Mother's Darlings • 2016 • episode "S1E2" • Baby Animals

Category: Nature

For many animals, from lemurs to hummingbirds, the maternal bond is one of the strongest forces in nature. Not only do mothers carry their young everywhere, feed them, and help teach them essential life skills, they're also their primary source of comfort and security.

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Baby Animals • 2016 • 13 episodes •

Mini Giants

Gorillas, rhinos, and elephants, three of nature's largest animals, deliver enormous babies. But the immense size of these newborns stands in stark contrast to their vulnerability. Everything from feeding to protection against predators to learning essential life skills falls on one devoted parent: their mothers.

2016 • Nature

Mother's Darlings

Mother's Darlings

For many animals, from lemurs to hummingbirds, the maternal bond is one of the strongest forces in nature. Not only do mothers carry their young everywhere, feed them, and help teach them essential life skills, they're also their primary source of comfort and security.

2016 • Nature

The More the Merrier

The More the Merrier

Some species need to be part of a group to survive--more so when they're in their infancy and taking their first, uncertain steps into the world. Join in the rough-and-tumble lives of black bear cubs, playful meerkat pups, and adorable fur seals.

2016 • Nature

Survival Lessons

Survival Lessons

When you're a baby zebra, muskox, or pronghorn, there is no shortage of predators eyeing you as their next meal. From learning defensive herding to early sprinting skills, these vulnerable newborns hit the ground running with keen survival instincts.

2016 • Nature

Little Hunters

They might be young and vulnerable, but every second of these baby animals' lives is a training ground, preparing them for their destiny as an elite predator. Watch as young lions, coyotes, cheetahs, and foxes engage in the kind of play that prepares them for life at the top of the food chain.

2016 • Nature

Family Ties

Despite being born with survival instincts, some baby animals need extra help to thrive in their environment. Watch as hamadryas baboons, gentoo penguins, emperor tamarins, and capybaras all work as a family to help raise the next generation.

2016 • Nature

Raising Babies

Meet Hope, an orphaned baby moose being raised by a goat. Nearby, watch three unruly baby raccoons cause havoc between meal times. These are some of the adorable inhabitants of Park Omega, Quebec--a place where threatened animals get a second chance.

2016 • Nature

Surrogate Families

Surrogate Families

Losing a parent in the wild can be deadly for young animals, but these orphans got lucky when conservationists stepped in. Meet clouded leopard cub sisters taken in by the Nashville Zoo, a baby wombat raised in an artificial pouch at Tasmania's Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, and more.

2016 • Nature

Herd Mentality

For many animals, group living offers protection, better food, and more social opportunities. For their young, it's a valuable education. From flamboyant flamingo mating dances, to elephant calves growing up under the watchful eye of the group matriarch, peer into some of nature's most tight-knit social groups.

2016 • Nature

Endangered Species

Endangered Species

For many endangered baby animals, the right zoo can mean hope for the entire species. Watch an endangered red panda cub get a warm welcome at Cornwall's Newquay Zoo, a rare baby macaque receive care from parents and keepers alike at the Dudley Zoological Gardens, and more.

2016 • Nature

Joined at the Hip

Joined at the Hip

To say some baby animals are dependent on their parents is an understatement. At Caversham Wildlife Park in Australia, a koala joey can always be found clinging to its mom's body, and Asian small-clawed otter pups share a lifetime family bond. Enjoy a heart-warming look at mother-baby animal relationships.

2016 • Nature

Offbeat Adaptations

Offbeat Adaptations

What's appealing about a nosy tapir with an appetite for its own poop? How about a baby gelada that crawls awkwardly on its behind? The adaptations these baby animals employ may seem strange, but they're vital to their growth and survival. Join us as we cozy up to some of nature's most peculiar young ones.

2016 • Nature

Primate Families

Primate Families

From crowned lemurs to Bornean orangutans, the higher we move up the primate family tree, the closer their behavior mimics our own-especially when it comes to family and raising young. Peer into the astonishing adaptations that highlight the lengths primates will go to preserve and build family bonds.

2016 • Nature

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In the penultimate episode, David Attenborough looks at monkeys. This group started its life in the tree-tops and this is where we join the capuchin, whose acute vision and lively intelligence helps them find clams in the mangrove swamps of Costa Rica and crack them open on tree-anvils. The swamps are also full of biting insects, but the monkeys rub themselves with a special plant that repels them.

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Explore how a new understanding of nature is helping us find surprising ways to fix it. From the Pacific Northwest to Yellowstone to Scotland, scientists, citizens and activists are restoring the environment, benefiting humans and animals alike.

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Sophisticated Serpents

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Snakes have developed the ultimate economy of design and are the most elegant and iconic of hunters. Among the incredible species seen here are blind tiger snakes that hunt using their sense of smell, magnificent African spitting cobras and a bizarre turtle-headed sea-snake hunting on a coral reef. And, for the first time ever, cameras capture a snake ambush in the wild and the beautiful spectacle of yellow anacondas giving birth underwater.

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