A sun bear from Borneo climbs a tree in the lush, green forest. Its black fur and distinct light-colored muzzle are visible, with its limbs wrapped around the trunk. Sunlight filters through the leaves, highlighting the vibrant foliage of this unique corner of the world.
A lush Borneo forest with tall trees rises through a dense layer of mist, creating a serene and mystical landscape. The tops of the trees are highlighted by soft sunlight, while the fog blankets the forest floor.
A young orangutan with fluffy hair sits among the dense green foliage of a Borneo tree. The scene is lush and verdant, with the orangutan partially hidden by leaves and branches, creating a peaceful and natural jungle atmosphere.

Borneo – Earth’s Ancient Eden

Nature & Wildlife·1 x 50 min·Completed

Explore 'Borneo – Earth’s ancient Eden', where towering rainforests, unique wildlife, and bizarre habitats create a biodiversity wonder unlike any other!

Factsheet

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from YouTube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

More Information
Unblock content Accept required service and unblock content
Genre
Nature & Wildlife
Duration
1 × 50 min
Definition
4K
Audio
5.1
Status
Completed
Back to all projects

Synopsis

Borneo is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. lts unparalleled profusion of life is the result of millions of years spent in the tropics – longer than anywhere else. lts varied habitats, from the world’s oldest tropical rainforests to some of its largest cave systems, have fuelled the evolution of the most bizarre and enigmatic wildlife on our planet. This is a realm of giant apes, pygmy elephants and air-breathing fish, where over 15,000 different species of plant grow. Borneo, Earth’s ancient Eden, is a place quite unlike any other.

Borneo’s rainforests are the oldest on Earth – over 120 Million years in the making. The island sits at the end of the Asian continental shelf, so many of its inhabitants arrived here from Asia during past ice ages, when sea levels were lower. Animals simply walked across and, once isolated, evolved into new species. To adapt to life in the dense rainforest, Borneo’s bears and elephants became the world’s smallest.

Borneo’s trees, however, are among the world’s tallest. One family of trees has dominated Borneo’s canopy for 40 million years – the dipterocarps. With some reaching almost ninety metres tall, they affect all life here. To live amongst these giants, Borneo’s forests have become home to more gliding vertebrates than anywhere else – from flying frogs to lizards and even snakes. This treetop realm is also home to the world’s largest arboreal animal, the Bornean Orang-utan.

Borneo’s dipterocarp rainforests are one of many unique habitats that have driven its extraordinary biodiversity. At the heart of the island, Mount Kinabalu rises to over 4,000 metres. It was pushed up from beneath the Earth’s crust some 50 million years ago. Today, the mountain is home to enormous red leeches which feed on giant earthworms, as well as an extraordinary diversity of carnivorous pitcher plants.

Like Mount Kinabalu, much of the land which makes up Borneo was pushed up in the ancient past. Millions of years of tropical rainfall has carved out some of the largest cave systems on earth, with ceilings over 60 metres high. Recent discoveries show another reason behind the size of some of these caves – bat poo. Millions of bats inhabit the caves and, as their droppings are broken down by legions of cockroaches and other organisms, they turn acidic, eroding the rock. Combined with carbon dioxide from the bat’s breath, the caves are eroded away at a rate of one metre every 30,000 years.

Borneo’s ancient habitats are extraordinarily complex, though none more so than its coast. Ruled by the tides, its mangroves are home to proboscis monkeys, fighting mudskippers and fishing owls. On one small offshore island, an ancient lake, lifted out of the sea, holds thousands of stingless jellyfish, which have evolved to harvest the sun’s energy to survive.

Spectacular, beautiful and bizarre: this is the story of how Borneo became the most biodiverse island on earth.

Team

Written and directed by Matt Hamilton
Executive producers Martin Mészáros, Sabine Holzer
Production companies Produced by Terra Mater Factual Studios

Awards & Recognitions

Goethe Science Film Festival Visual Effects & Cinematography Award 2020
Cannes, France Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards Gold Dolphin (Category: Nature & Wildlife) 2020
Redondo, USA US International Film & Video Festival Gold Camera 2020
Redondo, USA US International Film & Video Festival Best of Festival Nominee - Documentary (Category: Nature, Wildlife) 2020
New York, USA New York Festivals TV & Film Awards Gold World Medal (Category: Nature & Wildlife) 2020
Cogne, Italy Gran Paradiso Film Festival Nomination 2020
Rotterdam, Netherlands WFFR - Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam Official Selection 2020
Eckernförde, Germany Green Screen - Internationales Naturfilmfestival Eckernförde Official Selection (Category: Best Camera) 2020
Ludwigsburg, Germany NaturVision Filmfestival Nomination 2020
Gödöllö, Hungary International Nature Film Festival Gödöllö Official Selection 2020
Missoula, USA IWFF - International Wildlife Film Festival Finalist (Category: Animal Behavior) 2020
UN HQ, USA World Wildlife Day Film Showcase: Biodiversity Finalist (Category: Web of Life) 2020
Albert, France FIFA - Festival International du Film Animalier Official Selection 2020
Abbeville, France Festival de l'Oiseau et de la Nature Official Selection 2020
Graz, Austria Mountainfilm International Filmfestival Graz Official Selection 2019
Innsbruck, Austria INFF - Innsbruck Nature Film Festival Shortlist (Category: Nature Documentary) 2019
Distributor

Talk to our Distributor

Interested in licensing and watching the full production? Contact our distributor here.

Get in touch
Footage rights

Licensing & Usage

Interested in licensing or footage usage?
Contact us directly.

Get in touch

In the same Genre