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Deep Look
Watch Ferns Get Freaky
Season 11
Episode 5
Look at the underside of a fern leaf. Those rows of orange clusters aren’t tiny insects; they’re spores waiting to be catapulted away. Once a spore lands, it grows into a tiny plant, from which fern sperm swim away, searching for an egg to fertilize. Think of *that* next time you’re hiking in the forest.
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4:00
Mussels create byssal threads to attach themselves to rocks and each other.

4:10
Earthworms cozy up with a mate inside tubes of slime to make cocoons full of baby worms.

3:52
What keeps the boneless, jawless hagfish thriving after more than 300 million years? SLIME

5:04
Researchers use invisible lasers, ghastly wasps and more trickery to protect orange groves

4:20
As they gorge, oblique streaktail hoverflies help keep orange trees safe from disease.

3:37
Why is that yellowjacket crashing your BBQ? She’s gathering food for the nest’s larvae.

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.