Weird Nature (2002–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Bizarre Breeding - full transcript
There was a time when myth
and science were entwined
When mermaids and unicorns
could mysteriously appear
Nature was weird
When science revealed the truth
behind these imaginary creatures
it found real animals
lay behind the legends
Today, science still makes
astonishing discoveries
but nature seems just as weird
It's just that fact
has broken free from fiction
Many dances are
stylized forms of courtship
Scorpions dance for
the same seductive reason
But a Spanish scorpion
must court with care
as he takes her by the claws
he fends off her sting with his tail
Rejection now would be fatal
He keeps up her interest
by sweeping her off her feet
The dance may last for hours as he
tries to put her into a receptive mood
He seals his proposal with a kiss
It stops him becoming a meal
Next he offers a present
He leaves a package to fertilize
her eggs on the tip of a stalk
He guides her to pick up the gift,
leaving just the stalk behind
This weird journey explores
many other strange aspects
of nature's ways of breeding
In courtship,
gifts are always appreciated
The Satin bowerbird of Australia
has an eye for the presents
his partner adores
Her favorite color is blue
This is not his nest, but a bower
a place of seduction
He must keep up its maintanence
to impress any females that call
She visits all the bowers in
her neighborhood to judge each male
on his home decorating skills
She is hard to impress
An experienced male
won't accept rejection lightly
He just works harder
at winning her over
The more blue trinkets he accumulates
the more he turns her eye
His interest in home decoration
is purely biological
The harder he works,
the more he proves his fitness
He has amassed the bowerbird's
equivalent of wealth
a proof of his genetic worth
And this bird has a lot on show
On this occasion,
a ring seems appropriate
and it seems to be doing the trick
We may see human parallels
in the bowerbird's courtship
But biologically,
our behavior is stranger
We are one of the most
sexually active of all mammals
but we are also
one of the least fertile
And few animals have
such a long courtship or
mate throughout the year
But by any measure,
this marsupial mouse is weird
Antechinus squeezes its bouts of
passion into a few energetic days
In early spring,
the male's only goal is to mate
with as many partners as possible
Each session lasts several hours
and as soon as it ends,
he looks for a new partner
He aims to track down
every female in the neighborhood
Subtlety is not his forte
All this activity leaves him
little time to eat, drink or sleep
And in time, the stress
starts to wear him down
Although exhausted,
rampant hormones urge him on
to yet another encounter
But he's feeling the strain
Over the two-week breeding season,
he ages a lifetime
Run down and tired,
he is literally on his last legs
All the males are soon gone,
leaving the females
to bring up the babies
His sacrifice makes genetic sense,
more offspring will survive
if he isn't there to compete for food
Male mice may cause their own demise
But in the meadows of southern France
it's the female that's
the deadlier of the species
The femme fatale in question is
the European praying mantis
The smaller male courts
his partner carefully
She can literally
make a meal of any male
But he has to mate
to pass on his genes
In this gruesome embrace,
her love bite is
the last thing he knows
But even this trauma
doesn't seem to unnerve him
he continues to mate
as though nothing has happened
Losing his head over a female
helps nourish his future offspring
Astonishingly, decapitation
even improves his performance
A tiny brain in his rear
keeps him active
This macabre coupling can last a day
Even then, the discarded carcass
doesn't give up readily
In the oceans, courtship
is even more complicated
It is a world of sexual
confusion and gender bending
One of the commonest reef fish Anthias
They gather in shoals
many hundred strong
Oddly, most of them are female
They can be identified by
their violet eyebrow line
and orange color
The few males are purple with
a plumelike fin on their back
Should the male be removed,
something strange happens
The leading lady takes over
his role, literally
Her sexuality is flexible
She can perform a quick
sex change to take his place
Not only does her color
and appearance change
she becomes he by developing
male sex organs as well
It takes less than a week for this lady
to become a fully functioning gent
Gender bending is also
a speciality of sea hares
Like other sea slugs,
sea hares are bisexual
Their hind quarters are female
and their head ends are male
Their sexual orientation
depends on which ends meet first
When several sea hares get together,
they often form a mating chain
The front slug has to be female,
but those in the middle mate
both ways and the last sea slug
is always male
If the leader turns and
joins the end of the chain,
a bisexual wheel forms
Birth inevitably follows mating
For some, bubbles hold
the secret of child care
These Thai men are experts
on breeding Siamese fighting fish
Traditionally,
bets are placed on contest
between their prize specimens
Such fights occur naturally
in nearby lakes and rivers
In either place,
the winner gains the female
and a chance to show a more
tender side to his nature
An egg-like marking on her belly
shows she's ready to breed
a come-on for the male
to start courtship
He then does something
reminiscent of a child's game
He blows bubbles
But he stops his bubbles popping
by coating them with saliva
Soon, a cluster of glistening bubbles
starts to accumulate
These will form a bubble nest
for the care of his young
Then his aggression returns
But only to put her in the mood
to accept his embrace
He quickly siphons up
the fertilized eggs
then spits them into the bubbles
This bubble wrapping protects them
from predators or infection
Two days later the fry hatch and
start to feed from their egg sacs
The fighting fish keeps up his vigil
fry that stray are soon caught and
return to the care of the bubble nest
Caring for young by bubble wrapping
them is popular in nature
The praying mantis lathers up
a foam of microscopic bubbles
to cocoon her offspring
The foam hardens into a protective
case that casts her young
Foam nesting frogs also get into
a lather tending their young
The mother secrets a fluid
that the pair whip up into
a foam similar to egg white
She lays her fertilized eggs inside
The outer wall of bubbles
hardens like moraine
and protects the eggs from predators,
bacteria and the weather
Three days later, the first of
several hundred tadpoles emerge
While some bubble wrap
their young, others literally
splash out on child care
In the Amazon, splash tetras
stage a leaping contest
These strange fish out of water
lay their eggs on leaves
The males leap to
inspect suitable sites
They prefer protected leaves with
a surface that's easy to stick to
The leap requires perfect posture
The fish must align itself
so it grips the leaf by
surface tension as it lands
The male guards his chosen leaf
until a female arrives
The pair line up under the leaf
and perform the ultimate act
synchronised swimming
As a cue, the female nudges
the male with her head
then a flick of their tails
propels them in perfect unison
They are so synchronized
To the human eye,
they appear as one
The eggs are laid,
but the male's work has just begun
He must keep them wet
until they hatch
The splash tetra must have
the most labor intensive of
child care of any fish
But his eggs are safer
from predators on leaves
rather than in the river
After two days of hard splashing,
the fry emerge
The Surinam toad's version of
parenting is even more eccentric
Her young literally
get under her skin
They develop from eggs to tadpoles
in a wad of skin on her back
and emerge as fully formed toadlets
Most toads lay hundreds of eggs
and only a few survive
Using skin care ensures that
all the Surinam's offspring
become baby toads
Once free, they fend for themselves
For some, parental care is
the father's responsibility
The African bullfrog is
one such doting parent
His tadpoles develop in shallow pools
where he acts as their lifeguard
But water is siphoned up
by many thirsty creatures
Faced with towering competition,
the bullfrog retreats
but as the water levels drop,
he still remembers his offspring
The sun also causes
the precious water to vanish
Soon the mud will be concrete hard
His poor tadpoles
are left high and dry
They call to their father for help
He reacts by digging an escape route
It's a race against time
He paddles away to soften
the rock-hard earth
as he digs a canal
Their pleas for help urge him on
Break through happens
in a nick of time
He leads his offspring to safety
The bullfrog is one of the world's
most devoted fathers
but he has competition
The Siberian dwarf hamster
must win the prize for
being nature's new man
The male acts as midwife
during his partner's labor
Male midwifery is unique
among mammals
And even in humans,
it's a recent development
Biologically,
human birthing behavior is strange
Only humans have such painful
and extended labor
and few animals have
such helpless young
But like other mammals, human males
traditionally stay away at the birth
However the hamster's mate
is her constant birth companion
Russian hospitals still follow
tradition and exclude fathers
from the birth process
But the hamster's partner shows
a feminine care and concern
He cleans each newborn baby in turn
His human counterpart can
only wait in the sidelines
At birth, the hamster even cuts
the umbilical cord with his teeth
Traditionally, women continue
to help once the birth is over
Again, the male hamster
takes on this caring role
He retrieves any youngsters
that wriggle from the nest
In many countries, human fathers
are now encouraged to attend birth
But in Russia,
old traditions die hard
The hamster may be the only mammal
that naturally acts like a new man
But there's a catch, he soon
reveals a less sensitive side
His partner can only mate
over the next three hours
Helping at the birth
stops him missing the moment
But the dwarf hamster has a rival
for his new age credentials
Sea horses are the only
animals in which the male
actually becomes pregnant
He carries his partner's eggs
in a brood pouch on his stomach
The pouch lining acts like a placenta
and nourishes the developing young
When the time comes to give birth,
he even suffers contractions
They become more violent
as the birth approaches
He gives birth to around 100 young
Each is a miniature replica
of their father
Sea horses are the only animals whose
males experience the birth process
His young grips the nearest thing
they can find, even each other
He may be the spitting image
of his father
but from now on, he's on his own
For sea horses,
parental care stops at birth
Extended child care is
most common in mammals
The Asian musk shrew has
perhaps the oddest way of
keeping her young in line
Moving a large family between nests
is a big responsibility
To avoid getting lost,
each youngster bites the fur
by its neighbor's tail
and hangs on tight
To the young,
it's a game of follow my leader
Wherever their mother goes,
they keep in step
But if the mother becomes separated
from her brood,
the youngsters grab
any moving thing that passes
Their persistence of strength
of grasp is phenomenal
As long as the train keeps moving,
they'll hold on tight
even in the air
Stop the train and they let go
When the mother returns, order
is restored to her chaotic brood
She guides her daisy chain to safety
Such care may seem odd
but in a world of bizarre breeding,
we are stranger
No other animal tends its young
for as long as us
and science were entwined
When mermaids and unicorns
could mysteriously appear
Nature was weird
When science revealed the truth
behind these imaginary creatures
it found real animals
lay behind the legends
Today, science still makes
astonishing discoveries
but nature seems just as weird
It's just that fact
has broken free from fiction
Many dances are
stylized forms of courtship
Scorpions dance for
the same seductive reason
But a Spanish scorpion
must court with care
as he takes her by the claws
he fends off her sting with his tail
Rejection now would be fatal
He keeps up her interest
by sweeping her off her feet
The dance may last for hours as he
tries to put her into a receptive mood
He seals his proposal with a kiss
It stops him becoming a meal
Next he offers a present
He leaves a package to fertilize
her eggs on the tip of a stalk
He guides her to pick up the gift,
leaving just the stalk behind
This weird journey explores
many other strange aspects
of nature's ways of breeding
In courtship,
gifts are always appreciated
The Satin bowerbird of Australia
has an eye for the presents
his partner adores
Her favorite color is blue
This is not his nest, but a bower
a place of seduction
He must keep up its maintanence
to impress any females that call
She visits all the bowers in
her neighborhood to judge each male
on his home decorating skills
She is hard to impress
An experienced male
won't accept rejection lightly
He just works harder
at winning her over
The more blue trinkets he accumulates
the more he turns her eye
His interest in home decoration
is purely biological
The harder he works,
the more he proves his fitness
He has amassed the bowerbird's
equivalent of wealth
a proof of his genetic worth
And this bird has a lot on show
On this occasion,
a ring seems appropriate
and it seems to be doing the trick
We may see human parallels
in the bowerbird's courtship
But biologically,
our behavior is stranger
We are one of the most
sexually active of all mammals
but we are also
one of the least fertile
And few animals have
such a long courtship or
mate throughout the year
But by any measure,
this marsupial mouse is weird
Antechinus squeezes its bouts of
passion into a few energetic days
In early spring,
the male's only goal is to mate
with as many partners as possible
Each session lasts several hours
and as soon as it ends,
he looks for a new partner
He aims to track down
every female in the neighborhood
Subtlety is not his forte
All this activity leaves him
little time to eat, drink or sleep
And in time, the stress
starts to wear him down
Although exhausted,
rampant hormones urge him on
to yet another encounter
But he's feeling the strain
Over the two-week breeding season,
he ages a lifetime
Run down and tired,
he is literally on his last legs
All the males are soon gone,
leaving the females
to bring up the babies
His sacrifice makes genetic sense,
more offspring will survive
if he isn't there to compete for food
Male mice may cause their own demise
But in the meadows of southern France
it's the female that's
the deadlier of the species
The femme fatale in question is
the European praying mantis
The smaller male courts
his partner carefully
She can literally
make a meal of any male
But he has to mate
to pass on his genes
In this gruesome embrace,
her love bite is
the last thing he knows
But even this trauma
doesn't seem to unnerve him
he continues to mate
as though nothing has happened
Losing his head over a female
helps nourish his future offspring
Astonishingly, decapitation
even improves his performance
A tiny brain in his rear
keeps him active
This macabre coupling can last a day
Even then, the discarded carcass
doesn't give up readily
In the oceans, courtship
is even more complicated
It is a world of sexual
confusion and gender bending
One of the commonest reef fish Anthias
They gather in shoals
many hundred strong
Oddly, most of them are female
They can be identified by
their violet eyebrow line
and orange color
The few males are purple with
a plumelike fin on their back
Should the male be removed,
something strange happens
The leading lady takes over
his role, literally
Her sexuality is flexible
She can perform a quick
sex change to take his place
Not only does her color
and appearance change
she becomes he by developing
male sex organs as well
It takes less than a week for this lady
to become a fully functioning gent
Gender bending is also
a speciality of sea hares
Like other sea slugs,
sea hares are bisexual
Their hind quarters are female
and their head ends are male
Their sexual orientation
depends on which ends meet first
When several sea hares get together,
they often form a mating chain
The front slug has to be female,
but those in the middle mate
both ways and the last sea slug
is always male
If the leader turns and
joins the end of the chain,
a bisexual wheel forms
Birth inevitably follows mating
For some, bubbles hold
the secret of child care
These Thai men are experts
on breeding Siamese fighting fish
Traditionally,
bets are placed on contest
between their prize specimens
Such fights occur naturally
in nearby lakes and rivers
In either place,
the winner gains the female
and a chance to show a more
tender side to his nature
An egg-like marking on her belly
shows she's ready to breed
a come-on for the male
to start courtship
He then does something
reminiscent of a child's game
He blows bubbles
But he stops his bubbles popping
by coating them with saliva
Soon, a cluster of glistening bubbles
starts to accumulate
These will form a bubble nest
for the care of his young
Then his aggression returns
But only to put her in the mood
to accept his embrace
He quickly siphons up
the fertilized eggs
then spits them into the bubbles
This bubble wrapping protects them
from predators or infection
Two days later the fry hatch and
start to feed from their egg sacs
The fighting fish keeps up his vigil
fry that stray are soon caught and
return to the care of the bubble nest
Caring for young by bubble wrapping
them is popular in nature
The praying mantis lathers up
a foam of microscopic bubbles
to cocoon her offspring
The foam hardens into a protective
case that casts her young
Foam nesting frogs also get into
a lather tending their young
The mother secrets a fluid
that the pair whip up into
a foam similar to egg white
She lays her fertilized eggs inside
The outer wall of bubbles
hardens like moraine
and protects the eggs from predators,
bacteria and the weather
Three days later, the first of
several hundred tadpoles emerge
While some bubble wrap
their young, others literally
splash out on child care
In the Amazon, splash tetras
stage a leaping contest
These strange fish out of water
lay their eggs on leaves
The males leap to
inspect suitable sites
They prefer protected leaves with
a surface that's easy to stick to
The leap requires perfect posture
The fish must align itself
so it grips the leaf by
surface tension as it lands
The male guards his chosen leaf
until a female arrives
The pair line up under the leaf
and perform the ultimate act
synchronised swimming
As a cue, the female nudges
the male with her head
then a flick of their tails
propels them in perfect unison
They are so synchronized
To the human eye,
they appear as one
The eggs are laid,
but the male's work has just begun
He must keep them wet
until they hatch
The splash tetra must have
the most labor intensive of
child care of any fish
But his eggs are safer
from predators on leaves
rather than in the river
After two days of hard splashing,
the fry emerge
The Surinam toad's version of
parenting is even more eccentric
Her young literally
get under her skin
They develop from eggs to tadpoles
in a wad of skin on her back
and emerge as fully formed toadlets
Most toads lay hundreds of eggs
and only a few survive
Using skin care ensures that
all the Surinam's offspring
become baby toads
Once free, they fend for themselves
For some, parental care is
the father's responsibility
The African bullfrog is
one such doting parent
His tadpoles develop in shallow pools
where he acts as their lifeguard
But water is siphoned up
by many thirsty creatures
Faced with towering competition,
the bullfrog retreats
but as the water levels drop,
he still remembers his offspring
The sun also causes
the precious water to vanish
Soon the mud will be concrete hard
His poor tadpoles
are left high and dry
They call to their father for help
He reacts by digging an escape route
It's a race against time
He paddles away to soften
the rock-hard earth
as he digs a canal
Their pleas for help urge him on
Break through happens
in a nick of time
He leads his offspring to safety
The bullfrog is one of the world's
most devoted fathers
but he has competition
The Siberian dwarf hamster
must win the prize for
being nature's new man
The male acts as midwife
during his partner's labor
Male midwifery is unique
among mammals
And even in humans,
it's a recent development
Biologically,
human birthing behavior is strange
Only humans have such painful
and extended labor
and few animals have
such helpless young
But like other mammals, human males
traditionally stay away at the birth
However the hamster's mate
is her constant birth companion
Russian hospitals still follow
tradition and exclude fathers
from the birth process
But the hamster's partner shows
a feminine care and concern
He cleans each newborn baby in turn
His human counterpart can
only wait in the sidelines
At birth, the hamster even cuts
the umbilical cord with his teeth
Traditionally, women continue
to help once the birth is over
Again, the male hamster
takes on this caring role
He retrieves any youngsters
that wriggle from the nest
In many countries, human fathers
are now encouraged to attend birth
But in Russia,
old traditions die hard
The hamster may be the only mammal
that naturally acts like a new man
But there's a catch, he soon
reveals a less sensitive side
His partner can only mate
over the next three hours
Helping at the birth
stops him missing the moment
But the dwarf hamster has a rival
for his new age credentials
Sea horses are the only
animals in which the male
actually becomes pregnant
He carries his partner's eggs
in a brood pouch on his stomach
The pouch lining acts like a placenta
and nourishes the developing young
When the time comes to give birth,
he even suffers contractions
They become more violent
as the birth approaches
He gives birth to around 100 young
Each is a miniature replica
of their father
Sea horses are the only animals whose
males experience the birth process
His young grips the nearest thing
they can find, even each other
He may be the spitting image
of his father
but from now on, he's on his own
For sea horses,
parental care stops at birth
Extended child care is
most common in mammals
The Asian musk shrew has
perhaps the oddest way of
keeping her young in line
Moving a large family between nests
is a big responsibility
To avoid getting lost,
each youngster bites the fur
by its neighbor's tail
and hangs on tight
To the young,
it's a game of follow my leader
Wherever their mother goes,
they keep in step
But if the mother becomes separated
from her brood,
the youngsters grab
any moving thing that passes
Their persistence of strength
of grasp is phenomenal
As long as the train keeps moving,
they'll hold on tight
even in the air
Stop the train and they let go
When the mother returns, order
is restored to her chaotic brood
She guides her daisy chain to safety
Such care may seem odd
but in a world of bizarre breeding,
we are stranger
No other animal tends its young
for as long as us