Animals Unlimited (1950)

[Music] Far away from where you are is a country very much like yours. The Union of South Africa. You may know about the gold mines and the diamonds that South Africans are very much like Americans and live in skyscraper cities and small towns and farms just as you do. But always at the back of your mind is the feeling that this is the dark continent where unmed animals roam un. When man first came to southern Africa, he shot these animals. Sometimes for food, sometimes for his own safety. But as time went by, South Africans began to realize that in their country, they had something rare in this civilized world. Rare enough to cultivate. They set aside certain areas for the protection of strange birds, exotic flowers, and wild animals. The Krueger National Park is the biggest of these protected areas. It is in fact the largest game reserve in the world. 8,000 square miles in extent, about the size of the state of New Jersey, almost as big as Belgium, larger than whales. There are no zookeepers, no cages, no bars to fence them in. Human visitors have to observe certain rules when they enter the reserve, but for the animals, there are no rules. You are going into a different world. There is an uncanny, expectant hush in the air. Now and then invisible birds will burst into song. And when they stop, suddenly the silence is closer than ever. The vild beast. grotesque and ungainainely, makes way for you to pass. A little steanbuck watches silently from the bushes. The wartthog peers at you, ugly and dangerous. His vicious tusks have ripped to death both man and beast. But he's easily frightened, and if you get too close, he'll turn and run. Look at that tail. [Music] This harmless looking little animal, the silverback jackal, is a killer. The smaller antelopes are his prey. This is the water buck. The water buck is easily recognized by the white ring around his tail, which makes him look as though he had been kicked by an angry horse, or perhaps by a zebra, which number thousands strong in the reserve. The zebra is a sleek and well-fed animal with keen sense of smell and sight to keep him from danger, but with so little stamina that attacking lions usually find him an easy [Music] prey. The seldom seen Inyala ram, followed meekly by the dough, is one of the rarest of antelopes. There are more than 300 varieties of indigenous birds in the reserve. This one is the blue crreek. The graceful impala are seen all through the reserve. Sometimes in small groups, sometimes in herds of a hundred or more. They live on grass, but the lions live on them. There is danger also in the calm water of the drinking hole from the crocodiles hiding in the mud. And so they prick up their ears at the slightest sound, the smallest movement in the grass. See how closely they watch the birds fighting in the background. Hidden danger lies in wait for the zebra, too. From the crocodiles, from the lions crouching in the tall grass. They sniff the air suspiciously, set danger, wheel around, and prepare for flight. Even the great white-headed vulture is in danger from the crocodile. This carrying bird feeds on the remains of carcasses left by killer animals. The bustard pres on the snakes who prey on lesser birds and is himself the food of wild [Music] dogs. Hippos are found in all the deeper waters and all but the babies have no fear of attack from any other animal. But sometimes the bulls of the herd battle among themselves for leadership and inflict serious wounds on each other. The hippo in the foreground has a flesh wound on its side. And if you look closely, you'll see a bird pecking in this wound, cleaning it out and keeping the hippo free from infection. [Music] The painted snipe is a henpeck bird. Contrary to the usual custom in nature, the female is the betterl looking of the couple. She lays the eggs and marches off to find a new mate, while the first one stays home to hatch the eggs. The most evil killer in Africa, the crocodile, crawls onto the riverbank and looks around for excitement. From the opposite bank, a massive jaw brute slides slowly into the water, cooling himself off after basking in the sun. But the other has a grudge to settle. He streaks into the water and the fight is on. With tails lashing, huge jaws snapping, they battle furiously until the end can only be complete exhaustion or a slow death on the river bank. [Music] This suous reptile, as much at home in the water as it is on land, is the poisonous puff hatter. The hooded cobra, swaying as if to the unheard music of an Indian snake charmer, he is like the puff adder, both repellently beautiful and deadly dangerous. The snake's worst enemies are the mongoose, the eagle, and the secretary bird. Stalking off pompously as if to a business appointment, the secretary bird will attack the snake, snatch it in his beak, and soar several hundred feet above the earth. Drop the snake and kill it. This prehistoricl looking animal often reaches a height of more than 18 ft, tall enough for him to chew the young and succulent shoots in the treetops. He that surpasses trees, the Zulus call him. It's commonly believed that the giraffe is a speechless animal, but the mothers have been heard to lose softly like anxious dairy cows if the young ones wander off too far. Wild dogs hunt in the early morning, in the evenings, and on moonlit nights. More powerful than they look, they hunt in packs to bring down antelopes and even such large animals as the buffalo. The kudu, usually among the most peaceful of animals, uses its long spiral horns to protect itself against the small killers. A sable cow browsing peacefully among the palms. Even the lion hesitates to attack these magnificently horned beasts. The famous stork. Not quite as peaceful as his reputation would have it. One member of the stork family is known to the native Africans as the master of the feast because he boldly gate crashes where the giant vultures feed. The Marshall eagle strikes fear into the hearts of leopard cubs, snakes, and small antelopes. But not all the animals are killers. least of all the cheerful kiwit or the little lilac breasted roller. For all its seeming cruelties, there is a sense of peace in this untamed world. Where strange birds sing, where antelopes watch you, timid but unafraid, and monkeys chatter excitedly among themselves. [Music] It's getting close to sunset and the treetops are alive with sound. The visitors go back to camp and build their campfires. The bushfeld stirs and vibrates to the chilling noises of the African night. [Music] It's breakfast time in camp. Most the rest camps have stores and restaurants, but people usually prefer to picnic. All park visitors must be early risers if they hope to see the nocturnal prowers going off to their haunts at daybreak. Last night, lions prowled outside the camp. This morning, with luck, we should see them lazing on the road in the first rays of the sun. A leopard disappears into the bush. The hyena is surprised on the prowl. His jaws are as strong as a lion's. He can snap a buffalo's thigh bone in two. He can bite through an iron trap. His laugh, far from being humorous, is diabolical, frightening. His night's work over, he scals off to his lair in hidden cave or crevice to sleep until the moon comes up. You never know what's waiting for you around the bend. Maybe he's been watching you for hours. You can travel through the park for days without seeing lions, but they've seen you. And then one day you'll turn a corner and there they are, a whole pride of them strolling on the road, or stretched lazily at the roadside. Unless they're hungry, wounded, or protecting cubs, lions are indolent and good-natured. But there's no sense in tempting fate. The better part of valor is to stay in your car. The lion does not yet associate the smell of gasoline with anything good to eat. So, as long as you stick to the rules, you're safe. They look benign and friendly, but they are not hungry [Music] yet. There are, of course, no keepers here to come around and toss meat to them at feeding time. The whole reserve is a potential dinner table for a hungry lion. And as on other levels of life, it's the female's duty to feed her male. But in the animal kingdom, duty is carried one step further, and it's the lioness that does the hunting. And now the thought begins to strike them that it must be nearly dinner time. At a nearby water hole, a herd of impala are gathered. Some are drinking, some are watching. One foolhardy goes alone to drink. The others watch the lioness uneasily, ready to take flight, for they know that she can spring almost quicker than the eye can see. She has seen the lone impala at the river's edge, and so she silently trots after him. She leaps like lightning, but the tiny animal plunges desperately into the crocodileinfested river and swims to safety on the other side. She has failed. You'll have to do better than that. Well, there are plenty more where that came from. Digger impala kudos fat zebras cesibbe ears cocked drinking but watching birds and monkeys chatter noisily excitedly knowing that something is going to [Music] happen again springs and again misses off they go running for their lives. [Music] But the tragedy is inevitable. Next time she won't miss. Tiny animals scurry into the underbrush. Even the birds stop their singing. Animals must drink, and sooner or later, one will be caught off guard. He has seen the lioness, but too late. The climax is swift, but final. [Music] The family eats and birds start to sing again. Jackals, wild dogs wait to spring and vultures hover in the air waiting for their share in the feast. And the African buffalo, timid but dangerous, look on placidly now that the danger is passed. Rhinos, though they are seen in the Krueger National Park, are more common in the Schlua Reserve in Natal. The white rhino, socalled for its allegedly placid temperament, is usually rather shy and hides from danger. The smaller and slightly darker beast, the black rhino, is short-sighted, smallrained, and badtempered. He attacks without provocation, often blindly missing his target. And with his scaly armor, he's almost immune to counterattack. The giant of them all, the massive ponderous elephant. He can rip down trees, crush cars to sheet metal. Fearing nothing, he tramps his way through the thickest brush, the tallest trees, tearing away all obstacles and shaking the earth beneath him. From the smallest to the greatest, they live here as they did in ages past, with no fear of man in this unforgettable African wilderness. [Music]