- 2 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
00:08What if I told you a man once found himself in a face-off with one of nature's most unexpected opponents?
00:17Brig sees this enormous kangaroo holding his dog hostage.
00:23This kangaroo can pretty much eviscerate him.
00:26He realizes he has to do something pretty quick to save his dog.
00:31Or there's a filthy rich serial mogul who declared war on the weather.
00:37Post makes the connection.
00:38Maybe if you agitate the atmosphere sufficiently, you can make it rain.
00:44Post hires a team of 50 men to fly dynamite kites.
00:50But they have all kinds of problems.
00:53How about being pushed to the brink of extinction?
00:56By a tiny bug?
00:58There are billions and billions of them.
01:01And they're hungry.
01:02When they descend on a farm, the scale of destruction is biblical.
01:09These are the unbelievable stories of what happens when humans and nature collide.
01:14The ocean is home to a vast array of incredible creatures.
01:30Many are peaceful.
01:31But every now and then, the deep sea reminds us who's really in charge.
01:35In 2024, off the coast of New Hampshire, two fishermen have their boat floating over schools of small bait fish, which attract the larger fish they're after.
01:47But these anglers get a much bigger bite than they bargained for.
01:52It turns out to be a humpback whale.
02:00And it capsizes this $150,000 boat, sending the two fishermen right into the drink.
02:09Humpback whales are enormous.
02:11They can grow to 60 feet and weigh 40 tons.
02:16That's over two times the size of the boat.
02:19And many times, it's mass.
02:21Close calls between humans and whales happen more often than you think.
02:26But who actually has the right of weigh?
02:28Legally, fishing boats are required to stay a safe distance from humpback whales and avoid the schools of bait fish where the whales are feeding.
02:40The law is intended to protect the whales, but it turns out it's good for the fishermen, too.
02:46Not all fishermen are following these guidelines because they're after their fish.
02:53And so, situations like this may occur more and more often.
02:58Is this boat bashing on purpose?
03:01A case of sea rage, perhaps?
03:03We might never know.
03:05But for one bird scientist, the question of nature's vengeful intent seems pretty clear.
03:12John Marsloff is a wildlife biologist working at the University of Washington in 2006.
03:19And his specialty is studying crows.
03:22That includes capturing them, tagging them, and tracking them to observe their behaviors and learn more about them.
03:31And he has been working consistently with this one flock of birds, a murder of crows.
03:36And he starts to notice something happening.
03:39Some of these crows seem very wary of specific researchers.
03:45More than that, the crows swoop and dive bomb the researchers who've been directly involved in the trapping.
03:54And they also scold them, cawing at them aggressively.
04:00What becomes really interesting here is that this happens even when these researchers are just going about their lives around campus.
04:09And these crows are formidable.
04:12They have really tough beaks and talons.
04:15So if a crow is mad at you, that is a serious threat.
04:19Marsloff starts to wonder, are these birds recognizing these people's faces?
04:24And are they mad at them?
04:29Marsloff decides to try a particular experiment.
04:33He asks researchers who are trapping the crows to wear a Halloween mask of a caveman.
04:41And other researchers who are not involved in trapping the crows wear a Halloween mask of Vice President Dick Cheney.
04:49As cavemen and Dick Cheneys are released into the wild on campus, Marsloff notices something extraordinary.
04:56The crows continually accost the cavemen who are trapping them and ignore or leave alone the Dick Cheneys.
05:08And this happens even when they try it with a hat on while they're wearing the mask.
05:12Or they'll put on a different kerchief or a scarf just to see if it is definitely the face that the birds are focusing on.
05:20And it is every single time.
05:22Incredibly, this hostility runs much deeper than anyone imagined.
05:28Birds that have never been part of this research project also start to attack, swooping angrily at the cavemen.
05:37These remarkable animals have been teaching each other.
05:41It goes on right into 2020.
05:43So 14 years after the initial research and after the papers published, the caveman mask is still eliciting this response.
05:50And that means that there are birds in play that are generationally separated from the original flock.
05:58In all fairness, the biologists started this spat.
06:01But sometimes the animal is the one looking for a fight.
06:07In 2016, in the Australian outback, Greg Tonkins is out with his friends hunting wild boar.
06:14When one of Greg's dogs, Max, gets a sit and runs off ahead and disappears into the brush.
06:24Greg sees something he really wasn't expecting, which is this enormous kangaroo...
06:31...holding his dog hostage on a headlock.
06:36And Greg realizes he has to do something pretty quick to save his dog.
06:40Big male kangaroos are actually quite terrifying.
06:44They've got these just huge biceps, big, broad chests.
06:48And a kangaroo can punch eight times harder than a human, and they can bite as hard as a grizzly.
06:53But the biggest threat is actually the kangaroo's kick.
06:58A kangaroo's middle toes fuse into a single sharp talon.
07:01A feature called syndactyly, not unlike the kill claw found on a velociraptor.
07:07He can kick as hard as a horse, and with that sharp nail on the end of his toe, can pretty much open Greg completely up and eviscerate him.
07:16As it happens, Greg is a zookeeper by profession.
07:20So he moves in close enough to distract the kangaroo, and it releases the dog.
07:27You might think that the story would end there, but no, the kangaroo turns its attention to Greg.
07:34Now this kangaroo is in full-blown territory mode and puts up his dukes.
07:40Greg, to not show any weakness, leans back, and he socks the kangaroo straight in the jaw.
07:49Surprisingly, the roo backs off.
07:52And actually, that probably saves Greg's life.
08:01It's unclear if this was a triumph over nature or mercy on the part of the kangaroo.
08:05But in the end, the kangaroo learns the hard way, don't mess with a man and his dog.
08:14The pioneers of the Great Plains fought droughts, storms, and brutal winters.
08:18But in 1874, nature threw something at them they never saw coming.
08:23It is summer of 1874 in Nebraska.
08:29It's a sparsely populated area that survives on agriculture,
08:34and the state is suffering a really crippling drought.
08:41The local farmers are hoping and praying that things turn around,
08:45when all of a sudden there is this strange and disturbing rumbling.
08:49As the rumbling continues, suddenly a haze starts to form over the sun.
08:58The skies start to darken.
09:02At first you think it might be an approaching storm or a tornado,
09:06but it disperses into billions of tiny specks.
09:11These specks are not bits of dust.
09:14They're not raindrops.
09:16They're grasshoppers, rocky mountain grasshoppers,
09:20billions and billions of them.
09:22And they're hungry.
09:26They will eat an entire field of crops in a matter of hours.
09:30It's like a blizzard of grasshoppers.
09:34In some areas, the insects form a carpet a foot deep.
09:41They invade homes.
09:43They eat cloth and quilts, paper, curtains, leather, tool handles.
09:50They will eat the wool right off of a live sheep.
09:55They will start eating the clothes off of your back.
09:58When they descend on a farm, the scale of destruction is biblical.
10:04Shockingly, this isn't an isolated incident.
10:07It's happening all over Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.
10:12They call it the Great Grasshopper Plague of 1874.
10:17There have been grasshopper invasions before,
10:23but this one in 1874 is on a scale that the U.S. has never seen before.
10:30At the peak of the invasion, estimates run as high as 15 trillion grasshoppers.
10:38That's 390,000 grasshoppers for every resident of the United States at that time.
10:45Dazed citizens wonder why this particular year is especially brutal.
10:52Rocky Mountain grasshoppers originate in the Rocky Mountains,
10:54and under normal circumstances, that's where they stay.
10:57But in 1874, conditions are not normal.
10:59There's a very severe drought going on,
11:02and when it's dried, their eggs hatch more successfully,
11:05so the population of grasshoppers explodes.
11:09There are also winds that form a jet stream
11:12and carry the grasshoppers throughout the Great Plains,
11:17leading to a cycle of the grasshoppers overpopulating,
11:22decimating food, and seeking more food.
11:26The grasshoppers cause about $200 million in crop damage,
11:33which is the equivalent of $5.5 billion today.
11:39Even more dangerous, the excrement from these billions of grasshoppers,
11:45poisons, wells, and water supplies.
11:49As this mass infestation continues throughout the summer of 1874,
11:54desperate farmers go to war with the grasshoppers.
11:57They try setting them on fire.
12:02They try smoking them out.
12:05They try poisons.
12:07They even try a contraption called a hopper dozer,
12:11which is a horse-drawn metal sheet coated with coal tar
12:16intended to get the insects stuck to the metal sheet,
12:20but there are just too many of them,
12:22and it becomes another failure.
12:24The swarms of grasshoppers return for the next four summers,
12:29but then a strange thing happens.
12:32The grasshoppers just disappear.
12:35They're not just gone from the plains.
12:38They're gone from everywhere.
12:39By the early 1900s, they're extinct.
12:45While Nebraska farmers learned that bugs can ruin your life,
12:49one ancient king discovered there's a way to use them to your advantage.
12:53It's 67 BCE in what is modern-day Turkey along the Black Sea,
13:00and the Persian king Mithridates is on the run
13:03from the Roman general Pompey the Great.
13:08Mithridates is an interesting guy.
13:11His father was murdered by poison,
13:13so he spends much of his early life out in the woods
13:16ingesting small amounts of poisons like arsenic
13:19to build up a tolerance.
13:20At the time, he's probably one of the world's leading experts on human toxins.
13:27Now, with the Roman army hot on his tail,
13:31Mithridates uses this knowledge to his benefit.
13:35He instructs his soldiers to gather large amounts of a sticky red honey
13:41and place it in jugs all along his escape route.
13:47The Romans encounter these jars,
13:53and on closer inspection, they find that it smells sweet.
13:58They sample it, and they find that it tastes sweet as well.
14:03Once they taste it, there's no stopping them.
14:07Soldier after soldier after soldier is consuming
14:09handful after handful of life-giving, nutrient-rich honey
14:13until the side effects kick in.
14:22What the soldiers don't know is that in Turkey,
14:27bees often pollinate rhododendron fields,
14:31and these flowers contain large amounts of grayanotoxin.
14:37The toxin ends up in the honey,
14:40which causes hallucinations,
14:44diarrhea,
14:46dizziness,
14:47and loss of consciousness.
14:50After eating tons of this honey,
14:52the Roman soldiers are on a pretty bad trip.
14:55They are not what you would call battle-ready.
15:00Imagine having to fight for your life
15:02while you're vomiting and hallucinating.
15:06This is exactly what Mithridates had in mind.
15:13Mithridates' force then doubles back on them
15:16and engages them in battle.
15:18The result?
15:21It's a slaughter
15:22with over 1,000 stoned Romans killed.
15:28Mithridates took all those years
15:29studying poisons and toxins,
15:32and he essentially creates possibly
15:34the first biological weapon.
15:36In fact, today,
15:37it is one of the oldest hallucinogenic drugs,
15:40though very expensive and sometimes hard to get.
15:43In some countries,
15:43it sells for $80 a pound on the black market.
15:48Talk about sweet revenge.
15:53The weather is unpredictable,
15:55untamed,
15:56and for one man,
15:57the next great frontier to conquer.
15:59What happens when human ambition
16:01takes on Mother Nature?
16:06C.W. Post becomes a breakfast cereal baron
16:10in the late 1800s.
16:12He makes a lot of money
16:13with products like grape nuts
16:14and other Post cereals like Raisin Bran.
16:17Start your day a little bit better
16:19with Post grape nuts flakes.
16:22Eventually, Post starts to have these obsessions,
16:25and because of his success,
16:26he does not hesitate to act upon them.
16:30In 1907,
16:31Post buys up 200,000 acres of land
16:34in order to build this self-sustaining,
16:36idyllic little community.
16:38He calls it Post City.
16:42It seems that Post has thought of everything
16:45in his perfect city,
16:47except for one thing.
16:48There's not enough water,
16:50and soon enough,
16:51the region is plagued by drought.
16:54This city can't sustain itself.
16:56No one can grow enough food.
16:58He remembers that there were stories
17:01that after big cannon battles
17:03in the Napoleonic Wars,
17:05it would start raining.
17:06So, he makes the connection.
17:09Maybe if you agitate the atmosphere sufficiently,
17:13you can make it rain.
17:15His plan is as simple as it is bizarre.
17:18He's going to blow up the clouds.
17:21Post hires a team of 50 men
17:24to fly dynamite kites.
17:27Each one of these kites
17:28is equipped with two pounds of dynamite
17:30in extremely long fuses
17:32so that when you light it at the bottom,
17:35a few minutes later,
17:36the dynamite goes off in the sky.
17:39So, he has 50 kites,
17:41but they have all kinds of problems.
17:43The cords get tangled.
17:44The dynamite explodes
17:46too close to the ground sometimes,
17:47almost killing his men.
17:50Clearly, this kite approach
17:52is too unreliable,
17:53so Post has to come up
17:55with yet another plan.
17:57He has his men
17:59haul the explosives
18:00up the Caprock,
18:02which is a high escarpment
18:04running throughout West Texas.
18:06He uses a total
18:07of 350 pounds of explosives
18:10spread out
18:11so that each explosive
18:13is about 50 feet apart,
18:15and they're set off
18:16every 10 minutes.
18:21Everything goes as planned,
18:22except
18:23it does not rain.
18:27Post gets this idea
18:29that you really need
18:30to replicate
18:31battle conditions.
18:33The explosions need
18:34to be violent
18:35and random.
18:37There can't be
18:38any pattern to it.
18:39eventually his persistence
18:41pays off
18:42when one of these
18:42rain battles
18:43actually works.
18:46Post is thrilled,
18:48but subsequent rain battles
18:51have mixed results.
18:53And so Post thinks
18:54they're not using
18:55enough dynamite,
18:57so he ups the ante
18:58from 300 pounds
18:59to 3,000 pounds.
19:02during one rain battle,
19:07Post detonates
19:08over 24,000 pounds
19:10of dynamite.
19:12That's equivalent
19:12to the most powerful
19:14conventional weapons
19:15used by the U.S. military
19:17today.
19:18By the end of 1913,
19:20after middling results,
19:22Post fires his last shot.
19:24Overall, Post spends
19:25about $50,000
19:27in his rain battles,
19:30which is equivalent
19:31to about $1.7 million
19:32today,
19:33or half a million
19:35boxes of grape nuts.
19:39For another visionary
19:40who dared to do battle
19:42with the natural world,
19:43Mother Nature's response
19:45was much more harsh.
19:49From 1949
19:51until 1976,
19:53Mao Zedong
19:54is the all-powerful leader
19:56of Communist China,
19:58and he holds the opinion
20:00that humankind
20:01was intended
20:02to dominate nature.
20:05In 1958,
20:06Mao's Great Leap Forward
20:08program mandates
20:09a massive increase
20:10in agricultural production.
20:12If you're in charge
20:13of a massive country
20:14with a population
20:14of 600 million people,
20:16your first priority
20:18is feeding those people.
20:20Any loss in crop
20:22is an enemy
20:23to the people.
20:25According to Mao,
20:26the number one culprit
20:27in grain theft
20:29is the evil sparrow.
20:32In order to harness
20:34all of the agricultural
20:35potential
20:36of the People's Republic,
20:37he declares war
20:38on a two-ounce bird.
20:40He enlists an army
20:42of millions
20:42of citizen soldiers
20:43to kill as many
20:45of the sparrows
20:46as possible.
20:48People use
20:49whatever weapons
20:49they have,
20:50guns,
20:52slingshots.
20:52they even use
20:53long poles
20:54to poke at nests
20:55up in the trees.
20:57But the most bizarre method
20:58is to simply
20:59follow the birds around,
21:01making a loud noise
21:03with pots
21:04and pans
21:05and anything metal
21:06that they can
21:06clam together
21:07so the sparrows,
21:09they're too scared
21:09to land
21:10and they end up
21:11dying from exhaustion.
21:15In just a matter
21:16of weeks,
21:17the Chinese kill
21:18over one billion sparrows.
21:21For Mao,
21:22it's proof of his people's
21:23revolutionary devotion.
21:25Unfortunately for the great leader,
21:27his contempt for nature
21:28is only surpassed
21:30by his ignorance of it.
21:32Mao is convinced
21:34that it is the sparrows
21:35eating the grain
21:37but actually it's insects
21:39that consume
21:40most of the grain
21:41and the sparrows
21:42are the ones
21:43eating the insects.
21:46So in Nanjing,
21:4760% of the crops
21:48are destroyed.
21:49In another region,
21:5015% of the rice crop
21:52is consumed by locusts
21:53and this happens again
21:54and again and again
21:55all over sparrowless China.
21:59The result of Mao's war
22:01on sparrows
22:02is the country
22:03is driven to famine.
22:06And the estimates are
22:06that 45 million people
22:09starved to death
22:10from 1959 to 61.
22:15This gave rise
22:16in the United States
22:17to this practice
22:18of scolding children
22:20who didn't want to eat
22:21by telling them
22:22that there are starving children
22:23in China,
22:24which was set in motion
22:25by Mao's declared war
22:27on the sparrows.
22:32Chairman Mao's battle
22:33with birds
22:34is a stark reminder
22:35that when you mess
22:35with nature,
22:36beware.
22:38Nature has a brutal way
22:39of restoring balance.
22:43For all of humanity's progress,
22:45nature still holds
22:46the upper hand.
22:48And in 1908
22:49in the remote
22:49Siberian wilderness,
22:51it delivers a blow
22:52so powerful
22:53it defies explanation.
22:55It's June 1908
23:00in eastern Siberia
23:01near the Tunguska River.
23:03This area
23:04is incredibly remote.
23:05You're more likely
23:06to see a reindeer
23:07than a person.
23:08a man sits on his porch
23:11when suddenly
23:12there's a massive explosion.
23:16After the flash,
23:18a violent hot wind
23:21pummels him
23:23and destroys
23:24his entire home.
23:26He manages
23:27to lift his head
23:29to look around
23:30and he sees
23:31that the forest
23:32surrounding his home
23:33has been flattened
23:35by some
23:36invisible,
23:37mysterious force.
23:39It turns out
23:40this explosion
23:41isn't right next door.
23:43It's over
23:4340 miles away.
23:46In fact,
23:47the blast
23:47is so powerful
23:48its impact
23:49reaches far
23:50beyond Siberia.
23:52Windows
23:53100 miles away
23:55are shattered.
23:57Seismic readings
23:58are taken
23:59as far away
24:00as Washington, D.C.
24:02For days
24:02after this event,
24:04the night skies
24:05across Europe
24:06and Asia
24:06are glowing
24:07with this bright light.
24:10The violent detonation
24:11becomes known
24:12as the Tunguska event
24:13and right away
24:14the world wants
24:15to know
24:15what caused it.
24:16Speculation
24:18runs rampant.
24:20Some Russian scientists
24:22believe that
24:22it was a volcano
24:23that went off
24:25in eastern Siberia
24:26while local
24:28indigenous peoples
24:28believe that
24:29maybe it was
24:30a god
24:31or a powerful shaman
24:32that had set
24:33a fireball
24:33to punish them.
24:3519 years later,
24:36in 1927,
24:38scientist Leonid Kulik
24:40is finally able
24:41to get close enough
24:42to study the scene.
24:44There's an 800
24:45square mile
24:46circular area
24:48where the trees
24:49have been absolutely
24:50flattened.
24:5180 million trees
24:53are down.
24:54It's not hard
24:55for Kulik
24:55to find the epicenter
24:57because all the trees
24:58are pointing
24:59away from it.
25:02He suspects
25:03that the culprit
25:04could be something
25:05that came from space
25:06and collided.
25:07He expects
25:08to find a crater
25:09in the middle.
25:09He doesn't.
25:11It's even more strange.
25:12All the trees
25:13in the center
25:14in Ground Zero
25:15are still standing.
25:16Of course,
25:17they're burnt to a crisp
25:18and their bark
25:19has been shorn off,
25:20but they're still upright.
25:21Every other tree
25:22is pointing outward.
25:25Over the decades,
25:26a lot of pretty wild
25:27theories crop up.
25:29One suggests
25:30that an alien spacecraft
25:32armed with nuclear weapons
25:35exploded over Siberia.
25:38The force of the explosion
25:40actually supports this idea.
25:42Scientists estimate
25:44that the blast
25:45was 185 times
25:47more powerful
25:48than the Hiroshima
25:50atomic bomb.
25:51There's also another
25:52more natural explanation.
25:55There's one
25:56speculative hypothesis,
25:58which is that the Earth
25:58passed gas,
26:01that there was
26:02a large pocket
26:03or reservoir
26:03of methane
26:04that leaked out
26:05into the surface
26:06and then was ignited
26:08by a lightning bolt
26:09and then that ignition
26:10detonated the entire pocket
26:12in one giant blast.
26:15Finally, in 2020,
26:17a Russian research team
26:19comes up
26:19with a very plausible idea,
26:21which is that
26:22an asteroid
26:23came through space,
26:25entered our Earth's atmosphere,
26:27kind of skimmed along,
26:29but didn't impact
26:30and ricocheted
26:31right off of our atmosphere.
26:33This would have
26:34heated up the air.
26:35It would have created
26:36these sonic shock waves
26:37that caused
26:38all of this destruction.
26:40It's estimated
26:40that the meteor
26:41is about 130 feet across
26:45and weighs 220 million pounds.
26:50If something like that
26:51landed on a major city
26:52like London,
26:53millions would die.
26:55What's more terrifying,
26:57whatever it was,
26:58we know we can't prevent it
27:00from happening again.
27:01and due to laws of nature,
27:03chances are
27:05it will happen again.
27:07It's a stark reminder.
27:10You never know
27:10when or where
27:11nature's fury will strike,
27:13whether from above
27:14or deep below.
27:16It's a quiet night
27:19in 2013
27:20in Sefner,
27:21a small town
27:22outside of Tampa, Florida.
27:23A gentleman named
27:24Jeremy Bush
27:25is suddenly awakened
27:26by a crash
27:28followed by the sound
27:30of his 37-year-old brother
27:33screaming.
27:34Jeremy runs
27:35to his brother's bedroom
27:36and much to his dismay
27:39and shock,
27:40there's no furniture.
27:41The bed,
27:41the dresser,
27:42the drawers,
27:42everything is gone.
27:45What he sees
27:46is just completely unbelievable.
27:48There's a hole
27:49in the center of the room
27:51and he does not see
27:53his brother anywhere.
27:54In his desperation,
27:56Jeremy grabs a shovel,
27:58he jumps into the hole
27:59and he's trying
28:00to dig his brother out
28:01but the walls
28:02are still falling in.
28:03The soil is still moving
28:05so the more he digs,
28:07nothing's happening.
28:09Unfortunately,
28:09Jeremy and his brother
28:10are dealing with
28:11one of nature's
28:12most unpredictable phenomena,
28:15a sinkhole.
28:16A sinkhole forms
28:17when you have
28:18a layer of soil
28:19over a layer
28:19of limestone,
28:21a porous rock,
28:22and a cavern underneath.
28:24When the rain seeps
28:25into the soil,
28:26it can go down
28:27and erode
28:28that limestone away
28:29and when it gets
28:30sufficiently weak,
28:31it breaks
28:32and that's when
28:33the system collapses.
28:35Because of the amount
28:36of limestone underground
28:37in the state of Florida
28:38plus all the rain
28:39they receive
28:40on an annual basis.
28:42It's just prime territory
28:43for sinkholes
28:44and they have
28:44over 27,000 of them there.
28:48One of these sinkholes
28:49in China
28:50is known to go down
28:51as far as 2,000 feet.
28:54In fact,
28:55entire prehistoric habitats
28:57have been found
28:58well preserved
28:59inside of these sinkholes.
29:01On that terrible night
29:03in 2013,
29:04there's no telling
29:05how deep
29:06this sinkhole goes.
29:09When first responders arrive,
29:11they quickly tell Jeremy
29:13that the hole
29:13is too unstable
29:15to pull Jeff out.
29:16The emergency workers
29:17themselves
29:18make some attempts.
29:19They jump in,
29:20they dig down,
29:21but the walls
29:22of the hole
29:22are collapsing
29:23and they realize
29:24it's too dangerous
29:25and they have to
29:26abandon the effort.
29:27The ground
29:28has literally
29:29disappeared beneath him
29:30and he has been
29:32buried alive.
29:35In the aftermath,
29:37local authorities
29:37fill the hole
29:38and condemn
29:39the entire block.
29:43In 2015,
29:45two years
29:46after Jeff's death,
29:47a strange thing happens.
29:49People notice
29:49their dogs
29:50are starting
29:50to act weird,
29:51they're a little afraid
29:52to go outside,
29:53and then they hear
29:54a massive rumble.
29:55suddenly,
29:59their sinkhole
30:00appears right
30:01in the same spot
30:01as the first one,
30:02only this time,
30:03it's even bigger.
30:06In 2023,
30:07it opens up
30:08for a third time.
30:10Nobody's injured,
30:11but it's even bigger still.
30:16The thing is,
30:17sinkholes
30:18are known to grow,
30:20and chances are,
30:21it may come again.
30:23The earth, it seems,
30:24has a way
30:24of keeping us
30:25on our toes,
30:26just when we think
30:27we have it all figured out.
30:28It throws us
30:29a curveball,
30:30or in this case,
30:32a sinkhole.
30:35When nature calls
30:36and you're nowhere
30:37near a bathroom,
30:38it's usually
30:38an inconvenience.
30:39But for one man,
30:41it comes in,
30:43well,
30:43unbelievably handy.
30:46A hundred years ago,
30:47the most interesting
30:49man in the world
30:50was probably
30:51Danish explorer
30:52Peter Freuchen.
30:55He stands
30:56six foot seven,
30:58he's covered
30:58in animal furs,
31:00he commands
31:00dog sleds
31:02across the tundra.
31:03According to legend,
31:05he killed a wolf
31:05with his bare hands.
31:08For all his experience
31:09in the wild,
31:11nothing could fully prepare
31:12Freuchen
31:12for what lay ahead
31:14on the icy expanse
31:15of Greenland.
31:16In 1926,
31:19Peter Freuchen
31:20and some guides
31:22are attempting
31:23an extremely difficult trek
31:25across Greenland.
31:28They encounter
31:29heavy snows
31:31and realize
31:32that their sleds
31:33are too heavy.
31:34So they unload
31:36a lot of the supplies
31:37with the intention
31:38of coming back to them
31:39when conditions clear up.
31:41Next day,
31:43Peter is convinced
31:43that he can make it back
31:44to where they left the supplies
31:46loaded up
31:47and continue on his own.
31:49But when he makes it
31:50to the supply dump,
31:52he's trapped
31:52by a sudden blizzard.
31:55Peter has no other choice
31:57than to seek shelter.
31:59So he digs
32:00a shallow snow trench,
32:03puts the sled
32:04on top of it,
32:06and crawls in
32:07through a small hole.
32:08He is essentially
32:11burrowing
32:12into a snowbed.
32:14He stays
32:16in this shelter
32:17for 30 hours.
32:19When the storm subsides,
32:22Peter discovers
32:23that the exit hole
32:25to his shelter
32:25is now frozen shut.
32:28He is now stuck
32:29inside of an icy coffin
32:32of his own making,
32:33and all of his tools
32:35are on the sled
32:36outside.
32:37If he doesn't get out,
32:39he's either going
32:40to suffocate
32:41or freeze to death.
32:43He notes from his experience
32:45in Polar Exploration
32:46that when his sled dogs
32:48would go to the bathroom,
32:50their feces would
32:52freeze solid in the snow
32:54as hard as a rock.
32:56Peter now has
32:57to relieve himself.
32:58so he fashions
33:01his own fecal matter
33:03into a chisel-shaped implement,
33:07and he waits
33:08for it to freeze.
33:11Miraculously,
33:13it works.
33:14He's chipping away,
33:15chunks of ice are flying,
33:17and his tool
33:19is remaining intact.
33:21He continues fracturing
33:22the ice
33:23till he gets a hole
33:24that's almost big enough
33:26for him to squeeze through.
33:29He gets one arm out,
33:30one shoulder out,
33:32but then he realizes
33:33he's stuck,
33:35and he's dropped
33:37his poop chisel.
33:39In desperation,
33:41Peter takes
33:42an extremely long exhale,
33:45the longest of his life,
33:48and contracts his chest
33:50just enough
33:51to squeeze through the hole.
33:54His left foot
33:55is stricken with frostbite,
33:58but he is able
33:59to crawl back
34:01to the camp,
34:02and he survives.
34:06A blizzard alone
34:08is a challenge,
34:09but in 1923,
34:10four natural disasters
34:12strike at once,
34:13turning a bustling city
34:15into pure chaos.
34:17It's an ordinary day
34:20on September 1st, 1923.
34:23The city of Tokyo,
34:24going about its business,
34:26has no idea
34:27what's coming.
34:29A 60 by 60 mile
34:32tectonic plate
34:34breaks loose
34:35under the ocean
34:35and causes
34:37an earthquake
34:38registering 8.3
34:41on the Richter scale.
34:43In Tokyo
34:44and nearby Yokohama,
34:46buildings are level,
34:47crushing thousands
34:48of victims.
34:50Moments later,
34:50a 40-foot tsunami hits,
34:52killing thousands more.
34:55And this
34:56is just the beginning
34:57of nature's
34:58merciless assault.
35:01Not only do you
35:02have ruptured gas lines,
35:03this earthquake
35:04happened at about noontime.
35:05A lot of people
35:06were inside
35:06making lunch and cooking,
35:08and so now
35:08the fires begin.
35:11It also just so happens
35:13there's a typhoon
35:14just off of the coast
35:15as well.
35:15And now you have
35:17very strong winds
35:18fueling all these fires.
35:20The fire rips through
35:2345% of the buildings
35:24in Tokyo.
35:26Authorities direct
35:28about 44,000 people
35:30to open ground
35:32near the Sumida River,
35:34where these fleeing
35:36residents
35:36are considered safe.
35:38But nature's havoc
35:40is not over.
35:42The flames themselves
35:44form into
35:46a massive spiral.
35:49In essence,
35:50it's a tornado
35:51composed of fire.
35:53The Japanese have a word
35:55for this rare
35:55and devastating phenomenon,
35:58a dragon twist.
36:00The dragon twist
36:02rolls to 650 feet tall
36:05and 1,000 feet across.
36:07And it is heading straight
36:09for the 44,000 survivors.
36:12It's an absolute massacre.
36:15Of the 44,000,
36:19only 300 survive.
36:22This unthinkable disaster,
36:25earthquake,
36:26tidal wave,
36:27fire,
36:28dragon twist,
36:30ultimately takes the life
36:32of 140,000 people.
36:35It is the worst
36:37natural disaster
36:39in Japanese history.
36:42I can't imagine
36:43how terrifying
36:44that twister looked.
36:46Of course,
36:46now that everyone
36:47has a high-tech camera
36:48in their pockets,
36:49we wouldn't have to.
36:53Humans don't always
36:55feel nature's wrath
36:56in the form of disaster,
36:57tragedy,
36:58or cranky kangaroos.
37:00Sometimes it's triggered
37:01by something as simple
37:03as a wild animal
37:04that's just sick
37:05of having its picture taken.
37:09Every year,
37:104 million visitors
37:11descend on Yellowstone Park
37:13to get a close look
37:14at nature
37:15and the animals.
37:17And what do people
37:18like to do?
37:19Take a selfie.
37:23Bison actually account
37:25for most human injuries
37:26at Yellowstone,
37:27and they hate
37:28getting their photograph taken.
37:30Oh, f***.
37:31But this problem
37:38isn't unique to Yellowstone.
37:39I mean,
37:39this is happening
37:40all around the world.
37:42A woman in a zoo
37:43in Arizona
37:44gets mauled
37:45by a jaguar
37:46when she attempts
37:46a photo
37:47up against its cage.
37:48And then this other guy
37:52climbs right into
37:53a zoo enclosure
37:54with a lion,
37:55which promptly kills him.
37:57But the story
37:59of one Todd Fastler
38:00may take the cake.
38:03In 2015,
38:05he's at the Baroda Speedway
38:07in San Diego,
38:08and he sees a rattlesnake.
38:10He decides,
38:12oh, this is a perfect opportunity
38:13for an up-close selfie
38:15with a rattlesnake.
38:17He doesn't get his shot,
38:19but he does get a bite.
38:21The rattlesnake injects the venom,
38:24and Todd is in a world of hurt.
38:26Todd survives,
38:28but his arm
38:29isn't the only thing hurting.
38:30There's also his wallet.
38:33Anti-venom
38:33is incredibly expensive.
38:36And guess what's not likely
38:37to be covered by insurance?
38:39Anti-venom shots.
38:41So Todd ends up
38:42with a bill
38:43of over $150,000.
38:46And he didn't even
38:47get the selfie.
38:49While some animals
38:51avoid the lens,
38:52others are more than willing
38:53to steal the spotlight
38:55and the bottle.
38:59So you're vacationing
39:00on the lovely island
39:01of St. Kitts.
39:02You're lounging poolside
39:03with a tropical cocktail,
39:05and you drift off to sleep.
39:07You may not realize, though,
39:08that someone is watching you,
39:10poised to strike.
39:12It's a vervet monkey,
39:14and he's not interested
39:16in ejecting you
39:16from his territory
39:17or begging for a bit of food.
39:20He wants your booze.
39:22For years,
39:23this island paradise
39:24has been plagued
39:25by a small army
39:26of sneaky,
39:27thieving,
39:28drunken,
39:29monkeys.
39:33The vervet monkeys
39:34of St. Kitts
39:35have a long history
39:36of excessive drinking,
39:38going back to the 1600s
39:40when they were brought
39:40to the island
39:41by the British as pets.
39:43The monkeys start
39:44raiding sugarcane plantations,
39:46and sometimes the sugarcane
39:48can start to ferment.
39:50Then the sugar
39:51eventually turns into alcohol,
39:53and the monkeys
39:53start chewing on
39:55the sugarcane,
39:56ultimately becoming
39:58addicted to alcohol.
39:59Centuries later,
40:01sugar fields
40:02are replaced
40:02by bars and hotels,
40:04but the monkeys' tradition
40:05of boozing
40:06is still going strong.
40:08For scientists,
40:10the situation
40:10on St. Kitts
40:11actually creates
40:12a rare opportunity.
40:14Where else
40:16can you study
40:16alcohol consumption
40:18in a group of
40:19highly social,
40:20non-human primates?
40:21And the results
40:24of that research
40:25are like looking
40:26in a mirror.
40:27So some are more social
40:29drinkers who do it
40:30in moderation
40:31and only when
40:32they're with other monkeys.
40:33And then there's
40:34a small group,
40:35about 5%,
40:36who are described
40:37by researchers
40:38as seriously
40:39abusive binge drinkers.
40:41They get wasted.
40:43They get into brawls.
40:45They basically raid
40:46outdoor cocktail tables
40:48at just about anywhere
40:49they can find
40:50alcoholic beverages.
40:51Research also reveals
40:52something else surprising.
40:54Well, it turns out
40:55that the most effective
40:56and powerful leaders
40:57among these primates
40:58are the drunkest
40:59monkeys of all.
41:04Whether it's
41:05an entire population
41:06of plastered primates,
41:08a sinister 600-foot wall
41:10of fire,
41:10or the sinkhole
41:11that just won't fill,
41:13these are the tales
41:14of man's battles
41:15with nature
41:15that are so bizarre.
41:17They are truly
41:18unbelievable.
Be the first to comment