Original subtitles

[narrator] Togetherness. It has its benefits.

More eyes to scan.

[howling] More help at mealtime.

But when it's alpha time,

socializing takes on a whole new meaning.

It's a gang fight.

[narrator] Whether beneath the waves...

They will fight over, well, pretty much anything.

[narrator] ...under our feet...

Soon you have a whole bunch of ants fighting.

[narrator] ...or an alpha pack on the tundra...

You want to get your share as soon as possible.

[narrator] Keep your friends close...

Those mandibles can be vicious.

[narrator] And your enemies closer.

Everyday, everywhere, our planet is a battleground.

Turf wars,

food fights

and mating mayhem rage on

as animals outwit and outmanoeuvre their own kind

in The Battle of the Alphas.

They smile.

They hug.

Adorable, right?

Well, not always.

It's bloody. It's brutal.

It's underwater.

It's Aquatic Fight Club.

[narrator] Dolphins live in every ocean of the world.

They are very, very intelligent

and they're very long-lived. They'll do 40 years or more.

And because of that,

they develop incredible social interactions.

[narrator] Of course, not all socializing looks like this

When you take into account that level of intelligence,

that level of interaction,

they then fall into the same category

as other intelligent creatures like us.

It makes them susceptible to being mean,

they're going to be horrible, and they are,

they do terrible things.

[narrator] So, what makes a friendly dolphin snap?- They will fight over, well, pretty much anything.

[narrator] Older dolphins use aggression to discipline younger ones.

Mothers get combative when protecting their babies.

But there's one clash in the dolphin world that's nastier than the rest.

It's a gang fight

that's all in the name of successful reproduction. - When it comes to fighting over girls,

it's not just who has the car with the loudest exhaust.

It actually gets bloody and it gets nasty.

[narrator] These young male bottlenose dolphins

are looking for a fight. They're each other's back up

and wingmen, a bond that started way back.

From a very young age, male bottlenoses will form alliances

with one or two other males,

and they will stay with these friendships or alliances

through the bulk of their entire lives.

[narrator] They hunt together, play together

and during mating season, they work together to secure a mate.

Female dolphins don't pop out babies on the regular.

They'll have just one calf every four to five years.

And what this does is it makes those eggs very, very expensive.

They're at a premium. Every male would like to fertilize her egg,

but only one male is going to be successful.

So when you do get a female that is ready to breed,

there is a lot of pressure.

There's a lot of pressure for you to be the male

that sires that calf.

[narrator] Because a fertile female is so precious

she's often guarded by a group of males.

If a rival group wants to mate with her,

they've got to fight for it.

The idea is to get in there

and physically steal the female away,

to get in there and push her away. And it's brutal

Does the female have any say in this whatsoever?

She really doesn't.

And this is a dark side of dolphin biology

that many of us are not all that familiar with.

[narrator] An incoming crew will often bring extra muscle.

They will join forces with yet another group

to make a bigger gang to then harry the female away.

[narrator] It's a hostile takeover that's been observed

in various species of dolphin.

Prior to the full on onslaught of violence,

dolphins will also do some posturing,

some sizing up of each other.

[narrator] Tail slapping.

Bared teeth.

Aggressive body posturing.

I mean, you see it across the entire planet with males

is they make themselves look big.

And that for the dolphin is to kind of form into

this strange S shape. It highlights their muscles.

It's basically saying, "Look at me, I'm hard.

You don't want none of this, sunshine."

[narrator] In this face-off, neither group backs down.

They both want the female

and there's only one way of getting her.

This is a serious beast, alright?

You've got a 600-kilo battering ram.

And that's what they will do. They will swim at each other

and they will headbutt each other.

And these are just animals of pure muscle.

Now, if that rough and tumble isn't enough,

you've got up to 100 conical-shaped teeth.

So they're just like drill bits

and they will tear serious chunks out of each other.

[narrator] Battle cries ring out.

Distinct vocalizations

used during moments of extreme aggression.

When it comes to the intricate business

of trying to extract a female, communication is vital.

They actually detect sound with their lower jaw.

And through processes that we really still don't understand,

they can then translate those frequencies

and have this incredible image of the world around them.

So the echolocation of dolphins is, I mean, it's so good.

And it all comes down to their unbelievable ability to hear

and to create sound in this entirely unique way.

[narrator] Brains and brawn determine victory.

The group with superior communication and stamina

will successfully wrangle the female away.

But that doesn't mean the violence is over.

If the female tries to escape, she's attacked.

They will bite her, they will headbutt her,

they will harass her, they'll keep her away from the surface.

It's really, really nasty stuff.

[narrator] In many cases,

all the males will mate with the female,

but they won't all become dads.

Now, Mother Nature, she always levels the playing field.

So even though these males have managed to get this female

and get her away, she's not helpless.

She will submit because she wants to survive.

They could have the physicality to hurt her.

But she has got a very clever secret weapon.

Female dolphins have incredibly complex vaginas.

It's basically more twisted and more spiralled

than a Guillermo Del Toro film. Okay?

And so, when a male actually comes in to mate with her forcibly,

she has the ability to guide his penis away into a cul-de-sac

into a dead end so that his sperm can't get near her egg.

These evolutionary changes are called cryptic female choice

and they happen quite frequently as a means by which

females can take back some of that power.

[narrator] It's not vindication for what she's been through

but for this social animal,

she does get the final say in who sires her offspring.

And that is a victory.

[♪]

Speaking of anti-social behaviour.

Two ants from two different ant colonies.

One unfortunate caterpillar.

Those conflicts might look like just two ants fighting over a caterpillar.

But the big picture is that this is a massive battle

between two super organisms.

[narrator] It's a food fight that will trigger something much bigger.

So when you see two ants having a battle,

you're missing so much when you just look at it

because the smells of what is going on are so important.

An ant that's in battle secretes a whole bunch of scents

called pheromones.

[narrator] Once one soldier tells another

the war council gathers.

Pretty soon you don't just have two ants fighting,

you have a whole bunch of ants.

[narrator] It's a battle for dominion.

Grappling.

Tugging.

Pushing.

Intimidating.

Now to you, all these different ants might all look the same,

and the fact is, for a lot of ants,

the same is basically true.

Vision is not what they're mainly using

to tell each other apart.

[narrator] Ant societies use scent to distinguish

who belongs and who does not.

They've got those two long antennae

that have about 20 olfactory receptors on them,

and they use these to pick up the chemicals

and determine who's friend and who's foe.

[narrator] An ant soldier's scent is her uniform.

There are no spies.

There is no element of surprise

They're showing everything to everyone all the time

so that that superorganism, the colony,

knows exactly what's going on at the global scale.

[narrator] The colonial army has a prime directive.

It's all about protecting the queen.

You might think an ant's greatest enemy would be predators,

so maybe something like an anteater because it's in the name,

but you'd be wrong because an ant's greatest enemy

is actually other ants.

[narrator] And when one ant colony begins to compete

with another for food, war is inevitable.

The smallest incident can ignite a massive conflict.

Scouts hurry back to the colony,

releasing pheromones and sounding the alarm.

News travels from antenna to antenna.

So it's kind of like an S.O.S. signal, a distress signal.

And what will happen is all the other ants will come in

and swarm in and they will provide backup.

[narrator] Soon the entire colony is at DEFCON 1.

When the skirmish turns to full-on battle,

it's all mandibles on deck.

They have weapons that they actually use to gouge and scratch,

and they will bite each other.

[narrator] In an ant battle,

size is not always the determining factor.

So whoever has the strongest venom,

whoever is able to clamp their jaws shut

and keep them shut even if they're smaller,

might be able to win.

[narrator] This black ant looks like it's grooming itself.

In fact it has a smaller attacking ant in its face.

These red ant soldiers are fantastically strong.

They can lift like 100 times their body weight.

So if I picked up an SUV with one hand

and then picked up an SUV with the other hand,

then I'm starting to behave like an ant.

[narrator] Ants have a low bite force.

So some species rely on an atomic ingredient in their mandibles.

They are essentially bionic because they have zinc inside them.

which allows them to not only be super sharp,

but also, they're super light.

It's common to see limbs missing,

parts of their legs missing.

And it really is kind of like a suicide mission

because obviously that big ant has huge mandibles.

So if it managed to grasp on to one of those smaller ants,

they're done for.

[narrator] Ants will fight until the bitter end.

And even beyond the end.

Even when they've lost their heads.

When a person fights,

let's say they're fighting over a mate,

they need to survive well enough that they can go and mate afterwards. If they get totally mangled in a fight, it wasn't

But for ants, that's not the math.

For ants, they just have to protect the queen.

It makes sense for that head to keep fighting

as long as it possibly can.

And so ant heads, even though they're severed off the body,

are still clamped on and still doing their best to win that fight.

[narrator] The colony survives and thrives as a social group.

Because there is no 'I' in ant.

From killer colonists to primate paradise.

The highlands of Ethiopia.

It's the only place in the world to find the gelada baboon.

Geladas are known as the most terrestrial primate.

Geladas spend a lot of time working on their complicated social networks.

[narrator] The gelada live in family groups.

There's an alpha male,

perhaps a subordinate male,

two to 10 females

and their dependent offspring.

These family units can come together in bands,

and several of these bands can then come together in an even larger group.

There can be up to 1000 individuals,

all loosely grouped into the same tribe.

Other than us humans, it's one of the largest gatherings

of primates in the world.

[narrator] An abundance of grass usually makes

for a peaceful vegetarian society.

Until all hell breaks loose.

[screaming]

As with all primates,

communication is vital to the gelada's social order.

This troop's alpha is on alert.

He hears trouble brewing.

He sends out a warning.

Geladas can create over 30 different vocalizations,

and the status of any one individual

will be reflected in the kinds of vocalizations that they make.

[narrator] Warnings, invitations

and sometimes ambivalence.

The alpha may just give them a yawn.

[narrator] For a vegetarian, the gelada is equipped

with a surprising set of canines.

Even though the diet of the gelada is entirely made out of grass,

they still have these very, very sharp canine teeth.

Not only are those teeth a great display,

they're also great for defence.

And they can use them to inflict some pretty serious damage

If a challenging male comes forward,

the existing alpha male's got a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

He will bring his lips back,

exposing the massive gum line and importantly,

the massive teeth hiding behind there.

This is a way to basically say,

"Hey, this is what I got for ya,

if you're going to keep coming at me."

[narrator] If the alpha's visual cues aren't persuasive.

It's time to fight.

The more dominant one will try to stamp on the other one,

bite them, scratch them, claw at them.

These big, beautiful coats of fur

are getting pulled and yanked.

These are formidable-looking creatures,

and when they fight, all bets are off.

Individual geladas can go up to 40 kilometres an hour.

These guys can run really, really quickly

on top of all of the other scary things they can do.

[narrator] But, in the gelada's complex society,

the winner is not necessarily the winner.

This troop's alpha has a cheering section.

The females are not just bystanders.

They actually hold a lot of power in the social dynamics of the group.

With geladas, it's the females that have the ultimate say

in which male will be the alpha.

[narrator] The bonds between females are stronger

than the bond with the alpha.

It may not be the winner of that fight between the two males,

but the females will make their decision,

and in this way, they decide which alpha male

will be the one to father all of their offspring.

They're kind of in control of his reproductive success.

There really is strength in numbers,

so they're literally driving that male away from the group. - What they decide is what happens in the unit.

[narrator] But the interloper still has a chance.

He tries another tactic: a charm offensive.

They come in and start to groom females,

winning over their favour.

In this way, when they come subsequent to that,

to challenge the alpha male,

maybe the ladies will be on his side.

All families fight and all animals experience conflict,

but what's really remarkable about these geladas

is that they're using their intelligence to decide

who is fighting and when, and that really sets them apart from other primates.

[narrator] In the complex social world of the gelada,

it takes a real alpha to appreciate the art of the deal.

I scratch your back.

And you scratch mine.

[♪]

All species fight their own kind.

[howling] But for the top of every food chain,

there is no contest

this is an apex alpha

Spring in the arctic.

The flowers are blooming.

And the alpha predators are hungry.

So this is an animal that lives and fights together

and survives together,

and that is the only way it can manage in this tough,

inhospitable environment.

Without that pack, they are nothing.

[narrator] The arctic wolf pack is a tight

and highly social family unit.

It's just a family, the leading two,

what you might think of as alphas,

they're just the parents of the group.

These are the two that reproduce.

These are the two that lead the pack in finding food and hunting.

And those offspring often stick around to stay with their family,

but also to take care of the young.

[narrator] To feed this extended family,

the adults combine their acute sense of smell.

A wolf can detect odours over 1,5 kilometres away.

The advance team sniffs an opportunity.

They are adept at picking up on cues in the habitat

to follow and track down these animals.

They are just so detailed in the way that they communicate with each other.

They have to know whether they are resting

or whether they're actively in a hunt.

They have to know how each other is feeling

and what the other is doing pretty much at all times.

[howling]

[narrator] An arctic wolf's distinct howl

can be heard across five kilometres.

Whether it be howling, barking, yipping,

all of these different types of really speaking to each other.

They might also communicate their location from long distances.

[narrator] Their location...

and the location of prey.

A herd of musk ox.

[Dilger] Wolves aren't just going for the most abundant species of animal.

They're very selective.

They don't work hard. They work smart.

Part of what allows them to take down such massive animals

is the size of their packs,

but also the way that they tire it out.

They can run down an animal for quite a distance.

[narrator] They separate a mother and her calf from the herd.

They have to work effectively as a pack.

[narrator] Especially when hunting an animal

up to 10 times larger than themselves.

An arctic wolf weighs between 30 to 50 kilograms.

A muskox can weigh 350.

It's really important these animals don't get injured

because if they're injured,

then they're no use to the pack whatsoever.

So they will be biting the rear,

they'll be biting the flanks, they'll be taking breaks.

If another one needs to step out,

I need to tap out for a second, then another one's going to come in and grab a hold of that animal and try to bring it down.

Other animals will come in

and eventually they will wear down the muskox.

They'll grind it down.

[narrator] Other pack members take down the calf.

Once their target is on the ground,

it's officially a meal.

When the wolves close in for the kill,

it can be quite brutal to watch.

Sometimes it's best for them to just start eating straight away.

Once that animal is down, some other wolves are going to come in immediately

and just start eating.

You want to get your share as soon as possible.

If they manage to pull down a 900-pound ox

that will feed the pack for days,

and that is the ultimate result.

[narrator] The alpha she-wolf has dinner for her pups.

She brings food back to the youngest members of the pack,

too young to join the hunt.

This wolf pack, by weeding out the younger,

the really old, the frail members

of the muskox population,

they're leaving behind more healthy,

more vigorous animals, which is important

for the health of the population themselves.

And you're reducing that competition pressure

in these other species groups.

So even though it does look brutal and it is unpleasant,

they are actually doing a huge favour to the ecosystem

by being highly selective in the animals that they prey upon.

[narrator] If they survive through the coming winter,

these pups will be joining the pack as hunters.

It's never too soon to practice...

[howling]

...the call of the wild.

[♪]

It pays to be social.

[growling] Whether on the attack...

Or defending the home front.

A successful alpha knows

there's strength in numbers.