Original subtitles

Babies.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

And generally, the bigger the animal,

the bigger the baby.

So a baby might be puny compared to its parent

but that doesn't mean it's not a mini giant.

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(Birds chirping)

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The phrase "little baby" applies to most infants.

But not to elephant calves like Nandi,

born weighing as much as 270 pounds.

That's a whole lot of baby!

Nandi is the newest addition to our African elephant herd,

and she's our first baby elephant

at the Reid Park Zoo.

Just hours after she was born, Nandi could see, smell and walk.

Before long, she figured out

how to put her most distinguishing feature

to good use.

Her trunk contains around 100,000 muscles.

African elephants have amazing trunks,

and their trunks are so many things to them,

they're an arm and a straw, all in one.

Their trunks, even more interesting, I think, are used

when they greet each other

and when they interact with each other.

So their trunks are a way that they connect,

much like we might hug a friend

or shake the hand of someone we've just met.

That's what elephants use their trunks for,

for their communication.

Now, just less than 1-year-old, Nandi spends most of her time

checking out anything she can reach.

And if she strays too far,

her mother, Semba, cops her back in line.

Semba's interactions with Nandi are very gentle and sweet.

Semba uses her trunk to touch her

and to comfort her and to guide her along,

so if she's trailing behind or she's moving too slow,

Semba will use her trunk to kinda push her,

give her a little boost.

But it takes a village to raise a baby elephant.

So, when Nandi gets hungry,

she can get milk not only from Semba

but from any of her aunts, known as allomothers.

In the wild, allomothers make sure

the calf keeps up with the herd

and doesn't end up as a lion's lunch.

But Nandi doesn't have to worry about that here.

Nandi is very, very enthusiastic.

When she greets her keepers in the morning,

when she gets to go out on to the exhibit,

she flares her ears out and trumpets

and runs really quickly,

like a little kid who's excited to go out and play.

She will often run out and grab an item,

it might be a branch, it might be a piece of hay

or a chunk of bark,

and she'll hold her trunk up high

and wave it around as though it were a flag,

and it's just really, really cute.

It's hard not to laugh when you watch her,

hard not to be in a really great mood.

African elephants are the world's largest land animals.

By the time Nandi is 6,

she'll tip the scales at more than a tonne.

Her big brother, Sundzu, who's 4 four years old,

is well on his way.

Sundzu was the former baby of the family,

and he had a difficult time adjusting,

to not being always under mom's feet,

but over time, over several months,

he really became more curious about Nandi

and now plays with her almost every day.

It's really sweet, he's very gentle with her.

By playing with Sundzu

and interacting with the rest of the herd,

Nandi is experiencing a world similar

to what she'd face out in the wild,

she's learning how to be an elephant.

She's just recently encountered our pool,

and it's a little different perhaps than a wild stream

in that it has slightly steep steps,

and so her first venture in,

she just ran into the pool and sank.

She was okay, she was with her mom

and she was able to swim,

but that's something that's really important

for young calves in the wild,

to learn how to negotiate mud wallows

and bodies of water so that they can be safe.

In the wild, Nandi and the rest of the herd

will depend on Nandi's mom, Semba,

the dominant female or matriarch.

Matriarchs play a critical role

in guiding the herd to water and food.

The loss of the matriarch can devastate the herd.

Out in the open, the risk in real.

One of the problems that we're facing is that

matriarchs, just like bulls, do have long tusks

and elephants are often poached for their ivory tusks,

and it's typically the older elephants,

and so a problem can be

when older elephants are taken out of the population.

The knowledge that they have,

that they've not yet passed down to the rest of the herd,

is lost with their death.

Nandi will reach sexual maturity at around 12 years old.

By then, she'll tower up to 14 feet tall

and weigh more than 5 tons.

But, for now, all that really matters to Nandi

is hanging out with the herd

and enjoying her special role as the baby of the family.

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They're built like beefy weightlifters,

as wide as they are tall.

Western lowland gorillas stand at 5'5"

but can max out at nearly 350 pounds,

making them the largest primates on the planet.

But not this girl.

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At not quite 2 years old,

Anaka is still a relative light weight

and a total original.

She has this curly hair that really sets her apart

from the other individuals in the group.

When Anaka was born, she weighed around 4 pounds.

Anaka's mother is Sukari, which in Swahili means "sugar".

And as far as Anaka's concerned,

her mom is the sweetest.

All of the gorilla's moms

seem to have their own parenting style,

just like humans,

and Sukari is the type of mom

that, you know, she wants to have an eye on her infant

but she has no problem with Anaka goes off

and plays by herself for a little bit,

as long as she can keep an eye on her.

And Anaka appreciates the freedom to roam.

She learnt to walk on her own at about 30-weeks-old,

but even before that,

she cultivated her own style and resisted being babied.

Normally, gorilla moms will hold them

but within like that first day,

Anaka was already riding on Sukari's back,

which is really interesting,

but she's kinda been that sort of "I'm a tough little girl"

all along from day one.

But even a tough little girl needs a little help sometimes.

When she gets frightened, she's quick to call mom

and she can make a loud scream

when she's a little bit frightened

and everybody thinks, "Oh my gosh, what's wrong?"

but it's just her, you know, wanting to be closer to mom.

Huge adult gorillas, like Sukari, can look pretty scary,

but they are, in fact, very shy, peaceful herbivores.

Unlike other gorillas that sleep in trees,

lowland gorillas, like Sukari and Anaka, sleep on the ground.

But Anaka and Sukari spend much of their waking hours

in the trees,

looking for leaves and fruit to eat.

Because the food is so small and gorillas are so big,

Anaka must eat almost constantly,

when she's not resting, or playing with her pals.

We have four juveniles in our group

and with four juveniles, anytime is playtime really,

so they're always chasing, wrestling

and making all these interesting noises, these vocalizations

that are associated often with these play behaviors.

Some of the other youngsters will even give Anaka a lift.

I wonder how that's possible

cos they weigh almost about the same,

they both weigh about 30 pounds,

so I just think, "Oh, how are they doing that?"

But I think it's just part of being a gorilla

and something they do.

Playtime isn't just for the youngsters,

every once in a while, mom joins the fun.

But at the end of the day, she's still Anaka's mother

and protect her.

So Anaka is very dependent on her mom

and she will sleep with her at night,

she rides on her back still.

Anytime there is a moment where Anaka's a little nervous,

she'll, of course, go right to her mom.

Sukari will continue nursing Anaka

for another couple of years.

Although lately,

Anaka is starting to develop a hankering for solid food,

when she can get it.

Her mom doesn't actively share with her

but her mom does let her pick up food

that maybe her mom has dropped.

Gorillas are super-social animals that hang out in troops.

In the wild, a troop usually has five to ten members.

It would be one male,

and an adult male is called a silverback,

and he would be with several females

that he's breeding with and then, of course, their kids.

Lowland gorillas, like humans,

have no distinct breeding season.

The game is always on.

But it's not always easy.

First of all, a female will only start breeding

when she's 10 years old,

then with a 40% infant mortality rate,

she will only actually produce a healthy baby every 6 to 8 years.

When a baby like Anaka finally joins the troop,

she learns very quickly who's the boss.

The dominant male, the silverback.

He has a very important job, which is a difficult job,

but that's to keep all of the girls in line

and to keep peace within that family group.

At the silverback's side are females,

like Sukari, with their babies.

Slightly further away sit the females without babies.

And relegated to the outskirts of the troop

are the subadult males.

In captivity, as in the wild,

anything Anaka and the other youngsters

need to know about their world,

they learn within this tight structure.

They're watching their parents for how to forage,

what to eat, how to interact with other individuals.

They're learning sort of the social norms of being a gorilla,

a wild socialized gorilla.

Along the way, one of the big lessons Anaka will learn

is that one day she will have to leave all this behind.

And once the kids become old enough

and they'll be-- reach sexual maturity,

they actually disperse from the group.

In the wild,

Anaka could typically live as long as 40 years.

And maybe even have a few babies.

For now, here in the zoo, she is just hanging out

and loving life.

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Tough,

rambunctious,

and fast on his feet,

this young white rhino doesn't take orders from anybody.

Only 2-1/2 months old, and already 220 pounds,

this baby, known as Tino, was born to run.

When he was first born,

he was up on his feet within about half an hour.

And from then he actually found his feet very quickly.

He had big adventurous little (Unclear) running around

in his (Unclear) checking everything out,

before he could even really walk properly.

In the wild, Tino's fleet feet

could keep him safe from predators

if he should wander away from his mom.

But here, running's just a way to burn off energy,

when he is not wallowing in the mud

or exploring his new home.

It's all mom can do to keep up with him.

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And once he stops pounding the turf,

Tino's ready to go head to head with the grownups.

He very much likes to show the others

that he's this big brave thing,

and he runs up to them and says,

"I'm the boss and I'm gonna push you around."

And then something will give him a fright

and he'll run away and squeal like a little child.

He's very much a mama's boy, yes.

So mama's very good at being very protective of him

so he knows he's safe,

and he runs up and hides behind mom.

Tino's mom, Tamu, could've been carrying this big bruiser

for up to a year and a half.

He was born a healthy 110 pounds

and since then he is just continued to grow,

2-4 pounds every day.

He began drinking milk mere hours after he was born,

but soon, Tamu will wean him

and show him how to eat short grasses.

Food is just the start of the mother-baby bond.

White rhinos are some of the most devoted moms in the world.

They generally stay with their babies for 2-4 years.

So mom's very much being the teacher

of getting him to use his horn,

so they do a lot of sparring,

where they sorta play fight with both their horns.

Teach him to rub on things to shape his horn.

She's been very good

in showing him the essential parts of life so far.

White rhinos are one of the most social rhinoceros species.

Females leave their calves in adolescence

in tightknit herds of up to 14.

These guys actually depend on their mom or their siblings

or even just their herd to keep the mentality.

These guys are actually quite depressed if they're alone.

At 1-month-old, white rhinos are only about 2 feet tall.

But give them a little time.

They are the largest living species of rhinoceros,

growing as big as an SUV,

and weighing up to 2-1/2 tons.

The little nub on Tino's head

will eventually develop into two distinct horns.

The largest front horn will never stop growing

and can reach up to 5 feet.

Horns grow from the skin

and are made of compressed strands of keratin,

the same material as our fingernails and hair.

And just like those,

a rhino horn will grow back if it breaks off.

Females use their horns to protect their young

while males use them against predators

and to spar with other rhinos.

But these important tools, unique to rhinoceros,

are a double-edged sword.

A lucrative horn-poaching business

has endangered the rhinoceros population.

That's what makes Tino's birth such a triumph.

Thanks to the strength of rhinoceros mothers, like Tamu,

and conservation areas, like this one,

the white rhino has made a huge comeback.

Now reclassified as near threatened,

20,000 live in protected areas.

Ultimately what we're tryin' to do

is to stop these guys from becoming extinct,

and the more we can get these guys up in numbers

and start to release them back into the wild.

So having this rhino calf born here

is another number into that

but it's a huge feat for us as well.

This little calf's life is a celebration.

Once he's ready, he will be sent off to mate.

But he has a few frolicking years left before that happens.

For now, after a boisterous day in the park,

a nap is in order.

Mother Tamu will welcome the break...

while at lasts.

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Majestic and strong,

an enduring symbol of the Great Plains.

The bison is the heaviest land animal in North America,

reaching a height of 6 feet and weighing up to a ton.

Even newborns ate pretty big and cute!

Every April or May,

the mother bison give birth to babies

that weigh-in between 33 and 55 pounds.

Though he may look defenseless as a newborn calf,

you'd never wanna get between him and his mother.

No, you really don't wanna push a bison in the wild.

There's a couple reason for that.

They have very bad eyesight and they are very big.

So when they don't know what you are,

they're gonna charge at you.

Big or small,

once they get moving, they are hard to stop.

This little one's eager to stretch his legs.

They get happy, they get excited,

they'll kick, they'll buck, they'll bounce around.

If one gets excited and starts running,

they will all start running.

And they just all of sudden, out of nowhere,

they get like puppy crazy and it's great.

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Despite their massive size,

bison are surprisingly swift on their feet.

When they have to, they can run up to 40 miles an hour.

While bison are powerful symbols of the North American frontiers,

they didn't originate here.

Like humans, their ancestors reached North America

by crossing the Bering Land Bridge

some 500,000 years ago.

And like us, they started raising families

and made themselves at home on the range,

which allow them to pay more attention to their grooming.

In captivity and in the wild,

a little guy like this sticks to his mom like a shadow.

Mama wouldn't have it any other way.

They are great mamas.

They definitely keep the calf close

and they will always put themselves

between a calf and a person.

If a person walks up, they'll put themselves.

They scoot under them.

When they're its first born,

they'll bump it up and get it nursing

and guide it where it needs to be,

to find it, to be able to nurse.

And they'll always protect it and put themselves in-between

that calf and any kind of danger or person.

Barely a day old,

the fur on this ginger calf will gradually darken.

In 4 months, he'll match his mom.

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But not all bison are dark.

We have a couple herds of bison here.

We have a white bison and we have brown bison here.

In the wild, the rare white bison are considered sacred

among some Native American religions.

Whatever the color, baby bison are quick studies.

This fellah was standing on his own at 10 minutes old

and nursing within a half hour.

For the next 18 months, they will continue to nurse,

but he's also fully equipped to start grazing

at only 5 days old.

As goes a bison calf learned, it does know how to nurse.

They are born with all their teeth.

They have this full set of baby teeth.

So they can actually start picking up

how to eat hay, how to do all that,

how to drink water and how to start surviving

from the time they are very small.

By the time he is 9 months old,

this guy can weigh up to 400 pounds.

The males and females do develop differently.

Males get bigger.

They have a lot more shag around their heads.

Both do have horns.

On an adult bull, these horns can grow up to 2 feet long.

Males keep growing for up to a dozen years,

but females reach their maximum size

when they reach sexual maturity at age 3.

Males, however, are late bloomers

and don't usually mate until they are around 6 years old.

Adult bison are almost too big to tangle with,

but in the wild,

the calves can fall prey to bears and wolves.

They find safety in numbers.

They all know to follow a herd, which I think, is a skill

essential for surviving in the wild,

because they are prey animals.

It keeps them alive to be in a herd

and they've learned that.

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So if he were in the wild, this vulnerable bison calf

has got the whole herd to protect him

until he grows majestic and strong.

Until then, he can just practice

some speedy and graceful running.

Graceful might take a little longer.

Except for their size,

these big babies couldn't be more different.

Each is a mini version of its giant parents

and each is a keen student,

learning how to make its way in the world.

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