Original subtitles

In the driest place on Earth,

abandoned by humans,

there are animals that are born to survive.

And others that survive against all the odds.

The Namibs.

Freed a 100 years ago,

they've made this harsh country into something special.

Africa's Wild West.

Flat or folded.

The Namib Desert in Southwest Africa

offers a precious treasure.

Water.

Every drop you can get.

There's a perfectly round, man-made pool in the desert.

It's here because of this town,

Lüderitz, a small colonial port

on the edge of the desert,

in what was once German Southwest Africa.

Now, Namibia.

When diamonds were found here in 1908,

the colonists fenced off the area.

This was the Sperrgebiete, the forbidden zone.

Lüderitz became home

to 100s of daring German fortune hunters.

Their town soon became a base to open up the country,

with a new railroad into the interior.

You can still see the water tank

that slaked the locomotive's thirst

halfway down the line.

Water is still a precious commodity today.

But by 1915 in the first World War, it was all over.

The German forces were defeated

by Britain's South African allies.

Those that could, left.

Others stayed longer, at the ally's

prisoner of war camp at Aus, deep in the desert.

Some stayed here forever.

Both sides left their horses behind.

Left for dead, 50 survived.

Because of this one round well, at Garub.

Today, a 150 of their descendants pace the desert,

looking for the seemingly impossible.

Something to eat.

This stretch between Lüderitz and Aus

sees nothing but rare patches of grass,

after even rarer rain.

And they have to find the grass before thirst

forces them back to the water hole.

They can never stray more than 40 kilometers from the water.

A stallion or two take the lead.

Sometimes a mare takes charge.

Whoever's the strongest.

In July, in the southern winter,

at the end of 11 months,

a foal comes into the world.

Mares gather around in support.

The lead stallion stamps out his claim to fatherhood.

He'll protect his foal against a jealous attack

from other stallions.

Standing and suckling,

the foal's first small victory.

This desert has its own laws.

Obeying them made the Namibs a breed apart.

Their 10 or so families in bachelor groups

recombine constantly, as they wander.

Foals, sometimes have to be protected

from exuberant adolescents.

Even bushman grass, dry and lacking

in nutrients, is a luxury here.

This is the time for the winter rains

but they haven't come.

Without them, life will get much harder

for the horses.

They can never leave this desert.

They can't reach the fertile regions to the south.

Beyond the giant trench of the Fish River Canyon.

They will never see the Orange River

snake through the Kalahari Desert

and through the Namib, to the sea,

a fertile lushness of its banks.

A black-backed jackal can find everything he needs here,

where the river meets the sea.

And humans once found their heart's desire too.

Diamonds, lying on the sand.

Diamond fever broke out in 1908.

Horses briefly played their role,

until it was all closed down.

Early Atlantic mists shroud a region

of forgotten, abandoned dreams.

The ghost towns of Africa's wild west.

But for the animals,

wisps of water vapor are a lifeline.

Take the fog basking Namib Desert beetle.

As he dives through the sparse vapor layer

that settles on the dunes, it condenses on his back.

And this makes him the wrong kind of friends.

A walking water bottle is attractive

to thirsty desert predators.

The Namaqua chameleon will enjoy the juicy morsel.

Eventually.

Down along the coast, the ghost towns

and deserted factories are a haven

for a jackal trying to bring up a family.

Their pups were born in September,

in the southern spring.

Now, in October, all they want to do is explore.

They have their very own adventure playground.

Health and safety might have something

to say about the rusty nails.

Meanwhile, just offshore,

Halifax Island is a small penguin paradise.

Black-footed penguins are the only species

that can handle the African climate.

They seem to spend most of their time courting.

With no predators on the island,

males and females can dedicate their time

to each other.

And to lounging in the sun.

Across the desert,

the foal has survived its first weeks.

At high noon it can reach 40 degrees.

At night, temperatures can dip below zero.

Up to half of the young die in their first months.

He's come into a harsh world,

where danger stalks.

The spotted hyena will try to isolate a member of the herd.

An elderly sick horse

or a defenseless foal.

But the clan has learned to stay alert.

There's no meal for the hyena today.

And the Namibs flank the foal for protection,

all the way back to the well.

Here, as everywhere else in Africa,

there are sentries at the water hole.

The oryxes are on watch.

They have the weapons to ward off danger.

And when there's nothing left to eat near the water hole,

they leave on a long excursion through the desert.

An oryx can regulate its body temperature

and store large amounts of water

on the long walk to the distant grasslands.

As desert survivalists,

they leave the horses in the shade.

The ritual of the dung pile helps keep the horses together.

It provides plenty of information.

It tells the herd if the lead stallion

is still strong enough to defend his mares,

whether he has found good grazing grounds,

or whether one of his mares is in estrus.

If she is, unrest breaks out among the horses.

The lead stallion must fight to keep his rivals in check

and to defend his mares.

This time, he succeeds.

But in this smaller, hungrier group,

a bachelor senses a mare is ready to mate.

He doesn't stand on ceremony

but it's her choice,

and if she's not interested...

The world's oldest desert is a place of extreme drought,

wild temperature changes,

and almost constant wind.

Dust and sand accompany the Namibs

on their wanderings.

Social interaction is their saving grace,

even in the toughest conditions.

The southwest wind whips in from the coast,

more than a 100 kilometers away.

Along the beach, jackals are on the lookout for food.

Normally they dig up mussels and snails,

make due with insects and carrion.

But in October, the beach offers new possibilities.

In the southern springtime,

Cape fur seals bring their young into the world.

And the jackals have started to show behavior

seen nowhere else.

The seals aren't afraid of the jackals.

Normally they just scavenge the afterbirth.

Seals aren't on a jackal's menu.

But something has changed.

The bulls are preoccupied defending their territory.

And once a day or more,

mothers trundle into the sea to find food.

And that's when their babies become prey.

This is new behavior.

The babies have no defenses.

The jackals have no experience.

They strangle the baby, gripping it by the throat

until it suffocates.

It takes up to 20 minutes.

The tough skin and thick layer of fat

make it hard to get to the meat.

Until they discover the weak point

beneath the flippers.

With the mother away, no seal will intervene.

After feeding, the jackal mother returns

to her own young.

Fortified by the hunt, she can suckle them.

In December, at the peak of the southern summer,

the drought has its grip on the land.

The water hole at Garub attracts animals

from ever further away.

Namaqua sandgrouse land in their 100s.

Males dip their breast feathers into the water

to carry it back to their nestlings.

The heat of the day ends with a relaxing

roll in the dust.

For an exhausted elderly stallion,

it becomes a torture.

Without the energy to graze all day,

his muscles have wasted away.

This is a harsh year for the horses of Africa's wild west.

Again and again, the search for grazing land

has been in vain.

The drought will claim many lives.

If less than 50 mares survive,

they're all at risk.

Night.

Relief from the sun

and new dangers.

The hyenas know that some of the horses

are too weak to fight off an attack.

A small group of spotted hyenas

patrol the territory around Garub.

Unlike in East Africa, there's too little prey

for a big pack.

But single horses, like the old stallion

are easy targets.

Soon, there'll be nothing left.

The Atlantic fog rarely penetrates into the interior.

It's reached as far as Garub.

A few drops on a brittle grass stalk

make a big difference in a drought.

The horses can stay a little longer

where the food is.

The cooler weather is welcome on the coast too.

Black-footed penguins suffer in the heat.

But now, they show unexpected vitality.

It's time for nest building,

using seaweed from the beach.

There's good and bad,

even among penguins.

Some put in the hours

while others just take advantage.

Your creation seems just about perfect...

and the robbers strike again.

Best to claim your place early in the saloon,

and watch, protected from the sun

and the nest thieves.

Along the coast, the hunt continues.

But now the jackals have competition.

The strand wolf, the brown hyena.

It's no contest.

The brown hyena is Namib Desert's biggest predator.

Baby seals are easy prey.

At 40 kilos, this hyena has four times

the strength of a jackal.

When his jaws close around the skull of a seal,

they crush it instantly.

When prey's abundant, the hyenas

fall into a blood-rush.

They will kill and abandon their prey.

Nature seems to have cast them as the villain

but they're simply surviving,

at the edge of the desert.

In the interior, the shortage of food

is reaching crisis point.

Normally night hunters,

the spotted hyenas have begun to attack

during the day.

Apart from the horses, there is no more prey.

The horses bear the marks of the attacks.

And once again, they show solidarity

in time of need.

A lead mare licks the wounds

of a young horse to encourage healing.

A brief moment of peace before the next attack.

With the summer past its peak,

there's still no sign of rain.

Now seriously emaciated,

the horses set off again in search of food.

They'll have to make due with roots and dried out twigs.

Like all horses, they can recycle their own dung.

It's now the only source of extra nourishment.

The mineral deficiency will be a death sentence for many,

for the old, the young,

even for mares that have given birth.

They need so much more energy

to provide milk for their foals.

This mare was left behind.

She became a welcomed meal for hyenas and jackals.

Many of this year's foals fell victim

to the nightly attacks.

Even without a predator, prospects can be poor.

If a foal can't stand, it can't suckle.

A mare won't lie down to feed her young.

It would be too dangerous.

The stallion has no choice.

He must return to protect the herd.

But in the end, he just wasn't strong enough.

Low pressure over the Atlantic

forces moisture-laden clouds into the interior,

enough for the rains.

The first real rains for a year.

Briefly, the rain collects in the hollows.

Water and dust mix into the perfect mud bath.

Overnight, islands of grass appear.

It's just enough to keep them going.

And the Namibs find the energy to enjoy it.

Over on the coast, it's a time of hope too.

The penguins are raising their young.

Jackals are looking to the future.

The oryx return from their distant wanderings.

The Namibs have survived the harshness of the desert

for another year,

in an environment they were never made for.

To become a symbol of one of the most

fantastic places on our Earth.

Africa's wild west.