Uncharted - The Beautiful World of the Amazon | Free Documentary Nature

the Amazon jungle the impenetrable green sea of ​​the planet within these remote depths runs the Las Piedras River which is part of the longest tributary of the Amazon in the jungle that surrounds the headwaters of the river life remains much the same as it has for thousands of giant years like These form a dense canopy that blocks the lights of those who dwell beneath, but within these dark corridors life can be found in such extraordinary abundance that only a fraction of its members have been counted and this is with good reason because the Survival beneath the tree canopy is often difficult. remain hidden and for much of its life this creature will remain nestled among dense tangles of vegetation and will rarely move during the day.

Its local name is osito oro, which means little golden bear, but while it may be small and golden, it certainly is. It's not a bear, it's a silky anteater, but don't let appearances fool you, the claws on its front paws can inflict serious wounds on anything that tries to harm it, they are its only defense when it leaves its hiding places in search of food. sniffing out its prey and being an anteater, this consists of ants and termites, but to find them she has to overcome the considerable challenge of staying awake. Once you've mustered the strength to focus on the task at hand, you find a termite nest and decide.

Keeping up appearances is also important and a good grooming regime is sure to please a couple, but we still don't know how silky anteaters manage to find themselves in such a vast wilderness. No one knows much about them, but not all animals avoid predation by hiding in hard-to-reach places. Many are hiding in plain sight at this scale. Nothing is exactly what it seems, down to the smallest detail. These insects are masters of leaf camouflage. Mimicking grasshoppers copy the vein structures of the leaves on which they live. Some stick insects even imitate particular species of moss and lichen that tend to grow on their favorite trees.

Some like this arachnid are predators and others will become prey, but all strive to remain. undetected, while many animals avoid predators and catch their prey by copying the designs of others, these moths have a completely different strategy: they hide among the hairs of sloths and cannot be found anywhere else. The sloth's dense fur supports a variety of algae that helps it blend into the surrounding jungle and moves so slowly and infrequently that predators rarely see it. In fact, three-toed sloths spend between 15 and 20 hours of each day fast asleep. Their leafy diet is simply too low in calories to maintain.

They go for much longer it is the perfect place for moths to make a permanent home, but hiding and living a solitary life is not the only way to stay safe in the jungle, sometimes staying together can work just as well, the tip of this young tree is soft enough for the mouthparts of these grasshoppers to pass through and feed on the sap that runs through its veins, apart from a thin shell, the grasshoppers are completely helpless to protect themselves, they forge a little alliance Most likely, these ants are your defenders and are paid for their services.

Fortunately for grasshoppers, their honeydew or sugary droppings are reward enough. Ants keep grasshoppers

free

of mites with specialized cleaning mouthparts, but there's always a little more going on in this jungle than meets the eye. Actually, there are two types. of grasshoppers here and one is up to no good, those with darker shells rarely produce the liquid that feeds their ant guards, but they want to stay clean anyway, so when they spot an ant ready to clean a colored grasshopper clearer, they just get on it. They cover and prevent the ant from feeding until they are clean, but they are not the only ones that are not good.

The smaller ant species that cannot offer any service to the grasshoppers in return are looking for an unprotected grasshopper and an easy meal. Every day billions of these tiny leafcutter ants embark on a journey migrating through the forest along Along miniature highways the daily commute is coordinated through a powerful but invisible system of chemical messages. However, the commute can be dangerous and falling leaves often create traffic problems but these ants are prepared for almost anything. Specialized workers are deployed to remove blockages. It only takes a handful of ants a few hours to clear an entire layer of leaves from the forest floor.

All workers head to a harvested tree. They are after its leaves, but to get them they must climb a tree. height comparable to that of a human climbing the highest mountain in North America. Shortly after reaching the top, they begin removing segments of the tree's leaves using jaws that vibrate thousands of times per second and then must embark. On the 100 meter trip back to the nest, despite the distance, the entire trip only takes each ant about an hour, efficiency is key and once the workers' jaws become blunt, they will carry the leaves cut by their little sisters to the surface of their house.

It doesn't look like much, but beneath lies an underground labyrinth of tunnels that extends eight meters beneath the forest floor and is home to a colony with as many members as the city of London. Here in the bowels of the earth they store their precious leaves and take meticulous care of them. gardens of mushrooms sprouting from decaying vegetation the tiny white-based fruiting bodies of the fungus are used to feed the entire colony away from the darkness of the forest floor the rainforest canopy is bathed in an intense tropical sun this is the jungle engine room where giant trees capture sunlight to fuel their growth, except for the meandering waters of the Las Piedras River.

The canopy of the rainforest stretches uninterrupted for hundreds of miles. Here in this kingdom of heaven there is the greatest diversity of life in the rainforest and also on Earth itself, which is why the calls of the red howler monkeys travel for miles through the treetops and claim as a group a small piece of trees where they will socialize and feed on tender leaves. Troops of brown capuchin monkeys will spread throughout the forest and eat almost anything they can get their hands on. Regardless of whether it is flowers, insects, fruits or even small mammals, capuchins are often followed by hundreds of smaller squirrel monkeys that collect everything they leave behind.

This unlikely alliance was forged to reduce the risk of a single individual being captured by an eagle. The largest monkeys here are the spider monkeys and they are constantly on the move, they follow well-trodden roots that trace the shortest distance between fruit trees during times of abundance, up to a hundred individuals can be found traveling together for a short time when new ones are made. friends in small groups and new groups form when food is plentiful. Spider monkeys will select the best pieces of each fruit and drop the rest, but it is rarely wasted, as peccaries roaming the forest floor will consume much of what has been dropped.

To balance their diet, peccaries look for special places to feed. The thick mud of this hole contains unusually high concentrations of salt, a rare gift so far from the sea. Small mineral licks like this are found throughout the forest and for many animals. They are like miniature oases in a nutrient-poor desert all day long. A variety of visitors come and go. Some like this deer are particularly cautious because they know that jaguars hunt here too. Spix's peahens spend most of the day near the clay lick. and from time to time they venture to pluck insects from the clay walls, but at the slightest sign of danger they sound the alarm and warn others that it is time for them to leave.

The erosive force of the Las Piedras River has gradually unearthed a salty deposit on its shore, these are the last remains of an ancient ocean that dried up many millions of years ago. Macaws flock here from dozens of miles around, gathering in the trees and waiting for a brave individual to fly to the clay lick and assure them that the area is

free

of predators once a few manage to descend safely, the rest decides to follow him. Eating the clay not only provides salt but also helps neutralize the toxic chemicals found in many of the unripe fruits in the macaws' diet.

These visits to the local clay lake are more than just feeding opportunities, they are places where you can find mates and settle disputes ah ah it's nesting season and high in the branches of a chihuahuako tree two macaw parents have enlarged a natural hole inside there is a hungry chick that now after several months of confinement he is beginning to explore the outside

world

, for now his mother and father must give him his daily dose of clay but in a few weeks he will be ready to fly the nest and follow his parents to other animals.

It is simply not possible to extract salt from the earth, but they need it anyway, just like macaws, these butterflies spend much of their time high in the canopy, but from time to time they must also ascend. The butterflies congregate in the moist earth on the shores of a lake where the waters have receded and deposited salts and other nutrients behind them, but for butterflies life in the rainforest can be dangerous at best. Golden orb spiders are goliaths, but so are blue morpho butterflies. The spider approaches cautiously, wary of the butterflies. Powerful wings, but butterflies of this size do not remain trapped for long, while spiders can be a nuisance to some.

There is an animal here that has been actively searching for them. This hummingbird is making its first nest strung with spider silk and hanging from the tip of a. leaf on each trip she may carry a single blade of grass or a tangled strand of spider silk it takes weeks for her to finish she must remain constantly alert as other hummingbirds may try to occupy a void for themselves once she is ready lays a single white leaf egg smaller than a fingernail may appear exposed but its nest is placed so far from the palm stem that only the lightest predator could attack it without falling to the ground a week later a small hatchling has emerged now it must work twice as hard as it does Feeding for two But the dry season is coming to an end Your work will soon be put to the test and your chick's life will depend on it The temperature has been rising for days and the air has become saturated with the humidity that the jungle creatures You can feel that the rainforest is not called the rainforest in vain in the Amazon the storms hit with fury like in few places on earth the nest is rocked by the wind and hit by the rain the chick must cling to the fibers that his mother so carefully arranged The dawn sees the end of the downpour, but the effects of the storm can still be felt.

The mother hummingbird returns to find that her chick is gone and the nest is empty. In her anguish, she searches for him again and again. He may have survived but he was dragged out of the nest during the night he is now alone in the rainforest he still doesn't know how to find food for himself so she must find him quickly or else he will start calling himself The rains have brought new growth to the jungle but they have also brought destruction. The river stones are overflowing. Whole trees are swept away by the current. The swollen river runs through the forest.

So for those too small to overcome the flood the only way is up every available inch is saturated with life. Strange shapes are forced out of the darkness, so for many the high ground is nothing more than a few floating leaves. The search for escape is constant in such crowded conditions. Predators have many options to choose from. Isolated in the arches of the treetops, it could be weeks before the river recedes and the forest creatures touch solid ground again. Many were too slow to escape the rising water surface tension. Millipedes will stay afloat for a short time, but if they start fighting, their legs will only break in attempts to escape.

They serve to seal their doom, so the arteries of the jungle are now coming back to life as the waters continue to rise, many creatures that were once isolated in ponds and lakes can now move freely through the jungle, fish are looking for a safe place to lay their eggs and predators are ready to cut them off a new chorus sounds in the depths a family of giant river otters seven members are also here totake advantage of the fish found in the swollen streams and thank goodness because this family has three hungry cubs to provide, but with so many mouths to feed, the otters cannot stay in the streams forever and must move to places of greater abundance.

They spend most of their time in vast lakes hidden deep in the forest. Half of the giant otter pups do not. They didn't make it through the first year, but these are the lucky ones who made it through the crucial stage in their lives when they are most vulnerable to predators; However, they are still young enough to get away with stealing a fish from mom instead. When hunting for themselves, the pups' jaws are not yet strong enough to dispatch a fish quickly, so they have to hold it carefully. Sometimes a live one can be a bit surprising, other animals stay close to the otters and collect their remains, but they don't.

They are not welcome everywhere with a full belly, there is plenty of time to play in a few months the cubs will reach their adult size at two meters long, but for now they must be careful not to stray too far from their parents because these waters are home Another top predator, the male black caiman, is very territorial and this five meter long individual is a newcomer to the lake. The current resident, a smaller male, is very aware and arches his back as a sign of attention to him. The new, much larger male responds in kind by showing that he will not back away as easily when the alligator advances, they size each other up, but the smaller resident male wisely backs away and the intruder manages to claim these hunting grounds for himself.

Some of these rainforest lakes are many hundreds of years old, but gradually vast mats of floating vegetation begin to choke the surface. The bottom of the lake becomes shallower as it fills with dead leaves and the forest moves in to claim the land. For now, this lake is a haven for wildlife of all kinds. The prehistoric-looking Watsons find safety in perches at the edge of the lake, where forest floor predators struggle to reach them. Strange snake birds can also be found here as low buoyancy submerges their body as they swim on the surface. dive and fish underwater more easily Optimal feeding grounds are often fiercely contested for many animals Daily downpours of the rainy season provide a welcome respite from the stifling heat of the dry months, but for some they pose peculiar problems the water has risen and the butterflies that once foraged on the mud banks at the edge of the lake must now look for food elsewhere they may have to wait but they know exactly where to get it the side-necked turtles who currently have completely different agendas there is nothing like A good scratch or, better yet, a good stretch.

In the rainy season young tortoises should make the most of the short periods of sunshine. It is difficult to get a good basking log so they rarely have it for long although there is enough room for many turtles on the log a large male will not tolerate his view being obstructed by a smaller one on the turtle society size is everything when turtles are more equal the relationships with the trunk are more respectful but as a consequence they often tend to accumulate life in the trunk. a process of constant pushing and pulling once the turtles have settled the butterflies can move in the butterflies lick the salty tears of the turtles but the turtles are not sad the tears wipe their eyes after diving into the water that the butterflies in reality they do not consume the tears they collect they save them these butterflies are all males and they will pass the small bundles of turtle salt to the females during the turtles mating the butterflies are almost bearable but the bees are not very well tolerated it seems that the Relationships with turtles in the water are not so different from those in the trunk.

The arrival of the rainy season means the return of another species, a species so ingenious that like no other it has the power to shape the rainforest in its own image, natural processes that take centuries to achieve. build people can undo it in a matter of minutes uh so now so delay well once the rats are finished the wood must be taken to the edge of the rainforest but on that edge the

world

is changing as The Las Piedras rainforest burns to make way for farmland a part of our sense of wonder at the world goes with them for the animals in this rainforest.

Millions of years have been spent finding ways to cooperate, ways to compete and ways to survive, but these efforts pale in comparison to such strength, nothing in

nature

could have prepared us for this, the clock is ticking for those mysteries that still remain. hidden inside the trees because those wild places could soon become fictional worlds, so