Brothers in Blood: The Lions of Sabi Sand 2015
This is a powerful documentary, filmed over a 16 year span, about the rise of a Coalition of six lions, branded The Mapogo Lions, and their takeover of the largest territory by a pride.
This is a powerful documentary, filmed over a 16 year span, about the rise of a Coalition of six lions, branded The Mapogo Lions, and their takeover of the largest territory by a pride.
Life is a challenge for a young seal in the untamed waters off the southern tip of Africa. Every day is a struggle for survival, whether he's avoiding aggressive seal bulls or escaping a great white shark. This is the story of a courageous little seal who braves the ocean and its perils, and leaves his colony, to follow one of the greatest migrations on Earth - the Sardine Run.
Witness a remarkable coming-of-age story as we track a young leopard's journey from rookie to royalty in South Africa's lethal Big Five landscape. When we first meet Jack, he's clumsy, fearful, and weak, but he's a fast learner - and he'll need to be. He's destined for a showdown with the area's current leopard monarch, an alpha male with a real mean streak. We follow Jack as he hones his skills and builds up muscle for the ultimate catfight. It's a battle where only the winner will walk out alive.
The untold story of South Africa's blackfoot Penguins.
This film uncovers the intriguing mystery of the return of the African rhino. In the 1800s there were more than 500,000 white and black rhinos in Africa. But by the 1990s, ivory poaching had left less than 7,000 animals alive. Remarkably, today their numbers have risen to 11,000. But there is now a new, deadly threat. Charging Back starts at the Pilansberg Game Reserve, where mysterious, unseen assailants were killing rhinos. Poachers could not be blamed, as the horns remained intact. Unexpectedly, the perpetrators prove to be relocated adolescent elephants, orphaned in culls. Lack of family structure has turned them into aggressive delinquents - a problem which conservation authorities now address by importing the steadying influence of older bulls. In astonishing scenes, the attackers are captured red-handed. Without the least provocation, elephants launch vicious assaults on unsuspecting rhinos.
In 2000 intrepid Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) conservationist Mike Fay (left) finished walking 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) to help preserve the diversity of life in Congo and Gabon. As a result of "Megatran-sect," Gabon established its first system of national parks. Since then Fay has set his sights on all of Africa. His goal was to travel to key ecoregions, discover where wild Africa survives, then spark action for conservation. In 2004 Mike hopscotched the continent in a Cessna guided by the WCS maps, which revealed the impact of human activity on the wilderness. Follow his journey through logged dispatches.
We take an exclusive peek into the mysterious lives of the most secretive animals of the African Bushveld. For the first time ever, we take an exclusive peek into the mysterious lives of the most secretive animals of the African Bushveld. We will expose the behaviors of these animals seldom, if ever, seen before as we delve into the shadowy existence of animals rarely seen, let alone captured on television. We will investigate seven enigmatic creatures - the serval, aardvark, pangolin, genet, African wildcat, civet and porcupine - as they furtively go about their top-secret activities. Each story will introduce us to one of these animals, and give us a privileged glimpse into their extremely private lives and their particular adaptations for life in the dangerous wilderness, where they battle against tremendous odds. We witness how each one cunningly outwits the super-predators in its own special way, with extra-sharp senses and other strategies for survival.
Set in the vast expanse of South Africa's Mala Mala game reserve, a host of Africa's biggest and fiercest wildlife species compete for food, mates and territory against the backdrop of a harsh dry season.
In Sekenani River in Maasai Mara Park, a pod of hippopotamuses and a bask of crocodiles keep a cautious truce.
We think of the lion as the king of beasts - the perfect predators - built to make a swift clean kill - but think again. Now spectacular footage reveals another side to this hunters killing power. We follow a family of lion cubs as they start out in life. Seven out of the eight cubs are male - for them the clock is ticking, within two years they need to learn to hunt before setting out and finding new territories of their own, to avoid treading on the toes of the dominant pride male. The cubs hunting lessons are perhaps not what you might expect; instead of ambushing their prey and quickly despatching with a clean bite to the throat, these lions wrestle their victim to the ground and tuck in before the hapless beast is dead. When the prey is a young elephant, it means a slow and painful death. Are these lions behaving badly or is it simply that this is what lions do?
There are two phenomenal beasts that rule one of Africa's true wilderness areas - Buffalos and Lions. The first dominate the plains with bulk, power and aggressiveness. The second rule by fear and tenacity... And when they clash, dust chokes the air, sharp claws collide against impressive horns... and blood soaks the thirsty land.
Africa is a land of giants. Its powerful rivers sculpt the earth and form impressive valleys and waterways that are home to many imposing and powerful inhabitants. These are the rivers where massive elephants and hippos live, feed and drink, and where ancient crocodiles hunt and breed. They share the rivers with porcupines, the martial eagle, and the leopard.
A documentary that focuses on how animals born with unusual colours have a much harder struggle than normal. Follow white lions, a white baboon and a yellow crocodile.
On Botswana's Linyanti Plains, a band of brothers reigns amongst the top predators: three cheetahs - partners since birth and one of the most efficient hunting forces on the plains - until tragedy strikes. Achilles, the hunt leader of the brotherhood, is killed by a cobra bite, leaving his brothers Odin and Shiva to fend for themselves. With their coalition diminished they must adapt fast: learning to hunt as a twosome and defend their kills without the help of Achilles. Confounding their efforts is a host of predators: an injured leopard, a cunning hyena and a devious black-backed jackal. Making matters worse, a lone male cheetah begins to trespass on their land. Will these cheetah blood brothers survive the overwhelming odds stacked against them?
Hop on a high-speed endurance adventure through one of the harshest environments on Earth. Glyn Maude follows a family of brown hyenas in Botswana's desolate saltpans of the Makgadikgadi.
200km from the southern-most point of Africa, where the water is chilly and harsh, runs the Breede River. Recently, reports have been made of a massive creature living in the river. Fish are being taken off fishermen's lines - but with a curious and sickening twist. Only the bodies are taken: the heads are being left intact. The picture that sends aquatic ecologist Andy Coetzee off on the quest shows the head of a large kob that has clearly had its body ripped off by something even larger. With shark hunter and expert fisherman Hennie Papenfuss at his side, Andy sets out to discover the truth behind the tales and exactly what the monster could be. Following the science and the rumours, this dramatic aquatic adventure joins Andy on a journey that follows the coast line of South Africa from north to south, and the sharks who are in turn following the fish.
A haunting call echoes across the Liuwa Plain. There is no answer, there hasn't been for years. She has no pride, no support - she alone must safeguard her own survival. Her name is Lady Liuwa, and she is the Last Lioness. Isolated by a scourge of illegal trophy hunting that wiped out the rest of her species in the region, Lady Liuwa is the only known resident lion surviving on Zambia's Liuwa Plain. For four years, cameraman Herbert Brauer watched her lonely life unfold, until, in her solitude, she reached out to him for companionship. But Herbert knows he is not the companion this lonely lioness needs - she should be amongst her own kind. Now, in May of 2009, plans for a male lion translocation have come through, and there is hope for ending her isolation. For the first time in more than five years, Lady Liuwa will no longer be the Last Lioness.
Are sharks really out to get us? Are these predators mindless man eaters demonized by the popular media and movies like "Jaws"? That's the driving question behind this high-adrenaline, two-hour live National Geographic event. Shark Attack Experiment: LIVE! will beam from the world's most shark-infested location off the coast of South Africa. Here, a team of free-diving shark junkies and conservationists put their own safety on the line to run a series of hi-tech tests to separate shark attack myths from realities. Also on location during Shark Attack Experiment: LIVE! are shark attack survivors willing to tell their stories and enter the water, some for the first time since their traumatic encounters. Their objective is no stunt; their goal is to raise public awareness that the world's shark species are being destroyed by over-fishing.
The rivers of Africa bring life and abundance to their inhabitants, but they can also be the arena for some of nature's greatest challenges and dramas. Harsh seasonal cycles dictate the course of life - and death - along the rivers. Only the fittest survive crossing the crocodile-infested Mara, the extreme drought of the Luangwa Valley or any of the many other perils harbored by rivers all over the continent. With cunning and opportunistic hunters of all sizes lurking in the waters or prowling the banks, "Rivers of Danger" is a predator's world.
On the African plains, where only the strong survive, one big cat rules supreme. This is life in the raw: savage, beautiful and unforgettable. During the eight years that Jurgen Jozefowicz filmed a pride of lions in South Africa's Kruger National Park, he won the trust of the dominant male and, astonishingly, was accepted into the pride. This is his story. How does it feel to live amidst a group of the most feared predators on the African continent as they fight to survive in a harsh, unforgiving world? Jurgen's film shows what it's like and is the result of his remarkable adventures. Jurgen is one of the world's premier wildlife photographers. His story of his life with these lions is one that spans a period of political struggles, disease and drought, showing the highs and the lows of life in the lion pride.