"They were here thousands of years before Columbus." "While Paris was still a village, they were carving cities out of the jungle." "They played a ball game for life or death." "They planned their lives according to the heavens." "Their writing is a puzzle we're still learning to decipher." "Wow!" "Look at this." "Really something." "Now the pace of discovery is quickening." "We are finally finding out who they were." "Bone?" "There's a lot of bone." "Look." "It's a black kind of a..." "Oh, man!" "This is really a powerful work of art." "They are the people who say that the gods made them from corn." "They are the Maya." "The year is 1839." "The place-western Honduras." "An American explorer named John Lloyd Stephens is leading an expedition in search of an abandoned Maya city called copan." "Almost nothing is knows about the Maya" "Stephens is about to learn more." "Draped with a thousand years of tropical growth, the brooding temples and tumbled stones sprawl for miles." "Stephens is overwhelmed by a sense of mystery." "Who built this place?" "What happened here?" "In the following days Stephens and English artist Frederick Catherwood record their impressions of the ruined city." "It lay before us like a shattered bark in the midst of the ocean, her masts gone, her crew perished." "And none to tell when she came, or what caused her destruction." "All was mystery, dark, impenetrable mystery." "During the next three years Stephens and Catherwood visit the better known Maya sites to the north." "In Yucatan they ecplore Uxmal and chichen itza." "In Chiapas they visit Palenque." "And still questions plague them." "Who built these cities?" "Why had they been abandoned?" "The land of the Maya spread from parts of Honduras," "El Salvodor, and Guatemala in the south to Belize and Mexico in the north" "It was dotted with hundreds of small kingdoms, each with its own unique history." "The heartland of what scholars call the "Classic" Maya civilization lay in the southern lowlands." "It is there that our story takes place starting at the site where scientific excavations first began..." "Copan." "Today, this partially restored site still retains its air of mystery." "Bill Fash is the director of the Copan Acropolis Project." "Copan was one of the premiere Maya cities." "Now we can't say that in terms of its size." "Cetainly there were other cities that were larger." "But while it was booming for about 400 years there, it was quite a place." "It had incredible artists, sculptors, architects, engineers, astronomers, scribes, and so forth." "So I suppose if you had to put it in our cultural terms ...if Tikal were like say New York, Copan was like Paris." "Every year of the past few decades, a handful of Maya specialists and hundreds of workers have been trying to piece Copan's history back together" "The story of what happened here is still unfolding, stone by stone." "There are over 30,000 fragments of stone sculpture that once adorned these buildings." "The problem is, for this particular puzzle, there is no box top." "There is no picture that enables us to know how they went back together." "We have to try and figure that out." "And the problem is made worse by things like this." "This is what we call a GOK piles and pull out the examples that are just like those we have dug up, and try and put the whole thing back together." "But in spite of the difficulties," "Fash's team of experts has reassembled thousands of sculptures and conserved dozens of buildings." "Every year the pictures of what Copan was like more that a thousand years ago becomes clearer." "Many clues still lie hidden in the temples where the Maya elite buried their dead" "The Classic Maya had virtually no interest in metal, so there is no gold buried here." "But sometimes something even more valuable is unearthed." "Watch the wire." "See this face." "All right." "It's repainted." "It's a stucco coating over..." "In 1992 Robert Sharer discovered the tomb of a royal family member." "Buried with him were some pots." "One glyph is there." "What makes these vessels especially significant are the painted designs and the hieroglyphic writing." "Well, those are fantastic vessels, although I don't know if I can say much about the glyphs on them." "Forty years ago we could read only a few Maya hieroglyphs." "Today we can read about half." "But it takes an expert." "There's another pot just like the one with the feet in the tomb." "David Stuart is the son of Maya scholars and one of the world's foremost epigraphers." "By being able to read the glyphs now, it makes the Maya a little bit more normal." "It makes them more human because we see that they did have history, that they were a people that had real concerns about themselves and the events in their lives." "One kind of Maya writing was almost lost forever." "When Spanish priests arrived in the 16th century, they found hundreds of folding books called codices, and promptly burned them." "Today, only parts of four codices remain, but they have helped to shape the way we think about the Maya." "The books are almanacs, filled with astrological information." "The men and women who wrote the almanacs were scribes, well versed in astronomy." "Using a sophisticated mathematics, they calculated the movements of the night sky thousands of years into the past and thousands of years into the future." "They knew that the universe moved in cycles, some very large, some very small." "They even predicted eclipses of the sun." "They seem to have been fascinated by the relationship between time and the events in their own lives." "The Maya also left a record in a medium much more permanent than paper." "And this writing contains much more than dates and numbers." "On these stone the Maya recorded the important events in the lives of their rulers." "This is the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan, the longest inscribed text in the New World." "But early archaeologists reassembled it out of order, so today we can read it only in segments." "Sculpture specialist Barbara Fash is making a catalog of the 1,200 glyphs on the stairway." "Someday, these drawings may tell a more complete story of Copan's kings" "This means "to plant with a stick in the ground."" "Other hieroglyphs are more accessible, thanks to dramatic breakthroughs in the past few decades." "This is the date." "It's a..." "Epigrapher Linda Schele has done her share of the recent detective work" "This is a little tree-tey." "And on this side, facing the east, he's young." "But on the west side you can see..." "Look at the beard." "It is a rare thing when a people develop historical consciousness and make recorded history a part of what they do." "What we are participating in now is the recovery of lost history because American history does not begin in 1492 with Columbus." "It begins in 200 B.C." "with the first Maya king who wrote his name on a stone." "Long before the first king wrote his name on a stone, the Maya were living in the fertile Copan valley." "They were corn farmers." "Their lives were ruled by the rhythms of the natural world, planting and harvesting, birth and death." "But around A. D. 400, at about the time Rome was starting to collapse, a change swept through the valley." "On a lazy bend in the Copan River, buildings made from stone were rising from the jungle floor." "Brilliantly colored buildings surrounded a whitewashed central plaza where thousands of people could gather" "There was trade in shells and cacao beans, tobacco, jade, and feathrs." "At the center of the city stood the ball court." "The object of the ball game seems to have been to keep the heavy rubber ball in motion, without using hands or feet." "Stone carvings at some sites show ballplayers with severed human heads dangling from their belts." "But no one knows if they depict what actually happened to the losers, or illustrate something more symbolic." "The ball was supposed to be a metaphor for the movement of the sun and by extension, also the moon and the stars." "And you wanted to make sure that there was regularity in that movement." "They thought that if they played the game in the right way, and honored the gods in the right way, that they would ensure the agricultural cycle and enable the sun to rise and the rains to come on time" "and for there to be a bountiful harvest." "In the secret world of the Maya the gods were the source of all life, and only the kings had the power to intervene with them." "The gods sustained the physical universe with sun and rain and expected humans to nourish them in return." "The supreme source of that nourishment was blood." "When the Maya wanted to acknowledge the sacredness of the moment or an important event, they would let blood." "Blood was the vehicle that carried a quality that they called chu'lel, which means their soul." "It was something that not only permeated human bodies, it permeated buildings, it permeated the trees, the sky." "It permeated all things sacred in the world." "And when they gave blood, what they were doing was they were activating the chu'lel." "It's like George Lucas's the "Force."" "If you can think of Obi-wan-kenobi, you know, calling the "Force"out, or Luke, as he guides the plane in you know, in the final Death Star battle." "That's what the Maya were doing by these rituals." "They were touching what they considered to be the living force of the univers and it's still here." "On special occasions the king himself would give blood." "This was one of the most secret rituals in Maya life." "After days of fasting and spiritual preparation, the king would pierce his foreskin with a stingray spine and let the blood drip onto paper strips." "With this act of sacrifice a doorway to the gods was opened." "When the paper strips were burned, the Maya believed they could see their gods in the rising smoke." "Today, the descendants of the ancient Maya still live much like their ancestors did." "The myths they remember and the ceremonies they perform are all part of a tradition that the Maya say God gave them at the beginning of time." "Casimiro Sagajau is a Maya priest who blesses the fields at harvest time" "We are Cakchiquels, direct descendants of the ancient Maya." "Our religion is from a long time ago." "I learned as a child from the Maya priests." "In dreams we learned from the Maya gods when to plant and when to harvest, when to set the fires, and when to do the corn ceremony." "The Maya passion for ritual was one of the first things Spanish missionaries observed when they arrived in Yucatan almost 500 years ago." "When the Catholic Church banned traditional forms of worship, the old ways went underground." "Today the religion the Maya follow is a blend of these two ancient faiths" "The Maya have clung tenaciously to many aspects of the old culture." "In the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala their unique dress not only defines them as Maya, but identifies the particular village where they live." "It is said that when a Maya woman puts on her traditional blouse, called a huipil, her head emerges at the very center of a world woven from dreams, just as the great tree of life emerges from the earth." "In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico," "Chip Morris had been working with weavers for 20 years." "The weavers have always said that their designs come from the beginning of the world, meaning the beginning of their culture" "When I started looking at the archaeology of the sculptures and the statues, the things that show what the weaving was like, there are a number that are all but identical to the weavings of today." "What's in the designs is a map of the Maya world, but not the surface of the earth, not where we are standing now, but it's the dream world." "It's that world where the gods are, where the beings that control rain, where Angel, the lightning bolt lives." "There are no trucks, there are no houses on a blouse." "It's all images of that sacred universe that creates rain, that creates life, that maintains the world." "In a world where the line between the secular and the sacred is almost imperceptible, everything is more than is seems." "Pyramids symbolize sacred mountains where the ancestors dwell." "Doors represent the mouths of caves passageways into the mountian's dangerous underworld." "The Maya believed they went to that underworld when they died." "They called it Xibalba." "It was the "place of fright"" "a watery realm of disease and deacy that ordinary people had little hope of escaping." "How the Maya treated their dead is being investigated here at a site 130 miles north of Copan." "These are the ruins of a city called Caracol." "Once it was a prosperous administrative center." "Today it is remarkable for the scores of tombs discovered here." "I think we'll leave the rest of this until we move the rocks." "Okay." "Arlen Chase is a potter expert." "Diane Chase is an authority on human bones." "They're trying to understand how the Maya thought about death." "We tend to think of things in Westernized terms." "The Maya were not a Western society;" "they didn't do anything the way Europeans do." "It's so hard for our own society to understand how the Maya lived." "I mean we don't have dead living with us, you know, every day." "We don't put them in a room in our house and maintain them there." "Well, the Maya essentially did that in their living groups." "Okay." "Oh, this is nice." "Arlen." "This is real nice." "We've definitely got a royal tomb here" "Ordinary people were usually buried under the floors of their houses." "The vessels are nice and they're in good shape." "The elite were placed in tombs." "This polychrome over here is in better shape on the back than the front side." "What about the bone?" "Bone?" "There's a lot of bone." "There are at least two individuals whose heads are to the south." "They're in pretty good shape." "Someone else's legs are up in this corner." "It doesn't go with either one of the first two individuals." "It's not the man and the possible woman." "It's somebody different." "It wasn't uncommon for the Maya to bury more than one family member in the same space." "I like to think of it more like a family mausoleum where grandpa may have died and you place him inside first." "Grandma dies." "You put her inside too." "A number of years pass and maybe the son or daughter dies." "You might move grandpa to the side a little bit, grandma too, and stick the son in." "And a little bit further along a few more people in the family die and eventually the mausoleum has quite a lot of bone material inside." "This one's got a ring..." "For archaeologists, tombs are like time capsules." "The objects buried with the dead sometimes yield precise dates and names." "These help to fill out our picture of how the ancient Maya lived." "...in the lab it should pop out." "And sometimes what they find is simply beautiful." "Like the tombs at Caracol, the buildings of Copan contain their share of buried history." "But finding it has often been an elusive undertaking." "Honduran archaeologist Ricardo Agurcia has been working at Copan since 1978." "My primary interest was finding out what happened to these people." "It's something that's part of my heritage too." "It's something that's part of my country." "And I grew up I mean I wasn't very young when I came to these ruins the first time." "But it impacted me and it was a fascinating issue-question that you were always thinking about." "What happened to these people?" "Who were they?" "How did they do the things they did?" "For the past four years" "Agurcia has been excavating a temple pyramid that may tell us more about how the people of Copan lived." "Temple 16 is a typical royal structure in terms of its construction." "And there in lies the archaeologists' challenge." "For the Maya, certain spaces were sacred, so they built their temples one on top of another." "Workers would collapse the upper levels of an existing structure, encase what was left with heavy fill, and build a new structure around it." "As Agurcia's crew remove the fill, they create a labyrinth of tunnels." "Working in tunnels tends to be very confusing." "You're working like in three dimensions." "You're going up, down, sideways, in between." "And oftentimes you get lost and you can't really understand what you're looking at." "The flat wall on the left used to be the outer wall of an older temple." "Only by following its walls to their ends can Agurcia determine building's original dimensions." "I only traveled a short distance and bingo, we hit another wall." "It still goes farther on towards the south." "So we then tried going up to see whether we had the bottom part of a substructure or the higher part of it and started going up." "And you can see here the terraces going up of what was a very large pyramid." "It goes up, as far as we've traced it, eight stories high and each one curving back and going further up." "What Agurcia found next was totally unexpected." "There was yet a third structure inside the first two, this one was different." "The building Agurcia calls Rosalila was perfectly preserved." "The loose dirt was removed, exposing a set of giant masks still tinged with traces of the original paint." "Most of the masks we found before were perhaps a meter or two tall and would extend as much as five, six meters." "But these masks just kept going and going and going and to this moment we still haven't found the end of them" "Hey, partner." "How's it going, boss?" "Wo-o-o." "You haven't been here in a while, have you?" "Wow!" "Whoa!" "Can you believe it?" "Red paint all over the place." "Yeah, we've got lots of good paint." "We're coming down below the molding and we've got two birds out." "We've got one over here on the left and he's facing north." "And I think we have another one." "You see, he's got his beak bent over his eye." "All the feathers behind him." "All the feathers radiating out and also it's higher up than anything else in the Acropolis." "So this thing shone out for miles around." "It's outrageous, it's just outrageous." "Adorned with brightly painted sculpture" "Rosalila once crowned the highest point in Copan." "Framing the central doorway, two giant birds face the setting sun." "Above them undulating serpents extend their bodies toward the sky." "For the archaeologists, the careful treatment given Rosalila poses a question." "We're all just itching to know what Rosalil is all about." "Why was it left there for 150 years and nobody touched it other than to maintain it?" "Why was it buried intact?" "They didn't touch any of it when they buried it." "All the rest of them they smashed to pieces to build something bigger and better over it." "Why was it so revered that is had to be mummified when it was buried?" "And most of all, what's inside of it?" "What is that thing housing?" "And that's what we're hoping Ricardo will find." "But before any new discoveries are made the rainy season descends on Copan." "The archaeologists return home and all excavations are suspended until it ends." "Nearly six months later the rain is over." "The weather clears." "At last the excavation of temple 16 can be resumed." "For another half year workers continue to peel away the dirt from Rosalila." "And just before the rains resume, the enigmatic temple yields one more surprise." "Froma smallcachefoundinadoorway," "Agurcia removes something buried 1,300 years ago." "Look at this." "It's a black kind of a..." "Oh, man!" "It doesn't fit." "It's close enough." "You would not believe how sharp the edges on these things are." "What they have found is a bundle of blades chipped from an especially sacred material flint, the firestone." "They were probably used on ceremonial occasions and the faces may depict royal ancestors, or sacrificial victims." "No one knows how long it took to create these delicately flaked blades since no one today has the skill to make one." "In all, nine flints were found in Rosalila perhaps corresponding to the nine Maya "Lords of the Night."" "It's been here for 1,300 years and it's unbelievable." "It's a beautiful piece of art." "I mean the finesse, the work in it is incredible." "And I just feel like incredibly privileged, you know." "You get caught up in the heat of the battle and you try not to forget to take your pictures, take your measurements." "And at times you forget to think about it and to think of the face that it's human beings that did this a long time ago and that when they did it, this was very important to them." "I'm touched by it, I really am." "And it's a special feeling." "It doesn't happen every day." "It is likely the flints Agurcia found in Rosalila were placed there sometime in the 7 th century A. D." "when the classic Maya civilization was at its peak." "In many Maya kingdoms there was a boom in the construction of new buildings." "Some cities were even connected by roads, and trade among them flourished." "Copan lay on the southern frontier." "But to the north events had taken place in the Maya world that would eventually shake it to its core." "Tikal was one of their greatest Maya cities, a prosperous urban center that the envy of its neighbors." "It was probably inconceivable to the kings of Tikal that any other kingdom posed a threat, but in the spring of 562," "Caracol attacked Tikal and defeated it" "During the upheaval that followed in Tikal, members of the royal family moved away into the jungle and established their own city." "Today, a research base camp marks the spot." "What was once the great city of Dos Pilas has again been reclaimed by jungle." "The effort to piece together a picture of its dramatic rise to power is being led by Arthur Demarest." "What he has learned is changing the way we think about the Maya." "Forty or fifty years ago we thought of the Maya as this peace-loving, theocratic society, these scholarly kings who studied the movements of the planets and lived kind of in a world of their own." "Now we know, from the recent hieroglyphic decipherments and from excavations like these that have found fortifications;" "that the Maya were a very violent people, one of the most warlike peoples of the New World, and that they were constantly engaged in warfare, battles of dynastic sucession, and earthly pursuits." "In 1990" "Demarest's team discovered concrete evidence to support this view." "It is a large, perfectly preserved hieroglyphic text, and on it it talks about a series of wars, battles, and conquests involving the big players-Tikal," "Dos Pilas battling each other." "And it records the outcomes." "It's tremendous piece of information, and its decipherment," "I think, is going to change the way we look at this very critical period in Maya history." "This is really amazing." "They're saying that he is the subordinate of this lord, presumably of Calakmul." "It's an incredible title." "It's saying we were competitive with Tikal." "Well, we have to think about it." "I mean is it subordination or..." "Epigraphers David Stuart and Steve Houston are called in to see how much of the text they can read." "...with references to Bonampak and Tonina." "And then after that-X." "And look, there it is." "Katun." "Yeah." "This, Arthur, refers to a kind of altar." "And here it refers to a dedication." "It's referring to the stair." "And look!" "It's a step." "It's a step!" "It's a pyramid." "Okay, what it's saying is that this event, this war event..." "And then over here you've got a new event involving Ruler A's father." "The skull glyph here is the name of the ruler of Tikal." "Initially, it seems that Maya warfare was to some extent ritualized." "It was more devoted to religious ends." "Literally, these guys dressed up in silly outfits, archaic costumes with big Paleolithic spears and went out there and met in some place and knocked each other around." "One of them was captured and brought back and sacrificed." "What the hieroglyphs on the stairway seem to confirm is that sometime in the 8th century A. D." "ritualized warfare gave way to campaigns of expansion." "The kings of Dos Pilas attacked town along the Pasion River, and thereby seized control of a vital trade route." "It looks like there was a change in warfare that led to an intensification and to a shifting to warfare for conquest, actually absorbing the territory of others." "This seems to have somehow gotten out of hand." "An arms race, in a way, started." "Attacking centers becomes acceptable." "Attacking population bases, burning temples, that kind of thing." "The new warfare would eventually come to Caracol as well." "The eighth century and ninth century at Caracol and throughout the Maya area was a time of tremendous change and a lot of warfare." "Caracol, up to that point in time, had been very successful in warfare." "What happens, we think at least, is that in this late time horizon, it's not just a question of defeating a neighboring civilization and taking them into your realm, but talking large numbers of captives to sacrifice." "I think people were really scared." "Picture yourself in a Maya city." "And here you're been having warfare and you say okay," "I'm going to be captured and I'm going to be put to work probably have to give three months out of the year to that foreign country over there." "But rather than that happening to you, you've got this marauding army that comes in, pulls all the men together, and rather than marching them off to work in the fields, they instead cut off their heads and mount them on sticks" "and make huge skull platforms." "Now that would strike terror into you." "That would be enough to say, "My god, let's get out of here!"" "Even Dos Pilas would finally face the terror." "On the Hieroglyphic Stairway itself lie the ruins of a hastily erected stockade." "Archaeologically, this defensive wall is one of the most important and exciting features that we've found here." "One of the reasons why this masonry line is so neat and is placed so well is that it is made out of neatly carved blocks which were ripped off." "They're the facings from the palaces around you." "So they literally tore down the royal palace and built this, running it up against their hieroglyphic stairway to create this desperate defensive system." "A picture of the city in its final days begins to emerge." "In a frantic attempt to keep the invaders out, the citizens of Dos Pilas erect two defensive walls around the center of the city and move inside for protection." "These are low house platforms that held little huts that filled the central ceremonial plaza here at Dos Pilas at the time of the siege and the collapse." "And it indicates that again the desperation of those final moments of this great kingdom was so great and its fall had been so complete that, at this point, you had the population living within the ceremonial plaza," "below the towering temples, below the monuments of the strutting great kings." "It's almost as if you had a population squeezed in living on the White House lawn, holding out at the very end of the collapse of American civilization." "That's what you have here that moment in time." "Copan, meanwhile, is struggling with problems of a different sort." "When one of its most powerful rulers is captured and beheaded, faith in the divine authority of the kings wavers." "At the same time, the population in the Copan Valley continues to grow." "Basically, the Copanecs became the victims of their own success." "And as this city grew and became more vibrant and more attractive, eventually all this nice, fertile, alluvial bottomland was covered by houses, and they were basically cutting themselves off from their own food source." "As time went by, all of the forest was eliminated." "This caused widescale erosion throughout the valley." "This eventually resulted in less rainfall, and people just weren't table to live here any more." "It is now the middle of the eighth century." "Throughout the southern Maya world the power of the kings is waning." "Disease and hunger are becoming commonplace." "People begin to drift away from the cities." "In Europe the Dark Ages are halfway over." "Here in the jungle, they are just beginning." "Slowly, one by one, the great southern cities are abandoned" "In 761 the king of Dos Pilas is captured and killed." "Fromthatpointonthereareno more hieroglyphic inscriptions here." "The last written date at Palenque is 799." "Twenty years later, Copan falls silent" "Caracol stops recording in 859." "The last inscription date at Tikal is written in 879." "Only a handful of Maya cities in the south survive beyond the first years of the tenth century." "The northern cities of the Yucatan Peninsula places like Uxmal and Chichen itza will prosper for several hundred years longer." "But they are no longer ruled by divine kings, and gradually the old ways of building and writing, and worshiping slip away." "The Classic Maya civilization is at an end." "One of the thins, I think, that strikes the public consciousness about the Maya civilization is to see this sophisticated culture with its monuments and architecture and science and writing system in the jungle, covered, destroyed an area that's now abandoned today." "I think that there's an immediate impact when you see that." "It reminds us that we can fail, that civilization is a complex phenoneman, and we can screw up." "And the consequences can be totally catastrophic." "Yet, while the Classic Maya civilization may have disappeared, the Maya people have not." "For 3,000 years they have survived the ambitions of their own kings and those of foreign conquerors." "And once again they are under assault." "In Guatemala, during the past three decades, the Maya have been caught in a civil war they barely comprehend." "In that time, 100,000 Maya have been killed and another 40,000 have "disappeared."" "No one can count the number of widows and orphans." "And through it all, they endure." "They weave their huipils." "They farm their corn." "I feel that the Maya of today are very much in the same traditions as the Classic Maya." "What they've lost is that big covering that overlay of nobility, and they dropped it themselves." "They basically told the kings, that's it." "You're not working anymore." "And they went and they continued their own lives." "I don't like it when people talk about the Maya collapse, because they never collapsed." "They evolved." "They went through different hard times good times, bad times, but they're still with us." "They still maintain their customs;" "they still maintain their ways of organizing their societies." "And it's very exciting to see how much of the ancient" "Maya way of life is still alive and well." "What we're digging up or coming up with, it's part of our history." "And the men that lived here are some of the greatest men we've ever had." "And it's a fact that we're getting to know more and more and more about the life of these people more than I ever thought was possible." "I think if somebody had asked me as a graduate student whether we would know what we know today about the Maya at Copan, there's no way I would have believed him" "What is happening now is the people who made these places people like Yax Pak or Bird Jaguar or Pacal are getting back their voices" "They are becoming real to us and speaking to the people of the 20th century about who built this place and why, and what they felt, and what they thought about the world." "These are not anonymous people any more." "Skilled hands bring the faded past to life and reach back to rescue treasures lost in the wake of time." "Snatched from oblivion, aglow once more with original splendor priceless treasures from the past now live again." "The paths that lead to treasure are often found by those who follow a dream." "As a child, Ken Hyde's dream was to fly." "Today he is an airline pilot." "Ken Hyde lives in rural Virginia." "Here, with his wife and daughter he pursues a larger dream and each day that dream comes closer to fulfillment." "Nestled safely in its hangar an aeronautical wonder from another time is coming to life." "Bearing the colors of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, it is a Curtiss JN-4D, one of the famous Jennys that first took to the skies after the United States plunged into World War I." "With advanced designs, 6,000 Jennys were built to train young American fliers." "Though she never fought in combat the Jenny helped redefine the rules of war... she taught a generation of pilots the principles of air power." "After the War in the roaring 20th heats turned to the sky cause the bomb stormer roar across America" "Surplus Jennys were expendable prompts in the areo vaudevilles which sometimes ended in tragedy." "Today, only fragments remain." "From such meager clues" "Ken Hyde has learned how the plane was built." "It basically was a hand-built airplane." "They had some automation but most everything was done by hand." "I didn't see any reason why I couldn't do that if I followed the old procedures and did it pretty much as they did." "And it was a test." "Ken Hyde is returning his Jennys to the way she was when this man put her together in the Curtis Factory" "To recover a lost technology he's become a student of History" "Searching through manuals blueprints and old parts" "Here, he finds evidence hidden in a photograph to help him reconstruct a wild-shield" "Fifteen years ago, Ken Hyde found the pieces of a Jenny in a building set for demolition." "Before long he found the parts of two more." "And there was a time when we had three airplanes in the basement of this little 1500-square-foot house in a subdivision." "I just remember things everywhere and I didn't know..." "I knew it was an airplane but you know, when you're that small, you don't realize that all these little parts and pieces are really going to go into something that fantastic." "It almost seems like a dream." "J just remember it being a very slow process... something that you looked at." "You didn't touch." "You wanted to help, and you were politely told to go do something else." "Out of Ken Hyde's dream, the shape of a Jenny slowly emerged." "He has spent months on small details to ensure the historic accuracy of every nut and bolt, for the Jenny must be authentic to be true to his dream." "When I started the airplane 15 years ago, a lot of the workmanship at that time was geared to just being airworthy." "And over the years the antique movement has changed;" "it's getting more into museum quality" "And the value of the airplane is based on being as authentic as you possibly can make it." "It's very easy and it's a lot faster to do it with modern materials and modern techniques" "But more than anything else, if it's going to be preserved as a museum piece, it ought to be just the way it came from the factory." "Fifteen years of work now show in every detail." "To cover just one wing it took days to stitch the Irish linen by hand." "The family spent endless nights fraying the cloth tapes that cover the seams." "Even the varnish formula took months to develop." "All clear." "Okay, it's coming off the lip now." "To be authentic the Jenny must be airworthy." "Before she can fly, her engine has to be tested." "Real easy as it comes off." "Kenny, it's turning." "Okay, choke on." "Choke on." "The principle behind flying, and a lot of people say well, we shouldn't fly the airplane, because if you damage it, then all that work is for nothing." "But we've been fortunate in that we have most of the parts and pieces, and we can manufacture anything on the airplane with the exception of the engine, possibly." "So hopefully, knock on wood, we won't damage the airplane, but if we do, we can restore that." "So that's why we want to fly the airplane." "Contact." "Contact." "Choke off." "Choke off." "Contact." "Contact." "Throttle closed." "Throttle closed." "Way to go, baby!" "On a summer afternoon, family and friends gather to see her fly." "Okay, contact." "I did have stage fright that day with all those people because Murphy's Law says that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen right there in front of 230 people." "But it's really exciting to see it all come together." "It's just great when things start all flowing together." "It's been a long time, and it's been a lot of fun." "A lot of frustration sometimes, but it's been an awful lot of fun." "It really lifts off in a hurry, too." "There it goes!" "Isn't it beautiful?" "It's gotta be exciting." "It is really exciting for him." "It is really exciting for him." "At 65 miles an hour, she soars again, one of four airworthy Jennys in the world today." "Forgotten skills have been relearned, and in the skies over the Virginia countryside, a priceless treasure from our past now lives again." "In Auburn, Indiana, another treasure is up for sale, its value to be determined by the highest bidder." "You now have one of the rarest opportunities ever available in your lifetime to purchase one of the finest restored Duesenbergs in the history of the world..." "One of the greatest Duesenbergs ever created and one of the finest restoration ever sampled on the Duesenberg automobile right here in Auburn, Indiana." "How much do you want to bid?" "Who will give one million five hundred thousand?" "Who will give..." "A model J Duesenberg glitters on the auction block, and wealthy collectors who wish to possess it must pay the price." "I got 500, and now 750?" "Anybody wants to bid from 500 to now 750?" "I got 500 now, anybody wants to get 750?" "I got 600, and now 700." "Anybody wants to bid in?" "I got 600, anybody wants to bid 700?" "Lorance, you want to bid with the same two bidders?" "And 700." "Now we 800." "Anybody wants to bid in?" "Now 900." "There. 900." "Yes." "He." "And 900." "You'd better bid one million dollars." "Anybody else?" "And 900." "You'd better bid one million dollars to get you bid in." "And 900." "Anybody else?" "Would you get 950?" "maybe you can help me get the million" "Going once, 950." "going twice, 950,000." "Anybody else?" "At 950," "I close the bidding right here at 900,000 dollars." "In the presence of a Model J, people tend to get stirred up." "It's part of a legacy left by Fred and August Dusesnberg, who grew up on a farm near Rockfor, Iowa, just before the turn of the century." "Mechanically minded as young boys, they became innovators of engine technology." "But their first love was racing, the Indianapolis Speedway was the crucible where new designs were put to the test." "In the 1920s, their engineering genius brought the checkered flat tree times." "In 1928, at their Indianapolis plant, they created the ultimate passenger car." "The owner of a super-charged Model J could cruise in luxury at 115 miles an hour." "In Hollywood, the Duesenberg became the mark of a star." "Clark Gable owned two." "Gary Cooper's was goldenrod yellow with pale green fenders." "James Cagney smiled behind the wheel." "But the Depression finally caught up with the Duesenberg." "Less than 500 had been built when the assembly line shut down for good." "Duesenberg owners form an exclusive club." "In Auburn, Indiana, they gather every Labor Day weekend to parade their restored Model Js before an admiring crowd of automotive enthusiasts." "Owners love their Duesenbergs were further than enthusiasm." "Many obsessed to perfections." "Others simply enjoyed the status to come with ownership." "And pride, the showing off their treasures to the thousands who come to look." "Some restored their Duesenbergs not to drive them, but to compete." "Auburn native Phil Allison judges a restoration." "Growing up around classic cars, he restores them today for wealthy collectors." "One of the best descriptive terms I've ever heard, and it's not mine I get it from Gordon Buehrig's book." "And the title of his book is Rolling Sculptures." "Morning, Ron." "Have they brought the Murphy convertible in yet?" "Yes." "And I think that it so neatly defines the work on these cars, whether it be the Duesenberg or the Cord." "They were such unique cars, and they are truly works of art." "I know for years I was always hoping for the opportunity to get to do a Duesenberg." "Now we have three in our shop." "And so..." "Now we have arrived." "Today, let's get started on dismantling this car." "Once owned by movie actor Tyrone Power, Model J Number 391 has just been purchased for $610,000." "Spruced up for the cheap coat of paint by its most recent owner" "No.391 will now be restored to original condition of the grown up." "We will probably spend around two years on the car." "Maybe not quite that long, but it will be close." "And there is a lot of things uh... restoration." "but unsugest can be hurried duro on that car" "Several missing parts and it don't go in logo-parts orderly." "go to find them and there be several lighten on the difficulty come up with." "and we can find them have to be fabricative." "and it all take times." "To do a total restoration, we're talking about dismantling the car completely." "Then the rear end, or differential-rear-axle assembly, will be totally gone through." "The engine and transmission will be totally rebuilt." "The exhaust manifolds will be reporcelained." "The Dusesnberg engine has an excessive amount of aluminum on it, which has to be highly polished." "There's a lot of hours of just polishing and cleaning." "The chroming itself is a major process." "It's a triple plating." "You first cover it with copper and then it's buffed, then it's nickled, then it's buffed," "Then it's chromed, and then it's chrome-buffed." "A lot of times we like to have a car sit for four to six weeks just in primer." "Then it's blocked." "Then we put on maybe four to five coast of lacquer and let it set for another four to six weeks." "Once it's totally cured, then we'll sand off maybe three of four of those coats of paint and blocking it out." "And then we'll put on another four to five coats, let it set for another four to six weeks, and we'll probably end up sanding off two or three of those coats." "And that's how we get the high luster-high depth finish." "It takes obviously a fair amount of money to fund a project like this, and a lot of people are not in a financial position to do this until they're on in years." "And some customers express concern that they're not going to live long enough to see the finished product." "I think in most cases they are being a little facetious, but I can appreciate that when you look at a long-term project in your later years, it could be a concern." "Restored for the pleasure of those very few who can afford it, the Duesenberg lives on in Auburn, Indiana." "But in a city for away, heroic endeavors are recovering the treasures of a nation for all the world to see." "Through the heart of Leningrad flows the Neva River." "Along these banks nearly three centuries ago, one man created a great city" "St. Petersburg which became the capital of imperial Russia." "Today, Peter the Great still looks out over his city." "With watchful eye he gazes on wondrous visions grand and exuberant visions of a tsar who like his country, was strong and proud" "...fairy-tale places sprung up as if by magic country playgrounds for the imperial court of Peter and his successors designed by the great architects of Europe, created from exquisite materials by a multitude of craftsmen summoned from afar." "On long winter nights, these rooms were made brilliant by candlelight reflected a thousandfold in crystal mirrors." "Light danced on paintings overhead and set the walls ablaze with color." "Light burned in gilded faces, as costumed nobility danced into the night." "They waltzed on parquet floors of wood from the forests of Europe and Asia, designed in astonishing patterns." "Surrounded by their treasures, the stars and their court waltzed on into the 20th century." "The dance ended with the Russian Revolution in 1917, but the palaces lived on as museums." "Then distant rumblings in Europe suddenly exploded on their doorstep." "In 1941 Nazi forces surrounded Leningrad." "Hitler planned to level the city, but the Soviet Army would not yield." "During the siege, the Nazis occupied four palaces on the city cutskirts." "After 900 days they withdrew, burning the palaces as they left." "When the fires died, a nation's treasures lay in ruin." "At the Catherine Palace, chimneys protruded from a roofless skeleton." "Statues-victims of bombshells and gunfire." "Stillness filled the Great Hall." "Parquet floors lay charred under a blanket of winter snow." "A soldier in the Soviet Army," "Alexander kedrinsky remembers the siege." "After the Nazi retreat, he entered the Catherine Palace." "On this spot in the Great Hall, he looked up through broken rafters at the winter sky." "Inside the palace, the interiors that were not burned were looted." "Pictures had been viciously slashed out of their frames;" "only the outer edges remained." "Doors were broken away." "Paintings were on the floor, cut to pieces." "That's one thing." "The other thing is that there were land mines hidden everywhere, and the palace itself was set to blow up." "Beneath it was a series of one-ton bombs wired together to go up in a single blast." "It's a miracle that the first soldiers to enter the palace gates after the German retreat discovered this system and disarmed it." "The park around the palace was dug up everywhere with trenches and gun emplacements." "And in the middle lay the charred hulk of the palace." "The palace decorations were strewn about the park in pieces." "Sculpture marms, head, torsos lay all about." "The picture was so terrible and depressing that one's first impression was that resurrecting it would be impossible." "On the other hand, people could not reconcile themselves to blotting out a page of history, the glorious history of these monuments." "And so we decided to undertake the restoration." "Pieces of the ruined palaces were scattered everywhere, hastily hidden before the siege." "From fields, from secret vaults, from the hands of retreating Nazis, even from the Neva River, the missing pieces were returned." "Restoration could now begin." "A painter and engineer, kedrinsky directed work at the Catherine Palace." "We long to re-create these monuments, he said at the time, but do we have the guts to do it?" "Under his direction, scores of artists and craftsmen began to rebuild the palace." "Today Alexander Kedrinsky works with a new generation of artisans who use original architectural drawings and prewar photographs that miraculously survived the destruction." "From an old black-and-white photograph, a painted ceiling comes to life." "The design is rendered in color, and figures are drawn to scale by artists trained in period styles and techniques." "Designs are modified and approved before the painting begins." "For hours at a time they reach overhead." "Standing so close to the ceiling, these artists are unable to see the entire painting at once." "Skill and planning guide them where their eyes cannot." "After three years of work, the ceiling is almost finished." "Parts of a statue were retrieved from the palace grounds." "From these shattered limbs a body is reformed." "A wood carver creates anew what fire and shrapnel destroyed." "With clay, he models a missing twin that he will later replicate in wood." "On the statue's chest, a fracture is mended, and a wound is healed." "Once again, carvings are adorned with gold." "Though each leaf weighs almost nothing, nearly 20 pounds of gold were needed to refurbish the Great Hall." "Guided into place by human breath and held there by rabbit-skin glue, the gold is burnished with an amber rod." "Gilded faces blaze again." "The palaces are reborn." "The glory that was imperial Russia radiates from every quarter once again but today it shines with new brilliance." "Reflected in the symmetry of crystal mirrors is the labor of modern craftsmen who have saved the treasures of a nation." "In 1944, Peter's portrait was found in shredded fragments, scattered in the snow." "Today, the scars are almost invisible." "We rebuild these palaces to celebrate those who built them long ago, says Kedrinsky, but we need another 20 years before our work is finished." "Today, from atop his horse," "Peter the Great gazes on a miracle." "Through heroic endeavors his vision lives on." "The farming country of eastern Colorado is far from Leningrad, but the passion to save a treasure can be found here as well." "Compared to the Russian court, life in Burlington, Colorado, is basic but on the county fairground stands a treasure that might well have delighted the Russian nobility." "How you doing?" "All right." "Local citizens brought this treasure here some 60 years ago, and today it is the pride of Kit Carson County." "In the morning light, fantastic animals awake on what many herald as the "Jewel of American Carousels."" "Because it was the sixth machine built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, it is known as PTC #6." "Caring for this nusual menagerie is an art conservator named Will Morton." "In recent years, he restored the animals from decades of deterioration and unveiled whimsical piece of American history." "PTC #6 was built in 1905 when carousels spun their magic the world over." "In 1928, it was bought second-hand for $1,250 by Kit Carson County." "At the fair that year, citizens paid five cents for a five-minute ride, but this frivolous purchase would cost the county commissioners their jobs." "Dust storms and the Depression brought hard times to Kit Carson County." "Homeless families lived on the fairground." "The carousel building was used to store feed and became infested with rats and snakes." "There was talk of burning it down." "Somehow PTC#6 survived, but it was never quite the same." "Its magic vanished, and as each year passed, neglect moved it ever closer to the edge of ruin." "In 1979 a group of concerned citizens brought Will Morton from Denver to preserve and restore it." "A lot of carousels have been refurbished, but this is the first one to my knowledge that was conserved and restored as a work of art might be;" "that is, Where we have made every possible effort to preserve the original material that we found here and to protect it as you would with a piece of fine art." "As he lifts the veil of time," "Morton finds traces of Victorian artisans whose pencil marks look as though they weredrawn only moments ago." "Surrounded by their creations, will senses the spirit of those craftsmen lurking nearby." "I spend days here alone just working on the carousel." "Your mind is going a mile a minute even though your hand may not be or the project doesn't seem to be going all that fast." "Nevertheless, your mind is going." "And so you're picturing the people who made this carousel, what they were thinking." "I think part of doing a good job in restoration is discovering the people that made the thing trying to put yourself in their place." "And that's why I insist on doing things the way they did them." "Will Morton has preserved more than 90 percent of the paint on the animals" "Now he restores what has been worn away." "The Wallitzer monster millitary band organ is the heart and soul of the PTC#6" "Over the year" "Water damage, heat, humidi and hungry rats all play habit of this vital parts." "After 1200 hours of restoration the monster gets to check up." "Good afternoon and welcome to our third performance of the 1986" "Kit Carson County Fair and Rodeo." "Every year in early August, people come from all over Kit Carson County to ride PTC#6 once again." "Today a ride costs 25 cents, but it lasts a full seven minutes." "I would like to look down from some place beyond 50 years from now and feel that I'm being complimented by the restorer who's then at work, saying that the man who did this in the first place did a good job," "and I'm pleased with what he did." "On the plains of eastern Colorado another year passes." "On a summer night, the carousel spins dream that will not be forgotten in years to come" "The Age of Sail reached its height in the 19th century when global voyages were made in tall ships." "The forces of nature were harnessed by experienced hands, but when canvas was replaced by steam, the tall ships and a maritime tradition quietly vanished." "In the port of Athens the rusted hull of a once tall ship is destined for the scrapyard." "In her hundred-year life-span, she sailed under many names and many flags." "Now Elissa will be reborn." "She was launched in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1877." "In 1979, her hull is made sound and she is towed across the Atlantic to the port city of Galveston, Texas, which has adopted Elissa to symbolize the heyday of its maritime past." "Long ago she sailed into Galveston, and it is here on Galveston's waterfront that Elissa's reconstruction begins." "And a course of America people come to rebuild her" "Since about 19 century commode life the absolutely skills are learned again." "A new deck is caulked with hemp and sealed with pitch." "Self-taught riveters add plates to her hull." "Tree trunks are turned into masts." "Costs rise into the millions, but funds are raised." "With a iron and wood renewed Ellisa will sail again." "and carried in her figure-head the spirit of those ever new her." "In 1986, Elissa is bound for New York to once again become a part of history" "Galsveston's mayor being the group farewell." "terrigenous Ellisa project, David Brink." "and all of you to be vault with Ellisa." "your dream has truely grown to a mirricle." "broaching the yellow rose to Texas." "Ellisa's figure head points away aprowl to go to Mexico." "100 years ago she was manned by 8 deckhands." "Today she is sailed by hard-working volunteers." "Let's go, guys." "Let's go to the sails." "Their footing is less sure, but perhaps more eager because they have helped to restore and maintain her." "Executive secretary and grandmother," "Judy Peters became a volunteer six years ago." "And I didn't know anything but I sure that I could help it so they like to teach me what I need to know." "I came down literally scared to death but I knew I wanted to help and I knew that they needed help." "And I was willing and I was able." "Some of the job that could be hard to do and I wouldn't." "but I'll do for free for cause of Ellisa for the future." "Steady it on 115." "O. K. That was sided to the left." "Fine, uh..." "Pieer, what we do is that you always take it slight inside the long braces." "Overseeing Elissa's restoration has been the responsibility of Walter Rybka." "Why don't you always help Pierre with the slacking side of the braces." "I think the key idea of this restoration is that this ship is not so much an artifact as it is a process." "We're not so much concerned with her past as we are with our future." "What we're interested in is the values and the crafts and the skills and everything that gave the world this beauty." "We'd like to be a part of our lives now and carry it forward in the future." "So the Elissa is as much a process as it is a product." "Under gray skies," "Elissa sails north along the Atlantic coast." "Go as far as you can till you get where you want to stop." "John Elder, a business executive, summons the courage to go aloft with project director, David Brink." "Big step over to that little crane line there." "Grab the chain with your right hand." "Swing over." "That's it." "Good." "Now before you hit the foot ropes, say "laying on" just for practice." "All the way over to the yard." "Great." "Okay, I did it." "Okay." "It would help if I came over, wouldn't it?" "Just let that fall." "Okay." "Now pass that under." "Double back over." "No, no, don't pull." "No, no, don't pull it all the way through." "As she approaches New York, Elissa is not alone." "From all over the world, tall ships are coming to celebrate the restoration of the Statue of Liberty on her 100th birthday." "We've got the battleship Iowa overtaking us on the port." "Traffic." "Cars." "An urban world emerges through fog and mist." "The sight brings mixed emotions." "I think there is a sense of possibly letting go for the crew." "The crew thinks of Elissa as their own and rightfully so." "We're the folks that have maintained her and sailed her up till now." "We don't mind sharing her with everyone else, but there is a little bit of a feeling of letting her go." "After the rest of this weekend, particularly Friday, she's not going to belong to just us anymore." "She's going to belong to the world." "Elissa last entered New York Harbor in 1884, just two years before the Statue of Liberty was unveiled." "Today a crew of volunteers has brought her here once again, and after a century, two ladies greet each other for the very first time." "The moment is savored by the crew, but the celebration is about to begin." "The spectacle unfolds, and Elissa takes her place." "She is the oldest of the large square riggers in the parade." "Not long ago, Liberty welcomed tall ships from around the world to a flourishing America." "Today, one by one, tall ships return to salute her, as America renews her past." "Elissa has earned her place in history, and now her moment has come." "It's amazing just to think how it all comes down to one moment." "Here you are." "Everybody knows." "It's a great, great feeling." "She passes the reviewing stands that line the shore." "Everybody was so proud of her that she was there, she was volunteers had done it." "And it made everybody see that anybody can be a part of restoration." "You don't have to be a somebody." "It takes all the little people to do it." "Volunteers have brought life to a dying ship and have restored the knowledge that can renew her again and again." "Revived with the human spirit, fragments of our past become our treasures." "They mirror who we are." "They become living monuments to the achievements of out past and living testaments to our hopes for the future." "Passing though the hands of one crew to the next, a tall ship is on a journey through time." "Perhaps in years to come the sight of her sails will inspire others to voyage forth... to fulfill their destinies..." "to cherish their treasures as they cross new horizons to places that live today only in our dreams." "Mirages summon up strange liquid illusions here on a vast dry lake bed that has been called "the place of dry water."" "This is a region named Etosha in southwestern Africa." "For most of the year it may go without a drop of rain." "And in these times," "Etosha's water holes become like open-air stages." "Here, as perhaps nowhere else, the wildlife of Africa may be intimately observed." "Much of the Etosha region is grassy plain and bushland, and in tis center lies the Etosha Pan a vast lake bed which is totally dry for most of the year." "Some 2,000 square miles in area, this great expanse of clay is one of the most barren landscapes on Earth." "But this is a place of illusion and paradox." "Because here in Namibia in southwestern Africa, the Etosha Pan is surrounded by one of the most spectacular displays of wildlife remaining on the continent" "For underground reservoirs feed permanent water holes along the edge of the pan and on the plains beyond, sustaining great numbers of animals the year round." "Our year in Etosha begins as the long dry season comes to an end." "The pan is baked and windswept, and a dusty haze fills the air." "But at last, one day, great clouds and shafts of cooling rain sweep across the plains." "Water begins to fill the pan, flowing into this natural depression from all directions." "As the rains continue for about three months," "A huge lake gradually forms." "Suddenly, millions of catfish appear in the lake." "They have been spawned by adults that have somehow survived the dry season buried deep in the mud." "But now these young fish become a feast for egrets and herons." "The rains transform Etosha." "The pan is now a vast, shallow lake, fifty miles across but barely two feet deep." "Rising water soaks the grassy plains along the edges of the pan." "A lush new season is announced by a chorus of giant bullfrogs calling females to mate." "The bullfrog males gather together on their mating grounds." "Here they attack each other, fighting savagely for the opportunity to mate." "This is something new for these young lions." "The small female bullfrogs take the initiative when it comes to mating." "Now two females vie for the attention of a male." "Hundreds of eggs are released by the female and fertilized by the male." "Soon vast numbers of tadpoles swarm in the shallows around the pan." "Most frog species have abandoned their young by this time," "But the male giant bullfrog is fiercely protective." "He vigorously defends them against predators like the monitor lizard." "A blaze of fresh color sweeps over the plains of Etosha." "Many animals find sufficient moisture in the succulent new growth they're feasting on." "Now the water holes appear abandoned and deceptively peaceful." "But turtle doves do come to drink every morning and evening." "These two are unwary intent on their courtship." "the victim is overwhelmed by hungry turtles and it's soon over." "Playing and foraging, but ever alert, ground squirrels rarely stray far from the safety of their burrows." "Like most animals here, the squirrels have their young in this bountiful rainy season." "On the plains, a wildebeest is giving birth." "The calf's infancy passes before this day is over in just a few hours he'll be running with the herd." "All across the plains newborn animals are first tasting life." "Easy targets for predators, many will not live more than a few days." "The zebra mother places herself between the cheetahs and her foal making good its escape." "The rainy season is not a total blessing for the squirrels." "They are plagued with fleas." "The squirrels use their fluffy tails as sunshades." "It's an unusual adaptation, helping them to forage in the hot sun." "The cheetah mother has four large cubs to feed." "They're almost a year old, but not yet skilled enough to hunt on their own." "The wildebeest mother is formidable." "She confronts the cheetah and helps her frantic calf to its feet." "An elusive animal of which little is known, a bat-eared fox tends her cubs." "She'll collect insects for them to eat and keeps their fur clean by constant grooming." "Baby springbuck are easy prey for the cheetahs." "They can easily eat four of these small fawns in a day." "In half an hour they'll be hunting again." "Her large, sensitive ears enable the fox to detect even the faint sounds made by insects underground." "This time she's found only a few termites." "Although considered the fastest-running animal, cheetahs are hard-pressed to catch the swift springbuck." "Cheetahs are often frustrated unless they can gain the advantage of surprise." "In this year of heavy rain and an abundant food supply" "Pelicans have come to nest on an island in the flooded pan." "Here, their clumsy black chicks are safe from predators." "Leaving the chicks, the adult pelicans often travel great distances to the nearest fishing grounds." "Here, they join other birds in pursuit of catfish." "The catfish have grown almost too big for this sacred ibis." "After three months the rains diminish and the pan begins to dry." "The surviving catfish are trapped in the shallows and picked off easily by the pelicans," "Ibis, and yellow-billed storks." "Newly-hatched dabchick ride along on their mother's back when she leaves the nest." "As the male dives for food, the dabchick mother tends her young and the unhatched eggs, which she carefully covers over when she's away from the nest." "Now she shades the eggs and fans them vigorously guarding against the hot sun." "Both adults must work constantly to keep up with the chicks' demands for food." "The rains have ended now, and pools along the edges of the pan are fast evaporating." "By the thousands, young bullfrogs emerge from the water." "They have voracious appetites and eat everything in sight." "Often there is no food but one another" "Many bullfrogs may reach maturity without eating anything but their own kind." "For the frogs that escape each other, there are other enemies." "This bushsnake recognizes prey only when it moves." "If the frogs remain still, they're safe." "Through the rains, most animals of Etosha enjoyed a bountiful time." "Strengthened and renewed, they are now prepared for the long, harsh season that lies ahead." "As the plains dry, the rutting season begins." "A wildebeest bull eagerly approaches a group of females." "But the bull is not entirely welcome." "Rival males will take full advantage when he drops his guard and attempts to mate." "A male springbuck courts a female by gently touching her flanks." "Only when ready will she allow him to mate." "This is called "pronking."" "Adult springbuck pronk after being chased by a predator," "Perhaps as a signal to regroup the herd." "But in these young, is seems simply a delightful form of play." "Daily it's growing drier." "The pan becomes a mire of soggy clay, and then hardens under the harsh Etosha sun." "High and dry, the pelican colony is no longer an island and no longer a sanctuary." "Jackals and hyenas raid each evening." "The flightless young pelicans soon are scattered across the pan, many dead or dying." "The new grass brought by the rains matures and dries." "The great herds that have flourished here on their breeding grounds now move on in search of fresh grazing." "Probably such migrations have continued for thousands of years triggered by the onset of the long dry season." "Some herds will travel 100 miles and more." "They must follow trails leading from one water hole to the next." "And at the water holes wait the predators..." "A zebra herd is halted in sight of water by two resting lions." "The lions have recently fed, but they will see that nothing drinks here today." "They're old companions, and have hunted together for years." "It would seem that nothing could come between them except perhaps, a lioness." "It's mostly noise and little damage is done." "The victor has established his right to the lioness." "The loser seems to accept his lit in life, and is ill prepared when a second lioness comes on the scene." "After three dry months the water holes become increasingly essential and perilous for the animals of Etosha" "More and more often, and more urgently they are impelled here to drink." "Elephant are among the few animals that come fearlessly to water." "These bull elephants normally keep to themselves." "But occasionally they join up with a breeding herd of cows and calves like this one." "When a very young calf is with the herd." "Even elephant can be edgy." "This calf is probably less than ten days old, and it seems the entire herd unites to protect it." "Kudu are infinitely cautions when coming to drink." "They are alert for the slightest scent or sound of danger." "A powerful lioness in the prime of life is accompanied by her three cubs." "Lions have a bad reputation as parents cubs are often neglected, or even savagely abused," "Because of conflicts within the pride." "But this lioness proves an attentive and careful mother, possibly because she has no female rivals and enjoys the attentions of the three male lions in the area." "The cubs are only about four months old." "and would be quite helpless on their own." "They'll continue to rely on their mother for the next two years." "A flock of queleas makes a hit and run raid on the water hole their safety lies in speed." "The lioness has caught a young warthog for her cubs." "Now she leads them to where she has left it." "But there's a surprise in store for the cubs." "The mother will not help." "Inept as they are, they must learn how to kill." "This is a rare and striking glimpse of how the means of survival are passed on in the wild." "It's growing hotter and drier by the day." "Though always aware of danger, animals are drawn more frequently to the water holes starting even in the cool of early morning." "They can probably smell the lioness, but they're also thirsty." "It's been six months now without a drop of rain." "Flocks of guinea fowl scratching for seeds add to the choking haze that hangs over Etosha." "It sometimes appears that the entire area is smoldering on the brink of bursting into flame." "Now comes the time of the "light rains"" "showers that may fall in scattered spots across the plains." "They're only a teasing foretaste of the real rainy season, still two or three months away." "Soon after the light rains, acacia trees blossom." "For kudu, giraffe, and other browsers, their fresh, new leaves offer some relief." "But for other animals the scanty rains bring little benefit the plains are still brown and bone-dry." "Now, the great grazing herds being to retrace their migration routes across the plains." "By the time the rains begin in earnest, they will have found their way back to the same breeding grounds they occupied the year before." "On the way, herds gather to drink at a water hole on the edge of the pan." "And so it goes on as it has for millions of years." "the ancient perpetual cycle of the seasons, the endless pursuit of predator and prey, of death and renewal." "All will have come full circle as thunder echoes across Etosha and the rains come again at last." "With the coming of each new dawn, shadows of an ancient past echo across Australia land of eternal mystery." "Alien and remote for countless centuries, it remains today an almost mystical land... a land only recently disturbed by the arrival of man." "Long before the time of man, there appeared here creatures among the most bizarre on Earth." "So unlike other animals are they that many early European explorers could hardly believe they were real." "Even today, three centuries later, many of the questions the animals pose to science remain unanswered." "Throughout Australia, investigators and scientists probe the secrets of this infinitely varied wildlife." "Animals once dubbed "living fossils" have been properly identified and categorized, their evolutionary relationships better understood." "Yet, inevitably, there remain more questions than answers haunting, ago-old mysteries that beckon all who behold the spectacle of life unique to Australian shores." "Washed by the South Pacific on the east and the Indian Ocean on the west," "Australia stretches for almost three million square miles." "It is the world's smallest continent, the largest island a self-contained biological laboratory unique in the world." "Science has long been puzzled by how and why this island-continent became home to what is probably the most distinctive assemblage of creatures found anywhere in the world." "Part of the answer lies in Australia's remoteness, its geographic separation from the rest of the world." "Cut off from the Earth's great landmasses," "Australia has evolved in seabound isolation for some 50 million years, its wildlife relatively undisturbed by influences from the outside." "But the world as we know it today does not hold all the answers to Australia's past." "We must look to a distant time in the Earth's geological history when the continents were joined." "Scientists believe that somewhere in the continents we know today as the Americas, Antarctica, and Australia, the earliest marsupials evolved and fanned out." "When the landmass split apart, the continents carried their life-forms with them." "However, in South America, predators and competitors for food eventually wiped out a great number of marsupial species." "In Antarctica they became frozen out of existence." "Only in Australia, safely cut off from competitors, could these unique creatures flourish." "And until the relatively late arrival of man, they evolved, for the most part, undisturbed for millions of years." "Even today, Australia's human population is only 141 /2 million, and because much of the interior is a harsh, arid land, the large cosmopolitan centers cluster on the coasts." "A common myth about "Down Under" is that one can see kangaroos hopping down the streets of Sydney." "Yet it is quite likely that many of these people have never even seen one, and perhaps never will, outside a zoo." "Zoos and sanctuaries are popular attractions throughout Australia." "Here, tame animals provide the opportunity for an intimate look at some of the country's most treasured resources." "Most of the kangaroos at this sanctuary have been raised here as orphans... their mothers the victims of automobiles or a hunter's gun." "Under the watchful eye of a keeper, the joeys, as young kangaroos are called, can be cared for until old enough to be on their own in the park." "I'm going to put him in a bag." "A pillowcase is an ample substitute for the mother's pouch." "Good joey." "That's a baby." "Sit square on." "Put two hands one on top of the other." "Perhaps number one of any popularity poll is Australia's pride and joy, the cuddlesome koala." "...Straight over your shoulder towards the camera." "Chin up." "And thank you." "Okay miss, just watching me, please." "Oh, you've got a beautiful smile, dimples and all." "How about that, eh?" "Captured young, koalas come to accept humans." "Even in the wild, they are basically unaggressive if undisturbed." "Life for the wild koala revolves in and around forests of eucalyptus trees throughout eastern Australia." "On the ground just to move from tree to tree, the koala spends almost all its time high in the branches." "It has developed highly specialized adaptations for its arboreal life... long arms, well-padded paws, and opposable thumbs with a vice-like grip." "Not only home and shelter, eucalyptus trees provide the koala with its primary food." "It eats about two pounds of leaves a day." "Despite superficial resemblance, the so-called koala "bear" is not a bear at all, but a true marsupial a pouched animal like the kangaroo." "After birth the young will stay in the mother's pouch for about six months." "When strong enough to leave the pouch, it will do so only intermittently, and for the next few months will travel everywhere with its mother, clinging either to her back or chest." "The koala has inspired myriad reactions from observers over the centuries." "One author has written:" ""The koala's expression always reminds me of a Byzantine Madonna or some dowager duchess... rather bored, well-fed and well-bred..." "But many aborigines saw something quite different to them the koala represented the reincarnation of the spirits of lost children." "A research team from Queensland's National Parks and Wildlife Service is studying the koala's ecology and reproduction in the wild." "Their study area is roughly 600 acres where 30 to 40 koalas normally live." "He's got up higher than he was when we first saw him..." "Yeah." "Okay, let's go." "Led by Dr. Greg Gordon, the researchers have been capturing and tagging koalas since 1971." "It is by no means a simple task." "First they must get them down." "And, as the wary animal climbs even higher, the pole must be extended to reach it." "This is not going to be all that easy, Greg." "He's got to he's going to drop just near the edge of the embankment." "Yeah, I think you're right." "Experience has taught the scientists that the procedure is basically safe the koala its sturdy build and thickly padded rump seem to protect it against the fall." "That's it." "You're just below him now." "You're right below him." "Go on, drive him off." "Got him?" "See, doesn't hurt him at all." "Particularly when they come down on a branch like that." "It was a rude awakening, wasn't it." "Though easygoing by nature, a koala may become aggressive under stress." "The bag is a precaution against his powerful claws and tenacious bit." "Sought for its fur in the early decades of this century, the slow-moving koala was hunted to the very brink of extinction." "Today, thanks to government protection koalas are once again secure." "Recently, however, it this area of Queensland, there has been a puzzling decline in the birth rate." "By tagging the animals and studying them over a period of years, the scientists hope to pinpoint the cause." "In the meantime, thorough examinations expand their understanding of growth patterns and general states of health." "Color-coded tags make the animal easily identifiable even when high in the trees." "This one was tagged originally when still in his mother's pouch, and much about him is already known." "Tooth wear is about the most reliable indication of age." "This male is roughly three years old." "Now, we'll do his chest gland." "On their chests all male koalas have a scent gland which exudes a distinctive odor." "By rubbing the gland on tree trunks and branches, they announce their presence to others in the area." "Okay, we'll go out of the sun, over here." "That sound like a good idea." "Okay, fellow." "There we are." "Good as new." "He's not going to go to that tree again." "Go on." "...nasty, that one..." "Momentarily disoriented after his release from the bag, the young koala seems unsure of what to do next." "But within seconds he heads back quickly to the same tree from which he'd been captured." "Guess he proved me wrong." "He took that rather well." "Sensing only that he is safely back where he wants to be, the koala cannot possibly realize how today's encounter with strangers may well help determine the future of his kind." "Perhaps the very symbol of Australia, the kangaroo remains as fascinating today as when the first live specimen reached England in the 1700s." "A handbill announcing the event proclaimed that" ""to enumerate its extraordinary Qualities would far exceed the common Limits of a Public Notice"." "Now, almost two centuries later, a rare piece of film documents one of the kangaroo's most extraordinary qualities of all." "After a gestation period of about a month, this red kangaroo prepares to give birth." "Though scientists now understand the biology of marsupial birth, it is no less remarkable to behold." "All marsupials are born in an undeveloped state, their growth to be completed inside the pouch." "Defenseless and blind, the tiny newborn, completely unaided by the mother, must navigate through her thick fur toward the pouch." "If it loses its way, it will die." "Once inside the pouch, guided only by its sense of smell, the newborn finds one of the mother's nipples." "Here it will remain attached, suckling for more than six months." "Now the joey will be strong enough to leave the pouch intermittently." "But even when it is old enough to graze, it will return to the pouch to nurse for several months more." "Amazing in their adaptability, some kangaroos are as at home in the trees as others are bounding across rocky slopes." "There are about 50 species of kangaroos in Australia ranging from up to seven feet in height to the size of a common rat." "But one trait they all share is that they hop." "Though it may weigh as much as 200 pounds, the kangaroo is a picture of grace when it takes to flight." "It can reach speed up to 40 miles an hour, and cover as much as 25 feet in one leap." "Recently scientists were amazed to discover that, at certain speeds, the kangaroo actually uses less oxygen the faster it goes." "It was found that, like the spring in a pogo stick, the kangaroo's leg muscles and tendons store energy, which is then released without effort when the animal next pushes off." "Though the kangaroo is no doubt the most famous marsupial," "Australia boasts as many as 150 species of pouched animals." "The ferocious-looking Tasmanian Devil is one of the few that eat meat exclusively." "Once can only imagine the astonishment of early explorers when they saw a pouched animal take to the air." "These possums do not actually fly like birds, but their kite-like membrane enables them to glide for distances of 40 yards or more." "Only in small patches of Western Australia will one find the numbat, a small, gentle marsupial now extinct in other parts of the country." "With sharp claws the numbat roots out termites, its primary food." "Its long, sinuous, sticky tongue can capture thousands of the insects a day." "With its distinctive bands of white and its bottlebrush tail, the numbat is considered by many to be Australia's most beautifully marked marsupial." "The majestic Blue Mountains lie 40 miles west of Sydney." "Here, beneath the vivid blue haze which gave the mountains their name, areas of pristine wilderness abound." "Nestled in the hills, an historic estate called Yengo spreads across 25 acres." "For the past 12 years it has been a private reserve dedicated to breeding endangered animals." "He's really heavy, I'll tell you that." "The owner is businessman Peter Pigott, one of Australi's foremost conservationists." "With his wife and son, he is transferring a wombat injured in a fight to a safer enclosure." "Come here." "Come on." "Nice leg to bite." "Pigott's breeding success with wombats is considered phenomenal better than any zoo and is attributed to his concern for creating the most natural setting possible in a captive environment." "I guess that my first opportune at doing something very constructive in the field of conservation was the rediscovery of a wallaby that we thought was extinct." "The parma wallaby, a mall kangaroo only about 14 inches tall, was abundant until early settlers destroyed its habitat and introduced new predators." "Though thought to be extinct, a small colony was discovered in 1965." "Starting with only 18 animals," "Pigott has increased the population here to more than 200 in ten years." "A lot of people say to me, now why should we conserve wildlife?" "Why should we be really concerned?" "I mean, aren't people more important than wildlife?" "We are all part of the 600 million years of evolution and I suppose that one of the great things that separates mankind from the animals is our sense and appreciation of the aesthetics our love of literature, our love of art and poetry, and of nature itself." "I often think that if we lose this we disregard the world that's around us and the animals that are here." "We might wake up one morning and find ourselves on the endangered list." "Her skies ablaze with color," "Australia has been called "the foremost land of birds"." "More than 300 species are unique to her shores." "One of Australia's most distinctive birds, the mallee fowl is a prodigious engineer." "To incubate their eggs in a harsh environment that is generally dry and subject to sharp temperature changes, they build mounds up to 15 feet across and several feet high." "Working together, male and female have laid down a bed of wet leaves and twigs." "To seal in the moisture and heat of the fermenting compost, they cover the mound with sand." "The egg chamber itself lies at the heart of the mound." "Beginning in the spring and continuing for three to four months, the female will come about once a week to lay a single egg." "The mallee regions are marked by sharp temperature fluctuations between day and night and as the seasons change, but the egg chamber must be kept at an almost constant 92 degrees." "Once the female has laid her egg, she will heave the tending of the mound to her mate." "To determine the temperature, he probes the sand." "With a sensitive spot either in his bill or tongue, he gets a reading as accurate as any thermometer." "Regulating the temperature by removing sand to release heat or adding sand to conserve it is an almost constant job for the bird, a consuming task to which he dedicates himself for up to nine months of the years." "Roughly every two months, a chick will work its way up through the thick soil and wander off, never to see its parents again." "Fromthedepthsoftheforestechoes  a haunting and memorable sound... the lyrebird, master of vocal mimicry." "Seemingly endless in its variety, the lyrebird's repertoire include other bird calls, as well as man-made sounds." "The mating ritual is highlighted by a shimmering display of the bird's immense fan-like tail." "In central Australia, heavy rains have flooded to desert." "But storms are few and short-lived in this harsh, arid country." "As the claypans begin to dry up the water-holding frog demonstrates a remarkable adaptation." "Increasing its body weight by as much as 50 percent with water absorbed through the skin, the frog burrows into the softened clay to a depth of more than three feet." "Once underground, it will enter a sleep-like state its active life essentially over until the desert once again sees rain." "Encased in a cocoon-like bag of dead skin, the frog will remain in its chamber, sealed beneath the now dry and hardened earth." "In times of drought, these amazing creatures have been known to stay buried for two years or more." "Only when the rains finally come and the earth begins to soften can the frog begin to emerge." "It must mate quickly so that itsmyoung will mature in time to soak up their own water supply and bury themselves until the next rains come." "In the forests of southeastern Queensland, a major scientific discovery was made in 1972." "Since that time, a bizarre animal unique in the world has been making history." "The first noteworthy fact was that it existed at all" "Australians had always believed that in their country there was no such thing as a frog that lived in water." "Since the time of the original discovery, captured animals have been sent to the Zoology Department at the University of Adelaide for study by Michael Tyler." "one of the contries foremost takes on ton-frog." "Spending their daylight hours hidden under rocks these frogs are the most light sensitive and shy of any Tyler has ever seen." "The only way he has been able to observe them successfully is to remove them from their regular aquarium." "In a specially built tank with one-way glass windows, the frogs will be unaware of Tyler's presence." "Because many have died in captivity and in recent years no more have been found in the wild, these two remain to unlock the mysteries of some of the most unusual animal behavior ever recorded." "But though action like this free-falling is bizarre and unexplained, it is the animal's reproduction that has most electrified the world." "What is so unusual about the gastric-brooding frog is the fact that it carries its young in its stomach." "Superimposed on an X ray, an artist's conception follows the growth of some two dozen tadpoles until, at roughly eight weeks, the female's stomach is completely distended with fully developed frogs ready to be born." "The mother opens her mouth and then she dilates her esophagus and the babies pop up from the stomach one or two at a time, and sit upon her tongue." "And then they sit and look around, look at the world outside, and then just very, very gently step out." "Tyler's rare photo of an actual birth has made headlines around the world." "Here we have an animal which can switch off acid being produced in the stomach." "An awareness that that would be an extremely novel way of being perhaps able to treat people who might need to be able to make use of that as an advantage." "For an example, during the treatment for peptic ulcers, it would be so useful to be able to switch off gastric acid secretion totally for a period of time and do it very, very readily." "I say it's a long, long way." "between what we've done so far and such a thing as a possibility." "But, I mean, in the matter of a few years ago no one would have dreamed that the existence of this frog with this habit could possibly occur and so, with that in mind, I don't think it's impossible" "or too far fetched to maintain hopes that is may have clinical application." "In the reptile world," "Australia stands out as the continent with the largest proportion of venomous snakes." "The death adder is one of the country's most poisonous snakes." "Without treatment, half of its human victims will die." "Like all snake, the death adder feeds primarily on small animals like lizards." "Its approach is neither timid nor aggressive, for in the end it relies on an extraordinary device for enticing the skink within range." "Wriggling its tail tip as a lure, the snake can lie quietly and wait." "Attracted by what must appear to be a squirming insect, the skink draws near." "The venom, five times more powerful than that of its cousin, the king cobra, paralyzes the muscles that control breathing, and the victim dies of asphyxiation." "The Australian reptile Park was founded by Eric Worrell, who has worked with snakes for more than 50 years." "People overseas always think of Australian animals as being koalas or kangaroos." "They don't think very much about our snakes, our other reptiles." "We have the deadliest reptiles in the world." "Robyn Worrell is an experienced snake handler." "With careful concentration combined with skill, she has been bitten only once in ten years." "Though her snake-milking demonstration may draw curious crowds, the primary goal of her work lies in the realm of science and medicine." "What I'm milking here is the mainland tiger snake." "There's probably about seven or eight different types of tiger snakes in Australia." "It's the third deadliest that we have in Australia." "What I'm actually doing now is just enticing the snake to bit over the rubber." "The fangs are penetrating through that rubber and the venom accumulates in the bottom of the beaker." "Generally we keep..." "Over the years, the venoms collected at the park have proved invaluable to laboratories developing snake-bite cures." "The work we do here is vital in that it has been estimated that we save one life a day from snake bite." "That's during the snakes'active season, which is to say from September until April." "And I think that works out to something around 20,000 lives that this organization has saved since we started." "Thanks largely to the Worrells' work, there are now antivenoms for all Australia's poisionous snakes." "In addition to snakes," "Australia's reptiles include some 400 species of lizards." "Lacking venom as protection against predators, they depend on an impressive array of defenses and bluff." "Looking like some creature from the Dinosaur Age, the Thorny Devil belongs to the group aptly called dragon lizards." "Actually a squat, slow-moving, ant-eating lizard, the devil is found throughout the arid regions of central and western Australia, and has adapted to some of the continent's harshest conditions." "But perhaps its most notable adaptation is its coat of spines a barricade of daggers warning all the might come near." "Lizards abound throughout Australia." "The most famous and perhaps the most spectacular roams the forests of the warmer northern regions." "Undisturbed, the frilled lizard looks harmless enough." "But in the face of an enemy, it performs with remarkable bluff." "If all else fails, it need only make a hasty retreat." "The entire range of Australian wildlife is the domain of these two naturalists" "Together they are known as Mantis Wildlife Films." "Individually they are Australian Jim Frazier and his British-born partner Densey Clyne." "For the past 12 years they have specialized in filming behaviors the naked eye can barely see." "Today the object of their search is one of the most fearsome ants on earth." "Yes." "They're coming out already." "This one is bringing something into the nest." "What is it?" "It looks like a bit of food..." "Food or..." "Debris." "I don't know what it is." "About an inch long," "They've seen us already." "the formidable bulldog ant inflicts a powerful and painful sting." "But to film their behavior," "Jim and Densey must collect the entire colony perhaps as many as 400 ants." "Even the larvae be taken, but Jim's film sequence to be completed." "There we are." "At Densey's home, the headquarters of Mantis films," "Jim has built a plaster model based on his knowledge of the nest in the wild." "There's quite a lot of them on the glass there..." "Yes, right." "They're coming out everywhere." "The slippery white coating at the top will prevent the ants from escaping." "It's amazing what a lot of noise they make, isn't it?" "Yeah." "Running around." "You can actually see the sting coming out and trying to sting the glass." "Going in between the sections of glass." "Look at this one here." "Look at the sting." "They're not happy are they?" "Well, if I had my home uprooted like that," "I wouldn't be very happy either." "Jim, I think although they're in a bit of a panic now, you know, as soon as the queen is settled in one of the chambers, they'll be alright." "Yes." "They're starting to slow down now." "They're not quite as frantic as they were." "No, they're not." "Some of them have found the larvae and pupae down below." "It will be three or four days before the ants settle down sufficiently for Jim to begin filming." "I worked at the Australian Museum for about seven years, and in that time I learned how to manipulate the environment, as it were, in making miniature dioramas, and it seemed a natural thing to combine photograph" "with the filming of small animals." "Colony life centers around the queen whose primary function is to lay eggs." "She may produce as few as one a day or as many as one every two hours." "Using her sharp mandibles, she gently picks up the egg and looks for a safe place to lay it down." "She must be careful that the voracious developing larvae do not steal it for food." "But indeed, this time it is a larva that wins out." "To complete their development into adult ants, the larvae will seal themselves inside a cocoon they make by spinning silk around debris from the tunnel floor." "Having adjusted to their man-made environment, the ants go about their routine." "An intruder into their silent, miniature world," "Jim Frazier feels privileged to have witnessed little known behavior of one of the most primitive ants on Earth." "Millions of years of isolation in Australia have protected a group of animals that today has no living relatives on Earth." "Sharing features of both ancestral reptiles and early mammals, they may offer a glimpse of how more modern mammals evolved." "One of these egg-laying mammals, or monotremes, is the echidna, the spiny anteater." "This small, unaggressive creature has only a tiny mouth at the end of its sticklike snout and no teeth." "In the daily search for ants, it relies solely on the long sticky tongue as its means of getting food." "The echidna's only defenses and very effective ones they are are needle sharp spines and the ability to sink out of sight in the face of danger." "Digging rapidly into the hard earth, the powerful echidna can disappear within minutes." "An almost impenetrable shield will be all that remains above ground." "The female echidna carries a singly leathery egg in a pouch that forms on her belly at the beginning of the breeding season." "In about ten days the egg will hatch." "The tiny baby nurses in the pouch for up to two months." "By definition, a mammal is a warm-blooded, haired animal that suckles its young." "The echidna qualifies in all respects." "But it retains the distinctly reptilian characteristic of laying eggs." "When and why other mammals stopped laying eggs and began to bear their young live remains a recurrent riddle of evolution yet to be solved." "In eastern Australia's streams, rivers, and lakes is found the echidna's only living relative on Earth." "Outwardly looking nothing whatever like its spiny cousin, the platypus does share its reptilian traits, including the laying of eggs." "Although it is often called the "duckbill" platypus, its bill is actually soft, pliable, and rubbery, quite unlike a duck's." "filled with sensitive nerves, it is a specialized adaptation for feeling out the insect larvae and crayfish on which the platypus feeds." "Lacking teeth, adults grind their food between large horny plates in the jaws." "Because the platypus spends much of the time burrowed in riverbanks, little of its life cycle is known." "So unlike other animals is the platypus, it was considered a hoax when discovered in the late 1700s." "Laymen still gaze quizzically at an animal that appears to be part mammal, part reptile, part bird." "At an early date it was named "paradoxus"." "So much of a paradox is the platypus that almost two centuries later it remains a creature shrouded in mystery." "One of Australia's foremost naturalists," "David Fleay has been studying the platypus for close to 50 years." "Today at his Fauna Reserve in Queensland visitors can enjoy an assortment of Australian exotica, but it is the platypus most tourists come especially to see." "Well, he's going through his ordinary routine now." "He's out feeding and swimming and when he's had enough of that, which goes on for about 10 hours, right into the night, he goes back into these tunnels, curls up, and goes to sleep." "It was almost 40 years ago that Fleay gained world-wide fame as the first person to breed a platypus in captivity." "It began in 1943 with a couple named Jack and Jill." "Taken from the wild, they adjusted well to captivity and became unusually tame." "Not long after mating had been observed," "Jill stopped eating and disappeared into her nesting burrow." "Fleay suspected she must be ready to lay eggs." "It was roughly eight weeks before we thought, as the information was at that time, that at eight weeks the baby should be able to crawl about and swim." "So we took the risk of opening up the tunnel at this point, and having looked." "I felt that somehow that we were doing the wrong thing." "And as it proved, it was the wrong thing." "We found that she had one solitary young." "Nice and fat and in good order, but it was blind and helpless and obviously couldn't either swim or walk." "We'd opened that up much too soon." "We left things alone and just watched carefully from that point on." "And then, at a further rate, about 16 weeks altogether, we opened the back of the tunnel again and found that the baby was alive and well." "It was a tremendous relief." "Well, it was relayed round the world and it was announced in New York and London." "The platypus, of course, is a fabulous animal." "It's always attracted a lot of attention." "It was considered impossible round about the 1930s for one to live in captivity for more than a few days." "After all the years of effort, it was a tremendous thrill." "We put the flag up that day." "Four decades later not even Fleay has managed to breed the platypus again." "With his assistants from the university of Queensland," "Dr. Frank Carrick works after dusk and at dawn when the platypus is most active." "He has been studying the animal's ecology since 1972." "At least with the water being high like this, there are fewer snags..." "An unweighted fishing net has been laid parallel to the riverbank." "The scientists check the net at regular interval guided by a light from shore." "Although the net is designed so the animal can surface and breathe, there is always the danger of entanglement." "Gary, I think there might be an animal in the net a bit further from us there." "Would you like to just put the sop on it?" "Excellent." "Yeah, he's gone under a bit." "Go out and get him out." "Okay, just ease it up here, Jim." "Here he is, you little beauty." "Get him out." "Into the boat you go." "It's male, too." "His spurs." "Because the male platypus has venomous spurs on his hind legs, he must be handled with extreme care." "Although it's not certain, scientists speculate the spurs are used against other males in competition for females at mating time." "You got the box alright." "Put him in." "In you go, chief." "Bless you." "Now, in you go." "That's a boy." "That's got him." "There, check him." "Let's have a look at him." "Good boy." "Once the animal is lightly sedated," "Dr. Carrick can safely begin his examination." "Although the platypus has existed for millions of years, significant information on its ecology has been gathered only within the last decade." "And so even the most basic data on weights and measurements are invaluable." "2 1. 2 1 hundred..." "less the bag." "I think, really, the platypus is one of the most crucial animals of all the Australian animals that we need to know much more about." "Both for the interest of seeing how patterns in the modern mammals evolved and also of course, in helping us in a rational way to ensure the platypus does continue on into future as it has done for many millions of years." "It always happens, doesn't it." "It's Well, starting to rain." "Thanks, Jim." "Alright ol' mate, you'll never notice it." "Levels of hormones in the blood help the scientists determine when and how often the male platypus is sexually active." "In any wildlife study, many of the important findings come from animals that have been captured before and then followed over time." "Because platypuses, for the most part, remain in a relatively small home range," "Carrick hopes to entrap this animal again, a metal band identifying him as Number 89." "A bit of jewelry." "Now, marked and identified by his captors," "Number 89 is ready to be set free to return to his burrows, his secret ways." "We going down with you?" "No." "I'll put him in." "no sense everyone getting wet." "With the surge of scientific research in Australia over the past two decades a fascinating tableau of life has unfolded." "Unlike bewildered early explorers who saw only a topsy-turvy world of improbable-looking animals, scientists of today understand how isolation and geography helped shape the evolution of Australia's wildlife." "But the puzzle is far from complete." "And so it remains." "Haunting questions of an ancient past echo still across this remote, exotic land." "Perhaps someday, one small animal with its tiny metal band may help unlock some of the long-hidden secrets of Australia, a land that time forgot." "December." "It is winter in Kanha National Park in central India." "These very same grasslands and forests were the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's immortal Jungle Book stories." "The spirit of wild India that he evoked still lives here." "Kanha National Park is prime tiger country." "Sixty years ago its 363 square miles were part of vast primordial forests." "Since then these forests have been denuded on a gigantic scale." "But Kanha has been preserved in its pristine state." "The tiger still roars here, still spreads his dread." "Just before dawn this male tiger killed a sambar stag." "Now, a few hours later, he drags his prize into deep cover to hide it from the prying eyes of vultures." "Like all of his kind he is solitary for most of his life a lone hunter who lives by stealth." "The night has been cold." "The gray langur monkeys, after their first meal of the day, rest and groom each other in the warmth of the early sun." "winter is the season of birth for most langurs." "This newborn, only a few hours old, is the center of attraction." "The new member of the troop is passed from one female to another as many as ten times in half an hour." "It is treated with great curiosity and affection." "This "aunt" behavior, as it is called, inducts the infant into the troop, makes it feel welcome and secure." "The monsoon rains ceased more than two months ago." "But along the streams the vegetation is still green." "Grass-shrouded water holes are perfect hiding places from which the tiger tries to ambush the chital." "Despite his power and camouflage the tiger often fails to make a kill." "Only about one hunt in twenty ends in success." "In mid-January, when winter is at its coldest, the rut of the barasingha reaches its peak." "During this season of courtship and mating, stages bugle and fight to establish who among them will mate with the does." "A tigress watches the combat from her cave where she is hiding newborn cubs." "Helpless young with great fierceness and devotion." "It will be some weeks before she will bring her cubs out into the open." "For the most part, Kanha's tigers remain elusive and mysterious, concealed by the dense undergrowth and the jungles of grass." "But in Ranthambhor National Park 370 miles to the northwest, the habitat is drier and more open." "In February, early spring in India," "Ranthambhor's 64 square miles are already parched." "The monsoon rains are only a vague memory." "But cradled in the hills is a chain of lakes, and it is because of this permanent water that wild animals flourish here." "Unlike pristine Kanha, ranthambhor has a long history of human occupation dating back to the 11th century." "Dominating the reserve is Ranthambhor fort." "Now deserted by man, the fort has become the haunt of animals." "Centuries ago it was the focal point of a vigorous city." "Battles raged back and forth over the hills." "In more recent times villages thrived deep inside Ranthambhor." "But their inhabitants have also gone." "They were encouraged to settle on better land outside the park." "Monuments to forgotten dramas dot the reserve." "This stone marks the spot where a widow committed suttee where she burned herself alive on her husband's funeral pyre." "Only the ruins remain." "Man has moved out of Ranthambhor after almost a thousand years and returned it to the wildlife." "On this cool spring morning it is not an ancient warrior who keeps vigil, but a tigress on the lookout for sambar, her favorite prey." "When the sambar lie down to chew their cud, they are still out of range" "The tigress waits patiently." "The deer's senses of smell and hearing are acute, but their vision is only moderate." "As long as he tigress moves very, very slowly or remains motionless she cannot be been by them, even when only 30 or 40 feet away." "Her camouflage hides her completely." "The wind shifts and the tigress is scented." "The hunt is over." "A tigress stakes her claim to her home range by spraying prominent trees and bushes" "Male tigers mark their territories in a symbolic fashion." "The size of a tiger's home range thus marked out varies widely." "On the average a female's territory is some ten square miles." "Males have much larger territories which overlap those of the females." "When one tiger smells the scent of another it grimaces in what is called a "flehmen" display." "By following scent markings and listening for roars, males and females find each other." "The pair stays together for two or three days and mates frequently for some periods as often as every 10 to 15 minutes." "The hills are almost devoid of nutritious grazing." "The sambar must come to the lake to feed on water plant." "The deer and the mugger crocodiles share the lake peaceably." "The sambar are nervous and uneasy ready to flee at the slightest sound or movement." "The constant and hidden menace of the tiger haunts their every move." "Though he failed to make a kill, as is so often the case, this exceptionally bold and athletic male specializes in hunting from ambush around the lakes." "Early the next morning this same tiger finally killed a sambar in the lake." "But to his fury the crocodiles have snatched it from him." "Intimidated by the crocodiles' strangely aggressive behavior, the tiger reluctantly retreats." "But like all of his kind he does not give up his quarry easily." "For nine hours the tiger waits." "When sambar come down to drink, he is not distracted from his purpose." "Finally he summons up enough courage to reclaim his kill." "The water is deep, and it takes a supreme feat of strength to swim through the water plants while dragging the 250-pound sambar." "The crocodiles' teeth are designed to seize and hold prey, not to cut through skin." "During all the hours the sambar lay in the water, they were unable to penetrate the deer's tough hide." "The crocodiles make a few token objections, but in the end give up without a struggle." "During the night a tigress has brought down a large sambar doe." "The ever present tree pies are already in attendance." "The birds eat only miniscule amounts, but the tigress resents any interference with her kill and relentlessly chases them off." "Her usual strategy for dealing with constantly pestering scavengers would be to drag the carcass to a hiding place." "But this kill is too heavy, the terrain too difficult." "Another ruse would be to cover it with dry grass or leaf litter." "But these are absent here, and the stones she tries to rake over her prize are ineffectual." "The only thing left to do is to guard her kill by virtually lying on top of it." "The kill is well worth protecting for she can expect to feed on it for four days or more." "The next morning the tigress in not at her kill." "During the night it has been wrested from her by a male." "She watches from a distance while the male feeds on her sambar." "Wisely the tigress does not stay to dispute the ownership of the kill." "She retreats to a spring deep in a ravine." "Another tigress did fight over a kill." "She came off second best." "Spring is the rutting season for the sambar in Ranthambhor." "The stages spray themselves with their male scent." "In this way they become more attractive to the does and more intimidating to other males." "In April, as spring changes to summer, it becomes drier and hotter." "For the sambar the squeeze between the need to drink and eat in the lakes and running the gauntlet of tigers in ambush becomes ever tighter." "The sambar, alert and cautious at all times, cannot see the tiger." "To them the tall grass is like a blank wall." "May is the height of summer in Ranthambhor." "Tigers stay close to the water holes." "Another six weeks of relentless heat must pass before the monsoon brings relief." "Kanha, in the meantime, has also dried out in the summer heat." "But because it is a less arid region, many trees and shrubs remain green." "The streams have ceased to flow." "Only sporadic water holes remain." "Moisture is at a premium." "Even a patch on wet sand is prized by a blizzard of thirsty butterflies." "The cubs of the cave-dwelling tigress have grown." "The two, a male and a female, are now five months old." "The cave has a commanding view, and the tigress keeps watch for possible prey and for anything that may be a threat to her cubs." "In late afternoon the tigress sets off to hunt." "The cubs follow her." "Before she has gone very far the tigress meets a real danger to her young, the resident male tiger." "She calls on all her ferocity to challenge the much larger animal." "Territorial males, which are known to kill cubs, are the main threat to the young tigers." "After the frightening confrontation, the female cub seeks reassurance." "The summer heat continues." "Every day it is 105 degrees or more in the shade." "The few water holes are shrinking." "Animals must travel long distances to drink." "As in Ranthambhor, there is a constant threat from the well camouflaged tigers" "A white-breasted kingfisher has taken up residence and bathes frequently to cool himself." "Langur monkeys spend hours licking salt and other minerals from the rocks that surround the pool." "The water hole attracts a multitude of birds." "Even the shy red junglefowl, the gaudy ancestor of the domestic chicken, must leave the protection of the forest to drink." "A lesser adjutant stork probes the water hole for fish and frogs." "The checkered keelback snake is an unwelcome visitor treated with circumspection by the other animals." "But the reptile is no threat to most of them." "It is non-venomous and a confirmed fish-eater." "The deserted water hole no longer has any interest for the tiger." "When the oppressive heat of the day abates, the barasingha emerge from the forest to drink." "It is a time too when the tigress and her cubs leave their cave." "Before she sets out to feed on the remains of a sambar she killed two nights ago, the tigress suckles her young during an interlude of extraordinary peace and tenderness." "This morning the tigress did not bring the cubs to her kill even though they are old enough to eat meat for themselves." "Danger in the form of the male tiger is still near." "When the male approaches, she hides the remains of her prey, covering it with leaves." "She will stay with in until the threat has passed." "Early June is the hottest, driest time of the year." "The shade temperature rises to 110 degrees." "Tigers suffer more than most animals in this heat." "Then one day in mid-June, as the koel and the brainfever bird scream for rain, a cool wind whips up;" "the air becomes humid." "The monsoon has finally arrived." "For four days it rains sometimes lightly, sometimes in torrents." "The temperature drops about 20 degrees" "The heat, the dry streams, the brittle bleached grasses, the aridity of eight virtually rainless months have disappeared at one stroke." "After the monsoon's first days of rain the sun briefly reappears." "Kanha has been transformed, has taken on a cloak of fresh new green." "Termites celebrate the onset on the monsoon with mating flights." "Velvet-textured mites erupt out of the ground and feast on the termites." "Male bullfrogs vie for the females in duels of sound." "Life has been liberated by the rain." "Plants explode into untrammeled growth" "The new lushness attracts hordes of leaf-eating insects, and when the caterpillars unleash their appetites on the monsoon's bounty, they are an effective restraint on the new leaves." "In July, when the monsoon is firmly established, the chital gather on the grassland, which soon reverberate with the sounds and energy of their rut." "A peacock unfurls his train a symbol for the renewal and exuberance of life" "A predator other than the tiger, and one feared by all the animals, moves down from the hills at this time of year, spreading disquiet in forest and grassland alike." "It is the Indian wild dog." "No animal is safe from these marauders and even the mighty tiger will usually avoid a direct confrontation." "The dogs move in packs that may number up to 30." "though an individual wild dog could never challenge the supremacy of the tiger, large packs have been known to attack him." "During such a fight the big cat can inflict heavy casualties." "Once a besieged tiger destroyed 12 dogs before he himself was killed and eaten" "As the younger dogs play, they are watched by a mob of near-hysterical chital." "The herd rushes into the forest where the pack will soon follow." "The incapacitated are left behind." "The lush grasses lure the reclusive gaur, or Indian bison, out of their forest strongholds." "These are the largest wild cattle in the world." "A large bull stands over six feet at the shoulder and may weight up to 2,000 pounds." "The adults have little to fear from the tiger." "It is the calves and yearlings that are vulnerable." "Whenever a tiger is detected, when the cows and bulls snort and toss their heads in threat the big cat has no chance of making a kill." "To the contrary, an alerted herd can be a danger to the tiger." "At the turn of the century some 40,000 tigers stalked India's jungles." "By 1972 they numbered fewer than 2000." "This grim fact was the signal for courageous and far-reaching conservation efforts." "These have been so effective that if the tiger is to survive in the wild its best chance is now probably in India, in reserves like Kanha and Ranthambhor where the tiger has already made an impressive comeback." "With Kanha's riches restored by the monsoon, the tiger is no longer tied to a few scant water holes." "It wanders widely and leaves the plains for the denser vegetation of the hills" "A green curtain is drawn over its presence, and the tiger becomes more elusive than ever, a hidden force that inspires even greater dread among all the animals that live under its tyranny." "This is a place of unseen danger and subtle beauty." "It is a mysterious swamp called "Okefenokee"... the realm of the Alligator." "Okefenokee... a forbidding place once thought to harbor deadly diseases." "It sheltered fugitives and inspired fear and superstition." "Today okefenokee Swamp is a well-know wildlife refuge." "But even for people like biologist-photographer." "Dr. John Paling, it is not entirely welcoming." ""Whenever I go back to Okefenokee now, I've got mixed feelings about it"." "Fromtheairwhenyougoacross it, it looks just so beautiful and so serene and so natural and so appealing." "And yet it can be a place of such contrasts that it seems almost as if man was never intended to be there for long." "Okefenokee Swamp is a 438,000-acre natural basin." "A mosaic of islands, forest, marshes, and open water." "It's famed for its alligators and as the home of Pogo," "The comic-strip possum." "Although it overlaps the Florida state line, most of Okefenokee lies in southeastern Georgia." "Okefenokee's population of Seminole Indians was driven out in the 1830s." "It was soon infiltrated by white settlers called "swampers."" "By the 1930s the swampers were well established here," "Showing off alligator nests and eggs for visiting photographers." "The swampers were a breed apart." "Many had few needs or interests outside Okefenokee." "Those who knew them admired their simplicity and self-reliance." "Soon after the turn of the century, virgin stands of cypress brought an invasion to the swamp." "This and earlier schemes to build a ship canal through the swamp and even to drain it threatened to destroy Okefenokee." "But much of Okefenokee's prime timber was cleared in less than 20 years." "Soon the swampers were alone again." "In 1937, Okefenokee was declared a national wildlife regfuge." "The human residents would eventually leave." "One old-timer said, we have the swamp and that's good." "But the swampers are all gone." "It's just a shame we can't have both." "More than fifty years after they were abandoned, relics of the old logging camps still can be found." "Now deep in regrowing forest, they're objects of curiosity for biologists like" "Kent Vliet and John Paling." "This is an old train." "Oh, this is?" "The engine was up front... and there would be water in this old cylinder." "After working here for several seasons Paling, born in England, has become intimately familiar with this Georgia swamp." "And there's something even more dramatic over here." "Come and have a guess sat this." "What do you make of this?" "That's some sort of a chassis." "Right." "Is that what they carried the logs on?" "Nope." "Try again." "Don't foregt we're on an island in the middle of Okefenokee, so try again." "Some sort of swamp buggy or something like that?" "It's a car." "They had three cars on the island." "Really?" "That's a heavy..." "Heavy duty, isn't it?" "Heavy chassis..." "But look how well the metal's been preserved." "Yeah." "And there's another thing to pick out too." "You see why it's so good?" "It's British" "Right-hand drive." "It's Durant car that they brought over on the trains for three people." "Is that right?" "Yeah." "There were three cars that would chug up and down." "And this thing is preserved so well." "Many cars that are ten years old don't have a chassis as good as that." "that's a very heavy chassis." "Right." "I think it was just to take people up and down." "There's a big turpentine still at the end of the island too." "And there was a cinema, there was a barber ship." "All gone now." "It's amazing." "Yep." "Trains." "When the logging company finished up business, they just tried to get all the people off when the National Parks Fish and Wildlife took it in 1937." "Although parts of Okefenokee can be traversed on foot, it is better explored by boat." "The waters of Okefenokee look like polished ebony, dark but highly reflective." "It is a landscape of mirrors, fascinating and surreal." "Kent Vliet is from the University of Florida." "He's an expert on Okefenokee's most famous resident, the alligator." "You know there's one right in front of us, John?" "Yep." "I can see that one." "The ability to "call" alligators by making certain curious sounds is a valuable skill for inquisitive biologists." "It's coming." "Whoa, hey." "Do they have binocular vision?" "Can they see three dimensions?" "Only a little small fraction of their total visual field just in front of their nose is binocular Is he coming too close?" "No, he's fine." "Why do they have the yellow ring around their eyes?" "Is there a function that's known for that?" "A number of aquatic animals have coloration around the eye like that hippopotamuses do." "It might have something to do with magnifying the light going into the eye" "Sort of the reverse of a football player putting black grease under the eye." "To make you see better in fact." "He's going to go down." "There he goes." "How long will they stay under water?" "They can stay under a good long time." "When they're resting in the afternoon, they go down for at least 15 minutes." "He's up again, look." "Yeah, there it is." "In the wintertime they may stay down for days." "Nobody knows." "For days and days?" "You mean they really..." "You mean they hibernate?" "Well, yeah, in the sense it is a hibernation." "Their metabolism slows down so much when they're that cold that they just require almost no oxygen." "And they don't eat, obviously, if they..." "No, they don't eat for several months during the winter." "I should think the average member of the public that comes to Okefenokee and sees an alligator thinks they have really arrived in prehistory" "Back in the Age of the Reptiles." "The study of alligator social behavior has occupied Kent Vliet for several years." "At his laboratory in Gainesville, Florida, he works with a wealth of accumulated data." "We've learned that alligator behavior is very, very complex." "It's much more complex and much more sophisticated than the behavior of other reptiles that have been studied." "And so our dealings with alligator behavior have been to try to document the types of behaviors they show and analyze these," "Not only in simple terms of alligator behavior, but as they might represent the primitive beginnings from which the more complex behaviors of birds and mammals have evolved." "Most of Kent's observations have been made at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm." "Several hundred alligators are on display here for the enlightenment of tourists." "The farm affords easy access to an otherwise elusive animal." "before that just to see if the place would work out." "Are there many differences between these gator-farm alligators and the ones you get in the wild?" "Well, captive animals look a lot different from wild animals." "The most noticeable difference..." "Is that the head of a captive animal is much broader." "You don't have this beautifully elongated snout." "That's because captive animals spend so much time on land basking, and at least in old animals like these the head weighs so much that is just tends to flatten itself out over the years." "It spreads out and becomes much broader" "Is that what squeezes the teeth out too Yeah. ." "because they're all showing very obviously here?" "They're very toothy animals" "Also all the scales on their back are worn down... much more so than a wild animal would be." "And that's just because these animals live in very high densities on farms, and they crawl over each other." "they just kind of buff each other down all the time." "Since 1981 Kent Vliet has made a detailed study of alligator behavior in the mating season from April into June." "But Kent was not happy with his original vantage point." "It was secure, but didn't provide an accurate water-level view." "He decided to enter the lake a procedure not without certain risks." "It is possible, when you're in the lake that a big male will decide he doesn't want you there and actually come up and try to get you out of his territory." "We've had very few problems when I was swimming in the lake, but there's always the potential for an alligator getting hold of you and doing some real damage." "Kent has found that alligators here at the farm are fairly harmless especially during mating season." "And, to increase his knowledge, he puts this opinion to a highly meaningful test." "We learned early on in our research that we needed to get off the boardwalks and go down and look at alligators at an alligator's eye level." "Alligators communicate to each other visually by the way they hold their bodies out of the water." "And we got down into the water to better understand how alligators are talking to each other in a visual sense." "Kent has taken a lot of kidding about being up to his eyebrows in alligators and "seeing eye to eye" with his study subjects." "But he feels that because he can understand an alligator's body language he can ward off trouble before it becomes a real threat." "I look for animals that are obviously directing themselves toward me as aggressive animals." "The way they tilt their head and how high they hold their body out of the water are all indications if they're being aggressive or not." "Not all the animals that come towards me are aggressive." "Many are curious, but I still have to treat them all about the same." "I can't let them get too close to me." "I carry a large, about five-foot-long cypress pole with me," "And if an animal does get too close," "I just nudge it away and try to keep it out of strike range." "The meaning, if any, of an alligator's impressive yawn is not understood;" "But other behavior like this head-slapping display has been deciphered." "It is an assertive gesture, advertising an alligator's social position." "In courtship season the alligators stage" ""bellowing choruses" almost daily." "Both sexes bellow, but they make somewhat different sounds." "Just before a male bellows, he produces subsonic signals that make the water around him dance." "In the wild these signals may dram females from a great distance." "Courtship is a quiet and oddly tender process that Kent has sometimes been able to witness at close quarters." "Courtship is usually initiated by one animal swimming slowly up to another." "And this is a very important stage of courtship because they have to communicate to each animal that they have non-aggressive intentions." "And secondly, they go into a period of touching one another along the face and neck." "And they really orient to each other's head and neck." "in the third phase of courtship these touching behaviors become more exaggerated and the animals start pressing each other down under water." "And these are real tests of strength between the two animals." "And these will be accentuated until one animal is capable of pressing the other under water and ultimately circle around and mount on that animal and begin riding it around and ultimately roll over to one side and attempt to mate with that animal." "However they behave, alligators have reproduced quite successfully in Okefenokee." "Here, until the 1970s they were badly hit by poachers." "Now, stiff laws protect a population that has grown to about 12,000." "In summer, bubbling gases are like the heartbeat of Okefenokee." "Beneath the dark waters is a thick layer of decomposing vegetation called peat." "The gases it creates sometimes lift large patches of peat to float on the surface." "Old-timers called this a 'blow-up'." "Over time, the floating mats of peat are covered with vegetation." "Some sink again, but others become floating islands and eventually support bushes and even trees." "Ultimately, the trees take root and new land is created small wooded islands known locally as houses." "Okefenokee is an Indian word that means 'land of the trembling earth'" "John Paling shows how fitting the name is when he lands on a young floating island." "I actually enjoy walking on "trembling earth", if I admit it." "It's one of these strange experiences like walking on a bowl of jelly." "The waters of Okefenokee are highly acid, about as acidic as strong tea and much the same color." "Conditions favor the growth of insect-eating plants that are found here in great variety." "This pitcher plant lures insects to its hollow tubular leaf with nectar." "Once inside, few insects escape." "They're fooled by light from the translucent windows that line the back of the tube." "They exhaust themselves trying to get out." "Eventually the insects fall to the bottom of the tube." "There they are dissolved by acid secretions and the plant absorbs them." "Another deadly attraction is the sundew" "Its leaves are adorned with brightly colored stalks tipped with shiny droplets apparently a sweet meal for passing insects." "But hungry insects soon become entangled." "Escape is impossible when the plant finally closes to digest its victim." "Along the edges of islands and in shallow marshes insects are snared in such deadly traps." "When it's all over, there will be nothing left of them except their indigestible husks." "As night falls Okefenokee's gloom and its grandeur deepen." "One hundred million years ago the alligator's ancestors thrived in prehistoric swamps." "As far as we know, they looked much as they do today." "The eyes of the alligator are highly reflective." "They shine with an eerie glow in the night." "John Paling and Kent Vliet conduct a nighttime search for baby alligators" "Disturbing alligators here in the refuge is strictly outlawed." "Even scientists like Vliet need special permission just to touch one." "Let's cut off the engine for a minute and get some peace." "Okay." "Wow!" "That makes a difference, doesn't it?" "Let's pole from here." "It's beautiful in here." "Nice and quiet without that outboard." "Sure thing." "Do you see any gators yet, or not?" "I haven't seen any in this small stretch here." "I'll just flash the light around there" "Is that one over there?" "Yeah." "That's one back in the water lilies." "Let's try and get a bit closer to it, can we?" "I'll pole some more if you'll keep paddling on that side." "Unlike the closely related crocodile, alligators rarely attack man." "There are only about a half dozen fatalities on record, and there has never been a serious incident in the Okefenokee Refuge." "Even so, there's a certain tension whenever they're about." "Do you see one?" "I'll keep going." "Say when." "Okay, Just a little closer." "You got one?" "The captured baby gives a continuous cry of alarm." "John and Kent work quickly." "They want to minimize stress on the baby and avoid trouble with its mother who might be nearby." "Forty-two-and-a-half centimeters." "Forty-two?" "Uh huh." "Forty-two." "Good." "What's it reading?" "It's just at 200 grams." "Watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it" "My god!" "She's really cruising." "Is it the call of the baby?" "Yeah." "The baby's just continually calling." "Well, hang on." "Her jaws are open a bit" "Her teeth are showing." "Kent, are you sure it's okay?" "I don't think it's a good idea to stay here." "Do you want to put the baby back, or what?" "Probably what I should do is just tap her on the nose and see if it scares her." "They are often a little more brave at night than they are in the daytime." "Watch!" "She's coming, Kent." "Boy, she really concentrates on that..." "She just localizes right on the distress call." "I think I had better push her off." "Are you sure?" "She's a little too close." "This is not safe." "She's not safe?" "No." "How about just putting the baby back?" "Don't you think that's the best idea?" "Yeah." "We're definitely at a disadvantage." "So Kent builds a record of alligator growth in different areas." "Females grow to an average of seven to eight feet," "While males may be up to 14 feet and weigh 850 punds." "Not all of Okefenokee's wonders are found in the marshes." "John Paling explores a pine forest in search of the red-cockaded woodpecker." "The birds are endangered and difficult to find." "They live in groups of three or more, and each of these so-called "clans"" "requires about 200 acres of home range" "This small woodpecker, only seven inches in length, has become famous for its finicky habits." "It will only make holes in old pine trees that are usually infected by a certain disease red heart fungus." "The fungus softens the tree's inner core, making the woodpecker's work easi." "When a clan of woodpeckers finds trees that suit them exactly," "They may remain here for life." "The woodpecker's keep busy, however, carrying out a fascinating scheme for survival." "They constantly make fresh holes in the trees, causing them to exude a thick coating of resin." "It's a sharp and smelly substance, the main ingredient of turpentine." "The woodpecker's nest hole is surrounded be resin." "And it's always located on the western side of the trunk where the heat of the sun will help keep the resin moist and fresh." "The reason for all this only becomes clear with the appearance of a predator like this corn snake." "Sometimes this snake can be an amazing tree climber." "It can climb straight up and reach bird nests 30 feet above the ground." "Eggs or baby birds inside the woodpecker's nest are seemingly easy prey." "But now the resin comes into play." "To the snake it's a powerful irritant." "Frequently is stops the snake entirely" "Even if the snake persists, it still tries to avoid contact with the resin." "Often the snake ends up retreating the hard way." "Such moments of threat and drama frequently interrupt the tranquility of Okefenokee." "The predator in one situation can become prey in the next." "A baby alligator in pursuit of a diving katydid." "Hiding underwater, the katydid is safe temporarily." "But after two minutes or so, it must come up for air." "It's midsummer." "John Paling and Kent Vliet search for alligator nests." "At this time of year dozens of nests are concealed in the swamp." "The best way to find one is to look for the trail the female alligator has made when coming and going from the nest." "They should be pretty clear." "If they're used often like a trail to a nest is, they're pretty obvious." "This looks like one right here." "Left?" "Right by these yellow flowers in this clump here." "Let's shove the nose of the boat in here." "Yeah, this is one." "Oh, I can see it." "Yeah." "It does look like it's used pretty frequently too." "That one looks really packed down." "I think it's probably one leading to a nest." "Alligator trails form a network of natural pathways through the swamp." "They were often followed by early explorers." "But there's a drawback." "Alligators like to lie submerged along the trails." "It's all to easy to step on one." "In the nesting season the female alligator is on the defensive." "She herself has nothing to fear, but her eggs are highly vulnerable." "Scavengers often attack the nest." "Wait a minute." "Here's the nest." "It's been attacked, hasn't it?" "No, I think they've been eaten." "Something's gotten into the nest and eaten the eggs." "Oh." "What would have eaten these then?" "Probably either raccoons or black bears" "Black bears eat a lot of alligator nests here." "But I mean raccoons and bears wouldn't swim and wade through this stuff?" "Well, there could be one living in this island, or he may have moved from island to island." "It's hard to say if it was a black bear or a raccoon though." "Sometimes black bears will pick off the end of an egg and just eat the insides out of it." "I don't know how they do it." "They may just use a claw and just pop the top off and eat it." "This is sort of like an island." "How does the mother make it?" "I think this nest is either sunk from its own weight after she built it or the water level in the swamp has risen some." "These things just scrape up all the dirt and vegetation around them." "You see there's peat in here and a lot of plant matter that holds it together." "And also the rotting plant matter heats the eggs." "It creates heat as it rots, and it actually keeps the eggs warmer than they would be just with the sun on them." "Could she still be around now these have been eaten?" "I think she probably came back and realized that it had been disturbed and just lost interest and left." "Let's find another one then." "Okay." "That's really too bad." "Often the female alligator is not far from the nest." "And when she discovers an intruder, she can be highly aggressive." "John Paling once faced such a confrontation unexpectedly when filming a nest." "This was, in Paling's understated words a moment "of surprise and serious concern"." "It ended only when he backed off, leaving the nest to its rightful owner" "The fierce protection given the nest plays a vital part in the life of the redbelly turtle." "The female turtle tries to lay her eggs in the alligator's nest." "If she succeeds, the mother alligator will unwittingly stand guard over the turtle eggs as well as her own." "Risking attack, the turtle invades the nest and lays her eggs taking advantage of the warmth and moisture." "Leaving her eggs behind, the turtle tries to get away." "It's just as risky as getting in." "Most adult turtles in Okefenokee bear the marks of encounters like this." "Often they are not harmed." "It's as if alligators recognize the turtle after one futile bite." "Finding it hard to crack, they then leave it alone." "The female turtle has done her part." "She leaves her eggs in the alligator's protection and will not return." "For otters, turtles are handy and long-suffering playthings." "Otters are perhaps the most entertaining inhabitants of Okefenokee" "And playfulness is believed to be one strong indication of animal intelligence." "Violent thunderstorms often rake Okefenokee in summer." "And during a dry period lightning can set the swamp ablaze." "Peat, when dry, is flammable." "It can burn slowly and steadily for months at a time." "So fire eats away the land in Okefenokee." "Scientists think such fires may serve to revitalize the swamp, creating hollows where new ponds and lakes form when the drought ends." "Recovery after a fire is swift." "Soon Okefenokee is once again resplendent with vibrant color." "By late summer the baby alligators are ready to hatch." "It has taken about nine weeks for the eggs to incubate." "A chorus of cries from the nest brings the mother alligator to assist her young." "The baby turtles may also be hatching at the same time." "The alligator baby." "Its cries have been loud enough to be heard even before the egg has broken open." "Interestingly enough, the sex of baby alligators is determined by the temperature surrounding the eggs" "Above 90 degrees Fahrenheit only males develop." "Below 87 degrees there are only females." "No one yet knows precisely how this serves the alligator's survival." "The mother alligator tries to seize the young in her mouth and carry them away." "The baby turtles aren't so fortunate." "In all the confusion they're on their own." "With ponderous care, the mother alligator carries her young away to water one by one." "The baby turtles seem to know instinctively to lie low when the mother alligator is near." "When the baby turtles make a break for it, they head unerringly for the nearest water." "When all this is over, a new generation of both turtles and alligators begins life in Okefenokee." "In 1960 a dam was built in the wildlife refuge on the Suwannee River that could change Okefenokee forever." "By holding water in the swamp, the dam is intended to prevent fires and loss of timber in nearby forests." "But it could also upset the balance of fire and regneration that makes the makes the swamp what it is." "Experts disagree, and it could be decades before the full impact is known." "In the realm of the alligator, meanwhile, life continues according to an ancient pattern." "At this age the young alligators are vulnerable to many predators." "They will remain in their mother's protection for several months before going off on their own." "So the alligator has survived on earth long before the time of man." "And with sufficient human knowledge and concern, the alligator will remain an ancient and durable survivor of the distant past."