Episode 2 Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom

Burma.

Cut off from the world for 50 years.

A mysterious land.

A land of secrets.

Home to half of mainland Southeast Asia's remaining forests.

It's rumoured to be teeming with iconic animals.

This is one big question mark when it comes to scientific exploration.

These forests could be the last refuge

to some magnificent creatures that are being wiped out

across the world.

As it opens up to democracy,

Burma will have to choose the fate of its forests.

There, there, there, there! What is that?

Now, for the first time, a team of scientists

and wildlife film-makers are venturing

deep into Burma's jungles.

Did you see that? There they are. I'm shaking.

They will catalogue its forgotten wildlife...

..and give Burma's government a report

to help get these forests protected.

So very, very, very, very lucky.

It's a race against time,

as the world eyes up Burma's natural riches.

We've got fire in front of us and then fire here

and then fire behind us.

Oh, God, this isn't good!

What they discover

could change the future of Burma's wilds forever.

Watch this, watch this, watch this...whoa!

Burma's forests are not just important to Burma.

They're not just important to Asia.

Burma's forests are important for the world.

Burma's forests are largely unexplored and inaccessible.

Potentially a haven

for Asia's endangered animals.

Unlike its neighbours, nearly half the country is wilderness.

But only 3% is protected under law.

The survey team

hopes their report on the wildlife here

will persuade Burma to protect more.

Joining forces for the expedition

are two specialist wildlife filmmakers -

Gordon Buchanan....

Oh, look down there.

..and Justine Evans.

See if I can get a viewpoint from up here.

They're joined by a team of scientists.

Entomologist Ross Piper...

That's a fantastic creature.

..mammal expert Darrin Lunde...

I don't know how fast these guys could dig,

but I'm going to try to keep up with them.

..and a group of Burmese biologists with vital local knowledge.

Yes, yes!

Against the odds, they've already discovered Asian elephants

thriving in the south.

Elsewhere in Asia, they are severely endangered.

The team aims to protect not just elephants,

but whole ecosystems.

Now they're pushing deeper into Burma's uncharted forests.

Their mission -

to find as many different species as possible.

Measuring the forest's diversity

will help make the case for its protection.

Top of their list are three animals that are rapidly disappearing

from the rest of Asia.

The endangered sun bear...

..and two rare cats -

the little-known Asian golden cat

and the clouded leopard.

The team is heading to an isolated mountain range.

A place so remote it has never been properly studied -

Salu.

They hope to find one of the most pristine

and intact forests in Burma.

The only way in is on foot.

Local Rakhine villagers will act as guides

and help carry the team's two tonnes of specialist equipment.

They know this forest intimately

and will help the team find Salu's rarest animals.

Entomologist Ross is confident

they'll make some spectacular discoveries.

No-one's really been here to document the wildlife,

so we're going to be the first to do that

and there's a real sense of anticipation

amongst the scientists here about what we're going to find.

For the Rakhine people, the expedition's arrival

is a sure sign that Burma is changing.

Their once isolated world is becoming more accessible.

Burma, also known as Myanmar,

began its exile in 1962

when General Ne Win staged a coup.

He locked down the country with brute force.

Decades of military rule followed.

Despite years of protests, Burma was shut away from the developed world.

Now that's changed.

Democracy has brought new hope.

But freedom comes at a cost.

There are fears that hunters

are already targeting Burma's unprotected forests.

Base camp is on the banks of the Salu river,

in the heart of the forest.

This place is a fantastic choice for a base camp.

What you want to do is heighten your chance of seeing

as many different animals as possible, and this place is great.

You've got a range of different habitats.

You've got the river, riverine forest, forested mountain slopes

and right even up on the ridge, entirely covered in trees.

The team's goal is to prove this forest is so unique,

it's worth protecting.

They must find as many species as possible,

ideally some that are new to science.

In this remote forest, the team expects diversity to be high.

As well as searching for insects, Ross will oversee the survey.

The team will feed information back to me.

I can collate it all

and we can build up a picture of what animals are living here.

This survey, once it's completed,

will give the Burmese government the information they need

to protect these forests.

The forest covers 650 square miles,

with different animals in different areas.

The team splits up.

Gordon and his guides are searching for the extremely rare sun bear.

They hope to pick up their trail on these thickly forested ridges.

It already feels quite different,

even just being on the hill above camp.

Camp is down there -

a little row of tents.

This habitat is separated vertically.

The higher we climb in elevation, there's all these subtle changes,

so there's change in different plants,

change in different trees,

and as you would expect, there's a change in animals.

And that's the whole reason we're climbing up onto this ridge,

because animals we'd expect to find up here

are going to be different from the animals

that the rest of the team are going to find down there.

These peaks offer rich pickings for sun bears,

with plenty of insects and fruiting trees.

Across the rest of Asia,

sun bears are victims of deforestation.

Their population has dropped 30% in the last three decades.

Salu could be a vital refuge,

but to prove it, Gordon must find evidence of a breeding population.

Up there is a tangle of branches,

and what that is...

It's a sun bear nest.

Sun bears will go up into the trees,

and like chimpanzees do,

they'll break the branches

and form a little platform.

And you can sleep up there.

So, this is a place where a sun bear has been

and there's always a chance that they could come back.

See here, there's some scratch marks here where the bear

has climbed up, well, actually, even higher.

Sleeping up in a nest like this for a sun bear

is quite a wise place to go

because there's probably going to be leopards up around here.

There's Asiatic black bear, which is a much bigger bear species,

so a sun bear would want to keep off a path like this,

up nice and high, so anything,

any threat, could pass below him and not even know he was here.

Locals believe sun bears use these paths to move around.

So Gordon's first job is to set up motion-triggered cameras.

For the next two weeks, he will check them every day.

Down in the valleys, Justine is also setting camera traps.

Her mission is to film Salu's wild cats.

She's after two of Asia's rarest and most beautiful cats -

the golden cat

and the clouded leopard.

Both feed on the forest's smaller creatures.

So if the cats are thriving, the whole forest is.

Catching them on camera won't be easy.

Now, this is looking pretty good.

I'm seeing here there's a bit of bamboo that's fallen down

and then there's lots of scrub here and low-lying branches,

so if I was an animal and I was walking down there,

I wouldn't try and pick my way through all of that.

I'd probably just prefer to come through here.

Most animals will take the path of least resistance,

especially cats.

Cats do like it easy. They like a good path.

You know, in many parts of the world where you get big cats,

you often see them on drivable tracks,

so I think this just looks like a really good bet.

Gordon and Justine's remote cameras will be on 24/7.

They're the team's best chance of recording these elusive creatures.

Meanwhile, the scientists begin their search for smaller animals.

Smithsonian mammal expert Darrin Lunde

plans to catch as many species as possible

in the short time they have.

I'm looking to put a pitfall trap line in here

and I'm just going to cut a swathe through

and then we're going to dig holes

and we're going to sink buckets down into the holes

and we're going to run a plastic fence through the centre of them

and what that does is, animals that are moving

from one side of the forest, or just moving through this forest,

they're going to encounter that fence,

they're going to run along it, trying to get around it,

and many of them are going to fall into these pitfall buckets.

And we may very well find something that's new. We'll see.

Finding species new to science will help the team prove

how valuable this forest is.

The pitfall traps could be their best hope.

The team also needs to catalogue the canopy.

And Ross is heading into the treetops.

This is fantastic, to be so high above this forest

and seeing so far as I can now.

It gives you an unparalleled view

of where we are at the moment.

You just see

ridge after ridge of forest.

Insects are drawn to bright lights.

This white sheet will lure them in.

Ross can survey the insect population without moving at all.

All he has to do is wait.

At night, the remote cameras switch to infrared.

INTENSE BUZZING AND CHIRPING

The forest is alive with sound.

Ross gets his first results.

There's lots of species.

Down here is crawling with all sorts of beetle species.

The thing is, I'm also attracting

these big bees and a few wasps as well.

I'm also starting to get some cicadas now.

And listen to that.

CLICKING AND BUZZING

That sounds positively electronic.

Cicadas are amongst the loudest animals there are.

Some of them can be about 120 decibels.

It's all about trying to find a mate.

So they'll just sit up high up in the trees,

making these really peculiar sounds,

in the hope of trying to find a female.

Cicadas produce their intense noises...

..with a pair of plates on the bottom of their abdomen.

Now, they vibrate these really quickly

to produce the intense sounds.

Insects are a vital part of the forest food chain.

Small animals like these are prey for larger predators.

Urgh!

This...this is a burying beetle.

These really stink. They stink like a decomposing corpse,

but they have a really important function.

So any small animal that dies on the ground down there,

these find the body and bury it

and their larvae live on it and that's what they eat.

So the thing is, if it weren't for creatures like this,

we'd be ankle-deep in all sorts of corpses.

INSECTS CHIRP AND BUZZ

In just one hour, Ross has recorded 50 species.

And more are coming in every second.

There are some incredible mimics on this sheet.

This moth, for example, is mimicking a wasp.

It does this because all other animals know

that wasps are dangerous, they have a sting.

So this strategy keeps this moth safe from its own predators.

You see that again and again with some of the animals on here.

And look at this longhorn beetle.

It will blend in completely.

You wouldn't see it if it was on the bark of a tree.

You see, also the weird thing about this one

are these big pompoms on the antenna.

Now, this is probably used in courtship.

Ross's insect survey is the team's first evidence

of a rich and diverse forest.

Back in base camp,

Justine is keen to find out what the locals know about Salu's wild cats.

Any of these cats...

We have a golden cat here, this one?

Any of the other ones?

TRANSLATION:

Is it possible, do you think, to film them, though?

The locals doubt she'll film cats.

And they also have distressing news about sun bears.

I'm surprised that things like sun bear are being taken for trade.

And somewhere quite remote like this, you know, it feels like,

you know, that this international trade

is just permeating everywhere globally.

You know, it's a disease that you just can't escape.

The team's survey may be too little, too late.

ANIMALS WHOOP AND CHIRP

Next morning, the team sets out with a new sense of urgency.

The forest is already under threat.

The more species they can find, the better their chance

of getting it protected.

If poachers ARE hunting sun bears here,

Gordon's search may be doomed.

These shy and persecuted creatures could already be gone.

Only the camera traps will tell.

Look at this hog badger here.

He's a generalist

rather than a specialist.

He will eat practically anything.

He'll be eating insects, he'll be eating reptiles and amphibians

if he can find them.

He'll eat small mammals if he can get hold of them.

Very strange-looking animal.

It's a kind of tropical slant on a very familiar-looking creature.

What's that?

Oh, look!

A sun bear!

That...is...amazing!

There is still at least one bear here.

Gordon is on the right track.

This animal spends its entire waking life looking for insects,

looking for honey, looking for fruit. And you only get that fruit

and that honey and those insects in places that are intact.

I've actually looked for these bears many times before

and I've never ever seen one.

The sun bear

has this cryptic character that has never really properly

been caught on film.

Much of their life is still a mystery.

So to catch a brief glimpse of a sun bear

is really very, very special indeed.

Sun bears are rapidly disappearing from Asia.

Their forest habitat is vanishing.

Poachers are hunting them.

This bear is Gordon's first success,

but he still has work to do.

He needs to find evidence that there's a population of bears here.

While Gordon continues his search on the ridge,

two miles south, Justine scours the valley.

This thing's very funny. It just explodes.

Justine is still looking for wild cats.

Lots of animals come to drink at the river.

The cats come here to hunt them.

If she waits long enough, she may catch them on film.

The good thing is, it's the dry season,

so this river will attract a lot of animals

coming off the hills, especially at night when it's cooler,

or first thing in the morning, last thing at night.

Now she must wait. She'll stay here for four days.

You do need quite a long time in the hide,

because everything has to settle down.

You've got to get quiet

and then everything that I may have disturbed coming in here

has to sort of calm down and want to come back.

With all of you lot leaving, that will be really helpful,

because things might get the idea that the human commotion

has all gone, left back downriver.

Cats are nocturnal.

Justine must switch her body clock

and be primed for nightfall.

At the moment, it's really quiet out there. I could hear a pin drop.

Justine knows she must stay alert night after night.

And be prepared for her mind to play tricks on her.

WATER GURGLES

The sound of the river makes an ever-changing sound

and sometimes it sounds like something completely different,

like voices or somebody creeping up to the hide.

It can get quite spooky.

Justine settles in for a long wait.

Back in base camp,

the science team is making progress.

They're cataloguing several species an hour.

For Darrin, that means regularly checking his pitfall trap line.

Big spider.

And it's big and I don't want to mess with that!

Urgh! There.

Look at that.

I've got a nice centipede. Wow, they're fast! Whoo-oh-oh!

OK, look at this.

Wow.

I think what we've got here is a snake.

In fact, I know it's a snake,

but it looks like

a very rare kind of snake called a blind snake

and they're usually underground

and I think because we did a lot of digging here,

we may have disturbed its burrow and chased it

up on the ground and caught it in this pitfall trap.

I am pretty excited about this, because although I study mammals

and small mammals in particular,

I happen to know that this is a spectacular find.

Blind snakes, burrowing snakes, you just don't find them

unless you really do a lot of digging.

And we got very lucky, I think.

Um...

I can't remember if these guys are venomous or not,

so I want to put my glove on

and I'm going to collect it and show it to Ross.

Wow, look at that thing! All right, here we go.

In it goes.

I don't want to lose it.

Got it in and I got it covered. Pow!

Hey, Ross, I got something for you!

-What is it? In a tin?

-Wait till you see this.

That looks foreboding.

Hang on.

Do you want something to open it with?

Uh, yeah, here.

Oh, my word! Oh, it's one of the blind snakes!

-Yep.

-Oh, my word, that's fantastic!

-Isn't it incredible?

-Yeah, yeah, I've never seen one.

-No.

-Are these venomous?

-No, no, no, no.

-Look at that, right?

-These are really difficult to find.

-I know. They're underground.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Are they blind?

-Yeah, almost completely blind.

Almost completely blind.

So I think they just rely on just touch, really,

and maybe vibrations in the soil.

These things are very similar to the ancestors

of all the living snakes.

You'd see that... You'd think that was an earthworm, wouldn't you?

-Right, it looks very worm-like.

-Yeah, yeah.

Look at the way this is moving here. I mean, it's difficult

to make out which is the head and which is the tail.

You know, I think this to me looks like some form of defence.

I know this is an amazing find,

but just how amazing is it? I mean how...?

So little is known about these reptiles.

I mean, you could find individual species that are restricted

to individual valley systems like we are in at the moment,

so there's every possibility this could be unknown to science.

-That's a brilliant find.

-I know, it's great.

-Awesome, yeah.

Yeah, that's the best.

Yeah, that's the best thing I've seen so far.

Unique creatures like this snake can only survive

if Burma chooses to save its forests.

Finding species new to science

is a key part of the team's mission.

And after four days, the list is already looking strong.

I don't like using the word "cute", but that is cute!

Up on the ridge, Gordon is still searching for proof

there's a breeding population of sun bears here.

Rather worryingly, there's a fire that's sprung up

just off this side of the ridge.

CRACKLING AND POPPING

You can hear it crackling away.

That's all the bamboo burning and popping.

That's not good.

The wildlife will be able to hear that popping,

they'll be able to smell the smoke that's drifting through

and they may well have headed out of this area,

but I think...

I don't know. I think it's worth taking the risk

and just hoping that the fire skirts round this side

and that there are still some animals up here.

That is not good. OK.

Whoa!

That's going to cut us off.

Right, quite seriously, we're going to have to move pretty sharpish.

We're heading back to base camp

and the fire seems to be blocking our way.

It's to the right, ahead of us and to the left of us,

so I just want to move

at least so I can see the flames and see if we can get past.

Oh, look at this. This is all completely gone.

Jeez!

OK, it's right here. Let's move off the path.

We're kind of blocked in here. Um...

BLEEP

We've got fire in front of us

and then fire here and then fire behind us.

BLEEP

This way, this way.

Actually, this is... this is a safe zone.

It's already been torched,

so the fire's not going to come through here

and I think it's... I think it's behind us.

It's just clouds of smoke and burnt bamboo floating up through the air.

And that's the big danger... Some of those bits of bamboo

will be alight and they drop somewhere

and ignite a whole other part of the forest.

That's why it's so dangerous. That's why we've got to get off here.

The fire will drive all the animals off the ridge.

In many parts of Asia,

hunters set fires to catch rare species

for the illegal wildlife trade.

This fire could have started naturally.

It could have been started by poachers.

On this side, you can hear the fire burning away,

wood cracking and popping.

On this side, you can hear

all the noises of the jungle - insects and birds.

CHIRPING AND BUZZING

You look out over this landscape, it's all green and serene

and on this side,

you've got a fire that is hungry and consuming the forest.

And this is kind of where Burma stands at the moment.

This is Burma as it is at the moment,

and this is the rest of the world,

hungry and consuming, wanting to eat up these forests.

Less than a mile away, down in the valley, life goes on undisturbed.

Another day is over. The science team takes stock of their progress.

So far they have found 100 species,

and two that are potentially new to science.

-Is this from a dung beetle?

-It is, yeah, yeah.

This is a... I think it's a dung ball

made by one of the elephant dung beetles.

Inside, though, I think there's either a larva or a pupa

of the dung beetle.

That's a beauty, isn't it? Fantastic little thing.

And what about these black tips here on the fingers?

I don't know. I've never seen it on a toad before,

but they feel almost a bit like claws, don't they?

Identifying animals in the field is hard,

so compiling the finished list will take time,

but the team's spirit is high.

Exciting.

So this is a false vampire bat?

Yeah, false vampire bat.

OK.

It feeds on small mammals,

fishes and large insects.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

Darrin also has a new mammal to add to the list.

-You know what that is?

-No. Some manner of rat?

It's a bamboo rat. I've seen bamboo rats,

but this is the lesser bamboo rat

and it's about half the size of the ones that I've seen.

-Half the size?

-Yeah, yeah.

This is a very small species of bamboo rat

and I've never seen these before

and I was hoping to find one here, and I have.

I don't know what he was doing.

Normally they're underground during the day.

They burrow under bamboo

and they feed on bamboo roots

and usually only come out at night.

It's quite chunky as well, isn't it?

They have massive heads and the reason why their head is so big is

it's almost all muscle,

which is used to power those jaws for digging.

They can close the skin behind their front teeth

and they can actually dig without ingesting any of the dirt.

You see they have small ears, which are almost completely buried,

buried in their fur.

They have very tiny, tiny eyes,

because they don't need them underground.

Looks like a massive hamster.

That's what it looks like!

Upriver, Justine is not having so much luck.

She's spent two days in her hide,

but seen no cats at all.

It's the middle of the night

and I'm finding it very hard to stay awake now.

Nothing has been going on.

I haven't seen anything.

And the chances of me seeing something just sitting here

is quite unlikely,

so maybe it's more of a job

for camera traps that can sit out there for 24 hours a day

without feeling tired like I am now.

The next day,

news of the ridge fire spreads.

Gordon calls an emergency meeting.

If the fire was started deliberately,

Salu's forests are in more danger than anyone thought.

Gordon wants to investigate.

Justine will take over Gordon's hunt for breeding sun bears

as well as searching for her cats.

That means setting more camera traps -

20 of them.

With just five days left,

the science team must work even harder

to make sure the survey is as complete as possible.

Gordon leaves base camp to visit the region's head monk.

SOFT CHANTING

Buddhist monks play a vital role in the community here.

Gordon is hoping for information on the fires and hunting in Salu.

How many years have you been living here?

SPEAKS IN DIALECT

Five years. So with your religion,

what's your attitude

towards the wild animals that are living in the forest?

TRANSLATION:

On some of the ridges, you can see the smoke and fire.

Do you know where those fires come from?

It seems almost certain the fire was started by hunters.

Gordon leaves with a new mission -

to find out how widespread the animal trade has become.

Back at base camp, the survey team has work to do.

Look at that. The colours on these are just amazing.

So far, they've recorded 150 bird species

within a few hundred yards of camp.

And they're still finding more.

Some, like the pied hornbill,

are a strong indicator of an intact forest.

It's a result that exceeds everyone's expectations.

Ross is targeting butterflies.

They're a good measure of the forest's diversity...

if he can catch them.

They're so quick!

Ohhhh!

See - look at that! That's fantastic. I've never seen this before.

This has got a crazy defence.

It's pushed these huge plumes out of its abdomen.

It looks like two big pompoms.

So these look like hugely specialised anal glands that are...

They must be emitting some really noxious odour.

So if anything tries to attack this,

it's going to get a nose full of whatever's being disseminated

by these plumes here.

And it's got these distinctive white spots on the thorax

and around the head.

These all suggest that this is going to be pretty noxious,

so if anything tries to eat these, it's going to be really distasteful

and perhaps even poisonous.

They're quite difficult to catch,

so I'm pleased to have actually snagged one at last.

Ross is finding a wide diversity of butterflies.

There is a huge population of them here.

Now these ones... This is interesting.

When it's resting on the ground, it mimics a dead leaf.

That's fantastic camouflage.

You can even see on the hind wings here

what looks like the stalk of a dead leaf.

Just the patterning all over the leaf.

You even get spots, what look like fungal spots, on these.

That's fantastic mimicry.

Look at that.

Now this one, believe it or not,

makes its predators think that its tail is actually its head,

because it's got false eye spots

and an also false antenna here.

Now, a predator sees these

and if it does attack,

it might go for the tail,

which can be sacrificed,

instead of the head.

This is a really good little find.

In just 10 days,

Ross has recorded over 300 insect species.

Proof that this forest supports a rich web of life.

But one vital element of the survey is still missing.

The wild cats.

Justine has made no progress.

It's possible the cats have already been hunted out of the forest.

All their hopes are pinned on the camera traps.

All right, and what have we got here? Wow, look at that!

That's a water monitor, isn't it? That's huge.

It looks like at least...

These roots here.

-..six foot?

-Yeah.

Could be, to the tip of its tail.

Five. Yeah. All right, a civet.

He's lovely.

It's a large, large Indian.

It's got very distinct markings on the neck and the tail.

So would they be eating rodents and that sort of thing?

-It'd be eating whatever they... whatever they can eat.

-Yeah.

The cameras reveal a rich food chain.

There's plenty of prey for cats,

but so far, there's no evidence they're here.

We haven't seen any cats on the camera traps yet,

-but they must be out there.

-Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Cats are top predators.

They perform an important role

in the forest ecosystem.

Without them, the balance of life here will be affected.

If hunters have already wiped out some of Salu's rarest animals,

the forest's future is uncertain.

Following his conversation with the monk,

Gordon wants to find out how badly Burma's forests

are being hit by illegal hunting.

He's come to a notorious border town to investigate.

I do feel really nervous about coming here.

This is called Special Region 4.

It's a five-square-mile patch

that is run by militia army, Chinese gangs,

and it's a place without Burmese law

and no international law here.

Gordon is in Mong La,

near the borders with Laos, Thailand and China.

It's thought to be one of the major centres of wildlife trade in Asia.

And Burma's forests provide its main supplies.

The demand for illegal wildlife

is very much a black hole when it comes to all sorts of animals.

Animals that are used in traditional medicines.

There's lots of beliefs about the properties that tiger bones,

tiger skins, lots of other wildlife have

in Chinese traditional medicine...

and most of it's absolutely bogus.

What I really want to find is just evidence

of protected species being traded in the market down here.

It wouldn't be safe to film openly,

so Gordon and the producer wear hidden cameras.

You can buy almost anything in this market.

Stalls of fruit and vegetables

sit next to live forest animals being sold as food.

Are they leopard?

What is it - leopard?

Hmm. Wow.

How much is it?

What's that?

Oh, elephant. Oh, that's a trunk.

Jeez.

That's really shocking to see carved-up bits of elephant.

Really shocking. I mean, it's shocking to see all of it,

but I think maybe just something...

Yeah, you don't expect to see an elephant hacked to pieces

and showing up in the market, sold off in...little slabs.

Now, a lot of these sort of bones,

the skulls of cats here,

bear skulls in there...

There's all these little skeletons.

God knows what they are.

When you think of this kind of illegal trade in endangered animals,

you think it's all kind of completely undercover,

but it's not - it's completely out in the open here.

It's as usual to see tiger parts

as it is to see fruit and vegetables being bought and sold.

These things are bear...

bear gall bladder.

Oh, it's like these things can cure some...

..some kind of ailment.

A lot of it, it's just about you taking on the power

of the animal you're consuming.

It's just an absolute orgy of animal parts.

You know, this is like every single...

every single living thing

that we see in the forest can show up here...dead.

And there's everything, absolutely...

You know, there's not a single species

that isn't represented here in some way, shape or form.

It just really is so depressing.

Further undercover filming reveals an Asiatic black bear factory.

The owners siphon bile from their gall bladders twice every day.

A kilo of bile can sell for over 2,500 dollars,

for use in Chinese medicine.

It's a booming business.

To supply this demand, they've got to actually search a vast area.

So pretty much, I'd say all of Burma is suffering because of this market.

It's not like growing vegetables,

it's not manufacturing cakes and sweets.

This is a kind of limited resource

and many of these animals are on the very edge of extinction.

There's absolutely no way...

It's so depressing, because there's no way

that some of these animals will sustain that.

But it just seems...

such a kind of monumental waste of... of life.

Demand for animal products in Asia is increasing

and the rarer the animal, the more valuable it becomes.

Burma's forests will need rigorous protection

if their wildlife is to survive.

But the forests of Salu

are isolated and hard to reach.

Here, there's still hope.

The survey has already revealed a dazzling array of species.

But now, with only one day left,

Justine's mission is still in doubt.

She needs proof that Gordon's sun bears are breeding.

-Justine.

-What have you got?

Yeah, here are some footprints of sun bear.

Ah, these are sun bear?

Here is the hind leg.

You can see the pad there,

the length and the toes.

-And there's a left and there's a right.

-Mm-hm.

-Yeah.

It's a promising sign, but she's no closer to proving

there's a population of sun bears here.

And she still hasn't found her wild cats.

She heads out to make one final round of the cameras.

In the forest near base camp,

Darrin is checking his pitfall traps for the last time.

OK.

Oh, whoa, look at that!

Right under the leaf! There's a shrew.

And this is one of the bigger shrews.

They could get half that size,

less than half that size. This one's fairly big.

They're not rodents. They're not mice.

They have lots of teeth,

but they're a tiny little predator that's hunting insects.

They have such a high metabolism

that they really need to eat every few hours.

They need to eat constantly. They wake up in the night,

they wake up during the day.

They're going where the insects are.

It's not a species Darrin has encountered before.

It could even be new to science.

It's impossible to know what species it is.

Very easily, it could be something new.

And actually, of all of the mammals that I've seen here,

this is the most likely to be something completely unknown.

I just want to get a little close to this bucket

and I just want to take this all in. I just want to watch this guy.

This is worth all of the effort of putting these pitfall traps in.

Finding a potential new mammal species

is very rare in the modern world.

It highlights how important these forests could be.

When we first came here, all we had was a blank page.

We didn't have an idea of what wildlife was going to be found.

But look at this now - this massive list of different animals.

Mammals alone, we've seen just over 30 species.

Birds, just over 150.

Then a huge number of different arthropods -

you know, insects and spiders, that sort of thing.

It's a really good diversity of things.

And I just think, you know, there's so much more to find out here.

You could spend months or even years in places like this,

just documenting the wildlife.

The team has proof the forest is diverse.

But, without evidence of breeding sun bears,

clouded leopards and golden cats,

their survey may not make a strong enough impact

with Burma's policy makers.

It's the team's final night in Salu.

Justine gathers the locals

to watch the last of the remote camera footage.

It's a rare opportunity for them

to see the animals they share the forest with.

Look!

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

nine...

ten, 11...

Another one!

12.

Ah, look!

See?

EXCITED CHAT AND LAUGHTER

Macaques.

They just love the macaques! They just think they're the funniest.

Oh, wild dog.

Dhole, dhole.

I mean, we've got the dhole here and one's just lying on the path.

The other one's trying to bite the camera trap!

And it's...

You're just seeing a pack at work.

Like the cats, dholes are top predators.

If they can live here, perhaps the cats can too.

Oh, it's having a good go!

-And it's...

-SHE GROWLS

..biting it.

They're incredibly inquisitive, aren't they?

LAUGHTER

Oh! Oh, look!

Golden cat.

He's beautiful.

At last, the moment Justine has been hoping for.

An endangered Asian golden cat.

Do they think...? Do you think it's a tiger?

No, no. Golden cat, yeah.

Also known as the fire tiger,

many revere it as the protector of the forest.

Yeah, they're beautiful. The white tip on its tail.

Isn't it pretty?

Oh!

Ooh! Clouded leopard.

Mmm.

Aaah!

Clouded leopards are rarely seen,

let alone filmed.

They are fast vanishing from the rest of Asia.

Has anyone seen one before?

No, they've never seen it.

No?

Two of Asia's rarest cats,

caught on film in a single forest.

Animals in desperate need of protection.

It's a powerful addition to the survey.

But the camera traps

have another surprise in store.

Oh!

Two sun bear!

Two together.

Is that a male and a female?

He's turned around to look at the camera.

Finding a pair of sun bears is crucial evidence

that they're breeding.

Perhaps in these forests, there is hope.

The team has documented some of Asia's rarest animals.

They have proved that Salu's forests are rich,

diverse,

and in need of protection.

And they have seen first-hand the dangers

the forests face.

The most important thing about this place is that it is intact,

it's special, it is so very precious

and it needs to be protected.

Elsewhere in Asia, habitats are shrinking,

species are being lost at an alarming rate.

If we want those species to survive into the future,

we need to provide them a home.

The richness of Salu is no longer in question.

Its future is.

Next time, the team embarks on its final mission -

the search for the most iconic animal of them all...

the tiger.

HE SPEAKS IN DIALECT

Is he saying that he saw it?

These guys have seen a tiger walking through their camp last night.

That is...that's amazing!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd