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In every habitat imaginable, if you look close enough, you'll see that animals and people have a lot in common. Nothing beats a bit of pampering down at the local spa. Bands of pirates chase victims until they hand over the treasure. And love is in the air. But to get this hunk's attention, a girl's got to take drastic action. This is a new way of seeing the natural world, where wild animals act just like we do. One of the fascinating things about studying animals is discovering how many aspects of their behavior have parallels with our own.
Around the globe, animals continue to astound us with their intelligence and deep emotions. The amazing thing is, the more we learn about them, the more we realize animals are a lot like us. Across the natural world, animals communicate and share information just like we do. Sperm whales talk to other whales kilometers away. They've even developed different dialects depending on which pod they belong to. Natterjack toads can croak over a kilometer away when they're looking for love. And the tiny prairie dog uses barks and squeaks as its words that can warn others of a predator,
what direction it's coming from, and even its color. But there is one animal that takes interaction and personal communication skills to a whole new level. Found in 37 countries across the continent, including the vast plains of Kenya. Elephants are such a tight-knit group, and those herds can be up to 100 strong, all related. Leading these herds, mostly made up of females and their young, is the oldest female, known as the matriarch. She [snorts] is the oldest and wisest member of the herd, and she makes all the decisions about where to find food,
where to find water, how to keep the whole herd safe, and especially how to defend and protect their young. Elephants are always on the move and can travel up to 60 km in a single day. So, keeping track of what every elephant is up to in the herd can be a tricky business. One way they do this is by constantly communicating with each other. That happens in different ways, but one thing's for sure, these elephants are as loud as they are huge. [groaning] Elephants often trumpet when they're surprised or being playful, but there's a lot more to their sounds than just that.
It's true. Elephants can also squeal, cry, scream, roar, snort, rumble, and groan to get their point across. Elephants produce such an incredible range of sounds, not just in terms of the volume. They can go from these really loud, high-pitched trumpeting alarm calls. Also, they can produce really low, gentle kind of rumbles, which are like contact calls to each other while they're feeding. Rumbling will only get you so far. Visual or nonverbal communication is as important for elephants as it is for humans. They can use their face, ears, tusks, trunk, tail, and feet to signal messages to one another.
They're body language masters. Elephants use their whole body to communicate. And even though their eyes are around 1.5 inches across and seemingly much smaller than the rest of their body, they become a lot more expressive when they're alarmed or excited. Some gestures are easier to interpret. Raised ears make them look more intimidating, while they paw the ground if they feel threatened. Of course, having a trunk opens up all kinds of other possibilities. Elephants use their trunks to communicate. So, they can greet one another a little bit like shaking hands. But they can also be really tender with their trunks. They can wrap their trunks around another, a little bit like putting your arm around a friend.
In addition to body language and obvious vocalizations, elephants have another, more secret way of communicating. Elephants can be seen standing still for hours, ears out and eyes lowered, as if lost in thought. Finally, they leave. And later joins a herd kilometers away. Elephants have an incredible ability to communicate that we have only just started to understand. It's called infrasound, and they can communicate at 20 hertz, which to us is impossible to hear, but to them means everything. These low notes are produced by vibrations in the vocal folds of the elephant's larynx, or voice box. In essence, elephants sing or hum a lot like we do. But their huge voice box produces extremely low notes, as low as the
lowest notes of a pipe organ. They can travel far and wide and be picked up by any elephant in range, usually anywhere within 3 and 1/2 km. Their giant ears, like satellite dishes, capture the waves. The beauty of using low-frequency sound to communicate is the sound can travel across the savanna, across that habitat with very little interference. But also, very few other species can actually hear this frequency sound. So, it's almost like their own channel to speak to each other. Elephants use as many as 70 different sounds to communicate, and 60% of them are actually infrasound.
It's like an elephant group text, and when one elephant communicates through infrasound, all of them get the same message. These powerful messages are important. They help male elephants find available females. They also enable elephants to reunite with lost friends and family members. One rumble means, "Help, I'm lost." And another means, "Hey, it's okay. I'm over here." We've only been carrying cell phones for the past few decades, but elephants have been making long-distance calls for millions of years.
Luckily for these elephants, they don't get billed for these long-distance calls. Incredibly, they all have an inbuilt ability to stay in touch with their loved ones as they roam far and wide across the African savannas. While most animals have to work hard to survive and find food, some get by with a healthy dose of deception and deviousness. Many birds in particular are notorious tricksters. The cuckoo lays its eggs in the nest of another unsuspecting bird to escape parental duties. Blue jays do a good job of imitating different hawk species, causing other birds to scatter, leaving the jays with sole access to the bird feeder. But
there's another avian rogue that's more aggressive and commits highway robbery in the air. This is the magnificent frigate bird, a large seabird easily recognized by its long, slender wings and forked tail. They spend most of their life flying effortlessly over the ocean searching for fish. These birds are masters at staying in the air and can glide for weeks on end without flapping their wings. They achieve this with a really large wingspan, 8 ft wingtip to wingtip. And that's the largest wingspan to body ratio of any bird. And this is what allows them to stay airborne for such long periods as they range over the ocean looking for food.
When they do come ashore to nest, magnificent frigatebirds favor tropical islands like Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Sea. The cliffs here are packed with breeding birds of all kinds. There's stiff competition between parents looking to feed their youngsters. Fish is always on the menu, but these giants of the sky have one weakness. Even though the frigatebird is a seabird, it can't land on water.
Its feathers aren't waterproof. These birds don't have oil on their feathers and it's this oil that helps keep seabirds waterproof. Oil glands are heavy, they take up a lot of energy and because these birds spend most of their lives on the wing, they want to be as light and as streamlined as possible. So, nature got rid of the oil glands. So, it has to be careful not to make a splash when it goes fishing. That is a really hard way for a seabird to make a living if it can't actually dive into the water. The magnificent frigatebird has found a solution that allows it to feed while still keeping its feathers dry.
It has turned to a life of crime and commits high-seas robbery staying safely in the sky. They target a seabird that has a freshly caught fish in its throat. Then, the chase is on. yanking their victim's tail and forcing it to cough up the fish. Honestly, these birds would terrify me. They're so intimidating, not just because of their size, but because of their tactics. I mean, this is skyway robbery. They are really aggressive, they're very persistent, but also they're very calculating. It's simple but effective. You have to admire the audacity of these birds. They really are the pirates of the sea. It's a great way to mug a bird midair and get it to give up its well-earned prey. Very successful strategy.
Not all victims roll over so easily, but the magnificent frigatebirds have different tactics they can deploy. When they have to, they team up. There's a high-speed chase through the skies. This tropicbird tries to shake off these flying Jack Sparrows twisting one way and then another. The tropicbird thinks it's evaded this sky pirate when the other one pounces. These aerial dogfights are fascinating to watch because they are absolutely fixated on their victim.
This frigate just comes in absolutely relentless. Oh, and there it goes. Lunch is stolen. It's a real aerial dogfight. I feel really sorry for the birds that come under attack, but it's not always in the favor of the frigatebirds because surprisingly some of the smaller birds have a bit of an advantage because they have these shorter wingspans. Makes them more maneuverable in the air, but also they stay closer to the surface of the water and we know the frigatebirds cannot afford to get close to the surface of the water and ditch. Just like in the human world, when it comes to greed, there is no honor among thieves.
One sky pirate's booty can easily become another's stolen treasure. It's really tempting, but we cannot judge this behavior. It seems brutal, it seems dishonorable, they all seem like thugs, but actually frigatebirds have chicks, too. So, they've got their young to keep alive just like any other species does. Although terrifying in the air, back at the nest, frigatebirds are doting parents. And one day, these chicks will grow up to become young buccaneers themselves. Parenthood is something we and most animals have in common, a biological necessity and right of passage. Many adult species, human or otherwise, temporarily put their own lives on hold while they raise and look after kids.
Male emperor penguins incubate their partner's eggs for 2 months straight over the harsh Antarctic winter. It's daddy daycare round the clock until mom returns. An orangutan mother will stay in close contact with her baby for up to 8 years. But in our planet's seas, there's a marine mammal that looks after the younger generation for its entire life. Just one of many places where you'll find a species that shares a particular human trait that almost no other creature on Earth does.
The orca, also known as a killer whale. Orcas were given the name killer whales by sailors who directly observed them hunting and killing much larger whales in the sea. These killer whales, though, are very family-orientated, living in pods of up to 40 family members, traveling and hunting together. Wherever they roam, they are the apex predators. Fearsome, adaptable, and long-lived. On average, orcas live around 50 years old, but some females have been known to live for as much as 90 years old.
Like us humans, these whales are evolutionary oddballs. Most mammals on the planet stay fertile until the end of their life, which is usually much shorter than ours. But humans and orcas are in the same boat when it comes to menopause. It really is incredible when you think about it. Apart from humans, the only other mammals to go through menopause are short-finned pilot whales, belugas, and narwhals. And why orcas do the same is still a little bit uncertain, but it might be down to their close-knit family units, which consist of both males and females. And this in itself is quite unusual within the mammal world.
Female orcas reach sexual maturity when they're between 10 and 13 years old and start breeding when they're 14 or 15. Most orca moms will give birth to a single calf every 3 to 10 years. When they're about 40 years old, they stop reproducing. It's not clear whether orcas experience symptoms of menopause the way we do, but certainly they do stop breeding when they reach middle age. But it doesn't mean that they no longer have a role in orca society. Far from it. New studies have shown that female orcas, young and old alike, are key to their pod's survival and future. Orca communities are incredibly tightly knit and just like a large human family, they're made up of multi-generations. You get grannies, you
get moms, you get their kids, the grandkids. And they all cooperatively work and live together. And this group has to be very good at finding food and keeping each other safe. In fact, after menopause, these older females become even more crucial to the family. And in many cases, lead the pod. Their accumulated knowledge and know-how can often be the difference between life and death. Especially when prey becomes scarce. So, grandma's savvy is crucial. For example, grandma can help the whole pod find food, but more than that, when times are tough, she'll also share food with the younger ones. But most crucially of all, this older female
will actually help to teach the younger ones how to hunt their prey. So, she actually gives them the knowledge of how to go out into the world and hunt for themselves. What's interesting is that orcas are able to use a whole range of tactics depending on which species they're hunting. So, whales, seals, fish, even rays, all determine how that the particular pod hunts. A favorite orca delicacy is seal. But landing one of these tasty morsels can be a dangerous endeavor for a killer whale.
Baby seals spend a lot of time by the shoreline. They look like easy pickings. But if an overeager juvenile orca rushes in to grab one, it might miss and end up beaching itself. A successful raid depends on timing and skill. Without an educator around, it's tricky. But if grandma's there to show you how it's done, it can be a piece of cake. What's really nice is seeing them adapting their behaviors, these really sharp flips of the tail to propel themselves up this steep sandy beach just to get those pups there. They've learned this special adapted behavior to get back into the sea to make sure
they're not in trouble. It's really clever. Like a human society, orcas value and revere their elders. And seem to instinctively realize that these veterans of life on the high seas have a lot to offer. Not in spite of, but because of their old age. Scientists call it the grandmother effect. And for young orcas, it is profound. Studies show that calves with grandmothers are more likely to stay alive than those without. Many human grandmothers love to spoil their grandkids with treats and attention. And for good reason, because research has shown that by having living
grandmothers actually improves the well-being of the children. And it appears the same is true for orcas. It just goes to show that with the decades of hard-earned experience that these older females have, it's not just about having babies, it's also about being able to pass on the knowledge that they have to the younger generations. Respect your elders. It's a piece of advice young people around the world often hear. For juvenile orcas, it's not just a nice idea. It's key to survival. Having an elder female around just might be the kind of influence they need early in life to flourish and make their way in the world. For them, grandma really does know best.
Some people go to a lot of trouble to find that special someone. And like us, many animals also go to great lengths to attract a mate. For example, male peacocks use elaborate tail dances to impress the ladies. While the male fiddler crab waves his large claw to entice a female. Their first date is getting together to dig a burrow. But for a certain kind of cheeky monkey, the female does all the chasing. In the far northeast of the country, you'll find the Serra da Capivara National Park. During the dry season, many of the trees lose their leaves. But for some animals, love is in the air. The only problem, not everyone is on the same page.
These are capuchin monkeys. Known around the world for their supreme intelligence. They can fashion tools out of sticks and use rocks for cracking nuts. When these Portuguese explorers first saw these primates in the 1400s, they named them capuchins after the capuchin monks. Capuchin friars wear a brown pointed hood called a capuchino. And the monkeys really look like them with their brown fur and white faces. So, the name just stuck. Unlike real monks though, these monkeys live in large mixed-sex groups of up to 40 individuals. They're made up of a dominant male and lots of females vying for his attention.
They communicate in a variety of ways, but usually through calls and vocalizations. Capuchins communicate with each other through the trees. They'll be like, "Hey, where are you?" And the other one would be like, "Oh, I'm over here." And they get really excited when they find food, and they make sure to let others know where the food is at. They also warn each other of predators and have a specific alarm call if they see an eagle or a snake. Sometimes when they're trying to make their feelings known to a member of the opposite sex, they need to take a more direct approach. Like this lustful lady.
Capuchins are polygamous, meaning they mate with several different partners. And there's one guy the females all have their eyes on. The group's alpha male. To them, he's kind of like the coolest guy on the block. The school heartthrob. But getting his attention can be tricky. This female is in heat and ready for romance. So, she needs to work extra hard to get his attention. Capuchins love to play games and are known for all sorts of strange social behavior. They test friendships by poking their fingers in their friends'
eyes. And when it comes to mating rituals, it can be even more bizarre. First, she'll do a bit of stalking. You know, following him wherever he goes. We've all had one of those. Not very subtle and probably quite annoying. It's just like teenagers in high school trying to impress their crush. Doing whatever you can to get noticed. It's like typical, "Hey, come get me." behavior. She's doing her best to catch his eye. But he's totally distracted. Fed up with being ignored, she finally resorts to more drastic action.
Here's the female. Oh, she's got a coconut. Really? She's going to go that far? Yep, she is. She's actually chucked a coconut at him. Always works for me. I'm not sure it's the best approach, but anyway, obviously it works for the female capuchins. This female is being really cheeky. But it's cool. It's kind of sweet. It's just like playful, innocent. Bit of puppy love, you know? This guy doesn't look like he's receiving it too well. But, hey, persistent sister, I believe in you. These blatant attention-seeking ploys may seem comical, but a female capuchin doesn't have many options.
These monkeys don't have any physical indicators to let males know when they're most fertile and ready to mate. They're not showy like some other female primates who will display their swollen genitals to the males. Instead, capuchins rely on bad behavior. Essentially, bugging the boy they like non-stop until he finally gets the hint. She knows when she's most fertile and most likely to get pregnant, and this is vital for keeping the troop going and producing the next generation. By making sure she's the mother of the alpha male's offspring is a smart move.
While their romancing techniques might seem somewhat juvenile, capuchins are usually considered the most intelligent of all South American monkeys. And scientists confirm that the unusual tactics usually pay off. The desperate coconut-throwing female gets to spend some quality time with the man of her dreams. In the bird world, mates tend to come and go. After a single breeding season, many avian couples call it quits and go their separate ways, regardless of whether they produce chicks or not. But in the Southern Hemisphere, there's a seabird that is more faithful, pairing up with the same partner year after year.
The black-browed albatross spends most of its life at sea. For months at a time, they don't see land until they return to one special place to breed. That special place is a remote, rocky archipelago, the Falkland Islands, home to one of nature's greatest love stories. Black-browed albatrosses return to these same shores over and over again. More than 70% of the world's population of these massive seabirds nests here. The shores of the Falklands are flooded with albatross, close to a million. It's like a packed beach in summer vacation.
Everyone jostling around trying to find the best spot, and there's nowhere to stand without stepping on a foot or a wing. They'll usually spend the next 6 months or so here in the colony, reuniting with a partner to produce the next generation of albatrosses. Albatross pairs actually spend half the year apart on the wing foraging for food, and then half the year together to build a nest and raise a chick.
These albatrosses are socially monogamous, which means year after year, they'll pair up with the same partner. And these couples make a long-term commitment to each other. It's really impressive because some of these bonds can last for decades. Most birds will mate for one season, but these albatross will very frequently mate for season after season. Young albatrosses that aren't coupled up yet have to find their ideal mate before they settle down. They perform a very specific and elaborate courtship display.
These rituals can include up to 25 different poses. Clicking beaks seems to be the most popular. The idea is to find a mate that makes communication and coordination easy. Once both partners are happy that they found their soulmate, they set up a home together. Albatrosses will make a basic nest, and then the female will lay one single egg, and then both sexes will incubate it for up to 3 months. It's hard work raising a chick, and so the parents take turns. While one is on incubating duty, the other one is off foraging. And it takes about 130 days for the chick to fledge.
These couples have a strong connection, and unlike in humans, divorce is rare. Worldwide, the figure for failed relationships between albatrosses has been estimated at around 1%. But divorce rates for those birds living in the Falklands are actually on the rise. There's a few factors at play here. The birds have to fly much further to find food, sometimes up to 5,000 miles on a round trip to find squid. Squid, fish, and crustaceans are their favorite food. But in recent years, these goodies have dropped in supply close to home. So the albatrosses' search for sustenance becomes longer and more arduous. They could be away from the nest for days, weeks,
even months. The partner left behind has a tough choice to make. Wait for their partner to return or look for another. Just like it is for us, climate change is making life more stressful for the albatrosses. As ocean temperatures rise, it robs the water of nutrients that fish and other marine creatures need to survive. So their numbers drop. By the time the albatrosses return to land to mate, they may be too exhausted or too sick to start a family. Warmer weather causes a rise in stress for the birds, and they're more likely to divorce their partner if they fail to breed. But over in Hawaii, one species of albatross has found an alternative path to parenthood, one that may help stack
the odds in their favor. The Laysan albatross. Many of them are in same-sex relationships. It's actually a bigger proportion than you might think. Up to 31% are same-sex pairs. What's really cool, though, is that there are major benefits to being in a same-sex pair, including having two eggs hatch. These albatrosses are true pioneers. There aren't enough males on the colony, so they'll mate with other albatross husbands and then partner with another female in order to do the hard job of raising the chick.
These all-female relationships are helping to secure a future for these magnificent birds. Climate change and rising sea levels are expected to destroy 95% of albatross nesting areas in this part of the Pacific. But some same-sex female couples have been observed building their nests on much higher ground, out of reach of the waves. So they are ensuring a safe home for the next generation of albatrosses. A species famous for its steadfast monogamy is now showing that it's also adaptable, finding a way to reproduce and raise chicks even when there aren't enough dads to go around.
Most animals don't mind getting a little muddy. wild African pigs that will never say no to a good mud bath. While we all might like a nice spa treatment, these guys take it to the extreme. You got to love warthogs. They're not going to win any beauty contests, but they're a joy to watch. Just look at them. They're like fully armored pigs. Warthogs live all over sub-Saharan Africa, like here in Uganda, where they share watering holes and habitat with a wide range of other creatures, all taking advantage of this African nation's bounty. Although they look pretty fearsome,
looks can be deceiving, and warthogs actually spend most of their time grazing. They're always rootling around in the ground looking for bulbs or roots to eat. They're greedy, basically. These tough-looking guys are perfectly adapted to life here. During the wet season, they feed on the abundant grasses. But during the oppressive dry season, when temperatures regularly reach almost 32°C, these versatile hogs cope by spending more time in their underground burrows. The warthogs always seem to have one pesky problem.
Ticks. The parasites flourish in warm, humid climates. And feed exclusively on the blood of other animals. With all that exposed skin, the warthog is an easy target. Ticks are real problem in the wild. They latch onto the skin of their hosts and suck their blood. If these ticks stay on, the warthog could get really sick. Ticks can carry all sorts of diseases like African swine fever, which is highly contagious. But those hogs have found an ingenious way of ridding themselves of those pesky ticks. To keep themselves tick-free, warthogs take a lot of mud baths.
Wallowing also helps them stay cool and avoid sunburn. But that's not always enough. So, from time to time, these hogs head off to the local spa where there's a team of trained beauticians waiting dedicated to pampering their clients. Staffing this wildlife spa, mongooses. The relationship between the mongoose and the warthog is pretty unique because they don't have any other reason to hang out with each other. In fact, warthogs have been known to kill mongooses. So, you'd think that the mongooses would be steering clear of them. But the warthog knows that the mongoose provides a very special service. The first step of any beauty treatment is to assess the client's needs. So, the mongoose inspects the warthog to
see which treatment it would best benefit from. Then, they get to work. The mongoose picks off any ticks and other insects the warthog might have on its body. And the warthog just lies there enjoying the work of the natural beauticians. They swarm over the body getting into those crevices and in the folds of the skin. And the warthog will even lift its leg to help them access those difficult to reach places. This particular treatment is swift. Carried out by a number of the spa staff. 10 minutes later, the treatment is over. Our refreshed warthog emerges cleaned and reinvigorated. And as an added bonus, the warthog doesn't even have to pay.
For the mongooses, a full stomach is payment enough. This is a great example of mutual benefit. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. But the fact that this involves different species makes it even more amazing. An animal helping another species is rare, but not unique. Zebra and wildebeest travel together as they benefit from each other's keen senses. The zebra has exceptional sight even at night. And the wildebeest use their sharp sense of hearing and smell to keep the herd safe and find water. And bottlenose dolphins make regular trips to their local underwater pharmacy
to treat very specific skin problems. This particular pharmacy is in the Red Sea. The warm waters cover over 453,000 square kilometers. Beneath the waves, bottlenose dolphins dart and dash through world brimming with biodiversity. Everyone loves dolphins. They're so smart, they're charismatic, and that little smile on their face is permanently. They are quite human-like. Incredibly social and highly intelligent, these dolphins are also adaptable and health-conscious. That's important because around the world, dolphins are threatened by man-made chemicals and the rise in sea pollution.
Just as we can get sick from polluted water, dolphins can, too. Because they're at the top of a food chain, this toxic buildup accumulates all the way up and causes massive problems for them individually, but also as a group. Heavy metals, including mercury and industrial chemicals, affect the dolphins' health. These pollutants can cause harm to the dolphins' growth, development, and even their reproduction. These contaminants also weaken their immune system. The result of all this environmental stress means that they're prone to infections, especially fungal infections on their skin, which can become fatal. To guard against and treat harmful skin
infections, the dolphins take advantage of a natural remedy. One that's on offer free of charge courtesy of another undersea species. There are over 1,200 known species of gorgonians, and they come in a great variety of shapes and sizes. They thrive in the tropics and grow in huge colonies. In the Red Sea, bottlenose dolphins seek out specific kinds of gorgonian corals among an enormous reef. Including one known as Rumphella aggregata. They seem to be able to focus on this one species and pick it out in amongst all the other types of coral. That is quite amazing.
They get in line and wait their turn. One by one, the dolphins swim to the coral and scrape their skin over it. This rubbing behavior is all about self-medicating. And of course, because they're dolphins, it's an orderly queue. Dolphins have a highly developed way of communicating. It's clear they've shown the youngsters and told each other about this special coral. And they all want in on the action. Dolphins are spotted repeating this over and over again. It looks like they really enjoy engaging in this behavior. So, they're rubbing their sides, their bellies, and more interestingly, it's all members of the pod, the juveniles and the adults that
engage in this behavior. They may enjoy it. After all, scraping up against the coral is probably like a good back scratch. But these dolphins have also learned that this coral has medicinal properties. This is much more complex than a simple body scrub because the corals are releasing a whole cocktail of natural compounds. And it's released in this sort of mucus-like substance as the dolphins swim over and rub against them triggering this response. This coral contains 17 compounds including antibacterial elements and antioxidants. A perfect mix for getting rid of troublesome skin complaints. As the dolphins are using this kind of natural medicated skin care to rub and expose sore parts of their skin,
the chemicals released will help to soothe and also to treat these infections. These medicated corals can be a lifesaver for dolphins. This is natural medicine at its best, using nature to cure your ills. But for me, it's it's amazing that they're able to identify and locate specific corals that can help them in this particular way. Scientists who observe this behavior think it plays an integral role in the dolphins' lives. Kind of like a daily ritual for old and young alike. That helps to keep them happy as well as healthy.
