Why it sucks to be a Leatherback — Transcript

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1. 0:00Why being a leatherback is absolutely
2. 0:01terrifying. You crawl out from the dark
3. 0:03under the sand and head straight for the
4. 0:04brightest light you see. For millions of
5. 0:06years that light was always the ocean,
6. 0:07but not tonight. That bright light is a
7. 0:09hotel. You crawl the wrong way until you
8. 0:11get run over by a car, become a snack
9. 0:13for something in the dark, or simply die
10. 0:14of exhaustion. Even if you're lucky
11. 0:16enough to go the right way, predators
12. 0:17are already waiting for you. Only one in
13. 0:191,000 eggs makes it to adulthood, but
14. 0:20that's not even the worst part. To
15. 0:22survive, you have to dive deep, really
16. 0:23deep to hunt [music] jellyfish. Your
17. 0:24throat is covered in backward-facing
18. 0:26spikes to trap slippery jellyfish, but
19. 0:27that also means any plastic bag you
20. 0:29accidentally [music] swallow gets stuck
21. 0:30there forever. And even if you grow so
22. 0:31big that you have no natural predators,
23. 0:33you still can't dodge ghost nets and
24. 0:34[music] end up suffocating or getting
25. 0:35killed by poachers hunting you for meat.
26. 0:37But here's the absolute worst nightmare.
27. 0:38Your gender depends on the temperature
28. 0:40of the sand you're born in. Cool sand
29. 0:41means you're born male. Warmer sand
30. 0:43means you're born female. And as the
31. 0:44Earth heats up, no more males are ever
32. 0:46born.