Africa - Season 1 (2013)

Deserts, like southern Africa's Kalahari and Namib, are strange and by definition are particularly dangerous and demanding environments, requiring elaborate adaptations. Some are behavioral, like tricks to steal food or even lay eggs in live hosts. other are anatomical. All the more precious is the rare water, so drinking pools are crucial for carnivores and preys. Astonishingly, vast quantities are trapped in huge cave systems underground, where aquatic life is scarce due to little food and light dripping in.

Volcanoes, some still active, shape East Africa's vast savannas, mainly consisting of grasslands where huge wildebeest and other herds roam and their annual migration steers the habitat type's complex life cycle. Some areas still remain primeval jungle, or became marshes or even hostile salt zones, yet all harbor intensive wildlife,whose lives are a merciless struggle for life, for elephants as well as insectivores.

The rain forest in and around equatorial Africa's Congo basin is the continent's richest and most varied environment. The abundance of food however also means extremely competition for it, while plants race to the light, using surprisingly dirty trick to 'cheat' for a spot in one of many stories from the ground to the tower-high canopy.