- 2 days ago
Discover the landscape and wildlife of the Lower Okavango River, where the land is baked dry by the scorching sun of the Kalahari Desert and the river has run its course and everyone is on the moon, from hardy survivors to exiled hunters....
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AnimalsTranscript
00:28Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:31It is the beginning of the end of our story.
00:39The final chapter of a river that has run its course.
00:53They walk as if to the end of the world on a journey to nowhere.
01:12Some go in search of the water that is always just out of reach.
01:18Others follow the searchers, themselves expelled from paradise, banished to the far fringes of the great river, like phantoms wandering
01:30aimlessly in the inferno.
01:43It is a place of nomads, hardy survivors, exiled hunters of illusions.
01:54This ancient land is where the water turns to salt.
01:59The air burns on the inhale, and everything seems to wait to exhale.
02:09What little water is left is as dangerous as it is a salvation, because it is a distraction.
02:21A place where someone's mistake is someone else's lifeline.
02:31A mistaken burst of energy can change your destiny.
02:40This extraordinary realm is the ancient extension of the Okavango, a river of dreams.
02:47Of course.
02:51It is.
02:57It is.
03:00It is.
03:01It is.
03:06It is.
03:09It is.
03:11It is.
03:24It is.
03:32It is.
03:34The final chapter of our story of the great Okavango in Botswala, is where its fingers clutch
03:41onto life, and the water touches the desert, where Paradise turns into an inferno.
04:03Each droplet is a jewel that holds the fate of a small part of all life here.
04:11It is the story of movement.
04:16Everyone is on the move.
04:19Like fragile porcelain, this part of the delta is vulnerable to the smallest change, in water,
04:27in temperature, and from the swirling influences of tiny animals.
04:40Red-billed quillia, in their millions, start to flock.
04:46These are the most abundant birds on the whole planet.
04:51A single super flock of quillia can devour 20 tons of feed a day.
04:57And that changes everything here.
05:19The quillia will change the lives of the nearby leopard family, as the flock strips the grasses
05:26down to bare sand.
05:34The little female's brother has less time for such reflections.
05:38He is more interested in how things work in the world.
05:59Like the bees, returning laden with pollen, he hasn't learned the dangers of being curious
06:08yet.
06:17Bee-eaters swoop in to take advantage.
06:27Bored with killer bees, he takes to irritating his more serious twin sister.
06:38It's the season of the sausage tree flowers.
06:42Good for bees, and the ideal place for the twins' mother to hang out.
06:54She's not resting.
06:55She's waiting for the fallen flowers to attract attention.
06:59Then, dw surgery browns in to take advantage of the
07:34Usually, leopards catch just once in every five attempts, but by using this sausage tree
07:40technique she has a much higher success rate.
07:45It's also why we call her Moporoto, the local name for sausage tree.
07:53The cubs are developing their own killing skills, but by watching Moporoto, they might understand
08:00exactly what these flowers can give them.
08:06Rest is impossible, so within minutes she heads back to the trees.
08:11Let's go.
08:13Let's go.
08:45The throat hole makes it a silent death.
08:50Stealth after the kill is as important as before for one of the smallest of the big cats.
09:00In this complex mosaic of the Akavango, bigger predators and scavengers stride across the landscape as if they own it.
09:11They do own it.
09:19Here, the water separates into streams and rivulets, winding fingers that cut through the grassland and sausage tree islands.
09:37The lions are in search of shade, but the breeze has hints of the smell of meat on it.
09:59If the cubs panic, they could slip.
10:03It would end their story.
10:07The lions want the kill, but just can't get to it.
10:26Thankfully, the lions have their own cubs, and the massive sausage pods distract them.
10:37Their fascination with the woody pods is a mystery to the leopard cubs.
10:42But from now on, their lives will be intertwined with all these other predators.
10:48Because the Akavango has one of the highest densities of carnivores in Africa.
11:12There is a chill in the morning air now, but during the day, the temperature starts to rise.
11:18This signals the start of the dry season, when the channels begin to shrink.
11:25Oxygen levels drop.
11:28The fish that recognize that turn and head back upstream.
11:44Those that leave it just too late get cut off, isolated.
11:51The birds harvest tons of fish each year.
11:58Their collective and organized feeding frenzy will clean out a pool in just a few days.
12:31But all the way down the delta, right to the end fingers, these fish traps provide
12:37for one of the greatest diversities of water birds in Africa.
13:02Being able to move is critical to survival at the fringes, where water supply is fickle during
13:08this part of the year.
13:13When the feed above ground is depleted, elephants go in search of a new protein source.
13:22They start mining the rhizomes and grass roots buried in the sand.
13:37In the dry season, the entire value of the grasses is stored below the surface.
13:57local residents have to protest to stay safe.
14:01Local residents have to protest to stay safe.
14:25local residents have to protest to stay safe.
14:33Actually, 16 problems.
14:36Having this many puppies causes a problem,
14:39because only one female in the pack is allowed to breed.
14:43So the alpha female has stolen her sister's puppies.
14:49But she's struggling to feed them all.
14:54It's a free-for-all.
14:56But she refuses to share this burden of motherhood
14:59or abandon any pups.
15:06The headache for the alpha male is
15:09that they're going to be called on to hunt twice a day now,
15:12and they're already exhausted.
15:19So is the river.
15:22After its nearly 1,000-mile journey,
15:25the full thrust of the flood has ended.
15:28The water flow settles and starts to seep in.
15:42Even sleeping giants can be woken by a small, niggling voice.
15:46It's a nudge that starts a ripple-effective movement.
16:08It's the largest migration of elephants in the world.
16:16Now the air is so dry that it turns the grasses brittle under their feet.
16:22They cover hundreds of miles in search of water.
16:52They cover her.
16:55They're all at their
17:00It's a 50-gallon-a-day challenge, so these Okavango elephants are seldom far away from
17:07water.
17:08Water that others live in, fight in, and churn up into mud, faster than is necessary.
17:37But this pressure on resources sets the elephants off again in search of clean water.
17:42And behind them, the land is left to rest.
17:49At these fringes, those that can move have an advantage.
18:08Warthogs are after the same buried grass roots, rhizomes.
18:14It's the season when warthogs cluster around rhizome patches.
18:23It's an awkward position to be in.
18:35Lionesses have to hunt whatever preys in their territory.
18:38Lionesses have to hunt in their territory.
18:55Lionesses have to hunt in their territory.
19:16A good pig hunting day will see two or three taken in one hunt.
19:23They can hide, but they shouldn't run.
19:32Here it's all about territory.
19:36Warthogs will feed the lionesses until the rains, but it's risky being territorial at the far
19:42end of the water.
19:44A low flood one year, and they'll be high and dry.
20:05Lion cubs play with anything.
20:10Even old elephant dung.
20:16What is just a plaything for lions is highly valued nesting material for squirrels.
20:27They're playing the long game and preparing early.
20:40Raiding starlings spot an opportunity for themselves.
20:46They are energetically lazy about nesting.
20:49The squirrel's nesting material is just easier to steal.
20:57When one thing goes wrong, everything falls apart.
21:04It's a bad day for squirrels.
21:15The lilac-breasted rollers aren't after the nesting material.
21:20They're after the whole nest.
21:24It's pure harassment, no matter how brightly colored it is.
21:32Eventually, it's just easier and quieter to move on.
21:37The early squirrel just wasted her time.
21:41The rains are some way off anyway.
22:03Moporoto has been hunting.
22:04The sausage tree technique is still working for her.
22:11Her island has been the perfect refuge for her and her cubs.
22:18Because the little male always gets to feed first, the female cub tries to hone her tree-climbing
22:30skills.
22:34She doesn't quite have the hang of it yet.
22:37She doesn't quite have the hang of it.
22:48Moporoto has to start thinking about moving soon.
22:51The smell of meat and cubs has started to attract attention.
23:15It's a stolen meal.
23:18Next time, it might be a cub.
23:41But I have to throw up the water is safe.
23:42I'm very excited to find the fossils.
23:42The eagle is in the sea, which I have the same way as well.
23:46The one with a baby is very small.
23:57She has to move them now.
24:00It's their first venture away from their birthplace,
24:03into a world filled with strangeness for them.
24:30It may seem like a harmless duel,
24:33but giraffes can do serious damage to each other.
24:38With razor-sharp hooves and battering ram-like heads.
24:50She's followed the line of the sausage trees while they have flowers,
24:54but now she has to venture out.
24:57The open grassland is very risky for a leopard with cubs.
25:02Lions are the biggest threat to them.
25:08But today, it's stifling hot,
25:12and the large black-maned lion is even hotter than his females.
25:18And his shade from the termite mound is steadily disappearing.
25:23Even investigating vultures is beyond him today.
25:31The cubs feel the same.
25:58But for Morperotto,
25:59Well, there is just something about the way the vultures are circling.
26:06Something definitely worth looking into.
26:24It's a giraffe, killed in a fight.
26:37Out here, there are no free meals the hyenas aren't already aware of.
26:55Her cubs panic, one up the tree, the other to the bush.
27:06He is safe.
27:12Now she has a problem, and it's largely one of communication.
27:16She somehow tells him to stay in the tree, but tries to encourage the little female back from the bushes.
27:50She tests the night.
27:54It's a cat.
27:55It's a cat.
28:10It's a cat.
28:15It's a cat.
28:23It's a cat.
28:24It's a cat.
28:25It's a cat.
28:29It's a cat.
28:30Her tree-climbing lessons paid off.
28:32The lost little female is found.
28:34All right.
28:57It doesn't take the vultures long to claim the kill
29:00under the little male sausage tree hideout.
29:11But now, when the hyena senses danger, it isn't from Oporoto.
29:21The single event, a giraffe fight gone wrong, has attracted a full range of opportunists.
29:31It's almost unheard of for painted dogs to scavenge, but the pack needs this now.
29:40If they're going to bring up 16 pups, any meat at this fragile water's end will do.
29:46This will go a long way.
29:53But vultures will just attract other scavengers now, and the real danger to dogs is lions.
30:00So it's tense around the carcass, especially for the stranded leopard cub.
30:31The alpha male's obsession with vultures is a distraction.
30:43It's Moporoto, all a hiss with fury.
30:46Way outnumbered, but with the confidence of a lion.
31:17It's Moporoto, all a hiss with a giant fish.
31:23It takes a little coaxing, but he finally understands that she feels it's safe to come
31:29down.
31:33Backwards is fine, too.
31:53A last feed before it starts all over again with hyenas and possibly lions.
32:01But each interaction makes the cubs stronger now, better equipped to grow in this extraordinary
32:08swampland and its fingers of water that stretch out into the desert.
32:24A full month before the rains, something stirs in the air.
32:29Something that has local residents paying attention.
32:36Zebras have started to migrate south.
32:38As they do, they meet strangers.
32:47Meerkats can't afford to spend much time gawking.
32:59They're on a high-energy diet.
33:05Out here, beyond the water's end, they find that in juicy fat grubs.
33:16The family posts a permanent lookout, because the threat to them will come from the ground,
33:22as well as from the air.
33:31In the soft sand, there is always a ready hole on standby for escape.
33:42The farther away from permanent water the herds go, the more closely followed they are by nomadic
33:49lions.
33:52Desperate hunters, without the restriction of territories.
33:57But the real mystery is why the herds leave the tip of the Okavango flood at all.
34:06The answer is in the quality of the water they leave behind.
34:11Water holes are tired, drying to liquid that is rapidly being turned into mud.
34:35As these last pools of water get isolated and cut off, the water is virtually undrinkable.
34:54Elephants dominate, and it is here that the nomadic lions find the best opportunities.
35:01They understand that someone's desperation is their hope.
35:09Drvalue a47s target is энергia.
35:10The Size of Kavango JUSTICE
35:23The Sandいうこと is part of the ultimate priority in the future.
35:41They're often young, displaced siblings, both males and females.
35:54Now, these nomads must form even stronger bonds as they move into the unknown thirst
36:01land.
36:08The heat is hard on anyone who is slightly slower.
36:19She was asleep at her den when the nomads found her.
36:36Bateared foxes mate for life.
36:39He has no choice but to watch the lions play with his mate.
37:10He will have to raise the family alone now.
37:13And be the lookout for all of them.
37:30Secretary birds are no threat as long as you stay still.
37:36The fox family is ready to bolt if she gets any closer.
37:43The scrub hare at the bird's feet knows to freeze.
37:50But secretary birds hunt on movement.
37:53Even the slightest movement.
38:13It takes nerves of steel to wait it out.
38:20He just didn't have them.
38:22He just didn't have them.
38:28He was sick.
38:31He was sick.
38:54if you can't move you have to change tactics there are very few that can
38:59survive for long beyond the water tragedy follows any misstep out here
39:14procrastination when it comes to a decision to leave a territory a pool of
39:19mud is simply foolhardy
39:37but some just get caught out as a last desperate effort barbell one of the few
39:47fish in the world with accessory breathing capabilities that allow them to
39:51breathe actual air start to walk some burrow into the mud and slow their
40:04metabolisms right down to barely a heartbeat waiting for the range if they
40:14get it wrong they're on the top layer and simply bake she doesn't have the bulky
40:24body of mopperoto because she doesn't get the same food she's a desert leopard but
40:32the wily leopard living on the edge has a talent for finding the impossible a
40:41buried barbell it's small but in a few days the hippo will probably be stuck too she
41:20can wait
41:21it starts with the most gentle of breezes dusting the scorched sands
41:39the zebras are the first to recognize it
41:44it comes from out there
42:02where the herds go
42:04the nomads follow
42:32movement the hot air rises and
42:35cools as it drops down the air triggers a cycle of the most extraordinary
42:42contrasts it is the eternal journey of life from death water from dry and motion
42:50from the static stifling heat they run on the promise of rain
43:03the
43:04the
43:06the
43:07the
43:07the
43:09the
43:09the
43:09the
43:09the
43:09the
43:21the
43:30Within days, over 3,000 miles of flat thirst land is transformed by just a few inches of sheet rainwater.
44:18So, let's go.
44:21It takes the pressure off everyone.
44:26It unlocks them from purgatory.
44:45It releases the nomads to spend energy playing again.
44:56It attracts thousands of pink visitors from across the subcontinent.
45:15The arrival of the flamingos is all about sodium chloride.
45:20Basic salt.
45:34The rain has stimulated a hatching of shrimp that they feed on.
45:38The sheet water gives them safety, an early warning against being ambushed.
45:44They are the greatestjar.
45:48They are the greatestjar.
46:05Football tape is unable to infect the island.
46:06But they are the first-ever.
46:06They are the last full list of from across the south.
46:12The world is the best part of it.
46:14This day, we will be looked into the world.
46:14Only interrupted by a snooping jackal.
46:48He's heading somewhere else, anyway.
46:51The smell of blood on the wind.
47:23A wandering lion, like so many other cats here, prefers the rough and spiky grass islands
47:31to the sticky salt water.
47:35It's hard for everyone.
47:42But it is that salt that the zebras have been coming towards for months.
47:50They desperately need the minerals to fight off the toxins from the grasses they've been
47:56eating 300 miles away in the Akavango Delta.
48:03Without salt, they simply cannot survive.
48:08If you are a zebra in Botswana and want to find a mate, fight for your right to a herd,
48:14or
48:14even give birth in the safety of thousands, this is the place to be.
48:40Full moon in the salt pans is a kaleidoscope of nightlight, dancing off the white salty sands
48:47below the water.
49:09The salt pans is a kaleidoscope.
49:14The salt pans is a kaleidoscope of the ice cream and the ice cream.
49:14The salt pans is a kaleidoscope of an ice cream.
49:17I don't know.
49:54To really understand the Okavango is to know that this precious water takes half a year
50:00to reach the full extent of its range.
50:04It nourishes over 10,000 square miles and everything that lives in it.
50:10Every single life here plays its own unique role in creating this pristine landscape.
50:17And together, they all change the water's flow.
50:21They are a reflection of the river itself.
50:34Regal male lions fight and force nomads to wander off.
50:42Fires burn underground and gently smoke for years, flushing out the old, stimulating the new.
50:52It's an enigma, a place where a beautiful stillness hangs in the air.
51:09It is one of the last places on Earth where giants can still roam unmolested.
51:20Where babies can trust in tomorrow.
51:23And where hope is alive.
51:34It's where a single lioness can overcome impossible odds to live another day.
51:42It is a jewel.
51:45One of the most pristine landscapes left on the planet.
51:49And its future is entirely in our hands.
51:55We have a choice.
51:57We can protect it.
51:59Or we can just stand back.
52:01Bear witness to the very last life here.
52:05And watch as it all ghosts away.
52:10Some of them want to use you.
52:14Some of them want to get used by you.
52:19Some of them want to get used by you.
52:57To learn more about what you've seen on this nature program, visit pbs.org.
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