1 00:01:07,247 --> 00:01:09,966 (L0W-PITCHED CRIES) 2 00:01:39,207 --> 00:01:42,404 These great skuas... 3 00:01:43,087 --> 00:01:45,555 bonxies here in Shetland, 4 00:01:45,727 --> 00:01:49,515 are among the most aggressive and ferocious of birds. 5 00:01:51,287 --> 00:01:53,403 They're attacking me now 6 00:01:53,567 --> 00:01:57,355 because I'm approaching one of their nests where there are chicks, 7 00:01:57,527 --> 00:02:03,238 but they are pirates that will rob other birds of their food actually in the air 8 00:02:03,407 --> 00:02:07,036 and they are also extremely skilful hunters. 9 00:02:07,207 --> 00:02:09,198 They're killers. 10 00:02:16,007 --> 00:02:21,127 Their hungry chicks waiting in the nest for food make them specially determined 11 00:02:21,287 --> 00:02:26,361 and they seek their prey in the huge colony of seabirds nesting on the cliffs nearby. 12 00:02:35,447 --> 00:02:40,396 Few creatures are not all their lives caught up in duels between hunters and hunted 13 00:02:40,567 --> 00:02:43,035 like these being fought out here, 14 00:02:43,207 --> 00:02:47,723 duels that have shaped their bodies and govern their daily behaviour. 15 00:02:49,727 --> 00:02:53,242 The skua's tactic is to cruise so close to the cliff 16 00:02:53,407 --> 00:02:58,401 that the kittiwake parents are frightened off their nests, leaving the chicks unprotected. 17 00:03:00,407 --> 00:03:03,205 The kittiwake chicks are almost full-grown 18 00:03:03,367 --> 00:03:06,518 and the skuas want them to feed to THEIR young. 19 00:03:34,767 --> 00:03:37,281 (AGITATED SCREECHING) 20 00:03:56,207 --> 00:03:59,995 That bird actually caught an adult kittiwake in mid-air. 21 00:04:17,887 --> 00:04:20,276 The skuas go first for the liver. 22 00:04:20,447 --> 00:04:25,123 With crops stuffed full, they will be able to feed their chicks today. 23 00:04:33,367 --> 00:04:37,599 Many different kinds of birds, having spent most of the year out at sea, 24 00:04:37,767 --> 00:04:40,281 come to these cliffs in the spring to nest. 25 00:04:40,447 --> 00:04:42,915 Each has its own favoured territory. 26 00:04:43,087 --> 00:04:47,524 In parts where there is turf and soil, puffins dig their nest holes. 27 00:04:48,327 --> 00:04:51,046 Sitting beside them, they're relatively safe, 28 00:04:51,207 --> 00:04:55,519 for if danger threatens, they can duck inside their hole. 29 00:04:57,127 --> 00:05:00,961 It's when they're in the air that they're really vulnerable. 30 00:05:04,327 --> 00:05:07,717 Here the greater black-backed gull is on patrol. 31 00:05:07,887 --> 00:05:12,915 It's a huge bird, substantially bigger than the lesser black-back. 32 00:05:16,327 --> 00:05:19,399 It has a wingspan of over five feet 33 00:05:19,567 --> 00:05:22,843 and the manoeuvrability of a fighter aircraft. 34 00:05:23,807 --> 00:05:27,880 The puffins, whose wings and feet also serve in swimming and diving, 35 00:05:28,047 --> 00:05:30,959 are much less agile in the air. 36 00:05:54,327 --> 00:05:59,401 Flying in flocks reduces an individual's risk, but that's not always possible. 37 00:07:20,967 --> 00:07:26,439 With the puffin almost swallowed, the gull has at last got a meal. 38 00:07:33,447 --> 00:07:35,438 0r has it? 39 00:07:46,847 --> 00:07:49,680 The murdering robber has been robbed. 40 00:07:56,727 --> 00:08:00,242 There are other animals which spend most of their life at sea, 41 00:08:00,407 --> 00:08:05,037 but come to land for a few weeks each year: seals and sea lions. 42 00:08:12,167 --> 00:08:16,524 These are South American sea lions off the coast of Patagonia. 43 00:08:16,687 --> 00:08:21,158 They can't give birth while they're swimming as whales and dolphins do. 44 00:08:21,327 --> 00:08:23,636 Instead, they have to come ashore, 45 00:08:23,807 --> 00:08:28,358 and here, in dense groups, moving awkwardly between land and sea, 46 00:08:28,527 --> 00:08:32,884 they're a great temptation to any hunter that can reach them. 47 00:08:36,367 --> 00:08:38,676 Their nursery beach seems secure. 48 00:08:38,847 --> 00:08:41,156 The landward side has steep cliffs. 49 00:08:41,327 --> 00:08:44,842 0n the other side the beach is protected by the sea. 50 00:08:45,007 --> 00:08:48,079 But the sea itself can harbour enemies. 51 00:08:57,527 --> 00:09:01,486 A killer whale, thirty feet long, eight tons in weight. 52 00:09:01,647 --> 00:09:08,439 Every year the same group of a dozen of them assemble off the sea lion nursery to hunt. 53 00:09:09,207 --> 00:09:13,280 For sea lions to venture into deep water here is very dangerous. 54 00:09:13,447 --> 00:09:17,360 It's much safer to stay in the shallows if they can. 55 00:09:46,007 --> 00:09:51,365 In one or two places, channels enable the whales to get really close to the beach. 56 00:09:51,527 --> 00:09:53,995 Those are the danger spots. 57 00:10:22,407 --> 00:10:26,366 To get off the beach, the killer has to thrash its body. 58 00:10:31,207 --> 00:10:34,517 No other whale deliberately beaches itself like this 59 00:10:34,687 --> 00:10:39,078 or has perfected this method of getting back to the sea. 60 00:10:55,087 --> 00:10:59,478 As long as the sea lions stay up the beach, you might think they'd be safe, 61 00:10:59,647 --> 00:11:02,480 but the hungry whales are very daring. 62 00:11:16,487 --> 00:11:20,002 Now several of the whales are hunting in a group. 63 00:11:40,967 --> 00:11:44,482 That sea lion was keeping just ahead of one of the whales, 64 00:11:44,647 --> 00:11:47,639 but was caught by another it probably hadn't seen. 65 00:12:54,167 --> 00:12:58,160 This savage beating may be to separate hide from flesh. 66 00:13:03,167 --> 00:13:09,720 But very often the successful hunter takes its victim out to sea without even killing it. 67 00:13:14,767 --> 00:13:19,795 And there, it plays with its catch as if it were exalting in triumph. 68 00:14:02,567 --> 00:14:04,762 To get all the food it needs, 69 00:14:04,927 --> 00:14:08,761 a killer whale must catch at least three sea lion pups a day. 70 00:14:08,927 --> 00:14:11,316 And every day in the breeding season, 71 00:14:11,487 --> 00:14:15,719 this group of skilled, highly intelligent hunters do just that. 72 00:14:44,607 --> 00:14:47,201 The Indian fishing cat hunts at night. 73 00:14:47,807 --> 00:14:52,358 It's a little larger than a domestic cat, but it feeds on all kinds of prey 74 00:14:52,527 --> 00:14:55,519 from mice and rabbits to frogs and birds. 75 00:14:56,127 --> 00:14:58,766 But its speciality is fish. 76 00:15:08,527 --> 00:15:11,599 This pair have found an ideal opportunity, 77 00:15:11,767 --> 00:15:17,080 a drying river where the fish have been concentrated by the shrinking water into a pool. 78 00:15:17,247 --> 00:15:19,477 Even so, it's not easy. 79 00:15:20,487 --> 00:15:25,356 It requires stealth, lightning reflexes, endless patience 80 00:15:25,527 --> 00:15:28,678 and perfect coordination between eye and paw. 81 00:15:29,527 --> 00:15:33,440 But these cats have brought such skills to perfection. 82 00:16:44,367 --> 00:16:48,155 Slugs, you might think, are hardly a challenge to a hunter, 83 00:16:48,327 --> 00:16:51,046 but few things want to hunt them. 84 00:16:51,207 --> 00:16:54,802 This, however, is one: the thirst snake. 85 00:16:54,967 --> 00:16:58,676 Its hunting technique is simplicity itself. 86 00:16:58,847 --> 00:17:02,920 The slug's slime, which makes it so unappetising to most predators, 87 00:17:03,087 --> 00:17:07,638 provides the trail which the thirst snake follows. 88 00:17:41,407 --> 00:17:45,320 But swallowing such a slimy mouthful is not easy. 89 00:17:45,487 --> 00:17:48,763 The snake manages it by dislocating its lower jaw 90 00:17:48,927 --> 00:17:53,717 and twisting it forward so that it snags the slug with its teeth. 91 00:17:59,847 --> 00:18:04,921 Then a yawn puts the lower jaw back into its position. 92 00:18:05,687 --> 00:18:07,882 Not all the hunted give in so easily. 93 00:18:08,047 --> 00:18:13,679 Many have ways of deterring hunters that try to make a meal of them. 94 00:18:22,567 --> 00:18:27,322 An American opossum may think this frog will make an easy mouthful. 95 00:18:27,487 --> 00:18:29,284 It's quite wrong. 96 00:18:30,447 --> 00:18:32,722 First, the frog inflates its lungs 97 00:18:32,887 --> 00:18:36,197 so it looks as big and formidable as possible. 98 00:18:36,367 --> 00:18:39,086 Then it lets off a most surprising alarm. 99 00:18:40,247 --> 00:18:42,886 (L0UD WAILING SCREECH) 100 00:19:00,287 --> 00:19:05,361 The whole performance is more than enough to put off the opossum. 101 00:19:05,527 --> 00:19:09,042 In Australia, dingoes too can be put off by bluff. 102 00:19:09,727 --> 00:19:12,719 A frilled lizard. 103 00:19:28,087 --> 00:19:30,647 The frill is nothing but skin, 104 00:19:30,807 --> 00:19:35,323 but it disconcerts the dingo long enough to allow the lizard to make its escape. 105 00:19:44,607 --> 00:19:47,201 This, however, is no bluff. 106 00:19:47,367 --> 00:19:50,006 Poison is carried by all kinds of animals. 107 00:19:50,167 --> 00:19:53,603 Hunters like this viper, use it to kill their prey. 108 00:19:54,767 --> 00:19:57,679 And the hunted use it, too, as a deterrent. 109 00:19:58,287 --> 00:20:03,600 The tomato frog, when it's threatened, exudes a milky poison from glands in its skin 110 00:20:03,767 --> 00:20:08,045 that would make any aggressor that swallowed it very ill indeed. 111 00:20:13,527 --> 00:20:17,964 The problem about having poison as a defence is, if you're not careful, 112 00:20:18,127 --> 00:20:21,676 by the time you've convinced your attacker you're not worth eating, 113 00:20:21,847 --> 00:20:24,236 it has either mauled you or killed you. 114 00:20:24,407 --> 00:20:30,323 So many animals that have poison advertise the fact long before it's necessary to use it. 115 00:20:30,487 --> 00:20:33,763 Look, for example, at this little creature. 116 00:20:36,847 --> 00:20:38,963 It's a spotted skunk. 117 00:20:39,127 --> 00:20:43,279 Like the bigger striped skunk that also lives in the southern USA, 118 00:20:43,447 --> 00:20:48,840 its has glands beneath its tail which can squirt a jet of liquid with a smell so appalling 119 00:20:49,007 --> 00:20:53,398 that it can make you sick, so you should treat it with caution. 120 00:20:53,567 --> 00:20:56,365 Now I'm going to press my luck a bit... 121 00:20:59,567 --> 00:21:04,083 It doesn't want to waste its ammunition by squirting unnecessarily, 122 00:21:04,247 --> 00:21:07,080 so it gives fair warning. 123 00:21:08,407 --> 00:21:11,877 It's as eloquent a display of gymnastics as you could imagine 124 00:21:12,047 --> 00:21:15,801 with which to back up its warning spots and stripes. 125 00:21:16,567 --> 00:21:21,357 How better could you call attention to the spray gun beneath your tail? 126 00:21:21,527 --> 00:21:25,679 I'm not going to get any closer, because I'll get sprayed. 127 00:21:25,847 --> 00:21:28,645 And I don't want to risk that! 128 00:21:32,647 --> 00:21:38,643 Salamanders also put on gymnastic displays to declare that they have chemical weapons. 129 00:21:38,807 --> 00:21:41,844 In their case, it's in their skin. 130 00:21:44,007 --> 00:21:47,602 Having jerked convulsively into an extraordinary contortion, 131 00:21:47,767 --> 00:21:50,327 they stay there, transfixed. 132 00:21:52,967 --> 00:21:55,640 Its warning colours are on its belly only, 133 00:21:55,807 --> 00:22:00,323 so when danger threatens it throws itself on its back. 134 00:22:05,647 --> 00:22:10,277 And this one has its poison in a line of sacs along its flanks, 135 00:22:10,447 --> 00:22:14,963 released by the drastic method of sticking its ribs through its skin, 136 00:22:15,127 --> 00:22:17,118 tearing them open. 137 00:22:19,647 --> 00:22:24,960 Some poisonous bugs carry their ''keep off'' signs like banners on their legs. 138 00:22:26,487 --> 00:22:28,955 And these add an additional trick. 139 00:22:29,127 --> 00:22:31,595 They keep together in a swarm. 140 00:22:34,807 --> 00:22:39,005 If a bird misguidedly takes one, it won't peck at the others 141 00:22:39,167 --> 00:22:42,557 while that nasty taste is still fresh in its mouth. 142 00:22:47,047 --> 00:22:51,438 Black and yellow is a colour code for poison that is widely understood. 143 00:22:51,607 --> 00:22:57,125 It's used not only by wasps, but by salamanders and snakes and caterpillars like this one. 144 00:22:57,287 --> 00:23:00,518 Here the poison is in the yellow spines themselves. 145 00:23:02,527 --> 00:23:04,995 These long hairs are also poisonous 146 00:23:05,167 --> 00:23:10,161 and the caterpillar walks around with the confidence of one who knows he's well-armed. 147 00:23:10,327 --> 00:23:13,637 But some pretend to be well-armed when they're not. 148 00:23:14,407 --> 00:23:17,240 This may look like an ant with a sting, 149 00:23:17,407 --> 00:23:19,637 but the ant body is a mask, 150 00:23:19,807 --> 00:23:23,846 an outgrowth from the back of a harmless and edible plant hopper. 151 00:23:24,607 --> 00:23:28,600 This little creature looks like a spider and so does this. 152 00:23:28,767 --> 00:23:31,327 In fact, both are fruit flies. 153 00:23:31,487 --> 00:23:37,039 They have neither poison fangs nor stings and they could make a good meal for a spider. 154 00:23:39,207 --> 00:23:41,562 And here is a real one. 155 00:23:41,727 --> 00:23:46,721 It signals with its black and white palps and legs as it would to another spider. 156 00:23:55,247 --> 00:23:59,763 And the fly responds by waving its black and white wings in a similar way. 157 00:23:59,927 --> 00:24:02,919 It's mimicking the spider ''keep away'' sign. 158 00:24:04,727 --> 00:24:07,195 And it works. 159 00:24:08,327 --> 00:24:12,400 Instead of being conspicuous, you can protect yourself by doing the reverse, 160 00:24:12,567 --> 00:24:14,558 by concealing yourself. 161 00:24:14,727 --> 00:24:17,719 And insects are the great masters at doing this. 162 00:24:18,447 --> 00:24:21,405 A stick? No, an insect. 163 00:24:22,567 --> 00:24:27,357 This is its head with the front legs stretched up beside it. 164 00:24:27,527 --> 00:24:32,760 You really only have a chance of recognising it for what it is when it walks. 165 00:24:46,887 --> 00:24:49,196 A band of moss, perhaps? 166 00:24:49,367 --> 00:24:51,323 No, another insect. 167 00:24:51,487 --> 00:24:56,925 But lying so flat against the twig that it seems to be almost a part of it. 168 00:25:04,527 --> 00:25:07,519 0nly its antenna, lifted above the twig, 169 00:25:07,687 --> 00:25:11,999 and a slight adjustment of its position, gives the game away. 170 00:25:16,607 --> 00:25:19,758 Dead leaves lie all over a forest floor, 171 00:25:19,927 --> 00:25:24,478 so an insect mimicking them can wander undetected over a wide area. 172 00:25:29,207 --> 00:25:31,721 It's a kind of bush cricket. 173 00:25:33,247 --> 00:25:36,398 And this insect mimics living leaves. 174 00:25:37,327 --> 00:25:41,559 Its vivid green wing covers are veined like real leaves. 175 00:25:44,007 --> 00:25:47,079 Green flanges sprout from its legs. 176 00:25:47,687 --> 00:25:53,159 Few of those hunted among leaves can have a better or more elaborate concealment. 177 00:26:01,207 --> 00:26:06,759 Thorn bugs. Like many bugs, they produce excretions that are collected by ants, 178 00:26:06,927 --> 00:26:12,399 and ants are one of the few creatures that seem to know which are thorns and which are bugs. 179 00:26:21,607 --> 00:26:23,802 But two can play at that game. 180 00:26:23,967 --> 00:26:26,686 What could look more innocent than this orchid, 181 00:26:26,847 --> 00:26:30,157 blooming in the half-light of the Malaysian rainforest? 182 00:26:30,327 --> 00:26:35,401 Its white flowers are bright and proclaim the sweetness of its nectar, 183 00:26:35,567 --> 00:26:37,603 attracting a lot of insects. 184 00:26:37,767 --> 00:26:42,045 But even in such a lovely thing as this danger can lurk. 185 00:26:42,207 --> 00:26:47,122 Sitting on it, exactly matching the colour and texture of the petals, 186 00:26:47,287 --> 00:26:49,198 is a mantis. 187 00:26:49,367 --> 00:26:52,757 It's facing left, with its abdomen up on the right, 188 00:26:52,927 --> 00:26:55,839 and it's waiting motionless for the butterfly. 189 00:27:33,367 --> 00:27:35,835 Beside the entrance of a termite hill, 190 00:27:36,007 --> 00:27:40,603 a pile of refuse tipped out from the nest by the termite workers, 191 00:27:40,767 --> 00:27:43,486 and on it, another hunter lurking in disguise. 192 00:27:44,087 --> 00:27:46,157 It's an assassin bug. 193 00:27:51,927 --> 00:27:54,919 It throws particles of refuse on to its spiny body 194 00:27:55,087 --> 00:27:59,000 not to conceal itself from its prey, termites, for they're blind, 195 00:27:59,167 --> 00:28:02,921 but to hide from birds and other creatures that might eat it. 196 00:28:12,927 --> 00:28:17,478 Its cloak of droppings, however, may help to conceal it from the termites 197 00:28:17,647 --> 00:28:20,605 by giving it a protective smell. 198 00:28:20,767 --> 00:28:26,683 Certainly, the industrious workers are unaware that there's an enemy there until it's too late. 199 00:28:45,367 --> 00:28:50,395 Mimicry doesn't always deflect attention. Sometimes it attracts it. 200 00:28:52,127 --> 00:28:54,641 A death adder from Northern Australia. 201 00:28:56,767 --> 00:29:01,363 And this could be its next meal - a skink searching for worms. 202 00:29:07,007 --> 00:29:09,601 Perhaps this is what it's looking for. 203 00:29:22,567 --> 00:29:25,798 In fact, it's the tip of the death adder's tail. 204 00:29:45,567 --> 00:29:47,762 That was a near miss. 205 00:29:51,767 --> 00:29:54,406 Lures can also be used in defence. 206 00:29:54,567 --> 00:30:00,324 A blue tit hunting for food may overlook a hawk moth concealed by its camouflage. 207 00:30:00,487 --> 00:30:06,403 But if it investigates, then the moth suddenly exposes its hind wings. 208 00:30:07,647 --> 00:30:13,244 Eyespots don't alarm this blue tit, but they induce an attack, so the moth, 209 00:30:13,407 --> 00:30:19,516 instead of getting a lethal peck on its head, is struck on the hind wing and no damage is done. 210 00:30:20,647 --> 00:30:24,640 Eyespots give this caterpillar an almost snake-like appearance 211 00:30:24,807 --> 00:30:29,119 and these tentacles which release a nasty smell heighten that resemblance. 212 00:30:34,927 --> 00:30:38,966 But could this really be an imitation of a snake's forked tongue? 213 00:30:39,127 --> 00:30:44,565 Could the caterpillar be mistaken for a snake when it's only a couple of inches long? 214 00:30:44,727 --> 00:30:47,446 We don't know and can only guess. 215 00:30:47,607 --> 00:30:51,202 And this is an even greater mystery. 216 00:30:52,967 --> 00:30:58,325 It's a frog, and one that like most frogs is hunted by snakes. 217 00:31:17,247 --> 00:31:20,717 The centres of these eyespots carry poison glands, 218 00:31:20,887 --> 00:31:23,799 but they could hardly have deterred the snake. 219 00:31:23,967 --> 00:31:26,003 It can't see them from the front. 220 00:31:26,167 --> 00:31:30,683 So just how does having a face on its bottom protect the frog? 221 00:31:30,847 --> 00:31:32,838 No one knows. 222 00:31:34,687 --> 00:31:38,043 Big eyes undoubtedly attract attacks, 223 00:31:38,207 --> 00:31:43,759 and as this frog has real ones, it needs not to display them, but to conceal them. 224 00:31:45,647 --> 00:31:50,482 It lives in bromeliad plants, a favourite hunting ground for small snakes. 225 00:31:56,447 --> 00:32:02,477 By reversing into the heart of the plant, it conceals everything except the top of its head, 226 00:32:02,647 --> 00:32:06,481 which is protected by a special helmet, a bony shield. 227 00:32:27,967 --> 00:32:32,199 So, many animals have developed a multitude of techniques 228 00:32:32,367 --> 00:32:35,564 for preventing other animals from making meals of them - 229 00:32:35,727 --> 00:32:41,438 high-speed sprints, jinking runs, distraction displays, near-perfect camouflage, 230 00:32:41,607 --> 00:32:46,601 even taking on disguises that make them look as though they are hunters themselves. 231 00:32:47,647 --> 00:32:52,516 But there is one animal against which none of these techniques works, 232 00:32:52,687 --> 00:32:56,566 one hunter which is invariably successful. 233 00:32:56,727 --> 00:32:58,638 This one. 234 00:33:00,487 --> 00:33:04,605 Beneath this log is an immense ball of ants. 235 00:33:04,767 --> 00:33:06,803 Its surface is a lacy veil, 236 00:33:06,967 --> 00:33:10,437 formed by individuals clinging to one another's legs. 237 00:33:10,607 --> 00:33:14,566 There are about three quarters of a million of them. 238 00:33:14,727 --> 00:33:18,117 They are army ants, and this is their bivouac. 239 00:33:19,287 --> 00:33:24,077 In the morning, a raiding force of workers escorted by bigger soldiers 240 00:33:24,247 --> 00:33:26,477 leaves the bivouac. 241 00:33:27,247 --> 00:33:29,238 They're almost blind, 242 00:33:29,407 --> 00:33:33,878 but they follow a scent trail laid down by scouts who are foraging ahead. 243 00:33:44,567 --> 00:33:46,762 Few things are safe from them. 244 00:33:46,927 --> 00:33:49,043 Not even a giant spider. 245 00:34:14,007 --> 00:34:18,683 The sting of a scorpion is useless against such tiny aggressors. 246 00:34:18,847 --> 00:34:22,362 They're too small to hit and too numerous. 247 00:34:34,967 --> 00:34:38,437 A wasps' nest is a major prize. 248 00:34:38,607 --> 00:34:43,362 The adult wasps, even though they have powerful stings, can't repel them, 249 00:34:43,527 --> 00:34:47,918 and they watch helplessly as their colony is pillaged. 250 00:34:57,847 --> 00:35:02,921 The fat grubs are hauled from their cells, butchered and carried off. 251 00:35:09,007 --> 00:35:12,283 The bigger victims are cut up for easier transport, 252 00:35:12,447 --> 00:35:16,963 and carried back to the queen and the workers waiting in the bivouac. 253 00:35:34,047 --> 00:35:36,959 A caterpillar's camouflage didn't save it. 254 00:35:46,087 --> 00:35:50,365 A ring-shaped segment from a millipede has got caught on a spike. 255 00:35:56,207 --> 00:36:02,123 In some places, the soldiers form living bridges across which the porters run. 256 00:36:04,807 --> 00:36:09,278 The bite of the jaws and the sting in the tail of these ants is so painful 257 00:36:09,447 --> 00:36:14,885 that getting close to them is almost impossible and so studying them is very difficult indeed. 258 00:36:15,047 --> 00:36:20,246 So we really know very little of what goes on in the heart of a bivouac like this, 259 00:36:20,407 --> 00:36:23,717 but this optical probe may help us find out. 260 00:36:31,647 --> 00:36:34,161 The bivouac has an internal structure, 261 00:36:34,327 --> 00:36:37,842 with walls made by the ants themselves clinging together. 262 00:36:38,767 --> 00:36:40,883 You have to be careful. 263 00:36:41,047 --> 00:36:45,996 Even though the probe has been greased, some soldiers manage to run up it. 264 00:36:47,407 --> 00:36:51,116 Here is the nursery, full of young, developing grubs. 265 00:37:04,047 --> 00:37:06,083 After two weeks in camp, 266 00:37:06,247 --> 00:37:09,876 the numerous eggs the queen has been laying are hatching. 267 00:37:10,047 --> 00:37:14,837 The grubs need feeding and the entire army once more starts to march. 268 00:37:24,887 --> 00:37:27,685 The workers carry the baby grubs. 269 00:37:44,087 --> 00:37:48,763 Soldiers, huge jaws agape, guard the sides of the route. 270 00:37:49,447 --> 00:37:54,441 The army marches across new hunting grounds, making temporary camps each night, 271 00:37:54,607 --> 00:37:59,681 until, after about two weeks, it bivouacs and repeats the whole cycle. 272 00:38:02,807 --> 00:38:07,801 The most powerful hunters in the bird world are, of course, hawks and eagles. 273 00:38:07,967 --> 00:38:13,724 The Harris hawk in the deserts of New Mexico has a particular and unusual skill. 274 00:38:13,887 --> 00:38:15,878 It hunts in groups. 275 00:38:26,647 --> 00:38:30,481 The team of half a dozen or so assembles in the morning 276 00:38:30,647 --> 00:38:33,115 and begins to search the countryside. 277 00:38:36,327 --> 00:38:40,240 Their lookout posts are the great pillars of the saguaro cactus. 278 00:39:09,167 --> 00:39:12,079 The cacti are certainly splendidly tall, 279 00:39:12,247 --> 00:39:16,365 but they don't appear to be the most comfortable of perches. 280 00:39:22,247 --> 00:39:25,239 And the prickly pear is hardly any better. 281 00:39:42,687 --> 00:39:44,996 A pack rat. 282 00:39:55,167 --> 00:40:00,161 In this thorny tangle, it's difficult to get a clear sight for long enough to pounce. 283 00:40:00,327 --> 00:40:04,684 Some of the hawks go down to try and chase the rat into the open. 284 00:40:07,287 --> 00:40:10,757 Since the rat is so much quicker on the ground than they are, 285 00:40:10,927 --> 00:40:15,159 they will only manage to catch it if there are several of them. 286 00:40:39,527 --> 00:40:42,519 They've lost the rat, but found bigger prey. 287 00:40:43,967 --> 00:40:45,923 A cottontail rabbit. 288 00:40:48,327 --> 00:40:53,765 The two on the ground chase it out. Those perching can now get a clear sight. 289 00:41:05,407 --> 00:41:10,800 0nce the kill is made, the entire team gathers and each bird tears off a share. 290 00:41:12,767 --> 00:41:18,239 0ne bird by itself is unlikely to have made such a kill in such country as this. 291 00:41:18,407 --> 00:41:23,845 Hunting together has paid off, but were the birds working in a team with a plan? 292 00:41:24,007 --> 00:41:28,478 Probably not. Individual birds do not regularly play the same role. 293 00:41:28,647 --> 00:41:32,640 Each simply reacted individually to the movements of the rabbit 294 00:41:32,807 --> 00:41:37,278 and each benefited from the fact that its companions were doing the same. 295 00:41:39,487 --> 00:41:43,480 Here in the thick forests of the Ivory Coast in West Africa 296 00:41:43,647 --> 00:41:46,525 live animals that are our closest relatives. 297 00:41:47,207 --> 00:41:49,118 Chimpanzees. 298 00:41:49,287 --> 00:41:51,960 A peaceful scene of jungle harmony. 299 00:42:06,767 --> 00:42:10,123 (WHISPERING) You don't normally think of them as hunters. 300 00:42:10,887 --> 00:42:13,640 More as gentle vegetarians, 301 00:42:13,807 --> 00:42:16,401 munching fruit and picking leaves. 302 00:42:17,287 --> 00:42:20,597 But if you follow them in their true home, 303 00:42:20,767 --> 00:42:23,520 these forests in West Africa, 304 00:42:23,687 --> 00:42:26,326 you discover that they are hunters. 305 00:42:26,487 --> 00:42:29,001 What's more, they hunt in teams, 306 00:42:29,167 --> 00:42:35,163 and have a more complex strategy than any other hunting animal, 307 00:42:35,327 --> 00:42:36,760 except... 308 00:42:38,367 --> 00:42:41,404 except, of course...man. 309 00:42:43,447 --> 00:42:46,041 And one of the hunters, 310 00:42:46,207 --> 00:42:48,641 the experienced male, 311 00:42:48,807 --> 00:42:51,162 is sitting right there. 312 00:43:00,407 --> 00:43:03,843 This is the time they hunt: the wet season. 313 00:43:04,727 --> 00:43:09,243 Their regular prey are monkeys, but they're very selective. 314 00:43:10,327 --> 00:43:13,160 A Diana monkey, a big species, 315 00:43:13,327 --> 00:43:16,125 and one they seldom tackle. 316 00:43:33,687 --> 00:43:36,440 A spot-nosed monkey. 317 00:43:40,167 --> 00:43:42,158 Red colobus. 318 00:43:42,327 --> 00:43:46,843 They're better jumpers than chimps and can go onto thinner branches. 319 00:43:47,007 --> 00:43:49,521 So in theory a chimp can't catch them. 320 00:43:49,687 --> 00:43:52,076 The only way is to work as a team, 321 00:43:52,247 --> 00:43:56,240 and there are six experienced males in this group of about sixty 322 00:43:56,407 --> 00:43:58,841 who regularly do so. 323 00:44:08,407 --> 00:44:10,398 This is one of them. 324 00:44:10,567 --> 00:44:14,560 From his purposeful walk, it's clear the search for prey has started. 325 00:44:14,727 --> 00:44:17,924 The other members of the team are not far away. 326 00:44:22,967 --> 00:44:26,084 They've been following the monkeys for twenty minutes, 327 00:44:26,247 --> 00:44:28,556 looking for an opportunity. 328 00:44:33,087 --> 00:44:36,762 The technique they'll almost certainly use 329 00:44:36,927 --> 00:44:41,443 is that one of them will be driving the colobus ahead of them. 330 00:44:41,607 --> 00:44:45,282 Then there'll be others up on either side, the blockers, 331 00:44:45,447 --> 00:44:47,836 who make no attempt to catch them. 332 00:44:48,007 --> 00:44:51,795 Then there are chasers, who try to grab the monkey. 333 00:44:51,967 --> 00:44:56,961 Finally, there's one male who will go up ahead and ambush it, 334 00:44:57,127 --> 00:44:59,960 so bringing the whole trap closed. 335 00:45:03,887 --> 00:45:06,401 The monkeys are now getting alarmed. 336 00:45:09,087 --> 00:45:12,079 A driver's going up to prevent the group from settling 337 00:45:12,247 --> 00:45:16,206 and to drive them towards an area where they're more easily trapped. 338 00:45:35,447 --> 00:45:40,316 That's one of the blockers that's quietly come ahead of the colobus. 339 00:45:40,487 --> 00:45:43,206 He's halfway up the tree now. 340 00:45:43,367 --> 00:45:46,200 He's deliberately making himself conspicuous. 341 00:45:51,247 --> 00:45:53,841 Now it looks like they're all in position. 342 00:45:54,007 --> 00:45:56,885 The drivers and blockers have gone up, 343 00:45:57,047 --> 00:46:01,245 and the one who'll make the ambush and close the ring has gone up, too. 344 00:46:01,407 --> 00:46:05,320 The colobus will be very lucky if they escape now. 345 00:46:09,127 --> 00:46:11,561 (DIN 0F SCREECHING) 346 00:46:17,687 --> 00:46:20,121 They've got one! 347 00:46:28,527 --> 00:46:31,280 The hunters are tearing it apart. 348 00:46:31,967 --> 00:46:37,678 Everyone, the hunters in the trees and the spectators, are screaming with excitement. 349 00:46:56,567 --> 00:46:59,127 Now the kill is brought down, 350 00:46:59,287 --> 00:47:02,245 so that the females and others can share it. 351 00:47:19,727 --> 00:47:23,003 And there's the reward for that long chase, 352 00:47:23,167 --> 00:47:25,965 the divided body of a colobus monkey. 353 00:47:26,967 --> 00:47:30,164 These bloodstained faces... 354 00:47:31,167 --> 00:47:33,476 ..may well horrify us, 355 00:47:33,647 --> 00:47:36,161 but we might also see in them 356 00:47:36,327 --> 00:47:40,479 the face of our long-distant hunting ancestors. 357 00:47:41,367 --> 00:47:47,442 And if we are appalled by that mob violence and bloodlust... 358 00:47:48,167 --> 00:47:50,965 we might also see in that, too, perhaps, 359 00:47:51,127 --> 00:47:56,440 the origins of the teamwork that have, in the end, 360 00:47:56,607 --> 00:48:01,044 brought human beings many of their greatest triumphs.