Original subtitles

Even the most respected grownup was once a

party animal searching for love.

Hot blood leads to seductive behavior.

♪ ♪

And when the flame bowerbird drops its jungle boogie,

it's irresistibly weird.

The creatures of earth are wilder

than you could possibly imagine.

Among the fast and fearsome are the astoundingly crazy.

With strange behavior and outrageous fashion sense.

They're all in a competition to survive.

And weirdness always wins.

♪ ♪

Inhabiting waterways across the globe,

there's a strange creature.

This pregnant dragonfly is in a rush.

With only eight weeks of life, she's made the most

of the dating pool.

Now she needs to deliver her eggs.

The dark waters of a pond?

Perfect.

Ovipositor dipped below the surface, she deposits her brood.

For some, motherhood is about care,

nurturing and unconditional love.

♪ ♪

But not this dragonfly.

♪ ♪

Dumping the kids and taking off is how dragonfly mothers rule.

Eggs laid, she splits for good.

Months have passed.

And the dragonfly offspring looks nothing like her mother.

Orphaned, she needs to grow fast to survive.

Natural born instincts kick in.

With her target locked, the nymph draws in water

through her backside.

Then forces it forward to fire her lower jaw.

♪ ♪

For two years, the nymph terrorizes her aquatic world.

Growing bigger and stronger.

The ugly hatchling has become one of the pond's top predators.

But the time comes when the pond monster must be reborn.

♪ ♪

Water breathing gills transform to take in air.

She leaves the dark waters behind

and heads towards the moonlight.

The nymph expands her body,

excreting solvents that help her molt.

Her hard exoskeleton cracks open.

♪ ♪

Like an insect Cinderella, she's suddenly glamorous.

♪ ♪

But can she really leave her dark past behind?

Her appearance may have changed, but she's become

even more deadly.

Able to fly almost 40 miles per hour.

Executing sudden turns in any direction.

With a hunting success rate reaching 95%,

she is the most successful predator on the planet.

And the first chance she gets, she'll pair up, mate,

and dish out tough love to her own offspring.

They may be born into squalor, but dragonflies that survive

are all destined to be high flyers.

Beautiful, but deadly.

New Guinea is a cauldron of quirky courtship.

♪ ♪

These female flame bowerbirds are window shopping

for a mate.

And this elegant bower, come love lair,

has aroused their curiosity.

♪ ♪

Constructed by the male flame bowerbird.

A hypnotic dance freak with a ton of funk in his junk.

But these gals will need convincing,

because he's gonna be a fly-by-night father

and leave her to raise the kids alone.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

So they are looking long and hard.

He's got just one chance to show what's in his genes.

The bower he's built isn't a nest.

It's just a stage to entertain the ladies.

He fusses over the final touches.

She's still not convinced.

But this isn't his first rodeo.

He knows just the thing to light their fire.

Accessorize.

Nothing pulls the ladies like a splash of color.

Baubles of blue, purple, and gray arranged to seduce.

Oh, that's lured one in.

♪ ♪

And now that he has an audience, it's time to bust a move.

♪ ♪

Plain Jane is mesmerized.

Her own Magic Mike.

♪ ♪

The bower makes it steamier.

The walls frame his performance.

♪ ♪

From where she stands, he looks bigger,

flashier, and totally irresistible.

The male flame bower bird is truly funk meister number one.

♪ ♪

He gets down to business.

And heads for the door.

Because this bad boy has more booty calls to make.

♪ ♪

This pair of four-lined tree frogs are

up and ready for a little romance.

They're soon to be upmarket parents.

The kind that spoil their kids and leave them a fortune.

♪ ♪

But first, a moment of passion.

♪ Oh yeah ♪

The male is smaller, but he has big ambitions.

Why not add a bubble bath for a touch of glamor?

But there's no bed out here.

So they use mucus secreted from their back legs.

It forms a dense foam nest, which will harden

on the outside, but remain moist within.

Creating a crusty, but weirdly luxurious,

incubation chamber.

The female releases her eggs into the nest.

The male frog fertilizes the clutch.

Rain forest rendezvous complete.

They leave their offspring with a glistening endowment

to see them through.

Three days later,

rainwater dissolves the foamy refuge,

and tadpoles emerge.

After such a pampered upbringing,

the first of nature's truths hits hard, hunger.

Time to dip into the trust fund.

The foam nest they once called home

is also a source of food.

♪ ♪

Growing pains kick in as the pampered youth sprout limbs,

and gills are replaced with air-breathing lungs.

Within weeks, the froglets emerge

from their aquatic dorm rooms, ready for some adulting.

All too quickly, the rush of hormones

and this new generation of silver spooners

are looking for frog love too, bequeathing the family fortune

to golden scions of their own.

Life for a wood duck mother is a continual test.

♪ ♪

She's flat out feeding on pond weed and snails,

while her ex sits around and preens.

He's all flash and no substance,

leaving her to bring up the kids alone.

Mother duck has safely laid her eggs in a top floor roost.

There's no need for babysitting up here.

They're safe from almost anything.

Almost.

♪ ♪

Rat snakes eat eggs for breakfast,

and they're clever climbers.

A couple of duck eggs are easy pickings.

♪ ♪

Down in the water,

mother duck has no idea,

but she may not give a quack, because wood ducks need

to be as hard as nails.

♪ ♪

From the moment they hatch,

her little flock face sky high challenges.

Number one, they're way up here.

Number two, mom's down there.

And three, the rat snake's back.

Eggs are fine, but soft little duck nuggets are next level.

It's crunch time.

Or at least it will be, if the ducklings don't

make a leap of faith.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Wood ducks are born base jumpers.

The final chick and the snake is close.

Time to get the duck out of here.

All the ducklings have made it.

One small step for motherhood, one giant leap for ducklings.

This lone penguin is about to face

one of Earth's craziest challenges.

Survive the most brutal winter on the planet,

while balancing an egg on his feet.

Thousands of Antarctic emperor penguins

have quartered, mated, and laid eggs.

One per couple.

♪ ♪

They've got just one complicated job.

Keep it warm while hell freezes over.

Winter is on the doorstep, so it's time for the female to

hand over her precious cargo.

Too many seconds on the ice and the egg will freeze.

Emperor dads protect their eggs by cradling them on their feet.

Under a luxurious belly of fat and feathers.

Every father will remain on the ice

through the depths of winter.

♪ ♪

While the mothers journey up over 60 miles to the sea,

where they will forage until spring returns.

♪ ♪

This is the last son the fathers will see

for more than two months.

In the darkness, battling savage winds and starvation,

their sole mission is to keep their eggs covered

and off the ice.

Instinctively, they form a huddle.

Penguins on the outside protect penguins within

against the cold, biting winds.

Shifting constantly, every bird spends time

in the warm heart of the huddle.

Heat at the center can reach an incredible

98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sustaining the scrum for nearly two months nonstop

takes a heavy toll.

Sadly, not every father masters the skill.

Even the strongest males lose half their body weight.

♪ ♪

As spring approaches, chicks begin to hatch.

♪ ♪

They're born into the toughest environment on earth

and their fathers have little left to give.

A meager meal of protein-rich crop milk

secreted from a gland in their esophagus.

♪ ♪

Just in time, the females return with bellies full.

In a rookery of thousands, they must call for their mate.

The female locates her partner, desperate to see her young

offspring for the first time.

After months of nurture and hardship,

the male is a little reluctant.

The exchange begins.

It needs to be quick.

Exposure to the ice can kill newborns in just minutes.

At last, the chick can feed properly.

♪ ♪

Finally, it's the male's turn to feed.

♪ ♪

The Antarctic ice pack is now at its full extent.

He'll spend days crossing the ice to find open water.

♪ ♪

There are few more heroic dads in nature

and no better reward than an epic fishing trip with the guys.

Some species lay it all on the line for love.

These salmon have destroyed their very lives

in the hope of romance.

♪ ♪

But long before love steals their breath away,

male salmon hatchlings grow up in the river of their birth.

Eventually, it's time to graduate to the open ocean.

These are their bachelor years,

living free and hanging with the guys.

♪ ♪

But as they mature,

they feel the urge to settle down and have a family.

Red, hot and randy, they know just where to go.

The spawning grounds where mom and dad met.

♪ ♪

They swim for miles against the current,

hoping the party won't start without them.

But getting there is so darned hard.

And who invited these guys?

♪ ♪

Big, hairy bouncers weeding out the weaklings.

♪ ♪

With the grizzlies in the rear view mirror,

our hookup party for the ages finally kicks into gear.

Everybody's looking hot.

The guys run wild, hitting on the girls and vibrating,

encouraging them to lay eggs.

♪ Oh yeah ♪

At last, a partner and a family on the horizon.

If only they could enjoy it.

But these guys left it all on the field

and there's nothing left to give.

They're punching out.

When they die, their decomposing bodies

nourish their young.

♪ ♪

For never was there a story ending in more roe

than of these salmon Juliets and their Romeos.

Africa.

Thousands of years of evolution have created wildlife's

biggest stars.

Flamboyant exhibitionists, crowd pleasers.

And action heroes.

But the biggest box office draw of them all,

the sausage tree.

Weird fruit, weird flowers,

and an even weirder way of spreading its seed.

When you're rooted to the spot like the Kigelia sausage tree,

you need a little help to scatter your seeds.

Step one, gather a fan base.

Use your leafy green canopy to entice animals

into the shade.

♪ ♪

Step two, give the audience what they want.

Sausage tree flowers have evolved

a seductive kind of rancid perfume

that everybody loves.

And out here in Zambia's Luangwa Valley,

nothing says eat me quite like kicking up a stink.

Vervet monkeys come in expecting lunch.

But find dessert instead.

Gorging on sugary nectar.

♪ ♪

In return, the tree coats them in pollen

that they'll carry to other sausage trees,

pollinating their flowers.

In just a few weeks, the sausage tree's reproductive

strategy shows results.

Behold, the sausage fruit.

The sausage tree needs an animal agent to extract its seeds.

Heat and drought resistant, a windfall of sausage

fruits is a bonanza for starving animals.

♪ ♪

Enter the olive baboons.

They gnaw through the shell easily.

♪ ♪

Devouring the fleshy pulp and seeds inside.

♪ ♪

Within a few hours, the urge to poop

sausage tree seeds runs through the troop

like a wave of dyspepsia.

For the sausage tree, mission accomplished.

When the rains finally come,

the young sausage saplings spring to life.

Emerging into the spotlight, one day to take their place as

icons of the African savannah.

Meet Australia's flying foxes.

Masters of life in the upside down under.

♪ ♪

For some, the idea of mating upside down

might seem on the far side of experimental.

For the fruit bats, this is as normal as it gets.

Inverted, females hang onto the males by their ankles

while he grabs onto her neck with his teeth,

pinning her wings to her side.

♪ ♪

Their encounter is over.

A year later, the baby bats are starting

to get the hang of adult life.

But there's no upside down time for the bat mothers.

They must teach their pups the ways of the forest.

Like how to find fruits and nectar.

And as the sun climbs higher, how to stay cool.

Because these bats have a fatal flaw.

Above 100 degrees Fahrenheit,

flying foxes can die from heat stress.

So baby bats need to learn how to take a dip.

Coarse hairs on their belly and chest absorb water,

which they lick off at the roost.

But it's a gutsy mission.

The lucky surviving mothers return to the roost,

reuniting with their pups and the safer world

of life upside down.

In the far flung reaches of the Indian Ocean,

there is a strange island,

seething with ritualistic mating rites.

♪ ♪

A scarlet kingdom of crustaceans,

unlike anywhere on earth.

Where red crabs gather beneath the quarter moon

in an orgy for the ages.

♪ ♪

The Christmas Island crab is a pleasure seeker

extraordinaire. For most of the year,

these crabs live the single life in the rainforest.

But come the wet season's first rains,

the island erupts in an amorous mass migration.

In order to mate, these land crabs need

to get back to the beach.

♪ ♪

But they live far from the nearest coastline

and man-made obstacles litter their path.

♪ ♪

Powerful hormones flood the crabs' bodies.

Pumped up on these love drugs, island traffic is a

mere inconvenience.

These frisky crabs risk more than just

a broken heart.

♪ ♪

Finally, they reach the ocean's edge.

The larger male crabs arrive before the horde

and are the first to inseminate the females.

♪ ♪

After mating, the females congregate by the shoreline

in pregnant anticipation.

Before dawn, when the moon reaches its last quarter,

♪ ♪

the females release more than a billion eggs into the water.

Larvae hatch instantly.

Over the next month, their transformation is spectacular,

developing into fully formed baby crabs.

The crimson tide of new life reclaims Christmas Island.

Just another incredible origin story,

and living proof evolution is alive and conjuring

every conceivable way for life to succeed.