those spots are hard to come by even in a protected forest like tambopata. the scarcity of nests leads to deadly fights between nesting macaw parents and other macaws looking for a home. >> they will kill chicks, they will harm the parents and they may cause such a disruption, that the parents may be unwilling to return to the nest. >> that's why the macaw project is researching man made nests like this one -- called mandy lu. once annie reaches the nest- she opens a special door to access the chicks - separate from the opening the adult macaws use to get in and out. inside - our first peek at the hope for the next generation of macaws. >> comin' up. >> the frail pale chick is not what you'd expect, but it is alive and annie needs to get it down to the ground quickly. safety is paramount for these vulnerable chicks. annie uses sanitizer on her hands to protect them from germs. the bucket that will take them down is warmed with a hot water bottle - because these chicks have no protection against the cold. >> ok - letting go. >> dr portuguez luyo first weighs

tambopata buffer zone. here's how the spectrometer sees that same mining area. >> so where its blood red, that's where the mercury pollution is most intense, >> so it's basically like a signature contamination >> severe contamination. and these blue areas are forests that have no mercury in them >> and these are also illegal mining activities, these large clear activities >> all of this is illegal. >> while the spectrometer can see mercury contamination from the sky, luis fernandez is studying where mercury goes on the ground. >> where else does this mercury end up? >> because the mercury is being dumped into the rivers and lakes, it then gets into the food chain, >> bacteria in the water convert the mercury into something even more toxic - an organic compound called methylmercury - which is easily absorbed in the digestive system. >> mercury, unlike many other pollutants, magnifies every time it goes from one link in that food chain to the next. so a fish at the top of the food chain in a contaminated regi