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Private Notes
Think twice before you head out into the sheep pasture next time. The seemingly harmless sheep is perhaps not as timid as they seem. In fact, even domesticated many times they can demonstrate wild instincts. Domestic species are complex social beings who, despite having lived as domestic animals for thousands of years, are still much closer to wild animals than you may think. Desmond Morris (an expert in both human and animal behavior) shows how they defend their territory, attacking predators, play dead and battle for supremacy - out on the seemingly idyllic green fields surrounded by fences.
It lives in Britain, but few people have heard of it. It is adorable, but it is a pest. From one time being raised by the Romans for the feast, dormouse is now both loved and hated. Cute dormouse is a charming little creature with big saucer eyes and big bushy tail. Attics, electrical wiring, orchards, kitchen cupboards, organ pipes – all have received a visit by this annoying creature. This film shows the dormouse in its natural English environment where it demonstrates its agility and acrobatic ability by jumping between tree branches in the dark.
Why do cats love if you can cuddle with them? Why do they spend so much time trying to clean themselves? And why do they bring home dead mice? According to Desmond Morris the answer to these questions lays how the modern house cat behavior is still largely governed by ancient instincts. The domestic cat is a contradiction. No other animal has ever developed such an intimate relation to man and at the same time demanded, and got the opportunity, to move as freely and independently.
Even the most welldressed companion dog is a wild at heart. Playing with favorite toy and shake it up and back, to eat blink of an eye, swirling around in circle before he curls on the kitchen floor, eager lick to the master's face - all this is in fact instinctive behavior that once encouraged the dog's survival.
Inside each riding pony, work horse, training horse and race horse lurks a relative to Burchell’s zebra from Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania - the famous white horses in the Camargue and the mustangs that run freely over North America's prairies. This film contains intimate footage of wild horses whose behaviour Desmond Morris interprets and compares with their trained counterparts.
