Name: Growing Up
Released: 1990-10-11

Trials of Life

S1 · E2 — Growing Up

S1:E2 · Growing Up

Episodes

12 episodes in this season

Arriving

50 min

Now Playing

Growing Up

50 min

Finding Food

50 min

Hunting and Escaping

50 min

Finding the Way

50 min

Home Making

50 min

Living Together

50 min

Fighting

50 min

Friends and Rivals

50 min

E10

Talking to Strangers

50 min

E11

Courting

50 min

E12

Continuing the Line

50 min

Trials of Life

TV Series

199050m8.4

DocumentaryFamily

Now playing

Growing Up

Season 1 · Episode 2 · Oct 11, 1990

This programme describes the ways that various species care for their young. Attenborough defines childhood as achieving two tasks: growing and surviving. He highlights the elephant seal as an animal that experiences a compressed childhood, being abandoned after three weeks and left for up to another eight alone, while it becomes large enough to be able to swim. For terns, there is safety in numbers as the dense population works together to drive out marauding gulls. The snow geese in the Russian arctic show intense devotion as they escort their goslings by foot to the coast some 50 kilometres away. Scorpions carry their young on their backs, while a shrew will leave hers under a stone while she goes to feed. The eider duck is one creature that shares responsibility for its offspring: females regularly supervise the ducklings of others in a group. The mara is another that uses a crèche system, as does the bat, whose nurseries can be up to a million strong. The Florida scrub jay has developed complex parental relationships, using teams rather than pairs. Such behaviour is exhibited on a larger scale by elephants, where all females take an interest in raising a single calf. A chimpanzee’s childhood is socially complicated, as an individual must learn how to behave towards others, as well as master the use of tools. Albatrosses must be accomplished fliers as soon as possible - chicks are shown being hunted by tiger sharks.

6.0episode rating

More details

Trials of Life

TV Series

199050m8.4

DocumentaryFamily

Now playing

Growing Up

Season 1 · Episode 2 · Oct 11, 1990

6.0episode rating

More details