0:00:02 > 0:00:05We live in a very weird world.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09And at winter time it just gets weirder.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11This is a perfect circle in the ice.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13It's pretty wild.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Every day, new stories reach us.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Stories that surprise us.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22It was like, "Did we actually experience that?"
0:00:22 > 0:00:24Shockers.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27When I came around that corner, that's when I saw him.
0:00:27 > 0:00:28I mean, he's dead.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31And sometimes even scare us.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33Oh!
0:00:33 > 0:00:34Oh!
0:00:34 > 0:00:38We've scoured the globe to bring you the most curious creatures...
0:00:38 > 0:00:40I would pay serious money to see this.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44..the most extraordinary people...
0:00:44 > 0:00:47It's all about having fun during winter.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49..and the most bizarre behaviour...
0:00:49 > 0:00:52I'm being chased by these damn things!
0:00:52 > 0:00:56..using eyewitness accounts and expert opinion
0:00:56 > 0:00:58to understand a weird world
0:00:58 > 0:01:01of confused penguins,
0:01:01 > 0:01:02snowboarding crows...
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Wee! It looks like it's having great fun.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09..and turkeys that seem to be possessed by the devil.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11I was a little creeped out.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13It was definitely eerie.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16We examine the evidence,
0:01:16 > 0:01:18test the theories...
0:01:19 > 0:01:22..to work out what on earth is going on.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Our first weird and wonderful story is all about snow.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51Now, we love to play around in the stuff and animals, well,
0:01:51 > 0:01:52they're no exception.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57DOG BARKS
0:01:57 > 0:02:02MUSIC: Merry Christmas Everybody by Shakin' Stevens
0:02:02 > 0:02:04# Snow is fallin'
0:02:04 > 0:02:06# All around me
0:02:06 > 0:02:08# Children playin'
0:02:08 > 0:02:10# Having fun
0:02:12 > 0:02:14# It's the season
0:02:14 > 0:02:17# Love and understanding
0:02:17 > 0:02:20# Merry Christmas everyone. #
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Undeniably wonderful.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28But I have to tell you the star of this story is nowhere near as cute
0:02:28 > 0:02:32as that lot, but it does take playing in the snow
0:02:32 > 0:02:33to a whole new level.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36Time to head to Russia.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48It's 2012, in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52And a local family have caught a crow on camera.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Doing something very strange.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09The crow has found a lid from a jar of mayonnaise
0:03:09 > 0:03:13and in front of the astounded family's eyes,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15it uses it to snowboard.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24So what on earth is this crazy crow up to?
0:03:33 > 0:03:35It looks like it's having great fun.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Nicky Clayton from Cambridge University is one of the world's
0:03:39 > 0:03:43leading experts on corvids - that's the crow family.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45SQUAWK!
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Wheeee!
0:03:47 > 0:03:49All the way down, back up to the top.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51It's just doing it time and time again. It's so cool.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55This doesn't surprise me at all.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59You see corvids doing so many weird and wonderful things.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03It's interesting watching animals play, isn't it?
0:04:03 > 0:04:04Are they just having fun?
0:04:04 > 0:04:06Are they just messing about?
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Or is there something more involved?
0:04:09 > 0:04:11One idea is that you learn
0:04:11 > 0:04:15quite a lot in a safe environment from playing.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18It gives you the opportunity to try things out.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22And this bird really is trying things out.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Just watch what it does next.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31One interesting observation is that it tries it on the bit of the
0:04:31 > 0:04:34rooftop without snow. Sees it doesn't work...
0:04:37 > 0:04:41..and instead focuses on the bit with snow, where it will slide down.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48So, by trial and error, the crow's figured it out.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Clear evidence of learning through play.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53But that's nothing new.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59There are countless examples of this right across the animal kingdom.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01Cats chase string to practise
0:05:01 > 0:05:07catching mice and pouncing on stuff hones their killer skills even more.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11But crows, now, they are really special.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Corvids, in general, are extremely intelligent animals.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21In fact, my husband and I refer to them as the feathered apes,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24because, when it comes to cognitive abilities,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27crows are as intelligent as chimpanzees.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30You see, I told you, crows are special and
0:05:30 > 0:05:35there is one particular area where these feathered ape brains really
0:05:35 > 0:05:38come into their own and that's tool use.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42New Caledonian crows, in captivity,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46have been observed bending a piece of wire into a hook to retrieve a
0:05:46 > 0:05:47bucket of food.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53And jays will drop stones into a tube containing water
0:05:53 > 0:05:55to raise the level and get the prize.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59And it's not just crows in captivity,
0:05:59 > 0:06:04in the wild the New Caledonian crow uses sticks to catch grubs.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10And the Japanese carrion crow has taken tool use even further.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15It purposefully drops nuts on to busy pedestrian crossings.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19Cars then break the outer casings
0:06:19 > 0:06:21and once the traffic stops,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25the crows safely retrieve their rewards.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Simply incredible.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29But in all of these examples,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32these cunning corvids have one thing in common,
0:06:32 > 0:06:37for their complex endeavours they get a reward - food.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44But the bizarre thing in our video is that this crow doesn't get any
0:06:44 > 0:06:47food at the end. So why bother?
0:06:49 > 0:06:54The fact they seem to be doing this just for fun, without any reward,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57suggests that it's much more than just learning.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02A number of studies have found that when animals engage in play,
0:07:02 > 0:07:03their brains grow.
0:07:04 > 0:07:10So, actually, the crow in our video is doing so much more than just messing around in the snow.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12I mean, yes, it's learning.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Yes, it's stimulating itself.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20But what sets it apart from other animals is that it's growing its brain.
0:07:20 > 0:07:21Amazing!
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Big brained, highly-intelligent animals,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30like us and like crows, love to play.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Because play is good for the brain.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38So, there you go, snowboarding actually makes your brain bigger.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Now, winter really is full of the tales of the unexpected,
0:07:49 > 0:07:50from the surprising...
0:07:51 > 0:07:52Whoa!
0:07:52 > 0:07:53..to the scary...
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Heads up, heads up. Right at us.
0:07:56 > 0:07:57Ohhh!
0:07:57 > 0:07:59..to the downright strange.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04And our next story is strange with a capital S.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11The state of Michigan, USA.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15The small town of Vestaburg is home to Jason Robinson.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20It's something that I've never seen around here and I know a lot of
0:08:20 > 0:08:22people that have been here their whole lives
0:08:22 > 0:08:24have never seen anything like that.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26It's unusual.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30I spend a lot of time outside.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35I've seen lots of beautiful stuff, in the woods, in the water.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42For the last ten years, Jason's been taking the same route to work.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47My commute is very short and peaceful.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49There is no traffic to be concerned about.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53I notice things.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56I take in what's out there when I drive to work.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02But one day last winter his daily commute took a surprising turn.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06I thought that it was such a strange occurrence that I wanted to share it
0:09:06 > 0:09:08with people.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16This is Schmeid Road, where it crosses the Pine River.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24And this is a perfect circle in the ice and it's pretty wild.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30I've never seen anything like that in nature first-hand.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32I didn't have any idea how it happened.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36It looked almost supernatural.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41A perfect disk of ice, almost three metres across,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44gently rotating on the surface of the water.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49And what's even more bizarre is that Jason is not the only person to have
0:09:49 > 0:09:51witnessed this spectacular scene.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03These spinning circles of ice have been spotted all over the world.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17So, what exactly is behind this mesmerising phenomenon?
0:10:20 > 0:10:23I didn't know what to think. I initially thought it was man-made.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27I thought that some crazy hillbilly with a chainsaw cut it.
0:10:27 > 0:10:28Honestly.
0:10:30 > 0:10:31Well, hold on a minute, Jason,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34that's not such a crazy theory, is it?
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Remember crop circles?
0:10:38 > 0:10:43These mysterious shapes began appearing in the British countryside in the 1970s.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Everyone thought they were created by aliens,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51but it turns out they were just an elaborate hoax, made by humans.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Could these ice circles also be a hoax?
0:10:56 > 0:10:59I had a lot of people contact me and think that I did it.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01People I know, friends said,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05"How did you cut that circle in that ice? How did you get out there?"
0:11:05 > 0:11:09But the ice was so thin I couldn't imagine anybody was brave enough to
0:11:09 > 0:11:13venture out there and make a circle on the ice, on the thin, thin ice.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14Jason's right.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16In all of these cases,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20the ice simply isn't thick enough to carry the weight of a human.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22As weird as it seems,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26these incredible circles must have been created naturally.
0:11:26 > 0:11:27But how?
0:11:29 > 0:11:31Well, last year,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35scientists at the University of Liege in Belgium made a fascinating
0:11:35 > 0:11:37discovery.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Now, here's a block of ice that we've infused with blue dye and
0:11:44 > 0:11:49here's some water. So, let's see what happens when I put the ice into the water.
0:11:52 > 0:11:53If I just centre it here.
0:11:55 > 0:11:56There we are.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58And look at that.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01It's started to spin.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04But the question is, why?
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Well, as the ice melts in the water,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10it chills the water beneath it and when that water reaches
0:12:10 > 0:12:154 degrees Centigrade, it becomes denser than the water around it.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19Denser and therefore heavier, and it starts to sink.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22And as it sinks, it spirals,
0:12:22 > 0:12:28causing a vortex and it's this spinning which turns the disk of ice above it.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32Look at that! It's doing it absolutely perfectly.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35And in nature, in the river, as it spins round and round,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40the edges are ground down and gradually it becomes a perfect circle.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43And these natural shapes have
0:12:43 > 0:12:48actually inspired some very unnatural behaviour.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58The natural ice disk was an inspiration for this project.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Meet Janne Kapylehto. Inventor of the ice carousel.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Ice carousel is all about having fun during winter.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14Janne uses chainsaws and ropes to create enormous disks on frozen
0:13:14 > 0:13:16lakes in his native Finland.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20It seems that everyone's invited.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26Although inspired by nature,
0:13:26 > 0:13:31Janne doesn't exactly rely on vortices to get his disks turning.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35There's many ways to make the ice carousels spin.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37I usually use outboard motors.
0:13:37 > 0:13:44Janne's creations have become an obsession and now he's got the whole
0:13:44 > 0:13:46of Finland in a spin.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50MUSIC: You Spin Me Right Round by Dead Or Alive
0:14:00 > 0:14:04The more popular they've become, the bigger they've got.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Janne's latest creation is 100 metres in diameter,
0:14:11 > 0:14:13which apparently is a world record.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18You could say he's revolutionary.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Now, ice can be a lot of fun for humans and animals,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28but for some species it's a matter of life and death.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34September 2017,
0:14:34 > 0:14:39Julie Stevenson and her husband were on a trip around the Arctic when
0:14:39 > 0:14:43they experienced something truly spectacular.
0:14:43 > 0:14:44We were like, gobsmacked.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47It was like...
0:14:49 > 0:14:51Did we actually experience that?
0:14:56 > 0:14:59On the last day of their month-long expedition,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02they were anchored off the coast of Wrangel Island,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05when Julie spotted something strange.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10What we saw from the ship was a whole lot of like, fluffy dots.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12They looked like sheep.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14They looked like hundreds of sheep.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Now, hold on. Sheep, in the Arctic?
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Surely that's a bit unlikely.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25My husband was in the bridge,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28he took his binoculars and looked through,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31and he said, "They're polar bears!"
0:15:33 > 0:15:35The director of Wrangel Island reserve said,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38"No, they can't be polar bears, there's too many."
0:15:38 > 0:15:41So we were excited and keen to go and have a look.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47And as they got closer, the white dots began to take shape.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51It was like, "oh, my gosh, there's so many bears!"
0:15:52 > 0:15:54There's like hundreds of bears here.
0:15:56 > 0:15:57I did get emotional.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02I was crying, people were hugging me because I found it so moving.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06So profound. To see so many bears in one place.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Over 200 polar bears,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15that's more than 1% of all the polar
0:16:15 > 0:16:18bears on the planet, in one place.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Now, these are solitary animals,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25it's rare to see any together.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29So seeing this many was simply extraordinary.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Indeed, so surprising it even baffled polar bear experts.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Absolutely amazing. I would pay serious money to see this.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49I've been working with polar bears for 42 years,
0:16:49 > 0:16:54and to see that many in one location was incredibly unusual.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Now, polar bears spend the majority of their lives alone.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03So what had brought them together in this one place?
0:17:03 > 0:17:06And in such large numbers.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Well, the bears aren't the only animal on the beach.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Yes, that is a whale carcass.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Whale blubber is absolutely packed full of calories,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27it's the perfect meal for a hungry bear.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30But the question is, on this remote island,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34how did so many bears find the feast at the same time?
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Well, many animals have a keen sense of smell.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45But the polar bear's is in a class of its own.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Polar bears have an amazingly well-developed sense of smell,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55that part of their brain that deals with scent is probably
0:17:55 > 0:17:58more developed than in most other mammals.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01A polar bear's sense of smell is
0:18:01 > 0:18:05actually 150 times better than a human's.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08They can smell a seal from 20 miles away.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12And from three feet below solid ice.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18OK, so any polar bear within 20 miles could pick up the scent of
0:18:18 > 0:18:21that carcass, but here's the problem.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24You see, polar bears are essentially solitary animals,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26in fact they are pretty anti-social.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31It's one of the reasons why they have such huge home ranges, so they
0:18:31 > 0:18:33can simply avoid one another.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38So what could have brought 200 of these animals together within
0:18:38 > 0:18:40a 20-mile radius in the first place?
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Well, in winter, polar bears
0:18:45 > 0:18:48spread out across thousands of miles of ice.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52But in summer, when the ice has melted,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55the polar bears are limited to patches of land.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Forcing them close together.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01Normally in the summer, polar bears are waiting.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03They are waiting for the ice to form
0:19:03 > 0:19:07so they can go back out onto the pack ice and hunt seals.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11And this corner of Wrangel Island is a special spot.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Now, we've got a theory as to why
0:19:15 > 0:19:20all of these polar bears came together for this extraordinary event.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24You've got to imagine that this ball is Wrangel Island.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26At this time of year,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29the bears are essentially trapped on it because they are waiting for the
0:19:29 > 0:19:32sea around it to freeze so that they can go out and hunt.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34But historically,
0:19:34 > 0:19:38it's this corner of the island where the seas freeze first.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41And clearly, the bears remember this, too,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43as they've all gravitated in that direction.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48It's a bit like they're waiting for a bus, except the bus is very,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51very late and therefore you've got a big queue of bears.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56And then they get a bonus, because a very stinky whale carcass turns up,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59and they are all hungry so they simply can't resist it.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04And what you've got is the perfect recipe for a polar bear party.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Except, haven't we forgotten something?
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Like I've said, polar bears simply don't like other polar bears.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19I thought that there would be a lot more argy-bargy,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21a lot more fierceness between them.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23And that's an understatement.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27200 unsociable, hungry bears?
0:20:27 > 0:20:28It should have been a bloodbath.
0:20:30 > 0:20:31The bears were so relaxed,
0:20:31 > 0:20:37there was no overt growling or lip curling to chase another bear away.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40OK, so why the truce?
0:20:41 > 0:20:45The reason the bears weren't fighting is because you had this
0:20:45 > 0:20:49enormous food resource. Everybody was going to get a full stomach.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54If there was a limited food supply, so say, rather than a big whale,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58there was a small seal carcass, there would probably be an argument.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03So they are focused on feeding rather than fighting.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06And this makes for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09I've got to admit to being very, very jealous.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15I didn't really have a thing for polar bears until I saw so many of them.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Then I got how important it was.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19And it was such a privilege.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21I was sort of shell-shocked.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Even now, thinking about how amazing it was.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27All right, don't rub it in!
0:21:29 > 0:21:32So, while crows are snowboarding in the Urals...
0:21:33 > 0:21:37..and a Finn has us all in a spin...
0:21:37 > 0:21:39This carousel makes people happy.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42..some polar bears are having a party in the Arctic.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46What a weird wintry world we live in.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57For our next curious case, we travel from the top of the world...
0:22:00 > 0:22:01..right down to the bottom.
0:22:05 > 0:22:06Antarctica.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Home to millions of Adelie penguins.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Ice and sea.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18And sea and ice.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Life is pretty good by penguin standards.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32But inland, 70 miles away from the colony at Cape Royds,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36lies one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.
0:22:37 > 0:22:38The dry valleys.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44So barren, it's like the surface of Mars.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50And apart from a few bacteria, there's no life here.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53But there is evidence of death.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58When you're hiking along for hours on end, and you come across nothing,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and suddenly you see something that doesn't look like every other rock,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03it catches your attention.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08I was working in the Dry Valleys,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11I hadn't seen any animal life in months.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16I was on an eight-hour hike and suddenly I almost tripped over a dead body.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Stopped to have a look, and it was a dead penguin.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24When I realised it was an Adelie penguin and not a Rock,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26it was really quite staggering.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28How the hell did this penguin get so
0:23:28 > 0:23:30far inland away from where it's supposed to be?
0:23:31 > 0:23:34And this sad discovery wasn't a one-off.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42I was usually hiking about eight to 12 hours a day,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45and I'd stumble across at least one carcass a day.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47It is fairly bizarre,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50it's clearly not the environment they're meant to be in.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58Why these marine animals have died so far from the sea was baffling.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03But then in 2006, a documentary film crew stumbled across some evidence.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09They filmed a penguin behaving very strangely.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12The group of penguins on the right are heading out towards the sea.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The penguin on the left is on its way back to the colony.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20But this penguin, the one in the middle,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22doesn't seem to know which way to go.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Then it heads off in an entirely different direction.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33Heading inland, straight towards the Dry Valleys.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35So what's going on?
0:24:38 > 0:24:42OK. Let's have a little recap on the day-to-day activities of
0:24:42 > 0:24:44the breeding Adelie penguin.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47The eggs and the young are here, at its home in the colony.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49And if it's got young, they'll need feeding,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53so they will travel across the ice to the sea,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56to hunt for fish, and then they will return across the ice to the colony,
0:24:56 > 0:24:58where they will regurgitate them.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00And that's about it, really.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03It's colony to sea, sea to colony,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06colony to sea, and back again.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08But what about that single penguin,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11travelling off in the wrong direction,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13all alone?
0:25:13 > 0:25:15What was it doing?
0:25:17 > 0:25:21In the world of penguins, group behaviour is hugely important.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27They go everywhere in flocks.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31For a single penguin to leave a flock means that there is some major
0:25:31 > 0:25:34factor that is involved.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36So what could possess a penguin
0:25:36 > 0:25:39to set off on this solo suicide mission?
0:25:42 > 0:25:45One of the theories about why penguins end up in the Valleys is
0:25:45 > 0:25:49that they are using light reflected off water and the clouds as navigation aids,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and so the lakes inside the Valleys reflect some of this light on the
0:25:53 > 0:25:54clouds and the penguins,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57thinking it's the ocean, start heading inland.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01It's an interesting idea, but does it stand up?
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Is this how penguins navigate, using visual landmarks?
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Well, animals use all kinds of ways to orient themselves.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18We know bears use their amazing sense of smell.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23Turtles use invisible magnetic fields to find their way.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Some birds even navigate using the stars.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30But scientists have discovered that
0:26:30 > 0:26:33penguins have another way of getting around.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38Some researchers are interested in how penguins oriented,
0:26:38 > 0:26:43and so they travelled to Antarctica and they captured about a dozen
0:26:43 > 0:26:47penguins and they flew them to the South Pole,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50which is a featureless plain.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55And so they released these penguins and they found that as long as the
0:26:55 > 0:26:59sun was shining, they all went north-east.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03When the sun became obscured, they wander every which way.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07So they concluded that these penguins were using the sun
0:27:07 > 0:27:10to orient themselves to the point of the compass.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16Penguins have an in-built compass set by the sun.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18They don't find the ocean by looking for it,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22their compass guides them toward it.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25A visual clue, like a shimmering mirage,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28could not have confused our penguin.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32So what was pulling it towards the Dry Valleys?
0:27:32 > 0:27:36Well, David has an extraordinary explanation for
0:27:36 > 0:27:38this very strange behaviour.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41It's a pretty widespread phenomenon amongst animals,
0:27:41 > 0:27:46including humans, where a very, very small proportion of individuals
0:27:46 > 0:27:49have some malfunction in their brains
0:27:49 > 0:27:51where they confuse left with right.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54They think they are going the right direction,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56but they are going the opposite direction.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01This penguin was completely convinced that the direction it was
0:28:01 > 0:28:03going would get it to the ocean.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07The best explanation for what this penguin is doing in the clip was it
0:28:07 > 0:28:09was expressing some form of dyslexia.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15Our little penguin had it all topsy-turvy.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17You see, in his head he thought
0:28:17 > 0:28:19that he was moving in the right direction,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22and all of the other penguins had it wrong.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27It was a classic case of mirror image malfunction.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Yes, his internal compass was completely askew.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33North became south, south became north.
0:28:33 > 0:28:39So while he thought he was heading to the sea, in fact he wasn't.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43He was heading off on a long walk to the Dry Valleys.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46And certain death.
0:28:47 > 0:28:48Poor little penguin.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Our weird world has plenty of strange secrets for us to solve,
0:28:59 > 0:29:01so for our next story,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05we are heading to the snowy tips of the Himalayas in India to uncover a
0:29:05 > 0:29:08macabre mystery hidden in the ice.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13The Himalayas.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Home of the highest peaks in the world.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19An icy, dramatic landscape
0:29:19 > 0:29:24where freak weather conditions, knifing winds,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27blizzards and avalanches are commonplace.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31But, in the summer of 1942,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34miles from the nearest village,
0:29:34 > 0:29:39a mountain ranger stumbled upon a scene of utter horror.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45A frozen lake had thawed to reveal the stuff of nightmares,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52hundreds and hundreds of human bones.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01Now, in 1942, World War II was raging across the globe.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04And so, the British Indian government assumed that these were
0:30:04 > 0:30:06the remains of Japanese soldiers,
0:30:06 > 0:30:11that they'd been sneaking through India in an attempt at a land
0:30:11 > 0:30:13invasion and met an icy end.
0:30:16 > 0:30:17So there you have it,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20the theory that these were the bones of Japanese soldiers killed by
0:30:20 > 0:30:23hypothermia seems pretty straightforward.
0:30:26 > 0:30:32But then, in 2004, more than 60 years after the macabre discovery,
0:30:32 > 0:30:37a group of scientists revisited the lake to analyse the skeletons in
0:30:37 > 0:30:41much more detail, and they discovered something remarkable.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46You see, the bones dated back over 1,000 years.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50So, if they weren't the remains of World War II soldiers,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53who did these ancient skeletons belong to?
0:30:53 > 0:30:56There could be 200, 300, 400 here, easily.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58I've never seen anything like this before,
0:30:58 > 0:31:02so many people in one place at one time with an unexplained cause of death.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08Bone expert Ben Garrod can learn
0:31:08 > 0:31:11a lot about a person from their skeleton.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14If we are looking at male and female,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17males have these big brow ridges over the eyes here.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21They also have, usually, a much more significant chin,
0:31:21 > 0:31:22you can see in this area.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24And then we have to look at other things as well. Were they juvenile?
0:31:24 > 0:31:27Were they adult? Was there a mixture of the two?
0:31:27 > 0:31:30The skull's not just one big bone, and you can see there's one here,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34two and three, so these lines actually fuse when you are about 25,
0:31:34 > 0:31:36maybe 30 years old, so we'd look for
0:31:36 > 0:31:38at what point these things are starting to fuse together.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44It's techniques like this that the expedition were able to use to learn
0:31:44 > 0:31:46about our mysterious skeletons.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50There were some young people, some kids, lots of adults and some
0:31:50 > 0:31:54older ones as well, and at least 35% were females,
0:31:54 > 0:31:57so there's a real mixture of demographic within this population.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03OK. Hundreds of people, male and female, of all different ages,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07in a very remote location, which suggests, of course,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09that it could be some sort of graveyard.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12That would explain why there were so many there.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17Well, it would, except that carbon dating has shown that they all died
0:32:17 > 0:32:19at exactly the same time.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23So what could have wiped out all of these people in one instant?
0:32:27 > 0:32:30What you're trying to look for is something that would cause mass deaths,
0:32:30 > 0:32:32so was there some infectious disease, something like
0:32:32 > 0:32:35tuberculosis, that went through the group? Sometimes,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38it can be preserved in the bones themselves, but there is no sign
0:32:38 > 0:32:40of any infectious disease in any of the skeletons
0:32:40 > 0:32:45that would explain why such a big group of people died in one place at one time.
0:32:45 > 0:32:51But there is a force in the mountains that could wipe out a large group of people.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Avalanches.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Tonnes of snow, rock and ice.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05They claim hundreds of lives every year,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07so certainly have the power to kill.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Could an avalanche be to blame for what happened here?
0:33:13 > 0:33:16If you've got rocks cascading down on you, they are all over the body.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20You've got injuries to your chest, your legs, your pelvis, your face,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23your skull. You just can't see the mass trauma you'd expect from a
0:33:23 > 0:33:25catastrophic landslide.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31But there was a vital clue in the skulls.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34You see, many of them had something in common.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44They are quite small, they are quite round, they are what we call a
0:33:44 > 0:33:47depressed fracture, so if you imagine that a little circle of
0:33:47 > 0:33:49destroyed bone has sunken in,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52it's almost like where you push something and it's just collapsed on
0:33:52 > 0:33:54itself and then sunk in underneath.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00So what might cause injuries like this?
0:34:00 > 0:34:02Human sacrifice?
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Perhaps an attack by an invading army?
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Something hitting the skull that's a type of blunt force trauma,
0:34:09 > 0:34:10so it's not an axe, it's not a spear,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12it's not a knife from an invading army.
0:34:12 > 0:34:13Roughly the same size.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16You're talking about seven or eight centimetres across,
0:34:16 > 0:34:20so something was hitting the skulls that was about the size of a snooker
0:34:20 > 0:34:23ball. Probably the weight as well has caused this amount of damage.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28This is lots of things hitting these skulls at very, very high speed,
0:34:28 > 0:34:30and they are all in the same area, so they are from here up.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33They are not from the side, they are not from the back, so something is
0:34:33 > 0:34:36getting these skulls from this angle or above.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41Now, I'm no expert,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45but I'm pretty certain that snooker wasn't invented 1,000 years ago.
0:34:45 > 0:34:50So what was hitting all of these people from above in this way?
0:34:57 > 0:34:59Whoa!
0:34:59 > 0:35:01BANGING
0:35:01 > 0:35:03Ow!
0:35:06 > 0:35:08This one just hit me in the head.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12Not only does hail damage cars and property,
0:35:12 > 0:35:16there are even reports throughout history of mass deaths
0:35:16 > 0:35:18caused by huge hailstorms.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Obviously, we are used to hailstones two or three millimetres across,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25maximum the size of a pea.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27Even at that size, they can cause quite a lot of damage.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30But, in certain parts of the world, you can get hailstones that are two,
0:35:30 > 0:35:32three, four, five centimetres across,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35if you are hit with something the size and weight of a snooker ball,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38over 100mph, in the head?
0:35:38 > 0:35:41It's game over. And if you've got, sadly, 200, 300,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45400 people all travelling together in quite a small little group,
0:35:45 > 0:35:47and then you get this hailstorm above you,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and all the hailstones are this sort of size,
0:35:50 > 0:35:52you stand very little chance of surviving.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Who'd have thought it! Hundreds of people,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01wiped out by a single hailstorm 1,000 years ago.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Gives me the shivers.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09And now from a Himalayan whodunnit to a tale of intrigue out on the
0:36:09 > 0:36:11tundra - and, rest assured,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14I promise you this one has got a happy ending.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22Siberia, a snowy wilderness
0:36:22 > 0:36:27stretching for five million square miles right across the Arctic Circle,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31and home to an animal synonymous with winter.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37Reindeer are found here in their millions.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42In fact, there are more here than anywhere else on the planet.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51But, in 2016, disturbing reports started coming in.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56In the Yamalo-Nenets region in the far north-west,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58a shocking discovery is made.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Reindeer are dying.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07This is devastating news for the Nenets,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10some of the last remaining nomadic reindeer herders.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16These indigenous people rely on reindeer for transport,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18food and warmth.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Without them, they simply wouldn't be able to survive.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26This really is the nightmare before Christmas.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33And it's not the first time that large numbers of reindeer have been
0:37:33 > 0:37:35struck down so suddenly.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38We're going to take you to Norway,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40where more than 320 reindeer have
0:37:40 > 0:37:44been killed by lightning on a mountain range in the south of the country.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50300 reindeer, killed by lightning.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55I wonder if the mass death in Siberia could have been caused by a
0:37:55 > 0:37:57similar extreme weather event?
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Lightning is a very unlikely factor.
0:38:03 > 0:38:08In Norway, the animals died bunched up in a very small area.
0:38:08 > 0:38:14In Siberia, there were many thousands of animals over a very large area,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18so it was a completely different pattern and all the evidence is that
0:38:18 > 0:38:22the animals died over a period of weeks, not only a single night.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27So, if it wasn't lightning, what could be the culprit?
0:38:29 > 0:38:34Several years ago, fish were found in a river not far from the reindeer,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37with radiation 20 times the safe level.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42The finger was pointed at a top-secret Russian nuclear power
0:38:42 > 0:38:47complex, but, on this occasion, there were no such leaks to blame.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53There are other reasons that could explain mass mortality,
0:38:53 > 0:38:58and that is disease, particularly epidemic diseases.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05Without answers, the Nenets begin burying the corpses,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07but little do they know the danger they are in.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Within two weeks, 90 people are hospitalised.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15The population are terrified.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20And then a disturbing breakthrough.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Finally, the mysterious killer has a name,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27and it's one of the most deadly diseases on the planet.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30This is anthrax.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35Anthrax is bad for you, it's really bad news!
0:39:39 > 0:39:45Anthrax is a disease caused by a bacterium called Bacillus anthracis.
0:39:45 > 0:39:51It's so dangerous because if you eat the organism, if you breathe it in,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54then the disease is almost invariably fatal.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58Anthrax, it's one of the most feared diseases in human history and has
0:39:58 > 0:40:01fascinated scientists for decades.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04'The commission members visit the bacteriological laboratory to
0:40:04 > 0:40:07'conduct an examination into the problem of anthrax.'
0:40:08 > 0:40:10Anthrax occurs naturally,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14it lives in the earth in the form of spores which are self-reproducing
0:40:14 > 0:40:15organisms.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21In biological terms, anthrax is one of the most difficult organisms to
0:40:21 > 0:40:22destroy that there is.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25It's resistant to heat, radiation,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28to sunlight, to drying out.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30It's an amazing structure.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32We know that anthrax can survive in the right environment for well over
0:40:32 > 0:40:34100 years.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39And it's that resilience which is key.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Because this amazing structure, as Tim calls it,
0:40:43 > 0:40:45had come back from the dead.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50In Siberia recently there has been unusual warming which has led to the
0:40:50 > 0:40:53melting of the permafrost.
0:40:53 > 0:40:54In these conditions,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58the spores of the anthrax which have been dormant in the soil may be
0:40:58 > 0:41:03released. It's thought that they might have been released from an old
0:41:03 > 0:41:07carcass of a reindeer that died many years earlier.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12Reindeer had been killed by a natural outbreak of anthrax in 1941.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17And for all these years they've been frozen in the permafrost.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21But now the anthrax spores had come back to life.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27When reindeer graze, particularly on the short swards of the tundra,
0:41:27 > 0:41:34they ingest a lot of soil and ingest these anthrax spores and quickly
0:41:34 > 0:41:36develop toxins which lead to their death.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43So, dormant anthrax spores from a 70-year-old carcass were to blame.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45Who'd have thought it?
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Thankfully the disease was contained and both the Nenets and their
0:41:50 > 0:41:54reindeer were vaccinated against further outbreaks.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58Rudolph and friends were back in action in time for Christmas.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01You see, I told you there was a happy ending!
0:42:03 > 0:42:09So, from a perplexed penguin to hailstones from hell,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11and a contagious killer back from the dead.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15These really are strange sagas indeed.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20Now, if those stories gave you the shivers,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24I've got to tell you that our next tale is truly chilling.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31The small town of McAdoo, Pennsylvania.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33February, 2015.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40And it's a bitterly cold night, minus 20 Celsius.
0:42:42 > 0:42:43At 9.30pm,
0:42:43 > 0:42:4825-year-old Justin Smith leaves a party to walk the two miles back to
0:42:48 > 0:42:49his father's house.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56But the next morning, Justin still isn't home.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02His girlfriend called me and said, "Is Justin home?"
0:43:02 > 0:43:04At that point,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07it's just got me nervous, very nervous.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Don heads out to find his son.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15It's now been nine hours since Justin was last seen.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19When I came around that corner that's where I saw him.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24He was in the snow and he was lifeless, blue, blue colour.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28And I just said, "No, Justin, no, no, no!"
0:43:30 > 0:43:32"You can't go, you can't go, you can't leave me."
0:43:34 > 0:43:37He's frozen, he's frozen like a block of ice.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40And I just held him in my arms and just cried.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42There's my son, dead.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49Paramedics arrive at the scene.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11The ER doctor on duty, Gerry Coleman, takes the call.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17All signs led me to believe he was probably dead many hours prior to
0:44:17 > 0:44:20when they called me. The problem is,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23I could not pronounce him dead, because he was cold.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26If he was warm, he'd be pronounced dead.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Now, common medical practice dictates that you can't be certified
0:44:31 > 0:44:34as dead until your body is at room temperature,
0:44:34 > 0:44:39so Dr Coleman instructed the paramedics on the scene to begin CPR and bring him in.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55I remember the paramedics kind of bursting through the doors and when
0:44:55 > 0:44:59I looked down he literally looked and felt like a block of ice.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02I remember the staff kind of looking at me, like, "Why are we even doing
0:45:02 > 0:45:05"this, it's clear as day that he's gone."
0:45:06 > 0:45:11Now, my body temperature is normally a tasty 37 Centigrade.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15But if it drops by two degrees, I get hypothermia.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18If it drops down to 30,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22then I probably become unconscious, and if it drops below 25,
0:45:22 > 0:45:24my heart stops beating.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29Justin's body temperature was just 18 degrees Centigrade.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36We got up to the hospital and I met Dr Coleman and he sat down right
0:45:36 > 0:45:41across from me and grabbed my hands and he said to me,
0:45:41 > 0:45:46"I'm going to throw everything I have, including the kitchen sink, at your son."
0:45:47 > 0:45:52They tried to revive Justin for two hours but it was just no good.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56The only viable way to give Justin
0:45:56 > 0:46:01the highest chance of survival is through ECMO.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10Basically, blood is taken out of the body, it's warmed up,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13it's re-oxygenated and pumped back in.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18They moved him to an ICU unit and
0:46:18 > 0:46:21they hooked him up to this ECMO machine.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24I was praying, that's all I was doing.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29As the ECMO machine gradually warmed Justin's blood,
0:46:29 > 0:46:31something remarkable happened.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34His heart started.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39I got a call and they said, "Hey, you know that kid you sent me down,
0:46:39 > 0:46:40"we got him on ECMO,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45"his temperature is now normal and he's not out of the woods but he may make it."
0:46:45 > 0:46:47That's absolutely incredible.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52Justin's heart was beating normally but what about his brain?
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Surely having been starved of oxygen for so long it would have suffered
0:46:56 > 0:46:58catastrophic damage?
0:46:59 > 0:47:04At that point I'm thinking, "Oh, my God, what if he's a vegetable,
0:47:04 > 0:47:05"what are they going to do?"
0:47:05 > 0:47:09I remember, we're all in the waiting room and the neurologist,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12said, "Are you the father?" I said, "Yes."
0:47:12 > 0:47:16And he just put himself on the chair like this and he goes,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19"I can't explain this."
0:47:20 > 0:47:22And I sat next to him and I said, "What do you mean?"
0:47:22 > 0:47:26He said, "Well, if you take an orange and put it in the freezer and
0:47:26 > 0:47:30"the next morning, put it on the counter, it becomes mush.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34"That's what I expected from Justin's brain."
0:47:34 > 0:47:37He said, "The EEG is normal."
0:47:39 > 0:47:41I got my son back.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48I'm 100% lucky. There were things
0:47:48 > 0:47:52that were out of my hands and somehow everything fell into
0:47:52 > 0:47:54place. So I'm really blessed.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58When I look at that photo of me sitting on the snow bank it kind of
0:47:58 > 0:48:00motivates me to work harder.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02Things can happen, bad things can happen,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05but there can be positives out of them.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07A frozen heart that beats again?
0:48:07 > 0:48:10A brain starved of oxygen that's fully functioning?
0:48:10 > 0:48:13This is the stuff of fiction.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15How can this be possible?
0:48:16 > 0:48:20So, when people hear the word hypothermia they tend to think - bad thing.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28Actually, hypothermia can be protective because hypothermia
0:48:28 > 0:48:31reduces the body's need for oxygen.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34So, as Justin cooled, what happened was,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38his breathing reduced and his heart rate reduced,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40down to almost imperceptible levels.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Now, you may have even found him at that state and thought him dead,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46but deep down inside him there was
0:48:46 > 0:48:49just enough going on for him to stay alive.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51But how do we explain Justin's brain?
0:48:51 > 0:48:53You see, under normal circumstances,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56after being starved of oxygen for just a couple of minutes,
0:48:56 > 0:49:00the brain simply can't survive.
0:49:00 > 0:49:07Could it be that these extreme temperatures bought Justin's brain some valuable time?
0:49:07 > 0:49:11We know that once you get the brain down to about 20 Celsius,
0:49:11 > 0:49:15it's got about an hour it can survive without oxygen.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20So, when the paramedics turned up, it may well be he was "dead",
0:49:20 > 0:49:25but he had a protected brain, so provided you can, with great skill,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29warm somebody up carefully, restart the heart and restart the breathing,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33do all the things you need to keep them stable, they have a chance.
0:49:33 > 0:49:39So, the extreme cold gave Justin's brain an extra hour of protection
0:49:39 > 0:49:43after his heart and breathing had given up.
0:49:43 > 0:49:48So, as it turns out, hypothermia actually saved his life.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53Well, with a bit of help from Dr Coleman, of course.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54Dr Coleman,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58one single decision he made saved my life and I can't thank him enough.
0:49:58 > 0:49:59He's an amazing person.
0:50:01 > 0:50:02Justin's back where he was.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04I mean, he's just a fun-loving kid.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07He loves life. This is a second chance for him.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10There it is!
0:50:10 > 0:50:11Whoo!
0:50:14 > 0:50:15And unbelievably,
0:50:15 > 0:50:20it's not just humans who can survive under such extreme conditions.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Wood frogs in North America, for example,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26can last weeks - seemingly frozen solid.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30Just like Justin, they have the appearance of being dead.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34Their breathing stops and so does their heart.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38But when the ice thaws, they return to their normal, healthy state,
0:50:38 > 0:50:40completely unharmed.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45Other animals, like this Woolly Bear caterpillar have a kind of
0:50:45 > 0:50:47antifreeze in their blood.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51And the New Zealand weta can
0:50:51 > 0:50:55withstand 80% of its body tissue turning to ice,
0:50:55 > 0:50:59and still recover when spring arrives to thaw it out.
0:51:07 > 0:51:08There's no doubt at all, is there,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12that the natural world is every bit as weird as it is wonderful?
0:51:12 > 0:51:16When you think about it, we've had snowboarding crows,
0:51:16 > 0:51:21polar bears having a party and confused penguins.
0:51:21 > 0:51:22But for our last story,
0:51:22 > 0:51:27we've got a very peculiar piece of behaviour that concerns our
0:51:27 > 0:51:29traditional Christmas dinner.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32And it's very odd, very odd indeed!
0:51:36 > 0:51:41It was around 6.45, and I was driving down the street,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43came to a stop sign.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45I noticed something kind of strange.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48That is the craziest thing I've ever seen.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56FUNEREAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:52:00 > 0:52:03Turkeys walking in a circle around a dead cat in the middle of the road.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Bro, this is wild.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11That's right, your eyes aren't deceiving you.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15A ring of turkeys circling a dead cat.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18I didn't think anybody would believe me so I whipped out my phone,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20like all of us do, typically.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24I took a picture and I'm like, a picture's not going to do enough justice.
0:52:24 > 0:52:25Let me take a video.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30Jonathan continued to film the turkeys circling this dead cat.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34It was almost as if they were involved in some kind of bizarre ritual.
0:52:36 > 0:52:37I was a little creeped out.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39It was definitely eerie.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42I was watching and I was, like,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45this looks eerily like a seance of some sorts.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48I'm, like, is this cat going to just hop up and start walking away?
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Some people were telling me that they were praying to the cat,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56and making sure that the cat was in a better place.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58Others said the cat wasn't actually dead,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01it was sitting there waiting for the turkeys to finish blessing it!
0:53:03 > 0:53:06How incredibly bizarre is that?
0:53:06 > 0:53:08But let's go through this bit by bit.
0:53:08 > 0:53:13Firstly, turkeys, in the middle of a street, in a major city.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18The first time I saw one I was in complete shock.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22I thought, "What is this bird doing here? Where did it come from?"
0:53:25 > 0:53:29Probably 20 years ago there were no calls coming in for turkeys,
0:53:29 > 0:53:32nobody was seeing them, and now we're getting up to seven calls a week.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35The population has kind of grown a little bit more than it was before.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39So, where have all these turkeys come from?
0:53:39 > 0:53:41Have they escaped from a farm?
0:53:41 > 0:53:43They are not farm turkeys,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47they are wild turkeys that are sharing the neighbourhoods with us.
0:53:48 > 0:53:49Wild turkeys?
0:53:51 > 0:53:53Why on earth are there are wild turkeys in the middle of a city?
0:53:56 > 0:54:00Turkeys in urban areas, it's a fairly recent phenomenon that we
0:54:00 > 0:54:02have, maybe over the past five or ten years.
0:54:02 > 0:54:04It has everything to do with people and food.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12In Boston, they're finding lots of food and that's in the form of bird
0:54:12 > 0:54:15feeders in people's backyards and other areas.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Boston and other cities are now full of wild turkeys.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25What's more, these city slickers are causing trouble on the streets.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28Attacking pedestrians.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30I'm being chased by these damn things.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32And even attacking cars.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34We've had calls from people who feel they can't get out of their car
0:54:34 > 0:54:38because the turkey is so aggressively attacking the side of the car.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40Oh, my God.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43They can run up to 25mph,
0:54:43 > 0:54:45which is phenomenal, and they're not afraid of us.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Unbelievable!
0:54:48 > 0:54:51So, why are these bothersome birds so aggressive?
0:54:51 > 0:54:53Get outta here!
0:54:54 > 0:54:57Could this be a case of Christmas dinner striking back?
0:54:59 > 0:55:02Turkeys are very social animals and so we see a lot of interactions
0:55:02 > 0:55:04amongst the individuals within those blocks.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07There's a lot of jockeying for position as to who might be the
0:55:07 > 0:55:09dominant animal within the group.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12That's kind of their constant social struggle.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15And what happens in the cities like Boston is,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19turkeys become so used to seeing people that they kind of lose their
0:55:19 > 0:55:23fear and the people can become the object of that social hierarchy,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25that social struggle that exists with turkeys.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30That male bird is trying to dominate another male bird,
0:55:30 > 0:55:34that other one's trying to get away and he's going to continue to chase
0:55:34 > 0:55:39him until he feels he's comfortable in his male turkeyhood.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41So, basically,
0:55:41 > 0:55:46dominant male turkeys are always on the lookout for someone to boss around.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Which is why they're confused when they see their own reflection.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59But Jonathan's turkeys don't look particularly angry.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01In fact, quite the opposite.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04It all feels rather calm and measured.
0:56:04 > 0:56:05Gentle, almost.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Why? Well, it's simple.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10Because these turkeys are female.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16When you have a flock of females,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19there's always one that is the leader of the group and the rest
0:56:19 > 0:56:20tend to follow in line.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24So, imagine the situation where a flock of turkeys is coming down the
0:56:24 > 0:56:27road and they observed a cat that is acting very strange,
0:56:27 > 0:56:29in their perspective.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33It's not moving. You know, cats can be a predator for turkeys.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38That hen turkey saw this threat and was moving around it to observe and
0:56:38 > 0:56:42kind of give it a wide berth and all her friends followed suit with her
0:56:42 > 0:56:43in a circle.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47I think it's just the perfect storm of a strange situation,
0:56:47 > 0:56:51the animals responding to it in a way that is consistent with what
0:56:51 > 0:56:55they normally would. So it seems to be reasonable, even though it looks
0:56:55 > 0:56:58completely unreasonable at the very outset of it.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07So, there you go. It isn't some sort of spooky death ritual at all,
0:57:07 > 0:57:10it's simply a bunch of female turkeys playing follow the leader.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15I know what you're thinking, what on earth happened to the cat?
0:57:17 > 0:57:19One of the first things I thought about and everybody always said,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22make sure you go back and see where the cat is, see if the cat's gone,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24see if they ate the cat. And like I said, I never thought they were
0:57:24 > 0:57:27going to eat the cat but when I got back the cat was sure enough gone,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30so who knows what happened to it? But no turkeys, no cat.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37Winter is a weird old time of the year.
0:57:37 > 0:57:42Snowboarding crows, spinning ice disks, confused penguins,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44polar bear parties, anthrax,
0:57:44 > 0:57:50a man who was frozen solid and came back from the dead.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52And when you're sitting down to your Christmas dinner,
0:57:52 > 0:57:55spare a thought for the good people of Boston,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58who have to deal with their turkey Twizzlers.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Have a weird and a wonderful Christmas.