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NARRATOR: High up above the Mediterranean Sea,
newborn monkeys prepare to patrol
the Rock of Gibraltar.
Across the Atlantic,
flamboyant flamingos forage to feed their flock.
And a single-mother manatee
trains her young
in the ways of the wild.
Bound together by a common goal,
Fighting for their future.
For these animals,
family life is the key to survival.
Inside the different realms of the Wild Kingdom,
members of a single species assemble in droves,
And one flock,
herd,
or troop
reigns supreme.
These are the world's great
At the southern tip of Europe,
the Rock of Gibraltar
stands guard at the gateway
between the Atlantic Ocean
and the Mediterranean Sea.
This is one of the Pillars of Hercules,
the end of the known world in Greek mythology.
The British flag now flies
above this strategically valuable post.
And modern myth says it will stay here,
as long as Gibraltar's wild monkeys,
remain rulers of the Rock.
Currently, there are just over
200 Barbary macaques
living amongst the 30,000 residents
of the small, densely populated city of Gibraltar.
Hundreds of tourists also flock to the Rock every day.
The hustle and bustle of the city
is a part of life for the macaques
But make no mistake,
these are wild monkeys.
In fact, they are the only non-human primates
that live wild in Europe
The empire of the Barbary macaques
is scattered across
northern Africa,
once known as
the Barbary Coast,
and here in Gibraltar.
In 2009 the species was declared endangered.
Deforestation has decimated the Atlas Mountains
of Algeria and Morocco,
which was once home to three quarters
of the Barbary macaque population.
So while Gibraltar's stronghold is thriving,
it may also be the last hope for the Barbary macaques.
If this animal empire is to rise again,
it must have a well-established succession plan.
Macaques form social groups
of 10-100 individuals called troops.
While hierarchy among females is based on birthright,
male members of the troop must fight for their rank.
Two competing males joust with each other
to establish dominance.
The fight draws a crowd.
Potential allies pick sides
hoping to be part of the winning coalition.
As is often the case, the elder emerges the winner.
It's not uncommon for these sparring matches
to leave lasting scars.
But it's well worth it.
To the victor goes the spoils.
Evidence suggests it's the macaque female
who chooses her mate.
And chances are, she'll pick the winning male.
But Barbary macaques are a promiscuous bunch.
After partnering with the dominant male,
females will mate with others in the troop.
This increases the odds of conception.
It also means there's no way to know who the father is.
In a busy city like Gibraltar,
this could pose a problem.
A baby monkey is vulnerable.
Danger lurks around every corner.
Someone will have to help protect
the heir to the empire.
To the west, across the Atlantic,
the Caribbean Sea rests between the coasts of two continents
This is the breeding ground of the American flamingo,
also known as the Caribbean flamingo.
These are the only flamingos found in North America.
At least, the only real flamingos.
It was artist Don Featherstone in 1957
who created the now infamous
pink plastic lawn ornaments.
Fake fowl folk art is an icon of American kitsch
that is celebrated to this day
and a popular prank on 40th birthdays.
From cave drawings to Alice's croquet mallets,
this colorful character has been making an appearance
in artwork and stories for centuries.
In the natural world,
the American flamingo is currently thriving.
But that may not last long.
Other flamingo species in the western hemisphere,
like the Chilean and Andean flamingos, are in decline.
Current trends suggest the American flamingo
may face the same fate.
If they are to avoid the fall of their empire,
flamingo families must ensure their bloodlines.
And that means
relying on a heavily coordinated mating ritual.
The American flamingo lives throughout the Caribbean,
and from South Florida in the north
to Venezuela in the south.
Each year, thousands travel
from the mainland of Venezuela
to the island of Bonaire, to breed.
In Pekelmeer, on the southern tip of the island,
is the largest natural flamingo sanctuary
in the western hemisphere.
It's an ideal habitat for these aquatic birds.
"Pekel" is Dutch for salt water,
and "meer" means lake.
The shallow water is home to algae, insects
and the meal of choice for flamingos,
shellfish.
This is the source of their signature look.
These crustaceans contain large amounts of beta carotene,
just like carrots.
And it's beta carotene that makes flamingos pink.
These birds seem proud of their pink plumage.
Flamingos spend about a quarter of their time preening,
nearly twice as much as other waterfowl.
When birds preen,
they gather oil from a gland at the base of their tail.
They then redistribute the oil to the rest of their bodies.
It keeps the bird's feathers in tip-top shape.
Here on Bonaire's breeding grounds,
looking good is especially important.
In addition to keeping them warm and dry,
well-preened plumage helps attract a partner.
Like many other species,
these birds compete for a mate.
But this isn't a show of strength,
it's more like a dance competition.
All at once, groups of tens
or even hundreds within the colony
will begin an elaborate series of movements,
all with the goal of attracting a mate.
And the flamboyant flamingos
have some fancy dance moves.
They start with a head flag,
stretching their necks and heads high,
bill pointing up, and moving their heads
from side to side.
They then lift their wing in a salute
to show off their plumage.
And finally, the twist preen.
Each bird twists it's head back and quickly preens.
But, unlike the macaques of Gibraltar,
a flamingo couple will usually mate for life.
All the more reason for this single adult female
to be picky in choosing her partner.
Finally, the dance ends
and cupid's arrow finds its mark.
A female calls out to her chosen mate,
Then starts walking away from the group,
making herself available.
She stops, lowers her head and spreads her wings.
It's an invitation for the male to mount.
It's a complex operation.
Made no easier by the fact
that it all takes place in the water.
For this couple, it's just the first
of many challenging steps
in starting a flamingo family.
They must now build a nest
big and strong enough to resist flooding
and changes in temperature.
The bond between these partners may be unbreakable,
but the fragile egg they hope to produce, is not.
1,200 miles northeast from Bonaire,
the coast of Florida is a much sought after winter escape.
And not just for humans.
When the temperature drops in December,
manatees begin to move from the cold open ocean
to the warmer inland waters along the coast.
Manatees are large marine mammals
that belong to the order Sirenia.
Sirenia is from the Latin "siren", or mermaid.
The myth of a part-woman,
part-fish has existed
as long as there have been seafarers.
Christopher Columbus himself wrote
of the "female forms that rose high out of the sea".
Historians believe this is the first written record
of a manatee sighting in these waters.
Similar to flamingos, West Indian manatees
range from the southeastern United States
to the northern coast of South America.
Manatees are slow moving
and have a low metabolic rate.
This leaves them vulnerable in the cold.
Exposure to water temperatures
below 70 degrees Fahrenheit
can lead to a condition called "cold stress syndrome"
and even death.
So, like the snowbirds that make
the annual migration south for the winter,
these manatees head for warmer climes.
One popular destination
is Sanibel Island,
off the coast of Fort Myers, Florida.
Its warm water springs, lagoons and bayous
offer ideal habitats to find a mate.
But that habitat is shrinking.
And so too is the manatee population.
It's estimated that there are fewer than
6,500 manatees in Florida,
few enough to be considered endangered.
Because females give birth
only once every two years,
every chance to breed is crucial
to sustaining their empire.
In one of Sanibel Island's warm water springs,
a female lays in wait.
She has the full attention of multiple male suitors.
A dozen bulls follow her,
forming a mating herd.
Within the herd, these males compete
to become the first to mate.
Like the macaques,
more than one will have a chance
at fathering her calf.
It's a matter of playing the odds.
For this female to have the best possible chance at conception,
she will mate with multiple members of the herd.
Three weeks later,
the males disperse.
Their part in the breeding process is complete.
And it's been a success.
This female is now pregnant.
Her pregnancy will last a whole year.
During this time, the mother manatee
and her unborn calf are vulnerable.
When these big mammals break the surface to breathe
they're an unwitting target for the hull or prop of a boat.
Most of Florida's manatees
bear distinctive scars to prove it.
Locals say that not a single manatee has gone unscathed.
This potential new manatee mother
must be cautious and careful
if she's to survive long enough
to deliver the newborn now growing inside her.
High up on the Rock of Gibraltar,
six months have passed
and a new member has joined the troop.
Like other primates,
the baby macaque sticks close to its mom at first,
feeding on her milk.
Though sometimes mistaken as apes,
macaques are in fact, monkeys.
The difference is in the tail.
Most monkeys have them.
Ape's don't.
Though it doesn't look like it,
macaque's do have a tail,
it's just really small.
A fully-grown macaque's tail
is only between 1/8 and 3/4 of an inch long.
And there is another extraordinary quality
that makes the Barbary macaques unusual.
Males play an active role in parenting.
It's uncommon among primates.
Especially when paternity is uncertain.
Since it's near impossible to know who the father is,
it would be easy enough for any mating male
to be a deadbeat dad.
Instead, they all pitch in.
Perhaps because of this uncertainty,
all male Barbary macaques in a troop
are integral to raising all the infants.
It's a form of what scientists call "alloparenting",
when individuals other than the biological parents
act in a parental role.
For the Barbary macaques,
it really does take a village to raise a family.
Just months ago,
these male macaques waged war
for the affection of a female.
But when it comes to child care,
they must put aside their differences
and help train and protect the troop's new recruits.
It's a challenging responsibility.
After a few months,
the young macaque is eager to roam the slope
and explore the empire it will one day inherit.
Now weaned from its mother,
it must find food on its own.
But Gibraltar is a busy post.
The roads of the Rock are dangerous,
especially for a hungry,
and curious, little monkey.
On the Caribbean island of Bonaire,
when it comes to nesting,
birds of a feather truly flock together.
The expecting flamingo parents join other couples,
all nesting together at the same time, once a year.
The success of this animal empire
is based on the colony's chicks all hatching in sync.
This makes it easier to provide for the newborns.
a responsibility that, like the Barbary macaques,
is shared by all the adults of the flock.
To get ready for laying and hatching,
both the male and female help build the nest
out of mounds of mud, stone,
straw and feathers.
Construction takes about six weeks.
The flamingos use their bills to make the mound
by bringing the mud and other materials
towards their feet.
If they build it right,
it will stand about 12 to 18 inches tall
and will be shaped like a volcano.
On top they make a shallow well for the egg.
The mound helps keep the egg at a constant temperature
It also keeps it out of ground level flooding.
The nest has to be built well enough to hold the egg
and mom and dad, for at least a month.
Once the nest is complete, mother flamingo lays her egg.
Flamingos usually lay one large egg.
It's shaped the same as a chicken egg,
but weighs two to three times as much.
Both parents help with incubation while they wait.
And after just under a month,
the egg hatches
Both mother and father are there
when the chick emerges from its shell.
They stand over and gently preen
and nibble the newborn.
At first, the chick can only move
by pushing its wings and lifting its head.
As the hours and days pass,
it grows stronger and begins to walk.
Its red bill and plump, swollen legs
turn black after a week or so.
After ten days,
the new chick is ready to join a crèche,
it's a kind of flamingo daycare
where chicks are watched by a group of adults.
There's still a long way to go
before he is ready to leave the nest for good.
He must learn to feed on his own.
And with human civilization expanding nearby,
Bonaire's once bountiful banquet is depleting.
There's simply not enough grub to go around.
With thousands of mouths to feed,
the newest members of this empire
will need to learn to fight for food,
or flee, if they are going to survive.
The inland waters of Florida's Sanibel Island
are calm and quiet.
It's been a year
since the manatee mating herd dispersed.
The pregnant female has managed to stay safe and secure
in the warm shallow waters of the mangroves.
And she's now the proud mother
of a new baby calf.
Like most manatee births,
her newborn is a single calf
just over three feet long
and weighing between 55 and 65 pounds.
Within minutes of birth,
the precocious newborn manatee calf
is able to swim.
Like all mammals, manatees need air to breathe.
They hold their breath underwater
while closing the flaps on their nostrils.
They can stay submerged for as long as 20 minutes.
But they'll usually go to the surface
every five minutes to breathe.
And while the newborn can swim to the surface on his own,
he needs a bit of encouragement.
An attentive mother is right alongside
to make sure her baby
does as nature intended.
The calf begins to feed within a few hours after birth,
nursing from teats located behind his mother's flippers.
During nursing, the mother and calf bond is strong.
West Indian manatees
can grow as large as 13 feet long
and weigh 1,200 pounds,
about as much as a grand piano.
Manatees are sometimes called sea cows.
And, given their size and shape,
it's easy to see why.
Their closest relative is in fact
a four-legged land animal,
but it's not the cow.
It's the elephant.
There's an unusual twist in this family tree,
it's thought that manatees evolved from a land mammal
and moved to the sea,
the opposite of the usual evolution story
that tells of animals leaving the water for land.
Now, millions of years later,
manatees have adapted to life in the sea.
Unlike macaques and flamingos,
by the time this newborn manatee takes his first breath,
his father will be long gone.
Mom will be the sole parent for the crucial first years
of this vulnerable infant's life.
The young manatee stays close to his mother's side
at all times.
While adults typically swim in single file,
the calf will always travel parallel to his mother
Sticking close means mother and calf
can stay in constant communication.
Manatees are relatively quiet creatures.
But they can emit a wide range of sounds.
Mother and calf are especially talkative,
the calf cries out when it's hungry
or gets separated.
This dependency will continue for as long as two years.
During this time, mother manatee will serve as teacher.
The young manatee is an attentive student.
And he must be.
There's lots to learn, about migration routes,
rest areas, and especially,
how to find food.
These mammals are herbivores and eat a variety of plants.
Mother manatee will eat
15% of her body weight every day.
The newborn must learn to find enough food on his own,
if he's to make it past his second birthday.
And foraging for food pushes the young manatee
further into Florida's busy waterways,
and into the path of potential danger.
Putting food on the table
is a fundamental part of any family life.
Once infants have been weaned,
they have to learn how to forage on their own.
A young Barbary macaque takes its lead
from the troop's senior supervisors,
searching the slopes of the Rock of Gibraltar
for a meal.
The diet of most macaques
consists of a mixture of plants and insects
like snails, worms, and spiders.
The Gibraltar monkeys have an advantage
over their African and Asian kin.
They're a popular tourist attraction.
And despite rules against feeding,
they get, and often take,
their fair share of handouts.
Hand feeding often encourages good monkeys
to behave badly.
Local officials have taken measures
to control the feeding.
They offer grains of barley and chopped up vegetables
to keep the monkeys happy, and occupied.
It's a healthier alternative to human leftovers
that can cause tooth decay and disease.
But it's a less than ideal solution
to a serious problem.
Any helping hand from humans
puts the monkeys at risk.
On the Rock of Gibraltar,
natural predators like dogs and birds are scarce.
Cars and trucks, however, are not.
A sentinel watches from above as other members
of the troop scavenge for food.
Suddenly, he appears agitated,
scratching and moving sporadically.
He senses danger,
and calls out to the rest of the troop.
It's a very specific call.
Pitch and loudness vary based on the caller
and who he's calling.
Barbary macaques can tell the difference between calls
by members of their own troop
from those in other groups.
They even have different calls for different threats.
It's an essential skill for the society to survive.
Thanks to the warning signal,
the foraging party is able to move out of harm's way.
As the sun sets over the Mediterranean,
the Barbary macaques seek shelter in the trees
along the slopes of the Rock of Gibraltar.
The juvenile monkeys are now safe and secure
in the company of the troop.
To relieve the stress of a dramatic day,
they relax by grooming.
Though it sometimes results in a snack,
the main function of grooming
seems to be to soothe the nerves.
Scientists believe that it's the groomer,
not the groomed, that benefits the most.
And as they have for the last few months,
male adults play a leading role in ensuring
the juveniles have a chance to unwind.
In just a few more years,
when they reach the age of four or five,
the juveniles will be ready to start their own families.
And they too will have to help their young
navigate the streets of Gibraltar.
For the last six centuries,
macaques and humans have managed to live together
in these tight quarters.
Both must follow the rules of the Rock
if they're to continue to co-exist
for the centuries to come.
It's not just mammals like monkeys and manatees
that provide milk to their newborns.
When young flamingos are born,
both mother and father produce a liquid food
in a pouch in their throat called a crop.
They regurgitate this flamingo milk
to the young.
It's also, the color red.
While the baby is grey or white at birth,
the pigment from the flamingo milk
will turn it pink after a year or so.
Then, he's on his own.
Once the young flamingo's beak is developed,
he must learn how to use it.
A flamingo's beak is custom built
for the job of filtering food.
The top looks like an inverted spoon
Inside are hundreds of horny plates,
similar to certain baleen whales like humpbacks.
These work like a filter or sieve.
In shallow water, they use their long legs like stir sticks,
churning the sediment on the bottom.
The hungry flamingo dips its head upside down,
taking a mouthful of water laden with insects,
tiny crustaceans and algae.
It then pumps its muscular tongue like a piston
to drive water through the filter.
Algae and shellfish now take the place of the red milk,
providing the beta carotene
that keeps a flamingo's feathers pink.
As the chicks grow,
so too will their appetites.
Flamingos spend about a third of their time feeding.
Most eat during the night.
But breeding flamingos will also eat
during the day.
Producing milk for their chick
leaves both parents looking rather pale.
They've lost much of their pretty pink plumage
and must eat extra helpings of shellfish
to return to their former glory.
With growing chicks and hungry parents,
the demand on food sources here in Bonaire increases.
And there's not enough to feed the thousands of beaks.
Both climate change and encroaching development
are putting a strain on the wetlands
on which flamingos depend for food.
And when food is scarce,
hungry birds get agitated.
Though they may have a reputation
as peaceful and gentle creatures,
when it comes to food,
these birds aren't afraid to fight.
It starts with a show of force.
They expand their plumage and open their wings,
each competitor trying to show he or she
is the biggest and strongest.
If an actual fight breaks out,
it's called bill fencing.
A parry and thrust of necks
and bashing together of beaks.
Finally, one bird gets tired and walks away.
But diminishing resources don't diminish their appetites.
Everyone has to eat.
As a result, every day,
a few hundred leave the island
for the coastal waters of nearby Venezuela,
in search of more food.
Flamingos may not look like they were built to fly.
Their legs are longer than their bodies.
And their necks are so long
they need nineteen bones for support.
But they are, in fact, expert and frequent flyers.
They need a running take-off
to get their long lean bodies in the air,
and must continuously flap their wings.
Once they take to the skies,
adult flamingos can fly up to 40 miles per hour.
They need the speed.
Theirs is a daily round trip commute,
50 miles from Bonaire
to the mainland and back again.
By the time the youngsters reach two and a half months old,
they too are able to make the flight.
But they're traveling on a different itinerary.
They will stay on the mainland for 4 to 5 years,
until they reach sexual maturity.
Only then will they return
to the breeding grounds of Bonaire,
with the hopes that it will still have enough resources
for them to continue the life cycle
of their empire.
Manatees spend approximately
half of their day sleeping underwater,
They spend the remainder of their time mostly, eating.
A fully grown manatee
can consume over 100 pounds of plants.
That means mom is munching on a meal
for up to seven hours every day
Now she must teach her calf how to use his flippers
to "walk" along the bottom,
to dig for plants and roots on the sea floor.
When she finds a plant,
she uses her flippers
to scoop the vegetation toward her lips.
A manatee's lips are split in half,
left and right sides can move independently
and have seven muscles.
They work much like the trunk
of their distant relative, the elephant.
They're called prehensile lips.
They work back and forth
in a way that helps them graze on sea grass
and large leafy plants.
The manatee does not have front teeth.
Behind the lips, on the roof of the mouth
are dense, rigid pads like molars,
used to tear through and grind plants.
On Sanibel Island,
it may appear as though the manatees
live a tropical life of leisure,
relaxing and feasting in the warm shallow water.
But this image is deceiving.
Boat strikes kill an average
of nearly one hundred animals every year,
Water pollution and rising sea temperatures
also cause "red tide",
large concentrations of toxic algae
that kill hundreds of manatees a year.
It takes females five years, and males eight,
before they reach sexual maturity.
Manatees that don't make it that long,
don't have a chance to breed.
Conservation efforts are helping to protect
these docile, mythical creatures.
But for now, mother manatee
must trust that her newborn is well-equipped
to survive in the wild,
and will live long enough
to start a family of his own.
From southern Europe,
to the islands of the Caribbean,
to the warm waters of Florida,
the survival of each of these species
depends on preserving its lineage.
Macaques, flamingos, and manatees
all face looming threats at the hands of
an expanding human population.
Whether by working together,
or forced to go it alone
family life is paramount to ensuring
the next generation
can adapt to a changing environment,
and continue the legacy
of these
Animal Empires.
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