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00:00The End
00:02The End
00:04The End
00:06The End
00:08The End
00:10The End
00:12Experience a world beyond imagination.
00:18Where fish can fly.
00:22Lizards walk on water.
00:28Apes master tools.
00:34And frogs disappear in plain sight.
00:40Animals do the smartest things.
00:46Through every stage of their lives.
00:50From leaving home
00:54To raising a family.
01:00From finding food.
01:02To making friends.
01:06They find ingenious ways to survive.
01:12Against all odds.
01:16Welcome
01:20To the secret lives
01:22Of animals.
01:24The rain forests of Panama.
01:40This frog.
01:42The size of a thumbnail.
01:48Faces danger at every turn.
01:52A keen-eyed parrot snake.
02:08A frog hunting specialist.
02:12The forest.
02:14Searching.
02:16For the tell-tale silhouette.
02:20Of prey.
02:22Once it's locked on to a target.
02:26It rarely goes hungry.
02:28The frog.
02:30The frog must escape.
02:32And fast.
02:34But he doesn't run away.
02:38He sits tight.
02:40And does something magical.
02:44He packs 90% of his blood cells.
02:49Into his liver.
02:50Hiding them away.
02:52And starts to become.
02:54Transparent.
03:03Then he shrinks many of his organs.
03:06To a third of their original size.
03:08So he all but disappears.
03:27But even one move.
03:29Would reveal his presence.
03:34He must.
03:35Stay.
03:36Still.
03:39The snake.
03:41The snake.
04:03moves on.
04:04He's one of the only animals on Earth.
04:06That can disappear like this.
04:07Protecting yourself is not always about how well you fight, but how well you avoid one.
04:33The open sand flats of Indonesia are a treacherous place for an octopus.
04:43Their soft bodies make them vulnerable.
04:49To survive here, this mimic octopus has developed an unusual talent.
04:58With color-changing cells all over her body, she can alter her appearance in an instant.
05:09She's a master of disguise.
05:14One moment imitating a flatfish, the next morphing into the sea floor.
05:26She can even impersonate a sea snake.
05:35But this veined octopus can't mimic her neighbors.
05:41Instead, she survives on her wits alone.
05:51A hungry flounder.
06:00It couldn't swallow her whole, but any one of those arms would make a bite-size snack.
06:08And even the smallest injury can be life-threatening.
06:14With nine brains, octopuses are the most intelligent invertebrates in the world.
06:21If anyone can think of a way out of this, she can.
06:29She scans the sea floor for anything that might help.
06:38Not quite the safety blanket she's after.
06:44A coconut shell could do the trick.
06:51Her very own suit of armor.
07:07The problem is, it's only doing half the job.
07:23She needs protection on all sides.
07:35An empty scallop shell, if she can get to it in time.
08:01With more than a thousand suckers, she closes the door.
08:16Now, she has a shield and somewhere to hide.
08:30While the flounder is left...
08:33Well, floundering.
08:48With danger nipping at your heels, you need to find ingenious ways to protect yourself.
08:54But there are times in life when you have to take a risk and stand out from the crowd.
09:10In Costa Rica, it's mating season for this Enolis lizard.
09:15To attract a female, you must put on a show.
09:22Unfortunately, his eye-catching moves draw unwanted attention.
09:41A mot-mot-mot with a taste for lizards.
10:05He's trapped.
10:10He can't stay put.
10:13And lizards can't survive underwater.
10:16Or can they?
10:25Or can they?
10:26Or can they?
10:27Or can they?
10:28Or can they?
10:29They're changing voices.
10:30Because thisikut cat is not the way.
10:31But wants to have ties and be caught up.
10:32And especially stuff is the handkerens in life that we really fervent.
10:36The end room calls this engine every day.
10:39This may be a fatal mistake.
10:54Like, coming up for air would mean certain death.
11:07But this is no ordinary lizard.
11:13His special water-repellent scales
11:16trap a silvery layer of air against his body,
11:24which acts like his very own scuba tank.
11:34And he can stay submerged for almost 18 minutes.
11:44Long enough for this bird brain to get bored.
11:54He's one of the only lizards in the world that's able to do this.
12:05But not all animals can run away or hide.
12:08Sometimes, you have to stand your ground,
12:16even when you're being hunted
12:19by the most adaptable big cat on the planet.
12:25A leopard,
12:27able to prey on over 90 different species.
12:30They will eat almost anything they can catch,
12:37even porcupines.
12:43Armed with thousands of needle-sharp quills.
12:49But with short, stubby legs,
12:51they can't out-run the leopard.
13:04Cornered, the porcupines first rattle out a warning.
13:10Enough to deter almost every predator.
13:15But not leopards.
13:16They target a weakness in the porcupine's defense,
13:26their softer underbelly.
13:36But the porcupines up their game
13:38and keep their backs turned.
13:48Leopards don't give up easily.
13:53So the porcupines take things to the next level,
13:57turning defense into attack
14:00and driving their point home.
14:04Their perfectly designed quills break off.
14:08And stick within the enemy.
14:16Quills are a great way to protect yourself.
14:20But they only work in close combat.
14:26Here on the African savannah,
14:30where large predators roam,
14:33it's smarter to keep your enemies at a distance
14:36and find safety in numbers.
14:38And find safety in numbers.
14:42Vervet monkeys form tight-knit troops.
14:47Living on the ground and in the trees,
14:51they face dangers at every level.
14:53A southern African python.
15:01A southern African python.
15:08Twelve feet long.
15:10One of the largest snakes in the world.
15:15Capable of swallowing this monkey whole.
15:18A southern paradise.
15:22If it can get close enough.
15:24Bumgat THIn
15:36can get close enough.
15:40But this family has someone on lookout.
15:41But this family has someone on lookout.
15:48And when they spot a threat,
15:51they use a unique language to tell the group exactly what to do.
16:00Stand tall to spot the snake and keep your distance.
16:05Pythons are ambush hunters.
16:12And if their cover is blown, they give up.
16:17These monkeys have learned that communication saves lives.
16:25And they know it's not how loud you shout,
16:29it's what you say that really matters.
16:31Because vervets are on the menu for many different predators.
16:39They've developed a sophisticated alarm system
16:44to identify a range of threats.
16:51Including one familiar big cat.
16:54A leopard triggers another specific alarm call.
17:08And critically, a different response.
17:16The troop heads for the trees.
17:17A leopard's can climb.
17:26So these clever monkeys run to the ends of the thinnest branches.
17:33Where the heavyweight hunter can't follow.
17:35They also know how to dodge danger from above.
17:54Using a call that means there's an attack from the air.
17:58A marshal eagle.
18:04Without even looking, they know just what to do.
18:08Diving for cover under the canopy.
18:14When every second counts,
18:17knowing which predator is approaching and how to avoid them,
18:22makes the difference between life and death.
18:28And they know just how to avoid them.
18:45Vervets have three different alarm calls.
18:48Each triggering a different life-saving reaction.
18:51It's a highly developed communication system.
19:00But most animals can't talk their way out of trouble.
19:06And the smaller you are,
19:10the more creative you have to be.
19:13For a cyclosa spider,
19:20the size of a grain of rice,
19:24even a raindrop can be devastating.
19:27And in the Amazon rainforest,
19:45they have much larger threats to deal with.
19:53Hummingbirds.
19:57known for their thirst for nectar.
20:02But in fact, up to 80% of their diet is insects.
20:08And bite-sized spiders.
20:27A cyclosa would make the perfect meal.
20:33At just four millimeters long,
20:36and without a strong venom,
20:38she's defenseless.
20:42But she has a surprising solution that's never been filmed before.
20:47She builds a special web designed to trap prey.
20:57And it also collects debris,
21:01falling from the canopy above.
21:02And she uses it to do something remarkable,
21:14that's just recently been discovered.
21:19First, she gathers only the best materials.
21:23And starts to assemble an extraordinary creation.
21:43piece by piece,
21:50her sculpture begins to take shape.
21:54A large body.
22:09Followed by long, protruding legs.
22:12In just one night, she finishes her masterpiece.
22:27What looks like a giant self-portrait,
22:32thought to intimidate her predators.
22:35And to complete her illusion,
22:55she hits the web with her abdomen.
22:58bringing her beast to life.
23:20And scares off a predator 500 times her own size.
23:28The lengths animals go to,
23:33to protect themselves,
23:36are truly mind-blowing.
23:41They know when to stand their ground.
23:45Or when to run and hide.
23:48When to use brain over brawn.
23:53If your life is on the line,
23:55it takes great intelligence to outsmart the enemy.
24:02And survive.
24:12Rainforests are a treasure trove of life on earth.
24:17But they're also difficult places for a film crew to work in.
24:20And unbelievably wet.
24:33In the Peruvian Amazon,
24:36the team were on the trail of a recent discovery.
24:39Their ambition was to be the first to film the ingenious model building of the cyclosa spider.
24:49A personal dream for one of the most experienced wildlife cameramen in the world.
24:55I first came across this story about five years ago.
24:59And I just thought, what an amazing piece of evolution for a spider to actually know what itself looks like.
25:07And to build a model of itself.
25:10I mean, there's something that I've always wanted to tell.
25:12But there's no published science to guide them.
25:18It's terrifying because nobody knows anything about the spider or anything about their behavior.
25:22So we're definitely going to make a lot of mistakes.
25:24And we're going to have to learn pretty quickly in order to capture what they do.
25:27The crew suspect model building happens overnight, as this is when spiders are most active.
25:38As the sun sets, the team get to work.
25:44Searching for a tiny spider in a dark rain forest teeming with eight-legged beasts is not for the faint-hearted.
25:53Oh, look at that one!
25:57Oh, there's another one here.
25:58Oh, they're all over this fish.
26:02Not everyone shares Simon's enthusiasm.
26:06Richard, what do you actually think of spiders like? Do you really not like them?
26:09No, I don't. This is particularly gross.
26:14He might not be their biggest fan, but they have his respect.
26:19You can't help but being in awe of them, really.
26:21But the one we're here to film is tiny.
26:26The search continues.
26:28Eventually, the crew find what they're looking for.
26:32Wow, look at that.
26:33It does look?
26:34Yeah, it is.
26:35That's the cyclosa.
26:37A tiny spider building a supersized self-portrait.
26:42Look at that.
26:44Wow.
26:45It's a promising find and confirms the cyclosa are building overnight.
26:53But this model is almost complete.
26:57The crew want to film the entire process.
27:01There's another one here.
27:02With its empty web, this cyclosa fits the bill.
27:06It is so small.
27:09This could be pretty tough.
27:16No one knows how long it takes cyclosa spiders to build their decoys.
27:20So the team decide to use a time-lapse camera.
27:26With it set to record every 10 seconds, they can film the spider through the night in a single continuous shot.
27:33For it to work, the spider needs to be continually lit.
27:44And in the rainforest, at night, that is an issue.
27:48We need the lights to be able to film a spider, but the lights are attracting all of the bugs.
27:57Oh, Mark, don't you care.
27:58No.
28:00Just fly around the lights and through the web and trash it out, which way we film it.
28:07We might have to rethink the way we are lighting our subjects.
28:12Inspired by the spider, Richard has an idea.
28:16I've got to set up a decoy light, which is brighter than the filming lights.
28:23And hopefully they'll go for that instead.
28:25But no guarantees.
28:28With the decoy light in position, Richard resets the time-lapse camera.
28:34No, we're covered in moss already.
28:35Right, should we back out and give it a chance?
28:37Yeah.
28:39It will be an anxious wait until morning to see if it's worked.
28:46It's the moment of truth.
28:58Or she's done something.
29:01Overnight, the spider has constructed an impressive model.
29:05Here she goes, here she goes, look.
29:10Eureka.
29:12It's fascinating viewing as they witness for the first time how the spider builds its masterpiece.
29:18She's gone straight out collecting all of her trash and bringing it straight back into the middle.
29:23Yeah.
29:24Every detail captured is a precious new discovery that will contribute to the scientific study of these little spiders.
29:32She works incredibly quickly.
29:35It is incredible to think that this tiny little spider, which is like, what, half the size of a pea,
29:40is able to do all of this behaviour, really quite intricate detail, in just a few hours.
29:46Thanks to Richard and Simon, and with a little inspiration from a very special spider,
29:56the model-making mysteries of the cyclosa have been revealed on camera for the very first time.
30:03Next time, everyone needs a safe place to call home.
30:15But they can be hard to find and tricky to build.
30:20It takes creative vision and a lot of effort to withstand the forces of nature
30:33and create your very own dream home.
30:45this is their journey into another dream and inspiration from the planet.
30:49So
30:50please.
30:52Yeah.
30:54Great.
30:54I
30:57easily
31:00aced
31:02your
31:04ated
31:04all
31:07.