"NARRATOR:" "Beyond the limits of the human eye, life holds secrets we never imagined." "Attacks too fast to see." "Mysteries of survival and death." "Our crew will brave extreme conditions using the most advanced photographic technology to reveal these connections between living things." "Faster, slower, closer." "Capturing the beauty and brutality of nature at the speed of life." "In nature, time is marked by the rise and fall of the sun and moon." "At any given moment, some creatures sleep while others forage and kill." "To capture this 24-hour cycle, a team of wildlife photographers must sync up to nature's clock or their mission will fail." "They've invaded a realm where there's no such thing as a time-out." "Central America, one of the most biodiverse wild lands on the planet." "Consisting of seven contiguous countries, it's a bridge of land bordered by two oceans." "No wider than 300 miles across and covered with steaming jungles and rainforests." "Awaiting the team is a hidden realm that contains over a half-million plant and animal species." "For plant life, the moisture and temperatures make this region a paradise." "But for the creatures here, this lush, green world is one big kill zone..." "By day and by night." "Thousands of species are nocturnal, but using light-sensitive cameras, the team hopes to capture their secret and sometimes violent lives." "Struggling to survive, two forces, one on constant attack, the other on the defense." "Snakes and frogs." "This tree frog is perfectly camouflaged against the background of lush greens." "But the foliage is also filled with brilliant flowers, and the animals here have grown accustomed to the contrast." "This brightly colored and toxic jungle dweller has the face of a demon and a taste for frogs." "It's an agile predator, named after the curious scales above each eye." "The yellow eyelash viper." "Armed with fangs as sharp as hypodermic needles... this two-foot male has two speeds..." "Slow and incredibly fast." "It can strike at speeds approaching 100 miles an hour." "Eyelash vipers can lay in wait for hours or days on end without moving a muscle." "Some naturalists speculate his coloring and behavior mimics a stationary yellow orchid to fool oncoming prey." "This green tree frog has hopped into the viper's kill zone, seemingly unaware it's now staring death right in the face." "In real time, the strike is lightning fast, but slowed down to 2,000 frames per second, the viper's awesome attack is revealed." "A jolt of venom injected through the snake's hollow fangs immobilizes the frog as it's eaten alive." "It will take this male three days to digest his kill." "Then once again, he'll lay in wait for more victims in the night." "Now the rising light awakens a new shift of predators and prey." "To survive, they've evolved some eye-popping strategies." "Seeing them in action is the hard part." "Breaking through these visual barriers requires advanced cameras and optics." "Yeah, come through." "We're looking for an ideal spot to set up a zip line." "This is the zip-line rig." "It runs on two motorcycle batteries." "It's gonna be pulling about 1,000 pounds of force on it." "NARRATOR:" "A zip-line camera mounted on a remotely operated vehicle can traverse the canopy." "It's built to move silently at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour and gives the team access to animals that are easily spooked by intruders." "It looks good, man." "Let's power it up." "NARRATOR:" "The crew will stop the vehicle at different elevations and pan the camera with servomotors." "Midway through the trees, a ghostly blur." "One of the forest's most elusive creatures." "The largest primate of the New World." "The undisputed king of the canopy." "The howler monkey." "It can amble from tree to tree as easily as we cross the living room." "This young male has left his colony to forage alone for the first time." "His top speed through the trees... 18 miles per hour." "He clings to the branches using his feet and five-fingered hands." "Howlers also have a fifth hand in the form of a strong prehensile tail." "Howlers are picky vegetarians... and play a very important part in seed dispersal in the ecosystem." "But this young howler's picnic has led him far away from his troop." "And now he's lost." "A harpy eagle has the howler in his sights." "And down at the base of his tree... an 80-pound boa constrictor." "Its flexible jaws can swallow a monkey whole." "It's honed in on the scent of the howler and heads up from the jungle floor." "Then comes an unmistakable sound." "[Monkeys howling]" "It's the young male's colony marking their position." "They're not called howlers for nothing." "The only creature louder on Earth is the blue whale." "Using the calls as a beacon, the young male heads for home where there's safety in numbers." "Instead of swinging like chimps, howlers have evolved to leap from tree to tree." "Within minutes, he's home again." "Howlers have a sweet tooth, and the clan has found some fruit." "In spite of their dexterity, these monkeys are sloppy." "But what falls from the canopy's upper story is welcomed by some residents in the basement." "The basilisk lizard." "They have a life-span of 10 years, but only if they avoid predators." "Basilisks make their home directly below the howlers' favorite trees." "Here, this female dines on falling scraps as well as the insects that come to eat them." "Basilisks rely on skin pigments that match vegetation perfectly." "Like all lizards, they get their body heat from the sun." "Her eyes move independently and provide excellent color vision for detecting both prey and the predators that hunt her." "One of the deadliest shares its color and pattern with the tiger and is every bit as stealthy." "This predator is so elusive, no one knows how long they can live." "Males like this can grow nearly 12 feet long." "The tiger rat snake." "It will eat virtually anything it can get its fangs on." "It kills its victims by constriction and swallows them." "Now this male is locked on to the scent of the basilisk." "The lizard's weight is spread through powerful legs and widely spread toes." "And very soon, her life will depend on just how fast they can move." "The lizard finally senses the snake's presence." "Her camouflage has failed, but her next move is nothing short of miraculous." "The sun has nearly risen to its midday apex." "Each degree of its journey from east to west marked by the struggle of countless creatures trying to survive another 24 hours." "The life of this basilisk lizard has reached a crossroads." "Its mortal enemy, a hungry rat snake, has pursued her to the edge of the river." "The lizard has just one option left..." "An escape strategy like none other in the natural world." "Slow-motion cameras reveal her moving at five feet per second." "Her escape strategy is foolproof because no predator is equipped to run on water." "Air pockets form beneath her hind feet..." "Just enough buoyancy to keep her up on the surface." "These runs cover about 15 feet." "After that, gravity overtakes the lizard's forward motion." "Time elapsed... six seconds, enough to leave the tiger rat snake safely behind." "And another benefit of running on water is that the lizard leaves no scent trail for the snake to follow." "No predators in sight." "At least at the surface." "But lurking below is a major threat." "Cloaked in its own extraordinary camouflage, this prehistoric beast is armed with a pair of sharp-edged cutting mandibles and tremendously powerful jaw muscles." "It's a 30-pound snapping turtle with the temperament of a hungry junkyard dog." "This female could easily snap off your finger and do it in under half a second." "Snapping turtles eat virtually anything, dead or alive, at virtually any time of the day, and this day could spell doom for the lizard." "The turtle is positioned directly in her path." "A lightning-fast attack from below, caught in the turtle's vise-like jaws." "The lizard is pulled below and consumed." "The ambush spooks one of the pond's most delicate residents." "Their wings are unique and nothing short of amazing." "A blue skimmer dragonfly." "By changing the way they move, this male can maneuver in all directions and hover as steady as a helicopter." "To navigate, his eyes have about 30,000 lenses for wrap-around vision." "But today he's headed for a deadly trap." "Managed by a gang of eight-legged killers." "They start life about the size of a pinhead." "Six months later, they've grown into predators with 8-inch leg spans." "Seen for the first time in slow-motion macro photography, these pulsating flaps, or spiracles, regulate levels of CO2 and oxygen in the spider's respiratory system." "They only live about a year, but only if they kill and eat their way from sunrise to sunrise before they die." "This golden orb web spider oversees a treacherous network of silk." "Few creatures that fly into the complex web she's helping to build ever escape, and the dragonfly is not one of them." "Slow-motion photography reveals it hitting the web at 36 miles per hour." "As he struggles to escape, the dragonfly is killed by a female orb-weaver with a jolt of neurotoxins injected through her fangs." "Only now will this male spider, 1/10th her size, dare to join her." "While the female is busy with the kill, he considers grabbing a scrap but decides to back off." "There's no love here." "After mating, the female will eat him." "Elsewhere on the web, another female has already killed her mate." "As she begins to devour him, her sisters deal with web maintenance and repair." "Because this process is so complex and time-consuming, at least a half-dozen females must work as one, a cooperative strategy unique to their species." "Silk production begins with proteins produced by a special gland." "When she's ready to weave, the female uses her legs to draw thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly." "The web is made of two different fibers." "One is sticky to catch animals." "The other type, called drag line, is smooth." "Spiders use drag-line strands to walk the web without getting stuck like their victims." "A thread the diameter of a pencil could restrain a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier." "No man-made fiber even comes close in strength." "It will take the team of six females roughly 300 hours to complete one of the deadliest wonders of the natural world." "It's suspended between two trees, and it's blocking one of the busiest fly zones of the rainforest." "Total area... a staggering 200 square feet." "The spiders need to rid the web of all debris and constantly repair it to make room for new victims that hurtle into the web every minute." "A cicada plows into the web's center, but escapes through a tear left by a previous kill." "The damage must be spot-repaired or other potential meals will be lost." "A well-maintained web can last as long as two years, outliving some of its builders." "But before the females can finish the day's repairs, their giant silk trap suffers a massive blow and this fruit bat will find himself in a terrifying predicament." "In Central America, the midday sun begins its slow decline, giving the team some relief from the oppressive heat as they capture a life-or-death struggle that's just beginning deep in the rainforest." "This male fruit bat never saw it coming." "The more it struggles, the more sticky thread adheres to its body, tearing the web." "To kill the bat, all the females would have to attack at once using all their venom." "But getting close enough to plunge in their fangs will expose them to death from sharp teeth that line the male's jaws." "The best strategy?" "Let time and the web do their dirty work." "The more the young bat struggles, the more enmeshed and exhausted he'll become." "As the bat frees one part of his body, another part gets caught." "The orb-weaver's strategy seems to be working until the bat comes up with one of his own." "He begins to chew through the super-tough strands, keeping his movement to a minimum." "As the male bat hangs by a silk noose, his executioners decide to close in before he can escape." "With his last ounce of strength, the bat breaks free." "His flight path takes him upward through levels of the canopy seldom explored until now." "This is a world where different creatures live at different heights." "Getting to all of them means rigging the camera to move vertically from one canopy habitat to the next." "To accomplish their mission, they anchor a line at the top of a high tree." "Attached to the line, a high-strength, lightweight sled to carry a remote-controlled camera skyward." "This vertical world is inhabited by nature's most elusive species." "One of the most striking residents grows a crown of spines from its cranium." "This creature makes its home in the hollows of the trees..." "The coronated tree frog." "Its sensitive eyes scan the leaves and branches for predators that haunt every story of the rainforest." "This one slithers silently, camouflaged by a scale pattern that mimics the speckled sunlight of the canopy." "The cat-eyed snake, named after its cat-like elliptical pupils." "They're designed to adjust to the canopy's changing light conditions." "This one is a hungry female." "Her favorite prey?" "The jewels of the rainforest." "Tree frogs." "Adhesive disks on the tips of their toes and fingers allow them to climb up any surface." "Some species, like this 4-inch male adult, have legs and hands enlarged with strange, flipper-like webbing." "The team is about to discover what these strange hands and feet are designed for when the cat-eye closes in on the frog." "The male has only seconds to live." "Unable to evade the snake, his next move explains why he's called the flying tree frog." "The frog jumps into space some three stories above the forest floor." "The flying tree frogs arc their backs and extend their arms and legs like skydivers." "They use their webbed hands and feet to make a controlled descent." "Another battle in the epic war between rainforest snakes and frogs ends with a safe landing for the flying amphibian." "But the cat-eyed snake's insatiable thirst for frogs is only intensified by the defeat." "There are plenty more targets to choose from, and this one can't fly." "The red-eyed tree frog." "It's the middle of the breeding season and this female has already laid her clutch of eggs." "She's left them on a wide leaf where the heat of the sun will keep them warm." "Each egg contains a tadpole full of fat..." "The perfect feast for the hungry snake." "To perpetuate her species, the female frog must lead the snake away from her tadpoles." "To do this, she'll use a survival strategy based on color." "Cat-eye snakes rely on their sense of smell to track their prey, but they also use their vision, and that's what the frog is counting on." "The female bulges her bright-red eyes the second she senses the snake." "She also shows the vivid colors on her flanks." "The snake's eyes lock tightly on these brilliant reds and greens." "When the frog jumps away, the predator's eyes remain focused on her colorful ghost." "This female can't skydive, but she can jump 10 times her body length." "The frog is safe, but not her eggs." "Following their scent, the snake slides up to a massive feast there for the taking." "This juicy glob of frog caviar could sustain the cat-eye for up to 72 hours." "But in this amazing world, even the unborn have strategies for survival." "The sun is the giver of all life in the rainforests of Costa Rica." "It's also the clock that measures the speed of life for all living things here." "Most vulnerable are the young." "Among them, this clutch of red-eye frog tadpoles." "To the team, the eggs look completely exposed... and vulnerable to any predator." "But as the cat-eye snake moves in, the outcome is less certain." "Even in their egg sacs, tadpoles can sense the difference between a brush of a predator from a wisp of wind." "As the snake decides which baby to eat first, the vibrations from its tongue and body sets off an alarm in the young frogs." "Suddenly, the development of their brains and nervous systems speeds up, providing each tadpole just enough coordination to burst free from their egg sacs." "Shot in super slow motion, the tadpoles' great escape begins." "The mass breakout is so complete, the snake winds up with just a few young and a mouthful of jelly." "The rest of the tadpoles wiggle away." "Dropping like tears from leaf to leaf, their ultimate destination..." "A forest pool." "It's no accident that tree frogs are wired to lay their eggs over standing water." "Helpless prey have turned the tables on a predator, living proof that here in the Costa Rican rainforest, the team should expect the unexpected." "Down on the forest floor, a pink-toed predator sets off to hunt." "Just like the canopy above, the creatures that live on the rainforest floor have evolved to adapt some startling features." "This one is armed with agile legs and powerful fangs." "The pink-toed tarantula." "Every nook and cranny of the forest floor is crawling with eight-legged hunters." "One of them isn't much bigger than a tarantula's toe, but its deadly features and hunting prowess are unsurpassed." "An ambush predator, it lurks in the low bushes just over the forest floor." "The closer you look at it, the more awesome it gets." "It scans for prey through eight eyes." "The jumping spider." "This tiny hunter weighs just .015 grams." "By altering the pressure of his body fluid, the legs on this male put out incredible energy without the need for large muscles." "Just below him, this fly is unaware it's being stalked." "This gives the spider just enough time for a daring attack." "The male tethers himself with a strand of silk." "Then, like a suicidal bungee jumper, he leaps into space at his target." "Seen in super slow motion, the spider free-falls 100 times his body length, the odds of success unknown." "As the angle of the sun declines, the rainforest thermostat dials down." "Just a five-degree drop in temperature is enough to activate a new shift of predators and prey." "For this extraordinary hunter, 48 hours without a kill means starvation and death." "The male jumping spider." "His target?" "A forest fly resting on a leaf far below him." "Now an all-or-nothing leap... to survive for another day." "A pinpoint landing puts the spider within striking distance of this prey." "Next, he pumps up the hydraulic pressure that powers his legs for a final lunge." "He delivers a shot of venom from his hidden fangs." "As the fly struggles in the spider's deadly grasp, both lose their footing, but this assassin is anchored to a safety line from where he initiated his attack." "After feeding, it's time to hunt for more game on the lower forest floor." "Here, what looks like an endless expanse of dead leaf litter actually has a life of its own." "Vast carpets of fungi grow to maturity in just a single day." "The rank smell attracts insects that eat fungus, spores and all." "When insects excrete fungus spores, new colonies grow, covering areas as large as 2,200 acres." "Bright colors on mushrooms and plants are often warnings they contain lethal poisons and that can hold true with animals as well." "The glowing pigments on the skin of this creature are the ultimate example." "Poison dart frogs." "These forest-floor amphibians are fiercely territorial and among the most toxic animals on Earth." "About the length of a paper clip, the poisons oozing from the skin of this tiny female are potent enough to kill 10 grown men in a matter of minutes." "The frog can shoot his tongue out a quarter of his body length." "The action is so fast, his insect prey literally has no chance to escape." "Scientists speculate that frogs accumulate their venom from the poisons of the insects they eat." "Darkness now creeps into the canopy." "As the last rays of light linger on the leaves, delicate phantoms emerge to start the night shift." "One of the most breathtaking creatures looks more like a priceless crystal figurine." "This elusive predator will soon make its first kill of the night." "The rainforest sun is the mainspring of natural time for all life in Central America's rainforests." "But as day cycles to night, each passing minute reveals creatures with survival strategies that seem more like science fiction than fact." "This one is so elusive, little is known of its extraordinary natural history." "What we do know is its camouflage is a wonder of the natural world." "The glass frog." "This female is about the size of a human fingernail." "It makes its home under the leaf litter of the forest floor." "Seen through a macro lens, her belly skin is so translucent, her red heart, about the size of a rice grain, is clearly visible beating 40 times a minute." "Some biologists speculate that the lack of belly pigmentation allows light reflected off the leaves to shine through the glass frog's body, cloaking it in a green glow." "But even these gorgeous creatures have to eat." "They'll feed on small insects and sometimes their own young." "As the glass frog prowls the understory, another fantastic creature haunts the forest floor." "The most bizarre example of deadly coloration is also a marvel of evolution." "The velvet worm is a missing evolutionary link between hard-shelled insects and the worm family." "It creeps around the forest floor on dozens of false legs called lobopods, which are unjointed fleshy extremities connected to the abdomen." "Its thin, colorful skin looks velvety because it's covered with thousands of sensory hairs that may help it locate prey." "The dayglow colors are a warning that their bodies are highly poisonous." "Velvet worms can actually spit a toxic adhesive goo from nozzles below its antennae to immobilize and kill attackers or prey." "The team began this journey at dawn, and in a few hours, the sun will rise once more." "Now the last hours of night provides a measure of safety for one of the oddest creatures in all the rainforest." "The size of a small dog, these slowpokes are covered with damp fur." "Absolute top speed..." "15 feet an hour." "The only thing slower than a sloth is a sloth that's slower." "They live almost entirely in the canopy, descending on long-nailed feet for the occasional drink of water or to change trees." "Tonight, this one seems intrigued by the team's remote camera." "The tranquil, hypnotic gaze of this female signals that a day in the life of Central America's wild lands has come to a close, a day that has revealed extraordinary adaptations, from creatures that can run on water" "to those who sky dive for survival." "This is a realm where even the unborn are wired to survive." "And the distant howls of family show the way home." "All at the speed of life."