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Expedition Amazon 2024 [Full Movie] [Hot 2026]Full EP - Full
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00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:30Deep in the Amazon, there's a place where dolphins fly through trees.
00:38I am amazed, but how is possible these animals, these incredible creatures, are here in the jungle?
00:46A place where bears live in the clouds.
00:51The Andean bear is like the engineer of the cloud forest.
00:57A place where turtles have guardian angels.
01:01It's a place that ended up being caught in a way that I wouldn't have to leave.
01:07And the trees, they soak up 20 billion tons of water every day to create rivers in the sky.
01:20That water is what connects it all.
01:23We're talking about the largest river of the world.
01:27It's not just water in the river.
01:29It's water in the glaciers, in the atmosphere, in the clouds.
01:32But the Amazon is changing in real time.
01:36And there's so much we don't know.
01:38There are a lot of threats here in the Amazon, but still there are some people trying to make the
01:44difference.
01:46In an unprecedented two-year expedition, National Geographic is bringing together a passionate group of scientists to follow the water
01:56as they explore the magnificent ecosystems within.
02:01From the tops of the Andes, across 4,000 miles, to the Atlantic Ocean, and beyond.
02:09Science enables us to see into the future.
02:12To ensure that it's still standing for the next generation.
02:17It matters what we do.
02:38When you think of the Amazon,
02:42these 20,000 foot peaks may not come to mind.
02:48But this, is where it all begins.
02:52We actually are in the Amazon basin.
03:00We're right on the edge, right on the eastern side of the Andes.
03:08This is an important water tower.
03:11The snow and ice that you see here, eventually is going to make its way down into the Amazon.
03:18But the glaciers here are disappearing.
03:21And we don't know how quickly.
03:27That's what National Geographic explorer, Baker Perry, is here to find out.
03:32I'm leading this expedition to install a weather station near the summit of Asongate.
03:38Having lived in the Andes when he was younger,
03:41this is a sort of homecoming for Baker.
03:45Just in my lifetime,
03:46I've seen tremendous changes happening in the Amazon with ongoing deforestation.
03:53What we're trying to understand is how glaciers are responding.
04:00We have a very, very limited understanding of the weather or climate at the tops of these Andean mountains.
04:08So Baker, Tom, and their team of local guides and experts set out to tackle one of the highest peaks
04:15in the Amazon basin.
04:16These enormous glaciers store water for communities downstream.
04:21As the climate is warming, that kind of reliable source of fresh water is in danger.
04:26That water is intricately tied to the water cycling through all of Amazonia.
04:33The water molecules that fall as snow on the Andean peaks are coming from evaporation from those mighty trees in
04:40the Amazon.
04:44Flowing up through the trees, it releases into the atmosphere.
04:51Then it's going to condense out, form a cloud.
04:55And that cloud is going to be moved by the winds into the Andes.
05:03Where it's going to eventually fall as snow.
05:07When one part is altered, the entire system reacts.
05:12If you cut down trees in the rainforest, the amount of snowfall that occurs here drops.
05:18A weather station will provide insight into how much these glaciers are shrinking.
05:25But first, they need to get there.
05:30The Asungate is not an easy mountain.
05:32It's a huge effort to get weather equipment up to these elevations.
05:36That's why it hasn't really been done before.
05:38Good luck. Thank you.
05:41The physical challenges on these expeditions are real.
05:46The hardest part of climbing is the lack of oxygen.
05:58About half past two in the morning.
06:00For it's summarized in about three and a half hours.
06:11We have one little section to go up here.
06:14And then another fixed line going up there.
06:20If they succeed, the data from atop Asungate will be invaluable to the millions of people who depend on it.
06:30In the last ten years, water is decreasing every year.
06:35Every year is less, less, less than water.
06:38For Quechuan biologist Ruth Meripilco Arkaya, this loss is personal.
06:45She grew up in the high Andes, where the glacier has always protected the people.
06:53The glacier is a key part of our culture.
06:57As a child, her grandmother would tell stories about a mythical bear.
07:03This character called the Ukuku, like, is the semi-god between a bear and a human,
07:09does go to the Asungate to carry a block of ice to the communities as a sign they are going
07:14to have more water.
07:16The Ukuku story has played out for centuries in the Koyoriti festival.
07:22My grandmother used to tell me that the ice was very nearby.
07:26But now, with climate change, the snow is far away.
07:32They are not able to bring this ice cube anymore.
07:38Ukukus are more than a myth.
07:40Ukuku mean and they are very Quechuan, yeah.
07:44For Ruth, the real thing is just as mysterious.
07:49We are trying to understand the secret life of the Andean bird.
07:54A creature we know little about.
08:00Except that it's vital for forests in the clouds.
08:04That sit below Ausangate.
08:24Glaciers may be the water tower for the Amazon basin.
08:28But Andean cloud forests are the rain machine.
08:33They act like a sponge, soaking up moisture and releasing it downstream.
08:45I always like to climb trees, it's a different perspective being in the canopy, you know, it's a different world,
08:53a completely different world.
08:55Both the forest and bears are threatened, and they need each other to thrive.
09:02As voracious plant eaters, bears, spread seeds, wherever they go.
09:07They are very good street climbers.
09:09They spend most of their time actually on the trees.
09:13Camera traps will track their movements, to help Ruth understand their effect on the forest.
09:26The Andean birds, it's very hard to study, especially in this kind of terrain.
09:32In order to get this information, we need to also hide a lot.
09:44It's time to check the cameras, all 75 of them.
09:51We left this camera traps for the whole year, but we are doing the monitoring every two months.
09:56Oh my gosh.
10:00While the bears avoid the spotlight, others aren't so shy.
10:23To follow their trail, Ruth brings along her top tracker.
10:30Oh, coco.
10:39Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
10:45As the bears are moving, they are helping to disperse many of these three species.
10:50They eat the seeds and they poo.
10:56So this poo has the seeds and has the nutrients to grow.
11:03This is a vaccinium, it's an arándano silvestre, and this is one of the fruit favorites of the ose.
11:11The seeds that we just found contain fruit from this.
11:15We have a camera at 10 meters.
11:18We hope the camera has worked.
11:20How in the Jewish Connection?
11:36Oso.
11:38Oso.
11:39Oso, oso.
11:59While the cameras reveal bear behavior, to really understand how they move, they need
12:06to get closer.
12:10The first time we caught our first bear, I couldn't describe the feeling I have.
12:17I don't know, like my brother, like my elder brother, I feel like part of my family.
12:22It's an incredible creature.
12:24GPS callers track their every move.
12:29And for the first time, a National Geographic critter cam goes on walkabout with a bear
12:36named Sunchu.
12:39We can see from the perspective of the bear how it's moving around.
12:46We are following the journey and we are learning a lot.
12:52It turns out Sunchu and the other 40 plus bears she's identified so far are covering a larger
13:00and higher range than expected.
13:02You see some clusters, this means they spend quite a lot of time in this part of the forest.
13:10Her findings are extraordinary.
13:13As the climate warms and the bears move higher, they'll bring seeds with them, helping forests
13:21regrow at cooler elevations.
13:23Now we are thinking how the bears are going to help many of these species to adapt to the
13:29new environment.
13:31They just may be the key to ensuring the cloud forest survives.
13:38So we can keep the water moving down the Andes and into the headwaters where it begins to transform
13:49into something recognizable.
13:56It's not just one river.
13:59You have thousands of small rivers just flowing to the big Amazon.
14:07Making up 20% of the fresh water for the entire planet.
14:16The Amazon is the heart of the planet.
14:20And all these rivers are the veins of this heart.
14:34One magical creature considers the whole river system home.
14:41Dolphins don't recognize borders.
14:43They basically move free on the rivers.
14:50So does Fernando Trujillo, who moved to the Colombian Amazon to dedicate his life to them.
14:56When I just came here, it was difficult to find the dolphins because I didn't have a trained
15:01eye.
15:03And this was full of life, but I couldn't see the life.
15:09So it took time until I started to understand a little bit the river.
15:14After 35 years, Fernando's vision is clear.
15:20Protect the animal, keeping the equilibrium of this system.
15:25Dolphins are the jaguars in the water.
15:28They are the top predators.
15:29They are able to move in the main rivers, lakes, flooded forests, everywhere.
15:36That equilibrium is under constant assault.
15:40And pink dolphin populations are decreasing in record numbers.
15:45The deforestation is there, there are burnings, there are pollution.
15:51And there's drought.
16:07The Amazon site's worst drought on record in 2023.
16:14Low water levels trap more heat from the sun, spiking temperatures.
16:21For the first time, we have a kind of phenomenon where a lot of dolphins were dying very quickly.
16:30We lost 70 dolphins in just one day.
16:34Millions of fish have died.
16:43Fernando is working with local teams to conserve these dolphins any way they can.
16:50By tagging them, they hope to identify feeding and nursing areas and expand protections.
16:57And who better than them to show us.
17:06Go, go, go, go.
17:09Go, go, go.
17:10Go.
17:12Go.
17:15Go.
17:16Go.
17:20Go.
17:31Now we capture three dolphins, they are inside the big net.
17:53Now we capture three dolphins, they are inside the big net.
18:03During a capture, veterinarian Maria Jimena Valderrama monitors the dolphins' health.
18:26It's in some way invasive, we are taking out of the water an aquatic animal.
18:32So, we take the record of the cardiac frequency, the respiratory frequency.
18:39If I see that the animal is not very altered, I think it's best to liberate the animal,
18:46because the main thing for us is the well-being of them.
18:50This is a female, a big one, 20 meters.
18:54She is already pregnant.
18:55A dolphin can have one calf every 4.5 years.
19:02And the pregnancy is 13 months.
19:04So, in a lifetime, they can have like four or five calves.
19:09So, it's very important for these animals to try to conserve.
19:13Any animal, they come.
19:17I'm trying to take pictures of both blood and tissue.
19:21We put the tag quickly.
19:25With the anesthesia, we ensure that the animal doesn't feel any pain
19:29when installing the satellite transmitter.
19:35The tagging became a very powerful tool
19:38to understand what areas are really important
19:42for the conservation of the dolphins.
19:54Fernando's finding that males have large home ranges.
19:58The males move away looking for other groups of females.
20:02But females stay in areas where they always have access to food.
20:10This puts them in direct conflict with humans.
20:15Sometimes the fishermen say,
20:17Look, the dolphins are stealing our fish.
20:20They go to our nets and take the fish from our nets.
20:24These dolphins have learned to associate fishing activities with a free meal.
20:31Marine biologist and photographer, Thomas Peschak,
20:35joins the expedition near the Negro River
20:37to get a look at this behavior from the dolphins' perspective.
20:44The direct conflict can end with a dolphin death,
20:50or it can damage the net from fishermen.
20:54But there's a possible solution.
20:56The pingers are acoustic deflectors.
20:59It's a way to put noise on the nets
21:02to avoid the dolphins approaching the nets.
21:06Pingers have worked in the ocean,
21:08but they've never been tested in the Amazon.
21:11So we are testing here for the first time with Mariana.
21:16We are working with the community inside the Cajiatuba Lake,
21:20and we have two fishermen supporting us doing the pilot tests.
21:25These give us some learning about how dolphins are motivated to catch the fish in the net.
21:33They perceive the sound and back away.
21:40Right after that, they try again.
21:45They persist and catch the fish.
21:50The pingers likely didn't work because the dolphins in this lake are used to people.
21:56So testing continues.
21:58I am hopeful because if it works, it's a mutual benefit for conservation and people.
22:05Knowing how they behave, knowing how they steal a fish might actually help better employ these pingers
22:10to deter these dolphins from stealing fish.
22:13As a National Geographic photographer,
22:16Thomas' ultimate goal is to help create the will to protect the Amazon and all its creatures.
22:24We need beautiful pictures underwater to connect the people with the dolphins.
22:33Diving with these dolphins is truly magical.
22:35There are individuals that are incredibly shy.
22:39There are individuals that are bald.
22:43And there are curious ones.
22:46That we know.
23:14We miss that.
23:38Every year, during the rainy season, an incredible phenomenon occurs throughout the Amazon.
23:46The rivers flood into the surrounding forests, up to 12 miles past the riverbanks and nearly 50 feet deep.
23:59Everything has evolved to follow that pulse. It's like a heartbeat. The forest, the animals, the people that live here,
24:13they're all living to this pulse.
24:15Of flood and dry.
24:19Including the dolphins.
24:23Flexible flippers and unfused vertebrae give them seemingly magical powers.
24:32They can literally fly between the trees. That's amazing.
24:38They rely on these trees to feed their fishy prey.
24:43When the forest floods, fish can access fruits and seeds on the branches.
24:49There is always this connection between the systems that is very important to maintaining biodiversity and things working as they
24:56should.
24:58But for how much longer?
25:03When threats like deforestation and warming temperatures disrupt the Amazon's ability to create its own rainfall, the entire system reacts,
25:13including the flood pulse.
25:16If you change the availability of water just a little bit, the ecosystem is not used to that and it's
25:23going to start behaving differently.
25:28How the trees will react is a mystery.
25:31Thiago Silva and his team had to produce flooded forest to solve.
25:38We're here to understand how trees can cope with months and months of flooding and how climate change could affect
25:47the future of these wetland forests.
25:53We don't know about the physiological properties of these trees.
25:57So we don't know exactly how they will cope.
26:01They work in the dead of night, collecting samples while the plants are resting.
26:07The idea is to get the fully exposed branches so where the sun is illuminating all of these branches during
26:16the day.
26:17And then he has to climb very high and to get these very big branches for us to solve.
26:23So it's quite an adventure.
26:26Julia is investigating traits, like vessel size, telling her how each tree will respond to wetter or drier conditions.
26:41Thiago is using cutting edge technology to map the bigger picture.
26:48What fascinates me about plants is how they run this whole mechanism of maintaining the environment, the ecosystem.
26:57While the animals, most of the time they're just the actors, right, what the plants, they really set the scene.
27:04Now, for the first time, Thiago's bringing that scene to the rest of the world.
27:09He's using LiDAR to create a 3D 360-degree snapshot.
27:15I like plants equipped with technology.
27:19This is a terrestrial laser scanner.
27:21It will send a beam of lasers in a cone all around this rotating head.
27:30The idea here is to overfly with the drone and get the 3D model from the top of the canopy.
27:43One thing that we expect to be able to do is to have a virtual environment where anyone can go
27:48inside the forest.
27:51And then see how the water levels could rise.
27:54And you can almost physically experience what it means to have 10 meters of water flooding a forest.
28:04Thiago and Julia's findings will give a glimpse into the future, predicting which trees may not survive and what that
28:12means for the creatures who depend on them.
28:18I want to understand enough of the system to be able to prepare for that the best way you can.
28:25And make sure that we don't lose everything that those forests have to offer.
28:30It's not just the animals who rely on these forests, but 40 million people throughout the Amazon.
28:37The vast majority of the population lives just by the river.
28:41They depend on the rivers for transportation.
28:44They depend on this forest for the fish.
28:47They depend on it for the timber itself.
28:50So everybody depends on the Amazon to live.
28:54And the people who live in the middle of it are the key to protecting it.
29:06The river to save this river economy drives another team of explorers deep into the Juruá, a tributary of the
29:28Amazon.
29:28To work alongside local communities.
29:33So we see a lot of this relationship, the complementarity of that system.
29:39Because, in fact, people are not there, they are part of it.
29:48The final goal of our project is to understand how we can align the protection of the biodiversity
29:57of the people in the city with the well-being of the people.
30:01Good. Good.
30:03The team collaborates with locals to protect the giant river turtle.
30:10And increase numbers of Arapaima.
30:15Known locally as Pirarucu.
30:17Both are important for local food security.
30:22But also, have high commercial value.
30:26A exploração descontrolada desse recurso acabou reduzindo muito as populações.
30:33For me, Pirarucu is an Amazonian superstar.
30:36It's bigger than me. It's weight more than me.
30:41It's the largest freshwater-scale fish in the world.
30:46But by the late 90s, it was nearly fished to extinction.
30:54So researchers and local fishermen joined forces to create a sustainable fishing plan based on a quota system.
31:03The protection of the aquatic environments that you are protecting the Pirarucu is how you are doing a bank account.
31:10João and the team have been helping to implement that plan here in the Juruá for 15 years.
31:23It's an incredible success story. The Pirarucu population has increased by 600%.
31:32And, besides that, we usually call the Pirarucu as the change fish.
31:36He has brought various social and economic changes to these communities.
31:43Now, they're taking that success one step further.
31:48Using a GPS tag on Pirarucu is a really challenging task because it was never done before.
31:58It was only possible because we worked together with local fishermen.
32:03So, they have this historical knowledge interacting with these species.
32:07So, they are fundamental, from the process of understanding the best place to place this device.
32:17If it works, real-time data tracking their range may lead to additional protection and ultimately, more fish.
32:31If we increase our number of tax credits, we will have a greater income in each manager of the Pirarucu.
32:48Further down the Juruá River, João and Andresa join forces with other locals in their fight to protect one of
32:56the Amazon's iconic species.
33:21Every year, female turtles emerge on the riverbanks to nest.
33:28They go into a trance-like state while laying eggs, making everyone, mom included, vulnerable.
33:37Despite their protected status, river turtles and their eggs are a delicacy in high demand.
33:56The poachers are relentless, destroying 99% of nests on unguarded beaches.
34:17For nearly 30 years, Bomb and his family have lived across from the turtle lasting beach.
34:23Or Tabuleiro, they protect.
34:25We know that if we didn't do this type of monitoring, for our adolescent, that is coming today, we wouldn't
34:34exist anymore.
34:40Bomba was one of the first guards of the praias.
34:43And today, he is a very strong representative of all the protectors of the praias.
35:14What Chica finds is that they're hard work.
35:17The work is paying off.
35:20On protected beaches, poaching rates drop to just 2%.
35:25This is the biggest joy that I have.
35:28The arroz is a lot.
35:38Good morning, Seboa.
35:40Good morning.
35:40Good morning.
35:41But unlike the fishermen, beach guardians don't profit from what they protect.
35:46To keep the program going, they need help.
35:50The problem with the protection of the praias is that it's not possible to have a good pay for the
35:54protectors of the praia.
35:56Their payment is a monthly food basket.
35:59And only for the months they work, from nesting to hatching.
36:09So they're fully dependent on fundraising.
36:13And one of the objectives that we have is just to make a capture of resources that allow this program
36:19of protection of the praias to extend eternally.
36:46The fight for a healthy Amazon impacts us all.
36:51The forest, here alone, stores so much carbon.
36:56They help protect the entire planet.
36:59Every forest, every tree has a role in that because they remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
37:05Ângelo Bernardino wants to know how much.
37:09He heads to the mouth of the river, where the water that started in the glaciers empties into the Atlantic.
37:15At the rate of 84 Olympics rain pools every second.
37:21So, this should be fantastic.
37:25Here, lives a coastal forest unlike anything they've ever seen.
37:36This is a mixed mangrove forest.
37:38So, it's going to be really neat to see what's going on in there.
37:42Let's go.
37:46Ângelo is studying the Amazon mangroves for the first time.
37:50I think mangroves here in Brazil are such an iconic place.
37:55They are really important to protect the coast and as a life-supported system.
38:00Most mangroves grow in salt or brackish water.
38:05Not these.
38:07We are right here in the ocean and we are measuring the salinity and the salinity is zero.
38:13It's fresh water.
38:15Forcing these mangroves to adapt.
38:19This might be a very unique forest on the coast of the Amazon.
38:23We've never seen this before.
38:25There it is.
38:31They are taking samples to find out just how much carbon is stored here.
38:37What do you think?
38:38I reckon it's about 400 years worth of sediment deposition here.
38:42Nice.
38:44What's really important guys is to twist all the time.
38:48So, hopefully you get your soil sample out.
38:50Look at that.
38:51That's beautiful.
38:53Nice.
38:53It's got a two-meter core.
38:55It's got a two-meter core.
38:56What's incredible is how much carbon we can still see even at two meters in depth.
39:02And you can even see old leaves that are thousands of years old that have been preserved in the soils.
39:09Amazon rainforests sequester 120 billion tons of carbon.
39:14It turns out these mangroves contain even more.
39:19Amazon mangroves hold three to four times more carbon than the same area in the Amazon upland forest.
39:27You can use this natural function of mangroves in the Amazon river mouth towards mitigation of climate change.
39:34They are sustaining life by just being there, by just being preserved.
39:40The Amazon's global impact doesn't stop here.
39:46And neither does the Amazon.
39:50The plume of fresh water and sediment that pours from the Amazon into the ocean reaches as far as the
39:58Caribbean islands.
40:00So you can actually detect the fresh water of the Amazon as far north as Puerto Rico.
40:09All that fresh water carries an infusion of nutrients whose impact on the marine ecosystem is yet to be fully
40:17understood.
40:18We are now in Tobago on the Eastern Caribbean Sea.
40:21Tom and Angelo team up to see it first hand.
40:25Are you all ready?
40:35A lot of the marine life that we see here may be directly dependent on the food that is delivered
40:41by the Amazon river pump.
40:46And that translates into a completely different marine ecosystem.
40:50Here you have reefs that are dominated by sponges.
40:53Even like blue sponges.
40:56I've never seen blue sponges in my life.
40:58The sponge is actually uniquely responsible for taking the riches the Amazon river bestows on the Caribbean.
41:06And transforming it into compounds that all the other species in the food web can actually access as well.
41:14We are only scratching the surface in terms of understanding the far reaches of the Amazon river pump.
41:22When it comes to the Amazon, one thing is clear.
41:26Everything is connected.
41:27From sponges in the Caribbean all the way back to its icy origin in the Andes.
41:41Are you good?
41:42Okay, we've powered it up.
41:45The battery is charging.
41:46Awesome job.
41:48This weather station is the highest in Peru and the highest in the tropical Andes.
41:54And ultimately we'll improve climate projections into the future.
41:59We're in a position that we know that the decisions we take in the next decade or so will determine
42:05what the face of the earth looks like for thousands of years to come.
42:09What we do in the next few years really matters.
42:11So everybody can keep enjoying this beautiful and amazing place that is our home, our planet.
42:17We're going to ...
42:38We're in Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Nepal and Venezuela.
42:45Perfect.
42:46One, two, three. River Dolphin!
43:21As respostas para a conservação da Amazônia, para como usar da melhor forma os recursos
43:25naturais estão aqui com essas pessoas nesses lugares.
43:29A gente não vai trazê-la, ela vai construir aqui.
43:37Levanta o bradis, a fulana de tal!
43:40É não só sobre ciência, é também sobre soluções.
43:45Também sobre trabalhar com comunidades locais e também sobre a esperança.
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