Original subtitles

Since time immemorial, animals have roamed this planet.

Seasons have determined the ebb and flow of life and death.

Hunger has dominated the tension between the hunters and the hunted.

Alone, it's tough to survive in this world.

In a team, the odds improve.

Invisible borders line this landscape.

For each gang, a territory.

For each territory, a war.

AFRICA'S DEADLIEST

This is the alpha female of a pack of wild dogs.

She was born to rule.

Her siblings are her servants.

Their job is to move the alpha female's pups to safety

at the first sign of danger.

We curtsy or kneel when we show respect.

Wild dogs have come up with a sign that's a bit more in your face.

They poo.

The air is abuzz with excitement.

They want the alpha female to initiate another hunt.

Wild dogs are one of Africa's most efficient hunters.

They swivel their round ears like antennas to pinpoint the position of possible prey.

One dog is not much of a threat.

But it's difficult to hide when 20 pairs of eyes scout the landscape.

The alpha pair selects a weak link.

The rest of the pack follows their leaders.

Wild dogs can run at 43 miles per hour and keep up the pace for three miles.

Lions average a 30% success rate on a hunt.

Wild dogs score around 80%.

Relative to size, wild dogs have the strongest bite force

of all African carnivores.

The benefit, food security.

But membership isn't free.

The alpha female and her partner do most of the breeding, if not all.

Their dominance is so strong

that it seems to suppress the reproductive instincts

in the other females.

But this sister is different.

She wants to mate.

All she needs is a willing subordinate male.

It's risky business.

The alpha female may well kill any pups that aren't hers.

A few weeks later, the alpha female and her sister come to blows.

At issue, overstepping boundaries.

And the younger sister's refusal to submit.

Wild dogs are normally not aggressive towards each other.

Now violence erupts.

This triggers an exodus.

It's getting so overcrowded

that four females join the sister when she leaves the pack.

Between them, they have the know-how and potency

to take down a 350-pound wildebeest.

But to find males and form a new pack,

they may have to travel as far as 180 miles.

And there are numerous obstacles on the way.

At midday, temperatures soar to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

The younger sister and her cohorts seek shade,

and so do a troop of baboons.

A latecomer spoils the siesta.

The younger sister is still inexperienced.

She can't afford a full-blown confrontation.

Not now while they're weak and in unfamiliar territory.

They're tired and starving.

To stay alive, they must scavenge.

Down by the river, an opportunity to do just that.

They wait. Hunger pains gnaw at their stomachs.

For one of them, the hunger is too much to bear.

She pays the price for impatience.

The next day, the young sister leads her motley crew further east.

Seven pounds. That's how much meat wild dogs need to eat every day.

The new leader follows a scent in the air.

Bingo.

Taking down this zebra could save them all.

This is 600 pounds of food.

But zebra is one of the most difficult prey to catch.

One kick can crack a wild dog's skull.

There's only one way to catch a zebra.

Make them run.

But zebras have been exposed to this.

They don't panic.

A little gallop and then they stop.

It's a standoff.

Wild dogs are only successful in taking down zebras 7% of the time.

It was a lost cause before she even started.

Beyond the borders of her sister's territory, her luck changes.

She stumbles upon a group of outcasts.

They're all bachelors, and the alpha male is looking for a breeding partner.

It's a match.

And what better way to unite than on a hunt?

Communication is key.

Her new subordinates keep an eye on her.

She selects the target. They give support.

Her gamble has paid off.

Her authority confirmed.

But already her new reign is under threat.

Hyenas.

Today, the 150-pound, bone-crushing matriarch

of a hyena gang hunts alone.

These two predators are deadly competitors.

But the young sister can't resist the temptation.

Going after the same prey is a recipe for disaster.

The matriarch is so focused on her kill she doesn't see the wild dogs coming.

Normally, hyenas steal kills from wild dogs.

But today, because she's alone,

the matriarch must share.

When the rest of the hyena gang shows up, the younger sister calls it quits.

Pound for pound, hyenas are twice as heavy and almost double the size of wild dogs.

And their bite can crush even the toughest of bones.

They've got the strength that wild dogs lack.

It's a mystery why zebras would allow hyenas so close without running away.

They seem so relaxed.

But so do the hyenas.

As it turns out, it's all a scam.

A hyena's bite is over 10 times stronger than our own.

It can tear through skin and crack bone that is three inches thick.

An average-sized hyena can eat more than 35 pounds of meat in one sitting.

That equates to a fully grown human male

eating 667 McDonald's patties in less than 20 minutes.

Every day the gang criss-crosses the hunting fields.

Today there's one unfamiliar face amongst them.

A loner.

The matriarch sniffs him out.

If he's seeking mating opportunities, he'll have to get in line

behind the low rankers at the very bottom.

If he jumps the queue, the matriarch could kill him.

Her excitement spreads through the clan.

There's no way this nomad can bump up his status today.

The matriarch makes sure he gets the message.

Today, she's out hunting again.

Her nose leads her to a treasure.

Hers alone, if she can get it.

But there's a large cat to contend with.

In a fight between these two, the odds are in the hyena's favor.

The leopard is cautious.

Against one hyena, he might be able to reclaim his kill.

But not against two.

There's only one cat that can give the duo a run for their money.

Pound for pound, these two lionesses outweigh the hyenas.

But the hyenas have an ace up their sleeves.

They call for backup.

Five hyenas change the odds.

In terms of weight and numbers, they now have the upper hand.

They're a weird bunch.

Hyenas lick their genitals like cats.

And despite their doglike physique,

the males don't lift their legs when they urinate.

And when it's too hot, they, well--

Can't be sure.

Vultures wake them from their afternoon nap.

A sure sign that something is dead or dying.

The matriarch is quick to respond.

As befits a queen, she gets right of way on all carcasses.

She's after the marrow, a delicacy rich in protein and fat.

What she can't finish, she hides.

No one would know any better,

but the matriarch is sitting on the carcass of a kill.

When hunger calls, she fishes it out.

As her clan grows, the demand for food increases.

When these cubs are weaned, at about 14 months, they'll want meat.

Lots of it.

Her reputation as a scavenger is undeserved.

Hyenas kill as much as 95% of the food they eat.

Under the cover of darkness, her hunting instincts kick in.

Hyenas see better than their prey at night.

Their hearing senses are acute.

And they can run nonstop for two miles to chase down prey.

Tonight her clan joins her.

In the dark, the wildebeest panic and scatter.

Exactly what the hyenas want.

The end is swift and violent.

Disemboweled, the victim dies within minutes.

Now it's every hyena for himself.

Not far off, a loner has an easier way to fill his stomach.

What he doesn't know is that he's surrounded

by one of the deadliest gangs in Africa.

Hippos might look like large boulders in the water.

But provoke them,

and they turn into hefty sumo wrestlers.

They have the largest mouth of any animal on land.

It's a four-foot nutcracker that includes a pair of sharp tusks.

The canine teeth can be 27 inches. Long enough to impale a human body.

Every year hippos kill around 500 people.

It's the dry season.

When water is scarce, tempers flare.

This fight is between a young rookie and the dominant bull.

The stakes are high.

The bull has a harem of about 30 cows

and space in a river that's drying up fast.

The rookie's challenge soon goes south.

Ousted, he now competes for territory among crocodiles

at the outer edge of the riverbank.

Even here, space is limited.

More hippos arrive as smaller rivers dry up.

Among the new arrivals, a female and her calf.

Every hippo scrambles for a foothold.

In this tight squeeze, hippos become extremely aggressive.

In good times, each dominant male carved out a piece of river for himself.

Now more than 10 gangs are forced into the same territory.

Combat is the only way to assess who is boss in this mob.

The scuffle triggers a violent stampede.

And in the mass panic, the baby calf disappears in a sea of bodies.

En masse, a gang of crocodiles moves in to devour the bloated carcasses.

There are more dead hippos than they can cope with.

With so much rotting flesh, the crocs pay no attention to the rookie,

and for now they tolerate each other.

But as time passes, the dry season tightens its grip on the land.

The place reeks of death.

Scavengers know dinner is served.

Close by, an old hippo bull has had enough.

The crocs are having a field day.

Until now, crocodiles and hippos have mostly ignored each other.

But with space at a premium, the hippo's patience with the reptilians runs out.

And the crocs are becoming bolder.

One croc pushes it too far.

The hippos try and bully the croc with their massive bodies.

And when that doesn't work, they go for the jugular.

One bite can snap this crocodile in half.

But just as the hippo slams down his jaw, the crocodile twists and escapes.

With the same force, hippos can cut canoes in half

or puncture aluminum boats with their long tusks.

If the rookie survives the season,

he'll get another chance to challenge the dominant bull.

In the meantime, vultures are one of the gangs

that benefit from the ongoing famine.

They can spot a three-foot carcass from as far as four miles.

Some of them spend hours gliding in hot thermals, saving energy,

waiting for a kill.

The African white-backed vulture is often the first on the scene.

Now the rest of the gang joins him.

Together, they form a pack driven by hunger.

They hang back until all the actors have played their part.

After all, they're not here for the main meal.

They're here to clear the table.

Nature has given them the right tools for the job.

Large talons.

Razor-sharp beaks.

And a stomach filled with digestive acids

that kills dangerous bacteria like anthrax.

Vultures have also adapted to digging into the dead.

They're bald.

It's less messy.

It also helps to regulate their temperature,

and it displays their moods.

Dominant birds get so aggressive that their bald heads change to a pink blush.

Submissive birds back down.

Gluttony is an essential vice in the wild.

In a world of gate crashers and uninvited guests with sharp teeth,

one must eat fast.

You never know who's going to turn up.

Jackals make a living by taking huge risks.

They nibble at the dining tables of larger predators

with longer teeth and sharper claws.

Here every meal is a gamble with death.

Three hyenas versus three jackals.

Together, the hyenas outweigh them by over 400 pounds.

If the jackal gets close enough, he scores a free meal.

Too close, he dies.

This jackal puts in a fast sprint. Twenty miles an hour.

But the hyena is faster.

There's only one way out of this predicament.

He sacrifices his meal.

The noise of the disturbance travels far.

Within minutes, three more jackals show up.

Two seem to squabble over the pecking order.

While they fight it out,

jackal number one launches his second attempt.

It's a jackal trademark. Cunning.

The other is boldness.

If jackals can't find a carcass, they'll follow a predator.

And there's no danger pay.

One misstep and it's game over.

This jackal gets it right most of the time.

But with this cheetah, he miscalculates.

The fastest land animal on this planet is hot on his tail.

He can't outrun a 60-miles-per-hour sprinter.

He's got one thing in his favor. Stamina.

Today, it saves his skin.

When scavenging doesn't pay off, jackals hunt.

With their long ears, they can pick out the movement of rodents in the distance.

Their canines are sharp and curved,

good for killing and slicing up prey.

This jackal is under pressure to provide for his family.

A rodent is barely a snack. He needs a meal.

Jackals con their prey into believing they're not a threat.

It's a clever strategy to get close enough to make a kill.

He's done this many times before.

His attack on this buck is relentless.

And his strategy is simple. If you can't fight it, wear it down.

For 40 minutes, this fully grown springbok

tries to avoid the constant nipping at his tendons.

And then it's over.

Tonight, his family won't go hungry.

While carnivores carve up landscapes and fight over territory,

a deadly army goes for a massacre.

They hug the shoreline of the Indian Ocean.

Bottlenose dolphins.

Some battalions can be a thousand strong.

There's no strict order.

The males spearhead their own march.

The females and their offspring follow slightly behind.

They're after this.

Millions of sardines that migrate up the coast for three months of the year.

With them comes every shark in the neighborhood.

A collision is inevitable.

Exactly why the sardine run begins remains a mystery.

And these bottlenose dolphins must find it before the sardines disappear.

For some of the juveniles, this will be their first run.

But they're not responsible for the slow progress.

This female is.

She's been carrying her dead baby for days.

If the pod races on ahead without her, she'll be vulnerable.

Hundreds of sharks are on the same journey.

The battalion pushes ahead.

A few dolphins hang back to keep the grieving mother company.

The breakup of the pod presents an opportunity for this dusky shark.

This could very well be this youngster's first and last sardine run.

But he's got his back covered.

Three dolphins intercept the shark as he closes in for the kill.

One dolphin forms a rear guard,

while the rest bulldoze the shark away from the youngster.

The pod is back on track.

They send ultrasounds through the water.

When the waves strike a large object, the sound bounces back like sonar.

Now the gang unites.

The squad circles the sardines

and separates part of the mass into a bait ball.

Dolphins keep them in this death trap by creating a virtual net made of bubbles.

While half the party feeds on top,

a driver pushes the sardines closer to the surface.

And towards the other dolphins.

A dolphin on the surface stuns a large chunk of the ball

with his mighty tail slap.

The rest of the gang moves in for a body count.

Sharks don't pose a problem in this battle zone.

Everyone focuses on the sardines.

Each dolphin consumes between 16 and 33 pounds of fish.

It's teamwork at its best.

But dolphins have a dark side.

The males gang up.

And today, four of them have only one thing on their mind.

They select a female.

Now they separate her from the rest of the gang.

And they do it with force.

It's called herding, but it's no different than kidnapping.

The first male copulates while the rest watch and wait.

If she resists, they'll bite her or hit her with their tails.

Every male gets a turn.

This assault can go on for four minutes or three months.

But this is going to be short-lived.

Not far behind them is a deadlier gang.

They eat seals, sharks, and dolphins.

And they're closing in fast.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, dominate every corner of our oceans.

Their beauty and grace is only surpassed by their intelligence.

Like humans, they have the ability to learn new skills.

Adapt to changing environments.

And pass on their knowledge to the next generation.

They eat sea lions, fish, seabirds, and even attack great whites.

This pod consists of a mother, aunts, brothers, and sisters.

Today they're teaching the youngest sibling how to hunt seals.

At top speed, these two-ton giants clock in at around 30 miles per hour.

That's almost twice as fast as seals.

But it's not speed that kills.

It's power.

The first impact stuns the victim.

But the seal recovers quickly and makes a sharp turn.

Orcas are less agile.

But the rest of the family has already blocked off the escape route.

Junior is fast approaching the age where he needs to contribute to the pod.

He graduates with flying colors.

Like us, orcas form complex social bonds.

The mother and the entire pod take charge of education.

Even her adult sons will stay together with the rest of the pod throughout life.

As a gang, they have a better chance to survive.

This close-knit family travels up to 100 miles a day.

A fully grown male orca can eat nearly 500 pounds of meat a day.

That's half a horse.

Their sonar picks up movement ahead.

Dolphins.

In complete silence, they race up from behind.

Now they close in and deliver the first blow.

The impact cripples the dolphin and breaks its speed.

The second blow is a knockout.

The dolphin is dazed and unbalanced.

Instead of eating it alive, they drown it.

They're even capable of drowning a blue whale

nearly 20 times the weight of a fully grown orca.

Sharks aren't safe either.

They're also on orcas' menu.

He's outnumbered and outfoxed.

Orca strategy?

Force the shark to the surface, tire him out.

These giant killers toy with him like a cat would with a mouse.

They turn the shark upside down.

This induces a state of paralysis known as tonic immobility.

The shark doesn't move.

The feeding begins.

The borders of the ganglands of Africa are invisible to the human eye.

The turf wars aren't.

The different gangs may all use different strategies,

but they all share the same code of conduct.

Kill or be killed.

[TRANSLATOR CREDIT]

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