BBC Earth 50 Top Natural History Moments | 40-31

reunited at last the mother sees her chick for the first time she's keen to start parenting but the father needs persuading to surrender the chick he's been caring for all winter [Music] he must now put his chick at risk in these temperatures it could freeze in seconds the male will have to let go eventually the transfer to the mother is safely made [Music] the chicks grow quickly on a diet of fish and squid [Music] soon they're keen to explore but always with mother in tow this chick is less fortunate its mother has not returned to claim it another orphan is searching for a new family but this female already has a chick of her own some orphans receive too much mothering from penguins whose own chicks have not survived the urge to parent is so strong that they will compete with one another to adopt any chick they find many of these squabbles end in tragedy as the poor chick is trampled to death those chicks that do have parents quickly learn survival skills even in spring they must huddle together for warmth just as their fathers did in the depths of winter a group of chicks has got lost in the blizzard cold and disorientated they search for the colony [Music] it will not be long before the storm claims its first victims [Music] [Music] by early summer the chicks are surprisingly well developed and now look ready to take on the world those that survive their first year have the best possible start in life thanks to the extraordinary hardships endured by their parents parents who battled with the antarctic winter and won for an idea of the scale of the supergiant we're here to find i've got a selection of skulls this one belongs to a black bear and these are found right here in california but it's totally dwarfed by this one this is a grizzly bear and the canine teeth on this one are about as long as my thumb this is in the record books as being the largest land predator on earth so this gargantuan skull must surely come from some prehistoric dinosaur a saber-soothed cat perhaps well actually this supergiant is anything but extinct in fact they're increasing in number they're said to be over 150 000 of them and the best place to see them is on the beach just over there [Music] these are elephant seals it's pretty obvious where the name comes from maybe that size the skin and that extraordinary nose they do just look like swimming elephants elephant seals are the biggest seals on the planet the largest can be six meters long and a whopping four tons i want to see for myself why elephant seals have become supergiants it's important to respect their personal space elephant seals rarely cross paths with people but when they do they can really throw their weight around [Music] and up here on land they're impossibly ungainly and out of place but for these female elephant seals there's still one part of their life where they're totally bound to the land they come here to give birth right and to find a man it's the male elephant seals that are the real supergiants they're over three times heavier than the females the males have to fight for mates the bigger they are the better their chances of success thanks to scientists from the university of california santa cruz i can get hands-on with one to see how it's equipped for battle he's been sedated while the team attach a radio transmitter it's remarkable as the animal's breathing you can hear the air resonating around that huge nose you can feel the vibrations coming up through the ground it's like someone revving a big motorbike right next to you inside that mouth our four canine teeth look a little bit like that particularly the two on the lower jaw are angled forward like this and can be used in a stabbing motion if that was propelled at me i wouldn't last a second in the tropical forests of new guinea one male is dedicated to making an unforgettable first impression the six plumed bird of paradise is cleaning his display ground obsessively tied his every fallen leaf his stage must be meticulously tidy for what will be an incredible performance a few attractive berries to help decorate the floor his final touch is hardly ever seen might he think he's found a bit of old snake skin some scientists believe he's trying to add the scent of a snake to ward off predators for others it's a cleaning cloth and he's polishing a perch for a female later he uses a bigger bit of rag and does the same only strong healthy and well-fed males can afford the time and effort for the most meticulous preparation and in theory they're the ones with better genes to pass on you'll have a highly critical audience so it's time to rehearse the main act [Music] [Music] his dance steps perfected he's ready to start the show for real he spots a female nearby so quickly goes to get more berries to tempt her in disaster he's left his polishing rag on the dance floor it's perfect for her nest she flies off without even seeing his dance he delivers his berries too late he never got a chance to win her heart and he lost his precious polishing cloth back to work [Music] spinosaurus is a predator but one that hunts in water it's ixyophagus a fish eater this is ankapristis [Music] an eight meter long giant sawfish similar to those alive today the saw like rostrum is lined with lethal barbs and is in itself up to two and a half metres in length it's thought they migrated into freshwater rivers to breed where the young may be safer but the adults are exposed to new threats [Music] with their breeding season at its height these rivers are filled with ankapristis it's the perfect hunting opportunity for spinosaurus [Music] spinosaurus's conical teeth evolved to grip prey rather than tear off flesh for that it needs powerful arms and claws [Music] with prey plentiful spinosaurus can afford to be wasteful the fact which other dinosaurs take full advantage of rugops an eight meter carnivore [Music] anywhere else it might dominate but here it is dwarfed by spinosaurus spinosaurus is unique with long narrow jaws and nostrils set high on its head its teeth were straight and conical they gave us a clue as to how it killed more evidence came in 2008 when spinosaurus skull was put through a ct scanner it revealed a curious pattern of holes and sinuses in the snout that looked just like those of crocodiles it's thought these contain pressure sensors sensors that like a crocodile can detect prey making it perfectly adapted to hunting in water [Music] this discovery gives us our best evidence of exactly how it hunted able to hold its snout in the water because of its high nostrils it can strike without even seeing its prey [Music] the character of the forest changes as you descend becoming ever darker and damper favoring different kinds of animals and plants [Music] less than two percent of the sunlight reaches the floor but even here there is extraordinary variety in the great island of new guinea there are 42 different species of birds of paradise each more bizarre than the last [Music] this forest is so rich that nourishing food can be gathered very quickly that leaves the male six-plumed bird of paradise with time to concentrate on other matters like tidying up his display area everything must be and spam [Music] all is ready [Music] very impressive but no one is watching [Music] the superb bird of paradise calls to attract a female and he has more luck but what does he have to do to really impress her [Music] [Music] she retires to consider her verdict [Music] it's hard not to feel deflated when even your best isn't good enough a time when both egg and the brooding parent are permanently at risk [Music] [Music] uh smaller oviraptors are no more than a nuisance larger predators are a different story unwilling to leave the nest the adult protects its offspring first by hiding and if that fails it goes on the offensive [Music] hey [Music] uh [Music] protecting the nest means giganta raptors young are more likely to survive it now seems clear that the instinct to nurture and care for a nest of eggs had its origins with the dinosaurs it's a behavior that was so successful it's still widespread today with birds but the fossils show something else these animals all died sitting on their nests [Music] it seems that the threats don't always come from predators sometimes the real danger comes from the most unlikely places [Music] these dinosaurs were all buried alive at a jungle hut this female finds a soul despite being totally wild somehow she has worked out what to do with it like us orangutans have an opposable thumb that allows them to grasp and handle objects with precision over 20 years ago a rescue orangutan learned how to sow by watching people constructing the hats here but this is a totally different and wild orangutan she seems to take pride in her work even clearing away the sawdust she's so smart she uses her feet as a vice to steady the branch filming a wild-born and free-living orangutan mastering this complex task is remarkable but now she's not the only orangutan sawing spy orangutan has joined her [Music] seems to be bringing out a competitive streak she's becoming even more enthusiastic [Music] but for a novice sawing is tiring work she's lost all momentum [Music] then finally calls it a day spy orangutan may have machine-like stamina but it's the astonishing and versatile mind of the real orangutan that's won the day she certainly earned her rest to help her in her quest she's equipped with three super powers first an amazing approach to getting about [Music] porsche is a jumping spider able to leap up to 50 times her own body length [Music] nowhere seems beyond her reach next her second superpower superb eyesight [Music] essential if she's to distinguish her prey in all this clutter because her prey doesn't stray porsche is a spider-eating spider this raises a few problems her lunch is three times her size [Music] with venom and surrounded by a sticky trap mission impossible not at all because of her third superpower porsche is a genius she can map her world in three dimensions [Music] and formulate a plan of attack [Music] she can have an idea [Music] the web builder is blind it won't have a clue that she's coming [Music] [Music] right on target and safely behind those fangs but a mind as active as porsches can always do with more brain food [Music] here there's no anchor point for the abseil but porsche has another idea instead of going to the spider [Music] she will bring the spider to her [Music] she plucks the strands to imitate struggling prey [Music] drawing the spider in [Music] to its death their cover blown escape seems impossible but these particular fish have a unique ability [Music] they're flying fish [Music] [Applause] [Music] with an extra thrust from their tails the flying fish get airborne once more with a good wind they can glide for hundreds of meters but this is just what the frigate birds have been waiting for [Music] when frigates join the hunt the flying fish are literally caught between the devil and the deep blue sea [Music] if the flying fish get too much lift they become easy prey for the frigates [Music] if they dive to evade attacks from above [Music] they could fall into the mouths of the dorado [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] the perfect launch and a controlled drop this is as good a descent as it's possible to make [Music] [Music] its parents are there to meet it [Music] a little dazed perhaps but all in one piece one gosling at least hasn't made it [Music] and this chick appears to be in a bad way [Music] [Music] at last it responds to its mother's cause [Music] the resilience of a barnacle goose chick is extraordinary but there are still chicks unaccounted for somewhere amongst the rubble [Music] parents can't risk searching because they need to lead their two survivors away quickly before predators arrive [Music] a third one has made it but it needs to catch up [Music] [Music] reunited [Music] three out of five chicks have made it without such a dramatic start in life it's unlikely any of them would have even got this far

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 2,136,285

Keywords: bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, top 50, bbc earth best videos, best natural history videos, BBC Earth's Top Natural History Moments, best of bbc earth, earth day, best animal videos, best wildlife videos, animal compilation, spy in the wild, orangutan uses saw, the hunt, planet earth, planet dinosaur, dinosaur videos, bird of paradise dance, chick jumps off cliff, life story, david attenborough

Id: AgMlCdvY5RI

Length: 35min 27sec (2127 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020