01x08 - The Caribbean

[bunniefuu]

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...

The Caribbean.

The tropical paradise

at the heart

of the supercontinent.

This is a voyage

across sparkling, deep seas,

colorful shallows,

and far-flung exotic islands,

all revealing hidden natural treasures.

But in paradise,

the stakes are high...

in deadly battles.

Temperatures are searingly hot,

and nature's fury

is never far away.

How can island castaways

unlock the riches

of this sun-drenched world?

The Caribbean spans more
than a million square miles.

It's fringed to the east
by a chain of volcanic islands.

To the north...

by Cuba and the Bahamas.

And to the west...

by Central America.

But our journey begins...

...on the high seas.

It's a world of dazzling sapphire blue.

In these crystal-clear waters,

life must be on its guard.

A shoal of Spanish sardines

feeding on microscopic plankton.

An irresistible opportunity

for a sailfish.

A pirate of the Caribbean.

With a streamlined body

and a bill like a rapier,

sailfish are perfectly honed

for hunting in these open waters.

Time for the sardines
to swim for their lives.

Sailfish have speed and endurance,

but the sardines are more nimble.

With the tightly-packed shoal
moving as one,

it's near impossible
to pick out a victim.

When some make a break
for the safety of the depths...

...the sailfish drive them back
to the surface

into a trap.

Blockers pin them from beneath.

While flankers raise their sails,

cutting off any escape route.

None of the hunters want to risk
being skewered,

so they use a surprising tactic.

A sailfish can change colors.

This flash of stripes along the flank

is a sign to others to hold back

when he charges in.

Eventually, the relentless attack
splinters the shoal.

The moment the sailfish
have been waiting for.

In the final charge,

his bill becomes a weapon,

slashing through the shoal,

inflicting injury.

Or picking out a single victim

with lethal precision.

The sailfish may have
claimed their prize,

but the Caribbean Sea holds fortunes

these fish never reach.

Its deepest waters

are the hunting ground
for the planet's largest predators...

sperm whales.

Exactly how they hunt

has long been
one of the great wildlife mysteries.

Until now.

The volcanic island of Dominica lies
to the far east of the Caribbean.

It's shrouded in rainforest.

And surrounded by mile-deep seas.

They're the perfect home...

...for one of the world's biggest babies,

a sperm whale calf.

This young male is barely six months old,

but he already weighs two tons.

Below...

sleeping giants.

Mom and the rest of the family

are taking a nap.

Their huge heads act like corks,

keeping them upright.

But Mom always keeps

half an eye on her calf.

Baby sperm whales need to drink
a bathful of milk a day.

But before he can suckle,

Mom must have a meal herself.

Sperm whales hunt their prey

in the great depths of the Caribbean Sea,

but exactly how

has long been a mystery.

To investigate,

our team spent two years developing

a groundbreaking camera system.

The camera is harmlessly attached
using suction

by scientists.

Now, we can get a whale's eye view

as they dive

into the abyss.

A calf can't hold its breath
for long enough to reach the depths,

so it must wait at the surface.

In a world first,

the camera follows these adults

as they begin their dive together.

And as they descend,

it also eavesdrops
on their secret conversations.

A thousand feet down

in the twilight zone,

the whales separate to hunt alone.

Her destination is the seabed,



A place no natural light can reach.

She's here to hunt squid.

And uses sound to find them
in the darkness.

Each click she makes
is louder than a g*nsh*t.

It echoes off any prey
within half a mile.

She's locked on.

Got it.

A cloud of squid ink
is all that's left of her prey.

A sperm whale can devour
a hundred pounds of squid

on a single dive.

On the surface, her hungry calf
has been waiting for nearly an hour.

When you're this young,
time can really drag.

Finally, the adults
are on their way back to the surface.

A calf can hear
his mom's clicks below him.

His calls and tail
slaps help her home in.

And now, it's time to suckle.

Sperm whale milk is over 30 percent fat,

so it doesn't dissolve in water.

Calves feed like this
a handful of times a day.

Blissfully unaware
of the lengths and depths

their moms have gone to.

The sperm whales' open ocean world
makes up 95 percent of the Caribbean.

But it's in the sunlit shallows
where most life is found.

A world of colorful coral cities

and secret underwater nurseries.

And this is a destination

for a lemon shark,

one that's about to face

the most important moment of her life.

The shallow waters of the Caribbean
are perhaps the most beautiful.

Coral reefs

are like a bustling underwater city.

They are home to thousands of species.

Though today, it's only
a handful of protected reefs

that still truly thrive.

Surprisingly,
the Caribbean's richest reefs

are found alongside a mysterious world.

And it's here that many
of the reef's inhabitants

begin life.

These are the mangrove forests.

A quarter of the Caribbean's mangroves
are found on its northern fringes...

In the Bahamas.

This female lemon shark
is making a special journey,

back to the very same bay
in which she was born.

She's heavily pregnant.

And now, as close as possible
to the edge of the mangroves,

it's time to give birth.

Two perfectly formed

tiny sharks.

This pup will never see Mom again,

because where he's going,

no adult can follow.

His new home will be deep
amongst the mangroves.

The mesh of underwater roots

keeps larger predators out.

So it's the safest place
in the whole Caribbean

for a young lemon shark to grow up.

As he picks his way
through this twisted maze...

...he's heading to a secret lagoon
at its heart.

Although it's full of fish,

newborn sharks

aren't very good at catching them.

You might not think it,

but young sharks

have to practice.

And practice.

And practice.

He's definitely going to need help.

And for that, lemon shark pups
do something remarkable.

They make friends.

Scientists have discovered
that a young pup learns quicker

by hanging out
with more experienced sharks.

It's a kind of shark school,

where he can hone his technique
as he grows up.

The older sharks have learned
it's best to hunt

amongst the mangrove roots.

And over time,

the young pup eventually catches on.

Got one.

He's graduated.

There are over 7,000 islands
in the Caribbean.

Each a slice of paradise.

And every one...

different.

Where life plays out

in its own way.

Away from the crowds,

every island also has its own unique

and extraordinary wildlife.

From tiny...

to giant.

And the Caribbean island
with the most spectacular wildlife...

is Cuba.

Eight hundred miles long
and a hundred wide.

Deep in the forest,

life is on the move.

The start of the strangest
animal migration

anywhere in the Americas.

The lowland forest of Cuba...

...is the land

of the red...

crab.

For most of the year,

these land crabs

live underground.

But it's now the mating season.

The females

need to find a male,

head to the sea,

and lay their eggs.

And to do that,

they must start an epic,

six-mile journey.

Around ten million crabs

are on the march.

Only one thing stops them.

The intense heat of the midday sun

can bake a crab...

...to death.

So every traveler needs to find shade...

fast.

In Cuba,

siestas...

save lives.

But as the day cools off,

a female crab's mind

turns to more romantic matters.

And here,

at the edge of the forest,

males have been waiting
for this very moment.

In a tight embrace, they mate.

Now, she retreats into his burrow

to let her brood develop.

Fourteen days later,
she resumes her journey.

Now with 80,000 eggs
cradled under her shell.

She's only a few hundred feet
from the sea,

but the biggest danger is still to come.

The coastal highway.

Out here, a crab must be on her toes.

Giants.

And nowadays,

they're frighteningly quick.

Look out!

A crab can see danger coming,

but for many...

That's just not enough.

It takes split-second timing...

...and a bit of luck.

That was close.

After all that,
the warm Caribbean Sea awaits.

It is a little crowded on this beach.

But she's found a good spot.

And with a little shimmy, finally,

she releases her precious cargo of eggs

into the sea.

And with her job done,

now she can return
to the safety of her forest home.

But in the Caribbean,
safety can never be guaranteed.

At the end of summer,

when sea temperatures
are at their highest,

storm clouds are born.

They feed on warm, moist air
from the ocean.

Growing and growing...

...until they tower six miles
into the sky.

The larger a storm cloud,

the more powerful the winds.

And as they approach 80 miles an hour,

a storm...

becomes a hurricane.

Up to 500 miles across,

these colossal weather systems track west

with the trade winds.

The Caribbean's islands
are right in the firing line.

Of all the natural forces
in the Americas,

a hurricane is the most devastating.

Two-hundred-mile-an-hour winds
destroy almost everything in their path.

In some years,

the Caribbean's islands are hit
by as many as four deadly hurricanes.

The most powerful strip the land bare.

But all is not lost.

Caribbean plants have evolved

to bounce back after the destruction.

In a warm, moist climate,

new shoots can grow
up to seven inches a day.

In just a few months,
entire forests start to green up.

But what about the wildlife

on these islands?

When Hurricane Maria hit Dominica,

three-quarters of all purple-throated
carib hummingbirds died.

In the aftermath,

their food, nectar-rich flowers,
were scarce.

So the survivors had their work cut out.

This male must patrol an area the size

of five football fields

trying to find enough.

A tiring commute

until, at last,

one miracle plant comes into flower.

The heliconia gives a hungry hummingbird

all the nectar he needs.

But there's one thing still missing.

A mate.

Luckily,

these blooms are a magnet
to female caribs.

The trouble is,

it's the same for less-welcome visitors.

Nectar thieves...

like bananaquits.

And even worse, a real heavyweight,

an Antillean bullfinch.

To get to the nectar,

this vandal rips out
the heart of the flower.

And a flower without nectar

will never attract him a mate.

So he must fight off
these feathered felons...

...with everything he's got.

For a lonely male,

finding love on this island

might take time.

After the hurricane,

there were very few of his kind left.

Could it be?

Yes, a female...

...inspecting his heliconias.

She likes the flowers.

She likes the nectar.

But what about him?

Now, he's got to shine.

Don't blow it, big fella.

She likes his moves.

Success.

But he's not done yet.

To mate with as many females as possible,

he's gonna have to defend

his flowers...

...day after day.

From dawn...

till dusk.

Life on Caribbean islands
isn't ever straightforward.

But on one of the most isolated
tropical islands of the Americas,

survival relies not so much on hard work,

but on extraordinary levels of ingenuity.

Isla Jicarón,



On such a small and remote island,

food is limited.

And worse, there's nowhere to go
when it runs out.

And yet, somehow, life still clings on.

Castaways.

White-faced capuchins.

These two young males
spend their days scouring the coast

for anything they can find.

On a desert island,

opportunity can come
from unlikely places.

A sea almond.

The nut inside is full of delicious fat.

But it's protected by a sturdy shell.

And getting into it

is frustratingly hard.

To solve this puzzle,

a young monkey
might need some inspiration.

For that,
he must head across the forest...

to a crystal-clear stream.

An occasional hangout for older

and wiser capuchins.

The adults have worked out
that the trees here

are particularly fruitful

and the nuts collect

in convenient pools.

A unique scenario

that allows a monkey

to do something ingenious.

Take one softened nut...

The correct-sized rock...

...and a series of well-aimed blows.

It was once thought that only humans

were smart enough to use stone tools.

But these capuchins

have both a hammer...

and...

an anvil.

They're one of only three types
of monkey on the planet

to have mastered this complex skill.

And it's not as easy as it looks.

For an inquisitive youngster,

the nuances of nut-cracking...

...are almost hypnotic.

He learns by watching
his elder's technique.

And when the anvil is free...

...trying to copy it.

Watch your toes.

It's a bit pummeled...

...but he has cracked it.

Well, sort of.

By learning to use tools...

...these remarkable monkeys

have given themselves a break

from the challenges of island life.

For now, at least.

Living in the tropical islands
of the Americas

can be tougher than it looks.

But both above

and below the waves...

...life uses every trick in the book...

...to make this wondrous place...

paradise.