The Hunt

Nearly half of the world's land surface

is covered by desert or grassland.

These are the most exposed habitats on our planet.

Nowhere else is the tension between predators and prey more obvious.

Out here, the element of surprise scarcely exists.

A cheetah, superbly adapted to hunt in the open.

Only from the air can you truly appreciate

its incredible agility and speed.

But even for the fastest animal on land,

speed is not enough.

To be successful out here requires more than physical ability.

It requires strategy.

A cheetah's take-off point is critical.

Her top speed can only be maintained for just a few seconds.

To be successful, she must get within just 30 metres of her prey...

undetected.

Picking the right target is vital.

Something small enough to handle.

The final stalk begins.

The mothers block her path.

But in a flat out chase, nothing can outrun a cheetah.

Too lightweight to jump on top, she must trip her prey.

Missed!

But having timed her run to perfection,

she still has energy to try again.

This cheetah hunt may have been successful,

but nearly 60% of hunts end in failure.

Few can hunt by stealth on the open plains

but where the grass grows a little longer there is opportunity.

One specialist predator,

is able to use every centimeter of cover,

to get close to its prey.

Guinea fowl,

always on edge.

Hunting by stealth in open grassland is a challenge,

but if anything can do it, a caracal can.

She is the finest bird hunter on the plains.

Her outsized hind legs can launch her three metres into the ail;

and her magnificent ears

can detect the slightest rustle of prey.

Even in the longest grass, there is no hiding from a caracal.

A solitary bird should be easier to creep up on.

A caracal 's hit rate is just one in ten,

but the day is not over yet.

If only she could fly.

Not all predators of the plains must rely on not being seen.

There is no hiding a honey badger.

Hunting in the open, in broad daylight, she's anything but subtle.

She doesn't need to be.

Most of her prey live out of sight, underground.

With long claws and powerful front legs,

she is a digging machine.

She can dig 50 holes in a single day.

It's worth it to get to highly nutritious rodents.

Following her nose, she can sniff out almost anything.

Even the most well-armed prey are not safe from a honey badger.

She 3 immune to the scorpion '5 stings,

but it's not a very enjoyable experience.

And all for quite a small reward.

With an incredibly high metabolism,

the honey badger needs constant refueling.

An ostrich egg would be a rich reward,

but they are the strongest eggs on the plains

and very hard to break into.

This will require all her ingenuity.

EGG CRACKS) -Finally, she's cracked it.

Honey badgers have over 50 known prey,

their success depends

on their willingness to take on anything.

It's not just predators

that have strategies to cope with life in the open.

Their prey have also risen to the challenge.

On plains across the world,

there is one kind of soft-bodied prey

that has a dramatic solution for living in the open.

They build themselves fortresses.

Termites, hard at work.

It can take five years and several generations

for a mound to grow to its full size.

It's a triumph of collective engineering.

Safe within their castles of clay,

they're protected from nature's extremes.

Wildfires can reach temperatures of 800 centigrade.

But on Brazil's vast Cerrado grasslands,

the mounds provide such good protection

that here, termites are the most abundant

form of animal life.

Within the thick walls of their fortress,

they live a complex social life.

At the center is the queen,

over the course of her life she will produce several million eggs.

Deep inside, the members of the community

are safe and undisturbed.

But once a year, some are compelled to leave.

The rainy season triggers a spectacular event.

A new generation of winged termites,

alates, emerge in their millions.

Their mission, to start a new colony.

But so much abundance doesn't go unnoticed.

Predators lurk in the fabric of the mound's outer walls,

Headlight beetle larvae,

they've been waiting all year for this moment.

As night falls,

they make their way to the surface of the mound.

There are hundreds of them.

Their lights are lethally attractive.

Like moths to a flame,

the termites cannot resist their bio luminescent glow.

For just two weeks each year,

the Cerrado is alight with glowing mounds.

The beetle larvae must stock their larders

for the leaner months ahead.

With food in such infrequent supply,

it will take two years for each larva to grow into an adult beetle.

The synchronised emergence of a million alates

makes these casualties insignificant.

Only a single pair are needed to start a new colony.

There is safety in numbers.

Flocking is a key defence strategy

for birds that live in the open.

Few sights illustrate this better than America's snow geese,

on their annual migration.

One and a half million birds,

stopping to refuel in Squaw Creek, Missouri.

Bald eagles have been gathering, waiting for this opportunity.

It might look like a lot of food,

but these are a winter prey of last resort.

Almost as big as an eagle, a goose is a large and difficult prey.

And the flock takes on a life of its own.

An impenetrable wall of beating wings.

In the visual confusion, picking a single target

is almost impossible.

The eagles must wait for conditions to change.

At this time of year the lake can freeze overnight.

This is what the eagles have been waiting for.

As the open water shrinks,

the geese are forced closer and closer together.

The eagles send the flock into the air.

Diving to the bottom causes panic.

Now being in the flock is a liability.

In the crammed chaos geese collide,

some are injured.

Separated from the safety of the flock, they're far more easy to catch.

Despite the vast numbers,

the eagles have only managed a few kills.

For the geese, travelling in a flock has paid off

and the vast majority continue their migration.

Even the toughest rely on the safety that comes from numbers.

Herding is an important defence for animals that graze in the open.

Weighing up to 800 kilos,

massive cape buffalo form super-hero's, over a thousand strong.

An impenetrable mass of muscle and horn.

Only Africa's largest predator can tackle buffalo.

And even they know better than to attempt a herd.

Highly aggressive, even unprovoked,

buffalo will trample lions, given the chance.

Usually the relationship is one of mutual respect.

At the end of Zambia's dry season,

grasslands can tum to dust.

For the buffalo it's an endless search for new pasture.

With the temperature rising to over 50 degrees centigrade,

an adult bull risks leaving the safety of the herd

to find fresh grazing alone.

Lions will normally avoid hunting in such heat,

but they're also opportunists.

The lions will need to bring him down quickly, before they overheat.

Even away from the herd,

a bull is a formidable opponent.

It could gore and kill a lion.

Close to overheating,

they finally succeed in bringing him to the ground.

But the massive bull is not giving up.

Against the odds and the full weight of the lions,

he regains his feet.

And it is now that the tables turn.

The lions are exhausted.

After a 20-minute struggle

only the bull has the energy to finish the fight.

In such exposed and extreme conditions,

the challenge for predators and their prey

is at its most intense.

On the roof of Africa,

one predator has adapted its entire hunting strategy

to suit its unusual home and prey.

A wolf that looks like a fox.

The Ethiopian wolf lives an isolated life,

cut off in a bleak world, 3,000 metres above sea level.

As with other wolves, the whole pack must work together

if young are to be reared successfully.

The alpha female must stay and nurse the pups,

but every morning the rest of the pack set out together.

jointly they patrol the perimeter of their highland territory.