All language subtitles for Animals Are Beautiful People (1974) - English

The oldest and driest
desert in the world.

Fifty thousand square miles
of eternally shifting sand.

You'd think nobody
could make a living here.

And yet, when the wind
dies down and the dust settles...

...you see a tiny track,
and many more.

No matter how harsh
and inhospitable a place is...

...there's always someone
who's willing to live there.

A whole community of little creatures
have had millions of years...

...to adapt to the impossible
conditions in this desert.

This one must have had three legs.

This one only one.

The beetles who live here
have an air-cooled cooling system...

...like a Volkswagen, so they have
to run like crazy to keep their cool.

Even courting has to be done on the run.

A quick kiss at full gallop,
and the romance is over.

When you can't run any longer...

...you have to dig like mad
to get out of the heat.

He goes in upside down.

He doesn't dig, he just walks right in.

And this one pulls
the blanket over his head.

And the gecko dives in
as if the sand is water.

This beautiful person has a different
cooling system, more like a limousine.

She doesn't have to dash around
like those Volkswagen types.

She can take life more slowly.
She even has a windshieid wiper.

She cleans her eyes with her tongue.

And digging is done at leisure.

First the right hand,
then the right foot at half speed.

Then the left hand, left foot...

...right hand, right foot.

The sidewinder's favorite meal
is the diving gecko.

But geckos play hard-to-get.

So the sidewinder resorts
to a very sneaky trick to catch his prey.

First, he buries himself in the sand
until he is quite invisible.

Then his tail comes up
and pretends to be a blade of grass.

Now, geckos don't
eat grass, but ants do.

And geckos eat ants.

At this point,
things happen rather quickly.

Ant goes for tail,
gecko goes for ant...

End of gecko.

So some die and some live in the heart
of the unearthly Red Namib Desert...

...in southwest Africa
on the tropic of Capricorn.

And on the fringes of the Red Namib...

...lives the real miracle
of the desert, the oryx.

The most beautiful of all antelope.

These amazing animals always manage
to look sleek and well-fed...

...in this arid region where there
seems to be no food and no water.

The austere beauty of the Namib
remains undisturbed...

...because man finds the region
so intimidating, he hardly ever intrudes.

But to the oryx and the
little creatures of the Namib...

...this waterless, hostile desert
is paradise.

Where the red desert ends,
there's a vast white desert...

...where it's so quiet,
you can hear the silence.

The White Namib, a region
of rugged moonscapes and endless vistas.

Here the eye can feast
on breathtaking beauty...

...but for the mouth,
there seems to be nothing.

Still, oryx roam its boundless plains...

...and on the barren slopes
of a desert mountain...

...you'll find a whole
tribe of baboons...

...who are quite content to live
in these grim surroundings.

Of course, those rocks
do get rather hard after a while.

Home comforts are few,
but they don't seem to mind...

...the lack of modern conveniences.

Their social system
works very much like human society.

At the very top, there's the big chief
whose word is law.

And at the very bottom,
there's the little guy...

...who likes to mind
his own business.

Now you know
who's important around here.

Actually, they're a happy gang.

And when it cools down
towards evening, they get playful.

And then the acrobatic types
start showing off.

Some don't do it very well,
but they're willing to work at it.

Trees are very scarce
in the White Namib...

...so the little weaverbirds
have learned to share and cooperate.

They build large condominiums
where dozens of families can live...

...each in its own apartment.

And they go in for quite a variety
of architectural styles:

Squat ranch type, complex...

...modern, artistic...

...high-rise, and even symbolic.

Some nests are more than 100 years old,
and the little tenants...

...are continually building on,
remodeling and repairing.

A cozy little community
where you can raise a contented family.

But sometimes tragedy strikes.

Once in a long while, a dewdrop
will hang in just the right spot...

...at the right time, to focus the sun's rays
on the dry, combustible thatch.

In a few minutes, the flames destroy
a hundred years' work...

...and bring grief to many families.

The vast White Namib
is only a narrow band...

...on the map of the immense
African continent...

...but it's gradually encroaching
deeper and deeper inland...

...creating a region of scrubby growth
and very little grass:

The Pre-Namib, where
the dainty springbok roam.

This used to be lush grassland,
but for the past 10,000 years...

...the Pre-Namib has been slowly drying out,
and the animals and plants that live here...

...have to adapt to a climate
where the rainfall...

...gets less and less
as the years pass.

Some plants have adapted magnificently
to the challenge of the changing climate.

Stapelia flowers, for instance...

...had to evolve a way
of getting pollinated...

...in a region where there are no bees.

So instead of emitting
a pretty smell to entice bees...

...they put out a powerful stench
like a rotting carcass...

...and this attracts the blue fly,
who likes smelly meat.

As he scurries about looking for
that lovely, stinking food he can smell...

...he does a good job
of pollinating the flower.

When he finally realizes he's been tricked,
he flies off in disgust.

But he has done
something useful for once.

In a few short weeks
after the rain...

...this plant grows quickly to maturity,
bears seeds, and dies.

But even after death,
it protects its seeds...

...in those strange-looking
pods for a year or more...

...until the rain comes again.

Then the moisture
causes those dead parts...

...to move like bizarre living creatures,
and they open up.

And then the moisture triggers
little springs inside the pods.

The seeds are
shot out in a hurry...

...to germinate and grow
while the soil is still wet...

...so they can bear more seeds
to start the next generation.

An incredible variety of animals...

...have accepted the challenge
of living in the Pre-Namib...

...where you are never sure
whether it'll rain this year or next year.

The scaly anteater, who looks like
a tired medieval knight in armor.

The wart hog, who's
so ugly, he's beautiful...

...and who always goes
into his home tail-first.

Porcupines, who should
know better than anyone...

...not to go through
the same door at the same time.

The scorpion, who carries
her babies on her back.

The chameleon, whose
eyes move independently...

...so he can see where he's going
and where he's been.

He must be the only creature in the world...

...whose left eye doesn't know
what his right eye is doing.

The dikkop, who spends 95% of his life
looking like a stuffed bird...

...because he stands so very still
and never blinks.

When he does move,
it's only for a split second...

...and then he freezes again.

And then there are wildebeests...

...and ostrich and starlings...

...and zebra and giraffe.

There's a whole treasure house
of animal life...

...in the wide and thirsty Pre-Namib.

It's also lion country,
and at the water holes...

...the animals are nervous and skittish.

Even the appearance of a cub
causes sudden panic.

Which, of course, makes Junior
feel mighty superior.

Some days, the animals
will drink quite calmly...

...in the presence of a whole pride.

They seem to sense that
the lions have eaten well...

...and will not be hunting today.

In fact, the king's belly is so full,
it gets up long after he does.

So who's afraid of a slob like that?

But if one of the younger
generation gets cheeky...

...that slob suddenly walks
like a king again.

His Majesty knows how to cope
with the generation gap...

...and he will make an example
of the young upstart...

...who has dared to challenge
the establishment.

A long, long stare until the young one
is thoroughly cowed.

And now the young rebel
has to lie down again...

...so that the king can come
walking past once more.

And this time he knows he'll be shown
the respect due to him.

He's not even a very
imposing specimen, as lions go...

...but he does remember that he's descended
from a long line of kings.

The hyena could have
been king of the desert.

His jaws are stronger than those of a lion,
and he has those powerful forequarters...

...but nature saw fit to give him
a weak and wobbly rear end...

...and a slow, ungainly gait.

So instead of being king of the desert,
he's a lowly trash collector...

...who lives off the leftovers
of the lion and other hunters.

It's just as well he's not the king,
because he's a real stinker.

He's a coward. He's sneaky.

He often slobbers and drools.

He loves to roll in the rotting remains...

...of some dead animal
to mask his own smell.

He has a silly giggle.

And, worst of all, he's not content
to live on garbage alone...

...so he'll eat the babies of other animals
when he can get to them.

The faster ones get away
because he's too lazy to exert himself...

...but the smaller and slower ones
are in constant danger.

Yellow-billed ducklings are fortunate...

...because their mother
is a very clever actress.

She also has great courage.

When she sees a hyena prowling about,
she tells the kids to be quiet...

...and walks towards the hyena...

...while they start sneaking
away towards the water.

Now she gives a quack
to get the hyena's attention...

...and goes into her wounded-bird act.
She really hams it up...

...because she's got to keep
him from spotting the chicks.

So she flounders about pitifully
to convince him he can catch her easily.

But when he gets too close,
she recovers miraculously...

...and streaks for the water.

For a moment, he begins to doubt
the sincerity of her performance...

...but she quickly goes into her next act,
the pathetic drowning duck...

...with all the cries for help
and all the "glub-glubs" the scene calls for.

So he believes her again
and follows her at his leisure...

...because he's sure she's easy meat.

And behind his back,
the chicks slip quietly into the water.

This is a crucial moment, because
they have to swim across open water...

...to get to a safe hiding place...

...so she dare not let his attention
wander away from her.

And she has to let him come
dangerously close...

...to keep him convinced
he can catch her.

When at last the chicks
reach the hiding place...

...she can consider her own safety
and make another miraculous recovery.

And he begins to wonder
whether he's been taken for a sucker.

Somehow the scavengers
and the carrion-eaters...

...are the unbeautiful
people of the desert...

...not only in looks,
but also in character.

The stuffy-looking marabous...

...are members of the elegant
and aristocratic stork family...

...but thousands of years ago, they
started making their living by disposing...

...of the remains of dead animals...

...and they began to look more and more
like unsuccessful undertakers.

Nowadays, the marabou wears
a threadbare black coat...

...and a holier-than-thou expression
on his unlovely face.

They seem to look down their noses
at everyone else...

...and always seem to be discussing...

...the follies and the sinfulness
of the other animals.

The female ostrich is a dull gray,
but the male is a handsome devil.

At mating time, the handsome boys
flash their plumage to impress the girls.

And the less good-looking ones
have to fight for their lady loves.

Finally, a loving couple
will find a secluded spot...

...to do their beautiful mating dance.

Pretty soon, they start a family.

Actually, he's a better parent than she is.

And on a hot afternoon, she will join
the rest of the gang at the water hole...

...leaving him to keep an eye
on the nest.

This is a full-time job,
because each egg is a whole meal...

...and there are many freeloaders
in the Namib.

Meanwhile, back at the nest...

...young oscar chooses
this moment to get born.

There's no one to welcome him
because Mother is out swimming...

...and Father is out fighting Hottentots.

Oscar feels very lonely,
so he wobbles off to find company.

He is now only two minutes old,
but already he knows about camouflage.

On the morning of his wedding day...

...the wart hog goes down
to the water hole for a bath...

...because he wants to look nice
for his bride-to-be.

That's enough.

Meanwhile, the young lady of his choice
moves into his bachelor apartment...

...and immediately starts changing things.

He does a thorough job
of grooming himself today...

...and she wants her future home
to be just right.

And when he comes home,
he begins to realize...

...that you have to make some adjustments
to your lifestyle when you get married.

And there you have as handsome a couple
of young newlyweds as you can hope to find.

The friendliest and the most
affectionate little creatures...

...in the desert are the meerkats.

Sorry, fella.

They're also most inquisitive,
and when a stranger intrudes...

...he's received with courtesy
and friendly curiosity.

Even a poisonous cobra
is inspected and invited to be friendly.

An egg is pure frustration.

He knows there's something good in there,
but how do you get to it?

The mongoose looks like the meerkat,
but he's from a different family.

When he finds an egg,
he hikes it to the nearest rock...

...juggles it into position,
takes a quick sighting, and shoots.

But the meerkat doesn't
have the know-how.

He always digs for his food...

...so instinctively, he tries to solve
this problem by digging.

But it doesn't work.

Maybe he can learn
by watching the mongoose.

All right, he'll try that.

That guy makes it look so easy.

But the egg-eater snake...

...can swallow an egg
10 times as big as his head...

...without breaking it or his head.

He unhooks his lower jaw
from the rest of his face...

...so he can open his mouth wide enough.

At first, the egg keeps slipping away,
and he goes around in circles.

But he has a good reason for that.

Eventually, he has the egg surrounded
so it can't slip away anymore.

And now he can do his trick.

Once the egg is safely inside him,
he crushes it...

...and squeezes out all the good stuff
without spilling a drop.

And a few minutes later, he ejects the shell
in a neat, disposable package.

But if you want to swallow eggs whole,
there's no room for teeth in your mouth.

That makes him the most defenseless snake
in the world...

...so apparently, Mother Nature
has played a nasty trick on him.

But to make up for it,
she painted phony teeth on his lips...

...and she taught him to put up
such an act of ferocity...

...that he can even intimidate an elephant.

That intricate winding movement
makes him look twice his size...

...and lets his scales make
an angry rasping sound as they rub together.

He pretends to strike viciously,
but he has to make sure he misses...

...otherwise his enemy will find out
that he has no teeth.

But his act is so good
that no one ever calls his bluff...

...and everyone believes
he's very dangerous.

A baboon will eat every creepy-crawly
thing he can find under rocks...

...but if he should come across
an egg-eater snake...

...he'll fall down in a dead faint.

And would you believe it, he looks
under the same rock and faints again.

Sometimes he's sorry he got married,
because she's always cleaning house.

He wants a girlfriend,
and that's his way of advertising.

He knows if there's a lady tapping beetle
within half a mile...

...she'll hear him and answer back.

So all day and all night,
he taps and listens, taps and listens...

...because tapping beetles
are scarce here...

...and he has a long
and lonely quest ahead of him.

The backfiring beetle doesn't use his rear
end for tapping. He uses it to defend himself.

His ammunition is a stinging acid, and he
always hits his enemy right in the eye.

These are some of the animals
who are at home in the Pre-Namib.

They've accepted the hardships
of the changing planet and seem to enjoy...

...living in this arid land where the rain
sometimes stays away for years.

In the southern part of the Pre-Namib,
billions of seeds...

...lie waiting for years in the dust
of the desert floor.

When the rain comes at last,
a miraculous transformation happens.

The desert covers itself in a wall-to-wall
carpet, and an incredible variety...

...of flowers celebrate the coming
of the life-giving moisture.

For a few weeks, the Pre-Namib tries
to recapture the glories of the past...

...when this was a paradise.

But the glory is short-lived.

The sun dehydrates the earth again,
and the flowers return to dust.

But they leave billions
of seeds in the desert soil...

...because the rain may come again,
and they'll have another festival.

For now, the desert reverts
to bleakness...

...and those few weeks of color
seem as if they never happened.

There is one spot in the Pre-Namib
that is a year-round paradise...

...because the Cubango River
streams out of the Tropics.

Unlike other rivers, it never reaches the sea.

It blunders into the vastness
of the desert and is swallowed.

But before those millions of gallons
of water disappear under the sand...

...they create a luxuriant subtropicai
jungle in the middie of the desert.

A year-round Garden of Eden, complete
with serpent and other predators.

The kingfisher pinpoints
his target precisely...

...and gets into the exact position
by moving this way and that.

Then he strikes.

Like a fighter pilot, he dives with the sun
behind him so his prey can't see him coming.

At high noon, he goes straight down.

And later, when the sun is lower,
he comes in at an angle.

Far beiow the lily pads, there's another
paradise where life is mostiy placid...

...with some hectic moments.

The bream has as many
as a thousand babies at one time...

...and she has a very cute trick
to protect them from predators.

Father keeps a lookout so he can
warn Mother when danger comes.

Old snaggletooth comes prowling out
of his lair, and Father nearly throws a fit.

He gives the alarm, so the kids beeline
for Mother, who promptly swallows them...

...the whole thousand.

Whoops, little Wilbur is late.
Snaggletooth attacks once more.

"Hey, Mom, let me in, let me in!"

"Shucks!"

The villain gives up and leaves, so Dad gives
the all clear, and Mother spits them out.

Most of the kids are happy to be free...

...but there are always some insecure sissies
who want to go back inside where it's safe...

...and she cannot get rid of them.

"Go and play outside."

in the jungles
and on the flood plains...

...on the banks of the Cubango...

...nobody needs to work, because there's
plenty of water and food for everybody.

There's no day-to-day struggle for
existence, and the animals enjoy a life...

...of peace and plenty.

One may wonder why animals
in the surrounding desert don't flock...

...to share in this life of luxury.

Here, the trees and plants bear fruits
and seeds and berries to suit every taste.

The seeds of the tambuti tree
jump and cavort...

...because inside each one
there's a little worm with the hiccups.

In paradise, even the worms are cute.

And in every tree, there's a whole parade
of characters from every walk of life.

A lady with her hair in curiers.

A cross between
a zebra and a vacuum cieaner.

A little dachshund,
complete with waggly tail.

A dizzy blond with a painted face.

And other beautiful people.

A portly old gentleman in conservative gray.

The hobo.

The poor guy on skid row.

Longhaired hippie.

And the real far-out weirdo
who does his own wild thing.

And, of course, the bloated,
overfed, overdressed slob.

He illustrates what's
wrong with living in paradise...

...because many members of this society
have become blasé and bored with life.

Things are just too easy
in the Cubango Basin.

They no longer have a zest for living like
their cousins out in the inhospitable desert.

Here, life offers no challenge, and many
of them have become slobs and easy riders.

The only excitement in their lives
comes in high summer...

...when the maruia trees are in full fruit.

At first, the marulas
are very tasty and hard to get at.

You have to be either agile
or strong to get your share.

After a few weeks, the marulas get overripe,
and they start dropping from the trees.

Then all the animals wade in and
gorge themselves on the rotting fruit.

It starts fermenting in their tummies
and turns into a very potent brew.

On the way home,
things start happening to them.

When night falls, there's peace again.

A very blissful peace.

Not everybody in the Cubango
leads a wasteful life.

Some members of this too-prosperous
society are still sober, hardworking folk.

The weavers here don't build
condos like those in the White Namib.

Each one builds
his own free-swinging nest.

To do that, he has
to perform a small miracle.

He has no hands, only his little beak
to make all those intricate knots.

So a newlywed is nervous when he builds
his first nest under the watch of his bride.

When the job is done, he hops onto a twig
and timidly invites his wife to inspect it.

She flits across and takes a long,
hard look at her future home.

It doesn't look very neat, and she
doesn't even like the neighborhood.

She's got to raise her kids in this?
"You like it, huh? You like it? Huh?"

She makes a closer inspection
and subjects the house to testing...

...to see whether it conforms to her
specifications, and he's in quite a flutter.

She's not satisfied and vents her fury
on his substandard workmanship.

"You didn't like it, huh?"
"You bet your life i didn't like it."

He will try again, and this time he
chooses the neighborhood carefully.

He's all of a twitter
because she's watching.

First he has to tie two twigs together,
but it's not easy. Those twigs are springy.

Oh, boy, it's not easy.

But if all those others can do it,
he can too.

One day, he'll buiid
a house he can be proud of...

...although he'll still get nervous
when his wife comes to approve it.

The hornbill installs his wife inside a tree
trunk and seals her up for three months.

But first he cleans out her cell
to make sure she'll be comfortable in there.

Then he flies off to get some clay
to wall her in, and she starts undressing.

She plucks out her coarser feathers so she
can be soft for the chicks when they hatch.

Without those feathers, she can't fly,
but she won't be using her wings for a while.

He comes back with a beakful
of clay and blocks the entrance...

...so she and her chicks will be safe.

He leaves only a slit, the
size and shape for a hornbill's bill...

...so he can bring her food and water
while she lays and hatches her eggs.

And then there are suddenly five mouths to
feed, and Father has to provide for them all.

Throughout the summer,
he's the hardest-working member...

...of the opulent Cubango community.

When the chicks grow bigger
he has to provide a balanced diet.

One day, green stuff with lots of vitamins.
The next day, proteins.

One lucky day, a swarm of proteins
comes buzzing around the nest...

...saving Dad a lot of labor.

He's quite sorry when they leave.

Oh, well, back to the grind.

The chicks have been taught not to pollute
their own nest, and their aim is remarkable.

As they grow,
it gets crowded in the nursery.

So one fine day, Mother breaks
open the roof, and out they come.

Father feels happy and proud
to see his children at last...

...but perhaps he also feels sad
and discarded.

Now they don't need him anymore.

Although wart hogs get as smashed...

...as everybody else
during the marula binge...

...they lead exemplary lives
for the rest of the year.

Family ties are strong, and the little
ones are attached to their mother.

Of course, in every family there
is always one unlucky one.

If there are any knocks coming,
he gets them.

The cheetah is the fastest
runner in the world...

...and if Mrs. Wart Hog is not alert,
she can lose some of her family.

But she's quick to sense danger,
and hogs are pretty fast on their feet too.

Each one finds a hole and pops in tail-first.

The unlucky one chooses a hole that's too
small, and now he can get neither in nor out.

Luckless is trapped very far from home.

They say hogs can't count, but Mother
knows that one of her children is missing.

At last, the frustrated cheetah goes away.

Mother searches every hole
and behind every bush for her child.

She cannot rest before she finds him.

Luckless guesses it's safe
to come out...

...and it dawns on him
that he doesn't know the way home.

All night long, Mother keeps
a vigil for her little lost one.

He's never slept alone,
and in the middle of the night...

...some big animals
come sniffing around.

He tries to lie very still
and pretend he's only a stone...

...but he's very frightened.

When a baby wart hog gets separated from
its mother, it'll try to find a substitute.

It's not easy to get yourself adopted...

...when you have a face
that only your mother can love.

The oniy one who will
adopt him is an old rotting log.

He's a very sad little boy.

When a honey badger is young,
his parents abandon him...

...and he has to find his own food.

He's not an expert hunter yet.

He'll have to live on worms and grubs
in this land of milk and honey...

...unless some fairy godmother
comes to his aid.

Incredibly, nature provides just such a
godmother in the shape of a little bird.

For a while, she looks on
as he scratches and digs...

...for the few scraps of food he can find.

When the time is ripe, she introduces herself.

At first, he resents this noisy,
fluttering nuisance, but eventually...

...some deep instinct makes him realize
dimly that he has to follow her.

So she finally leads him to the objective:
a big, fat beehive.

All his instincts come to the surface.

He knows his favorite food is in there,
and nothing will stop him.

His hide is impervious to bee stings. The only
vulnerable spot is the tip of his nose.

At last, the payoff.

This amazing partnership of the
honey guide bird and the badger...

...is an intriguing example of teamwork
between different species.

He doesn't eat all the loot,
because she's entitled to her share.

The inhabitants of the Cubango Basin...

...don't realize how lucky
they are to be living in luxury.

To them, this land of plenty
is the whole universe.

They're unaware that
their bounteous habitat...

...is a small green world floating...

...in the vast emptiness of the Pre-Namib.

The Pre-Namib, again, is dwarfed
by its neighbor on Capricorn, the Kalahari.

This is the most treacherous desert of all,
because after the short rainy season...

...it looks like an immense paradise
that can rival the opulence of the Cubango.

The grass is as high as an elephant's eye,
and while the surface water lasts...

...everybody prospers.

At the water holes, there is so much
traffic that all the grass is worn away.

Zebra in their thousands.

Graceful kudu, the males
with beautiful horns...

...the females with beautiful ears.

Oryx, who, unlike their cousins in the Namib,
revel in the abundant water.

Ostrich.

The fussy-looking secretary bird,
who's very good at short takeoffs...

...but needs a heck of a long runway
for landing.

The towering giraffe,
who makes the zebra iook like toys.

Some years there's even a vast shallow
lake for a short while after the rain...

...where water birds converge
in great numbers.

The lake covers 8000 square miles, but it's
only a few inches to a few feet in depth.

And most years,
a great flock of pelicans establish...

...their breeding colony
in the middle of the lake.

They look stodgy and comical
on the ground and pompous in the air.

But on water, they have style and elegance.

They gather in flotillas
to herd fish into the shallows...

...where they dip in a graceful ballet
to collect food for their chicks.

But the lake and the many
water holes are impermanent.

Soon the water will sink away
into the Kalahari sand...

...and there'll be a long, grim wait
of nine months or more...

...before the rain comes again.

The only human beings...

...in the deep Kalahari
are a few Bushmen.

They don't live in tribes, but
roam about in small family groups.

The region is so vast that
one family hardly ever meets another.

They must be the most carefree
and contented people in the world...

...because they own nothing.

In the desert, there's nothing
you can own, but everything you need.

They're aiso the most gentle people,
possibly because they've never seen...

...anything as hard as
a rock or a stone in their lives.

Where they live, there's only sand
and trees and grass and animals.

So their tools are made of
leather or bone or wood.

They never experience
anything harder than wood.

When they find food,
they eat it all at one sitting...

...so they have very
expandable stomachs.

When they sleep, their heads
never touch the ground...

...because there are crawly things
in the sand that can get into their ears.

They dig their elbows into the soft sand
and use their shoulders as pillows.

The children have to have an intimate
understanding of the animals around them.

So the elders teach them,
in stereophonic sound yet.

But somehow the children manage
to listen to two teachers at once.

They are superb mimics,
and they feel a close affinity...

...with the animals who are
their neighbors and also their food.

The Bushman is a very small man,
and his weapons are puny.

He has to sneak up very close to his food...

...because his arrow
can only kill at 30 paces.

The biggest nuisance in his life
is the go-away bird...

...who seems to take pleasure
in sabotaging him.

It'll watch him stalking painstakingly
up to his quarry...

...and then tell it to go away.

Such beautiful targets.

When the water holes begin to
grow smaller, the animals get restless.

Soon they'll have to move away,
leaving all that beautiful grass uneaten.

They're loath to leave this
bountiful food supply...

...and they'll hang on until
the last of the water disappears.

Fights break out easily, and when
two oryx bulls lose their tempers...

...the outcome can be fatal, so the leader
of the herd will try to make peace.

Those horns are like rapiers, and the
oryx use them like expert swordsmen.

The peacemaker's efforts
are not very successful.

He only succeeds in goading them further.

With a sudden jab, one gets his horn
into position for the fatal thrust.

If he can drive that horn in a few more
inches, he'll go right to the heart.

When things get too hot,
the loser breaks and runs.

He'll live to fight another day.

The smaller water holes dry up first...

...but sometimes there's plenty
of water below the sand.

You just have to know where to dig.

But elephants are finicky,
and this water stinks.

The royal family has its own
water supply, and when it runs low...

...a young female always gets the job
of keeping all the other animals away.

She has to work out there on the
hot plain while the rest of the family...

...take it easy in the shade.

She grew fat and lazy during
the affluent season...

...and finds it a very tedious assignment.

One pesky impala in particular
makes her life a misery.

The strange thing is that the impala
doesn't really need the water.

He can get enough moisture
by licking the dew off the grass...

...in the early morning.

Maybe he gets up too late, or maybe he
just likes to pester her for the hell of it.

Of course, lion is king only until
elephants make the scene...

...even if they're only youngsters.

The Bushman is not dependent
on water holes.

His forebears have had thousands
of years to adapt to the Kalahari...

...so he needs very little liquid,
and he knows where to find it.

An insignificant-looking
dry twig tells him where to dig.

Anyone else would die
of thirst in a few days...

...in this treacherous desert
that doesn't look like a desert...

...but he can survive for months on end.

He unearths a bulbous root...

...which is really just a solid lump of wood
with hard fibers that are merely damp.

Civilized man wouid need
some pretty complicated technoiogy...

...and machinery to get water out of it,
but he uses the very simplest of tools.

His scraper is a stick that has been
split to give it a sharp edge...

...and he produces some
dry-looking shavings.

But you take a handful,
point your thumb at your mouth...

...squeeze very hard and wait for it.

The baboons always have
a secret supply of water...

...and they're not going to
tell anybody where it is.

And when a Machalahari ventures
into the deep Kalahari...

...on a hunting trip,
he has to find water...

...because, unlike the Bushman, he doesn't
know how to make liquid from a root.

But he has his own way of
finding out where the water is.

First, he drills a hole in a giant ant heap
when he's sure a baboon is watching him...

...because he knows baboons
are incurably inquisitive.

Next, he puts some wild
melon seeds into the hole...

...and works them in so that
they drop into a hollow.

Then he saunters off, knowing the
baboon is burning with curiosity.

The baboon doesn't trust that
human being at all, so he plays it cooi.

But he's dying to know what gives
in that confounded hole.

Finally, Mr. inquisitive
can't take it any longer.

He's got to know what's in there.

He reaches in, grabs a fistful,
and now his hand's too big to come out.

If he had the sense to drop the seeds,
he couid free his hand.

Now he lets go when it's too late.

So that was a smart enough way
to catch a baboon...

...but he still has to make him talk.

Now, he knows that salt is very scarce
in this particular area...

...and that baboon is going to
eat those lumps iike candy.

In fact, he has such a ball eating salt that
he completely forgets he's under arrest...

...and that in a little while
he's going to be a mighty thirsty baboon.

Next morning, the Machalahari
goes to have a closer look...

...to see whether his prisoner
is ready to talk.

He decides the brainwashing
has worked, so he sets him free...

...knowing that in his condition
he won't care who follows him...

...to the secret reservoir.

The Machalahari has no eyes
for the beauty of the setting.

To him, water is beautiful.

Now the water holes have dried up
to oniy a trickle...

...and soon that will be hard-baked soil.

In a few short weeks,
paradise turns into purgatory.

The merciless sun scorches down,
and dust devils dance...

...across the parching earth.

Most of the animals migrate
to other regions...

...but some hardy and
some foolhardy ones remain.

And the vultures know that their
prosperous time is approaching.

By this time, the great lake
has dried up completely...

...into a boundless, white expanse.

Mummified fish lie scattered
on the dry, cracked surface.

Animals migrating across the lake
from the Kalahari...

...plod through cruel mirages of water
that doesn't splash under their feet...

...and they pass phantom trees
that offer no shade.

After days of plodding,
some begin to panic...

...when there seems to be
no end to the vastness.

Some just give up and stop walking.

Some years, the drought comes
too soon for the pelicans...

...who nested in the center of the lake.

The parents stand around helplessly
as their little black chicks...

...suffer agonies of hunger
and thirst and heat.

They're almost fully grown,
but are still too young to fly...

...so they're trapped in
this boundless desolation.

One little one begins to walk
blindly away into the searing heat...

...and his parents can only look on in despair.

In the first weeks of his life,
this was a bountiful lake.

He cannot understand how his beautiful
world could change into this pitiless void.

So he walks and walks, hoping in despair
to find his beautiful world again...

...somewhere in this vast emptiness.

In the evening, cool, moist air...

...comes drifting into the desert,
bringing a promise of life-giving rain.

In the morning, the clouds are still
streaming into the desert sky...

...but the sun burns mercilessly,
and one by one...

...they shrivel in the searing heat.

A few stragglers survive, but as they
penetrate deeper into the desert...

...they, too, dwindle and fade.

In the end, the parents have to
abandon their chicks...

...and fly away to the sea.

And the chicks begin to walk.

They are very weak now,
and the dried-out lake is endless.

It is a death march that
leaves a trail of little bodies...

...for mile upon mile on the vastness...

...until only a pitiful few are left alive.

Far away from the desert, the clouds
build up into towering masses...

...as they prepare to invade
the stronghold of the sun once more.

Like a liberating army,
wave after wave of cumulus...

...surges across the African plains.

Even before they reach the desert, the sun
begins to pound down on the upper layers...

...and it tears great gaps
in the ranks of the invaders.

But when the advance guard reaches
the desert, it is still a formidable force.

It penetrates several miles into the desert...

...and some clouds even discharge
their load of rain.

But the rain never reaches the ground
because the relentless sun evaporates...

...the water before it can fail
on the thirsting earth.

The invasion loses impetus
under the fury of the sun...

...and the clouds are vanquished.

And the surviving chicks wait in vain
for relief from their anguish.

By nightfall, oniy a few scattered
remnants drift around aimlessiy.

During the night,
the clouds regroup their forces.

Great masses move around in the
darkness like vast engines of war...

...as they maneuver into position
for another invasion.

At dawn, they launch
another massive attack.

Again, wave after wave
sweeps towards the desert.

And in the turmoil of a titanic battle of the
elements, the sun is finally obliterated.

Then there is a great hush.

Strangely, when deliverance comes at last,
the animals show no signs of rejoicing.

They merely wait impassively
for the rain to pass.

And after a few minutes, it stops.

Abruptly and suddenly.

The thirsty earth soaks up
the long-awaited moisture.

But in the rocky parts, the water
runs off and brings new perils.

The flash floods drain off
as suddeniy as they started.

And now the desert can settle down
to enjoy the return of prosperity.

But still the animals show
no sign of rejoicing.

It takes several days before
it dawns on them that...

...paradise has returned to the desert.

Then their joy of living comes bursting out.