[gentle music] [insects chirping] - It's called EL TIGRE, the Jaguar.

The most powerful jungle cat in the Americas.

It stalks the secret reaches of the rain forest, a jungle master so well camouflaged that only the occasional paw prints reveal its presence.

In order to film the elusive jaguar, "Nature" went to the steamy jungles of Belize in Central America.

There are some 2000 Jaguars living in those rain forests but even in Belize, it's all about impossible to film these great cats in the wild.

The only way we could accurately portray the Jaguar's secret lifestyle was by using specially constructed sets spread out over 100 acres of jungle.

The result, one of the most complete compelling and intimate portraits of north America's biggest cat ever recorded on film.

[bright music] "Nature" is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and annual financial support from viewers like you.

[gentle music] [insects chirping] Empires that would rule forever, lie buried beneath the land.

The glory of the Mayans gone, the Omex, the Totex the Aztec now fragments of history, but there was a time before our kind laid claim to the Americas.

A time when the great spotted cat lived unvetted, uncontested, unoppressed.

[insects chirping] Through the drifting mist the Jaguar makes his morning rounds.

Unseen eyes sense he isn't hungry, yet.

The iguana cautious.

[ominous music] The Howler monkey warns his crew.

[ominous music] Prepared to flee the motmot calculates.

Even for the never hunted, caution is the surest way to stay alive.

Awareness of every movement.

Every sound every scent.

[gentle music] [insects chirping] In the tropics subtle change betrays the passage of time.

During the dry season when it may not rain for days, the rivers run low.

But life in the Jaguars world follows a flow uninterrupted by the change of seasons.

High above the dimness of the forest floor in the sun, drenched canopy, a community awakens to the clamor of a toucan.

[birds chirping] [gentle music] Six inch wings begin to unfurl.

Newly reversioned, a morpho butterfly.

[birds chirping] [insects chirping] [dramatic music] [birds chirping] The female.

They mated just a month ago.

Now there's only avoidance.

[insects chirping] Like the urge he felt when he picked up the female scent, a thirst now claws at his throat.

[insects chirping] [suspenseful music] By mid-morning, after hunting all night, the Jaguar is ready to rest.

As the top predator here, the cat does not have to sleep concealed or with one eye open, but insects keep up a steady assault.

[insects chirping] A stately procession of wild pigs seeking the relief of water and the pleasures of mud.

The year has been uncommonly, dry , drawing together the thirsty.

[pig splashing] [gentle music] [dramatic music] [birds chirping] The Jaguar like most hunters fails more often than he succeeds.

[insects chirping] In the tropics, opportunities are never very far away.

The turtles bite, neither discourages the Jaguar nor arouses his anger.

He concentrates eyes, pause, searching, hunting in murky water by touch.

[birds chirping] Capture is only half the battle.

The turtle lives in a fortress few can penetrate.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] The Jaguar's crushing jaws, the most powerful among the cats shattered the turtle's defense.

The Jaguar visits his favorite stump to clean his claws and to post his presence.

Cat nails scraped the rock hard wood already scarred by others.

[dramatic music] Scent glands in his cheeks leave his signature and stake his claim.

By marking trees he hopes to skirt a confrontation with another male, where in the tropics, even a minor wound can lead to a tortured death.

The rain forest provides many ways to die from a sudden demise to the drawn out triumph of infection.

In the heavy heat of afternoon the drowsy in between of thought and dream clouds the senses.

[dramatic music] Who knows of what a Jaguar may dream?

A coati learns when it's still young to forage while the cat is napping.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] Swift and agile paws brush away the stinging hairs that discourage others from devouring the tarantula.

[creatures chittering] [suspenseful music] The jaguar is a stalker.

To capture prey, he normally relies upon surprise, and the sneak-attack.

In a chase, he's at a disadvantage.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] Each knows who has the upper hand.

Paws this size cannot negotiate the narrow branches that offer the coati refuge.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] [Jaguar roars] [animals chittering] Before the heavy rains, the female oropendola turns architect, constructing a nest that follows a genetic blueprint.

While she labors, suitors serenade her.

And advertise their assets.

[birds chirping] They kowtow.

They burble.

For the reward of passing on their genes.

In this tropical nursery, trees have strategies of their own.

Some flower before they leaf, to ensure that their pollen-rich blossoms are conspicuous.

The consumers they lure unknowingly collect and then transport the dust that is the agent of new life.

Songbirds like the honey creepers help coral trees follow a similar scheme.

Aztec parakeets flip each flower open, uncovering a trove of pollen.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] The howler feeds as if he's in a hurry, as if the flowers of the currasow comb might suddenly vanish.

But there will be time for the blossoms and the fruit before the onslaught of the rains.

[birds chirping] The coati is alert.

Even while, mysteriously, it rubs its tail with blossoms that have fallen from the sky.

The coral snake with flashy rings and fatal poison for protection.

A quick coati can kill a snake before it strikes, when food is on its mind.

[ominous music] The female jaguar.

She's hungry.

And she's pregnant.

Now she settles for small and easy prey.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] Armadillo, a staple of the jaguar's diet.

But just one armadillo will not sustain her for long.

[animals chittering] [ominous music] In the forest, food distribution often follows a vertical path.

[gentle music] Fruit is abundant, but supply can be outweighed by the heavy demand below.

The currasows claim privilege.

Within their clan, the cranky jungle fowl have their own pecking order.

[suspenseful music] The lure of sweet mammae.

From the blue-crowned motmots, to the currasows.

Even a shy agouti dares to feed.

At their own stately pace, the peccaries approach, to claim their share.

[animals chittering] [dramatic music] The mammae feast continues.

Waiting to make another run, the agouti watches.

[suspenseful music] Other eyes also watch, and measure opportunity.

[ominous music] [gentle music] [dramatic music] A life passes.

A season passes.

And a time of change sweeps across the jaguar's world.

[dramatic music] [animals howling] [thunder crashing] In a limestone cave, he will wait out the storm.

The wild air sows the seeds of change.

Life that waits to be will be awakened by the rain.

[rain pattering] It will rain abundantly, intensely, every day for nearly half the year.

But the deluge does let up, often in the morning or at night, allowing time for basic needs.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] As the season wanes, the rain no longer rules, though its legacy remains.

[water rushing] Nature's potent formula of moisture, sun and decay nourishes each secret crevice of the rainforest.

Like magic, mushrooms spring from improbable places.

[gentle music] [insects chirping] [birds chirping] [insects chirping] [birds chirping] The storm has passed.

The jaguar's first urge is to eat.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] Now he feeds on leaves, a remedy to clear the hairs left in his gut by grooming.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] In the fading light, another cat stalks its prey.

A hungry ocelot.

Eager for a meal, but careful to avoid its powerful competitor.

Both felines will hunt into the night.

[suspenseful music] The jaguar is at ease in the dark.

Its eyes adjust well.

But not every hunter depends on sight.

The eyelash viper sees poorly at night.

It weighs its options, to flee or to strike, by testing the air with its tongue.

[suspenseful music] Sometimes size takes second place to sheer determination.

If push finally comes to shove, a smaller bat is wise to give way.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] A margay's eyes penetrate the night.

[suspenseful music] Antenna-ears hear what eyes cannot detect.

The margay moves on dainty cat feet, but gives itself away.

[animals chittering] The deed is done.

And eyed with envy.

[suspenseful music] In the wake of the rains, the tree frogs gather for bouts of communal coupling.

[frogs chirping] The underlying urge, to secure a role in the future.

[gentle music] The business of catching a fish cannot afford distractions.

It demands concentration, strategy.

And a bit of luck.

Fishing by eye and fishing by touch.

A flick of the paw sprinkles the moonlight.

A technique?

Or a ritual?

It remains unexplained.

[gentle music] Things seem tamer now, since the fury of the rains has been tempered by the sun.

Beneath the canopy, new life, renewed vitality.

[birds chirping] Many residents of the rainforest now must face the added pressures of new responsibilities.

[birds chirping] [insects chirping] [birds chirping] Among the newest batch of forest dwellers, two natural born killers: vicious predators, of insatiable appetite and cunning expertise.

Following in their mother's footsteps, the jaguar cubs will climb to the top of the food chain.

For the next two years, she will be their sole link to survival, teaching them all she can.

And she will give them time to explore, through play.

To discover, to test their world.

[gentle dramatic music] [cub mewing] As two paths cross, two lives cross.

And for a moment, two jaguars connect.

The future and the past.

But he continues, alone.

[insects chirping] [birds chirping] The flow of life moves on.

Young as a stream after the rain.

Old as the course that it follows.

[gentle music] - [Announcer] "Nature" is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by annual financial support from viewers like you.

[gentle music] [animals chittering] [animal roaring]