Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Zombie Spider - full transcript
A look at if zombie spiders could be real, what's hovering over Denver, and why a pod of beluga whales would adopt a unicorn of the sea.
Narrator:
Ever wonder what happens
When animals have
an identity crisis?
Nosal: How did this narwhal find
itself among a bunch of belugas?
Narrator: Or what has
a 70-mile wide radar footprint?
It's like an alien invasion.
What on earth is going on?
Narrator:
And the answer to nature's
Most burning question.
What gives spiders nightmares?
That does.
♪
Narrator:
Nature is awe-inspiring.
But sometimes,
it just doesn't make sense.
Man: I have never, ever seen
anything like this!
Narrator:
Strange animal behavior,
Unexpected events
captured on camera.
[ Both screeching ]
The truth behind them
is astonishing.
Man: My god!
Narrator: Nature's
greatest mysteries solved.
Denver, colorado.
October 3, 2017. 7:04 am.
Meteorologist paul schlatter
spots something weird and huge
Over the state's capital.
That morning, we saw a bloom
erupt on radar.
We weren't exactly sure
what it was,
But we certainly hadn't seen
a pattern quite like that
In any of our recent memories.
Narrator: The mass is
an astonishing 70 miles across
And is moving in
a northeasterly direction.
Riskin: Weather officials
are totally perplexed
Trying to figure out what they
are looking at on their radar.
It looks like it might be
a weird, strange cloud,
But people have been
paying attention to weather
For a long time, and nobody had
seen anything like this.
Narrator: The national weather
service agrees
This is not a giant rain cloud.
Schlatter: The radar signature
could not have been
A precipitation echo,
Simply because the other radar
easily confirmed
That it was nothing
weather-related.
It seems a bit of a strange one,
so what on earth is going on?
Narrator: Well, storms aren't
the only things radar can track.
Animals that swarm
in large enough quantities
Can also appear on the screen.
So this could be the emergence
Of a giant bat colony
over colorado.
♪
There are these bats
in the united states
Called
the mexican free-tailed bat
That form these really dense
colonies inside caves.
Every square foot of
the cave ceiling
Has 300 bats on it.
It's all furry and wiggling,
and that's what it's like
During day, but then at night,
they all come out
The mouth of the cave and spread
out over the countryside.
Narrator: Schlatter confirms
that bats could be visible
On the scale
seen in denver that day.
Bats can easily have a swarm
hundreds of miles across
And they take off at sunset
and they expand
To a giant radar bloom
that pretty much covers
Most of the radar umbrella.
Narrator: But with this theory,
the timing is off.
The one problem with that
would be that bats
Tend to roost and travel
at nighttime,
But this swarm was detected
in the daytime.
Narrator: If not bats,
Is a more obvious flying friend
the culprit?
[ Birds chirping ]
Schlatter:
It certainly could be birds,
Because the typical
pattern of birds migrating
Is in a nice big swarm
as it moves over the radar.
Oftentimes in the morning,
we'll see local flocks of birds
Take off right around sunrise.
Each fall and spring
our radar network
Lights up with migrating birds.
It fills the entire central part
of the united states.
The purple martin does flock
in mass formations.
Birds are known to do that,
particularly in the daytime.
Also, birds such as starlings
do create
These very tight-knit formations
of huge scale.
Narrator: While flocks of
starlings can gather
In vast numbers, up to 100,000,
even those figures
Don't come close to what
was seen in denver's skies.
The problem is, there's
really no species of bird
That should be making a cloud
that's 70 miles wide.
Narrator:
Birds are ruled out.
Riskin:
What about insects?
There are lots of
insects in colorado,
And if enough of them
get up into the air
At the same time you
could pick it up on radar.
The plague of locusts
is of biblical significance,
But it's not just history.
It's something that actually
happens even today.
Narrator:
And it's not just locusts.
Woman: Do y'all see this?
This is so creepy.
Oh, my god!
Riskin: I mean,
it happened in wisconsin,
Right over
the mississippi river,
Where millions
and millions of mayflies
All emerged at the same time.
Daly: It seems to be this huge,
apocalyptic swarm.
It's really hard to
actually see what's going on
Until you get a closer look,
when you start to see
Lots and lots of
individual organisms.
Riskin: Mayflies will just be
covering cars and houses,
And it's quite nasty, actually.
Woman: Whoa!
They're all over me.
And the reason
they're doing this is for sex.
They're all having sex
in the air
Above the water
and dropping eggs back down
So that they can reproduce
for next year.
Narrator: However,
the nearest sizable lake
Is over 140 miles away.
Mayflies hatch from
large bodies of water,
And there in denver,
there aren't
These large bodies of water
to be able
To make this
a plausible explanation.
Narrator:
No water, no mayflies.
But another winged insect
might be the cause.
Riskin:
It could be a butterfly.
There are butterflies
that migrate,
Like the monarch butterfly.
♪
Daly: Monarch butterflies
are very unique.
They are one of
the few butterflies
That actually can't
survive winter.
So they pick up
on environmental cues
To start a migration
to warmer climates.
Riskin:
Monarch butterflies are amazing.
Every fall, a butterfly will fly
All the way from canada,
all the way down north america
All the way to mexico to get to
This one little patch of forest
for the winter.
It's ridiculous,
it shouldn't be possible,
And yet, they do it.
There's recent research
that shows
That they actually create their
own little microclimates
That keep them safe.
Narrator:
As a group, they can maintain
A more constant temperature,
surviving the winter
Before taking on
the 3,000 mile journey north.
Riskin: The even weirder part
is the trip back,
Because the ones that
leave mexico go a little ways,
They stop, they have babies,
those ones come out
Of their cocoons
and fly a little ways,
And this goes five generations
before they make it back.
And then the fall, those adults
fly it in one fell swoop.
It is not normal for an insect
to be able to migrate that far.
Monarch butterflies
are ridiculous.
♪
However, butterfly expert
mary ann colley
Is not convinced that monarchs
are what appeared on the radar.
Monarch migration generally
happens further east
Than the rocky mountains,
And so denver metropolitan area
Is not a primary flyway
for the monarch migration.
Narrator: With denver not on
the monarch super highway,
They're struck off
the suspect list.
So could the swarm that
we're seeing on the radar
Be caused by the weather
after all?
Super weird, but I think
that might be it.
♪
♪
Narrator:
Denver, colorado.
October 3, 2017.
A mysterious, 70-mile wide mass
has appeared on radar.
Experts don't think
it's a storm,
Or any kind of animal swarm
that they've seen before.
Stumped for an answer,
the weather service
Puts out a call for witnesses.
We solved the mystery using
social media
When our followers
started tweeting in images
Of butterflies just
covering their yards.
There was numerous accounts of
not the monarch butterfly,
But instead, its relative,
the painted lady.
Narrator: These butterflies have
the same coloring as monarchs
And also migrate.
Their numbers were supersized
by an unusually warm fall.
The painted ladies had
the opportunity
To take advantage
of our weather.
We still had hundreds of
thousands of blooms
For them to feast on.
Narrator: The weather then
created a butterfly bottleneck.
There was a low pressure system
in denver,
And what that was doing
was pulling butterflies
From all areas of north america,
And so all these butterflies
Were actually being funneled
to the area.
Narrator: But then, one more
thing led the butterflies
To make a forced landing
in denver... the rockies.
Riskin: So wind is pushing them
up across denver,
And they would have kept going
Except that there's a whole
bunch of mountains there,
So they sort of got pushed
up against that and stopped,
And then landed, and as a result
Denver got a beautiful display
of butterflies.
♪
Narrator: Hyogo, japan.
June 10, 2013.
Scientist observe some
very strange behavior
In this orb weaver spider.
This is a weird one.
Daly: This spider is spinning
a very different,
More unusual type of web.
Narrator:
It's building a web
That makes no sense
for catching prey.
This has to be one of
the more bizarre behaviors
I've seen across
the spider world.
Why would a spider
do this weird thing?
Narrator:
The answer is way beyond
Anything you can imagine.
What gives spiders nightmares?
That does.
♪
Narrator:
The spider's web pattern
Is usually
a pretty familiar shape.
Riskin:
You have an orb weaving spider
That's supposed to spin a web
that looks like,
You know,
the cartoon spiderweb does,
But this one doesn't do that.
Narrator: Could it be that
this is just a new web design?
Daly: There are roughly
45,000 species of spiders.
So it could be that
this orb weaver
Is building a new type of web.
The web is an integral part
of a spider's life,
And of course,
it's very important
For attracting its prey.
And different prey require
different kinds of webs.
Some spiders can make
crazy traps that
They push down on top of their
prey to catch them.
Some spiders build big, huge,
tennis-racket shaped things
So that something can
fly into it.
Some build trap doors
that animals fall into.
Narrator:
The net-casting spider
Slings her web
like a spidey superhero.
♪
She throws her silk
over her prey,
And then knits it into
submission.
Riskin: Spiderwebs
are incredibly versatile.
They're incredibly strong.
They're incredibly tough.
Daly: When prey gets stuck
in a web,
It's pretty much impossible
to escape,
And at that moment,
the spider strikes,
Injects venom,
and eats it alive.
Riskin: Spiderwebs are the most
incredible things in nature,
But I think the best thing
about spiderwebs
Is that they come out
of a spider's butt.
Narrator:
So could our orb weaver,
Who relies solely on its web
to survive,
Be an innovator of
spider silk engineering?
Our experts think not.
This spider's web is not
suitable for catching prey.
Something else is going on.
♪
This spider might have
eaten something
That is making its brain
not work all that well.
Narrator: If so, it wouldn't be
the first time.
Riskin: There are some
experiments that were done
On giving drugs to spiders
to see what will happen to them.
There's evidence that when
you give lsd to a spider,
It makes a very weird web.
Daly: Spiders that have
ingested caffeine,
Well, they create
badly made webs.
Whereas webs exposed
to pesticides
Will be eaten by spiders
to get rid of them,
So that they can build
a new one.
However, in this case,
there was no evidence
That these webs were exposed
to pesticides or lsd.
Narrator: But color footage of
the spider reveals a clue.
That little weird thing
on the spider's back.
Sounds far-fetched,
but is it possible that
This spider's mind is being
controlled by someone else?
♪
♪
Narrator: A japanese orb weaving
spider is acting strange,
Dismantling its web
and building something else.
It kind of looks like a cocoon,
And spiders don't make cocoons.
Narrator: But it's the yellow
object on the spider's back
That's the giveaway.
♪
Riskin: It turns out that little
thing on its back is a maggot.
And it's not just any maggot,
It's the maggot
of a parasitoid wasp.
And what they do is lay
an egg on a victim insect,
Or a spider in this case,
and then as that egg hatches
And turns into a maggot,
they eat the victim alive.
Narrator:
But this parasitic wasp maggot
Isn't just eating the spider...
It's taking control
of its brain.
This is a fascinating
example of host manipulation.
So the wasp larvae will start
to secrete these chemicals
Which essentially control
the behavior of the spider.
So what's actually happening
here is that the spider
Is being controlled
by another animal.
Riskin: So the spider's
not gonna make
The web that would help it.
It's gonna make
a weird cocoon web
That isn't for the spider
at all, it's for the maggot.
Once that thing is built,
the maggot eats the spider,
Drops its husk to the ground,
and then goes and lives
In that little cocoon until
it can grow into a wasp
And do it again
to somebody else.
Narrator: Terrifyingly, there
are over half a million
Different species of these
flying body snatchers.
There's no end to the nasty
things they do to their hosts.
The glyptapanteles wasp lays
up to 80 eggs
Inside a caterpillar.
Two weeks later, they erupt
out like a scene from "alien."
So any time you see a wasp
dragging a live creature around,
It's likely a parasite
that's injecting an egg
Into its victim, turning it
into a zombie slave.
Predators aren't scary.
Parasites are scary.
And this spider has a parasite
that is terrifying.
♪
Narrator:
St. Lawrence river, canada.
July 2018.
The gremm conservation group
are conducting research
When they make
an unusual sighting.
Nosal: There's a pod of about
a dozen beluga whales
Swimming along,
but on closer inspection
One of the belugas looks
a little different.
It's not as white, and it has
a long tusk sticking out of it.
Narrator: It turns out the
creature swimming with the belugas
Is the so-called
unicorn of the sea.
Cooke: So of all the species of
whales and dolphins out there,
There is only one that has
an extraordinary long tusk,
And that's the narwhal.
Narwhals originally were thought
to be mythical creatures.
They didn't even know that they
existed until they were
First recorded as a species
in the 16th century.
And its tusk is not like a horn
That you might associate
with other kinds of mammals.
It's actually
an elongated canine tooth.
Narrator: The narwhal's
companions, the belugas,
Are white whales known for
their extrovert personalities...
What a good boy! [ Laughs ]
...And high-pitched singing,
Giving them their nickname
"canary of the sea."
[ beluga whale singing ]
But the narwhal
is 600 miles south
Of its normal range,
and animal species normally
Stick closely to their own kind,
which begs the question...
Why is this narwhal hanging out
with these belugas?
♪
Cooke: So could this just be
a one-off event?
Maybe it's just coincidence.
Maybe they just happened to be
In the same place at
the same time.
Narrator:
But the behavior of the pod
Puts that theory in doubt.
Nosal: This doesn't seem
to just be a one-off encounter,
Because the narwhal is doing
everything it can
To fit in with its new friends.
Cooke: The narwhal is
doing everything to join in
With the belugas,
including blowing bubbles
Back and forth, which is
typical beluga behavior.
Nosal: And it's reciprocal.
The belugas seem to be
Treating the narwhal as if
it were one of their own.
Cooke:
Which suggests the relationship
Must be fairly well established
And not some kind
of chance encounter.
Narrator: Could the narwhal and
belugas be teaming up to hunt?
There are plenty of examples
Of what we call
mutualism in nature,
Where two different species
live in close proximity,
And they both benefit
from living together.
Cooke: It's not uncommon in
the animal kingdom
For different species
to buddy up
In order to be successful
at finding food.
Mongooses and hornbills
actually have a relationship
That is mutually beneficial.
The mongooses have got
their heads down,
They're snuffling around
on the ground,
And what they don't eat,
The hornbill will hop along
behind and pick up.
It's the hornbill's job
to look out for predators,
So they're scratching
each other's backs.
So it's possible that there's
a similar relationship
Between belugas and narwhals.
Narrator: Maybe,
but differences in their diet
Make this a long shot.
Conley: The reason why
that probably isn't
The most likely answer is that
Their hunting habits are
very different.
The things that they eat
aren't the same.
Narrator: So why have
these guys formed a pod?
What's going on here, I think,
Is an example of
cross-species adoption.
♪
♪
Narrator: Bizarrely,
a narwhal is filmed
Swimming with a group
of beluga whales.
So how did these two species
become one pod?
The most likely explanation
is cross-species adoption.
Cooke: Now that probably sounds
a bit strange,
The idea of one species
adopting another,
But it's not
altogether uncommon,
Especially amongst
social species.
♪
Narrator: It turns out,
other foster families
Have existed in the wild.
Cooke: There's footage
of a group of sperm whales
Adopting a deformed dolphin.
They travel together,
and you can even see
The dolphin and the sperm whale
rubbing up against each other.
[ Clicking ]
There's also instances
of red-tailed hawk chicks
Being adopted
by bald eagle mamas,
Living with
the other bald eaglets,
And then eventually
fledging the nest.
♪
Narrator:
Red-tailed hawks will eventually
Strike out on their own.
Many whale species, however,
thrive on community.
Cooke: Company is really
important for social species,
So what I think's going on here
Is this lonely narwhal
has sought company
With these belugas
and been adopted by them.
Narrator: And it's been
working well for some time.
This blended family were
first spotted back in 2016.
Two years later,
that same narwhal
Was still hanging out with
his beluga bros.
Narrator: Raising all kinds
of new questions
About animal impulses.
Nosal: It wouldn't surprise me
if these intelligent animals
Felt that overarching urge
to love simply out of instinct.
So it's not surprising that
they might want
To share that affection
with another whale,
A very closely related mammal.
Captions paid for by
discovery communications
Ever wonder what happens
When animals have
an identity crisis?
Nosal: How did this narwhal find
itself among a bunch of belugas?
Narrator: Or what has
a 70-mile wide radar footprint?
It's like an alien invasion.
What on earth is going on?
Narrator:
And the answer to nature's
Most burning question.
What gives spiders nightmares?
That does.
♪
Narrator:
Nature is awe-inspiring.
But sometimes,
it just doesn't make sense.
Man: I have never, ever seen
anything like this!
Narrator:
Strange animal behavior,
Unexpected events
captured on camera.
[ Both screeching ]
The truth behind them
is astonishing.
Man: My god!
Narrator: Nature's
greatest mysteries solved.
Denver, colorado.
October 3, 2017. 7:04 am.
Meteorologist paul schlatter
spots something weird and huge
Over the state's capital.
That morning, we saw a bloom
erupt on radar.
We weren't exactly sure
what it was,
But we certainly hadn't seen
a pattern quite like that
In any of our recent memories.
Narrator: The mass is
an astonishing 70 miles across
And is moving in
a northeasterly direction.
Riskin: Weather officials
are totally perplexed
Trying to figure out what they
are looking at on their radar.
It looks like it might be
a weird, strange cloud,
But people have been
paying attention to weather
For a long time, and nobody had
seen anything like this.
Narrator: The national weather
service agrees
This is not a giant rain cloud.
Schlatter: The radar signature
could not have been
A precipitation echo,
Simply because the other radar
easily confirmed
That it was nothing
weather-related.
It seems a bit of a strange one,
so what on earth is going on?
Narrator: Well, storms aren't
the only things radar can track.
Animals that swarm
in large enough quantities
Can also appear on the screen.
So this could be the emergence
Of a giant bat colony
over colorado.
♪
There are these bats
in the united states
Called
the mexican free-tailed bat
That form these really dense
colonies inside caves.
Every square foot of
the cave ceiling
Has 300 bats on it.
It's all furry and wiggling,
and that's what it's like
During day, but then at night,
they all come out
The mouth of the cave and spread
out over the countryside.
Narrator: Schlatter confirms
that bats could be visible
On the scale
seen in denver that day.
Bats can easily have a swarm
hundreds of miles across
And they take off at sunset
and they expand
To a giant radar bloom
that pretty much covers
Most of the radar umbrella.
Narrator: But with this theory,
the timing is off.
The one problem with that
would be that bats
Tend to roost and travel
at nighttime,
But this swarm was detected
in the daytime.
Narrator: If not bats,
Is a more obvious flying friend
the culprit?
[ Birds chirping ]
Schlatter:
It certainly could be birds,
Because the typical
pattern of birds migrating
Is in a nice big swarm
as it moves over the radar.
Oftentimes in the morning,
we'll see local flocks of birds
Take off right around sunrise.
Each fall and spring
our radar network
Lights up with migrating birds.
It fills the entire central part
of the united states.
The purple martin does flock
in mass formations.
Birds are known to do that,
particularly in the daytime.
Also, birds such as starlings
do create
These very tight-knit formations
of huge scale.
Narrator: While flocks of
starlings can gather
In vast numbers, up to 100,000,
even those figures
Don't come close to what
was seen in denver's skies.
The problem is, there's
really no species of bird
That should be making a cloud
that's 70 miles wide.
Narrator:
Birds are ruled out.
Riskin:
What about insects?
There are lots of
insects in colorado,
And if enough of them
get up into the air
At the same time you
could pick it up on radar.
The plague of locusts
is of biblical significance,
But it's not just history.
It's something that actually
happens even today.
Narrator:
And it's not just locusts.
Woman: Do y'all see this?
This is so creepy.
Oh, my god!
Riskin: I mean,
it happened in wisconsin,
Right over
the mississippi river,
Where millions
and millions of mayflies
All emerged at the same time.
Daly: It seems to be this huge,
apocalyptic swarm.
It's really hard to
actually see what's going on
Until you get a closer look,
when you start to see
Lots and lots of
individual organisms.
Riskin: Mayflies will just be
covering cars and houses,
And it's quite nasty, actually.
Woman: Whoa!
They're all over me.
And the reason
they're doing this is for sex.
They're all having sex
in the air
Above the water
and dropping eggs back down
So that they can reproduce
for next year.
Narrator: However,
the nearest sizable lake
Is over 140 miles away.
Mayflies hatch from
large bodies of water,
And there in denver,
there aren't
These large bodies of water
to be able
To make this
a plausible explanation.
Narrator:
No water, no mayflies.
But another winged insect
might be the cause.
Riskin:
It could be a butterfly.
There are butterflies
that migrate,
Like the monarch butterfly.
♪
Daly: Monarch butterflies
are very unique.
They are one of
the few butterflies
That actually can't
survive winter.
So they pick up
on environmental cues
To start a migration
to warmer climates.
Riskin:
Monarch butterflies are amazing.
Every fall, a butterfly will fly
All the way from canada,
all the way down north america
All the way to mexico to get to
This one little patch of forest
for the winter.
It's ridiculous,
it shouldn't be possible,
And yet, they do it.
There's recent research
that shows
That they actually create their
own little microclimates
That keep them safe.
Narrator:
As a group, they can maintain
A more constant temperature,
surviving the winter
Before taking on
the 3,000 mile journey north.
Riskin: The even weirder part
is the trip back,
Because the ones that
leave mexico go a little ways,
They stop, they have babies,
those ones come out
Of their cocoons
and fly a little ways,
And this goes five generations
before they make it back.
And then the fall, those adults
fly it in one fell swoop.
It is not normal for an insect
to be able to migrate that far.
Monarch butterflies
are ridiculous.
♪
However, butterfly expert
mary ann colley
Is not convinced that monarchs
are what appeared on the radar.
Monarch migration generally
happens further east
Than the rocky mountains,
And so denver metropolitan area
Is not a primary flyway
for the monarch migration.
Narrator: With denver not on
the monarch super highway,
They're struck off
the suspect list.
So could the swarm that
we're seeing on the radar
Be caused by the weather
after all?
Super weird, but I think
that might be it.
♪
♪
Narrator:
Denver, colorado.
October 3, 2017.
A mysterious, 70-mile wide mass
has appeared on radar.
Experts don't think
it's a storm,
Or any kind of animal swarm
that they've seen before.
Stumped for an answer,
the weather service
Puts out a call for witnesses.
We solved the mystery using
social media
When our followers
started tweeting in images
Of butterflies just
covering their yards.
There was numerous accounts of
not the monarch butterfly,
But instead, its relative,
the painted lady.
Narrator: These butterflies have
the same coloring as monarchs
And also migrate.
Their numbers were supersized
by an unusually warm fall.
The painted ladies had
the opportunity
To take advantage
of our weather.
We still had hundreds of
thousands of blooms
For them to feast on.
Narrator: The weather then
created a butterfly bottleneck.
There was a low pressure system
in denver,
And what that was doing
was pulling butterflies
From all areas of north america,
And so all these butterflies
Were actually being funneled
to the area.
Narrator: But then, one more
thing led the butterflies
To make a forced landing
in denver... the rockies.
Riskin: So wind is pushing them
up across denver,
And they would have kept going
Except that there's a whole
bunch of mountains there,
So they sort of got pushed
up against that and stopped,
And then landed, and as a result
Denver got a beautiful display
of butterflies.
♪
Narrator: Hyogo, japan.
June 10, 2013.
Scientist observe some
very strange behavior
In this orb weaver spider.
This is a weird one.
Daly: This spider is spinning
a very different,
More unusual type of web.
Narrator:
It's building a web
That makes no sense
for catching prey.
This has to be one of
the more bizarre behaviors
I've seen across
the spider world.
Why would a spider
do this weird thing?
Narrator:
The answer is way beyond
Anything you can imagine.
What gives spiders nightmares?
That does.
♪
Narrator:
The spider's web pattern
Is usually
a pretty familiar shape.
Riskin:
You have an orb weaving spider
That's supposed to spin a web
that looks like,
You know,
the cartoon spiderweb does,
But this one doesn't do that.
Narrator: Could it be that
this is just a new web design?
Daly: There are roughly
45,000 species of spiders.
So it could be that
this orb weaver
Is building a new type of web.
The web is an integral part
of a spider's life,
And of course,
it's very important
For attracting its prey.
And different prey require
different kinds of webs.
Some spiders can make
crazy traps that
They push down on top of their
prey to catch them.
Some spiders build big, huge,
tennis-racket shaped things
So that something can
fly into it.
Some build trap doors
that animals fall into.
Narrator:
The net-casting spider
Slings her web
like a spidey superhero.
♪
She throws her silk
over her prey,
And then knits it into
submission.
Riskin: Spiderwebs
are incredibly versatile.
They're incredibly strong.
They're incredibly tough.
Daly: When prey gets stuck
in a web,
It's pretty much impossible
to escape,
And at that moment,
the spider strikes,
Injects venom,
and eats it alive.
Riskin: Spiderwebs are the most
incredible things in nature,
But I think the best thing
about spiderwebs
Is that they come out
of a spider's butt.
Narrator:
So could our orb weaver,
Who relies solely on its web
to survive,
Be an innovator of
spider silk engineering?
Our experts think not.
This spider's web is not
suitable for catching prey.
Something else is going on.
♪
This spider might have
eaten something
That is making its brain
not work all that well.
Narrator: If so, it wouldn't be
the first time.
Riskin: There are some
experiments that were done
On giving drugs to spiders
to see what will happen to them.
There's evidence that when
you give lsd to a spider,
It makes a very weird web.
Daly: Spiders that have
ingested caffeine,
Well, they create
badly made webs.
Whereas webs exposed
to pesticides
Will be eaten by spiders
to get rid of them,
So that they can build
a new one.
However, in this case,
there was no evidence
That these webs were exposed
to pesticides or lsd.
Narrator: But color footage of
the spider reveals a clue.
That little weird thing
on the spider's back.
Sounds far-fetched,
but is it possible that
This spider's mind is being
controlled by someone else?
♪
♪
Narrator: A japanese orb weaving
spider is acting strange,
Dismantling its web
and building something else.
It kind of looks like a cocoon,
And spiders don't make cocoons.
Narrator: But it's the yellow
object on the spider's back
That's the giveaway.
♪
Riskin: It turns out that little
thing on its back is a maggot.
And it's not just any maggot,
It's the maggot
of a parasitoid wasp.
And what they do is lay
an egg on a victim insect,
Or a spider in this case,
and then as that egg hatches
And turns into a maggot,
they eat the victim alive.
Narrator:
But this parasitic wasp maggot
Isn't just eating the spider...
It's taking control
of its brain.
This is a fascinating
example of host manipulation.
So the wasp larvae will start
to secrete these chemicals
Which essentially control
the behavior of the spider.
So what's actually happening
here is that the spider
Is being controlled
by another animal.
Riskin: So the spider's
not gonna make
The web that would help it.
It's gonna make
a weird cocoon web
That isn't for the spider
at all, it's for the maggot.
Once that thing is built,
the maggot eats the spider,
Drops its husk to the ground,
and then goes and lives
In that little cocoon until
it can grow into a wasp
And do it again
to somebody else.
Narrator: Terrifyingly, there
are over half a million
Different species of these
flying body snatchers.
There's no end to the nasty
things they do to their hosts.
The glyptapanteles wasp lays
up to 80 eggs
Inside a caterpillar.
Two weeks later, they erupt
out like a scene from "alien."
So any time you see a wasp
dragging a live creature around,
It's likely a parasite
that's injecting an egg
Into its victim, turning it
into a zombie slave.
Predators aren't scary.
Parasites are scary.
And this spider has a parasite
that is terrifying.
♪
Narrator:
St. Lawrence river, canada.
July 2018.
The gremm conservation group
are conducting research
When they make
an unusual sighting.
Nosal: There's a pod of about
a dozen beluga whales
Swimming along,
but on closer inspection
One of the belugas looks
a little different.
It's not as white, and it has
a long tusk sticking out of it.
Narrator: It turns out the
creature swimming with the belugas
Is the so-called
unicorn of the sea.
Cooke: So of all the species of
whales and dolphins out there,
There is only one that has
an extraordinary long tusk,
And that's the narwhal.
Narwhals originally were thought
to be mythical creatures.
They didn't even know that they
existed until they were
First recorded as a species
in the 16th century.
And its tusk is not like a horn
That you might associate
with other kinds of mammals.
It's actually
an elongated canine tooth.
Narrator: The narwhal's
companions, the belugas,
Are white whales known for
their extrovert personalities...
What a good boy! [ Laughs ]
...And high-pitched singing,
Giving them their nickname
"canary of the sea."
[ beluga whale singing ]
But the narwhal
is 600 miles south
Of its normal range,
and animal species normally
Stick closely to their own kind,
which begs the question...
Why is this narwhal hanging out
with these belugas?
♪
Cooke: So could this just be
a one-off event?
Maybe it's just coincidence.
Maybe they just happened to be
In the same place at
the same time.
Narrator:
But the behavior of the pod
Puts that theory in doubt.
Nosal: This doesn't seem
to just be a one-off encounter,
Because the narwhal is doing
everything it can
To fit in with its new friends.
Cooke: The narwhal is
doing everything to join in
With the belugas,
including blowing bubbles
Back and forth, which is
typical beluga behavior.
Nosal: And it's reciprocal.
The belugas seem to be
Treating the narwhal as if
it were one of their own.
Cooke:
Which suggests the relationship
Must be fairly well established
And not some kind
of chance encounter.
Narrator: Could the narwhal and
belugas be teaming up to hunt?
There are plenty of examples
Of what we call
mutualism in nature,
Where two different species
live in close proximity,
And they both benefit
from living together.
Cooke: It's not uncommon in
the animal kingdom
For different species
to buddy up
In order to be successful
at finding food.
Mongooses and hornbills
actually have a relationship
That is mutually beneficial.
The mongooses have got
their heads down,
They're snuffling around
on the ground,
And what they don't eat,
The hornbill will hop along
behind and pick up.
It's the hornbill's job
to look out for predators,
So they're scratching
each other's backs.
So it's possible that there's
a similar relationship
Between belugas and narwhals.
Narrator: Maybe,
but differences in their diet
Make this a long shot.
Conley: The reason why
that probably isn't
The most likely answer is that
Their hunting habits are
very different.
The things that they eat
aren't the same.
Narrator: So why have
these guys formed a pod?
What's going on here, I think,
Is an example of
cross-species adoption.
♪
♪
Narrator: Bizarrely,
a narwhal is filmed
Swimming with a group
of beluga whales.
So how did these two species
become one pod?
The most likely explanation
is cross-species adoption.
Cooke: Now that probably sounds
a bit strange,
The idea of one species
adopting another,
But it's not
altogether uncommon,
Especially amongst
social species.
♪
Narrator: It turns out,
other foster families
Have existed in the wild.
Cooke: There's footage
of a group of sperm whales
Adopting a deformed dolphin.
They travel together,
and you can even see
The dolphin and the sperm whale
rubbing up against each other.
[ Clicking ]
There's also instances
of red-tailed hawk chicks
Being adopted
by bald eagle mamas,
Living with
the other bald eaglets,
And then eventually
fledging the nest.
♪
Narrator:
Red-tailed hawks will eventually
Strike out on their own.
Many whale species, however,
thrive on community.
Cooke: Company is really
important for social species,
So what I think's going on here
Is this lonely narwhal
has sought company
With these belugas
and been adopted by them.
Narrator: And it's been
working well for some time.
This blended family were
first spotted back in 2016.
Two years later,
that same narwhal
Was still hanging out with
his beluga bros.
Narrator: Raising all kinds
of new questions
About animal impulses.
Nosal: It wouldn't surprise me
if these intelligent animals
Felt that overarching urge
to love simply out of instinct.
So it's not surprising that
they might want
To share that affection
with another whale,
A very closely related mammal.
Captions paid for by
discovery communications