Unlike most conglomerate-owned media companies, National Geographic is still pouring money into documentaries. Their latest docuseries “Africa Earth’s Wild Home” is a seven-parter that took four years to make and employed over 50 people. It’s the first series in a multi-year franchise that will document the planet, one continent at a time.
Nat Geo partnered with National Geographic Society’s global community of Explorers and scientists and Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative to make the seven-series franchise.
Nat Geo president Courteney Monroe says that the partnership demonstrates a “shared commitment to protecting our natural world.”
“It’s proof of what’s possible when storytelling, science and a shared sense of purpose come together,” says Monroe. “Through this collaboration, we are expanding what natural history storytelling can reveal, whose voices it can elevate and how deeply it can connect audiences to the wonders of our planet.”
“Africa Earth’s Wild Home” is narrated and executive produced by Academy Award nominee Wunmi Mosaku. It was filmed in nearly 30 African countries and used new technology and cutting-edge CGI to reveal the continent’s history and the forces that shaped its natural environments. To capture how Africa’s varied ecosystems shape the animals that live within them, film crews were sent to deserts, forests, jungles, mountains and islands.
Showrunner and series editor Gavin Boyland says Africa became the first continent in the multi-year franchise because people often associate wildlife with Africa.
“Africa got the best wildlife,” says Boyland. “It’s got the most spectacle. It’s got the charismatic animals. So, what we wanted to do from the outset is show people a different side of Africa. So, while we absolutely filmed lions and elephants and all the kind of familiar wildlife, but we also wanted to show different environments, different landscapes and different species that live in those landscapes as well.”
Instead of reaching out to typical Western researchers and scientists, Boyland and his team went to Africa and approached wildlife guides, drivers, photographers, and locals who saw wildlife daily.
“Those people were able to point us towards new behaviors,” says Boyland.
“Africa Earth’s Wild Home” features sequences that have never been filmed before, including the smallest crocodile hunting bats in pitch-black caves, a grumpy black rain frog, a flying saucer beetle that digs trenches to harvest water from coastal fog, giant “vegetarian” land tortoises hunting birds, golden wolves hunting pelicans three times their size and a male fossa fighting to gain access to a female’s mating tree.
“The series inspires us to look closer, learn more and care more deeply,” says Jill Tiefenthaler, CEO of National Geographic Society. “That’s the same passion that drives our National Geographic Explorers, who are working every day to understand and protect the natural world. With partners like Rolex and Disney, we magnify the impact of their work, inspiring millions to care about our planet and its future.”
The final episode in “Africa Earth’s Wild Home” focuses on conservationists, photographers and scientists whose work safeguarding the continent underpins the series. Both the episode and the series build on a 70-year partnership between National Geographic and Rolex.
“Across seven episodes, the extraordinary filmmaking reveals that protecting Africa’s wild heart starts with understanding its fragile ecosystems,” says Rolex exec Arnaud Boetsch. “By shining a spotlight on the Explorers and scientists working on the frontlines of conservation, the series promises to spark not just wonder but hope for the future.”
“Africa Earth’s Wild Home” premieres Oct. 2 on National Geographic and streams on Disney+ and Hulu on Oct. 3. The series was produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit for National Geographic.