Home Life Story

So far on Life Story,

we have seen animals face the dangers of childhood.

Watched them enter the adult world.

Now, young animals need to find a home.

Somewhere they can find the necessities of life.

It can be a refuge from enemies.

And a shelter from the elements.

Without a place of its own,

an animal will struggle to survive.

On the vast plains of Zambia,

this isolated thicket is a rare patch of cover.

It's home to a pack of hunting dogs.

The arrival of a dozen tiny pups

means the pack have, for now, given up their nomadic lifestyle.

Here, they can hide the youngsters out of sight of their many enemies.

It's the dry season and food is scarce.

Whenever the pack leaves on a hunting trip,

one dog stays behind as baby-sitter.

If danger threatens, the pack's future will depend on this dog.

An eight-foot-long rock python is hunting.

It can easily grab a pup, if it can launch a surprise attack.

DOG BARKS

The adult has spotted it.

His attempts to drive it away have the worst possible outcome.

It retreats down the pup's burrow.

Now, the adult faces a critical choice.

Stay put and risk living with a predator,

or try to find a new shelter in the few hours before nightfall.

That would mean leading the pups into the open.

The baby-sitter makes his choice.

Unfortunately, these plains are home to hyena.

They are the hunting dogs' greatest enemy.

A hyena will take a straggling pup if it gets the chance.

It might win a battle over a pup with a lone baby-sitter.

But the rest of the dog pack, returning from the hunt,

is a different matter.

The hyena will avoid this confrontation.

Back at full strength, the dog pack can now lead the pups

to the safety of a new refuge.

Secure again,

the pups squabble over the meat carried back by the hunting party.

Its duties over, the baby-sitter can take a well-earned rest.

And, in a few weeks, the pups will be old enough to leave the den

and join the pack on the open plains.

In nature, good homes are all too rare.

Here, on a tiny Caribbean island

off the coast of Belize,

there is a severe housing shortage.

Hermit crabs use abandoned seashells as mobile homes.

As a crab grows, its shell becomes an ever tighter fit,

so eventually a crab needs to move in to a bigger one.

Suitable empty shells are few and far between,

and this one is far too spacious for this crab.

But, instead of continuing its search,

this small crab settles down to wait.

Other crabs, also looking to upgrade to a bigger home,

soon gather whenever a shell washes ashore.

Unfortunately, the new shell is too big for them, too.

Despite that, the gathering crabs

begin to measure each other up,

and then they do something really rather extraordinary.

They arrange themselves into an orderly queue.

The biggest at the front, smallest at the back.

They're lining up with one aim -

to exchange properties.

But none of the crabs

can make a move,

because the chain is not yet complete.

They're all waiting for the right sized crab to come along.

And this is it.

The latest arrival pushes to the head of the queue.

At first, the chain falls apart.

As it reforms, the small crab finally makes its move

and takes its place at the end of the line.

After a close inspection,

the big crab moves in.

This triggers a chain-reaction.

Each crab hurriedly moves into the shell

vacated by the crab ahead of it in the line.

Just as the small crab attempts to move into its new home,

a fresh arrival muscles in.

To be left without a shell is a death sentence.

A naked crab will quickly cook under the intense tropical sun.

But, after all the swapping,

there is still one shell left.

Sadly, it's no bigger than this

small crab's original shell,

and worse, it's got a hole in it!

But even a bad shell is better than being homeless.

The small crab's need to upgrade

will be even more urgent

by the time the next shell rolls ashore.

This old wreck off the coast of Fiji

is a gathering place for some very unusual fish.

They're called remoras, but this isn't their home,

it's more of a waiting room.

Like hermit crabs,

each remora is waiting for the perfect residence to appear.

The unique suckers on the back of their heads

hint at a very different and unusual lifestyle.

Up above is a coral reef.

The remoras watch and wait for a particular visitor.

Sharks.

Most fish make themselves scarce when they appear.

But not remoras.

For a remora, home is a bigger fish.

And this is an opportunity not to be missed.

A passing school of eight-foot bull sharks,

one of the most aggressive marine predators.

Remoras stick very close, or even clamp onto their host

with their suckers.

And what fish could offer better protection than a shark?

What's more, when the shark makes a kill,

the remora can scavenge the leftovers.

In return, it helps the shark by eating parasites from its body.

But too many remora could slow a shark down,

so they try to avoid becoming over-loaded.

That means intense competition among remora for the available spaces.

This one has missed out.

Fortunately, sharks aren't the only suitable visitors to this reef.

A giant Manta Ray offers a remora another chance.

It's already sheltering several large remoras.

But there's room for one more on this huge fish.

At last, the remora has a safe home.

But, having made its choice, the remora must now go

wherever the Manta takes it,

for better or worse.

Some animals build their own homes,

and if their lives are filled with danger,

then that home needs to be a fortress.

An Australian weaver ant carries part of her colony's future,

a grub, in her jaws.

She's on her way to help in the construction of her new home.

Hundreds of her fellow workers are labouring together

to build a stronghold out of leaves.

Chains of workers pull leaves together.

They hold them tight, but they need a more permanent fix than this.

The grub-carrier will play a crucial role.

But first, she needs to get across the construction site.

Workers use their own bodies to make living bridges between branches,

allowing others to move quickly around the site.

This worker, with her grub, crosses over.

When this worker reaches a leaf that needs securing,

she taps the grub on its head.

This stimulates it to produce silk.

The worker uses the grub like a glue gun,

passing it backwards and forwards across the join.

Silk is one of the strongest fibres in nature,

yet, it's also flexible, making it the perfect glue

for a construction that must bend and flex in the wind.

After just a few hours of intense effort, the ants' home is complete.

Totally weather-proof, this new nest makes the ideal nursery

in which to start rearing a precious brood.

RAIN PATTERS

But it also needs to be a fortress

because neighbouring ant colonies,

looking to expand their own empires, are always on the attack.

WIND HOWLS

It's rare that a home provides an animal

with everything it needs to survive.

Some are a dangerous compromise.

A sheer rock face in the American Rockies

provides a sure-footed mountain goat with security from attack.

The goats spend the entire winter up here.

But although safe from predators, there's little food.

By the time the spring moult arrives,

their poor diet has left them suffering

from a serious deficiency of vital minerals.

So, every spring, the goats must leave the safety of the cliffs

and make a dangerous, three-day-long descent

on a quest for these precious salts.

While mothers guide the new-born

kids down to the valley,

this newly independent young goat

is making the perilous journey alone for the first time.

The sun's warmth has brought predators out of hibernation.

A grizzly bear.

It's a deadly threat to a young goat.

Luckily, the remains of an earlier casualty catch its attention.

The yearling has to make his way without guidance.

High up, avalanches and rock falls are a hazard.

Lower down, rivers swollen with meltwater

pose the greatest danger.

From experience, mother goats know the safer places to cross.

For her new kid, it is a daunting prospect.

It could easily be swept to its death.

After several days, the lone yearling approaches the crossing.

On the other bank is the only place for miles around

where rocks rich in salt are exposed.

All that stands between the young goat and the outcrop

is a last cascade of bitterly cold water.

It's hard to know where to cross without help.

He's made it.

He'll stay a few days,

stocking up on the salts in this rich dust,

before facing the dangerous return journey

back to the safety of the peaks.

In Zambia, the hunting dog pups

are now four months old

and have left the security of their den far behind.

Once the pups are big enough to keep up,

the dog pack resumes roaming the plains that make up their territory.

In the dry season, being mobile is the only way to find enough food

for 12 hungry youngsters.

Day and night, the dogs rely on each other for protection from enemies.

Hyenas.

The dogs' ancient enemy.

Hyenas are scavengers.

They want to steal the dogs' kill.

One dog cannot take on a hyena.

FURIOUS YAPPING

But what the dogs lack in strength, they make up for with teamwork.

SNARLING AND GROWLING

This isn't just a fight...

HYENA YELPS

..it's part of an age-old battle for control of these plains.

The youngsters join the adults.

With their new strength in numbers,

the battle between dog and hyena is firmly in the dogs' favour.

By sticking together,

the pack can see off the challenge of their archenemy.

For the pups, this fight has demonstrated

the most important rule of hunting-dog life.

Taking control of their home territory,

and, indeed, their very survival,

depends on teamwork.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Now, their home and their lives, are about to change.

The rainy season is arriving,

bringing with it an abundance of prey.

THUNDER RUMBLES

The coming of seasonal riches might seem to promise an easy life.

But not necessarily if you're a pika.

They make their homes at high altitude

on these steep boulder fields.

These slopes in the North American Rockies

are only free from snow for a few months a year.

Pika don't hibernate.

Instead, they cash in on the sudden burst of summer flowers

to stockpile enough food to get them through the winter.

That means cramming thousands of return journeys

between flower, meadow and burrow into just a few hectic weeks.

So, for a pika, a good home is all about location.

Having a burrow near the meadow is a huge advantage.

But not everyone can have a prime spot.

This young female lives high up on the boulder slope.

Every day is a relentless commute.

She could cover hundreds of miles over a single summer.

It's not just exhausting, it's dangerous, too.

A weasel.

Its long, thin body makes it the perfect hunter

in this jumble of boulders.

SQUEAKING

But the pikas have some countermeasures.

IT SQUEAKS

IT SQUEAKS

They call to prevent a surprise attack.

IT SQUEAKS

Faced with such dangers, pikas are always on the lookout

for safer ways to fill their larders.

And they're not above a little petty theft.

The hay piles of the pikas living closer

to the meadow are already bulging with food.

Too tempting to ignore.

She waits until the owner is well away.

And then...

helps herself.

This life of crime will save her time,

energy and reduce the risk from predators.

She stashes the stolen goods, then heads back for more.

Of course, the key to being a successful thief is not to be seen.

But, unfortunately, the owner in the meadow

spots the intruder red-handed.

She carries on while the owner rushes back to confront her.

IT SQUEAKS

She may have made a clean get-away...

..but pikas are not the only thieves operating here.

Bighorn sheep.

Now SHE is the victim.

FRANTIC SQUEAKS

She can call all she likes, but the sheep just keep on eating.

SHE SQUEAKS

For the pika, it's a disaster...

..unless she can quickly replenish her stockpile

in what's left of the short summer.

Back in the Australian rainforest,

this weaver ant fortress sits at the heart of a rich territory.

Hunting parties go out to gather food to fuel their growing numbers.

Some canopy caterpillars are not killed,

but farmed by the ants.

They exude a sugary secretion that the ants collect.

In return, the ants mount a guard

to protect the caterpillar wherever it goes.

But a successful colony inevitably attracts enemies.

This jumping spider's body shape resembles that of an ant.

A disguise good enough to fool these nursery guards.

It's after one of the colony's most valuable assets -

the grubs.

In a colony numbering tens of thousands,

a single grub is an insignificant loss.

But the rich territory of a successful colony

draws more destructive enemies.

Raiders from a neighbouring weaver ant colony

looking to expand their own empire.

Invaders are quickly spotted.

The guard releases pheromones to alert the rest of the colony.

They stream out of the nest to defend their home.

If the home defences fail,

the colony will be wiped out.

Some of the defenders deploy their most potent weapon

they squirt formic acid.

SPLASHING

The stinging liquid halts the invaders in their tracks.

And now, the home guard can go on the offensive.

Home and territory are secure once again.

A colony may lose many workers in defence of its home.

But their sacrifice helps safeguard the next generation.

A colony that can defend a rich territory

has the potential to dominate their part of the rainforest

for years to come.

Such long-term occupation allows residents

to become intimately familiar with their home,

knowledge that is critical when times are tough.

These chimps live on the edge of the Sahara in Senegal.

The dry season has been at its most brutal for four months.

There is almost nothing left to eat.

This young male spends hours teasing apart seed pods.

The fibres surrounding each tiny black seed are inedible.

So, he must delicately separate the one from the other.

Others take the edge off their hunger by chewing tough bean pods.

It's not much to keep the troop going.

And there are many hungry mouths to feed.

Even scarcer than food is water.

If they can't find a supply, these chimps will die.

The troop depends on the older chimps

and their detailed knowledge of their home territory.

They've lived through droughts like this before.

They lead the others on a trek towards a distant river.

It's a hellish ten-mile journey in suffocating 50 degrees heat.

Their march ends on a river bank.

But the channel is bone dry.

Undeterred, this big male picks his spot...

..and starts to dig.

The youngster watching him at work

is absorbing knowledge that could be critical

to the troop's survival in years to come.

Water slowly collects in the hole,

filtered as it seeps through the gravel.

CHIMPS CHATTER QUIETLY

WATER SPLASHES

It's a moment to savour.

All along the riverbed,

others are following the leader's example

and digging their own drinking wells.

ALL CHATTER QUIETLY

By pooling their knowledge and experience,

the chimps have made this hostile place into a home.

HOOFBEATS AND LOWING

Zambia.

The hunting dog pack has survived the hard times of the dry season.

They've exploited different parts of their home territory,

to successfully raise and protect their pups

and they've fought off their greatest rivals.

Now, their home is about to be transformed.

Great herds of wildebeest are arriving,

having followed the rains here

to graze on the new grass, and to calve.

And the pack is ready for them.

Still too young to join a hunt,

the pups have been left at a waterhole...

..while the adults head off over the plains.

The youngsters are already practising their hunting skills.

But they have some way to go.

Not so the adults.

They form a tight pack, stalking to get close to the wildebeest.

THEY WHINE

With the herd on the run, the pack manages to isolate a small group.

They're looking for any weakness.

But the wildebeest are no push-over.

The dogs work in relay.

As one tires, another moves through to take up the running.

Fleeing for its life, the wildebeest has a few tricks of its own.

First, it tries to create confusion by running into a group of zebra.

ZEBRA BRAY

Then it joins forces with other wildebeest

to make a break for the main herd.

Most of the dogs break off to find an easier victim.

But one dog appears to have forgotten the basic pack rule,

stick together.

Suddenly, he hears the pack and switches direction to rejoin them.

THUNDERING HOOTBEATS

And now there is no escape from the power of the pack.

It's time to retrieve the pups

and escort them back to the kill.

The growing pack has less to fear from hyenas than before.

But they will always be a threat.

Some of the older members form a protective cordon

while the rest of the pack feed.

By working together, the pack have overcome

the challenges of this land

and succeeded in making it their home.

Their hard-won territory will be a legacy to their pups

and with luck, for the generations to come.

Finding the perfect location to film hunting dogs

took the Life Story team years of patient research

and finally led them to a remote corner of Zambia.

For director Emma Napper and cameraman Jamie McPherson,

it's a chance to film something few people have ever witnessed -

a complete wild dog hunt.

The dogs usually live in thick bush,

so this open country should help the crew.

And scientists have radio-collared one of the pack

which makes finding them relatively easy.

By that tree, straight there.

-Where are the dogs?

-I have absolutely no idea.

Can you see the dogs, Dennis? Where are the dogs?

It's not quite the start the crew was hoping for.

(God, that was quick.)

The dogs disappear into the grass.

Once they've started running, they go as fast as we could go.

And when we go at that speed,

we risk damaging the car and ourselves quite badly, so...

We just need more of a head start than we had this morning,

or jet packs!

Over the following days, it becomes clear

that chasing after the dogs isn't the way forward.

Perhaps trying to get ahead of them during a hunt is a better option.

But that brings its own problems.

It's quite tricky, in that trying to be there when they catch it

is incredibly difficult even when it's completely flat and open,

you still don't know which way they're going to go.

Whenever a chase takes the dogs out of transmitter range,

the crew must spend hours tracking them down again.

Today, they finally catch up with them at a waterhole

and Jamie gets to see a softer side to the pack.

With full stomachs, it's unlikely they will hunt again today.

But there are other animals here that haven't fed...yet.

And hyenas are always on the lookout for an easy meal.

Hopefully, it's just inquisitive.

It could make short work of Jamie if it really wanted to.

(Just let me know if it comes out behind me.)

-Do you think he will eat Jamie?

-Yeah.

-He'll eat Jamie?

-Yeah, he will.

SHE GIGGLES

Then, as evening approaches, the mood changes.

GROWLING AND SNARLING

YAPPING

Bitter rivals, the dogs don't like the hyenas hanging around

and this one has outstayed its welcome.

Jamie has a ringside seat.

IT GROWLS

DOGS YELP

The crew leaves the dogs to settle down for the night.

And hope for a change of luck in the morning.

But when they return, the pack is nowhere to be found.

Perhaps the hyena came back during the night and they have moved off.

You can only pick them up if you're within 2km of them

and they tend to move.

They can, they have moved 10km in a night

so, hopefully, they're moving the same way we're searching.

If they've gone the opposite direction,

then, yeah...we could be miles from them!

-Do you think that maybe they went south?

-Maybe.

And in the park's 1,300 square miles,

it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We've been looking for them since about 4 o'clock this morning.

It's now half past five in the afternoon.

Sun sets in about an hour.

So, we've got about an hour to find them, really,

because they're likely to get up again at sunset and move again.

We don't know where they are now, so it's just going to get harder.

So, the sooner we find them, the better.

You say you have located the dogs? Confirm. Over.

INDISTINCT TRANSMISSION

Where is that?

West, on this side.

Doggies!

The crew can't afford to lose them again.

The only option is to stay as close as possible all through the night.

BEEPING

How close are they, Dennis?

Less than a kilometre.

In the dark,

the radio transmitter helps the team keep tabs on the dogs.

It's carrying food in its mouth, but I can't see a carcass.

Let's stop here.

Put the lights off.

And their luck holds.

Dawn breaks and the crew is close by as the dogs begin the hunt.

The crew is finally on the spot as the dogs move in for the kill.

But to complete the story, the crew needs to cover an actual chase

and to do that, they will have to take to the air.

This aerial view reveals the strategy the dogs use

during the pursuit and their incredible endurance and skill.

From the ground you never see that point

when the dogs swap over and another one takes over

and 4 or 5km of different elements of it.

Just to be able to see it and keep up with it,

there's no way you could keep up with that on the ground.

It was over termite mounds and really rough stuff, so...

Yeah, it was a good morning.

These remote plains and this remarkable pack

of hunting dogs have more than lived up to their promise.

A pack of 20 wild dogs hunting, flat-out - there's nothing like it.

It's incredibly exciting, it's an amazing thing to see.

Following this very special pack of dogs has become addictive.

I don't want to go.

Do you think can we wait another hour? Do you think the plane would wait for us?