All language subtitles for Impossible.Animals.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10

Sometimes in life,

to make it to the top
you need to bend the rules.

To survive
in this competitive world,

many animals have pushed
the boundaries of possibility
to the LIMIT.

They seem to test
the very fabric of reality...

Compared to us,

they can see sharper,

stretch their bodies further

and perform feats
that are just out of this world.

Rainforests...

..deserts...

..coasts.

Three hostile landscapes

each forging
their own distinct mix of mavericks.

By capturing their lives
in spectacular detail,

we reveal the secrets
that allow these animals
to achieve the impossible.

Deserts...

They are barren AND they are brutal.

In fact, by their very definition,

they lack the one thing
that's most fundamental to all life.

Water.

They get less than
25 centimetres of rain a year.

Then there's the blistering,
ROASTING heat.

The desert air
can reach 55 degrees Celsius.

And the ground,
where most animals live,

can be over 70.

That is hot enough
to cause third-degree burns
on human skin

in less than a second.

Finally, it's their sheer scale...

Covering a fifth
of the earth's surface,

resources are spread
desperately thin.

And finding food
can mean travelling
for HUNDREDS of miles.

So, how does anything survive?

Well, first things first,

you've gotta know
how to handle the heat...

The Namib Desert
in Southern Africa
is so hot and dry,

surviving here
would be mission impossible
for most animals.

But there's one group of daredevils
who seem to like it here.

Reptiles.

The feet of
the shovel-snouted lizard

would COOK were it not for
his unusual dance moves.

But his real superpower
is his shovel-shaped head.

He can use it to dig...

..tunnelling safely away
from the searing sun.

Another reptile,
the web-footed gecko,

has an eye-opening solution
to the desert heat.

The Namib might not get much rain,

but it gets a lot of fog.

Droplets collect
on the gecko's giant eyeballs...

..and all that's needed
to quench its thirst...

..is a flick of the tongue.

Of all the reptiles
that live in the Namib,

there's one colourful character
that really stands out...

The Namaqua chameleon.

A high-speed predator
that can snatch a toktokkie beetle
in a split second.

On a good day,

it can eat 200
of these fast-moving beetles,

so it needs
to hit the ground running.

But desert mornings are cold...

..so it needs
a little time to warm up.

Like many reptiles...

..it needs to soak up
heat energy from the sun.

So, to get its body
to running temperature,

it starts the day by sunbathing.

All chameleons can change colour

thanks to special chemical crystals
hidden under their skin.

Now, the Namaqua
goes one step further

by combining science with fashion.

When it's sunbathing,
it prefers to wear black,

and that's because
the darker the colour,

the more heat is absorbed

and the quicker
the lizard can warm up.

To top it off,
it has hinged ribs,

which means it can
expand its skin like a sail,

stretching out
the side facing the sun
to catch the maximum number of rays.

And it can even make
the other side of its body white,

so all that precious heat
doesn't escape.

The Namaqua
gains more and more energy
with every passing second.

And once it's fully charged...

..it doesn't hang around.

At top speed,

the Namaqua chameleon can reach
a BLISTERING three miles an hour...

What? Only three?

Come on, give them a break...!

I know that might not seem
that impressive to you and I,

but at only 25 centimetres long,

that's practically
greased lightning!

And if three miles an hour
won't cut the mustard,

the Namaqua can always
pull out its ballistic tongue.

At twice the length of its body,

it can fully extend
in as little as
three-hundredths of a second.

When it boils down to it,

being cold-blooded
is a great way to deal with
a hot climate.

By using outside sources
to regulate their body temperature,

reptiles can warm up
by basking in the sun

and cool down
by crawling into the shade.

But what about
warm-blooded creatures like mammals?

They have to stick to a very narrow
internal temperature range.

Any more or less
and it CAN end up being fatal.

So, for them,

the extreme desert heat
presents a far greater challenge.

The heart of the Sahara,

one of the hottest
and driest deserts on earth.

Hardly the place
you'd expect to find a tiny furball

like this fennec fox.

He's the smallest dog on the planet,

about half the weight
of a Chihuahua...

..and everything about him
is miniature.

Well, almost everything...

With the sweltering sun
beating down,

his body temperature
would rise to deadly levels
if not for his giant ears.

Each ear measures over
a hundred square centimetres

and is cram-packed
full of tiny capillaries.

When the fennec fox
is in danger of overheating,

these swell up,

bringing more warm blood
into contact with the cooler air,

allowing any excess heat
to dissipate.

This turns him
from a dangerously hot dog...

..into an impossibly cool canine.

Desert-dwelling animals
have found some impressive ways
of outfoxing the heat,

but that is just the start.

Next,

the ingenious methods animals use

to navigate
the treacherous desert terrain.

The parched deserts of the world
push life to the limit.

But for the animals that live here,
heat isn't the only problem.

Deserts are vast,

and the terrain
is SERIOUSLY hostile.

Jagged rocks as sharp as knives...

..dunes that tower
300 metres high...

And then, of course,
there's that sand.

Lots and lots of sand...

Now, from a physics point of view,

sand doesn't act like
a solid or a liquid,

but something in between.

If you've ever tried
running on a sandy beach,

you'll have
experienced this first hand
as the sand shifts under your feet.

It can feel like you're tackling
a full-on assault course.

Unless, that is,
you have a clever solution.

For the sidewinder,

these giant dunes
COULD be a massive problem...

If it slithered forwards
like a normal snake,

its tiny body
would quickly be buried
in the loose sand.

So, instead...

..it skims
over the surface sideways.

This strange diagonal wiggle

not only keeps
the sidewinder afloat...

..but it also means
only a tiny amount of skin

ever comes into contact
with the sand.

But what does all this sand mean
for animals with a need for speed?

Salukis are lean, athletic dogs,

bred for hunting in the desert
by Arabian tribes.

But in order to chase down
swift prey like hares and gazelle,

these canines have shifted
their running up a gear.

The Saluki becomes fully airborne,

not once...but twice each stride.

First with its feet together,

then again when apart.

A running style
called the double suspension gait.

This top gear of galloping

has seen Salukis clock an incredible
68 kilometres an hour.

And over distances
of half a mile or more,

they leave even
the fastest greyhounds for dust.

When getting around
the world's deserts,

there are
other challenges to overcome.

The spiny forests of Madagascar...

..look more like an alien world.

But they're still technically
just as much of a desert
as the Sahara.

This three-dimensional maze
is an obstacle course
for any creature.

Luckily, the sifaka,

a species of lemur,

has not one but two
impossibly effective strategies.

First of all,
it's an unrivalled arborealist...

..leaping up to ten metres
between trees.

And what could be
a skin-shredding landing
on these needle-sharp plants...

..is ingeniously prevented
thanks to thickly padded
palms and feet

just like inbuilt safety gloves.

But when the sifaka hits the ground,

this maverick mover
does something even stranger...

This sideways bouncing
doesn't look like
a sensible running style,

but appearances can be deceptive...

New science has shown that,

by stringing jumps together
in a chain,

sifakas spend less energy
than they would
if they took individual jumps

one at a time.

And that's all down to momentum.

Each leap produces energy
that's carried forward
to the next jump.

It's sort of like
bouncing a rubber ball.

Each bounce
provides energy for the next.

And this is exactly what's happening
when the sifakas jump in this way.

It might seem odd to you and I,

but this is a brilliant way
of getting around in the desert.

From leaping through trees
to galloping on the ground...

..they've got
the spiky Madagascan habitat...

..nailed.

In the Sonoran Desert of Arizona,

one solution to vicious vegetation
on the ground...

..is to take to the air.

For a Harris hawk,
with a wingspan of over a metre...

..it's nothing but a breeze.

But all that thorny vegetation
provides excellent cover

for lizards
attempting to evade capture.

The hawk has no choice
but to engage in an aerial pursuit.

Not OVER the obstacles...

But through them.

And to keep up,

there are some clever calculations
going on in the cockpit.

Other raptors
like peregrines and kestrels

use a guidance system
a lot like a homing missile,

flying more or less
in a straight line
to intercept their prey,

cutting them off
at the very last minute.

Now, that's great in open terrain,

but not so good
if your flight path
is full of spiky cacti.

The other option
is an all-out pursuit,

chasing your prey,
beak pointed directly at their tail.

This tactic requires
a different flight path,

of actively manoeuvring
around obstacles.

But the thing is, it's a lot slower.

What's special about hawks
is that they use BOTH.

They stay right on the tail
of their prey

whilst also predicting its path,

which gives the hawk
the ability to make adjustments

and take shortcuts where it can.

Just like the sifakas
that change tactics
in different terrain...

..when the lizard goes to ground,

the hawk doesn't let
being a bird hold it back.

It stalks its prey on foot.

A light build and long, thin legs...

..make this bird
a formidable runner.

Plus,

Harris hawks
have some of the best colour vision
in the animal kingdom,

which could give it the edge
in a deadly game
of desert hide-and-seek.

But despite these advantages...

..this time
the lizard is just out of reach.

Next,

we'll look at
how some of the world's
greatest animal athletes

have solved the problem
of finding food in the desert.

Deserts are the least productive
ecosystems on the planet.

Compared to rainforests,
they produce just 5% of the food.

The lack of rainwater
results in fewer plants...

..and fewer plants
means fewer herbivores.

This continues
all the way up the food chain
to the apex predators of the desert.

So, no matter what you eat,

you're gonna need to beat
some near impossible odds
to bag yourself a decent meal.

At around five metres tall...

..giraffes are voracious vegetarians

that CAN spend
18 hours a day eating.

And in the barren Namib wilderness,

the need to satisfy
this huge appetite...

..has driven them
to extraordinary lengths.

To avoid
the hottest part of the day,

they undertake marathon marches
at dawn and dusk.

The range of desert giraffes
is an astonishing 15 times larger

than their grassland cousins.

The Namib
is also home to desert elephants.

Their quest for food
is even more extreme.

Older members of the herd
have the phenomenal ability

to remember the exact locations
of food and water for decades.

A vital skill
in a world where human activity
is causing deserts to expand

and resources
to become increasingly scarce.

They'll trek hundreds of miles

and their super sensitive trunks
can smell water

even if it's buried underground.

When they finally find food,

these herculean animals
have the power
to tear down heavy branches...

..yet the precision to pluck
single seed pods from the ground.

Because in the desert,
every leaf counts.

The near impossible challenge
of finding food in the desert

doesn't get any easier
as you climb the food chain.

For carnivores who can't just
top up their calories by grazing,

each kill can mean the difference
between survival and starvation.

So, with such little food around,

you wouldn't think that
the world's top apex predators,

big cats,

would be able to survive here.

Yet a few of these
natural-born killers
have found a way.

Most cheetahs make their home
in Africa's grasslands...

..but they can also be found
in the Sahara and Namib deserts.

Their black tear marks,
called malar stripes,

reduce glare
as they scan the surroundings
for their next meal.

But when they spot their prey,
that's when the real magic begins.

Within an instant,

the cheetah switches gears
and goes from stealth
to all-out speed.

When most animals start to run,

their heart rate
increases gradually,

but a cheetah's heart rate
more than doubles,

going from 120
to 250 beats per minute

in just a few seconds.

Its muscles are also
four times more powerful
than a human's,

and propels it to a level
where it's able to cover
seven metres in a single stride.

On top of that,

its ridged feet
and permanently extended claws

give it the perfect amount of grip

to race its way to a blistering
120 kilometres an hour,

even on desert sand.

In the race for survival,
there can only be one winner...

Deserts are found
across the earth's surface,

and while they're always dry,

they aren't necessarily hot.

The arid lands of Mongolia
are cold...

..and the predators that live here
are just as mysterious.

The Pallas's cat
seems more like a moggie
than a mountain lion.

But this Central Asian wildcat...

..is a lean, mean...

..stealth machine.

And if you're a gerbil,

he might be
the last thing you never see.

His unusually flat head
and low-profile ears

allow him to get within metres
of his prey.

And when it comes to the crunch...

..his powerful bite...

..is more than a match for a gerbil.

In the desert,
it's an evolutionary arms race,

driving strategies and adaptations

that reward the rebels
who take innovation to the extreme.

And one desert predator
has raised the bar impossibly high.

The caracal
is the ultimate desert hunter.

She may be one of
the smallest wildcats in Africa...

..but she has a secret superpower.

These weaver birds
have built their nests high enough
to be out of harm's reach.

A fortress...

But that doesn't phase the caracal.

She knows that,
as darkness approaches,

the weaver birds will make
one final approach back to the nest.

And the caracal
has an unexpected skill
for a mammal.

She can fly...

..jumping an incredible three metres
in the air from a standing start.

Mammals have three kinds of muscle fibres.

Slow, fast and REALLY fast.

The caracal's muscles
are overwhelmingly
more than 70% of the third kind,

AKA the type of
really fast muscle fibre

that's linked with
the explosive speed
needed for sprinting and jumping.

Sprinters who train for years
trying to increase
this type of muscle

still don't even
come close to the caracal.

All that power
would be nothing without precision.

Next,
the ultimate fight for life

as animal mums and dads
battle to raise their young
in the desert.

In the desert,
only the strongest survive.

It's hard enough
to stay alive as an adult

when you only have
yourself to look out for...

So, imagine
just how impossible it must be
to raise an entire family here.

Heat, hunger and drought
are constant problems.

Predators see infants
as an easy meal,

but animal babies DO survive here.

And it's down to
more than just luck...

When it come to
the problems of desert life...

..this tiny African sengi
has one go-to solution.

Speed.

Everything's done in fast-forward...

..including parenting.

Baby sengi can also run swiftly
just one hour after birth...

..and can have babies themselves
in less than two months.

Now that is
a seriously fast learner!

But when it comes to being
an early developer,

one desert animal
has got the jump on everyone else.

Thirty-five percent of Australia
is classified as desert.

This is home
to the mighty red kangaroo.

These backcountry bruisers
are well-known for
their phenomenal jumping ability.

They're also
brutally efficient boxers...

..who balance on their tails

to deliver
a lightning-fast two-footed kick.

Adult roos
punch well above their weight,

but when it comes to athleticism,

it's the baby roos
that scale new heights.

Compared to the size of an adult,

kangaroos give birth
to the smallest babies
of any mammal.

They are TINY,

100,000 times smaller
than an adult male kangaroo.

And the first thing
this jellybean-sized baby
has to do after being born

is haul its way up its mother's fur
and into the pouch.

For an animal this size,
it's like climbing Mount Everest

when you've only
just entered the world.

Once inside the pouch,

it'll suckle for four more months

and then it's mum that does
something really impressive...

While one joey
develops in the pouch,

incredibly, she can already
be pregnant with the next one.

But don't be fooled,
these mums are in TOTAL control,

because if desert conditions
get really tough,

they have the astonishing ability
to put their pregnancy on pause.

Now, I know
a few mums and dads out there
who would love to have that option,

but for life in the desert,
this isn't just a perk.

This ability
is crucial to their survival.

When you're trying to raise
a happy, healthy family

where no one else can,

timing is everything.

If punishing desert conditions

make raising one, two
or even three babies
in the desert difficult,

then imagine trying to raise 20
in such a brutal world.

If you want to have a large family,
it makes sense to get some help...

LOTS of help.

Meerkats...

Amazingly,

there's often only one mum
in a meerkat mob.

The matriarch.

She can have up to 20 pups a year,

a tough task for any mother...

And it's getting even tougher,

as the changing climate
is reducing pup survival rates.

But she's not alone.

She has the help
of her extended family,

a whole team
of dedicated babysitters.

The pups will learn all of
life's vital skills from them.

Welcome to meerkat training camp.

They have a lot to learn...

..from how to dig up
grubs and insects...

..to safely mastering
how to deal with a scorpion...

..and understanding
when it might just be best
to back down.

Just like a lot of big families,
squabbles are fairly common...

But somehow,
in true soap opera style...

..they make it work.

For youngsters in the desert,
every day is a schoolday,

and these lessons
WILL make the difference
between life and death.

But some species have to overcome
the most impossible odds
before they're even born.

Or in this case,
before they've even hatched...

When it comes to the bird world,
ostriches don't play by the rules.

They have two toes
instead of the normal four,

three stomachs

and eyes
that are bigger than their brains!

And their parenting skills
are even weirder...

Hatching the world's largest egg
is definitely a slow process.

To stop them from hard-boiling
in the hot desert sun,

these giant ostrich eggs
are white to reflect light...

..making them really obvious
to desert predators...

..and that means 42 days of peril
before they even hatch.

The alpha female
has a cunning strategy

to give her offspring
the best chance of survival.

When another female approaches,
you'd think there'd be a standoff.

But instead, it's a stand up...

Bizarrely, the newcomer's welcomed

to lay her eggs
in the dominant female's nest.

This might LOOK like generosity,

but really
it's a case of safety in numbers.

The dominant female
is a street-smart mother in waiting.

She can recognise
exactly which eggs are her own

by tiny differences
in their size, shape

and the texture of the surface.

She then takes great pains
to shift her own eggs
to the middle of the clutch...

..and pushes the other female's eggs
towards the outer edge.

But why does she do this?

Well, if a hungry jackal comes along
looking for an easy meal,

the chances are
it's more likely to take an egg
from the outside edge of the nest.

And BOOM,
her eggs are perfectly safe...

Once the nest is rearranged,

males and females
share incubation duties
around the clock.

After 42 days
of surviving fearsome predators...

..and soaring temperatures...

..their eggs finally hatch.

For them,

the challenge of desert life
has just begun.

Raising young
in the barren and brutal desert

can at times
seem like a futile resistance.

Yet it's one that happens
every single day...

..because by breaking the rules,
defying convention

and going further
than their competitors

by being taller...

..faster and WIERDER...

..these incredible
desert mavericks...

..have made the impossible POSSIBLE.

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