Wild Untamed Brazil

The largest rainforest in the world still holds many secrets. The harpy eagle is the world's biggest bird of prey, capable of hunting and killing monkeys. But the most important creatures in the forest are leaf-cutter ants.

This enigmatic forest once stretched along the coast for thousands of kilometres. Yet it is still home for many remarkable animals. Great dusky swifts fly through the tumbling waters of the mighty Iguaçu Falls to build their nests on the slippery rock faces behind the curtains of water.

The grassland that covers the central region of Brazil is one of the country's least known habitats, depending on dramatic summer thunderstorms and fire for its character.

It switches from grassland to swamp and back each year, with the seasonal rains, in one of the most dramatic changes of any habitat on Earth. Jaguar and giant otter have the upper hand as the Pantanal turns dry and dusty.

Brazil's coast stretches some 8,000 kilometres from the cool temperate waters of the south to the mouth of the Amazon, the equator and beyond, with a large number of remote islands off the coast. Among the most formidable is Snake Island.