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The great plains of Brazil are one of
South America's best kept secrets.

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Strange creatures walk in a sea of grass
the outside world hardly knows.

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Theirs is a land of extremes

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dominated by the fiercest
elements of nature.

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For half the year
it's tinder dry and ravaged by fire.

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For the other six months
it's drenched by torrential rain.

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And there's another side
to this secret land.

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Huge torrents of water cascade off
the grassland plain in a deluge

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so mighty it creates the greatest
expanse of seasonal swamp on earth.

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This is a vast wetland
that teems with wildlife.

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The huge swamps
and the high grasslands

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are the two extraordinary faces of
South America's Great Plains.

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The swamp is called the Pantanal

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a wetland the size of England
and Wales combined.

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The grassy plateau surrounding
it is the Cerrado.

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It's as big as the whole
of Western Europe

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although 60% is now
ranchland and farms.

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The last remnants of
the Cerrado's grassland

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have their own unique animals.

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This may look like a fox on stilts

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but it's actually a maned wolf.

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The wolf is the largest predator
on the open plains

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but what it hunts is tiny.

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Finding it is like looking
for a needle in a haystack.

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Massive ears help it
pinpoint its prey.

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And this is what it's after
a little mouse.

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The wolf stamps on the ground to try
and panic it into running.

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If the mouse so much
as moves a whisker

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it'll blow its cover.

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For an animal this big
a mouse is just a mouthful.

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This high plains drifter
has to keep on the move

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if it's to find enough to eat

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like everything else that hunts here.

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If this were Africa

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the plains would be thick
with wildebeest

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antelope and zebra.

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The Cerrado seems empty
even lifeless.

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So what's eating all the grass?

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There are grazers here
countless millions

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but they're hidden.

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Only the turrets of their subterranean
castles give them away.

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Termites.

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These tiny insects are the force
that drives the grassland.

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What they lack in size

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they more than make up
for in sheer numbers.

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At the centre of each colony
there's a gigantic queen.

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She can turn out
thirty thousand eggs a day.

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Most eggs hatch into workers

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but some will be soldiers
armed with massive jaws

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or chemical sprays.

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And the colony needs an army.

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Termites are edible
and this much food doesn't go unnoticed.

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But how do predators breach
the defences of a termite mound?

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Each has its own technique.

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Anteaters tear a narrow gash in the wall
with powerful claws

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just big enough to admit a long
sticky tongue.

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There are two species here
the giant

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and this one, the collared anteater.

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Armadillos rely more on brute force.

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Their tongues aren't so long

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so they literally bulldoze
their way in.

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Termites play a vital role
as recyclers on the Great Plains.

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In the cool of the night

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they leave their mounds
and collect dry grass

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and leaves to eat.

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The nutrients are
then returned to the soil

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in their droppings.

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A termite colony is
like a production line

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converting dead grass into fertiliser
and more termites.

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The factory has its
own built in air conditioning.

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In the heart of the mound

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it's constantly cool and moist

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even when the world outside
is sweltering in the heat.

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Towards the end of the dry season

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temperatures climb to
nearly forty degrees.

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For six months of each year
there is no rain.

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As a result
these plains are treeless.

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There's not a scrap of shade.

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For the wolf and the flightless rheas

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there's no escape from the sun.

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The wolf is no threat

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perhaps tempers are
just a little frayed in the heat.

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The sun sucks the last trace
of moisture from the grass.

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Far to the south-west

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even the great swamp of
the Pantanal is drying out.

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For creatures that live in water

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this is the hardest time of year.

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Their whole world evaporates
in the heat.

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Capybaras
giant cousins of the guinea pig.

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These aquatic rodents are
as big as a sheep.

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Just weeks ago

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this was swamp hog heaven

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a green lagoon, full of food.

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Now it's a dusty desert.

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The only grazing could be miles away.

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Some of this family won't make it.

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It's not just wild animals
that are suffering.

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They share the Pantanal's grazing
with vast herds of cattle.

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They're constantly on the move
searching for food and water.

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Some die on the journey

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but the ranchers' loss
is the scavengers' gain.

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Black vultures gather on a cow
that's been dead for two days

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but they don't have it to themselves.

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A jaguar.

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Seeing one in the wild, like this

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is incredibly rare
especially during the day.

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Jaguars are normally hunters
not scavengers.

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Their prey here are creatures
like capybaras.

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But for this female
even carrion is worth guarding.

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The vultures could strip the carcass
bare in a couple of hours

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given the chance.

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But why spend so much energy defending
a hunk of rotten meat?

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The answer is simple
she has two cubs to feed.

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Seeing cubs in the wild
is even more remarkable.

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These cubs are now about a year old

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and will stay with their mother
for just a few more months.

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Until they're independent

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she has to find food for three.

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Jaguars do sometimes kill cattle
in the Pantanal.

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It gives them extra food
at this critical time

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but it also brings them
into conflict with ranchers

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and that can be fatal.

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Jaguars are now threatened
throughout their range.

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Only a few thousand of these
magnificent hunters are left

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and the Pantanal is one of
their last strongholds.

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It's now been six months
without rain.

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The capybaras have to drink
every day

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but every day water becomes harder
and harder to find.

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The last of their grazing shrivels
in the heat.

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The last pools are little
more than liquid mud.

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It may not be good to drink
but this is the only way to cool off

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Fish trapped in these shrinking pools
are fighting for life.

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This caiman has grown fat

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on the seasonal
concentration of food.

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But if the weather
doesn't break soon

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it may get stuck in the mud
and baked to death.

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It's a waiting game.

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Nothing but rain can bring
an end to this

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but the first signs of
a change in the weather

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only make things worse
much worse

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especially in the Grassland.

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Back in the Cerrado

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lightning ignites
the tinder-dry grass.

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These fires are an annual event.

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In the driest years

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much of Brazil's
great plains go up in smoke.

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For scavengers and hunters

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the fires are an opportunity

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but for anything
that can't run or fly

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these flames can be fatal.

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The fires move fast
faster than a man can run.

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As they gather strength

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they suck in air

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from their surroundings
and generate their own wind.

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The result is a fire
that can burn for days.

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This looks like the end of the world

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but fire has always been an element
of this ancient landscape.

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Over millions of years

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everything that lives here has
become adapted to cope with it.

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Fire can even be beneficial.

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It clears away accumulations
of dead grass

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and returns nutrients to the soil.

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Some animals are killed

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but mostly the old, the sick
or the very young.

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Only five centimetres
below the surface

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soil temperatures
barely rise at all.

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Insulated from the outside world
in their castles of clay

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the termites are unscathed.

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Not even fire can stop them.

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The heat may have
baked their battlements

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but they're quick to
repair any cracks.

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On the termite production line
work goes on as normal.

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For a few days after the fire

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the plains look black and lifeless.

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But appearances are deceptive.

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Triggered by the heat of the flames

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plants release their seeds.

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They fall on a fertile bed of ash

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cleared of the clutter of
last season's growth.

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Within days
the grass comes alive again.

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The fast-moving flames have
left the roots unharmed.

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Fire actually stimulates new growth

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but almost as quickly as it sprouts

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it's cut down again
by leafcutter ants.

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These ants are second only
to termites as recyclers.

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There can be a million
or more in a single nest

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and up to thirty nests
in a hundred metre square.

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They forage up to two hundred metres
from the nest

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following scent trails to
find their way home.

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A single ant is tiny

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but it can carry twenty times
its own body weight.

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Together the tonnage they shift
is extraordinary.

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They can take ten percent of
all the new grass.

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Unlike termites
ants can't digest grass.

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Back in their underground nest

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they shred it into tiny pieces
and grow fungus on it

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and the ants then eat the fungus.

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And this eats ants.

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But in the Cerrado the ants' nests
are often deep underground

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so the giant anteater finds it
simpler to tackle termites.

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It uses its long front claws to rip

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through the termite mound's hard
outer shell.

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Even so
this isn't an easy meal.

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The instant their defences
are breached

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soldier termites rush to
repel the invader

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with bites and irritant sprays.

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They can really get up your nose

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so for the anteater
this has to be fast food.

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It seldom spends longer
than a minute at any one nest

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but there's no shortage of mounds
to choose from.

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Anteaters have roamed these plains
for millions of years

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time for them to become one of the
most specialised of all insect eaters.

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With their half-metre-Iong
sticky tongue

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powerful forelimbs
and sharp claws

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they're supremely
adapted to this way of life.

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As it wanders from mound to mound

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the anteater leaves a trail of
destruction in its wake.

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But the termites aren't defeated.

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As soon as it's gone

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the workers rush to repair the breach
with soil, saliva and dung.

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Any hole could admit predatory ants

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and it destroys the colony's
vital air conditioning

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so they have to move fast.

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In just a few hours
the mixture sets hard as concrete.

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As you look across
the treeless plains

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of the Cerrado the termite turrets
dominate the landscape.

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And they are home
for more than just termites.

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Their cool interiors provide
the only shade and shelter.

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But how do you get in?

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This bird has the answer.

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It's a flicker
a kind of woodpecker.

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In forest, its relatives nest
in holes in trees

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so it's well able to hammer its way
into a termite mound.

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In a living colony
the termites might repair the breach

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but deserted mounds are soon
riddled with holes

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and where the flickers go
other animals can follow.

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They're perfect spots for wasps
to build their papery nests

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protected from the elements.

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As home or lookout post
all sorts of animals use termite mounds.

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Even the maned wolf
has a use for them.

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On these featureless plains

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they make convenient posts
for scent marking its territory

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like lamp posts for a dog
on a city street.

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The October skies begin to fill
with clouds until

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with a cataclysmic storm
the long dry season comes to an end.

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00:25:08,675 --> 00:25:13,112
The six month drought gives way
to six months of rain.

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00:25:17,317 --> 00:25:21,310
The Cerrado's climate swings
from one extreme to the other.

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The animals of the plain
have survived drought and fire

249
00:25:25,658 --> 00:25:27,717
but how will they cope with this?

250
00:25:29,195 --> 00:25:31,993
Termite mounds give shelter to
many animals

251
00:25:32,132 --> 00:25:36,159
but anything small caught in the open
could easily drown

252
00:25:36,636 --> 00:25:38,729
like these leafcutter ants.

253
00:25:43,843 --> 00:25:47,244
The rains are the second
face of the Cerrado.

254
00:25:47,547 --> 00:25:48,844
For everything that lives here

255
00:25:49,049 --> 00:25:53,247
they bring new challenges
and new opportunities

256
00:25:53,386 --> 00:25:54,910
though for the next six months

257
00:25:55,055 --> 00:25:57,751
they'll have to put up
with this daily drenching.

258
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,980
At dawn
a cold mist clothes a land

259
00:26:30,123 --> 00:26:33,456
that only days before would have
been shimmering in the heat.

260
00:26:47,607 --> 00:26:51,771
Fast-rising rivers fill with floodwater
from the grassland.

261
00:26:59,552 --> 00:27:03,955
Their banks are lined with
the few large trees that grow here

262
00:27:04,124 --> 00:27:06,854
home for blue and yellow macaws.

263
00:27:19,005 --> 00:27:20,097
Swollen by the rains

264
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,299
the rivers rush to
the edge of the plateau

265
00:27:22,442 --> 00:27:25,002
and plunge towards
the Pantanal below.

266
00:28:07,787 --> 00:28:12,417
The first flush of fresh water signals
the start of a new season.

267
00:28:12,725 --> 00:28:14,056
Caiman gather in the shallows

268
00:28:14,194 --> 00:28:16,719
for what will be a high point
of their year.

269
00:28:21,534 --> 00:28:25,766
Huge shoals of fish are on the move
to their spawning grounds.

270
00:28:26,005 --> 00:28:28,473
Some migrate hundreds of miles.

271
00:28:29,275 --> 00:28:33,268
The caiman congregate in the best places
to intercept them.

272
00:28:37,850 --> 00:28:39,249
Male caiman are territorial

273
00:28:39,385 --> 00:28:44,049
but they put their rivalries aside to
take advantage of this glut of food.

274
00:28:47,894 --> 00:28:51,990
Lying in the water with your mouth
open may look a bit optimistic

275
00:28:52,131 --> 00:28:53,496
but it does work.

276
00:28:55,034 --> 00:28:57,332
There are so many fish that sooner

277
00:28:57,470 --> 00:28:59,768
or later they'll swim into
these waiting jaws.

278
00:29:15,188 --> 00:29:19,625
This lazy way of fishing only works
when the water is still shallow.

279
00:29:19,859 --> 00:29:21,656
Once the rivers burst their banks

280
00:29:21,794 --> 00:29:24,763
the fish spread out
and become much harder to find

281
00:29:24,897 --> 00:29:28,663
so the caiman make the most of
this opportunity while it lasts.

282
00:29:37,210 --> 00:29:38,234
Further downstream

283
00:29:38,378 --> 00:29:42,712
the rivers lose themselves
in the vast expanse of the Pantanal.

284
00:29:50,323 --> 00:29:53,383
This is home to one of
the world's rarest parrots

285
00:29:53,526 --> 00:29:55,619
the hyacinth macaw.

286
00:29:59,198 --> 00:30:01,792
There are less than five thousand
in the wild

287
00:30:01,934 --> 00:30:04,459
and most of them live here
in the Pantanal.

288
00:30:05,038 --> 00:30:07,973
It's also the largest
of all the macaws.

289
00:30:10,777 --> 00:30:16,010
They feed entirely on palm nuts
a hard nut to crack.

290
00:30:16,516 --> 00:30:18,814
But not for the hyacinth macaw.

291
00:30:18,951 --> 00:30:22,944
They have the most powerful beak of
any bird in the world.

292
00:30:36,969 --> 00:30:40,200
The lagoons of the Pantanal
are beginning to fill.

293
00:30:40,873 --> 00:30:45,003
The swamp is so huge and so flat
that it takes four months

294
00:30:45,144 --> 00:30:47,772
for the floodwaters to reach
the far side.

295
00:31:04,831 --> 00:31:07,061
As the rising water creeps
across the plain

296
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:09,430
the cattle are forced to move again.

297
00:31:18,911 --> 00:31:21,744
The Pantanal is left to
its natural inhabitants

298
00:31:21,881 --> 00:31:23,371
like the capybara.

299
00:31:23,516 --> 00:31:26,007
Now they're in their element.

300
00:31:33,159 --> 00:31:34,717
With the onset of the flood

301
00:31:34,861 --> 00:31:39,264
the Pantanal becomes one of the greatest
wildlife spectacles on earth.

302
00:31:41,734 --> 00:31:45,033
There are nearly seven hundred
different kinds of bird here.

303
00:31:45,138 --> 00:31:48,130
The newly filled swamps are alive
with fish and frogs

304
00:31:48,274 --> 00:31:52,335
molluscs and insects
almost anything a bird might want.

305
00:31:56,082 --> 00:31:59,609
There's a mass of fresh green growth
for the capybaras.

306
00:32:00,153 --> 00:32:02,621
Their grazing helps to keep
the water open

307
00:32:02,755 --> 00:32:05,747
and that means even easier fishing
for the birds.

308
00:32:37,423 --> 00:32:38,720
As the floods advance

309
00:32:38,858 --> 00:32:41,520
birds time their nesting
to take advantage

310
00:32:41,661 --> 00:32:44,027
of the flush of food
to feed their young.

311
00:32:49,735 --> 00:32:52,295
Woodstorks crowd their nests
into the few trees

312
00:32:52,438 --> 00:32:54,099
that rise above the water.

313
00:32:55,107 --> 00:32:58,042
There can be many thousands
in these colonies.

314
00:33:07,420 --> 00:33:09,149
Storks are fish eaters

315
00:33:09,288 --> 00:33:12,485
though they'll take frogs
and even snakes.

316
00:33:12,625 --> 00:33:13,614
Here in the Pantanal

317
00:33:13,759 --> 00:33:16,694
they have four hundred kinds
of fish to choose from.

318
00:33:20,833 --> 00:33:22,994
The capybaras are breeding too.

319
00:33:23,069 --> 00:33:26,869
The large herds of the dry season
have split into family parties

320
00:33:27,039 --> 00:33:30,600
each with a single male
and several females and young.

321
00:33:34,947 --> 00:33:37,347
The mothers operate a kind of creche.

322
00:33:37,884 --> 00:33:41,911
One's left holding the babies
while the others graze.

323
00:33:44,123 --> 00:33:47,320
She even allows the other
female's young to suckle.

324
00:33:54,567 --> 00:33:57,661
But it's a hard life being
a baby capybara.

325
00:33:58,471 --> 00:34:01,599
Only one in twenty live beyond
their first year.

326
00:34:06,012 --> 00:34:10,142
An anaconda could swallow
a full grown capybara whole

327
00:34:10,283 --> 00:34:11,545
let alone a baby.

328
00:34:22,128 --> 00:34:24,858
But it seems no one has told
these youngsters.

329
00:34:37,176 --> 00:34:39,906
An anaconda can
grow to ten metres.

330
00:34:40,046 --> 00:34:42,105
It's the heaviest
snake in the world.

331
00:34:43,716 --> 00:34:48,050
On land, this legendary giant
may look slow and clumsy.

332
00:34:49,622 --> 00:34:50,611
Underwater

333
00:34:50,756 --> 00:34:54,920
it's fast and graceful
and a killer.

334
00:35:00,866 --> 00:35:01,833
During the wet season

335
00:35:02,001 --> 00:35:04,265
the Pantanal blooms
with more aquatic plants

336
00:35:04,403 --> 00:35:10,239
than anywhere else on earth ideal
cover for the anaconda.

337
00:35:16,749 --> 00:35:21,049
This young capybara swims almost
gracefully underwater

338
00:35:21,187 --> 00:35:23,747
but it's no match for an anaconda.

339
00:35:25,257 --> 00:35:28,556
The snake's flickering tongue smells
out its prey

340
00:35:28,694 --> 00:35:31,060
however murky the water.

341
00:35:37,903 --> 00:35:39,131
The hunt is on.

342
00:35:48,314 --> 00:35:51,647
Rather late in the day
his mother senses danger.

343
00:35:57,089 --> 00:35:59,819
It's been a lucky escape
for this wanderer.

344
00:36:07,466 --> 00:36:10,697
He's shaken, but not stirred.

345
00:36:16,876 --> 00:36:20,004
For the capybaras
the living's easy now.

346
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:21,739
Just weeks ago

347
00:36:21,881 --> 00:36:24,873
this was a desert of cracked
dry mud.

348
00:36:25,017 --> 00:36:27,986
Now it's a floating meadow
full of food.

349
00:36:29,822 --> 00:36:31,153
At the height of the flood

350
00:36:31,290 --> 00:36:34,726
sixty thousand square miles
disappear underwater.

351
00:36:35,428 --> 00:36:38,864
The Pantanal becomes
the greatest wetland on earth.

352
00:36:41,901 --> 00:36:45,769
But the change of season
has an effect far beyond the Pantanal.

353
00:36:46,439 --> 00:36:47,906
Right across the great plains

354
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,508
the rains bring a flowering
of new life.

355
00:36:50,810 --> 00:36:54,211
Back on the high plateau
the Cerrado is in bloom.

356
00:36:58,851 --> 00:37:01,183
For now, the hard times are over.

357
00:37:01,554 --> 00:37:03,215
The explosion of growth triggered

358
00:37:03,355 --> 00:37:06,791
by the rains brings a flush of food
for the rheas

359
00:37:07,093 --> 00:37:09,960
and these rare pampas deer.

360
00:37:28,013 --> 00:37:30,243
The anteaters
have been breeding, too.

361
00:37:35,855 --> 00:37:37,846
As they wander
between termite mounds

362
00:37:38,023 --> 00:37:40,548
they travel as much
as six miles a day.

363
00:37:41,727 --> 00:37:44,594
It will be months before the infant
can walk that far

364
00:37:44,730 --> 00:37:47,164
so it hitches a piggy-back ride
from its mother.

365
00:37:53,606 --> 00:37:55,574
The grass has grown tall

366
00:37:55,708 --> 00:37:58,506
almost tall enough to
hide the maned wolf

367
00:37:58,644 --> 00:38:00,908
only those ears give it away.

368
00:38:02,481 --> 00:38:05,973
The wolf's no threat to full grown rheas
or pampas deer

369
00:38:06,118 --> 00:38:08,018
but it could take their young

370
00:38:08,754 --> 00:38:11,723
though a rhea's kick
packs a lethal punch.

371
00:38:25,771 --> 00:38:28,797
Rheas and deer often feed together.

372
00:38:30,342 --> 00:38:33,607
The deer has acute hearing
and a good sense of smell.

373
00:38:39,618 --> 00:38:43,520
The rhea has superb eyesight
and a high viewpoint.

374
00:38:43,856 --> 00:38:44,982
Working together

375
00:38:45,090 --> 00:38:48,992
bird and deer make an effective
early warning system.

376
00:38:49,428 --> 00:38:52,192
A wolf or a jaguar would be hard
put to take them

377
00:38:52,331 --> 00:38:54,196
by surprise during the day.

378
00:38:56,035 --> 00:38:57,764
But under cover of darkness

379
00:38:57,903 --> 00:39:00,133
it could be a different story.

380
00:39:22,228 --> 00:39:23,126
It's at night

381
00:39:23,262 --> 00:39:26,493
that the wolf's true nature
is revealed.

382
00:39:28,033 --> 00:39:30,866
Night vision cameras give us
the first real insight

383
00:39:31,003 --> 00:39:35,201
into the nocturnal behaviour of
this shy and solitary hunter.

384
00:39:43,816 --> 00:39:48,116
Using its own natural night vision
it set its sights.

385
00:39:53,359 --> 00:39:55,850
Would a skunk make a good meal?

386
00:40:02,201 --> 00:40:04,032
In fact, this smelly animal

387
00:40:04,169 --> 00:40:06,694
is the last thing a wolf
would want to tackle.

388
00:40:07,306 --> 00:40:10,139
But it's found something
the wolf is after.

389
00:40:12,211 --> 00:40:13,473
Fruit.

390
00:40:19,084 --> 00:40:22,417
For the six months of the dry season
the wolf eats mice

391
00:40:22,554 --> 00:40:23,816
but during the rains

392
00:40:23,956 --> 00:40:27,084
this hunter lives
almost entirely on fruit.

393
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,820
Its favourite is a relative
of the tomato

394
00:40:31,063 --> 00:40:34,590
the 'fruta do lobo'
fruit of the wolf.

395
00:40:35,134 --> 00:40:38,934
It grows on a low spiny bush
the lobeira.

396
00:40:39,805 --> 00:40:41,739
But there's another surprise.

397
00:40:41,874 --> 00:40:44,934
A second maned wolf
arrives on the scene.

398
00:40:47,079 --> 00:40:49,741
The wolves usually
live alone spending their days

399
00:40:49,882 --> 00:40:54,012
and nights criss-crossing the plains
in a never-ending search for food.

400
00:40:54,153 --> 00:40:56,986
Everything they eat is so small
and widely dispersed

401
00:40:57,122 --> 00:41:02,219
that each animal needs a territory of up
to ten square miles to support it.

402
00:41:03,495 --> 00:41:07,431
The boundary is scent marked
with urine and faeces

403
00:41:07,566 --> 00:41:10,330
no entry signs
for other wolves.

404
00:41:10,636 --> 00:41:13,833
So this encounter
is a very rare sight.

405
00:41:34,893 --> 00:41:37,259
This playful greeting suggests
these animals

406
00:41:37,396 --> 00:41:39,125
already know one another.

407
00:41:39,631 --> 00:41:42,327
Are they a mother and one of
last year's young

408
00:41:42,468 --> 00:41:44,732
or are they a mated pair?

409
00:41:45,104 --> 00:41:47,095
Male and female share a territory

410
00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:50,766
but because their food is so scattered
they rarely meet.

411
00:42:03,022 --> 00:42:06,082
Perhaps the lobeira fruit
has brought them together.

412
00:42:15,167 --> 00:42:16,896
Even at this time of plenty

413
00:42:17,036 --> 00:42:20,699
each wolf still needs a large area
to feed itself.

414
00:42:24,910 --> 00:42:28,812
As people encroach on the last natural
remnants of the Cerrado

415
00:42:28,947 --> 00:42:31,916
it's ever harder for the wolves
to make a living.

416
00:42:32,151 --> 00:42:36,850
Over the entire continent
fewer than four thousand remain.

417
00:42:45,831 --> 00:42:51,064
The rains are a trigger
for one final extravagant act of nature.

418
00:43:12,424 --> 00:43:15,325
What is about to happen is
the most spectacular

419
00:43:15,461 --> 00:43:17,395
event of the Cerrado's year

420
00:43:17,529 --> 00:43:20,794
but the conditions
have to be just right.

421
00:43:31,510 --> 00:43:34,206
On just a few days each year
in the still

422
00:43:34,346 --> 00:43:36,541
humid air after a heavy downpour

423
00:43:36,682 --> 00:43:41,119
all the termite colonies
produce swarms of winged adults.

424
00:43:47,426 --> 00:43:48,859
These males and females

425
00:43:49,061 --> 00:43:51,894
are the founders
of a new generation.

426
00:43:57,136 --> 00:44:00,936
The swarms mingle in an aerial dance
of courtship.

427
00:44:05,777 --> 00:44:09,110
To find an unrelated mate
and start a new colony

428
00:44:09,248 --> 00:44:11,182
they have to leave
the safety of the mound

429
00:44:11,316 --> 00:44:12,874
and its protective army.

430
00:44:17,789 --> 00:44:20,815
That gives a window of opportunity
for hunters.

431
00:44:27,432 --> 00:44:29,992
Predatory ants attack
the emerging termites

432
00:44:30,068 --> 00:44:32,332
before they even
have a chance to fly.

433
00:44:45,751 --> 00:44:47,013
Some of these ants actually

434
00:44:47,085 --> 00:44:50,020
live in the outer walls of
the termite mounds.

435
00:44:50,756 --> 00:44:54,453
For most of the year they share
an uneasy peace with the termites

436
00:44:54,593 --> 00:44:56,686
but when faced
with this tempting bonanza

437
00:44:56,828 --> 00:44:59,592
the ants become
the neighbours from hell.

438
00:45:11,777 --> 00:45:14,439
The ants work overtime to
stock their larders

439
00:45:14,580 --> 00:45:17,549
but they can make little impact
on such hordes.

440
00:45:19,351 --> 00:45:21,285
By emerging all at the same time

441
00:45:21,420 --> 00:45:25,151
the termites overwhelm their predators
by sheer numbers.

442
00:45:27,859 --> 00:45:28,985
At the end of the day

443
00:45:29,061 --> 00:45:32,553
they're still pouring from their mounds
by the million.

444
00:45:46,912 --> 00:45:51,645
Night brings a final incredible twist
to the termites' tale.

445
00:46:16,642 --> 00:46:20,976
Like galaxies in a starry sky
every mound comes alive

446
00:46:21,046 --> 00:46:24,140
with a thousand twinkling
points of light.

447
00:46:29,488 --> 00:46:32,184
And the lights are lethal.

448
00:46:33,025 --> 00:46:36,552
These nocturnal snatchers
are luminous beetle grubs

449
00:46:36,695 --> 00:46:38,560
living in the termite mounds.

450
00:46:41,500 --> 00:46:44,799
Termites and flying ants are attracted
by the light.

451
00:46:44,936 --> 00:46:47,837
The grubs are sensitive to touch
and vibration.

452
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:51,373
If anything lands within range
they grab it.

453
00:46:59,951 --> 00:47:01,942
For the beetle grubs
as for so many others

454
00:47:02,087 --> 00:47:04,021
the annual swarming of the termites

455
00:47:04,156 --> 00:47:07,216
is a golden opportunity to
lay in supplies.

456
00:47:11,530 --> 00:47:14,966
Of all the creatures
that share the termites' castles of clay

457
00:47:15,100 --> 00:47:18,069
these must be the most remarkable.

458
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:45,992
South America's great plains
are an ancient landscape.

459
00:47:46,465 --> 00:47:50,060
They were here long
before the forests of the Amazon.

460
00:47:50,202 --> 00:47:51,669
Over millions of years

461
00:47:51,803 --> 00:47:54,567
their inhabitants
have evolved the most complex

462
00:47:54,706 --> 00:47:57,197
and intimate of relationships.

463
00:47:57,642 --> 00:48:00,509
But only the most resilient of animals
can live here

464
00:48:00,645 --> 00:48:03,978
those that can meet
the challenge of elemental extremes.

465
00:48:04,116 --> 00:48:08,485
Drought, Flood and Fire.