Savage Kingdom

Savage Kingdom Premieres 4 December 2017 at 18h00 on National Geographic

Three thousand square miles of remote African Savannah this ancient land is governed by competing clans of ruthlessly proficient predators Lions, Leopards, Hyenas and Wild Dogs. Their survival depends on the giant herds of powerful prey of Buffalo, Elephant and Zebra who have roamed Savute in search of sustenance, season after season, millennium after millennium.

Each day is a life and death struggle animal against animal, animal against nature. Savute is a land where natural law is taken to its limit and sometimes… beyond. It has always been this way. Like a lion with a wildebeest, this six-part drama takes the viewer by the throat in a bitter, sweet embrace of life and death and refuses to let go until the final curtain.

Unique access from multi-camera crews on the ground and in the air brings spectacular and unparalleled perspective to the mortal challenges facing the cast of Savute. Choppers and drones reveal the scale of mass migrations while close up, high-speed, 4K-footage propels the audience into the heart of the action.

Like its cast of characters this series is muscular in style and unapologetically violent. Death comes without warning to those we have grown to know and love for their courage, strength and beauty. Here even the mightiest and the apparently invincible cannot guess which day will be their last. Across six episodes we see the full impact that the cycle of Savute’s seasons has on every carnivore clan.

The rains leave a time of birth and plenty in their wake, but all too soon the soil is parched and the grass gone. Rival tribes of predators are squeezed into a cauldron of competition. Against this urgent backdrop of decreasing resources the drama between animal factions plays out lions against lions, lions against leopards, leopards against dogs, hyenas against all.

Savage Kingdom was filmed in Savute, Botswana, part of Chobe National Park. This area is known for its fabled Savuti Channel, which has a history of drying up and flowing again with decades between. Our film begins after a rare flood and continues into the drying period, when predators of all shapes and sizes are fighting for control of the diminishing resources.

The crew spent more than one year filming, for a total of 20,000 hours in the wild. There were six camera people and producers in the field including five cameras and three safari vehicles. The team lived in the wild, tracking the animals by day and sleeping on top of their vehicles at night. Some days the animals did nothing but sleep and some days the team shot entire battles in the first hour.

There are more than 23 iconic species in the Savage Kingdom including buffalo, elephants, giraffes, hippos, impalas, jackals, vultures, warthogs, wildcats, wildebeests and zebras. 18 animals were born in Savage Kingdom’s clans during filming including baby lions, leopards, wild dogs and hyenas.

The crew captured championship fights between species, including hyenas challenging elephants, lions going after leopards, wild dogs fighting hyenas and leopards pulling enormous fish out of water holes.  One of the young lions in the Marsh Pride grabbed producer Brad Bestelink’s bag out of his car while he was sleeping. One of the crew woke up to rustling sounds then alerted Brad. He spent 15 minutes trying to figure out which lion had his bag and then following it around until it finally let go of it.

Rule of the Savage Kingdom is reserved for the strong. Five clans struggle for power. Each will kill to protect their dynasty — each will kill to take the throne. The winners are rewarded with the richest hunting grounds in the kingdom, but the fate of the losers is brutal — exile or death. The only way to succeed is to build an army to steal power before the others cut them off at the knees. Meet the clans below.