1 00:00:01,600 --> 00:00:04,920 In the natural world... 2 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:07,000 ..you need to be smart... 3 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:10,400 ..to stay alive. 4 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:15,440 But we're only just discovering that some animals are brighter... 5 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,200 ..than we ever imagined. 6 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:24,280 I never fail to be impressed by nature's sheer ingenuity. 7 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,520 Now, brand-new science, using innovative techniques 8 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:30,560 and the latest technology, 9 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,720 is revealing some surprising brainboxes. 10 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,560 You can get bees to learn almost anything. 11 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:39,680 Researchers across the globe... 12 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,120 THEY LAUGH 13 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:44,160 ..are uncovering the mind-blowing tricks... 14 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:49,680 ..and clever strategies that give certain species the upper hand. 15 00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:53,280 It is an animal showcasing its intelligence 16 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:54,960 in front of your eyes. 17 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,640 As they build their homes... 18 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:02,720 ..navigate their world... 19 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:05,720 ..and raise their young. 20 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:11,400 It's time to get inside the minds of nature's savviest species. 21 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,040 But I warn you, there's going to be a few surprises 22 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:18,280 and some controversial candidates. 23 00:01:19,320 --> 00:01:22,240 But, most importantly, it's going to give us an opportunity 24 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,720 to learn from these animal Einsteins. 25 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,120 And that's really exciting. 26 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:34,040 We humans may think we're good at getting our message across, 27 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:37,480 but the animal kingdom has some seriously clever communicators. 28 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:39,480 CHIRPING 29 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:44,080 In this episode, I'll see a breakthrough in chimp chat. 30 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:46,680 What we found just blew our minds. 31 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:50,040 Feel the buzz of a new honey bee dictionary. 32 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:51,920 It's, "Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!" 33 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:56,680 And learn a special shrimp's secret messages. 34 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,320 A covert communication shrimp. 35 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:02,360 ROARING 36 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,200 TRUMPETING 37 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,200 CHIRPING 38 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:10,520 SNIFFING 39 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,600 When we take a walk in the wilder environment outside, 40 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,360 we tend to forget there's a whole world of communication here 41 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:22,560 that we can neither access, nor fully understand. 42 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:25,440 Listen. 43 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:27,280 Above the sound of the wind in the trees there, 44 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:29,520 you can hear birds calling. 45 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,040 And, of course, when we hear them singing, 46 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,240 we love that exquisite cascade of notes. 47 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:36,760 That beautiful sound. 48 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:39,480 BIRDSONG 49 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:43,200 And look at the dogs, their noses are constantly twitching. 50 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:46,840 Theirs is not so much a visual world as a world of smell. 51 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:48,280 SNIFFING 52 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,960 If we could hear, smell, see and feel 53 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,600 all of the communication going on around us, 54 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,240 we would be utterly overwhelmed. 55 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:03,720 And that, just in this little corner of the English countryside. 56 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:10,360 The animal world is jam-packed with clever communicators. 57 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:11,840 SQUEALING 58 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:13,080 ROARING 59 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:14,280 CALLING 60 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:15,720 BARKING 61 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:17,720 CROAKING 62 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,000 BUZZING 63 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:22,400 CACKLING 64 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:25,440 SQUAWK! 65 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:27,520 BIRDSONG 66 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,120 It's long been a quest for scientists 67 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,760 to try and cut through this complicated world of communication. 68 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,480 To get beyond our basic understanding 69 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:42,920 and reveal what animals are actually saying. 70 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:44,280 WHINING 71 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,080 I mean, if we could talk to the animals, 72 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:50,080 if we could learn their languages, 73 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,480 just think of all the things we could discuss. 74 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,720 What did you say when you were leaving? Say goodbye. 75 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,200 In an attempt to play Dr Dolittle, 76 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:01,640 scientists have turned to our closest animal relative, 77 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:03,360 the chimpanzee. 78 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,760 We've been trying to chat with chimps for decades, 79 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,200 but despite sharing around 99% of their DNA, 80 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:17,320 our attempts to teach them human language have largely failed. 81 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:19,040 First words... 82 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:20,520 CHIMP VOCALISES 83 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:25,160 ..then sign language. 84 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,240 Not only were some of the experiments questionable 85 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:31,720 in terms of the chimps' welfare, 86 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,320 the whole concept of teaching them was flawed. 87 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,720 Instead, we needed to learn from the chimps, 88 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,800 by studying them in their natural habitat. 89 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:50,760 Now, following years of meticulous observations in the field, 90 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:55,840 scientists are beginning to break through the ape language barrier. 91 00:04:55,840 --> 00:04:59,400 We've got a little family going down one of the forest trails here, 92 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:01,080 and it's Jenny, James 93 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,040 and her older daughter, Janet, following on behind. 94 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,440 And James is quite young at this point and Mum wants to get going, 95 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:12,120 so she pauses and just lifts and wiggles her back foot at him. 96 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,560 That's the signal that he has to climb on board 97 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:16,200 so that they can travel off for the day. 98 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:21,640 Primatologist Dr Cat Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews 99 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:24,280 has spent more than 15 years 100 00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:27,520 at the cutting edge of chimp communication research. 101 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:32,120 My main aim is basically to follow them around with my camera 102 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:34,240 and try and capture as much as possible 103 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:37,120 of their day-to-day communication. 104 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,800 Chimpanzees communicate in all of the ways we do. 105 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,840 Everything from vocalisations to body postures, 106 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:48,080 to facial expressions and, then, 107 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,120 to this incredible repertoire of gestures that they have. 108 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:58,000 Fundamentally, the vocalisations tend to be about the high drama. 109 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,080 The big kind of alarm, danger, predator. 110 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:04,240 HOOTING 111 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:08,000 With gesture, it's like getting to tune into their gossip channel. 112 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,200 All of these little different gestures that they make, 113 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,240 and they have over probably 70 different kinds, 114 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:17,960 are the ways in which they...they just go about their day-to-day life. 115 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,440 It's the, "Come here", or, "Can you give me that?" 116 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:22,200 or, "Go away, get lost". 117 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,000 What we've got here is Behati and Brian. 118 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,080 Now, Brian is a little boy 119 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:30,440 and he's getting to be that kind of juvenile stage 120 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:33,160 when he wants to join in with the big pant-hoot chorus 121 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,000 that all the adults love giving. 122 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,360 But that's still a kind of intimidating thing for him to do sometimes. 123 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:41,880 The pant-hoot is an important skill 124 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:44,160 for a young chimp like Brian to learn. 125 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,760 It plays a vital part in bonding the group together, 126 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,800 no matter where they are in the forest. 127 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,880 When he starts to pant-hoot, he reaches back 128 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,120 and he pops his fingers in his mum's mouth 129 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:58,720 and she pops her fingers in his mouth. 130 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:00,760 And that just seems to reassure him a little bit 131 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:02,800 that it was OK for him to do that. 132 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:08,440 Of the five great apes - 133 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:12,640 the gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee, bonobo and us, 134 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:17,280 the closest cousins in evolutionary terms are the chimp and bonobo, 135 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:21,040 separated by a mere one million years. 136 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,680 Cat found that a fellow scientist, Dr Kirsty Graham, 137 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,320 had been conducting her own research on bonobos 138 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,160 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 139 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:33,840 700 miles away from Cat's Ugandan chimps. 140 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,320 They may look fairly similar, 141 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,200 but these are two very different species. 142 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:43,480 And when Cat and Kirsty combined their results, 143 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:45,040 they had a breakthrough. 144 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:49,920 One of the things Kirsty and I found when we put our data together, 145 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:52,840 when we put our studies together, was that 146 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:57,320 of the 60 or 70 gestures that we defined in the chimps, 147 00:07:57,320 --> 00:07:59,880 almost all of them are present in bonobos. 148 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:03,520 And, actually, the more data we get on bonobos, the more overlap we see. 149 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:05,280 It blew our minds. 150 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:07,840 We expected some overlap, but just to see... 151 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,880 I mean, we're talking at the moment about 95% 152 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:13,400 between the types of gestures that they're using 153 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:16,840 and very high overlap in terms of the meanings. 154 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,880 We never would have expected to see anything quite like that. 155 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:24,280 These fundamental similarities in the use of gesture 156 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,720 must be rooted in the chimp and bonobos' evolution 157 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:29,720 from a common ancestor. 158 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:35,240 Incredibly, it means if a bonobo and a chimp came face-to-face, 159 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:39,400 they could probably communicate with each other cross-species. 160 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,200 And if chimps and bonobos share gestures, 161 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:44,800 what of the other great apes? 162 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:49,320 Sure enough, when Cat and her fellow biologists combined their research, 163 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:53,760 they were able to create a dictionary of distinct ape gestures 164 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,960 across four of the five great apes. 165 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:00,440 Leaving just one ape to test - us. 166 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:05,080 The team created this online quiz. 167 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,320 It gives a random selection of ape gestures, 168 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:11,520 but will I know what they all mean? 169 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,760 OK, so the animal on the right 170 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:18,920 is stroking the chin of the animal on the left, which is eating. 171 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,400 It's not "Stop doing that", clearly, 172 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:22,920 nor, "Move closer to me". 173 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:24,600 This is "Give me that food". 174 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:26,520 I'm pretty confident of that. 175 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,040 OK, two chimpanzees on the ground. 176 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,160 Well, hats off to the scientists. 177 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,800 Some of these gestures are very subtle, 178 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:44,280 and it's hard to know if I'm getting them right. 179 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:46,520 But, as in any statistical test, 180 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,600 there is a baseline for measuring success. 181 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:54,880 In order to show that people could understand what these ape 182 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:58,280 gestures mean, we needed them to be performing better than chance. 183 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:01,320 And chance was one in four - 25%. 184 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:05,200 And it turns out that people can do it really quite easily. 185 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:07,520 OK, I think that's it. 186 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:08,920 Let's see. 187 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:10,120 Well! 188 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:14,320 I scored 13 out of 20. 189 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:17,840 That's 65% correct. 190 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,960 I certainly did better than blind luck would dictate, 191 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:23,080 and I'm not alone. 192 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:27,160 The study showed that the majority of people can correctly decipher 193 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:32,960 some ape gestures, with a few of the gestures understood 80% of the time. 194 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:36,000 We made it as hard as we possibly could. 195 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:37,920 We give no information, 196 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:41,600 and yet people can still understand what these gestures mean 197 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:45,240 just from seeing these few seconds of movement. 198 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:48,680 To be honest, there was a tiny part of us that was a little bit annoyed 199 00:10:48,680 --> 00:10:52,200 at that! Because we literally... literally we have spent our academic 200 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:54,160 lives devoted to trying to understand it, 201 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:56,680 and it turns out that you can do it instinctively 202 00:10:56,680 --> 00:10:58,440 really quite accurately! 203 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:04,480 So, amazingly, we humans seem to have an innate understanding 204 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:08,240 of ape gestures and how to interpret them. 205 00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:12,240 It's a Dr Dolittle skill that most of us didn't know we had. 206 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:17,080 There are some ape gestures that seem very familiar 207 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:19,800 to those that we also use. 208 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,040 That's what children do. When children want to be carried, 209 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,280 they just stand there with a grievous look on their faces, 210 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:29,560 whining, holding their hands up, like that. 211 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:34,280 So are we all making ape gestures without realising, too? 212 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:36,000 To test the theory, 213 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,600 the ideal subjects are small human apes. 214 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,480 With limited verbal communication skills, 215 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:45,160 they're commonly known as toddlers. 216 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:53,320 This was a pilot study. It was a very small group of kids. 217 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:56,800 We had children from a few different places around the world. 218 00:11:56,800 --> 00:11:59,960 We picked up a camera and we followed them around for the day, 219 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:02,000 and we coded it exactly the same way 220 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,520 as we would have done for the chimps and the bonobos. 221 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:11,160 We expected to find a few gestures. 222 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:14,680 What we found in this pilot study just blew our minds. 223 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:20,080 We found over 50 different gestures that these kids 224 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:25,960 were using, and then, incredibly, over 45, 46 of them 225 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,440 are shared with the chimpanzees. 226 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:32,680 So humans use the same biologically inherited repertoire - 227 00:12:32,680 --> 00:12:36,320 this repertoire of gestures that all apes share and have 228 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:40,200 in common, we have that too, and we're using it pretty prolifically 229 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,000 when we're still really young. 230 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:47,800 That's an incredible 90% of children's natural gestures 231 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:52,200 also used by other apes. So, on the basis of this new research, 232 00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:56,960 if a bonobo, a chimp and a child met face-to-face, 233 00:12:56,960 --> 00:12:59,720 they could all communicate with each other. 234 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:05,400 As we get older, our gestural communication may be superseded 235 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:07,280 by our verbal language. 236 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:09,440 But, as I proved with my test, 237 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:14,120 we still hold on to a latent ability to understand our ape cousins. 238 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,800 When I first started out studying gesture, I had no idea 239 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,840 that we were going to find just this incredible system of communication. 240 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:29,960 What's really exciting going forward is that, by truly understanding 241 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,000 what individual apes are saying to each other, 242 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,080 we get to understand their world. 243 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,680 We get to ask questions about how they think, 244 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:40,320 about what their intelligence is like, 245 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:44,480 about what's important to them, about their social structure. 246 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:46,480 Communication is this tool we can use 247 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:48,440 to ask a million other questions. 248 00:13:50,680 --> 00:13:52,760 Cat and her colleagues' research 249 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:54,960 is truly bridging the communication gap 250 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:57,160 with our clever great ape relatives, 251 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:01,400 and providing a brand-new insight into their daily lives. 252 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:06,720 So, what does the communication of other, more birdbrained species 253 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:08,800 reveal about their intelligence? 254 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,600 Birdsong. 255 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,080 Many of us are lucky enough to hear it every day. 256 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:23,600 Of course, we know the birds are communicating with each other, 257 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,240 but what are they saying? 258 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,240 Why? And does it demonstrate intelligence? 259 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,960 The truth of it is, although bird songs are intricate, detailed 260 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:37,600 and beautifully tuneful, their messages are often 261 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:39,880 a little more, well, blunt. 262 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:48,360 Birds normally sing for just two reasons - to attract a mate, 263 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:50,400 or to repel the competition. 264 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:01,360 Now, we like to think of birdsong as something which is reassuringly 265 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:04,800 fixed, but every species has its individual song 266 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:08,840 which it sings in the same way, wherever it is in the world. 267 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,440 My favourite is the song thrush. Just listen to this. 268 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:13,360 SONG THRUSH SINGS 269 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:15,000 It's beautiful, isn't it? 270 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,240 Those whistles, those cascades of notes. 271 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:20,880 Really lifts your spirit in springtime. 272 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:22,160 But here's a question. 273 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:26,160 Do you think that song thrushes were singing exactly the same song 274 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:30,040 100 years ago? Well, I can't answer that. 275 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,480 I wasn't around 100 years ago, but there is something I can tell you, 276 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:36,120 and that is that there's one species of bird 277 00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:40,360 that has very definitely changed its tune in recent times. 278 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,840 The white-throated sparrow is a small ground nesting bird, 279 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,040 widespread across the US and Canada. 280 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:52,360 The male bird was always known for this song... 281 00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:59,640 It's a pretty tune with a triplet ending. 282 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,800 But, around 50 years ago, to the west of the Rocky Mountains 283 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,840 in British Columbia, a new version of the song emerged. 284 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:15,520 This one has a doublet phrase to finish. 285 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:21,040 This new, simpler-ending song must have proved popular with the females 286 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,360 because it spread quickly, and has now been adopted by birds 287 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,520 2,000 miles away in western Quebec. 288 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:35,200 So, how have these white-throated sparrows transformed their song 289 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,520 so quickly over such a broad geographical area? 290 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:43,160 Well, perhaps it's because the song was so simple to start with. 291 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:46,600 It's an onomatopoeic song, in that it sounds like something 292 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:50,040 that we might say. In this case, people thought they were saying, 293 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,520 "Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada." 294 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:58,920 Only now, they're singing, "Oh, sweet Cana, Cana, Cana." 295 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:03,840 All they've done is drop a syllable to make a big difference, 296 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:06,520 and I think I can demonstrate how effectively that works 297 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:09,000 with a very simple tune here. 298 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,240 It's about five ducklings. It's a nursery rhyme. 299 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:16,440 And, of course, we want our nursery rhymes to be very simple 300 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:18,680 so that children can learn them, 301 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:23,360 so they have a limited range of notes and they're very repetitive. 302 00:17:23,360 --> 00:17:26,000 "FIVE LITTLE DUCKS" PLAYS 303 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,240 Repetitive to the point of being a little bit tedious. 304 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:34,400 To my mind, this is a song that needs transformation. 305 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,640 So I put a safety pin through my beak. 306 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,760 I've been doing a bit of mixing on the decks here 307 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:43,040 and I've come up with... 308 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:45,920 ..this. 309 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:48,000 DRUMS AND GUITAR ADDED 310 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,480 In fact, let's have a bit more volume. 311 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:55,600 Yes! I think that's altogether a great improvement of this song. 312 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:01,520 But, of course, you can still hear the original tune. 313 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:03,560 Thankfully, only just. 314 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:09,800 It goes to show a few punk amendments have a big impact, 315 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:12,120 and the white-throated sparrows' remix 316 00:18:12,120 --> 00:18:14,560 must have impressed the females. 317 00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:18,400 We think that has to be the reason behind his change in tune. 318 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,600 Now, most bird songs are learned from parent birds, either 319 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:27,760 when the chicks are still in the nest or when they've just fledged. 320 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:32,280 But some birds' home-schooling needs to begin even earlier, 321 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,880 all because of a punk impostor. 322 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:36,720 CUCKOOS 323 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:40,360 The cuckoo's anti-establishment behaviour is brazen 324 00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:45,880 and, when it comes to hard work, it prefers to let others do the graft. 325 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:47,520 Especially parenting. 326 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:52,760 Often, cuckoos leave their eggs in the nest of another species, 327 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,280 leaving the unwitting parents to bring up their baby. 328 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:58,880 It's called brood parasitism. 329 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:06,960 But over in Australia, there's one small songbird that's outsmarted 330 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:12,040 the canny cuckoo...with some incredible prenatal communication. 331 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:15,920 When we walked around the park, we had heard these noises 332 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:18,520 from the nest, and we really had no idea why a female 333 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:21,480 would be being so conspicuous, because it attracts predators. 334 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,960 Professor Sonia Kleindorfer and Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel 335 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,520 have been studying the superb fairy wren in Adelaide. 336 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,280 So we recorded the call for several hours. 337 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:39,280 Then we looked at it in a spectrogram on a computer 338 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:42,080 and we identified two elements - A and B. 339 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:44,320 We had no idea what was going on. 340 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:46,960 We kept the recorders at the nest and, then, 341 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:50,760 when the nestlings hatched, they produced a begging call. 342 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:55,480 And, strangely, each nest had a different begging call, 343 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:56,960 and that made no sense. 344 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:00,160 Why would the begging call of the same species 345 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,200 be different in each nest? 346 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,240 And so we looked at the begging call in the spectrogram, 347 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:10,360 and we found that it looked like the element B 348 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:12,920 of its mother's incubation call. 349 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:17,360 Sonia and Diane had discovered that each unique begging call - 350 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:22,400 the chick's request for food - contained a nest-specific code, 351 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:26,640 a password that must have been taught to the chick whilst 352 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:28,840 it was still an embryo in the egg. 353 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:33,840 We discovered that superb fairy-wren females are calling to the eggs 354 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,560 during the late phase of incubation, 355 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:41,440 and there's a specific element that the female is teaching her embryos 356 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:45,960 so that the embryos can then produce it as a hatchling to get some food. 357 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,320 Cuckoo chicks hatch earlier than the fairies, leaving them 358 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:53,000 too little time to learn the fairy mum's password. 359 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:58,760 So, once hatched, the only chicks to get the grub are the right ones. 360 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:03,160 So, with the fairy wrens, we are looking at how what you are exposed 361 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:06,800 to as an embryo and what you are learning as an embryo 362 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:11,280 can influence your survival and your success as a nestling, 363 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,320 but also as a fledgling and an adult. 364 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:19,440 The fairy wrens' superb coded password sends on a simple but vital 365 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,840 message to the next generation. 366 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,800 Clever. But it certainly couldn't be classed as language. 367 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,960 Human language has syntax, a set of rules for connecting words 368 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,400 together, giving us the ability 369 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:36,200 to make statements and form questions. 370 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:41,320 But that level of complexity is incredibly rare in the animal world. 371 00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:47,680 "To be or not to be?" 372 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:49,240 That is the question, Pip. 373 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,800 No, clearly not impressed. I'll try again. 374 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,760 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 375 00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:00,640 Though art more lovely and more temperate. 376 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,520 Pip's still not impressed, and that's not surprising 377 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,200 because our language is an incredibly 378 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,720 complex and structured means of communication, 379 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:15,560 which allows us to be infinitely creative, writing things like poetry 380 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,680 and fantastical stories. And did you know that, in the English language, 381 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:25,040 there are more than a million words? 170,000 in common parlance, 382 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:29,080 and you and I regularly use between 20,000 and 30,000 383 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:34,120 as we go about our everyday lives - using structured grammar to achieve 384 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:38,000 even the simplest things, like asking for a cup of tea with milk. 385 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,280 Oat milk. With two sugars, please. 386 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:45,760 So you see, when it comes to our language, it's incredibly complex. 387 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,600 In fact, in the animal kingdom, there are few other species 388 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:53,000 whose communication could actually be called a language. 389 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,120 One exception, however, are the prairie dogs. 390 00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:58,240 Yes, like Pip here. 391 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:03,200 Their range of yips, chips and chitters is equally complex. 392 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,680 And, what's more, they can even be creative with it. 393 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:11,120 Come on, Pip, let's hear your version of Shakespeare. 394 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:18,760 For Pip's brothers and sisters, home is the plains of North America. 395 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,520 But, unfortunately for them, the plains are also home to a wealth 396 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:24,880 of prairie dog-eating predators. 397 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:30,200 And that sparks many a chittering chat within the pack. 398 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:34,280 Now, the more eagle-eyed of you will have spotted 399 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:36,920 that these are prop predators. 400 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:41,200 They were made by Professor Con Slobodchikoff, who devised a test 401 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:45,280 to see if he could understand prairie dog warning calls, 402 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:49,120 and he's learned they produce a different call for each predator 403 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:52,240 they spot. But it doesn't end there. 404 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,080 Remarkably, there's a huge amount of information 405 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,480 in these seemingly simple chirps. 406 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,560 These chirps contain a noun-like word, 407 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,160 and it also contains adjective-like words. 408 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:10,200 So we might say tall, skinny coyote, with yellow fur, 409 00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:14,880 and the prairie dogs manage to put all of this into a single chirp. 410 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,560 REPETITIVE CHIRPING 411 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:21,400 The key is the prairie dog's careful control of 412 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:22,920 harmonics within each call. 413 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:27,280 This allows them to neatly and concisely package 414 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,280 a lot of information in a very short sound. 415 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:35,040 The ability to adapt their calls creatively, in the moment, 416 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,880 is a fundamental hallmark of language, a linguistic 417 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,320 process called productivity. 418 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,680 It may not be Shakespeare, but it's getting there. 419 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:50,280 Pip's using the medium of sound to show off his complex language skills, 420 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:55,320 but some animals use a completely different property of sound 421 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:57,360 to get their message across. 422 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:01,880 CONSTANT TONE 423 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,160 What is sound and how do we hear it? 424 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:07,520 Now, there's a question. 425 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:10,560 Well, sound starts off as vibrations 426 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:15,440 which travel through the air or water until it reaches our ears. 427 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:20,640 Now, in all truth, our ear doesn't hear the sound. 428 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:24,600 It's our brains' analysis of those vibrations and electrical 429 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:29,640 impulses which allow us to hear the sound that we hear. 430 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,520 We're very, very fortunate to have ears like this. 431 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,680 Without them, we would never be able to appreciate The Clash 432 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,640 and the Sex Pistols and The Jesus and Mary Chain. 433 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,920 But, of course, there are many species which don't 434 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,720 have structures like this. 435 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,760 But that's not to say that they can't be very sensitive 436 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:50,800 to vibrations. 437 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:04,440 If the honey bee was to fly amongst us here, 438 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,800 this honey bee would probably 439 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,480 not pick up my conversation, 440 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,880 because honey bees do not have eardrums. 441 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,040 We think they don't perceive sounds, 442 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,560 or, if they do, it's probably 443 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,280 a very poor reception of sound that they have. 444 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:27,000 Vibrations are probably one of the most important channels of communication for honey bees. 445 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:31,600 And it is a great way for them to communicate in the darkness 446 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:32,640 of the colony. 447 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,240 Dr Martin Bencsik is a world-leading bee specialist. 448 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,440 His team at Nottingham Trent University have developed 449 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:47,440 a revolutionary observation hive, allowing them to observe 450 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,680 natural honey BEE-haviour. 451 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:56,240 We can lift the observation stage into this transparent Perspex box. 452 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,960 Using military-grade technology, called accelerometers, 453 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,560 Martin has been able to record the vibrations that the bees use 454 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:08,160 to communicate with each other. 455 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:15,080 They allow us to pick up one vibrational pulse coming from one 456 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,720 individual honey bee. 457 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,360 This highly sensitive tech is not exactly 458 00:27:20,360 --> 00:27:22,680 standard in an apiarist's toolkit. 459 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,040 It's more usually found in weapons guidance systems. 460 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:32,920 When I purchased these, I had to sign the paperwork promising 461 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,400 that I would not use these to build missiles. 462 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,520 The vibrations picked up by the accelerometer 463 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,360 are processed by a computer. 464 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:47,000 It's doing the same job that our brain does, 465 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,320 analysing and converting vibrational signals into sound. 466 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:57,320 Here you can see the speakers, on which the live signal 467 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:01,160 coming from two accelerometers in the hive are being fed. 468 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:04,040 RHYTHMIC BEEPING 469 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:08,200 What we are hearing here isn't the normal buzz of a bee. 470 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:10,360 This is bee communication. 471 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,440 Bees generate the signals with their wing muscles. 472 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:22,120 Vibrating them at a certain frequency produces a unique signal. 473 00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:26,560 In human terms, they are producing individual words. 474 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:33,520 We are clarifying the repertoire of pulse vibrations 475 00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:37,320 that honey bees use to communicate amongst each other. 476 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,200 What Martin's saying is that he's writing the world's 477 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,560 first bee dictionary. 478 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:46,120 I like that expression. 479 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,920 Yes, a bee dictionary. HE CHUCKLES 480 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,120 WHOOP 481 00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,920 Bees live in very tight packing. 482 00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:02,720 This is the only way they can sustain the 35 degrees 483 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,400 they need to live. 484 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:10,520 It is a crammed society and we think often they collide into each other 485 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,920 accidentally, causing the "whoop" that you can hear. 486 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:21,560 When we accidentally bump into each other in a tube station, we say, "Whoops." 487 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:25,200 It is you, the one being, the victim of the collision 488 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:26,920 who goes, "Whoops." 489 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:28,600 QUACK 490 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,000 The quacking signal. 491 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:37,880 The quack, as it says, is...it sounds like a duck quacking, 492 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,760 it goes quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. 493 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:48,040 Queen bees are generated in vertical cells, 494 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:55,760 and we think that this queen bee is asking to come out. 495 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,280 TOOT 496 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:00,000 The tooting signal. 497 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:07,360 This queen bee has emerged from her cell 498 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,000 and she's roaming around the colony... 499 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,520 ..broadcasting this enormous, splendid, 500 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,240 strong and long signal called the tooting. 501 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,440 SIREN-LIKE TOOT 502 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:32,280 We think that it manipulates the physiology of the worker bees 503 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:38,400 and we think the worker bees are led to keep the other queens, 504 00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:43,520 which are quacking, they are kept captive by the worker bees in order 505 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,720 to avoid the presence of two mobile queens in the colony. 506 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:51,640 Without this signal to the nurse bees, 507 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,120 two queens would fight to the death, 508 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,680 leaving the colony in trouble. 509 00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,160 To test his theory of the signals' meaning, 510 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,960 Martin vibrated an entire frame of bees 511 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,440 at the same frequency as the queen's toot. 512 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,880 TOOTING And sure enough, 513 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,000 the bees' reaction is clear. 514 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,320 They all appear to freeze. 515 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:22,720 The field of exploring vibrational communication is in its infancy. 516 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:29,280 We have only started to reveal the repertoire and the range 517 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,800 of different signals and how often they take place in a colony. 518 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:41,000 What surprised me the most is the sophistication of the behaviour 519 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:42,640 of an insect. 520 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:49,720 It is an animal showcasing, disclosing its intelligence 521 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:51,120 in front of your eyes. 522 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,240 You just have to lift the frame, watch them communicate. 523 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:55,680 It's very exciting. 524 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:03,520 These vibrational signals are perfect to convey simple messages 525 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:05,760 to thousands of individuals. 526 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:10,720 We can appreciate a colony as one intelligent whole. 527 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,680 It is, of course, the original hive mind. 528 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:19,440 But for an individual animal to share more complex messages, 529 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,000 it needs even smarter methods. 530 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,400 Dolphins are renowned for being intelligent communicators. 531 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:35,440 They use a broad range of clicks, pops and whistles to share messages 532 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:38,640 with each other over distances of around 12 miles. 533 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,320 But how do they create these sounds? 534 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:48,440 I can demonstrate that by showing you a dolphin skull. 535 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:53,680 Here are two orifices which come from the lungs and they would exit 536 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,120 through the blowhole, which sits above the dolphin's head, 537 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,440 that's its breathing apparatus. 538 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:02,840 But what's interesting is that, in between here and the blowhole, 539 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:07,520 it has a series of air sacks in front of these holes 540 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:12,160 which it can inflate and they act a bit like a balloon. 541 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,320 The dolphin can voluntarily blow them up... 542 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,760 ..and then they can release air from these air sacks 543 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:22,320 to produce a sound... 544 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:24,560 HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE 545 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:25,800 ..similar to this. 546 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:27,960 HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE 547 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:33,040 My impression isn't bad, but let's listen to the real thing. 548 00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:34,800 LONG WHISTLE, FOLLOWED BY SHORT WHISTLE 549 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,840 This is the signature whistle of Imp. 550 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:40,680 This is Pasta. 551 00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:43,240 SHORT, REPETITIVE PAIRS OF WHISTLES 552 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,480 So you can see just how different the signature whistles 553 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:47,720 of Pasta and Imp are. 554 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,880 Dr Stephanie King can identify dozens of individual 555 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,280 dolphin signature whistles or names. 556 00:33:56,280 --> 00:34:00,120 These ones belong to two male bottlenose dolphins from Stephanie's 557 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,760 research study in Shark Bay, Australia. 558 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,240 They're not given this name, if you like, by their mum. 559 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:08,800 They're not born with it. 560 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,960 But, instead, research has shown that they use all the sounds 561 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,320 that they hear in their environment, other whistles, and then they create 562 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,320 something unique, something that's different. 563 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:21,640 Dolphins use these individual names to stand out, 564 00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,880 to be easily identifiable to others. 565 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:28,320 As social animals, it's important they know who's who 566 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:30,680 and can recognise a useful ally. 567 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:36,280 Individuals work together to forage for food, and strong communication 568 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:40,160 is of great benefit when corralling a large shoal of fish. 569 00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:45,800 But male dolphins also use their communication skills 570 00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:49,680 when on the hunt for a mate, forming alliances with their best friends. 571 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:52,960 They're formed with their peers, 572 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,360 the other males that are similar age to them, 573 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,080 that they spend all their time with, 574 00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:59,840 that they have strong friendships with, that they play with. 575 00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,480 And, so, by the time they do reach sexual maturity, 576 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,960 they've already formed these alliances. 577 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,800 Only a small number of females come into season each year. 578 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:13,280 So you might imagine the competition to win a mate could get ugly. 579 00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,480 But Stephanie's research shows quite the opposite. 580 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,840 You can see they work together in trios to find a female 581 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:21,520 and they will herd her. 582 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:26,000 So they'll restrict her movements 583 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,400 and they'll keep that female with them. 584 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,760 The three male buddies tightly follow the female, 585 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,960 but, to keep their herding formation and maintain their tight bond, 586 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,360 they use another form of dolphin communication - 587 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,280 touch. 588 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,000 Males will spend a lot of time petting each other, 589 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,600 rubbing their pectoral fins against each other, 590 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,600 a bit like grooming in primates 591 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,240 or holding hands in humans. 592 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:53,080 They're strengthening these bonds all the time. 593 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,280 "We are good friends, we are buddies. 594 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:56,920 "We need to work well together." 595 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:03,440 This synchronised swimming behaviour clearly shows how tight this bond 596 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:05,960 is between the three males, 597 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,520 but in 2020, Stephanie combined her video footage 598 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:12,800 with hydrophone underwater audio recordings 599 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,800 and discovered males maintain their bond 600 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:17,920 in another way, too. 601 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,520 We found that they don't just use physical behaviours, 602 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:24,120 but they also coordinate and synchronise one of their vocalisations - 603 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,360 the pops. So... 604 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,400 SHE POPS RHYTHMICALLY 605 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:30,840 DOLPHINS POP RHYTHMICALLY 606 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,960 They produce their pops in unison, matching each other's tempo, 607 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:38,560 starting and stopping at the same time 608 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:40,200 when they're herding these females. 609 00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:45,440 So, this combination of touch and coordinated calls 610 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,720 is the key to their teamwork. 611 00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:53,000 In humans, we know that synchronist behaviour leads to cooperation. 612 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:56,440 THEY CHANT IN UNISON 613 00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,280 One great example is the haka. 614 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,200 In that dance display, you see those synchronised movements, 615 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,560 those coordinating chants. 616 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:08,000 It's meant to intimidate the rivals 617 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,440 and also to promote unity in the group. 618 00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:12,080 "We are one strong team." 619 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:13,840 ALL: Ah! 620 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:17,880 The same appears to be true for dolphins. 621 00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:21,440 And this male bonding is even more impressive when you think 622 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,840 of how rare this kind of collaboration is 623 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:25,840 in the animal kingdom. 624 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:30,360 When it does happen, it's normally only found in family groups, 625 00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,000 not in would-be rivals. 626 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:36,640 It's a natural way of perhaps combating any competitiveness 627 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:38,200 that they have between them. 628 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,560 They all want to mate with the female or at least 629 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,120 they want to father the offspring. 630 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,400 And, over the course of their lifetime, they'll all get 631 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,000 opportunities if they stay together and work together. 632 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,080 So by maintaining these relationships and promoting unity 633 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:54,120 and strengthening their bonds over their lifetime, 634 00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,160 they will sire more offspring than if they were on their own. 635 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:03,640 For male bottlenose dolphins, teamwork pays off 636 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,720 and it's all achieved through a constant communication of clicks, 637 00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:09,280 whistles and touch. 638 00:38:11,240 --> 00:38:13,640 In the gloom of the underwater world, 639 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:17,280 using non-visual communication makes sense. 640 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,920 Beneath the surface, light refracts through the water, 641 00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,960 and, as you descend, light levels fall dramatically 642 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:29,360 and certain wavelengths of light, or colours, disappear altogether. 643 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,960 But there are animals down here that don't perceive light 644 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:36,160 in the same way as us. 645 00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:39,000 They're using a whole different property of light 646 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,480 to get their message across. 647 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,880 They're using the polarisation of light. 648 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,640 Now, we can't typically see polarised light, 649 00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,280 but I can demonstrate its existence. 650 00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,080 When light bounces from the surface 651 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:59,720 of a pond like this, it's typically reflected with a lot of that light 652 00:38:59,720 --> 00:39:05,440 in one plane of movement, it's very strongly polarised. 653 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:09,720 And, as a consequence of that, if I put on these very snazzy 654 00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:13,520 polarising sunglasses and look at the pond, 655 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,960 the glare seems to disappear. 656 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,840 I'm not seeing the polarised light. 657 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,680 I'm filtering it out. 658 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:25,920 Whilst our eyes can't detect it, 659 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,080 many animals above and below the water surface, 660 00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:33,640 particularly invertebrates, can see the polarisation of light. 661 00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:35,800 So exactly what is it? 662 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,640 Bear with me for a short physics lesson. 663 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:43,200 Under normal lighting conditions, light photons leave their source - 664 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:47,000 often the sun - as electromagnetic light waves. 665 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:51,520 The light waves have two component parts - an electric field that moves 666 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:55,360 in one plane, coupled with a perpendicular magnetic field. 667 00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:01,680 These two forces produce light waves oriented in many different angles. 668 00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:04,720 When they're all mixed together in normal light, 669 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:07,160 they are unpolarised. 670 00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:09,880 But, as soon as light hits a surface, 671 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,560 some of the waves are reflected in a certain plane 672 00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,000 and become polarised. 673 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:16,720 As light travels into water, 674 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:21,240 it's scattered by tiny suspended particles, leading to an environment 675 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:24,040 even richer in polarisation. 676 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:25,840 It's a little complicated, I know, 677 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,000 but, for the creatures that can see it, 678 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:32,720 the polarisation of light becomes a secret communications channel 679 00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:35,200 that we're only just tuning into. 680 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:39,520 To try and understand it, scientists have built cameras that replicate 681 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,480 the vision of the mantis shrimp. 682 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:46,000 This misnamed crustacean actually isn't a shrimp at all, 683 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,400 but a stomatopod, 684 00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:50,600 a distant relative to crabs and lobsters. 685 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,440 A fearsome predator in the underwater world, 686 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:57,160 it's also known to have the best eyesight in the animal kingdom - 687 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:01,800 in part, thanks to its ability to see the polarisation of light. 688 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,080 We take these kind of cameras into places like 689 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:07,800 the Great Barrier Reef to look at what different animals 690 00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,080 look like in their natural surroundings. 691 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,800 If you look at mantis shrimp species that occupy these environments, 692 00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:16,640 many of them also look camouflaged in colour. 693 00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:20,880 They stand out really clearly in polarisation. 694 00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,120 Dr Martin How, from the University of Bristol, 695 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:27,600 has been studying the ecology of vision for more than a decade, 696 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:31,880 and he's revealing the advantages that animals gain by communicating 697 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:33,960 with polarised light. 698 00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,160 Most big predatory fish are insensitive 699 00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,000 to the polarisation of light. 700 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:42,280 You're essentially communicating something in secret to other members 701 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:45,360 of your species, a covert communication signal. 702 00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:51,200 The benefits are twofold - as well as remaining undetected 703 00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:54,440 by larger predators, for the few marine species that can see them, 704 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:56,640 they are vividly clear. 705 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,320 When you're signalling against a complex background, 706 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,160 you need to try and stand out. 707 00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:05,720 And the way to do that in the simplest way possible 708 00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:08,040 is in polarisation. 709 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:11,480 The other thing that's really cool about these polarised patterns 710 00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:14,280 is that they work equally well at any depth. 711 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:17,200 So it's a really reliable communication pattern. 712 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,440 Today, Martin is using specialised camera technology 713 00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:24,760 to look at two species in the lab. 714 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,920 The first - one of his regular research subjects, 715 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,160 the peacock mantis shrimp... 716 00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:33,000 There we are, it grabbed the cockle. 717 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,600 ..and another species that's never been seen before 718 00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:41,000 through the polarised light camera, the dwarf cuttlefish. 719 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:44,920 Unlike a normal video camera that records the colours red, 720 00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:49,240 green and blue, Martin's camera and computer software convert 721 00:42:49,240 --> 00:42:53,920 polarised light, that's invisible to us, into false colour images 722 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:55,560 that we can understand. 723 00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:00,480 So on the screen, the more colourful the part of the image, 724 00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:02,240 the more polarised it is, 725 00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:05,960 and the colour relates to the angle of polarisation that it's detecting. 726 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:11,040 So just how do these animals create their covert polarised signals? 727 00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,840 So what these manta shrimp have is they've got these big antennal scales, 728 00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:16,760 these big sort of display panels, 729 00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:18,760 that they have on either side of their heads, 730 00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:22,360 and they can angle those to different positions. 731 00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,040 And, by changing the angle of those, they can change how conspicuous 732 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,600 that polarisation pattern is. 733 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:32,800 We are yet to fully understand what the signals mean, 734 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:37,040 but they are likely to be used to attract a mate or repel a rival. 735 00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:42,520 These animals, that are equipped with very, very damaging hammers, 736 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:48,440 they're perfectly adapted to smashing open shell or cuticle. 737 00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:51,320 They're also very good at damaging each other. 738 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:56,120 So that's doubly important that they communicate effectively. 739 00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:01,360 One mistake in how you communicate could mean the difference 740 00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:03,000 between life and death. 741 00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:07,840 Martin's research is taking another step forward today, 742 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,040 as he's able to take his first polarised look 743 00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:13,360 at the diminutive dwarf cuttlefish. 744 00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:19,080 Now, I don't think anyone's looked at polarisation patterns 745 00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:20,600 in this species before, 746 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,400 so this is quite an interesting discovery, I think. 747 00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,800 They don't have any colour vision at all. 748 00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,120 So these animals are completely colour-blind. 749 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:32,400 Instead, they've opted to go for very, very good polarisation vision. 750 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,880 Just under the pupil, here, of the eye, 751 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,760 we've got this little tiny green patch, that, for me, 752 00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:44,200 is a good candidate for a polarisation communication signal. 753 00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,640 This polarised signal may be small, 754 00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:50,960 but it demonstrates the breakthroughs that are 755 00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:54,000 only now possible in this field of research. 756 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:56,920 Right now, we're only scratching the surface. 757 00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:01,160 We've identified a few animals that seem to have these polarised body patterns. 758 00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:05,680 I think the more we look, the more we're going to uncover. 759 00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,240 And that's one of the beauties of this new camera technology, 760 00:45:08,240 --> 00:45:10,040 it's that we can really get out and see 761 00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:12,600 where the communication patterns are. 762 00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:15,120 I think we'll find all sorts of interesting things. 763 00:45:22,240 --> 00:45:26,280 Whereas only some animals are equipped to see polarised light, 764 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:31,600 the vast majority of creatures use smell to interact with each other. 765 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:35,880 It's the most common basic form of animal communication. 766 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:40,080 Pheromones are chemical signals, often with a scent, 767 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:42,720 that, once secreted, trigger a social response. 768 00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:47,840 Those incredible honeybees don't just rely on vibration 769 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:52,240 to converse, they have a language for more than 15 different 770 00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:53,760 pheromone messages, too. 771 00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:59,560 One alarm pheromone is the signal for the colony to defend itself. 772 00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:04,480 Humans have learned to overpower this alarm scent with smoke 773 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:06,440 when beekeepers tend their hives. 774 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,960 And we are not the only smart mammal avoiding bee stings. 775 00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:12,920 ELEPHANTS TRUMPET 776 00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:18,040 Elephants, who aren't keen on having their sensitive trunks 777 00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:19,880 injected with acidic bee venom, 778 00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:23,200 have learned to detect the bee alarm pheromone for themselves, 779 00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:27,240 meaning they can give an angry colony a wide berth. 780 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:33,320 We humans actually have a pretty good sense of smell, 781 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:35,360 but it's still lacking when compared 782 00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:37,520 to the best animal sniffers out there. 783 00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:43,000 In fact, many of our sensory abilities trail way behind other 784 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:46,120 animals, including our hearing. 785 00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:54,840 We can hear from 20 hertz up to 20,000 hertz, 786 00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:58,600 and to demonstrate that, I've got a sound-producing device here, 787 00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:00,440 a speaker so we can hear the sound, 788 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:03,960 and an oscilloscope so we can look at the waveform. 789 00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,120 Let me make some adjustments here... 790 00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:09,280 ..and turn up the volume. 791 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:11,320 MACHINE HUMS 792 00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:14,480 Now, we can all hear that low frequency sound, 793 00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,200 but if I decreases it... 794 00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,200 TONE DIMINISHES 795 00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:21,120 ..towards that 20 hertz, the lower... 796 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,880 ..end of the frequency range for human hearing... 797 00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:26,760 TONE DISAPPEARS 798 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:29,360 ..it disappears. I can just about... 799 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:30,840 I can't hear that now. 800 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:34,200 But I can demonstrate that there's still sound there, 801 00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,040 cos, remember, sound is vibrations, 802 00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:39,320 and if I drop some ping-pong balls onto the speaker, 803 00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:41,240 you can see the vibrations 804 00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:42,840 knocking them out. 805 00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,120 Now, whilst we can't hear this, 806 00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:47,320 elephants probably could 807 00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,600 because they can hear down to 16 hertz. 808 00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:53,200 It is what we call infrasound. 809 00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:56,760 And they use this for communicating over vast open distances, 810 00:47:56,760 --> 00:48:00,440 the savannahs, where they live, and also for keeping their big ears 811 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,000 open for oncoming thunderstorms. 812 00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:05,640 Let me increase... 813 00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,600 ..the frequency. TONE RETURNS RAPIDLY 814 00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:11,320 There we can hear it. 815 00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:14,200 That's going to be around the 20 hertz mark 816 00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:19,120 and, as I continue to increase the frequency, you can see more 817 00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:22,400 and more waves appearing on the oscilloscope, 818 00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,040 more waves in a certain amount of space and time 819 00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:28,440 and, therefore, a higher frequency. EXTREMELY HIGH PITCH 820 00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:32,320 And we get to here... I can just about hear that. 821 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:37,280 But then I'm 59 and we begin to lose our higher frequency hearing 822 00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:40,480 from about 25-26 onwards, which is quite disappointing. 823 00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:43,160 So I'm sure some of you can still hear this sound, 824 00:48:43,160 --> 00:48:45,560 but I can't. It's gone. 825 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:51,440 But there are other animals communicating way beyond 826 00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:53,360 the upper limits of our hearing. 827 00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:00,160 Got all my gadgets out tonight, but it's early in the evening, 828 00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:04,640 so there are only a few flies and one or two very small moths 829 00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:06,480 in my moth trap. 830 00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:09,840 But, in the UK, we have 800 species of larger moth, 831 00:49:09,840 --> 00:49:12,760 and I can assure you that not a single one of them wants 832 00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:14,600 to be eaten by a bat. 833 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:16,240 So how do they avoid that? 834 00:49:16,240 --> 00:49:20,120 Moths have been involved in an evolutionary arms race 835 00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:24,040 against those bats for no less than 50 million years. 836 00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,800 And the moths are putting up a valiant defence. 837 00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:28,600 Here's how. 838 00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:30,200 Take a look at this species. 839 00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:34,960 This is a type of tiger moth and it can hear the bats coming. 840 00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,840 Pretty clever, you'd think it might just fly off, 841 00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:40,200 but, no, it's got a trick up its wings. 842 00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:45,040 What it does is then emit a high frequency burst of its own sound 843 00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:47,320 to jam the bat's radar. 844 00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:49,800 Then it can make good its escape. 845 00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:53,440 And further, the most remarkable of all, in my opinion, 846 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:58,880 are those moths whose bodies are covered with sound-absorbing scales, 847 00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:02,880 tiny hairs, which can absorb up to 85% 848 00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:06,440 of the bat's echolocating calls. 849 00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:11,480 Stealth moths, which just disappear off into the night. 850 00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:15,720 But perhaps the top prize has to go to this species. 851 00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:21,040 This is the male Asian corn borer moth, 852 00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:25,440 and it, too, can mimic the sound of a bat echolocating - 853 00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,680 but not to escape. 854 00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:31,840 You see, when these moths hear that sound, they freeze, 855 00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:36,440 and females like this one will freeze on any vegetation 856 00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:38,200 where they're resting. 857 00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:41,360 And the male moths, having mimicked the bat, 858 00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:46,120 will then fly in and successfully copulate with them. 859 00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:48,040 Now, what about that? 860 00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:50,040 That is a smart moth. 861 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,760 It's not just bats and moths that use ultrasound 862 00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:56,960 to their advantage. 863 00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:02,600 The mysterious nocturnal world has just revealed another species 864 00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:05,320 of smart ultrasonic communicator. 865 00:51:09,720 --> 00:51:12,840 I was seeing them everywhere at night. 866 00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:16,440 They have a fur that is actually matching the tree bark. 867 00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:20,360 They have a gliding membrane attached to all their extremities. 868 00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,320 They're often mistaken for other species, 869 00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:27,440 like a flying squirrel or a bat. 870 00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:33,680 PhD student Priscillia Miard, 871 00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:36,200 from the Universiti Sains Malaysia, 872 00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:40,440 has been rewriting the book on the Sunda colugo. 873 00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:45,120 This adorable little creature is found all across Southeast Asia. 874 00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:48,760 But before Priscillia's work, 875 00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:51,120 very little was known about it. 876 00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:54,280 In fact, the discovery that it uses ultrasound 877 00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:58,280 has transformed our understanding of how they live. 878 00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:00,760 Colugos are known to be shy and elusive. 879 00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:02,600 Before we started to study them, 880 00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:05,160 it was thought that they were solitary animals. 881 00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:07,360 We found out that it's actually not true. 882 00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:10,880 That's when we found out that they use ultrasounds. 883 00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:12,160 So here we have... 884 00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:15,440 Oh, one...and two colugos on the tree. 885 00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:16,840 Oh, that's nice! 886 00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:21,280 Priscillia has an enviable research location, 887 00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,400 a five-star resort on the Malaysian island of Langkawi. 888 00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:28,360 I study colugo in the resort, because it's really easy 889 00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:30,120 to actually spot them. 890 00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:31,440 Oh, hi. 891 00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:33,040 I think this one has a baby. 892 00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:37,320 They are used to people, so they can get really low. 893 00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:42,280 So here we can see a colugo just hanging on the branch. 894 00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:46,080 She's always here with her baby. We name her Labu. 895 00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:49,120 It means "pumpkin" in Malay, because she's really cute. 896 00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:55,640 Priscillia doesn't always hang out in luxury resorts. 897 00:52:55,640 --> 00:52:58,120 She studies colugo all over Malaysia, 898 00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:01,080 collaborating with other scientists. 899 00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:04,560 It was on one such research trip to the hills of Penang 900 00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:07,520 that Priscillia's colleague, Lim Lee-Sim, 901 00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:11,520 first made a recording of an unknown ultrasound call. 902 00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:15,080 Bat expert Sim knew it wasn't a bat's call, 903 00:53:15,080 --> 00:53:18,520 but couldn't identify what animal had made the sound. 904 00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:19,960 When they combined notes, 905 00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:22,840 they realised it had come from the colugo. 906 00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:25,880 It was a brand-new discovery. 907 00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:29,040 The scientists thought it must be a signal to warn others 908 00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:30,520 of a predator approaching, 909 00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:34,600 similar to calls known from rodents like squirrels and rats. 910 00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:37,840 But, in colugos, it was a game-changer. 911 00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,760 This animal, previously thought of as solitary, 912 00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,720 was communicating in a social group. 913 00:53:43,720 --> 00:53:48,440 What I want to study next is what this ultrasound call means. 914 00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:51,640 Using ultrasound in mammals is not uncommon. 915 00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:54,120 For example, dogs can hear ultrasound, 916 00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,760 but not all mammals can actually communicate 917 00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:58,520 using those ultrasounds. 918 00:53:59,840 --> 00:54:03,040 Tonight, Priscillia and Sim are going to try to test their 919 00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:06,720 colugo predator warning theory for the very first time. 920 00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:10,800 LEE-SIM: So this is the colugo... 921 00:54:10,800 --> 00:54:12,000 Signal. ..call. 922 00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:13,400 Signal. 923 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:15,040 These two little dots, here. 924 00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:18,040 And this. And this. And this. And this, as well. 925 00:54:18,040 --> 00:54:23,200 So this is the call that we recorded three years ago. 926 00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:27,080 Yeah. So we hope, tonight, we can detect 927 00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:29,280 these type of call signal again. 928 00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:33,680 We think they develop these abilities to be able 929 00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:35,360 to avoid predators, 930 00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,720 because we think that most of the known predators of the colugo 931 00:54:38,720 --> 00:54:41,360 cannot actually hear those ultrasound. 932 00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:43,960 So it's actually really clever, because the predator 933 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:45,920 doesn't know that they warn each other. 934 00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:48,920 Oh, this is really exciting. 935 00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:50,760 I like this kind of night. 936 00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:52,800 When you're trying something for the first time, 937 00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:54,400 and we don't know what's going on. 938 00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:56,040 Yeah. This is really nice. 939 00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:01,400 As is always the case with new discoveries, 940 00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:05,320 one answer leads to many more questions. 941 00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:08,400 We don't know if it's a specific population who make them, 942 00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:11,480 or if all of the colugos are making those calls. 943 00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:13,000 Or if it's seasonal. 944 00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:16,920 If, later on, we can see double signals, 945 00:55:16,920 --> 00:55:18,680 overlapping of two sounds, 946 00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:21,760 then we know the colugo is replying. Replying, yeah. 947 00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,800 We are actually going to play back those calls 948 00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:28,960 with the specific equipment to see if they react to it 949 00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:31,080 and if they respond to it. 950 00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:33,440 And this will be done for the first time. 951 00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:36,840 So it's really exciting, because it's never been done before 952 00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:38,840 for colugos in the world. 953 00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:41,160 Yeah? I've got a strong signal. 954 00:55:41,160 --> 00:55:43,000 Oh, we have a colugo! Right in front. 955 00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,400 Yes, it's working. This way! This way! 956 00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:48,000 OK. I'm so excited it works. 957 00:55:49,240 --> 00:55:52,520 Priscillia and Sim's initial findings are surprising. 958 00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:56,600 There is no more call. Still no more call. 959 00:55:56,600 --> 00:55:59,440 Huh? This is interesting. I was not expecting that. 960 00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:03,520 They stopped calling when we actually put the call. 961 00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:06,680 There is different theories, but we are not really sure what. 962 00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:09,800 But I'm thinking, personally, if it's a call we recorded, 963 00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:11,600 you know, in another place, 964 00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:13,520 so it's a call from another individual, 965 00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:15,440 from another family group. 966 00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:18,160 So maybe the call is slightly different 967 00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:21,760 between the different family groups or different area. 968 00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:24,200 And that means maybe they don't recognise that one 969 00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:26,120 and they stop calling. 970 00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:27,440 Maybe. 971 00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:33,600 Unlocking the colugo's secret language is not going to be easy. 972 00:56:33,600 --> 00:56:35,680 It's something we need to look more into it, 973 00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,240 because we are not really sure what's going on. 974 00:56:38,240 --> 00:56:40,880 So I think we need, yeah, a few weeks of, like, 975 00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:43,920 playback recording and then we can figure out what's going on. 976 00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:46,400 But this is an interesting response, though. 977 00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:48,400 Yeah, I think it's really interesting 978 00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:50,800 because it's the first time we are trying 979 00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:52,640 and we already have a reply from them. 980 00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:54,520 We already have a response, right, Sim? 981 00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:56,160 So it's, like, really good. 982 00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:57,960 Like, we are really excited about that. 983 00:56:57,960 --> 00:56:59,560 A new discovery, maybe. 984 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:06,840 Priscillia and Sim's incredible new discovery 985 00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:11,800 on the colugo paves the way to find new ultrasonic communicators. 986 00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:16,440 It's through the work of these dedicated scientists, 987 00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:18,200 together with new technology, 988 00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:20,760 that is now giving us a window into the world 989 00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:23,120 of clever animal communication. 990 00:57:24,520 --> 00:57:29,000 We're only now beginning to go beyond our limited senses, 991 00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:31,440 but it's still very early days. 992 00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:38,560 You know, I've always been jealous of that fictional character, 993 00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:40,160 Dr Dolittle. 994 00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:41,800 He could talk to the animals. 995 00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:43,440 Imagine what you could say to them! 996 00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:45,680 Imagine listening to them in return! 997 00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:48,520 Imagine the conversations you could have! 998 00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:53,000 Sadly, at this point in time, imagine is all we can do. 999 00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:57,160 We can't break into their systems of communications 1000 00:57:57,160 --> 00:57:59,240 because we don't have their senses - 1001 00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:02,960 of sight, of hearing, of smell, of touch. 1002 00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:06,000 We might be living on the same planet, 1003 00:58:06,000 --> 00:58:09,960 but we're also living in very different worlds. 1004 00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:16,160 Next time, I'll be looking at nature's best architects 1005 00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:19,000 and construction workers - 1006 00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:22,840 as we discover more Animal Einsteins.