The brand new docuseries “Patagonia: Life on the Fringe of the World” explores one of many wildest locations on Earth. The collection premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday on CNN.
CNN
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On the northern tip of Patagonia’s desert coast in Argentina, the skies above El Cóndor are stuffed with shifting clouds of chatty, colourful parrots.
The mountain’s crumbling sandstone cliffs are house to the most important parrot colony on this planet, containing 37,000 nests.
The burrowing parrots are so named as a result of they tunnel into the sandy cliffsides to construct their nests. These tunnels might be as much as 9.8 toes (about 3 meters) deep.
With inexperienced feathers and white rings round their eyes, burrowing parrots stand out on this barren panorama overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. When the birds fly, shiny blue and crimson feathers flash within the sky.
El Cóndor’s cliffs function a nesting floor for a species that when appeared throughout South America, however the burrowing parrot inhabitants is now declining.
The parrots’ meals supply within the Argentine Monte is disappearing extra shortly than the Amazon rainforest. This susceptible area of desert grasslands and shrubs, which the parrots desire, has suffered from deforestation.
The burrowing parrots should fly three hours away from their nests simply to search out seeds and berries to deliver again to their chicks inside the cliff nests. Annually, the birds should journey farther to search out one thing to eat, and it’s estimated the adults fly as much as 164 miles (264 kilometers) per day, in accordance with scientists at Justus Liebig College Giessen in Germany.
Furthermore, threats from people and rising tourism within the space are making life tougher for the parrots.
Argentine director Kevin Zaouali, who made the primary episode of the “Patagonia” collection that premieres Sunday on CNN, first noticed the birds 10 years in the past when he visited El Cóndor, entranced by “a complete sky coated by parrots.” Returning to the seashore, he and his crew needed to stay affected person, “ready to see what the animals wished to supply us.”
The movie crew spent 20 days with the parrots, wanting to search out particular moments, Zaouali mentioned. The crew listened to the fixed chatter of the extremely social birds and noticed different nuances of their habits as properly. Burrowing parrots are monogamous and mate for all times – and so they do every part collectively.
Zaouali mentioned he was struck by “the best way they take a look at one another and the means they contact one another. They’re at all times giving kisses to one another.”
Amid these glimpses of affection had been moments fraught with stress.
Burrowing parrots are the prey of the peregrine falcon, the quickest chook on the planet. It might attain speeds of 240 miles per hour (386 kilometers per hour) when diving at its prey. On the web site, the falcons moved so shortly that it was almost unattainable to seize their dives on digital camera.
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Fjords and mountains in Chile’s Corcovado Gulf.
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The monito del monte, seen right here at Chile’s Bosque San Martín Experimental Station, is a tiny marsupial, elevating its younger in pouches like koalas and kangaroos. It is the one creature in South America to hibernate, and when it enters this state, it breathes as soon as each 3 minutes. Its wonderful means to outlive the winter might assist scientists higher perceive the metabolism of people.
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This pod of orcas off the coast of Estancia el Pedral in Argentina targets unsuspecting seals and sea lion pups. The orcas have developed a outstanding method. They seashore themselves, snap up their meal after which expertly maneuver again into the ocean. They’re one among solely two orca households on this planet to catch prey on this means.
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In Patagonia, marine otters referred to as chungungo stay alongside the rocky shoreline. Till a couple of many years in the past, the chungungo had been seen as pests and nearly hunted to extinction. Their fur was a beneficial prize. Nonetheless, their numbers are recovering because the native fishing group has a change of coronary heart.
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The ice dragon is one among just a few creatures that may stand up to dwelling inside a glacier. Its blood comprises a pure antifreeze. The insect eats tiny algae that stay within the ice and even different ice dragons in exhausting occasions. Its habitat is melting away.
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Scientist Verena Häussermann has found cold-water corals dwelling in a distant fjord in Chile’s Corcovado Gulf. It is one of many solely locations on Earth the place these corals might be present in shallow waters. In contrast to tropical corals that want daylight, these rely solely on plankton for survival. The situations in these waters are naturally acidic and will assist scientists determine the right way to defend marine life in different components of the quickly altering world.
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Edelmiro Pellao harvests seeds from the highest of an Araucaria, or a monkey puzzle tree, in Comunidad Mapuche Ruca Choroi in Argentina. The timber develop as much as 160 toes (48.8 meters) excessive. Big survivors from the Jurassic period greater than 145 million years in the past, they’ve outlasted the dinosaurs. People — and parrots — accumulate the plant’s seeds.
Some fledgling chicks contained in the nest develop curious as they wait for his or her mother and father to return from the feeding floor and fall to the underside of the mountain in the event that they lean out too far. Zaouali and his crew spent a day watching a chick painstakingly climb centimeter by centimeter again as much as the nest after it fell out.
The sandstone cliffs pose different dangers for the colony. The constructions often collapse, with large blocks falling from the cliff face and killing the parrots dwelling inside. However the parrots return annually after spending winters within the north as a result of they like the arid openness of the cliffs alongside the Atlantic coast.
The burrowing parrot is at present thought of to be of “least concern,” in accordance with the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature Purple Checklist of Threatened Species, however the species has been acknowledged as one which’s declining in inhabitants.
As a consequence of their allure and colour, burrowing parrots are exploited by the wildlife commerce. They’ve additionally been hunted as pests who feed on crops. And since burrowing parrots are so choosy about the place they nest, they’re simply disturbed if people encroach on their house.
Zaouali started filming and photographing animals 16 years in the past, and he has already seen modifications within the locations he as soon as visited as a baby. He mentioned he worries that “the land of journey” might lose the most important parrot colony on Earth and different animals if protecting measures aren’t taken for the susceptible species that decision Patagonia house.
“Patagonia is a really particular place but in addition very, very fragile,” Zaouali mentioned. “It’s distinctive and really wild, and whereas it appears very distant and pristine, if we don’t attempt to defend it, it is going to be like every other place stuffed with air pollution.”
