Original air date: 5 April 2024
The timeline above shows what happens in the episode
Selected sequences
Tenrecs use bristles to communicate
A group of bristles on the back of the tenrec vibrate to communicate with her missing young (11’25). Also see video.
Tool use among chimpanzees
The alpha-male shows the rest of the group how to prepare and use a stick to access the honey underground: Top left, he must pick a useful stick, break it off and bend it (using his mouth as a ‘third arm’, top right). Next he sticks it in the ground (bottom left) and realises soon that he has to apply some extra force balanced by his foot, bottom right (3’20-3’45).
The humourous side of life, you’d better not be in the lower branches !
Bats need to do their “thing“, so you had better not be in the lower branches when this happens! Top left shows a bat getting rid of its excrements. Top right snapshot shows an arrow showing it dropping. Bottom shows streaks of drops falling from the higher-up branches (32’10-32’20).
Lions claiming new territory
Lions are claiming new territory, spreading upwards into trees. There they have a better overview and by staying downwind from their potential prey (bottom image) they tend to get forgotten (36′-39′).
Howler monkeys crossing streets
The forests where the howlers live is cut through with streets. To access distant part of the forest they are sometimes forced to use the only path across the street. That may happen to be a power cable. In some cases the insulation covering the coating has been lost. If they touch two such cables they risk death from electrocution.
Top row, howlers crossing the cable sometimes using their tail to grab extra hold. Bottom left, a dead howler on the cable. Bottom right, two dead howlers on the ground – and looking more closely there is an infant lying on the left one, having survived the electric shock and the fall to the ground (50’35-51’45). Survivors are treated back to health.
A safer way through ropes
The new ropy route is being set up (top left) and used by an inquisitive howler (top right) with more to follow, bottom (54’37-55’55).
Final words:
“There are more than 6,000 species of mammals on Earth. But their fate lies in the hands of just one. Us.
If we make the right decisions, we can safeguard the future not just for our fellow mammals … but for all life on Earth”.