Original subtitles

[narrator] In battle, it doesn't matter if you're outsized. - Look at me, I'm dominant, I'm a boss.

[narrator] Or outnumbered.

They get swept up in the aggression and in the chaos.

[narrator] What matters are the tools.

The real damage comes from those big, huge teeth.

Like a mix between a chisel and a pair of pliers.

[narrator] And the know-how.

They can work smart, not harder.

They're just a whirling ball of teeth and death

and giant balls!

[narrator] Whether fighting your own kind...

They are the Swiss army knife of birds.

[narrator] ...or an aerial apex alpha.

There is no finer killing machine in the sky.

[narrator] A scrappy Alpha is a nasty Alpha.

Every day, everywhere,

our planet is a battleground.

Turf wars,

food fights.

And mating mayhem rage on.

As animals outwit and outmanoeuvre their own kind.

In the Battle of the Alphas.

Autumn in the North-Western US.

A time when Mother Nature reveals her true colours.

And so do the swamp rats.

[♪]

An invasive species introduced from southern South America,

they go by many different names

Some people call them nutria, or they call them coypus,

or they call them swamp rats, which sounds like an insult,

but I mean, come on, they live in the swamp,

and they're basically rats.

But whatever you want to call them, they're scrappy rodents. [narrator] They have 20 battle-ready teeth

but it's those bright orange incisors

that give the rodent its signature smile.

Nutria teeth are actually fortified with iron.

That's why they have that really deep orange okra colour.

[narrator] They use them to fight...

and to bulk up for the fight.

They're using a ton of energy for their lifestyle,

and that means they have to take in a ton of food,

so the average nutria is eating

like 25 % of its body weight in a day.

[narrator] This Alpha Male is on high alert,

patrolling his domain.

The alpha male has it made. He's got a sweet house.

He's mating with lots of females.

Everything's going great, but he knows there's a problem coming.

[narrator] Though they can breed all year-round,

in the fall, a surge of young male nutrias

reach sexual maturity

and get kicked out of their mother's burrows. - And as soon as they're kicked out of the house,

they're going to come looking for a place to live,

and they're going to come for his house.

And it happens at the worst possible time in the fall when things are about to get very cold.

And as a result, you get tons of conflict

and tons of fights.

And it is not just simply,

"This is my house. I want to keep it."

But having a good place to over winter

literally can save your life.

[narrator] With his life on the line,

the Alpha relies on his acute sense of hearing

to detect danger.

The external fleshy part of the ears

helps them kind of triangulate to listen for sounds.

But inside the ear,

that's where they're listening out for sounds from other nutria, particularly these little interloping males.

[narrator] Their ears can detect intruders.

Their scent can ward them off.

The alpha reinforces his turf with a chemical warning

for any young males who might try to topple his reign.

Nutria scent mark a lot.

In fact, they'll even stand on their hands,

do a handstand and kind of aim their behinds up.

And then they'll spray that oily secretion

all over their territory.

[narrator] Being a pro scent marker

is all in the anal glands.

In the fall, when competition is most fierce,

a nutria's anal glands enlarge.

If you ever have a day when you think your job kind of sucks,

just feel for the person who has to measure

the anal glands of nutria.

There are people with that job,

and thanks to their hard work,

we know that during certain parts of the year,

the anal glands of nutria get way bigger.

[narrator] The Alpha male's not itching for a fight,

if anything, he'd rather avoid it.

Scent marking is a very smart solution

to an otherwise very ugly problem.

You don't want to fight, right?

Fighting costs a ton of energy, and it's really dangerous.

[narrator] Leaving scent marks takes a lot of energy too,

but the potential reward is worth it.

If you can defend a territory,

scent mark an area that's yours and no one else's.

That gives you the opportunity to mate with more females.

[narrator] And if females become pregnant in the fall,

their babies will be born in the spring

when food is abundant,

and the chances of survival are highest.

So in evolution, you win by having as many babies as possible.

But more importantly,

the most number of offspring that survive.

[narrator] A young male's urge to secure

some sweet new real estate is just as powerful

as the alpha's drive to defend it.

It's game-on between the upstart and the alpha.

When nutria fight, it gets very ugly,

and it looks like it would hurt.

They're smashing into each other, they're clawing.

But the real damage comes from those big, huge teeth.

Kind of like a mix between a chisel and a pair of pliers.

And if you got in a fight with somebody with a chisel

and a pair of pliers, you would do serious damage.

These teeth are made to rip plants out of the swamp

so the animal can eat them.

But if they take to flesh, they can cut right to the bone.

Those are serious weapons that could do a ton of damage.

[narrator] They've got razor-sharp claws,

perfect for gripping their opponents.

And their feet are built for battle in the swamp.

Nutria have webbed feet,

and it's using those paddle-like feet

to push against the water

so that it can engage in a battle.

So they look like webbed feet.

But they're not just for swimming around,

they're actually part of the weaponry.

[narrator] In this match,

the defender holds on to his title,

keeping his home and his family intact,

ready for another winter in the swamp.

[♪]

Nutria battles may be wet and wild,

but this animal gets into scrap for its scrap of land.

Every spring on small islands off the coast of East Asia

tens of thousands of black-tailed gulls

come together to breed...

and battle.

Black-tailed gulls are like the Swiss Army knife of birds.

They can sort of do anything.

And when they're protecting their nesting area,

they can be very, very aggressive.

These gulls have kind of a hidden dark side.

They are fighting all day long,

they're brawlers, essentially.

[narrator] Separated during the rest of the year,

monogamous pairs find each other

amongst the cacophony of the breeding colony.

But nesting space is at a premium.

And within these dense colonies

you have to be aggressive

because you only have a small part of real estate,

and if another bird wants to take that away from you

and you can't defend yourself, then you won't be able to nest.

[narrator] No nest means no chicks this year.

And as a result, these birds have become extremely defensive

of their personal space.

[narrator] With thousands of pairs fighting for territory

keeping the nest site safe is a constant battle.

So, after the female has laid eggs,

she will sit on the nest guarding her clutch.

And the male will spend a lot of time protecting his female

from other birds that might try to drive her away.

[narrator] A rival male approaches the couple.

He gets a warning.

They will do a lot of posturing,

and they will use their wings to make themselves look bigger.

Basically, to say, "This is our territory."

[narrator] The intruder gets the message and backs off.

Mom and dad are protective before the chicks hatch,

but they step it up a notch after.

About 80% of bird species share parent duty.

Compared to mammals, bird dads

actually are really great fathers.

[narrator] They'll threaten and attack any bird

that gets too close.

Jabbing with their bill,

grabbing the opponent's tail and wings.

But it's not just dad on guard duty.

If another bird is trying to invade on their clutch,

the female will get protective.

She'll go at it with her beak to try to drive it away.

They've built up this very aggressive nature

because they don't have much land,

and they're going to do everything they can to protect it.

[narrator] While dad's out fishing,

at the nest, a trespasser gets too close for comfort.

Mom springs into action.

Their biggest weapon is their razor-sharp beak

with a small hook at the end,

and these are basically like knives.

They will fight each other beak to beak.

These are very high stakes fights.

Damage on one another's bills, it's unbelievably serious,

for that gull's ability to then defend itself

and ability to find food.

If you can control the bill of your competitor,

that is their best offence.

[narrator] The moment she lets go, the troublemaker flees.

Each one's just a little quick fight.

And then they've established who's the winner.

So those few seconds of aggressive behaviour

are really, really important to lay down the law.

[narrator] Thanks to mom's protection her chick survived.

But not all are so lucky.

Unfortunately, the nearest threat's around a foot and a half away, so a few seconds later, the next fight can begin.

[narrator] Around 30 % of chicks will die.

Why?

It can get attacked by other black-tailed gulls

if it wanders into their territory,

and unfortunately, these attacks are quite gruesome.

Often younger gulls that weren't able to find a mate

or a specific nesting territory themselves that year.

They do have a lot of misplaced hormonal rage.

But in addition to that,

successful parents who have their own territory to defend

on a crowded colony can often kill other chicks, too.

Just because they're so focused on defending their own space

from all intruders.

Chicks just kind of get swept up

in the aggression and in the chaos.

[narrator] When this chick wanders off,

enticed by the smell of fresh fish,

almost immediately, it's attacked.

Dad swoops in and launches a counter-attack.

Executing a direct jab to the eye.

A blow that gives the chick time to flee.

With danger all around, surprisingly,

some close neighbours may provide a safe haven.

Sometimes those chicks get adopted by neighbouring pairs,

and those pairs will actually raise that chick as their own.

So it's a really fascinating social structure.

[narrator] With aggressive breeding neighbours

also the most likely to protect and adopt stray chicks,

the colony does have its upside.

They are aggressive, and they're trying to protect

their tiny patch of land from other competing birds.

But it does provide a lot of advantages.

They have lots of eyes and lots of sharp beaks

to help fend off predators

that might be coming into the colony.

[narrator] Cramped quarters,

Jekyll and Hyde neighbours,

for these masters of mayhem,

combat is a way of life in the colony.

[♪]

Gulls are scrapping to protect their patch.

But when it comes to all-out assault,

one animal is the most audacious of all.

The Honey Badger.

The Guinness Book of World Records calls the honey badger

the "most fearless animal in the world".

It may be fearless.

But it's no honey.

These things are proper hardcore nutters.

They'd bite your face off soon as look at you.

They are built for scrapping.

They are the badass of the entire animal kingdom.

[narrator] Honey badgers are primarily nocturnal.

However, they seem to be ready for a fight,

whether it's daytime or nighttime.

[narrator] Covered in battle scars,

this animal's ferocious reputation is well earned.

Those scars are almost like war wounds, their medals,

that shows all the battles that they've been in

and survived from.

[narrator] These bruisers don't go lightly into a scrap.

Honey badgers are able to size one another up.

[narrator] The bigger, the badder.

But it's the size of one body part that really says,

"I'm boss".

It comes down to the cojones.

Larger testicles usually means a more formidable foe.

These animals, testes are actually twice the size

of similar-sized animals.

Possibly why they can be so aggressive

because they have way more testosterone.

That communicates, "Look at me, I'm dominant.

I'm a boss. I'm in control."

So, they've been literally kicking butt and taking names

for a long, long time.

[narrator] But there's a twist.

They're super tolerant of one another.

It only becomes a problem during the breeding season,

and access to females becomes something

that they're willing to fight over.

[narrator] Young stay with their moms for up to two years,

this means estrus females are rare.

So, when one does come along, she's worth fighting for.

But before the males attack, they bluster.

The Honey Badger has a battle cry.

Deeper roars tend to indicate a bigger animal.

That scary death roar to go, "I'm fierce."

[narrator] If his audible assault doesn't

deter challengers, his physique might.

He's a big baddie. He has all the war wounds.

He's been through some fights. He's willing to fight again.

So, think about that before you're willing to take him on.

[narrator] But with the chance to breed on the line,

the reward outweighs the risk.

That low squat body gives them a low centre of gravity.

They can get up under a foe.

Those little wide set arms.

Surprisingly fast for all that bulk and weight

that they're carrying about.

It has these long, wiry hairs and it raises them,

makes it look bigger and even stockier than it is before.

It'll raise up on his back legs.

It'll bustle up.

[narrator] But if no one wants to throw in the towel,

he ups the ante with an aromatic assault.

It has a chemical weapon.

It has these anal glands where it'll shoot out

these stink bombs from its rear end.

That smell is a way to say,

"You don't want none of this. All right."

[narrator] But if all this fails,

the attacker really sinks his teeth in.

They have super scary, impressive piercing pointing canines.

Even their incisors, those front teeth are little dagger knives.

They have a jaw that's strong enough to crack open

a tortoiseshell.

So it could easily tear flesh, if not break bone.

[narrator] His bite is strategic.

By going for the back of the neck,

the animal has a chance to get hold of its opponent,

wrestle them to the ground, wrestle them about,

display its strength.

[narrator] The neck is the most vulnerable part of most animals

but this animal has evolved some special defence.

It has really thick skin, about six millimetres thick.

Which makes it hard for scratches and bites to penetrate,

to be fatal. It's almost like wearing

a really thick leather turtleneck.

That's your shield

and it's not very well attached to them either.

So, they're kind of like writhing around

in this giant jumpsuit.

They literally can wriggle out of their grasp.

That means they can spin within their own body

and attack.

They're just a whirling ball of teeth and death.

And, giant balls.

[narrator] Now in a full-on assault, anything goes.

They'll pin one another down.

They have a lot of dexterity in those front claws,

so they can wrap their hands around.

They'll scratch at each other to get the foe off of them

and they have amazing stamina.

They will continue doing whatever they can

to fight and win their cause.

But once it seems very clear that there's a victor

and a loser, the grip is let go,

and then the loser usually scurry on off,

licking their wounds.

[narrator] But it's not a done deal for the winner.

That fight doesn't guarantee them the right to mate.

If she prefers the loser of that fight, she'll mate with him.

So in this case, the winner might actually turn out

to be the loser.

Or just because two males fight today

doesn't mean she's ready to mate today.

[narrator] But after mating finally happens,

she may have second thoughts!

We also see mate guarding,

and this can be blocking the female in a burrow

after mating or even going as far as to actually bury her

in the burrow, trapping her in there.

Increasing that period of time that she has his sperm inside her

and that he will father most of her offspring.

[narrator] Because when it comes to who's the daddy,

tactics are important.

Just because an animal loses that day,

that's not the end of the story for them.

They're going to come back a different day

when that big male isn't - stalking around. - And try to gain access to a potentially receptive female.

They can work smart, not harder.

[narrator] For now, this fierce fighter retreats,

waiting for his day to come.

[♪]

All species fight their own kind.

But for the top of every food chain, there is no contest

this is an apex alpha.

The Peregrine Falcon. Falco peregrinus.

I have to say the best of the best.

[narrator] For a bird the size of a crow,

this is an apex predator that punches above its weight.

If you were to design the perfect raptor,

you would get a peregrine falcon.

There's nothing that can take it out.

Nothing that can catch it.

There is no finer killing machine in the sky.

[narrator] The peregrine checks all the raptor boxes.

Keen eyesight.

Sharp talons.

A deadly beak.

So far, so raptor.

But one thing raises the peregrine

to apex alpha status.

They are the fastest living thing in the world.

Nothing can catch it.

[narrator] When diving,

the peregrine can reach 350 kilometres per hour.

Its entire biology has adapted to life

at the limits of endurance.

Theoretically, if it's dropping at over 200 miles an hour,

it could potentially with the force of the air

coming in blow its lungs up.

But a peregrine can get around that

because they've got this tiny little bone adaptation.

These incredibly clever little features called tubercles,

they actually break up that wind

and make sure that it comes into the nostrils in a spiral,

so it doesn't cause any damage and enables it still to breathe.

They effectively act as a baffle,

like you see in the turbine engines of any aeroplane.

[narrator] The peregrine's eyes are also designed

for extreme skydiving.

They've got this wonderful translucent eyelid

that covers their eyes, and it acts like goggles

to protect it from the air as they're moving fast.

[narrator] It's by no means a big bird.

Females weigh just under a kilo

Males weigh less than half a kilo.

They've achieved this sweet spot in terms of weight

and wing length and overall size

to be the perfect flying machine.

[narrator] With eyesight eight times better than humans,

it hunts like a fighter pilot,

scanning the sky for a target.

It can pick out a duck about three kilometres away.

[narrator] If our eyes were the same proportion

to our bodies as the peregrine, they'd be the size of oranges.

It's like having a pair of binoculars stuck to your face.

[narrator] It gains elevation,

up to 300 metres above its prey.

They go into a stoop,

so they pull their wings back, and they dive.

And it's going like a bullet out of the sky.

[narrator] At the last moment, it lowers its landing gear.

It's using the talons,

and they will actually get them like a bare-knuckle boxer

and close them together, and it will hit that bird so hard,

it's hoping that it will kill it instantly.

[narrator] Then it dives after its victim.

Dead or alive.

In one quick move, the job is done.

Falcons have a sharp triangular notch on the upper beak

called the tomial tooth.

And that tomial tooth is used to pierce their spine

and actually sever their backbone,

at the base of the skull.

For basically, dislocating its neck and killing it instantly.

[narrator] Now that dinner is in hand,

the peregrine uses its specialized cutlery

to tear apart its meal.

It has this huge, hooked talons

built out of keratin that are just daggers.

And also, as well, it has this hook bill,

which is used for ripping and tearing flesh

and plucking the feathers out.

[narrator] If it's not more than a peregrine's size

and it flies, it's fair game.

But that's not all they're after.

Peregrines are so fast and so smart.

They not only are great at just hunting their own things,

they're really good at stealing food from other birds.

[narrator] This apex alpha has spread its wings

around the world.

Its name means "wanderer".

They'll follow birds from the Arctic all the way down

to central and South America, and they'll follow

those same shorebirds, songbirds all the way back up north.

It's about a 25,000-kilometre round trip journey.

[narrator] The peregrine falcon does wander.

But this tiny powerhouse always comes home with dinner.

After all, these hatchlings can't hunt for themselves yet.

[♪]

The scrappiest of creatures are tough to intimidate.

But they don't have to be heavyweights.

Because in the Battle of the Alphas,

it pays to keep your eyes on the prize,

and forget about your size.