0:00:02 > 0:00:06# Marauding mice and walls of ice and sharks on a golfing spree
0:00:06 > 0:00:10# Cicada swarms and Martian storms and fish walking out of the sea... #
0:00:10 > 0:00:11Really?
0:00:11 > 0:00:14# Elks in trees and foaming seas and giant mayfly mobs... #
0:00:14 > 0:00:15Huh?
0:00:15 > 0:00:18# Zombie snails and friendly whales and completely frozen frogs... #
0:00:18 > 0:00:19You what?
0:00:19 > 0:00:21# They're wild and weird, wild and weird
0:00:21 > 0:00:23# Really, really wild and really, really weird
0:00:23 > 0:00:26# They're wild and weird, wild and weird
0:00:26 > 0:00:27# They're really, really wild
0:00:27 > 0:00:29# They're really, really wild and weird. #
0:00:29 > 0:00:31It's animal oddities as frogs and toads
0:00:31 > 0:00:35demonstrate some unusual parental care.
0:00:35 > 0:00:36Here they come, here they come!
0:00:36 > 0:00:40The two-headed snake that doesn't know which way to turn...
0:00:40 > 0:00:43..and the army ants on a march to the death.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04Naomi! Naomi, come quick!
0:01:04 > 0:01:07There's something really wrong with the telly!
0:01:07 > 0:01:08Where are you?
0:01:08 > 0:01:09In here!
0:01:09 > 0:01:11In where?
0:01:11 > 0:01:13In here, in the TV!
0:01:13 > 0:01:14You're in the TV?
0:01:14 > 0:01:16- Yeah.- How did you get in there?
0:01:16 > 0:01:18I don't know!
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I was playing around with the remote control, pressing a few buttons,
0:01:21 > 0:01:23and then I got sucked into the box and now I can't get out!
0:01:23 > 0:01:24OK, well...
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Let me press a few buttons. Hold on.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28Is that better?
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Je ne sais pas. Oh, non!
0:01:31 > 0:01:32C'est terrible!
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Ah, madame!
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Well, that's no good. That's you in another language.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Er... What about
0:01:38 > 0:01:39this?
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Calm down! I'm trying to help here.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55Erm... That any good?
0:01:55 > 0:01:57I don't... Ooh! Ah!
0:01:57 > 0:02:00I'm out of sync! Now my voice is out of sync!
0:02:00 > 0:02:02Please, come on! Help me!
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Last one...
0:02:07 > 0:02:08Ooh!
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Thanks for that. That was really odd.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Yeah, almost on a par with our first animal oddity.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Check out this bizarre and quite possibly gruesome
0:02:18 > 0:02:21behaviour that was caught on camera.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Here they come! Here they come!
0:02:23 > 0:02:25Get 'em! Oh, my God. Look at her.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29That one's trying to poke its head out.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Eugh! Are those aliens erupting from its back?
0:02:35 > 0:02:36Not exactly.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39This is the Surinam toad,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42and those are her babies.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Babies? Hold it there.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50Why would she want to turn her back into a skin-crawling care facility?
0:02:50 > 0:02:51Well, press play.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Dr Ian Stephen from the Zoological Society Of London
0:02:57 > 0:03:00might just be able to shed some light on this.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04The problem with amphibian eggs is that they're
0:03:04 > 0:03:07highly nutritious bundles of food, so lots of things like to eat them.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09So things such as snakes, fish, birds
0:03:09 > 0:03:12and invertebrates all find them incredibly tasty.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15They eat the toads eggs!
0:03:15 > 0:03:17Why?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20Why is nature so cruel?
0:03:20 > 0:03:22HE SOBS
0:03:22 > 0:03:24CHEERING
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Ah, thank you. Thank you. I'm here all week.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Oh, please. Oh, too kind.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31Thank you. Thank you.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36And so what better way to keep them safe than by quite literally
0:03:36 > 0:03:40keeping them as close to you as possible until they hatch?
0:03:40 > 0:03:43When the female spawns, the male takes the eggs themselves
0:03:43 > 0:03:45and presses them on to the female's back.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47This might be 200, 250 eggs.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49200! 250?
0:03:49 > 0:03:53What difference does an extra 50 eggs pressed into your back make
0:03:53 > 0:03:56when there's already 200 there?
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Huh, nature's just weird.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02What's incredible is that a layer of skin then develops over those eggs.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05About 70 days later,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08tiny little fully-formed froglets actually emerge from the
0:04:08 > 0:04:11female's back, almost like something from a scene of an alien film.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19Eugh!
0:04:19 > 0:04:20Ew!
0:04:25 > 0:04:27They're coming out now. They're coming out.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30- They're coming out. - Look, you can see its foot.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35Freedom!
0:04:35 > 0:04:37That was a weird toad.
0:04:37 > 0:04:38Mm. Frogs are weirder.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40- No way!- Mm.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42The only way a frog could out-weird that toad was
0:04:42 > 0:04:46if it was to eat its eggs and then develop the babies in its mouth.
0:04:49 > 0:04:50You're kidding me, right?
0:04:54 > 0:04:57The Darwin's frog takes reproduction to the next level.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00They actually take their eggs inside their bodies.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05The female frog lays their eggs in sort of damp leaf litter.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09The male then takes up the eggs four to five days later
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and actually takes the eggs themselves into its vocal sac,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15and that's where the eggs then go on to develop into tadpoles.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19About 70 days later...
0:05:19 > 0:05:2270 days!
0:05:22 > 0:05:23Mm-mm?
0:05:23 > 0:05:24Yep.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29..the male quite literally coughs up the tiny little froglets.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36And, yes, they are complete,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38fully-formed frogs coming out of his mouth.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Now, obviously the vocal sacs aren't huge,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45so we're only looking at about 15 to 20 in total.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52Oh, only 15 to 20 baby frogs
0:05:52 > 0:05:53in there
0:05:53 > 0:05:54for 70 days.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Yeah, it certainly puts a whole new slant on the expression
0:05:57 > 0:05:58"frog in your throat".
0:05:58 > 0:06:02- Yeah.- I think we need an antidote to all this oddness.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04- Fox on a trampoline?- Ooh!
0:06:10 > 0:06:12Well, I'm not saying that isn't odd,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15but it's not going to put you off your tea.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17Any idea why they're doing this?
0:06:17 > 0:06:19- Do you like bouncing?- Yeah.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Fun, isn't it? Same for the fox!
0:06:26 > 0:06:27Fox...
0:06:27 > 0:06:29- Right, break over.- OK.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31- OK, you've heard of a snake.- Yeah.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Well, have you heard of a two-headed snake?
0:06:34 > 0:06:37DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:06:37 > 0:06:39A two-headed snake?
0:06:39 > 0:06:41DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Yes. A two-headed snake.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:06:49 > 0:06:50Yeah, I have. Yeah.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Her name is Medusa,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59and she's a two-headed albino Honduran milk snake.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02That's her owner, Ben Siegel.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08I've been keeping snakes since I was six, so about 34 years,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11and never quite seen one like her before.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14We love her. She's really special to us.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16She's perfect, other than...
0:07:16 > 0:07:17..The two heads!
0:07:19 > 0:07:20Where's the music gone?
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Er, I think we're kind of past the...
0:07:23 > 0:07:25DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:07:25 > 0:07:26..phase now.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28- Oh, all right. Question!- Go on.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30- The whole two heads thing.- Yeah.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31What's going on there?
0:07:31 > 0:07:32Well...
0:07:39 > 0:07:41..Ben was telling me that it happens
0:07:41 > 0:07:44when the snake embryo is developing in the egg.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46The same thing can happen with human embryos
0:07:46 > 0:07:49if they split into identical twins.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54A glitch in the separation process means it grinds to a halt.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01In this case, the result is conjoined snake twins, each with a head,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05but as this X-ray shows, the head joins a single spine
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and they share the rest of their body.
0:08:08 > 0:08:09Not surprisingly,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12such an unusual design sets the snake several challenges.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16Like how does it decide which way to go?
0:08:16 > 0:08:17Well...
0:08:19 > 0:08:22..this is how a normal snake moves through the world.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23With no limbs,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27they kind of propel themselves along with a slithering motion.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Snakes can only travel quickly for short bursts
0:08:30 > 0:08:32but, if a predator appears,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35they need to make a split-second decision to find cover.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39This is a problem for a two-headed snake
0:08:39 > 0:08:43because each head has an independently-thinking brain,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46so it's always in two minds about which way to go.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48So getting around is a bit of a problem.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50What happens when they want to eat?
0:08:50 > 0:08:54Let's ask Ben. He's been feeding Medusa's two heads for years.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57When we feed her, we take her and put her in an empty, clean,
0:08:57 > 0:09:02open tub and one of our employees actually takes
0:09:02 > 0:09:05two food items at the same time and tries to lure one head to one side
0:09:05 > 0:09:06and the other head to the other side,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09trying to introduce the food at exactly the same time
0:09:09 > 0:09:10so they both grab it.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12And oftentimes we'll actually,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14when one head swallows it down quickly,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16we'll give it another food item, so that ideally you want them
0:09:16 > 0:09:18to both finish at the same time,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20and then actually after we feed her we have to take her
0:09:20 > 0:09:22and wash her heads off with water and soap
0:09:22 > 0:09:24so that she doesn't smell like her food,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27because then both heads will try to attack each other
0:09:27 > 0:09:30just from the smell of the food on the head.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34Do you know what? I don't know what all the fuss is about.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37- This is actually really easy.- Yeah, it's quite comfy actually.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Yeah! Hey, I'm going to get some snacks before the next clip.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42- Yeah, and I need the toilet.- OK.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45- Agh!- Ooh!- Ooh, hang on. Argh! - Hang on. Wait.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Wait, no. Hey, stop. Hang on, let's think about this.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50I tell you what, I'll go to the toilet, you get the snacks.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52- I'll get the snacks, yeah.- Perfect.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55- Hang on, wait.- Can you get out of the way, though?- No, you're in my way.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57- Do you know what? This isn't actually that easy, is it?- No.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00- Should we sit down and watch the next clip?- Mm. Good idea.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05OK. Here's Anne with an animal oddity at her dad's school.
0:10:05 > 0:10:06My dad, who's a teacher,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09came home from school on the first day of term
0:10:09 > 0:10:11after the Easter holidays
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and he'd been taking a school assembly on that day
0:10:15 > 0:10:18and the pupils did notice lots of birds
0:10:18 > 0:10:21flying back and forth behind him during assembly,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24and after they all left he sat quietly
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and tried to work out what was going on, noticed that
0:10:27 > 0:10:31the window had been left open, so the robins
0:10:31 > 0:10:36must have come in during the Easter break and made their nest there.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40The robins were quite used to having lots of noise
0:10:40 > 0:10:44and pupils about and didn't seem fazed by it at all,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46and as long as I stayed still while I was filming,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50they were quite happy to fly in and out and feed their chicks
0:10:50 > 0:10:53right in front of me, which is a lovely thing to see.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56They even carried on while school assembly was going on, which is how
0:10:56 > 0:10:59I got the shot of the robin sitting on the nest during school assembly.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Although the robins had actually made their nest out of real moss
0:11:05 > 0:11:07and twigs and leaves and things,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11the whole of the rest of the arrangement was all plastic.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18I bet those chicks graduated with
0:11:18 > 0:11:19flying colours!
0:11:20 > 0:11:24Continuing the theme of animal oddities,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27check out what Kayla Brown came across whilst travelling in Peru!
0:11:29 > 0:11:35Army ants, marching round and round in a constant circle.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Oh, that's good. So what happened?
0:11:37 > 0:11:40Kayla watched them spiralling for hours.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43- They'd get dizzy, though?- Oh, that's not the worst of it.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Suddenly, one by one, the ants began to collapse and die.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51- An ant death spiral?- Mm.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Yeah, I can't decide if that's cool.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55I mean, it sounds cool, doesn't it?
0:11:55 > 0:11:58But they all die, don't they? And that's bad.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00Oh, why?
0:12:00 > 0:12:02- Why?- Oh, don't start that again.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Ants, as you know, work as a unit, following each other's scent,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09also known as pheromone.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12It's most likely that our spiralling ants were out foraging
0:12:12 > 0:12:15when they got separated from the rest of their party.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19With the main pheromone trail lost, the ants began to panic
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and follow each other's pheromones.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24This confused game of follow-my-leader forced them
0:12:24 > 0:12:26into a never-ending circle.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31And because ants aren't programmed to think like individuals,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33they didn't save themselves.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Instead, the circle became tighter and faster
0:12:37 > 0:12:40until the ants simply died of exhaustion.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Whoo!
0:12:42 > 0:12:43I am exhausted.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45What, after all your overacting?
0:12:45 > 0:12:49No! After all the odd creatures we've seen today.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Ah, but there is one really odd creature that we can still
0:12:52 > 0:12:53look at on the TV.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55- Really?- Mm-hm.- What's that, then?
0:12:55 > 0:12:58No, no, no, no, no!
0:12:58 > 0:13:01This is the strangest creature on the planet.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03Oh, come on. Please! Very funny.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Come on, get me out.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Watch how he tries to communicate with the outside world.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Come on. This isn't...
0:13:13 > 0:13:17But sadly, no-one understands him.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21Yeah, that's very clever.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Fine. If you won't get me out, I'm getting myself out.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29Ooh, I wonder what this red button at the top does.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33No, no, no, no, no! Don't press the standby button!
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Ah, peace at last.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Foxes on a trampoline one more time?
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Why not?
0:13:46 > 0:13:50Hee-hee! It is fun! See you next time!
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Bye! Whoo-hoo!
0:13:52 > 0:13:53Bye!