Wild Peru: Andes Battleground

Peru is a land of dramatic contrasts. Although rainforests cover more than half of this country, to the west are very different ecosystems in the shadow of the Great Andes Mountain range. Here, sunbaked coastal deserts are home to penguins and sea lions, and in the nearby foothills, spectacled bears, guanacos, tapirs and pumas, live amongst the grasslands and vegetation drip feed by the daily Pacific Ocean fogs that dominate this region.

In southeast Peru is a region called Madre De Dios literally, Mother of God. Its vast tropical rainforest is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But although the landscape and wildlife here are breathtaking, its also a battlefield. For the jaguar and the caiman at the top of the food chain through to the giant otter and the macaw and on down to lowliest insect, there is only one certainty. Sooner or later, they will all be eaten.