- NARRATOR: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.

Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - We have a worldwide concern about the status of shark populations.

When you see that number of sharks removed from the ocean, it's very problematic.

- It's just amazing to me to see the remains of the different cultures that have lived here and how long they've done it.

- We might talk to Europe or Antarctica or someone right here in Texas.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks & Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

- Shark big shark, big shark!

- NARRATOR: These biologists have nicknamed this massive Tiger Shark Sam Houston, and he is being caught for science.

- Washer!

- NARRATOR: They are attaching a tracking transmitter, all in an effort to help save the species.

- GREG STUNZ: Sharks play very important roles in our marine ecosystem, ah without having these top end, what we call apex predators, you have the ecosystem that gets out of balance.

These predators help control everything below them.

- NARRATOR: And now these wolves of the ocean are in trouble.

[somber music] [ship engine rumbles] - PERRY TRIAL: Worldwide, sharks have been depleted by overfishing.

Between 30 and 70 million sharks killed by humans every year.

[somber music] - GREG: What impact that has, we simply don't know because we don't have a firm understanding of really even how many sharks are out there.

[somber music] [shark splashing] - NARRATOR: Catching sharks for their fins is a billion dollar a year business.

- PERRY: One of the things that has contributed to the decline in sharks is shark finning.

Fisherman who actually catch the sharks, and cut their fins off, and discard the body.

Since 1993, that practice has been illegal in American waters but it still continues in foreign waters.

Because they can get ya know up to $900 a pound for the shark fins.

- NARRATOR: As Asia and in particular China's economy thrives, the demand for extravagant shark fin soup has exploded, and there are few international fishing regulations in place.

- GREG: We have a worldwide concern about the status of shark populations.

When you see that number of sharks and biomass removed from the ocean, it's very problematic.

And that's where the science really comes in is what is the true abundance of these sharks look like.

[boat horn] - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists keep a close eye on sharks every summer by doing what's called a long line study.

- This morning we are going to the Gulf of Mexico, and our target is to catch as many sharks as we can and tag as many sharks as we can!

- PERRY: The bait that we use is Atlantic Mackerel, it's a really oily fish and sharks seem to like it.

[water splashing] - BIOLOGIST: Good to go!

- We are setting the line right now, the line comes out off of the spool, and as we are going, we have these hooks and these barrels, we pull those out of the barrel and just clip em onto the line as we go.

[water splashes] - PERRY: We use these long lines to help us monitor the distribution and abundance of sharks within the Gulf of Mexico.

[water splashing] - BIOLOGIST: Shark, yep, shark!

Black-tip, male!

- There's definitely an adrenaline rush, that's one reason I'm on the back of the boat!

- TECHNICIAN: Whoa!

- JUSTIN: It's pretty exciting when you get to jump on top of a shark and you feel that pulse when they are about to just freak out!

- TECHNICIAN: Watch it, watch it!

Male, there you go, good tag!

I need a length.

- JUSTIN: Fourteen forty four.

- TECHNICIAN: I need a weight.

- JUSTIN: Sixteen-four.

- Whoa!

Just let it go, just let it go.

- PERRY: The sharks that we catch, we also tag and release.

- TECHNICIAN: Go ahead and lay it over the side like that!

- PERRY: So we get information on their movements and their growth rates, so we can use all that information to help manage and conserve shark species.

- A major scientific concern we have with shark populations in Texas, are understanding their migration patterns.

Understanding where they go and when can be essential towards their proper management.

We have literally 50 or more sharks tagged, they are swimming around, reporting back, and telling us all kinds of scientific information.

- NARRATOR: It turns out that information is a bit troubling.

- GREG: In general, we see a southward movement into Mexico, and that movement pattern concerns us somewhat given that there's large gill net fleets as well as long line fleets that are in operation in those waters.

[tractor pulls net] - NARRATOR: And that is the most immediate threat here on the Texas coast.

- GAME WARDEN: Unbelievable amount of sharks, anywhere between two and three thousand!

- We've got Mexican commercial fisherman that come into U.S. waters, the most common type of species that is being caught on this illegal gear are sharks.

[splashing] - NARRATOR: So throughout the year Game Wardens head for the coastal border.

[siren] - LUIS: Let me know when you can read that name Harry, I'm gonna try and read it as well.

- NARRATOR: Checking on compliant fisherman is easy.

- Captain, you all seen any other traffic besides yourselves out here in this area?

- CAPTAIN: No sir!

- NARRATOR: But spotting an illegal net or long line in this immense ocean, now that's a struggle.

- LUIS: It definitely, it weighs on me, because it is a large amount of water that I'm trying to cover with this one vessel.

It's like looking for a needle in a hay stack!

[waves crashing] - NARRATOR: And you have to keep your eyes peeled day and night!

- GAME WARDEN: Here's the main line right here!

- WILL PLUMAS: We're about half a mile north of the Mexican border, and about two and half miles off shore.

[fish flopping] - GAME WARDEN: Big Black drum.

- These lines like this, they are undiscriminating, they'll catch anything that'll take that bait is gonna get caught on those circle hooks.

[somber music] - WILL: These lines can be as long as four and five miles long.

It's a shark!

- GAME WARDEN: It's a shark, go ahead and pull it up!

- WILL: And he should be just fine, he's still very much alive.

[splash] And that's it, we've probably picked up a mile and a half, maybe two miles of line.

This is what we are out here to do is protect this resource.

- JUSTIN: Got the tail, got the tail!

- NARRATOR: Through protection, awareness... - JUSTIN: Sixteen, four!

- NARRATOR: And conservation, there is hope for these wolves of the ocean.

- PERRY: Besides having inherent value as living creatures, they're vitally important in helping maintain the balance in the ecosystems in which they live.

- JUSTIN: Hammer!

- TECHNICIAN: Eighteen seventy!

Good tag!

- PERRY: So it's incredibly important that we do all we can to protect them!

- The future of our shark populations literally hangs in the balance of what we do today.

It's very important that we properly manage these species and understand them scientifically so they're sustainable for future generations.

- NARRATOR: Now as far as Sam Houston goes.

That Tiger Shark is alive and well as he continues to provide crucial data.

[clapping] - NARRATOR: As for all the other sharks in these waters, it's up to us to make sure they are still here tomorrow.

- TOBY: The scenery, it's almost breathtaking.

- JEFF BONNER: Very pleasing to the eye.

- GREG: We think this ranch is special, it's got rolling plains, it's got some deep canyons, it's got some great water, which is every rancher's dream.

[water flowing] - JEFF MITCHELL: We're north of Amarillo in the Canadian River breaks.

Our east boundary is Lake Meredith.

[relaxing music] I'm Jeff Mitchell, manager of the Indian Springs Cattle Company.

It's all about a balance.

It's not just having a cow ranch, it's having a diverse ranch.

[relaxing music] [turkey gobble] [bird chirps] [cows moo] - JEFF M: We're in a terrible drought.

I think we're close to 200 days without having any measurable moisture.

And so one of the big things we're always trying to do is how do we stock the ranch properly?

The good years make everybody look smart.

The bad years are the ones that see how good of a rancher you really are.

We're very much into the science of our operation.

We do our stocking rates based off of our enclosures.

- JEFF B: You put a cage around it so they can't eat it.

So we can come at the end of the year, clip it, weigh it, and we know how much grass this soil type in this pasture makes.

With the conservative stocking rates that they use here and the drought plan that they have in place, they always have enough standing grass that when it rains, it catches more of that water, and more that water gets soaked into the soil.

The water is sweet and it's cool, and it's just bubbling out of the ground.

- GREG: It's called Indian Springs, and it's very fitting.

We didn't even realize when we bought this ranch the historical value, especially for the Indians that passed through here.

- I don't know when the end of the last ice age was, do you?

When was the Pleistocene?

- They made arrowheads and tools and this ranch is just loaded with all those artifacts.

- So the Alibates National Monument is just across the river there as you know, and so all these little holes are where Native Americans dug out Alibates flint.

We know that we find points of it made back during the Paleo period.

- JEFF M: The history does go way back, thousands and thousands of years ago, up till the late 1800s.

- JEFF B: We looked at the Flint quarries and it's just amazing to me to see the remains of the different cultures that have lived here and how long they've done it.

- There is so much history here on this particular ranch.

There's so much to see.

It's amazing.

- JEFF M: In the grand scheme of things, we're here for a very short period of time.

And so we're constantly trying to better the ranch.

- GREG: Toby has just been a lifeblood of this ranch.

- JEFF M: Toby Schenk handles our day-to-day operation, and we do a lot of cholla-pulling, a lot of individual plant treatment.

- 'Cuz if it was just a cattle place, you would take down every mesquite, every cholla, anything that wasn't growing grass or that would compete with grass.

Well, they don't wanna do that.

- JEFF M: We try do a lot of landscaping for the wildlife.

Let the brush come in in places, the poorer soils, so we can have the wildlife.

- GREG: I grew up hunting and fishing.

We are absolutely blessed with the wildlife that this ranch provides.

And we're stewards of that.

We do not want that to go away.

And I hope that goes down to my grandkids, my great grandkids.

[cows mooing] - JEFF M: Everybody always says the old cliche, I wanna leave it better for the next generation.

And there's no doubt, I mean that's the biggest part of it.

They're not making any more of it.

[relaxing music] It's our goal and our mission is to leave a legacy for those that follow us.

- TOBY: Very blessed to get to work for the Mitchells and with the Mitchells, in God's country.

[relaxing music] Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[birds chirping] [radio crackling] - Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with electronics.

My dad worked for the phone company.

I enjoyed taking apart electronics components, as a child.

When I got older, I decided that I'd get an amateur radio license and start talking on the air and I'm really glad that I did.

Romeo Tango calling C-Q parks-on-the-air from Lockhart State Park.

[over radio] T-R-T-K-F-5-B copy?

- K-F-5-D-P-X, park to park.

Q-S-L on the five nine, you're also five nine into Buescher State Park.

- My name is Jake Knobloch.

My call sign is K-G-5-D-R-T and I'm out here at Lockhart State Park today doing a parks-on-the-air activation.

Glad to hear you on the air today.

Thanks for getting out and activating.

Thanks so much for being out there, 73.

Have fun.

A parks-on-the-air activation is when someone takes their amateur radio out to a state or national park and talks to at least 10 people on the radio.

Roger.

Roger.

We put out the general call.

Anyone might come back.

[radio chatter] - Thanks for activating.

- JAKE: We might talk to Europe, or Antarctica, or someone right here in Texas.

K-G-5-D-R-T.

This is Kilo Golf, five Delta Romeo Tango.

Thanks to everyone that helped me activate today.

Glad to hear you on the air.

I'm Q-R-T. [upbeat music] I've been to a number of Texas State Parks, talked on the radio to a whole lot of people and had a whole lot of fun doing it.

[upbeat music] You can go out to a park all by yourself, be out in the middle of nowhere; get that feeling of solitude.

But as soon as you're lonely, you can...

Turn on the radio and find someone to chat with.

[radio static] [upbeat music] - ED LEBRUN: Sweeping up dead ants every day.

Millions of ants inside their house.

Ants getting into the electrical equipment and then the electric circuit shorts out-- Just much, much worse.

- NARRATOR: The script is familiar.

An exotic ant invades, wreaking havoc.

But these are not fire ants, and this is not a horror film.

- FILM NARRATOR: There is no word to describe THEM!

[scream] - NARRATOR: Yet like the movies, native species battle for survival.

There is public alarm.

- FILM NARRATOR: Stay in your homes!

- NARRATOR: And scientists race to combat the menace.

This is one crazy ant.

- FILM NARRATOR: I tell you gentlemen, science has agreed-- - NARRATOR: The tawny crazy ant, native to South America, was first documented near Houston and in Florida in the early 2000s.

Since then, it has invaded around the Gulf Coast.

- They are found in a variety of habitats-- urban, suburban and also in natural environments.

In Texas, we know that when you get an invasion of crazy ants, you lose lots and lots of insects, and you also lose all the ants except for a few small species.

- NARRATOR: Researchers, like Ed LeBrun, are concerned by the impacts of crazy ants on natural systems.

- ED: Very active today.

They cause a lot of damage to the native ecosystems by greatly reducing abundance and diversity of other insects in the system.

- NARRATOR: And some natural places are especially fragile.

- ED: This many ants in any environment will have negative consequences, typically, but there's a lot of endangered species in these caves, right Todd?

- Yeah.

- NARRATOR: At the entrance of a protected cave on the outskirts of Austin, LeBrun and Natural Resource Specialist, Todd Bayless, know swarms of crazy ants on the surface are bad news for rare cave bugs below.

- We got a call from Texas Cave Management Association to tell us that there was a major infestation of ants that they'd never seen before in their cave, and sure enough, found this tawny crazy ant in huge numbers inside the cave itself.

That was a concern to us because this is one of the caves we hope to protect for some species of concern.

We knew that they had the potential of being found in other endangered species caves nearby.

[cave crawling] - Onward and inward!

My name is Travis Clark, I'm a Natural Resources Specialist for Travis County at the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve.

The BCP was created to provide protections for eight endangered species, six of those are karst invertebrates.

We're at a cave in South Austin that's been impacted by tawny crazy ants.

And the reason we're entering today is to do one of our quarterly karst faunal surveys to assess impacts by tawny crazy ants.

There he is right there.

- MARK SANDERS: This is one of the species of concern that we're trying to protect.

The species name is Rhadine Austinica.

- TRAVIS: The species are essentially canaries in a coal mine, and so they're going to be indicative of cave health.

These cave systems are important because they're recharge features.

People benefit through drinking water, through recreation where this comes out in springs.

- MARK: Cicurina Bandida.

- And that was two?

- One.

That's it.

- TRAVIS: So essentially what we're charged with is providing all the safeguards we can for these caves.

- TODD: The underground ecosystem is very unique, not just in North America but all over the world.

Knowing we had a problem, we looked for experts in the ant community that could possibly help us out and we found Ed LeBrun over at UT's Brackenridge Field Lab.

- ED: This is the invasive species research group at the University of Texas at Austin.

And we are working on a lot of invasive species problems in the state of Texas.

Most people in Texas, when you're talking about invasive ants are thinking about red imported fire ants.

They actually do less harm to the native Texas ecosystems than these crazy ants do.

- NARRATOR: Crazy ants, so named for their erratic movements, eat or outcompete most of the spiders and insects around them, including the formidable fire ant.

- Fire ants are very tough.

They have this extremely toxic venom.

She actually goes up and literally takes the venom droplet off the end of the fire ant stinger.

And crazy ants, they go, they fight, they get hit with fire ant venom, they just keep fighting, they keep charging in and they should all be dying.

And so then here's the crazy ant detoxing from the venom.

People when you tell them they displace fire ants, it's like, "Yea!"

But the net effect if very negative, so you can really change the whole system by altering the arthropod community.

Here's a trap.

- NARRATOR: Such threats have biologists searching for ways to control crazy ants.

Texas Parks and Wildlife contributed funding to an early investigation of boric acid bait stations in the field.

- Unfortunately, it's not very promising.

- We discovered that, although the crazy ants loved the bait, brought the poison back to their nests, that it just didn't reduce the densities of the ants that we were hoping for.

- NARRATOR: In the lab, there is now hope for a natural enemy that some crazy ants already carry.

- ED: These are uninfected ants, so these were our control ants in that experiment.

The microsporidian that we're working on is showing quite a bit of promise.

- NARRATOR: A fungal parasite specific to these ants could help keep them in check.

- The development of larvae to workers is greatly reduced by infection, and the life span of workers is reduced by about a quarter.

There are these phydolese, solonopsis, dipoloptrims, they are very tiny.

And most of your ant diversity is down at this kind of size.

Tawny crazy ants are just a very small component of the overall ant assemblage down in Argentina.

- NARRATOR: The world of ants... - ED: Leaf-cutting ants... - NARRATOR: ...is complex.

- ED: ...we have here in Texas as well, we have Atta texana .

- NARRATOR: So further studies of ant interactions, where crazy ants are native, and where they are not, may provide more ways to minimize their impacts.

- FILM NARRATOR: The subterranean nest, where the beast spawns its terrible progeny.

- NARRATOR: Meanwhile, we should remember that the very best solution to invasive species problems is to avoid creating them in the first place.

- ED: Crazy ant queens don't fly.

What that means is they don't have a way to infest new areas except for people moving them.

And that's unfortunately what's happening all over the state.

So, people move them when they take a potted plant somewhere that has ants in it.

When you go to a garden store to buy something, it's important to look for ants.

I mean you don't have to be an ant biologist, just look for ants and if they're covered in ants, don't buy it.

Recreational vehicles are a problem as well.

Being sure that there aren't any ants in your vehicle when you go to visit a new place.

[door slam] [intriguing music] Species invasion, it's a natural process, right?

Species have been moving around the planet since there's been a planet.

The problem is, humans with our commerce and everything we do, elevated the rate at which these invasions happen by many orders of magnitude.

And so the natural system doesn't have time to adjust before the next invader comes.

The natural systems are very resilient.

If you can give them time to adjust, they will.

We should be paying attention, and we should be investing resources in offsetting the impact.

That's why I work here.

That's what we're about is trying to change the dynamic so that we can preserve the natural systems that we all grew up with.

[intriguing music] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing, trickling water] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, trickling water] [trickling water] [trickling water] [trickling water] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] - NARRATOR: This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.