"Beyond the limits of the human eye, life holds secrets we never imagined." "Attacks too fast to see." "Mysteries of survival and death." "Our crew will brave extreme conditions using the most advanced photographic technology to reveal these connections between living things." "Faster, slower, closer." "Capturing the beauty and brutality of nature at the speed of life." "Time." "For nearly every wild creature on the planet, it's measured by the rise and fall of the sun." "From dawn to dusk, it sets the patterns and rhythms of life here in the great American Southwest." "Now, under the hot desert sun, our cameras slow down natural time to let us explore the awesome attack of an apex desert predator." "The Harris's hawk is the king of the southwestern sky." "As dawn breaks, this male seems to be watching the day go by." "But inside, he's a highly tuned killing machine, scanning the grasses for the slightest movement." "The hawk is hungry, and he's craving some fresh meat." "But this rabbit is safe for now." "The hawk is looking for something different this morning." "His eyes are eight times more powerful than a human's." "And from this high perch, he can spot prey from a radius of 1,000 feet." "Like this chukar partridge." "This hawk is armed with 3-inch talons." "And he's borne aloft by massive 47-inch wings." "To power them, his heartbeat triples." "His sharp eyes lock on the chukar's position, some 50 yards away." "To escape predators, the partridge can burst into the air at 30 miles per hour in just a second." "But today, she's a second too late." "Filmed in normal time, details of the strike escape the eye." "But the details are now revealed in super slow motion." "The hen manages to spread her wings, but it's too late." "Instead, the wings of the hawk corral her." "As she struggles to escape, he pierces her lungs and heart with his talons." "Like the top predators of any ecosystem, these hawks eat less often than their foraging prey." "The protein supplied by the hapless chukar will keep the hawk going for some four days." "After the rush of the hunt and kill, he'll be able to coast for a while and the creatures that cross his path will be safe for now, until he gets hungry again." "As the sun rises and the temperatures soar, a veteran survivor makes his way across the burning desert floor." "These sharp eyes belong to a wise old tortoise." "He'll live to be 100." "And he's already older than any member of the camera team." "And while he looks like a wreck, the tortoise is a model of desert efficiency." "To experience the world from the tortoise's perspective, the crew has mounted a camera on its back." "His front limbs are built like shovels for digging burrows." "Elephant-like rear legs push soil out of the way." "Desert tortoises are walking water tanks." "This male can go for five years without a drink because he gets most of his water from plants and stores it in his bladder." "The sticky goo on his tongue snags vegetation and flowers and draws it to his mouth." "Tortoises play a vital role in the ecosystem." "They're attracted to the desert's brightly colored flowers and help spread the seeds for new plants in the waste they leave behind." "But the sun that brings all life to the desert just as easily takes it away." "By July, these badlands roar like a furnace, with the hottest average temperatures in the Western Hemisphere." "Before the morning ends, the desert floor sizzles at a deadly 122 degrees Fahrenheit." "Yet for every sign of death, life slithers through the desert's cracks and shadows." "Here, even landscape can rise up and move." "Like a herd of giant beasts, the Imperial Sand Dunes occupy an area roughly 200 miles square." "Aside from the plants and creatures they contain, the dunes are alive in a way." "They are actually moving about 50 feet per year." "The dunes are built with jewel-like bits of quartz the size of salt-shaker crystals." "These tiny building blocks, driven by wind and physics, create majestic heaps of sand 30 stories high." "To capture macrofootage of a dune in the making, you've got to get down to the level of the grains themselves." "So the team takes a handful of dune back to the studio." "To shoot at this level of detail, the team needs a slow-motion camera capable of recording on a microscopic level." "This kind of rig doesn't exist, so they have to build it." "We're actually gonna be using a microscope on the camera today, which has never before been done with this type of camera." "And this is it right here." "It's about $10,000 microscope right here." "I don't need this." "What we're gonna do is just connect this directly to the camera." "To solve the problem, they marry a high-powered microscope to a slow-motion camera." "3, 2, 1." "A view of the desert never seen before." "We're rolling." "A day for a dune is like a trickle of sand falling through an infinitely large hourglass." "Single grains by themselves don't amount to much." "But when you have billions upon billions of them, they can engulf almost anything." "Just 500 years ago, parts of the Imperial Dunes were covered by a lake, only to be swallowed by the giant dunes and dried up by the sun." "To survive the dunes and the scorching flats that surround them, southwest animals depend on sophisticated survival strategies." "Whiptail lizards race over the hot sand to escape the sun." "They can change color from dark to light to reflect whatever heat they can't escape." "But heat is by no means the only danger facing creatures her size." "And some of them are hiding where they're least expected." "The wild American Southwest is guarded by a wall of mountains." "Behind them are high deserts at 4,000 feet, an area of extremes." "Both of environment and weather." "The only way to thrive in this brutal land is to have impeccable adaptations." "Scales, venom, feathers, and eyes have all evolved to work incredibly, in every imaginable way." "The life-span of creatures here can be decades apart." "But often, a radical difference in lifetimes can ensure the survival of both predators and prey." "The hot desert sands are home to a killer so deadly, it shares its name with a heat-seeking missile." "The graceful, sinister phantom of the dunes, the sidewinder." "As other creatures seek shelter in the shade, this devilish killer prowls the dunes in the hellish heat of the high noon sun." "Sidewinders seem almost devilish, down to the horn-like scales above their eyes." "The horns protect the eyes from excess sand and help camouflage the snake by breaking up its profile on the dunes." "Armed with long, hollow fangs connected to venom glands, these snakes lunge at their prey." "This strike behavior is so hardwired, even dead sidewinders have inflicted venomous bites reflexively when touched by careless humans." "This is a highly venomous snake that's literally inches from our lens right now." "He's actually using the shade from the camera to cool himself off." "I deal with these creatures every day." "It's something you just get used to, and that's where it becomes dangerous." "Be careful, Dev." "Be careful, be careful." "While it looks creepy, the sidewinder's form of locomotion is a brilliant adaptation." "The sideways movement of this male reduces his body contact with the hot surface and saves energy in an environment where every calorie is gold." "Now he slinks off the hot sands and heads for the brush, where prey is more likely to come along." "Sidewinders are insidiously patient ambush predators." "This male can lie motionless for days, waiting for potential victims." "But this morning, he doesn't have to wait very long." "Desert mice tend to jump from place to place to make themselves hard targets for predators." "The life-span of this male is just 700 days, but only if he manages to die in peace." "He's digging for seeds to eat, but when he pops out of the other side of this mound... he runs straight into the sidewinder." "Shot at normal speed, the mouse looks unharmed." "But using a super slow-motion camera, what actually happened is revealed." "The sidewinder's strike is a series of automatic muscle and skeletal reflexes." "In a 20th of a second, he erects his fangs from the upper jaw and bites the mouse midbody for maximum penetration." "As the mouse is thrown off his feet by the torque of the impact, a muscular contraction injects the sidewinder's venom." "Within two heartbeats, the mouse's respiratory system begins to shut down." "As the snake disengages its fangs, it remembers the unique chemical signature of the mouse combined with its own venom." "If his prey runs away, the snake can follow the precise smell, even if it comes across the smells of other rodents." "But this mouse is going nowhere." "He's in shock." "A few seconds more and his breathing stops completely." "Hinged jaws allow the mouse to be swallowed whole, and with an extendable breathing tube, the snake can do this without suffocating." "The male's blood and moist tissues will keep the snake fed and hydrated for days." "This explains how sidewinders can survive the desert without drinking a single drop of water." "The population of sidewinders in the desert is high." "The average life-span is 20 years." "So, why haven't they exterminated the mouse population, whose members live just a tenth as long?" "The answer is simple." "This female may only live for two years, but she gives birth every 30 days, give or take." "In just over a month, these very pups will be fully grown and raising young of their own." "It's a win-win situation." "Her species is perpetuated, but predators will still have plenty of mice to eat." "It's time for mother mouse to forage for berries and seeds." "But out on the desert, snakes are just one type of predator that stalks creatures her size." "One of the deadliest hunters walks on four pairs of silent legs." "Each leg ends with two cat-like retractable claws." "But this is no kitty." "It's a fully-grown desert tarantula, 3 1/2 inches long." "Her legs can detect and localize the tiniest vibrations around her." "And fixed on her forehead are eight eyes instead of six." "They are set in two groups that give this female a nearly 300-degree field of view." "Housed in her head is a pair of powerful venomous fangs, and the female will use them to nail anything from beetles to small mammals, like the mother field mouse." "As she forages in the shadows, she doesn't spot the tarantula until she literally bumps into it." "Lock it up." "In the battle for life, some creatures are better armed than others." "But sometimes a little luck can make the difference between life and death." "The tarantula grabs the mouse in her cat-like claws, but before she can sink her fangs," "Mom escapes." "The tarantula takes the loss in stride." "Time is on her side, because her life-span is a whopping 20 years or more." "By the afternoon, the scorching temperatures start to fall." "Plants here can barely survive the freezing temperatures in the winter and summer highs that exceed 120 degrees." "Yet these highs and lows allow the ecosystem to thrive and the flowers to bloom." "The sounds of the desert can be peaceful, but there's one sound everyone dreads to hear." "Rattlesnakes." "If you're lucky, you'll hear their warning first." "The rattle consists of modified scales that interlock and overlap." "A unique muscle at the base of the tail vibrates these segments 20 times per second to produce the distinctive rattling sound we all dread." "This rattler comes fully loaded with elliptical pupils and heat-sensing pits, a deadly venom system and reserve fangs to replace ones that might break off inside a victim." "Nearly every creature in the desert fears the rattler." "Every creature but one." "The king snake." "4 feet long and glowing with vivid patterns." "It doesn't have any venom of its own, but it has a different deadly trick." "The king is a constrictor." "The fangs of the rattlesnake could easily kill the king snake, if they strike with enough force." "But his venom will have little effect." "She's protected from the toxins by a complex of proteins in her body." "The standoff doesn't last for long." "It's over in the blink of an eye." "The king snake got the drop on the rattler without being bitten." "Her secret can only be revealed through the lens of a slow-motion camera." "Using her superior reflexes, the king snake stages a brilliant preemptive attack." "She clamps down on the rattler's jaws before they can open." "Next, she pulls the rattler into a clearing and positions his body for the next gruesome step, consumption." "King snakes may be pretty, but this female is a femme fatale with a whale-sized appetite." "She eats the rattler while he is still alive." "Her strong body surrounds the rattler, making it impossible for him to bite her or to breathe." "Snakes are one of this female's favorite meals." "For one thing, snakes have no arms or legs to deal with." "For another, this rattler fits perfectly in her long stomach, right down to the last rattle." "Life in the desert is not only a struggle between predator and prey." "It can also come down to a race between the young and the old." "In the blistering heat of the day, animals will seek shelter to conserve energy, and some may only emerge a few times a year to eat." "Deep in its burrow, a reluctant hunter is about to surface." "The only venomous lizard in the American Southwest and it's a real monster." "For 95% of the year, it stays in its burrow, living off stored energy." "But eventually, it's forced to surface to fatten up." "The Gila monster." "This 5-pound female is 2 feet long." "Her colors warn other animals she is venomous and armed to the teeth." "She kills her prey with powerful jaws." "But her jaws are also part of a toxic defense system." "When the lizard moves them, muscle pressure forces venom out through ducts directly onto her teeth." "Biologists believe that the venom, used only for defense, makes her bite so painful to enemies that they'll remember to leave her alone in the future." "Gila monsters have poor eyesight." "Instead, they use their forked tongues to pick up the scent of food." "Nearby, another monster has emerged." "This male is literally on his last legs." "He's almost 20 years old, the average life-span of his species." "Gila monsters are binge eaters who eat only three or four times a year." "This old male can chow down 35% of his body weight in a single feeding." "But his legs are beginning to go, and now he's on the brink of starvation." "Suddenly, his tongue picks up a welcomed scent, a feast with a fat content that's off the charts." "But the female is already there." "It's a clutch of eggs from a ground-nesting bird." "Breaking through the shells will splatter most of the eggs on the ground, so she eats them whole." "The egg feast will sustain the female for weeks." "Her low metabolic rate and ability to store fat means she can relax in her burrow until she is ready to venture out and eat once more." "As for the old male, he never got close to the eggs, and he hasn't the strength to go on." "The Apache Indians believe that a single breath from a Gila monster could kill the strongest of warriors." "Now the short breaths of this old hunter are his last." "He's too weak to go on, and starvation brings his long life to an end." "As the sun's glare fades, the desert's stubborn architecture becomes more defined." "The crew assembles a spinning rig to capture the sunset as never before." "Cool." "It's all set." "Let's get out of here." "The arm's 360-degree sweep will capture it all." "All right, we got to go." "We got to do this, or we're gonna miss the sunset." " Get ready." " Hang on." "Two more seconds." "Start it." "As the sun arches down, we travel the entire edge of the Earth, as the majesty of a desert sunset is compressed from hours into seconds." "Now the darkness and cooler temperatures activate a new wave of predators and prey." "In a pitch-black world, the crew fires up a new tool." "They'll use it to locate one of the most mysterious and dangerous creatures of the desert." "The black light is their only hope of locating their target, if they ever find one at all." "I don't see anything yet." "The team searches the desert floor, without success." " Hey, Devon, I found one!" " Where?" "Right over here." "Check it out." " No!" " That's a good-size one." "Finally, the work pays off." "You got power?" "Yep." " Nice." " Looks good." "Under the cover of darkness, this venomous warrior is on the hunt for any insect he can overpower." "The desert hairy scorpion, the largest species of scorpion in North America." "Captured in the ultraviolet light, he gives off an eerie fluorescence." "The glow is created by a mysterious substance in a thin layer of his body's shells." "Scientists suspect that one of these layers detects U.V. radiation to warn him he strayed into sunlight." "The scorpion's primary weapon is its stinger." "The bigger the stinger, the more lethal." "They are highly territorial killers and allow nothing to stand in their way, even one of their own kind." "In courtship dances, scorpions stand pincher to pincher." "But this embrace has nothing to do with affection." "These arachnids will fight to the death unless one of them retreats." "But the fighters are too evenly matched in size, and they are resistant to each other's venom." "The deadly game is a draw." "After much posturing and wrestling, they part ways." "The moon dictates animals' behaviors at night, as surely as the sun drives the speed of life by day." "The air fills with a chorus of life." "Insect life." "Crickets occupy every imaginable desert habitat, from the sand dunes to the high mountain forests." "And with life-spans of only about 21 days, life is hard for these little guys." "The hotter it is, the faster they live and die." "At the height of summer, they are forced to eat each other to survive." "But tonight, they forage by the thousands on the wet blanket of plant debris." "Rain is welcome, but it can also be disastrous for the crickets." "If they don't get out of the rain, crickets can absorb so much moisture, they will literally explode." "Prowling the crickets' perimeter is a male tiger salamander, named after his distinctive stripes." "Tigers are the largest land-dwelling salamander on Earth." "This one could grow to 14 inches in length and could live to 20 years." "That's equal to about 35 generations of crickets." "The salamander's bright colors are a warning to other predators that his skin is packed with toxic glands." "During dry weather, it also secretes a mucous to keep his delicate skin moist." "Tiger salamanders have no eardrums." "Instead, this male uses his sense of smell to lock onto the crickets' location." "He can also pick up substrate vibrations through sensitive nerves in his feet." "Shot in super slow motion, the male raises his upper jaw 60 degrees and his prey is caught in the trough of his sticky tongue." "The salamander gorges himself before returning to his burrow to rest." "2,000 feet below, on the lower desert floor, the brush remains green from the passing rains." "A 6-inch western banded gecko moves through the clutter with ease." "That's because the eyes of this female are larger than daytime geckos and give her excellent night vision." "Her white color and almost translucent skin is a result of living under the cover of rocks during the light of day." "Geckos can pick up the scent of a predatory snake 100 yards away." "But tonight, as the female searches for prey, she is being shadowed by a slinky killer, and it's no snake." "8 inches long, the giant desert centipede is one of the largest of its species in the world." "Its life-span is five years, and it can move over the ground at 2 feet per second." "The male glides along on 20 pairs of high-performance legs, each pair a little longer than the next." "The graduated sizing prevents him from tripping over his own feet." "This adaptation has served his species well over the past 400 million years." "Sensing antennae attached to his head make up for poor eyesight, and his first pair of legs are actually large, powerful fangs, designed to deliver a crippling jolt of toxic venom." "While this centipede is fast, the gecko can run 10 times faster." "She's in no danger, unless she makes one mistake." "Falling asleep." "The centipede makes a surgical strike." "It sinks its fangs into the gecko's thorax, injecting a massive dose of venom." "As the venom paralyzes the prey, the gecko is held in a death grip by the centipede's 20 sets of claws." "Centipedes often eat the brains of their prey because they're full of nutritious fat." "As the centipede finishes her feast, a more voracious eater comes online." "A Colorado River toad the size of a dinner plate." "This male adult represents the largest native toad species in the U.S." "He's 9 inches long with a life-span of 15 years." "Two large glands found behind the eyes secrete a poisonous hallucinogenic substance powerful enough to kill enemies as big as coyotes." "This male has a retractable eye shell called a nictitating membrane that protects his eyes from hot desert winds and small debris." "Now this toad spots the first targets of the night." "Using his powerful legs, he leaps five times his body length to get the jump on them." "Crickets are plentiful, even down here on the desert floor." "Unfortunately, this bull is eating directly in the path of the centipede." "Unfortunately for the centipede." "The centipede's toxins won't hurt the frog because all venom is digestible." "A day in the life of the southwest desert has come to a close, a day that took months of exacting planning and scheduling to film." "Revealed through new photographic tools, we've seen how each creature here is as vital to the health of this ecosystem as the cogs that run a precision watch." "In the process, we've discovered that no matter how hot and rugged the terrain, no matter what species of animal, whether it walks, crawls, jumps, or flies, the speed of life never slows."