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The Mating Game

Liz Bonnin meets the animals using outlandish means to find a mate and raise a family, from feisty mongooses to swaggering peacocks.

Liz Bonnin meets the animals using outlandish means to find a mate and raise a family. From feisty mongooses who start wars to pick the perfect partner, to swaggering peacocks faking a mating call and thieving macaques who kidnap babies to get ahead, the natural world appears to be rife with animal rogues.

But what is driving them to these seemingly extreme acts? Liz sets out to reveal the fascinating science that lies behind these animal antics, meeting experts around the world who are making groundbreaking discoveries. In Tanzania, she finds that a bad case of sibling rivalry can actually benefit a whole hyena clan, and on the American plains she learns how promiscuity can be the key to having healthy prairie dog pups.

When it comes to the mating game, it seems some animals are rewriting the rulebook with their outrageous behaviour. But as Liz discovers, it could also be the key to their survival.

58 minutes

Last on

Sat 27 May 2023 11:00

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Music Played

  • Ella Fitzgerald

    Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)

  • Ernie K‐Doe

    Here Come The Girls

  • Visage

    Fade To Grey

  • Big Head Todd and the Monsters

    Boom Boom

  • Air

    Sexy Boy

  • Leon Redbone

    I Aint Got Nobody

  • The Velvet Underground

    I'm Sticking With You

  • Chris Isaak

    Baby Did a Bad Thing

  • Jimmy Cliff

    You Can Get It If You Really Want

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Liz Bonnin
Series Producer Holly Spearing
Executive Producer Jo Shinner
Director Jo Ashman
Director Hannah Gibson
Editor Sam Rogers

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