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Deep Look
Ensatina Salamanders Are Heading For a Family Split
Season 7
Episode 12
Ensatinas are a sprawling group of colorful salamanders, each one with different strategies for avoiding predators, from bold warning colors to confusing camouflage. Their diverse family tree offers us a rare snapshot of millions of years of evolution – how one species becomes many.

5:04
Explore the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) and ways to help monarch butterflies.

4:14
Floating colonies of red fire ants are a risk for people wading through floodwater.

3:57
These voracious predators cruise belly up below the surface of a pond or gentle stream.

4:55
Barn owls turn mice, gophers and voles into balls of fur and bones known as pellets.

4:02
It’s called nectar robbing: Bees get nectar, but don’t pollinate the plants in exchange.

3:49
Giant water bugs pack one of the most painful bites of any insect, but they're great dads.

4:33
The spotted wing drosophila may look like a common fruit fly, but it’s so much worse.

5:13
Those precious silk garments in your closet were made by the caterpillars of a fuzzy moth.

3:58
Barnacles might look like jagged little rocks, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life.

4:36
Honeypot ants stuff members of their own colony until they look like tiny water balloons.

4:25
What animal sprays acid that reeks of vinegar from its rear end? A vinegaroon, of course.

4:31
The cage fungus looks and smells like decaying meat — on purpose.