| “ | Last time, we rescued the fearsome Sabretooth cat. This time we plunge into the Ice Age, a time when the mammoths roamed so we can rescue a number of Ice Age animals including the famous mammals of all time the Woolly Mammoth. At the same we will encounter not one but two separate species of humans. | „ |
| — Allen, opening narration | ||
Mammoth's Undertaking Journey is the seventh and final episode of Series 3 and the thirty fourth episode of Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History.
Synopsis[]
The team goes back in time to North America and Eurasia during the Ice Age to rescue a number of animals including the most famous prehistoric animal of all: the Woolly Mammoth. They will also have encounters with two species of humans coexisting at the same time.
Plot[]
With the park now home to many different kinds of prehistoric animals, the team's success of rescuing them and giving a second chance has paid off. The staff members feeds the park's resident raptors chunks of meat and does the same for the park's newest residents, the Smilodon which a pride of them saved from Early Pleistocene South America, 1 million years ago. Allen arrives to see the park's resident African Elephants who were socializing with each other and Allen has an idea of what he can rescue next. He heads of Joanna's office and tells her that one of the primary animals needed for the park is the most famous prehistoric mammal of all: the Woolly Mammoth. Joanna asked him how the mammoths died out and he reminded her that was because of global warming and being over-hunted by Ice Age man.
They set up the portal and drives through it and arrived on a snow covered landscape in Late Pleistocene Siberia, 30,000 years ago. As the team were riding through the forest on their snowmobiles looking for a herd of Woolly Mammoths, Allen and Rebecca came across a cave goes to explore it. However, they accidentally awaken a large prehistoric bear called Arctotherium that lets out a growl. The bear chases Allen and Rebecca through the woods until they climb up a tree to escape the bear. Allen's dog Caine barks and defends them from the Arctotherium. The bear eventually returns to its cave while giving growl at them. The team continued on until they came across a barely frozen pond where they spot a herd of Woolly Mammoths migrating south for the winter.
As the mammoths were traveling across the lake, one of the herd members falls through a layer of thin ice and trapped in the pond. The team approaches the herd which upsets the herd members a bit including the herd's matriarch. Allen shows the mammoth herd that he and his team were not a threat, they don't attack the team and gets the mammoth trapped in the ice out. They decided to named the matriarch, Martha as the group sets up the portal so they would get the herd back to the park. As Allen's daughter Crystal was exploring the edges of the forest, the Arctotherium returns and ambushes her. Luckliy Allen saved her and gets the mammoth herd and the Arctotherium back to the park where they named the bear Kodi.
They get Martha and the herd to the Mammoth enclosure where the park's elephant was located, while getting Kodi to the bear enclosure where he was introduced to a female they rescued and named her Alaka. Allen informs Joanna that he and his team rescued a herd of Woolly Mammoths and a pair of Arctotherium. She asked him what other animals lived during the Ice Age, which Allen tells her that there were also big cats like Smilodon, bison, mastodons, large bears, glyptodonts, prehistoric rhinos, large deer, ground sloths, and two species of humans.
Allen heads to the Saber Tooth enclosure to check on the park's resident Smilodon and remarks that it's was one of the top predators of the Ice Age. He then heads to the park's aquarium where goes to check on Meg, the female Megalodon rescued from Late Miocene Peru, 15 million years ago. He tells Rebecca that as the Ice Age was about to begin the ocean started to turn colder and whales adapted and migrated to the polar regions due to their body fat where as Megalodon was forced to live in the warmer waters and was deprived of it's prey which led the shark to the brink of extinction. Finally they head to the Ape-Men enclosure to check on the park's ape men such Hercules and his troop of Australopithecus and Tarzan and his group of Homo Habilis where Allen informs Becca that when the weather was turning colder and the habitat began to change, hominids started to evolved from being prey to true hunters and used tools to make weapons and left Africa where eventually started to use fire until eventually when the Ice Age came two different species of human evolved and had to survive the freezing tempertures of the Ice Age.
He decided to rescue more Ice Age animals by going to Europe 30,000 years ago so they can live in the park. The team goes through the portal and arrive on a large grassy plain where the North Sea will one day be.
They spot more Woolly Mammoths grazing on grass with other animals such as bison, saiga antelopes, and large species of deer with massive antlers called Megaloceros. Allen opens the portal and gets a herd of Megaloceros to the park as he was amazed by it's large antlers and much bigger size compared to modern deer like Moose. As they were getting the Megaloceros herd to the park, Crystal spots some people on the plains, Allen notices them as the early modern humans called Cro-Magnon as they watch them collect mammoth tusks and build huts made from the skins of animals they hunted. Later while getting an ice age species of horse called Tarpan to the park, Allen spots a fur-coated species of rhino known as the Woolly Rhinoceros which two males were fighting each other for territory by scraping their horns on the ground. The team gets the two males along with couple of females and their calves to park and put into the mammoth enclosure with the other ice age herbivores.
Eventually the group came across a wild species of cattle that were ancestral to domesticated cattle called Aurochs which a team rescues a herd of them for the park. Suddenly a large angry bull Aurochs charges up toward them and looks at the team in an aggressive way. Luckily the team gets the bull back to the park when it once again charges at them. They later comes across another cave and explores it until they were chased out of it by another species of prehistoric bear called the Cave Bear who rears up and growls at them. They get the bear and it's family back to the present as they continue rescuing Ice Age animals.
The team then stumbles across a cave near a Cro-Magnon encampment which they explore. Allen and a few team members head inside the cave where they saw cave paintings that Cro-Magnons made and even spots a Cro-Magnon painting on walls of the cave. As the sneaked out of the cave where the team at near the encampment, they were encountered by a Cro-Magnon who was armed with a spear in his hands. The group tries to escape, but were surrounded by the man's other tribesmen who attack them with their spears. Luckily the team gets away from the early humans and continue on with their mission. As winter approached they spot two male Megaloceros fighting for a harem of females using their antlers.
When the two males got exhausted from the fighting, they were attacked by a hunting party of Cro-Magnons. One of the males eventually escapes from the hunters, but the other one get killed by the human hunters. The team rescues the male escaped from early human attack and brings him back to the park. Later as the group were traveling through the forest they encountered a European species of lion called the Cave Lion which a pride of them were feasting on the corpse of a Cro-Magnon they killed. Allen and the team opens the portal and gets the pride back to the safety of the park where they were put into their enclosure.
Allen knows that Cro-Magnons were one of the two species of humans living during the Ice Age, he eventually tells his boss that he is going to head to Europe 50,000 years ago so he can find out what other humans lived in Eurasia during the Ice Age. They arrive in Europe 50,000 years in the past where the team came across three hunters from another species of human that lived in Europe longer than the Cro-Magnons with short stocky bodies called Neanderthal traveling across the landscape hunting for food for their tribe. They followed the hunters until they watch them chase down a rabbit that was roaming through the forest. The leader of the hunters falls down a small hill and fractures his finger which he painfully pulled to make it stable as the other two successfully caught and killed the rabbit. The team watches the Neanderthal hunters cook the rabbit they killed over a fire in a small cave as the leader tends to his hand following his fall during the chase.
For the next few days, the team follows the hunters until they reached a ravine on the edge of their hunting ground and found nothing. As the Neanderthals were about to give up and head back to their tribe, they heard a trumpeting roar and spots a herd of Woolly Mammoths migrating through the ravine during their travel south. The team observes the hunter preparing to ambush the herd by pushing a huge boulder on one of the mammoths. However the leader accidently coughs and blows their cover as the mammoth herd was aware of the Neanderthals' present and starts to retreat giving the hunters the problem of a fast moving target. Two of the hunters uses their feet and push the boulder which lands on one of the herd members as they attack and kill the mammoth with their spears at close quarters.
Allen realizes that Neanderthals will soon become extinct, due to modern humans such as Cro-Magnons outcompeting them for territory or interbreeding. The team returns to the present, as Allen reports to Joanna that he will go back to Ice Age Siberia this time 150,000 years in the past when the world was in the full grip of the Ice Age and when Woolly Mammoths were everywhere from Europe to the Northern edges of the United States. The team opens the portal and they found themselves on an open grassland where they saw a huge herd of Woolly Mammoths being driven away by a large male who was investigating the females and looking for one that is ready to mate. Allen spots a mammoth calf trapped in a muddy pond and the herd's matriarch approaches the struggling calf and pulls it out the pond using her trunk and tusks. While watching the mammoth herd, the team hears a low growling sound and came across a large species of Woolly Rhino with a massive horn on it's head called Elasmotherium that was investigating Allen's snowmobile.
Allen noticed that the Elasmotherium will also become extinct by global warming and being hunted by Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. Suddenly the bull Woolly Mammoth approaches and the Elasmotherium backs down as the mammoth chases Allen and the group. They manage to escape, eventually Allen decided to rescue the Elasmotherium which he had to use himself as bait to get the rhino to the park. The team sets up the portal as Allen runs up toward the Elasmotherium which picks up his scent and charges at him as he pass through the portal. However the male Woolly Mammoth followed them through and both animals were put into their enclosures.
As they continue trekking through Siberia's Ice Age wilderness, the group spots a Neanderthal man named Turok who was collecting firewood for his tribe. They eventually spot a male Woolly Rhinoceros who was grazing on grass until he picked up Turok scent. The rhino charges at Turok and rams into him which causes him to have an injury. The team rescues the Woolly Rhino and Rebecca goes to nurse the man back to health much to Allen's reluctants. Turok eventually forms a bond to the veterinarin as they return him to his tribe.
As the team returns to the park with the Woolly Rhino, Turok and his Neanderthal tribe followed the team through the portal much to the groups surprise. Allen informs Joanna that they brought another Woolly Rhino back, but were followed by a tribe of Neanderthals as a few of the tribesmen investigates her office and messes around with a few of her stuff. The team goes to Ice Age Siberia 40,000 years ago in a time when Neanderthals were going extinct and arrive in the Siberian forest where they explored the wilderness. Little did they know that the team being watched by a group of Neanderthals who preparing to launch an attack. Suddenly the Neanderthal group erupted from the bushes and attacks the team by lunging their spears at them, while Rebecca tries to escape only for one of the Neanderthals (a muscular individual) leaping in front of her from behind a small rock ledge, grasp her by the throat, and lifts her up with his strength.
Luckily, Allen saves her and they escape from the attack, where they found a female Elasmotherium grazing on grass. The team rescues the female and brings her back to the park. Unbenknownst to the team, a tribe of Cro-Magnons followed and went through the portal where they came across the team and have a bit of a confrontation with the park's Neanderthal tribe until the team stopped them and even meets Allen's ancestors named Sheo and her brother See-Tan. Allen then heads to the park's research lab and gives Shaun a fossil skull of Neanderthal and has him do a cat scan to show how big Neanderthal brains are compared to modern humans'. Shaun gets the results and tells Allen that Neanderthals had a much bigger brain than modern humans making them a very intelligent species with sophicated weapons.
Allen reports to Joanna that he and his team will go to Siberia 10,000 years ago when the Ice Age was ending and the Woolly Mammoths were disappearing. When they arrived they didn't see any Neanderthals or Elasmotherium as they were already extinct by this time. Allen then finds a flute that was made from a mammoth tusk by a Cro-Magnon. Later Caine sniffs mammoth footprints and then a pile of mammoth dung as Allen noticed that mammoths were not too far away while he hears a mammoth nearby. Then soon finds a female Woolly Mammoth staying with her dead sister who was trapped in a pit made by Cro-Magnons who were still hunting on the landscape that Neanderthals once hunted on 30,000 years before.
The female collapses to the ground as she was injured, but luckliy Allen shoots a dart filled with anti-biotics so she would recover from her injury. Later that night Allen spots a pack of Ice Age hyenas called Cave Hyenas who attracted by the smell of meat. He lures the pack through the portal so they would put into their new enclosure. After getting the hyenas to the park, the team were suddenly attacked by a pack of wolves and Allen tries to defend the mammoth with the help of his dog. Ruby gets her gun and shoots at the wolves, until they fend off the pack.
Allen lights several torches on fire to keep other predators from getting to the mammoth. A group of Cro-Magnon appear but don't come in any further possibly due to the site of the team. The next day, the mammoth gets up on her feet and returns to the corpse of her sister, but Allen lures her to the portal an eventually gets her back to the park. Rebecca does some quick surgery on the mammoth by injecting a light set of sedative which will allow her to get the spearhead out of the mammoth's shoulder. After getting the spearhead out Rebecca give the mammoth a shot anti-biotics which eventually helps the mammoth recover and joins Martha and her herd as mammoths are sociable animals like their elephant cousins.
Allen then decides to rescue the Ice Age animals that lived in North America and reports to Joanna that he will go to North America 11,000 years ago during a time when people arrived on the continent. The group rescue an Ice Age species of vulture called Teratornis once they have arrived at North America during the last Ice Age. The team eventually spots a herd of Woolly Mammoths migrating across the snow covered plains while also watching groups of Muskoxen and a herd of Saiga Antelopes grazing on the plains. The team also encounter large herds of Caribou and Bison traveling across the plains. The group eventually came across another species of Ice Age horse called the Yukon Horse and gets a herd of them to the park along with some other Ice Age horse species such as Hagerman Horses, and Haringtonhippus.
As they rescued three species of bison called the Steppe Bison, the Long-Horned Bison, and the Ancient Bison they came across a pride of a large North American species of lion called the American Lion which were feasting the carcass of a bison they killed. They get the pride to the park along with two Ice Age species of cheetah called the American Cheetah. Later after rescuing Ice Age camels called Camelops, the team rescue a species of saber-tooth cat called Homotherium which one of them were fended off by an American species of mastodon called the American Mastodon which the team also bring a herd of them back. After rescuing a pack of prehistoric wolves called the Dire Wolf, the team suddenly spots a Smilodon hunting a herd of bison out on the plains. The herd gets nervous and stampedes as the Smilodon leaps on the back of one of the bison and kills it using it massive saber teeth.
As the team were trekking through the Plestiocene wilderness of North America, Caine sniff the stripped remains of a Caribou carcass, as Allen knew that it wasn't killed by a wolf. Unbenknownst to the group, they were being watched by a Smilodon hiding in the forest. That night, the team sets camp as Caine sits outside watching for danger. The Smilodon then appears much to Caine whimpering and Allen fends the cat off as Ruby tries to use her rifle to shoot it. The next day, Allen and Rebecca came across a Paramylodon who was feasting on vegetation on the tree as Allen tells her until the end of the Ice Age, ground sloths lived in a world without humans.
As the ground sloth looks down at the two humans, Allen and Rebecca spots a group of Ice Age humans who came to North America a few thousand years ago called Paleo-Indians approaching until they attacked and killed the Paramylodon by throwing their spears at it. Allen shows Rebecca a clovis spearhead which was powerful enough to bring big animals such mastodons, as well as mammoths, and ground sloths and was more powerful than the spearheads Neanderthals made. The team rescue large species of beaver called Castoroides that was making it home by building a lodge like a modern beaver and brings a pair of them and their offspring back to the park.
Elsewhere Ruby was hunting in the forest where came upon a White-Tailed Deer that was grazing while walking through the wood. Little did she suspect that two Paleo-Indians were also hunting that same deer. As Ruby was about to fire her rifle at the deer as it caught her scent, one of the Paleo-Indians threw his spear and kills the deer causing Ruby to fail. She returned to the rest of the group who stumbled upon a Paleo-Indian encampment made of hunter-gatherers which some of them were creating clovis points which gives them the name of the Clovis People. Allen explains that about 13,000 years ago was when the first humans arrived in North America after crossing the Bering Land Bridge that connected North America to Asia. Later the team spots another herd of Woolly Mammoths migrating south, but also spot a hunting party of Paleo-Indians preparing to attack the herd.
They eventually attack the herd's leading matriarch using their spears and easily bring her down much to the team's shock. Allen tells Rebecca that many of the megafauna of North America went extinct not only by the global warming, but also by humans when they arrived on the continent which meant animals like Smilodon also died not by the diappearance of the prey they hunted, but also by humans.
They next day, the team approaches the massive carcass of a Woolly Mammoth where they see a short distances away another species of Ice Age bear called Arctodus which it was attracted by the smell of meat. The team brought the massive bear and it's family back to the park along with a prehistoric species of coyote called the Pleistocene Coyote. Later after encountering a Glyptotherium eating vegetation, the team rescues another large species of deer with huge antlers called the Stag Moose and brings a herd back to the 21st century, but they were followed by a large hairless species of mammoth called the Columbian Mammoth which a female and her calf came through the portal. Sue the park's resident Tyrannosaurus lets out a roar which frightens the calf causing the mother to go on a rampage across the park. They eventually reunites the calf with it's mother and puts it into the mammoth enclosure.
Rebecca feeds it and says to Allen that she remembers seeing the fossil bones of the mammoth at the La Brea Tarpits back in Los Angeles. The team goes back to the Pleistocene where they manage to rescue a herd of Columbian Mammoths as they knew Columbian Mammoths were a herd dwelling animal like their woolly cousins further north. Allen and the team eventually also makes peace to the tribes of Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals and made settlement in the park's outskirts as they have finally finished bringing prehistoric animals to park so they would have their second chance in the modern era.
| “ | As we have now finished our rescue mission, many of the prehistoric animals enjoy their second chance in the 21st century. Join us next time as we rescue more creatures and open the park to the public. | „ |
| — Allen, closing narration | ||
Characters[]
Animals[]
- American Cheetah
- American Lion
- American Mastodon
- Ancient Bison
- Arctodus
- Arctotherium
- Aurochs
- Camelops
- Caribou
- Castoroides
- Cave Bear
- Cave Hyena
- Cave Lion
- Columbian Mammoth
- Common Raven
- Cro-Magnon
- Dall Sheep
- Dire Wolf
- Elasmotherium
- Glyptotherium
- Gray Wolf
- Hagerman Horse
- Haringtonhippus
- Homotherium
- Long-Horned Bison
- Megaloceros
- Muskox
- Neanderthal
- Paleo-Indian
- Paramylodon
- Pleistocene Coyote
- Saiga Antelope
- Smilodon
- Stag Moose
- Steppe Bison
- Tarpan
- Teratornis
- White-Tailed Deer
- Wolverine
- Woolly Mammoth
- Woolly Rhinoceros
- Yukon Horse
Time[]
- Late Pleistocene - 30,000 BC
- Late Pleistocene - 10,000 BC
- Late Pleistocene - 50,000 BC
- Late Pleistocene - 150,000 BC
- Late Pleistocene - 40,000 BC
- Late Plestiocene - 11,000 BC
Gallery[]
.jpg "Before-we-ruled-the-earth (1).jpg (49 KB)")
