All language subtitles for Natures.Strangest.Mysteries.Solved.Series.1.01of10.Sparkly.Spider.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

Narrator: Ever wondered
why a spider might sparkle?

Could this be some
kind of courtship ritual?

Narrator: Or why an animal
would play a prank?

[ barking ]

Without the pictures,
no one would believe it.

Narrator: And could anything
take on the great white shark?

The kind of teeth marks we see

Are almost something
mammal-like.

Narrator:
Nature is awe-inspiring,

But sometimes it just
doesn't make sense.

Man: I have never, ever seen
anything like this.

Strange animal behavior,

Unexpected events
captured on camera.

[ animals screeching ]

The truth behind them
is astonishing.

Woman: My god!

Nature's greatest
mysteries solved.

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

June 2017, williamsburg,
virginia.

A mysterious sequined spider
lights up the night

Like a disco ball.

Schreiber: So a woman
sees a spider on the floor.

She decides to flash her torch
onto it just to see it better.

When she does,
she gets an amazing sight.

Suddenly, it was just lit up
with colors,

All these different colors.

I'm a real fan of spiders,
and I always love it

When I see something
that I've not seen before,

And I think it's
absolutely beautiful.

That's great.
I like spiders in any context,

But a sparkly spider,
that's perfect.

Narrator: So what is making
this spider sparkle?

Riskin: The first thing
that comes to my mind

Is bioluminescence, right?

Bioluminescence is just light

Coming from
something biological,

And there are all kinds
of different creatures

That can make light with their
bodies, so the question is,

"is that what's happening
with this spider?"

It might be doing it
for certain reasons

Like trying to attract a mate,
to make a sort of call sign.

Narrator:
There's one insect that's famous

For lighting up
for the ladies.

Now, when fireflies
bioluminesce,

They're in total control of it.

They turn it on.

They turn it off, and they flash
their bioluminescence

In a very specific way
because that is sexy to females.

So one suggestion is,

Could this be some kind
of courtship display,

A way of the spider
attracting a mate?

Peacock spiders do these
incredibly elaborate displays.

These are males doing their very
best to impress the females.

Narrator:
But could spiders

Really make themselves
glitter in the gloom?

Perhaps not.

Burke: As yet, there is simply
not one documented example

Of a spider that
produces bioluminescence,

So at the moment, that's
a really unlikely explanation

For what's going on here.

Narrator:
But there could be another way

Of getting to
the essence of the story.

Could it be iridescent?

That's an interesting theory.

Iridescence is when, like,
looking at a soap bubble

Or looking at certain beetles,
the light is broken down

Into its various
different components,

And so it looks amazing.

Narrator:
In case you missed that,

Iridescence occurs when
light bounces off a surface

And is scattered
into different colors

Like the feathers
on this hummingbird,

Which appear to change
from green to red and blue

As it dips its head.

Depending on the angle
we're seeing it from,

The surface seems
to change color.

Burke: It's basically
where animals

Are able to produce color
without a pigment.

The morpho butterfly --
which is a butterfly

That's found
in the amazon rainforest --

It's an amazing example
of iridescence.

It has these beautiful,
shiny, blue wings.

Narrator:
Like the hummingbird,

This butterfly
is actually brown.

It's the iridescence
which makes it look blue.

Riskin:
But iridescence isn't sparkly.

It almost looks like
shiny paint on a car.

It is not sparkly
like this spider.

Narrator: So the spider
is not bioluminescent,

Iridescent or any other
kind of -escent.

Time to go back to basics.

Burke: So a really important
thing to do is work out

What species
we're looking at if we can,

And we know that
this is a wolf spider.

Narrator: Like many arachnids,
the wolf spider has eight eyes,

But it's recognizable
for this face --

Two large eyes at the front,

A row of four underneath
and two hidden on top.

They are one of only a handful
of spider families

That don't weave webs,

And the wolf spider has
another unusual characteristic.

One of the remarkable things
about wolf spiders

Is they're one of
the few species of spiders

That show maternal behavior.

People think of spiders as these
cold-blooded, unfeeling,

Terrible creatures.

They're not.
They can be great mothers.

Wolf spiders carry their eggs
around in a special silk sack,

And when those eggs hatch out,
the spiderlings actually

Climb onto and completely coat
the female's abdomen,

And they'll ride
on her back like that

Until they're old enough
to fend for themselves.

Narrator: It's cute, I think.

So that's a horror movie
if you're scared of spiders.

Narrator: So could
these petite piggybackers

Help us crack the case?

Wolf spiders are very
visual predators.

They actually actively pursue
their prey,

And they need really
great eyesight to do this.

Narrator:
Most spiders have poor eyesight.

They rely on web vibrations to
know that prey has been snared,

But with no web,

Wolf spiders need
perfect vision to hunt with.

They've evolved eyes that see
particularly well in low light,

And it's this feature
that illuminates the secret

Behind the sparkle.

So you see this in a lot of cats
where they have eyeshine,

And basically there's a part
inside the eyeball

That reflects extra light
so that in dim situations

Enough light hits the brain
that it can see something,

And you see this
in a lot of nocturnal creatures,

Like crocodiles.

It happens in spiders, too.

Schreiber:
So what we're in fact seeing

Are hundreds of tiny
baby spider eyeballs,

All looking up at this lady
and the torch.

Narrator: With one wolf spider
mom carrying around 100 babies,

That could be 800 eyes
and one brilliant answer

Staring us right in the face.

That's amazing.

♪

Narrator:
Gansbaai, south africa,

Home to the most feared animal
on the planet.

Huge teeth, incredible jaws.

Burke:
They are supreme predators.

They are powerful, scary.
They're fast.

They're precise.

They have incredible weaponry.

Midcap: They'll float just a
little bit below the surface.

When they see something
that they think might be food,

They increase their speed
momentarily and kind of ram it,

Kind of maybe
catch it off guard.

Narrator: The great white shark
is considered

To be the ocean's undisputed
champion predator.

But when, in 2017,

Their bodies began washing up
on a south african beach,

It put that title in doubt.

We often think about
great whites

As being these invincible,
powerful hunters,

And so when four of them
wash ashore dead on a beach,

Clearly having been killed
by something else,

It really makes us wonder

What could have
possibly happened to them.

Narrator: Local shark experts

Have never seen
anything like this before.

They hope that an autopsy might
tell them how the sharks died.

So what kills
a great white shark?

♪

Narrator: The bodies
of four great white sharks

Wash up on a beach
in south africa.

This is a very rare event.

So what or who has killed them?

Humans in their boats kill
all kinds of animals every year,

And it's very possible
that one of them

Might have bumped into these
sharks and caused them to die.

Narrator: But there's something
about the sharks' injuries

That doesn't quite add up.

What's interesting
about this kill is that,

When you look at it,
it looks premeditated.

It looks surgical.

These sharks aren't just dead.
They've been dissected,

And something has opened them up
in a really precise way.

These sorts of injuries
are just not consistent

With an accidental boat strike.

Even an intentional
boat strike

Could not produce
these kinds of injuries.

Narrator:
If this wasn't a boat strike,

Could humans still be
the killers?

Riskin:
Humans kill sharks all the time,

But when humans
are killing sharks,

They're usually doing it
to take the fins.

Narrator: In china, they're used
to make shark fin soup.

These carcasses all had
their fins intact.

However, what they were missing
were their livers,

Which had been almost surgically
removed with such precision.

Narrator:
Sharks' livers can make up

A quarter of their body weight.

They're packed with nutrients,

Which could be valuable
to humans.

Nosal: In the first part
of the 20th century,

Sharks were actually being
hunted for their livers.

Shark liver oil is
very rich in vitamin a,

But in the mid-1940s,

Scientists came up with
a synthetic form of vitamin a

That eliminated the demand
for shark liver oil.

Narrator: So if we're not
hunting them

For their livers or fins,

Could another fish be
the great shark killer?

Sharks kill other sharks
all the time.

That's a normal shark thing.

Big fish eat the little fish.

Man #2: Oh!
Oh [bleep]

Oh, my god.
That is [bleep]

Narrator:
This is very rare footage

Of a shark-on-shark attack off
the coast of australia in 2014.

So was it cannibalism
by other great whites?

Now, if these were sharks
targeting other sharks,

What we would expect
to see were teeth marks

From these serrated teeth
that the shark have.

Narrator:
A shark's jaggedy teeth

Leave an instantly
recognizable pattern.

Burke: But this is not
what we were seeing.

What we're seeing are teeth
marks from a blunt tooth,

Like a blunt instrument.

Nosal:
The kind of teeth marks we see

Are almost
something mammal-like.

Narrator: These puncture wounds
might be a huge clue.

Could they lead to the identity
of the real killer?

Narrator: In 2017, four great
white sharks wash ashore

In gansbaai, south africa.

Their injuries point to
a series of savage attacks,

The likes of which
have never been seen before

On this formidable predator.

Experts have found humans
and cannibal sharks not guilty.

Now their attention turns
to other suspects.

Riskin: There aren't a lot
of animals that will eat

A great white shark or even
part of a great white shark.

They're very hard to kill.

Dolphins sometimes get together
to fend off a shark

And send it away,
but they don't kill it.

Narrator: There is a sea
creature that's been known

To tackle other large prey.

And that is a killer whale,
an orca.

Orcas have the ability
to take any size prey,

From something as small
as a penguin

To something moderate
in between, a seal, a sea lion.

They'll even take down
a newborn blue whale.

Conley: Typically orca whales
target mammals,

So it's possible that these guys
are actually

Going after
these sharks as well.

So could an orca

Really take down
a great white shark?

Narrator:
And there's another huge clue

The puts orcas
right in the frame.

Conley: These guys have been
known to go after whales,

And when they do,
they just take the organs out,

And they leave the carcass
floating in the water.

Narrator: Orcas only eat

The most nutritious parts
of their prey.

The rest is clearly
not worth the effort.

But tackling a whale
for its organs is one thing.

A great white is something
else altogether.

At the university of california
at san diego,

Marine biologist andrew nosal
is researching shark behavior.

He thinks the orcas might have
picked up

On a key vulnerability
in sharks.

This involves flipping them
over on their backs

To put them into a temporary
state of hypnotic inactivity

Known as tonic immobility.

By taking the shark
and putting it on its back,

The shark's muscles go limp.

Its blood pressure and heart
rate decrease,

And its breathing becomes
deep and rhythmic.

The shark is in
a very relaxed state.

In the wild, the shark doesn't
typically enter this state

Of tonic immobility.

Imagine how easy it would be
for another predator to come

And get it if it was
just relaxed on its back.

Narrator: Is this what happened
in south africa?

Orcas are smart, but are they
smart enough to flip a shark?

Nosal: The orca would have had
to have seized each great white,

Probably grabbing it by a
pectoral fin or its dorsal fin,

Rotating it so that its belly
was facing it up,

And then keeping it,
holding it in that position

Long enough
to induce tonic immobility.

Narrator: Now, just take
a careful look

At this amazing piece
of footage,

Shot off california in 2016.

Three orcas, one has
a 10-foot-long

Sevengill shark in its jaws,

And the shark
is clearly on its back.

It seems they've discovered
andrew's shark immobility trick.

So is it possible that the orcas
in south africa

Have learned
to do the same thing

But with a much bigger shark
like the great white?

Narrator:
If so, who are the culprits?

Local shark experts
have identified two orcas

In the area
where the sharks were killed.

They give them the nicknames
port and starboard

Because they share
a very distinctive feature.

These two orcas are also
very easily identifiable

Because they had dorsal fins
that were both bent over.

Narrator: It's those fins
that might explain

Why the dead sharks' livers
were missing.

Nosal:
Sometimes that's an indication

That the whales are stressed
or malnourished in some way,

And so maybe that's why

They're targeting
these high-nutrient livers.

Woman #2: Wow.

Narrator: All the evidence
suggests these two orcas

Used an ingenious shark-flipping
trick to kill four great whites.

Case solved.

Summer 2018, and in
winston-salem in the carolinas,

A mystery has arrived
on the doorstep.

So a north carolina resident
wakes up one morning,

And as he opens his door,
he notices there's more

Than just the one normal
newspaper that he gets.

There's a few.

Narrator:
For resident james eubanks,

It was quite perplexing.

Eubanks: I was looking out
of our picture window,

Which overlooks the back,

And there were, like, five
or six newspapers.

We had received ours
that morning.

And then the next day
he opens up the door again,

And there's more newspapers,
and it keeps piling up.

He's thinking,
"what is going on here?"

Now, we've picked up as many
as 10 papers in one night.

Narrator:
10 papers a day?

No one likes the news that much.

Could the special delivery
be from a local animal?

James decided to try and catch
the prankster red-handed.

So james set up a motion-sensing
camera in his backyard

To find out
who the culprit was.

Narrator: The footage reveals
many animal suspects --

An opossum,
a raccoon, a bat,

But none of them is carrying
the damning evidence.

The perpetrator
is a little more sly.

It's foxes, groups of foxes
just keep coming to his door

Mysteriously with newspapers
in their mouth,

Leaving them and going away.

Without the pictures,
no one would believe it.

It clearly shows him
with a newspaper.

They don't do this kind of
domesticated thing like a dog.

You'd expect a dog
to be bringing newspapers.

That solved the mystery
of who but not why.

Narrator:
Up to 10 newspapers a day

Are being dumped in a yard
in north carolina.

The mystery behind who's doing
the deliveries is solved

When the culprits
are caught on camera.

Foxes have lived up close
with humans

All across north america
and europe for a long time,

But why would a bunch of foxes
want to deliver the news?

What's motivating this behavior?

Could it be a domesticated fox?

Burke: Certainly there have been
plenty of examples of people

Feeding foxes, encouraging them
into their gardens.

And certainly foxes
can get very habituated,

Very used to be people,

But a pet fox that would be
trained to deliver newspapers,

Now, is that possible?

Narrator:
In some parts of the world,

Foxes are kept as pets,

And the wily creatures
do seem capable

Of following instructions.

This one is riding
the moscow subway.

I hope it got itself a ticket.

But we're talking russia here.

We're not talking
north carolina,

A place where it is illegal
to own a fox.

Narrator:
So if these foxes aren't pets,

Why aren't they
afraid of humans?

And why are they playing
their own game of fetch?

Burke: Fox populations that live
in and around

Urban and suburban areas
are much, much more curious

Than their sort of
rural counterparts.

What they need to do is lose
something called neophobia,

Which is a fear
of new things.

They tend to be much more
risk-taking,

And they will explore
new items.

Narrator: These foxes are
certainly not afraid

Of new stuff.

Maybe they're just
goofing around.

Cooke:
Foxes are known to be playful,

As you can see from this one

Which was filmed playing
with a dog toy

In a backyard in canada.

It's a bit less fun
for the toy's owner though.

[ barking ]

Certainly with the young,
with cubs and the juveniles,

Exploring and play
is such an important part

Of their learning experience.

It's how they learn
to socialize,

How they learn to interact
with each other,

How they establish
their hierarchies,

But most importantly, it's how
they learn to find food.

They're probably testing
just their ability to bite

Around an object
and deliver it into one place,

And they got excited by that.

We're watching three scientist
foxes repeat an experiment.

Narrator: But james eubanks
has another theory.

Since it's newspapers,
it must be fox news.