This film documents the wildlife of the vast Serengeti plains near Mount Kilimanjaro in central Africa. The "king of the beasts" are the African lions, who travel in a matriarchal pride, a large group of family members led by the females, and prey on various grazing herds. Among the many herds are zebra, slow-witted wildebeest, antelope, tiny gazelles and agile impala. Other animals have defenses to stave off the lions' attack, like the African buffalo, whose horns cover the front of his skull, or the sharp-tusked warthog. Also on the plain are the giraffe, the tallest creature in the world. These silent beasts, which graze on tree foliage with their extra long tongue, are able to sprint with a long stride to escape the lions's hunt. The two-ton rhinoceros are rambunctious and practice their defense charging each other with their horned heads. When not hunting, the lions relax outstretched in the plains and nurse their young cubs, which are naturally playful. When a strange lioness approaches the pride, all of the female lions attack and wound the intruder until she finally leaves. Later, elephants arrive, causing the lions to relinquish their territory because of the other's great size and strength. In order to sustain themselves, elephants consume great quantities of grass, leaves and branches. And while they can live to almost two hundred years in age, they mature, like man, at age twenty. Elephants, which need large amounts of water, fill their trunks at watering holes, then drain the water into their mouths. Also at the hole, a hippopotamus, second only to the elephant in size, takes a mud bath. An herbivore, the animal is usually very peaceful despite his powerful jaws. While the agile hippopotamus submerges underwater, a school of Barbell gathers thereby attracting a passing crocodile, which preys upon the fish. Back on land, one of the most intelligent animals, an African baboon, rests in his home, a rock enclave high in a hillside for protection. Baboons travel in troops of 50 to 100 and eat tender grasses and insects. The main enemy of the baboons is the leopard, which ambushes from overhead. While a wildebeest herd grazes under a grove of trees, the leopard drops from a tree to take a calf, starting a stampede. Another among the cat family is the cheetah, the swiftest runner in all the animal kingdom, running over 80 miles an hour. The lioness, on the other hand, can only make short sprints, which require that she use her stealth in a hunt. After a successful attack on a herd of wildebeests, all the pride come to take part in the feast; however, sometimes the lions must fight scavengers like the hyena, jackal and vulture for the last scraps of food. There are only two seasons in the area, the monsoons and the drought. The annual hardship brought on by the drought causes all of the animals to roam the land aimlessly in search of water. In addition, heated air off the plains form columns of swirling air that finally turn into dust storms, causing even more confusion among the animals. At the same time, large swarms of locust scourge the land of any last grazing, but the season inevitably changes, thus bringing the tropical rains, renewing the fields and continuing the "primitive pageant of nature's Africa." (AFI)
