Cousins is a nature documentary

Nature documentary

A natural history film or wildlife film is a documentary film about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on film taken in their natural habitat...

 TV series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit

BBC Natural History Unit

The BBC Natural History Unit is a department of the BBC dedicated to making television and radio programmes with a natural history or wildlife theme, especially nature documentaries...

 in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, first transmitted in the UK on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 in August 2000. The series looks at the primates, the closest living relatives to human beings.

The series marked the debut as a television presenter of Charlotte Uhlenbroek

Charlotte Uhlenbroek

Charlotte Jane Uhlenbroek is a British zoologist and BBC television presenter.-Early life:Her Dutch father was an agricultural specialist with the United Nations who took his English wife and their family round the world with him. Uhlenbroek was born in London, but her parents moved to Ghana when...

, a 32-year-old primatologist who had worked with Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...

 at Gombe Stream studying chimpanzee

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...

 behaviour. Over the course of the three, 50 minute episodes, Uhlenbroek encounters many species of primate, from the lemurs of Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

 to the mountain gorilla

Mountain Gorilla

The Mountain Gorilla is one of the two subspecies of the Eastern Gorilla. There are two populations. One is found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa, within three National Parks: Mgahinga, in south-west Uganda; Volcanoes, in north-west Rwanda; and Virunga in the eastern Democratic...

s of Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

. The animal behaviour filmed is used to explain the origins of primates and the development of skills and adaptations that have enabled human beings to become the most successful primate of all.

Production

Filming took place on three continents. Some of the difficulties encountered by the filmmakers in Madagascar when filming black-and-white ruffed lemur

Black-and-white ruffed lemur

The black-and-white ruffed lemur is the more endangered of the two species of ruffed lemurs, both of which are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Despite having a larger range than the red ruffed lemur, it has a much smaller population that is spread out, living in lower population densities...

s included leeches and swaying platforms in the canopy, whilst in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, the crew had to form a protective ring around the cameraman to protect against muggings by Tibetan macaque

Tibetan macaque

The Tibetan macaque , also known as the Chinese stump-tailed macaque or Milne-Edwards' macaque, is found from eastern Tibet east to Guangdong and north to Shaanxi in China and has recently been reported from north-eastern India. This species lives in subtropical forests at altitude that range from...

s. The series producer was Bernard Walton.

1. "First Primates"

Uhlenbroek begins the series in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, observing a group of chimpanzees in the West African forest. In the Virunga Mountains

Virunga Mountains

The Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the northern border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The mountain range is a branch of the Albertine Rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley. They are located between Lake Edward and Lake Kivu...

 of Rwanda she gets her first close encounter with a group of mountain gorillas. Like the chimps, they are descended from a common ancestor, similar to the pygmy mouse lemur found today in Madagascar's dry forests. It is a prosimian

Prosimian

Prosimians are a grouping of mammals defined as being primates, but not monkeys or apes. They include, among others, lemurs, bushbabies, and tarsiers. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive than those of monkeys and apes. Prosimians are the only primates native to...

, a group of primates which are largely nocturnal, forced to hunt and feed at night by the more successful monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

s and ape

Ape

Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea. The apes are native to Africa and South-east Asia, although in relatively recent times humans have spread all over the world...

s. In common with all primates they have forward-facing eyes and grasping hands. Other prosimians shown include Moholi bushbabies and South East Asia's slow loris

Slow loris

Slow lorises are a group of five species of strepsirrhine primates which make up the genus Nycticebus. Found in South and Southeast Asia, they range from Northeast India in the west to the Philippines in the east, and from the Yunnan province in China in the north to the island of Java in the south...

es and tarsier

Tarsier

Tarsiers are haplorrhine primates of the genus Tarsius, a genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes...

s. The larger primates never reached Madagascar, making the island a sanctuary for prosimians, especially lemur

Lemur

Lemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are named after the lemures of Roman mythology due to the ghostly vocalizations, reflective eyes, and the nocturnal habits of some species...

s. Uhlenbroek watches Verreaux's sifaka

Verreaux's Sifaka

Verreaux's sifaka , or white sifaka, is a medium sized primate in one of the lemur families, Indriidae. It lives in Madagascar and can be found in a variety of habitats from rainforest to western Madagascar dry deciduous forests and dry and spiny forests...

s feeding in didiera trees, then travels to the reed beds around Madagascar's largest lake to track the rare and elusive bandro. Greater bamboo lemur

Greater Bamboo Lemur

The Greater Bamboo Lemur , also known as the Broad-nosed Bamboo Lemur and the Broad-nosed Gentle Lemur, is the largest bamboo lemur, at over five pounds or nearly 2.5 kilograms. It has greyish brown fur and white ear tufts, and has a head-body length of around one and a half feet, or forty to...

s are filmed for the first time. The limestone karst landscape of north Madagascar is home to crowned lemur

Crowned Lemur

The crowned lemur is a lemur that is 31–36 cm long and weighs 2 kg. Its tail is about 42–51 cm long). The crowned lemur is endemic to the dry deciduous forests of the northern tip of Madagascar. It eats a diet of mostly flowers, fruits, and leaves...

s, and under the cliffs is a 40km long labyrinth of caves where giant fossilised lemurs have been discovered. Brown lemur

Brown lemur

True lemurs, also known as brown lemurs, are the lemurs in genus Eulemur. They are medium sized primates that live exclusively on Madagascar....

s are shown eluding their main predators, a harrier hawk

Harrier Hawk

The African Harrier-Hawk, Harrier Hawk, or Gymnogene is a bird of prey. It is about 60–66 cm in length, and is related to the harriers. It breeds in most of Africa south of the Sahara. The only other member of the genus is the allopatric Madagascar Harrier-Hawk.Its habitat is woodland...

 and a fossa

Fossa (animal)

The fossa is a cat-like, carnivorous mammal that is endemic to Madagascar. It is a member of the Eupleridae, a family of carnivorans closely related to the mongoose family . Its classification has been controversial because its physical traits resemble those of cats, yet other traits suggest a...

. The aye-aye

Aye-aye

The aye-aye is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker...

 is a nocturnal specialist filmed extracting a grub with its spindly middle finger. The programme ends with a sequence on ring-tailed lemur

Ring-tailed Lemur

The ring-tailed lemur is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families. It is the only member of the Lemur genus. Like all lemurs it is endemic to the island of Madagascar...

s which form larger communities and spend more time on the ground than other lemurs. They have strictly hierarchical societies led by the females, who will even attack intruders as their babies cling to their backs.

2. "Monkeys"

Uhlenbroek introduces the second episode from amongst gelada baboons in the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, demonstrating how monkeys are athletic, adaptable and social animals. The smallest monkeys are the marmoset

Marmoset

Marmosets are the 22 New World monkey species of the genera Callithrix, Cebuella, Callibella, and Mico. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term marmoset is also used in reference to the Goeldi's Monkey, Callimico goeldii, which is closely related.Most marmosets...

s and tamarin

Tamarin

The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus Saguinus. They are closely related to the lion tamarins in the genus Leontopithecus.- Range :...

s of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and are unusual amongst primate because the fathers do most of the parenting. The pygmy marmoset

Pygmy Marmoset

The pygmy marmoset or dwarf monkey is a New World monkey native to the rainforest canopies of western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and northern Bolivia. It is one of the smallest primates, and the smallest true monkey, with its body length ranging from...

 and tassle-eared marmoset

Santarem Marmoset

The Santarem marmoset , also known as a black and white tassel-ear marmoset is a marmoset endemic to Brazil. It is found in a very restricted area between the Rio Tapajos and lower Rio Madeira and Rio Roosevelt....

 are shown. Other New World species are shown: spider monkey

Spider monkey

Spider monkeys of the genus Ateles are New World monkeys in the subfamily Atelinae, family Atelidae. Like other atelines, they are found in tropical forests of Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil...

s, squirrel monkey

Squirrel monkey

The squirrel monkeys are the New World monkeys of the genus Saimiri. They are the only genus in the subfamily Saimirinae.Squirrel monkeys live in the tropical forests of Central and South America in the canopy layer. Most species have parapatric or allopatric ranges in the Amazon, while S...

s and black howler monkeys

Black Howler

The Black howler is a species of howler monkey, a large New World monkey, from northeast Argentina, east Bolivia, east and south Brazil and Paraguay. Together with the brown howler, it is the southernmost member of the Alouatta genus. Only the adult male is black; adult females and juveniles of...

. Uhlenbroek calls to the howlers and ascends into the canopy to view them at close quarters. Monkeys originated in the Old World, and it is here that the greatest diversity of species are found. The black-and-white colobus

Black-and-white colobus

Black-and-white colobuses are Old World monkeys of the genus Colobus, native to Africa. They are closely related to the brown colobus monkeys of genus Piliocolobus. The word "colobus" comes from Greek κολοβός kolobós , and is so named because its thumb is a stump.Colobuses are herbivorous, eating...

 of East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

 are leaf-eaters. Leaves contain many toxins, but the red colobus

Zanzibar Red Colobus

The Zanzibar red colobus is a species of red colobus monkey endemic to Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar archipelago, off the coast of Tanzania. It is also known as Kirk's red colobus after Sir John Kirk , the British Resident of Zanzibar who first brought it to the attention of zoological...

 of Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

 have found an antidote in the form of charcoal. Diana monkey

Diana Monkey

The Diana monkey is an Old World monkey found in West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Côte d'Ivoire.The Diana monkey ranges from 40 to 55 cm in length, excluding its tail, which is of a uniform 3–4 cm diameter and 50–75 cm long. Adults weigh between 4–7 kg...

s belong to the guenon

Guenon

The guenons are the genus Cercopithecus of Old World monkeys. Not all the members of this genus have the word "guenon" in their common names, and because of changes in scientific classification, some monkeys in other genera may have common names that do include the word "guenon"...

s, a shy group of monkeys from the West African jungles. The patchwork jungle has led to many different species of guenon evolving. In South East Asia, the proboscis monkey

Proboscis Monkey

The proboscis monkey or long-nosed monkey, known as the bekantan in Malay, is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey that is endemic to the south-east Asian island of Borneo...

 eats tough mangrove leaves which it digests by fermentation. The langurs are another leaf-eating group: silvered monkey

Silvery Lutung

The silvery lutung , also known as the silvered leaf monkey or the silvery langur, is an Old World monkey. It is arboreal, living in coastal, mangrove, and riverine forests in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo....

s from Malaysia, douc langurs from Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 and the rare golden monkey

Snub-nosed monkey

Snub-nosed monkeys are a group of Old World monkeys and make up the entirety of the genus Rhinopithecus. The genus occurs rarely and needs much more research...

s of central China are all shown. Back in Africa, Uhlenbroek explains that it is the monkeys that have come out of the forest to live on the ground that are the most intelligent and have the most sophisticated societies as shown by the patas monkey

Patas Monkey

The patas monkey , also known as the Wadi monkey or Hussar monkey, is a ground-dwelling monkey distributed over semi-arid areas of West Africa, and into East Africa. It is the only species classified in the genus Erythrocebus...

 and olive baboon

Olive Baboon

The olive baboon , also called the Anubis baboon, is a member of the family Cercopithecidae . The species is the most widely spread of all baboons: it is found in 25 countries throughout Africa, extending south from Mali to Ethiopia and to Tanzania. Isolated populations are also found in some...

.

3. "Apes"

The final episode begins in the rainforest canopy of South East Asia, home to the smallest of the apes, the gibbon

Gibbon

Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae . The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus , and Symphalangus . The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related...

s. A white-handed gibbon female sings a duet with her mate. Gibbons share with us flexible wrist and rotating shoulder joints, allowing them to swing under branches. Siamang

Siamang

The siamang is a tailless, arboreal, black-furred gibbon native to the forests of Malaysia, Thailand, and Sumatra. The largest of the lesser apes, the siamang can be twice the size of other gibbons, reaching 1 m in height, and weighing up to 14 kg...

s are the largest of the gibbons and combine their songs with a swinging dance. Humans share many other attributes with the great apes; strong family ties, intelligence, curiosity, reflection and the ability to manipulate our environment. In Borneo, orang-utans spend most of their time feeding in the trees. They use up to 20% of their energy to fuel their large brains, and a large brain is essential to learn the skills they need to survive in the forest, a process that takes several years. In Africa, Uhlenbroek sits amongst a group of mountain gorillas. In scenes reminiscent of David Attenborough

David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...

's gorilla encounter in Life on Earth, one of the adolescent male gorillas chooses to make physical contact by buffeting her. She attributes this behaviour to "showing off". In Gombe, chimps are filmed using sticks as tools, and in Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

 another group has learned how to crack nuts with stones. Their human characteristics extend to affectionate hugs and kisses, but they have a dark side too, attacking and killing their own kind. Bonobo

Bonobo

The bonobo , Pan paniscus, previously called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee...

s (pygmy chimpanzees) use sex to control their aggressive nature. Humans as the most successful apes have left our primate cousins far behind: we have language, technology, religion and a thirst for knowledge.

Merchandise

A book and VHS tape were both released to accompany the TV series. The video is now out of print but is widely available second-hand.

The accompanying hardcover book, Cousins: Our Primate Relatives by Robin Dunbar and Louise Barrett, was published by BBC Books on 15 September 2000 (ISBN 0-563-55115-1).