Documentary Description
The great flood in the Okavango turns 4,000 square miles of arid
plains into a beautiful wetland. Elephant mothers guide their families
on an epic trek across the harsh Kalahari Desert towards it, siphoning
fresh water from stagnant pools and facing hungry lions. Hippos battle
for territory, as the magical water draws in thousands of buffalo and
birds, and vast clouds of dragonflies. Will the young elephant calves
survive to reach this grassland paradise?
The experienced mother elephants time their arrival at the delta to
coincide with the lush grass produced by the great flood. In a TV first,
the programme shows the way they use their trunks to siphon clean water
from the surface layers of a stagnant pool, while avoiding stirring up
the muddy sediment on the bottom with their feet.
Bull hippos also converge on prime territories formed by the rising
flood water. Two big bulls do bloody battle, at times being lifted out
of the water by their rival.
Lechwe swamp deer, zebras, giraffes, crocodiles and numerous fish and
thousands of birds arrive in the delta. And, in a phenomenon never
before filmed in the Okavango, thousands of dragonflies appear -
seemingly from nowhere - within minutes of the flood arrival, mating and
laying eggs.
As the flood finally reaches its peak, elephants and buffalo, near
the end of their epic trek across the desert, face the final gauntlet of
a hungry pride of lions.
In a heart-wrenching sequence, a baby elephant is brought down by a
lion in broad daylight.
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