There is a place on earth ...
where it is still
the morning of life,
and the great herds run free.
Life streams across a land ...
suspended in time.
The last refuge of the greatest
concentration of wildlife ...
remaining on earth
the Serengeti plains of East Africa.
Long before human memory,
the mountains to the east emptied
themselves into the skies.
A sea of ash settled
across the Serengeti ...
leaving only scattered summits ...
as stone markers of a buried world.
Across four million years,
time and the elements
turned ash to rich soil,
yielding vast grasslands,
today preserved as the most important
animal sanctuary on earth.
In a land as fertile
as it is beautiful ...
dwell millions of
diverse creatures.
Yet a single species
predominates,
a million and a half strong
wildebeests affect the lives of
all around them.
Ungainly in appearance,
they have been called the clowns
of the African plains,
and an animal assembled by
committee from spare parts.
But wildebeests
are superbly endowed ...
for a life of endless migration
in search of grass and water.
Alongside, an array of
other herbivores coexist,
all accommodated by the rich ...
and varied vegetation
of the Serengeti,
each seeking out a different
niche of the food supply.
Some may spend 2/3 of
their lives grazing.
Some are fortunate enough to
live in their own salad bowl.
The equation of life
on the Serengeti is simple:
herbivores eat plants,
carnivores eat herbivores.
Lions hunt with both
might and stealth
a decoy distracts
while others stalk.
Although the lioness
has made the kill,
it is the much larger male
of the pride who eats first.
The hungry wait by rank.
Lionesses and cubs
are second in line.
Hyenas, jackals and vultures ...
quarrel to be next.
On the Serengeti,
nothing is wasted.
Through the plenty
of the wet season,
the wildebeest herds
have grown strong ...
on the short grass plains
of the southern Serengeti.
Now in late May, drought approaches
imposing a deadly ultimatum
migrate or starve.
For more than 2 million animals,
it is a marathon race against
thirst and hunger.
Like living streams and rivers,
the herds, accompanied by
zebras and gazelles,
flow toward the north and west,
drawn by the ancient promise
of water and grass.
The great migration has begun.
The epic journey takes place ...
within the two East African
Nations of Tanzania and Kenya.
The wildebeest herds
migrate north ...
toward the "Maasai Mara
Game Reserve" in Kenya.
There, they range
for months ...
until the rains resume,
and the herds return again
to the southern plains.
The migration runs a deadly
gauntlet of more than 500 miles.
The first weeks of the
migration ...
coincide with the frenzy
of the rutting season.
Bulls engage in
constant battles ...
over females and territories.
In a few frantic weeks, 90%
of the cows are impregnated.
Early in the migration northward,
herds move through
the region ...
of ancient granite outcroppings
called "kopjes".
Now, they are vantage points
for waiting predators.
From a litter of four, only this
lone cheetah cub has survived.
To nourish it, the mother must
kill almost daily,
but she has not eaten for 2 days.
The herds have passed, but a few
straggling gazelles appear.
From this distance,
there is no contest.
The cheetah is the fastest
land animal on earth,
achieving short bursts of speed
up to 70 miles per hour.
There is neither malice nor
remorse on the Serengeti.
A hunter kills to eat
and to feed its own
nothing more.
To the migrating herds, wooded
savannas now offer refuge ...
from the drought-stricken plains.
But here, the migration
becomes an invasion,
for the woodlands are
a permanent home to others.
Yet most of the residents go
about their own daily affairs,
little disturbed by the
trespassing multitude.
Unlike wildebeests, Maasai
giraffes need not migrate.
They feed on a hundred
species of woodland foliage,
a food supply resistant to drought.
Vervet monkeys find in trees
both sustenance and safety.
Savanna baboons roam the woodlands
in troops, roosting in trees by night.
Omnivores, like us, they feed
on almost anything edible.
Occasionally, adult males will
even feast on young antelope.
Feeding on grasses adjacent
to the woodlands,
grazers come under
an ever watchful eye.
Yet there is one herbivore even
the lion gives wide berth.
The adult elephant is one of the few
Serengeti animals without an ...
enemy in the wild.
Protective of their young, elephants
form extremely close bonds.
The relationship between mother and
daughter lasts up to 50 years.
Herds sometimes push on through
the night despite risk of attack,
under cover of darkness.
Drawn by lightning distant
thunder or the smell of rain,
they may travel 50 miles by dawn.
Now adversities multiply.
Drought has parched
the plains tinder dry.
Grass fires sweep the Serengeti.
Scoured by fire and wind,
the vegetation will regenerate
in the rains to come,
but for the moment, herds seeking
sustenance find only dust.
Now the enemies are thirst
hunger exhaustion ...
and, as ever, predators.
So powerful is the urge to migrate,
the herd will push on even
when confronted by a lion ...
crouched in open ambush.
The hunter has only
to pick the moment.
In this endless contest,
nothing is guaranteed.
In daytime, only one lion hunt
in five succeeds.
Finally, after months
of migration,
the forward ranks ...
surge into the bounty that has
drawn them northward
the rich pastures of the
Maasai Mara in Kenya.
Once more, their instincts have
brought them to a place of plenty.
Here, they will range
and graze for months ...
until the life-giving rains
return on the winds of October.
To the east,
close by the Serengeti,
there is a place of even
greater abundance.
One of the natural
wonders of the world.
It is a microcosm
of the Serengeti.
Ngorongoro crater is
a huge volcanic caldera,
encompassing 100 square miles,
a remnant of the great eruptions
that created the Serengeti plains.
From cloud forests along the rim to
the crater floor 2,000 feet below,
a self-contained
ecosystem provides ...
abundant forage
and plentiful water.
Where there is water, there is life.
An object of amusement to some,
the hippopotamus can cut a crocodile
or a human in half with a single bite.
Prompting an axiom
of the Serengeti:
"Never come between a hippo
and its territorial waters."
Tens of thousands of
animals dwell here,
others come in migrations
of the sky:
Flamingos from Namibia.
Storks from as far
as Europe and Asia.
Like privileged cousins of the
migrating herds outside,
wildebeests and zebras within
the crater walls ...
need only wander from
pasture to pasture.
Dangers abound here as elsewhere.
Zebras cluster together in
a tangle of stripes,
confusing to predators.
The horses of Africa appear placid,
but they have never
been domesticated.
The black rhinoceros, for all its
formidable presence ...
and frequent marking of territory
is a vulnerable giant,
poached almost to extinction
for the value of its horn.
Ngorongoro crater is one of the
few protected refuges ...
where the black rhino endures.
For a baboon troop
much of the day passes ...
attending to young, grooming ...
and socializing.
Though the job of protecting ...
the lion pride and its territory
belongs to the males,
the work of hunting and raising
young falls to the females.
Play helps prepare the young for
the violent encounters to come.
The vaunted power of lions is matched
by a prodigious capacity for rest.
Typically 20 hours a day is
spent in regal slumber.
When lions mate, however,
they do so on average ...
every 25 minutes,
day and night ...
without feeding ...
for three or four days.
It has been estimated that
for every cub that
survives its first year.
These lands are also
the cradle of humanity.
Gashed into the
eastern Serengeti ...
Plains near Ngorongoro is
Olduvai-gorge, one of the most ...
famous archaeological sites of earth.
It bears within
its layered walls ...
a human fossil record spanning ...
almost two million years.
Today, the proud Maasai
people dwell here.
They too, follow
a nomadic existence ...
along the edges of the Serengeti.
Ever seeking good grazing ...
for their cattle herds.
The Maasai believe
that heaven gave them,
and no other people,
all the cattle on earth.
And from their treasured cattle,
they still draw a staple ...
of the Maasai warrior diet:
A mixture of milk and blood.
The age of predators still
encompasses the world of the Maasai.
From this and nearby villages,
leopards have taken three infants
within the year.
Once the most
formidable warriors ...
in east Africa,
the Maasai still
defend their cattle ...
and families with spears.
Some are born on the Serengeti,
some seek it out.
Today a growing human migration ...
from the outside world
can witness ...
a spectacle of wildness ...
long vanished elsewhere.
Tanzania and Kenya
have preserved ...
vast areas as national parks ...
and game reserves,
proclaiming them ...
a world heritage of all mankind.
The support from tourism ...
is now indispensable
to the survival ...
of this heritage, linking the ...
destiny of the Serengeti ...
with the visitors who pass in awe.
The Serengeti they behold
is changing,
threatened by population
growth and poaching,
but vigorously protected as well.
Elephant herds that once fled ...
poachers are returning,
now protected by an ivory moratorium.
Nourished again by the Serengeti,
and encouraged by greater safety,
The herds are multiplying rapidly.
On the Maasai Mara,
the storms of October approach.
And with the return of the rains,
the herds will resume ...
the great migration ...
toward their ancestral calving ...
grounds in the south.
But ahead they face
their greatest peril.
To reach the south,
the herd must cross
the Mara river ...
now swollen by the rains.
In these waters,
it is still the age of dinosaurs,
and a crocodile reigns supreme.
Many that survive the crocodiles,
fall prey to the river itself.
Some drown. Some are trampled.
some are too exhausted ...
to save themselves.
Through the year
and the course ...
of the great migration,
a quarter of a
million wildebeests ...
will have died.
But the migration moves on ...
through the long journey south,
returning finally
to the short grass plains ...
where the miracle
of the Serengeti unfolds.
The mass breeding
earlier in the year ...
culminates in mass birth.
In the brief span of a few weeks,
early in the wet season,
almost half a
million wildebeest ...
calves are born,
a strategy that
overwhelms predators ...
and ensures the survival ...
of a new generation.
To survive in the
midst of predators,
newborn calves must be able to ...
stand within minutes of birth.
Those unable to stand,
must be abandoned.
Once more on the plains ...
of the Serengeti,
life is more powerful than death.
And there remains
a place on Earth ...
where it is still
the morning of life ...
and the great herds still run free.