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  • AFRICA'S WILD KINGDOM REBORN

DESCRIPTION

Experience the incredible and inspiring rebirth of an African wilderness through the eyes of Emmy Award-winning wildlife cameraman Bob Poole. Embark on a breathtaking adventure with Bob, as he spends two years living in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. He joins scientists and conservationists in the battle to bring animals back to the once legendary national park. The fabric of life across this million-acre paradise was shredded during a long civil war. Now, an international team of scientists and conservationists has assembled to repair it. It is one of the most ambitious wilderness restoration projects ever attempted.

EPISODE GUIDE

  • Africa's Wild Kingdom Reborn: Episode 1
    US-born, African-raised Wildlife Cameraman Bob Poole begins his two-year filming assignment in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. But this is no ordinary assignment: he's in front of the camera as well as behind it. He has to get his hands dirty, helping out on a massive wilderness restoration project. After decades of war, an international team of scientists and conservationists is bringing this once-legendary African national park back to its former glory. Poole's first job is to help sedate a lion and put a GPS-tracking collar around its neck. Lion scientist Paola Bouley needs the GPS-data to solve a baffling mystery: why is Gorongosa's lion population not growing as fast as it should? After a decade of restoration efforts, there seems to be plenty of prey for the lions to eat. But their population isn't growing. Because lions are an important keystone species, and a draw for tourists, their recovery is critical to the success of the restoration effort. By filming the lions, Poole hopes to help solve the mystery. He meets a new lion family with five young cubs, and follows their perilous journey to adulthood. The team encounters a three-legged lioness called Tripod who guides them to a potential answer to the mystery they're trying to solve. Tripod has given Gorongosa a precious legacy - the five cubs Bob has been filming are her "grandkids". But their lives are put in danger with the arrival of two male lions that want to expand their own lion kingdom.
  • Africa's Wild Kingdom Reborn: Episode 2
    Wildlife cameraman Bob Poole has been living in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique for a while now, and the park's beauty has cast a spell on him. He lives surrounded by wildlife on all sides, with baboons, warthogs, and a one-eyed cattle egret as his neighbors. But as the dry season heats up, the park's scenery and wildlife go through a massive transformation. Now, Bob is forced to confront his fears and his past to team up with his sister Joyce Poole, a world-renowned elephant expert. Together they face charging elephants to uncover brand new insights into their behavior.
  • Africa's Wild Kingdom Reborn: Episode 3
    Bob and the lion team find one of the female cubs with a life-threatening wound. With less than 40 lions in the park, they can't afford to lose one of them. The team needs to help. But they lose track of her launching a massive six-day mission to find her. Lions aren't the only ones who need help in Gorongosa. During the civil war most of the big animals were killed to feed the starving people. Now, Gorongosa is attracting scientists from around the world to understand what happens to an ecosystem when it loses most of its big grazers. Harvard insect expert, Piotr Naskrecki is looking to the micro scale for answers. While sweeping the grasses with his net he discovers a surprising hero that kept Gorongosa alive after the war. A massive relocation mission is launched to bring back zebra and the largest antelope in the world, eland. Relocating animals is a decision not taken lightly. It's extremely stressful and dangerous on the animals and the people. But when a park is facing the extinction of an endangered zebra, these risks are necessary.
  • Africa's Wild Kingdom Reborn: Episode 4
    Thirty years of war shut off Gorongosa from science. And today massive sections of the park still remain completely unexplored. Bob teams up with scientists to uncover these hidden worlds. Flying over the north of the park Bob discovers remote rivers choked with enormous crocs. He's never seen so many in his life. He brings in croc experts, Sven Bourquin and Vince Shacks to investigate. But it's not only their numbers they're surprised by but also how they're behaving. It's the beginning of mating season and there should be lots of territorial aggression. But there's not. To figure out what's going on here they need to catch one. They set a trap and on the first night they catch a giant. It's the biggest croc the guys have ever caught. But they need to get it out of the trap to get samples. And that's when the real challenge begins. Gorongosa has other hidden worlds scientists know nothing about. Bob joins Harvard insect expert Piotr Naskrecki and his team to explore the deep limestone gorges to the east. Abseiling down, they discover pristine forests and caves packed with new life. Bob films a ferocious battle on the micro scale - monster-sized ants slaughtering termites in there thousands. And it's these hidden worlds that Piotr wants to bring into the limelight because it's the little things that truly run the world.
  • Africa's Wild Kingdom Reborn: Episode 5
    A new male lion bursts onto the Gorongosa scene, and a cold war for lion dominance of the floodplain begins. Joyce Poole arrives back at the park with new questions about the mysterious behavior of Gorongosa's elephants. Bob joins the rangers on a night patrol of villages suffering from crop raiding bull elephants, and gets a taste of the danger crop raiding poses to people and elephants alike. Joyce has a breakthrough encounter with the park's aggressive elephant matriarchs, and Helena the young lioness finds herself and her young cubs trapped between two powerful rivals.
  • Africa's Wild Kingdom Reborn: Episode 6
    Wildlife Cameraman Bob Poole returns to a transformed Gorongosa National Park: the annual rains have flooded the plains and forests, turning what was a dustbowl into a water world. Bob mounts a boating expedition to explore the park at this special time of year and discovers a huge nesting colony of water birds that proves to be one of the greatest birding spectacles in Africa. He spends weeks up a tree hoping to film stork chicks hatching. He's incredibly lucky to catch the magic moment when a tiny little chick breaks out of the egg and enters the world. Once the floodwaters recede, Bob resumes his search for the Sungwe Pride cubs that went missing last year. The new pride male, Nginga, faces territorial challenges from two flanks and works overtime to protect his nine new cubs - the future of lions in Gorongosa. Bob still hasn't met them yet, and spends many sleepless nights hoping to get a glimpse. Finally, Nginga returns and the cubs come out of hiding, giving Bob a chance to film some beautiful shots of the reunion at dawn. And Bob has one final promise to keep: his hero, famous scientist and conservationist Edward. O. Wilson, has heard never a lion roaring.
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