Last Feast of the Crocodiles.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Columbia TriStar Home Video / 60 minutes / $19.95

The cliche "it's a jungle out there" is illustrated vividly in this National Geographic video depicting life and death along the banks of Africa's Luvuvhu River. As a devastating drought turns the river first to isolated pools and then to little more than a mud hole, the animals that depend on the Luvuvhu are drawn into a desperate battle for survival-one which the gentler creatures are doomed to lose.

Abandoning their normal caution as the water recedes, impala approach the edges of the pool in hopes of a life-sustaining drink. Lying in wait are up to 60 crocodiles, as if at a sumptuous buffet. In split seconds, the fearsome reptiles rise from the shallow water in a savage leap, their jaws clamping shut on a weaker animal that could not spring back in time. The contest is unequal, with the prey either dragged down to the bottom for later consumption or torn...