[light music] [animal calling] [antlers crashing] - It seems that some animals are just headed for trouble right from the start.

From the moment they're born, someone or some thing is out to get them.

This is the predicament facing every baby Thomson's gazelle on the wide open plains of East Africa.

Yet despite the odds against them, tommies are among the most numerous of all animals on the Serengeti.

The secret of their success lies in their legs.

When danger closes in, high spirited tommies rely on those legs to save them.

Our story follows The adventures of a young tommie growing up on the run.

[bright music] [dramatic music] [soft music] It's sunrise on the Serengeti plains of East Africa, and a herd of Thomson's gazelles is already wide awake.

With sweeping horns and watchful eyes, a male proudly guards his small territory.

He's a delicate creature, but his slender legs are swift and strong.

A mere 50 pounds of dainty grace, a tommie is a tough survivor.

Born into a hostile world, he faces each new danger with high spirits and life-saving speed.

[sweeping music] Only 10 minutes old, a newborn male gazelle struggles to his feet.

It's not a very promising start for a creature so dependent on his legs.

It's February when the rains have brought fresh growth to the short grass plains.

Everywhere, mothers are in labor or nursing their new fawns.

Almost half a million Thomson's gazelles live on the Serengeti.

Within a month, there will be 50,000 new recruits.

Prompted by his mother, the newborn fawn takes his first faltering steps.

He is a born runner, but it will be several weeks before he can keep up with the herd.

Tommies follow the great herds of wildebeests.

With their broad muzzles, wildebeests crop the top layer of long, coarse grasses.

This exposes the protein rich herbs and shoots close to the ground, the favorite food of the gazelles.

The grasses are rich in calcium and phosphorous, key ingredients for nursing mothers.

They pass the good nutrition onto the hungry fawns.

But the best of times for the tommies is also a boon to their greatest enemy.

[tense music] A cheetah family eyes the herd.

They are more than a match for the tommie's speed.

If they can get close enough.

The gazelles keep at least 200 yards away from the cheetahs.

Once the tommie spot them, the cheetahs can't get within range to launch an attack.

During the wet season, golden jackals have also given birth.

[babies yipping] This mother has many mouths to feed, and scavenging alone won't provide enough for the pups.

She will have to hunt.

An adult tommie is too big a prey, but a fawn exposed and vulnerable is well within her means.

Nearby a group of males calls out a warning.

Lions are approaching.

Luckily, these lions have full stomachs.

They are lethargic and not interested in a chase.

The mother lets down her guard and moves off to graze, leaving her fawn unattended.

In no time at all, he is lost.

He seeks out the first female he sees, but she's a stranger.

His mother soon comes to claim him.

Birthing females stay together in small groups apart from the main herd.

The peaceful quiet is disturbed by the strange rising call of a hyena.

[hyena calling] The little male senses his mother's anxiety.

He's still too small to outrun a predator.

His best strategy is to hide.

The jackal pups are complaining.

They are hungry.

Their mother must find food.

Jackals forage for almost anything from fruits to birds and small mammals.

A tommie fawn is the largest prey they can hunt.

[tense music] The parents set off as a team to survey their territory.

By lying low, the day old fawn tries to escape detection, but nearby another is out of hiding.

[jackals growling] One jackal distracts the mother while the other concentrates on the fawn.

[suspenseful music] Exhausted and outnumbered, there is little she can do.

[jackals barking] Throughout the ordeal, our infant male keeps his cover.

He is odorless and well camouflaged, but mustn't move an inch.

His life depends on it.

By chance, the recently fed jackal wanders too close.

[jackal yipping] [jackal barking] [gazelle crying] As he cries for help, his mother races to the rescue.

The commotion attracts a greater danger.

The gazelles follow the cheetah at a safe distance, never dropping their guard.

With no chance of a surprise attack, the cheetah moves on.

Only to teach the jackal a lesson.

[tense music] The cheetah is just asserting its rights over the competition.

[dramatic music] Reunited with his mother, the male fawn has made it through his first day.

Shaken but unharmed, the weary jackal returns home and the tommies sense she is no longer hunting.

Her pups have been been waiting all this time for a meal.

[pups crying] Three weeks old now, the little male is growing stronger.

He spends less time hiding and more time exploring his world.

Nearby, adult males are establishing their social rank.

But when rivals are well matched, they clash.

[antlers crashing] They butt head on in a display of strength.

The fight is a ritual.

They don't intend to hurt each other.

Boundaries are marked by scent.

The males apply pungent secretions from glands on their heads to small shrubs.

These personal perfumes signify ownership and warn other males to keep out.

During the breeding season, marking intensifies.

But the territory is supposed to stay where he marks it.

A large gland beneath the eye oozes scent, which is wiped onto tall grass.

Territories are established first on the best grazing grounds where females are likely to feed.

Here, the males try their powers of seduction.

The fawn's mother has come into breeding condition again.

The resident male expresses his interest.

She's not ready for his advances and trots right out of his territory.

The cheetah family is rising from a nap.

Just the wrong time for a new fawn to wander off on its own.

This opportunity offers both a meal and a valuable training session for the cheetah cubs.

[fawn crying] Even at 14 months old, the cubs are far from expert hunters.

They need practice.

Tommies make up 90% of the cheetah's diet.

If they don't learn how to catch them, the cubs won't survive on their own.

30,000 fawns, more than half of all that are born, fall victim to the Serengeti's predators each year.

Only the strongest, the fastest, and the luckiest will make it.

For cheetahs, living is easy in the wet season, but hunting will get harder as the fawns grow up.

With their mother's guidance, the cheetah cubs will develop their speed and grace to perfection.

[soft music] The young male is now two months old.

He's still nursed by his mother, but now it's time to try tasting what the adults eat.

So far, he's not impressed.

Other creatures go digging for a meal.

With their powerful claws, honey badgers are fearless fighters with a reputation for unprovoked aggression.

Honey badgers are so ferocious that even lions avoid them.

Despite the hopelessness of her effort, this victim's mother still makes a courageous stand.

The growing fawn now relies less on his mother and more on his own acute senses and curiosity.

Great descending wings signal another loss to the herd and another brave, desperate mother.

[birds squawking] On his travels, the little male disturbs a troupe of banded mongooses.

They're out looking for insects.

He must quickly learn if they are friend or foe.

The mongooses are harmless.

In fact, their alarm calls give the fawn advanced warning of something unusual.

An unfamiliar creature is causing a stir in the herd.

It's a caracal, a small cat rarely seen on the plains.

More out of curiosity than fear, they gather to inspect it.

But there's another predator they have every reason to dread.

[gazelle calling] [hyena growling] Hyenas often amble pass the herd feigning no interest.

Yet somehow the tommies know when a hyena is really on the prowl.

They're marathon hunters, selecting a victim as they run.

The Thomson's gazelles react by stotting.

It's an alarm signal to the rest of the herd and a way of telling the hunter that this tommie is too fast to catch.

This adult is strong and swift, and the hyena stumbles on an easier prey.

[suspenseful music] Another fawn has been claimed.

It seems to be a season of slaughter without mercy.

But many thousands of fawns will survive the ordeal of their first few months.

[soft music] Separated from his mother by the chase, the young male approaches another female.

He is rejected immediately.

Tommies never accept a fawn that is not their own.

At last, he finds safety at his mother's side.

By May, the rains are more sporadic.

The grasslands begin to dry and the tommies grow restless.

Beckoned by instinct, the wildebeest join ranks and began a long march to the north in search of fresh pasture.

[wildebeests grunting] Four months old, the young gazelle has never left his birthplace.

And now animals are on the move all around him, departing from the plains.

Within a matter of days, all the wildebeest, one and a half million of them, embark on their migration.

They're joined by large herds of eland, another sign that the dry season is underway.

[somber music] The Thomson's gazelles remained behind on the empty plains, plucking the last nourishment from the short grass.

Soon the tommies must head north as well.

More trials lie ahead for the little male, but for now, he's full of youthful exuberance.

All he needs is a playmate.

[happy muic] By the following morning, the short grass plains are abandoned.

Males, females, and young push northwest in large herds.

As they leave the plains and enter the bush country, they are watched by a different family of familiar enemies.

Female cheetahs and their young follow the migrating gazelles.

The tommies pause only briefly.

The promise of fresher food drives them on.

For the young male, it's a whole new world.

The cheetahs stay close, advancing into the high grass behind the herd.

The tommies keep moving, but the males still establish temporary territories.

During migrations, the sexes mingle freely, and occasionally they mate.

But the business of courtship takes the male's attention from an even more pressing concern.

A cheetah with cubs may take more than 50 adult gazelles a year.

[dramatic music] Surprisingly, males are main targets.

A youngster is quick to recognize the danger, but the adult is reluctant to leave the patch he has staked out.

[cheetah growling] The cheetah lets lose a burst of 70 mile per hour speed.

The tommie can only achieve 50 miles an hour, but it's much quicker on the turns.

[suspenseful music] [ominous music] Because males are continually distracted by females, they are much more likely to be killed.

Nearing the end of a hundred mile trek, the adolescent follows his mother into the woodlands.

Here, many plants are resistant to drought, and the tommies find new things to eat.

Grasses make up 90% of their diet.

But in dry years, the gazelles also depend on the leaves and fruits of young acacia trees.

Their slender muzzles allow them to pluck between the spines.

The bush country provides good dry season forage, but all good things have their price.

The leopard hunts by ambush, relying on surprise and a lightning burst of speed.

It needs to stalk within 20 yards of its prey to have a chance of success.

The tommies sense danger, but they don't know what it is or where it will come from.

The young male keeps close to his mother.

Fortunately for them, the leopard fixes his sights on another.

[leopard growling] Cautious of lions and hyenas that could steal its catch, the leopard must conceal its kill.

Unlike the other big cats, leopards are expert climbers.

They often store small prey high in the branches of a tree.

For the young male and the rest of the herd, it's time to move on.

As temperatures creep higher, the tommies begin to suffer.

With shortages of food and water, the dry season is a risky time, especially for a pregnant female.

[flies buzzing] Attracted by her odor, this male is under the mistaken impression that she's ready to mate.

He tries to get her to stand, but she's in no mood for romance.

At this time of year, she and the others are weak and stressed by the heat.

They are too weary to feed properly, and their coats are riddled with ticks, fleas, and flies.

Now five months old, the young male boasts the first signs of horns.

The peak of the dry season is a desperate time to be born.

Confused and undernourished, the newborn fawn mistakes a male for its mother.

And there's nowhere to hide.

[wildebeests grunting] At last, the fawn finds its mother.

But its search for her has attracted attention.

Instead of keeping still, the fawn carelessly wanders off again.

It's an opportunity too easy for a lioness to let pass.

In this heat, a larger meal would take too much energy to catch.

[lion growling] [thunder booming] [somber music] The drought lingers on.

The young male is trapped in a burning world.

Driven by thirst, the herd seeks relief.

Normally, tommies get all the moisture they need from their food.

Now with the grass bone dry, they're forced to find water in the few drinking holes that remain.

[water splashing] Instinctively, they know that waterholes are good hunting spots for predators, yet they must drop their guard to drink.

But hippos have no interest in gazelles.

Others from the migrant herds travel to larger rivers, which guarantee a year round supply of water.

But all their caution is not enough to prepare them for what is waiting in the water.

[dramatic music] [water splashing] [gazelles screaming] Crocodiles up to 20 feet long have waited months for the herd to come to them.

It's November.

Salvation comes from the sky as the first of the heavy rains approaches the parched grasslands.

[rain pouring] Now nine months old, the young male together with his herd has made it through the most difficult time of year.

The rains have come from the south and the herd turns towards them, heading back to the plains of the Serengeti.

The young male is no longer dependent on his mother and follows the herd on his own.

[happy music] The freshly washed air rekindles the tommie's high spirits.

The youngsters born last season on the plains are finally reaching their full strength and speed.

[happy music] Great lines of tommies spill from the woodlands.

The young males travel together, forming small bachelor groups.

Within three days of the first heavy deluge on the plains, the gazelles are back.

But they have not left behind the constant danger that stalks the herd.

The five cheetahs have tracked them from way back in the bush country.

Experience has taught the tommies to keep several hundred yards between them and the fastest cats in the world.

They must stay on their toes, always ready to run.

But the cheetahs relax, so the tommies can too.

The male is back in his birthplace, now sporting two strong horns.

He crops the fresh pasture, building his strength and condition.

Pregnant females will soon give birth and there will be thousands of new fawns on the plains.

This time around, the male is bigger and faster than the jackals.

The yearling pups are little danger to him.

[pups yipping] At a year old, the male scent glands are developing.

He starts to show the first signs of adult behavior.

He's not ready to defend a territory yet, but he practices for the future.

[horns crashing] The females are more interested in investigating a pair of Egyptian geese.

[geese honking] Other travelers are returning to the plains.

A tawny eagle on the ground is a novelty.

Once again, all across the Serengeti, there's new life.

The fawn is a curiosity to the young male, now the veteran of an eventful year.

He turns his attention to the future.

It will be another year before he's old enough to mate, but he strives to make a good impression anyway.

To be truly successful, he will need to survive another season, command his own territory, and polish his performance.

Relatively few male tommies survive to reach breeding status, and once there, it's an exhausting full-time task to defend a territory and win mates.

But in his prime, a breeding male may father up to a dozen fawns in a single year.

Chances are that his offspring will inherit the same successful instincts for survival.

Now, at the beginning of adulthood, the yearling male joins a group of bachelors confined to the poorer grazing grounds on the fringes of the main herd.

Here among males of all ages, he will develop and refine the skills necessary to rank at the top.

[horns crashing] Sparring bouts alternate with socializing as the male forms the first bonds since leaving his mother.

[soft music] Despite all the hardships he has faced so far, our young Thomson's gazelle has been carried successfully through his first year by his life saving legs.

One of the great survivors of the Serengeti, he was born to run.

[bright music] [light music] [soft music]