Narrator: Ever wondered why a raccoon
Might scale a 25-story skyscraper?
This is an extraordinary feat for any animal.
Narrator: Or why a duck would have a supersized flock?
76 babies, one mom. Something weird is happening.
Narrator: And why one species would feed another.
What could possibly induce a black-headed cardinal
To feed the hungry mouth of a goldfish?
Narrator: Nature is awe-inspiring,
But sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
Man: I have never, ever seen anything like this.
Strange animal behavior,
Unexpected events... Whoa!
...Captured on camera.
[ animals screeching ]
The truth behind them is astonishing.
Woman: My god!
Nature's greatest mysteries solved.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
Narrator: St. Paul, minnesota, June 12, 2018.
Like a scene from "spider-man," city workers gasp in awe
As our hero begins to scale a 25-story skyscraper.
But this superhero is a raccoon.
As she climbs higher and higher,
It becomes the biggest animal story of the year.
Woman: He's right here.
Burke: It seemed like it was doing the impossible --
Clinging on this sheer vertical face.
Everyone watched this with their hearts in their mouths.
I'm going to have a heart attack.
Cooke: Our raccoon isn't the slightest bit fazed
By this epic climb.
In between bouts of clambering up the building,
She'll even take a nap on a window ledge,
Much to the delight of the office workers.
The raccoon's here at the ledge.
So this climb doesn't faze her at all.
Man: Oh! Is she gonna take a break?
Woman: Take a break. Take a breather.
This is a very, very, very tall building,
Which is a very, very, very long climb.
Narrator: So long that she takes 12 hours to get to the 16th floor.
During that time, word of the raccoon's climb
Spreads like wildfire.
It became an internet sensation
Because this is an extraordinary feat for any animal.
Narrator: Fans name the raccoon rocket.
She soon has her own twitter account.
The story goes viral.
♪
But rocket's not the only thrill-seeker out there.
In the same year, this raccoon scaled
All the way up this crane.
There's anecdotal and recorded evidence of raccoons
Climbing skyscrapers,
Residences, power poles in increasing numbers.
Narrator: As a result of this adventurous behavior,
Some people call raccoons nature's ninjas.
This guy decided he didn't like the climb and jumped.
[ crowd gasping ]
Luckily, the sand landing allowed him to escape unscathed.
In fact, raccoons can survive falls of up to 130 feet.
Woman: Oh, my god.
But at 300 feet,
Rocket needs to hold on tight. Man: Come on, buddy.
Woman: You can do it, rocket!
♪
How do these critters get to such spectacular heights
To begin with?
To find out, we enlisted the help of raccoon expert
Suzanne macdonald, who lives in toronto,
One of the most raccoon-infested cities in the world.
Raccoons are capable of climbing pretty much anything.
So they can climb trees.
They can also climb metal structures.
They can climb the sides of houses,
Anywhere they can get purchase on it,
They can grasp onto things that others species can't.
Man: No, no, no.
Cooke: So raccoons have very strong limbs
And extremely dexterous hands
That are not dissimilar to our own.
They don't have opposable thumbs like we do,
But they do have very long fingers.
♪
[ laughter ]
Narrator: And these long fingers allow them to take on
What seems like the impossible.
Cooke: That skyscraper may look smooth to us,
But it's actually got a pebbly surface,
Which is just enough for a raccoon to grip onto.
Woman: Oh, hi, baby.
Narrator: And raccoons have another extraordinary skill
That makes them fearless climbers.
Raccoons are quite unusual
Because they have the ability to come down headfirst.
Cats don't.
That's why we always see cats stuck up trees.
Narrator: Now we know how our daredevil raccoon
Was able to scale the skyscraper.
The bigger question is, why?
Woman: Oh, poor baby.
Woman: Look at him.
♪
Cooke: In the wild, raccoons use those climbing skills
In order to climb trees or even cliffs
Because they'll build their dens high up.
So could she be pregnant,
And therefore, trying to find
The safest possible location to raise her young?
♪
Raccoons normally give birth in spring, and this was June.
So she couldn't have been pregnant,
But maybe she was climbing the building
To check on her existing kits.
♪
Narrator: Well, our raccoon-ologist
Has doubts over rocket's maternal motives.
Macdonald: I could tell immediately she wasn't a nursing mom.
I was following this obsessively on social media.
I did watch when she was in the windowsill,
And she was curled up, and I could tell immediately
'cause it is pretty obvious,
So I don't think she had babies to support.
♪
Narrator: Was this raccoon simply heading home?
Greive: Urban raccoons have up to a dozen dens
Scattered around three city blocks.
Could it have just established a den
Atop of this high-rise building?
Raccoons will make their dens in basically anything
They can squeeze their bodies into.
They've been known to make their dens in barns,
Sewers, cars.
Why not the top of a skyscraper?
Narrator: But would a raccoon pick such a difficult location?
Our expert thinks not.
Macdonald: No self-respecting raccoon would find a den site
At the top of a 25-story building.
That is not what raccoons do, so they need to be much closer
To the ground to get down easily.
So she must be going up there for another reason.
Narrator: Could she be going up in search of food?
♪
Greive: Keep in mind that when the raccoon was originally spotted,
She was on a neighboring building
Of just two stories where she was looking for pigeon eggs.
Narrator: While rural raccoons love this high-protein snacks,
There are much easier pickings for their city cousins.
♪
Cooke: In urban situations,
Raccoons tend to stick to one substance,
And that is garbage. [ laughs ]
They love our trash.
It provides them with almost everything that they need
In one dive.
[ dog barks ]
♪
In fact, their love of garbage
Has even given them the nickname trash pandas.
Macdonald: Raccoons are omnivores,
So they like high-fat foods,
They like high-protein foods, they can eat anything they find.
Chinese food, pizza, any kind of cookies, cake,
Anything that we would find delicious,
They find delicious as well.
♪
Greive: They'll break into houses through cat flaps.
They'll come in through cracks in windows and factories.
They'll steal snacks out of dumpsters.
I don't think there is a more gifted opportunist
In the animal kingdom.
Narrator: So, could our daredevil raccoon
Be reaching new heights in search of a snack?
Burke: So city raccoons don't have to work that hard.
They've got loads more opportunities for finding food.
So it's really unlikely that this is what's going on here.
[ woman laughs ]
Narrator: Rocket wasn't foraging for food.
She wasn't going up to look after her kits,
And she wasn't seeking out a new den.
So, was she just climbing for kicks?
Woman: I'm going to have a heart attack.
[ insects chirping ]
♪
Narrator: In a baffling 20-hour display of bravery,
A minnesota raccoon is free-climbing
A 25-story building.
So, what really drove this risk-taking raccoon
To attempt such a daring climb?
The answer is in their dna.
Scientists now believe that urban raccoons
Are evolving rapidly into a separate subspecies
As a direct result of their exposure
To an extraordinary array of problems and stimulus
That they would never have in the wild
Until, finally, they're quite a different animal
To the original raccoon.
Narrator: Case in point -- this guy,
Who takes on a raccoon-proof bird feeder
With stunt man skills.
Man: Oh, keep going.
[ laughs ]
I want to see if he actually can pull it off.
Man: He does! He does it all the time.
Look at him.
He's unscrewing it. He's unscrewing it.
Oh, my god.
He's unscrewing it with his bottom legs.
There it is. There it goes.
[ laughs ]
What a genius.
♪
Narrator: And according to expert suzanne macdonald,
This new raccoon super species
Has a trait that makes them take on the impossible.
Most animals are what we call neophobic,
Which means that when they see new things, they're afraid.
Urban raccoons are the exact opposite.
They are neophilic, which means they like new things.
When they see a new thing, they go to it, and they explore it.
Cooke: Neophilia means that they are very happy taking risks,
And this has enabled them to adapt
Fantastically to an urban landscape.
Woman: I'm sorry. I'm just curious.
Narrator: Experts suspect a craving for novelty
Is why rocket took on this 25-story challenge.
Her neophilia meant she simply couldn't quit.
Macdonald: I think in her little raccoon brain,
She just thought, "I just gotta keep going."
She was committed to just getting to the top.
Narrator: And finally, at 2:57 a.M., she gets there.
Thankfully, she doesn't have to climb back down.
Once you had reached the summit of this skyscraper
After 20 exhausting hours,
She was immediately taken into custody by animal control,
And she was relocated to a far less perilous habitat.
Macdonald: I was so happy to find out that she made it to the top okay.
I am on team raccoon, that's for sure.
Greive: One of a raccoon's strengths
Is they like to complete the tasks they set themselves.
Raccoons are really the special forces
In the animal kingdom.
There's really nothing they can't do.
♪
Narrator: Lake bemidgi, minnesota,
July 2018 --
A female duck is seen leading her brood across the water,
But something strange is going on.
This duck is being followed by almost 80 chicks.
Schreiber: 76 baby ducks, chicks.
That shouldn't happen. That's too many ducks.
♪
Narrator: So, is this the mother of all ducklings?
Something weird is happening here.
Burke: This is absolutely crazy.
I mean, she must be exhausted.
So, the obviously question is, are they hers?
♪
Narrator: Did duck supermom lay 76 eggs?
Other species are certainly capable
Of some pretty plentiful parenting.
There are some really prolific examples of spawners
In the animal world.
Army ants, the queen is known to lay
Between 3 and 4 million eggs in her lifetime.
Narrator: One of the few animal daddies to give birth
Is also a profuse procreator.
Burke: Seahorses are amazing.
I mean, they will give birth to live young,
And they give birth to up to 2,000 seahorses.
And in this case, it's the male doing all the work.
So with all these incredible examples of egg layers
And spawners in the natural world,
Is it possible that this species and this particular female
Is basically a super egg layer?
Narrator: But the merganser duck's rate of reproduction
Doesn't fit the bill.
The merganser species only have 6 to 12 eggs per clutch.
So where have all these extra ducks come from?
♪
Narrator: If the chicks weren't all laid by one mom,
Could another bird be responsible?
So there's a trick that some birds do to each other
That might be behind this.
And that is, when they lay their eggs in each other's nests
And trick other moms into raising their babies.
Narrator: The most notorious perpetrator of this con job -- the cuckoo.
Burke: So the cuckoo will actually lay its eggs in other birds' nests
And force those parents to raise its young.
But there's more to the story.
What's really amazing is, when a chick first emerges,
It starts turfing out the eggs of the host.
It's quite creepy, actually.
♪
Narrator: By getting rid of any potential rivals,
Baby cuckoos are almost certain to thrive.
They can even end up being fed by parents
Who are much smaller than they are.
That's because most birds don't recognize their own young
Or their own eggs from others, and ducks are no exception.
50% of the duck nests in north america
Contain the eggs of another duck species.
And the biggest swindler among them -- the redhead.
Burke: This is a really interesting strategy
Because what the redhead does here is she sizes up
How well the other females might be raising their young,
And if she thinks they're gonna do a better job than her,
She'll lay her eggs in another duck's nest.
Narrator: So, has duck supermom been duped into incubating
Another bird's eggs?
She'd have to be a ginormous mother duck
Because 76 eggs is far too many eggs for one duck
To be sitting completely over, so no, not possible.
Narrator: But just because she didn't incubate the eggs
Doesn't mean she isn't raising the chicks.
So, could supermom be running a crèche?
Crèche is french for nursery.
This means a few adults will take on the care
Of a number of baby birds that don't all belong to them.
So, an animal crèche is a really clever way
Of sharing the work of raising young.
Flamingos do it, ostriches do it.
So do penguins.
So is this what's happening here with our merganser duck?
Riskin: 76 birds?
I don't think so. That's not a crèche.
Besides which, there's only one mom there.
The whole idea with a crèche is, all the moms are sharing it.
All of those babies, they're all with one bird.
I think the key to this one is you gotta stop
Thinking about the mom, and you gotta think about the babies.
[ chirping ]
♪
[ insects chirping ]
Narrator: In lake bemidgi, minnesota,
Extraordinary footage is captured of a merganser duck
With 76 ducklings.
How is it possible that one bird could have so many chicks?
It turns out, the answer lies in a unique bird phenomenon.
Birds have this neat thing called imprinting where,
At some point in their development,
They see something move, and they decide, that's mom,
And they follow it everywhere.
Schreiber: Now, that doesn't necessarily
Even need to be a duck.
There's been cases where it's been a dog.
And they followed the dog and thought that was their mom
For their whole life.
[ chirping ]
♪
Narrator: And on lake bemidgi, an unusually long winter
Meant that the chicks' real parents
Laid their eggs later than usual.
The chicks had only just hatched
When it was time for the adults to migrate.
♪
With their parents gone,
The chicks then imprinted on the only remaining female.
Schreiber: One duck was wandering along,
And all these newly hatched chicks saw her,
Thought she was the mum, and she became their supermom.
So all these chicks have imprinted onto the one female
And now see her as mom, and vice versa.
The female doesn't really distinguish once she's
Bonded with the chicks between her own chicks
And the chicks of another bird.
It's quite amazing.
♪
[ insects chirping ]
♪
Narrator: 2010, carthage, illinois --
Extraordinary footage surfaces showing a bird feeding seeds
To some hungry fish.
Schreiber: We see a black-headed cardinal
Walk to the edge of the little pond,
And suddenly, a group of goldfish start coming up,
And the cardinal is feeding the goldfish.
The birds returned six times in a single day
To feed those goldfish.
Greive: Quite baffling to see this behavior.
What could possibly induce a black-headed cardinal
To feed the hungry mouth of a goldfish?
Narrator: The obvious answer is that the bird
Is getting something in return.
It's called mutual symbiosis.
This is when two unlikely animal species pair up
To help each other.
Schreiber: A symbiotic relationship is where two animals
Who definitely should not be hanging out with each other do,
And they work together.
Not unlike what we see with clownfish protecting
And in turn being protected by sea anemones.
Or, for example, oxpecker birds
Taking the parasites from the backs of rhino.
Narrator: But there's a problem with the mutual symbiosis theory.
The bird gets nothing from this, and so by definition,
It's not symbiosis.
Schreiber: But something is clearly attracting the cardinal.
I think there's actually a clue here when you look
At the gaping mouth of the goldfish as they come up.
♪
[ insects chirping ]
Narrator: In carthage, illinois, extraordinary footage
Is captured of a bird feeding fish in a pond.
We've ruled out symbiosis,
Where animals work together for mutual gain.
So, why is the bird doing it?
Greive: Could the bird be fishing?
Offering these morsels to lure in a fish that it could eat?
Narrator: This theory is supported by this heron,
Who knows exactly how to angle for a meal.
Schreiber: They come to the edge of a water
And just put bread into the surface area of it
And bring up the fish to the top.
And then when they come, will start attacking the fish
And eating them.
Narrator: A cunning hunting tactic.
But hold on a second.
Greive: These fish are far too large for a bird of that size to eat,
Even if it had the appetite for them,
Which this species of bird does not.
It's a seed-eating passerine.
It has no interest in fish and chips.
Narrator: In fact, it's the shape and color
Of the fishes' mouths
That's sending the cardinal an irresistible signal.
♪
A gaping mouth does look very similar to the gaping mouth
Of a young cardinal chick who's hungry and needs food.
Narrator: So it looks like this bird has confused the goldfish
For its own chicks
And is just doing the job of being a parent --
Feeding its young.
Greive: Which brings us to the conclusion
That this particular black-headed cardinal
Just has too much maternal love in its bosom,
And it wants to look after these little fish
As if they were its own.
I think it's lovely to see this interspecies affection.
[ insects chirping ]