(THEME MUSIC BEGINS)
BENEDICT: Enter a world just beyond your perception.
A world of extraordinary animals,
with hidden powers, and super senses.
If you think you know nature...
think again.
(THEME MUSIC ENDS)
BENEDICT: It's the punch you don't see coming...
that hits the hardest.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(MUSIC ENDS)
BENEDICT: Coral reefs are swimming with so many predators.
Sometimes, it pays to hide in plain sight.
Blending into the background comes naturally
to a stonefish.
Good looks...
not so much.
No matter,
when things get ugly on a coral reef,
skill beats beauty every time,
and the deceptive stonefish
has many hidden talents.
Thirteen spines on its dorsal fin,
loaded with the most deadly venom of any fish,
protect it from attack.
But still,
it chooses to hide.
Burying itself into the sand, in a disappearing act so effective,
it's scary.
The stonefish is almost impossible to spot,
and to avoid.
One of the fastest moves in the animal kingdom,
it creates an inescapable suction field,
gone
in 16 milliseconds.
Whether predator or prey,
when life hangs in the balance,
only the most potent superpowers will save the day.
(ETHEREAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(MUSIC ENDS)
BENEDICT: The hothouse conditions of the Costa Rican rainforest,
fuel an intense evolutionary arms race
between hunter
and hunted.
As prey get better at escaping,
predators get ever more deadly.
Motmots have a taste for reptiles.
These visual hunters
scan for prey with acute vision,
highly attuned to movement.
So this anole lizard better tread carefully.
Whenever she freezes,
the motmot can't see her,
but she can see him.
Her sight has special properties, too.
Side-oriented eyes give almost a 360 degree surveillance,
and they're sensitive to the ultraviolet spectrum,
intensifying the contrast and color
of the motmot's plumage.
But she can't stand still forever.
She needs to eat, too.
So when the motmot looks away,
the lizard moves
just a little.
Nothing to see here.
It's like they're playing red light, green light,
only this is no game.
One wrong step...
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
...could be fatal.
As the motmot closes in, the lizard moves just out of range.
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
BENEDICT: But now, there's nowhere left to run.
(MUSIC ENDS)
The motmot is a sit-and-wait predator.
Surely, there's only so long that a lizard can stay underwater.
But this is clearly no ordinary lizard.
She has an unbelievable escape strategy
so recently discovered,
that it's never been filmed before now.
When submerged,
tiny bubbles trapped between water-repellent scales
join up
and rise towards her head.
A secret scuba system,
allowing her to breathe
underwater.
This ingenious lizard can stay submerged
for over 18 minutes.
Long enough for even the most patient motmot
to concede defeat.
And for the little lizard
to emerge victorious.
Most hunts aren't successful.
Even the most superpowered predators struggle to make a catch.
Hyper carnivores have a diet of 70% meat.
This one is the largest to walk the Earth.
(POLAR BEAR GROWLS)
BENEDICT: And one of the very few animals known to actively hunt humans.
(GROWLS)
BENEDICT: But a polar bear's preferred prey...
is seal.
To survive a life below zero,
she must eat more than 50 a year.
But catching them is tough,
even for such a specialized seal stalker.
Orienting tail to the wind, a seal uses its sense of smell
to detect predators approaching from behind
while keeping a lookout for any attack from the front.
UV intensifying eyesight
helps see through the bear's snow white disguise,
and a smart seal always keeps an emergency exit close by.
Out here, it takes more than brute strength to make a kill.
With fewer than two seals every square mile,
tracking them down
is a challenge.
And now there's less sea ice due to climate change.
Her search for food is even harder.
Thankfully, she has an extraordinary super-sense on her side.
Her sense of smell,
the most powerful nose in the animal kingdom.
She can even sniff out a seal under the ice.
From over a mile away, she picks up a scent carried on the wind.
Locked onto her target,
approaching from downwind,
she closes in.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
-(MUSIC ENDS) -(POLAR BEAR GROWLS)
BENEDICT: Securing enough food just to stay alive is hard enough.
(CUBS YELP)
BENEDICT: Providing for a growing family, even harder.
Only a third of cubs reach their second year.
Raising the next generation of hunters
can be a relentless pursuit,
especially in extreme environments.
The eat-or-be-eaten world
of the Arizona desert.
(ROADRUNNER SQUAWKS)
BENEDICT: This roadrunner dad
is run ragged, providing food for three ravenous chicks.
(CHIRPING)
BENEDICT: One meal delivered, and he's on to the next.
Racing around at 25 miles an hour,
hunting pretty much anything he can get his beak on.
But each time Dad leaves,
-the nest is exposed. -(CHICKS CHIRPING)
BENEDICT: Seventy percent of chicks get taken by predators.
(RATTLES)
A hognose snake detects scent molecules on each tip of its forked tongue...
sensing in stereo to determine the exact direction of its prey.
(CHIRPING)
(SQUAWKING)
BENEDICT: Another meal secured, Dad heads home...
(BRAKES SCREECHING)
...just in time.
With lightning reactions,
and a sharp two-inch beak...
(HISSES)
...roadrunners are known as "snake killers" for good reason.
Dad just turned danger
into dinner.
But now, this snake doesn't smell so appetizing.
Roadrunners aren't picky eaters,
but when it comes to rotten flesh,
it's a pass.
At least his chicks are safe.
(FLIES BUZZING)
BENEDICT: Or are they?
A zombie resurrection,
or just playing dead to save his skin?
The hognose snake can even emit a smell like decomposing carrion,
faking his own death,
so he can live to die another day.
Some defense strategies are so extraordinary,
they're phenomenal.
(SCREECHING)
BENEDICT: A murmuration of starlings,
moving as one mesmerizing super organism.
(SCREECHING)
BENEDICT: Exactly how and why they make these mind-blowing patterns in the sky
has remained a mystery.
But recent discoveries reveal that the motivation behind such beauty,
is destruction.
Local peregrine falcons know that during the European winter,
starlings flock in their millions.
And in the open countryside, they're vulnerable to attack.
So, at dusk,
they gather for safety in numbers.
Flocking like this, helps them hide in the crowd,
but it makes a tempting target.
(SCREECHES)
BENEDICT: Flying low to avoid detection,
the Peregrine makes its approach.
Then it climbs
high above the flock,
turns
and dives.
With near aerodynamic perfection, it plummets at 250 miles an hour...
(SCREECHING)
...making it the fastest animal on the planet.
Starlings barely reach 50 miles an hour,
but they have a more subtle secret weapon.
A single magical number,
each bird tracks its six closest neighbors.
Precision matching distance and speed.
As this rule of six multiplies across the flock,
it creates a dazzling display.
Each twist and turn ripples through the formation
at 65 feet per second.
(SCREECHING)
BENEDICT: Confusing to the eye, hard to predict,
almost impossible to penetrate.
The falcon struggles to pick off an individual.
In horizontal flight, its speed advantage is vastly diminished.
Starlings process visual cues much quicker than humans
and counter a peregrine's agility
with their own aerobatics.
And thanks to incredible synchronicity,
even the planet's fastest predator
is outmaneuvered.
Eighty percent of the time, the peregrine is unsuccessful.
All it can do is watch this spectacular show of strength in numbers.
(SCREECHES)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
BENEDICT: Ingenious examples of how to avoid attack
can be found hiding everywhere,
even in an English country garden.
Look a little closer,
because plants have predators, too.
A death's-head Hawkmoth's favorite food is nectar,
but her offspring emerge
as voracious tomato plant killers.
In just three weeks,
these very hungry caterpillars
grow 16 times bigger.
Now, finger length,
and armed with scissor-like mandibles,
one caterpillar can devour an entire plant.
An army of them will decimate the whole crop.
But tomato plants have an invisible defense.
Injured leaves release an airborne distress call.
Volatile chemicals that warn neighboring plants
to prepare for war.
This call to arms rallies nearby leaves to produce powerful toxins,
rendering them inedible.
And because these caterpillars only feed on plants in the tomato family,
they begin to starve.
A recent discovery reveals this tale has a sinister twist.
With nothing left to eat...
they eat
each other.
Cannibal caterpillars,
a gruesome method of pest control.
When the killer tomatoes strike back.
In nature, who's most deadly...
is all a matter of perspective.
Beneath a European Meadow
an Etruscan shrew
just waking,
but it's no slow start.
Her pulse rockets to over a thousand beats per minute.
Time to get up, get out, and get hunting.
With the fastest metabolism of any mammal,
this frenzied killer must consume six times her body weight a day,
or she'll starve.
It’s finding prey that's the trick.
Those big ears actually don't hear so well,
and with pin-sized eyes,
she's almost hunting blind.
Thankfully, another sense is superpowered.
Shrews feel their world with whiskers.
A quarter of the length of her body,
she uses them to scan her surroundings.
Her sense of touch is so acute,
the slightest vibration triggers instant attack.
25 milliseconds,
12 times faster than the blink of an eye.
And a little larva is just for starters,
as her killing spree begins.
Only the size of an almond,
she's the smallest mammal on Earth.
But not much is out of her reach.
Even a locust twice her size is fair game.
Feeding frenzy over,
it's time to retire
and recharge.
Just a quick seven-minute power nap
and this voracious little terror is at large again.
(UP-TEMPO MUSIC PLAYING)
(MUSIC FADES)
BENEDICT: Above the same European meadows,
another tiny predator is also on the hunt.
A mouse-eared bat has such sensitive hearing,
it can eavesdrop on insects from 130 feet away
to determine the direction, size, and shape of a target.
When the bat is patrolling,
any insect that moves or makes a sound...
(WINGS FLAP)
...is flirting with death.
But a conehead bush cricket has other things on his tiny mind.
On Summer evenings, the meadow is full of males,
all singing as loud as they can to attract a mate.
(CHIRPS)
BENEDICT: And this male is determined to be heard above the competition.
Bush crickets hear pretty well, too, with ears on their legs.
So he knows the bat is above,
but still, he won't be silenced,
he blasts out his song as loud as a power drill.
When the bat closes in,
rather than shut up, he cranks it up.
(CHIRPS LOUDLY)
BENEDICT: It sounds like the desire to mate could be the death
of this little bush cricket.
But an astonishing new discovery reveals his powers of attraction
also have the power to repel.
He sings so loudly,
it's painful to the bat's sensitive ears.
The bush cricket turns the bat's superpower into a weakness,
creating a 3-foot, no-fly zone all around him.
(CHIRPING CONTINUES).
BENEDICT: And as he's not the only one singing for a mate,
the whole meadow is protected by a deafening blanket of sound.
Turns out what drives bats away,
drives female coneheads wild.
The noisier, the better.
Often the best defense
is the best offense.
In the Caribbean, it helps one animal snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Nightfall,
a dangerous time to be a small fish on a big reef.
Only one inch long, this cardinal fish needs to avoid becoming next
on the lion fish menu.
But he must to catch dinner, too.
Huge light-sensitive eyes help pinpoint small prey in the dark.
Ostracods, crustaceans the size of a grain of sand
should make a manageable meal.
But he's bitten off more than he can chew.
Ostracods store a volatile cocktail of chemicals inside their bodies.
If attacked... t
the compounds mix, igniting an explosion of bioluminescence
brighter than a flashlight
and leaving such a bad taste...
that the cardinalfish spits it out unharmed.
Ostracods store enough of these chemicals
to detonate ten times in a row.
And this crustacean's escape plan is even more brilliant.
The flash is so bright,
it not only blinds...
it also betrays.
Leaving the poor cardinalfish temporarily unable to see,
but easily seen.
In the ocean,
there's always a bigger fish.
The ultimate hunter,
the most widespread predator of all...
(ORCAS SQUEAKING)
...in every corner of every ocean,
orca adapt their hunting technique
in extraordinary ways.
In arctic fjords, they stun the fish with their fins
and pick them off their school.
In the open ocean, they use combined force
to chase down blue whales, the largest animal that's ever lived.
But the most impressive orca hunters of all
are found here.
Patagonia's Peninsula Valdez is patrolled by a pod
with a hunting technique so difficult, so dangerous,
it takes years to learn how it's done.
It's the matriarchs job to pass her secrets down the generations.
The rest of the family learn from the four decades of hunting experience
of this seasoned pro.
(SQUEAKING)
BENEDICT: Every spring, sea lions come to breed on these Patagonian beaches.
-(BIRDS SQUAWKING) -(SEA LIONS GRUNTING)
BENEDICT: And young pups learn to swim in the shallows,
out of reach of the hunters.
Almost.
(SQUEAKING)
BENEDICT: The matriarch is teaching her family how to target them.
Following the same route almost everyday, she guides her pod
on a coastline charting course.
With remarkable brain power and communication skills,
she motions to her family pointing out landmarks.
It helps youngster build a mental map of the best hunting beaches.
Along the way, she also teaches them how to push beyond their comfort zone.
Before an orca can begin catching its prey,
they must first learn how to operate
in shallow water.
But the risk of stranding is very real.
A six-ton orca will quickly crush itself under its own weight,
but if they struggle to refloat themselves,
the matriarch is by their side to help them back to sea.
Even so,
an orca is only ready to attempt hunting
for real after six long years.
(SQUEAKS)
BENEDICT: The master at work.
Approaching the hunting beach, the matriarch stops vocalizing.
She listens...
She knows exactly when
and where to strike.
High tide,
a steep beach
and round pebbles to help her roll back to sea
with plenty of unsuspecting prey.
She waits till the pups are in prime position.
Right in the surf,
too shallow to swim to safety...
too turbulent to see her coming.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(MUSIC FADES)
(WATER SPLASHES)
(GRUNTS)
BENEDICT: These masterclasses in predatory perfection
are vital to passing on her skills.
So when they're ready to hunt for real, the next generation
is fully prepared for the battle between predator and prey.
-(CHIRPS) -BENEDICT: Life is a mission.
The main objective: survival.
Animals have evolved secret weapons...
and hidden skills
to outsmart their enemies.
So in those life or death moments,
it takes the most extraordinary super powers to prevail.
If you think you know nature,
think again.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
(THEME MUSIC ENDS)