Link to Wild south america: 2- Mighty amazon documentary
Documentary Description
The second programme shows how life along the Amazon River is dominated
by the annual cycle of floods. In the dry season, female giant river
turtles gather on exposed sand banks to lay their eggs. As broad reaches
of river are cut off by sandbars, caimans and egrets take advantage of
the bounty of fish trapped in shallow lagoons. Underwater infrared
cameras film scavenging candiru and an electric eel hunting. As the
first rains arrive, a cormorant flock feeds quickly to take advantage
before the fish begin to disperse. Black vultures get an easy meal as
fish killed by oxygen-starved water wash up on the river banks. In the
rainy season, water levels along the Amazon can rise up to 10m.
Invertebrates emerge from cover in the undergrowth and migrate into the
trees to escape drowning, but lizards and praying mantises await their
arrival. Fire ants mass into a floating raft to move from their flooded
nests, while sloths and tarantulas have adapted to swimming between
trees. Predators are at a disadvantage now, but giant otters are expert
hunters and use teamwork to corral fish. The boto, a rare river dolphin,
navigates the submerged forests using sonar. Rainforest trees, which
can survive inundation for six months, time their fruiting to coincide
with the floods, using fish as seed dispersers. Villages and communities
line the river's banks, but their overall environmental impact is low
and they have adapted to the annual cycle of flooding. The sheer scale
of the Amazon may yet ensure its survival
