Brazil Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall.

And this is Deadly Pole To Pole.

Ohhh!

From the top of the world to the bottom.

Whoa!

Deadly places.

Deadly adventures.

And deadly animals.

And you're coming with me, every step of the way!

Argh!

This is the Pantanal.

It's a wetland habitat right in the middle of Brazil

and it's home to more monster jaws

and claws than just about any other place on the planet.

The Pantanal is a wildlife seeker's paradise with many

of the true jewels of Latin America sharing the lakes,

lagoons, rivers and swamps.

It's more than 7,000 miles from where

I started my journey in the Arctic circle.

Whilst here, I head out on a hunt for the Pantanal's

top predator.

My heart is just going bam-bam-bam, bam-bam, bam-bam.

Do my best to talk

to the animals.

HE GARGLES

And, have the encounter of a lifetime.

I'm so excited!

But first, I'm off to investigate a cold-blooded assassin.

The Yacare caiman.

Caiman are ambush hunters.

They feed on a range of animals, including fish, turtles, and snakes.

They lie in wait

for unsuspecting prey to come to them...

..kill it with a crunch, then swallow it whole.

I want to show you how caiman

catch fish in these Pantanal waters.

Let's check out their assets up close.

There's the distinctive shape of a quite decent-sized caiman

heading across the river towards us.

I think my best plan is to clamber round the bank,

to just over here into the shallow water and then sit there with

the underwater camera and see if we can get a shot.

OK, so I'm going to move into the water really,

really carefully.

I don't want to spook him

but I also don't want to stir up the visibility

because if I can't see him then this could get dangerous.

One metre...there.

Right, now, let's try and see if we can get him

right in front of my lens.

We're using a fish to splash on

the water and keep the caiman's attention.

You can see how stealthy they really are.

Oh, it's such a creepy sight.

I mean, I know that Yacare caiman are not man-eaters...

..but he's a good size...

..and as with all crocodiles the great secret to his strategy

is minimal exposure, is having the least amount of its body exposed.

Though they're not aggressive to human beings, he could certainly

do me some serious damage.

So, I just want to be very, very careful how I interact with him.

They're very efficient, moving slowly

until they're within striking distance.

The river here is so murky

that if it came at me underwater I simply wouldn't

be able to see him approaching.

And this is a part of their deadly ambush strategy.

Yes, go on, take it!

Well, that is as close as I'm comfortable being

to a big caiman like this.

Yes!

Fantastic!

Having seen their stealth approach up close,

I now want to see their speedy

feeding strike in more detail.

And to do this, we need to find a spot

where the caiman and their prey are bunched together.

We were crossing over this bridge

when we noticed the commotion in the water below. It looks like

the water's boiling, it's churning over, and that's the reason why.

There are dozens and dozens of caiman down there.

I'm guessing that this pool was once much, much bigger and it's shrunk

as it started to dry up and trapped loads

and loads of fish inside and the caiman are having an absolute feast.

Let's see if we can try and get a shot.

We're filming both in slow motion

and real-time to see if we can capture the caiman's

bite strike in great detail.

The caiman's skull is laden with teeth

and you can see when it's slowed down,

16 times slower than real life,

how the caiman's ambush strike really works.

It reacts to the movement of fish in the water

and snaps out to the side, trapping its prey.

The reason they're so successful is

that they can go for long periods of time without eating,

they can fast and use up very, very little energy and then

when they get a situation like this where there's an enormous amount

of food they can gorge themselves,

and that's exactly what's happening now.

Their teeth are adapted to keeping hold of these slippery snacks.

So, once the fish is encased there's no escape.

You beauty!

Sharp snatching, super sensitive and armour plated,

Yacare caiman are without doubt...deadly!

With their powerful bite...

..large teeth...

..and ambush strike, there's no doubt about it,

caimans are cunning killers of Central Brazil.

Deadly!

Caiman are everywhere here, so inevitably they end up as prey

for other predators.

One of the most ruthless is our next target.

This morning we're up before dawn

because we're going in search of one of South America's

top carnivores and this is when they're most active.

This is an animal that can take on creatures as big as anaconda,

caiman, piranha, and the way they work together as a team,

and their teeth, mean that local people call them the river wolf.

Known for their teamwork, the animal we're after is a real

surprise terror of the river

and everyone's got their eyes peeled

for any sign of them.

So in alongside where we've just pulled up now there's

vegetation overhanging the water and this is absolutely perfect.

They could well be underneath here fishing.

There's movement in the water.

I just heard it!

GRUNTING

We catch glimpses in amongst the bushes but there's no way

we'll be able to get a proper view of them through this.

There's a little trick.

Because these are such inquisitive creatures,

sometimes making sounds can entice them to come out into the open,

and one of the best sounds to make is a gargle.

HE GARGLES

HE GARGLES

They're interested...

Then they come out into the open, it worked!

Here, here, here, coming alongside,

swimming in our direction.

This is the animal we've been searching for,

the giant river otter.

They can travel at incredible speeds

weaving in and out of the vegetation.

HE GARGLES

OTTER GRUNTS

They are incredibly big animals!

They're so strong and powerful.

Their teeth are probably as long as my little finger.

It's no surprise, really, that working together

they can take on crocodiles and big snakes.

They're just coming out of the water, popping their heads up,

almost like seals looking back towards us. Yes, look at that!

A fearsome family of hunters on the move.

Like all otters, giant river otters

are sleek, sinuous, elegant, beautiful.

They even look cuddly, but to underestimate them would be

a terrible mistake!

This is one of the fiercest and most efficient hunters on the planet.

Patrolling the river in packs,

they're some of the mightiest predators in the Pantanal...

and also some of the most ferocious.

They can take down feisty caiman and also

feast on packs of piranhas.

But right now they're showing off their playful side.

They're just mucking about, socialising,

they're rolling around in the sandy bank.

The youngsters, there's some very young cubs here,

are just slaloming up and down through the sand into the water

and back up into the shade again.

Out of the water, you can see the size of these animals.

Adult males can grow as long as I am tall...and their muscly bodies,

strong legs and paddle-like tail make them

expert at high-speed underwater pursuits.

These giant river otters detect their prey using sensitive whiskers

that allow them to pinpoint it in even the murkiest of water.

Once they've located their target,

it does not stand a chance.

Their teeth are perfect for grabbing wet, slippery,

wriggling prey. Even their play has deadly potential.

The skills they use to hunt are learnt through play fighting,

just like this.

What they're doing is they're exercising

the muscles and the sinews.

The skills that they'll need to be able to catch their food

in later life.

I know that this is them at their absolute most playful and perhaps

their least deadly but we're never going to get

a better view than this.

And you have to say that this animal with its teeth, with its teamwork,

with its ability to work the riverside, killing

everything in its path is definitely deadly.

Speedy underwater swimmers...

..with super-sensitive whiskers...

..sharp teeth capable of dispatching slippery prey...

giant river otters, the pack hunters of the Pantanal.

Deadly!

But if I am honest,

this has all been a warm-up for the main event,

my deadly nemesis.

Anyone who spends any time searching for wildlife is going to have

a nemesis, an animal that no matter what they do

they just can't find.

I've spent literally months searching for this animal

and never caught a glimpse

but hopefully my luck is about to change

because the Pantanal is the best place in the world to see

the dynamic, dramatic, iconic big cat, the jaguar.

A wild jaguar is the only animal that we've

tried to see on all three previous Deadly series...

and failed.

HE BARKS

This is my final chance.

We've got four days to try and catch a glimpse of this majestic beast,

and the Pantanal is certainly a beautiful place to be searching.

The river looks incredible this morning with all the mist

hanging over the water.

It looks like we're heading into some forgotten world.

Early morning is prime time as these big, beautiful cats

tend to be more active in the cooler parts of the day.

Our guide, Ailton, is going to take us

to his best spots.

But even with his help, seeing one is going to take patience

and is by no means guaranteed.

It's not just that I am incredibly unlucky, jaguars genuinely are very,

very difficult to see and there are many reasons for that.

One of those is that this is a creature of the shadows.

They're fabulously camouflaged and expert at not being seen

but also they are rare

and one of the reasons for that is persecution by human beings.

Thankfully, now, they're starting to make a comeback

and here in the Pantanal

we have a really good chance of seeing them.

Or so I've been told!

There's certainly plenty of prey around, which is promising.

Jaguars will hunt a whole range of animals,

from caiman through to capybara.

Right now these two are especially alert because they have two

very young babies, which makes them even more vulnerable.

You can see them standing up, the ears are erect, listening out,

watching, smelling for any potential danger.

There's nothing we can do to attract the jaguars to come to us -

we just have to patrol the rivers,

scanning the banks for one of these camouflaged cats,

as well as looking out for other tracks and signs.

Oh! Oh, guys, come and have a look at this!

Come and have a look at this!

HE LAUGHS

I...I don't quite know

how to get across the excitement that I feel right now

because I've been waiting for this for a very, very long time.

That is a jaguar print, and not only that,

but it's a male jaguar print and a big one at that.

Um...I'm so excited,

I...I can't even really control myself.

I mean, when I say that I've been looking for months

to try and find a jaguar, that is no exaggeration,

and they've been hard months, months in the jungle,

sweating, covered in bugs, and I haven't even come close.

BUT all of a sudden I have my first absolute evidence of jaguar.

I can't believe it, I cannot believe it.

My first ever jaguar track.

Yes!

With plenty of tracks around,

this is an ideal place to put up some camera traps.

The more traps we put up,

the greater our chances of capturing a cat.

So that is going to be our eyes in the forest for the next few days.

With the final camera trap set, day one is almost over.

We've not managed to catch a glimpse of a big cat so far,

but as dusk falls

we do spot another incredible creature of the Pantanal.

Flying alongside us now

is something I never thought I'd see in daylight hours.

They're fishing bats -

they're easily keeping pace with our boat,

flying alongside us and just dipping in

and snatching fish from below the surface of the water.

Amazing!

Just amazing.

It's a wonderful sight,

but we'd love to see that feeding in more detail.

So once it gets dark we break out the Deadly tech

to catch these bats in action.

Of all of the 1,000-odd species of bat found around the world,

I think this is one of the most unusual methods

of catching its food.

These bats snatch their supper

from the surface of the water with ease.

The only thing is it happens too fast for our eyes to appreciate,

so I think it's time to slow things down a bit.

What I'm going to do is throw out

some little pieces of vegetation out onto the water,

I'm hoping that a fishing bat will come down, try and snatch it,

and at that precise moment Mike's going to fire off this camera

and we're going to see it all slowed right down.

Tempting a bat in is not easy -

we need to make the stick create a similar ripple to a fish.

Yes! Fire, fire, fire.

What do you think?

All right, let's have a look back on what we've got.

So there...

Oh, my word, that's beautiful! That is absolutely beautiful.

I can't believe you got that!

Fantastic - classic.

As the bat came in, it dropped its feet down,

trailed them through the water

and they're almost like an osprey's talons,

they're long and curved

and they caught a hold of that tiny piece of stick,

drew it up and it just carried on flying.

Well done, mate, well done.

That was really good. It was really good.

Did you see it?

The bats capture such tiny items

by echolocating the wake that's created at the surface of the water.

Once they've pinpointed the spot,

they fly down and grab the fish.

It's an incredible method of catching your food.

This has certainly lifted our spirits

after a disappointing time jaguar searching.

For the next two days, we scour the riverbank,

searching for any sign of jaguars,

but don't get a single glimpse.

It's beginning to get frustrating - the jaguar remains my nemesis.

We're running out of time to find one of these majestic cats.

I really am beginning to think that I'm cursed.

Maybe I'm never going to see a jaguar.

So this is our very last day,

so we're up even earlier than before,

so early, in fact, that we've all brought breakfast with us.

This is absolute zero hour - if we don't find a jaguar today,

then I know for sure that I am totally cursed

and I am never, ever in my life going to see one.

-But everyone's feeling positive, right?

-Yeah.

-All feeling positive?

-Absolutely.

We motor along the river,

but don't catch a sight of the big cat

so decide to check out the footage on the camera traps

from the last few days.

Time to see who's been walking these trails.

Right.

Oh, it's a curacao -

they've got a very kind of curious, punky hairstyle

and this one's pecking around right in front of the camera.

What else have we got?

Otters!

Fantastic, look at that!

Giant river otters.

Two adults, wandering right through, heading down towards the river.

What's this?

It's at night...

Oh...

Ocelot!

Ocelot, fantastic!

And it's coming right down into the shot, that is stunning.

'This is a really lucky spot.

'Ocelots are stealthy stalkers like the jaguar,

'and probably even rarer to see.'

Well, it's a great find,

but it's not the spotted cat we were after

and this is now starting to get really, really frustrating.

We are very, very close to the end of our trip here

and nothing on the camera traps.

My team, though, don't give up easy.

So it's back to the boats.

Our driver has gone into absolute overdrive

because we've had a call that a jaguar's been spotted upstream.

This could be our big chance.

AN ANIMAL YELPS

Those barking sounds are alarm calls from capybara.

My heart is just going bam-bam-bam, bam-bam-bam-bam,

and I know that those capybara are, too.

They're probably in the river because a jaguar was hunting them.

It might still be close by.

-The jaguar is here, can you see it?

-I can see it, I can see it, yes.

It's a jaguar, a jaguar.

There's a jaguar over there, over there, under that tree.

This is amazing.

The biggest carnivore of this part of the world

is wandering along the bank ahead of us.

There!

I can't believe it, my first ever jaguar!

Such a majestic animal, it stalks with such grace.

Simply beautiful.

This is the King of Cats.

'We lose sight of the jaguar

'and I fear that, after four days of searching,

'that might be our only glimpse.

'But then she settles down and allows us a glorious view.'

Well, the jaguar's stopped hunting

and has sat right on the riverbank under a tree and she's grooming.

She's using that rasping tongue to clean her fur.

The tongue is incredibly coarse - they can use it to lick meat

off the bones of their prey once they've killed it,

and now she's licking her paws, those huge paws

which are used as the weapon for taking down its prey.

'Inside each of those paws are sharp claws.

'She has the potential to be so deadly,

'but is also stunning.'

That's a staggeringly beautiful animal.

After so many years looking for one of these wonderful creatures,

we've finally done it!

And then, things get even better.

We get a call from another boat

that a different jaguar's been spotted upstream.

This is mind-blowing -

the Deadly luck has really come through.

The guys on the main boat radioed us

to say that they've seen a jaguar down here at...

My goodness, it's standing right on the bank...

out in the open, and this is a big animal.

It's a male, it's a male jaguar.

That is absolutely stunning.

This is pretty much every wildlife watcher's dream -

to sit with a wild jaguar just metres away on a bank

and it clearly doesn't care at all that we're here.

'This jaguar has been radio collared by scientists,

'but it's still a wild animal,

'roaming the Pantanal in search of prey.'

I mean, looking at this animal, he is really powerfully built,

he's kind of like a heavyweight boxer.

Some of these jaguars,

the males have been known to be almost double my bodyweight.

For its size, pound for pound,

it's possibly the most powerful animal on earth

and with all of that heaviness comes an immense amount of force.

'A force that makes them incredible hunters.'

Look at that - he's testing his teeth on...on the branch.

'With its mighty jaw muscles,

'this jaguar could easily break through the skull

'of its target animals.

'And I can't believe I've got this close at last.'

It is so often the way with wildlife -

after all these years of searching, two in a morning.

It's kind of like all my dreams coming true at once.

I guess the jaguar isn't my nemesis any more.

The jaguar, with the ability to melt into the shadows -

iconic, beautiful and deadly.

With their camouflaged coat...

..their ambush attack...

..and skull-piercing bite...

..jaguars are the Pantanal's most perfect predator.

Deadly!

Join me next time as I continue my journey on Deadly Pole To Pole.

I'm so excited!

Deadly!