Earth's great rivers...
..from source to sea...
..make extraordinary journeys...
CRACKING
..carving through continents...
..nurturing ancient civilisations...
..feeding and connecting life across our world...
ROARING
..from the mountains and deserts of the Nile...
..to the cities and mysterious swamps of the Mississippi...
..and the steaming waters and the secret worlds
of the tropical Amazon.
Great rivers are the lifeblood of planet Earth.
One river dwarfs all others.
The biggest on the planet.
The Amazon.
It flows through nine countries across one third of South America...
..sustaining the largest rainforest on Earth...
..supporting the world's greatest diversity of wildlife...
..inspiring vibrant cultures.
THUNDER RUMBLES
The Amazon's annual floods are so vast...
..they create what seems to be an inland sea.
Even today, it hides mysterious worlds.
To explore the unknown
and experience the mightiest river on Earth...
..the story begins with a single drop.
The glaciers of the Peruvian Andes.
Here, glacial meltwater tumbles down the mountainsides,
the start of a 4,000-mile journey to the sea.
On lower slopes, where the humid air from below
meets the cold, mountain atmosphere,
cloud forests thrive, shrouded in mist.
Tiny plants create hanging gardens on the branches of ancient trees...
..condensing the water vapour into sparkling droplets.
GENTLE PLOPPING
All around is the sound of the Amazon coming to life.
TRICKLING WATER
The Amazon is the greatest river basin in the world
gathering water from right across tropical South America,
amassing one fifth of the Earth's fresh water,
as it flows east across the continent.
Its 1,100 tributaries drain an area of nearly 2.5 million square miles.
And one remote stretch of white-water rapids
and deep, dark pools
is home to one of its largest and rarest predators.
GRUNTING AND CHIRPING
Giant river otters.
Some nearly two metres long.
This family are exploring a new territory,
a stretch they are keen to claim.
SPLUTTERING
Led by dad, the family follow his calls
with a chorus that is unique to their group.
PURRING
They are looking for a spot rich in fish.
Now, the parents can teach their young how to hunt.
It will be a testing time for the most inexperienced cub.
SQUEALING
GROWLING
Father coordinates the hunting party.
Because fish can evade otters in the deep water,
the family's best chance is to corral the fish
up against the bank.
This youngster has missed out.
Everyone seems to have a fish but him.
MEOWING
Luckily, the others are usually generous enough to share.
Which won't impress Father.
GROWLING
It takes three years for an otter cub
to master the complexities of fishing in these rivers.
The remote headwaters of the Amazon
have an unpredictable and dangerous reputation.
Many call currents and rapids like these "boat breakers".
And there are accounts of early European explorers
disappearing without a trace.
These upper reaches are home to legendary river monsters...
..electric eels capable of generating more than 500 volts...
..enormous pacus, some up to 25 kilos in weight...
..and giant anacondas,
amongst the largest snakes in the world.
Some of these Amazon headwaters are so inaccessible,
they conceal mysteries that are only now being revealed.
On the bank of one distant tributary,
the forest conceals a rare treasure.
A pool of crystal-clear water.
With strange, bubbling sand...
..this pool is in fact a spring.
Rising from deep underground,
the water is filtered...
..leaving it as spotless as an aquarium.
With such clean, pure water, it's a perfect nursery...
..tempting out of the murky river,
a pair of cichlids,
so new to science
that this particular species doesn't even have a name.
This couple are here to raise their family...
..a brood of 100 tiny fry.
Cichlids form strong bonds with their partners
and are as loyal to their babies as they are to each other.
This family seems to have found their perfect home.
But out here, danger is never far away.
Between the clear, spring waters and the murky main channel,
a unique feature forms.
A water wall.
It hides voracious predators like these freshwater Amazon barracuda
and a five-kilo wolffish.
They lurk, watching and waiting.
But the big fish seem strangely reluctant
to enter the clear water...
..for fear, perhaps, of being spotted and eaten themselves.
A well-armed stingray tries his luck.
Using natural camouflage,
they can hide themselves, even in these clear waters...
..setting an ambush from where they might hoover up
100 fry in one fell swoop.
Dad spots something...
..and defends his brood.
The stingray is sent packing.
These dedicated and brave parents will have to be ever-watchful,
shepherding their young until, perhaps, one day,
they are old enough and bold enough
to face the perils of the main channel for themselves.
The Upper Amazon has many strange and secret worlds
which teem with life.
But there is one remote river
whose waters are apparently devoid of anything living.
As dawn breaks, an ethereal apparition appears.
Wisps of steam snaking across the canopy...
..revealing below an Amazon tributary which boils.
Only recently mapped,
it's the largest stretch of thermal river anywhere on the planet.
At around 100 Celsius,
fish unlucky enough to stray into these waters will be poached alive.
Hot bedrock from deep within the Earth's crust
lies unusually close to the surface here,
heating and purifying the water...
..ensuring that this stretch of the river
has always been cherished by those who live here.
The Ashaninka people
have been visiting the boiling river for generations...
HE CHANTS
..and revere it for its healing properties.
Juan Flores is their shaman.
HE CONTINUES TO CHANT
TRANSLATION:
Juan and his family have developed
a deep connection with this precious place.
They've learned how to make medicine
from mixing these steaming purified waters
with plants from the forest.
HE CHANTS
TRANSLATION:
Many medicines used today across the world
have their origins in the rainforests.
Yet less than 5% of the plants here in the Amazon
have been studied by modern science.
The rest remain a mystery known only to the local healers.
This extraordinary river simmers for the next four miles
before it blows away from the last of the foothills,
down to the plains of the Amazon basin.
Here, the tributaries meet and the river channels swell...
..surging faster and deeper.
The strength of the currents
erode at the soft river banks.
But out of this destruction comes fresh opportunity.
SQUAWKING
Hidden treasure...
..which attracts green-winged macaws
who flock together to gather on the newly-exposed banks.
They have come to eat fresh clay -
which might seem strange - but there's a very good reason.
This particular clay is naturally rich in salt,
a vital dietary supplement.
Far from the ocean, and washed away by the Amazon's high rainfall,
salt is a rare mineral here.
So, the macaws bicker over the best deposits
creating one of the Amazon's loudest and most colourful spectacles.
SQUAWKING AND CAWING
These lowland rivers set off out across the plains...
..many flowing with different colours,
their waters tainted by the great variety of rocks and forests
through which they have passed.
Ultimately, they all join together
to create one gigantic muddy river channel.
The mighty Amazon itself.
This central stretch of the river is so wide and deep,
ocean-going ships can sail over 2,000 miles inland.
At its halfway point where it meets the inky-black Rio Negro
lies the Amazon's largest city...
..Manaus.
With a population of over two million people,
this city made its fortune in the late 19th century
from the riches of the river and surrounding rainforest...
..rubber, gold and minerals.
Today, the thriving markets of Manaus
depend on a constant supply of local produce.
For the last century,
this flamboyant city has built a reputation
as the Paris of the tropics...
..dominated by an extravagant opera house.
The people of Manaus depend on local farmers
like Edmar Fernandes da Lira
who grows crops on the fertile muddy banks of the Amazon
not far from the city.
TRANSLATION:
These are the good times for Edmar
but he must work all the daylight hours he can.
TRANSLATION:
The Amazon's banks here are very productive.
Three times a week, for eight months of the year,
Edmar carries 400 kilos of leaves down to the waiting boat.
TRANSLATION:
But time is running out.
These are some of the last crops
Edmar will be able to sell for months.
He must prepare for huge change.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Every year in November, the tropical wet season sweeps in.
Six months of rainstorms inject trillions of gallons of water
into the Amazon river system, transforming it.
THUNDER RUMBLING
In the mid-Amazon,
stretches of river can quadruple in width and rise by ten metres.
The port of Manaus has a harbour wall built to hold back the water.
Beyond the city, though, it's a different story.
Edmar's farm is submerged.
Because he has prepared,
Edmar simply shifts his attention to his stilt garden.
For the next four months, the only vegetables to grow on his farm
will be those above the flood.
And when the river does recede,
it leaves behind a fresh layer of sediment
which will fertilise a new season of planting.
But the floods can be very powerful
and living with them comes with huge challenges.
TRANSLATION:
In recent years, the Amazon has faced more extreme weather events.
Drier dry seasons...
..and even wetter wet seasons.
Within the last two decades, rainfall has become so intense
that the floods have been the highest since records began.
TRANSLATION:
The river that has previously provided
so abundantly for Edmar and his family
is now threatening to destroy their way of life.
For nature, the arrival of the annual floods
still bring incredible opportunities.
As vast tracts of land become completely submerged,
they create the Amazon's legendary flooded forests.
Almost 200,000 square miles of rainforest become inundated...
..creating a new home for countless fish
that shoal amongst the branches where birds once flew.
The Amazon has over 3,000 species.
Many breed in the flooded forests during high water.
Hot on their tails
come the Amazon's most revered and mysterious creatures.
SQUEAKING
Pink river dolphins,
known locally as botos...
..the largest river dolphins in the world.
A flooded forest of this scale creates new opportunities
and challenges.
Leaves from the forests stain the floodwater dark brown.
Sunken branches create an obstacle course
but botos have specialist equipment.
Like their ocean cousins,
their domed forehead, known as the melon,
allows botos to scan this submerged world using sonar.
As if that's not enough, botos have another unique weapon.
They are the only adult dolphins with whiskers.
These help pinpoint exactly where their prey is,
no matter how it twists and turns.
The Amazon's flooded forests
have existed for at least eight million years...
..creating a world so special and unique,
it's home to some of the most bizarre birds on Earth.
Hoatzins...
..whose unusual lifestyle sets them apart from other birds.
They feed almost exclusively on leaves,
a diet which has an unfortunate and gassy effect...
..leading to their nickname...
..stink birds.
During the flood season,
certain riverside plants burst into new growth,
the cue for hoatzins to breed.
But the new leaves attract spider monkeys, too.
Some monkeys can be a threat
and will often devour any eggs they find.
The hoatzins' only safety is in the most inaccessible branches
furthest out over the river...
..safe from the reach of greedy monkeys,
but now in danger from the floodwater.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Even near the end of the Amazon's wet season,
sudden intense storms can bring ten centimetres of rain in a day...
..drowning any nests built too low...
..and putting others in reach of river predators...
..like black caiman.
To make matters even more perilous,
hoatzin chicks are curious and more than a little clumsy.
Fortunately, they are not entirely helpless...
..as they are born with an unusual piece of climbing equipment...
..claws on their wings.
So even this little chick can clamber back up to safety.
At the peak of high water,
just under 300,000 square miles of the Amazon's flood plain
can be submerged.
Under this colossal weight of water,
the Earth's crust itself can sink by eight centimetres.
The floodwaters can remain high for three months
before they finally drain away down into the Lower Amazon.
River banks down here can be 15 miles apart.
Stretches of the Lower Amazon look more like a sea
and on its shore there are some spectacular beaches.
This region is often called the Caribbean of the Amazon.
Even though it's more than 300 miles from the ocean...
..every year, crowds of river people, Riberenos,
gather in the Lower Amazon town of Alter do Chao
for a seasonal celebration of the river.
As the party preparations begin in the town,
Sandro Branco and his grandfather
enjoy a moment of quiet before the fiesta.
TRANSLATION:
Sandro is right to be nervous as Alter do Chao stages
one of the most colourful and surprising river carnivals
in all of Brazil.
And Sandro is the lead man.
TRANSLATION:
CHEERING AND WHISTLING
Sandro is the star of the show, playing the pink boto...
..a legendary creature for the river people.
The local belief is that on the night of the full moon,
the boto dolphin turns into a handsome and seductive man
with a hat and a white suit.
Once on land, his challenge is to seduce young women.
BEATING DRUMS, CROWD NOISES
Despite the pressure...
..the dance has been a success.
TRANSLATION:
Sandro is the third generation of boto dancers in his family
but he's facing stiff competition.
The next wave of talent is hot on his heels.
TRANSLATION:
It's a celebration that has been going on for hundreds of years...
..showing just how the life of this great river...
..and the lives of millions that live along its banks
are inextricably intertwined.
MUTED CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
By the time it reaches the sea,
the Amazon River discharges around 175,000 tonnes of water
into the Atlantic Ocean per second.
This is more water than the next six largest rivers combined.
The Amazon's fresh water floats above the sea as a vast brown cloud
covering an area of up to 400,000 square miles.
Until recently, it's been very difficult to find exactly
what lies and lives beneath.
But today, the very latest technology
and the most advanced submarines are allowing scientists
to explore this last secret world of the Amazon.
In a dive 300 miles north of the Amazon's mouth,
the expedition is revealing that the river's nutrients
are fertilising the ocean's waters, creating a bloom of plankton.
It is hard to imagine that there would be life underneath this murk.
As the dive continues below the plume,
chief scientist Rodrigo Moura and pilot Allan Scott
discover something extraordinary.
Ah, I've never seen anything like this before, never.
A massive reef of colourful, rock-like algae.
Oh, look.
Look at the size of these guys!
Thronging with rich and varied marine life...
Angel fish. Heaven.
CHUCKLING
..under the dense plume of the fertile river water,
it turns out there is a hidden world.
An enormous algal reef more than 600 miles long.
And that's not all.
An underwater garden of giant sponges.
Some of the sponges are more than a metre across
and 1,000 years old...
..all feeding on nutrients which the Amazon has collected
on its incredible journey.
We don't see this every day, huh? No, not every day, this is special.
No other river on Earth is known to have the power
to shape such an extraordinary ecosystem out in the ocean.
Every dive is now rewriting the textbooks.
From its humble beginnings as a drop in the mountains,
the Amazon is a river like no other.
From its source to the sea,
it has forged its own path, created new worlds
and is so powerful and so vast,
who knows what other secrets it has yet to reveal?
Intrepid Brazilian film-maker Joao Krajewski
has spent the last ten years
filming and travelling right across the Amazon.
Over that time, he's been lucky enough to have close encounters
with many of its exotic and bizarre wildlife.
The Amazon is outstanding because of its size and diversity.
The river, gigantic.
You can spend your whole life exploring this region
and there will always be something different to see.
But the Earth's Great Rivers series
set him a new challenge to film Amazon wildlife underwater...
..an almost impossible mission
as the Amazon River is perhaps the muddiest.
However, its great size means it has 1,100 tributaries
each with its own distinct character.
Joao has heard of a region in the Amazon's remote south
where the water is said to be clear.
So, he and his wife Roberta, his diving partner,
prepare an expedition.
TRANSLATION:
So, this is a very special day
because it'll be the first scuba dive ever in this river.
This is a true dive into the unknown.
It was the first time that I actually see the underwater world.
I would say there's more than 100 species of fish
just in this little area.
Every single species is new for me.
But just because the water is clear, it doesn't mean it's not dangerous.
I was there comfortably having fun with my fish
and, all of a sudden, I saw this shape coming towards me.
It's a giant electric eel.
I can't lie, I was really afraid of them
because you don't need to be bitten or anything.
If you just touch it accidentally, it can zap you really, really bad.
They are not afraid of you at all, they just come and come.
HE GASPS
And some of them can give you a shock of more than 1,000 volts.
If you are in the water, you can drown, you can die.
The problem is that on a hot day like this,
the eels are looking for shade
and actively swim towards Joao.
ROBERTA SPEAKS
A bit tense, yeah.
They are curious. They are slow
but they can...
If you touch them, ugh.
It's unsafe for Joao to film them in the water,
so he needs to make a plan.
This is the Brazilian way, we call it gambia, improvising,
last-minute idea but it will work.
This is the final touch.
A very special one.
So, it should work.
These strange eels have a bizarre behaviour which Joao hopes to film.
Yay!
I got it!
That was a good one.
He captures the moment when an eel comes up for a breath of air.
The lining of their mouth acts like a lung.
This ensures the eels survive dry seasons when the water is shallow,
often very low in oxygen.
Wow, what a day. Phew.
As Joao explores the region further,
he comes across some locations which are a wildlife film-maker's
dream come true.
Very, very unusually for the Amazon,
he finds some springs where the water is as clear as gin.
Joao is hoping the pools will give him the chance
to film new behaviour.
And he is not disappointed.
It's not long before a new species of cichlid
invite him into their family.
Wow!
One of the springs is like an underwater garden.
There are more than 1,000 fish in front of me, I'm not kidding.
But though it looks beautiful, there is danger.
Black caiman patrol the murky waters of the main river.
They can be up to four metres long, and weigh in excess of 400 kilos.
Roberta acts as lookout.
I'm keeping an eye out for caimans because we never know,
like, there is one big one who lives right there
and we need to watch to make sure Joao is going to be safe.
Joao has no idea what is lurking in the gloam.
The dividing line is so clear -
you have dark in one side and crystal clear on the other.
I never thought it was so clear.
And just as Joao is on the boundary,
the ranger spots something in the river.
Heading straight for Joao...
..the largest wild mammal in South America.
A tapir.
That's a crazy tapir. I've never seen a tapir looking like that,
stay for such a long time in the middle of the river.
Look. It's swimming upriver now.
Tapirs aren't usually dangerous but it could attack a caiman.
It's a reminder that Joao is vulnerable when he's in the water.
I'll just get a close-up
and then we go upriver which is safer.
As well as filming underwater,
for the final phase of his expedition,
Joao is hoping to get really close
to one of the Amazon's largest and most secretive predators.
And one of the southern rivers, the Cristalino, might just deliver.
Joao has heard rumours that this area of the river
is home to a particularly approachable family of giant otters.
They're usually very shy,
so it's a real surprise to see an entire family out in the open.
Absolutely amazing, amazing.
I never expected that.
The whole family is right in front of us.
We are four metres away.
All of them here.
Unbelievable. In the middle of the wilderness.
HE LAUGHS
They even allow him to join their fishing trip.
Having earned their trust, Joao attempts to get even closer.
Another improvised camera rig means Joao can join them in the water.
GROWLING
Oh, I've never seen them do this, absolutely unbelievable.
Right in front of me and they're still doing it,
they're playing, out of the water, amazing, amazing.
So, although the sheer scale of the Amazon seemed so daunting...
..the mighty river revealed its secrets...
..giving Joao a window into its hidden underwater worlds.
Next time...
..the majestic Nile.
The world's longest river flowing from the equator to the Sahara...
..through astonishing unexpected worlds...
..bringing life to the driest parts of the hottest continent on Earth.