‘Mammals’ (2024) Recap: ‘Forest’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Still from Episode 106 of ‘Mammals’ – ‘Forest’ Courtesy of BBC America.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Finale of ‘Mammals’ (2024). To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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If there is one particular place that modern humanity loves to venture into to clear one’s head or to be one with mother nature, it would be the forest. For this place serves as the anthesis to our woes, that rare segment of the world where we can be free of our cell phones, emails and meetings that should have been an email and just… soak in the silence of the world. Sure, there might be a bird chirping, some crickets, but that is a price worth paying to be away from the concrete jungle we’ve created, and what’s truly fascinating about our love of the forest, is how we genuinely believe that we are isolated and alone when we enter its domain.

When in reality, that’s simply not right. Because the forest is not some void where trees rustle and the occasional squirrel or deer shows up. The forest is in fact, teeming with life from the tops of those trees to the ground we pitch a tent upon and beneath it. Because mammals are everywhere and the forests are a place, they too call home, and it just so happens that what life looks like in the forest while we think about nothing or head home from our relaxing stay amongst the trees, served as the focus of the finale of BBC America docuseries, Mammals. For ‘Forest’ took us around the globe to showcase life in the vast forests of the world, and what we learned from his farewell tour of this story, was quite incredible.

After all, there are apes in this world that not only live in the trees and do as they please, but their intelligence and ability to retain knowledge has allowed for them to eat honey safely from species of bees that don’t sting and make their honey in the ground and if that isn’t enough… well no worry, they will simply work together to hunt prey and lead them into traps so they can be feasted upon. Not to mention, there are cats in the forests that know how to hunt fish, and actually spend their days in the rivers of the world, hunting about and bringing fish to bear for survival, and of course… there are tiny little mammals around the world that live in the trees and in the ground and do their best to survive and thrive regardless of the temperatures surrounding them in the forests. 

But while it was fascinating to see those behaviors and learn some fascinating facts about how they came to bear through evolution and environment, it was the unique survival and adaptation skills on display here that really helped this episode to shine. Because we came to learn there are cats in the forests that use the trees to hunt, and some are learning to use new forests that are growing as a result of climate change to raise their young and hunt as well. Not to mention, it is not uncommon now, to find monkeys moving about our cities in some regions of the world via power lines. A move that is dangerous but necessary, for mankind and nature are starting to collide and nature’s ability to adapt requires such bold moves, regardless of risk, to ensure survival.

Which was why the closing moments of this episode were of note. For they did point out, that our need for land and our need to move into regions that are covered in forest, is indeed causing a touch of harm now and again and disrupting generations of understanding and of knowledge and well… we must figure out the balance. For we can no longer treat the world as a place that bends to our whim. We must be partners and protectors, so that these fine mammals keep the only homes they have ever known and don’t suffer because we ‘need’ a new golf course, and that was a fine way to end this series. Since it brought home not only the wonder of the world that surrounds us, and the journey mammals have been upon, but how critical it is that the dominant mammal on this planet, serve as its caretaker for the gifts that it has been given.

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