Februari 25, 2017
(upbeat techno music) - [voiceover] if you think onlyhumans have lots of gizmos, just wait 'til you see the interesting implements in the natural world. we're counting down the top10 most extreme animal gadgets to find out who uses themost sophisticated toolkit. discover that strange things happen if there's a bug in the system when gadgets are takento the most extreme.
earth is a planet of extremes. extreme places and extreme animals. but some animals aremore extreme than others. join us as we count down to find the most unusual, the most extraordinary, the most extreme. human love gadgets.
although some strange inventions may not be totally practical, we're always looking for tools to help us save time and energy. compared to eye drop funnels and pedestrian-powered washing machines our first contenderuses a very simple tool, but it certainly solvesa complicated problem. making a splash at number 10
in the countdown is the sea otter. this marine mammal spendsmost of its life in the ocean, for this is where the seaotter's favorite food is found. shellfish thrive in the roughwaters of the rocky coastline, but mollusks are protectedby their tough shells. so how can a small marinemammal with tiny teeth possibly break throughthe armored covering? the answer is to use a gadget. the sea otter is number10 in the countdown
because it uses a primitivestone tool called an anvil. it smashes shellfish againstthe stone resting on its chest. otters become veryattached to their anvils and some carry their favorite stones in pockets of loose skinunder their armpits. the same rock can be used as a hammer to dislodge abalone from the seabed. young otters have noidea how to use gadgets. they have to learn bywatching their mother.
if a baby doesn't find out how to use an anvil it could starve, so orphaned otters are in big trouble. they have nobody toshow them the difference between a rock and a soft drink can. luckily, orphaned ottershave a most unusual foster mom in california's monterey bay. this diver is teaching atechnologically challenged otter how to use a gadget.
humans think nothing of picking up a rock and using it as an anvil,but for a young otter it's a huge technological achievement. it takes a young otter up to eight months to learn how to use a gadget, and unfortunately, not all orphans get their head around the technology. after all, working out how to use a stone is the animal equivalentof inventing the wheel.
however, as our countdown continues we'll see that some animal gadgets become increasingly complicated. we filled our world withall kinds of appliances. that's partly becausebuilding gadgets is easy when you have eight fingersand two opposable thumbs. we'd find things much more difficult if we were like our next contender, which only has a tail and two flippers.
it lives in the warm watersof australia's shark bay. swimming into number nine inthe countdown is the dolphin. this marine mammal is certainlysmart enough to use tools. it has the biggest brain in proportion to its body size of any animal, so it's well aware that finding food in the shallow waters of shark bay can be dangerous. when a dolphin pokes around onthe seafloor looking for fish
it risks bumping into one of the ocean's most venomous animals. usually found motionless on the seafloor, the stonefish looks like a rock, but it defends itselfwith a dozen dorsal spines that are attached toglands full of poison. the dolphin is numbernine in the countdown because to avoid getting a beak full of venom it uses a tool.
the only trouble is that flippers are not much good for grabbing a gadget. imagine if we were like a dolphin. we'd have to get rid of those nimble fingers and opposable thumbs. we'd have to use our snout to uncover fish and crustaceans hiding in the sand, and that's a painfulplace to meet a stonefish. which is why if we were like
a dolphin in shark bay,we'd grab a gadget. the seafloor is coveredin all kinds of sponges, and some are the perfect shape to protect the dolphin's snout. using the sponge as a shield it's possible to dig up food and avoid being stung by a stonefish. only a handful of thedolphins in shark bay have learned how to use a gadget.
while their tool may look simple, it's a big achievement for an animal that has flippers instead of fingers. however, they're not the only inventors that use a gadget to protect them against dangerous animals. you'd need much more thana sponge for protection if you came face to facewith an angry grizzly bear. and that's why one man's on a mission
to build the ultimate bear-proof suit. troy hurtubise is fascinated by grizzlies and is looking for a safe way to get up close and personalwith bears in canada. that's why he spent 20 years building seven prototypes of theultimate body armor. it contains a varietyof life-saving gadgets, all of which have been thoroughly tested. but the ultimate test is with a real bear,
which is why troy heads to the dump and covers himself in barbecue sauce. both the bear and troy escape unharmed. he hopes to test the suit inthe wild without the sauce. as a protective device,the dolphin's sponge is just as effective but much simpler. that's because it's hardto build complicated tools when your fins can barelycarry a strand of seaweed. if only dolphins had fingerson the ends of their flippers
who knows what othergadgets they could use. when it comes to using toolsour first two contenders are the ocean's cleverest creatures, but they can't compete withamerica's most famous inventor, who patented more than 1,000 gadgets. and later, we'll discover that there's more than one way to crack and egg. our countdown of the most extreme animal gadgets continues in africa,
where our next contender uses a tool to crack an age old problem. ostriches produce thebiggest eggs on the planet. they contain the equivalentof two dozen chicken eggs, more than a meal for most scavengers. the only trouble is that this egg also has one of the toughest shells in the world, which poses a big problem for the animal flying in to numbereight in the countdown,
the egyptian vulture. the smallest of the old world vultures, it's relatively weak beak and claws could never break an eggshell that's strong enough to support the weight of a human, so instead the egyptian vulture uses its brain. all it has to do is find asuitable rock to get cracking. the egyptian vulture isnumber eight in the countdown
because it's not easyfinding the perfect tool. it's been observedwandering over 40 meters in search of a rock shaped like an egg. this suggests that oncevultures picked up and dropped small eggs on the groundto crack them open. then one day an avian inventor must have picked up an egg shaped rock, dropped it onto an ostrich egg, and been rewarded with an instant omelet.
while the egyptian vulture uses stone age technologyto serve up breakfast, human designers are also dreaming up extreme gadgets to reduce time spent in more than just the kitchen. this is no ordinary home in the suburbs. mealtimes may look chaotic,but this family has a butler. his name is alexander,and he lives in a box. - tv.
- [voiceover] tom bishop has automated everything in his house. - oh, alexander. - [alexander] may i help you? - [voiceover] alexander iscalled a butler in a box because he's a computerthat uses infrared signals to interact with electronicgadgets throughout the house. - [alexander] okay master. - engage.
- [voiceover] the voice-activated system means that tom has complete control of the electronics in his house, all from the comfort of his couch. if only life was as easyfor the egyptian vulture. even with the use of a gadget, it can take a number of blows to fracture an eggshell capable of withstanding over 100 kilograms of direct pressure.
using a rock to smash open anegg is crude, but effective. yet, there are bird brains utilizing far more complicated gadgetscoming up in the countdown. no human inventor would be impressed by the tools used byour last two contenders, but still to come we'll discover that making even stone age technology is harder than it looks. so imagine the difficulties involved
in making a car thesize of a grain of rice. our countdown of the most extreme gadgets continues with tools thatmake construction easy. just as human builders use a jackhammer, our next contender uses a similar device to pound the earth, butit's much, much smaller. this dry mudflat is the perfect place to find the constructionworker digging its way into number seven in the countdown.
the aptly named digger wasp excavates a subterranean nursery for her offspring. before she lays an egg the wasp fills the hole with provisions. she collects caterpillars, paralyzing them with a single sting. as her baby develops inside the nursery it will slowly eat the caterpillars alive. but other animals would like to
make a meal of the wasp's horrible hoard, so the female seals off theentrance with a special tool. she picks up a pebble with her jaws and then flexes her wing muscles. the vibrations cram the dirt together creating a solid plugin the tunnel entrance. hidden from intruders, thelarva develops in safety until it pushes off the lidand emerges as an adult wasp. this tiny hammer is the smallestgadget in the countdown,
but it's still massive compared to the minuscule machinesbeing developed in japan. this is a replica of the first car to come off the toyota production line. created by denso, it's thousands of times smaller than the original. it has a fully functioning engine even though it's thesize of a grain of rice. the technology used to develop
this miniature car ispart of a revolutionary, multi-billion dollar industrycalled nanotechnology. engineers are taking everyday gadgets and shrinking them so they're measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter. it's likely the first useful application of nanomachines will bein medical technology. tiny machines could possibly be used to identify cancer cells and destroy them.
the digger wasp's stone hammer is huge compared to a nanobot,but it still represents state of the art technologyin the insect world. this bug has a brainthe size of a pinhead, and yet it's figured outhow to use a simple gadget. our next contender usesa more complicated tool, but it's not made ofstone, it's made of bread. nobody is better at buildinggadgets than these guys. - [voiceover] okay, raise 'em high.
okay, on your marks, get set, go. - [voiceover] welcome to america'sfastest geek competition. the aim is to build acomputer in the shortest time. problem solving skills and manual dexterity are put to the test. however, the prize forthe fastest reactions in the countdown doesn'tbelong to these geeks. the crown should be placed on
the skinny head of our next contender. standing at number six in our countdown of extreme gadgets is the green heron. found in wetlands across north america it spends much of the day licking its lips in anticipation of a fish swimming within range of its deadly beak. but the green heron has a problem. compared to other wadingbirds it has very short legs.
this means it has tostand in shallow water where fish are less abundant. imagine the frustrationof seeing your lunch always swimming just out of range. so the green heron has invented a gadget that makes up for its short legs. ducklings are not the only animals looking for a mouthful of bread. fish also feed on the crumbs,
and so does the green heron only it doesn't swallow the bread. the green heron haslearned how to use bread as a tool to lure fish into shallow water. just like a human fisherman,this remarkable bird has a variety of lures in its tackle box, including earthworms,mayflies, twigs, and feathers. this range of gadgetsis why the green heron is number six in the countdown.
while it's a great fishing technique only a few green herons use it, and they're all self taught. the behavior's not passeddown through the generations. researchers believe individual herons probably learned how touse gadgets by accidentally dropping objects in thewater that attract fish. we're halfway through the countdown and the animal technology isbecoming more complicated.
but will there ever be atime when our primate cousins are capable of creating areal life planet of the apes? and later, we'll discoveranother feathered fisherman that plays tricks with sticks. you don't have to be nutsto make a good gadget. - you just take a doughnut and put it on the hook which has been provided. then you dunk the doughnutin the coffee, like that. - [voiceover] in fact,using a tool requires
a whole heap of intelligence, which is why our next contender hasno trouble with gadgets. its brain is four times heavier than ours. the elephant strolls in tonumber five in the countdown because it manufactures allkinds of wooden gadgets, and while it lacks fingers and thumbs it does have an incredible trunk. it's both powerful and precise. it can push down a tree or pick up a coin
thanks to small protrusions on the tip of the trunk thatact like little fingers. this means for the firsttime in the countdown an animal can modify the formand function of its gadgets. from an early age elephants start playing with pieces of wood. it helps them learn to control the 40,000 muscles thatoperate their trunk. by the time they're adultselephants have discovered
how to turn a leafybranch into a flyswatter, or to strip a branch,turning it into a gadget for scratching those hard to reach places. as part of a behavioral enrichment program at the honolulu zooelephants are encouraged by their keepers to use another tool. it's a paintbrush, and theartistic activity is a great way to stimulate the brainsof captive elephants. it seems that, like humans,
these pachyderms are capable of inventing more thanjust one kind of gadget. but some humans are morecreative than others. today we're surrounded by so many gadgets most people think we're living in a golden age of technology, but that's not altogether true. in fact, when a researcherexamined the number of american patents granted per decade
and mapped the new inventionsrelative to population he found the graph peaked in 1915. and that just happens to be when america's greatest inventor was in his prime. thomas edison's gadgets changed the way humans lived forever. he invented the light bulb,electricity generation, and patented more than 1,000 gadgets. the elephant may be one of africa's
greatest animal inventors,but having only one trunk makes it difficult tomanipulate more complex gadgets. our next contender is much more successful using two feet and a beak. they say that necessity isthe mother of all invention, and that's certainly truefor the next contender in our countdown of extreme gadgets. some birds have no troublegetting at grubs inside trees. woodpeckers have long hardenedbeaks to drill into wood,
and their barbed tonguescan extend up to three times the length of theirbeak to harpoon a meal. but what happens if you have an appetite for grubs but haven't been equipped with the woodpecker's feeding equipment? well, on the galapagos islands you build a grub-catching gadget. there are 14 species offinches on the islands. originally thought to have evolved
from a single ancestralspecies, they all look similar except for the size andshape of their beak. the different beaksallow each finch species to feed on different foods. there are seed eaters, berry eaters, and one species that has ataste for wood-boring grubs. but since the finch isnot related to woodpeckers it lacks the beak and tongueto harpoon hidden insects. yet this is called the woodpecker finch
because what it lacks in beakit makes up for in smarts. it's number four in the countdown because it can easilyextract a grub from its hole with a gadget made from a cactus spine. it cuts the barb to just the right length and then levers the grub from its hole. and if the spine isn'tthe right tool for the job the finch will fly off to find a twig. it listens carefully to locate a grub,
then inserts the woodentool to extract its meal. if it's too short it willmanufacture a longer gadget. no one knows quite howthe woodpecker finch learned to use these sneaky spears, but it wouldn't be the only time that a wooden gadget has been invented completely by accident. back in 1905 a younglad named frank epperson mixed himself a drinkusing soda water powder.
for some reason he nevergot around to drinking it and left it on the back porch overnight with the stirring stickstill in the glass. when the temperaturedropped the mixture froze and the next morning frank had a stick of frozen soda water to show his friends. 18 years later frankremembered the incident and obtained the patent forwhat he called the eppsicle. the name never took off until his children
started calling it the popsicle. back on the galapagos a bugsicle is just as popular withwoodpecker finches, especially in arid regions. in humid areas where food is abundant birds hardly ever pick up a gadget, but in dry coastal areaswhere food is scarce woodpecker finches rely almost exclusively on tools to find their dinner.
not bad for a wanna-be woodpecker. while our last two contenders created gadgets from pieces of wood, coming up we'll meetanimals using stone tools that would make a caveman jealous. and later we'll meet a bird brain that's so good withgadgets it went to college. our countdown of extreme gadgets continues in a world dominated by
a sophisticated society of primates. in 1968 the planet of the apes was considered science fiction, but recently researchersdiscovered that there are primates using complex tools and weapons. and one species lives deepin the jungles of indonesia. the indigenous peoplethought these primates looked and acted so much like humans they called them the peopleof the forest, or orangutan.
just like humans, these apes don't like getting caught in the rain. luckily the forest is this ape's tool box, and a leaf makes a simple umbrella and it doubles as a drinking straw. however, orangutans really show off their gadget making skillswhen they get hungry. orangutans eat more than400 different types of food, and some are hard to access
without the help of an implement. that's why this ape is going fishing, only it's not after fish, but honey. the orangutan is numberthree in the countdown because it can manufacturea variety of wooden tools, including a fishing rod. bees ferociously defend their nest, so keeping them at arm's length reduces the number of stings.
then it's just a matter of licking the honey off the fishing rod. a similar tool can be used to scare tree ants out of their nest, or to mash up a meal of termites. however, the orangutanneeds a different gadget to get inside some forbidden fruit. the nesia tree protects its seeds with sharp hairs that deter most mammals.
that's why an orangutan selectsa 12 centimeter long stick, strips off its bark, and then carefully scrapes away the fruit's sharp hairs. once shaved, the ape slides a thin stick through a crack in the fruit to pop out the nutritious seeds fromtheir dangerous packaging. orangutans have also been recorded using leaves as gloves whenhandling prickly fruit, or as seat cushions intrees with spiny branches.
these clever orange apes are even happy adopting another specie's technology. on the island of borneo, orangutans will oftenimitate human behavior. and after the laundry, orangs will even try their hand at alittle home improvement. but if imitation really is thesincerest form of flattery, then one group of scientists must be the biggest fans of animal technology.
some animals have beatenus to the patent office. that's why at the massachusettsinstitute of technology a research group fromthe school of engineering is making strange gadgets bycopying some unlikely animals. the research is called biomimetics, and adapts natures designsfor human machines. - i guess the problemis we have no normal-- - [voiceover] so if youwant to build a machine that can climb verticalsurfaces, why not copy a slug?
other mit researchersare developing machines that can walk on water,just like a water strider. and for moving beneath the surface they're trying to mimicbackstroking bacteria. it makes good sense to copy mother nature, according to doctoral student brian chan. - nature has a lot of clever mechanisms that have come about through, you know, millions of years of evolution.
so we can kind of take a shortcut through all the, you know,engineering trial and error just by looking at nature and trying to understand their mechanisms. - [voiceover] of course,learning from animals isn't always easy, and unfortunately there's no institute oftechnology for orangutans. young apes learn everythingfrom their mothers. female orangutans only givebirth once every eight years
because it takes a long time for juveniles to learn how to survive in the forest. however, our next contender devised a way to make tools, not of wood, but metal. the next contender in our countdown of extreme gadgets is about to learn that it can take time tounderstand technology. - say, that looks pretty good son. you sure it'll work?
- yes sir. - [voiceover] without proper training the results can be shocking. - made it myself. - well, it's wonderful to havean electrician in the house to keep us up on the latestscientific advancements. let's see how your little gadget works. (explosion, woman screaming) - [voiceover] on the pacificislands of new caledonia
researchers were equally shocked when they discovered a groupof incredibly smart crows. just like the woodpeckerfinches from the galapagos, new caledonian crowsfashion tools from twigs to coax burrowing insectlarvae from tree branches. but these crafty crowshave far more complex ways of operating their gadgets, which is why juvenile birdshave to pay careful attention if they want to learn the technology.
unlike the finch, the crow doesn't stab or lever the grub from its burrow. instead it lets the larvaedo all the hard work. the grubs have sharp mandibles that bite down on any intruder, including a stick held in the crow's beak. when the crow feels the grubhas clamped onto the stick, it simply pulls out dinner. it was such a clever piece of thinking
that one of these bird brains was accepted into oxford university in england. meet betty. she's been taken to one of britain's most prestigious universities because researchers are fascinated by her ability to shape gadgets. in this experiment she'sbeen given a piece of wire. on the tray is a basket of foodsitting inside a glass tube.
first betty uses the wire like a twig, but unlike a grub in thewild, the food basket doesn't bite onto the straight wire. so betty tries plan b. she uses the wall to bendthe wire into a hook. she couldn't do that with a twig. mission accomplished. the new caledonian crow isnumber two on the countdown because its ability to take new objects
and modify them into tools is almost unheard of in the animal world. but not even these brainy birds can compete with the most extreme gadget user in the countdown. we've seen the nine contenders. they're the best of the very best. only one animal has amore complicated tool kit. before we meet the animal at number one
in our countdown of extreme gadgets we need to travel back intime over two million years. these ancestors of modern humans were called homo habilis, or handy man. they developed seemingly simple tools, but the gadgets were so effective that newer models didn't appear for more than a million years. today we think nothing ofbuying our gadgets from a store,
but if you were suddenlydropped into an african forest, how many gadgets could you make? the animal at number one in the countdown can manufacture no lessthan 19 different tools. only humans use moregadgets than the chimpanzee. this adult is using a stone hammer and anvil to break open nuts. when researchers firstdiscovered chimpanzee tools they assumed the tools belonged
to a long-lost stone age human society. but these clever apes arenumber one in the countdown because they make gadgets from all kinds of materials, including trees. just like orangutans, chimpanzeesgo fishing with sticks. they strip branches and dip them into termite mounds and ant nests. but not all chimpanzeesuse the same gadgets. the use of stone hammers and anvils
was developed in a relatively infertile region of west africa. some researchers believe that during a time of famine many years ago the chimpanzees were faced with a dilemma, learn how to use a gadget tobreak open nuts, or starve. it may sound like a simple solution to us, but making stone tools issurprisingly difficult. at the university of otago in new zealand
anthropologist dr. timthomas knows all about turning rocks into thefirst human gadgets. but there's much moreto making a stone tool than just banging two rocks together. - making stone tools issurprisingly difficult. it could take an hour or two to make a very simple artifact. you know, there are certain angles where you simply can't remove a flake.
if it's anything greater than 90 degrees the flake just simply won't come off, and you can bash it, bash it, and absolutely nothing'll happen. there's a huge range of variety in the types of stone toolsthat humans have made, from simple bifaces to incredibly fine arrowheads like this.
we often think aboutfinished stone artifacts, but in fact, the archaeological record is made up of, perhaps 80 or 90% of unfinished artifacts, broken artifacts, and incomplete projects,which goes to show how hard it is to manufacturea usable stone tool. - [voiceover] it seemsthat for both humans and chimpanzees tooluse can be a challenge. that's why this 46 year oldfemale can't use a hammer,
she joined a troop froma different region. but her daughter, who wasborn here, cracked it. chimpanzees only haveuntil the age of five to learn how to usetools, or they never will. for modern humans, surrounded by gadgets, it's easy to forget just how few creatures have actually learned to use tools. even the simplest stone age implements require a level ofintelligence and dexterity
beyond all but a select few. so with its collectionof 19 different tools it's no wonder that whenit comes to extreme gadgets chimpanzees really are the most extreme.
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