Mothers of the Animal Kingdom | BBC Earth

in only a few months time the water here will cease to flow eight thousand square kilometers of swamp will dry and disappear and all the hippos of the okavango will face real hardship water is the hippo sanctuary it keeps them cool in the baking heat and provides the vegetation on which they depend um and safety away from predators but with all of this slowly evaporating everyone will need to be prepared the calf is now several weeks old and has built up his strength George it's time for him to

meet the family returning to the Pod with a new baby is inevitably risky has to re-establish that she's a member of the pond and in the excitement becomes the adult could crush her calf the dominant bull who's right in her path if she stands her ground with him half her battle could be one but the real problem comes from an unexpected place her previous calf is showing an unhealthy interest and quarrelsome [Music] Genesee or curiosity whichever it is it's dangerous [Music] her calf is far too yo

ung to be pushed around like this he's frightened and stays close to his mother [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you the power remain on the periphery of the pod but the rest of the family can still hear them hippos are thought to be the closest living relatives of Wales and they too make most of their vocalizations underwater their head and jawbones capture vibrations and transmit them directly into the ear vibrations become sound and In These Quiet Waters these can carry up to a mile r

ainforests of Sumatra this female orangutan is 42 years old her third child a six-year-old daughter is still with her orangs look after their children for longer than any other primate except ourselves it will take her nine years to teach a youngster everything she needs to know about this complex Treetop world [Music] she must learn how to collect ants and termites [Music] how to identify at least 200 kinds of edible plants and how to avoid the poisonous ones and how to judge when fruit like li

st durian has ripened to perfection [Music] [Music] a child must be able to judge which branches can carry her weight foreign s are safe to raid [Music] building up a complete guide to the foods of the forest is a long process [Music] thank you [Music] her lessons of course aren't limited to food there are other crucial skills she must learn if she is to survive in the Treetops building a secure nest in which to spend the night for example takes years of practice foreign Forest so all orangs mus

t learn how to make a shelter early in their lives [Music] [Applause] [Music] it rains almost every day so this six-year-old has already had plenty of practice [Music] thank you [Music] she might live to be 50 years old and if she too becomes a mother she'll pass on all this expertise to her own children [Music] during the hours she spends at the buy she notes all the arrivals and crucially who greets whom it's late afternoon and Andrea has noticed two related elephants who've arrived from diffe

rent parts of the forest this is a meme one who's the matriarch of this group Mimi one knows that Mimi 2 is there yeah they're heading right towards each other there we go there's a nice greeting going on right now very low frequency yeah now they're Trucking each other yeah yeah that's a mother and daughter some of these greetings are very subtle and if you know the individuals then you can predict them by understanding these relationships Andrea's made an important discovery in the forest beyo

nd the buy it's rare to see more than one elephant at a time people assumed they lead solitary independent lives Andrea believes that even though relatives might not stay together in the forest they do appear to know each other's whereabouts [Applause] I think it was the General misconception about Forest elephants only having small family groups but they do have expensive networks and they should because I mean we know that about Savannah elephants why shouldn't Forest elephants still maintain

these social groups [Music] zangabai as well as offering medicinal salts appears to be an important venue for elephant family reunions [Music] Andrea is beginning to understand why the biaka called this place the village of elephants [Music] but even the bayaka don't understand how the elephants appear to second-guess each other's movements how they know when other family members will be of the by to go to the bottom of this Andrea has had to start thinking like an elephant tuning into this Fore

st world as they do foreign [Music] [Music] is looking for something suitable for her Cubs this is their first ever trip to the seaside [Music] in a few hours the tide will return so they must keep up with mum [Music] here's something tasty crabs [Music] beet crabs can give a nasty nip [Music] so it's best to start off with smaller ones during spring three quarters of the Bear's food comes from the beach okay [Music] [Music] but now this family is not alone foreign [Music] he is double her size

and they're in his territory [Music] the Cubs know that call it's time to head for safety bands have poor eyesight but their sense of smell is acute and the male has detected Intruders [Music] he knows exactly which tree they are in if the Cubs stay up there they'll be safe but they're losing precious feeding time for now he's content to leave his scent mark a warning note for trespasses the family moves on for the Cubs lunch today will have to be a takeaway the tide comes in and within minutes

feeding time is over for another day China has some of the world's most abundant and diverse bamboo forests in the giant panda Park they are critically important supplying 99 of the pandas diet [Music] making it the perfect place for a mother to raise her cup [Music] [Music] foreign with each passing day this youngster is being prepared for adult life [Music] today's lesson is how to eat bamboo it's Nimble as it sounds it must be fresh [Music] the cane must be split perfectly the most digestible

part is inside [Music] the enormous jaw muscles needed to Crunch bamboo a what give pandas their characteristic ground faces foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] as an adult she'll eat 40 kilograms of bamboo a day [Music] pandas evolved with the carnivore's digestive system which means they are born lacking the key plant processing gut bacteria they need during weaning seemingly affectionate exchanged between mother and baby may be a way of passing her cub crucial bamboo digesting microbes throug

h her saliva when the cup is weaned at around 18 months they will separate and the youngster must go It Alone this poppy was rejected by his mother at Birth but he's had the Good Fortune to be adopted by a cat her mothering hormones are so strong she accepts him as her own the puppy was born on the same day and he happily adapts to his new family but kittens live by different social rules even when they suckle they name tag teats with their own individual scent and returned to it each time this

simple rule maintains peace and Harmony during feeding time but for dogs Park life requires fighting for your share in the Rough and Tumble of competing modes [Music] this puppy breaks all of the cat's social conventions his wild instincts Express themselves despite his unusual family ultimately the puppy's needs and his foster mothers nurturing feelings overcome any differences for now but as adults these top predators will differ in almost every detail when a cat drinks he uses a refined techn

ique [Music] the rough upper side of his tongue curls down wants to pick up the liquid using surface tension pools the column of milk up into his mouth without making any mess at all [Music] a solitary Hunter can afford to take his time it's a different matter when you hunt as a pack [Music] a dog also pools a colon into his mouth but unlike cats he shapes his tongue into a ladle to slosh more liquidy [Music] Park animals meeting your Rivals to a drink is more important than cleanliness x-ray sh

ows how the milk is thrown back once at five times the force of gravity and his mouth shuts like a trap as it is swallowed [Music] it might be effective but it's far messier than the cat oh [Music]