• The Spanish king of the savannah: "The lions consider me one of their pride, I am part of the family"

The Spanish program

Wild Africa in Pandemic Times

has just received the World Gold Medal for the best nature and wildlife documentary of 2021 at the New York Festivals, the prestigious competition with more than 60 years of existence that recognizes international excellence in production film and television. The film, which shows the unusual

behavior of lions and other great predators in the face of the disappearance of the human being during the 2020 confinement

in the Masai Mara reserve (Kenya), shares an award with the winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2021, the South African

What I learned from the octopus

.

The documentary, created by Madrid naturalist Jorge Alesanco and director Regis Francisco López, is

the first of Spanish nationality

to win in the Nature and Wildlife category of the New York festival. Premiered on TVE's La 2 last March with the title

Wild Covid, wild pandemic, it

reflects for the first time the behavior of animals without the presence of humans due to global movement restrictions.

After the borders were closed, the film crew remained trapped in the African savannah for months and was able to record the strange behavior of the fauna that inhabits the nature reserve in the face of the sudden disappearance of man. On the banks of the Mara River, Jorge Alesanco's camp became the recording group's refuge. From there, they were able to get scenes as unusual as that of

a lion resting at the Masai Mara airfield

, in the passenger waiting area, or the stark struggles to get the same prey of crocodiles against lions, hyenas against cheetahs or lions against leopards and cheetahs.

These are atypical images caused by the shortage of prey that existed at that time, due to the migration of many animals to other areas of the country caused by the repeated torrential rains of 2020 in East Africa, which caused the alteration of the natural habitat of some species due to flooding.

Jorge Alesanco, with a pride of lionesses.

The documentary, which exceeded all audience forecasts,

is the first episode of the series

El rey de la sabana

,

a Spanish superproduction of nine chapters, produced by Story Producciones in collaboration with TVE, shot in Masai Mara. The entire series shows Jorge Alesanco's fascinating relationship with a pride of wild lions that lives next to his cabin on the banks of the Mara River. The naturalist and ethologist, whose reference is to the legendary Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, has spent several years chasing and accompanying lions in their nocturnal raids and adventures (at night is when they really develop their activity and interact), to the point of become "one of the pack", according to Alesanco himself. "This award is a tribute to Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente,the person who inspired me in this adventure even before arriving in Africa and who taught me the value of the protection and conservation of nature ", thanked the naturist upon receiving the award.

Wild Africa in Pandemic Times

will be broadcast at the end of November on RTVE, followed by the rest of the episodes of

El rey de la sabana

, which will delve into Alesanco's studio.


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