"This is the heart of Africa, a hidden world." "It is a tangled jungle, full of flickering shadows." "It is a place full of challenges, and yet it teems with life." "The longer we look, the more we find different kinds." "This is a large laboratory of the evolution." "A world that we are only beginning to understand." "The heart of Africa is not black, but green and lively." "It is a tropical rainforest." "JUNGLE" "Sunrise at the equator." "The African rain awakened." "Uganda to Sierra Leone stretches a belt of green from... across the continent, 5,500 kilometers long." "More light, more heat and more water than anywhere else in Africa." "The plants took power here." "An endless sea of leaves worshiping the morning sun." "On the ground, barely penetrates sunlight." "The underworld, a land of tree trunks and stumps." "She struts the canopy and pumps nutrients and water to the top." "Here you have to watch your step." "The plants bear spines on their stems." "They protect themselves with armies of ants, which bite in common." "And they fill their flesh with poisons." "They do everything in order not to be eaten." "How can there be something even survive in such a harsh jungle?" "But there are certainly opportunities for animals they managed to grab." "Fruit falls from the sky." "The sound echoed through the jungle." "Elephants, deep in the heart of the jungle." "Attracted by the sound of falling fruit." "As big as a melon and hard." "The fruit is ripe Omphalocarpum." "Two kilograms of nutritious food, for those who can crack the fruit." "The smell is irresistible." "Garlic as it permeates the air." "But the fruit is so hard that even an elephant can not break him." "Or is it?" "The elephant uses its tusks to work open the fruit." "This remarkable behavior has only just come to light." "The forest elephant lives on fruit, and this manna from heaven is full of energy." "But the stock is limited." "And one tree is not enough to feed the largest land animal in Africa." "Elephants have learned to opportunities and to exploit them properly." "The elephant knows every fruit-bearing tree that is there." "Each tree is marked on a map in his head." "They follow a network of trails through the forest... along more than one hundred species of fruit trees." "To survive here, elephants become true opportunists." "There are also others who have learned to survive here." "For generations, people live here too." "Like the elephants they are always in search of food." "Monkeys, low in the trees." "Just within range of a crossbow." "In this tangle of branches may even starve the best hunter." "A safe haven is found quickly, high among the leaves." "Forty meters higher, sun and wind, is another world." "Here, the driving force behind all life in the forest." "Leaves take energy from the sun and convert it into food." "Monkeys, built to jump from tree to tree... move through the canopy." "This guereza and the red colobus are leaf eaters." "For them up here plenty of food." "They are satisfied to chew all day." "But the leaves are less innocent than they appear." "They protect themselves with poisons:" "Tannic acid, strychnine and cyanide." "How can these apes than they eat?" "They have a specialized stomach... full of bacteria that neutralize the toxins." "The poison they eat in one day is enough to kill a human being." "The crown eagle eats no leaves, but monkeys." "The trees offer no protection." "With powerful wing strokes he brings the prey to his nest." "Here he is feeding its chick in a penthouse overlooking the roof of the jungle." "The canopy is a world of extremes." "Hot sun and dry winds." "Violent thunderstorms that engulf everything." "From the dry to the wet season the seasons are clearly defined." "The time of heavy rain is near, and then the whole canopy changes." "As far as the eye, the trees are colored red new leaves." "The blooming of the spring with the colors of autumn." "New leaves are not protected by toxins yet." "To survive the trees produce more leaves than the monkeys can." "Flowers also follow the course of the seasons." "The animals of the canopy are treated to sweet nectar." "The canopy is a treasure trove, but only for those who can come." "Using a vine climbs a Bayaka-pygmy to show a different world." "He is looking for the sweetest treasure of the jungle honey." "He's the best climber of the region, but it is still dangerous work." "One mistake and he falls to the ground, thirty meters below him." "Fortunately, the stingless bees." "But they distract, and that can be dangerous." "This work requires nerves of steel." "But it is worth it." "For the pygmies, this is a wonderful treat." "The harvest of the canopy is brought to the ground in a basket." "Usually you have to work hard to find food in the forest." "But there is a time of abundance... if the plants all offer a helping hand in the forest." "If the long rainy season comes, the forest gives its estimate price." "Fruit, temptation." "Birds are always first to reach." "A giant touraco." "Hornbills." "The African Grey." "Chimpanzees are also fond of fruit." "They check it first if it is ripe." "A fig tree full of fruit if it is a real treat." "Half of what eats the chimpanzee, is fruit." "Young animals know when trees to find it quickly." "If they are large, they know the trees as well... they can already predict when ripe." "There are so many figs that the animals are pampered on the ground." "Leftovers from the feast above them." "A fig tree can bear fruit in every season." "So they can help animals through the lean months." "Fruit is vital." "And the animals that eat, helping the plants." "As a further pull the chimpanzees, they carry the seeds of trees with it." "Birds have even greater reach." "The seeds they eat... are energy rich but light, ideal for air." "Only hornbills already spread a quarter of the trees." "And elephants do not eat anything for the fruit Omphalocarpum." "If a tree can seduce this animal, its seeds get the best spread." "Elephants go from tree to tree, looking for food... and can cover all seeding hundreds of kilometers." "And they give the seeds right away with a pile of manure." "Long millennia animals help the African rain forest... to spread around the equator." "Now we begin to discover a new side of the forest." "The climate in Africa has not always been as it is now." "Over the centuries, wet and dry periods alternated them." "The forest grew in the wet years and shrank again in the dry." "The endless green sea of now is a snapshot... a dynamic city that is constantly changing." "A pumping heart green in the middle of Africa." "Africa is now experiencing a wet period, and the forest is approaching its maximum size." "It rains almost every day." "In some places it is ten meters per year." "Who lives here must tolerate a huge amount of rain." "But that's not necessarily bad." "The rain that has formed the forest, each day brings small changes." "And any change offers animals a new chance to survive." "A footprint of an elephant is full rained." "In the water is a small miracle happened." "From microscopic eggs hatch fish appear." "The transformation is complete." "Colourful killifish in the footprint of an elephant." "In this temporary pool they are safe from the predators of the river." "But there are threats." "A water scorpion has poison to consume the flesh of fish." "Such a puddle has no future." "Now let the fish show his true nature." "He jumps from overbeeke to stream into this world of casual water." "He goes against the stream is like a salmon, in order to get the maximum out." "And this is the purpose of all those colors: a female." "In the subdued light on the ground this spectacle is irresistible." "She is hypnotized by his colorful flirtation." "And this creates a new generation." "In these choppy waters, the killifish found their place." "After the rain will drop the water level, but the eggs are safe." "They survive in the soil, in anticipation of new water." "The rainforest is flooded." "The water can not suck the trees, is poured." "Streams form torrents, which are again swirling rivers." "The rivers break the monotony of the rainforest." "Light floods the floor." "Heaven and the underworld are one." "Guereza's like to live in rivers." "The plants here are more nutritious, so they do not have much to eat." "They have better things to do." "Fleas, for example." "Or a newborn by giving young, completely white." "Or just play." "In the course of the years have shapes drawn by the rivers green carpet." "The Niger and the Congo are among the largest rivers in the world." "They divide the forest, and every turn offers a new chance for life." "By pulling along the shore... have animals as the guereza spread throughout the forest." "The rivers also brought another life." "The Fang people of Equatorial Guinea depends on the rivers." "They have learned to leverage them." "They collect the bark of the tree Olong." "Stomping them fine, on the riverbank." "When they wash the bark, the sap wash away with the river water." "The juices are toxic, in order to protect the tree." "The poison is so strong that it paralyzes the fish." "Fish was always that easy." "The natural poison has a remarkable effect." "The caught fish are edible." "The rest comes soon again." "Soon the river will again be full of fish." "Deep in Congo rivers also deliver food to relatives of humans." "Bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, seek insect larvae in a stream." "They are relatives of the chimpanzee, but they are different with water." "They walk more upright, making them feel more at home in the water." "They often wading through a stream, with their fingers in search of food." "This monkey loves just more of the water." "In the evening the bonobos find a drier spot on... and they climb in safe trees." "They stringing branches to each other to create a nest." "The bonobos were separated from chimpanzees... by the changing course of the Congo River." "After they were separated, they evolved into a new species." "The rivers maintain not only alive, they create it." "From space, the forest a sea of small flashes at night." "Each flash is a storm cloud of hundreds of kilometers." "The forces of change are relentless." "In the morning, the rain is over and 't forest smothered in heavy fog." "Everything is quiet, pristine." "Sometimes the forest seems something eternal." "Trees live here at the equator since the time of the dinosaurs." "Sometimes it seems almost as if there still live samples." "Heavy branches, roots short and loose soil." "In 't rain often falling trees, creating a hole in the roof." "A place which for centuries has been dark, suddenly greeted the daylight." "All life in the forest begins immediately to compete for this new opportunity." "The wild yam is the first." "This is the sprinter of the plant world." "It grows to the hole in the canopy, and the light." "He has a secret weapon:" "A huge tuber pumps day and night energy to the growing point." "It grows one meter in three days." "As he grows, he produces drops of nectar on his shoots." "There are bugs on off." "Butterflies." "More importantly, ants... which return the favor by protecting the yam against enemies." "The place in the sun does not seem to escape the yam." "But in this complex world every defense provoked a counter-attack." "This beetle grabs, like the yam, every opportunity that arises." "He immediately begins to mate." "Before the ants have been mobilized... already gnaws a little yellow larva to the yam." "And now comes the clever." "As he eats, he takes toxins from the plant... he spreads on his back, like a shield." "Smell the watchful ants and the larvae now tastes revolting." "He can to your heart's feast on the yam." "One larva Yam will not be deterred from his trip to the sun." "An opportunity for the yam is an opportunity for the beetle." "While there is fighting hard for a place in the sun... offers a fallen tree possibilities for other species." "Contractors assert themselves immediately." "Ants go straight to work to undermine the stump." "Fungus and mold stretch out, looking for food." "Termites digest 't wood featuring the food of new food." "Chimpanzees love the crunchy, juicy, high-protein termites." "And catching their food, they have a big advantage." "They use their hands and their cleverness... to form tools, and to handle." "They see a young age how." "The technique is always transmitted." "Termites can catch with one twig." "Safari- ants require a different approach." "You need a long stick, and should be against the bites." "Sometimes it helps to approach them from above." "If you're smart, the life in the forest is just a little easier." "Nobody is so useful in making tools as humans." "This 3m long pole, a "auger", has been made to dig up yams." "The tuber is deep in the ground." "But not too deep for the auger." "The pygmies leave the tip of the tuber in the ground, so that he can grow." "they come back in a few years to harvest the new corm." "The hunter camp the tubers are cooked and eaten." "This is the only source of starch they can find with regularity." "It is certainly worth it." "The life of these people is intertwined with the forest." "They have developed tools to exploit the canopy and the ground." "They use the wood from the trees, and the chemistry of the forest." "The Mbango juice is squeezed out in order to baptize in arrowheads." "A blood drop of this stuff can already cause a heart attack." "The Bayaka pygmies have already discovered many useful plant substances." "Science is starting to catch up until now." "While this preparation is deadly... helps another form just for headaches and diarrhea." "The poisons of plants are very useful in the hands of a bosapotheker." "His knowledge might provide solutions to many modern diseases." "The Bayaka pygmies use the forest, but it hardly hurt." "There is a different animal to survive 's entire forest can change." "In Zangabai in the Central African Republic... it has a barren island formed in a sea of green." "Through the years, his heavy legs have changed the forest around." "There are few places in the forest... where the soil contains valuable salts and minerals." "For generations, the elephants come to places like Zangabai for 't salt." "Nobody knows exactly what it is." "There have been found substances against plantengif and vital minerals." "But research into these open places teaches us more about elephants." "This open space is visited by 2800 elephants." "Half of all African elephants living in the rainforest." "They disperse seeds and make room in the forest for other animals." "They are oases of peace, toevluchts- places for all kinds of African animals." "Parrots." "The rare bongo." "All kinds of animals leaving the shelter of the forest for the minerals." "In the dark forest, it is difficult to see other animals and meet." "But in the clearings of the most elusive animals to find each other." "A western lowland gorilla." "Long he was less known than the mountain gorillas." "But since we know the glades, we learn more about this animal." "There are more than 100,000, hidden in the forest." "They come to the open spaces and minerals to meet... to create links to determine rankings and play." "The gorillas leaving the safe forest, remind one much earlier migration." "Six million years ago, declined the African rain forest... and made the place for shrubs and grassland." "Many species left the forests to explore this new world." "Among them were highly developed apes, our ancestors." "Man began as a bosaap... but only became fully human in the world outside the forest." "Later turned people back into the forest, like the Bayaka pygmies." "Etu tells how her people came to the forest to collect honey." "At that time their ancestors developed the skills... in order to survive in the forest." "Both humans and animals have the time here offered the best opportunities." "The rainforest has adapted to the climate has changed." "Numerous trees have been felled." "Clearings emerged and disappeared." "Rivers always looked their way." "Grass Plains are repeatedly absorbed and reborn." "Every change is a new chance for life... here in the green heart of Africa."