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SURF ROARS

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COCKEREL CROWS

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FAINT SINGING

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Cuba is the Caribbean's
most precious natural jewel.

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Forests still blanket
large parts of the island.

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Her blue waters hide some

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of the richest coral reefs
to be found anywhere.

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And while many of the wild lands

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and seas of the Caribbean
are in trouble,

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Cuba's extraordinary history has
created a true wildlife wonderland.

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Fully half of Cuba's animals
and plants are found nowhere else.

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From their very own crocodiles
and snakes,

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to the smallest birds
and frogs on the planet.

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My name is Colin Stafford -Johnson.

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I've been a wildlife cameraman
for over 30 years,

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and have never lost

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my boyhood obsession
with this remarkable island.

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I NSECTS CH I RRU P

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BIRDSONG

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BIRDSONG

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WAVES CRASH

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My grandfather lived with me
when I was growing up,

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and he had this lovely room.

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And it was floor-to-ceiling books.

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And that was sort
of my window into the world.

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WATER GENTLY BUBBLES

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I must have been
five or six years old, I guess.

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My grandad came in one day
and he took a book off the shelf.

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When he opened it up, it was
full of stamps, postage stamps.

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There were these extraordinary

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images of these really
exotic-looking birds

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and these strange-looking rodents
and fish.

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And he told me they came from

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an island at the other side of
the world that I 'd never heard of.

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WAVES CRASH

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Sitting on his desk,
there was a globe.

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And I searched the entire globe

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and eventually, I tracked it down
to the Caribbean.

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And that island was Cuba.

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BIRDSONG

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My Cuban journey
has no fixed agenda.

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My only plan is to wander
and explore,

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and to find the very best
that wild Cuba has to offer.

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Lying on its south-western coast
is Zapata,

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a vast region of dry forest
and flooded swamp.

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Zapata is the largest

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single protected area
in the entire Caribbean.

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When you wander along
these old roads,

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these old lanes
in this part of Cuba,

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in the great forests of Zapata,

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you come across this... little
orange flower.

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This is Apocynaceae.

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It's a native Cuban plant
that's absolutely full of nectar.

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And if you wait by it,

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there's a very good chance
that perhaps.

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Cuba's most famous resident
might turn up.

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And you'll often hear them
before you see them.

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WINGS FLUTTER

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I think I just heard one.

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WINGS FLUTTER

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BIRDSONG

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There it is.

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And that is the very smallest bird
in the world.

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BUZZI NG

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It's the bee hummingbird,
that's only found in Cuba,

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and what a wonderful
little creature it is!

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I cannot believe how tiny it is!

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It's... almost insect-like.

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It's hard to believe it's a bird.

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Cuba has been a real cradle
of evolution.

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So many species have evolved here.

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I've spent a lot of time travelling
in Central and South America,

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and I've seen all sorts of wonderful
hummingbirds,

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but I've always wanted to see
this particular one.

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What is it that attracts us

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to the biggest and the smallest
of everything?

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Some people say that the reason

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that the bee hummingbird
is so small here

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is that it's a means of avoiding
competition

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with their larger cousin,
the emerald, which is twice as big.

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I've noticed they can actually
both share this particular plant.

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They can both feed from this one.

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I love the Cuban names
for these birds.

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Zunzun and zunzuncito.

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The hummingbird
and the little hummingbird.

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When his... his head
catches the light...

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they are indescribably beautiful.

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The males are the show-offs
of the family.

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But this lady's showing no interest.
She has already mated.

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For her, it's nesting time.

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What better material to make
a tiny bird's nest

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than silk from a spider's web?

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She will collect all sorts of
little things from the forest,

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nest-building materials.

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And she will use that to weave
all those materials together.

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And her piece de resistance,
the ultimate camouflage,

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is to collect little bits of lichen.

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Her aim is disguise.

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But to the human eye,

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it looks like
it's just been designed

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for the sheer beauty of it.

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It's the most perfect little
structure, the size of an egg cup.

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It looks so vulnerable.

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And into that, she lays
the tiniest of eggs.

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Because it only goes to follow
that the smallest bird in the world

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lays the tiniest eggs in the world.

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Three weeks must pass before she'll
know if all is going to plan.

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BIRDSONG

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I think one of the biggest sort
of surprises I had, coming to Cuba,

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was that I really never realised
how big it was.

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I mean, I sort of vaguely knew

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it was the biggest island
of the Caribbean,

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but in my head, I didn't have
that concept, you know,

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that it's 1,000 miles long.

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About four times the size
of Ireland.

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When you look at a map,
you can see why Cuba was so critical

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in the history of this region.

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It commands the entrance to the
entire Caribbean.

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WAVES CRASH

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The very first human beings
only settled on Cuba

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some 5,000 years ago.

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They came across the ocean.

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But their journey was not
without its reward.

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A vast paradise island.

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Observing from the shore, strange
creatures witnessed their arrival.

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Creatures that had been here
for three million years before them.

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They have the most extraordinary
bodies, just armour-plated.

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Very sharp claws. If they wanted
to do you damage, they could.

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And those eyes on the side of
their head

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mean they can see all around them.

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In front of them,
behind them, above them.

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I love the way they walk.

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These are Cuban rock iguanas.

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They always look like they don't
have a care in the world.

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They live life at a very slow pace.

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They really have very little
to worry about out here.

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They keep an eye on each other
a little bit,

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wondering what the neighbours
are up to.

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Oh, he's keeping an eye on
his neighbour now.

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Little head bobbing, saying,
"Yep, this is my patch".

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They can afford to spend an awful lot
of their lives just sort of sitting around

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because they don't have to feed
an awful lot.

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That's a great advantage
of being an iguana.

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They just eat plant matter.

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They don't need to eat very much
of it at all

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because they get most of
their energy just from the sun.

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And so, they put an awful lot
of what they eat into growth.

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Unlike us. We spend most of the
energy that we take in, just keeping warm.

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FLIES HUM

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The only time when things
will really change around here

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is when it gets towards
mating season.

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And that's when they've got to
sort out who's boss.

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Because the dominant male,
the strongest, biggest one,

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is going to be the one that's
most likely to get the females.

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Life here is about to get a lot
more interesting.

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LIVELY LATIN MUSIC

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The iguanas may have hardly moved
a muscle for more than a week,

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but can move fast when
their masculinity is on the line.

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The big male has won the day,

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and mating is
a less-than-elegant affair.

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But he's happy now.

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Peace and harmony soon return to
this patch of Cuban paradise.

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GULLS CRY

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WATER GENTLY BUBBLES

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The deep waters off Cuba are home to

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some of the greatest
shark numbers in the Caribbean.

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An ancient, perfect design,

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sharks have patrolled these seas
little changed

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for more than 50 million years.

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And this is their last great refuge
in the entire Caribbean.

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The Gardens of the Oueen -
Jardines de la Reina.

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Lying off Cuba's southern coast,

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the Gardens are a marine wonderland.

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150km of islands,
coral reefs and mangrove swamps

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form one of the greatest
barrier reef systems on Earth.

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Travel beneath the surface here

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and you travel back in time to
when the Earth's seas were pristine.

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In the Gardens of the Oueen,
you'll find corals that survive

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almost nowhere else
in the Caribbean.

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Rich stands of elkhorn,

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one of the very first to die
under the impact of humans.

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Coral reefs pulsate with life.

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A single reef can hide

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4,000 different kinds of plants
and animals.

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The richest single community
of life on Earth.

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The world's seas once teemed with

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these most successful of all ocean
predators.

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But times are changing
for the sharks of planet Earth.

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More than 90o%♪ of many species
have been killed by human beings.

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Today, the Caribbean
is in mortal danger.

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Scientists believe overfishing
and climate change

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could wipe out its living coral
in the next 30 years.

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The Gardens of the Oueen
are an orchestra of life

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in an ocean slowly falling silent.

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WAVES CRASH

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Given Cuba's sort of amazing
natural diversity,

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it seems kind of strange that there
are so few land mammals here.

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GU LLS CRY

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The ancestors of these hutia must
have arrived on rafts of vegetation.

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Perhaps blown by hurricanes
a long, long time ago.

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From a distance, they look like
very sort of fluffy, benign things.

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It's only when you look at
their faces, you see

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they're definitely rodents.

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They have that typical
rodent's dentition.

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Those prominent front teeth.

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The secret to their success, to the
success of that great group of animals,

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is that they have these
continuously growing teeth.

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So they constantly eat.

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They're wonderful.
Wonderful little animals.

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And they can survive in places
like this. It's hard to imagine.

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But still today,
there are plenty of iguana

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and hutia,

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and they still seem to be
holding their own pretty well.

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GULLS CRY

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00:19:26,324 --> 00:19:28,069
BIRDSONG

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The people who lived here originally
were known as the Taino.

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00:19:36,714 --> 00:19:40,379
It seemed as if life had been
pretty good for them.

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They had an agricultural system
set up here,

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they seemed to have enough to eat,

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and were doing just fine.

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WAVES CRASH

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And when they were sitting on
a shore, much like this one,

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looking out to sea one day,
they must have been amazed to see

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these enormous ships
appearing on the horizon.

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When they spotted Columbus
arriving here,

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little did they know that their
lives were going to change forever.

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00:20:20,204 --> 00:20:23,788
And Columbus, in his letters, describes
them as a very benign people, very gentle.

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How friendly they were,
and how open and trustworthy.

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And they didn't appear to have
any weapons, any methods of defence.

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So of course, they were ideal people
to enslave.

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European man brought with him
disease,

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which was to wipe out so many people
at this side of the world.

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From the moment those ships were
spotted on the horizon...

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00:20:55,474 --> 00:20:58,119
within 50 years,
the Taino had all but disappeared.

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00:21:03,294 --> 00:21:07,119
And it's just extraordinary to think
that such a culture, such...

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00:21:07,144 --> 00:21:09,808
such a way of life
could disappear so quickly.

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A few faint traces of their language
survive, even to this day.

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00:21:17,064 --> 00:21:20,808
The name of the country itself,
Cuba, was a Taino word.

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00:21:20,833 --> 00:21:23,239
Hurricane. Canoe.

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Faint echoes of a language
that is otherwise long dead.

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BIRDSONG

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00:21:39,703 --> 00:21:43,319
Amazing how a small bunch of people
landing on a distant shore

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can claim it as their own

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in the name of some foreign king
or queen.

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And they legitimately felt

246
00:21:50,344 --> 00:21:53,119
they had an absolute God -given right
to do that.

247
00:21:56,833 --> 00:21:58,959
The arrogance of man.

248
00:22:19,064 --> 00:22:22,729
Today, nearly 12 million
human beings live on Cuba.

249
00:22:22,754 --> 00:22:25,798
Over two million in the capital,
Havana.

250
00:22:32,474 --> 00:22:37,628
Founded in 1519, Havana's old city
transports you back in time.

251
00:22:45,014 --> 00:22:47,548
Barely 100km from Florida,

252
00:22:47,573 --> 00:22:50,008
Havana could be on
a different planet

253
00:22:50,033 --> 00:22:52,449
to its North American neighbour.

254
00:23:01,643 --> 00:23:05,748
It's just one of those cities where, if
you perch yourself down anywhere at all,

255
00:23:05,773 --> 00:23:08,668
you can just people-watch
for hours on end.

256
00:23:08,693 --> 00:23:09,998
LOW CHATTER

257
00:23:13,974 --> 00:23:16,029
There's a sense of sort of
faded grandeur,

258
00:23:16,054 --> 00:23:18,339
but that just really adds
to its charm.

259
00:23:20,414 --> 00:23:23,469
And like so many places, when,
I guess, you've got a warm climate,

260
00:23:23,494 --> 00:23:25,829
everyone's out chatting
to each other, and...

261
00:23:25,854 --> 00:23:28,829
there's a very nice
pace of life here.

262
00:23:43,284 --> 00:23:47,259
Today's Cuban people are a diverse
mix of backgrounds and cultures.

263
00:23:48,464 --> 00:23:50,538
European, Taino, African.

264
00:23:54,773 --> 00:23:56,788
The slave trade had a huge impact.

265
00:23:58,174 --> 00:24:01,029
A million people torn from their
West African homes

266
00:24:01,054 --> 00:24:02,949
and thrown across the island.

267
00:24:04,744 --> 00:24:06,899
African influences are everywhere.

268
00:24:06,924 --> 00:24:09,079
RHYTHMIC DRUMMING

269
00:24:13,204 --> 00:24:14,788
MUSIC PLAYS

270
00:24:17,104 --> 00:24:19,179
RHYTHMIC CLAPPI NG

271
00:24:26,284 --> 00:24:30,179
The slave ships didn't only
bring humans to Cuba.

272
00:24:30,204 --> 00:24:33,079
Hiding aboard were stowaways,

273
00:24:33,104 --> 00:24:35,429
who jumped ashore
at every opportunity.

274
00:24:35,454 --> 00:24:37,109
CLAPPI NG CONTINU ES

275
00:24:39,773 --> 00:24:42,079
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE

276
00:24:44,854 --> 00:24:46,429
Spend a night in Havana

277
00:24:46,454 --> 00:24:49,760
and you might see flashes of
movement under the streetlights.

278
00:24:51,483 --> 00:24:53,350
African geckos.

279
00:24:58,327 --> 00:25:00,531
A long way from Ghana and Liberia,

280
00:25:00,556 --> 00:25:04,172
this tropical house gecko
stalks Havana's city streets.

281
00:25:13,127 --> 00:25:16,892
I n recent times, the geckos have
started to move out of the cities

282
00:25:16,917 --> 00:25:19,502
and across the Cuban countryside.

283
00:25:19,527 --> 00:25:22,462
Yet another stage
on their remarkable journey

284
00:25:22,487 --> 00:25:24,942
from their African forest homes.

285
00:25:31,197 --> 00:25:33,102
FOGHORN

286
00:25:40,447 --> 00:25:41,942
GULLS CRY

287
00:25:46,016 --> 00:25:47,942
Today, a whole new fleet of vessels

288
00:25:47,967 --> 00:25:50,611
sail into Havana's legendary
harbour.

289
00:25:51,766 --> 00:25:53,462
FOGHORN

290
00:25:59,247 --> 00:26:03,172
The government are hoping for
a million cruise ship passengers,

291
00:26:03,197 --> 00:26:05,502
to add to the four million-plus
guests

292
00:26:05,527 --> 00:26:08,462
who already holiday on the island
every year.

293
00:26:12,917 --> 00:26:16,252
Mass tourism will bring new roads
and new hotels

294
00:26:16,277 --> 00:26:21,462
and fresh challenges for Cuba's
wild lands and wild creatures.

295
00:26:22,447 --> 00:26:23,991
FOGHORN

296
00:26:29,657 --> 00:26:31,352
INSECTS CH IRRU P

297
00:26:31,377 --> 00:26:33,142
BIRDSONG

298
00:26:55,527 --> 00:26:57,892
I n Zapata, three weeks have passed

299
00:26:57,917 --> 00:27:01,611
since the mother hummingbird
laid her tiny eggs.

300
00:27:09,837 --> 00:27:12,892
It's a good year, and two
healthy chicks have hatched.

301
00:27:17,556 --> 00:27:21,252
Blind and helpless at birth,
the chicks grow explosively.

302
00:27:21,277 --> 00:27:24,062
Doubling their weight
in just four days.

303
00:27:32,806 --> 00:27:35,062
Such is the scarcity of these birds

304
00:27:35,087 --> 00:27:37,861
and the difficulty of finding
their tiny nests,

305
00:27:37,886 --> 00:27:41,452
that this is a scene rarely,
if ever, filmed before.

306
00:27:47,607 --> 00:27:50,661
The bee hummingbird was once found
all over Cuba,

307
00:27:50,686 --> 00:27:53,892
but now, Zapata is one
of its last strongholds.

308
00:27:54,806 --> 00:27:56,991
The vast swamps and forests

309
00:27:57,016 --> 00:28:00,142
an ideal refuge for a mother
with young to raise.

310
00:28:07,607 --> 00:28:08,892
18 days after hatching,

311
00:28:08,917 --> 00:28:11,741
the chicks have already grown
their flight feathers.

312
00:28:11,766 --> 00:28:15,892
I n just a couple of days,
they will leave the nest forever.

313
00:28:15,917 --> 00:28:18,452
And with luck,
live up to seven years.

314
00:28:23,297 --> 00:28:27,502
A whole new chapter in the story
of the world's smallest bird.

315
00:28:27,527 --> 00:28:30,582
BIRDSONG

316
00:28:57,327 --> 00:28:59,342
I feel very fortunate

317
00:28:59,367 --> 00:29:02,582
to have spent so much of my life
in places like this.

318
00:29:07,327 --> 00:29:10,062
There's nothing like waking up
in the morning,

319
00:29:10,087 --> 00:29:14,582
that sort of tuning in to the sound
of the world coming alive.

320
00:29:16,886 --> 00:29:19,272
BIRDSONG

321
00:29:25,527 --> 00:29:29,092
Particularly in the tropics, you really
appreciate the coolness of this time of day.

322
00:29:30,197 --> 00:29:33,502
The air is fresh, just for a little
while, and everything's busy.

323
00:29:41,447 --> 00:29:45,741
If you tune in to the sounds... right
here and now,

324
00:29:45,766 --> 00:29:49,302
you know there's only one place
in the world that you could be,

325
00:29:49,327 --> 00:29:52,062
and that's on the island of Cuba.

326
00:29:52,087 --> 00:29:53,632
BIRDSONG

327
00:30:02,837 --> 00:30:06,981
Hear all the sounds of the birds,
but there's one sound...

328
00:30:08,277 --> 00:30:12,022
which is made by one of the rarest
birds in the world.

329
00:30:21,327 --> 00:30:24,861
BIRD CALLS

330
00:30:24,886 --> 00:30:27,582
The Fernandina's flicker,
it's a kind of woodpecker.

331
00:30:32,367 --> 00:30:35,222
Their numbers are now
critically low.

332
00:30:35,247 --> 00:30:38,172
Maybe 500 or 600 individual
animals left.

333
00:30:42,117 --> 00:30:44,452
When you think about it,
that's almost nothing,

334
00:30:44,477 --> 00:30:45,981
and they are still in decline.

335
00:30:56,297 --> 00:30:59,062
But these ones are lucky to be
here in the heart of Zapata.

336
00:30:59,087 --> 00:31:02,582
Zapata is really the last
stronghold for this species.

337
00:31:05,657 --> 00:31:08,661
Cuba's the only place where
they are found.

338
00:31:08,686 --> 00:31:11,892
Once upon a time, they would have
been found all over the country.

339
00:31:17,686 --> 00:31:21,731
Deforestation, farming and wildfires
have decimated their numbers.

340
00:31:27,047 --> 00:31:30,812
They have no idea, of course, how
rare they are, how special they are.

341
00:31:30,837 --> 00:31:33,222
They're just doing what
they've always done,

342
00:31:33,247 --> 00:31:35,661
what generations of their kind
have always done.

343
00:31:37,197 --> 00:31:41,911
An incredibly important little
future family here.

344
00:31:50,936 --> 00:31:53,372
The thing about extinction
is it's a silent thing,

345
00:31:53,397 --> 00:31:54,911
it doesn't announce itself.

346
00:31:56,327 --> 00:32:01,861
It's a gradual process,
until you finally end up with just

347
00:32:01,886 --> 00:32:06,062
the final pair, the final family,
the final individual bird.

348
00:32:06,087 --> 00:32:11,062
It can just happen any day of the
week, at any time. Just disappears.

349
00:32:12,727 --> 00:32:16,172
It doesn't make the news
and every time something disappears,

350
00:32:16,197 --> 00:32:17,781
the world just becomes poorer.

351
00:32:22,936 --> 00:32:26,045
Such an incredibly beautiful bird.

352
00:32:28,234 --> 00:32:32,289
Looking out from the little
high-rise,

353
00:32:32,314 --> 00:32:34,718
looking out into a
very changed world now.

354
00:33:04,844 --> 00:33:07,538
I've never been any place
quite like this.

355
00:33:07,563 --> 00:33:09,629
It's incredibly picturesque.

356
00:33:11,374 --> 00:33:14,019
There's a lovely
sense of peace about these valleys.

357
00:33:24,484 --> 00:33:26,988
You know, the farming here is very
benign on the land,

358
00:33:27,013 --> 00:33:29,229
compared to
so many other places I go.

359
00:33:30,374 --> 00:33:34,949
They still use very traditional
methods for tilling the fields and

360
00:33:34,974 --> 00:33:39,629
it's low-impact, very few herbicides
and pesticides are used here.

361
00:33:51,094 --> 00:33:54,069
So much of agriculture these
days is intensive

362
00:33:54,094 --> 00:33:57,149
and relies on heavy machinery
and combustion engines

363
00:33:57,174 --> 00:33:59,788
and they're almost
absent from this place still.

364
00:34:01,614 --> 00:34:04,349
So you can hear people laughing
and joking

365
00:34:04,374 --> 00:34:06,918
and communicating in the distance.

366
00:34:06,943 --> 00:34:09,589
I remember a time when I reland
was a lot more like this,

367
00:34:09,614 --> 00:34:13,629
when everything was a lot more
manual and maybe communities

368
00:34:13,654 --> 00:34:17,149
were a lot stronger as a result,
because people relied on each other.

369
00:34:17,174 --> 00:34:20,509
There's a real sense that people
here are sort of working together.

370
00:34:50,334 --> 00:34:53,629
THUNDERCLAP

371
00:34:59,929 --> 00:35:03,534
I was brought up in a country
where we had names for all

372
00:35:03,559 --> 00:35:05,546
different kinds of rain,

373
00:35:05,571 --> 00:35:09,010
but none of it falls like the rain
that falls in Cuba,

374
00:35:09,035 --> 00:35:10,500
and in this tropical belt.

375
00:35:12,115 --> 00:35:14,620
You hear the thunder
coming along in the afternoon

376
00:35:14,645 --> 00:35:18,859
and you can feel this great
energy in the atmosphere,

377
00:35:18,884 --> 00:35:23,729
and when it's released, the rain
just comes in absolute floods.

378
00:35:23,754 --> 00:35:25,060
It's like a deluge.

379
00:35:40,395 --> 00:35:43,979
Near the infamous Bay of Pigs,
on the south coast,

380
00:35:44,004 --> 00:35:48,170
the heavy downpours
and high humidity trigger a truly

381
00:35:48,195 --> 00:35:51,090
extraordinary event in Cuba's
natural world.

382
00:36:03,525 --> 00:36:06,580
It's an extraordinary sight,

383
00:36:06,605 --> 00:36:09,979
millions upon
millions of crabs on the move.

384
00:36:19,285 --> 00:36:21,450
The entire forest is alive.

385
00:36:24,245 --> 00:36:26,450
It's one of the great wildlife
migrations.

386
00:36:32,004 --> 00:36:33,260
Crabs evolved in the sea,

387
00:36:33,285 --> 00:36:39,090
but they came on to land and adapted
to this environment incredibly well.

388
00:36:39,115 --> 00:36:42,450
It's strange cos for
so many months of the year here,

389
00:36:42,475 --> 00:36:43,899
you wouldn't see a single one

390
00:36:43,924 --> 00:36:46,779
because they're totally nocturnal,
and now, they've thrown

391
00:36:46,804 --> 00:36:51,540
caution to the wind and that's cos
there are hormones in the air.

392
00:36:51,565 --> 00:36:53,620
It's mating time.

393
00:37:03,115 --> 00:37:05,700
Lots of these females have
probably mated already,

394
00:37:05,725 --> 00:37:09,560
but their eggs
are inside their bodies still.

395
00:37:11,585 --> 00:37:16,370
Ah, this little one has eggs,
she's got her precious cargo,

396
00:37:16,395 --> 00:37:18,520
so she'll be off to the sea now.

397
00:37:20,305 --> 00:37:23,290
They've adapted to life on land,
but in order to reproduce,

398
00:37:23,315 --> 00:37:25,580
they have to get to the sea.

399
00:37:30,525 --> 00:37:32,649
For millions and millions of years,

400
00:37:32,674 --> 00:37:35,859
they've been effectively unchanged,
but we've come along

401
00:37:35,884 --> 00:37:39,979
and made a very significant change,
by building a coastal road.

402
00:38:07,312 --> 00:38:09,776
It's an obvious place
for us to build roads,

403
00:38:09,801 --> 00:38:12,976
but it's right in the path of their
migration and of course, they

404
00:38:13,001 --> 00:38:16,447
have no behavioural mechanisms in
their evolution to deal with this.

405
00:38:38,392 --> 00:38:42,417
Although it may be difficult to stop
traffic completely for weeks

406
00:38:42,442 --> 00:38:45,896
on end, there's no doubt a lot
more could be done than is done now.

407
00:38:56,562 --> 00:39:00,896
It's just sad to witness an ancient
creature that's perfectly

408
00:39:00,921 --> 00:39:04,697
evolved, having to deal with man,
same old story.

409
00:39:11,801 --> 00:39:15,697
But there's often a gap of 15
or 20 minutes between cars,

410
00:39:15,722 --> 00:39:18,337
so they have a chance to cross,
and it seems,

411
00:39:18,362 --> 00:39:21,776
because there are so many millions
of them cross this road every

412
00:39:21,801 --> 00:39:25,217
year, there's no evidence that the
numbers are declining in any way.

413
00:39:26,751 --> 00:39:28,726
So that's something.

414
00:39:58,312 --> 00:40:01,177
She's got to bring those
eggs to the sea in safety,

415
00:40:01,202 --> 00:40:04,177
she's got to release them
without falling in the sea herself.

416
00:40:10,082 --> 00:40:13,646
What happens next, of course,
is the eggs are then on their own.

417
00:40:13,671 --> 00:40:16,057
But they will hatch
extremely quickly,

418
00:40:16,082 --> 00:40:19,537
because she only releases them
when they're ready to hatch.

419
00:40:19,562 --> 00:40:21,497
That's the key.

420
00:40:42,921 --> 00:40:45,976
The great irony is that
they need a certain

421
00:40:46,001 --> 00:40:49,057
amount of water for those
gills to work,

422
00:40:49,082 --> 00:40:53,287
but if they fall into the sea,
they'll just drown like you and I.

423
00:40:53,312 --> 00:40:56,177
They left it
so many millions of years ago,

424
00:40:56,202 --> 00:40:59,087
that they're no longer
capable of life underwater.

425
00:41:14,232 --> 00:41:17,447
While making sure to
release their precious young,

426
00:41:17,472 --> 00:41:20,856
these mothers will never make it
back to their forest home.

427
00:42:02,962 --> 00:42:06,427
The crystalline waters off Cuba
are home to one of the very

428
00:42:06,452 --> 00:42:09,866
largest reptiles on the planet,

429
00:42:09,891 --> 00:42:13,267
giants that can grow to six
metres or 20 feet long.

430
00:42:18,011 --> 00:42:19,577
American crocodiles.

431
00:42:21,402 --> 00:42:24,906
Out here, they sit
firmly on top of the food chain.

432
00:42:24,931 --> 00:42:27,937
They fear nothing,
and everything is afraid of them.

433
00:42:39,962 --> 00:42:43,267
Crocodiles are a spectacularly
successful design.

434
00:42:48,681 --> 00:42:52,377
The giant meteor that finished
the dinosaurs hit the Earth

435
00:42:52,402 --> 00:42:56,937
just 1,000km west of Cuba,
devastating life on Earth.

436
00:42:58,532 --> 00:43:03,627
But these hardy beasts somehow
carried on, unchanged to this day.

437
00:43:04,852 --> 00:43:07,656
They're among the planet's
greatest survivors.

438
00:43:32,322 --> 00:43:35,707
This region of Cuba is world
famous for reasons that Cubans

439
00:43:35,732 --> 00:43:39,786
don't like very much.
It's home to a naval base

440
00:43:39,811 --> 00:43:43,067
occupied by the Americans
for the last 100 years.

441
00:43:45,452 --> 00:43:49,237
The base itself is only a small
part of Guantanamo, which is

442
00:43:49,262 --> 00:43:51,756
in fact one of Cuba's largest
provinces,

443
00:43:51,781 --> 00:43:54,786
taking up the entire eastern
tip of the island.

444
00:43:57,761 --> 00:44:02,577
And this is Humboldt National Park,
named after Alexander von Humboldt,

445
00:44:02,602 --> 00:44:06,707
who was one of the greatest
naturalists of all time, who visited

446
00:44:06,732 --> 00:44:11,507
this area in the early 1800s and was
astonished by its natural wonders.

447
00:44:24,042 --> 00:44:27,656
When you enter a forest,
you really enter a whole new world.

448
00:44:29,652 --> 00:44:31,986
You don't have to go
far into a woodland

449
00:44:32,011 --> 00:44:35,827
until you sort of get absorbed by it
and you leave the world behind.

450
00:44:43,372 --> 00:44:47,267
I guess birdsong is the dominant
feature of woodlands like this,

451
00:44:47,292 --> 00:44:49,627
but if you, if you listen closely...

452
00:44:51,761 --> 00:44:53,937
I NSECTS CHIRPI NG

453
00:44:53,962 --> 00:44:59,906
there's a hum and that hum is
just like the sum total noise

454
00:44:59,931 --> 00:45:03,297
generated by all the little
creatures, and it's really the

455
00:45:03,322 --> 00:45:05,217
little creatures ultimately,

456
00:45:05,242 --> 00:45:07,937
that we rely on and that everything
relies on.

457
00:45:10,602 --> 00:45:14,237
That hum has stopped in many places.

458
00:45:14,262 --> 00:45:19,467
If you're ever in an environment and
you don't hear that hum, you know

459
00:45:19,492 --> 00:45:25,297
that not all is well, cos that
really is the hum of life itself.

460
00:45:25,322 --> 00:45:29,377
That's the sound that we need
to hear everywhere.

461
00:45:33,681 --> 00:45:38,547
There's no reason why, with a bit
of careful planning, that we can't

462
00:45:38,572 --> 00:45:42,347
look after all the creatures and
ourselves at the same time, and

463
00:45:42,372 --> 00:45:45,106
we're such an ingenious species
that I think

464
00:45:45,131 --> 00:45:48,267
we can solve all the problems,
but we just have to...

465
00:45:48,292 --> 00:45:51,017
We just have to consider
the natural world a lot more.

466
00:46:04,492 --> 00:46:09,856
These are Polymita, a kind of snail
only found in Eastern Cuba.

467
00:46:09,881 --> 00:46:13,347
They're endemic to this
part of the island.

468
00:46:13,372 --> 00:46:16,106
They have the most wonderful
colours.

469
00:46:24,131 --> 00:46:26,547
And if you look at them
really closely,

470
00:46:26,572 --> 00:46:29,297
you'll see that they're not actually
eating the leaves themselves.

471
00:46:29,322 --> 00:46:31,137
Although snails are pests,

472
00:46:31,162 --> 00:46:33,547
anyone who has a garden knows
what it's like

473
00:46:33,572 --> 00:46:36,607
when a load of snails turn up
and your veggies start to disappear,

474
00:46:36,632 --> 00:46:39,136
but that's not the case
with these ones.

475
00:46:39,161 --> 00:46:41,796
These just sort of graze
along the leaves themselves

476
00:46:41,821 --> 00:46:43,866
and they remove the little fungi

477
00:46:43,891 --> 00:46:46,387
and things like that
that are growing upon them,

478
00:46:46,412 --> 00:46:49,947
so they're actually like little
guardians for the plants

479
00:46:49,972 --> 00:46:51,437
and the trees that grow here.

480
00:46:58,941 --> 00:47:01,996
During the summer, they'll go
to sleep, they'll estivate,

481
00:47:02,021 --> 00:47:06,016
seal themselves off from the world
and sleep the dry season away.

482
00:47:08,122 --> 00:47:11,197
With the first falls of rain,
they'll get active again

483
00:47:11,222 --> 00:47:12,587
and start to mate.

484
00:47:14,132 --> 00:47:17,437
And snail courtship is always
quite interesting.

485
00:47:23,612 --> 00:47:26,477
Mating itself is a long
and drawn-out affair

486
00:47:26,502 --> 00:47:28,866
and can often take four
hours or more.

487
00:47:35,141 --> 00:47:37,277
The snails are hermaphrodites.

488
00:47:37,302 --> 00:47:41,197
They fertilise each other, using
a large white organ to transfer

489
00:47:41,222 --> 00:47:42,666
the sperm across.

490
00:47:56,662 --> 00:47:59,996
The fact that they are so colourful
and beautiful, that is

491
00:48:00,021 --> 00:48:03,527
actually their downfall because
they're very collectable and there's

492
00:48:03,552 --> 00:48:09,277
actually an illegal trade in their
shells that extends as far as Japan.

493
00:48:09,302 --> 00:48:12,587
It's hard to believe,
but they're very sought-after.

494
00:48:13,742 --> 00:48:17,197
But there's been a significant
conservation

495
00:48:17,222 --> 00:48:20,277
and sort of awareness campaign,
but it's always nice when you come

496
00:48:20,302 --> 00:48:24,587
across a community and they're aware
that what they have is special.

497
00:48:24,612 --> 00:48:27,477
That's the beginnings of something
and when it's a little animal

498
00:48:27,502 --> 00:48:31,307
that a lot of people would just
walk by, it's all the better.

499
00:48:39,102 --> 00:48:45,387
Nothing ever goes to waste in a
healthy ecosystem and even in death,

500
00:48:45,412 --> 00:48:51,227
their empty shells are still prized
by the creatures living around here.

501
00:49:07,532 --> 00:49:11,557
Hermit crabs have the evolutionary
misfortune of being born

502
00:49:11,582 --> 00:49:15,027
without their shell, so they must
find one for themselves.

503
00:49:18,972 --> 00:49:23,307
Of course, there are downsides
to not growing your own.

504
00:49:23,332 --> 00:49:27,527
Every few months, hermit crabs must
seek out a roomier house,

505
00:49:27,552 --> 00:49:29,806
before they get
stuck in their old one.

506
00:49:31,242 --> 00:49:33,686
This crab thinks that property
options might be

507
00:49:33,711 --> 00:49:34,967
better down on the coast.

508
00:49:47,472 --> 00:49:49,447
Where better to be a hermit crab

509
00:49:49,472 --> 00:49:51,327
than in the land of the painted
snails?

510
00:49:59,322 --> 00:50:02,607
Hermit crabs are highly
vulnerable without a shell.

511
00:50:02,632 --> 00:50:04,936
Once they've found a suitable
new residence,

512
00:50:04,961 --> 00:50:06,527
they don't delay moving in.

513
00:50:13,242 --> 00:50:16,247
Now safe and comfortable,
it's time to get back to some cover.

514
00:50:56,352 --> 00:50:59,936
There are still some patches of
old -growth forest left in Cuba.

515
00:51:05,602 --> 00:51:08,777
Forest that provided
sanctuary for Fidel Castro

516
00:51:08,802 --> 00:51:10,136
and the revolutionaries.

517
00:51:14,072 --> 00:51:17,016
Hot and humid under
the tropical sun,

518
00:51:17,041 --> 00:51:20,377
the cool of night reveals
a very different world.

519
00:51:29,552 --> 00:51:34,577
Some 26 different types of bats
make their home in Cuba,

520
00:51:34,602 --> 00:51:37,016
seven found nowhere
else on the planet.

521
00:51:48,072 --> 00:51:50,577
These are Cuban flower bats

522
00:51:50,602 --> 00:51:54,806
and this entire cave system here
just has one exit.

523
00:52:00,961 --> 00:52:03,047
But they're flying around
and around.

524
00:52:03,072 --> 00:52:06,577
They don't necessarily just exit
the cave straight away.

525
00:52:06,602 --> 00:52:10,167
They tend to spend a little bit
of time flying around the entrance,

526
00:52:10,192 --> 00:52:11,806
and bats do that.

527
00:52:11,831 --> 00:52:15,167
They're constantly socialising,
they're very social creatures.

528
00:52:17,041 --> 00:52:20,016
You wonder what they're saying
to each other.

529
00:52:24,422 --> 00:52:27,996
All I can hear is just
the flutter of myriads of wings.

530
00:52:35,141 --> 00:52:38,477
Some of these little
guys could be, you know, 15, 20,

531
00:52:38,502 --> 00:52:40,307
25 years old, something like that.

532
00:52:43,382 --> 00:52:45,707
Some of them
will have come out through this exit

533
00:52:45,732 --> 00:52:48,067
thousands of times in their lives.

534
00:52:48,092 --> 00:52:50,357
I think, probably, I'm thinking,

535
00:52:50,382 --> 00:52:52,947
blissfully unaware that danger
is lurking out here.

536
00:53:22,382 --> 00:53:24,197
Cuban boas.

537
00:53:25,302 --> 00:53:27,996
Up to a dozen snakes
gather around this cave entrance.

538
00:53:44,428 --> 00:53:49,259
All just waiting.
Waiting for one unwary bat.

539
00:53:59,314 --> 00:54:03,179
Boas don't have good eyesight,
but they have those receptors

540
00:54:03,204 --> 00:54:07,379
that can actually see the heat
that the bats are producing.

541
00:54:07,404 --> 00:54:11,929
Oh, look, he's flicking his tongue,
tasting the air!

542
00:54:19,673 --> 00:54:21,819
They're in exactly the right place,

543
00:54:21,844 --> 00:54:25,569
just where the bats are moving,
around and around in circles.

544
00:54:48,844 --> 00:54:52,129
Ooh! Just missed!
But as soon as a bat touches one,

545
00:54:52,154 --> 00:54:55,329
it seems to sort of fold its wings
and drop away.

546
00:54:56,714 --> 00:54:58,569
It's like that's an evasion tactic.

547
00:55:05,434 --> 00:55:08,329
Sooner or later,
one of them runs out of luck.

548
00:55:25,484 --> 00:55:30,659
Oh! The poor little blighter!
Not putting up any struggle at all.

549
00:55:30,684 --> 00:55:32,689
Seems to just know that that's it.

550
00:55:34,154 --> 00:55:37,329
Once he's in those coils,
there's no escape.

551
00:55:47,673 --> 00:55:51,289
This is how they actually kill them,
by just coiling around their bodies.

552
00:55:54,714 --> 00:55:58,489
And all the little bat's going to
feel is pressure, and soon,

553
00:55:58,514 --> 00:56:02,329
they won't be able to
lift their ribcages to breathe,

554
00:56:02,354 --> 00:56:04,968
and they essentially faint.

555
00:56:22,284 --> 00:56:25,459
But it's a very gentle,
sort of silent process.

556
00:56:25,484 --> 00:56:28,289
They're pretty benign predators,
if there's such a thing,

557
00:56:28,314 --> 00:56:30,689
if that's not
a contradiction in terms.

558
00:56:39,764 --> 00:56:41,209
Boas have to eat too, I guess.

559
00:56:43,673 --> 00:56:47,459
And they only eat what they need.
One bat a week would be ample

560
00:56:47,484 --> 00:56:49,459
for a snake of this size.

561
00:56:55,404 --> 00:56:58,609
For some people though, this
would be the stuff of nightmares.

562
00:57:00,074 --> 00:57:02,819
Snakes crawling round above my
head,

563
00:57:02,844 --> 00:57:05,329
and thousands of bats in the air.

564
00:57:05,354 --> 00:57:07,539
Not everyone's cup of tea.

565
00:57:07,564 --> 00:57:09,409
But it is mine.

566
00:57:09,434 --> 00:57:11,848
I couldn't be happier!

567
00:57:16,684 --> 00:57:18,459
I love caves,

568
00:57:18,484 --> 00:57:20,129
I love snakes,

569
00:57:20,154 --> 00:57:21,848
I love bats.

570
00:57:26,074 --> 00:57:28,209
I love Cuba!

571
00:57:28,234 --> 00:57:30,379
Amazing place.

572
00:57:37,764 --> 00:57:41,968
I n part two of my wild Cuban
adventure, I encounter

573
00:57:41,993 --> 00:57:46,259
a truly extraordinary living
fossil in the sinkholes of Zapata.

574
00:57:47,714 --> 00:57:51,149
I find out why Cuba has been
described as woodpecker heaven...

575
00:57:53,424 --> 00:57:56,868
and I meet the Cuban crocodile,
reputed to be the quickest

576
00:57:56,893 --> 00:57:59,199
and the most aggressive on the
planet.