Original subtitles

Why some animals notifies tighten presence

with stunning color patterns or courageous?

I was very lucky

To see some of the most charming animals on the planet,

but some of them I find very interesting.

Some of them we know for centuries.

Others were recently discovered.

In this series, I present

And reveal why they are considered curiosities of nature.

David Attenborough curiosities OF NATURE

Nature is full of colors and patterns.

For many of us, many animals are just something beautiful,

so beautiful that they become collectors pieces.

What role but the colors and patterns

in animal life that exposes them?

See MODEL

Zebra stripes is unique in the world of mammals.

When they became known outside of Africa in the 18th century,

menageries were sought for the royal nobility and courts.

The audience was fascinated, but scientists were nedumeriþi.

What role do they have these special stripes?

Replies considered centuries

They are amazing.

At first, everything was knew about zebras

that live in herds on the vast plains of Africa.

As the zebras were more familiar in Europe

We began to teach more.

The Zebra,

He became famous in England in the Georgian era,

so familiar that was painted

the famous horse painter George Stubbs.

Here's a copy of the painting.

Zebra was offered the Queen Charlotte wedding gift,

from her husband, King George III,

And lived in Buckingham House,

as it was known then Buckingham Palace.

Queen Charlotte was a passionate collector of exotic animals

And soon became the most famous zebra animal in her file collection,

which attracts hundreds of visitors.

London era was quite familiar with exotic creatures -

many curiosities arriving from all corners of the expanding British Empire.

But this strange striped horse was the most interesting.

The first owners have attempted to îmblâzeascã zebras,

And explained stripes in a certain way.

Not only Queen Charlotte

It was obsessed with zebras.

So was a gentleman, Lord Clive of India -

an English officer who represent the interests of English there

in the 18th century.

He had two zebras, a male and a female,

And he wanted to get a zebra that can be tamed

so he tried to mate with a male donkey.

To make attractive female donkey, it's hard to believe it or not,

the stripes painted on it -

and the experiment failed.

After pregnancy, gave birth to a foal zebra.

As you can see,

Survivor this union is partially striped.

Sometimes they are and fertile.

The success of Lord Clive

He suggested that the streaks are important

for partners to like each other.

Charles Darwin on this matter issued an opinion.

He noticed that every zebra has a unique pattern of stripes.

He suggested that the stripes are way

whereby individuals are recognized during courtship.

Sometimes, however, it appears as a zebra

a model so strange that it requires eplicaþie.

In 1968, he appeared very strange picture of a zebra.

The animal dgrabã have more spots than stripes,

And this gives us a model of functions.

If it has to do with social units

you expected it strange creatures

be avoided from the flock,

but it did not happen so - it was treated like any other member.

So that the model has to do with social unity.

Other theories suggest that plays an important role Dugi

in defense against predators.

But how?

It claimed that bodies moving stripes on a herd of zebras

zãpãceºte a lion prevents him appreciate the distance,

And misses.

Others have argued that changes silhouette zebra lines,

And then gives spotted are difficult, especially by vegetation.

Comparative research between zebras and tigers concluded,

While that tiger stripes make him lose in the background, at least to our eyes,

regular spaces between zebra stripes make it more obvious.

Strange zebra stripes Queen Charlotte

Palace attracts many people Bucklngham,

but the animal itself proved nãrãvaº.

It was a temperamental animal,

and guards must alert the audience that can strike with hooves or bitten.

Not surprisingly,

If we account for the strange food penitent

a mixture of raw meat and tobacco -

inappropriate for a herbivore.

He arrived and a way to mock the royal family.

The animal was known as Queen bottom,

and Prince George stripes depict the son of the royal couple.

In the Victorian era continued obsession with taming zebras,

but this time had a practical reason.

Plea could provide another explanation for stripes.

Muºtele.

Deadly flies spread diseases affecting both humans and livestock,

And one of the most dangerous is biting Theth.

Rãspândeºte sleeping sickness

killing people, cattle and horses.

The first colonists Victorians have noticed that while domestic horses

get sick, zebras are not affected.

So they were determined to tame.

While many have tried this,

an eccentric but efforts were spectacular.

These zebras once part of an aristocratic menagerie

obsessed with taming the zebra.

Waiter was a member of the famous Rothschild family of bankers Rothschild

but that was not too good banker.

His passion was for wildlife.

He had a weakness for zebras,

And made great efforts to tame and train them.

He succeeded where others have failed.

This extraordinary picture shows him the way to Buckingham Palace,

a tame zebra-drawn carriage.

It was a long process.

A zebra trained each separately using a carriage.

And they were left slightly,

but eventually all three zebras and a pony,

pulled carriages from London to Buckingham Palace.

It must have been a strange image to pass,

But maybe they have not even noticed zebras.

Walter's brother, Charles, noted that the stripes of a zebra

do almost disappears while traveling through town.

Despite the efforts of Rothschild, zebras was never really

An alternative routes, either in England or Africa.

Observations of the first colonists,

such that zebras are immune to bite muºcãturile Theth,

They were not totally accurate.

Zebras can be bitten by bite

And may have the same disease as the domestic horses.

But though the evidence shows that draw much less bite.

Some savanþi found that stripes are somehow

înþepãtoare more difficult flies landing on the body zebras.

To verify this theory, few Hungarian researchers

used four models of horses.

One was painted black, the other brown,

third and fourth white stripes of a zebra that.

They took turns these models in a field

And they were coated with glue.

Then, after some time,

They came and counted the flies that landed on four horses.

It seems incredible, but the fewest were body as zebras.

How can such a thing?

Insect eyes are compounds - have much in them -

And flies using horizontally polarized light.

Perhaps zebra stripes,

in a certain way, disrupt polarized light

And thus hampers flies landing on the body of a zebra.

These recent discoveries

though not elucidate why zebras have stripes.

It could be and other benefits.

But most seem to be înþepate prevent streaks,

than being bitten.

Whatever the motivation biological stripes

zebras fascinated us for centuries.

Queen Charlotte was so disappointed in her zebra-bought that and the other.

The first was very nãrãvaºã

And sold it to a friend of King George III.

Then zebra traveled with a menagerie,

and when he died was stuffed and Etal

the pub "BIue Boar" from York -

something like a memory from Buckingham House.

I will present the model story

a more fragile animal.

It is the butterfly wings.

Despite occasional streaks changes

Zebra has remained unchanged to this basic model.

The second animal has done the opposite

And produced thousands, if not millions, of variations on the same theme.

Naturaliºtii seemed obsessed Victorian era butterfly,

And many museums filled with whole collections.

Only Natural History Museum in London has over three million copies.

It's easy to see why those naturaliºti were obsessed.

Butterflies are amazing and wonderful variation of frumoºi.

When it comes to model,

nature seems to have autodepãºit Chapter butterfly wings.

Why reshaped the nature of wings so many ways

Science has long fascinated.

Most specimens come from the Victorian era,

a time when amateur collectors passion peaked.

Many of those early collectors recognized relationship

of butterfly wing color and pattern

And his identity as a species.

Each species has its own pattern and nuance.

Bringing a wing seen how models are created.

The surface is covered with millions of solziºori.

Are fãcuþi of chitin

And diferiþi contain pigments which tend to fade.

There are also another type of CoLoRaTh wing

which give certain particular brilliance butterflies, spectacular,

which is maintained long after the butterfly died.

Morpho butterflies Collect these were over 100 years ago

And are as bright and today as the day they were rounded up.

That's wings contain

some microscopic structures called giroide.

When light reaches one of them is bent and refracted,

And produces color

which varies depending on the angle of the concerns.

Giroida is a pigment disappears -

It is a crystalline structure.

Darwin pondered these bright colors.

They could actually make more visible butterfly predators.

Then why be colored?

Naturaliºtii Victorian age males and females knew that butterflies

CoLoRaTh of the same species can be very different.

The male Great Blue is blue,

but the female is dark brown.

For Darwin, such species are perfect examples

of a process called "sexual selection".

The coloring occurs among males to attract the opposite sex,

CoLoRaTh alive so that males will probably reproduce easier.

Interestingly, it is sometimes possible to see the male CoLoRaTh

And the female from the same specimen.

Like this.

This side is the female and male it.

Such copies are called gynandromorphe

And they are very rare.

Summary infertile,

but may reveal more

CoLoRaTh about sex and butterflies.

Genetic studies of gynadromorphelor

savanþilor allowed to understand the role of genes of the male and the female

the development wing colouration and shape.

But why female must be ashes

and the male coloring?

Because such species males are territorial,

and bright colors are visible from a distance and remote pertain Althea males.

On the other hand, females lay eggs,

And it's better for them to be less obvious.

But not all butterflies look the same clear difference between the sexes.

I once visited the monarch butterfly's winter home in Mexico.

Here, tens of millions of butterflies,

who left North America to avoid winter

îngrãmãdiþi stay on the trees.

Very hard Poth differentiate males from females.

Both sexes are bright orange with black stripes.

It is a wonderful show,

one that takes you to the thought that all these butterflies learn in one place,

It would be a feast for predators.

Interestingly

Monarch butterflies can eat little animals,

because I am veninoºi.

Understanding wing model

And a coloring them, as a defense, is due largely

particularly a Victorian collector.

In 1848, a young English naturalist Henry Bates,

Shipping started a collection on Amazon

which lasted 11 years.

Bates era of umilã originally a autodidact,

savanþi was different from others of the time.

He traveled on Amazon along with naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace,

which noted that the purpose of their trip was not only to colecþioneze,

but "to gather facts to resolve the origin of species."

He spent over a decade in Amazon

And has collected thousands of specimens,

And he also discovered over 100 new species of butterflies.

His work was not only a picture of the diversity of life in the tropics.

It's theory and the butterfly tied CoLoRaTh

which attracted great attention of Charles Darwin.

He noticed differences in behavior between butterflies.

Some species fly with a purpose.

Other is moving slowly with irregular flickering wings.

And yet they were left alone despite visible markings.

Bates knew that some of butterflies in the collection to

periculoºi were for predators.

He knew that certain species in the Amazon,

they left, were avoided by predators because they are poisonous.

Here we have a nearly identical butterfly.

In fact, it belongs to another group.

As it observed the collection and form a certain trend.

Each species of butterfly, poisonous or bad taste,

He has an almost perfect imitator,

And he drew side by side in his book.

He called this form "imitators".

Bates came across another reason butterfly pattern,

one in which colors are warning signs for predators.

These wings model simulators similar to those periculoºi

they were and avoid predators.

Those who showed less convincing

They would probably be killed.

Over time, evolution has created these children

with an almost identical model and color of the original.

Darwin was delighted by his remarks Bates.

The butterfly wings fit well with his new theory about developments.

Bates also found that the butterfly wing pattern

can vary with distance.

This is a butterfly called Heliconius,

And so it shows in the southern Amazon basin.

But so it shows in the north.

Even more interesting is that discovered that imitator

varies in the same way.

So show imitator in south

And so looks north.

While Bates explains the importance of the model wing against predators,

It was a question that could not respond.

How succeed imitator does not mate with the model?

Practically they are almost identical - at least to our eyes.

Now we know that many butterflies

I can see a greater range of the light spectrum,

even ultraviolet end.

Butterfly Hellconlus left

It is very similar to imitate or right.

To our eyes, they are similar,

But if we look at them we can see through the filter ultraviolet

imitator is that the darker deleted.

In conclusion, himself butterflies

I can see the differences between them much easier than us.

Evolution butterflies wing model is more complex

than first imagined tighten Victorian collectors.

Indeed many factors involved

the shape and color of each species wing.

Henry Bates However we must thank

on revealing the link between color and defense.

When he returned from Amazon

He described the 11 years spent in the tropics as the best of his life.

And he spent the rest of career

working as a secretary at the Royal Geographical Society,

post which did not suit its analytical Mind.

Many collectors have contributed specimens of butterflies

an impressive collection of the Museum of Natural History.

Because I could not see beyond Bates

the amazing variety of colors wings and I discovered the link evoluþionistã

of the many models and butterfly wings.

Striped zebra fur

And colored elements of the wing butterfly

may play a role similar,

Protection of animals that decorate them.