A Mammoth Undertaking

A Mammoth Undertaking - broadcast in France as S'occuper d'un Mammouth (Caring for a Mammoth) and in Spain as Los mamuts (The Mammoths) - is the second episode of Prehistoric Park.

Summary
Nigel travels to the Siberian Ice Age in order to rescue a woolly mammoth, but all does not go as planned, and the team must take some drastic measures.

Full synopsis
Prehistoric Park is starting to come to life. All of the new saurian inhabitants are doing well, and Nigel stops by T-Rex Hill at feeding time. Terrence and Matilda, the two Tyrannosaurus, are eating well and growing extremely fast. Nigel then heads to the park's resident herd of elephants, where he explains that he is looking to rescue an extinct type of elephant, the mammoth. To achieve this, he will travel to Ice Age Siberia, about 10,000 years ago, when mammoths were almost extinct.

Heading through the portal in thick, cold weather attire, Nigel starts traveling across the tundra by snowmobile. Trees and mountains are all he sees: as the climate is getting warmer, boreal forests are replacing the tundra grass, depriving the mammoths of their food sources. This, as well as overhunting by ice age humans, has driven them to the brink of extinction.

After going through miles and miles of what seems like an endless forest, Nigel finally comes across a rocky cave in the middle of the trees and decides to explore it. But, when a low, menacing growl is heard, he slowly backs out of the cave. A large cave bear soon follows him out of the cave, apparently disturbed from its winter hibernation. Nigel starts to run with the bear in pursuit. It rears up on its hind legs and knocks over the camera in anger. When the bear disappears, the cameraman finds Nigel up in a tree. He apologizes to his cameraman and admits that he thought cave bears were already extinct by this time. He then observes the bear for a minute, but decides not to attempt to take it back to the park. After riding a short distance in the snowmobile, Nigel clambers up a rocky slope in order to get a better view of the area. It is mostly trees as far as the eye can see, but he finally spots a more open area at the foot of the mountains that might yield some traces of mammoth. Soon, Nigel finds some interesting artifacts like a flute carved from a mammoth tusk by primitive man and, more importantly, a trail of elephantine footprints in the snow and finally, a pile of fresh mammoth dung. The dung is still warm, so his target cannot be far away. He then hears noises from large animals, and so, he decides to head in the direction of the noise.

Nigel arrives at an open plain crossed by a small stream, where he spots his first mammoths. However, one is dead, having fallen prey to a snow trap set by Cro-Magnon hunters. The remaining mammoth is lingering by her dead companion, indicating they may have been sisters. Nigel approaches the surviving mammoth, but she soon collapses to the ground, having also been injured by the hunters. Distraught, Nigel attempts to calm her down, and soon deduces that the human hunters will be back at some point to finish off the remaining animal. Nigel radios his team to seek aid.

Back at the park in the 21st century, Bob is contemplating how to take better care of the resident herd of Ornithomimus. When they first arrived, he put them into a paddock designed for ostriches, since they looked extremely similar, but they haven't been too happy since. Then, he noticed that their mouths are more like a duck's, being rough and rigid like sandpaper. Based upon this, he decides to put the herd into a new paddock with a large pond, where they are able to filter-feed in the water. Once the herd is released, they chaotically flock about before finally settling down while Bob watches in awe.

Back in Pleistocene Siberia, Nigel's team arrive, and they agree that the mammoth must be brought back to the park in order to be treated appropriately. She is shot with an antibiotic dart so her strength should be at least partially retained by the next morning. The team then sets up camp on the site. Later, in the night, Nigel spots some cave hyenas hiding in the distance by seeing their yellow eyeshine in the darkness. Sometime later, a wolf pack attacks the campsite for the mammoth, but Nigel is able to fend them off before they can hurt the fallen mammoth. He then lights some torches around the mammoth to discourage any further predatory approaches. Soon, the Cro-Magnon hunters return to reclaim their prize, but not long after, they turn around and walk away, either from seeing the torches or perhaps Nigel and his unfamiliar equipment. Either way, it is a long and uneasy night for Nigel and the team.

The next morning, Nigel checks up on the wounded mammoth. The antibiotics have been effective, and the mammoth is finally able to stand up again. She starts walking back towards her dead sister, but Nigel manages to lead her through the time portal and back into the present day. Upon their arrival, Nigel radios the medical staff for help. Suzanne then arrives and performs a quick surgery on the mammoth in the holding pens, successfully extracting a stone spearhead that was lodged in the mammoth's shoulder, which was apparently how it was injured. The wound will not be stitched up, so that the mammoth will just end up with a small scar, and Suzanne expects the mammoth to make a full recovery. The team names her Martha and later puts her in an enclosue. However, problems begin to arise when, at feeding time, Martha refuses to feed on the hay she was provided. The team calls Suzanne over to check her out, however, she finds nothing wrong with Martha. Still, she finds it odd that Martha was refusing the hay since her vital signs were normal and her wound was healing, nor was it infected. Nigel decides to go back to the Pleistocene, 150,000 years ago, to take some plant samples back to Prehistoric Park and get Martha eating again. There, while collecting plant samples, he sees a large herd of woolly mammoths traveling. However, the herd is spooked by a bull mammoth in musth. As the mammoths move away from the bull, they begin feeding on the vegetation. However, a baby mammoth gets stuck in a muddy puddle. As the rest of the herd approaches the sinking youngster, the matriarch hoists the baby out of the mud with her trunk and tusks. Subsequently, the herd begins feeding again. Suddenly, a large male Elasmotherium is seen investigating Nigel's snowmobile. Nigel sees it and keeps still and quiet. At first, because of its poor eyesight, the Elasmotherium doesn't notice Nigel. However, the Elasmotherium picks up Nigel's scent and walks closer. Nigel backs off but is stopped by the bull mammoth in musth. The Elasmotherium then picks up the bull mammoth's scent, and backs off. Nigel then takes the opportunity to escape.

Later, Nigel goes to retrieve his food bag, and notices the Elasmotherium near it. Deciding to seize the opportunity of rescuing another animal, Nigel sets up the time protal before using himself as bait and attempts to lure the Elasmotherium into charge at him. He is successful in doing so and runs through the time portal with the Elasmotherium right behind him. As he exits the other side, Nigel tells the staff at entrance to close the gates to trap the Elasmotherium, which attempts to break it with his horn. Soon, he is transferred into an observation pen, where he is kept until a new enclosure can be built for him. Immediately afterward, Nigel heads over to Martha's enclosure, where he offers his plant samples to Martha. However, shee still refuses to eat. Nigel then realizes that Martha is probably lonely, as the female mammoths he saw on his second trip to the Pleistocene were in large social groups. Later that night, Nigel holds an important meeting with Bob and Suzanne about their next course of action, and the decision to introduce Martha to the park's herd of African elephants is made.

The next day, Nigel's and the rest of the park staff prepare to introduce Martha with the matriarch African elephant. Shortly after Nigel arrives at Mammoth Mount, the matriarch African elephant is herded into Martha's enclosure. The crew then anxiously watches as Martha and the matriarch interact with each other, as elephant matriarchs have been known to kill strange elephants coming into established herds and there is no way to predict how the matriarch will react towards Martha. However, things appear to go better than expected, as Martha and the matriarch exchange what Suzanne interprets as overtures of friendship. With things going well, Nigel orders for the gates to be opened. Once the gates have been opened, Martha follows the matriarch over to the rest of the herd, where she is accepted as one of its members. At the end of the episode, Martha is seen finally feeding with the elephants.

Cast

 * Nigel Marven as Himself
 * Rod Arthur as Head Keeper Bob
 * Suzanne McNabb as Herself
 * David Jason as Narrator

Characters

 * Nigel Marven
 * Head Veterinarian Suzanne
 * Head Keeper Bob
 * Terrence
 * Matilda
 * Martha
 * Elephant Matriarch

Creatures

 * Tyrannosaurus rex
 * African elephant
 * Cave bear
 * Woolly mammoth
 * Cave hyena
 * Wolf
 * Cro-Magnon
 * Elasmotherium
 * Cave lion (cut from episode)

Locations

 * Prehistoric Park
 * T-Rex Hill
 * Mammoth Mount
 * Observation pen
 * Ornithomimus Pond
 * Nigel's Base
 * Siberia (only appearance)

Objects & Technology

 * Time Portal
 * Snowmobile

Errors

 * As Nigel stated, the Cave Bear should be extinct by the time the first part of the episode was shot.
 * The date for the extinction of mammoths was incorrectly cited as 10,000 years ago. The last known mammoth population died out on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean around 1700 BCE.