BBC Parenthood (2025) s01e02 Episode Script

1
[majestic music]
[dolphins whistling]
[soft music]
[David] A newly born
bottle nose dolphin.
Its skin still creased
by the tightness of the womb
from which it has only just emerged.
[music]
Its mother is devoted to it
and will care for it
for the next five years.
[music]
That is an unusually long time
for any ocean going animal.
[music]
Most marine creatures simply
abandon their young
as soon as they appear.
[music]
[dolphin whistling]
But those who care for them,
do so in some very remarkable ways.
[wave crashing]
[soft music]
Coral reefs occupy less
than 1% of the floor
of the world's oceans,
but they provide homes
for over a quarter
of all marine species.
[music]
Indonesia's reefs are among
the most diverse on Earth.
Over 2,000 species of fish live here,
and most reproduce
in the simplest of ways.
[music]
Females release their eggs
and the males rush in
and fertilize them.
The young are then swept away
and few, if any,
will meet their parents again.
But one fish behaves very differently.
The Banggai cardinalfish.
[music]
The adults spend most of
their time among sea urchins,
protected to some degree
by the urchin spines.
[music]
When a female is ready to spawn,
she leads a male away from the shoal.
[music]
She displays to him,
quivering her distended fins.
[music]
And then she releases a mass of eggs,
which he
takes into his mouth.
He hasn't swallowed them.
On the contrary,
he is protecting them.
[tender music]
But for the next four weeks,
he won't be able to eat.
[music]
Starvation, however,
is the least of his worries.
[low-key suspense music]
There are predators around.
[music]
Of many kinds.
[music]
An unguarded baby fish
would be quickly eaten,
so the hatchlings stay inside
their father's mouth.
This anemone could provide
the male with a home.
For although its tentacles have stings,
he is immune to them.
But his predators are not.
The resident anemonefish is also immune,
but this one doesn't welcome strangers.
This anemone, however,
seems to have vacancies.
The male picks his moment
to leave the safety
of the urchin's spines.
[curious music]
[low-key suspense music]
Here
he's not alone.
[curious music]
But this anemone fish
doesn't mind sharing.
[soft music]
He has found a new home for his young.
But they seem unwilling
to leave his mouth.
[music]
So, he gives them
a little encouragement.
[music]
But there's always one
who is reluctant to leave.
[music]
Here, among the anemone's tentacles,
they will remain
until an urchin appears
who has vacancies.
[music]
His 30 days of fasting
have given his young
an excellent start in life.
But parental responsibilities
extend far beyond providing shelter
for the mammals
that live around the reef.
[dolphin whistling]
A bottle nose dolphin mother
spends five years
showing her calf the skills
necessary for survival.
[dolphin whistling]
[dolphin whistling]
The mother leads her youngster
to one particular kind of coral
that is almost hidden.
One that has a special,
extraordinary characteristic.
It produces antifungal chemicals
which dolphins rub on their skin.
These dolphins remarkably
medicate themselves,
and they pass on
this knowledge to their young.
[music]
Passing on skills such as these
is part of good parenting.
[dolphin whistling]
[waves crashing]
The south coast of Australia.
Here, the shallow sea for 5,000 miles
is carpeted by dense seaweed.
These underwater meadows
thrive in the cold, turbulent water.
[soft music]
And one remarkable fish has evolved here
and exists nowhere else.
[music]
The weedy sea dragon.
[whimsical music]
It's marvelously camouflaged
and an exceptionally dedicated parent.
[music]
In spring, male and female
dance together.
[music]
They mirror each other's actions.
[music]
He seals their bond
by attaching her eggs to his tail.
The eggs are bright pink
and make him dangerously conspicuous.
[tense music]
But within a few weeks
the eggs become covered by algae
[soft music]
and that makes them less obvious.
[music]
After six weeks,
his parenting duties come to an end.
[music]
The baby dragons begin to hatch.
[music]
They're just two centimetres long.
Perfect miniatures of their parents.
[music]
[David] Seaweed, wherever it grows,
provides animals
with both food and shelter.
[birds chirping]
The Shetlands,
the northernmost of the British Isles.
It has the densest population
of Eurasian otters
in the world.
[otters squeaking]
These three cubs are five-months-old.
They're still dependent
on their mother for food.
[whimsical music]
She finds it in the seaweed.
Where there are great
numbers of small fish.
[soft music]
The fish are well camouflaged
and not easy to see.
[music]
But she uses her whiskers
to feel for them.
[music]
Otter mothers usually produce
one or two cubs at a time.
Triplets like these are extremely rare,
and each cub needs to eat
a quarter of its body weight every day.
[otters squeaking]
So, this mother has
to catch a lot of food.
[music]
[otters squeaking]
She must also feed well herself
if she's to survive the winter.
[soft music]
The youngsters squabble over every fish.
[otters squeaking]
The biggest and most vigorous
cub is the first to get food,
and the smallest often goes hungry.
[otters squeaking]
This small male, however,
decides to fish for himself
and joins his mother farther out to sea.
He's caught something.
Unfortunately,
it's something that bites back.
It's a crab, which is easy to catch,
but not very nutritious.
His mother has been too busy to notice
that he has strayed.
[otter whistles]
And now he is lost.
[otter whistles]
[distant otter whistles]
Over a quarter of otter cubs
don't survive their first year.
[otter whistles]
Many because they lose
touch with their mothers.
[otter whistles]
All he can do is to keep calling.
[otter whistles]
[melancholic music]
[otter whistles]
[otter squeaking]
[soft music]
Winter in Shetland is very cold
and life becomes hard for otters,
both old and young.
[music]
The bigger the cubs grow,
the more food they need,
and soon she will leave them
to find food for themselves.
[music]
[David] California's Channel Islands
are surrounded by one of the richest
of marine nurseries.
[music]
A forest of giant kelp.
[soft music]
This area has now been
declared a marine reserve,
where fishing is totally banned.
As a consequence,
over a thousand different
species of animals
now live here.
Among them, giant sea bass,
which elsewhere are critically
endangered.
[music]
On the floor of this submarine forest
lives a particularly
territorial species.
The Garibaldi.
This male has built his nest
in the center of his territory,
and here he cultivates
a particular red algae.
He carefully prunes it
so that the females
can lay their eggs on it.
[whimsical music]
Several have already done that,
so now he has a potential
brood of over 150,000.
He devotes his time to keeping
the eggs free from algae
and driving off hungry intruders.
[curious music]
Some visitors, however, are so big
they're best ignored.
His most dangerous enemy, however,
is in fact relatively tiny.
[curious music]
A little blue banded goby.
[music]
Which takes advantage
of the constant Intruders
to steal the Garibaldi's eggs.
[music]
But the biggest threat of all
comes from the sea urchins.
They eat virtually
everything in their path,
from the nest of a Garibaldi
to the entire kelp forest.
[music]
He does all he can to keep
the urchins away.
[music]
His neighbors help.
Inside the reserve,
there are enough fish
to keep urchin numbers in check.
[music]
But the reserve is tiny.
Outside it, humans have
caught most of the fish
that once kept down urchin numbers.
[music]
And that, combined with
an ever warming sea,
has created a plague of urchins
that have devastated the sea floor.
[music]
They have destroyed the kelp forests
along great stretches
of California's coast.
And now, we ourselves
are adding to that damage
by using our seas as dumping
grounds for our waste.
[music]
Many animals have changed
their parental behavior
in order to survive in this new world.
[soft music]
Pale octopus are relatively short lived,
and this female has just over a year
in which to breed and raise her young.
[music]
To do that, she has to find a safe den.
[music]
[curious music]
[David] She must choose carefully.
Good dens are rare.
[music]
A discarded toilet could perhaps serve.
But this one is engaged.
[music]
And is already being fought over.
A squirt from its owner's ink sac
makes things clear.
She keeps looking.
Many of the available
den sites are too exposed.
[music]
She wants somewhere
a little more secluded.
This plastic pipe is also occupied
by a male.
[soft music]
But he is signaling
his readiness to breed.
[music]
It's an irresistible performance.
[music]
So, she inspects his den.
[music]
It may not look like much,
but to her, apparently, it will do.
[music]
He nudges her into his home.
[music]
She gives his den and
him her seal of approval.
And the two mate.
[music]
A few days later,
she starts laying her eggs
inside the pipe.
She will eventually produce
about 500 of them.
[soft music]
She stokes them with her suckers
to keep them clear of algae.
[music]
Her home will hide her
and is easy to defend.
But laying her eggs will
be the last act of her life.
All octopus mothers die in their dens.
[music]
As her eggs hatch,
she takes her young in her arms.
And uses her siphon to propel
them to independence.
[music]
In their year long lives,
13 million tons of plastic
will have been dumped
onto their ocean homes.
[music]
Her final resting place
was the home that she set out to find.
But perhaps not the grave that anyone
might consider appropriate
for such a dedicated parent.
[music]
[waves crashing]
[David] As our seas change,
those species with sufficient
intelligence to adapt
are finding new ways
to support their offspring.
[soft music]
And there are few
sea creatures more inventive
in their search for food
than killer whales.
[soft music]
[orca clicking]
They're powerful
swift
and agile
but the key to their success
lies beyond their physicality.
[orca clicking]
It comes from their sociability
and the way they use
their complex relationships
to teach one another.
[orca clicking]
Each family is led by its grandmother,
the matriarch.
[music]
She may live into her eighties,
far beyond the age of
producing calves of her own.
[orca squealing]
But her responsibilities
as a leader never cease.
[blows spouting]
She plays a key part in
teaching them all how to hunt.
[music]
She initiates a chase.
[music]
And the rest of the family join her.
[blows spouting]
[orca squealing ]
But this is not a game.
[blows spouting]
One deliberately stops swimming
in order to enable the others
to practice a particular skill.
They push it beneath the surface
and submerge its blowhole
to prevent it from breathing.
[music]
They are practicing the actions
they will use to drown their prey.
And these orca need to be
on top of their game.
They hunt the largest animals
that have ever lived
[blows spouting]
Blue whales.
[blows spouting]
Such prey are too big
for most orca to tackle.
[adventurous music]
But this matriarch has found one.
[blows spouting]
The blue whale seems
to have been caught off guard.
[blows spouting]
Working as a team,
the orca keep their victim's blowhole
beneath the surface.
[water splashing]
Exactly as the matriarch
taught them to do.
[water splashing]
[music] [water splashing]
The hunting of blue whales by orca
has only recently been documented.
A new behavior that
is a response to changes
in their ocean home.
But many animals today
are finding it hard
to change their habits.
A trawler fishing off
the coast of South Africa.
It has attracted thousands of seabirds.
[water splashing]
And hundreds of fur seals.
The Trawler's presence
illustrates the problem
that all these animals are now facing.
They're having to compete
for their food with us.
[music]
This trawler has collected its fish
from the ocean's depths.
But such fish are low in nutrients.
They're junk food
for the birds and the seals.
[music]
[birds chirping]
An adult Cape gannet male
is flying in this crowd.
He's picked up what he can,
and now he must begin
the long flight back to his family.
[melancholic music]
[waves crashing]
His home is Malthus Island,
the world's second largest
Cape gannet colony.
[music]
[birds chirping]
Using his own particular call,
he locates his lifelong
partner and their chick.
[birds chirping]
[music]
But the fish he has scavenged
doesn't contain enough energy
to nourish his chick.
Gannet chicks need rich, oily foods
such as sardines and anchovies.
The natural prey of these gannets.
[music]
As the parents change guard,
the mother takes her turn
and heads out to sea.
[music]
She must find suitable food
if their chick is to survive.
[music] [birds chirping]
Cape gannets have nested on
Malgas Island for generations.
But due to our overfishing,
the gannets must now fly
further out to sea
to find what they need.
[music]
At last, a hopeful sign.
Common dolphins.
[water splashing]
The gallant mother knows
they will lead her to food.
[music]
And she's not alone.
[birds chirping]
[water splashing]
[music]
Sardines.
[birds chirping]
She dives at 50 miles an hour.
[water splashing]
But fails to catch anything.
[birds chirping]
The dolphins now encircle the sardines.
[intense music]
And drive them upwards,
trapping them against the surface.
[music]
For the gannets,
it's the time to strike.
[water splashes]
They dive as deep as 20m.
The mother makes one last dive.
[music]
And catches one more fish.
[birds chirping]
[soft music]
Now, she has enough food for her chick.
[birds chirping] [music]
This hard won meal
is the last she will give this chick.
[music]
[birds chirping]
[David] It's now ready for independence.
[birds chirping]
The chick makes its way
to the edge of the colony
where the wind is strongest.
[curious music]
But first,
she has to find her way
through 40,000 neighbors.
[birds chirping]
She joins dozens of others,
all preparing for their first flight.
[waves crashing]
She watches others make their attempts.
[music]
Those who catch the wind
lift off and are away.
Those who don't,
have to face the fury
of the Atlantic Ocean.
[waves crashing]
And great danger
lurks beneath the waves.
[low-key suspense music]
[bird squeak]
[music]
Cape fur seals.
[music]
Gannets aren't usually taken by seals,
but in this depleted ocean,
prey of any kind is worth having.
[waves crashing]
[bird squeaking]
The food she took from her parents
will only sustain her
for a further day or so.
She waits for a gust of wind.
[waves crashing]
[flapping winds]
[low-key suspense music]
Her timing is not good.
[music]
[intense music]
Safe in the shadows.
Few get such a second chance.
[music]
She must try again.
[music]
[bird squeaks]
[music]
She's made it.
[wave crashing]
The depleted ocean
will remain a hugely
challenging place for her.
[soft music]
But the oceans are
ecologically very resilient
and they can recover faster
than any other habitat on Earth
given the right protection.
Gannet parents stay together
for life up to 20 years.
If their ocean home is given
the chance to recover,
the vast shoals of fish
on which so many depend
could reappear within
the lifetime of these parents.
[birds chirping]
And they could live
to see a brighter future.