BBC Africa E03 Congo
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00:30The very centre of Africa, and the centre of two million square miles of dense tropical
00:47rainforest.
00:48At first glance, it seems deserted and eerily still.
01:09Not an easy place to live.
01:16But in fact, there is a greater concentration of animals here than anywhere else in Africa.
01:34And in this world, they must grab every opportunity.
01:40Competition is intense and unrelenting.
01:48Even the forest itself fights its corner with spines and poisonous sap.
01:59Here, every living thing must fight for its space.
02:21Such beauty.
02:24But the flower is self-serving, enticing animals into an unwitting alliance.
02:33Stingless bees.
02:35They have to work hard.
02:36The forest flowers make them do so by rationing their nectar, forcing each bee to visit and
02:42so pollinate at least a thousand blooms each day.
03:02For the bees, it's worth the effort.
03:05They need the nectar to make honey, which they store in pots.
03:10It's so precious, they keep it hidden beneath the bark of a tree, but their secret is out.
03:38Nothing is safe in this forest.
03:58Chimpanzees love honey.
04:11She seems oblivious to danger.
04:13A fall from up here could be fatal.
04:19But she does need a bigger stick.
04:48Only a chimp has the ability to break into a stingless bee's nest as well-hidden as this.
04:58Chimps are extremely intelligent, but none is born with the skill to use a tool.
05:15Youngsters like this one must learn by watching.
05:46She uses special tools, one after another, to get all the honey she can.
05:54And in a few minutes, she destroys what took the bees years to build.
06:08In the rainforest, nothing is safe.
06:20Here in the Congo, there can be as many as 500 trees crammed into every acre.
06:27In the battle for space, some will rise to over 60 metres high in just a few decades.
06:40In a valley like this, there could be close on 1,000 different species of tree.
06:50Up here, the crowns barely touch.
06:53Each tree seems to respect its neighbour's space.
07:01When they germinate down on the forest floor, young trees and plants are less restrained.
07:09But every new generation fights it out in battles we can see by accelerating time.
07:18They must get light if they are to survive, and they squeeze, crush and even slash one another in order to reach it.
07:48Despite the thick canopy above, some sunlight does filter through and allows a few low-light specialists to bloom near the forest floor.
08:18Down here, there are animals, too, that seek out the sunlight.
08:40The forest's largest predator, a female rock python.
08:51Her body is five metres long, weighs 100 kilos and has 4,000 muscles that she uses to crush the life out of her victims.
09:04But right now, her need is not for food, it's for warmth.
09:15She finds a rare patch where a shaft of sunlight strikes the ground and she begins to bask.
09:27She's cold-blooded, so this is the only way she can raise the temperature of her body.
09:36But now she's becoming very warm indeed, more than 10 degrees hotter than usual.
09:43At 40 degrees centigrade, she's in danger of killing herself.
09:51Just in time, she moves off.
10:01She disappears below ground.
10:15This is her nest, and it's full of giant eggs.
10:24It's critical for the eggs' development that they stay above 30 degrees.
10:35Here, in this special filming burrow, she gently wraps her superheated body around the eggs,
10:42passing on to them the warmth of the sun.
10:51She has done this every day for three months.
10:56The repeated heat stress on her body is so great, it could be lethal.
11:01And at the very least, it will take three years for her to recover from incubating this one clutch of eggs.
11:30Her parchment-shelled eggs carry the pressed imprint of her scales,
11:35an indication of the strength of her embrace.
11:46At last, her efforts are rewarded.
12:08But the babies can't stay here.
12:10They must leave their sanctuary and find food in the tangled world above.
12:41They're over 60 centimetres long, already big enough to be a threat to the smaller inhabitants of the forest.
12:54But they are themselves vulnerable, particularly to other snakes.
13:05But this one is their mother.
13:07Unusually for snakes, her maternal instincts continue for days after her eggs hatch.
13:24Even so, the forest is such a dangerous place that only one in a hundred of her youngsters is likely to reach adulthood.
13:38Just occasionally, the competition eases.
13:45A tree suddenly produces fruit.
13:52It's a magnet for the creatures of the canopy, and they, in turn, as they feed, create a bonanza for those on the ground below.
14:21A mob of red river hogs.
14:28They have travelled over two miles through the thick undergrowth to get this fall of fruit.
14:34But in the African forest, little comes for free.
14:42This feast is a bribe.
14:46The hogs will carry the seeds in their stomachs and deposit them far from the parent tree.
15:07Night falls.
15:10But one living community, which is neither animal nor plant, continues its never-ending work in the darkness.
15:25This ground is alive with fungi that digest all the litter discarded by the forest.
15:38Some rare fungi do so with enzymes that are luminous.
15:50The local people call them chimpanzee fire.
16:00Without the fungi, the dead vegetation would pile so high, the living trees would be submerged.
16:25And a new day reveals just how much control the jungle has over its own environment.
16:35The forests of the Congo are the lungs of Africa, as they use the sunlight to build their tissues so they release oxygen and water vapour into the air.
16:51Each hectare of forest produces, as vapour, almost 190,000 litres of water a year.
17:00So much that it creates its own weather.
17:07Clouds blanket the forest, driving up the humidity and temperature.
17:13A storm is brewing.
17:19The Congo might be the richest part of Africa, but it's also the most violent.
17:50Each year, as many as 100 million lightning bolts strike the forest.
17:56That's more than anywhere else in the world.
18:05And with the lightning comes the rain.
18:17Up to 95% of the rain that falls here is generated by the forest itself.
18:40With the deluge will come change to the animals and to the forest.
18:50It's certainly perfect weather for frogs.
18:56The big storm is the cue for the most important climb of this frog's life.
19:02It's a male in search of a mate.
19:09But if he is to find one, he has to get to the top.
19:39He needs to keep his wits about him, for the rain also brings out hunters.
20:07Easy does it.
20:18The top at last.
20:21But he's late to the party.
20:34The higher a male sits, the further his voice will carry.
21:04And he's won.
21:20He has the top place.
21:25So now it's time to sing.
21:37And a white-bellied female responds.
21:50They join together to mate.
22:00The loser will have to wait for the next storm before he sings again.
22:10She lays her eggs on a blade of a long leaf.
22:13And he, using his back legs, folds it over and glues its two edges together, shutting the eggs inside.
22:32This sealed nest is the safest place these leaf-folding frogs can find to protect their precious brood.
22:52Within days, the eggs are developing.
22:57The timing is perfect.
23:08The rain washes away the glue, and the tadpoles slip out of the leaves into the growing puddles below.
23:28The rainy season reaches its peak, and the ground has been transformed.
23:47The forest is flooded.
23:50It's a new world.
23:57The fish swim in from the swollen streams, exploiting this newly created space, snapping up the drowning insects.
24:11This is a butterflyfish.
24:19A Congo bichir.
24:26The hunter becomes the hunted.
24:46The butterflyfish is too quick and leaps out of danger.
25:15The floods gradually drain back into the established waterways that run through the forest like blood vessels.
25:33There is so much water flowing through the forest that even little rivulets can carve out the soil around an ancient boulder.
25:56This is the home of one forest creature that has lived here in the Congo for 44 million years.
26:08Picathartes.
26:17These birds mate for life, and the male reaffirms the bond by displaying to the female.
26:26They're building a mud nest on the underside of the boulder's overhang, where it'll be protected from the rain.
26:35The female takes the lead.
27:04The male doesn't seem quite so skillful.
27:16Oh, dear.
27:19Luckily, she can put things right.
27:27Now she's collecting the soft furnishings.
27:32He's brought some, too, but he still can't get it right.
27:44In the end, the female seems satisfied with the finish, and just in time.
28:06It might look as if he has been banished into the rain, but in fact, they're a great team.
28:14They share the incubation, 12 hours on, 12 hours off, for the next three weeks.
28:26In due course, there are mouths to feed, and now the male must prove his worth.
28:47Worms are a good start, and he's doing well.
28:53But the chicks are insatiable.
29:03Fortunately, other things are on the menu.
29:21He might be a poor nest builder, but he's redeeming himself now.
29:31Domestic bliss.
29:36Rocky overhangs are the only place where Picathartes will build their nest,
29:41so they owe their home to the stream that revealed the flank of the giant boulder.
29:52This stream, and countless others like it, merge to form the great rivers of Central Africa.
30:11More than 450 billion litres of rainwater, travelling down thousands of rivers, are heading west.
30:24The waters pick up speed as the rivers spill over the edge of the central plateau, and create giant cascades of whitewater.
30:54The Kongu forces its way through the wildest, most untouched forest in the whole of Africa.
31:24The Kongu river system drains an area the size of India,
31:53carrying the waters westwards towards the Atlantic.
31:58But before it reaches the coast, the rivers broaden, forcing back the forest.
32:07And here, for the first time, there is space.
32:13Wide, flat, and safe.
32:18These stretches of sand attract visitors from the coast.
32:24Skimmers, searching for somewhere safe to settle.
32:39The lower mandible of their beaks is greatly elongated.
32:45They slice it through the surface of the water at ten metres a second.
32:53If and when it hits a tiny fish, it will snap shut.
33:04But why come upriver to these open sand flats?
33:14This is the answer.
33:26But this nursery will not exist for long.
33:30Four weeks from now, it'll be under ten metres of water.
33:35If by then these chicks can't fly, they will drown.
33:43The problem for young skimmers is that when they hatch, the lower part of their beaks is the same size as the upper.
33:53While they wait for it to grow, they do their best to learn the skimming technique.
34:23Music
34:28Music
34:33Music
34:38Music
34:43Music
34:48Music
34:53Music
34:58Music
35:07Open spaces may be safe, but they give no protection against the driving rain.
35:28These storms are a warning that the skimmers must soon leave.
35:34The river is already rising.
35:49This year, the chicks get away in time.
36:14It's not just water that has the power to clear a way through the forest.
36:21There are animals that can do that too.
36:27They have created a network of pathways that crisscross the lowland forest and run for thousands of miles in all directions.
36:58These pathmakers are surprisingly stealthy.
37:03But as night falls, there's a chance of catching a glimpse of them.
37:08Music
37:27Forest elephants are very social creatures, but in dense jungle, it's hard for them to find one another.
37:35Music
37:41These elephants are lucky.
37:46Here in the Congo, there is one special place where they can meet and mingle.
37:54A place that the elephants have created for themselves.
38:02And this is it.
38:19Tsangka Bay, the legendary village of elephants.
38:25Music
38:41As well as being a place where they can enjoy one another's company, this great clearing satisfies another craving.
38:50A thirst for salts.
39:02The salts lie deep under the mud, so the elephants have got to mine for them.
39:07Which they do with high-pressure water jets from their trunks.
39:31Precious salts and the chance to socialize bring in elephants from far and wide.
39:40If an elephant is in the mood to mate, this is the place to be.
39:48This young bull is in a state of musth, a kind of sexual fury.
40:11He is so pumped up by hormones and the excitements of the crowd that he seems to have taken leave of his senses.
40:39But will throwing his weight about impress the females?
40:48The cows only become fertile once every two years, so opportunities to encounter one at the right time are not common.
40:57This could well be the first chance this young male has had.
41:04He's lucky, and there are no older bulls around to put him in his place.
41:20Just for a moment, he is king of the bye.
41:51But his rule doesn't last for long.
41:58Enter another lusty bull.
42:03And a much bigger one.
42:14But the young bull is still charged up with testosterone.
42:19Bold or foolish, he's going into battle.
43:19He never really had a chance.
43:37Zhangabai is a huge clearing, but it's still just the speck in this vast expanse of green.
43:47Elephants might fell trees and carve pathways, but nothing natural can hold back this forest forever.
43:57Nothing but the Atlantic Ocean.
44:20Tango Beach on Africa's west coast.
44:23One of the last truly wild places where the Congo jungle meets the sea.
44:40Here, the forest gives way to sand, surf, and fresh sea air.
44:50The cool breezes and warm sunlight entice creatures out of the dark forest.
44:59Here, the forest buffalo appear first.
45:21They're not in the surf.
45:23They're a hippo.
45:34A stray blows in from the sea, making the grass salty.
45:53So here, elephants can get their tasty salt without having to dig for it.
46:01This mother with her tiny baby can feel the sun on her back.
46:06Here, it's safe for her little one.
46:10They're free to eat in peace.
46:15Gorillas have all the room they need, so there is less risk of a fight.
46:34From gorillas to forest hogs, ventures out to relax on the beach.
47:03But the forest creatures can't stay out here forever.
47:24Despite everything, the intense competition, the threats, the darkness,
47:30they need their forest just as their forest needs them.
47:56The Congo rainforest, a four-day journey to the heart of Africa.
48:12Once the plane leaves, you're on your own.
48:17This expedition planned to film two of the Congo's best-kept secrets,
48:21but to even find them, the crew would have to work very hard indeed.
48:27You might as well be on a different planet coming to a place like this,
48:30planet Congo.
48:35Mysterious.
48:38Difficult.
48:40Complex.
48:43Challenging.
48:47You know, everything's trying to bite you.
48:50Suck your blood.
48:54It's like being tickled by a million feathers at the same time.
49:07The insects might be torture, but that's the least of their worries.
49:14The only way to get deep into the jungle is to follow these trails.
49:19Trails made by dangerous forest elephants.
49:24Well, the first thing you need to know about forest elephants is you don't want to meet one.
49:30Because running away can elicit a charge, and it could be exactly the wrong thing to do.
49:37The team are completely dependent on their Bayaka guides for safety.
49:51But it's these same forest elephants that James has come to film.
49:55And just to make the challenge harder, he's here to film them in the dark.
50:02Nobody knows exactly what they get up to at night.
50:05They haven't been filmed like this before.
50:11I can rig this place if the Bayaka weren't here watching my back, really.
50:17James needs to operate the remote cameras from somewhere out of the elephant's reach.
50:28A tree platform seems like the best option.
50:36Apparently there are very big elephants around here.
50:39They want us to put it a bit higher, so I think I'll do what they say.
50:44But no one wants to stay out at night and help James with the filming.
50:51So James will be alone until morning.
51:02If anything goes wrong, he's on his own.
51:04If they really wanted to, they could push these trees over.
51:07Can't imagine that's going to be an issue.
51:12As James settled down for the night, he's got no idea of the trouble that's coming his way.
51:27What's going on?
51:28Twenty miles away, Mark McEwan is also up in the middle of the night.
51:32The animal he's after is proving impossible to find.
51:39So we get up in the darkness and we walk through the jungle at night,
51:44hoping to hear the sound of cracking branches or leaves moving up in the trees.
51:50That means chimpanzees are stirring in the treetops,
51:53and Mark is here to film chimps hunting for honey.
51:58There's one chimp in particular he needs to find, a teenager with a very sweet tooth,
52:03known to go further in the pursuit of a bee's nest than any other.
52:12I've spent six days walking probably the equivalent of half marathon every day
52:19in 100% humidity and about 95 degrees in the shade.
52:25And we just can't find our chimpanzee.
52:31Time is ticking away and Mark is running out of filming days.
52:41At the moment, I just need some good luck.
52:43We've come an awfully long way to get this sequence.
52:46We've got probably 10, 12 days left, but it's hard work at the moment.
52:53All Mark can do is persevere and hope for a break.
53:02But not all the forest creatures are so shy.
53:06Perched high in his tree, James Aldred is waiting patiently for the elephants to come in.
53:13At last, the elephants are here, but they're behaving strangely.
53:27No, something's not quite right.
53:31The elephants seem agitated.
53:43They just want to get rid of him.
53:47One begins to thump the tree with its head.
53:52James has no option but to weather the attack.
53:59Let's lean forward and keep head-butting, keep head-butting, keep head-butting.
54:07Suddenly the camera's cut out.
54:10And James is left in complete darkness.
54:17After three weeks searching, Mark has lost nearly two stone in weight, but he hasn't given up.
54:25He can't afford to put down his camera for a second.
54:30Suddenly the guide spots the honey hunter.
54:33This is it.
54:40She's coming.
54:52Where is she?
54:53She's inside the tree.
55:00She asked for some honey. She's risking her life. It's amazing.
55:10She's here somewhere.
55:24I just couldn't stop smiling several days after filming that. The relief is just unbelievable.
55:39Back at the camera platform, James has had a long night.
55:45For over four hours the elephant tried to shake him out of the tree.
55:53I got down this morning when the biaker came to collect me.
55:56I went to look at the camera and he'd pulled it out of the tree.
55:59And he'd chewed through the power cable.
56:02He must have gotten a bit of a shock. I mean, only 12 volts.
56:05But it served him right, quite honestly.
56:09But at least we got a shot of him before he trashed the camera.
56:15Silver lining.
56:18Despite this bumpy start, the elephant soon got used to James.
56:22And James got used to the elephants.
56:27Filming here was never going to be easy.
56:29But we were soon able to reveal the nightlife of forest elephants like never before.
57:09For more information visit www.fema.gov