1 00:00:32,298 --> 00:00:34,459 It is night in the African bush 2 00:00:34,601 --> 00:00:41,063 where the familiar becomes mysterious and the unfamiliar is strange indeed. 3 00:01:26,252 --> 00:01:29,688 It is the time and place where lions come into their own... 4 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:32,818 and man does not willingly venture. 5 00:01:43,203 --> 00:01:46,400 In this dark realm they reign supreme; 6 00:01:46,539 --> 00:01:48,507 they are the kings; 7 00:01:48,641 --> 00:01:52,008 They are the Lions of the African Night. 8 00:02:58,077 --> 00:03:02,070 A day in the bushveld of southern Africa draws to a close 9 00:03:02,215 --> 00:03:03,739 and a pride of 30 lions 10 00:03:03,883 --> 00:03:08,252 that has dozed and slept through the long, hot day lazes on. 11 00:03:21,034 --> 00:03:25,767 This pride is unusually large two or three times larger than most, 12 00:03:25,905 --> 00:03:30,001 and for small cubs life in such a pride can be hard. 13 00:03:32,278 --> 00:03:35,611 When food is scarce, competition at kills is fierce, 14 00:03:35,748 --> 00:03:38,717 and it's the little cubs that always suffer. 15 00:03:41,321 --> 00:03:43,255 The males that sired these cubs 16 00:03:43,389 --> 00:03:46,256 have deserted their big family to form a new pride 17 00:03:46,392 --> 00:03:49,020 elsewhere with younger lionesses. 18 00:03:49,162 --> 00:03:53,098 Now, all the adults in this pride are females. 19 00:03:59,706 --> 00:04:02,869 They rest on, waiting for the day to cool, 20 00:04:03,009 --> 00:04:05,671 for lions are seldom active when it is hot 21 00:04:05,812 --> 00:04:09,748 and like most prides, this one hunts mainly at night. 22 00:04:09,882 --> 00:04:13,249 They'll hardly stir until the sun has set. 23 00:04:22,862 --> 00:04:28,562 As the day winds down, young baboons cavort in a last burst of play. 24 00:06:32,191 --> 00:06:36,821 The sounds of day merge through the evening into those of an African night 25 00:06:52,378 --> 00:06:57,042 A hyena sniffs the night as the clan set out on their hunt. 26 00:07:02,155 --> 00:07:06,387 A toktokkie beetle taps out the signal that will find him a mate. 27 00:07:25,144 --> 00:07:28,477 And from somewhere close by comes an answer. 28 00:07:48,167 --> 00:07:50,863 Each hole, cut to the same pear-shaped pattern, 29 00:07:51,003 --> 00:07:54,439 serves the same remarkable purpose of magnifying the sound 30 00:07:54,574 --> 00:07:57,600 made by the slender tree cricket that shapes them. 31 00:08:00,980 --> 00:08:02,447 To advertise for a mate, 32 00:08:02,582 --> 00:08:06,382 the male cricket has developed a system comparable to a loudspeaker 33 00:08:06,519 --> 00:08:11,422 where a vibrating membrane his wings is surrounded by a baffle. 34 00:08:14,427 --> 00:08:16,793 The leaf is the cricket's soundboard, 35 00:08:16,929 --> 00:08:21,628 and the sound produced is magnified in intensity as much as three times. 36 00:08:28,241 --> 00:08:29,708 But simply tapping on the ground 37 00:08:29,842 --> 00:08:33,642 seems to work well enough for the toktokkie beetles. 38 00:08:57,570 --> 00:09:01,870 In their first hunt of the night the lions have failed to make a kill. 39 00:09:02,008 --> 00:09:06,069 They have panicked and scattered a mixed herd of zebra and wildebeest, 40 00:09:06,212 --> 00:09:09,443 which are still vulnerable as they try to regroup. 41 00:09:17,590 --> 00:09:20,423 The lions have approached their prey on a broad front 42 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:23,961 and are now spread out at intervals through the bush listening. 43 00:09:27,567 --> 00:09:32,368 When hunting at night, lions rely almost entirely on their acute hearing 44 00:09:32,505 --> 00:09:35,565 They move noiselessly through the darkness, 45 00:09:35,708 --> 00:09:38,438 stopping frequently to stand motionless 46 00:09:38,578 --> 00:09:41,979 listening for the slightest sounds of their prey 47 00:09:49,021 --> 00:09:52,718 Although the lions may not see any better at night than their prey, 48 00:09:52,858 --> 00:09:56,794 the deep shadows provide more cover for stalking. 49 00:10:49,915 --> 00:10:51,644 The herd has picked up the scent. 50 00:10:54,053 --> 00:10:57,079 Lions pay no heed to wind direction. 51 00:10:57,223 --> 00:11:00,715 They're not aware that the wind will carry their scent to the quarry. 52 00:11:00,860 --> 00:11:04,694 And, like most hunts, this one ends in failure. 53 00:11:24,050 --> 00:11:29,181 With so many mouths to feed, a pride like this one has to hunts every night. 54 00:11:29,321 --> 00:11:31,915 To survive, each year they will have to kill about 55 00:11:32,058 --> 00:11:35,721 250 animals the size of a wildebeest. 56 00:11:44,103 --> 00:11:46,537 From crevices, burrows, and holes 57 00:11:46,672 --> 00:11:50,267 animals that have slept through the day are emerging. 58 00:11:51,110 --> 00:11:55,479 These night apes will feed until daybreak on tree resin and insects 59 00:11:55,614 --> 00:11:59,141 moving with prodigious leaps through the trees. 60 00:12:34,453 --> 00:12:39,789 Hippos, having slept and rested in the river all day, emerge now to feed. 61 00:12:48,801 --> 00:12:53,033 At night they graze on grasses and sedges along the river's edge. 62 00:12:53,172 --> 00:12:55,299 But sometimes when food is scarce, 63 00:12:55,441 --> 00:12:59,104 they will lumber several miles inland to find enough to eat. 64 00:12:59,779 --> 00:13:04,113 By dawn each will have consumed about 80 pounds of forage. 65 00:13:12,525 --> 00:13:16,484 From his burrow entrance a porcupine tests the safety of the night 66 00:13:16,629 --> 00:13:19,462 before he leads his family out to feed 67 00:13:19,598 --> 00:13:22,192 The tiny pups, only a few weeks old, 68 00:13:22,334 --> 00:13:25,064 will accompany their parents along regular trails 69 00:13:25,204 --> 00:13:29,732 in their search for the bulbs, roots, and bark on which they live. 70 00:14:00,639 --> 00:14:03,540 The lions have trapped a warthog in its burrow. 71 00:14:04,009 --> 00:14:08,412 It's a prize they cannot resist, and they will dig until they unearth it. 72 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,780 Fierce and frantic, the warthog in its burrow lunges 73 00:14:17,923 --> 00:14:20,790 with its sharp tusks as the digging lions. 74 00:14:20,926 --> 00:14:25,420 But with such odds against it, the outcome is inevitable. 75 00:15:04,570 --> 00:15:08,336 But only a lucky few get a meal from such small prey. 76 00:15:08,474 --> 00:15:11,875 The others search the ground for scraps. 77 00:15:43,943 --> 00:15:46,571 A hungry lioness returns to the demolished burrow 78 00:15:46,712 --> 00:15:51,342 for a last hopeful search before the pride moves on. 79 00:16:14,206 --> 00:16:16,003 A black roach digs the hole 80 00:16:16,141 --> 00:16:20,077 where she'll place the package of eggs she carries attached to her abdomen. 81 00:17:00,152 --> 00:17:03,315 The only maternal care she gives her progeny is now 82 00:17:03,455 --> 00:17:05,685 as she carefully conceals their position 83 00:17:05,824 --> 00:17:09,157 disguising the site with pebbles and vegetation. 84 00:17:44,563 --> 00:17:47,964 Parental care is more developed in this large centipede. 85 00:17:48,100 --> 00:17:51,069 The female carries her young about with her. 86 00:17:51,203 --> 00:17:53,171 While she devours a grasshopper, 87 00:17:53,305 --> 00:17:56,433 her offspring life packed securely against her body, 88 00:17:56,575 --> 00:17:59,442 held in place by her many legs. 89 00:18:10,823 --> 00:18:15,385 Other centipedes protect and tend their young in burrows under stones. 90 00:18:15,527 --> 00:18:18,792 But in addition, this species can carry hers. 91 00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:23,527 She holds them high above the ground and walks on her remaining legs. 92 00:18:35,481 --> 00:18:38,006 Centipedes too have predators, 93 00:18:38,150 --> 00:18:43,782 and this tiny snake is a specialist, feeding on them almost exclusively. 94 00:19:13,051 --> 00:19:15,645 Holding on grimly, the snake appears unaffected 95 00:19:15,787 --> 00:19:18,483 by the many bites it receives from the centipede. 96 00:19:21,059 --> 00:19:25,086 The snake's venom takes effect and the centipede is overcome. 97 00:19:44,383 --> 00:19:45,907 The little snake is able to swallow 98 00:19:46,051 --> 00:19:49,817 centipedes almost twice the diameter of its own body. 99 00:19:49,955 --> 00:19:52,719 It always seems to start with the head 100 00:21:31,423 --> 00:21:35,519 One of the cubs has an injured leg and lags behind the behind the pride. 101 00:21:52,277 --> 00:21:56,077 The pride does not wait for her and she struggles to keep up. 102 00:21:59,718 --> 00:22:01,879 A civet is more at home on the ground, 103 00:22:02,020 --> 00:22:06,650 but a dead tree is a handy refuge when 30 lions pass by. 104 00:22:24,976 --> 00:22:28,377 Now he can resume his nightly search for fruits, insects, 105 00:22:28,513 --> 00:22:31,073 and the smaller animals he preys on. 106 00:22:36,188 --> 00:22:37,985 When the cub catches up with the others, 107 00:22:38,123 --> 00:22:42,457 she must endure the rough bullying that young lions inflict on one another 108 00:22:42,594 --> 00:22:45,654 especially on those with any disability 109 00:23:38,683 --> 00:23:42,346 There is usually a little comfort to be had from one of the adults. 110 00:23:42,487 --> 00:23:46,651 Besides, cubs are remarkably resilient the have to be 111 00:23:46,792 --> 00:23:51,923 and this one will soon recover to torment in turn some other poor cub 112 00:23:58,336 --> 00:24:02,932 Unless driven by hunger, the hunt proceeds at a leisurely pace. 113 00:24:03,074 --> 00:24:06,566 At intervals through the night the pride will stop to rest 114 00:24:06,711 --> 00:24:10,272 and sometimes even to sleep soundly for a few hours. 115 00:24:17,422 --> 00:24:21,688 Supreme masters of relaxed living, lions are seldom on their feet 116 00:24:21,827 --> 00:24:25,319 for more than four or five hours 24. 117 00:24:47,052 --> 00:24:50,886 These are the tiny tracks made by the larvae of ant lions. 118 00:24:51,022 --> 00:24:54,287 It is only at night that these small insects wander about, 119 00:24:54,426 --> 00:24:58,522 moving backwards, in search of places to dig their traps. 120 00:25:04,603 --> 00:25:06,628 The head of the ant-lion larva is dominated 121 00:25:06,771 --> 00:25:11,606 by large hollow jaws through which it sucks the juices of its prey. 122 00:25:17,015 --> 00:25:19,245 In a patch of fine, soft sand 123 00:25:19,384 --> 00:25:23,480 the ant lion digs in and begins to excavate the unique trap 124 00:25:23,622 --> 00:25:26,750 which it will catch its prey usually ants. 125 00:25:26,892 --> 00:25:29,861 But it could well be any small insect. 126 00:25:40,171 --> 00:25:42,435 Turning in ever decreasing circles, 127 00:25:42,574 --> 00:25:46,704 the ant lion uses its head and jaws as a shovel to throw the sand 128 00:25:46,845 --> 00:25:50,747 and small pebbles out of the steep-sided pit that it digs. 129 00:26:02,193 --> 00:26:03,888 The trap is ready. 130 00:26:04,029 --> 00:26:06,327 The ant lion buries itself in the bottom 131 00:26:06,464 --> 00:26:10,195 with only its jaws exposed and waits. 132 00:26:30,322 --> 00:26:33,291 The ant struggles free from the ant lion's jaws. 133 00:26:33,425 --> 00:26:38,192 But the ant lion has another strategy that makes escape almost impossible. 134 00:26:40,298 --> 00:26:44,029 It throws up a steady shower of sand that dislodges 135 00:26:44,169 --> 00:26:45,693 the ant from the steep sides of the trap 136 00:26:45,837 --> 00:26:49,398 and brings it once again within reach of the great jaws. 137 00:26:49,541 --> 00:26:54,945 Now, held securely, the ant is dragged below the sand to be devoured. 138 00:27:10,195 --> 00:27:13,892 Roars in the night can mean danger for the pride. 139 00:27:14,032 --> 00:27:17,832 These come from a group of males that have been trying to take over the pride 140 00:27:17,969 --> 00:27:20,267 and its territory for some months. 141 00:27:21,072 --> 00:27:23,563 But the intruders are shunned by the pride, 142 00:27:23,708 --> 00:27:27,041 for males tend to kill cubs they have not sired, 143 00:27:27,178 --> 00:27:31,046 and they always appropriate and prey killed within their hearing. 144 00:28:28,039 --> 00:28:30,405 So the pride departs in another direction 145 00:28:30,542 --> 00:28:35,411 and won't relax or resume the hunt until out of range of the big males. 146 00:28:52,363 --> 00:28:55,355 Dawn finds them safe and asleep, 147 00:28:55,500 --> 00:28:58,264 several miles from the troubles of the night. 148 00:29:00,238 --> 00:29:03,605 Most nights the pride will walk about five miles, 149 00:29:03,742 --> 00:29:07,439 but when foiled in their hunt or to avoid other lions, 150 00:29:07,579 --> 00:29:10,047 they may cover twice that distance. 151 00:30:17,215 --> 00:30:21,982 The unpredictable wrath of this bull elephant takes the lions by surprise. 152 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:24,611 There is no point contesting the matter 153 00:30:24,756 --> 00:30:28,624 and the pride moves on to find a more hospitable place. 154 00:30:52,784 --> 00:30:55,651 A male ostrich sits tight on his nest 155 00:30:55,787 --> 00:30:58,847 despite the steady approach of a herd of buffalo. 156 00:30:58,990 --> 00:31:03,950 If he deserts now, the buffalo might well trample and scatter the eggs. 157 00:31:11,369 --> 00:31:16,102 But the approach of a herd of lions is too much for the buffalo... 158 00:31:20,812 --> 00:31:24,043 and the ostrich also abandons his clutch. 159 00:31:42,567 --> 00:31:45,035 These eggs are a novelty for the lions 160 00:31:45,169 --> 00:31:47,660 In the excitement of the first rush on the net, 161 00:31:47,805 --> 00:31:51,605 one or two eggs were smashed and the contents fought over. 162 00:31:51,743 --> 00:31:55,543 But now the lions are puzzled and unable to open the others. 163 00:32:42,794 --> 00:32:45,160 There's more fun for a cub in the futile stalk 164 00:32:45,296 --> 00:32:47,264 and chase of the female ostrich 165 00:32:47,398 --> 00:32:50,663 who had just returned to the awful scene at her nest. 166 00:33:06,951 --> 00:33:09,249 The remaining eggs are lion-proof 167 00:33:09,387 --> 00:33:11,878 and the pride wanders away to seek shade 168 00:33:12,023 --> 00:33:14,685 where they will sleep through the rest of the day. 169 00:33:32,276 --> 00:33:37,077 By late afternoon it is overcast and cool enough for the lions to stir, 170 00:33:37,215 --> 00:33:40,275 and the younger ones have found a tree to play on. 171 00:33:47,291 --> 00:33:50,783 But tree climbing is not something they're very good at. 172 00:35:40,938 --> 00:35:45,637 Lions have an edge when stalking prey distracted by the chaos of a storm. 173 00:35:45,776 --> 00:35:48,711 This time they have killed a young zebra. 174 00:36:11,202 --> 00:36:14,933 But even the lions are unnerved by the fierceness of this storm. 175 00:36:24,348 --> 00:36:26,441 The rain unearths a rainfrog. 176 00:36:27,018 --> 00:36:31,455 Most of the year they are inactive and remain buried underground. 177 00:36:31,589 --> 00:36:34,319 They emerge only when the earth is soaked. 178 00:36:35,393 --> 00:36:38,055 The storm has damaged the tunnels of termites, 179 00:36:38,196 --> 00:36:41,097 exposing the workers and making them easy prey 180 00:36:41,232 --> 00:36:43,632 for the quick tongue of the rainfrog. 181 00:37:13,497 --> 00:37:18,264 During the rainy season temporary ponds are formed throughout the bushveld. 182 00:37:18,402 --> 00:37:22,930 About 20 different kinds of frogs will breed at night in this pond. 183 00:38:24,835 --> 00:38:27,599 Not only frogs are attracted to the pond. 184 00:38:27,738 --> 00:38:32,107 This marbled tree snake waits for a meal to come within range. 185 00:38:37,948 --> 00:38:41,145 Most of the frogs will deposit their eggs in the water, 186 00:38:41,285 --> 00:38:42,946 but there are exceptions. 187 00:38:43,487 --> 00:38:45,978 These golden leaf-folding frogs 188 00:38:46,123 --> 00:38:49,251 are placing a row of eggs along a blade of grass. 189 00:38:49,393 --> 00:38:52,624 With their hind legs they fold the blade to form a cylinder 190 00:38:52,763 --> 00:38:54,856 in which the eggs will develop. 191 00:39:46,050 --> 00:39:50,419 By far the most numerous predators at this pond are the spiders. 192 00:39:51,021 --> 00:39:53,489 They wait motionless at the water's edge. 193 00:40:24,622 --> 00:40:26,283 When the frog has been subdued, 194 00:40:26,424 --> 00:40:29,518 the spider carries it out of the water to be consumed. 195 00:41:00,724 --> 00:41:04,956 In a tree over the pond a pair of foam frogs are making their nest. 196 00:41:05,529 --> 00:41:07,895 With their hind legs they whip up the foam 197 00:41:08,032 --> 00:41:11,433 in which their young will spend the first five days of their lives. 198 00:41:13,037 --> 00:41:16,268 The female provides the mucus together with her eggs, 199 00:41:16,407 --> 00:41:20,002 while the male on her back adds his sperm to the mix. 200 00:41:21,011 --> 00:41:25,414 Soon the foam hardens on the outside to a meringue-like crust. 201 00:41:26,217 --> 00:41:29,050 From other nests made five nights previously 202 00:41:29,186 --> 00:41:33,179 tiny tadpoles are slipping out and dropping into the pond below 203 00:41:33,324 --> 00:41:35,622 where they'll complete their development. 204 00:42:36,086 --> 00:42:39,852 It is common for more than one pair of frogs to make a nest together, 205 00:42:39,990 --> 00:42:42,356 but this group is extraordinary. 206 00:42:42,493 --> 00:42:45,428 About 40 frogs are contributing to this nest 207 00:42:45,563 --> 00:42:49,397 which, when completed, will contain about 3,000 eggs. 208 00:43:59,870 --> 00:44:02,896 The pride has come upon a foraging porcupine, 209 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,737 which the adults have left to the inexperienced younger lions. 210 00:44:10,881 --> 00:44:13,748 The porcupine has been wounded, but not badly, 211 00:44:13,884 --> 00:44:18,184 and there is much fight still left in it as the cubs are finding out. 212 00:44:28,098 --> 00:44:31,590 To succeed they will have to insert a paw under the porcupine 213 00:44:31,735 --> 00:44:35,000 and bowl it over to expose its unprotected belly. 214 00:44:35,139 --> 00:44:39,803 But they're not finding this easy and frequently get stuck with quills. 215 00:44:39,943 --> 00:44:43,640 The encounter eventually becomes a lesson in restraint. 216 00:45:27,624 --> 00:45:30,184 With more time the cubs may have succeeded, 217 00:45:30,327 --> 00:45:34,423 but the adults have moved on and the cubs leave to catch up. 218 00:45:53,751 --> 00:45:56,481 A scorpion clears the sand from its burrow 219 00:45:56,620 --> 00:46:00,386 before settling in the entrance to ambush passing prey. 220 00:46:10,501 --> 00:46:13,265 Millipedes are often eaten by scorpions, 221 00:46:13,403 --> 00:46:15,633 but this millipede has an escape technique 222 00:46:15,773 --> 00:46:19,004 that makes it almost uncatchable by any scorpion. 223 00:46:31,421 --> 00:46:36,552 When molested, it flips onto its back and, snakelike, slithers out of range. 224 00:46:47,971 --> 00:46:50,405 A charge on a wildebeest herd is imminent 225 00:46:50,541 --> 00:46:53,601 and the younger lions listen for the outcome. 226 00:47:31,381 --> 00:47:36,182 For the small cubs this is the ultimate test of their ability to survive. 227 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:39,517 Only by displaying a fierce will to take its share 228 00:47:39,656 --> 00:47:41,647 can a cub get enough to eat. 229 00:47:58,909 --> 00:48:02,310 And it is now, when the abdomen of the wildebeest is torn open 230 00:48:02,446 --> 00:48:04,880 and the choicest portions become available, 231 00:48:05,015 --> 00:48:07,245 that the competition is keenest. 232 00:49:09,813 --> 00:49:11,212 By the end of such a meal 233 00:49:11,348 --> 00:49:15,250 most of the pride will have at least some small injury. 234 00:49:15,385 --> 00:49:19,344 But they scarcely seem to notice their wounds, which soon heal. 235 00:49:27,197 --> 00:49:29,631 Eventually the carcass is dismembered 236 00:49:29,766 --> 00:49:32,428 and the adults and larger cubs have taken their spoils 237 00:49:32,569 --> 00:49:36,403 into the surrounding bushes to gnaw on in peace. 238 00:49:39,109 --> 00:49:43,170 The younger cubs now have easier access to the remains of the carcass, 239 00:49:43,313 --> 00:49:45,611 which they attack with a will. 240 00:49:52,022 --> 00:49:55,549 And even the lame cub has managed to get a share. 241 00:50:20,183 --> 00:50:24,210 Hyenas and jackals that would snatch a meal from smaller prides 242 00:50:24,354 --> 00:50:26,720 find this group too formidable. 243 00:50:26,857 --> 00:50:30,190 They will keep their distance until it's all over. 244 00:50:36,767 --> 00:50:39,895 The lions that have finished eating groom one another 245 00:50:40,037 --> 00:50:44,167 licking away the blood from each other and probably renewing bonds 246 00:50:44,307 --> 00:50:47,037 that were battered during the frenzy of eating. 247 00:50:47,711 --> 00:50:51,772 For it is only at kills that harmony within the pride breaks down. 248 00:50:51,915 --> 00:50:54,975 There is no hierarchy in a lion pride 249 00:50:55,118 --> 00:50:59,384 all are equal, and the members compete only at kills. 250 00:52:48,732 --> 00:52:52,361 In harmony again and replete for a little while, 251 00:52:52,502 --> 00:52:56,461 the pride moves on to find a shady place to spend the day. 252 00:52:56,606 --> 00:53:00,406 By nightfall this large family will be hungry. 253 00:53:00,477 --> 00:53:04,538 Impelled once more on their everlasting search for food, 254 00:53:04,681 --> 00:53:09,345 They will resume again their journey through the African night.