With glaciers marking its tip, active volcanoes running along its spine, snow-capped peaks rising high above its range, both wet and dry tropical rainforests within its interior, and desert, lowland savanna and alpine tundra in between, the Andes is an extraordinary world of diverse terrain, extreme temperatures and multifarious wildlife. Rising out of the Pacific Coast, this high mountain range is 5,000 miles long, extending over seven countries between Tierra del Fuego in the extreme south to the Caribbean coast in the north.
Once the realm of the ancient Incan Empire, this place of myth and legend also has a rich, intriguing natural history going back to the Jurassic period, marked by an event of monumental portion—the formation of the Central American land bridge 3 million years ago. The creatures of the Andes set this land apart from all other places on earth. The Andes are home to the zorro, a “false fox” with adaptations that make it a successful inhabitant of the Andes. The flamingo, too, has developed utterly unique and specialized adaptations in order to thrive in an environment that doesn’t even seem livable—a salt pan.
Only a mountain range of extremes could harbor such a rich and diverse variety of life forms. Here you will find some of the highest, saltiest, wettest and driest terrains on the planet. Penguins, opossums, hummingbirds, llamas, pumas, foxes, condors, spectacled bears and many more have all managed to carve out an existence somewhere in one of the many worlds that we call the Andes.
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Online content for Andes: The Dragon’s Back was originally posted February 2007.
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I must say this is one of my favorite Nature episodes of all times. I plan on purchasing it on DVD, it’s really that good. Even the family cat sat down in front of the TV and watched the whole episode from start to finish, though the sloth in it did scare her a little bit!
The sheer beauty of this episode is worth buying alone from a visual standpoint, and the the wonderful journey it takes the viewer on through the vast land of contrasts is an adventure they’ll want to go on again, and again.
I would like to know when The Andes is on Channel 9 again. After Frogs tonight the TV said it would be on but I cant find the info on your site anywhere. Cindi
Check local listings by clicking the “schedule” link at the top of the site.
What a great show to have on for this Easter. Easter is very much about the Mother of life as well as the Father and Son. Blessed be this Family of Life here on Earth.
I would like to find out the name of the small cat that was referred to towards the beginning of the episode. The reference was right before the pudu deer was talked about.
I would very much like to find out the spelling of the name of the little rabbit-like rodent that sits in the sun. Thanks.
Chinchilla?
What a great program! This is my favorite episode of ‘Nature’. The Andes and their denizens are truly spectacular.
Moll Says:
I would very much like to find out the spelling of the name of the little rabbit-like rodent that sits in the sun. Thanks.
Me too! What is it called? I want to Google up some photos of it.
Molly
I found it by Googling. They are called viscachas!
Gracias!
Thank you. This was an excelent program. I was wordless waching flamingos dancing; observing the beuty of nature. I felt the greatness of nature with me.
where can I buy this outstanding video?
Oh man! Was so good! Probably my fourth favorite episode! They could’ve went from north to south though instead of south to north! and they could’ve shown Lake Titikaka, and it could’ve been longer! But other then that, it was great!
Oh man! Was so good! Probably my fouth favorite episode! They could’ve went from north to south though instead of south to north, and they could’ve shown Lake Titikaka, and it could’ve been longer, but other then that, it was great!
I too found this episode of Nature to be glorious…..and my most favorite ever. I couldn’t get enough of it. Two hours would have been fine. The dancing of birds to Andean music was fabulous. I’m going to donate more money to PBS for just this episode alone!!!!!!!
The Dragon’s Back was simply the best Nature program I have ever seen –and I have been an AVID PBS viewer for 30 years. The cinematography was awesome, the voice-over appropo, and the area incomparable. Excellent excellent job….
I too wondered what happened to the gorgeous area around Lake Titicaca
This was THE BEST nature show I have ever watched and my family enjoyed it from start to finish. I need to know when it will be on again so that I can record it.
I would like to see this on during prime time or anywhere from 5pm to 11pm.
I know it is on in the wee hrs. but with the new converters, we can’t record it to watch at an appropriate time.
Can anyone please tell me the name of the animal that looked like a rabbit but was mentioned to be a distant relative of the rat? I’ve been looking everywhere to find out.
The rat rabbit thing is called a viscacha.
Is that another name for chinchilla?
To all those people who say this is best episode, BS… “Fragments Of Eden”, but I would rank this one 4 or 5! I taped it!
The Dragon’s Back is a stunning tour of the diversity of life on our planet. With Earth Day coming up this Nature episode is an absolute must watch. It will make anyone appreciate the awe-inspiring beauty and fragility of life on Earth.
Are those the same Bolivian salt Flats that was featured on The News Hour regarding its vast lithium deposits? What is the name of the lake again? It went by too quickly to understand. Thanks in advance for and help.
I’m disappointed that Nature finds it necessary to repeat proven inaccurate depictions of history, as with the statement to the extent that “200 Spaniards defeated 15 million Incas” made in this film on The Andes. Such assertions are no longer recognized by any reputable historian. The facts show that the Incas were defeated largely by other indigenous peoples who were unhappy with Inca domination and who allied themselves with the Spanish.
If a goal of this series is to educate the audience, then please do not perpetuate these myths about the conquest of the Americas by Europeans. Whether you are talking about Peru or about Mexico, the facts reveal a great deal of complexity.
Those flamingos! We laughed and laughed! That excerpt should be on You-Tube. Beautiful hour of nature. One of the best.
And we thought we’d seen everything. Yet how could we have been so unaware of this amazing part of our world? Please distribute and repeat this episode as much as possible. Thank you so much to all who worked on it.
I very much enjoyed the portion of this program I caught on WLIW–such peculiar animals and behaviors in such an extreme part of the world. I notice that this full episode has not yet been made available to view online, as have the previous and following episodes–will this episode also be available for viewing online? It would be great if it is available so that I could see the full episode, part of which I missed at airing.
chris – the name of the small cat they showed is kodkod
[...] of them all. I first learned about them while watch Nature on PBS, the program was titled “Andes: The Dragon’s Back.” A great program to watch if you get the chance. There are so many other interesting [...]
chries-the name of a small cat
I loved this show, I was born in Puno a small town high on the altiplano I used to hunt Chinchillas and Vizcachas when I was young, yeah I know I was so inmature and I didn’t enjoyed nature the way I do it today, so next time I’m visiting my country I’m definetly going to see the Flamingos dancing. This show opened my eyes