Lost Land of the Jaguar (2008) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
If you think the whole world has been exploredthink again.
Travel north from the Amazon, and you'll find another jungle - a true wilderness.
Its interior uncharted, its animals uncatalogued.
Guyana.
Now an international team of expert naturalists are coming to search for the species hidden in this forgotten forest.
We've come somewhere no-one's ever been before, and it's one of the most spectacular places on the planet.
There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of species here that haven't been seen by anybody, and we will find them first.
Guyana's forest - unspoilt, unprotected and under threat.
Our job is to prove that these forests have more value alive than razed to the ground.
Guyana.
It's the size of Great Britain, with the population of Liverpool.
Nearly everyone lives on the narrow strip by the coast.
But travel south and there's rainforest for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
The only way to base camp is by boat.
A ten-hour journey from the nearest dirt road.
I was amazed, you know, when we were flying in, there was a few little houses.
Yeah, nothing.
And that was it.
The good stuff's in there, not here.
George, you've got about six weeks to get in there and find stuff, don't be impatient! Calm down! Faster, let's get there! It's a land full of giants.
Giant otters, the biggest spiders in the world, enormous caiman, eight-metre anaconda, and the biggest cat in South America - the mysterious jaguar.
This forest is untouched.
But in two years they could be logging these trees.
The team's destination - a base camp built by the advance party.
Each team member has a different speciality.
Gordon Buchanan will be searching for the large mammals.
My job on this expedition is to try and find and film as many different animals as I can.
If I could pick only two animals, the first would be giant otters, and the second, the most difficult one, would be the jaguar.
Justine Evans is a canopy specialist.
She documents life at the top of giant trees.
The forests have barely been explored on the ground, let alone in the canopy.
I want to get up there and just see what's going on.
Absolutely stunning.
Steve Backshall will be exploring places other naturalists cannot reach.
In his search for animals, he'll attempt a first ascent up a remote mountain and a daring descent down a giant waterfall.
It feels like I'm completely underneath it, completely surrounded by it.
And the last expedition member, Dr George McGavin from Oxford University.
He's leading the science team from a jungle laboratory right in the heart of camp.
If we're concerned about species loss, which we all should be, we should be concerned about keeping the forests intact.
The expedition's aim - to find what lives here, and to draw the world's attention to this - the largest unspoilt rainforest left on the planet.
SHOUTING The team are still unpacking when there's a shout from the riverbank.
A very rare monkey's been spotted.
There, there.
See it? There, there.
We've got a bearded saki, a monkey on the tree over there.
Can just see a bit of movement in the foliage, but I can't actually see the monkey yet.
It's not easy to see him.
Not at all.
Here we go, I've got one.
They just wag their tail back and forward, it's quite typical behaviour in them.
But it's Oops! Got a bit of movement up there.
The bearded saki is on the international list of endangered species.
It's the best start they could hope for.
And animals are even coming into the camp itself.
Steve Backshall takes a look.
That's beautiful.
One of the common names for it is the Amazon forest dragon.
Yes.
What I love about these is, to begin with they're skittish, but once they sense that you mean them no harm, they'll quite happily sit in your hand and barely move at all.
He is absolutely beautiful.
That's definitely one to add to our tick list.
The expedition's working closely with Guyanese trackers.
They know these jungles hide dangerous creatures.
For the new arrivals, there's a safety briefing.
The jungle is an alien environment for most of us and there's a few things we need to bear in mind.
We have had 9ft caiman down on the landing just outside of camp only a couple of days ago, so be conscious that there are caiman and they are very dangerous.
There are very big piranhas in the water.
Swimming far away from the shore is probably not advised.
Snakes that we need to be concerned about are the viper family - rattlesnakes, pit vipers, the infamous bushmaster, and also the coral snakes.
Scorpions are here.
As a general rule, the ones with the fat tails are the worst.
There's some very large tarantulas but the small things are the worst things.
Don't put your hands into holes cos that's where you'll get stung.
First light next morning, the team split up to start their specialist surveys.
Gordon's on a recce of the river.
This whole part of the world is just riddled with waterways, and this is one of the major ones, but joining on to it, these rivers are smaller rivers, tiny little creeks, so it's on the little country lanes, the little cul-de-sacs, that you find interesting stuff.
First on Gordon's list is to see if he can find the rare giant otters.
They're top predators.
Perfect indicators of a river's health.
As you can imagine, something the size of a giant otter is going to leave one or two signs.
Hey, look at this here, look.
When you've got a bare bank, like this, it's a very good place to find otters.
They're the biggest otters in the world - three times larger than any otter in Europe.
Their favourite meal - piranhas.
Wow, look at this.
This is a very clear sign that there's otters in this area, and very recent.
I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't this morning.
Their toes are not that much smaller than my fingers.
If you think of an otter that has hands almost the same size as mine, actually the otter itself is almost the same size as me.
They're big, big beasts.
Just put a little bit of tension on it, makes it quicker and easier.
While Gordon's on the river, Justine's high in the treetops building an observation post, with the help of Steve and the climbing team.
Tree-climbing in the rainforest is hot, sweaty, there's endless bugs, ants, wasps, bees, all of which hate you invading their world, andyeah, it's tough old work.
It's good that you can see a little bit through the under storey.
If you look that way a bit, that's not bad, actually, that direction.
Steve hauls up her platform.
Justine will spend ten hours every day on a square of aluminium the size of a card table.
That's as far as it will go.
We're on the end of the pulley now.
Sound as a pound, that's not going anywhere.
Yeah, it's a pretty good spot.
It's not got a brilliant view, but it's a good start.
At 17, Gordon swapped his job washing dishes on the Isle of Mull for an apprenticeship filming wildlife in Brazil.
Oh, look here, look.
His years in the Amazon taught him the skills of jungle tracking.
Very easy to follow this.
It's just a detective story, when you're looking for wild animals, but with giant animals, they leave giant traces.
Watch out for snakes.
The fact that there's been a giant otter here, the chances are, they've never been hunted, and I'll be interested to see how they react when they see me.
Justine's survey relies on a vital piece of kit - a high-definition camera.
This lens can magnify up to 80 times, perfect for capturing canopy creatures.
I can zoom in really, really close with this, so I can see a monkey 200 metres away and still be able to get in close enough to actually see whether it's a male or female, anything that will identify it.
And we're here to assess this place, or me, particularly, to see what's up in the canopy, so I've got to be up here all daylight hours.
The expedition's based in a patch of forest that's been leased to the organisation Conservation International.
The surrounding jungle stretches for hundreds of miles.
But now large swathes are soon to be explored by logging companies.
Guyana's at a dangerous crossroads.
It can either exploit what it's got and make a quick buck, or, if we can show what is here, and the rarity and the diversity of this area, and that's why I'm here, is just to prevent the worst-case scenario.
The team believe this could be pristine rainforest - the animals never hunted, the ancient trees still standing.
In the 21st century, that's rare indeed.
In base camp, the scientists are hard at work, recording all their discoveries.
Their report will be presented to the President of Guyana.
Finding any new or endangered species will strengthen the case for conservation.
Hind legs are way back almost It's like a cricket.
.
.
twice the size of the body.
That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life.
It's a fly, hasn't got any wings George McGavin's great passion is for insects.
At first I thought it was a cricket, a tiny cricket, but it's a bat fly.
Insects make ecosystems work.
Without bees, for instance, you'd have no flowering plants, no vegetables, no fruit.
So without the insects, you simply wouldn't have the big animals.
From the tiniest bugs to the largest birds, there's over a million known species living in rainforests.
George believes there could be another 5 million still waiting to be discovered.
Oh, I say! Look at that.
Fallen trees like this are an amazing resource for insects and bugs, and stuff.
They're not always hollow enough to crawl inside.
Oh, that's Yeah, it looks rather nice.
The worry is that there are snakes up here, or scorpions, so I'll take my ultraviolet scorpion torch.
Oh, look at that.
Oh! It is big, it is a biggie! This is going to be epic.
Now, there's a bat.
Look, look, look over there.
See it? There's about three of them.
Is there anything else in there? That's the worry.
Let's go, let's see what's in here.
It's like crawling into a large peaty tube.
It's an extreme habitat, very rarely explored.
And straight away, he's coming up against new creatures.
There are crickets everywhere, and the interesting thing about them is, I haven't seen these ones before, and I'm going to have to try and collect some of these.
Oh, there's a monster there! Look at that! They've got these enormous antennae.
These crickets are adapted to very dark, wet places.
There's a brown cricket as well, and I'm not quite sure if this is the same species.
I'm just going to try and grab this, and you really have to be incredibly quick.
Here goes Ooh! Ah Fallen giants litter these jungles.
Every day, strong winds and weak roots bring another colossus crashing down.
These jungle trees look solid on the outside, but can be eaten hollow by termites on the inside.
30 metres up, fragile trees are not something Justine wants to worry about.
Now, after two days of waiting, she sights something moving.
I finally got a glimpse of a squirrel monkey.
It's so difficult.
They're so quick.
Ah, there's one.
It's gone.
They seem to be mostly adults and some larger young, but there's no babies being carried by mothers.
Big group, though.
Squirrel monkeys.
They're common in South America's forests.
They move through the canopy in large groups.
This one's searching for caterpillars on new leaves.
It's obviously feeding on insects.
That's why they seem to be moving so quickly.
I think they're just snatching at whatever they can find.
Ah, there's a good view.
Are they going up this branch? Must be a main travel route, probably the only travel route through this section.
Jumping off into the other tree.
The fruiting season's gone, and so there are probably very few fruiting trees in the forest at this moment.
RUSTLING What was that? Probably just a tree falling down George is now 25 metres inside this fallen giant.
This is amazing.
Look what we've got here.
This is a whip spider.
These long bits are actually its front legs and because it lives in darkness You can see how it's feeling my finger there.
It uses these very long legs to feel its prey, and its prey are these cave crickets here.
And, very sneakily, sometimes the whip spiders reach behind the cricket and just go tickle, tickle on the back end, and the cricket jumps forward into the jaws of the whip spider.
It's a really clever trick.
The further I go into this, there's bigger and bigger whip spiders.
Oh, there's an absolute monster over here! There are now, on this part of the roof, 13 crickets and five whip spiders, who are just queuing up to eat them.
Little is known about the biology of these weird predators.
Somehow, George has to catch one to take it back to the lab.
One's just crawled across my face! Because it's now getting really, really tight, I have a bit of a problem.
HE WHEEZES It's as hot as a sauna, and crawling with bugs.
George is in his element.
Ah! Just one sec.
I can't I can't get out of this This hole's too tight.
Argh! I feel like a beetle grub emerging from from its long period of metamorphosis! HE LAUGHS Actually, I think I am stuck! All I can say is, I don't think I've had as much fun in a log for a long time! Usually, George only sees these bizarre beasts dead in a museum drawer.
It's a rare chance to examine them alive.
Isn't that wonderful? That is the ultimate animal for hunting for prey in the dark.
It's flattened, it's fast, it's got big, spiky palps at the front end, incredibly long legs for just feeling its prey.
If you designed an organism for catching crickets in the dark, this is it.
And once the poor animal is trapped in those spines at the front, that's it, there is no escape from that.
Dinner tonight - piranha.
How is it? Looks good.
I'm absolutely famished.
I'm hungry, yeah.
Piranha teeth.
Is it piranha teeth? Look at that! They do have the most extraordinary teeth.
I'm a bit, er Put some falsies in! Careful, George, put that through your upper lip and you'll know about it! They're swimming in the river? Uh-huh.
Can someone pass the evil fire sauce down, please? That is far too much of that.
You're gonna die.
He's beginning to regret that now! Yes! Yes! Although the expedition starts in base camp, each team member will also explore even more remote parts of Guyana.
Today, Steve and the climbing team are heading out.
There are some areas that have very different forest to the stuff that we're in right now.
Over in the west of the country, there are these exposed beds of ancient, ancient rock, and one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls.
And that's where the next leg of my journey's taking me.
His destination - Guyana's only National Park, hidden deep in the heart of the forest.
At its centre - Kaieteur Falls.
Five times higher than Niagara.
Each day, 60 million tonnes of water flow over these falls.
40 kilometres from the nearest road, just a handful of tourists fly in to view this wonder of the world from the top.
But no-one has fully explored the unique habitat around the plunge pool.
That's the task for Steve and climbing supervisor, Tim Fogg.
That is a very long way down.
We're going to try a recce, have a look for the best place to descend, and I really want to get a feel of the world behind the waterfall.
At base camp, an eerie sound echoes deep in the forest.
DISTANT CRIES The ghostly call of the howler monkey.
Justine's on her way to her treetop perch.
It's the sound she's been hoping to hear.
I can hear distant howler calls, but it's quite a way.
The thing is that there was a group calling out in this direction but they could just be sitting quietly in the treetops, and we wouldn't know they were there.
CACOPHONY OF CRIES It's the most unearthly sound, the sound of howler monkeys.
It sounds like a huge dragon in the distance.
A healthy population of howler monkeys would be a great sign of an untouched forest.
They're easy to hear, but much harder to find and count.
There's a chance that, in a while, they might start moving around, and hopefully come this way.
Just a waiting a game, we have to see.
Down on the ground, they're surveying species on the forest floor.
Guyanese scientist, Doctor Raquel Thomas, is an expert on rainforest trees.
Some of these were growing before Columbus came to the Americas.
This tree here, I reckon would be about 500 to 600 years.
In the five days since they've arrived, they've catalogued over a hundred different types of animal.
Every little hair has got hairs on it, and on the end of the small hairs, you've got tiny hairs.
Gordon's had no luck in his search for large mammals.
They're particularly hard to track down, especially the elusive big cats.
I spent two years in total in another part of the Amazon, and I saw a wild jaguar for 30 seconds, and that's two years straight, so that's how difficult it is.
Gordon's returned to the creek with the otter tracks.
He's setting a trap, a camera trap.
It looks very complicated, but the concept's very simple.
It's an infrared beam.
When that gets broken, the camera starts running.
It's a huge amount of effort to put this in.
That's why I think we have to leave it for at least a week.
We don't even have to come every day.
We just leave it and come every three days or so, keep an eye on it.
Then it's back to the canoe and on with the search for otters.
At Kaieteur Falls, Steve and the team have set the ropes.
I wouldn't go straight over, I'd step down now onto the ladder.
Tomorrow, he will lead a team to the bottom to search for animals, but today he must first test the gear and take a look at the route down.
.
.
So that rope goes into that.
There's always that horrible fear of stepping off a perfectly good, solid surface, and just back into space, isn't there? You can't go much further because I've got to get this bag to you now.
His helmet-camera will record all he sees.
This would have to be one of the most dramatic places in the world.
Totally unspoilt.
There's nobody here but us.
But it's very hard to enjoy it when your heart is thumping.
It's just this boiling steam below us.
Just push out.
Oh, wow.
Oh, my ropes are rubbing over this rock, and it's sharp.
The cliff has a severe overhang.
It's only when Steve's on the ropes that he can get a close look at the rock face.
Tim, I've dropped under the overhang and it's absolutely extraordinary down here.
Directly beneath me, it's dropping straight into the plunge pool at its most turbulent.
It'd be like dropping into the world's worst whirlpool - total suicide.
Over.
OVER RADIO: That's confirmed everything that we suspected, but it was worth going down and getting a better view of it.
Over.
Yeah.
From this angle, I can see a good line where we could come down.
If we were to actually head around to the base, there's a line that looks like it drops down onto reasonable territory.
Steve has dropped as far as he safely can.
Tomorrow, he'll descend to the very bottom to start his survey.
I'm actually swinging right underneath the curtain of water.
George is on his daily quest for new insects.
Oh, wow! This is one of the wonders of the animal world.
This is a trail of army ants, and there are literally tens of thousands of them.
Army ants are swarm raiders.
Their marauding column pushes through the jungle, killing anything too slow to escape.
You'll see spiders and cockroaches jumping out the way.
He's trying to get away but it's no good.
They'll have him.
Their prey are pulled to pieces and carried back to feed their young, living deep in the heart of this tree.
What would be really great is to come back really early, about 4.
30am, 5.
00am, and have a look inside and actually see what's happening in there.
If we hit it at the right time, when they're on the move, wow, that'd be fantastic.
30 metres above, Justine is still patiently scanning the canopy for howler monkeys.
This afternoon, the wind is picking up.
I've come up a really great tree, it's got a fantastic view, but it's more like a stalk sticking about 45 metres straight out from the under storey.
It's also really windy today.
There's a big gust coming in now, and the whole tree is just swaying around.
I'm actually getting motion sickness, coupled with the vertigo I was experiencing earlier! It's quite an experience being up here today.
Gordon's been searching for otters since first light, but it seems everything is against him.
Hang on.
This is getting a bit unpleasant.
It's getting really hot and kind of uncomfortable, I've got ants crawling all over me and I just snared up the prop in some weeds again.
It's like wire, this stuff.
Oh, and I've just broke my knife! Man, that's annoying! To make it all worse, I've got this very painful blistering all over my chest.
This is very uncomfortable.
George is suffering too.
He's covered in bites from his crawl through the log.
There's a definite reaction.
Mm.
I just want to keep an eye on that one, George, whether that one's getting infected.
It's been a long day for the whole team.
Yeah.
But one member of the team is having rather more luck.
While Steve hangs on the rope, a flock of swifts starts heading straight towards him.
Look at that! They nest behind the waterfall.
They're coming in very close to the overhang here to keep away from the spray.
As they come in, they're banking and rolling just like fighter jets.
Right past my ears.
Whoa! Look at all those swifts! Wow! Oh, that is unbelievable! Next morning, well before dawn, Justine is woken by a distant roar.
It's the howler monkeys again, and they're getting nearer.
I don't know what time it is, but it's very early.
HOWLING IN DISTANCE Seems a bit weird putting ski socks on in the tropics, but it's best to do this to keep all the chiggers and nasty biting things off.
The precious cameras are the only objects in the camp kept warm and dry.
With all the gear on her back, Justine starts the long trek through the last of the night.
George is also up early.
He's heading to the army ant bivouac.
He needs to arrive before the column is on the march.
Here it is.
Here's the tree.
We've got up at five o'clock and they're not even up yet.
Ah What you've got is a camera on the end of this little tip here, and a little light and I can push that right up into the colony.
Perfect.
Perfect.
His aim is to probe deep inside the colony and perhaps even spy the queen.
Ooh, there they are.
There is the outside of the main ball of ants.
Ooh, yes.
They're not happy about that.
There's a soldier, look at the head of that thing.
He's not happy about that.
That squawking noise was a macaw flying over.
There he goes, in fact two of them.
Oh, my God.
Macaws, macaws, macaws.
I've been hearing lots of macaws calling.
This is the first time I've got a good shot.
I'm just managing to film them through this foreground tree, which is causing all sorts of blur.
That's it, one of them's just moved into a clearer position.
Ridiculous red colour, almost unbelievable, really.
But macaws are the first thing to disappear when humans come into an area.
They're taken by hunters for the pet trade, also for meat.
A single macaw can sell for more than a year's wages in Guyana.
The colony's out on the move and they're now swarming all down here.
That was very quick, actually.
One of the great tricks about army ants is that they've got hooks on their feet, and they can join up their feet and they can make a bridge.
George still hasn't seen the queen, but first he has to get past the soldiers.
They're vicious and it's not only their giant pincers - they also inject a dose of formic acid.
I'm just going to push this right into the middle of the colony.
Oh, it's big.
Oh, my goodness, look at that.
It's a huge colony.
It's massive! It's not often you get to see right into the heart of a colony of army ants.
That is a very privileged view.
Ooh! Ow, ah! Not going to see their queen, not today.
Agh! HE GROANS AND LAUGHS This is all very bizarre Ow! Ow! .
.
sitting quietly up here, waiting for my monkeys and George has found an army ant colony.
I guess that's what it is cos you can hear him howling with pain in the background, down in the under storey.
Entomologists 0, army ants 1.
I think I'd rather be up here actually, even if it is with mosquitoes and midges than being mullered by army ants.
They're a crazy lot, entomologists - especially George.
The rest of the scientists are back in the jungle lab, where the checklist of animals is increasing every day, including this horned frog, perfectly camouflaged to ambush prey in the leaf litter.
But this jungle isn't just home for amazing animals.
Keeping rainforests intact is vital in the fight against climate change.
This region's forests alone locks away forty thousand million tonnes of carbon.
Forests are important for the global welfare.
Climate change depends on it.
Biodiversity depends on it.
People depend on it.
Guyana's a very poor country.
Logging these forests would be a simple way to raise much needed revenue.
But Guyana's president recently approached Britain with a green alternative, keeping the forests standing in exchange for carbon credits.
Guyana's forest is not only important for Guyana but is also important for the whole globe.
The Stern Report has concluded that keeping forests intact is a highly cost-effective way to combat climate change.
In Guyana, they're still waiting for a decision.
At Kaieteur Falls, there's an air of quiet concentration.
This time Steve aims to go all the way to the bottom and spend 48 hours surveying this habitat.
We've got no real information about what kind of terrain is down there.
We know for sure that it's gonna be very slippery and very dangerous.
You're gonna have to lean forward, Steve.
It's very, very tight.
Go on, go on, go on.
Yes, good job - and move sideways now, Steve.
That's great.
Well done, mate.
Woah.
As Steve starts his descent, the mist rolls in.
Almost as soon as I stepped over the edge, this thick fog just started to rise up from the base of the waterfall, and I can't see where I'm going, where I'm heading to, and no-one above can see me either.
Justine's spotted something moving in the trees.
Saw a flash of red then, looks really like a howler monkey.
Where is it? There, there, there.
Yes, yes, that's it.
There's a male.
God, they look grumpy, don't they? Don't think they are grumpy, it's just they have that permanent expression of being very miserable with life.
Fantastic.
There he goes.
You can really see the use of the prehensile tail, just like a fifth limb.
It's like a safety rope.
It's the last thing that's released.
They spend nine hours every day chewing their way through the tough rainforest leaves.
The other 15 hours, they sleep.
There's two others in the tree, there's a big male at the top there.
He's coming down.
Ooh, taking a good look at me.
Amazing, he's probably nearly 200 metres away but he's really, really staring at me.
Well, things are looking up.
It's the trickiest part of Steve's descent.
Overhanging rocks covered in slime.
Oh, uh-ha-ha! He's constantly drenched in spray from the falls.
This rock is the slippiest ground I've ever been on in my life! I've never seen anything like it.
If this is what it's like hundreds of metres from the waterfall, I dread to think what it would've been like at the bottom of it.
I am down on solid ground and off the main rope, over.
'That's very good news.
' Tim, this place is every bit as steep and slippery and dangerous as we thought it would be, but it's much, much wetter and it's very windy down here and it's pretty miserable.
I want to get out of this as soon as I can, over.
Let's get you somewhere a bit more protected and warmer.
Understood.
Out.
With Steve safely down, he's joined by the cameraman and a dripping wet Tim Fogg.
You all right, mate? Bad weather down here, it's a bit damp.
THEY LAUGH They must find shelter, but also keep their eyes skinned for any animals they can see.
There's loads of little freshwater crabs just running around here.
Because it's wet the whole time, they're completely comfortable.
They're just feeding on the algae which they're picking off these rocks, and because this place is drenched in water the whole time, they're absolutely everywhere.
This is just the perfect place for crabs.
It really is like being on the bottom of the sea.
There's been a sighting - a family of giant otters glimpsed heading down-river.
We really have to keep our eyes open because they're big, but still tricky to see.
Right bank, right bank.
A head's popped up.
I don't know whether they've gone into the shrub.
After a week of searching, at last this is Gordon's chance to start observing these shy animals.
Dan, do you think they're still in front of us? I can't see them.
They're in the undergrowth.
Everyone just keep their eyes wide open.
The otters let out warning snorts.
Oh, beautiful, just coming straight towards us.
They're interested, not in fishing, they're interested in us.
Oh, man, that's so nice.
OTTER SNORTS Sun just glistening off their heads.
Oh, there's four of them! Man alive! Sorry, guys.
Oh, jeepers.
What? Oh, man.
That was unreal.
That was something else.
What I love is when an animal, and a wild animal interacts with you, they're not scared, they just want to check us out, find out what we are and they've given us an opportunity to see them.
Woah! Close, man.
Look at this! Ha! That's exactly what I was hoping to find.
It's a tree frog, for sure.
You just look at the big suction cups on each toe.
Look at the way that he's moving across my hands there.
He is a frog that is absolutely designed for climbing.
He looks a little bit actually like the gladiator tree frog and he also has on the thumb of each hand, this little protuberance here, which is used for boxing with other frogs.
Let's put him back.
You're a very lucky frog.
You live in frog paradise.
Gordon has now followed the otters for two miles up the jungle creek.
Softly, softly, he's getting closer and closer.
Just creeping down the creek, with Gerry paddling.
I just don't want the otters to go overland.
As soon as they go overland, we've lost them.
Otters right here, can't see them yet.
Just hear them.
Beauty, they are so beautiful.
They've seen us.
OTTERS SNOR Their beautiful fur was almost their undoing.
A century of persecution drove them to the verge of extinction.
This group is so at ease, it's clear there's no hunting here.
OK, there's one coming right towards us now.
OK, and he's got a fish.
Feeding.
OK, nice and gently.
Stay very still.
Giant appetites need giant portions.
Plate-sized piranha - bones and all.
What's he caught? Piranha.
And they always eat them tail first for obvious reasons.
The youngster.
Oh, lovely.
This is just exactly what I've been wanting to see.
Giant otters completely naturally.
Oh, that's what happens when somebody's got a fish and somebody else wants it.
That's not going to last long, they have a voracious appetite.
Oops.
And off he goes, off to catch another one - awesome.
At the waterfall, Steve and Tim have a desperate struggle to bring the kit down in the freezing spray.
I've never been this cold right slap bang on the equator before.
They need to get dry as quick as they can.
HE COUGHS We don't want to go that way, we want to go lower.
Let's head down this way.
They must find a spot to pitch camp before night sets in but in this boulder field, there's little chance.
At base camp, the mood is up.
The team have fallen under the spell of this enchanting forest.
This is pristine, this is intact, this is as pure as it's ever going to be.
Let's just keep it that way.
It's clearly not been hunted, it's just really untouched and to preserve that in its pristine state would be fantastic.
WATER RUSHES Tim, you in there, mate? It's almost dark when Tim discovers a tiny cave.
Yeah, this is good.
A sleeping place here.
We'll get at least one of us in here.
Oh, let's get a brew on.
Oh, the luxury.
Mm, brilliant.
The cave floor is just a jumble of rough rocks.
It's going to be a long night.
At first light, Justine, as ever, is up her tree.
Now, the family of howler monkeys have totally accepted her.
She's even found a new addition to the family.
It's a female, wow.
She's got a baby on her back.
Fantastic.
The haunting calls of these cautious animals embody the spirit of the South American rainforest.
To know there's a healthy breeding population here is a great lift for the team.
Ah, there's the big male there.
This is the big alpha boss.
So, there are two males.
This big one, the smaller one and there are two females, the one with the baby and the other one.
Another piece in the puzzle.
Beautiful animals.
They're absolutely stunning.
After a big breakfast of green leaves, the whole family settles down for a long morning snooze.
For Steve and the team, it has been a really miserable night without a wink of sleep - and they weren't alone.
We had visitors last night.
I got up, turned on my head torch and hundreds of cockroaches and cave crickets just scampered for the shadows, and they'd been having a go at our food.
There's just holes in absolutely everything.
Mind you, I left my mug full of sticky hot chocolate last night and they've cleaned it out completely so I don't have to do the washing up.
Fantastic! It's not just cockroaches and the crickets that we're sharing our cave with, it's absolutely alive with these rocket frogs and this one here actually has really well-developed eggs on its back.
It's carrying around its tadpoles inside the eggs.
You can even see little bubbles of air coming out of each egg.
This species doesn't actually go through the free-swimming tadpole stage at all.
The eggs will develop on their mother's back right through until they're froglets, and they'll hatch out ready to hop about.
It's just enormous.
Yeah.
Finally, Steve can begin his real challenge - to survey the plants and animals down here.
Woah! The slippery vegetation conceals deep pitfalls.
No ground there.
It would be a terrible place to break a leg.
The pools of water that gather in the leaves made by these bromeliads are a really challenging place to make a home.
But there's plenty of creatures down here that manage it.
Possibly the most appealing of all of them though is this little guy.
There, look at that.
Isn't he gorgeous? Oh, look, on the leaf.
It's a golden rocket frog and the only place in the world you find these is in the Kaieteur National Park.
From egg to tadpole to frog, this single plant can be their home for life.
These really are the most exquisite little jewels and every other bromeliad around here has one or a pair living in it.
It's not just the animals that are exotic down here.
There are wonderful plants absolutely everywhere around here, but nothing as exquisite as this.
This is a slipper orchid and it's very aptly named.
You can almost imagine some dainty Cinderella slipping her toes into that.
This'd be worth an absolute fortune to orchid collectors back home.
But here, they are just about everywhere.
It's a bit like strolling around the Chelsea Flower Show, except that you've got that in the background.
I think this really brings home just quite how unspoilt Guyana is.
The Kaieteur is the country's only real tourist attraction, but we were up on top for three days and didn't see a single person and down here, well, you could count on one hand the amount of people who have seen what we're looking at now, and, you know, it's five times the height of Niagara.
You're just standing here with this water in your face - it's completely overpowering.
Gordon is checking whether his camera trap has worked.
It's been lying in wait for a week now.
Hard to say whether anything's been up here because of the rain.
With any luck, it will have filmed the otter family out of the water.
Ah, the tape has reached the end.
So we have one hour of stuff.
OK, we've reached the beginning of the tape.
Play.
Oh, curassow! I actually saw curassow the other day quite close to here, three of them, so I wonder if it's the same ones.
Two.
He's camera-shy, this one.
That's very nice.
Oh, hang on, hang on.
On the top of the log there's something, sort of, spotty, like a cat.
I mean, it might have been an ocelot.
It's a jaguar! I cannot believe that.
One of the most difficult animals in South America to see was right here, literally.
It walked along this path.
The mysterious jaguar.
Beautifully camouflaged, extremely rare, these solitary beasts roam huge areas of this vast jungle.
It's a fantastic stroke of fortune to find one here.
That is unreal.
I do not believe that.
I think I said, if we get jaguar, it's going to be by luck, not by judgement, and this is just by sheer luck.
We put this out for otters and we've got a jaguar.
Unbelievable.
That is incredible.
At the waterfall, Steve is desperate for some decent rest.
After the discomfort of last night, I've decided to set up a basher and sleep outside in the elements tonight.
I think we've done really well to have spent two days down here so far and for no-one to have got hurt.
This place is an absolute death trap, so fingers crossed everyone gets through alive and well.
Back at base camp, the rest of the team have cause to celebrate.
That's the biggest cat that you'll find in South America.
After just ten days, they've found howler monkeys, giant otters and the scientists have catalogued over 200 animal species.
All evidence of the value of this virgin rainforest.
And the best news of all, concrete proof that South America's legendary big cat is living and hunting here.
Wow, wow! But not every member of the team is celebrating.
All of a sudden a really, really heavy electrical storm's come in and the rain is unbelievably heavy.
I have to keep throwing up this tarp to get all the water off it.
But the most worrying thing really is that this storm is getting closer and closer.
It's right overhead and we're pretty much the only feature in a landscape at the moment.
This is turning into the most miserable night of my life.
In the second phase of the expedition, the team push deeper into the jungle.
The number of animals they're discovering goes up and up.
Oh! This would go right through my hand.
And they climb a remote mountain to explore a strange new world.
Travel north from the Amazon, and you'll find another jungle - a true wilderness.
Its interior uncharted, its animals uncatalogued.
Guyana.
Now an international team of expert naturalists are coming to search for the species hidden in this forgotten forest.
We've come somewhere no-one's ever been before, and it's one of the most spectacular places on the planet.
There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of species here that haven't been seen by anybody, and we will find them first.
Guyana's forest - unspoilt, unprotected and under threat.
Our job is to prove that these forests have more value alive than razed to the ground.
Guyana.
It's the size of Great Britain, with the population of Liverpool.
Nearly everyone lives on the narrow strip by the coast.
But travel south and there's rainforest for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
The only way to base camp is by boat.
A ten-hour journey from the nearest dirt road.
I was amazed, you know, when we were flying in, there was a few little houses.
Yeah, nothing.
And that was it.
The good stuff's in there, not here.
George, you've got about six weeks to get in there and find stuff, don't be impatient! Calm down! Faster, let's get there! It's a land full of giants.
Giant otters, the biggest spiders in the world, enormous caiman, eight-metre anaconda, and the biggest cat in South America - the mysterious jaguar.
This forest is untouched.
But in two years they could be logging these trees.
The team's destination - a base camp built by the advance party.
Each team member has a different speciality.
Gordon Buchanan will be searching for the large mammals.
My job on this expedition is to try and find and film as many different animals as I can.
If I could pick only two animals, the first would be giant otters, and the second, the most difficult one, would be the jaguar.
Justine Evans is a canopy specialist.
She documents life at the top of giant trees.
The forests have barely been explored on the ground, let alone in the canopy.
I want to get up there and just see what's going on.
Absolutely stunning.
Steve Backshall will be exploring places other naturalists cannot reach.
In his search for animals, he'll attempt a first ascent up a remote mountain and a daring descent down a giant waterfall.
It feels like I'm completely underneath it, completely surrounded by it.
And the last expedition member, Dr George McGavin from Oxford University.
He's leading the science team from a jungle laboratory right in the heart of camp.
If we're concerned about species loss, which we all should be, we should be concerned about keeping the forests intact.
The expedition's aim - to find what lives here, and to draw the world's attention to this - the largest unspoilt rainforest left on the planet.
SHOUTING The team are still unpacking when there's a shout from the riverbank.
A very rare monkey's been spotted.
There, there.
See it? There, there.
We've got a bearded saki, a monkey on the tree over there.
Can just see a bit of movement in the foliage, but I can't actually see the monkey yet.
It's not easy to see him.
Not at all.
Here we go, I've got one.
They just wag their tail back and forward, it's quite typical behaviour in them.
But it's Oops! Got a bit of movement up there.
The bearded saki is on the international list of endangered species.
It's the best start they could hope for.
And animals are even coming into the camp itself.
Steve Backshall takes a look.
That's beautiful.
One of the common names for it is the Amazon forest dragon.
Yes.
What I love about these is, to begin with they're skittish, but once they sense that you mean them no harm, they'll quite happily sit in your hand and barely move at all.
He is absolutely beautiful.
That's definitely one to add to our tick list.
The expedition's working closely with Guyanese trackers.
They know these jungles hide dangerous creatures.
For the new arrivals, there's a safety briefing.
The jungle is an alien environment for most of us and there's a few things we need to bear in mind.
We have had 9ft caiman down on the landing just outside of camp only a couple of days ago, so be conscious that there are caiman and they are very dangerous.
There are very big piranhas in the water.
Swimming far away from the shore is probably not advised.
Snakes that we need to be concerned about are the viper family - rattlesnakes, pit vipers, the infamous bushmaster, and also the coral snakes.
Scorpions are here.
As a general rule, the ones with the fat tails are the worst.
There's some very large tarantulas but the small things are the worst things.
Don't put your hands into holes cos that's where you'll get stung.
First light next morning, the team split up to start their specialist surveys.
Gordon's on a recce of the river.
This whole part of the world is just riddled with waterways, and this is one of the major ones, but joining on to it, these rivers are smaller rivers, tiny little creeks, so it's on the little country lanes, the little cul-de-sacs, that you find interesting stuff.
First on Gordon's list is to see if he can find the rare giant otters.
They're top predators.
Perfect indicators of a river's health.
As you can imagine, something the size of a giant otter is going to leave one or two signs.
Hey, look at this here, look.
When you've got a bare bank, like this, it's a very good place to find otters.
They're the biggest otters in the world - three times larger than any otter in Europe.
Their favourite meal - piranhas.
Wow, look at this.
This is a very clear sign that there's otters in this area, and very recent.
I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't this morning.
Their toes are not that much smaller than my fingers.
If you think of an otter that has hands almost the same size as mine, actually the otter itself is almost the same size as me.
They're big, big beasts.
Just put a little bit of tension on it, makes it quicker and easier.
While Gordon's on the river, Justine's high in the treetops building an observation post, with the help of Steve and the climbing team.
Tree-climbing in the rainforest is hot, sweaty, there's endless bugs, ants, wasps, bees, all of which hate you invading their world, andyeah, it's tough old work.
It's good that you can see a little bit through the under storey.
If you look that way a bit, that's not bad, actually, that direction.
Steve hauls up her platform.
Justine will spend ten hours every day on a square of aluminium the size of a card table.
That's as far as it will go.
We're on the end of the pulley now.
Sound as a pound, that's not going anywhere.
Yeah, it's a pretty good spot.
It's not got a brilliant view, but it's a good start.
At 17, Gordon swapped his job washing dishes on the Isle of Mull for an apprenticeship filming wildlife in Brazil.
Oh, look here, look.
His years in the Amazon taught him the skills of jungle tracking.
Very easy to follow this.
It's just a detective story, when you're looking for wild animals, but with giant animals, they leave giant traces.
Watch out for snakes.
The fact that there's been a giant otter here, the chances are, they've never been hunted, and I'll be interested to see how they react when they see me.
Justine's survey relies on a vital piece of kit - a high-definition camera.
This lens can magnify up to 80 times, perfect for capturing canopy creatures.
I can zoom in really, really close with this, so I can see a monkey 200 metres away and still be able to get in close enough to actually see whether it's a male or female, anything that will identify it.
And we're here to assess this place, or me, particularly, to see what's up in the canopy, so I've got to be up here all daylight hours.
The expedition's based in a patch of forest that's been leased to the organisation Conservation International.
The surrounding jungle stretches for hundreds of miles.
But now large swathes are soon to be explored by logging companies.
Guyana's at a dangerous crossroads.
It can either exploit what it's got and make a quick buck, or, if we can show what is here, and the rarity and the diversity of this area, and that's why I'm here, is just to prevent the worst-case scenario.
The team believe this could be pristine rainforest - the animals never hunted, the ancient trees still standing.
In the 21st century, that's rare indeed.
In base camp, the scientists are hard at work, recording all their discoveries.
Their report will be presented to the President of Guyana.
Finding any new or endangered species will strengthen the case for conservation.
Hind legs are way back almost It's like a cricket.
.
.
twice the size of the body.
That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life.
It's a fly, hasn't got any wings George McGavin's great passion is for insects.
At first I thought it was a cricket, a tiny cricket, but it's a bat fly.
Insects make ecosystems work.
Without bees, for instance, you'd have no flowering plants, no vegetables, no fruit.
So without the insects, you simply wouldn't have the big animals.
From the tiniest bugs to the largest birds, there's over a million known species living in rainforests.
George believes there could be another 5 million still waiting to be discovered.
Oh, I say! Look at that.
Fallen trees like this are an amazing resource for insects and bugs, and stuff.
They're not always hollow enough to crawl inside.
Oh, that's Yeah, it looks rather nice.
The worry is that there are snakes up here, or scorpions, so I'll take my ultraviolet scorpion torch.
Oh, look at that.
Oh! It is big, it is a biggie! This is going to be epic.
Now, there's a bat.
Look, look, look over there.
See it? There's about three of them.
Is there anything else in there? That's the worry.
Let's go, let's see what's in here.
It's like crawling into a large peaty tube.
It's an extreme habitat, very rarely explored.
And straight away, he's coming up against new creatures.
There are crickets everywhere, and the interesting thing about them is, I haven't seen these ones before, and I'm going to have to try and collect some of these.
Oh, there's a monster there! Look at that! They've got these enormous antennae.
These crickets are adapted to very dark, wet places.
There's a brown cricket as well, and I'm not quite sure if this is the same species.
I'm just going to try and grab this, and you really have to be incredibly quick.
Here goes Ooh! Ah Fallen giants litter these jungles.
Every day, strong winds and weak roots bring another colossus crashing down.
These jungle trees look solid on the outside, but can be eaten hollow by termites on the inside.
30 metres up, fragile trees are not something Justine wants to worry about.
Now, after two days of waiting, she sights something moving.
I finally got a glimpse of a squirrel monkey.
It's so difficult.
They're so quick.
Ah, there's one.
It's gone.
They seem to be mostly adults and some larger young, but there's no babies being carried by mothers.
Big group, though.
Squirrel monkeys.
They're common in South America's forests.
They move through the canopy in large groups.
This one's searching for caterpillars on new leaves.
It's obviously feeding on insects.
That's why they seem to be moving so quickly.
I think they're just snatching at whatever they can find.
Ah, there's a good view.
Are they going up this branch? Must be a main travel route, probably the only travel route through this section.
Jumping off into the other tree.
The fruiting season's gone, and so there are probably very few fruiting trees in the forest at this moment.
RUSTLING What was that? Probably just a tree falling down George is now 25 metres inside this fallen giant.
This is amazing.
Look what we've got here.
This is a whip spider.
These long bits are actually its front legs and because it lives in darkness You can see how it's feeling my finger there.
It uses these very long legs to feel its prey, and its prey are these cave crickets here.
And, very sneakily, sometimes the whip spiders reach behind the cricket and just go tickle, tickle on the back end, and the cricket jumps forward into the jaws of the whip spider.
It's a really clever trick.
The further I go into this, there's bigger and bigger whip spiders.
Oh, there's an absolute monster over here! There are now, on this part of the roof, 13 crickets and five whip spiders, who are just queuing up to eat them.
Little is known about the biology of these weird predators.
Somehow, George has to catch one to take it back to the lab.
One's just crawled across my face! Because it's now getting really, really tight, I have a bit of a problem.
HE WHEEZES It's as hot as a sauna, and crawling with bugs.
George is in his element.
Ah! Just one sec.
I can't I can't get out of this This hole's too tight.
Argh! I feel like a beetle grub emerging from from its long period of metamorphosis! HE LAUGHS Actually, I think I am stuck! All I can say is, I don't think I've had as much fun in a log for a long time! Usually, George only sees these bizarre beasts dead in a museum drawer.
It's a rare chance to examine them alive.
Isn't that wonderful? That is the ultimate animal for hunting for prey in the dark.
It's flattened, it's fast, it's got big, spiky palps at the front end, incredibly long legs for just feeling its prey.
If you designed an organism for catching crickets in the dark, this is it.
And once the poor animal is trapped in those spines at the front, that's it, there is no escape from that.
Dinner tonight - piranha.
How is it? Looks good.
I'm absolutely famished.
I'm hungry, yeah.
Piranha teeth.
Is it piranha teeth? Look at that! They do have the most extraordinary teeth.
I'm a bit, er Put some falsies in! Careful, George, put that through your upper lip and you'll know about it! They're swimming in the river? Uh-huh.
Can someone pass the evil fire sauce down, please? That is far too much of that.
You're gonna die.
He's beginning to regret that now! Yes! Yes! Although the expedition starts in base camp, each team member will also explore even more remote parts of Guyana.
Today, Steve and the climbing team are heading out.
There are some areas that have very different forest to the stuff that we're in right now.
Over in the west of the country, there are these exposed beds of ancient, ancient rock, and one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls.
And that's where the next leg of my journey's taking me.
His destination - Guyana's only National Park, hidden deep in the heart of the forest.
At its centre - Kaieteur Falls.
Five times higher than Niagara.
Each day, 60 million tonnes of water flow over these falls.
40 kilometres from the nearest road, just a handful of tourists fly in to view this wonder of the world from the top.
But no-one has fully explored the unique habitat around the plunge pool.
That's the task for Steve and climbing supervisor, Tim Fogg.
That is a very long way down.
We're going to try a recce, have a look for the best place to descend, and I really want to get a feel of the world behind the waterfall.
At base camp, an eerie sound echoes deep in the forest.
DISTANT CRIES The ghostly call of the howler monkey.
Justine's on her way to her treetop perch.
It's the sound she's been hoping to hear.
I can hear distant howler calls, but it's quite a way.
The thing is that there was a group calling out in this direction but they could just be sitting quietly in the treetops, and we wouldn't know they were there.
CACOPHONY OF CRIES It's the most unearthly sound, the sound of howler monkeys.
It sounds like a huge dragon in the distance.
A healthy population of howler monkeys would be a great sign of an untouched forest.
They're easy to hear, but much harder to find and count.
There's a chance that, in a while, they might start moving around, and hopefully come this way.
Just a waiting a game, we have to see.
Down on the ground, they're surveying species on the forest floor.
Guyanese scientist, Doctor Raquel Thomas, is an expert on rainforest trees.
Some of these were growing before Columbus came to the Americas.
This tree here, I reckon would be about 500 to 600 years.
In the five days since they've arrived, they've catalogued over a hundred different types of animal.
Every little hair has got hairs on it, and on the end of the small hairs, you've got tiny hairs.
Gordon's had no luck in his search for large mammals.
They're particularly hard to track down, especially the elusive big cats.
I spent two years in total in another part of the Amazon, and I saw a wild jaguar for 30 seconds, and that's two years straight, so that's how difficult it is.
Gordon's returned to the creek with the otter tracks.
He's setting a trap, a camera trap.
It looks very complicated, but the concept's very simple.
It's an infrared beam.
When that gets broken, the camera starts running.
It's a huge amount of effort to put this in.
That's why I think we have to leave it for at least a week.
We don't even have to come every day.
We just leave it and come every three days or so, keep an eye on it.
Then it's back to the canoe and on with the search for otters.
At Kaieteur Falls, Steve and the team have set the ropes.
I wouldn't go straight over, I'd step down now onto the ladder.
Tomorrow, he will lead a team to the bottom to search for animals, but today he must first test the gear and take a look at the route down.
.
.
So that rope goes into that.
There's always that horrible fear of stepping off a perfectly good, solid surface, and just back into space, isn't there? You can't go much further because I've got to get this bag to you now.
His helmet-camera will record all he sees.
This would have to be one of the most dramatic places in the world.
Totally unspoilt.
There's nobody here but us.
But it's very hard to enjoy it when your heart is thumping.
It's just this boiling steam below us.
Just push out.
Oh, wow.
Oh, my ropes are rubbing over this rock, and it's sharp.
The cliff has a severe overhang.
It's only when Steve's on the ropes that he can get a close look at the rock face.
Tim, I've dropped under the overhang and it's absolutely extraordinary down here.
Directly beneath me, it's dropping straight into the plunge pool at its most turbulent.
It'd be like dropping into the world's worst whirlpool - total suicide.
Over.
OVER RADIO: That's confirmed everything that we suspected, but it was worth going down and getting a better view of it.
Over.
Yeah.
From this angle, I can see a good line where we could come down.
If we were to actually head around to the base, there's a line that looks like it drops down onto reasonable territory.
Steve has dropped as far as he safely can.
Tomorrow, he'll descend to the very bottom to start his survey.
I'm actually swinging right underneath the curtain of water.
George is on his daily quest for new insects.
Oh, wow! This is one of the wonders of the animal world.
This is a trail of army ants, and there are literally tens of thousands of them.
Army ants are swarm raiders.
Their marauding column pushes through the jungle, killing anything too slow to escape.
You'll see spiders and cockroaches jumping out the way.
He's trying to get away but it's no good.
They'll have him.
Their prey are pulled to pieces and carried back to feed their young, living deep in the heart of this tree.
What would be really great is to come back really early, about 4.
30am, 5.
00am, and have a look inside and actually see what's happening in there.
If we hit it at the right time, when they're on the move, wow, that'd be fantastic.
30 metres above, Justine is still patiently scanning the canopy for howler monkeys.
This afternoon, the wind is picking up.
I've come up a really great tree, it's got a fantastic view, but it's more like a stalk sticking about 45 metres straight out from the under storey.
It's also really windy today.
There's a big gust coming in now, and the whole tree is just swaying around.
I'm actually getting motion sickness, coupled with the vertigo I was experiencing earlier! It's quite an experience being up here today.
Gordon's been searching for otters since first light, but it seems everything is against him.
Hang on.
This is getting a bit unpleasant.
It's getting really hot and kind of uncomfortable, I've got ants crawling all over me and I just snared up the prop in some weeds again.
It's like wire, this stuff.
Oh, and I've just broke my knife! Man, that's annoying! To make it all worse, I've got this very painful blistering all over my chest.
This is very uncomfortable.
George is suffering too.
He's covered in bites from his crawl through the log.
There's a definite reaction.
Mm.
I just want to keep an eye on that one, George, whether that one's getting infected.
It's been a long day for the whole team.
Yeah.
But one member of the team is having rather more luck.
While Steve hangs on the rope, a flock of swifts starts heading straight towards him.
Look at that! They nest behind the waterfall.
They're coming in very close to the overhang here to keep away from the spray.
As they come in, they're banking and rolling just like fighter jets.
Right past my ears.
Whoa! Look at all those swifts! Wow! Oh, that is unbelievable! Next morning, well before dawn, Justine is woken by a distant roar.
It's the howler monkeys again, and they're getting nearer.
I don't know what time it is, but it's very early.
HOWLING IN DISTANCE Seems a bit weird putting ski socks on in the tropics, but it's best to do this to keep all the chiggers and nasty biting things off.
The precious cameras are the only objects in the camp kept warm and dry.
With all the gear on her back, Justine starts the long trek through the last of the night.
George is also up early.
He's heading to the army ant bivouac.
He needs to arrive before the column is on the march.
Here it is.
Here's the tree.
We've got up at five o'clock and they're not even up yet.
Ah What you've got is a camera on the end of this little tip here, and a little light and I can push that right up into the colony.
Perfect.
Perfect.
His aim is to probe deep inside the colony and perhaps even spy the queen.
Ooh, there they are.
There is the outside of the main ball of ants.
Ooh, yes.
They're not happy about that.
There's a soldier, look at the head of that thing.
He's not happy about that.
That squawking noise was a macaw flying over.
There he goes, in fact two of them.
Oh, my God.
Macaws, macaws, macaws.
I've been hearing lots of macaws calling.
This is the first time I've got a good shot.
I'm just managing to film them through this foreground tree, which is causing all sorts of blur.
That's it, one of them's just moved into a clearer position.
Ridiculous red colour, almost unbelievable, really.
But macaws are the first thing to disappear when humans come into an area.
They're taken by hunters for the pet trade, also for meat.
A single macaw can sell for more than a year's wages in Guyana.
The colony's out on the move and they're now swarming all down here.
That was very quick, actually.
One of the great tricks about army ants is that they've got hooks on their feet, and they can join up their feet and they can make a bridge.
George still hasn't seen the queen, but first he has to get past the soldiers.
They're vicious and it's not only their giant pincers - they also inject a dose of formic acid.
I'm just going to push this right into the middle of the colony.
Oh, it's big.
Oh, my goodness, look at that.
It's a huge colony.
It's massive! It's not often you get to see right into the heart of a colony of army ants.
That is a very privileged view.
Ooh! Ow, ah! Not going to see their queen, not today.
Agh! HE GROANS AND LAUGHS This is all very bizarre Ow! Ow! .
.
sitting quietly up here, waiting for my monkeys and George has found an army ant colony.
I guess that's what it is cos you can hear him howling with pain in the background, down in the under storey.
Entomologists 0, army ants 1.
I think I'd rather be up here actually, even if it is with mosquitoes and midges than being mullered by army ants.
They're a crazy lot, entomologists - especially George.
The rest of the scientists are back in the jungle lab, where the checklist of animals is increasing every day, including this horned frog, perfectly camouflaged to ambush prey in the leaf litter.
But this jungle isn't just home for amazing animals.
Keeping rainforests intact is vital in the fight against climate change.
This region's forests alone locks away forty thousand million tonnes of carbon.
Forests are important for the global welfare.
Climate change depends on it.
Biodiversity depends on it.
People depend on it.
Guyana's a very poor country.
Logging these forests would be a simple way to raise much needed revenue.
But Guyana's president recently approached Britain with a green alternative, keeping the forests standing in exchange for carbon credits.
Guyana's forest is not only important for Guyana but is also important for the whole globe.
The Stern Report has concluded that keeping forests intact is a highly cost-effective way to combat climate change.
In Guyana, they're still waiting for a decision.
At Kaieteur Falls, there's an air of quiet concentration.
This time Steve aims to go all the way to the bottom and spend 48 hours surveying this habitat.
We've got no real information about what kind of terrain is down there.
We know for sure that it's gonna be very slippery and very dangerous.
You're gonna have to lean forward, Steve.
It's very, very tight.
Go on, go on, go on.
Yes, good job - and move sideways now, Steve.
That's great.
Well done, mate.
Woah.
As Steve starts his descent, the mist rolls in.
Almost as soon as I stepped over the edge, this thick fog just started to rise up from the base of the waterfall, and I can't see where I'm going, where I'm heading to, and no-one above can see me either.
Justine's spotted something moving in the trees.
Saw a flash of red then, looks really like a howler monkey.
Where is it? There, there, there.
Yes, yes, that's it.
There's a male.
God, they look grumpy, don't they? Don't think they are grumpy, it's just they have that permanent expression of being very miserable with life.
Fantastic.
There he goes.
You can really see the use of the prehensile tail, just like a fifth limb.
It's like a safety rope.
It's the last thing that's released.
They spend nine hours every day chewing their way through the tough rainforest leaves.
The other 15 hours, they sleep.
There's two others in the tree, there's a big male at the top there.
He's coming down.
Ooh, taking a good look at me.
Amazing, he's probably nearly 200 metres away but he's really, really staring at me.
Well, things are looking up.
It's the trickiest part of Steve's descent.
Overhanging rocks covered in slime.
Oh, uh-ha-ha! He's constantly drenched in spray from the falls.
This rock is the slippiest ground I've ever been on in my life! I've never seen anything like it.
If this is what it's like hundreds of metres from the waterfall, I dread to think what it would've been like at the bottom of it.
I am down on solid ground and off the main rope, over.
'That's very good news.
' Tim, this place is every bit as steep and slippery and dangerous as we thought it would be, but it's much, much wetter and it's very windy down here and it's pretty miserable.
I want to get out of this as soon as I can, over.
Let's get you somewhere a bit more protected and warmer.
Understood.
Out.
With Steve safely down, he's joined by the cameraman and a dripping wet Tim Fogg.
You all right, mate? Bad weather down here, it's a bit damp.
THEY LAUGH They must find shelter, but also keep their eyes skinned for any animals they can see.
There's loads of little freshwater crabs just running around here.
Because it's wet the whole time, they're completely comfortable.
They're just feeding on the algae which they're picking off these rocks, and because this place is drenched in water the whole time, they're absolutely everywhere.
This is just the perfect place for crabs.
It really is like being on the bottom of the sea.
There's been a sighting - a family of giant otters glimpsed heading down-river.
We really have to keep our eyes open because they're big, but still tricky to see.
Right bank, right bank.
A head's popped up.
I don't know whether they've gone into the shrub.
After a week of searching, at last this is Gordon's chance to start observing these shy animals.
Dan, do you think they're still in front of us? I can't see them.
They're in the undergrowth.
Everyone just keep their eyes wide open.
The otters let out warning snorts.
Oh, beautiful, just coming straight towards us.
They're interested, not in fishing, they're interested in us.
Oh, man, that's so nice.
OTTER SNORTS Sun just glistening off their heads.
Oh, there's four of them! Man alive! Sorry, guys.
Oh, jeepers.
What? Oh, man.
That was unreal.
That was something else.
What I love is when an animal, and a wild animal interacts with you, they're not scared, they just want to check us out, find out what we are and they've given us an opportunity to see them.
Woah! Close, man.
Look at this! Ha! That's exactly what I was hoping to find.
It's a tree frog, for sure.
You just look at the big suction cups on each toe.
Look at the way that he's moving across my hands there.
He is a frog that is absolutely designed for climbing.
He looks a little bit actually like the gladiator tree frog and he also has on the thumb of each hand, this little protuberance here, which is used for boxing with other frogs.
Let's put him back.
You're a very lucky frog.
You live in frog paradise.
Gordon has now followed the otters for two miles up the jungle creek.
Softly, softly, he's getting closer and closer.
Just creeping down the creek, with Gerry paddling.
I just don't want the otters to go overland.
As soon as they go overland, we've lost them.
Otters right here, can't see them yet.
Just hear them.
Beauty, they are so beautiful.
They've seen us.
OTTERS SNOR Their beautiful fur was almost their undoing.
A century of persecution drove them to the verge of extinction.
This group is so at ease, it's clear there's no hunting here.
OK, there's one coming right towards us now.
OK, and he's got a fish.
Feeding.
OK, nice and gently.
Stay very still.
Giant appetites need giant portions.
Plate-sized piranha - bones and all.
What's he caught? Piranha.
And they always eat them tail first for obvious reasons.
The youngster.
Oh, lovely.
This is just exactly what I've been wanting to see.
Giant otters completely naturally.
Oh, that's what happens when somebody's got a fish and somebody else wants it.
That's not going to last long, they have a voracious appetite.
Oops.
And off he goes, off to catch another one - awesome.
At the waterfall, Steve and Tim have a desperate struggle to bring the kit down in the freezing spray.
I've never been this cold right slap bang on the equator before.
They need to get dry as quick as they can.
HE COUGHS We don't want to go that way, we want to go lower.
Let's head down this way.
They must find a spot to pitch camp before night sets in but in this boulder field, there's little chance.
At base camp, the mood is up.
The team have fallen under the spell of this enchanting forest.
This is pristine, this is intact, this is as pure as it's ever going to be.
Let's just keep it that way.
It's clearly not been hunted, it's just really untouched and to preserve that in its pristine state would be fantastic.
WATER RUSHES Tim, you in there, mate? It's almost dark when Tim discovers a tiny cave.
Yeah, this is good.
A sleeping place here.
We'll get at least one of us in here.
Oh, let's get a brew on.
Oh, the luxury.
Mm, brilliant.
The cave floor is just a jumble of rough rocks.
It's going to be a long night.
At first light, Justine, as ever, is up her tree.
Now, the family of howler monkeys have totally accepted her.
She's even found a new addition to the family.
It's a female, wow.
She's got a baby on her back.
Fantastic.
The haunting calls of these cautious animals embody the spirit of the South American rainforest.
To know there's a healthy breeding population here is a great lift for the team.
Ah, there's the big male there.
This is the big alpha boss.
So, there are two males.
This big one, the smaller one and there are two females, the one with the baby and the other one.
Another piece in the puzzle.
Beautiful animals.
They're absolutely stunning.
After a big breakfast of green leaves, the whole family settles down for a long morning snooze.
For Steve and the team, it has been a really miserable night without a wink of sleep - and they weren't alone.
We had visitors last night.
I got up, turned on my head torch and hundreds of cockroaches and cave crickets just scampered for the shadows, and they'd been having a go at our food.
There's just holes in absolutely everything.
Mind you, I left my mug full of sticky hot chocolate last night and they've cleaned it out completely so I don't have to do the washing up.
Fantastic! It's not just cockroaches and the crickets that we're sharing our cave with, it's absolutely alive with these rocket frogs and this one here actually has really well-developed eggs on its back.
It's carrying around its tadpoles inside the eggs.
You can even see little bubbles of air coming out of each egg.
This species doesn't actually go through the free-swimming tadpole stage at all.
The eggs will develop on their mother's back right through until they're froglets, and they'll hatch out ready to hop about.
It's just enormous.
Yeah.
Finally, Steve can begin his real challenge - to survey the plants and animals down here.
Woah! The slippery vegetation conceals deep pitfalls.
No ground there.
It would be a terrible place to break a leg.
The pools of water that gather in the leaves made by these bromeliads are a really challenging place to make a home.
But there's plenty of creatures down here that manage it.
Possibly the most appealing of all of them though is this little guy.
There, look at that.
Isn't he gorgeous? Oh, look, on the leaf.
It's a golden rocket frog and the only place in the world you find these is in the Kaieteur National Park.
From egg to tadpole to frog, this single plant can be their home for life.
These really are the most exquisite little jewels and every other bromeliad around here has one or a pair living in it.
It's not just the animals that are exotic down here.
There are wonderful plants absolutely everywhere around here, but nothing as exquisite as this.
This is a slipper orchid and it's very aptly named.
You can almost imagine some dainty Cinderella slipping her toes into that.
This'd be worth an absolute fortune to orchid collectors back home.
But here, they are just about everywhere.
It's a bit like strolling around the Chelsea Flower Show, except that you've got that in the background.
I think this really brings home just quite how unspoilt Guyana is.
The Kaieteur is the country's only real tourist attraction, but we were up on top for three days and didn't see a single person and down here, well, you could count on one hand the amount of people who have seen what we're looking at now, and, you know, it's five times the height of Niagara.
You're just standing here with this water in your face - it's completely overpowering.
Gordon is checking whether his camera trap has worked.
It's been lying in wait for a week now.
Hard to say whether anything's been up here because of the rain.
With any luck, it will have filmed the otter family out of the water.
Ah, the tape has reached the end.
So we have one hour of stuff.
OK, we've reached the beginning of the tape.
Play.
Oh, curassow! I actually saw curassow the other day quite close to here, three of them, so I wonder if it's the same ones.
Two.
He's camera-shy, this one.
That's very nice.
Oh, hang on, hang on.
On the top of the log there's something, sort of, spotty, like a cat.
I mean, it might have been an ocelot.
It's a jaguar! I cannot believe that.
One of the most difficult animals in South America to see was right here, literally.
It walked along this path.
The mysterious jaguar.
Beautifully camouflaged, extremely rare, these solitary beasts roam huge areas of this vast jungle.
It's a fantastic stroke of fortune to find one here.
That is unreal.
I do not believe that.
I think I said, if we get jaguar, it's going to be by luck, not by judgement, and this is just by sheer luck.
We put this out for otters and we've got a jaguar.
Unbelievable.
That is incredible.
At the waterfall, Steve is desperate for some decent rest.
After the discomfort of last night, I've decided to set up a basher and sleep outside in the elements tonight.
I think we've done really well to have spent two days down here so far and for no-one to have got hurt.
This place is an absolute death trap, so fingers crossed everyone gets through alive and well.
Back at base camp, the rest of the team have cause to celebrate.
That's the biggest cat that you'll find in South America.
After just ten days, they've found howler monkeys, giant otters and the scientists have catalogued over 200 animal species.
All evidence of the value of this virgin rainforest.
And the best news of all, concrete proof that South America's legendary big cat is living and hunting here.
Wow, wow! But not every member of the team is celebrating.
All of a sudden a really, really heavy electrical storm's come in and the rain is unbelievably heavy.
I have to keep throwing up this tarp to get all the water off it.
But the most worrying thing really is that this storm is getting closer and closer.
It's right overhead and we're pretty much the only feature in a landscape at the moment.
This is turning into the most miserable night of my life.
In the second phase of the expedition, the team push deeper into the jungle.
The number of animals they're discovering goes up and up.
Oh! This would go right through my hand.
And they climb a remote mountain to explore a strange new world.