Original subtitles

An immense, dry land dominates south-western Africa.

Here, sand covers the land in rippling dunes

and underlies dry savannas.

Rain drains away as quickly as it falls.

But there are places within this sandy expanse

where rock towers high . . .

And water quenches even the mightiest of thirsts.

These different environments combine

in a kaleidoscope of landscapes and life.

Creating the many faces

of the Kalahari.

Kalahari.

A word meaning 'place of great thirst',

it's the appropriate name

of one of southern Africa's greatest wildernesses.

The Kalahari stretches over an area

25 percent bigger than Texas

on a high, flat plateau in south west Africa.

Sixty million years of erosion

have covered the bedrock across this expanse in sandy soils

up to 200 feet deep.

These sands shape and define this arid land.

Unpredictable rains quickly drain through them,

leaving the surface devoid of water.

This is a place of extremes

with scorching summer days,

and freezing winter nights.

It's a place known for its hardy plants and animals.

These have adapted to make the most of scant resources,

surviving despite the harsh conditions.

But within this expanse there are exceptions;

Habitats that provide for a huge array of life.

Rocky outcrops rise from the middle of this sandy expanse -

the landscape's only vertical feature for hundreds of miles.

Their caves offer moist, shady refuge in a sun-baked land.

And where a great river flows out over the Kalahari sands,

Africa's greatest oasis

provides plenty for creatures big and small.

In its massive expanse,

the Kalahari is truly one of the wildest

and most diverse lands in Africa.

As dawn breaks over the southern reaches of the Kalahari,

a group of its most iconic creatures begins its day.

Meerkats.

After spending the night huddled together in their burrow,

they emerge to scan their surroundings,

always alert to the possibility of predators.

And today they must be extra vigilant.

Their newest members

are leaving the safety of the burrow for the first time,

and they're extremely vulnerable.

The pups are just three weeks old.

If they're to succeed in life,

they must learn an essential skill

for thriving in this inhospitable land.

Digging.

Meerkats' sharp claws make them experts in this field,

helping them thrive in their sandy habitat.

They feed mainly on insects fetched from below the surface.

The pups' older siblings and cousins

will dig up prey for them for the coming weeks,

supplementing their mother's milk.

Within the next six weeks they'll be weaned

and then their begging whines will fall on deaf ears.

They must learn to find their own food

before then if they're to survive.

But the ability to dig is crucial for more than just food.

As the midday sun beats down on the Kalahari,

summer days average 100 degrees Fahrenheit,

and can soar above 105.

Now, in the middle of winter,

nights can plummet to 10 degrees.

So Meerkats live underground.

The Meerkats' burrow

is insulated by as much as 7 feet of sand,

keeping temperatures comfortable

despite the extremes outside.

Meerkats can carve out lives for themselves

in the Kalahari's sands.

They find both food and shelter beneath the surface.

But not all share the advantage of being able to take shelter

from the Kalahari's extremes.

On a cold winter morning this ostrich lies in the sand,

trapping its body heat in its dense feathers.

But keeping warm is only part of the battle.

As the sun rises so does the temperature,

and even winter days can top 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Long, bare legs help the ostrich keep cool during the day.

And spreading her wings allows for maximum airflow.

Her male companion's legs serve another important purpose.

His scarlet shins indicate high testosterone levels.

It's late winter;

the beginning of breeding season.

He ushers another male away from his territory

and his harem of three females.

In an unusual system of communal breeding,

all the females will lay their eggs in the same nest,

but only the first to lay

will share incubation duties with the male.

The other females need only look out for themselves.

At 6.5 feet tall, ostriches have a good vantage point

to scan for their biggest threat.

The Kalahari's Lions.

This big male

has recently formed a coalition with a younger accomplice.

Together they control a territory

of around 1,000 square miles,

and the right to mate with the pride of females living in it.

Now in the height of the dry season,

they know that prey congregates in dry riverbeds.

Here plants take advantage of relatively nutrient rich soils,

which attracts these herds.

Even here, few big herbivores can survive,

so Kalahari Lions rely far more on small prey

than their counterparts elsewhere.

A Springbok ram would make a decent meal for the males.

But Lions use the element of surprise to hunt,

and in the open riverbed there will be no surprising the ram.

Springbok can run at almost 55 miles per hour -

a good deal faster than the apex predator.

The ram's plucky show draws a line in the sand,

reminding the Lion

that with the ram's head start, a chase would be futile.

And the Lion knows it.

By avoiding the chase,

the Springbok has conserved crucial energy.

The Lions will wait for the cover of darkness,

when they're less likely to be spotted.

Satisfied of their safety, the Springbok slowly move off.

They use these dry riverbeds as highways through the sandy land,

finding food here in the toughest times.

Between the riverbeds,

great dune fields stretch for hundreds of miles.

Forming iconic landscapes in a wilderness dominated by sand.

But some 500 miles to the north,

an entirely different form rises from the Kalahari floor.

The Tsodilo Hills in northern Botswana

are rocky islands in a sea of sandy soils.

They stretch for 9.5 miles,

and rise to around 1,300 feet high.

It's more than 150 miles in any direction

to their nearest equivalent in elevation.

More rain falls in these northern reaches of the Kalahari

and green plant life takes advantage of it

in the rocky slopes.

Formed under high temperatures and pressures deep underground,

these hard quartzite rocks have withstood the effects of erosion

over millennia.

Ancient rock paintings

are evidence that humans have been attracted to this landmark

for over a hundred thousand years.

These hills offer more than a glimpse into the past.

They are a shady refuge to a variety of life.

Including a species that lives nowhere else on earth.

The Tsodilo gecko.

Mainly nocturnal, its eyes are adapted to low light conditions,

with pupils that contract to a thin slit

during occasional daytime forays.

To grip the rocks, the gecko's toes have adhesive pads

covered in microscopic hair-like structures.

It scales the cave's walls to hunt insects

in the many crevices.

Mottled skin helps it blend in with its rocky home

and escape the attention of predatory birds

and small mammals.

Ear holes lead to sensitive tympanic membranes

that make hearing one of its most acute senses;

And even when the quietest attacker catches it off guard,

it has an emergency defense mechanism.

Like all geckos it can shed its tail in times of peril,

growing a new one after each close call.

This species has evolved

to live in the rocks of these isolated outcrops,

and Tsodilo Geckos

rarely venture onto the sandy savanna beyond.

In the dry south of the Kalahari,

bigger species rely on their ability to cover open ground

to survive.

Here, herds of hartebeest roam over home ranges

of up to 380 square miles.

Their reflective coats

allow them to spend long hours under the baking sun

in their preferred habitat of open grasslands.

But these large antelope struggle to find enough food

during the driest part of the year.

They cover ground day after day,

searching for nutritious grass until rain brings new growth.

As the sun sets, they'll stop and huddle together

to avoid attracting the attention of Lions.

Luckily for the hartebeest

not all who prowl the Kalahari night are a threat.

These Bat-eared foxes have spent the day in their den,

avoiding the heat.

Thick coats make them better suited to searching for food

in the cold night.

And they're excellently equipped for finding prey in the dark.

Their enormous ears can hear the slightest of movements.

Even below ground.

When the rains arrive,

the foxes will feed mainly on a fresh abundance of termites.

But during the dry winter, they turn to hunting rodents.

A mouse makes a good meal for a small fox.

Their adaptable diet will carry the foxes through

to the easy pickings of the rainy season.

An Ant-eating chat subsists entirely on insects.

In the dry winter, it turns to a staple.

It's found a colony of Harvester ants

with their huge underground nest.

It offers insulation and protection from most predators.

But the ants must eat.

An army of workers heads out to gather food

in the form of grass seeds.

On this small scale a grass seed represents relative plenty,

and the colony can thrive.

It's a toilsome task.

But they go about it with busy determination,

returning their spoils to the hordes below ground.

While those below receive the banquet,

the foragers risk becoming food.

Though each ant is a mere morsel,

in large numbers they can satisfy the chat's hunger.

It's a constantly replenishing food source for the chat.

These very small creatures can find all they need

in the driest parts of the Kalahari.

But the mosaic of landscapes in this wilderness

provides for animals of all sizes.

465 miles to the north

there's another exception to the Kalahari's general severity;

A place where even giants can find all they need to thrive.

What starts as a trickle

some thousand miles away in the Angolan highlands,

steadily grows to become the mighty Okavango river.

By the height of the Kalahari dry season,

the floodwaters which have gathered over months

reach northern Botswana.

Here they unleash

4 million Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water.

This great flood covers more than 2,000 square miles

in a system of streams, swamps and lagoons.

This is the Okavango delta.

Here more than 480 species of birds make their homes.

The Okavango's water

provides for bird life that couldn't survive without it.

As well as large herds of Africa's mega-herbivores.

Buffalo must drink at least once a day,

so most of the Kalahari

is uninhabitable to these large grazers.

They gather here in herds of hundreds,

finding all the water they need

even after the annual floods recede.

But they dare not wade too deep;

danger lurks in these waters.

Nile crocodiles can grow to more than 16 feet long,

and weigh up to a ton.

These powerful carnivores

ambush drinking prey from beneath the surface.

But powerful jaws

can be menacing to more than just their prey.

A youngster has strayed onto an adult male's turf,

and provoked an attack.

The battle-hardened veteran has only half of his upper jaw

but it's enough to hold fast on his opponent.

He takes a few deep breaths to prepare himself

for an explosion of energy.

His powerful shakes would tear the flesh from a mammal carcass.

But the young crocodile's armor of scales resists.

And the stalemate continues.

The old male is strongest in the water.

He prepares himself again.

This time the youngster bites back.

In the frenzy he escapes.

The scarred old male blows bubbles of aggression.

Eventually he emerges to warm himself on the bank

and regain his energy.

He has asserted his dominance among the crocodiles,

but even he isn't boss in the Okavango's swamps.

This title belongs to the Hippopotamus.

Bulls can weigh more than 3 tons,

and they have mighty jaws of their own.

Hippos spend the night grazing on land,

eating up to 90 pounds of grass.

During the day they stay submerged, escaping the hot sun.

And water lilies make a great snack to get them to dinnertime.

Mostly aquatic, Hippos rely on the delta's surface water

as a suitable habitat.

And flat sandy soils

allow them to walk along the bottom of swamps

at relatively constant depths.

But it's a plant rather than an animal

that takes advantage of the Delta better than any other.

Papyrus.

This is one of the fastest growing plants in the world

and it dominates the waterways.

The steady flow of water leeches nutrients from the sandy floor.

But papyrus is able to recycle the nutrients it absorbs,

taking nourishment from dying shoots,

and redirecting it toward new growth.

Allowing it to grow tall and dense.

It's a banquet for the world's biggest land mammal.

The African elephant.

A mature elephant bull eats around 660 pounds of food a day.

He feeds on a huge variety of plant matter.

And even the fibrous papyrus stems are on the menu.

Thanks to the Okavango's abundant greenery

in this wet corner of the great Kalahari,

elephants thrive in high concentrations.

As this giant moves,

his disturbance provides a feast for a smaller companion.

A Cattle egret can snap up insects flushed from the grass,

taking advantage of feast on a smaller scale.

Insects are an important source of food

for many of the Delta's birds.

Including hornbills

of the Red billed;

And Yellow billed varieties.

But there is another hornbill here

that needs more than insects to get by.

The Southern ground hornbill is as big as a Turkey.

They spend their days patrolling territories

of up to 38 square miles on foot,

looking for food.

This group's territory includes part

of one of the delta's large islands.

The floodwater doesn't reach here,

but despite the dryness there is food to be found.

Hornbills will eat anything from insects to reptiles,

and even small mammals.

This Leopard tortoise is in danger.

The hornbills have cornered him.

But they can't remove him from his shell.

The tortoise survives the ordeal

and the birds move off to hunt elsewhere.

With enough territory on the delta's dry islands,

the hornbills can find all they need.

For another of the area's iconic predators,

the daytime strategy is very different.

This young leopard

has recently gained independence from her mother.

The delta's tall trees

provide her with excellent lookout points.

From here she can keep an eye out for prey.

And another group of youngsters nearby

would do well to be wary.

A family of baboons is moving through the undergrowth.

Theirs is a relatively easy life,

surrounded by the delta's lush abundance.

Leopards are the biggest threat to the troop.

But she does most of her hunting under the cover of darkness.

With the troop's big males on guard,

she won't risk an attack in broad daylight.

Instead she will take the time to rest.

And the young baboons can play without concern.

In this wet wonderland all manner of creatures thrive

but only Africa's most hardy

can survive beyond the limits of the oasis.

In the height of the dry season, the south of the Kalahari

has very little in the way of greenery

and even less surface water.

Living hundreds of miles from the delta's oasis,

another family of baboons must be resourceful to get by.

But even here they can find enough to sustain themselves.

These omnivorous primates have incredibly varied diets,

eating everything from grass and bark

to insects and small mammals.

Dexterous hands allow them to pick exactly what they're after

from the foot of an acacia tree.

Baboons are one of the few mainly terrestrial species

of monkey.

But they're no slouches when it comes to climbing.

The acacia tree is a jungle gym for the youngsters' games.

Despite the desolate appearance of their habitat,

the troop is healthy enough to expend excess energy playing.

The tree has a deep tap root

that reaches water far below the ground.

This allows it to grow new shoots; food for the baboons

in even the toughest of times.

Trees like this are crucial to a variety of life in the Kalahari.

Including its avian predators.

The talons of a Verreaux's eagle owl

are strong enough to lift its own weight in prey.

It hunts by night and sleeps the hot day away in the treetops.

While the eagle owl rests, other raptors are on the prowl.

A Southern pale chanting goshawk

swoops down on prey from high branches.

While it eats its latest kill,

someone else pays close attention.

A Crimson-breasted shrike

is eager for a cheap meal in the challenging dry times.

The goshawk isn't fazed by the smaller bird

and it's unlikely there'll be leftovers.

As the wind starts to blow

through the Kalahari's grasses once again,

relief for the parched land is on its way.

Finally rain brings some moisture to the land.

The Kalahari's plants will grow rapidly

and feed the animals that need them most.

As the clouds break and the morning sun returns,

the Kalahari bathes in new light.

For all life here,

the brief downfall has spurred a timely boost in food supplies.

And they all cash in,

taking advantage of sudden plenty in a dry land.

For the Meerkat family this is a gift at a crucial time.

Every day brings the pups nearer to fending for themselves.

The rain has brought with it a flush of insect activity.

Feeding the pups as they gain confidence and experience.

Some will eventually leave to join new families.

But the pack will remain strong,

working together to raise one generation after the next.

In its immense expanse,

the Kalahari is far more than a barren desert.

Life of all forms thrives here.

In a land underscored by sand,

rocks provide crucial refuge.

And a mighty river floods far and wide.

This provides abundance for some.

While elsewhere the hardy must make use of what's on offer.

This is a land of variety,

filled with many faces;

A collage of life and landscapes

that make up the colorful kaleidoscope,

which is the great Kalahari.