| “ | Last time, we saved the largest shark ever. This time we go back in time to rescue mankind's beginnings in Africa some 3 million years ago. In the form of an ape that came down from the trees and walked upright. We will also go back 2 million years to rescue the earliest tool makers and the heavyweight contenders who shaped our past. | „ |
| — Allen, opening narration | ||
The Walking Ape is the fifth episode of Series 3 and the thirty second episode of Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History.
Synopsis[]
Allen has fallen ill and unable to go on a rescue mission, instead Rebecca leads to the team to go to Late Pliocene Africa 3 million years ago to rescue the apes that started the evolution of mankind. They will also go Early Pleistocene Africa 2 million years ago to the earliest tool-makers and the heavy weight contenders that shaped our past.
Plot[]
Allen's dream to bring many kinds of prehistoric animals have been a success as many of the animals adjusted to their new enviornment. Allen then has apes on his mind as he came to check on the park's troop of Chimpanzees and watch them play and relax. One of the chimps walks a short distance on two legs, Allen believed that walking on two legs was the key of how humans became a successful species. He goes to his boss Joanna and reminds that he is going to rescue the earliest ancestors of humans as he shows her pictures of the fossilized Laetoli footprints he took during his trip to Tanzania. After she looked at the pictures of the footprint trail, Allen opens a small wooden crate and shows Joanna the skull of an unusual ape and tells her that he is going to rescue the earliest species of upright walking ape called Australopithecus from Late Pliocene Africa, 3.2 million years ago.
He heads to the Primeval Aquarium enclosure where one of the staff members feeds Meg, the female Megalodon rescued from Late Miocene Peru, 15 million years ago a large chunk of meat as he realizes that Megalodon were around by the time Australopithecus roamed throughout Africa. As he prepared to leave for his next rescue mission, Allen falls ill with the flu and asks Rebecca if she can be responsible for rescuing Australopithecus for him. She said yes as she takes over for Allen on the mission to rescue the ape ancestors of mankind. Meanwhile Ruby heard Allen's plan to rescue the earliest ancestors of humans and prepares her hunting gear and takes her rifile with her. At the park's research lab, Shaun Wells scans the Australopithecus skull and compares the animal's brain size to a modern human's and said that Australopithecus' brain is smaller and only the size of chimpanzees as he also scans a modern chimp skull.
The team opens the portal and heads into the Late Pliocene where they arrive on an open savanna located in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia. The team rescues a species of warthog called Metridiochoerus and a species of White Rhinoceros called Ceratotherium and bring them back to the park. As they continue across the savanna they came across a species of Chalicothere related to Chalicotherium called Ancylotherium grazing on treetops near a large elephant-like animal with curved down tusks on it's lower jaw called Deinotherium.
As they reached the edge of a forest Rebecca spotted what they were looking for, a whole troop of Australopithecus, whom were relaxing and grooming themselves while some are sitting in a tree. One of them leaps from the tree and slowly walks on two legs until it eventually stood upright like a human which astounded Rebecca. The team spots the group's leader and decides to call him Grey whom one of the female's of the group was not a fan of and calls the her Babble.
Rebecca then spots a young orphaned male who was feeling outcast by the other individuals of the troop following his mother's death, she calls the youngster Blue. Suddenly a larger male challenges Grey for leadership of the troop and the team calls the male Hercules as he challenges Grey leadership of the troop. Grey puts Hercules into his place for the moment as the team gets closer to the Australopithecus troop. They follow the group to a waterhole where the troop was drinking near a small group of Ancylotherium. Sudden a group of Deinotherium came down to the waterhole to drink and drives the Australopithecus away especially a young Deinotherium. The team opens to the portal and gets the Deinotherium back to the safety of the park where they were put into the Giraffe Enclosure.
After the team rescues Deinotherium they head back into the forest to rescue Grey and his troop whom where socially grooming their fur near a stream. They were attacked by several male Australopithecus from a larger troop who were challenging Grey for his territory. Grey and his group retreats as they were too few in number defend their territory from the rival males. Ruby tries to shoot at the males so she can take one as her prize and Rebecca ordered her to stop as they follow the troop's trail. As they reached a river they spotted a prehistoric species of Crocodilian called Crocodylus and gets a few of them to the Crocodilian Enclosure back at the park.
They follow Grey and his group across the savanna and then spot a species of Saber Tooth Cat called Megantereon who was hunting in the bush. Rebecca and the group get a few of them back to the park and put on exhibit in the park's new Saber-Tooth Rock enclosure. Four days pass as the team keeps following the Australopithecus troop, however not too far away a large male Deinotherium was foraging on leaves and spots the troop and begins to charges at them like an elephant. They eventually went into the safety of the tree, however Babble's youngster get separated and she try's to distract the Deinotherium. Ruby tries to shoot at the Deinotherium but it's hind was thick. The enraged pachyderm charges and slams the jeep with it's head and trunk until the young Australopithecus continues to call out and the animal charges at it.
The Deinotherium ultimately gives up as the team brings the male back to the park with the other prehistoric animals. After they rescued the male Deinotherium the team continued to follow the troop. After a few days of traveling, the group found place with trees to hide in, water to drink, and lots of fruit which they share with some Ancylotherium. Rebecca and the team opens the portal and rescues a handful of Ancylotherium back to the park. As dusk approaches the team sets up camp for the night, as they watch the Australopithecus group make nests in the trees to sleep in as some primates are no longer nocturnal.
The next day the team spots one of the other female's carrying an egg that the she stole from an Ostrich. As she tries to break it open, Grey steal the egg from her. Sudden the female was attacked and killed by another species of Saber Tooth Cat that hunts Australopithecus called Dinofelis who drags the carcass of the female Australopithecus to a tree so it would eat. The team gathers a few Dinofelis and brings them back to the park. After rescuing the Saber Tooth Cats and brought to the safety of the park, the team goes to rescue the troop of Australopithecus.
They spotted them digging for roots and tubers with sticks as fruit were not in season, they even saw Blue using a stick and digs for plant tubers in the dirt. They went spotted a Zebra carcass being feasted on by a flock of vultures until Hercules scares them away. As he eats the meat from the carcass, Hercules and Grey began to fight for leadership again. After the fight Hercules becomes the top male of the group as he returns to Zebra carcass to eat the meat from it. The team opens the portal so they can get Hercules and his troop back to the park so they can be saved from extinction.
Unbeknownst to the team, another female Australopithecus who was looking for a new troop to join follows them back to the present and they call her Lucy. Shortly after Lucy gets accepted by Hercules and the troop, Rebecca and the team get chased through the portal by another troop of Australopithecus this time by the Anamensis species whom they thought that the team were a rival troop. They get the two species of Australopithecus to the new Ape Men Enclosure next door to the park's sauropod enclosure.
After a few days following the team's rescue mission on Australopithecus, Allen recovers from his sickness and decided on his next mission after looking at early stone tools made by another species of upright ape that evolved after Australopithecus. He tells Joanna that he will go back to the Early Pleistocene 2 million years ago to rescue the earliest tool-making hominids that made the break through in human evolution and even a robust species of ape-men with massive teeth as he shows her a fossilized jaw of the ape-man. The team opens the time portal and arrives in the African savannas of the Early Pleistocene in the African country of Kenya during a time when Africa was home to a range of upright apes. They encountered a species of robust ape-men with attributes similar to a gorilla called Paranthropus who were grooming each other like all apes. They decide to name the troops' dominant male Tublat who was grooming the lead female until he spots a young female Paranthropus looking for a new troop to join and Tublat eventually accepts the female in his troop.
As the team were watching the Paranthropus group accepting the female in their troop, they encountered a more inquizitive species of Ape-Men called Homo Habilis whom of which a group of them were spying on the team when they first arrived in the Pleistocene and begins to attack the jeep until the team drove away from them. They eventually drove across the African plains where Allen and the team sees many kinds of animals grazing on grass such Impala and Eland, but they also spot a Dinofelis hunting for food in the bush and a Deinotherium grazing on vegetation near a tree. After Allen and his team of scientists observed a small group of Ancylotherium roaming through the enviornment they came across a brush of reeds where they once again encountered Tublat and his troop who were eat through plants' roots with their massive back teeth. Later as the dominant female grooms Tublat, the new female approach him until the lead female fends her off due to thinking the female would be a threat to the troop. Tublat follows her to a termite mound where she uses a stick to get at the termites that are inside the mound.
While they were eating the termites get on their sticks, Tublat starts to groom the young female as the lead female watches them from a short distance. The team goes to find the troop of Homo Habilis that the team met earlier and found them watching the troop's top male climbing a tree where a bee hive was to get at the honey combs that are inside the hive. They began to eat the honey combs as the dominant male drops them on the ground, as they were struggling to survive during the dry season. One of the males of the Homo Habilis group spots Allen and the team who were still distracted by the watching the Homo Habilis raiding the bee hive with their binoculars. The male investigates one of the team member's backpacks until Allen's dog Caine spots the male and barks at it as Allen spots him investigating one of their backpacks and get scared away.
Allen decided to name the male Homo Habilis: Tarzan, as they watch the dominant male grabs somemore honey combs before he falls from the tree and land on his face when he hit ground. The male spots a flock of vultures circling around in the sky as the troop notice that they spotted food nearby, and the team follows them. The Homo Habilis troop spots an Eland carcass laying on the ground after a predator killed the antelope. The troop approach the carcass and eat the meat in it, however the troop came across a rival species of ape-men called Homo Rudolfensis who also spotted the vultures from the distrance. The two ape-men species competed for the carcass until they and the Homo Habilis troop ran away as the dominant male gets attacked and killed by a lion. The team goes to rescue the troop of Homo Rudolfensis and sets up the portal so they can get them to the park along with group of Australopithecus of Africanus species who drinking water from a nearby river while some were grooming each other.
After getting the two species of ape-men back to the park, the team goes to rescue Tublat and his troop of Paranthropus and the Homo Habilis troop that Tarzan was apart of. They returned to the Early Pleistocene just when the rains returned and the wet season arrives. Allen spots Tublat and his troop displaying as the rain falls much like modern apes back in the present. As the rain stops Tublat rejoins his harem with the female becoming an accepted member of the group as Allen and the team rescues them put into their enclosure at the park. Once the Paranthropus group was rescue, they then goes to rescue the Homo Habilis troop so they can be given a second chance in the present.
They encountered them and were creating tools using rocks as Allen realized that Homo Habilis are the first hominids to make tools and the ape they came to rescue. The team follows the Homo Habilis where they were trying to get to a strip Eland carcass where a lion was there feasting on a killed. The group scares the lion away as they use their tools to break open the bones so they can eat the marrow inside. Additionally Tarzan becomes the dominant male of the group following his leadership to find food, as the team gets him and his troop back to the safety of the park where they were put into the Ape-Men Enclosure as they get well fed and taking care of by the park staff.
| “ | Next time, we go back a million years to the lost continent of South America where we will rescue the animals in a world of strange exotic giants as well giant killer birds and a legendary killer: Smilodon, the largest of all the Saber-Tooth Cats. | „ |
| — Allen, closing narration | ||
Characters[]
Animals[]
- African Lion
- Ancylotherium
- Australopithecus
- Black-Backed Jackal
- Ceratotherium
- Common Eland
- Crocodylus
- Deinotherium
- Dinofelis
- Homo Habilis
- Homo Rudolfensis
- Impala
- Megantereon
- Metridiochoerus
- Paranthropus
- Plains Zebra
- Rüppell's Vulture
Time[]
- Early Pliocene - 4,000,000 BC
- Early Pleistocene - 2,000,000 BC
Gallery[]
