Lions and cheetahs and chimps, oh my: a spotlight on Africa's diverse wildlife

Chimps fish for algae in a rare example of primate tool use. Credit: National Geographic

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

The seven-episode documentary series took four years to complete, with filming taking place across nearly 30 different African countries. Each episode focuses on a specific ecosystem, from the jungle and the desert, to the plains, mountains, and islands of Africa, and closes by spotlighting the various scientists, photographers, and NatGeo explorers whose work made the series possible. The final 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 has delivered powerful performances in such works as Sinners, Loki, and Lovecraft Country. “I was incredibly honored that they even know 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 raised in England, I’ll take any opportunity I can 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 that because it’s a part of me.”

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

Among other highlights, the team captured the reclusive black rain frog on film—the first time this species has appeared on TV—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 (twigs or branches) to fish for algae at the bottom of a pond (see top video).

Lone bachelor hyena figures out how to catch a flamingo. Credit: National Geographic.

Adaptation is key. In one case, a lone male hyena who hasn’t eaten for days must figure out how to catch a flamingo to survive. But the water slows him down so much that he has to devise a strategy: herding the flock toward the shore so 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 nearly succeeding in killing the calf.  “I never thought I’d feel empathy for a hyena,” said Mosaki. “You see this young bachelor hyena just trying to [find food]. But then you see them attacking an elephant calf and remember, ‘Oh, that’s why I don’t like them.’”

Capturing all that footage in the wild requires a great deal of technological innovation. The production team relied heavily on drones to provide first-person points of view, as well as a robotic arm that could be preprogammed for long camera takes—initially developed for studio use and deployed for the first time in the field.

An underwater “hippo cam” featured pan and tilt heads to better capture what was happening beneath the surface as hippos receieved a “spa treatment,” i.e., barbel fish nibbling away 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 hunting bats in a pitch-black cave covered in guano. They even placed small umbrellas over the rigs to “bat proof” the equipment.

Just when you’re starting to like hyenas, they go and attack a baby elephant. Credit: National Geographic.

To give the episodes shape, each is broken up into several mini-narratives, such as a mother cheetah learning to adapt her hunting style to mountainous rockyterrain in order to catch prey for her hungry cubs. “I felt like I could see so much of humanity within these stories,” said Mosaku. “The cheetah and her three cubs on a terrain where her superpower [speed] is now null and void because they’re on cliffs—I see that cheetah and I see my mother with her three cubs in terrain where her super powers weren’t able to power up. I just see so much of how we’re connected and how we ultimately want the same things: to survive, to thrive, that our loved ones are safe.”

Mosaku’s skills as an actor proved invaluable to bringing those stories to life. “We really wanted it to feel personable,” Mosaku said of her narrative approach. “I wasn’t putting on a voice, it was very much Wunmi and how do I feel in this moment? So it felt very authentic. It very much was about character and drive and empathy and figuring out what this character wants and needs. It’s interesting because [as the narrator] you are the audience too. You’re seeing it for the first time technically but also you’re guiding people who are seeing it for the first time without talking down to them.”

“I hope the audience feels that we are in communication with the natural world and that what we do matters and what happens in the natural world matters to us,” said Mosaku. “Take away all the lights and the cameras and the social media and everything in the world that we live in right now, and you get down to the pure crux of humanity. It’s the same for that cheetah, it’s the same for that frog, it’s the same for that chimpanzee. It’s about survival and protection. I hope people feel that and do more so that we can continue to try and create more harmony, more ease between the different species of this planet.”

Africa: Earth’s Wild Home is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.