Lions and cheetahs and chimps, oh my: a spotlight on Africa’s diverse wildlife

狮子、猎豹与黑猩猩：聚焦非洲多样的野生动物

Chimps fish for algae in a rare example of primate tool use. Credit: National Geographic 黑猩猩捕捞藻类，这是灵长类动物使用工具的罕见案例。图片来源：国家地理

A wild African black panther prowls for prey. An orphaned baby pangolin must learn how to climb on its own. And a green turtle struggles to make it back to the water after laying her eggs on a remote island, rescued by local humans who carry the exhausted turtle to the water’s edge. These animals and many other species are featured in Africa: Earth’s Wild Home, a new documentary series from National Geographic. It’s meant to launch a new franchise, with separate series documenting the wildlife and environmental ecosystems of all seven continents in turn. 一只野生的非洲黑豹正在搜寻猎物。一只孤儿穿山甲必须学会如何独自攀爬。还有一只绿海龟在偏远岛屿产卵后，挣扎着想要回到水中，最终被当地人救起，并将精疲力竭的它送回水边。这些动物以及其他许多物种都出现在国家地理的新纪录片系列《非洲：地球的野性家园》（Africa: Earth’s Wild Home）中。该系列旨在开启一个新的特许经营项目，后续将依次推出记录全球七大洲野生动物和生态系统的系列纪录片。

The seven-episode documentary series took four years to complete, with filming taking place across nearly 30 different African countries. Each episode focuses on a specific ecosystem, from the jungle and the desert, to the plains, mountains, and islands of Africa, and closes by spotlighting the various scientists, photographers, and NatGeo explorers whose work made the series possible. The final episode focuses on the local conservation leaders and researchers working to preserve Africa’s rich biodiversity for future generations. 这部七集纪录片历时四年制作完成，拍摄地遍布非洲近30个国家。每一集都聚焦于一个特定的生态系统，从丛林、沙漠到非洲的平原、山脉和岛屿，并在结尾处重点介绍了使该系列得以实现的科学家、摄影师和国家地理探险家们。最后一集则聚焦于当地的保护领袖和研究人员，他们正致力于为子孙后代保护非洲丰富的生物多样性。

The producers found the perfect narrator in Wunmi Mosaku, who has delivered powerful performances in such works as Sinners, Loki, and Lovecraft Country. “I was incredibly honored that they even know my name at Nat Geo,” Mosaku told Ars. “It was wonderful to be asked to narrate the series, it means so much to me. As someone who was born in Nigeria and raised in England, I’ll take any opportunity I can to reconnect and celebrate this incredible continent where life is so diverse and so extreme and beautiful and relentless and peaceful. I wanted to be a part of that because it’s a part of me.” 制片人找到了完美的旁白人选——乌米·莫萨库（Wunmi Mosaku），她曾在《罪人》、《洛基》和《恶魔之地》等作品中贡献了精彩的表演。“能被国家地理选中，我感到无比荣幸，”莫萨库告诉Ars。“受邀为该系列担任旁白真是太棒了，这对我有很深的意义。作为一个出生在尼日利亚、在英国长大的人，我会抓住任何机会与这片不可思议的大陆重新建立联系并赞美它，这里的生命如此多样、极端、美丽、无情又宁静。我想成为其中的一部分，因为它是属于我的一部分。”

“There was so much I didn’t know,” said Mosaku. “I have been to Nigeria, obviously, and Ghana. I’ve worked in Kenya and South Africa. But there’s so much to see. I don’t think you could even explore it in a lifetime. So many things were shocking to me. Seeing snow and monkeys living in the snow in Africa, I had never seen that before.” “有很多事情是我以前不知道的，”莫萨库说。“我当然去过尼日利亚和加纳，也在肯尼亚和南非工作过。但这里有太多值得一看的东西。我觉得即便用一生也无法探索完。很多事情让我感到震惊。在非洲看到雪，还有生活在雪地里的猴子，我以前从未见过。”

Among other highlights, the team captured the reclusive black rain frog on film—the first time this species has appeared on TV—as a male frog emerges for his first breeding season. Despite looking like a “grumpy avocado,” the black rain frog has a distinctive “squeaky soprano” mating call to help him attract females. The series also features rare live footage of chimpanzees using rudimentary tools (twigs or branches) to fish for algae at the bottom of a pond. 在其他亮点中，摄制组拍摄到了隐居的黑雨蛙——这是该物种首次出现在电视上——当时一只雄性青蛙正为了它的第一个繁殖季而现身。尽管看起来像个“脾气暴躁的牛油果”，但黑雨蛙拥有独特的“尖细女高音”求偶叫声，以吸引雌性。该系列还展示了黑猩猩使用原始工具（树枝或树杈）在池塘底部捕捞藻类的罕见现场画面。

Lone bachelor hyena figures out how to catch a flamingo. Credit: National Geographic. 孤独的单身鬣狗想出了捕捉火烈鸟的方法。图片来源：国家地理。

Adaptation is key. In one case, a lone male hyena who hasn’t eaten for days must figure out how to catch a flamingo to survive. But the water slows him down so much that he has to devise a strategy: herding the flock toward the shore so the increased density of birds makes it easier to catch one—a new skill for the species. One can’t help but feel some empathy for the hyena, which is quickly offset by a night-vision segment where a pack of hyenas attack a mother and baby elephant and nearly succeeding in killing the calf. 适应是关键。在一个案例中，一只已经好几天没吃东西的雄性鬣狗必须想办法捕捉火烈鸟来生存。但水流严重阻碍了他的速度，他不得不制定策略：将鸟群赶向岸边，通过增加鸟群的密度来更容易地捕捉到一只——这对该物种来说是一项新技能。人们不禁会对这只鬣狗产生一些同情，但这种感觉很快就被一段夜视片段抵消了：一群鬣狗袭击了一头母象和幼象，并差点成功杀死了幼象。

“I never thought I’d feel empathy for a hyena,” said Mosaku. “You see this young bachelor hyena just trying to [find food]. But then you see them attacking an elephant calf and remember, ‘Oh, that’s why I don’t like them.’” “我从没想过我会同情一只鬣狗，”莫萨库说。“你看到这只年轻的单身鬣狗只是在努力（寻找食物）。但随后你看到它们攻击幼象，就会想起：‘哦，这就是我不喜欢它们的原因。’”

Capturing all that footage in the wild requires a great deal of technological innovation. The production team relied heavily on drones to provide first-person points of view, as well as a robotic arm that could be preprogrammed for long camera takes—initially developed for studio use and deployed for the first time in the field. An underwater “hippo cam” featured pan and tilt heads to better capture what was happening beneath the surface as hippos received a “spa treatment,” i.e., barbel fish nibbling away all their dead skin. And the team developed a remotely-operated fixed rig with low-light and infrared capabilities, as well as a remotely operated zoom feature, to film dwarf crocodiles hunting bats in a pitch-black cave covered in guano. They even placed small umbrellas over the rigs to “bat proof” the equipment. 在野外捕捉所有这些镜头需要大量的技术创新。制作团队大量依赖无人机来提供第一人称视角，以及一种可以预编程进行长镜头拍摄的机械臂——该设备最初是为演播室使用而开发的，这是首次在野外部署。水下“河马摄像机”配备了平移和倾斜云台，以便更好地捕捉河马在水下接受“水疗”（即须鱼啃食它们身上的死皮）时的情景。此外，团队还开发了一种带有低光和红外功能的远程操作固定装置，以及远程变焦功能，用于拍摄在漆黑且布满鸟粪的洞穴中捕食蝙蝠的侏儒鳄。他们甚至在设备上放置了小雨伞，以实现设备的“防蝙蝠”功能。

Just when you’re starting to like hyenas, they go and attack a baby elephant. Credit: National Geographic. 当你刚开始喜欢上鬣狗时，它们却去攻击幼象。图片来源：国家地理。

To give the episodes shape, each is broken up into several mini-narratives, such as a mother cheetah learning to adapt her hunting style to mountainous rocky terrain in order to catch prey for her hungry cubs. “I felt like I could see so much of humanity within these stories,” said Mosaku. “The cheetah and her three cubs on a terrain where her superpower [speed] is now null and void because they’re on cliffs—I see that cheetah and I see my mother with her three cubs in terrain where her super powers weren’t able to power up. I just see so much of how we’re connected and how we ultimately want the same things: to survive, to thrive, that our loved ones are safe.” 为了使剧集结构更完整，每一集都被拆分为几个迷你叙事，例如一只母猎豹学习如何调整狩猎方式以适应多岩石的山地，从而为饥饿的幼崽捕获猎物。“我觉得在这些故事中看到了很多人性，”莫萨库说。“那只猎豹和她的三只幼崽在悬崖峭壁上，她的超能力（速度）变得毫无用处——我看着那只猎豹，就像看到了我的母亲带着我们三个孩子，在她的超能力无法发挥作用的环境中挣扎。我看到了我们之间是多么紧密地联系在一起，以及我们最终想要的东西是一样的：生存、繁荣，以及确保我们所爱的人安全。”

Mosaku’s skills as an actor proved invaluable to bringing those stories to life. “We really wanted it to feel personable,” Mosaku said of her narrative approach. “I wasn’t putting on a voice, it was very much Wunmi and how do I feel in this moment? So it felt very authentic. It very much was about character and drive and empathy and figuring out what this character wants and needs. It’s interesting because [as the narrator] you are the audience too. You’re seeing it for the first time technically but also you’re guiding people who are seeing it for the first time without talking down to them.” 莫萨库作为演员的技巧对于让这些故事栩栩如生起到了不可估量的作用。“我们真的希望它感觉很亲切，”莫萨库在谈到她的叙事方式时说。“我没有刻意改变声音，这完全是乌米（我本人）在这一刻的真实感受。所以它感觉非常真实。这更多是关于角色、动力、同理心，以及弄清楚这个角色想要什么和需要什么。这很有趣，因为（作为旁白）你也是观众。从技术上讲，你是第一次看到这些画面，但你同时也在引导那些同样第一次观看的人，而不会显得居高临下。”

“I hope the audience feels that we are in communication with the natural world and that what we do matters and what happens in the natural world matters to us,” said Mosaku. “我希望观众能感受到我们与自然世界是相通的，我们的所作所为很重要，而自然界中发生的一切对我们也同样重要，”莫萨库说。