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the animal within s02e02
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00:08Within the animal kingdom is a hidden universe of encrypted messages and covert signals that
00:15have evolved over millions of years. From the sonic systems of the bottlenose dolphins,
00:23to the hypnotic dance of the honeybee, the careful calls of the prairie dog, to the fungal
00:29forewarnings of leafcutter ants, and the siren's song of the raven. These are nature's master communicators.
00:38They can communicate complex ideas using behavior and chemical signaling.
00:43It's phenomenal how the system works. It's so far out of our grasp that it seems almost
00:49magical. With biological hardware fine-tuned for their unique environments in underground
00:56tunnels, vast oceans, and the open skies, these animals hold secrets that could revolutionize
01:04our understanding of information and how it can be exchanged.
01:32Beneath the waves of the sea is a civilization with a language we've barely begun.
01:37to decipher. The bottlenose dolphin is an aquatic mammal that lives in nearly every ocean on
01:45the planet. Their bodies are naturally adapted to the open water, slick and streamlined to
01:53achieve speed and stamina. But they're also engineered for something far more profound.
02:01Bottlenose dolphins are one of the smartest animals on earth, and they engage in very complex behaviors.
02:06We don't even understand how intelligent these animals are just yet. We're just scratching the
02:11surface. But their physiology and the way they act with their environment allows them to interact in
02:17a way that other animals can't. Though they make their home below the surface, dolphins are actually
02:23air-breathing mammals. Their brain-to-body ratio exceeds that of our closest primate relatives.
02:31But why would evolution bestow such an extraordinary cognitive power on a creature of the deep?
02:41When you think about how these animals travel together in their pod, they may be traveling together,
02:47but they could be kilometers apart. So communication is going to be important as they move through the
02:53water. First and foremost, a dolphin must find its voice. Often traveling in pods of tens of dolphins at
03:02once, how does this animal ensure it's heard among the chorus? Dolphins will produce very signature type
03:12sounds out of their blowholes so that it's recognized by other members of the pod. A little bit of a
03:18coat,
03:18if you will. And remarkably, dolphins can remember these whistles for decades. Like a human's voice,
03:27these vocal signatures are not only unique to each individual dolphin, but they may also be unique to
03:34the pods in which they travel. Each pod could have their own dialect. It might be similar in certain
03:43situations based on how dolphins are moving from pod to pod, but there will be some different slang.
03:50That's why it's so hard for researchers to detect what they're saying to each other, because it might be a
03:55completely different language. So what exactly are these calls used for? In addition to bonding with their
04:01fellow pod pals, a dolphin's whistle is also a tool for survival. In the dark, murky depths where vision
04:12is limited and food can be scarce, sounds become their most powerful weapon as they collectively hunt for
04:19food. To locate and capture their fuel, the pod shifts their communication in another gear.
04:29When a group of dolphins locate potential prey, they'll whistle loudly and increase the amount
04:35of vocalizations they emit. They're essentially ringing the dinner bell and inviting every other
04:40dolphin nearby to come and join the meal. By calling in a larger group of dolphins, they're able to capture
04:45more fish overall, which means a larger meal for each individual dolphin. When potential prey is spotted,
04:53bottlenose dolphins transmit information amongst the group, collectively zeroing in on one of two methods of attack.
05:02Dolphins will use the wall method where a group of dolphins pushes a school of fish towards a literal wall
05:09or a shoreline.
05:10Once they get that school of fish close enough to that wall, they will then all attack.
05:17Another method dolphins use to capture fish prey is the horizontal carousel method. Dolphins will circle
05:24an entire school of fish and move them slowly closer to the surface of the water. The fish can't escape,
05:30and that's when the dolphins have an opportunity to attack and capture their prey.
05:36In the shadowy depths of the ocean, dolphins aren't the only hunters on the prowl.
05:43Here, a host of predators may be lurking just out of sight.
05:50Fortunately, dolphin vocalizations serve a dual purpose, not only orchestrating the hunt,
05:56but also forming an early warning system, alerting the pod to the presence of hungry rivals nearby.
06:07But how exactly does the bottlenose dolphin locate its prey and potential predators in the first place?
06:14The secret lies in sound and, more specifically, in the frequencies they use.
06:22Social communication tends to be lower frequency whistles, so 50 kilohertz and below.
06:27When long those dolphins are navigating looking for prey, they produce clicks up to 150 kilohertz.
06:36Dolphins harness these powerful clicks for a form of navigation known as echolocation.
06:46This is the ability to locate and discriminate objects by projecting high frequency sound waves and listening for their echoes.
06:56When the sound waves bounce off of objects in the water, they return to the dolphin in the form of
07:02an echo.
07:02By using the sound waves they generate and listening for the echoes,
07:07the dolphins can locate where their prey is and determine how fast it's moving and which way it's moving.
07:15It is a vital component of the dolphin's survival, allowing it to navigate and hunt at low light in the
07:22ocean.
07:23And it's so effective that it's even inspired improvements in man-made sonar technologies.
07:30Sonar means sound navigation and ranging.
07:33Humans have developed sonar technology to map the bottom of the ocean, track submarines and ship movements.
07:42Both sonar and echolocation use what is known as the Doppler effect.
07:48If you've ever sat on a railway track when a train passes you,
07:52you'll notice that the pitch of the sound coming from the train changes.
07:56That is the Doppler effect.
07:58When an object's moving towards you, the frequency is higher.
08:01When the object moves past you, the frequency is lower.
08:06Dolphins use this shift in frequency to accurately judge the speed and distance of other creatures underwater,
08:12allowing them to track down their meal with incredible precision.
08:19But what evolutionary secret gives them the edge over every other mammal?
08:27Unlike most mammals, dolphins don't use vocal chords or their mouths to create sound.
08:33Instead, dolphins push air through nasal passages and out the blowhole, the same opening they use to breathe as rapid
08:41-fire clicks.
08:46This sequence of clicks passes through the dolphin's melon, a mass of acoustic fats found in the forehead between the
08:55blowhole and snout.
08:57The melon acts as a focused lens of where the sound is going to go.
09:02As the sound hits a school of fish, that sonar that goes out, hits the fish, comes back, they're like,
09:08there's something there and it's moving fast. I'm going to go see what it is and I'm going to go
09:12hunt it.
09:13These echoes travel through the water at about 1.5 kilometers per second. That's four and a half times faster
09:19than they would go through air.
09:21When these echoes make their return to the dolphin, they're received by a surprising body part.
09:29The echoes are primarily received through the dolphin's lower jaw, which is made up of the same
09:35specialized acoustic tissue as its melon.
09:38That sound goes through the lower jaw, it goes through the middle ear, and it goes up into the audio
09:43cortex in the brain,
09:44where it makes a 3D image. So essentially, it is seeing the object through sound.
09:50By simply flexing the muscles in their head, dolphins can fine-tune the shape and size of their blowhole opening,
09:58precisely adjusting the pitch of the sounds they create like a musician tuning an instrument.
10:06While those dolphins can produce and hear some of the highest frequencies of all mammals.
10:12Dolphins are perhaps the most gifted conversationalists of the oceanic realm,
10:18exchanging information and mapping an entire world with their echoes below the sea.
10:26While dolphins master the high waves of sound underwater, another remarkable communicator
10:33has evolved a language without words, one written in movement, scent, and vibration.
10:42This is the honeybee.
10:44The bee that we know as the honeybee is actually the European honeybee, Apis mellifera.
10:50It is found on every continent except Antarctica, and that's largely because humans have brought it there.
10:57These tiny pollinators have developed what may be one of the most sophisticated languages in the insect world,
11:05coordinating the actions of thousands of bees within a single hive.
11:12A hive is made up of between 10,000 honeybees to 80,000 honeybees. So effective communication is crucial to
11:20maintaining such a large hive. Within this bustling environment, individuals cooperate to survive.
11:27But how does such a tiny creature organize into such a finely tuned swarm?
11:33And could their success inspire humanity's next breakthrough in AI and robotics?
11:43There are three types of honeybees. Queen, worker, and drone.
11:51Queens are the only bees within the colony that mate and lay the fertilized eggs.
11:56And they do this with the help of their fellow drone bees.
12:00The purpose of drones is to mate with queens, and they die quickly after mating happens.
12:07The vast majority of honeybees are workers, non-fertile females. And each one is in direct
12:14communication with the queen. Workers are the most interesting bees within the hive,
12:21because they can have multiple jobs. They don't just do one thing.
12:25The queen assigns each one of them a dedicated role within the hive, using unique pheromones.
12:33Pheromones are chemical signals released by animals, and they're used as communication
12:38for within the same species. Many groups of animals use pheromones to communicate,
12:43including mammals, reptiles, and insects.
12:45The queen can activate pheromones in her workers with an arsenal of chemical secrets known only to her
12:53royal physiology. This special product is called the queen retinue pheromone.
13:00This pheromone acts to suppress reproduction in workers within the hive, so that they continue
13:07doing their own work. The queen retinue pheromone also entices her loyal subjects, attracting worker
13:16bees to her presence, signaling that she's healthy and ready to assign duties for the colony's greater purpose.
13:25The queen will bring workers in and give them a small amount of pheromone onto their antennae,
13:31and those workers can then act as messengers within the hive, touching antennae with other workers to spread the queen's
13:37message.
13:38The hive is kind of like both a single robot and a collection of robots, in that it has one
13:44central
13:45controller in the queen that drives most of the actions of the hive, but then it has all these little
13:51parts that then move out as swarm of robots to do the work that keeps the hive functioning correctly.
13:59Like a finely tuned machine, honeybees use every component of their specially engineered bodies
14:06to spread their scent-laden messages, from the tips of their sensitive antennae to the bottom of their
14:12delicate feet, which leave aromatic footprints across the terrain for others to follow.
14:21Footprint pheromones are an oily, colorless substance that leave a trail for the honeybees to follow.
14:27They can actually use them to find their way back to the entrance of their hives.
14:33As the honeybee traverses its waxy hive, this pheromone seeps from its feet, imprinting the surface with a
14:41trail for its co-workers to follow and interpret. And it's an incredibly crucial tool, because the
14:49honeybee hive is a big and complex place. At the heart of the hive is where the brood or baby
14:58bees live.
15:00Here, young worker bees gather to tend to the next generation.
15:04The younger workers tend to be like nurses, in that they'll actually feed the brood and the queen.
15:11They use their mandibular glands to actually secrete and synthesize food for these babies,
15:16and they actually make sure that each of these nursery cells is kept clean so that these babies can thrive.
15:23The developing brood even emanates their own biochemical secretion to communicate with their nurses when
15:30they're hungry or need attention. Like a veil covering their bodies, this pheromone is made of fatty acid esters,
15:39and ensures they're nurtured with care.
15:44The oldest and most mature workers are assigned jobs outside the hive,
15:50and they deploy yet another arsenal of biochemical instruments.
15:55Worker bees actually communicate using a whole other set of specialized pheromones,
16:01and this can include the Nazanov pheromone and the Alarm pheromone.
16:05The Nazanov pheromone is like nature's beacon, transforming the hive entrance into an aromatic
16:12lighthouse to guide foragers home.
16:18To release this scent, honeybees raise their abdomens and vigorously fan their wings at a rate of 121 to 150
16:28hertz,
16:31creating invisible currents that carry the fragrant molecules out into the open air.
16:39This biological broadcast ensures that even the most distant forager can find their way home.
16:49Foragers are crucial for feeding the hive, but leaving the nest to explore the wild is a risky job,
16:56and sadly, not all make it back.
17:01So, what does a colony do when their workforce starts to dwindle?
17:07If a hive is low on forager bees, the queen bee will release pheromones to ask nurse bees to assist.
17:15Concealed within each and every bee's head is a hypopharyngeal gland.
17:21This organ exists in two states.
17:24In the young nurse bee, it produces a protein-rich jelly to feed larvae.
17:30In the forager bee, the same organ secretes enzymes to process pollen.
17:38At the queen's command, when a nurse bee is drafted to new duties outside the hive,
17:44their hypopharyngeal gland suddenly undergoes an astounding change.
17:49The nursing function on the gland shuts down, and their dormant enzyme-producing function switches into high gear.
17:59That's a pretty amazing adaptation that they can communicate chemically to have the bees change their entire purpose.
18:07It's absolutely astounding.
18:09Also, atop their heads, a key instrument for communicating are the bees' antennae.
18:15They are what detect pheromone emissions inside the hive.
18:20And without them, communication could not exist.
18:23Pheromones released by honeybees can be picked up by workers' antennas, by drones' antennas, and by the queen's antennae.
18:31Worker bees have about 3,000 chemoreceptors, helping them smell the world around them.
18:40When a bee discovers a rich patch of flowers, it doesn't just keep the secret to itself.
18:47Instead, it returns to the hive and performs an extraordinary ritual to share the location of its floral treasure to
18:55the entire colony.
18:58This is known as the waggle dance.
19:05The honeybee waggle dance allows honeybees to communicate the direction and distance of their food source.
19:12They move their bums back and forth in a straight line, and then they'll circle back around and do the
19:17exact same thing again.
19:20And this dance takes careful choreography.
19:24The length of the middle line, called the waggle run, communicates the distance to the flower patch.
19:31To communicate the direction of the flower patch, bees dance the waggle run at a specific angle
19:37to match the angle of the food source in relation to the sun.
19:43The honeybee performing the waggle dance might do this dance over hours,
19:47and they will adapt the angle of their dance to account for the movement of the sun.
19:54As they bust a move, curious onlookers crowd in,
19:58using their antennae-like tiny GPS trackers to follow every step and decode the directions to their feast.
20:09Inspired by these tiny dancers, scientists have created a groundbreaking system for robotic package delivery.
20:19A messenger robot performs a series of precise gestures, its own mechanical waggle dance,
20:26to relay geographic coordinates to a handling robot who can then deliver the goods.
20:35The research team hopes to refine this bee-inspired technology for high-stakes missions like search and rescue operations,
20:43where clear communication can make all the difference.
20:49No one knows this better than the honeybee, the animal that has mastered an array of communicative
20:56techniques to stay safe and navigate a world full of both danger and opportunity.
21:03It's the instincts in the bees in the way they communicate both chemically and through visual indications like dancing,
21:12that allows the bees to be highly successful.
21:16As honeybees buzz about the skies wielding their masterful cues, another creature relies on different forms of information exchange to
21:26live a life below ground.
21:28This unassuming master communicator is the prairie dog.
21:36But don't let its small size and playful antics fool you.
21:40These adorable rodents are highly skilled conversationalists.
21:46Prairie dogs are primarily found in North America, and these small rodents have one of the most complex vocabularies ever
21:52documented.
21:53Prairie dogs are equipped with sensitive hearing and a specialized vocalization system, which makes them amazing communicators.
22:01But just how complex is their language?
22:04And what can it teach us about the power of social bonds in the animal world?
22:10To understand the secrets of their rapid-fire calls, we must first study the robust societies in which they live.
22:20Prairie dogs live in large colonies known as towns, where mass amounts of these rodents can live together at a
22:27time.
22:29Regular communication is what keeps them orderly in their organized habitats.
22:37The towns are incredibly complex.
22:40They are these networks of underground boroughs that have different types of chambers for different purposes.
22:46They have bedrooms, they have nurseries, they have food waste disposal, and they even have graveyards.
22:52These towns have historically been thriving metropolises, comparable to some modern cities.
23:00Prairie dogs used to be much more numerous than they are today.
23:03125 years ago, the largest recorded prairie dog town was over 65,000 square kilometers large.
23:11It was estimated to have over 400 million prairie dogs.
23:16Over that time, prairie dog populations have dropped by over 95 percent.
23:21So colonies would not reach those types of volume today.
23:25To make sure everyone has their own space, towns are divided into smaller family groups called coteries.
23:33Prairie dogs mark the boundaries of coterie territories with their scent glands.
23:38These help to communicate divisions between different family groups.
23:43These scent glands are located at the prairie dog's back end, between the internal and external anal sphincter muscles.
23:52Prairie dogs will sniff these glands to determine if they're dealing with a family member or another prairie dog.
23:59Within the close-knit coterie, prairie dogs work together on everything from foraging
24:05and tunnel maintenance to standing guard against danger.
24:09For those tasked with keeping watch, the prairie dogs emerge from the ground like a periscope
24:16to scan the horizon for threats.
24:20The moment a predator, like a badger or a fox, is spotted, the lookout belts out an alarming call,
24:29warning its coterie to die for cover.
24:33Prairie dog calls are extremely complex. You can have up to seven different sounds per call,
24:40and the amount of sounds or even combination of those sounds can create a different amount
24:44of information depending on the call and depending on the situation.
24:48These descriptive layers allow them to transmit extremely detailed descriptions.
24:54There are three main calls. There's an alarm call, a territorial call, and an excitement call.
25:00Alarm calls are made up of yips and barks, and they will tell the rest of the burrow of a
25:05predator approaching.
25:07Barks are a series of high-pitched squeaks.
25:11Yips are short, nasally sounds.
25:17But what sounds like simple yips and barks to us actually conveys detailed information, sometimes in less
25:25than a tenth of a second. And their territorial calls are equally as diverse.
25:33Territorial calls can be a number of different messages that could be,
25:36hey, are you awake? Or, hey, get out of my burrow.
25:42Depending on the message, they could sound like a laughing bark,
25:47staccato call,
25:51raspy chatter,
25:54or even screams.
25:57But perhaps the most thrilling of all is their excitement call.
26:02When prairie dogs are happy and excited, they let out a yahoo sound.
26:09And what allows them to make these complex descriptive calls? A specialized larynx.
26:16The prairie dog larynx can produce a wide range of sounds, from super low frequencies
26:22to ultrasonic localizations. This range allows them to capture a lot of nuance and detail
26:28in the descriptions and messages that they're communicating to each other.
26:33Why is such a vast range of calls necessary for this small rodent?
26:39Because prairie dogs are so low on the food chain, stellar communication is key to their survival.
26:46To avoid becoming a coyote, falcon, or rattlesnake's dinner,
26:51prairie dogs have developed a complex alarm system.
26:57Prairie dogs have distinct alarm calls for different predators,
27:00and they can even describe things like shape, size,
27:04and color by varying different parts of those alarm calls.
27:08These animals can make clear distinctions in wavelength and amplitude when making their different calls.
27:16Sonic elements that are carefully tailored to ensure the right message reaches the right ears.
27:26Scientists have used machine learning to study prairie dog calls and find patterns,
27:31which helped improve technologies like speech recognition, AI communication, and data compression.
27:39It's really amazing when you think about prairie dogs using both high and low frequency sounds,
27:44because they behave very differently and travel different distances.
27:51While high frequency noises are important for the prairie dog to hear to avoid their predators,
27:56low frequency noises are where the prairie dog's hearing excels.
28:02Frequency gives us kind of the tone of what we're listening to, whether it be very low or very high.
28:12Remarkably, these small animals can pick up frequencies that are entirely undetectable by humans,
28:18allowing them to tune into a channel of communication that many creatures would never even notice.
28:26Prairie dogs can actually hear what we would call infrasound,
28:30sound below the audible level in terms of frequency.
28:34This incredible ability best serves the prairie dog when it's underground.
28:40Low frequency sounds can travel huge distances underground,
28:44potentially the whole length of a prairie dog town.
28:46This allows prairie dogs to keep communicating with each other
28:49in different parts of a town even when they can't see each other.
28:55Above ground, prairie dogs tune their ears to the environment,
28:59listening for dangers that might be lurking nearby,
29:02and adjusting their alarm calls based on the threat in question.
29:08When a prairie dog spots an eagle, for example,
29:12they emit a high-pitched, short and urgent call,
29:16signaling a fast-moving aerial threat.
29:20Prairie dogs that aren't in the immediate path will monitor its flight from their hind legs.
29:24They'll call out as it gets nearer or further.
29:29Every minute of foraging is crucial for prairie dogs,
29:32and this elaborate warning system lets them spend as much time as possible
29:36taking advantage of that outside of their burrows.
29:40The prairie dog sentry system with multiple members looking for predators
29:45and making sure the colony is safe is really kind of like a sensor array.
29:49You have a whole bunch of different inputs that then communicate with each other
29:53to let the group know where the danger may be.
29:59But the communicative toolkit of the prairie dog extends far beyond sound and scent.
30:05They're also expert mimes, using body language to convey messages their calls won't capture.
30:14When a prairie dog emerges from its underground home,
30:17it stands straight up and scans the area for predators.
30:20If the prairie dog doesn't see any predators,
30:23it will perform a jump-yip to signal to the colony that it's safe to come up.
30:27When one prairie dog jump-yips, other prairie dogs will see this and respond with a jump-yip,
30:33and this is how the message can spread around the colony.
30:39The collaborative and complex communication of this lively creature
30:43makes them one of the animal kingdom's most underrated marvels to thrive beneath the sturdy earth.
30:51But they aren't alone.
30:54Another subterranean society quietly rewrites the rules of communication.
30:59The leafcutter ant.
31:03What does it take to build an underground empire?
31:07And how do tiny creatures achieve this massive task without ever uttering a sound?
31:14Deep in the forests of Latin America and the Caribbean,
31:18the small but mighty leafcutter ant can transform the forest floor into a bustling metropolis.
31:26An intricate, multi-chambered nest where every individual has a vital role to play.
31:33Underground leafcutter ant nests can be made up of thousands of chambers and house millions of ants.
31:40With such a large population in close proximity, communication is key.
31:47To keep their underground society running like clockwork,
31:50these ingustrious insects rely on a unique stridulatory organ,
31:55which creates distinct vibrations that serve as their secret signal system.
32:02It sends out high-pitched sounds from one ant to another,
32:05telling them to perform different activities, including foraging.
32:09The stridulatory organ is located in the lower body parts of the leafcutter ant.
32:14It is made up of two components, a scraper and a file.
32:20The scraper is located within the petiole, which is part of the body where the abdomen meets the thorax,
32:26and then the file is located in the first segment of the abdomen.
32:31Leafcutter ants can rotate the petiole, all while rubbing it against the abdomen,
32:36thereby producing different squeaky sounds and vibration patterns.
32:41These vibrations travel down the ants' legs and actually vibrate the ground where they stand.
32:47The vibrations move through the ground, allowing the ants to communicate with one another.
32:52Instead of relying on a central leader, each ant contributes to this dynamic,
32:58open network of vibration and scent.
33:00These vibrations can work together with pheromones that the ants release
33:05to bring nestmates together to create nests and find food.
33:11This bottom-up approach means that decisions are made collectively and locally,
33:17allowing the colony to rapidly adapt to changing conditions and solve complex challenges with ease.
33:25When the leafcutter forager reaches their leaves, it's time to cut,
33:30which the stridulatory organ also helps with.
33:34The stridulatory organ, because of its vibrational characteristics,
33:39creates that movement motion that, in combination with the cutting action of the jaws,
33:45allows the leafcutter ant to cut pieces of the leaf off.
33:50Leafcutter ants were designed with exceptionally sharp jaws, or mandibles, to cut out chunks of leaves.
33:57These jaws are very powerful, vibrating 1,000 times per second while they're slicing leaves.
34:05They slice up the leaf into a large but manageable size to transport it back to the colony.
34:12The back of their thorax is actually equipped with three spines that help them maneuver and
34:17manipulate leaves onto their backs for carrying.
34:20This special engineering allows leafcutter ants to carry 10 times their weight.
34:27When a good patch of leaves is found, the forager returns to the colony to enlist the help of other
34:33foragers. The need for help is communicated through a trail of chemicals, or a pheromone pathway,
34:40that marks a highway system back to their colony.
34:45Ant highways can be made up of thousands of individual ants and can stretch over 30 meters in
34:51length. And they're not just on the forest floor, they're moving wherever they need to move to get
34:56the most efficient path between food and the nest.
35:00As they haul their leafy treasures back home, teamwork and communication become their greatest defenses.
35:08Large soldier ants march alongside the foragers, acting as bodyguards and fending off would-be
35:15attackers on the perilous journey home.
35:19Tiny Minim rider ants that are about 1.6 millimeters in length climb onto the leaves on the back of
35:27the foragers.
35:28These Minim ants actually clean the leaves in preparation for return to the colony,
35:34and can actually protect the ants against parasitic forward flies.
35:42Once completing their arduous journey, the foragers use their stridulatory organ to tell the colony
35:49they have returned home. And the precious leaf fragment is handed over to another group of ants within
35:55the colony, the gardeners.
36:00Leafcutter ants don't actually eat the leaves that return to their nest, they eat fungus.
36:07Instead of making ants salad, these leaves are utilized by the gardener ants in the cultivation of fungus,
36:14the primary food source for these industrious insects.
36:20The leafcutter ants are really farming their own food, which makes them extremely unique. And that kind
36:27of distinguishes them in the animal kingdom. There really aren't many other species that do anything
36:32analogous to this. So how do they do it? Like expert green thumbs, these ants meticulously clear away
36:40contaminants and secrete specialized amino acids and enzymes, cultivating the perfect conditions for
36:48their precious fungus to thrive. And like a fungi whisperer, the gardener ants communicate directly with
36:56the food they are growing. The fungus can release chemicals that actually tells the
37:02gardening ants that they need food, they might need a different type of leaf to grow on,
37:07they might even need pruning in order to stay healthy. And these leafcutter ants can then respond
37:11and garden effectively. Once the conditions have been properly communicated, the fungus only takes
37:1824 hours to cover a fresh leaf surface. Gardener ants are constantly producing food and the nutrients
37:26within these gardens tend to cycle through in less than a month.
37:30But maintaining such an abundant garden is a big task. So when waste and undercomposed materials start
37:39piling up, the gardener ants transmit vibrations, communicating to another type of leafcutter ant that
37:46there's work to be done. In move the sanitation or refuse workers, responsible for keeping the nest tidy and clean.
37:57If you allow waste to just stay out in the open, pathogens can get out and wipe out the entire
38:02colony.
38:03So leafcutter ants use refuse chambers, which are separate areas that they put the waste in,
38:08so it doesn't allow the pathogens to form. Refuse chambers are a crucial location within each nest.
38:15They are typically maintained by older workers.
38:19Being a refuse worker is such an important job that if a refuse worker actually leaves the chamber,
38:25the other ants will sound an alarm and will barricade that refuse worker into the chamber.
38:32This is to make sure all the waste is contained in a single area,
38:36and doesn't spread throughout the nest. If a colony is well established and a nest is healthy,
38:42after about three years, a queen will start producing future queens that can then leave the nest.
38:49What follows is the spectacular nuptial flight, a dramatic exodus that can span nearly 10 kilometers,
38:57where the queen mates and sets out to establish a brand new sister colony,
39:03carrying the legacy of her empire to new ground.
39:10These future queens actually carry in their pouch a little piece of the fungus that she was fed on as
39:16a baby.
39:18The new queen will get to work and start digging a new nest, and once the chamber is set up,
39:24the new queen spits out the piece of fungus she's carried with her to be the starter of the new
39:29garden's colony.
39:32Just a week after their emergence, the young queen's first workers receive her chemical commands,
39:39signals that set them in motion to care for the nest and begin foraging, launching the next cycle of colony
39:47life.
39:49As the years pass and the colony flourishes, a bustling workforce emerges,
39:55each ant seamlessly communicating and collaborating to keep their underground empire alive.
40:03Leafcutter ants know instinctively that they have to communicate with one another,
40:07and they have to stick together in order to survive.
40:11For leafcutter ants, survival is a team effort.
40:15Unity is their greatest strength.
40:17But they're not the only masters of cooperation in the natural world.
40:23High above, another remarkable communicator soars.
40:28A mysterious black silhouette against the sky.
40:31The common raven.
40:37Common ravens are highly vocal birds with a wide range of calls.
40:41They do croaks, honks, rattles, and even water drips.
40:55This vocal repertoire, already impressively varied, is just one component of this bird's remarkable talents,
41:02which also includes non-verbal cues, just like humans.
41:08This communication is key for maintaining healthy relationships among these sociable birds.
41:15During courtship, male ravens will fly all over the place in this aerial display to try and impress females.
41:23They'll do a little hopping courtship dance beside a female, and if she's agreeable,
41:27she'll hop alongside him, and she'll bend down and shake her tail feathers.
41:32After this initial date, coupled up ravens mate for life, which can be 10 to 15 years.
41:40That means communication between bonded pairs is just as important as during courtship.
41:47Mated pairs will preen and touch bills in order to maintain their relationship security.
41:55When the love language of touch alone won't do, ravens turn to a surprisingly familiar alternative,
42:02gift-giving. These clever birds use tokens and trinkets to communicate affection,
42:09forge alliances, or even say thank you.
42:13There are stories of ravens bringing coins, bits of jewelry, shiny objects to humans that feed them.
42:20It's hypothesized that these ravens give these gifts to help maintain their relationship.
42:26It's a token of appreciation.
42:30Yet the raven deploys its communicative arsenal to do far more than maintain friendly bonds.
42:37Their behaviors, an incredibly diverse range of calls, has captivated scientists for centuries.
42:44So, what secrets are they truly sharing in the open skies?
42:53Common ravens can be found all around the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic to North Africa.
43:00With such diverse environments comes diverse food sources, and the raven is a true opportunist,
43:08part hunter, part scavenger, and always resourceful.
43:15For these clever birds, the world is a buffet, and every meal is an opportunity for survival and strategy.
43:25But although they would rather croak than croon, ravens are actually classified as songbirds.
43:32In fact, they are the biggest songbird on earth.
43:35But like all birds, ravens sing in a very different way than humans.
43:45Corvids have a sound organ called a syrinx.
43:48It gives the ravens the ability to essentially talk to one another,
43:52and give each other a lot of different information.
43:56The syrinx is located deeper in the chest below the larynx, where the trachea branches into the lungs.
44:03Pairs of muscles control a set of membranes located at the head of each bronchial tube.
44:11The syrinx has a number of different sized holes through which they can blow air,
44:17making more of a flute-like sound than the vibrating sound we would get from a human larynx.
44:24Remarkably, each half of the syrinx can operate independently.
44:28This essentially gives a single bird two voices.
44:33Because ravens have two holes in their syrinx, one for each bronchia,
44:38and they can change the size of those holes to change the pitch of the sound,
44:43they can actually produce two different sounds at the same time.
44:46So it's almost like they're able to make stereo sounds rather than a single sound at a time.
44:52To complement this big sound system, ravens have an impressively large brain.
44:59Renowned for their intelligence, ravens consistently rank among the smartest creatures on the planet.
45:07Ravens have about the same brain to body size as humans.
45:12So these are very, very intelligent animals in terms of their intellectual capabilities.
45:19Their oversized brains give them astonishing flexibility and problem-solving power,
45:25helping them read emotions, manipulate others, and of course, communicate their thoughts.
45:32And ravens, it turns out, have a lot to say.
45:39Ravens can have between 30 and over 100 different types of calls, so different types of sounds,
45:44including marking their territory, they'll call to scare off predators, they'll call for help,
45:49and they'll warble to sue their partners.
45:52During courtships, they use their complex vocalizations and sounds to impress their mate.
45:59It is believed this is a way of showing off their biological fitness by emphasizing intelligence.
46:06And this expansive language isn't just reserved for other ravens.
46:10These birds will even call to members of other species,
46:14especially when there's a delicious meal to be had.
46:19When ravens find a carcass, they're not really equipped to cut into it.
46:24To get into a carcass, ravens make a huge amount of noise.
46:27And making this noise attracts other carnivores, like wolves,
46:32who come in and take their fill and leave the open carcass for the ravens to scavenge.
46:40And this bird is not only built to master its own language, it can also eerily mimic the voices of
46:47other
46:48creatures in the animal kingdom, including those of humans.
46:52At some point in human evolution, a switch went off where all of a sudden we developed this ability
46:59to communicate orally. Birds like the raven, they have some of those capabilities in that they're able to
47:06hear sounds and then mimic and reproduce them.
47:11But why can ravens form recognizable words when our closest animal relatives, chimpanzees, can't?
47:20Chimpanzees have the hardware in their vocal cords to be able to produce the speech.
47:24They even have the advanced neocortex, which is the area associated with language in the brain.
47:30They just don't have the neural connection between the neocortex, the tongue, and the vocal cords,
47:34which provides the motor control to produce the sounds and speech like humans.
47:40Ravens don't have neocortices, but they do have a part of their brain that works in a similar way
47:46called the pallium. It contains as many as two billion neurons, which is about the same number
47:54as the neocortex of a chimp. It's believed ravens can mimic so well because they have connections
48:01between the brain regions responsible for hearing and the regions responsible for vocal motor control.
48:13Basically, their brain computers are wired up to receive and remember audio input,
48:19then output it in the form of mimicry.
48:24But what makes mimicry such a vital skill in the ravens' evolutionary toolkit?
48:31Is it just a clever trick to annoy their neighbors, or does this uncanny talent hold a deeper purpose?
48:40Well, for one, it's how they learn their different calls.
48:45When they're first born, baby ravens speak a type of babble, but they have an innate ability to key
48:52into the calls of their own species. It's almost like they have a natural tuner in their head that
48:58allows them to pull in the correct channel and ignore songs and calls from other species.
49:03When they're tuned in, they learn by memorizing and mimicking, and that's where the wiring between
49:09their brain and syrinx comes in. But ravens take mimicry a step further. They don't just replicate
49:17general raven calls. They mimic the unique voices of individual ravens. This suggests their mimicry
49:26isn't just broad, but highly specific, implying a deeper understanding of social dynamics and individual
49:36recognition.
49:37If a raven is lost or missing, its mate will try to imitate its signature call to encourage it to
49:42return home.
49:43It's like sending a text message to someone to ask where they are, when they're going to come home.
49:49To get their message across, whatever it may be, the raven also has a range of physical postures up its
49:56sleeve.
49:58Ravens engage in all kinds of non-verbal communication amongst one another.
50:02They puff up and strut around when they are displaying dominance behavior,
50:06and they'll lower their head feathers and crouch down when they're displaying submissive behavior.
50:12And this clever bird can also relay a message in a way almost no animal other than humans can.
50:19Pointing.
50:22Ravens might not have fingers, but they do have vice-like beaks that they can use to point at objects.
50:29Scientists consider pointing to be a sign of advanced intelligence.
50:33Both parties need to be able to understand the social and contextual clues that are being communicated.
50:39It's another reason that ravens are considered master communicators within the animal kingdom.
50:46Evolution has bestowed ravens with the sophisticated vocal and physical hardware necessary
50:51for advanced communication, as well as the advanced brain software needed to use it.
50:59They are truly one of nature's master communicators.
51:18The bottlenose dolphin, the honey bee, the prairie dog, the leafcutter ant, and the raven are all excellent communicators within
51:27the animal kingdom.
51:28By sharing information and working together, these communication machines can thrive in the wild.
51:37How to explore thebok?
52:05estatalcent
52:07You
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