“Visually astonishing and graphic action of Lions vs Buffalo in the lush Okavango Delta”

This documentary takes viewers onto a unique battlefield in the Okavango Delta to witness the gruelling fight for survival of highly specialised lions that prey almost exclusively on Cape buffalo.

Relentless Enemies is a documentary shot over two intense years as Beverly and Dereck Joubert lived among a threatened pride of lions and a large buffalo herd in the Duba region of Botswana's Okavango Delta.

The Duba Plains is an amazing and remote part of Botswana, home to three prides of lions and just over a thousand buffalo. The interactions that happen each day are intense. Three prides compete for the prey but far from being a one sided relationship where lions hunt from the herd, it has become a battle between them with lions often being chased and occasionally killed as well.

It is a spectacle few have seen first-hand: two foes trapped on an island in a remote part of Africa - and a battle to survive captured in high-definition over two years by award-winning filmmakers.

The film includes dramatic first ever footage of lions hunting in water, demonstrating to biologists worldwide the surprisingly adaptive nature of these animals.

The intensity and rawness of this, almost exclusively day time, hunting, is unique. But the opportunity to witness their battles is a rare chance to see and analyse what makes Africa so interesting to us. It is a chance to see life so transparently on the edge, and to think about why we are so fascinated by these extremes.

Filmed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert
Narrated by Jeremy Irons
Produced by Wildlife Films Botswana for National Geographic Channels 2006.

Visit the National Geographic website for photos and more info about this film.