National Geographic: Adventures in Time Page #3

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this creature seems ready

to accept its fate.

But the horned lizard

has evolved a surprising solution

to a desperate dilemma.

"The swelling below his eye is not a wound

it's the lizard's last defense.

Squirted from a specialized tear duct

a stream of blood is aimed

at the coyote's face.

The blood is laced with substances

that are so distasteful the coyote

wants nothing more to do with the lizard."

Here on the barren ice floes of the Arctic

it's hard to imagine any creature -

much less a thousand pound brute -

finding sustenance.

But the polar bear is a resourceful

predator with infinite patience.

"The seal is safe for the moment

but each new trip to the surface

to breathe could end in another ambush.

It's an over-sized game of cat and mouse."

Mammals thrive by capitalizing

on a key innovation

rarely found in reptiles: parental care.

They are capable of bonding

mother to child, parent to parent

to herd, pod or pack.

But as youth gives way to maturity

animals demonstrate other important

capabilities as well...

Many of these battles are to seize

the most critical moment in animal time:

the moment their genes are passed to

the next generation.

The next chapter in the Book of Life

began with creatures that could grasp

- not only branches

- but complex ideas as well.

It is here, among the primates,

that we begin to see ourselves.

"We know that the earliest stage

of human evolution happened in a habitat

just like this, East African woodland

that's got open areas...

onto which our ancestors eventually

moved and adapted to.

So to be able to study hunting here

is the best way to give us some kind of

window onto the earliest origins of

meat eating in our own ancestors four

or more million years ago.

As colobus monkeys are pursued

by a band of chimpanzees

we witness the terrifying tenacity of

both predator and prey.

"As the chimps climb up the colobus

retreat to the highest branches,

too slender to bear the chimps' weight.

The male colobus stand their ground

against chimps up to four times their size.

They will even take the offensive

momentarily driving the chimps back.

Holding his tail out of the chimp's reach

this male buys precious time for

the escape of the females and young.

With chimps climbing everywhere

one monkey leaps into the arms of death.

Even a rear attack by the defending

colobus cannot save him."

Resourceful, sociable, intelligent

the chimpanzee has been content to

remain in the forest for millions of years.

Only occasionally do they wander out

into open areas.

But one related species -

the ancestors of early humans -

left the forest for good...

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