The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd - Season 3 Episode 05- Man vs. Nature
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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.
00:24This 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 drake.
02:07Humpback 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.
02:25But who actually has the right of way?
02:29Legally, 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.
02:42But it turns out it's good for the fishermen, too.
02:46Not all fishermen are following these guidelines because they're after their fish.
02:52And 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.
03:36More 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.
04:07And 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.
04:20Marsloff starts to wonder, are these birds recognizing these people's faces?
04:24And are they mad at them?
04:26Marsloff decides to try a particular experiment.
04:34He 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.
04:57The crows continually accost the cavemen who are trapping them and ignore or leave alone the Dick Cheneys.
05:07And this happens even when they try it with a hat on while they're wearing the mask.
05:13Or 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.
05:23Incredibly, 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.
05:36These 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.
06:05In 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 scent and runs off ahead and disappears into the brush.
06:23Greg sees something he really wasn't expecting, which is this enormous kangaroo holding his dog hostage on a headlock.
06:36And Greg realizes he has to do something pretty quick to save his dog.
06:41Big male kangaroos are actually quite terrifying.
06:44They've got these just huge biceps, big, broad chest, and a kangaroo can punch eight times harder than a human, and it 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, a 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, so 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.
07:46Surprisingly, the roo backs off, and 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, but in the end the kangaroo learns the hard way, don't mess with a man and his dog.
08:11The pioneers of the Great Plains fought droughts, storms, and brutal winters.
08:18But in 1874, nature threw something at them they never saw coming.
08:25It is summer of 1874 in Nebraska.
08:28It's a sparsely populated area that survives on agriculture, and the state is suffering a really crippling drought.
08:39The local farmers are hoping and praying that things turn around, when 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.
09:01At first you think it might be an approaching storm, or a tornado, but it disperses into billions of tiny specks.
09:11These specks are not bits of dust, they're not raindrops, they're grasshoppers.
09:17Rocky mountain grasshoppers, billions and billions of them.
09:22And they're hungry.
09:26They will eat an entire field of crops in a matter of hours.
09:31It's like a blizzard of grasshoppers.
09:34In some areas, the insects form a carpet a foot deep.
09:41They invade homes, they 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.
10:13They call it the Great Grasshopper Plague of 1874.
10:17There have been grasshopper invasions before, but 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.
10:37That's 390,000 grasshoppers for every resident of the United States at that time.
10:46Dazed 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, and when it's dried, their eggs hatch more successfully.
11:05So the population of grasshoppers explodes.
11:08There are also winds that form a jet stream and carry the grasshoppers throughout the Great Plains,
11:17leading to a cycle of the grasshoppers overpopulating, decimating food and seeking more food.
11:24The grasshoppers cause about 200 million dollars in crop damage,
11:33which is the equivalent of 5.5 billion dollars today.
11:39Even more dangerous, the excrement from these billions of grasshoppers poisons wells and water supplies.
11:48As this mass infestation continues throughout the summer of 1874,
11:54desperate farmers go to war with the grasshoppers.
11:59They try setting them on fire.
12:02They try smoking them out.
12:05They try poisons.
12:06They even try a contraption called a hopper dozer,
12:11which is a horse-drawn metal sheet coated with coal tar intended to get the insects stuck to the metal sheet.
12:20But there are just too many of them, and 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.
12:33They'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.
12:55It's 67 BCE in what is modern-day Turkey along the Black Sea.
13:00And the Persian king Mithridates is on the run from 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 ingesting small amounts of poisons like arsenic to 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, Mithridates uses this knowledge to his benefit.
13:33He instructs his soldiers to gather large amounts of a sticky red honey and place it in jugs all along his escape route.
13:47The Romans encounter these jars.
13:54And 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 handful 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, bees often pollinate rhododendron fields.
14:31And these flowers contain large amounts of graenotoxin.
14:37The toxin ends up in the honey, which causes hallucinations.
14:42Tons, diarrhea, dizziness, and loss of consciousness.
14:50After eating tons of this honey, the Roman soldiers are on a pretty bad trip.
14:56They are not what you would call battle-ready.
15:00Imagine having to fight for your life while you're vomiting and hallucinating.
15:06This is exactly what Mithridates had in mind.
15:12Mithridates' force then doubles back on them and engages them in battle.
15:20The result?
15:21It's a slaughter with over 1,000 stoned Romans killed.
15:27Mithridates took all those years studying poisons and toxins,
15:31and he essentially creates possibly the first biological weapon.
15:36In fact, today, it is one of the oldest hallucinogenic drugs,
15:40though very expensive and sometimes hard to get.
15:43In some countries, it sells for $80 a pound on the black market.
15:48Talk about sweet revenge.
15:50The weather is unpredictable, untamed, and for one man, the next great frontier to conquer.
15:59What happens when human ambition takes on Mother Nature?
16:03C.W. Post becomes a breakfast cereal baron in the late 1800s.
16:11He makes a lot of money with products like Grape Nuts and other Post cereals like Raisin Bran.
16:17Start your day a little bit better with Post Grape Nuts Flakes.
16:22Eventually, Post starts to have these obsessions,
16:24and because of his success, he does not hesitate to act upon them.
16:30In 1907, Post buys up 200,000 acres of land
16:34in order to build this self-sustaining, idyllic little community.
16:39He calls it Post City.
16:42It seems that Post has thought of everything in his perfect city,
16:47except for one thing.
16:48There's not enough water,
16:50and soon enough, the region is plagued by drought.
16:53But this city can't sustain itself.
16:56No one can grow enough food.
16:59He remembers that there were stories
17:01that after big cannon battles and 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.
17:17He's going to blow up the clouds.
17:20Post hires a team of 50 men to fly dynamite kites.
17:26Each one of these kites is equipped with two pounds of dynamite
17:30and extremely long fuses,
17:33so that when you light it at the bottom,
17:35a few minutes later, the dynamite goes off in the sky.
17:39So, he has 50 kites, but they have all kinds of problems.
17:43The cords get tangled.
17:44The dynamite explodes too close to the ground sometimes,
17:47almost killing his men.
17:50Clearly, this kite approach is too unreliable,
17:53so Post has to come up with yet another plan.
17:57He has his men haul the explosives up the Caprock,
18:02which is a high escarpment running throughout West Texas.
18:05He uses a total of 350 pounds of explosives spread out
18:11so that each explosive is about 50 feet apart,
18:15and they're set off every 10 minutes.
18:20Everything goes as planned,
18:23except it does not rain.
18:27Post gets this idea that you really need to replicate battle conditions.
18:32The explosions need to be violent and random.
18:37There can't be any pattern to it.
18:40Eventually, his persistence pays off
18:42when one of these rain battles actually works.
18:46Post is thrilled,
18:48but subsequent rain battles have mixed results.
18:53And so Post thinks they're not using enough dynamite,
18:56so he ups the ante from 300 pounds to 3,000 pounds.
19:02During one rain battle,
19:07Post detonates over 24,000 pounds of dynamite.
19:12That's equivalent to the most powerful conventional weapons
19:15used by the U.S. military today.
19:19By the end of 1913,
19:20after middling results,
19:22Post fires his last shot.
19:24Overall, Post spends about $50,000
19:27in his rain battles,
19:30which is equivalent to about $1.7 million today,
19:33or half a million boxes of grape nuts.
19:39For another visionary
19:40who dared to do battle with the natural world,
19:43Mother Nature's response
19:45was much more harsh.
19:47From 1949 until 1976,
19:53Mao Zedong is the all-powerful leader
19:56of communist China,
19:58and he holds the opinion
20:00that humankind was intended to dominate nature.
20:04In 1958,
20:06Mao's Great Leap Forward program
20:08mandates a massive increase in agricultural production.
20:11If you're in charge of a massive country
20:14with a population of 600 million people,
20:16your first priority is feeding those people.
20:20Any loss in crop is an enemy to the people.
20:25According to Mao,
20:26the number one culprit in grain theft
20:29is the evil sparrow.
20:32In order to harness
20:34all of the agricultural potential
20:36of the People's Republic,
20:37he declares war on a two-ounce bird.
20:39He enlists an army
20:42of millions of citizen soldiers
20:43to kill as many of the sparrows as possible.
20:47People use whatever weapons they have,
20:50guns, slingshots.
20:53They even use long poles
20:54to poke at nests up in the trees.
20:57But the most bizarre method
20:58is to simply follow the birds around,
21:01making a loud noise
21:03with pots and pans
21:05and anything metal
21:06that they can clam together
21:07so the sparrows,
21:09they're too scared to land
21:10and they end up dying from exhaustion.
21:15In just a matter of weeks,
21:17the Chinese kill over one billion sparrows.
21:22For Mao,
21:22it's proof of his people's revolutionary devotion.
21:25Unfortunately for the great leader,
21:27his contempt for nature
21:28is only surpassed by his ignorance of it.
21:32Mao is convinced
21:34that it is the sparrows eating the grain,
21:37but actually it's insects
21:39that consume most of the grain
21:41and the sparrows
21:42are the ones eating the insects.
21:45So in Nanjing,
21:4760% of the crops are 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 on sparrows
22:02is the country is driven to famine.
22:06And the estimates are
22:06that 45 million people
22:09starved to death
22:10from 1959 to 61.
22:12This 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 in China,
22:24which was set in motion
22:25by Mao's declared war on the sparrows.
22:32Chairman Mao's battle with birds
22:34is a stark reminder
22:35that when you mess with nature,
22:36beware.
22:38Nature has a brutal way
22:39of restoring balance.
22:42For all of humanity's progress,
22:45nature still holds the upper hand.
22:48And in 1908
22:49in the remote Siberian wilderness,
22:51it delivers a blow so powerful
22:53it defies explanation.
22:57It's June 1908
23:00in eastern Siberia
23:01near the Tunguska River.
23:03This area is incredibly remote.
23:05You're more likely
23:06to see a reindeer than a person.
23:09A 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.
23:27He 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 invisible,
23:37mysterious force.
23:38It turns out
23:40this explosion
23:41isn't right next door.
23:43It's over 40 miles away.
23:46In fact,
23:47the blast
23:47is so powerful
23:48its impact
23:49reaches far
23:50beyond Siberia.
23:53Windows
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
24:15wants to know
24:15what caused it.
24:18Speculation
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 square 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 away
25:00from it.
25:00He suspects
25:03that the culprit
25:04could be something
25:05that came from space
25:06and collided.
25:07He expects to find
25:08a crater in 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 more powerful
25:48than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
25:51There's also another
25:52more natural explanation.
25:55There's one speculative hypothesis
25:57which is that the Earth
25:58passed gas.
26:01That there was a large pocket
26:03or reservoir of 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 with
26:19a very plausible idea
26:21which is that an 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.
26:32This 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.
26:39It's estimated
26:40that the meteor
26:41is about 130 feet across
26:44and 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,
27:04chances 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.
27:12Whether from above
27:14or deep below.
27:17It's a quiet night
27:19in 2013
27:20in Seffner,
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,
27:43everything
27:43is gone.
27:45What he sees
27:46is just completely
27:47unbelievable.
27:48There's a hole
27:49in the center
27:50of the room
27:51and he does not
27:53see his brother
27:53anywhere.
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,
28:14a 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
28:25seeps into 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 over
28:4527,000 of them there.
28:48One of these sinkholes
28:49in China
28:50is known to go down
28:51as far as 2,000 feet.
28:53In fact,
28:55entire prehistoric
28:57habitats
28:57have been found
28:58well-preserved
29:00inside 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
29:26to abandon 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 to act weird,
29:51they're a little afraid
29:52to go outside
29:53and then they hear
29:54a massive rumble.
29:58Suddenly,
29:59their sinkhole appears
30:00right in 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.
30:13The thing is,
30:17sinkholes are known
30:18to grow,
30:19and chances are
30:21it may come again.
30:23The earth,
30:23it seems,
30:24has a way of keeping us
30:25on our toes
30:25just when we think
30:27we have it all figured out.
30:28It throws us a curveball,
30:30or in this case,
30:32a sinkhole.
30:32When 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.
30:45A hundred years ago,
30:48the most interesting
30:49man in the world
30:50was probably
30:51Danish explorer
30:52Peter Freuchen.
30:54He stands six foot seven.
30:58He's covered
30:58in animal furs.
31:00He commands dog 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.
31:17In 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
31:45the supplies,
31:47load it 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.
32:10He's essentially
32:11burrowing
32:12into a snow bed.
32:13He stays in this shelter
32:17for 30 hours.
32:20When 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 outside.
32:38If he doesn't get out,
32:40he's either going to 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.
32:55Peter 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,
33:12it 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.
33:28He 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
33:56with frostbite,
33:57but 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,
34:211923.
34:23The city of Tokyo,
34:25going 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.
34:42In 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
35:04noontime.
35:05A lot of people
35:06were inside
35:06making lunch
35:07and cooking,
35:08and so now
35:08the fires begin.
35:09It also just so happens
35:13there's a typhoon
35:14just off of the coast
35:15as well.
35:16And now you have
35:17very strong winds
35:18fueling all these fires.
35:20The fire
35:22rips through
35:2345%
35:24of the buildings
35:24in Tokyo.
35:27Authorities 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
35:54have a word
35:55for this rare
35:55and devastating phenomenon,
35:58a dragon twist.
36:00The dragon twist
36:02rose to 650 feet
36:05tall and 1,000 feet
36:07across.
36:07And it is heading
36:09straight for the
36:1044,000 survivors.
36:12It's an absolute
36:14massacre.
36:17Of the 44,000,
36:19only 300
36:20survive.
36:22This unthinkable
36:24disaster,
36:25earthquake,
36:26tidal wave,
36:27fire,
36:28dragon twist,
36:30ultimately takes
36:31the life
36:32of 140,000
36:34people.
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.
36:59Sometimes it's triggered
37:01by something as simple
37:03as a wild animal
37:04that's just sick
37:05of having its picture
37:06taken.
37:09Every year,
37:104 million visitors
37:11descend on Yellowstone
37:13Park to get a close
37:14look at nature
37:15and the animals.
37:17And what do people
37:18like to do?
37:19Take a selfie.
37:20bison actually account
37:25for most human injuries
37:26at Yellowstone,
37:27and they hate
37:28getting their photograph
37:29taken.
37:30Oh,
37:30f***.
37:33Oh,
37:34my God.
37:36Oh,
37:36my God.
37:37But 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
37:56kills him.
37:57But the story
37:59of one Todd Fastler
38:00may take the cake.
38:03In 2015,
38:05he's at the
38:05Baroda Speedway
38:07in San Diego,
38:08and he sees
38:09a rattlesnake.
38:10He decides,
38:11oh,
38:12this is a perfect
38:13opportunity
38:13for an up-close
38:15selfie
38:15with a rattlesnake.
38:17He doesn't get
38:18his shot,
38:19but he does
38:20get a bite.
38:21The rattlesnake
38:22injects the venom,
38:24and Todd
38:24is in a world of hurt.
38:27Todd survives,
38:28but his arm
38:29isn't the only thing
38:30hurting.
38:30There's also
38:31his wallet.
38:33Anti-venom
38:33is incredibly expensive.
38:36And guess what's
38:36not likely
38:37to be covered
38:38by insurance?
38:39Anti-venom shots.
38:41So Todd
38:41ends up
38:42with a bill
38:43of over
38:43$150,000.
38:45and he didn't
38:47even get the selfie.
38:50While some animals
38:51avoid the lens,
38:52others are more
38:53than willing
38:53to steal the spotlight
38:55and the bottle.
38:58So 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
39:05to sleep.
39:06You may not realize,
39:08though,
39:08that someone
39:08is watching you,
39:10poised to strike.
39:11It's a vervet monkey,
39:14and he's not
39:15interested in
39:16ejecting you
39:16from his territory
39:17or begging
39:18for a bit of food.
39:20He wants
39:20your booze.
39:22For years,
39:23this island paradise
39:24has been plagued
39:25by a small army
39:26of sneaky,
39:27thieving,
39:28drunken monkeys.
39:33The vervet monkeys
39:34of St. Kitts
39:35have a long history
39:36of excessive drinking.
39:38Going back
39:39to the 1600s
39:40when they were
39:40brought to the island
39:41by the British
39:41as pets.
39:43The monkeys
39:43start raiding
39:44sugarcane plantations,
39:46and sometimes
39:47the sugarcane
39:48can start to ferment.
39:50Then the sugar
39:51eventually turns
39:52into alcohol,
39:53and the monkeys
39:53start chewing
39:54on the sugarcane,
39:56ultimately becoming
39:58addicted to alcohol.
40:00Centuries later,
40:01sugar fields
40:02are replaced
40:02by bars and hotels,
40:04but the monkeys'
40:05tradition of boozing
40:06is still going strong.
40:08For scientists,
40:09the 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
40:19of highly social,
40:20non-human primates?
40:23And the results
40:24of that research
40:25are like looking
40:26in a mirror.
40:28So some are more
40:29social drinkers
40:30who do it in moderation
40:31and only when they're
40:32with other monkeys.
40:33And then there's
40:34a small group,
40:35about 5%,
40:36who are described
40:37by researchers
40:38as seriously abusive
40:40binge 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.
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