“Africa” premieres Jan. 8 on Discovery Channel

Rival male giraffes fight in the Hoanib, a river of sand in Namibia. Combat is usually avoided by giraffes but, just occasionally, when the stakes are high enough, males will violently swing their heads to deliver "sledgehammer" blows. The Africa team followed one male for over a month to capture behaviour unlike anything seen before. Photo Credit: Discovery Channel/BBC

The seven-part series “Africa,” a Discovery Channel/BBC co-production that was four years in the making, makes its debut at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8 on Discovery Channel.

Forest Whitaker narrates the project, which spotlights new species, new places and new animal behaviors, including this violent giraffe fight that took a month to locate and film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50em1rV12X4

More information on “Africa,” provided by Disovery Channel, is as follows:

Here is just a sampling of what crews went through to make “Africa”:

-  1,598 days on location

-  79 filming expeditions

-  553 cameras capturing more than 2,000 hours of HD footage

In that time, crews had some dangerous encounters:

-  A cameraman was trapped in a tree for four hours with an elephant trying to shake him out of it.  Recent surges in poaching have made some elephants wary of humans.