Mzima: Portrait of a Spring

Duration: 30 min.

Year Published: 1983

Creator: BENCH

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Shows how, in the midst of the arid Tsavo National Park in Kenya, underwater springs support and nourish a wide variety of animal life. Examines the short ribbon of water teeming with life in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a place called Mzima., Examines a detailed description of Kenya's Mzima Springs, a unique ecosystem, and the life forms that depend on it. Stresses the interdependence of the hippos, fish, diving birds, otters, crocodiles, and other animals upon each other and the spring.

Complete Record: , Mzima Springs in the arid land of Kenya's Tsavo National Park is home to abundant animal and marine life which depend on each other in a complex ecosystem. Seventy hippos provide the ecological basis for all, each consuming two hundred pounds of vegetation daily, and enriching the springs with their bulk of undigested matter. The plentiful fish are food for such diving birds as the cormorant and the darter, which can outswim them underwater. Mischievous otter pursue fish underwater. The predator's discarded bits of fish are consumed by scavengers like the terrapins and eels. At the top of the biological pyramid are the crocodiles that will eat anything. Above water, snakes search out birds or frogs. Zebras, baboons and warthogs drink warily. Only the elephant drinks without fear. , Examines a detailed description of Kenya's Mzima Springs, a unique ecosystem, and the life forms that depend on it. Stresses the interdependence of the hippos, fish, diving birds, otters, crocodiles, and other animals upon each other and the spring., NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.