- 5 months ago
Documentary, Animal Planet, Predators in the sea of Cortez, The Humboldt squid
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00Eight arms of sinewy muscle lined with grasping suckers reach out
00:05and gently explore the strange intrude.
00:20A giant can reach 20 feet from arm tip to arm tip
00:25and weigh in at 200 pounds.
00:30It's the largest octopus in the great clan called the cephalopods,
00:34the group that unites the octopus and squid.
00:40It's an ancient tribe, the first large predators in the sea.
00:46To this curious female, we're a brand new species.
01:00Cephalopod means head-footed, a good beginning in deciphering the octopus's amazing design.
01:12The head and body are encased in a large, soft sack,
01:17and the foot, derived from its distant relatives, the clams and snails, has become a siphon,
01:23a water jet, to propel it in any direction.
01:26A long time ago, its ancestors were a shell, but the octopus has given that up.
01:39Yet, for creatures with such tasty flesh, the lack of protection presents a problem.
01:45The cephalopod solution, the most extraordinary skin in the animal kingdom.
01:58In an instant, it can change color, pattern, and texture.
02:03And with no bones to confine its shape, the creature can virtually disappear.
02:20Another female lies sequestered in her den, tending to her brood of eggs.
02:25She lays up to a hundred thousand just once in her life.
02:29When they hatch, she will die.
02:35These clever, curious creatures won't live long at all.
02:39Their entire lifespan is no more than three or four years.
02:55The transparent babies are no bigger than a grain of rice, but within a year, they'll be giants.
03:09While the lives of these complex beings are all too brief, their line reaches back 500 million years,
03:21long before sharks began swimming the seas.
03:28This will be a great spot, right in here.
03:33Peter Ward has spent 35 years delving into cephalopod family secrets.
03:38He's brought Bob to a special outcropping of rocks.
03:41They were once well submerged in a much warmer sea, and still hold a record of that long ago time.
03:48The fossils are found in these rocks, fossils of relatives of the octopus, actually.
03:52They're called ammonites.
03:55And how old are they?
03:56Eighty million years in age.
03:58Eighty million years.
04:00That's true.
04:01That is old.
04:03Back in those days, cephalopods made beautiful curved shells.
04:07If you dig long enough and hard enough, you can find some beautiful stuff.
04:14This is ammonite.
04:15It's a fossil that is actually the direct ancestor of octopus.
04:19So this is an ancient cephalopod.
04:21It's related to the chambered nautilus.
04:23So the tentacle sat here and swam about.
04:26A shell is a mobile home and a defense against predators.
04:32But it's so cumbersome, it makes swimming difficult.
04:36Of the almost 1,000 kinds of cephalopods alive today, only the nautilus still wears one.
04:45It's a living fossil, puffing along the reefs of the Indo-Pacific as though nothing has ever changed.
04:51Bob returns for one last dive with the octopus.
05:16I couldn't resist bringing her a treat.
05:19All cephalopods are carnivores.
05:21And they love crabs.
05:23This creature actually reached out to me.
05:26I could sense her interest, her intelligence.
05:29I could see it in her eyes.
05:35There's something about the eyes of these animals.
05:38They just draw human observers in.
05:40And especially with the octopus and the cuttlefish, they definitely make visual eye contact with you and maintain it.
05:47Dr. John Forsythe studies these creatures' amazing physiology and complex behaviors.
05:53And I've come in and played games with octopus where I'll duck down.
05:56They'll raise up and look at me.
05:57And then I'll raise up and they'll duck down.
05:59And this will just go on for 15 or 20 minutes like this guy.
06:03I can barely see him over there.
06:04But when I look up, see he's coming up.
06:09Because I think they look for our eyes.
06:11I think they try to make contact with our eyes as well.
06:14And I think that's what draws us into watching these animals.
06:17Whereas a fish, sometimes I look at a fish and I'm not sure where it's looking.
06:21They just have these blank, cold stairs.
06:24But with a cephalopod, it's really never like that.
06:30At the National Resource Center for Cephalopods in Galveston, Texas,
06:34John maintains quite a collection.
06:41There are several kinds of octopuses.
06:45A school of small squid.
06:47And another relative, the cuttlefish.
06:55For John, the eyes of a cephalopod are not just the windows to its soul.
07:00They tell you a lot about how the animal lives.
07:05The octopus has a rectangular pupil that captures light reflected off the sea floor.
07:10Squid's large, round eyes are adapted to seeing darting prey in the twilight of the open ocean.
07:21Cuttlefish dwell in both worlds.
07:23And their complex eyes can actually change shape to accommodate their travels.
07:28But it's not in their eerie eyes that cephalopods reveal their inner feelings.
07:39It's in their remarkable skin.
07:46Millions of tiny sacks of pigment, called chromatophores, dot their skin.
07:50Each controlled by minute muscles.
07:54With a little flexing, a cephalopod can flash with rippling bands of color.
07:59Any sort of excitement, danger, desire, aggression, passion, and their skin lights up.
08:13Their skin lights up.
08:33For creatures with no vocal abilities at all, this is the way they communicate.
08:38In a language of light and color.
08:47And like an octopus, a cuttlefish can transform its texture.
08:52Matching its surroundings.
08:54Hiding in plain sight.
08:57Given their camouflage capabilities, it's no wonder we're still learning just how many kinds there are.
09:09One of the hot spots for new discoveries is the narrow Lemba Strait, off North Sulawesi, in the island chain of Indonesia.
09:18It's a pre-scenic spot.
09:22John and Bob have come here looking for new species of cephalopods.
09:26It's a place primed for strange adaptations.
09:32In the shallow warm water, light and temperatures remain constant.
09:36But the channels, inlets, bays, and lagoons create many small separate habitats, and that leads to high diversity.
09:43This is John's fourth trip to Lemba Strait, and each time, something surprising turns up.
09:53He's brought Bob to a spot called Ritaklari, which in local slang means, the muck.
09:59The muck.
10:15At first glance, it's a vast, flat disappointment.
10:19But wait here quietly, and a lot of what looks like sand begins looking back.
10:35From the still of the muck to the roaring straits, a lot of effort goes into not standing out.
10:53Drifting reeds are actually floating razorfish.
10:57And the end of a few branches turn into ornate ghost pipefish.
11:18Out in the high-speed tides and swirling eddies, fish work hard to keep their footing digging into the bottom with spine-like fins.
11:27But even creeping along on the sea floor, you still have to make a living.
11:42A harmless-looking weed rolling in the current is a hairy frogfish trolling for a meal.
11:57It comes equipped with its own strange lure.
12:00It comes equipped with its own strange lure.
12:04Even if you can not see the
12:13For a mile of an own strange собой, if you are weak, you could watch it.
12:15ваш a gigantic lure in the tent.
12:19There is a large physician, a large physician, you could see their own !"
12:24That looks great.
12:26The sand offers the best retreat, but the crab has already been spotted.
12:45A marginated octopus is the perfect little predator here.
12:48Good camouflage, good eyesight, good grip.
13:18The soft-bodied octopus has one more weapon up its sleeve to subdue the crab's claws, venom.
13:25It finds a chink in the crab's armor, injects a neurotoxin, and the struggle is over.
13:32In such an open setting, the trick for every creature is to find some place to hide.
13:49An octopus fits in just about anywhere, and John finds one tucked into a piece of discarded pipe.
14:03Perhaps there is something in cephalopod memory that recalls having a shell.
14:10Bob and John find this little octopus ambling along with a dark brown bottle tucked under his arms.
14:17The bottle turned out to be his home, and he took it with him everywhere.
14:21So I thought I'd offer him a new fancy place and see if he's interested in trading spaces.
14:27...
14:30...
14:33...
14:34...
14:57I began to worry he might get confused by this clear glass and wouldn't remember how
15:10to get back out.
15:14But after a few minutes, he slipped through the opening and went straight back to his
15:18old brown bottle.
15:20He'd made his choice.
15:23I think the clear glass was a little too bright.
15:26And besides, there's no place like home, especially when you can take it with you.
15:49In the husks of old coconut shells, they find the pearl-like eggs of one of John's favorite
15:55creatures.
15:56It's a tiny cuttlefish that's seldom seen after it hatches.
16:01It remains so small and well camouflaged that it takes great practice to find it.
16:20Down on the sea floor, it appears to walk across the bright stones, its rippling colors
16:25blending in and standing out.
16:28It's called the flamboyant.
16:34The flamboyant cuttlefish is really in a class by itself, even among cephalopods in a lot of
16:39ways.
16:40The vibrant, dynamic, bright colors, the brilliant yellows, the magentas, the pinks and browns.
16:49It adds on top of that these passing clouds of color as it's stalking, looking for prey.
16:55And of course that's happening in living skin.
17:06A lot of these animals are surprisingly bold.
17:09The flamboyant actually seems to like being under the lights.
17:14It begins hunting as soon as we start filming.
17:24My video lights attract little shrimp and crustaceans.
17:28Perhaps the cuttlefish can even see better in the lights as well.
17:37It's only when John sticks out an enormous hand that we see the scale of this little hunter.
17:47Next to a six foot humboldt and a giant octopus, it's hard to believe it's one of the family.
17:58Not far away, a small octopus has been eyeing the scene.
18:04Everyone reaches out for a better look.
18:08Every time I touch one of these animals, I'm not gripping it or holding it.
18:12My intention is never to frighten the animal in any way.
18:15However, I am trying to keep it close to where I can get a good look.
18:19But at the same time, the animal knows at any moment it can get away if it wants to.
18:33This octopus gets away all too soon.
18:37John thinks it may be a brand new species never seen before.
18:48I don't know Bob.
18:49I'm not sure what that is.
18:50But it could be a new one.
18:52I think it could be a new species.
18:53I wasn't expecting to see that.
18:54It's not something you've seen before, huh?
18:55No.
18:56No.
18:57I'm not sure what that would be.
18:58It's a cool little critter.
19:03The waters of Sulawesi are full of new discoveries.
19:10And one is an octopus designed with a special brand of disguise.
19:18It lives in the same waters as the banded sea snake whose bold stripes announce its potent venom.
19:30These are banded arms that can make the same impression.
19:34When disturbed, the octopus flashes and intensifies the stripes, becoming a sea serpent, coiled and deadly.
19:46The creature has not yet been named by science, but it is known to be a fraud.
20:05It's a shy, nocturnal octopus.
20:08And unlike the snake, its venom is virtually harmless.
20:13Its stripes are simply a ruse to intimidate would-be predators.
20:26The real killer is a delicate, jewel-toned creature.
20:31A blue-ringed octopus.
20:35The flashing blue neon is no false alarm.
20:39Its poison can immobilize every muscle in the human body.
20:43There is no antidote.
20:47But all it's really after is a crab.
21:01The blue-ringed is notorious along the coast of Australia, but it's one of Dr. Mark Norman's favorites.
21:19As curator of marine invertebrates at Museum Victoria, his field work in all seven seas has revolutionized what we know about cephalopods.
21:37It's really hard to estimate how many species of cephalopods, or in particular octopuses, we have worldwide, because we're still in the period of discovery.
21:49They thought there was about 100 species of octopus in the world, and we've found 150 new species in the last 10 years through the Indian and Pacific oceans and Australia and up through Asia.
22:00In these groups of animals, it's not hard to find new species. Almost everything we touch is new.
22:12Bob wants to get close to the blue ring in the wild.
22:15So, Mark, this is a shortcut to the beach?
22:17Yep, it's a great place to collect crabs.
22:19Through the graveyard, eh?
22:21Yep.
22:22So, are these the bodies of the people who have been bitten by blue ring octopus?
22:26No, very few people have died from blue ring bites.
22:29He's more likely to have died choking to death on his calamari meal at the local pub.
22:33So, this is where the crabs live?
22:38Yep, they hide up here at low tide under the rocks.
22:41As the guide to the blue ring, Mark starts Bob off with their prey.
22:46Lots of little crabs.
22:48Yeah.
22:49You need a nice juicy one.
22:52There you go.
22:53Look at the claws on that.
22:55That'll take your arm off.
22:57It's an ironback crab.
23:00You can appreciate why the octopus has to get rid of the crab's claws as quick as possible.
23:05Knock them out.
23:06When the octopus bites them, it actually goes for those soft gaps in the junctions like the elbows where the arm is a bit thinner,
23:14or else they bite them right on the eyeball and the poison goes straight down the eyeball and into the brain.
23:19So, they end up paralyzing the animal instantly and putting these claws out of action.
23:23The dive begins after dark, when blue rings are most active, and it's not off some wild remote beach.
23:40The deadly blue ring lives just beneath the town pier.
23:45Blue ring octopus are an extremely venomous animal, and if I was to be bitten, I would probably be dead within three minutes.
24:00Your body would start stiffening up and you'd lose the capacity to breathe, you'd lose the capacity to wave or walk or run away, you'd run out of oxygen and you'd suffocate.
24:21But, these little animals are really shy, really secretive, and the last thing they want to do is attack humans.
24:32They don't eat humans, they don't drag people out of their cars and drag them down the beach.
24:36They just feed on crabs.
24:38But, tonight, not even a crab could catch its attention.
24:46This is a male, and he's just found a female.
24:51Two wild blue rings are preparing to mate.
24:56They keep their colors subdued to avoid attracting attention, especially from competing males.
25:06No flashing their electric blue.
25:09A temporary aquarium helps Bob film what happens next.
25:15After a few minutes of courtship, the male gently slips a special arm into the female's gill slit.
25:28He's depositing a packet of sperm, which she will use later to fertilize her eggs.
25:39It's the end of their relationship, and most likely the end of his brief life.
25:45That was all he needed to accomplish.
25:52Just beneath the very same pier is another cephalopod almost never seen in shallow water.
25:58New research finds that they, too, pack a poisonous punch.
26:02But their bright little stripes have earned them a harmless nickname.
26:06The pajama squid.
26:08I think these cephalopods are the closest to the cartoon characters.
26:11Their little black and white suits and their little frilly lashes behind their eyes and the yellow on the top of the eyes.
26:18They're just straight out of a comic book.
26:20The pajama squid seem to have taken a cue from the blue rings.
26:27Males grab any passing female and then they try as hard as they can to reposition them so that they're face on ready to mate, sort of suckers to suckers.
26:39The mating season is also picking up off Australia's southwestern coast.
27:02In one small bay, giant cuttlefish have begun to assemble.
27:07They leave deep water and enter the shallows once a year for three to four weeks.
27:12The males are three feet and massive with eight flowing arms and one all-consuming purpose.
27:33A much smaller female takes refuge in the rocks.
27:46The males waste no time taking on their rivals.
27:50They flash and ripple with aggression.
27:53Their control is so subtle that they can isolate and flex just the flank facing the opposing male.
27:59The other flank communicates a solid, dependable side to any nearby female.
28:20One male has claimed her and takes possession.
28:24He'll guard her now, keeping her beneath him until she is ready to lay her eggs.
28:33Jules, you around here somewhere?
28:37Bob is heading for this far-flung coast, but before diving with these giants, he needs to brush up on the subtleties of cuttlefish communication.
28:45This is a crazy place to meet a scientist.
28:48Julian Finn is a leading expert on the intense social dynamics of the cuttlefish.
28:56He comes to this junkyard to scrounge up special equipment for an interesting experiment.
29:02Hey, Jules.
29:03Over here, Bob.
29:04Okay.
29:05Oh, there you go.
29:06You into old cars?
29:07Oh, yeah, I love them.
29:08I've got a number of old cars and plenty of treasures in this place.
29:19Cuttlefish speak a visual language, and Julian wants in on the conversation.
29:24Also, I've got a few ideas about making something to use on these cuttlefish in Wyala, trying to get a bit of a different experience.
29:31It looks like junk to me.
29:34Meanwhile, the cuttlefish continue to gather.
29:38Their complex communication escalates into a kaleidoscope of colors.
29:53Opponents toss each other in the rolling tide, and things start getting rough.
30:00The violence can rip up their all-important skin, sabotaging a male's chance to impress and intimidate.
30:16And someone's nursing a torn-off tentacle.
30:23In a temporary standoff, a large male guards his female from two other heavyweights, while a little male, too small to take seriously, hovers on the sidelines.
30:38The two males on shore get set to join the fray.
30:51Well, here you go, Jules. I just wanted you to know that my camera's bigger than yours.
30:55Mine's a bit different than yours, sir.
30:57Well, yours has a hubcap on the front of it.
31:00What I'm hoping to do is film the male's reaction to another male.
31:04But instead of having another male there, I'm going to have its reflection.
31:10It's when males are the same size that trouble starts, and Julian will present one with its very own reflection.
31:18He's studying the displays and the intense competition.
31:23He intends to provoke a fight.
31:28He approaches a large male who immediately responds.
31:47The cuttlefish becomes increasingly absorbed with his own image, but instead of a conflict, the story takes a surprising turn.
31:57The small, unimpressive male has sneaked in and begun mating with the unguarded female.
32:05He's not signaled, nor flashed, nor dazzled.
32:08He's simply grabbed the female for his own, making every attempt to look as much like her as possible.
32:20The aggressive male makes no headway with the mirror and finally moves off to resume his duties.
32:26But he's still distracted, still flashing, and doesn't recognize that his female is mating right under his nose.
32:41The little male looks so like another female, he doesn't see the threat.
32:53At last, he senses something's wrong and moves in to reclaim his female.
32:57To reestablish their relationship, he presents her with the gift of a crab.
33:13With so much going on in cuttlefish society, Julian will be experimenting for a long time to come.
33:31Julian's attempt to interact with the cuttlefish and crack their code has given Bob a daring but dangerous idea.
33:49Deep in the waters of Mexico, the mighty Humboldt squid flash their own mysterious signals, and Bob is determined to dive with them again.
34:07He intends to engage these aggressive predators by imitating their behavior with a display all his own.
34:21Mark Norman and Julian Finn think he's close to crazy.
34:25Sure, you've got the blurring octopus that can kill you within a few minutes with the poison, yet there's something scarier about a squid that can rip off your flesh and tear out your throat, so to speak.
34:35I think you'd be really sensible to work with shark cages with those animals because the stories I've heard of these massive animals that will effectively skeletonize a cow in a minute because they're such voracious predators.
34:56Bob Cranston has no intention of taking this advice.
34:59His whole goal is to interact with these squid on their terms in their world.
35:14In the small town of Santa Rosalia, on the edge of the Sea of Cortez, being a fisherman takes a certain courage.
35:21Blue people, you know, every other year somebody dies.
35:24I have a friend that they found floating in the ocean last year.
35:30It's lucky they found him because, you know, the carnivorous, they'll eat you.
35:32I mean, they will eat you.
35:33The squid will eat you.
35:34If you fall into the ocean, they'll get you with their tentacles, you'll drown, and then, you know, all the rest of them will just eat you.
35:39Despite their dread, these fishermen face the Humboldt on a nightly basis.
35:52Bob will need their help if he hopes to find when and where the squid are rising.
35:57Alberto.
36:03When the Humboldt flash on and off, Bob intends to flash right back.
36:08Yo no se.
36:11This is a flashlight.
36:14Big flashlight for squid.
36:18We're gonna...
36:21Esto es loco.
36:22Esto es loco.
36:23Si?
36:24Bob knows, perhaps better than anyone, just what Humboldt are capable of.
36:41But it's not fear that he feels.
36:43It's an intense fascination for such alien creatures in a world so different from our own.
36:49For me, there's just something about these animals.
36:56Maybe it's because this type of diving in itself is a great challenge.
37:01It's hard to work at these depths.
37:03I've managed to go down and physically touch these fantastic creatures.
37:08But somehow, they're the ones that have taken hold of me.
37:22He's 12 miles from shore.
37:24Aside from his assistant cameraman, there'll be no backup down below.
37:29And no source of help at all topside.
37:31There's not so much as a radio on this little boat.
37:38These are small boats.
37:39It's a big ocean.
37:40There's a language barrier between me and the fishermen, who think I'm crazy to dive in the water anyway.
37:46If I disappear and drift away from this boat, the fishermen will just think the squid ate me and they won't even bother coming to look for me.
37:56Yet Bob has confidence in his own experience and in his plan.
38:00I've made up this light tube and filled it with strobe lights.
38:07The idea is that the humble squid flash for communications.
38:13They flash at each other.
38:14They flash at the divers.
38:16And so I hope to elicit some kind of a reaction from these animals with this light tube.
38:22Beneath the boat lies a thousand feet of open water and sea monsters.
38:52Here we go.
39:07Bob descends.
39:08His homemade light saber a beacon in the utter darkness.
39:12Right away, there's a complete surprise.
39:24Mobula rays.
39:25They're seldom seen in a school like this.
39:29Already the night has taken on unexpected possibilities.
39:42With his depth gauge reading 150 feet, Bob figures he's in Squidwaters.
39:51He powers up.
39:52A giant swarm of pink krill mobs the lights.
40:14Suddenly Bob's in the middle of a midnight feeding frenzy.
40:22Then, rocketing up from below, Humboldt Squid.
40:46They're flashing red and white.
40:50Bob tries to get clear of the krill.
40:52He's turned into better visibility.
40:53And he's caught the squid's attention.
40:56I'm transfixed by this enormous eye up from the deep.
41:01I'm transfixed by this enormous eye up from the deep.
41:24I can sense this creature thinking, but I can't imagine what.
41:31A minute later.
41:32Contact.
41:33The squib grabs hold, testing the light the only way it can.
41:38The feel of hard plastic must come as a surprise.
41:39And it circles me as though curious.
41:45Then, it comes back for more.
41:46This time the aggression is gone.
41:47It just seems interested.
41:48It just seems interested.
41:49It's the only way it can.
41:50It's the only way it can.
41:55Amazing.
41:56Amazing.
42:27We play for a moment, then suddenly it's over.
42:58The fishermen are relieved just to see me alive, but I climb back in the boat knowing something remarkable has just happened.
43:09I danced with the devil down in the deep, and I'm already thinking about the next dive.
43:27It's certain that Bob will return to dive again with a mysterious Humboldt, perhaps with a new strategy on how to make contact.
43:40He's just at the beginning of this extraordinary quest.
43:46But who will he meet next time in the waters below?
43:56Friend or foe?
43:58Friend or foe?
43:59Friend or foe?
44:00Friend or foe?
44:01Friend or foe?
44:02Friend or foe?
44:03Friend or foe?
44:04Friend or foe?
44:05Friend or foe?
44:06Friend or foe?
44:07Friend or foe?
44:08Friend or foe?
44:09Friend or foe?
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