Dr Ann's Secret Lives S01E05

Bigfoot USA

yesterday

https://t.me/TopFilmUSA1

Transcript

00:00So what, we're just going to jump in on these things?

00:05Yep, that's the way we do it.

00:07But do we have enough people?

00:09We've got a good crew, they know what they're doing.

00:12Everything's right.

00:14Should I have renewed my life insurance?

00:17No, all you have to do is follow up.

00:21You've got your fins, your goggles.

00:25We're on the hunt for a very big and mysterious creature,

00:32one I've never seen up close and personal before.

00:36Okay, when they surface,

00:38sometimes you'll see a brown back coming out of the water,

00:41sometimes you'll see their head,

00:43sometimes you'll only see their nostrils come out,

00:45so sometimes they can be quite secretive.

00:47Alright, well, what I'm imagining is a really fat Loch Ness monster.

00:53Yeah, I suppose you could say that.

00:56But it's not Nessie we're hot on the tail of.

00:59It's a dugong.

01:01We have dugongs 10 metres in front of us.

01:04Is there one?

01:06I've joined an extraordinary week-long operation

01:09to catch, study and release this unique marine mammal.

01:13Sea World 1, Sea World 1, this is Sea World 2.

01:16Let's get it.

01:18We have a go.

01:19Catch requires a boatload of humans in rugby helmets.

01:22You'll be, mate. Thank you.

01:24Three decades of experience.

01:28And a half-tonne dugong who doesn't want to go to the vet.

01:32Oh, look, it's huge.

01:35It's insane.

01:36I can see this shadow moving under the water's surface.

01:39It hasn't even taken a breath yet.

01:42The team wait for him to take at least three breaths

01:45before they enter the water

01:47to make sure he's burnt off enough energy

01:49to be safely caught.

01:53Oh, wow.

01:55Look at that.

01:56Oh, my gosh.

01:58That is wild.

02:03Oh!

02:04With a third breath, it's go time.

02:07Oh, my God.

02:11You're on it! You're on it!

02:12As soon as I get my goggles on.

02:19As the dugong tries to dive

02:21and the jumpers try to stop him,

02:23we start gathering data.

02:25Five minutes ago, I'd never even seen a dugong.

02:34Now I'm the one holding the tape measure.

02:41Who's 75?

02:44Do one more.

02:48Turns out, I didn't need life insurance.

02:52It's huge.

02:53It's powerful but not manic.

02:57And it actually feels soothed with little droplets.

03:04And it's beautiful.

03:06And its breath smells like seaweed.

03:09The team's work is far from over.

03:12Oh, my God.

03:14If you thought the hard part was catching a half-ton dugong,

03:16wait until you see them hoist him onto a boat.

03:27As a nature journalist,

03:28I spend a lot of my time observing wildlife

03:31from behind my binoculars.

03:34But not this time.

03:36That's the heat.

03:37It's huge.

03:38In this series, I'm getting up close and personal.

03:41Oh, yeah.

03:42That's fantastic.

03:44No matter how deadly the animal.

03:48And it's not just for fun.

03:51Seeing animals like this is absolutely incredible.

03:55I'll be joining scientists on location as they try to gain a deeper understanding of animals.

04:02Three, two, one.

04:04We all think we know.

04:06So adorable.

04:08And this time, it's dugongs.

04:12They look like floating potatoes.

04:16And fishermen once mistook them for mermaids.

04:21But today, groundbreaking research is shedding new light on their secretive lives.

04:28And their precarious future.

04:32I'm Dr Anne Jones.

04:33And things are about to get wild.

04:37Every year, a team of researchers and volunteers from the University of Queensland

04:51and the SeaWorld Foundation

04:53Hello.

04:55Join forces to conduct a very special survey.

04:58All right.

04:59Glad I wore pants so you'd burn your biscuits on these seats.

05:02And it all starts in the sky.

05:08Go find some dugongs?

05:09Let's do it, yeah.

05:11Marine researcher Dr Merrick Eakins has spent the last 15 years volunteering as part of the world's largest dugong health study.

05:20Oh, beautiful day for it.

05:21Oh, wow.

05:22Beautiful.

05:23But to study a dugong, first, you have to find it.

05:36We're flying off the coast of Queensland, around 30 kilometres east of Brisbane.

05:43Make a look out there.

05:44That is Quandamooka country.

05:47This is what you might know as Moreton Bay.

05:50Down there is a marine park that's about 3,400 kilometres square.

05:58But right underneath me are about 1,000 dugongs, apparently.

06:03A thousand of them live here, right next to the city.

06:07Dugongs are the most common marine mammal in northern Australia and spend up to 20 hours a day grazing in shallow waters.

06:19So you'd think that'd be easy to spot.

06:22What sort of thing am I looking for?

06:24We're looking for the dugong shape, sort of that bullet shape with the big tail.

06:29And sometimes what you can also do is you'll find a feeding trail where they've stirred up the mud and the seagrass.

06:35And hopefully we'll find a big herd of them, that's better.

06:38But we might see some solitaries first.

06:41I feel like we're searching for a contact lens in a swim pool.

06:46Well, we know where the seagrass beds are.

06:48So we're going to...

06:49Previously.

06:50So we'll just go straight for those ones.

06:52And then we'll search around, usually near the edge of the sandbag.

06:58Alright.

07:03Oh, look at that.

07:04Oh, look at that.

07:05We've got a herd here.

07:06Oh, that's fantastic.

07:07See that, Anne?

07:08Yeah.

07:091, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 individuals down there.

07:13That is wild.

07:14Mark this one.

07:16So we can come back.

07:17Oh, look, there's a car.

07:19Oh, my goodness.

07:20They're absolutely shaped like those fish-shaped biscuits.

07:26That's exactly what they look like from above.

07:29See, there's another.

07:31Oh, my goodness.

07:32There's like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 maybe.

07:37About 40 in that.

07:38And there's another herd of about 20 next to it.

07:40Oh, you can see their pathways.

07:43They look like little snail trails.

07:45Yeah, that's it.

07:46So what they do is they sort of dive down and go along the bottom.

07:49Do a sort of lawn mower type run.

07:52See how rotund that one was.

07:54It just came up for a breath.

07:55Yeah, the big round one's probably a female.

07:57Probably a pregnant female then.

07:59It is so amazing.

08:01Why are we spotting them from the air?

08:03What's going to happen from here?

08:04Oh, from here, we've marked the location.

08:07And so then we can get in the boat and go to the GPS point and then try and find the herd.

08:10So what, they'll stay there?

08:12They tend to stay roughly in the same spot for a couple of weeks.

08:16The population here may seem healthy, but dugongs are in global decline.

08:24To find out more about what's been done to help them, I'm meeting lead investigator on the project, Dr. Janet Lanyon.

08:30So what number season is this for you then?

08:3316.

08:34It's been going for a while now.

08:36Janet has been studying dugongs for over 40 years and for almost half that time, she's been pioneering a way of checking the health of their population here.

08:45Yeah, it's a pretty full-on program.

08:49It's an intensive week for the team, who are hoping to catch at least 20 dugongs and take over 200 samples and measurements from each one.

09:01Hi everyone, this is Anne.

09:03Oh, this is nerve-wracking.

09:06There's so many people.

09:08Hello.

09:09Hi, I'm Anne.

09:10I'm Chloe.

09:11As they prepare the kit for the boats, three of the team,

09:14Lockie, Helen and Chloe, show me the methods behind this madness.

09:19Wow.

09:20Okay, this is looking medical.

09:22Yes, yep.

09:23So this is our two blood boxes.

09:25So taking blood on deck of the dugong is one of the main sampling types that we do.

09:29So what we've got in these bags are just all the blood tubes.

09:32There's quite a lot of tubes that we use.

09:35So that's for one animal?

09:36For one animal per bag.

09:37That's a lot of blood.

09:38So then it's just sort of a grab-and-go for each animal when Janet's doing the sticking.

09:43And what sort of thing are you trying to find out with the blood?

09:45Oh, all sorts of things.

09:46So basic hematology, looking at red blood cell counts and white blood cells and that sort

09:52of thing.

09:53We can look at hormones.

09:54We also look at stress hormones too, so getting an insight into their stress physiology.

09:59Some of the samples also tell us about diseases and heavy metals and various contaminants.

10:05Is it possible to take the bloods when you're in the water?

10:09Oh, it's really difficult.

10:11We tried that in the early years and we were unsuccessful in getting decent volumes of blood

10:17that were uncontaminated by sea water because you have to hold the pectoral thing out of

10:21the water.

10:22So the bloods are critical and that's one of the main reasons that we take the animals

10:26out of water.

10:27See you out there.

10:28See you there.

10:29The team are always looking for ways to reduce the more invasive methods of sampling.

10:34Hello.

10:35Although some of the alternatives require a bit of Aussie ingenuity.

10:39Are you a Frisbee fan?

10:40The Frisbees, yes.

10:42The Frisbees are really important in this program because they're a urine and a faecal collector

10:48and so they get placed under the dugong while it's on board the boat.

10:52What sort of thing are you going to find out from the scat or the urine?

10:57Hormones.

10:58You can find out if a dugong is pregnant and we've got this Frisbee covered in alfoil to

11:03make sure that there's no plastic contamination.

11:06And that's mainly because we can look for microplastics in the faeces.

11:10It's incredible, isn't it?

11:11Like dugongs, they're so incredibly secretive and so many of their secrets are in their poos.

11:16Yes, that's right.

11:18That's right.

11:19Before we head out on the boat, long-time volunteer Lockie has another job in mind for me.

11:24We've got a few different types of swabs here.

11:27They've got a really thick kind of tear layer, a mucusy tear layer.

11:31So we're going to try and get a little sample of that.

11:33We're going to look at getting some samples in the mouth and the tongue as well.

11:36Okay.

11:37But Janet, why are you doing this when you've got the bloods?

11:40What is this going to tell you that's different?

11:42We're always interested in finding alternatives to blood sampling.

11:45So if we can sample saliva or the tears of the animals and we can still pick up hormones or other markers of health, that's preferable.

11:54Okay.

11:55All right.

11:56Well, can I carry something to take out to the boat?

11:58That'd be fantastic, yeah.

11:59If you want to carry this one out, maybe.

12:01I'll see you soon, Janet.

12:02Okay.

12:03All right.

12:04I feel like I got the easy job.

12:09With the volunteers in town for just a week and a shopping list of 20 dugongs, we're back

12:17out on the boat with a floating dugong clinic on our heels.

12:22And it's not long before we find our next customer.

12:33The jump team maneuver the dugong onto a stretcher slung between two boats, which they will use

12:41to transport the dugong towards the larger boat for his checkup.

12:56The dugong is settled, having left a trail of exhausted humans in its wake.

13:02This is wild.

13:03How'd you go?

13:04Good.

13:05I, I, yeah.

13:06That's amazing.

13:07You didn't know.

13:08It's so strong.

13:09Yeah, that's a big male, actually.

13:10Everybody on board?

13:11Um, nearly.

13:12Okay.

13:13So, that's what we do over and over.

13:28Merrick travels in the stretcher to keep a close eye on our new friend.

13:54On board the floating clinic, SeaWorld One, the team are standing by, as they prepare

14:00to lift this giant sea creature onto their back deck.

14:07Oh, I never get sick of that spell.

14:17There it is.

14:19An adult dugong weighs around 500 kilograms and measures about three metres in length.

14:26Rocky, will you tie off on me, please?

14:28So, it takes a big winch and a big team to hoick this fella onto the boat.

14:34It's huge.

14:35It is so big.

14:36And it looks incredibly vulnerable when its soft nostrils come up and take a breath.

14:47It just, yeah, it's amazing.

14:49You know when you get a delicious toddler and they've got, like, little rolls?

14:55Yeah.

14:56That's how tubby it is.

14:57It's just gorgeous.

15:00This is the first time the dugong has been out of the water.

15:04Ever.

15:05So, to encourage him to keep breathing, Janet pours water over his nostrils, which mimics

15:10the sensation of surfacing for breath.

15:12Have we had a breath?

15:14Yeah.

15:15Once Janet is happy, the team aim to complete the health assessment in 30 minutes.

15:22It's a well-oiled machine.

15:29Keeping the dugong safe is paramount.

15:35As he is measured and photographed from nostril to tail fluke.

15:47Janet takes the blood samples from vessels deep under the dugong's pectoral fin.

15:52Are you ready for us to come in for swabs?

16:01Yep.

16:02And I gear up to help Lockie take the swabs.

16:06Just got a little checklist here.

16:08Everything we need to do the swabs on the animal.

16:10Yeah.

16:11So up the front end.

16:12And so...

16:13So it's all pre-labelled.

16:14We're ready.

16:15Exactly right.

16:16Yep.

16:17Tongue one, two, three, and four.

16:19Perfect.

16:20Yep.

16:21Right.

16:22To your left.

16:23Yep.

16:24Perfect.

16:25Under strict supervision, I start collecting dugong tears.

16:28Great.

16:29That's how we get to see that little tear layer there.

16:32I can.

16:33So if you just pull it off right, yep, that's perfect.

16:35Yeah, it comes out like a bit of snot out of your nose.

16:37Exactly right.

16:38Yeah, that's great.

16:39So what you can do, just cap that one.

16:41Cap that one.

16:42And that's how we get the tears.

16:43Thank you for letting me look at your eyes, darling.

16:46We've got two lips.

16:47Yeah.

16:48Locky also collects samples from the nostrils and saliva from inside the mouth.

16:52So it can be a little tricky to go up and access in the mouth and on the tongue.

16:57These samples will help piece together a picture of this dugong's health, along with what and

17:03where he's been grazing.

17:05You know, that's how we learn about this population here in Moong Bay.

17:08It also helps us get a baseline for these guys as well.

17:10So what a healthy dugong looks like compared to what maybe a compromised dugong looks like.

17:15So it's all really good data to compare to all the other herd members as well.

17:19And with the advancing technology, you know, one day down the track, we might be able to

17:23use these same samples a different way.

17:25It's like a body.

17:27It excretes information.

17:28It's all biological information, right?

17:30How long have we been out of water?

17:33How long has it been, Helen?

17:3525%.

17:37So we're just about that, aren't we?

17:39Yep.

17:44With the sampling complete, all hands are on deck to return this dugong safely back to his herd.

18:05The samples that Janet's team collects are revealing that the dugongs rarely stray from home waters,

18:24and have a very specific diet.

18:28So can the answer to their conservation be found on their dinner plate?

18:37The next morning, heavy rain and high winds makes it unsafe to catch dugongs.

18:51So, with the boats stuck in the harbour, I take advantage of the low tide to roam around their canteen.

19:05Is that a cone snail?

19:08Are you a cone snail?

19:10No, you're not.

19:12You're a hermit crab.

19:15Oh, what a cutie.

19:18I've been told that out here on the mudflats are a whole heap of seagrasses, and that's what the dugongs eat.

19:31It's really short.

19:45Really short, like someone's been over it with a mower.

19:51There's a fair amount of what I think is seagrass here.

19:56But it's all a bit...

19:58underwhelming.

20:00For some reason, I thought that it would have to be really big plants, because it's a really big animal.

20:09These plants are tiny.

20:10Like, tiny, tiny.

20:12Less than a centimetre tall, some of them.

20:17Now, how much of this seagrass would a dugong have to eat?

20:23Like, they weigh up to 500 kilograms, right?

20:25They'd have to eat so much of this grass.

20:32It doesn't seem very effective.

20:35All this talk of eating has made me hungry.

20:38I'm off to find cake.

20:39And answers.

20:41I'm sort of glad we're not out on the boat today.

20:44That would be a bit miserable.

20:45Oh, I know.

20:47Thank you very much.

20:48Thank you, thank you.

20:49I went out for a walk on the mudflats.

20:50And in my head, I had thought that seagrass meadows would be like waving, like almost like tiny, you know, forests.

21:04It doesn't seem logical to me that an animal that big could rely on plants this big.

21:12I know.

21:13Yeah.

21:14So, although it looks like there's not much seagrass there, most of the seagrass plant is underneath the sediment.

21:19So, there are underground stems or rhizomes and also roots.

21:23And that stuff is really good food for dugongs.

21:26So, it's full of sugars and starch and all sorts of goodies.

21:31So, the leaves are really important for the dugongs because they're high in protein, but you've got all the goodness in the rest of the plant too.

21:37So, do they sort of like hoover that up like a linguine?

21:40Like, how do they actually get that into their mouth?

21:42Okay.

21:43So, they feed in different ways depending on what they're feeding on.

21:45So, for seagrasses that have upright shoots, they'll actually grasp those and pull them.

21:51And pull it out.

21:52Yep.

21:53And then the other seagrasses, they excavate.

21:55So, for the really small stuff, they'll actually dig it up.

21:58These hoover bulldozer hybrids have poor eyesight and among the smallest teeth of any mammal relative to their size.

22:07But they have such sensitive muzzle bristles that they can detect even the tiniest scrap of seagrass.

22:14So, how much of that grass do they take in per day?

22:17Oh, huge amount.

22:18If they feed on that little round halophila species that they really like, they may need about 65 kilos fresh weight per day in order to survive.

22:28And then, if they breathe, they need even more.

22:31So, when a dugong comes along and eats 65 kilograms of grass in one day, how does the grass respond?

22:39Yeah.

22:40Well, remember that they're not taking 100% of the seagrass in the feeding trails.

22:45So, there are remnants left.

22:46And those rhizomes are able to send up new shoots.

22:49And so, the way the seagrass responds is fairly rapid.

22:53But also, because they grow fast, they don't lay down that high level of fibre.

22:58And so, it ends up being perfect food for dugong.

23:00So, they just keep regenerating it.

23:02So, could you call them, then, an ecosystem engineer?

23:05Yeah.

23:06Absolutely.

23:07This ecosystem is not just critical for dugongs.

23:11The seagrass is a valuable carbon store.

23:14And the beds act like an anchor, stabilising sediment along the coast and dampening wave action.

23:21But the seagrass is fragile.

23:23Here in northern Australia, some of the biggest threats to seagrasses at the moment are these extreme climate events that we're having.

23:31We know that with every flood effect or cyclone, there's direct damage to seagrass beds.

23:36Do you see that reflected in the dugongs?

23:38We do.

23:39And, in fact, every time there's been a major rainfall event that's led to coastal flooding, they're having fewer carbs.

23:45And after some of the really major cyclones and floods, there have been zero carbs in the population.

23:51So, their growth rates, their reproductive rates, how healthy they are, everything.

23:56Their whole life history is determined by their food.

23:59Janet's work has revealed a really important secret.

24:03That, yes, there are dugongs out there in the bay that are healthy, but that it might not always be like that.

24:10Because, at this stage, we don't actually know how many extreme weather events the seagrass meadows are going to be able to absorb.

24:18And along with that, it means that the dugongs' future remains uncertain.

24:23It's my final day in Moreton Bay, and I'm heading out on one last trip with the team.

24:36Hey, can you guys get a big female this time, please?

24:40Dugongs can live for up to 70 years and are slow breeders.

24:45So, with the population in decline, scientists need to know more about how they reproduce.

24:53You've got one?

24:54Oh, wow.

24:55That can only happen if they find a female.

25:13Janet has assessed over 250 dugongs out of the water.

25:18You happy to go on three?

25:20Go three, too.

25:21And while launching yourself at a dugong seems completely bonkers,

25:26it's been shown to have minimal impact on their stress physiology.

25:34Got the pace?

25:35Yep.

25:37Not the case for the jump team, who are put through the wringer by this powerful female.

25:43The team measure her substantial girth before sliding her onto the taxi stretcher.

26:00My main priority remains not drowning.

26:05I think this is what kids are talking about when they say they want to be a marine scientist.

26:17I'm pretty sure that this is exactly what they're talking about.

26:21This is the good part of it, but most of the time you just hold them there.

26:26OK, this is the big female.

26:32Preparations are made as the team get this female over onto the boat.

26:40And everyone gets to work as the 30-minute countdown begins.

26:44Right, right. 68. 68.

26:46Taking measurements.

26:47Yep, yep, staying on 68.

26:49Taking bloods.

26:52And placing an identification tag on her tail fluke.

26:55Can we have some hands too?

27:00We're just going to roll slightly towards Mary.

27:01Ready when you are.

27:04One of the most useful tools on the boat is an ultrasound machine.

27:09Vet, Claire Madden, uses it to take measurements such as blubber thickness.

27:15But it's also used to check whether a female dugong has a calf on board.

27:20And Claire confirms that this one is pregnant.

27:23So with the ultrasound we were able to see the fetus.

27:27Oh my goodness.

27:28Yeah.

27:29That is amazing.

27:30So when we measured her in water she had all the dimensions of a pregnant animal.

27:34So that gives us a clue.

27:35And then we come up through the ultrasound.

27:37And then the other thing we do is from the poo sample we then measure progesterone and that will confirm the pregnancy test.

27:42The pregnancy test.

27:43The pregnancy test.

27:44Yeah.

27:45But we've seen the fetus so we know.

27:46Ah!

27:48That is so exciting.

27:50A baby dugong!

27:51Dugong!

27:54Dugongs breed once every three to five years and carry a single calf which they may nurse until they have another.

28:02It's a huge energetic investment and for a home body that relies on a vanishingly specific diet, protecting the seagrass may be the key to protecting the dugong.

28:19This population of dugongs is incredibly special, not least of all because it is the most studied population in all of the world.

28:31More than that, the studies that are going on here right now, the techniques that they're developing are going to be key to the conservation of the dugong worldwide.