Overview: In a ground-breaking natural history series, Dr. M. Sanjayan works with a wildlife reserve and local communities to build a unique African waterhole rigged with cameras.

DVD Verdict: BBC Earths Life At the Waterhole is a new nature documentary about a man-made waterhole just south of the Serengeti in Tanzania.

As Episode 1 Dry Season 2019 opens, host M. Sanjayan introduces us to the overall big picture as fresh water is the number one needed resource in the area, and locals dig wells for survival while surrounding them with fences so as to keep wild life away.

Sanjayan and his team of researchers decide to dig two big waterholes, with plenty of remote cameras around, to see what life at a waterhole is really like.

Within 45 minutes of completing the waterholes, a family of 4 warthogs shows up, and that is just the beginning. At this point we are less than 15 minutes into the opening episode.really be to film wildlife coming to a waterhole?

But as it turns out, PLENTY interesting is the answer! And hence this documentary surprised me in the best possible way. Sanjayan is a gracious host, once again, and he provides the overall narrative as species by species stops by the waterholes.

In fact, dozens and dozens of species (all of them carefully recorded in a species log), from big cats to birds to monkeys and everything in between.

Equally fascinating is how wildlife is organized for survival. Giraffes, impalas and zebras meet together for strength in numbers and, of course, diversity.

Something we learn is that the Warthogs come out at 1.00pm (when it is 90F or even warmer!) as predators are unlikely then. And so forth. So if you love a good nature documentary, I would readily suggest you check this out, just released on PBS home entertainment. [PA] This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.