The series features extensive aerial photography of major landforms shot by Bob Fulton, and footage of rarely glimpsed animals in the wild.

The series forms part of the Natural History Unit's Continents strand, and was preceded by Land of the Tiger in 1997 and followed one year later by Congo.

The filmmakers journeyed the length and breath of South America in search of locations and unusual species.

Memorable sequences include an aerial journey over a glacier in Argentine Patagonia, jungle animals visiting an Amazon waterhole at night and luminous termite mounds in the grasslands of central Brazil.

Other locations featured are the Galápagos Islands and the Salar de Uyuni, the world's biggest salt lake in the Bolivian altiplano.