WHAT TO WATCH WATERHOLE: AFRICA’S ANIMAL OASIS

BBC Two, 9pm

In this terrific natural history series, presenter Chris Packham and biologist Ella Al-Shamahi construct a brand new, camera-thronged waterhole from scratch in one of East Africa’s bustling game reserves. They hope to study the complex dynamics of waterhole society over six months. It takes an enormous logistical effort to get things up and running in an acceptably low-impact, creaturefriendly way at the Mwiba Wildlife Reserve in Tanzania, but once it is done the results are pretty much instant – and frequently revelatory.

From the very first visitors (a family of mud-seeking orphaned warthogs) it takes just 24 hours for almost two dozen species – from elephants and impala to zebra and a magnificent leopard – to begin to make use of this vital new resource in the difficult dry season. And as the days go by it is fascinating to observe how a whole new hierarchy of water use develops – until everything changes 12 days (and around 40 more species) in, with the arrival of the first lions. Packham, unsurprisingly, is in his element but newcomer Al-Shamahi provides a calm, datamonitoring counterbalance, even to his unlikely enthusiasm for the local parasitic wasps. Gerard O’Donovan the promised exhibition of work produced during the series, at Manchester Art Gallery.

A giraffe drinks at the BBC’s purpose-built waterhole