Surviving Paradise: A Family Tale

In this land,

family is everything.

It's the bonds within the pride,

the pack,

and the herd...

...that allow each member to succeed.

Nowhere are these bonds tested more fiercely

than in the great Kalahari Desert.

Here families are shaped

by courageous mothers...

wise elders...

...and tenacious underdogs.

All drawn to the immense oasis that lies at the desert's very heart.

The Okavango Delta.

Home to more wildlife than any other wetland on Earth...

it is seeing some of the most extreme seasonal change

on the planet.

Through the chaos and hardship of the coming year...

fates will entwine,

and incredible relationships will be forged.

Not just within families but between families.

And even with the land itself.

For a two-year-old lioness,

the strength of family comes from her pride.

She and her sisterhood control this territory...

...and their lead male reigns as warrior king.

But in the Delta, change can come suddenly

and upend a family's peaceful existence.

The chink in her pride's armor is the king himself.

Years of fighting to defend his family and territory

have taken their toll.

His weakness puts the lioness at risk.

And presents an opportunity

for two ambitious young males.

The old warrior marks his territory.

But he's frail.

And outnumbered.

Every year in the Okavango is a new and dangerous journey,

but for the lioness,

this year will be the most uncertain she's ever faced.

Every family confronts the challenges of the Delta

in its own way.

- -

A pack of painted wolves, 24 strong.

Their strength, a testament to their great leader,

the alpha female.

She's trained them to think and hunt as one.

And to provide for all.

But the alpha is pregnant.

Her team will lose their leader,

just as the Delta faces its greatest upheaval.

It's May.

And the surrounding Kalahari Desert is facing the worst drought in decades.

Thousands of animals are fleeing the parched outer regions...

traveling for weeks.

All drawn here for one reason.

Water.

Rainwater that fell four months ago

in the Angolan Highlands to the north

has finally made its way down,

across the Kalahari and into the flatlands of the Delta.

Over nine trillion liters of fresh water

floods the vast desert...

creating

the greatest oasis on the planet.

In the flood's wake come the great herds...

joining those who live here year-round.

Everyone has a role to play

in shaping and maintaining this land.

Even a six-month-old elephant

on her first visit.

She's never seen so much water...

...and food.

With endless floodplains to munch their way through,

elephants become the natural gardeners of the Delta...

uprooting far more than they can eat.

But over-pruning can clog the waterways,

halting the water's spread.

What the gardeners have blocked up,

families of hippos bulldoze through.

Not being swimmers, they tiptoe along the bottom.

And in their wake, leave hippo-sized highways...

that connect rivers to pools and pools to floodplains...

allowing the water to keep flowing,

feeding the vibrant growth of the entire Delta.

But the flood isn't good news for all.

For the lioness,

it means a loss of hunting grounds.

And the old warrior king is nowhere to be seen.

Whether he fled or was killed,

the young invaders have usurped his throne.

Only lionesses of breeding age are allowed to stay now.

And she's not one of them.

To these new males, she's just an extra mouth to feed,

with little to contribute.

Banished and alone,

she'll need all her skill just to stay alive.

The alpha female has been housebound for weeks.

Because...

Well, who would leave this scruffy bunch?

At four weeks old, her pups venture out for the first time.

All 14 of them.

Unable to hunt for herself, she must rely on her pack

to bring the meat she needs to keep her milk flowing.

But her stay-at-home work is nonstop.

Sweeping out the den...

three weeks' worth of ticks and fleas...

landing right back where they started.

Her pack is on patrol...

without their leader.

And the floodwaters are slowing them down.

Lechwe.

Just one would feed the entire pack.

With splayed hooves and powerful legs,

they can drive on through the flood.

Without the guidance of the alpha,

the pack follow them into the deeper water.

It's futile.

And then...

a lone impala.

He lacks the paddle-like hooves and long legs of the lechwe.

They finish the job quickly to avoid a clash with competitors.

The pack often take out the weak or injured in a group,

easier prey,

with the added benefit of reducing disease in herds.

The hunters deliver their meals in the safest way possible.

In their stomachs.

Until the pups can hunt themselves,

they eat first.

Generosity is a core principle of their pack.

Though learning to share doesn't come easily.

Retiring to the den with your very first piece of meat

is about as good as it gets.

With water levels at their highest,

the Okavango becomes a true paradise.

Aquatic life from the surrounding rivers and swamps

spreads into the grassland to spawn.

Branches and trees knocked down by elephants

create protected nurseries for young fish.

During peak flood,

the Delta swells to twice its original size,

and anywhere high and dry becomes prime real estate.