“Discover the savage secrets of Africa after dark in this beautifully shot documentary about life in the African wilderness at night”As night descends on the bushveld, a large pride of 30 lions begins its nightly search for prey. Baboons snuggle in tree tops, big-eyed apes leap from limb to limb, and the chorus of the small creatures adds to the drama of the nocturnal hunt.
Lions Of The African Night will surprise you with a startling look at the behaviour of lions as the pride stalks wildebeest, warthog, and zebra in the struggle to fight off hunger, their constant enemy.
More than three years in the making, this film reveals the savage secrets of Africa after dark. It is not just lions that are featured, but a lot of the footage is given over to the sights and sounds of the African bush.
Included in these nocturnal scenes are big-eyed night apes and baboons, rainfrogs, termites, porcupines, wildebeest, warthogs, and zebras, all in the constant struggle to fight off hunger.
Lion life is dysfunctional enough to make most people feel pretty good about their own situations. First, the males have deserted the pride to start new ones with younger lionesses. Secondly, as the pack roams the jungle in search of game, the females have to fend off rogue males who want to take over.
The males are shunned because they’ll kill the cubs of other males and they’ll grab the lionesses’ kills for themselves.
More functional animals get some airtime, too. Baboon parents try to get the kids to sleep; male and female tree frogs lay frothy egg bubbles together.
But it’s hard to compete with the drama of those queens (and a few kings-in-training) of the jungle as they growl and claw at each other over a wildebeest carcass, while narrator Richard Kiley informs us that “….by the end of such a meal most of the pride will have at least one small injury.”
Still, it’s heart-warming to see that after the meat is devoured the lions mend fences by licking each other’s wounds.
This documentary has won two Emmy Awards.
Narrated by Richard Kiley.
Filmed & produced by David and Carol Hughes for National Geographic (1987).
Filmed in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Please note: This is an older production, produced before modern, high-definition equipment was available - its quality is comparable to that of VHS video, not today’s DVD quality. Regardless of this, it remains an outstanding wildlife film in its own right, beloved by many viewers who will remember it from TV during the 1980s and 90s.
FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THIS DVD VISIT:
http://www.froghopperdvds.co.uk/lionsafricannight
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