Serengeti

It's the time of plenty in the Serengeti, with food in abundance, but a series of unexpected events turns families against each other and stretches relationships to breaking point. Emotions run high as each of the characters struggles to cope with their worlds being turned upside down.

As the Serengeti starts to dry out, competition hots up between the families we were first introduced to in Episode One. The strong females take centre stage, dealing with wayward males and fighting for the survival of their kin. Lioness Kali and her sister are enjoying time with their seven cubs. Together, hunting is much easier and life is good. But their happiness is short-lived as they are being tracked by Sefu, a male lion from the pride. He takes their food and then relentlessly pursues them, but what does he want? A new family has moved into the Serengeti: Kike, a first-time cheetah mother with three tiny cubs in tow. If her first litter is to survive, she must learn the skills of motherhood fast. Not only must she learn to hunt and keep her cubs safe, but she must keep them away from the other predators who are out to get them. Bakari the baboon struggles to raise the baby he rescued when its mother was killed and desperately tries to find a female to help him raise his motherless baby. Nalla, the elephant matriarch, is worried for the safety of her baby when a group of huge male elephants come to fight over one of the family's females. A young female ostrich attempts to raise an enormous brood of chicks whilst being watched by the hungry eyes of the hyena leader, Zalika. As pressure builds, Kali decides that for the sake of her cubs she must confront the male stalker Sefu - but it's a dangerous decision. Bakari is threatened by the leader of the troop when their rivalry escalates and the baby is put at risk. Will a kind-hearted female called Cheka help him raise the baby? Only the strong survive in the Serengeti, and the mothers are the toughest of the lot.

The incredible anticipation of the annual Great Migration is being felt by all of the Serengeti's families as they wait with great desperation for it to arrive. The land continues to get hotter and hunger start to bite as food becomes ever more scarce for the predators. With the Great Migration now in full flow, there are winners and losers on both sides.

The long-awaited arrival of the great migration brings opportunities and food in abundance, but it also increases conflict as every one of the Serengeti's families is put to the test.

The dry season is now upon the animals of the Serengeti, the toughest of times for some but a food bonanza for others. As a fire takes hold and the tinder-dry Serengeti is consumed by flames, who will survive and how will the land ever recover?

In this final episode, it's time to close another chapter in the lives of the animals of the Serengeti, the end of an extraordinary year for them all. But first, all around is a blackened smoking wasteland, the aftermath of the huge fire. Which of the families made it out alive and who is still missing? Torrential rain brings hope and the land is reborn into a green paradise as water quenches the scorched earth. Mirroring the changes in the landscape, the cycle of death and rebirth comes to the fore as the Serengeti's elders prepare their young for adulthood and a life on their own.