The miracle of life, a never-ending source of wonder and beauty.
From the smallest to the largest creatures on earth, the keys to survival are passed down from one generation to the next.
For some, it is instinct, while others must rely on a nurturing mother.
The lessons learned from experience and play.
These elements of survival will determine life or death for the young of the wild.
A lioness stalks her prey on the plains of Africa. She was not born with the skills to hunt, but learned them from imitating her mother and other adult females.
The hunt is a success, and it's a good thing, for she has several hungry mouths to feed.
In a lion pride, consisting of one dominant male and several related adult females, the father plays no part in the raising of the young.
The females, however, will share the responsibility of feeding and protecting all the cubs in the pride, indiscriminately suckling each other's offspring.
For now, the cubs have a charmed life with their mother, aunts, and older sisters to look after them.
It's hard to believe that this cute cuddly kitten will grow up to be one of the most ferocious killers on earth.
Although a female can have as many as six cubs to a litter, and the pride seems to provide ample protection, the survival rate for young lions is not high.
More than half of these cubs will die before the age of two.
To increase the odds of survival for young cheetahs, nature gives them a coat of long gray fur shortly after they are born.
This fur gives them the appearance of honey badgers, a small but fierce creature most predators avoid.
Here, two young males challenge each other for dominance and territory.
The cheetah, like the lion, must learn the skills required to catch and kill prey. But it's born with one incredible asset, the ability to run.
And oh, how it can run.
Although exhausted, the cheetah has for now at least won the battle for survival.
It's the same battle this female leopard and her cub must win.
The leopard is a skilled climber and the young will learn how important this skill can be.
After a kill, a leopard will often carry its victim high into the branches of a tree.
Here it is safe from being stolen by larger predators or packs of wild dogs.
During the migration of herd animals, the trees will be littered with carcasses.
Leisurely enjoying a meal above the African plain isn't a luxury their cousin, the snow leopard, will ever experience.
A young tiger cools off in a jungle stream. Unlike the lion, a tiger is a solitary creature.
After it is about three years old, it will be on its own.
Young tigers, like cheetahs, are good climbers, but will do less and less of it as they grow older.
They stalk the jungle floor in search of their favorite food, monkey.
A young jaguar is about to go fishing for the first time.
Maybe this isn't as easy as it looked. Let me see, how do you do this?
Whoops, not that way.
Finally, this is one that didn't get away.
It's no coincidence these young kittens look like your pet house cat.
Domestic cats are descended from these European wild cats.
Although a fraction of the size of their larger relatives, their hunting skills are no less formidable.
Now here are some little ones that give new meaning to the expression, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
This is a newborn hedgehog.
It will be two weeks before their eyes open.
They might not be the cutest things to us, but they are surely the apple of their mother's eye.
After about three weeks, it's time to go exploring with mother.
She will teach them what to eat and where to find it.
Of course, some meals are easier to come by than others.
The red fox and her newborn.
For the first couple of weeks of their life, these kits will stay safe inside their den.
They finally get their first look at the outside world.
It's only a matter of days before the kits are playing, developing coordination, and even establishing rank among the litter.
The skirmishes can get rough, but mother doesn't interfere.
Within a matter of days, the pecking order is established and the fighting stops.
Although the mother fox does nothing to stop the kits' rough play, she makes sure none of them wander too far away.
She immediately takes things into her own hands, or in this case, her mouth.
Finally, back at the den and mom can relax.
Well, I guess this is relaxing.
Mother has kept busy finding food for the family. Duck is one of their favorite meals.
Just to show mom they're catching on, the kits have caught a meal of their own.
Of course, there is some argument as to whose meal it is.
Like most members of the dog family, the father shares in the responsibilities of rearing the young.
The father has come home with a mouse, and the kits show their appreciation.
Come wintertime, the drive to mate dominates the fox's behavior.
And once again, the cycle of life repeats.
The wild dogs of Africa also rely on the extended family for survival. Only the dominant female of the pack typically reproduces, but all the adults help in the rearing of the young.
The pups spend most of their time playing, while the adults provide for their needs.
Without this constant attention, the pups would have little chance of surviving.
Half a world away in North America, the coyote faces many of the same challenges.
This litter enjoys the long summer days and the chance to explore their surroundings.
Meanwhile, mother hunts to keep herself and her pups alive.
Because coyotes eat almost anything, it greatly increases their chances for survival.
In winter, it becomes even harder, but this is one coyote that deserves his reputation for being wily.
Winter is also hard on the coyote's larger cousin, the wolf. They too must rely on their social structure to survive.
The population of wild wolves becomes smaller and smaller every year, mainly due to man's hunting and encroachment on its territory.
In Central Asia, wolf packs are more plentiful, and like their North American counterparts, rely on cooperation to survive.
The grizzly bear needs little help in catching its prey.
This mother grizzly teaches its cubs the finer points of fishing.
This is not common, but adult grizzlies will occasionally take on a full-size caribou.
This is a fight the cubs won't be capable of for years, and all they can do is sit and watch.
The mother grizzly is one, and as far as the cubs are concerned, the view from here is just fine.
The polar bear is the largest of the bears.
Their considerable layers of fat enable them to swim great distances in the icy water.
There, that's better.
Protecting their young is a job the male and female humpback whales share.
During their long migration from Hawaii to the Bering Sea, the adult whales will teach their offspring how to survive and navigate in the vast expanses of ocean.
Man's closest relative in the animal world is the primate.
These African chimpanzees care for their young in much the same way as humans.
They establish strong family bonds and even pass down the knowledge of using tools.
African chimpanzees don't always pay attention to what they should do.
But sooner or later, the lesson starts to sink in.
Although primarily vegetarians, occasionally chimps will catch and eat a young baboon or antelope.
These meals will almost always be followed by a good helping of leaves.
Unlike chimpanzees, orangutans spend much of their time in the canopy of the jungle.
Their young are never far away.
A mother will nurse her offspring for about three years and after, wait for another three years before giving birth again.
This ensures the baby orangutan will get plenty of care and attention before it must survive on its own.
The largest primate is the gorilla.
They live in groups made up of one adult male and several females.
Baby gorillas are well protected and cared for by the group.
It's easy to see this youngster takes after the mother's side of the family.
Feeding once in the morning and once in the afternoon, gorillas spend most of their time napping on meadow leaves.
Now, that's more like it.
Nature has given the gorilla everything it needs to survive, yet the gorilla population is almost at the point of extinction.
The gorilla, like many other endangered species, do not have the instinct or skill to protect them from the cruelest predator of all, man.
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