The remarkable, poetic story opens with a soaring tour of the smouldering volcano craters of the imposing Virunga Range. We watch as tribesmen are groom a baby bride for the "god of fire." Then, in the savannah lake regions the courtship dance of the crane is depicted by weaving dancers. One its strangest sequences shows the separation of the sexes as practiced by the hornbill family emulated by a clan of costumed male dancers. Almost as bizarre is the sight of a pygmy tribe with their muzzled hunting dogs.
A crane formation floats across a crimson sky, a bright-eyed heron thief stalking a nest, lions, elephants and hippopotamuses (and some tiny baby waddlers), then the stately glide of roaming peacocks. Add swooping close-ups of eagle raiders, the saddle-billed stork, anteaters, chameleons, millipedes, zebras, monkeys, and numerous other familiar and unfamiliar creatures. Then, stork-feeding time and a family of gorillas, terrifying to behold, relaxing in a deep forest lair.

There is real gold in "Masters of the Congo Jungle."