Lurk in the shadows as a lioness from the Central Pride gives birth to three cubs and then encounters a deadly Egyptian cobra. You'll be stunned by breathtaking chase scenes as the hyena matriarch is brutally killed by a male lion, throwing the clan into chaos. Lion life is dysfunctional enough to make most people feel pretty good about their situations. First, the males have deserted the pride to start new ones with younger lionesses. Secondly, as the pack roams the jungle in search of game, the females have to fend off rogue males who want to take over.
More functional animals get some airtime, too.
Still, it's heartwarming to see that after the meat is devoured the lions mend fences by licking each other's wounds. In this southwest African coastal desert, an area 1,300 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide, creatures have learned to adapt to some of the most extreme conditions in the world. Plants and bugs, lizards, and snakes procure their only source of moisture from the fog, and even that is scarce. The sand lizard, one of 45 species of lizard in the Namib, lifts each foot alternately so as not to scorch its feet on ground that easily reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1963 a research institute was founded in the desert to study the rare species and perhaps solve riddles of evolutionary relationships.