MUMBAI: The eternal conflict between predator and prey plays out on a series of diverse backdrops around the world and often the changing nature of the environment can tip the odds in favour of either the hunter or the hunted. Airing every night at 10 pm in February-March, Animal Planet’s new programming line-up Rann Bhoomi spans the globe in search of exciting stories illustrating the dramatic effect environmental surroundings can have on this battle between predator and prey. The series takes a look at the unforgiving battles for survival that take place in the natural world all around the globe every single day.
In the animal kingdom, it’s kill or be killed on a daily basis, as creatures struggle to survive. Animal Planet’s Rann Bhoomi chronicles the different yet lethal techniques used in this dance of death, from animals that work in well-organized gangs to craft loners that capture prey using camouflage and the element of surprise.
The series heads to Alaska’s frozen rivers where a titanic struggle between migrating salmon and opportunistic grizzly bears takes place yearly, while in the Amazon River the piranha hunts its prey. Meanwhile, in Arctic seas, determined polar bears hunt the ringed seal, penguins fall prey to leopard seals, and starving arctic foxes pick off vulnerable seabirds. In every habitat there are predators and their prey, inevitably leading to a series of unrelenting animal battlegrounds or the Rann Bhoomi.
Viewers will watch how ice and snow influence the outcome of the battles fought in the frozen seas of the Arctic and the Antarctic; animal duels in grasslands include cheetahs vs. gazelles in East Africa’s savanna; anteaters vs. termites in South America’s pampas; wolves vs. bison in the Canadian prairies; foxes vs. rabbits in Wiltshire, England. An examination of wetland environments includes Africa, where flamingos play into the hands of hungry baboons, archerfish shoot down prey from trees above them; alligators manipulate their environment to trap fish; black egrets create shadows to catch fish. Some other environments or battlefields include deserts, air, rivers, wetlands and plains of Serengeti.
The episode line-up includes Pride in the Battle that follows the Xakanaxa pride of lions as they struggle for survival against combative prey and unforgiving surroundings through one of the Okavango’s harshest summers. Gangland Killerstrails a mongoose gang in the Okavango Delta in Botswana that works as a team to protect their new litter of pups from the very real danger of determined predators. Cheetah – Price of Speed chases a young family of cheetahs on the harsh, exposed plains of the southern Serengeti.
