Survival: Kopjes - Islands in a sea of grass  (1985)

The Serengeti Plain in Tanzania is a vast rolling ocean of grass.  In places, jutting out of it, are huge granite islands that are called "Kopjes".  The name comes from the old dutch word meaning "little head"  They are the last remnants of a huge granite shield that once covered much of central Africa.  As they split and crack with erosion, they have provided a special habitat for many strange creatures to evolve.  Flattened lizards, flat bats and a tortoise that is so flat that several can be stacked up like a pile of books.  there is even a bird of prey that has developed very long and flecible legs to enable it to reach into these cracks for its prey.  This programme, apart from featuring the magnificent Black eagle, also shows the Caracal, the most beautiful of Africa's smaller cats.  It feeds mainly on Birds which it catches with leaps of up to six feet in the air.

Alan Root spent eight months on these rock 'islands' to film their inhabitants.

Winner at the Wildscreen Film Festival in 1986 in the sound and commentary category

Film credits