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00:0020 years ago, my good friend, Douglas Adams, spent a year tracking down endangered animals
00:10together with the zoologist, Mark Calvordine.
00:13Now it's my turn.
00:16Mark and I are heading off to find out exactly what happened to those species that he had
00:20seen dangling on the edge of extinction two decades ago.
00:24Mark promises to be exhausting, exhilarating, believable, and exasperating, but I wouldn't
00:32miss it for the world.
00:43Mark Calvordine, how are you?
00:44How very good to see you.
00:45How are you?
00:46Thanks for waiting.
00:47I paid that extra to go business so that my luggage will be out last.
00:50Fantastic.
00:51It's a little privilege you get.
00:52So you've come dressed for the jungle?
00:54No, not exactly, no.
00:55Welcome to my house at last.
00:57It's great to be here.
00:58My travelling companion is to be Mark Calvordine, an internationally renowned zoologist and
01:02photographer.
01:06In the pursuit of the weird and the wild, he's travelled to almost every country in
01:10the world, encountering pretty much every conceivable creature and several of the inconceivable
01:17ones.
01:19We're starting our adventures in the Amazon, the biggest river system in the world.
01:25We've arranged to set out from Manaus on the banks of the Rio Negro, where Mark has a fast
01:30boat waiting to take us upriver.
01:32That's not the Amazon.
01:33No, that's the Rio Negro.
01:35Goodness me.
01:36There we go.
01:38Two things I think are the most important bit of kit.
01:40Binoculars.
01:41Oh, thank you.
01:42Sorry, they're not wrapped.
01:43I should have wrapped them in banana leaves or something.
01:44No, no, that's wonderful.
01:45That's wonderful.
01:46And a hat.
01:47Oh, they're good.
01:54We're hunting for the lugubrious Amazonian manatee, a large seal-like mammal that once
02:00swam these waters in vast herds.
02:04What do you reckon our chances are of seeing a manatee?
02:06Pretty slim, to be honest.
02:07They're here.
02:08We're going to go to the right areas where they occur, but the fact that it's murky water
02:12and the fact that when they rise to the surface to breathe, they have two little nostrils
02:17right at the top of the snout, and all that breaks the surface is just enough for the
02:21nostrils to blow out, take a breath, and they disappear down below the surface again, so
02:26not only are they rare, you could be on top of one and you still might not see it.
02:30They were sort of confused with mermaids in the early days, weren't they?
02:33Yeah, although you have to be quite drunk as a sailor to...
02:36I think the reason they were called mermaids is because the females have mammary glands
02:41in the same position as female humans, and I think that's how the term originally came
02:46about.
02:47In fact, the name manatee is taken from the word in Carib, one of the old Brazilian tribal
02:53languages, meaning breast.
03:00Though not noticeably breasted, to the casual observer, the manatee is a large, fully aquatic
03:05mammal, sometimes known as a sea cow.
03:09Manatees are spectacular only in their single-minded devotion to doing everything as slowly as
03:14possible.
03:15Unfortunately, when escaping from hunters, they've also been inclined to do it rather
03:20slowly, and the species is now classified as vulnerable to extinction.
03:28To begin the hunt, Mark has brought us to a lodge aimed at fulfilling the every need
03:33of the 21st century jungle tourist.
03:35You've taken me to the middle of the jungle, and we're sitting on golf carts.
03:38I know, I'm really sorry about this.
03:39So they've got electricity for charging them, they've got, I noticed, a phone signal.
03:44It's like an out-of-body experience.
03:46Oh, dear.
03:47Unusual.
03:49Whilst I admit to being a fan of the 21st century's little luxuries, I must admit that
03:54this isn't entirely what I'd expected of the Amazon.
03:57Shortest person I've ever met.
04:01See them of course.
04:04Hello.
04:11Thank you very much.
04:12How kind.
04:23The lodge is comprised of seven towers, linked by a five-mile network of walkways.
04:44Mark first came here exactly 20 years ago, together with author Douglas Adams.
04:51I became friends with Douglas in the early 80s, and we decided we wanted to do something
04:56for wildlife and travel together as well.
04:58And we came up with this idea of Last Chance to See.
05:01We got a world map, and Douglas stuck pins in where he'd like to go, and I stuck pins
05:06in where the endangered animals are, and we came to a compromise.
05:09And, strangely enough, the first place we came to was here.
05:12We started off in the towers here, and went off into the jungle looking for the Amazonian
05:17manatee.
05:19By 1988, Douglas Adams was the celebrated author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
05:25and a personal friend.
05:27While he trotted the globe with Mark, I lived in his house, fielding requests for Denzies
05:32and guidebooks to be sent.
05:35I lived in his house, fielding requests for Denzies and guidebooks to be sent to exotic
05:40locations, and I came to know jealousy on an interstellar scale.
05:46Douglas, as we know, died very sadly almost, what, five and a half years ago now?
05:51Mm-hmm.
05:52And I never spoke to him about this, but did he express a desire to go back and look 20
05:58years on?
05:59Yeah, he actually became really passionate about conservation.
06:02He did a lot of good work for conservation, after Last Chance to See, and we were both
06:07very keen to go back and see what had happened in the years in between, and actually, very
06:11sadly, I was talking to him about that very thing the night before he died, and we were
06:15planning the next trip, and planning to go back around the world and review all those
06:20projects, so very sadly, he missed out on that.
06:24After Douglas died, Mark asked me if I would be interested in accompanying him on the journeys
06:29they had been planning.
06:30Though Mark and I have never travelled so far as to the corner shop together, for better
06:34or for worse, our fate is sealed.
06:41Well, I have to confess I'm quite nervous about this whole enterprise.
06:45I like my creature comforts rather more than I like my creatures.
06:48I must say, standing next to him, he's so tall as well, he's so brown, and so bright
06:54and knowledgeable, it makes me feel really short and white and stupid, to be honest.
07:00I'm quite nervous of Mark.
07:01I don't know him that well.
07:02I've met him before, but, of course, he's such an all-round expert on all living things,
07:08and I shall feel very foolish if I say what's that, and he will give me one of those long
07:12burning looks, as if he cannot believe there is a sentient being on the planet who is unaware
07:16of what a capybara is, or whatever it might be.
07:21Mark has been telling me of a local legend in which the Amazonian manatee is guarded
07:26by a most peculiar bright pink dolphin, known locally as the boto.
07:31It is said that if you want to find manatees, then you must first make your peace with the dolphin.
07:40Unlike the manatee it shares its waters with, the boto is a fast-moving predator living
07:46on fish and small crustaceans.
07:49The boto is typically eight feet long, becoming pinker as it becomes more excited.
07:54It should be noted that the boto is only found in the Amazon basin and is recognised as an
07:59endangered species in its own right.
08:02It should also be noted that dolphins are Mark's most favourite thing in the whole wide world.
08:09We're going to see a lot of animals on our adventures, but I can tell you are particularly
08:13excited about today. Why's that?
08:15You know how some people need a cigarette or a drink every so often to survive normal
08:19daily life? Well, I have to see a whale or a dolphin at least once every couple of weeks
08:23to survive. I lay awake last night thinking about today and I thought,
08:27I've got to see a whale or a dolphin.
08:29I've got to see a whale or a dolphin.
08:31I've got to see a whale or a dolphin.
08:33I've got to see a whale or a dolphin.
08:35I've got to see a whale or a dolphin.
08:37I lay awake last night thinking about today.
08:39I know it's sad, but I love it.
08:41It's fantastic.
08:43I had heard that there was a legend that at night the pink river dolphin
08:47turned into a gentleman with a black top hat.
08:51It was very specific and there was sort of an Edwardian waistcoat
08:55and ravished the local women.
08:58And it was explained to me that this was probably missionaries
09:02justifying the arrival of rather surprising pink babies
09:06in Indian tribes.
09:08One of the things I really want to try and do today
09:10is get some underwater shots of them
09:12because they're so hard to approach normally
09:14and the visibility is so bad.
09:16There are very, very few pictures from underwater.
09:18My dream is by the end of the day at least have one great underwater shot of it.
09:23In an attempt to increase visitors' chances of glimpsing the rare dolphin,
09:27staff of the lodge have been feeding the Boto
09:29from a floating platform in the river.
09:36Hey, did you have a pee before we left, by the way?
09:38No, I didn't. I could have it if we get in the water, surely.
09:41It's big enough to accommodate my urine.
09:43I meant to say, you mustn't pee in the river.
09:45That's the key thing.
09:47Because there's a fish here called a candiru fish.
09:49Have you heard of that?
09:51Oh, no, that's an urban myth, isn't it?
09:53No, no, it's true. It's about this long.
09:55And if you pee in the water, which I seriously mustn't do,
09:57it swims up your urine and into your willy.
09:59Basically, it's designed to go into the gills of a fish.
10:02So it gets into the gills and the spines come out.
10:06And it lodges itself in there, eats the blood or drinks the blood.
10:09And then when it's full, it lets go and drops to the bottom and digests it.
10:12But if you get one up there, it's apparently unbelievably painful.
10:16And you have two choices.
10:18You chop your willy off or you have to get to a hospital.
10:21And given we're near a hospital here, there's only that first choice.
10:24What I've got, I've got a couple of pieces of string, actually.
10:27So you just tie a knot in it.
10:29So I've done mine.
10:31Which size do you need?
10:33Oi!
10:35I...
10:37Sorry.
10:39But the fish does exist?
10:41No, the string's a joke, but the fish is real.
10:43Right. Well, I will be extra careful with my family package.
10:47Gracious.
10:49Having been distracted by Mark's hilarious joke,
10:52we fail to notice that while we haven't found the dolphins,
10:55the dolphins have found us.
11:01Oh, look at that. Fantastic.
11:04They came right out of the water.
11:06Yay!
11:08Oh, they're fantastic.
11:10Aren't they beautiful?
11:12They are so lovely.
11:14But you notice when they're swimming around,
11:16they're moving in tight.
11:18They can do sort of handbrake turns.
11:20Most dolphins, all the neck vertebrae are fused.
11:22And it's designed for swimming fast,
11:24so when they turn, they don't break their necks.
11:26Yeah.
11:28But with these dolphins, they're designed for swimming in the flooded forest
11:30and weaving in between all the trees and the roots and everything.
11:32They can turn like on a sixpence
11:34and they can bend their necks
11:36and they're very different to marine dolphins.
11:38Really interesting, yeah.
11:40Yeah!
11:42Astonishing.
11:44Very beautiful and unmistakably dolphinous.
11:46Oh, yeah, really.
11:48That obviously isn't a word, but you know what I mean.
11:50As a creature more at home on the land than in the water,
11:54I'm more than a little uncertain about joining Mark in the river
11:57to get his shot.
11:59I would be a lot more uncertain
12:01than what Mark told me later.
12:03Not only is this water home to the candiru fish,
12:05it's also popular with piranha fish
12:07and frequented by passing bull sharks,
12:09the most deadly shark in the world.
12:12The sediment in the water
12:14means that one simply has no idea
12:16what, if anything, is down there.
12:18And suddenly, out of the murky darkness,
12:20the unmistakable shape of a dolphin
12:22appears just in front of Mark's eyes.
12:24It's a beautiful sight.
12:26It's a beautiful sight.
12:28It's a beautiful sight.
12:30It's a beautiful sight.
12:32It's a beautiful sight.
12:34It's a beautiful sight.
12:36It's a beautiful sight.
12:38It's a beautiful sight.
12:40The shape of a dolphin appears just inches away.
12:56Oh, they're very soft.
12:58They feel like an old vinyl lilo,
13:00one of those little paddling pools
13:02or something similar.
13:04They used to blow up.
13:06They've got that sort of vinyl feel.
13:10They've got that sort of vinyl feel.
13:40Sorry.
13:50The lodge has provided
13:52everything we had hoped for
13:54with one noticeable exception,
13:56a manatee.
14:02Amazing.
14:04We decide to leave the tourist trail
14:06and fly in search of a man
14:08who spends his life tracking manatees.
14:10If only the rain would ever stop.
14:12My God, I'm glad we didn't take off in this.
14:14My God, I'm glad we didn't take off in this.
14:16My God, I'm glad we didn't take off in this.
14:18Whether or not we get to take off
14:20depends on the only man with the skill
14:22and the plane to get us there,
14:24Captain Wilson,
14:26a Christian missionary pilot.
14:28But even with God on his side,
14:30he's taking no chances with the elements.
14:32So if you get caught in this when you're flying,
14:34do you just have to land somewhere and wait?
14:37On a river.
14:39Isn't that dangerous?
14:41You know, with experience,
14:43you can't be sloppy.
14:45You still need to respect.
14:47We always respect water, fire and wind.
14:49Always.
14:51I don't think Stephen quite realises
14:53what we're in for now
14:55because we're going to do some serious searching
14:57for the manatees and to do that
14:59we have to go much deeper into the jungle
15:01and we've got a boat which I hope is going to be waiting for us.
15:03I'm not sure if it's going to be there.
15:05I'm not quite sure exactly where it's going to be
15:07but we're going to search for it from the plane.
15:11Right, Stephen, we're off.
15:13Are we really?
15:15The rain's pretty much gone.
15:17Let me grab your...
15:19Thank you so much.
15:21Thank you so much for the three flights
15:23we had done already this morning.
15:25Help us going back and forth
15:27with the weather and everything.
15:29Give us a safety flight in Jesus' name.
15:31Amen.
15:33I just heard in Jesus' name at the end.
15:35May the Lord help us.
15:49It's perhaps only in flight
15:51that you begin to get a sense of the scale
15:53of the Amazon rainforest.
15:55It's a place of extremes.
15:57The Amazon basin contains the biggest rainforest
15:59in the world
16:02and it's a network of rivers
16:04containing a fifth of all the river water
16:06on the planet.
16:08This forest contains a tenth
16:10of all the species known to science
16:12and we're on the lookout for just one of them.
16:16Are you excited?
16:18I am actually extremely excited.
16:20Is that your excited face?
16:22It is.
16:24What do you expect me to look like?
16:26It is.
16:28No, it's thrilling, it is.
16:30I'm astonished that I'm doing this.
16:32I've never come anywhere close to it.
16:36But before attempting to spot manatees,
16:38first we have to spot the boat
16:40that should be waiting for us.
16:42It should be around here somewhere.
16:44Yeah, there's the boat.
16:46Oh, he's spotted it.
16:48That's a relief.
16:50There it is.
16:52Pumas and jaguars
16:54don't swim on the boats, do they?
16:56Very rarely.
17:00Don't tell me
17:02there's no roll reception, please.
17:04There is no signal.
17:06Of course there isn't.
17:10We have flown two hours south of Manaus
17:12deep into the rainforest
17:14to find a boat called the Kasekiari.
17:16Don't forget to come and get us, will you?
17:18No, exactly.
17:20Goodbye, Captain. Thank you so much.
17:24That was a very memorable and enjoyable flight.
17:26Off to you.
17:28Hey, bon dia.
17:32With luck, the Kasekiari
17:34should be able to take us to the
17:36manatee-hunting scientists that we've come to find.
17:40As our last link with
17:42civilisation departs,
17:44before any hunting can take place,
17:46we must make ourselves at home.
17:48Power.
17:50No, that was working perfectly before.
17:52I only touched a swiss.
17:54It was working perfectly.
17:57All right,
17:59let's get this in here.
18:01No power.
18:03Right, we're going back.
18:05That's it. That is it.
18:07Oh, well, never mind.
18:09There's no never mind about it.
18:11Where are the other plugs?
18:13I cannot go for four days without power.
18:15Oh, I despair.
18:17You may well
18:19despair, but not as much as I do.
18:23While I attempt to resolve the complex
18:25technicalities essential to the expedition,
18:27oh, well,
18:29Mark is distracted when one of the crew
18:31spots something in a nearby tree.
18:35Well, they're saying it's a cobra,
18:37which is very unlikely here.
18:39And they're saying it's venomous, so
18:41I can't quite
18:43see it yet.
18:45Oh, wow, it's here. It's right here.
18:47It's an emerald tree boa,
18:49which is one of the most
18:51spectacular snakes in the Amazon.
18:54It's probably about a metre above
18:56where we're going to be, hopefully.
18:58Can we go under?
19:00I think he's a bit worried about going underneath.
19:06Look at that.
19:08The challenge is going to be to keep the boat steady
19:10to get a photograph.
19:12Let's see if I can stand it.
19:22That's it.
19:24We can hold it there.
19:26I'll try and take the picture one-handed.
19:28God, it's horrible.
19:34It's not Mark. It's the extremely valuable camera
19:36I'm worried about.
19:38This is perfect.
19:42So this is a boa,
19:44so it's not venomous at all.
19:46It's a constricting snake
19:48and it feeds mainly on bats and small birds.
19:50And this is how
19:52you would typically find it.
19:54I've never seen one in the wild before.
19:56I've seen them in captivity.
19:58So it's a really special moment.
20:00And it is one of the most attractive snakes.
20:02God, this is impossible.
20:06Snake wonders what the hell
20:08we're trying to do.
20:10God.
20:17Poor thing.
20:19He's looking completely baffled.
20:25OK, this is the one.
20:27This is perfect.
20:29Yes!
20:32Yes!
20:39Mark Karwardine is not just a photographer.
20:41He's also an environmentalist.
20:47As the heavens open
20:49and manatee hunting is quietly shelved for the day,
20:51I discover another side of Mark
20:53when he reveals
20:55that the risk of falling into the Amazon
20:57is not the greatest danger
20:59he faces in the line of duty.
21:02A lot of it is quite dangerous.
21:04The trouble is that a lot of endangered animals
21:06are being threatened
21:08by people who
21:10are prepared to do anything to get at them.
21:12You know, there's a lot of money
21:14in wildlife trade in skins and horns
21:16and ivory and so on.
21:18The poachers who are killing the animals
21:20are armed.
21:22A lot of them carry around AK-47s,
21:24submachine guns, Kalashnikovs,
21:26which they are prepared to fire.
21:28And so, you know,
21:30when you go out on patrol with these people,
21:32you have to expect that you could get into serious trouble.
21:34And I was also working
21:36in Cambodia just recently.
21:38And the week before I got there,
21:40five of the people who I was going to be working with
21:42were killed by poachers
21:44in their sleep.
21:46They were in hammocks in the rainforest
21:48fast asleep in the middle of the night
21:50and poachers turned up
21:52and killed them all with machetes.
21:54And this kind of thing is not unusual.
21:56It's all part and parcel of conservation these days.
22:00Right, come on.
22:02A little bit further back.
22:04A little bit more like that.
22:06How's that?
22:08Well, it's a bright light,
22:10but it'll have to do.
22:12Well, here we are
22:14in the middle of a rainstorm
22:16in the tropical rainforest.
22:18It's a bit cold,
22:20but it'll have to do.
22:22It's a bit cold,
22:24but it'll have to do.
22:26It's a bit cold,
22:28but it'll have to do.
22:30It's a bit cold,
22:32but it'll have to do.
22:34It's a bit cold,
22:36but it'll have to do.
22:38It's a bit cold,
22:40but it'll have to do.
22:42It's a bit cold,
22:44but it'll have to do.
22:46It's a bit cold,
22:48but it'll have to do.
22:50It's a bit cold,
22:52but it'll have to do.
22:54It's a bit cold,
22:57but it'll have to do.
22:59It's a bit cold,
23:01but it'll have to do.
23:03It's a bit cold,
23:05but it'll have to do.
23:07It's a bit cold,
23:09but it'll have to do.
23:11It's a bit cold,
23:13but it'll have to do.
23:15It's a bit cold,
23:17but it'll have to do.
23:19It's a bit cold,
23:21but it'll have to do.
23:23It's a bit cold,
23:25but it'll have to do.
23:27It's a bit cold,
23:29but it'll have to do.
23:31It's a bit cold,
23:33but it'll have to do.
23:35It's a bit cold,
23:37but it'll have to do.
23:39It's a bit cold,
23:41but it'll have to do.
23:43It's a bit cold,
23:45but it'll have to do.
23:47It's a bit cold,
23:49but it'll have to do.
23:51It's a bit cold,
23:53but it'll have to do.
23:55It's a bit cold,
23:57but it'll have to do.
23:59It's a bit cold,
24:01but it'll have to do.
24:03It's a bit cold,
24:05but it'll have to do.
24:07It's a bit cold,
24:09but it'll have to do.
24:11It's a bit cold,
24:13but it'll have to do.
24:15It's a bit cold,
24:17but it'll have to do.
24:19It's a bit cold,
24:22but it'll have to do.
24:24It's a bit cold,
24:26but it'll have to do.
24:28It's a bit cold,
24:30but it'll have to do.
24:32It's a bit cold,
24:34but it'll have to do.
24:36It's a bit cold,
24:38but it'll have to do.
24:40It's a bit cold,
24:42but it'll have to do.
24:44It's a bit cold,
24:46but it'll have to do.
24:48It's a bit cold,
24:50but it'll have to do.
24:52It's a bit cold,
24:54but it'll have to do.
24:56It's a bit cold,
24:58but it'll have to do.
25:00It's a bit cold,
25:02but it'll have to do.
25:04It's a bit cold,
25:06but it'll have to do.
25:08It's a bit cold,
25:10but it'll have to do.
25:12It's a bit cold,
25:14but it'll have to do.
25:16It's a bit cold,
25:19but it'll have to do.
25:21It's a bit cold,
25:23but it'll have to do.
25:25But it'll have to do.
25:29Look!
25:31He saw a Piscibó.
25:33He saw a Piscibó.
25:35He saw a Piscibó.
25:37He saw a Piscibó.
25:39He saw a Piscibó.
25:41When was that?
25:43When was that?
25:45About late last year.
25:47Yeah.
25:48And where was that?
25:54Close?
25:55Here, very, very close.
25:56Oh, wow.
25:59He's telling me now that he just saw them feeding in these lakes,
26:05behind the igapofas, the floodlands.
26:07Just over here?
26:08It's really close, so we could go there.
26:10And he says you can see them feeding on the floating vegetation.
26:14Would you be willing to take us?
26:17Would you be willing to take us there?
26:19Let's go there.
26:21God, that would be fantastic.
26:22Great.
26:23Fantastic.
26:24Wonderful.
26:48The place where Francisco suggests we hunt is a few miles up the river.
26:53While we travel,
26:54Marc discovers that Ivano's taste for endangered species
26:58developed at an early age.
27:00When I was a child, we ate manatee a lot.
27:04You love to eat manatees?
27:05Yeah, I love to eat.
27:06I thought you loved to watch manatees.
27:08Because the meat of a manatee is not like a fish's.
27:14It's different.
27:15It's not like a fish's.
27:16It's different.
27:17The taste is like a cow.
27:19Really, like beef?
27:20Yes, like beef.
27:21And have you had it in the last few years?
27:23No, no.
27:25I think the last time that I ate manatee was like 10, 12 years ago.
27:30Do you miss it?
27:31A lot.
27:32Do you, really?
27:33Yeah.
27:34It was really that tasty?
27:35Yeah, it's very, love this.
27:36So you can't get manatee meat anymore?
27:38No, no, it's illegal.
27:39It's illegal.
27:40You cannot eat, you cannot find.
27:41Nobody wants to sell because it's illegal.
27:43Is there no black market for manatee meat?
27:45No, no.
27:46No, it's not available anywhere?
27:47Maybe sometime you can get, but it's not easy.
27:52The boat's cook, Graça, even recalled manatee recipes from her own childhood.
28:14Sounds like a complicated recipe.
28:18No, it's not complicated.
28:19It's very easy because she said that the first kill the manatee, of course,
28:23and you got the back of manatee because the meat is much better.
28:27They boil it first, the meat, boil it, and put to dry,
28:31and after dry, you fry them,
28:34and you put in a can with the fat of manatee.
28:38That way.
28:42But for us, Graça is sticking to one of her less controversial recipes.
28:47I gather there's a lake just behind the trees here where the manatees hang out.
28:52So Mark has gone with Francisco,
28:55and they've taken the boat through all the foliage.
28:58They're going to try and find a way through for us later on
29:00and see if the manatees are there.
29:02And I think this is probably going to be the most challenging part of the trip for Stephen
29:06because we have to be quiet.
29:10Shh.
29:11The flies are making a noise.
29:14No talking. We have to lower our voices from now on
29:17because the manatees aren't that far away,
29:19and if they hear us, of course, we're never going to find them.
29:22So it's silence until the others come back,
29:25and we just keep our fingers crossed.
29:30Special non-crunchy vegetables.
29:39OK.
29:40Finding the creek to be overgrown,
29:43Mark van Rosmalen and Francisco resort to dragging their boat over land
29:48to get to the hidden lake where Francisco believes the manatee live.
30:10MUSIC
30:40MUSIC
30:43MUSIC
31:08That's right, I think Francis was saying that they got into a little channel
31:11off the river, off the main river,
31:13and there's now a bunch of them in here with a bit of luck, they're still there.
31:16Right.
31:26I know that was a flying fish or something.
31:29I think it was, yeah.
31:31Yeah.
31:35You can really feel this is the right place, can't you?
31:38Yeah.
31:39It's got a sense of being cut off, absolutely.
31:42If you're going to see manatees, this is the place it's going to be.
31:45Right.
31:47So this is a sign that there are common manatees.
31:51They were feeding on these maybe this morning.
31:55And it's floating all over the place,
31:58so we know for sure that there's manatees here.
32:02So there's lots of manatee food here.
32:04Yeah, yeah, it's all over the place.
32:07You see, these lilies are the kind of thing that the manatees like to feed on.
32:12They might lift their mouths and the top of the snout out of the water
32:15to get a good grip onto those.
32:17You know, one of the best things about manatees
32:20is that they're eating plants that have lots of silica in them,
32:23so it wears down their teeth a lot.
32:25And they have this fantastic conveyor belt system
32:28where their teeth are all molars,
32:30and they move forward about a millimetre a month.
32:33And as they come to the front, they drop out,
32:35and then they're replaced by the next lot.
32:37So throughout their whole lives,
32:39it's a sort of anti-manatee device by the plants
32:41to stop them eating them by having lots of silica.
32:44And the manatees have become it by just replacing their teeth.
32:47That's fantastic. That is extraordinary.
32:50Over how many millions of years would that take place?
32:59Locally, the manatee is known as the ghost of the Amazon,
33:03and we're beginning to see why.
33:07In spite of hunting now being illegal,
33:10sightings of the Amazonian manatee
33:12are getting more and more infrequent,
33:15and increasingly, we're wondering if here,
33:18in these far-flung lakes and rivers,
33:21illegal hunting still goes on.
33:28A good tip, apparently, is to wear the hat
33:31and then a hood over it,
33:33because then you can move your head freely.
33:35Are you sure?
33:37Now, yes, you mock.
33:39Now move your head freely.
33:43Free movement of head.
33:45I may have got that wrong.
33:47What a way of saying...
33:49It may have said, do not put your hat...
33:51I like it, it's good.
33:53Oh, yes, maybe that's...
33:55I got it the wrong way round.
34:01That looks really good, actually.
34:04It's quite comfortable, is all I can say.
34:17Well, it was an absolutely beautiful little lake,
34:21but we didn't see any manatees,
34:23but we saw a lot of evidence of manatees,
34:25or at least evidence it's the kind of place they'd live.
34:29Yeah, I really thought we might see one, actually.
34:32It's disappointing.
34:33And quiet as we were, they certainly would have known we were here.
34:36Relatively quiet. Yeah.
34:38I think you have to be absolutely silent.
34:40We did make a fair amount of noise overall.
34:43Well, we can either try again,
34:45or we do know places where there are captive manatees, of course.
34:48We won't leave Brazil without seeing an Amazon manatee.
34:52Yeah, I really, really wanted to see one in the wild, though.
34:55That would have been the thing.
34:57No. No, no, no.
35:05For the next two days, we searched rivers and lakes.
35:09There is a movement, isn't there?
35:11I don't know if it's... I thought it was...
35:14We ploughed tributaries of the tributary.
35:19But if there are manatees in the Arapuana,
35:22then they chose to stay concealed in the murky waters.
35:26Some might think that to be outmanoeuvred
35:28by one of the slowest-moving creatures on Earth is embarrassing,
35:31but not us.
35:33Mark has an old tracker's trick
35:35to increase our chances of finally outfoxing the wily manatee.
35:40He's taking us to a zoo.
35:47Manaus is home to over 1.5 million people
35:51and, I'm assured, a handful of obliging manatees.
35:57INPA is the Brazilian research institute
36:00tasked to study life in the Amazon.
36:03It's one of the few places in the world
36:05that keeps captive Amazonian manatees for scientists to observe.
36:09With a hard luck story and natural charm,
36:12Mark has talked his way into the manatee centre of study.
36:16Oh, look. Look at this. Oh, my.
36:27Oh, look, I love their whiskers and faces.
36:30They look so gentle, don't they?
36:32It's completely harmless.
36:39They are a bit like seals, aren't they?
36:41But they're a bit...
36:43There's a great description I read once where somebody said
36:46they're a bit like seals but they're more like travelling cases
36:49for putting seals in.
36:51I think it says it all. Yes.
36:53They're not related to anything else.
36:55They're really, really unlike anything else.
36:57They're not quite like seals, they're not quite like dolphins or whales.
37:01Oh.
37:02Yeah, you see those flippers? They're very long flippers.
37:05The front ones? Yeah, obviously adapted from the forearm and the hand.
37:09But they use them. You see that one there?
37:11Yes, it's like walking, exactly.
37:13They do use them to walk on the bottom of the river.
37:16I think I'm in love.
37:20They've got that slow grace that big animals have, like elephants,
37:23which are so surprisingly graceful when you see them, aren't they?
37:26Yeah, actually, the Brazilian name is peixe-boi,
37:28which means fish-cow or ox-fish,
37:31and they're basically underwater cows.
37:34There's no better way of describing them.
37:36Just munch away at aquatic grasses all day long
37:39and don't do very much, move around slowly.
37:41Fairly quiet, peaceful sort of life.
37:48Vera da Silva is in charge of Impa's manatees.
37:51She immediately takes us away from the main tanks
37:54to see something neither Mark nor I had expected.
37:57Tucked around the back, Vera has a number of orphaned manatees
38:01with telltale rope marks and machete cuts,
38:04typical of the marks left by hunters.
38:07The people hunting them use the calves as bait?
38:10Yeah, they get the little one, you know,
38:12the mother, they will tie the little one and make them call.
38:16They make a sound and they will call the mother,
38:19she will stay and she comes.
38:21Because they do help one another, don't they?
38:23If there's an injured one,
38:24they might help to bring it up to the surface.
38:26I don't know. In captivity, we notice this.
38:29In the wild, I don't know if there is a record for this.
38:36Human activity has resulted in the manatee
38:39being one of almost 17,000 species
38:42currently on the endangered list.
38:44We're inclined to think of periods of extinction
38:47as naturally occurring prehistoric events,
38:50but the greatest mass extinction the world has ever seen
38:54is happening right now.
38:56Human activity is causing it
38:58and human activity alone can put it right.
39:01You need to hold... Right under there.
39:04These young manatees are now receiving round-the-clock attention
39:08to nurse them back to health so that scientists can study them
39:11before releasing them back into the wild.
39:15Mmm.
39:16See, it's got that prehensile lip with all the hairs on the lip.
39:19Hang on, you're slipping away.
39:21I've got to grip him quite hard, haven't I?
39:24He's got his eye closed, his nose closed.
39:26Look at that. He's enjoying himself so much.
39:28And also the nose here. Yes.
39:30Yeah, got the skin flaps closing the nostrils.
39:32Yeah, so it could be done underwater.
39:34Presumably it will be with the mother, obviously. Yes.
39:37OK.
39:38Though he specialises in underwater photography,
39:41Mark has never yet been able to get a picture of an Amazonian manatee.
39:45This is an opportunity he isn't going to pass up.
39:48Vera, I don't suppose I could ask a huge favour.
39:51Would it be possible to get in the big tank with the adults?
39:56Please. Yes.
39:58I will let you try,
40:00but because the animals are not used to have people swimming with them,
40:05I don't know how they will react.
40:07Has anyone been in with them before?
40:09A long time ago, when our oldest female had her first calf,
40:15and she was very aggressive towards the diver,
40:19and she put him towards the wall,
40:21so she didn't let the person approach the calf.
40:25It will be an experiment for everybody.
40:27OK.
40:29This is the first time I've ever done this,
40:31swimming with Amazonian manatees.
40:33It's a big life tick for me.
40:35Would you mind passing me the camera? No, no, I've got it.
40:38Excellent.
40:40Great. Thank you.
41:02Not only did Mark not seem to be in any danger from the manatees,
41:06but they barely seemed to notice him.
41:23I'm struck by the quiet peacefulness of these big animals,
41:27and the thought that back when great herds moved in these rivers,
41:31they would have been ridiculously easy prey.
41:37MUSIC
41:46I can't help thinking of the many creatures,
41:48like the iconic dodo, whose placid temperaments
41:51made them all too easy to chase into extinction.
41:55In an area as vast as the Amazon,
41:57a law to stop hunting can never be enforced,
42:00so the challenge is to change attitudes
42:03that have been held for generations.
42:07MUSIC
42:20We have heard of one team who are trying to do exactly that.
42:24We've travelled 400 miles west of Manaus to the city of Tefe.
42:29ENGINE ROARS
42:33At first, one is struck by an almost complete absence of cars,
42:37the result of Tefe being a city
42:39still unconnected to the rest of the world by road.
42:42Though founded as a base for missionaries in the 17th century,
42:46these days, Tefe is best known as the town
42:49closest to one of Brazil's biggest reserves.
42:52LAUGHTER
42:58Oh, sorry!
43:01Wow, yeah, yeah.
43:03It's the home of rhythm.
43:05The reason we're here is to meet Dr Miriam Marmantel
43:08and her team from the Mami Roa Institute,
43:11who have a novel approach to ending hunting.
43:14This is Mar. I'm pleased to meet you. Hello.
43:16You've come to the right place, I can see, because you've got manatee earrings.
43:19Hello, amazing. There's your boy on your ears. How wonderful.
43:23Though no-one knows for sure,
43:25it is thought there may now be only a few thousand manatees living in the Amazon.
43:30Miriam is draining a tank in preparation for releasing Pichi,
43:34an orphaned manatee, back into the wild.
43:37Oh, there he is!
43:39While this will have a marginal impact on numbers,
43:42the hope is that by involving traditional hunting communities,
43:45the release will have a significant impact on attitudes to manatees.
43:51So where did he come from?
43:53He apparently got entangled in a fishing net, or so the locals told us.
43:58But when we got him, he had a harpoon wound to his back,
44:03and so they harpooned him at some point,
44:06either to take him out of the net or intentionally.
44:10Has he exhibited fondness for you or any particular humans?
44:14For Michele, who got him, she went up and brought him in a speedboat.
44:23Before the team can transport Pichi,
44:26he has to be moved and measured to see if he's big enough to be released.
44:47Oh, they're so strong.
44:53Oh, he's very good.
44:55He's so trusting, isn't he?
44:57He's so trusting. He obviously loves you.
44:59He does.
45:01He does, you can tell.
45:03It's all right. It's OK.
45:08Lots of water, I suppose, now he needs, yes?
45:11So now you're going to measure?
45:13Yeah, we're going to obtain a lot of measurements.
45:16Pichi is a manatee.
45:18Yeah, we're going to obtain a lot of measurements.
45:21Pichi has been putting on several centimetres every week
45:25after spending six months in a tank.
45:28Miriam confirms that he is, at last,
45:31ready to begin his journey back to freedom.
45:34Will you miss him?
45:39You can have all the science and expertise in the world,
45:42and it only works if you have somebody like Michele,
45:45the manatee trusts, who spends all day every day with him.
45:48I mean, we may give ourselves six kicks up the backside
45:51for what we do that causes the extinction of animals,
45:54but we have to give ourselves the odd pat on the back
45:57for at least being aware of animals in the first place
46:00in a way that no other animals are aware of animals.
46:03As a human race, I think we're terrible.
46:05We do terrible things, but thank God
46:07we have this relatively small number of people
46:10who do devote their lives to it.
46:12They were telling me the other night
46:14that at the World Conferences and things,
46:16people are just giving up almost.
46:18When I do things like this, it just gives me hope again.
46:21I love animals.
46:23I mean, you can't help but be moved by things like this.
46:26I think you've got to get into the field
46:28and you've got to get to see things
46:30just to remember what it's all about,
46:32otherwise it is all just facts and figures on paper.
46:35I think he's just farted.
46:37Oh, no, really?
46:39Yeah, really. Seriously?
46:41I know they fart a lot, don't they?
46:43But I'm right in the cloud of it coming up right now.
46:46Mm, nice. Can you smell it?
46:48I'm getting a whiff now, yes.
46:50Are you? Imagine what it's like here.
46:52Yeah. Well...
46:55At least he's not a meat-eater, it would be worse.
46:58No, that's true. Oh, Jesus, yes.
47:00God! Holy-woly!
47:02You can hardly stay conscious.
47:04That's pretty rich, isn't it?
47:07Well, he's allowed to.
47:09He's only one year old.
47:11Could have waited just a minute. Oh, my God.
47:13Just like that.
47:17Oh, yes, I see what you mean about the...
47:19He had a little bit of an old poo there.
47:22Watch your feet.
47:24God, he's strong.
47:26If he'd got in there, we'd be in trouble.
47:28All right?
47:30The nearest group of manatees is still 100 miles away,
47:33which means to get there,
47:35we plan to spend the next day travelling by boat
47:38deep into the heart of one of the biggest reserves in Brazil.
47:44Well done, well done.
47:46Yes.
47:48OK. Yes.
47:50Hooray!
47:52Fantastic.
47:54But you know what they say about the best-laid plans.
47:57We should have noticed what the omens were telling us.
48:01The following morning, in readiness for the long journey,
48:04we've been asked to get to Pichi's boat
48:06in time to sail at first light.
48:08I don't claim to be the first to fall for an animal like Pichi,
48:12though I dare say few would have done so quite so dramatically.
48:17Oh!
48:19Oh, God.
48:21Oh!
48:29I had put one foot off the side of the pontoon
48:32and fallen heavily on my right arm.
48:35A paramedic from the nearest hospital
48:37had said to me,
48:39''You're going to be all right.
48:41''You're going to be OK.
48:43''You're going to be all right.
48:45A paramedic from the nearest hospital
48:47has shipped out to confirm my worst fears.
48:50It's broken, I think.
48:54Ask him about your spine.
48:56The spine is good.
49:00Can you explain that it's incredibly painful...
49:03It's very, very painful to move or twist my arm.
49:06When it moves, it's intense pain.
49:09I know.
49:11Well done.
49:13The angle's gone weird.
49:15Hold on, just take it easy for a second.
49:17No rush.
49:19Cling on it there.
49:21That's it, just put your weight on me if you need to.
49:27Hang on.
49:29Pass me the brush.
49:31Okay, well done.
49:33Well done.
49:39Thank you so much.
49:44Ow!
49:46Are you all right?
49:48Yeah.
49:50Ah!
49:52Jesus! God!
50:08Two helpless creatures,
50:10side by side on a small boat
50:12in the apparent endlessness of the Amazon.
50:20Hello.
50:21Hello, how are you guys doing? Not so good, huh?
50:24Who's coach, Captain?
50:30Captain Wilson has responded to our SOS
50:33and I'm heading to a Manaus hospital.
50:35Suddenly, for me, the adventure is over
50:38and we are all alone with our thoughts.
50:44Extinction happens and the world keeps turning.
50:49Does it matter if the Amazonian manatee ceases to exist?
50:54Some will argue that each species
50:56has a crucial place in a complex ecosystem.
50:59Perhaps.
51:01But this is what I think.
51:03I think that it's just indecent
51:05if humanity, through our actions or through our neglect,
51:09should cast into oblivion
51:11an intricately perfect piece of evolutionary engineering
51:15millions of years in the making.
51:18I think that somehow we have to do better than that.
51:27What a day.
51:29We've been on the go since four o'clock this morning.
51:31We did manage to get Stephen to Manaus in the end.
51:34It certainly wasn't easy, but we got him here
51:36and we got him checked over by several consultants and doctors
51:40in a couple of clinics here
51:42who unfortunately confirmed our worst fears,
51:45which are that his arm's quite badly broken
51:48in three different places and he needs an operation
51:51to put a couple of metal pins in to hold it all together.
51:55So what we've decided is we're going to fly him to Miami.
52:00Meanwhile, I'm going to try to charter a float plane
52:03really early tomorrow morning
52:05to catch up with Peachy, the manatee,
52:08who's still on that boat,
52:10but by now will be about 500 miles or so west of Manaus.
52:15Well, we thought yesterday was bad.
52:17Today's proving even worse.
52:19Stephen had a sleepless night and we all were up half the night
52:22making phone calls and receiving phone calls
52:25with last-minute arrangements.
52:27Then we lost Stephen's X-ray.
52:29Thank goodness.
52:30And we lost the key to the storeroom with all the kit.
52:33I think everyone's just too tired.
52:35I've got food poisoning.
52:36I'm throwing up every half an hour or so
52:39and feeling really ill.
52:41I'm on the float plane, as you can see.
52:43Managed to speak to the rest of the crew on their satellite phone
52:47and I've got the coordinates to their flight,
52:50to their boat on the lake somewhere,
52:53500 miles away in the Amazon,
52:55written on the back of a laundry list.
52:57And the plan is to try and find them there
53:00and should be landing in the next hour and a half or so,
53:03if all goes to plan.
53:06For once, plans work out.
53:08And with the light beginning to fade
53:10just minutes before Pichy must be released,
53:13Mark's plane touches down.
53:19Hi.
53:22How's Pichy?
53:23He's doing fine, ready to go into the pen.
53:25Oh, fantastic.
53:27Half a world away,
53:29I successfully check into a Miami hotel
53:32to await my fate at the hands of the surgeons.
53:35But with all the distractions of the West at my disposal,
53:38all I can think about is Mark,
53:40the team from Mami Rawah
53:42and a young manatee which has distinguished itself
53:45only by a prodigious talent for farting.
53:53Miriam has sent out a message
53:55inviting the children of five villages
53:57to be the first to come and see Pichy.
54:00Few will ever have encountered a live manatee before.
54:04Nobody knows if they will respond.
54:08As the boat closes in on Pichy's final destination,
54:11the news of his arrival has been spreading.
54:14And by boat and canoe, in twos and threes,
54:17and then in a flood, they come.
54:26The local team has built an enclosure
54:28where Pichy can become acclimatised to the lake
54:31and where local children can come to learn about him
54:34and help look after him
54:36until it's time to release him fully into the wild.
54:45It's OK, he's nearly clear.
54:47It's OK, he's nearly clear.
55:18Fantastic, he's in.
55:29Miriam is hoping that the enthusiasm of children for one manatee
55:33will feed back through families and villages
55:36and that manatees will at last come to be seen
55:39as something to be cherished rather than culled.
55:42If successful, she's hoping to repeat this scene
55:45throughout the Amazon basin.
55:58So when the day finally comes and you feel he's ready,
56:02what do you do, just lift the door and say goodbye
56:05and hope for the best?
56:07We'll adapt a radio tag to him
56:10so we can also follow him and monitor his movements
56:14and be close to him, make sure there's no hunters following him.
56:18The locals will hopefully help us with that.
56:21So he'll be the best looked-after manatee in the world?
56:24Definitely.
56:32Hi, Stephen, it's Mark.
56:34Mark, hello, good to hear your voice.
56:36Hi.
56:37Tell me about Pichy, how did it go?
56:39Yeah, he's certainly in good hands
56:41and a couple of the girls from the institute are staying on in the village with him.
56:45They're going to be looking after him until he gets moved out into the middle of the lake.
56:49And everyone's very positive, everyone thinks he stands a really good chance,
56:53which is fantastic.
56:54Oh, that's so wonderful.
56:56Just sorry you couldn't see him.
56:58Wherever we meet next, it is firmly understood
57:01that Stephen never leads, he only follows
57:04and everybody helps him onto boats because he's a clumsy arse.
57:07That's just got to be understood.
57:09Well, don't do it again.
57:10I will do my very best not to do it again.
57:13OK, good.
57:14Speak to you very soon.
57:15You bet. Lots of love.
57:16All right.
57:17Thanks.
57:18Bye.
57:20I so wish Stephen had been here to see this.
57:22He'd have loved it.
57:23And it makes me feel really positive.
57:25You know, you can get really bogged down and dragged down
57:28by all these population figures and trends
57:31and animals disappearing and declining in numbers
57:34and sometimes think there's no hope at all.
57:36And then just seeing this and seeing all these people
57:38who've given so much for one manatee,
57:41it really does give me hope.
57:44If encountering a manatee can move these children as much as it moved me,
57:49then maybe there is an outside chance
57:52that the greatest period of extinction the world has ever known
57:55will not claim the lugubrious, flatulent
57:59and slightly wonderful Amazonian manatee.
58:07On his visit to Africa,
58:09there was one animal that obsessed Douglas Adams for the rest of his life.
58:13It weighed three tons, had a horn to die for
58:17and had one of the worst tempers in the animal kingdom.
58:20Unbelievable.
58:21Now it's my turn.
58:24I'm a manatee.
58:25I'm a manatee.
58:26I'm a manatee.
58:27I'm a manatee.
58:28I'm a manatee.
58:29I'm a manatee.
58:30I'm a manatee.
58:31I'm a manatee.
58:32I'm a manatee.
58:33I'm a manatee.
58:34I'm a manatee.
58:35I'm a manatee.
58:36I'm a manatee.
58:37I'm a manatee.
58:38I'm a manatee.
58:39I'm a manatee.
58:40I'm a manatee.
58:41I'm a manatee.
58:42I'm a manatee.
58:43I'm a manatee.
58:44I'm a manatee.
58:45I'm a manatee.
58:46I'm a manatee.
58:47I'm a manatee.
58:48I'm a manatee.
58:49I'm a manatee.
58:50I'm a manatee.
58:51I'm a manatee.
58:52I'm a manatee.
58:53I'm a manatee.
58:54I'm a manatee.
58:55I'm a manatee.
58:56I'm a manatee.
58:57I'm a manatee.
58:58I'm a manatee.
58:59I'm a manatee.
59:00I'm a manatee.
59:01I'm a manatee.
59:02I'm a manatee.
59:03I'm a manatee.
59:04I'm a manatee.
59:05I'm a manatee.
59:06I'm a manatee.
59:07I'm a manatee.
59:08I'm a manatee.
59:09I'm a manatee.
59:10I'm a manatee.
59:11I'm a manatee.