Africa: The Serengeti

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There is a place on earth ...

where it is still

the morning of life,

and the great herds run free.

Life streams across a land ...

suspended in time.

The last refuge of the greatest

concentration of wildlife ...

remaining on earth

the Serengeti plains of East Africa.

Long before human memory,

the mountains to the east emptied

themselves into the skies.

A sea of ash settled

across the Serengeti ...

leaving only scattered summits ...

as stone markers of a buried world.

Across four million years,

time and the elements

turned ash to rich soil,

yielding vast grasslands,

today preserved as the most important

animal sanctuary on earth.

In a land as fertile

as it is beautiful ...

dwell millions of

diverse creatures.

Yet a single species

predominates,

a million and a half strong

wildebeests affect the lives of

all around them.

Ungainly in appearance,

they have been called the clowns

of the African plains,

and an animal assembled by

committee from spare parts.

But wildebeests

are superbly endowed ...

for a life of endless migration

in search of grass and water.

Alongside, an array of

other herbivores coexist,

all accommodated by the rich ...

and varied vegetation

of the Serengeti,

each seeking out a different

niche of the food supply.

Some may spend 2/3 of

their lives grazing.

Some are fortunate enough to

live in their own salad bowl.

The equation of life

on the Serengeti is simple:

herbivores eat plants,

carnivores eat herbivores.

Lions hunt with both

might and stealth

a decoy distracts

while others stalk.

Although the lioness

has made the kill,

it is the much larger male

of the pride who eats first.

The hungry wait by rank.

Lionesses and cubs

are second in line.

Hyenas, jackals and vultures ...

quarrel to be next.

On the Serengeti,

nothing is wasted.

Through the plenty

of the wet season,

the wildebeest herds

have grown strong ...

on the short grass plains

of the southern Serengeti.

Now in late May, drought approaches

imposing a deadly ultimatum

migrate or starve.

For more than 2 million animals,

it is a marathon race against

thirst and hunger.

Like living streams and rivers,

the herds, accompanied by

zebras and gazelles,

flow toward the north and west,

drawn by the ancient promise

of water and grass.

The great migration has begun.

The epic journey takes place ...

within the two East African

Nations of Tanzania and Kenya.

The wildebeest herds

migrate north ...

toward the "Maasai Mara

Game Reserve" in Kenya.

There, they range

for months ...

until the rains resume,

and the herds return again

to the southern plains.

The migration runs a deadly

gauntlet of more than 500 miles.

The first weeks of the

migration ...

coincide with the frenzy

of the rutting season.

Bulls engage in

constant battles ...

over females and territories.

In a few frantic weeks, 90%

of the cows are impregnated.

Early in the migration northward,

herds move through

the region ...

of ancient granite outcroppings

called "kopjes".

Now, they are vantage points

for waiting predators.

From a litter of four, only this

lone cheetah cub has survived.

To nourish it, the mother must

kill almost daily,

but she has not eaten for 2 days.

The herds have passed, but a few

straggling gazelles appear.

From this distance,

there is no contest.

The cheetah is the fastest

land animal on earth,

achieving short bursts of speed

up to 70 miles per hour.

There is neither malice nor

remorse on the Serengeti.

A hunter kills to eat

and to feed its own

nothing more.

To the migrating herds, wooded

savannas now offer refuge ...

from the drought-stricken plains.

But here, the migration

becomes an invasion,

for the woodlands are

a permanent home to others.

Yet most of the residents go

about their own daily affairs,

little disturbed by the

trespassing multitude.

Unlike wildebeests, Maasai

giraffes need not migrate.

They feed on a hundred

species of woodland foliage,

a food supply resistant to drought.

Vervet monkeys find in trees

both sustenance and safety.

Savanna baboons roam the woodlands

in troops, roosting in trees by night.

Omnivores, like us, they feed

on almost anything edible.

Occasionally, adult males will

even feast on young antelope.

Feeding on grasses adjacent

to the woodlands,

grazers come under

an ever watchful eye.

Yet there is one herbivore even

the lion gives wide berth.

The adult elephant is one of the few

Serengeti animals without an ...

enemy in the wild.

Protective of their young, elephants

form extremely close bonds.

The relationship between mother and

daughter lasts up to 50 years.

Herds sometimes push on through

the night despite risk of attack,

under cover of darkness.

Drawn by lightning distant

thunder or the smell of rain,

they may travel 50 miles by dawn.

Now adversities multiply.

Drought has parched

the plains tinder dry.

Grass fires sweep the Serengeti.

Scoured by fire and wind,

the vegetation will regenerate

in the rains to come,

but for the moment, herds seeking

sustenance find only dust.

Now the enemies are thirst

hunger exhaustion ...

and, as ever, predators.

So powerful is the urge to migrate,

the herd will push on even

when confronted by a lion ...

crouched in open ambush.

The hunter has only

to pick the moment.

In this endless contest,

nothing is guaranteed.

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