Producers: Village Distribution

As children we learn more about life through playing games than we do in any other way. It is the ability to play that enables us to develop into well co-ordinated, adaptable, highly social individuals. But we are not alone, animals play also. For many years this animal play was thought to be somehow ‘different’ to human play, but this is proving not to be the case. Why do animals indulge in play, what are the functions of these energy draining and often dangerous activities? This interdisciplinary programme will explore the reasons that play is so important to development: by describing social, locomotor and object play behavior in animal as diverse as reptiles, birds and mammals, it will find out the benefits it does provide. Finally it will look at the shocking evidence of what happens to young animals who are prevented from playing. In a startling parallel to humans, animal deprived of play, develop into dysfunctional adults, and even serial killers.

The study of animal behavior leaves little room for emotional-related explanations. Feelings in animals tend to be presented as functional explanations of behavior in a given situation. The notion of emotion has been completely overlooked, especially in the sixties, at the peak of animal experimentation, since it was easier to deny animal feelings like sadness or suffering, to guiltlessly carry out all sorts of tests. Recognizing the existence of animal feelings implies moral obligations. Things however are changing… and many scientists who study animal behavior are paying more and more attention to emotions. But how could it be otherwise? To better understand a behavior we need to compare it to an already seen already and understood situation. And what could better help us understand a specific behavior than our own experience, our own behavior and our own emotions.

In the 1950s, rhesus macaques living on the island of Koshima in Japan started to wash the sweet potatoes researchers gave them to eat. This observation could have remained anecdotal if the Japanese primatologists had not given this innovation the name of: “preculture”. Culture, always considered as a distinctive feature of the human race was being put into question. The study of the most evolved primates, our cousins the chimpanzees and bonobos, has since then enabled us to give a more precise definition of animal culture: habits acquired through a learning process leading to distinct traditions in different animal communities. Progressively other species have joined the culture club: elephants, dolphins, killer whales and even ravens…Through precise examples and never before seen footage, this documentary fuels the old debat of “nature versus culture” and sheds new light on the paradoxical question:”Is culture natural?”.

“Give me this, I will give you that”. This universal definition of trade finds an equivalent in nature in a phenomenon call mutualism. Shaped by evolution, it describes all long or short term exchanges and cooperation between animals to survive. It turns the traditional host-parasite relationship in a beneficial alliance for both partners. To describe mutualism, this fascinating and well-documented episode travels from the cold ocean dephts to the heat of summer corn fields where unexpected couples have formed : manta rays and remoras, sea cucumbers and shrimps or else butterflies and ants got married for better or for worst.

According to recent scientific research, more than 450 different kinds of animals engage in homosexual activity. St Thomas Productions has taken this research, and combined it with never-before- seen film footage, to produce this compelling and groundbreaking documentary. Animal Homosexuality explores the various ways homosexuality is expressed in the animal kingdom through courtships, affection, sex, pair-bonding and parenting. A covert revolution has been taking place in nature, and has gone unnoticed until now. With the help of scientific research, international stock footage and location shoots all over the world, Saint Thomas re-examines and revises the fundamental paradigms of nature.

Insect societies have always fascinated us by the perfection of their organisation. But without their ability to secrete a substance (wax, glue,…) insects would never have been induced to become organized. The first groupings were enabled by constructive secretions such as silk, a magical fibre that builds, unites, and speaks.Among all the different animal secretions, silk is a formidable medium of information which encourages social interactions. For some species, this extraordinary substance serves as means of both communication, transportation, as well as protection, nourishment, and reproduction. With silk as the foundation, the social life of insects and spiders is organized around these web-networks. Everywhere in nature, spun threads cross, interweave, and separate, creating many intersections where spinner insects and spiders can meet and feel each other’s vibrations.It’s the beginning of a form of communication that can be transformed into a confrontation, a sexual encounter, or another form of interaction. It’s the beginning of a form of communication that can be transformed into a confrontation, a sexual encounter, or another form of interaction. The techniques of macro-cinematography, endoscopy, and electronic microscopy will allow us to forget our giant size and enter into the intimate universe of social insects and spiders to discover the secrets of the silk spinners.

Like us, animals are exposed to parasites, bacteria and viruses – the germs which cause disease. How do they survive these attacks ? Recent research and observation have shown that animals use plant and insect substances to treat themselves – not only do they apply things to their skin, they actually treat themselves by feeding on things not normally part of their diets. Capuchin monkeys rub citrus fruit on their fur, caterpillars eat poison hemlock, herbivorous red deer have even been seen chewing the legs off live seabirds. This film takes off around the world to discover how animals use medicine, it questions what notions they have about health and how medical knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next. In doing so, the film also asks what we can learn from animals about medicine.