Meet six baby animals from across the globe. Follow along as they experience joy and hardship, confront near-daily adversities, navigate their habitats, and overcome challenges in their first year of life.
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Animal Babies: First Year on Earth is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
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About the Show
Like all babies, young animals can have a first year filled with joy, love and play. To survive, however, they must also overcome threats and challenges, from rivals, from the elements, and predators. To tell the stories of these magical months, renowned wildlife cinematographers travel the globe to follow the lives of six iconic baby animals as they grow and develop. This is the story of what it takes to survive in the wild. This is their first year on earth.
Episode 1 | First Steps (Premiere Date: Aug. 28, 2019)
See how the babies learn to understanding their surroundings in environments ranging from Africa to Sri Lanka to Iceland. The most basic tools for survival must be learned in their first three months to thrive and ultimately survive.
Episode 2 | Testing the Limits (Premiere Date: Sept. 4, 2019)
Learn the new challenges baby animals face once they can get around on their own. Every day brings new trials and tribulations, like searching for food, surviving in harsh environments and bonding with family members.
Episode 3 | New Frontiers (Premiere Date: Sept. 11, 2019)
Join the baby animals as they near the end of their first year of life. It’s time for these young ones to branch off from the comfort of their mothers and learn to explore the great unknown on their own.
11-week-old Fela, the only white Arctic fox cub stands in front of two of his dark-furred siblings near their den in the Hornstrandir peninsula, Iceland.
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© BBC Studios
Five-month-old toque macaque, Jazir, enjoys access to the best food and shelter because his mother is the troop’s alpha female. Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
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© James Hemming
Eight-month-old mountain gorilla baby, Nyakabara, has to hitch a ride on her mother’s back as she forages, as she is yet to learn to climb in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda.
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© Dominic Weston
Three spotted hyena cubs investigate the cameras mounted to the filming vehicle in the Mara Conservancy, Kenya.
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© BBC Studios
Six-month-old twin spotted hyena sisters, Bisque and Chowder, work as a team, but have already established in their first weeks of life that Bisque is dominant.
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© John Gray
Five-month-old Toque macaque, Jazir, enjoys access to the best food and shelter because his mother is the troop’s alpha female. Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
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© BBC Studios
Eight-month-old mountain gorilla baby, Nyakabara, has yet to learn to climb in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. She is one of perhaps only 50 mountain gorilla babies in the world.
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Southern sea otter pup, Limpet, has yet to learn the difference between shellfish and waste plastic when foraging. Here he's found one of the thousands of golf balls that end up in the Pacific Ocean.
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© BBC Studios
