Discovery Journeys Back to Africa with "Serengeti II"

Discovery39s sequel to its acclaimed 2019 docuseries Serengeti premieres Sunday July 18 on the network and all six episodes will be available the same day to stream on discovery For fans of the exquisitely shot original many characters will be familiar as will Lola Lennox39 haunting theme song which repeats four notes to the four syllables of quotSerengettiquotDiffering from traditional wildlife series this tells viewers from the opening scene that it is quotA dramatized story based on the real lives of Africa39s most charismatic animalsquot With Lupita Nyong39o narrating the series chronicles elephants cheetahs baboons zebras hyenas and other creatures on Tanzania39s unsullied SerengetiSerengeti II actually continues the series that aired two years ago Crews kept filming on the ground and by drone Emmy Awardwinning producer and director John Downer was on the Serengeti until COVID hit The crews stayed and he returned to Bristol the British city from which he chatted exclusively with MediaVillage via ZoomDowner studied zoology before becoming a wildlife filmmaker and though this gives animals names and offers full stories about their behavior it is not fanciful Having studied animal behavior for years Downer explained the series interprets what is happening It39s not as if Discovery could ask for retakes and rewrite the scriptquotYou never can planquot Downer said quotYou can outline where the storylines might go but in the end the animals tell the story so we just kept filming You know the locations you know the characters and you know you can pick up from where you left offquotAnd so we return to the lioness Kali pictured at top She mated outside of the pride which is completely understandable when you see the lion king39s behavior He hangs back as she tackles prey Kali must hunt to feed her four cubs When she makes a kill the males move in for the feast pushing her and her cubs out of the way Kali is a single mother very much on her own and after this repeatedly happens over the first three episodes it makes sense when she lopes away However we don39t know if she39ll returnThe story of a single mother ostracized should feel relatable as do all of these stories While the first installment focused on the animals over a year the sequel captures a shorter period about five months and concentrates more on the animals39 charactersElephants long heralded for their wisdom and empathy shine through hereamp160The matriarch of this herd Nalla searches for her sister Eventually the body is found Watching Nalla cry as she discovers her sister39s body is to experience abject sorrow Soon a pack of hyenas rips apart the flesh because this is the cycle of life in closeupLater the elephants return to what resembles the remains of a homicide scene Their trunks gently graze the bones of their loved one The dead elephant39s calf gently touches the skull of his mother as the rest of the herd stands by Nyong39o says quotBeing an elephant means never walking alonequotAs gentle and caring as the elephants are there39s viciousness and violence among baboons Bakari leader of this troop and Bibi the female he had been with previously does not take well to Cheeka the mother of his son Bibi does all she can to get the male back Baboons are not known for subtlety apparently this extends to acts of flirtation which includes her putting in his face precisely what he has been missingquotWe39re interested in those stories which are relatable to usquot Downer noted quotThe more you understand the behavior of those animals the more time you spend with them you see those human parallels in there That shows our closeness to the natural world You know that we39re not that far from itquotThis season brings dramatic footage of a flood that seems to come out of nowhere The animals taken by surprise scamper up trees fly when they can and move as fast as possible to avoid ranging waters Remarkable camera work captures Bakari39s daring leap from a high branch into the watersquotThe big thing on this which we couldn39t have planned for which happens in program two is a floodquot Downer explained quotAnd that39s caused by climate change We experienced one of the biggest floods that we39ve ever seen in AfricaquotDowner considered how telling nature stories this way marks a different approach quotIt39s still faithful to what happens and I try to make it that you39re learning more than you39ve been toldquot he said quotI39ve learned over the years that we39re not so different after all We may now live mainly in cities but what I39m trying to do is make sure people can experience the similarities that we share with other lifequotSerengeti II will premiere Sunday July 18 on Discovery and discoveryClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of 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Discovery Journeys Back to Africa with "Serengeti II"

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Jacqueline Cutler

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Discovery Journeys Back to Africa with "Serengeti II"

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