The Secret Life of Trees /Amazing Nature Documentary/ High-Quality /Unusual animals, birds, plants

age old trees enhance and beautify our landscape their stately forms impressing and charming us weather has part of an avenue along a road or standing alone in some meadow or field beyond that these great specimen trees are islands of biodiversity inhabited by a host of different living things from their very roots to the tops of their crowns and what they have to offer is not merely a home but also a place to feed or take a rest bird's nest in boughs branches and tree holes while finding food beneath the bark and within the foliage there are also many rare insects that could not exist without ancient trees like the hermit beetle stag beetle or great Capricorn beetle some of these animals are retiring and only rarely seen while others are especially able to traumas but whether they are small or large pretty or ugly all need trees whose lives began decades or centuries ago if they are to survive [Music] the secret life of trees a tree loaded down with snow seems deep in sleep and few if any of the noises of nature are present to disturb the overriding mood of winter but the pervading stillness is truly the calm before the storm [Music] not much time we'll need to pass before all is again in birdsong and the endless comings and goings of nature take hold once more when the first rays of the springtime Sun can summon the strength to milky snows it is time for one of nature's most beautiful spectacles the dance of the flowers [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] only in early spring can such a wealth of flowers adorned the forest floor for only then can light pass unhindered to the ground among the plants taking full advantage of this short period when their branches can do little to block the warmth and illumination our anemone fume word and seven times as it ever must this flowery carpet exploding with color yields as nourishing juices from tree roots pass up to every branch and twig and unhindered development of the leaves can now take place [Music] you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if one explosion is curbed by the appearance of foliage another the mass emergence of leaf eaters is set off by it thousands of tiny jaws do their best to chew into those juicy disks of green slowly but surely hundreds of tons of life-sustaining green matter pass into ever hungry insect larvae there are some caterpillars capable of eating several thousand times their own weight in leaves [Music] the caterpillars do not have it all their own way since their presence draws in hordes of professional killers birds do what they can to ensure the trees are not stripped naked rearing their nestlings to coincide with the greatest abundance of insect larvae ideal capsules of protein for a fast-growing young bird the smaller the bird the more rapid its digestion so a family of young mouths to feed will only be satisfied if several hundred caterpillars can be brought in each day a pile of fresh woodchips is accumulating beneath an old oak a male great spotted woodpecker is digging out the hole on whose raw wood his mate should soon be laying six snow-white eggs woodpeckers will seek out trees already colonized by parasitic fungi since the partly rotted wood can be cut through more easily alas it is trees in this category that human beings are most likely to remove even though they are more valuable to many animals and they're healthier counterparts the woodpecker is distracted from his work by the sound of another male reverberating through the trees he will not tolerate a rival within his territory and so must check if some invisible boundary has been crossed the female flies to the hole she takes a close look at the excavation work as its to check on the progress with building as the new home her level of satisfaction with the work may be hard to gauge but anyway she gets down to work herself and that can come as no surprise since the full digging out of a tree hole can take a pair of woodpeckers up to three weeks lines of fruit trees along roads were a commonplace until recently but are now becoming rare they enhance the landscape beautifully and also valuable stopovers for pollen gathering honeybees it's only a matter of time before feathered tenants take up residence in these traditional variety apple trees that are old and full of holes the stumps of felled trees also have their inhabitants and these are by no means common place either in mid-may of female stag beetle leaves what has so far been her home under what remains of a huge old oak she has passed for years as a grub living in and off rotting wood male stag beetles have huge antler like jaws hence the name [Music] sweet sap losses from a small wound in a tree trunk and the place attracts a wide variety of insects flies hands and different kinds of beetle all take advantage of the energy drink a huge male stag beetle is not going to pass up the opportunity to have a drink and he has no intention of sharing the prize with others if a fearsome Hornet has no chance of gaining access to the juice then what chance does a delicate butterfly have [Music] even incoming female stag beetles prove unwelcome guests as the aggressive male expels one after another smaller males likewise have no chance in any confrontation with a giant possessor of the sugary leek but in the end there are just too many would-be usurpers to allow him to keep it all to himself as evening comes on it is time for a true Clash of the Titans a suitable female has turned up at last and the victorious male has been awaiting the arrival when she tries to escape she finds large jaws blocking her path and the final result must be a hand in one of jeans but even at such an intimate moment there is a rival seeking to muscle in and the female takes advantage of the commotion to make good her escape the male is simply too heavy and too slow to catch her now when mating has occurred a female will seek out a suitable place to lay her eggs it will come as no surprise if the self-same stump she called home is chosen once again it was good enough for her and the eggs are too precious to risk being just 30 or so in number [Music] despite having excavated a whole new hole the woodpeckers have finally opted for their tried and tested nest in an older tree and by early June the young a grown enough to want to stick their heads out into the world this is not just a matter of fresh air for the mouth that protrudes most gets fed most there is an abundance of caterpillars on the leaves for the adults to take so I expend all that effort in time on digging out Barbie from the wood once they emerge into the world the young can expect just a few more days of parental feeding after that they're all married so what fate befell that new woodpecker hole in the oak there's a fly the Amelio resident surely not these days real estate of this quality literally doesn't grow on trees Starling showed an interest straightaway and their nestlings hatched out successfully just a couple of weeks later instinct seems to compel woodpecker couples to make a new hole virtually every season and these are exceptionally precious for those species unable to do the job themselves while less known than their tree surgeon role the work of woodpeckers as builders of homes for other birds would seem to be as lief as significant [Music] ironically the chart is of a tree living to a ripe old age are only high beyond the limits of a forest old specimens often persist in the middle of fields or long roads [Music] and as it happens they are lived in by some really unusual animals requiring trees of huge girth some age-old Oaks display mysterious reliefs these have been carved out of the Living wood but only within trunks lit by the Rays of the Sun for the greater part of the day this is what remains after larvae of the huge Capricorn beetle have had their fill these grubs can reach 12 centimeters in length they carve out tunnels in the exceptionally hard wood of Oaks even ever periods of five years the galleries formed in this way maybe 2 centimeters in diameter and around a metre long [Music] late May or early June bring the emergence of the adult Capricorn beetles males await females appearing on trunks and would tend to proceed without much ado to the perpetuation of their species but since all are after the same thing some duels between rivals are inevitable [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] having sent a competitor packing a victor returns to his female and the latter allowing her lover onto her back proceeded to lay eggs and cracks in the bark the numbers may reach 300 after two weeks miniature grubs hatch out and begin to chew out a tunnel into the hard bark the Capricorn beetle is one of Europe's largest females reach lengths of 18 centimeters if we include their antennae the existence of this huge insect in Poland is entirely linked with the fate of the country's native Oaks [Music] only in their decaying timber can larvae develop and indeed the capricorn confines its attentions to old Oaks unconsciously showing a clear preference for trees declared monuments of nature while large numbers of beetle grubs chewing their corridors through wood may eventually bring low even the largest tree these insects are in fact the great rarity and so are protected just like the majestic oaks in which they live the root mass of a wind thrown tree may look rather lifeless but closer examination reveals a small spherical nest neatly located amid the clumps of sandy soil raised off the ground the painstakingly woven ball contains young wrens even adults weighed no more than 10 grams which quoits to half of a stag beetle grub in turn a wrens wingspan at 15 centimeters is less than the spread of a male Capricorn beetles antennae but then this tiny bird doesn't even consider taking on the insect giants contenting itself mainly with small moths and spiders that are most to its taste a spherical nest has a great deal going for it nestling surrounded by soft vegetation augmented by doubt and hair won't freeze should nights become cooler while this effective concealment of the nest from predators above in this way fallen trees can become home not only to insects living in the Deadwood but also to tiny birds between two old trees a family of foxes has dug out a den that has served as their home for some years now the young foxes spend the entire day below ground and so are more than ready for a critical surface to stretch their legs as evening arrives scratching is also far easier here than in the confined spaces below the young seek out scraps of the food their mother brought in the previous day a Fox's menu is quite varied there is animal food obviously small rodents birds eggs invertebrates and even reptiles and fish [Music] but then there are the fruity supplements like raspberries blackberries and blue birds just a small piece of yesterday's feast is actually left over and one lucky individual gets it the other cubs search hard but come up with nothing but green oak leaves to chew on be they hungry or sated these young foxes are always ready for some carefree play [Music] [Music] the avenue of fruit trees so fully and blossomed back in the spring has long since been covered in foliage but what looks like an empty hole hides unusual residents a family of colorful exotic looking birds resides in the old Appletree Cuckoo's Nest in late spring when insects are not in short supply in their surroundings from early mornings the parent birds have frequented a nearby meadow in search of food crazily gaudy as that gorgeous plumage may seem it blends in very well with drying grass leaving a feeding Hoopoe quite hard to make out that down curved beak is touch sensitive I can readily find insects and other invertebrates in the soft soil [Music] [Music] [Music] when the adults have satisfied their own mourning pangs of hunger they can set about supplying the nest with larvae pulled from the ground such prize fare has brought back to the nest every 10 or 15 minutes by one parent or the other a young bird becoming over assertive in its demands for food needs a touch of discipline other birds eggs a rather one-off component of his diet but if the search for food revealed the presence of a nest well who could pass up such an occasion the younger brought the eggs one by one until all have been removed on this occasion it is the clutch of a grey wagtail that has caught the eye of who poos at times that chicks can seem sated leaving the adults to hang around until such time as another egg could be consumed it is typical for the young bird peeping out from the hole to give way to a sibling having once eaten its fill however the departure of an adult for the nest coincides with the appearance of two weeks evidently still in need of feeding some tree holes in which hookahs reside are actually by rather busy roads but this does not deter these so very exotic birds from striving to rear their young [Music] [Music] after just three weeks of such calorific fare the young decide to leave the comfortable confines of home an old lime tree with a hole full of rotted humors is home to the unassuming and extremely rare hermit beetle this species colonizes oaks willows alders and as here lime trees rotten wood already digested by funky is a far from rich food for lobby hence a period of development for the grub that extends to four years adults tend to stay close to their place of emergence only occasionally flying off and then for just short distances once this species was regarded as typical for primeval forests since trees with holes were present in abundance there and only separated by short distances but today the hermit beetles of Poland can be found not only in forests but also in the trees long ago planted by roads that is why the cutting of even a short stretch of Avenue to have a very negative long-term impact on the population of the species when old trees with holes are lacking birds try and cope by founding nests in some unusual places [Music] the wryneck is a far from typical woodpecker differing from its relatives in both habits and appearance the bird's beak is too delicate for digging out holes and trees so a wry neck will make use of those made by some other kinds of woodpecker like most birds this one cares about nest hygiene and so flies off repeatedly with droppings somehow packaged for ease of disposal the diet is also not like that of most woodpeckers in that the pupae of ants are eaten as well as some adult ants needless to say the tongue and throat of a wryneck are not affected by formic acid and do not seem to feel ant bites but so dependent on ants is this bird that it must winter away if from Poland as the only one of our woodpeckers to do so like many other hand heating animals a reineck possesses an exceptionally long tongue this is also true of young birds which look very similar to their parents [Music] the adults show clear signs of fear as they feed well-grown nestlings demanding food with a noisy aggression following each feeding the young are adept at mopping up any ant escapees the Crown's of old trees are home to birds soon only rarely black storks differ from their white cousins in still tending to avoid people constructing their nests far from human settlement they are also less noisy than white storks seemingly trying at all cost not to make their presence felt the building of a nest requires a tree with thick well spread branches able to bear the weight trees like that are getting harder to find so there is no doubt that this limits the occurrence of the black stork young birds spent around two months in the nest and as this period comes to an end they willingly wander from one surrounding power to another exercising their wing muscles in the process the wanderings also help with balance practice some 2,000 pairs of black storks are spread out across pond this is not to many when set against the number of white storks perhaps fifty thousand pairs the black stork is more willing than the white to get its feet wet hunting in rivers streams or ponds the black storks menu is 80 percent fish the remaining 20 percent takes the form of crustaceans insects amphibians and reptiles typically adults fly in with food just a couple of times a day its regurgitating what they've been able to find directly onto the floor of the nest feeding is not a prolonged affair so the young storks soon returned their perambulations [Music] old trees are indeed home to many organisms but those growing in avenues serve the further key function of corridor linking separated ecosystems a great many species move from one of these stepping stones to the next ensuring that populations remain linked and have a better chance of survival destruction of these avenues is as harmful to Wanderers as it is to more permanent residents we must therefore take care to ensure that age-old trees remain in situ where they continue to offer shelter and food to the new generation of animals both wayside avenues and individual trees growing in a farmed landscape can be granted protection and it is vital to remember that ancient trees felled in a matter of hours will only be replaced after several human lifespans [Music] you

Channel: Artur Homan

Views: 44,934

Rating: 4.9370079 out of 5

Keywords: Wildlife (Film Subject), Time lapse, Nature Documentary (TV Genre), Nature (TV Genre), BBC, National Geographic Channel (TV Station), david attenborough, National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Natural World, Wildlife, wolf, wolves, birdwatching, Nat Geo Wild HD, Yosemite, Redwood, bird watching, Fascinating Nature, Canada, Grand Teton, Timelapse photography, Kingdom of Plants, Life Story, Planet Earth, 4k, ultra hd, The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben, Wohlleben, NG

Id: k9fBEc-dRYI

Length: 35min 13sec (2113 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Chad-FromHR]

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