going to see and you have to ask him
about his ping-pong tournament well tell
I wish you luck on your endeavors to the
heiner’s and a very very warm welcome to
Juma
and sunny South Africa it is as sunny as
sunny can get it is bright it is breezy
and it is very pleasant to be out on a
game Drive now as television my name is
Justin on camera today I’ve got two
Darvey which is always an absolute
pleasure to have on board and well we
are going to be trying to see if we
can’t catch up with Tandy and Cubs so
that is the plan for this afternoon
hopefully we will be able to get some
sort of luck with Tandy and cut this
afternoon we’ll have to just try and see
now remember it is interactive so it
hashtag safari live on Twitter or the
YouTube chat if you want to get hold of
us now Taylor you were wondering about
our ping pong okay Taylor well our ping
pong was delightful Toby was it
delightful it was delightful now I’ve
got a video to show all of you for those
of you that don’t know what we’re
talking about today was the ping pong
Palooza challenge yeah at a Juma and so
what that entailed was basically the
following so I’m going to play you a
video and you will be able to see how
this all wings
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
so that’s is what happened today so tell
it was a very successful event and you
want to know who won well we had a team
competition to start which was the Black
team so Davi and I were on the Black
team with Kirsty and Rebecca and a few
others who else was an egg she was in
our team and Louise that’s right so it
was three girls three boys and so the
six of us managed to beat the red team
but unfortunately the overall winner was
a member of the red team and that was
James Henry and I lost to him in the
final which is a disaster and you can
see there was much celebration after all
of that right well try to find Tandy and
Kutner after we worked up a sweat in our
ping pong challenge and while we do that
I think we don’t – Noelle I’m not a
hundred percent sure but either way it
will be one of our members of the Safari
Live Crew for the afternoon it is a very
warm afternoon I’m so sorry to hear that
you lost two games with ping pong
Palooza I sadly was cracking the books
today for my practical examination so
I’m glad everyone had a good time how
amazing everyone was that sighting with
Brent’s cheetah and that warthog
superjealous Brent I hope you get some
more action up there I am Noelle and I’m
Cameron – that camera – I can’t talk on
camera today I have the ville de B’s VM
hello
thumbs up so yeah we’re just plodding
along and waiting for it to cool down a
little bit I’m actually in search for
Elephants I’d really like to see some
swimming elephants today so we’re
checking biffle’s hook Dam and then
we’re gonna head down towards a chitwa
chitwa and see what we can find along
the way as you know Tristan’s headed
over to see if he can find tun Dee and
her youngster and then we’re hoping that
maybe husana pops up over on chitwa side
but you never know what might happen
also maybe shadow and her youngster
maybe come up by twins twin dem so we’ll
go and have a look down there now
amazingly our hippo friend is not here
in biffle’s hook damn I don’t know where
he’s gone or where he could be maybe he
has decided that he is too lonely and
needs to go and try and
some females or maybe on his feeding out
and about this after this last evening
he managed to find a place that just
suited him a bit better but I’m sure
he’ll be back in a few days all right
we’re gonna go check the corner because
the other thing I would like to see is
maybe the wild dogs they haven’t been
over to us for a while and last time
that we saw them they moved over a bit
east
so as we’re busy searching we’re gonna
send you all the way back up to Brent in
the Maasai Mara with his cheetahs who
are still busy on their kill and let you
enjoy the spectacular sighting that that
is
sorry about that everybody
Rimland attacking a Brent but he’ll be
back with you shortly not to worry for
those of you that don’t know what a REM
melon is it’s just a cute little word
that we use to describe some technical
issues that come with forecasting and
promote Africa but anyways these things
happen every now and then we’re driving
through the lovely golden grass at the
moment but we are edging closer and
closer to war with a high uniden and
we’re not too far from the River Road
now basically where the next line of
trees is is essentially where that
highway is we’ll jump on that and that
should take us to our destination
relatively quickly although we’ve still
got a bit of time to spare what is the
time auto part almost quarter past 5:00
Eastern African time so yeah I’m just
trying to think it might take us again
the great thing about coming on a safari
is that you have a plan to go and do one
thing and it can easily change because
you know you bump into something that’s
even more amazing so who knows they
might see the McQuarrie pride and maybe
we’ve come across Scarface and his clan
around my clan is pride
speaking of hyenas no tennis you’ve
asked what animal do I think I’m most
like I find this Adam this question hard
to answer so I’m gonna let you’ll answer
it for me everyone says my spirit animal
is a lion I think it’s because I have
lots pain but maybe you guys didn’t come
up with something quite funny and don’t
worry I don’t get offended easy so go
wild hashtag safari live or chat to us
via the YouTube and what do you think
what animal do you think I’m most alike
now Megan who’s directing this afternoon
is just said that she thinks I’m like an
arena trogon because I’m most unique
Thank You Megan that’s very kind of you
I showed Megan and marina trogon
yesterday when we went on a little
safari park or a little exercise and
hike which was a lot of fun so and it
was actually quite surprising we heard a
calling and then any and ended up being
right above us it’s so beautiful
in the only patch of light in the forest
– and normally with marina trogon is
that they’re quite shy birds and they
tend to hide themselves away and always
turn their backs – so we see the green
on which makes it very difficult to spot
up in the trees but we were so lucky I
said – Megan that’s probably one of the
best sightings of an arena trogon I’ve
ever had I have a video but it’s not
gonna do much for you unfortunately
because it was up in the trees above us
basically through a hole about that big
and all you could see was the bright red
of its braced and it was just looking
down and I was watching us and we split
through it for five or six minutes just
in absolute or admiring it so I don’t
know if I’m quite as unique as a marina
trogon because there’s something quite
special
but thank you Megan that was very kind
of you here we have some water rock and
giraffe
well the giraffes are circling the
outskirts of the marsh the water buck
jumping straight into it let’s have a
have a little look-see okay
you said I’m like a jackal is it because
I for some reason every time I see those
jackal pups they run up to my car and so
who me I don’t know why that is I don’t
know if they do that to everybody if
they just did to me I like to think they
just do it to me it makes me feel a bit
better about myself that’s quite a good
one it might not be as quick as them as
good as catching grasshoppers though but
I do try no the water back I’m not
worried about grasshoppers are ever they
were willing to eat them they are
feeding on all the lovely lush grass in
the marsh and this is how you should be
seeing water back you know missus I
haven’t seen it for quite some time the
last time I’d see you water back in in
marshy sort of areas or wetlands was in
Zambia and lower Zambezi National Park
but we typically don’t see this and the
sabi sad unfortunately there aren’t
enough areas where I don’t think there
are any areas with his marshes I’m
trying to think
nope not that I could think of
everywhere that I’ve worked on in the
sense and quite have a marshy area so so
it is quite nice to see that again the
male has not lifted his head once now
this is quite interesting what I find it
quite fascinating I don’t know if you
remember a few weeks ago we were seeing
two water buck and bulls in this area
this is the same spot that brains and I
like to do a lot of birding it’s often
when we see that malachite Kingfisher
just for context and we had two of them
having a standoff remember that morning
was beautiful in the golden light and
they were other male Maat this one I
think was much older and he had much
bigger horns but he got chased away by
this young upstart and I think that
that’s quite nice to see that sometimes
it’s not always the biggest bull with
the longest horns I suppose it’s all
about your technique in terms of
fighting and he must have won because
he’s still here with the same group of
water buck that we see almost every
single morning that we pass through on
this river oh very very very nice
also the same herd that I pointed out to
you a couple of times I’ve said the
females are looking quite big now
and their bellies are bulging so
hopefully we’ll start to see a few more
youngsters popping out but remember it
will take a week a week or two before
they bring them back to the herd because
they’ll give birth off on their own in
the thickets we probably won’t see who
might actually see that see this can’t
the females one two three four five six
seven eight nine so I can see nine here
they’re no more on the other side of the
road I didn’t count how many new water
back females were here the last time
that I saw them so let’s say that maybe
one or two of them have already gone off
to give birth because there was
definitely one female that was very very
big right I’m going to send you as quick
as I can
down to the sabi sand because Noelle has
got an exceptional sighting of a species
of Mongoose that I have not seen for a
very long time we just came across this
really cool slender Mongoose and he was
finishing at the tail end of what looked
like a lizard or a skink kill and now it
seems as if he’s sniffing around trying
to figure it out if there’s anything
left for him to eat now unfortunately we
just got the tail end of it and we’re
unable to put it on camera for you but
it looks as if he’s managing to find
tiny little bits there he was finishing
it off just there where he’s smelling
and now having a rest licking his chops
from his lovely little meal snakes
they’re very good at killing and eating
snakes that also eat termites and large
beetles and of course now as we’ve sort
of shown you the lizards as well now he
might stick around long enough to groom
and clean himself most species were most
organisms I searched they say after a
meal we’ll do a bit of cleaning
especially if the meal was a larger one
just to make sure everything’s still in
place we see it often with Birds we see
it with lion and leopard but it’s also
true of our our smaller mammals as well
there he’s cleaning his paws off making
sure to get all the gunk
and it’s interesting he’s not too far
from us so he’s I think he’s just
checking to see what we’re up to as well
every now and then just to make sure we
don’t invade his space puzzle the puzzle
I’m so sorry I’m tripping over my words
today everybody I’ll drink some more
water just now that will help eyes we’re
driving around the breeze is even better
but as we sit still the heat is pretty
intense and not gonna lie
dries your mouth out also this is a good
setting because we don’t usually get to
see slender mongoose often Catherine
you’re saying how cute the slender
Mongoose is yes monkeys are while
Mongoose are are cute definitely cute
little species so there’s been a raging
debate between myself and a few friends
about what are we actually supposed to
call a mongoose is a mongoose mongooses
hmong guy and then we were chatting with
a biologist friend of ours and he was
saying it’s just Mongoose but I do catch
myself from time sign saying among geese
would make sense because you go from
gusta geese but it’s just Mongoose all
right fantastic slender Mongoose
finishing up his kill there we’ve picked
up on a little bit of male leopard
tracks and Billy and I have been
debating about who this male effort
could be the tracks are rather large
both of us are sort of hedging our bets
towards tan Ghana but the problem is
these tracks are not very fresh they’re
probably from last night and there’s
another vehicle that’s driven on top of
them but in general he’s heading down
this road so another reason why we’re
thinking in certain Ghana is the fact
that because he’s sticking to the road
and he’s going to the inside curves and
the way that he’s moving
this might actually turn let me just see
if I can find a nice little sequence up
here means that there’s possibly some
scent marking that’s happening which
would mean that it wouldn’t beat
something like tompa tomba is too small
for scent marking and also the tracks
are very large so as we know tomba has
big feet
but these feet are very big sorry I’m
just trying to see if I can find them
for you again
I had one back there but it wasn’t the
best to show on camera no I’ve lost them
a little bit it’s possible that he cut
around the curve here let me see as we
go along if I can find you on another
nice sequence
now on a hot day like today right now
would be rare to find a leopard walking
around but that being said I have
friends that work in the pylons Berg
National Park which is farther west
north from us in South Africa and it’s a
park that sees quite a lot of traffic
from private vehicles and something that
they’ve found over the years they’ve
been working there there’s a lot of the
leopard activity actually happens in the
middle of the day when when the vehicles
tend to be resting and they tend to find
leopards hunting in 40 degrees Celsius
whether in the middle of the day sort of
1 o’clock 2 o’clock and it’s an
interesting scenario so I don’t know if
there’s something else that plays up
with it there’s also quite a large lion
population that’s there there could be
other mitigating factors but my friends
at work there are convinced it has to do
with the amount of people that are
coming into the park now we’ve got a
beautiful kudu that’s just up here
is now unfortunately moving away and I
don’t think we’re gonna be able to get
too nice of a view I think Brits comms
have come back so let’s head back up to
him in the Masai Mara and see what he
can show us with those cheetahs sorry
about all those gremlins with him but it
seems to sorted itself out so you must
enjoy well it’s unfortunately when were
a bit closer to them and we couldn’t
care the final control but they
absolutely smashed that little warthog
in no time whatsoever they ate it all up
it’s pretty much dance keys now and I’ve
been trying to check with my binoculars
for the female she’s probably made good
her escape I might go look for a little
later but I’m pretty sure she would have
jogged but unfortunately for her if she
keeps in that direction she’s gonna run
into me Olly
so me alia was in the direction where
she started heading off with when the
boys started chasing this a young
warthog and if you’re a warthog it’s a
bad day if you’re at a cheetah
it’s a lovely Sunday Wow human
equivalent of a suckling pig I suppose
so good for the boys they’ll be quite
happy with that well that I don’t think
it’s gonna be enough to sate them I
think they might hunt again just now but
it should keep them a little bit less
hungry for a little while
remember this is all a hundred percent
live coming to you from the masai mara
and the greater Kruger in South Africa
and in Kenya we are sitting in the Masai
Mara of course Tristan and Noelle are
sitting in the greater Kruger on Juma
and we’ve found our spotted cats well we
found eight different key to this
afternoon let’s hope that Noelle and
Tristan can find you guys some leopards
and to finish off the big cat afternoon
because we have seen lions already so
lions and cheetahs so we’re relying on
Noelle interesting to find us some
leopards and Tristan no excuses today
okay not all of them would have got a
very good meal out of that oh it sounds
like we have a possible ID for the
female James Richard says that female
might have been Rosetta which is roses
daughter now I’ve never heard of either
of those two
cheater so there we go you learn
something new every day now it looks
like some of the boys are up and about
already that little warthog did not
touch sides well some of them are
flopping down others are on the move now
you will see there are other vehicles
enjoying the sighting with us but you
can see still quite an empty belly a
little pig that doesn’t go far when
there’s five of him now guys I’d be
heading the other way there’s a lot more
game where I came from then across the
side
now are you going to plunk or are you
going to keep walking that is the
question I’ve got a feeling they might
plunk for a little bit well maybe not
wasn’t a very long chase for them so
they wouldn’t have utilized too much
energy catching that that little warthog
how’s that for simultaneous sitting
choreographed it has plunk our bottoms
the exact same time now d’Artagnan the
greedyguts that he is is the last to
leave what is left of little
you
Nereus striding towards the others and
apologies we are right on the edge of
some of the signal we are really down
low in a in a river system
so hopefully the boys keep heading up up
up and away towards a better signal and
comms area they normally do at this time
in the day and they move out of the
low-lying areas up towards the crests
following the prey species which
normally do the same
and you can probably yeah it’s quite
windy at the moment the next are you
mother you option you going to plonk yep
plonk you never know what could happen
next another that poor unsuspecting
warthog might wonder towards them
we’re gonna keep an eye on the boys for
now hopefully they do get moving
otherwise we do have plan B C and D now
me Ali the Lions and Rosetta possibly
want that o name so we’re gonna see what
happens here for a bit longer before we
move on while we do that it sounds like
mccurdy is racing off somewhere just
trying to get to that hyena dinner feels
like it’s getting further and further
away buttbrain she’ll be happy to know
very very briefly you got to see this
the straw tailed wider yeah you’ve been
telling me about a new put one on screen
the other day which was very cool and we
just passed it for fools sadly I didn’t
get to show all of you but it was really
nice to finally see I’ve been quite
lucky with the birds this week in terms
of how many new ones have actually added
to the list which is really quite cool
was I supposed to go down there
the next ye know just checking here for
anymore birds the spot is quite nice
although it’s dried up quite a bit so it
mustn’t have had too much rain here last
night a little bit it’s a bit wait if no
one’s home
only there’s a Goliath Heron that lives
only good stuff who is a Goliath here
and that’s around here no no birds not
even the Egyptian geese today that’s
unusual rumor we’ve seen couple of times
I’ve stopped Jennison whole flock bless
you Craig
bless you another one just two
now scenic you’re wondering what species
of widow birds are found in Kenya we
have a look let’s bring the book out
quickly have a look as I can rattle off
all so it takes me a lot of stuff I can
rattle off all sorts of names but I
think it would be better if we actually
took a look at them don’t you think and
lucky widow bird should be right at the
end too
when are we gonna start 686 600 and s
are quite far am I here right here feels
like spider webs sometimes on my face um
almost promise we’re almost there right
next page okay right so theoretically
the Yellow crowned no that’s a bishop
that’s what one brains has been telling
me about that I need to keep an eye out
on there not that one here we go yellow
a mint old widow bird so it’s number
four down here on the bottom right I’m
so sorry I can’t even see my monitor at
the moment that one there were my thumb
is that is one that we get to see so we
get quite a few down here let me go to
the next page yes look familiar then top
left is the fantail Twitter bird which i
think is the most common one that we’re
seeing at the moment and the white
winged widow bird which is number two
I’ve seen that in South Africa yes we
see that
in the greater Kruger area that’s one
that we see quite often it just occurs
on the border of Kenya and Tanzania and
in Tanzania so maybe we’ll see it down
on the border number three the red
collared widow bird we must certainly
see lots of them and then the yes so
there we go so one two three maybe a few
more species of widow birds too but the
most common ones that we’re seeing at
the moment are the red collared the fan
tailed oh and then where’s the jacksons
why can’t I find Jackson’s oh there’s
another page of widow bird brained was
also telling me that I need to keep an
eye out for number two which is that one
and the Jacksons were a bird which I
haven’t seen just yet so I’ll keep an
eye out for the
I think you said I don’t know if he
managed to put one on screen but I know
he was trying the other day I don’t
think it was sitting still but very cool
so there’s a variety of widow bird
species and that we get to see out here
in the Mara it was very nice
I think the only one that I haven’t seen
so far is the Jacksons I really really
need to make an effort to go through my
Birds and figure out how many I’ve
actually seen over the years because
I’ve completely lost count I also don’t
have my well now with my Kenyan Birds I
think I’m probably seeing quite a few
more birds since I’ve been here and the
Mara but for me it doesn’t matter about
numbers it’s just constantly learning
about the new birds and seeing them one
day when I’m bored I’ll eventually go
through and count them or on a rainy day
right but I am gonna send you back
across the Mara River and we’re gonna go
from the triangle to the Masai Mara
National Reserve print is not feeling
those cheetah out of his sight
well welcome back everyone we’re still
sitting with their boys and as I
predicted they have plunked four now
doing a bit of grooming after their
little piggy afternoon rest
I say it’s gonna be interesting to see
if they’re handy and I’m not sure that
they’re going to to be honest but you
never know and I think there are worth
spending the time with the slot they
don’t look quite settled just yet
there’s quite a bit of up-and-down
movement let’s go across to the to
grooming no no let’s clean the blood off
each other’s faces there we go and there
they are practicing a little bit of a
low grooming
still definitely looking about see if
there’s any potential prey around
hello Ben who’s nine years old and Ben
all I heard is that something somebody
told me that it was possibly your
birthday unfortunately I couldn’t care
what your question was it was a bit
broken up but happy birthday Ben who’s
nine years old I think Megan is saying
how fast
what’s the Cheetahs maximum speed there
a document doing as much as a hundred
and ten kilometres an hour but that was
quite a long time ago now it’s thought
that probably top speed is between 90
and 100 kilometres an hour so it’s still
very very fast and much faster than any
people or any person could run ain’t the
fastest person ever recorded was Usain
Bolt and I think he’s I think was 45
degree 45 km/h or something like that so
well more than double what a human being
can run
we get some lovely tender moments from
the boys now these moments of a low
grooming which it means sort of social
grooming are very important when it
comes to re-establishing the bonds that
they have while they often will fight
and scrap with each other so after those
moments of fighting and scrapping the
the little licks and loves are to
reaffirm that they all still friends
while they’re on the move which is a
good thing for us and they’re moving in
a good area for us because I hopefully
I’ll be able to hear Megan if I go a
little bit higher oh no you know what
they’re doing
cheeky cheetah they’re using the shade
where one is using the shade of the
safari vehicle to sleep in there’s no
trees around so if there is a convenient
safari vehicle just let’s lie in that
shade I thought they were going to keep
moving hopefully they will but for the
moment they’re lying in the shade of the
Safari vehicles but I’m gonna have to go
up the hill a little bit to see if I can
hear Megan
okay well we’re gonna wait to see what
these guys get up to while we do that it
seems like Noel is with something that
is a lot bigger and a lot scarier than a
cheetah made it over to trip with them
and it is a beautiful scene right now
we’ve got lots of hippos playing in the
water they’re also enjoying this
sunshine as well as this a little bit of
a breeze
we had one hippo that was out the water
but she climbed quickly back in as we
came up so these are the youngsters that
have been giving us such great antics
that passed a few times we’ve been here
as they get older they get more
comfortable in their space and they get
more playful and then obviously a lot of
the play that they’re doing is going to
help them later in life when they’re all
grown up whether they’re male or female
whether they need to defend their little
ones or defend their territories as
males so hippos have a very thin
epidermis a very thin skin and they
don’t sweat like most of the mammal
species we see out here they don’t sweat
and they have no hair to help protect
them from the Sun or the heat so by
staying in the in the water during the
day it makes up for all of this it also
is protecting their skin remember their
skin is very sensitive because of that
thin epidermis because of that thin top
layer of skin so a lot of the times when
you do see them out of the water they
appear quite pink and that’s that very
special secretion that they make that
works like a sunscreen it’s it’s
basically a mucus over their skin and
they lose more water through their skin
than any other mammal which is something
that we talked about so if we were
similar to a hippo and we lost as much
moisture through our skin as they did we
would need to be in the water or in a
moist environment often or else we would
dehydrate excessively or desiccate
desiccates another word for dehydration
usually this occasion refers to lizard
species and snakes and things like that
but we can also use it to to work for us
as well and then of course because of
all of this that’s why they move outside
the water when it’s a cooler or a night
time for their feeding practices
to mitigate all their circumstances are
there animals that live in sort of dry
very very dry areas that have the
probability of possibly dehydrating will
also do a lot of their feeding at night
something like a tennis ball or even
spring book which we don’t get here but
in more arid areas they’ll do something
similar and they get a lot of the
moisture they need from eating the
plants during the time of the the
evening or early morning where the dew
collects now just right in front of our
car maybe two meters from our vehicle we
have a beautiful little print and call
that’s sitting here in some old elephant
dung and these pregnant calls I’m look
before I moved here I saw printer calls
every now and then but we have these
ones that nest in this area be that
really great sighting of an egg maybe
about a month or so ago and then every
time I’ve popped up here I keep seeing
them but I haven’t seen any chicks yet
and I have a feeling that not many of
the eggs have survived because this is
where the elephants like to walk down
when they come to drink and obviously
elephants have a very big feet and so it
can sometimes be difficult for these
birds to keep their eggs alive because
remember they’re not making a nest it’s
just a tiny little scraping in the
ground and then putting that egg right
there and the egg is meant to camouflage
Kevin you’re curious know are there any
crocodiles here at chitwa dam there are
Crocs and I’m actually happy to look
around from our vantage point right now
to see if we can see any I’m not seeing
any from here they could possibly be in
the water or they could be up on the
island where I cannot see or buildi do
you see one on the other side there
yeah we’re just taking oh there’s some
bushbuck on the other side there again
an antelope species we don’t see often
they like to hide in the thick bush
these ones particularly like to be
around the dam and just on the right
hand side of your screen as well there’s
a spoonbill that white bird with a
spatula type bill and then it looks like
some white face whistling ducks and
maybe an Ibis that’s over there other
side it’s quite far away from where we
are it’s on the stoop of chitwa main
lodge they’re just checking the rocks
that side
Willow whose three years old hello
willow you’re curious to know if hippos
talk to each other and I’m not quite
sure if you heard all that grunting that
just happened now willow they do indeed
talk to the two each other most
organisms communicate with each other in
some manner
hippos outside the water make that funny
and laughing grunts on that we just
heard a little bit of now and then they
also communicate underneath the water
they it’s there related to HIPAA too –
whales hippos are related to whales
they’re in the same order so all of the
organisms that we work with – whether
were human or were a bird or were a
plant or were a hippo we all have these
different sequences that we fit into and
so hippos and whales are cousins of each
other and I’m not sure if you’ve ever
heard whale song under the water I’m
gonna do my best to imitate but it’s a
sort of
[Music]
singing noise and hippos will do that
underwater in a similar fashion there
they laugh using their their lower
jawbone they’re able to communicate that
way with vibrations yes it’s such a
beautiful afternoon here well though I
don’t know if you’re coming to us from
the States but if you are when I was a
kid there was a really wonderful program
with Ben Affleck called voyage of the
Mimi and there’s some really great stuff
on humpback whales from there I didn’t
know maybe you guys can google it with
your mom and I think you’d find that
super interesting so while we’re busy
looking for things like crocodiles and
maybe a little husana here at the
Chitwood dam let’s head on over to
Tristan and see what he’s up to
well I’m busy watching a poor African
Harrier hawk will resume the gene for
any of you that remember the old name
being mobbed and chased by multiple
folktale drummers you can see the little
drongos dive-bombing this poor African
Harrier hawk and the reason why they’re
doing that is because the Harrier Hawk
obviously is a bird hunter and so it
goes into the nests and goes and hunts
all of the little chicks and things like
that and so it gets disciplined very
quickly by the folktale drummers it gets
chased away and is made to get out of
the area and to try and go somewhere
else
now the reason why we know it’s an
african area as you see it Bank like
that into the lights you can really get
a nice indication of its coloration it’s
got that gray color with those yellow
legs and face masks which can change to
red sometimes when they’re in breeding
phase and then it’s got a very heavily
broad barred tail so white and black on
the tail itself which is very very cool
so it’s a it’s a beautiful bird to see
and we often see them around quarantine
and various other parts of the reserve
going from military to military sticking
their long legs inside those trees to
try and get into the nests and try and
find things like squirrels babies and
obviously chicks of birds and that’s why
the birds get a little upset with them
and try and kind of chase them away and
send him somewhere else but that was
very good well done Davi good camera
work with it and it’s not easy to follow
a soaring bird they look like they just
kind of
circling very slowly but they actually
move incredibly fast particularly when
they are being chased by other birds but
so far no luck on Tandy we’ve done a few
loops around I drove where James said
you sawed onion cut this morning and
while there are tracks absolutely
everywhere we haven’t been able to find
anything as yet we’ve seen you know
where she was moving up and down the our
tracks for the middle cab this tracks
for her it looks like they might have
gone north again and into towards sort
of Rebecca’s side and westwards and
maybe she’s got to kill somewhere there
I’m not sure so I’m just trying to do a
few loops now towards sort of triage
down Zoe’s Road just to make sure she
hasn’t popped out in any of those areas
if she has well then we’ll be able to
pick up tracks and follow them from
there but otherwise we’ll just keep
looping around and as it gets cooler
hopefully that’s going to mean she is
going to start moving and either go for
some water oh maybe just go back to a
cub or maybe back to a kill that sheep
might potentially have right well I will
be going towards treehouse a dam now in
trying to search for what I am looking
for but it seems that Taylor mccurdy has
managed to find what she was looking for
and hopefully it’s a very active day
when you raced on over because I was
worried that we’re gonna start running
out of time because it gets so dark so
quickly we were of course talking about
that hello little one you seem to be
very excited matching up to that female
that one’s just come out of the den no I
don’t think that’s your mum there is a
young cub that is suckling at the moment
just hiding in the grass that is
slightly older than this the little one
that’s being a bit cheeky remember how I
said this clearly one young hyena cub
that’s still quite black in color isn’t
probably between five and seven weeks
old somewhere around there that it walks
around like it owns the place and I can
only imagine it must be one of the
higher ranking females cubs but there’s
not many adults or answer better be
careful when mom’s not home to be quite
cheeky towards the other adults but the
race to them undercover at the moment
they’re hiding away from
the wind that’s here and I suppose it
would be quite nice and cozy down in
that borough we did also see two other
hyena closer towards the road they
actually look like males to me they
could have also just been very young
females but not too close to the den so
they’re do scatter themselves aren’t
like we said it was hard to swat them so
mom could be around here somewhere also
a herd of elephants I think moved
through we can still see the elephants
but we I think we would have missed the
interaction maybe about 15 20 minutes
unfortunately you can see them just off
into the distance I think they would
have come straight through this den that
would have also sent the hyenas running
and I’m sure the youngsters will be very
nervous of encountering so these large
Giants and maybe you know actually
you’ve got a bit of a fight and send
them down into that virus so it does
it’s not particularly active at the
moment not 15 seconds you said you found
you find hyenas very interesting I do
too and that’s why we spend so much time
at the den sites when we can
unfortunately they’re not always active
when we want them to be like right now
at least it’s a little bit of a sight of
a hyena just to get your fix of course
but there are really fascinating
creatures and and I like to spend them
at the time of them because I think
there’s a whole lot that I don’t know
about hyenas it goes on behind the
scenes so I always look forward and I
said pretty much with my notebook in
hand and my pen waiting and watching the
various behaviors that I that I see and
hopefully I’ll start to get to know the
individuals of the north clan and and
then go from there but for now they’re
very relaxed just suckling away filling
up that belly before the adults have to
search for some food again it all starts
again
of course it’s a big routine come back
feed the Cubs go off look for some
dinner come back to the day and such as
they don’t come back to the den for a
you know day or two but we’ll search
here for a no never mind what I’ve
spotted that looks like it’s a little
bit more interesting is just
to the writer that hyena up on the shrub
is a white broad cuckoo I’ve even seen
lots of them at the moment
hello I’ve been seeing lots of juveniles
too which has been quite fascinating and
we saw that the other morning and I’d
said she had never seen juvenile white
pride crew calls before not alarming at
the hyenas I would imagine that this one
lives within the vicinity and sees them
often now bird would not necessarily be
on a hyenas menu and even though there
are very very good hunters we don’t
typically see them going after the avian
species however to a young leopard or a
lion cub of course they would be quite
entertaining I can’t say that I’ve ever
seen young hyenas sort of chasing around
birds like we see with leopards and
lions for example or no never seen that
before I don’t think that there’s any
need for them to be chasing after after
those characters just yeah listening to
the elephant’s feed not as well as few
little sis tequila’s and things shouting
I’m not sure what they’re shouting about
I don’t think it would necessarily be
the hyenas now Dave be wondering if I
you know would ever hunt alone but
possibly if males out on his own or
these two cubs they I didn’t even see
them there so camouflage and I’ve
actually never have seen hyenas hunting
and chasing kudu wrong because we used
to see that a lot done at sabi sabi the
kudu were petrified of the hyenas and I
have seen hyenas chasing kudu on
quarantine which is that big open plain
that you see down in Zuma in South
Africa but I haven’t seen one on its own
before it wouldn’t it wouldn’t surprise
me they remember hyenas are not
necessarily always together they do
spread out all right what’s happening
now girl you done suckling your cubs
they do look like they’ve got nice full
bellies and there is another Sakshi
there’s a sub at going towards their
kuku that’s quite funny here we go look
it’s actually looking at the cuckoo you
can’t see it right now it’s quite
camouflaged but it’s still in their
truck and it wasn’t really manager seen
a duck down into the left of that truck
trying are you being a bit curious about
curious here we go here’s something I’ve
never seen before and it isn’t
fitting that we were just talking about
youngsters perhaps chasing after birds
not pouncing in there like a young cat
would but just investigating just having
a little smell I’m sure if a bird got
too close maybe they would snap it and
try and catch it and I don’t I don’t
feel like they would go chasing after it
did there’s so many other obviously
hyena Cubs that they can play with one
another they can keep themselves
entertained and I suppose that’s what’s
quite nice about living in a family
whether it’s a clan or a pride whereas
the adults don’t have that much of a
responsibility to keep their youngsters
entertained they can kind of rely on the
other youngsters in the group to
entertain one another we see that with
lions as well whereas leopards it’s a
little bit different mom has got a huge
responsibility and even with cheetah you
know if it’s just mom and one cub she’s
got a play with him she’s gonna keep
them entertained all the time hello
fluffy oh there’s a few more starting to
pop art oh they so sweet I love them
when they’re that age I’m missing tima
so much that was a very sweet little
hyena there we go
being quite affectionate to one another
just sort of smelling and licking
where’s that bossy cub that was Archie a
moment ago I’m sure he’ll come through
and stir a bit of trouble like it always
seems to do it’s like the floppy eared
cub of the hyena clan right we’ll stay
here for a little bit longer because it
seems as though the Cubs are starting to
emerge from the den will they come up to
the car I’m not sure however brint
is still keeping a watchful eye on the
cheetah I am but a watchful eye from a
long distance and fortunately there that
comes gremlins down in that valley are
very bad so I’ve just managed to put
myself in a position where we can still
keep an eye on them and it does look
like they might get moving again shortly
so and we’re just sitting probably about
500 metres from them on top of a little
hill where I can yeah Miggs talk to us
so here we go there are moving now I’m
hoping that they do come up towards I
see although there’s not much to eat
yeah oh and hopefully they don’t cross
the lugger again because that could be
interesting for us we just managed to
get through now the main crossing at the
lager
is that someone is stuck in little
crossing though so there’s a whole big
traffic jam of people trying to get
towards the boys but they can’t get
there because someone’s got stuck in the
crossing we made our own crossing of
course but I don’t want to do that
crossing more than once
it was quite hairy the first time but it
does look like there are slightly
sloping upwards towards us well towards
the top they all say let’s just move
around a bit okay so it looks like there
might come up towards the handle here so
I’m just going to keep up up high for
the moment and where I can still keep an
eye on them
[Applause]
well take Oh
so it looks like there are almost sort
of heading towards there’s a lone tree
over there that seems to be the
direction now there could go floppity
flop
all five seem to be up at the moment
and it looks like we might be in for
some more raining again this evening
fortunately it’s still quite far away
hopefully they’ll come back into a good
comms area shortly their general
direction does seem to be up towards
kissinger’s or Kissinger’s is quite far
away but that’s the direction they’re
heading towards sort of kike rock and we
will stay with them as long as possible
so we know where to look tomorrow
morning
and as you can see there are other
vehicles also enjoying the sighting and
we do apologize for having them in shot
but we have to stay quite far away for
now um hopefully they know don’t sit
down no keep moving there we go good
boys
Alan is wondering about one of our
favorite cheetah and Malaika
he saw a video of her and jumping on a
safari car and wondering what are the
rules about that it’s naughty um Alan
said I mean if she jumped on our card
probably be will she jumps on a lot of
cars I don’t let her jump on my car she
tries to jump on my car just tap the
side like this or start the car to stop
her doing that but certain people will
let let let let her do that so the
problem is is that one day there might
be a small child in that car or a very
scared person who reacts badly causing
her to react badly oh dear
did they flop down into the grass no
whoo okay guys it looks like they’re
gonna oh no there’s still two up um
but yeah so it’s it’s not ideal let’s
put it that way
it’s discouraged heavily by the the park
officials and just in case something
happens oh my goodness
his people stock oh sorry I find it
amusing and two crossings above seems
like they have managed to get out of the
one crossing while someone’s tried to
cross the next crossing and they’ve got
stuck I know I probably shouldn’t laugh
at other people’s discomfort but it is
quite funny
like yeah well we get it looks like
they’re going flat for now we’re gonna
search a play the patient’s game for a
little longer while we do that let’s go
zooming all the way back to South Africa
with Noel and B Kingfisher we have a
beautiful woodland Kingfisher that has
been diving into the water not for fish
but to clean itself to bathe
we’re thinking for sure in general don’t
eat fish they are insectivores they eat
insects and this one has just found a
beautiful little shady spot too every
now and then jump in but Billy and I
gave each other a little bit of a fright
just now we have found the crocodile and
we were busy doing a delay test so I
have to clap my hands for a delay test
so we know how far the the voiceovers
carry between us and the Mara and the
croc was right here at the edge of the
water you can just see little bubbles
sort of going away now let’s dive off we
didn’t see it it’s moving away under
there all right so we don’t know he’s
get a chance to talk about fish because
fish are not always something that we
see but thought since we’re here at
Chitwood dam fish might be a good thing
to talk about about 40% of all the fish
worldwide are freshwater fish so those
are fish that we would live in here now
something interesting about South Africa
is that 25% of the freshwater fish that
we find in places like this are actually
not fished from South Africa they’re
alien invasive species fish like bass
bass for instance is an alien invasive
species now something like that
crocodile that just gave us a little bit
of a scare and something like the Egret
that is a cross and this tiny little bit
of vegetation over there they’re going
to eat fish and we have forms of tilapia
here as well as you should find perch
every now and then in here and then
there’s another one that’s tickly in my
head it’s Jack and it I had the name
just now and six gaping me another alien
invasive species fish we have is carp
and a friend of mine fishes them a lot
he always feels good about himself sorry
everyone
there’s the woodland Kingfisher I’m
gonna take you away just because I can
see the crocodile now again
busy moving underneath this little bit
of vegetation just see the top of the
head there so a large croc like this
we’ll eat mammal species like Impala but
it will very much eat larger fish as
well and you were asking about Crocs I’m
actually hoping that this one will get
up onto the island here it does enjoy
being up the side now a larger croc like
this let’s say it got a small to medium
sized Impala it might be a little bit
big for it but let’s just say it did
that that meal could last it for a long
time but let’s say for for hypothetical
reasons it couldn’t get anything like
that eating things like the fish there
in this dam are going to sustain it
throughout the year now a lot of times
in in southern Africa you’ll find that
crocodiles east of eight which is a type
of hibernation when winter time is cold
and dry as opposed to cold and wet which
happens in a lot of the northern
hemisphere places and they’ll dig
themselves into the banks of dams like
this or sometimes they’ll go inside
termite mound that Kingfisher really
wants to be heard I hope you can hear
that in the background but sometimes
you’ll find that even through the winter
months
you’ll still see Crocs in large dams
like this still moving about because the
food resources are still readily
available I feel like I’m competing with
this woodland Kingfisher at the moment
go ahead sir no he’s done he’s now
preening himself
and and so you’ll get movement
throughout the year as opposed to areas
where the water will sort of disappear
during the dry season and then the croc
lowers its body temperature to almost
non-existent heart rate to almost
non-existent and and and does that
hibernation
now they’ll do we might be a bit too far
away but there’s a tiny little baby
hippo that’s starting to come out of the
water there let’s see if we can see this
baby hippo for a little bit as he comes
out you can see that pink coloration
you’re talking about now he doesn’t have
any playmates
playmates over there he’s just playing
by himself and investigating historians
but I believe my friend Tristan has some
elephants that we’ve been searching for
so I think let’s head on over to him and
have a look indeed we do too but many
elephants and they stretched out all the
way from chaos day I’m going sort of in
a wispy direction and North South
everywhere we look there was a Lee’s
around and so we’ve caught up with the
majority of the hood except that they
are not disappearing into the thickets
of course they would they were all out
on the road a few seconds ago and then
when it’s time for them to put on a show
well they’ve decided no it’s time for
some shade and a bit of feeding which
you can see little trunks sticking
through and they are ever so tentatively
feeding off one of these weeping wattles
that still has a few flowers on it so
they’re trying to find some of those
yellow flowers to feed on now what I
might do is just quickly reposition
ourselves so we get a slightly better
view because most of our chilies are
quite hidden so I just want to try and
kind of go around them a little bit if
rusty would decide to go into reverse
because rusty doesn’t feel like going
into reverse sometimes and so you have
to kind of be a bit rough with rusty and
get rusty to actually do what you ask it
to do but that’s okay we good friends by
now we’ve made up off the rusty ejected
me from the vehicle and I took it
through some thickets so we now have had
one for one and we’re all good and so
everything is okay now
hopefully if I can just get around this
area and position myself slightly in
front of this herd we will be able to
get them all kind of walking towards us
that’s the idea anyway whether or not it
works I’m not quite sure but let’s see
how we go what’s there trying to just
look for a little bit of shade for Dave
and I because it is fairly warm in the
Sun and so a little bit of shade would
be thoroughly welcomed in a day or on a
day like today should I say not in the
day that’s not a very good English and
James or he’s already beaten me once in
ping-pong will probably beat me again if
I carry on using English like that so
there try and sort myself out Davi I
think if we go round this bush then we
should be good then they should be
walking straight towards us from here I
can see some of them coming out sort of
try and position ourselves slightly
better this little gap here should be
good nice little bit of shade I think
we’re gonna be in a winning situation
here Davi here we go
just try go around the bush
and we good that’s better isn’t it it’s
not the best shade that I could have
found this little bit of Sun on as I
think Dave’s probably got more shade
than I do but at least the LE is all
nice and clearly visible and you can see
that they have had a fabulous time
probably a tree out there maybe even at
the shabam or mud wallows but they’ve
all absolutely covered in not only
multiplets in water too so they’ve
wherever they’ve been they’ve had a
really good bathe and it’s needed on a
day like today if you’re a big large
animal like an elephant you do need a
bit of water to try and kind of cool you
down as well as a bit of mud now campus
you want to know what it is the most
dangerous animal to encounter in a
vehicle well you’re probably looking at
it so the elephants in vehicles can be
incredibly dangerous they’re animals
that possess serious amounts of power
they are able to easily turn over a
vehicle no problem and you have a
situation where they are you know
sometimes very defensive of the young
ones as well as they might have had a
fight if it’s a male with another male
or they’re in a condition called must
reaches a heightened level of
testosterone and therefore they can be a
little bit temperamental and when they
decide to take you on well we’re no
match for them even in a car they’ll
easily be able to flip a vehicle and
throw all the occupants ours as well as
mangle it into a piece of tinfoil
basically and so an alias by far the
most dangerous parts are chain vehicles
probably closely followed by Buffalo and
hippos which sounds really odd better
the two of them can be a little bit
feisty Buffalo not so much because they
want to attack cars but they normally
cause damage to vehicles when being
chased by lines and they blind you panic
and run particularly at nights and then
making hit quite a few vehicles all
right well we’re gonna sit to that Elise
because there’s nothing better really I
suppose maybe a lipid with the elephants
would be better but sitting with a Lee’s
and enjoying their company on a warm
afternoon is a wonderful way to spend a
day it’s very relaxing and so we’re
gonna spend time here and while we do
that it sends you back over to Taylor
mccurdy and the cuteness that is those
little spotted hyenas
there’s no better way Tristan then to
describe the hyenas the way you’ve just
done I also think that there are
adorable now I can understand why people
don’t think they’re so precious when
they well they get older but at this age
you cannot tell me that looking after
these fluffy creatures especially the
two on the Left they’re very very very
cute they’re just sort of staring at us
at the moment tell me that that’s not
precious that is absolutely adorable and
it’s getting windy and it’s getting cold
now I’m surprised that they’ve actually
come out Thank You little hyenas there
comes a naughty one just popping out of
the the den now it’s two naughty ones
just sitting at the entrance there I
still don’t know how many Cubs are in
this clan I think I’ve seen a few more
one two three four five six I’m pretty
sure we’ve seen a few more than this did
we can’t nine of ten new Cubs the other
day I can’t even remember but perhaps
between Rolf and I we can try and figure
it out and whoever else comes to the den
oh they’re so sweet but being very very
quiet you’ve had some very interesting
sightings over the last few weeks coming
here and they’ve been very busy there’s
been a lot of fighting that’s going on
so it is nice to see all peace and quiet
I say that and then those two are
starting to bite one another I think
they’re fighting over that stick that’s
just coming out of the ground must be a
root of a plant or perhaps the stem of a
plant only both going to chew on and
it’s amazing how they didn’t even
acknowledge it but as soon as one finds
something it’s like kids
give him a one toy everybody wants to
play with it said that one that’s
walking away and one’s not interested I
think it’s going to go bother that older
cab now joy you said that they are such
characters they most certainly are that
cuckoo has landed on the ground I wonder
if that little hyena is actually seen it
because it’s marching over in that
direction let’s see if that youngster is
spotted it yet and what its reaction is
going to be I don’t think it’s
oh here we go oh look at that did you
see that behavior change very quickly
here we go
no we’ll find out if hyena Cubs chase
birds or not I could have been
completely wrong very excited by it
though he’s stalking hiding very it’s
going to shoot out of that hole and race
towards that kugel however that little
hyena cut is not going to be quick
enough to catch that gook oh I can
assure you and I think that’s why that
COO call knows that it’s quite safe
playing around on the ground most of the
youngsters are out in the open where it
can see adults how you know won’t be
interested in that bird no no interest
whatsoever it’s just popping back out
again right well it’s been a beautiful
afternoon with a hyena Cubs I think will
come back here a first thing tomorrow
morning and hopefully spend a bit more
time with them perhaps you’ll see some
more action no wells down in South
Africa as you know she hasn’t got a
leopard but she’s got something that has
got lots and lots of feathers and we
found a really nice view of an African
Jacana we are just trying it keeps
moving down the way here let me just see
there we go let’s get a view there
gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous it’s been
hunting around the edges here for
aquatic insects and also non aquatic
insects notice the large large feet to
help it through muddy areas it also
allows it to stand on top of floating
vegetation like water lilies and this
birds there it gets an aquatic insect
there and you just saw another one
floating past aquatic insects are really
interesting they need to breathe still
but they have different ways of being
able to breathe so for them to habitat
these areas that this chick got one at
this jacana is fishing in it they can
attain the water underwater from plants
using a snorkel they can also fill up
their lungs and
they stay underwater for long periods of
time or some of them have evolved
self-contained underwater breathing
mechanisms like some spiders and some
adult insects and they trap air bubbles
over their spiracles their spiracles or
how they breathe and then mosquito
larvae are quite interesting they have
sharp spiracles to penetrate plants to
get air bubbles or they use a snorkel on
their back end that they hang upside
down in and then get water that way also
some aquatic beetles trap air underneath
their wings so all of those insects are
able to live in this habitat and then
because they can live and breathe in
this habitat something like this Jacana
is able to obtain food sources and then
its body has developed to be able to
access some of their species that other
birds wouldn’t necessarily be able to do
because of the foot structure and where
it can live David you’re saying this is
now number 47 on your list
fantastic I’m hoping that’s 47 for 2018
that’s a good list so far Tristan and I
were talking today Tristan’s going on
leave soon and I asked him what he was
doing and he’s good there
I caught one there nice little aquatic
insect Tristan’s gonna go birding in the
Kruger National Park and he’s gonna go
look for some lifers there and I’m very
jealous of the lifer list that he’s
aiming for this leave and if he gets
them I’m gonna then have to go on leave
very shortly and and tick them off as
well
now jacanas are polyandrous so basically
what happens the female will come and
lay eggs and then she goes away and then
she does it with another male and then
another male and then another male and
then the males all are the ones that
take care of the chicks interestingly
enough happens in some bird species but
not many and happens in very few mammal
species if any
so I was also watching this Chicana
earlier it was picking insects off a
dead log that were non aquatic insects
but I think he’s found a nice little
spot to access them at the moment
another fish we were talking bout fish
earlier and I forgot about this one
another fish that we would find in a
lake like this or a dam like this would
be a barnable or a catfish found a
catfish carcass here the other day
most likely brought up by something like
a fish eagle this jacana won’t
necessarily eat that catfish but many of
the other bird species might scavenge
off of it gorgeous absolutely fantastic
well that was a special little sighting
ville d is very keen for some Leopard I
am also very keen for some Leopard so
we’re gonna carry on and go have a look
and we’re gonna head back over to
tristin who’s still with his elephants I
am indeed and they are slowly but surely
coming right past at the front of the
car so we’ve got a few of them right
next to us right yeah
so you can see they very very close so
I’m trying not to move too much with
them but the whole herd is just slowly
but surely tracking across the front
side of the vehicle and I was hoping
that we would get them all coming past
it’s a beautiful relaxed herb at first
they were a little kind of nervous of us
so we saw a situation where there was a
few years that were out and a little bit
of sort of hesitancy from them but now
they’ve all relaxed quite nicely and
you’ve got a beautiful view of this not
a huge head but at least a decent sized
herd coming past you can see some of the
youngsters are now filing out of the
background and the adults are still
sitting feeding all around us and you
can see they don’t spend long in the Sun
as soon as they get into the Sun they
start moving quite quickly because
otherwise it just gets too warm and even
though they have this incredible ability
to cool their body down with their ears
they still are having to try and and
just kind of get out into some semblance
of shade no excuse my head there I held
it in frame I’m trying to duck down but
it is very very difficult to in his in
his all around you and so
the touch sorry dubby it was my fault
but there’s I think a little baby in
amongst it yes there’s the little tiny
one let’s see how cute that is that’s a
fairly newborn baby I would say maybe a
couple months old if that and it’s a
fairly active little thing as well it
keeps following everybody around all
over the place right David’s reposition
once again because they’ve now abruptly
moved past us
and we’ve had news as well for those of
you that are wondering about the in
Cooma pride now the increment pride for
some reason I don’t know if James found
their tracks today but Rick’s and
reckons their tracks are from during the
day today have walks through Juma and
have crossed into error future chasing
buffaloes I was hoping we would be able
to find them he said the tracks were
hitting in this direction so that’s why
I was just sitting with these elephants
in the hope that maybe the elephants
would help me find them in one of these
blocks but it seems as though they’ve
crossed in terraces on the trail of some
Buffalo and so we’re not going to be
able to find the include Hummers today
which is very very sad I actually don’t
even know the last time I saw the
increment pride actually I do sorry I
lied the ink uma cried the last time I
saw them was when we were in rehearsals
for TV which was at the beginning of
December and so I haven’t seen the
income of pride for quite some time and
really has been very little time with
him over the course of the last year so
be really nice if they did decide that
it would be pleasant to come back to
zoom and not stay away as much as they
have over the last little bit so this
should get better now Davi I’m just
gonna try get around once more see what
we’re trying to do is just try and kind
of heads around their head a little bits
a ninja’s Park looking their way with
just Park close by and just watch them
kind of come past us in a sort of 45
degree angle that’s the idea behind this
anyway whether or not it works we shall
soon find out but at least we have a
fairly nice view from where we’re
sitting now you can see they’re just
kind of coming broadside to us at the
moment and it is the most beautiful day
big blue skies green summery bush and
the grey coast of Africa moving through
it’s just one of the best ways to spend
a day look at that isn’t that
picturesque it certainly is a stunning
summer’s day it couldn’t ask for much
better and thank goodness there’s a bit
of a breeze as all because otherwise too
be stiflingly hot the Aimi’s looked
fairly relaxed about life as all they
have had their Matt Waller so they’ll be
cooled down and well for them it’s just
a bounty of food at the moment as they
moved through these green grasses and
these treat areas with lots of foliage
it’s like a mixed salad on buffet for
them so they’ve kind of just moved in
and they just take whatever they want
with their trunks and they will be quite
selective about what they feed off at
this time of the year because they’ve
got so much to choose from they can find
the tastiest treats and so you see there
she’s kicked up a small acacia tree and
those will be the tastiest leaves that
she has Archer what amazes me is that if
I had to go and pick up that tree or any
one of you you is lacerate your hands
completely but yet that elephant has
just shoved that entire tree into its
mouth with no worries whatsoever and
eaten at all so it just goes to show you
how hard their palate is but they
absolutely love those acacia so it’s one
of their favorite things to eat you know
particularly in the summer months if
they’ve got a few flowers on them they
get these tiny little yellow flowers
that are full with nectar and they
absolutely love them and you’ll find
that they’ll chomp them down it the one
in the back there is targeting some
Guinea grass by the looks of things it’s
got a beautiful sticky sweet seed on it
and that is also fairly tasty if you’re
an elephant so lots to each end and
really good nutrition for all of them as
they kind of were clear away through the
thickets from water point towards point
because I’m pretty sure this herd is
going to start heading towards the red
dam that’s where the kind of angle that
they’re going in at the moment is that
they’ll go past two men into arethusa
towards that dam and this is how
elephants go at this time of the year I
mean it’s very hot as they literally
just feed their way from one water
source to the other where they’ll top-up
water and they’ll then crew themselves
down and then carry on again with the
feeding process to satisfy that’s
massive gut system that they’ve got very
cool you can see how completely relaxed
they’ve become now so it started out
that they’re a bit kind of know there’s
a vehicle in amongst us and they were
paying attention to us whereas now you
can see everybody is completely calm and
they’re just doing their own thing and
that’s one of the nicest things about
being out here with the Ellie’s in this
particular part of the world is that
most of them are super relaxed and you
get these intimate sort of moments where
you in amongst the aliens they’re all
around you
there’s just the nicest thing to do and
to spend time so a perfect way to spend
a Sunday afternoon in my opinion it’s
actually quite nice just listening to
them ripping up bits of grass I’m not
sure if you guys can hear it but as they
pull up Tufts you can just hear this
ripping and then the slow walking as
they kind of go through it and even I
mean leaves brushing on their skin it’s
a lovely sound to listen to and that
coupled by the breeze present way to
spend the afternoon funny enough
actually where these elephants are
standing right now just to the right of
them on the ground you’ll see a big
sandy patch that’s there so that area
over there Dobby now that little patch
there some of you may remember a few
months ago is where shadow went chasing
after a warthog and she was digging
around in there and as she turned her
back and walked away and water came
flying out so she’d just been a little
bit more patient she might have gotten
lucky but it’s amazing to see the
difference when we filmed bats there was
absolutely no grass around it and was a
fairly bare patch now it’s incredibly
well hidden only just noticed it now as
their Lea kind of all past that it’s
exactly that spot where we had shadow
digging forward oh so amazing how things
change in the summer months
right sorry let’s just repositions like
Easter means try and get
into a different area once again he is
nice little gambler that we can go on is
a lovely big game path I must remember
this game part because I’m pretty sure
[Music]
when I was going to say that these game
paths are really good for a lot of our
predators now I’m trying to see how big
a game path we’ve got that’s okay so
it’s a nice big art Foxboro that is yeah
so it’s difficult to see but then maybe
you can see it but basically it goes in
like this we park now on top and this
will be done by odd fox or something
like a porcupine that was a dig there
and so every now and then if you’re not
paying attention too much and you’re not
really looking you can end up inside one
of those and I actually had a friend of
mine that was once being chased by a
buffalo and he was running away from the
Buffalo and as he was running away he
ended up in a situation where he fell
down one of those and thank goodness he
did because if it wasn’t for that the
Buffalo would have got to him and he
managed to fall down these are alcohols
right let me reposition myself and while
I do that let’s go back across to
Brinkley Oh Smith and his well I think
he’s left the cheetah now and is
probably racing home and trying to get
out of the way of a rather large storm
look at that look at that that is a
massive wall of dust that’s being
I stopped for yes
apology to mittens of blacks
you
and we’re already starting to get
raindrops but that read there that is
dust
it is a monster and
we’re going to
tonight because the Roofus will be too
flooded to cross so I’m gonna keep
moving no oh my Allah is chasing
something they know the cheetah hang on
hang on hang on there’s a cheetah
chasing isn’t she going on hang on into
a long way away I just saw up me on it
shoots out of the bush she was in and
take off at high speed
I’m out of that foot
sweetheart
it’s where the chief maybe we’re gonna
get our second cheetah kill in a day or
in the afternoon actually Oh rain go
away rain go away just wait to let me
find a cheetah
she messed it looks like she missed
where am i binoculars we’re not kiss my
nose my nose where are you he said here
there it definitely looks like it yeah
she must do you see here you see a
headland just hang on go back zoom right
in the center of screen there where my
finger is
she missed whatever she was chasing oh
yeah so much excitement right at the end
of the Safari but now I am going to make
a like a cheetah
probably not drive as fast but I’m gonna
try to get away from that storm before
it hits us and there we go
Adrian’s gonna give you one last look
there’s a the rainbow the wall of dust
and the massive storm behind
isn’t that beautiful actually it’s just
take a moment stunning now I really have
to – lets go back to Tristan
about his ping-pong tournament well tell
I wish you luck on your endeavors to the
heiner’s and a very very warm welcome to
Juma
and sunny South Africa it is as sunny as
sunny can get it is bright it is breezy
and it is very pleasant to be out on a
game Drive now as television my name is
Justin on camera today I’ve got two
Darvey which is always an absolute
pleasure to have on board and well we
are going to be trying to see if we
can’t catch up with Tandy and Cubs so
that is the plan for this afternoon
hopefully we will be able to get some
sort of luck with Tandy and cut this
afternoon we’ll have to just try and see
now remember it is interactive so it
hashtag safari live on Twitter or the
YouTube chat if you want to get hold of
us now Taylor you were wondering about
our ping pong okay Taylor well our ping
pong was delightful Toby was it
delightful it was delightful now I’ve
got a video to show all of you for those
of you that don’t know what we’re
talking about today was the ping pong
Palooza challenge yeah at a Juma and so
what that entailed was basically the
following so I’m going to play you a
video and you will be able to see how
this all wings
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
so that’s is what happened today so tell
it was a very successful event and you
want to know who won well we had a team
competition to start which was the Black
team so Davi and I were on the Black
team with Kirsty and Rebecca and a few
others who else was an egg she was in
our team and Louise that’s right so it
was three girls three boys and so the
six of us managed to beat the red team
but unfortunately the overall winner was
a member of the red team and that was
James Henry and I lost to him in the
final which is a disaster and you can
see there was much celebration after all
of that right well try to find Tandy and
Kutner after we worked up a sweat in our
ping pong challenge and while we do that
I think we don’t – Noelle I’m not a
hundred percent sure but either way it
will be one of our members of the Safari
Live Crew for the afternoon it is a very
warm afternoon I’m so sorry to hear that
you lost two games with ping pong
Palooza I sadly was cracking the books
today for my practical examination so
I’m glad everyone had a good time how
amazing everyone was that sighting with
Brent’s cheetah and that warthog
superjealous Brent I hope you get some
more action up there I am Noelle and I’m
Cameron – that camera – I can’t talk on
camera today I have the ville de B’s VM
hello
thumbs up so yeah we’re just plodding
along and waiting for it to cool down a
little bit I’m actually in search for
Elephants I’d really like to see some
swimming elephants today so we’re
checking biffle’s hook Dam and then
we’re gonna head down towards a chitwa
chitwa and see what we can find along
the way as you know Tristan’s headed
over to see if he can find tun Dee and
her youngster and then we’re hoping that
maybe husana pops up over on chitwa side
but you never know what might happen
also maybe shadow and her youngster
maybe come up by twins twin dem so we’ll
go and have a look down there now
amazingly our hippo friend is not here
in biffle’s hook damn I don’t know where
he’s gone or where he could be maybe he
has decided that he is too lonely and
needs to go and try and
some females or maybe on his feeding out
and about this after this last evening
he managed to find a place that just
suited him a bit better but I’m sure
he’ll be back in a few days all right
we’re gonna go check the corner because
the other thing I would like to see is
maybe the wild dogs they haven’t been
over to us for a while and last time
that we saw them they moved over a bit
east
so as we’re busy searching we’re gonna
send you all the way back up to Brent in
the Maasai Mara with his cheetahs who
are still busy on their kill and let you
enjoy the spectacular sighting that that
is
sorry about that everybody
Rimland attacking a Brent but he’ll be
back with you shortly not to worry for
those of you that don’t know what a REM
melon is it’s just a cute little word
that we use to describe some technical
issues that come with forecasting and
promote Africa but anyways these things
happen every now and then we’re driving
through the lovely golden grass at the
moment but we are edging closer and
closer to war with a high uniden and
we’re not too far from the River Road
now basically where the next line of
trees is is essentially where that
highway is we’ll jump on that and that
should take us to our destination
relatively quickly although we’ve still
got a bit of time to spare what is the
time auto part almost quarter past 5:00
Eastern African time so yeah I’m just
trying to think it might take us again
the great thing about coming on a safari
is that you have a plan to go and do one
thing and it can easily change because
you know you bump into something that’s
even more amazing so who knows they
might see the McQuarrie pride and maybe
we’ve come across Scarface and his clan
around my clan is pride
speaking of hyenas no tennis you’ve
asked what animal do I think I’m most
like I find this Adam this question hard
to answer so I’m gonna let you’ll answer
it for me everyone says my spirit animal
is a lion I think it’s because I have
lots pain but maybe you guys didn’t come
up with something quite funny and don’t
worry I don’t get offended easy so go
wild hashtag safari live or chat to us
via the YouTube and what do you think
what animal do you think I’m most alike
now Megan who’s directing this afternoon
is just said that she thinks I’m like an
arena trogon because I’m most unique
Thank You Megan that’s very kind of you
I showed Megan and marina trogon
yesterday when we went on a little
safari park or a little exercise and
hike which was a lot of fun so and it
was actually quite surprising we heard a
calling and then any and ended up being
right above us it’s so beautiful
in the only patch of light in the forest
– and normally with marina trogon is
that they’re quite shy birds and they
tend to hide themselves away and always
turn their backs – so we see the green
on which makes it very difficult to spot
up in the trees but we were so lucky I
said – Megan that’s probably one of the
best sightings of an arena trogon I’ve
ever had I have a video but it’s not
gonna do much for you unfortunately
because it was up in the trees above us
basically through a hole about that big
and all you could see was the bright red
of its braced and it was just looking
down and I was watching us and we split
through it for five or six minutes just
in absolute or admiring it so I don’t
know if I’m quite as unique as a marina
trogon because there’s something quite
special
but thank you Megan that was very kind
of you here we have some water rock and
giraffe
well the giraffes are circling the
outskirts of the marsh the water buck
jumping straight into it let’s have a
have a little look-see okay
you said I’m like a jackal is it because
I for some reason every time I see those
jackal pups they run up to my car and so
who me I don’t know why that is I don’t
know if they do that to everybody if
they just did to me I like to think they
just do it to me it makes me feel a bit
better about myself that’s quite a good
one it might not be as quick as them as
good as catching grasshoppers though but
I do try no the water back I’m not
worried about grasshoppers are ever they
were willing to eat them they are
feeding on all the lovely lush grass in
the marsh and this is how you should be
seeing water back you know missus I
haven’t seen it for quite some time the
last time I’d see you water back in in
marshy sort of areas or wetlands was in
Zambia and lower Zambezi National Park
but we typically don’t see this and the
sabi sad unfortunately there aren’t
enough areas where I don’t think there
are any areas with his marshes I’m
trying to think
nope not that I could think of
everywhere that I’ve worked on in the
sense and quite have a marshy area so so
it is quite nice to see that again the
male has not lifted his head once now
this is quite interesting what I find it
quite fascinating I don’t know if you
remember a few weeks ago we were seeing
two water buck and bulls in this area
this is the same spot that brains and I
like to do a lot of birding it’s often
when we see that malachite Kingfisher
just for context and we had two of them
having a standoff remember that morning
was beautiful in the golden light and
they were other male Maat this one I
think was much older and he had much
bigger horns but he got chased away by
this young upstart and I think that
that’s quite nice to see that sometimes
it’s not always the biggest bull with
the longest horns I suppose it’s all
about your technique in terms of
fighting and he must have won because
he’s still here with the same group of
water buck that we see almost every
single morning that we pass through on
this river oh very very very nice
also the same herd that I pointed out to
you a couple of times I’ve said the
females are looking quite big now
and their bellies are bulging so
hopefully we’ll start to see a few more
youngsters popping out but remember it
will take a week a week or two before
they bring them back to the herd because
they’ll give birth off on their own in
the thickets we probably won’t see who
might actually see that see this can’t
the females one two three four five six
seven eight nine so I can see nine here
they’re no more on the other side of the
road I didn’t count how many new water
back females were here the last time
that I saw them so let’s say that maybe
one or two of them have already gone off
to give birth because there was
definitely one female that was very very
big right I’m going to send you as quick
as I can
down to the sabi sand because Noelle has
got an exceptional sighting of a species
of Mongoose that I have not seen for a
very long time we just came across this
really cool slender Mongoose and he was
finishing at the tail end of what looked
like a lizard or a skink kill and now it
seems as if he’s sniffing around trying
to figure it out if there’s anything
left for him to eat now unfortunately we
just got the tail end of it and we’re
unable to put it on camera for you but
it looks as if he’s managing to find
tiny little bits there he was finishing
it off just there where he’s smelling
and now having a rest licking his chops
from his lovely little meal snakes
they’re very good at killing and eating
snakes that also eat termites and large
beetles and of course now as we’ve sort
of shown you the lizards as well now he
might stick around long enough to groom
and clean himself most species were most
organisms I searched they say after a
meal we’ll do a bit of cleaning
especially if the meal was a larger one
just to make sure everything’s still in
place we see it often with Birds we see
it with lion and leopard but it’s also
true of our our smaller mammals as well
there he’s cleaning his paws off making
sure to get all the gunk
and it’s interesting he’s not too far
from us so he’s I think he’s just
checking to see what we’re up to as well
every now and then just to make sure we
don’t invade his space puzzle the puzzle
I’m so sorry I’m tripping over my words
today everybody I’ll drink some more
water just now that will help eyes we’re
driving around the breeze is even better
but as we sit still the heat is pretty
intense and not gonna lie
dries your mouth out also this is a good
setting because we don’t usually get to
see slender mongoose often Catherine
you’re saying how cute the slender
Mongoose is yes monkeys are while
Mongoose are are cute definitely cute
little species so there’s been a raging
debate between myself and a few friends
about what are we actually supposed to
call a mongoose is a mongoose mongooses
hmong guy and then we were chatting with
a biologist friend of ours and he was
saying it’s just Mongoose but I do catch
myself from time sign saying among geese
would make sense because you go from
gusta geese but it’s just Mongoose all
right fantastic slender Mongoose
finishing up his kill there we’ve picked
up on a little bit of male leopard
tracks and Billy and I have been
debating about who this male effort
could be the tracks are rather large
both of us are sort of hedging our bets
towards tan Ghana but the problem is
these tracks are not very fresh they’re
probably from last night and there’s
another vehicle that’s driven on top of
them but in general he’s heading down
this road so another reason why we’re
thinking in certain Ghana is the fact
that because he’s sticking to the road
and he’s going to the inside curves and
the way that he’s moving
this might actually turn let me just see
if I can find a nice little sequence up
here means that there’s possibly some
scent marking that’s happening which
would mean that it wouldn’t beat
something like tompa tomba is too small
for scent marking and also the tracks
are very large so as we know tomba has
big feet
but these feet are very big sorry I’m
just trying to see if I can find them
for you again
I had one back there but it wasn’t the
best to show on camera no I’ve lost them
a little bit it’s possible that he cut
around the curve here let me see as we
go along if I can find you on another
nice sequence
now on a hot day like today right now
would be rare to find a leopard walking
around but that being said I have
friends that work in the pylons Berg
National Park which is farther west
north from us in South Africa and it’s a
park that sees quite a lot of traffic
from private vehicles and something that
they’ve found over the years they’ve
been working there there’s a lot of the
leopard activity actually happens in the
middle of the day when when the vehicles
tend to be resting and they tend to find
leopards hunting in 40 degrees Celsius
whether in the middle of the day sort of
1 o’clock 2 o’clock and it’s an
interesting scenario so I don’t know if
there’s something else that plays up
with it there’s also quite a large lion
population that’s there there could be
other mitigating factors but my friends
at work there are convinced it has to do
with the amount of people that are
coming into the park now we’ve got a
beautiful kudu that’s just up here
is now unfortunately moving away and I
don’t think we’re gonna be able to get
too nice of a view I think Brits comms
have come back so let’s head back up to
him in the Masai Mara and see what he
can show us with those cheetahs sorry
about all those gremlins with him but it
seems to sorted itself out so you must
enjoy well it’s unfortunately when were
a bit closer to them and we couldn’t
care the final control but they
absolutely smashed that little warthog
in no time whatsoever they ate it all up
it’s pretty much dance keys now and I’ve
been trying to check with my binoculars
for the female she’s probably made good
her escape I might go look for a little
later but I’m pretty sure she would have
jogged but unfortunately for her if she
keeps in that direction she’s gonna run
into me Olly
so me alia was in the direction where
she started heading off with when the
boys started chasing this a young
warthog and if you’re a warthog it’s a
bad day if you’re at a cheetah
it’s a lovely Sunday Wow human
equivalent of a suckling pig I suppose
so good for the boys they’ll be quite
happy with that well that I don’t think
it’s gonna be enough to sate them I
think they might hunt again just now but
it should keep them a little bit less
hungry for a little while
remember this is all a hundred percent
live coming to you from the masai mara
and the greater Kruger in South Africa
and in Kenya we are sitting in the Masai
Mara of course Tristan and Noelle are
sitting in the greater Kruger on Juma
and we’ve found our spotted cats well we
found eight different key to this
afternoon let’s hope that Noelle and
Tristan can find you guys some leopards
and to finish off the big cat afternoon
because we have seen lions already so
lions and cheetahs so we’re relying on
Noelle interesting to find us some
leopards and Tristan no excuses today
okay not all of them would have got a
very good meal out of that oh it sounds
like we have a possible ID for the
female James Richard says that female
might have been Rosetta which is roses
daughter now I’ve never heard of either
of those two
cheater so there we go you learn
something new every day now it looks
like some of the boys are up and about
already that little warthog did not
touch sides well some of them are
flopping down others are on the move now
you will see there are other vehicles
enjoying the sighting with us but you
can see still quite an empty belly a
little pig that doesn’t go far when
there’s five of him now guys I’d be
heading the other way there’s a lot more
game where I came from then across the
side
now are you going to plunk or are you
going to keep walking that is the
question I’ve got a feeling they might
plunk for a little bit well maybe not
wasn’t a very long chase for them so
they wouldn’t have utilized too much
energy catching that that little warthog
how’s that for simultaneous sitting
choreographed it has plunk our bottoms
the exact same time now d’Artagnan the
greedyguts that he is is the last to
leave what is left of little
you
Nereus striding towards the others and
apologies we are right on the edge of
some of the signal we are really down
low in a in a river system
so hopefully the boys keep heading up up
up and away towards a better signal and
comms area they normally do at this time
in the day and they move out of the
low-lying areas up towards the crests
following the prey species which
normally do the same
and you can probably yeah it’s quite
windy at the moment the next are you
mother you option you going to plonk yep
plonk you never know what could happen
next another that poor unsuspecting
warthog might wonder towards them
we’re gonna keep an eye on the boys for
now hopefully they do get moving
otherwise we do have plan B C and D now
me Ali the Lions and Rosetta possibly
want that o name so we’re gonna see what
happens here for a bit longer before we
move on while we do that it sounds like
mccurdy is racing off somewhere just
trying to get to that hyena dinner feels
like it’s getting further and further
away buttbrain she’ll be happy to know
very very briefly you got to see this
the straw tailed wider yeah you’ve been
telling me about a new put one on screen
the other day which was very cool and we
just passed it for fools sadly I didn’t
get to show all of you but it was really
nice to finally see I’ve been quite
lucky with the birds this week in terms
of how many new ones have actually added
to the list which is really quite cool
was I supposed to go down there
the next ye know just checking here for
anymore birds the spot is quite nice
although it’s dried up quite a bit so it
mustn’t have had too much rain here last
night a little bit it’s a bit wait if no
one’s home
only there’s a Goliath Heron that lives
only good stuff who is a Goliath here
and that’s around here no no birds not
even the Egyptian geese today that’s
unusual rumor we’ve seen couple of times
I’ve stopped Jennison whole flock bless
you Craig
bless you another one just two
now scenic you’re wondering what species
of widow birds are found in Kenya we
have a look let’s bring the book out
quickly have a look as I can rattle off
all so it takes me a lot of stuff I can
rattle off all sorts of names but I
think it would be better if we actually
took a look at them don’t you think and
lucky widow bird should be right at the
end too
when are we gonna start 686 600 and s
are quite far am I here right here feels
like spider webs sometimes on my face um
almost promise we’re almost there right
next page okay right so theoretically
the Yellow crowned no that’s a bishop
that’s what one brains has been telling
me about that I need to keep an eye out
on there not that one here we go yellow
a mint old widow bird so it’s number
four down here on the bottom right I’m
so sorry I can’t even see my monitor at
the moment that one there were my thumb
is that is one that we get to see so we
get quite a few down here let me go to
the next page yes look familiar then top
left is the fantail Twitter bird which i
think is the most common one that we’re
seeing at the moment and the white
winged widow bird which is number two
I’ve seen that in South Africa yes we
see that
in the greater Kruger area that’s one
that we see quite often it just occurs
on the border of Kenya and Tanzania and
in Tanzania so maybe we’ll see it down
on the border number three the red
collared widow bird we must certainly
see lots of them and then the yes so
there we go so one two three maybe a few
more species of widow birds too but the
most common ones that we’re seeing at
the moment are the red collared the fan
tailed oh and then where’s the jacksons
why can’t I find Jackson’s oh there’s
another page of widow bird brained was
also telling me that I need to keep an
eye out for number two which is that one
and the Jacksons were a bird which I
haven’t seen just yet so I’ll keep an
eye out for the
I think you said I don’t know if he
managed to put one on screen but I know
he was trying the other day I don’t
think it was sitting still but very cool
so there’s a variety of widow bird
species and that we get to see out here
in the Mara it was very nice
I think the only one that I haven’t seen
so far is the Jacksons I really really
need to make an effort to go through my
Birds and figure out how many I’ve
actually seen over the years because
I’ve completely lost count I also don’t
have my well now with my Kenyan Birds I
think I’m probably seeing quite a few
more birds since I’ve been here and the
Mara but for me it doesn’t matter about
numbers it’s just constantly learning
about the new birds and seeing them one
day when I’m bored I’ll eventually go
through and count them or on a rainy day
right but I am gonna send you back
across the Mara River and we’re gonna go
from the triangle to the Masai Mara
National Reserve print is not feeling
those cheetah out of his sight
well welcome back everyone we’re still
sitting with their boys and as I
predicted they have plunked four now
doing a bit of grooming after their
little piggy afternoon rest
I say it’s gonna be interesting to see
if they’re handy and I’m not sure that
they’re going to to be honest but you
never know and I think there are worth
spending the time with the slot they
don’t look quite settled just yet
there’s quite a bit of up-and-down
movement let’s go across to the to
grooming no no let’s clean the blood off
each other’s faces there we go and there
they are practicing a little bit of a
low grooming
still definitely looking about see if
there’s any potential prey around
hello Ben who’s nine years old and Ben
all I heard is that something somebody
told me that it was possibly your
birthday unfortunately I couldn’t care
what your question was it was a bit
broken up but happy birthday Ben who’s
nine years old I think Megan is saying
how fast
what’s the Cheetahs maximum speed there
a document doing as much as a hundred
and ten kilometres an hour but that was
quite a long time ago now it’s thought
that probably top speed is between 90
and 100 kilometres an hour so it’s still
very very fast and much faster than any
people or any person could run ain’t the
fastest person ever recorded was Usain
Bolt and I think he’s I think was 45
degree 45 km/h or something like that so
well more than double what a human being
can run
we get some lovely tender moments from
the boys now these moments of a low
grooming which it means sort of social
grooming are very important when it
comes to re-establishing the bonds that
they have while they often will fight
and scrap with each other so after those
moments of fighting and scrapping the
the little licks and loves are to
reaffirm that they all still friends
while they’re on the move which is a
good thing for us and they’re moving in
a good area for us because I hopefully
I’ll be able to hear Megan if I go a
little bit higher oh no you know what
they’re doing
cheeky cheetah they’re using the shade
where one is using the shade of the
safari vehicle to sleep in there’s no
trees around so if there is a convenient
safari vehicle just let’s lie in that
shade I thought they were going to keep
moving hopefully they will but for the
moment they’re lying in the shade of the
Safari vehicles but I’m gonna have to go
up the hill a little bit to see if I can
hear Megan
okay well we’re gonna wait to see what
these guys get up to while we do that it
seems like Noel is with something that
is a lot bigger and a lot scarier than a
cheetah made it over to trip with them
and it is a beautiful scene right now
we’ve got lots of hippos playing in the
water they’re also enjoying this
sunshine as well as this a little bit of
a breeze
we had one hippo that was out the water
but she climbed quickly back in as we
came up so these are the youngsters that
have been giving us such great antics
that passed a few times we’ve been here
as they get older they get more
comfortable in their space and they get
more playful and then obviously a lot of
the play that they’re doing is going to
help them later in life when they’re all
grown up whether they’re male or female
whether they need to defend their little
ones or defend their territories as
males so hippos have a very thin
epidermis a very thin skin and they
don’t sweat like most of the mammal
species we see out here they don’t sweat
and they have no hair to help protect
them from the Sun or the heat so by
staying in the in the water during the
day it makes up for all of this it also
is protecting their skin remember their
skin is very sensitive because of that
thin epidermis because of that thin top
layer of skin so a lot of the times when
you do see them out of the water they
appear quite pink and that’s that very
special secretion that they make that
works like a sunscreen it’s it’s
basically a mucus over their skin and
they lose more water through their skin
than any other mammal which is something
that we talked about so if we were
similar to a hippo and we lost as much
moisture through our skin as they did we
would need to be in the water or in a
moist environment often or else we would
dehydrate excessively or desiccate
desiccates another word for dehydration
usually this occasion refers to lizard
species and snakes and things like that
but we can also use it to to work for us
as well and then of course because of
all of this that’s why they move outside
the water when it’s a cooler or a night
time for their feeding practices
to mitigate all their circumstances are
there animals that live in sort of dry
very very dry areas that have the
probability of possibly dehydrating will
also do a lot of their feeding at night
something like a tennis ball or even
spring book which we don’t get here but
in more arid areas they’ll do something
similar and they get a lot of the
moisture they need from eating the
plants during the time of the the
evening or early morning where the dew
collects now just right in front of our
car maybe two meters from our vehicle we
have a beautiful little print and call
that’s sitting here in some old elephant
dung and these pregnant calls I’m look
before I moved here I saw printer calls
every now and then but we have these
ones that nest in this area be that
really great sighting of an egg maybe
about a month or so ago and then every
time I’ve popped up here I keep seeing
them but I haven’t seen any chicks yet
and I have a feeling that not many of
the eggs have survived because this is
where the elephants like to walk down
when they come to drink and obviously
elephants have a very big feet and so it
can sometimes be difficult for these
birds to keep their eggs alive because
remember they’re not making a nest it’s
just a tiny little scraping in the
ground and then putting that egg right
there and the egg is meant to camouflage
Kevin you’re curious know are there any
crocodiles here at chitwa dam there are
Crocs and I’m actually happy to look
around from our vantage point right now
to see if we can see any I’m not seeing
any from here they could possibly be in
the water or they could be up on the
island where I cannot see or buildi do
you see one on the other side there
yeah we’re just taking oh there’s some
bushbuck on the other side there again
an antelope species we don’t see often
they like to hide in the thick bush
these ones particularly like to be
around the dam and just on the right
hand side of your screen as well there’s
a spoonbill that white bird with a
spatula type bill and then it looks like
some white face whistling ducks and
maybe an Ibis that’s over there other
side it’s quite far away from where we
are it’s on the stoop of chitwa main
lodge they’re just checking the rocks
that side
Willow whose three years old hello
willow you’re curious to know if hippos
talk to each other and I’m not quite
sure if you heard all that grunting that
just happened now willow they do indeed
talk to the two each other most
organisms communicate with each other in
some manner
hippos outside the water make that funny
and laughing grunts on that we just
heard a little bit of now and then they
also communicate underneath the water
they it’s there related to HIPAA too –
whales hippos are related to whales
they’re in the same order so all of the
organisms that we work with – whether
were human or were a bird or were a
plant or were a hippo we all have these
different sequences that we fit into and
so hippos and whales are cousins of each
other and I’m not sure if you’ve ever
heard whale song under the water I’m
gonna do my best to imitate but it’s a
sort of
[Music]
singing noise and hippos will do that
underwater in a similar fashion there
they laugh using their their lower
jawbone they’re able to communicate that
way with vibrations yes it’s such a
beautiful afternoon here well though I
don’t know if you’re coming to us from
the States but if you are when I was a
kid there was a really wonderful program
with Ben Affleck called voyage of the
Mimi and there’s some really great stuff
on humpback whales from there I didn’t
know maybe you guys can google it with
your mom and I think you’d find that
super interesting so while we’re busy
looking for things like crocodiles and
maybe a little husana here at the
Chitwood dam let’s head on over to
Tristan and see what he’s up to
well I’m busy watching a poor African
Harrier hawk will resume the gene for
any of you that remember the old name
being mobbed and chased by multiple
folktale drummers you can see the little
drongos dive-bombing this poor African
Harrier hawk and the reason why they’re
doing that is because the Harrier Hawk
obviously is a bird hunter and so it
goes into the nests and goes and hunts
all of the little chicks and things like
that and so it gets disciplined very
quickly by the folktale drummers it gets
chased away and is made to get out of
the area and to try and go somewhere
else
now the reason why we know it’s an
african area as you see it Bank like
that into the lights you can really get
a nice indication of its coloration it’s
got that gray color with those yellow
legs and face masks which can change to
red sometimes when they’re in breeding
phase and then it’s got a very heavily
broad barred tail so white and black on
the tail itself which is very very cool
so it’s a it’s a beautiful bird to see
and we often see them around quarantine
and various other parts of the reserve
going from military to military sticking
their long legs inside those trees to
try and get into the nests and try and
find things like squirrels babies and
obviously chicks of birds and that’s why
the birds get a little upset with them
and try and kind of chase them away and
send him somewhere else but that was
very good well done Davi good camera
work with it and it’s not easy to follow
a soaring bird they look like they just
kind of
circling very slowly but they actually
move incredibly fast particularly when
they are being chased by other birds but
so far no luck on Tandy we’ve done a few
loops around I drove where James said
you sawed onion cut this morning and
while there are tracks absolutely
everywhere we haven’t been able to find
anything as yet we’ve seen you know
where she was moving up and down the our
tracks for the middle cab this tracks
for her it looks like they might have
gone north again and into towards sort
of Rebecca’s side and westwards and
maybe she’s got to kill somewhere there
I’m not sure so I’m just trying to do a
few loops now towards sort of triage
down Zoe’s Road just to make sure she
hasn’t popped out in any of those areas
if she has well then we’ll be able to
pick up tracks and follow them from
there but otherwise we’ll just keep
looping around and as it gets cooler
hopefully that’s going to mean she is
going to start moving and either go for
some water oh maybe just go back to a
cub or maybe back to a kill that sheep
might potentially have right well I will
be going towards treehouse a dam now in
trying to search for what I am looking
for but it seems that Taylor mccurdy has
managed to find what she was looking for
and hopefully it’s a very active day
when you raced on over because I was
worried that we’re gonna start running
out of time because it gets so dark so
quickly we were of course talking about
that hello little one you seem to be
very excited matching up to that female
that one’s just come out of the den no I
don’t think that’s your mum there is a
young cub that is suckling at the moment
just hiding in the grass that is
slightly older than this the little one
that’s being a bit cheeky remember how I
said this clearly one young hyena cub
that’s still quite black in color isn’t
probably between five and seven weeks
old somewhere around there that it walks
around like it owns the place and I can
only imagine it must be one of the
higher ranking females cubs but there’s
not many adults or answer better be
careful when mom’s not home to be quite
cheeky towards the other adults but the
race to them undercover at the moment
they’re hiding away from
the wind that’s here and I suppose it
would be quite nice and cozy down in
that borough we did also see two other
hyena closer towards the road they
actually look like males to me they
could have also just been very young
females but not too close to the den so
they’re do scatter themselves aren’t
like we said it was hard to swat them so
mom could be around here somewhere also
a herd of elephants I think moved
through we can still see the elephants
but we I think we would have missed the
interaction maybe about 15 20 minutes
unfortunately you can see them just off
into the distance I think they would
have come straight through this den that
would have also sent the hyenas running
and I’m sure the youngsters will be very
nervous of encountering so these large
Giants and maybe you know actually
you’ve got a bit of a fight and send
them down into that virus so it does
it’s not particularly active at the
moment not 15 seconds you said you found
you find hyenas very interesting I do
too and that’s why we spend so much time
at the den sites when we can
unfortunately they’re not always active
when we want them to be like right now
at least it’s a little bit of a sight of
a hyena just to get your fix of course
but there are really fascinating
creatures and and I like to spend them
at the time of them because I think
there’s a whole lot that I don’t know
about hyenas it goes on behind the
scenes so I always look forward and I
said pretty much with my notebook in
hand and my pen waiting and watching the
various behaviors that I that I see and
hopefully I’ll start to get to know the
individuals of the north clan and and
then go from there but for now they’re
very relaxed just suckling away filling
up that belly before the adults have to
search for some food again it all starts
again
of course it’s a big routine come back
feed the Cubs go off look for some
dinner come back to the day and such as
they don’t come back to the den for a
you know day or two but we’ll search
here for a no never mind what I’ve
spotted that looks like it’s a little
bit more interesting is just
to the writer that hyena up on the shrub
is a white broad cuckoo I’ve even seen
lots of them at the moment
hello I’ve been seeing lots of juveniles
too which has been quite fascinating and
we saw that the other morning and I’d
said she had never seen juvenile white
pride crew calls before not alarming at
the hyenas I would imagine that this one
lives within the vicinity and sees them
often now bird would not necessarily be
on a hyenas menu and even though there
are very very good hunters we don’t
typically see them going after the avian
species however to a young leopard or a
lion cub of course they would be quite
entertaining I can’t say that I’ve ever
seen young hyenas sort of chasing around
birds like we see with leopards and
lions for example or no never seen that
before I don’t think that there’s any
need for them to be chasing after after
those characters just yeah listening to
the elephant’s feed not as well as few
little sis tequila’s and things shouting
I’m not sure what they’re shouting about
I don’t think it would necessarily be
the hyenas now Dave be wondering if I
you know would ever hunt alone but
possibly if males out on his own or
these two cubs they I didn’t even see
them there so camouflage and I’ve
actually never have seen hyenas hunting
and chasing kudu wrong because we used
to see that a lot done at sabi sabi the
kudu were petrified of the hyenas and I
have seen hyenas chasing kudu on
quarantine which is that big open plain
that you see down in Zuma in South
Africa but I haven’t seen one on its own
before it wouldn’t it wouldn’t surprise
me they remember hyenas are not
necessarily always together they do
spread out all right what’s happening
now girl you done suckling your cubs
they do look like they’ve got nice full
bellies and there is another Sakshi
there’s a sub at going towards their
kuku that’s quite funny here we go look
it’s actually looking at the cuckoo you
can’t see it right now it’s quite
camouflaged but it’s still in their
truck and it wasn’t really manager seen
a duck down into the left of that truck
trying are you being a bit curious about
curious here we go here’s something I’ve
never seen before and it isn’t
fitting that we were just talking about
youngsters perhaps chasing after birds
not pouncing in there like a young cat
would but just investigating just having
a little smell I’m sure if a bird got
too close maybe they would snap it and
try and catch it and I don’t I don’t
feel like they would go chasing after it
did there’s so many other obviously
hyena Cubs that they can play with one
another they can keep themselves
entertained and I suppose that’s what’s
quite nice about living in a family
whether it’s a clan or a pride whereas
the adults don’t have that much of a
responsibility to keep their youngsters
entertained they can kind of rely on the
other youngsters in the group to
entertain one another we see that with
lions as well whereas leopards it’s a
little bit different mom has got a huge
responsibility and even with cheetah you
know if it’s just mom and one cub she’s
got a play with him she’s gonna keep
them entertained all the time hello
fluffy oh there’s a few more starting to
pop art oh they so sweet I love them
when they’re that age I’m missing tima
so much that was a very sweet little
hyena there we go
being quite affectionate to one another
just sort of smelling and licking
where’s that bossy cub that was Archie a
moment ago I’m sure he’ll come through
and stir a bit of trouble like it always
seems to do it’s like the floppy eared
cub of the hyena clan right we’ll stay
here for a little bit longer because it
seems as though the Cubs are starting to
emerge from the den will they come up to
the car I’m not sure however brint
is still keeping a watchful eye on the
cheetah I am but a watchful eye from a
long distance and fortunately there that
comes gremlins down in that valley are
very bad so I’ve just managed to put
myself in a position where we can still
keep an eye on them and it does look
like they might get moving again shortly
so and we’re just sitting probably about
500 metres from them on top of a little
hill where I can yeah Miggs talk to us
so here we go there are moving now I’m
hoping that they do come up towards I
see although there’s not much to eat
yeah oh and hopefully they don’t cross
the lugger again because that could be
interesting for us we just managed to
get through now the main crossing at the
lager
is that someone is stuck in little
crossing though so there’s a whole big
traffic jam of people trying to get
towards the boys but they can’t get
there because someone’s got stuck in the
crossing we made our own crossing of
course but I don’t want to do that
crossing more than once
it was quite hairy the first time but it
does look like there are slightly
sloping upwards towards us well towards
the top they all say let’s just move
around a bit okay so it looks like there
might come up towards the handle here so
I’m just going to keep up up high for
the moment and where I can still keep an
eye on them
[Applause]
well take Oh
so it looks like there are almost sort
of heading towards there’s a lone tree
over there that seems to be the
direction now there could go floppity
flop
all five seem to be up at the moment
and it looks like we might be in for
some more raining again this evening
fortunately it’s still quite far away
hopefully they’ll come back into a good
comms area shortly their general
direction does seem to be up towards
kissinger’s or Kissinger’s is quite far
away but that’s the direction they’re
heading towards sort of kike rock and we
will stay with them as long as possible
so we know where to look tomorrow
morning
and as you can see there are other
vehicles also enjoying the sighting and
we do apologize for having them in shot
but we have to stay quite far away for
now um hopefully they know don’t sit
down no keep moving there we go good
boys
Alan is wondering about one of our
favorite cheetah and Malaika
he saw a video of her and jumping on a
safari car and wondering what are the
rules about that it’s naughty um Alan
said I mean if she jumped on our card
probably be will she jumps on a lot of
cars I don’t let her jump on my car she
tries to jump on my car just tap the
side like this or start the car to stop
her doing that but certain people will
let let let let her do that so the
problem is is that one day there might
be a small child in that car or a very
scared person who reacts badly causing
her to react badly oh dear
did they flop down into the grass no
whoo okay guys it looks like they’re
gonna oh no there’s still two up um
but yeah so it’s it’s not ideal let’s
put it that way
it’s discouraged heavily by the the park
officials and just in case something
happens oh my goodness
his people stock oh sorry I find it
amusing and two crossings above seems
like they have managed to get out of the
one crossing while someone’s tried to
cross the next crossing and they’ve got
stuck I know I probably shouldn’t laugh
at other people’s discomfort but it is
quite funny
like yeah well we get it looks like
they’re going flat for now we’re gonna
search a play the patient’s game for a
little longer while we do that let’s go
zooming all the way back to South Africa
with Noel and B Kingfisher we have a
beautiful woodland Kingfisher that has
been diving into the water not for fish
but to clean itself to bathe
we’re thinking for sure in general don’t
eat fish they are insectivores they eat
insects and this one has just found a
beautiful little shady spot too every
now and then jump in but Billy and I
gave each other a little bit of a fright
just now we have found the crocodile and
we were busy doing a delay test so I
have to clap my hands for a delay test
so we know how far the the voiceovers
carry between us and the Mara and the
croc was right here at the edge of the
water you can just see little bubbles
sort of going away now let’s dive off we
didn’t see it it’s moving away under
there all right so we don’t know he’s
get a chance to talk about fish because
fish are not always something that we
see but thought since we’re here at
Chitwood dam fish might be a good thing
to talk about about 40% of all the fish
worldwide are freshwater fish so those
are fish that we would live in here now
something interesting about South Africa
is that 25% of the freshwater fish that
we find in places like this are actually
not fished from South Africa they’re
alien invasive species fish like bass
bass for instance is an alien invasive
species now something like that
crocodile that just gave us a little bit
of a scare and something like the Egret
that is a cross and this tiny little bit
of vegetation over there they’re going
to eat fish and we have forms of tilapia
here as well as you should find perch
every now and then in here and then
there’s another one that’s tickly in my
head it’s Jack and it I had the name
just now and six gaping me another alien
invasive species fish we have is carp
and a friend of mine fishes them a lot
he always feels good about himself sorry
everyone
there’s the woodland Kingfisher I’m
gonna take you away just because I can
see the crocodile now again
busy moving underneath this little bit
of vegetation just see the top of the
head there so a large croc like this
we’ll eat mammal species like Impala but
it will very much eat larger fish as
well and you were asking about Crocs I’m
actually hoping that this one will get
up onto the island here it does enjoy
being up the side now a larger croc like
this let’s say it got a small to medium
sized Impala it might be a little bit
big for it but let’s just say it did
that that meal could last it for a long
time but let’s say for for hypothetical
reasons it couldn’t get anything like
that eating things like the fish there
in this dam are going to sustain it
throughout the year now a lot of times
in in southern Africa you’ll find that
crocodiles east of eight which is a type
of hibernation when winter time is cold
and dry as opposed to cold and wet which
happens in a lot of the northern
hemisphere places and they’ll dig
themselves into the banks of dams like
this or sometimes they’ll go inside
termite mound that Kingfisher really
wants to be heard I hope you can hear
that in the background but sometimes
you’ll find that even through the winter
months
you’ll still see Crocs in large dams
like this still moving about because the
food resources are still readily
available I feel like I’m competing with
this woodland Kingfisher at the moment
go ahead sir no he’s done he’s now
preening himself
and and so you’ll get movement
throughout the year as opposed to areas
where the water will sort of disappear
during the dry season and then the croc
lowers its body temperature to almost
non-existent heart rate to almost
non-existent and and and does that
hibernation
now they’ll do we might be a bit too far
away but there’s a tiny little baby
hippo that’s starting to come out of the
water there let’s see if we can see this
baby hippo for a little bit as he comes
out you can see that pink coloration
you’re talking about now he doesn’t have
any playmates
playmates over there he’s just playing
by himself and investigating historians
but I believe my friend Tristan has some
elephants that we’ve been searching for
so I think let’s head on over to him and
have a look indeed we do too but many
elephants and they stretched out all the
way from chaos day I’m going sort of in
a wispy direction and North South
everywhere we look there was a Lee’s
around and so we’ve caught up with the
majority of the hood except that they
are not disappearing into the thickets
of course they would they were all out
on the road a few seconds ago and then
when it’s time for them to put on a show
well they’ve decided no it’s time for
some shade and a bit of feeding which
you can see little trunks sticking
through and they are ever so tentatively
feeding off one of these weeping wattles
that still has a few flowers on it so
they’re trying to find some of those
yellow flowers to feed on now what I
might do is just quickly reposition
ourselves so we get a slightly better
view because most of our chilies are
quite hidden so I just want to try and
kind of go around them a little bit if
rusty would decide to go into reverse
because rusty doesn’t feel like going
into reverse sometimes and so you have
to kind of be a bit rough with rusty and
get rusty to actually do what you ask it
to do but that’s okay we good friends by
now we’ve made up off the rusty ejected
me from the vehicle and I took it
through some thickets so we now have had
one for one and we’re all good and so
everything is okay now
hopefully if I can just get around this
area and position myself slightly in
front of this herd we will be able to
get them all kind of walking towards us
that’s the idea anyway whether or not it
works I’m not quite sure but let’s see
how we go what’s there trying to just
look for a little bit of shade for Dave
and I because it is fairly warm in the
Sun and so a little bit of shade would
be thoroughly welcomed in a day or on a
day like today should I say not in the
day that’s not a very good English and
James or he’s already beaten me once in
ping-pong will probably beat me again if
I carry on using English like that so
there try and sort myself out Davi I
think if we go round this bush then we
should be good then they should be
walking straight towards us from here I
can see some of them coming out sort of
try and position ourselves slightly
better this little gap here should be
good nice little bit of shade I think
we’re gonna be in a winning situation
here Davi here we go
just try go around the bush
and we good that’s better isn’t it it’s
not the best shade that I could have
found this little bit of Sun on as I
think Dave’s probably got more shade
than I do but at least the LE is all
nice and clearly visible and you can see
that they have had a fabulous time
probably a tree out there maybe even at
the shabam or mud wallows but they’ve
all absolutely covered in not only
multiplets in water too so they’ve
wherever they’ve been they’ve had a
really good bathe and it’s needed on a
day like today if you’re a big large
animal like an elephant you do need a
bit of water to try and kind of cool you
down as well as a bit of mud now campus
you want to know what it is the most
dangerous animal to encounter in a
vehicle well you’re probably looking at
it so the elephants in vehicles can be
incredibly dangerous they’re animals
that possess serious amounts of power
they are able to easily turn over a
vehicle no problem and you have a
situation where they are you know
sometimes very defensive of the young
ones as well as they might have had a
fight if it’s a male with another male
or they’re in a condition called must
reaches a heightened level of
testosterone and therefore they can be a
little bit temperamental and when they
decide to take you on well we’re no
match for them even in a car they’ll
easily be able to flip a vehicle and
throw all the occupants ours as well as
mangle it into a piece of tinfoil
basically and so an alias by far the
most dangerous parts are chain vehicles
probably closely followed by Buffalo and
hippos which sounds really odd better
the two of them can be a little bit
feisty Buffalo not so much because they
want to attack cars but they normally
cause damage to vehicles when being
chased by lines and they blind you panic
and run particularly at nights and then
making hit quite a few vehicles all
right well we’re gonna sit to that Elise
because there’s nothing better really I
suppose maybe a lipid with the elephants
would be better but sitting with a Lee’s
and enjoying their company on a warm
afternoon is a wonderful way to spend a
day it’s very relaxing and so we’re
gonna spend time here and while we do
that it sends you back over to Taylor
mccurdy and the cuteness that is those
little spotted hyenas
there’s no better way Tristan then to
describe the hyenas the way you’ve just
done I also think that there are
adorable now I can understand why people
don’t think they’re so precious when
they well they get older but at this age
you cannot tell me that looking after
these fluffy creatures especially the
two on the Left they’re very very very
cute they’re just sort of staring at us
at the moment tell me that that’s not
precious that is absolutely adorable and
it’s getting windy and it’s getting cold
now I’m surprised that they’ve actually
come out Thank You little hyenas there
comes a naughty one just popping out of
the the den now it’s two naughty ones
just sitting at the entrance there I
still don’t know how many Cubs are in
this clan I think I’ve seen a few more
one two three four five six I’m pretty
sure we’ve seen a few more than this did
we can’t nine of ten new Cubs the other
day I can’t even remember but perhaps
between Rolf and I we can try and figure
it out and whoever else comes to the den
oh they’re so sweet but being very very
quiet you’ve had some very interesting
sightings over the last few weeks coming
here and they’ve been very busy there’s
been a lot of fighting that’s going on
so it is nice to see all peace and quiet
I say that and then those two are
starting to bite one another I think
they’re fighting over that stick that’s
just coming out of the ground must be a
root of a plant or perhaps the stem of a
plant only both going to chew on and
it’s amazing how they didn’t even
acknowledge it but as soon as one finds
something it’s like kids
give him a one toy everybody wants to
play with it said that one that’s
walking away and one’s not interested I
think it’s going to go bother that older
cab now joy you said that they are such
characters they most certainly are that
cuckoo has landed on the ground I wonder
if that little hyena is actually seen it
because it’s marching over in that
direction let’s see if that youngster is
spotted it yet and what its reaction is
going to be I don’t think it’s
oh here we go oh look at that did you
see that behavior change very quickly
here we go
no we’ll find out if hyena Cubs chase
birds or not I could have been
completely wrong very excited by it
though he’s stalking hiding very it’s
going to shoot out of that hole and race
towards that kugel however that little
hyena cut is not going to be quick
enough to catch that gook oh I can
assure you and I think that’s why that
COO call knows that it’s quite safe
playing around on the ground most of the
youngsters are out in the open where it
can see adults how you know won’t be
interested in that bird no no interest
whatsoever it’s just popping back out
again right well it’s been a beautiful
afternoon with a hyena Cubs I think will
come back here a first thing tomorrow
morning and hopefully spend a bit more
time with them perhaps you’ll see some
more action no wells down in South
Africa as you know she hasn’t got a
leopard but she’s got something that has
got lots and lots of feathers and we
found a really nice view of an African
Jacana we are just trying it keeps
moving down the way here let me just see
there we go let’s get a view there
gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous it’s been
hunting around the edges here for
aquatic insects and also non aquatic
insects notice the large large feet to
help it through muddy areas it also
allows it to stand on top of floating
vegetation like water lilies and this
birds there it gets an aquatic insect
there and you just saw another one
floating past aquatic insects are really
interesting they need to breathe still
but they have different ways of being
able to breathe so for them to habitat
these areas that this chick got one at
this jacana is fishing in it they can
attain the water underwater from plants
using a snorkel they can also fill up
their lungs and
they stay underwater for long periods of
time or some of them have evolved
self-contained underwater breathing
mechanisms like some spiders and some
adult insects and they trap air bubbles
over their spiracles their spiracles or
how they breathe and then mosquito
larvae are quite interesting they have
sharp spiracles to penetrate plants to
get air bubbles or they use a snorkel on
their back end that they hang upside
down in and then get water that way also
some aquatic beetles trap air underneath
their wings so all of those insects are
able to live in this habitat and then
because they can live and breathe in
this habitat something like this Jacana
is able to obtain food sources and then
its body has developed to be able to
access some of their species that other
birds wouldn’t necessarily be able to do
because of the foot structure and where
it can live David you’re saying this is
now number 47 on your list
fantastic I’m hoping that’s 47 for 2018
that’s a good list so far Tristan and I
were talking today Tristan’s going on
leave soon and I asked him what he was
doing and he’s good there
I caught one there nice little aquatic
insect Tristan’s gonna go birding in the
Kruger National Park and he’s gonna go
look for some lifers there and I’m very
jealous of the lifer list that he’s
aiming for this leave and if he gets
them I’m gonna then have to go on leave
very shortly and and tick them off as
well
now jacanas are polyandrous so basically
what happens the female will come and
lay eggs and then she goes away and then
she does it with another male and then
another male and then another male and
then the males all are the ones that
take care of the chicks interestingly
enough happens in some bird species but
not many and happens in very few mammal
species if any
so I was also watching this Chicana
earlier it was picking insects off a
dead log that were non aquatic insects
but I think he’s found a nice little
spot to access them at the moment
another fish we were talking bout fish
earlier and I forgot about this one
another fish that we would find in a
lake like this or a dam like this would
be a barnable or a catfish found a
catfish carcass here the other day
most likely brought up by something like
a fish eagle this jacana won’t
necessarily eat that catfish but many of
the other bird species might scavenge
off of it gorgeous absolutely fantastic
well that was a special little sighting
ville d is very keen for some Leopard I
am also very keen for some Leopard so
we’re gonna carry on and go have a look
and we’re gonna head back over to
tristin who’s still with his elephants I
am indeed and they are slowly but surely
coming right past at the front of the
car so we’ve got a few of them right
next to us right yeah
so you can see they very very close so
I’m trying not to move too much with
them but the whole herd is just slowly
but surely tracking across the front
side of the vehicle and I was hoping
that we would get them all coming past
it’s a beautiful relaxed herb at first
they were a little kind of nervous of us
so we saw a situation where there was a
few years that were out and a little bit
of sort of hesitancy from them but now
they’ve all relaxed quite nicely and
you’ve got a beautiful view of this not
a huge head but at least a decent sized
herd coming past you can see some of the
youngsters are now filing out of the
background and the adults are still
sitting feeding all around us and you
can see they don’t spend long in the Sun
as soon as they get into the Sun they
start moving quite quickly because
otherwise it just gets too warm and even
though they have this incredible ability
to cool their body down with their ears
they still are having to try and and
just kind of get out into some semblance
of shade no excuse my head there I held
it in frame I’m trying to duck down but
it is very very difficult to in his in
his all around you and so
the touch sorry dubby it was my fault
but there’s I think a little baby in
amongst it yes there’s the little tiny
one let’s see how cute that is that’s a
fairly newborn baby I would say maybe a
couple months old if that and it’s a
fairly active little thing as well it
keeps following everybody around all
over the place right David’s reposition
once again because they’ve now abruptly
moved past us
and we’ve had news as well for those of
you that are wondering about the in
Cooma pride now the increment pride for
some reason I don’t know if James found
their tracks today but Rick’s and
reckons their tracks are from during the
day today have walks through Juma and
have crossed into error future chasing
buffaloes I was hoping we would be able
to find them he said the tracks were
hitting in this direction so that’s why
I was just sitting with these elephants
in the hope that maybe the elephants
would help me find them in one of these
blocks but it seems as though they’ve
crossed in terraces on the trail of some
Buffalo and so we’re not going to be
able to find the include Hummers today
which is very very sad I actually don’t
even know the last time I saw the
increment pride actually I do sorry I
lied the ink uma cried the last time I
saw them was when we were in rehearsals
for TV which was at the beginning of
December and so I haven’t seen the
income of pride for quite some time and
really has been very little time with
him over the course of the last year so
be really nice if they did decide that
it would be pleasant to come back to
zoom and not stay away as much as they
have over the last little bit so this
should get better now Davi I’m just
gonna try get around once more see what
we’re trying to do is just try and kind
of heads around their head a little bits
a ninja’s Park looking their way with
just Park close by and just watch them
kind of come past us in a sort of 45
degree angle that’s the idea behind this
anyway whether or not it works we shall
soon find out but at least we have a
fairly nice view from where we’re
sitting now you can see they’re just
kind of coming broadside to us at the
moment and it is the most beautiful day
big blue skies green summery bush and
the grey coast of Africa moving through
it’s just one of the best ways to spend
a day look at that isn’t that
picturesque it certainly is a stunning
summer’s day it couldn’t ask for much
better and thank goodness there’s a bit
of a breeze as all because otherwise too
be stiflingly hot the Aimi’s looked
fairly relaxed about life as all they
have had their Matt Waller so they’ll be
cooled down and well for them it’s just
a bounty of food at the moment as they
moved through these green grasses and
these treat areas with lots of foliage
it’s like a mixed salad on buffet for
them so they’ve kind of just moved in
and they just take whatever they want
with their trunks and they will be quite
selective about what they feed off at
this time of the year because they’ve
got so much to choose from they can find
the tastiest treats and so you see there
she’s kicked up a small acacia tree and
those will be the tastiest leaves that
she has Archer what amazes me is that if
I had to go and pick up that tree or any
one of you you is lacerate your hands
completely but yet that elephant has
just shoved that entire tree into its
mouth with no worries whatsoever and
eaten at all so it just goes to show you
how hard their palate is but they
absolutely love those acacia so it’s one
of their favorite things to eat you know
particularly in the summer months if
they’ve got a few flowers on them they
get these tiny little yellow flowers
that are full with nectar and they
absolutely love them and you’ll find
that they’ll chomp them down it the one
in the back there is targeting some
Guinea grass by the looks of things it’s
got a beautiful sticky sweet seed on it
and that is also fairly tasty if you’re
an elephant so lots to each end and
really good nutrition for all of them as
they kind of were clear away through the
thickets from water point towards point
because I’m pretty sure this herd is
going to start heading towards the red
dam that’s where the kind of angle that
they’re going in at the moment is that
they’ll go past two men into arethusa
towards that dam and this is how
elephants go at this time of the year I
mean it’s very hot as they literally
just feed their way from one water
source to the other where they’ll top-up
water and they’ll then crew themselves
down and then carry on again with the
feeding process to satisfy that’s
massive gut system that they’ve got very
cool you can see how completely relaxed
they’ve become now so it started out
that they’re a bit kind of know there’s
a vehicle in amongst us and they were
paying attention to us whereas now you
can see everybody is completely calm and
they’re just doing their own thing and
that’s one of the nicest things about
being out here with the Ellie’s in this
particular part of the world is that
most of them are super relaxed and you
get these intimate sort of moments where
you in amongst the aliens they’re all
around you
there’s just the nicest thing to do and
to spend time so a perfect way to spend
a Sunday afternoon in my opinion it’s
actually quite nice just listening to
them ripping up bits of grass I’m not
sure if you guys can hear it but as they
pull up Tufts you can just hear this
ripping and then the slow walking as
they kind of go through it and even I
mean leaves brushing on their skin it’s
a lovely sound to listen to and that
coupled by the breeze present way to
spend the afternoon funny enough
actually where these elephants are
standing right now just to the right of
them on the ground you’ll see a big
sandy patch that’s there so that area
over there Dobby now that little patch
there some of you may remember a few
months ago is where shadow went chasing
after a warthog and she was digging
around in there and as she turned her
back and walked away and water came
flying out so she’d just been a little
bit more patient she might have gotten
lucky but it’s amazing to see the
difference when we filmed bats there was
absolutely no grass around it and was a
fairly bare patch now it’s incredibly
well hidden only just noticed it now as
their Lea kind of all past that it’s
exactly that spot where we had shadow
digging forward oh so amazing how things
change in the summer months
right sorry let’s just repositions like
Easter means try and get
into a different area once again he is
nice little gambler that we can go on is
a lovely big game path I must remember
this game part because I’m pretty sure
[Music]
when I was going to say that these game
paths are really good for a lot of our
predators now I’m trying to see how big
a game path we’ve got that’s okay so
it’s a nice big art Foxboro that is yeah
so it’s difficult to see but then maybe
you can see it but basically it goes in
like this we park now on top and this
will be done by odd fox or something
like a porcupine that was a dig there
and so every now and then if you’re not
paying attention too much and you’re not
really looking you can end up inside one
of those and I actually had a friend of
mine that was once being chased by a
buffalo and he was running away from the
Buffalo and as he was running away he
ended up in a situation where he fell
down one of those and thank goodness he
did because if it wasn’t for that the
Buffalo would have got to him and he
managed to fall down these are alcohols
right let me reposition myself and while
I do that let’s go back across to
Brinkley Oh Smith and his well I think
he’s left the cheetah now and is
probably racing home and trying to get
out of the way of a rather large storm
look at that look at that that is a
massive wall of dust that’s being
I stopped for yes
apology to mittens of blacks
you
and we’re already starting to get
raindrops but that read there that is
dust
it is a monster and
we’re going to
tonight because the Roofus will be too
flooded to cross so I’m gonna keep
moving no oh my Allah is chasing
something they know the cheetah hang on
hang on hang on there’s a cheetah
chasing isn’t she going on hang on into
a long way away I just saw up me on it
shoots out of the bush she was in and
take off at high speed
I’m out of that foot
sweetheart
it’s where the chief maybe we’re gonna
get our second cheetah kill in a day or
in the afternoon actually Oh rain go
away rain go away just wait to let me
find a cheetah
she messed it looks like she missed
where am i binoculars we’re not kiss my
nose my nose where are you he said here
there it definitely looks like it yeah
she must do you see here you see a
headland just hang on go back zoom right
in the center of screen there where my
finger is
she missed whatever she was chasing oh
yeah so much excitement right at the end
of the Safari but now I am going to make
a like a cheetah
probably not drive as fast but I’m gonna
try to get away from that storm before
it hits us and there we go
Adrian’s gonna give you one last look
there’s a the rainbow the wall of dust
and the massive storm behind
isn’t that beautiful actually it’s just
take a moment stunning now I really have
to – lets go back to Tristan
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