Walking with Beasts

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[edit] General Information

Science Documentary narrated by Kenneth Branagh and published by BBC in 2001 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

Ever since the dinosaurs died out over 65 million years ago our planet has been dominated by mammals. A succession of bizarre evolutionary experiments specimens have come and gone - from walking whales to sabre-toothed cats - yet many of these magnificent creatures have never been visualized. Here, for the first time, some of these spectacular, unfamiliar animals are recreated and set into the context of their world. Walking with Beasts - A Prehistoric Safari vividly reveals the extraordinary ancestors of modern mammals, and the arrival of man, bringing to life the origins of our heritage.

Following in the footsteps of the hugely-acclaimed television series Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts recreates the creatures and landscape of post-dinosaur Earth; transporting us to the icy plains of the mammoth, dark forests ravaged by giant ants and deserts dominated by 15 tonne indricotheres. Run with cat-sized horses and rhino-sized carnivorous pigs, hunt with terror birds and sabre-toothed cats, and walk with the very first humans

[edit] New Dawn - 49,000,000 years ago

The first episode depicts the warm tropical world of the early Eocene which was 16 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs.Six foot birds 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.

[edit] Whale Killer - 36,000,000 years ago

The second episode is set in late Eocene, when the polar caps froze over and drastically changed the Earth's ocean currents and climate.Takes place in mangroves and the open Tethys Ocean, and its central protagonist is a female Basilosaurus (a large early whale) who is forced into the dangerous mangove in search for food.

[edit] Land of Giants - 24,000,000 years ago

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.

[edit] Next of Kin - 3,200,000 years ago

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 humans. 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.

[edit] Sabre-tooth - 1,000,000 years ago

Shows the strange fauna of the isolated continent of South America and explores the effects of the Great American Interchange, 1.5 million years earlier. It focuses on a male Smilodon (a sabre-toothed cat), named Half Tooth, whose leadership of a pride is threatened by two rival males.

[edit] Mammoth Journey - 30,000 years ago

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.