0:00:02 > 0:00:05We live in a very weird world.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13And the more we discover about our planet, the stranger it gets.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Every day, new stories reach us, stories that surprise us...
0:00:19 > 0:00:22What is that?
0:00:22 > 0:00:23..shock us...
0:00:23 > 0:00:26- Whoa!- Oh!- That is so cool.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29..sometimes even scare us...
0:00:29 > 0:00:30SCREAMING
0:00:30 > 0:00:31Oh, my God!
0:00:32 > 0:00:36We've scoured the globe to bring you the most curious creatures...
0:00:38 > 0:00:40..the most extraordinary people...
0:00:40 > 0:00:44I can stick almost anything to my skin without no glue.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46..and the most bizarre behaviour...
0:00:49 > 0:00:53..using eyewitness accounts and expert opinion
0:00:53 > 0:00:59to explore a weird world of unexplained underwater blobs,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02flying goats,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and glow-in-the-dark fish.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08We examine the evidence,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11test the theories,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15to work out what on earth is going on.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39Coming up in this episode - weird washed-up blobs,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41spiders with unfathomable feet
0:01:41 > 0:01:45and bizarre lakes the colour of bubble gum.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But first,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57to the murky depths of the Gulf of Mexico...
0:01:59 > 0:02:02..and a very odd underwater encounter.
0:02:05 > 0:02:112012, and contractors were checking that all was shipshape on their oil
0:02:11 > 0:02:17rigs, when an unearthly object came into view on one of their remote
0:02:17 > 0:02:19underwater cameras.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Some operators were left scratching their heads as to exactly
0:02:27 > 0:02:30what they had just seen.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36This particular day, it was a normal day at the office,
0:02:36 > 0:02:40we do our normal routines, doing our normal inspections down there.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50We were approximately a third of the way back up to the surface and
0:02:50 > 0:02:53we encountered an anomaly.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01It really created quite a bit of panic.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07It is the oddest thing we've ever seen.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10It was a unique creature.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17Brian and his team were completely baffled.
0:03:17 > 0:03:18What was this blob?
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Was it alive or dead, had it ever been living?
0:03:21 > 0:03:25Was it animal, or something otherworldly?
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Well, faced with a real-life mystery unfolding,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32they did the decent thing - posted the footage online to see if
0:03:32 > 0:03:35someone, somewhere knew what it was.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42The most odd description we got, or accusation,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46was that it was actually CGI, which was an actual computer
0:03:46 > 0:03:50animated graphic that was overlaid onto the screen.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55There were hypotheses that it was a whale placenta left over from a baby
0:03:55 > 0:03:57whale being born.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59People said it was Osama Bin Laden's ghost.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05They said it was a trash bag,
0:04:05 > 0:04:09all kinds of conspiracy theory hypotheses floating around about this organism.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13So we wanted to get a chance to look at it a little bit closer
0:04:13 > 0:04:16and figure out what it is.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22What they saw was that this thing appeared to be moving independently
0:04:22 > 0:04:24through the water.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31Slowly changing, shifting in its shape as it made some progress.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35And then, when it got closer to them,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37they could see that it had this patterning,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42these sorts of hexagonal marks which were expanding and contracting as it
0:04:42 > 0:04:45continued to move through the water.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Dead weird. Dead weird indeed.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59As the object moved, the footage revealed appendages,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02maybe even organs, on the outside of it.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11To Steve's trained eye,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15this anomaly had all the hallmarks of a familiar,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17but very unusual creature.
0:05:20 > 0:05:26It was a very rare, very strange jellyfish.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Now, jellyfish are very curious creatures,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37with their dome-shaped bodies and delicate tentacles.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44That translucent skin revealing their bizarre inner anatomy.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57And it was this jellyfish's inner workings that allowed Steve to
0:05:57 > 0:06:00finally identify which species it was.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04That jelly has a few features that are very distinctive and one of them
0:06:04 > 0:06:07is this mesh of canals that goes around the body.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12So they're the distribution network that it can send digestive material
0:06:12 > 0:06:17and provide energy to the rest of the organism.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20So, by looking at the structure of those canals,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24you're able to narrow down which species of jelly this might be.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28The final clue was the location.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33This jellyfish was swimming almost a mile underwater.
0:06:33 > 0:06:34Combining all the evidence,
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Steve knew that he was looking at something very unusual indeed.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44So the organism that we figured out that it was is this jelly called
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Deepstaria. It was first discovered in 1967
0:06:48 > 0:06:51from the submersible Deep Star, and so that's where it got its name.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54We find them almost a mile down in the ocean,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58we've seen them about 30 times in the last 25 years.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03But hang on, our jellyfish doesn't exactly look like it's picture,
0:07:03 > 0:07:05does it?
0:07:07 > 0:07:10The very unnatural pose that the video has captured,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13I think added a lot to the confusion that people had when they first saw
0:07:13 > 0:07:16the animal.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19It can be disturbed by the slightest motion of the water,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22so when you bring this submarine down, you back up,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25you try to stay off it, you try to stay with it,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27you're sending it swirling around through the water,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31and in the case of the video that went around on the internet,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33the organism actually turned completely inside out,
0:07:33 > 0:07:35so that its mouth and everything
0:07:35 > 0:07:38that would normally be up inside of it is now outside.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Don't worry. As the jellyfish descended back into the deep
0:07:43 > 0:07:47and away from the swirling currents caused by the ROV,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50it would've been able to turn itself outside in again.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58So, it took a month of social media,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02hundreds of guesses and finally a man called Haddock to figure out
0:08:02 > 0:08:05what this blob was and it wasn't a blob at all.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10It was a species of jellyfish, albeit one that was inside out.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Coming up next, an ocean oddity that caused an even bigger stir.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31March 2016.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35Hordes of tourists packed Bonfil Beach in Mexico.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40But as the morning tide retreated...
0:08:42 > 0:08:45..they discovered a monstrous looking creature.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Sprawled in the sand was a very strange,
0:08:50 > 0:08:56lifeless four metre blob of disgusting-looking rotten flesh.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58SPEAKING SPANISH:
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Beach-goers were understandably baffled.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23They poked at it, wondering what on earth the blob could be.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27It was a curious shape and appeared
0:09:27 > 0:09:31to have tentacles trailing behind it.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35So they guessed that the blob was some sort of giant squid.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40The images and video of the decomposing creature went viral,
0:09:40 > 0:09:45and like the jellyfish before, its identity stumped everyone.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56A very strange blob indeed.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59But do you know what was even weirder?
0:09:59 > 0:10:03The fact that we'd seen something very similar to this before.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06A long time before.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15In 1896, the remains of a giant unrecognisable carcass
0:10:15 > 0:10:20was washed up on the coastline of Anastasia Island in Florida.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24The authorities were quickly called,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28and one of the first men to arrive on the scene was a Dr DeWitt Webb.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Whilst press took pictures and spun headlines
0:10:33 > 0:10:35of the Agustine Sea monster,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Webb concluded that the blob was
0:10:37 > 0:10:40in fact the remains of a gargantuan octopus.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47A tissue sample from the creature was sent to the Smithsonian
0:10:47 > 0:10:52Museum, logged and labelled as Octopus Giganteus Verrill.
0:10:52 > 0:10:58It sat in a jar on a shelf for decades, simply gathering dust.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02So, case closed.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07The blob that washed up in 2016 was the carcass of a species of giant
0:11:07 > 0:11:09octopus. Or was it?
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Because there's another twist in the tentacle of this tale and it comes
0:11:13 > 0:11:16from a pretty unlikely but romantic source -
0:11:16 > 0:11:19one of my favourite childhood TV shows.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Back in 1980,
0:11:26 > 0:11:32the classic British TV series Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World reopened
0:11:32 > 0:11:35the curious case of the St Augustine Monster.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Did a giant octopus as big as Piccadilly Circus
0:11:40 > 0:11:43come ashore on this beach?
0:11:43 > 0:11:48Webb's octopus would actually stretch, tip to tip,
0:11:48 > 0:11:53from here to the red car up the beach.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56The public's imagination was reignited,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58forcing scientists to go back
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and re-examine the original museum sample.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Over the next three decades,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11the strange flesh was tested and scrutinised,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13and as technology progressed,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17scientists were able to get closer to solving the mystery.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Finally, DNA tests confirmed that the tissue was not from a giant
0:12:23 > 0:12:26mysterious octopus at all,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29but from a mammal.
0:12:31 > 0:12:37So, could our washed up Mexican blob also be from mammalian remains?
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Fireman called to the scene had the unenviable task of shifting
0:12:41 > 0:12:45the rotten flesh, and whilst prodding and poking at the carcass
0:12:45 > 0:12:47they found something hard.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52They found bones.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Now this was key to understanding exactly what this creature was.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03The true identity of this Mexican monster?
0:13:09 > 0:13:11It was a sperm whale.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18But how could this sad glutinous blob
0:13:18 > 0:13:21come from such a majestic ocean leviathan?
0:13:25 > 0:13:31I mean, a full-grown sperm whale can reach 20 metres in length,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34but the washed-up blob was only a quarter of that size.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39So what had happened to the rest of the body?
0:13:39 > 0:13:42We get lots of reports like this in the UK. Every year we get a handful
0:13:42 > 0:13:45of bits and pieces that wash up, or float up,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47or just drift onto shore and almost
0:13:47 > 0:13:50inevitably they're decomposed remains of whales.
0:13:53 > 0:13:54So this whole idea of whale fall,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57when their body dies and then sinks to the seabed,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01it creates this oasis of food in an otherwise desert-like environment.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06So on the surface you might get sharks feeding on them
0:14:06 > 0:14:07and at depth you get a whole range
0:14:07 > 0:14:10of other specialised forms that feed on these animals.
0:14:14 > 0:14:15It rots, the bones fall away,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18the musculature and the internal organs fall away
0:14:18 > 0:14:21and you're left with a bag of blubber that floats to the surface
0:14:21 > 0:14:23because it's positively buoyant and that ends up stranding,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26and then the public and the media get very excited about the remains
0:14:26 > 0:14:28of this sea monster that's washed ashore.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31HE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:14:31 > 0:14:33By the looks of the video, you can quite clearly see the remnants
0:14:33 > 0:14:35of two sockets in part of the materials,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37so it's clearly the remains of a sperm whale head.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43So those holes that look a bit like suckers on a tentacle,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48well, in reality, they're the sockets for the whale's giant teeth.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53A real red herring in this conundrum of mixed-up monsters.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00So, a case of mistaken identity.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04A blob that we initially thought was a giant octopus did in fact turn
0:15:04 > 0:15:09out to be a sea monster, albeit one that we already know about,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12the sperm whale, that secret leviathan of the deep,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14reduced, in this case,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17well, to a rather sad end.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24So, a gloopy mass that baffled scientists for years.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29But next up, a living creature whose behaviour is so weird that the
0:15:29 > 0:15:33scientific community simply couldn't take it seriously.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39The animal in question is an octopus.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42With their alien looks and even weirder behaviour,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45these cephalopods are full of surprises...
0:15:47 > 0:15:49..like the ability to solve problems...
0:15:51 > 0:15:54..launch land-based attacks...
0:15:56 > 0:15:59There's an octopus eating a crab!
0:16:00 > 0:16:02..sneak out of aquariums...
0:16:04 > 0:16:06He's going, man, he's going for it.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08..and even escape from a boat full of sailors.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11He's just working his way through.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20But in the depths of the University of California in Berkeley,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24hidden down a maze of corridors under tight security
0:16:24 > 0:16:27is an octopus yet to be scientifically named.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31And this one
0:16:31 > 0:16:33is breaking all the rules.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Certainly almost everything we've seen is different than what we would
0:16:41 > 0:16:43expect from species of octopus that have been studied.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51There was a young marine biologist
0:16:51 > 0:16:53named Arcadio Rodaniche,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56who was working on cephalopod behaviour.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02I think Arcadio was being fairly secretive about this project
0:17:02 > 0:17:07because it was a fairly spectacular octopus that he'd found.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Within his top-secret swimming pool, which doubled as a lab,
0:17:11 > 0:17:16Rodaniche was keeping specimens of the larger Pacific striped octopus,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19or LPSO for short.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Bizarrely named, it's actually very small.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27This diminutive cephalopod was barely known to science,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31and through his studies, Rodaniche discovered that this octopus behaved
0:17:31 > 0:17:34very strangely indeed.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36He said that there was predatory behaviour
0:17:36 > 0:17:38which was extremely unusual.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42Rodaniche described the octopus hunting in the most peculiar manner.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Normally, octopus hunt for food either by hiding and grabbing or
0:17:51 > 0:17:54they root around in underwater crevices,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56pulling out their victims with a vice-like grip.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07But Rodaniche had allegedly witnessed the LPSO luring its prey
0:18:07 > 0:18:13into submission with what can only be described as a tickle.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20This was a brand-new discovery, extraordinary behaviour.
0:18:20 > 0:18:21Well, so in extraordinary, in fact,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24that when Rodaniche told the rest of
0:18:24 > 0:18:28the world's octopus experts about it, they simply didn't believe him.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33When the abstract was published,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36there were only a couple of drawings that he had done,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39there were no photographs available,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43and to my knowledge nobody had seen one alive.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48The cephalopod biologists did not react particularly well to it
0:18:48 > 0:18:50because everything he said about
0:18:50 > 0:18:53the behaviour and biology of this octopus was unusual.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Poor Rodaniche would never publish
0:18:57 > 0:19:01another paper about any species of octopus as long as he lived
0:19:01 > 0:19:03and for a decade and a half,
0:19:03 > 0:19:09the extraordinary behaviour of the LPSO was just a distant memory.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12For everyone that was, except for Roy.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18In 2008, Roy was finally able to acquire
0:19:18 > 0:19:20a group of these elusive octopus.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26And, of course, the first thing he wanted to see was if that tickling
0:19:26 > 0:19:28behaviour could be true.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33As they're trying to catch a shrimp,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37they would stalk it and creep forward.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41As they do so, they'll extend one of their first pair of arms up and out
0:19:41 > 0:19:43over the top of the shrimp,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48come down on the far side, tap it
0:19:48 > 0:19:52and that will cause the shrimp to tail foot and escape,
0:19:52 > 0:19:54right into the arms of the octopus.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58It's a bit like tapping a mate on the shoulder
0:19:58 > 0:20:00and then ducking other way.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Truly ingenious, but an octopus?
0:20:03 > 0:20:09Well, it's the only species that's ever been seen using this technique.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11It's a complete one-off.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Unfortunately, this story has a bittersweet ending.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32You see, sadly, Rodaniche passed away in March 2016,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36but he did live long enough to see Roy and his team confirm that all of
0:20:36 > 0:20:39his observations were correct.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43And at the moment, the larger Pacific striped octopus doesn't have
0:20:43 > 0:20:47a scientific name, although I'm sure we can all hazard
0:20:47 > 0:20:49a guess as to who it might be named after.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Our oceans really are awash with the weird.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59From jellyfish, to sea blobs and even a sneaky octopus.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06But coming next, extraordinary love stories.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09From lonely birds to tiny spiders.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14But first to Nagoya in Japan.
0:21:17 > 0:21:222016, a new superstar has grabbed public attention.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Crowds started flocking to catch a glimpse
0:21:25 > 0:21:27of their favourite celebrity.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32His name is Shabani.
0:21:32 > 0:21:38And, yes, he's a gorilla, a western lowland gorilla to be precise.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40And what a specimen.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44From the moment Shabani reached maturity,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47visitor numbers at the zoo spiked.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51But staff soon began noticing something very strange.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56Yes, the vast majority of this new influx were women.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00So, we're going to go check him out
0:22:00 > 0:22:03and hope that the gorilla checks us out.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15He's just chilling and watching. This is my new boyfriend.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Sorry, guys, I'm not single any more.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Clearly something very weird was going on in Nagoya.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Female visitors were flocking to the zoo,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33not to fuel any biological interest in any of the animals that were
0:22:33 > 0:22:35living there, but because,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37well,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40because they...fancied the gorilla.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47So alluring is Shabani's charm
0:22:47 > 0:22:51that he's captured the imagination of thousands of fans,
0:22:51 > 0:22:56his rise to fame being fuelled largely by Twitter and social media.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58And when news crews flocked to the park,
0:22:58 > 0:23:03the story of the famous, handsome gorilla spread across the globe.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07So one thing I did when somebody pointed out to me the phenomenon
0:23:07 > 0:23:10of Shabani was to ask some of my friends about him and it is quite
0:23:10 > 0:23:13striking that everybody I spoke to, men and women, said, yes,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16that is a particularly good-looking gorilla.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23And when we talked about what the reasons were,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27many people pointed out that you can see how muscly he is,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30he looks like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of gorillas.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Shabani really is in the prime of his life.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36He's the silverback.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39That greying hair down his back is not a sign of old age,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42but rather a sign of his dominance...
0:23:43 > 0:23:48..a visual marker that signals to others his status, prowess and,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50most importantly for the females,
0:23:50 > 0:23:54a signal that he is the alpha male, the one to breed with.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59As a generalisation, we can say that female primates like large,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03strong animals, males, and the reasons for that are
0:24:03 > 0:24:08that those males will have won competitions over the time and to
0:24:08 > 0:24:11win those competitions they have to be particularly good quality mates.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14It takes good genes to build a very large male gorilla.
0:24:14 > 0:24:20But with other male gorillas just as big and possibly just as handsome,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24why has Shabani captured the public's attention
0:24:24 > 0:24:25more so than others?
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Well, it's all in his eyes.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33So what makes Shabani's eyes particularly similar to human eyes
0:24:33 > 0:24:37is that he has white around the iris.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41All humans have it, but it's unusual in primates and other animals and
0:24:41 > 0:24:42Shabani also has it.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46So it's very easy to see which direction he is looking in and when
0:24:46 > 0:24:49you look at the pictures of Shabani that you can find on the internet,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52he's often looking out of the side of his eye.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56So if you flirt with somebody,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59you look directly at them and then you look away.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01The Americans call it side-eye
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and this is a very human communicative behaviour.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08And I think that's probably one of the reasons why humans are finding
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Shabani so attractive - he looks like he's flirting.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Now the whites of our eyes are called sclera.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23Scientists have studied the amount present in western lowland gorillas.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26They're normally dark brown.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30In fact, scientists discovered that just 7% of these gorillas have this
0:25:30 > 0:25:35higher degree of white, which gives them this familiar human gaze.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39But Shabani is not just a handsome face.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41He also has a softer side.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44He's an excellent and gentle father.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Having sired two infants of his own,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50he can often be seen playing with his offspring
0:25:50 > 0:25:52and younger members of the group.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55We're blurring the lines between species,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58which can make us feel uncomfortable,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01but actually humans are primates too,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03we're very closely related to gorillas.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08What female humans are looking for in a male partner
0:26:08 > 0:26:12may have similarities to what gorillas look for in a male partner.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Shabani ticks all the boxes that
0:26:15 > 0:26:18humans are looking for in an attractive male.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21The fact he's a gorilla becomes irrelevant because we're looking for
0:26:21 > 0:26:22very similar things.
0:26:25 > 0:26:31OK, he is handsome, he is strong, he is the caring father,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and for all of these swooning Japanese women,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36he is the perfect man...
0:26:36 > 0:26:38ape, ape. And, of course,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42they are quite closely related to us but I've got to say,
0:26:42 > 0:26:46when it comes to human nature's weirdest events, for me,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49this one really takes the banana.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59Next up, how about some romance on an altogether more macro scale?
0:27:07 > 0:27:08Now, after a camping trip,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12we've all returned home to shake out the tent and most likely hang it up
0:27:12 > 0:27:14to dry.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18But when Jurgen Otto from Sydney, Australia shook out his tent,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22it wasn't an errant sock that came tumbling out.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25It was something much more intriguing.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Something he'd never seen before.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34In my garage, I was unpacking all the camping gear,
0:27:34 > 0:27:35ready to store it away
0:27:35 > 0:27:39and all of a sudden I noticed there was a spider on it.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47It looked familiar, I'd seen something similar,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49but then I looked closer and
0:27:49 > 0:27:51actually noticed there was something unusual about it.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Now a spider falling from a tent wouldn't be that big a deal to most
0:27:57 > 0:28:01of us, but this spider had fallen into the hands of someone
0:28:01 > 0:28:03with a real arachnid addiction.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10Jurgen took the interloper into his specially built spider room.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14He quickly identified his new specimen as a jumping spider,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19aptly named, as they jump on their prey rather than spinning a web.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23Now these small spiders come in all shapes and sizes,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27but the one thing they all have in common are those four huge forward
0:28:27 > 0:28:32facing eyes, affording them the best vision in the arachnid world.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36But that's not what had caught Jurgen's attention.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41It was its feet.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47Yes, protruding from two of its legs were small feathery paddles.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52That's when I really got excited about this and thought, yeah,
0:28:52 > 0:28:55it isn't something normal, this isn't a spider I'd seen before,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57this is something special.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01So, were these freakish feet a one-off,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05or did these peculiar paddles have a purpose?
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Jurgen headed back out on a spider hunt.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12I searched for six hours,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16I asked people in the campground whether they'd seen a spider and
0:29:16 > 0:29:18that's obviously a waste of time
0:29:18 > 0:29:20because people just don't look for these things.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22Eventually, I remembered
0:29:22 > 0:29:24that we stopped at a particular walking track.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29I decided to have a look there and, bingo, I found it there,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32kept looking for more individuals, which I then found,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35collected them and then took them home.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39With plenty of specimens to study at his leisure,
0:29:39 > 0:29:44Jurgen wanted to discover what these unusual appendages were for.
0:29:46 > 0:29:47How do they use them?
0:29:47 > 0:29:51And why is it that only the males have them?
0:29:55 > 0:30:00Now a tiny spider with a fluffy foot may not interest you very much,
0:30:00 > 0:30:05but if you're a spider fan like me, this was a remarkable discovery.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10But what was this strange appendage and what was it used for?
0:30:10 > 0:30:15Well, Jurgen put the spiders through a boot camp of tests.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18We thought about the possibility
0:30:18 > 0:30:23that these paddles are used for gliding or giving them kind of lift
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and that would have been exciting because that would have been
0:30:26 > 0:30:28the first flying spider.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Sadly this wasn't to be the case.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34These spiders stayed firmly fixed to the ground.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37Neither were they weapons.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41When Jurgen introduced two males, no duelling took place.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48Maybe this is something they use for jumping on water surfaces.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53So my experiment was immersing one of the spiders in water,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57but that just quickly showed me that these weren't at all useful for that
0:30:57 > 0:31:01kind of thing because the spider was sort of half drowning
0:31:01 > 0:31:02and I had to rescue it.
0:31:04 > 0:31:05Drawing blanks,
0:31:05 > 0:31:11Jurgen finally decided to introduce a furry-footed male to a female.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16The male
0:31:16 > 0:31:18was first signalling to the female
0:31:18 > 0:31:20with his front legs,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23but then something weird happened.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25The male disappeared underneath a leaf.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33He stretched out this leg that has the paddle at the end,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36just over the edge so the female could see it
0:31:36 > 0:31:39and he then moved it side to side
0:31:39 > 0:31:42like a ghostly hand coming up behind the leaf
0:31:42 > 0:31:45and showing it to the female.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52There goes the paddle,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55she spies it and he dodges.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57There it goes again.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01Jurgen watched as the male used his paddle to attract
0:32:01 > 0:32:03the female's attention.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14A strange game of peekaboo, made all the more dangerous when you realise
0:32:14 > 0:32:18that the female is larger than the male and could eat him if
0:32:18 > 0:32:20unimpressed by his advances.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25So why would he antagonise her with his furry foot?
0:32:29 > 0:32:33All became clear when Jurgen put a new lady into the tank.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46So instead of attacking the male's paddle foot,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48the females stood still,
0:32:48 > 0:32:50they became motionless.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57And that seemed to be the sign or the signal for the male that this
0:32:57 > 0:33:00female was willing to mate.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10The male is testing the female,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14he's looking for a female that doesn't attack him.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19We know these females are a little bit larger than males so males don't
0:33:19 > 0:33:24want to risk trying to mate with them when these females aren't ready
0:33:24 > 0:33:26cos they could end up as a meal.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38How absolutely remarkable.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43This plucky little spider is using his paddles as white flags,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46signalling to the female his benign intentions,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50or of course testing to see if she's hungry enough to eat him,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53but this seductive behaviour
0:33:53 > 0:33:56is not the only thing that's unique about the spider,
0:33:56 > 0:34:02no, this tiny romantic Romeo is a completely new species.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Finding a new species is amazing.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12But how far would you go to save one from extinction?
0:34:20 > 0:34:21This is Tex.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25And that's her boyfriend George.
0:34:27 > 0:34:28And if it wasn't for these two,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31the whooping cranes of North America
0:34:31 > 0:34:33may be a long-forgotten species.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38This is the strange story of how this unlikely couple brought these
0:34:38 > 0:34:41birds back from the edge of extinction.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48Whooping cranes are named after
0:34:48 > 0:34:51the whooping sound they make when they call.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53CRANE SCREECHES
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Standing at around 150 centimetres tall,
0:34:56 > 0:34:58these leggy birds are found
0:34:58 > 0:35:02throughout central and eastern North America as well as parts of Canada.
0:35:03 > 0:35:09They were pushed to near extinction by illegal hunting and habitat loss.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13And by the early 1940s, there were only 20 or so alive.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20Saving this species would soon take over this bird lover's life.
0:35:21 > 0:35:27I first met Tex in 1968 when I was a graduate student.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Tex was born in San Antonio Zoo in Texas.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42She was so precious that keepers hand-reared her
0:35:42 > 0:35:44to guarantee her survival.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50It was here that Tex met George and their unusual love story began.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53She was the only offspring,
0:35:53 > 0:36:00so we reasoned that because she represented such a portion of the
0:36:00 > 0:36:03gene pool of the whooping crane that it would be important to try to
0:36:03 > 0:36:06get a chick or chicks from her.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09There was only one problem.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Tex thought that she was human.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18You see, she'd been hand-reared in captivity and therefore accidentally
0:36:18 > 0:36:23imprinted, so she really did think that she was a human being.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26And this had some disastrous consequences.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Every time she was paired up with a real male whooping crane,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33she steadfastly refused to mate with him.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39So George hatched an idea - a very, very unusual idea.
0:36:39 > 0:36:46George decided that he would become the male whooping crane that Tex had
0:36:46 > 0:36:48always been looking for.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Come on, Texie.
0:36:54 > 0:36:55TEX WHOOPS
0:36:55 > 0:36:58'Getting Tex to breed, the first thing was to establish a bond.'
0:36:58 > 0:37:00WHOOPING CONTINUES
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Come on.
0:37:05 > 0:37:11I actually moved my home to her barn.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Now moving in with a bird may sound like madness,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19but getting a chick from Tex - a bird, and George - a human,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21wouldn't be easy.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26George needed to commit to a full and unusual relationship.
0:37:27 > 0:37:33Just being there actually is a very important part of the relationship,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36it's not that you're doing anything, it's just that you're there.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39But just being there wasn't enough.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44George had to take part in a very elaborate mating ritual.
0:37:53 > 0:37:54Come on.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57Come on.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02I would go out and dance with her when she gave this particular call
0:38:02 > 0:38:04that she wanted someone to dance with her.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09Now as fun as leaping about with a crane looks,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12there is actually a biological reason behind the moves.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18You see, whooping cranes used dance to affirm their relationship.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21The elaborate leaping up and down and head bobbing shows that they're
0:38:21 > 0:38:24both committed to each other.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26And crucially it's this that
0:38:26 > 0:38:28triggers the female to start ovulating.
0:38:31 > 0:38:32Come on.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Amazingly, George's dancing skills paid off
0:38:38 > 0:38:40and Tex began to build a nest -
0:38:40 > 0:38:44a signal that she was ready to breed.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48She always built her nest right beside the door of the shack,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51which was very convenient for me.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56So with the nest built and Tex clearly ready,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00it was time for George and his team to get her pregnant.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03As George stood in front of Tex to distract her,
0:39:03 > 0:39:07two assistants approached from behind and inseminated her.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09WHOOPING
0:39:09 > 0:39:11After all that hard work,
0:39:11 > 0:39:14the chick sadly didn't make it,
0:39:14 > 0:39:16dying as it emerged from the egg,
0:39:16 > 0:39:21but on their second attempt, hey presto, all that courting,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25dancing and sleeping in a barn finally paid off.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Finally, we got an egg and it was
0:39:28 > 0:39:30fertile and then we had a beautiful bird.
0:39:30 > 0:39:36The chick was named Gee Whiz and his arrival was vital for saving
0:39:36 > 0:39:37this endangered species.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48Decades later, the legacy of Tex and Gee Whiz lives on in a successful
0:39:48 > 0:39:49breeding programme.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54Thanks to George and his team,
0:39:54 > 0:39:58to date there are now over 600 individual whooping cranes with many
0:39:58 > 0:40:01thriving and breeding in the wild.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08CRANE WHOOPS
0:40:08 > 0:40:10I know some people might think it's a bit odd,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14weird even, to choose to live your life as a bird.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17But not me, I'm full of admiration,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21I think it's fantastic that he put so much endeavour into this
0:40:21 > 0:40:26extraordinary effort to keep an endangered species alive.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33We've heard some of the world's strangest love stories.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38But coming up next,
0:40:38 > 0:40:43lakes the colour of bubble gum and surreal snowy formations.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45Have you ever seen anything like that before?
0:40:45 > 0:40:46Never.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51Our first story comes from Europe.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01For most of the year, German ponds look like this.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Nothing out of the ordinary there.
0:41:05 > 0:41:11But, for a few weeks each year, something truly bizarre happens.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16The pools are invaded
0:41:16 > 0:41:21by bright blue frogs in their thousands.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26If you walk your dog every day in the pond area
0:41:26 > 0:41:30and then one day there are blue frogs sitting in that pond,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32it can be really surprising.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Maybe a bit disturbing like, who's putting the colour in the pond,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40what's happening here?
0:41:40 > 0:41:42Well, here's the weird thing,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45these astonishing amphibians haven't been tampered with.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48There's no foul play here, no dye.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53These frogs are naturally this curious colour,
0:41:53 > 0:41:56but if they only appear for a couple of weeks every year,
0:41:56 > 0:41:58where have they come from?
0:41:59 > 0:42:01There are some forums where people said,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03"Oh, my God, I saw a blue frog,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05"I think it should be poisonous,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08"somebody must have brought it from the tropics,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10"probably it's one of these frogs
0:42:10 > 0:42:14"they use for the arrows and don't touch it."
0:42:17 > 0:42:22Now, you can find frogs in almost every corner of the globe and they
0:42:22 > 0:42:26come in all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes, sizes and colours.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33But bright colours are usually associated
0:42:33 > 0:42:35with more tropical climates.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Take the dart frogs of South America -
0:42:39 > 0:42:43resplendent in stripes, blotches and bold colourations.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50But a German pond isn't exactly, well, tropical.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Have these blue frogs lost their way?
0:42:54 > 0:42:56What on earth is going on?
0:42:57 > 0:43:00Well, to explain this bizarre event,
0:43:00 > 0:43:05we need to tear our eyes away from the brilliant blue frogs and focus
0:43:05 > 0:43:07on the boring brown ones.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14You see, the brown frogs are the females of the same species.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19The blue ones are the males, so presumably they're turning blue to
0:43:19 > 0:43:21attract their mates.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Well, actually no.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29For a long time it was believed that the blue colour and intensity of the
0:43:29 > 0:43:34blue colour was a sign for fitness and for the ability to reproduce.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38But the truth is much weirder than that.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43Like any pond in spring, mating is the number one priority.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48So desperate are the males to find a female, they'll quite literally jump
0:43:48 > 0:43:50on anything that moves.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52I mean, look at poor Mr Toad,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55he's not even the right sex or species and he's been pounced on.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00And if they'll go for a toad, then it's fair to assume that
0:44:00 > 0:44:03these males will try it on with each other.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Not ideal. No.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10What the males need is a way to warn each other off.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13The bluish colour is a signal for...
0:44:13 > 0:44:16mostly for other males to tell them,
0:44:16 > 0:44:21"Hey, I'm a male, don't spend your energy, don't spend your time,
0:44:21 > 0:44:22"I'm not mating with you
0:44:22 > 0:44:27"so spend your energy to find a female and avoid me."
0:44:29 > 0:44:34So when the brown females arrive and the amphibian action really heats
0:44:34 > 0:44:40up, this visual indicator ensures that the males only grasp a female
0:44:40 > 0:44:42and not each other.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47And, when the mating season is over, and the hormones have subsided,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49the males lose their blue.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52It's almost impossible to tell them apart from the females.
0:44:55 > 0:45:01It's an extraordinary strategy but one question remains.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05Just how do they undergo this drastic temporary transformation?
0:45:10 > 0:45:14Well, many cold-blooded animals have the ability to change colour.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Specialised cells called chromatophores
0:45:19 > 0:45:22enable them to perform these trans-colour tricks.
0:45:26 > 0:45:27But exactly how do they work?
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Chromatophores come in three main varieties,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41there are the whites, violets and blues,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45the reds and yellows and then the darker cells that create the black
0:45:45 > 0:45:47pigments or melanin.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51These darker cells sit just under the surface of the frog's skin
0:45:51 > 0:45:53and when the pigments are disbursed,
0:45:53 > 0:45:57it appears its normal drab brown colour.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01But when seasonal triggers alter the frogs hormones,
0:46:01 > 0:46:06the darker pigments contract to the centre of the cell allowing those
0:46:06 > 0:46:09vivid whites, violets and blues to shine through.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16Remarkable, a normally dull and drab frog
0:46:16 > 0:46:19that turns a brilliant and bright shade of blue
0:46:19 > 0:46:23simply by nature triggering a change within its body.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28But that's not the only quirk of this seasonal adaptation.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33The frogs can see in the ultraviolet or UV spectrum,
0:46:33 > 0:46:38which means these frogs don't even look blue to one another.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44No, they appear a bright shade of purple -
0:46:44 > 0:46:46a true ultraviolet.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52In conclusion, I think whoever named the brown moor frog missed out
0:46:52 > 0:46:56on a bit of a trick, perhaps they should have called it
0:46:56 > 0:46:59"the brown but occasionally intense dazzling blue
0:46:59 > 0:47:02"but purple if you're a male moor frog" frog.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06I'll get back to you with a scientific name.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Now, if you thought those frogs were a lurid colour,
0:47:11 > 0:47:16coming up next is a natural wonder that's an even more striking hue.
0:47:20 > 0:47:26Lakes and rivers usually run with clear waters but occasionally the
0:47:26 > 0:47:30natural world displays something altogether much more colourful.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40This remote lake is the colour of bright bubble gum pink.
0:47:47 > 0:47:48This is Lake Hillier,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51a 600 metre long lagoon off
0:47:51 > 0:47:53the remote coast of South Western Australia.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59Whilst its bright pink hue may look beautiful,
0:47:59 > 0:48:04the lake is truly inhospitable and few people have ever ventured onto
0:48:04 > 0:48:05its psychedelic shoreline.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11The reason behind its vivid colour
0:48:11 > 0:48:14has remained a mystery for hundreds of years.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24But all that changed in February 2015 when a team of researchers and
0:48:24 > 0:48:29biologists set out to unravel the mystery behind its curious colour
0:48:29 > 0:48:33and accidentally stumbled across a secret hidden within its depths.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39So it was really exciting to get the opportunity to visit the lake and be
0:48:39 > 0:48:41a part of working out why it's pink.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48This is the first time the lake's been studied on a genetic level
0:48:48 > 0:48:50so our study is the first time
0:48:50 > 0:48:52we've looked at the DNA of what's in the lake.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Now if you set foot on this strange lake,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01the first thing you notice is its bizarre salt crusted shoreline.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03As Ken and his team walked on it,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06it crunched and cracked under their feet.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10You see, when seawater enters the lagoon,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13either during storms or via sea mists,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16the water eventually evaporates
0:49:16 > 0:49:21leaving behind a concentrated saline soup that is ten times saltier
0:49:21 > 0:49:23than the sea that it sits next to.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Ken wanted to know if anything could survive
0:49:28 > 0:49:29in this super salty solution.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37There aren't any animals or birds that are really feeding on the lake.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40The environment isn't suitable for large life.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47Ken's first water samples from the lake confirmed that one suspected
0:49:47 > 0:49:49organism was present.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52But was it the cause of the curious colour?
0:49:52 > 0:49:54The pink salt lakes were thought to be that colour
0:49:54 > 0:49:57because of an algae in them.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00The algae is called Dunaliella salina.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05Now colourful algal blooms can crop up in water bodies at any time...
0:50:06 > 0:50:09..transforming entire lakes and pools within days.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14So could a huge bloom be the source
0:50:14 > 0:50:17of Lake Hillier's perpetually pink hue?
0:50:22 > 0:50:26When you take a bottle of the water and put it on your shelf, you end up
0:50:26 > 0:50:31with this red ring around the bottle because the algae have swum out to
0:50:31 > 0:50:34one side to try to harvest and capture more light.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37So we know the red algae is in the lake,
0:50:37 > 0:50:39but even once it's moved across
0:50:39 > 0:50:41to the corner of the bottle you've harvested,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45the rest of the water is still pink and that shows us that it is not the
0:50:45 > 0:50:47algae that's really causing that pink colour.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52So if this pink hue isn't made by the algae,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55what could be producing this magnificent colour?
0:50:57 > 0:51:01Looking deeper into the DNA of this lurid lake,
0:51:01 > 0:51:05Ken and his team discovered further organisms.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07They discovered bacteria.
0:51:09 > 0:51:15So the organisms in the lake produce a pigment called bacterioruberin.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18And that is a pinkish red,
0:51:18 > 0:51:23light-harvesting pigment and because that pigment is spread
0:51:23 > 0:51:26evenly throughout the cell,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28the lake has that colour.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32In a similar way that plants use green chlorophyll
0:51:32 > 0:51:34to photosynthesise sunlight,
0:51:34 > 0:51:40the bacteria are also using a pink pigment to harvest the sun's energy.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45But if a pink super salty lake wasn't weird enough,
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Ken and his team made one more startling discovery.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54So we have been able to isolate an organism from the lake
0:51:54 > 0:51:56that may be a new genus of bacteria.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02If it's confirmed, this is very big news,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06it may be bacteria to most but this hidden organism is completely
0:52:06 > 0:52:09different to all other known bacteria,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12having branched off from its ancestors
0:52:12 > 0:52:14to take its own evolutionary path.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19It's wonderful to think that we might be able to discover and name
0:52:19 > 0:52:21a whole new branch of the tree of life.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28So a potential new addition to life on Earth and the curious and
0:52:28 > 0:52:31colourful case of the pink lake is solved.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Finally to England where a winter white out
0:52:38 > 0:52:41caused a very weird event indeed.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51December 2010 -
0:52:51 > 0:52:55England was blanketed by a beautiful powdery covering of snow.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04But this soon turned into one of the coldest and harshest winters on
0:53:04 > 0:53:07record, leading to some extreme weather conditions.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13- NEWSREADER:- 'The big chill spreads further across Britain,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16'there are thousands of breakdowns on the roads
0:53:16 > 0:53:19'and hundreds of schools closed.'
0:53:19 > 0:53:23But whilst the rest of the country was gripped by snowmageddon,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25two dog walkers in Yeovil, Somerset,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28stumbled across something they'd never seen before.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38It was a beautiful crystal clear morning so we decided to bring the
0:53:38 > 0:53:42dogs out for a walk and we could see what looked like a lot of snowmen.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45They were like giant hay bales almost.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52There were lots of varying sizes and shapes -
0:53:52 > 0:53:55some that were a couple of foot high and some smaller ones.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59They were everywhere.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02They were right the way across the crown of this hill.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12Ron and Aileen were totally baffled by these balls or rolls of snow and
0:54:12 > 0:54:16by the number of them that had cropped up so suddenly overnight.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24But these bizarre formations were not an isolated event.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26They've also appeared in fields
0:54:26 > 0:54:29across the wintry Midwest of America.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Have you ever seen anything
0:54:34 > 0:54:35like that before?
0:54:35 > 0:54:37Never.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44Looks like snow cylinders instead of snowballs or something.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48This is just something else, can you see it all right?
0:54:48 > 0:54:52But surely, there's no great mystery here?
0:54:52 > 0:54:54This is just the work of local kids,
0:54:54 > 0:54:56revellers, perhaps a bit of high jinks.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02It doesn't look like something that human beings would do.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04Because we tend to push too hard.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07So the snow tends to be more compacted
0:55:07 > 0:55:10when we're building our snowmen.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17I suppose if somebody really wanted to make one, it would be possible
0:55:17 > 0:55:18but it wouldn't be very easy.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24We thought maybe the kids had been up here early making snowballs and
0:55:24 > 0:55:27obviously they hadn't because there was no footprints or anything.
0:55:29 > 0:55:30Nobody could have done that,
0:55:30 > 0:55:33I mean, it's like crop circles in the winter, really.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39So if people are not sneaking into the fields at night,
0:55:39 > 0:55:43mischievously making these mysterious rolls of snow,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45how on earth are they formed?
0:55:47 > 0:55:51These bizarre tubular phenomena are called snow rollers.
0:55:53 > 0:55:54So exactly how are they made?
0:55:56 > 0:55:58It's quite an unusual thing.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02You require a number of different phenomena
0:56:02 > 0:56:03to happen one after the other.
0:56:06 > 0:56:07First, you need a nice,
0:56:07 > 0:56:13thick covering of snow with a top layer just at zero degrees,
0:56:13 > 0:56:14so that ice crystals form
0:56:14 > 0:56:17and begin to become sticky.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20The snow underneath then becomes much colder,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25allowing an icy skin to form on top due to the different temperatures.
0:56:25 > 0:56:26If the wind gets up,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30then this sticky top layer can be blown upwards,
0:56:30 > 0:56:32causing it to peel off the colder
0:56:32 > 0:56:35and more powdery snow underneath.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Rising, arching and falling over itself,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41the snow roller begins to form,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45eventually becoming too large for the wind to roll any further.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49They're often hollow because the weak inner layers
0:56:49 > 0:56:52which form first are easily blown away,
0:56:52 > 0:56:53with these fragile formations
0:56:53 > 0:56:58collapsing at the slightest change of temperature or gust of wind.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05So with snow rollers forming in snowy conditions,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08you'd think they'd be cropping up in places that are permanently covered
0:57:08 > 0:57:09in snow.
0:57:11 > 0:57:17Funnily enough, if you look at over most of Antarctica or Greenland,
0:57:17 > 0:57:19you can't get them. It's too cold.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22The snow is almost like sand.
0:57:22 > 0:57:27So it's places where temperatures are around about zero where you're
0:57:27 > 0:57:28more likely to get them.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30The UK is one of those places.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35They're not a common thing anywhere but because of our climate being
0:57:35 > 0:57:38around zero, rather than being very cold or particularly mild in the
0:57:38 > 0:57:42wintertime, then if the conditions occur, they will happen.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44But they are quite rare.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Which makes this footage even more spectacular.
0:57:50 > 0:57:55The elusive snow roller caught on CCTV in the dead of night.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04What I like most about the natural world is that there's always more to
0:58:04 > 0:58:06learn, and on that account,
0:58:06 > 0:58:10I'm absolutely certain that in the future we'll be surprised by
0:58:10 > 0:58:14plenty more weird and wonderful phenomena.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17Coming up next time...
0:58:17 > 0:58:20blood falling from the sky in Spain,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24a truly shocking event that wiped out a herd of reindeer,
0:58:24 > 0:58:28and a strange discovery in the Peruvian jungle.