- 30 minutes ago
The ocean is where life first began, and where it first experimented with the mating game. All the creatures living here face the same challenge - how to find a partner in the largest and least-populated habitat on earth. To solve that challenge, marine animals have developed some of the most ingenious breeding strategies of all. The waters off Hawaii are witness to the largest courtship battles on the planet.
讲述了动物为寻找配偶繁衍后代而引发的故事，内容涉及从新手到老手，从忠诚的伴侣到彻头彻尾的骗子，从浮夸炫耀到明目张胆的行为。影片展现了动物多样的求偶策略与求偶行为...
讲述了动物为寻找配偶繁衍后代而引发的故事，内容涉及从新手到老手，从忠诚的伴侣到彻头彻尾的骗子，从浮夸炫耀到明目张胆的行为。影片展现了动物多样的求偶策略与求偶行为...
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00:28Satsang with Mooji
00:37A male humpback whale, singing as he hangs in the vast blue emptiness of the ocean.
00:49He's proclaiming his presence to females.
01:03If he gets a response, he would have solved a major problem faced by all animals that live in the
01:11ocean.
01:17How to find others who have to play the mating game in the largest and least populated habitat on Earth.
01:47Every year, humpback whales leave their cold, rich feeding grounds.
01:53And swim nearly 3,000 miles to assemble in Hawaii.
02:01These warm waters are a safe playground where mothers can give birth.
02:10Not all the females here have calves.
02:19This one is announcing that she is here to mate.
02:37It's the signal that the singing male has been waiting for.
02:47But he is not the only one who's heard it.
02:51He has rivals.
02:57This may be his only chance to mate this season.
03:04The female takes the lead.
03:15And the males chase after her.
03:28And the males chase after her.
03:31The more males she attracts, the greater her choice.
03:39There are now over 20 males chasing after her.
03:48They race to take pole position alongside her.
03:58Only the strongest are able to keep up.
04:14They bellow and blow huge curtains of bubbles to intimidate one another.
04:27Someone who probably doesn't負ied all the way.
04:28This can be blocks the way to collapse...
04:39...to help no future and no problem.
04:45...Don't man alone, aですか?
04:47Play moves in for a second.
04:54She slows down.
04:57That forces her pursuers closer together.
05:07And the chase explodes into violence.
05:23The 35-tongued males barge into one another as they try to force their way to the front.
05:43A larger male pushes a rival aside.
06:00Then, without warning, she calls a halt.
06:17Fewer than half her suitors remain.
06:21They circle her, keeping their distance.
06:28All except one.
06:39She allows him to caress her.
06:53He has won the right to be her close escort, and he makes sure that the others stay back.
07:05Their mating game appears to be over.
07:16These intimate scenes have never been witnessed before.
07:25We still don't fully understand what is happening.
07:33She may have made her final choice.
07:41Or this may be just the first stage in a longer courtship.
07:55What is certain is that the most private moments of her life have yet to be documented.
08:04No one has ever seen humpback whales mating.
08:22The world beneath the waves is one we ourselves can visit only fleetingly.
08:28And for us, it's still filled with mystery.
08:33But in a few special places, where we can spend time below the surface, the secrets of the seas are
08:40at last being revealed.
08:45The mating game, indeed, all life began in the ocean.
08:51And still today, there is no place where it is more visible or more varied than on a coral reef.
09:01Creatures living here enjoy one of the most stable of all marine environments.
09:10And one that contains a diversity of species unequalled anywhere else on Earth.
09:27Here, it's nearly always the breeding season for something.
09:47The reef may look like paradise, but its beauty hides a violent side.
09:54One that determines the mating strategy of many reef fish.
10:02These bumphead parrotfish, over a metre long, are among the largest of the reef's permanent inhabitants.
10:19Despite their size, when it comes to breeding, bumpheads face the same problems as other, much smaller fish.
10:30Adult females release their tiny eggs into the water for the males to fertilize.
10:37But many other creatures are waiting for that to happen with arms and tentacles outstretched.
10:55For many reef inhabitants, fish eggs are excellent food.
11:08If the next generation of bumpheads is to survive, the adults must get away from the reef and out into
11:16the open ocean.
11:20The approach of a new moon provides the best conditions for doing so.
11:29The high tide creates powerful currents that sweep out to sea, exactly what the fish need.
11:37Bumpheads come from all the nearby reefs and assemble together in a super school, a thousand strong.
11:52They head into deep water, leaving the reefs egg-hundred creatures behind.
12:01Now, the males develop white faces and striped flanks.
12:07They're breeding costume.
12:15The mating rush begins, and soon each female is surrounded by males.
12:30As she releases her eggs, so the males eject their milt.
12:40The strong tide now ensures that the bumpheads' fertilized eggs are carried away from the dangers of the reef.
13:02It seems an excellent strategy, but it does have a flaw.
13:16Huge schools of fish inevitably attract predators.
13:24This solitary bull shark, however, is too late.
13:28The spawning rush has ended.
13:34But there are others for whom sharks present a far greater danger.
13:41These little striped fish are convict tangs.
13:47They too have gathered in huge schools to spawn.
13:52And they too must get away from the reef.
13:57But it's not just their eggs that are at risk.
14:02They have attracted gray reef sharks.
14:08Hundreds of them.
14:11With hungry sharks above them, and predators of all kinds lurking in the coral,
14:16the tangs are trapped.
14:27But these convicts have an escape plan.
14:34The first to spawn attracts the attention of the sharks.
14:46The moment the sharks attack one spawning party, another takes its chance.
15:07The more tangs that join in, the greater the confusion.
15:14The more tangs that join in, the greater the confusion.
15:27In the dazzle of flashing stripes and swirling clouds of spawn,
15:32the sharks find it difficult to select individual victims.
15:49The spawning tactic has worked.
15:53The sharks go hungry, and billions of tiny fertilized eggs drift away from the reef.
16:03But in the open seas, there are other dangers.
16:11A manta ray is waiting with its huge mouth open wide.
16:19And this female is not alone.
16:24Mantas are among the most social and intelligent of fish.
16:28And they're very skilled at finding the floating eggs
16:32and other tiny organisms on which they feed.
16:38When food is scarce, they swim in small groups.
16:45But where the currents create a really rich soup,
16:49mantas gather in immense numbers.
17:00Over 150 have found this particular feast.
17:18An assembly like this one is rare.
17:21But when it happens, the mantas produce one of the most graceful ballets
17:27to be seen anywhere in any ocean.
18:04Despite their numbers, there is more food here than the mantas themselves can eat.
18:13Only when the surviving eggs have developed into tiny fish that can actively swim will
18:18they make their way to the reef.
18:23But not all of the reef's inhabitants are able to leave in order to breed.
18:31And those that stay here have developed some of the most ingenious mating strategies of
18:37all.
18:40This is one of the commonest and most familiar of the reef's permanent inhabitants, a clownfish.
18:49She spends most of her time surrounded by the writhing tentacles of a giant anemone.
19:02She is head of a family, and the biggest of them all.
19:09Her family is growing fast, with well-cared-for young who are clearly thriving.
19:23What could be more perfect?
19:28But all is not as it seems.
19:32As the largest in the family, she is clearly in charge, but it wasn't always so.
19:40Before she became head of this family, she was a he.
19:47It was the disappearance of the previous ruling female that triggered this change of sex.
19:57This middle-sized fish is a male, her breeding partner.
20:02But he is only biding his time, waiting for the moment when, for one reason or another,
20:08she disappears.
20:11Then it'll be his chance to turn into a female and become the new head of the family.
20:20The smallest fish is a newcomer, a male, the lowest in this line of succession.
20:29While he remains small, he will not mate.
20:35The dominant pair want to maintain their rule, and they constantly bully him.
20:46This stress produces hormones in his body which prevent him from growing larger and upsetting
20:52the breeding hierarchy.
21:04So long as he sits third in line, his mating game is more of a waiting game, and it may
21:11be so for quite a while yet.
21:15She might rule her household for nearly 15 years.
21:27Changing sex is not uncommon on the reef, but there are others here who have even stranger
21:34breeding techniques.
21:41These flamboyant creatures are nudibranchs.
21:52Their vivid colors and elaborate patterns are certainly not ways of attracting the attention
21:58of the opposite sex, for nudibranchs are in fact blind.
22:08Their colors, instead, are warnings to predators that their bodies are packed with poison.
22:15So stay away.
22:22Since appearance is no help in bringing individuals together, they have to rely on scent, or taste,
22:28which, underwater, is more or less the same thing.
22:36And they play a special version of the mating game.
22:49Nudibranchs are neither male nor female.
22:52They're both at the same time.
23:00So when they do find a partner, they neither fight nor flirt.
23:08They simply, peacefully, and more or less simultaneously, fertilize one another.
23:15If only it was always so straightforward.
23:25This is a flatworm.
23:29Flatworms like nudibranchs are also both male and female, and blind, finding their way by smell.
23:37But that is where the similarity ends.
23:42This one, called the Persian carpet flatworm because of the elaborate patterning, is a voracious predator.
23:57And when it comes to mating, it's also somewhat aggressive.
24:03It has sensed the presence of another flatworm, a potential partner.
24:16To start with, they seem wary of one another.
24:22And with good reason.
24:28Each of them is trying to avoid the labor of looking after the fertilized eggs.
24:34It's better not to become pregnant.
24:41Rearing up, each reveals its two-pronged penis.
24:47Rearing up, each reveals its two-pronged penis.
24:52And now, they fence.
24:58Each tries to stab and inseminate the other without being stabbed first.
25:13A strike anywhere on the body will fertilize.
25:17A strike anywhere on the body will not be stabbed first.
25:49A successful strike, and sperm is injected into the rival.
25:58The duel is over.
26:00The impregnated flatworm is left with the scar
26:03and the labor of laying the eggs.
26:14It's only solace.
26:16It's young who'll carry the genes of a master swordsman.
26:28Coral reefs are more than just hothouses
26:31for trying new versions of the mating game.
26:34They're also excellent places for meeting others of your own kind.
26:40The mantas are back.
26:42They're well-fed and preparing to breed.
26:47These giant fish do not produce spawn.
26:52They breed in a more complex way.
26:57A fish is more likely to meet others of its own kind here
27:02than wandering around in the open ocean.
27:07And while they wait for someone interesting to turn up,
27:11cleaner fish give them a going over,
27:14removing any parasites or bits of dead skin.
27:23They're quite choosy.
27:24Only a partner with the right abilities will do.
27:32Young mantas, not yet mature, flirt with the others.
27:41The adults mate, belly-to-belly.
27:46Getting into the right position requires practice and coordination.
27:57They don't necessarily get it right first time.
28:16An adult female arrives, and she is seeking a mate.
28:26An adult female arrives, and she is seeking a mate.
28:31Be the right position.
28:39Rehearsal time is over.
28:46Several males fancy their chances.
28:58She is.
28:59She starts to twist and turn while they follow.
29:12She's assessing their stamina.
29:19The courting males imitate her every move.
29:30This performance may go on for hours.
29:34Some males eventually start to tire.
29:41And now she ups the tempo.
29:49And now.
29:51And now.
30:06And now.
30:16And now.
30:17They close down.
30:25And they mate.
30:30The genes that gave them both such speed and agility are now passed to the next generation.
30:41After mating, the male mantas play no further role in caring for their young.
30:47It's a strategy common to many ocean creatures.
30:52But not all.
30:58The coastal lagoons of Portugal.
31:08Here live fish that form long-term partnerships.
31:15A sea horse.
31:24This is a female.
31:25And she's looking for a partner.
31:27Here.
31:31The choice is an important one.
31:34For the partnership is likely to last for years.
31:42Could he be the one?
32:04He's turned pale.
32:05A sign that he's interested.
32:14But she needs time to get to know him.
32:27Once she's certain, she too changes her color.
32:31To match his.
32:40Over the next few days, they barely leave each other's side.
32:45Imitating one another's every move.
32:55Their synchronized swimming skills will determine the success or failure of the next stage in their partnership.
33:15Her belly is now swollen with eggs ready to be fertilized.
33:27On his belly, he has a pouch.
33:35For in seahorse partnerships, parental responsibilities have been exchanged.
33:44So now, she's going to pass her precious eggs to him.
34:04The crucial act, the transfer, is about to happen.
34:13They position themselves with great precision.
34:17And she transfers all her eggs without losing a single one.
34:36The pouch on his belly now contains about 300 eggs.
34:43It's now up to him to look after them.
34:52And she is free to start producing the next batch of eggs.
35:12Three weeks later, and his pregnancy is almost at an end.
35:20His body starts contractions that slowly increase in intensity.
35:37And then...
35:41Release.
35:55Many fish give birth to live young.
35:58But seahorses are the only group in which it is the males who do so.
36:07The young are just 10 millimeters long, fully formed and ready to make their own way in life.
36:19Each a perfect miniature of its parents.
36:37This male's pregnancy has given him a guarantee of their paternity.
36:43And by producing live young, he has given them an excellent chance of survival.
36:59Nowhere is the mating game more hectic than at the margins of the sea,
37:04where water disappears twice a day
37:09and reveals mud.
37:19Here in the mangroves, fiddler crabs start the action just as soon as the water disappears.
37:32There's no time to lose.
37:37A male.
37:38His burrow could make an excellent family home.
37:44All he has to do is find a willing female.
37:53And he must do so before the water returns.
38:02And he must do so before the water returns.
38:05His large yellow claw weighs as much as all the rest of his body
38:10and is completely useless for feeding.
38:15But its color does catch a female's eye.
38:20And if she needs more convincing,
38:24a wave should do the trick.
38:34The tide turns.
38:36The clock is ticking.
38:45He needs to up his game.
38:50She seems distracted.
38:52He needs to be distracted.
39:01Competition has arrived.
39:06Lots of it.
39:15All with the same desire.
39:18And all with moves just like his.
39:24Every time he waves.
39:31So do all his rivals.
39:38She is spoilt for choice.
39:41She is spoilt for choice.
40:13At last, she makes her choice.
40:18But it's not in his favor.
40:26You'll have to wait until the next tide.
40:29And then try again.
40:44Many ocean animals only play the mating game once a year.
40:48So for them, the stakes are particularly high.
40:56To win, a player must be prepared to risk everything.
41:02A colony of South American sea lions in Argentina.
41:08Every summer, for a few weeks, they gather on the shore.
41:18Heavily pregnant females close to giving birth arrive in search of a place to do so.
41:32These safe places give the mothers time to bond with their newborn young.
41:47But such prime real estate does not come rent free.
41:54A beach master.
42:00Over 300 kilos of muscle.
42:09The females have landed on the territory that he had to fight hard to establish.
42:19Now, a week after giving birth, they're ready to mate again.
42:29And he aims to be the one to father their next pups.
42:35The trouble is, he's surrounded by other males.
42:39The trouble is, he's surrounded by other males.
42:43They all want females, and just like him, they all fought to establish a territory.
43:07Squabbles are common.
43:10But as long as each male stays in his own patch, they won't come to blows.
43:14But a crowd of fertile females inevitably attracts attention.
43:27A younger, smaller bachelor is on the lookout for just such an opportunity.
43:44On his own, he's no match for a battle-hardened beach master.
43:54But he's not on his own.
43:56But he's not on his own.
43:58Other bachelors are watching.
44:07Each would like to steal a female from the beach master.
44:24But none of them wants to make the first move.
44:38Edging closer, they test the beach master's defenses.
44:44One breaks ranks.
44:48And then they all invade his territory.
44:55As he tries to retain his panicking females and fight the intruders,
45:00the raid spills over into neighboring territories.
45:03The cackles.
45:06The war.
45:08The.
45:14The.
45:16The.
45:18The.
45:24The.
45:27The.
45:40Now the Bachelors get their chance.
45:48Using others as cover, a Bachelor grabs an unguarded female.
45:54Another targets one of the Beachmaster's partners.
46:05He charges to her rescue.
46:10One-on-one, the Beachmaster has the strength to stop any kidnap.
46:21The raid is short-lived.
46:23But the Beachmaster will have to face many more
46:26before the breeding season is over.
46:30Each battle will sap his strength and so shorten his reign.
46:39But Bachelors who fail are even worse off.
46:45Only those with the size and strength to defend the territory
46:49and the females within it will win this mating game.
47:00His dominance may last for only a few years.
47:05But during that time, he will father dozens of pups.
47:10Among them, the next generation of males.
47:19Including those with the genes that gave him the strength to become a Beachmaster.
47:40For all those who play this mating game,
47:44there is only one measure of success.
47:54The healthy newborn whale calf is living proof that both his father and mother had game plans that worked.
48:09Many aspects of those strategies remain a mystery.
48:18One thing, however, is clear.
48:21The success of any species, anywhere,
48:25depends on the skill with which its members manage to play the mating game.
48:51The Humbag Singers are just amazing.
48:57Just being next to one whale underwater is incredible,
49:02but then adds the sound of those things.
49:12It just inhabits every pore of your body,
49:16every nerve cell in your brain.
49:19Everything feels like sensory overload.
49:25There's just a weirdly difficult to describe feeling associated with being so close to something
49:33that's, you know, 500 times your own weight.
49:38It's an incredibly exhilarating, demanding, exciting place to be.
49:52Filming a singing whale was the first of many challenges the mating game crew had ahead of them.
50:01Cinematographer Doug Anderson and team are attempting to film the spectacular mating contest
50:06of humpback whales.
50:08It's known as a heat run.
50:11A hundred percent.
50:12All right, you're good to go in the water.
50:13No one really knows what happens on these courtship chases,
50:17and the crew hope to be the first people ever to document humpbacks mating.
50:22This thing is such an overt, massive piece of behaviour.
50:27What are the details? What's the details of this?
50:29What other behaviours are happening in there?
50:31Is there mating?
50:32Can we follow this chase to its conclusion?
50:37That was the bit that's exciting from a photographer's point of view.
50:41We're going there with a bunch of new kit to just find out what happens.
50:46And to do that, we had to make a fancy pole cam.
50:52Doug's fancy pole cam is a stabilised camera fixed to the side of the boat.
50:58Do you want to just run on that?
51:01The plan is to position the boat alongside the whales during their courtship chase
51:07and use the camera to try and understand what the whales are doing.
51:16The team is working with experienced scientists who want to use this technology to learn more about whale behaviour.
51:26We had to get close and even though they are massive animals,
51:32they have an incredible ability just to swerve and miss and create space and we became a part of it.
51:40We're going to go to the next 12 o'clock.
51:42Well, this is a good speed. We're matching all the whales here anyway.
51:48Okay, Chris, get ready to go around to the right.
51:51Three, two, one, go, go, go, go.
51:59Okay, they just went underneath the bow, going right along.
52:06The noise of the whales hitting each other on the surface is like, it's powerful.
52:11The crunching of these bodies coming together is visceral and violent.
52:21You could see individual whales and their strategies and whales bottling out and peeling away.
52:40It just felt like such a privileged view.
52:44Being allowed to be closer and in a more intimate position with this massive event than any filmmaker ever has.
52:58It was incredible to see these extended shots of whales bashing into each other, competing for space and everything else.
53:08But we weren't seeing anything new.
53:12The pole cam provided an unparalleled view of one of the greatest battles in nature.
53:19But it didn't get the team any closer to revealing how a heat run ends.
53:26After following the chase for hours, the whales come to a halt and Doug takes the chance to get in
53:32the water right where the whales have stopped.
53:34We'll just try and get down on the edge of it, like, to whatever depth it is.
53:41What he then witnessed was truly remarkable.
53:45We got in and she was just there, hanging in the water.
53:57I think what was going through my head was, if not now, then when will I regret not just trying
54:06to become a part of this scene?
54:10I mean, adrenaline was high and excitement was through the roof.
54:17I mean, these animals are so large and I had never even heard of anything like this.
54:30In the moment, I felt like I had an invitation to become as much a part of the scene as
54:38I could.
54:46I thought, this is mating. He's one. I'm as close to mating as anyone has ever got.
54:59The male came over her back and drew his chin so delicately over her back, almost like a caress across
55:08the top of her head.
55:11It was just such a tender moment between such enormous animals.
55:25The male beat his tail towards me.
55:28I didn't even find myself flinching. It was just a part of the moving off.
55:34And I was left bewildered. I thought I was going to see something that was an end to this.
55:43But actually, all I saw was another bit, another chink through a window into what the heat run is.
55:54We have to go now because it's going to be dark.
55:58But I'm guessing that, I don't know, that's it. That's the point.
56:03If I could have stayed there that night and filmed in the dark, you know, or under moonlight,
56:11or, you know, if we had the ability to do that, then it's in that space that we find the
56:17next
56:18piece of the puzzle of what this is. For all of its bluster, it's the prequel to the main event.
56:32And we have just picked up the first tiny piece in the puzzle of what that is.
56:40And that is great. But I would love to see the rest of it.
56:57Next time, when animals that live in rainforests want to mate, their challenge is finding a way to
57:05stand out from the crowd. Some are spectacular show-offs. Others must fight.
57:15But sometimes working together is the key to success in jungles.
57:24Cheers.
57:24Yeah.