Found out next on The
Most Extreme.We're halfway through the countdown, and our search for the fifth most extreme
jumping animal on the planet has taken us to the heart of Mongolia and the Gobi
Desert.
The kangaroos of Australia are a half a world away. Or are they? This is a kangaroo.
Well, it's actually a kangaroo rat. A rodent that uses those long back legs just like a kangaroo.
The kangaroos of Australia are a half a world away. Or are they? This is a kangaroo.
Well, it's actually a kangaroo rat. A rodent that uses those long back legs just like a kangaroo.
But the kangaroo
rat takes hopping to new extremes, because a single bound can carry it over
four meters.
That's an
incredible 45 times its body length.
Imagine if a
tall football player could jump that far. It's hard to
defend against a player that could leap from end zone to end zone. Such extreme
jumping hasn't gone unnoticed.
But coming in at number four in the countdown
is an animal that would be a star on any stage in the world.
Ballet dancers
are the most graceful professional jumpers in the world. They train for
years to stand on the very tips of their toes. But our next
animal in the countdown has been jumping on tiptoe for millions of years.
This is a
Klipspringer, the ballerina of the rocks. This dainty
little antelope lives high on rocky outcrops that jut up from the plains of
Africa. Early Dutch
settlers named them Klipspringer. It literally
means rock jumper, and it's easy to see how they got their name.
Their extreme
jumping ability is also useful to keep out of the clutches of Honolulu
zookeeper, Greg Hamilton.
Like any
ballerina, the Klipspringer dances lightly on the tips of its amazing toes. - In the middle
of this hoof, this split hoof, is a fleshy area that allows them to grip fairly
readily to rock surfaces, and allow them to maintain their positions on the
rocks. Their ability to
escape, basically, is to get into areas that are inaccessible to other animals.
These guys can
land on a shelf that is about the size of a quarter and stay there.But what makes these rock hoppers different from other mountain goats are their
extreme leaps. The Klipspringer
may be tiny, but it can leap 15 times its own height. That's more than
seven meters.
The best Olympic
high jumpers can't clear even twice their height. But if they
could jump like a Klipspringer, they could leap from the shoulder of the Statue
of Liberty and soar more than twenty meters right over the torch.
It's no wonder
that looking after such extreme leapers can be a bit of a challenge.
Even though Klipspringers have four
built in pogo sticks, they're still only number four in our most extreme
countdown.
It seems
incredible that anything could leap ahead of Klipspringers, Desert Rats or
Kangaroos, but coming in at number three in our countdown is an animal that can
jump so far, it's frightening. That's coming up
on The Most Extreme.
If
you're frightened of spiders, just wait til you see what these guys can do. Leaping in at
number three in the countdown are the jumping spiders. These guys are
the lions of the spider world. They have
exceptional eyesight, which means they can spot their lunch from a long way
off. Then, like a big
cat, they'll slowly sneak up on their prey and pounce.
And what a
pounce it can be. The jumping
spider can really jump. Those eight legs
can push it almost two meters.
That's 100 times
its body length. A human athlete
who could jump 100 times his body length might as well be flying.
It would be like
leaping over clear over two jumbo jets, nearly 150 meters. You'd think that
to jump such enormous distances, the spider's legs would be amazing. They'd have to
have bulging thighs packed with muscles. That's what
human jumpers need. That's because
human jumpers need well-developed thighs and firm butts to get their bodies up
into the air and to absorb the shock of the landing.
But safety lines are not enough for our next
contender in the countdown. There's one
animal that jumps so high, it needs a parachute.
At number two in our countdown is an animal that lives in some truly disgusting places. Frogs are legendary jumpers. Anyone who's taken a good look at a frog knows that it's leaping ability lies in its long, long legs. When scientists compare the power available in a frog's leg muscles to the distance they jumped, they discovered a frog can leap up to seven times further than was thought physically possible.
At number two in our countdown is an animal that lives in some truly disgusting places. Frogs are legendary jumpers. Anyone who's taken a good look at a frog knows that it's leaping ability lies in its long, long legs. When scientists compare the power available in a frog's leg muscles to the distance they jumped, they discovered a frog can leap up to seven times further than was thought physically possible.
So the
scientists took a closer look at the frog's legs. They discovered
a trigger mechanism that allows the muscles to stretch the tendons, store the
energy, and release it in that explosive leap.
High in the
forests of southeast Asia lives a tree frog with a difference. It's a frog with
extra webbing between its toes, so when it leaps out of a tree, it opens four
little parachutes. These flying
frogs can glide more than fifteen meters between trees. Imagine being
able to jump 150 times your body length. You'd be able to
leap clear over the Titanic, a distance of nearly 300 meters. Then you really
would be king of the world.
But the incredible frog is still only
number two in our most extreme countdown. We've seen nine
contenders. They're the best
of the best. Only one animal
has more extraordinary powers.
It's number one,
and it's coming up next on The Most Extreme. You don't have to travel far to find the most extreme jumper on the planet.
In fact, it's
often too close for comfort. It can spend
months waiting patiently for entomologists like Ruud Kleinpaste to return home
from holiday.
Vibrations on
the floorboard signal the time to leap into action. A leap of 30
centimeters may be one small jump for a bug, but it's one giant leap for
mankind. We're talking a
leap that's 220 times your body length. With the super
powers of a flea, we'd be able to clear the Brooklyn Bridge.
That's nearly
400 meters. But a flea can
also jump more than 150 times its own height. That's like
jumping over not one, but two Statues of Liberty, more than 200 meters.























