Monkey Planet (2014) - full transcript

Narrator: We belong to an extraordinary family...

a family of hundreds of bizarre...

[Roaring]

colorful,

and characterful animals...

who lead fascinating and dramatic lives

all over the world.

We...

that is apes, monkeys,

and lemurs are all primates.

It's time to discover the survival secrets



of our amazing animal family

and to meet some relatives you probably never knew you had.

The jungles of Borneo are home to some of the most spectacular

primates on the planet--

strange monkeys...

weird prosimians...

and two species of great apes...

orangutans...

and us humans.

We are just one of around 400 species

of primate in the world...

and when you look closely, we've all got a lot in common.

This unique community of orangutans highlights

those similarities perfectly.



Here, they share the same forest with humans.

They've watched us closely

and begun to experiment with what they've seen.

This strange habit started over 30 years ago,

a taste for clean living that's obviously catching on.

Only a handful of creatures on the planet are smart enough

to imitate another species.

A highly developed brain is the first of 3 key similarities

shared by all primates.

Secondly, we share a similar face

with eyes that face forwards.

This gives us 3-D vision, the ability

to judge distances perfectly...

and thirdly, the most defining characteristic of any primate,

that remarkable hand with an opposable thumb.

This blueprint...intelligence, forward facing eyes,

and a grasping hand is the key to the success

of our entire animal family...

but it's the differences within this blueprint that mean

we can survive
in some rather unusual ways.

The tarsier is 400 times smaller than an orangutan.

When you look closely, there are similarities...

but it looks so different

because, like the earliest primates,

it hunts in the dead of night.

This tennis ball-sized gremlin

is a spring-loaded ambush predator.

Long back legs can propel it up to 40 times its own body length,

and grasping hands give a lifesaving grip.

Huge eyes are bigger than its stomach

and gather every scrap of light.

They're too large to move in their sockets,

but the tarsier can swivel its head through almost 360 degrees,

picking a target from every angle...

and when it can't see its prey, it uses ultrasonic hearing.

[Rustling]

Those satellite dish ears pinpoint rustles

that we humans cannot hear.

Evolution has molded the tarsier

into a ruthlessly efficient hunter

perfectly adapted for a life after dark.

Over the last 55 million years,

we've spread right across the globe.

In the extremes of our range,

the biggest challenge is the cold.

Japanese macaques live further north than any other monkey

right on the edge of what is possible.

These snow monkeys are built for the cold.

Two distinct layers of fur trap warm air next to their skin,

while their short tail and stumpy ears reduce

the chance of frostbite.

By day, life is just about bearable,

but at night, temperatures can drop

to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

When it's this cold, even thick fur

isn't enough to keep warm.

Thanks to a thermal camera, for the first time ever,

we have a privileged insight into how

these incredible monkeys stay alive.

As they climb, the trees one monkey is joined by another,

then another...

and another.

A single monkey would freeze to death out here,

but by huddling, the macaques create a giant super-monkey,

one so big that it makes

a lifesaving microclimate of its own.

As a baby settles down for the night,

the heart of the huddle is 5 degrees Celsius warmer,

so warm, in fact, that throughout the night the monkeys

take it in turns in the hotspot.

Dawn, and the snow monkeys are snuggled up tighter than ever.

We've all been there, wrapped up in a warm duvet

on a cold, chilly morning, but thanks to that huddle,

these resourceful monkeys have beaten the elements.

Temperature ultimately sets a limit

to where we can and cannot live.

The spiny forests of Madagascar

are some of the hottest and driest on Earth.

Here, it doesn't rain for months on end.

The few plants that grow here are protected

by rapier-like thorns...

but sifakas spend their lives in this forest of spines.

These adrenaline junkies risk life and limb every day.

Their binocular vision allows them to pick landing spots

with unerring accuracy,

and long back legs can catapult them 9 meters in a single leap.

Though how they avoid getting cut to pieces

is still a mystery.

The prize for these hardy lemurs is lots of succulent leaves

full of precious water...

quenching their thirst in the blistering heat.

Heat is just one of many challenges

for the most southerly monkey in the world.

Chacma baboons scratch a living

in the raw, exposed South African cape...

[Baboons grunting]

but the weather is not their biggest problem.

At night, big cats roam these plains,

and with very few trees to hide in,

being eaten is a very real possibility.

At dusk, the most dangerous predators start hunting.

The baboons are clearly on edge...

[Howling]

but they're smart enough to have a surprisingly human solution.

This small hole is the entrance to an underground cave.

[Grunting]

An old rope left by bat researchers

makes the descent easier.

In the pitch black, the baboons can't see a thing,

but infrared cameras reveal how they cope in this secret world.

[Chattering]

The first thing they do is call to each other

to work out where everyone is.

Effectively blindfolded, they feel their way

through the inky blackness.

Amazingly, like you and I know our way around our house

at night, the adults appear to have a mental map

of the entire 100-meter cave system...

but when you can't see who's around you,

it's easy to get spooked.

[Barking]

For millennia, our ancestors used caves as protection,

so perhaps it's no surprise that these baboons do the same.

Putting the kids to bed is an all-too-familiar struggle,

but down here, there's plenty of space

for some private time...

and eventually a safe and peaceful night's sleep.

Apart from the obvious security benefits,

getting the right sort of sleep could have other advantages.

REM sleep, the state where you dream,

allows a complex brain to repair and revitalize,

and it's that much easier when you're safe underground.

It's thought that sleeping in a cave could sharpen the mind,

which for the baboons would make life on the edge of Africa

that much easier to deal with.

Since the dawn of time, we primates have made

our homes right across the globe,

but the family's roots are deep within the jungle.

Tropical forests are home to the greatest diversity

of primates on earth.

[Calls]

In fact, over 90% of all primates live in forests.

A treetop lifestyle might look easy,

but all youngsters need to learn how to move

around their jungle home...

and in Thailand, some haven't had the chance to practice.

6-month-old Sherpa has never set foot outside a cage...

but today, he and his family are being released into the wild.

They're pioneers, returning to a forest where gibbons

were hunted to extinction
30 years ago...'

and on a day like this, the big wide world

is tantalizingly close.

Sherpa's dad is the first out, and his mum follows...

but for Sherpa it's a bit more daunting.

A little bit of reassurance, and it's time to make

a huge leap of faith.

A quick hug, and after a lifetime

in captivity, our young explorer is free.

Unlike a wild gibbon, Sherpa has no experience

and a bit too much enthusiasm.

[Sherpa squeals]

These thorny branches are rattan,

and right now, they're a painful reminde

of just how much there is to learn about life in the jungle.

When you're a young gibbon, practice makes perfect.

By watching his parents,

he'll soon pick up
all the skills he needs.

In terms of sheer acrobatics, there's nothing to touch

a wild gibbon.

That powerful brain makes hundreds

of lifesaving decisions in the blink of an eye...

and a ball-and-socket joint in their wrists gives them

flexibility to slingshot through the canopy.

[Gibbons calling]

By moving in this way gibbons can find all the fruit they need

to fuel their acrobatic lifestyle.

Primates have adapted to eat a vast variety of food,

but where you live ultimately dictates what's on the menu.

The Simian mountains of Ethiopia are home

to a high-altitude specialist...

the gelada.

[Chattering]

A mountain lifestyle burns calories,

so geladas need a hearty breakfast...

but when you live on top of the world,

there's only one food that flourishes...

grass.

Geladas are built to make the most

of their vegetarian diet.

They have the most opposable thumb of any monkey,

and this allows them to pick only the most

nutritious seeds and shoots.

Unique high-crowned teeth grind up the coarse leaves

to release every last calorie...

and built-in cushions make the long hours sitting

a bit more bearable.

Because of this low-calorie diet,

a gelada needs to eat around 5 kilograms of grass a day,

and to do this, vast herds spend up to 10 hours a day feeding.

That's over twice as long as your average monkey.

In the mountains, you need to eat all day long

simply to survive,

but deep in the Amazon, it's less about the sheer quantity

of food and more about its quality.

Pygmy marmosets are the smallest monkey

in the world, weighing no more than an apple.

Like a hummingbird, these tiny monkeys need

regular high-calorie snacks, and to ensure their survival,

they have a unique set of tools.

Claws rather than fingernails give them extra grip...

and their chisel-like teeth cut neat holes

in the tough tree bark...

but it's not the bark they're after.

It's the sugar-rich sap underneath.

Packed with energy and essential minerals,

sap makes up 75% of their diet.

What's really incredible is the scale of their ambition.

A tree like this may have several hundred holes,

food production on an industrial scale.

Marmosets harvest their crop wisely.

They never take too much and only allow the holes

to close up when the yield drops.

10,000 years ago farming was the basis of our civilization,

but thanks to their unique adaptations,

these industrious little monkeys were already enjoying

a civilized way of life.

Farming is one way of filling your belly,

but in the primate world, there's an even more

radical way of finding food.

Believe it or not, this odd-looking creature

is related to us humans.

It is a primate.

With the ears of a bat, teeth of a rodent,

and hands of an alien, the aye-aye is adapted

to find food in a way that almost defies belief.

Aye-ayes spend the night hunting for grubs that live

deep inside decaying branches,

and to work out where they're hidden,

they use that strange-looking hand...

tapping the wood at up to 10 times a second.

Like sonar, the sound penetrates the depth of the branch,

and a coded message is echoed

back to those supersensitive ears.

When it detects a hollow spot,

the aye-aye starts to dig with a unique set of teeth...

But it's that probe-like middle finger that

has to find the grub...

And here in the United States, the latest science

is now revealing just how it works.

This state-of-the-art thermal camera highlights

something rather unexpected.

Unlike its other fingers, the aye-aye's feeding finger

has virtually no blood flow to it at all...

but as it starts foraging, blood rushes to thousands

of nerve endings in that fingertip,

making it incredibly sensitive...

and in a specially constructed log,

we can get a look at that E.T.-like finger at work.

A unique knuckle, much like our own shoulder joint,

means that finger can move in any direction...

and it's now so sensitive that like a blind person reads brail,

this bizarre primate can see the unseeable.

By feeding in this way, the aye-aye has

almost no competition...

but it's not just the primate body

that has evolved to find food.

It's also our brain.

You just need to spot an opportunity

and make the most of it.

Primate ingenuity means there are no bounds

to their gastronomic ambition.

This troop of olive baboons hold a territory

around lake Bogoria in Kenya, and it's a land of plenty.

Insect grubs hidden in flamingo dung provide

a welcome protein boost.

Some, however, are far more ambitious.

Once one baboon has worked it out,

others soon catch on.

[Flamingo squawking]

By adapting their behavior, this troop of baboons

have access to meat, the ultimate brain food.

Wherever you live in the world, one of the key challenges

in life is not only finding food but keeping hold of it...

[Monkeys roaring]

and in Belize, some monkeys have a rather curious way

of defending their patch.

[Roaring continues]

Howler monkeys are some of the loudest primates

on the planet.

A male's roar can hit
90 decibels

right on the limit of damaging your hearing.

All this noise is basically saying one thing--

stay away, or there'll betrouble.

The secret to the sheer volume is in the design

of their unusual throat.

That huge jaw hides an enormous hollow bone

that reverberates like a gong,

giving their voice an amazing amount of clout.

The bigger the troop, the more intimidating it sounds.

And it's not all about volume.

Their voice is the perfect pitch for keeping neighbors at bay.

Higher frequencies are easily scattered,

but low roars punch through the forest for up to a mile.

It's this mosaic of sound that sets clear-cut home ranges

across the entire forest.

Thanks to their famous voice, howlers don't need to patrol

their territory, saving vital energy.

This means they can feast to their hearts' content,

safe in the knowledge that this little bit of forest

is theirs and theirs alone.

While a howler monkey's world is shaped by sound,

other primates communicate in a much more visual way.

In the dark and dingy forests of Gabon in west Africa,

color makes an immediate impact.

Male mandrills are the largest monkeys on the planet...

and unlike the females, the most colorful.

Those vibrant hues are a display of strength and power.

During the mating season, males use their war paint

to attract the females and work out a pecking order.

When two males catch each other's eye, it's a standoff.

In a battle of body language,

every single muscle twitch has a meaning.

It's over.

The grimace is a sign of submission.

Thanks to this bizarre ritual,

an actual battle has been avoided,

and the loser lives to fight another day.

After a bout like this, a surge in testosterone will make

the winner's colors even more vivid.

His muzzle gets brighter, and his purple rump

positively glows.

In a really thick jungle, being the most colorful monkey of all

turns the head of any female.

The single most colorful male will mate

with over 3/4 of the group.

Thanks to his unique appearance, he'll have their

undivided attention for at least a couple of months.

For all primates, competition is a part of everyday life,

and only the most successful survive.

[Bell ringing]

In the 21st century, the ultimate challenge

to any monkey is living alongside the most successful

primate of all...

humans...

but even the urban jungle is a land of opportunity

forthose who are smart enough to exploit it.

For the resident rhesus macaques,

a market-side pitch like this is what life's all about.

They may not be the prettiest, or look the most remarkable,

but macaques are the most successful monkeys

on the planet.

They're adaptable, devious,

and they work together as a team.

In their search for food, hungry macaques have swapped

jungle vines for power lines.

Gangs leave a trail of destruction in their wake.

They're smart enough to spot the tiniest of opportunities.

First up, the brave ones scope out the joint.

Lookouts are posted to watch fortrouble,

and once the coast is clear, it's a free-for-all.

These opportunistic criminals ransack a house

in a matter of minutes...

and at the slightest hint of trouble,

they make their escape.

Thanks to their agile bodies and adaptable minds,

macaques can beat us humans at our own game.

To these incredible monkeys, the urban jungle

is just one big playground.

Macaques are the perfect example of how the primate blueprint

can adapt to life in a changing world.

This winning combination allows our primate cousins to survive,

even thrive in some of the most challenging

environments on the planet.