Ronald E. Shanin, an aeronautical engineer turned animal collector, filmed this documentary while traveling 25,000 miles through Africa over a five-and-a-half-year period. Included in the footage are scenes of lionesses on the prowl for food and caring for their young; Shanin capturing a cobra and a black mamba with his bare hands; shots of an eagle whose wingspread reaches seven feet; scenes of leopards, chimpanzees, a hyena, elephants, gazelles, cheetahs, and rhinoceros; and visits with the Bambuti Pygmies and with Masai tribesmen. Shanin is filmed as he hunts a lion which has been killing dogs in a bush village. The final two episodes of the film are devoted to the scaling of the fog-shrouded peaks of the "Mountains of the Moon" to map uncharted glacial floes that form the source of the Nile; and to photographing the newly-erupting Congo volcano Kitsimbanyi both from the air and at a distance of fifteen yards as it spreads lava through forests and villages.