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20 years ago, my good friend Douglas Adams spent a year tracking down endangered animals

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together with the zoologist Mark Carwardine.

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Now it's my turn.

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Mark and I are heading off to find out exactly

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what happened to those species that he'd seen

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dangling on the edge of extinction two decades ago.

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It promises to be exhausting, exhilarating and exasperating.

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But I wouldn't miss it for the world.

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Mark Carwardine, how are you?

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How very good to see you. How are you?

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Thanks for waiting. I paid extra to go business so that my luggage would be out last.

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A little privilege you get. I see you've come dressed for the jungle. Well, not exactly, no.

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Welcome to Manaus at last. Thank you.

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My travelling companion is to be Mark Carwardine,

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an internationally-renowned zoologist and photographer.

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In the pursuit of the weird and the wild,

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he's travelled to almost every country in the world,

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encountering pretty much every conceivable creature,

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and several of the inconceivable ones.

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We're starting our adventures in the Amazon,

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the biggest river system in the world.

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We've arranged to set out from Manaus, on the banks of the Rio Negro,

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where Mark has a fast boat waiting to take us up river.

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That's not the Amazon. No, that's the Rio Negro.

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Goodness me. There we go.

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Two things, I think the most important bit of kit, binoculars...

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Oh, thank you. Sorry they're not wrapped.

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No, no that's wonderful, that's wonderful. And a hat.

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Oh, they're good. Oh!

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We're hunting for the lugubrious Amazonian manatee,

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a large seal-like mammal that once swam these waters in vast herds.

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What are our chances of seeing a manatee?

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Pretty slim, to be honest. They're here, we're going to go to the right areas where they occur,

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but the fact that it's murky water

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and the fact that when they rise to the surface to breathe,

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they have two little nostrils at the top of the snout,

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and all that breaks the surface is just enough for the nostrils to blow out,

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take a breath, and they disappear below again.

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So not only are they rare, you could be on top of one and you still might not see it.

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They were confused with mermaids in the early days, weren't they?

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Yeah, although you had to be quite drunk as a sailor.

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I think the reason they were called mermaids is cos the females

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have mammary glands in the same position as female humans,

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and I think that's how the term originally came about.

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In fact the name "manatee" is taken from the word in Carib,

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one of the old Brazilian tribal languages, meaning "breast".

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Though not noticeably breasted to the casual observer,

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the manatee is a large, fully aquatic mammal, sometimes known as a sea cow.

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Manatees are spectacular only in their single-minded devotion

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to doing everything as slowly as possible.

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Unfortunately, when escaping from hunters,

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they have also been inclined to do it rather slowly

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and the species is now classified as vulnerable to extinction.

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'To begin the hunt, Mark has brought us to a lodge

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'aimed at fulfilling the every need of the 21st century jungle tourist.'

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You've taken me to the middle of the jungle, and we're sitting on golf carts.

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I'm sorry about that.

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So they've got electricity for charging them. I notice a phone signal.

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I know, it's like an out of body experience. Oh, dear. How unusual.

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'Whilst I admit to being a fan of the 21st century's little luxuries,

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'I must admit that this isn't entirely what I'd expected of the Amazon.'

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See the macaws?

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Hello. Thank you.

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Oh. Thank you very much, very kind.

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The Lodge is comprised of seven towers,

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linked by a five-mile network of walkways.

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Mark first came here exactly 20 years ago together with author Douglas Adams.

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I became friends with Douglas in the early '80s and we decided we wanted

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to do something for wildlife and travel together as well,

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and we came up with this idea of Last Chance To See.

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We got a world map and Douglas stuck pins in where he'd like to go,

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and I stuck pins in where the endangered animals are and we came to a compromise,

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and strangely enough, the first place we came to was here.

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We started off in the towers here and went off into the jungle looking for the Amazonian manatee.

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By 1988, Douglas Adams was the celebrated author

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of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and a personal friend.

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While he trotted the globe with Mark,

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I lived in his house, fielding requests for lenses and guidebooks

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to be sent to exotic locations,

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and I came to know jealousy on an inter-stellar scale.

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Douglas, as we know, died very sadly almost what, five-and-a-half years ago now,

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and I never spoke to him about this, but did he express a desire to go back and look 20 years on?

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He became really passionate about conservation. He'd done a lot of good work

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for conservation after Last Chance to See,

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and we were both very keen to go back and see what had happened in the years in-between,

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and, very sadly, I was talking to him about that very thing the night before he died,

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and we were planning the next trip and planning to go back

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around the world and review all those projects,

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so, very sadly, he missed out on that.

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After Douglas died, Mark asked me if I would be interested

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in accompanying him on the journeys they'd been planning.

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Though Mark and I have never travelled so far as to the corner shop together,

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for better or for worse, our fate is sealed.

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I have to confess I'm quite nervous about this whole enterprise.

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I like my creature comforts rather more than I like my creatures.

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I must say, standing next to him, he's so tall as well. He's so brown

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and so bright and knowledgeable,

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it makes me feel really short and white and stupid, to be honest.

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I'm quite nervous of Mark. I don't know him that well. I've met him before,

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but he's such an all-round expert on all living things

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and I shall feel very foolish if I say, "What's that?"

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and he gives me a long, burning look as if he cannot believe

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there is a sentient being on the planet who is unaware of what a capybara is.

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Mark has been telling me of a local legend in which the Amazonian manatee

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is guarded by a most peculiar bright, pink dolphin,

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known locally as the boto.

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It is said that if you want to find manatees,

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then you must first make your peace with the dolphin.

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Unlike the manatee it shares its waters with,

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the boto is a fast-moving predator, living on fish and small crustaceans.

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The boto is typically eight feet long, becoming pinker as it becomes more excited.

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It should be noted that the boto is only found

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in the Amazon basin and is recognised as an endangered species in its own right.

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It should also be noted that dolphins are Mark's most favourite thing in the whole wide world.

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We're going to see a lot of animals on our adventures,

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but you're particularly excited about today. Why is that?

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You know how some people need a cigarette or a drink

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every so often to survive normal daily life?

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I have to see a whale or a dolphin at least once every couple of weeks to survive.

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I lay awake last night thinking about today. I know it's sad. How wonderful!

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I love it. It's fantastic.

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I had heard that there was a legend that at night,

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the pink river dolphin turned into a gentlemen with a black top hat -

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it's very specific -

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and an Edwardian waistcoat,

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and ravished the local women, and it was explained to me

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that this was probably missionaries

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justifying the arrival of rather surprising pink babies in Indian tribes.

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One of the things I want to try and do today is to get some underwater shots of them

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because they're so hard to approach normally and the visibility is so bad.

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There are very few pictures of them underwater.

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My dream is by the end of the day at least have one great underwater shot.

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'In an attempt to increase visitors' chances of glimpsing the rare dolphin,

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'staff of the lodge have been feeding the boto from a floating platform in the river.'

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Thank you. Did you have a pee before you left, by the way?

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No, I didn't. I could get into the water, I'm sure it's big enough to accommodate my urine.

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You mustn't pee in the river.

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There's a fish here called a candiru fish. Have you heard of that?

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That's an urban myth, isn't it? No, no, it's true.

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It's about this long and if you pee in the water,

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which I'm serious that you mustn't do, it swims up your urine and into your willy.

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Basically, it's designed to go into the gills of a fish,

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so it gets into the gills and the spines come out, it lodges itself in there,

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drinks the blood and then when it's full, it lets go and drops to the bottom and digests it.

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But if you get one up there it's apparently unbelievably painful, and you have two choices,

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you chop your willy off or you have to get to a hospital,

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and given that we're nowhere near a hospital, there's only that first choice.

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I've got a couple pieces of string, actually, so if you just tie a knot in it.

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Please! I've done mine.

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Don't be...

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Which size do you need? Oh...

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Sorry! Wicked. But the fish does exist?

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No, no, the string's a joke. But the fish is real.

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Then I'll be extra careful with my family package. Gracious.

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'Having been distracted by Mark's "hilarious" joke,

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'we fail to notice that while we haven't found the dolphins, the dolphins have found us.'

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Oh, look at that. Fantastic, it came right out of the water.

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Yay! Oh, they're fantastic.

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Aren't they beautiful?

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They're so lovely.

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You notice when they're swimming around,

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they can do sort of handbrake turns. Most dolphins, all the neck vertebrae

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are fused, and it's designed for swimming fast

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so when they turn they don't break their necks.

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But these dolphins are designed for swimming in the flooded forest

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and weaving in between all the trees and roots,

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so when you watch, they can turn on a sixpence

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and they can bend their necks and they're very different to marine dolphins.

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Really interesting. Yeah. Yes!

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Astonishing.

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Very beautiful, and unmistakeably dolphinous.

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That obviously isn't a word, but you know what I mean.

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'As a creature more at home on the land than in the water,

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'I am more than a little uncertain about joining Mark in the river to get his shot.'

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I would be a lot more uncertain if I knew what Mark told me later.

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Not only is this water home to the candiru fish,

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it's also popular with piranha fish

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and frequented by passing bull sharks,

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the most deadly shark in the world.

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The sediment in the water means that one simply has no idea what, if anything, is down there.

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And suddenly out of the murky darkness, the unmistakable shape of a dolphin appears just inches away.

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Oh, they're very soft.

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They feel like an old vinyl lilo.

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One of those little paddling pools or something you used to blow up.

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They've got that sort of vinyl feel.

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Sorry.

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The lodge has provided everything we had hoped for,

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with one noticeable exception - a manatee.

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Amazing.

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We decide to leave the tourist trail

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and fly in search of a man who spends his life tracking manatees,

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if only the rain would ever stop.

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My God, I'm glad we didn't take off in this!

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Whether or not we get to take off depends on the only man with the skill,

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and the plane, to get us there.

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Captain Wilson, a Christian missionary pilot.

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But even with God on his side, he's taking no chances with the elements.

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So if you get caught in this when you're flying, do you just have to land somewhere and wait?

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Yes, on a river. Isn't that dangerous?

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Not with experience, you still.. You can't be sloppy.

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You still need to respect. We always respect water,

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fire and wind, always, you know?

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I don't think Stephen quite realises what we're in for now

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because we're going to do some serious searching for the manatees

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and to do that you have to go much deeper into the jungle

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and we've got a boat which I hope is going to be waiting for us,

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I'm not sure if it's going to be there,

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but we're going to search for it from the plane.

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Right, Stephen? Yes? We're off.

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Are we really? Yep. Blimey. The rain's pretty much gone.

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Let me grab your...

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Oh, thank you so much.

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..The weather and other things, give us a safety flight in Jesus' name.

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Amen. What did he say? I just heard "in Jesus' name" at the end.

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May the Lord help us.

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It's perhaps only in flight that you begin to get a sense of the scale of the Amazon rainforest.

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It's a place of extremes.

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The Amazon basin contains the biggest rainforest in the world

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and a network of rivers containing a fifth of all the river water on the planet.

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This forest contains a tenth of all the species known to science

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and we're on the lookout for just one of them.

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Are you excited? I'm extremely excited.

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Is that your excited face?

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It is.

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What do you expect me to look like?

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No, it's thrilling. It is.

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I genuinely am astonished that I'm doing this. I've never come anywhere close to anything...

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'But before attempting to spot manatees,

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'first we have to spot the boat that should be waiting for us.'

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It should be around here somewhere.

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We've spotted it? Fantastic. That's a relief. There it is.

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Pumas and jaguars don't swim on the boats, do they?

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Very rarely.

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Don't tell me there's mobile reception. Please! There's no signal.

235
00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:09,120
Of course there isn't.

236
00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:15,680
We've flown two hours south of Manaus, deep into the rainforest,

237
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,160
to find a boat called the Cassaquiari.

238
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:20,320
Don't forget to come and get us, will you?

239
00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:22,080
No, exactly. Goodbye, Captain.

240
00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:26,800
Thank you so much. That was a very memorable and enjoyable flight.

241
00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:29,280
After you. Thank you very much.

242
00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:31,440
Hey, bon dia.

243
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,880
'With luck, the Cassaquiari should be able

244
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:40,360
'to take us to the manatee-hunting scientists that we've come to find.

245
00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:44,800
'As our last link with civilisation departs,

246
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:48,840
'before any hunting can take place, we must make ourselves at home.'

247
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:52,800
Power. No, that was working perfectly before.

248
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:54,880
Bugger. You actually touched the switch.

249
00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:58,680
It was working perfectly, you complete swine.

250
00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:03,960
Right, let's get this in here. Oh! No power.

251
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,880
Right, we're going back, that's it. That is it!

252
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,720
Oh, well, never mind. It was worth a try.

253
00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:12,200
There's no "never mind" about it.

254
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:15,120
Where are the other plugs? I cannot go for four days without power.

255
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:17,880
Oh, I despair.

256
00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,080
You may well despair, but not as much as I do!

257
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:28,120
'While I attempt to resolve the complex technicalities essential to the expedition...'

258
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:29,320
Oh, well.

259
00:18:29,360 --> 00:18:35,680
'..Mark is distracted when one of the crew spots something in a nearby tree.'

260
00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,840
Well, they're saying it's a cobra, which is very unlikely here

261
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:43,200
and they're saying it's venomous, so...

262
00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,240
I can't quite see it yet... Oh, wow!

263
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:50,280
It's right here. It's an emerald tree boa,

264
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,960
which is one of the most spectacular snakes in the Amazon,

265
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:59,280
probably about a metre above where we're going to be, hopefully.

266
00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:00,920
Can we go under?

267
00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:05,960
I think he's a bit worried about going underneath. Look at that.

268
00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,760
Can you keep the boat steady to get a photograph?

269
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,840
That's it. If you can hold it there.

270
00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:28,080
I'll try and take the picture one-handed.

271
00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:38,000
It's not Mark, it's the extremely valuable camera I'm worried about.

272
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:41,120
OK, this is perfect. Oops.

273
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,400
LAUGHTER

274
00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:46,160
So this is a boa, so it's not venomous at all, it's...

275
00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:51,040
It's a constricting snake and it feeds mainly on bats and small birds,

276
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,560
and this is how you'd typically find it.

277
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,960
I've never seen one in the wild before. I've seen them in captivity,

278
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:02,480
so it's a really special moment, and it is one of the most attractive snakes.

279
00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:09,480
God, this is impossible. The snake wonders what the hell we're trying to do.

280
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,720
Look out, mind that branch.

281
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:22,720
Poor thing, it's looking completely baffled. Oops!

282
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,760
OK, this is the one, this is perfect.

283
00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:44,000
Mark Carwardine is not just a photographer, he's also an environmentalist.

284
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:51,880
As the heavens open and manatee hunting is quietly shelved for the day,

285
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:53,920
I discover another side of Mark

286
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,360
when he reveals that the risk of falling into the Amazon

287
00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:01,440
is not the greatest danger he faces in the line of duty.

288
00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:04,520
A lot of it is quite dangerous.

289
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:09,560
The trouble is that a lot of endangered animals are being threatened by people

290
00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:11,760
who are prepared to do anything to get at them.

291
00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:17,480
There's a lot of money in wildlife trade and skins and horns and ivory

292
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:21,560
and so on, and the poachers who are killing the animals are armed.

293
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:26,440
A lot of them carry around AK47 sub-machine guns, Kalashnikovs,

294
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,000
which they are prepared to fire,

295
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:32,200
and so when you go out on patrol with these people,

296
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,880
you have to expect that you could get into serious trouble.

297
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,160
And I was also working in Cambodia just recently

298
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:39,800
and the week before I got there,

299
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:44,000
five of the people who I was going to be working with were killed

300
00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:45,720
by poachers in their sleep.

301
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:48,160
They were in hammocks in the rainforest,

302
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:50,480
fast asleep in the middle of the night.

303
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,920
And poachers turned up and killed them all with machetes.

304
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:56,160
And this kind of thing is not unusual,

305
00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:58,880
it's all part and parcel of conservation these days.

306
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:15,440
Right, come on.

307
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,200
A little bit further back,

308
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,080
a little bit more like that,

309
00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:23,600
how's that? Well, it's a bright light but it'll have to do.

310
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:29,240
Well, here we are in the middle of a rainstorm in the tropical rainforest.

311
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:33,320
I'm hot and sweaty and I want so much to be in a hotel

312
00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:38,160
that's got air conditioning and Wi-Fi and cellular coverage

313
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,120
and things like that, but what am I moaning about?

314
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:43,360
I'm in one of the most extraordinary parts of the world,

315
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:45,320
and I'm in the company of an extraordinary man.

316
00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:51,600
He knows so much generally about zoology but of course particularly about marine mammals

317
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:56,160
and river mammals like dolphins and manatees which he's so sweetly passionate about,

318
00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:57,960
he just can't see enough of them.

319
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:02,440
And he's prepared to put up with all kinds of hardship in order to go and see them.

320
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:07,240
Anything that nature can dream up, anything that could feast and gorge on other animals...

321
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:14,120
Crikey, there's thunder. ..It's around the place and it wants to crawl up one's bits, you know?

322
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:18,000
Mark told me to close the door last night because vampire bats had come in.

323
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,720
Listen to that thunder. We're all going to die.

324
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:41,000
Fortunately, we are in the safe hands of a captain who knows these waters well.

325
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,360
The river we have come to, the Rio Aripuana,

326
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:52,800
is a tributary of the Madeira, which is in turn a tributary of the Amazon.

327
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:57,400
This would be one of the biggest rivers in England if it were in England, wouldn't it?

328
00:23:57,440 --> 00:23:59,720
The one we're on now. Oh, it would be, yes.

329
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:02,600
A tributary of a tributary of a tributary of a tributary.

330
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,040
The Madeira is one of the biggest rivers in the world and it's a tributary.

331
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,320
When you think of the scale of the whole place,

332
00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:11,480
this is just half of the Amazon that you can see on the map here.

333
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,640
The whole area is about twice the size of Australia.

334
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:19,440
And there may be 10,000 manatees spread out.

335
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:21,400
So talk about needle in a haystack,

336
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,880
we've got a task for ourselves.

337
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,520
A century ago, these waters were said to be home to great herds of manatees.

338
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:32,920
Today, they are few and far between.

339
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:37,960
We are heading out to meet the one man who may be able to lead us to a manatee in the wild.

340
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,240
I think this must be Marc and Ivano up here.

341
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:47,160
Thank you very much. Oh, that's great.

342
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,000
Hello, you must be Marc and Ivano.

343
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,640
Marc van Roosmalen is a self-styled naturalist

344
00:24:54,680 --> 00:25:00,000
who has dedicated many years to this otherwise unstudied stretch of river.

345
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:04,200
He claims to have discovered several species unknown to science,

346
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:08,160
and while the scientific establishment treats those claims with caution,

347
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:13,240
we are still hoping he will be the person who can help us on our quest.

348
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:16,520
Hey, hello. Shake hands?

349
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,800
Marc has made this remote village his base

350
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,320
while working on the river.

351
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:30,760
His secret of success is employing Francisco, a man who grew up in the village, to track animals.

352
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,640
Could you ask Francisco if he's ever seen any manatees?

353
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,160
He saw. Oh, really? Recently?

354
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:40,840
When was the last time?

355
00:25:45,360 --> 00:25:47,480
He has seen it a week ago.

356
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:50,720
And where was that?

357
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,160
Here, very close here, in the lake.

358
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:06,520
He's telling me now that he just saw them feeding in these lakes behind the...

359
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:08,880
Just over here.

360
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:15,160
It's really close so we could go there and he says you can see them feeding on the floating vegetation.

361
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:16,720
Would he be willing to take us?

362
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,280
Yes, we can go anytime.

363
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,080
MUSIC

364
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,040
The place where Francisco suggests we hunt is a few miles up the river.

365
00:26:56,080 --> 00:27:03,040
While we travel, Mark discovers that Ivano's taste for endangered species developed at an early age.

366
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:08,040
When I was a child, we ate manatee a lot. You loved to eat manatees?

367
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,280
I thought you loved to watch manatees.

368
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:17,720
Because the meat of manatee is not like a fish, it's different.

369
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:19,640
The taste is like a cow.

370
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:21,880
Really, like beef? Yes, like beef.

371
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:23,840
Have you had it in the last few years?

372
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:30,240
No, no, I think the last time I ate manatee was like 10, 12 years ago.

373
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:31,800
Do you miss it?

374
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,240
A lot. Do you really? It was really that tasty?

375
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,960
Yes, lovely, very lovely. So you can't get manatee meat anymore?

376
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:44,000
No, no, it's illegal. We cannot eat, we cannot find because nobody wants to sell, because it's illegal.

377
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:46,400
Is there not a black market for manatee meat?

378
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:50,000
Maybe sometimes you can get, but it's not easy.

379
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:54,480
The boat's cook, Grassa,

380
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,520
even recalled manatee recipes from her own childhood.

381
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:03,360
Her father, hunters.

382
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:18,680
Sounds like a complicated recipe.

383
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:23,680
No, it's very easy. She said that they first kill the manatee

384
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,560
and you've got the back of manatee, cos the meat's much better.

385
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:34,280
They boil it first. The meat, boil it, and put to dry and after dry,

386
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:40,840
you fry it and you put in a can with the fat of manatee. That's the way.

387
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,840
But for us, Grassa is sticking to one of her less controversial recipes.

388
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:52,760
I gather there's a lake just behind the trees here with the manatees hang out.

389
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:56,760
So Mark has gone with Francisco

390
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,320
and they've taken a boat through all the foliage

391
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:01,360
to find a way through for us later on

392
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,280
and see if the manatees are there. I think this is probably

393
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:08,520
going to be the most challenging part of the trip for Stephen because we have to be quiet.

394
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,320
BUZZING

395
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,640
Shh, flies making a noise.

396
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,000
We have to lower our voices from now on

397
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,400
because the manatees aren't that far away,

398
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,000
and if they hear us, we're never going to find them,

399
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:27,480
so it's silence until the others come back and we just keep our fingers crossed.

400
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:37,960
(Special non crunchy vegetables. Shh.)

401
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:45,520
Finding the creek to be overgrown, Marc van Roosmalen and Francisco

402
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,400
resort to dragging their boat overland

403
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,800
to get to the hidden lake where Francisco believes the manatee live.

404
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,080
(That's where Francis was saying that they got in

405
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,840
(through a little channel off the river, off the main river.

406
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,920
(And there's now a bunch of them inhere, with a bit of luck.)

407
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,360
Oh, look. That was a flying fish or something.

408
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,520
I think it was, yeah. It leapt out and swam across.

409
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:40,160
You can really feel that this is the right place, can't you? Yeah.

410
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,920
It's got a sense of being cut off. Absolutely.

411
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,320
If you're gonna see manatees, this is the place it's gonna be. Right.

412
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,680
This is a sign that there are manatees.

413
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,520
They were feeding on these maybe this morning.

414
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:59,560
And it's floating all over the place.

415
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,200
So we know for sure that there's manatees here.

416
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,600
So there's lots of manatee food here.

417
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,440
It's all looking promising.

418
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:12,480
These lilies, they're the kind of thing that the manatees like to feed on.

419
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:17,160
They might lift their mouths and the top of the snout out of the water to get a good grip on those.

420
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:22,120
One of the best things about manatees is that they're eating plants

421
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:25,560
that have lots of silica in them, so it wears down their teeth a lot.

422
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,160
And they have this fantastic conveyor belt system

423
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:33,160
where their teeth are all molars, and they move forward about a millimetre a month.

424
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:35,440
And as they come to the front, they drop out

425
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:38,240
and then they're replaced by the next lot.

426
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,880
It's a sort of anti-manatee device by the plants

427
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,320
to stop them eating by having lots of silica,

428
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:47,440
and the manatees overcome it by just replacing their teeth!

429
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:49,240
That's fantastic!

430
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:54,800
That is extraordinary. Over how many millions of years would that take place?

431
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:06,680
Locally, the manatee is known as the "ghost of the Amazon", and we're beginning to see why.

432
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,000
In spite of hunting now being illegal,

433
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:15,080
sightings of the Amazonian manatee are getting more and more infrequent.

434
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:20,160
And increasingly, we're wondering if here, in these far-flung lakes

435
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,760
and rivers, illegal hunting still goes on.

436
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:30,280
Good tip apparently is to wear the hat,

437
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:32,360
and then the hood over it.

438
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:37,880
Cos then you can move your head freely. Are you sure?

439
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:39,840
Now I see more.

440
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:41,400
Now move your head freely.

441
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,720
Free movement of head? I may have got that wrong.

442
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,600
I can't hear a word you're saying.

443
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,640
Do you not like it? It's good!

444
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,440
Maybe I've got it the wrong way round.

445
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:03,880
That looks really good, actually.

446
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:07,680
It's quite comfortable!

447
00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:16,200
Ah.

448
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:21,600
It's an absolutely beautiful little lake.

449
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:25,320
We didn't see any manatees, but we saw a lot of evidence of manatees.

450
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:29,320
Or at least evidence it's the kind of place they'd live.

451
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:33,080
Yeah, I really thought we might see one, actually. It's disappointing.

452
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:35,920
Quiet as we were, they certainly would have known we were here.

453
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,400
Relatively quiet! Yeah.

454
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:40,720
I think you have to be absolutely silent.

455
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:42,880
We did make a fair amount of noise.

456
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:48,120
We can either try again or we do know places where there are captive manatees, of course.

457
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:52,320
We won't leave Brazil without seeing an Amazonian manatee.

458
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:56,160
Yeah, I really, really wanted to see one in the wild, though.

459
00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:58,320
That would have been the thing. I know.

460
00:35:05,240 --> 00:35:10,160
The next two days, we searched rivers and lakes...

461
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,000
There is a movement, isn't there?

462
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:13,760
I thought it was a reflection.

463
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:17,880
We ploughed tributaries of the tributary.

464
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:26,640
But if there are manatees in the Aripuana, then they chose to stay concealed in the murky waters.

465
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:28,320
Some might think that to be outmanoeuvred

466
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:33,440
by one of the slowest-moving creatures on earth is embarrassing, but not us.

467
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:40,480
Marc has an old tracker's trick to increase our chances of finally outfoxing the wily manatee.

468
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:42,800
He's taking us to a zoo.

469
00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:52,600
Manaus is home to over 1.5 million people, and, I'm assured,

470
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,200
a handful of obliging manatees.

471
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:04,240
INPA is the Brazilian research institute tasked to study life in the Amazon.

472
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:10,720
It's one of the few places in the world that keeps captive Amazonian manatees for scientists to observe.

473
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:17,440
With a hard luck story and natural charm, Mark has talked his way in to the manatee centre of study.

474
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,520
Ah, look, look at this! Oh, my!

475
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,120
Oh, look. I love their whiskers and faces!

476
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,080
They look so gentle, don't they?

477
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:33,280
Completely harmless.

478
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,280
They are a bit like seals, aren't they?

479
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,400
There's a great description I read where somebody said

480
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:50,480
they're a bit like seals but they're more like travelling cases for putting seals in.

481
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,480
I think it says it all. They're not related to anything else.

482
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:56,800
They're extraordinary animals, unlike anything else.

483
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:02,240
They're not quite like seals, they're not quite like dolphins or whales.

484
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,800
You see those flippers, their very long flippers? The front ones.

485
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,120
Obviously adapted from the forearm and the hand.

486
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:10,360
But they use them.

487
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:12,080
It's like walking, exactly.

488
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,920
They do use them to walk on the bottom of the river.

489
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:18,040
I think I'm in love.

490
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:22,720
They've got that slow grace that big animals have, like elephants,

491
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:25,560
which are so surprisingly graceful when you see them.

492
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:30,040
Yeah, actually the Brazilian name is peixe-boi, which means fish cow,

493
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,120
or ox fish. And they're basically underwater cows.

494
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:38,480
There's no better way of describing them - just munch away at aquatic grasses all day long,

495
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:43,160
and don't do very much. Just move around slowly - fairly quiet, peaceful sort of life.

496
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:45,960
Marvellous.

497
00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:50,960
Vera De Silva is in charge of INPA's manatees.

498
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:57,600
She immediately takes us away from the main tanks to see something neither Mark nor I had expected.

499
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:01,680
Tucked around the back, Vera has a number of orphaned manatees

500
00:38:01,720 --> 00:38:08,240
with tell-tale rope marks and machete cuts, typical of the marks left by hunters.

501
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:10,880
The people hunting them use the calves as bait.

502
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,000
They get the little one and not the mother.

503
00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:17,240
They will tie the little one and make them call. They make a sound

504
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:22,200
and they will call the mother, and the mother, she won't stay, and she comes.

505
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:23,800
Cos they do help one another.

506
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,480
If there's an injured one, they might help to bring it up to the surface.

507
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:30,400
I don't know. In captivity, we notice this.

508
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,920
In the wild, I don't know if there is a record of this.

509
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:40,280
Human activity has resulted in the manatee

510
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:46,000
being one of almost 17,000 species currently on the endangered list.

511
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:51,280
We're inclined to think of periods of extinction as naturally-occurring pre-historic events.

512
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:57,160
But the greatest mass extinction the world has ever seen is happening right now.

513
00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:01,840
Human activity is causing it, and human activity alone can put it right.

514
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:05,520
You need to hold...Under there. Yes. So he can...

515
00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:09,280
These young manatees are now receiving round-the-clock attention

516
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:14,720
to nurse them back to health so that scientists can study them before releasing them back into the wild.

517
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:16,400
Mmm.

518
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:21,960
See he's got that prehensile lip, all the hairs on the lip.? He's slipping away! Oh!

519
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,960
I've got to grip him quite hard.

520
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,520
He's got his eyes closed, look at that.

521
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:29,200
He's enjoying himself so much.

522
00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:30,760
And also the nose here. Yes.

523
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:33,600
Yeah, got the skin-flaps closing the nostrils.

524
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:35,680
It could be done underwater.

525
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:40,200
Presumably it would be with the mother, obviously. Yes.

526
00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:42,760
Though he specialises in underwater photography,

527
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:47,280
Mark has never yet been able to get a picture of an Amazonian manatee.

528
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,000
This is an opportunity he isn't going to pass up.

529
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:52,280
Vera, I don't suppose I could ask a huge favour?

530
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:58,200
Would it be possible to get in the big tank with the adults? Er...

531
00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:01,320
Please. Yes, I will let you try.

532
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:07,160
But because the animals are not used to have people swimming with them,

533
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:10,600
I don't know how they will react. Has anyone been in with them before?

534
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:16,880
Er, a long time ago when our oldest female had her first calf.

535
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:21,080
And she was very aggressive towards the diver.

536
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:26,280
And she put him towards the wall, so she didn't let the person approach the calf.

537
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,840
It will be an experiment for everybody!

538
00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,680
OK! This is the first time I've ever done this -

539
00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:38,080
swimming with Amazonian manatees, it's a big life tick for me. Do you mind passing me the camera?

540
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,080
There we are, I've got it.

541
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,400
Thanks a lot. Great, thank you.

542
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:07,040
Not only did Mark not seem to be in any danger from the manatees,

543
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:09,160
but they barely seemed to notice him.

544
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:28,080
I'm struck by the quiet peacefulness of these big animals,

545
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:31,840
and the thought that back when great herds moved in these rivers,

546
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:36,080
they would have been ridiculously easy prey.

547
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:49,800
I can't help thinking of the many creatures, like the iconic dodo,

548
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:54,920
whose placid temperaments made them all too easy to chase into extinction.

549
00:41:54,960 --> 00:42:01,360
In an area as vast as the Amazon, a law to stop hunting can never be enforced.

550
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:05,880
So the challenge is to change attitudes that have been held for generations.

551
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:23,880
We have heard of one team who are trying to do exactly that.

552
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:28,840
We've travelled 400 miles west of Manaus to the city of Tefe.

553
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:37,720
At first, one is struck by an almost complete absence of cars -

554
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:43,200
the result of Tefe being a city still unconnected to the rest of the world by road.

555
00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:46,760
Though founded as a base for missionaries in the 17th century,

556
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:52,360
these days, Tefe is best known as the town closest to one of Brazil's biggest reserves.

557
00:42:58,680 --> 00:42:59,920
Whoa! Sorry!

558
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,320
It's the home of rhythm!

559
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:11,840
The reason we're here is to meet Dr Miriam Marmontel and her team from the Mamiraua Institute,

560
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:14,240
who have a novel approach to ending hunting.

561
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:17,560
This is Mark. Hi, pleased to meet you, hello.

562
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:21,400
We've come to the right place, I can see, cos you've got manatee earrings.

563
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:22,840
Amazing! How wonderful!

564
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:26,960
Though no-one knows for sure, it is thought

565
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:31,200
there may now be only a few thousand manatees living in the Amazon.

566
00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:34,880
Miriam is draining a tank in preparation for releasing Piti,

567
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,360
an orphaned manatee, back into the wild.

568
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:38,760
Oh, there he is!

569
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:43,520
While this will have a marginal impact on numbers, the hope is that

570
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:46,280
by involving traditional hunting communities,

571
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:51,080
the release will have a significant impact on attitudes to manatees.

572
00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:54,800
So where did he come from?

573
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:59,680
He got entangled into a fishing net, or so the locals told us.

574
00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:03,720
But when we got him, he had a harpoon wound through his back.

575
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,720
So they harpooned him at some point,

576
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:12,040
either to take him out of the net or intentionally.

577
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,440
Has he exhibited fondness for you or any particular humans?

578
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,600
For Michelle, who got him.

579
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:23,720
She went up and brought him in a speedboat.

580
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:28,840
Before the team can transport Piti, he has to be moved

581
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,920
and measured to see if he's big enough to be released.

582
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,360
Oh, they're so strong.

583
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:01,760
Oh, he's very good. He's so trusting, isn't he?

584
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:03,520
He obviously loves you.

585
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:07,800
He does. You can tell.

586
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:10,360
It's all right, it's OK.

587
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:16,680
Lots of water I suppose now he needs, yes?

588
00:45:16,720 --> 00:45:21,200
You're going to measure...?We're going to obtain all measurements.

589
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:25,600
Piti has been putting on several centimetres every week,

590
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,720
after spending six months in a tank.

591
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:34,160
Miriam confirms that he is, at last, ready to begin his journey back to freedom.

592
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:35,440
Will you miss him?

593
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:42,160
You can have all the science and expertise in the world

594
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:44,800
and it only works if you have somebody like Michelle,

595
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:48,760
who the manatee trusts, who spends all day, every day with him.

596
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,720
We may give ourselves six kicks up the backside

597
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,200
for what we do that causes the extinction of animals,

598
00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:56,560
but we have to give ourselves the odd pat on the back

599
00:45:56,600 --> 00:46:00,640
for at least being aware of animals in a way that no other animals are aware of animals.

600
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:04,320
As a human race I think we're terrible, we do terrible things.

601
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:08,720
But thank God we have this relatively small number of people

602
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:11,000
who do devote their lives to it.

603
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:14,080
Yeah. You were telling me the other night

604
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:16,920
that in the world conferences, people are giving up.

605
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:21,200
When I do things like this, it just gives me hope again.

606
00:46:21,240 --> 00:46:26,320
I love animals. I mean, you can't help but be moved by things like this.

607
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:29,840
I think you've got to get into the field, you've got to get to see things

608
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:31,720
just to remember what it's all about,

609
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,680
otherwise it is all just facts and figures on paper.

610
00:46:34,720 --> 00:46:37,400
MANATEE FARTS

611
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:39,640
I think he's just farted! Yeah, really!

612
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:41,000
Seriously? Yeah.

613
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,080
I know, they fart a lot, don't they?

614
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,960
I'm right in the cloud of it coming up right now.

615
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:49,840
Mmm, nice(!) Can you smell it? I'm getting a whiff now, yes. Are you?

616
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,280
Mmm. Imagine what it's like here.

617
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:58,320
Mmm, yeah. Well, at least he's not a meat-eater or it'd be worse.

618
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:01,080
No, that's true. Oh, Jesus, yes!

619
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:03,600
God! Holy woly!

620
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:06,880
That's pretty rich, isn't it?

621
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:11,120
He's allowed to, he's only one year old!

622
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:13,560
Could have waited just a minute. Oh, my God!

623
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:14,960
Just like that.

624
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:20,320
Oh, yes, I see what you mean about the, um...

625
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:23,120
He had a little bit of an old poo there.

626
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:26,360
Watch your feet. God, he's strong.

627
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,000
If you'd gone in there, there'd have been trouble.

628
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:33,200
The nearest known group of manatees is still 100 miles away,

629
00:47:33,240 --> 00:47:38,440
which means to get there, we plan to spend the next day travelling by boat

630
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:41,840
deep into the heart of one of the biggest reserves in Brazil.

631
00:47:44,240 --> 00:47:47,560
Oh, well done. Yes!

632
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:51,560
OK! Yes.

633
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:53,400
Hooray! Fantastic.

634
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,960
But you know what they say about the best-laid plans.

635
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:00,840
We should have noticed what the omens were telling us.

636
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:05,720
The following morning, in readiness for the long journey,

637
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:10,760
we've been asked to get to Piti's boat in time to sail at first light.

638
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:14,080
I don't claim to be the first to fall for an animal like Piti,

639
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:18,120
though I dare say few will have done so quite so dramatically.

640
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:22,520
CRASHING

641
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:26,080
Argh! Oh...

642
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:30,520
Oh, God!

643
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:31,800
Oh!

644
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:44,160
I had put one foot off the side of the pontoon and fallen heavily on my right arm.

645
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:49,440
A paramedic from the nearest hospital is shipped out to confirm my worst fears.

646
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:51,680
It's broken, I think.

647
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:57,000
He's asking about your spine. How is that?

648
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,040
The spine is good. Feels good.

649
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,880
Can you explain that it's incredibly painful?

650
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:06,400
It's very, very painful to move or twist my arm.

651
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:10,360
When he moves, it's intense pain.

652
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:12,040
Well done.

653
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:14,200
Oh! Argh!

654
00:49:14,240 --> 00:49:15,720
Ah!

655
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:18,120
Take it easy, there's no rush. Oh! Ah!

656
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:23,880
That's it, just...Argh!

657
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,080
Ah!

658
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,720
OK. Well done, well done.

659
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:35,880
Argh!

660
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:40,320
Thank you so much.

661
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:42,920
Argh! Ah...

662
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,600
You OK? Yeah. Argh!

663
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:54,960
Jesus! God!

664
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:56,480
OK, you're there.

665
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:11,640
Two helpless creatures, side by side,

666
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:15,440
on a small boat in the apparent endlessness of the Amazon.

667
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:24,120
Hello. Hello, how are you guys doing? Not so good, huh?

668
00:50:31,240 --> 00:50:36,480
Captain Wilson has responded to our SOS, and I'm heading to a Manaus hospital.

669
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:43,160
Suddenly, for me, the adventure is over, and we are all alone with our thoughts.

670
00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:48,240
Extinction happens and the world keeps turning.

671
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:54,480
Does it matter if the Amazonian manatee ceases to exist?

672
00:50:54,520 --> 00:51:00,080
Some will argue that each species has a crucial place in a complex eco-system.

673
00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:01,960
Perhaps.

674
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:04,160
But this is what I think.

675
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:10,040
I think that it's just indecent if humanity, through our actions, or through our neglect,

676
00:51:10,080 --> 00:51:15,560
should cast into oblivion an intricately perfect piece of evolutionary engineering

677
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,640
millions of years in the making.

678
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:22,040
I think that, somehow, we have to do better than that.

679
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,800
What a day! Er, we've been on the go since four o'clock this morning.

680
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,560
We did manage to get Stephen to Manaus in the end.

681
00:51:34,600 --> 00:51:37,920
It wasn't easy, but we got him here and we got him checked over

682
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:41,960
by several consultants and doctors in a couple of clinics here,

683
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:45,600
who unfortunately confirmed our worst fears

684
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:48,200
which are that his arm is quite badly broken

685
00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:50,080
in three different places

686
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:55,040
and he needs an operation to put a couple of metal pins in to hold it all altogether.

687
00:51:55,080 --> 00:52:00,080
So what we've decided is we're going to fly him to Miami.

688
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:03,960
Meanwhile, I'm going to try to charter a float plane

689
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,480
really early tomorrow morning to catch up with Piti,

690
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:10,360
the manatee who's still on that boat,

691
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:14,600
but who will now be about 500 miles or so west of Manaus.

692
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:17,040
Well, we thought yesterday was bad.

693
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:18,720
Today's proving even worse.

694
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:22,560
Stephen had a sleepless night and we were up half the night

695
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:26,720
making phone calls and receiving phone calls with last-minute arrangements.

696
00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:28,840
Then we lost Stephen's X-ray.

697
00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:31,040
We've found it again, thank goodness.

698
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:33,880
And we lost the key to the storeroom with all the kit.

699
00:52:33,920 --> 00:52:36,000
I think everyone's just too tired.

700
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:37,480
I've got food poisoning,

701
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:41,720
I'm throwing up every half an hour or so and feeling really ill.

702
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:44,360
I'm on the float plane, as you can see.

703
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,400
Managed to speak to the rest of the crew on their satellite phone.

704
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:51,960
And I've got the co-ordinates to their boat

705
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:55,920
on the lake somewhere 500 miles away in the Amazon

706
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,200
written on the back of a laundry list.

707
00:52:59,240 --> 00:53:01,480
And the plan is to try and find them there,

708
00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:04,120
and should be landing in the next hour and a half or so,

709
00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:06,160
if all goes to plan.

710
00:53:07,240 --> 00:53:11,520
For once, plans work out. And with the light beginning to fade,

711
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,120
just minutes before Piti must be released,

712
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:17,080
Mark's plane touches down.

713
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:24,120
Hi. How's Piti?

714
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:27,040
He's doing fine, ready to go into the pen. Fantastic.

715
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:32,040
Half a world away, I successfully check into a Miami hotel

716
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,880
to await my fate at the hands of the surgeons.

717
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:39,440
But with all the distractions of the West at my disposal,

718
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:43,200
all I can think about is Mark, the team from Mamiraua

719
00:53:43,240 --> 00:53:49,640
and a young manatee which has distinguished itself only by a prodigious talent for farting.

720
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:58,000
Miriam has sent out a message inviting the children of five villages

721
00:53:58,040 --> 00:54:01,000
to be the first to come and see Piti.

722
00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:04,760
Few will ever have encountered a live manatee before.

723
00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:07,960
Nobody knows if they will respond.

724
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,880
As the boat closes in on Piti's final destination,

725
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:14,200
the news of his arrival has been spreading.

726
00:54:14,240 --> 00:54:17,040
And by boat and canoe, in twos and threes,

727
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:20,600
and then in a flood, they come.

728
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:35,880
The local team has built an enclosure

729
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:38,880
where Piti can become acclimatised to the lake,

730
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:41,720
and where local children can come to learn about him

731
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:43,160
and help look after him

732
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:46,280
until it's time to release him fully into the wild.

733
00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:53,240
It's OK, he's nearly clear.

734
00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:22,040
Fantastic. He's in.

735
00:55:30,280 --> 00:55:34,280
Miriam is hoping that the enthusiasm of children for one manatee

736
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:37,360
will feed back through families and villages,

737
00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:40,960
and that manatees will at last come to be seen

738
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:43,280
as something to be cherished, rather than culled.

739
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:49,480
If successful, she's hoping to repeat this scene throughout the Amazon basin.

740
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:03,400
So when the day finally comes and you feel he's ready, what do you do,

741
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:07,960
just lift the door and say goodbye and hope for the best?

742
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:11,040
We attach a radio tag him,

743
00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:14,800
so we can also follow him and monitor his movements.

744
00:56:14,840 --> 00:56:19,520
And be close to him, make sure there's no hunters following him.

745
00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:22,080
The locals will hopefully help us with that.

746
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:24,760
So he'll be the best looked after manatee in the world.

747
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:26,680
Definitely.

748
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:35,120
Hi, Stephen. It's Mark.

749
00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:37,560
Mark, hello, how good to hear your voice. Hi.

750
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,520
'Tell me about Piti - how did it go?'

751
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:43,000
He's certainly in good hands, and a couple of the girls

752
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:45,760
from the institute are staying on in the village with him.

753
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:50,160
They're gonna look after him until he gets moved out into the middle of the lake.

754
00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:53,960
Everyone thinks he stands a really good chance, which is fantastic.

755
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:55,880
'Oh, that's so wonderful.'

756
00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:58,440
Just sorry you couldn't see him.

757
00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:04,680
Wherever we meet next, it is firmly understood that Stephen never leads, he only follows.

758
00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:08,840
And everybody helps him onto boats, because he's a clumsy arse. That's got to be understood.

759
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:10,960
Well, don't do it again.

760
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:13,480
I will do my very best not to do it again.

761
00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:15,960
OK! Speak to you very soon.

762
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:18,720
You bet, lots of love. All right. Bye.

763
00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:24,480
I wish Stephen had been here to see this. He'd have loved it.

764
00:57:24,520 --> 00:57:26,320
And it makes me feel really positive.

765
00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:28,720
You can get really bogged down and dragged down

766
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:34,200
by all these population figures and trends and animals disappearing and declining in numbers.

767
00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:37,720
And some of us think there's no hope at all.

768
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:41,280
Then seeing this and seeing all these people who've given so much

769
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:43,920
for just one manatee, it really does give me hope.

770
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:49,240
If encountering a manatee can move these children as much as it moved me,

771
00:57:49,280 --> 00:57:56,240
then maybe there is an outside chance that the greatest period of extinction the world has ever known

772
00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:59,760
will not claim the lugubrious, flatulent,

773
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:03,040
and slightly wonderful Amazonian manatee.

774
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,040
On his visit to Africa,

775
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:21,800
there was one animal that obsessed Douglas Adams for the rest of his life.

776
00:58:21,840 --> 00:58:24,840
It weighed three tons, had a horn to die for,

777
00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:29,120
and had one of the worst tempers in the animal kingdom.

778
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:31,520
Now it's my turn.

779
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:43,440
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