All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S09E06.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day, they uncover new,
mysterious phenomena that

defy explanation.

The blood code of the samurai.

They would behead people.

They would boil them
in oil for even

a simple infraction
of the code.

NARRATOR: The mystery structures
that transformed the world.

HORTON:
They're enormous.

It's just staggering
the effort

and engineering to build this.

NARRATOR: And Nazis, knights,
and vampires

in the forests of Poland.

They've been decapitated
and their skulls

buried between
their legs.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena.
Mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

**

**

The county of
Yorkshire, England.

A land of rolling moors
and hills.

Archaeologist Mark Horton is
here to investigate a strange

satellite image taken over
the region

on October 2nd, 2019.

HORTON:
It shows a series of circles,

almost as if the landscape has

got some horrible disease
over it,

like sort of pustules
on the face of the ground.

NARRATOR: A LIDAR scan of
the site reveals

the weird pimples are up to
100 feet in diameter

and appear to be manmade.

MORGAN: This is fascinating.
The LIDAR image

almost looks like
wasps' nests.

This is a really confusing
thing to see.

I've not seen anything
like this.

HORTON: As an archaeologist,

when you see mounds,
one immediately

assumes that they are
burial mounds.

But they're just
too regular, uh,

and too many of them
to suggest that.

NARRATOR: What's more,
a wider search of

the region using Maxar's
SecureWatch technology

reveals dozens of other

clusters of the strange
giant mounds.

JOYCE: One of the extraordinary
things is the sheer

number of them that
I see across the landscape.

It's really weird
to see this type

of pattern replicated in
so many different areas.

**

NARRATOR: Horton heads for
a group of mounds

in the west of the county.

HORTON:
So this is it.

They're totally different
on the ground to

what they look like
from the air.

They're enormous!

NARRATOR: Horton counts around
50 of the bizarre features,

covering almost two million
square feet of land.

HORTON: Now I'm up here,

I can see just how regimented
all these mounds are,

literally marching across
the landscape.

Just think of the human effort
of constructing these.

NARRATOR: It's not just the
scale and pattern of the mounds,

but their shape that baffles
the archaeologist.

There seem to be really
two types of mounds.

Some are
sort of flat platforms,

and some that are
like doughnuts.

It's really a mystery.

NARRATOR: Horton returns to
the wider images for clues.

So looking at these

satellite images,

I can see this group
on the Yorkshire moors

seems to have buildings
next to them.

Probably the best thing is
for me to check those out.

NARRATOR: Horton makes his way
to the North York Moors,

550 square miles of heathlands

carved out during
the last Ice Age.

**

These must be the buildings
I saw on the satellite image.

They're really quite
substantially built,

but it's difficult to see
actually what they are.

NARRATOR: A clue to the purpose
of the crumbling

ruins is etched deep into
the hillside below.

Looking along that direction,
it's a straight line.

And it's a straight line
running around the hills,

actually, as far as
the eye can see.

I mean, this to me suggests
it's a railway line.

NARRATOR: What's weird
is that while the ghost

railway station
is near the mounds,

it is miles from any known
town or city.

If it's a railway, then we have
industry, because the only

reason why you'd want
to build

a railway up here is to move
heavy materials around.

NARRATOR: A half mile past
the abandoned railway

station sits another strange
echo of Britain's

industrial past.

That's just amazing!

I mean, it's almost like
a medieval cathedral

in its scale.

NARRATOR: 16 giant arches
around four stories high

stretch for 300 feet
along the hillside.

It's just staggering,
the effort

and engineering to build this.

There's some evidence
up there they've been heated.

You can see the different
color in the stone.

They were built to withstand
huge amounts of heat.

NARRATOR: Horton believes
these are giant kilns,

more relics of
what appears to be

a sprawling 19th-century
industrial landscape on

these hills,

one that explains the clusters

of giant pimples
revealed from space.

These mounds, I think, are
the remnants of mining,

and what we're looking at
are shafts

that were sent down
to extract the oil.

NARRATOR:
Around 150 years ago,

vast numbers of people flocked
to these remote moorlands,

drawn by something hidden
beneath the earth.

HORTON:
This is really interesting.

It suggests that what was
actually up here was

really valuable.

It's all a bit of a puzzle.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
how the weird mounds

and ruins changed history.

What we've got is a really
unexpected discovery.

NARRATOR:
And the tale of the Sultan,

the spy,
and the exploding trains.

This was
the origin of all

of the conflicts in the Middle
East that we see today.

NARRATOR: Mark Horton
is in Yorkshire

in the north of England,

investigating clusters of
strange mounds

surrounded by an array
of monstrous,

decaying industrial buildings.

Why would anyone want to come
up here to construct these

in such an inhospitable place?

NARRATOR: The archaeologist has
discovered the mounds are

the remains of unusually
shaped mineshafts.

A nearby hillside
yields a clue

to what drew so many
prospectors here.

[grunting] Look at this,

coming out of the hillside.

Oi!
These rocks are red.

This is ore,
this is ironstone.

It's a slightly orangey-red
color from the iron,

just like rust
on an iron object.

NARRATOR: The presence of iron
here and the age of the ruins

suggest these mines played

a key role in one of
the most extraordinary events

in human history.

HORTON: This is all about
the exploitation of

the vital ingredient for
the Industrial Revolution.

Because with iron ore,
you make the modern world.

NARRATOR:
the Industrial Revolution,

which begins in Britain
in the mid-18th century,

transforms a world reliant on
farming into one of mills,

machines,
and manufactured goods.

JANULIS: This is one of
the time periods in which

society progresses so rapidly,

you blink your eye,
and you miss it,

and suddenly we're
entirely different.

NARRATOR: In 1712,
the British invent

the first commercially
available steam engines,

enabling miners to dig deeper,
machines to work faster

for longer,

and generating huge wealth
for the nation.

But while this
extraordinary growth

was powered by coal and steam,

it was built on iron.

JANULIS: For a nation
that's marching towards

an industrialized society,

this stuff was
a mineral lottery ticket.

NARRATOR: Fueled by
the demand for bridges, ships,

buildings, and railways,

between 1700 and 1850,
British iron production

increases from 12,000 tons
a year to over two million,

and the hills and moorlands
of Yorkshire become

the focus of an incredible
sequence of events.

In 1854, the English
discovered large amounts

of pure iron ore deposits
under the moors.

This kicked off
a booming economy

as miners rushed
into the region.

NARRATOR:
To extract the precious ore,

prospectors turned to
an ancient and highly dangerous

mining technique first used by
monks in the 12th century

called a bell pit.

MORGAN: The extraction process
involved dropping a shaft down

into the vein,

and then you would work that
area until you created

basically a bell-shaped dome.

JANULIS: The non-iron ore would
get dumped on the sides.

That's why we have these weird
mounds with a hole right in

the middle, dotting certain
areas on the moors.

NARRATOR: As more and more rock
is pulled from the ground,

giant kilns are built nearby
to process the iron ore.

By drying it out with
intense heat and by expelling

the carbon dioxide,
a much

purer form of ore
could be obtained,

which could then be loaded
onto the trucks and taken by

railway to the blast furnaces.

NARRATOR: Across Yorkshire,
the bell pit mining technique

is used to extract both iron
and coal.

In 1856, an Englishman named
Henry Bessemer combines both of

these minerals to create

a process that has a dramatic
impact on almost every city

and industry on our planet.

The Bessemer process was
a way of taking iron ore slag,

putting it into a furnace, and
refining it, and the process was

revolutionary,
because it

suddenly made steel
production affordable.

NARRATOR: Thanks to
the Bessemer process,

steel, for centuries almost
exclusively used for making

weapons and ornaments,
could be

mass produced
for the first time.

HYMEL: That's a real
game changer,

and the place
where this new steel really

makes a difference is
the United States.

We're suddenly capable of
doing things

that we would never have
dreamed possible,

like skyscrapers that are
20, 30, 40,

50, 100 stories tall.

HYMEL: Some of the most iconic
buildings and structures in

the United States
are all a result

of the Industrial Revolution
and the use of steel.

[train whistle blowing]

NARRATOR:
Steel also builds the railways

that open up the American West,

helping transform the country
into an economic superpower.

**

Today, the unique industrial
landscape that helped

spark this revolution is
fading to ruin,

but its legacy lives on
in every corner

of the modern world.

KOUROUNIS: It's really
incredible how we can look down

from space
on this series of events

that happened so long
ago that changed the world in

such profound ways.

NARRATOR: Coming up, the wrath
of the ancient super warrior.

KOUROUNIS: If you were to
disrespect the leaders,

punishment was swift and harsh.

NARRATOR: And the 200-foot-long
sand skeleton.

It looks like some
creature that

died and withered away in
the desert.

NARRATOR:
September 2019.

An aerial image shows
a disturbance in

the sands on the coast of
Japan's Shikoku Island.

The only way I can describe
this is someone has taken

a gigantic rubber stamp
and slammed it into the ground,

and it's left this
impression behind.

It's so bizarre.

The mystery
120,000-square-foot structure

overlooks the Inland Sea,
and to military historian

Martin Morgan,
that's a clue.

This is an extraordinarily
important body of water.

When I see monumental
construction projects

near a beach,

I suspect that the military
is involved.

NARRATOR: The structure's
location could mean

it's connected to one of

the most astonishing
plans in military history,

Operation Downfall.

MORGAN: Operation Downfall was
America's plan to invade

the Japanese home islands
in late 1945, early 1946.

Maybe what we're looking at
here was something that was

built in a scramble to prepare
for the American invasion.

[explosions blast]

NARRATOR: In 1945,
at the end of five years

of brutal conflict,
Japan is on its knees.

Operation Downfall
is to be the hammer blow,

a two-pronged
amphibious assault

on Japan on
an unprecedented scale.

Operation Downfall
would involve troop numbers

measured in the millions.

Just one of the two invasions
would have been

more than twice the size of
the D-Day invasion.

NARRATOR: The first part of
the plan, code-named

Operation Olympic, would see
an armada of 400 destroyers

and an astounding 42 aircraft
carriers attack Kyushu,

the island to the south of
the structure in the image.

[shouting]

But the U.S. military
knows that even this mega fleet

may not be enough to
defeat the Japanese.

Imperial Japanese
military forces were

the toughest opponent that the
U.S. military has ever faced.

[shouting]

We're looking at potential
suicide squads attacking

invading troops
and civilians

fighting with sticks
if they had to, to the death,

and that's what made
Operation Downfall very,

very dangerous
for the Allies.

NARRATOR: Estimates suggest that
the invasion was to be

the bloodiest chapter
of World War II,

costing a staggering
11 million lives.

We had every reason to expect
that every last man,

woman, and child would
be a threat.

President Truman ultimately
authorizes the use of

the atomic bomb,
with this sober

recognition for the fact that
an invasion was going to be

extremely costly.

And what a terrible decision
to have to make as a leader.

NARRATOR: Yet archaeologists
familiar with Japanese culture

reveal the mystery structure
dates from

another violent period in
this country's history.

BELLINGER:
The shapes look symbolic.

Looking really closely at this
structure, the figures actually

represent the classic coin
of the Edo period,

corresponding to the height of
samurai rule in Japan.

NELSON: The question is,
why would anybody

create a giant image
of a coin?

NARRATOR:
Analysts turn to the history

of the samurai for clues.

There was a period
several centuries ago

when there was great unrest
and turmoil,

and fiefdom leaders
set about creating a class

of warriors that would create
order out of chaos.

These were known
as samurai warriors.

[horse snorts]

NARRATOR: The first samurai
of the 10th century

operate as small bands
of warriors for hire.

Yet over time, they organize
themselves in groups led by

warlords and begin to command
political as well as

military power.

These guys were true warriors.

They were fit, they were smart,
and they were well armed.

They grew to such prominence
by the 12th century,

they co-ruled Japan with
the emperor.

NARRATOR: The samurai's
primary weapon, the katana,

is forged from around 1,000
layers of folded steel.

Their 41-inch blades were at
times tested on live

criminals as a gruesome method
of proving

their strength and sharpness.

It was much more than
a weapon to the samurai.

It was thought to harbor
his very soul.

It was brought into
the delivery room when

a samurai was born,

and it was the last item laid
by his side as he died.

NARRATOR: It is the samurai's
brutality off

the battlefield
rather than on it

that could explain
the structure in the image.

What defines
the Edo period was

the strictness with which
samurai went about

ensuring order in Japan.

It was really a very
brutal process.

NARRATOR: In feudal Japan, 90%
of the population are peasant

farmers or trades people,

who must give up half of what
they earn in tax to

the samurai.

They live in constant fear of
their warrior masters.

If you were to upset
or disrespect the local

samurai leaders,

punishment was swift
and harsh.

ALBERTSON:
They would behead people.

They would boil them in oil.

And all of those for even

simple infraction of
the social code.

NARRATOR:
Local oral histories suggest

that this reign of terror
led to the construction

of the strange sand coin
visible from space.

Legend states that
this was built when

the local samurai leader was
coming to the area,

but the locals were so poor
that they had no gift to offer.

So they make him a tribute out

of the only thing they have
available -- sand.

NARRATOR: 400 years ago,
local peasants created

the giant coin
to buy their lives.

Over the centuries, it is
meticulously maintained as

a monument to their ingenuity
and their desperation.

Coming up,
desert carnage.

The man who took on
an empire.

A lesser man would not have
carved their name

into time memoriam
the way that he did.

NARRATOR:
And how to bury a vampire.

This idea that the dead might
come back again

was very, very scary.

NARRATOR: From 420 miles over
the Arabian desert,

a satellite captures
an anomaly in the seemingly

endless sea of sand below.

In the middle of the image,
there's something that forms

a distinct shadow,

something very dark
and blocky.

It almost looks like
the skeleton

of some creature
that died and withered away.

There's no obvious
explanation as to how

a structure like this ended up
in the Saudi desert.

NARRATOR: The mystery objects
sit near a strange

Y-shaped pattern etched into
the dunes.

The curves here look
like thoroughfares.

Something was moving along
these lines.

This looks like a railway.

We're looking at
an abandoned train wreck.

NARRATOR: A train wreck in
the middle of the desert is

intriguing enough,

but what's astonishing
is who put it there.

MORGAN: Historical records show
that we're looking at one of

the trains that was destroyed
by Thomas Edward Lawrence,

also known
as Lawrence of Arabia.

NARRATOR: The 1962 movie
"Lawrence of Arabia,"

starring Peter O'Toole,

is widely regarded as one of
the greatest films ever made.

But when it comes to the story
of the man who inspired it,

the truth really is stranger
than fiction.

The tale begins in 1909,

when the Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire orders construction of

the Hejaz Desert Railway

connecting Istanbul
with the holy city of Mecca.

PAVELEC: It was a method for
the Ottoman Empire to be able

to maintain centralized
control over the Arab lands

at the time.

This project was ambitious,
to say the least,

because normally this is
sand traversed only by camels.

NARRATOR:
To construct the Hejaz,

the Ottomans lay down almost
1,000 miles of track,

bridges, and tunnels through
some of the most inhospitable

terrain on Earth.

The steam railway
was a triumph of man

and technology over
the ravages of the desert.

The Hejaz Railway was one of

the greatest civil engineering
accomplishments

of the 20th century.

NARRATOR: The Hejaz also
provides the Ottoman Sultan with

a vital transport link for
his three-million-strong army.

So when he sides with Germany
during the First World War,

the line becomes a prime target
for the British military.

It was capable of bringing
whole troops

and armies across the desert
with munitions.

MORGAN: And the result of that
is the British

begin to make war against
the Ottomans.

NARRATOR: The British know that
to defeat the Ottomans,

they must persuade local Arab
forces to help them destroy

the Hejaz Railway.

Up steps British archaeologist,
army officer, and spy

Colonel T.E. Lawrence.

Lawrence is the perfect man,
because he understands

not just
the terrain and the area,

but he understands the people.

He speaks the languages,
he's very favorable towards

the Arabs, and the Arabs are
also favorable towards him.

NARRATOR: In 1916,

Despite being vastly outnumbered
by the sultan's forces,

Lawrence and the Arab
rebels begin

a daring campaign of sabotage
in the desert.

Lawrence turns out to be

a very effective leader
of guerilla warfare.

[explosions blasting]

PAVELEC: They would blow up
rolling stock.

They would sabotage
the steam engines.

They'd break down
the Ottomans'

ability to maneuver
and move around.

At one point,
Lawrence captures a train with

his men so short on weapons

that some of them could only
throw rocks at the enemy.

NARRATOR: The key to
Lawrence's success was

a tactic he called
scientific shattering.

He believed that, in warfare,
if you kill one man,

you just remove a man
from commission.

But if you wound a man,

you have to tend him.

You have to give him
medical care.

This is exactly what Lawrence
did to the railway line, because

he perfected this technique
for blowing up a bridge

without destroying it.

NARRATOR:
By attacking Ottoman forts

and damaging sections of
the railway,

Lawrence forces the sultan to
repeatedly deploy vital

resources to far-flung parts
of the desert.

It's a brilliant tactic.

[explosion blasts]

He was able to keep harassing
the Ottoman Empire until they

simply just could not fight
anymore, because they were

exhausted through attrition.

NARRATOR:
In one month of 1918 alone,

Lawrence and the rebels blow
up 25 sections

of the Hejaz Railway,

creating a 600-mile-long trail
of destruction

and pinning down
thousands of Ottoman troops.

Their dreams of moving troops
and munitions across

Saudi Arabia vaporized
in that desert air

thanks to T.E. Lawrence.

NARRATOR: After their defeat
in the Great War,

the Ottoman Empire
disintegrates,

but the Arab rebels
are poorly rewarded for

the blood they spilled
for the British

in the desert sands.

At the end of the war,

the French and the British
divide up Arab lands and begin

to siphon off all the oil.

This creates a backlash that
is really the origin of all

of the conflicts in the Middle
East that we see today.

NARRATOR: In 1935,
Lawrence is killed in

a motorcycle accident in
the British countryside.

Yet even today,
the legacy of his incredible

exploits in the Arabian Sands
survive, visible from space.

MORGAN: That's why a movie's
made about him.

A lesser man would not have
carved their name

into time memoriam
the way that he did.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
vampire graveyards.

People would hear the living
dead under the ground.

NARRATOR: And Geronimo,
the giant flying rodent.

I don't think I'll ever look
at the beaver the same way.

NARRATOR: April 2016.

Archaeologists began
an aerial survey of

countryside near the town of
Pieniezno, Poland.

A laser scan of
the forest below peels back

the canopy to reveal a cluster
of medieval houses

lost to history.

But it's what's hidden in
the center

of the ancient village that
really intrigues historians.

WALTERS:
I can see some roads.

I can see some fields.

There is something that
actually is quite perplexing.

It's this kind of
cube-like mound.

It just stands out
like a sore thumb.

What is it,
and why is it

so different from everything
else around it?

NARRATOR: To historians,
the shape of the mystery

structure suggests it could
have a macabre origin.

This big doughnut feature
could possibly

be a burial mound,

and that's intriguing, because
if this is a burial mound,

it could be connected
to a recent

discovery very close by
that's not a little gruesome.

BELLINGER: Just across the way,
archaeologists dug up

four bodies,
and they're amazed

to find that they've
been decapitated

and their skulls buried
between their legs.

NARRATOR:
Experts believe the heads were

purposefully removed
after death in

an attempt to stop
the cadavers

from rising from the grave.

Typically, we don't find
bodies in this

kind of orientation, except in
speculation of vampires.

It's really easy
for us today to laugh

at this whole idea
of belief in vampires.

You've got to remember at

the time, people thought
they were real.

NARRATOR: The belief in vampires
could have begun

in medieval times
when gases from bloated,

plague-ridden corpses would
force blood out of the mouth,

making it look like they had
been feasting on human flesh.

HORTON:
As the gases built up,

it would literally
pop like a balloon.

People would hear the ground
popping under their feet,

and this gave the idea that
the living dead was down there

under the ground.

NARRATOR: The very real
fear of the undead led to

corpses being buried with
sharpened sickles at

their necks.

This idea that the dead might

come back again did not
seem superstitious.

It was very, very scary.

We've seen examples where
wooden stakes were driven

through the skeleton
to pin it to the ground.

Maybe the structure could be
some kind of grave site,

possibly even containing
the sort of mutilated skeletons

they found across town.

NARRATOR: Yet further
examination reveals the site

in the image
has a different origin.

SZULGIT:
Upon excavation,

archaeologists find weapons,
palisades, ramparts.

This was obviously
some kind of fortification.

NARRATOR: The studies reveal
that the long-buried

fortification was once
a seat of power of

a wealthy and mysterious
Catholic military order,

the Teutonic knights.

RUBEN:
These were not knights

like you'd see
in a Disney movie.

These knights were
actually ruthless, brutal,

savage murderers.

NARRATOR: The Teutonic Knights
were founded in 1198 A.D.

to help retake Jerusalem
from the Arabs during

the Crusades.

WALTERS: In order to become
a Teutonic knight,

you had to swear
that you would be chaste,

so there was no sex
for your Teutonic knights.

But they compensate
for their lack

of social interaction
by their warrior prowess.

They're very fearsome.

NARRATOR: When they return
from the Crusades,

the Teutonic knights begin
an even bloodier campaign,

waging a religious war for
the high Duke of Poland

in Prussia.

He enlists them
to come and act

effectively as mercenaries
in quelling paganism

throughout Prussia.

NARRATOR:
Over the following 50 years,

the knights put tens of
thousands of pagans who refuse

to be baptized to the sword.

HUNT: They were very brutal in
how they suppress the people.

Nobody wanted to mess with
the Teutonic knights.

The Teutonic knights use
this campaign to effectively

assert their dominance
throughout the whole of Prussia.

NARRATOR:
Following their victory

against the Prussian pagans,

the nights grow in strength
and embark on more

military campaigns.

They use the plunder from
these wars to construct castles

across Eastern Europe,

including the one revealed
by aerial imaging.

WALTERS: I mean, what more
does your average

night need than some gold in
a castle?

They'd become
this very powerful,

almost, you know, nation,
state-like force in themselves.

NARRATOR: As the years pass,
the knights' power fades.

But in the 20th century,

the emblem that adorned
their tunics and shields

returns as an icon
of pure evil.

And that is the very famous
black and white Teutonic cross.

It becomes the Iron Cross
famously that we associate

with the Second World War
from the German armed forces.

NARRATOR: The Nazi use
of the knights' cross

is part of an attempt
to mythologize

themselves as a continuation
of the Teutonic order's

battle to
spread Christianity.

The Teutonic knights got
a very bad name because of

the way in which they were
appropriated by Nazi propaganda.

NARRATOR: Seven centuries
before the Nazis rise to power,

the Teutonic knights constructed
the castle in the image

using the spoils from
their own genocidal wars.

After being swallowed
by the earth,

it is rediscovered once more
from the skies.

There's so many other
mysteries out there waiting to

be solved, and now,
thanks to things like LIDAR,

are we have the tools to
begin solving them.

NARRATOR: Coming up, the day
they bombed Idaho with beavers.

It was basically the world's
first beaver delivery service.

NARRATOR:
Summer 2018.

Aerial images show
an unfolding disaster as

the Earth burns.

If you ever find yourself in

the path of one of
these wildfires,

it can be
absolutely terrifying.

It's almost like
a vision of hell.

NARRATOR:
In the United States alone,

some 58,000 wildfires
devastate an area four times

the size of
Yellowstone National Park.

But as a drone scans

the charred remains of Idaho's
Sawtooth National Forest,

it captures an anomaly.

We're looking at
a devastated landscape,

but then down in the valley
is this miracle.

Trees, plants,
vegetation all gone,

except for this one,
really lush green patch.

NARRATOR: The snaking green
oasis appears to follow

the course of a river.

In other places, the wildfire
has burned right over the river,

but this one spot was
completely skipped over.

So what is it about this area
that kept it protected?

NARRATOR: Satellite images
identify other similar areas

that have been spared
from fiery annihilation.

Scientists look far and wide
to figure out what it is that

connects them,
and they find

that they all have one thing
in common -- beaver dams.

It turns out beavers are
elite firefighters,

and they can stop an inferno
in its tracks.

NARRATOR: The secret to
the beavers' firefighting

heroics lies in
their chisel-shaped teeth.

They enable
the 60-pound rodents to gnaw

through up to 200 trees
each year,

creating dams that can stretch
for half a mile,

irrigating hundreds
of acres of land.

The dams and the ponds
can get so big that some

of them can be seen from space.

KAYS:
By spreading out the water,

it encourages the plant growth
throughout the area

and basically turns it into

a giant sponge that isn't gonna
burn when a fire comes through.

NARRATOR:
The small sliver of life

discovered in the charred hills
of Idaho

only exists because
of a curious quirk of history.

Beavers haven't always
been appreciated

as the superheroes
that they are.

In fact, they were almost
hunted to extinction

for their pelts.

Beavers played a surprisingly
important role in the early

frontier days of North America.

All across the United States
and especially up into Canada,

beaver pelts were
the number-one industry.

NARRATOR: Between the 16th
and 19th centuries,

the fur trade fuels a mass
slaughter of the beaver

population that sees
their numbers

plummet from 400 million
to just 100,000.

This crash of the beaver
population had, you can imagine,

all kinds of effects on
the rest of the forest.

The landscapes dried up,
and that made it very,

very vulnerable to fires.

NARRATOR:
During the 1940s,

authorities decide to
repopulate Idaho with beavers.

It leads to a truly
bizarre experiment.

So the question is, how do you
reintroduce a beaver?

Well, to get to some of these
remote landscapes,

they literally bombed Idaho
with beavers.

NARRATOR: In 1948,
scientists put an elderly

beaver called Geronimo into
an airplane,

take to the skies over Idaho,

and then toss him
out of the side.

DENNIE: Well, they parachuted
the beaver out of a plane in

a box, and the door would open,
and the beaver would come out.

It was basically the world's
first beaver delivery service.

NARRATOR: Geronimo
the parachuting beaver

is followed by dozens more
flying rodents.

Imagine yourself
in Idaho, and you look up,

and you have beaver
parachuting down on you.

Man, that would have
been weird.

CERVENY:
It actually worked.

We were able to
reintroduce beavers,

and they start to re-establish
the original environment.

NARRATOR: Today,
thanks to the efforts

of Geronimo
and others like him,

an estimated 15 million
beavers across the U.S.

form an astonishingly
effective force of

natural firefighters

revealed from the skies.

DENNIE: I have a new
appreciation for the beaver

and for beaver dams,
and I don't think

I'll ever look at a beaver
the same way.