Natural World (1983) s27e13 Episode Script

1 Islands in the African plains.
The ancient Naabi hills brutal with the most savage landscape on the planet.
Born into this world, a new hyena princess she's named after the hills Naabi In her time, she must become a powerful hunter, able to take on beasts far larger than her Being a princess won't spare her from tragedy There will be a time when these early days around her then will seem very precious indeed Naabi is born at night.
She has a full set of teeth and already she knows how to use them Within minutes of birth, she savages her sister Naabi is the more aggressive and quickly subdues her sibling, so she gets what she wants, the best nipple and the lion's share of her mother's precious milk It will make her bigger and stronger than her sister so even now, Naabi has a head start She was born on the short grass plains of Tanzania's Serengeti Her mother is a queen, ruler of the Ndutu clan 40 hyenas were living in the shadow of the Naabi hill So by birth right, this tiny cub is a princess Who could think that even now this little Naabi could be so important to her mother The queen needs her rule.
Without support, the queen's rule is nothing in the clan, so she needs all her sisters and daughters behind her Naabi needs a lot of attention she is the dominant daughter so she is the first in line to the throne She has the power to do almost anything even annoy the queen The queen does not mind though [Just the two of us we can make it if we try.
Just the two of us just the two of us Just the two of us building castles in the sky.
Just the two of us you and I.]
Nothing is more precious to her than the little Naabi and besides she has been bitten and attacked by animals far bigger These games are fun for Naabi but they are important lessons too The plains are a dangerous place to grow up If Naabi can learn how to survive from the queen herself, what a better start in life? It is wildebeests that keep the plains of the southern Serengeti alive but now, there are none They are in the north, not due back for nearly a year without them, there is little for the predators to eat, so the lions are as hungry as the hyenas The Acacia pride lives close to Naabi's Ndutu clan These are hard times for the lions Too many months without enough food has made them lean and irritable The lionesses have cubs to protect and they are not interested in the advances of a foolish teenager He is a threat and needs dealing with silly boy Nothing is more dangerous to a hyena than an angry lion Lions hate hyenas and need no excuse to kill them The old hyena queen lost a leg to lions it strip her of her rank but the hyena's strong family bonds protect them The clan system only works if everyone knows their place If you are a male, forget it, you are at the bottom Higher ranking females force the underdogs to cock their legs so that they can sniff their genitals This weird extended clitoris is a quirk of spotted hyenas and makes the girls look like boys Naabi makes her first visit to the waterhole near her den Maybe she does have elephant dung stuck to her whiskers and she's only 3 months old but she is second in command so everyone shows her respect Naabi's tail is up, so the lower ranking hyena has no choice but to cock a leg and being inspected Such acceptance of dominance and hierarchy means that the hyena clan is surprisingly peaceful Above all, rank is a ruthless way of deciding who feeds first and the two princesses have already worked out rights to the one nipple The other poor cubs that share the den with Naabi and her sister don't get the same attention They are left underground while their mothers travel great distances to find food Following the roads of humans, they trek north to find the wildebeest herds days between feeds leaves the cubs hungry but hyena milk is 7 times more nutritious than cow's milk, so hyenas can leave their cubs without feeds longer than any other mammal If you are a queen, you can stay put You have the right to take whatever food can be found near the den If she likes, Naabi's mom can knock a cheetah off its kill and it's all hers it means she gets more time with Naabi and her sister to care for them and protect them, so their advantage just grows and grows Naabi is better fed than all the other hyena cubs, so she is fitter and stronger but she will have to fill her mother's shoes, so Naabi needs to develop skills to match her strength Now that she is 4 months old, she can spend more time above ground the journey from baby to predator can begin Naabi's mother feeds her and her little sister in the evening It is a relaxed affair, the time to feed and doze This evening, the queen is not happy lions This is too close to the den, too close to her cubs.
If the lions find Naabi and the other cubs, they would kill them they must go The Acacia pride lionesses also have little ones to protect, but they are only 4 of them and when night falls, Naabi's mom can call upon an army of 40 Foolish lions, you shouldn't upset a queen Naabi's mom makes a preemptive strike caught out on the plains without a male to protect them, the lions are in big trouble To save their skins, the lion cubs try to get off the ground Even the lionesses become desperate This night belongs to the hyenas long live the queen The next day, the lions move their cubs to a safer part of their territory The bitter rivalry between lions and hyenas however is far from over The Ndutu clan can never let down its guard At just 6 months old, Naabi is expected to be another pair of eyes, another nose, another pair of ears for the Ndutu clan Fortunately, she's a smart princess, so she's quick to copy her mother She learns to watch the vultures Hyenas need vultures They are eyes in the sky For where they fall, she would find food This is the field craft that will save her from starvation The one thing that can undo all these good work is a male lion but clan can deal with females, but the large male is a different story Her mother and other adult hyenas go in but Naabi holds back he will kill her if he wants to so she is wise to keep her distance She must learn by watching others another male lion, the teenager he can also see the vultures, smell the flesh, heed the hyenas Naabi has dropped her guard Had he been an adult male with a bit more confidence Naabi would be dead The dry season presses on scorching the earth, stilling the water Many of the hyenas are suffering now but not Naabi's mom, not Naabi They found a dead topi and they and the high ranking females are eating the best bits With a full belly, the princess has time to relax and play whereas the less privileged vie for scraps She's breezed through hard times while others have struggled to survive Towards December, rain showers sweep south from Kenya and finally quench the thirst of the land Good news for the Ndutu clan, good news for everyone In their wake, the rains live grass, lush green grass for as far as the eye can see The great migration is near 170,000 tons of fresh meat is coming they can smell it on the wind Like a massing army, 1,500,000 wildebeest arrive, one of the greatest movements of animals anywhere on earth Naabi has never seen anything like it before [Riders on the storm, riders on the storm Into this house were born into this world were thrown like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan riders on the storm.]
This time of year is crucial for Naabi and her clan It's the time to fatten up When the wildebeest arrive, they carve the babies are very exposed on the plains but their predators are not blessed with any cover to stalk them from which give the wildebeest advantage It is the wildebeest that keep plains alive they feed the predators, feed the grass, trim it and weed it With a strange collective consciousness, they seem to know where the best grasses to be found together, they move through the vastness, backwards and forwards, following the rains, forming lines that can stretch for all the 30 miles long and herds 10 miles wide If the Ndutu clan are lucky, they will stay in their area for a while if not, the wildebeest could be gone in a few days The huge buildup of food below Naabi hill has attracted the attentions of Acacia pride lioness She slinks back into the Ndutu clan's area She can afford to be picky take her time She singles out a wildebeest that is perfect for her needs healthy, adult, not too big to cause her problems Before the last breaths have even left the wildebeest, Naabi's mother appears She too has been watching, waiting Naabi follows her mother in This is risky but it's a crucial new experience for her other hyenas appear as if from nowhere Along with the kill, the lioness stands no chance against Naabi's mother and her clan she's just another meal ticket Battle cries echo across the plains calls for reinforcements never go unheeded Young and old, the troops come running The Acacia pride can hear the commotion too soon, there're lions everywhere It is not until dark however that Naabi's mom gets the confidence to step up the pressure They taunt the lions who are only just holding their nerve Naabi heads back, perhaps too young to be taking such risks Her mother is perhaps taking too many There're two young male lions, but Naabi's mom runs rings around them These lions don't have the bold to deal with the determined Ndutu clan and despite their size, they know who has the upper hand but the devil lurks in the darkness, the pride males appear and the balance of power suddenly shifts The queen grabbed by the neck she's doomed It is nothing more than an act of aggression and the lion seems to relish it Her mother is dead the relationship between lions and hyenas is a dark and brutal one Naabi has learned that it is no respecter of rank We can only guess what Naabi feels but in a society where bonds are everything she must feel the loss She has not just lost her mother she has lost everything She doesn't yet have the age or experience to take over the reigns of power Her destiny as queen has been denied Now her position in the clan will be decided by who her allies are If they are high-ranking and close she would be okay if they are not, she could tumble from top to bottom The clan needs a leader or it would fall apart The next day, high-ranking females begin to squabble for power for the first time in her life, Naabi's future is uncertain Now the other clan members eat first and there's nothing she can do about it Naabi is only just weaned so she needs all the protein she can get but she's denied so she must scavenge with jackals and vultures but she gets nothing but offals and entrails and the ordinary bone but only after the jackal has finished with it Her fall from grace could not have come at a worse time Four weeks after they arrive, the wildebeest leave the plains of the southern Serengeti Now the lion and cheetah must go back to hunting whatever they can get Naabi has the most important decision to make to stay and struggle, feeding in scraps and bones or to follow the herds try her luck alone If she makes the wrong decision, she would starve and die but with an empty belly and none of the skills to feed it Naabi decides to follow the herds she heads north, it is a huge risk to take The world beyond the den, beyond her Ndutu clan borders is a different universe Here there are many other hyenas, commuters living without the back of a clan, killing and scavenging what they can Lost in the confusion of the herds, this young calf is in serious trouble Naabi is no match for even a baby wildebeest though She's not strong enough, not fast enough It is the older hyenas who benefit To survive on the plains, you must use your brains as well as your legs Naabi can only watch, but by watching, she would learn Within three days of being born, the wildebeest calf can outrun a hyena She must resort to scavenging but that brings its own problems none of these hyenas is resident, like her, they are just passing through Naabi doesn't face much aggression when she joins the crowd, but she's not allowed to eat Being a princess means nothing to these wild opponents size and age dictate rank here not silver spoons The arrival of the residents however reminds the travelling hyenas who this meat belongs to Naabi and the others seem to disagree Finally, she snatches a meal, may be not These two residents can easily call for back up and the other hyenas know it For the next few months, she continues following the herds, driven by the need for food, scraping an existence The wildebeest head far into the north and eventually Naabi stops following perhaps she's held back not wanting to wander too far from home food become scarce all of a sudden.
The animals that stay, topi, hartebeest and zebra are too large and fast for Naabi to deal with She remembers her mother, as she always watched the cheetahs The hyena is no fool why hunt when others can do it for you Though cheetahs gamble their precious remaining energy on the largest antelope of all the eland If the cheetahs see her, they'll stop hunting immediately so she waits, watches and listens Perhaps the cheetah has made many sacrifices for its speed It has a very small head it is not the smartest cat Eventually Naabi's patience pays off the cheetahs have made a kill Naabi isn't sure, they do seem big A wise cheetah would not waste its energy, but the young male can not help himself One bite from Naabi's powerful jaws could finish him hunger drives her She needs a meal and she would risk a bit of beating to get one You see the cheetah is a weak animal Naabi has just discovered this for herself She has done well To take on four cheetahs before she is even two She has a meal all to herself but there're spies in the grass other hyenas appear as if from nowhere Within minutes, Naabi has lost it all Her hard earned meal is stolen These are bitter lessons to learn Naabi spends her days sleeping It is too hot to do anything else One day weak and empty-bellied, the vultures talk to her and she smells fresh meat She knows to head to where they land If it is bravado then Naabi is stupid maybe it is just desperation which forces her to take an impossible risk Without her clan behind her, she's just an upstart to a lioness She's finding it hard to scavenge and she has no success hunting For her to continue alone would be very dangerous she realizes this now Naabi belongs nowhere and has no right to food Alone, it is as though she's only half alive she has almost become how the African people describe the hyena , spirit of the dead She must make a decision to stay alone in the empty plains of the north or return to her clan in the empty plains of the south Even though she faces a journey of nearly 100 miles she decides to head back She has learned the lessons her mother might have taught her but she has had to learn them from her own bitter experience perhaps she wears a tougher skin now perhaps she's a little wiser When she reaches the Naabi hills she knows she's home but she has no idea how she would fit back in The others recognize her instantly even though she's been away for months and they waste no time in putting her in her place She's rank and file now and must grovel to the new queen but she's not rock bottom The new queen is a cousin of her mother's so Naabi gets a little extra status not a lot, but enough to raise her above the rib bones What's important is that her chances of survival are now much greater Naabi is an adult now to stay part of this team and benefit it brings, she must pull her weight One day when wildebeest arrive, our little princess gets the chance to prove her worth It has been a long journey from the carefree games of her cub route but the hours of fighting, playing and running about after sisters and cousins have made her ready for this moment for now, she runs like the wind Once upon a time, Naabi had merely inherited the right to eat, the right to protection and support within the Ndutu clan Now, she has earned it song: Well, it's all right riding around in the breeze Well, it's alright if you live the life you please) Thanks to the great migration, the Ndutu clan have full bellies for the next few weeks There wasn't an uneasy truth with the Acacia pride a short lived one of course [sit around and wonder what tomorrow'll bring.]
The new queen seems to like the old queen [everyday is just one day maybe somewhere down the road when.]
and eventually Naabi had a girl of her own who knows maybe Naabi will even work a way back up to the top of the pack one day and life on the plains beneath Naabi hill continues the same as it has done for thousands of years In two weeks time, Natural World is on a trail of a spectacle bear high in the Andes once thought to be a classic vegetarian, the secretive creature is now the heart of a scientific controversy