Original subtitles

Africa-- a continent of brutal predators

and wily prey.

They compete against each other to survive

but pull together for real success,

with millions of years to perfect team strategy,

pack predation,

prey annihilation.

From the hungriest of big cats

to the angriest of big cows,

these are the coordinated attacks of Africa's deadliest.

(roaring)

One of Africa's deadliest ranks

among the most feared predators in the world.

(music)

Twice the muscle of a heavyweight body builder,

yet capable of speeds of over 40 miles per hour,

lions can kill virtually any large mammal in Africa.

(growling)

Lions can tackle these big herbivores

because only lions have the size, power, weaponry,

and group strength to kill them.

(music)

Jaws that can pierce through a car tire,

retractable claws that fly open like switchblades

to slice through two-inch-thick hides,

and a lightweight skeleton

that supports extra muscle mass for superhuman power--

these weapons combine to make individual lions

one of the most powerful predators on dry land.

Yet even these mighty predators have a nemesis...

...a prey animal famous for turning a chase into an attack.

(music)

(lowing)

(music)

The Cape buffalo.

(grunting)

Predation has shaped these wild cows

into one of Africa's most aggressive herbivores.

The half-ton goliaths are quick to charge

and famous for goring their enemies

with their deadly two-foot horns.

When it comes to predators,

the buffalo's best defense is attack.

(music)

(music)

For lion prides to take on these fierce beasts,

they need the strength of numbers and a fool-proof plan.

Today, they have both.

This pride has driven their victim into the perfect trap.

Stuck in a Luangwa water hole,

this buffalo has nowhere left to run.

The lions have blocked every exit.

The bull can kill with a blow of his horns.

The lions can't tackle him head-on.

Instead, they'll just wear him down.

(music)

(music)

In the water, fear and cold

sap the strength the bull needs to defend himself.

The lions just need to hold the bank and wait.

The adult lionesses conserve their energy.

They let the sub-adults taunt the victim.

Their expertise will be needed after dark.

(music)

By nightfall, they've maneuvered the bull

out of the water hole, and he's exhausted.

He's weak and bleeding from dozens of small wounds.

(music)

The lionesses step up for the coup de grace.

The young males hold the perimeter to prevent escape.

Like clowns at a rodeo,

the lionesses taunt the bull to draw his attention,

but stay just out of range of his horns.

The distraction allows another female to attack from behind.

(lows)

As the bull weakens, the youngsters join the fight.

(lows)

The lioness on top bites into his spine to disable his legs,

as the rest target his tendons.

(bellows)

Pain and exhaustion win over at last.

The bull can fight no more.

(bellowing)

Suffocation brings the battle to a merciful end.

(growling)

The reward is worth the risk.

The bull's giant carcass will feed the pride for a week.

(growling)

(growling)

Buffalo are one of lions' primary prey,

but hunts aren't always this successful.

Numbers are the swing vote between these enemies.

And when the buffalo have backup, the odds can change.

Some of the largest buffalo herds in Africa

roam the Luangwa Valley.

(lowing)

Among their ranks are hundreds of weak, vulnerable calves,

but they are guarded by mothers who will kill to protect them.

When threatened, the herd moves in a tight convoy.

The adult females hold the front line

and look out for danger,

to protect the weaker animals at the center.

To breach the solid wall of angry muscle,

lions must risk their lives.

(music)

(music)

(bellowing)

If a lion gets cornered by the buffaloes,

it's in deep trouble.

(lowing)

A tree offers temporary refuge,

but lions are awkward climbers.

The herd won't leave until they've drawn blood.

(music)

(music)

The lion loses its fight with gravity,

above a sea of enraged buffalo.

(lowing)

(lowing)

(lowing)

The herd shows no mercy.

This is a game of survival,

and every lion eliminated may be a buffalo saved.

(music)

Southern Africa's vast grasslands are home to one

of Africa's tightest and toughest gangs of predators--

hyenas.

(music)

(music)

The females are boss in these carnivore clans.

Even the lowest female outranks the highest male.

(music)

This young male left his birth clan, as all adult males do.

Now he joins a new pack

on the bottom rung of the social ladder.

(laughing)

(screaming)

So-called laughing hyenas have

one of the strongest bites on the planet,

and they'll haze this newcomer without mercy.

(screaming)

(screaming)

(screaming)

(screaming)

(music)

(music)

He'll rise in rank only if another member dies

or leaves the clan.

Months later, he's settled in,

but he still sometimes travels alone.

Despite his canine looks,

he's more closely related to a cat than a dog.

And though he has a reputation as a scavenger, he's a hunter.

He's Africa's second-largest carnivore,

after his archrival, the lion.

(lowing)

(lowing)

Their territories overlap...

...and so do their prey...

(snorts)

...which can make the big savanna

feel a little overcrowded...

...especially if you're a wildebeest.

A lioness has her eye on a pretty large prize.

And a hyena without a clan is hoping to take advantage.

(music)

(snorts)

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

(lowing)

With the big cat doing the lion's share of the killing

and the hyena doing his bit at the tail end,

the wildebeest is history.

Two enemy predators working together?

The lioness disagrees.

A lone lion makes a kill only about one out of six tries,

so she's not in a sharing mood.

(music)

The hyena, who can devour bones, fur,

everything but the horns,

will wait his turn and still find enough to eat.

Everybody wins, except the wildebeest.

(laughing)

This season, there's no shortage

of wildebeest on the plains

or big cats skilled enough to take them down...

(music)

...and one hyena who thinks stealing food from his rivals

is the ticket to success.

(music)

(music)

He's about to find out it isn't.

(music)

(music)

Lions and hyenas are like rival gangs vying for turf.

A single hyena isn't an immediate threat,

but he's still the enemy.

And one hyena is one too many.

(music)

(music)

(music)

The opportunistic hyena sees the lions

as a convenient catering service.

But he may be about to bite off more than he can chew.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(laughs)

(music)

(screaming)

(screaming)

(music)

(music)

(music)

This gang of carnivores certainly shows

who rules over this savanna.

(music)

(music)

(squeaking)

A much smaller killer gang has evolved

to cash in on another abundant source of prey.

Banded mongooses are top of the food chain

but below the grass line.

(squeaking)

They live in large, close-knit troops,

and like lions and hyenas, they usually stick together.

But when it comes to hunting,

their tactics couldn't be more different.

At dinnertime, it's every mongoose for itself.

Each animal raids the undergrowth

for anything that crawls

and hoards what it finds to keep for itself.

So why do they stick together?

At half the weight of a dachshund,

mongooses are small predators with a big problem.

They're also prey.

Every predator larger than itself

is a threat to the mongoose,

especially to the bite-sized babies they hide in their dens.

Hunting together means there's always a set of eyes

scouting the terrain.

And they're always ready to retreat

at the first sign of danger.

(music)

(music)

(squeaking)

But not everyone makes it.

(squeaking)

Ever present danger has groomed mongooses

into nervous, flighty creatures,

yet there are some deadly predators

that bring out a side to this troop

that borders on suicidal.

Snakes are specialists at invading the narrow dens

where mongooses hide their infants.

When scouts spot one, they put out a call to arms.

The entire troop races to meet the enemy.

(music)

This Mozambican spitting cobra can kill a human.

Its bite packs a potent cytotoxin that dissolves flesh.

(squeaking)

Yet this is one predator

that these little mammals will attack.

The snake is a deadly threat to their young,

but if they can defeat it,

a dead reptile doubles as a protein-rich meal.

Eons of conflict with snakes

have armed the mongoose for this moment.

They depend on quick reflexes, biting, and cracking the skull.

And if all else fails, they have another trick.

(squeaking)

Mongooses are virtually immune to the cobra's venom.

Now the mongooses need family teamwork to succeed.

With so many moving targets,

the cobra can't choose who to attack.

Biting isn't the snake's only weapon.

It can shoot a blinding jet of venom

straight for its enemy's eyes.

But the mongoose's lightning quick reflexes

keep them out of the line of fire.

(squeaking)

They keep the pressure on,

until the cobra tries to escape,

and then attack when it's on the retreat.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

With needle-like teeth,

they tear the snake apart and devour it.

(squeaking)

Mongooses and their relatives

are among the top natural enemies of African snakes.

While the mongoose posse seeks out its dinner,

a killer gang of Nile crocodiles

waits for their dinner to come to them.

Tipping the scales at more than 500 pounds,

they can eat half their own body weight in one sitting.

And when there's this many hungry crocs,

it's a good thing dinner is on its way.

Over a million wildebeest

migrate about a thousand miles a year.

They're joined by zebras...

...who graze the coarser blades of grass

the wildebeests don't touch.

(zebra braying)

And as they chew their way across the Serengeti,

they'll need something to wash it down.

They'll soon learn,

there's always a price to pay for a free drink.

(lowing)

Zebras need to drink daily.

But sticking their nose into a dangerous river

is just the beginning.

They've still got to get across it for greener pastures.

For the zebras,

the instinct to cross the river is too powerful to ignore.

And the croc's instinct to eat is powerful, too.

The ability to run fast and kick hard

is useless in the river.

(music)

Here, giant primitive reptiles call the shots.

But the zebras press forward.

(braying)

(braying)

(music)

(music)

Even though multiple predators are breathing down their necks,

the stream of zebras never stops.

(music)

(music)

(music)

The terrified herd tramples over a croc,

who fumbles and loses its grip on a victim.

(braying)

(music)

The predator heads to deeper water to gain an advantage.

He spots a struggling foal.

(music)

(music)

But the current carries it out of reach...

...giving his desperate mother time to block him.

(music)

While the mare distracts the croc,

the foal struggles to make shore.

(music)

(music)

Mother is safe,

but her instinct to rejoin the herd

overpowers her need to save her foal.

He'll have to catch up.

(music)

(music)

(braying)

The croc doesn't give up and seeks out an easier target.

This zebra's in over his head.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(brays)

(music)

(music)

(music)

The crocodile drowns its prey.

A valve in the big reptile's throat

lets it keep its death grip without swallowing water.

(music)

(music)

While the croc is busy making its kill,

the rest of the zebras can cross safely.

What the croc can't finish,

he'll wedge under rocks in the cold water for later.

But there won't be leftovers today.

For a croc, this is a dinner roll.

The technique helps him bite off chunks of meat.

The toothy beasts don't waste time chewing.

(music)

(music)

(music)

Meanwhile, the lucky ones keep going,

a constant stream of grass-eaters

following the grass.

In the dusty bush of Tuli, Botswana,

another cast of prey animals

has found their own unique way to stay alive.

Antelope trade strength for speed.

Their spring-loaded legs allow rapid acceleration,

up to twice the speed of the fastest Olympian.

Here, only the fastest and fittest survive

because this is wild dog country.

A quarter the size of lions but double their speed,

wild dogs kill fast, brutally, and often.

One dog weighs little more than a German shepherd,

but they're armed with the most powerful jaws

for their size of all mammals.

Working together,

they're the most efficient killers on the continent.

What they lack in size, they make up for in numbers.

Packs of over 100 wild dogs once roamed Africa.

Today they teeter on the brink of extinction,

yet in places like Tuli, up to 50 dogs may run together.

Pack mates are obsessively affectionate.

Constant contact and vocalizations

cement the tight bonds within the group.

All of them submit to the authority of two top dogs,

an alpha male and female.

They determine when, where, and what the pack hunts.

Wild dogs may roam a home range

twice the size of New York City

and cover over 30 miles a day in search of prey.

Between hunting missions,

the dogs play-fight, keeping them fit and agile.

(squealing)

Their home base is the den where they hide their cubs,

but they're always ready for action.

(squealing)

A herd of eland passes dangerously close

to the hidden barracks.

(music)

It's time to move out.

These giants are the slowest of all antelopes,

but that doesn't make them easy prey.

They're also the biggest antelope--

ten times the size of a wild dog--

and they can kill with their huge twisted horns.

It would be suicide to tackle the herd head-on.

Like a pack of lions with Cape buffalo,

the dogs need to weaken their prey first,

but they won't do it with pain.

This will be a battle of endurance.

The pack splits into two groups--flankers and chasers.

Flankers move ahead to block side escape routes,

while the chasers push the herd from behind.

(music)

There's no stalking.

They want the herd to see them and bolt.

(music)

(music)

The flankers channel the fleeing antelope

through the bush,

as the chasers increase the pace,

until the prey can run no more.

(music)

(music)

Exhaustion drives the eland to stop and face their enemies.

The pack splits up and isolates victims.

(music)

(music)

Three eland go down.

Each dog latches on with jaws like a bear trap

and jerks hard to rip open the skin.

(squealing)

Though it looks brutal,

shock numbs the pain, and death is swift.

(squealing)

In a matter of minutes,

there's nothing left but bones and a bloodstain.

Stomachs full, they head home, but this meal isn't over.

Each dog's gut literally acts as a doggie bag.

At the den, the hunters regurgitate meat

and share it among the pups and the adults.

They feed more than 30 mouths off a single hunt,

and tomorrow, they'll do it all over again.

Feeding this growing predator army is a full-time job.

(music)

(music)

South Africa's Kruger National Park

is an area renowned for its predators.

Ironically, one of the most dangerous creatures of all

isn't a killer carnivore.

It's a deadly herbivore--

the hippopotamus.

Only the Nile crocodile rivals the hippo's human death toll.

The hyper-aggressive grazers

come armed with canines the length of a forearm

and jaws that can crush a man to death.

Their deadly trait is a hair-trigger temper,

so hippos will charge and attack

any threat that gets too close.

(music)

They feed on grass, but Kruger's blazing sun

scorches their sensitive, hairless skin.

Hippos must spend daylight hours in the water

to protect themselves from sunstroke.

But in the dry winter, water is a precious resource.

Dominant male hippos guard it like gold.

They'll share their stretch of river with harems of females

to secure mating rights.

But they'll fight off any male that invades their space.

(music)

This bull wants in

on the dominant male's stretch of river.

(music)

(music)

They wield their massive canines like daggers

to gore each other's gums.

(music)

(music)

The duel stops only when there's a clear winner.

The loser backs off, sheaths his weapons,

and blubbers his submission.

He's lucky.

Battles like this can rage to the death

or leave survivors scarred for life.

(music)

(music)

When the brutal sun retreats, the hippos finally get to feed.

Under the cover of darkness,

the three-ton beasts leave the water

and head out into the grasslands to graze.

They have little to fear.

They're more dangerous than most of the predators

that trawl this bush--

most, but not all.

There's a pack of killers that will risk everything

to feast on these mountains of meat--

one of Africa's most powerful terrestrial predators--

lions.

A pride of 16 has this bull surrounded.

(music)

They mob him with jaws and claws.

The hippo can crush a skull with a bite.

He's as likely to kill a lion as the lions are to kill him.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

The hippo wins this fight.

Lions have to live with failure.

Only three out of ten hunts result in a kill.

That's the cost of taking on

one of the largest and most dangerous species in Africa.

But daylight brings new opportunities

for the most ambitious of predators.

Prides up to 20 strong

can match Africa's largest herbivores pound for pound.

In addition, each pride has a secret weapon

that ups the odds of success--

males.

Reaching over 440 pounds,

male lions weigh as much as a motorcycle

and can body-slam prey like a head-on collision.

(music)

(roaring)

(roaring)

A male's power could have sealed the hippo's fate,

but their help is never guaranteed.

Despite their strength,

male lions leave most of the hard work of hunting

to the females.

The lionesses take feeding the pride into their own hands.

They set their sights on another deadly giant--

a giraffe.

This towering browser has an elegant gait,

but its powerful kick can kill a lion.

The pride must carefully corner their victim.

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

(music)

Surrounded on all sides,

the giraffe has too many targets.

It can't fend all the lions off at once.

(music)

(music)

(music)

Every kick could be a deathblow,

but the lions risk it.

(music)

They need to pull the giraffe off-balance to get it down,

but they don't have the weight.

When all hope of a kill seems lost,

the male lion attacks like a wrecking ball.

(music)

(music)

His weight topples the giraffe at last.

A kill this size is worth risking lives for.

It will feed a pride of some of Africa's deadliest for days.

(music)