Africa (2013) s01e01 Episode Script
Kalahari
1 DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: Africa.
The world's greatest wilderness.
The only place on Earth to see the full majesty of nature.
(ELEPHANT GROWLS) There's so much more here than we ever imagined.
I'm standing where the equator cuts right across the middle of the continent.
To the north of me, there's an immense desert the size of the United States of America.
To the west, a vast rainforest, the size of India.
And behind me, for thousands of miles, the most fertile savannahs in the world.
From the roof of Africa to the deepest jungle, rarely seen places and untold stories.
There's nowhere in the world where wildlife puts on a greater show.
This is the last place on Earth where you can come eye to eye with the greatest animals that walk our planet.
This is Africa.
Our journey starts in the far southwest in the oldest and strangest corner of the continent.
Here, the thirsty land is covered with thousands upon thousands of circles.
We still don't know their origins.
Poisonous plants, foraging insects and even magnetism have all been suggested.
But each ruled out.
The circles don't move and their shape never varies.
They're unchanging, much like this part of Africa itself.
Ancient and arid, it almost never rains on this land.
Yet there is water here, hidden away.
To survive here, life must use every trick in the book.
Winter.
Dawn temperatures can fall well below freezing.
(CHIRPING URGENTLY) And that's a problem for this drongo.
It's too cold for his normal prey, flying insects.
But he has a plan.
The drongo is the Kalahari's greatest trickster.
And these are his victims.
A family of meerkats, desert specialists.
After warming up in the morning sun, the meerkats begin their search for breakfast.
The drongo can now begin his tricks.
But he must first win the confidence of his victims.
He spots an eagle on the hunt and sounds a warning.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) One that sends the meerkats gratefully scurrying to safety.
Danger over.
And now, he has their trust.
He sounds another warning.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) But this time, it's a false alarm.
Thank you very much.
The meerkats fell for it.
(GROWLING) This all seems too easy.
He tries the same trick again.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) But the meerkats aren't stupid.
They'll only fall for it once.
(GROANS) The juicy scorpion won't be for him.
Then suddenly, the sound of a sentry's warning.
No meerkat can ignore that.
Sentries never lie.
But the sentry sees no danger.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) Guess who? Of course, it's the drongo.
He's learned to mimic the meerkats' own warning call.
And now he can enjoy his prize.
A gang of meerkats, outsmarted by a bird.
The drongo is only deceitful in the hardest winter months.
For the rest of the year, he provides honest protection.
So, in the long run, the meerkat family profit as well as the drongo.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) It's a much harder life if you haven't yet learned the tricks of your trade.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) This young leopard is just a year old and at a critical point in his life.
His mother has battled to raise her two cubs, but finding enough food for them is now beyond her.
From today, he'll have to fend for himself.
Kalahari means "land of great thirst".
Prey is scarce.
Of all the leopards in Africa, these have to be the most resourceful.
A big warthog, potential prey but armed and dangerous.
His mother tried to tackle one but it nearly killed her.
He spots something more promising.
A steenbok.
That's more like it.
He won't strike unless he can get to within just four metres, and without making the slightest sound.
(JACKAL WARNING CALL) A jackal barks an alarm.
But the steenbok still has no idea it's being stalked.
The nearer he gets, the quieter he must be.
He's blown it.
A good opportunity like that won't come around very often.
Hungry and thirsty, he heads back home, and spots a kill stashed in a tree, almost certainly by his own mother.
And like any teenager, he thinks nothing of raiding her larder.
Booby-trapped- (LEOPARD GROANS) It's not really his day, is it? Some young leopards grow up to be brilliant opportunists.
But even they find life hard here in the Kalahari.
These bizarre little birds are baby ostriches.
They're just a few days old.
In time, they'll become superb desert survivors.
But in the Kalahari, these early days are perilous.
Like leopards and meerkats, adult ostriches can extract all the moisture they require from their food.
Their chicks, however, won't survive much more than another day without water.
But there's none in sight.
How can their parents conjure up water out here? The youngsters follow their parents as they head out onto a featureless wasteland.
It seems like a suicidal journey.
The Etosha Salt Pan.
Here, water is more often a mirage than reality.
It's now well over 40 degrees centigrade.
Their father shades his chicks from the midday sun.
Another mirage? No.
The ostrich family is not alone out here.
Surrounded by miles of sun-baked mud, sweet fresh water wells up from deep below ground like a miracle.
(EPIC INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) Although the ostrich parents have guided their chicks to water, there's still a problem.
Traffic.
(ELEPHANT TRUMPETS) Heavy traffic.
These tiny, fragile birds could easily be trampled underfoot.
The water is tantalisingly close.
Where prey gathers, predators are never far behind.
(GROWLING) (FAST-PACED INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) The brawling lions have unwittingly done the young ostriches a favour.
The water hole is now clear.
Sometimes, you need a bit of luck in life.
Their first-ever drink.
And just in time.
Their father's done his job.
A black rhinoceros, the Kalahari's most cantankerous resident.
They don't like company.
And they certainly don't like sharing a water hole with lions.
Fortunately, for everyone else, that is, they only visit twice a week.
The Kalahari is the black rhino's last stronghold.
And here, under the cover of darkness, at one secret and very special waterhole, rhino abandon their normally solitary life, and come from miles around to meet under the stars.
Using the latest starlight camera, we can reveal for the first time the rhino's true character.
This young female seems nervous.
She senses other rhinos close by.
A mother appears from the shadows with her calf.
Tentatively, they greet one another.
They may be ill-tempered by day, but now they become gentle and affectionate.
More and more arrive.
We had no idea that rhinos met to socialise and build friendships like this.
The young female has an admirer.
But she doesn't seem keen on him.
She's excited about something, OF SOMEONE.
Here comes a really big male.
This time she's much more welcoming.
Who would have thought that rhino could be so flirtatious? The first male tries to come between them.
Somehow or other, he's got a pair of antelope horns stuck on his nose.
It looks as if she's been won over by his eccentric style.
He leads her off, away from the party.
He may have style, but he's turning out to be something of a disappointment.
A girl can only put up with so much.
The only way she can get rid of him is to pretend she's asleep.
To see so many rhino in one place is a revelation.
And that's the power water has here, the power to bring together the greatest gathering of rhinos anywhere on Earth.
Spitzkoppe, an ancient volcano that towers above a plateau that is two billion years old.
This land has remained unchanged for longer than any other part of Africa.
Animals here have had a long time to find inventive solutions to the challenge of finding water.
Out on the open plains, life must await the chance arrival of rain.
(THUNDER RUMBLING) When it does fall, it has an extraordinary effect.
Each sporadic downpour may only last minutes, but it can bring life.
And in spectacular numbers.
Red-billed quelea.
They're the most numerous bird in the world.
In all, more than a billion live here in the Kalahari.
No one knows quite how, but they seem to have an extraordinary ability to locate the fall of rain and then instantly exploit the bonanza that follows.
These nomads now have just five weeks to find food, build a nest, and raise a brood.
But they're not alone.
The rains have also created a plague.
These are armoured ground crickets, giant insects with voracious appetites for meat.
With the quelea parents away feeding, their chicks are defenceless.
(SUSPENSEFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) The adults return.
But the cricket fights back, squirting its own foul-tasting blood into their eyes.
The cricket is still alive, but the stench of its blood attracts the attention of others.
Now it is the target.
These crickets become cannibals.
All too soon, the bonanza brought by the rain is over.
And the quelea head off in search of the next rare downpour.
The Kalahari is scarred by rivers that have long since run dry.
The water claimed by the thirsty land.
But it's not gone far.
Deep below lies a secret, one that was discovered only 25 years ago.
Humid air rushing to the surface, gives this place its name.
Dragon's Breath Cave.
The shaft descends for 60 metres until it meets water.
Here there is a massive chamber, big enough to swallow three jumbo jets nose to tail, filled with cool, fresh water.
The world's largest underground lake.
This is fossil water.
It's been trapped here undisturbed for thousands, if not millions of years.
We have no idea how deep the lake is.
Divers have been down to 100 metres and still there's no sign of the bottom.
Remarkably, Dragon's Breath is part of a vast cave system that extends beneath the Kalahari for thousands of miles.
Even here in this lonely cave, there is life.
Golden catfish, only found in this one cave.
They're the rarest and most isolated fish in the world.
Life down here is as challenging as it is in the desert above.
There's no food, except the debris that occasionally falls onto the surface.
And these catfish are totally blind.
The only world they know is the one that they sense through touch.
A blind fish living in perpetual darkness deep beneath one of the most arid regions of Africa.
Such cruel irony, so much water hidden away out of reach.
Along the Western edge of the Kalahari, the land becomes so dry, it seems impossible that any life could survive here.
The Namib.
A million square miles of sand, exquisitely sculpted by the wind.
This is the oldest desert in the world.
Respite comes from fog rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean.
It condenses into a few precious drops.
just enough to sustain life.
A pompilid wasp is searching the dunes.
She's not looking for a drink, but for somewhere moist to lay her egg.
How will she pull off a trick like that? The entrance to a burrow.
That's worth investigating.
She may be tiny, but once she decides to dig, she can shift extraordinary quantities of sand.
She's unearthed this spider for a grisly purpose.
It's so dry, the only place with enough moisture for her egg is within the body of another living thing.
First, she must paralyse her victim.
But then, the spider plays its trump card.
The aptly named golden wheel spider can cartwheel fast enough to escape its gruesome fate.
For the wasp, her near-impossible search goes on.
If it's hard enough for a tiny wasp to survive here in the Namib, how is it possible for a giant? A desert giraffe.
It's difficult to imagine how such a huge animal can live in a place with so little water.
This old male is at the very limit of his endurance.
The land may be bone dry, but there are signs that water once ï¬owed here.
The Hoanib, one of Namibia's rivers.
A river of sand.
The trees that line these sand rivers, send roots down over 30 metres to tap water that lies deep beneath the river bed.
These trees are the giraffe's salvation.
Even if he has to stretch to his very tallest to get a mouthful.
Even on tiptoe, he still needs a half-metre-long tongue to reach the leaves he so badly needs.
He's ruled this stretch of the Hoanib for over a decade.
And this prime territory is attracting females.
He waits confidently for her.
But they've got company, a young male.
The old bull won't tolerate a rival.
Pushing and shoving, they size each other up.
The young rival seems to think he has a chance and attacks.
The first few blows usually settle things in such battles, but here the stakes are high.
To lose means exile in the desert.
Neither will back down.
As the fight intensifies, they change tactics.
The young male aims for the rump.
The old bull targets his rival's legs.
The old bull is down.
Is this the end of his reign? He knows a knockout blow is coming.
But the old bull ducks, and strikes a blow to his rival's underbelly.
Out for the count.
The old bull is victorious, but only just.
The sand river remains his to rule.
It's a river that is about to be transformed.
Under clear blue skies, water floods down the Hoanib.
The welcome consequence of rain that fell hundreds of miles away.
The water may only ï¬ow for a matter of hours, but this miraculous ï¬ood is enough to provide a lifeline for the trees, and the giraffes of the Hoanib river.
It's what makes this place worth fighting for.
Here, fossil lakes, secret water holes, desert fog, and ephemeral rivers like this provide just enough water for life to get by, no matter how tough it gets.
It's hard to find more inventive solutions to staying alive than in this, the most ancient corner of Africa.
For four years, the Africa team searched the continent for new and surprising stories.
Not only of strange and unfamiliar creatures, but also of some we think we know.
Veteran wildlife cameraman Martyn Colbeck took on the challenge of shedding new light on the life of Namibia's desert giraffe.
I jumped at the opportunity of working with an animal that I hadn't really spent much time with.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Straight away, they proved to be quite an eye-opener.
COLBECK'.
They're very bizarre-looking animals.
We just kept looking at them from different angles.
And they looked even weirder.
The combination of weird close-ups, the beautiful landscape they're in They're amusing.
I got really attached to them, actually.
Overlying all this, we were always waiting for a fight.
But to see a full-blooded fight is very rare.
So, the only way that we were going to see it is if we stuck at it day after day, every day, for 30 days.
We were lucky enough that we found a male guarding a female.
And, out of nowhere, this male came round the corner.
And almost immediately faced up to our male.
Absolutely no warning that this was going to happen so it was complete pandemonium in the car.
But luckily, I got the camera up and running in time to actually capture this fight.
And it all came down to one minute in real time.
When I filmed it, you don't see it in slow-motion.
And you just have to go with the ï¬ow.
You're not experiencing the fight.
You're just framing it and capturing it.
So it was only afterwards, when we looked at it in slow-motion that you could really understand how ferocious it was.
You can see the impact on the skin.
You see ripples going through the flesh.
ATTENBOROUGH".
But it was the final blows that delivered the real surprise.
It was like one of those chimneys falling down.
At the last moment, the head just went clunk.
And we thought it was dead.
We thought this thing was dead.
And it lay there for, it must have been three minutes.
Eventually, this thing suddenly got up.
The one that was lying down.
And the two of them were then standing.
And the one that had been knocked over completely then just said, "I've had enough.
"Okay.
Okay, you won.
And I'm off.
" I think it's very unlikely I'm going to see anything like that again.
I think that's a once-in-a-lifetimer, I really do.
ATTENBOROUGH".
It won't be easy to look at giraffes in the same way again.
On the other side of the desert, another of Africa's great animal icons was attracting the attention of the team as they staked out a secret water hole.
They hoped to reveal a very different side to the personality of the black rhinoceros.
The team have heard that at night rhinos behave a little strangely.
A specially-built starlight camera would allow the team to pierce the darkness.
BLAKENEY".
It's amazing.
That's filming something we can't even see.
EVANS: Yeah, if you look out there now Yeah, it's just black, isn't it? But through this, it looks as sharp as day.
ATFEN BOROUGH: Rhinos are notoriously antisocial.
Yet here they come to revel in each other's company.
EVANS: This is amazing.
This is such intimate behaviour, which you could only see filming them at night like this.
It's incredible.
ATFEN BOROUGH: But it wasn't just cameras that would show a new side to rhinos.
By concealing tiny radio microphones around the water hole, the crew hoped to eavesdrop on the night's activity.
(RHINOS HOWL) (RHINOS GROWL) (RHINOS HOWL) ATFEN BOROUGH: And what they heard was astonishing.
(RHINOS GROWL) BREHEM".
They're really talkative.
They really are having a good chat.
(RHINOS GROWL) These guys are far more communicative than elephants even.
It's just going on and on.
Chatting or whatever.
(RHINOS GROWL) (RHINOS HOWL) It's a beautiful, crystal clear night.
So you've got beautiful, starry shots, loads of amazing noise.
They're all puffing and huffing.
(RHINOS GROWL) It's about 2:00 in the morning.
We have one rhino left out there.
The rest have gone to bed, but he's decided to lie down on the radio mic.
ATTENBOROUGH".
The crew prepared for one more night at the water hole under the full moon.
EVANS: It seems that they're not really here for the water.
But more to socialise.
A bit like going out for the evening.
He's got some kudu horns on his face, draped over his nose.
(LAUGHS QUIETLY) BLAKENEY: It's on camera, too.
(EVANS LAUGHS) ATTENBOROUGH".
These images have a particular poignancy in a world where rhino horn is worth more than its weight in gold.
Poaching is going through a really bad time right now in southern Africa.
If you average it out, a rhino has been killed every day for the last year.
That's really serious poaching.
It's a huge concern that what we saw and filmed just won't happen again, ever.
ATTENBOROUGH".
It's only now that technology has revealed a new side to the rhino's personality.
(RHINOS SNORT) The black rhinoceros is a symbol of the African bush.
But it seems that this creature has been long misunderstood.
For the Africa team, revealing giraffes and rhinos in this new light was just the beginning.
Africa may be a continent we think we know, but it's still full of surprises.
(MOANING) (WHIRRING BLADES) I'm flying over the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.
And below me is a landscape in turmoil, torn apart by the twisting and buckling of the Earth's crust.
It's also a landscape of huge and unpredictable change that forces animals day by day, season by season, to gamble with their lives.
But for those who win, this is one of the most fertile landscapes on Earth.
(RUMBLING) (HISSING) ATTENBOROUGH".
Nyiragongo, the largest lava lake in the world.
Bubbling up from nearly 10 miles beneath the surface.
Nowhere takes you closer to the fiery heart of the planet.
Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most active volcanoes in Africa.
Its eruptions can be seen from space.
As magma churns below the Earth's crust, the land to the east of here is being torn apart.
(LOUD RUMBLING) Volcanoes like this are continually changing the face of Eastern Africa.
The volcanoes here may have a violent side, but life ï¬ows from these infernos.
Fertile ash from countless eruptions carpets the land, creating the ideal conditions for grasses to ï¬ourish on an immense scale.
And with the grasses, come animals in numbers found nowhere else on Earth.
Wildebeest.
Nothing stands in their way.
(BELLOWING) All this just to reach fresh grass.
(WILDEBEEST GRUNTING) The ever-travelling herds are only one element of life here.
Look closer and there are new stories to tell.
Living on the savannah is about making most of the hand the landscape deals you.
But here it's always a gamble.
Everything may change tomorrow.
From their vantage point, agama lizards wait for the arrival of the herds, ready to seize their moment.
It's pay day- Over a million wildebeest on their doorstep.
And with the wildebeest come ï¬ying insects.
Billions of them.
Food, if only they could catch them.
Time for a rethink.
This agama lizard has spotted an opportunity.
Only one thing attracts more flies than the wildebeest.
Lions that have eaten wildebeest.
Lions are famously-bad tempered.
They could swat the lizard like the flies he's hoping to ambush.
He will need to pick his target carefully.
Not her.
Or her.
Maybe.
But no.
(SOFT GROWL) To be within striking distance, he's got to hold his nerve.
Got one.
Now, he's getting his eye in.
But this might be a bit ambitious.
(LOW GROWLING) It may take courage to hunt on the back of a lion.
(LION GROWLS SOFTLY) But it takes sense to know when to run away.
The wildebeest won't stay for long.
And when they leave, most of the flies will follow.
Change is everywhere in East Africa.
This grassland was once covered by a forest that ran unbroken from west coast to east coast.
Today, high above the plains, swirling clouds hide mountains that tower three miles into the sky.
These frozen summits now form part of a mountainous barrier separating the ancient jungles in the west from the savannahs of the east.
Up here lies the largest glacier in Africa, just a few miles north of the equator.
These are the legendary Mountains of the Moon.
The height of these peaks means they create their own weather.
The local name for these mountains is Ruwenzori, "the rainmaker.
" (DRIPPING SOUNDS) Meltwater ï¬ows down from the glaciers.
Ana' on the lower slopes, all this water supports thick jungle.
(BIRDS SINGING) Remnants of the dense, steamy forests that once dominated the whole of East Africa.
But driven by a drying climate beyond the mountains, the forests began to wither away.
Today, only small pockets of upland jungle remain, home to animals who once roamed the ancient forests.
The largest living primates on Earth.
(GRUNTING SOFTLY) Mountain gorillas.
(GROWLING SOFTLY) (BABY GO RI ILA CHATTERS) (SQUEALING) This little one's ancestors have lived in forests like these for millions of years.
But all around, the world has changed to swamp and savannah.
This is the furthest these mighty giants now venture into Eastern Africa.
They're marooned on their islands in the African sky.
(WATER FLOWING) Below the highlands, vast wetlands cut swathes through the open savannah.
Bangweulu Swamp is huge.
Its name means "where the water meets the sky.
" Hidden amongst this maze of waterways is a creature like no other.
A giant prehistoric-looking bird.
A shoebill.
Standing well over a metre tall, she roams these swamps trying to catch catfish.
Not exactly what she was after.
Deeper into the swamp lies the reason for all this fishing.
This chick is just three weeks old, and a little bit wobbly on its feet.
Its vast bill means it has trouble balancing.
It won't be able to fly or even walk properly for several weeks.
It's entirely reliant on its parents for food and water.
There is also a smaller chick, who isn't doing so well.
The larger chick pesters its mother for a drink.
While she goes off to fetch water, it reveals a dark side to the relationship with its nest mate.
It's three days older than the other chick and has always won the race for food and attention.
This is more than just a scrap between two siblings.
As the mother returns, she sees what the larger chick has done.
The smaller chick seeks its mother's comfort.
But she has already made her choice.
Only her first born will get to drink.
Shoebills very rarely raise more than one chick.
The younger chick was only ever an insurance, in case the elder didn't make it.
Now it's old enough, the adults know that they're better off putting all their efforts into bringing up just one fit and healthy youngster.
The swamps changing water levels mean fishing is too unpredictable for them to gamble on trying to raise two chicks.
Nothing here stays the same for long.
This is the time of year when Eastern Africa is beginning to dry.
The rivers and waterholes are shrinking.
(GRUNTING) The land continues to dry out.
Tensions rise.
(ROARING) Hippos seek what relief they can.
(SNORTING) This time of relentless drying is also when another force of change ravages the land.
(ROARING AND CRASHING) Without warning, fires rip through these tinder-dry plains.
The flames sweep across the savannah at 50 miles an hour, reaching temperatures of nearly 7, 000 degrees, consuming everything in their path.
Each year, an area larger than Britain goes up in smoke.
But this destruction can bring opportunity, if you're prepared to take a risk.
(LOUD CHIRPING) Drongos, bee-eaters and rollers bravely pluck fleeing insects from amongst the flames.
There's little better than a char-grilled grasshopper.
These fires may appear devastating but they are, in fact, part of a natural cycle that is essential for the regeneration of East Africa's grasslands.
But sometimes the cycle is broken, just when a change is most needed.
Here, on the plains of Amboseli, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, the seasonal rains have failed for the last two years.
And this year, they are already long overdue.
It's the hardest drought for half a century.
(BELLOWING) Amboseli is usually a haven for elephants.
These plains should be green and covered with grass.
Now, there is nothing but dust.
This family is forced to travel constantly, searching for anything they can eat.
The young must keep up.
Sometimes, there's not even time to suckle.
(CALF WAILS) With the grass gone, all the elephants can scratch from the dust is withered twigs.
The adults might just survive on this, but it will not support a calf for long.
Every mother in the herd is struggling to provide milk for her calf.
The search for food is increasingly urgent.
As the herd moves on, this female faces a terrible choice.
To carry on with her family or stay behind with her calf, who's becoming too weak to even stand.
They will soon be out of sight.
But her instinct is to stay.
She won't abandon her baby.
(CALF WHIMPERS) (GROANING) (BELLOWING SOFTLY) (WHIMPERING SOFTLY) ATFEN BOROUGH: With the calf's last breath, she knows that her battle is lost.
(SNORTING) (BELLOWING) ATTENBOROUGH".
There are places even more hostile than the dust-choked plains.
These alien landscapes are actually the sun-baked salt crusts of a chain of lakes that run through East Africa.
The face of these soda lakes changes day by day as the sun evaporates the water, leaving the salts behind.
The waters here are toxic, poisoned by volcanic springs.
But life does exist, even here.
The strange colours are created by algae specially adapted to live in this corrosive liquid.
And it is these algae that attract one of the most astonishing animals found in East Africa.
(SQUAWKING) (SPLASHING) Among the steaming geysers of Lake Bogoria, over a million Lesser flamingos bathe and feed in the caustic water.
They gather whenever the algae bloom.
These huge numbers create one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth.
Almost all the world's Lesser flamingos live on this chain of lakes, moving from one lake to another as the amount of algae in each changes.
All along the lake shore, volcanic vents are a reminder of the forces that continue to change this land.
And a streak of colour on the horizon signals that relief for the parched plains is on its way.
(CLOUDS THUNDERING) At last, countless storms drench the thirsty ground.
Rain changes everything yet again.
(LOUD THUNDER) A crowned eagle has been desperately waiting for what she hopes the rain will bring.
(CHIRPING) Food for her hungry chick.
Nesting here has been her biggest gamble.
A chick's life depends on the arrival of creatures from the far rainforests of the Congo.
(THUNDER) Her wait will soon be over.
The largest mammal migration in Africa is on the move.
(SQUEAKING) 10 million fruit bats are drawn to this tiny forest on the edge of the eastern savannah.
The bats flock here to gorge themselves on fruit.
(LOUD FLUTTERING OF WINGS) It's what the crowned eagle and her chick have been waiting for.
But they're not alone.
Other eagles have flown in from miles around.
Fish eagles, martial eagles, and they're all after the bats.
(LOUD SQUEAKING) The gamble the crowned eagle took months ago by nesting here has paid off.
She is the only eagle to actually nest in this forest.
The only one who took the risk to breed here well before the trees came into fruit and the bats ï¬ooded in.
(CHIRPING) She only breeds once every two years, so her timing must be perfect.
In a few months, the bats will leave, but her gamble means her chick will have the best possible start in life.
These grasslands have been grazed and burned and have endured the harshest drought in generations.
But with the rains, they're beginning to recover.
(GRUNTING) (GRUNTING) (SQUEAKING) And on the once dust-choked plains of Amboseli there is a return to the good times.
The drought here killed hundreds of elephants, but the survivors are now returning home.
And with them, there's a surprise.
(SQUEAKING) A newborn.
(TRUMPETING) (BLEATING) Surrounded by food, the youngster can concentrate on more important things.
Like chasing egrets.
(BLEATING) (CLUCKING) (LOW ROARING) The bulls also return.
(GROWLING) (BOTH GROWLING) This bull has waited many years for his chance to father the next generation.
Now, he must fight his way to the top.
But his rival is massive.
Each of their heads weighs as much as a car.
(LOUD ROARING) They have been duelling for days.
(BELLOWING) Now, in its third day, the contest is reaching a climax.
(LOUD BELLOW) Soon, one will be forced to concede.
The power of these clashes can even shatter tusks.
(CRUSHING) (BELLOWING) Three days of battle is at an end.
(LOW GROWLING) The victor has won the right to the females.
The process to replace what the drought took away has begun.
(BLEATING) Soon, the elephants will be at full strength again.
(LOW GROANING) Every day the animals of Eastern Africa gamble with their lives.
But despite the continual changes they face, their extraordinary adaptability just tips the odds of survival in their favour.
East Africa may seem very cruel, but there's nowhere else that provides such rich opportunities for those that are prepared to take them.
And in the end, it was these ever-changing savannahs that produced the most adaptable species of all, ourselves.
(ENGINE STARTING) ATTENBOROUGH".
Filming in East Africa would take the team on both a physical and emotional journey through the extremes of this landscape.
(WIND HOWLING) These are the legendary Mountains of the Moon, towering over 5, 000 metres into the African sky.
just miles from the Equator, they're the highest mountain range on the continent and home to the largest glacier in Africa.
To reach the summit, the team had to travel on foot, the same way as climbers did when they first reached the top just over 100 years ago.
It would take more than two weeks, climbing over 3, 000 metres from the valleys below.
Six days into their trek, still well below the summits, the team come to realise why Ruwenzori, the mountains' other name, means "the rainmakers".
just after we set off it started raining, then it started hailing, um, and the idea had been that we'd stop here for an hour or two and do some shots, but as you can probably see, there's not a great deal of view.
Brilliant shots of rain and hail and fog.
Beyond that, we're pretty stuffed.
So, it's becoming a bit of a theme.
ATTENBOROUGH".
For the crew and over 75 guides and helpers, it's hard going carrying nearly a ton of kit through the marshy valleys.
Mud.
Mud.
There's a little bit more mud.
ATTENBOROUGH".
But it's not just the bogs they have to deal with.
There was a fairly small but slightly disconcerting earthquake last night, so, let's hope we don't get any of those below any rocks.
ATTENBOROUGH".
The team continue to climb and before long, the rain turns to snow.
They eventually arrive at the highest hut, surrounded by ice and nearly three miles up.
This will be base camp for the crew.
BLAKENEY: We've got a kitchen over there.
Um, over there down a really treacherous precipice is the toilet, which is just a shack with a big hole in the floor.
(HOWLING WIND) ATTENBOROUGH".
From here, they'll make the hardest part of the ascent right up to the glaciers.
Well, this is, believe it or not, one of the better viewpoints.
So we're gonna hang around here for a little while, to wait till the fog clears.
ATTENBOROUGH: But the weather isn't on their side.
So much for hoping the weather was going to get better.
All that optimism now seems completely ill-founded.
ATFEN BOROUGH: With the storm clouds closing in, the team are forced to retreat.
(LOUD THUNDER) This enormous weather front's come in, as is entirely unusual.
We were just coming down as the thunder bursts around us.
So just trying to get back and go and get inside the hut and hopefully weather it out.
ATTENBOROUGH".
After days of climbing and finding the peaks hidden by fog, filming the summits is looking increasingly impossible.
BLAKENEY".
It can be pretty frustrating at times.
The group of, maybe, 70 people that we've involved with doing this directly and you get all the way up here and then, and then we can't film anything because of the weather.
So, it is just a matter of sitting it out and waiting.
And you have to sort of hope that things come right in the end.
ATTENBOROUGH".
The rainmakers are certainly living up to their name.
But by complete contrast, other parts of East Africa were gripped by drought.
At the beginning of the production, Mark Deeble travelled to Amboseli, just a few hundred miles from the Ruwenzoris, to film the plight of the animals there.
Well, I've never seen anything quite as bad as that drought.
When we talked to some of the Maasai elders, they said it was the worst drought they'd seen in 50 years.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Amboseli is famous for its huge herds of elephant, but the drought had dispersed them far and wide.
Those that remained were struggling to find what little food was left.
When we first saw the group, we could tell instantly that they They were in a really serious condition.
DEEBLE: They were thin and obviously starving.
(LOW GROWLING) ATTENBOROUGH".
Mark knew that many of the calves would not survive.
Although desperately painful to witness, nothing would convey the cruel power of the drought more than this mother's struggle to keep her baby alive.
DEEBLE: The thing about filming a situation like that, you know, when an elephant calf dies, is that when you're actually filming it you're so caught up in the moment.
(GROANING) But it was only after filming, when I put the camera away and I looked there and there was this dead calf and the mother standing there, grieving, that the full impact of what I'd just filmed hit me.
People often say to me, you know, "Could you not have intervened in a situation like that?" There are times when you can help.
But in that time in Kenya there was no food available.
Now, you have to also consider the mother.
If we'd gone in there and tried to take the calf away, it would've been absolute mayhem.
She'd have got incredibly stressed and that would probably have jeopardised her survival.
(SNORTING) In that particular situation, when everything around us was dying, there was absolutely nothing we could do to help that young elephant.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Although too late to save the calf, a few months later, the rains did finally return.
DEEBLE: When we returned it was amazing.
It was lush and green again.
And the elephants, in the rains, they all tend to come together.
So it was like all of these groups which had been dispersed, which had been just somehow coping on their own, all got back together again.
It was almost a sort of festival type atmosphere.
(BELLOWING) That was when, essentially, they come together, they mate, and then after that lots of young calves being born.
ATFEN BOROUGH: Since the end of the drought, over 220 calves have been born in Amboseli, and that number is still rising.
It's the biggest elephant baby boom on record.
DEEBLE: I think what's lovely to see in that situation is that, having Having been through such a terrible drought, to see the way in which, you know, if you let things alone they do have incredible capacity to bounce back.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Back in the mountains, and several failed ascents later, the team were still battling through the white-out.
They try one last time.
MAGUIRE: There's cloud below us and cloud above us.
It somehow seems slightly, like we're heading nowhere, slowly.
ATFEN BOROUGH: Then, as they reach the top, finally the clouds begin to part.
It's absolute magic here.
We've just come through the densest, densest cloud, having absolutely no idea what's surrounding us.
The past few days have just been rain and cloud and rain and cloud.
And, as if by magic, there's the most spectacular view of ice and glaciers and mountains that you just wouldn't think was on the Equator.
It's just amazing.
MAGUIRE: It's the most spectacular mountain scenery I've seen.
And to think it's in Africa is just mind-boggling.
ATTENBOROUGH".
These mysterious mountains have finally unveiled their secrets.
And on the plains beyond, the elephants have returned to their home.
Despite having been explored by filmmakers for over a century, East Africa still has the power to enchant and surprise us all.
The world's greatest wilderness.
The only place on Earth to see the full majesty of nature.
(ELEPHANT GROWLS) There's so much more here than we ever imagined.
I'm standing where the equator cuts right across the middle of the continent.
To the north of me, there's an immense desert the size of the United States of America.
To the west, a vast rainforest, the size of India.
And behind me, for thousands of miles, the most fertile savannahs in the world.
From the roof of Africa to the deepest jungle, rarely seen places and untold stories.
There's nowhere in the world where wildlife puts on a greater show.
This is the last place on Earth where you can come eye to eye with the greatest animals that walk our planet.
This is Africa.
Our journey starts in the far southwest in the oldest and strangest corner of the continent.
Here, the thirsty land is covered with thousands upon thousands of circles.
We still don't know their origins.
Poisonous plants, foraging insects and even magnetism have all been suggested.
But each ruled out.
The circles don't move and their shape never varies.
They're unchanging, much like this part of Africa itself.
Ancient and arid, it almost never rains on this land.
Yet there is water here, hidden away.
To survive here, life must use every trick in the book.
Winter.
Dawn temperatures can fall well below freezing.
(CHIRPING URGENTLY) And that's a problem for this drongo.
It's too cold for his normal prey, flying insects.
But he has a plan.
The drongo is the Kalahari's greatest trickster.
And these are his victims.
A family of meerkats, desert specialists.
After warming up in the morning sun, the meerkats begin their search for breakfast.
The drongo can now begin his tricks.
But he must first win the confidence of his victims.
He spots an eagle on the hunt and sounds a warning.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) One that sends the meerkats gratefully scurrying to safety.
Danger over.
And now, he has their trust.
He sounds another warning.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) But this time, it's a false alarm.
Thank you very much.
The meerkats fell for it.
(GROWLING) This all seems too easy.
He tries the same trick again.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) But the meerkats aren't stupid.
They'll only fall for it once.
(GROANS) The juicy scorpion won't be for him.
Then suddenly, the sound of a sentry's warning.
No meerkat can ignore that.
Sentries never lie.
But the sentry sees no danger.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) Guess who? Of course, it's the drongo.
He's learned to mimic the meerkats' own warning call.
And now he can enjoy his prize.
A gang of meerkats, outsmarted by a bird.
The drongo is only deceitful in the hardest winter months.
For the rest of the year, he provides honest protection.
So, in the long run, the meerkat family profit as well as the drongo.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) It's a much harder life if you haven't yet learned the tricks of your trade.
(CHIRPS A WARNING) This young leopard is just a year old and at a critical point in his life.
His mother has battled to raise her two cubs, but finding enough food for them is now beyond her.
From today, he'll have to fend for himself.
Kalahari means "land of great thirst".
Prey is scarce.
Of all the leopards in Africa, these have to be the most resourceful.
A big warthog, potential prey but armed and dangerous.
His mother tried to tackle one but it nearly killed her.
He spots something more promising.
A steenbok.
That's more like it.
He won't strike unless he can get to within just four metres, and without making the slightest sound.
(JACKAL WARNING CALL) A jackal barks an alarm.
But the steenbok still has no idea it's being stalked.
The nearer he gets, the quieter he must be.
He's blown it.
A good opportunity like that won't come around very often.
Hungry and thirsty, he heads back home, and spots a kill stashed in a tree, almost certainly by his own mother.
And like any teenager, he thinks nothing of raiding her larder.
Booby-trapped- (LEOPARD GROANS) It's not really his day, is it? Some young leopards grow up to be brilliant opportunists.
But even they find life hard here in the Kalahari.
These bizarre little birds are baby ostriches.
They're just a few days old.
In time, they'll become superb desert survivors.
But in the Kalahari, these early days are perilous.
Like leopards and meerkats, adult ostriches can extract all the moisture they require from their food.
Their chicks, however, won't survive much more than another day without water.
But there's none in sight.
How can their parents conjure up water out here? The youngsters follow their parents as they head out onto a featureless wasteland.
It seems like a suicidal journey.
The Etosha Salt Pan.
Here, water is more often a mirage than reality.
It's now well over 40 degrees centigrade.
Their father shades his chicks from the midday sun.
Another mirage? No.
The ostrich family is not alone out here.
Surrounded by miles of sun-baked mud, sweet fresh water wells up from deep below ground like a miracle.
(EPIC INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) Although the ostrich parents have guided their chicks to water, there's still a problem.
Traffic.
(ELEPHANT TRUMPETS) Heavy traffic.
These tiny, fragile birds could easily be trampled underfoot.
The water is tantalisingly close.
Where prey gathers, predators are never far behind.
(GROWLING) (FAST-PACED INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) The brawling lions have unwittingly done the young ostriches a favour.
The water hole is now clear.
Sometimes, you need a bit of luck in life.
Their first-ever drink.
And just in time.
Their father's done his job.
A black rhinoceros, the Kalahari's most cantankerous resident.
They don't like company.
And they certainly don't like sharing a water hole with lions.
Fortunately, for everyone else, that is, they only visit twice a week.
The Kalahari is the black rhino's last stronghold.
And here, under the cover of darkness, at one secret and very special waterhole, rhino abandon their normally solitary life, and come from miles around to meet under the stars.
Using the latest starlight camera, we can reveal for the first time the rhino's true character.
This young female seems nervous.
She senses other rhinos close by.
A mother appears from the shadows with her calf.
Tentatively, they greet one another.
They may be ill-tempered by day, but now they become gentle and affectionate.
More and more arrive.
We had no idea that rhinos met to socialise and build friendships like this.
The young female has an admirer.
But she doesn't seem keen on him.
She's excited about something, OF SOMEONE.
Here comes a really big male.
This time she's much more welcoming.
Who would have thought that rhino could be so flirtatious? The first male tries to come between them.
Somehow or other, he's got a pair of antelope horns stuck on his nose.
It looks as if she's been won over by his eccentric style.
He leads her off, away from the party.
He may have style, but he's turning out to be something of a disappointment.
A girl can only put up with so much.
The only way she can get rid of him is to pretend she's asleep.
To see so many rhino in one place is a revelation.
And that's the power water has here, the power to bring together the greatest gathering of rhinos anywhere on Earth.
Spitzkoppe, an ancient volcano that towers above a plateau that is two billion years old.
This land has remained unchanged for longer than any other part of Africa.
Animals here have had a long time to find inventive solutions to the challenge of finding water.
Out on the open plains, life must await the chance arrival of rain.
(THUNDER RUMBLING) When it does fall, it has an extraordinary effect.
Each sporadic downpour may only last minutes, but it can bring life.
And in spectacular numbers.
Red-billed quelea.
They're the most numerous bird in the world.
In all, more than a billion live here in the Kalahari.
No one knows quite how, but they seem to have an extraordinary ability to locate the fall of rain and then instantly exploit the bonanza that follows.
These nomads now have just five weeks to find food, build a nest, and raise a brood.
But they're not alone.
The rains have also created a plague.
These are armoured ground crickets, giant insects with voracious appetites for meat.
With the quelea parents away feeding, their chicks are defenceless.
(SUSPENSEFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) The adults return.
But the cricket fights back, squirting its own foul-tasting blood into their eyes.
The cricket is still alive, but the stench of its blood attracts the attention of others.
Now it is the target.
These crickets become cannibals.
All too soon, the bonanza brought by the rain is over.
And the quelea head off in search of the next rare downpour.
The Kalahari is scarred by rivers that have long since run dry.
The water claimed by the thirsty land.
But it's not gone far.
Deep below lies a secret, one that was discovered only 25 years ago.
Humid air rushing to the surface, gives this place its name.
Dragon's Breath Cave.
The shaft descends for 60 metres until it meets water.
Here there is a massive chamber, big enough to swallow three jumbo jets nose to tail, filled with cool, fresh water.
The world's largest underground lake.
This is fossil water.
It's been trapped here undisturbed for thousands, if not millions of years.
We have no idea how deep the lake is.
Divers have been down to 100 metres and still there's no sign of the bottom.
Remarkably, Dragon's Breath is part of a vast cave system that extends beneath the Kalahari for thousands of miles.
Even here in this lonely cave, there is life.
Golden catfish, only found in this one cave.
They're the rarest and most isolated fish in the world.
Life down here is as challenging as it is in the desert above.
There's no food, except the debris that occasionally falls onto the surface.
And these catfish are totally blind.
The only world they know is the one that they sense through touch.
A blind fish living in perpetual darkness deep beneath one of the most arid regions of Africa.
Such cruel irony, so much water hidden away out of reach.
Along the Western edge of the Kalahari, the land becomes so dry, it seems impossible that any life could survive here.
The Namib.
A million square miles of sand, exquisitely sculpted by the wind.
This is the oldest desert in the world.
Respite comes from fog rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean.
It condenses into a few precious drops.
just enough to sustain life.
A pompilid wasp is searching the dunes.
She's not looking for a drink, but for somewhere moist to lay her egg.
How will she pull off a trick like that? The entrance to a burrow.
That's worth investigating.
She may be tiny, but once she decides to dig, she can shift extraordinary quantities of sand.
She's unearthed this spider for a grisly purpose.
It's so dry, the only place with enough moisture for her egg is within the body of another living thing.
First, she must paralyse her victim.
But then, the spider plays its trump card.
The aptly named golden wheel spider can cartwheel fast enough to escape its gruesome fate.
For the wasp, her near-impossible search goes on.
If it's hard enough for a tiny wasp to survive here in the Namib, how is it possible for a giant? A desert giraffe.
It's difficult to imagine how such a huge animal can live in a place with so little water.
This old male is at the very limit of his endurance.
The land may be bone dry, but there are signs that water once ï¬owed here.
The Hoanib, one of Namibia's rivers.
A river of sand.
The trees that line these sand rivers, send roots down over 30 metres to tap water that lies deep beneath the river bed.
These trees are the giraffe's salvation.
Even if he has to stretch to his very tallest to get a mouthful.
Even on tiptoe, he still needs a half-metre-long tongue to reach the leaves he so badly needs.
He's ruled this stretch of the Hoanib for over a decade.
And this prime territory is attracting females.
He waits confidently for her.
But they've got company, a young male.
The old bull won't tolerate a rival.
Pushing and shoving, they size each other up.
The young rival seems to think he has a chance and attacks.
The first few blows usually settle things in such battles, but here the stakes are high.
To lose means exile in the desert.
Neither will back down.
As the fight intensifies, they change tactics.
The young male aims for the rump.
The old bull targets his rival's legs.
The old bull is down.
Is this the end of his reign? He knows a knockout blow is coming.
But the old bull ducks, and strikes a blow to his rival's underbelly.
Out for the count.
The old bull is victorious, but only just.
The sand river remains his to rule.
It's a river that is about to be transformed.
Under clear blue skies, water floods down the Hoanib.
The welcome consequence of rain that fell hundreds of miles away.
The water may only ï¬ow for a matter of hours, but this miraculous ï¬ood is enough to provide a lifeline for the trees, and the giraffes of the Hoanib river.
It's what makes this place worth fighting for.
Here, fossil lakes, secret water holes, desert fog, and ephemeral rivers like this provide just enough water for life to get by, no matter how tough it gets.
It's hard to find more inventive solutions to staying alive than in this, the most ancient corner of Africa.
For four years, the Africa team searched the continent for new and surprising stories.
Not only of strange and unfamiliar creatures, but also of some we think we know.
Veteran wildlife cameraman Martyn Colbeck took on the challenge of shedding new light on the life of Namibia's desert giraffe.
I jumped at the opportunity of working with an animal that I hadn't really spent much time with.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Straight away, they proved to be quite an eye-opener.
COLBECK'.
They're very bizarre-looking animals.
We just kept looking at them from different angles.
And they looked even weirder.
The combination of weird close-ups, the beautiful landscape they're in They're amusing.
I got really attached to them, actually.
Overlying all this, we were always waiting for a fight.
But to see a full-blooded fight is very rare.
So, the only way that we were going to see it is if we stuck at it day after day, every day, for 30 days.
We were lucky enough that we found a male guarding a female.
And, out of nowhere, this male came round the corner.
And almost immediately faced up to our male.
Absolutely no warning that this was going to happen so it was complete pandemonium in the car.
But luckily, I got the camera up and running in time to actually capture this fight.
And it all came down to one minute in real time.
When I filmed it, you don't see it in slow-motion.
And you just have to go with the ï¬ow.
You're not experiencing the fight.
You're just framing it and capturing it.
So it was only afterwards, when we looked at it in slow-motion that you could really understand how ferocious it was.
You can see the impact on the skin.
You see ripples going through the flesh.
ATTENBOROUGH".
But it was the final blows that delivered the real surprise.
It was like one of those chimneys falling down.
At the last moment, the head just went clunk.
And we thought it was dead.
We thought this thing was dead.
And it lay there for, it must have been three minutes.
Eventually, this thing suddenly got up.
The one that was lying down.
And the two of them were then standing.
And the one that had been knocked over completely then just said, "I've had enough.
"Okay.
Okay, you won.
And I'm off.
" I think it's very unlikely I'm going to see anything like that again.
I think that's a once-in-a-lifetimer, I really do.
ATTENBOROUGH".
It won't be easy to look at giraffes in the same way again.
On the other side of the desert, another of Africa's great animal icons was attracting the attention of the team as they staked out a secret water hole.
They hoped to reveal a very different side to the personality of the black rhinoceros.
The team have heard that at night rhinos behave a little strangely.
A specially-built starlight camera would allow the team to pierce the darkness.
BLAKENEY".
It's amazing.
That's filming something we can't even see.
EVANS: Yeah, if you look out there now Yeah, it's just black, isn't it? But through this, it looks as sharp as day.
ATFEN BOROUGH: Rhinos are notoriously antisocial.
Yet here they come to revel in each other's company.
EVANS: This is amazing.
This is such intimate behaviour, which you could only see filming them at night like this.
It's incredible.
ATFEN BOROUGH: But it wasn't just cameras that would show a new side to rhinos.
By concealing tiny radio microphones around the water hole, the crew hoped to eavesdrop on the night's activity.
(RHINOS HOWL) (RHINOS GROWL) (RHINOS HOWL) ATFEN BOROUGH: And what they heard was astonishing.
(RHINOS GROWL) BREHEM".
They're really talkative.
They really are having a good chat.
(RHINOS GROWL) These guys are far more communicative than elephants even.
It's just going on and on.
Chatting or whatever.
(RHINOS GROWL) (RHINOS HOWL) It's a beautiful, crystal clear night.
So you've got beautiful, starry shots, loads of amazing noise.
They're all puffing and huffing.
(RHINOS GROWL) It's about 2:00 in the morning.
We have one rhino left out there.
The rest have gone to bed, but he's decided to lie down on the radio mic.
ATTENBOROUGH".
The crew prepared for one more night at the water hole under the full moon.
EVANS: It seems that they're not really here for the water.
But more to socialise.
A bit like going out for the evening.
He's got some kudu horns on his face, draped over his nose.
(LAUGHS QUIETLY) BLAKENEY: It's on camera, too.
(EVANS LAUGHS) ATTENBOROUGH".
These images have a particular poignancy in a world where rhino horn is worth more than its weight in gold.
Poaching is going through a really bad time right now in southern Africa.
If you average it out, a rhino has been killed every day for the last year.
That's really serious poaching.
It's a huge concern that what we saw and filmed just won't happen again, ever.
ATTENBOROUGH".
It's only now that technology has revealed a new side to the rhino's personality.
(RHINOS SNORT) The black rhinoceros is a symbol of the African bush.
But it seems that this creature has been long misunderstood.
For the Africa team, revealing giraffes and rhinos in this new light was just the beginning.
Africa may be a continent we think we know, but it's still full of surprises.
(MOANING) (WHIRRING BLADES) I'm flying over the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.
And below me is a landscape in turmoil, torn apart by the twisting and buckling of the Earth's crust.
It's also a landscape of huge and unpredictable change that forces animals day by day, season by season, to gamble with their lives.
But for those who win, this is one of the most fertile landscapes on Earth.
(RUMBLING) (HISSING) ATTENBOROUGH".
Nyiragongo, the largest lava lake in the world.
Bubbling up from nearly 10 miles beneath the surface.
Nowhere takes you closer to the fiery heart of the planet.
Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most active volcanoes in Africa.
Its eruptions can be seen from space.
As magma churns below the Earth's crust, the land to the east of here is being torn apart.
(LOUD RUMBLING) Volcanoes like this are continually changing the face of Eastern Africa.
The volcanoes here may have a violent side, but life ï¬ows from these infernos.
Fertile ash from countless eruptions carpets the land, creating the ideal conditions for grasses to ï¬ourish on an immense scale.
And with the grasses, come animals in numbers found nowhere else on Earth.
Wildebeest.
Nothing stands in their way.
(BELLOWING) All this just to reach fresh grass.
(WILDEBEEST GRUNTING) The ever-travelling herds are only one element of life here.
Look closer and there are new stories to tell.
Living on the savannah is about making most of the hand the landscape deals you.
But here it's always a gamble.
Everything may change tomorrow.
From their vantage point, agama lizards wait for the arrival of the herds, ready to seize their moment.
It's pay day- Over a million wildebeest on their doorstep.
And with the wildebeest come ï¬ying insects.
Billions of them.
Food, if only they could catch them.
Time for a rethink.
This agama lizard has spotted an opportunity.
Only one thing attracts more flies than the wildebeest.
Lions that have eaten wildebeest.
Lions are famously-bad tempered.
They could swat the lizard like the flies he's hoping to ambush.
He will need to pick his target carefully.
Not her.
Or her.
Maybe.
But no.
(SOFT GROWL) To be within striking distance, he's got to hold his nerve.
Got one.
Now, he's getting his eye in.
But this might be a bit ambitious.
(LOW GROWLING) It may take courage to hunt on the back of a lion.
(LION GROWLS SOFTLY) But it takes sense to know when to run away.
The wildebeest won't stay for long.
And when they leave, most of the flies will follow.
Change is everywhere in East Africa.
This grassland was once covered by a forest that ran unbroken from west coast to east coast.
Today, high above the plains, swirling clouds hide mountains that tower three miles into the sky.
These frozen summits now form part of a mountainous barrier separating the ancient jungles in the west from the savannahs of the east.
Up here lies the largest glacier in Africa, just a few miles north of the equator.
These are the legendary Mountains of the Moon.
The height of these peaks means they create their own weather.
The local name for these mountains is Ruwenzori, "the rainmaker.
" (DRIPPING SOUNDS) Meltwater ï¬ows down from the glaciers.
Ana' on the lower slopes, all this water supports thick jungle.
(BIRDS SINGING) Remnants of the dense, steamy forests that once dominated the whole of East Africa.
But driven by a drying climate beyond the mountains, the forests began to wither away.
Today, only small pockets of upland jungle remain, home to animals who once roamed the ancient forests.
The largest living primates on Earth.
(GRUNTING SOFTLY) Mountain gorillas.
(GROWLING SOFTLY) (BABY GO RI ILA CHATTERS) (SQUEALING) This little one's ancestors have lived in forests like these for millions of years.
But all around, the world has changed to swamp and savannah.
This is the furthest these mighty giants now venture into Eastern Africa.
They're marooned on their islands in the African sky.
(WATER FLOWING) Below the highlands, vast wetlands cut swathes through the open savannah.
Bangweulu Swamp is huge.
Its name means "where the water meets the sky.
" Hidden amongst this maze of waterways is a creature like no other.
A giant prehistoric-looking bird.
A shoebill.
Standing well over a metre tall, she roams these swamps trying to catch catfish.
Not exactly what she was after.
Deeper into the swamp lies the reason for all this fishing.
This chick is just three weeks old, and a little bit wobbly on its feet.
Its vast bill means it has trouble balancing.
It won't be able to fly or even walk properly for several weeks.
It's entirely reliant on its parents for food and water.
There is also a smaller chick, who isn't doing so well.
The larger chick pesters its mother for a drink.
While she goes off to fetch water, it reveals a dark side to the relationship with its nest mate.
It's three days older than the other chick and has always won the race for food and attention.
This is more than just a scrap between two siblings.
As the mother returns, she sees what the larger chick has done.
The smaller chick seeks its mother's comfort.
But she has already made her choice.
Only her first born will get to drink.
Shoebills very rarely raise more than one chick.
The younger chick was only ever an insurance, in case the elder didn't make it.
Now it's old enough, the adults know that they're better off putting all their efforts into bringing up just one fit and healthy youngster.
The swamps changing water levels mean fishing is too unpredictable for them to gamble on trying to raise two chicks.
Nothing here stays the same for long.
This is the time of year when Eastern Africa is beginning to dry.
The rivers and waterholes are shrinking.
(GRUNTING) The land continues to dry out.
Tensions rise.
(ROARING) Hippos seek what relief they can.
(SNORTING) This time of relentless drying is also when another force of change ravages the land.
(ROARING AND CRASHING) Without warning, fires rip through these tinder-dry plains.
The flames sweep across the savannah at 50 miles an hour, reaching temperatures of nearly 7, 000 degrees, consuming everything in their path.
Each year, an area larger than Britain goes up in smoke.
But this destruction can bring opportunity, if you're prepared to take a risk.
(LOUD CHIRPING) Drongos, bee-eaters and rollers bravely pluck fleeing insects from amongst the flames.
There's little better than a char-grilled grasshopper.
These fires may appear devastating but they are, in fact, part of a natural cycle that is essential for the regeneration of East Africa's grasslands.
But sometimes the cycle is broken, just when a change is most needed.
Here, on the plains of Amboseli, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, the seasonal rains have failed for the last two years.
And this year, they are already long overdue.
It's the hardest drought for half a century.
(BELLOWING) Amboseli is usually a haven for elephants.
These plains should be green and covered with grass.
Now, there is nothing but dust.
This family is forced to travel constantly, searching for anything they can eat.
The young must keep up.
Sometimes, there's not even time to suckle.
(CALF WAILS) With the grass gone, all the elephants can scratch from the dust is withered twigs.
The adults might just survive on this, but it will not support a calf for long.
Every mother in the herd is struggling to provide milk for her calf.
The search for food is increasingly urgent.
As the herd moves on, this female faces a terrible choice.
To carry on with her family or stay behind with her calf, who's becoming too weak to even stand.
They will soon be out of sight.
But her instinct is to stay.
She won't abandon her baby.
(CALF WHIMPERS) (GROANING) (BELLOWING SOFTLY) (WHIMPERING SOFTLY) ATFEN BOROUGH: With the calf's last breath, she knows that her battle is lost.
(SNORTING) (BELLOWING) ATTENBOROUGH".
There are places even more hostile than the dust-choked plains.
These alien landscapes are actually the sun-baked salt crusts of a chain of lakes that run through East Africa.
The face of these soda lakes changes day by day as the sun evaporates the water, leaving the salts behind.
The waters here are toxic, poisoned by volcanic springs.
But life does exist, even here.
The strange colours are created by algae specially adapted to live in this corrosive liquid.
And it is these algae that attract one of the most astonishing animals found in East Africa.
(SQUAWKING) (SPLASHING) Among the steaming geysers of Lake Bogoria, over a million Lesser flamingos bathe and feed in the caustic water.
They gather whenever the algae bloom.
These huge numbers create one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth.
Almost all the world's Lesser flamingos live on this chain of lakes, moving from one lake to another as the amount of algae in each changes.
All along the lake shore, volcanic vents are a reminder of the forces that continue to change this land.
And a streak of colour on the horizon signals that relief for the parched plains is on its way.
(CLOUDS THUNDERING) At last, countless storms drench the thirsty ground.
Rain changes everything yet again.
(LOUD THUNDER) A crowned eagle has been desperately waiting for what she hopes the rain will bring.
(CHIRPING) Food for her hungry chick.
Nesting here has been her biggest gamble.
A chick's life depends on the arrival of creatures from the far rainforests of the Congo.
(THUNDER) Her wait will soon be over.
The largest mammal migration in Africa is on the move.
(SQUEAKING) 10 million fruit bats are drawn to this tiny forest on the edge of the eastern savannah.
The bats flock here to gorge themselves on fruit.
(LOUD FLUTTERING OF WINGS) It's what the crowned eagle and her chick have been waiting for.
But they're not alone.
Other eagles have flown in from miles around.
Fish eagles, martial eagles, and they're all after the bats.
(LOUD SQUEAKING) The gamble the crowned eagle took months ago by nesting here has paid off.
She is the only eagle to actually nest in this forest.
The only one who took the risk to breed here well before the trees came into fruit and the bats ï¬ooded in.
(CHIRPING) She only breeds once every two years, so her timing must be perfect.
In a few months, the bats will leave, but her gamble means her chick will have the best possible start in life.
These grasslands have been grazed and burned and have endured the harshest drought in generations.
But with the rains, they're beginning to recover.
(GRUNTING) (GRUNTING) (SQUEAKING) And on the once dust-choked plains of Amboseli there is a return to the good times.
The drought here killed hundreds of elephants, but the survivors are now returning home.
And with them, there's a surprise.
(SQUEAKING) A newborn.
(TRUMPETING) (BLEATING) Surrounded by food, the youngster can concentrate on more important things.
Like chasing egrets.
(BLEATING) (CLUCKING) (LOW ROARING) The bulls also return.
(GROWLING) (BOTH GROWLING) This bull has waited many years for his chance to father the next generation.
Now, he must fight his way to the top.
But his rival is massive.
Each of their heads weighs as much as a car.
(LOUD ROARING) They have been duelling for days.
(BELLOWING) Now, in its third day, the contest is reaching a climax.
(LOUD BELLOW) Soon, one will be forced to concede.
The power of these clashes can even shatter tusks.
(CRUSHING) (BELLOWING) Three days of battle is at an end.
(LOW GROWLING) The victor has won the right to the females.
The process to replace what the drought took away has begun.
(BLEATING) Soon, the elephants will be at full strength again.
(LOW GROANING) Every day the animals of Eastern Africa gamble with their lives.
But despite the continual changes they face, their extraordinary adaptability just tips the odds of survival in their favour.
East Africa may seem very cruel, but there's nowhere else that provides such rich opportunities for those that are prepared to take them.
And in the end, it was these ever-changing savannahs that produced the most adaptable species of all, ourselves.
(ENGINE STARTING) ATTENBOROUGH".
Filming in East Africa would take the team on both a physical and emotional journey through the extremes of this landscape.
(WIND HOWLING) These are the legendary Mountains of the Moon, towering over 5, 000 metres into the African sky.
just miles from the Equator, they're the highest mountain range on the continent and home to the largest glacier in Africa.
To reach the summit, the team had to travel on foot, the same way as climbers did when they first reached the top just over 100 years ago.
It would take more than two weeks, climbing over 3, 000 metres from the valleys below.
Six days into their trek, still well below the summits, the team come to realise why Ruwenzori, the mountains' other name, means "the rainmakers".
just after we set off it started raining, then it started hailing, um, and the idea had been that we'd stop here for an hour or two and do some shots, but as you can probably see, there's not a great deal of view.
Brilliant shots of rain and hail and fog.
Beyond that, we're pretty stuffed.
So, it's becoming a bit of a theme.
ATTENBOROUGH".
For the crew and over 75 guides and helpers, it's hard going carrying nearly a ton of kit through the marshy valleys.
Mud.
Mud.
There's a little bit more mud.
ATTENBOROUGH".
But it's not just the bogs they have to deal with.
There was a fairly small but slightly disconcerting earthquake last night, so, let's hope we don't get any of those below any rocks.
ATTENBOROUGH".
The team continue to climb and before long, the rain turns to snow.
They eventually arrive at the highest hut, surrounded by ice and nearly three miles up.
This will be base camp for the crew.
BLAKENEY: We've got a kitchen over there.
Um, over there down a really treacherous precipice is the toilet, which is just a shack with a big hole in the floor.
(HOWLING WIND) ATTENBOROUGH".
From here, they'll make the hardest part of the ascent right up to the glaciers.
Well, this is, believe it or not, one of the better viewpoints.
So we're gonna hang around here for a little while, to wait till the fog clears.
ATTENBOROUGH: But the weather isn't on their side.
So much for hoping the weather was going to get better.
All that optimism now seems completely ill-founded.
ATFEN BOROUGH: With the storm clouds closing in, the team are forced to retreat.
(LOUD THUNDER) This enormous weather front's come in, as is entirely unusual.
We were just coming down as the thunder bursts around us.
So just trying to get back and go and get inside the hut and hopefully weather it out.
ATTENBOROUGH".
After days of climbing and finding the peaks hidden by fog, filming the summits is looking increasingly impossible.
BLAKENEY".
It can be pretty frustrating at times.
The group of, maybe, 70 people that we've involved with doing this directly and you get all the way up here and then, and then we can't film anything because of the weather.
So, it is just a matter of sitting it out and waiting.
And you have to sort of hope that things come right in the end.
ATTENBOROUGH".
The rainmakers are certainly living up to their name.
But by complete contrast, other parts of East Africa were gripped by drought.
At the beginning of the production, Mark Deeble travelled to Amboseli, just a few hundred miles from the Ruwenzoris, to film the plight of the animals there.
Well, I've never seen anything quite as bad as that drought.
When we talked to some of the Maasai elders, they said it was the worst drought they'd seen in 50 years.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Amboseli is famous for its huge herds of elephant, but the drought had dispersed them far and wide.
Those that remained were struggling to find what little food was left.
When we first saw the group, we could tell instantly that they They were in a really serious condition.
DEEBLE: They were thin and obviously starving.
(LOW GROWLING) ATTENBOROUGH".
Mark knew that many of the calves would not survive.
Although desperately painful to witness, nothing would convey the cruel power of the drought more than this mother's struggle to keep her baby alive.
DEEBLE: The thing about filming a situation like that, you know, when an elephant calf dies, is that when you're actually filming it you're so caught up in the moment.
(GROANING) But it was only after filming, when I put the camera away and I looked there and there was this dead calf and the mother standing there, grieving, that the full impact of what I'd just filmed hit me.
People often say to me, you know, "Could you not have intervened in a situation like that?" There are times when you can help.
But in that time in Kenya there was no food available.
Now, you have to also consider the mother.
If we'd gone in there and tried to take the calf away, it would've been absolute mayhem.
She'd have got incredibly stressed and that would probably have jeopardised her survival.
(SNORTING) In that particular situation, when everything around us was dying, there was absolutely nothing we could do to help that young elephant.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Although too late to save the calf, a few months later, the rains did finally return.
DEEBLE: When we returned it was amazing.
It was lush and green again.
And the elephants, in the rains, they all tend to come together.
So it was like all of these groups which had been dispersed, which had been just somehow coping on their own, all got back together again.
It was almost a sort of festival type atmosphere.
(BELLOWING) That was when, essentially, they come together, they mate, and then after that lots of young calves being born.
ATFEN BOROUGH: Since the end of the drought, over 220 calves have been born in Amboseli, and that number is still rising.
It's the biggest elephant baby boom on record.
DEEBLE: I think what's lovely to see in that situation is that, having Having been through such a terrible drought, to see the way in which, you know, if you let things alone they do have incredible capacity to bounce back.
ATTENBOROUGH".
Back in the mountains, and several failed ascents later, the team were still battling through the white-out.
They try one last time.
MAGUIRE: There's cloud below us and cloud above us.
It somehow seems slightly, like we're heading nowhere, slowly.
ATFEN BOROUGH: Then, as they reach the top, finally the clouds begin to part.
It's absolute magic here.
We've just come through the densest, densest cloud, having absolutely no idea what's surrounding us.
The past few days have just been rain and cloud and rain and cloud.
And, as if by magic, there's the most spectacular view of ice and glaciers and mountains that you just wouldn't think was on the Equator.
It's just amazing.
MAGUIRE: It's the most spectacular mountain scenery I've seen.
And to think it's in Africa is just mind-boggling.
ATTENBOROUGH".
These mysterious mountains have finally unveiled their secrets.
And on the plains beyond, the elephants have returned to their home.
Despite having been explored by filmmakers for over a century, East Africa still has the power to enchant and surprise us all.