ATTENBOROUGH’S LIFE IN THE FREEZER 2
Life in the Freezer – Ice Retreats
September, early spring in the southern hemisphere. The Antarctic encircles all but a few islands. (????) Anyway, so those ice-free islands, like South Georgia, are very precious to the sea animals. Great underwater shot of ‘curtains’ of seaweeds and stuff like that. Shot of the elephant seals nostrils above the water surface. They’re the first to return. As they return to the breeding beach they know they gotta face rivals. Man they’re huge! They weight over 3 tons. About 8000 or half the worlds population of them will come to this beach. The gathering can span 2 mile across the beach. David walks between them, pointing out one side saying they’re all females. They came a month earlier to bulk up and be ready to breed again. And they all belong to one male. Pimpin’! He’s the ‘beach master’. And there are a dozen like him spread out along the beach and each one has their own harem. About a 100 females. And his mission is to mate with every single one of them. (Paras note: Poor guy, imagine the postcoital pillow talk… times 100). Lol and just when David mentions that to do so he must fight, the ‘beach master’ charges at him. Crazy shot of elephant seals fighting. It’s like they erect themselves and headbang straight down on the opponent with their open mouth. Beach master wins but he’s gonna have to do this everyday.
Meanwhile, the females gave birth and have 3 weeks to feed their lil hot water bottles before they themselves have to go back to sea to feed. Man in 3 weeks they gotta bulk their babies from a mere bag of skin to a stuffed ball of blubber. As the breastfeeding comes to an end, they get sexually receptive again. This is what the beach master has been waiting for. Hahaha while he is busy a rival is getting some himself on the other edge of the beach. Whoa beach master looks like Jaba trying to slither across at high speed. Sometimes a roar is enough to shoo interloper away coz they can tell strength from the roar. Ouch, shots of other battles where one of them has a proper ripped mouth. Just hanging lips like a… I’ll leave it there. Aw poor baby gets his head smashed but that’s what happens when there is trouble and the unfortunate don’t get out in time. More roaring… it’s more like boiling kettle or motorboat propeller. More war in slow-motion. Usually these last for 45 mins till it ends in exhaustion.
Over to the Black Browed Albatross, returning from the sea. While the Greyhead Albatross does the glide on the spot, using the constant updraft from the cliff. Throughout the winter they were flying around searching for food. Another amazing shot of several thousand of them nesting on the green steep hills. So breeding pairs from previous seasons are reunited and they use exactly the same nest mound as they had. Just a bit more plastering here and there. While mutual grooming renews the bond. Both types of albatross are faithful for life, like 20 whole years. And they just need a brief courtship ritual before they mate. Looks kinda uncomfortable for the female. After 2 weeks you have an egg and they take turns to incubate it for 70 days.
Now the Light Mantled Sooty Albatross like to do their own thing. Males return to the island first. The ones that are not paired chill on the ledge and calls to females. Courtship involves nodding and dancing. And then a beautiful, perfectly synchronised display flight. Like ice-skating in hair man. Now in day albatross rule the skies. But in the dark… other crews rock up. Night vision of thousands of petrels and prions flying about agitatedly. 22 million nest around the tussock grass of Southern Georgia. So the prions make their nest in burrows coz they’re pretty small. While White Chin Petrels gather outside their burrows making a noise. While the chick stays in the burrow for a couple of weeks, the adults come around every other day to feed it. Before dawn the adults would have vanished to return back to the ocean.
Over to a hillside jam-packed with 80,000 Macaroni Penguins. But in South Georgia itself the population is like 10 million! Crazy shot as camera zooms out of David around a few to David being a blue dot in a sea of black and white. After swimming around in winter these guys return with proper punctuality. In 10 days the terraces get packed. Before and during and after shot of males coming first, then females a week later. These guys stay around the northern rim of Antarctica but still constitute 50% of all the seabirds there. So noisy, its because they gotta fight over their tiny nest site. Hahaha and new arrivals endure a barrage of pecks as they make their way through. Outraged nest owners I tell you. Damn, some of these guys are vicious! Finally the female found her male, they do their greeting and a comforting preen. 10 days later she produces 2 eggs. The darker smaller one is nearly always abandoned. David calls it insurance. Don’t worry, the spare eggs are not just littered around… Sheathbills are their refuse collectors. In summer they eat penguin droppings too. They’re the one bird in the island that do not rely on food, at least directly, from the ocean.
So far we’ve checked out life in the rim of Antarctica. Even the tussock grass is only found around the edges of the continent. Over to the Antarctic Peninsula, the first big of the continent to be freed as the seasons warm things up. For a few months you can reach it’s coast by sea. But even in summer only 2% is freed from ice. Nice shot of camera underwater looking at mountains as chunks of ice pass over. Another shot of penguins stitching the waters. Gentoo Penguins are some of the first that make it and they need bare rock to nest but will have a hard time finding it. Shot of them trying to climb a hill that looks like a ski-slope. Some of them are there to relieve their mates who were looking after the eggs. LMAO, since they make their nest from stones and they’re in short supply… there’s a shot of penguins ‘borrowing’ some stone from their neighbour. Then another shot of 3 penguins just blatantly stealing the stones while the victim just sits there moving its head confused on who to peck first. 5 Weeks of incubation and chicks are ready to hatch. Both eggs hatch. And then 3 more weeks of caring and protection. Taking turns to feed them involves major labour. Especially that snow slope they’d just climbed. Shot of penguins doing some sideways skiing.
As spring advances, more of the peninsula is accessible. As the sea ice melts, it forms a sort of soup, which is the pack ice. So whales don’t go any further than that. Those are some crazy nostrils. As you go inner the floes become more closely packed. Only some gangsta ships can break through this stuff and its like 200 mile across. The place is also home of the most numerous large mammal in the world… Crabeater Seals. Up to 30 million! Despite their name they eat krill, about 20 kg of krill everyday. They sieve the krill through their interlocking teeth. Lots of cute shots of the buggers.
We go further south where the ice has not broken up yet. Hardly any life around this joint. Not the case for the Adelie Penguin. Cute shots of them walking. Some march for over 60 miles to reach their breeding ground and they better hurry coz Antarctic summer is short. Lol from walking they turn their belly into a sled and slide on. Now Snow Petrels go even Souther. Flying across ice that never melts and climbing altitudes of 3000 meters right on to the Antarctic icecap. The ice is several miles thick and area larger than Australia. Blanketing whole mountain ranges only allowing the summits of the tallest ones to project through… known as Nunatack. And these are like oasis to Snow Petrels. They breed farther south than any other bird and have to wait for the ledges to be clear of snow. Even in summer temperatures done rise above -30 degrees, no unfrozen water and to keep themselves clean they have to bathe in snow. Shot of them messing about in the snow… can I get a big cheesy AWWWW. Adorably spastic. Wow, love this shot. The mountain in the background make it look like night while these full white birds reflecting the summer sun. Like an inverted shot of birds silhouette. And then a zoomed out shot which is even more magnificent.
Ok so the Snow Petrels take over the place but it’s work coz now they have to dig maybe even a meter of snow to find a decent crevice. (Nasty note: Better finish this quick and get me some crevice too). After they finishing that they’re gonna have to fly 200 miles to open water for food again and again.
ATTENBOROUGH’S LIFE IN THE FREEZER 1
Life in the Freezer – The Bountiful Sea
Starts off with an aerial shot of David at the centre of the great white continent, Antarctica. Nothing but ice for a 1000 miles in all directions. 1.5 times the size of the U.S. and larger than Europe, with no more than 800 people… but in one or two places… it’s kicking! Shot of millions of penguins, they endure temperatures of -70 degrees centigrade and winds 120 mph. Some birds are crazy enough to fly to the heart of the continent knowing that they’ll still have to dig at the snow to hook up their nest. The same place is the nursery for more than half the world’s seals. This place contains 3/4’s of the worlds fresh water! Anyone wanna get into the mineral water business? Only 2% of Antarctica is not covered by ice. When snow falls, it stay frozen, so imagine it gathering for millions of years. Forming a 3 mile thick icecap. Under the ice you have mountains as high as the Alps.
Whoa, distant shot of a tiny ass boat next to white cliffs. David points to one of the glaciers, it towers about a 100 feet above him and 2 miles across. And that one is a small one. The largest glacier is the Lambert Glacier which is 25 miles across. The glacier moves about 2/3’s of a mile a year and the front end carries on breaking up to form icebergs. Lol then he casually mentions if one came down now, the surge could easily overturn this small boat. Lots of amazing shots of the breaking up and mini avalanches. Beautiful, crazy and scary at the same time! So those icefalls disintegrate into brash ice. But when a biggie chunks off, it breaks away as an iceberg. They may start out slab-like… until winds, waves above water and currents below slowly carve them in works of beauty. Oh la la, iceberg with perfect hip-to-waist ratio. Large bergs can survive for about to 10 years. 1/5 is above the surface, the rest beneath the water has even prettier designs, like grooves. Like if you lightly melt a honeycomb… kinda. It’s the work of streams of minute air bubbles carving the grooves.
Speed shot of bergs on the move. Hehehe pretty funny, very much like Pingu in slow motion. The fun ends as winter comes and sea ice locks them solid. And as winter progresses… the continent doubles in size. The greatest seasonal change that takes place on Mama Earth. Especially because life has to travel lots more to get from their area codes to the water and back, so they have to retreat north.
So how we go into the sea sea sea, so see what we can see see see. Millions of penguins and seals, and thousands of whales get their grub on up in here. Most of them rely on just one source of food. Krill! These are small shrimp like swimmers, 6cm long. In winter they’re all over the place, mostly under the ice but in summer they hook up in vast swarms. Vast as in a billion deep! Wicked upward shot of the krill and obscured sun in the back. Their total weight is more than the total human population. Apparently the most numerous too.
Humpback whales. Ah my favourite bit. These guys hog the krill up. The easy bit is they just open their gangsta gobs and lunge towards the surface. But when the krill is more dispersed, check out their tactics. They work together right… they’ll dive deeper. Now you know something is about to go down when you see lines bubbles on the surface with a pattern that spirals inwards. Then whooph, there he is! Whale pops up in the centre. See when they reach the bottom of their dive they release the bubbles spiralling around one another, the bubble curtain drive the krill to the centre and… it’s chow time. So that’s the perfectly synchronised underwater ballet the whales do in summer to stock up for the winter.
Sea birds love it when the whales visit as it drives the krill closer to the surface. And these birdies aint all that when it comes to diving. Cape petrels are about the size of pigeons and can only duck dive a few feet down. 360,000,000 sea birds constantly scour the southern ocean for food. They only go to land to breed, otherwise they’re spending time on their winds. The ocean is rough but rich in nutrients. The gangsta gales which up some of the most mountainous waves to be found in any ocean. Birds have it hard because the nutrients occur in patches, mostly coz of the krill so they gotta keep moving. But once they find the swarm, it’s a free-for-all. See krill don’t usually come close to the surface in the day, only now and then. Still birds apart from penguins cant dive that deep. Albatrosses like the black brow can only dive a couple of meters and their krill diet is about 40%.
Fur seals have it easier coz they can dive to 100 meters plus. Lovely sequence of the seal doing it drunken ballet/dance, while the background music changes to the matching style. Ok that was a long sequence. Back to the Albatross… they sometimes have to travel 1000’s of miles foraging for krill. And that’s air miles for a single trip! Ah, some have found remains of a small whale left behind after a kill by killer whales. GREAT SHOT! Right in the action, like the camera is one of the birds fighting for the remains. Giant petrels (the vultures of the Antarctic) take over the feast. But the wandering Albatross is the biggest of all the scavengers. We’re talking over 3 meters wingspan, which means even more air miles but it needs the up draft created by waves to get its glide on.
Now there’s a few islands that manage to escape the grasp of winter Antarctica. And that’s where the Albatross have their nesting sites. About 3000 pairs rest in one of them. (Question: 3000 pairs!? What’s with the complicated English!?) Did he say South Georgia? An adult might travel 5000 miles, like even to Brazil and back to feed it’s young. (Note: I’m still waiting for my Banana Chocstick from Kenya lol). Nasty! Imagine having to regurgitate the food you collected to feed your lil ones. While the feeding is happening David’s sat just a few feet away from them… talking about how the baby is so big and heavy. 10kg, the biggest of any seabird chick. And its just a couple of months away from it’s flying exam. Yet it’s at it’s heaviest… heavier than the adult. Ok adult getting defensive as David carries on. The chick has faced the worst winter weather, hatched last March, sat on her nest mound unprotected, unshielded for 8 months, facing terrible storms and -10 degrees temperature. Funny shot of adult running during lift-off.
Over to lovely shot of penguins stitching across the water surface. King Penguins, the only other animal that breeds throughout the year on the outer islands. So they also need continuous access to the ocean. Adults come and go throughout the winter. 2 million King penguins call Antarctica. Gaaaad dayum. Looks like a festive with dress code: Tux and yellow headphones. In only colony there are 600,000 of them. Gotta love David, he’s sat down next to the chicks, and they’re so inquisitive they’re trying to figure out what sort of creature he is. Hatched last summer and getting over their first winter. During that time the parents were out getting them takeaway. Only fed about once in 3 weeks. So when they’re left alone they get together and this particular huddle is about 50,000 chicks. Imagine looking for your furball when they’re photocopies all over the place. Ah, they recognise each others voice. So parent calls, chick whistles back. Hahaha love this bit, instead of feeding it, the parent makes chick follow him/her around. As if it’s to test the bond between them or something. (Who’s you’re daddy?!) So more of that regurgitated feeding. And these penguins beaks are long, I try to keep my eye out to find a bump at the back of the parents neck. It take an year to rear the baby so at best these penguins have 2 babies in 3 years.
Ok adults are cute, babies are even cuter but the ones going through their pre-breeding moult… UGHLAY! With a capital UGH! Oh well they gotta fatten up to get their mac on. Others are already courting, parading with a ritualised walk. (Reminisce: Reminds me of Mathe.) The male leads… then their seal the deal with a duet. Now these rookeries/rockeries are busy places, every day at 6am the adults march out to the sea to wash up the crap of hanging out in the crowded colony, for about an hour. Wash hour! Get it? Like rush hour, wash hour??? So anyway, there you have it… the Albatross and Penguin that live on the frontier and hardly go closer to the poles.
2 leopards were followed for 3 years in Zambia. Dudes have a special night cam and an infrared cam coz you hardly see leopards making kills in the day. First night the leopard finds some antelopes hanging around and man that night cam is something else. You can see the leopard going so steady and stealthy. One time he lifted his paw and didn’t put it down coz he didn’t find a quiet patch to put it on. Think that’s why it was a failed kill. Oh well.
The Bushmen there reconstruct the kill IN DETAIL. Kinda scary how they did that. Anyway so second night the leopard targets the baboons. First David was confused coz he saw the leopard behaving in a way that was giving himself away to the baboons but realized it was just to get them where leo wanted them. Finally he gets some pink butt baboon and its chow-time.
The puku fawn scene was too good, Leo is just like a few meters away and they don’t detect him coz its pitch black and he’s not in the wind but, alas, luck wont there. Now Leo’s leaving her scent for a male, waits for hours but seems like there’s no one to rock her boat so she gives up, although she keeps leaving her scent everywhere for 3 days and nights.
Over in Namibia they captured another Leo cub and tagged it. Their majority die of hunger trying to fend for themselves. 3 years later they find a surviving cub but the remains of the tagged Leo was nasty. Anyway so the cubs grown and imagine a Leo carrying an impala it’s own weight on a tree. Like climbing trees aint hard enough by itself. More cute cubs join in and drop the food while trying to eat the face. Crocodiles come and steal that so time for another kill. This time the impala was too heavy so it’s either eat fast or lose it to hyenas. Hyenas it is. Note: During the day baboons and hyenas are gangsta compared to leopards. Not good coz leopards are most vulnerable with the kill on the ground. One of them goes off and steals a morning snack and then the mother gets killed by a couple of lionesses. Talk of killing, thousands of leos are killed for safety reasons and of course their skins.
Anyway so baboons chase leopard now till Leo finds a safe tree. It’s nighttime again so back in action. This time the prey is a big ass hare, only the cub don’t share but he don’t care. Mother decides to go for another kill and a hyena follows coz they know Leo’s are on the money, too bad the stalking hyena screwed it up. Over to the cub… he investigates the porcupine not knowing those pines could fwack him up! Over to mom again, she’s trying a new technique, undiscovered by us humans till now, Leo stamps her feet and gets all loud to confuse the prey. Can’t remember how it went but it worked. So prey gets out of its body, Leo puts it in her body, everyBODY is happy!
Opens with shots of an orangutan on a boat using her hands to pedal his way. Then using soap on her hands. Then tying a boat to a ladder. Then using the water and soap to wash clothes. David’s sitting next to her confirming she’s not learnt this as circus tricks. She’s learnt by watching others do it. Using hands and tools which started by monkeys is brought to a much greater level… to lead the transformation of the world.
Over to Camp Leakey. Home to a special group of oranges rescued from captivity and returned to the wild. They show a ‘lady’ that loves DIY with hammer in hand and a nail in her mouth. Whoa… and her son has a saw in hand. And the little one in her hand is interested too. Mom starts sawing as David points out similarities… especially the handedness as he points out lady orang is lefthanded.
And we’re off to the trees. Apes love fruit. Now orangs hardly come down from the trees, mostly coz of dangers. Shots of orangs pole vaulting across trees, using their weight to make them bend to get to the neighbouring tree. Since it uses up a lot of energy they take direct paths and seldom take wrong tunes. Like they have a map of the forest in their minds. There is also proof of a mental calendar, always there at the right time to pick the right fruits. Shot of mother letting baby use her hand to get around. It takes around 13 years for the baby to get the ‘hang’ of things. They they only ones that spend such a long time with their mothers… except humans. But that too has to end. Orangs are known as loners but that does not mean they’re anti social. Feeding time at Camp Leakey proves they’re only loners for their food needs.
Every 4-5 years lots of trees produce fruit simultaneously attracting orangs from miles around. Of course theres always a troublemaker, in this case a highly sexed male that chases a chosen partner and tries to force himself of the female. A howl announces the most powerful males arrival. He’s not been there for years but the rest recognize him instantly. And just the threat of his presence gets rapist orang to hit the branches.
Gorgeous shots of the swamp forests of Northern Sumatra. Trees in the mist highlighted with sunset. Loving it! A paradise for orangutans. The regular floods bring in large supplies of nutrients. Here they can feed together throughout the year. Munching on insects as well. Termites being a favourite. Getting them from dead trees is fine but from living ones gets tricky. Clever orangs have a way… first they chose a twig, then cut it to length, then whittle it to shape. And finally insert it into the tree to reach the sixlegged goodies. Okay? This orang is messing with bees. Puts the stick in his mouth and inserts the other end in the hole. Then switches sides so while he pokes around he can get some tastes of honey. Young’ns watch and learn. That’s how they form a culture if they live in high densities. One gets a bright idea, the others copy it.
Over to a more complex ape culture… Chimpanzees in Africa! Near the mouth of the Congo. Shot of orphan chimps. Their parents were killed for the bush meat trade while they were captive in not-so-favorable conditions. So now they’re part of an experiment to teach them the skills they need to survive out there. Insect repellent, torch and matchbox… just messing. Lol one of them raided the canoe David was being rowed on. Ok so several learnt stuff by watching humans. Like cracking nuts with a block of wood. It still took them a number of years to figure how to place the nut in a socket first and then how to weald a hammer. While one chimp goes to it, another watches attentively. Yet another is struggling as he only started watching nuts being cracked since he was 6. That’s 2 years too late. Comic shots of frustrated chimp. Shots of David chilling with them.
Up next… a 1000miles east… Uganda. Ngogo chimps with a very different culture and have never been filmed before. This chimp community contain the most adult males known anywhere. Their cultural traditions extend to the details of social etiquette. They practice a style of grooming known as the grooming hand clasp. Hmmm they are peaceful but now and then set trip like they lost the plot. But that’s just for the male to establish his dominance without getting physical with those he may need as comrades. After throwing them fits they embrace one another. Aint that sweet. Now very rarely the adult males will get gangsta on an individual and the violence is unbelievable. Seriously wounded shot of victim chimp. It’s almost certain that he died. Almost? Oh his body has not been found yet. Some theory about lots of males and establishing relations being the reason for such behaviour. Even simple acts of grooming have great significance. Not only for health and keeping relations but also for earning allies. Hunting time! Attentions are turned to the trees. Males are assembling. One of them drums, telling the others that the hunt is about to start. They set off… for up to 4 hours… searching for likely victims. They find a troop of red colobus monkeys. Hunters take up their positions on surrounding trees ready to pounce escapees. They close in on the most vulnerable target… female with her young. Colobus try to fight back but chimps are bigger and stronger. Easy prey are the infants separated from their mothers. The male colobus fight to defend their families. But they couldn’t save some. The hunters crowd round the kill… the rest join. Males eat first, supplementing the meat with leaves. Like humans with veggies. Some share with females… seems like they share with the ones that beg most. Lil Porkpie begs so many and just gets slapped away till finally he gets a bite. Males give their meat more to their allies. Like they want to strengthen the bond. Clever, social, political creatures… and apparently they even dream.
Ah good old Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Who remembers those history lessons? 3.5 million years ago… a volcano belched out ash that covered the entire landscape. Fossilized traces of ancient rhino and antelope can be found in this ash. And then there’s footprints of a very remarkable ape. Scientist say they can tell the posture of the animal just form the bone, which can always be debated… but here we have proof… as David takes us through the dents of the footprint. Apart from the depression made mostly be heel and front, David also points out that the toes are facing forward and not spread out like they would be if the animal was a tree climber. Trying to google the name but cant find this Itoli thing. The main footprints have baby ones next to them. David suggest they may be walking arm in arm. Anyway the fascinating thing is they’re behaviour was fossilized too… and most astonishingly familiar behaviour. Why did they stand upright? Suggestion are maybe to get a better view of things. Maybe to use the hands for tools and pick up food. And a 3rd controversial suggestion.
About 6 million years ago the climate became very erratic. The great African forests began to die back. The blanket of trees broke and became patches of grassland. Evidence that slow movement of the earths crust cause some areas to flood. A new habitat appeared for the apes. As food got harder to find they had to cross the waters and grassland… and they did so as David shows us with extra high waders in the water. Shots of these apes walking around… they got some crazy nipples! Since they waddled when walking and couldn’t stand for long the water helped take a step towards humanity. This is where the hipbones altered and our ‘ancestors’ adopted a more upright existence.
Back to Congo to get a clue as to what the apemen would have found to eat in the swamps. Lowland gorillas collect marsh plants. Our ancestors must have done the same. We do know that roots and tubers were eaten by early humans. Although gorillas are veggies, the surrounding animals would not have gone unnoticed by early apemen. Hey look Bambi! Yet to catch the animals would require another skill. A skill to follow their tracks. Finding tracks, telling what animal came by and when… only humans can do so. Obvious tracks can be read by anyone but there are some people that can read the faintest of marks.
Shot of the Sand People of the Kalahari desert. Shot of one of them doing what looks like a gang hand sign. They hunt in silence. The hand sign indicates that one of them has tracks of kudu. They are the last people to use what some believe to be the most ancient hunting technique of all. The persistence hunt, they run down their prey. They start to feel the animals movements from the spacing of the animals tracks… dude moves this hand sign to reconstruct the head movement. The group is not moving fast… soon Sand People catch up. Animals take fright/flight. They target the bull carrying the more heavy set of horns so he’ll tire more quickly. Wicked shot of Sand People running at slow/normal speed and clouds moving/forming/vanishing at high speed. They must separate heavyhorns from the herd so as not to confuse his tracks to the others. These guys are patient! They sense the kudu’s pace is slowing. Sun directly over head. After hours of trekking, they’ve entered an almost trancelike state of concentration. At times its hard to see the tracks so the Peoples must image. The heat is hard on them but they’re close to the next stage of the hunt. The chase. One of the dudes chucks his stick as a sign for the chase to begin. But only the runner will undertake it. The test of endurance… running on 2 feet is much easier than on 4. Man sweats from all over to cool himself, the kudu sweats much less and has to find shade to cool down. Man has hands to hold water bottles ;o) Hours pass as dude gets closer and still doing his hand gestures. Aw naw! Kudu runs into thick cover and the tracks disappear. Dude reconstructs again and deduces the direction kudu must have fled. Its close by. The chase lasted 8 hours. Kudu collapses from exhaustion before dude could spear him. No man! Dude still speared kudu. David calls it a symbolic gesture. Dude pays tribute to the courage and stuff with ceremony and gestures to show that it spirit returns to the desert sand from which it came. While it was alive he lived and breathed with it as if it was his own body. He shares the pain at its death. He rubs the its saliva on his leg to relieve the agony of his burning muscles. And he gives thanks for the life he has taken to sustain the life of his family. The wives had collected tubers and roots. Wild dogs are given scraps.
David notes that wild dogs must have stuck around for scraps since pre-history. Men selected pups that were least savage to help in tracking. The character of their dogs began to change. Cattle were domesticated by a similar process. Choosing the most docile calves and hand rearing them. The Fulani people of Mali lay claim to the half wild herds that run the savannahs.
Grazing animals must migrate to find greener pastures. And the people with them. To be able to domesticate and animal they need to be docile, find food that’s readily available, to breed easily in captivity and last to live in pack or herds or groups. That way the man can find the leader and take over his place. Something about animals having to cross treacherous waters to get to food. Just keeping the tame ones alive is full of difficulties. David talks about how good we’ve become at taking care of them that domesticated cattle far out number their wild relatives. Yeah right… Watch Earthlings on google video and see just how ‘good’ we are. Anyway he goes on to talk about cattle being able to provide not only milk and meat but power. So people can settle down and plant crops and become farmers. Woodlands and grasslands began to disappear and replaced with domesticated crops and farms. People began to grow/select plants which gave good yields and so plants also changed. People all over the world began to settle down into their villages. You go where food is, your survival depended upon it. Now humans started making far beyond that which occurred naturally. Human numbers began to increase. Talks about how important millet is to this village. More houses to contain millet than there are to contain human beings. The first sound the baby will hear in the Dogon village is that of its mother pounding millet. Since they didn’t have to chase around for food they had more time. Rituals and the arts flourished. Music time! Masks and shields and etc. With all this flourishing… villages became towns. Towns became cities.
David takes us to the site of the oldest city in Africa below the Sahara. An area full of pot pieces. The remains of 2000 years of continuous human occupation. The city still flourishes just next to this site. Didn’t get the name. In its heart stands the mosque… the oldest and largest mud building in the world. The places growth was closely tied to the neighboring city… Timbuktu. Between them, they dominated the trade across the sahara. Folks would come from all over for slaves and gold and ivory and trade still dominates the city. This helped people escape the food hunt and get into craft to make things in exchange for food.
Ah finally the bit I’ve been dying to watch. Tical … the capital of the Maya people. They built the tallest structures in the New World. About 1300 years ago… the city covered a vast area. At least double the size of ancient Rome. Only a fraction of temples and houses can be seen today. Such beautiful shots! The inhabitants excelled in every form of civilized activity. Sculptors, builders, astronomers. They constructed complex calendars to which their religious beliefs were closely tied. And they devised a system of writing that was, in its time, the most advanced in all the Americas. Having achieved all this… when and why where their cities abandoned. We do have some clues. Maya recorded their history in great detail… on stones. The latest inscription can be dated to 869AD. After that the city falls silent, the inhabitants disappear and the classic Maya civilization came to an end. All the whys are a hot debate. Well and good. But now there’s new evidence and to see it we gotta get above the city. Aquaducts, canals and a dense network of fields under the soil have been revealed by the cameras in the air. Evidence that by the time the temples were built, the surrounding forsests had already been felled and replaced by great expanses of cultivated fields. As the population grew, probably to about 60,000, the farmers struggled to grow enough. Eventually the fertility of the fields was exhausted. Soon the people were starving and drifted away from the city. And gradually the jungle returned.
The relevance to us today? When they built their cities there were only about 50 million people on the planet. Maya were not able to sustain their population with the technology they developed as sophisticated as it was. Then few years later… human beings elsewhere with newly developed techniques, began to build on a scale that dwarfed the skyscrapers of Tical. Highspeed shots of different cities in our world today. 50 million turned to 6000 million people on Earth. All these people need food. And we have long since utilized the most suitable fertile places, now we’re having to try to do so elsewhere.
Like a desert in Arizona. Suddenly we’re at a lush field. Thanks to humanity’s unique capacity to innovate and to learn. They bring rain to the desert! Every year we displace the equivalent of entire rivers in order to water our crops. Over a third of the land is being used to produce food for human beings. And that has changed some landscapes in the most dramatic way. Natural landscapes have been turned into landscapes of geometrical straight lines. Shots of rectangles of different shades of green to tan. All this started when our hands were freed and we could manipulate our surroundings. Our ingenuity has enabled us to use the most unlikely and unpromising corners of the Earth. Even beginning to farm the oceans. The changes we’ve made are so wholesale that they’re now visible from space. And as our numbers increase, there’s less land for other animals and plants. We cant contstantly expand… will our civilization crumble as the Mayan did?
Over to a launch pad in the US. David talks about an attempt to settle in another planet in 2020. The ape that stood up on its hind legs seems to have out grown its planet. Could it settle in Mars? There the energy giving sunlight is only half as intense. And the cold reaches below more than a 100 degrees below freezing. Will our technology be able to meet this challenge? Well someones working on it! So we might need more kinds of food than we’ve been relying on for the past years. Which is why we’re conserving the species which we’ve been so careless with. WE? Ok ok we. David in a giant greenhouse looks optimistic about being able to hook Mars up with one of these. So if we could do Mars… could we do other planets after? This all began when humans first landed on the moon. Is that as far as we will reach… or should reach?
Back to those fossilized footprints… 3.5 million years separate those footprints to the footprints on the moon. A mere blink in the eye of evolution. David preaches about exploiting this planet and now another. Perhaps the time has now come to put that process into reverse. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population… perhaps its time to control the population to allow the survival of the environment.
Final Paras note: The Life of Mammals series can be found at www.parasuniversal.com and if you liked the Attenborough knowledge do let me know as I have Planet Earth episodes and Life in the Freezer episodes.
Starts of in Thailand or Sri Lanka (I think according to the statues carved on cliffs and other sleeping ones). Then straight over to South America and capuchin monkeys. Judging from fossils they’re very like the earliest monkeys. What give them the edge is their big brains. No other monkeys can spot and exploit an opportunity as well as these. Lol they’re so inquisitive, nothing gets past them… there’s a shot of one digging at a crab hole. They’ve figured how to open air tight clams too… if you hit them hard enough and long enough the clam eases up. Shot of 20 monkeys banging clams at tree trunks/branches. 10 Minutes on and they’re still banging away. Not fast food then ay? Funny shot of young one observing and trying it himself… but instead of banging, dude’s just rolling it on the branch, then gives up and flops down on the branch to sulk lol. David lays two bunches of leaves, ones an antiseptic/insect (pipa leaves) repellent and the other just looks like it. Wow… one monkey grabs it, so many others get together, even ones that have grudges all forget their issues for the pipa rubbing group tradition.
Over to Uakari monkeys. Gaaad dayum they have extra pink hairless faces. For a sec I thought it was the butt. The brighter the scarlet the more senior the animal. As for the Saki monkeys… they have special teeth so they can eat nuts which no other animal can crack. Then the Spider monkey has long limbs and a grasping tail which help it collect some hard to collect berries.
Davids carried away by a crane in those observation jungle type places. All because he wanted to show us a monkey that could go high up to weak branches to get food that other monkeys cant. The Pygmy Marmoset, the smallest monkey in the world, no bigger than an adult hand. Its feet are so small it cant grasp much but small twigs and the nails keep it from slipping. They look like samurai rats/ninja squirrels lol. Very sharp, very fast and hardly moves the branches/stems while moving. David shows us a tree with uniform bumps… looks natural but they’re inflicted by the lil munchkins. They eat the gum sap which they force out of the tree by gnawing at the bark. They reopen the closed up wounds too, to make sure there’s supply the next day. Rival groups case them away from their well kept tree. So the displaced start scent marking nearby trees which strengthens their resolve to claim back their turf. Whoa, it got gangsta for a minute and they had their tree back.
Dourocoulis/Owl monkeys are next. Nocturnal monkeys. There’s evidence that they became nocturnal only recently. Day breaks and the dourocoulis are replaced by tamarins. Google imaged them… some species look wicked! These ones have long moustaches. The female always produces twins and she has two male partners. She uses her tongue to single one of them to take over the twins. Both are eager to do so coz each regards the babies has his. But the twins are reluctant, mommy’s best! Finally she’s free and good she is coz she has to eat more to provide milk for the mama’s boys. It gets harder as there’s other kinds of tamarins. The saddleback tamarin looks like something out of thundercats. They usually guard they food ferociously but luckly these ones don’t mind feeding side-by-side. And the follow each other. They share an enemy too. Alarm calls that both species understand signal the Tyra (kind of weasel). Another reason the different species don’t mind feeding/traveling together is to know who’s nibbled on what and where.
Howler monkeys… 10 times the size of tamarins. They specialize on leaves. Young ones are red and succulent but protected by poisions. While the mature green ones poisons have faded but they’re fiberous/woody and not very succulent. So what a leave eater would want is something inbetween. Not too red, not too green… which is why color visions would be so crucial. Now even the best leaves are hard to digest so the howler monkeys spend half the day just lying around digesting their grub. Lol they look so hopeless laid out on branches. Since leaves are not very nutritious, howler monkeys use a more labor saving way of chasing away intruders. They howl… DUH! This is made possible by a specially enlarged bone in the throat. It’s the loudest noise produced by any animal and the whole family joins in almost every evening. Lol since their rivals never really move anywhere, its hard to tell who’s winning.
The black and white colobus is the equivalent of the South American howler. Red colobus can eat unripe fruit and leaves coz of their special stomach. Whereas saki monkeys got the gangsta jaws to break tough foods. Then you got monkeys more general in their diet, a bit like capuchins. They’re called Guenons. 17 different kinds and most colourful of monkeys. All guenons eat fruits and insects but each looks for them in their own levels in the forest.
Colours don’t do much if the visibility is poor. And that’s the case in the Tai Forest in West Africa. Wicked shot of crown eagle carrying away a monkey. Missing a warning could be fatal. So animals have formed alliances. Some keep an eye out on ground level, including mongooses. Whole on the branches several kinds of monkeys patrol the area. So the network goes from the canopy right down to the forest floor. There’s hardly any squabbles for food coz all find it in their different way. Diana monkeys hang out at the top of the canopy so they can spot threats from the air. Special calls signal monkeys to drop down without question when the crown eagle decides to drop by. Next, David sets up a teddy-leopard??? Pulled by rope on a track. To find out each monkeys special call for that one. In the leopards case they don’t retreat, they go towards it coz once its spotted it usually goes away.
Back to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka. The city has crumbled but the society that were there then and still there now… Toque Macaques. They’ve been studied for years but only in the last few decades have they been understood more. One of the most studied groups. Their trials and tribulations have been recorded for the past 30 years. They may play as equals but different futures ahead of them. A ruthless class system comes into play. The high born came too late to feed and the berries are hidden in the cheek pouches of the others. She spots an elder and coz of her rank takes anything she wants from the lower ranking elder. Elder dunt look too happy about it. Elder tries to rest as higher rank brat tries to dig past elders teeth. Elder can make it difficult but if he does it too much he risks a beating from the others. Lol mating time the males flutter their eyelids and flash their teeth. Looks crazy. Lots of ready males but a shortage of females. Now one of the males after a big deal of political maneuvering has become alpha male. He has frist pick right? ‘We’ll see’ thinks Booster… young male hoping to beat the system. Alpha male has buddies who even reprimand any female that tries to sneak away. So Alpha gets down to some monkey business and buddies are looking away so Shanti tries to get Boosters attention. She thinks he’s gonna be the next Alpha. Shanti and Booster do the eye and teeth thing discreetly not to get caught my Alpha who’s grabbed himself another honey. Booster and Shanti get their quickie! Now the bigger the family the bigger brain you need. Hmmm I thought that was going somewhere.
So 10 million years ago there was a major climate change. Places became dryer, rainforests shrank and were replaced by scrub and open grassland. There was lots of food and some monkeys came down from the trees and bushes, out into the open to find it. They found familiar food like flowers and berries at first… then they found all other kinds. Shots of cactus eating, bulb eating… even rabbits. Shot of baboon grabbing insect grub from the shores of Kenya’s Rift Valley. Some baboons have become more ambitious thus chasing flamingoes too. Wicked shots of kills. These guys only figured how to do this 5 years ago but the skill spread quick. Since the open has larger predators, baboons aint safe either, so they form large groups. Which gets tricky as their structure is even more complex. When a female is ready her bottom swells and becomes bright pink. All males see the bootie but she’s only offer herself to the brotha that looked after her through the year. Like Santa and gifts. Another male wants to join the group so he befriends one of the senior females. Alpha male pushes his weight around and takes over others spaces. Grooming and looking after babies are good ways of getting into the group or building relationships. Also, kids are well protected so if you’re holding one you wont be hit which is a good way to protect yourself if you’re feeling threatened.
David gets technical about brain size corresponding to group size. So scientist may not be able to tell what monkey brain it is but he sure as hell will be able to predict accurately the group size.
500 miles away in Ethiopia live the largest monkey groups. The Gelada monkeys are the worlds only grazing monkeys. These guys gather into enormous herds. Coz they have to use their hands to grasp the grass they sit a lot and most of their lives shuffle along on their backsides. Which is why their sexual displays have moved up to their chest so instead of pink butt you see pink cleavage. An indication of strength/virility and status could be told at a glance. They looks so furry and cute. Like hunched yetis. Uhoh… bachelors invade the group… they avoid the brightest chested males as those are in their prime. Less impressive ones will have to prove their worth in battle. Note: The top lip sure flips a long was back. One flips another answers with the same. Will is a challenge. And its about that time… to get gangsta!!! The fights are more for sure and injuries harldy occur. Sure looks ferocious though. All this has wasted precious grazing time… since they use their hands a lot they don’t groom each other… so to maintain relationships they chatter. The same need to communicate lead to the evolutions in our own species.
