David Attenborough’s – Life of Mammals 6 The Opportunists

(Full video at the bottom)

Starts with the giant panda. How they cost millions. I thought there were only thousands of them around coz of humans but fact is they love bamboo and their so fussy about their eating habits that bamboo forests in China started to disappear. With no other food to fall back on… population crashed.

Unlike the panda, omnivores are the most adaptable animals in the world. The best example would be the North American raccoon. This raccoon has adapted to more type of habitat than any other mammal. All omnivores have one thing in common… the ability to make the most of any opportunity. Its been a success coz of its inquisitive nature and extremely sensitive hands. See like how we sense things best with our eyes, the raccoon uses its brain to sense things with its hands. In a way, seeing things with its hands the way we do with our eyes. And the temperature doesn’t change its sensitivity one bit.

While raccoons appeared around nearly 2.5 million years, the first opportunists appeared way earlier. Ok goes back through the ages and talks about some dinohyus kinda thing which was meant to be a killer warthog kinda thing the size of a rhino. Back to the present, David breaks down the skull and teeth for us. At the back the teeth are flat which means it can grind up any kind of vegitation. The front does not have the chisel like teeth that an antelope has. Neither does it have specialized meat eater teeth coz they aint sharp dagger like ones. It also had tusks. So it didn’t have a specialized set, more like a generalized toolkit (leathermans) to deal with almost anything. Back to the past, dinohyus thingy makes a kill. Teeth like those are typical for almost all living omnivores today.

A forest in Indonesia has a rare and elusive animal almost as prehistoric looking as dinohyus. The babirusa. Thinner snout than a warthog, funny long tusks growing all round from the top of its nose to between its eyes. And another pair protruding wide from the bottom jaw. The fruit its eating contains a poison, but it knows how to deal with that. It visits a clay lake… yo this sounds like this other animal in an earlier episode. Anyway so the clay has the right stuff to netralise the poison. So this is where you’ll see lots of them, and also where they get to meet and know others. Males test their strength.

Over to a shot of a pigs nose… since that’s the pigs biggest asset. Wild boar are apparently the European cousins of the eccentric babirusa. The least fussy eaters and unrivalled foragers. Their memory has pictures of foods they’ve recently eaten and accessed. Openminded so nothing is overlooked, especially not a decaying pigeon. More interesting info is how they forage in the winter snow. Plowing through the snow and relying on the smell that travels through snow.

Hmmm, the Asiatic raccoon dog. There’s mix, then theres remix. Coz of its short legs it has to hibernate coz moving through snow would be difficult. The mother has to eat lots more as it produces large litters. 15 pups for this mother and the parents gotta plump them up in 8 weeks. Don’t know why he said parents coz the mom does all the feeding, dad just stays back and takes care. Gets harder… unlike many canines… raccoon dogs do not regurgitate food for their pups. Mouths can carry less than stomachs so it’s a whole lotta trips and breastfeeding twice as long as other dogs. Not all the pups will survive the winter.

CHICKEN!!! Oh its just a fox breaking into the roost. Foxes are blamed for killing more than it needs but if left alone one realizes it will not waste. The fox buries its surplus snacks around its territory. Later with memory and keen sense of smell fox digs em up, so its basically an opportunists that plans ahead.

Up next are seasonal opportunists. Infra red light and camera light up the pitch black cave. Bats all over the place, their dropping all over the floor and I mean a thick later. If I remember correct, the layer or carpet of batty bog is called guano. The guano first of all makes the atmosphere thick with ammonia and fungal spores fatal to anyone who inhales the, second it is home to fungus, flesh eating beetles and larvae which together will make short of anything that comes its way. David says its one of the most hostile environment you’ll find on the planet. Enter skunk. One unfussy opportunist that’s not shaken by any of this. They feel at home, even indulge in some courtship. But they’re not there to get their freak on… they’re there for the baby bats that lose their hold and drop. Ok so the dropped baby bat better have luck coz junior has to tackle the guano covered floor. If junior is slow the beetles get him. Skunk dont need that much luck coz even though he’s totally blink in the dark, too many bats fall all the time. Dude only needs to know how to handle the bat once he gets one. So to subdue the bat and avoid being bitten skunk rolls the bat on the ground. What do you know, those touchy feely raccoons get in on the action too. Easier for them coz they can see with their hands.

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So that was seasonal opportunities. Elsewhere they have a whole succession of different food that becomes available. Alaska. No one dish remains very long so you gotta make the most while you can… a grizzly bear’s making the most of salmon. Rewinding 6 months back, the grizzly snores away the winter as he’s conserving energy. Pulse rate drops to 10 beats a minute. Burns up almost a million calories just during hibernation! By the time they wake, they’ve lost about a third of their body weight. Gotta get a snack asap. Their diet is defined by a seasonal cycle. Frist roots, then grass… luckily dude finds a whale carcass which could last him a month. By May fresh meat is on the menu and look at homie run!!! Dumba55 deer kinda thing trips over fallen tree branch. Back to the present. As salmon swim back up the river to spawn in their thousands, the bears make the most of the quantity. Upto a dozen a day in a good salmon year. Looks like they’re playing… come fishy I just wanna swim with you… PSYCHE I wanna bite your head off! Chasing the fish consumes energy but the salmon is rewarding with fat and protein. Lol shot of one bear trying to steal another while third bear seems to console them both… the two still fight and 3rd party takes of with the remaining prize. Ok, if there’s lots of salmon around they’ll only choose to eat the brains and caviar. Better nourishment more calories.

If its not a good salmon year the bear got skills like the pig. It’s smells out things under the sand, like clams. Autumn brings on the berry season and also changes the bears body to be able to eat constantly without feeling full. 200,000 berries A DAY! Shot of bear chasing a hyrax kinda thing darting around. Don’t know weather to laugh or be impressed. I know he can eat without feeling full but chasing such a small thing without feeling a fool? Anyway, again they’re plumped up and ready to snore it off. I think one of the best example of unfussy eaters/opportunists.

Another kinda bear has started his road towards specialization. The sloth bear in India its not fussy for half the year. Dude breaks into a big clay mound for soldier termites. Armed with the apt long nails he busts through the first line of defence. But he wants the larvae. So his mouth has lost its front set of teeth to help suck and hoover the delicacies. Plus at the end of the snout there’s a flap to prevent dirt and dust going in at the same time. Thing is if its gonna be fussy and head this way, danger maybe round the corner just as it was for brother panda. For now its all good coz dude doesn’t mind eating other stuff and termites are all over the joint. Talks about how the bears live with man so like durning the day bear gotta go somewhere else. The bear may not be too happy about land made to feed cattle as it reduces changes of its termitey habitat. Then talks about how man made habitats have made things better for lots of animals.

Which brings us to the city. The extravagant life makes it hard for an animal to make a living. To make a living? Ok, time to get serious, most of you know how important the following topic is to me. Cities have people, where there’s people there’s food and lots of it. A city like the one they show produces around 10,000 tons of waste a day. All that needs to be clean up continiusly or we’d be swimming in it. Lot of time and money is spent to keep things sanitized and clean.

Before we get back to the documentary all I’m saying is… don’t think of how to keep only your little place nice and proper and let the government do their thing with you tax money or whatever other ideal it is. I just makes more sense to cook how much you’re gonna eat, to order just that much, to take responsibility over what you cant finish. Not only food, but paper, clothes… in fact any kinda waste, from talent to thought to speech to even anger, is a shame. Make it all precious.

Back to David in the city. To an animal with good sense of smell food stands out. In a city everything else would seem grey but not food. We may not notice it, but it can become an opportunity for others. Once again raccoons come in the picture. CCTV cameras capture them all over. Bold enough to roam the streets like pedestrians. City raccoons can judge speeds of cars easier than their country cousins, making them less likely to be hit by one. To thwart the raccoons garbage collection has become a 24 hour thing. Remember their inquisitiveness? Well that’s the main factor for loving the city life… especially finding bins, cans, jars, etc. David calls them the American success story. Their population has increased nearly 20 times since 1930’s and their range by 30%. Bears on the other hand have a less subtle approach. Shot of bear breaking into car and jumping through the window. Dude pulls out some loom kinda thing of some kinda meat.

Meanwhile in Britain it’s the red fox that holds the turf. Just 2 hours in the city would show more foxes than a year in the country side. But that’s coz the city can support fox life 10 times more than the country. Their factor is popularity… apparently Britain’s fav and foxy exploited and made the most of it. Lot of folks give the fox hands out. About 60% of its food is free handout. You know how to leave milk for the cat… here its foxes.

Now for the one opportunist that is on the opposite spectrum of popularity. Apparantly you’re within 5 meters of one at all times. There’s probably one beneath you right now. That would rule out the pigeon. Our washing machines drain off and make a suitable environment for it in the sewers. The crocodile. :o) I mean the brown rat. Temperature is good, sometimes food is flushed down. They only have to worry about rise in water level. Lol there’s a shot of rat sensing rise so runs of to its hole grabs baby by the teeth and splits. Has a higher hole to take her babies. Guided by smell, follow routes they’ve tried and tested. Talks about how we set traps and poison for them. But what if we allow them to live unchecked… like the temple in northern India where rats are sacred. The belief is that people died and came back as rats. Normally nocturnal… here they don’t need to be. Normally they become 600 strong and then split up, here they’ve stabilized to 6000.

Finally, over to us. The ultimate mammal that is ready to eat anything. Hehehe. Footage of the Kumbha Mehla. Hindu festival attended by millions of people. Largest gathering for a common cause. Now its mostly vegetarian there but across the world its from veg to hamburgers. Able to control our food, we do not rely on the quantity that occurs naturally anymore. All of which helped us first to dominate the world, then overrun it. What we have in common with the rats, raccoons, bears and foxes… ability to seize an opportunity when we see it.

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