Makgadikgadi | Botswana's Wild Kingdoms | Real Wild Documentary

[Music] Botswana is a dry country it is dominated by the kalahari flat dusty endless for most of the year its surface is without water so water is priceless it forces domesticated and wild animals to compete [Music] the Baron Betty River forms the western boundary of the maja dkd Basin a vast sea of arid grasslands and salt pans [Music] Maccabi caddy is a land of extremes when the rains come the salt pans filled with water and prairie like grasslands renewed [Music] Southern Africa's greatest free-ranging herds of wildebeest in several spread out across the race the memories of the drought evaporate [Music] the Okavango River rises in the highlands of Angola and eventually flows into Northwest it is the last of the great rivers still to flow into the ancient lake basin of mechanically [Music] the John River transforms the Kalahari into fertile swamp lands but never reaches the sea most of the water evaporates or is swallowed by the same the river breaks into many channels that fan out to form an inland Delta only one channel escapes the Delta and flows into the Kalahari beyond the Betty Channel most years a tiny percentage of floodwater makes it to the channel sometimes nothing at all this region of Botswana is the bed of one of Africa's greatest ancient Lakes Makar Ducati the potato channel connects the Okavango Delta to the vast mccurdy Cadiz so depends where the ancient lake finally disappeared today the only regular water supply into this region comes from the Okavango the water hasn't reached beyond the Delta in the last seven years and the last pools in the channel are slowly drying up this heard of hippopotamus watches their pool shrink your on-year waiting for the floods to come now they rely on the government tanker to keep their wallow wet but it's not just hippos that need water small villages surrounding the channel also rely on supplies thornbush fences help protect the village as wells from wandering wildlife dark spots on the hippos skin reveal escaping sweat hippos lose a great deal of water through their scale and must stay cool in the heat of the day if the hold riser they'll have to move on or die from here a mosaic of wells shows the impact of the villages and the animals on the dusty bed of the channel [Music] the marabou stork feeds on carrion but this bird drought is a time of Plenty [Music] all life in the channel is in search of water wild and domesticated animals are forced into uneasy and unnatural association [Music] storks scavenge the dried-up pools feeding on the remains of stranded catfish [Music] there's plenty of carrion to be found in these desperate times villagers can access water beneath the channel from their wells but they're protective thornbush fences are not always effective during the night two young hippos fell into a well drawn by the prospect of fresh water so there's a car [Music] the cow was pregnant and gave birth on top of milliner's the farmer and officials are desperate to at least save the calf [Music] [Music] cattle are a symbol of wealth and farmers can't afford to lose them to the wells [Applause] the hippos must be under great stress but fortunately for everyone they remain calm wildlife officials are keen to see that the hippos are safely released and the farmer needs to get them out of the well before he can release his car [Music] the pressure on these wild animals must be intolerable but survival takes precedence over everything else the government decided to withdraw the tanker in the hope that the hippos would move back to the swamp 60 miles away but the hippos remained sustained by natural water seepage and limited grass nearby once the surface water was gone the competition with domestic animals ceased a few seepage pools scattered along a 250 miles of the vetti's dry channel are all that's left of previous flood waters remarkably this pool is home to a large Nile crocodile and a saddle bill school each year the fish are concentrated into a smaller and smaller area and the stork has an easy time picking them off the crocodile has survived for seven years waiting for the river to return during this time it has protected itself in a deep burrow it is dug in the bank occasionally it catches a meal at the edge of the pool these Impala have come down from a mechanically National Park any surface water draws in wildlife from a very wide area [Music] nowhere in the Baudette e is free of cattle this is the only permanent surface water for thousands of square miles and people depend on it but at this point the riverbed forms a boundary between the National Park on the east and the villagers lands in the West the unmarked boundary runs down the middle of the channel in times of drought animals must be resourceful and sometimes adopt unusual tactics to survive amazingly a cave high up the bank is littered with hippopotamus dung the hippo must have struggled up the bank to shade itself from the Sun once it's pool dried but without water the hippo couldn't survive for long not far away there is a pool that still has water but it's barely fit for life the blood-red color comes from algae that thrives on hippo but poisons the water the yellows can live in it for drinking desert adapted sandgrouse specialize in dry areas but still need fresh water to drink they'll fly up to 50 miles in search of a clean pool no matter how small while they're here they soak special absorbent breast feathers in the water to carry droplets back to their chicks in the desert as the channel runs alongside the park towards the mechanic add a salt pans the seepage pools become few and far between until they disappear altogether [Music] great seas of arid grassland lie between the channel and the salt pans these grasslands support massive free-ranging herds of grazers especially wildebeest and zebra in the dry season the herds are forced to live along the edge of the channel because it provides their only source of water they visit it in their thousands a few hundred descending at a time to drink the batiti is a lifeline for most of the large grazing animals of the maquette ecaddy National Park even though its sandy riverbed offers little these grazers have no other choice scavengers follow the wanderings of the grazers as the drought takes its toll in the channel the concentration of animals provides a captive audience competition for water becomes intense even amongst the wild herds water seeps into sample was so slowly that wildebeest must pause between each sip it's a grim existence that worsens every year the river fails it is amazing that tens of thousands of animals are able to survive on such a small supply without the vast grasslands they certainly could not cattle are very important to the rural bats wanna people one side of the channel is cattle country the other National Park but without a physical boundary the result is a free-for-all at the water holes like the hippos upstream the wildebeests live in uneasy unison with domesticated livestock the wild grazers are timid and find it difficult to compete with domesticated animals for water without a boundary or fence to restrict them the cattle also compete for grazing in the national park there is a new arrival in the blood-red pool a baby hippopotamus nervously swims looking for its mother it has good cause to be anxious it is unfamiliar with the other adults in normal conditions it would spend the first two weeks of its life hidden from the herd protected by its mother but now it seems confused [Applause] it's mother briefly appears and moves her baby away from the herd but there is nowhere for the mother to hide her calf which is now poached by an older female the cough seems desperate for acceptance [Music] perhaps the sky is a built-in survival mechanism that is avoided when normal conditions prevail three baby hippos have been killed in this way in the last year in the dry season the big herds of the Makati kadhi concentrate around the few water holes left in the channel the big predators followed them in zebra normally visit at night they're nervous of man guns and domestic animals but this year the drought is sufficiently bad to warrant a daytime visit the lions are ready night or day one grazer looks much like another to a lion they don't differentiate predator and prey mix freely without a fence to separate them and the villagers are not happy with rampaging big cats near their herds Defense Force officials have been called to investigate reports of an aggressive injured lion hanging around the channel [Music] but wild beasts and clearly will not cooperate with an inspection so it must be tranquilized first if his wounds can be treated he will be translocated within the park away from human settlements whole of his fur leads to a hole in his spine he's been shot and his rear legs are paralyzed the shooting was probably a reprisal for a cattle kill or perhaps because he was seen too close to livestock by the way he has no chance of survival in the wild and has given a lethal injection when the river flowed there was at least some degree of separation but not everything is bleak in the mechanically National Park there is one other place that has permanent water far from the potato channel is a haven called nyebern and here a pride of lions lives free from the temptation of cattle in the center of the pan is a small waterhole kept full throughout the year water is pumped by the government from the underground aquifer into this tank and then to the waterhole via two miles of buried pipeline spillage attracts an elephant that is learning a trick or two it seems the elephant knows that when the tap is turned the tank overflows the presence of water year-round allows resident communities to establish at the pan Springbok do not normally need to drink but doing so allows them to congregate in much larger herds in the dry season than they would otherwise be able to the resident grazers are prey for the Lions which have a hard time hunting without cover around the water hill but with cemani Springbok there is always the chance that one will make a mistake it's only a matter of when [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the male line seems to have no interest in hunting [Music] [Music] the kill will be shared between the hunters or perhaps not lions are great opportunists and it makes sense for the male to use his strength claiming the kill rather than exhausting it hunting on the plains there won't be much left after he's finished so the females must hunt again he takes his meal to the shade of some form trees where he can enjoy it at his leisure the females are not disheartened [Music] the midday Sun defeats them but the Springbok aren't going anywhere although there is a small water hole in the middle of night pan the rest of the pans are dry and dusty strong breezes soon whip the dust into the air and dull the Rays of the Sun in a dust storm except a way for it to blow itself out but these winds are different there's a change in the air and the animals insensitive wins a hundred miles to the east cross sewer pan the largest sea of soda in Makati ha d the windsor heading westward across the park they Herald the arrival of the rains and the long-awaited end of the dry season the change in atmosphere is palpable [Music] rain will transform a heavy caddy and bring a short but intense season of Plenty it is at the lions know what good times are about to come and celebrate their imminent arrival the new grazing will bring good times for the Springbok to [Music] the rains fall sporadic as they head across the plains [Music] at last the long-suffering hippos are freed from that terms of caked mud [Music] the ground softeners of every hoof print becomes a drinking cup when the moon is up and the air is cool the hippos ease themselves from their Wohlers for the last time they can now leave the petit Channel and travel through the damp night towards the far-off waters of the Okavango Delta [Music] the rains fall erratically across the park and the lower reaches of the pathetic channel are still dry grasslands around the channel are parched but zebra are already leaving the pathetic and heading out over the plains wildebeest also need by the thousand even though there is no sign of water somehow they know that pans are filling but sweet fresh water is waiting in the grasslands rains falling far to the east trigger this mass movement whether the grazers can hear low frequencies of thunder or smell the rain is not known but in one day they all head directly towards the pans a hundred miles away something sends them on this journey into the great seas of grass and the Lions follow the Lions are forced to be as nomadic as the grazers almost all their prey has left the channel and they can avoid human harassment by leaving - these are the greatest naturally occurring herds of wildebeest and zebra in southern Africa lions have little effect on their numbers this is a journey the grazers make every year the rains come when they can't wait to escape into the pond for the first time in seven months they can drink unaccompanied by man sweetwater can be found amongst the salt with the broken fringes of the great patterns and as if from nowhere streams of flamingos arrive stopping off on their way to their breeding grounds in the largest path [Music] thousands upon thousands of lawmakers and pelicans head for the great pan in the East of Makati curry at the same time the herds of grazers head towards the western edge of the pans and tune I pan in the north where they join wandering elephants [Music] the sight and smell of the fresh water excites the herds [Music] zebra and wildebeest blazed trails across the mechanically National Park once they're out in the open is finally safe man that his animals can't follow the herds are here they will raise their young in the isolation of the vast grasslands the salt pans are the largest in the world a rain transforms them into thousands of square miles of soda Lakes [Music] a few special places are ideal for the breeding birds where the pans are shallow isolated and free from predators [Music] when the conditions are right pelicans colonized the northern end of sewer paths where fish are washed into the lake from the newly connected rivers [Music] together in their tens of thousands to feed mate and raise their young before the shallow mate evaporates the second part of the pan is a mecca for all of Southern Africa's flamingos [Music] they arrived from the Atlantic coast of Namibia the solar lakes of the East African Rift Valley and possibly as far as the Indian Ocean hundreds of thousands of them this is the only regular breeding site for the flamingos of southern Africa [Applause] and like the herds of grazers they seem to know the rains are failing and time their arrival perfectly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from a sea of soda vision that it's showing us grass grows quickly in the lush plains that surround the new soda lakes these bear BAP trees stand like sentinels at the edge of the patterns they may have witnessed this annual transformation for the past thousand years and some animals have made the annual journey across the plains for even long adventurous bull elephants succumbed to their wanderlust and follow old pathways across the plains to the renewed grasslands they leave family groups of mothers and cars behind attracted here by the grass palm fruit and isolation large herds of zebra start to arrive in the rich grasslands of night hand the pan is now dotted with numerous water holes and the animals no longer rely on the water pumped by the government the wet season has inundated Mechanica D&I pound with wildlife ready to take advantage of this time of Plenty the animals can graze and drink with ease an S Peretz seem to be lifted by their brief time in the transformed ponies in a display called pranking Springbok seemed to kick the dust off their dry who's [Music] [Music] elephant walls become skinny the cool moist air find each other art for signs testing their strength they enjoy life in Mojave honey [Music] zebra time most of their folding for the wet season those born now benefit from the abundance of food and from termite mounds but make wonderful belly stretches this female learn is in the mood for mating and solicits the dominant male but this young male tries to take advantage while the dominant male is distracted the dominant male will not tolerate any others mating in his pride it won't be long before the young offender is driven out permanently an adult zebra goes a lot further than a little Springbok when it comes to feeding that is some female lions switch their attention to the newly arrived big-game Lions hide strategically in the long grass to ambush zebra shepherded their way this tactic only pays off if the zebra run in the right direction luckily they have the male's just watches and waits a herd of zebra assume a pride of lions appear strange but the lines are busy drinking and with their backs in full view there's no room for surprise and perhaps the zebra are just curious the male is back to his habit of hijacking kills this time he's robbed a leopards Lada pulling the hill down from the tree takes little effort compared to hunting so he's not going to give up easily half a kill is better than none and much better than exertions in the heat smaller predators live alongside the large the trotting Fox like animal is a black-backed jackal while there are no other predators around the waterhole the general takes a chance jackals scavenge or hunt small mammals they're great opportunists but only the black back comes animals as large as Springbok to prime himself he settles into a heap of elephant dung perhaps the disguises smell this trick seems hardly worthwhile when he remains so visible in the urban country [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] suddenly language scatters the others but surprises the youngster caught up in the mouth [Music] the prize must be taken quickly lest an idle male lion is on the prowl tawny Eagles pose no threat to the Springbok even their lambs are too big for it to cash so why is this one intent on moving the eagle alone perhaps it's just for fun some of the smaller towns are already drying up and thousands of finches flock in the grid some young Lana Falcons and my parents eagerly watched them the futures a red field failure and the sheer numbers are congruent means that many fledglings become water and the Lana's are waiting it's time for target practice [Music] Lana's like all forums are fast agile hunters that specialize in taking other birds the floundering quail you give the young folk ins a head start with their hunting skills but holding on is another skill altogether [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] quelea feed on the abundant seed in the open grasslands which they share with burrowing meerkats meerkats don't need to drink and can live in the grasslands year-round unlike the migrating quail e'er wildebeest and zebra only a few inches high the meerkat baby is on its first sortie out of the den it has a lot to learn it takes a while to muster the surprised stance of the lookout [Laughter] the laner is on the attack again it's not interested in the adults but it could be tempted by the youngster and the baby hasn't mastered walking yet let alone fleeing but these are idle threats ants respond to the short-lived bounty and harvest the ripe grass seeds after collecting the seeds they sort them literally separating the wheat from the chaff then store them in their underground ladder ready for the dry season to come and some termites will eat more grass and seed than Alma qualia and the grazers put together the last Ruslan's effect colossal flocks of failure but when the water runs out they're forced to move on the time of plenty is short-lived and animals make the most of it by feeding almost continuously already there's a change in the air [Laughter] zebra hooves raised telltale clouds of dust on the plane [Music] the water birds have raised their young and graced the Sodor Lakes for the last time this year [Music] flux of flamingoes begin to stream away from a parent [Music] [Applause] empty nests crossed the pan as soda crystals begin to break through the repeating pools [Music] when the water is too salty to drink the herds of grazers know it's time to leave time to leave behind fast fading memories of sweet water pounds and trudged back to the harsh realities of the batiti in the Far West [Music] with their numbers reinforced by new phones the braises can afford the odd casualty already the Makati caddy is unrecognizable but all too familiar [Music] but pelicans heading for the Okavango can see new signs of hope [Music] this year floodwaters are flowing from the Okavango into the potato channel they've traveled further but may have for seven years while I've still not reached the park perhaps they signal the beginning of a wetter time meanwhile plans are afoot to keep wildlife and cattle separate and bring benefits to both communities if the floods are strong then perhaps the river will form a major boundary for the Makati kadhi National Park once again [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Real Wild

Views: 1,151,526

Rating: 4.6023326 out of 5

Keywords: nature documentary, full documentary, documentary movie, big cats, wildlife documentary, discovery channel, national geographic, natgeo wild, Nature documentaries - topic, Animals - topic, planet earth, david attenborough, Full Animal Documentary, wild animals, wild animal, botswana, animal, kindgom, wildlife, survival, islands, Makgadikgadi

Id: jtPzgnDd_YE

Length: 51min 49sec (3109 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 28 2018