All language subtitles for Super.Small.Animals.2017.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

The natural world is full of
fantastically small animals.

Hello! Where are you going?

And I mean REALLY small.

Some you'll recognise because
millions of us watch them online.

Some are rare and unusual...

..and others look like big animals
that have shrunk in the wash.

Despite initial appearances,

these animals aren't the underdogs
you might think they are.

In fact, new science is revealing
that these small-scale superheroes

are perfectly adapted to deal
with the challenges

of the big, wide world
in their own unique ways.

I'm Patrick Aryee
and as a biologist,

I want to find out what makes these
super small creatures

some of the most
successful animals on the planet.

HE CHUCKLES

That is brilliant! This is the first
time I've seen anything like this.

We're going to travel the world
to meet the leading experts

on these incredible creatures
and discover the secrets

behind these pint-sized superstars,

revealing the huge benefits
that being small can bring,

as well as the challenges
that small creatures face

and the ingenious ways
they overcome them.

Look at that.

And I'll also show you how some
miniature animals

punch way above their weight.

They've all turned being small
into a HUGE advantage.

And we're going to find out why.

This is a leaf chameleon.

It lives in northern Madagascar

and as its name suggests,

it goes about the leaf litter
eating tiny insects.

Weighing less than a quarter
of a gram, it's minuscule

and one of the smallest lizards
in the world.

Pound for pound, they are 3,500
times smaller than this guy.

The Parson's chameleon.

The weight difference between them

is the same between
me and ten elephants.

I can't get them too close together

because the Parson's
chameleon's prey

is bigger than the leaf chameleon.

But despite the size difference,

these two are remarkably similar.

They both have all the classic
chameleon characteristics...

..independently moving,
rotating eyes...

..specialised gripping feet

with toes that point
forward and backwards...

..and a super-powered tongue
that shoots out and suckers prey.

The leaf chameleon has all
the same complex attributes,

just miniaturised.

But why?

Nothing ever happens
by accident in nature.

This guy obviously wouldn't be this
size if it didn't make sense.

If anything, it means
that it's easier to hide,

it needs less food and less space.

So, by being small,

this chameleon has overcome some
of life's biggest challenges -

finding food, keeping out of danger

and finding its own space
in this big, wide world.

And it's not alone.

Animals all over the globe
are using their small size

to solve life's problems.

And one of the biggest problems

is finding enough food in
a fiercely competitive world.

The island of Madagascar,

home to over 100 species of lemur.

Just like us, they're primates,

and they come in
all different shapes,

colours and sizes.

But I'm here to meet the smallest.

Mouse lemurs.

They're barely the size of an apple.

Now, this guy probably weighs
about 70g

which is surprising when you
think that the largest primates,

the gorilla,
weighs over 3,000 times as much.

And even the largest lemur,
the indri,

is still over 100 times
this lemur's weight.

Despite this, when it comes
to a special source of food,

they come out on top.

All lemurs eat fruits,
seeds and leaves.

And with so much competition
for the tastiest treats,

you'd think the tiny mouse lemur
would be at the back of the queue.

But this little lemur uses
its size to its advantage.

Whilst other lemurs
are just too heavy...

..because they're small,

mouse lemurs can head straight
for the ends

of the highest, flimsiest branches.

And the special food they're after?

Flowers.

Rich in sugars, they make one of
the best meals

and these tiny lemurs
get to them with ease.

Their larger, heavier cousins

have to compete for food
on bigger branches...

..but mouse lemurs
avoid the competition

by reaching the unreachable.

Lemurs aren't the only ones using
their size to secure a snack.

On the other side of the globe,

in the cloud forests of Ecuador,

another tiny animal is muscling
in on its next meal.

Hummingbirds are the smallest
birds on the planet.

They are incredibly appealing

and when it comes to viral videos,

they are an internet sensation.

The smallest are the same size
as a large bee.

And take a look at how tiny
their nests are.

Hummingbirds are well-known
for the incredible speed

with which they move their wings.

They can beat them up to
15 times a second.

But it uses a huge amount of energy,
so they feed on sugar-rich nectar.

And because they need
to consume a lot of calories,

access to the best flowers
is worth fighting for.

But in this world of tiny birds,

size still matters and it turns out
that being even smaller

is even better.

The booted racket-tail is tiny,
no bigger than your little finger.

So, while the big boys are fighting
over the flowers,

the smaller, more agile
racket-tail can sneak in...

..feed and fly off before being
spotted by the bigger birds.

A cheeky move proving that being
the smallest of the small

can sometimes offer big payoffs
in the fight for food.

Going unseen is another huge
advantage of being miniature.

And it's something that my next
super small animal

has taken to the extreme.

The ocean is a perilous place
for little creatures.

They're easy pickings for hundreds
of larger predators.

In fact, less than 1% of fish
reach maturity.

So, to survive, you need a strategy.

On the reefs of Australia
and Southeast Asia,

a super-small creature,

living in this sea fan coral,

has just that.

But first, we have to find it.

The pygmy seahorse,

the smallest of its kind.

So small they could fit
on your fingernail...

or the end of a pencil.

Truly tiny and perfectly camouflaged
to their coral home.

Which makes these little seahorses
almost impossible to spot.

In fact, they were unknown
to science until 1969

when they were discovered
completely by accident.

Nobody knew they existed until
one of the corals was collected

and when they brought it up
to look at the coral,

they saw something small
and moving on it.

And when they looked closely,
they realised it was a tiny seahorse

that looked exactly
like the arms of the coral.

These little seahorses are actually
born smooth and brown.

But as they develop, they transform
to match the colour and texture

of the sea fan they land on,

regardless of the colour
of their parents.

Within 24 hours,

they would clearly change colour

and change in characteristics
to match that coral,

and that was a pretty amazing
thing to see happen.

These miniature marvels
then spend their entire life

on that one piece of coral,

which can be over
a metre tall and wide.

When you're that small,

that's plenty of space
to make a home.

The pygmy seahorse has evolved
to be so small to take advantage

of a piece of real estate

that nobody else is really taking
advantage of.

In fact, there could be
up to 28 pairs of seahorses

living on one sea fan...

..hidden in plain sight.

But even a secretive seahorse
needs to eat.

The pygmy seahorse
is a predatory fish,

just like the massive
great white shark.

Now, you might think of the shark
as having it better,

but they have to travel hundreds

if not thousands of miles
in search of food,

whereas pygmy seahorses just wait
for a meal to come to them.

They catch plankton as it passes by,

or pick it from the polyps
of the coral,

while their bigger relatives,
like the weedy sea dragon,

have to go out in search of food,

putting themselves
in the paths of predators.

This free delivery service
means the pygmy seahorse

never has to leave home...

..and that's pretty smart.

Being miniature
means that the pygmy seahorse

can live in a world that
is also miniature.

When it comes to staying out
of sight,

being small offers a huge advantage.

But do small animals sacrifice
strength and power in return?

Surely the Goliaths of the animal
world have the upper hand

in terms of sheer muscle and might?

Well, not quite.

When it comes to brawn,

it's the little guys that pack
the most serious punch.

I'm in the African bush to meet
one of the most impressive.

You've probably guessed that this
little insect is a dung beetle.

Now, of course,
their diet may be unsavoury to us,

but it clearly works for them.

Not only have they evolved to feast
on the dung of other animals,

but they are proportionately one
of the strongest animals alive.

Some of these high rollers

can push balls that are ten times
their own weight,

even up steep hills.

A Herculean effort
with a huge payoff.

A single ball of dung can be enough
to feed them

for the rest of their lives.

And they're not the only
super-strong insects.

These are leafcutter ants.

They carry pieces of leaf

up to 50 times their
own body weight.

Now, that would be like me
trying to carry a van on my back.

In terms of
weight-to-strength ratio,

this ant is stronger
than an elephant.

In fact, measured this way,

all of the strongest animals
on Earth are tiny

and it's all to do with physics.

The Scaling Law means that
if you doubled all the dimensions

of any living thing,
it would become eight times heavier.

So, weight increases more quickly

than dimensions or size.

Because strength is determined
by how big your muscles are

compared to your weight,

animals get heavier more quickly
than they get stronger.

What's more, larger animals

have to use more energy simply
supporting all their bulk.

So, smaller, lighter animals

are proportionately
stronger than big animals.

And one of the strongest animals
in the world

is only the size of a peanut.

The bull-headed dung beetle.

Whereas an elephant can't
even pull twice its own weight...

..scientists found that
the bull-headed dung beetle

can pull a staggering

1,141 times their own weight.

Now, that is the equivalent

of me pulling six fully-loaded
double-decker buses.

Amazingly, this mighty strength
isn't for pushing balls of dung.

They don't roll their dung away
to bury it.

Instead a pair dig a tunnel directly
underneath a big fresh pat

where the females lay their eggs.

So, why, then, are they so strong?

Well, digging might be one reason.

But there's another
more important one.

A rogue male is searching for a mate
down an already-occupied tunnel.

The horned male needs
to keep his mate to himself.

Intruders have to be pushed out
with brute force.

In their world, strength is king.

These animals have all found
fantastic ways

of using their small size
to solve the big problems

that all animals face.

But being small does make
some things more difficult.

I'm going to investigate some of
the challenges

that the smallest animals face
because of their size

and reveal the many ways they've
overcome them to succeed.

One of the biggest problems
about being small is temperature.

Small animals get hot and cold
much faster than big animals.

And this time-lapse footage
demonstrates this perfectly.

There's a good reason why the ice
cube on the left is melting faster.

Because it's smaller.

It may seem obvious
that a small ice cube

would melt quicker than a large one,

but have you ever stopped
to consider why that happens?

Well, it all comes down to the
amount of surface area an object has

in comparison to its volume -
the physical space that it takes up.

Because smaller objects
have a greater surface area

in comparison to their volume
than larger objects,

they lose heat quicker.

That same principle applies
to animals too.

If you're tiny, dealing with
temperature extremes

is a big problem.

But this hasn't stopped small
animals living in extreme places

because they've found some
creative solutions.

This shovel-snouted lizard

lives in the blistering heat
of the Namibian desert.

To stop his feet burning
on the sand, he's learnt to dance.

His neighbour, the silver ant,

has evolved to grow a fine covering
of shiny hair

to reflect the scorching heat.

But even so, they can only survive

for up to ten minutes
in the midday sun.

But there's one tiny Namibian mammal

that's mastered desert survival

with an impressively
large adaptation.

The fennec is an extraordinary fox.

Weighing less than a bag of sugar,

they are the smallest member
of the fox family.

But they've got the biggest
ear-to-body ratio of any carnivore.

These cunning foxes use their
oversized ears to radiate body heat.

Because they're so large and thin,

they quickly lose heat
to the surrounding air

which cools down their blood

and stops them from overheating
in the searing Sahara sun.

8,000 miles away in Argentina,

there's one colourful little animal
that's taken desert dwelling

to a whole new level.

That is, when you can find one.

I have been working in the desert
in Argentina for 15 years

and I have never seen a pink fairy.

They would tell me that Mendoza
was a hot spot,

so I wandered around in the desert,

looking for pink fairies
and just couldn't find them.

No, not an actual fairy,

a pink fairy armadillo.

With its pink back
and fluffy white body,

it's one of the oddest and strangely
endearing animals on the planet.

They are the world's
smallest armadillo,

250 times lighter
than their largest relatives.

They're so elusive,
they're only captured on camera

by locals who have stumbled
across them by accident.

It is very difficult
to see a pink fairy armadillo

because they live underground.

Most sightings that we have recorded

are from pink fairy armadillos
that were crossing a road,

so we suspect that they are digging

and they find a hard underground
that they cannot dig through.

Living underground
is a clever way to keep cool.

Unlike many of
their larger relatives,

they don't even emerge to feed.

We don't even know if they are rare
or if they are very abundant.

We simply don't know
because we can't find them.

But why do these compact critters
look so different to their cousins?

When you look at these
two armadillos,

the most striking difference,
other than their size,

is their shell.

This bigger one has what many of us
would consider to be

the classic armoured
armadillo shell,

which pretty much covers
its entire body.

Whereas the shell
of the pink fairy armadillo

only covers the top of its back

and, in fact, it's only
connected along the spine.

So, it's not really armour
for defence,

but instead, it's another perfectly
pint-sized solution

to control their temperature.

It's thought that when
they want to cool down,

they pump blood into this shell,

allowing the heat to be given off
to the surrounding environment.

It's a bit like a hot water bottle -

as the surroundings get warmer,
it gets cooler.

But when they want to do
the opposite and stay warm,

they drain blood out of the shell

and back into their furry,
insulated bodies.

It's a fabulous way of keeping
their body temperature in check

and the reason why they're pink.

Their blood vessels are so close
to the surface, they show through.

Underground, their unusual body also
performs another fantastic function.

Pink fairy armadillos
have a rump plate,

or it's sometimes
called a butt plate.

It's very strong and this
is used to compact the soil.

It starts digging forward
and then it backs up

and it compacts the sand behind it.

These miniature
Argentinian architects

have carved out
a very special niche.

By trading in their protective
shell, they've given up a lot.

But for this subterranean explorer,

it works because they rarely ever
make an appearance above ground

and that's why you hardly ever see
a pink fairy in the desert.

Temperature control isn't the only
problem that tiny creatures face.

It's a big world out there
and if you've got very short legs,

it takes much longer to get around.

This is a money spider.

It's only about
five millimetres long.

They're found all over the UK,

but these tiny arachnids
are also intrepid explorers,

capable of covering hundreds
of miles...

..because they've turned their size
to their advantage

and made a home
in almost every continent.

So, how has such a tiny creature

colonised the far corners
of the world?

It has to do with something
that all spiders produce

and that...is silk.

It's the spiders' secret weapon.

They use it to build webs...

..lay traps...

..and some even use it to ensnare...

..or lasso their prey.

But the smaller spiders use their
silk in a very special way.

When they want to travel,

they send out a stream of silk
which they use to catch the wind...

..and lift themselves up
into the air, like a parachute.

It's called "ballooning"
and it enables small spiders

to migrate hundreds of miles,

carried by the wind.

But colonising continents
means crossing oceans

and they can't control
where they land,

so what happens if an unfortunate
spider lands on water?

Surely, that's the end
of its adventures?

Far from it, because these tiny
spiders have a solution

that has made them record-breaking
long-distance travellers.

Dr Sara Goodacre
and a team of scientists

have been studying
these tiny explorers...

So, we've got one spider, there.
Here it goes.

..and she's going to show me
their special skill.

So, what you can see
is that it's floating,

it's definitely not sinking.

It's floating across the surface
of the water.

Because they're so light,

their weight is supported by
the surface tension of the water.

Their legs make tiny dents in it,

but, miraculously,
don't break through.

If you look... Look, it's starting
to run. Isn't that amazing?

So, for something that's really not
supposed to survive on water at all,

it's doing rather well. Yeah.

But introduce a breeze...

OK.

..and they do something
even more astonishing.

Let's have a look. Can you see
those front two legs? Yes!

This tiny spider is using its raised
legs to catch the wind,

just like a sail.

There you go. You can see how, all
of a sudden, they go so much faster.

So, it's all about timing and
sensing what the wind is doing?

Once they make the decision to go,

they're really
at the mercy of the winds.

And what's even more incredible

is that different spiders
have different sailing styles.

That one's doing more
with its back legs. Yeah...

These are the same species and
they're doing different things.

Sometimes they'll use four legs,
sometimes two,

sometimes the front legs,
sometimes the back legs.

They've got a range of options.

I guess that kind of gives them
their own little personalities.

Absolutely. And to me, really,
it makes perfect sense.

One strategy doesn't always win.

By sailing and ballooning
in this way,

these tiny spiders can travel over
40 miles in a single day.

By utilising the power of the wind,

they can cross not only whole
continents, but the oceans too,

using virtually no energy.

And that is what has enabled
these tiny spiders

to colonise
almost every part of the globe.

But not all small animals
are international travellers.

And sometimes, just getting
from A to B can be a struggle.

In the forests of New England
in North America

lives a little squirrel that can fit
in the palm of your hand.

It needs to move from tree to tree
in search of food,

but the trees are widely spaced

and the forest floor
is a dangerous place.

So, what's a squirrel to do?

Fly, of course!

They have a furry
parachute-like membrane

between their wrists and ankles

that they use to glide
effortlessly between trees.

They're only a quarter of the size
of a common grey squirrel,

but this in-built wingsuit means
they can travel much further,

covering up to 70 metres
in a single flight.

This saves energy and allows them
to avoid predators on the ground.

When trees are close together,

like in the jungles of Liberia,
West Africa,

travel problems are different.

Animals like hippos would never
be able to get through the trees...

unless they shrunk.

And that's exactly what
pygmy hippos have done.

They've evolved a shape and size

to help them move through
the dense jungle.

It's made for an adorable
small animal

with even more adorable babies

that have proved to be
internet celebrities.

This pygmy hippo really
does look like...

Hello! ..a scaled-down version
of a common hippo.

But as well as a reduction in size -

it's about ten times smaller -

there are a number
of other differences

that make it really well adapted
to life in the jungle.

As well as having
much bulkier bodies,

common hippos' spines are almost
parallel to the ground,

whereas pygmy hippos' backs
slope downwards,

making it easier for them to move
through the dense forests.

While pygmy hippos' eyes
are on the sides of their head

for navigating the jungle floor,

common hippo eyes are on the
tops of their heads,

for keeping a look out in the water
where they spend most of their time,

which is also why common hippos have
webbed feet and pygmies don't.

Pygmy hippos like this one

probably weigh about three times
as much as I do

and that just comes down to a diet
of leaves, grasses and fruit.

So, even though they aren't small
in terms of sheer weight,

in comparison to the common hippo,
they are miniature.

Their size and shape
means they can effortlessly move

through the dense forest
almost unseen.

So, by being well adapted
to their jungle environment,

these 300kg animals
have almost become invisible.

Small animals have conquered
the problems

of getting around brilliantly.

But what about raising
the next generation?

No matter how small you are,

your offspring will inevitably
be even smaller.

So, if you're pushing the limits of
what's possible as an adult,

having babies that are big enough
to survive is going to be a problem.

But as we'll see, it's another
example of how small creatures

have risen to the challenge.

This cool little thing

might look like an earthworm,

but when you look closely,

you'll see that it's actually
a very tiny snake,

complete with super small scales
and a miniaturised fork tongue.

These worm-like snakes are found all
over the Americas, Asia and Africa.

This one is a brahminy blind snake
and it weighs less than a gram.

Which is mind-boggling
when you consider

that the largest snakes can weigh
more than a fully-grown human.

And this isn't even
the smallest species.

Thinner than a piece of spaghetti,
these thread snakes are even tinier.

They're 700 times smaller
than a large python

and weigh a staggering
100,000 times less.

Found only on the Caribbean
island of Martinique,

they've tapped into a food source

that bigger animals
aren't competing for...

..the eggs and larvae of ants
and termites.

So, their size is an advantage
when finding food,

but being so tiny is an enormous
challenge when reproducing.

Most snakes lay large
clutches of eggs -

in some cases, up to 100 -

all in the hope that at least
some of their hatchlings survive.

Because they're so short and thin,

Martinique thread snakes
lay just one egg at a time.

And even though it's only
one centimetre long,

it's still huge compared
to the snake's tiny body.

And that's because when it hatches,

the single baby snake is already

half the size of the adults.

That's in stark contrast to bigger
snakes whose hatchlings

are only around a tenth
of their size.

So, strangely, for their size,

these tiny snakes
have enormous babies.

And these babies can eat the same
food as their parents

as soon as they're born.

But this is by no means the only
tactic employed by small animals.

This little critter is a tenrec -

a hedgehog-like mammal
found in Madagascar.

They feed on insects
on the forest floor

and like all small animals
that live on the ground,

they're vulnerable to predators,
even with their protective spines.

So, to survive as a species,

tenrecs have taken the absolute
opposite approach to babymaking.

They have more offspring
than any other mammal,

with as many as 32 in a litter.

And, remarkably,
the young can breed themselves

when they're just 35 days old.

This brilliant solution means that,

in contrast to big animals
like elephants,

that are pregnant
for nearly two years,

when conditions are good,
tenrecs can have lots of babies.

But when it comes
to bringing up baby,

there's one species so minuscule
it pushes the physical limits

of being able to reproduce at all.

Inside this phial is a specimen
of the smallest fish in the world.

In fact, it's so small
that it can live

in nothing more than a mere puddle.

But miniaturisation on this scale

comes at an almost
unbelievable price.

Found only in the swamps of Sumatra,
Paedocypris progenetica are so rare

they don't even have a common name.

They live in a drought-prone world,

where water comes and goes,

and for a fish,
THAT is a serious challenge.

The adults are less than
eight millimetres long,

smaller than a 5p piece

and they have adapted to be this
small so a shoal can survive

in the smallest puddle of water.

But how is something this tiny
still able to bear young?

The world's smallest fish
have evolved

an astonishingly dramatic
physical solution.

To understand, we have to look
at a more average fish.

The zebrafish
is a common aquarium fish

that scientists often use
as a comparison.

They have a very typical skeleton,

fully developed bones,

complete with long ribs,

and a thick casing around the brain.

The tiny Paedocypris skeleton
is very different.

The ribs are hardly developed

and they don't have a proper skull,

so their brains
are actually exposed.

But here's the weird thing.

They look remarkably
like a zebrafish

that hasn't fully developed.

A juvenile.

And that's no coincidence.

Because Paedocypris are
the Peter Pans of the fish world.

The fish that never really grows up.

It's only their reproductive organs
that really mature,

so they can create
the next generation

while keeping as compact as possible
to survive through droughts.

An extreme solution
that's extremely clever.

By finding extraordinary ways

to overcome the physical barriers
of their size,

all these animals reap the benefits
that being little brings.

But, finally,

I want to introduce you
to some animals

that refuse
to be pigeonholed as small

and manage to reap the rewards
of much larger animals

in a host of different ways.

First up, a feisty animal that's
found a way of becoming big.

This is a fire ant
and I'm handling it with care

because they pack
a pretty nasty sting.

Now, as much as they might not
be that friendly to me,

they are, in fact, social insects

and that means that
if one were to sting me,

that would send a signal to the rest
of the colony and, within minutes,

I could have an entire army
on the attack.

This cooperation is key
to overcoming their small size

and it's crucial where they live.

They're native to the rainforests
of Central and South America

and with rainforests comes rain.

Lots of it.

THUNDER CRASHES

In fact, one of the biggest problems
they face in their underground homes

is the risk of flooding.

So, let's see how they deal
with getting wet.

If I gently place this ant
in this tank of water...

We can see that it's not doing
particularly well.

Their exoskeletons do repel water,
but other than that,

they're not particularly
well equipped for swimming.

Just going to fish her
out of that water.

There we go.

So, I guess the question is,
how on earth do these ants cope

with living in one of the most
flood-prone places on the planet?

That's where working together
comes in.

Inside this beaker
are thousands of fire ants.

And if I just swirl them around...

Wow.

They kind of form this ball.

Wow.

So, if I keep on moving them around
in my hand like this,

they stay in this cluster
and so far, so good.

Now, watch what happens when
I put them in this tank of water.

Here we go.

Amazing. So, this ball of ants
is staying together...

..like a raft.

That is brilliant.

This is the first time I've seen
anything like this.

Unlike the individual ant,

they don't have any trouble
at all in the water.

Instead, they form a floating
waterproof island.

And scientists have found
that when they raft in this way,

they can take a force of 400 times
their body weight.

Now, you'd think that the ones
at the bottom would be sacrificed.

But what's happening is that
their bodies repel water

and so that allows for a layer
of air to be trapped in the raft

which means they can still
breathe. That is amazing.

By linking their bodies together,

they're enhancing their ability
to repel water.

The way they knit together
has been likened to the weaving

of a waterproof fabric.

These ants are waterproof, flexible,

and almost completely
indestructible.

In the wild, they can assemble
these rafts quickly

and that's what allows them
to endure the epic storms

in their rainforest home.

They can survive like this
for months,

spreading out over the water's
surface in search of solid ground.

This is teamwork at its finest.

When ants behave in this way,

they display all the hallmarks
of a superorganism.

And they're not the
only small animals

that work together
to become bigger.

Starling murmurations are much more
than just hypnotic spectacles.

They're all about safety in numbers.

It's much harder for a predator
like a peregrine falcon

to target one small bird

in the middle of a swirling
flock of thousands.

And when small fish move as one,
they're harder to catch,

so they become much bigger
than the sum of their parts.

But not all small creatures
need back up.

There's one legendary little animal

that seems to think
it's bigger than it is

and it takes on huge predators
all on its own.

Meet the honey badger.

It lives on the African plains,

home to some of the biggest animals
that roam our planet.

Honey badgers live in
Southern Africa and Asia

and they share their home
with some of the largest,

most dangerous predators
in the world.

Lions are the biggest predators
in Africa.

A male can weigh nearly 200kg.

Whereas a honey badger

is 20 times smaller,

weighing in at only 10kg.

So, when they're out hunting,

how do they avoid becoming
a meal themselves?

By being a small animal
with a seriously big attitude.

Running or hiding just
isn't a honey badger's style.

For them, the best defence
is a good offence.

The bigger and more intimidating
the predator,

the more feisty the
honey badger's response.

A suicidal strategy,
you might think,

if it weren't for the fact
that this fearless fighter

has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Aww! What an amazing little guy.

This is Stompy.
He's a hand-reared honey badger

and he's going to let me
show you why honey badgers

are so resilient,

very agile

and also, very muscular,

which makes them very hard
to subdue and pin down.

Good boy, Stompy.

This skin is about six millimetres
thick in some places

and it's so tough
that even the quills of porcupines

struggle to get through.

Not only that, look how loose
all that skin is around his body.

It means that when they're grabbed
from behind,

they're able to twist
inside their own skin.

All this combined means not only can
this little honey badger survive

an attack from a ferocious lion,

it can actually bite back.

Their jaws are incredibly strong,

so not only are they
very hard to kill,

they're also a dangerous opponent.

Although they're much smaller
than many of their adversaries,

they're built to fight
like much larger animals,

and in my eyes,
they're the smallest big predator

on the African plains.

HYENAS WHIMPER

By punching well above their weight,

honey badgers have found a fantastic
way of living alongside

some of the world's
largest predators.

Their bulletproof build makes up
for their small size

and their big attitude has made
them an internet hit.

Maybe you're
one of the 80 million people

that have watched them online.

In the depths of the ocean,

another group of animals
reap the benefits

of being both big and small
at the same time.

Deep-sea anglerfish.

Ambush predators that entice prey

with a fantastic
bioluminescent lure.

With those scary-looking teeth
and gaping mouths,

small may not be the first word
that springs to mind.

But in fact, this fearsome-looking
fish is hiding a small secret.

This absolute beast of an animal

is a female anglerfish

and it looks quite bizarre.

What's even more bizarre
than that, though,

is the fact that this
is her male counterpart.

Now, the reason why they look
so different

comes down to something
called sexual dimorphism.

That's where males and females
look different.

In this case, it's an extreme
version of exactly that.

For anglerfish, it's more extreme
than in any other animal.

In some species,

the males can weigh a staggering
half a million times less

than their female partners.

So, why on earth are they so small?

Incredibly, it's to help them
survive in the depths of the ocean

where food is almost impossible
to find.

It is a joint venture
and the two sexes

have very different strategies.

The females have huge jaws
and elastic stomachs,

so can feast on almost anything
they come across.

They're definitely not fussy eaters.

The males have also adapted
perfectly to deepwater survival,

but in a completely different way.

They've evolved to go without food.

Once they reach adulthood,
they stop feeding.

They use every ounce of energy
in their body to find a female.

The white shape at the front of
the male's head are his nostrils

which are the biggest in proportion

to their head of any animal
on Earth.

And using these, he sniffs out
females in the vast ocean.

An almost impossible task
at which most males probably fail.

The male's self-sacrifice
is a pretty dramatic one,

but it does make sense.

Between them, an anglerfish pair

only need about
half the amount of food

as they would do
if they were both large.

But the question is,
how on earth do they mate?

If he's lucky enough
to find a female,

he bites onto her
and releases a chemical

that fuses his mouth to her body,
joining them for life.

His eyes and fins then waste away

and he's nourished only
by her blood.

But he still breathes with his own
gills and, crucially,

still produces sperm.

So, this female has a male attached
to her right there.

You can just make him out.

And the males pretty much act
as a reproductive organ

that the females carry around.

Now, when the females
want to lay eggs,

they send a hormonal signal
through their blood

to literally turn him on,

so that he can fertilise the eggs
as they come out.

Over their lifetime,

females can collect several males

who produce sperm
season after season.

By reducing in size,

the male has given the species

a better chance of survival

in one of the most inhospitable
places on the planet.

Another way for small animals
to reap some of the benefits

of being big is, well,
to pretend to be big.

When the white-faced scops-owl
feels threatened,

they make themselves as big and
intimidating as they possibly can,

almost doubling in size.

Frilled lizards intimidate would-be
attackers by opening their mouths

and expanding the skin
around their necks.

For birds of paradise,
it's all about getting a mate.

They make themselves as big,
grand and colourful as they can,

in the hope of attracting a female.

There's one final small superstar
with an ingenious size solution

that I want you to meet.

And it just happens to be the
smallest carnivore in the world.

Hello! Where are you going?

This little guy...

HE LAUGHS

..is Fidget and he's a weasel.

He's running all over the place!

They aren't usually this friendly.

Weasels are actually one of the most
ferocious predators out there.

But Fidget has been hand-reared
by wildlife artist Robert Fuller,

who rescued him when he was
abandoned by his mother.

Robert is obsessed with weasels,

and he doesn't just paint them,
he films them too.

There's 30 surveillance cameras
in the gardens

covering all the different areas.
Nest chambers, pathways.

So, I'm able to follow the track of
the weasels through the garden.

So, you've got the whole place
rigged up?

It's a bit like weasel Big Brother!
It is, yeah, exactly.

All these cameras here, while I'm
painting, in my peripheral vision,

I can see what's happening
with the weasels.

Although, to me, Fidget seems small,

in comparison to rodents
like mice and voles,

weasels are actually quite big...

..or at least
that's how they first appear.

But they've got a surprising trick

that gives them the best
of both worlds.

And this demonstration
should help me to explain.

My silhouette is a pretty good way

of getting an idea
of my overall size.

How much space I take up.

But all you need is a change
in perspective

to see things a bit differently.

From above, you can see that
I appear to be much smaller,

and could fit into
some tight places.

Just like weasels.

By being long and thin,
they're small in just one direction

and can squeeze
into really tiny spaces.

So, we've got a 50-mill clear
pipe here and we can...

He's obviously designed
to go down vole holes, mouse holes.

So, that's pretty easy for him.

Straight through there, yeah.
We expected that.

We go down onto a 40-mill pipe.
Wow, you can see...

I love how he's able
to even spin around.

Yeah, this is important if
they get stuck in a mouse hole,

they've got to obviously find
their way out, or a vole hole.

So, they can spin, twist.

He's so nimble! Yeah!

But the challenge for him right now

is to see if he can make
it through...

He's halfway through!
So, is 34...millimetres.

The smallest tube.

These tubes are smooth inside,
so he can't get any traction.

But take a look at how Fidget
handles some of the other obstacles.

He can squeeze through tiny tunnels
and navigate tight spaces.

And in the wild,
it's even more apparent.

Watch as this winter-coat weasel

seems to shrink itself down
to the same width as its prey.

They're thin enough to chase down
mice and voles in tiny tunnels,

but strong enough to overpower them
and take down much larger prey.

Weasels like Fidget
are small without being small.

Which, in my opinion, is a pretty
ingenious size solution.

Although being small does
bring some big challenges,

these animals have found impressive
ways of overcoming these problems.

Reaping the benefits that being
smaller brings to them...

..and turning size
to their advantage.

Because they can grow quicker,

breed earlier and survive
with less food and space,

they're often better than big
animals at coping

with dramatic changes
to their environment

that could threaten their existence.

So, although this chameleon
looks delicate,

in many ways, it's less fragile

than some of the biggest animals
on the planet.