Walking with Beasts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Walking with Beasts
Genre Documentary
Developer(s) Andrew Wilks
Starring Karyn Drane, Cory Generoux, Lorne Duquette, Delvin Opissinow, Vernon Knight, Miltos Yerolemou, Rena Ermine, and Samantha Seager as primite humans
Narrated by Kenneth Branagh
Theme music composer Ben Bartlett
Country of origin UK
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 6 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) Jasper James
Executive producer(s) Tim Haines
Location Java, Florida, Mexico, Arizona, South Africa, Great Rift Valley, Brazil, Yukon
Running time 30 min.
Broadcast
Original channel Discovery Channel
Original run November 15, 2001 –
Chronology
Related shows Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Monsters
Links
Official website

Contents

Walking with Beasts is a 2001 six-part television documentary produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom, narrated by Kenneth Branagh. In North America it has been retitled Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, and the original Discovery Channel broadcast was narrated by Stockard Channing. Like its predecessor, Walking with Dinosaurs, it recreates life in the Cenozoic using Computer-generated imagery and animatronics. Also like its predecessor, it was re-edited and re-narrated as a second "season" of Prehistoric Planet for the Discovery Kids lineup.

Some of the concepts it illustrates are the evolution of whales, the evolution of the horse, and the evolution of humans.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] "New Dawn"

Film location: Java

49 Million Years Ago - Early Eocene — Germany

The first episode depicts the warm tropical world of the early Eocene which was 16 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. In this world, birds, including the six foot carnivorous Gastornis, rule the world, while mammals are still very small. The setting is near the Messel Pit in Germany. Due to volcanic activity, sudden bulk escapes of carbon dioxide trapped underneath lakes are a hazard. The episode centers around a Leptictidium family foraging for food. The Leptictidium is a small leaping shrew-like mammal. While the family is foraging, a female Gastornis successfully hunts down a Propalaeotherium and defends her territory from another Gastornis. Unfortunately, while the Gastornis is out hunting, a horde of large ants (known as Formicium) ambush its baby. When the night arrives, we see a band of lemur-like Godinotias, socializing in the dark. The episode also shows the Ambulocetus, or the "walking whale", lying in ambush for its prey, both on land and underneath the water. Although it looks like a mammalian crocodile, the episode explains that from the Ambulocetus, all the whales would eventually evolve. It tries to attack the Leptictidium and Propalaeotherium, but fails. It finally manages to catch a Cynodictis in the dark of the night. The episode ends with an earth tremor unleashing trapped carbon dioxide out from underneath the lake, suffocating most of the surrounding life (but the Leptictidium featured are lucky this time).

[edit] "Whale Killer"

Filming Location: Florida

36 Million Years Ago - Late Eocene — Pakistan and Egypt

The second episode is set in late Eocene, when the polar caps froze over and drastically changed the Earth's ocean currents and climate. The first part of the episode explains how an early whale, Basilosaurus mates and how the world is changing into an ocean famine. On land there is an Andrewsarchus driven to the beach to feed on turtles. the narrator explains that Andrewsarchus, the largest mammal predator ever to walk the earth is a sheep in wolf's clothing. Back in the ocean, a starving mother Basilosaurus is forced to hunt in the mangrove swamps. Unable to catch the early monkey Apidium, she is then hunting a Moeritherium. The Moeritherium crawls on to land, but in the mangroves, land does not last long. However the moeritherium escapes and the Basilosaurus returns to the sea. The cast moves on to land were a herd of Embolotherium struggle to survive: one of their calf's dies and two Andrewsarchus feast on it but the mother Embolotherium drives them away because she has a strong bond with her offspring, even if it is dead. Back in the sea the mother Basilosaurus preys on a group of Dorudon and is successful. The episode ends with the mother Basilosaurus swimming with her newborn calf.

[edit] "Land of Giants"

Filming Location: Mexico and Arizona

25 Million Years Ago - Late Oligocene — Mongolia

The third episode takes place during the late Oligocene, in Mongolia, where there were seasonals rains followed by a long drought. It tells the story of a mother Indricotherium, a massive hornless rhinoceros that was the largest land mammal to have ever lived. The episode first shows the mother Indricothere giving birth, and then tending to the male calf as it matures. While giving birth, the mother defends the helpless calf from several Hyaenodon, large creodont predators. Also, the mother's old calf tries to come back but is chased away. It gives a snapshot into the future of the calf. The mother raises her calf for three years, but eventually chases it away after she mates with another male. The episode then chronicles the young Indricotherium's travels until it reaches adulthood, including encounters with Cynodictis, and large aggressive Entelodon, which are distant relatives to the modern-day pig.

  • Cynodictis (identified as bear-dog, revealed in encyclopedia)
  • Chalicotherium (identified as chalicothere, revealed on web and in encyclopedia)
  • Entelodon (identified as entelodont, revealed on web and in encyclopedia. Referred to as the "Hogs from Hell")
  • Hyaenodon
  • Indricotherium (identified as indricothere, revealed in encyclopedia and book)

[edit] "Next of Kin"

Filming Locations: South Africa, and the Great Rift Valley

3.2 Million Years Ago - Pliocene — Ethiopia

The fourth episode takes place in the Great Rift Valley in eastern Africa. The climate has changed, and now great grasslands have replaced trees. The episode focuses around a tribe of small hominids known as Australopithecus, one of the first apes able to walk upright and a close ancestor to man. The Australopithecus has evolved to walk upright so as to better maneuver the plains as well as the climb the trees. However, it notes that although the Australopithecus looks human, it still only has the mind the size of a chimpanzee's. Some of the topics explored in the episode are the close social bonds among the tribe, how they use grooming as a means of communication, and how they work together to forage for food and to defend one another from attacks from such animals as an angry male Deinotherium and the predator Dinofelis. It touches upon how competing tribes of Australopithecus war among one another, although most of fighting is for show. It also explains the hierarchy in the tribe among the males (who are much larger than the females) and tells a story of how the dominating male is eventually overcome by another male, who wins the right to feed first at a carrion and to mate with the females. Another story tells of a young Australopithecus (nicknamed "Blue") who tries to fit into the tribe after he is orphaned.

[edit] "Sabre-tooth"

Filming Location: Brazil

1 Million Years Ago - Early Pleistocene — Paraguay The fifth episode shows the strange fauna of the isolated continent of South America and explores the effects of the Great American Interchange, which had happened 1.5 million years earlier. Since South America had drifted apart from Antarctica 30 million years ago, many unique mammals had evolved, including the Doedicurus: an armoured glyptodont that had a cannon ball-sized spiked club on a bony tail; the Macrauchenia, a long-limbed litoptern, somewhat resembling a humpless camel with a short trunk; and Megatherium, a very large ground sloth. Before the continents of South America and North America collided, an 8 foot tall predatory "Terror Bird", Phorusrhacos, had reigned as top predator. However, the great cats, migrating from the north, soon displaced them (this is not entirely correct, see Titanis). The episode focuses on a male Smilodon, a sabre-toothed cat, named Half Tooth, whose leadership of a pride is threatened by two rival males. The two rival males ultimately chase off Half Tooth, kill his cubs, and take over his pride. Next, the episode shows the female Smilodon cats hunting down a Macrauchenia and taking care of their young. In the background, "Terror Birds" still hunt, but give way to the Smilodon. However, a Megatherium charges the pride of Smilodon, in order to eat some of the carrion. In the process, the Megatherium kills one of the rival males, enabling Half Tooth to return to reclaim his territory.

[edit] "Mammoth Journey"

Filming locations: Yukon, Canada

30,000 Years Ago - Late Pleistocene — dry bed of the North Sea and the Swiss Alps

The sixth episode takes place during the last Ice Age. It starts in the peak of the summer. The North Sea has become a grassy plain because the ice at the polar caps has caused the sea levels to drop significantly. Grazing on the plain are herds of Woolly mammoth, Saiga antelope, and European bison. A clan of humans (Cro-Magnons) is also there spending the summer. The central focus of the episode is the migration of the herd of mammoth as they travel 400 kilometers from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps for the winter and then back again in the spring.

As the mammoth herd migrates south, the episode shows two large deer, the Megaloceros, fighting for rights to a harem of females. As the male Megaloceros fought, a group of humans ambushed them, killing one . A mother mammoth and her baby are separated from the herd, but survive a stalking Cave Lion. Eventually the herd of mammoth reach the Swiss Alps and the mother mammoth and baby rejoin the herd.

The episode also depicts a clan of Neanderthals, who had especially evolved to survive in the cold climate. One is charged by a woolly rhinoceros, but escapes, in part because of his stocky constitution. The climax of the episode is when the clan of Neanderthals attack the herd of mammoth as they turn back to the north. The Neanderthals are gifted hunters who are able to chase a couple mammoth off a cliff by using fire and weapons.

The episode ends in a modern day museum with people looking at various skeletons of some of the animals featured in the series. The final words of the narrator are: "We have since built museums to celebrate the past, and spend decades studying prehistoric lives. And if all this has taught us anything, it is this: no species lasts forever." The camera then pulls back through the roof of the museum until the whole world is visible. Then we are looking at a road and a car drives past the screen, a screeching brake noise is heard, and the car reverses across the screen followed by a herd of mammoths!

[edit] See also

Walking with Beasts is part of a series of BBC documentaries that also include:

The following are Walking With... series specials:

[edit] In other media

The BBC released a computer game called Operation Salvage based on this series. It involved travelling back in time to save the beasts from villains who were trying to capture them.

[edit] Artistic touch

The animals sometimes interact with the camera:

  • When the Formicium attack the Gastornis chick, some swarm over the camera.
  • In the second episode, several Apidium hastily climb down the camera during the shark attack.
  • Also in the second episode, the Basilosaurus' fluke occasionally hits the camera.
  • An Indricotherium knocks down the camera at the end of "Land of Giants" which it appeared in. To date, this is one of the largest interactions with the audience.
  • A troop of Australopithecus throw rocks, one rock splitting the camera.
  • A mammoth sprays mud on the camera.

[edit] Trivia

  • The fourth episode Next of Kin is sometimes called The Prey's Revenge.

[edit] Mistakes

  • When the Megaloceros are fighting, their antlers are going through each other.
  • When the Terror bird starts to feast on the carcass, there were bees, instead of flies.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Impossible Pictures Productions
Land of Giants • Ocean Odyssey • Perfect Disaster • Pickles: The Dog who Won the World Cup • Prehistoric Park • Primeval • Sea Monsters
Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets • The Ballad of Big Al • The Giant Claw • The Lost World • The Legend of the Tamworth Two
The Story of One • T. rex - 100 Years in Pictures • Walking with Beasts • Walking with Dinosaurs • Walking with Monsters
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/a/l/Walking_with_Beasts_2f3f.html"