Beyond the limits of the human eye
life holds secrets we never imagined.
Attacks, too fast to see
mysteries of survival and death
Our crew will break extreme conditions
Using the most advanced photographic technology.
to reveal these connections between living things
Faster, slower, closer.
capturing the beauty and brutality of nature
at the speed of life.
HUNTERS OF EAST AFRICA
Here, on the Serengeti Plains of East Africa
Time is divided not to just day and night.
But interseasons of torrential rains
and scorching drought.
The creatures that have evolved in this radical extremes are as lethal as the climate
Now a team of natural history photographers
face the unpredictable dangers of this wild land
It's a world of misty highlands, ancient valleys and vast savannahs
where survival is a 24-hour life or death game
that's played for keeps
Tracking animals in the dark is risky.
African Lions hunt in the night hours before dawn.
And have no fear of humans.
But right now, the team is tracking a very different cat.
One, seldom seen or filmed.
Revealed in the faint light of dawn is one of the most agile predators in all of east africa
The caracal, acrobatic supercat of East Africa,
is known to leap so high, it can actually pluck a bird on a flight.
This young male is hungry.
Now it faces exhaustion.
A slippery slope that can easily lead to starvation.
But giving up is not in the caracal's DNA.
Although it's just 18 inches tall,
the cat's rear leg muscles can launch it 10 vertical feet into the air
to swipe birds in flight.
To withstand hard landings,
the cat's padded leg joints act like shock absorbers
But its prey is no pushover.
The Guinea fowl, one of Africa's fastest running birds.
Eyes on the sides of its head, allow this hen to spot a cat before he is within striking distance.
But each time the bird slips away
the caracal tracks her with all its senses on alert
The cat's senses of smell is keen
and its eyes are so at day and night hunting.
But its secret weapon is a pair of super sensitive elongated ears
controlled by no fewer than 20 seperate muscles
The cat can move each ear independently
to triangulate the location of targets as far as 600 feet away.
Now they pick up the faint sounds in the grass only 10 yards away
This 4-pound hen can run as fast as 20 feet per second.
But this time, the cat is too close to outrun.
There is only one way out: up.
Guinea fowl can burst into the sky with top speeds of 21 miles per hour.
But these birds lack the stamina to fly more than 100 feet at a time.
As this hen comes down
the cat is ready.
The struggle is over in less than a minute
when the caracal closes the hen's windpipe she suffocates and dies.
As the cat takes a well earned rest
the leaves and twigs above begin to stir
but not for many breeze
What looks like twigs are small army of camouflaged warriors
Each one armed with sharp jaws and raptor like legs
lined with spikes.
This master of disguise is an East African praying mantis.
One of many varieties.
The textures, shapes and colors of their bodies clothe them from their enemies...
...as well as the small insects and animals that they hunt.
Few insects are more equipped for tracking targets
They can turn their triangular heads a full 180 degrees
and rotate them to look over their shoulders.
Sensitive compound eyes detect the slightest movement of prey,
an astonishing 60 feet away.
For low light hunting, they rely on a single ultrasound ear,
mounted on their upper body section.
There are nearly as many mantis disguises in species as there are places to hide.
The dainty floral hues on this flower mantis
help it ambush and eat hummingbirds.
Other species masquerade as dried leaves and twigs.
But all varieties share a common and peculiar appetite for love.
The only time a mantis stops eating, is to mate.
And for this female, the time has come.
She has found the male.
The only question now, is whether he is ready to die for the privelege.
This female praying mantis could take down a small bird.
But today she is driven by sex and not hunger.
She wants to mate with smaller male.
But it's so early in season, he is not that interested.
This reluctance might save his life,
because once female is fertilized, they decapitate their males...
...and eat their brains for energy.
But his refusal has made the female take another look at him.
This time as food.
He tries to fend her off with gloves from his raptor-like four legs.
But the female continues to advance.
Suddenly, she unferals her wings.
Perhaps to balance a lethal strike with her powerful jaws.
Facing a gruesome death...
...the weaker male has only one option left.
Coming up, a creature that can live without its head.
And later a vine with a taste for reptiles.
10:30 Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
It's midmorning in a hot, rift valley.
Two members of the team have scoured the area for hours.
And literally walked into a rare opportunity.
To film it they set up a high speed camera and lock it down on a stable tripod.
Nothing must vibrate or shake the rig
because they are going in close.
It's a deadly duel between two camouflaged killers.
For every succesful creature coupling, there are dozens more that don't work out.
This male praying mantis has just escaped the voracious jaws of the female
falling over 50 times of his body length.
His strong outer skeleton barely saves his life.
While he is now at safe distance from the female
the fight has drained his energy reserves.
Now, he is hungry.
There is a rustle in the leaves nearby.
His target walks on 6 legs, 18 knees.
And can run up to 3 miles per hour.
Cockroaches originated in Africa and Asia 250 million years ago.
And now occupied almost every corner of out planet.
The mantis is so motionless and camouflaged
the roach walks straight into the strike zone.
In real time the attack is too fast to see.
But the awesome speed and precision of the strike
are revealed when the action is 60 times slower.
The mantis captures the cockroach in 1/50,000 of a second.
Now, it's time for the kill.
Using the blades of his jaws,
the male paralyses the roach with a deep bite to the neck.
Now he eats it alive.
Roach bodies are so primitive, they can actually live for a week without their heads.
By keeping his head,
the mantis escaped a lethal attack and a threat of starvation for now.
In East Africa, most victories are short lived.
The dark, pointed feathers...
and long graceful stride
belong to an ancient predator.
Its species dates back 50 million years.
The magnificent, grey crowned crane.
Once, they lived as far away as North America.
But today only the African sun provied the warmth they need to survive.
Its wingspan is almost 7 feet and its lifespan, almost 25 years.
The East African villagers believe this majestic predators bring in the seasonal rains.
Biologists believe their eyes, protected by nictitating lids...
...provide excellent peripherial vision...
...allowing them to spot elusive prey.
The grey crowned and black crowned are the only cranes able too roost in high branches
using their hind toes to hold them steady.
But while this females find shelter in the trees
other hungry predators find prey.
And telling some of these killers apart from the branches they prowl is not easy.
This one looks like a vine until you see its business end.
The vine snake.
Its forked tongue samples the air for scent of prey.
Set behind the pointed snout, their eyes with pupil shape like keyholes
This gives the vine snake increased depth perception.
Which is critical when picking prey off a branch.
This female hunted all night without a kill.
But now, the rising light reveals an opportunity.
All the snake has to do is turn her head in right direction.
Coming up, the deadly slurp o a green phantom.
And later, a stampede.
In the heat of the day, light from the sun can be blinding.
The plenty of cratures in the East African plain, make it their business
to be invisible in plain sight.
This vine snake, only a body length away from kill has failed to recognise its prey
for a very simple reason.
This reptile is Africa's master of deception.
Its name is the very definiton of disguise.
The chameleon. In this case, an African dwarf chameleon.
There are more than 50 species of chameleon...
...that haunt the trees and grassy floors of East Africa.
All able to change their colors to match their surroundings.
But their enemies are often nearly as good at blending in to the surroundings.
The deadly Gabon viper has scales that blend in with rough tree bark.
But chameleons still have an edge.
Unlike snakes, chameleons can change to precept colors and patterns to match their moods.
And some of these combinations make them harder to spot.
In a calm state, this species turns the same vivid green as the leaves of this tree.
The common chameleon.
This female stalks insects, using a pair of remarkable eyes
housed in movable turrets.
She can actually move and focus each eye separately as she hunts.
She moves slowly and delibarately until she spots her kill.
To gauge the tongue's velocity and to see how it's deployed...
...the team will use simple slow motion photography.
In real time, the strike is a blur.
Slowed down 200 times, it's nothing short of awesome.
The tip of the tongue has a club like muscle...
...covered in sticky mucus...
...that acts like a suction cup.
Specialized muscles inside the chameleon's mouth
fire the tongue at roughly 15 miles per hour
hitting the cricket in 1/30,000 of a second.
The prey is then whipped back into the lizards powerful jaws.
With the sun directly overhead
this female must find real shade before her blood overheats.
Any insect in her path careless enough to linger, becomes part of the lunch menu.
She'll give the solitary digging wasp some space,
because its sting is highly toxic.
Confronted by threats like this, chameleons stagger their walk.
Biologists theorize it's a deceptive tactic to mimic a blowing leaf.
But far greater threats lay in her path.
One of them has a thick, protective hide.
A set of fast, deadly feet.
And an appetite for just about anything that moves.
Coming up, a black winged menace stalks the ultimate quick change artist.
And later, the crew encounters dog-faced primates and a menace that spits death.
Puma 16:37 Langa, South Africa.
At the start of another East African afternoon
a throwback to the age of dinosaurs tastes the air for prey.
It is a 5-foot-long rock monitor lizard.
The chameleon spots him first.
She is in grave danger
and a threat to her triggers a flood of hormones that activates cells in her skin.
Minutes later, when the monitor spots her
she has puffed upper body to look bigger and tougher to kill.
The chameleon has changed her look.
New colorings triggeredby the reaction to danger
make her look more aggressive.
The monitor decides to let her pass
Now that the temperatures are falling,
it's time to return to the safety of the trees.
The chemeleon begins her ascend using specialised feet.
Each one has five toes fused into two units.
It's been a long day. But the trees hold more crickets and more threats.
It's a white necked raven.
Seen at super slow motion, the raven never stops flying
as it trains both its powerful beak and talons on the chemeleon.
But today's kill is different.
Because, there is no kill at all.
The chameleon's anchored herself to the branch with her strong tail.
Lucky for her, because ravens are strong enough to carry off tortoises.
But for now, he's missed his meal.
As the sun marks late afternoon...
the gnarled branches of acacia trees
evoke the beauty and menace that coexist here.
Baking in the sun below them are some of Africa's toughest survivors.
The sharp thorns and callused skins of saccular plants guard a treasure stored within.
Water.
In a region plagued by seasonal droughts
water is the currency of survival.
17:17, in Southern Mozambique.
As rivers run shallow,
life congregates in the sloughs and waterholes.
Covered with thorny bristles of hair
and skin as tough as rhinos
they trample through the undergrowth armed to the teeth.
East African boar hogs.
Weight up to 250 pounds
these beasts are built to eat
and not to be eaten.
If cornered by the predators,
they'll defend themselves with two pairs of tusks.
The curved upper ones look the most dangerous
but the lower tusks are much sharper and more lethal in a fight.
To get at the short grasses here, they've adapted to walk on their knees.
Their watering holes are actually the remnants of rivers
that dry up from the droughts that run from May to early August.
When plants aren't available, boar hogs consume anything else.
From dead animals, to elephant droppings.
Mud treatments protect them from insect bites
and more importantly keep them cool.
Boar hogs don't sweat in the dry season heat.
An adaptation that allows them to survive for months without water.
By conserving moisture in their bodies they would have used for cooling.
But their turn at the waterhole is about to be up.
The boar hogs can literally feel danger closing in
as the bulky ground beneath their feet shakes.
The threat moves in on legs as thick as acacia trees.
It's a 2-tonne cow elephant.
Every ounce of her is thirsty
and anything that stands on her way gets stumped.
But the boar hogs have one last adaptation that's a life saver.
They can run at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.
And escape the wrath of something 20 times their size.
Coming up, a serpent spits death and a croaker gets his revenge.
Later, a deadly duel at The Speed of Life.
18:11, southern Tanzania.
Near the end of the dry season.
The African sun can send afternoon tempreratures here in the northern plains
to more than 110 degrees fahrenheit.
So far, the highspeed cameras have withstood the dust and heat.
But the team's nerves are about to be tested along with their gear
by a pack of baboons.
Next to humans,
baboons are the world's most adaptable omnivores.
They'll eat anything from seeds and nuts
to insects, fish, even baby antelopes.
They can be savage if threatened.
But for now, they are just interested.
A troop of them overruns the teams position.
These baboons are really interested in themselves because of the filter on the front
reflecting them
And they're getting a little closer than i'm comfortable with.
They move from aggression to acceptance.
The baboons have become very comfortable with us.
Actually accepting us as part of their troop.
And they are busy grooming us now.
Baboons like to groom in the late afternoon
when temperatures are more comfortable.
But as the troop relaxes,
one of East Africa's most lethal killers moves in.
The spitting cobra.
5 feet of muscle and menace.
Unfortunately, baboons are inquisitive.
When the adults move in for a closer look
the cobra lives up to its infamous name.
The snake shoots streams of venom at the eyes of its target.
If any venom contacts the monkey's eyes
they'll swell painfully
and within minutes, the victims will be temporarily blinded.
The adults now realize they face a threat and send out an alarm call.
The deadly strams are fast an accurate
Any baboon within 7 feet of the snake is in danger.
Fired out the ends of cobras fangs,
the blinding toxins travel at 500 feet per second.
The baboons make their way up a tree and out of harms way.
And the snake moves along, too.
Like the monkeys and the snake, even the sun seems eager to move on.
19:13, Great Rift Valley
For 6 long months,
the hot winds of the dry season place tremendous stress on the East African ecosystem.
But this day will end very differently.
When the wind drives moisture inland from the Indian Ocean
the rainy season begins.
During the months of October and November
these downpours wake some of Africa's toughest survivors.
Many have survived the heat by hibernating in underground burrows to stay cool.
When they open their eyes there is only one thing on their minds.
Eating anything they can fit into their mouths.
The African bullfrog, one of the biggest frogs on the planet.
This one weighs over 4 pounds.
The rain brings out another preadator, too.
These nasty looking face belongs to an odd species called the rain frog.
He can't hop or swim.
And its legs are so short
it practically drags its body along, as it hunts for insects to eat.
Their main defence is a repellent slime that oozes from their skin.
Most animals leave them alone. But "most" doesn't mean "all".
The herald snake. Armed with fangs and miled venom
this 3-foot male is active during the rains.
And frog is one his favourite snacks.
Locked on his target, the snake zeros in.
Within minutes, he is in striking distance.
The rain frog can't outrun the snake.
Instead he puffs himself up.
This defense is designed to deter predators like snakes that swallow their prey whole.
But the herald snake has a strategy of his own.
He strikes his prey from behind the narrowest part of the rain frog.
The herald snake is a bully feeder and doesn't have to kill small prey.
Instead, it eats them alive.
As the rain frog struggles to survive inside the snakes belly
the process of digestion has already begun.
Within a few minutes he's picked up the scent of another frog.
But this one's looking forward to the visit.
African bullfrogs are ambush predators.
And this one is a dirty fighter.
The only question now is, whether he's bitten in to more than he can chew.
And the answer this time, is yes.
Coming up, warriors with 8 legs and fangs duke it out.
And a little pin cushion has a running with a walking syringe.
21:11, Great Rift Valley.
Some of the most voracious and rarely-filmed
nocturnal hunters lurk underground.
To capture them emerging, the crew uses a digital eye called an Endoscope.
The endoscope lense is mounted on snake-like cable with its own light source.
Now it's carefully threaded down the silk line sanctuary of a subterranean monster.
Check it out, Mike.
Anyone foolish enough to grab this predator, will get a venomous bite
that triggers hours of vomiting and diffulty in walking.
Tonight, it shows no hesitation
as it detects the endoscope looking for a soft spot.
East Africans say the last two segments of this creature look like the finger of a baboon.
This creature has 8 legs and venomous fangs.
Its body is also loaded with special hairs.
The baboon spider.
The nocturnal lord of West African underworld.
Capable of taking down prey as large as lizards.
It took 10 years for this male to mature.
Nearby, a competitor appears.
Unlike their monkey name sakes
baboon spiders do not protect and care for each other.
Given the chance, they'd rather eat each other instead.
And that's what's on the mind of spider number 2.
Spider number 1 is willing to oblige.
Exposing their fangs, each male hopes to land a death blow.
Since hundreds of spider can hatch from the eggs of a single female
competition for territory and food leads to this violent patterns.
But this one ends with a stalemate
As the males head back to their burrows, number 1 passes another night hunter.
One of the few he'd rather not mess with.
A distant relative of the tick.
This is no passive blood sucker.
Its claws are made for grasping prey in a death grim
and at the end of its 8-inch armoured body
is a gland like vessel filled with venom and tipped by a sting.
The East African scorpion.
Now this huge female strikes a defensive pose,
called the alert stands.
She's moved her stinger to the ready position.
Because, facing her now, is a threat 20 times her size.
While that has no stingers,
it's covered by thousands of sharp defensive quills.
Like the scorpion, it's a solitary hunter and it's hungry.
While its hearing is acute,
its nose is adapted to pick up strange smells.
And tonight, they've found the scent of the scorpion.
The East African hedgehog.
The hedgehog nips the scorpion on the claw
almost begging to be stunned.
Just as the scorpion strikes
its armoured body is crushed in two.
Hedgehogs are 40 times more resistent to venom than other mammals their size.
And tonight, that's paid off with another kill.
Hours later, the horizon brightens once more
as the sun rises in the east.
This natural club for all living things has come full circle.
And so is the project for the team,
a project that has revealed incredible adaptations.
From lightning-fast tonuges, to tiny camouflaged warriors.
This is a realm where the beauty and brutality of the animal kingdom converge.
And the battle for territory and survival never ends.
All at The Speed Of Life.