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00:13There's a story unfolding on the west coast of Costa Rica.
00:17A story both ancient and new.
00:21A tale of two creatures from opposite worlds,
00:25each on a comeback from their own devastating decline.
00:31One is a sea turtle, a global ocean traveler.
00:40The other, a magnificent cat, the 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.
00:56A surprising encounter of a rare predator,
01:00and a most unusual prey.
01:06How will their fates play out when they finally meet on one special crescent of sand,
01:12called Jaguar Beach?
01:17What can you do when they get a newoses that are going to be the one who can hunt?
01:20What should be a superstar?
01:21The danger is that it has been a dream of a wonder.
01:28The other, a doctor who is not yet to hit the top of the world's
01:31One is a dream of one who is a dream.
01:35The One is a dream of the dream of a dream.
01:37A dream of the dream of a dream.
01:40As a dream of a dream of a dream of a dream,
01:42The One is a dream of a dream of a dream,
01:44an ancient ritual is underway.
01:54After more than a decade at sea,
01:56an olive ridley sea turtle nears the end of her long migration.
02:04Guided by the Earth's magnetic field,
02:07she has navigated thousands of miles,
02:09seeking out the very beach where she was born.
02:28This secluded crescent of sand has long provided a refuge
02:33for one of the world's most beloved creatures
02:36and is home to a wild coastal community.
02:46Shorebirds flock to its shallows to feed,
02:49under the pterodactyl silhouettes of magnificent frigate birds.
03:00American crocodiles slip out of their swampy lagoons
03:03for an occasional saltwater splash.
03:09Rising 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.
03:23Restored as a national park after it had been clear-cut for agriculture,
03:28its tangled woodlands sprawl nearly 200 square miles
03:32across Costa Rica's mountainous west.
03:38The forest stretches all the way to the ocean's edge,
03:42where its mangrove tendrils filter fresh water from salt.
03:57The hardy trees provide a home for over 250 species of birds.
04:11Yellow-naked parrots nest in the heights.
04:16Orange-fronted parroquets feast on its floral buffet.
04:27They share the canopy with gymnastic spider monkeys and howlers.
04:38And in the understory, lumbering baird's tapirs forage for fallen fruit.
04:48The 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
05:03has been trekking to this remote alcove to monitor nesting sea turtles.
05:10But after five years on the beach, he arrived one morning to a shock.
05:16Signs in the sand that he and the turtles were not alone.
05:27The first tracks were no aberration.
05:30He soon saw more evidence that one of the most formidable predators
05:34in the Americas was making a comeback in the dry forest.
05:39The jaguares population has started to increase
05:41almost 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 at the end of the last year.
05:58The return of an apex predator was bound to send ripples through the ecosystem.
06:09So Luis decided to expand his research to include the jaguars.
06:15Hoping to learn what impact they would have on the turtles,
06:18he set up hundreds of camera traps to capture their movements and behaviour.
06:31And then he waited for the turtles to emerge from the ocean.
06:45For years at a time, Olive Ridley sea turtles live a solitary, nomadic life at sea.
06:56Their world is one of mighty behemoths and lively schools of dolphins.
07:08Then, every year or two, a primeval instinct draws them home to these shores.
07:16Male turtles, identifiable by their longer tails, rarely return to land after hatching.
07:28But 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.
08:03The courtship is quick, but the coupling can last for several hours.
08:18The female does most of the work, constantly pushing to the surface, so they both can breathe.
08:35For these two ocean wanderers and their species, it's a fleeting but critical connection.
09:07The female drags herself from the comfort of her weightless, watery world.
09:08Weeks later, the female drags herself from the comfort of her weightless, watery world.
09:19With 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.
09:38Then she starts to carve out a deep, protective cavity.
09:51As she digs, another mother-to-be emerges from the surf, carrying her own precious cargo.
10:01In a few months, this sliver of beach will draw thousands of sea turtles for a mass nesting event.
10:09But for now, she and the other female seem to have it all to themselves.
10:32Within the forest, the area's dominant male jaguar, named Alonso by Luis, sets off on a midnight hunt.
10:57On 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.
11:38No stalking, no pounding.
11:40Fancy.
11:42Just a quick and easy bite to the back of the head.
12:04Back 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.
12:25His jaws work just as well on the shell as they do on other animals' skulls.
12:45His tongue isn't just for tasting, it's lined with back-facing barbs that may aid with stripping flesh from bone.
12:57With Alonso otherwise occupied, the other nesting female is still hard at work.
13:17Around a hundred eggs tumble into the nest.
13:22Soft 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.
13:55Her eggs must now survive the next 45 days, hidden in the sand, on a beach where everyone is looking
14:03for their next meal.
14:14Back in the mangroves, the turtle will feed Alonso for two days.
14:19For now, he has eaten his fill.
14:23But he's not the only one dining tonight.
14:34As he takes a break, hungry scavengers move in from the shadows.
14:46The scent penetrates the forest.
14:58A resourceful opossum is in luck.
15:01He's so taken by his windfall, he fails to notice that someone has come back for seconds.
15:30The jaguar's leftovers will nourish a whole forest community.
15:38But Luis is concerned for the turtles.
15:41Because olive ridleys are in decline around the world.
15:46How will the growing jaguar population affect the vulnerable turtles staging their own comeback here on this critical beach?
15:59Luis hopes his camera traps can offer some clues.
16:04Luis hopes his camera traps can offer some clues.
16:14So that's why we know that this is a good place to place a trap camera.
16:27It's like if we had an investigation assistant,
16:31who would be hidden in this tree and with a camera waiting for a jaguar to pass.
16:41The cameras reveal a secret no one expected.
16:45Constant traffic of jaguars moving between the dry forest and the beach.
16:52What was once a sanctuary for Luis's nesting sea turtles has become a favorite hunting ground for a forest predator.
17:06It's an amazing comeback story for the big cats.
17:18During the 1950s and 60s, Costa Rica's northwestern coast was stripped of its trees, replaced by a patchwork of cattle
17:27ranches.
17:30Jaguars and other forest animals all but disappeared.
17:37Then, in 1971, Costa Rica created Santa Rosa National Park and let nature rebuild the forest.
18:01New growth stretched across the province, eventually connecting the coast to an inland jaguar habitat.
18:13One by one, the cats followed the lure of the resurrected forest.
18:21They found their way deeper into the park, expanding their territory, all the way to the beach.
18:34To 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.
19:02When you're a child, everyone asks you what you want to do as a major job.
19:12You want to be an astronaut, you want to be a dancer, you want to be a dancer.
19:16I 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
19:28them.
19:29You don't have to have to be behind a screen or read in a book because it's much more different.
19:40Also, here we are in a place where we can study one of the most elusive animals that exist.
19:47These elusive animals are what drew Carolina Perez from her home in Italy to this rugged coastal outpost.
19:55Several 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 tortoise, he spends a few hours there eating,
20:20and when it's full, he leaves the tortoise in the carcasa.
20:25And that carcasa is available for a large number of species that normally do not act like scavengers.
20:45Even 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.
21:00So what we're seeing, thanks to the work of the tramp cameras,
21:04is the importance of the jaguar in the ecosystem.
21:11It's not simply the tortoise and the jaguar,
21:14but everything that happens in the area around the beach.
21:22The team's cameras are offering other revelations as well.
21:26Normally, 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.
21:48This gives Luis's cameras an unprecedented view into their social lives.
22:02Luis has recorded jaguars mating, wrestling, and even carting off an ill-fated dolphin.
22:23The project identifies the individual cats by their rosettes, the spots on their fur.
22:30Each jaguar's pattern is as unique as a human fingerprint.
22:42In 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.
22:55Alonso, the 12-year-old dominant male, asserts his right to any female or food on the beach.
23:03Amanda, highly territorial, she seems to be the dominant female.
23:15And Jorge, a young tough on the cusp of adulthood, he's been gravitating towards the females in heat.
23:36Tonight, Jorge is on the prowl, heading to the beach in search of an easy meal.
23:45And he's well-equipped to spot one.
23:48His eyes are backed with a mirror-like tissue that reflects light into his retinas and gives all cats their
23:54famous night vision.
24:04Tonight, he finds no turtles, but something for other appetites.
24:10It's Amanda, enjoying her own turtle catch.
24:15Jorge is eager to put his adolescent prowess to the test.
24:36In this rare peak into jaguar courtship, Jorge and Amanda take playful breaks between couplings.
24:58But the interlude is cut short when Alonso arrives.
25:18Jorge beats a hasty retreat.
25:24Still outranked by Alonso, he'll have to settle for a fleeting tryst.
25:35For now, he heads back to the forest to wait out the heat.
25:44Early April.
25:45At the peak of dry season, the sun bakes the canopy.
25:52As streams dry up, tensions rise.
26:03A trip to one of the few remaining watering holes now means risking a run-in with a thirsty predator.
26:16A 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.
26:32To drink from a small seep in the ground.
26:42Bees have beaten them to it.
26:53He endures the thirsty swarm for a few precious drops.
27:05His 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.
27:51She'll remain on the nest for the next eight weeks, leaving only for brief spells to find food and water.
28:20Inside the forest, Amanda is also looking for water.
28:24Amanda is also looking for water.
28:30But Luis's cameras catch someone else on the hunt.
28:46Jorge is more interested in a private moment than a drink.
29:07Amanda puts on a half-hearted show of resistance.
29:18Amanda puts on a half-hearted show of resistance.
29:20The coupling takes less than a minute.
29:22Fast work.
29:24But jaguars can mate dozens of times a day.
29:44In between mating, the couple takes a stroll.
29:47In between mating, the couple takes a stroll.
29:59Using scent glands in his cheeks, Jorge lays his claim to this swath of forest.
30:16It seems the young upstart has stepped out of Alonzo's shadow.
30:31Late May.
30:34The beginning of the wet season in the dry forest.
30:45More than three feet of rain falls in just the first three weeks.
31:06More than three feet of rain falls in just the first three weeks.
31:09In the next five months, over 90% of the year's rain will fall.
31:18Long, dry riverbeds begin to flow.
31:21A wave of relief for the parched forest.
31:36A slow greening spreads across the hills.
31:41Transforming Santa Rosa into a coastal oasis.
32:00Capuchins feast on nuts and ripe berries.
32:17A 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.
32:32By sea.
32:40Late summer.
32:42August winds bring an air of anticipation.
32:52Beyond the break.
32:55Female Olive Ridley sea turtles begin to assemble.
33:11They are one of only two turtle species that gather in a synchronized mass nesting event.
33:19An Arribada.
33:21Spanish.
33:22For a rival.
33:29The first few females converge offshore.
33:34Soon, hundreds arrive.
33:49The shallows fill with a constellation of turtles.
33:53They're all waiting for a mysterious signal humans have yet to decipher.
34:05A cue that the time is right to head ashore.
34:11via south.
34:12Theimmencrakis history.
34:12The lost, the inocent waves.
34:15Closed, the basin of the sea, we noticed one of those who are relatively large Become.
34:37Over the next few months, thousands will pour forth from the ocean.
34:42An armada of mothers, bringing the next generation to the sand.
35:05It's one of the natural world's timeless and spectacular sights.
35:10A ritual of renewal that may date back to the age of the dinosaurs.
35:32The beach becomes a sea of churning sand.
35:52In a single season, this small crescent, less than a mile long, will be filled with up
35:59to seven million eggs.
36:09But on Jaguar Beach, a successful hatch is far from guaranteed.
36:19As the arabada subsides, Carolina gets to work.
36:25All night, we do patrols nocturnes with the goal of marking marine turtles.
36:32Hello, little girl.
36:37What we have in the project are metal plates that have a number to identify the turtle.
36:45If it comes back to the same beach or in other beaches.
37:11These 45 days mark a dangerous period for the baby turtles.
37:17As they incubate in the sand, relentless predators stalk them from above.
37:35On most nesting beaches, wild dogs, foxes and coyotes, so-called mesopredators, plunder nests for the protein-packed eggs.
37:55Using the tools of shoestring science, Carolina is trying to track how many of these nests will be raided.
38:24The bottles make it easy to see if a nest has been disturbed.
38:32During recent arabadas, the bottles have helped them document an encouraging trend
38:37that they believe is tied to the return of the jaguars.
38:43What we think is that the presence of a great predator, like the jaguar,
38:49will regulate the number of coyotes and other individuals who come to the beach to bury the nests.
38:55It seems the jaguars are keeping smaller predators off the beach, inadvertently protecting the turtle's eggs.
39:05As Carolina works, she's constantly aware of the jaguar's presence in the dark.
39:11At the beginning, she's scared, because I'm surrounded by things that potentially can eat me every day.
39:23You walk on the beach and you know that they are there, you know that they are watching.
39:28You know that they are watching.
39:32You know that they are watching.
39:33They are watching.
39:37You know that they are watching.
39:40They are watching.
39:41They are watching.
39:41They are watching.
39:41I will not get out of bed or I will not get out of the beach.
39:48They will not get out of bed and sleep.
39:49But it's something that changes your attitude, and it's incredible.
39:57Thank you, little girl.
39:59Thank you very much.
40:14Carolina isn't the only one patrolling the night.
40:18Amanda has caught wind of a late-night snack.
40:37It's easy pickings on Jaguar Beach.
41:01Just like a little about this.
41:03It's hard to make it known.
41:06You can't complain already.
41:07You can't.
41:07Maybe it's a little enough.
41:08I don't know if you didn't want to know.
41:08But I would rather work on it.
41:08I think it's a little even better.
41:09I don't know.
41:10I don't know.
41:17And from the size of her belly, it looks like Amanda is eating for two.
41:25But Amanda won't be the only mom whose success is tied to the turtles.
41:35A half mile offshore, the frigate bird colony is noisier than usual.
41:45Across their island outpost, hundreds of downy hatchlings begin to stir.
42:00The 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.
42:28Chicks that don't get fed don't last long.
42:44Mom has to hunt, and fast.
42:48But she knows exactly where to go.
43:01The last month and a half have been quiet on the beach, since the end of the Arribada.
43:12But today, something is different.
43:24The sand begins to shift.
43:39The beach erupts with new life.
43:54The lake is close to the sky.
43:56The wind begins to happen.
43:58Fourth time, be careful.
44:06I don't know if it can't be dyed.
44:08The fireå§ condition unexpected.
44:08I have to prove to the sea.
44:08I give up my breath first.
44:19For the hatchlings, digging their way to the surface is just the beginning.
44:45It'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.
45:18A fallen branch blocks the path.
45:29At last, she's on the open beach.
45:34But 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.
46:33Even the crustaceans close in.
46:38Ghost crabs are surprisingly strong.
46:49Another hatchling looks destined for a similar fate.
46:58With a survivor's determination, she fends off the attack.
47:08She races for the ocean.
47:18One final close call.
47:25And then...
47:28The finish line.
47:42She plunges into a salty marine world, where she'll spend years before returning to this beach.
47:57She'll swim out past the rocky retreat, where the frigate bird mom can now feed her chick a magnificent meal.
48:10Only 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 that takes their mothers, but safeguards their
48:28nests.
48:30In the past few years, there were a lot of neonatuses who were born on the beach.
48:39In the past, with the presence of the jaguar on the beach,
48:43the neonatuses are able to live, they are arriving in the water.
48:47And with a lot of luck, in the future, they will be able to make new individuals who will come
48:52to the beach to eat their eggs.
48:54What allows me to conclude is that, in reality, the presence of the jaguar is positive in this moment for
49:02the marine turtles.
49:05Luis' team has found that jaguars kill less than 1% of the beach's nesting mothers.
49:11And by warding off threats to the eggs, the predator has become the protector.
49:29On 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.
49:54She tears off bite-sized portions from her latest turtle catch.
50:15A few days later, Luis' cameras provide an adorable explanation.
50:31Amanda with her curious new cubs.
50:45For the next two years, Amanda will teach her cubs how to survive.
50:55And guide them through the dry forest that helped bring her species back to this special beach.
51:09The rebirth of Santa Rosa's forest, and the resurrection of its magnificent top predator, has restored an ancient relationship.
51:30The renewed partnership has healed the connection between vastly different worlds.
51:42From the forest, to the air, to the deep ocean, to the beach, where the lives of all their inhabitants
51:56intertwine.
52:02Where two creatures reunite as they were for thousands of years.
52:08Predator, prey.
52:12Unlikely allies in each other's survival.
52:27The all-in- cancerous Anybody can r 72 years.
52:31What?
52:45Bits-style to the coaches.
52:46High-end.
52:46Conor on their own.
52:47The best is the best.
52:47You are the best.
52:47You are the best.
52:56See you in the best.
53:10Transcription by CastingWords
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