30 Minutes of David Attenborough Explaining Wildlife | Wildlife Compilation

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:01]The spruce trees themselves also produce a substance that the ants can use directly.

[00:00:12]These ants have collected little flakes of resin.

[00:00:18]That's a sort of gum that oozes from the broken twig of a coniferous tree.

[00:00:23]The tree uses it to seal off an injury.

[00:00:27]But what are the ants using it for?

[00:00:34]Inside the nest, the extra warmth produced by honeydew helps the queens to keep laying and the larvae to keep growing.

[00:00:49]However, constant warmth can create problems despite regular cleaning.

[00:00:55]Diseases can thrive.

[00:01:00]The ants have a remarkable solution to that problem.

[00:01:09]They cover the surface of the mounds with tiny nuggets of resin, and also take it into the chambers below.

[00:01:17]One nest contained over four kilos of it.

[00:01:21]It is, in fact, ant medicine.

[00:01:27]The ants combine acid from their bodies with the resin and so produce a very effective antibiotic.

[00:01:35]This is one of the most sophisticated animal pharmacologists known to science.

[00:01:43]It's been shown that wood ants living in nests that contain resin are better able to survive diseases than those that don't.

[00:01:52]And the eggs are far less likely to be infected by fungi.

[00:02:00]these ants move incredibly quickly, so you can see why is that so difficult to study and even more difficult to film.

[00:02:13]At around eight millimeters in length.

[00:02:15]These are bigger than many ants, but to us they're still tiny and rarely stay still for more than instant.

[00:02:23]To keep track of their frantic movements while also getting down to eye level with their world needed a very special camera.

[00:02:33]The brainchild of film maker Martin Dohrn, this is FrankenCam.

[00:02:39]It's a device for positioning tiny cameras and small, wide angle lenses into awkward corners with extreme precision.

[00:02:50]It's called FrankenCam because it's got so many different bits in it.

[00:02:55]It has been said that it is an unholy alliance between other bits of equipment that should never have been put together.

[00:03:03]Now known by all of us as Frank.

[00:03:05]Okay, bring Frank to me.

[00:03:07]It enables us to follow tiny creatures as they go about their lives without disturbing them.

[00:03:14]And this enables us to enter the world of the ants in the way that has never been achieved before.

[00:03:23]Martin, there's a lot, a lot of things going on over here.

[00:03:26]And long cabling allows operators to take the control box away from the camera so that biting insects are less of a problem.

[00:03:35]What's going on?

[00:03:36]But of course, he doesn't stop the ants coming to us.

[00:03:42]I'm covered in ants!

[00:03:43]And so I'm finding a little hard to concentrate.

[00:03:48]And with Frank's fluid movements, keeping the action in focus is far simpler than it would be using a conventional close up camera.

[00:03:57]It's incredibly easy to find focus, to go right in for the close up so we can pull out for the wide shots, and we can see the detail, we can see the distance.

[00:04:06]We can put the whole scene in this meadow so we can see it's this meadow, and it makes it easier to feel as if you were there.

[00:04:14]And now for the first time, the ants and focus on them matter where they're moving.

[00:04:19]I think even I am too.

[00:04:24]However, while Frank's body parts cost many thousands and its construction needed the help of a mathematician and an engineer, ironically, the lens used for many of the most spectacular images cost just 8 pounds on the internet.

[00:04:41]This wasn't a cost cutting measure.

[00:04:43]This lens has amazing abilities and it's perfect for the job, but it's only so cheap because lenses like it are made in their many millions.

[00:04:51]For the cameras on your mobile phone.

[00:04:58]One of the clever ways Frank's lenses takes us into the ants world is by changing the way we see distances to an ant five feet.

[00:05:06]Might as well be half a mile.

[00:05:13]This behind the scenes image recorded on a normal camera shows just how close I'm sitting to the nest.

[00:05:21]But if we view the same scene using FrankenCam, it appears as though I'm much farther away.

[00:05:29]Its this magnifying of distances that allows the operator to steer so precisely between every blade of grass, and enables us to appreciate the world on an scale.

[00:05:44]Courtship in most animals is about strength or display.

[00:05:48]With whales, everything is a bit more subtle, a bit more individual.

[00:05:55]Gray whales come to Magdalena Bay in Mexico to breed.

[00:06:00]The males wait for the females to arrive.

[00:06:06]Instead of competing with each other.

[00:06:08]This small gang entertain themselves.

[00:06:21]They roll on the bottom.

[00:06:31]When the surf comes up.

[00:06:33]They head out to the break and catch some waves.

[00:06:46]Even for whales, surfing can take some practice.

[00:06:54]You need just the right wave.

[00:06:56]If you weigh 30 tons.

[00:06:59]There's a sideways move that doesn't always work well.

[00:07:04]Upside down is another way.

[00:07:11]A spin maybe?

[00:07:17]Lift your tail and you nail it.

[00:07:32]They must be having fun.

[00:07:33]The riding the waves over and over again.

[00:07:38]After they catch a ride, they turn and head back out to the surf break.

[00:07:50]This is just a magic moment.

[00:08:01]The female whales could be watching from a discreet distance, admiring the best surfer.

[00:08:08]They could be choosing a partner, but they're not.

[00:08:15]They are far away at the other end of Magdalena bay.

[00:08:19]There they approach small boats and solicit human attention.

[00:08:25]They even bring their newborns along.

[00:08:34]This is a wild mother approaching people.

[00:08:37]There's no obvious benefit.

[00:08:43]The scientists have different theories as to why gray whales here seek human attention.

[00:08:51]The whales curiosity and tactile affection may be a clue to what they think and feel.

[00:08:59]Like the sperm whales.

[00:09:01]They seem to enjoy being touched.

[00:09:04]I've watched these interactions for a number of years, but it still amazes me how the whales are so trusting.

[00:09:18]This was first seen in the 1970s, and slowly more individual mothers took up the idea.

[00:09:27]For the tourists on the boat.

[00:09:28]It's a wonderful, fleeting moment of direct contact between human and whale.

[00:09:47]Bacteria are among the most ancient forms of life, so they may have been the very first living things to glow.

[00:09:54]But why they did so is still debated today.

[00:09:59]Some animals have stolen the genes of the bacteria and incorporated them into their own DNA.

[00:10:06]Others have simply kidnaped the bacteria themselves.

[00:10:18]These lights are made by captives, which are farmed in special organs below the eyes of flashlight fish.

[00:10:35]They have harnessed the bacterial glow for many purposes.

[00:10:41]We can only see them because our special cameras use infrared light.

[00:10:47]But to a predator, the fish look like this.

[00:10:52]A confusion of lights, which makes it hard to pick a single target.

[00:11:04]Just before they change direction, the fish give a quick blink.

[00:11:16]These lights have other functions to.

[00:11:21]They act as headlights to illuminate the sea floor as the fish search for food.

[00:11:35]They may even help a fish to flirt with the opposite sex.

[00:11:47]Unlike their captive bacteria, flashlight fish use living light for functions we now understand.

[00:11:56]But how is the light made?

[00:11:59]While it might appear magic, it's actually a straightforward chemical reaction that happens when a substance is mixed with a particular enzyme.

[00:12:11]Like this.

[00:12:17]A presto!

[00:12:18]Light!

[00:12:22]The exact chemical formula varies according to the species.

[00:12:26]The reaction is very similar to that with which bacteria produce energy.

[00:12:32]Indeed, it could well be that the first luminescence was a byproduct of that process.

[00:12:40]An evolutionary accident that has been co-opted by the fish to help them survive.

[00:12:47]The chemicals involved.

[00:12:49]are quite harmless.

[00:12:50]In fact, you can actually buy a lollipop, which when you put it in the hot water, glows.

[00:13:00]But to be truthful, I don't really find that very appetizing.

[00:13:07]Perhaps at the back of my mind, there's a memory of those bacteria on rotting fish, which tells me that things that glow aren't all that nice to eat.

[00:13:19]But being able to film the glow is only one part of the solution.

[00:13:23]To really understand light on Earth.

[00:13:26]You need to be able to record the creature themselves as they make the light.

[00:13:32]This camera allows you to film in low light levels in a completely new way.

[00:13:38]The beam of light comes into the single lens, but it's then split into two and one camera records on one light frequency and the other on a different light frequency.

[00:13:51]One of the cameras is sensitive to infrared light, invisible to most animals, but which allow the camera to record in the dark.

[00:14:00]The second camera records only the bioluminescence, which is mostly blue or green.

[00:14:06]The two are then combined into one picture.

[00:14:13]And that way you can get pictures at a low light level, not only of bioluminescent animals, but even the environment in which they're living.

[00:14:22]This technique, pioneered by film maker Martin Dohrn, allows us to enter the world of bioluminescent creatures and also to contribute to new science with this type of camera.

[00:14:35]Are many things I see on these images, which I wouldn't be able to see normally.

[00:14:42]In the past, scientists Marcel Koken has been unable to study the worm and beetle without using a light, but when he did, the light would frighten the beetle and overpower the worm's bioluminescence.

[00:14:55]With the help of Martin's camera, Marcel is able to observe and record the beetle and worm encounter for the first time.

[00:15:04]The Andes with a wide range of habitats, produced an explosion of hummingbird species.

[00:15:11]Half of all the kinds of hummingbirds live in these mountains along with their plant partners.

[00:15:18]And a few plants formed a closer relationship with their sexual messengers.

[00:15:25]This is Angel's trumpet, and its flowers are enormous, 20cm long.

[00:15:38]The nectar is produced at the far end of the tube, out of reach of most hummingbirds.

[00:15:51]This coronet simply doesn't have the means of reaching the nectar.

[00:16:15]Only one bird can sip from the angel's trumpet.

[00:16:21]This one!

[00:16:22]The swordbill.

[00:16:25]Its bill is actually longer than its body.

[00:16:29]It has the longest bill relative to body of any bird in the world.

[00:16:35]And that remarkable beak and equally long tongue allows the swordbill to feed where no other bird can.

[00:17:00]And a big bill can have other uses.

[00:17:09]The angel's trumpet is not the only plant to form an intimate bond with the swordbill.

[00:17:15]This is a kind of passion flower, and it too has a long tubular flower.

[00:17:21]The orange on the swordbill's chin is pollen.

[00:17:31]Each time it drinks from the passion flower, pollen is transferred back and forth between plant and bird.

[00:17:51]By forming this close liaison, the passion flower and the angel's trumpet increase the chances of their pollen being successfully transferred to a plant of the same kind.

[00:18:08]And the hummingbird has the nectar of the plants all to itself.

[00:18:12]So both plant and bird benefit.

[00:18:32]There's another hummingbird that has formed an even closer relationship.

[00:18:36]It has an exclusive deal with this Heliconia.

[00:18:46]The Heliconia protects yellow flowers inside robust red bracts.

[00:19:04]The flowers are deeply curved.

[00:19:14]Only this bird can reach the nectar.

[00:19:28]Its bill perfectly matches the curve of the flower like a key in a lock.

[00:19:41]As it feeds at its private flower garden.

[00:19:44]Pollen is dabbed on to its head.

[00:19:46]The bird transfers the pollen from one plant to another, ensuring successful pollination.

[00:19:57]Because the sicklebill has the Heliconia nectar all to itself, it has no need to defend the territory.

[00:20:04]Instead, it spends its day flying from one clump of flowers to another.

[00:20:14]And not needing to display its ownership of flowers.

[00:20:18]The sicklebill is not iridescent.

[00:20:21]Rather, it's quite dull, camouflaged against its exclusive flowers.

[00:20:39]The first Europeans to explore these forests claimed they heard devils screaming in the night.

[00:21:00]And so Tasmania's most famous animal got its name.

[00:21:10]The Tasmanian devil.

[00:21:25]Primarily scavengers.

[00:21:27]They can smell a carcass from a kilometer away and relative to body size.

[00:21:34]They have the most powerful bite in the natural world.

[00:21:39]They can easily crunch through bone.

[00:21:56]Devils once lived throughout Australia, but vanished as the continent dried out and humans arrived.

[00:22:06]Today, this is their last stronghold.

[00:22:14]Like most Australian mammals, their marsupials.

[00:22:20]While they may appear dog like, devils are more closely related to kangaroos than canines.

[00:22:27]And being marsupial, they rear their young in a pouch.

[00:22:34]A few weeks ago, this female gave birth to 40 young, each the size of a grain of rice.

[00:22:47]Inside her pouch.

[00:22:49]She has just four teats, so only four young will survive.

[00:23:02]Devils race for survival begins early.

[00:23:11]It's a tough start, but this mum will dedicate most of her year to looking after the four babies who survive.

[00:23:21]She overcame extraordinary odds to reach adulthood.

[00:23:26]Now it's her turn to raise the next generation.

[00:23:35]This is Roridula, which grows in just a few places in South Africa.

[00:23:44]Like a sundew, it's covered in sticky blobs.

[00:23:47]Though unlike sundews, these blobs are a type of resin.

[00:23:53]They're much stickier than the sundews mucus blobs and trap bigger and stronger insects.

[00:24:03]But the Roridula has no digestive glands on its leaves.

[00:24:07]So how does it digest its prey?

[00:24:13]It needs help from this.

[00:24:16]A tiny bug called Pameridea Pameridea spends its whole life on a Roridula plant.

[00:24:25]The bug has a nonstick wax coating, so it can walk around as far as the superglue without getting stuck.

[00:24:34]Pameridea is a predator, and there are hundreds of them on the big plant, more than enough to process all the insects Roridula can trap.

[00:24:48]The bugs are cautious, Roridula can trap prey that might be big enough to damage an unwary bug.

[00:24:57]So over the next ten minutes or so, Pameridea, they just probes and waits for the struggling fly to weaken.

[00:25:16]Now younger bugs emerge from the sticky forest waiting for the feast.

[00:25:25]At first, the bugs won't tolerate each other and fights break out.

[00:25:39]But now the fly is almost dead.

[00:25:42]And the serious business of feeding begins Pameridea has a sharp proboscis, like a hypodermic needle that it stabs into the dying fly to suck out its juices.

[00:25:59]Even newly hatched bugs join the feeding frenzy.

[00:26:14]After they fed the bugs leave their droppings on Roridulas leaves, a ready made pre digested fertilizer for the plant to absorb.

[00:26:29]Roridula and Pameridea have evolved close symbiotic bond without the bugs.

[00:26:35]Roridula can't be a carnivorous plant, and Pameridea bugs are only found among these sticky branches.

[00:26:47]Eggs hatch into larvae, and emperor larvae are killers.

[00:26:55]Lethal predators.

[00:27:05]Damselfly larvae are right up there at the top of their menu.

[00:27:10]Those sharp eyes spot any movement.

[00:27:19]And the emperor larva stalks its lunch like a tiny cat.

[00:27:40]Its eyes are huge.

[00:27:44]And both face forward.

[00:27:49]So the larva has a stereo vision.

[00:27:57]It can judge its distance from the target very precisely.

[00:28:07]And when it's close enough, it deploys its secret weapon.

[00:28:13]Jaws that can shoot out an additional half length of its body.

[00:28:18]A long range strike capability that, for the damselfly larva comes out of nowhere.

[00:28:28]The jaws snap shut and the damselfly is impaled on sharp spines to be hauled in and chopped up by a pair of serrated blades before being swallowed.

[00:28:57]It's hardly surprising that emperors and common blues don't get along with one another.

[00:29:12]But don't feel too sorry for the damsels.

[00:29:16]They also are killers and use the same tricks as the bigger dragons, just on smaller prey.

[00:29:27]Water hog lices slow moving, abundant.

[00:29:33]The perfect meal for a growing damselfly larva.

[00:29:45]And damselfly larvae are just as stealthy as their bigger relatives.

[00:29:52]Softly, softly.

[00:29:55]Just waiting for the hog louse to move.

[00:30:18]The battlefield.

[00:30:19]Under the surface of a tranquil pond is no place for the faint hearted.

[00:30:28]Bee orchids.

[00:30:30]There are many kinds of bee orchids, and the lips of their flowers have come to resemble different insects.

[00:30:36]To attract pollinators, they need to convince male bees that the lip really is a female bee.

[00:30:44]But surely male bees would never be fooled by such a crude mimic.

[00:30:48]To find out how the orchid succeeds, we need to visit a colony of these bees.

[00:30:57]In early spring.

[00:30:59]The air is buzzing with male bees.

[00:31:03]They spent the winter underground in the nests where they grew as larvae.

[00:31:09]Males emerge before females, and now they're hunting for the first females.

[00:31:14]Female bees release a particular scent.

[00:31:17]A male can even smell a female, still hidden underground, and in his eagerness, tries to dig her out.

[00:31:26]Eventually, the first females emerge.

[00:31:45]Almost immediately, she's pounced on by males, often many of them.

[00:31:51]Males have a good reason for this frenzy.

[00:31:54]A female will only mate once, so it's vital to be first there.

[00:32:16]Males have to be quick if they want to mate.

[00:32:19]No time to be discerning.

[00:32:21]As long as she smells right, he doesn't hesitate.

[00:32:24]And that's what the orchid depends on.

[00:32:29]A bee orchid flower releases a similar chemical mix to a female bee.

[00:32:35]It's a close enough match that eager males pounce on the flower and try to mate with it.

[00:32:42]As they do so, they pick up the orchids pollen.

[00:32:48]It's a devious trick, but a risky one.

[00:32:53]As Darwin long ago, suspected insects are smart enough to know when they've been duped.

[00:32:59]And only a very few of these bees will fall for the same trick twice.

[00:33:06]Thank you for watching.

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