Episode Information

The southern tip of Africa is a hotspot of biodiversity with unique flora and fauna. It is the most important breeding area for the black harrier, a rare and beautiful endemic raptor that hunts in this windy landscape in search of small rodents and birds. Like the majority of harriers, the black harrier nests on the ground and only breeds in pristine vegetation, which is becoming an increasingly rare commodity in this region as the human population continues to expand. Today, there are no more than 2,000 individual black harriers left in the world and every year they arrive at the tip of Africa to breed in the pristine vegetation found inside the West Coast national park and adjacent coastal private nature reserves. Rob Simmons has been working with Black Harriers for the last eleven years and, in this film, we follow Rob while he studies them during their breeding season.