Original subtitles

Humans are hardwired to find babies adorable.

We even find these animals cute,

despite their lack of classic beauty.

Is it possible to be so ugly, you're cute?

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This is Toliver.

He's a seven-week-old Baird Tapir,

living at Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona.

Don't recognize a tapir?

Well, they're not exactly calendar material.

And you're unlikely to see these endangered animals in the wild.

Only 5500 Baird tapirs remain

in the forests of Central and South America.

So they're a rare sight except for in zoos like this one.

That makes Toliver precious.

Just ask his mother.

Tessa is a very affectionate mother.

She gives lots of time cleaning him and vocalizing with him

and smelling and bonding.

They like to snuggle up next to each other.

From the start, Toliver has been an especially playful

and curious young tapir.

He started coming right up to the keepers on day one

and checking us out.

Mom, on the hand, doesn't like him to explore.

She's very overprotective, so as he's wandering around

she often is chasing right behind him

and trying to keep him where she wants him to be.

Clearly he takes after his mother.

He's definitely inherited her snout.

It's called a prehensile nose which means that they can use

that nose as an extra hand to be able to pluck leaves off of

trees and put those leaves in their mouth, to explore around.

That snout, which is his nose and upper lip in one,

gives Toliver an excellent sense of smell.

And it'll serve an additional purpose when he grows up.

Tapirs, like many other mammals, can sniff the air

for chemical signals emitted by other tapirs.

It's called the Flehmen response.

This type of communication lets adult males figure out

when a partner might be ready to mate.

Toliver's already starting to practice a bit with his mom.

You'd think with this superb sense of smell that Baird tapirs

would find another behavior to be distasteful.

It's called coprophagia,

which means that they like to eat poop.

The reason that for that is it helps maintain

the good bacteria in their stomach.

Helpful for the tapirs' digestion,

but a smelly challenge for the zookeepers!

They like to go to the bathroom in the water.

It's a very large animal and keeping that water clean

is a constant challenge.

So we have a really big filter on our pool, but even with

the filter we always have to constantly be cleaning it.

A rare animal, yes.

Glamorous, not so much.

Glamour's not important, though, if your home is the rainforests,

marshes and mangroves of Central and South America.

But being comfortable in the water is.

That's their main form of defense.

If a predator's chasing them they can go in the water

to hide from them and so they're very amphibious.

Toliver is still young, and swimming is an acquired skill.

His mother seems unconvinced.

Even though he should be an excellent swimmer,

mom is still not letting him in the deep end of the pool,

so he goes in and he splashes around in the shallow end,

but if he tries to go to the deep end mom herds him off

and pushes him back the other direction.

As a baby, Toliver's pretty good at hide and seek,

thanks to his unconventional appearance.

When tapir calves are first born

they look like watermelons with legs.

They've got stripes and spots on them.

It's a form of camouflage for when they're little.

if you think about what a rainforest floor looks like

with the lights that come through the leaves

you'll see kind of a dappled light pattern,

and so those spots and stripes help them blend in

to the rainforest floor so that they can hide from predators.

At about four months, the stripes will start to fade,

and they'll be totally gone

when Toliver is about seven months old.

Change comes quick.

When he was born, Toliver weighed about 14 pounds,

but he's growing fast.

As an adult male Baird tapir,

he will ultimately weigh a hefty 500 pounds!

Speaking of adult males, Toliver's dad is around too,

but not exactly a presence in his life.

Tapir fathers aren't typically involved in rearing.

So dad gets the enclosure only when mom and Toliver

aren't using it.

We keep him back there for the safety of the baby

but also for the safety of the dad.

Mom is very defensive and she outweighs dad

by about a hundred pounds

and so we're worried that if we were to put him out there

that she might hurt dad just trying to protect the baby.

Dad's backseat role seems to suit Toliver and his mom

just fine.

They seem very, very happy having this space to themselves.

Gelada baboons do things a little differently

than most monkeys.

No bananas on the menu, or swinging in the trees.

But group hugs?

That's more their style.

At Dudley Zoo, near Birmingham England, two male gelada babies

also have something else figured out: be cute while you're young.

Because that's not your destiny.

This is.

But these two don't know and don't care what they look like.

Right now, half-brothers Billy and Ambo

are only interested in their mother's love.

Addis is Billy's mother, the family's most senior female.

That experience comes in handy with this wild child.

Billy is very headstrong.

He very much knows what he wants to do and he always runs around

and pretty much gets his own way.

He's just very, very naughty.

Then there's nine-month old Ambo,

on his mother Tanna's back.

Ambo is the total opposite.

Ambo is a complete wuss, bless him.

He's just really-- he's very clingy to his mother

and because Tanna is a first time mother,

so she has been a lot more careful with him

in sort of how she looks after him.

Billy and Ambo's dad is alpha male, Bono.

With so many personalities, there's potential for

high drama, but a blended family is the norm for Geladas.

A typical family has an adult male with a harem of anywhere

from three to six females, and their offspring.

Bono's not huge - gelada males get to be about 2 feet tall -

but he does have a hair-raising mane.

He's mostly silent, but absolutely strong.

Bono is actually a really good male.

He's quite calm and he doesn't freak out,

he just stares and goes, 'No, you can't actually hurt me'.

He's just quite happy just eating

and going around doing his own thing.

He doesn't want these little ones jumping on him

trying to play with him.

Females keep Bono and the family in line.

if they don't like him they will all team up together

and drive him away because female Geladas

don't put up with any nonsense most time from the males.

It's a small family at the zoo, but in the wild,

families join together, especially if food is abundant.

These foraging bands can grow to several hundred members.

Geladas come from the high mountain meadows of Ethiopia.

It's unlike the savannah

or forest habitat of other primates.

They've adapted to life on steep cliffs, few trees,

and limited food.

The zoo tries to mimic that mountain habitat.

We've designed the enclosure to sort of take into effect

some of the things they would encounter in the wild,

so in the wild you will find them up in mountains,

they will sleep on rocky cliff ledges, which is sort of

to help them protect themselves from predators.

So we've got a few rocky cliff faces that they will go

and sit under and maybe have a midday nap in.

Billy and Ambo like to spend time here with their moms.

Billy's a bit of a wild card,

but both boys are slowly changing their habits.

They are starting to spend a lot more time grazing now like the

adults and they do the shuffling gait, which all the adults do.

The shuffle is the gelada's bum-sliding move.

They do it because they're almost exclusively grass eaters.

The problem is, grass offers very little nutrition.

So they will try and save as much energy

as they possibly can.

So mainly they will just sit on their bums

and just shuffle along like this stuffing their faces

with grass as they go along,

and the babies are starting to do that a lot more.

Unlike many monkeys, Geladas rarely climb trees.

In fact, humans are the only primates to spend more time

on the ground than Geladas.

And like us, they've got cushioned bottoms!

The difference is Geladas are meant to sit;

humans, not so much.

Most other baboon species sport a bright red butt to show off.

Not Geladas.

It would be a waste of time, them having 'cause they do sit

on their bums all day.

So they've instead evolved to have a nice bright red chest.

They're sometimes called the bleeding heart baboon

because of it and it serves the same purpose as the bum.

It can show when the females are in estrus or it shows dominance

within the group, the deeper the red it is.

Geladas looking for a mate will come running

when they see that bright red chest.

The boys are still growing into their hairless red chests,

so they communicate in other ways.

Not through touch, mind you.

Many other primates spend a lot of time grooming each other,

but geladas' hands are busy picking grass

up to 10 hours a day.

So instead of touching,

they care for each other with their voices.

Biologists refer to it as "vocal grooming".

It's a very wimpy sound, particularly hearing it from the

big males, but they go along and just sort of go (makes sound)

and it's a strange little sound to hear for such a big animal.

The babies have started doing that with the adults

as well now.

Geladas also communicate using body and facial expressions,

some which give them a reputation

for being scary and mean.

So raising their eyebrows, that would be

sort of like a mild threat for them.

Just letting you know they're not completely happy with you.

They do lip flipping as well, which would be just

totally warning you away that you're in trouble.

They have quite large canines, they will flip the top lip up

and just bare their big impressive teeth,

and then you know to back off from them then.

That grimace is meant to ward off predators, or rivals.

After all, those teeth could really do some damage.

The boys have their own repertoire of expressions.

The pair of them they do have a little thing with us keepers.

They will sort of bob their tongues out and smack the lips

when they see us, so it's kind of like

a friendly, reassuring gesture for a Gelada.

They're cute for now,

and Billy and Ambo have personalities to match.

The keepers are enjoying it while they can.

When Billy and Ambo are adults, that might not be as much fun.

When giant anteaters get up close and personal,

it may be much more personal than you'd like.

They'll extend their snouts towards you.

And then a very long, very slobbery, very sticky, tongue.

It's kind of like intimidating at first but then you realize

that there's nothing there that can hurt you.

It's just a big tongue that comes out.

Those snouts, and freakishly long tongues, look unusual,

even to people that work with animals full-time.

They are definitely the weirdest animal I've ever worked with.

In terms of weird,

the only thing that can top one is another.

Yep, that's a baby anteater on top of her mom.

Riding on the back of mom who's a 108 pounds,

that's got to be cute 'cause it's just like a

double decker bus.

This is Maui, a not-so-little 4-month-old

at Santa Ana zoo in California.

She can be hard to see, even in plain sight.

Maui blends in when she's riding on her mom,

which she does most of the time.

They look just like a bump on mom,

but of the same color pattern and striping and everything.

Their tail is not as long, the hairs aren't as long,

but they're fully haired and look just like a miniature.

This baby can conceal itself in other ways too.

When they sleep they curl like a dog, but their tail hinges

at their rear end and just folds like a big fan over them.

They just look like a little dark bush or a rock

just sitting there.

They need all the tricks they can muster to survive.

They're hunted and eaten in parts

of Central and South America.

And they're classified as vulnerable.

This zoo is doing what it can to build up the population.

Maui is the result of a successful breeding program.

When she gets a little older, as early as two years -

she'll be ready to have her own pups,

and she'll go to another zoo to become a mom.

It may sound harsh, separating moms from offspring so young,

but it's what anteaters do in the wild, anyway.

Once the babies are weaned off mom, which is somewhere near

that one-year period, mom's going to usually run into

another male soon and get rebred.

At that point the baby can't be around mom

and so mom kicks the baby out.

Anteaters may look bizarre, but they're nothing to laugh at.

They're built to fight.

Weighing roughly 100 pounds, giant anteaters are the

largest of the four species of anteaters.

They have extremely powerful shoulders and walk on their

knuckles, to protect their most powerful weapon: claws.

They have two large claws in the centre and then two smaller ones

on the outside and they can shred you.

They hit with those things, it's going to tear a hole in you

and that's their main defense.

These claws come in handy in the wild when fighting jaguars

and pumas, their biggest threats other than humans.

Thankfully, the baby anteaters here don't claw their keepers.

You can pick them up and hold them; and as long as you don't

do anything quick they're usually real easygoing

and just sit there in your arms.

And our female is very good, especially in the morning

she'll just sleep and you can do anything to the baby.

She probably knows it's not good to claw the hand that feeds her,

especially one that provides this

nutritious, delicious gruel.

They just lap it up.

And actually our male is extremely fast

at getting the gruel out.

Our female's a little more dainty when she eats.

In the wild, anteaters have to work harder

for their steady diet of ants, termites and grubs.

They sniff them out with their snout.

Their sense of smell is 40 times better than ours.

Once they've picked up the scent,

giant anteaters use their claws to get at the bugs.

Then they use their snout as a mouth.

They don't have to chew, so they don't have teeth.

Their tongues are covered in sticky saliva,

which helps them hoover up to 35,000 insects a day.

And a giant anteater won't have any problem

getting that two-foot-long tongue into tight spaces.

If you have pockets or a sleeve the nose goes in that hole

and then the tongue comes out and starts going

bam, bam, bam, bam and starts feeling around

looking for things to pull out of that hole.

Maui's primary diet is still mom's milk.

It will be till she's about five months old.

But she's already willing to try other things - like yogurt.

Her curiosity goes beyond food to exploring her world.

Some of these little babies will stay on mom all the time.

Maui seems to be a little bit more adventurous.

Most of my smaller ones like that I rarely see 'em off,

but we see Maui off a lot more.

Curious, adventurous, with some very peculiar body parts.

And sort of cute.

But it won't be long before Maui

is a fully-grown, fierce, giant anteater.

Wild and woolly doesn't suit everyone,

but this fellow wears it well.

This is Charlie.

He's a Bactrian camel, living at Dudley zoo

near Birmingham, England.

And he's proud father of the newest camel in the compound:

Fergie.

She's just eight weeks old.

And this is Fergie's mom, Mandy.

These lumpy humpy mammals form a tight-knit family unit,

and they've been that way from day one.

Fergie was born in the stable with her mom and dad

and she's stayed with them at all times.

The only time she's ever been separated was when we've had to

weigh her or just give her a little check-up.

But now, as you see, she's very happy living with them.

You may think Fergie has the kind of face

only a mother could love.

But Charlie dotes on her, too.

He's a great big, seven-foot-high softie.

Male camels can be quite aggressive,

obviously when they hit maturity, but since he's had

Fergie around, he's a lot more chilled out.

Fergie may have softened him up too much.

Dad obviously used to be in charge of the little group but

now I think he's finding that he's not as in charge anymore.

Of course, we all know who's really running the show.

Fergie's in charge and mom will do anything for Fergie

so he tends to have to take the backseat now

and do what mom and baby want.

Fergie and her camel parents have some features

that might look odd to us, but if she were in the wild,

they'd be key to her survival.

For example, Fergie could stand within a few minutes of birth,

thanks to her large, even-toed feet.

Camels' big feet provide steady footing on the uneven terrain

of central Asian deserts and steppes.

They walk in herds across sand and rock,

sometimes for days on end.

They can run, too; up to twenty miles an hour.

If a young camel like Fergie couldn't keep up,

she'd be in big trouble.

Those big eyes and wide noses

are also adapted to desert conditions.

They can close their nostrils when there's sandstorms.

They've got two extra eyelashes to shelter their eyes

from the sand.

Even their ears are protected from the sand.

They're lined with hair.

Deserts are a place of harsh extremes.

Temperatures can plummet, or it can be blisteringly hot.

The camel's shaggy coat works for both.

In the winter they grow this great big thick coat

and in the summer they molt and it all comes off

and they have a very thin coat.

So they're very adapted to the weather

that they have to live in.

That very furry coat is one of the things that

distinguishes them from their middle eastern cousin,

the one-humped dromedary.

When you hear the word camel, you probably picture these guys.

They're usually the ones in the desert scenes

but Bactrian camels have star quality, too.

Just check out that profile.

And what about those humps?

Dromedaries only have one hump.

Bactrians have two.

Right now, Fergie's humps are a little hard to see.

At first you couldn't see them at all.

They blended in with her fur.

She's got lovely thick, curly fur.

I think it'll be a long, long time before those humps

start to fill out, as she does, and get the proper two-hump

look like her mom and dad.

Of all the things that help camels survive,

humps are most important.

Imagine walking hundreds of miles

with no water or food in sight.

You'd be smart to bring along supplies.

Humps are like a camel's backpack.

But the contents might surprise you.

Everybody thinks they store water.

They don't store water, it's just a fat source so that they

can go for days without food and water and they can use the fat

as a food source.

The humps flop over as that supply is used up.

Since they can go without water for long stretches,

they know to load up when they get the chance.

A camel in the wild can drink up to 30 gallons at once,

in as little as 13 minutes.

You won't see that at the zoo though.

They have a steady supply of water here.

When it comes to food, Fergie's still feeding from her mother.

She will until she's one and a half.

But she's exploring other tastes.

She's started having a little smell of the hay and the straw

and having a little nibble and we've just started introducing

a few calf pellets just so she can get the taste of solids.

This family also enjoys chewing on bark.

Being able to eat tough vegetation, even prickly plants,

is an adaptation for desert survival.

For Fergie, this peculiar combination of her mother's milk

and rough vegetation appears to work.

She's thriving.

She's so big.

But she's estimated about 5 foot tall now,

so she's growing taller and taller every day.

It's a hopeful sign for a species in danger of extinction.

People need to know how rare they are.

They're critically endangered.

A lot of people think they're quite ugly but when you

come and see them they've got a lovely personality.

Fergie has clearly charmed her keepers.

I just love her. She's just wonderful.

Every day she's growing.

Every day she's doing something different

and she's just a pleasure to watch and work with.

Love and affection for a lumpy, long-legged creature.

Now that's something you don't hear everyday.

As these strange lookers illustrate,

baby animals aren't always cute.

But what might seem ugly to us

is usually an incredibly useful adaptation.

Tapirs' noses, anteaters' tongues, baboons' chests -

they're all features meant to help these animals survive.

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