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00:00Más siempre interesado en los insectos.
00:14Cuando era un niño, creà en Kenia,
00:17yo estaba haciendo un safari con mi padre,
00:20y nos sentimos una pelea de elefantes.
00:26Hay dos bolos luchando en la distancia.
00:30Y podÃa ver el flujo de tuscan.
00:34Pero lo que me recordaba más fue el son de esos tuscan
00:37con los otros, como dos gigantes de marzo.
00:45Esa experiencia siempre ha contado conmigo.
00:48¿Por qué estos animales luchan?
00:51¿Por qué tienen estos grandes tuscan que luchan con?
00:53¿Por qué?
00:54Después de haber descubierto que muchos de estos armas son replicados en insectos.
01:03Tenemos rinoceros de beteles con horns, como los rhinos.
01:08Son pequeños flores que tienen antleros y que luchan en miniatura,
01:13asà que el mundo es de miles de veces más diversos que he imaginado.
01:21Y la mayorÃa de este mundo es no explorado.
01:26Asà que, cambiando mi perspectiva,
01:31conseguà entender que la edad de descubrimiento es ahora, cuando se trata de insectos.
01:41Viendo en el aire o en la tierra,
01:45insectos influencen casi todos los aspectos de la vida en la Tierra.
01:50Insectos no obtienen el mismo equipo que los gorillas, los girafes y los lions.
01:55Pero todo lo realmente cool predación y camuflaje,
02:00todos los comportamientos que nos gusta ver en los animales grandes,
02:03podemos también ver en insectos.
02:06Insectos son uno de los organismos más dominantes que haya existido en planetas.
02:11Se evolucionó a millones de años atrás.
02:13Se evolucionó a millones de años atrás.
02:15Se ha ocurrido a la extinción de eventos,
02:17y no sabemos mucho sobre ellos.
02:22La más que aprendemos de estos marbles de marbles de evolución,
02:26la más que es claro que los insectos están en problemas.
02:30Los insectos han regalado el mundo por más de 400 millones de años,
02:34pero estamos viendo los insectos descanso en su número y abundancia en el mundo.
02:39No incluso 400 millones de años de evolución
02:43prepararon insectos para los peligros que enfrentan hoy.
02:46Y su extinción podrÃa tener consecuencias catastróficas para toda la vida en el planeta.
02:52Los insectos han regalado la pollinación para las plantas que necesitamos para comer y sustanar nuestras comunidades.
02:59Los insectos son importantes para todos los aspectos de nuestra vida.
03:02Y esa diversidad realmente muestra cómo increÃble y necesaria estos insectos son.
03:09La carrera está en,
03:11para descubrir más sobre el trabajo vital de la tierra y el balance delicado que sustanen,
03:17antes de ir para la buena.
03:20La carrera está en la tierra y la naturaleza.
03:45I grew up in upstate New York,
03:47I remember as a kid we would go to Allegheny State Park
03:51And the lightning bugs in that part of the country were astoundingly plentiful
04:01You drive down one of the roads within this park
04:04And there were so many of them
04:06It was inconceivable that they would just be flashing at this rate and at this abundance
04:11I love lightning bugs
04:16They're incredible
04:18They produce light in their abdomen
04:20Can you imagine a bird that would glow through its chest?
04:25And different bird species might glow with different colors
04:27It's like magic
04:29They do this with chemicals that they quickly combine in two different chambers in their bodies
04:38And that creates this amazing flash
04:41So they continuously do this flashing that allows them to communicate with other individuals
04:46Of the same species
04:48As kids, you see them when you're camping
04:52You see them in your backyard
04:54They're a staple of summer
04:56I don't see that anymore
04:59I haven't seen that in many, many years
05:01So it tells me that a change is happening
05:03And a change has happened
05:05In recent years, the summer sky has lost its spark
05:10As habitat loss and light pollution have shrunk the number of fireflies by up to 70%
05:18And it isn't just the fireflies that have gone dark
05:22Around the world, people have begun to notice that the planet's most abundant life form isn't so abundant anymore
05:38Insects are the ultimate survivors
05:41They survived extinction events
05:43They're highly adaptable
05:45They can bounce back from environmental disasters
05:48But there's something happening now that's different than what we know about that's happened in the past
05:53As insects threaten to vanish
05:56Scientists warn that we don't even know what we're losing
06:01There could be as many as 10 million species we haven't yet discovered
06:05And even the bugs in plain sight still hold mysteries
06:11The sheer diversity of insects on the planet means even common species can reveal answers to questions about evolution
06:26Mysteries that scientists like Dr. Umat Samji are solving, one bug at a time
06:33One of the most exciting things about my job is that when I go out for a walk in the forest
06:40I found a little mantis
06:42Every single time I'll go out, I'll see a species of insect that I've never seen before
06:48Well, this isn't technically a bug, but it's cool
06:51It's an incredible experience to always be ready to have that opportunity to be amazed, surprised, and have that wonder
07:10Many years ago, I came across this insect that had these giant brightly colored flags on its legs
07:29When I approached it, it lifted up its leg and waved it in this really elegant way
07:40And when I looked into the literature, I found out nobody had studied it before
07:49Nobody knew why it did that waving behavior
07:52And I was amazed, I was like, here's this extremely beautiful insect
07:56It's relatively common in the area
07:59People know about it, but nobody knows why it has these brightly colored flags
08:03So I started to investigate this here in Panama
08:08By trying to rear these insects in a little greenhouse I constructed called the bug hut
08:14Working with two species of these flag-footed bugs
08:21This is the matador bug
08:24It has these brightly colored yellow and orange and black flags
08:29And this yellow and black striped pattern on its wings
08:33These insects are plant feeders
08:40They're specialized on feeding on plant tissue
08:43And they have this long, thin, straw-like mouth part that is protected by a sheath
08:49And when they come across a plant, they'll use their mouth part to pierce into the plant tissue
08:58And suck out phloem from the plants
09:02And also they'll pierce through the bottom of a flower and feed on nectar
09:06And so they have these specialized mouth parts to feed on these different parts of the plant tissue
09:11This bug is gorgeous
09:19Those bright flags, they really stand out
09:22When I first saw these traits, I assumed that they might be used in sexual selection
09:29Or in competition for mating opportunities
09:31But the more we looked into it, the more we found that this might not be the case
09:36First of all, we found that both males and females have these brightly colored traits
09:42And the second clue was that that waving behavior they perform is done by both males and females
09:48And they don't seem to be doing it to each other
09:51Here we have the second species
09:56Ah, got it
09:57This is diactor
09:59You see morphologically, they're really similar
10:02They have the same kind of body shape and these big tibial flags
10:07Its wings are very dark black
10:09And its flags are very different colors
10:15When I started studying these bugs, I thought I could catch them with my hands
10:21I would reach out to grab them and I would often come up empty-handed
10:25They were really good at flying away
10:41I later realized that something I thought would be an impediment to flight
10:46Something that made these bugs look like it would be difficult for them to fly
10:51Might actually allow them to fly with greater agility through the air
11:01And we are finding that these flags act to stabilize flight
11:05And might allow these insects to make sharper turns in the air
11:09So, far from being an impediment, these flags might increase agility of these insects during flight
11:18So, we're finding that, like a Swiss army knife, this leg has multiple different functions
11:25And we often find that's often how evolution works on these traits
11:28We are also finding that that waving behavior might be used to distract predators attack away from their body
11:32And towards this appendage, which is detachable
11:34We often find that they are missing legs in nature
11:36And so, they might distract a predator and then fly away
11:59We're at the stage of discovery now where…
12:02We can look into the world of insects and ask these questions about extremely conspicuous and beautiful insects.
12:12And try to discover more things about how evolution works, how natural selection shapes these diverse systems.
12:22And insects provide one of the most remarkable examples of very different ways that life can be on the planet.
12:32All their different shapes and bodies have made insects the most diverse group of animals on Earth.
12:44But they're all built around a single successful model.
12:49They have six legs, compound eyes, and the key to many insect success, wings,
12:59which made them the first animals on the planet to take to the sky.
13:06Insects are amongst the most successful organisms on the planet.
13:10Their sheer numbers, their sheer diversity, their short life cycles,
13:14which gives them the chance to more rapidly adapt and evolve.
13:18Insects have filled almost every part of the planet.
13:21Insects have seen the rise and fall of dinosaurs, and witnessed the dawn of humans.
13:30But recently, scientists began to warn that something was changing.
13:36And no one knew the extent of the problem.
13:39Often we don't even know what species exist within a habitat.
13:43And we are at a serious disadvantage at documenting what we are losing,
13:47because we don't even know what we have.
13:52One of the hardest things about the early people who were raising the red flag,
13:56saying something is wrong with insects, was that we didn't have enough data.
14:00But what we needed was a large sample that we didn't have.
14:05Growing talk of trouble in the insect world prompted researchers at the University of Copenhagen
14:31to assess Denmark's bug biodiversity.
14:35The challenge was how to quickly survey an entire country.
14:40In 2017, they enlisted 150 volunteers in an innovative project called Insect Mobilen.
14:50Insect cars.
14:52It all started with an interest in getting more information about biodiversity of insects across Denmark.
15:00So at a national scale.
15:04We wanted to engage people in monitoring flying insects wide scale all over Denmark.
15:11We could just see that this could be a great way to engage people
15:15and have them sample insects over large areas using their own car with our net mounted on top.
15:22So we constructed a net, an instruction video they could watch on YouTube.
15:44Everything they needed basically were in that package.
15:47We put this contraption on the car in order to catch insects and to count them and measure how many there were and what kind.
16:05Volunteers drove routes pre-programmed into their phones,
16:08and the collected bugs would be compared to a rare data set, an insect survey from decades earlier.
16:16We've seen anecdotal evidence that biodiversity is coming under pressure.
16:23So we have fewer insects, fewer bees, and fewer butterflies.
16:27But in order to do something about it, we need to have data.
16:31And this is a way of getting data of what is actually happening.
16:37The project received an unexpected flood of volunteers.
16:41Everyday citizens eager to help catch and count insects.
16:46So that also meant that we had these two big freezers of samples,
16:50and we just almost had too much for us to cope.
16:53The project was a success, but the results came as a shock.
17:04The study that had set out to count bugs discovered there were far fewer than anyone expected.
17:12Growing cities and loss of natural habitat had taken a severe toll on the country's insects.
17:18Because we are relatively many people living in a small country,
17:24almost every square meter of Denmark has been utilized somehow by humans.
17:29That puts a lot of pressure on biodiversity.
17:34It is mainly because they need places to live,
17:38and we as a species, we take up a lot of space on this planet.
17:44And every time we take up more space, there's less space for other species.
17:51The study found that in just two decades,
17:55the population of flying insects dropped by 82%.
17:58Another survey in Germany concluded that in just 30 years,
18:05three-fourths of the country's insects had disappeared.
18:10Those European studies really put a fire under everyone
18:13to understand that this isn't just a certain neighborhood
18:16or one country that's finding a loss of insects.
18:20There is a problem, and there's something happening to the planet's insects.
18:24Scientists say the familiar buzz of bugs is fading away fast.
18:32Joining us now on the threat of what's been called an insect apocalypse.
18:36Human activity could drive the Earth's entire insect population
18:41to extinction within a century.
18:43They might be small, but insects rule the planet.
18:46They make up over two-thirds of the world's 1.5 million known animal species.
18:51They're also responsible for pollinating three-quarters of global crops
18:55while forming the backbone of our food chain.
18:58If the insects disappear, we're going to disappear too.
19:03Insects are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat.
19:09In nearly every environment, they recycle nutrients into the soil,
19:14filter our fresh water, remove waste and decay,
19:18and pollinate more than 180,000 plants that stabilize the soil
19:24and supply the oxygen we breathe.
19:29There's a famous quote, and it goes,
19:31insects are the little things that run the world.
19:34And it's quite literally true,
19:36because insects are an integral part in almost everything that happens in the ecosystem.
19:40Now, ecosystems everywhere are also in danger
19:46as the Earth's tiny workforce threatens to vanish.
19:52Insects are in trouble, and I am worried about insects
19:55and the future of not only the life of insects,
19:59but the life of so much on our planet that depends on it.
20:03Human beings are changing their habitat so quickly
20:08that insects simply can't adapt and deal with those changes at that rate.
20:16Insects are losing habitat to industrial farms,
20:20while rampant use of pesticides kills beneficial bugs
20:24and contaminate soil, air, and water far beyond their targets.
20:30Growing pollution drastically limits where they can make their homes.
20:36It's kind of like death by a thousand cuts.
20:38We are having huge impacts on their diversity in numbers,
20:42and we are going to affect the species distribution on Earth
20:47in a way that's equivalent to an extinction-level event.
20:50As the planet warms,
20:57some resourceful species, like mosquitoes,
21:01will simply move or find new territories.
21:05But it's becoming clear around the world
21:07that many important insects are unlikely to survive.
21:12If we're changing the climate, if we're changing ecosystems,
21:15it's just enough that they can't find mates, they can't find food,
21:19they can't be successful anymore.
21:20We're losing pollinators, we're losing decomposers,
21:25we're losing nutrient cyclers, we're losing food resources,
21:29and across the board,
21:30all of these amazing ecosystem services that insects provide.
21:36Insects do their work in the background,
21:39which makes it easy to forget that if we lose them,
21:43we lose our food and clean environment too.
21:46If you were to try and measure how worried you should be about insect decline
21:51on a scale of 1 to 100,
21:53with 100 being like you're terrified,
21:55I would say you should be 100.
21:57The fate of humanity rests upon insects surviving.
22:03There's no scenario where insects don't survive,
22:05where humans survive.
22:14It isn't only human lives that depend on bugs.
22:18Insects themselves form a fundamental base of the food chain.
22:23Fish and reptiles in freshwater streams
22:26feed on aquatic insects and their larvae.
22:29Birds depend on bugs for protein.
22:34And when we lose insects, the birds follow.
22:38The number of insect-eating birds in the U.S. and Canada
22:42has dropped by nearly 40%.
22:44A recent study suggested that we've lost billions of birds in the last 50 years.
22:51That's a huge amount of biomass and bird abundance that's now gone.
22:56It's simply gone.
22:58I draw a strong link to insects because of their fundamental role
23:02as a food source for birds.
23:04Even wildlife like orangutans rely on fruit that are pollinated by insects.
23:12But they also feed on insects as well.
23:15So insects are providing orangutans with two ways of survival.
23:25With predators all around,
23:27insects have devised a mind-blowing array of tactics to avoid being eaten.
23:32And they've evolved an unparalleled ability to hide in plain sight.
23:39They can look like flowers.
23:41They can look like pebbles on a beach.
23:44They can be bright metallic coloration.
23:48It's like this inexhaustible supply of new things.
23:56Insects are masses of mimicry and camouflage.
24:00We get insects that look like leaves.
24:04Insects that look like the bark in a tree.
24:07Insects that look like sticks.
24:12Stick insects are some of the best examples of extreme mimicry.
24:16A lot of stick insects have lost their wings
24:19or have reduced the size of their wings
24:21because sticks don't fly.
24:23And so you have to not only look like a stick,
24:25but you have to act like a stick.
24:28And so they spend their time eating and feeding.
24:31But they'll also spend their time just standing still to avoid predation.
24:40Stick insects, like all insects, have six legs.
24:43But it'll look really weird for a branch to have six legs.
24:47So they'll actually, when they're at rest,
24:48they'll stick their front two legs out in front of them
24:51to look more vertical and look more like a stick.
25:02Stick insects are so adept at hiding
25:05that it can be hard for them to find each other.
25:10Since they can't see potential mates,
25:12they send out a signal of pheromones.
25:15And even when mating, they stay stick still.
25:20Not many of them have any sort of defense mechanisms
25:23other than a few of them have, like, these nasty spines.
25:27Others have some chemical defense.
25:28But really, they're like tree hot dogs
25:32for other vertebrate animals to hunt and eat.
25:35And if you find a really big stick insect,
25:37I mean, that's a good day for a monkey or a bird.
25:41So they're really dependent on being
25:43the most convincing sticks that they can be.
25:52Stick insects are an extreme example
25:55of the seemingly limitless innovation of bugs.
25:58But the bizarre bodies and behaviors
26:03that make them so successful
26:05don't always endear them to humans.
26:11Insects evoke a lot of emotion in people.
26:13And usually it's negative.
26:14Partially it's because people don't like
26:16the way they crawl
26:17or that sometimes they get bit or stung.
26:20Or maybe it's just because
26:22they don't understand them.
26:24But once you pull out a magnifying glass
26:27or maybe a macro lens,
26:29you'll see a kaleidoscope of color.
26:32You'll see multiple mouthparts.
26:34You'll see different types of appendages.
26:37You'll see interesting behaviors.
26:38Suddenly this world opens up to you
26:41that is happening in miniature.
26:42I'm in town, guys. Come out.
26:52What? That's so rude.
26:57Turning a lens on this miniature world
26:59is how one man hopes to bring focus
27:02to the planet's unnoticed heroes.
27:04Look at this insect.
27:10Nice.
27:10People come to Costa Rica to see sloths,
27:30to see monkeys, to see hummingbirds.
27:33But I'm here to see the bugs,
27:35which is an untapped world.
27:37Insects are the foundation
27:42of everything in nature.
27:46Right now I'm in the cloud forest
27:47and it's surreal.
27:49It rains here a lot
27:50and it's got mountains,
27:53it's got the clouds coming in.
27:56And it's got a lot of crawly things around,
27:59which I love.
28:01Getting people to love crawly creatures
28:07isn't easy.
28:09Dara Ojo is on a mission
28:11to change people's perception of bugs
28:13using the same tool
28:17he used on himself,
28:19macro photography.
28:20I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria.
28:23As a kid, I was not interested
28:25in insects so much
28:26because I got stung a few times.
28:28In 2020, during COVID,
28:32I wanted to pick up a hobby
28:34so I started taking pictures.
28:38So a friend referred me
28:40to take pictures of insects.
28:44I knew nothing about photography.
28:48So I started watching YouTube videos
28:50and just practicing,
28:52failing, practicing, failing.
28:54So it's basically self-taught.
28:58With the click of a shutter,
29:00Dara brings bugs
29:01into human scale.
29:11Nice shot.
29:12You got it?
29:13Yes.
29:18When I look at insects close up,
29:19they have a lot of character.
29:21Pure beauty.
29:23Sometimes they could look grumpy,
29:25sometimes they could look happy.
29:28Sometimes they can be staring at you,
29:31curious that,
29:32what is this?
29:32Is this person a food?
29:34Or is this a predator?
29:37When you take pictures of bugs
29:39using the macro lens,
29:41it brings out that eating world
29:42that people just walk past.
29:45So bringing those photos to life
29:48is one of the things
29:49that motivates me.
29:50Is that like a nest
29:55for leaf cutters?
29:57Wow.
30:00When they feel vibrations
30:02of people walking around,
30:03the big ants,
30:04the soldiers,
30:05they get out to attack.
30:10Before coming to Costa Rica,
30:11I wanted to see
30:12the leaf cutter ants.
30:14And seeing them
30:17in nature
30:18was surreal.
30:20I've never seen
30:21so much coordination
30:22in my life.
30:23It was beautiful to see.
30:29If humans could be
30:31this coordinated,
30:32we'll have a better world.
30:33This is a soldier ant
30:41protecting the colony
30:42of the leaf cutter ants.
30:47It just keeps moving.
30:48Stop moving, though.
30:50Insects are not
30:51the perfect models
30:52because you have to wait
30:53for the insect
30:53to trust you enough
30:54around it
30:55so it's not running away.
30:57Oh, my God.
30:58Just when you were in focus,
30:59stop moving, though.
31:03then it might just
31:04get curious
31:05and that's when
31:05you can get
31:06the perfect photo
31:06because it's staring
31:07right into your camera.
31:09There you go.
31:12I'll show you
31:12doing whatever you're doing.
31:17I used to have
31:18phobia for insects
31:19so shooting them
31:20has been able to
31:21make me appreciate them more.
31:24Oh, look at this
31:25beautiful guy.
31:26I just watch insects
31:27and see how they act,
31:30protecting their eggs,
31:31like trying to hunt
31:32for food like we
31:33all do to try
31:34and find our daily needs.
31:35It's just another word,
31:37but they're very similar
31:38to us humans.
31:43Let's check out
31:44some more fun here, man.
31:45Let's pick it up a bit.
31:45Yeah.
31:47Saturday night party.
31:50Oh, wow.
31:51So gorgeous.
31:53There you go.
31:55In the last 48 hours,
31:56I think I've had
31:57five hours of sleep.
32:00The adrenaline
32:01in my system
32:02to be here
32:03is keeping me up.
32:11Come see the show,
32:12Lauren.
32:13I...
32:14Oh.
32:17Lovely shots, man.
32:19Mm-hmm.
32:19Beautiful work.
32:20Dara hopes his insect portraits
32:23will help everyday people
32:25fall for bugs
32:26and feel a connection
32:27to what we're losing
32:28with ongoing insect declines.
32:32Insect decline is very serious now.
32:35So I feel people
32:36need to wake up to the fact
32:38that if it declines further,
32:39we will be in big trouble.
32:43My macro photography
32:44has been able to show people
32:46what these things look like.
32:47The venue for my photos
32:51is on Instagram.
32:52That means the picture
32:53can spread to other people.
32:55So that just keeps multiplying
32:57and people will appreciate
32:59insects more.
33:01Yeah, this month is beautiful.
33:03Because making small things
33:05look big is something
33:06that people really appreciate.
33:09And just like people
33:10respect lions and tigers,
33:12the same thing with insects.
33:14And I think that's spreading
33:16the gospel in its own little way.
33:22The colors and ornate features
33:24Dara captures
33:25are the result
33:26of infinite adaptations
33:27that have helped insects survive
33:30in their natural environments.
33:33But as humans reshape the planet,
33:35some will continue to adapt
33:37and others will die.
33:39And these veterans
33:42of Earth's past
33:43are now facing
33:44a strange new world.
33:54If you think about
33:55how long Earth has been around
33:57and even the history of insects,
34:00they've been around
34:01for hundreds of millions of years.
34:03Then think about
34:04when cities arrived
34:05and then cities as we know them,
34:07it's less than a blink of an eye.
34:11Urban insects are interesting
34:12because they're finding a way
34:14to live amongst the humans
34:16and the way that we've
34:17manipulated the Earth
34:18in a way that they've
34:20never been used to,
34:21the way their ancestors
34:22have not prepared for.
34:23In most major cities,
34:44a phenomenon called
34:46an urban heat island
34:47traps heat
34:48in the city center,
34:50creating a much hotter environment
34:52than surrounding natural areas.
34:55Now we're seeing that
34:56in insects and wildlife
34:57in the city.
34:58This new environment
34:59is causing them
35:00to have new behaviors
35:01and change the way
35:03that they find food,
35:04change the way
35:04that they find mates,
35:05and change the way
35:06that they raise their young.
35:08Come on, come on.
35:11To understand how insects
35:13are adapting
35:14to these hot,
35:15modern environments,
35:17Sylvana Ross
35:18is on the hunt
35:19for a tiny test subject,
35:22Tapenoma cecily,
35:24the odorous house ant.
35:27Most people have probably
35:28encountered Tapenoma cecily
35:30without even really knowing
35:32that that's what that ant is.
35:38Also known as the sugar ant
35:39because they do really well
35:41amongst humans
35:42because they really like
35:43sugary liquid
35:44and sweet things to eat.
35:48I'm actually going to go
35:49see over this big pile.
35:52Anytime I, like,
35:53lift up a log
35:54or anything,
35:55I look for...
35:56Oh, uh-oh.
35:59We got ants!
36:00Hold on.
36:01When that happens,
36:02I got to be like,
36:02oh my gosh.
36:04So I actually look for scurrying.
36:06Like, I look for
36:07little tiny things
36:08that are moving around.
36:10These guys
36:11do look like Tapenoma.
36:13So when I lift it up
36:13and I see the scurrying,
36:14I grab my aspirator
36:15and suck them up.
36:17Oh, yeah.
36:24Ants do so many
36:25different ecosystem services.
36:28One of the major ones
36:30is that they're
36:30ecosystem engineers.
36:33There are ants
36:34that spend their entire lives
36:36in the tree canopy
36:37and are arboreal ants.
36:38And so they're able
36:39to fill these different niches.
36:43An ant colony
36:44is made up of
36:45majority of female workers.
36:48They use pheromones
36:50and they use vibrations
36:51and touch
36:51in order to talk to each other.
36:53They're able to
36:54tell each other warnings
36:55if there's predators around.
36:57They're able to communicate
36:58where there's good food.
37:00And one ant in itself
37:01can't survive on its own,
37:03but an ant with a thousand sisters
37:05can then change an ecosystem.
37:07There's a piece of mesh
37:17right there,
37:18so nothing gets in my mouth,
37:20but there's nothing in here
37:21so the ants can, like,
37:22shoot down through there.
37:24So as I put this in my mouth,
37:25if I see anything running
37:27or scurrying,
37:29they just get, like,
37:30inhaled into the tube.
37:31There are some places
37:41and cities
37:42that are a lot hotter
37:42than others,
37:43and we can see that
37:44in neighborhoods
37:45that lack the resources
37:46to have green spaces
37:48and parks.
37:50Let's call it the 85.
37:53And there's historic reasons
37:55why we've broken up
37:56our neighborhoods.
37:57Across the United States,
38:01the practice of redlining
38:03in the 1930s
38:04determined which neighborhoods
38:06of a city
38:07would constitute a high risk
38:09for a housing loan.
38:11Affluent neighborhoods
38:12with low risk
38:13were labeled A and B.
38:15Those with majority black
38:17or immigrant populations
38:18were labeled C and D
38:20and colored red.
38:23Those designations
38:25continue to dictate
38:27the ecosystems
38:27of these neighborhoods today.
38:30And so those lower-income
38:32black neighborhoods
38:32that have been segregated
38:34in the past
38:35lost a lot of financial resources.
38:38They have more concrete
38:39and asphalt.
38:41They have less green spaces,
38:42less parks,
38:44less tree cover.
38:45And so those areas
38:46tend to be a lot hotter.
38:50Dumpsters are a good spot.
38:52I know it's kind of gross.
38:53If you were to look at
38:56a 1930s redlining map
38:58and then compare it
39:00to temperature data today,
39:02we can see that
39:03the neighborhoods
39:03that were graded as hazardous
39:05and colored red
39:06are also the hottest areas
39:08of our city today.
39:11Not ants.
39:15In Baltimore,
39:16I am picking
39:17eight different neighborhoods,
39:19two of each graded
39:21from redlining.
39:22And I'll be going
39:24looking for tapenoma
39:25in each of those neighborhoods.
39:28What's really interesting
39:30about the odorous house ant
39:31is that populations
39:32in natural areas
39:34tend to be a lot smaller.
39:35Their colonies
39:36are made up of
39:37only one to a few queens.
39:39Their workers
39:40are only a couple hundred.
39:42I mean,
39:42their whole colony
39:42might live in an acorn
39:44or under a small rock.
39:45But when we see tapenoma
39:48out in the city,
39:50her colonies can be ginormous.
39:52And I'm talking hundreds
39:53of queens,
39:54millions of workers,
39:55and something about the city
39:57is causing that change.
40:01Whether that's because
40:03we've eliminated
40:03their competition,
40:05or is it because
40:06we provide them sugary liquids
40:07in our trash
40:08and in our homes
40:09that can give them
40:10more energy and resources
40:11to have larger colonies.
40:13The ants that are living
40:19in neighborhoods
40:20that have more concrete
40:21and asphalt
40:22and hotter temperatures
40:23have had to adapt
40:24to this really strong
40:25selection pressure.
40:27So I can compare ants
40:28from A-graded neighborhoods
40:29to ants in D-graded neighborhoods
40:31and see at what temperature
40:33that they can withstand.
40:41My hypothesis
40:42is that ants from
40:44D- and C-graded neighborhoods
40:46will be able to withstand
40:47higher temperatures
40:48than those in A- and B-graded
40:50and also especially
40:51natural areas.
40:53For this round of assays,
40:55we actually have two colonies,
40:56one from a C-graded
40:57and one from a D-graded neighborhood,
40:59and then we have a colony
41:01from our natural state park.
41:02I take a little ant
41:08and I put them in a dry block
41:10and I crank up the temperature
41:12in intervals
41:13so I can check
41:15to see at what temperature
41:16that ant loses
41:17their muscle function.
41:19Oh, yep,
41:20so this one,
41:21like she's on her back,
41:22and if I give her a little tap,
41:24she can't flip back over.
41:25And so I can compare
41:28that temperature
41:29across ants
41:30from different neighborhoods,
41:31and I can see
41:32if ants from really hot neighborhoods
41:34have a higher thermal tolerance
41:35than those from cooler,
41:37more shaded neighborhoods.
41:38Now we're at 46.8,
41:42which is 116 degrees Fahrenheit,
41:45and the only girls left
41:47are our city ants,
41:48seven, eight, and one,
41:50so one from a D-graded
41:51and two from a C-graded neighborhood.
41:55Then I can look at their DNA
41:57and compare their DNA
41:59and gene expression
42:00across these different neighborhoods
42:02to see if there's
42:03internal mechanisms
42:04that they're using
42:05to tolerate
42:06these really hot temperatures.
42:08These are the ants
42:12I got from the state park,
42:13and then these are
42:14all my city ants.
42:16And so the ones living
42:16in the city
42:17can withstand higher temperatures
42:18than those living
42:19in the natural area.
42:21I mean, this is really cool
42:22and it's really exciting.
42:26First results show
42:28that some ants
42:28may be tough enough
42:29to adapt to a warming planet.
42:32But for Silvana,
42:34it will take time
42:35to answer her questions
42:36about how they're doing it
42:37and what it means
42:38for other animals
42:39in the ecosystem.
42:42When you see your hypothesis
42:43come to fruition,
42:45it's very validating,
42:46but it's also scary
42:47because you understand
42:49that humans are changing
42:51the environment so much.
42:53And so this really tiny ant,
42:55if it's being impacted
42:56by these hot temperatures,
42:57what does that say
42:58about the birds
42:59that are living in hot areas
43:00and the reptiles
43:02and even the people
43:03that are exposed
43:03to these hotter temperatures.
43:05And if racial segregation
43:07is creating
43:08these really hot neighborhoods
43:09and those really hot neighborhoods
43:10can impact evolution in ants,
43:14it can be impacting
43:15entire ecosystems
43:16and all these other organisms
43:18that we see in cities.
43:20As the planet continues to change,
43:24some bugs will be evolutionary winners,
43:27while others are already losing out.
43:34Even in the most remote places
43:37on the planet,
43:38insects are feeling the heat.
43:42It's threatening our way of life
43:44and some very ancient relationships.
43:49Humans and honeybees
43:51have a long history,
43:53a shared history together.
43:55Humans and honeybees
43:56have actually co-evolved
43:58many aspects of our behavior,
44:01our interaction,
44:02our culture,
44:03and even our communication.
44:09And this is especially true
44:11here in Africa.
44:14Human ancestors
44:16have gathered wild honey
44:17as one of the most important
44:19sources of nutrition.
44:23And a testament
44:24to this deep relationship
44:26between humans and honeybees
44:28is the relationship
44:30with the third species,
44:33the honey guide.
44:44and there is no one
44:46one.
44:47And this is going to be
44:47the one.
44:47Three or four.
44:48The other ones
44:49have been talked to each other.
44:49It's the one.
44:50It's the one who has been
44:51transformed to each other.
44:51It is the one.
44:52The other one who has been
44:52one of the most important
44:53with the humans and other
44:53people.
44:54The other is the one.
44:55Even if the animals are
44:56in the most important
44:57of the humans are
44:57and animals,
44:57the animals are
44:58with our animals.
44:59And we feel
45:00as if the animals are
45:00very,
45:01the animals are
45:03at all.
45:03The animals are
45:04at all.
45:05Nothing were
45:05at all.
45:06They're
45:08at the same.
45:08A la vez que me despedimos, me das abenando y me da cuenta.
45:15Me despedimos a la vida, pero no estoy en el caso.
45:23En el caso de los que me despedimos,
45:27me dijeron que me despedimos a la vida.
45:30Entonces, a la vida me despedimos a la vida.
45:34Te sentimos a la vida.
45:38Más información www.alaitete.org
46:08Más información www.alaitete.org
46:38Más información www.alaitete.org
47:08Más información www.alaitete.org
47:38Más información www.alaitete.org
48:08Más información www.alaitete.org
48:38La vida es la vida, la vida es la vida.
49:08y yo me hechado por qué me hechado.
49:11Porque yo me hechado, pero yo no soy el hijo.
49:15Y yo no hechado.
49:31Él me hachado con el hogar.
49:34Él me hachado con el hogar.
49:36Él me hachado con la marina.
49:38Más información www.mesc.org
50:08Asà que el pueblo va a limpiar, el pueblo va a limpiar y no se encuentra.
50:18Todos nos han colocado en el pueblo de Flamengo.
50:25El pueblo, el pueblo, los que trabajan en Cuba.
50:30Es verdad que no se puede hacer un vacÃo de las personas.
50:35web
51:05El dolor de la vida es una persona que se ha convertido en un lugar de vida.
51:19El grado de la vida, el grado de la vida, el grado de la vida.
51:25El grado de la vida, el grado de la vida, el grado de la vida.
51:29No, no, no, no.
51:59La importancia de los insectos a todos es un desafÃo, porque culturalmente no han apreciado
52:20como aspectos importantes de la ambiente. Pero la realidad es que no es solo importante,
52:30tienen que existir para humanos en la forma que estamos viviendo ahora, porque dependemos
52:37de ellos. Es una parte fundamental de cómo el ecosistema funciona. Si no están en ese ecosistema,
52:44eso cambiará nuestra manera de vida como sabemos.
52:50Bugs That Rule The World is available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video.
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