Wholesome Moments from the Natural World | BBC Earth

Horace was rescued about five months ago. Just like Harriet, it's thought his mum was hit by a car. He was just found sitting by her body. He was not even two weeks old. He was very traumatised, very dehydrated. And he's made a really good recovery and he has created this amazing life for himself at Twala. But as much as it's lovely for Horace to have a serval and a duiker and a dog and domestic kittens as friends, it would be really good for him to actually start learning about being a monkey. And this could be his big chance. Another orphan has just arrived at the centre. This is Jackie. She is also an orphan vervet. A little bit younger than Horace. She's probably three and a half months old now. What a clever girl. Jackie lost her mum too and is still very traumatised. She's going to need lots of love and reassurance. But if she can form a relationship with Horace that would also be great for her because obviously the most comforting thing for her would be to be with another monkey. Horace! Come on! It's an important meeting. Good boy! If they get on, Horace will help Jackie become more confident. I am right here, Jackie, so you don't need to freak. OK. We can just do our own thing, OK? What do you think? And Jackie will teach Horace what it's like to play, climb, and learn with his own kind. Hello, Horace special boy. You mustn't be jealous. Gently, Jackie, be nice. Come on, let's be friends. There we go. Oh, good girl! Oh, good girl. Well done, Horace. And you're being such a gentleman. I'm very proud of you. They are getting on so well. You know, monkeys are into everything, and now that we have two-fold monkeys, there's going to be no peace. Horace and Jackie can now grow up together here at Toala. And Sarah hopes that when they're older, they will join the centre's monkey troop. I do my best to teach them what I can, but there is no better way for them to learn than from each other. This is the mother and daughter. June is 7. Lily is almost 1 1⁄2. And close as these bears are today, tomorrow she could be chasing them away and saying, don't come near me. While they're together, it seems to be a very deep bond. We put a collar on Lily so we could see how she relates to June after they split. Lily is a special bear too, but it's hard to say at this point if she'll match June. See some sound, not ours, but some other sound. It really alerts them. And it was just Bud coming back. Hi, Bud. They sniff, they greet, identify each other. Everything's calm. I've watched bears in the woods for thousands of hours now. I never get bored of it. The trouble is, learning enough that it's harder to answer questions. I thought I knew a lot, but as I see all the variability, I realize how little I know. I'm just scratching the surface, and that's after 41 years. It's interesting that they're nursing shortly before family breakup. Male humpback whales repeat each other's songs and add to them so they become ever more complex and beautiful, showing off their memory as well as sheer volume. Listening carefully to this song is a female humpback whale. She's here with last year's calf, and is ready to conceive another one. He stops singing and follows her. He may sing to her again, but not if he thinks other males are close by. They start to get to know each other. It's an old-fashioned slow-motion waltz. Such beautiful movement is rarely seen. Dance in the animal world is little understood. But their courting ballet is about to be cut short. Rival males have detected that something is going on. They arrive in force, a mob on the dance floor, set on disruption. Each male tries to get beside the female and to intimidate the others. The 35-ton males are set on a fight. Animals that can seem so tender in a moment become so aggressive. The mating game has become a battle. They smash into one another. They tail-slap and bellow. Most of this is just show, throwing their weight around. It's over. The biggest male has won. Professor Stan Kuchai is joined by cameraman Doug, and he's about to perform a very strange experiment with one of the most curious species of dolphin, the bottlenose dolphin. This little dolphin is already intrigued, and the experiment hasn't even begun. Stan's machine blows bubble rings, something these dolphins won't ever have seen before. What will the dolphins make of these bubble rings? Initially, like most animals, they're a bit wary. But then curiosity gets the better of them. One individual seems particularly spellbound. She's checking out the bubbles not just with her eyes, but also with clicks of sonar. And then she braves the bubble ring. This courageous explorer has paved the way for the others. Just like human toddlers, it doesn't take long for these imaginative creatures to make a game out of their new toy. The dolphins are still experimenting. And each has got their own version of the game. One dolphin prefers a tail flip. Another, a fin flip. Real show-off goes for the swim through. While some animals will show initial interest in novel objects, very few will maintain this level of curiosity and playfulness for so long. For Namal, life goes on. Humans aren't such bad company. And although he doesn't know it, this is a big day for him. The monsoon has brought new little luxuries. A mud bath is the perfect way to unwind. But he'll never be fit enough for release into the wild. The film crew can't help feeling sorry for him. Not that Namal ever complains. He's been positive and outgoing since the day they first found him. And this is where that fighting spirit pays off. At long last, he's big enough to meet the gang. This is what elephants are made for. It's what they need more than anything else. This is Namal's future. He's made his first proper friends. And it looks like he's loving every minute. At a jungle hut, this female finds a soul. Despite being totally wild, somehow she has worked out what to do with it. Like us, orangutans have an opposable thumb that allows them to grasp and handle objects with precision. Over 20 years ago, a rescue orangutan learned how to saw by watching people constructing the huts here. But this is a totally different and wild orangutan. She seems to take pride in her work. Even clearing away the sawdust. She's so smart, she uses her feet as a vice to steady the branch. Filming a wild-born and free-living orangutan mastering this complex task is remarkable. But now, she's not the only orangutan sawing. Spy orangutan has joined her. It seems to be bringing out a competitive streak. She's becoming even more enthusiastic. But for a novice, sawing is tiring work. She's lost all momentum. Then, finally, calls it a day. Spy orangutan may have machine-like stamina, but it's the astonishing and versatile mind of the real orangutan that's won the day. She's certainly earned her rest. It's now four o'clock in the afternoon. Caitlin's been in labour on and off for the last five hours. We've just finished a period where there was a couple of hours of not really much activity. She's just getting to the point now where she's having some pretty regular and strong contractions. Caitlin is entering the advanced stages of labour. Good girl. Well done. Copy. Copy. So when she has a contraction, stop to emerge. Stop. Don't touch it. This is the amniotic sac, which means there's a cub on the way. Copy, the sac just burst around her. Now we can see her face. Here we go. Lick it, lick it, lick it. The sensation of Caitlin's licking should trigger the cub's lungs to start working. Jaz, is she licking it? Yeah, she is now. Yeah, go. It's gasped three times, but it's not breathing properly yet. Copy, Jaz. Her licking it will stimulate it to breathe. Yeah. I still feel like we should get in there and give her a hand. Copy, Jaz. Leave, leave, leave. She's looking at space. Yeah, it needs to clear whatever liquid is in the air in the mouth. So that is just leave her be for the moment. It's been two minutes, and although the cub's made some weak attempts, it still hasn't started breathing properly. Yeah. It's gasped. It's gasping, but it's not breathing. OK, it's breathing. Well, there's two, three breaths, four. Good girl. You did so well. She did very well. There we go. So the cub just made its first ever noise, a little squeal out to mum. Mum looked surprised, if anything. She's a beautiful ten-minute-old cub. That's incredible, isn't it? Man, my heart was in my mouth. That's a good girl. For a first-time mum, she's doing an amazing job, and it's really hard just to sit back here and let her get on with it. Now she's starting to have contractions in preparation for the second one to arrive. There's a sack coming out, you can see on this one. Well done. Good girl. Number two. Doing so well. Good girl. Well done. There we go. Good girl. Yay! Oh, this one's coming and kicking and screaming. Good girl. It's absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. It's two males, and Caitlin's allowing Giles to share in the moment. One's up and about. You're so good. You're so amazing. Good girl.