Alien Encounters Wild & Weird

# Marauding mice and walls of ice and sharks on a golfing spree

# Cicada swarms and Martian storms and fish walking out of the sea... #

Really?

# Elks in trees and foaming seas and giant mayfly mobs... #

Huh?

# Zombie snails and friendly whales and completely frozen frogs... #

You what?

# They're wild and weird, wild and weird

# Really, really wild and really, really weird

# They're wild and weird, wild and weird

# They're really, really wild

# They're really, really wild and weird. #

It's alien encounters with the oceanic tube

big enough to swallow a man!

An alien-like snail with pulsating antennae...

And the deep sea slimer that's got fishermen puzzled.

-So does it ruin your prawns?

-I've no idea!

Naomi! Naomi, quick! We've had an alien visitation.

-Wh-what? What's happened?

-You're not going to believe this.

We had an alien encounter and I've got it all on camcorder.

-No way!

-Oh, yeah!

This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is life out there.

Come on, let's see it then!

HE PANTS

You won't believe this!

There's an alien...in the treehouse. A real one.

Are you here to hurt us?

No, I'm not here to hurt you.

I'm here to ensure that you are rightfully crowned King Tim,

ruler of all men.

King Tim? Ruler of all men? It's got a lovely ring.

Yes, I know.

Now I must fly!

Oh, he's flying! Would you look at that!

He's actually flying.

Oh, this is incredible that I'm getting this

all on my own video camera. It must be a world's first.

Yes, I've never been on camera before, but now I must go.

Goodbye.

That was incredible!

Oh, breathtaking. I mean, that is just...

That rewrites the rule book on history, that does, right there.

It was...quite shaky... I couldn't really see it.

-Why don't we check it on the other camera?

-I've only got one camera.

-No, no. We've got the treehouse CCTV, haven't we?

-Treehouse CCTV?

Yes, up there. Come on! Let's watch it.

-No! No, no, no.

-Here we go.

'Oh, it's flying, would you look at that! It's actually flying!

'Oh, this is incredible that I'm getting this

'all on my own video camera.

'It must be a world's first...

'Goodbye!'

-STICK CRASHES

-'That was incredible.'

You know, you didn't need to go to all that trouble.

It has long been thought there are real-life aliens out there.

-Really?

-Hm-mm.

Nice try, though.

The deep sea...

Possibly the weirdest environment in the world.

Life down here is hard

and to cope, animals have taken on a variety of alien-like forms.

Like this, the appropriately named vampire squid from hell!

Vampire squid from hell? That is brilliant.

Well, what's that?

That's a sea angel.

It is a snail that's lost its shell

and taken to a life above the seabed.

Yeah, definitely alien-esque.

Now that's a proper alien!

It's got sharp, pointy teeth and everything!

Meet the anglerfish, a highly accomplished ambush predator

with a glowing lure on its back

that it uses to attract prey in the unending dark.

-Awesome!

-And that's not all.

A shocking discovery was made in Tasmania

of a real unidentified floating object.

-A scuba diver(!)

-No, not that, this!

-Ooh!

-We went off down with another couple of guys on the boat

and I saw this strange animal, about, oh, 30 metres away.

I thought, "Wow! What's this?"

So I yelled out to the other two guys on the boat,

"Come on, guys, get in here,

"you've got something here you'll never see again in your life."

Mick Baron and his team of divers

approached the enormous tube-shaped structure

hanging in the water.

It's got a man-sized opening at the end...

I can't watch. Ah!

Whatever you do, guys, don't touch it!

That would be my advice.

When I touched it...

Ah!

When will these people listen to me? That's just crazy.

You touch something like that, it's going to react.

..it didn't actually react,

it just, sort of, felt like a soft jelly-like substance.

Oh, well that's just his word for it.

Plus the video footage to prove it.

Yeah, well, that can be faked, can't it?

Oh, as you and your alien friend well know.

Stop distracting me... I want to listen to this.

And strangest of all,

the tube was glowing with an eerie blue light.

So what was this gigantic glowing tube?

And was it even alive?

-A plastic bag?

-Ten metres long?

-Windsock?

-Try again.

Whale stocking?

Whales don't even have legs!

Well, I can reveal our giant tube is known as pyrosome.

Pyrosome?

Tell me there's an expert out there who's been studying these creatures.

-There is.

-Phew!

Rebecca Helm is a research graduate at Brown University.

Pyrosomes are made up of tens to thousands

of very small-bodied animals

and these animals all stick together to each other

with shared tissues

and form this large tube-shaped colony of animals.

Together these tiny creatures cruise the oceans as one colossal structure.

Cruise? I don't see an engine!

Well, each individual animal takes in water,

which it squirts into the hollow centre,

moving the whole colony by jet propulsion.

And the good news for those divers -

pyrosomes are filter feeders,

which feast on microorganisms like plankton and bacteria.

So they're not a danger to us whatsoever? Phew!

So it turns out our pyrosome isn't an actual alien.

But this...could be.

Urgh! Is that a snail?

Yep, with glowing antennae!

Straight out of a science fiction comic or what!

-You are going to have to explain this one!

-OK...

But...are you sitting comfortably?

Oh, um, wait a minute...

-Yes, ready.

-OK, then I'll begin.

Lurking amongst the vegetable patch in German gardens

is an alien snail, complete with a pair of pulsating tentacles.

Unbeknownst to it, this snail has something living inside it.

Here's biologist Janice Moore to explain... more.

So there's a really FUN parasite...

-Fun parasite?

-Hm-mm.

Tim, read out the definition of parasite.

Oh, here we go...

P...p...

"Parasite... Animal or plant that lives off another,

"often leading to...death."

-That doesn't sound like fun.

-No...

So there's a really FUN parasite.

The scientific name is Leucochloridium,

and it actually lives in the intestinal tract

of a variety of songbirds.

Ah... So it start's life in the birds' guts.

Yep, then it lays its eggs inside the bird,

-which in turn poos them out in its droppings.

-Urgh!

This would be the end of the cycle for Leu...

Leu...co...lip...

for the parasite, if it weren't for the fact

that the garden snail finds bird droppings irresistible.

Poo? Irresistible?

But the snail likes it,

although that's where the problems begin.

When they eat these eggs,

the egg hatches and the little larval parasite,

a flatworm called a trematode,

moves into the tentacles of the snail

and there it grows up into a kind of striped mass.

The snail's tentacle is now

one enormous pulsating flatworm brood sac.

But here our parasitic mastermind encounters a problem.

It can't breed IN the snail.

To lay its eggs...

Oh...sorry. I'm not putting you off your tea, am I?

Too late.

So, as I was saying, to lay its eggs,

the parasite once again needs to get back inside the bird's gut.

But how does the fickle flatworm complete the cycle?

Whatever it is, I've got a funny feeling it's not going to end nicely.

Well, it uses mind control.

It forces the usually reclusive snail upward toward the light.

Once exposed,

the snail's tentacle looks like a pulsating grub on a leaf.

Janice, take over.

Birds will look at this and say,

"Ha! Good to eat," and they'll eat it.

And, in that way, the life cycle is complete.

Told you it didn't end well for the snail.

At least it gets out alive,

but minus a tentacle.

-Right, back to the ocean for our final alien encounter.

-Ooh!

Fishermen in the Atlantic were facing a very sticky situation.

...crawling around in the middle.

So how do you get rid of all that slime?

They're pulling up their nets and pots,

only to find them covered in slime!

So does it ruin your prawns?

-And does it?

-Does it what?

Ruin their prawns?

She's obviously very worried. Listen.

So does it ruin your prawns?

Well, would you eat slimy prawns?

Yeah, good point.

-Can I carry on?

-Yes, please do.

An oceanic ooze is clogging their nets

and having to be bailed from boats.

Slime! Ooh!

Armfuls of this colourless gloop is appearing in any one catch...

..with often more slime than fish!

Removing it from the haul is an absolute nightmare.

Of nature!

-Ah, good plug!

-Thanks.

Hey, you know, I got a bucket of that stuff right here.

Oh, man, it is gross!

Oh!

What's making this stuff?

Well...

Here's the perpetrator...

A hagfish.

It's the undertaker of the deep,

searching the murky bed for corpses,

literally, eating its victims inside out.

I always say it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

The question remains though, why all the slime?

Well, aside from its willingness to eat sea-floor scraps,

the hagfish doesn't seem to have very much going for it.

It's pretty much blind.

What do you call a fish with no eyes?

Oh, I know this one.

"What you call a fish with no eyes?"

It's a Fssssh, isn't it?

Cos it's got no letter "I".

You know, it's just a Fffsssssshhh.

No... It's a hagfish, yeah.

Surprised you can't remember it, you just said it a few minutes ago!

Blimey! Try and keep up, Naomi!

As well as no eyes, it has no jaws or tough scales

and, not that it looks it to us,

but it could make a tasty seafood snack for other marine life.

Things just want to eat it.

And the secret to its success? Slime.

Meet Professor Doug Fudge.

Doug Fudge?

I bet he's got some "sweet" ideas about these master slimers!

So the hagfish is essentially covered with slime glands

and when an animal is attacked by predator,

there's muscle in the area where it's touched

that cause those slime glands to release their contents.

It's actually a little mini volcano of slime

that comes out of the gland.

That is hardly a volcano.

No disrespect to Doug... Now hang on a sec.

Whoa!

Now that's a volcano!

Oh, man. Look at it!

Yes!

-Finished?

-Wow!

Who? Yes, sorry.

A single hagfish can turn a bucket of water into slime in seconds...

Urgh!

That is so gross!

..which proves to be a pretty fantastic underwater weapon.

The fibrous mucus is designed to choke a predator

by clogging up its airways.

All these fish are left gagging as their gills fill with mucus.

Every assailant is repulsed by a wall of slime.

Hang on a minute...

How does Haggie prevent itself from becoming a victim

of its own slimy strategy?

That's a good question.

They have an ingenious way of getting out of the slime,

as the prof explains.

They'll tie their body in an overhand knot

and then they'll pass their body through the knot

and that will wipe the slime off of their body.

# Let's get physical, physical... #

You know... It's not as easy as it sounds, that.

Let me have a go...

That's one leg and the other.

-Look!

-Whoa!

-Piece of cake.

-Oh, that reminds me.

Ooh, cake!

-Ooh, pass us a bit!

-Oh, yeah!

-Oh, no! Can't reach it...

-Go on!

-Give us a bit!

-Ooooooh!

-Oh!

More for me, I suppose. Mm-mm!

See you next time.

Ow!

# Wild and weird, wild and weird

# Really, really wild and really, really weird

# They're wild and weird, wild and weird

# They're really, really wild and

# Really, really wild and weird

# Wild and weird! #