National Geographic: Heroes of the High Frontier Page #3

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it's just riddled with roots.

It smells great,

it's like this very earthy smell,

which is kind of funny when you

think of where, where we are,

but you can see that the branch

is actually not all that thick.

Um, the branches always look a lot

more thick

when they have their moss mats

on them.

So there are lots of invertebrates,

insects, earthworms

that live in this material high,

high above the forest floor,

you have to get up here,

you have to look in these plants,

you have to look in this soil to

figure out, really, what's happening,

what's going on up here."

Nalini's perseverance and her daring

led her to a remarkable discovery.

"A really amazing thing about

these moss mats are that

they can actually nourish the tree

itself, they can feed the tree.

Some species of trees can put out

roots from their own branches

and trunks that go into this soil

and take in food and water.

And, so, the epiphytes are getting

support,

they're getting their place

in the sun,

but the tree is getting nutrients and

water from the mats

that the epiphytes make.

So, it's kind of like the epiphytes

are paying rent to a landlord

and it's just a really amazing

situation."

Suspended in three dimensional

space,

these hanging gardens are like

coral reefs in the sky

- creating opportunities for a whole

community of life.

They provide good pickings for

a Kuati.

Flowers are nectar, even ants for

protein,

even ants for a protein snack

- with a bite.

But ants are just the appetizer.

Fruit is the main course.

Following its nose, the Kuati is led

to the very summit of a great tree.

Monkeys with prehensile tails are

better equipped to feed up here.

Though the Kuati is no canopy

specialist,

he is not to be denied.

He searches for the ripest fruit.

His cast offs feed a band of Kuati

females and their young

on the forest floor.

The seeds would never survive

beneath their parent tree anyway,

where specialized fungi and insects

wait to prey upon them.

Animals connect the sun lit canopy

with the earth below in many ways.

Flowers are designed to

attract animals,

but leaf-cutter ants are not

invited guests.

They strip palatable blooms

en masse.

Millions of ants working together

collecting the bounty of the canopy

and sucking it down into the earth

below.

Whether it's carried or

just float down,

it is rapidly recycled back into

living matter.

Fingers of slime mold spread

over the leaf litter,

breaking it down into plant food.

The gossamer threads of fungi

help the roots of trees

absorb 95% of the nutrients -

building forest giants that rise up

into the light.

The leaf litter hides many miracles.

A strawberry frog guards its eggs

which develop in a puddle of

rainwater.

As soon as the tadpole hatches,

she moves it to a more secure

nursery,

encouraging it to wriggle up

onto her back.

No bigger than a thumbnail,

she undertakes a phenomenal

commute, heading straight up.

She climbs in search of a bromeliad -

an epiphyte with a rosette of leaves

that channel rain and mist into

a central reservoir.

This tiny ocean in the sky comes

complete with miniature sea monsters

- mosquito larvae, feeding on

rotting debris.

This debris also acts as fertilizer

for the plant.

She drops her tadpole off in the

first empty reservoir she finds.

But her work is not yet done.

She has other tadpoles stashed

in other bromeliads,

and every two days she makes

the rounds.

Her offspring's telltale vibrations

signal her to lay another egg -

but this egg isn't fertile, it's dinner -

it's her tadpole's only food -

a brilliant strategy for survival

until a thirsty coati happens by.

It takes researchers years to

discover such elaborate strategies

and just seconds for a coati to send

them astray.

The sky-high world of epiphytes is

made up

of millions of such little life

and death dramas.

"I love epiphytes.

I don't know why I do.

I think it's something about they live

in the treetop,

and ever since I was a little kid,

I like climbing trees...

it was a world I could escape to, no grown-ups,

no grown-ups climb

trees so it was just my little world

where I could go up and read

and... It's been 17 years

and every time I put on my Jumars

and go up a rope,

it's that same feeling of

exhilaration,

of what will I find today,

what will I learn today...

The rain forest canopy yields

its secrets

to only the most determined

explorers.

It took Neil Rettig fourteen years to

return to Guyana

and his work with the Harpy eagle.

"I think what's at the center of the

connection with the canopy is,

for me, a link back to my youth,

when I was a 23-year-old wild

adventurer.

Just the odors of the flowers and bird

calls open up all these memory banks

that had been shut down for all

those years - it was unbelievable.

It was just like I had never left."

A Harpy's calls help lead Neil

to its nest

just a few miles from his old

study site.

Neil was now one of the world's

best wildlife cinematographers

but he was as thrilled as ever to set

his eyes on a Harpy chick.

"It was like having a reunion with

an old friend."

"Possibly, one of the new adults

was the baby from 1975."

For six months, Neil kept his vigil.

As he watched the chick grow,

he wondered if he would finally

capture

the maiden flight of a harpy on film.

Every day brought Neil and the chick

closer to their goal.

While Neil watched the chick

prepared,

exercising and testing its wings.

Then one day, Neil turned the

camera on just in time.

A long awaited milestone

for the chick, its mother,

and perhaps most of all - for Neil.

Such long term dedication has

coaxed a few of its secrets

from the canopy,

but as the light of a day fades,

a cloak of mystery descends.

The next frontier in canopy

exploration

beckons out of the gathering dark.

Few have dared to climb into this

high flung wilderness at night,

when it comes alive with a whole

different community of animals.

They come out to reap the bounty

the canopy built by day.

Bats are the unsung heroes

of the rainforest.

They hover over the branches,

sniffing out the ripest fruit.

Only just able to carry its prize,

it flies to a roost where it can feed

in safety.

Bats play vital roles in pollination,

insect control

and the reproduction of trees.

The bat eats the sweet flesh of the

fruit but discards the seeds.

They fall far from their parent

tree's shadow,

where they have a better chance

of surviving.

Animals help many canopy plants

reproduce.

Epiphytes face unique challenges

spreading their seeds around the

hanging gardens.

One solution, a sticky coating that

keeps the seeds

from falling to the forest floor

and attracts a particular species

of ant.

These ants are strong enough to

win the tug of war with the plant.

They carry them to their nest

but they eat the nutritious coating

leaving the seeds to sprout.

The seedlings grow turning the nest

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