[tranquil music plays]
My mom moved us to Indonesia for a few years as a kid.
We lived in a small house with the simple joys of nature.
A mango tree out front, whiffs of fruits and spices.
Paddy fields where water buffalo glanced up at you with mud-covered snouts.
Indonesia is home to some of the most important forests
and biodiversity in the world.
And there's nothing like the Leuser Ecosystem,
home to some of the most endangered species on Earth.
[tranquil music continues]
The rain forests of Gunung Leuser National Park
shelter countless plants and animals…
each with a role to play.
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Leuser is also the last stronghold
of four of the planet's most threatened species.
[dramatic music plays]
Powerful and elusive tigers…
[dramatic music continues]
…the world's smallest rhinos…
[dramatic music continues]
…unique forest elephants…
[elephant trumpets]
…and orangutans, one of the smartest great apes in the world.
Once, these animals could be found together across southeast Asia.
But deforestation and poaching means that, today,
Leuser is the only place they still co-exist.
[tranquil music plays]
Will we allow something so precious to disappear forever…
or seize our last chance to protect it
for our children and grandchildren?
Join me in this most unique of wild spaces.
[tranquil music continues]
On the Indonesian island of Sumatra lies a vast tropical rain forest
and at its core, Gunung Leuser National Park.
[atmospheric music plays]
Here, forest-covered mountains dominate,
reaching 10,000 feet tall.
They safeguard its inhabitants like a fortress.
But perhaps its greatest wildlife riches are found in its steamy lowland jungles.
[atmospheric music fades]
[jaunty music plays]
In Indonesian, "orangutan" means "person of the forest."
[jaunty music continues]
And these trees are home to the densest population anywhere on Earth.
This is their forest.
[jaunty music continues]
[screeching]
There are several huge males.
With large, flanged cheek pads, they're more attractive to mates.
They're immensely powerful
with a bite force stronger than a lion's.
But there's an athletic and ambitious younger male coming up through the ranks.
[jaunty music plays]
Rakus.
[jaunty music continues]
His name, given to him by resident scientists, means "greedy."
Because he likes to eat pretty much everything.
Leaves,
bark…
fruit…
termites.
It's all on the menu.
If this gourmet ape can eat enough,
he may one day develop cheek pads
like the most senior males.
[jaunty music continues]
There's one food in particular that could fuel his ambition.
The neesia fruit.
About the size of a football,
it's packed with large, tasty seeds.
Before it ripens, it's as hard as concrete,
making it nearly impossible to get into.
[orangutan screeches]
Ripe neesia cracks open by itself.
But the succulent seeds are surrounded with thousands of sharp, irritating hairs.
To get this meal, Rakus must master
the most sophisticated skill in the jungle.
[tense music plays]
Many of the orangutans here
use an ingenious way of avoiding the neesia's prickly hairs.
[tense music continues]
First, they select a stick.
Then, maneuvering it with their extremely versatile lips,
they push it into the neesia's cracks.
[tense music continues]
Repeated movement of the stick dislodges the seeds
and in the process scrapes out the hairs…
[tense music continues]
…making the fruit ready to eat.
Orangutans are usually solitary animals.
But the neesia tree comes into season only rarely.
When it does, it draws in orangutans from far and wide.
As they gather, there's a chance to learn from each other.
Friska is a mature female
and is expert at preparing the fruit.
Rakus moves in for a masterclass.
[jaunty music plays]
There's enough food around for him to be tolerated.
[jaunty music continues]
These are the only wild orangutans
known to create and use tools in this unique way.
[squeaking]
[jaunty music plays]
Rakus wants to have a go himself.
[jaunty music continues]
Carefully, he crafts his tool.
And Rakus selects the perfect neesia.
Then it's down to trial and error.
[jaunty music continues]
At last, with a little perseverance…
Rakus gets the delicacy he's been craving.
[jaunty music continues]
The more he perfects this extraordinary skill,
the bigger and stronger he'll become.
[jaunty music continues]
And one day, this greedy guy
may just rise to the top.
[jaunty music fades]
Leuser's abundance is partly thanks to its soil,
which is up to six times more fertile than other rain forests in the region.
And this is a reason why.
[foreboding music plays]
One of the world's most active volcanoes.
Mount Sinabung.
For millennia, its eruptions have showered the area with volcanic ash…
[volcano rumbles]
…rich in minerals and nutrients.
[volcano rumbles]
The ash acts as a fertilizer,
supporting a jungle of staggering complexity.
With thousands of species of plants,
it's one of the most diverse forests in the world.
The titan arum.
This is the largest flowering structure on the planet…
[suspenseful music plays]
…growing up to ten feet tall,
the height of a basketball hoop.
[suspenseful music continues]
It only emerges after the plant has been growing for a decade.
[suspenseful music continues]
But producing this huge bloom saps a lot of energy.
Flowering can only last two nights.
So it has a clever way
of rapidly attracting the insects it needs for pollination.
[suspenseful music continues]
It produces a powerful scent.
But this is no fragrant beauty.
It reeks of rotting flesh.
The huge red bloom stretches up to five feet,
adding to the illusion of a fresh animal corpse.
[suspenseful music continues]
Then as night falls, its greatest deception begins.
[suspenseful music fades]
Channeling ten years of stored energy,
the arum pumps heat into its central column,
becoming as hot as blood.
Like a chimney, rising heat carries its stench up into the cool night air.
[suspenseful music plays]
For hundreds of scavenging insects,
the draw is irresistible.
[suspenseful music continues]
[insects buzzing]
[suspenseful music continues]
[insects buzzing]
They're lured into the arum's inner chamber.
[insects buzzing]
A cavern filled with male and female organs.
[suspenseful music continues]
As the insects search for the rotting meat they've been promised…
they find themselves coated in pollen they will carry with them
to other arums.
[suspenseful music continues]
And if they've already visited another of these giants,
they will pollinate this plant.
[insects buzzing]
[suspenseful music continues]
Ten years of preparation for a two-night show.
The flower's energy is exhausted.
The stragglers file out…
before finally,
in a matter of seconds…
[suspenseful music crescendos]
…the entire structure collapses.
[dramatic music plays]
Successfully pollinated, another ten-year cycle is set in motion,
toward more gigantic blooms.
[tranquil music plays]
Even within Leuser's lowlands,
there are extraordinarily different landscapes.
[tranquil music continues]
The park's rivers transport its nutrient-rich soils
downstream to the coast…
where the forest meets the Indian Ocean…
giving rise to a muddy mangrove swamp.
[jaunty music plays]
A mudskipper.
[jaunty music continues]
This fish is not confined to the life aquatic.
[jaunty music continues]
Taking a big gulp of air…
and using fins that have a shoulder joint,
he propels himself around.
A fish that can walk.
He spends most of his life here on the mudflats.
His periscope-like eyes have a lens like land-based animals,
allowing him to see far better out of water than in.
His favorite meal is a formidable foe
with razor-sharp pincers.
If he can catch one without getting nipped.
[jaunty music plays]
Perhaps something softer?
[jaunty music continues]
These crabs are very agile…
especially for a fish out of water.
[jaunty music continues]
Finally, all that remains is to disarm his prey.
Holding it in his mouth, he uses a neat trick.
Shake a crab hard enough and it will sacrifice its claw,
the tastiest bit.
[jaunty music plays]
But the loss is only temporary.
Within a month, the crab will have grown a new claw.
Maybe even bigger than before.
[jaunty music continues]
For this land-loving fish, life is a never-ending crab-claw buffet.
[jaunty music continues]
[jaunty music fades]
Heading inland, Leuser quickly becomes mountainous.
The forest here is much more impenetrable.
Steep hills provide a last refuge to Leuser's most endangered creature…
the rarely-glimpsed and surprisingly small
Sumatran rhinoceros.
[jaunty music plays]
Although only four feet tall, it still weighs a ton.
Perfect for bulldozing through thickets in search of lush foliage.
[rhino snorts]
[jaunty music continues]
By pruning plants, these rhinos benefit the forest,
making room for new tree growth.
[tranquil music plays]
They dig out mud wallows, which help them stay cool in the midday heat…
[tranquil music continues]
…benefiting a range of neighbors.
[tranquil music continues]
So the more rhinos, the healthier the whole forest becomes.
Illegal hunting and habitat loss
have reduced numbers to just a handful in the wild.
To save them from extinction, rangers are constantly on patrol,
deterring poachers
and bringing the few remaining rhinos into captivity outside the park.
[tranquil music plays]
These rhinos now live in large, guarded natural enclosures…
where a breeding program
hopes to reintroduce their descendants into Leuser…
and eventually restore the balance of rain forest life.
[tranquil music fades]
There are many extraordinary relationships between the creatures that live here.
Some, we are only just discovering.
[tranquil music plays]
Deep in Leuser's foothills,
one of its smallest inhabitants is unwittingly helped
by its largest.
[rustling]
[tranquil music continues]
The Sumatran elephant.
[low growling]
[dramatic music plays]
As they travel, they carve a network of pathways hundreds of miles long.
[dramatic music continues]
[elephant trumpets]
Many species rely on these paths to get through the dense jungle.
[dramatic music continues]
But one resident depends on these elephants more than most.
A wart frog.
She's only the size of a chicken's egg,
but she has incredibly sharp senses.
It's thought she detects vibrations of the approaching herd
using special cavities in her lungs.
You'd expect her to get out of the way.
Instead, she heads towards them.
[dramatic music plays]
[low growling]
Straight into the crush zone!
[dramatic music continues]
But it's not the elephants themselves she's drawn to.
[dramatic music continues]
[elephant growls]
The frog has a belly full of eggs,
and she needs to lay them in still water.
[elephant trumpets]
[tense music plays]
The elephant's footprints make the perfect pop-up nursery.
She's given her eggs the best start in life
and leaves them to hatch.
[tense music plays]
Within two weeks, they've become tadpoles.
But until they transform into froglets,
survival in their flooded footprint is under threat.
The tropical sun can quickly dry out these pools.
[tense music continues]
So, if water levels drop, these tadpoles must get themselves out of trouble…
[tense music continues]
by doubling the speed of their transformation.
As froglets, they can finally escape the drying ponds.
[jaunty music plays]
[tense music plays]
As long as they don't get squashed.
[tense music continues]
[tense music fades]
Up in the treetops, the stakes are even higher.
Many of Leuser's animals have mastered living up here.
[tense music plays]
But perhaps none are more daring than the Thomas leaf monkey.
Found only in Northern Sumatra,
they roam in groups of up to 20.
[jaunty music plays]
One male leads the troop,
and the rest are females and young.
The adults are supremely agile.
[jaunty music plays]
Able to zip around the branches,
they can leap large gaps with ease.
But this two-year-old is still developing the strength in his leg muscles…
and he can't navigate the canopy with the confidence of his elders.
[melancholy music plays]
His mother used to carry him everywhere,
but she has a new baby.
And the youngster must now find his own way in the world.
Today, he faces one of the biggest challenges of his life.
[melancholy music continues]
The troop have exhausted supplies in this tree,
so they have to move on.
But it will take a giant leap across a gap of more than 20 feet.
[tense music plays]
It's a three-story drop.
One mistake
could be fatal.
[tense music continues]
The older monkeys have spent years perfecting such large jumps.
[dramatic music plays]
Climbing to the topmost branches, they launch…
maneuvering their limbs to control their descent.
[dramatic music continues]
Even Mom, with her new baby on her belly,
tackles the distance with grace.
[dramatic music fades]
The two-year-old is up next.
[melancholy music plays]
[monkeys screeching]
But it's all too much.
[melancholy music continues]
With the rest of the troop feasting on the other side…
[melancholy music continues]
…he's stranded.
Mom can't come to his rescue.
[dramatic music plays]
There's only one way to find out if he's got what it takes.
[dramatic music continues]
[tense music plays]
[tense music intensifies]
Nailed it.
[tranquil music plays]
The first of many such giant leaps he'll make on his journey to adulthood.
[joyful music plays]
And he gets a well-earned reward.
[joyful music continues]
Animals like the leaf monkeys
help maintain the health of Leuser's rain forest,
spreading seeds and natural fertilizers as they move.
[tranquil music plays]
Every species here is important.
[tranquil music continues]
Even the smallest
that lurk in the dark underworld of the forest floor.
[suspenseful music plays]
The leafy gloom is home to a hunter,
the hammerhead worm.
[suspenseful music continues]
This species of flatworm with its distinctive bands
is so new it's yet to be named.
As predators go, it's extremely small.
The length of a fingernail.
But it is deadly.
It's on the hunt for a juicy slug or snail.
They're everywhere in Leuser,
devouring microscopic plants and organisms…
and also the fungi that's essential for recycling plant debris.
[suspenseful music plays]
And this is where the hammerhead plays its part,
keeping their numbers down, and so protecting the greenery.
[suspenseful music continues]
Using chemical sensors in its hammerhead,
it tastes the ground for signs of a victim.
[suspenseful music continues]
Slugs and snails can't help but leave an unmissable trail of slime.
[suspenseful music continues]
With just a hint of a shell on its back,
this curious creature is called a semi-slug.
The perfect prey.
[tense music plays]
[tense music continues]
[tense music crescendos]
Wrapping around its victim, the flatworm pumps out mucus to trap it.
Once the prey is disabled,
it attacks the semi-slug with toxins and digestive juices,
breaking down its flesh…
[tense music plays]
…finally, swallowing it through a mouth in the middle of its body.
[tense music continues]
Within a matter of minutes, all that remains is the translucent shell.
There are predators of all shapes and sizes across Leuser.
But perhaps the most important sits right at the top of the food chain.
To find it, you have to travel even higher…
[eerie music plays]
…to the remote, fortress-like mountaintop,
which gives the park its name…
Mount Leuser.
[eerie music continues]
Towering over 11,000 feet above sea level…
often shrouded in mist…
the forest is stunted…
with patches of open moorland.
It can be up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit colder here
than the humid jungles far below.
[eerie music continues]
Only the toughest of plants can survive.
[eerie music continues]
Clinging onto the rocks, they hold the soil in place…
preventing erosion and retaining rainwater,
which then flows steadily into the forests far below.
[eerie music continues]
It's eerily quiet.
Only a few animals venture this far up the mountain.
[tranquil music plays]
The muntjac. A type of deer that browses on the moorland plants.
[tranquil music continues]
Scientists hope research cameras might finally record
the predator which hunts them…
filming it here for the first time.
[tranquil music continues]
But it is almost never seen.
So it takes patience.
[tranquil music continues]
[dramatic music plays]
At last…
in a high mountain pasture…
a Sumatran tiger.
[dramatic music continues]
This adult male is checking out the scientific equipment
left to record it.
The terrain is so inaccessible
that almost no studies have been made into the Sumatran tiger's behavior.
[dramatic music continues]
But it's believed that as they patrol the mountaintops,
these tigers stop deer and other animals from overgrazing the delicate vegetation.
[dramatic music continues]
And these precious images prove that they're still here.
As long as we protect the park,
Sumatra's biggest cat can remain king of the jungle.
[dramatic music fades]
While Leuser's mountainous terrain offers some natural protection…
[tense music plays]
…on the fringes of the park, the risk to the wildlife is greater.
Leuser's ecosystem continues into an area twice the size of the park.
Much of it is protected…
but millions of people live in towns and villages amongst these forests.
[tense music continues]
So having the support of local communities
is crucial to keeping Leuser's wildlife safe.
[jaunty music plays]
Hidden in the trees on Leuser's southern border
is a rarely-seen Sumatran slow loris.
[jaunty music continues]
She's got huge eyes
that help her to see in almost complete darkness.
This mother has a young baby just a few weeks old,
but he's already too big for her to carry as she feeds.
Leaving him seems risky.
Rival lorises can be viciously territorial.
And the forest here is full of snakes.
[tense music plays]
But lorises have a secret weapon.
Their bite contains a deadly toxin,
making them the only venomous primate on the planet.
Even this youngster.
[tense music continues]
So Mom can just hide him among the leaves
while she goes foraging on her own.
[tense music continues]
It's extremely unusual to see slow lorises venture to the ground.
[quicker tense music plays]
But she has to to get to one of her favorite foods,
the calliandra.
[tense music continues]
Its sweet-smelling nectar is packed with the energy she needs to nourish her baby.
But these flowering bushes have been planted by farmers
to shade their coffee crops.
And lorises' proximity to humans has given them a problem.
Traffickers in the illegal pet trade
have hunted these cute creatures to the edge of extinction.
[tense music continues]
But fortunately, this community is part of a new scheme that protects them.
The farmers get a better price for their coffee
for leaving the lorises alone.
[jaunty music plays]
And the lorises help the farmers,
because when they eat the calliandra,
they pollinate it.
[jaunty music continues]
As dawn approaches, she must return to her baby
and get back to the business of being a mom.
[tranquil music plays]
Local communities can also help to combat the biggest threat…
deforestation.
Leuser is so vast, it's almost impossible to patrol.
[foreboding music plays]
Every single hour,
more than a football field of forest is cleared,
much of it illegally,
to make room for growing palm oil.
[foreboding music continues]
Palm oil is used in up to 50% of products on our supermarket shelves,
from cookies to shampoo.
These plantations are lifeless
compared to the richness of the rain forest.
[tranquil music plays]
But some communities are taking part in a fight back…
[tranquil music continues]
[engine revs]
[chainsaw revs]
…working with conservationists to remove the plantations.
[chainsaw revs]
A small subsidy and a chance
to grow a few profitable fruit trees within the forest
gives an incentive and helps safeguard their futures.
[tranquil music plays]
[tree thuds]
[tranquil music continues]
On the recovered land, Leuser quickly produces wonders.
The wind brings seeds from healthy forests nearby.
Microorganisms help to heal the soil.
In just a matter of months,
ferns and other plants grow over the old site.
The pollinators move in.
Mammals and birds spread more seeds.
[tranquil music continues]
And in as little as four years,
a thriving forest reappears.
[tranquil music continues]
As it does so, animals start to return.
[tranquil music continues]
Eventually, giant trees will grow.
They'll absorb more and more carbon dioxide from our atmosphere,
enriching it instead with oxygen,
which benefits us all.
[tranquil music continues]
By protecting this forest,
Asia's most endangered creatures will still have a home.
While still an infant, this Sumatran orangutan was taken from the forest
and sold into the pet trade.
[melancholy music plays]
After years of captivity,
she was finally rescued
and brought back to live freely again in the treetops.
And now, she has another to care for.
Less than two weeks old.
So small she could fit in the palm of your hand.
[tranquil music plays]
These tender moments are the beginnings
of one of the closest mother/baby bonds in nature.
[tranquil music continues]
For eight years,
she will live within arm's reach of her mother,
who will teach her everything she needs to survive.
Gunung Leuser National Park
and the vast ecosystem that surrounds it
is a place of hope
and an opportunity to protect its unique wildlife…
in this, their last precious refuge.
[tranquil music continues]
National parks are one of our greatest achievements.
Over time, we've created nearly a quarter of a million protected spaces
in almost every country on Earth.
[dramatic music plays]
But in this world that's getting warmer and more crowded, we've got to do more.
[dramatic music continues]
[horn blares]
And if we're going to hang on to more of these wild places we depend on,
each of us has a role to play.
Demand to protect our last wildernesses
for future generations.
[tranquil music plays]
Campaign to create more, wherever you live,
and insist they're accessible for everyone.
[tranquil music continues]
Push your own communities to adopt smarter climate practices.
And vote like the planet depends on it.
[tranquil music continues]
There's no more time to waste.
The world we leave to our children is too important.
The time to act is now.
[tranquil music continues]