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00:30In the great tree of life, one branch of the mammals has a particular fascination for us, for we belong to it.
00:44Primates.
00:44Primate hands provide a firm grip, and forward-facing eyes accurately assess distance.
01:01Both are crucial for a lifestyle that began in the trees.
01:18Intelligence among primates can excel that of all other animals.
01:23Primates can solve difficult problems, develop thoughts and ideas,
01:37and build long-lasting relationships.
01:42But most importantly, primates remember what they learn during their lives.
01:53This film reveals how intelligence helps our closest relatives to tackle the many challenges of life.
02:01The film reveals how intelligence affects our lives.
02:11The film reveals how intelligence affects our lives.
02:14The film remains in its own zone, and it's not that nature.
02:16This film turns out that the public's commonplace has a choice of moral power.
02:20The film remains in its own zone, and it's the same place as the sunrise-configuration.
02:24The film remains in its own zone, and the film remains in its own zone, which was a classic arc-ish joke.
02:26There are more than three hundred and fifty primate species on Earth.
02:43Since they first appeared over 65 million years ago,
02:46these clever animals have become adapted to an extraordinary range of habitats.
02:57The Awash region of southern Ethiopia.
03:06A harsh, remote scrubland.
03:15But primates have learned how to make it their home.
03:26Hamadrya's baboons are waking up from a night spent high on the cliffs.
03:41These monkeys live in groups up to 400 strong, with no single leader.
03:46Theirs is a very complex society, made up of dozens of small harems,
03:53each governed by a male.
03:59Every morning, they leave the safety of the cliffs to find food.
04:02Top-ranking males lead the way.
04:18They can be very severe with their females if there is the slightest misdemeanor.
04:22Despite their individual strength,
04:43Hamadrya's baboons prefer to travel as a troop.
04:47It's safer that way.
04:48On this particular morning, something stops them in their tracks.
05:05Another troop is using these cliffs as a barracks.
05:15Another troop is using these cliffs as a barracks.
05:19Number two of them are dealing with a barbaric meteorologist.
05:22Stay tuned in the next portion.
05:26More than a thousand baboons can overnight here.
05:32And a rival faction is heading directly their way.
05:34Two of them are the loyalists.
05:35clear their way.
06:05In the chaos of warfare, males settle old scores.
06:16This is also their best chance of stealing females.
06:35When the fighting is over, the harems reform.
07:01Lead males punish any of their females
07:04who had dared to stray.
07:20Strict discipline is essential if order is to be maintained.
07:35It's a harsh social system,
07:39but it works for Hamadryas baboons here on these arid plains.
07:52In other parts of the world,
07:54primates have had to organize the societies in a different way
07:59to cope with different challenges.
08:07Midwinter in the Japanese Alps.
08:10The Kamikochi Valley is the haunt of the most northerly dwelling monkeys.
08:27To live here, you must be able to survive temperatures which plunge to minus 20 centigrade.
08:33The Japanese macaque.
08:45The Japanese macaque.
08:46Dense, thick layers of fur help to insulate these snow monkeys in this testing environment.
09:04But they still feel the cold.
09:20At this time of the year, food is scarce.
09:23But macaques are adaptable and clever.
09:37The troop has learnt that this river stays ice-free the year round.
09:42This female knows it's a good place to gather insect larvae from under the rocks,
09:52using her versatile hands and nimble fingers.
10:04In winter, this troop spends most of its time searching for food.
10:09The same underground forces that prevent this river from freezing bring great comfort to others.
10:29The Japanese Alps were built by volcanoes.
10:32Many of them are still active.
10:34And in a region called Hell's Valley, some snow monkeys have found the perfect winter resort.
10:50A thermal spa where the water temperature is a blissful 41 degrees centigrade.
11:04Everyone wants in, but primates being primates, there are poolside politics.
11:26This is an exclusive members-only club.
11:40Only the highest-ranking females and infants are allowed in.
11:45Everyone obeys this male who guards the pool and vets the entrance.
11:55These youngsters, born of the right bloodline, don't know how privileged they are.
12:12Lower-ranking individuals are literally left out in the cold.
12:32Japanese macaque society is very divided.
12:35There are those that have, and those that have not.
12:53And that is a harsh division.
12:55Because the 60 degrees that separate the steaming water from the freezing surroundings
13:01can make the difference between life and death.
13:15But by far the majority of primate species live in warm tropical forests.
13:22Among them are the largest of all.
13:39Gorillas live in stable family groups with just a single leader.
13:47A silver-backed male.
13:52This one, here in the Congo Basin, is the guardian of his family,
14:03which includes five females and their infants.
14:15He has the responsibility of protecting them from the dangers
14:19that are bound on the forest floor where they feed.
14:31To sustain his huge size, he must consume up to 30 kilos a day.
14:40It's mostly plant food, but Western gorillas also enjoy a sprinkling of termites.
14:46The youngsters need to eat far less than their father, so they've got time on their hands.
15:04They like to play for the same reasons we do, for fun.
15:08And it helps build long-lasting relationships.
15:14Their protector keeps a watchful eye on them.
15:27But then...
15:31It's time for his siesta.
15:32It's time for his siesta.
15:49Something shatters the piece.
15:51This silverback's territory is one of the best, but it has borders with at least eight other gorilla groups.
16:05The sound of chest beating travels more than a mile through the Tangled Understory.
16:24This is the Tangled Understory.
16:36It's a territorial drumbeat.
16:42Everyone must know who is boss around here.
16:45around here.
17:01Other, smaller primates are rather more secretive.
17:07One of the most unusual is found in Sulawesi, Indonesia.
17:16It lives among the aerial roots of this strangler fig.
17:30Its ancestors were daytime hunters,
17:33but they found that there was less competition
17:35if they looked for food in the twilight.
17:45Now, they only stir after dark.
18:00Nonetheless, there's a lot of insect food around.
18:03The Spectral Tarsier.
18:13The Spectral Tarsier.
18:18Tarsiers are the only totally carnivorous primates on Earth.
18:24They've hardly changed in 45 million years.
18:29Tarsiers are the only totally carnivorous primates on Earth.
18:37They've hardly changed in 45 million years.
18:43Their huge eyes can see in even the faintest light.
18:47These eyeballs are so wide, they can't swivel in their sockets.
18:59Tarsiers have to rotate their heads.
19:05Their mobile ears can detect the faintest sounds.
19:11And their powerful legs enable them to jump 40 times their own length.
19:17The family group fans out to hunt.
19:23The family group fans out to hunt.
19:31Prey is not hard to find.
19:47But the Tarsiers must be watchful.
20:04For a primate just five inches tall,
20:07life in the forest is full of danger.
20:14The male sounds the alarm.
20:17And everyone retreats.
20:27And everyone retreats.
20:28retreats.
20:29Back in their family tree,
20:57the senior male and female send out piercing calls.
21:08These calls guide in a straggler's home,
21:10and there they renew the family bonds.
21:19Good communication is one of the hallmarks of primate society.
21:27Few communicate more musically than la gibbons in the forests of Thailand.
21:37Their songs carry for many miles across the canopy,
21:42proclaiming that this piece of forest is theirs.
21:47.
21:56Their songs carry for many miles across the canopy,
21:59proclaiming that this piece of forest is theirs.
22:03.
22:08Most primates have excellent colour vision.
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22:35Most primates have excellent colour vision,
22:38and colour too can be used in communication.
22:41.
22:46Adult fair's leaf monkeys might seem rather drab.
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23:26As a result, the baby is never left on its own for long.
23:45When it's a few months old and more independent,
23:48it will turn the color of its mother and blend in with the group.
23:56But, until then, it can't be ignored.
24:17Smell is of particular importance to the primates that live in Madagascar.
24:24The lemurs.
24:26They have pointed snouts and wet noses.
24:34These are ring-tailed lemurs.
24:36The males have sharp pads on their wrists with which they scratch the trunks of young trees.
24:51Glands on their wrists impregnate the cut bark with a pungent smell that acts as a territorial marker.
25:06Females make smelly marks in their own way.
25:13This one's scent carries another signal as well as the territorial one.
25:18It tells males that she's coming into heat.
25:29But she will only be sexually receptive for 24 hours or less.
25:34So, tensions run high among the males.
25:47They have anointed their tails with scent and wafted towards her in a very short way.
25:51They have anointed their tails with scent and wafted towards her in a very short way.
25:55They have anointed their tails with scent and wafted towards her in an attempt to persuade her to mate.
26:06She's ready, but fussy.
26:09But fussy.
26:11This male adds more of his wrist-gland perfume to his tail.
26:14This male adds more of his wrist-gland perfume to his tail.
26:16They have anointed their tails with scent and wafted towards her in an attempt to persuade her to mate.
26:20She's ready, but fussy.
26:34This male adds more of his wrist-gland perfume to his tail.
26:41It seems to work, for they leave the party together.
26:59And he wafts his way to victory.
27:11A willingness to mate is a relatively straightforward message.
27:32But primates are capable of much more complex communication.
27:47It starts between a mother and her baby.
27:55The rain forests of Sumatra.
28:02This female orangutan is 42 years old.
28:11Her third child, a six-year-old daughter, is still with her.
28:21Orangs look after their children for longer than any other primate except ourselves.
28:26It will take her nine years to teach her youngster everything she needs to know about this complex treetop world.
28:40She must learn how to collect ants and termites.
28:43How to identify at least 200 kinds of edible plants.
28:59And how to avoid the poisonous ones.
29:04And how to judge when fruit, like this durian, has ripened to perfection.
29:09Her child must be able to judge which branches can carry her weight.
29:30And which insect nests are safe to raid.
30:00She must be able to take her weight.
30:03Building up a complete guide to the foods of the forest is a long process.
30:09Her lessons, of course, aren't limited to food.
30:33There are other crucial skills she must learn if she is to survive in the treetops.
30:39Building a secure nest in which to spend the night, for example, takes years of practice.
30:50And this is, of course, a rain forest.
30:57So all Orangs must learn how to make a shelter early in their lives.
31:09It rains almost every day, so this six-year-old has already had plenty of practice.
31:33She might live to be 50 years old.
31:47And if she too becomes a mother, she'll pass on all this expertise to her own children.
31:53Remembering your lessons is a vital part of primate life.
32:08It's not just learning how to exploit your environment.
32:23Just as important is knowing when to do so.
32:26This is Africa's Cape Peninsula.
32:37It's the furthest south that monkeys have managed to settle.
32:41There's a wide range of plant food here, but because the soil is so poor in nutrients,
32:58Chacma baboons find it difficult to get the range of sustenance they need, however much they eat.
33:17So they have had to become quite adventurous in what they will tackle.
33:21The waters around the Cape are among the richest in the world.
33:35And the wily baboons have become tidal experts.
34:05If you rely on the tides to expose your food, you have to work to fairly tight schedules.
34:12Every two weeks, on the lowest spring tide, there's a chance to collect something really special.
34:42What they've been waiting for is hidden among the fronds of seaweed.
35:12What they've been waiting for is hidden among the fronds of seaweed.
35:17Shark eggs.
35:42Each one is only a tiny mouthful, but there are lots of them, and they're so nutritious it's worth the trouble.
35:55But the baboons can't stay long.
35:58The tide is turning.
36:05So now they switch their attention to the main course of the day, mussels.
36:13This delicacy is exposed every day by every tide.
36:25Baboons have powerful jaws and huge canines, ideal for cracking shells.
36:31Timing is an essential skill if you are to harvest all the food that becomes available at one time or another around a coast.
36:46Some foods, however, are only available to those who have skillful hands and sharp intelligence.
37:06On the coast of Costa Rica, among the mangroves, live some of the most intelligent monkeys in the whole of the Americas.
37:13White-faced capuchins, they too have learnt to work the tides.
37:30They are after clams.
37:32But capuchins are quite small and don't have the brawn to open such shellfish.
37:46But they do have the brain.
37:49And they've devised an ingenious way to solve the problem.
37:55They hammer the clams.
37:57They're not trying to crack the shells.
38:08All this pounding and rolling has another purpose.
38:11To tire the muscle with which the clam is holding itself shut.
38:15They've had to be doing so.
38:17They will turn out slowly.
38:18That's when we use the crowbar.
38:19That's when they just slide down and put right into the shell.
38:20But they have to destroy that feeling.
38:22Let's do this.
38:23That's how you do it.
38:25It's pretty cool.
38:25It's great.
38:26Let's try to cut it out.
38:26Let's cut it out.
38:28A little bit.
38:28Let's do this.
38:28I don't see the задач.
38:30It's not a little bit.
38:31Let's do this.
38:32I'm going to stop it.
38:33Let's do this.
38:33Let's do this.
38:34I don't see it.
38:36If you are going to eat it, you can't find it.
38:38This is a big piece of art.
38:39It's a big piece of mine.
38:40It's a big piece of mine.
38:40Eventually, the clam can hold out no longer, and the capuchin gets its reward.
39:10Trial and error may have been sufficient to solve this particular problem,
39:29but one of their cousins in Brazil has taken things a step further.
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39:58Brown-tufted capuchins combine manual dexterity with considerable intelligence.
40:05And they have learned to use tools, hammer stones with which to open palm nuts.
40:14Some of the stones are nearly half the weight of the monkey.
40:21Without a tool, opening these nuts would be an impossible task.
40:36Tool using was a major breakthrough in primate evolution.
40:43And nowhere is it more convincingly displayed than here in the forest of Bosu in Guinea, West Africa.
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44:33Chimpanzees have gone a stage further than capuchins.
44:35Their use of tools is both efficient and precise.
44:48This 11-year-old female has an anvil, but can't find a hammer.
45:05She approaches a male to see if he will lend her his.
45:27He obliges.
45:29Chimpanzees can show great kindness and compassion.
45:50Sharing.
45:56Experimenting.
46:00Empathy.
46:06Planning.
46:12Intelligence.
46:18Teaching.
46:20And learning.
46:30Behavior so characteristic of us higher primates.
46:38We are the most inventive and innovative of all primates.
46:53Just one branch of a large and extended family.
46:58A family which has refined the ability to develop and pass on individual learning to the next generation.
47:06A family which is built on strong bonds between mother and baby.
47:20A family which is built on strong bonds between mother and baby.
47:28A family with which we share so much.
47:29A family with which we share so much.
47:45And a family with which we share so much.
47:46And a family with which we share so much.
48:00And a family with our children in the world.
48:04To film the very best primate behavior,
48:29the life team had to use all their primate ingenuity and adaptability.
48:34And in doing so, they discovered an extraordinary affinity with our extended family.
48:58Especially with a great ape with whom we share almost 99% of our genes, the chimpanzee.
49:06He was completely asleep just then, just rocking to the side as if he might just fall off the branch.
49:14You see his lips were twitching like a little deep dream.
49:18It was really beautiful.
49:20Chimpanzees are our closest relatives.
49:34Justine Evans spent almost a month with them in the forests of Guinea to film their use of tools.
49:42The chimps have disappeared off down there.
49:46They're going to cross over into another area of forest and hopefully start using some tools.
49:50Go and use tools. That's what we're here for.
49:54Chimpanzees have to accept you.
50:00If they don't want to be filmed, they'll simply disappear.
50:04Justine needed the expert guidance of Tatiana Humley, a primatologist who spent more than 10 years studying these individuals.
50:16So, when we see them, always keep calm and don't stare at them straight into the eyes.
50:24Have you ever had problems with them coming right up and being aggressive?
50:26No, never, never.
50:28I mean, it's pretty rare, so I don't know what to expect because I've never seen them in a while before.
50:33Okay, first for me.
50:34So just always stay calm and if one of them walks by really close, just ignore them.
50:41One particular young male might throw sticks. Ignore him as well.
50:46It's like he's like a kid and he just wants attention, so he'll just keep doing it.
50:51I've got to put these face masks on in case we pass on any infectious diseases.
50:57Quite a few chimps have died in the past from respiratory diseases in other study sites, so it's very important.
51:03Justine was finding her way with the chimps, but it would take time.
51:26It's never easy anticipating their behavior.
51:32Trying to get ready really quickly because we're expecting some chimps to come down this path straight ahead of me.
51:39It would be lovely if they'd merge out into this clearing.
51:42It's really difficult to see through all this foliage.
51:47Tatiana and her team were invaluable.
51:50They introduced Justine to the chimps' different habits and characters.
52:09Soon, the natural inquisitiveness of the chimps overcame any worries they might have had of Justine.
52:15In fact, they seemed fascinated by her and the tools of her trade.
52:25But it was their use of tools that Justine was here to film.
52:31And this was her first good opportunity.
52:41As I filmed them fishing for ants, I was amazed by their dexterity.
52:46But holding focus in such low light really tested my own coordination to the limit.
52:58She's just moving away.
53:14She's moving.
53:16It's been all go today.
53:18It's not over yet.
53:20If we can get out of here into an open area, we'll actually have enough light to film by.
53:24Because the sun's still up.
53:26But I don't know.
53:29I don't know.
53:34Although Justine's main goal was the film tool use, there was another piece of behaviour she really wanted to capture.
53:48Buttress root drumming had never been filmed here before.
53:51But she was always just a bit too late.
53:55Back at yet another buttress and hope that we might get some sort of buttress drumming.
53:59But it started raining, which is an absolute pain.
54:07It's a waiting game.
54:09Just staking out a couple of really big trees that have got very large buttress roots,
54:17in the hope that a male will come down and drum on them.
54:20The drumming always happens somewhere else.
54:23And apparently, it's usually the males that sort of sneak off to go and do it.
54:28It feels like a bit of a long shot at the moment.
54:30We have to have some patience.
54:32The thing about chimps is that, like most primates, you can't always predict what they're going to do,
54:42when they're going to do it, or where.
54:50You've just got to keep with them.
54:55A different type of sound brought Justine back to her main mission.
55:02Nutcracking.
55:19This was the key sequence Justine was here to film.
55:32Filming the chimps using tools made me realise just how close to them we are.
55:46I felt so similar to them.
55:48By the end of our filming trip, I was able to recognise most of the individuals in the group,
56:02and have begun to understand their different personalities.
56:05music
56:09For me, the most poignant moment of all
56:37was when the male, the scientist called play, lent a female his tools.
56:52I know that primates are very social animals, but seeing this act of generosity was something I'll never forget.
57:07Just before we left, the chimpanzees finally put on the display that I've been hoping for.
57:22The chimpanzees finally put on the display of the chimpanzees.
57:41In the great tree of life, we and chimpanzees went our separate ways about six million years
58:04ago, but they remain our closest living relatives.
58:34To be continued...