Take a virtual journey through the heart of Africa with our curated list of the 8 best African wildlife documentaries. These films offer a mesmerising glimpse into the untamed beauty of Africa’s fauna and highlight the critical importance of preserving these majestic creatures and their habitats. Perfect for nature enthusiasts and conservationists alike, these documentaries are a must-watch for anyone passionate about African wildlife.

BBC Africa

Directed by the legendary David Attenborough, this six-part series showcases Africa’s diverse wildlife across various regions like the Kalahari, East African savannah, Sahara, and Congo. Key highlights include the unique adaptations of animals and birds in these habitats.

The Last Lions

This poignant film by Dereck and Beverly Joubert focuses on a lioness named Ma di Tau in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. It underscores the alarming decline of lions in the wild and emphasizes the urgent need for conservation efforts.

Our Pick of the Top Okavango Delta Tours in Botswana

Meerkat Manor

A four-series show on Animal Planet, Meerkat Manor blends traditional wildlife documentary with dramatic narration to produce compelling viewing of a dozen families of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. The meerkats become endearing characters in the series as viewers followed their everyday antics and life events as if they were actors in a soap opera.

Big Cat Diary Series

A long-running nature documentary produced by the BBC, the Big Cat Diary is a series that follows the lives of big African cats in Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve. Each series was about the day-to-day lives of a lion pride, a cheetah family and a leopard family as they make kills, raise their cubs and fight off rivals. The series is called the original wildlife soap opera for its new kind of wildly popular wildlife documentary format.

Our Pick of the Top Masai Mara Tours in Kenya

The Great Serengeti

This National Geographic documentary is set on the huge plains of the Serengeti in East Africa and tells the stories of the wildebeest, gazelles and zebras who make a massive annual circular migration through the Serengeti National Park and neighbouring Masai Mara Reserve in order to survive the dry months.

Our Pick of the Top Serengeti Tours in Tanzania

Virunga

Nominated for an Oscar, Virunga is part investigative journalism and part documentary. The 2014 film focuses on the conservation work of rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park, where some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas live. In the film we see four people fighting to protect these gorillas from poaching, civil war and the imminent threat of oil exploration by a British company. The cinematography is beautiful, the gorillas are amazing to watch and the story utterly compelling, though heart wrenching at times.

Eternal enemies: lions and hyenas

This National Geographic documentary filmed in Botswana is about the daily aggressive conflict between lions and hyenas, capturing the reality of how brutal and violent life in the wild really is. This is not a film for the faint hearted!

A Spy in the Den

Another great documentary narrated by David Attenborough, A Spy in the Den was filmed almost entirely by a remote controlled camera disguised to look like a rock to capture the progress of a group of lion cubs as they grow into young adults. There are some gripping scenes of the lions’ lives in the wild, such as when they try to attack an aggressive hippo, and when they encounter a dangerous cobra snake.

These African wildlife documentaries offer more than just entertainment; they are a powerful tool for education and awareness. They bring to light the vital importance of wildlife conservation and the ongoing efforts to preserve Africa’s rich and diverse ecosystems. By watching these films, viewers can gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the urgent need to protect it for future generations.