Animals Like Us

Narrator: In one of the most extreme environments on Earth,

desert survival experts train new recruits.

Bachelors with a flair for home decor

hope to win affection.

And it's not just humans with a sweet tooth

that need to practice good dental hygiene.

This is a new way of seeing the natural world...

where wild animals act just like we do.

One of the fascinating things

about studying animals

is discovering how many aspects of their behaviour

have parallels with our own.

Narrator: Around the globe, animals continue to astound us

with their intelligence

and deep emotions.

The amazing thing is, the more we learn about them,

the more we realize...

animals are a lot like us.

They're one of the most charismatic little mammals

in the animal kingdom:

The meerkat.

An active, social creature

and the "special ops" survivor of the African savannah.

Famous for running one of the toughest

survival training schools out there.

This is their home.

The Kalahari Desert,

stretching across Southern Africa,

is a world of scorching heat

and vast sand dunes.

Dan: Life in the Kalahari is intense for any creature.

By definition, there's next to no water all year round

and you need a really special set of skills to survive there.

Narrator: Good thing the meerkat

is the master of desert survival.

Dan: There are limited options for food.

They need to get by on know-how, cooperation, and teamwork.

Narrator: They live in big groups or mobs

of up to 40 or 50 members.

But with so many mouths to feed,

they spend an awful lot of their time looking for food.

When they're out foraging,

they're really vulnerable.

They're out in the open, so they've got to have lookouts.

Have sentinels that literally will stand up

to be able to scan the horizon

ready to sound the alarm if there's any sign of danger.

Narrator: So, while sentinels stay vigilant and keep watch

the other adult meerkats search for food.

Usually found underground.

They use their keen sense of smell

to locate their favourite prey: lizards, and birds,

but mainly insects and invertebrates...

...beetles, caterpillars,

spiders, and even scorpions.

It might be hard to believe,

but scorpions are a great source of protein,

fat, and minerals.

For a meerkat, they're kind of a super food!

Narrator: For sure, a scorpion is a meerkat's favourite snack.

But this desert arachnid is no push over.

And catching one requires elite hunting skills.

It can deliver a painful, and sometimes deadly sting,

releasing venom into its victims.

But meerkats have perfected

ways of killing and eating scorpions

without paying the ultimate price.

Like an expert in martial arts.

When you have such a formidable prey,

you've got to have formidable skills.

And meerkats have these lightning-fast reflexes,

and they can also manoeuvre around at lightning speed

around these scorpions, disarm that tail

and then eat it.

Narrator: Plus, these fearless desert marauders

have another superpower on their side.

Meerkats are actually immune to certain venoms

from both scorpions and some snakes.

And if an adult meerkat is bitten

or stung by one of them,

it looks unwell for a little while,

but actually most of the time makes a full recovery.

Narrator: But young meerkat pups

are more vulnerable.

And could come out on the wrong side

of a duel with a scorpion.

There are plenty of behaviours that are instinctive

in the animal kingdom,

but for meerkats, hunting a scorpion

is something that the young pups have to learn.

And it's a risky business as well,

because they're not old enough to have developed an immunity

to the scorpion's venom.

Narrator: And add to that, the scorpion's claws alone

are sharp enough to inflict damage to a young pup.

All in all, the whole thing is fraught with danger.

Narrator: So, it's up to the adults

to teach them how it's done.

Meerkats set up their very own "desert training schools."

It's a bit like summer camp, but for survival skills.

Meerkats, just like humans,

see value in teaching their young.

But they don't let them learn the hard way

and get stung through trial and error.

Narrator: A scorpion's stinger makes up

almost half of its body

so getting stung is always a real possibility.

A hungry meerkat with the right skills

first needs to bite its tail off...

...and then pull it apart, piece by piece.

They never seem to mind

crunching through the hard exoskeleton.

Of course, it's not as easy as it looks.

And to get to this stage takes a lot of practice.

This meerkat "student" is getting his first lesson.

But he won't be up against a fully armed scorpion.

The adult bites the tail off first,

so the youngster doesn't get hurt.

This is amazing behaviour.

The fact that the female knows to pull off that stinger

at the end of the scorpion, so the kid can learn-- amazing!

This is a really risky lesson.

This meerkat pup cannot afford to slip up,

but it is learning in stages.

At first, it handles a scorpion that is completely disarmed.

No sting in the tail.

But then the next step up

is to a scorpion that is slightly injured,

has its tail, but it's still not as dangerous to that young pup.

Narrator: This scorpion is nearly dead.

If the pup's learned the proper skills,

he'll be the one to finish it off.

Little by little,

the grownups help the pups

hone their skills,

until the youngsters earn enough credits to graduate.

And prove that they're ready to get out there

and tackle some scorpions on their own.

It makes sense for adult meerkats to teach pups

scorpion-hunting skills,

even if those pups are not their own.

Because when the pups can learn to fend for themselves

the group grows.

Narrator: A meerkat family needs to remain

large and unified

if it's going to make it here

in this harsh environment.

Since every new litter of pups

represents the future strength of the group

a family member will fight to the death

to protect a young one.

And do its best to teach every eager pup

the key skills it'll need to survive.

It can be hard work being beautiful.

But for many creatures,

good look s and grace come naturally.

Whether it's sleek proportions...

...Long lashes...

...Or a stylish coat.

There are some real stunners in the animal kingdom.

But sometimes,

even the most alluring of females

has to go on a charm offensive.

Unleashing all of her feminine wiles

just to get the attention of a male.

So, courtship in the animal kingdom

is extremely varied.

Sometimes it's up to the males

to kick things off and the females then choose.

But sometimes the females need to be more proactive.

Narrator: Cue the lioness.

She lives in a pride with other females,

their young, and usually one dominant male.

They roam across vast grassland and open forests.

Mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya.

Doing whatever it takes to keep the family going.

The pride structure is matrilineal,

so males will come and go, but its females

that form the stable core of the group.

They have really strong bonds with one another.

It's a real sisterhood made up of aunts, sisters and cousins.

Narrator: The females do the lion's share of the work.

Raising cubs and finding food.

They hunt every few days.

An exhausting job that takes skill and patience.

Their success rate is often less than 30%.

So they have to stick with it and persevere.

The lionesses really are

the breadwinners of the family.

And the male is definitely treated like a king.

He's always first in line to eat,

and then when he's full...

It's nap time.

Gender equality does not exist here.

To us, life in the pride

might not seem too fair for the females.

The males do pretty much nothing, lie there all day

and it's up to the females to raise the cubs

and to even catch all the food.

Narrator: But that's not all.