Animal Atlas Season 4, Episode 18: The Birds & the Bees... and Bats

30 MPH

What animals, whether two-legged, four-legged or winged, can break the land speed/air speed of 30 miles per hour, the footspeed man has never reached. From the very fast: the cheetah, the horse, the peregrine falcon; to the slow and steady tortoise.

Who's a Symbol?

Animals who represent something to us, beyond themselves and majestic wildlife: the lion as courage; the bear as strength and fortitude; the bald eagle as freedom; the kangaroo as progressiveness, and a whole lot more.

Telltale Tails

The nature, function and wide variety of tails in the animal kingdom, from the prehensile tails of the New World monkeys, to the fly swishing tails of the pig family, to the display tails of lemurs, as well as why some animals don’t have a tail at all.

Something's Fishy!

Everything that’s special about fish, both the bony and the cartilaginous, from breathing with gills, to their scales, to their fins, both single and paired, to the wide variety of coloring and markings. How fish live, swim and survive.

Man's Best Friend

A closer look at the domestic dog: its super senses, how breeding has changed its appearance and why, different breeds and their histories and background and what working dogs do. Also featuring the wolf, the dog’s ancestor, and various other members of the dog family from foxes to wild dogs.

Curious Cats

The cat family, from the domestic cat to the wild cats: how size is not the factor that separates the big cats from the rest of the wild cats, where domestic cats came from, and how wild cats hunt.

Felids & Canids

A comparative look at the members of the dog and cat family: their super senses, their respective roles as carnivorous predators, which is the fastest and which is the long distance runner, and how they live: the wolf’s/dog’s pack, the lion’s pride, and the solitary cheetah.

Who's a Reptile?

A panoramic look at a variety of reptiles, from snakes to lizards to alligators to turtles and tortoises. What makes a reptile a reptile, what characteristics they all share and what makes them different and why.

The Kingdom of the Horse

The world of the domestic horse, from breeds to breeding, to the biggest and the smallest, the horse’s historic relationship with man; members of the horse family, from the donkey to the zebra; and the horse’s distant relatives in the wild, from the tapir to the rhino.

Variety Show!: The Greatest Mysteries of the Animal Kingdom

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

A panorama of interesting animals whose looks defy their true identity, from the naked mole rat (not a mole, not a rat), to the okapi, the only living relative of the giraffe, to the false gharial and its “true” crocodilian counterpart.

Rats and Pigs

A walk on the wild side with members of the pig family and those rodents whose names have negative connotations but who are really remarkable, if not admirable creatures.

Big Hairy Spiders & Other Toxic Creatures

A visit into the world of the arachnids, and a vivid explanation of which animals are venomous and why, like the tarantula and the rattlesnake, and which are poisonous, like the poison dart frog.

Skin, Fur & Feathers

A very close look at animals with interesting skin such as turtles in their shells and thick-skinned pachyderms like the hippo and the elephant; to remarkable, animals with fur, like the polar bear with its hollow hairs; and also birds, the only animals with feathers.

Variety Show!: The Most Amazing Animal Fact

A panoramic look at animals that are truly amazing, from the echidna, an egg-laying mammal, to a kangaroo that lives in trees, to the only living North American marsupial, the opossum.

The Wild Life: A Chimp's Life

A close look at a family of eight chimpanzees, living in an-almostlike-the-wild habitat in the zoo, their individual stories and some amazing facts about these great apes.

Super Senses

Animals who have more than the traditional five senses, from the smell-taste sense of those possessing the amazing Jacobson organ (snakes, lions, zebras), to the swim bladder that keeps fish from colliding into each other.

The Wild Life: Life on the River's Edge

A journey down the life-sustaining river where near-the-water dwellers include the humongous Nile hippopotamus, the giant anteater, the river otter, and the strange looking bush dog.

Variety Show!: The Top Misconceptions in the Animal Kingdom

Some of the whopping misconceptions that still exist from ‘dolphins are fish’ (not), to ‘bald eagles are bald’ (not), to the belief that there’s only one kind of elephant (not).

Wings & Butterflies!

Delving into the secrets of one of the most beloved insects in the world: the colorful, graceful, winged butterflies: what they eat, how they live and how they fly.

Birds of Prey

The great predatory birds, from the eagle to the hawk to the owl; how they hunt, how they fly, their super senses, and the adaptations that help them to pursue and capture prey; their fascinating historic relationship with mankind.