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[narrator] Just 50 years ago,
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we finally ventured to the moon.
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For the very first time,
we looked back at our own planet.
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Since then, the human population
has more than doubled.
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This series will celebrate
the natural wonders that remain
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and reveal what we must preserve
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to ensure people and nature thrive.
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Forests.
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Over half of all the world's trees,
evergreen and deciduous,
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stand in these great assemblies.
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[birds chirping]
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[narrator] For many of us,
they are places of mystery and darkness.
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They are key to our climate,
and home to countless unique species.
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In the past, we have destroyed them
without hesitation.
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Yet, forests do have
an astonishing ability to recover.
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This is the southern edge
of the boreal forest,
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the forest that dominates the far north.
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It stretches eastwards across Russia
for thousands of kilometers,
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and now, in the middle of winter,
it's largely silent,
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seemingly empty of animals of any kind.
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But this is the home
of an animal so rare it's almost mythical.
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A Siberian tiger.
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There are less than 600 of them.
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[caws]
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[tiger growls]
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[narrator] These are the most intimate
pictures of them in the wild yet taken.
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A male Siberian tiger patrols a territory
of almost 2,000 square kilometers,
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and it has to do so
if it is to find enough prey
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to keep itself alive
during the long winter.
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This is an impoverished land
where food of any kind is scarce.
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A pine cone.
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Pine nuts provide vital energy
during the winter months.
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Wild boar depend on these nuts.
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For them, it has to be grab and go,
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for they themselves are food for a tiger.
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[squeals]
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[narrator] This game of hide-and-seek
is played out over vast areas of forest,
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as all the animals search
for the life-giving stands of pine.
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Poaching has taken the Siberian tiger
to the brink of extinction,
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but, since the 1980s,
their numbers have slowly increased.
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These rare glimpses reveal
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that their future still depends on having
vast areas of forest in which to hunt.
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The boreal forest extends
from Russia in the east,
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across Europe, to North America.
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It contains 750 billion trees,
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and it stores
over 40 percent of the world's carbon,
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making it a vital element
in the fight against climate change.
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During the winter, the days are so short
and the temperature so low,
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that growth is at a standstill.
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This far north,
the forest can support very few animals
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compared to the rain forests
of the tropics.
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Many are dependent on the supplement
to be found in its rivers.
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[birds caw]
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[narrator] In western Alaska,
both in spring and, as now, in autumn,
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salmon, having left the ocean,
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swim up rivers to reach
their ancestral spawning grounds.
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Their journey from the sea into the forest
represents
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the greatest transfer of nutrients
from one habitat to another
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anywhere on Earth.
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The fish are crucial seasonal food
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for all the predators
that live in this forest.
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Bald eagles live here the year round
and nest close to the river.
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[piercing chirp]
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[narrator] Young eagles,
still without white heads,
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spend their first years
searching for food in the forest.
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But, like this four-year-old female,
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they're now big enough
to try and claim a place on the river.
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At first, all she can get
are the scraps left by others.
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And she can't get even these
without a fight.
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[eagles chittering]
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[narrator] She will have to
look elsewhere.
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The boreal forest may be vast,
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but the places where the salmon spawn
are known to all the predators.
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As the rivers begin to freeze over,
competition becomes even more intense.
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This youngster is lucky,
but her success is noticed immediately.
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[chittering]
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[narrator] She does have one advantage.
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Females, even when young,
are larger than the males.
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And here, size matters.
[cawing]
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[narrator] As winter advances,
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young and old have to meet
the challenge of the intense cold.
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If she can survive,
she will have gained a place
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in one of the greatest
and harshest forests on Earth.
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A little further south
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stand the last
of the great redwood forests.
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Not so long ago, these great trees
grew throughout the Pacific Northwest.
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Now, only five percent of them remain.
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Here, conditions are less harsh.
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Winds bring in warm, humid air
from the Pacific Ocean,
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so the trees are able to grow
the year round.
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Hidden in the vegetation
of the moist forest floor
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is a richly populated underworld.
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A male rough-skinned newt.
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Every spring,
he is driven by a mysterious urge
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to return to the pool
where he hatched as a tadpole.
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And he needs to get there quickly.
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Because there are
lots of others like him...
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with exactly the same idea.
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They're all searching for a female,
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but trekking across hundreds of meters
of old-growth forest is not easy.
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There is strong competition.
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And the female is anxious to get going.
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Once paired, he hangs on,
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for she may take several hours
to discharge all her eggs.
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Other males are only too eager
to displace him if they can.
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Competition is so vigorous
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that the females
in the center of these writhing balls
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have been known to drown for lack of air.
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But her first partner maintains his grip.
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Within weeks, their tadpoles will hatch.
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And none too soon, for the forest
is about to change dramatically.
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By the end of the summer,
the sun has baked the forest so intensely
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that they are as dry as tinder.
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Strong winds drive the flames,
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and temperatures rise
to 700 degrees Celsius.
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Its aftermath is seemingly
total destruction.
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The wind,
scouring the newly exposed forest floor,
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kicks up dust devils of ash.
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The ground appears to be devoid of life.
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But the forest is far from dead.
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Within only a few months,
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flowers and tree seedlings
will rise from the soil.
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Many, in fact, would not have germinated
had they not received a baptism of fire.
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[birds chirping]
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[narrator] Light streaming down
through the newly opened canopy
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provides the energy
for a surge of new growth.
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The older, well-established redwoods
have survived,
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protected
by their thick, fire-resistant bark.
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This natural resilience is essential
to the continued health of these forests.
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Most forests, however,
cannot recover on their own.
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Many are helped to recover by animals.
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The trees and their inhabitants
are interdependent.
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And nowhere
is this dependence more apparent
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than in India's Western Ghats.
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This globally important habitat
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contains a third
of all animal species found in India.
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[animals whoop and chirp]
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[narrator] Lion-tailed macaques.
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They feed on the fruits
of many kinds of tree,
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and, in doing so,
they distribute the seeds,
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which will emerge unscathed
with their droppings.
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But few monkeys travel very far.
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If plants are to distribute their seeds
across great distances,
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they need another kind of transport.
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Wings.
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Great hornbills have wings
that are almost two meters across,
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and they enable the birds to travel
long distances in search of food.
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Hornbills feed on the fruit
of 40 or so different kinds of trees,
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and transport
the indigestible seeds they contain
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all over the Western Ghats.
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So, it's to the trees' advantage
to attract the hornbill's attention.
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The figs themselves,
although they taste nice,
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are not, in fact, very nutritious,
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so the hornbills have to eat
great quantities of them.
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It can be tiring work.
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But it's not a free-for-all.
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A single fig tree in fruit
attracts great numbers of hornbills.
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Competition between them is intense.
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This aerial jousting between males
has never been filmed before
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and its purpose is not really understood.
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It may be that the birds
are simply squabbling over food,
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but it seems rather more than that.
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[squawking]
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[narrator] The winner is able to
demonstrate his strength and skill
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to visiting females.
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The males certainly seem keen
to ingratiate themselves.
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It's particularly important for hornbills
to get the best pairing
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because, once established,
the bond between male and female
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will last a lifetime.
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The forest also benefits
from these squabbles,
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because even a defeated hornbill
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will spread seeds over wide areas
as he searches for his next meal.
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The relationship
between trees and animals in a forest
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is not always so harmonious.
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This is Africa's largest forest,
the Miombo,
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named after one of its common trees.
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It stretches for over a thousand miles,
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from Angola in the west
to Mozambique in the east.
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At the height of the dry season,
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the Miombo attracts animals
from all across southern Africa.
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[trumpeting]
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[narrator] Elephants prefer grass
if they can get it. It's very nutritious.
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In its absence,
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they browse on the abundant leaves
and branches of the Miombo.
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[elephants huffing]
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[narrator] But they're not the only
hungry ones here.
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These mopane worms
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are not worms, of course,
but caterpillars.
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They hatch simultaneously in huge numbers.
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And just as the forest
is putting out new leaves,
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they begin their attack.
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They feed so voraciously
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that in just six weeks
they increase their size 40 times.
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By the time they're fully developed,
this million-strong army
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will have stripped the entire forest
of its foliage.
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But the Miombo bounces back.
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With the caterpillars gone,
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the trees produce
a second growth of leaves.
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This fresh feast then attracts elephants.
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They are less fussy than the caterpillars.
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They will eat every part of the tree.
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And a hungry elephant can munch through
200 kilos of vegetation in a day.
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Yet, even this destruction
has its benefits.
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It shapes the forest in a way that helps
one of Africa's most endangered animals.
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Hunting dogs.
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They're seen most frequently,
and most easily, on grasslands.
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But, in fact, these open forests
are their preferred habitat.
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[grunts]
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[narrator] Browsing elephants
open up a forest,
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and that attracts the animals
on which the dogs prey.
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[barks]
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[dogs yipping]
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00:30:59,108 --> 00:31:03,362
[narrator] For the dogs, the Miombo forest
is perfect hunting country.
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00:31:07,408 --> 00:31:11,621
And it's also an excellent place
in which to bring up pups.
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The pups greet the adults
returning from a hunt
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00:31:24,926 --> 00:31:26,260
with great excitement.
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[squealing]
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[narrator] Food.
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The first three months of the pups' lives
are spent sheltering underground.
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[soft growling]
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[narrator] Now, they are confident enough
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to stay out in the open
for much of the time.
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And then, like all puppies, they have fun.
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Playing is important for the youngsters,
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for as they do so,
they establish the social bonds
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that they will need when they start
to hunt together as a team.
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-[bird squawks]
-[squealing]
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[narrator] The Miombo has always been
important for hunting dogs,
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both as a place to find prey
and as a refuge.
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Never has it been more crucial
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00:32:58,811 --> 00:33:02,690
for the survival
of this endangered species than now.
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But they will only survive
if other creatures are here
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to create the kind of habitat they need.
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[elephant lows]
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[narrator] Madagascar has a forest
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dominated uniquely
by one of the oddest of trees.
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Baobabs.
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The island has been isolated
for over 80 million years.
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During that immensity of time,
its animals and plants
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have evolved into forms
quite different from any elsewhere.
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This makes them one of
the most precious forests on our planet.
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This is not a monkey,
but a distant relative, a lemur,
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00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,931
and there are
at least 40 different kinds of lemurs,
244
00:34:17,348 --> 00:34:21,018
all unique to Madagascar
and all endangered.
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00:34:21,102 --> 00:34:21,936
[lemur hoots]
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00:34:23,104 --> 00:34:25,439
[narrator] Lemurs are crucial
to the forest.
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00:34:26,524 --> 00:34:30,277
Without them,
some species of tree cannot survive.
248
00:34:36,325 --> 00:34:40,329
The forest even has
its own specialized lemur hunter.
249
00:34:50,297 --> 00:34:52,341
It's Madagascar's top predator,
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00:34:53,551 --> 00:34:56,470
and its presence is cause for alarm.
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00:35:01,392 --> 00:35:03,894
It can grow
to a length of one and a half meters,
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00:35:04,895 --> 00:35:07,606
and it's very seldom seen in the wild.
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00:35:09,817 --> 00:35:10,734
It's a fossa.
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00:35:20,119 --> 00:35:22,246
For most of the year, fossas are solitary,
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00:35:22,746 --> 00:35:27,168
but in the breeding season, they assemble
in a way that is all their own.
256
00:35:30,254 --> 00:35:35,259
Each mature female takes up residence
in a special mating tree.
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00:35:49,273 --> 00:35:53,485
Half a dozen or so male fossas
have gathered in the forest below it,
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00:35:56,739 --> 00:35:58,824
but she is clearly occupied.
259
00:36:02,161 --> 00:36:04,538
So, one of the males leaves his scent.
260
00:36:07,291 --> 00:36:09,835
A visiting card,
just to show that he called.
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00:36:24,058 --> 00:36:28,312
He will just have to wait around
and see whether she takes any notice.
262
00:36:34,109 --> 00:36:37,196
Her present engagement can last all night.
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00:36:43,035 --> 00:36:46,872
With its top predators distracted,
the rest of the forest animals
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00:36:46,956 --> 00:36:50,834
can go about their normal nightly business
undisturbed.
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00:36:54,088 --> 00:36:58,801
These are immature leaf bugs,
a species found only here in Madagascar.
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00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,807
Why they have this extraordinary shape,
no one knows.
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00:37:09,228 --> 00:37:11,021
They feed on tree sap,
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00:37:11,438 --> 00:37:15,234
absorbing the part they need
and excreting the rest as a sweet liquid
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00:37:15,484 --> 00:37:19,613
sometimes known, perhaps flatteringly,
as honeydew.
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00:37:25,661 --> 00:37:31,750
And honeydew, in turn, provides food
for a particular species of small lemur.
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00:37:43,846 --> 00:37:47,433
The gray mouse lemur
is only 15 centimeters long,
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00:37:47,516 --> 00:37:50,519
one of the smallest primates in the world.
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00:37:55,149 --> 00:37:58,986
It's very active
and needs an energy-packed food.
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00:38:01,363 --> 00:38:03,782
And while the sugar drops
are clearly delicious,
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00:38:04,241 --> 00:38:05,743
they're not very sustaining.
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00:38:10,372 --> 00:38:13,876
So, she's not going to let
a single drop go to waste.
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00:38:38,817 --> 00:38:42,404
The male fossas below
are still awaiting their turn.
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00:38:42,488 --> 00:38:43,739
[animal screeches]
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00:38:45,282 --> 00:38:47,826
[narrator] So, having eaten
as much as she can,
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00:38:48,118 --> 00:38:51,246
she retreats
to the safety of her nest hole
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00:38:51,372 --> 00:38:53,791
to sleep during the daylight hours.
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00:39:16,230 --> 00:39:19,400
Things are not looking so satisfactory
on the ground
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00:39:19,608 --> 00:39:21,402
around the fossas' mating tree.
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00:39:23,362 --> 00:39:25,114
[sniffs]
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00:39:26,698 --> 00:39:29,827
[narrator] The pair above
are clearly still engaged.
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00:39:33,747 --> 00:39:38,460
He will either have to find
another mating tree or be very patient.
287
00:39:46,301 --> 00:39:48,846
But he may well fail altogether.
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00:39:51,557 --> 00:39:56,478
A third of Madagascar's fossas
have disappeared in the last 20 years,
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00:39:57,438 --> 00:40:02,025
a result of the continued destruction
of their forests by people.
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00:40:06,530 --> 00:40:08,282
Since these pictures were recorded,
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00:40:08,824 --> 00:40:11,743
this forest,
and the unique life it once contained,
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00:40:12,202 --> 00:40:14,246
have disappeared altogether.
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00:40:19,835 --> 00:40:24,339
Only three percent
of Madagascar's dry forest remains.
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00:40:31,930 --> 00:40:34,224
Worldwide, we have now destroyed
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00:40:34,308 --> 00:40:38,187
over half of the forests
that once flourished on our planet.
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00:40:41,690 --> 00:40:44,776
Not only are we losing the animals
that once lived in them,
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00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,072
we are also changing the climate
of the entire globe.
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00:41:02,044 --> 00:41:05,047
But our planet's forests,
if given the chance,
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00:41:05,214 --> 00:41:08,008
are almost unbelievably resilient.
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00:41:13,055 --> 00:41:16,767
Perhaps the best proof we have
of their ability to recover
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00:41:17,059 --> 00:41:21,063
can be seen on the site
of one of our greatest disasters.
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00:41:29,446 --> 00:41:30,280
Chernobyl.
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00:41:36,453 --> 00:41:42,751
In 1986, one of the four reactors
at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded.
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00:41:44,586 --> 00:41:49,258
It turned this utopian vision
of the future into a ghost town.
305
00:41:55,764 --> 00:42:00,143
Over 100,000 people
were immediately evacuated,
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00:42:00,227 --> 00:42:01,520
never to return.
307
00:42:08,777 --> 00:42:14,700
The fallout zone was declared
uninhabitable for the next 20,000 years.
308
00:42:25,460 --> 00:42:29,798
Yet despite the radiation,
there has been a remarkable recovery.
309
00:42:56,783 --> 00:42:58,619
Within only a decade,
310
00:42:59,119 --> 00:43:02,581
vegetation began to germinate
in the ruined city.
311
00:43:09,171 --> 00:43:14,843
And as the forest reestablished itself,
animals began to appear.
312
00:43:39,660 --> 00:43:43,830
At first it was thought
that these were rare visitors,
313
00:43:48,543 --> 00:43:51,588
but it soon became clear
that the former city
314
00:43:51,797 --> 00:43:56,218
was occupied by an established
and thriving wild community.
315
00:44:08,647 --> 00:44:10,649
[chirping]
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00:44:23,453 --> 00:44:25,539
[narrator] Within only 20 years,
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00:44:25,622 --> 00:44:28,458
science has recorded
populations of animals
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00:44:28,667 --> 00:44:31,628
similar to that
in the wilder parts of Europe.
319
00:44:35,757 --> 00:44:40,345
Roe deer are now a common sight,
wandering through the suburbs.
320
00:44:48,603 --> 00:44:51,565
Herds of the endangered Przewalski's horse
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00:44:51,773 --> 00:44:54,609
now roam freely
through the once busy city.
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00:44:57,696 --> 00:44:59,448
Most surprising of all perhaps,
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00:45:00,073 --> 00:45:03,452
the top predator of these forests
has reappeared.
324
00:45:06,204 --> 00:45:07,289
Wolves.
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00:45:11,418 --> 00:45:13,795
Hunters like these would only return
326
00:45:13,962 --> 00:45:18,049
if their prey and the surrounding forest
is also thriving.
327
00:45:20,260 --> 00:45:22,179
Now, studies have shown
328
00:45:22,345 --> 00:45:28,018
that there are seven times more wolves
inside the exclusion zone than outside it.
329
00:45:36,568 --> 00:45:38,612
No unprotected human being
330
00:45:38,695 --> 00:45:41,907
can stay here for long
without lethal risk.
331
00:45:44,534 --> 00:45:46,203
But in driving us out,
332
00:45:46,787 --> 00:45:50,999
the radiation has created space
for wildlife to return.
333
00:45:59,382 --> 00:46:05,305
The dramatic recolonization of Chernobyl
in the space of only 30 years
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00:46:05,639 --> 00:46:09,810
is proof
of forests' extraordinary resilience.
335
00:46:21,613 --> 00:46:25,116
If we choose to give forests
time and space,
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00:46:25,534 --> 00:46:27,577
they could reclothe the earth
337
00:46:27,911 --> 00:46:31,706
with much of the rich and varied
communities of animals and plants
338
00:46:32,082 --> 00:46:35,293
of which we have, so recently, robbed it.
339
00:46:39,464 --> 00:46:46,179
A future with more forests
is key to the resilience of our planet.
340
00:47:04,030 --> 00:47:06,157
Please visit ourplanet.com
341
00:47:06,449 --> 00:47:10,787
to discover what we need to do now
to restore our forests.
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00:47:13,415 --> 00:47:19,254
♪ I can hear the whole world
Singing together ♪
♪ I can hear the whole world
Say it's now or never ♪
343
00:47:30,682 --> 00:47:34,936
♪ 'Cause it's not too late
If we change our ways ♪
344
00:47:35,020 --> 00:47:38,648
♪ And connect the dots to our problems ♪
345
00:47:38,899 --> 00:47:44,738
♪ I can hear the whole world
Say we're in this together ♪