NATURE . WILDLIFE

BORNEO – EARTH’S ANCIENT ISLE

50 ' (ENG, GER)

The island of Borneo has spent more time in the tropics than any other region on Earth – some 120 million years.

Borneo’s story is one of water. Isolated by warm tropical seas, millions of years of constant rainfall have washed away vital nutrients, fuelling an intense competition for life. On Borneo’s mountains, carnivorous plants use raindrops to catch prey. In the rainforests, immense male orang-utans call out to deter would be rivals. On the coast, millions of jellyfish have become farmers – turning to the sun to get the nutrients they need. But it is in and around Borneo’s caves that the competition for nutrients is at its most intense. Here, this film reveals a remarkable discovery. At dusk, as hundreds of thousands of bats leave the cave, they are hunted down, not just by birds of prey, but by pied hornbills – birds with giant bills designed for picking off small fruits and insects.