The animals are some of the world’s most intriguing and unique populations of lions, yet very little is known about them. Dr. Stander is passionate about studying them and helping them to survive. The lions, and Stander’s efforts to understand their secrets, are featured in NATURE’s The Desert Lions.

On the Web site for The Desert Lions, you’ll learn more about Dr. Flip Stander and the animals he’s dedicated his life to tracking and studying. Find out about the unique family structure of the lions, and why their conservation is so vital. Discover the Namib Desert and how its inhabitants, animal and human, are able to survive.

Online content for The Desert Lions was originally posted January 2008.

Swaziland resident Clifton Koen doesn’t really care for snakes, but his wife, Thea Litschka-Koen, is crazy about them. With her husband’s sometimes reluctant help, she has endeavored to change attitudes about black mambas and other snakes found in the area. In addition to starting the nation’s only reptile park, devoted to educating the public and providing a refuge for the animals, the two have become the region’s go-to experts for safe, humane snake removal from homes, schools, resorts and workplaces. In the course of catching and relocating any number of snakes per day, Thea and Clifton give impromptu lessons about the snakes, covering fact and fiction, and do their best to prevent any unnecessary casualties – human or reptile.

In addition to their other efforts, Thea and Clifton developed a program designed to track black mambas in the wild for the first time and to gain new insights into their behavior. With the help of a snake expert from Johannesburg, they were able to surgically insert radio transmitters in a number of captured black mambas, allowing them to follow the snakes after their release. If their research pays off, they may be able to show that their relocations are working, successfully removing snakes from residential areas for the long term, and thereby bringing some relief to the locals and some respite for the snakes.

NATURE’s Black Mamba premieres Sunday, November 8 at 8pm (check local listings).

Photo by Andrew Yarme © Tigress Productions

Along the banks of the mighty Zambezi River in the high plains of northern Zimbabwe, a troop of chacma baboons tend to their daily routines in accordance with the rules of social order that make for a stable and cohesive community.

Alliances can mean the difference between life and death, as each day brings a myriad of challenges. Months of searing heat and drought grip the land, and ambushes by rival troops and predators such as leopards, crocodiles, and pythons pose imminent threats.

A rare set of twins born to the dominant male and female face an especially difficult trial. In an environment where only a quarter of infants survive their first year, the odds are stacked against them. But their “royal parentage” could carry some advantages for their survival.

In the Zambezi, privilege can be lost as quickly as it is gained. A large male from a neighboring troop enters their ranks, determined to unseat the dominant male. In a swift and decisive battle, the king is deposed and the entire stability of the troop is thrown into turmoil. Under the rule of the new alpha male, the twins are no longer safe — the intruder has cast his eye on their mother. But the infants are not yet weaned and until they are, their mother will remain sexually unavailable. For the tyrant, the equation is simple and brutal, but just how far will he go?

The rains are late and the dry season stretches into its eighth month. Competition for food brings the troop’s inherent rivalries to the surface, and bouts of infighting break out. The alliances that were once the binding thread of the group begin to come undone.

Meanwhile, only one of the twins has survived, and he must grapple with his brother’s murder, his father’s overthrow, and a mother whose affections have been commandeered by the one responsible for the heinous deeds.

To order a copy of Murder in the Troop, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Murder in the Troop was originally posted April 2006.

Across Africa, the King of Beasts is in trouble. In the late 20th century, wildlife preserves were created to curtail safari hunting, but the African lion population continues to decline. Their numbers have dwindled from 100,000 in the early 1990s to no more than 30,000 and as few as 16,000 today. What could be endangering the King of Beasts?

In the mid-1990s a mysterious disease spread rapidly through the lion population in Tanzania and Kenya. An investigation revealed that the big cats had contracted canine distemper from jackals and hyenas that were picking it up from dogs in nearby villages. The spread of the disease was quickly halted and today lion numbers in the affected areas are back to previous levels.

If canine distemper was halted, why have lions continued to decline? An ever-expanding human population has led to competition between herders and lions for land and food. Lions living at the edge of the preserves sometimes stray from protected areas in search of easy prey. The Maasai and other ranchers will often kill them to protect their livestock and source of livelihood.

But as NATURE’s The Vanishing Lions shows, Africans are now struggling to reverse the decline. Everyone from scientists and conservationists to Maasai herders and ranchers is working together to find solutions. Travel to Kenya’s famed Serengeti Plains, the wildlife-rich Laikipia Plateau, and elsewhere in Africa as NATURE explores efforts to allow people and lions to coexist and prosper.

To order a copy of The Vanishing Lions, visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for The Vanishing Lions was originally posted April 2006.

The Zambezi is known as the “River of Life” across southern Africa, but surviving by the river near Victoria Falls is not always easy. During the rainy season the Zambezi has a fierceness and a power that is deadly to both animals and humans. At the peak of the rainy season, almost 300,000 gallons of water cascade over the falls every second.

Despite the danger, many birds, reptiles, fish, and mammals call this area home. And a fisherman, known as Mr. White, has lived in a nearby town for 74 years, spending almost every day by the falls. NATURE joins Mr. White as he tells us Zambezi’s story — a story of the changing seasons and many moods of the river.

During the dry season, life gravitates to the river by Victoria Falls. As the sun beats down and the water level lowers, grass-covered islands above the falls are exposed. Families of elephants from the surrounding savannah flock to the Zambezi to make the river crossing. Predator and prey rely on the river for water, and pairs of bee-eaters and pied kingfishers dig nests in the exposed muddy banks. Fish eagles raise their young and teach them to hunt, and hippos crowd the waters.

Life flourishes, for a while. And then, months later, clouds gather in the sky and rising waters force many animals to leave. It is the rainy season, and Victoria Falls becomes magnificent again – her voice rising from a whisper to thunder.

Victoria Falls premieres Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 8pm (check local listings).

This program premiered April 19, 2008.

Drakensberg: Barrier of Spears originally aired February 8, 2009.

We have seen them dressed in costumes and dancing at circuses, living solitary lives at zoos or giving our children a thrill with a ride on their back. But the largest land animals live a life that is completely foreign to us when left to their own in the wild — one complete with battles and births, kidnappings and camaraderie. More than fifteen years ago, Martyn Colbeck began to document in film and photos the lives of African elephants. For the better part of two decades, he has grown particularly close to the elephant matriarch, Echo, and her close-knit family, who have never failed to astonish, amuse, and inspire him.

The family seems to accept Colbeck into their world, and perhaps even considers him one of their own. The result is that he can record unimpeded the gentle love, and tight bonds that elephants feel for each other. Colbeck’s film gives us a glimpse into the complex world of elephant society. We meet Echo and begin to understand the importance of such a majestic matriarch to her devoted clan. He shows us their language and ways of communication. And he captures remarkable scenes such as the rare birth of a crippled calf that the family desperately and collectively tries to help to its feet. The film causes us to question if this could be about more than simply survival. Is there a deeper emotion we have just been privileged enough to witness through Colbeck’s lens?

In scene after moving scene, Colbeck makes us fall in love with Echo, Erin, Enid, Ely, and the rest of this loving family. He conveys through his film and in a special interview with NATURE what complicated, powerful, tender, funny — and, yes, unforgettable — creatures elephants are.

To order a copy of Unforgettable Elephants, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Unforgettable Elephants was originally posted April 2007.