While most safari-goers know the Great Migration for the dramatic Mara River crossings of July–October, the calving season is arguably the more extraordinary event. Up to 8,000 wildebeest calves are born daily in the short grass plains of the southern Serengeti — a biblical scale of birth and predation happening simultaneously.

Calves can stand within minutes of birth. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs concentrate in huge numbers in the same area. The resulting predator-prey interactions are unlike anything else in the natural world.