01x10 - Patagonia

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This is The Americas,

an extraordinary journey
across Earth's great supercontinent.

The widest variety of life on the planet.

The untold story...

...of our home.

Tonight on The Americas...

Patagonia.

Patagonia is an untamed wilderness

at the far south of the world.

From ancient mystical forests...

and sky-high ice worlds...

...to the bountiful coast.

This is a world
of both rugged beauty and...

...dramatic change.

Here,

all life must do battle...

...at the very end of the supercontinent.

Patagonia straddles both Chile in the west

and Argentina to the east.

Its most southerly point
lies only 600 miles from Antarctica,

a place where three great oceans collide.

Here, the island of Los Estados

is a vital refuge...

for the world's most devoted parents,

rockhopper penguins.

Every spring, over a quarter
of a million come ashore,

all hoping to raise a family.

Couples pair for life

and return to the same nest
year after year.

They take turns caring for their chicks.

And today,

Dad is on duty.

His chick is just a few days old.

And it's hungry.

But there is no food here.

The chick must wait for Mom
to return with a meal.

And she is on her way.

But getting ashore means risking her life.

On this jagged coast,

there is no easy landing.

Looks like she made it.

A sea lion.

A penguin predator.

There is no match
for a mother's determination.

To get home, however,

there's still a mountain to climb,

literally.

And with a belly full of krill,

it's slow going.

One wrong step, and...

it's back to square one.

But Mom's not called
a rockhopper penguin for nothing.

Strong claws...

and a sharp beak

are put to good use.

Now, she just needs to find her partner.

One somewhere

amongst hundreds of thousands of penguins.

Her partner's unique call...

...helps guide her to him.

Reunited.

And at last, it's dinner time.

Only the courageous
can raise a family down here.

And tomorrow, they must do it all again.

From Cape Horn,

Patagonia's towering, rocky backbone
runs north for over a thousand miles.

The weather is ferocious

and unpredictable.

Yet, the symbol of Patagonia's mountains

calls this place home.

In Patagonia's mountains,

it can seem like all four seasons

in one day.

Life here is as hard as it gets.

This is a female puma,

known as "Petaca."

She's an experienced hunter.

But since the sudden arrival of snow,

it's been difficult for her
to make a k*ll.

A guanaco could feed her for a week.

But to succeed,

she will need to get close.

In the snow,

she's lost her camouflage.

So she must use whatever cover
she can find.

Now speed is her only hope.

But in this deep snow,

she is no match for the guanaco.

She'll go hungry today.

And so will her cubs.

At just four months old,

they are entirely dependent on Mom.

They need a change in their fortunes.

And in these mountains,

change...

is never far away.

Within days,

the snow disappears.

Now Petaca has her camouflage back.

And her speed.

She must get a firm grip on the neck.

If she gets it wrong,

a single kick could be fatal.

It's now been a week
since Petaca and her cubs last ate.

On the wind...

...a scent.

A carcass.

But it belongs to someone else.

Conflict with another puma

could be deadly.

Petaca is taking a huge risk.

But this is no stranger.

It's Petaca's older sister

with her two larger cubs.

And she seems happy to share.

Pumas have long been considered solitary.

But rarely-seen encounters like these

reveal that they are far more social
than we once thought.

Petaca's cubs aren't sure

what to make of their cousins just yet.

But there is a lesson to be learned here.

A family that shares
can provide a lifeline

in Patagonia's hostile mountains.

Mountains that have been carved

by a colossal force.

Glaciers.

Monsters on the move.

This is San Rafael.

And for a glacier,

this one moves fast.

It travels more than 60 feet a day.

Millions of tons of ice break away.

Some slabs are the size of a skyscraper.

Glaciers are so powerful,

they can cut through solid rock.

And they've sliced Patagonia's coast

into over 40,000 islands,

creating isolated lost worlds.

Home...

to the weird and the wonderful.

Patagonia's west coast

is cloaked in ancient forests.

It's a strange legacy of the Jurassic.

And there are certainly
strange creatures here

found nowhere else on Earth.

Perhaps the most bizarre...

is the Chilean stag beetle.

These aren't antlers.

They are, in fact, giant jaws.

The bigger they are,

the greater his chances of winning a mate.

But first, he has to find one.

Microscopic hairs can detect
the scent of a female.

And it seems there is one...

all the way up here.

Three, two, one.

We have liftoff.

These beetles are known as "flying deer."

You can see why.

And it's hard to gain any altitude.

Looks like he's got to do it the hard way.

It's a hundred feet to the top,

the equivalent of you or I trying to scale
the Empire State Building...

twice over.

Finally,

there she is.

But he's not the only one attracted
by her scent.

A rival.

It's time to put these jaws into action.

And it seems his opponent
has the upper hand.

Has his rival got it in the bag?

Not yet!

We have a winner.

But it could be short-lived.

A female is a magnet for dozens of males.

Time to get back into the ring.

It's win or go home.

After all that,

he just has to summon up
the energy to reach her.

Mating complete.

She now needs to lay her eggs
on the forest floor.

And he can help her get there.

Turns out, these jaws
aren't just for fighting.

Journeying east,

mountains strip the clouds of moisture.

Creating a stark, arid heart.

This is the Patagonian Steppe.

And it's home to living dinosaurs.

The Patagonian Steppe
stretches 260,000 square miles,

nearly the size of Texas.

There is so little shelter
from the elements

that many here seek sanctuary underground.

But some are way too big for that.

A Darwin's rhea,

South America's answer to the ostrich.

Three feet tall,

it's one of the largest birds
in the world.

And this super-sized male

is father to a super-sized family.

Most birds share parenting duties.

But with rheas,

things are different.

After laying the eggs,

the females leave.

So it's up to Dad to raise the family...

alone.

And he's not the only one out here.

All across the plains,

dedicated dads are on duty

around the clock.

For 40 days and 40 nights,

they barely move.

By late spring,

Dad's efforts have been rewarded.

Fourteen healthy chicks.

Now the real work begins.

It will be six months
before his chicks are independent.

And they have a lot to learn,

like what's good to eat,

and how to keep well-groomed.

But the most important lesson
is to stick together.

Out here, it's easy to get lost.

And keen-eyed hawks

would soon grab a lone chick.

This neighbor has only three chicks left.

And for our dad,

it's a warning.

Keep your family close.

What is that?

It's a distress call.

From a chick.

But not one of his.

That's no problem for this super dad.

Male rheas have such
strong paternal instinct

that if they find any lost chick,

they will adopt it

on the spot.

And when you already have 14,

well, what's another one?

The summer in the Patagonian Steppe

brings ferocious westerly winds.

Gusts of over 70 miles per hour
scour the land,

triggering events so large,

they can be seen from space.

Dust storms.

They rage for hundreds of miles,

until they reach
Patagonia's Atlantic Coast.

Millions of tons of iron-rich dust
are swept into the ocean,

flooding it with nutrients.

And fueling life

on an astonishing scale.

Patagonia's rich seas attract giants.

Weighing over four tons,

these are the largest seals on Earth.

Fully grown bulls
are the size of a pickup truck.

But it's their colossal trunk-like nose

that has earned them their name...

...elephant seals.

Sixty thousand gather

on the remote shores
of Peninsula Valdes to breed.

But only the most dominant bulls
have the right to mate.

Meet the undefeated heavyweight
champion...

...the beachmaster.

For two months,
he's guarded his harem from rivals.

And not surprisingly,

he's exhausted.

But he can never really rest.

A contender is trying his luck
with one of the females.

The beachmaster sounds a warning.

His huge nose amplifies
the sound to 130 decibels.

It's as loud as a jackhammer.

But it's not enough to deter his opponent.

Time for this beachmaster

to throw his weight around.

Both bulls stand ten feet tall

and are armed with razor-sharp teeth.

The beachmaster is paying the price
for enduring months of fighting.

He's flagging.

Defeat would mean losing everything.

One final push...

...forces his opponent back out to sea.

He's the winner today.

But there are deadlier challenges
on the way.

Patagonia's Atlantic Coast

draws the ocean's smartest predator.

Orca.

Here, they have learned
to do something hardly ever seen...

...to hunt seals on dry land.

Along this coast,

this orca is one of only 16
known to hunt this way.

Scientists have named her "Jasmine."

She is the matriarch responsible
for a family of growing adolescents

and now, a grandchild as well.

The teenagers need to start
earning their keep.

But Patagonia's exposed coast

is no place for a beginner.

Luckily, Jasmine knows

the perfect training ground.

Caleta Valdes,

a lagoon protected from the open ocean
by vast sand banks.

Here, the water is calm.

And there is plenty of prey.

Young elephant seals.

The orca students
might be eager to get started,

but no one is quite sure what to do.

They need to learn the trick,

how to actually reach the seals.

So that is today's first lesson.

Under Jasmine's supervision,

the students launch themselves
onto shore...

...each time edging a little higher.

But you get it wrong,

and you could end up stuck.

Jasmine knows just what to do,

and comes to the rescue.

Next,

target practice.

Now to try the real thing.

Close.

Not close enough.

There is just one more skill to master.

How to conceal that giant dorsal fin

and learn the art of disappearing.

Turning on her side,
Jasmine demonstrates just how.

Every hunt needs an element of surprise.

The youngsters will still need
plenty more practice.

But Jasmine is passing her knowledge

on to the next generation.

And for now,

it's time to celebrate.

For all life in Patagonia,

conquering the elements
can unlock the riches

of this bountiful land.

The last great wilderness

in the Americas.