Original subtitles

[narrator] Scavengers. Nature's clean-up crew.

They will just snap that bone like it's no problem at all.

Their real preference is things that are already dead.

[narrator] Some feast on rotting remains.

Others, fresh droppings.

Their diet isn't always the same,

but these scroungers share one thing in common.

They come out hard, they come out heavy.

It can get nasty and bloody.

[narrator] They fight at the dinner table.

They will literally draw blood.

[narrator] Attack for love...

They're making noise to indicate,

"I'm getting my weapons ready for you."

[narrator] And wrestle like their lives depend on it.

And this is where they start to fight dirty.

[narrator] Each fighter has a unique battle plan.

And one apex alpha shows no mercy.

When most predators finish eating, there's a pile of bones.

When a hyena finishes eating,

there's just a stain on the grass.

[narrator] Every day, everywhere,

our planet is a battleground. [elephant trumpeting]

[horse neighing] [growling]

Turf wars...

food fights...

and mating mayhem rage on

as animals outwit and outmanoeuvre their own kind...

in Battle of the Alphas.

[roaring]

The Tasmanian devil.

A cuddly-looking little handful.

With a terrible reputation.

[screeching]

Thanks to the Looney Tunes, Tasmanian devils have this

reputation of being this fierce tornado of fur and teeth.

The name alone really sets the stage.

They're insane.

They're chaotic, aggressive,

crazy animals the size of a Boston Terrier.

[narrator] No taller than 30 centimetres,

no heavier than 12 kilograms.

They may be small, but they're the largest

carnivorous marsupials in the world.

And they've got quite the voice.

[screeching]

When settlers first came to Tasmania,

they heard these shrieks, these screams,

these growls coming from the woods all around them.

[screeching]

They thought the only thing it must be

is the devil screaming at us from the wilderness.

[shrieking]

And it turned out to be this little tiny animal.

But nonetheless, the name stuck.

And so now they're called devils.

[screeching]

[narrator] When it comes to hunting,

"lazy devils" is more like it.

They can kill their own dinner.

But they prefer scavenging.

So they like to eat carrion

and any carcasses they find laying around.

Their real preference is things that are already dead.

So if they find road kill or if they find prey

that something else has taken down, they'll go for that.

[narrator] They usually go sniffing for a meal solo.

But often, multiple devils wind up at the same restaurant.

Drawn in by their keen sense of smell.

And so what you end up with is this carcass

and a whole bunch of animals fighting over it

and biting each other and being aggressive

and just not sharing very well.

[narrator] To say they're displeased with their dining company is a bit of an understatement.

They're downright annoyed.

And they show it in more ways than one.

One really cool thing about Tasmanian devils

is that they can communicate their mood

by changing the colour on the inside of the ears.

So it's pink, normally.

But when the aggression starts

and the blood starts flowing, it actually turns purple. And you can see this when they're pulling

on the same piece of meat facing one another.

The ears will change colour from pink to purple

as the Tasmanian devils get into this conflict.

[narrator] And once those ears are purple,

everyone is seeing red.

The fights are dramatic.

They're standing on their hind legs,

they're using their front legs to fight with each other,

they've got their mouths open, they're trying to bite each - other on the face. - And maybe the worst part is that once two of

anyone who's coming by is like, "I got to get in on this.

I got to be part of this fight."

Because they just seem to love fighting.

They're so fast. They're so aggressive.

They can switch opponents in the blink of a second,

you wouldn't even notice it. It all happens so quick.

They are absolutely ferocious.

They're clawing, they're using those super maneuverable bodies

to gain every position imaginable.

They're just trying to overpower each other.

And this is when they're at their most rowdy,

at the carcass table. They're trying to consume

as much as they can. They're fighting for this food.

They eat everything. They would literally eat

bones, hair, feathers.

They're not bothered, they eat it all.

[narrator] Their incredible jaws allow them to completely clear their dinner plates.

Their jaws are at the extreme limit

of what mammalian jaws can do.

Thanks to these oversized heads,

it means that their jaws can open 80 degrees wide.

And this gives them a tremendous biting force

that allows them to break and bite through bone.

And not only bone, they can also break through metal,

which is just insane.

And there's even been reports of them breaking

into animal cages and getting at the livestock inside.

If you take the force in the jaw of a Tasmanian devil,

for its body size, it's more force than a hyena.

And hyenas are famous for being able to break bones.

[narrator] And they don't just use those powerful jaws

in food fights.

As you might expect, with a species

that's constantly fighting when it comes to food,

when it comes to sex, they're also fighting.

Males fight each other for access to females.

Once a male and a female pair up,

the male is very aggressive,

bites her neck and drags her away.

That is when they are most aggressive.

They will bite each other both before and during copulation.

And when I say "bites", I mean, really bite.

They will literally draw blood.

But then when they come out of the burrow after mating,

guess who's got the most bites? It's the male.

The female really takes it out on him while they're having sex.

It's not easy being a male because the number of wounds

you have on your body is directly correlated

to how much energy you put into mating.

So the more lucky you were with the females,

the uglier you are with scars as a result.

[narrator] The scars may not be pretty,

but they show that a devil is well fed...

and doing its part to make more ferocious little scavengers!

[shrieking]

[***]

[growling]

From a marsupial that dines on carcasses

to an insect that prefers excrement...

The male dung beetle has one mission in life:

find and secure a fresh ball of poop.

It's a mission he's prepared to fight for.

For dung beetles, it's all about the excrement.

It needs to be nice and recently laid.

Nice and wet because it needs to suck out

those valuable nutrients.

Dung beetles are actually somewhat picky

about the kind of poo that they choose.

It has to be fresh, so not just any poo will do.

To get to all that good, juicy dung,

they have to get there quickly.

There's even been records showing that,

when an elephant has dropped its poo,

within about 15 minutes, there's 4000 individual

dung beetles swarming around,

all taking their little chunks of poo.

[narrator] There may be a crowd of scavengers at a fresh site,

but they work alone.

Dwellers stay and eat inside the pile.

Tunnellers bury their dung directly underneath it.

And these guys, rollers, they roll balls of dung away.

Once a dung beetle has found a nice piece of lovely,

fresh, juicy dung. - What he'll start to do

is break chunks off of it and sculpt them into, well, little dung balls.

And the ultimate goal is to woo the affections of a female.

If the female is impressed, she might even ride

on top of it, kind of like a taxi.

While they ride it up to 200 metres away.

For an animal that's very small,

200 metres is quite a distance.

And this is all whilst going backwards and upside down.

She can use it to feed on herself,

and she can also lay her eggs inside it.

[narrator] And when those eggs hatch,

there's a meal ready to go.

To me and you, a ball of dung doesn't sound like very much. But to them, you know, it's their entire life.

[narrator] So prime poo is to be prized and fought for.

[***]

Not all male dung beetles create dung balls of their own.

There's a whole group called "stealers"

that just wait around for the hardworking males

to roll their dung balls.

This other guy's just sitting on the sideline

waiting for him to finish, and then he's going

to come in and steal it.

That's a pretty crappy thing to do.

And this is where they start to fight dirty. [narrator] Being number one with number twos

makes you a target.

They have two front limbs that are shaped to help them

dig and sculpt their dung balls.

They're quite advantageous during a fight.

[narrator] So is the shape of their head...

Its head is shaped just like a trowel.

Essentially a built-in pooper-scooper.

Most males have this raised, really pronounced,

exaggerated brow that they can use to flip over an opponent.

The object is to get your head and your thorax

underneath your opponent to be able to flip them

right off the dung ball. - Because this is a very

vulnerable position for him to be in,

his wings are going to be exposed,

his legs are going to be flailing about.

[narrator] Giving the original owner

time to roll his ball away.

Dung beetles may be small.

Even the largest of the species

is under six-and-a-half centimetres.

But they are mighty. - Dung beetles are very strong.

They can roll balls that are up to 50 times their body weight.

[narrator] This Herculean beast is the ultimate poop powerhouse.

But when your opponent is just as strong, that's no help.

To prevent a smash and grab,

ball rollers need the fastest escape route.

The best way to get out of there quickly

is in a straight line.

[narrator] But how exactly does a tiny beetle, rolling a giant ball, stay in a straight line?

When they want to make a quick getaway, they will stop,

they will climb on top of that ball and start spinning around.

Now, he's not busting out some moves.

What he's doing is orienting himself

with the polarized light coming from the sun

and using that to tell him which direction to travel in.

[narrator] Their incredible eyes process that polarized light,

and when the sun goes down, they don't quit.

Dung beetles are the only known insect

using polarized light from the moon to orient themselves.

And if there's no moon that particular night,

then it gets even more remarkable

because they can use the light from the Milky Way, the galaxy.

And although this light is only about one-millionth the strength of sunlight,

it still allows them to walk in that perfectly straight line.

It's another tool in their arsenal for a quick getaway.

[narrator] But day or night,

sometimes a fast escape isn't fast enough.

Flipped rivals will violently squirm around,

trying to get back on their feet to attack again.

Fighting tactics are all about a flip.

Regardless of if you've rolled the ball

or if you're trying to steal the ball.

Eventually, either the original creator

will keep possession of the ball

and get where he needs to go, or...

The stealer manages to somehow keep hold of the ball,

and he just takes it off in his own direction,

to his own burrow, and uses it for his own eggs.

[narrator] For dung beetles, it's always a case

of waste not, want not.

When it comes to dung, they really are the King of the Heap.

[screeching]

[growling]

There are scavengers that brawl over food.

And others who put up a fierce fight for love.

[squealing]

Wild boar are the fiercer,

wilder cousin of our domesticated pigs.

They're a little bit leaner.

They have coarse hair all over their body.

They are very fierce.

And I would much rather encounter a wild bear

than a wild boar. That's how scary they are.

[narrator] These formidable scavengers

live on every continent except Antarctica.

Wild boar are so good at making a living anywhere

in the world because they can eat literally anything.

They'll eat berries. They'll eat mushrooms, truffles,

root vegetables, lizards, rodents, and roadkill.

That's the reason why I'm afraid of them

because I know if they take me down, they'll likely eat me.

Because boars are such adaptable scavengers

and because they're so smart

and because they reproduce so quickly, they've been able

to take over huge areas that they didn't live in before.

[narrator] Females can give birth to 10 piglets at a time

and have two litters per year.

So they're invasive in several parts of North America,

where they're endangering whole ecosystems and just thriving.

[narrator] They live in groups called "sounders"

with up to 20 animals.

Females and their young will stay in the sounders for life,

but young males will head off to form small "bachelor groups".

Life in the bachelor pad is harmonious,

until it's time to find a mate.

Then it's every guy for himself.

And buddy-bachelors can become arch rivals.

They're after the exact same,

very limited precious resource: sexually receptive females.

When male boars are about to fight,

they just show off their size.

And there are a whole bunch of different ways to do that. One is to just have their hair stand up,

so it's a little bit bigger. They have a big crest of fur

on the back, that comes right up.

They stand up as high as they can on their legs.

And they'll even arc their back to put their sort of body

into almost a C-shape, so they look as absolutely huge as possible.

And this is all a way to communicate to the other male,

"You don't want to fight with me. I'm big.

I'm going to beat you up."

There's a lot of ceremony

that leads up to the actual fisticuffs.

They're parading around and swagging around

and showing off and raising up those hairs.

And if that hasn't scared an opponent off,

then it's time to face off.

[narrator] They move in, shoulder to shoulder.

If one boar can overpower the other by pushing,

there's no need for a violent fight.

It's something they start practicing young.

But true advantage comes with age.

So when you see two big male boars come at it,

for the most part, your money is usually on the older of the two.

And that's because they have experience.

They have knowledge.

[narrator] This battle is an even match.

Neither piggy is a pushover,

and they're foaming at the mouth for a good scrap.

All that adrenaline is bopping in their body, it's pumping them up.

So they're foaming at the mouth,

like clashing their teeth, like taking a knife and a forkand they're like sharpening it up.

They're literally making noise to indicate to their opponent,

"I'm getting my weapons ready for you."

[narrator] All pumped up, they'll slam their big heads

into their rival's shoulders, slashing with their tusks.

They're trying to get their tusk into the skin of their opponent.

So they're trying to jab into them,

and rip up and out at the same time.

And what that is, is basically

like the equivalent of a sword slash.

And if they do the move just right,

they're going to be able to slice the opponent

until they're bleeding like crazy.

[narrator] It's a nasty move, but they've got a unique form

of protection to soften the blow.

Before each mating season, the males develop

a kind of armour to protect their vital organs during fights.

A coating of thick tissue from the base of the neck to the rump.

It's literally called the "shield" that gets thicker

during the breeding season.

That basically works like a bulletproof vest.

And as they get slashed and hit and pushed and even cut,

that shield protects the underlying tissues.

And it gets thicker over the years.

And as they win more and more fights,

it just becomes more resilient against the next one.

[narrator] Thanks to the shield,

the battles are rarely deadly.

But they are vicious and exhausting.

Boar are smart and they're stubborn.

And so, the fight goes on for a long time.

They won't stop until this thing gets figured out.

I would say that the wild boar

are like the MMA fighters of the animal kingdom.

That's because they come out hard, they come out heavy,

but they'll also take a break.

Like, literally in fights,

you'll see them rest for a moment.

And once they recoup some energy and strength,

they're at it again, pushing and flexing

and trying to rip at each other.

[narrator] Eventually, one opponent squeals and retreats.

The victor wins the duel, but he too is often severely mauled.

Their fights can get really nasty and bloody.

They can really cause a lot of damage to one another.

[narrator] Success comes at a cost.

But it's worth the price.

These scavengers may be relaxed when it comes to a meal...

But for a lady, they pull out all the stops.

[squealing]

All species fight their own kind.

But for the top of every food chain,

there is no contest.

This is an apex alpha.

Africa's sub-Sahara...

Home to some of the most famed apex alphas on the planet.

Lions, leopards, cheetahs.

And Hyenas.

So this is the perfect myth-busting opportunity.

Hyenas, they are not just scavengers,

they are one of the most capable apex predators.

[shrieking]

A hyena on its own is a formidable hunter.

It can do quite well. But when a group of hyenas comes together,

that's when they can do serious damage.

Because a group of hyenas is basically unstoppable.

They can move into a herd of animals

and just take what they want.

Hyenas do not have any natural predators.

They only have natural competitors.

Perhaps one of the most surprising is the African lions,

who really show a lot of, I'll say, reluctant reverence

for these competitors. [laughing]

[narrator] Occasionally, they target the same meal.

And they're constantly clashing over a fresh kill.

And the lions will often just back off and let them have it.

Because they know really the damage that a hyena can inflict on them.

You'll also see, even when it's not just with a kill,

hyenas will often go and antagonize lone lions.

And this is because it's kind of like

this ongoing rivalry between hyenas and lions.

[narrator] The spotted hyena is the largest

of the four hyena species,

tipping the scale at up to 70 kilograms.

It's well-known for its almost maniacal giggle.

But these apex alphas are not to be laughed at.

Everybody thinks they're just scavengers

and they do scavenge a bit. But for the most part,

they are absolutely alpha hunters.

[narrator] And it's the females

that do the majority of the hunting.

They are in charge.

There is a social dominance hierarchy

and the females are above the males.

In fact, even a newborn female

outranks adult males in that hierarchy.

Part of the reason females have success over males

in the hyena world is that they work as a team.

Males tend to disperse and become solo

early on in their lives, whereas the females know how to work together.

And so, even though a male and a female might have similar weaponry,

the female is always going to dominate

because she has her girls to back her up.

[narrator] They live in clans of up to 80 individuals.

And hunt in smaller, tactical packs.

They're generalists, which means that they can hunt anything, really.

[narrator] Birds...

Gazelle...

Zebra...

Nothing is off the table.

If they get hungry and they see something

that's the most abundant, then they can go after that.

[narrator] But, if they want a big meal,

success depends on teamwork.

Unlike some apex predators, that kind of, you know,

just do the stalking thing or maybe do an ambush thing,

hyenas will do some shopping first, I'll say.

[laughing] Hyenas will go into a herd

and watch as the animals disperse.

They'll watch the behaviour and then they'll target.

They're looking to see who looks weak, who looks young,

who's limping, who am I going to pick?

And once they turn their attention to that individual, they're deadly.

That's why they're so successful is because

they make sure the odds are in their favour.

[narrator] Once a target has been identified,

it's time for phase two of the plan.

From there, it's running down their prey

really until it runs out of energy.

Hyenas are endurance hunters.

If a lion doesn't catch its prey

in the first couple of seconds, the prey gets away.

Hyenas work the other way around.

They don't try to catch it in the first couple of seconds.

They just run after it and they keep running.

[narrator] Something their bodies are well adapted for.

They have this really large heart relative to their body size.

So that ensures that they keep their blood pumping no matter what.

As far as they need to run, that's what they're going to do.

[narrator] Hyenas can chase their potential dinner

for up to five kilometres.

Once they've worn down their prey sufficiently enough,

things will get a little bit messy

when it comes to the hyenas making their kill.

[narrator] Messy and loud.

People call them laughing hyenas,

but they're not really laughing.

They're communicating with each other

to find out who gets to feed,

who gets to go in what order, and those vocalizations help them work all that stuff out.

And you'll see them kind of taking turns

and making jabs at the animal,

biting ankles, biting its bottom.

Hyenas aren't necessarily concerned with, you know,

going straight for the jugular and making that quick kill.

They're more concerned with running it down

until it really doesn't have any will

or energy to fight anymore.

And then you'll start seeing them ripping it apart.

It's a terrible way to die.

But honestly, they don't have necessarily the height

or really even the jumping power

to get at the jugular like a big cat might.

They really have to work with what they have.

[narrator] And a strong jaw is one of their biggest assets.

The hyena's bite is worse than its bark, by a long shot.

They are really one of the only known mammals

to just chew through and digest bone.

That's really how intense their bite force is.

They will just snap that bone like it's no problem at all.

And the reason it has that power

is because of the shape of its skull.

There's this huge like, shark fin down the middle of the skull called the sagittal crest.

And that's where all the muscles of the jaw attach.

And so because it's got this prominent crest,

it's got much more attachment surface for those muscles,

and that's how it produces incredible forces.

[narrator] After the bone is crushed and swallowed,

their highly-adapted digestive system takes over.

It's hard for humans to kind of fathom,

like when these species eat crazy things like straight-up bone.

But the reason that they're able to do that

is because they have much stronger acids

and higher concentrations of acids in their stomachs than we do.

So they can really break these things down

much more efficiently than we can.

When most predators finish eating, there's a pile of bones.

When a hyena finishes eating,

there's just a stain on the grass.

You can tell they're apex predators

because they can do things that no other predator can do. And even when they've left and there's nothing remaining except

you can tell they've been there because their poop is white

from the calcium in those bones.

[narrator] Hyenas are often portrayed as scavengers

and conniving thieves that plunder hard-earned meals.

But that's a bad rap they can laugh off.

These apex alphas are also skilled pack hunters.

Perfectly adapted for life at the top of the food chain.

[growling]

In battle, the best fighters aren't always hunters...

Scavengers can be devilish, they can roll with the punches.

And one thing is for certain,

their contests are never "boaring".