families have a new
role to provide emotional
support for mother and baby nothing in
the world is more important or brings
Greater
[Music]
Joy
[Music]
baby chimpanzees spend years learning
about each other and their
Traditions families are the
schools in central Africa chimps crack
nuts with
rocks
the trick is passed mother to baby down
the generations it’s part of their
culture in East Africa they catch
termites using
Twigs babies watch and
learn they get the basics almost
immediately it’s something to do with a
stick
in some extraordinary footage the mother
tries to help and is pushed away by the
youngster with endless patience she
tries again no not that huge thing here
this one is
better only humans are supposed actively
to teach but textbooks can be Rewritten
if
necessary
young chimps get enormous pleasure from
termite fishing a hunger to learn and
satisfaction with success is also part
of our biology it must drive a lot of
what we
do most primates are born into troops
extended families but not
all the two kilogram newborn oring utan
brings us back to the
[Music]
start fathers and cousins are around but
not particularly
[Music]
helpful it’ll be seven or eight years
before the next one his mother’s one of
the world’s slowest
breeders
his long childhood gives him time to
work things
out his mother will help map out where
to find food and slowly he’ll become
aware of his world and
[Music]
himself it’s not just primates it seems
likely all mammals and maybe Birds too
feel emotions and make thoughtful
choices particularly around B
increasingly Bing otan face
disaster infants that lose their mothers
may be lucky enough to be rescued human
stepparents do their best with an orphan
they both try to replace a bond that is
lost
