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00:15TREVOR
00:16Travel north from the Amazon, you'll find another.
00:19A true loomis.
00:21Its interior uncharted, its animals uncatalogued.
00:29Guyana.
00:32Now an international team of expert naturalists
00:35are coming to search for the species hidden in this forgotten forest.
00:41We've come somewhere no one's ever been before,
00:43and it's one of the most spectacular places on the planet.
00:50There are probably hundreds if not thousands of species here
00:53that haven't been seen by anybody, and we will find them first.
01:00Guyana's forest, unspoiled, unprotected, and under threat.
01:06Our job is to prove that these forests have more value alive than race to the ground.
01:37It's the size of Great Britain with the population of Liverpool.
01:41Nearly everyone lives on the narrow strip by the coast,
01:44but travel south, and there's rainforest for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
02:00The only way to base camp is by boat.
02:02A ten hour journey from the nearest dirt road.
02:07I was amazed, you know, when we were flying in,
02:10there were a few little houses weren't there,
02:11and that was it.
02:14The good stuff's in there, not here.
02:17George, you've got about six weeks to get in there and find stuff.
02:20Don't be impatient, calm down, it'll all get up.
02:22Let's get there, let's get there.
02:25It's a land full of giants.
02:30Giant hortus, the biggest spiders in the world,
02:34enormous caiman, eight-meter anaconda,
02:37and the biggest cat in South America,
02:40a mysterious jaguar.
02:44This forest is untouched,
02:46but in two years they could be logging these trees.
02:50The team's destination?
02:52A base camp, built by the advanced party.
02:58Each team member has a different speciality.
03:01Gordon Buchanan will be searching for the large mammals.
03:04My job in this expedition is to try and find and film as many animals.
03:07as many different animals as I can.
03:09If I could pick only two animals,
03:11the first would be giant otters,
03:13and the second one,
03:14and the most difficult one would be the jaguar.
03:17Justine Evans is a canopy specialist.
03:20She documents life at the top of giant trees.
03:24These forests have barely been explored on the ground,
03:26let low enough in the canopy,
03:27and I want to get up there and just see what's going on.
03:32They're absolutely stunning.
03:36Steve Batchel will be exploring lands as other naturalists cannot reach.
03:41In his search for animals,
03:43he'll attempt to first ascent up a remote mountain,
03:47and a daily ascent down a giant waterfall.
03:50It feels like I'm completely underneath it,
03:53completely surrounded by it.
03:58And the last expedition member,
04:00Dr George McGavin from Oxford University.
04:03He's leading the science team from a jungle laboratory
04:06right in the heart of camp.
04:09If we're concerned about species loss,
04:13which we all should be,
04:14we should be concerned about keeping the forests intact.
04:19The expedition's aim,
04:21to find what lives here,
04:23and to draw the world's attention to this.
04:26The largest unspoiled rainforest left on the planet.
04:34The team are still unpacking when there's a shout from the riverbank.
04:37A very rare monkey's been spotted.
04:40Oh, there, there, there, I can see it, there, there.
04:43We've got a beardie on the tree over there.
04:47Just see a little bit of movement in the foliage,
04:50but I can't actually see the monkey yet.
04:52Not at all.
04:55There we go.
04:56I've got one.
04:56Just wag their tail back and forward.
04:59It's quite typical behaviour in them.
05:01But is it...
05:02Oh, got a bit of movement up there.
05:04The bearded Saki is on the international list of endangered species.
05:08It's the best start they could hope for.
05:13And animals are even coming into the camp itself.
05:16Oh, lovely.
05:17Steve Backshall takes a look.
05:19That's beautiful.
05:22One of the common names that I have for it is the Amazon forest dragon.
05:26What I absolutely love about these is that, to begin with, they're really skittish,
05:29but once they actually sense that you mean them no harm,
05:32they'll quite happily sit in your hand and barely move at all.
05:37And he is absolutely beautiful.
05:39That's definitely one to add to our tick list.
05:45The expedition is working closely with Guyanese trackers.
05:49They know these jungles hide dangerous creatures.
05:53For the new arrivals, there's a safety briefing.
05:56The jungle clearly is an alien environment for most of us.
05:59And there's a few things we just need to bear in mind.
06:02We have had nine-foot caiman down on the landing just outside of camp only a couple of days ago.
06:06So if everyone could be very conscious about the fact that there are caiman in the waters and they are
06:10very dangerous.
06:12Groups of snakes that we need to be concerned about are the viper family, rattlesnakes, pit vipers,
06:16the infamous bush master, and also the coral snakes.
06:21Scorpions are here.
06:22As a general rule, the ones with the fat tails are the worst.
06:26There's some very, very large tarantulas here.
06:28But the small things are the worst things.
06:30Don't put your hands into holes because that's where you'll get stung.
06:40First light next morning.
06:42The teams split up to start their specialist surveys.
06:45Gordon's on a wrecking of the river.
06:50This whole part of the world is just riddled with waterways.
06:53And this is one of the major ones.
06:55But joining onto these rivers are smaller rivers, tiny little creeks.
06:59So it's on the little country lanes and the little cul-de-sacs that you find interesting stuff.
07:06First on Gordon's list is to see if he can find the rare giant otters.
07:11They're top predators, perfect indicators of a river's health.
07:15As you can imagine, something the size of a giant otter is going to leave one or two signs.
07:21Hey, look at this here. Look.
07:24We've got a bear bank like this.
07:26It's a very good place to find otters.
07:30They're the biggest otters in the world.
07:32Three times larger than any otter in Europe.
07:34Their favourite meal, piranhas.
07:37Wow, look at this.
07:38This is a very clear sign that there's otters in this area and very recent.
07:42I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't this morning.
07:45Their toes are not that much smaller than my fingers.
07:50If you think of an otter that has got hands almost the same size as mine, actually the otter itself
07:55is almost the same size as me.
07:57They're big, big beasts.
08:01Just put a little bit of tension on it.
08:02It just makes it a bit quicker and easier.
08:05While Gordon's on the river, Justine's high in the tree team is building an observation post with the help of
08:11Steve and the climbing team.
08:17The tree climbing in the rainforest is hot, sweaty.
08:21There's endless bugs, ants, wasps, bees, all of which hate you invading their world.
08:30Steve hauls up her platform.
08:32Justine will spend ten hours every day on a square of aluminium the size of a card table.
08:39That's as far as it will go.
08:40It's on the end of the pulley now.
08:49Yeah, it's a pretty good spot.
08:51It's not got a brilliant view, but it's a good start.
08:57At 17, Gordon swapped his job washing dishes on the Isle of Mull for an apprenticeship filming wildlife in Brazil.
09:04Oh, look here, look.
09:07His years in the Amazon taught him the skills of jungle tracking.
09:11Very easy to follow this.
09:13It's just a detective story when you're looking for wild animals.
09:18But with giant animals, they leave giant traces.
09:23Watch out for snakes.
09:26The fact that there's been giant otters here, chances are they've never been hunted.
09:31I'll be interested to see how they react when they see me.
09:36Justine's survey relies on a vital piece of kit, a high-definition camera.
09:44This lens can magnify up to 80 times, perfect for capturing canopy creatures.
09:50I can zoom in really, really close with this so I can see a monkey 200 metres away
09:55and I'll still be able to get in close enough to actually see whether it's a male or female,
09:59anything that will identify it.
10:01And we're here to see what's up in the canopy, so I've got to be up here all daylight hours.
10:13The expedition's based in a patch of forest that's been leased to the organisation Conservation International.
10:20The surrounding jungle stretches for hundreds of miles,
10:23but now large swathes are soon to be explored by logging companies.
10:28Guyana's a dangerous crossroad.
10:30It can either exploit what it's got and make a quick buck,
10:33or we can show what is here and the rarity and the diversity of this area.
10:39And that's why I'm here, is just to prevent the worst-case scenario.
10:46The team believe this could be pristine rainforest.
10:50The animals never hunted, the ancient trees still standing.
10:54In the 21st century, that's rare indeed.
11:00In Basecamp, the scientists are hard at work, recording all their discoveries.
11:07Their report will be presented to the president of Guyana.
11:11Finding any new or endangered species will strengthen the case for conservation.
11:19The hind legs are way back.
11:21Yeah.
11:22Almost...
11:22It's like a cricket.
11:23Twice the size of the body.
11:25That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life.
11:28It's a fly, hasn't got any wings, and it's got these really long hind legs.
11:32George McAdden's great passion is for insects.
11:34Really strange hind legs.
11:35I mean, at first I thought it was a cricket, a tiny cricket, but it's a bat fly.
11:39Insects make ecosystems work.
11:42Without bees, for instance, you'd have no flowering plants,
11:44you'd have no vegetables, no fruit.
11:46So, without the insects, you simply wouldn't have the big animals.
11:50From the tiniest bugs to the largest birds,
11:53there's over a million known species living in rainforests.
11:59George believes there could be another five million still waiting to be discovered.
12:07Ooh, I see. Look at that.
12:10Fallen trees like this are an amazing resource for insects and bugs and stuff.
12:16They're not always hollow enough to crawl inside.
12:19It is big.
12:20It is a biggie.
12:21This is going to be epic.
12:23No, there's a bat. Look, look, look, look at that.
12:26See it?
12:27There's about three of them.
12:29The thing is, there's nothing else in there, that's the worry.
12:32And let's go, let's see what's in here.
12:35It's like crawling into a large peaky tube.
12:39It's an extreme habitat, very rarely explored,
12:43and straight away he's coming up against new creatures.
12:46This is amazing.
12:48Look what we've got here.
12:49This is a whip spider.
12:51These long bits are actually its front legs,
12:55and because it lives in darkness,
12:57you can see how it's just feeling my finger there.
12:59See?
13:00It uses these very long legs to feel its prey,
13:03and its prey are these cave crickets here.
13:07Very sneakily, sometimes the whip spiders reach behind the cricket
13:11and just go tickle, tickle on the back end,
13:14and the cricket jumps forward into the jaws of the whip spider.
13:18Which is a really clever trick.
13:21The further I go into this, there's bigger and bigger whip spiders.
13:27Oh, there's an absolute monster over here.
13:29There are now, on this part of the roof,
13:32thirteen crickets and five whip spiders,
13:35who are just queuing up to eat them like crazy.
13:39Little is known about the biology of these weird predators.
13:43Somehow George has to catch one to take it back to the lab.
13:46Okay.
13:48One's just crawled across my face.
13:52Okay.
13:57Because it's now getting really, really tight,
14:01I have a bit of a problem.
14:05It's as hot as a sauna and crawling with bugs.
14:09George is in his element.
14:12Ah!
14:14Just one sec.
14:17I can't, I can't get out this, this hole's too tight.
14:21Ah!
14:26I feel like a, a beetle grub emerging from,
14:30from its long period of metamorphosis.
14:35Ha!
14:36Actually, I think I am stuck, actually.
14:39All I can say is,
14:41I don't think I've had as much fun in a log for a long time.
14:47Usually George only sees these bizarre beasts dead in a museum drawer.
14:52It's a rare chance to examine them alive.
14:54Look at that.
14:55Isn't that wonderful?
14:57That is the ultimate animal for hunting for prey in the dark.
15:01It's flattened.
15:02It's fast.
15:03It's got big, spiky palms at the front end.
15:07Incredibly long legs for just feeling its prey.
15:09If you designed an organism for catching crickets in the dark,
15:14this is it.
15:15And once the poor animal is trapped in those spines at the front,
15:19there is no escape from that.
15:27Although the expedition starts in base camp,
15:30each team member will also explore even more remote parts of Guyana.
15:37Today, Steve and the climbing team are heading out.
15:43Over in the west of the country,
15:45there are these exposed beds of ancient, ancient rock
15:50and one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls.
15:53And that's where the next leg of my journey is taking me.
16:02His destination?
16:04Guyana's only national park hidden deep in the heart of the forest.
16:13At its center, Kytia Falls.
16:19Five times higher than Niagara,
16:22each day 60 million tons of water flowing over these falls.
16:29Forty kilometers from the nearest world,
16:31just a handful of tourists flying to view this wonder of the world from the top.
16:37Nobody has fully explored the unique habitat around the plunge pool.
16:43That's the task for Steve and climbing supervisor Tim Fogg.
16:48That is a very long way down.
16:51So what we're going to try and do now is a bit of a recce,
16:52get down here, have a good look about where the best place to descend is.
16:56And I really want to get a bit of a feel of the world behind the waterfall.
17:07At base camp, an eerie sound echoes deep in the forest.
17:16The ghostly call of the howler monkey.
17:25Justine is on her way to her treetop perch.
17:27It's the sound she's been hoping to hear.
17:31Yeah.
17:33You can hear distant howler calls, but that's quite a way.
17:39The thing is that there was a group calling out in this direction,
17:43but they could just be sitting quietly in the treetops.
17:46And we wouldn't know they were there.
17:56It's the most unearthly sound, the sound of howler monkeys.
17:59Sounds like a huge dragon in the distance.
18:04A healthy population of howling monkeys will be a great sign of an untouched forest.
18:09They're easy to hear, but much harder to find and count.
18:14There's a chance that in a while they might start moving around
18:16and hopefully come this way.
18:22It's just a waiting game, have to see.
18:28Down on the ground, they're surveying species on the forest floor.
18:32Oh, yeah.
18:35Guyanese scientist Dr. Raquel Thomas is an expert on rainforest trees.
18:40Some of these were growing before Columbus came to the Americas.
18:45This tree here, I reckon, would be about 500 to 600 years.
18:50In the five days since they've arrived,
18:52they've catalogued over a hundred different types of animals.
18:57Every little hare has got hairs on it.
18:59And at the end of those small hairs, you've got really, really tiny hairs.
19:03Gordon's had no luck in his search for large mammals.
19:06They're particularly hard to track down, especially the elusive big cats.
19:12I spent two years in total in another part of the Amazon,
19:15and I saw a wild jaguar bore 30 seconds, and that's two years straight.
19:22So that's how difficult it is.
19:25Gordon's returned to the creek with the otter tracks.
19:28He's setting a trap, a camera trap.
19:32It looks very complicated, but the concept's very simple.
19:35It's an infrared beam.
19:36When that gets broken, the camera starts running.
19:43It's a huge amount of effort to put this in, and that's why I think we have to leave it
19:47for at least a week.
19:48We don't even have to come every day.
19:50We just leave it, come every three days or so, keep an eye on it.
19:55Then it's back to the canoe, and on with the search for otters.
20:05At Kiteer Falls, Steve and the team have set the ropes.
20:10Right, I wouldn't go straight over, I would step down now onto the ladder.
20:15Tomorrow, he will lead a team to the bottom to search for animals.
20:19But today, we must first test the keeper and take a look at them down.
20:23Right, second down, so that rope goes into that.
20:26This is always that horrible fear of stepping off a perfectly good solid surface and just back into space, isn't
20:33it?
20:33You can't go much further, because I've got to get this bag to you now, yeah?
20:38You got it?
20:38Yeah.
20:38His helmet camera will record all he sees.
20:43This would have to be one of the most dramatic places in the world.
20:48Totally unspoiled.
20:49There's nobody here but us.
20:52But it's very hard to enjoy it when your heart is thumping.
20:57It's just this boiling steam below us.
21:01Just push out.
21:05Oh, wow.
21:12Oh, my ropes are rubbing over this rock.
21:15And it's sharp.
21:19The cliff has a severe overhang.
21:22It's only when Steve's on the ropes that you can get a close look at the rock face.
21:27That's not good.
21:28Tim, I've dropped under the overhang.
21:30And it's absolutely extraordinary down here.
21:34Directly beneath me is dropping straight into the plunge pool at its most turbulent.
21:38It would be like dropping into the world's worst whirlpool.
21:41Total suicide.
21:42Over.
21:42Over.
21:42That confirmed everything that we just started.
21:45Yeah.
21:46But it was worse going to have a look down there and get a better view of it.
21:49Over.
21:49Yeah, do you know what as well?
21:50From this angle, I can see a good line where we could come down.
21:53If we were to actually head around the base, there's a line that looks like it drops down onto reasonable
21:58territory.
21:58Over.
22:00Steve has dropped as far as he safely can.
22:03Tomorrow, he'll descend to the very bottom to start his survey.
22:08I'm actually swinging right underneath the curtain of water.
22:32George is on his daily quest for new insects.
22:37Oh, wow.
22:40This is one of the wonders of the animal world.
22:43This is a trail of army ants and there are literally tens of thousands of them.
22:50Army ants are swarm raiders.
22:52Their marauding column pushes through the jungle, killing anything too slow to escape.
22:58You'll see spiders and cockroaches jumping out of the way.
23:01Look, he's trying to get away.
23:03But it's no good.
23:05They'll have him.
23:07Their prey are pulled to pieces and carried back to feed their young living deep in the heart of this
23:12tree.
23:15What would be really great is to come back in the morning really early,
23:18about past four in the morning, five o'clock,
23:20to have a look inside and actually see what's happening in there.
23:23And if we hit it at the right time when they're actually on the move,
23:26wow, that'd be fantastic.
23:29But one member of the team is having rather more luck.
23:34Whilst hanging on the ropes, Steve has spotted a flock of swifts.
23:38And they're coming his way.
23:41Look at that!
23:46They nest behind the waterfall.
23:52They're carving in very close to the overhang here to keep away from the spray.
23:57As they come in, they're banking and rolling just like fighter jets.
24:01Right past my ears.
24:13Whoa, look at all those swifts!
24:15Wow!
24:18Oh, that is unbelievable!
24:20Oh, that is unbelievable!
24:45I don't know what time it is, but it's very early.
24:53Seems a bit weird putting ski socks on in the tropics.
24:59But it's best to do this to keep all the chiggers and nasty biting things off.
25:09The precious cameras are the only objects in the camp kept warm and dry.
25:16With all the gear on her back, Justine starts the long trek through the last of the night.
25:30George is also up early.
25:31He's heading to the army ant bivouac.
25:34He needs to arrive before the column is on the march.
25:38Here it is.
25:40Here's the tree.
25:42We've got up at five o'clock and they're not even up yet.
25:49What you've got is a camera on the end of this little tip here.
25:54And a little light.
25:56And we can push that right up into the colony.
25:59Perfect. Perfect!
26:00His aim is to probe deep inside the colony.
26:03And perhaps even spy the queen.
26:05Oh, there they are.
26:06There is the outside of the main ball of ants.
26:10Oh, yeah. They are not happy about that.
26:13There is the soldier. Look at the head of that thing.
26:16He's not happy about that.
26:19That squawking noise was a macaw flying over.
26:24There he is. In fact, two of them.
26:28Oh, my God.
26:30There's macaws, macaws, macaws.
26:33I've been hearing lots of macaws calling.
26:36This is the first time I've actually got a good shot.
26:39I'm just managing to film them through this foreground tree which is causing all sorts of blur.
26:46That's it. One of them just moved into a clearer position.
26:51Ridiculous red colour.
26:53Almost unbelievable, really.
26:56Macaws are the first thing to disappear when humans come into an area.
27:02They're taken by hunters for the pet trades, also for meat.
27:08A single macaw can sell for more than a year's wages in Guyana.
27:15The colony's out on the move and they're now swarming all down here.
27:20That was very quick, actually.
27:22One of the great tricks about army ants is that they've got hooks on their feet and they can join
27:29up their feet and they can make a bridge.
27:32George still hasn't seen the queen, but first he has to get past the soldiers.
27:37They're vicious.
27:38And it's not only their giant pincers, they also inject a dose of formic acid.
27:43I'm just going to push this right into the middle of the colony.
27:47Oh, it's big. Oh my goodness, look at that.
27:50It's a huge colony. It's massive.
27:54It's not often you get to see right into the heart of a colony of army ants.
28:00That is a very privileged...
28:03You!
28:04Ow!
28:09I'm not going to see their queen. Not today.
28:16This is all very bizarre.
28:17I'm sitting quietly up here waiting for my monkeys.
28:22And George has found an army ant colony.
28:26I guess that's what it is.
28:28Because you can hear them howling and pain in the background.
28:31The town in the understory.
28:33Entomologist nil.
28:35Army ants one.
28:37I think I'd rather be up here, actually.
28:39Even if it is with mosquitoes and midges.
28:41And being mullered by our army ants.
28:45Crazy lot entomologists.
28:47Especially George.
28:52The rest of the scientists are back in the jungle lab, where the checklist of animals is increasing every day.
29:00Including this horned frog, perfectly camouflaged to ambush prey in the leaf litter.
29:07But this jungle isn't just home for amazing animals.
29:13Keeping rainforests intact is vital in the fight against climate change.
29:18This region's forests alone locks away 40,000 million tons of carbon.
29:25Forests are important for the global welfare.
29:28Climate change depends on it.
29:30Biodiversity depends on it.
29:32People depend on it.
29:34Guyana is a very poor country.
29:37Logging these forests would be a simple way to raise much needed revenue.
29:41But Guyana's president recently approached Britain with a green alternative.
29:46Keeping the forest standing in exchange for carbon credits.
29:51Guyana's forest is not only important for Guyana, but is also important for the whole globe.
29:58The Stern report has concluded that keeping forests intact is a highly cost-effective way to combat climate change.
30:20At Kiteal Forest, there's an air of quiet concentration.
30:24This time, Steve aims to go all the way to the bottom and spend 48 hours surveying this habitat.
30:31We've got no real information about what kind of terrain is down there.
30:34We know for sure that it's going to be very, very slippery and very, very dangerous.
30:41You're going to have to lean forward, Steve. It's very, very tight.
30:45Go on, go on, go on. Yes, good job. And move sideways now, Steve.
30:48Steve, that's great. Well done, mate.
30:58As Steve starts his descent, the mist rolls in.
31:06Almost as soon as I stepped over the edge, this thick fog just started to rise up from the base
31:14of the waterfall.
31:15And I can't see where I'm going, where I'm heading to, and no one above can see me either.
31:30Justine's spotted something moving in the trees.
31:33I saw a flash of red then.
31:36Looks really like a howler monkey.
31:40Where is it?
31:43There, there, there, there. Yes, yes, that's it.
31:46There's a male.
31:49Oh, they look grumpy, don't they?
31:54I don't think they are grumpy.
31:55It's just they have that permanent expression.
31:59I've been very miserable with life.
32:03Fantastic. There he goes.
32:18You can really see the use of the prehensile tail.
32:21Just like a fifth limb.
32:23It's like a safety rope.
32:26It's the last thing that's released.
32:37They spend nine hours every day chewing their way through the tough rainforest leaves.
32:43The other 15 hours, they sleep.
32:49And there's, there's, there's two others in the tree.
32:51There's a big male at the top there.
32:54Who's coming down?
32:57Ooh.
32:59Taking a good look at me.
33:02Amazing.
33:03He's probably nearly 200 meters away, but he's really, really staring at me.
33:17He's looking up.
33:24It's the trickiest part of Steve's descent.
33:27Overhanging rocks covered in slime.
33:32Oh, ha, ha, ha.
33:36It's the trickiest part of Steve's descent.
33:38It's the trickiest part of the forest.
33:43It's the trickiest part of the forest.
33:48This rock is the slippiest ground I've ever been on in my life.
33:50I've never seen anything like it.
33:54Oh.
34:01God, if this is what it's like hundreds of meters away from the waterfall,
34:04I'd dread to think what it would have been like at the bottom of it.
34:13I am down on solid ground and off the main rope.
34:17Over.
34:18That's very good news.
34:20Tim, this place is every bit as steep and slippery and dangerous as we thought it would be.
34:27But it's much, much wetter and it's very, very windy down here.
34:31It's pretty miserable.
34:33I'm wanting to get out of this as soon as I can.
34:35Over.
34:35Let's sort the ropes and then get you somewhere a bit more protected and warmer.
34:39Understood.
34:40Out.
34:43With Steve safely down, he's joined by the cameraman,
34:46with the dripping wet ting foam.
34:50Are you all right, mate?
34:52It's all right, brother.
34:52It's all right down here.
34:54It's all right down here.
34:56It's all right down here.
34:58There's been a sighting.
35:00A family of giant otters glimpsed heading down river.
35:06We really have to keep our eyes open because they're big.
35:10They're so tricky to see.
35:13Right back.
35:15Right back.
35:18OK.
35:19They have popped up just in front of the bush there, so I don't know whether they're there.
35:22They've gone into the shrub.
35:23Did you see them?
35:23After a week of searching, at last this is Gordon's chance to start observing these shy animals.
35:29Dan, you think they're still in front of us?
35:30How far?
35:31You see them?
35:34They're in the undergrowth in front of us here.
35:36Everyone just keep their eyes wide open.
35:48The otters let out warning snorts.
35:52Oh, beautiful.
35:54Just swimming straight towards us.
35:57They're interested not in fishing.
36:00They're interested in us.
36:04Oh, man, that's so nice.
36:10So just listening off their heads.
36:13Oh, there's four of them.
36:14Man alive!
36:16Sorry, guys.
36:18Oh, jeepers.
36:20What?
36:22Oh, man.
36:25That was unreal.
36:27That was something else.
36:29What I love is when an animal, a wild animal, interacts with you.
36:34They're not scared.
36:35They just want to check us out, find out what we are.
36:38And they've given us an opportunity to see them.
36:41Whoa!
36:42Close, man.
36:47Look at this!
36:52That's exactly what I was hoping to find.
36:54It's a tree frog for sure.
36:56I mean, you just look at the big suction cups on each toe.
36:59Look at the way that he's moving across my hands there.
37:01I mean, he is a frog that is absolutely designed for climbing.
37:05He looks a little bit, actually, like the gladiator tree frog.
37:09And he also has, on the thumb of each hand, this little protuberance here,
37:15which is used for boxing with other frogs.
37:20Let's put him back.
37:21You're a very lucky frog.
37:24You live in frog paradise.
37:33Gordon has now followed the otters for two miles at the jungle creek.
37:39Softly, softly, he's getting closer and closer.
37:46Just creeping down the creek with jerry paddling.
37:51I just don't want these otters to go overland.
37:54As soon as they go overland, I've lost them.
37:59Otters right here.
38:01Can't see them yet.
38:03Just hear them.
38:07Beauty.
38:08They are so beautiful.
38:21Their beautiful fur was almost there indeed.
38:24A century of persecution drove them to the verge of extinction.
38:30This group is so at ease.
38:32It's clear there's no hunting here.
38:35OK.
38:36There's one coming right towards us now.
38:39OK, now.
38:40The mops got fish.
38:42Feeding.
38:44Looking nice and gently.
38:46Stay very still.
38:49Giant appetites need giant portions.
38:52Plate-sized piranha.
38:54Bones and all.
38:56What's he caught?
38:58Piranha.
39:00And they always eat them.
39:02Tail first.
39:03For obvious reasons.
39:06The youngster.
39:09Oh, lovely.
39:11This is just exactly what I've been wanting to see.
39:16Giant otters.
39:18Completely.
39:21Naturally.
39:25That's what happens when somebody's got fish.
39:29And somebody else wants it.
39:36That's not going to last long.
39:38They have a voracious appetite.
39:40Oops.
39:42Off he goes.
39:43I'll have to catch another one.
39:46Awesome.
39:52At the bottom of the waterfall, Steve and Tim have a desperate struggle to bring the
39:56kick down in the freezing spray.
39:59I've never been this cold right slap bang on the equator before.
40:05They need to get dry as quick as they can.
40:12I don't want to go.
40:13We don't want to go that way.
40:13We want to go lower.
40:15Yeah.
40:16Let's head down this way.
40:17They must find a spot to pitch camp before night sets in.
40:23But in this boulder field, there's little chance.
40:37At base camp, the mood is up.
40:40The team have fallen under the spell of this enchanting forest.
40:44This is pristine.
40:46This is intact.
40:46This is as pure as it's ever going to be.
40:49Let's just keep it that way.
40:50It's clearly not been hunted.
40:52It's just really untouched.
40:53And to preserve that in its pristine state would be fantastic.
40:59Tim?
41:00You in there, mate?
41:02It's almost dark when Tim discovers a tiny cave.
41:08Yeah, come on.
41:09This is good.
41:11Sleeping place here.
41:12We get at least one of us in here.
41:14Oh, let's get a brew on.
41:22Lustre.
41:22Oh, that luxury.
41:23Mmm.
41:23What do you need?
41:27If the cave falls, just a jumble of rough rocks, it's going to be another one.
41:42At first light, Justine, as ever, is up her tree.
41:48Now, the family of howler monkeys have totally accepted her.
41:52She's even found a new addition to the family.
41:54It's a female. Wow.
41:57She's got a baby on her back.
42:00Fantastic.
42:03The haunting calls of these cautious animals embody the spirit of the South American rainforest.
42:09To know there's a healthy, grieving population here is a great lift for the team.
42:15Ah, there's the big male. This is the big alpha boss.
42:21So, there are two males, this big one, the smaller one.
42:26And there are two females. The one with the baby and the other one.
42:32Another piece in the puzzle.
42:45Beautiful animals. They're absolutely stunning.
42:53After a big breakfast of green leaves, the whole family settles down for a long morning snooze.
43:07For Steve and the team, it has been a really miserable night without a wink of sleep.
43:12And they weren't alone.
43:13We had visitors last night. I got up, turned on my head torch and hundreds of cockroaches and cave crickets
43:21just scampered for the shadows.
43:23And they've been having a go at our food.
43:26There's just holes in absolutely everything.
43:30Mind you, I left my mug full of sticky hot chocolate last night.
43:35And they've cleaned it out completely.
43:38So I don't have to do my washing up. Fantastic.
43:43It's not just the cockroaches and the crickets that we're sharing our cave with.
43:48It's absolutely alive with these rocket frogs.
43:52And this one here actually has really well-developed eggs on its back.
44:00It's carrying around its tadpoles inside the eggs.
44:04You can even see little bubbles of air coming out of each egg.
44:08This species doesn't actually go through the free-swimming tadpole stage at all.
44:13The eggs will develop on their mother's back right through until they're froglets.
44:18And they'll hatch out, ready to hop about.
44:25It's just enormous.
44:28Yeah.
44:29Finally, Steve can begin his real challenge to survey the plants and animals down here.
44:34Whoa!
44:36The slippery vegetation conceals deep pitfalls.
44:39No ground there.
44:41It will be a terrible place to break a leg.
44:50The pools of water that gather in the leaves made by these bromeliads.
44:55A really challenging place to make a home.
44:57But there's plenty of creatures down here that manage it.
45:01Possibly the most appealing of all of them, though, is this little guy.
45:07There.
45:08Look at that.
45:10Isn't he gorgeous?
45:12Oh, look, on the leaf.
45:14It's a golden rocket frog.
45:15And the only place in the world you find these is in the Kaitur National Park.
45:22From egg to tadpole to frog, this single plant can be their home for life.
45:28These really are the most exquisite little jewel.
45:31And every other bromeliad around here has one or a pair living in it.
45:39It's not just the animals that are exotic down here.
45:44There are wonderful plants absolutely everywhere around here, but nothing as exquisite as this.
45:52This is a slipper orchid.
45:55And it's very aptly named.
45:58You can almost imagine some dainty Cinderella slipping her toes into that.
46:03This would be worth an absolute fortune to any orchid collectors back home.
46:07But here, they are just about everywhere.
46:11It's a bit like strolling around the Chelsea Flower Show, except that you've got that in the background.
46:19I think this really brings home just quite how unspoilt Guyana is.
46:24The Kaitur is the country's only real tourist attraction, but we were up on top for three days and didn't
46:30see a single person.
46:31And down here, well, you could count on one hand the amount of people who've seen what we're looking at
46:37now.
46:37And, you know, it's five times the height of Niagara.
46:41You're just standing here with this water in your face.
46:44It's completely overpowering.
46:54Gordon is checking whether his camera trap has worked.
46:57It's been lying in wait for a week now.
47:01Hard to say whether anything's been up here because of the rain.
47:06With any luck, it will have filmed the otter family out of the water.
47:11The tape has reached the end, so we have one hour of stuff.
47:18OK, we've reached the beginning of the tape.
47:22Play.
47:24Oh!
47:25Oh, Curacao.
47:27I actually saw Curacao the other day quite close to here.
47:32Three of them.
47:33I wonder if it's the same ones.
47:35Two!
47:37Camera shy, this one.
47:39That's very nice.
47:44Oh, hang on, hang on.
47:45What the...
47:48Erm...
47:48At the top of the log there was something sort of spotty, like a cat.
47:53I mean, it might have been an ocelot.
47:57It's a jaguar!
47:59I cannot believe that.
48:07One of the most difficult animals in South America to see was right here.
48:13Literally, it walked along this path.
48:19The mysterious jaguar.
48:21Beautifully camouflaged.
48:24Extremely rare.
48:25These solitary beasts roam huge areas of this vast jungle.
48:30It's a fantastic stroke of fortune to find one here.
48:34That is unreal.
48:40I do not believe that.
48:44I think I said, if we get jaguar, it's going to be by luck, not by judgement.
48:49And this is just by sheer luck.
48:51We put this out for otters and we've got a jaguar.
48:55Unbelievable.
48:59That is incredible.
49:04At the waterfall, Steve is desperate for some decent rest.
49:09After the discomfort of last night, I've decided to set up a basher and sleep outside in the elements tonight.
49:18I think we've done really well to have spent two days down here so far and for no one to
49:23have got hurt.
49:24So, fingers crossed, everyone gets through alive and well.
49:31Back at base camp, the rest of the team have calls to celebrate.
49:36That is the biggest cat that you'll find in South America.
49:40After just ten days, they've found howler monkeys, giant otters, and the scientists have catalogued over 200 animal species.
49:49All evidence of the value of this virgin rainforest.
49:53And the best news of all, concrete proof that South America's legendary big cat is living and hunting here.
50:01Look at that!
50:03Look at that!
50:03Wow!
50:04Wow!
50:12But not every member of the team is celebrating.
50:15All of a sudden, a really, really heavy electrical storms come in and the rain is unbelievably heavy.
50:25I have to keep throwing up this tarp to get all the water off it.
50:31The most worrying thing really is that this storm is getting closer and closer.
50:36It's right overhead and I'm pretty much the only feature in the landscape at the moment.
50:44This is turning into the most miserable night of my life.
50:53In the second phase of the expedition, the team push deeper into the jungle.
50:59The number of animals they're discovering goes up and up.
51:03Oop!
51:05Those will go right through my hand.
51:07And they climb a remote mountain to explore a strange new world.
51:34Thank you!
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