Best of African Animals | Top 5 | BBC Earth

foreign in the heart of the Sahara these swallows have traveled one and a half thousand miles since they left Nigeria their superb powers of navigation will eventually guide them to Europe but now they and other thirsty migrants need to find a speck of blue amidst this ocean of sand and here it is [Music] um here too ancient groundwater Wells up to the surface [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] need to be careful for the sons has played a terrible trick this Oasis is poisonous [Music] intense evaporation over thousands of years has left the water saltier than the sea as if to underline the horror the place is Infested by vast swarms of flies [Applause] but this plague is a bird's salvation the Flies are filled with fresh water filtered from the brine so like a desert Wanderer squeezing a drink from a cactus the birds get all the water they need from the fly's bodies [Music] more and more migrants join in [Music] wagtails [Music] foreign this is the bird's only stop over he gives them enough fuel to escape from the Sahara and Africa alone gravis zebra he weighs close to half a tonne and could go for three days without drinking like the macaques his forebears were refugees from the advancing Sahara the land is scrubby and dry but this stallion has claimed it as his own he's been waiting months for visitors female visitors if they like his territory they might stay a while it's his first chance to mate for a very long time foreign ERS are looking for a more impressive partner there's another setback the females were being followed a posse of young males everyone arrival [Music] it's time to separate the men from the boys One By One The Stallion seized them off foreign [Music] [Music] the females had ringside seats and his prowess has not gone unnoted [Music] machismo gives way to tenderness [Music] around here you have to take every opportunity be it for food for water or for mates foreign ERS are a Fickle Bunch the herd have decided to move on all of them the stallion may never see the scene charms but one is now carrying his foal the Nile crocodile creature older than Africa itself hunting skills honed over 200 million years [Music] using extreme stealth the crocodile needs to get within a meter of its prey desperate to drink the Buffalo seem blind to the danger foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] just too much for a crock out of water but there'll be another chance in the Serengeti youngsters spend years watching how old the lionesses tackle large prey however it looks as though these Cubs will have to teach themselves through trial and error foreign they begin the stalk like seasoned Hunters using the scant cover to conceal themselves and they have to be incredibly quiet oryx are spooked by the slightest sound one of the youngsters looks as though it's made a mistake it's broken cover actually very cleverly it's pushing the oryx towards the other line oh oh [Music] and oryx is quite capable of seeing off a lamb as long as the antelope stands its ground and doesn't run but will the oryx keep its nerve foreign ly the youngsters lose heart thirsty elephants often race into pools matriarch knows that her family must not rush in this pool is stagnant and the elephants have a trick that deals with that foreign settles to the bottom and the cleaner fresher water lies on the surface they skim it carefully from the top then as gently as elephants can they move forward slowly trying not to disturb the stagnant layers foreign like this draws in herds from far and wide in the exuberance of a greeting all their careful work is undone foreign Bulls are forced together by the need for water tempers can flare [Music] foreign

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 3,864,201

Keywords: best african animals, nile crocodile vs buffalo, lions hunt oryx, bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, african animals, african wildlife, animals in africa, animals on safari, which animals can I see on safari, epic zebra fight for mate, swallows in desert oasis, elephants fight over water, top 5 african animals, top 5

Id: xyfSIiQvzf4

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 07 2019