[narrator] This is The Americas,
an extraordinary journey across Earth's great supercontinent.
[epic orchestral music playing]
The widest variety of life on the planet.
[both whinnying]
The untold story...
[trilling]
...of our home.
[epic orchestral music continues]
Tonight on The Americas...
Patagonia.
[dramatic music playing]
Patagonia is an untamed wilderness
at the far south of the world.
[dramatic music playing]
From ancient mystical forests...
and sky-high ice worlds...
[yowls]
...to the bountiful coast.
[whooshes]
This is a world of both rugged beauty and...
[cracks]
...dramatic change.
[burbling]
Here,
all life must do battle...
[dramatic music continues]
[barking]
[barking continues]
...at the very end of the supercontinent.
[light upbeat music playing]
Patagonia straddles both Chile in the west
and Argentina to the east.
Its most southerly point lies only 600 miles from Antarctica,
a place where three great oceans collide.
Here, the island of Los Estados
is a vital refuge...
for the world's most devoted parents,
rockhopper penguins.
[water lapping]
[penguins chirping]
Every spring, over a quarter of a million come ashore,
all hoping to raise a family.
[gentle music playing]
[all chirping]
Couples pair for life
and return to the same nest year after year.
They take turns caring for their chicks.
And today,
Dad is on duty.
[chirping]
His chick is just a few days old.
And it's hungry.
[chirping]
But there is no food here.
The chick must wait for Mom to return with a meal.
[stirring music playing]
And she is on her way.
[stirring music swells]
But getting ashore means risking her life.
[penguins chirping]
On this jagged coast,
there is no easy landing.
[stirring music continues]
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music fades]
[chirps]
- Looks like she made it. - [chirps]
[roars]
[tense music playing]
[frantic chirping]
A sea lion.
[penguins chirping]
A penguin predator.
[tense music playing]
- [sea lion grunting] - [penguins chirping]
[chirping continues]
[grunting]
[snorts]
[penguins squawking]
[low growling]
[growling]
[chirping]
There is no match for a mother's determination.
[seagulls squawking]
To get home, however,
there's still a mountain to climb,
literally.
[suspenseful music playing]
And with a belly full of krill,
it's slow going.
[chirping]
[plodding music playing]
One wrong step, and...
it's back to square one.
[plodding music continues]
But Mom's not called a rockhopper penguin for nothing.
[upbeat music playing]
Strong claws...
and a sharp beak
are put to good use.
Now, she just needs to find her partner.
[flock chirping]
One somewhere
amongst hundreds of thousands of penguins.
[mass chirping continues]
Her partner's unique call...
[throaty clucking]
...helps guide her to him.
[clucking]
[gentle music playing]
[both cackling]
Reunited.
[peeps]
And at last, it's dinner time.
[peeps]
Only the courageous can raise a family down here.
[peeps]
- [penguins chirping] - [seagulls squawking]
And tomorrow, they must do it all again.
[stirring music playing]
From Cape Horn,
Patagonia's towering, rocky backbone runs north for over a thousand miles.
[dramatic music playing]
The weather is ferocious
and unpredictable.
Yet, the symbol of Patagonia's mountains
calls this place home.
[light orchestral music playing]
In Patagonia's mountains,
it can seem like all four seasons
in one day.
Life here is as hard as it gets.
[indistinct screeching]
This is a female puma,
known as "Petaca."
She's an experienced hunter.
[indistinct screeching]
But since the sudden arrival of snow,
it's been difficult for her to make a kill.
[soft music playing]
A guanaco could feed her for a week.
But to succeed,
she will need to get close.
In the snow,
she's lost her camouflage.
[suspenseful music playing]
So she must use whatever cover she can find.
[suspenseful music continues]
[guanaco chuffs]
Now speed is her only hope.
[thrilling music playing]
But in this deep snow,
she is no match for the guanaco.
[chatters]
She'll go hungry today.
[snarls]
[puma screeches]
And so will her cubs.
[squeaks]
[grunts, yowls]
[gentle music playing]
[cubs mewling]
At just four months old,
they are entirely dependent on Mom.
[cubs mewling]
They need a change in their fortunes.
[puma screeches]
And in these mountains,
change...
is never far away.
[wind howling]
Within days,
the snow disappears.
[bird clucking]
Now Petaca has her camouflage back.
[distant birds chirping]
[thrilling music playing]
And her speed.
She must get a firm grip on the neck.
[guanaco bleating loudly]
If she gets it wrong,
a single kick could be fatal.
[tense music playing]
[guanaco grunting]
[guanaco bleating loudly]
[somber music playing]
It's now been a week since Petaca and her cubs last ate.
- [sniffing] - [distant rustling]
- On the wind... - [sniffing continues]
...a scent.
A carcass.
But it belongs to someone else.
[tense music playing]
Conflict with another puma
could be deadly.
[hisses]
Petaca is taking a huge risk.
[hisses]
[hisses, growls]
[low growling]
[tense music playing]
But this is no stranger.
It's Petaca's older sister
with her two larger cubs.
[gentle music playing]
And she seems happy to share.
Pumas have long been considered solitary.
But rarely-seen encounters like these
reveal that they are far more social than we once thought.
[yowls]
[hissing]
Petaca's cubs aren't sure
what to make of their cousins just yet.
But there is a lesson to be learned here.
[growls]
A family that shares can provide a lifeline
in Patagonia's hostile mountains.
[wind howling]
Mountains that have been carved
by a colossal force.
Glaciers.
Monsters on the move.
[glaciers groaning]
- [crackling] - [loud rumbling]
[cracks, crashes]
This is San Rafael.
And for a glacier,
this one moves fast.
It travels more than 60 feet a day.
Millions of tons of ice break away.
[whooshing]
Some slabs are the size of a skyscraper.
[light orchestral music playing]
Glaciers are so powerful,
they can cut through solid rock.
And they've sliced Patagonia's coast
into over 40,000 islands,
creating isolated lost worlds.
[sweeping music playing]
[birds chirping]
Home...
to the weird and the wonderful.
[birds chirping]
Patagonia's west coast
is cloaked in ancient forests.
[birds screeching]
[whimsical music playing]
It's a strange legacy of the Jurassic.
[indistinct screeching]
And there are certainly strange creatures here
found nowhere else on Earth.
Perhaps the most bizarre...
is the Chilean stag beetle.
These aren't antlers.
They are, in fact, giant jaws.
The bigger they are,
the greater his chances of winning a mate.
But first, he has to find one.
[quirky music playing]
Microscopic hairs can detect the scent of a female.
And it seems there is one...
all the way up here.
Three, two, one.
[dramatic music playing]
We have liftoff.
[dramatic music rises]
These beetles are known as "flying deer."
You can see why.
[dramatic music continues]
And it's hard to gain any altitude.
[dramatic music ends]
Looks like he's got to do it the hard way.
It's a hundred feet to the top,
the equivalent of you or I trying to scale the Empire State Building...
twice over.
[intense music playing]
Finally,
there she is.
[gentle music playing]
But he's not the only one attracted by her scent.
[ominous music playing]
A rival.
It's time to put these jaws into action.
[jaws clicking]
[rousing music playing]
[creaks]
And it seems his opponent has the upper hand.
[rousing music ends]
Has his rival got it in the bag?
[rousing music resumes]
Not yet!
[jaws clicking]
[rousing music continues]
[whooshes]
We have a winner.
But it could be short-lived.
A female is a magnet for dozens of males.
[rousing music continues]
Time to get back into the ring.
[jaws clicking]
It's win or go home.
[rousing music continues]
[jaws clicking]
[whooshes]
[jaws clicking]
[whooshes]
[jaws clicking]
[whooshes]
[birds chirping]
After all that,
he just has to summon up the energy to reach her.
[gentle music playing]
[gentle music continues]
Mating complete.
She now needs to lay her eggs on the forest floor.
And he can help her get there.
[quirky music playing]
[whooshes]
Turns out, these jaws aren't just for fighting.
[stirring music playing]
Journeying east,
mountains strip the clouds of moisture.
[stirring music continues]
Creating a stark, arid heart.
This is the Patagonian Steppe.
And it's home to living dinosaurs.
The Patagonian Steppe stretches 260,000 square miles,
nearly the size of Texas.
There is so little shelter from the elements
that many here seek sanctuary underground.
[whimsical music playing]
[animals chittering]
But some are way too big for that.
[footsteps thumping]
A Darwin's rhea,
South America's answer to the ostrich.
Three feet tall,
it's one of the largest birds in the world.
And this super-sized male
is father to a super-sized family.
Most birds share parenting duties.
But with rheas,
things are different.
After laying the eggs,
the females leave.
So it's up to Dad to raise the family...
alone.
[rustling]
[tense music playing]
And he's not the only one out here.
All across the plains,
dedicated dads are on duty
around the clock.
[rumbling]
For 40 days and 40 nights,
they barely move.
[birds chirping]
[mysterious music playing]
- [animal squawks] - [faint chirping]
[birds chirping]
By late spring,
Dad's efforts have been rewarded.
[birds chirping]
[quirky music playing]
Fourteen healthy chicks.
[chicks peeping]
Now the real work begins.
It will be six months before his chicks are independent.
And they have a lot to learn,
like what's good to eat,
and how to keep well-groomed.
[chicks chirping]
But the most important lesson is to stick together.
Out here, it's easy to get lost.
[hawk chitters]
[tense music playing]
And keen-eyed hawks
would soon grab a lone chick.
[hawk chitters]
[hawk call echoes]
This neighbor has only three chicks left.
And for our dad,
it's a warning.
- Keep your family close. - [squawks]
[gentle music playing]
[distant screech]
What is that?
[distant screech]
[distant screech continues]
It's a distress call.
- [distant screech] - From a chick.
[tense music playing]
But not one of his.
[trilling chirp]
[distant trilling chirp]
[trilling chirp]
That's no problem for this super dad.
[light music playing]
Male rheas have such strong paternal instinct
that if they find any lost chick,
they will adopt it
on the spot.
[uplifting music playing]
And when you already have 14,
well, what's another one?
[gentle music playing]
[gentle music ends]
[rustling]
The summer in the Patagonian Steppe
brings ferocious westerly winds.
[rustling]
[wind howling]
Gusts of over 70 miles per hour scour the land,
triggering events so large,
they can be seen from space.
[dramatic music playing]
Dust storms.
They rage for hundreds of miles,
until they reach Patagonia's Atlantic Coast.
Millions of tons of iron-rich dust are swept into the ocean,
flooding it with nutrients.
[dramatic music continues]
And fueling life
on an astonishing scale.
[seagulls squawking]
[dolphins squealing]
[squealing continues]
- [birds squawking] - [indistinct barking]
Patagonia's rich seas attract giants.
[barking]
Weighing over four tons,
these are the largest seals on Earth.
[grunts]
[barking]
Fully grown bulls are the size of a pickup truck.
[chuffs]
But it's their colossal trunk-like nose
that has earned them their name...
[snorting]
...elephant seals.
[quirky music playing]
[chuffs]
[growling]
Sixty thousand gather
on the remote shores of Peninsula Valdes to breed.
[growls]
[tense music playing]
But only the most dominant bulls have the right to mate.
[snorts]
[barking]
Meet the undefeated heavyweight champion...
[chuffing]
...the beachmaster.
[quirky music playing]
For two months, he's guarded his harem from rivals.
And not surprisingly,
he's exhausted.
[snorts]
[grunts]
But he can never really rest.
[splashing]
A contender is trying his luck with one of the females.
[seal barking]
[growls]
The beachmaster sounds a warning.
His huge nose amplifies the sound to 130 decibels.
[growling]
[growling continues]
It's as loud as a jackhammer.
[growling continues]
But it's not enough to deter his opponent.
[growling]
Time for this beachmaster
to throw his weight around.
[grunting]
[grunting continues]
[whimpering]
[growling]
Both bulls stand ten feet tall
and are armed with razor-sharp teeth.
[both grunting]
The beachmaster is paying the price for enduring months of fighting.
[both growling]
He's flagging.
[both growling]
Defeat would mean losing everything.
[tense music playing]
[growling]
One final push...
[both grunting]
[growling]
...forces his opponent back out to sea.
- He's the winner today. - [snorts]
But there are deadlier challenges on the way.
[seals barking]
Patagonia's Atlantic Coast
draws the ocean's smartest predator.
Orca.
[tense music playing]
Here, they have learned to do something hardly ever seen...
[grunting]
[seal whimpering]
...to hunt seals on dry land.
Along this coast,
this orca is one of only 16 known to hunt this way.
Scientists have named her "Jasmine."
[barking]
[whooshing]
[seagulls squawking]
She is the matriarch responsible for a family of growing adolescents
and now, a grandchild as well.
[spray bursts]
[sprays bursting]
The teenagers need to start earning their keep.
But Patagonia's exposed coast
is no place for a beginner.
[whooshing]
Luckily, Jasmine knows
the perfect training ground.
[sweeping music playing]
Caleta Valdes,
a lagoon protected from the open ocean by vast sand banks.
Here, the water is calm.
[light music playing]
And there is plenty of prey.
Young elephant seals.
[barking]
[foreboding music playing]
The orca students might be eager to get started,
but no one is quite sure what to do.
[seal grunting]
They need to learn the trick,
how to actually reach the seals.
So that is today's first lesson.
Under Jasmine's supervision,
the students launch themselves onto shore...
[light music continues]
...each time edging a little higher.
[seagulls squawking]
But you get it wrong,
and you could end up stuck.
Jasmine knows just what to do,
and comes to the rescue.
[sprightly music playing]
Next,
target practice.
[sprightly music continues]
[whooshes]
Now to try the real thing.
[dramatic music playing]
Close.
[seals grunting]
Not close enough.
There is just one more skill to master.
How to conceal that giant dorsal fin
and learn the art of disappearing.
Turning on her side, Jasmine demonstrates just how.
[chuffs]
[dramatic music playing]
[seagulls squawking]
Every hunt needs an element of surprise.
[seal shrieking]
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music intensifies]
The youngsters will still need plenty more practice.
But Jasmine is passing her knowledge
on to the next generation.
[stirring orchestral music playing]
And for now,
it's time to celebrate.
For all life in Patagonia,
conquering the elements can unlock the riches
of this bountiful land.
- [puffs] - The last great wilderness
in the Americas.
[stirring music continues]
[epic orchestral music playing]