Episode 1 Animals in Love

Millions of us watch clips of animals showing what looks like friendship,

affection and even love towards each other.

But what really lies at the heart of these behaviours?

For centuries, it was thought animals didn't share the same emotions as us.

But new research is changing all that.

# Ain't no mountain high enough... #

I'm Liz Bonnin and I'm going on a worldwide journey...

Look at that!

..to find out about these extraordinary animal relationships.

Hello, my darling!

These animals, definitely, without a doubt,

show genuine emotion to each other.

I think my heart has just broken.

I'll meet the scientists who have devoted their lives

to understanding these remarkable bonds.

There is a commitment there that goes beyond their own life.

I want to discover if animals are capable of the same emotions

we experience.

I can't help laughing!

And along the way, I'm going to try and find an answer

to the biggest question of all...

Do animals love?

# My love is alive deep down in my heart

# Although we are miles apart

# If you ever need a helping hand

# I'll be there on the double just as fast as I can

# Don't you know there ain't no mountain high enough... #

I'm starting my journey in the forests of central Africa.

I've come to the Democratic Republic of Congo

because I've heard about a great ape that may just hold the secret

to long-lasting happy relationships.

They're called bonobos.

Bonobos, along with chimpanzees, are our closest living relatives.

We share 98.6% of our genetic information with them.

I'm told these close cousins of ours could teach us a thing or two

about how to build strong bonds.

It's something every bonobo learns from a very young age.

Dr Isabel Behncke is one of the few scientists in the world

who's studied bonobos in the wild.

You're a curious one!

I'm meeting her at Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa.

Hello. You must be Liz.

The infants here are all rescued orphans.

They've had a difficult start in life

but each of them has a devoted foster mother,

who will care for their every need.

How important is it to match the right maman to the right bonobo?

Is that really vital for the relationship to thrive?

It is vital. It is like connecting with a child.

These women are incredible and very loving.

And these guys couldn't make it as they do without the mamans.

It's hard to focus on what you're saying right now.

-I think my heart has just broken...

-I'm OK with that.

..in two pieces, just looking at this beautiful little thing.

I'm OK with that. Yeah.

# Baby love, my baby love

# I need your love... #

The mamans, as they're known here,

will spend the five years

helping the infants to develop their social skills.

It's vital they learn how to build bonds,

so they can eventually be released

into the sanctuary's larger adult group.

# Baby love, my baby love... #

To do that, like any bonobo mother,

they encourage the little ones to play...

# My whole life through... #

..form friendships with each other...

..and, above all else, they shower them with love.

# I get this need... #

Experiencing affection is an important part of their development.

As adults, bonobos are extremely tactile.

Touch helps to cement those close relationships.

The dictum of bonobo society is good relationships,

strong relationships.

Another way of looking at bonobos is as the Peter Pan of the great apes.

Bonobos are the eternally young ape.

They retain juvenile characteristics, they keep young.

Bonobos share more with others,

they show less aggression.

They are young at heart,

whatever their age.

To see that playful side in action,

Isabel and I are joining the infants

for their daily bout of rough and tumble.

Play is a vital building block of bonobo relationships.

It's so important that they continue to play as adults

and that's unusual in the animal kingdom.

But bonobos do something even more surprising.

To demonstrate that,

we've found ourselves a little volunteer.

And in the name of science, we're going to tickle him.

Tickle, tickle, tickle!

Tickle, tickle, tickle!

See that?

MAKES CHUCKLING NOISES

Look at her face!

Scientists have only recently discovered that laughter

is not unique to humans.

I can't help laughing!

Just like us, for bonobos, laughter is a form of communication.

And what laughter is doing,

it's a signal that tells other individuals

I want to continue playing with you.

I want to continue interacting with you.

In humans, for example,

conversations that have laughter last longer.

If we share a bout of laughter, we feel bonded, we feel relaxed.

It really is a booster to that internal motivation,

like, yeah, this is wonderful, let's keep doing it.

Play is a safe way to test the boundaries of a relationship

and that helps to build an incredibly tolerant society.

Juvenile!

Oh, my God!

We lost the boom!

That's a naughty bonobo!

In the wild, play makes all the difference.

While chimps can be extremely aggressive towards each other,

bonobos generally seem to get along.

We've never observed lethal aggression.

We've never observed a bonobo kill another bonobo.

And that is very special, that's very different,

because that happens in chimpanzees

and that happens in other primates as well.

Another thing that makes bonobos different from every other great ape

is that their society is run by females.

Their approach to leadership involves a strict

"make love, not war" policy.

Adult bonobos have very open relationships,

which involve a lot of sex.

It's a win-win situation.

Males don't have to fight for female attention.

And with so much physical contact, everyone is much more relaxed.

But is there any more to it than that?

Can we go as far as saying that the bonds involve love?

It depends what you mean by love.

If you mean human-like, romantic, monogamous love, no.

I would say no.

Now, if you mean the core of love

which, to me, is about protection,

and is about the physiological machinery of love,

I don't see why we wouldn't call that love.

Love is ancient.

Love was born approximately 250 million years ago

in a very small primitive mammal and her kid.

Mother-infant bond.

Something so old

is likely to remain and prevail all the mammalian species.

Especially great apes, who are highly-bonded.

Witnessing such a harmonious way of life

in an animal that is our closest cousin,

does make you stop and think.

By building strong relationships,

they've ended up with one of the most peaceful societies on the planet.

While it's the females who can take much of the credit in bonobo society,

for other animals, the success of a group is centred around

the relationship of just one couple.

I've travelled 2,000 miles south of the Congo to meet one such pair.

They live here in South Africa's Kwazulu-Natal.

The couple I've come to see are only just starting out.

I want to find out what it will take

to make their relationship a success.

Axel Primmer and Taryn Gilroy have been tracking this pair

since they first got together.

Straight, Axel!

Right in the road in front of us. Yeah. I can see them all, yeah.

Oh, well, there you have it...

Look at that!

Sorry, I just can't get over what we're seeing here, we're so lucky.

So, there they are.

Feather, followed closely by Aladdin,

the alpha pair of this eight-strong pack of African wild dogs.

To see African wild dogs in the flesh is a real privilege.

It's thought there may only be 3,000 left in the wild,

making them one of the most endangered mammals in Africa.

Aladdin, the alpha male, wears the radio collar.

But it really is quiet fascinating to watch the alpha pair always together.

Always together.

The male is constantly tailing behind her, wherever she goes.

Aladdin and Feather have only been together for four months,

but they're already off to a flying start.

Feather is visibly pregnant.

But even though he has now done the job,

she is pregnant with his pups,

he doesn't leave her side for one minute.

# I've got sunshine on a cloudy day

# When it's cold outside... #

It's unusual for an alpha male to be so attentive at this stage.

Aladdin seems to be a particularly devoted partner.

# I guess you'd say

# What can make me feel this way? #

Taryn has been monitoring Feather and Aladdin's progress from the start.

So, tell me about how Aladdin and Feather behave with each other,

as the alpha pair.

We've often seen him with his chin resting on her rear end

and just following her around.

And she's been observed sleeping with his paw on her at night.

It's typical. It's what we call mate-guarding behaviour.

He's looking after her,

he's making sure that she's fit and healthy.

Once she's pregnant, he continues to follow her.

Even though he's already done his job and fathered her litter.

And I think that's his way of ensuring that his litter of pups

survives and is healthy.

Aladdin and Feather look like a solid couple.

And that's good news for everyone else in the group

because, as the alpha pair,

it's their job to provide the pack with new pups.

So, is that it?

Are they completely established and their roles are determined

and everything's hunky-dory with the whole pack?

Well, so far, so good.

The key will be how successful they are

at raising that litter of pups as a pack.

The success of a pack always depends on their reproductive success.

So, how well they work together to successfully rear their young.

So, they're not home free?

Not at all. Not at all.

So, whenever you get a new alpha pair,

it doesn't mean anything

until they've successfully reared their first litter?

-Their first litter.

-Oh, gosh, no pressure.

Fortunately, for Aladdin and Feather,

the rest of the group will be there to lend a helping hand.

The other adult females are Feather's sisters

and the males come from different packs.

Here come the rest behind us.

It's one big, happy family,

where everyone pitches in.

Feather's older sister, Batty,

is the lead hunter.

By sharing the workload, the pack runs like a well-oiled machine.

The wildebeest are chasing here.

He's gone in. He's gone in.

The others have... Oh...!

Well, most of the time.

So, you've got wildebeest chasing the wild dogs.

What's wrong with that picture?

When Aladdin and Feather's pups are born,

everyone will help to feed and protect them.

Here, bigger families do better.

If the pack doesn't grow in size,

they'll struggle to defend themselves and their territory.

The survival of this endangered species

rests on the shoulders of couples like Feather and Aladdin.

And having seen how close they are, you can't help but root for them.

Relying on your nearest and dearest to help raise your young

is a tactic used by many other couples in the animal kingdom.

So, how does an alpha pair make sure it's their young

that get all the attention?

To answer that, I'm going to the Isle of Wight,

to meet an incredibly rare primate.

So, these little monkeys,

weighing no more than half a kilo,

are cotton-top tamarins,

for obvious reasons.

And they're critically endangered.

The only place they can still be found in the wild

is a tiny part of Columbia.

The leaders of this boisterous bunch are a couple called Carlos and Maria.

They've been together five years and have five offspring,

the latest of which is just a few months old.

Tierney Smith has been caring for this family for the last year.

What are Carlos and Maria like as a couple?

Like most tamarins,

they do have that really strong bond with each other.

They are both quite a dominant pair

and it's nice to see them work as a team

to kind of keep their family in check.

And do Maria and Carlos have

very specific, like, personalities, anyway, of their own?

He's more expressive, like, with his face.

He'll frown at new things.

He'll wade in and he'll want to check everything out.

Maria, she'll check things out from afar.

She'll let her family go in

and she likes to survey the area, just check there's no threats

and, if there is, she's in a position to call to them.

Family is hugely important to these little monkeys.

In the wild, raising young is so demanding

that, just like African wild dogs,

the whole family has to pitch in.

And tamarins have a very effective way of making sure

they get the help they need...

And it's all down to some pretty clever tactics

on the dominant female's part.

When Maria is ready to get pregnant,

she'll scent mark more than anyone else.

And that's because hormones in her urine

can temporarily stop the other females in the group

from getting pregnant.

This ensures that there are plenty of helpers when her babies are born.

But it's not all about the little ones.

Tamarin couples are extremely close

and once again, this is very much related to hormones.

Carlos and Maria spend a lot of time grooming and cuddling

and that's the secret of their strong relationship.

Scientists have discovered

that tamarin pairs who show a lot of affection towards each other

have higher levels of oxytocin,

also known as the love hormone.

It's the same hormone that helps human couples to bond

and it's found in many other mammals.

# Oh, my darling babe, I

# I can't get enough of your love, babe... #

Oxytocin is nature's way of helping us to stay together,

reinforcing the connection we have with our partner.

# My darling, I

# Can't get enough of your love, babe

# Oh, no, babe... #

Showing affection to your partner

is an important part of any relationship.

# Oh, my darling babe, I... #

But, when it comes to kissing,

there's a lot more going on than you might think.

I've travelled to Colorado to meet Dr Jennifer Verdolin.

Jennifer has spent years studying North American prairie dogs.

And there's one behaviour she's fascinated by.

She's been trying to figure out

why they spend so much time locking lips.

They do this a lot.

Almost inevitably, when two prairie dogs come together,

they will greet kiss.

It will happen between males and males,

females and other females,

mothers and their offspring.

In saliva, you find all kinds of chemicals.

You find pheromones, you get information about hormone levels.

And so, between males, they could be evaluating

the testosterone load of another male.

And between males and females,

the males might be able to detect whether or not

a female is receptive to mating.

So, it's not the similar kissing behaviour

that humans exhibit when they kiss.

Are there any similarities at all?

There are. I mean, a lot of times,

we think about our kissing behaviour in terms of giving affection.

And certainly, it does.

But, there's a whole cascade of chemicals that happen when we kiss

and it's thought that we're getting information

about how good a quality mate this particular individual is

when we kiss.

And do we know how this kissing behaviour might have evolved?

One idea is that it might have evolved as a way

for mothers and offspring to share information about what to eat.

So, passing food from mother to offspring.

And then, like any behaviour,

it can become adapted to serve different functions.

So, not only for learning what to eat,

as it might also happen in prairie dogs,

but information, or bonding, maintaining those bonds,

not just between mother and infant, but between pair bonds.

For us, kissing is such an intimate thing.

And what's remarkable is that it has so many different purposes.

But what I really want to find out

is if there's an emotional side to animal relationships.

I am travelling deep into the Austrian Alps

to meet a couple who seemed destined to be together.

Dr Didone Frigerio is a biologist

from the world-famous Konrad Lorenz research group.

They've been studying this flock of greylag geese

for more than 40 years.

Greylag geese are known for having

particularly strong long-term relationships.

But I'm here to find out about a pair

who really captured Didone's heart.

Their names are Tarek and Judith.

And they met eight years ago.

They were together for three years without being success.

That means they didn't have goslings together.

So, is that a bit unusual that they would stay together for three years,

even though they didn't rear young together?

No, is not unusual.

There are many pairs within the flock, who never reproduce.

And yet, they stay together?

Yes, they stay together for years.

And then what happened?

And then it was winter, it was January

and there came a storm

and Judith was gone.

She got lost in the storm.

Judith's sudden disappearance meant Tarek was now alone.

When a mate are losing their partner,

they are laying around a lot,

they are feeding less.

They are not joining the social life of the flock.

Yeah, I would say they are quite depressed.

Without a partner, Tarek was vulnerable.

You have to imagine a pair is a social unit.

And they are supporting each other.

And when they are left alone, for sure, they are an easy target.

And everybody else in the flock is attacking him,

biting him, and chasing him.

Having been alone for months,

Tarek eventually began a new relationship

with another female in the flock.

His luck had finally turned

and Tarek was back to his old self.

The breeding season was only a few weeks away

and there was every hope he would finally start a family

with his new partner.

But fate had other plans for Tarek.

Almost a year after they were tragically separated by a storm,

Judith returned.

And Tarek's reaction was quite extraordinary.

Tarek was going back to Judith.

That's quiet incredible, isn't it? Because...

-It's hard.

-Like you... It's hard.

It's hard. Well, it depends from which point of view.

But it just goes to show, as you say, life goes on.

Biology is such that Tarek needs to find a new mate.

But something in Tarek

made him want to be with Judith above his new mate.

What do you think was going on there?

Yeah, I think it is experience and how strong the pair bond was.

They were a good pair. They were good match.

It's fascinating to think about it.

And whatever...

You know, because we can never get into the head of a goose,

to know what Tarek was thinking.

What's absolutely clear

-is that the strength of the bond he had with Judith...

-Yes.

..was strong enough for him to go, "She's back. She's the one.

"I'm going back to her."

-Yes, I think so.

-Love that story.

So... So, this is them?

Yeah, this is them.

As you can see on the right, the bigger one is Tarek.

So, Tarek, Judith...

And four goslings.

The one here on the right is Tarek.

And you can see he is watching and keeping everything under control.

And this is the second year they've bred successfully?

-And actually reared successfully, more to the point?

-Yes. Yes.

It was totally worth getting back together, wasn't it?

Yeah, of course.

The story of Tarek and Judith really is heart-warming

and raises many intriguing questions.

If it was simply a matter of survival,

then why didn't Tarek just stay with his new partner?

Why was he so compelled to be with Judith?

Could it possibly have been love?

Professor Kurt Kotrschal from the University of Vienna

has spent decades studying the long-term bonds

between greylag geese.

I want to find out if he thinks there's an emotional side

to Tarek and Judith's relationship.

Do geese have emotions, then?

Well, it's a difficult thing to know

because, as a scientist,

I'm not supposed to project something into a goose.

But what we know is that kind of six basic emotions

are common to mammals, to birds.

Anger, fear, falling in love,

sexual arousal, play.

And we have these kind of erm...

A pedative system, being interested in something.

That's one of the basic emotional systems.

I didn't realise that falling in love was considered a basic emotion.

I thought that was quite a complex one

and one that most people are loath to draw analogies about

when it comes to humans and other animals.

How controversial was it to come up with this?

And how long has it been since it's been pretty much accepted

within the scientific community?

People didn't want to hear about it because they liked to be special.

There was this deep trench generated over the centuries.

And now we know.

The last ten, 20 years we have produced increasing evidence

that the trench between humans and animals

is not as deep as many people would want it to be.

The part of the brain responsible for the basic mechanisms

are the same in humans and geese.

The hormones involved are the same.

The behaviour we see is the same.

So, there is a lot of parallels.

What we cannot say, of course, is how they are feeling.

Whether the human feeling of falling in love

is the same that the goose feeling of falling in love.

But it's not unlikely that it's really the same.

The research Kurt and the rest of his colleagues are conducting

is changing how we see animal relationships.

It proves that, for some animals,

it's not just about finding any partner.

For Tarek, Judith really was "the one".

And they've gone on to successfully raise a family together.

Many animals form long-term relationships

to raise the next generation.

# Just the two of us

# We can make it if we try

# Just the two of us

# Just the two of us

# Just the two of us

# Living in castles in the sky

# Just the two of us, you an I... #

But perhaps one of the most extraordinary new discoveries

is that it seems there's much more to some animal relationships

than just rearing young.

I've travelled to Germany, to Bremerhaven Zoo,

to meet one pair who have become something of a celebrity couple.

They're called Dotty and Z

and they're Humboldt penguins.

They've been together for over a decade.

And right from the very start, Dotty and Z have been inseparable.

To all intents and purposes, they are the model penguin couple.

In the ten years that they've been together,

the bond between Dotty and Z is as strong as ever,

but they have suffered one major setback.

And that is they've never been able to produce a chick of their own.

In 2005, the zoo discovered why this devoted pair

hadn't had any luck starting a family.

# Nothing you can do can tear me away from my guy... #

A DNA test revealed that both Dotty and Z were males.

# From my guy... #

And what's more, they weren't alone.

Of the ten penguin pairs at the zoo,

there were three same-sex male couples.

Vet Joachim Schoene has watched Dotty and Z's relationship unfold

over the last decade.

What happened when you figured out, oh, hang on, OK, they're males?

What did you do then?

This is one of the most endangered penguin species in the world.

There may only be 2,000 birds left in the wild.

So, just to give them an option to breed,

we flew in six Swedish Humboldt penguins

from the zoo of Kolmarden.

And did they breed?

Erm...no. They didn't.

So, the three gay couples stayed together.

Yeah. Showing us that those are really strong relationships.

Although they could never produce a chick of their own,

the parenting instinct between Dotty and Z

remained incredibly strong.

Each year, they built a nest, like all the other couples.

But in 2009, the zoo gave Dotty and Z an unexpected opportunity.

A rejected egg from another couple was placed in their nest.

Between them, Dotty and Z shared the responsibly

of incubating the egg.

How did Z and Dotty fair when the chick hatched?

They behaved like good fathers.

They were taking care well of the little chick,

sharing the feeding work.

And, yeah, they behaved the same way as if they were heterosexual.

Did you have any doubts that Dotty and Z would be good parents?

We were quite confident,

because there are some examples from other zoos in the world.

So, we were quite excited about what would happen

in our little colony here.

And for us, yeah, and for the birds, it was quiet a success story.

# Like a stamp to a letter, like birds of a feather

# We stick together... #

Z and Dotty's relationship is fascinating.

And it's certainly challenging our understanding

of the nature and benefits of pair bonds.

But it also begs the question...

How common is this in the animal kingdom?

To find out more about Dotty and Z's relationship,

I'm meeting Dr Qazi Rahman from King's College university.

I mean, Dotty and Z are a great example, aren't they?

Because what I find most fascinating about their story

is that they may have gotten together

because there weren't any females around.

But, when they were introduced to females, they were like,

"No, we're happy together and we don't want to breed with a female."

Yes. And I think, for me, that's really good evidence

that this same-sex pair bond is solid and it's stable.

Same-sex bonds have the same quality and same intensity

as heterosexual bonds do

in the animals that have been studied so far.

So, we see same-sex behaviour

both in animals in captivity and in the wild.

And in fact, we now think we underestimate

same-sex behaviour in the wild.

One fascinating example of this

can be found on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Scientists have been monitoring Laysan albatrosses here for decades.

But it wasn't until 2008 that they discovered that

almost a third of their couples were same-sex female pairs.

One pair had been together for 19 years.

Researchers believe the high levels of female pairs on this island

is due to a shortage of males.

Certainly, a shortage of one sex is associated with same-sex pairings

in some of these species.

But, equally, there is evidence that these same-sex pairings

arise naturally.

It's as if it's a preference.

You might even say an inborn preference in some of these species.

The thing to remember is that there are benefits

other than reproduction, in an evolutionary sense.

And I think the really critical point here is that

there are advantages to survival

from being in a monogamous partnership.

Scientists are discovering that, for animals who mate for life,

having a partner, same-sex or otherwise,

can improve the quality of your life.

It can reduce your stress levels,

help you to protect your home

and can even increase your life expectancy.

Which is why same-sex relationships occur in nature

a lot more often than you might think.

# I'm coming up

# Coming

# I want the world to know

# That you love me so... #

In the last decade, scientists have discovered same-sex pairings

in almost 450 different species.

# Got to let it show... #

I'm finding out that relationships in the animal kingdom

are far more complex and diverse than we could possibly have imagined.

But, for many animals, we humans included,

some of the most important relationships we have

are not necessarily with our partners.

Sometimes, it's our friends who we need to rely on most

and I've heard of a friendship between two African elephants

that I want to investigate.

I've travelled to Thula Thula, a reserve in South Africa's Zululand.

David Bozas has known the elephants here for the over a decade

and has played a very important role in their lives.

Do you see them?

Look at that, they're right there in the open.

That's a stroke of luck.

Fantastic.

The two females I've come see are incredibly close.

The one on the left is called Frankie.

And the smaller of the two is called ET.

Most herds are made up of family members.

What's unusual about ET and Frankie's relationship

is that they aren't even related.

I'm here to find out how that friendship saved ET's life.

Their story begins 15 years ago,

when Frankie and the rest of her family were brought to this reserve.

It was a difficult time in the herd's life.

When they arrived, it was visible they were heavily traumatised.

They were aggressive, they were violent.

And when it came to light

the history of what had happened to these animals,

it became clear why they were like that.

The reason Frankie and her family were so stressed

is that they were the victims of a brutal culling.

Hunters had shot and killed several members of their herd.

Frankie's close-knit family had been fractured

in ways they might never fully recover from.

Fear quickly turned to aggression

and, soon, the herd had earned themselves a reputation

for being a danger to humans.

We had to recognise

that we were the reason these animals were like this.

Witnessing the killing of family members had left them traumatised.

These animals had lost complete trust, and for good reason.

They look at a human

and they just go back to what happened to their family?

They see destruction, they see turmoil, they see loss.

The underlying thing was, we had to gain these animals' trust back.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

David wasn't alone in this enormous task.

He was working alongside the late Lawrence Anthony.

For their own safety,

when the elephants arrived, they had to be corralled into an enclosure.

David and Lawrence camped out next to the herd day and night

to gain their trust.

You always had the sense of

aggression and animosity from the herd.

I mean, the atmosphere was very thick.

But it was Frankie who would prove the most difficult to win over.

She was the principal aggressor.

I mean, she just wanted to get hold of us and flatten us

and get rid of us.

FRANKIE TRUMPETS

Weeks passed with no improvement.

But David and Lawrence persevered until, finally, one month later,

they had a breakthrough.

It was almost like someone had just turned on the light.

It was like there was this calm serenity around the whole place.

And Lawrence was like, "Well, this is it."

And he got up and just walked towards the boma.

There was just something different about her.

And he was standing there

and she put her trunk over the fence and touched him.

It was the briefest moment of contact,

but it proved to be a major turning point.

It would take years of hard work to fully rehabilitate the herd.

But, knowing the elephants had finally accepted them,

David and Lawrence released the herd into the wider game reserve.

A year and a half later, David was called upon again

to help with another elephant in need.

A young female named ET.

She was just ten years old at the time

and she'd lost her whole family.

And she was so traumatised, she'd lost her voice.

It was almost like we were watching the same movie again.

Except, we had this individual.

All David and Lawrence knew was that they had to help her.

ET was moved to their reserve and placed in a safe enclosure,

while they figured out how they could rehabilitate her.

And while we were asking ourselves these questions on how to do it,

well, the herd answered it for us.

They turned their back to the boma, where ET was,

and they started communicating.

And you could really see she was starting to settle down.

Immediately settle down.

And Frankie came to the fore

and immediately just took ET under her wing, so to speak.

Is it the case that Frankie could relate to how ET was feeling

and can we go as far as saying it took her back to how she felt?

And, therefore, she wanted to protect this little one

because she could understand what she was going through,

because she'd gone through it herself?

It was clear that they recognised this young female

was crying out for help, was in desperate need of help,

was in need of social bonding, was in need of emotional stability.

And they gave it to her.

What do you think would have happened

if the herd hadn't approached ET

and Frankie hadn't reached out to ET?

She quite possibly could have died.

The support and friendship Frankie gave her

could well have saved ET's life.

Having heard their remarkable story,

I want to meet these closest of companions for myself.

I'm told that ET has a six-month-old calf.

It's a sign of just how well she's settled into the herd.

Oh, my gosh... Look at this.

They've come a long way from their troubled past,

but they're still wild elephants.

Any encounter will always be on their terms.

-This is Frankie on the left?

-On your left, yeah.

-On the left.

Hello, my darling.

Oh, my gosh...

Hello, my darling.

-And this is Frankie here?

-Frankie and ET.

ET!

Frankie and ET. You see the baby there? There's ET's baby.

Hello, my darlings!

Getting so close to ET and Frankie is very special.

And the herd's connection with David is remarkable.

Hello, my darling. Yes, my girl. Yes.

Hello, Frankie.

David doesn't take credit for saving ET's life.

He gives that honour to Frankie.

But the story doesn't end there...

What's even more remarkable is the relationship that developed

between the herd and the man who saved them in the first place,

Lawrence Anthony.

Lawrence's wife, Francoise,

watched that relationship develop over the years.

It was like erm...spectacular.

You could see the love.

You could see the trust.

You could see the feelings.

Lawrence had never worked with elephants

before he rescued Frankie's family.

He was very spontaneous, he had that child enthusiasm,

you see, of anything is possible.

Lawrence, like, every day used to go and spend two, three hours

with the herd of elephants

and this is what created that most amazing, amazing relationship.

Whenever Lawrence left the reserve for more than a day or two,

the herd would often appear outside his house when he returned.

Even with 4,000 kilometres of natural reserve to roam in,

it seems they chose to seek Lawrence out.

But on the 2nd of March 2012, Lawrence died unexpectedly.

Frankie's family hadn't been seen at Lawrence's house for some time.

But, on that day, they marched 12 hours to get there.

When they arrived,

the herd stood in total silence.

They stayed by the house for two days.

Exactly one year later, to the day,

the herd marched again.

Since then, they've come to Lawrence's house

on the anniversary of his death every year.

It's something which is more than emotional.

It's beyond our understanding.

Their intelligence, their sensitivity,

their sensibility, their emotions.

Do we know everything?

I think we've got so much to learn from them.

It's not something that science can explain

and, of course, there's every possibility

that these could be extraordinary coincidences.

But could it be that the elephants were responding to Lawrence's death?

It makes me think about grief and its place in the animal kingdom.

If animals are capable of grieving

can this help us to answer the ultimate question?

Do they love?

To explore this, I've come to Dorset in the UK

to find out about a devoted male, who lost his partner.

Sam is a 22-year-old siamang gibbon

and he was with his mate for more than a decade.

Siamangs are renowned for forming lifelong relationships

and for being extremely committed.

Dr Alison Cronin is the director of Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre

and she's known Sam almost all his life.

If Alison has learned anything about caring for primates,

it's that the nurturing of their relationships is absolutely vital.

Obviously, we have very basic needs,

in terms of food and water and that kind of thing.

But, in terms of your lifestyle and emotions,

the very most important thing to a human being

or a siamang gibbon or a chimpanzee

is companionship of their own kind.

18 years ago, Sam was paired with the gibbon of his dreams,

an attractive female named Sage.

THE GIBBONS SING

They immediate hit it off

and, like all siamang gibbons,

they proudly announced their relationship to world

every day with a song.

So how important is song to the siamangs?

The duet is critical for a couple of reasons.

For their social pair bond, you sing with people,

your partner that you love,

and your song becomes tighter and better.

And it also announces your territory to other neighbouring groups.

So, it's a way of you two sticking together

and telling everybody else, "Go away, this is our patch."

Over the years, the pair grew closer.

So much so, they rarely spent a moment apart.

It's seemed Sage and Sam were the perfect match.

Five years into their relationship, they started a family.

The team at Monkey World took great pleasure

in naming Sam and Sage's son Onion.

Sam and Sage weren't just a great partnership,

they proved to be great parents, too.

Just like any young gibbon,

Onion learned to sing from both his mother and father.

GIBBONS SING

You could start hearing a little third voice.

And often, that third voice is out of tune, out of key, out of place.

And, "Yaaaaaah!" You know?

Different noises here and there and it's quite funny to watch.

SINGING

The trio lived happily together for eight years.

Until tragedy struck.

Unexpectedly, Sage died.

She actually got a peach pit embedded in her gut

and it took her out, sadly.

So, it was sad for all of us here at the park

but, in particular, for Sam, her devoted partner,

who had been with her for 13 years singing that song

and just every day reaffirming that they were a pair.

Sam was so profoundly affected

by the sudden loss of his long-term partner,

he stopped singing his song.

For a siamang, it's almost a double tragedy.

You lose your mate, you lose your song.

Potentially, that means you lose your territory.

In the wild,

Sam might not have been able to defend himself from other gibbons.

In a sanctuary, he was spared the loss of his home.

But losing his partner had a huge impact.

Sam became completely withdrawn.

He struggled to eat

and would sit alone in complete silence.

For his keeper, Cat Talbot, it was heart-breaking to see him suffer.

But, unfortunately, things were only going to get worse for Sam.

His son Onion became critically ill.

Tragedy was to strike us again,

because Onion actually had

a massive cancerous inoperable tumour in his bowel

and we actually had to euthanize him rather than bring him back.

So, almost two years later, he lost Onion.

When he lost Onion, he had no-one and he was on his own.

Sam, basically, would just sit in a corner with his head down

and just looked really, really miserable.

He was really looking for physical contact with us

and the easiest way for that was just to hold our hands.

And where it became really difficult emotionally for us

was when we tried to pull our hands away,

to go away and look after all the other gibbons

or do some work or whatever.

Sam would actually tighten his grip and kind of hold on to you

and kind of make it clear that he really didn't want you to go.

Once again, it would take weeks for Sam to recover.

His behaviour certainly resembled what we would describe as grief.

But is that possible?

There's no doubt about it in my mind that non-human primates

and siamangs, specifically,

can experience grief and sadness.

Definitely, Sam went downhill.

He went off of his food, he wasn't behaving properly,

he was depressed.

And that kind of grief isn't good for him.

So, what does Sam's behaviour tell us?

If animals do grieve,

does it help us to answer the ultimate question?

Do they love?

Does that add to the evidence they might feel love in the first place,

to feel that way when they lose their partner?

Yeah, I'd like to think that,

not only do they have an incredible pair bond, for a survival reason,

but that it is a true reflection of love.

Sam went through an extremely difficult time.

But a year and a half after he lost Sage,

he was introduced to a female called Sasak.

And to everyone's relief, the pairing was a complete success.

SINGING

At the ripe old age of 19,

Sam had a reason to sing again.

SINGING

Seeing them, their behaviours and the way that they communicate,

the way that they touch, the way that they respond,

I would definitely say that they feel the same emotions that we do.

And I don't see why we can't allow them that.

You sing the song to announce to everybody this is how tight we are.

That, if they come into that territory, you're going to go to war

and that's because you're together.

That's got to be love.

They're in it together

and they're prepared to put their necks on the line

and not many people would do that.

I have been amazed at the sheer variety

of relationships animals can build.

And just how many benefits they gain from them,

far beyond the need to have offspring.

Now, we're only just beginning to understand

the complex emotions animals are capable of,

but is it possible that they love?

To want to be with another individual, to protect...

..I don't see why we wouldn't call that love.

Not only are they capable of love,

but the way they demonstrate that love is very similar,

in terms of compassion and genuine caring and comfort.

That is love.

These animals, definitely, without a doubt,

show genuine emotions to each other.

So, whatever you want to call it,

love or emotional intelligence, absolutely.

Science is discovering that the hormones, the chemicals,

the emotions that drive animals to seek each other out and stay together

are similar in many species, including us,

and may well be at the root of what humans call love.

So, if we have those drives in common,

then, can't we say animals love?

Just straight in front of us...

Next time...

..having discovered that some animals seem to share our deepest emotions...

..I set out to explore the weird and wonderful ways

they get together in the first place.

I'll meet the trail-blazing monkeys

who've developed the most outrageous technique to attract a mate.

He's not paying me any attention. What if I throw it?

I'll come face-to-face with a ferocious flirt

to hear one of the oldest love songs on the planet.

DEEP, SONOROUS SOUND

The most extraordinary set of events unfolding...

And I'll reveal 21st century dating,

orang-utan style.

He was playing hard-to-get.

Yes, he didn't seem to be very interested.