Prehistoric Planet (2022) s03e04 Episode Script

1
[Hiddleston] Spring…
in the flower meadows of Siberia.
And this is a strange type of rhino…
[bellows]
…the size of an elephant.
She needs to eat 300 pounds
of lush food a day.
Luckily, there's lots of it about.
She's one of a new breed of creatures
born to make the most
of a rapidly changing world.
This is the Ice Age.
Growing ice caps draw water
from the atmosphere,
drying out the climate
and creating a remarkable new habitat.
[mammoth trumpets]
Grasslands.
They're expanding across the planet.
Fed by this abundant source of food…
[roars]
…weird and wonderful
creatures fight for survival.
And as far as the eye can see,
a vast new army of Ice Age giants.
This hungry Goliath
has been waiting to feast all winter.
Unfortunately,
so have these bloodsucking parasites.
Ticks stay dormant
during the freezing Ice Age winter,
but now they're awake.
Birds eat ticks.
So maybe this raven can get rid
of these nasty pests.
[lows]
No luck.
It's just stealing fur.
A cozy lining for its nest.
[raven caws]
First a plague of ticks.
Now a plague of ravens.
- [ravens cawing]
- [bellows]
Something needs to be done.
And in these Ice Age meadows,
there's one thing that
could deal with both.
Hot,
steaming…
mud.
Thermal mud pools are common here.
And she is going to make the most of them.
But there's a problem.
[male lows]
Males are territorial,
and that makes them dangerous.
Deep rasps
and rumbles tell them who's who.
[rumbling]
[moos]
[rumbling]
[mooing]
This sounds like a friendly female.
Maybe even a relative.
Spa time.
[moos]
Places like this are also ideal
for swapping information…
[bellows loudly]
…about territory…
rivals,
and the best places to feed.
As a bonus, the hot mud repels the ticks.
And who wants to steal muddy fur?
[raven caws]
[bellows]
For grazers like her,
the expansion
of the grasslands is good news.
But here, on the Great Plains of Africa,
the changing landscape is causing turmoil.
[birds chirp]
[zebra whimpers]
Scimitar-toothed cats are used to
being the top predators here.
But not for much longer.
The hunt has taken these brothers
into unfamiliar territory.
They sense danger.
[huffs]
[huffing continues]
[otter screeches]
[otter snarls]
- [growls]
- [otter screeches]
[snarls]
[growls]
A pack of enormous otters.
Ten feet long.
[hisses]
[barking]
[growls]
[roars]
[screeching]
[growls]
Working together,
they're too powerful even for the cats.
[whining]
[squeaks]
Here, expanding grasslands
have upset the balance of life.
Otters have left rivers behind
to make the most of these new grasslands.
They are now the kings
of the African plains.
For some creatures,
the changing landscape is devastating.
[huffs]
[chatters]
The largest ape that's ever lived.
Gigantopithecus.
Double the weight of a silverback gorilla.
For two million years,
these gentle, intelligent giants
have been masters of this forest.
But now their home is disappearing.
Trees are dying.
[bellowing, echoing]
[Hiddleston] And forests like this…
are giving way to the new grasslands.
As his home shrinks,
certain types of tree are vulnerable.
Fruit is an important part of his diet,
and that's now in short supply.
But he can still use his deep knowledge
of the habitat to scrape by.
Tree bark provides essential fiber,
vitamins, and minerals.
And he gets some protein
from the forest floor.
Ants.
- [groaning]
- And if they bite back…
he has a neat solution.
A fishing technique
called ant-dipping.
But his world is becoming a lonely place.
He's not just hunting for food.
He's looking for a mate.
[bellowing]
[leaves rustling]
[whooping]
Just gibbons.
- [whooping continues]
- [huffs]
It's time to get smart.
They might be useful.
[whooping continues]
A myrtle tree.
Just what he wants.
[huffing]
But how to reach the prize?
He has the strength of ten men.
[rumbles]
But even that is not enough.
He tries a more thoughtful approach.
[spits]
But he's still missing one thing…
someone to share it with.
[bellowing]
His calls can reach over a mile away.
[bellowing continues]
But most of his kin have disappeared,
unable to adapt to this new age.
There's no answer.
Gigantopithecus isn't the only
one struggling to breed.
An armadillo the size of a car…
[huffs]
…and built like a tank.
Even top predators give him a wide berth.
But that doesn't help
when he's looking for a mate.
It should be easy to spot another giant
in this open landscape.
But these armadillos
have very poor eyesight.
Anything more than
a few feet away is blurred.
[flies buzzing]
But they have a powerful sense of smell.
One sniff tells him
everything he needs to know.
[sniffing]
And it could be good news.
[rumbles]
[sniffing]
Getting warmer.
[sniffing]
A female.
But she's not alone.
Another male.
[rumbles]
A rival.
Older and half a ton heavier.
But for him, she's worth it.
These males will risk their lives
to win a female.
[bellowing]
[snarls, bellowing]
The old male has more power.
[growls]
But good technique is important too.
Strong hind legs are key
to a successful swing.
[rumbles]
[bellows]
At last, the youngster lands a blow.
[both growling]
[groaning]
[huffing]
But has he done enough to impress?
Time to find out.
[rumbling]
Victory in battle is no guarantee
of romance.
Nothing in love or life is certain…
and that includes Ice Age weather.
[rumbling]
The rains here are late.
And these woolly mammoths are in trouble.
This mother is so dehydrated,
she's run out of milk.
[mammoth trumpets]
[rumbles]
They need to find water.
[bellowing]
But instead of heading off,
the herd's leader stands still
and listens.
Not with her tiny ears,
but with her feet.
They have large soft pads
that are extremely sensitive.
They can detect the faintest vibrations
from many miles away.
[thunder rumbling]
The sound of distant rain.
[trumpeting]
They've got a lot of ground to cover.
The calf must keep up.
[trumpets]
These mammoths can draw energy
from the fatty humps on their backs…
except the calf,
who's too young to survive without milk.
A storm.
But not what the herd was expecting.
[trumpets]
Ice Age glaciers grind rock into dust,
fueling the biggest dust storms
for 200 million years.
[trumpets]
[calf yelps]
[bellows]
The adult mammoths know
how to use their trunks
to cover their nostrils.
[calf yelps]
But for the calf,
this is a suffocating disaster.
[calf yelping]
[breathing shakily]
Life here is brutal.
A third of mammoth calves die
before they reach a year old.
[adult rumbles]
[rumbles]
The herd must move on without them.
[thunder rumbles]
At last.
[trumpets]
[rumbling]
[calf yelps]
[shrieking]
[huffs, trumpets]
The drought is over.
There will be milk for the baby.
And soon, fresh grass for the adults.
Every mammoth in this vast region
has heard the call
of water.
[mammoths trumpeting, bellowing]
And they come together
in a spectacular celebration.
These vast grasslands,
borne of the Ice Age,
support the biggest herds
the world has ever seen…
reshaping nearly
a third of the land of planet Earth.
A legacy that still exists today.
The Ice Age is coming to an end.
As the planet warms up,
every habitat on Earth is changing.
As the ice retreats,
forests grow back
and extraordinary creatures battle
to survive in a new world.
- [bellows]
- [snarls]
[Hiddleston]
The Ice Age was a time of giants.
Today, Africa has a lot of big mammals,
and you might think that they're giant,
but actually, during the Ice Age,
the animals were so much bigger.
[Hiddleston]
Imagine if they walked among us today.
The animals were unlike
anything we see on Earth now.
[Hiddleston] The sheer size of
Ice Age animals can be difficult to grasp.
Ice Age moas were
the tallest bird of all time,
standing nearly twice the height
of the average human
and around 300 times heavier
than your average duck.
Moas grew really big
in the Ice Age because
there were no other
herbivores competing where they lived.
They had very few predators,
so they didn't need to fly away from them.
If a moa were to show up at the park,
I think you would need
a fair amount of bird feed.
[honking]
[Hiddleston] When it comes
to Ice Age mammals…
Elasmotherium was one of the biggest.
If it could spend most of
the day at that flower shop,
I'm sure it would get through
pretty much everything on display there.
[Hiddleston] Weighing in
at a massive five tons,
it had a digestive system
almost the size of a small car.
[Sevestre] Being a big plant eater
is actually very good
because you can fill up
with enormous amounts of food,
digest it very, very slowly,
and this will gradually
release small amounts
of energy over long periods of time.
[Hiddleston] Ideal for keeping you going
through a long winter.
But surviving the Ice Age
isn't all about food.
You have to keep warm too.
[trumpets]
Smaller animals can't hold on
to as much heat for their size.
The bigger you are,
the more heat you can bury
deep inside your body,
away from your skin and the cold outside.
So in a cold environment,
it's good to be big.
[bellows]
As plant eaters got bigger and bigger,
that impacted other Ice Age creatures,
like the predators that ate them.
Smilodon,
the largest ever saber-toothed cat.
[Herridge] You wouldn't really want one
of those leaping out at you from behind,
like, the skate park, would you?
And that's probably what it would do.
[Hiddleston] To take down giant
plant eaters, it needed weapons to match.
Huge paws to pin down its victims,
and the killer blow
came from 11-inch sabers.
[Herridge] If your prey is big, right?
If herbivores are getting bigger,
predators have to be big too.
It's like an arms race.
An evolutionary arms race.
[Hiddleston] And it led to one of
the biggest predators since the dinosaurs.
Arctotherium.
The largest bear the world has ever seen.
Even on all fours,
it was around six feet tall.
It took down its prey using enormous paws.
On two legs,
it would have been 14 feet tall.
Being that big comes
with another advantage.
The Arctotherium was so big
it could scare away its rivals,
meaning it had its pick of the food.
[Herridge] Big claws, big teeth.
Intimidation alone is
a pretty good strategy.
[whimpers]
[Hiddleston] But there were exceptions,
where being big became a disadvantage.
Gigantopithecus was a real beast.
It was the largest ape that's ever lived.
But that was a problem.
Nearly twice the height of a human,
Gigantopithecus needed a lot of food.
Imagine a world
where forests are drying out
where fruiting trees are fruiting less.
Then you're in trouble.
[Hiddleston] And that's
where things came a little unstuck.
Depending on large amounts
of fruit made these giants vulnerable.
Fruit trees were disappearing, which
made it impossible to adapt fast enough.
[Herridge] Their population dwindled
and eventually disappeared.
[Hiddleston]
By the time the Ice Age ended,
giants had had their day.
Huge size made them
increasingly vulnerable.
A new, smaller hunter had arrived,
hungry for all those big Ice Age animals.
Us.