Baby Sea Turtle Battles Ghost Crab (2)
Transcript
00:00 Two months have passed since the loggerhead laid her eggs on this beach.
00:08 Up above the high water mark, the dunes are stirring.
00:14 The first of the brood makes its way out of the nest.
00:20 Instinct tells the rest to stay motionless for now, but this one is precocious.
00:28 It's a bad move.
00:30 Dangers lurk in the darkness.
00:34 Ghost crabs are waiting at the water's edge, gathering for the kill.
00:41 These opportunists are one of the key predators of baby turtles.
00:48 If the babies are going to reach the safety of the ocean, they'll have to avoid being
00:53 caught.
00:55 The rest are staying put.
00:57 Safety in numbers.
01:04 But their impatient sibling is on his way.
01:09 Out in the open, alone, there's nowhere to hide.
01:15 A crab closes in for the easy kill.
01:31 Unaware of the tragedy on the beach, the rest of the brood is surfacing.
01:38 Up to 120 babies are pushing up out of the nest, all intent on one all-important dash
01:48 down the dunes and across the beach.
01:51 For the tiny, soft, awkward babies not made for moving on land, it'll be a monumental
02:00 struggle.
02:01 Even small dune plants present major obstacles.
02:07 The journey is just a few dozen meters, but for the hatchlings, it's an exhausting trek
02:15 across an apparently endless desert.
02:18 A desert full of dangers.
02:24 A life and death struggle.
02:28 A baby has been snared by a ghost crab under the sand.
02:35 The unlucky do not survive.
02:37 But this baby is tough.
02:43 It battles on through the night, rejoining its brothers and sisters as the march goes
02:49 on.
02:52 This is the first and last time the males will walk on land.
02:58 The rest of their lives will be spent at sea.
03:08 At last, they reach the water's edge.
03:13 They are together for now, but they are starting solitary lives.
03:21 Turtles are self-sufficient from the moment they hatch, and already they are going their
03:28 separate ways, beginning decades of wandering across the world's seas.
03:34 The magnetic signature of this beach has already imprinted on them, and one day, 20 or 30 years
03:43 from now, the females will begin to return here to lay their own eggs.
03:50 Now they will let the currents guide them.
03:53 The warm Mozambique current will take them south, skirting the African continent, and
04:00 then out into the Southern Ocean.
04:06 Touch me and you die.
04:10 Roughly the size of a baseball, the soft-bodied blue-lined octopus looks deceptively vulnerable.
04:19 And with a relatively short lifespan of just seven months, the species depends upon some
04:25 rather extreme survival strategies.
04:29 It advertises its message in neon blue.
04:34 This sea snake is prowling for food.
04:39 The octopus has a choice to make.
04:43 Hide or stand and fight.
04:46 It opts to hide.
04:50 Like most cephalopods, the blue-lined octopus is a master of disguise.
04:57 Sophisticated skin tissues allow it to rapidly change not only its colors, but also the texture
05:04 of its skin to better blend in with its surroundings.
05:11 The sea snake continues its search for a meal.
05:16 But some predators are armed with more refined senses.
05:30 The hammerhead shark possesses an array of electro-receptors that can detect even the
05:35 best hidden of prey on the sea floor.
05:40 Confronted with the threat, the blue-lined octopus decides to change tactics.
05:48 It sends a vivid message.
05:51 Iridescent blue markings pulsate across its body, warning the predator that it's armed
05:58 and dangerous.
06:07 Its deadly bite is 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide.
06:13 In humans, envenomation can cause respiratory failure, leading to cardiac arrest and eventually
06:20 death in as little as a few minutes.
06:25 In nature, such threat displays are generally heeded and the hammerhead continues on its
06:32 way.
06:37 On a smaller scale, the blue-lined octopus is also a predator.
06:43 It scours the ocean floor, searching for small fish and crustaceans.
06:49 As a soft-bodied cephalopod, it's vulnerable to counterattack, and this crab's pincers
06:56 could inflict grievous bodily harm, albeit in self-defense.
07:06 A surprise attack presents the best chance of success.
07:25 The octopus's dexterous tentacles restrain the crab's menacing claws, while its sharp
07:31 beak easily penetrates the crab's exoskeleton, delivering its toxic bite.
07:40 The crab quickly succumbs to a lethal combination of toxins contained within the octopus's venom.
07:49 There's no doubt with this pint-sized perpetrator, blue means back off.
07:55 "
08:02 "
08:05 (water bubbling)