Wildlife Stories: Lie or Die | Free Documentary Nature

This is perhaps the best camouflage found anywhere. The leaf insect is an animal that has no defensive weapons. Its exoskeleton is fragile, and it doesn't have a stinger, nor any poison, nor anything else to keep others from killing it. That is, if they manage to see it. Its best and only defensive weapon is not being seen. Making yourself invisible is a great survival trick. The advantages of looking like a leaf can also be very useful underwater. The large number of dead leaves that are easily swept along by the currents in many South American rivers serve up a model to follow. An ideal shape that won't attract the attention of carnivores. And, of course, no herbivore would find anything appetizing in something that looks like a very dead old leaf either. The leaf fish has highly variable coloration patterns, although they're always irregular. They faithfully reproduce the shades of plant matter that is slowly decomposing. That's why nobody pays any attention to them. Plus, it's a truly unique master of mimicry, because it not only manages to hide from its potential enemies, but is also a great hunter in its own right. Some carnivores have equal the inventiveness and sophistication of the most defenseless prey. The little fins that propel the leaf fish through the water are colorless and transparent. Its mouth is very well concealed. It has an appendage on its lower lip that looks just like the stem that every leaf has, which breaks up the fish's silhouette. And finally, it has the ability to move without appearing to go in any particular direction. Plus, it knows how to be patient, to wait hidden among the underwater plants. It's as if it knew that the shape of the plant was the same as its own. All this make it an unavoidable menace for any fish small enough to fit into its mouth. All animals, including us humans, use cunning little tricks in order to survive. In large measure, life in the wild looks a lot like the game of hide and seek. Except that it's not a game. Most animals wear the color of their environment to reduce the probability of their being discovered. The evolution in the shapes and colors of the bodies of some animals has given rise to some incredible creatures. Animals that are really hard to spot. But these adaptations aren't only found in their legs or their skin. They can also take place in their behavior. That's to say, morphology is just one aspect of nature's game of hide and seek. Another equally important aspect is how animals act, what they do. Among crabs, there are some pretty masterful mimics. But this one, the decorator crab, surpasses all the rest. Its body isn't more mimetic than those of the rest. But it has developed an exclusive defensive technique. The decorator crab knows how to dress properly for every occasion. Which is to say, it knows exactly what it should wear in each habitat. And it has to tailor a new suit for itself each time it sheds and changes its hard shell. This one must have molted last night because its shell has already hardened completely. But it feels naked. I mean, any old octopus could immediately spot it walking on the sand and rocks. It's looking for something to put on that's appropriate for the place. Here we go, that's fine. It uses its pincers to gingerly separate the algae from the rock without breaking them. Then it cleans them thoroughly with its mouthparts. And finally, it fixes the living algae to its carapace or shell. The whole surface of the decorator crab's body is covered with tiny hooks that work like velcro to firmly fasten each plant fiber. The crab has to spend several days decorating itself before it's done. Following a specific order, it meticulously places more and more algae on its body and legs. Little by little, the crab disappears beneath its living cloak. This animal wasn't born with camouflage, but rather had to learn to make it. And its skill has enabled it to colonize almost all the oceans on the planet. Although very few have ever actually seen it. If survival is often based on hiding, what evolutionary mechanism has led certain species to clothe themselves with eye-catching colors? That isn't just not hiding, that's trying to make sure that others do see you. The scientific word for this phenomenon is aposematism. The real stars of this rare and apparently risky system are the tiny poison arrow frogs. They have the most powerful poison found in nature. It's called batrachotoxin, but they don't hunt with it, nor do they have a way to inject it into anybody. They have no teeth like those of poisonous snakes, nor stingers like some insects. For them, the poison is just a shield. Anything that eats them dies. To produce their chemical weapon, poison arrow frogs eat certain toxic insects that only they know about. So whenever they're threatened, they secrete the poison like sweat and become deadly. Their colors are a warning. When something in nature draws attention to itself, that's suspicious. That's very odd, and odd things are scary. It's written in the genes of all animals that colorful patterns like these are stop signs that must be observed. The red-eyed tree frog, however, isn't dangerous. It just takes advantage of the poison arrow frog's bad reputation. It's a bluff that usually works for them. This butterfly is also bluffing. Its delicateness and defenselessness have led it to lie with the old trick of looking like something it's not. The circular spots on its wings imitate menacing eyes. There's even a white detail drawn on them that simulates a flash of light. And that's because all birds that hunt butterflies know that they should stay as far away as possible from a pair of owl's eyes. The big lie that these predators tell in the darkness isn't their exceptionally good vision, but rather their ability to keep quiet. The feathers of these nightbirds are frayed. That is, they have split ends and are almost like fine strands of hair. So these birds don't make the slightest sound as they fly through the air. That's how they can swoop down on their victims before their prey are aware of a thing. Barn owls are the quietest of all these birds of prey. And they don't have to be close to their prey to locate them. The orbits of its eyes work like a sort of outer ear, like a parabolic antenna. Channeling the sound waves to the owl's ears, which are located asymmetrically on its skull. That way the barn owl can hear the vibrations in stereo. And so detect the exact position of the unwary noisemaker. Often an owl can't see its prey yet because it's too far away. But the barn owl couldn't care less, because it already knows where its prey is. The mouse, on the other hand, doesn't notice a thing. It neither sees nor hears what's stalking it. Death came to the rodent without its ever perceiving it, without making the slightest noise. Although lots of people are afraid of them and badmouth them, criticizing them for their cantankerous nature, rattlesnakes ought to be considered noble animals. They not only don't lie, but they actually warn absent-minded animals of their reptilian presence, because they want those animals to keep their distance. Few living beings that are that dangerous make those kinds of threats before defending themselves. In reality, rattlesnakes are neither good nor bad. They just get nervous when something big comes too close. Snakes usually move or shake their tails when something upsets them. Faced with an enemy, they probably draw its attention to the least vulnerable part of their anatomy, the part farthest from the head. And that may have saved a lot of snakes' lives. But there is another possible explanation for this behavior, another possible use. And that is that some unusual snakes, like the Mexican moccasin, have perfected it and adopted it as a hunting technique. A first-rate lie. The camouflage coloring of this species blends it into its surroundings. And yet the tip of its tail is whitish, just the tip, which it doesn't always move quickly. Sometimes it moves the tip of its tail slowly. Like the curvy wandering of a worm or a caterpillar, it can fool birds and lizards. And at night, it can trick frogs and the occasional hungry rodent. Snakes fool a lot of people. Some are even afraid of their forked tongues because they believe it can poison them. But the tongues of these reptiles are forked only because it helps them to smell the air better. Although maybe they can also use them to trick some worm hunter into coming closer. Snakes usually have skins that are colored to blend in with their surroundings so that they go unnoticed if they stay very still. That's just a theory, but in nature anything is possible. Even tongues that are traps. The Texas cichlid is a carnivorous fish whose favorite food is the aquatic larvae of certain insects. It likes them so much that they sometimes even become its downfall. The alligator snapping turtle is an unusual case in the animal world. It uses a fishing lure. What's more, the lure is inside its mouth. It's an addition to its tongue that perfectly mimics the appearance and movement of a juicy aquatic larva. The Texas cichlid's favorite food. Now this fish looks like he's suspicious. He's confused, nervous. Maybe he's wondering where one of his buddies went. He didn't see what happened a little while ago. But his sixth sense has him on maximum alert. He has doubts about what he's looking at. But he's hungry. Alligator turtle's hunting technique is practically perfect. Its irregular shell looks like a piece of rotting wood. And it's usually even covered with algae. Its head is covered with bumps and warts that make it difficult to discern its shape and recognize that it's a turtle. But its mouth is a razor-sharp trap that can snap shut in just hundredths of a second. To use all these tools properly at the same time, the alligator snapping turtle needs practice. And this one here is already an expert. She's young, less than ten years old, and weighs barely five kilos. So she's got a long ways to go to reach the 100 kilos of a full-grown adult. But she's already learned that there's no point in chasing her prey, because they're much faster than she is. Evolution has provided her with the equipment to stalk her prey patiently. She has nerves of steel. She knows that all she has to do is wait for just the right moment. She's guided not only by her experience, but also by her instincts. If she missed, all the fish in the neighborhood would be warned by the one that got away. And that would force her to change her hunting grounds. So she only springs her terrible trap when she is absolutely certain she won't miss. Only a very few very strange animals have developed the sophisticated technique of offering bait to attract their prey. These strange fishermen also tempt fish with a lure in order to catch them. Theirs is an even more difficult trap to use. You need coordination, experience, and camouflage to make it work. But you also need an extendable jaw and incredibly fast reflexes to be able to capture the quickest fish. To stage successfully this bit of drama that the anglerfish performs each time it goes fishing, its wardrobe has to look a lot like the scenery, and each species blends into the rocks or algae found in its particular habitat. They live by stalking their prey in the underwater grottoes, where the rays of light play tag with the shadows. Whenever a potential victim appears on the scene, the performance begins. The anglerfish unfolds its antenna, starts to move it enticingly, and then reels it back in. And begins all over again. It's a dialogue between two hunters, but one of them is unaware of that. When the prey is within reach of the anglerfish, it usually reels in the lure, just in case it really does try to eat it. Now the anglerfish patiently waits for its prey, which is searching for the thing that brought it there, to get into just the right position before swallowing it head first with its enormous mouth. And then, the fastest movement under the sea takes place. They say God is the beetle's biggest fan. The six-legged kind of beetle, that is. Perhaps the greatest proof of that is that one of every ten animals on earth is a beetle. There are hundreds of thousands of different species of beetle, some are primarily nocturnal. And this is going to be a very dark night, with a new moon. So only those who have a special type of vision will be able to foray into the total darkness to look for food. This scorpion is on the trail of a beetle. But what he doesn't know is that he's following the tracks of a beetle with very special powers. The bombardier beetle is a real tank of a beetle. A hidden chamber at the end of its abdomen stores hydrogen peroxide and a substance derived from quinine. On their own, these chemicals are nothing special, but when you mix them, they explode. When it feels threatened, the bombardier beetle can shoot off a gas heated to a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. And it's a very good shot. What's more, its slow movements, super slow movements, help to let it go unnoticed. A chameleon takes its time before taking a single step. We could say that they're slowpokes, or that they're slow as molasses. But what's happening is that it's out hunting, and these slow movements are imperceptible to its prey. The slowness is much more important to a chameleon's ability to blend into its surroundings than its coloring. Insects see when something moves above all else, more than the thing itself. And something still, or practically still, isn't the least bit frightening to them. Up to a safe distance, that is. But the chameleon doesn't need to cross that spatial barrier that sounds the alarm for each insect. It keeps in its mouth an instrument with great evolutionary complexity. A tongue that is extraordinarily long, and whose tip is a sort of heavy club covered with a super sticky slime. An essential aspect of this sophisticated hunting strategy is the chameleon's precise aim. The first thing to hit the target is to position the bug perfectly. Most reptiles have one eye on each side of their head. Which means they use one eye to see what's happening on their left, and the other to see what's going on on their right. Chameleons see in stereo, just as barn owls listen in stereo. Their brains allow them to receive information about what's happening in any direction. But they perceive this, shall we say, in mono. But when they locate a prey, then they focus on it with both eyes at the same time. And that's how they can calculate the direction and distance of their target. With skin that changes color, super slow movement, and a sticky and elastic tongue that it can shoot out farther than the length of its own body, the chameleon is a singular master in the natural world. With the first rays of sunlight, the dawn will reveal a lie that has gone unseen in the dark. During the night, many little animals died without even knowing what caught them, or where they were trapped forever. Spider silk is one of the best traps ever designed. And one of its virtues is that the extremely fine threads of silk are very hard to see. Only when it's backlit and covered with the morning dew can we see a spiderweb's perfect geometry, its elasticity, and its strange beauty. The threads of these spirals are made up of both silk and glue. The spider walks only on the radii of its web, which aren't sticky. But the spider isn't here right now, because at this time of day, when its trap is so visible, it would be very vulnerable to birds. Spiders are nocturnal animals, or else they live in shady areas, someplace where there isn't much light to reflect. This spider has incorporated what looks like a stick in its web, where any mosquito could land. Actually, they're leftovers of food wrapped in silk, and the spider is hidden in the middle, forming part of the stick. Not all spiderwebs are alike. This one is shaped more like a funnel. The great thing about having silk with adhesive properties is that you can hunt prey that are bigger than you are without running too many risks. In addition, spiders can inject poison into their victims, and since they know that their prey are trapped, they only have to wait for them to tire themselves out and for the toxins to take effect. A tiny little wasp with a stinger isn't worth the trouble, because it's already captured a bigger prize, food for several days. Now it will bring it into its funnel, where it can eat in peace. Not all spiders know how to weave webs to hunt with. This trapdoor spider may seem pretty scary, but another even more fearsome predator may be hiding underground. To some, it employs the most terrifying and disturbing way to hunt. Proportionately, its jaws are the largest in the animal kingdom. It has inspired the worst monsters in the most famous science fiction movies, and yet the original is completely unknown. It's the antlion. It's as threatening as a lion, and has developed a construction technique that is as good as anything ants can build. Now it's looking for the right spot, a place that insects pass through. An ant crossroads would be the best of all. It jerks its head and jaws quickly and suddenly, tossing up little piles of sand and gradually emptying its hole. The result is a funnel up to 10 centimeters across, and 5 or 6 centimeters deep, perfect from a geometric point of view. The hole is simultaneously its home, and a lethal trap where it waits, immobile and invisible, for its prey to fall into the areas of sand that move the most. Its favorite dish is ants. When it feels the vibrations from the legs of an insect trying to escape from the trap, it throws up more sand, like when it was building the trap, and so it makes its prey slip down into the heart of the trap, right where the antlion is waiting. And here it is invincible. For more than half an hour, it sucks the life juices out of its victim, right down to the last drop. The antlion injects into its prey a substance that liquefies all its organs, everything nutritious, to make the most of everything it catches. And what's left over, an absolutely empty carcass, is tossed far away, so as not to give away the antlion's position, and so it doesn't get in the way the next time it catches something. but by a class of living beings without any feelings at all. Nothing is so ruthless as a carnivorous plant. Fortunately, all plants of this kind are small, so there aren't any able to eat or digest a human being. The biggest ones may occasionally be able to catch a frog or some other very small vertebrate, but once again, compared to the legends, reality is still more chilling than any story man has been able to make up. There are three main types of these killer plants. The first kind, which we could describe as receptacle plants, have boxy or tubular leaves that are easy to enter, but practically impossible to get out of. A blend of water and the plant's juices drown the unfortunate bug. The second kind of carnivorous plant we could call the sticky ones. Sundews have specialized in adhesives. Maybe somebody could look at these bright drops and think that they're nectar, but they're definitely not. Seen from a distance, the leaves look harmless, but they hide a horrible trap for the tiniest of beings. Millions of minuscule drops of glue, all lined up and covering everything, await any mosquito or ant or wasp that settles on them to rest. If they do, they'll never be able to take off again. They die of exhaustion, trying to break loose, but getting more and more stuck. Wearily, those that have stingers will try to sting the plant and provoke a reaction that will free them, but all to no avail. This third type of carnivorous plant tells a completely different type of lie. Smell, which when combined with the right color, sends an enticing message to flies. It attracts them and hunts them. This is a Venus flytrap, the most evolutionarily spectacular kind of carnivorous plant. The Venus flytrap is impressive because it also moves. It's a consummate specialist. Inside its leaves, some extremely fine sensors wait for something to touch them two times in quick succession. When this happens in the right lapse of time, the trap snaps shut. Inexorably. Some sensors order the millions of cells in the center of the leaf to release water at great speed. And the sudden reduction in the size of these cells causes the leaf to contract and act like a hinge. Trapped in a tiny prison cell, unable to move, with no chance to escape, the prey will die in a few hours. Reducing the suffering that otherwise could last a lot longer. Obviously, traps and lies aren't something that man invented. As always, these brutal strategies seek the survival of the best adapted species. This wild form of selection ensures that species continue to change and improve themselves constantly. That's also how the human species was born. The most complex living being on Earth. It's a shame that our lies aren't always justified.