1
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:46,360
Africa.

2
00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,480
The world's greatest wilderness.

3
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,760
The only place on Earth
to see the full majesty of nature.

4
00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:07,120

5
00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,840
There's so much more here
than we ever imagined.

6
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,840
I'm standing where the equator

7
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,520
cuts right across
the middle of the continent.

8
00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:28,440
To the north of me,
there's an immense desert

9
00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:30,480
the size of
the United States of America.

10
00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:34,760
To the west, a vast rainforest,
the size of India.

11
00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:37,240
And behind me, for thousands of miles,

12
00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:40,520
the most fertile savannahs
in the world.

13
00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:51,280
From the roof of Africa

14
00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:55,120
to the deepest jungle,

15
00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:01,560
rarely seen places

16
00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:04,640
and untold stories.

17
00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:10,040
There's nowhere in the world
where wildlife puts on a greater show.

18
00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:31,160
This is the last place on Earth
where you can come eye to eye

19
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:34,040
with the greatest animals
that walk our planet.

20
00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:45,160
This is Africa.

21
00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,800
Our journey starts in the far southwest

22
00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:09,360
in the oldest and strangest
corner of the continent.

23
00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,800
Here, the thirsty land is covered
with thousands upon thousands

24
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,480
of circles.

25
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:30,760
We still don't know their origins.

26
00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:35,760
Poisonous plants, foraging insects
and even magnetism

27
00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:37,640
have all been suggested.

28
00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,760
But each ruled out.

29
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:53,120
The circles don't move
and their shape never varies.

30
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,000
They're unchanging,

31
00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,560
much like this part of Africa itself.

32
00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:07,280
Ancient and arid, it almost never rains
on this land.

33
00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:11,160
Yet there is water here, hidden away.

34
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,680
To survive here,
life must use every trick in the book.

35
00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:38,680
Winter.

36
00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:43,040
Dawn temperatures can fall
well below freezing.

37
00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:46,200

38
00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,480
And that's a problem for this drongo.

39
00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:53,520
It's too cold for his normal prey,
flying insects.

40
00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:58,360
But he has a plan.

41
00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:02,680
The drongo is
the Kalahari's greatest trickster.

42
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,640
And these are his victims.

43
00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,920
A family of meerkats,
desert specialists.

44
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,120
After warming up in the morning sun,

45
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,000
the meerkats begin their search
for breakfast.

46
00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,400
The drongo can now begin his tricks.

47
00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,800
But he must first win the confidence
of his victims.

48
00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:44,200
He spots an eagle on the hunt
and sounds a warning.

49
00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:46,000

50
00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:50,320
One that sends the meerkats
gratefully scurrying to safety.

51
00:05:57,040 --> 00:05:58,680
Danger over.

52
00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:03,920
And now, he has their trust.

53
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:09,880
He sounds another warning.

54
00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:11,160

55
00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,840
But this time, it's a false alarm.

56
00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:22,800
Thank you very much.

57
00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:30,760
The meerkats fell for it.

58
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:35,920

59
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,200
This all seems too easy.

60
00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:42,600
He tries the same trick again.

61
00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,240

62
00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:57,280
But the meerkats aren't stupid.
They'll only fall for it once.

63
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:04,920

64
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:10,040
The juicy scorpion won't be for him.

65
00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,600
Then suddenly,
the sound of a sentry's warning.

66
00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:20,160
No meerkat can ignore that.

67
00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:22,600
Sentries never lie.

68
00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:24,960
But the sentry sees no danger.

69
00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:27,040

70
00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:30,840
Guess who?

71
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:42,240
Of course, it's the drongo.

72
00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,960
He's learned to mimic
the meerkats' own warning call.

73
00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:51,920
And now he can enjoy his prize.

74
00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,320
A gang of meerkats, outsmarted...

75
00:07:58,800 --> 00:07:59,800
..by a bird.

76
00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:08,160
The drongo is only deceitful
in the hardest winter months.

77
00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:12,560
For the rest of the year,
he provides honest protection.

78
00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:15,640
So, in the long run,

79
00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:19,760
the meerkat family profit
as well as the drongo.

80
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:23,800

81
00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:28,800
It's a much harder life

82
00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:32,040
if you haven't yet learned
the tricks of your trade.

83
00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:37,360

84
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,240
This young leopard is just a year old

85
00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,080
and at a critical point in his life.

86
00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,960
His mother has battled
to raise her two cubs,

87
00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:21,480
but finding enough food for them
is now beyond her.

88
00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:26,960
From today,

89
00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:29,520
he'll have to fend for himself.

90
00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:42,880
Kalahari means "land of great thirst".

91
00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:48,920
Prey is scarce.

92
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:54,080
Of all the leopards in Africa,
these have to be the most resourceful.

93
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:02,840
A big warthog,

94
00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:04,880
potential prey

95
00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,360
but armed and dangerous.

96
00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:14,960
His mother tried to tackle one
but it nearly killed her.

97
00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:34,600
He spots something more promising.

98
00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:50,000
A steenbok.

99
00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:52,400
That's more like it.

100
00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,920
He won't strike unless he can get
to within just four metres,

101
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,640
and without making the slightest sound.

102
00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:12,800

103
00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:15,480
A jackal barks an alarm.

104
00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:23,560
But the steenbok still has no idea
it's being stalked.

105
00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:31,560
The nearer he gets,

106
00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:33,960
the quieter he must be.

107
00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:12,800
He's blown it.

108
00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:30,560
A good opportunity like that
won't come around very often.

109
00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:40,760
Hungry and thirsty, he heads back home,

110
00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:44,840
and spots a kill stashed in a tree,

111
00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,840
almost certainly by his own mother.

112
00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:50,360
And like any teenager,

113
00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,240
he thinks nothing of raiding her larder.

114
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:06,360
Booby-trapped.

115
00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:37,880

116
00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,480
It's not really his day, is it?

117
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:57,520
Some young leopards grow up
to be brilliant opportunists.

118
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,960
But even they find life hard
here in the Kalahari.

119
00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:15,800
These bizarre little birds
are baby ostriches.

120
00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:20,720
They're just a few days old.

121
00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,840
In time,
they'll become superb desert survivors.

122
00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:34,120
But in the Kalahari,
these early days are perilous.

123
00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:37,640
Like leopards and meerkats,

124
00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:42,680
adult ostriches can extract all the
moisture they require from their food.

125
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:45,520
Their chicks, however, won't survive

126
00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:48,280
much more than another day without water.

127
00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:51,760
But there's none in sight.

128
00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:56,000
How can their parents 
conjure up water out here?

129
00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,080
The youngsters follow their parents

130
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,920
as they head out onto
a featureless wasteland.

131
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,320
It seems like a suicidal journey.

132
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,440
The Etosha Salt Pan.

133
00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:47,240
Here, water is more often
a mirage than reality.

134
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,560
It's now well over
40 degrees centigrade.

135
00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:00,440
Their father shades his chicks
from the midday sun.

136
00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:10,520
Another mirage?

137
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:15,480
No.

138
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:19,560
The ostrich family
is not alone out here.

139
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:30,320
Surrounded by miles of sun-baked mud,

140
00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:35,640
sweet fresh water wells up
from deep below ground

141
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:38,880
like a miracle.

142
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,080

143
00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,360
Although the ostrich parents
have guided their chicks to water,

144
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:04,800
there's still a problem.

145
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:06,800
Traffic.

146
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:08,520

147
00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:09,920
Heavy traffic.

148
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:18,480
These tiny, fragile birds
could easily be trampled underfoot.

149
00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:24,000
The water is tantalisingly close.

150
00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:36,320
Where prey gathers,
predators are never far behind.

151
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:38,160

152
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,320

153
00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:33,000
The brawling lions have unwittingly done
the young ostriches a favour.

154
00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:36,720
The water hole is now clear.

155
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,120
Sometimes, you need
a bit of luck in life.

156
00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,040
Their first-ever drink.

157
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,160
And just in time.

158
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:14,000
Their father's done his job.

159
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,000
A black rhinoceros,

160
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,040
the Kalahari's most
cantankerous resident.

161
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:40,800
They don't like company.

162
00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:44,320
And they certainly don't like
sharing a water hole with lions.

163
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,400
Fortunately, for everyone else, that is,

164
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,720
they only visit twice a week.

165
00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:08,360
The Kalahari is the black rhino's
last stronghold.

166
00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:13,880
And here, under the cover of darkness,

167
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,760
at one secret and very
special waterhole,

168
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:19,880
rhino abandon their normally
solitary life,

169
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:24,240
and come from miles around
to meet under the stars.

170
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,200
Using the latest starlight camera,

171
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:37,480
we can reveal for the first time
the rhino's true character.

172
00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:45,320
This young female seems nervous.

173
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:47,960
She senses other rhinos close by.

174
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:54,520
A mother appears from the shadows
with her calf.

175
00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:07,480
Tentatively, they greet one another.

176
00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:13,440
They may be ill-tempered by day,

177
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,160
but now they become gentle
and affectionate.

178
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:28,000
More and more arrive.

179
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,080
We had no idea that rhinos
met to socialise

180
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,520
and build friendships like this.

181
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,880
The young female has an admirer.

182
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,040
But she doesn't seem keen on him.

183
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:26,600
She's excited about something,

184
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:30,480
or someone.

185
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,240
Here comes a really big male.

186
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,760
This time she's much more welcoming.

187
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,640
Who would have thought
that rhino could be so flirtatious?

188
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,160
The first male tries
to come between them.

189
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:15,840
Somehow or other, he's got a pair of
antelope horns stuck on his nose.

190
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,480
It looks as if she's been won over
by his eccentric style.

191
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:31,720
He leads her off, away from the party.

192
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,680
He may have style,

193
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,800
but he's turning out to be
something of a disappointment.

194
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,880
A girl can only put up with so much.

195
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,800
The only way she can get rid of him
is to pretend she's asleep.

196
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:35,000
To see so many rhino in one place
is a revelation.

197
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:37,720
And that's the power water has here,

198
00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:43,280
the power to bring together the greatest
gathering of rhinos anywhere on Earth.

199
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:05,400
Spitzkoppe,

200
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:13,120
an ancient volcano that towers above a
plateau that is two billion years old.

201
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:21,920
This land has remained unchanged for
longer than any other part of Africa.

202
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:30,080
Animals here have had a long time
to find inventive solutions

203
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:32,400
to the challenge of finding water.

204
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:03,480
Out on the open plains, life must await
the chance arrival of rain.

205
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:05,920

206
00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:11,160
When it does fall, it has
an extraordinary effect.

207
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:17,880
Each sporadic downpour may only
last minutes,

208
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,000
but it can bring life.
And in spectacular numbers.

209
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,040
Red-billed quelea.

210
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,200
They're the most numerous
bird in the world.

211
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:45,040
In all, more than a billion
live here in the Kalahari.

212
00:26:46,120 --> 00:26:47,560
No one knows quite how,

213
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,760
but they seem to have an extraordinary
ability to locate the fall of rain

214
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,200
and then instantly exploit
the bonanza that follows.

215
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:18,160
These nomads now have just five weeks
to find food, build a nest,

216
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:19,240
and raise a brood.

217
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:32,680
But they're not alone.

218
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,600
The rains have also created a plague.

219
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,680
These are armoured ground crickets,

220
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:58,640
giant insects with voracious
appetites for meat.

221
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:11,640
With the quelea parents away feeding,
their chicks are defenceless.

222
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,640

223
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:56,840
The adults return.

224
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,520
But the cricket fights back,

225
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,080
squirting its own foul-tasting
blood into their eyes.

226
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:43,040
The cricket is still alive,

227
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:47,400
but the stench of its blood attracts
the attention of others.

228
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:58,720
Now it is the target.

229
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,760
These crickets become cannibals.

230
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,200
All too soon,
the bonanza brought by the rain is over.

231
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:28,360
And the quelea head off
in search of the next rare downpour.

232
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:51,320
The Kalahari is scarred by rivers
that have long since run dry.

233
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,320
The water claimed by the thirsty land.

234
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,640
But it's not gone far.

235
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,280
Deep below lies a secret,

236
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,720
one that was discovered
only 25 years ago.

237
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,960
Humid air rushing to the surface,
gives this place its name.

238
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,480
Dragon's Breath Cave.

239
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,760
The shaft descends for
60 metres until it meets

240
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:00,400
water.

241
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:07,960
Here there is a massive chamber,
big enough to swallow three jumbo jets

242
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:09,520
nose to tail,

243
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,320
filled with cool, fresh water.

244
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,440
The world's largest underground lake.

245
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,520
This is fossil water.

246
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:37,360
It's been trapped here undisturbed
for thousands, if not millions of years.

247
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,040
We have no idea how deep the lake is.

248
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:51,760
Divers have been down to 100 metres
and still there's no sign of the bottom.

249
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:02,480
Remarkably, Dragon's Breath is part
of a vast cave system

250
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:06,440
that extends beneath the Kalahari
for thousands of miles.

251
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:16,200
Even here in this lonely
cave, there is life.

252
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:29,640
Golden catfish, only found
in this one cave.

253
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:35,040
They're the rarest and most
isolated fish in the world.

254
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:43,120
Life down here is as challenging
as it is in the desert above.

255
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:49,600
There's no food, except the debris that
occasionally falls onto the surface.

256
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,480
And these catfish are totally blind.

257
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:02,440
The only world they know is
the one that they sense through touch.

258
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,280
A blind fish living in
perpetual darkness

259
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:14,400
deep beneath one of the
most arid regions of Africa.

260
00:34:22,720 --> 00:34:24,560
Such cruel irony,

261
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,880
so much water hidden away out of reach.

262
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:36,760
Along the western edge of the Kalahari,

263
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,000
the land becomes so dry,
it seems impossible

264
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,360
that any life could survive here.

265
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:01,200
The Namib.

266
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:07,240
A million square miles of sand,
exquisitely sculpted by the wind.

267
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:13,120
This is the oldest desert in the world.

268
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:26,800
Respite comes from fog
rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean.

269
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:32,960
It condenses into a few precious drops.

270
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:39,160
Just enough to sustain life.

271
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,920
A pompilid wasp is searching the dunes.

272
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,200
She's not looking for a drink,

273
00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:00,000
but for somewhere moist to lay her egg.

274
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,880
How will she pull off a trick like that?

275
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:16,200
The entrance to a burrow.
That's worth investigating.

276
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,880
She may be tiny, but once
she decides to dig,

277
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,920
she can shift extraordinary
quantities of sand.

278
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,600
She's unearthed this spider
for a grisly purpose.

279
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:59,880
It's so dry, the only place with enough
moisture for her egg

280
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,240
is within the body of another
living thing.

281
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,720
First, she must paralyse her victim.

282
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:16,560
But then, the spider plays
its trump card.

283
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,640
The aptly named golden wheel spider

284
00:37:37,720 --> 00:37:41,680
can cartwheel fast enough
to escape its gruesome fate.

285
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,880
For the wasp, her near-impossible
search goes on.

286
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:25,160
If it's hard enough for a tiny wasp
to survive here in the Namib,

287
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:27,960
how is it possible for a giant?

288
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:40,480
A desert giraffe.

289
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,040
It's difficult to imagine how
such a huge animal

290
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,600
can live in a place
with so little water.

291
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,800
This old male is at the
very limit of his endurance.

292
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:14,680
The land may be bone dry,

293
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,480
but there are signs that
water once flowed here.

294
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,400
The Hoanib,

295
00:39:26,720 --> 00:39:29,000
one of Namibia's rivers.

296
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,000
A river of sand.

297
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,280
The trees that line these sand rivers,

298
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:51,880
send roots down over 30 metres

299
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,480
to tap water that lies deep
beneath the river bed.

300
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:02,120
These trees are the giraffe's salvation.

301
00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:06,680
Even if he has to stretch to his very
tallest to get a mouthful.

302
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:16,640
Even on tiptoe, he still needs
a half-metre-long tongue

303
00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:19,360
to reach the leaves he so badly needs.

304
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,240
He's ruled this stretch of the
Hoanib for over a decade.

305
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,360
And this prime territory
is attracting females.

306
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,000
He waits confidently for her.

307
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:13,440
But they've got company,

308
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:15,880
a young male.

309
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:00,240
The old bull won't tolerate a rival.

310
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:10,240
Pushing and shoving,
they size each other up.

311
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,720
The young rival seems to think
he has a chance

312
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:20,200
and attacks.

313
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:36,600
The first few blows usually
settle things in such battles,

314
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:38,880
but here the stakes are high.

315
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,600
To lose means exile in the desert.

316
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:55,880
Neither will back down.

317
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:03,920
As the fight intensifies,
they change tactics.

318
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,160
The young male aims for the rump.

319
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:11,440
The old bull targets his rival's legs.

320
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:02,840
The old bull is down.

321
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:13,800
Is this the end of his reign?

322
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:22,000
He knows a knockout blow is coming.

323
00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:38,040
But the old bull ducks,

324
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:46,520
and strikes a blow
to his rival's underbelly.

325
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:24,440
Out for the count.

326
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:38,600
The old bull is victorious,

327
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:44,200
but only just.

328
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:55,480
The sand river remains his to rule.

329
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,720
It's a river that is
about to be transformed.

330
00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:31,640
Under clear blue skies,
water floods down the Hoanib.

331
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:41,880
The welcome consequence of rain
that fell hundreds of miles away.

332
00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:59,440
The water may only flow
for a matter of hours,

333
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:04,800
but this miraculous flood

334
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,880
is enough to provide
a lifeline for the trees,

335
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:11,120
and the giraffes of the Hoanib river.

336
00:47:17,720 --> 00:47:20,720
It's what makes this place
worth fighting for.

337
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,920
Here, fossil lakes, secret water holes,

338
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:44,760
desert fog, and ephemeral
rivers like this

339
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,840
provide just enough water
for life to get by,

340
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:51,840
no matter how tough it gets.

341
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:59,480
It's hard to find more inventive
solutions to staying alive

342
00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:03,400
than in this, the most
ancient corner of Africa.

343
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:32,240
For four years, the Africa team
searched the continent

344
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,480
for new and surprising stories.

345
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:37,600
Not only of strange
and unfamiliar creatures,

346
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:40,080
but also of some we think we know.

347
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,200
Veteran wildlife cameraman
Martyn Colbeck

348
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:47,400
took on the challenge
of shedding new light

349
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:50,160
on the life of Namibia's desert giraffe.

350
00:48:56,080 --> 00:48:58,320
I jumped at the opportunity
of working with an animal

351
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:00,280
that I hadn't really
spent much time with.

352
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:02,080
Straight away, they proved to be

353
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:03,920
quite an eye-opener.

354
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:06,440
They're very bizarre-looking animals.

355
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:09,240
We just kept looking at them
from different angles.

356
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:11,480
And they looked even weirder.

357
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:18,280
The combination of the sort of weird close-ups,
the beautiful landscape that they're in...

358
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:20,280
They're amusing.

359
00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,640
I got really attached
to them, actually.

360
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,880
Overlying all this, we were
always waiting for a fight.

361
00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:35,800
But to see a full-blooded fight
is very rare.

362
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,040
So, the only way that we were
going to see it

363
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:40,640
is if we stuck at it

364
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:43,320
day after day, every day, for 30 days.

365
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,960
We were lucky enough that
we found a male guarding a female.

366
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:57,240
And, out of nowhere, this male
came round the corner.

367
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,280
And almost immediately

368
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:07,080
faced up to our male.

369
00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:12,040
Absolutely no warning that
this was going to happen,

370
00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,520
so it was complete
pandemonium in the car.

371
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:17,320
But luckily, I got the camera

372
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,080
up and running in time
to actually capture this fight.

373
00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:21,920
And it all came down

374
00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:24,480
to one minute in real time.

375
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:31,800
When I filmed it, you don't
see it in slow-motion.

376
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,000
And you just have to go with the flow.

377
00:50:35,720 --> 00:50:40,280
You're not experiencing the fight.
You're just basically framing it and capturing it.

378
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:43,680
So it was only afterwards,
when we looked at it in slow-motion

379
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:47,200
that you could really understand
how ferocious it was.

380
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:57,640
You can see the impact on the skin.
You see the ripples going through the flesh.

381
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:05,440
But it was the final blows
that delivered the real surprise.

382
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,560
It was like one of those
chimneys falling down.

383
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:14,760
At the last moment,
the head just went clunk.

384
00:51:31,240 --> 00:51:33,320
And we thought it was dead.

385
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:38,160
We thought this thing was dead.

386
00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:42,000
And it lay there for,
it must have been three minutes.

387
00:51:43,320 --> 00:51:45,960
Eventually, this thing suddenly got up.

388
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:48,440
The one that was lying down.

389
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:50,600
And the two of them were then standing.

390
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:53,840
And the one that had been
knocked over completely

391
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:55,800
then just said, "I've had enough.

392
00:51:55,880 --> 00:51:58,040
"Okay. Okay, you won. And I'm off."

393
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,400
I think it's very unlikely I'm going
to see anything like that again.

394
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,680
I think that's a once-in-a-lifetimer,
I really do.

395
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,880
It won't be easy
to look at giraffes

396
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:17,760
in the same way again.

397
00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:26,960
On the other side of the desert,
another of Africa's great animal icons

398
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:32,440
was attracting the attention of the team
as they staked out a secret water hole.

399
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:40,720
They hoped to reveal
a very different side

400
00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:43,600
to the personality
of the black rhinoceros.

401
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:49,080
The team have heard that at night

402
00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:51,600
rhinos behave a little strangely.

403
00:53:05,240 --> 00:53:09,960
A specially-built starlight camera would
allow the team to pierce the darkness.

404
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:19,520
It's amazing. That's filming
something we can't even see.

405
00:53:19,720 --> 00:53:21,080
Yeah, if you look out there now...

406
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:23,440
Yeah, it's just black, isn't it?

407
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:26,120
But through this,
it looks as sharp as day.

408
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:29,080
Rhinos are notoriously antisocial.

409
00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:33,040
Yet here they come to revel
in each other's company.

410
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:37,480
This is amazing.

411
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:42,000
This is such intimate behaviour, which

412
00:53:42,840 --> 00:53:46,000
you could only see filming
them at night like this.

413
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:48,520
It's incredible.

414
00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:57,080
But it wasn't just cameras

415
00:53:57,160 --> 00:53:59,680
that would show a new side to rhinos.

416
00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:04,680
By concealing tiny radio microphones
around the water hole,

417
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:08,800
the crew hoped to eavesdrop
on the night's activity.

418
00:54:11,240 --> 00:54:12,240

419
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:14,160

420
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:17,720

421
00:54:24,040 --> 00:54:27,040
And what they heard was astonishing.

422
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:28,600

423
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:33,640
They're really talkative.

424
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:36,800
They really are having a good chat.

425
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:39,880

426
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:44,200
These guys are far more communicative
than elephants even.

427
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:48,440
It's just going on and on.
Chatting or whatever.

428
00:54:48,520 --> 00:54:50,000

429
00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:51,920

430
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:55,360
It's a beautiful, crystal clear night.

431
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:59,440
So you've got beautiful, starry shots,
loads of amazing noise.

432
00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:02,240
They're all puffing and huffing.

433
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:06,360

434
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:12,040
So it's... it's about 2:00 in the morning.
We've one rhino left out there.

435
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:16,680
The rest have gone to bed, but he's
decided to lie down right on top of the radio mic.

436
00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:32,720
The crew prepared for one more 
night at the water hole

437
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:34,560
under the full moon.

438
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:45,440
It seems that they're
not really here for the water.

439
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:49,040
But more to socialise.
A bit like going out for the evening.

440
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:57,480
He's got some kudu horns on his face,

441
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,560
draped over his nose.

442
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:02,520
It's on camera, too.

443
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:04,840

444
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:09,840
These images have a particular poignancy

445
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:14,000
in a world where rhino horn is worth
more than its weight in gold.

446
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:18,800
Poaching is going through
a really bad time right now

447
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:20,880
in Southern Africa.

448
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:24,400
If you average it out, a rhino
has been killed every day

449
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:26,160
for the last year.

450
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:30,160
That's really serious poaching.

451
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:33,040
It's a huge concern

452
00:56:33,400 --> 00:56:37,040
that what we saw and filmed
just won't happen again, ever.

453
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:44,480
It's only now that
technology has revealed a new side

454
00:56:44,720 --> 00:56:46,800
to the rhino's personality.

455
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:48,840

456
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,760
The black rhinoceros
is a symbol of the African bush.

457
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:01,880
But it seems that this creature
has been long misunderstood.

458
00:57:06,240 --> 00:57:10,400
For the Africa team, revealing
giraffes and rhinos in this new light

459
00:57:11,640 --> 00:57:13,560
was just the beginning.

460
00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:17,320
Africa may be a continent
we think we know,

461
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:20,240
but it's still full of surprises.