Lions and cheetahs and chimpanzees, oh my: a spotlight on Africa’s diverse wildlife

A wild African black panther stalks prey. An orphaned baby pangolin has to learn how to climb on his own. And a green turtle struggles to make it back to the water after laying her eggs on a remote island, rescued by local people who carry the exhuadated turtle to the water’s edge. These animals and many other species are in Africa: Earth’s Wild Homea new documentary series from National Geographic. It is intended to launch a new franchise, with separate series documenting the wildlife and environmental ecosystems of all seven continents.

The seven-episode documentary series took four years to complete, with filming taking place in nearly 30 different African countries. Each episode focuses on a specific ecosystem, from the jungle and desert, to the plains, mountains and islands of Africa, and closes by highlighting the various scientists, photographers and NatGeo explorers whose work made the series possible. The latest episode focuses on the local conservation leaders and researchers working to preserve Africa’s rich biodiversity for future generations.

The producers found the perfect narrator in Wunmi Mosaku, who delivered powerful performances in works such as Sinners, Lokiand and Lovecraft Land. “I was incredibly honored that they even knew my name at Nat Geo,” Mosaku told Ars. “It was wonderful to be asked to narrate the series, it means so much to me. As someone who was born in Nigeria and grew up in England, I will take every opportunity to reconnect and celebrate this incredible continent, where life is so diverse and so extreme and beautiful and relentless and peaceful. I wanted to be a part of it because it is a part of me.

“There was so much I didn’t know,” Mosaku said. “I’ve been to Nigeria, of course, and Ghana. I’ve worked in Kenya and South Africa. But there’s so much to see. I don’t think you could ever discover it in a lifetime. So many things were shocking to me. Seeing snow and monkeys living in the snow in Africa, I’d never seen that before.”

Among other highlights, the team caught the retreating black rain frog on film – the first time this species has appeared on television – as a male frog emerges for his first breeding season. Despite looking like a “grumpy avocado”, the black rain frog has a distinctive “squeaky soprano” mating call to help him attract females. The series also features rare live footage of chimpanzees using rudimentary tools (tweezers or branches) to fish for algae at the bottom of a pond (see top video).

Adaptation is key. In one case, a lone male hyena who hasn’t eaten for days must figure out how to catch a flamingo in order to survive. But the water slows him down so much that he has to devise a strategy: to draw the flock to the shore, so that the increased density of birds makes it easier to catch one (see above) – a new skill for the species.

One can’t help but feel some empathy for the hyena, which is quickly offset by a night vision segment (see below) where a pack of hyenas attack a mother and baby elephant and almost succeed in killing the calf. “I never thought I would feel empathy for a hyena,” Mosaki said. “You see this young bachelor hyena just trying [find food]. But then you see them attack an elephant calf and remember, ‘Oh, that’s why I don’t like them.’

Capturing all that footage in the wild requires a lot of technological innovation. The production team relied heavily on drones to provide first-person viewpoints, as well as a robotic arm that can be pre-programmed for long camera shots – originally developed for studio use and deployed in the field for the first time.

An underwater “Hippo Cam” featured pan and tilt heads to better capture what was happening below the surface as hippos received a “spa treatment”, ie barbel fish nibbling off all their dead skin. And the team developed a remotely operated fixed rig with low-light and infrared capabilities, as well as a remotely operated zoom feature, to film dwarf crocodiles bats in a pitch-black cave covered with guano. They even put little umbrellas over the rigs to “bat proof” the equipment.