Nature s Nurseries Why Animals Go to Extreme Lengths to Protect Their Babies Documentary 2020

A whole lot of animal babies live on our planet. Even more than adult animals. Life can only exist on Earth when species reproduce. But raising animal offspring is a lot of work for all the parents. How do various species manage to get their young off to a safe and independent start? An adult male wild boar. During the mating season in winter, he foams at the mouth. Hardly any animal dares to approach him. Even the piglets born early in the year stay out of the muscle man's way. The sow can defend herself against practically every opponent. She doesn't need a hiding place to feed her young. The piglets depend on their mother for more than six months. In the deep, cold winter forest, she provides the little ones with much more than just food. She's also a playground. And most importantly, she provides the tiny piglets with security. Once they're fed, they have nothing more to worry about. Two teenagers are skirmishing nearby. Now even the most experienced wild boar mother prefers to retreat. The little ones just know that they have to follow their mom. In the field next to the forest, there are more frisky animal babies to be found. They're no smaller than the wild boar piglets, but they're well hidden. Below ground, seven red fox cubs disturb their mother's sleep. The vixen can't protect her offspring as well as the wild boar sow can protect hers, so she hides them deep below the surface. Fox pups have a lot of enemies out there. The vixen also had this many pups last year. A female fox is sexually mature when she's two years old. During the course of her life, several dozen young foxes will leave the maternal den. This litter is now a bit more than one month old. The cubs spent their first weeks of life completely underground. Now they explore their world, taking in sounds, smells and movements. The fox pups are carefree. Unlike the wild boar mother though, their mother is not always nearby. With every trip out into the bright, colourful world, they learn valuable life skills. The vixen used her quiet time alone in the den to get some rest. Now she sets out to hunt, since her young increasingly need solid food in addition to milk. But before she goes off, she nurses her young outside the den one more time. How long she stays away depends on how successful her hunt is. She won't take her pups along. They stay close to the den, where they can retreat in case of danger. Earthworms and mice are the fox's main diet. But perhaps the vixen will find something special today. Something that will fill all the bellies in the den. The young ones retreat to their underground shelter in the late afternoon. There are things to do here as well, like sharpening one's teeth and chewing. Their mother has been successful. She found a dead piglet. The head is missing, but the rest is still there. This means full pup bellies and lots of energy for the little ones to grow on. But transporting her find is hard work. In an open living space without cover, like the fox's meadow or this field of grain, the inhabitants have to be creative to raise their offspring successfully. The common quail's nest so far only contains a few spotted eggs and some dry stalks. The female quail will only start brooding when she's laid a dozen eggs. Somebody else lives in this field. A European hamster. Even before the quail starts brooding, it has discovered the clutch of eggs and sneakily plunders it. Hamsters are not purely vegetarian. They need animal protein when they're about to start a family. The hamster has taken precise note of the quail nest's location. And it's an opportunist. It doesn't just help itself to the eggs. It steals the entire nest of dry stalks. After all, it can always use padding material itself. There are more bird nests on the ground in the field. Most of the nests don't end up getting plundered or run over, so it's worthwhile for birds like the peawit to brood like this. The little ringed plover also lays its eggs right on bare ground. The gravel bank provides perfect camouflage. While one of the parent birds is keeping watch, the young have hatched. They roll around the gravel on the riverbank like fluffy feather balls. Though they are able to feed themselves right from the start, they need the older birds to protect and warm them if necessary. On the quail's and hamster's field, colourful wildflowers have blossomed. The little hamsters are busy in their burrow. Their main tasks are sleeping, playing and drinking milk. They're safe here, way down underground, aren't they? This fellow just loves hamsters. For dinner. The red fox has a superior sense of smell and it leads it directly to the hamster's burrow. But digging so deep isn't worth the effort. The mini hamsters can go on playing. And when they get hungry, they stuff themselves with the delicacies their mother has collected in the field. Hamsters mainly leave their burrows at dusk. Though the fox is also on the prowl, at least many dangerous birds of prey are not a threat then. The mother dares to go out first. Then her cubs also venture to the surface. Their little noses point the way. When they smell danger, they flee. One of nature's principles is that animals protect their young as best they can for as long as they can. It's not only mammals that follow this principle. A bird's nesting box in a forest. But it's not the home of baby birds. Beige-coloured cardboard seems to be bulging out of it. This is the work of several hundred hornets that selected the box as their home and expanded it with plant fibres when it got too small. Inside, it looks a bit like a beehive. Though the combs, which are built in layers, are made not of wax but of chewed-up plant fibres. The hornet larvae, which look like extra-large maggots, each have their own comb. The workers of the hornet hive feed and clean them. Empty combs are cleaned and refilled. Several hundred hornet larvae peak hungrily and, maybe curiously, out of their cardboard tubes. All 500 hornets in the bird nesting box possess the same genetic information as the queen. The workers themselves have no offspring. It is enough for them if they ensure the continuation of their mother's genetic make-up. The hornets need a lot of food for their larvae and themselves. They bite into branches and shoots to collect the sugary liquids that ooze out. And they hunt wasps and other insects as sources of protein. Not only farmland, fields and forests serve as nurseries for nature. Every habitat does. Above and below the water surface. Some species deliberately make their way to shallow water during floods. The pike, for example. This is where male and female pike meet. In depths where the water hardly covers a full-grown pike. If they come to an agreement on family planning, they repeatedly emit spurts of milk and roe into the water. But why here and not somewhere deep down in the lake? The water is warm in the flooded area. Here, not only the pike's eggs develop well. Countless aquatic insects, snails and small crabs are now also multiplying. Some pounce on the young pike that are just hatching from the eggs. But the mini-pike also find plenty to eat here. Much more than out in the lake. Other fish's eggs are highly interesting. But the little pike themselves fall victim to predators like this water beetle larva. The little pike never see their parents again. The strategy of this species of fish is to produce a large number of young. 100,000 or more per female per year. A few will probably make it through. How many of them will return to the lake's deep waters as powerful predators is uncertain. But not all fish leave their offspring to their own devices. In small and clean streams lives a rare fish that cares touchingly for its young. First, the black male bullhead lures a female into the cave that he has dug out under a stone in shallow water. Then the two spawn and stick gold-colored bullhead eggs to the ceiling of the cave. All intruders are chased off. Even the harmless stone loach is not allowed near the nest. The egg deposition continues. The stone crayfish, which lives in the same clear stream, already has eggs. The female crayfish carries the eggs with her for seven months. Many animals live in the stream. The male bullhead drives them all away from the area near his cave. The father fish defends his clutch for two whole weeks. Then the little bullfish hatch from the eggs. They live off their yolk sac for a while. As soon as they can swim, they're ready to stand on their own fins. And the male fish's paternal care comes to an end. Not only fish prefer the comfort of a water body to have their young. The nests of many bird species float not in, but on the water. Anchored in the vegetation, the clutch cannot be washed away. And here, the eggs have a good chance of not being stolen. The fox is observing everything from the riverbank. Black coots engage in wing-to-wing combat over territory. The best breeding spots are fiercely contested. Neither is prepared to surrender. The battles for nesting sites are not a game. The stronger black coot tries to drown his opponent. At some point, the weaker pair gives up and takes off. The winners swim towards the nest. The others take comfort in a snack. Black coots love zebra mussels, but they're hard to harvest. The winners are back in the nest. All their eggs are still there. The fox isn't fond of water and hasn't tried to approach the nest yet. The border area between water and land is a safe haven for many animals. Mainly reeds grow here. The ground is always wet. Too wet for many predators who come here from the land. Flying predators like the marsh harrier value the reeds as a place for their chicks. Even though they are birds of prey themselves, they still need a safe hiding place for their offspring. Because they too have enemies. In the reeds, on the swaying ground, the marsh harrier's chicks are reasonably safe while the parent birds are out hunting. Many different species have become specialised in making their home on the banks of rivers, streams and lakes. A little bird flits through the reeds catching insects. It's a marsh warbler. And it has an extremely hungry chick at home. Hungrier than any chick it's ever had. A huge baby. It's a cuckoo. A brood parasite that relies on parents of other bird species for food and accommodation. Both marsh warblers do their best to fill up the alien offspring. But it's not so easy with this glutton. Nearby, little bitterns have their nest in the reeds. They don't have to care for someone else's brood, but their own numerous offspring. Their main task now is to turn the eggs and to keep them and the already hatched chicks warm. The cuckoo grows and grows. By now, it's bigger than its two adoptive parents together. The little bittern's chicks also seem to be permanently hungry. The male regurgitates fish and tadpoles. Energy rich food for the little bittern brood. The little bittern is the smallest domestic species of heron. The male bird is smaller than a crow. He has handed over his provisions. Now he heads out to hunt some more. Very slowly, so that predators don't notice the nest. The male bird has caught a marsh frog tadpole. Marsh frogs have numerous offspring themselves, so the loss is negligible. His crop is full. Food for the little ones has been secured for now. The little bittern's chicks have a hard time keeping still. They're well camouflaged, but they're only invisible if they don't move too much. The little cuckoo no longer fits into the warbler nest. He never stops begging, and the duped foster parents do their best. The male little bittern is anxious. Something, or someone, is approaching the nest. The female returns. The little bittern parents take turns and work non-stop. Otherwise, they would never fill the bellies of their chicks. Now the male goes off to hunt again. It's a full-time job. The cuckoo invests less work in its offspring. It mostly spies on various songbirds and flies off at just the right moment to lay another egg in someone else's nest. Not only birds make their home in the reed bed. The harvest mouse has a prehensile tail. It can hold on so tight that it can harvest fibres off the plants in the reed jungle. With its little front paws, it splices material to build and anchor its ball nest. Inside the nest, her bean-sized young lie well-protected, waiting for their tiny mouse mother to come in and feed them. Other animals have chosen to live and reproduce on the ground floor of the floodplain. This scene seems rather peculiar. One part of the water snake is moving, while the rest is not. Its jerky body movements indicate excitement. It's not just one snake that's sunning itself inconspicuously on the pile of branches. When the sun and therefore the temperatures rise, the reptiles come to life. A male has cosied up to the larger female. These harmless snakes can invest hours in their courtship. Lovemaking without any arms and legs. On the bank of the little stream, a different kind of animal is already a bit further along in its courtship. Blue lights seem to be flickering over the stream. These are beautiful demoiselles, which mate over the water and lay their eggs underneath the surface. The males dart at every moving object, chasing each other. They dance around each other, always on the lookout for a female who is willing to mate. They scour the entire carpet of aquatic plants, the females' preferred place to deposit her eggs. The females wisely withdraw and simply submerge, as though they were fish. Without pressure from the males, the female demoiselle can insert the eggs in the stems of water plants, one at a time. The beautiful demoiselle larvae later hatch and live in the water buttercup. They look like twigs, for camouflage. But clever birds like the grey wagtail can still spot them. Grey wagtails also hunt and breed alongside the stream. Depending on how wide or narrow the water is, very different kinds of animals and their young can be found. A female fire salamander. She comes here every year, like many other fire salamanders. Near the source of the stream, the water is very shallow. Salamanders are not good swimmers. Since no fish that might pose a threat to young salamanders live here in this rivulet, the female chooses the shallow water to be the nursery for her offspring. In an extraordinary procedure for amphibians, fire salamanders bear live young. Beforehand, they develop for nine months in eggs inside the mother's body. During the birth process, the embryonic membrane bursts and the little salamanders can swim right off. By contrast, baby water snakes must first fight their way through a tough leathery eggshell, which they have to slit open with a sharp protrusion on their nose. It's an incredible effort. Once hatched, the little water snakes are on their own. The mother snake hid her egg clutch among rotting plant material. That was the end of her parental care. The heat caused by the plant's decomposition incubated the eggs. Sometimes the smallest animals invest the greatest effort into their brood. On loamy walls, there lives a hymenoptera that is named for its method of constructing its nest, the spiny mason wasp. The female digs a hatching tunnel into the wall with side chambers. She chews the excavated material with water and builds a tube in front of the entrance. Excess waste material is thrown out. However, her work isn't done once she has completed the tunnel. Deep inside, the spiny mason wasp lays tiny eggs, one in each chamber. She continues working on the tunnel system a bit longer and flies off to go hunting. Though her offspring are well protected behind the clay wall, many dangers lie in wait for the mother. She has caught a snout beetle larva, the only food young mason wasps eat. One beetle larva for each egg is packed in each chamber. This wasp is done taking care of her offspring. Even if only some of the breeding chambers have been supplied with provisions. Next year, other spiny mason wasps will dig holes again. Eat or being eaten is an inevitable part of life. This is why many animals stay with their offspring for a long time, like the eagle owl. It watches over its chicks to prevent them from being preyed upon and eaten. At this age, the young eagle owls haven't needed the warmth of their parents for a long time. But protection from enemies that could come to the nest at any time is vital. These black storks have three young. Most years they have four. The chicks repeatedly fall victim to birds of prey or die due to harsh weather conditions. There are some bird species that usually raise an only child. The principle is always the same. All animal parents have their own strategy to preserve their genetic material in the form of their offspring, to pass on the baton of life. The more resilient animals are, and the fewer enemies they have to fear, the lower is the number of offspring they have. As with the golden eagle. It's not only predators that pose a threat. A cold rain can also endanger an eagle chick, with its downy plumage that is very wet sensitive. The same applies to the black stork. Mammals take particularly good care of their young. Like the eagle and the black stork, they spend a lot of time near their offspring, long after they're well fed, just to protect them. That way, these kittens with the paintbrush ears can play freely while they learn for life. Things like stalking, jumping, biting, and all the other important things. And when they get hungry, their food is never far away. Nursing with milk, a unique invention of mammals. But why do even species like the lynx, that can protect their cubs so well, have several young every year? The mortality rate even of resilient mammals is high during their first year of life. And the number of young in a litter is aligned with these losses. Lynxes are perfectly prepared for their lives as loners. Always well fed, closely guarded, and well trained. So lynxes should actually be frequently found in our forests. This calf couldn't grow up in a better place. In the middle of a herd, also well guarded and protected. There's plenty of mother's milk and juicy grass. Yet the European bison was wiped out in most of its natural range centuries ago. Nowadays, there are individual initiatives to reintroduce them. These creatures, on the other hand, are more frequent than ever. And they multiply excessively. Wild boars. They have many young and are the strongest in the forest. They're not particularly sensitive to wet and cold. When they venture into cornfields beyond the forest at night, they find more food than is natural. And they no longer have natural enemies here. Too many wild boars in the forest also means diseases can break out and other animals and plants can suffer. The same is true for all animals on earth. Whether spiny mason wasps or wild boars, no more than two of their young may survive. Otherwise, at some point, the world would be full of wild boars or spiny mason wasps. A wide variety of animal species have so many young only because there are so many dangers lurking. The more diseases and predators lie in wait, the more offspring they need. And because some species are food for others, this is the way things should be. Eating and being eaten keeps the circle of life in balance. Millions of animal species have existed across seemingly endless periods of time. And have neither disappeared nor flooded the planet. This is one of the great natural wonders of our earth.