The Future Is Wild: The episode is set in what was the Mediterranean sea in 5 million years time. It features four species: (1) Cryptile, a lizard with a sticky frill to catch flies which it can then lick off at its leisure; (2) Scrofa, a descendant of the wild boar which has developed spindly legs to allow it to live on the rocky islands in the desert; (3) Gryken, a descendant of the pine marten which hunts Scrofa in the cracked rocks of the landscape; (4) brine flies (live-acted). Before this time in the future, the tip of Africa has collided with the southern tip of Spain, thus enclosing the Mediterranean inland. It has since dried up to become an enormous salt desert with a few lakes of ultra-saline water, as it was during the Messinian salinity crisis. The holiday islands that used to be in the sea are now mountains scattered throughout the desert. The episode starts with two cryptiles mating. Then the female cryptile goes looking for grykes to lay her eggs in, for if they were laid in the salt, they would shrivel up and die. After she lays her eggs, she is chased by a gryken, but escapes, for grykens only have short speed bursts. The gryken hunts by crawling through the grykes, and captures its prey by surprise. The gryken then hunts scrofas. However, it fails, and is chased by an adult male. The gryken tries a second time and succeeds. However a baby scrofa gets lost in the process and wanders into a the salt plains. It spots a cryptile eating brine flies. Soon the baby scrofa dies. The narrator explains how some animals such as pigs, lizards, and pine martens adapted to life in the salt flats.

Starring:

Christian Rodska

Genre:

Animation, Documentary