Africa: The Serengeti
- NOT RATED
- Year:
- 1994
- 39 min
- 509 Views
where it is still
the morning of life,
Life streams across a land ...
suspended in time.
The last refuge of the greatest
concentration of wildlife ...
remaining on earth
the Serengeti plains of East Africa.
the mountains to the east emptied
themselves into the skies.
A sea of ash settled
across the Serengeti ...
leaving only scattered summits ...
as stone markers of a buried world.
Across four million years,
time and the elements
turned ash to rich soil,
yielding vast grasslands,
today preserved as the most important
animal sanctuary on earth.
In a land as fertile
as it is beautiful ...
dwell millions of
diverse creatures.
Yet a single species
predominates,
a million and a half strong
wildebeests affect the lives of
all around them.
Ungainly in appearance,
they have been called the clowns
of the African plains,
committee from spare parts.
But wildebeests
for a life of endless migration
Alongside, an array of
other herbivores coexist,
all accommodated by the rich ...
and varied vegetation
of the Serengeti,
each seeking out a different
niche of the food supply.
Some may spend 2/3 of
their lives grazing.
The equation of life
on the Serengeti is simple:
herbivores eat plants,
carnivores eat herbivores.
Lions hunt with both
might and stealth
a decoy distracts
while others stalk.
Although the lioness
has made the kill,
it is the much larger male
of the pride who eats first.
The hungry wait by rank.
Lionesses and cubs
are second in line.
Hyenas, jackals and vultures ...
quarrel to be next.
On the Serengeti,
nothing is wasted.
Through the plenty
of the wet season,
the wildebeest herds
of the southern Serengeti.
Now in late May, drought approaches
imposing a deadly ultimatum
migrate or starve.
For more than 2 million animals,
it is a marathon race against
thirst and hunger.
Like living streams and rivers,
the herds, accompanied by
zebras and gazelles,
flow toward the north and west,
drawn by the ancient promise
of water and grass.
The great migration has begun.
The epic journey takes place ...
within the two East African
Nations of Tanzania and Kenya.
The wildebeest herds
migrate north ...
toward the "Maasai Mara
Game Reserve" in Kenya.
There, they range
for months ...
until the rains resume,
to the southern plains.
The migration runs a deadly
gauntlet of more than 500 miles.
migration ...
coincide with the frenzy
of the rutting season.
Bulls engage in
constant battles ...
over females and territories.
In a few frantic weeks, 90%
of the cows are impregnated.
Early in the migration northward,
herds move through
the region ...
of ancient granite outcroppings
called "kopjes".
Now, they are vantage points
for waiting predators.
From a litter of four, only this
lone cheetah cub has survived.
To nourish it, the mother must
kill almost daily,
but she has not eaten for 2 days.
The herds have passed, but a few
straggling gazelles appear.
From this distance,
there is no contest.
The cheetah is the fastest
land animal on earth,
achieving short bursts of speed
up to 70 miles per hour.
remorse on the Serengeti.
and to feed its own
nothing more.
To the migrating herds, wooded
from the drought-stricken plains.
But here, the migration
becomes an invasion,
for the woodlands are
a permanent home to others.
Yet most of the residents go
about their own daily affairs,
little disturbed by the
trespassing multitude.
Unlike wildebeests, Maasai
giraffes need not migrate.
They feed on a hundred
species of woodland foliage,
a food supply resistant to drought.
Vervet monkeys find in trees
both sustenance and safety.
Savanna baboons roam the woodlands
in troops, roosting in trees by night.
Omnivores, like us, they feed
Occasionally, adult males will
Feeding on grasses adjacent
to the woodlands,
grazers come under
an ever watchful eye.
Yet there is one herbivore even
the lion gives wide berth.
The adult elephant is one of the few
Serengeti animals without an ...
enemy in the wild.
Protective of their young, elephants
The relationship between mother and
daughter lasts up to 50 years.
Herds sometimes push on through
the night despite risk of attack,
under cover of darkness.
Drawn by lightning distant
thunder or the smell of rain,
they may travel 50 miles by dawn.
Now adversities multiply.
Drought has parched
Grass fires sweep the Serengeti.
Scoured by fire and wind,
the vegetation will regenerate
in the rains to come,
but for the moment, herds seeking
sustenance find only dust.
Now the enemies are thirst
hunger exhaustion ...
and, as ever, predators.
So powerful is the urge to migrate,
the herd will push on even
when confronted by a lion ...
crouched in open ambush.
The hunter has only
to pick the moment.
In this endless contest,
nothing is guaranteed.
In daytime, only one lion hunt
in five succeeds.
Finally, after months
of migration,
surge into the bounty that has
drawn them northward
the rich pastures of the
Maasai Mara in Kenya.
Once more, their instincts have
brought them to a place of plenty.
Here, they will range
until the life-giving rains
return on the winds of October.
To the east,
close by the Serengeti,
there is a place of even
greater abundance.
One of the natural
wonders of the world.
It is a microcosm
of the Serengeti.
Ngorongoro crater is
a huge volcanic caldera,
encompassing 100 square miles,
a remnant of the great eruptions
that created the Serengeti plains.
From cloud forests along the rim to
the crater floor 2,000 feet below,
a self-contained
ecosystem provides ...
abundant forage
and plentiful water.
Where there is water, there is life.
An object of amusement to some,
the hippopotamus can cut a crocodile
or a human in half with a single bite.
Prompting an axiom
of the Serengeti:
"Never come between a hippo
and its territorial waters."
Tens of thousands of
animals dwell here,
others come in migrations
of the sky:
Flamingos from Namibia.
Storks from as far
as Europe and Asia.
Like privileged cousins of the
migrating herds outside,
wildebeests and zebras within
need only wander from
pasture to pasture.
Dangers abound here as elsewhere.
a tangle of stripes,
confusing to predators.
The horses of Africa appear placid,
but they have never
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