Night of the Salamander - The Secrets of Nature

an old legend tells of a spirit of fire in animal form in ancient Rome it was rumored that his could spit flames and even make water burn this creature was thought to be so evil that it would poison whatever it touched placed in a pot of honey it's poison became an aphrodisiac but this heavenly medicine had a hellish side-effect it would make a man go bald of course this is all superstition today hardcore scientists are shining the light of serious inquiry on a mysterious family of animals if you go where these strange creatures dwell you'll run into real specialists people every bit as fascinating as the clammy creatures thereafter the search for fire monsters and their relatives covers three continents it's a journey to extreme places in a company of the few who have knowledge of where and when to find them [Music] most of these places are cold wet and dark for the realm of the salamander is the night [Music] salamanders may look like wet lizards but in fact they're not reptiles at all there are films like frogs and toads their ancestors emerged from the sea millions of years ago they were the first creatures to conquer the dry land today there are some 350 salamander species across the world most of them live in the northern hemisphere some salamanders spend part of their lives in the water others live just on land the biggest difference between their world and ours is that they are not warm and cuddly to our touch their body has no heating system so they're always as warm or cold as their immediate surroundings we can actually see this with the help of a heat sensing camera the street surface is cold about 11 degrees Celsius so it appears blue the men's faces are warm and appear red the weather is chilly and humid but salamanders love it the thermal image clearly shows the temperature difference between their bodies and the man's even though his hands must be stiff with cold in this weather they're still way over 30 degrees the salamanders are much colder and appear purple they blend into the wet grass which is about 11 degrees if the temperature sinks near freezing they can no longer move in this state they passed the entire winter now in October they're still warm enough to be active [Music] [Music] to reproduce most salamanders return to the water which their ancestors left in the course of evolution in spring female fire salamanders return to where they were born the banks of small rivers since they mated in autumn the fertilized eggs have developed inside the mother's body and now their tiny larvae the female releases the larvae into the water there less than an inch long the Lavi are born with gills that branch out on both sides from behind the head as they mature into adult salamanders their gills are replaced by lungs then they leave the water and go on land salamanders are out and about at times when most humans stay at home when is damp and cold and at night [Music] it's early evening in a remote village in Tuscany northern Italy winter has just ended but the smell of snow is still in the air and the nights are still freezing at the town's guest house the lights are still burning the only two guests are unaffected by the seasons tryst s they haven't come to buy wine or olive oil they're here to look for salamanders France Tiedemann and Gunter shil chicas ooh ologist from the Vienna Museum of Natural History they hope to have an old desire fulfilled an encounter with an Italian ballistic Tung salamander [Music] the first requirement for salamander fieldwork is the ability to ignore the weather tonight is perfect salamander weather with temperatures below 10 degrees it's been drizzling for hours [Music] this is the hour of the amphibians their first encounter is a fat Italian original toad next they meet an endemic Italian frog an extremely rare spectacled salamander and a large subspecies of the fire salamander as the hours pass their mood sinks it's already past midnight and the researchers are soaked to the skin finally they come upon a slope of limestone debris and large boulders this looks promising [Music] a slimy creature tries to escape from the torch lights it may look innocuous but the ballistic tongue salamander is a specialist predator like few others in the animal world the home of these salamanders is rocks or more precisely the labyrinth of hollow spaces between them that reaches down far below the surface to humans this world is even more inaccessible than the deep sea following the animals down into their realm is impossible digging down would only destroy their habitat [Music] ballistic tongue salamanders only feel at home when they can squeeze into narrow moist crevices they appear to be immune against bruises [Music] no one knows how many of them live beneath our feet only now and then in a rainy night will some of them surface into our world the encounter is documented on film font punk no mercy person see her location time and temperature are recorded even the tiniest bit of information adds to the little we know about these creatures want the SIM card on Canal to send six combat like time to go to the pub say it again or to the campus cafeteria in Salt Lake City for insiders this is a hot spot where you can find Salim and expert Steven Devin his speciality the tongue ballistics of the ballistic tongue salamander it's purely accidental that Steven works here in Salt Lake City ballistic tongue salamanders are no less exotic than they are to most Europeans Steven wrote his doctoral thesis about the eating habits of salamanders then he worked at a brain Research Centre in Germany he's been a salamander fan since his early youth but what's so unique about the ballistic tongue salamander what Steven wants to know is how the simple brain of this predator is able to process the complex information involved in its hunting method how it takes precise aim and hits its prey with its long tongue the final result should be new insights into the workings of the human brain but results don't come easily ballistic tongue salamanders could claim to be the originators of fast food [Music] [Music] this has become a study about the limits of human patience will he ever do his stuff [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] studying the world's fast-food champion in an American lab rather than in its Mediterranean homeland has its logic in its natural habitat the ballistic tongue salamander is hard enough to come by but there is another Mediterranean salamander whose realm is all but inaccessible deep inside the cast Mountains of Slovenia and Croatia there exists a watery underworld a vast subterranean river system to visit the creature that hides here you need more than a warm sweater a French Slovenian team of cave divers are taking the great risk of penetrating into this lightless flooded labyrinth they've come in search of the protests or a European cave salamander when one of these enigmatic creatures was flushed into the outside world by the current some 300 years ago peasants took it for a baby dragon it's very cold down here and the divers are dangerously far from the surface and here it is a creature without eyes or color hardly a handful of humans have ever seen a Proteus in his natural surroundings to see a cave salamander the easy way it's best to travel west to the French Pyrenees this is the entrance hall of the world's oldest and largest cave laboratory Peter Schlegel is professor of zoology Munich University for years he's been studying the extraordinary senses of the cave salamander at this location in France back in the 50s General de Gaulle asked Yugoslavia as president tito for a few specimens of the cave salamander to be studied and bred by french scientists all the individuals living in these tanks are descendants of that gift this tunnel is the only place where cave salamanders have been successfully bred the cave lab is near a little mountain village the people of moolies may sometimes wonder what goes on deep inside the tunnel behind their town apart from one or two hours in the morning when the animals are being looked after and the lab is cleaned this is a silent and solitary place vibrations noise and light disturbed the salamanders and can even make them panic from the outside world it's a long walk to where the cave salamanders are kept under conditions that are close to natural the natural behavior of cave salamanders can only be observed in the dark [Music] infrared light invisible to both humans and salamanders enables researchers to see the animals through an electronic night-vision device [Laughter] [Music] cave salamanders live in a different time dimension they hardly move and when they do it's in super slow motion [Music] they don't reach sexual maturity until they're 16 years old and their lifespan is in the order of a century their sense of smell is acute they are extremely sensitive to touch and they can feel electric fields in their familiar habitat they move by memory like a blind person who first explores his surroundings with his hands creating a mental map in this dark habitat cave salamanders feed on tiny crustaceans that live here and on insects washed into the caves by the current but the food is scarce and they can do without for a long time there are reports of cave salamanders surviving for 12 years without any food this seems very credible but in fact they can radically reduce their metabolism and go into a sleep-like state for years on end [Music] when cave salamanders are raised in bright light their skin produces pigments giving them a grayish color in this section of the cave luminescent lamps are on around the clock in spite of the light the animals haven't developed eyes that can actually see they do have eyes but they remain as undeveloped as those of the pale specimens that live in the dark Peter Schlegel has long had a suspicion that salamanders can sense the Earth's magnetic field for two years he's been searching for hard evidence migrating birds use this magnetic sense for orientation possibly these creatures of Darkness do the same the experiments take place deep inside the mountain every few minutes a video camera records an image in front of the camera is a cave salamander in a glass container surrounded by a metal cage which can simulate the Earth's magnetic grid does the animal align its body to the grid over months flagels apparatus registers every move the animal makes the evaluation of tens of thousands of images has strengthened the theory that salamanders can sense magnetic fields but how they do it still remains a mystery to understand the cave salamander complex technology is needed night-vision cameras various electrical devices or special diving gear it's like making contact with an extraterrestrial being [Music] the divers were overwhelmed by this tender encounter what a contrast between how the cave divers were their elaborate life-support systems and this naked little creature a move in this hostile environment [Music] it's hard to generalize what a place has to be like for salamanders to thrive there but two features are common to all salamander habitats it must be wet and cool at least now and then it has to rain really hard the city of Oviedo in northern Spain perfectly fits the profile other cities may attract rats and pigeons a viedo is the city of salamanders no one knows how long they've been here they probably spread through the city along an old railroad track the railway has been closed down but the salamanders have stayed has squatters on empty lots and in the rubble of ruins they feel at home in the jungle of weeds and mounting garbage this is why salamander experts are also drawn to such places at South Kunta and his son Teemo from Germany have come here to look for the garbage salamanders of Xavier doh they want to do something for the salamanders protection because in the past they were regarded as pests with untiring enthusiasm its art and teemo have searched all the dark corners of a viedo and now they know for sure the salamanders are strictly inner-city types creeks and rivers no longer exist in this habitat so the inner-city salamanders no longer produce aquatic larvae [Music] the various abandoned Lots have long been isolated from each other the salamander populations inhabiting them differ from each other in their patterns and colors [Music] these animals have wonderfully adapted to this special habitat but if the city's economic upturn of recent years continues they'll hardly be able to hold their ground construction is booming the city is rapidly closing in on them [Music] until a few years ago a conspicuous red variety lived on this lot which is now occupied by a sex shop father and son filmed the animals with a video camera their old VHS tape is the only evidence that this bright red variety once existed [Music] but as for now or viedo nights still belong to the salamanders it's art and Teemo have searched almost the entire city but there is one patch left where they haven't looked the medieval cemetery next to the Cathedral it's on a hill in the dead center of the town so for the - it'll be a night out at the cemetery [Music] these walls are a thousand years old the type of place salamanders like passing by the cathedral choir a first hint catches their eye a salamander sculpture what made the artist choose this subject [Music] midnite the bones of hundreds of Pilgrims Rest beneath the lawn of this small cloister at first sight there seems little chance of finding what they're after how could a salamander get over those walls what would it live off [Music] but then they really find one a strong well-fed individual later they discover more impossible to tell how old this population is but it's obvious what they live on no lack of worms in a graveyard [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it may be a big step from the medieval of yato night to the nightlife of Tokyo but all salamanders including the Oviedo variety have common ancestors and they are Asian [Music] Japan and China are the ancestral homes of the salamander family and even today they boast the biggest members of the clan [Music] every child in Japan knows the legend of the river monster 400 years ago a giant salamander lived in a deeper River it devoured people and even horses to get rid of the monster a fearless hero jumped into the river with his knife between his teeth diving down to the bottom he killed the monster the Village People helped him to drag the body on land it was 12 steps long and four steps wide the measurements and the legends may not be absolutely precise but in the world of salamanders the Japanese giant salamander is huge during the day giant salamanders hide from the light in this little chance to find one so here two salamander researchers have turned into night creatures [Laughter] even the beam of a flashlight makes the animals flee and panic they grow to a length of almost one-and-a-half meters and weigh more than 20 kilos in Japan the giant salamander is something of a national pet the people here are much more familiar with their local salamanders than people in Europe or America there are giant salamander museums and clubs young school children learn about salamander biology salamanders are protected by the government and they're a tourist attraction [Music] and of course one can visit them in the zoo Hiroshima Zoo is the only place where giant salamanders have been successfully bred for many years hundreds of individuals of all ages live here in dozens of dark concrete tanks [Music] the oldest male is the one common ancestor of all the individuals in the zoo every few months the patriarch is weighed measured and medically examined there's an old scar in its side either an injury or a wound caused by parasites the eyes of the giant salamander are tiny and have no lids giant salamanders have a powerful bite and they will defend themselves when they feel threatened a large animal can sever a man's finger in the past until a few decades ago salamanders in Japan were not treated in such a loving way as in this zoo most of them ended up in the cooking pot their meat tastes like shark meat hiroshima zoo is one of the last refuges of this hugest of all salamanders although they've been strictly protected for half a century now the species is still endangered not because of persecution but because of water pollution at artificial regulation of Japan's last wild rivers [Applause] the biggest Japanese giant salamander was a hundred and fifty centimeters long and weighed 30 kilos today these giants have become wildlife attractions watching one in the wild is a rare and precious privilege [Music] [Music] [Music] many salamander species are being pushed to the brink of extinction over it by human civilization Mexico City is a nightmare of human civilization 20 million inhabitants share one last green oasis the park of Xochimilco locals and tourists and all sorts of waterfowl come to the lakes and channels to relax rather matter-of-factly a sign informs the visitor that sahti Milko is haunted by a water monster according to an Indian legend [Music] the water monster is a prisoner here like in a viedo the capital of Mexico is relentlessly closing in on the last refuge of a species in distress [Music] when the Spanish conquistadors first arrived 500 years ago the capital of the Aztec empire was situated here this high plateau was covered by swampy lagoons and people lived in floating gardens the park of Xochimilco is the last remnant of that ancient water scape the lakes and swamps were also the home of the water monsters people caught them by the dozens up to the 1960s there were souls for food in the local markets now this is history today there is only one fisherman left who knows how to catch them no longer for Mexico cities kitchens but for scientific research and here it is one of the 2000 axolotls still living in the wild the axolotl takes its name from an Aztec deity why this peaceful creature was regarded as a monster is hard to understand a biologist at the University of Mexico City Virginia grower has been doing her best to prop up the axolotl population she breeds them near one of the canals of Xochimilco and hopes that the young will again reproduce in the wild the breeding pool is protected by nets against birds and snakes males and females are brought together here in the hope that they will stick their fertilized eggs to the branches that are prepared for them the chances of an egg making it to the point of hatching are minut Xochimilco is polluted by sewage the lake bottom contaminated with heavy metals the water quality is close to that of dishwater officials have warned the population not to eat fish from the lakes the last of the axolotls really managed to produce offspring adult axolotls look like oversized larvae and in a sense they are they are salamanders that never progress beyond the larval state but still reach sexual maturity a paradox of nature their external gills are never replaced by lungs the animals never leave the water why they have evolved that way remains unexplained [Music] the future of these strange animals is more than doubtful [Music] the junior grower and her team of biologists struggle against the pressures of the metropolis but with environmental conditions worsening they may be fighting a losing battle at Xochimilco [Music] yet the axolotl will survive thanks to the Honorable Rufus r Humphrey a professor of biology who founded an axolotl refuge of sorts back in the 1950s not in Mexico but in the USA [Music] Bloomington Indiana 40 minutes south of Indianapolis is the axolotl capital of the world a lab where the ever young amphibians are mass bred the axolotl may soon be wiped out in the wild but hundreds of thousands are being bred as lab animals to satisfy a worldwide demand in Bloomington they never stop breeding in acclimatize chamber under fluorescent lamps if you buy axolotls here you get genetically controlled individuals each animal has a long pedigree that goes back 50 years the customer list includes embryologists and neurobiologists they all want axolotls as lab animals because they are easy to keep their eggs are large and their nerves are very thick in stacked plastic tubs the animals stick their eggs to pebbles researchers especially go for eggs and larvae only a fraction of the larvae ever reaches adulthood the fact that laboratory axolotls are so easy to breed and to keep has also turn them into much desired pets in the US and in Europe people who get bored with our fish tanks and suffer from hamster allergy love a friendly axolotl who's bound to impress any visitor axolotl eggs are hand-picked and packaged for shipping 100 eggs $35 plus delivery each year the axolotl center ships between 60 and 70 thousand eggs 10 thousand Lari and several hundred adult individuals two research centers at academic institutions around the world demand in the world market has long outgrown the supply axolotls sell like hotcakes buyers can choose from a variety of colors some breeds are spotted some are amber and some are pink but there is one feature that makes the axolotl unique in the entire Animal Kingdom using a simple medical trick it is possible to create an animal that nature never meant to exist by feeding hormones to any axolotl artificially bred or wild it is changed from a water creature into a salamander that can live on land these changes in the axolotls body correspond to the metamorphosis of salamander larvae into adult salamanders except that the axolotl larva is already a fully grown adult this process takes two to four weeks slowly the gills wither and disappear the skin grows tougher the legs stronger at the same time the animal develops lungs until one day it climbs out of the water and takes its first breath [Music] weezing and with a clumsy gait an animal that spent its whole life under the water and suddenly walk and breathe on dry land [Music] the breathing rhythm of the new lungs seems erratic maybe this is how he should imagine the first land animals leading the ocean some 370 million years ago [Music] [Music] salamanders live close to us without attracting much attention yet they are worlds away julio cortázar the Argentinian writer once discovered a tank of axolotls in a museum this is what he wrote there was a time when I thought a lot about the axolotls I spent many hours contemplating them observing their stillness and their dark movements from the first moment I understood that we are connected that there was something however infinitely lost and remote that United us [Music] I darkly sensed their secret will to overcome space and time through there motionless indifference although they are not human I have never known such a deep relationship with another living creature [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Secrets of Nature

Views: 6,008

Rating: 4.852941 out of 5

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, natura, naturaleza, documentales, wildlife, grandes documentales, la noche temática, documentos tv, night of the salamander, nature films, wild earth, wild films, nat geo, bbc earth

Id: bzvyjriNEdo

Length: 50min 34sec (3034 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 15 2019