Nature's Miniature Miracles Natural World

Not much bigger than an orange,

the pygmy marmoset is the smallest monkey in the world.

They live in the largest tropical forest on our planet -

the Amazon rainforest.

Their lives are full of huge obstacles

but they don't let size be a barrier to success.

With chisel-like teeth, they've learned to tap into the trees,

feeding on their energy-rich sap.

These micro-monkeys are the miners of the Amazon...

..leaving their mark across the forest.

Too often in life we overlook the little guys.

Overshadowed by bigger beasts, their lives simply pass us by.

But if we stop and get down to their level,

a remarkable world is revealed.

Take this gecko, the size of just a few raindrops,

but somehow able to weather the greatest of storms.

Or this bird, the weight of a 20 pence piece,

who flies thousands of miles for a meal.

What about this rather plain little fish?

Well, he's a passionate artist whose work deserves its own gallery.

So, while they may be small,

these creatures and others like them have survival secrets

that are amongst the biggest and most surprising on planet earth.

And now, at last, they're taking centre stage.

It's time to meet nature's miniature miracles.

The world is a big place...

..home to some huge animals...

..and exposed to wild weather.

RUMBLE OF THUNDER

So what does that mean if you're one of the planet's small folk?

How are you supposed to make a living in this big, bad world?

Well, you need to adapt.

You must develop extraordinary skills.

And you've got to achieve some pretty mind-boggling feats,

like coming back from the dead.

And, let's face it, there's no greater miracle than that.

But whether big or small,

all living creatures have the same basic needs -

food, finding a mate...

..and a safe place to live.

On an island in the Caribbean,

a tiny crab's biggest issue is home security.

Hermit crabs have soft bodies that make them vulnerable to attack

from predators and the elements.

A naked crab would quickly cook in the intense tropical sun...

..so these miniature miracles have come up with an incredible solution.

They use abandoned seashells as mobile homes.

24/7 protection.

But there's a problem.

Right now, this chap is no bigger than a dice,

but he'll continue to grow throughout his life.

So if he wants to stay safe, he must always be on the lookout

for a new larger shell to move into.

But finding a new home isn't as easy as you might think.

On this paradise island, there's a surprising shortage of shells.

Unless this is the opportunity the small crab's been waiting for.

Unfortunately, it's probably a bit too much to take on right now.

And he's not the only prospective buyer in the area.

Hermit crabs can be anything from a few millimetres long

to the size of a coconut...

..so there's a chance this new home might suit someone else.

With housing stock in such short supply,

the local crabs have learned to do something

really quite extraordinary.

They've joined forces to set up their own property market.

Each crab is looking for the perfect property

with the right shape, opening and weight.

Somehow the crabs reach an agreement

and, incredibly, they start to assemble in a chain...

..largest at one end...

..smallest at the other.

All lined up, they're ready to exchange,

and not an estate agent in sight.

The biggest crab is first to move.

So far, so good. The chain's holding together.

Our little crab gets in position, ready to make his big move.

His size means he's at the bottom of the chain.

But just as he vacates his old shell,

a newcomer arrives on the scene to try and gazump him.

He can't afford to be left homeless.

A death sentence in this tropical heat.

But fortune's on his side.

After all the swapping, there's one empty shell left over.

And he wastes no time settling into his spacious new home.

From the perfect beach hut

to a treehouse hiding one of the world's smallest mammals.

Our second miniature miracle

lives in the giant bamboo forests of south-west China.

Bamboo is the tallest of all our grasses,

with some species capable of growing up to 40 metres.

But this isn't just a big world,

it's also home to some rather bad sorts.

HISSING

So if you're really small, how do you survive in a place like this?

You hide.

A tiny slit in the bamboo stem reveals the bijou home

of the bamboo bat.

A colony of 25 living in a space the size of a teacup.

Each bat is not much bigger than a bumblebee

but it's still a squeeze...

..which is hardly surprising

when you imagine a teacup full of bumblebees.

BUZZING

These micro bats have evolved special adhesive pads

on their thumbs, wrists and feet,

which help them make the most of every corner of their secret home.

But what good is that against what lurks outside?

If it got the chance, this snake would devour the entire colony.

But that's where a miniature home with a miniature front door

comes into its own.

At just six millimetres across, no wider than a pencil,

there's no way the snake's getting inside.

But what about the bats?

How do they come and go through what is possibly

the smallest front door in the animal kingdom?

Well, they've evolved super-thin flattened skulls

and, while it may still be a squash,

they're able to squeeze themselves through the tiny gap.

It's another miracle manoeuvre.

Once the coast is clear, the bats go hunting for insects, like flies,

beetles and winged termites.

And that's where a more well-known miracle comes into play.

Bats are the only mammal that can fly

and one of the few to use echolocation to find food,

sending out sound waves that detect prey in the darkness.

And it's these miraculous skills,

combined with a canny choice of home,

that are the key to the bamboo bat's success in this forest of giants.

But what if surviving means you need to protect yourself

from your own kind?

On the east coast of Australia,

over a hundred species of shark inhabits the tropical waters

of the Great Barrier Reef...

..including the largest shark of all.

The 12-metre-long whale shark is the biggest fish in the world.

Sharing the reef with this giant

is one of the smallest members of the shark family - the epaulette.

He's less than one metre long...

..which, unfortunately, makes him ideal prey

for some of the other larger sharks.

So in a world of bigger, badder sharks,

how does the tiny epaulette stay off the menu?

Without a safe home to escape to, he keeps a low profile

and waits.

Twice a day the tide goes out,

which means conditions on the reef change dramatically.

As the water departs, so do the big sharks.

The water is far too shallow for them now.

But the epaulette's size means he's able to make the most

of this brief moment in the life cycle of the reef.

At last he can stop worrying about being someone else's dinner

and focus on finding his own.

But it doesn't last long.

The tide's still dropping

And soon the epaulette is left high and dry.

If he's not careful, he'll barbecue in the scorching Australian sun.

Even more worryingly, this fish out of water is struggling to breathe.

But the miraculous epaulette has evolved an extraordinary strategy

to cope with this.

By slowing his breathing and heart rate and powering down his brain,

he can survive on his last breath for up to an hour.

When the oxygen levels get critical,

another incredible survival strategy kicks in.

His fins turn into prototype legs.

This cunning fish breaks all the rules...

..and is the only shark that can walk himself out of danger.

The epaulette shark isn't the only miniature miracle

to have evolved remarkable superpowers.

High on a remote rocky plateaux in Venezuela

lives the three-centimetre-long pebble toad.

Unusually for an amphibian, he can't hop.

So, camouflaged to his surroundings,

this hopless toad creeps around looking for insects to eat.

But he's not the only hunter up here.

A toad-eating tarantula.

Faced with the enemy,

the toad employs an unexpected escape strategy.

He transforms himself into a toad-like ball.

Tensing all his muscles, he becomes rigid like rubber.

Perfect for bouncing down the mountain out of danger.

He's safe and, remarkably, completely unharmed.

A female Arabian fat-tailed scorpion

on its regular night-time hunt for beetles.

But while she's looking for food,

someone's eyeing her up as a potential meal.

A desert fox.

Once the moon comes up, its soft light could expose her.

So this scorpion has an extraordinary super sense -

an early warning detection system

that gives her an edge in this nocturnal world.

UV sensitive cells on her shell

warn her it's an hour until moonrise...

..which gives her plenty of time to run and hide

before it blows her cover.

When you're small, life's worries extend beyond just being eaten.

You'd think a single raindrop might drown a tiny Brazilian pygmy gecko.

Tricky when you live in a rainforest.

But these geckos have evolved super hydrophobic skin.

Water doesn't wet them.

Their skin is so water repellent

that even a tumble into a puddle isn't fatal.

These miniature marvels can literally walk on water.

But sometimes even remarkable physical adaptations

aren't enough to help you survive.

East Africa.

Home to some of the world's largest mammals...

..as well as one of its smallest.

A female elephant shrew,

more commonly known by her African name of sengi.

She's 300 times smaller than a lion...

..and 8,000 times smaller than an elephant...

..which makes the vast savannah a very dangerous place to live.

How on earth does she stay safe out here without being trampled?

By living her life at top speed

and with brainpower far beyond her size.

This miniature mastermind has designed and built

a hidden network of trails to get around.

Even when she does encounter danger...

..these trails can mean the difference between life and death.

A monitor lizard.

Drawing on a mental map of her network,

the clever sengi is able to figure out the best escape route.

Our fast-footed fugitive is built for high-speed getaways too.

Like most mammals and unlike reptiles,

her legs are directly beneath her body...

..which makes her less stable

but much faster and more agile than the lizard.

Astonishingly, this tiny tearaway, who weighs less than half a kilo,

can reach speeds of nearly 18 miles an hour.

For her size, she's twice as fast as a cheetah...

..which definitely qualifies her

as one of our miniature miracles of nature.

Life in the fast lane requires a lot of fuel.

But while the sengi's secret network allows her to find food efficiently

and discretely, not everyone has it so easy.

We've all heard of the world's great animal migrations...

..like the massive herds of caribou

who trek 1,500 miles through the Arctic wilderness every year

to find food.

GEESE SQUAWK

And the five million snow geese who fly en mass to northern Canada

looking for a summer feast fit to feed a family.

But these are big animals travelling in gigantic groups.

There's another, much less-known,

but perhaps even more impressive annual migration,

and this one isn't migration on a miniature scale.

This is a miniature miracle on a mammoth migration.

Meet the rufous hummingbird.

This tiny bird weighs less than a 20 pence piece

and yet every spring she flies over

4,000 miles from Mexico to Alaska...

..on her own.

Her destination - Tongass,

part of the largest temperate rainforest in the world.

In spring, when the forest wakes up,

it offers the promise of a seasonal banquet.

Rufous hummingbirds spend the winter in the tropics,

where competition for food is fierce.

Here, they get the place to themselves.

They're the only hummingbird to make this epic annual migration

to Alaska.

But when they get here, they can't afford to rest.

Hummingbirds can flap their wings an unbelievable 50 times a second.

Blink and you can miss it.

Great for hovering but, like any racy sports car,

it's heavy on fuel -

one thing this female doesn't have much of.

After the long trip here, she's running on empty.

If she doesn't eat soon, she might not last the day.

And if it wasn't enough that this mini marathon flyer

has flown all the way from Mexico,

it looks like she's arrived too early.

The flowers she's hoping to drink nectar from haven't opened yet.

But being a mini miracle, our little heroine doesn't get in a flap,

for she has brains as well as stamina.

TAPPING SOUND

The distinctive tapping of someone else hard at work.

A red-breasted sap sucker is busy drilling holes in the trees

to release the sweet syrup running inside.

Tree sap is quite similar to flower nectar

as they both contain sugar and protein.

It's exactly what the hungry hummingbird needs

but is she brave enough to steal from a bird

two-and-a-half times her size?

The sap sucker moves on to a neighbouring tree

to continue drilling.

He'll be back to this one later, once the sap is running freely.

The cunning hummingbird spots an opportunity and makes her move.

Her tongue darts in and out around 13 times a second.

If she's going to replenish her energy levels,

she'll need to eat like this every 20 minutes.

The hummingbird will rely on this sneaky strategy to survive,

stealing food from right under the sap sucker's nose

until the forest flowers bloom in a few weeks' time.

Then, finally, she'll be able to enjoy the benefits

of her long-distance journey.

But what if travel isn't an option

and the only food available in your world is something you can't digest?

That's the situation our next miniature hero finds itself in.

The Argentinian pampas covers over 150,000 square miles of grassland.

Every day, the industrious grasscutter ant

toils in the fields, harvesting a crop it can't actually stomach.

A single colony can contain millions of ants

of many different shapes and sizes.

Those with the biggest jaws do all the cutting...

..climbing high into the canopy to carry out their work.

Down on the ground, the smaller ones are the porters.

Incredibly, each one-and-a-half-centimetre ant

can carry 50 times its own bodyweight in grass,

which is like a human carrying a medium-sized van on its back.

Believe it or not, the ant's superhuman strength

actually comes from their small size.

They have thicker muscles relative to the size of their body

than larger animals, which means they can produce more force.

But being able to lift the equivalent of a van

is all very well if you can balance it.

Not to mention the freeloaders trying to shirk duties.

The ants work tirelessly, ferrying grass back to their nest.

Each year, a single colony will harvest

over half a tonne of grass cuttings.

But what for, when they don't even eat grass?

What on earth are they doing with their indigestible crop

and what are they actually eating?

The answer lies deep underground,

where the ants have built their very own food factory.

Down here, they're feeding their harvest to a very special fungus.

This fungus is found nowhere else on earth.

When the ants feed it grass, it grows,

producing edible fungus gardens.

Enough to feed an entire colony of up to five million ants.

These ants have been producing food like this for millions of years,

way before humans ever dreamt of even cultivating their own food.

But there's a twist to this story.

The ants' special fungus is also dangerous to them.

It produces carbon dioxide which, when trapped underground,

could suffocate the entire colony.

So the ants have come up with an astonishing solution.

They've built giant ventilation units

that remove the potentially deadly carbon dioxide

and draw in fresh air for the busy factory workers below.

These humble heroes have not only learnt how to produce their own food

but also how to remove dangerous waste from their environment.

Two highly sophisticated behaviours of a civilised society.

For a creature so small,

it really is a miniature miracle on an industrial scale.

Finding ingenious ways to adapt to their environment

is something our miniature miracles do best.

The tropical forests of Southeast Asia.

As night falls, some mini monkeys are starting to stir.

12-centimetre-tall tarsiers.

The ancestors of these primates were daytime hunters,

but there was so much competition for food

they were forced into the shadows,

where they could have disappeared.

But they didn't surrender.

They evolved huge gremlin-like eyes -

the largest of any mammal relative to their body size...

..which helped them see in the faintest light.

INSECTS CREAK

And enormous ears that seem to have a life of their own...

..but give them ultrasonic hearing.

These two extraordinary super senses opened up the night,

allowing tarsiers to home in on almost anything that moves.

Tarsiers are the only exclusively carnivorous primate.

They eat mostly flying insects,

including moths, locusts, beetles and cicadas -

not the easiest of prey.

Once they've got dinner in their sights,

they've got just milliseconds to ambush and catch it.

But with a genuine spring in their step,

these miniature assassins have no problem taking a leap in the dark.

You see, they've also got enormously long legs,

which they use to jump 40 times their own body length.

And they're armed with long, slender fingers,

ideal for snatching prey.

It's as if these pocket-sized hunters

always belonged to the rainforest night.

Perhaps the ultimate survivor in our list of miniature miracles

is a plant that lives in one of the harshest places on earth.

The vast Sahara Desert.

Life here has far more to worry about than just finding food.

Where on earth do you find water?

Lots of plants can tolerate a few hours or days without water.

Think about all the house plants that get neglected yet survive.

But most will die if they're subjected to prolonged drought.

This small dried-out ball of twigs may have been dead for 100 years.

And yet, despite appearances, all is not lost.

Because this plant...

..is the resurrection plant.

Blown by the wind, it's in desperate need of a drink.

But around here, rain only falls once or twice a year...

..and in the world's biggest desert,

you have to be very lucky to find it.

So will this puddle be enough to raise it from the dead?

Gradually, lifeless limbs lap up the precious water.

Its resurrection has begun.

RUMBLE OF THUNDER

Now it's come back to life,

it must snatch this opportunity to reproduce.

But this special plant needs yet another miracle...

..rain.

The trigger for new life.

A chance for its seeds to germinate.

In just a few hours, new shoots emerge.

And within weeks, these offspring of the original plant flower,

producing seeds of their own.

Sadly, it's not long before the burning African sun kills them.

But the seeds within their withered branches live on,

ready for when they find rain,

even if it's a century from now.

RUMBLE OF THUNDER

In southern India, rain is a more predictable event.

Monsoon clouds are building.

This annual phenomenon triggers the breeding season

for our next miniature miracle.

Traditionally, male frogs rely on their croak

to attract the opposite sex

but, unfortunately, their chorus is falling on deaf ears.

They're struggling to be heard over the noise of all this water.

So these tiny frogs, each one no bigger than a paperclip,

have claimed a rock for their castle

and now they're using a different technique

to impress the opposite sex.

These mini monarchs wave.

The more testosterone they have, the more waving they do.

All of which helps these frog princes attract a frog princess.

The tiny frogs' distinctive courtship behaviour

has earned them their name.

These are foot-flagging frogs.

Yet another stroke of genius

from a small animal facing a big problem.

BIRDS SING

But our little frogs' romantic woes

are nothing compared to those of our next miniature miracle.

He's embarking on possibly the most dangerous journey of his life

and all for the sake of trying to find a partner.

This is the Australian peacock jumping spider...

..a miracle mover who can't afford to put a foot wrong.

He's only the size of a grain of rice.

Yes, he's that small.

Which, in a place like this, means almost anything could be dangerous.

But, in fact, the biggest threat of all is the female he's after.

The silken road to finding her

is littered with the remains of unsuccessful suitors.

A stark warning that, if he doesn't get this right,

it could be his last day on the planet.

She ambushes him from behind.

Now, what can he do to win her over?

Dance.

Dance for his life.

He unfurls his striking fan and begins his routine.

Its elaborate shape and vibrant colours resemble a peacock's tale.

But even his party outfit and his best moves aren't impressing her.

Time to step it up a level.

As is so often the case in the mating game,

it's not the males but the females who call the shots.

The more unique the dance,

the more likely she is to accept his advances.

This mating ritual can go on for up to 50 minutes.

But at last his performance is rewarded and they mate.

He's done his bit and satisfied her needs,

but now her need is over...

..so she kills him anyway.

After all, his body will be the perfect nourishment for their eggs.

Our next mini marvel wasn't blessed with a vibrant party outfit

or even disco dance moves

and yet, somehow, he's still got to attract the ladies.

The world's oceans are filled with brilliant colours,

all designed to make their wearers conspicuous.

But the tiny Japanese puffer fish is so dull

he almost fades into the background.

If he's going to have any success with the opposite sex,

he needs to perform a miracle that defies belief.

He is nature's finest artist.

With a design of mathematical precision in his head

and only fins for tools, he starts to plough the sand.

He's sculpting it into geometric shapes.

This dedicated artist works 24 hours a day for a entire week.

There's no time for rest or the current will destroy his creation.

He adds shells for decoration

Before a final tidy up.

At last, his vision is complete.

Using only what was available to him,

this 12-centimetre fish has created a masterpiece two metres across.

Nowhere else in nature does an animal construct something

as complex and perfect as this.

If this doesn't get him noticed, nothing will.

A female swollen with eggs and ready to partner up

is tempted over to have a look.

He entices her into the centre to get the best possible view.

Impressed, she retreats, leaving him to make one alteration.

By the next morning, the centre of the sculpture

has been flattened and all the soft sand is in the middle.

He's created the perfect nest.

Right on cue, she arrives.

The male holds her cheek and fertilises her eggs

as she releases them.

A quick flick of his fin and he buries them in this sand.

Eggs laid, she departs...

..while he stays behind to fan them until they hatch...

..his extraordinary work of art fading away around him.

The Japanese puffer fish isn't the only miraculous mini creature

beneath the waves.

We can't see them with the naked eye

but our seas are literally brimming with hidden heroes.

Plankton.

Thousands of different types and different species

you'd need a microscope to see.

Anything that drifts in the current is classified as plankton.

The smallest are the plant-like phytoplankton,

followed by the more animal-like zooplankton.

Individually, they're not that exciting,

but believe me, collectively,

these critters are some of the most important species on our planet.

They're the bedrock of the ocean food web.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner for the krill...

..who get eaten by the fish.

Then in come the diving birds.

Agile sea lions.

Dolphins.

Sharks.

And all the way up to the biggest mammals on earth - whales.

But that's not all.

The tiny phytoplankton perform an even greater miracle still.

Just like terrestrial plants,

they use light from the sun to photosynthesise

and produce energy for themselves.

One of the by-products of that process is oxygen -

a gas required by almost all life on earth.

There are so many phytoplankton in our oceans

that they literally produce over half of all the oxygen we breathe...

..which is surely the biggest and most important miracle

of all our miniature heroes.

Without plankton, it's thought that much of life on Earth

would disappear.

So there you have it.

We've seen a walking fish,

a dancing spider

and even a plant that can raise itself from the dead.

A little-known and often unseen world of miraculous beings.

They've adapted...

..developed extraordinary skills...

..and pulled off some astounding feats just to survive.

And, finally, consider this.

90% of all our planet's creatures

are no bigger than a human fingertip.

Without us knowing it, these tiny superstars dominate our world...

..and we can't afford to overlook a single one of them.