For animals all around the world...
..their first year is one of the most difficult
and most dangerous.
To survive, they must overcome daily threats and challenges...
..from rivals,
from the elements,
and predators.
In this series, three wildlife camera operators will travel the
globe to follow our planet's most
iconic species as they grow and develop,
day by day.
In this episode, the babies are between three and nine months old,
and face tough challenges in the race to independence.
In California, a sea otter pup has to learn what to eat,
and what to avoid in a human-dominated world.
It's always a shame to see wild animals playing with things that...
..we have discarded.
In Sri Lanka,
a five-month-old macaque must use his privileged position
to learn the skills to stay on top.
At the edge of the Arctic, as food becomes scarce,
three-month-old fox cubs must compete for every meal.
And in Kenya, a five-month-old elephant has only a couple of weeks
to meet new families and build the bonds to survive a dangerous world.
I just want them to come back out of harm's way and be safe.
This is the story of what it takes to survive in the wild.
Half of those cubs won't make it.
This is their first year on Earth.
It's almost like seeing your kid ride a bike for the first time.
Southern Kenya.
The Maasai Mara joins the Serengeti to form an immense grassland...
..one of the most important wildlife habitats in Africa.
It's April, and the rainy season brings new growth.
Hidden amongst the long grass is a spotted hyena den.
HYENAS WHINE
Twin sisters Bisque and Chowder and now six months old.
They are part of a clan of over 60, living in a female-ruled hierarchy.
When they were only three months old, the sisters learned that
they could use the high rank inherited from their mother
to dominate others in the den.
But they don't yet understand the dangers lurking outside it.
Only 50% of cubs make it through their first year.
LOW GROWL
Lions are their greatest threat.
Until now, they've been small enough to hide in their den underground,
but they're growing quickly.
They already weigh ten kilos -
four times their birth weight -
and soon will be too big to hide.
As they become more exposed,
they must quickly learn to identify threats from outside
to survive the next few months.
Wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet
is here to follow Bisque and Chowder through this critical stage.
I'm hoping I will
catch the moment where they will go and explore the world
beyond the safety of their den.
As the cubs have grown in size,
they have also grown in confidence.
Wow...
Look at that.
HYENA CUB SNIFFS
CUBS SQUEAL
VIANET LAUGHS
They are so inquisitive!
Researchers from Michigan State University have studied
the Mara hyenas for 30 years.
Emily Nonnamaker and Kecil John are closely following
the development of Bisque and Chowder,
and their mother they call Soup.
They've had some time to learn where their rank is from their mum,
and now they're going to start relying more on each other.
And when they're being aggressive towards other low-ranking hyenas,
they're really going to have to back each other up
and stop relying on Mum as much.
Hyenas produce milk so rich in fat and protein
that the twins can be left for days while their mother hunts.
But without her, they are vulnerable to outside threats.
I don't know what...what's happened, but, erm...
..something has got their attention.
A lone male hyena is lurking in the long grass.
Every hyena has a unique scent, so the twins will be able to quickly
detect if they know him or not.
See, they just don't like male presence here.
They just stay all on alert.
Young males move between clans, looking to mate.
It's coming round.
It's trying to sneak in.
The sisters are only a quarter of his size,
but they outrank him in this female-led society.
They cannot overpower him,
but they must still oppose his approach...
..and all hyenas are taught to respect high rank.
CUBS SQUEAL AND WHINE
Look at the size of this man!
But they just don't care, they're challenging him, you know?
"We are small, but we will...
"..protect our territory."
Maintaining your rank is incredibly important in hyena society.
All adult immigrant males are lower than all the females and their cubs.
Males know their place in society,
and they know if they step out of line, they might be punished.
Hyena punishments can be brutal,
even fatal,
but he is persistent.
Even though they are only six months old, Bisque and Chowder
have to stand up to his challenge.
CUBS WHINE AND SQUEAK
The twins keep him out.
This successful interaction means they are learning
to protect their clan.
I think for Bisque and Chowder, this will be
something their mother, Soup, will be proud of.
This is a milestone for the sisters,
reinforcing their status at the den.
The next day,
Soup is back from the hunt, and with her daughters.
Since their birth, the clan's den site has been their entire world.
Now, at seven months old, they need to start learning
the skills to survive outside it...
..and their mother takes the lead.
This is the first time they've left the safety of the den.
Soup's basically taking them out to explore their territory.
The sisters must stick close to their mother.
She has to teach them how to identify and escape threats.
This is a very significant moment.
The more they explore with their mother, Soup,
the better the chances of them making it
when they are on their own.
At this time of year, long grass can easily conceal stalking predators.
I just spotted some lions.
Like, four individuals.
And I'm quite nervous because...
..lions don't like hyenas.
The cubs are born with an instinctive fear of a lion's scent,
but no concept of what these predators look like.
They can only learn to put the two together face-to-face.
Lions are the number one danger for our cubs.
At any stage, if a lion catches them, they will kill them.
Lion predation accounts for around 30% of cub deaths.
And Vianet has lost sight of the sisters in the long grass.
THUNDER RUMBLES
After hours looking for the cubs,
Vianet find the family back at the den.
Soup has managed to keep them safe.
HYENA MOANS
WHISPERING: When I saw the lions this morning,
I was really worried.
But now look...
..they're back,
having quality time with their mother.
It must have been a big day for them.
But today is just the first step on a steep learning curve.
As they spend more time away from the den on their own,
they must learn to recognise and evade lions themselves,
to make it through their first year.
Every baby faces difficulties on the road to independence...
..but for some, the harsh reality comes as quite a shock.
November brings the monsoon to the ruins of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka,
which have weathered the storms for a thousand years.
The human population left long ago...
..and the toque macaques moved in.
Intelligent monkeys found nowhere else on Earth.
Sue Gibson is following the first year of a very privileged baby
born in the heart of these regal ruins.
Jazir was born five months ago in another strict social hierarchy.
His mother is the alpha female of this troupe of 34 macaques.
And since his first couple of weeks,
he has physically transformed.
Jazir is now a healthy five-month-old.
He has doubled in size, weighs around a kilo,
and is eating up energy as he explores his treetop world.
JAZIR CHITTERS AND CHIRPS
He now has the coordination and motor skills
to use his tail as a counterbalance and safety line.
The agility of these babies at five months is off the scale.
I mean, they're like Olympics gymnasts.
In the past few months,
he has learned to balance on moving branches,
judge distances,
and leap from tree to tree.
Jazir's physical prowess and rapid transformation is directly linked
to his mother's high rank and protection.
Jazir really has a head start in this group,
being born to a high-ranking female.
And one day he could lead a troupe like this.
His mother's milk is more nutritious than lower-ranking females
because she gets priority to the better foods.
He could grow 50% bigger
than his low-ranking peers in his first year.
But his relationship with his mother is about to change
as he enters a new phase of development...
..weaning.
And because he's benefited from her high rank,
Jazir is being weaned two months earlier than some of his peers.
It can be a very unpleasant process.
A bite to the arm sends a painful signal.
Jazir's mum is starting to reject him when he comes for milk,
and that's only going to happen more and more, which is a
real problem for Jazir,
because it means he's got to find his nourishment from another source.
This is going to be a real turning point for him.
JAZIR SQUEAKS
So, up to now, it's been kindergarten,
things have been pretty easy.
Now it's time to go to school
and learn to be a little more independent of your mum.
Dr Wolfgang Dittus from the Smithsonian Institute
has studied the social and family life of these monkeys
for almost 50 years.
So, as long as Mum's got milk,
he's going to take advantage of her.
She's got to push him off and be a little bit nasty.
Jazir has no choice but to let go and learn to find food for himself.
He's got to be a little bit more resourceful with how he
gets his food. This is a really good lesson to be learning now.
THUNDER RUMBLES
But daily rains reduce foraging time...
..and send Jazir back to his mother's side.
More than 100 different types of fruit, flower, leaves and insects
come and go over the seasons.
But Jazir has to learn when and where he can find them.
Fortunately for him, those at the top of the pecking order
get first access.
Jazir - like any other high-ranking, sort of, young baby -
gets away with lots of mischievous things,
because if anybody tries to
discipline him, anybody from a lower rank tries to discipline,
he'll just scream and his mum will come to his rescue and back him up.
So these high-ranking little infants,
they learn to be brats.
Learning to be a brat could be a useful survival technique.
It could short-cut the energy Jazir needs to find and collect food.
Berries are a year-round favourite,
and a food many of the infants start with.
But picking them demands time and energy.
Jazir watches his peers at work...
..then makes his move...
..stealing food from another baby.
Theft is a milestone.
It proves he's learning to exploit his status to get what he wants.
He's asserting his position, and also putting them
back in their place.
But this development in behaviour could have negative consequences.
Two days later, Sue sees signs that Jazir's aggression is growing.
But he is an inexperienced infant,
and hasn't yet learned when to stop.
If he pushes too hard,
parents get involved.
A firm slap in the face from another mother causes havoc.
No-one hits the alpha's son.
AGGRESSIVE SCREECHING
There's a strict hierarchy for a reason.
These rules need to be enforced in the interest of the group.
They have to stick to their rank because, otherwise,
it's just chaos.
Jazir's high status in the troop allows him a certain level of
protection, but he's being
heavy-handed with his peers and making enemies.
All males are eventually forced to leave their birth troops,
and life without family support can be tough.
Jazir needs to start learning from his social interactions
and begin to forge alliances to keep the advantages he was born with.
Over 14,000km away,
another infant is on the verge of weaning, but he has to learn
how to find food in a complicated man-made environment.
Monterey in California is an affluent coastal town and tourist
hot spot, attracting nearly five million visitors a year.
Monterey sits in the middle of
the home range of the southern sea otter -
the smallest marine mammal in the world.
This population was almost wiped out by fur hunters,
but now numbers just over 3,000.
Limpet is a winter-born pup.
It's February, and he is now 11 weeks old
and weighs over seven kilos.
Just a month ago, Limpet struggled to master a critical
but deceptively simple step for a sea otter pup...
..his first dive.
He could only stay under for five seconds at a time.
But in four weeks, his physiology has changed.
He can now hold more oxygen in his lungs,
dive down to around two metres,
and stay under for almost a minute.
Wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson is following
Limpet and his mother to understand what factors make the first few
months of life so challenging here.
A perfect dive.
Looks like all that youthful fur has gone, he now has an adult coat.
He's able to submerge with ease.
Limpet's energy demands have doubled since his birth,
yet he is still dependent on his mother for both milk and solid food.
In the next couple of weeks, he has to learn for himself
the skills to identify food and bring it to the surface.
But there were no signs he's capable of this yet,
and that could be a problem for his mother.
One slight concern I have is that his mummy's actually
looking really thin.
Ah... She looked quite ribby as she was diving.
She looked a little bit skin and bones.
She should have a little more body fat on her and look a little better.
Michelle Steadler of Monterey Bay Aquarium has been studying
the stresses on mothers raising pups here for 30 years.
They're still nursing the pup - that takes a lot of energy.
And then they're also giving the pup a third of the prey items,
or the food items, that they bring up from the bottom.
And so they're constantly giving and giving to the pup,
and they get skinnier and skinnier as time goes on.
So it's a big draw on their energy resources, for the females.
And unlike other marine mammals,
sea otters don't have any blubber to act as energy reserves.
They have to find all the calories they need to survive every day.
Limpet is developing fast.
He now has the stamina to dive almost as often as his mother.
But he's not yet finding food for himself.
And as he must learn to forage in a man-made marina,
he faces further challenges.
Pups can get stuck in structures underwater...
..entangled in fishing gear...
..or hit by boats.
OTTER CALLS
And these calls are coming from a mother otter in distress.
OTTER CONTINUES CALLING
A female otter has obviously lost her pup, and she's swimming
all around the harbour - vocalising - trying to find it,
waiting to hear a response.
Now she's going to go right in front of the boat.
Don't do it!
A pup surfaces by the mother.
Was that Limpet? Does anyone know, is this Limpet?
Limpet appears confused by her calls and calls back,
even though she isn't calling for him.
LIMPET CALLS
Quite a frantic call, and pups are tuned in to respond to it quickly.
OTTERS CONTINUE CALLING
As soon as Limpet's mother sees what's happening...
..she moves her distracted pup away.
It just makes me think, you know, about how vulnerable
Limpet really still is.
And you see something like this, and you realise there are so many things
that could still happen to him.
Yeah, there are a lot of things that can happen to him,
and you just keep your fingers crossed and hope that his mum
gets him to that point where he can be weaned and off on his own
and become a grown-up sea otter, basically.
At only 12 weeks old, Limpet's energy demands actually
outstrip his fully-grown mother's.
But now there are finally signs that he is capable of retrieving
objects from the seabed.
What's he got?
He's picked up something unusual.
A latex glove.
He can't quite yet identify his food.
It's always a shame to see wild animals playing with things that...
..we have discarded.
Monterey Bay is one of the most
protected marine sanctuaries in the US.
Yet, pollution on land can still run off into the ocean.
40% of otter deaths are as a result of poisoning,
infection or contamination.
And plastic waste also ends up in the sea otter's home range.
There are at least five golf courses in striking distance of the ocean.
He's got a golf ball!
He hasn't quite figured out what's food and what isn't,
and he doesn't want to start chewing on things like golf balls,
because they can be toxic, like so many of the things
that end up in the oceans.
Scientists have collected more than 50,000 golf balls from the seabed
here in the last five years.
Over time, their plastic coating
will break down into smaller and smaller pieces.
Microplastics are ingested
by the shellfish that Limpet and his mother eat.
They can build up in their stomachs
and poison them.
No matter where you go in the sea these days,
you tend to come across human detritus.
And when you've got an endangered population - like these guys -
this really isn't something you want to see.
At 12 weeks old, Limpet is developing the skills
to forage items from the seabed.
Ah... OTTER CALLS
Hopefully, in the next four weeks,
he can turn a corner and learn to identify prey,
rather than plastic,
and take the pressure to find food off his mother.
Southwestern Uganda.
Once, a single forest spread from here into four other countries.
But now this region supports the densest rural human population
on the continent.
Only isolated pockets of the forest remain,
including the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest...
..home to one of the rarest wild babies on the planet...
..a mountain gorilla.
Nyakabara is one of, perhaps, only 50 mountain gorilla babies
in the world.
She's eight months old
and weighs around five kilos.
Learning to explore and push boundaries is an essential part
of infant development...
..one that can test both mother and baby.
Vianet is here as Nyakabara embarks on the greatest challenge
of her first year -
to escape her mother's protection and learn the skills to climb.
Mountain gorillas are endangered, and so closely related to humans
that they can pick up our infections,
so Vianet a must wear a mask.
At only eight months old, Nyakabara is developing
twice as fast as human babies.
Her curiosity in the forest is growing fast,
but she hasn't learned the skills yet to explore it.
What I would like to see is her creating that gap
between her and her mother.
You know, being more independent.
And, of course, her mother is being very, very cautious,
very protective.
She keeps making sure that...
..Nyakabara doesn't go too far.
She's trying to keep her close by.
She usually doesn't let Nyakabara stray more than a metre away.
But her mother has good reason to be protective of such a precious baby.
When she was only two months old,
Vianet witnessed Nyakabara and her mother fall from a tree.
Falls account for many baby gorilla fatalities.
But Nyakabara's mother HAS to take her baby to great heights every day
because the trees here are so rich in food.
The only other population of mountain gorillas
live on the steep volcanoes of the Congo-Rwanda border,
where the vegetation is more limited.
Dr Martha Robbins of the Max Planck Institute
has studied the Bwindi gorillas for more than two decades
to find out how they use the forest.
Because Bwindi's at a lower altitude, there are a lot more
fruiting trees here that the gorillas can capitalise on.
Some gorillas weigh more than 180 kilos,
and have to find 20 kilos of vegetation to eat a day.
And fruit provides a high-energy hit,
and their bodies are well adapted for finding it.
Gorillas have the greatest muscle mass of any living primate,
so can support their own weight on a single limb
to control their position.
And they have a highly adaptable power grip to grasp trunks,
vines and branches.
Nyakabara must learn these techniques,
but no gorilla can afford to make mistakes at these great heights.
I'm quite concerned about them. It's quite high.
Those trees, we're talking about 30, 40 metres, or what?
I mean, the gorilla's world is much more three-dimensional than for us.
They climb, there's food they want to eat up there.
And so, when they're very young,
they will still stay attached to their mother, like Nyakabara.
And that grip that those babies have on their mothers
is extremely strong.
Human babies are born with the same grip reflex
but lose it after three months because they don't need to
cling to their mothers to survive.
Three days pass, and Vianet is seeing a change in Nyakabara.
She still isn't big enough or skilled enough
to negotiate the canopy.
But nearer the ground,
she's practising and refining her motor skills.
Her protective mother always keeps her within a metre's distance.
But Nyakabara keeps testing her limits.
Oh, my God.
Oh...
Look, she's climbed that little branch by herself.
This is a real milestone for a great ape that spends
15% of its life up trees.
In the next few months, her mother will begin to let her roam further
and test the boundaries even more.
That's just great to see. It's great!
But to really thrive in Bwindi,
Nyakabara must keep developing her strength, balance and coordination,
so she will be able to climb and start to find food for herself.
For some babies, learning to access food is not enough -
they have to learn to fight their own siblings to make it through.
Just a few kilometres south of the Arctic Circle
lies the Hornstrandir peninsula - Iceland's most isolated region.
Winter temperatures can drop below minus 20,
and summer only sees two months totally free of snow.
Just one native land mammal is tough enough to call this place home...
..the Arctic fox.
Colin is following a litter of eight fox cubs
in the race to bulk up before winter.
It's August, and the cubs face a critical turning point.
Their mother has stopped providing milk.
I wonder how many are still here.
There are seven dark cubs at the den site,
but the eighth is missing.
Absolutely no sign of Fela.
Yeah, that's a bit of a worry.
Fela was the only white cub in the litter.
And the last time Colin filmed the cubs, all were perfecting
the characteristic hunting pounce...
..except Fela.
A big litter like this, it's very unlikely that they'll all survive.
I just hope Fela's here someplace, but I'm definitely concerned now.
The cubs are now 11 weeks old and weigh around a kilo and a half.
At this age, each cub must put on around 30g every day
for the next two weeks to survive their first Icelandic winter.
CUBS CHIRP AND SQUEAL
Competition is fierce.
ANIMAL CALLS
A call from the ridge above might shed light on Fela's disappearance.
Among the rocks, hidden in plain sight...
..is Fela.
Oh...
They're so well camouflaged.
It's good to see Fela again.
And I'm really genuinely surprised that...
..all eight of them are still alive. That's a real testament to the
hard work and experience of their parents.
But why Fela is up on the ridge, away from his family, is unclear.
It's odd to be this far from the den, where all the others are.
The next day, Colin returns to the den site...
..and so does Fela.
This play looks all so innocent.
But that will be tested very quickly when food arrives,
and then it's every cub for himself.
What I'm hoping to see then is that Fela is going to have to outcompete
his brothers and sisters to get to the food first.
The cubs' father has caught a fledgling seabird -
essential food for hungry cubs who need to eat
10% of their body weight each day.
This might be Fela's only chance of a meal today.
CUBS SQUEAL
Two dark cubs dominate the bird.
Fela is missing out.
Arctic foxes do not do sharing,
they do selfishness.
The more selfish you are, the more likely you are to survive.
The key is being the first on the scene when the parents return.
CUBS CRY
Calls encourage parents to drop food near their cubs.
Most cubs stay close to the den,
waiting for the food to arrive...
..but Fela leaves.
If he misses another opportunity,
he could become weak and less able to compete.
His father has another kill.
The race is on.
This time, Fela intercepts him on the way down
to seize the precious meal.
Oh...look at that, that's so fast.
I don't know where the dark fox came from,
but Fela spotted him before I did, and just had that food grabbed
and was gone over the hill in no time.
Perhaps Fela is smarter than his siblings,
working out that staying higher up, away from the competition,
could be a life-saving advantage.
All signs point to Fela actually being in a really good place.
I think there's a good chance he's going to make it. He's looking good.
At 12 weeks old, Fela's gamble has paid off.
But he must keep winning the kills to reach adult size by autumn.
In a few weeks, as his energy requirements double,
his parents will stop providing food, and he won't have long
to learn how to find it for himself.
For one baby, her entire survival depends not on beating rivals,
but on finding as many allies as possible.
It's May in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya,
and the elephants are on the move.
ELEPHANTS RUMBLE AND SNORT
Safina, the baby African elephant, is now seven months old
and around 250 kilos -
a tenth of her adult weight.
ELEPHANT RUMBLES
She's putting on around four kilos each week
from drinking around 20 litres of milk a day.
But Safina cannot feed herself yet.
Trunk control is so complex,
it will take at least another six months to fully master
these essential skills.
Her mother is Cyclone, the herd's matriarch,
recognisable by her single tusk.
Until now, Safina has relied solely on her mother and
her aunts for protection.
But elephants are highly social animals and share knowledge
with other families in times of trouble.
It's critical for Safina's long-term survival that she meets and bonds
with other families in her first year,
to build her own support network.
And the best chance she'll have to do this
is in the next couple of weeks.
Last month's rains have triggered one of the largest
elephant migrations in East Africa.
ELEPHANTS TRUMPET
The herds are heading for the protected reserves
of Samburu and Buffalo Springs,
where Safina's family lives.
Sue will film Safina during this unique opportunity to interact,
gain friends and become part of elephant society.
This abundance of vegetation has brought hundreds of elephants
into the reserve.
And this is the time where Safina will encounter more elephants
than she's ever seen before.
They gather together here once a year to feed on new growth,
socialise and reinforce friendship bonds.
That is a lovely, big group of elephants.
And...
..I'm pretty sure I've just spotted Safina's mum, Cyclone.
Yep, there she is, er, cos she's missing a tusk.
So Safina is going to be very close by.
Oh, yes, look. There we go!
Underneath...
She can still fit underneath her mum,
just about, getting shade.
The other infant in the herd is Mvua.
Her mother survived against the odds only because she forged
a special relationship with the herd when she was young.
Mvua's mother, Rain,
she was orphaned because her parents and the rest of her family
were gunned down by poachers, which is horrendous.
But she was accepted into this group - Cyclone let her in.
And, really, the reason why that happened was because of
previously established bonds.
More and more wild elephants come into contact with humans
as both compete for limited land and water.
Conflict is on the increase.
It's essential Safina mixes with as many different elephants
as she can in the coming days,
to build her own bonds, in case something ever happens to Cyclone.
Sue keeps track of the herd through the 200 square kilometres
of the reserve by working in tandem with conservationists,
Save the Elephants - pioneers in GPS tracking.
Every day, elephants arrive.
Some travel almost 150km to gather in social superherds.
But Sue's GPS tracker reveals something about Safina's family
that doesn't look good -
they're travelling away from the incoming herds.
I don't know why Cyclone's taken the herd over there.
She's an experienced matriarch, so she must have good reason to.
Maybe there's much better food? Plenty of water?
But it's a massive gamble.
It's impossible to know what is motivating Cyclone,
but if she maintains her present course,
the family will leave the protection of the reserve.
Beyond the border,
farmland cuts through the elephants' natural habitat.
Sometimes elephants raid crops.
Clashes with farmers can result in deaths on both sides.
Safina and her family have no official protection
out of the reserve.
If conflict occurs, intervention may be impossible.
There's nothing Sue can do but wait and hope.
So, this is really not good.
I've got the coordinates for where the herd are,
and at the moment they're in a place that I can't get to.
This is the boundary of the reserve.
And over there is a kind of no-man's-land.
Even in the last couple of days, there's been some fighting,
and people have been killed.
What's worrying, erm...
..is that our elephants are in there.
These tribes, one of them...
..has a history of killing elephants for traditional medicine.
I just want them to come back over here,
out of harm's way, and be safe.
Three days pass.
Safina and her family have not returned.
But on the fourth day, the GPS reading indicates
that Safina's family is, at last, on the move.
I've had some really good news,
and some coordinates have come in, and it sounds like Safina
and the rest of the family have come out of that danger zone
and made their way back into the reserve, which is fantastic news.
Well, whoever this is, they're enjoying a mud bath.
We've got a little one there.
Where's Safina?
This time, Safina and her family have made it back safe.
And they're joined by one of the migrating elephant herds.
Oh, that's a major, major relief.
It was getting to the point there where...
..I thought we'd lost them.
This is exactly where you want them to be,
and what you want to be seeing.
Out of the danger zone, back in reserve,
hanging out together...
Look at them all, they're all just....!
SHE LAUGHS
..happy. They're very, very happy.
Safina's brain has enormous capacity devoted to processing
memory and her sense of smell.
This might just look like innocent play, but by touching and smelling
with her trunk, Safina is gathering highly specific information about
each of these individuals.
This is how elephants bond and establish new relationships.
As the days pass, Sue witnesses Safina join up and socialise
with more than 60 elephants from four different families.
Oh, my goodness, this is amazing!
Safina may not really appreciate
the importance of what's happening at the moment.
She's having a lovely time playing with other elephants the same age,
but she's coming into contact with older elephants,
other families, friends.
And when there's times of need, she'll have a whole host
of other elephants that she can possibly go to.
So these connections that she's making now
will last a lifetime.
As the babies move even closer towards independence,
they face some of the biggest challenges of their lives.
To secure a safe future outside the temple,
Jazir has to learn to make allies with older macaques.
He's going to have to leave there and deal with this,
and this is dangerous.
As Bisque and Chowder become more exposed,
they have to learn to look out for each other.
And in the last weeks with his mother,
Limpet must master how to use tools.
This is an important time to learn the, sort of, very last lessons
he can from his mum.