The Red Centre: Australias Dangerous Desert | Our World

[Music] thank you the red Center of Australia life is hard in this sunburned country it's a challenge just to survive long droughts bushfires and fierce heat all combine to create the Burning Heart of this vast land [Music] in the last 100 years the Wind of Change has swept through Central Australia desert animals like this Mala provided food for nomadic groups of Aboriginal people intimate knowledge of the desert and its inhabitants was essential for their survival so important was this knowledge that it became sacred and often Secret the animals were more than nourishment for the body they were also a link to the dream time the creation their epic Journeys were celebrated in dream Tales or song lines a spiritual root man for the trackless desert the dream Trail of the Mala radiated like a web across the array regions transcending tribes and language barriers weaving through sand dunes and salt pans and across endless sun-baked spinifex grasslands [Music] [Music] thank you Little Wonder that the great monolith of Uluru known to Europeans as airs Rock inspired distant generations of Aborigines [Music] the most sacred and secret place of the Mala dream Trail is a cave like this the Cave of the Marla's pouch but the ancient dreams are fading in the harsh light of a new era as the extent of the dream Trail suggests the Mala was one of the commonest animals of Australia's vast dry interior it can manage without water and its digestion can cope with a diet of spinifex grass a less nourishing food would be hard to imagine the Mala has all the attributes of a real desert Survivor like other marsupials the Mala hops on leathery pads now they have been replaced by horny Hooves which cut into the delicate soil surface the Marla's world has changed history has shown that this harsh environment is surprisingly fragile the Aborigines drifted like Shadows across the landscape taking a little and moving on Western culture demanded more we wanted to settle stay in one place and alter the world to suit our needs at First Sight spin effects looks pretty harmless but the leaves are like needles many species are also packed full of silica microscopic shards of glass not good for cattle or sheep The Roots probe three meters down to collect what little water is available as the tussocks grow they die in the center forming Rings which get bigger with successive years nearly a quarter of Australia is covered by inhospitable spin effects grassland but nevertheless it supports a rich community of animals spin effects pigeons eke out a living by picking up seeds but here reptiles predominate ranging from the parenti the second largest lizard in the world to dozens of smaller species some types of spin effects secrete a sticky resin to deter potential grazers spin effects ants have exploited this in an extraordinary way the ants actually harvest the resin from the base of the spin effects leaves and use it as cement to build little cubes of sand about the size of a drinking straw around individual Blades of grass the Aborigines use both the tubes and the Ants underground nests to make a very strong adhesive inside the tubes sheltered from the Sun and drying wind the ants Farm lips these tiny sap-sucking bugs are packed head to tail along the leaf the plant's juices are sucked in at one end and a sticky sweet honeydew is excreted from the other and it's this which sustains the sminifex ant very few animals can feed directly on spin effects but for those that do it's a world of plenty one group The Termites have cracked the system the key to their success lies in their guts for they Harbor single-celled animals which can break down cellulose the Woody content in spin effects and turn it into digestible sugars foreign [Music] material takes place at night foreign termites are really grazers just like other much larger herbivores they are eaten by smaller reptiles and a host of other animals in the good years spin effects produces large quantities of seed which allows the native rodents to breed rapidly spin effects hopping mice are quick to exploit the situation and their populations rapidly build up in times like this the woma or Olive python has no difficulty in finding food but catching it is another matter [Music] rodents colonized Australia via New Guinea 5 million years ago and they have evolved here with unusual diversity early Travelers were intrigued when they found large heaps of little stones in the middle of nowhere they discovered that these mounds of Pebbles were the work of industrious little mice the pebble Mound mice are only found in areas where there's not enough soil to dig a nice cool burrow to escape the Heat so they build mounds of Pebbles a shelter instead moving the stones about means the mice expend considerable energy every so often they break off to feed each Fortress of stones shelters a whole colony of mice and it helps to protect them from all but the most determined predator foreign Ty is a formidable creature armed with powerful claws for digging and a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth the flicking tongue can detect a hint of mouse in the air [Applause] foreign s cold-blooded reptiles manage very well In the Heat of the day a termite Mound makes a convenient Lookout post for a bearded dragon with over 50 species of termites living in the red Center the Echidna or spiny anteater is spoiled for choice the Echidna can easily break through the termite's defenses using its strong front claws its long tongue must be one of the Miracles of the natural world it's coated with very sticky saliva and can probe every nook and cranny the termite sung the alarm the echidnas excavations have left the termites vulnerable the workers waste no time in trying to contain the damage by building up their tunnels again they must hurry for ants are on the warpath the soldier termites put up a spirited defense using their sharp jaws and also squirting the ants with a chemical secretion the ants arrive in ever increasing numbers and attack the defenseless workers overpowering them and eventually killing them with formic acid although the defeat seems total it will have little impact on a termite Colony tens of thousands strong the ants work fast killing as many termites as possible the dead are dragged off and stacked in the shade to keep them fresh in the aftermath of the battle they'll be transported back to the ants nest chamber spinfx manages to grow on the poorest soil but when it's slightly richer scrubby Woodlands develop these are dominated by Hardy trees of The Acacia family the same family of trees is found on the Savannahs of Africa though there they are armed with sharp thorns in Australia Evolution has taken a different turn the acacias protect themselves against herbivores by having foliage containing chemicals which are difficult to digest malga is the commonest tree in this Woodland but in spite of its defenses it's still prone to attack by various bugs it is developed an alliance with ants they like nectar but because of the uncertain climate flowering can be infrequent so the amalga produces a year-round supply of nectar from Little glands on the twigs a reward for the ants Pest Control efforts the answer faced with a problem how to store this Sweet Sticky substance the answer lies deep underground on the roof of the nest chamber the nectar is carefully given to another worker and with each successive load it starts to swell foreign gradually gets bigger and bigger [Music] soon it becomes too fat to move a living Honeypot clinging to the ceiling the engorged Honeypot ants are called repletes they hang around for months in suspended animation transforming The Nest chamber into an Aladdin's Cave of sweetness [Music] eventually they will regurgitate the nectar for other workers to feed the developing larvae but the Tranquility of the scene may be broken by an Aboriginal digging stick searching for these natural Delicacies for those who know where to look the mulga is full of other Treasures too there can be few more Curious sights in the mulga's club of central Australia than this Western Bower bird he has spent much of the Year building his Bower of vertical Twigs cemented into place with saliva to make it even more impressive he has collected ornaments and little white bones which he places at the entrance to his Bower this performance is designed to attract a mate or if possible a succession of mates this female is hard to please very few displays end in copulation compared to the spin effects the mulga is a rich habitat just as termites dominate the spin effects so ants dominate the mulga one of the most aggressive species is the meat ant it's aptly named and Scouts are quick to discover any corpse they relay chemical messages back to other members of The Colony hordes of workers quickly converge and get to work their powerful jaws can even cut through the delicate bones of small animals within an hour or so this Crimson chat will be completely dismembered and little joints of meat will be carried back to the ants nest to feed the larvae soon the patrols will find another victim and the grizzly process will Begin Again armed with such strong Jaws meat ants have few enemies other species of ants are not so lucky [Music] the thorny Devil's spines give this bizarre lizard some protection against predators particularly snakes it feeds only on Tiny sugar ants and once it is found a trail it can devour up to three thousand at a sitting each species of anterior has a characteristic entrance to its nest mulga ants expend a huge amount of energy building elaborate vars-shaped structures but for what purpose it has been said of rain here that its only predictable feature is unpredictability long years of crippling droughts are interspersed with a few wetter ones foreign but it also brings problems because much of the land is very flat it floods quickly the mulga ants elaborate Nest entrance reinforced with Dead Leaves stands up well to the weather thank you [Applause] [Music] for a few hours Dusty creek beds become tolerance and the parched landscape is rapidly transformed the malga ants have made their preparations thoroughly this is their flood defense to keep the chambers dry as the rain soaks into the rotting wood it displaces termites after spending long dry months underground a desert frog emerges hungry it's appetite for termites is insatiable many reptiles can survive long periods without access to water but they drink when the opportunity arises everything about the Thorny Devil is peculiar and getting a drink is no exception all it has to do is sit in a puddle and let the surface of its skin do the work moisture is drawn by capillary action along grooves between its prickles and scales and then channeled into its mouth for a few hours after the storm water Cascades off the ranges then all too quickly the desert starts to dry up again as the sand dries out bilby's emerge from their burrow into a world of Promise their ears alert to Danger their hearing is so acute that they can detect even the quiet rustling of termites in their underground galleries that sensitive nose can pick up the subtle Aroma of underground fungi as well as any truffle Hound bilby's used to be very numerous Aboriginal people caught them in their boroughs because they were good Bush Tucker the tales were also used as decorations bilby's are prodigious diggers and get respite from the daytime heat underground Like Other Desert inhabitants [Music] this is no place for arachnophobes [Music] after rain the female barking spider takes advantage of The Damp soil to excavate her burrow she stabilizes the entrance with strands of silk meanwhile the male is preparing for courtship in an unusual way first he deposits a tiny drop of sperm on a specially made web which he moves to his front palps next to his poison fangs then he sucks up the sperm into the palps rather like loading a water pistol thus armed he is ready to approach the female courtship is a risky business he could easily end up as a meal finally she allows him to insert his pulps and deliver the sperm into her genital opening then with luck he will make good his escape and perhaps mate with another female but even for giant spiders life in the desert is unpredictable the malgara gets a bite on the nose a price worth paying for a juicy meal during the Australian winter temperatures can drop to freezing after dark but as the nights get warmer Hunters of all shapes and sizes become more active [Music] a scorpion's Venom paralyzes its victim within seconds using its massive pincers it delicately manipulates its prey so the much smaller Jaws can get to work a clutch of pygmy goannas struggle out to start a new life in the desert spring assistant if the rain has been prolonged seeds of the ephemeral plants germinate and in a couple of weeks they transform the desert landscape these everlastings mostly belong to the daisy family the papery petals are an adaptation to Desert life good timing is another picking the time when the desert conditions are most benign thank you [Music] with this sudden glut insects flourish in turn providing enough food for the smaller predatory marsupials to start their breeding [Music] foreign [Applause] climate desert plants tend to produce large quantities of seed it may lie dormant for years waiting for the right conditions for germination year by year burnable material accumulates just waiting for a flash of lightning an Aboriginal fire stick or even a match for 20 000 years Aboriginal people used fire for hunting to drive animals out of cover countless fires have had a profound effect on the vegetation plants like spin effects thrive on it while other more sensitive species dire [Applause] the fire front moves rapidly though some animals may be caught in the Flames many have their own special ways of avoiding The Inferno thank you foreign heat there are survivors Aboriginal people used the fire stick to change the environment almost farming with fire the native Wildlife has had tens of thousands of years to adjust to this regime [Music] but today the animals of the Burning Heart face a new threat and now time is not on their side [Music] the early Pioneers brought camels to the red Center of Australia they were used by the Explorer Stewart when he trekked northwards through the sand dunes in 1862 becoming the first to actually cross the continent thirst claimed the lives of many of the early travelers to the interior of Australia [Music] [Applause] foreign with the Advent of Motor Vehicles in the 1920s the camels became redundant and many were turned loose they bred rapidly and today there are more camels here than on the Arabian peninsula the first camels carried seeds on their coats from India camel dogs have joined the long list of alien plants that have colonized the center camels sheep and rabbits have had a major impact on the vegetation eating out the more palatable plants and putting pressure on the native animals now there are only a few places left where the vegetation is unaltered Out Of Reach running through the plains of the ranges the skeletal remains of a mountain chain that was once as big as the rock is this rugged terrain still holds surprises for both animals and plants have found Refuge here foreign [Music] families of rock wallabies cling onto the walls of cliffs and canyons [Music] [Music] [Music] rain water seeps down through the Rock and in a few places collects in Hollows [Music] in times past these precious pools of water could mean the difference between life and death [Music] a supply of permanent water allows plant and animal life to flourish there are echoes here of an ancient past when the climate of the center was much wetter and tropical rainforests flourished there are cycads primitive plants dating from before the age of the dinosaurs and Groves of tall cabbage Palms Euros relish the succulent leaves and fruit of figs which also managed to survive here in the damper conditions oblivious to climatic changes at least 20 species of land snails survivors of the rainforest munch on Into Obscurity thank you Rock wallabies have few natural Predators apart from wedge-tailed Eagles and large carpet pythons a big snake might catch three or four Rock wallabies a year not enough to harm the colony foreign s like wallabies opted to nurture just one Offspring in a pouch a sensible strategy in a land where famine and drought were the biggest killers predation did not exert a significant influence but the arrival of foxes introduced from Europe had a devastating effect in the desert the problem was compounded by an even greater Menace cats may have reached Australia from shipwrecks as early as the 1600s their wild ancestors roamed the deserts of North Africa now cats are equally at home here they can get by on very little water and will kill anything from small lizards and insects to animals their own size their effect on the native animals of the Arid interior has been disastrous while foxes can be controlled by poison baiting cats are fussy feeders and pose a much more difficult problem to eliminate foreign [Applause] ists in Western Australia have developed the best method so far they use electronic squeakers to attract cats to the traps but it's a laborious and expensive process it's all part of the most ambitious reintroduction scheme yet undertaken on the West Coast of Australia the vast Peron Peninsula has been fenced off and completely cleared of all domestic stock and foxes rare marsupials are being bred up ready for reintroduction but success or failure of this experiment will depend on completely removing the cats [Applause] one part of the scheme has already been a great success salutation Island lies off the coast of the Perron peninsula it's now dotted with strange heaps of sticks the nests of an unusual rodent these stick Nest rats originally came from another predator-free Island where they still survive each family builds a communal nest of sticks which it defends against Intruders although the remains of these nests can still be found in the central Australian ranges the rats which built them haven't been seen there for over 50 years [Applause] islands around the coast of Australia play a key role in the future of endangered native animals in recent geological history sea levels have risen by several hundred meters desert animals have become marooned and in the absence of cats and foxes they've continued to thrive here on Barrow Island 600 kilometers north of the Perron Peninsula the wildlife is confronted with a different aspect of Modern Life Barrow Island lies above massive oil Reserves but thanks to a sympathetic policy native wildlife and the oilmen are able to live side by side foreign ties Patrol the dirt roads which crisscross the island looking for the occasional casualty [Applause] the lizard wipes the carcass on the road brushing its fur down to make swallowing easier the evening brings some respite from the Heat and while the oil men relax ghosts from a not so distant past emerge the spectacled hair wallaby a relative of the Mala thrives here on Barrow Island on the mainland its population is dwindling a golden Bandicoot boldly steals food from a booty perhaps it's not so surprising cats and foxes have destroyed the entire population of booties on the mainland they're not adapted to cope with modern predators but even native animals have been quick to recognize new sources of food golden bandicoots catch insects attracted to the lights of the sleeping quarters on Barrel Island these rare marsupials are safe from the Fate which has befallen so many species on the mainland despite the disastrous effects of introduced Predators some do still manage to survive in the red Center the tanami desert is spin effects country and native animals have managed to survive here longest protected from the intrusion of European stock by the Spin effects's needlepoint spines foreign but it still hangs on here in the desert two males Spar for access to a receptive female a youngster from this Union will face an uncertain future in this inhospitable landscape but what of the Mala this once common animal declined until only two small populations remained in the tanami then disaster struck in 1987 a single Fox wiped out one Colony completely four years later a massive Bushfire raged through the other if it had not been for animals in captivity the milder dreaming might have faded to a distant memory with the help of the local wild Peri Aboriginal people the Mala was reintroduced to the tanami but cats have thwarted all attempts to re-establish them in the wild the malas here are still vulnerable so for their own safety they must remain in an enclosure [Applause] foreign ERS can be broken by wandering camels putting the marlers at risk from cats and foxes which still prowl on the outside with a lot of help the Mala lives on the tenuous link to the dream time still holds but none of the Mala has joined eight other species which have vanished from Australia's Burning Heart though they still survive in odd corners on islands and in captivity perhaps in the distant future they can be returned for nine more species it's already too late they have gone forever their dreams have faded [Music] no Trace remains [Music]

Channel: Our World

Views: 88,216

Keywords: wildlife, wildlife documentary, natural history, earth, environment, documentary, documentaries, animals, nature, animal documentary, full documentary, nature documentary, planet earth, our world, wild animals, global warming, climate change, natural habitats, our planet

Id: R6N1ID8qHU8

Length: 48min 42sec (2922 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2022