Born to be wild

Patrick Aryee explores the challenges of growing up in the animal kingdom

- HANNAH DAVIES, IAN MACEWAN, STEVEN PERKINS.

Two years ago, biologist Patrick Aryee went in search of the biggest creatures ever to walk the Earth for Sky One’s Big Beasts: Lands of the Giants. For his new three-part series, he has chosen subjects that are rather smaller. In Wild Animal Babies, he travels around the world to find out how different species go about raising their offspring and examines the ways in which they have adapted to improve their chances of survival.

‘Of course, the thing that draws us in is these cute, cuddly babies,’ says Aryee, who starts by looking at animals that raise one offspring at a time. ‘But behind all that, it’s a shout-out to the parents, so that’s what we’re looking at – not only the babies themselves but the different parenting strategies of the adults.’

Here, he tells us how some of the devoted animal parents he filmed tackle the tough job of bringing up their young in the wild, and some of the dangers their offspring face…

Meerkats