Life and Death in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. “African Cats” is a stunning and unbelievably intimate, nature movie played across the spectacular scenery of the African savanna. Extraordinary camera technique and technology makes you feel as though you are right among the lion pride.  Aerial photography using HD cameras in the hands of the world’s top experts transports you into this untamed world. Laugh, cry, as you find yourself captivated by the extraordinary adventures of two mothers – a lioness and a cheetah. Their bravery, courage, devotion and sacrifice will capture your heart.

Director Allistair Fotheringham and his team of experts including Owen Newman, Sophie Darlington and Simon King spent over two years capturing this remarkable footage in one of the wildest places on earth. Wide-angle lenses with special stabilizers, the Phantom camera and high-speed photography allowed the camera to track cheetahs moving at 110 kilometers an hour, the flex of every sinew and muscle, the majestic roar of the King of Beasts.

The Background:

“African Cats” is filmed in the Maasai Mara, Kenya, part of the Greater Mara Ecosystem and a continuation of the Serengeti National Park. It’s vast wilderness and changing landscape, lush greens, stretched out plains, are separated by the meandering Mara River. During rainy season up to 1,500 millimeters of rain might fall, which means there is enough food and water to keep wildlife there year round. July is the time of year when the first herds of wildebeest arrive from the Serengeti and The Great Migration begins. Now begins the feasting for the Maasai Mara predators and scavengers.

Massive herds of animals sweep across the landscape following the rains. Herds of five hundred elephants might appear suddenly and then be gone. Clouds of dust accompany the 1,245,000 wildebeest trampling their way across Look-Out Hill and then down to the Mara River. The migration includes 200,000 Burchell’s zebra, 18,000 eland, and 500,000 Thomson’s Gazelle filling the entire landscape vista. The lions of the Mara lie in the shade of the acacias, waiting in anticipation.

The Big Cats rule the savanna. Many resident lion prides have occupied the same territory for generations. The females are the permanent members of the group while the males must fight to maintain their hierarchical place. Nighttime is filled with the deep roaring of males, warning other males to stay out of their territory. Females hunt together with military precision carrying out their final attack with remarkable well-rehearsed, deadly precision.