Nature's Battlefield: Superpredator Vs. Superpredator

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- What happens when five great carnivores are forced to compete in excessively close quarters? What becomes of their natural order during catastrophic circumstances? Who hunts and who is hunted on this hotly contested battleground?

On Sunday, January 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) premieres "Predators at War," an innovative look at some of Africa's most fearsome predators as they battle the environment and each other during a brutal drought. This two-hour special employs military metaphors to cover this deadly competition as a military operation, putting the viewer virtually on the super-predator battlefield. From weapons systems to troop movements, the show utilizes military-like production techniques, including thermal image graphics, night vision cameras and simulated satellite mapping of action on the ground.

Debilitating conditions have led to the evaporation of normal behaviors and territorial boundaries, pressing animals to wage war just to stay alive. To survive on the frontlines, five highly evolved super predators -- the lion, leopard, hyena, cheetah and African wild dog -- must now compete for the same resources by using every weapon in their arsenals. From the perspective of each combatant, viewers will witness the visceral and sometimes startling behavior that erupts among the wildlife in South Africa's Mala Mala Reserve.

Audiences will gain insight about each combatant's battlefield strengths, combat weaponry, warfare vulnerabilities and motivations. You will see from the animal's point of view as it decides whether to leap into battle or starve without a fight. And you'll better understand each predator's motivations -- which have families to feed, territories to defend, dominance to secure and even vengeance to take.

The raw beauty of the struggle is captured with riveting footage shot by South African game ranger-turned-filmmaker Kim Wolhuter, who was raised in the bush and whose grandfather was the first game warden of Kruger National Park. Wolhuter captures extremely up-close images of this rarely seen animal behavior by literally embedding himself with the troops. Whether dangling from trees alongside a lone leopard with its kill, sitting next to a pack of hyena as they feast on their prey or facing down an irritable pride of lions looking to pilfer their competitor's catch, the unflappable Wolhuter provides breathtaking documentation of the brutal realities on the Mala Mala battlefield.

"Predators at War" is produced for the National Geographic Channel by National Geographic Film and Television. Jeff Morales is producer. Michael Rosenfeld is executive producer for NGT&F. For NGC, John Bowman is executive producer; John Ford is executive in charge of production.

Based at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Channel is a joint venture between National Geographic Television & Film (NGT&F) and Fox Cable Networks. National Geographic Channel debuted to an initial 10 million homes in January 2001, and has been one of the fastest growing networks in history. The Channel has carriage with all of the nation's major cable and satellite television providers, making it currently available to 52 million homes. For more information, please visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel.