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00:00East Africa, the Serengeti Plains. It's going to be a scorcher.
00:19Dawn, and the wildebeest are again on the move, so constant is their need for fresh
00:25water and new grass. This is the last great migration on Earth, a scene that has looked
00:32exactly like this for a million years. Seeing this, you're looking directly into the deep
00:41past, witnessing nature just as it was meant to be. Geology and time created the perfect
01:02place here, an Eden for animals and evolution. Here, nature worked out its system of checks
01:10and balances, a constitution that ensured diversity and robust good health, and sometimes
01:19restful ease for everyone who's earned it. Almost unchanged today, this is the Serengeti,
01:33a national park near the border of Tanzania and Kenya, the size of Connecticut. There are about
01:443,000 Serengeti lions living in prides. At the heart of each is a core of females who raise the
01:53cubs. Each pride inherits a 50-square-mile territory passed down through the lionesses.
02:01In this social network, the males have but two jobs to procreate and protect.
02:06The restful ease we associate with predators has two causes. This is a sensible way to get
02:18through the heat of the day. Hunting is for the cool of the evening. Daylight is the time for
02:34walking the boundaries of the pride's territory, marking its margins, and daring rogue outsiders
02:40to enter. This is what it means to be territorial. Each pride stays home and waits for the great
02:49wildebeest herd to come in range. This is their country. Out of the mists of the past, a prehistoric
03:02relic with an uncertain future. Still, the lion gives them a wide berth. This is the black rhino.
03:17It was the Greeks 2,500 years ago who gave this creature its name. Rhino means nose, and what a
03:27nose it is. Unfortunately, that nose has caused the decline of this once numerous beast. The black
03:39rhino has been hunted to near extinction. Only a few thousand survive on the whole planet. The
03:49rhino is not really black at all, but dusky. It's the rain that enamels them into their metallic and
03:56invincible black. They really have no predators, though desperate hyenas are known to attack
04:02infant rhinos, usually at their peril. They seem so placid and self-contained, though they can be
04:13unpredictable and horrific. But plainly, that is their nature. It's why they have no predators.
04:20It's their stern presence that forestalls attack. This is the man-of-war of the Serengeti.
04:29Lake Magadi. This is what the dry season looks like. Life is hard, and only the hardy
04:49resident creatures remain. The pantry is nearly bare. It's been a month since the last rain,
05:02and with daily temperatures over a hundred degrees, water seems only a distant myth.
05:07But not for elephants, creatures who seem to thrive off their memories.
05:15They can find long-lost water, sometimes buried deep below the surface in water-logged sand.
05:25Part of their success has to do with their being able to smell water with their great
05:34sensitive trunks. But it has to be said that their memories help them sniff in all the right places.
05:41The elephant's trunk is one of the great creations of nature. Some 40,000 mussels
05:54help it to do the heavy work, as well as allow it to pick up an egg without mishap.
05:59But its greatest feat of sensitivity may be in simply locating water.
06:05Elephants have a great thirst, 40 to 50 gallons a day. They must find it or die.
06:22This rogue male, its single tusk, a tribute to a lifetime of struggle and strife,
06:30has found all the water he'll need for a while. For now, though, he must leave it to find food,
06:39the hundreds of pounds of grasses and shrubs his body needs each day. He'll be back.
06:47It's a parched world, but they've been through all this before, ever since the dawn of time.
06:59It's always a matter of pressing on.
07:03Hard times are not without some benefit. Hardship pressures the herd,
07:13prompting them to cope, to learn from this demanding season. Now, not all of them will
07:19survive, but those who do will constitute a more enduring and fitter species.
07:24The Maasai Mara, Kenya. This may be the most demanding part of the thousand-mile Great
07:44Migration. At every step of the way, there are eyes watching the wildebeests with empty
07:50stomachs and with evil intent. In a very real way, the herd itself is like one vast fluid
08:06creature. These are animals made to prosper in a habitat without confinement, where the
08:12natural ebb and flow of migrating life provides all they will ever need.
08:16The Great Migration is about to happen once again,
08:25drawn by the promise of sweet water and green pastures.
08:31Zebra live in small family herds, one stallion and several females and their
08:42offspring, and they too travel with the wildebeest. There really is safety in numbers.
08:49Impala are the most graceful of the antelopes. Under attack, they bounce away in sharp zigzag
09:00patterns with amazing hang time, confusing their predators. Buffalo don't need to be
09:09either clever or athletic. They're one-ton bruisers. Lions need their protein, but it
09:17can be a costly meal. The Oribi is a member of the antelope family. It's the animated eyes
09:31that gave these timid creatures their name. Again, the ancient Greeks said it best,
09:39antel, bright, and optos, eyes. Antelopes, bright eyes.
09:52Gazelles, on the other hand, were named by the Arabs rather than the Greeks. Gajilles,
09:57they called them. But the meaning was still the same, bright eyes. This is the Thompson's gazelle,
10:05Tommy for short. Like all the members of the antelope family, Tommy's depend on quick twitch
10:15muscle response to escape from predators. Living in small herds, someone is always watching,
10:21always alert. Grant's gazelle is a bit larger than the Tommy. Its distinctive white tail pattern
10:34is confusing to pursuers. They can't pick out individuals. Among the largest members of the
10:51antelope family are the curious heart of beasts with their long, stunned expressions. The massive
11:03eland, the biggest antelope with its three-foot horns. Despite its size,
11:09when startled, it can jump over six feet in the air. The little warthog can be a formidable foe.
11:31Its tusks are scimitar sharp and predators prefer to attack them from the rear as they
11:38are fleeing. Head on, they're nothing but trouble. A Tommy of a tree, brought here by the leopard
11:50that caught and killed it. The rule in the Serengeti is that lesser predators have to
11:56hide their winnings from the opportunistic lions who would rather steal than hunt.
12:02Up a tree, you're safe from lions, usually. Evolution has driven the giraffe to great
12:18lengths to allow it to browse the top of the acacia trees. Altitude is its environmental niche,
12:25a place where others can't graze. But it's not only height that giraffes have been blessed with,
12:33but prehensile lips and a tongue suited to grazing just the choicest green bits. And
12:39it's not just better access to food that height gives the giraffe, it's power too. Those long
12:48legs pack a nasty wallop, a mortifying blow to any big cat that might want to take a shot at
12:54all that giraffe protein. Play is the heart and soul of learning for all animal young, including
13:15humans. Seeing a mother and calf reminds us that the Serengeti is about nurturing,
13:25not just about predation and blood. Most animals here are vegetarians. Still,
13:34even for the carnivores, life is mainly about parents protecting and teaching the next generation.
13:40Could they be more like us, really? The eyes are the windows to the soul,
13:52and when they peer at us, what is it they see? It's a tribute to conservation in Africa that
14:09we can still witness this spectacle. Two million wildebeest moving as one.
14:27The Great Plains of North America must have looked like this when several million
14:32buffalo once ranged across them from Texas to Canada, Iowa to Colorado.
14:37Those great herds, just like this, were a movable feast, plowing up and invigorating
14:51the earth with their hooves, fertilizing as they moved along, stirring up flights of insects for
14:57the birds. In America, senseless slaughter and greed ended all that, but not here,
15:09where the vast herd still winds its way as slowly and deliberately as ever.
15:16This is the Super Bowl of animal travel, the last great migration.
15:28Even in the midst of all this potential food, there are other demands on a male lion.
15:50Providing for the next generation of lions, a duty which seems like a privilege,
15:59can become difficult. That's because females and estrous must copulate every 25 minutes over
16:05three days. What the act lacks in vigor, it makes up in frequency. Well, possibly. It's
16:16a demanding and sometimes humiliating life for the king of beasts. It's also a long-term
16:25commitment. For every cub born, the father's presence will be required for two years,
16:31until his offspring can survive on their own. Even so, 80% of cubs don't make it through their
16:38first year. Meanwhile, the herd awaits the next attack, but there's little to fear from this pair
16:46today. For now, however, the Serengeti is becoming an empty landscape. You can almost
16:59taste the desperation. Predators, like lions, have fairly helpless and immobile young,
17:18which prevents them migrating to follow the feast. The survival odds are so slim for any of these
17:27cubs. Every day is a test of wills. Who will eat? Who will not? Starvation, a lack of meat,
17:40is the foremost killer of the young. So that what appears romantically as an Eden before the fall,
17:51is no peaceable kingdom at all. Which is why lions live communally. Living in groups and
17:58raising all the young together is an efficient way of ensuring the future. It also allows
18:06cooperative hunting, driving the herd into the waiting jaws of other pride females. They look
18:17so motherly here, but it's the females who do the lion's share of the hunting. From tender
18:24grooming to horrific violence in the blink of an eye. The wildebeest have not had a deep drink
18:34for days. Even now, the edges of the herd are being dogged by predators. The young and the
18:42old and the weak are especially vulnerable at this stage. This carcass was downed by wild dogs,
18:55but a lion has sauntered in to claim the feast. It's what we mean by the lion's share. It means
19:06everything. Lions don't share. It all looks so gritty and doomed. They must get to water. But
19:31as a species, the wildebeest have been through this countless times. The point is to keep moving,
19:37to keep living. There is a goal in sight. And this is it. The life-giving ribbon of the Mara River.
19:50The Serengeti is a Maasai word that simply means the wide place. But fortunately,
20:03it's a wide place that's split by the waters of the Mara. It always flows with a bounty of
20:10cool water, making its confident way toward Lake Victoria. These waters are a vast magnet. Sooner
20:24or later, everyone shows up. Zebra is a Swahili word that means striped donkey. The river is also
20:36the haunt of one massive creature that appears almost comical. It's the huge three-ton hippo
20:51with thick skin, cruel teeth and jaws, and the curious ability to urinate backwards.
20:57Retro urination, it's called. And it may be related to some evolutionary necessity for
21:06spreading its scent only behind it. They're not the most flexible of creatures. They have ears
21:16that can close when they submerge. They even copulate and give birth underwater. They can
21:24stay under for six minutes. According to African folklore, when God created all the animals,
21:33he asked the hippos where they'd like to live. In the cool rivers, said the hippos. But you'll
21:40eat all the fish, God replied. Then we promised to eat no fish. And they've kept their word.
21:47They're vegetarians. Hippos mostly spend their day submerged to avoid sunburn. But
21:57in the evening and at night, they come ashore to feed on hundreds of pounds of grasses.
22:02They're exclusively herbivores, though they are dangerous to man. More people are killed by hippos
22:15each year than by lions or crocs. The tragedy usually happens in the evening when people run
22:21into them in the tall riverside grasses. Lions rarely attack hippos, though they have been known
22:30to make off with a very young one. But lions have to be desperately hungry to attempt this meal. It
22:38can be costly. In the end, it's the consistent flow of the Mara River that makes hippo life
22:47possible. Not just because of its depths, but because it fosters lush grasses along its length.
22:54If this river ever failed, so would the hippos. The region is dotted with forested areas, woods
23:11that are associated with the availability of water. Where water is scarce, grasses always
23:19out-compete the trees, and the land reverts to grassland. But not here. Water also creates vast
23:34wallows for the water buffalo. With water and plentiful grass, a buffalo can graze unconcerned.
23:45It fears nothing. The water buck has little to fear as well. It has powerful musk glands whose
24:03smell actually repels crocs. So when it's pursued by lions, it heads for water. Crocs will have
24:10nothing to do with it. The forests were designed with monkeys in mind. Baboons live in troughs to
24:23raise and teach their young, to cooperate in finding food, and to defend themselves. With
24:31their sharp teeth, they've been known to take infant leopards or cheetahs. Seeing these savanna
24:41monkeys, it's hard not to imagine our ancestors developing from the wide range of monkey life
24:48here. It's the sharing of food in return for grooming, the group affiliation and affection
25:00that are so compelling. It's the water seeps that are so attractive. They promise refreshing
25:15drinks and perpetually green shoots. They also promise predators. For where there is water,
25:26there is meat. Trouble is, we too often concentrate on the stellar creatures,
25:35the lions and elephants, and neglect the lesser ones. The saddle-billed stork,
25:42the white pelican, the ibis, whose curved bill the Egyptians considered God's pen.
25:56A guinea fowl is not much of a meal. Still, it is known for uttering a harsh warning cry when a
26:06hungry cat is about. The quarry bustard will often stroll with the great beasts, scarfing up
26:16insects disturbed in their wake. It's a similar strategy to that used by the crown to crane.
26:37The ostrich responds to heat by fluffing its luxuriant feathers. A fluffed ostrich is its
26:46own umbrella. The slightest breeze through its feathers carries off masses of heat.
26:53Circling vultures are a signal throughout the Serengeti. It means a meal is just below.
27:04In this case, it's a pack of jackals on a wildebeest. They're constantly on
27:15guard for approaching scavengers. Because they can cover vast distances daily and
27:26because they have telescopic eyesight, vultures are able to survive on scavenging alone.
27:31They never need to hunt and manage to live off table scraps.
27:47They're also fearless and casually land within a few feet of predators who could
27:52easily tear them to pieces. Fortunately, they're too busy eating.
27:58As more and more vultures gather, the carcass is reduced to the point where there are only
28:18a few jackal bites left. This is what the surgical implement of the vulture's ripping
28:23beak was designed for. This looks like chaos, but in the crowd of vultures,
28:45Darwin's survival of the fittest is at play. Those without the stamina or the bravado to
28:53get a bite or two don't deserve to survive and reproduce. It's evolution at its most sensitive.
29:01It's September and time for the great herd to turn south again in search of green grass,
29:15recrossing the Great Mara River in force. But the river's deceptive and hides many dangers.
29:24For days on end, the herd comes to the edge, waiting for just the right moment to cross.
29:34Plainly, the time is not right. There are too many jaws waiting. In fact,
29:50it's not so much a crossing as a sacrifice. Here, the great herd will do for the massive
29:57crocs what it has always done for the lions of the Serengeti. It's around water that the
30:12herd is most vulnerable. The wildebeests are all concentrated at the crossing point. Still,
30:21sooner or later, they must overcome their dread. For now, the herd seems settled on
30:34another tack. They'll cross much farther downstream at a point they feel more comfortable with.
30:40They've seen it all before. They know what to do. This is animal intelligence.
30:49Anyway, if it gets too hot, there's many an obliging tree.
31:03Shade can be as valuable a commodity as water.
31:07The blessing of water will transform the land and hasten the herds on their way.
31:29It's a reminder of the green shoots that await them in the south.
31:34Though they are stressed, getting weak and losing weight, their only hope is to make it
31:49to the next crossing of the Mara, where the water is not too swift, where the banks are
31:54not too steep, and where there are none or few crocs. Still, at that crossing, wherever it is,
32:04they'll have to go. Caution will have to be sacrificed. Some individuals will be lost,
32:12but the herd will survive. This is no walk in the park. It's serious.
32:21It's all one vast organism, the herd, predators, and the land. They all score off and depend on
32:39one another. It's a constant miracle how it all works out. And this is the scene of tomorrow's
32:48miracle, a baptism of fire. In the cool of the morning, while you can still see the lion's
33:03breath, a zebra feast is underway. This hunt took place at night, and the carcass is halfway
33:11gone by sunup. The lions were waiting by the Mara for the wildebeests and came up trumps
33:19with a zebra, who unluckily arrived well before the great herd. Lioness has almost certainly
33:29caught this meal, but a pride male has appropriated it to himself. Luckily, there's
33:43more here than he can stomach, or he'd chase away all the females. There's plenty to share
33:48with the mothers and groomers of his cubs. But no one else is getting in on the windfall,
34:11least of all a black jackal. The big cats are exclusively eaters, and meat takes longer to
34:28digest and makes them feel slow, leaden, and tired. From the point of view of the herd, however,
34:36it's fortunate. A full lion will not be inclined to hunt for days.
34:57For now, there's only one predator that the herd has to fear, the Mara. It's a great and
35:05unpredictable serpent, barring their way to the future. Today's watery passage is something to
35:18contemplate and consider very carefully. It's completely unnatural for the wildebeest to swim
35:25it. It's a killer. But somehow they know it's a passage they must make. An hour after dawn,
35:51the first few pathfinders come to the river's edge to review the situation.
35:55You can almost feel a groundswell of anticipation and eagerness to get the ordeal over with. But no
36:12one's going anywhere until the pathfinders choose the perfect spot and the perfect time.
36:17The herd doesn't live by consensus. It follows without question its leaders. This isn't blandness,
36:27it's behavior forged on the anvil of experience and evolution. And it's the only thing that works.
36:36Finally, at 830 sharp, a pathfinder takes the plunge. There's no telling what currents or
36:56crocks await his bold move. And then they all go suddenly, losing the same spot to enter the
37:10fast-flowing morrow. There's so much pent-up demand to get to the other side.
37:40It's almost comically single file, as if discipline were the first thing on their
37:59minds. But what is really happening here is fear. It's as if the river is a great predator,
38:09and their bodies and brains are reacting the same way that they must do when they're being
38:14singled out by the lions. They're running for their lives.
38:39The herd is in the grip of their own adrenaline. It's flight and fight.
39:10You can see it in their eyes.
39:23Much more of this in their hearts would explode.
39:28Still, like all trials that are tough, even for humans, this one too has its benefits.
39:34Wildebeest were created for this crossing.
39:49They're powerful swimmers, but the current is strong.
39:54The exertion and the stress exhausts and drowns some. Others, particularly the young and
40:01inexperienced, get confused by the noise and violence of the crossing.
40:09The old ones too are at risk. You can only survive this so many times.
40:17Actually, it's not so much getting into the water that's the problem,
40:21it's getting out where everything begins to go pear-shaped.
40:24The single column of beasts has grown to several across,
40:28all trying desperately to get up the slick bank.
40:34Their hooves and horns are as dangerous to their own kind as the teeth of the lions and crocs are.
40:43At this stage, all discipline is lost. The young and the restless hurl themselves headlong into
40:50the foam. Suddenly, their body chemistry has turned these docile and placid creatures
40:56into animal athletes capable of jumping 20 feet.
41:20On the other side, all is chaos. The fiercest of injuries can occur at this point,
41:45injuries that the lions are only too willing to take advantage of.
41:51The irony is that wildebeest kill and injure more of their own kind on the far banks of the Mara
42:03than are ever dreamt of by the crocs and lions.
42:07But this too is a sort of evolutionary weeding out of the herd.
42:20It's every creature for himself, never mind the herd,
42:41as they fight the downstream pull of the water and the deadly kicks of their relatives and siblings.
42:50So
43:09certain points along the bank are destined to become boneyards.
43:15No one is escaping from here unless he or she tramples on the body of someone else.
43:26It's pathetic, but this is the way it's meant to be.
43:45Sometimes a disoriented calf will return to the wrong bank looking for its mother.
43:57But to attempt the crossing twice is a death sentence.
44:08Mothers have been known to do the same, seeking their calves.
44:14It usually ends up very bad.
44:22For the crocs, it's all an embarrassment of riches.
44:27They'll eat very well for some time.
44:45A solitary marabou stork supervises a pileup of wildebeest carcasses.
44:55This eddy in the river will be a fine source of protein for a great many creatures for days to come.
45:07Crocs from far down river have followed the scent of death in the stream flow.
45:11Now is their time of plenty.
45:29There are hundreds of wildebeest bodies in the river, but they will all be clean and disarticulated skeletons in a few days.
45:36Sometimes we find vast collections of dinosaur bones in similar conglomerations like this, and we wonder how they came to be.
45:44This is how.
45:48Come to the banks of the Mara and you can see a recreation of life in the deep past.
45:54This is how.
45:58Come to the banks of the Mara and you can see a recreation of life in the deep past.
46:06This is the way of life, not death.
46:10To everything, there is a season.
46:18As the long day wanes, the Mara River flows calmly on as if nothing has happened.
46:28As the long day wanes, the Mara River flows calmly on as if nothing has happened.
46:36The river crossing, like the Great Migration itself, is merely a natural process, one that creates even as it kills.
46:40The river crossing, like the Great Migration itself, is merely a natural process, one that creates even as it kills.
46:44It is, in fact, the engine of everyone's survival.
46:49And so the wildebeests continue to forge ahead.
46:53And so the wildebeests continue to forge ahead.
46:57They always have, and they always will, whatever the consequences to individuals.
47:01It's the herd that makes it all worthwhile.
47:09If some of them don't make it, then this too is nature.
47:13This too is the Serengeti.
47:17Amidst its demands, its brutality, even its neglect,
47:21Amidst its demands, its brutality, even its neglect,
47:25there is a clear central drive here.
47:29A drive to make it all work out somehow.
47:37It's a mystery.
47:41But it's never surprising, and it's never wrong.
47:45But it's never surprising, and it's never wrong.