All language subtitles for Natures.Strangest.Mysteries-Solved.S01E11.Big.Cat.Screaming.Match.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE

Narrator: Why is
this lone dolphin

Making weird patterns
in the mud?

That probably isn't just random.

Narrator: How come a porcupine
is walking right on top

Of this deadly predator?

This is one seriously
sneaky snake.

Narrator: And what on earth are
these two lynx shouting about?

[ lynxes shouting ]

Nature is awe-inspiring,

But sometimes,
it just doesn't make sense.

Man: I have never seen
anything like this.

Our team of experts investigate
the weirdest animal behavior...

That's amazing.

...And the most
unexpected events...

What is causing that?
...Ever caught on camera.

My, god.

These are...

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

July 2018, st. Petersburg,
florida --

Outdoor enthusiast
michael mccarthy is watching

A lone dolphin
from his see-through canoe.

Then it starts doing
something strange,

So michael launches his drone

To capture a bird's-eye view
of what's going on.

It reveals something
interesting.

As it goes, it's creating this
sort of cloud of muddiness

That is in a big circle.

Narrator: The question is,
what is this lone dolphin doing?

Riskin: Anytime you see
a weird behavior,

There's a very good chance
that it's just play.

We know that dolphins play
a lot of the time,

Both in groups
and by themselves.

Aryee: Sometimes
you see dolphins

Picking up bits of seaweed

And just passing it around
from one dolphin to another.

Daly: Play behavior could be
anything from bow riding,

Leaping out of the water,

And even playing with the sand.

Narrator: Could this dolphin
be messing around

In the mud just for fun?

Where dolphins have been seen
playing in the mud before,

They've been using
their nose in the mud.

Narrator: They use sonar to scan
the bottom

And locate hidden objects,

But this dolphin appears
to be using its tail

As the mud trail
appears behind it.

It doesn't look like the classic
play behavior

That we see in dolphins.

Narrator: Okay, so not play.

What other reason
could the dolphin

Have for dragging
its tail in the mud?

Riskin: There are lots
of marine mammals

That will clean themselves off
by rubbing along the bottom.

Bowhead whales do this.

Killer whales do this.

It's thought to help remove
parasites and shed their skin.

Narrator: But some whales have
more extreme beauty regimens.

August 2018,
monterey bay, california --

This lady got
quite a fright.

Woman: [ screams ] oh, my god.

Come on. Get up.
Get up.

That's it.
We need to leave.

Narrator: A humpback whale was
scraping itself clean

On the side
of her boat.

Woman: This is, like, barnacles,
like, whale barnacles.

Narrator: Barnacles
are small crustaceans

That will attach to pretty
much anything, including whales.

These plankton-eating
freeloaders can cause friction

And slow the whales down.

They're probably
a bit itchy, too,

Which is perhaps why this whale
wanted to be rid of them.

Woman: [ screams ] oh, my god.

Narrator: Dolphins don't usually
have barnacles

Because of
their speedy lifestyle,

But they still need
to keep clean.

Dolphins have very flaky
and loose skin.

So it is a possibility
that this dolphin

Is trying to use
the sediment

At the bottom of the water
to clean its body.

Narrator: Sounds good,

But there's a problem
with this theory.

Uh...

What is the problem?

Daly: For dolphins to shed
their flaky skin,

They don't need to rub
themselves up

Against rocks or sand.

Narrator: Instead, dolphins shed
their skin

All the time as they swim.

So cleaning is a dead-end.

Are there any clues
we might have overlooked?

Daly: In this clip, you can see
that the dolphin

Is moving around at the surface
of the water in circles.

And that probably
isn't just random.

Narrator: But why would a
dolphin deliberately stir up mud

In a circle?

The solution to this comes
from paying attention

To what happens
after the circle is drawn,

Because once the mud
is in place,

There are a whole bunch
of fish that react to it.

Humpback whales will go
around in a spiral,

And they'll start releasing
bubbles from their blowholes.

These bubbles basically
make a net, a bubble net,

And it traps the fish inside,
and they gorge on those fish.

♪

Narrator: It turns out
that bottlenose dolphins

In florida
have created a unique version

Of this technique using mud,

And it's very effective.

The fish in a frenzy
get confused

And start trying
to leap out of this,

What they see as a solid wall,
this mud ring.

The dolphins then snap up
these fish.

Riskin: What this dolphin is
doing is a hunting technique

Called corralling,
getting a whole bunch of fish

Into a tight cluster
and taking advantage of it.

Aryee: This is the first time
a dolphin has been filmed

Doing it by itself.

This lone dolphin has learned

This behavior
from its counterparts

And has been able
to mud ring by itself.

Narrator: It hasn't snapped up
any fish, though,

So it hasn't
quite nailed the technique.

Despite the great efforts
of this single dolphin,

Obviously,
he's still learning.

Narrator:
This extraordinary footage
has captured not play time

Or a beauty regime,

But a solo and unsuccessful
twist on a hunting technique.

♪

January 2015, dinokeng
game reserve, south africa --

Researchers set up cctv cameras
to film puff adders in the wild.

They were not prepared
for what they captured.

Burke: What you see is a
puff adder in the center frame.

This porcupine goes past.

And it actually steps
on the snake.

What's really, really
extraordinary about this footage

Is puff adders
are incredibly venomous.

Narrator:
But the porcupine crosses
without even noticing it,

And another clip
featuring an animal

That eats puff adders
for breakfast is even weirder.

This cat-like animal, called
a genet, walks right past

This free meal.

So how is the puff adder
going undetected?

Burke: Some animals use a very
simple strategy of camouflage.

They just hide in plain sight.

That's why you have these
beautiful kind of chevron-like

Patterns on the snake.

Narrator: Ash miller at
wits university, south africa,

Has been studying
puff adder behavior.

When they're lying up underneath
a bush or in a grass clump,

You will never see them
unless they're moving,

So when a predator approaches
a puff adder,

It's best form of defense is
actually just to remain hidden.

Narrator: But the puff adder is
the third-most venomous snake

In africa,
after the black mamba

And spitting cobra,

So why put on
the disappearing act?

People often mistake the idea

That a venomous animal
is well-armed.

They're not. The venom is
intended for their prey.

Aryee: Puff adders are ambush
predators,

Which means that they lie
in wait for their prey

To come by
at just the right time

And then, boom,
unleash that venomous bite.

And what that means is the snake
is sitting in one spot

For potentially days
if not weeks at a time,

Which makes it really vulnerable
to predators itself.

Narrator: But camouflage doesn't
always work.

Relying on camouflage is great
if you're trying

To avoid predation by animals
that rely on visual cues,

But what about sense of smell?

Narrator: The cape porcupine
and the genet in the cctv

Footage are nocturnal,

Relying more on smell
than sight to find a meal.

The question is,
why aren't these animals

Smelling this snake?

Narrator:
In south africa, a genet
and a cape porcupine

Are oblivious to puff adders,

Even when the snake
is right under their noses.

These nocturnal animals rely
on their sense of smell

To find food,

So how are puff adders
going undetected?

Could they somehow be
disguising their scent?

We see animals covering
or masking their own scent

With the scent of other animals.

Narrator: A rock squirrel will
chew up rattlesnake skin

And lick its fur.

Burke: It does this to mask
its own scent

With the scent of a rattlesnake,

Which I imagine
would be quite an advantage

If it's trying to not
get eaten by things.

Narrator: So are puff adders
undetectable

Because they're
masking their scent?

Watching this footage, though,

It's clear that these animals
going past this puff adder

Are simply not smelling
anything at all.

You'd expect to see
some sort of reaction.

♪

Narrator: We know animals can't
see the camouflaged snake,

But the question remains
why keen noses can't smell it.

Ash miller focuses
her phd research

Around this very mystery.

To put the snake to the test
under scientific conditions,

She's recruited
a local snake expert.

Enter trouble,
a sniffer meerkat.

♪

Meerkats are real
snake specialists.

They've evolved to find
snakes in the wild.

Narrator:
That's because meerkats
are on the snake's menu.

When they catch a whiff
of a snake, they band together

And mob the intruder
until it slinks away,

So surely they can detect
puff adders.

Ash prepares a lineup
of test tubes for the challenge.

Each contains a cloth
with a specific smell.

Some of them have got
blank cloths in,

Which are just clean cloths.

One of them has
a control scent in,

Which is just the smell
of the clean tub,

And then one of them
has a puff adder scent in.

Narrator: This target scent is
collected by adding

A live puff adder
to the clean tub

And then taking a cloth
which has touched the snake.

Ash gives the meerkat a whiff
of a puff adder cloth.

Can trouble find the snake
based on its scent alone?

Narrator: He's hungry
for the task...

Miller: Oh, good boy.

...And the mealworm treats.

So you see, trouble has
just found puff adder,

Which is fantastic,

But if he also indicates
the control,

He's telling us
he can't tell them apart.

Narrator: Remember, the control
is just the smell

Of the empty tub.

Miller: Oh, and he's just hit
the control.

Narrator: Sorry, trouble,
no treat this time.

Now, our little meerkat
was really good

At detecting the smell
of other snakes,

But when it came to
the puff adder sample,

Trouble was in deep trouble.

Narrator: He couldn't smell
the difference between a cloth

From the empty tub
and a cloth rubbed on the snake.

The sneaky puff adder
evades detection once again.

Okay, so here's a crazy idea --

Maybe this snake has no smell
at all.

Okay, we need a serious nose.

[ elephant trumpets ]

Narrator: In south africa,
something weird is happening.

A snake is going undetected,

Even by animals
with a great sense of smell.

Is it possible that
the puff adder

Simply has no detectable scent?

Only one way to find out.

We need the ultimate nose.

Miller: What about an animal
who has probably the best sense

Of smell in the animal kingdom,
the african elephant?

They have over 2,000 olfactory
receptor genes,

Which is incredibly high.

Narrator: Dogs are famous for
their sniffing abilities,

Yet they only have 800
of these smelling genes,

Which means elephant noses
are far superior.

So can they find puff adder?

Narrator: Ash scales up
her experiment

To mammoth proportions

Using elephants trained
in scent detection.

At first, it seemed that
the elephants could detect

The smell of the puff adders.

-Good boy.
-Good boy.

Narrator: The elephants were
finding the right canister

And ignoring the control
every time.

But it turns out
that the elephants

Were being a bit cheeky.

Miller: When you paid proper
attention to the actual footage

That we've been collecting
during these trials,

We realized
that these guys were cheating.

Narrator: After the elephants
were rewarded

For finding
the puff adder scent...

Miller: Good boy.

...They were pulling
a sneaky maneuver.

Aryee: The elephants would mark
that particular canister

With the scent
or smell of its own trunk,

So even though the canisters
might have been moved around,

The elephant was able
to identify

Where the canister was
by detecting its own smell.

Narrator: It seems the elephants

Were stumbling
across the right canister

And turning that
into a winning streak,

But now that ash uses
fresh canisters in each run,

It turns out that,
like trouble the meerkat,

Elephant noses
are foiled by puff adders.

Even an elephant can't detect
the smell of a puff adder.

Miller: They are hiding their
scent in some way or another.

They are not producing an odor
that other animals

Are cuing in on.

Narrator: It seems this snake
is scentless after all.

This is extraordinary findings,
really,

Because this is a world first.

Miller: This is the first
example of scentlessness

In a terrestrial
vertebrate species.

Narrator: The question now is,

How does the puff adder
prevent itself from smelling?

Ash is still investigating
this part of the mystery,

But she has some ideas.

I'm so... I don't want to give
this away, though.

Narrator: Oh, go on, ash.

Give us a clue.

The theory that we're investing
all of our focus

Into at the moment is the idea
that the scales have a role

To play in the scentlessness
and that they might somehow

Either be absorbing odors
from around its environment

Or that it doesn't allow odor
to come off of them.

Narrator: By camouflaging its
body and concealing its scent,

The puff adder has found
the secret to invisibility.

This is one seriously
sneaky snake.

Narrator: May 2018,
ontario, canada --

Edward trist and his family

Are taking a fishing trip

When they come across
something strange.

[ lynxes shouting ]

♪

Two canadian lynx face off
in a very vocal way.

[ lynxes shouting ]

♪

It genuinely sounded like
my little nieces doing it.

Narrator: This is not a hoax.

The sound is real,
but what on earth does it mean?

Narrator: In ontario, canada,

A family witnesses a close
encounter of the feline kind.

[ lynxes shouting ]

Two lynx go head-to-head

While making really
strange sounds, but why?

Cooke: Perhaps they're just
having a family tiff.

[ lynxes shouting ]

Schreiber: Maybe they're
just battling out

Some sort of domestic issue,

Unaware that they're being
filmed by some amateur filmer.

Cooke:
Lynx are solitary creatures.

They're normally found
haunting the forests,

And they rarely meet.

Narrator:
The only groups you'll see
are mothers with their young,

Who will hunt
and play together.

Kittens will stay
with their mother

For a whole year
after being born,

So it's possible
that these two are siblings.

Narrator: But this doesn't quite
add up.

Siblings are affectionate,

Grooming and curling up
with each other,

And this exchange
is pretty intense.

[ lynxes shouting ]

This is not some sort of
sibling rivalry.

This is two random adults

Appearing to be caught
in aggressive conversation.

Narrator: So not a family tiff.

Could this be two male lynx

Having a turf war
over territory?

Cooke: Males occupy
different territories.

So one obvious thinking behind
what's going on here

Is that they've met up.

They both think they own
this bit of land,

And they're having
an argument about it.

Narrator: But the altercation
in this clip

Is all banshee and no bite.

Is this normal for a territorial
dispute between lynx?

If it were two males,
then it would be very likely

That this encounter
would escalate

Into a very aggressive one.

We would have seen
a full-on brawl there.

Narrator:
You mean like these guys?

Okay.

Our video seems a bit tame
after that,

So perhaps not
a territorial dispute.

Then what links these two lynx?

Could it be the oldest story
in the book?

Male and female lynx
are identical.

It's impossible to
tell them apart,

So perhaps we're looking
at a male and a female.

Lynx inhabit areas
with very cold, harsh winters,

So they tend to have
very seasonal breeding patterns.

Narrator: A female will call out
to say she's available,

But males had better be quick

Because she will only mate
once a year.

They tend to mate in the spring.

What we're looking at now
took place in may,

And what looks to me
that's happening

Is this is a male
who's on the prowl to mate.

Unfortunately for him,
he's arrived a bit too late.

Most likely
she's already pregnant.

Narrator: By may, mating season
is well and truly over,

And females are likely
to be off limits.

This is a typical
sort of behavior

Where the male is coming on
to the female,

But she's letting him know
that she's not interested.

Narrator: And it takes
quite a bit of noise

Before he understands.

Schreiber: So effectively, we're
watching a very sad scene here,

A male trying to court a female,

But he's left it way too late,
and she said, "I'm sorry.

I'm uninterested
in your crazy growl advances."

Yeah, tough luck, guy,
next year.

♪