Episode 4 Blow Your Mind

BOTH: We are Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken.

-And we're tracking down the most awesome...

-incredible...

BOTH: ..living things in the universe!

BOTH: Come with us and discover unbelievable things

that will blow your mind!

Blow Your Mind will bring you top experts in unbelievable stuff

from icebergs to elephants,

spaceships to sharks,

and this week it's all about amazing animals.

So hold on to your brains, here's what's coming up!

Today we meet animals that do more than talk to each other.

There's chimps that tell little white lies,

elephants that get upset,

and dolphins that ask for help.

OK, Chris, I'm going to administer a lie-detector test to you. Ready?

-Yes.

-First question - what is your full name?

-Christoffer Randolpho van Tulleken.

-Amazingly, that is true.

Second - what is the most mind-blowing show on TV?

Blow Your Mind on CBBC.

Exactly right. Third question - how old are you?

I am 15 years old.

Chris, I'm your identical twin brother,

you can't expect me to believe that.

-OK, well, don't tell everyone how old I am.

-OK.

Look, I can spot a lie from my twin brother,

but there are some amazing animals

that have learned to lie just like us humans.

How do I know you're not lying about that?

I'll prove it. Check out what happened when Chris Packham

visited our nearest animal relative, the chimpanzee.

Chimps, like humans, understand they can benefit

from situations where they know something the others don't.

It means chimps can get one up on their friends.

Chris Packham is off to the Yerkes primate centre in Atlanta, USA,

to meet some cheeky chimps who like to lie each other.

Chimp expert Frans de Waal calls it chimpanzee politics.

He and his team have set up an ingenious experiment to show

how a weaker, low-ranking animal

can trick a stronger, more dominant high-ranking member

of the same group.

What we do here is we hide food.

One knows where the food is hidden,

the other doesn't know where the food is hidden.

Then we see how they manipulate the relationship in order to get

-the food.

-So, how do you do that?

You show an animal food, then hide it in the enclosure, I take it.

We show a low-ranking female where food is hidden,

then we release her together with a high-ranking female

who doesn't know anything.

Then the low-ranking one can wait

until the other one is gone or distracted,

she can also mislead the other one - lead her in a wrong direction -

in order to get the food in time.

Today we're testing Missy and Rita.

Rita, the stronger, more dominant chimp comes out first.

If she knew where the banana was, she'd just help herself.

But only Missy, the weaker or subordinate female,

saw the banana being hidden under the red tube.

Missy's also aware that Rita has no idea where the banana is.

In other words, she realises

Rita has a different understanding of the situation they are in.

Missy notices Rita is getting close to the food,

so she tries to act "I'm not bothered"

so that Rita won't suspect the food is hidden there.

Rita now wanders off - "That's good, off you go, nothing to see."

And when she's far enough away...

Missy goes for the banana!

She successfully tricked Rita.

Frans has observed this behaviour in chimps,

but it is not common in other animals.

That kind of deception is not so typical.

I think dolphins are probably capable of it,

and maybe elephants.

But you need a large brain, I think, to do this kind of thing.

So, that's amazing.

Missy pretending she didn't know anything about the banana until Rita was out of sight,

and then she went and got it. Clever girl.

Well, I don't think you'd fool ME the way Missy fooled Rita.

Well, actually, Xand, the joke's on you!

Because this squashed, mouldy, overripe, half-eaten banana

has been hidden behind the set the entire series,

and now I get to eat it!

Is this guy really my twin brother?!

But living in a social group

is not just about trickery and lies.

Frans also wanted to test if animals had a sense of right and wrong,

and see how they would react

if they thought they were being treated unfairly.

Normally, you would think

the only thing an animal should care about

is what do I get for my task - I work, I get rewards.

But no - they compare it with what the other one is getting.

Frans began the fairness test with a capuchin monkey.

These small, clever animals are kept in large enclosures,

but for the short duration of the test, they are brought into a lab.

Each monkey carries out a simple task

and when both get a reward of cucumber, everyone's happy.

But watch what happens

when the one on the right receives a grape instead.

Grapes are so much better than cucumber,

and the one that gets cucumber gets really emotionally upset

that the other one is getting grapes.

In chimpanzees, things go actually a little bit further,

and it gets very close to human sense of fairness in that

the one who gets grapes also gets upset sometimes,

and sometimes waits till the other one ALSO gets a grape.

So it's very close to the human sense of fairness.

So, the one that is getting the better reward

refuses to take the reward until the other animal is being similarly...

-Yeah, yeah.

-..rewarded with the good stuff?

Yeah. That's in chimpanzees.

It's never been found in another animal,

but the chimpanzee goes much further

in that they care about reward division,

even if they are on the better end of the scale.

So, if one chimp is given a grape and the other isn't,

-they BOTH get annoyed, because they don't think it's fair.

-Exactly.

-It's like if I was given a nice piece of chocolate cake...

-Wow!

..and then I gave you a nasty bowl of yucky colds beans.

-Hey, that's not fair!

-Exactly. So I'd refuse to eat my chocolate cake,

until you ALSO had a nice piece of chocolate cake.

Wow. How did you do that?

Now, there are other animals that also have emotional reactions

to things - check out these amazing elephants.

Oh.

Chris Packham is back at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

The elephants here in Kenya show an emotional reaction

that's nearly impossible to believe.

It's moving and sad,

but also completely extraordinary.

The elephants appear to get upset when they think other elephants -

even elephants they don't know - have died.

If we put this skull down in between the two jawbones.

To capture this reaction, Chris and Karen McComb

are creating a miniature elephant graveyard.

They're putting some old elephant bones found in this area

in the path of an approaching herd.

Now all they do is observe.

Stop here a minute.

-CHRIS:

-Looks like they might be interested, Karen.

-Yep.

I think we've definitely got the beginnings of a reaction.

The male is swinging his trunk towards the skulls and the jawbones.

Some of the younger females are starting to respond as well.

They've picked up the whiff of the skulls.

Is this the skull of an animal they know?

Coincidently, there are bones...

There is a jawbone of a female they would have definitely...

Some of this family would have definitely come across in real life.

-They're going towards it now, look.

-Yeah, wow.

'A few animals, including chimpanzees,

'will be curious towards the corpse of a companion -

'touching and investigating the body.

'But only elephants take an interest in the skulls and bones

'of their own kind long after death.

But maybe the elephants aren't upset, maybe they're just curious

about new objects that appear in their way.

Well, let's take a closer look.

Now we're really starting to get reaction.

We've got the females clustering in around the skull,

touching the jawbones - all the trunks are coming in at once.

Stretching in all at the same time, yeah.

See the ends of the trunks are moist?

That is enhancing the scent they're getting.

It's a very intensely social thing,

this approaching the skulls.

They're not just going up as single individuals,

they're coming round as a group -

the matriarch in the core of the group,

and everyone is together, reaching in their trunks

and feeling the skulls.

Just to qualify - you have tried this with inanimate objects,

and other skulls.

In the sense that they're not responding to any object

that we put in their path?

-Or responding to our scent, either?

-No. No way. No way.

They're specifically giving these responses to elephant skulls and ivory.

They pick out the long dead remains of their own species

and show it this intense interest.

You wouldn't see that in any other species, except for humans.

It would be amazing to know what was going on in their heads

when they do that.

"Penny for your thoughts."

Penny?! I'd offer millions!

Reluctantly, the young male turns away

and goes off to follow the rest of the family.

Those elephants seemed genuinely moved investigating

the bones of the dead.

What's really interesting for these researchers

is that the elephants do seem to understand the idea of death.

Those bones mean that an elephant has died

and, just like humans would, they get upset.

It makes me think about elephants in a completely different way.

There are other animals, too, that also have human-style emotions.

This bit of footage from Hawaii really is mind-blowing.

-CHRIS:

-In early 2013, a remarkable incident was filmed off Hawaii.

A male dolphin had got fishing line and a hook caught on its body.

Without anything being done,

he might well have died.

But the dolphin swims into a group of divers.

Now, think about it.

This animal must know that he's in danger.

Might he also realise that the humans,

instead of harming him, could actually help him?

In other words, could this dolphin be taking a calculated risk

that these people will show pity for his plight?

It's a very difficult question to answer,

but the good news is that the dolphin survived.

Perhaps an extraordinary example

of empathy crossing the species barrier.

That was totally mind-blowing.

Yeah. It's incredible to think that that dolphin realised

he was in danger and needed help

and chose to approach humans,

hoping that they would help them rather than attack him.

So, we've seen in both dolphins and elephants

not just human behaviours, but human emotions. It's incredible.

Next time there is even more amazing stuff coming up.

We'll meet a pooch with an incredible superpower.

And a real live dog that can... tell the time...?!

So, join us next time to...