Elephants thrive in the predator ridden savannah thanks to their extreme size and their remarkable reproductive biology. They invest huge amounts of time and energy in each individual newborn… and raise their young in a protective family herd led by a matriarch. We find out how females select the strongest mates, why elephants have the longest pregnancy in the animal kingdom, how they safely deliver a 100kg baby and we witness the remarkable first steps of a newborn calf.
Kings of them all, the Kangaroos, thrive in one of the most unpredictable, drought-prone environments on Earth – the Australian Outback. And it’s all thanks to their bizarre way of reproducing. We find out why females kangaroos have three vaginas; how male marsupials use sperm plugs to beat the competition; how month-old babies - the size of a paperclip - can climb to a pouch and Joy experiences the extraordinary sight of a new-born kangaroo sucking on it's mother's teat...inside her pouch.
At an orang-utan sanctuary deep in the rainforest Mark and Joy come face-to-face with a super-male and uncover the latest scientific theories on how these Orang-utan kings exert their power over other males and seduce females in their territory. We see the birth of an Orang-utan and find out what it takes to raise an Orang-utan baby. Orangs devote around 7 years to raising a single newborn – the longest duration between births of any animal. The lengthily period dedicated to raising one child is key to the success of orang-utans and all the other great apes too – including us humans.