It's the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth.
Jean du Plessis follows the wildebeest migration through
the Serengeti
. So there's a birth about to happen just right here
in this group.
. The wildebeests have given birth.
Now they head back North to face the crossing of the treacherous
Mara River.
There's a huge crocodile in the river. A croc of this size only
needs one decent meal once a year.
. Jean aims to time his arrival perfectly
There's another very large group that's also
pushing onto the river.
. But when and where they'll cross is anyone's guess.
There are no timetables for these nomads of the Serengeti.
♪
The Serengeti is one of the oldest intact ecosystems
on earth.
It covers an area nearly the size of Belgium, and spans two
countries - Tanzania in the South and Kenya in the North.
The ecosystem has evolved over millions of years.
Every living thing here - from the tiniest insect to the
largest creature - plays a very specific part in keeping
it balanced.
The most important driver of this system is the
wildebeest migration.
And the mechanism that triggers them to move is
the weather.
Sometime around October, thunder clouds build on the horizon,
and the rains begin to move South - signaling the start of
one of the greatest mass movements of animals on
the planet.
It begins with the actions of a single animal.
Then driven by an ancient instinct,
the rest of the herd follows.
It's a dangerous journey, where predators wait along the route
and prey on the passing herds.
And then there's the treacherous crossing of the Mara River
where wildebeest will die in the thousands.
Wildlife expert and safari guide Jean du Plessis has been
tracking the herds.
The wildebeest have completed the first trek of their
year long journey.
They've arrived on the short grass plains where the females
have begun to give birth in what is the largest mass birth of
mammals on the planet.
We just passed a female with legs sticking out of her.
So there's a birth about to happen.
She found a flat patch and she's just kind of circling around.
She's chosen the safety of the herd to give birth for
obvious reasons.
Hyenas, lions and all kinds of predators are out on the prowl
this time of the morning and they are keeping a watchful eye
out for something just like this.
Yeah, it's going to happen any moment now.
There you go,
she just stood back up.
That's like having gravity help her - but then there the
baby drops!
It's incredible.
She's just coming round sniffing on the baby now.
It's amazing how quickly this all happens.
It's about five to ten minutes now and the baby is starting to
move around a bit more.
It's kind of trying to stand up pushing off with it's hind legs
but very off balance still.
This young guy will be ready to go in the next five minutes.
There you go.
The new generation starting all over.
In a few months time this baby would even be strong enough to
start up the migration up North and by July - August,
even cross the Mara River.
It's incredible to think that that little thing just born
there so, so helpless...
in six months time will be crossing huge rivers full of
crocodiles that are 12-13 feet long.
You know, and besides that of course they also have to travel
250 miles to get there through hyena and
lion infested savannah.
Less than 10 minutes after 's born the baby is on it's
feet.
This is where the baby will imprint on it's mother.
They will get to know one another's scent and call.
This is just the start of the wildebeest's mass births
200,000 calves will be born over the coming weeks. It's an
extremely smart adaptive strategy.
On these open plains the newborns are easy prey to the
predators that follow the migration.
So by flooding the market with so many newborns at once tilts
the odds in the wildebeests favor.
Some will be taken, but many more will survive.
There are huge challenges ahead for the newborn wildebeests.
In two months time, the calves will be ready to join their
mothers on the return trip up North.
But this first 24 hours is crucial for it's survival.
But with so many newborns today,
the first day is a trying time.
. This is a little water hole outside of camp and this is
some of the only standing water in the area.
And these animals found it.
Yeah.
Great delight.
There's a bit of a disturbance.
For many of these young wildebeest that were born this
morning or last night, this will be the first time that they are
drinking and there's a little bit of pandemonium as the
wildebeest start to run around and they lose their mothers.
And there's a fear of them just standing around.
There's one here in the grass that clearly lost it's mom,
and a few of the adult females have been coming around just
smelling it and showing a little bit of concern.
The poor thing must've been born this morning,
early, and to already lose your mom...
There's some interest.
And there's a second baby that's also coming up now,
even younger.
That one is tiny.
You can still see the umbilical cord hanging down.
You can see there's a few mothers coming up smelling
some of these lost babies.
And they will immediately push them away once they realize
that's not their calf.
Wildebeests are very much like bats or flamingos where every
calf has a particular frequency that the mother zones in on.
And it's not uncommon for babies to get lost but they generally
find each other.
. Luckily for this calf, it's mother responds to it's cries
and the two are reunited.
The pair head off with the baby sticking closer by this time.
Wildlife expert and safari Guide Jean du Plessis,
is in the central Serengeti following the year long
wildebeest migration.
It's February - the midway point on the migration route.
Jean is on the short grass plains in the South observing
the mass births - the wildebeest females all give
birth at the same time.
Hundreds of thousands of calves are born in a two to
three week period.
For a species constantly on the move, this is an
excellent survival strategy.
The newborns are vulnerable
to the predators that follow the migration.
The only safety is in numbers.
So the female wildebeests have timed their births
to flood the market.
Some will fall to predators, but with so many young,
the odds are in the wildebeests favor.
For the newborns, life starts quickly.
The calves are up and running within ten minutes
of being born.
The first 24 hours is crucial for these newborns.
This is when they bond with their mothers.
But in a massive herd, the little ones often get lost.
Jean has found a calf wandering along a main road - alone.
. I just came across a baby wildebeest
that's obviously lost.
And what happens is they, they basically imprint on anything.
So it saw this vehicle driving fairly close to him and came
running up to it.
And at this stage of their lives they're so dependent on a bigger
creature taking care of them, that um,
even if I got out of the car it will come right up to me and
hope for some care.
It's quite sad.
. The baby heads off over the plains in search of it's mother.
Luckily, it chooses the direction that takes it back to
the protection of the herd.
And that's a good thing, Just up the road,
Jean finds a predator.
I just came upon a cheetah,
she's down in a crouching position.
It looks to me like she's hunting.
She's looking at wildebeests; there's quite a few of them
around, but there's also like 4 or 5 Thompson's gazelles here
that she's more than likely after.
It also seems like these Thompson's gazelles are moving
towards her, but also still not looking at her.
There she goes!
♪
I think she couldn't make up her mind which one to go after,
and it's so important for cheetahs to focus on one gazelle
and just stick behind that.
It seemed like she was going between two different groups and
she didn't get lucky on this one.
. The cheetah has missed it's prey.
It's too hot now for another attempt,
so it retreats and will look for any shade it can find.
She's now walking back to her cubs,
which seems to be the only shade in the area.
It's actually a safari vehicle, that's parked behind us -
who is also witnessing this, and the cubs are lying under their
vehicle and she is on her way there as well.
. There's no lunch for them.
But the cubs seem fine with that.
Now they have more time to play.
. So the mom just came to this vehicle to join her cubs.
This is the only shade around and they need to improvise and
they are really having a good time lying under the vehicle.
There's three cubs here.
Extremely playful...
and obviously enjoying the new tires on this vehicle and giving
it a good chew.
These guys are going to be stuck here for a while.
I'm trying to make sure none of these cubs come and lie down
under our car, cause the moment they get under your car you
ain't going anywhere.
These cheetahs are pretty much down for the rest of the day so
I hope these guys have lunch with them.
Or maybe they will be lunch! (Laughs)
. The tourists will have to put until the cheetahs decide to
move, which will most likely mean a few more hours until the
temperature starts to cool, and the cheetahs
head off to find dinner.
The wildebeest herds will spend the next few months in the short
grass plains, feeding on the rich grasses,
and nurturing their young.
But soon the rains will start moving North signaling the herds
that it's time to get going again.
The wildebeest migration is not just a defining piece of
life on the Serengeti -
It is also a key driver of the ecosystem.
Over the course of the year, the millions of wildebeests
drastically affect the landscape.
The animals graze on the grasses like a giant team of lawnmowers,
allowing new shoots to grow, and keeping the plains healthy.
With millions of wildebeests, there's a lot of waste.
Some of that dung fertilizes the grass, which in turn helps it
to grow for the next time the animals pass.
But there is so much dung - that nature has developed other
solutions to make sure plains are not overwhelmed.
On the Serengeti an army of it's smallest residents go to work.
. We just came upon this great dung beetle making a dung ball
out of some zebra droppings.
It's incredible to actually watch the whole thing happen
from the beginning, where the beetle has almost cut out this
ball and then selecting these really good pieces of dung to
complete the ball.
And it's using these spade- like legs to pat it down
and make it round.
What it's going to do now is it will start to roll it,
and the idea about the rolling is to now cover it in soil,
making a really solid casing that will eventually protect the
egg and then later on the larvae that's going to be inside this
wet pile of dung.
Ah, there we go!
There we go!
Quite amazing.
Look at that.
This thing is like 10 times the size of this dung beetle,
and it's moving it.
It's not only going to move it, it's going to push it quite a
considerable distance.
And the idea about the distance pushing is to cover this wet mud
with this soil.
. Insect life is crucial to the ecosystem,
and true to the Serengeti's epic nature,
even the small creatures do things in big ways.
Scattered throughout Africa are impressive structures built of
mud and clay.
These are termite mounds.
Their architects, although tiny, have a huge role to play.
With 2.5 million mammals in the migration, one would think that
nothing can out-compete them when it comes to the amount of
grass that's consumed.
But the true champions are in fact these little guys.
Within a termite mount there's no sexes.
Theoretically they are all sterile females.
But they are categorized in classes and what I see here are
lots of different individuals doing different functions.
There are some bringing up the mud,
building the mound, and there's others that will be collecting
dead plant materials but then there's these big guys,
the soldiers, who would just be walking around and they're
constantly tapping their heads.
It's like a signal, and I'm sure they're a little bit disturbed
with me being here, and that's a signal that they're giving that
there's something close by.
And their sole purpose will be to defend all these smaller ones
which are completely helpless.
These harvester termites don't actually carry the dead plant
material in their mandibles, but they would swallow it and
regurgitate it when they get back into the mound.
These plants then act as a substrate for fungi to grow in
and that is what these termites eat.
That's also one of the main reasons for these chimneys,
is that it creates an air conditioning system that
maintains a constant temperature within the mound of about 26 -
27 degrees Celsius and it's just a perfect environment for fungi
to grow.
. These harvester termites eat enormous amounts of grass and
plant material.
Their eating habits, and the placement of these mounds
changes soil textures.
. In Africa there is lots of different types of mounds that
one can find and the bulk of the mound goes down,
and if I look down into these chimneys.
it is at least 8 feet down that the actual air vent goes.
Because these termites are not actually living inside the air
vents they have got no problem with other creatures making use
of such a safe environment.
This mount have a hive of African honeybees living inside
here; I can constantly see them coming and going.
But even more interesting is that there's some sort of
predator living in here - a small predator that
predominantly feeds off of something like millipedes,
because I can see a lot of millipede shells lying around.
And there's even a dead bird inside.
It's just such a fantastic entire ecosystem.
. The short grass plains in the South of the Serengeti are
beginning to dry out.
The rains are moving North.
As always, the wildebeest's instinct compels them to follow.
Instinct tells them the rains will lead them to
better grazing land.
The babies have survived their first three months and are
getting stronger.
They need to, because in just two months time,
they will face the greatest challenge of their lives -
their first crossing of the crocodile infested Mara River.
Wildlife expert and Safari Guide Jean du Plessis has been
checking in with the herds at various points on their
annual route.
Along the way he's taking time to explore some of the dynamic
relationships in the Serengeti's ecosystem.
The Serengeti is one of the few unspoiled places on the planet.
This makes it a perfect place to to see how an ecosystem evolves
to support a variety of species.
Everything - from a blade of grass to the predators,
and the giants of Africa, all play their roles, and
they are all inter-connected.
Remove one, and the whole ecosystem can be thrown
out of balance.
The Savannah elephant is a large animal,
and it's impact on this ecosystem is equally large.
Elephants are bulk feeders, and eat a lot of foliage.
So their role in this symbiotic system is to maintain the
Savanna and woodlands by reducing tree density,
and keeping the forest from overrunning the grass plains.
Some species flourish by developing a survival
mechanism that draws some, and repels others.
Trees develop nutritious leaves, or tasty fruit to encourage
animals to eat.
The animals them move on and deposit seeds from the trees in
a new location, in a fresh pile of fertilizer.
But too much of a good thing can be bad for the trees,
so they have also evolved ways of keeping browsers like
elephant and giraffe from eating too much.
This is an acacia tortilis.
This is one of the most common trees in the Serengeti and
what's interesting is that it's also one of the most nutritious
leaves and probably the tree of choice for
something like a giraffe.
In the rest of the world there's over 800 different
species of Acacia.
Most of the Acacia species have not got thorns,
and they're completely evolved in Africa as a form of
protection against these massive browsers,
but still the giraffe managed to find a way to get past these
thorns with the prehensile tongue that can really go
in between these thorns and completely strip
off these little leaves.
Giraffes are highly efficient so they are obviously getting what
they need to live out on these sometimes very barren plains.
Another interesting thing about these acacias are that they've
got these tiny, tiny little leaves,
and the main reason is to allow maximum sun to reach the leaves
but to avoid it losing too much moisture,
making it possible for this tree to survive in such a dry and
arid environment.
. Even something as routine as one species having a bath,
can have benefits for another species in an ecosystem that's
evolved in an interconnected way.
. This is Central Serengeti, where there is water all year round
and we just came upon a nice breeding group of elephants that
came down for their morning drink.
There's huge excitement between some of the adolescents as they
go down into the river and are having a good old swim and a
nice wash.
. In a balanced ecosystem even something as routine as a bath
can have benefits for a number of species.
As the elephants splash and play they widen the wallow,
which means it can hold more water.
It also creates more access so other animals can come to drink.
. There's one elephant that's having a good old scratch.
This is a good ways of getting rid of ticks you know,
with a kind of mud, a little bit of a body paint,
that scratches off all the ticks.
He's coming out now.
It's really important for elephants to get to water on a
fairly regular basis.
Their skins are about double the size as it seems and it's all
kind of wrinkled up, and by rolling around in mud and water
like this, a lot of water gets trapped in these folds and that
will actually keep them cool when they're out on the plains
it's extremely hot during the middle of the day.
We've got a nice female.
Ah, I think she didn't like me calling her a female.
They have the most incredible wash and play and rub,
you know it's like a massive spa that they found here.
This would be a very popular little water hole in such hot
dry climates as right now.
I heard one of these older cows make what we call a "tummy
rumble"; it's one of their communication signals;
and that's generally a sign that they want some kind of movement.
I'm sure one of these two here are probably the matriarch and
she's in charge of this little breeding group and she probably
feels like she had enough now and it's time to move on.
And these younger ones does not seem in the mood
to be moving on.
. As the Central Serengeti enters it's dry season,
and streams and rivers disappear,
these wallows will become refuges for another one of
Africa's great species.
Behind me is the Orange river, and this is one of many seasonal
rivers in the Serengeti.
The catchment area for this river is coming off the short
grass plains and it only feeds into this river
during the rain season.
Right here it's a little bit of a dammed area where obviously
hippos are having a great time.
It's quite a popular tourist stop where one can have easy
access to such great herds of hippos.
Unfortunately for these guys, as it gets dryer and dryer,
all of this water will eventually dry up.
And that can be quite catastrophic for hippos in
extreme dry seasons.
Fortunately hippos do have a little bit of a backup system
that can give them a few more days when it's completely dry.
They release their own type of sunscreen,
that's referred to as "blood sweat" and that will turn a
hippo completely red and give them another two,
three, maybe up to five days to survive hopefully waiting for
rain to arrive.
These hippos can have a bit of a tough time during certain times
of the year which is different to hippos living up in the
Northern Serengeti, living in the Mara river,
that's got a year round supply of water.
♪
. It's July in the Serengeti, and the wildebeests have begun
their migration back up North towards Kenya.
The newborns are getting stronger each day.
They'll need that strength.
In a few weeks time - they will face their biggest challenge of
their lives - the crossing of the treacherous Mara River.
Wildlife Expert and Safari guide Jean du Plessis has been
tracking the herds since they began their journey
9 months ago.
So the migration is heading North at the moment,
and it seems like it has split up into two groups.
One group going West, and another group going East.
Now the problem is that the group going East is heading into
the Serengeti wilderness area, that's inaccessible to us,
and the group heading West are heading into private game
reserves where we also cannot go into.
So our only hope is to reconnect with this group as they are
heading into the Northern Serengeti and maybe get together
again and form one of these huge megaherds.
For Jean, the good news is that the wildebeest will be moving
very fast - and for good reason.
They're moving through the woodlands and the wildebeest
feel vulnerable here.
Lions and other predators have lots of cover which gives them a
great advantage when it comes to hunting wildebeest.
The central part of the Serengeti is entering it's
dry season.
As the rains move North, the rivers and streams begin to
recede, leaving only small pockets of water.
This affects different species in different ways.
These small pools of water become gathering places for
animals to drink and cool off.
And that makes it a perfect place for predators like lions,
to find their next meal.
I just drove over a small bridge and there's a male lion lying on
the side of this river.
This is the beginning of the Grumeti river and they've killed
a zebra and have eaten quite a bit - they are really thick.
It seems like he's going to pull this back in the shade.
What probably happened here is that these zebras came down to
drink and these males ambushed them.
It looks like fairly young males,
you know, their manes are not completely full yet,
so it's hard for these males to make a kill.
So there is a perfect place for these males to be lining up,
waiting for these zebras to come down and drink.
And that's more than likely what happened.
And he's trying to kind of pull this back into the shade now,
but it's so hot and you need to decide where
he's going to preserve his energy.
There's actually a big croc on the river as well,
that's eyeing up that carcass;
(Lion roars)
that lion's giving a roar.
and you can see this crocodile opening his mouth and probably
hissing back at the lion.
It's quite amazing seeing something like this.
. Crocodiles have evolved to live in water where they are
fast and agile hunters.
They're not really designed to attack on land.
When the rivers dry up, the crocs lose most of their
predatory advantage, and they have to become scavengers if
they want to eat.
Nothing of this animal will go to waste,
there is always another species that will line up to take over
when another is done.
The lion is so stuffed his belly is stretched,
but even still he is reluctant to concede defeat and leave his
prize to the croc.
(Lion roars)
The lion retreats.
Backing off was a good decision for the young lion.
Even on land and out of it's element,
a croc is formidable foe.
It has the strongest bite force in the animal kingdom - at
least three times that of a lion.
While the crocodiles in this little river do what they can to
get a meal - their brothers in the Mara River are in their
element and getting ready for their annual feast.
This is the Mara river and this is the last major obstacle that
these newborns will have to contend with,
but not only do they need to cross this river and potentially
choose a bad crossing place and die in the thousands,
they also need to navigate themselves around monster
crocodiles that's lying here waiting for an entire year for
this very crossing.
There is a huge crocodile in the river.
What's extremely interesting about crocodiles in general are
that they are cold blooded, so they don't need to eat food on a
daily basis to keep their body temperatures warm.
A croc of this size only needs one decent meal once a year.
These huge Nile crocodiles are probably our best look into what
massive dinosaurs looked like. They have stayed unchanged
since the dinosaur era, and they're probably the best
example of something that's so custom designed to - to
the way they live.
And they didn't need to evolve much since those early days.
They can completely submerge themselves with only their
nostrils and their eyes above the water and still even then it
just looks like four pebbles that's in the water,
and get right in close to make effective kills.
For us to experience crocodiles making a kill,
it's very important to be here the moment these first herds of
wildebeest will arrive at the riverbanks and start crossing,
because that's when when the crocodile
will more than likely make a kill.
(Crocodile Splashes)
♪
. It's now August, and soon the wildebeest herds will be back at
the Mara River. This is where Jean started to track the herd
almost a year ago.
The journey has covered 10 months,
and it is almost at an end.
♪
The Mara River is the lifeblood of the
Northern Serengeti Ecosystem.
It spans two countries, beginning in the highlands of
Southern Kenya, snaking it's way across the Tanzanian border,
and emptying into Lake Victoria.
It's constant flows divides the park into two.
The wildebeest are headed to open grasslands on the opposite
side of the river where they'll spend the next three months.
I'm on my way to try and find the front end of the migration.
This time of year they already should have been kind of all
over the Northern part of the Serengeti.
I'm just driving hill after hill, and plain after plain,
and there is absolutely nothing out here.
It's a little bit disheartening,
you know, to just, uh - not see a thing around.
An entire industry is dependent upon the migration that was
supposed to be here already about a month ago, and for some
reason, it seems that they have flanked to the
North and a little bit to the West of this very crucial
Northern Serengeti, or called Kogatende area.
. As the week progresses there is still no sign of the
wildebeest. Jean has no choice but to wait them out.
The herds were last seen heading out of the Serengeti
National Park into private land where even wildlife
experts like Jean are not allowed.
Where and when the wildebeests will re-enter
the park is anyone's guess.
The reason for the delay is the lack of rain.
The wildebeest herds follow the rain.
But no rain means the grasses which should be lush and green,
are still dry and brown.
Soon, storm clouds begin to build on the horizon,
fueled by moisture from nearby Lake Victoria.
Little by little, they grow into massive thunder clouds,
until they burst in a torrent of rain.
These short intense storms criss-cross the Northern
Serengeti and head towards the grasslands North of the
Mara River.
(Thunder Roars)
It only takes a few days of rain to give life to the land,
and before long, the area is green with new grass.
All that's left now is for the wildebeest to come.
So I arrived in the area a little bit early.
The migration is yet to arrive but there was some big
thundershowers last night and that generally will
pull in the herds.
So there's not much more to do but sit here and wait here.
I can imagine worse places to wait than here in the Serengeti.
. And with the rains, the wildebeest begin to move.
Now the question is, where will they show up?
♪
The next morning, Jean gets out at first light in
search of the advancing herds he knows will be coming.
♪
In front of me is where we saw that storm last night and an
area in front of us is called Bologonjo and behinds me is
Kogatende, and I suspect to find the big herds just over this
rise, but the big concern is that if they go just slightly
East, they can go into Kenya and cross the river in the Masai
Mara, which is on the Kenyan side,
meaning that the entire Northern Tanzania is going to miss out on
seeing a migration and river crossings this season.
Kenya is actually just a couple of miles over that way, but
to reach that we have to go all the way back to Arusha,
and that's about a two day journey to then get into the
Masai Mara.
So I really hope that the animals that's potentially in
front of us is gonna swing West and come a little bit
down-river and have a couple of crossings down
on the Tanzania side.
. But Jean doesn't have to wait long.
Just over the next rise, he finds that the wildebeest
have arrived.
There are so many animals, they dominate the
plains and surrounding hills.
They just crossed a little stream, and all of these
wildebeests are coming down to drink.
It's about midday, very hot,
so there are thousands around.
. They are moving towards the Mara River to make
the crossing.
Now the question is, where will they cross?
Will they head into Kenya? Or will they stay in Tanzania?
A male shows interest in a passing female.
It will soon be the annual run when the wildebeest
will mate again.
For now though, they have a river to cross.
So we just came over hill and we hit the Mara River, and there's
a big group of wildebeest starting to pack along the banks
of the river, and this is normally a good sign of them
wanting to cross. The general
direction here is to keep on going North so these animals are
vacantly lining up for crossing. It might happen today,
it might happen tomorrow morning,
I mean, the only way you're going to see it is
to hang around and wait.
. The wildebeest migration is one of the greatest spectacles
in the animal kingdom.
They spend their lives almost constantly on the move in a
circle that takes them around the Serengeti.
It's August, and they are heading back North.
One obstacle remains, the crossing of the crocodile
infested Mara River.
So we just came over hill and we hit the Mara river, and there's
a big group of wildebeests starting to pack along the banks
of the river, and this is normally a good sign of them
wanting to cross. It might happen today, might happen
tomorrow morning, I mean, the only way you're gonna see it is
to hang around and wait.
. Jean will keep following the herds.
It was 6 months ago that the young wildebeest
were born.
This river crossing is a major event for adult wildebeest who
have done this before, but this
is the first time that the little ones have ever seen or
experienced this river.
Evolution has timed the birth so that the newborns have had
enough time to develop their strength and coordination
before they encounter the river.
. Yeah, this group in front of me is probably about 2 to 3000
and counting, but after the North,
there's another group of a couple of thousand. Seems like
they - they would see these guys running, and they're on their
way here, but then down to the South, there's another very
large group that's also pushing onto the river, so I think I'm
in the best position now to kind of scout all the areas, and
we'll see where it starts to happen, and they'll make their
choice from there.
. Jean has timed his arrival perfectly. The second
column of wildebeest advancing up the Western side
has now broken out of the wilderness zone, and into
Kogatende. They are heading straight towards him. It is
shaping up to be a mega crossing. In spite of the
presence of thousands of wildebeest on the shores,the
crocodiles lie still.
Crossing point after crossing point is passed up,
as the lead animals assess their chances
of survival.
Finally, they choose, and a single animal descends,
unleashing a waterfall of wildebeest behind.
(Wildebeest Gallop)
These animals don't plan to wait - they are ready to cross.
The first wildebeest jumps, followed by it's yearling.
The others following behind them.
Within seconds, hundreds of animals begin to snake
their way across the river.
(Wildebeest Grunt)
The crocs are drawn to the commotion.
So these wildebeest have been crossing the whole morning, and
there's 2 or 3 huge crocodiles that's making their
way in the line of wildebeests crossing.
. The crocs get into position as the wildebeest
struggle to get up the other side.
Having seen the crocs, the rest of the herd stops crossing.
Two crocs take aim on a yearling, but luckily the
animal finds ground below the water, and is able to out
maneuver them.
They quickly scramble up the far bank to safety.
One of the crocs has caught caught a wildebeest.
. Just towards the end of the crossing, there was this
enormous croc that got a hold of a yearling that was struggling
to get up the rocks, and it pulled it down, and then the
second crocodile came in, and literally just took the entire
head off this wildebeest in his mouth and all of them submerged,
and that's the last we ever saw of all of them.
. With too may crocs to contend with, the wildebeest
have moved on to a new crossing point just down river.
♪
We have been sitting here now for probably the last 30 minutes
a constant stream of animals is streaming through the river, I
would estimate about now 10,000 animals at least have crossed in
front of us.
. The wildebeest live out their entire life cycle
as a tribe of nomads on the Serengeti plains.
Constantly on the move,
stopping only briefly before they follow the rains again in
search of the next green pasture.
They have evolved as great sustainers of the plains,
caretakers of the land, and also
food for the predators along the way.
It's a naturally evolved, perfectly balanced eco system,
with every blade of grass, every
creature on land, and bird in the sky playing it's part in
this continuous cycle of life on the Serengeti plains.
♪
. So this is it.
This migration of wildebeest and Zebra are one of the last
remaining mega migrations of the planet, and what makes this so
successful is the fact that the Serengeti has been kept intact
for so many years.
The wildebeest crossed over into Kenya, and this is the
completion of that circle where they would eventually in a
couple of months be pulled down back into Central Serengeti
because of thundershowers that start out that way.
♪