The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, and the richest ecosystem on earth. Spanning nine countries it covers 8m km sq of South America. It’s so huge, that if it were a country it would be the seventh largest in the world. This film uncovers what makes the Amazon such a powerhouse of evolution; how it has come to home a third of all species on the planet.

Patagonia is the southernmost part of South America. It’s a place of extremes – of vast ice fields and snow-capped mountains; of windswept deserts and violent oceans. Survival here means being tough enough to cope with brutal winters, and canny enough to exploit brief seasons of plenty.

Venezuela is famous for its lost worlds – forbidding mountains, huge swamps, and impenetrable jungles, all seemingly cut off in space and time. Yet each is linked, by the waters of a mighty river: the Orinoco, the rumoured route to El Dorado, the legendary city of gold.

In the centre of South America, a vast, wild expanse: the world’s largest wetland. But this is no ordinary swamp. Every year it’s drowned by immense floods, and then parched by severe drought. Yet while people struggle to cope, the Pantanal hosts some of the greatest gatherings of animals on the planet, rivalling Africa’s spectacular wildlife.

The longest chain of mountains in the world at 7200km, the Andes run the length of western South America and dictate the climate for the whole continent. From the northern coasts of Venezuela to the tip of Tierra del Fuego in Chile, they include some of the highest peaks outside the Himalayas.