Original subtitles

Experience a world beyond imagination

where fish can fly...

lizards walk on water,

apes master tools

and frogs disappear in plain sight.

Animals do the smartest things...

through every stage of their lives.

From leaving home...

to raising a family.

From finding food...

to making friends.

They find ingenious ways to survive

against all odds.

Welcome to The Secret Lives of Animals.

The rainforests of Panama.

This frog, the size of a thumbnail,

faces danger at every turn.

A keen-eyed parrot snake,

a frog-hunting specialist,

searching for the telltale silhouette...

of prey.

Once it's locked onto a target,

it rarely goes hungry.

The frog must escape and fast...

but he doesn't run away.

He sits tight and does something magical.

He packs 90% of his blood cells into his liver,

hiding them away, and starts to become transparent.

Then he shrinks many of his organs

to a third of their original size.

So he all but disappears.

But even one move would reveal his presence.

He must stay still.

The snake moves on.

He's one of the only animals on Earth that can disappear like this.

No wonder he's known as a glass frog.

Protecting yourself is not always about how well you fight,

but how well you avoid one.

The open sand flats of Indonesia

are a treacherous place for an octopus.

Their soft bodies make them vulnerable.

To survive here,

this mimic octopus has developed an unusual talent.

With color-changing cells all over her body,

she can alter her appearance in an instant.

She's a master of disguise.

One moment imitating a flatfish...

the next, morphing into the seafloor.

She can even impersonate a sea snake.

But this veined octopus can't mimic her neighbors.

Instead, she survives on her wits alone.

A hungry flounder.

It couldn't swallow her whole,

but any one of those arms would make a bite-size snack.

And even the smallest injury can be life-threatening.

With nine brains,

octopuses are the most intelligent invertebrates in the world.

If anyone can think of a way out of this,

she can.

She scans the seafloor for anything that might help.

Not quite the safety blanket she's after.

A coconut shell could do the trick.

Her very own suit of armor.

The problem is, it's only doing half the job.

She needs protection on all sides.

An empty scallop shell,

if she can get to it in time.

With more than a thousand suckers,

she closes the door.

Now she has a shield, and somewhere to hide.

While the flounder is left,

well, floundering.

With danger nipping at your heels,

you need to find ingenious ways to protect yourself.

But there are times in life when you have to take a risk

and stand out from the crowd.

In Costa Rica,

it's mating season for this Anolis lizard.

To attract a female, he must put on a show.

Unfortunately, his eye-catching moves...

draw unwanted attention.

A motmot with a taste for lizards.

Trapped.

He can't stay put, and lizards can't survive underwater.

Or can they?

This may be a fatal mistake.

Coming up for air would mean certain death.

But this is no ordinary lizard.

His special water-repellent scales

trap a silvery layer of air against his body...

which acts like his very own scuba tank.

And he can stay submerged for almost 18 minutes.

Long enough for this bird brain to get bored.

He's one of the only lizards in the world

that's able to do this.

But not all animals can run away or hide.

Sometimes you have to stand your ground.

Even when you're being hunted

by the most adaptable big cat on the planet.

A leopard.

Able to prey on over 90 different species.

They will eat almost anything they can catch.

Even porcupines.

Armed with thousands of needle-sharp quills.

But with short stubby legs...

they can't outrun the leopard.

Cornered, the porcupines first rattle out a warning.

Enough to deter almost every predator.

But not leopards.

They target a weakness in the porcupine's defense.

Their softer underbelly.

But the porcupines up their game

and keep their backs turned.

Leopards don't give up easily.

So the porcupines take things to the next level.

Turning defense into attack.

And driving their point home.

Their perfectly designed quills break off...

and stick within the enemy.

Quills are a great way to protect yourself.

But they only work in close combat.

Here, on the African savanna

where large predators roam,

it's smarter to keep your enemies at a distance.

And find safety in numbers.

Vervet monkeys form tight-knit troops.

Living on the ground and in the trees,

they face dangers at every level.

A southern African python.

Twelve feet long.

One of the largest snakes in the world.

Capable of swallowing this monkey whole...

if it can get close enough.

But this family has someone on lookout.

And when they spot a threat...

they use a unique language to tell the group exactly what to do.

Stand tall to spot the snake and keep your distance.

Pythons are ambush hunters.

And if their cover is blown, they give up.

These monkeys have learned that communication saves lives.

And they know it's not how loud you shout.

It's what you say that really matters.

Because vervets are on the menu for many different predators...

they've developed a sophisticated alarm system

to identify a range of threats...

including one familiar big cat.

A leopard triggers another specific alarm call.

And, critically, a different response.

The troop heads for the trees.

Leopards can climb.

So these clever monkeys run to the ends of the thinnest branches...

where the heavyweight hunter can't follow.

They also know how to dodge danger from above...

using a call that means there's an attack from the air.

A martial eagle.

Without even looking, they know just what to do.

Diving for cover under the canopy.

When every second counts,

knowing which predator is approaching and how to avoid them

makes the difference between life and death.

Vervets have three different alarm calls.

Each triggering a different life-saving reaction.

It's a highly-developed communication system.

But most animals can't talk their way out of trouble.

And the smaller you are...

the more creative you have to be.

For a cyclosa spider,

the size of a grain of rice...

even a raindrop can be devastating.

And in the Amazon rainforest...

they have much larger threats to deal with.

Hummingbirds.

Known for their thirst for nectar.

But, in fact, up to 80% of their diet is insects

and bite-size spiders.

A cyclosa would make the perfect meal.

At just four millimeters long

and without a strong venom, she's defenseless.

But she has a surprising solution that's never been filmed before.

She builds a special web designed to trap prey.

And it also collects debris falling from the canopy above.

And she uses it to do something remarkable

that's just recently been discovered.

First, she gathers only the best materials.

And starts to assemble an extraordinary creation.

Piece by piece,

her sculpture begins to take shape.

A large body.

Followed by long protruding legs.

In just one night,

she finishes her masterpiece.

What looks like a giant self-portrait.

Thought to intimidate her predators.

And to complete her illusion...

she hits the web with her abdomen.

Bringing her beast to life.

And scares off a predator 500 times her own size.

The lengths animals go to to protect themselves

are truly mind-blowing.

They know when to stand their ground

or when to run and hide.

When to use brain over brawn.

If your life is on the line,

it takes great intelligence to outsmart the enemy

and survive.

Rainforests are a treasure trove of life on Earth.

But they're also difficult places for a film crew to work in.

Soldier ant.

Hostile, hot...

and unbelievably wet.

In the Peruvian Amazon,

the team were on the trail of a recent discovery.

Their ambition was to be the first to film

the ingenious model building of the cyclosa spider.

A personal dream

for one of the most experienced wildlife cameramen in the world.

I first came across this story about five years ago,

and I just thought what an amazing piece of evolution

for a spider to actually know what itself looks like

and to build a model of itself.

I mean, that is something that I've always wanted to film.

But there's no published science to guide them.

It's terrifying because nobody knows anything about this spider

or anything about their behavior.

So we're definitely gonna make a lot of mistakes

and we're gonna have to learn pretty quickly

in order to capture what they do.

The crew suspect model building happens overnight,

as this is when spiders are most active.

As the sun sets, the team get to work.

Searching for a tiny spider in a dark rainforest

teeming with eight-legged beasts is not for the fainthearted.

Look at that one.

- Wow. - Look at that color.

- There's another one here. - Wow.

Yeah, they're all over this place.

Not everyone shares Simon's enthusiasm.

Richard, what do you actually think of spiders?

- Like, do you really not like them? - No, I don't.

This is particularly gross.

He might not be their biggest fan,

but they have his respect.

You can't help but be in awe of them.

Interesting, really.

But the one we're here to film is gonna be just tiny.

The search continues.

Eventually, the crew find what they're looking for.

Wow. Look at that.

- Is that the one? - Yeah, it is.

- Yeah. - That's the cyclosa.

A tiny spider building a supersized self-portrait.

Look at that.

Wow.

It's a promising find

and confirms the cyclosa are building overnight.

But this model is almost complete.

The crew want to film the entire process.

There's another one here.

With its empty web, this cyclosa fits the bill.

It is so small.

This could be pretty tough.

No one knows how long it takes cyclosa spiders

to build their decoys.

So the team decide to use a time-lapse camera.

With it set to record every ten seconds,

they can film the spider through the night in a single continuous shot.

For it to work, the spider needs to be continually lit.

And in the rainforest, at night, that is an issue.

We need the lights to be able to film the spider,

but the lights are attracting all of the bugs.

Oh, moth, don't you dare. No!

They just fly around the lights and through the web,

and trash it as we're trying to film it.

We might have to rethink the way we are lighting our subjects.

Inspired by the spider, Richard has an idea.

I'm gonna set up a decoy light,

which is brighter than the filming lights.

And, hopefully, they'll go for that instead. But no guarantees.

With the decoy light in position,

Richard resets the time-lapse camera.

Yeah, we're covered in moths already.

- Should we back out and give it a chance? - Yeah.

It will be an anxious wait until morning to see if it's worked.

It's the moment of truth.

Well, she's done something.

Overnight, the spider has constructed an impressive model.

There she is. There she is. Look.

Eureka.

It's fascinating viewing as they witness for the first time

how the spider builds its masterpiece.

- Yeah. - She's gone straight out.

Collecting all of her trash and bringing it straight back into the middle.

Yeah.

Every detail captured is a precious new discovery

that will contribute to the scientific study of these little spiders.

She works incredibly quickly.

It is incredible to think that this tiny little spider,

which is like what, half the size of a pea,

is able to do all of this behavior.

Really quite intricate detail,

- in just a few hours. - Yeah.

Thanks to Richard and Simon,

and with a little inspiration from a very special spider,

the model-making mysteries of the cyclosa

have been revealed on camera for the very first time.

Next time...

Everyone needs a safe place to call home.

But they can be hard to find

and tricky to build.

It takes creative vision

and a lot of effort

to withstand the forces of nature

and create your very own dream home.