1 00:01:06,886 --> 00:01:11,437 Few babies have such a compressed childhood as this young elephant seal 2 00:01:11,606 --> 00:01:14,916 born on a beach in Patagonia only a few days ago. 3 00:01:22,486 --> 00:01:26,479 Its mother can't feed out of water, so she won't stay here for long, 4 00:01:26,646 --> 00:01:31,276 and her pup has to suck the milk it needs from her as quickly as it can. 5 00:01:43,326 --> 00:01:47,239 The milk contains twelve times more fat than cow's milk. 6 00:01:47,406 --> 00:01:50,079 The mother produces it directly from her blubber, 7 00:01:50,246 --> 00:01:53,716 and the pup converts most of it straight back to blubber. 8 00:01:56,326 --> 00:01:58,681 The nursery is dangerously crowded, 9 00:01:58,846 --> 00:02:02,361 and pups can easily be crushed and killed by the huge bulls 10 00:02:02,526 --> 00:02:05,996 as they quarrel and chase after the females. 11 00:02:12,406 --> 00:02:16,365 After only three weeks, the pup has quadrupled its birth weight. 12 00:02:16,526 --> 00:02:20,644 But its mother is now starving. She has to get back to the sea. 13 00:02:22,126 --> 00:02:25,277 So now this pup is on its own. 14 00:02:25,446 --> 00:02:29,485 And it'll remain here for another six to eight weeks 15 00:02:29,646 --> 00:02:34,436 while it converts the fat it took on so urgently from its mother 16 00:02:34,606 --> 00:02:37,040 into flesh and bone 17 00:02:37,206 --> 00:02:40,642 and gets strong enough to go out to sea. 18 00:02:41,406 --> 00:02:45,763 And that task of gaining size and strength 19 00:02:45,926 --> 00:02:48,759 sufficient to survive unaided 20 00:02:48,926 --> 00:02:51,440 is the main task of childhood. 21 00:02:51,606 --> 00:02:56,839 And the main trial of childhood is avoiding danger and remaining alive 22 00:02:57,006 --> 00:03:02,364 during this difficult period when an animal is almost defenceless. 23 00:03:07,206 --> 00:03:09,766 Baby terns need fish, 24 00:03:09,926 --> 00:03:13,077 and their parents bring it to them several times a day. 25 00:03:29,526 --> 00:03:32,359 They too grow up in a crowded nursery, 26 00:03:32,526 --> 00:03:37,077 for all terns in the colony start laying almost simultaneously in the late spring, 27 00:03:37,246 --> 00:03:39,043 when days are beginning to lengthen 28 00:03:39,206 --> 00:03:42,596 and there is more time for the adults to catch the large quantities of fish 29 00:03:42,766 --> 00:03:45,564 they need to satisfy their ravening young. 30 00:03:59,206 --> 00:04:01,401 The nests are so tightly packed together 31 00:04:01,566 --> 00:04:05,605 that returning parents inevitably invade the airspace of their neighbours 32 00:04:05,766 --> 00:04:07,757 and there's a lot of squabbling. 33 00:04:36,646 --> 00:04:41,401 The very density of the colony, however, brings one great advantage. 34 00:04:41,966 --> 00:04:43,957 Gulls, if they get a chance, 35 00:04:44,126 --> 00:04:46,640 will snatch and swallow an egg or a chick. 36 00:04:46,806 --> 00:04:49,798 A single tern has little chance of driving them off. 37 00:04:52,326 --> 00:04:55,875 But a group can mount a much more formidable defence. 38 00:06:11,486 --> 00:06:15,923 You might think that parental responsibility would hardly trouble an insect. 39 00:06:16,086 --> 00:06:18,998 Most, having laid their eggs, abandon them. 40 00:06:19,166 --> 00:06:21,475 But not the female lacebug. 41 00:06:21,686 --> 00:06:23,677 She protects her newly-hatched young 42 00:06:23,846 --> 00:06:27,316 with as much diligence and courage as any tern. 43 00:06:32,206 --> 00:06:36,085 This is one of her many enemies - the larva of a lacewing. 44 00:06:40,326 --> 00:06:44,205 It stabs the young lacebug with its stiletto mouthparts 45 00:06:44,366 --> 00:06:46,357 and sucks it dry. 46 00:06:48,886 --> 00:06:52,845 But in its death-throes, the infant bug raises the alarm. 47 00:06:53,006 --> 00:06:56,157 It discharges a smell that summons the mother. 48 00:06:59,046 --> 00:07:03,676 What weapons she has to fight such an enemy is difficult to see. 49 00:07:09,126 --> 00:07:10,957 Nonetheless, she wins, 50 00:07:11,126 --> 00:07:14,721 and shepherds her charges away to feed elsewhere. 51 00:07:37,646 --> 00:07:39,841 But there is always danger. 52 00:07:40,726 --> 00:07:42,796 A jumping spider. 53 00:07:43,966 --> 00:07:46,321 0nce again, back into battle. 54 00:07:54,886 --> 00:08:00,119 Her hard wing cases seem to protect her from the spider's poison fangs, 55 00:08:00,286 --> 00:08:03,084 but even so, it's a brave display. 56 00:08:18,046 --> 00:08:21,004 Even a spider, apparently, can be seen off 57 00:08:21,166 --> 00:08:23,441 if you have the courage of motherhood. 58 00:08:28,646 --> 00:08:31,683 In the Russian Arctic, at the beginning of the brief summer, 59 00:08:31,846 --> 00:08:34,644 snow geese babies are hatching. 60 00:08:43,806 --> 00:08:46,604 Their thick down protects them from the cold 61 00:08:46,766 --> 00:08:49,485 and they instinctively peck for food 62 00:08:49,646 --> 00:08:52,365 almost as soon as they're free from their shells. 63 00:09:03,646 --> 00:09:06,035 But they don't wander far from their parents, 64 00:09:06,206 --> 00:09:09,721 for like all ducks, geese and many ground-living birds, 65 00:09:09,886 --> 00:09:14,641 they become fixated on the first large moving things they see. 66 00:09:15,206 --> 00:09:17,879 Those are nearly always the legs of their parents, 67 00:09:18,046 --> 00:09:20,958 and they will follow them throughout childhood. 68 00:09:25,726 --> 00:09:29,196 So when mother and father move on, they all move on. 69 00:09:56,886 --> 00:09:58,877 An Arctic fox. 70 00:10:17,486 --> 00:10:22,116 When the geese started nesting a month ago, the coast was icebound. 71 00:10:22,286 --> 00:10:26,962 Now the ice has melted, and the family starts the long journey to the sea, 72 00:10:27,126 --> 00:10:28,798 where they can find food. 73 00:10:28,966 --> 00:10:31,241 If they can, they float. 74 00:10:34,206 --> 00:10:36,800 But most of the journey has to be done on foot, 75 00:10:36,966 --> 00:10:40,322 for the young can't fly and their parents won't desert them. 76 00:10:40,486 --> 00:10:44,877 And that is real devotion, for the coast is 30 miles away. 77 00:10:46,726 --> 00:10:49,798 That imprinted compulsion to follow mother's legs 78 00:10:49,966 --> 00:10:52,241 and stay near the protection of her beak 79 00:10:52,406 --> 00:10:54,397 will never be more important. 80 00:11:05,886 --> 00:11:08,798 And of course, the parents must always be prepared 81 00:11:08,966 --> 00:11:10,957 to fight off enemies. 82 00:11:12,486 --> 00:11:14,920 0nce again, gulls. 83 00:12:01,486 --> 00:12:04,398 A mother goose can produce as many as ten goslings 84 00:12:04,566 --> 00:12:06,875 because, like all birds, she lays eggs. 85 00:12:07,046 --> 00:12:11,642 As one develops, she expels it from her body, securely wrapped in a shell. 86 00:12:11,806 --> 00:12:15,196 No bird could retain a dozen developing chicks inside her body 87 00:12:15,366 --> 00:12:17,084 and still fly. 88 00:12:18,726 --> 00:12:21,763 Mammals bear their young in a different way. 89 00:12:21,926 --> 00:12:24,724 Their babies do develop inside their mother's body 90 00:12:24,886 --> 00:12:27,559 and emerge alive and without shells. 91 00:12:27,726 --> 00:12:31,924 Even so, some mammals are able to produce huge litters. 92 00:12:33,606 --> 00:12:36,359 Here in Florida, in the United States, 93 00:12:36,526 --> 00:12:39,563 there lives one species that gives birth to its young 94 00:12:39,726 --> 00:12:42,604 in a way which is quite different from that of any other mammal 95 00:12:42,766 --> 00:12:45,234 in North America or indeed in Europe. 96 00:12:45,406 --> 00:12:48,125 There is one in this tree here. 97 00:12:49,566 --> 00:12:52,080 Its closest cousins are in South America, 98 00:12:52,246 --> 00:12:54,965 but most of its relatives are found in Australia. 99 00:12:55,126 --> 00:12:56,684 It's an opossum. 100 00:12:59,126 --> 00:13:01,959 A female opossum - this one is South American - 101 00:13:02,126 --> 00:13:06,005 gives birth to her babies when they are hardly as big as bees. 102 00:13:06,166 --> 00:13:08,555 She may produce as many as 50 of them. 103 00:13:08,726 --> 00:13:11,479 They wriggle out of her body, clamber through her fur, 104 00:13:11,646 --> 00:13:15,161 and fasten themselves on to nipples in a pouch on her underside. 105 00:13:16,126 --> 00:13:18,686 But she has only about a dozen teats. 106 00:13:18,846 --> 00:13:21,918 First come, first served - the rest die. 107 00:13:23,646 --> 00:13:28,356 The lucky ones stay attached, drinking away for the next 16 weeks. 108 00:13:30,886 --> 00:13:33,116 Even when they are able to take solid food 109 00:13:33,286 --> 00:13:35,481 and are big enough to find it for themselves, 110 00:13:35,646 --> 00:13:38,399 they are very reluctant indeed to leave Mother. 111 00:13:38,566 --> 00:13:41,763 She seems commendably attentive and affectionate, 112 00:13:41,926 --> 00:13:44,804 but they are undoubtedly a great encumbrance to her 113 00:13:44,966 --> 00:13:48,436 and by now she's been caring for them for four months. 114 00:13:48,606 --> 00:13:50,198 It's time they left. 115 00:13:52,366 --> 00:13:57,565 Here, in my shirt...is a baby. 116 00:13:57,726 --> 00:14:02,277 The mother abandons all her babies when they get to about this stage, 117 00:14:02,446 --> 00:14:05,358 and they creep about in the forest, quite defenceless, 118 00:14:05,526 --> 00:14:08,802 so they can be easily picked up, like this. 119 00:14:15,126 --> 00:14:17,640 In Australia, kangaroos and wallabies 120 00:14:17,806 --> 00:14:21,355 also rear their babies in pouches from a very early stage. 121 00:14:21,526 --> 00:14:23,756 But they only produce one at a time 122 00:14:23,926 --> 00:14:26,360 and they look after them for much longer. 123 00:14:31,566 --> 00:14:35,445 A young wallaby doesn't leave the pouch at all for about five months. 124 00:14:35,606 --> 00:14:38,439 Towards the end of that time, it's so big and heavy 125 00:14:38,606 --> 00:14:40,642 that if its mother is hopping downhill, 126 00:14:40,806 --> 00:14:44,162 she may turn it out so that she isn't tripped up by it. 127 00:14:45,486 --> 00:14:48,922 Even when the baby has emerged, it keeps returning, 128 00:14:49,086 --> 00:14:52,476 clearly reluctant to leave, and understandably so. 129 00:14:52,646 --> 00:14:58,437 In the pouch, it can get the best of both worlds - milk inside and vegetables outside. 130 00:15:02,726 --> 00:15:04,603 Mammals of the northern hemisphere, 131 00:15:04,766 --> 00:15:07,599 like these central Asian antelope, the saiga, 132 00:15:07,766 --> 00:15:11,645 keep their young within their bodies until they are very well developed. 133 00:15:14,806 --> 00:15:17,320 A young saiga, within minutes of its arrival, 134 00:15:17,486 --> 00:15:21,798 is able to stagger to its feet - but only just. 135 00:15:29,046 --> 00:15:31,355 And it must keep going. 136 00:15:31,526 --> 00:15:34,882 Its mother has to move with the herd to get her food - grass, 137 00:15:35,046 --> 00:15:39,324 and the baby has to move with its mother to get its food - milk. 138 00:15:48,286 --> 00:15:52,074 The young are born in May, when the thin grass is beginning to sprout 139 00:15:52,246 --> 00:15:55,921 and the need for the herd to keep moving is least urgent. 140 00:15:56,086 --> 00:16:00,523 If the calf is lucky, it may be allowed to spend a couple of days in a scrape on the ground 141 00:16:00,686 --> 00:16:02,642 before it has to move. 142 00:16:02,806 --> 00:16:06,196 But it may have to be up and running within hours. 143 00:16:13,926 --> 00:16:18,317 A severe winter on these bleak plains can decimate a herd. 144 00:16:18,486 --> 00:16:22,479 But saiga can recover their numbers with extraordinary speed. 145 00:16:22,646 --> 00:16:24,682 A female calf, born in the spring, 146 00:16:24,846 --> 00:16:28,395 can mate in the autumn when she is not even fully grown, 147 00:16:28,566 --> 00:16:31,956 and bear her first single baby the next spring. 148 00:16:32,126 --> 00:16:34,321 The following year, when she's adult, 149 00:16:34,486 --> 00:16:36,636 she usually produces twins. 150 00:16:36,806 --> 00:16:38,876 So a herd that has been almost wiped out 151 00:16:39,046 --> 00:16:42,959 can be 100,000 strong again within a few years. 152 00:16:49,326 --> 00:16:51,521 The steppe eagle is hardly big enough 153 00:16:51,686 --> 00:16:54,041 to take a young vigorous saiga calf. 154 00:16:54,206 --> 00:16:56,595 It's mostly a carrion feeder, 155 00:16:56,766 --> 00:17:00,315 but if the baby saiga weakens, the eagle will finish it off. 156 00:17:08,566 --> 00:17:13,242 As the days warm, the herd moves north, following the retreating snow 157 00:17:13,406 --> 00:17:17,319 and feeding on the newly-sprouting grass as it's exposed. 158 00:17:30,126 --> 00:17:33,641 But within a few months, the cold begins to return 159 00:17:33,806 --> 00:17:37,003 and parents and young will have to trek back again. 160 00:17:37,166 --> 00:17:39,805 By the time the young saiga is a year old, 161 00:17:39,966 --> 00:17:44,596 it may have walked as much as 6,000 kilometres - almost 4,000 miles. 162 00:17:47,046 --> 00:17:49,241 Baby scorpions get a lift. 163 00:17:49,406 --> 00:17:53,877 Their mother has no permanent home and wanders over quite a wide range, 164 00:17:54,046 --> 00:17:57,402 as most hunters must do if they're to find prey. 165 00:17:57,566 --> 00:18:01,479 As soon as they hatch, they clamber up on to the mother's back. 166 00:18:01,646 --> 00:18:03,443 There's no safer place for them 167 00:18:03,606 --> 00:18:07,121 than beneath the formidable sting on the end of her tail. 168 00:18:20,126 --> 00:18:22,799 A mother shrew parks her babies, 169 00:18:22,966 --> 00:18:26,117 hiding them in a safe place, often under a stone. 170 00:18:26,286 --> 00:18:30,996 Having herself fed on insects, she comes back to feed them on milk. 171 00:18:33,126 --> 00:18:37,438 But if she's alarmed and suspects that her nursery has become unsafe, 172 00:18:37,606 --> 00:18:40,564 she gives her young - whose eyesight is not very good - 173 00:18:40,726 --> 00:18:43,320 a command with an ultrasonic squeak 174 00:18:43,486 --> 00:18:46,762 which we can't hear, but which they obey immediately. 175 00:19:01,406 --> 00:19:05,319 Among eider duck, looking after the young is a job for females. 176 00:19:05,486 --> 00:19:08,080 The black and white males take no part in it. 177 00:19:08,406 --> 00:19:10,795 The females, however, share the load. 178 00:19:10,966 --> 00:19:14,675 Mothers lead their newly-hatched ducklings down to the sea. 179 00:19:14,846 --> 00:19:17,918 There, other females, aunties, take charge of them, 180 00:19:18,086 --> 00:19:22,557 allowing the mothers who haven't fed since they started incubating a month ago 181 00:19:22,726 --> 00:19:25,445 to go off and get a good meal. 182 00:19:25,886 --> 00:19:29,720 These aunties are young females who haven't paired this season 183 00:19:29,886 --> 00:19:31,922 and who have no young of their own. 184 00:19:33,406 --> 00:19:36,045 More and more families come down to the water, 185 00:19:36,206 --> 00:19:38,083 until the nursery - the créche - 186 00:19:38,246 --> 00:19:41,363 may have as many as 500 ducklings in it. 187 00:19:51,046 --> 00:19:54,322 The young ducklings are perfectly able to feed themselves, 188 00:19:54,486 --> 00:19:57,478 finding lots of small creatures in the surface waters, 189 00:19:57,646 --> 00:20:03,403 but they are completely defenceless, and once again there are enemies around. 190 00:20:14,966 --> 00:20:18,879 The gull make a test flight to assess the defences of the créche 191 00:20:19,046 --> 00:20:23,676 and finds that aunties can be just as brave as any parent. 192 00:21:07,326 --> 00:21:09,999 Even though the gull is driven off and gets nothing, 193 00:21:10,166 --> 00:21:13,124 there are inevitably casualties. 194 00:21:21,286 --> 00:21:24,881 This is a mara, a Patagonian relative of the guinea pig, 195 00:21:25,046 --> 00:21:27,606 and it too uses a créche. 196 00:21:27,766 --> 00:21:31,475 A dozen or so females give birth in the same place, 197 00:21:31,646 --> 00:21:35,719 so there may be as many as 40 young maras in one nursery hole. 198 00:21:37,286 --> 00:21:41,040 Although no one adult is permanently in charge like an auntie, 199 00:21:41,206 --> 00:21:43,845 there are nearly always one or two parents around, 200 00:21:44,006 --> 00:21:48,124 for mammals can't abandon their young for days on end as eider ducks can. 201 00:21:48,286 --> 00:21:51,756 Each mother has to return daily to give her babies milk. 202 00:21:54,406 --> 00:21:58,558 Her aim is to feed only her babies - usually twins. 203 00:21:59,126 --> 00:22:02,198 She recognises them largely by their smell. 204 00:22:02,366 --> 00:22:06,359 That doesn't stop others in the nursery from trying their luck. 205 00:22:06,926 --> 00:22:08,917 Even when her twins have got to her, 206 00:22:09,086 --> 00:22:12,283 the rest will try and steal a drink if they can. 207 00:22:51,326 --> 00:22:55,319 Sometimes the whole créche pester a mother so vigorously 208 00:22:55,486 --> 00:22:57,317 that if she is young and inexperienced 209 00:22:57,486 --> 00:23:02,162 she may just give up and allow any and all of them to take her milk. 210 00:23:39,286 --> 00:23:42,358 Some bats also use the créche system. 211 00:23:42,526 --> 00:23:45,359 All these are females, free-tailed bats 212 00:23:45,526 --> 00:23:49,360 that flew up to this cave in Texas from Mexico a few weeks ago, 213 00:23:49,526 --> 00:23:52,359 leaving their mates to their own devices. 214 00:23:53,806 --> 00:23:56,479 The cave is a perfect maternity ward for them. 215 00:23:56,646 --> 00:23:58,284 It's warm and dry 216 00:23:58,446 --> 00:24:02,564 and the surrounding countryside is rich in insects to feed on. 217 00:24:02,726 --> 00:24:06,958 But there aren't many caves like it, so it's intensely crowded. 218 00:24:07,126 --> 00:24:09,686 A million mothers chose this one, 219 00:24:09,846 --> 00:24:13,839 and now there are a million newborn babes here as well. 220 00:24:15,886 --> 00:24:19,162 In the late afternoon, the mothers leave to feed. 221 00:24:31,326 --> 00:24:34,284 The departure starts before it's properly dark, 222 00:24:34,446 --> 00:24:36,755 for it takes a long time for a million bats 223 00:24:36,926 --> 00:24:40,236 to stream out of the relatively small cave mouth. 224 00:25:10,326 --> 00:25:14,399 The babies they leave behind are massed in one huge créche. 225 00:25:14,966 --> 00:25:19,676 It was important for them to cluster together when they were first born and naked 226 00:25:19,846 --> 00:25:22,360 in order that they should keep warm. 227 00:25:22,526 --> 00:25:25,040 Even now, when they're beginning to grow their fur, 228 00:25:25,206 --> 00:25:27,401 staying together saves energy. 229 00:25:27,566 --> 00:25:30,638 But imagine trying to find your baby among this lot. 230 00:25:35,206 --> 00:25:39,722 Throughout the night, mothers visit the créche to feed their babies milk. 231 00:25:45,206 --> 00:25:48,039 This mother knows the layout of the cave well enough 232 00:25:48,206 --> 00:25:51,516 to have landed quite close to where she left her baby, 233 00:25:51,686 --> 00:25:54,154 but a lot of jostling goes on here, 234 00:25:54,326 --> 00:25:56,840 and the baby may have moved a yard or so. 235 00:25:57,006 --> 00:25:58,564 As she searches, 236 00:25:58,726 --> 00:26:02,401 other hungry youngsters struggle to reach the nipples in her armpits 237 00:26:02,566 --> 00:26:04,045 and steal a drink. 238 00:26:29,886 --> 00:26:32,116 No luck. She gives up. 239 00:26:33,566 --> 00:26:38,560 If a baby doesn't get a proper feed at least once a night, it's likely to die. 240 00:26:39,486 --> 00:26:42,717 So she returns and starts again. 241 00:26:53,646 --> 00:26:55,159 0n the edge of the créche, 242 00:26:55,326 --> 00:26:59,524 a youngster waits for its mother, who hasn't returned for some time. 243 00:27:00,206 --> 00:27:04,165 And below, scavengers wait for corpses that might fall. 244 00:27:14,806 --> 00:27:18,515 The mother's main way of finding her baby is, astonishingly, 245 00:27:18,686 --> 00:27:22,599 by recognising its cry - even in this pandemonium. 246 00:27:37,326 --> 00:27:40,238 At last. This is her baby. 247 00:27:40,406 --> 00:27:42,397 And at last it feeds. 248 00:27:55,126 --> 00:27:57,117 Vast nurseries like this one 249 00:27:57,286 --> 00:28:00,642 can only exist if there's an abundance of food around. 250 00:28:01,246 --> 00:28:03,601 Not far from Texas, in Florida, 251 00:28:03,766 --> 00:28:06,041 the situation is very different. 252 00:28:11,646 --> 00:28:14,319 The white sand on which these scrubby pines grow 253 00:28:14,486 --> 00:28:18,718 is so poor in nutrients that there's little to sustain adult animals, 254 00:28:18,886 --> 00:28:20,399 let alone their babies. 255 00:28:20,566 --> 00:28:23,683 Even birds find it a hard place in which to live. 256 00:28:24,526 --> 00:28:28,201 Food is hard to find and there aren't many places to build a nest, 257 00:28:28,366 --> 00:28:30,960 but it's the home of an interesting bird 258 00:28:31,126 --> 00:28:35,199 that has been studied almost as intensively as any bird in the world. 259 00:28:35,806 --> 00:28:37,239 And this is it! 260 00:28:38,206 --> 00:28:40,322 The Florida scrub jay. 261 00:28:40,486 --> 00:28:43,876 Every jay in this part of the world has been banded 262 00:28:44,046 --> 00:28:45,957 for the past almost 20 years. 263 00:28:46,126 --> 00:28:49,562 We know who each one is and how they fit into the community. 264 00:28:49,726 --> 00:28:54,561 This one, with three rings on her right leg, is a young female. 265 00:28:54,726 --> 00:28:58,605 She was hatched last year on the territory to the left here. 266 00:29:00,206 --> 00:29:04,324 This one, with bands on both legs, is, in fact... 0ops! 267 00:29:04,486 --> 00:29:09,162 ..the dominant male, who has a nest in this territory. 268 00:29:15,126 --> 00:29:19,244 Food is so scarce that more than two adults are needed to search for it 269 00:29:19,406 --> 00:29:22,204 if a nestful of chicks is to be kept supplied. 270 00:29:22,366 --> 00:29:25,517 This bird is not the parent of these nestlings. 271 00:29:25,686 --> 00:29:30,282 It's one of last year's chicks who's helping to raise this year's brood. 272 00:29:32,646 --> 00:29:35,206 Young female helpers, after a year or two, 273 00:29:35,366 --> 00:29:38,244 usually leave to look for territories of their own, 274 00:29:38,406 --> 00:29:42,081 but young males may stay on for as long as seven years. 275 00:29:42,246 --> 00:29:46,239 0ne of them may inherit the family estate and nesting site 276 00:29:46,406 --> 00:29:48,397 when the old breeding male dies, 277 00:29:48,566 --> 00:29:51,126 but most will never father a brood. 278 00:29:51,286 --> 00:29:53,277 Instead of producing their own young, 279 00:29:53,446 --> 00:29:55,596 they find their reproductive reward 280 00:29:55,766 --> 00:29:58,485 in helping to raise their brothers and sisters. 281 00:30:16,206 --> 00:30:19,915 Guarding the food supply is just as important as collecting it, 282 00:30:20,086 --> 00:30:22,919 and some of the helpers act as sentinels... 283 00:30:23,966 --> 00:30:26,400 keeping an eye out for thieves. 284 00:30:32,566 --> 00:30:35,524 This is a trespasser from a neighbouring territory, 285 00:30:35,686 --> 00:30:37,961 sneaking in to try and steal food. 286 00:30:40,766 --> 00:30:43,041 That can't be allowed. 287 00:30:46,126 --> 00:30:49,277 (AGGRESSIVE SQUAWKING) 288 00:31:07,406 --> 00:31:09,397 Back to normal duties. 289 00:31:11,206 --> 00:31:14,164 Another intruder - an indigo snake. 290 00:31:14,326 --> 00:31:15,884 It too is hungry, 291 00:31:16,046 --> 00:31:19,800 and the meal it is searching for could well be a jay chick. 292 00:32:07,326 --> 00:32:10,443 So teamwork saves the nest. 293 00:32:10,606 --> 00:32:12,324 Indeed, as a result of studies here, 294 00:32:12,486 --> 00:32:16,001 we now know that pairs with teams to help them 295 00:32:16,166 --> 00:32:19,522 are much more successful in rearing their young. 296 00:32:19,686 --> 00:32:22,405 Recently, it has been discovered that this form of co-operation 297 00:32:22,566 --> 00:32:24,557 is quite widespread among birds. 298 00:32:24,726 --> 00:32:27,718 Some species of wrens and woodpeckers and moorhens 299 00:32:27,886 --> 00:32:33,358 all use this form of co-operation under some circumstances, as indeed do some mammals. 300 00:32:36,966 --> 00:32:40,925 Elephants, for example, collaborate to bring up their babies - 301 00:32:41,086 --> 00:32:43,042 at least, the females do. 302 00:32:43,206 --> 00:32:45,595 The males, when they become adult, wander off 303 00:32:45,766 --> 00:32:48,724 and live more or less solitary lives away from the herd. 304 00:32:53,566 --> 00:32:57,081 A new baby is the focus of great interest and affection, 305 00:32:57,246 --> 00:33:01,125 not only from its mother, but from elder sisters, aunts, 306 00:33:01,286 --> 00:33:04,403 and especially the old lady who leads the herd, 307 00:33:04,566 --> 00:33:07,285 who is almost certainly its grandmother. 308 00:33:30,046 --> 00:33:35,279 Sometimes, indeed, everyone wants to have the privilege of being nanny. 309 00:34:04,966 --> 00:34:08,322 This visiting bull is not used to infants. 310 00:34:13,326 --> 00:34:16,636 Great consternation among sisters and aunts. 311 00:34:33,286 --> 00:34:36,198 Childhood, of course, is a time for play, 312 00:34:36,366 --> 00:34:39,802 and play is a way of finding out about the world around you 313 00:34:39,966 --> 00:34:43,117 and acquiring the skills you may need later. 314 00:35:10,046 --> 00:35:14,961 Playing in water is fun not only for infants, but for adults. 315 00:35:15,126 --> 00:35:18,038 It's a pleasure that elephants never seem to lose, 316 00:35:18,206 --> 00:35:20,197 no matter how old they are. 317 00:35:23,126 --> 00:35:25,765 Still, it takes a bit of getting used to. 318 00:35:48,206 --> 00:35:51,323 And how do you get your legs clean afterwards? 319 00:36:16,646 --> 00:36:19,479 Elephants have a very long childhood. 320 00:36:19,646 --> 00:36:25,243 Most don't reach the age of puberty until they're 11 or 12 years old. 321 00:36:27,486 --> 00:36:29,204 As they approach that time, 322 00:36:29,366 --> 00:36:33,279 they begin to try out some of the things that adults do. 323 00:37:12,886 --> 00:37:16,162 An elephant doesn't need to be a fast learner. 324 00:37:16,326 --> 00:37:20,797 It's a strict vegetarian and the range of food it collects is small. 325 00:37:20,966 --> 00:37:23,560 It doesn't have to worry unduly about enemies - 326 00:37:23,726 --> 00:37:27,639 its great bulk as an adult is protection in itself. 327 00:37:28,126 --> 00:37:30,879 And if you live for 60 or 70 years, 328 00:37:31,046 --> 00:37:33,480 then there's no great hurry to grow up 329 00:37:33,646 --> 00:37:35,682 and assume adult responsibilities. 330 00:37:35,846 --> 00:37:38,758 And, in any case, it takes time to build a body 331 00:37:38,926 --> 00:37:42,123 that will eventually weigh five tons or so. 332 00:37:43,566 --> 00:37:46,797 Chimpanzee childhood is more complicated. 333 00:37:46,966 --> 00:37:49,924 Chimps feed on a wide variety of things, 334 00:37:50,086 --> 00:37:53,283 and a youngster must know what's good to eat and what isn't. 335 00:37:53,446 --> 00:37:56,836 They're very excitable animals, with a complex social life, 336 00:37:57,006 --> 00:38:01,955 so a young chimp must learn how to behave towards different individuals, 337 00:38:02,126 --> 00:38:06,119 and there are all kinds of physical skills to be acquired. 338 00:38:11,126 --> 00:38:15,165 The baby spends the first few months of its life clinging to its mother. 339 00:38:15,326 --> 00:38:17,920 From this privileged and protected position, 340 00:38:18,086 --> 00:38:22,045 it has a grandstand view of what's going on and how things are done. 341 00:38:23,646 --> 00:38:27,275 These particular chimps, living in the Ivory Coast forest, 342 00:38:27,446 --> 00:38:30,119 have devised a special skill all of their own. 343 00:38:30,286 --> 00:38:32,356 They've learned how to crack nuts. 344 00:38:32,526 --> 00:38:35,245 These are now a favourite part of their diet. 345 00:38:35,406 --> 00:38:37,840 But when you're only nine months old, 346 00:38:38,006 --> 00:38:42,522 watching mother crack nuts loses its fascination after a bit. 347 00:38:43,486 --> 00:38:47,035 The shells, on the other hand, have possibilities as toys. 348 00:39:06,046 --> 00:39:08,241 (CHIMPS SHRIEK) 349 00:39:13,126 --> 00:39:15,435 You also need to learn pretty quickly 350 00:39:15,606 --> 00:39:20,475 who is likely to be your friend and who it's safer to steer clear of. 351 00:39:34,206 --> 00:39:37,676 This older infant is beginning to follow the big boys 352 00:39:37,846 --> 00:39:39,643 and copy the way they behave, 353 00:39:39,806 --> 00:39:42,798 so discovering what life is like among the grown-ups. 354 00:39:52,406 --> 00:39:56,399 And Mother is always there to provide comfort and protection 355 00:39:56,566 --> 00:39:59,399 when things get a bit baffling and worrisome. 356 00:40:29,126 --> 00:40:31,879 Nut cracking is a complicated business 357 00:40:32,046 --> 00:40:35,482 and involves some of the most advanced tool-using techniques 358 00:40:35,646 --> 00:40:37,637 practised by any animal. 359 00:40:42,326 --> 00:40:45,318 It's no use just bashing a stick on the ground. 360 00:40:45,486 --> 00:40:47,681 You have to have a decent anvil. 361 00:41:06,806 --> 00:41:08,797 Nuts have to be collected 362 00:41:08,966 --> 00:41:11,685 and then carried to where they can be cracked. 363 00:41:31,126 --> 00:41:34,835 The anvil is almost always the root of a tree. 364 00:42:29,326 --> 00:42:33,842 Eventually, the time comes when, at last, you get the hang of things. 365 00:42:41,126 --> 00:42:45,438 For chimpanzees, acquiring adult skills is a gradual process, 366 00:42:45,606 --> 00:42:48,245 but that is not the case for most animals. 367 00:42:49,886 --> 00:42:54,323 For these baby albatross on the Leeward Islands in the Pacific, 368 00:42:54,486 --> 00:42:57,603 the ending of childhood is brutally abrupt. 369 00:42:57,766 --> 00:43:00,280 Within the next few days, they must fly 370 00:43:00,446 --> 00:43:04,917 and almost immediately become as accomplished in the air as their parents, 371 00:43:05,086 --> 00:43:07,281 who fly so effortlessly above them. 372 00:43:14,726 --> 00:43:19,117 The best they can do to prepare is to strengthen their breast muscles 373 00:43:19,286 --> 00:43:20,924 by beating their wings. 374 00:43:31,326 --> 00:43:33,635 If they don't get it right first time, 375 00:43:33,806 --> 00:43:36,036 the results could be catastrophic - 376 00:43:36,206 --> 00:43:39,084 in the shallows, dark shapes have appeared. 377 00:44:25,326 --> 00:44:26,805 Tiger sharks. 378 00:44:26,966 --> 00:44:30,675 Every year, at this precise time, they appear from nowhere. 379 00:46:14,046 --> 00:46:16,640 For the bats too, in the cave in Texas, 380 00:46:16,806 --> 00:46:18,922 childhood is coming to an end. 381 00:46:19,086 --> 00:46:21,646 The babies are now over a month old, 382 00:46:21,806 --> 00:46:26,357 and the time is coming for their mothers to join the males in Mexico 383 00:46:26,526 --> 00:46:28,756 and take their babies with them. 384 00:46:33,566 --> 00:46:35,204 For the past few days, 385 00:46:35,366 --> 00:46:39,917 many babies have been going on practise flights within the cave, 386 00:46:40,086 --> 00:46:43,965 but now some of them are accompanying the adult females 387 00:46:44,126 --> 00:46:46,879 as they fly out into the open sky. 388 00:46:47,046 --> 00:46:49,685 But they're far from expert fliers. 389 00:46:49,846 --> 00:46:53,839 Here's one that has crash-landed within a few yards of the cave. 390 00:46:56,126 --> 00:46:58,720 When he was in the cave, he was very safe - 391 00:46:58,886 --> 00:47:02,674 about one in a hundred babies die in there - 392 00:47:02,846 --> 00:47:05,918 but out here, he is surrounded by danger. 393 00:47:06,086 --> 00:47:10,284 0f the million bats that were born five weeks ago in there, 394 00:47:10,446 --> 00:47:14,439 three quarters will be dead before they're adult. 395 00:47:14,606 --> 00:47:16,164 So for this little creature, 396 00:47:16,326 --> 00:47:20,842 the trials of life really are just starting. Good luck to you.