Family Matters

For primates, family is everything. Complex social lives are key to their success. 2/3, For primates, family matters. They have the most complex social lives of any animal group on the planet. From dusky leaf monkeys who compete to babysit an infant to gibbons who learn dare-devil treetop acrobatics with their playmates, friends and family are at the heart of primate life. In the Amazon we meet a female spider monkey elder, who leads her troop to a unique food resource: aquatic plants brought within reach on raging floodwaters. She shows them how, using their remarkable tails as a safety rope, they can feast on this unlikely bounty. In Sri Lanka, we meet the bizarre slender loris in the most intimate images ever captured of the species. And in Brazil's Atlantic forests, we share a day in the life of the most devoted primate dad of all. The diminutive male golden-headed lion tamarin is a guardian, a navigator and, when needs must, a taxi service for his demanding offspring. With family comes hierarchy, and those at the top are constantly under threat.