.
30:34The beginning of the wet season in the dry forest.
30:37More than three feet of rain falls in just the first three weeks.
30:52The forest springs to life.
31:09In the next five months, over 90% of the year's rain will fall.
31:15Long dry river beds begin to flow.
31:21A wave of relief for the parched forest.
31:24A slow greening spreads across the hills.
31:39Transforming Santa Rosa into a coastal oasis.
31:44Capuchins feast on nuts and ripe berries.
32:00Capuchins feast on nuts and ripe berries.
32:05A woodpecker chick gets her food delivered right to the nest.
32:26And as the forest begins to stir, the promise of new life also arrives by sea.
32:33A woodpecker chick gets her food.
32:36A woodpecker chick gets her food.
32:39Late summer.
32:40August winds bring an air of anticipation.
32:45Beyond the break, female olive ridley sea turtles begin to assemble.
33:00They are one of only two turtle species that gather in a synchronized mass nesting event.
33:17The first few females converge offshore.
33:34Soon, hundreds arrive.
33:36The shallows fill with a constellation of turtles.
33:53They're all waiting for a mysterious signal humans have yet to decipher.
33:59A cue that the time is right to head ashore.
34:12Over the next few months, thousands will pour force from the ocean.
34:31An armada of mothers bringing the next generation to the sand.
34:50An armada of mothers bringing the next generation to the sea.
35:05It's one of the natural world's timeless and spectacular sights.
35:10A ritual of renewal.
35:12That may date back to the age of the dinosaurs.
35:19The beach becomes a sea of churning sand.
35:35In a single season, this small crescent, less than a mile long, will be filled with up to seven million eggs.
36:00But on Jaguar Beach, a successful hatch is far from guaranteed.
36:19As the Arabada subsides, Carolina gets to work.
36:24This atmosphere has a full-time spot on the sea.
36:26All night, we can do a daytime crossing or in nesting,
36:27with the aim of marking these marine turtles.
36:32Hello, little girl.
36:33Our project is large-scale sea of flags.
36:36We have a strawberry stone that can be found on the sea.
36:41We have a number of turtles to identify the turtles.
36:44If she is coming back to the sea or in other playas.
36:49We have 10 acres of materials.
36:53What we're doing at the moment is to mark a nest at night.
36:57Then, during the climb, we mark 200 nests,
37:01and then we have to wait 45 days.
37:11These 45 days mark a dangerous period for the baby turtles.
37:17As they incubate in the sand,
37:19relentless predators stalk them from above.
37:23On most nesting beaches, wild dogs, foxes and coyotes,
37:40so-called mesopredators, plunder nests for the protein-packed eggs.
37:54Using the tools of shoestring science,
37:57Carolina is trying to track how many of these nests will be raided.
38:01The bottles make it easy to see if a nest has been disturbed.
38:04The bottles make it easy to see if a nest has been disturbed.
38:07During recent arubadas, the bottles have helped them document an encouraging
38:11treatment.
38:12trend that they believe is tied to the return of the jaguars.
38:17that they believe is tied to the return of the jaguars.
38:22the jaguars.
38:23What we think is happening is that the presence of a great predator,
38:26like the jaguar,
38:28will regulate the number of coyotes,
38:29and the number of coyotes,
38:30and the number of coyotes,
38:31and the number of coyotes,
38:32and the number of coyotes,
38:33that they believe is tied to the return of the jaguars.
38:34It seems the jaguars are keeping smaller predators off the beach,
38:37inadvertently protecting the turtles' eggs.
38:39As Carolina works,
38:40she is constantly aware of the jaguars.
38:42the jaguars are keeping smaller predators off the beach,
38:45inadvertently protecting the turtle's eggs.
38:47As Carolina works,
38:49she is constantly aware of the jaguars.
38:50But what we think is the present is that the presence of a great predator,
38:52like a jaguar,
38:53will regulate the number of coyotes and other individuals
38:54who go to the beach and fall to the nests.
38:56It seems the jaguars are keeping smaller predators off the beach,
39:00inadvertently protecting the turtles' eggs.
39:05As Carolina works,
39:07She's constantly aware of the jaguar's presence in the dark.
39:37I'm not going to sleep at night, I'm going to sleep at the beach, but it's something that changes the attitude and it's incredible.
39:57Thank you, little girl.
40:07Carolina isn't the only one patrolling the night.
40:18Amanda has caught wind of a late night snack.
40:24It's easy pickings on jaguar beach.
40:39I'm not going to sleep at night.
40:58And from the size of her belly, it looks like Amanda is eating for two.
41:21But Amanda won't be the only mom whose success is tied to the turtles.
41:34A half mile offshore, the frigate bird colony is noisier than usual.
41:44Across their island outpost, hundreds of downy hatchlings begin to stir.
41:49The first time mother awakens to her hungry and persistent chick.
42:10For their first five months, frigate bird chicks depend entirely on their mothers for food.
42:15Chicks that don't get fed, don't last long.
42:17Chicks that don't get fed, don't last long.
42:30Chicks that don't get fed, don't last long.
42:44Mom has to hunt, and fast.
42:47But she knows exactly where to go.
42:50The last month and a half have been quiet on the beach since the end of the Arribada.
43:05But today, something is different.
43:12The sand begins to shift.
43:26The beach erupts with new life.
43:39The beach erupts with new life.
43:41The beach.
43:42The beach erupts with new life.
44:17For the hatchlings, digging their way to the surface is just the beginning.
44:46It's a long way to the water, and there's a gauntlet to be run.
44:57For a creature only two inches long, almost everything is an obstacle.
45:02A fallen branch blocks the path.
45:20At last, she's on the open beach.
45:32But here, the dangers multiply.
45:48The young frigate bird mother swoops in right on time.
46:04One by one, hatchlings are carried off into the sky.
46:14A spiny-tailed iguana launches an aggressive ground attack.
46:18Even the crustaceans close in.
46:36Ghost crabs are surprisingly strong.
46:42Another hatchling looks destined for a similar fate.
46:56With a survivor's determination, she fends off the attack.
47:07She races for the ocean.
47:09One final close call.
47:23And then...
47:28The finish line.
47:29She plunges into a salty marine world, where she'll spend years before returning to this beach.
47:48She'll swim out past the rocky retreat, where the frigate bird mom can now feed her chick a magnificent meal.
48:06Only one in a thousand of these baby turtles will survive to adulthood.
48:19But Luis believes these hatchlings got some surprising help from the forest predator,
48:25that takes their mothers, but safeguards their nests.
48:28During several years, there was a void of neonatuses that were born on the beach.
48:39In this moment, with the presence of the jaguar on the beach,
48:42the neonatuses are able to live,
48:45they are coming to the water,
48:47and with great luck, in the future,
48:49they will be able to be new individuals that will come to the beach to put their eggs.
48:53What allows me to conclude is that, in reality, the presence of the jaguar is positive in this moment for the marine turtles.
49:05Luis's team has found that jaguars kill less than 1% of the beaches' nesting mothers.
49:12And by warding off threats to the eggs,
49:14the predator has become the protector.
49:23On the island, the frigate bird chicks continue to gorge on the hatchling bounty.
49:44And in the forest, Amanda is caught on camera, doing something strange.
49:50She tears off bite-sized portions from her latest turtle catch.
49:58A few days later, Luis's cameras provide an adorable explanation.
50:19Amanda with her curious new cubs.
50:32For the next two years, Amanda will teach her cubs how to survive.
50:37And guide them through the dry forest that helped bring her species back to this special beach.
51:00The rebirth of Santa Rosa's forest, and the resurrection of its magnificent top predator, has restored an ancient relationship.
51:19The renewed partnership has healed the connection between vastly different worlds.
51:34From the forest, to the air, to the deep ocean, to the beach where the lives of all their inhabitants intertwine.
51:56Where two creatures reunite as they were for thousands of years.
52:06Predator, prey.
52:09Unlikely allies in each other's survival.
52:15Think of the previous people.
52:16From at least 150 million years old.
52:17The truth is that when you see triumph of people.
52:18And the butterfly is so耳 early.
52:19You and I, by the safety of them.
52:20You became successful, and you jthe earth and then you Ajaxите is more than day.
52:21You may be surprised.
52:22I've had to go of!!!
52:24I was probably a soldier who's far and angry with all about this.
52:25Rockies are trying to live your conscience.
52:26Put your heart.
52:27We shrunk and與 your actions of all your actions of the war.
52:29You are trying to love youraction, Ведь.
52:30And the way the exchange of allials of us today is to life Tamara.
52:31Let us know...
52:32Lay us in the Caih s.
52:35...helica Rolleomination is to the freedom of never be seen from the foundation baby gallar
52:37...
52:38Rolly to kimseismatic the answer
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