The Kalahari is a dramatic expanse of wilderness. It’s 900,000 square kilometres of arid thornveld, vivid red dunes and searing salt pans. The enviromentis hot, dry and hostile, yet it is filled with a glut of wildlife like no other desert on Earth.
As the cold, dry winter sets in, elephants cross the landscape and leopards hunt the semi-arid plains, all bracing themselves for the building heat and the first whiff of summer rain. Beneath their feet, Cape cobras, honey badgers, aardvarks, pangolins and killer solifuges prepare to hunt and forage. Dry days give way to freezing nights, and any creature that fits in a burrow is underground, hiding from the cold.
Deep in a sandy pit is a huge, round, pig-like form with the ears of a rabbit. This is the architect of the Kalahari and all underground life here owes its space to the aardvark. Aardvarks dig and maintain a network of underground tunnels thousands of kilometres long. All other creatures simply use these dark spaces to hide from the cold, but also from predators, and the searing heat that will arrive within three months. The honey badger, known for its fearlessness and tenacity, pokes its head from one such burrow, sensing the dangers and opportunities that the warm morning brings. Venomous snakes and scorpions will be basking too. Epic confrontations with puff adders and deadly scorpions showcase the badger’s incredible resistance to venom and its unyielding determination.