Original subtitles

[narrator] Colours. Patterns.

They're more than meets the eye.

A dominant demonstration.

A warning symbol.

A coat that cloaks.

They don't seem to back down from a fight.

[narrator] Whether it's for display...

You have got to be ready to fight them.

[narrator] ...or dirty dancing...

Jabbing and punching.

[narrator] ...or an alpha predator hiding in plain sight.- And then they can get in there and go for that jugular.

[narrator] To earn your stripes...

The most violent fights happen

at one of these water wells.

[narrator] You've got to be bold.

Every day, everywhere, our planet is a battleground.

Turf wars,

food fights

and mating mayhem rage on...

as animals outwit and outmanoeuvre their own kind...

in Battle of the Alphas.

Winter in the mountains of central China.

[♪]

The most non-monkey place you could possibly find a monkey.

[narrator] The golden snub-nosed monkey.

That thick golden coat isn't just for show.

They're the highest up of any monkey.

They're in the coldest temperatures of any monkey.

And they are hardy.

[narrator] Their behaviour and biology

are all about heat conservation.

Even their hands are covered in fur, like mittens.

The inverted nostrils of the snub-nose

may be an adaptation to avoid frostbite.

The habitat is extreme for a primate.

Warm summers, when food is abundant.

They're vegetarian.

They're eating foliage, they're eating fruits,

they're eating nuts.

There's lots of stuff to eat.

And so there's less competition.

These monkeys will hang out in groups of up to 600 individuals.

No problem.

[narrator] But at this altitude,

the days of plenty are limited...

...and so is the peak period for mating.

When the temperature drops

and food grows scarce,

tensions within the snub-nose community rise,

priorities change.

All of a sudden you don't like being part of a big crowd.

You don't like having to fight for food with that many individuals.

And that's when the group sizes shrink down

to like 20 or 30 individuals,

mostly related to each other.

You have a handful of adults, a primary alpha male

and then two to four adult females, and their young.

So they're all part of this social group.

Their winter band all coming together.

And they have no time for other monkeys,

except the ones in their group.

[narrator] As winter settles in...

...and the snow blanket thickens...

...food becomes harder and harder to find.

Instead of having all this nice foliage to eat,

they're eating bark.

They're eating lichens.

They're searching and scavenging for any leftover seeds

and nuts that might be on the forest floor.

When you see that monkey trying to get food out of nothing,

you can't help but sympathize.

It is a hard time of year.

[narrator] When one monkey finds something,

it lets the others know.

But what really makes them stand apart

is that they engage in what we call cryptic vocalization.

In other words, there's no obvious movement

of their face or body as they're making these little whines

and shrills and other little calls.

[narrator] Constant hunger is stressful.

Especially when another family group comes on the scene.

They could very well be individuals

that just the summer before they were all happy

and hanging out together.

Now it's a completely different situation.

They're now competitors for a very limited resource.

If other monkeys show up that want to eat some of the food in the neighbourhood,

you have got to be ready to fight them.

[narrator] That golden coat signals dominance.

As males mature, the gold grows richer.

And the blue hue in its face deepens.

The face of a fighter.

They don't seem to back down from a fight.

Usually, it's the two males that start things off.

They're bigger than the females.

They've got the biggest weapons.

They come face-to-face and just start slugging.

Those canines are really long.

They open up their mouth.

They use their hands to swat at one another and hit.

Try to pin another individual down.

They'll bite at them.

There's kicking, hitting, chasing, threatening. - You can't help but imagine what it would be like

to be on the receiving end of that.

When these clashes occur,

it's the male that's in the best condition,

that's the one likely to win.

If they're too young, they don't have a chance.

If they're too old, they don't have a chance.

It's got to be that male that's ready to go

at the best time of his life to have that kind of a fight.

And in turn, females only want strong males

to be a part of their group.

One, because he does offer protection

when other groups come around.

Offering warning calls for potential predators and danger.

[narrator] More male muscle

will lead to better food sources.

But then he's also contributing to the next generation.

You want the fittest male possible

to father your future offspring.

[narrator] And to pass along a warm and colourful fur coat.

[♪]

From multicoloured monkeys...

...to pretty aggressive in pink.

The flamingo.

If birds of a feather flock together,

the pink ones take it to the max.

You're going to see concentrations of thousands

and thousands of flamingos in one area.

[narrator] There are six species of flamingo

on four continents.

From Africa to Asia,

to North and South America.

But they all share a similar habitat.

It's usually centred around a large water body,

that's right at a certain depth that they need

to find all of their food.

Being part of a big flock is a huge advantage

for flamingos because the only way for them to eat

is to stick their head underwater.

And when your head is underwater,

it's really hard to watch for predators.

[narrator] A big flock also provides many pink babysitters.

So what you end up with is a lot of parents

that are cooperatively looking after their eggs,

that are getting along when they're sharing the space.

[narrator] But that doesn't mean things are always peaceful

There are certain times a year when things get territorial,

even amongst a large colony.

And what you find in the breeding season

is that males will do a lot of displaying.

The females are judging these males on their fitness levels

to see whether they're going to be a suitable father

for the offspring.

[narrator] The male contestants score points in two categories.

Number one: can it dance?

Dancing and displaying with flamingos is contagious.

You know how like when somebody sees you yawn

and they can't help but yawn.

It's like that, but with mate dancing.

A male performs this display.

Then another male sees it and he's like,

"Oh, I want to do that too."

Once it starts happening,

you could have all sorts of individuals dancing

and showing off and displaying.

The really crazy part is it's not just males,

the females are doing it too.

Everybody is doing this crazy performance together. It's like you're at a disco all of a sudden

and everybody's paying attention to everybody else.

[narrator] In this crowd, it's hard to stand out.

Hence, category number two.

Pinkness.

In fact, "peak pinkness" may be category number one.

A species' pinkness is based on carotenoid pigments

in the small crustaceans and algae in its diet.

The same goes for individual birds.

The more beta carotene an alpha flamingo eats,

the pinker its feathers.

And that's not all.

Researchers found that the pinker the animal,

the more likely it is to initiate an aggressive encounter.

Those birds are actually more dominant

and will actually be more aggressive to other birds.

Basically showing, I am the dominant one.

You better back off because this is my territory.

But when you've got a nice red colour,

you're in it to win it,

and that's where the conflict happens.

Those are the ones that are eating more

and they are more fit.

That pink colouration shows you've got lots of energy

that you can put into your offspring.

And that you're going to be successful

in raising offspring that survive.

[narrator] But sometimes pinkness and solid dance moves

aren't enough.

Sometimes a flamingo must assert itself.

They make themselves as tall as possible.

They open their wings

and they'll come right at their rival male.

And they'll use their bill.

It's all about those big, long necks.

The head is swivelling around, it's moving.

They'll use their beaks to go after the other bird

and they'll actually go chest-to-chest

and try to push it away.

And it can actually go on for a bit of time.

And usually what happens is

the aggressor will go after them.

Try to pull some feathers out of the tail,

try to just really show that animal that it picked the wrong fight,

and to really drive home who the winner is.

[narrator] The loser wanders off,

he needs to be in the pink.

The flamingo,

Mother Nature's proof that we are what we eat.

[♪]

From fighting in the water...

...to fighting over water.

For the gemsbok, it's all about water.

When there's enough,

there is peace in the herd.

The females can survey the bull market.

That kind of facial profile, with the colours,

really plays a role in attraction of mates.

And so it indicates something about the quality of the mate

that they find attractive.

[narrator] But when water is scarce,

gemsbok society goes down the drain.

The lack of water is an even greater threat

to these animals than predators are.

[narrator] To survive long periods of drought,

it has adapted ways to suck up every drop of water.

They will do their grazing at dawn and dusk.

And this is when there is the greatest likelihood

of there being condensation on this vegetation.

They can dig deep into the ground to access trapped water.

So making wells, as well as accessing wild cantaloupe.

[narrator] Once water is in the body,

the gemsbok's biology is designed to retain that moisture.

to keep it fighting fit.

The gemsbok has a low metabolism.

On hot days, it can elevate its core temperature

up to 45 degrees Celsius.

Inside of their body gets closer

to the heat that's outside.

So their body's not fighting to become overheated

because they've raised the bar themselves.

So they aren't experiencing an extreme stress in the brain

when they're having to fend off other predators

or other gemsbok.

[narrator] Alphas are identifiable

by their position in the herd.

The dominant female typically takes the lead.

The dominant male brings up the rear

and retrieves stragglers.

It's yet another way the gemsbok minimizes its energy output.

You can conserve energy if you're not always jockeying

and fighting for positions in the hierarchy.

[narrator] But the gemsbok's greatest challenge

is in the sky.

As the dry season approaches, the days are longer.

In a matter of weeks,

the scorching sun sucks the water away.

So the little water that was there at the beginning of the season

just begins to go down more and more each day.

When they are challenged with a water shortage,

alliances and hierarchies can actually fall out the window.

It completely reshuffles the deck.

All of a sudden, all the big males,

the more dominant ones,

will focus on just protecting water.

It's almost as if there's a totally different set of rules

when extreme drought sets in.

They're monopolizing the water resource.

This means that lower-ranking males and females

are having to go to the watering hole

in the middle of the day.

And this is precisely when

the sun is beating down its hardest

and when they're exposed, possibly,

to other predators as well.

[narrator] As water grows scarce,

weaker animals succumb.

The situation is desperate.

The dominant males are facing off.

Their weapons are fearsome.

Imagine having a two meter spear sticking out of your head.

Those really dark markings in the face

seem to go straight up into like a "V".

It really helps accentuate and draw attention to those horns.

[narrator] The horns are not just for defence.

They communicate fitness.

The horns of the gemsbok grow

as the individuals become older.

The longer your horns are, the more dominance you have.

Adult males can be around 200 kilograms.

They're not easily shoved.

They'll go head-to-head.

Literally kind of touching in the frontal part of the skull

where their horns are likely to rake past one another.

Individual males can use their horns like fencing sabers.

Jabbing and punching and throwing themselves around.

If he gets up under the shoulder blade,

up under the arm, it could pierce the chest

or the abdominal cavity.

The most violent fights in the gemsbok life

will probably happen at one of these water wells.

[narrator] Eventually, one bull decides

he's not quite as thirsty as he thought.

So, from a survival point of view,

the best thing to do is to conserve as much energy

and water as possible.

[narrator] As these masked bulls bash it out,

all this female gemsbok can do is seek an alternative well

and wait for rain.

[♪]

All species fight their own kind.

But for the top of every food chain,

there is no contest

this is an apex alpha.

The grasslands of Kenya.

She's the world's fastest land animal

and she's barely moving.

Invisible in the grass.

Those spots help to break up their silhouette.

They're incredibly difficult to spot.

[narrator] This super-specialized alpha predator

is in a league of her own.

So not only is their agility and their body structure

highly optimized for their habitat,

everything about the cheetah is perfectly designed

to keep them at the top.

[narrator] The cheetah keeps pace with its rivals by working different hours.

They're the only one of the larger cats

that hunts diurnally or during the day.

So they don't necessarily have to compete

with the other apex predators for access to these animals

because they're really the only ones out at this time of day.

[narrator] This cat is adapted to life in the noonday sun.

They have these markings on the eyes to kind of mitigate

the amount of sun glare, to optimize their vision.

[narrator] The black streaks are called malar stripes.

Like a linebacker in football that puts those dark patches

on their face to absorb the sun.

[narrator] The cheetah's fovea,

the centre of the retina at the back of the eye,

has more cones and fewer rods than other cats.

They have a higher-than-normal concentration of nerve cells

going to their optic nerve.

[narrator] As a result, its night vision is weak.

But that means nothing to a cat who hunts by day.

When the sun is shining, she can see for five kilometres

They have very wide-set eyes that are up high in their head.

And this helps to give them a wide-angle view

of their surroundings.

[narrator] Once the prey is in sight,

stealth is the next order of business.

The closer they're able to get without the prey noticing,

the higher the chances are of a successful attack.

[narrator] In three seconds,

she accelerates from zero to 100 kilometres per hour.

Part of the reason they can achieve such speeds

is because they have a spine that's extremely flexible.

Essentially, it acts like a spring against the back legs.

They have these really sharp shoulder bones

that aren't connected to their collarbone.

You can see these shoulders moving as they're running.

This functions to increase the large,

long, stretched-out body.

A massive stride length of seven meters.

Imagine a single stride, seven meters.

[narrator] Hunting at 100 kilometres per hour

is major cardio.

Shorter nostrils speed the delivery of air

to the cheetah's lungs.

This maximizes the amount of oxygen that they can take in not only as they're running,

but when they're making the kill.

[narrator] Keeping the target in sight at speed

requires a steady gaze.

As a cheetah runs, the head hardly moves around at all.

And this is because of the inner ear system.

It's actually quite remarkable.

[narrator] Its enlarged inner ear gives the cheetah

an almost gyroscopic balance.

This is extremely important for a visual lock.

Common prey animals like gazelles

have evolved very unpredictable and fast behaviour.

[narrator] Like a race car, the cheetah isn't just fast,

it has responsive brakes and exquisite handling.

Recent research has shown

that cheetahs are not just about the speed.

They're actually able to slow down very, very quickly.

When it starts to turn and when it starts to maneuver,

you'll see that tail making different movements.

It'll act almost like a rudder to provide stability

as the cheetah is quickly changing directions.

[narrator] Semi-retractable claws and wide paw pads

act like an off-road tire tread.

This really functions to prevent skidding

when they are quickly changing direction.

[narrator] Even when they're down,

this fast food isn't easy to take out.

They can pretty much body slam it.

That'll knock the animal down,

and then they can get in there and kind of go for that jugular.

Because cheetahs have these enormous nasal passages,

they don't have the space for large teeth

to be anchored in their jaw.

And this means that they have to kill their prey

through asphyxiation.

So they have to be smart about where they strike on the throat

and get that animal down as soon as possible.

Otherwise, it can just get up and start running again.

[narrator] Knowing the speed of this stealthy apex alpha,

dinner won't get far.

Whether it's flamboyant feathers.

Some flashy fur.

Markings that can conceal,

or accentuate.

These alphas make competition...

colourful.