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00:00You
00:30Out of the darkness emerges a 12-tonne giant.
00:53She is an Indra-Kathir, and she is about to give birth.
00:56She seeks out a secluded spot in a canyon, where she hopes the newborn will be safe from predators.
01:06It is now just before dawn, and at last, her two-year pregnancy is coming to an end.
01:22The calf is a male, and he is already in trouble.
01:26The noise and smell of the mother's labor has attracted the predators, Hyenadon.
01:38Despite the name, these are not relatives of hyenas.
01:41These are more dangerous by far.
01:45Next to the Indra-Kathir, they may look small, but these carnivores are as big as rhinos,
01:49and they are easily capable of killing the calf, if they can get past his mother.
01:57As the predators circle, she desperately tries to keep the baby between her legs,
02:02where she can defend him with powerful kicks.
02:04But the Hyenadon keep coming and coming.
02:18This calf will be lucky to see his first sunrise.
02:22It is a time called the Oligocene.
02:42The world has just been through years of catastrophic climate change
02:45that led to the extinction of one species in five.
02:50Earth has since bounced back, but in the process it's become a changed world.
02:54Different weather, different plants, and different animals.
02:58Here in Mongolia, some animals have grown enormous.
03:07This program will follow the fate of just one of these giants, a baby Indra-Kathir.
03:12During the night, this canyon was the scene of his dramatic birth,
03:16but it seems his mother saw off the Hyenadon.
03:19He is a very lucky calf.
03:22As a newborn, he already weighs a quarter of a ton.
03:25And his legs aren't yet used to bearing any weight at all,
03:29so he'll spend the rest of the morning learning how to walk.
03:38Around him, the other residents of the canyon are starting to stir.
03:42Strange beasts like the Calicotheers.
03:45Almost three meters tall, they walk on their knuckles to protect their long claws.
03:50These powerful limbs are very effective defensive weapons,
03:53but more often, these herbivores use them to hook down branches
03:57to get at the softest leaves.
04:04They walk like gorillas and eat like pandas,
04:08but their closest modern relatives are actually horses.
04:10The newborn calf also has food on his mind.
04:21This is the beginning of the most vulnerable period of his life.
04:25He'll be totally dependent on his mother for at least three years.
04:28He needs her protection,
04:30and for the first year he also relies on her milk.
04:32This is an astonishingly long commitment for any mother.
04:36But if he can just survive that long,
04:39his size will mean there will not be a predator on Earth that can touch him.
04:47In the Oligocene, large parts of the world have become highly seasonal.
04:52Here in Mongolia, long dry seasons are broken by short, violent wet seasons.
04:57The climate has shaped not only the environment, but also the animals.
05:04It is survival of the meanest.
05:07And they don't come much meaner than this.
05:10A giant entelodont, the bully of the plains.
05:15These are distant relatives of the pig.
05:17Two meters tall, aggressive and built like tanks,
05:21but with a brain no bigger than an orange.
05:27The bear dog mother and cubs retreat to a safer distance,
05:30but it isn't going to be their day.
05:33Although these relatives of both bears and dogs are vicious little predators,
05:37at the waterhole, it's size that matters.
05:43The mother Indrokathia has also come here to drink,
05:46but her calf is nowhere to be seen.
05:51A second male entelodont arrives at the waterhole.
05:56During the mating season, these huge scavengers get very aggressive towards each other
06:00as they try to establish who is top hog.
06:04Entelodonts are their own worst enemy.
06:11It is enough to put off even an Indrokathia.
06:21Entelodonts are their own worst enemy.
06:50inflicted deep wounds on the loser.
06:59Back in the canyon, the calf lies motionless.
07:03He is playing dead.
07:05Until disturbed, that is.
07:20This is the young calf's survival strategy.
07:23In his mother's absence, he instinctively lies still
07:26to avoid the attentions of predators.
07:30Only when she eventually returns, does he come out of hiding.
07:44He remains within the comparative safety of the canyon walls for another week.
07:48But then his mother decides it is time to leave.
07:59The calf is now strong and sure-footed enough
08:01to venture out onto the open plains,
08:04where he will spend the rest of his life.
08:07Not since the dinosaurs has nature got this big.
08:24Indrocathias are related to rhinos,
08:26but their size is in a different league.
08:28A fully grown male stands over 7 metres tall
08:32and weighs in at 15 tonnes.
08:34That's equivalent to 8 modern rhinos.
08:38No other land animal even comes close.
08:46Being big not only protects them from predators,
08:49but in this dry land,
08:51allows them to go without food or water for days.
08:53The calf is eager to explore this big new world.
09:03But his first encounter is a shock for him.
09:07An aggressive bear dog has no time for his curiosity.
09:11Her cubs are nearby.
09:13And to her, the gawky calf is a threat.
09:16It doesn't take much to send him running back to his mother.
09:34Right from the beginning,
09:35the calf starts copying his mother
09:37to learn how to deal with the world.
09:40So when she arrives in her usual feeding area
09:42and sniffs a pile of dung,
09:45he does the same.
09:46One day he will understand
09:48that since every Indrokothia has a unique odour,
09:51this is how his mother tells
09:53which other animals are in the area.
09:55His lessons in survival have begun.
10:03Nearby is a juvenile Indrokothia,
10:06just over 3 years old.
10:09This is no stranger
10:11but his mother's previous calf.
10:14However, she has no time for him now
10:15and violently repels him.
10:18He doesn't know it,
10:20but our calf is looking at his own future.
10:22The long dry season is just starting,
10:37but there is still plenty of food around.
10:39In another month or so,
10:41the situation will be very different,
10:43and so animals are gorging themselves
10:45while the going is good.
10:46As the mother browses,
10:50she has the tops of the trees to herself.
10:54It's another advantage of being big.
11:01Only two months old,
11:02the calf doesn't need to eat.
11:04He is still living off his mother's milk,
11:06but it doesn't stop him trying to imitate her.
11:09This is how calves learn
11:11which plants are safe to eat.
11:17However, this is a bad time
11:19for him to wander off on his own.
11:21Just 20 metres away,
11:22a hyenodon is stalking.
11:24Hyenodon's jaws have a bone-shadow
11:54battering force of over 1,000 pounds per square inch.
11:58One bite breaks the Calakathir's neck.
12:06They are capable of eating everything on a carcass,
12:10even the teeth.
12:17But today he isn't going to get the chance.
12:20The local bullies have arrived,
12:22and he is outnumbered.
12:36In a futile attempt to hide the smell of the carcass,
12:40the hyenodon defecates on it.
12:42But it will take more than that
12:44to put off the entelodonts.
12:45The hogs from hell have won the prize.
13:15The dry season has transformed the landscape.
13:30It's as if the whole lifeblood
13:31has drained out of the plains.
13:34This is what it means to be a seasonal world.
13:37It hasn't rained for months,
13:38there is no greenery left to eat,
13:40and there is precious little to drink.
13:42Here in Mongolia, mammals have evolved to cope
13:45with even these kinds of conditions.
13:48But at this time of year,
13:50they are put under their greatest stress.
13:52The mother Indrakathia has not found water for several days,
14:05and in her dehydrated state,
14:07she is not producing milk.
14:09The calf is now nine months old,
14:11and it is his first taste of true hardship.
14:14Despite his repeated attempts to suckle,
14:28the mother rejects him.
14:30Because of their size,
14:38adults can survive without water for days.
14:41But the calf, being smaller,
14:43has fewer reserves to draw on,
14:45and is getting dangerously weak.
14:47The nights are cooler,
15:05and a far better time for them to move around.
15:08So every evening, they set off in search of water.
15:13Other Indrakathias are on the same journey,
15:15and tonight, the pair is joined by an older female.
15:20Indrakathias can easily live into their 80s,
15:23and this longevity gives them
15:24a unique knowledge of their environment.
15:31If there is any water nearby,
15:33it's a good bet the old female knows where it is.
15:36At last, they find the muddy remnant of a lake,
15:51and just in time,
15:53because the calf is close to collapse.
15:56He will have to wait a while for his milk,
15:58but at least he can now quench his thirst.
16:00It is the first night for some time
16:13that these giants can lie down
16:15and get a proper sleep.
16:17The next morning,
16:31the mother receives an early call.
16:34The calf is still starving,
16:36but this time,
16:38she responds,
16:39and he is rewarded with milk.
16:41When the rains eventually come,
16:58they come down hard.
17:04From parched plains
17:05to a slippery quagmire,
17:09everything changes
17:10in an instant.
17:30But the sudden downpours
17:32bring disaster for some.
17:34This bear dog's den
17:35has been undermined by the floodwaters
17:37and collapsed.
17:38An anxious mother
17:40is forced to dig
17:41to find her cubs.
17:50She finds only one,
17:52and it is already dead.
17:58There is a river now
17:59where none existed before.
18:02In their search for food,
18:05the pair must cross it.
18:06This is a whole new ordeal
18:12for the calf,
18:13and at first,
18:14he is very reluctant
18:15to follow his mum
18:16into the water.
18:17In the end,
18:28it is obvious that he is more frightened
18:30of being left behind
18:31than he is of crossing the river.
18:38This is the first swim
18:40of his life.
18:41unfortunately,
18:45it turns out
18:46to be the easy bit.
18:47when the calf gets to the other side,
18:56he still has to get to the top
19:11of the opposite bank.
19:12It is steep
19:13and slippery,
19:14and unlike his mum,
19:15he isn't going to make it
19:16in one small step.
19:19But there is nothing
19:19his mother can do
19:20to help him.
19:25He is on his own,
19:27and he doesn't like it.
19:29he is on his own.
19:53Don't!
19:54Don't!
19:55Don't!
19:55Don't!
19:56Don't!
19:57Not an easy task for such a heavy baby.
20:15The drought might have been a tough time, but in many ways the coming of the rains marks the end of the good life for the calf.
20:22It is time for him to feed himself.
20:25Indrokathir calves are weaned-off milk at about a year old, but having known little else but milk for his whole life, he needs quite a lot of persuading to give it up.
20:39Try as he might to get some of his favourite tipple, Mum is having none of it. He will have to eat his greens or go without.
20:55After the long dry season, colour slowly returns to the plains as the cycle of life starts over again.
21:06And for the Indrokathirs, it is time for mating.
21:10A young male has caught the scent of a receptive female.
21:17It is the calf's mother, who is fertile again. Now she has stopped suckling her calf.
21:23The calf plainly has no idea what to make of this approaching colossus, and at this point his mother shows no interest either.
21:34Then a second older male appears on the scene. He emphasises his status by spraying the ground liberally with urine.
21:46The younger male isn't so easily intimidated, and the two rivals size each other up before starting a brutal contest.
22:00When 30 tons worth of Indrokathir fight, the forces involved are bone shattering.
22:16The skulls of males are specially built to withstand these contests.
22:20It takes half an hour of abuse before the older male backs down.
22:40But with the fight over, the calf is now at serious risk.
22:44The biggest threat to a young Indrokathir is an adult male.
22:47During mating, calves can get trampled to death.
23:02It is the first time that another individual has come between him and his mother.
23:07In his distress, he tries desperately to get in the way, to stop the mating.
23:17Over the next 36 hours, the male will mate with the calf's mother several more times, preventing any other males from doing so.
23:33Our calf is in for a tough time.
23:35It's the very beginning of the wet season, and the Calicotheas have started to search out new growth.
24:01The mother Indrokathir is expecting. She is in fact only days from giving birth.
24:16Standing by her is the calf, now three years old and weighing over a ton.
24:20He has obviously learnt many of the tricks of Indrokathir life from his mother.
24:25Like using trees to scratch the parasites off his back.
24:31However, nothing he has learnt so far will prepare him for what is about to happen.
24:37In the morning, the calf will suffer the biggest upset of his life.
24:45The mother is behaving very oddly indeed towards her calf.
25:00But she is only doing what she has to do.
25:08She is chasing him away.
25:13To give her unborn calf the best chance in life, she must sever the three-year-old bond she has had with the male calf.
25:20It is time for him to make his own way in the world.
25:28This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:30This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:31For some time, the calf disappears.
25:32Only to turn up a couple of weeks later, alone.
25:33This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:34This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:35This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:36This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:37This is the hardest lesson of all.
25:54For some time, the calf disappears.
25:58Only to turn up a couple of weeks later, alone, on a river bank.
26:03The cause of his limp is unclear, but the most likely explanation is that he has had
26:10a run-in with a young adult, Indra-Kathir, one of the few creatures that can threaten
26:14him.
26:15And now, he is heading back to the only safety he knows.
26:25His mother has a new calf in tow, and her maternal instincts have been transferred to
26:29the newborn.
26:36To her, he is now just a threat.
26:50He is never again going to have the protection of his mother.
26:53The rest of his life, he will spend alone.
27:05One month, two months, three months go by, and there is no sign of the calf.
27:12Then suddenly, one day he reappears, back in his old territory.
27:17His injury has healed, and he seems in good health.
27:24But he is dangerously close to an entelodont.
27:27Any fears about his safety suddenly seem to be misplaced, because this Indra-Kathir is
27:46now big enough to look after himself.
28:08Next episode, prepare to come face to face with mankind's beginnings, when we go back
28:13to Africa three million years ago to meet a species of ape that walked upright.
28:19Our ancestors lived in a dangerous world.
28:22Unlike us, they weren't predators.
28:25They were prey.
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