Out of Africa?

The new, 6-part 'David Attenborough' series on 'Africa' was unleashed last night (http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/gallery/2013/jan/02/africa-david-attenborough-bbc1-series-pictures) with a first episode on the Kalahari desert. Attenborough takes credit for the (scripted?) voice-over but the footage is provided by natural history photography professionals. It is visually stunning but some of the sequences (e.g. gentle, 'sociable'  rhinoceros by star-light; Meerkats being 'conned' by Drongos; territorial male giraffes etc) may be somewhat atypical of the 'normal' species behaviour. The economics of desert lives may predispose species to act in ways slightly different from that seen in other parts of their range. Animal behaviour seems to me to be more flexible than it is usually given credit for! Like some of the critics, I also could have done without the mood music (but I could always have switched the sound off).