The Future is Wild

Cold Kansas Desert (1x5)

Air date: Apr 30, 2002

Cold Kansas Desert is set in North America, 5,000,000 years into the future. The episode focusses on three species:- Deathgleaner - a massive carnivorous bat that spends the day hunting for prey in the desert and spends the night in a communal roost. Spink - a descendant of the quail whose wings have become digging paddles. The species lives much like the naked mole rat of our time. Desert Rattleback - a descendant of the agouti and a relative of the rattleback from the previous episode. This one is better suited for cold regions. The episode explains that the onset of the ice age caused the agricultural belt of the USA to turn into a desert where temperatures at night regularly reach freezing. The episode shows how the animals have evolved to cope with the harsh features of this forbidding landscape.