Trials of Life

E01▶

Arriving

Oct 4, 1990 · 50m

E02▶

Growing Up

Oct 11, 1990 · 50m

E03▶

Finding Food

Oct 18, 1990 · 50m

E04▶

Hunting and Escaping

Oct 25, 1990 · 50m

E05▶

Finding the Way

Nov 1, 1990 · 50m

E06▶

Home Making

Nov 8, 1990 · 50m

E07Playing

Living Together

Nov 15, 1990 · 50m

E08▶

Fighting

Nov 22, 1990 · 50m

E09▶

Friends and Rivals

Nov 29, 1990 · 50m

E10▶

Talking to Strangers

Dec 6, 1990 · 50m

E11▶

Courting

Dec 13, 1990 · 50m

E12▶

Continuing the Line

Dec 20, 1990 · 50m

This episode focuses on those species that co-operate and depend on (or exploit) others. Spotted deer follow langur monkeys as they travel from tree to tree, eating any leaves that get dropped from above. In return, the deer serve as a lookout when the primates are feeding on the ground. Underwater, a hermit crab is shown adding sea anemones to its shell in order to protect itself from attack by an octopus, and a goby assists a virtually blind shrimp. Fleas, lice and mites are parasites: they share no mutual partnership and instead take advantage of creatures for food or shelter. However, parasites have their predators, and an example are the finches of the Galápagos Islands that clear the resident giant tortoises of their ticks, and oxpeckers, which do the same for giraffes in Africa (and even use its fur to line their nests). Some fish regularly clean others, and wrasse and shrimp appear to specialise in this regard, as do remora, which permanently hang on to their hosts. One parasite that grows inside its host is the fluke, and one is shown gestating inside a snail, having previously been unknowingly eaten. Because it needs to transfer to a bird's gut to develop further, it causes the snail to advertise its presence to allow itself to be consumed - thus completing the circle. However, some microscopic creatures inhabit the stomachs of large herbivores in order to break down the cellulose of their diet, thereby aiding their digestion.