Original subtitles

Narrator: Ever wonder what could make an animal

Vanish into thin air...

It's as if the animals just teleported out of there.

♪

Narrator: ...What could cause this sea to take on an eerie glow?

There is actually something in the water.

Narrator: ...Or why killer whales would gather

In their hundreds?

Man #1: I've never seen anything like this, never!

Narrator: Nature is awe-inspiring,

But, sometimes, it just doesn't make sense.

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.

Man #2: My god!

These are nature's strangest mysteries, solved.

♪

The great basin desert, utah.

♪

Field biologist, evan buechley, is on a mission

To discover how scavengers behave.

♪

I've always been really attracted to deserts.

Deserts are one of the less-studied ecosystems.

It's a very tough environment to survive.

For animals, it all comes down

To whether you're able to find food.

Narrator: And evan has a trunk full of bait.

I have one calf carcass in the back of the car.

♪

This was a stillborn calf.

It had died of natural causes.

Narrator: A 60-pound dead calf is not your usual cargo,

But it's a regular load for a scavenger scientist.

Evan's plan is to leave the carcass in the wild,

Stake it out with motion-sensitive cameras,

Then come back later to find out

What animals have fed on it.

It's up on this little ridge,

So if birds are flying over they'll be able to see it.

♪

Narrator: Evan sets up the experiment.

Scavengers keep our landscapes healthy

By cleaning up disease-ridden carcasses.

♪

Understanding what they need will help us

Protect these species in the future.

Every time a animal will come and visit the carcass,

It'll automatically sense that and take a photo.

♪

Narrator: As usual, he leaves the bait for two full weeks,

But when he returns to his desert stakeout,

Something strange has happened.

Buechley: I come up to the carcass and...

It's totally gone.

Narrator: The carcass has vanished without a trace.

It's as if the animal has just teleported out of there.

I searched all around to see if there might be some bones

Or parts of the carcass that are left,

And I couldn't find anything.

Narrator: Something like this has never happened before

In evan's experiments

And he's been running them for years.

Carcasses don't just disappear without leaving anything behind.

So who, or what, could have taken it?

My first thought was coyotes.

[ coyotes crying ]

There the most common predatory mammal out here.

They work in packs sometimes,

So they could conceivably have drug away a big carcass.

They're intelligent and they work in groups,

They work together as a team, just like wolves do.

They'll go for big things like deer

Or something as small as a raccoon,

But they do also go for already killed dead meat

Waiting and decaying.

Narrator: But, coyotes are messy eaters.

They would have left plenty of evidence.

Buechley: They could have eaten part of it,

But there still would have been, you know, big chunks of bone

And other parts left.

Schreiber: You would see little bits of shrapnel along of the way

Of the animal.

We've seen nothing of that.

So, it's unlikely that they were responsible

For this missing calf.

♪

Narrator: It looks like coyotes are no longer

In the frame.

♪

The plot thickens.

If the carcass wasn't dragged away,

Could it have been lifted up and carried off?

Could the carcass have disappeared because of vultures?

♪

Narrator: Vultures are purpose-built to find dead animals.

♪

Turkey vultures' nostrils are so brilliantly designed

That they can smell the unique sulfurous chemical compounds

Of decaying meat from a mile away,

Which means they can then circle around in the air

Until they pinpoint it exactly...

...And then swoop down on it.

[ vultures squawking ]

Narrator: There are 23 different species of vulture worldwide,

Including six in just the serengeti

Where they feast on zebras

And pretty much any other carcass they come across.

In ecosystems around the world,

Vultures will be the first vertebrate animal

That will find and start feeding on a carcass

Within minutes.

Vultures are incredible scavengers

And it's a result of the ability for them

To take in toxins that most animals can't

And digest them in their stomachs.

They're effectively the cleaning crew of nature.

You know, if you've got a spillage, bring in a vulture.

They will deal with the situation.

♪

Narrator: But there's a problem with this line of investigation.

Turkey vultures don't eat bones.

There were no bones found at this location.

Where did they go?

Could the turkey vultures have picked up the bones

And carried them somewhere else?

Vultures don't have those powerful talons

And powerful leg muscles and wings

That would enable them to carry something

As heavy as a carcass, even in pieces,

Away from the scene of the crime.

♪

Narrator: Evan is running out of suspects,

And our experts are stumped.

♪

After finding no evidence at the scene of the crime,

Evan hopes the camera will offer up some answers.

♪

Buechley: We did not have any photos of coyotes.

There's no photos of mountain lions.

There's very little other activity at the site,

Except for a solitary bobcat.

As I continued to flip through the photos,

I was very surprised.

There was a picture of...

This guy,

A north american badger.

♪

He showed up, seemed to just kind of

Sniff around the carcass, and then left.

The next morning he came back

And started to dig.

♪

He was digging all around the edge of the carcass,

And he just kept at it.

Very fastidiously, the carcass just slowly sunk

Into a massive hole that this badger was excavating.

He continued into the night.

It was snowing, he kept digging through the snow.

♪

Third day after we had placed the carcass,

He started to backfill over the top of the carcass.

So started to push all the dirt he had excavated

Out from under the cow, back over the top of it,

And then the badger dug a hole, disappeared into the hole,

And presumably fed on that carcass.

♪

Badgers, what a plot twist!

♪

The american badger is the culprit in this case.

Narrator: The badger stayed in its new den,

Feeding on the calf carcass for weeks.

♪

Badgers have been filmed burying small snacks,

Like mice or squirrels,

But this is the first video evidence

That they can bury something as big as a calf,

Four times their own size.

Schreiber: Badgers are the ultimate digging machine.

They have the ability to go through tightly-packed ground

Like a drill would go through concrete.

[ badger sniffing ]

They have a third eyelid, and it's transparent.

So it means while the other eyelids are blinking away

And doing their job of getting rid of dirt,

They can still see what they're doing

As they're digging into the ground.

Buechley: By placing the carcass underground,

They're keeping the carcass cool.

They're essentially, like, putting it in the refrigerator.

It's an extraordinary way of consuming your meals

In utter privacy.

It's the ultimate v.I.P. Meal.

Narrator: So far, this is the only badger

To have ever been caught on film

Pulling off such an ambitious stunt.

♪

[ insects chirping ]

♪

Norway, December 2017.

♪

Hundreds of killer whales gather off skjervoy island.

It's really amazing to see.

Narrator: A guide catches the bizarre event on film.

Man #1: Oh, my god!

And this is incredible.

♪

I've never seen anything like this. Never, never!

Narrator: This could be the biggest single gathering

Of killer whales ever caught on camera.

♪

Why are they here?

And what do they want?

♪

Narrator: In norway, hundreds of killer whales

Gather off skjervoy island.

It could be the biggest killer whale gathering ever filmed,

But what have they come here for?

♪

Why are they doing this?

Man #1: My god!

We think of killer whales, the pods that they form

We think of as usually being smaller,

Maybe a few dozen individuals.

We have to stop and ask,

"why are there so many killer whales all together?"

♪

Conley: What we're seeing in this video

Is way more than that.

So, up to 200 orcas,

And we're calling this a megapod.

The question is why are they congregating

In such a large number?

Narrator: Could this huge gathering

Be one, big extended family?

♪

The kardashians of the killer whales.

Well, there's a surprising way to find out...

♪

...By listening to their wailing.

♪

Conley: Whales and dolphins do have

What we would think of as a language,

And if you hear the chattering of one orca, or dolphin,

You can tell approximately what pod it came from.

Narrator: Each female family line has their own dialect,

Their own version of local slang.

[ whales crying ]

And in a pod full of cousins,

Everyone speaks in a similar way.

So, are they chatting like locals in this megapod?

♪

We think there are several different dialects

Within this group, so we know that

This is not just one big pod.

This is actually a conglomeration

Of several pods coming together in this area.

Narrator: This is pretty unusual in killer whale society.

Normally, we don't see them socializing

Between different pods.

It's not something that's very common.

Narrator: If it's not a big family gathering,

What else is going on?

Could love be in the air,

Or rather in the water?

One possibility this pod of killer whales formed

Was for mating purposes.

Narrator: Orcas are fairly secretive

About their mating habits.

We don't know much about what they get up to,

But we do know they seem to wait for warmer waters

Before they heat things up.

And they also tend to breed more in the spring,

Whereas this footage was captured in the winter.

♪

Narrator: It's the wrong time of year for romance.

They weren't mating, and they're not all close relatives.

What other clues are there in the video?

There are also tons and tons of birds flying up above head,

Which is indicative of some sort of feeding frenzy,

Because wherever there's food the birds are gonna show up.

Narrator: A frenzy of birds above could mean a feast down below.

Are the bird after fish that the orcas are catching?

♪

The fish in this part of norway are most likely herring,

Famous for being pickled by the scandinavians

Into a fairly-niche dish of fermented fish.

Delicious.

But herring is also an orca favorite.

Is that what the whales in the video are after?

Fish-eating orcas work together

By flashing their white bellies and blowing bubbles

To drive fish into a ball close to the surface.

The whales will corral a school of fish

By blowing a wall of bubbles.

The fish are too scared to go through the bubbles.

Conley: Fish won't go through the bubbles

Because they're afraid, and they'll just get closer

And closer and closer.

Nosal: Narrower and narrower until they're all corralled

And they can actually go and eat those fish.

Narrator: It's called carousel feeding,

And it's a nightmare merry-go-round for the herring.

Once they've chased the fish into a ball,

The orcas bring out their signature move.

♪

Tail slapping, which is sometimes used to stun fish

Before going to eat them.

♪

Narrator: One tail slap on the edge of a school

Can stun up to 16 fish rendering them helpless

And ready to scoop up.

♪

Now that's fast food.

So could this invasion of orcas be a massive feeding frenzy?

♪

Narrator: Hundreds of killer whales gather in norway.

Man #1: I've never seen anything like this, never! Never!

Are they there to hunt?

There would be telltale signs in their behavior --

Tail slapping and herding.

But we don't see that here.

♪

Narrator: In the video, it looks like more of a free-for-all.

What are they doing?

Is there a different food source these orcas could be after?

♪

In the background of the video,

Norwegian fishing boats are bringing in their catch.

When the fishers are hauling in their nets full of fish,

Many fish will escape, there could be bycatch

That are thrown back in.

There's a lot of easy food for these orcas,

And it makes sense that they would all gather there

For the easy meal.

Conley: They sometimes will actually break the nets

And take the fish out of the nets.

I mean, these guys can eat tons of fish a day.

You know they're in direct competition

With these fishermen.

Narrator: If that is what's happening,

How did so many orcas know where to come for a free meal?

These intelligent animals have actually learned

What these fishing vessels sound like,

Their motors sound like, what the gears grinding,

Lifting nets up out the water sound like.

Narrator: Just like when your dog hears you

Open a bag of chips from upstairs.

And it could be that these distinct sounds

Are what attracted all of these killer whales from so far way.

Narrator: Killer whale hearing is super-sensitive.

They use clicks to hunt

And can hear them bouncing off herring 100 meters away.

So these fishing boat noises

Are like ringing the dinner bell

For the all-you-can-eat scandinavian smorgasbord.

♪

Anglesey, u.K., summer 2018.

In the dead of night, the ocean appears to glow.

Nosal: When the waves were breaking,

They were glowing a brilliant blue color.

So the question is, why?

Narrator: Glowing blue water is a well-known phenomenon,

But it usually appears 3,000 miles south of here.

So, typically we see glowing blue water in the tropics,

Places like vietnam, the maldives, puerto rico.

Narrator: So what could be causing these waters to glow?

♪

Narrator: In anglesey, u.K.,

The ocean started to glow

3,000 miles further north

Than this phenomenon is usually seen.

What is causing this bright, blue light?

Could it be a reflection?

Well, one could argue that

With higher, northerly latitudes of wales,

Oh, it might have been a reflection

Of an aurora borealis.

Narrator: Bit of a mouthful.

It's also called the northern lights

When amazing patterns in the sky

Are caused by solar weather from space.

♪

But, there were no northern lights at this time.

Narrator: In fact, the whole of 2018

Was pretty quiet in space weather reports.

So, it can't be a reflection of the aurora.

Nosal: It seems more likely that there is actually

Something in the water creating this glow.

Narrator: There's one main cause of glowing blue water

Near the equator.

Could anglesey's glow have this same explanation?

What's actually happening here is there are

Bioluminescent phytoplankton in the water.

Narrator: Apparently so.

These are these tiny, single-celled organisms

That photosynthesize just like plants do.

Narrator: Phytoplankton can be tiny --

Less than a tenth of a millimeter.

They'd fit on a pinpoint,

But together they produce more than half

Of the oxygen on earth.

We owe them a lot.

♪

And what's amazing is that when they are disturbed,

They glow.

Narrator: These tiny guys would be useful

At a diy beach party.

Just throwing a rock in the water

Makes a dazzling display.

Moser: But this still begs the question

Of why there are so many here in a part of the world

Where this phenomenon really is very rare.

It's very unusual that in the more temperate to cold water

That we see off of the u.K.

That we would see a bloom like this.

Narrator: But 2018 was the u.K.'s joint hottest summer

On record.

Those temperatures helped lend themselves

To warming the waters locally,

And as those local waters warmed, well,

Those plankton found themselves right at home.

Part of the reason we think that this is happening

Is that the oceans are warming 60% faster

Than what models have indicated.

Nosal: As the climate continues to change

And we see the average temperature getting warmer

And warmer, we're likely to see this more and more.

Narrator: So these living lightbulbs came to the u.K.

After a super-hot summer.

But why do they light up in the first place?

♪

They could be acting as their own natural intruder alert.

They're emitting that bioluminescence

As a form of self-defense.

So when they're disturbed or they're agitated,

These tiny, little creatures flash!

Narrator: Their light draws attention to their would-be attacker,

And in theory, scares them off.

They can't tell the difference

Between a fish that wants to eat them,

A kayak paddle in san diego,

Or someone splashing through the shallows

In anglesey, u.K.

So they create the light-up displays.

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

Captions paid for by discovery communications