NARRATOR: The Kalahari,
the largest expanse of sand on the planet.
At its center lies a living, breathing miracle...
the Okavango Delta.
Each year, when the land is at its driest,
distant rainfall fills its veins once again.
The Great Flood is the heartbeat...
transforming this land
into a wildlife paradise
like none on Earth.
*
It's the start of winter.
The land is dry.
The rivers have vanished and the flood is yet to come.
Flocks of hungry quelea scour the floodplains
by the thousands.
(chirping).
The grasses have withered and died.
Now only their seeds lie dormant in the dry sand.
The scramble for food is underway.
These dry, unbroken floodplains are the ideal
hunting grounds for a cheetah...
especially a mother with three growing cubs to feed.
Her cubs are completely dependent on her for food.
An impala would make the perfect meal.
But the cubs are still too young to hunt.
They'll stay behind to watch and learn.
She is a skilled hunter.
Approaching in silence, she selects her quarry.
Impala horns can be lethal,
she cannot afford to make a mistake.
Speed yes, but agility too.
These are the cheetah's greatest assets.
It's a dangerous take down,
but she knows precisely how to kill.
Her son is eager to help.
He is learning fast.
His sister is a little less confident.
For now, feeding her family is easy.
But when the flood comes, it will be another story.
To survive in this dry season, timing is everything...
and the leopard is to timing as the cheetah is to speed.
Just when most plants have wilted and died,
that's when Kigelia trees burst into life.
Their deep red flowers are filled with sweet nectar.
Vervet monkeys are enticed to drink
and they help pollinate the trees.
In a land that has grown so dry,
the juicy blossoms are simply irresistible.
Soon, a velvet carpet covers the ground,
drawing the impala to join the feast.
And it's the impala that this leopard is after.
She'll wait until the monkeys leave.
There can be no witnesses.
Now is the time to make her move.
Silently.
Stealthily.
NARRATOR: The leopard's ambush is set.
All she must do is wait.
The impala have no idea who's about to drop by.
(snarling)
The leopard is surely the most cunning of cats.
Every year in the highlands far to the north,
heavy rains fall.
From a trickle to a flow,
this is the Great Flood's first pulse...
filling the veins and arteries of this thirsty land.
It rejuvenates the barren sands,
and brings the promise of renewal.
This wave of water will transform everything,
as a great oasis is born.
The scent of water beckons on the wind,
drawing herds of grazers back to their winter pastures.
For thousands of Cape buffalo, the flood rolls out a green,
life-sustaining banquet.
Some travel many miles to get here.
The resident lions lie in wait.
(snorting, mooing)
(growling)
For this travel-weary mother, there is no rest yet.
Her calf now faces the most perilous challenge of its life.
NARRATOR: These young lions think they have an easy meal.
But the harder they try, the harder this mother fights.
Backup is not far away.
That's one advantage of living in a herd.
Just in time, the other buffalo rally to her cause.
Pick a fight with one and you must fight them all.
The lions are outnumbered and outmatched by a
herd that stands shoulder to shoulder.
Together, this fortress of buffalo cannot be breached.
And for now, mothers and calves are safe.
Night and day, the flood's fingers feel deeper and deeper
into the delta, spreading out and feeding the land.
Channels, once empty,
now overflow with the abundance of life.
Wild dogs revel in the flood's healing waters.
The emerging swamp makes a great playground.
But there's something strange lurking here,
and they can't resist investigating.
Not all that comes with the flood is welcome.
For a giant rock python, a wild dog pup would
make a tasty meal.
NARRATOR: The wild dogs are wary of this unknown visitor.
Although a pack this big could take him on,
(barking)
when in doubt, the best approach is
to live and let live.
In the cold of winter,
the Great Flood has saturated the land.
Now begins one of the Okavango'
greatest spectacles.
Swarms of tiny insects fill the air,
midges and mayflies.
Their emergence is a vital source of protein,
another generous gift of the all-giving flood.
(chirping).
Even the Quelea forego their usual diet of seeds.
Other insects are drawn to the feast,
dragonflies and their smaller cousins,
damselflies.
Over 100 different species gather here.
The Okavango becomes home to one of the biggest
concentrations of their kind anywhere on Earth.
They are here not only to feed, but to mate.
The male makes the first move...
clasping his partner behind her head.
She bends toward him to receive his sperm.
They can remain locked in their heart-shaped embrace
for hours.
The male will keep a firm grip on the female until
she deposits their eggs,
and a new cycle of life begins,
courtesy of the flood.
In just a few months, billions of gallons of water engulf
what was a vast savanna.
As the flood reaches its peak,
only small islands break the surface,
and dry land is hard to come by.
There are some antelope that thrive in wetlands.
Lechwe, with their long hind legs,
can easily outrun any pursuers in this swamp.
Other animals find their own ways to adapt.
But if you're a giant, water is no barrier.
The flood brings new food, and the elephant's needs
are greater than most.
They act as tree surgeons, removing the weakest.
(cracking).
The sound of a falling tree rings out like a dinner bell.
All within earshot rush in, and very little will be wasted.
In a few hours, only a skeleton remains.
Sword Grass chokes the waterways.
Keeping this in check is another job for
the constant gardener.
An elephant can rip out the grass by the root,
rinse it off, and eat it by the ton.
The elephants' insatiable appetites make them the
architects of the swamp.
By managing vegetation, they direct the flow of water.
(trumpeting)
But underwater, even more construction work is done,
and the hippopotamus is the Okavango's greatest engineer.
NARRATOR: Hippos are natural-born
earth-moving machines.
With their massive lumbering bodies,
they reconstruct the underwater world
simply by moving.
The flood's main arteries are now deep channels,
and hippos are right at home.
They are the masters of this realm.
As they move in search of food,
they bulldoze paths through the vegetation.
Soon, there's a network of hippo-sized highways
linking the larger rivers to the smaller pools,
and the pools to the floodplains.
Where these highways lead, the water follows.
Hippos direct the flow, creating the watery web
that shapes the entire delta.
On the flat open floodplains, the water begins to slow.
Water lilies thrive in the shallows.
They root in thick mud, and their candelabra stems
reach for the sky.
The lily pads spread across the surface,
fragile and paper-thin.
But for one special bird, the pads are a floating home.
This is the 'lily trotter'.
With oversized feet, he can skip across the water
from pad to pad.
But life in the swamp is a delicate balance.
His home is being invaded by a giant,
one whose feeding habits could wreck this world.
The flowers and lily pads are of little interest
to this elephant...
it's the nutritious stems and roots he's after.
To satisfy his appetite,
he'll yank out hundreds of them in a day.
But this lily trotter can't simply escape to a different pond,
this is home and he has a nest to protect.
(chirping)
He's a father who takes his domestic
responsibility seriously.
His mate laid her eggs and then she left the
rest up to him.
Now, he's a single parent and a stay-at-home dad.
He's been tending his floating nest for 21 days.
But today, he must rise to a new challenge.
There's no mistaking those legs.
His first chick is making a somewhat awkward entrance.
Housekeeping is a priority.
To hide any evidence of the new young one,
he removes the shell from the nest,
breaks it up and sinks it.
Now he'll keep his first chick safely tucked away.
It might take two more days before his others hatch.
He just needs to hold on tight.
(splashing, rumbling)
NARRATOR: This devoted Dad now has two chicks.
He keeps a watchful eye on the newly-hatched lily trotters as
they find their footing.
When you're only two inches tall,
obstacles are everywhere.
Exploring this watery world can be tricky.
A gap between the pads presents a serious water hazard.
Try as he might, Dad is only making things worse
while his chick struggles.
Desperate times demand desperate measures.
That was a close call.
Taking both chicks under his wing,
he'll keep them out of trouble,
for now.
But even for a hard-working Dad like this one,
a third chick will be a real handful.
The Great Flood has changed everything it touched.
The world has turned.
New creatures lurk in the dappled light of the swamp.
Lions are no longer in command.
They don't mind getting their feet wet.
But with their hunting grounds submerged,
they've lost their usual advantages.
The flood has brought challenges and promise.
The only constant here is constant change.
And even greater changes lie ahead.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.