0:00

Have you ever

0:02

been ghost hunting? I

0:08

have. But this wasn't

0:10

at night in an old abandoned

0:13

house using an electromagnetic field

0:15

detector in a Weibo. Nah,

0:17

nah. This

0:21

was the middle of the afternoon and

0:23

I was pulled over on the side of

0:25

a highway just outside

0:27

of Pittsburgh penciling. I

0:31

wasn't here looking for lingering

0:34

spirits of the Deerely departed,

0:36

but instead for real

0:39

ghosts, fossils. The

0:43

preserved remains of ancient

0:45

animals that lived right here

0:48

in my part of the world. Back when it

0:50

was an ocean floor millions

0:52

of years ago. I

0:55

stood looking at the dark stone

0:57

of the foot of the cliffside. I

1:01

wedged my chisel into the sedimentary

1:03

rock, and after landing a few hits

1:05

with my hammer, I

1:08

cried away the pieces of shale

1:10

and limestone and took

1:12

a look inside. The

1:18

first ghost I found, the

1:20

coiled shell of an ancient mollusk.

1:25

Before fossilization, this

1:27

would have been maybe something like a sea

1:29

snail and could have lived over

1:32

three hundred million years

1:34

ago. Next,

1:36

the remains of a rhinooid, the

1:39

strange marine animal that when

1:41

it was alive would have looked like a

1:43

plant with long feathered

1:46

arms sticking out the top. And

1:49

finally, the most impressive

1:52

ghost of them all. Part

1:55

of a trilobite, an

1:57

inch chant marine arthropod.

2:00

If it were around today, it

2:02

might remind us of a scuttling

2:05

crustacean with its hard

2:07

outer shell and many little legs.

2:10

All in all, it was a pretty

2:13

successful ghost hunting trick.

2:17

Whoever says ghosts are hard to

2:19

find, but they're wrong. You

2:22

just have to know where to look. I'm

2:36

Sebastian at Treveri. And I'm Rutendo

2:39

Shackleton. And this is the BBC

2:41

Earth Podcast.

2:52

This episode is all about

2:54

ghosts. We'll uncover the

2:56

mysteries of some Peruvian ghost

2:59

dogs We'll visit a cemetery

3:01

to observe some creatures of the night.

3:04

We'll journey to SmallBard, one of

3:06

the world's most desolate places. And

3:09

we'll listen to some extinct voices

3:11

which have been lost from our natural world.

3:19

You know, it's kind of weird to think of fossils

3:21

as ghosts because the

3:23

word ghost likely conjures

3:25

up the images of see

3:28

through creepy kind of poltergeist

3:30

that you see in a ghost

3:33

film, which by the way

3:35

I do not enjoy that at all.

3:38

But, you know, a ghost is exactly

3:40

what a fossil is. Right? Fossils

3:43

totally have ghost vibes.

3:46

A fossil can be a lot of things,

3:48

but basically it's the preserved

3:51

evidence of life that was once

3:53

here and living. That can be anything

3:56

from the actual body that's left

3:58

behind when an organism dies in

4:00

just the right way and just the right place.

4:03

Or something that left a fleeting impression.

4:06

A fossil is the remains

4:08

of ancient life reaching through

4:11

time to have an effect in

4:13

the land of the living, totally

4:16

ghostly. I actually remember

4:18

when I was in my last year of high school

4:20

in South Africa, my class

4:23

had a field trip to visit the

4:25

cradle of humankind. Which

4:27

is a UNESCO world heritage site,

4:30

and it's home to the largest concentration

4:33

of human ancestral remains

4:35

on the planet. In

4:37

fact, it is one of the first places

4:39

where Australopithecus fossils were

4:41

found. And Australopithecus is

4:44

one of the ancient humans that

4:47

started to walk upright like

4:49

us and also started to use

4:51

tools as well. Oh, that is fascinating.

4:54

Such a cool fossil in our

4:56

history. Do you know what

4:58

makes the cradle of humankind

5:00

so special. Why have we found so many

5:03

human fossils there? So the area

5:05

has network of caves

5:07

called the Stirk Fontain caves. And

5:09

so what's thought is that, you know, these

5:11

early humans may have accidentally fallen

5:14

into the cave or maybe

5:17

a flood may have carried the remains

5:19

into the cave or some

5:21

thoughts are that they would bury their dead

5:23

there. And the cave has

5:26

the right type of minerals and

5:28

rock to be able to preserve

5:30

and fossilize the remains. Oh, that

5:32

is so cool. The right place

5:35

or right time to preserve

5:37

this part of our evolution. But yeah, that's the

5:39

thing about fossils. One of the reasons

5:41

they're so fascinating and

5:43

mysterious is that they're so rare.

5:46

You never know when you're going to find that one

5:48

incredible specimen or what

5:50

answers it might hold if you do.

5:53

And mister plays a huge part in

5:55

our understanding of the natural world

5:57

too. Right? Scientists often

5:59

hear ghostly stories and folklore

6:01

from communities about elusive

6:04

species that have existed for years,

6:06

but that so far science has

6:08

not been able to trace or study.

6:11

The naphtha Laiti Pittman, her

6:13

tales of some mysterious ghost

6:16

dogs in

6:16

Peru. She baited her

6:18

mission to try and find one. My

6:23

ex boss started talking about

6:25

his thirty years research in

6:27

the Peruvian Amazon. And

6:30

he started to describe that other

6:33

researchers saw this ghost

6:35

doc. The

6:39

shortyear dog or ghost dog

6:42

is an elusive canine who is rarely

6:44

seen and at this point was

6:46

completely un research

6:48

AND WHEN THEY HEARD THAT

6:50

THEY SAY THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE. NOBODY SEED

6:53

THIS DOG. THEY MUST BE WRONG. Reporter:

6:55

THE NATIONAL WANTED TO INVESTIGATE these

6:57

potential sightings

6:58

further, so she booked a ticket

7:01

to Peru. It

7:03

does a long trip because you need to

7:05

fly to the happen to off Peru Lima

7:07

and they take another flight and take

7:10

lots of boats. And after three days,

7:13

I was in this place. One

7:15

of the most isolated national

7:18

parks in Peru. As

7:23

soon as I arrive and I

7:25

see tracks of chartier dogs

7:28

everywhere, I

7:31

made myself box traps

7:34

from wood boards. I

7:37

got, like, a different array of

7:39

bait. You know, from banana,

7:42

you know, meat and different

7:45

things that could attract to the

7:46

dog. And after a month,

7:48

I didn't catch anything. I was

7:50

totally frustrated. A

7:54

month might sound like a long time.

7:56

But it was just the start for Donata.

7:59

She searched in the forest for two

8:02

years without finding anything but

8:04

tracks and droppings. Donato

8:06

decided it was time to change location

8:09

with hopes that she might finally be able

8:11

to meet a ghost

8:12

dog. And it was

8:14

the right move. Well,

8:19

the the first one

8:21

we caught using bananas.

8:24

I was with two of my favorite

8:26

field assistant, and I remember

8:29

his head, In

8:34

his entire life, he saw only

8:36

once, and he's a very good

8:38

filled guide in Peru, so

8:40

he was completely amazed.

8:44

The ghost dog looked like a fox.

8:48

It has like a very bushy

8:51

tail. The color is brownish

8:53

chocolate with a

8:56

very funny nose, pointed

8:59

nose. We deploy

9:02

radial color on the animal to

9:04

be able to track it, and then

9:06

we let it go. After

9:09

this, we caught two shortier dogs.

9:13

One was a mother and one was a

9:15

baby. And this was the only time we

9:17

follow more than one at the same

9:19

time. After

9:24

three days, the mother disappeared. The

9:27

baby stay in this area, like, it

9:29

starts to move around

9:31

the tree. When we get in

9:33

there, we saw a firm meters

9:35

long boa constrictor, and

9:38

the animals inside of the belly of

9:40

the boa constrictor. That's

9:43

the life of the ghost dogs. So that's

9:45

the reason they are ghosts. To know they have

9:47

predators.

9:51

During her many years in the Peruvian Amazon,

9:54

ernata did study and track

9:56

some wild ghost dogs. But

9:59

her most important breakthrough came

10:01

just as she was about to go home.

10:04

When I was about to finish my

10:06

study in Peru, one

10:08

of my assistant found a ghost dog

10:10

in a market for sayo. It

10:12

was a baby, a two months

10:15

old baby. So we gave him

10:17

the name of also, which means bear

10:20

in the Spanish. And

10:22

we start to do walks

10:25

on the leash to get him used

10:27

to the forest. We did that for

10:30

one year, and we

10:32

knew that he he was able

10:34

to find food and

10:36

defend himself from predators. And

10:39

when we we finally released

10:41

the short haired dog, It moved away

10:44

fifty kilometers in three years,

10:46

and it moved to an

10:48

area where the noncontacted indigenous

10:51

group lead. So

10:54

we are not allowed to study this species

10:56

in there. We don't have a permit to enter

10:58

in this area. Three

11:00

years later, we found that the animal

11:02

was alive with a big seucuses

11:05

because we know the animal, you know, survived

11:07

too many tracks he found

11:09

in the forest. He continued

11:12

to be a ghost dog. It

11:14

has been more than ten years since I

11:16

last so so I hope we used

11:18

to running free in the jungle.

11:30

Run on. Also, run on.

11:33

Yes. Go on. Be free.

11:36

For Renata, to go from having

11:38

no sight or trace of

11:40

any ghost dog to spending

11:42

time with one for three years and

11:45

rewilding it before sending

11:47

it back out into obscurity.

11:51

That's pretty amazing. Totally.

11:54

I also really valued the

11:56

use of the collar in this study.

11:58

You know, once the dog had moved

12:01

back into the protected area,

12:03

The researchers just had to accept

12:05

the fact that, you know, their

12:07

data collection was limited to

12:10

until the caller's battery died.

12:13

And then he became a a ghost

12:15

again after that. And that doesn't

12:17

always happen in conservation because

12:20

we want studies to continue for

12:22

as long as possible. Right? We call them longitudinal

12:25

studies. And I

12:27

have experience with that in my own research

12:30

elephants. We want it to be a lifelong

12:32

study, but it was clear that

12:34

this animal had given them more

12:37

than enough data than they'd ever

12:39

expected to gain, and it was

12:41

time for him to return to anonymity after

12:44

that. He had to go back to his

12:46

ghostly life. It's where he

12:48

belonged. But you know Tendo,

12:50

there are so many animal

12:53

ghosts out there. Not

12:55

just this ghost dog, but I'm

12:57

talking elusive species

12:59

without much scientific research

13:02

published about them at all.

13:05

Singleton's, for example, not

13:08

the kind that you're thinking about on dating apps.

13:11

These are species that

13:13

we only have one single

13:16

piece of physical evidence for.

13:18

Take the giant glow

13:20

spot cockroach Lucy

13:22

Hormettica Luque. Oh.

13:25

Kind of spooky looking. It's got

13:27

a pattern on its back that looks like

13:29

a hooded figure with glowing eyes.

13:32

And that pattern actually glows

13:34

when exposed to light. Tendo, have you have

13:36

you seen this? Do you know what I'm talking about? No.

13:39

I've not seen it. Hold on. Let me have a look.

13:41

Okay. I'm sending you a file called

13:43

glowing roaches dot JPEG. Please

13:45

open. Okay. Okay. K. Here you go.

13:49

Oh my gosh. Oh

13:55

my goodness. It's

13:58

like a glowing mask face.

14:00

Oh my goodness. It's like very

14:02

impressive and I I recommend everyone

14:04

to look it up because you would not

14:06

think that an animal would look like this.

14:09

Well, that really shocked me with that.

14:13

The wildest thing about this cockroach is

14:15

that this is all we

14:17

know about it, at all. One

14:21

single individual of this species

14:23

was collected from a volcano in Ecuador

14:26

in nineteen thirty nine. And

14:28

it's never been found since.

14:30

Oh, wow. Yeah. It is a singleton.

14:34

And while each singleton species

14:37

is by definition rare. Singletons

14:40

as a thing are actually

14:43

common There was a research

14:45

study showing that for arthropods, so

14:48

generally anything that's an arachnid insect

14:50

crustacean in the tropics

14:53

About thirty percent of all species

14:55

that we know about are singletons.

14:59

And because most animals are

15:02

arthropods. That means that a

15:04

huge percentage of all animal

15:07

life on earth our

15:09

singletons. We know these ghosts

15:12

have to exist or have once

15:15

existed. We have physical evidence

15:17

we can look at. But so

15:19

much about them what their lives are

15:21

or were like are massive

15:23

mysteries. Now

15:31

for a different type of ghost hunt.

15:34

While Virtendo and I were in Bristol,

15:37

we went to a local cemetery, the

15:39

land of the dead. To go

15:42

for a back walk with former

15:44

gravedigger turned bat specialists

15:47

or as he calls himself, goth

15:49

ecologist Dan flu.

15:59

So Dan, where are you taking this right now?

16:01

So I just thought we'd have a little

16:03

walk through the cemetery through the woodland

16:06

parks, and we're heading up to the top of the

16:08

cemetery. That is hopefully

16:11

where we'll see our first bats come out

16:13

the sun's just gone down and there's

16:15

still kind of some blue in the sky.

16:17

How long do you think we'll have to wait until

16:20

the bats are ready to come out? I

16:22

think we got another ten minutes.

16:24

Oh, thanks. We should see some aerial action.

16:29

There's still so much awake

16:32

so many birds that are still

16:34

singing. My mind is

16:36

kind of like they're they're getting ready

16:38

for for nightfall

16:40

and getting ready to sleep. Yeah.

16:44

For me, it's the the most magical

16:46

part of the day because you can you

16:48

kind of fill the air getting

16:49

cooler.

16:50

Yeah. The damp rising, you can hear all

16:52

the birds settling down to rooster. Making

16:55

her nice little songs of

16:57

detailing everyone that go in the bed.

16:59

Yeah.

17:00

And then, yeah, you get that kind of excitement

17:02

that you know the baths are gonna be coming

17:04

soon. Yeah. Magic. The

17:08

house on the left with all the pictures

17:10

on. What they call a top lodge

17:12

and it's where the grapevinegar used to live.

17:14

Uh-huh. Back in the hay day of the cemetery.

17:18

Live together in harmony, rest

17:21

together in peace is

17:24

painted on the door of that. Beautiful

17:26

little idea for for

17:29

what we're doing now, finding the

17:31

bats that are living here alongside us.

17:38

Let me just get okay. I So

17:43

what kind of equipment are we gonna be using

17:45

today to find these bats? One

17:47

is -- Mhmm. -- like, I would school wear

17:50

you have to tune into the frequency

17:53

and one has display

17:55

on it and it will show you the calls going across

17:57

the screen. So what we do, that

17:59

top dial there, you tune that.

18:02

And the idea is when you get a bat

18:04

on there, when you hear a bat, you tune

18:06

it up so that you can hear the most solid

18:08

saying. Okay. So different species have

18:10

different calls. Yep. Yep.

18:12

They echolocate different

18:15

frequencies. So The common pit

18:17

drill will be at forty five, so it'd

18:19

be coming across the screen there, forty

18:21

five kilohertz. That's right. And the

18:24

lesser horsepower hundred and ten. That's

18:26

really big variation -- Yeah.

18:28

-- in frequency. And

18:31

we're gonna be seeing both types of species

18:33

today. Hopefully, lesser

18:34

horses are are really difficult to

18:37

to stop.

18:38

So what exactly do you do. Once

18:40

I've turned it on Just walk

18:42

along with your arm. I like

18:44

like that. Say, like, if you were

18:47

watching a video on YouTube or you're walking along

18:49

the street, just have it in that kind of position.

18:51

Yeah. And, yeah, when you when you

18:53

wear something, look up and see where it

18:55

is. Yeah. Cool. Oh,

18:59

something. So that was a pair of nokgels.

19:01

That's our biggest bat in in UK,

19:03

like a durable size. And I would say

19:05

they've just come out of a tree. Yeah. So

19:08

they roost in trees. Yep. And

19:10

they come over from the woodland there. But

19:12

you can see how high they were as well. Pipestrel

19:14

will be a little bit lower. Yeah.

19:16

And hopefully,

19:18

you will see one of them. Mhmm. And I

19:21

I kind of think of the lesser horseshoes

19:23

like they kind of cling

19:25

to things. So they didn't wanna be out

19:27

in the open.

19:28

Right. Yeah. So they're kind of like they'll hug

19:30

walls, they'll hug the trees, they'll hug

19:32

a hedge, any friends. Oh,

19:36

oh, that was so cool.

19:40

They're coming pretty close to us as well.

19:43

Which I'm absolutely amazed by.

19:45

He

19:45

just, like, swooped in and then did, like,

19:47

a u-turn back away from us.

19:52

I hear that. Two yours up

19:54

to forty five. That's it. Oh

19:58

my goodness. That's so amazing. There's

20:02

another

20:03

one.

20:04

Oh, we got a couple out. Right? Are they also Listen

20:06

to that. That's

20:08

amazing to that. The

20:17

back that just flew over us. Went

20:20

and then picked up a bug just

20:23

in the past behind you and then

20:25

went back up.

20:31

Yes. When they have zoomed in on the

20:33

bug, it will like be like

20:35

that. And that's how you know that they caught

20:37

something? Did

20:39

you wear a feet in the bus? Yes. Yes.

20:42

Got it. That was so

20:44

cool. They did so the bat flew by.

20:46

And did this kind of like spiral right

20:49

when it was swooping in to catch the insect.

20:52

Amazing. It was incredible to see.

21:01

Now we're in tree cover,

21:04

proper. It's darker and there's

21:06

no sunlight. Well, barely any

21:08

sunlight. It's We just

21:10

can't see them. We're just hearing and trusting

21:12

that they're there. So

21:16

we just got some food. I did

21:18

just remember we are at a cemetery

21:21

at

21:21

night. Yeah. I

21:23

would say it's the safest

21:25

place to be, as the batman

21:27

says. Yeah. moment

21:29

older, superstitious smart Yeah.

21:31

That's a deal. Yeah. And

21:34

just keep the eye on the time. It's

21:36

like an hour after

21:39

sunset in a bit. So I think

21:41

if we go in, have a wander down here because

21:43

a lot of the bats will start hanging

21:45

up now because they've had a good feed --

21:48

Yes. -- and then have a little rest. So

22:37

as you can hear, horseshoe

22:40

bats sound a bit like eighty in a

22:42

duchow. That's

22:44

incredible. It's so amazing. Yeah.

22:47

So It kind of felt like it

22:49

stopped. Looked at us. There's,

22:51

like, probing. Like, you know, sending out a probe

22:53

like

22:54

Who's these people? Who's these guys? Who's these

22:56

guys? It's amazing people

22:59

walk up in past year all

23:01

the time. Yeah. And they just wouldn't believe

23:03

how important that little spot is.

23:06

For one of the UK's drowers'

23:08

bats. Wow. So and they're

23:10

animal. Yeah. And it's

23:12

amazing that a place that people

23:14

come to you

23:17

know, pay homage to and remember

23:20

loved ones is also a place

23:22

where life is happening as well right

23:25

above their heads. Yeah.

23:30

That was crazy.

23:32

We were, like, actual ghostbusters.

23:35

And when those sounds came

23:38

through the speakers. I

23:40

loved it. It was super out of worldly.

23:42

It was an incredible experience.

23:45

There's something about having the bats

23:48

fly around you. It's

23:50

kind of like that omni presence

23:52

that you can sometimes associate with

23:54

ghosts the ability to be

23:57

anywhere and see anything. Once

23:59

the sun sets and the bats come out,

24:02

you can't see them, but you

24:04

know that they're there. Sometimes I would

24:06

feel the wind of one flying

24:08

right by my head. You can feel their presence.

24:11

In this kind of ethereal way. It

24:13

was so cool. And since we

24:15

met Dan, I've actually started, you

24:18

know, paying attention to the bats in

24:20

my neighborhood, and I can see them

24:22

feeding from my window most

24:24

nights, which is so cool.

24:28

It's funny because that's the thing

24:30

that I love and appreciate about

24:32

bats. You know, they're all seeing,

24:34

all knowing senses. But

24:37

it's one of the main things that creeps

24:39

me out about the idea of ghosts too.

24:44

Well, I think the good news here, Tendo,

24:46

for you and everyone listening, is

24:49

that unlike the ghosts of

24:51

scary movies, these bats

24:53

are not looking to scare you. They're just

24:55

going about their daily life. Bats

24:57

are performing their aerial acrobatics

25:00

just to catch dinner. From

25:11

the land of the dead to the land

25:13

of the desolate, we're heading

25:15

to a literal ghost town,

25:17

SmallBard. An arctic

25:20

archipelago known for its

25:22

icy Tundra. Local

25:24

resident and TikToker, Cecilia Blomndall,

25:27

shows us around.

25:30

What you often notice on Svalbard is

25:32

that the silence is deafening.

25:35

I'm right here now standing. And

25:37

a very open barren plain with

25:41

a huge mountain range to my left,

25:44

covered in fog and mist.

25:47

And on the right, it's pretty open. The

25:49

ocean is just behind a few

25:52

smaller kind of mountains on my rights.

25:55

And it's just silent.

26:01

Faraway, I can hear

26:04

a fox scream. It

26:06

almost sounds like a bird some

26:08

sort, but it's a fox.

26:11

During the summer, they are covered in

26:13

their summer fare, which

26:15

is grayish to camouflage them

26:18

perfectly against this kind of

26:20

gray and brown Tundra.

26:23

And then in the winter, they're white.

26:26

Fully camouflaged by the snow.

26:29

They're very difficult to spot. But outside,

26:32

you can hear them easily. That's kind of

26:34

how you know that they're around. Should

26:36

we already see them, but you will hear them.

26:44

So on today's hike, it is me,

26:47

it's my boyfriend Christopher, and our friend,

26:49

Anna. We also have the two

26:51

lapons with us, the two dogs, Grim and

26:53

Fenders. The only way to

26:55

explore the island is either

26:58

by snowmobile in winter or by boat

27:00

in summer. So today, we're heading

27:02

to one of my favorite places. It's

27:04

called And

27:06

we're gonna stay there for a few days, see

27:08

the beautiful views, maybe go fishing,

27:11

go hiking or just

27:13

head out into the silence. We

27:27

have now started our walk towards

27:30

the cabin that we're gonna visit today.

27:33

There is a mama reindeer to my

27:35

left maybe two hundred meters away

27:37

with a little baby reindeer. And

27:39

the baby reindeer is drinking

27:42

milk from the mom. It's such

27:44

a crazy moment to see.

27:46

They don't fear us at all. They're

27:48

kinda just minding their own business, and

27:52

we are just kinda walking past So

27:54

trying not to disturb

27:56

them at all, of course. The

27:58

mountains are towering just

28:01

in front of me.

28:03

A thick layer of fog is

28:06

almost all the way down to the start of the mountain.

28:09

And

28:09

they're jagged. It's very rugged and

28:11

barren here on sawbark. Nothing

28:14

really grows, so there are no trees, no bushes.

28:16

All you have is this tongue, which looks

28:19

very much alive though. So

28:25

we've walked about five kilometers dark

28:29

clouds above me. Not

28:31

like dark as in Rainville clouds,

28:34

but definitely moody clouds.

28:37

It's just all so quiet and

28:39

eerie. You

28:45

could record some scary movies

28:47

here. It would be very convincing.

28:54

We've just come across some polar bear

28:57

tracks. Maybe a few weeks

28:59

old. But even though the tongue

29:01

dress pretty compact, the

29:03

prints from a super

29:06

heavy powder bearer are very noticeable.

29:10

And the terrain. They

29:12

are bigger

29:15

than my hand stretched out. You

29:18

can see the claw marks at the

29:20

top. You can just

29:22

imagine the size of the powder bearer.

29:26

Thankfully, they don't look new though, so

29:29

it must have walked pretty far since

29:31

then. Okay.

29:37

The guys are about five hundred

29:39

meters away from me now, so need to catch up

29:41

because I don't have the gun

29:43

with leap from polar bears. They do. So

29:45

I need to make sure to stay close because right

29:47

now I can't see everywhere.

29:50

There are some small

29:52

mountains and hills and everything, so you never

29:54

know what's lurking behind them. So I'm

29:56

gonna go and catch up. Okay.

30:05

I do have to admit something

30:08

thing. Mhmm. The only reason I knew

30:10

what Svalbard was before going out

30:12

into the wilderness with Cecilia there

30:14

was because of the white vault

30:17

It's a horror podcast actually set

30:19

in Svalbard at a research station

30:22

and the sheer remoteness of

30:24

the place makes it so inherently

30:26

spooky. It's the perfect

30:27

setting. That sounds like a podcast

30:30

that I would probably need other

30:32

people in the room to listen

30:35

to it. It's

30:37

a really good show, though. If you want some nice

30:40

slow burn horror Technically,

30:42

I don't think there are any ghosts, but I can't promise

30:44

that. That said

30:46

though, I think Cecilia does

30:49

such a wonderful job of helping

30:51

us appreciate the experience of the

30:53

life that really does live out

30:55

there in SmallBard. It's not an

30:57

easy life, but that just makes it all the more

30:59

impressive. Yeah. Just that marked

31:02

lack of noise from humanity.

31:05

You know? Like, human noise

31:07

sometimes can be distracting and

31:10

the busyness of life can be stressful

31:12

as well. You know, Sebastian, I'll

31:14

be honest. The forest is my

31:16

escape from that a lot of the time. I

31:18

will go on a walk and just

31:21

allow myself to just

31:23

be immersed in

31:25

the natural sound. And

31:28

when I'm super stressed, I've also been

31:30

known to sit in a field of sheep.

31:34

And find solace with a herd

31:36

of sheep. It's

31:39

nothing like what Cecilia

31:42

lives in on small part, but,

31:44

you know, I can resonate with that.

31:51

Throughout this episode, we've been

31:53

introduced to some ghostly components

31:55

of our natural world. And

31:58

similarly to our ghost dogs

32:00

from earlier, There are a number

32:02

of species on Earth that also have

32:04

ghost in their common name. Tendo,

32:07

I would like to introduce you to

32:10

one of those. This is

32:12

my ghost mantis. Look

32:15

at that. Oh

32:17

my gosh. For those listening who

32:19

don't know what a ghost scientist looks like

32:21

or even what a praying mantis is, mantis

32:24

is are a type of insect, which means

32:26

that they are an arthropod and small

32:28

animal with a hard exoskeleton, with

32:31

a segmented body that has six

32:33

legs. But goastomantuses, are

32:36

special in that in addition to having

32:39

one of these dark brown hues

32:41

most of the time, their bodies

32:43

are shaped like

32:46

dead leaves and

32:48

they use that as their

32:50

camouflage to sneak up on prey

32:52

and to avoid

32:53

predators. Like a ghost. Such

32:56

a cool specimen. So how did you come across

32:58

this one? This is actually one

33:00

of my pets. I had this one a

33:02

couple years ago. And so once I passed away

33:04

of old age, I decided to preserve

33:07

it so that I could show other

33:09

people how cool these animals are

33:11

even after it was no longer here

33:13

with me. And you know a quick trip to

33:15

the Internet told me that

33:17

my ghost mantis is not alone.

33:20

There's a lot of other really cool ghostly

33:22

animals. Mhmm. Like the ghost

33:25

spiders, which tend to

33:27

be pale in coloration, very

33:30

fast and elusive and only come out at

33:32

night. Okay. And there's also

33:34

go sharks which are also known as

33:36

and I think this is a better name spook

33:39

fish -- Yeah. -- due to the

33:41

fact that they live in extremely

33:43

deep water and are rarely if ever.

33:45

Seen.

33:46

Also, in the plant world, there

33:49

is the ghost pepper, which

33:51

is one of the hottest chilies on

33:53

earth. And it's called

33:55

the ghost pepper because the

33:58

heat sneaks up on

34:00

you like a ghost.

34:01

Honestly, I am way more scared

34:03

of eating a ghost. I'm way more scared of eating

34:05

a ghost. Does this

34:07

fence me kill me alone? I did

34:10

not wanna run into one of those in my meal.

34:13

Exactly. So I guess

34:15

we figured out what it takes. To

34:17

have enough ghost vibes to be

34:19

called a ghost in the natural

34:21

world. You've got to be

34:24

elusive, pale, dead

34:26

looking, sneaky and creepy

34:28

nocturnal or even just really

34:31

good camouflage.

34:33

Yeah. That makes sense. But you know,

34:35

on one hand, I do believe that

34:37

being elusive is cool because

34:40

many animals thrive in

34:42

seclusion. And I really

34:44

do think that we as humans don't actually

34:47

need to see every

34:49

single species with our own eyes

34:51

on this planet. But

34:54

it is true that when we

34:56

know the health of our ecosystems, we

34:58

can actually help prevent many

35:01

species from reaching extinction. Research

35:09

tells us that ninety nine percent of

35:11

all species that evolved on earth

35:13

are now gone. Not just

35:15

elusive and hard to find, but

35:17

truly gone.

35:19

Real ghosts. It's

35:21

a frightening fact and the truth

35:23

is that thousands of species continue

35:25

to be at threat from extinction. Martin

35:28

Stewart has made it his life's to

35:31

record the sounds of our natural world.

35:34

Many of these sounds can no longer be

35:36

heard in the wild. He

35:38

was the last person to capture this,

35:40

the ghostly sound of the functionally extinct

35:43

northern white rhino in Kenya.

35:59

I've collected over thirty

36:01

thousand hours of natural sandscapes.

36:04

And two thirds of that library now

36:06

is extinct. The

36:09

Northern White Rhino in Kenya,

36:11

I had this chance to go to

36:14

this conservancy place

36:16

and I was introduced into

36:18

these two three rhinos that

36:20

were there, two females and a male,

36:23

but the two females were kept together

36:25

and in this enclosure. The

36:31

guys there, they they let me set up a couple

36:33

of micro phone. It

36:37

was surreal. You're

36:39

in the presence of something that you know

36:41

is not gonna exist. In the near

36:43

future. Yeah. Will

36:49

they say a picture tells a thousand words

36:52

Well, Sam tells a thousand pictures,

36:54

you know, forever when I'm listening to

36:57

to stuff that I've recorded in my life.

36:59

And you reflect on on these

37:03

humbling kind of situations that

37:06

you allowed be in the presence of

37:08

something so beautiful as

37:11

like the the Northern White Rhino.

37:15

It is a spiritual feeling

37:17

completely. The

37:34

BBC Earth podcast was hosted

37:36

by me, Gratendo Shackleton. And

37:38

me, Sebastian At Traverse. Our

37:41

interviewees were Renata Latie

37:43

Pittman, Dan Flue and

37:45

Cecilia Blumdahl, with thanks

37:47

to Martin Stewart for the northern white

37:49

rhino soundscape.

37:51

Our producers are Jeff Marsh and

37:54

Rachel Byrne. The researcher

37:56

is sub masters. The podcast

37:58

theme music was written by Axel

38:00

Kakoutier, with mixing an

38:02

additional sound designed by Peregrine

38:05

Andrews. The production manager

38:07

is Katherine Stringer and the production

38:09

coordinator is Gemma Watson. The

38:11

associate producer is Kristen Cain

38:14

and the executive producer is Deborah

38:16

Dudgeon. The BBC Earth podcast

38:18

is a BBC Studios production for

38:20

BBC Earth.