NEWS
A SA company is live-streaming
Africa’s spectacular ‘Great
Migration’ to viewers
around the world
Andrew Thompson
Current Address: https://bit.ly/357KdIM
E ven though inter-provincial travel is
now allowed in South Africa, it’s still
not possible to venture beyond the
country’s borders for a casual holiday.
And although some countries are starting
to open up and travel once again,
the appetite for long-haul international
destinations may take some time to recover.
The result is a sustained interest in online
and virtual travel - and South African
company WildEarth, which has
been broadcasting live safaris for several
years, has seen its viewer numbers
skyrocket as a result.
During the lockdown, WildEarth focused
on broadcasting its twice-daily
safaris from reserves adjacent to the
Kruger National Park, but quickly expanded
to include both Phinda Private
Game Reserve and Tswalu, in the Kalahari,
as soon as conditions allowed. And
starting this month, they will be broadcasting
live from the Maasai Mara to
an expected bumper local and international
audience - on various streaming
platforms and via a dedicated 24-hour
channel on DSTV.
“The Great Migration is probably the
world's most iconic natural event and
WildEarth are privileged to be able to
share it with the world once again,” says
Graham Wallington, CEO of WildEarth.
“WildEarth has a camp in the Mara Triangle
and will be broadcasting every
day from the Mara even after the migration
leaves in a month or two. It truly is
a spectacular place with magnificent
wildlife.”
Maasai Mara - with much of the action
taking place at river crossings.
"Crossing the great Mara river is a very
dangerous enterprise for these herds
as the river is full of massive and hungry
crocodiles who have been waiting a
whole year for this feast,” says Wallington.
It’s at these rivers that tourists often
pay vast sums of money to sit and wait
amongst dozens of fellow travellers, in
anticipation of watching the often-harrowing
crossings. But with international
travel still not available to many around
the world, these numbers are expected
to be lower than in previous years - and
many more will settle for the livestream
courtesy of WildEarth.
WildEarth currently has two safari vehicles
going out into the Mara every day,
led by guides Isaac Rotich and David
Githu, and in a few weeks, they aim to
increase this to three. And already the
channel has broadcast a scene that
shows just how dramatic the event can
be.
Navigating Covid-19 lockdowns
One of the key appeals of these livestreamed
safaris during the global pandemic
has been the way in which they
portray a sense of familiar normality of
the outside world, during a time when
the lives of most viewers are anything
but.
With a constantly changing parade of
personable and knowledgeable guides
lamenting about such simple pleasures
as hatching grebes and suckling hyena
cubs, it required a minimal suspension
of disbelief to imagine the world as it is
was before lockdown.
As broadcast media, WildEarth was
deemed an essential service - they were
able to continue broadcasting during
the strictest days of the lockdown and
continue portraying this voyeuristic
sense of normality.
During the great migration almost 2 million
wildebeest, Thompson's gazelles
and zebra migrate from Tanzania's
Serengeti National Park into Kenya's
Figure 1: Africa’s spectacular ‘Great Migration’
Grassroots Vol 20 No 3 September 2020
28