Episode Information

Most of us think of African wildlife reserves as vast expanses of virgin land where wild animals live natural lives, safe from human interference. Just as the gods intended. That’s how wildlife reserves want to be seen and how tourists want to see them. That’s not the way they are. These three 1-hour documentaries take viewers where tourists can never go: behind the scenes at two of the world’s great wildlife reserves, South Africa’s Pilanesberg National Park and Tswalu Kalahari Reserve. In both reserves — because of human need, greed and ignorance — wild animals can no longer live truly wild. Instead, they have to be managed, just like cattle on a ranch. In effect, they’re huge zoos. Our guide is field biologist Gus van Dyk who moves from Pilanesberg to manage Tswalu. Van Dyk is handsome, charismatic and caring, more like a rugged movie star than a scientist. His wildlife expertise combines modern science with traditional African knowledge as he builds twenty-first century Noah’s Arks in South Africa’s high-veld and Kalahari Desert. Inside Noah’s Ark is powerful reality storytelling, focusing on a man who must radically intervene in nature to save what little is left of nature. Executive Producer is Emmy Award winner Tim Knight.