(light dramatic music)
- There they are.
Maybe immortal creatures, maybe aliens, let's find out.
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The state of Florida
has long been a wellspring of adventure
for the "Brave Wilderness" crew,
even ranging back to our earliest days,
we've been exploring this state's natural wonders
well before we even had a YouTube channel
and from the crocodiles of Turkey Point
to the creatures of the Everglades,
one thing is for sure,
Florida's habitats are robust and full of unusual species
and it just so happens today's adventure takes us back
to one of its beautiful but hidden natural springs.
In the past you've seen us target these locations
to film one of Florida's largest marine species,
the manatee, but what if I told you there's something else
living amongst the crystal clear waters,
something you can't see, but exist by the millions
and something that might also not even be from this world?
Today we aim to show you an unexplainable creature
from one of Earth's smallest dimensions.
Hey everybody, I'm Mark Vins
and we are back in the state of Florida
for another adventure in one of their natural springs.
Today I'm joined by my good friend, Hunter Hines
or excuse me, Dr. Hunter Hines.
- Thank you. - Hunter,
why don't you tell everybody
what you're a doctor of. - Right,
so my PhD is in microbiology.
- Microbiology, so I think that pretty much gives it away,
that we're not looking for big animals today,
we are looking for the smallest creature
that we've ever featured on "Brave Wilderness,"
but in order to find these creatures,
we can't do it on land,
we gotta get out there and get in the water
and you've got some sample tubes here.
- Ready to go.
- And what exactly are we looking to find
and put into these samples?
- Yeah, we're looking for tardigrades today.
- Taridgrades also known as a Water Bear
and we're gonna find out a little bit later
why they get that nickname
and we're also gonna answer the question,
are these animals immortal
and are they from outer space?
I know that sounds silly, but believe it or not,
there are actually rumors out there for good reason,
that these might be aliens living amongst us.
So without further ado, let's get our snorkel gear together,
get out in the water and find us some tardigrades.
So what are we looking to put in these collection tubes
today, not just water, we wanna look for algae or--
- No, we're gonna dive down, collect algae and bacteria,
there's like microbial mats
on the very bottom of the spring.
- Right, and I'm guessing by the number of collection tubes
we have here in this bag,
we have to take all these samples,
'cause you really never know what you get,
until you're in the lab under the microscope.
This is the shallow portion of the spring,
there's actually a deeper portion in the back,
where we're gonna have to do some free diving.
- Let's do it, yeah. - Okay, and that's the boil.
- That's the boil, where all the water comes from, yeah,
there'll be a current down there too.
- Ooh, fun! - Yeah.
- Okay, cool, we're gonna knock out the easy work first
and then we're gonna head to the boil
and challenge ourselves a little bit,
so let's get in the water.
Though it may sound refreshing,
the 72 degree water of this spring is actually quite frigid,
but it's home to numerous types of life
from millions of microorganisms to fish like gar,
tilapia and the bizarre pleco fish
and if you come here during the winter months,
these hidden pools are also home
to a population of Florida manatees.
As you may have guessed,
we can't exactly bring microscopes
from the labs into the spring
to pinpoint where the tardigrades are living,
so we will aim to canvas the entire body of water,
where Hunter conducts his permitted research
taking small samples from a variety of locations.
That's one!
They're hard to see from the surface,
but as soon as you enter the water,
you'll notice the bottom is covered in moss like blankets
of material growing in every direction.
There's an interesting one right there.
These are called microbial mats,
a multi-layered sheet of microorganisms
that are the feeding ground of the Water Bears,
so hopefully we were at the right place,
because from our view, the mats were everywhere.
However collecting these samples at the bottom
is definitely easier said than done.
I don't know how well I did on that one.
I only got, I thought I put a ton of substrate in there,
there's only that little bit.
This spring is a unique ecosystem and solely exists
due to a boil at the center of the spring,
which pumps 146 million gallons of water each day
from an underwater cavern.
The constant flow of new water
creates a strong, circular current, which makes swimming
and collecting our samples all the more difficult.
It's not that easy, it's actually a lot more difficult
than I thought it would be
and I'm glad I'm getting the practice now,
because we're about to do some free diving up to 40 feet
and that's gonna take a little more skill.
So I'll give that to you, Hunter.
- Thank you. - I'll take the GoPro.
- Alright. - Alright,
we're almost to the deepest part of the spring
and from what I hear, some of the best places
to find the tardigrades, alright, let's go.
As we filled our last samples,
our final test came into sight,
we had reached the entrance to the boil.
We finally made it,
I've got one last large collection tube here
and this one's gonna take a little effort, it's pretty deep,
it's like a catacomb of fallen trees
and it's where the good stuff is,
we're gonna go for the gold
on the final large collection tube of the day,
alright, here we go, I'm gonna give you the GoPro, Hunter.
I'm gonna put the mask on.
Alright, wish me luck, here we go.
There it stood, a craggy, log-snagged crater
10 feet wide and really, who knows how deep?
The depth of its entrance
was nearly 20 feet below the surface
and due to the low oxygen levels in the water,
it made this particular location
a natural breeding ground for Water Bears
and from what Hunter tells us, huge Water Bears.
The tricky part was going to be free diving
against the strong current from the boil
while maintaining a steady hand to collect good samples
and oh yeah, no scuba here,
I was going to need to hold my breath a lot.
But after a few successful plunges into the deep,
I collected a good amount of samples
from mats lining the walls.
(uplifting melodic music)
That's a sample from the boil, that's the one,
that's gonna be the big Water Bears in that one.
Alright, time to head to the lab,
got a little swimming to do before we get there though.
Hopefully it was worth the effort,
because both Hunter and I were exhausted,
but that wasn't going to stop us today,
we were determined to find these tardigrades.
Woo, man, what a swim, that was awesome!
Well, we did it, we filled all the collection tubes,
Hunter, do you feel good about it?
- Really good. - Alright,
so now we've just got to get back to the lab
and see what we found, - Alright.
- Alright, let's do it.
There they are, the samples, maybe immortal creatures,
maybe aliens, let's find out.
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After packing up from our expedition,
it was time to head back to Hunter's lab
at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
in Fort Pierce, Florida.
There we would prepare our samples for various slides
to be viewed under the microscopes,
some pretty hi tech microscopes too
and then we would truly learn
what was living in our collection tubes
and I find this to be
one of the most exciting aspects of microbiology,
because every expedition has the chance
of making a new discovery.
Let's start with step one,
what's the first step? - Alright, have a seat.
- Okay, cool, gotta sit down. - Gotta sit.
- Can you tell I'm excited?
The scientist has asked me to take a seat, alright.
- Alright, you can open it up for me,
now we're gonna actually get down into the sediment layer.
- [Mark] I see what you're doing.
- [Hunter] We're gonna put that over this chamber here.
- I knew going into this, that there was a slim chance
of actually finding Water Bears,
it's like finding a needle in a haystack,
a microbial haystack.
Fortunately with Hunter's experience
and our determination to dive deep into the boil,
we collected some of the best samples possible
and lo and behold, managed to find a surprise
in the very first preparation.
That's like a lot of pressure off,
like you know, we did all this work
and I'm like if we didn't find at least one Water Bear.
- Maybe we only found one?
- Don't let that one out of your sight.
- Alright.
We're going to put this over the Water Bear.
Alright, so see, that's sucked right up.
Put it over that slide,
so now we put a cover slip over very carefully.
Now in your hands is three tardigrades.
- Oh wow, three?
I thought we were just getting one.
- Alright, now we're gonna put the slide
on the big microscope.
Now we're gonna try to find our tardigrade again,
let me know when you see it.
- [Mark] Oh, see something!
Wow!
Oh, my goodness, look at that!
You can definitely see the claws.
- [Hunter] Yeah, you were swimming with these today,
I mean, they're all over you.
- You know, - Yeah?
- I swallowed a little water down there.
- [Hunter] Well then you definitely
have more than one tardigrade inside of you right now.
- Oh, are they gonna be there forever?
- You should name 'em maybe? - Name 'em?
They're like my new friends for life?
I hope not. - I'm sure you'll be fine.
- Okay, you know, I think we can go ahead and establish
why they're called Water Bears, it looks like a little bear,
it looks like a little bear with claws
and they happen to live in water.
- In water, scientists are very clever.
- Yeah. - Water Bear.
- Looks like a bear, lives in the water, Water Bear,
that's why they get their name.
A lot of times when you're looking at things
under a microscope like this,
you're looking at very primitive life,
this is a microanimal. - Animal, yeah, very complex.
- [Mark] So this is the brain,
the brain, you can actually see it really well.
Does it have a nervous system as well?
- [Hunter] Yes, a central nervous system.
- Central nervous system, great,
so it's all coming, all the motor functions--
- Coming from here. - Yeah,
and you can see the eyes, one eye, two eye
and is this really a primary function of the claws
for grabbing food or is it just for everything,
like holding on? - So the claws
are really just to grab on to the food they're feeding on
and they have these sucky mouth parts
and they kind of shoot out and that's what grabs the prey.
- Like a proboscis? - Yeah, very similar.
- Or like kind a little bit like a blood worm,
that has a mouth part that comes out,
this is a hungry Water Bear
and it looks a little rambunctious,
so we wanna find one that's maybe had a full meal
and it's down to take a nap. - Yeah, it's hanging out.
- Yeah, so let's go ahead and do that.
I feel a little pressured for some reason,
I don't know why,
I don't feel like I should have this much pressure,
this is like, I tell you, I'm like back in school.
- Yeah. - Oh, alright.
Oh wow, yep, I see one.
Oh, my goodness,
is that eggs on its back? - Yeah, very good, very good.
- We were researching the other day
and we heard that eggs are actually really hard to find.
- [Hunter] They actually are quite rare
in freshwater samples, yeah. - Really?
- [Hunter] This is a very good find, yeah.
- Yes!
Okay, so should I extract this one?
- Yeah, so now you're gonna, yeah,
take the pipette carefully as it is fragile glass.
Aim it straight over this, steady hands.
- [Mark] This is not as easy as it looks, folks.
Are we okay? - Let's take a look.
- Maybe, maybe, hey, it's my first time.
- You wanna sit in the Captain's chair?
- Okay, the Captain's seat,
just going right for the advanced.
Yeah, here we go.
Oh, nailed it. - Ooh!
- That's there.
Wow!
- [Hunter] Nice, here we have a Momma tardigrade.
- [Mark] It's my Bear!
That is amazing. - How do you feel?
- I feel really accomplished,
it is not an easy process at all.
- You wanna put the prism in right here,
this is getting DIC-- - Oh, oh, oh, oh!
- Just push it till it clicks.
- Okay. - So you'll hear a click,
yeah.
It's clicked.
- Obviously the click.
- Okay. - And when do we time travel?
- [Hunter] This is where the--
- When's the DeLorean take off?
Okay. - Alright.
Now you're gonna move this to the six.
Too far.
- Wait, there? - Yeah, cool.
- I'm beginning to feel like I don't know what I'm doing.
- Look at that!
Beautiful.
- Apparently I'm doing something correct,
check this out, okay.
The world's smallest bear right there,
right there on screen, that is so cool,
it just goes to show you life exists everywhere,
you know sometimes on "Brave Wilderness,"
we're looking for big stuff,
but now we might need to rethink things,
'cause there's a lot of small stuff too.
- Let's take a look.
(light melodic music)
So tardigrades actually shed their exoskeleton,
so the old tardigrade Momma's skin is where those eggs stay,
it kind of protects them.
- Okay, so tell me about cryptobiosis.
- Yes, so cryptobiosis,
this animal can basically shut down its entire metabolism,
so it goes to an almost deathlike state,
nothing is functioning, nothing's happening, it's not moving
and it can stay in this state for a very long time.
Importantly though it can turn this off
and come back to life if you will.
- And how many years can it do this?
- At least 20, maybe more. - 20 years?
- So it can be dead almost,
- Ah-huh. - but not die?
That's what I'm hearing, folks, is that what you're saying?
- Yes, but it's not immortal,
we could kill this tardigrade now,
we're not gonna do it, but tardigrades can die,
but they're very good at surviving.
- Let's take it to question number two, is this an alien?
I know that there's a lot of research being done
with this specific creature in space
and it can live in space, correct?
- Yeah, it can survive the ionizing radiation in space,
yeah and the vacuum of space as well.
- Okay, so can it possibly have traveled through space
to get here, I mean, is that a stretch?
I don't know.
- So I think it's better to flip it,
so if you wanna send a creature off of Earth into space,
I think tardigrade is your number one choice.
- Okay, that's a more sound way to put it,
I don't think we're gonna get a definitive answer today,
certainly not from the doctor here,
because I mean, he has a reputation,
but given its special traits,
this creature has a lot to offer not only science,
but humans, 'cause you know,
we're interested in space travel,
this creature clearly is suited for it.
- Yeah. - What can we learn from this?
- How do we protect our DNA in space?
I mean, radiation really damages us,
it doesn't affect the tardigrade,
that also has DNA, so what is it doing
and how can we apply that to human health
and that's a question we can hopefully answer
by looking at these creatures.
- Man, that is so cool.
Well, Hunter, doctor, thank you for having us out today,
that was amazing, if you wanna see more
of what Hunter's doing out at the Harbor Branch,
make sure to check out his Instagram account,
it is incredible, you can find him
@microbialecology on Instagram
or in the link in the description below
and don't forget, subscribe, hit that Notification bell,
so you don't miss a second of the action ahead.
I'm Mark Vins, be brave, stay wild,
we'll see you on the next adventure.
Let's take another look at those claws.
If you enjoyed witnessing
one of the smallest creatures we've ever found,
make sure to go back and watch our encounters
with our favorite sea cow, the Florida manatee.
- Alright, we've got manatees
surrounding the boat right now,
we're trying to be as quiet as possible,
we don't wanna disturb them
and this is the moment of truth,
I am diving in
with the manatees, this is gonna be awesome.
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