Top 5 Animal Adaptations | BBC Earth

[Music] to survive here you have to be prepared to die here but the Sun can return as quickly as the storm arrived and a rise of just a few degrees is enough to spark a Thor even underground [Music] [Music] frozen solid a mountain stone wetter it has the most extraordinary survival technique of all the ability to come back from the dead [Music] only in a specialized filming chamber can we capture its extraordinary talent the waiter has developed special proteins which prevent ice crystals from forming inside its cells a remarkable trick for a creature whose ancestors once lived in prehistoric warm wet forests but when New Zealand's mountains grew up beneath them around five million years ago they were forced to come up with this incredible ability to survive near lethal temperatures defrosting uses up a lot of energy so mountain snow berries are a welcome sight the weather needs to stock up while it can the next Antarctic storm could be the return of winter [Music] it can tolerate over 80% of its body freezing solid and can do so day in and day out for weeks at a time [Music] now where else who New Zealand does life go to such extremes to survive oh no you can you can definitely smell it Joe I genuinely feel like I'm gonna vomit death that's disgusting no no no no right it's enough of that south africa can be one of the harshest environments on the planet with temperatures soaring during the day and sometimes plummeting at night but the animals that live here have evolved to withstand these elements and over millions of years come up with some weird and wonderful ways in which to survive in the savannas the savanna is the largest biome in South Africa covering over one-third of the entire country it is a mixture of shrubs and trees but is dominated by grassland and it's these long grasses that other hunting grounds for one of South Africa's most peculiar creatures the secretary bird endemic to sub-saharan Africa and unmistakable in appearance these large birds are in fact related to Raptors but unlike other species in the family secretary birds spend most of their time on the ground walking around in search of prey nesting pairs will make for life and will be seen stalking together when raising chicks when hunting they use their exceptionally long legs to strike their prey delivering a fatal blow with a single kick their kicks are indeed that powerful they are the equivalent to five times its own body weight and the strike is delivered in 15 milliseconds that's one-tenth of a blink of an eye making the secretary bird one of the most remarkable creatures that live on the savannas but here in South Africa even familiar animals have unusual features now the leopard tortoise is the only member of the tortoise family that doesn't have a scoot on the top of its neck scoops are the keratin plates which make up ER tortoises shell tortoise species around the world are terrestrial and will only head to water to drink but due to the lack of this upper scoot the leopard tortoise has the ability to raise its head I will often be seen taking a dip during the heat of the day South Africa is known for its megafauna but as night begins to fall a host of other species come to life including those that live on the forest floor the African giant millipede is the largest millipede species in the world they can grow up to around 12 inches long and live between five to seven years in the wild and they have around three to four hundred legs with four per body segment and they don't breathe through lungs like you and I instead they have these tiny pore like structures located along the length of their body known as sphericals which they breathe through and there are nocturnal species and we've seen quite a few just exploring the environment of foraging so we're gonna let this one go now millipedes are amongst the most diverse group of arthropods in the world being one of the earliest animals to walk on land as a result of having poor eyesight they communicate through touch they navigate their environment by feeling with their legs and then 10i and are able to taste their surroundings with their bodies as decomposes they feed on Deborah's collected on the ground recycling dead waste which becomes new soil making them vital for the Savannah ecosystem the open grasslands of Africa are one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth they support millions of species which are all intrinsically connected but they are also amongst some of the fastest changing and unpredictable African environments parts of large-scale African savannah have disappeared by 75% in the last 50 years areas which are vital for the species which live there one animal has suffered greatly across the continent due to extreme habitat loss but in South Africa their population is increasing the giraffe one of the most distinctive species across the continent and also the tallest mammal to walk our planet the easiest way to tell the difference between a male and a female is the horns on top of their head called the ossicones now a female will have Tufts of hair on top whereas the males will be completely bald and that's all due to fighting known for their remarkable biology they have evolved some peculiar adaptations which allow them to graze without competition their huge long tongues are pigmented a colored dark gluey color which protects them from the Sun and this enables them to eat high in the treetops all day long not only are they able to withstand the scorching Sun whilst they eat but their skin is truly extraordinary it was long wondered why giraffes had their spectacular patterns but we'd seen their striking patches may help them stay cool it was found that underneath each darkened patch they had sweat glands but the size of these glands were significantly larger suggesting that indeed their skin plays a vital part in them regulating their body temperature and therefore surviving giraffes are capable of travelling more than 10 miles a day as they browse acacia trees but when the giraffe begins to feed the acacia tree releases powerful chemicals to deter its predator and as it does it sends signals down through its root Network warning the surrounding trees but as the giraffe eats it spreads seeds and can even pollinate the acacia scours in this evolutionary arms race every single living thing is connected as they evolved as one over of years and without the giraffe the open plains would look very different [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] to help her in her quest she's equipped with three superpowers first an amazing approach to getting about Portia is a jumping spider able to leap up to 50 times our own body length nowhere seems beyond her reach next her second superpower supervised sight essential if she's to distinguish her prey in all this cutter because her prey doesn't stray Portia is a spider eating spider this raises a few problems her lunch is three times her size packed with venom and surrounded by a sticky trap mission impossible not at all because of her third superpower Porter is a genius she can map her world in three dimensions and formulate a plan of attack [Music] she can have an idea [Music] the web builder is blind it won't have a clue that she's coming [Music] right on target and safely behind those fangs but a mind as active as Portia's can always do with more brain food here there's no anchor point for the abseil but Porsche has another idea instead of going to the spider [Music] she will bring the spider to her she plucks the strands to imitate struggling prey drawing the spider in to its death [Music] a mudskipper a fish that spends most of its life out of the sea it can walk on land and breathe air its life is very different from that of most fish a fish out of water maybe but they thrive here in Japan so what's made this upheaval worthwhile the answer lies in the mud as the tide retreats it exposes mud flaps sunlight hits the rich silt and tiny plants and animals flourish they're all food for a mudskipper but life on land is not without problems it's hard work to find a mate jumping high above the mud will get you noticed [Music] with eyes perched on the top of their heads the mudskippers keep a lookout for both friend and foe and males fight those who intrude on their territory [Applause] they must also take care and not to dry out in the Sun rolling in the Oilers keeps the skin cool and moist for this smaller species a better option is to retreat underground so he digs himself a tunnel down into the mud [Music] [Music] his heap of spoil is an indication of the extent of his excavations with the tide flooding the tunnel twice a day maintenance is a real burden [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 2,185,172

Keywords: Top 5 Animal Adaptations, top 5 bbc earth, mudskippers the fish that walk on land, why flamingoes are pink, bbc earth, insect returns from the dead, why do giraffes have blue tongues, why flamingos are pink, why are flamingos pink, spider with three superpowers, bbc, bbcearth, animal videos, bbc wildlife documentary 2019, nature documentary 2019 bbc, nature documentary 2019 hd, wildlife documentary 2019, bbc documentary

Id: ZT8YswmQuAg

Length: 19min 18sec (1158 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020