BBC Atlas of the Natural World: Wild Africa

This episode looks at Africa's mountain ranges. From the giant mole rats of the Ethiopian Highlands to the Barbary Macaque monkeys of the Atlas Mountains, this episode gives a fascinating look at the mountains of Africa and the animals that inhabit them.

The savannah is home to some of the greatest herds on Earth, and in this episode, Wild Africa brings you close encounters with these animals. The savannah is Africa's youngest landscape, shaped by the weather and the animals themselves as the continent dried. It is now home to baboons, wildebeest, lions, cheetah, and aardvarks who must struggle through the eight-month dry season to survive.

Over half the continent of Africa is covered by desert, and this installment gives you an in-depth look at these arid environments. From the Sahara to the Namib Deserts, the animals living here must adapt unusual survival strategies. Elephants, meerkats, giraffes, and rhinos each have evolved to live in the deserts of Africa, cohabitating with Nile crocodiles and large camel trains.

Starting at the Cape of Good Hope, this episode of Wild Africa takes you on a journey around the coast of Africa, encountering plenty of land and sea dwelling creatures along the way. This episode features barracuda and devil rays, hippos and river hogs, even Cape fur seals and their predators, the deadly great white shark.

Moving from the coasts to the Jungles, this episode takes you into the heart of the continent's rainforests along the equatorial line of Africa. From the killifish that hatch, grow, and breed in the footprint of an elephant to a wide variety of beautifully plumed parrots, this show gives close encounters with clever primates and elephants, too.

This final program gives an in-depth look at how water influences life on the continent. The rainfall in the northern mountains feeds the Nile, Congo, and Niger rivers, drawing animals from the surrounding arid lands. But these sources of life can also be a fearful place, as we see crocodiles attack buffalo, and hippos engage in fatal territorial battles. Meanwhile, see rare footage of thousands upon thousands of flamingos performing mating rituals in the East African lakes.