In the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa,
Bushmen enter a state of trance.
Fire and hypnotic dancing create an altered state
where nature's rules are turned upside down.
(Chanting)
0ur ancient ancestors, while in trance, attempted to contact animal spirits.
This was their way of harnessing the forces of nature.
Bushmen still use this altered state
to forge a bond with the animals they rely on for survival.
Through deep trance, they believe they can transform into animals.
We have lost this close bond
but still share our lives with animals.
This sometimes leads to close encounters of a supernatural kind.
0n this journey, we explore our influence on the unseen powers of animals.
( # Country on radio )
The dog has been with us since we were hunters.
It can still surprise us with its powers.
Whisky was the travelling companion of an Australian truck driver
until a refreshment stop turned into a disaster.
Whenever his owner took a break, Whisky took off on his own adventures.
In each new environment, his senses are bombarded.
There are so many smells to be savoured, each with a different meaning.
This time, Whisky became too engrossed to notice the passage of time.
(Whistle )
Like most dogs, even he can turn a deaf ear.
(Whistle )
After many hours, Whisky´s owner became desperate.
His job depended on completing the journey on time.
(Whistle )
His only hope was that Whisky would eventually be found.
(Horn )
(Barking)
If Whisky was to be reunited with his owner,
his hidden powers would have to guide him nearly 4,000 kilometres
- to his home in Melbourne. - (Whimpers )
The fly had shared our lives for longer than the dog.
It too has unseen powers.
In its world, familiar objects like flowers take on unfamiliar hues.
The petals glow with ultraviolet light invisible to us.
The fly is attracted to anything that reflects ultraviolet,
such as the skin of fruit.
The Venus flytrap exploits this interest,
enticing the fly with UV reflections.
Stronger sources of ultraviolet can override this fatal attraction.
A fluorescent flytrap hums with ultraviolet,
confusing flies into thinking they´ve found daylight.
There´s little that nature hasn´t already invented.
A similar trap made from ultraviolet reflecting strands
is woven into the web of this orb spider.
The spider simply has to wait and let the lure do its work.
Flies face an obstacle course of ultraviolet death traps.
Few escape.
Plants are more sensitive than we think.
We unknowingly send out signals to them as well.
When we use artificial scents to cover our own,
we broadcast a secret message.
Many scents contain methyl jasmonate,
a chemical used by plants to signal they´re being attacked by insects.
Even our natural odours communicate in hidden ways.
To a dog, the smell between our toes resembles that of a bitch in season.
As we eradicate our own odours,
we replace them with scents that mimic those of animals and plants.
When plants receive a whiff of methyl jasmonate,
they increase the poisons in their leaves to fight imaginary insects.
If we continue to bombard the plant with scent,
the toxins increase until the leaves reach overload.
( # Country on radio )
Back in Australia, Whisky´s heightened sense of smell
helps him on his way home.
The scent trail left by the truck can be detected by Whisky even after a day.
His nose is a million times more sensitive than our own.
Tuned mainly to animal scents,
it can recognise the odour from a single flake of human skin.
To maintain a set course, he uses the sun as a guide.
His body clock compensates for the sun´s changing position
and prevents him straying.
He also has an in-built magnetic compass.
This told him the general direction of home the moment he set off.
If he maintains this course,
he will eventually reach the outskirts of Melbourne,
providing nothing gets in his way.
In Florida, alligators also receive our hidden messages.
And they react by challenging us to a contest.
In the mating season, alligators produce ultra low calls
pitched below our hearing range.
(Engine revs )
Males use these infrasonic roars to establish their status.
(Tyres screech)
Cars transmit similar low-frequency sounds
and provoke alligators to a duel.
(Engine-like rumble )
Water dances in tune with the infrasonic waves
as the alligators rise to the challenge.
Alligators face further unnatural competition.
(Engine hums )
Air boats create an even greater challenge
from the sound of their propellers.
(Engine-like rumble )
But there is a challenger that beats all others.
(Engine-like rumble )
The space shuttle´s infrasonic roar covers 80,000 square kilometres.
(Growl)
Every male tries his hardest, but in this contest, there is only one winner.
Infrasound carries further than any other sound,
even across oceans.
Whales have calls that can span these astonishing distances.
The song of the humpback is the most complex in the animal world.
(High-pitched whale song)
Like humans, they even use rhyme,
a technique we also use to remember complex songs.
They also make low frequency calls that carry for a thousand kilometres.
At depth, variations of temperature and pressure form a channel
like a voice tube that can transmit their infrasound even further.
It might even reach a whale on the other side of the ocean.
In this way, a pod of whales separated by a thousands of kilometres
would be able to keep in touch.
(Sonar pinging)
The navy uses the same channel to transmit secretly to submarines,
inadvertently jamming the signals of whales.
Shipping generates more noise pollution.
This low frequency din has increased tenfold in the last 30 years.
The navy also uses low frequency sonar to track submarines,
affecting every whale within a thousand square kilometres.
Mothers with calves react as if a predator is near.
They head inshore, keeping between the calf and the open sea.
At least one case of stranding has been linked to military tests
of low frequency tracking sonar.
In this nuclear age, other secret tests can be detected by animals.
A Paris street pigeon, like many birds,
can perceive infrasound pitched far lower than that heard by whales.
The deeper the infrasound, the further it travels.
In 1995, when France detonated a nuclear device in the south Pacific,
its effects reverberated around the world.
(Explosion )
A sound wave radiated from Muraroa atoll at infrasonic frequencies.
Travelling at the speed of sound,
the sonic wave covered 1,200 kilometres in the first hour.
Paris is on the opposite side of the world.
11 hours after detonation, the infrasound arrived.
The pigeons may even have uttered an infrasonic call of alarm.
The human population heard nothing.
(Siren )
(Grasshoppers whirring)
A lost dog considers humans as part of his extended pack
and seeks them out.
His senses are the same as those of his ancestor, the wolf.
He investigates with his heightened sense of smell.
Dogs have been credited with many supernatural powers
but those concerning smell are given the greatest credence.
Dogs are sensitive to slight changes in odour associated with epilepsy
and can be trained to warn sufferers of an oncoming attack.
A dog can detect skin cancers by smell.
It can be trained to discern the characteristic odour
of these malignant skin cells and help with a doctor´s diagnosis.
Dogs also possess the power to heal.
Their companionship creates a feeling of wellbeing
that speeds recovery and can even lessen the risk of heart attacks.
The strength of this bond of companionship
drives Whisky to continue his search.
A close encounter with hippos may explain another aspect of animal healing.
The skin of a hippo is surprisingly vulnerable.
Immersed in water and subject to cuts and infections,
the hippos need help to keep their skin in good condition.
They take their treatment lying down.
They share the water with skin care specialists.
Using a sucker-like action,
black labio fish give the hippos a full-body makeover,
gaining a free meal in the process.
A more familiar mammal has discovered the benefits of being groomed by fish.
This spa in Kangal, Turkey, encloses a natural volcanic spring.
What happens here has baffled the medical world.
Sufferers of the skin complaint psoriasis come here to be cured by fish.
Known locally as doctor fish, they have a particular passion for human skin.
Three different species of fish are involved.
Some make the skin bleed,
others are reputed to produce a fluid that speeds the healing process.
There are strong parallels with the hippos.
Here, the fish tend the cuts inflicted in fights.
In the sea, cleaner fish tend sharks and other large fish in a similar way.
In the spa, the fish dermatologists only eat tissue damaged by psoriasis,
leaving the healthy skin untouched.
After three weeks of fish therapy,
it´s claimed that sufferers are freed from their skin complaint.
0ther creatures have gained a growing reputation for healing powers.
Dolphins are reputed to help sufferers
of a wide range of physical and mental illnesses.
Throughout the world, dolphin therapy is a growing business.
It´s claimed that encounters boost infection-fighting T-cells,
benefiting people with cancer or AIDS.
In these meetings, endorphins, the brain´s natural opiates, also increase.
People with Down´s syndrome and autism seem to find remarkable benefits.
A possible explanation involves the dolphin´s sonar.
This can penetrate tissue like an ultrasound scan.
The sonar has the power to resonate a fish´s bladder,
causing it to become disorientated and easy to catch.
(Squeaking)
The ultrasonic beam also penetrates human tissue
and the dolphins seem to show an interest in anything abnormal,
such as artificial pins and cancers.
(Clicking)
The concentrated sonic beam may also heal.
Physiotherapists use ultrasound.
It´s been shown to cause minute positive changes to damaged cells.
A dolphin´s sonar is actually four times more powerful.
Many scientists still believe that the dolphin´s health-giving powers
simply stem from the feeling of wellbeing
that comes from meeting this charismatic animal.
Whatever the truth, close encounters with animals
are definitely good for the health.
Even meeting this fearsome creature may not be a life-threatening experience.
This man has established a strange bond with sharks
and they seem fascinated by him.
The man wears a chain mail suit, but it´s only a precaution.
The sharks never show aggression.
They come here to be stroked.
Like an affectionate dog, the sharks appear to be seeking attention.
And all of them want a turn.
Even stranger, sharks normally have to keep moving
in order to pass oxygen over their gills.
Perhaps they´re attracted by weak electric currents from the chain mail suit.
It´s more likely that the sharks react to stroking
as though being groomed by a fish.
They enter a similar hypnotic state when fish tend their skins.
and are remarkably compliant in this condition.
Encounters like these show us
a different side of a normally feared creature.
Perhaps we should re-evaluate our opinion of them.
Understand an animal´s supernatural powers and anything seems possible.
This man understands the hidden language of bees.
Coated from head to toe with 100,000 insects,
he has them under his spell.
He wears no protection.
Such is his control, he can emerge from the experience without a single sting.
His secret lies with pheromones used by the queen and worker bees.
By applying his own secret combination of their scents to his body,
he subdues the insects and causes them to cluster.
A suit of bees weighs 20 kilos and creates its own heat.
It can´t be worn for long.
In Australia, a more traditional bond with animals
has survived an incredible test.
Whisky´s unerring sense of direction
has taken him to the outskirts of his home town,
after a journey of six months and 3,800 kilometres,
he´s now close to his destination.
His smell world becomes increasingly familiar.
50 million skin cells are shed from the human body every day,
leaving a paper chase of scents that a dog can follow.
From this barrage of smells, he seeks the familiar traces left by his owner.
Familiar smells are quickly overmarked,
and visual landmarks add to those recognised by smell.
Not all incredible journeys can be explained by senses alone.
There are still unseen powers that lie beyond our understanding.
A close encounter with the hidden powers of animals
can be one of the most supernatural experiences on earth.
0ur understanding of animals was once a purely supernatural one.
Today, it´s science that reveals nature´s unseen powers.
Although we can never return to our original bond with nature,
our growing knowledge can bring us closer once again.
Mysteries still remain.
Harness the truly supernatural powers of animals
and who knows what the future may bring?