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00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:02Transcription by CastingWords
00:12Experience a world beyond imagination.
00:19Where fish can fly.
00:25Lizards walk on water.
00:27Apes master tools.
00:33And frogs disappear in plain sight.
00:40Animals do the smartest things.
00:46Through every stage of their lives.
00:50From leaving home.
00:52To raising a family.
00:57From finding food.
01:02To making friends.
01:05They find ingenious ways to survive.
01:14Against all odds.
01:19Welcome.
01:21To the secret lives of animals.
01:24A rocky outcrop in Kenya.
01:37Home to a troop of 130 olive baboons.
01:41This is the top male.
01:50He fought hard to gain his status.
01:53But it's a demanding job.
01:56And he's getting on a bit.
01:58He's getting on a bit.
02:05A younger male.
02:07Senses the time is right.
02:09To challenge.
02:11For his position.
02:12Two people inside.
02:13Ooc.
02:25formation.
02:28First to knock off hinterley.
02:32The queen.
02:35Iron.
02:37Dust it to enter the street!
02:38The older baboon knows when he's beaten and retreats.
02:57Alone, he's vulnerable to predators.
03:01To stay safe, he must find a new role within the troop.
03:19While his young successor enjoys the benefits of the top job,
03:24the elder spots an opportunity to get back into the heart of the group.
03:45Surprisingly, this infant is the key.
03:48A yawn with his teeth covered shows he means no harm.
04:01His plan is coming together.
04:03The new top male is not happy with him being so close.
04:16But the old boy knows exactly what he's doing.
04:23The females see the top male's aggression as a threat to the youngster.
04:28Baring their teeth and raising their eyebrows makes it clear they won't tolerate it.
04:43This time, it's his turn to back down.
04:49Leaving the wise old male and baby safe.
04:52Over time, the elder baboon develops into a kind of benevolent grandfather.
05:12Babysitting.
05:15And mentoring the youngsters.
05:17He's not as strong as he once was.
05:24But he's wise.
05:27And still has plenty to offer the troop.
05:38Growing old can be a time for new beginnings.
05:40With age comes knowledge, responsibility, and great rewards.
06:01The oldest desert in the world.
06:03Africa's Namib.
06:04Africa's Namib.
06:13Water here is hard to find.
06:24This female desert elephant is the oldest in the herd.
06:29It's her responsibility to keep the rest alive.
06:37They can't survive for more than four days without a drink.
06:44So she leads them to the only permanent water hole for 10 miles.
06:49But experience tells her something's not right.
07:06It's contaminated.
07:10If they drink here, they risk illness.
07:12She must look for water elsewhere.
07:13The longer they walk, the more dehydrated they become.
07:31But this old elephant has a trick up her sleeve.
07:34She has one of the best memories of any animal.
07:42And drawing on it,
07:45she recalls every feature of this landscape.
07:51And creates a mental map of the area.
07:55So she can take the fastest route through the desert.
08:00Here, the bushes are green.
08:10She knows the water must be close.
08:14But the riverbed is dry.
08:18The youngest in the herd are desperately thirsty.
08:23Using the most powerful sense of smell of any land mammal,
08:36she turns detective.
08:43And does something truly remarkable.
08:46She digs four feet down until she strikes fresh water.
09:07It's safe to drink.
09:10The rest of the herd follow her lead.
09:17And there's enough to guzzle up to 40 gallons each.
09:27Her unrivaled knowledge of this desert has saved the herd.
09:41Growing old can be tough.
09:47But for some, it marks a new lease of life.
09:55A Caribbean reef.
10:03This three-year-old female wrasse is the eldest in her shoal.
10:16Every day, she and the other females visit this sea fan.
10:24It's home to the only male wrasse on the reef.
10:27His coloring gives their species its name.
10:31Bluehead wrasse.
10:37He fertilizes the eggs of every female here.
10:39And the oldest is always at the front of the line.
11:00But in the ocean, circumstances can change very quickly.
11:05And the next day, when the old wrasse reaches the mating ground,
11:18the male has disappeared.
11:24Without a male on the reef, the females can't breed.
11:28Within minutes, the old female reacts with an extraordinary solution.
11:41She stops producing the female hormone, estrogen.
11:46And her scales begin to change color.
11:54She becomes more aggressive.
12:04Her body starts to subtly alter shape.
12:07And day by day, the difference becomes more dramatic.
12:22After three weeks, her transformation is complete.
12:29She has become a he.
12:33By blocking her female hormones and producing male ones,
12:48this brilliant old fish has changed sex.
12:54As the new male, he will now fertilize all the wrasse eggs
13:00spawned on this reef.
13:01For some, reinvention in later life comes easily.
13:14But for others, it's a long, hard slog.
13:17A giant Galapagos tortoise, one of the most ancient animals on Earth.
13:33At 150 years old, he's entering the prime of his life.
13:38He's still growing.
13:47So must eat lots of highly nutritious grass.
13:53But the dry season is fast approaching.
13:56And the food here will soon wither and die.
14:11With the wisdom of his years, he knows exactly what to do.
14:16The volcanic highlands provide rich nourishment all year round.
14:25The problem is they are six miles inland.
14:30And a 1,250-foot climb.
14:34The height of the Empire State Building.
14:36It will be an epic migration.
14:40It will be an epic migration.
14:47Albeit, a very slow one.
14:50Surprisingly, his old age is the key to his success.
15:03His large size means he can overcome obstacles that younger, smaller tortoises simply cannot.
15:21After a month, he arrives.
15:42At the tortoise promised land.
15:52A seasonal retreat for the oldest and biggest residents of the island.
16:00Mountain mist guarantees nutritious food, even in the driest months.
16:12By trekking here once a year, he'll thrive.
16:15Even as he closes in on his 200th birthday.
16:30Getting healthier and stronger.
16:37His old age really will be the best years of his life.
16:45And when winter arrives, he'll make the long, slow journey back to the coast.
16:56The secret to eternal youth may continue to evade us.
17:02But here on the Canadian border, one animal has found a way to put the brakes on aging altogether.
17:16This is a monarch butterfly caterpillar.
17:21She gorges on the only plant she can eat.
17:26Milkweed.
17:32And she doesn't stop until she's grown 2,000 times in size.
17:39Then transforms.
17:48Into a butterfly.
17:51But winter is coming.
17:53It will be too cold and wet for her to survive this far north.
18:09The freezing temperatures could last for months.
18:12Most monarchs only live for a few weeks.
18:15So she does something astonishing.
18:26She blocks the production of a hormone.
18:33Which in turn.
18:36Slows.
18:38Her aging.
18:40And then flies over 2,500 miles south.
18:52To join millions of other monarchs in the shelter of a warmer, drier fir forest.
18:58The butterflies huddle together.
19:12She shuts down all but her most essential life support systems.
19:16When spring arrives four months later, she takes to the skies.
19:32And heads back north.
19:36To find a fresh crop of milkweed.
19:40She reactivates her hormones and begins to age normally.
19:52Now, she is ready to breed.
19:59Her clever trick means she lives far longer than the average monarch.
20:04The equivalent of us reaching over 500 years old.
20:18Age is no barrier to dramatic change.
20:23With experience, we can navigate whatever life throws at us.
20:28With the wisdom to adapt.
20:39Later life is a time to flourish.
20:46And take flight.
20:58Finding a family of desert elephants digging for water in the vast landscape of northwest Namibia.
21:07Is a huge challenge.
21:11So the team joined guide Rain Brehem.
21:15Who knows this land almost as well as the animals.
21:18As a kid from three years old, I used to go out to the rivers.
21:22Playing in the sand.
21:23And sand is in my veins now.
21:25Just as well.
21:27As the Namib desert sands are always on the move.
21:32It's super windy and dusty.
21:34Which means the car is rocking.
21:36The lens is covered in dust.
21:38And we're all inhaling about a kilo of dust every second.
21:42Shifting sands mean tracking must start from scratch each day.
21:48So in the morning you're looking for the most crisp lines.
21:51At the back of the track will always be really clear, defined, and the front of the track will have like a drag mark or a flick mark in front.
22:02And that will show you the direction that they're going.
22:05Now they know which way the elephants are heading, the team tries to catch them.
22:12But who is following who?
22:18I'm getting more tracks on top of our tire tracks.
22:21So I think when we took this bend around, they were already on this bend.
22:26And so we've kind of done that.
22:28As the team drive, Rain notices a change in the tracks.
22:34As soon as you get close to a water, a lot of the time you can see them form a line.
22:40Because they're just in a hurry.
22:41They've made up their mind.
22:42They know where they're going.
22:44With the elephants getting close, the team must find them fast.
22:47And the best way to do that is to put an eye in the sky.
22:58With the elephants located, the race is on to get in position before they dig for water.
23:05She's digging. It's the first time we've seen it.
23:18It's amazing.
23:21Not only is the old elephant digging,
23:24she's passing on her life-saving skills to her young.
23:29Let's get a spray. We want a spray.
23:33That's really nice.
23:36A combination of Rain's expertise and modern technology
23:41has revealed the secret knowledge
23:44of some of the oldest and wisest animals in the world.
24:05And for the last time we're walking in the world,
24:06the most of the children who are alive.
24:09We want a spray.
24:12That's really nice.
24:14That's really nice.
24:15That's how the disturbing of the world is to take place.
24:17We want a spray.
24:19And for the stretch of the world to protect themselves.
24:20We want a spray.
24:22We want a spray.
24:24And we want a spray.
24:26We want a spray, spray it, spray it, spray it.
24:29And if we don't have a spray, we want a spray.
24:31We want a spray.
24:32Transcription by CastingWords