Secrets of Survival

Revealing the extraordinary strategies monkeys, apes and lemurs use to survive in the most unexpected places, from snow-capped mountains to the open savannah. 1/3, Primates have conquered the world, from snow-capped mountains to dusty backstreets, impassable flooded forests and the open savannah. In this episode, we reveal the extraordinary strategies monkeys, apes and lemurs must use to survive in the most unexpected places. Times are hard for a troop of bearded capuchins in Brazil's badlands. With no rain for eight months, food and water are scarce. But these monkeys can do something very few primates can: they use tools, and make them too. It is this ability that allows them to find the food they need to survive. For other primates, the challenge is social. On a remote Island off Africa's west coast, we meet the drill, perhaps the least known monkey of all. Males must fight for their place in the hierarchy, and those who can't compete are exiled. We meet two such outcasts, who form an uneasy association to get by. Against the lush green backdrop of India's Western Ghats, lion-tailed macaques have ditched cooperation for exploitation.