One Hour Of Your Favourite BBC Earth Moments | BBC Earth

foreign [Music] hippos Can't Sweat but they do secrete a thick oily reddish ready this acts as a sunscreen and helps protect against infection but he still needs to drink yes water holes are dangerous traps for thirsty animals [Music] this one is staked out by lions they're practiced giant Killers together they can take down an elephant [Music] he's dying of thirst but he stands firm [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right a hippo can hold his ground if he needs to and he forces the Lions to allow him a shower finally he gets his much-needed drink foreign [Music] relief is on its way instance a flood is creeping slowly closer [Music] [Applause] [Music] relax [Applause] [Music] it travels along the hippos dry paths so once again the hippos have determined the course of the river's terminals [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] as the land recovers and the flood waters Peak the channels created by the hippos carried the water to its furthest clinics foreign Wonderland of the okavango [Music] everything and everyone that lives here all their presence to the hippos [Music] perhaps the most important time in the plant's life is when it has to spread its seed then plants have to become Travelers and the greatest traveling plant of all is this seed it's called a sea heart and it occurs in pods like this one and this contains a lot of air and that means when it falls into water it floats the biggest and heaviest seed of all is this one the Coco de Mayo from the Seychelles it can weigh up to 18 kilos its strategy is simply not to travel at all but simply to fall from the parent tree lie on the ground and bite its time it contains so much food that it can Sprout and grow slowly and wait for its parent to die and then the perfect place in the sun awaits it [Music] the smallest of all seeds are those produced by The Orchids a single one of those is 24 billion times lighter than the Coco de Mayo and they produce them in capsules like this one which comes from an epigentum orchid and that contains four million seeds even the slightest air currents will carry them hundreds of miles through the forest some are so light they don't even fall to the ground but settle on the branches high in the canopy and there found a community of plants whose Roots never get to the Earth and there's one of them right there [Music] is joined by cameraman Doug and he's about to perform a very strange experiment with one of the most curious species of dolphin the bottlenose dolphin okay this is what we're going to to put in the water is and the experiment hasn't even begun [Applause] Stan's machine blows bubble Rings something these Dolphins won't ever have seen before [Music] what will the Dolphins make of these bubble rings together [Music] [Music] initially like most animals they're a bit wary then curiosity gets the better of them [Music] one individual seems particularly spelled [Music] she's checking out the bubbles not just with her eyes but also with clicks of Sona and then she Braves the bubble ring [Music] this courageous Explorer has paved the way for the others [Music] just like human toddlers it doesn't take long for these imaginative creatures to make a game out of their new toy [Music] even after hours with the bubble Rings the Dolphins are still expanded she's got their own version of the game one dolphin prefers a tail flick thank you another a thin flip the real show-off goes for the swim through while some animals will show initial interest in novel objects very few will maintain this level of curiosity and playfulness for so long [Laughter] in only a few months time the water here eight thousand square kilometers of swamp will dry and disappear and all the hippos of the okavango will face real hardship [Music] water is the hippo Sanctuary it keeps them cool in the baking heat and provides the vegetation on which they depend and safety away from predators but with all of this slowly evaporating everyone will need to be prepared [Applause] the calf is now several weeks old and has built up his strength it's time for him to meet the family returning to the Pod with a new baby is inevitably risky thank you the mother has to re-establish that she's a member of the pond and in the excitement a clumsy adult could crush her calf the dominant bull who's right in her path if she stands her ground with him a path her battle could be won oh but the real problem comes from an unexpected Place [Applause] her previous calf is showing an unhealthy interest [Music] she's battle scarred and appears to have a quarrelsome nature Tennessee or curiosity whichever it is it's dangerous her calf is far too young to be pushed around like this he's frightened and stays close to his mother [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] things this has turned into an attack and the mother muscle would assume to it the power remain on the periphery of the pod but the rest of the family can still hear them [Music] thank you hippos are thought to be the closest living relatives of Wales and they too make most of their vocalizations underwater their head and jawbones capture vibrations and transmit them directly into the ear vibrations become sound and In These Quiet Waters these can carry up to a mile these insects were turned into zombies by fungi behind the scenes at Kew Gardens in London the underground fungirium collection houses over a million specimens which have come from all over the world amongst the shells of the climate-controlled collection a handful of disturbing bugs stand out these unfortunate creatures have all been victims of varieties of zombie fungi several cicadas are new additions to the collection at Q having spent the past 17 years developing underground these insects emerged in 2021 to a world dominated by a human pandemic little did they know that a different Airborne killer would soon be coming for them microscopic fungal spores carry in the air most fungal spores are harmless to creatures and will settle on the ground to grow and produce the mushrooms we're most familiar with but some parasitic fungi like types of masospora and cordyceps have a different more Sinister purpose once they land on insects like these cicadas the spores will infiltrate the cicada's bodies and spread inside the cicadas are soon completely overrun with no known way to fight back the fungus then starts to flood the cicada's brains with hallucinogens and amphetamines it's thought this makes them both more hungry and more active to find a mate but there's also a darker use for this drugging as the fungus continues to grow inside the core of the insect it causes the rear end of the cicada's abdomen to fall off exposing the fungus to the air in order to release its spores and spread further afield it's thought the drugs released by the fungus into the cicada's brain make it more energetic in finding a mate thus maximizing Spore dispersal for the parasitic masospora with over 400 species of cordyceps type fungi spread across the world other creatures such as wasps moths and caterpillars have also Fallen prey to these parasites ants are another notable victim of these killer fungi once infiltrated by Fungus the ant will move away from its colony to a location like high in a tree which suits the controlling cordyceps the parasitic fungus will make the ant anchor Itself by biting into the tree trunk in a kind of death grip the fungus will then burst out of its host and grow into a mushroom-like structure ready to spread its spores and start the deadly cycle all over again [Music] the crown of thorn starfish grazes on the far fastest growing Coral giving the slower growing corals a chance to catch up long spined sea urchins feed on algae clearing the way for Coral growth is a delicate ecosystem that can easily be knocked out of balance pollution and a loss of natural Predators can cause starfish and urchin numbers to explode both are covered in venomous spines [Music] but there is one renowned Reef resident able to take them on the Titan triggerfish they've got a fearsome reputation foreign aggressively defending their patch of reef a sea urchin spines are no protection against teeth like these [Music] although the crown of thorns is well protected on top it has a soft Underside Titan triggerfish play an important role in keeping numbers at healthy levels and with this much food around it's a great place to start a family this couple have a little bundle of eggs to care for [Music] while the female blows water over the eggs to oxygenate them the male is on Guard Patrol this sort of Parental care may be surprising but it's vitally important they protect the next generation of revalpers [Music] all the creatures here play their part and this has a direct influence on the open ocean oh my God that was absolutely phenomenal just wow [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] that was like being in the middle of a Fast and Furious race at one point one orca was coming up and it must have had a seal in its mouth and the other Orca came up and did a handbrake turn and was like and there were nose to nose this one's to move forward this one's coming backwards and they're sharing a seal it was ridiculous just amazing how tender they are one catches the seal and then they all gently share it with one another and with the baby it's absolutely phenomenal just just wow we are right now with the port of orcas and I've just taken a picture of one orca that's been tagged and it means that it's one of those orcas that has been released here in the Russian Forest that means that uh despite all the arguments from the captive industry orcas actually can be released and safely returned into their natural environment and live happy life in where they belong to [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] calls one of an intruder [Music] this time it's it's adult male tiger he's a third bigger than Raj Bearer and much more powerful [Music] this is the Cubs favorite water hole [Music] [Music] mother and sons sleep off their meal [Music] heads off alone [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] adult male tigers sometimes kill Cubs so to approach one is a huge risk oh unless of course he's your father huh the only male in the forest who would never harm her [Music] tiger father's father rarely meet their offspring and he doesn't seem Keen to get acquainted [Music] while he is patrolling the forest other males will keep away and the Cubs will be safe [Music] oh [Music] for everything else the camps depend on Raj Bearer she she still has to provide for the whole family crazy [Music] [Music] dolphin expert Sarah Robinson has spent many years following these dolphins and discovered the secret of their success stingrays it doesn't take long for her to spot two of the Dolphins she's after right the Charmander named zit yeah I think I've put off the cold water long enough so I'm gonna have to get in and check out if they are following the same rate fingers crossed yeah they are and I'm not going in for nothing just there you go yummy neutral go for it go go go Sarah free Dives to the grassy seabed and catches a rare glimpse of this strange Association [Music] armed with a lethal Bob on the end of their tails these stingrays pose a threat to both humans and dolphins [Music] people are taking quite a risk but they don't seem to be put off as they Shadow the Rays every move [Music] [Music] foreign seems to have found something undulating its wing-like fins it's trying to flush out hidden prey [Applause] an octopus a real delicacy for both Stingray and dolphin [Music] stingrays have an ability that Dolphins lack they can locate prey hidden beneath the seagrass using the electro receptors on the underside of their bodies and the Dolphins have worked this out [Music] the Dolphins have solved the problem of how to find their favorite food in the long sea grass they're harnessing an ability of another species for their own ends the Stingrays have done all the hard work only to be outsmarted by the Dolphins [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so we've just met the scientists who were based here and they've been here for three months and they've seen one snow leopard which was two miles away so that was slightly sobering piece of news [Music] first day we've got the snow leopards wow that looks fantastic [Music] now we had a really good first few days of the shoot now we're into the reality of snow leopards and you know it's been five days now since we've seen one I think I'm gonna make a vow not to shave until I see a snow leopard which could prove to be a mistake because we've still got another month here it's been about a week today has been another slow day almost two weeks now nearly three weeks now three weeks this is getting a bit ridiculous now as far as I can tell there aren't any around here we are getting slightly desperate here spent the last month trying to film a rock colored cat amongst the mounting range of cat colored rocks and um surprisingly enough so far um being unsuccessful [Applause] [Music] about to see my first ever snow leopard apparently if I look through here there's a snow leopard on the carcass so here we go [Music] I don't see it oh I see it I see it there it is now you can shave your beer and shave I can shave now [Music] one of the things that is peculiar to this place is that there are just so many vultures around but the leopard has to continually protect its prey during the daytime or else it will be destroyed once the vultures come down they they just demolish a huge carcass in a very short space of time the leopard was being persecuted by these magpies that would that would sort of hop around it and they'd sort of creep up and creep up and try and grab little bits of the carcass and then every now and again the leopard would jump out with all its Fury and try and grab one or at least scare them away [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] often when we're filming our mammal cousins it's very tempting to impose our own human anthropocentric values on their actions and that is I think a mistake probably the most interesting example of this I've seen has been working with Orca sometimes known as killer whale on a beach in Patagonia at exactly the right time of the right tide a pod of orca will surge up onto the Sands to snatch seal pups and to drag them back down into the surf where they feed on them we waited for five days to see this hunkered down low against you know freezing Patagonian winds trying to make as little an impression as possible on the seal pups that were playing around in the surf and finally the Pod approached they came up and one animal surged up and onto the Sands itself to snatch an animal and drag it back down into the water it's an incredible thing to see you know Orca could weigh eight or nine tons and to risk beaching themselves to find a meal you know that is a really heavy investment of energy and of serious risk to themselves as well but the next bit was the the part of the whole scenario that took us by surprise so once they had this tiny pup in the sea instead of just finishing it off in a heartbeat as they surely could have done they seemed to to play with it to toy with it to go round and round it in circles tossing it out the water with their tails and not going in for the final killer bite this wasn't an adult first seal it was a small animal that seriously it couldn't have done them any damage and then it got even weirder because we found on that same Beach several carcasses of pups which had been taken by orca they had very definitive bite marks from the Orca on them and they had been killed but not eaten otherwise the carcass was completely perfect why would any animal go to that degree of effort and risk and then not eat it didn't make any sense to us perhaps the answer lay in a different filming trip also with Orca but in British Columbia my team and I have been lucky enough to happen upon a pot of Walker that were socializing and we went out in our sea kayaks and paddle alongside them the Orca were leaping out of the water breaching coming alongside me and just rolling onto their side so they could look up at me as they came past it was truly breathtaking but then they went from this this playful super-sized dolphin which is essentially what they are into full-on predatory mode and I've never seen an animal switch as fast as this ever they'd encountered a fully grown male Stella's sea lion which is three quarters of a ton 750 kilos of flashing teeth a serious predator in its own right and the pot of orca cornered it into a bay so we got out of our kayaks and got onto Shore and we came right up close to see the whole breathtaking spectacle play out they took it down by breaching up and landing on top of it by slapping it with their tails and just generally tiring the animal out you know it was outgunned outnumbered outweighed and it simply had no chance although it kept trying to to make a run for the uh for the kelp beds where the Orca wouldn't follow watching this happen it took a long long time and you could see it getting more and more tired more and more worn out and you know you feel for them everyone's seen sea lions and they have these great big dark eyes they really pull on your heartstrings because they have it would appear so many similarities to us as human beings that certainly are they do share a common ancestor with us but then finally when the animal was no longer a threat when it was so tired and so beaten that it couldn't fight back then they brought in their youngsters they brought in their calves they were quite young animals but they were clearly being taught by their parents how to hunt replicating their parents Maneuvers they were also breaching up out of the water and tail slapping on the Stella sea lion and this went on for it for a good while you can see that it was an instructional process they were using the Stellar sea lion as a teaching Aid and it that was pretty uncomfortable to watch it would appear to us to be incredibly cruel but the next bit was the the bit that just took it to a whole different level because once all of that was finished once the the lesson was over rather than coming in and finishing off the celery sea lion they all turned on some unseen unheard signal and just swam off to Sea and left it they didn't eat a single mouthful of that Stella sea lion and we just couldn't understand why but it seems that Orca are one of the animals that indulge in what is known as Surplus killing that is killing that is not designed to be for food kind of seems that they compartmentalize their lives so if they're traveling they're traveling they're socializing they're socializing if they're hunting that's what they're doing and likewise if they're teaching and learning well they don't play with their food it's really tough for you as an observer to see an animal going through so much stress and pain and overwhelming exertion and then for it not even to result in you know precious calories for the Orca it seems so cruel but then surely we as human beings are the worst culprit of that there is no other animal that will that will engage with it and kill potential food but they're not Isis and just kill it for sport in that surely we human beings are the master these Natural Born Killers are some of the fastest Hunters on the planet you may have thought the carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap only exist on land but killer plants also lurk throughout the wetlands and waterways of our world found on all continents except Antarctica waterborne bladder warts are free-floating plants that can grow up to two meters in length as blood Awards often live in nutrient poor environments eating prey like small Crustaceans and insect larvae give the bladder water vital source of nitrogen and phosphorus engulfing their prey in less than a millisecond blood awards are the fastest carnivorous plants on the planet the incredible speed of bladderworts comes from the way their tiny traps are structured attached to the long thin stems of the plant a massive tiny bladder-like traps give the plant its name the plant pumps water out of its traps to make them ready to strike this creates a difference in pressure between the inside of the bladder and the water around it if trigger hairs around the opening to the bladder are touched the Trap snaps open the difference in pressure causes water around the trap to be sucked into it at high speed carrying nearby prey along with it though these traps are small this reaction is so powerful it occurs at over 600 times the force of gravity like the blood award water wheel plants are aquatic Killers with lightning fast reactions water wheels are unique in being the only aquatic plant known to use snap traps to catch prey it's thought that the water wheel and the Venus flytrap may share a common ancestor as both deploy jaw-like traps to deadly effect measuring roughly three millimeters across the water wheels traps are about a tenth the size of a venus flytraps but they close 10 times faster than those of its land-based cousin unlike a Venus flytrap the leaves of a water wheel don't change shape to trap prey instead they close like two halves of a muscle shell once sensitive trigger hairs are touched by passing prey the leaf snaps shut and the catch is complete long bristles act as an energy saver for the plant as these stop passing debris from triggering the trap despite being found in Europe Asia Africa and Australia water wheel plants are now endangered and rare in the wild favoring a narrow set of water conditions the plant is usually confined to small areas this means it can be easily eradicated in a region by fairly minor events as threats to its habitat increase the water wheel like many of its carnivorous cousins may not survive on our changing planet for much longer afternoon of feeding and snoozing at dusk seba and morwa get playful an obsession with my rucksack a sweet smell of energy other than sweetie Scotsman but it seems sweaty Scotsman is like catnip tomorrow don't bite it nope just don't bite it hey nine months ago the Cubs kept their distance now not so much please no [Music] no no no no that is inedible okay fella put it down [Music] oh okay three against one I get it right so mums up my camera tomorrow you've got my culturing reasonably well behaved at the moment come on guys right just leave it you have one wrong move and I could get myself into trouble here why you died an ego it's funny I've seen that with other cats that when it gets dark there's a change in Behavior I'm a little bit scared about what you might do if I try and push you away from that oh come on it's not worth being a muscles before come on [Music] that's a bit of an angry looking face oh Christ looking I'm not no no no no okay [Music] scaredy cats okay it's time to call it a day see you tomorrow most of the water has now gone the channels carried little more than trickles compared with what once flowed here [Applause] oh only the track the tracks of the departing hippos remain [Music] their paths now dry still link the last remaining pools and the grasses they depend on will soon wither and die most hippos have headed north following their all-important water [Music] some are still in search of a refuge [Applause] [Music] only a few pools in the area are still big enough to hold a hippo pod and many pots are forced to share large groups of up to 200 hippos crowd together in the last of the water the pressure is mounted and new arrivals just stir things up [Music] [Music] the shrinking pools have also trapped fish they attract fishermen [Music] [Music] Pelicans arrive in their thousands [Music] [Applause] this number of birds could clean out a pool in just a few days [Music] fish eagles need to get in first [Music] fish Gather in Shoals around the hippos for safety [Music] but the fish Eagles aren't easily put off the hungry Pelicans move in closer foreign [Applause] wonderful world foreign [Music] the crocodiles make a meal of the casualties [Music] Venus flytraps are the plant world's most famous natural-born killers but how can a plant with no nerves or muscles move so quickly the Venus flytrap is one of the world's most iconic carnivorous plants yet it is native to small areas of pine habitat in North and South Carolina existing in nutrient poor soil the Venus flytrap harvests the vital food it needs by catching prey in its jaw-like leaves each trap is actually a modified Leaf split into two red lobes these lobes secrete a sweet sap to attract insects flaring out from the trap a curved row of teeth-like spikes interlock when the Trap shuts to prevent prey from escaping several tiny trigger hairs stand on the Leaf's surface lured in by the plant's sweet smelling nectar insects touch the trigger hairs and tripped the Trap a hair must be touched at least twice in Rapid succession for the trap to close this way the plant can distinguish between the brush of a scrambling cricket and the plop of a raindrop with each Leaf trap having a limited number of uses before it Withers and dies being able to tell the difference between a rainstorm and a tasty meal is a vital energy saving system for the plant it's these trigger hairs that play a vital role in how this incredible killer is able to move so quickly once an unlucky bug has triggered the Trap this movement is converted into an electrical charge which moves through the trap's two lobes as this electrical charge moves towards the center of the Trap it opens specialized pores in the outermost layer of the Trap cells allowing water to Rush from the cells on the inside of the lobes to cells on the outside the dramatic change in cell pressure flips the lobes which snaps shut the whole process takes about a tenth of a second faster than the blink of a human eye now imprisoned by the leaf and its jaws each move the prey makes further tightens the Trap making its situation worse the trap now becomes a kind of stomach as digestive enzymes are released into the sealed space this acidic concoction allows the Venus fly trap to dissolve its victim extracting vital nutrients like nitrogen from its prey about 10 days later the Trap reopens revealing the shriveled remains of this natural-born Killers most recent meal [Music] my name is [Laughter] back in 2016 it was in the Masai Mara and I was following a two baby hyenas [Music] um it is a very Grim story but um I would like it to be balanced and this this event happened right toward the end of um our shoot on very last week we're waiting for all the females to come back to the den and being greeted by their babies usually they will turn up they'll give that a slight little ground noise and then this the extraordinary things is that that the old babies will pop out you know listening to their mothers very specific grants so it was just before the sunset we were at our usual spot waiting and I'm there you know happy with my cup of coffee in the car very supported at the same time two lions in a peripheric of the the den and I thought oh something's gonna happen no hyenas and came back and I was a bit suspicious by this time they should all be there because that's just new the routine I got so into it and yeah start suspecting that something is not quite right all of a sudden his Alpha females she turns up she's on her own no other hyenas and she comes she comes right close to the entrance of the den and then she's calling she's calling um and nothing happens and she keeps calling and I'm like well she's not actually a part of the story I should concentrate on the lines and I keep I kept my eyes between the two what he did that you realize about half an hour and she kept doing that and I thought oh no there's something not quite right and she she's starting pushing her head into the those tiny little hole where the babies um um goes into so um and then she's pushing ahead and and starting to engage the driver and he was like no that's just a normal thing but and then all of a sudden she comes out with a baby on her mouth but that's just how Hyena's carry their babies with that powerful job but they know how to be gentle with that sort of movement the baby was just kind of flappy you know she wasn't moving at all and then she puts the baby on the ground and starts moving and touching the baby with her nose and the mouth just to check I think she was checking whether um the baby was right I mean then baby was moving oh she was simply dead and and then the driver confirmed it said that that baby's dead and then all of a sudden she she sort of she became larger than usual the hair on her neck was completely raised you know you can just tell that that animal is not quite self um it will just witnessing a mother basically eating her own baby there are a number of reasons why she probably did that perhaps she just wanted to to keep her social standing High not showing her weakness to um or the hyenas because she said the queen therefore everything about her Offspring should be powerful you know she gets access to the best Meats she gets to mate with the best and specimen and perhaps that's one of the reasons she didn't want to show that weakness and and all she didn't want to attract other predators or maybe she just wanted to keep the den clean only and hyena can he tell you can tell you why that happens you usually when I come back from a shoot um and I'll turn my kids and everything I've been filming and I know that Beautiful Stories oh mind you wow look at that that um that one I never told my kids that so um yeah she is an experienced Hunter but her prey are always on high alert good fortunately she knows how to disappear thank you [Music] even with her experience most hunts end this way [Music] foreign [Music] but now she faces a dilemma as evening draws in leaving the Cubs unprotected in their den could put them in danger the night shifts are already on the prowl there's a slow smear [Music] [Music] it will kill Cubs if it can find them [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] has been discovered it's no longer safe [Music] sperm whales are the largest Predators on the planet there's been male wow he's really well marked but even they have enemies pirate whales they will attack the sperms they've got to eat the babies and we've seen this pilot wheels will attack the sperm whale yeah confident that pilot whales don't usually attack humans DDA is Keen to take a closer look [Music] thank you close cousins of the killer whale pilot whales are only a third of the size of an adult Sperm whale strength in numbers [Music] hunting in packs up to a hundred strong they too will be listening out for the sounds of sperm whales foreign there is a chance that if we keep following these Pilots that will end up tracking them as they track the sperms at last the team begin to hear sperm whales but these aren't clicks for navigation these are clicks for communication known as coders thank you oh yeah okay I guess we hear the check in there can you hear the machine it gets hard to count more than three because after you get it might be a clip oh huh okay this is the chance to get close to the world's largest predator [Music] well families May maintained several generations of daughters with their babies overseen by a wise old grandmother shame believes that they communicate through a complex array of coder clicks which vary from family to family [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 1,589,691

Keywords: bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, earth day, earth 2023, one hour compilation, animal compilation, sir david Attenborough, david attenborough, wildlife, animals, frozen planet II, the green planet, dynasties, natural world, learning, videos for kids, best of, best of bbc, best of bbc earth, full documentary

Id: tVUDJs6_A-0

Length: 73min 55sec (4435 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023