Predators (2000) s01e01 Episode Script

Predators hold a fatal attraction for us so too does the fate of their prey split-seconds decide whether a predator feeds or goes hungry Using the latest graphics and camera techniques the predators series will get inside these critical moments Explaining and analyzing extraordinary behaviors For here are the fatal milliseconds where life hangs in the balance Highland on the African plains Cheetah and gazelle search for each other with heightened senses The balance of advantage between them is incredibly fine For an ultimate predator, the cheetah is only lightly armed, small head and short jaws but they're designed for precision killing It's also well-camouflaged It's crucial for cheetahs to get within striking range undetected That distance, about 30 meters, is critical Gazelles constantly monitor this zone, balancing their need to feed against the risk of attack Living in a herd helps, more individuals to get the alarm and a smaller chance of being selected but the cheetah is single-minded usually picking out lone individuals Gazelles are fast, very fast but this, is the fastest land animal of all Gazelles have an advantage however Their bodies are designed to maintain top speed longer than the cheetah The cheetah's real edge is explosive acceleration naught to 50 in just three seconds That's why once in the attack zone, it must quickly narrow the gap otherwise, the gazelle's superior stamina will win The cheetah's extra speed comes from its astonishingly flexible body By arching its span up and curving it down it can lengthen its stride Head and shoulder joints swing through phenomenal angles More than half of the time, it's almost flying, all four feet off the ground The cheetah's strides are fast as well as long but there is a drawback to its speed sprinting raises its temperature to near fatal limits At this point, three quarters of muscle energy is producing heat, 60 times that at rest and exhausting soon begins to set in This means the cheetah doesn't have much time Every second the gazelle stays ahead, its odds for survival improve At the critical moment, the cheetah takes a breathtaking risk reaching out to try to trip its quarry Unlike a lion which leaps on its prey's back and wrestles it to the ground, the cheetah's delicate body is vulnerable The slightest miscalculation, and it's the cheetah which could be injured This is something it can't afford Most chases last only 20 seconds or so Once the victim is grounded, it's all over Jaws are clamped round the prey's windpipe Death comes by suffocation For grazers, staying alive involves not just finding food, but also locating water Here they face the world's ultimate freshwater predator They know there's danger, so they are nervous But it's hard to tell where it's coming from They can't smell through the water and worse, they can't see into it Danger surfaces, 20 meters away, a crocodile Its eyes see forwards and upwards Now they are aligned on their prey All the crocodiles' key sense organs are high up on its head where they are most useful Behind the eye are 3-inch earflaps, protecting its excellent hearing They also have a good nose Crocodiles have a long memory and size up situations over days and weeks They are ambush predators They rely on stealth After taking a bathing in their quarry, they descend into the muck with barely a ripple A few air bubbles from the nostrils are the only clue of it was ever there At the bottom, the crocodile points itself in the right direction It can now barely see, hear or smell But it's believed to feel its way by reading the contours of the bottom beneath its claws It tiptoes to avoid disturbing the mud that would leave a telltale trail on the surface Overcrowding is a disadvantage for prey It's difficult to change position quickly especially to reverse And keeping your head down to drink leaves you even more vulnerable Mud too, doesn't help Most animals are on the crocodile's menu but because of its slow cold-blooded metabolism, it can go weeks between meals As it enters the shallows, the hunter slows to a creep and ascends millimeter by millimeter At this stage, it may only be able to see its prey indistinctly, if at all A large crocodile can flatten itself in only 30 centimeters of water A crocodile detects its prey's presence through pressure sensors small blood pool studded along its immensely powerful jaws A crocodile's strike range is only a few meters Although they lack endurance, they can move with astonishing speed launch themselves with their large hind legs However, it's the massive tail that really provides a crocodile's propulsion A sideway sway can send it exploding out of the water Crocodiles often attack head-on in a straight line with maximum gape It has strong cone-shaped teeth with cutting edges Sometimes if they need to grab a narrow part of the prey, like a limb they rotate their heads at the last moment The crocodile's most dramatic attack is a sideway sledgehammer pull with its gigantic head Crocodiles need these split-second strategies because they are often unsighted as they leave the muddy water Once back in the water, crocodiles are the masters They easily overpower and drown their mammal prey This is the view of the ultimate aerial predator, the golden eagle Thanks to an onboard camera, we can sense the actual speed at which it flies It's looking for its prey, a mountain hare The contest between them is one of the most dramatic in the natural world As the shot will reveal, the difference between life and death is a split-second The hare has lost its life Here it does again and again in slices of 125th of a second Death is almost instant This encounter is made up of an astonishing series of events, compressed in time The eagle detects, identifies, approaches and captures its prey in barely a second First its razor-sharp eyes lock on to a moving sheep Next it matches the shape to its blueprint for prey It twists over the vertical to align itself up for the kill Distance is judged with amazing precision Wings, tail and talons act as brakes Only in the last 1/6 second are the talons fully opened The force of the eagle's speed and weight is transmitted into the hare's soft body Dinner for one, death for the other and all decided in an instant But the outcome masks a battle that is very finely balanced The eagle can't afford any mistakes Even the slightest injury could leave it too weak to hunter and cause it to starve This fear of injury is something the hare can exploit It has a choice of tactics, either to run or hide If it runs, it can dodge or just stop suddenly Timing is critical This hare decides to stop It's too risky for the eagle to change course So the hare's gamble pays off Second option is to dodge Dodge downhill, and the eagle can turn, follow and kill But dodge uphill, and the hare often gets away What the eagle is afraid of is dangerous wind turbulence from the ground hitting its lower wing With the eagle almost upon it, the hare turns uphill, the eagle cannot follow and is forced to land Eagles spend hours intently scanning hillsides With eyes up to 8 times sharper than ours, they can pick up the slightest movement This is to combat the hare's second strategy which is to hide Again, the eagle fixes on its prey This time, the hare has seen trouble coming and sinks down for safety but then it can't see what the eagle is doing which is a problem The eagle takes its advantage Neither can an eagle see the hare however, as it sneaks uphill A last minute change of position has saved the day Fearing injury, the eagle is unable to change its final approach The hare is safe It would now run just a short distance away an eagle grounded is no longer a threat Predators don't have to be big and strong they can also catch their prey by cunning Spiders are the only predators to set a snare Most webs are designed for flies, not moths, but this one is extra strong It's the ultimate booby-trap and belongs to the ladder web spider It's two meters tall and specially designed to catch moths Like most webs, each strand is coated with glue The problem is moths are non-stick an escape mechanism which normally allows them to fall to freedom They're covered in tiny scales which come off easily but not in a ladder web The secret is that each step of the ladder is directly below the one above As the moth falls, it doesn't fall through and out of the web it falls downwards and heads the next rung By shaking the web, the spider can keep its victim falling This allows the web to strip off thousands of scales on the way Eventually the moth's body is sufficiently exposed to get stuck The moth can struggle but it can't now get free Time to move in for the kill The spider banks its prey then binds it in silk That way, food can be stored to eat later The snare has served its purpose and as dawn approaches, it recycles this remarkable web Small coastal archipelagos, home to seals and sea lions and to their worst enemy The ultimate ocean predator, a great white shark arrives cruising slowly It can hear the seals' distant barking through the sound of breaking waves The seals' rich smells are also a giveaway transported by the current Great whites are finally tuned to kill Unlike most sharks, they can control their body temperature to keep them warmer than the surrounding sea This heightens brain activity and sharpens sight the key sense for a daytime hunter The predator travels the ocean, constantly looking upwards From more than 20m down, they see surface objects as small as 15cm across They may recognize certain silhouettes but they will attack a variety of floating objects like surf boards, particularly in vicinity of their natural prey The great circle of sunlight shining down from the surface is a constant feature of the shark's life which it uses to great effect Surface ripples shatter light into shafts which spot like prey while particles suspended in the water scatter light creating a veil which hides the shark From the surface, prey can see nothing By contrast, very little light reflects up from the bottom and the shark's back is dark to help it blend in The shark's most deadly approach is vertical This minimizes its profile and whichever direction the seal may decide to flee, the shark can cut it off If the seal doesn't see the shark, it has little chance Bottom teeth pin a seam where 12 in the top bite down By flicking its powerful tail, the shark increases their shearing power It can often be a short sharp end Once again, the ultimate predator takes a life to preserve its own It may be a month before the shark needs to find and kill again And the way in which predators seek out their prey is what we'll be looking at in the next program We're looking to the mystery of the hammer's head how it homes in on its prey Predators with the most astonishing senses The world's most extraordinary prey-seeking nose There is nowhere to hide from these supreme predators Simply by being alive, animals give themselves away Predators, uncovering the moments when life hangs in the balance