Stories from the Vaults Season 2 Episode 3 Nature's Vault

Fly south with host Tom Cavanagh as he travels to the jungles of Panama to track wild sloths with Smithsonian biologists. Then he takes a 17-story ride on a construction crane high into the rainforest canopy to check out the local bugs' life, followed by a geology field trip with scientist Tony Coates, who offers up some remarkable insight into the Panamanian Isthmus, its formation, its far-reaching effects on global climate, and of course the right way to pronounce "isthmus." It's all in a day's work at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute here in Panama, where scientists and researchers brave the sultry heat to produce world-class research and discoveries about evolution, climate change and the powerful forces that shape our planet.