A Giant Screen Adventure Through Wild Africa in Search Of

� �� nWave Pictures takes viewers on a real-life safari for a close-up look at Africa’s wildest animals. The ultimate real-life adventure takes place on the giant screen with Wild Safari 3D: A South African Adventure, Africa’s most exciting animals, the elephant, the Cape buffalo, the rhino, the leopard and the lion, known as the “Big Five,” have long been considered the continent’s most dangerous animals. Smashing the boundaries for the giant screen, nWave Pictures creates a new cinematic experience for viewers in putting them in the passenger seat for a South African safari using state-of-the-art live action 3D cinematography. From the abundant grasslands of Addo/Shamwari to the savannahs of the Kalahari, viewers of Wild Safari 3D make a three thousand mile journey on a quest for the Big Five. Tour guide Liesl Eichenberger, a young South African zoologist and field guide, conducts the game drive for viewers from an open vehicle and presents essential information about the different wild animals and their habitats. Wild Safari 3D gives viewers a new appreciation for the beauty and grace of creatures who have only recently been brought back from the brink of extinction. The vitality and importance of the environments and wildlife in South Africa are dramatically shown in three-dimensions on the giant screen. Cinematic immersion in the natural habitats of these wild animals demonstrates the importance of the many conservation efforts being made today. The first large format film to capture wildlife with stereoscopic photography, Wild Safari 3D places the viewer in an open-air vehicle for travels through diverse South African game reserves and face-to-face encounters with charging elephants, elusive leopards and hungry lions. Never before has wildlife been seen with such realism on the giant screen. The viewer is the passenger as field guide Liesl Eichenberger conducts the game drive. In addition to amazing 3D cinematography Wild Safari 3D features advanced satellite imaging techniques for a bird’s eye view of South Africa from space. Thousands of miles are traveled in the space of a few seconds. # # # �� With ranger Liesl Eichenberger as a guide, Wild Safari 3D takes the viewer along for a three thousand mile ride in an open air vehicle on a game drive through nature reserves of Africa on a quest to see the Big Five, the most dangerous and spectacular animals on the continent. The elephant, the Cape buffalo, the rhino, the leopard and the lion are seen close-up in three dimensions on the game reserves of Addo/Shamwari, Hluhluwe- Umfolozi, Madikwe, Kgalagadi and Kruger National Park. Produced and distributed by nWave Pictures, in partnership with South African Tourism, Wild Safari 3D is a landmark conservation film and the first wildlife documentary to be filmed in three dimensions. # # # �� The African elephant is the largest living land animal. It weighs up to 7 tons and inhabits the savannah, brush, forest, river valleys, and semi-desert regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. As vegetarians, elephants require a lot of food, sometimes consuming more than 500 pounds of plant matter in one day. Their trunk is employed to pull branches off trees, uproot grass, pluck fruit, and to place food in their mouths. The trunk is also used for smell, touch and in drinking, greeting or throwing dirt for dust baths. Two incisor teeth in the upper jaw of both male and female elephants grow to form large tusks of ivory that has been used to produce billiard balls, piano keys and other objects. In the past, hunters destroyed thousands of elephants to acquire this ivory. Today, that is no longer happening. The situation has greatly improved with recent conservation actions by the South African Government such as the signing into law of the Biodiversity Act of September, 2004, protecting the elephant, and establishment in December 2004 of the National Biodiversity Institute. �� The most elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is also the most secretive and cunning. Pound for pound, it is the strongest climber of the large cats and capable of killing prey larger than itself. Leopards come in a wide variety of coat colors, from a light buff or tawny in warmer, dryer areas to a dark shade in deep forests. The spots, or rosettes, are circular in East African leopards but square in southern African leopards. Dense bush in rocky surroundings and riverine forest are their favorite habitats, but leopards adapt to many places in both warm and cold climates. Their adaptability, in fact, has helped them survive the loss of habitat to increasing human settlement. Leopards are primarily nocturnal, usually resting during the daytime in trees or thick bush. The spotted coat provides almost perfect camouflage. �� Lions are the only cats that live in a large family group called a pride. Each pride is different but a typical pride consists of two males and seven females and any number of cubs. When the pride hunts as a group they employ an ambush that forces large prey into the waiting paws of the males. Lions feed on a variety of large and medium-size prey but they prefer wildebeest (or gnu) to all others when the annual migration brings vast herds through the pride's environment. Otherwise lions eat buffalo, zebra, antelope, giraffe, and warthogs. Typically a mature male lion weighs about 45 pounds and stands 4 feet at the shoulder and is 8 and 1/2 feet long, including the tail. Females are smaller, weighing less than 300 pounds. Adult lions usually have a plain unspotted coat, light brown in color. Cubs are marked with spots that sometimes remain on the legs and belly until maturity. As a result of widespread persecution, lions in the wild at one time were one of the most threatened major groups of land animals. Conservation efforts in recent years have enabled the African lion to proliferate and it has begun to thrive in the wild once again. �� Of the five living species of rhinoceros that survive, two of them, the white rhino and the black rhino, live in South Africa. The white rhino is the largest of all and when full grown may stand six feet tall at the shoulder and weigh from 2 to 4 tons. With large heads, short necks, a broad chest and very thick legs, all rhinos are vegetarians. Rhinos are the only animals on earth that have horns on their noses. The word “rhinoceros” comes from ancient Greek and means literally “nose” (rhino) and “horn” (ceros). Horns are located on the top of the heads of all other animals that have them. To get the horns, hunters in Africa at one time killed rhinos in large numbers. The rhino is now a protected species and their numbers are growing once again thanks to efforts by the national game reserves and the government of South Africa. �� The African buffalo lives in open grasslands, wooded savannah and thickets. It is an extremely adaptable and highly gregarious animal. Buffalo can associate in herds of up to 1000 or more. Despite the fact that they are very aggressive and extremely dangerous to humans, Buffalo are very peaceful amongst themselves. The dominant bull among a herd of buffalo is normally the oldest bull in the herd. Both sexes have horns, but those of males are more robust and heavier. Males can attain a mass of almost a ton and they have a life-span of approximately 20 years. Buffalo are vegetarians and exclusively graze on grasses, bushes and leaves. Female buffalo become sexually mature at the age of 5 years. A single calf is born after a gestation period of 11 months. # # # �� Home to the largest population of elephants in the world, Addo Elephant National Park was established in 1931 to protect the last 11 wild elephants from extermination. Today, more than 350 elephants, as well as rhinos, buffalos, leopards, antelopes and jackals roam through an environment with over 150 different bird species and 600 different plant types Shamwari, officially opened in October 1992, covers more than 77 square miles of land. 14 separate farms have been rehabilitated and reseeded with indigenous grasses. More than 5,000 game have been bred and reintroduced in the park. During October 2000, for the first time since 1870, a lion was released on free range. Cheetah and Hyenas have also been resettled in the Shamwari. �� With a tremendous diversity of flora and fauna, this park is famed for its conservation of black and white rhino. Home to 1600 white and 370 black rhinos, Hluhluwe Umfolozi also contains 300 species of birds, 24,000 impala, wildebeests, zebra, giraffes, warthogs, hyenas and jackals along with the remaining Big Five, buffalos, elephants, lions and leopards. �� One of the oldest game reserves in Africa, formed in 1898, and over 7,700 square miles in size, Kruger is the flagship of the South African national parks. Home to 336 species of trees, 49 species of fish, 34 amphibian species, 114 reptile species, 507 species of birds and 147 different mammals, this park has diverse environments ranging from open dry savannas to river-filled forests. Over 500 Cape buffalo roam the park along with leopards and lions. Kruger National park encompasses more than 300 Stone Age archaeological sites as well as camps of bushmen who lived here 1500 years ago. �� Created in 1991, Madikwe sits on the South Africa-Botswana border and its 47 square miles of land was stocked with 10,000 head of game from 27 different species. In addition to the Big Five, wild dogs are a specialty of the park.

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