- 2 months ago
"Why Crocodiles Like Living at a Nuclear Plant (360p)" is a fascinating wildlife documentary-style feature that explores the unusual connection between crocodiles and the warm waters near a nuclear power facility. The video highlights how these reptiles thrive in this environment, enjoying the consistent water temperatures and abundant food sources. It also sheds light on the ecological balance, human safety concerns, and surprising adaptations that make this location a unique habitat for crocodiles. Perfect for viewers interested in wildlife, nature, and unusual animal behavior.
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00:00The ancestors of these predators hunted in mangrove swamps, back when the continents were only starting to take on the shapes we know today.
00:09They survived ice ages and mass extinctions.
00:13For tens of millions of years, they reigned over life here, until they faced a terrifying calamity, the development of Florida's coastline.
00:22They had no chance, yet these creatures managed to survive in the very places where they faced certain doom.
00:29Today, you will learn, does a blue whale resemble a dog?
00:34Why do crocodiles boil water?
00:36Is it possible to save nature by building industrial zones?
00:40And how did the U.S. end up with...
00:43Crocodiles at a Nuclear Power Plant, an incredible rescue story.
00:53Crocodiles are some of the most perfectly designed creatures on the planet,
00:57going all the way back to their distant ancestors, the Crocodilemorphs.
01:01And there's not a trace of exaggeration here.
01:05In fact, they survived the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
01:10And they didn't just survive, they came through it so well that over the last 65 million years, they've barely changed at all.
01:18Not because evolution forgot about them, but because there was simply nothing left to improve.
01:23Just to put it in perspective, over that same time, the remnants of dinosaurs degenerated and turned into, well, this.
01:31But to be fair, also into this.
01:34Or take Pachycetus, for example.
01:36A dog-sized creature that once roamed the forests of ancient India.
01:40Over time, it turned into, you'll never guess.
01:44And you won't believe it.
01:46Into blue whales!
01:48You've probably heard that all life came out of the ocean.
01:52Well, it turns out, sometimes it works the other way around.
01:56And in a very clever way, the ancestors of Pachycetus evolved and came out of the ocean onto land.
02:03But over time, its descendants grew tired of life on land and returned to the sea.
02:08And it must be said, they nailed it!
02:11After all, we're talking about the largest animal on the planet.
02:15Okay, so what about crocodiles?
02:17In the 80 million years of their history, crocodiles have slightly shifted the position of their eyes
02:23and changed the shape of the scales on their bellies.
02:26That's it.
02:27Well, almost.
02:29How is that possible?
02:31Because in the course of evolution, they acquired armor so perfect that evolution itself could take a break.
02:38The principle was simple.
02:39If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
02:42See for yourself.
02:43First of all, they're the largest reptiles on the planet.
02:46Saltwater crocodiles can weigh up to 2,600 pounds and grow to 23 feet long.
02:53Crocodiles and similar reptiles can hold their breath for up to two hours if they stay still.
02:58And under extreme conditions, they can even go into a state of torpor.
03:01There have been cases of alligators surviving when ponds froze over, with only their nostrils sticking out of the ice.
03:09They can produce infrasound, sound below 20 hertz that humans can't hear but can feel in their skin as pressure.
03:17Crocodiles send these vibrations through the water for communication, intimidation, and attracting females.
03:23It's powerful, and even a bit frightening.
03:27And here's why.
03:29During these special songs of a male crocodile, a standing wave, or Faraday wave, forms on the water's surface.
03:36The water literally boils above its back, even if the crocodile itself is submerged.
03:42This is caused by the low-frequency vibrations.
03:46It looks like pure magic.
03:48As for bite force, well, we could politely skip that.
03:52But let's say it anyway.
03:54The saltwater crocodile holds one of the strongest recorded bites in the animal kingdom, around 3,700 pounds per square inch, psi.
04:02That's comparable to a great white shark.
04:06And just like sharks, crocodiles constantly replace their teeth throughout their lives.
04:11They have 66 functional teeth, and over a lifetime, they can replace up to 8,000 of them.
04:17A living meat grinder that repairs itself.
04:21The crocodile's back and sides are covered with osteoderms, bony plates topped with keratin.
04:27So what, you might ask?
04:29Who cares about some little bones?
04:31What could they protect crocodiles from?
04:34Well, not so fast.
04:36Even small caliber bullets often ricochet off of them or leave only a dent.
04:41It's essentially a natural bulletproof vest, an armor plate inside, and a Kevlar of tough skin outside.
04:48A crocodile strike speed during an attack rivals the punching speed of a professional boxer.
04:54Prey simply has no time to realize where the toothy jaws came from, before finding itself inside them.
04:59And yet, this perfect machine for survival and killing almost went extinct.
05:04Because of a weak, hairless, and nearly toothless primate.
05:09Humans.
05:09Of course, not all crocodile species ended up on the brink of extinction.
05:15But the American crocodiles definitely did.
05:18For millions of years, they lived in the mangrove swamps of southern Florida.
05:23It was their perfect world.
05:25Brackish water, warm climate, shorelines for nesting.
05:29They had no natural enemies.
05:32But then humans arrived.
05:33And in the blink of an eye, by historical standards, they changed everything beyond recognition.
05:38By the 1960s, large-scale urbanization of the coastline was in full swing.
05:44Mangroves were being cut down.
05:46Shorelines paved over.
05:47There were fewer and fewer places where a crocodile could bury its eggs.
05:51And more and more places where a convertible could park instead.
05:55Houses, supermarkets, endless clubs, parking lots.
05:59Plus, roads, boats, drainage systems.
06:03Florida began to look like a resort version of GTA.
06:06The cherry on top?
06:08Crocodile calling for safety.
06:10And what was the result?
06:12By the mid-1970s, only about 200 American crocodiles were left in all of southern Florida.
06:18For reference, that's not few.
06:20That's on the edge of extinction.
06:22One or two failed nesting seasons, and that's it.
06:25Game over.
06:27It's mind-blowing.
06:28This lineage of crocodiles had survived the asteroid impact, mass extinctions, ice ages, and rising oceans.
06:35And it could have all ended over a couple of new parking lots.
06:39Crocodiles, being perfect creatures, came up against something even more perfect.
06:44Its name is the hairless ape.
06:46We say this with a hint of condescension for a reason.
06:50The truth is, humans are terrible at being animals.
06:53Seriously.
06:54Without clothing, a knife, a flashlight, Google Maps, and a backpack with snacks, this is no predator.
07:01This is someone's lunch.
07:03But put a naked, unarmed, unequipped person anywhere, be it in the forest or the field, and see what happens.
07:09Crocodiles, on the other hand, are very good at being animals, as you've already seen.
07:14And until quite recently, large crocodiles were a threat to humans in many parts of the world.
07:21And for a long time, humans had no real way to deal with them.
07:24Literally, none.
07:26Think about it.
07:27It was only during World War II that people began to use on a large scale what would later prove truly effective against large to the reptiles.
07:35A large caliber rifle.
07:36Before that, man-eating crocodile stories only multiplied.
07:41Some became legends.
07:43For example, Bujong Sanong, a man-eating saltwater crocodile, also known as Whiteback.
07:49From 1941 to 1992, he terrorized the Luper River on the island of Borneo, Malaysia.
07:55He claimed the lives of at least 13 people before finally being killed by locals.
08:00Or take another monster, the Nile crocodile, known as Gustav.
08:04Who, according to various estimates, killed anywhere from 60 to 300 people.
08:10And he was never caught.
08:12Many scientists believe he's still alive.
08:15And during World War II, crocodiles once staged an outright massacre for humans.
08:21In 1945, on Ramri Island in Burma, Japanese soldiers retreated through mangrove swamps.
08:28And according to survivors, crocodiles literally held a feast there.
08:32About 1,000 men entered, only around 20 came out.
08:36This is still considered the largest animal attack on humans in history.
08:40And it even made it into the Guinness World Records.
08:44Historians debate the scale of the tragedy.
08:46Naturalist Bruce Wright, who took part in the battle, wrote of hundreds of dead.
08:50But modern research suggests the number was heavily exaggerated.
08:55More likely, several dozen victims.
08:57Still, that keeps the episode high on the list of the darkest encounters between humans and wildlife.
09:04So how did such a perfect predator end up on the brink of extinction?
09:07Because it ran into something even deadlier.
09:11A super predator.
09:12And it's not just a figure of speech.
09:14It's an actual scientific term.
09:16A super predator is a species that not only occupies the top level of the food chain, but also has no natural enemies.
09:23Its population is not regulated by any other animal.
09:26It influences the balance of the ecosystem.
09:28But nothing influences it.
09:31Examples of such species include the great white shark, the Amur tiger, the brown bear, and the orca.
09:36There aren't many of them.
09:38In oceans, jungles, or taiga.
09:41There's usually just one or two per ecosystem.
09:44They're rare and local.
09:46But there's one species that became a super predator everywhere.
09:50On all continents.
09:51In deserts.
09:52In mountains.
09:53In water.
09:54In the air.
09:55It wipes out creatures that have nothing to do with each other.
09:58Wolves.
09:58Sharks.
09:59Elephants.
10:00Whales.
10:00Not because it needs to survive, but because it can.
10:04Or because it can't help itself.
10:06Yes, we're talking about humans.
10:09With all their physical frailty.
10:11Intelligence turned out to be the ultimate weapon and ultimate defense.
10:15More powerful than any claws, teeth, or bulletproof armor.
10:20By around the middle of the 20th century, humans had fully cemented this status on our planet.
10:25Crocodiles hadn't.
10:26Now they live next to a creature that didn't even need to hunt them.
10:29Humans can cause damage indirectly.
10:32By changing the climate, reshaping the land, altering water composition, and destroying habitats.
10:39And even that alone reduces reptile populations.
10:42And if you added hunting into the mix.
10:44The worst thing you could probably do is put the entire population on the grounds of a nuclear power plant.
10:50Just to finish them off.
10:52Um, funny thing is, you won't believe this.
10:55That's exactly what people did.
10:57But let's start from the beginning.
10:59By the late 1960s, things were looking grim for the American crocodiles in Florida.
11:08Only a few hundred remained.
11:10There was almost no nesting habitat left.
11:13Mangroves were being cut down.
11:15And the coastline was being developed.
11:17And people were pushing crocodiles into the last scraps of livable land.
11:22And as if that weren't enough, a new massive construction project began.
11:25South of Miami, right on the bay, on the land that was once part of the wild,
11:31they started building the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant.
11:34It was Florida's flagship project.
11:36It had two reactors, a gas-fired plant, and infrastructure with tens of miles of pipes,
11:42service roads, security zones, guard towers, and hangars.
11:46The plant required cooling, and to achieve that,
11:49they built one of the most unusual systems in the country.
11:53These were cooling canals.
11:54But not just any canals.
11:57They were connected in loops, and if you measured their total length,
12:00you'd get 168 miles.
12:02That's three times longer than the Panama Canal.
12:05As if someone had dug a waterway from Miami to Orlando.
12:09This was an absolutely unconventional system.
12:12Its scale and engineering complexity were unique.
12:15Water heated by the reactor's operation constantly circulates through the canals.
12:20The temperature can reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
12:22And no, this water isn't radioactive.
12:26Although, it's tempting to think so.
12:28On maps, the whole thing looks like a man-made labyrinth.
12:32Concrete, metal, fences, warning signs.
12:35Everything is under strict security.
12:38Everything sounds like the final nail in the coffin for local wildlife.
12:41Only, in reality, it turned out to be exactly the opposite.
12:47Just a few years after the launch, in 1978, workers found a nest on one of the embankments
12:53along the technical canal.
12:55Then another.
12:56The plant administration and the management of Florida Power and Light could have easily
13:05done nothing about this surprising discovery.
13:07But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated Turkey Point as a critical habitat for a federally
13:13protected species.
13:14The power company was required to launch a crocodile monitoring program in 1978 and a crocodile management
13:21plan in 1983.
13:24Thus began FPL's official crocodile protection program.
13:28The first initiative of its kind ever carried out by an energy infrastructure facility.
13:33Since then, every spring, when nesting season begins, biologists patrol the canals.
13:38Every day, specialists check the waterways, clear overgrowth, and remove debris.
13:43They maintain clean embankments, berms, that are perfect for nesting.
13:48If the berms have too many shrubs, they cut them back.
13:51If there's too little cover, they create it.
13:53Naturally, they search for nests.
13:55When they find one, they mark its coordinates, clear the surrounding bushes, and check for safety.
14:01Whose safety?
14:02The future hatchlings.
14:04They protect them from invasive species like the Burmese python,
14:07remove snakes, and monitor other wildlife.
14:11And when the babies hatch, it's Mike's time to shine.
14:15Mike Lloret is a biologist from Miami.
14:18From early childhood, he was fascinated by reptiles,
14:21and that passion led him to become the lead environmental specialist at the Turkey Point Plant.
14:26Today, he's responsible for all environmental monitoring,
14:30more than 168 miles of canals, and thousands of acres of surrounding land.
14:35His team conducts observations, tracks the movements of adult crocodiles via GPS tags,
14:40and studies their behavior and health.
14:43Lloret also performs weekly vehicle patrols along the interceptor ditch,
14:48which runs along the western edge of the canal system.
14:51He always keeps a notebook handy to record every crocodile encountered.
14:56When hatchlings appear, the marking process begins.
14:59The procedure takes about five days.
15:01The team measures the length and weight of the young, and examines their health.
15:06Then they get microchip.
15:07After that, special cuts are made on the bony scutes of their backs,
15:11in a unique pattern, like a QR code, different for each individual.
15:16Finally, the hatchlings are released back into the wild.
15:19The work can be routine at times, but it's essential.
15:26Everything is done to monitor the population as accurately as possible,
15:30and respond promptly to any changes.
15:33The team surveys the population in the canals year-round using airboats.
15:38When they capture crocodiles, they scan and update existing records,
15:41and they microchip any unmarked individuals on the spot.
15:44Mike Yoret says the goal of the entire initiative is to maximize the survival chances of young crocodiles.
15:53And, it must be said, the results are excellent.
15:57Since its launch in 1978, the FPL program has tagged more than 8,000 hatchlings.
16:03Thanks to careful management and thorough monitoring,
16:06the population has grown from a mere 200 individuals to at least 2,000.
16:12By 2007, the American crocodile was downgraded from endangered to threatened,
16:17on the list of federally protected species.
16:20Today, Turkey Point is home to about a quarter of all American crocodiles in Florida.
16:25In fact, the plant's cooling canals remain one of the main nesting sites for the species.
16:30In the 2022 nesting season, a record 33 crocodile nests were found.
16:35That same year, more than 500 hatchlings were released into the wild.
16:39This story shows us that when engineering expertise and smart environmental management work hand in hand,
16:46even a nuclear reactor can become a lifeline.
16:49And this is far from the only case when an industrial giant has unexpectedly become an ally of wildlife.
16:56Let's take a look at a couple more such examples.
16:59An unusual phenomenon was observed at one of America's oldest nuclear power plants, Oyster Creek.
17:07Warm water from the cooling system created a kind of permanent thermal shield nearby.
17:12In cold weather, it attracted sea turtles and numerous fish like a magnet.
17:17Over time, environmentalists noted a significant increase in local wildlife.
17:22In fact, turtles began laying eggs near the canal.
17:25Small fish started gathering in the warm water zone, creating a local ecosystem around the plant.
17:31To be fair, life there wasn't luxurious for everyone.
17:34Some other species actually declined in number.
17:37The effect was neither constant nor entirely positive, but it was there.
17:42With the plant's closure in 2018, the positive side of this effect began to fade.
17:46Still, the station is a vivid example of a strange yet successful combination of industrial power and thriving nature.
17:56Here's another remarkable story from the other side of the world.
17:59At the Lake Liddell Coal-Fired Power Station in Australia, cooling was provided via the man-made Lake Liddell.
18:06The system discharged heated water into it, keeping the lake warm year-round.
18:11Over time, it saw a sharp increase in the number of black swans.
18:15They didn't just live there, they bred actively.
18:18According to some estimates, the population grew several times larger than in comparable natural lakes in the region.
18:25The reasons were clear and simple.
18:27Stable warmth, absence of predators, and comfortable nesting conditions.
18:31Or how about the idea of an artificial reef?
18:35For when you don't have a coral one.
18:38In the Gulf of Mexico, dozens of old oil platforms are repurposed as artificial reefs,
18:43instead of being dismantled.
18:45More than 600 platforms have been left on the ocean floor, transforming into coral colonies that attract fish.
18:52Red Snapper thrives in such places, and crabs, sponges, and other marine species find excellent habitats.
19:00A single, typical eight-legged platform can host as many as 12,000 to 14,000 fish.
19:07This isn't just a smart practice, it's a nationwide program called Rigs to Reefs,
19:12developed by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Border of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, BSEE.
19:19All these examples point to one thing, we are not hopeless.
19:23With all our technological progress, we can not only avoid harming nature,
19:27but also live with it in an extraordinary symbiosis.
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