[Music]
standing by
good afternoon again my name is James
Hendry and on camera today we’ve got
mono
that’s his thumb with the ring on a
steel ring very nice yeah made of copper
mmm
wonderful okay so we’re coming to you
live from the Masai Mara Tristan is down
in South Africa and a special warm
welcome to the schools conference that
has joined us today its name I’m afraid
has escaped me there were two now there
is one and it is the it’s coming don’t
worry everybody it’ll come while
consolidated school districts of New
Britain good marvelous wonderful to have
you with us we will hopefully find you
lots of animals and you can send us any
questions you’d like using the hashtag
Safari live otherwise I think you guys
are probably joining us on skype you can
do that the rest of you hashtags fire
live on Twitter otherwise the YouTube
chat channel will work very well we’re
hopefully also gonna have Scotty’s
following the cheetahs there in some
very bad signal five male cheetah at the
moment but he can’t afford to leave them
to go away from the cheetah sand fine
signal because of course then we will is
lose the cheetah and at the moment to
their the most important part of well
this afternoon so far now I’ve come up
again many of you will feel the time
gone stark raving insane because for the
third afternoon in a row I find myself
sitting on the edge of the early low
escarpment looking for the sausage tree
pride and not finding him I’m hoping
that it’s going to change during the
course of the day while I decide whether
I should be flying over the Cuckoo’s
Nest or not it does here down to South
Africa where Tristan he is knocking
about in what used to be winter good
afternoon everybody and welcome to our
sunset Safari from sunny South Africa my
name is Justin on camera today I’ve got
a sins oh and a special special warm
welcome to the consolidated schools of
New Britain teachers conference
hopefully you will enjoy your next 45
minutes with us and remember to ask lots
of questions and we’ll try and answer as
many as we can now for the rest of our
viewers we will be taking the teachers
conference for you
questions first but you can still send
your questions through on hashtags for
live on Twitter or on the YouTube chat
and we’ll get into those a little bit
later right now I know James is out
looking for the sausage pride down in
the Maasai Mara and I’m out well I think
two starts I’m going to start looking
for some of our big gray –great
pachyderms because it is quite warm this
afternoon so we’re going to try and see
if we can’t find some a Lee’s at the
waterhole before wheel turn our
attentions a little bit later to maybe
trying to find some of the spotted cats
this morning there was trucks for a male
leopards a female leopard and a lipid
cub all together and it’s area actually
close to where I am right now so we’re
gonna try and see if we can’t find them
a little bit later it’s probably a bit
warm for them now and they spending
quite a bit of time sleeping I would
imagine I don’t think they’re gonna be
moving around too much so we’re gonna
try and see if we can check some of the
warthogs to start off with and then
carry on from there and see maybe just
maybe if we get lucky now I’m hoping
that we will get some elephants they
have been a few big herds of elephants
around in the past few days there was a
herd yesterday afternoon that’s was well
over 50 of them that were walking around
so I’m gonna try and see if I can’t find
any sign of them they do leave quite a
few footprints so they are a nice herd
to track it’s quite easy to follow those
big round footprints so hopefully we
will find them now I believe James has
got another spotted kind of creature
that is running across the great plains
of East Africa
well sort of everyone it was running
down the mountain and well there were
two of them in fact I think we’ve seen
four so far and they took a little bit
of a fright from us but very unusual to
see them hurt there they are hurting
about this time of the day there are
hyenas the spotted hyena and we’re just
gonna go up around the corner here get
in front of them
there are summers of wildebeest up ahead
and I wonder if these hyenas don’t know
something that we don’t I’m fairly sure
that they do know many things that I
don’t but in this respect I’m hoping it
has to do with lions you still see them
on there
it might be simply coming on to get
something to drink you stop here there
we have them wonderful now where are
they going at such high speed on a hot
day I think it’s probably sitting it
around or something around about 80
degrees today around about 26 let’s
integrate and already the seasons have
started to change down in South Africa
here of course I don’t think that change
an enormous amount of great wit hyena
wait 30 know which been lying in the mud
there we did see a couple of hyenas
feeding on a carcass a little earlier
but I’m not sure that we’re gonna get
back to that because it was in some deep
deep grass maybe these chaps are just
hitting down there I just want to make
sure that they aren’t going towards some
kind of you know sort of fresh kill and
therefore the sausage tree pride no this
one’s turned on and coming back now
hello Chris from the conference you want
to know what hyenas eats because that
reminds me of a question that he was
asked once by a trainee guide and
basically I said fruit nuts and mice
that was the standard issue answer I
used to give I’m not sure why it
reminded me of that they don’t eat fruit
they don’t eat nuts
they will eat mice but largely they will
eat any meat at all rotting or otherwise
they are having a very fun romp these
chaps
I think there’s a lot of element of fun
going on here some play behavior perhaps
picking up a few things on the wind was
on hot days it’s unusual for them to be
knocking around like this so crystals
largely they do scavenge a lot they will
hunt absolutely especially at this time
of the year in the Mara it’s very scary
looking hyena holy a male in fact you’ll
probably find that these are both males
and that suspect the older one there
they don’t have the bulk of the females
he’s not a very bulky fellow it was fun
cool okay so that was a spotted hyena
and I was just gonna say that there are
some herds up here it’s still eating the
grass on the slopes of the mountain and
because again it’s quite a hot day we’ll
keep looking underneath all the trees to
see if there aren’t any tawny or white
bellies lying prostrate in whatever
shade there is available by what that of
course I mean cats only go
now Justin was heading towards some
water he’s not going to be swimming
despite the heat and he’s going to tell
you why he won’t be swimming
well James I think you fire to look
under all the trees here in the sabi
sands I would be quite dizzy trying to
find things as you can see there are far
more trees in our neck of the woods
so to speak as there are in the Maasai
Mara it’s a little bit of a denser
system and that’s why we tend to see
quite a few more leopards beside when
you get quite lucky with our leopard
sightings and the dense thickets that we
have here and this bushy terrain is
absolutely perfect for them to
camouflage incredibly well so it’s
always good when you’re driving through
these areas to check the shady parts but
where we check there’s a little bit
different to where James would be
checking so James will be checking under
trees a lot of the time with lipids the
best place to check is these big termite
mounds now I’m going to show you a
termite mound shortly it’s just here in
front of me as a nice example of one so
here we go just straight in front of the
car at the moment that big structure
there is a termite mound and those
places are perfect perfect structures
for lipids to sit on in the afternoon
particularly a windy afternoon like
we’ve got today it’s quite warm and so
there’s a bit of a breeze that’s blowing
and on top there it’s going to be a lot
cooler under that little shady tree then
it would be lying down on the ground
where it’s going to be radiating heat
and it’s gonna be a lot lot more warm so
you’ll find that cats do like to lie up
there on these windier hotter afternoons
or sometimes even up in the trees
themselves so that’s what we looking for
when we’re driving around and trying to
spot some of our spotty lipid friends
now James you say you wouldn’t swim at
any of the dams or pans around Juma if
it was hot well I think I would tend to
agree with James the funny thing about
this area is that they out of nowhere
all of a sudden a crocodile will appear
in one of those small pans and you’ve
got to be very careful with crocodiles
they even though you don’t see them it’s
not to say they’re not there they can
sit underwater and hold their breath for
close to two hours so sitting there you
might come along and think oh there’s no
crocodile I’ll just have a little swim
and then back here you go the crocodile
grabs used to be with careful and in
saying that we wouldn’t swim in the dams
yeah I would imagine that James it could
be a very bad idea for you to try and
swim across the Mara River because if
you’ve seen some of the crocodiles that
lurk in the Mara River they look as
though they are Tyrannosaurus Rex
aquatic cousins because they’re so large
and they go after anything that current
tries to cross over in that section now
talking about the heat the animals
themselves will have no such problem
they will be quite happy to go down to
the water particularly the animals
researching for like I say the elephants
weren’t really too fazed by crocodiles
so even if there was a crocodile in the
pan that’s not going to stop them going
for a nice big voila and and playing
around in the water so hopefully our
idea to hit towards water is going to be
successful now in the distance I can
spot some of our antelope that we get
you so we’ll get to them shortly they a
little bit further ahead of where I am
now so I’m just going to bounce our way
slowly along towards where they are
Eric the poets you wondering if it’s
ever snowed here in the bush
Eric in my time ya know and as far as I
know no it hasn’t snowed yeah we are in
the middle of our winter so we are in
August which is often a cold month here
but it is 30 degrees or close to 90
degrees Fahrenheit so gives you an idea
of what winter is like here in South
Africa it’s not exactly the most
strenuous and cold situation that we
have and so no no snow that I know of we
have had frost once or twice but never
snow would be quite cool to have snow
they imagine I think our animals would
be conferring ly confused if it did snow
here we saw a lot of them would actually
not do very well it’s all one because
their coats would not be thick enough to
keep them warm and two they’d probably
find that they’d get all kinds of feet
problems from frostbite and varying
other things given that they’re not used
to walking around in metal and have no
adaptions for it they’re all designed to
stay cool and not to stay warm so there
you go some of our antelope that are
just running across these are both male
impalas and are the most common antelope
that we get here in the sabi sands
system or in this northeastern corner of
South Africa there are hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of them spread out
all over the place and they form a huge
part of the diet of many of our
predators in this area so as many of the
predators go along this is what they’ll
be looking for so from lions and
leopards cheetahs hyenas wild dogs we’ll
even find some of our birds of prey and
snakes we’ll also go after them so it’s
a tough life if you’re an Impala and
that’s why they join together in these
groups just for safety in numbers
now I believe James has got a bird that
is flying around so before it flies away
from him let’s quickly jump across to
him
there are some big birds flying they are
vultures flying and that means of course
that something has died around here now
they’ve just come off the ground I think
they’re finished picking the hapless
carcass oh I promised I would never use
the word helpless again the unfortunate
carcass of a Velda beast has now been
picked clean and well they’re all flying
up and around and down towards the next
carcass there you go it’s still nice and
warm today it’s a very easy for them to
fly another one coming off the ground it
really is a vultures paradise this and
there’s really nice shot there of two
Ripple’s Griffins I think that’s what
they are sitting on the termite mound
there no no their white backs they have
no honey colored beat scrap on the
ground there Manya this is the most
gorgeous afternoon here the doves
palling in the background which we day
is not a common sound out here because
of course down on the plains and away
from the escarpment there aren’t as many
trees which means the doves don’t
existence the same numbers that they do
where we are now and I’m still staring
longingly in all parts of shade here but
I cannot see the sassari pride all right
Scott apparently has decided that he
although he loves his cheetah he would
like to talk to you even more and so
he’s moved into some signal to say good
afternoon hello everyone and it is a
great pleasure to have you on board
we’re just trying to work out what’s
going on over there we actually left the
five male cheetah underneath
a few bushes plus to where those
vehicles are now I think they’re heading
towards that tree so they’re on the move
vim which means they’re just to the left
there there’s a coalition of five male
cheats are called the Musketeers you got
them there you’ll probably be able to
see little specks we’ve left them with
one of the researchers is on that tiny
little white car on the right-hand side
of your screen she said she was gonna
call us as soon as they get active I
guess she’s just possibly waiting to see
if they don’t go to sleep under that
tree and if they do continue moving will
definitely rush off to them but we are
being absolutely spoiled rotten you
because that’s not the only cheater in
this valley hello I’m Scott vm’s on
camera there’s another one somewhere
just stuff down here can you remember
where it is there it’s just to the left
of there we go
so there’s another male over here now
this is a lone male he would not like to
bump into those five they would give him
a run for his money and he is a little
bit more hungry than them that’s why we
decided to camp out with him apparently
try to catch a young topi while VM and I
were getting some food resupply to spend
another night Archer and as soon as we
got back into this area and heard there
was a hungry cheetah around we’ve been
camping out with him morning he had a
little look at some Thomson’s gazelle
but there were too far out into a very
large open clearing to be able to have a
go and we’re gonna not keep you here any
longer because Tristan’s got a beautiful
scene back in Juma in the sky
now there’s not only vultures soaring in
the Maasai Mara but there is one here at
sabi sands – so it was a white back
Fulcher that was busy circling me it
seems to have disappeared a little bit
they do move quite fast but I will show
you quickly what it looks like I’m not
sure which vulture James had I know he
had some vultures but I don’t know which
one exactly now this is the vulture that
we saw circling it’s there it comes and
as it turned we should see a little
white piece on the back of it between
its wings there and that’s how we know
it’s a white back Volta oh it’s turned
the wrong way now hopefully it will turn
again shortly there it is you see the
white patch there so easily diagnostic
from that white patch is no other
vulture that shows that white little
band when flying so this is what they
look like a little bit more up close
this is our most common vulture that we
actually get in this particular part of
the world so it’s these guys over here
they have this sort of creamy caramel
wing and the nice dark trailing edge and
then that’s that little white patch that
I was talking about just now in flights
and you notice that they’ve also got a
dark eye which separates them from the
vulture above which has a honey colored
eye so this cape vulture on top is the
one that it could be confused with but
unfortunately that one has a yellow eye
and not the dark eye like this white
back to the vulture now Roger you were
wondering the wingspan of this
particular vulture this particular Vox
will have a wingspan of about 2.3 meters
so that should be close to I think about
seven and a half eight feet somewhere
around there if I’m not mistaken so
quite a massive wingspan and that’s what
they will do is what it’s busy doing now
is using it the thermals from the Sun
that is art and beating down in all
these hot air waves that are going up
it’s just riding in circles going up
using it’s incredible eyesight to then
spot carcasses that might be down on the
ground that it come on come down and
feed on so it’s really a very clever way
of doing things and not very much energy
that’s used when you’ve got massive
wings like that you don’t have to stress
too
much about having to flap them because
as those thermals grow it’s easy just to
ride them and go right up into the sky
now we haven’t gotten to our first
waterhole yet we are almost there is
slowly but surely making our way we’ve
been getting distracted with a few
things on the way so we saw those
impalas and then we had vulture and now
we’ve got probably the most beautiful
bird that we get here in the sabi sands
so it’s just landed on that tree over
there
oh no don’t fly away that is a lilac
breasted roller now the lilac breasted
roller has got these electric blue
trailing edges to it’s wings dark blue
below that and then it’s got a lilac
brace or the little turquoise crown
moment and these rollers are predatory
of insects you’ll find them often on
branches like that that obey and from
there they watch what’s going on and as
soon as any insects try and come out of
the grass so maybe a grasshopper that
flies or something like that they come
flying down quickly and grab it and then
eat it and they can actually subdue
quite large prey but it must be
definitely the most photographed bird in
Africa just because of its coloration it
really is beautiful guys it’s making a
bit of noise because it might have seen
a another roller somewhere close by and
so it’s just squawking like that to tell
everybody that this is my territory and
to stay arts they are quite territorial
that was a nice surprise didn’t expect
to see one yeah they do like these more
sort of open ish grassy sections so
there’s a section on our left you’ll see
it looks much shorter than the section
on the right now the reason for that is
that section has actually been purposely
cut as a firebreak so it’s to make sure
that if there is a fire any way around
here that it doesn’t cross over from
this right side to the left side
[Music]
see knock you wondering about what
threats vultures face well they all
numerous so probably the biggest threat
that vultures have is loss of habitat so
loss of nesting sites really is a big
big one for them so that you find that
as we inhabit places and we try and get
into areas we often will destroy perfect
trees that they can nest in so that’s
one – as we put power lines wherever we
go and power lines for vultures are
terrible things they end up flying into
them and they die from that so that’s
really a big problem and then the last
one is actual poisoning of vultures so
vultures are used in the multitrader
muti is basically is a trade of animals
within africa and which have has beliefs
about them and they basically poison
these vultures to use them for the Sun
gormer’s or witch doctors in medicine so
it’s really a big problem and lots and
lots of vultures have been poisoned the
other thing is farmers and varying
others there try poison carcasses for of
animals that have been preyed upon by
things like caracal or leopard as they
try get rid of that predator and then
the outcome is the vultures come in and
they feed off it and also die – so those
are the biggest problems facing vultures
and that’s why most of them are on the
threatened list that was a lot of
British for vulture I mean I wrote there
lots of vulture that we were looking at
but it was just so nice because he was
sitting perfectly fair so he could see
its colors so this might be the mate of
the one that we saw just now all the one
that it was trying to chase away so
that’s probably why it’s doing that
now actually I don’t know why I drove
past him but I want to show you
something else
but only kind of registered now so busy
thinking about our vultures and why they
say threatened at the moments that I
forgot to show you this
so since oh if you can please put those
ever so pretty paws marks on camera for
me so I’m going to move now but you’ll
see that just here or two poor marks now
those are paws for a leopard a very
small young female leopard that we
actually saw last night and these are
the tracks that we used to be able to
find her she’s a female that is known as
shangela
so she’s the little princess of this
area she was from the most dominant
female that we had and since her mother
disappeared she’s been walking around
and tries to kind of stay under the
radar but so we don’t see her as much as
we used to but we know she’s a leopard
for a number of reasons these tracks
firstly the size of them and the shape
of them scream leopard already you could
maybe confuse this size with something
like a caracal but it’s got the three
lobes at the back and then the toe is
very very close and you can see quite
rounded in this section over here and
that’s the front foot whereas the back
foot would be a little bit more slender
so both of these are the front pads and
then she’s walked along and there will
be a little back foot somewhere here
unfortunately we drove over a lot of
these tracks yesterday when we were
tracking her and that will be a lot more
elongated something like a caracal would
be probably slightly smaller and you
would find that the toe so it’s likely
more away from the pad than what you see
with the limits so that’s why leopard
tracks but unfortunately they’re not
fresh ones that we can follow today and
try and find her I actually tracked her
this morning
over our boundary and south into a
different part of the reserve so we’re
not going to be able to probably follow
any further but maybe you’ll just maybe
that what’s a hole that we’re going to
now is a favorite haunt for her so I’m
sure that she might come back and you
never know maybe this afternoon she’s
already decided to come back and might
be sitting at the waterhole itself
I’ve got to make sure that I’ve plugged
myself in because I tend to forget about
that is this Lila Krista drone are going
to stay there look at the colors on this
bird isn’t that magnificent
Shirley has got to be one of the most
beautiful birds in the world and this
one is very relaxed it’s just sitting
right next to the car but I was saying
earlier that there are predatory of
insects and you can see that with that
shape of beak they have that little
downturn tip a little hook on it which
is indicative of any predatory bird so
any birds that have that little downturn
beak you know feed off insects Bobby
you’re wondering if their tail is just
too long feathers or if there’s multiple
feathers Bobby there’s multiple feathers
with two streamers as they call that
come off so those are just two
individual feathers that finish off the
tip of the tail but there are multiple
feathers that are in between those two
streamers so when air rollers in flight
and you see it spread its tail you’ll
actually see all the feathers much like
a normal bird but those two streamers
extend so when they sitting it just
looks like the two feathers that are
sticking off the back end
right now we’ve discussed vultures and
what threatens them here in South Africa
and I believe James has got a bird of
prey now I’m not sure which one but
maybe he can tell us more on whether or
not it’s threatened I don’t think it’s
threatened everybody I think that is the
unwritten goshawk unless I’m very much
mistaken I’ll just quickly check its
distribution it’s got a Pink’s here
which is the bit just around the nose
behind the beak and it’s also got pink
legs and the big distinguisher as this
thing flies off of course is not the
legs or the beak but the fight band that
is at the top of the tail yeah I’m
pretty sure that’s what he is as he
flies off he’s got a very distinctive
white band the top of the tail otherwise
quite difficult to tell apart from some
of the others and despite you know what
despite the vast size difference that
there is between the dark taunting
goshawk in the gap our Gorga have had
this problem since I was M well since I
started guiding the gaba is 36
centimeters tall which is just over a
foot
which I think that is this is very
embarrassing the dark chanting is 56 so
almost sort of two feet tall and because
I have such a silly appalling sense of
proportion
I often struggle to tell the difference
but I my instinct went with Galvis I’m
gonna go with that
I mean really you should be able to see
the difference between a one foot and a
two foot bird this is go sir
seeing that you want to know CMAC you
wanted to know what GABA means I have
absolutely no idea I’ll try and find out
for you we’ll just sneak it a little bit
closer
you can’t get too close because then man
who’s gonna be stuck with the roof
underneath say win money it’s all right
slow hey don’t try and get inside on
there he goes now differently
definitely a ghetto
good more RG let us continue
our plan now we’ve left the realm of the
Sasori pride we’re gonna in Iran towards
Egyptian view span see what’s going on
there fascinating thing we saw the other
night of a line is sort of trying to
kill evil the beers that you chased into
the mud that villainous eventually died
they’re not from the effects of Lian
rather from the effects of exhaustion
and then drowning and if we don’t find
anything there we’ll head down towards
the salt licks which if nothing else
it’s a very beautiful area storms are
starting the builders they always do
every single afternoon like clockwork I
think they’re taking a little bit more
time over today which is good so maybe
we’ll discuss
all right Scott has not managed to find
not only some signal but also is flat
cheaters
hello and let’s hope the stormy weather
does not interfere with our safari
adventures because it is obviously not
going to allow us to do exactly what we
please now the cheats are doing exactly
what they please we’ve got no say in
what they do either they are all fast
asleep we are with one male here
sleeping in that bush it’s hard to
believe but there is a spotted cheetah
cat there we go there are some
Thompson’s gazelle not too far away from
it so let’s show you that is just
someone over there I think
nice VM so that is the perfect size meal
for an individual male cheetah I mean
they can take down bigger certainly but
that would be a relatively easy meal
regarding size obviously not easy to
catch but once they do at least it won’t
be thrown off like it was this morning
by a young topi that’s not the only
cheetah in this valley
I know we showed you a brief glimpse a
little bit earlier but I just want to
give you an update because we could
actually see them sleeping in the shade
of a large tree there we go in the shade
there you can see a few blobs a few
tourists is enjoying the sighting
interestingly the cheetah was up where
one of the Cheetahs was up that tree
right into the top fork will the first
Forks are quite high up this morning I
don’t know what I was doing I was
looking around watching the birds and
the bees and our next thing I looked up
and the cheetah was up the tree sudden
see how it managed to climb up but we
did see it coming down show you it
coming down I think actually our
concert-ready I’ve really uploaded it
onto my computer I’m traveling with the
computer some of you saw my computer
this morning I’ve already uploaded a
picture onto Instagram from one of the
pictures from this morning got a
beautiful photo up and that is the joy
about spending a long time out o VM
spotted something where are you taking
us okay I thought V M spotted something
on the horizon but it is leveling off
the camera
so basically the plan is is to wait with
this male he could pocus it up and chase
that Thompson’s ghazzal that we just
showed you at any time
failing that if those other five the
Musketeers get up and mobile then we
will follow them so we’re not far away
and just so that you know the Musketeers
favorite food is wildebeest and I’d just
like to show you that there’s an expanse
of wildebeest look at all of those
options and plenty more in that area so
I’m guessing that they’re gonna make
another kill tonight I’d be highly
surprised at least if they don’t try but
the thing is every time they try they
have succeeded so those are my
predictions if you had plans and going
any way out cancel them if you would
like to see a cheetah hunting because
there’s a strong strong possibility that
that will happen at some point this
afternoon if only we knew when then we
could help you coordinate your plans a
little bit better but we don’t so you
just have to sit tight
and hope for the best as we have been
doing no problem no good Susan very
wonderful to have you with us you would
like to know how is it that we camp out
here and basically we’ve got some
mattresses vm q mattress there we go
that’s viens fancy masai suka fabric we
just split one single mattress down the
middle and got them covered up and then
basically I don’t know if we’ll be able
to show you let me try you’ll have to
excuse me I’m barefooted it’s very hot
and I do not like wearing shoes on any
truck you’ll have to excuse me I’m
barefooted it’s very hot and I do not
like wearing shoes and it’s hot but
down here and then kind of sleep like
this
we’ve got pillows and blankets but last
night the wind was so hectic that the
blankets were blowing office so last
night was a tough night also the cheetah
were quite busy so it’s difficult to
sleep even with cheetah that’s typically
kind of like busy so it’s difficult to
sleep even with cheetah that’s typically
kind of are supposed to be more die
quite a lot and just plug my earpiece
back in at night and that obviously
makes you sleep with one eye open we
need to devise a way that’s as soon as
they exit the screen and alarm goes off
and then we can wake up that would be
easy we could just leave a camera on
them
usually the girls and FC keep an eye on
things for us and as soon as they move
out they radio us and quickly quickly
the cheetah I’ve gone with a lion have
gone but we don’t have enough people at
the moment to be able to do that so you
let the girls sleep last night and we
just took a gamble and we did luckily
managed to stay there with them we
nearly lost them at about 2:30 3:00 in
the morning when they got active but all
was good so that’s how we sleep out yeah
the typical breakfast we have our chair
that’s from ask me breakfast isn’t a big
one we have a cup of coffee when we get
up and then what we did today is is a
camp called old shakey which is just
outside the reserve along the talaq
River about five minutes from the one
entrance gate the talaq gates into the
reserve and they very kindly offered to
look after us so whenever we need
anything we just bum in there the
kitchen gives us new food cooks us a
quick breakfast so this morning we had
Spanish omelets for breakfast it wasn’t
too tough I guess once we headed back
there had a quick Spanish omelets a
shower new shirts polished ones ivory
and then we came straight back aft with
some stew and rice for dinner and some
rolls we came with plain rolls to make
chip rolls vm’s a fan of the chipper
also just butter and then crisps and
some cheese and tomato roles so
breakfasts usually we have away all
we’ve got nuts and biscuits and all kind
of like nibbly things that keep us going
and I guess thankfully when you’re on
the vehicle you are not burning too much
energy so just as well we’re not eating
too much any updates there ah kind of
you can see its head now
okay so like I said you know the planet
we’re not going anywhere we’ve got good
options we’ve got this single hungry
cheetah we’ve got another coalition of
five males who are also gonna be getting
hungry
ooh a yawn is a good sign but for now
you’re gonna head across to mr. Hendrie
and help him search for some lions some
help would be very good thank you
everybody for offering there’s some
birds in that little Khepera smush there
let’s see if we can’t identify them they
look like the Cystic killers indeed they
are which species of statistic all it
will be almost impossible to tell her
there’s a juvenile now we do know what
those are don’t we because somebody told
me what they are I’ve obviously
forgotten I’ll keep looking now I’m very
glad you got that tour of Scots vehicle
and sleeping accommodations the galley
the sleep the bunk room vo of course is
the world’s best camper so Scott could
not be in better company it is
oh come on Angie was it your chirping
what’s the chirping tickler I can’t
remember for those of you who very
kindly told me the last time we
identified this testicular the juvenile
of which had a yellow belly don’t you
remind me please it’s gone from my brain
yet again anyway might be the staff
nurse from the start they’re definitely
sistah killers and they’re enjoying the
afternoon as we are
well the tiny maybe I don’t know can’t
figure it out and let’s they start to
call it will be very difficult to tell
Rebecca is saying the pictorial patched
stickler they’re not a bad guess given
that they too have got a yellow-bellied
juvenile so maybe there are the petrel
patched text total particular I’ve
played the sound few before we move on
distinctive see if they come out look
look at that one there
let’s see if they cool now can’t hear
them alright well the little families
moved on so we I think we’ll do the same
we’re halfway along this fairly main
road towards the pan where we want to go
so we’ve been driving village ibly fast
we don’t have to drive too quickly we
can see what else we can see on the way
now about a week ago this place was just
covered in wildebeest
you couldn’t even barely move and those
pictures I don’t if you saw them that
man who got in the balloon flying over
this area where it looked like somebody
had either kind of emptied a bottle of
iron filings or sprinkled peppercorns
all over the place or the and the
enormous ant nest has escaped into the
area
well those amazing shots were shot over
this plane here which is now totally
free of any the lovest what is that bird
it’s on the road there at the junction
[Music]
I’m going to continue driving at quite a
speed we’re just going to be on peasant
for you so let us head to back to South
Africa and find out what on this Tristan
is doing with his life there’s a bit so
from one bird to another now hopefully
these birds will stay with rusty
squeaking the way it is now don’t fly
away don’t be naughty
it’s a black crown chakra that was there
oh no it’s just flowing oh well
birds do that sorry sins oh there’s no
way you’re gonna see it it flew off a
little bit have you got another bird
there maybe you’ve got a different bird
for me because that’s not the same one
that I saw that looks like another one
of the rollers so our graph you off but
what you can hear around me is the syste
killers
so this stickler we do know this is a
rattling sistah killer that is chirping
away and it’s upset because I’ve come
driving past you’ll find with these guys
they don’t like when we are around and
you’ve got the checker there well done
so there’s our black crown chakra which
just says a very cool call it sounds
like somebody whistling through the bush
there it is is that the brown crown or
the electron now you get both species
here so a black crown fly off but that
looks like a black crown checker you can
see the two dark lines that are running
over the head so I’ll quickly find the
other checkers and then I’ll be able to
so apparently I’m having more luck
I agree that we saw there not a black
crown sorry my fault I was looking now
nicely you can just see that it’s got
the brown top to the head with a little
black line me I thought I’d saw a bit
more black on the head than I actually
did but now that I can see it on the
monitor a little bit bit and I’ll show
you the differences between the two of
them so if you have a look here you’ve
got the checkers so they look quite
similar you’ve got the brown crown one
on top that is what we just saw now you
see it’s got that black eye stripe of
white above the eye and in a slight
black above the white and then brown on
the top of the head so that is what we
just saw now and in the black round you
can see it’s got the same black through
the eye a little bit of white on top and
then a little bit of black over the top
of that now the thing is is that what we
saw from the side they looked very
similar but once you see this big drop
its head slight can you see that Brown
then you know that it’s the brown Crown
Chakra there we go
now saying talking about the bush I know
James was talking about what the Maasai
Mara looks from the air and wondering
whether or not well what’s Duma would
look like from there luckily we don’t
have to worry or think too hard about
what I would look like from a balloon
because well we’ve seen Juma from the
air from our drone that we have that
flies around here so it is pretty cool
to see it it’s it’s a lot drier than you
think it is when you see the bush now
from this ground level lots of grass
lots of trees and it looks as though
it’s quite lush and bushy I suppose lush
is not the right word but it looks bushy
when you go up into the air it’s quite
scary actually
how barren it looks at the moment it
looks a lot drier from up there and a
lot more open so it’s quite interesting
to see it in the summer months it’s a
little bit of a different story it
becomes quite dense yeah very quickly
and it’s a carpet of green trees that
fulfills the landscape it’s really quite
beautiful from the drone in summer I
always quite liked it and lots of birds
of prey that are flying around in the
summer months now in the winter we do
see a few birds of prey but not quite as
many as what we would see in the summer
months the good news though as I was
saying I was attempting to try and find
some elephants I did find tracks of them
just north of ton dams and they looked
like they were going in a northeasterly
direction so I went up the Mana Party no
sign they’re checking Mumba now just to
see if they haven’t crossmember and if
it’s nothing yeah I’m going to head
towards redwood road and see if they
didn’t turn a little bit more east now
sorry Alice you’re going to have to
repeat that the radio just went
completely static and I didn’t hear one
word you said other than scenic
see you next so the bird family that the
checker is closely related to is the
Shrike sore roof racks that’s the
closest relative that it has so they are
quite similar and you’ll find them all
group together similar kind of beak
structure and even shape of the bird and
very much like the Shrike family so
that’s the closest relatives for them
it’s the closest relatives for them and
they’re a lot more
brush so you’ll find them just
under the tree line and of going in and
out of different trees so they can be
really tough to keep up with
now sensor do you see any sign of
elephants anyway I don’t I wonder if
they haven’t stuck around the milliwatts
just off twin bands so they don’t check
a little bit south towards twin dams
itself side of Milwaukee
or they’ve carried on a little bit
further north than I checked maybe
they’re making their way towards God
lead and that’s where they could be
heading as well
Tayla is 10 years old and not the tailor
that is around on safari live officers
she was vanquished from YouTube chat
this morning now Taylor you want to know
if we see spiders around well yes
lots of spiders not so much now because
it’s winter the spiders either some of
them have died because they are only
around during the summer months then
they lay their eggs and they die after
they lay their eggs unfortunately but
there are some around and they all just
hiding out trying to stay out of the
cold because for a little insect the
cold is very tough for them to survive
so in summer they all come out and they
spiders everywhere James in Kenya and
Scott both love spiders and will spend a
lot of time looking at the spiders and
going over them and if you turn over the
leaves you can find the sex spiders and
the garden spiders and the orb spiders
and the crab spiders and you name it
kind of spiders all over the place and
so if you like spiders Taylor and you
want to see them then you must carry on
watching because as soon as a bush walks
are up and running which is soon then
we’re going to be looking at a lot of
those kind of things
now here’s another beautiful bird since
we’re on the third topic today rusty
stop your squeaky goodness with the
brakes it’s called a christed barbets
and look at those colors you see bright
oranges reds yellows butts of black and
spots on the wings and in that big crest
that gives it his name Kristin Bobbitt
now you see the beak of this bird is
very different to the beak of the
vulture or their lilac breasted Rona or
even that chakra that we saw just now
that all have that down turned hooked
beak these guys have a very heavy beak
because they are fruit and seed eaters
so they need that big beak to pick away
at fruits and to be able to crush
sandals pips and seeds out of the fruit
to gain nutrients and one of their
favorite meals is actually mistletoe
funny enough and you’ll find the barbets
do go after mistletoe so crested and
black collared barbets which are the two
that we see here regula they all both go
to mistletoe and they’ll feed off it and
the problem with mistletoe is that the
seed is very very sticky so what you’ll
find is they go to branches particularly
of big trees or don’t go to the toilets
are you going to go to the toilet I
think it’s going to show us its back end
and go to the toilet what is with all of
them
all these animals that have been doing
this this week luckily this one decided
not to you can see it’s a bit windy
though it’s Christa’s being blown all
over all over the place now Alice is
saying they want to play whoo dung it’s
yes maybe they missing Tara and they
want to do dung it so that we can all
see what are you doing
maybe its backside is a little bit warm
and it’s now just cooling it down by
lifting its tail and getting but a
breeze to cool down the rear end but I
have honestly never seen a crested
bothered doing that other than wind it’s
going to difficut so Rebekah’s is that
when James is around there all the
animals use the toilets well we’ll have
to send a photo a screenshot let’s flood
James Henry’s Twitter account with
screenshots of all animals that have
been going to the toilet the last few
days in Juma there we go dropped a
little bomb there we go so there’s a
screenshot just for James that we can
all send to him over the next little bit
I’m sure James will love to see those
she’d send him one of our jackal from
the other day that was highly
entertaining as well so I was saying
about the mistletoe and how they’ll then
go to big trees and wipe the the seed
off and the problem with mistletoe is it
actually grows on trees itself so these
barbets are a little bit of a problem
because they take the mistletoe and they
actually wipe it onto trees and in the
mistletoe becomes a parasitic plant on
their tree itself so the barbets while
they are cool to eat things varying
seeds and fruits oh here comes a
veterinary –gel another bird seems to
be a bird day this afternoon we haven’t
seen birds like this for a while they
seem to have been a little bit on the
quiet side over the past few days I’ve
had so many animals to look at in the
last week that we haven’t really been
paying that much attention to birds now
this is called a bat earlier eagle and
this is a juvenile that’s near ego you
can see it’s still brown in coloration
short tail and well actually longer tail
than what it would have been if it’s an
adult as soon as it becomes an adult the
tail starts to shorten and its
coloration will change from that drab
horrible brown to the nice black white
and striking rid of the face and feet
it’s like it’s landed there somewhere
soon so let’s try see if we go forward
maybe we’ll get lucky and
find him so Ellis is saying bats Illya
Eagles make think of Connor because
we’re talking about the drone just now
and what it looks like from above well
Connor used to love filming the battle
ears from the drone so I suppose that’s
a fair assumption now there’s more
elephant tracks here going down the road
you can see them big disks that are
walking and filling the road with these
big circular patterns almost looks like
crop circles going down the road so
there we go you know but the problem is
is that these are not the freshest
tracks you can see there’s varying
things on top of them so branches and
school footprints of what looks like
deco a Steinbach that have gone across
there might actually be something else
it’s quite far away that I’m looking but
those are not from this afternoon these
are not the elephant tracks researching
maybe these are the ones that wink to
the dam where they drank I mean they
started to turn northwards from there so
we’ll have to just try and see if we can
follow these and work out where they go
they from this morning sometimes so
they’re not too old that’s quite nice
since oh can you show this on my
right-hand side here it was is a really
nice track that would confuse a few
people I’m sure so just on my right just
come down a little bit for me sends up
okay there we go so that there you see
there’s a pattern in the sand a that
almost looks like a brush has gone
through it or a very wiry brush should
we call it now that track there a lot of
people probably would be very confused
as to what that is and a lot would have
said that is that probably from the
trunk of an elephant or something like
that but it’s not even though it’s in
amongst the elephants
tracks it’s from a piece of grass now
there’s a grass stem that is just
hanging over slack II and as the wind is
blowing it’s dragging the grass back and
forward and that grass is creating
that’s pattern so it’s not an elephant’s
trunk it’s the grass that is in amongst
them there it is that’s the piece of
grass that has been dragged back and
forth and is leaving that striated
pattern on the sand isn’t that cool
so not only animals leave tracks when
you see that plants do you as well
very nice thank you sensor well done
in the way I’ll bet salir landed it did
land here somewhere because that’s it
there yes I can see it now
is it no it’s a part of a tree
Jaime you’re wondering if we have the
same kinds of grasses in the Mara as we
do in Juma Jaime I have not the foggiest
idea we’re left to ask James or Scots
who have spent some time in both well a
lot of time in both and they’ll be able
to probably give you a more educated
answer as to what the plant life is
there now I’m not 100% sure on the plant
life in the Mara and that’s also I’m
sure they are sons crossed specie all
species that are the same in both but I
would imagine that they also have very
different cross species that side as
well so well that’s ask James I’m sure
he will be able to help us and be able
to tell us what grass species those
wildebeest and zebra love to chomp on I
would imagine there will be some of the
same species though that’s the thing
about the Mara is it’s such a big
learning curve for all of us because
even if you’ve visited the Mara there’s
a lot of things about visiting a place
as opposed to actually working in a
place now when you visit somewhere hello
yellow-billed horrible it’s just a bird
road this way as we’ve been driving keep
finding birds everywhere he looks
beautiful with his back lights the beak
is glowing bright yellow if only he
would turn towards us so it would be
really nice if he did or she he or she
there we go
and look at that they’re not beautiful
right so while we admire our hornball
and its best side as it cooks it’s
hidden poses a versus likey towards us
like a model on a cover of a magazine
let’s go across to five other members of
the cat family that tend to love a
posing act and well more not found here
in South Africa but only in the Maasai
Mara well is this not a magnificent
sight not to take anything away from a
yellow bull horn bull but this is quite
spectacular we haven’t got to see them
on the move in beautiful sunshine too
much yet and we also haven’t got to see
them on the move towards a ginormous
mass of wildebeest in the sunshine like
they are heading towards now so we’re
about 100 metres away from them they’re
coming straight towards us as you can
see and then on the right-hand side of
our vehicle we’ve got a huge huge herd
of wildebeest starting over there and
then panning all the way across lots of
potential meals here there’s also lots
of tourists here enjoying the sighting
they’re all behaving themselves on the
road which is wonderful we have got
special permission to be off the road
with you guys and isn’t that a huge huge
privilege that we are allowed to get you
guys into pole position to make sure
that you don’t miss out on any of this
live Safari action
hello to sky you would like to know how
far north into the conservancies do
these cheetahs travel and I’m guessing
about 15 or 20 kilometres into a
Conservancy called my boss or is the one
area that they go into as well as
another Conservancy I forget the name of
it just to their to the kind of east or
south east of knob or shore I’ve done a
bit of research into these guys and they
actually only joins together about five
weeks ago so sorry how about five weeks
ago sorry I’m just trying to flash one
of the vehicles that has come off-road
that shouldn’t be otherwise it creates a
bit of an avalanche effect and everyone
does its and so I was chatting with
Eleanor one of the researchers and
there’s several cheetah researchers in
this area and she said that these
cheetah only came together or they were
only noted in this area around December
last year and they’re not too sure
exactly how many of them were brothers
if any were related how they joined up
where they joined up so they’re actually
doing some DNA analysis on them they’ve
got scat samples from all five of them
and basically they’re going to be able
to in the next few weeks determine who
of them are brothers and who of them are
strangers so that’ll be really
interesting to know wonderful while
these guys think about what to do next
we are going to send you across to James
with some wandering stripes yes good
they’re having a drink that one is not
wandering any more than one you can see
there has ceased to wander it is cease
to do anything
the wandering stripes are having a drink
here at the pan where we saw the dead
Vil the best and indeed they’re drinking
of his rotting flesh as we speak
and so they’ve clearly got constitutions
far stronger than ours because viewer to
drink out of this water I promise you
you would get very sick
they seem to have been chased out of the
water by two superb starlings which
seems a bit strange given that they’re
well a substantially larger than superb
starlings and B what I’ve never seen a
superb Starling take down a zebra have
you money I don’t think it’s unlucky but
they are very skittish at the water
always and it’s not only because of
crocodiles it’s because something in
their nose that predators will
congregate around water holes and use
them because they know that the prey has
to come and drink at some stage I wonder
if there isn’t just something sitting
the other side there may be popping its
head a part of the grass don’t really
see why there should be nervous
otherwise
to have sniff of lion on the wind
well this one doesn’t care he’s gonna
have a drink he doesn’t mind I do not
see any of the Egyptian goofs pride
around here there’s another pan down the
road which we’re gonna have a look at
shortly and we’ll go down towards the
Salt Lick area as I say that the wooden
starts to pick up I may have just filled
one drop of rain and these clouds well I
think that they’re my far less advanced
than there were this time yesterday so
I’m gonna hope for a rain free afternoon
now Jamie you’re wondering if we have
the same type of grass here as we do at
Juma inside that forget yeah well many
of the grasses are the same the red oak
grass is known just as red grass in
South Africa and that’s definitely
they’re not in nearly the same profusion
as it is here I’ve seen as some touching
grass species some died had repugnant
species that we get there so yeah I
would say you probably find that about
50 percent at least 50 to 60 percent of
the grasses that you find here you would
find in South Africa and there’ll be
some that you don’t and there’ll also be
local sub specific variations very nice
indeed you know we know of course that
the the zebra that grant zebra is not
quite the same as the virtuals there
it’s the same species different
subspecies of the plains zebra though
virtuals the one that we get down South
Africa the grants up here now they could
absolutely interbreed with each other
but because of geographical separation
for substantial period they’ve just very
slowly drifted apart from each other and
I suppose that the grasses would do the
same and they’re often a lot older as
well you’re wondering if the hyenas will
come and eat this wildebeest I
personally don’t think this wildebeest
going to be eaten by anything other than
birds if it was the case that there was
nothing else on offer then hyenas might
try and pull it out of the water but
it’s so muddy in there and so difficult
to get to and actually dangerous excuse
me
it’s quite dangerous for hyenas to get
in there because the Magister deep and
so they could suffer the same fate as
the little beasts
so I think you’ll find that they will
avoid it if they can I mean it’s been
there now what money when did we film it
it wasn’t Sunday Monday yesterday no
sunday so two days ago then nothing’s
had a touch of it I suspect some birds
have sat on it but I think that’s
probably about all so cautious when they
go anywhere near the water
hmm so now you say other zebras skittish
due to the smell of death in the water
[Music]
you know there may be an element of that
I don’t think it’s necessarily in the
water I mean there are carcasses strewn
about the Mara all over the place now so
the smell of death disturbed them I
suspect that we having a fairly
disturbing time of it so I’m gonna say
no I don’t think so
now that was caused simply by the
marabou stork taking off next to them so
they’re very skittish very nervy
stunning well done manu gorgeous of the
marabou stork disappearing into the
grasslands now Sandra you’re asking in
which area you find the Grevy’s zebra
well the gravy Zebras found further
north in Kenya I will just take this
opportunity to say that on the back of
the car we won’t show her to you because
she’s starting to look a little panicked
is his Shivani and shivani’s going to be
joining us in our TV show on Saturday
morning
she’s a lion expert from up north where
she’s nodding vigorously there are
Grevy’s zebra correct so much drier
areas and fascinating looking zebras
there I think but stockier than these
chaps they’re the stripes are much
closer together and I think they look
much more donkey luck than horse like
anyway we’ll chat to Siobhan you about
that I’ll try and get her on camera
before before Saturday but she’s just
easing into it today
now scenic you want to know the
difference between a gravies in a
virtual zebra or there are totally
different species so in Africa we get
four species of zebra the plains zebra
which the grants and the virtuals one
two mountain zebras two species of
mountain zebra and then one species of
Grevy’s zebra and I’ll show you some
pictures of them in my little book now
once I have found them and in fact this
one this one counts well there’s the
Birchall’s or plain zebra otherwise
known as the common zebra now the one we
get down in South Africa’s Equus
vercelli that one there or might even
get something called yeah it was
virtually that one and it’s most obvious
by the fact that it’s got no stripes on
the belly and it’s also got Nostra it’s
got shadow stripes in between there is
this one Equus haha a Bohemia the grants
a zebra and that’s that one then you can
see they’ve got stripes all the way to
the base and they don’t have the
distinctive shadow stripes now if we go
and they could all interbreed very
comfortably with each other they also
look a little bit more sort of than
donkey like if you like but in this book
it’s got the two mountains there is a
cape and the Hartman’s as one species so
this has only got three species of zebra
and I think that that has probably been
disputed a number of times and then
undisputed so at the moment they seem to
be one species that thing is an extinct
extinct animal called oquawka and then
there’s the gravy’s and you can see the
stripes much more closely
much closer together huge ears sometimes
these pictures are not particularly ever
and accurate but there it is in the
other ecwid that we get in Africa is the
African wild ass but you’ll have to go
all the way to
somalia to see that I think is that
correct yes
Ethiopia and Somalia to see that you
don’t want to go there
good all right
I believe that Tristan has managed to
find a gravy zebra in South Africa and
he’d like to show it to you I’m talking
rubbish well we’ve managed to catch up
with our ILI’s we found them and are you
going to come in feed off the bush right
in front of the car yes you are so if
you don’t believe me that the car is
there that’s where our elephant is
eating for me since the school there’s
nothing better than being this close to
nearly as long as you don’t eat the car
we’re all good well yes sir I believe
James was saying that I found a grave is
a brand of course we know James is
talking utter rubbish because the
Grevy’s zebra only occur up in East
Africa
and one person well actually I have seen
a baby zebra before but one other person
who’s seen a gravy zebra will be Scott
and I know Scott absolutely loves the
gravy zebra there are a beautiful
species with big ears and there’s
beautiful fine pinstripes very very
pretty animals but isn’t this amazing
this elephant is literally feeding
basically underneath the cards it’s
taking branches that are growing it’s
sitting just underneath the left side of
the car and so like I say yeah you think
that I’m joking when I say that that is
close but if I were to be sitting on the
front of the car that elephant would
basically be touching left that’s how
close it is to that front edge so really
is quite something I didn’t think she
would come wandering over to the serious
she was quite far away actually and she
just decided this is where she wanted to
come and feed thank you for that that
was very special you need to just feed
next to us instead now if that’s okay
it’s a far more comfortable distance to
have you can actually see our shadows
since I wave to everybody
Mary Kay you say so nice not bothered at
all by us and Omega this was probably
one of the closest in terms of feeding
behavior that I’ve ever had normally
with a Li’s they don’t feed that close
they will come to this area and they
will sort of sniff you out and come in
chick and they’ll check out the car and
they’ll smell and whatever but to
actually feel that that distance is
really quite something so that was
incredibly special and I believe a lot
of the team in the Mara are saying how
much they miss these intimate any
sightings that we get here in the sands
and well I know it is super special we
were talking about it yesterday and you
know we’ve had some incredible a lease
items in the last week Tara had some and
I’ve had some it’s just been insane with
them all around the car and being so
relaxed it’s really is very very very
cool and we get a little bit sort of
blase about it which is not the right
way to be as you know when you sit in
this Ellie’s all around and you’ve
gotten any sniffing you like that it’s
kind of would have to take a moment and
actually just realize how fortunate we
are and how super lucky we are to spend
time in amongst these big giants and
that they’re so relaxed with us it is a
very very cool situation so hopefully
all of you at home all loving it just as
much as sins oh and I are now
interestingly there’s an elephant over
here now this elephant is quite a older
elephant it’s probably I would say now
must be about what say eight or nine
years old maybe a little bit younger
seven maybe seven wait but look there no
tusks that you can see coming out so
this individual is tuskless it does not
have any tusks growing and this is
something that we’ve been seeing more
and more of over the last few years
particularly from the females and it
tends to be a lot of female elephants
that carry this gene that they don’t
grow tusks at all down there’s a lot of
theories as to why they don’t have tusks
and I personally I’m not an essential of
which theory I actually believe I don’t
think any of them really ring true just
yet and there will be a reason for it I
have a funny feeling it might be
something to do with diets or with some
sort of nutrient deficiency that they
have
that when they are growing inside of the
mother that they give a little bit of an
issue and they don’t actually grow those
tasks properly that’s something like
that I don’t know if they may be it
because a lot of people are saying that
they’re evolving against hunting a to
not produce tusks but then you would see
it in male offspring as well where is
it’s only in the females and we know
that the females don’t use their tusks
mainly as much to defend themselves so
it could be something to do with it now
Liz you’re wondering how much their
trunks weigh in an adult male elephant
the trunk will weigh 300 pounds of just
pure muscle so that’s how heavy the
trunk is which is absolutely amazing
when you think that it’s just a
basically a modified nose for it to
weigh 300 pounds imagine having a 300
pound nose that would be quite an
unfortunate problem to deal with but in
the elephant world being the size that
they are it is most certainly anything
but a hindrance it is perfect for them
to sustain themselves and to survive
they’re able to use it to drink to eat
to even defend themselves somewhat are
you also going to come say hello
you lot are very relaxed hello and off
she goes
so cool swimmer you’re wondering how
many species of elephants they are in
Africa well there’s just one in the
African elephant but there is a
subspecies which is known as well two
subspecies the desert and the forest
elephant and then you’ve got the
Savannah elephants as opposed three
subspecies under the general banner of
an African elephant but only one actual
specie of
animal and then the subspecies that are
dictated by the environment that they
spend most of their time in there we go
there’s another screenshot for James
quickly everybody capture that and tag
James Henry there we go
that will fill him with delight I’m sure
feel like James is going to probably be
quite upset with me at some point if we
just keep flooding his whole Twitter
page with all kinds of pictures of
animals defecating but well it will be
worth a laugh anyway so it’s just the
one species and I could say according to
area and small little changes that they
have so the forest elephants being much
smaller as well as the terrors of
elephants then what you see in the
savanna elephants allows them to they
become a subspecies but it’s just the
African elephant itself the only other
species of elephant in the world is the
Asian elephant which of courtesy occurs
in India and through sri lanka and parts
of Indonesia as well so that’s the two
species in the distribution range
interesting that there wasn’t an
elephant species in South America or in
the Americas or she versus say in the
Americas as general and would surprises
me that there wasn’t one that developed
in those areas or inhabit it was in sort
of the big vastness if you think about
how much space that is in the big of the
big vastness if you think about how much
space that is in the big jungles of
interesting well I’m certainly not
complaining that we are the ones that
have got them now our hood is drifted
off slightly so I’m going to try and
just get back towards where they are and
back into the front of them so we can
watch them coming again now Ellis
apparently says to me that I have to say
that we are going to ponder what goes on
with these elephants and that I must
link to Scott in the South American
accent now what exactly is a South
American accent Ellis because well
there’s many countries in South America
and don’t say Mexican because I think
Ellie might shoot you if you do now
there’s a big ad for Clara that we’ve
just gone so I’m just gonna link to
Scott anyway and not use the South
American accent because I’m not sure
which one it is but the next time we go
to Scott if L excuse me a specific
country we shall try and use that one
Thank You tristin
and these five Cheeta have pancaked
themselves on to termite mark you could
drive past them so so easily and it’s
actually boggling my little mind as to
how easy you could easily you could
drive past five cheetah I heard you were
discussing different types of elephant
and zebra I wish that I could have seen
a woolly mammoth when they were still
wandering around when we were still
wandering around in just skins with
claps another elephant that would be
nice they don’t exist but hypothetically
speaking would be a pygmy elephant you
get a pygmy hippo which is very cool so
I mean imagine if there’s a pygmy
elephant wouldn’t that be great quick
updates yeah as you can see the cheetahs
are sleeping the wildebeests have
cleverly moved off a short distance but
they are still very very much within the
sides of this coalition and judging from
the behavior that I’ve seen in the past
from these boys is that they’re gonna
wait for darkness to begin to sit soon
possibly you yeah we should actually
still be on safari because it’s half an
hour later this evening so we could well
be on safari when they do decide to make
a tempted hunt on these wildebeest the
last kill they’re made with us was at
quarter to eight so 15 minutes after the
foot safari finishes of course if there
is good action though we’ll keep you
updated as to whether we’re gonna go and
live on Facebook whether we going to
extend the Safari but very very good
prospects I’m very excited for VM who’s
on camera with me who is desperate she
said he’s gonna retire after he gets a
good cheetah hunts I don’t think this
one will qualify because it won’t be in
perfect sunlight but diem is basically
on the road to retirements so for those
of you enjoy his camerawork best you
make the most of it because there’s
going to be living I think remotely
semi-nomadic lee out of his vehicle and
a caravan trailer tent come home in the
next few weeks
there’s quite a strong wind blowing
that’s gonna assist and create some
confusion and chaos when these guys
start running in like a pack of wolves
into these large herds of wildebeest and
they’re basically just running and kind
of chased them at fairly random
intervals and not necessarily together
as a team but then one of them manages
to single out say youngstorget on one
and then the rest of them come barreling
in to help subdue it because even a
young wildebeest is quite a handful or a
powerful for a single cheetah so that’s
why these guys have become so so
effective another thing that’s
interesting that I was thinking about
earlier is that they may well never have
hunted together in scenario in a
scenario like this during the migration
like I said a bit earlier they only
joined together or they’ve only been
noted in this area as of December so
they’re not sure where they came from
this speculation that one of the males
has come from Tanzania we’re gonna rush
you across to James and I’ll continue
the story later doesn’t seem to be going
anywhere at all big lappet-faced vulture
and just very nicely framed there on the
termite mound huge bird with a wingspan
of some nine feet now if we zoom out
from there and we look over the top
underneath that rainstorm II up to about
there all the way to the end you can
just see the top of my head there well
and even beyond that hoop and to the
right there Manu yeah onto those hills
there beyond and just brought in the
picture slightly
and what you can see are numberless
herds of wildebeest you can just sort of
make them out there any discoloration
that you see on that hill is numberless
to build a boost and that is where we
are going and that is where I’m hoping
that we are going to get a V salt liquor
pride I’m very sorry to have dragged you
over from Scott at high speed and I
think I gave the wrong impression about
how urgent the sighting was anyway we’re
going to carry on over the top here
Rebecca do you want to get back to Scott
hi you can stay with us no problem
Scott is now putting the Emmie 20
low-light camera onto his vehicle which
will allow for him to take very
beautiful night shots at the cheetah
killing morville the best
this is really why don’t we get over the
top of this hill you’re going to be so
amazed
Becca is so excited that she wants to be
so amazed
wait I will say amazing wall short
people not by my own hand but simply by
facing the vehicle in the right
direction
goodness gracious me
nice money under the far Ridge there
there we go look at that and Rebecca is
already so amazed which is a great
relief because our very sad she hadn’t
been and that not
so we’re going to get in amongst Tim and
see if we can’t find those other lines
if you don’t find those lines I will
probably give up right in the mean time
that’s it across to Tristan who
apparently is in and amongst the
elephants
well we’re still just trying to catch up
without Ilias they’re moving a lot
quicker than they were just now just now
it was all sedate and you ain’t really
going to find Holly kind of getting
going a little bit so I’m just trying to
catch up with them and try and find a
better way to position myself that we
get to see them without having to move
too much I would rather be a slightly
since er if you can try and just go
straight ahead of me into this grass
yeah I’m gonna duck out the way whether
we gonna see them or not is anyone’s
guess but they are button quails inside
there then where’s that I thought that
was one of them it’s just grass removing
its tiny tiny little birds that’s all
inside here we have you gone no button
whales come out is that one sitting
there no that’s a leaf difficult to see
actually the cinders trying to look scan
in the grass there for me it’s too much
wind we can’t see the movements of our
button quails since I’m gonna try and
move just watch that spot maybe we’ll
see them but there was most definitely
some button quails that were lurking in
this little thicket and they so
difficult to get on camera
no our button whales have moved off
oopsey as our our elephants our big
females just guiding her young ones away
there we go
lots of flapping of ears a soft saying
given that it is warm it’s very warm if
you’re a big grey beast with the Sun
hitting your back so they have to flap
your ears a little bit just to stay nice
and cool and you can see the young one
it’s stops every now and in his feeding
and I wonder if it’s going to move that
branch if it’s learnt that trait yet
from its mom as they get older they will
learn that they can move trees around to
get to what they want underneath no not
quite
not just yet trying though and you can
see that one’s a little tusks are
starting to show so that one is about
five or six years old
cat’s paw is you want to know if
elephants ever come into camp well yes
they most certainly do come to the
fringes of camp I haven’t seen one yet
come into the gate and towards FC
we have a little gatepost our to the
final control into the DRC but they do
certainly walk right past it and feed
and munch way Chantelle has had some
behind the house I think or Connor I
can’t remember one of the two of them
they had in Leah’s somewhere behind they
live mix they used to live next door to
each other so I think there was in his
behind there at some point
I remember somebody telling me that one
of those rooms I can’t remember I’m
getting old I can’t remember who’s who
and who’s been in whose room because
it’s changed so much since I’ve been
yeah all the Mara guys have left and new
rooms and so people have gone into
different rooms and well it’s just all
quite complicated at this stage but yes
they do come around when I was at
chipper and lion sands and sim Amelie
they were a permanent fixture at all of
those camps they used to come in all the
time and the reason why they’re coming
to camp so much is because camps water
gardens for the plants around the lodge
to make it look pretty and minutes try
and like it is now then you know what
that means that means elephants want to
eat nice pretty plants and therefore
they come in and they destroy nice
pretty Gardens and soon you left with an
absolute mess but if we go up just from
the baby for two seconds and so if you
look at that female you can see that she
is pregnant look at how wide she is you
can see the hips there and then beyond
the hips is a lot of swelling at this
stage so she is probably quite heavily
pregnant I would imagine she’s almost as
round as she is tall at this stage so
that is a good sign it’s always nice to
see pregnant females it’s very
encouraging when the population is going
up rather than down
although the elephant population in the
query is not struggling at this stage at
all they are steadily increasing every
single year there’s not very much that
the elephants have to worry about here
in South Africa there is a bit of
poaching that’s starting to happen right
in the northern part of the Kruger but
other than that they don’t really suffer
from disease there’s not too many
predators around that hunt them
particularly in the system there’s so
many other prey species that can be
hunted by lions and leopard and all
these others that elephants really don’t
from part of the menu that much and so
find that the elephant numbers are just
exponentially increasing or said number
of good years of rain which has meant a
lot more vegetation and so
the numbers have done very very well
that coupled with artificial water
points means that the elephant’s find
water easily and there’s no longer these
long journeys to trek from water source
to water source that might have killed
off older or younger weaker individuals
and so that’s why their population is
slowly on the increase it’s not to say
that it’s the bad thing and there’s a
lot of studies about it and John you’re
wondering if the dry grass that eating
has any nutrients in it John the grass
that we see are above the surface of the
soil
absolutely not it’s all just dry and
there’s very little in it but what they
are trying to get is the roots of that
grass so they pull the grass in chunks
and you’ll find they eat the bottom half
of the grass are they eating all the
root system and that’s where grass
stores its nutrients in its moisture to
keep it alive and that’s what they’re
actually targeting in these nutrients in
that and then they’ll supplement that
with a lot of leaves and bark and roots
and this time of year right since a
before Ellie’s disappear let’s try and
catch up once again because they are
moving off slightly
this area is a bit of a minefield though
is the odd-odd FARC burro is the odd
warthog burro you’ve got to be a little
bit careful is a few sickle bush around
which is a tyre hazard of note so just
trying to be careful of those as we
going along as well
katelyn who’s ten years old hello
Caitlyn you want to know how thick is an
elephant’s skin in centimeters now in
centimeters it depends where we look in
Caitlyn because on their body they have
different thicknesses of skin so around
the ears we know that the skin look
particularly on the back side of the ear
is very very thin but on the other side
a sort of on the body and in that area
that skin is going to be very thick so
on the year only a few probably it not
even a centimeter thick it’ll be
millimeters whereas on the body itself
you’re probably finding in places it’s
going to be close to five to ten
centimeters thick so it’s very thick on
the body and the trunk as well the trunk
is got very thick skin to try and keep
that trunk in good condition remember
they’re grabbing for knee trees with
their trunk so they have to have strong
skin on their trunk as well so it’s also
very thick there then five centimetres
about what the thicknesses of the trunk
itself now the reason why I actually
know the thickness of the trunk more
than anything else is because
unfortunately we had an elephant bull
that died in this area actually at
Chitra just on one eye pan close to the
dam there and that poor elephant bull
because he was he died and they have to
remove the tusks so that poachers don’t
come and steal him the easiest way to
remove the tusk winland carcass is still
fresh is to actually cut the trunk away
first and then get to the tusks like
that and we actually had to take the
trunk often it was quite something to
try and get through the skin in through
the muscle and through that area and it
was not a very pleasant experience and
something I hope that I’ll never have to
repeat again but very interesting just
to have a look at and like I said the
animal died of natural causes so it
wasn’t like there was a poaching
incident to anything like that and I
suppose it was no longer with us so
cutting its trunk and looking and seeing
all of those things up close was not
actually a bad thing it was a great
learning experience and it’s heartbeats
and various other things learn as well
but this has just been so magical as
often they so relaxed this particular
group they’ve not in any way worried
about us and we’ve followed them through
quite a thick bush and crashed a few
trees as we’ve gone with them and as you
can see we haven’t had a head shake then
as the mothers have been upset they
haven’t in any way given us any trouble
so it’s been rather Pleasant
now you can see the grass that’s in
there well that’s actually the air hole
sorry since up but there’s the grass and
you’ll find you see it’s the bottom
sections that it’s eating of course now
an elephant would walk right where the
grass was naughty little elephant and of
course it’s not know Jesus doing what
it’s supposed to do but in the purposes
of what we were trying to see it doesn’t
really help very much you can see it’s
got its trunk down pat already so this
is an elephant that you can see the
tusks with it easily like I say be about
five six years old and so that trunk is
working absolutely fine and incy just
watch how it’s just strips the leaves of
these small branches there we go
strips them and shoves them in now I
know this is conch remember who it was
but somebody was asking the other day
why we can’t see the elephant’s teeth
this might be the prime opportunity to
see them this upper one the way it’s got
its head cocked up we might be able to
see the teeth as it pulls food in
although it’s turned its head slightly
if it faces us we might be able to see
some of the teeth if you look at that
right-hand corner of the mouth there
might be a visual of some of those big
broad plate black teeth on that right
hand area just as it opens although
we’ll have to wait for it to take its
head out of the bush if we’re going to
get lucky and actually see that the only
time I’ve seen elephant teeth regularly
is on the bull elephant so if you park
near the bull elephants and they come
and feed near you and they often feed
quite high up and because of their
heights in comparison to the vehicle you
actually look up into their mouth and
you can then often see the teeth that
way but otherwise very very difficult to
see I thought we might get a lucky break
there and see the silver ones teeth but
unfortunately it’s not buried it’s here
deeper into the thicket
and is turning the wrong direction
maybe now let’s see come on open your
mouth wide oh there’s too many branches
in the way no almost there let’s see if
we can see them come on if it turns one
more time like it did just now we might
be able to get to see those teeth
of course we are seeing has teeth anyway
in the form of the modified incisors
that are coming out between one either
side of the trunk in the form of the
tusks
those are modified teeth that we see so
there are not horns in any way it’s not
bonus exactly what your teeth are made
out of become some of the younger ones
you can also hear a bit of gas that’s
being passed which is quite normal for
an elephant head Charles in Charge you
want to know how far a elephants trumpet
would travel now so that in charge I
wonder if you saying in terms of our
hearing or in terms of their hearing
because that’s two very different things
our hearing you can probably hear
elephants trumpeting depending on
obviously wind and thickness of the bush
as well as the sort of terrain that
you’re in if you’re in dips and troughs
and and high areas but I would say you
could probably hear elephants trumpeting
from 3-4 kilometers away if they really
trumpeting poppy in terms of elephants
themselves I would imagine you could
probably treble even quadruple that
distance that they’d be able to start
picking it up so the thing is with them
is that they actually have sensory cells
that are in even the tip of their trunk
and they feet that are able to pick up
the vibrations caused by sound waves and
they can actually hear themselves from
15 kilometers which is really quite
something when you think about it if
you’re long how long it’s taken has to
be able to communicate over 15
kilometres that elephants can do it
naturally is quite something right
they’ve moved off again into your little
green belt thickets in front of me here
so I’m just going to try and catch up
once more it’s amazing how when they do
decide to move
they go quite quickly I’m not sure where
this has come from and why we are doing
this but apparently I need to go to spot
and I need to do it in an accent that
first was a Bolivian accent which who
knows what that is I even tried to
google it while I was archer picky
because I had the bit of cell phone
reception and I can’t find anything on a
Bolivian accent so now they want any
accent whatsoever but you can’t put me
on the spots with this I need to have
quick time to be able to say it so I’ll
do it the next link how about that since
I do you have an accent that you want to
do and one was so we’ll have to think
about unwise accent and we’ll try to do
it a little bit later let’s go across
the Scots and see what he’s up to nippy
still with those beautiful cheetah
brothers way to look at that whole
episode and fold
I’m trying up and you presents a cam
it’s a new piece of equipment that I
haven’t got used to so that’s oh I’m
leaning very closely to it it’s only
about eight inches from my nares and
it’s quite a nifty little toy it was one
of the improvements I guess to our
equipments if you look ahead there are
five cheetah and you are now on the main
camera they’re all lined up and poised
like a military operation
like I say waiting for the cover of
darkness to wreak havoc and terror with
the herd of wildebeest which is just to
the left hand side of them it’s actually
slowly grazing towards him look at those
beautiful rays of sunshine bursting
through the clouds another very very
splendid moody afternoon here
in the Maasai Mara now
you know in an ideal world be a little
bit too big for the cheetah so they’ll
be looking through the search for any
youngsters let’s have a look and see if
we can find any youngsters in here that
we want to seal their fate for them but
too many small ones yeah so we may have
an epic showdown where these five boys
try and bring down a big wildebeest and
I have been told that they do that
fairly often about maybe a week two
weeks ago everything kind of blends into
one big Safari out here to be honest
that took a half an hour to bring down a
fully grown wildebeest so I kind of
trying to liken that to Lions hunting
Buffalo it’s a very similar match
equally dangerous for these cheetah to
hunt will the beast as it is for lion to
hunt Buffalo so it could be something a
little bit nerve-wracking for all of us
but again
the Predators do come unstuck from time
to time it’s not just their prey who is
unlucky for now though all is calm and
peaceful very strong wind still blowing
let’s hope it doesn’t continue into the
evening and then blow our blankets away
and I’m very very happy to hear that
it’s not just me that’s very excited for
the prospects of this evening if I were
you I would phone a friend spread the
love of safari live and let them know
what they’re about to miss out on it’ll
certainly assist in us taking you to
different safari destinations around the
world
southern coastal would be quite nice to
mix it up Coastal Safari mm-hmm palm
trees underwater snorkeling scuba diving
hello Audrey who’s just 12 years old you
would like to know what the chances are
of a cheetah jumping onto the car while
we are sleeping and to be honest Audrey
I don’t think there’s a good chance of a
cheetah doing that while we are sleeping
however during the day they sometimes
like to jump up onto the hoods of the
vehicles to use it as a vantage point
just like their climb up onto termite
mounds they will jump onto the hoods of
the vehicles sometimes even the roofs of
the vehicles and get a better view now
that is something that we as humans
should not really promote as cool as it
is and I would love to have it happen if
no one was watching but that’s not how
we should think because by letting it
get so close to us it eventually may
mean that it may hurt somebody even if
it scratches somebody by mistake and
then who knows what they will do to that
cheetah so there is a limit that we
should rather kind of chase them off
when they get a bit close rather than
letting them get too friendly having
said that though VM and I were
discussing today that there are there is
a chance that possibly a lion or hyena
it won’t even need to jump into the
vehicle it could just walk up to the
side of the vehicle and grab onto our
toes and pull us off but hopefully
that’s not going to happen and we we
generally keeping an eye out but there
is a small chance that could happen to
be honest I’d rather that happened then
something else in this world we live in
so
yes and no it’s not gonna be a realistic
problem thankfully I think if you’re
sleeping under a bush all alone without
any lights on the vehicle without any
other people snoring and so it’s kind of
switching around in there on their
mattress then that would be a little bit
different but I think we are safe for
now hello James you’re interested to
know at what age would a young male
cheetah’s start struggling to join a
coalition I’m told any we’re kind of
upwards of two and a half years of age
it starts becoming tricky for them to be
allowed into a boys club but again I
would be interested to know if any of
you have found any research or documents
that states otherwise one thing that
fascinates me about wildlife and
especially African wildlife because I
know more about that the African wild
left and then the other continents is
that you get the same species of animals
occurring widely through through
sub-saharan Africa yet their behavior
depending on where they live the exact
same species can be very very different
let’s take hyena for example the clans
here a huge and Duma they’re small if
they’re exactly the same animal and
their behavior in those clans changes so
it can’t kind of be like into us as
humans some countries people get married
young some people some countries and
cultures people have forced arranged
marriages I mean just us as one species
is a great example of how different we
can act behave eat sleep drink work you
name it
so cheats are the same leopard are the
same lion are the same they’ve all kind
of got their own traits personalities
and trends depending on where they are
but yes around two to two-and-a-half
years of age I’m really looking forward
to trying to work out more about these
guys and it’s really a forgot to
continue my story from earlier basically
not much is known about this coalition
they came into the area in December last
year nobody’s sure if any of them are
brothers there’s you know high
likelihood that possibly two pairs of
the four or two pairs out of the five
are brothers but some scatter analysis
that are going to be analysis I don’t
know if that’s correct but we all roll
with it and they have done some scat
samples and they are waiting to be DNA
tested so we will know for certain in
the coming weeks who is related to who
out of this coalition I’m also told one
other little bits of information is that
one of these guys was born with the
sister so his sibling was a sister and
his mother was a Tanzanian cheetah so he
has skipped the border and come north
into Kenya other than that I don’t think
any of these cheetahs whereabouts
backgrounds anything is known about them
so really looking forward to trying to
work out what it is you know as much as
we can about them and it looks like for
now it’s gonna be safe to send you off
to another African predator with mr.
James Henry I think I thought Scott for
a moment they was referring to me as an
African predator or spot to be
complimented not there we have way in
the distance and the reason they’re in
the distance is because they’re in the
bottom of a signal free Valley is the
Salt Lick pride and two more of them are
way off to the right hand side we’ve
lost sight of them now a mating pair but
the reason we’ve stopped in this area
because of the vast number of all the
business we tilt up we can see the herd
that we were in amongst earlier and the
herd that you saw earlier that massive
herd is actually just behind us and I’ll
take you driving through them right now
I’m hoping desperately that this wind
that’s blowing does not mean rain every
single time into this area I have got
hit by storms and in fact the last time
which was Sunday last from two weeks ago
and Ferguson I got stuck for two and a
half hours we were running from the
storms everyone’s fate worried about us
you know they thought maybe we’d been
blown away except of course mrs.
Wellington who’s English and said they
can’t die of rain yours of course
correct so I think they probably going
to hunt well I hope they’re going to
hunt that hurt a little bit later as it
gets a bit darker the flatness indicates
to me that they’re probably eaten 74
wildebeest in the last two hours and so
I’m not convinced they’re going to get
up and do anything right come with me
now what we’re going to do is just take
a little drive around through this vast
swath of life over here
look at that
is that not too gorgeous
is that not too gorgeous
not them having a panic attack I just
let us drive
listen click with it
and not that is great
so what we don’t want is for them to
have a panic and we just want us then
CSS
panic this medieval the best all you
would need to do is get up and make a
big noise or hoot and shout and then
they would be panic and that would be
horrible and then there would be panic
and that would be horrible
you
I think try and think of the biggest
crowd you’ve ever been in amongst
faucets imagine the you to cut
I think that’s the biggest crowd I’ve
ever been in amongst and I was suspected
now if your questions are not being
answered it’s not because we’re ignoring
you there is a few there is a few no
James there are a few
we will try and maintain a stream I can
actually see the camp NASA
now as we drive through here what’s
interesting is that yester Becker I can
see you waving at us
what you can see is that the Valerius
very quietly made a circle around us and
that’s what they do around the Lions
they will know where those lines are
quite probably well not anymore not this
group but if you come around the big
group of old abyss when you see a dent
in the side of it or an irregular shape
you can be almost certain but around
that irregular shape there will be a
lion
and some other predator perhaps for
cheetah
I think this is very very entertaining
I mean I don’t know about you I’ve
certainly never seen this number of
animals in one place before son about to
sit behind us a huge storm in the offing
tremendous tremendous stuff
it’s gonna ease up to the top of the
ridge here
and once we’re up there we should be
able to see down over the top
into the rest of the herd and from there
we won’t be able to go any further to
the west because we will unfortunately
lose the signal
now as pretty as that is it’s not as
pretty as the site that I can see with
my eyes and that is because as I said to
you before
oops
unfortunately I hit a stump there that’s
why they started to run the camera is
exposing for the brightest parts of the
screen
and so when you look into the Sun the
validity has become dark but our eyes
are so clever that we can expose for
both at the same time so there’s build
abuse to me look a lot brighter than
they do to you
it’s very nice
I’m a little worried about the weather
but the last four times I’ve said that
we haven’t been rained upon so I’m just
gonna keep saying
in the hopes that I’m warding it off
and the weather is starting to cool
slightly but nice
you have to start putting jerseys on
shortly I believe Scott is doing that
now
who’s the viewer white-bearded gönül
like these chaps you don’t have any
jerseys
yes Rebecca we can absolutely stop I
just want to get over the top of this
hill if you don’t mind
another 1 minute and then I’ll stop
Rebecca wants to hear them canoeing
stop the other side of this termite
mound
all righty let’s head back across the
gym oh I will get to the top of the hill
apparently there have got a sunset to
show you
now we’ve just got the most beautiful
scene of the Sun slowly heading towards
the Drakensberg mountains and below that
is our herd of Emmys that is slowly but
surely making their way along below the
sunset and moving just around us a
little bit this the one or two that have
come towards the car but there is one
that is sitting almost directly
underneath the Sun at this stage so I
will show you that just now when we
admire the Sun for a few moments isn’t
that beautiful
there are many better ways to end the
day than to watch that you can see quite
a bit of dust on the horizon you can
actually can’t even see the mountains
today from here you should see the
mountains quite clearly and the Sun
itself is a big ring and that’s from the
wind that we’ve had it’s kicked that
dust up and caused that to be a little
softer than it normally would be there’s
the mountains just through all the best
that you can see in the distance Rita
you say you love the Juma sunset colors
will Ricci I agree they are beautiful
there I have seen some incredible scenes
from the Mara those sunset thunderstorms
that they tend to get there’s also
absolutely wonderful so the two of them
both have equally beautiful sunsets and
there are elephants just making their
way through the shot as all isn’t that
beautiful
very nice Enzo all done quite like that
it is strewn under a african sunset now
I’m not quite sure where I’m going to be
able to go from here because we have a
situation where we are firmly stuck
between a whole bunch of trees and
Elly’s in every direction and then I go
one female writer you can see how large
she is that’s the pregnant female is
just walking past us big girl that’s
dwarfing us at the moment and then here
comes she nuts not the pregnant female I
lie
they must be actually pretty piggies you
know the one that’s to show you a left
over the other one look at how big she
is in front of the comparison to come
this upon yourself in really nutritious
treat that’s for the sickle Bush that
she’s been using in the circulation as
you can see that you find down in the
softer the sabi sands lots of it that’s
sickle bushes like is a targeted heavily
by the inner fence he also finds bearing
other species that eat it like to do and
giraffe but the Ailey’s really love it
did I think she’s trying to eat off a
different plant but it’s doesn’t look as
though it’s actually got any live
vegetation she’s kind of branching her
trunk through all the dead stuff it is
such a beautiful scene we’ve got
elephant we’ve got Setting Sun it is
magic Josh are you wondering if
elephants will avoid any species of tree
I’m just trying to think Josh F of
species of trees that I’ve never seen an
elephant to eat I must be honest I’ve
never seen them feeding off the sand
paper raisin and it’s not to say that
they don’t is we don’t keep that many
sand paper raisins in this area because
those long eyelashes and that deep amber
I’ve hidden behind them you can see the
pupils dilating quite a lot because
that’s the side away from the Sun which
is getting quite dark now but I’ve never
seen them eat sand paper raisins I
haven’t seen them I think what other
trees Archer seen them feed of worries
I’ve seen them feed off cluster leaf
bush willow jackal berries so all of
those species of Jesus actually not
meaning that I can’t think of you might
find this the odd succulent
that goes careful where you throw those
sticks we’re in hazard the zone at the
moment there’s twigs being thrown all
over the place and we hopefully won’t
get a sickle Bush branch on us because
the sickle Bush has got some nasty
spines so and if you can just see on the
branch here
these hard spines that’s are on there
and those hard spines are lethal to
one’s hands and feet and anything else I
had a spine from a sticker bush go into
my family how cool was that
that is so epic
now I can assure you that that is the
elephant and not to my stomach or since
a stomach we were fed well at lunch this
afternoon so that is the elephant making
that sound how amazing is that as I was
saying to you that the spine actually
went into my thumb and unfortunately I
didn’t notice that it was in there
because it kind of made like a little
blood scab over the top and about eight
weeks later it was still really painful
and eventually I managed to pull out
this about an inch long phone from
underneath my fingernail and it was not
very pretty at all it’s got quite a
infected and wasn’t very nice so sicker
Bush is not a friendly plant at all and
you can see some of those spines just on
the branch there and it amazes me that
Elly’s can deal with it because that
spine is very hard the spine is a
modified leaf and so it’s you would
think would be quite soft in comparison
to the thorns but it’s actually much
harder than what thorns are no Cole
you’re gonna throw that on me babe
yourself well look at that sunset now as
well sins oh I know she’s really close
and it is beautiful to see her you just
watch that tree now James you want to
know whether or not the baby elephants
can feed off the cambium layer like the
adults can well as soon as they get
tusks then yes they watch the adults and
they start practicing it already and so
they can start to show signs of being
able to do it and it really does happen
even in the young ones they tend to wait
a little bit and they only really get
the strength to be able to dig the tusks
in and rip off a little bit later in
life so after they’ve gone through their
formative years and they start reaching
late teens is when we start to see it
for the first time but there you can see
Moritz cope and if you look very
carefully you can actually see the
towers that our signal gets broadcasted
from these little spikes on there I
think those are them by some way on that
northern tip there and those receive the
signal from where we are and send it all
the way to all of you Michael okay but
you
this is so cool she’s sitting right in
front of us at the moment she was just
stopping just to see what we were making
sure we weren’t in issue and she’s now
going to move on
who is she is she going to just sit yeah
no she’s moving on so we’ll just watch
the last of the sunset going down now I
believe in err has sent me a video of
her doing her accent for all of us so
this is a real treat and while our
Indies move away and the Sun is setting
I’m just going to try and pull up our
video and see if we can’t watch in
essentia doing her thing
hold on so we want to pause it we don’t
want it to start just yet all right are
we ready for this and give it two more
minutes as the Sun just steps over the
back end of the Drakensberg mountains
it’s amazing how quickly that Sun does
go down and I would say in 10 seconds
when we’re going to have it down
beautiful
and gone very cool right now and we’re
just going to quickly play our videos in
the center so there’s in Accenture say
let in essentially everybody now
hopefully this is going to be loud
enough I’m going to have to turn sound
up let’s see so this is in a sensuous
accent of a can wha
Oh why’s it not playing doesn’t seem to
want to play now you know I’m very very
happy now our son is sit but it sounds
like there is a sunset in the Maasai
Mara so I’m going to send you all to the
Masai Mara so you can go and hang out
with Scottie and the Sun that setting
I’m not sure if the accent that Rebecca
gave was the same one that Tristan gave
it sounded like something like sort of
an southern report if you like anyway
here we are with our sunset and I think
a very spectacular spectacular thing
that we’re watching here hundreds of
thousands of wildebeest what I’m saying
hundreds of thousands because it sounds
impressive but it may only be twenty
thousand are moving past us and there’s
a storm dropping water out of the sky
there these funny bulbous clouds above
us whose names I have forgotten and
somebody can tell me if you like
hashtags right up just above them and
they do have a name actually
[Applause]
don’t know what that is anyway it is a
very very astounding thing to be in
amongst and everywhere you look there is
beauty off to the eastern side away from
the Sun here is a lovely tree framed by
some very beautiful clouds there we are
is that not nice nice and I really use
that at my English today has been
necessary appalling Rebecca says yar
nice brew that’s what you say in
Johannesburg if you’re really educated
if abri that’s really nice hey that’s
lovely beautiful there’s a lot of good
living and some high digital some low
pitch the highest pitched ones I can
hear again Oh mommy the Sun is about to
drop down below the cloud line there
sure
and the Rebecca is going to be soy
amazed once again now she’s going in a
very South African fashion she’s getting
you which means that’s amazing little
bit of alarm calling but I mean if the
Lions get in amongst this bunch is gonna
be absolute chaos
isn’t that let’s try to get a little
closer in if you can money
Arnett it’s going to play with your
exposure horribly there we go
just dropping below the cloud line
Gotha is amazing
Wow all right now that squeak and pull
back out again you can show us that
canoes
now before I answer Annie’s question I
just need to tell Manu of course that it
is illegal for me to be taking
photographs on Drive because it
distracts me from my presenting so when
I am breaking the law your please not to
put the camera on me is that okay thanks
very much that’s great Andy sorry I
missed your question as I was caught
there doing an illegal thing what was it
again
oh I will carry the answered shortly
apparently I think the cheater on the
move well the cheater are certainly not
on the move the wildebeest are now what
is going to happen you literally saw the
front wildebeest start streaming past
these cheetah and there’s a lot more to
come I’m guessing there’s still about
another hundred wildebeest that will
come streaming past these cheetah and
most of the young wildebeest are at the
back of the herd and as soon as the
youngster strays close enough to them I
think these guys might surge at them
look at the way they flattened
themselves to the ground
the wildebeest it’s hard to believe but
they’ve got no idea whatsoever that
these cheats are young and there’s five
of them only about thirty meters away
Oh what is going to happen it’s not as
dark as it usually is when these guys
really start revving the herds so that’s
possibly why there’s still a little bit
apprehensive but at any moment they may
see a youngster that they see fit for
dinner and they could surge forward and
when they do the hurt starts kind of
running around they don’t free
completely they’ll almost run around in
circles because they’re not hugely
intimidated by the cheetah they just get
an initial fright and it’s then that
they start kind of churning through
these wildebeest until they managed to
find a youngster bring it down some of
you may have seen the footage of one of
the cheetah getting bald over by a
mother wildebeest who came back to
rescue its youngster so wildebeest will
stand up against these cheetah not
always but certainly from time to time I
cannot believe how incredible this is
what a beautiful beautiful evening it is
here in the Maasai Mara I’m told you are
enjoying a wonderful sunset with James
so while the action awaits us we will
show you the view from where we are
perched at the moment isn’t that
spectacular
beautiful
I’m glad James isn’t getting wet you can
see lots of rain arts and those clouds
over there
so he’s obviously a little bit further
north I’m guessing
very very good seller there’s still
about another 50 or 60 wildebeest I’m
guess I’m not easy to be certain how
many and I can’t believe these cheats
haven’t done anything yet but that is
the beauty of it you may think you’re
getting to know these animals and may
predict whatever guesstimate as to what
they are going to do but very often they
prove us wrong
very very windy afternoon again this
will assist the cheetah did the one on
the right there try to kind of swivel
itself to the side but didn’t wasn’t
always graceful move but did definitely
swivel itself pointing more towards the
world least maybe that one’s going to
search first oh there’s a warthog hey
mister you get out of there buddy
although I think these guys really have
become wildebeest hunting experts and be
ready because at any moment now
one of them could surge forward
most of the young wildebeest I was
talking about are starting to stream
forward now the first one here in the
middle of the screen last stray is too
far away from any of the big ones I
think they may have a go at it which
that cheats on the right it seems to be
getting the most prone and ready
I wonder what’s going through their
heads wouldn’t that be nice to know
there’s no ways they can be
communicating with one another now I
wouldn’t think but individually
all of them are Express or displaying
incredible patience and this is a skill
that even the fastest mammal on the
planet will fastest land animal on the
planet needs to be able to succeed and
bring down some prey oh that’s a small
one there sure you are lucky for now it
appears
Oh have they got a front this may
trigger a chase for a lot of predators
if their prey don’t run for them from
them oh yeah they go yeah they go can
you believe it just out of nowhere you
stay on that front one VM I’ll keep an
eye on the others John it’s going it’s
gonna get it’s oh can you believe this
what a takedown it looks like the other
one might be going for another thank God
they’ve got two was it just the one no
they just got the one the others are
coming back to help
well done p.m. I’m gonna get us in there
a little bit closer hold tight everyone
I was supposed to do that quick I’ve
gotten off to a slow start yeah I was so
busy looking for others there’s a lot of
vehicles also getting in I’d only put
too much pressure on them but it looks
like everyone’s stopping at a healthy
distance so that’s the good news
let’s see if I can get the Sun set
behind that’s gonna be able to van ask
so we’ll skip that this is a big wall to
beast they’ve still thought they were
cut off that was such an incredible
tackling couldn’t can you believe how
just out of nowhere they surged forward
oh this may be hard for some of you but
it is nature there’s nothing we can do
about this they are trying to kill this
wildebeest as quickly as they can but I
fear it may take some time this is the
biggest wildebeest I have seen them
attack so far
now what we must all be aware of is that
this wildebeest bleats that it’s letting
up now as saddening as it is to hear it
is also going to Lear in any hyena a
lion that may be in this area so I’m
scanning around just making sure that no
hyena come barreling in or even worse
than that any lion we’ve seen this
coalition of five male cheetah Loser
cool – just one single hyena that really
fit on most of it but that is something
we need to be aware of can you believe
how quickly and precisely that all
unfolded it was certainly the cheats on
the far I too was showing the most
interest in making this kill that surged
out of the blocks
and what an incredible takedown that was
incredible camerawork to VM these things
all happen so quickly and it’s something
that none of us are practiced in hence
me taking two minutes to drop the clutch
and get us here but well done to VM
incredible camera work and well done to
this coalition of wildebeest machines
wildebeest machines will cease killing
machines and for those of you on a
lighter note who are worried that
wildebeest is now going to retire VM the
camera man wildebeest aka wildebeest he
is not I was just joking around it’s
just a joke that he said he would retire
after he gets a good cheetah takedown
and I think that was certainly worthy of
his joke
well this is interesting because the
squabbling behavior around the kill is
something that is new to us we haven’t
spent a long time with this coalition of
cheetah but only in the last week or so
look at these two having a go at one
another
wildebeest isn’t dead yet so they
shouldn’t try and focus on doing that
don’t think it is dead
that must be close looks like d’Artagnan
the male with the collars gonna show
them how it’s done yeah
now this behavior we don’t know who’s
who yet sir that’s difficult in a
chaotic siting like this we need to even
have a guess but obviously the male with
the collar is easy to distinguish he is
one of the biggest of these five and
there is another big one so there’s two
that are distinctly bigger than the
others and it looks like he’s been
showing that slightly smaller one who is
boss
you can see that one’s trying to bake
its way in you see I think this is
another of the more mature males that’s
gone in on the chokehold now they’re
obviously they’re obviously not
convinced that it’s dead yet nor am i
what does that feel okay Sophie I’m just
a – what is called the drop in indie
filters are basically just assisting
with the lessening light as the Sun has
just set
well everyone what can I say to be able
to witness a live Cheetah Hunt from the
Masai Mara again is just the most
phenomenal thing and I’m so so grateful
to be sharing this with you we are so so
lucky to be seeing these five cheetah do
their business
and it looks like the long hours Spence
Archer has already paid off I’m still
continually scanning to make sure no
hyena come on to the fray it could
happen at any point in time
hello Tamir you’d like to know if there
are any lion or hyena around in the
general area and that I know of and no
not that I know of but one thing I can’t
tell you is that there’s no shortage of
both of those animals in the Masai Mara
ecosystem especially hyena so it’s
there’s a strong possibility one will
come on to the fray the wind could be
helping these cheats in terms of it
muffling the sounds of this wildebeest
bellowing bleating and it will also be
muffling the sounds of their argument
would attack attract some attention
they’re so busy fighting over one
another they’re not forgetting to kill
this will Derby behavior
she said wouldn’t like to be those two
with their tails towards us and their
heads away from us they could catch us
straight hoof at any point in time here
comes the first hyena on the Left BM or
really the first anus here and on cue
what is it going to do is it gonna
charge in and try and chase them all off
alone it’s just doing the maths first it
is coming closer not cleverly probably
going to come behind the vehicles using
a bit of our cover to sneak up on them
and it may well try and call in
reinforcements and other hyena like
orchid comes on the BM on the left now
they haven’t had a mouthful of this look
at this
very characteristic maneuver that the
cheetah used they left their front legs
up high and slam them down onto the
ground to make himself look more fierce
and impressive now is this hyena going
to be greedy I look more fierce and
impressive now is this hyena going to be
greedy keep quiet and
to the rest of the plan for
reinforcements it’s an it’s an
interesting scenario that plays out that
a hyena has options to be selfish or to
be greedy if he calls on the rest of the
clan it knows it’s going to have its
work cut out for it lots of competition
this cheetah also knows it needs to
start eating as quickly as possible
I wonder how that hyena got the message
was that the sound must have been the
wind is blowing in that direction so it
could have blown those moans and groans
off the wildebeest towards wherever that
hyena was resting for the afternoon or
the day
and I’m not convinced that these cheats
are gonna get much of this meal I think
there’s gonna be more hyena coming in
and who knows that may mean another
hunter this evening
once darkness has fallen
very very interesting prospects that is
for certain well I think all of us need
to take a deep breath
and compose ourselves after that manic
action it’s been such a calm and
pleasantly slow afternoon Safari I would
like to say at least from my point of
view as you’ve had the joy of jumping on
board with Tristan and James but things
have just taken a rapid rapid spike in
excitements and adrenaline and emotion
the hyena still just sitting off on the
side there patiently and it appears like
it is taking the selfish route as
opposed to calling in the rest of the
clan to chase off these hyena Cape
Churchill W would like to know what Hyde
is the toughest to break through I’m
guessing most of your general kind of
antelope have got similar thickness
hides you know wildebeest and topi will
be on a par and zebra
maybe buffalo slightly thicker and then
you know Rhino hippo and elephant will
have the thickest of the skins to try
and get through does appear like they
are having a tough time getting through
this I think age also makes a difference
I think the older the wildebeest the
tougher the skin becomes whereas the
younger wildebeest might be a little bit
softer more supple to open and appears
that is the case these guys having
trouble getting in here there’s great
news Tristan has been tirelessly
tracking while we’ve been enjoying the
sighting of these cheetahs so why don’t
you go and have a look what he’s found
you
now it’s just managed to find a spotted
surprise for all of you so I’m gonna try
and see how fish is not gonna drop down
into the Mana Party but it looks like
Tandy I haven’t seen very nicely but I’m
gonna try and just see there she goes
I can see her just going in front of me
so it doesn’t look like her so she’s
just disappearing into the darkness now
sorry about the little bit of a breakup
in picture I’m gonna quickly just shoot
round at the side of the mawashi be able
to keep up with them so just want a
quickie get round so just hold on little
Ferrari Safari for two seconds
so she’s just on the western side well
at twin dam she’s on the eastern side
now tumblers are in Torchwood and he’s
moving west so I wonder if we’re not
gonna get a situation where we gonna get
both of them meeting up together again
so we’re just gonna see if we can’t get
around a little bit bumpy
sorry scrubby
all right and down we go into the
molarity now tell you be nice to us
don’t cross in a horrible place and
don’t go to Ricky
now I do need later today so we’re not
going to have a little last minute
little bit we hope well sorry about that
shaky signal down in Juma but at least
you’ve got some good action here and
well done to Tristan for getting you at
least a glimpse of that Leopard
it seems like they’re slowly making
their way through the thick hide of this
wildebeest but they certainly are
finding it harder than any of the other
young wildebeest that I’ve seen them
snack on the hyena is still waiting
patiently on the outskirts and all
you’ve missed is a few little squabbles
between this coalition and I’m hoping
that all the squabbling we’re seeing
isn’t the beginning of the end of this
coalition it’s not uncommon for
coalition’s to join up for periods of
time and then obviously as relationships
either
I guess dwindle they can then split up
and go off on their own in smaller
groups so that may happen and again
further reason for us to really be
gracious that we get to see this mini
cheetah together it’s not the norm and
to see such efficient killing again as
neither is not normal either
now you’re here possibly quite a few
vehicles starting up people are heading
back towards their respective camps yet
we do not have two we are here the whole
night so fear not we are not going
anywhere and again very very fortunate
that we’ve got special privileges to be
out after dark
hello again a Russian II good to have
you on safari again you would like to
know how long after this chase would
they need to cool off while it doesn’t
look like they need to cool off at all
they’ve gone straight from the chase it
was a short chase there you know as far
as cheats ago they can have to chase
things for far longer than it did in
this situation I would say that was
probably only about a hundred meters or
so that it had to run it’s a very cool
evening and as you can see all of them
have taken no time to get their breath
or cool off and I’m actually told it’s
more of a a kind of old wives tale that
cheats I need to cool off I mean of
course they need to catch their breath
but they don’t run the risk of
overheating which i think is quite a why
do deserts a recent document that I read
it’s a bit of a misnomer that’s not the
case their body temperature doesn’t
really rocket to the point that they’re
going to self combust they’ll obviously
be out of breath and possibly a little
bit tired but they don’t need to cool
down as much as a lot of us believed was
the case
okay well it’s turning out to be a big
cat evening from a glimpse of a leopard
on Juma – these five cheetah and now
across to James with some line yes some
lines indeed and astoundingly with some
signal and not far from the villa beast
herd now this is a mating pair from the
Salt Lick pride and we know they’re
mating because we have them
well we’ve seen them mating basically
and I think that she looks relatively
hungry and she’s just perked up and the
rest of the pride is the other side of
this sort of marshy spot and I don’t
think there’ll be any signal near them
so I think what we’re going to do is
wait and see if she doesn’t go hunting
often with a mating pair the female will
go hunting you know it’s exhausting work
mating as a lion many many times a day
it must be done you can see the male
completely exhausted and she well she
looks a little bit like she could do eat
something before the new mating
commences so I think we’ll sit with
these two and wait and see what happens
there are two large groupings of
wildebeest around here one to the left
of your screen and one the one we were
with is just sort of behind us and so
rather like Scott was waiting with the
Cheetahs during the day we are going to
work with these lions for a while at the
night and see what happens we’ll give
them a little while before we try the
rest of the pride but having seen where
they are I think that they’re just not
going to be able to give us any workable
signal she’s looking up towards them I
wonder
listen carefully to see if there aren’t
some alarm calls they’re a long way from
here probably about 300 meters also
about a thousand feet which you might be
listening to see if there isn’t signs or
sounds of a kill because she’ll quite
happily scavenge from the family since
the night just starting to fall what an
astounding day yeah you’ve had there
with those cheat isn’t it amazing once
they decide that they’re going to hunt
they heard of all the best it’s almost
certain that they will keep kill hello
love hello darling what’s for dinner how
I got nothing it Oh Ricci you say when
there’s a mating pair to the other lions
move off in order to give the lovers
some space
Ricci I don’t think it’s anything quite
like that no I think what happens is
that these two become so preoccupied
with each other with each other that the
others just kind of get on with the rest
of their lives and he’ll sometimes try
and separate her from the rest of the
pride you know you’ll kind of block her
way and then I suppose by default they
do become separated often not very far
away from the rest of the pride and
she’s looking straight towards them now
and in fact she’s looking at a Jekyll
there’s a Jekyll off to the left there
can you see it there money I’m not sure
you see it way oh no no no much further
left you’d be clearing behind us they’re
in there somewhere there’s little pair
of jackals and that’s what she’s looking
at there you go well spotted and there’s
a there is actually a carcass there an
old carcass that is this milling very
high indeed and that’s what the Jackals
eating lion is licking her chops but I
don’t think the chances the chances of
her catching Jekyll for dinner
well highly unlikely here we are looking
at chops I definitely think she’s quite
peckish he’s watching these little
jackals now they’re jackals are very
fast so they would be able to escape
from her almost always
although lions do take their toll we
know of course that horrendous scene we
saw with Brent win at Juma when the
Lions got hold of a wild dog pup
dreadful dreadful stuff so they do take
their toll on the cane it’s out here
right now either this is it prelude to
more mating or perhaps it’ll be a
prelude to hunting we’re just putting on
the infrared now it’s getting of a doc
so things are going to go from a vibrant
Technicolor to black and white
I’m not sure while she’s licking her
lips quite so enthusiastically she looks
like she might be sick actually well
that’ll make a different picture after
that now that is the thinnest belly I
have seen on a lion and during this
migration season and I think this line
is about to have a bomb yeah that’s
disgusting oh goodness here it comes
he’s not fertile from the slightest I
sitting in know what’s going to happen
here
under the IR light on yes they are is
thick is the IR filter on lose it on
full auto yeah it is quite dark there I
must say anyway let’s reverse back a
little bit
they’re going to mate here we go I must
tell you the smell there aren’t here
it’s not that of a kind of them there’s
no romantic smell around here it smells
like rotting meat and lion dung which is
quite the worst smell in the world yeah
I think she’s hungry now I’m sure this
mating Malarkey’s holding her
fascination really at the moment and if
you can hear that low throaty growl no
go away she says I have a headache
I don’t now that is black we can see
nothing what’s happened
there we go romance in the dusk and
often you know them after territory like
that as the mating happens the male’s do
just to sort of assert themselves it
almost looks like they feel slightly
inadequate afterwards from the
aggressive response they receive so they
mark their territory to show how big and
tough their
office
I’m glad we got to see that
and what I think I might try and do is
speak on to the others just to see if
we’ve got signal I’m 90% sure we won’t
and so while I do that let’s hit across
to Scott and find out how his cheaters
well migration banquet is going well the
banquet has officially begun they have
managed to wake work their way through
the blazer of this Porgy new VM
could be the cheats are chattering to
one another
his turn a strange noise apologies and
VM quite hysterically said that the his
cheetah feed like silkworms and to be
honest I think it’s a great analogy
compared to a lot of the other
carnivores our chair how they eat the
cheats are very petite they don’t ever
get too dirty or bloody and much like a
silkworm nibbling on a leaf of a
mulberry tree kind of I thought it was
great now how much of this will they get
to feed on that for me is the begging
question also what’s boggling my mind is
that this hyena is clearly not much of a
team player if you just let out a few
howling whoops or they’re hysterical
laugh that would certainly get other
hyena in the area onboard and then be
able to override these cheats are very
easily like I said one single hyena has
managed to move these Qi drive these
cheats or offer kill before in all
fairness it wasn’t as fresh as this
there to really been feeding on it for
about half an hour most of it was
finished and I guess maybe by then they
worked out that it’s not worth the risk
of trying to keep the hyena at bay
the sky you know I guess there’s two
sides to the story because it knows that
if it does get all of this to itself
there’ll be lots of bits that the
cheetah cannot feed on so it’s probably
actually more than enough all it needs
to be is patience and little get a lot
of future that like I say the Cheetahs
little jaws were little silkworm jaws
will not be able to cope with something
that I’d also love to know about these
cheats and it will be possible to work
it out with a little bit of time and
effort
there’s which cheetah makes the most
kills we’ve seen definitely the collared
male he showed us a lot of he was the
kind of leader of the hunts when we
initially started spending time with him
but now it looks like we see he’s
drinking the blood there which is also
quite interesting I think they really
enjoy drinking but where they can when
they break open a vein or an artery they
just sit and lap up or the blood that
comes shooting out
we noticed when doing that on a
Thomson’s gazelle one of the two sisters
when they caught a Thomson’s gazelle a
couple of nights ago again that was a
cool made after dark hmm like growling
and squabbling I’m just gonna keep quiet
for a second it could intensify
now what will definitely be happening as
the minutes unfold is that the smell of
this carcass is going to be carried very
far very quickly with this howling wind
any hyena to the west of us is going to
know that there’s a fresh wildebeest up
for grabs so again I wonder how long it
may take for the whole clan come rushing
in it’ll be very interesting to see a
two or three more hyena coming to the
fray to see what these cheetah do
whether they stand together as a team or
if they just rely on one individual to
do all the dirty work
hello Jean you like to know if the
cheetah would prey on the hyena no it’s
highly highly unlikely and I’m fairly
certain the only hyena that would have
been killed by a cheetah will be small
Cubs or very young kind of six month old
hyena a fully grown hyena I don’t think
is a match for a cheetah
not even five of them to be honest
although it would be an interesting
match I’ve never heard of any documented
records of cheetah killing hyena
certainly it can happen the other way
around
and it definitely happens with lion and
leopard lion and leopard can quite
easily kill cheetah as a general rule
see it depends on the circumstances but
no I don’t think cheetah have it in them
to be able to attack and kill a hyena
certainly stand up to them where they
can try and chase them off but I don’t
think they have the strength to be able
to dispatch one
hello David you would like to know if
eating the stomach acids of this
wildebeest is dangerous for the cheetah
I guess there’s two answers to that
question one is that no it’s not
dangerous and they can eat it
the second option would be that it is
dangerous and they know not to eat it’s
basically I don’t think so because they
would know if it was and they wouldn’t
eat it
so I don’t think it’s something they
have to worry about another thing is
that they generally don’t feed on the
stomach content and the stomach acid
would only be within the bag of rumen
full of grass which is of no desire
which is of no desire
well the cheats will have no desire to
eat that so that will be removed at some
point in stage that it’s that bull it
was just the one that when you may have
seen that big bag there it’s just behind
the cheetah that’s lying down on the
left and that is would be fooled with
most of the stomach juices and acids so
they don’t feed on that other animals
may break it open and eat that stomach
lining but leave the rumen the content
the cod that the wildebeest would have
been chewing on but I’ve never heard of
any animals having problems from feeding
on this I guess their digestive systems
along with everything else is probably
far tougher than ours as humans
all these cheats that have been very
very fortunate in that more hyena have
not coming to the fray
are we on infrared now VM not quite okay
hello carpool you would like to know
what drinking it does for the Predators
it makes their life easy blood as it
changes yes yeah they come Oh No coming
barreling in the cheetah are lucky then
I guess the hyenas two-degree as well
and still has this all to itself with
leftovers so cool the benefits are its
high huh it’s very very high in protein
and it doesn’t need to be chewed so it’s
a great source of minerals nutrients
protein basically in the form of a
smoothie I guess if you could equates it
to something that us humans are enjoying
at the moment smoothies are kind of
quite the rage
you see that is really interesting they
they obviously saw those three warthog
and just went bolting off rather than
taking a chance all you see that
lightning in the background
it’s all happening here keep scanning
around please movie I just want to make
sure it was just the warthogs nothing
else to be seen no Lions their senses
are far better than ours
check whether cheats are sorry buddy
surely they haven’t kept it no this is
bizarre
crazy they are looking back now come on
guys that was the biggest false alarm
ever it’s three warthogs that are
approaching and the hyena or say even
ran away from the warthogs maybe these
are they’re not very well known about
killer warthogs of Kenya carnivorous
warthogs because it sent one hyena
packing and five male cheetah off into
the distance well I’m torn as to what to
do I guess you might have to stay with
the cheetah cuz that was our plan
initially and no guys I’m just gonna
reverse of its just to really open up
the scene for them just so that there’s
nothing here
really really strange I was kind of you
know considering where they ran off I
guess the vehicle would have been a bit
of a barrier that they wouldn’t have
been certain of anything hiding behind
so let’s just stop here have another
look at the cheats appears vm yeah i
scrapped that out in case the cheats are
do come because i all go and then then
we done for the evening i just want to
see if they’re thinking of coming back
know that I’ve pinned up these years
well I guess the wind the darkness vm’s
using a very very fancy camera with the
ridiculous lens on it so it’s making it
look like it’s 5:30 on a cloudy
afternoon but the Sun sits just about an
hour ago or at least half an hour ago
and it’s far far darker in real life
okay let’s have once quiz it seems like
they are not going to be hanging around
which means we need to stick with them
but I just want to see if the hyena has
cashed in yet they did quite well I mean
they’ve got a decent chunk of that rule
to beast into their bellies
okay well Papa’s are very interesting
and again what an absolute privilege and
oppression pressure to share that all of
you the joys of the unknown Safari live
Safari action just I can’t get enough of
and I’m loving having you guys alongside
[Music]
okay have you got them there VM well
done
very to ash Trish
so what I’m doing is I Drive with my
headlights on obviously so I can see the
road and then what my goal is is to get
the cheater parallel to us so that I’m
not shining the lights on them has
removed therefore they are snooping
about essentially just with the vehicle
tagging along adjacent to them it seems
like they have calmed down as would I
after having had a big wildebeest snack
that they absolutely wolf down and again
I’m just gonna park on the side of them
that allows them to still look back in
the direction of that kill they may
decide to go back there once the initial
fright wears off well who knows maybe
they’re gonna hit off and claimed
another canoe to fool the gaps that they
hadn’t quite got two years
yes as Becks cleverly puts it though
just having a light starter and the
evening is only just beginning
okay I think we will not be in their
view yeah
okay Turtledove you would like to know
if the ma the Mara cheetah are any
bigger than cheetah elsewhere in Africa
and I’m not sure I don’t have the
faintest idea your reason for asking is
because there’s more prey around yes
there is but not always the migration is
not always here it’s here for two or
three months of the year when your
average pride or coalition or predator
will be able to cash in on its the other
nine months of the year can be quite
bleak in the Mara relatively speaking
and because some areas have such good
rain and such long grass the lions
cheetahs leopards in those habitats or
in those areas don’t have nearly as much
food it’s too swampy a lot of the food
moves outside of the reserve and the
triangle into the surrounding
conservancies I’m told so it’s not
always a time of Plenty and I’ve heard
that some of the prides of lions in
outside of the migration so yes for
three months of the year it’s the place
to be if you’re a carnivore however
there are also some tricky months now
we’ve got a very cool toy called a FLIR
which is a heat sensitive camera
ie thermal-imaging camera and there we
go
isn’t it quite fascinating I love the
way their tails
there’s not too much heat traveling down
to the tip of that and a very very
useful toy to assist us in being able to
keep an eye on these animals and the
Lions and who knows whatever everything
else that moves around after dark
without impacting on what they get up to
so we’ve got two cameras mounted on top
of one another through some ingenious
Sofia live tech work and that’s
basically being built for the job and
the thermal camera sits on top of the
lowlights infrared camera
so wherever VM was pointing one camera
he’s pointing the other what would help
is if we could grow two more arms and
hands for him so that two hands could
control the focus and the zoom of the
bottom camera and the other two folk at
the hands could focus the thermal so
he’s doing some great multitasking look
where it’s just rolled over there’s
still a heat burner sorry you’ve gone
back onto the other camera whoops that’s
when they when they do roll over you can
see where they’ve been lying on the
ground I’m very very impressed by the
technology and it’s only gonna get
better and a technology that’s becoming
available to us is really going to open
up the doors to show you guys and learn
with you guys some fascinating
fascinating stuff that people don’t
actually know about up until now people
haven’t been able to spend time with
animals like these without interfering
in their business after dark if you’re
shining a big spotlight surround of
course you’re creating a huge amounts of
attention to the predator you are the
blinding the prey so as a general rule
the less lights after dark the better
well well done guys you had a very
successful evening hunting
I commend whichever one of you did that
incredible tackle and persisted in
taking down that wildebeest after
initially missing it I thought I was
gonna give up John you would like to
know if this coalition will break up
after the migration passes through it
could well but I think it’ll be through
defaults I guess it could be spearheaded
by the fact that there’s less food
therefore more quarreling at mealtimes I
guess it could be a contributing factor
to them breaking up but there’s no ways
of being certs and all that knows that
they joke they we don’t know when they
join together but they came into the
area they started being noticed by the
researchers only in December so very
very recently
d’Artagnan the individual with the
collar I think was only collared in
January or February so I was putting my
hand over my lapel my little microphone
there second Jimmy
so yes d’Artagnan this individual was
collared in February so I mean it’s all
very very new and this coalition to the
area to the researchers and we’re not
entirely certain what the future holds
for them what I do know is that as long
as they stay together we are gonna get
spoiled with some crazy crazy action
I wonder if we shouldn’t rush back to
that caucus and see what’s happening
there because we should be able to keep
an eye on them hmm
I’ll just answer take cares question and
then I’ll make up my mind and this any
of you would like to let me know what
you would like to do should we stay or
should we go I’m confident we’re not
gonna lose the cheetah in their current
states so now we back onto the FLIR the
thermal-imaging camera and you’d like to
know why the ears are showing up hotter
than the rest of the body and I guess
it’s the inside of the ears it’s not the
outside of the ear so you see the
outside of the year which we’ll be
looking at now is warm it’s probably
because it doesn’t have too much fear
but it’s the inside of the ear the white
is the hottest color oh oh there’s that
there’s the little hot touch on the
ground I was talking about that gets me
so excited cool well it looks like the
cheetah are going to escort us back
towards the kill let’s go and see what
happens I’m just gonna follow from a
from a generous distance behind then the
reason being is that the vehicle noise
is going to have an impact on how
they’re feeling on any noises warnings
so it’s very important that I just keep
back a little bit so to not muffle any
important sounds that they may be
listening to
okay where they’ve been
cool thank you so they’re all hitting
back
in that direction
very very interesting you would think
they would have just not run so far away
initially are they actually even gonna
go that can have a look stuff again I
just want to let them have a chance to
listen and make sure they know what
they’re doing
so the scan has all of the thermal I’m
sorry guys I’m told that every now and
then the picture drops that’s just to
keep you guys on the edge of your seats
only kidding
we’re in a very low-lying area and
obviously the signal is not great yeah
but the action is so it’s a small price
to pay
there we go VM has found the carcass and
the hyena seems to be tucking in let’s
try and use the thermal that’s working
marvelously the thermal camera the FLIR
no we are far far away I’m guessing like
500 meters 400 meters so it gives you an
idea of how effective this machine is
well you enjoy your snack there hyena
the cheats are all looking on kind of
wondering what to do next
wonderful well how interesting and how
lucky are we to see this action they’re
just interesting behavior the fact that
you know if they can obviously see that
far because they confidence and that
they’re looking at something whether
they can work off what exactly it is I’m
not entirely certain but well I can
assure you is that that hyena is having
a great great time stumbled upon an easy
meal of which there are lots in the Mara
at the moment and it seems like
everything is coming to a not a grinding
halt but a slowing down to a leisurely
pace just at the right time because it
is about to say it is about time to say
goodbye I’ll get there eventually it’s a
but it’s about to say goodbye to all of
you and thank you for joining in on
what’s being an epic epic Safari well
done to Tristan on of all his
contributions as well as James and thank
you very much to Bex in the final
control well done on another epic Safari
we will see you all in the morning
no worries Becks
were played thank y’all
very good very good now the catches what
the hell do we do how much longer do we
invest with these things
we’re here now we’ve got you you’ll
spend the nights and
[Music]
standing by
good afternoon again my name is James
Hendry and on camera today we’ve got
mono
that’s his thumb with the ring on a
steel ring very nice yeah made of copper
mmm
wonderful okay so we’re coming to you
live from the Masai Mara Tristan is down
in South Africa and a special warm
welcome to the schools conference that
has joined us today its name I’m afraid
has escaped me there were two now there
is one and it is the it’s coming don’t
worry everybody it’ll come while
consolidated school districts of New
Britain good marvelous wonderful to have
you with us we will hopefully find you
lots of animals and you can send us any
questions you’d like using the hashtag
Safari live otherwise I think you guys
are probably joining us on skype you can
do that the rest of you hashtags fire
live on Twitter otherwise the YouTube
chat channel will work very well we’re
hopefully also gonna have Scotty’s
following the cheetahs there in some
very bad signal five male cheetah at the
moment but he can’t afford to leave them
to go away from the cheetah sand fine
signal because of course then we will is
lose the cheetah and at the moment to
their the most important part of well
this afternoon so far now I’ve come up
again many of you will feel the time
gone stark raving insane because for the
third afternoon in a row I find myself
sitting on the edge of the early low
escarpment looking for the sausage tree
pride and not finding him I’m hoping
that it’s going to change during the
course of the day while I decide whether
I should be flying over the Cuckoo’s
Nest or not it does here down to South
Africa where Tristan he is knocking
about in what used to be winter good
afternoon everybody and welcome to our
sunset Safari from sunny South Africa my
name is Justin on camera today I’ve got
a sins oh and a special special warm
welcome to the consolidated schools of
New Britain teachers conference
hopefully you will enjoy your next 45
minutes with us and remember to ask lots
of questions and we’ll try and answer as
many as we can now for the rest of our
viewers we will be taking the teachers
conference for you
questions first but you can still send
your questions through on hashtags for
live on Twitter or on the YouTube chat
and we’ll get into those a little bit
later right now I know James is out
looking for the sausage pride down in
the Maasai Mara and I’m out well I think
two starts I’m going to start looking
for some of our big gray –great
pachyderms because it is quite warm this
afternoon so we’re going to try and see
if we can’t find some a Lee’s at the
waterhole before wheel turn our
attentions a little bit later to maybe
trying to find some of the spotted cats
this morning there was trucks for a male
leopards a female leopard and a lipid
cub all together and it’s area actually
close to where I am right now so we’re
gonna try and see if we can’t find them
a little bit later it’s probably a bit
warm for them now and they spending
quite a bit of time sleeping I would
imagine I don’t think they’re gonna be
moving around too much so we’re gonna
try and see if we can check some of the
warthogs to start off with and then
carry on from there and see maybe just
maybe if we get lucky now I’m hoping
that we will get some elephants they
have been a few big herds of elephants
around in the past few days there was a
herd yesterday afternoon that’s was well
over 50 of them that were walking around
so I’m gonna try and see if I can’t find
any sign of them they do leave quite a
few footprints so they are a nice herd
to track it’s quite easy to follow those
big round footprints so hopefully we
will find them now I believe James has
got another spotted kind of creature
that is running across the great plains
of East Africa
well sort of everyone it was running
down the mountain and well there were
two of them in fact I think we’ve seen
four so far and they took a little bit
of a fright from us but very unusual to
see them hurt there they are hurting
about this time of the day there are
hyenas the spotted hyena and we’re just
gonna go up around the corner here get
in front of them
there are summers of wildebeest up ahead
and I wonder if these hyenas don’t know
something that we don’t I’m fairly sure
that they do know many things that I
don’t but in this respect I’m hoping it
has to do with lions you still see them
on there
it might be simply coming on to get
something to drink you stop here there
we have them wonderful now where are
they going at such high speed on a hot
day I think it’s probably sitting it
around or something around about 80
degrees today around about 26 let’s
integrate and already the seasons have
started to change down in South Africa
here of course I don’t think that change
an enormous amount of great wit hyena
wait 30 know which been lying in the mud
there we did see a couple of hyenas
feeding on a carcass a little earlier
but I’m not sure that we’re gonna get
back to that because it was in some deep
deep grass maybe these chaps are just
hitting down there I just want to make
sure that they aren’t going towards some
kind of you know sort of fresh kill and
therefore the sausage tree pride no this
one’s turned on and coming back now
hello Chris from the conference you want
to know what hyenas eats because that
reminds me of a question that he was
asked once by a trainee guide and
basically I said fruit nuts and mice
that was the standard issue answer I
used to give I’m not sure why it
reminded me of that they don’t eat fruit
they don’t eat nuts
they will eat mice but largely they will
eat any meat at all rotting or otherwise
they are having a very fun romp these
chaps
I think there’s a lot of element of fun
going on here some play behavior perhaps
picking up a few things on the wind was
on hot days it’s unusual for them to be
knocking around like this so crystals
largely they do scavenge a lot they will
hunt absolutely especially at this time
of the year in the Mara it’s very scary
looking hyena holy a male in fact you’ll
probably find that these are both males
and that suspect the older one there
they don’t have the bulk of the females
he’s not a very bulky fellow it was fun
cool okay so that was a spotted hyena
and I was just gonna say that there are
some herds up here it’s still eating the
grass on the slopes of the mountain and
because again it’s quite a hot day we’ll
keep looking underneath all the trees to
see if there aren’t any tawny or white
bellies lying prostrate in whatever
shade there is available by what that of
course I mean cats only go
now Justin was heading towards some
water he’s not going to be swimming
despite the heat and he’s going to tell
you why he won’t be swimming
well James I think you fire to look
under all the trees here in the sabi
sands I would be quite dizzy trying to
find things as you can see there are far
more trees in our neck of the woods
so to speak as there are in the Maasai
Mara it’s a little bit of a denser
system and that’s why we tend to see
quite a few more leopards beside when
you get quite lucky with our leopard
sightings and the dense thickets that we
have here and this bushy terrain is
absolutely perfect for them to
camouflage incredibly well so it’s
always good when you’re driving through
these areas to check the shady parts but
where we check there’s a little bit
different to where James would be
checking so James will be checking under
trees a lot of the time with lipids the
best place to check is these big termite
mounds now I’m going to show you a
termite mound shortly it’s just here in
front of me as a nice example of one so
here we go just straight in front of the
car at the moment that big structure
there is a termite mound and those
places are perfect perfect structures
for lipids to sit on in the afternoon
particularly a windy afternoon like
we’ve got today it’s quite warm and so
there’s a bit of a breeze that’s blowing
and on top there it’s going to be a lot
cooler under that little shady tree then
it would be lying down on the ground
where it’s going to be radiating heat
and it’s gonna be a lot lot more warm so
you’ll find that cats do like to lie up
there on these windier hotter afternoons
or sometimes even up in the trees
themselves so that’s what we looking for
when we’re driving around and trying to
spot some of our spotty lipid friends
now James you say you wouldn’t swim at
any of the dams or pans around Juma if
it was hot well I think I would tend to
agree with James the funny thing about
this area is that they out of nowhere
all of a sudden a crocodile will appear
in one of those small pans and you’ve
got to be very careful with crocodiles
they even though you don’t see them it’s
not to say they’re not there they can
sit underwater and hold their breath for
close to two hours so sitting there you
might come along and think oh there’s no
crocodile I’ll just have a little swim
and then back here you go the crocodile
grabs used to be with careful and in
saying that we wouldn’t swim in the dams
yeah I would imagine that James it could
be a very bad idea for you to try and
swim across the Mara River because if
you’ve seen some of the crocodiles that
lurk in the Mara River they look as
though they are Tyrannosaurus Rex
aquatic cousins because they’re so large
and they go after anything that current
tries to cross over in that section now
talking about the heat the animals
themselves will have no such problem
they will be quite happy to go down to
the water particularly the animals
researching for like I say the elephants
weren’t really too fazed by crocodiles
so even if there was a crocodile in the
pan that’s not going to stop them going
for a nice big voila and and playing
around in the water so hopefully our
idea to hit towards water is going to be
successful now in the distance I can
spot some of our antelope that we get
you so we’ll get to them shortly they a
little bit further ahead of where I am
now so I’m just going to bounce our way
slowly along towards where they are
Eric the poets you wondering if it’s
ever snowed here in the bush
Eric in my time ya know and as far as I
know no it hasn’t snowed yeah we are in
the middle of our winter so we are in
August which is often a cold month here
but it is 30 degrees or close to 90
degrees Fahrenheit so gives you an idea
of what winter is like here in South
Africa it’s not exactly the most
strenuous and cold situation that we
have and so no no snow that I know of we
have had frost once or twice but never
snow would be quite cool to have snow
they imagine I think our animals would
be conferring ly confused if it did snow
here we saw a lot of them would actually
not do very well it’s all one because
their coats would not be thick enough to
keep them warm and two they’d probably
find that they’d get all kinds of feet
problems from frostbite and varying
other things given that they’re not used
to walking around in metal and have no
adaptions for it they’re all designed to
stay cool and not to stay warm so there
you go some of our antelope that are
just running across these are both male
impalas and are the most common antelope
that we get here in the sabi sands
system or in this northeastern corner of
South Africa there are hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of them spread out
all over the place and they form a huge
part of the diet of many of our
predators in this area so as many of the
predators go along this is what they’ll
be looking for so from lions and
leopards cheetahs hyenas wild dogs we’ll
even find some of our birds of prey and
snakes we’ll also go after them so it’s
a tough life if you’re an Impala and
that’s why they join together in these
groups just for safety in numbers
now I believe James has got a bird that
is flying around so before it flies away
from him let’s quickly jump across to
him
there are some big birds flying they are
vultures flying and that means of course
that something has died around here now
they’ve just come off the ground I think
they’re finished picking the hapless
carcass oh I promised I would never use
the word helpless again the unfortunate
carcass of a Velda beast has now been
picked clean and well they’re all flying
up and around and down towards the next
carcass there you go it’s still nice and
warm today it’s a very easy for them to
fly another one coming off the ground it
really is a vultures paradise this and
there’s really nice shot there of two
Ripple’s Griffins I think that’s what
they are sitting on the termite mound
there no no their white backs they have
no honey colored beat scrap on the
ground there Manya this is the most
gorgeous afternoon here the doves
palling in the background which we day
is not a common sound out here because
of course down on the plains and away
from the escarpment there aren’t as many
trees which means the doves don’t
existence the same numbers that they do
where we are now and I’m still staring
longingly in all parts of shade here but
I cannot see the sassari pride all right
Scott apparently has decided that he
although he loves his cheetah he would
like to talk to you even more and so
he’s moved into some signal to say good
afternoon hello everyone and it is a
great pleasure to have you on board
we’re just trying to work out what’s
going on over there we actually left the
five male cheetah underneath
a few bushes plus to where those
vehicles are now I think they’re heading
towards that tree so they’re on the move
vim which means they’re just to the left
there there’s a coalition of five male
cheats are called the Musketeers you got
them there you’ll probably be able to
see little specks we’ve left them with
one of the researchers is on that tiny
little white car on the right-hand side
of your screen she said she was gonna
call us as soon as they get active I
guess she’s just possibly waiting to see
if they don’t go to sleep under that
tree and if they do continue moving will
definitely rush off to them but we are
being absolutely spoiled rotten you
because that’s not the only cheater in
this valley hello I’m Scott vm’s on
camera there’s another one somewhere
just stuff down here can you remember
where it is there it’s just to the left
of there we go
so there’s another male over here now
this is a lone male he would not like to
bump into those five they would give him
a run for his money and he is a little
bit more hungry than them that’s why we
decided to camp out with him apparently
try to catch a young topi while VM and I
were getting some food resupply to spend
another night Archer and as soon as we
got back into this area and heard there
was a hungry cheetah around we’ve been
camping out with him morning he had a
little look at some Thomson’s gazelle
but there were too far out into a very
large open clearing to be able to have a
go and we’re gonna not keep you here any
longer because Tristan’s got a beautiful
scene back in Juma in the sky
now there’s not only vultures soaring in
the Maasai Mara but there is one here at
sabi sands – so it was a white back
Fulcher that was busy circling me it
seems to have disappeared a little bit
they do move quite fast but I will show
you quickly what it looks like I’m not
sure which vulture James had I know he
had some vultures but I don’t know which
one exactly now this is the vulture that
we saw circling it’s there it comes and
as it turned we should see a little
white piece on the back of it between
its wings there and that’s how we know
it’s a white back Volta oh it’s turned
the wrong way now hopefully it will turn
again shortly there it is you see the
white patch there so easily diagnostic
from that white patch is no other
vulture that shows that white little
band when flying so this is what they
look like a little bit more up close
this is our most common vulture that we
actually get in this particular part of
the world so it’s these guys over here
they have this sort of creamy caramel
wing and the nice dark trailing edge and
then that’s that little white patch that
I was talking about just now in flights
and you notice that they’ve also got a
dark eye which separates them from the
vulture above which has a honey colored
eye so this cape vulture on top is the
one that it could be confused with but
unfortunately that one has a yellow eye
and not the dark eye like this white
back to the vulture now Roger you were
wondering the wingspan of this
particular vulture this particular Vox
will have a wingspan of about 2.3 meters
so that should be close to I think about
seven and a half eight feet somewhere
around there if I’m not mistaken so
quite a massive wingspan and that’s what
they will do is what it’s busy doing now
is using it the thermals from the Sun
that is art and beating down in all
these hot air waves that are going up
it’s just riding in circles going up
using it’s incredible eyesight to then
spot carcasses that might be down on the
ground that it come on come down and
feed on so it’s really a very clever way
of doing things and not very much energy
that’s used when you’ve got massive
wings like that you don’t have to stress
too
much about having to flap them because
as those thermals grow it’s easy just to
ride them and go right up into the sky
now we haven’t gotten to our first
waterhole yet we are almost there is
slowly but surely making our way we’ve
been getting distracted with a few
things on the way so we saw those
impalas and then we had vulture and now
we’ve got probably the most beautiful
bird that we get here in the sabi sands
so it’s just landed on that tree over
there
oh no don’t fly away that is a lilac
breasted roller now the lilac breasted
roller has got these electric blue
trailing edges to it’s wings dark blue
below that and then it’s got a lilac
brace or the little turquoise crown
moment and these rollers are predatory
of insects you’ll find them often on
branches like that that obey and from
there they watch what’s going on and as
soon as any insects try and come out of
the grass so maybe a grasshopper that
flies or something like that they come
flying down quickly and grab it and then
eat it and they can actually subdue
quite large prey but it must be
definitely the most photographed bird in
Africa just because of its coloration it
really is beautiful guys it’s making a
bit of noise because it might have seen
a another roller somewhere close by and
so it’s just squawking like that to tell
everybody that this is my territory and
to stay arts they are quite territorial
that was a nice surprise didn’t expect
to see one yeah they do like these more
sort of open ish grassy sections so
there’s a section on our left you’ll see
it looks much shorter than the section
on the right now the reason for that is
that section has actually been purposely
cut as a firebreak so it’s to make sure
that if there is a fire any way around
here that it doesn’t cross over from
this right side to the left side
[Music]
see knock you wondering about what
threats vultures face well they all
numerous so probably the biggest threat
that vultures have is loss of habitat so
loss of nesting sites really is a big
big one for them so that you find that
as we inhabit places and we try and get
into areas we often will destroy perfect
trees that they can nest in so that’s
one – as we put power lines wherever we
go and power lines for vultures are
terrible things they end up flying into
them and they die from that so that’s
really a big problem and then the last
one is actual poisoning of vultures so
vultures are used in the multitrader
muti is basically is a trade of animals
within africa and which have has beliefs
about them and they basically poison
these vultures to use them for the Sun
gormer’s or witch doctors in medicine so
it’s really a big problem and lots and
lots of vultures have been poisoned the
other thing is farmers and varying
others there try poison carcasses for of
animals that have been preyed upon by
things like caracal or leopard as they
try get rid of that predator and then
the outcome is the vultures come in and
they feed off it and also die – so those
are the biggest problems facing vultures
and that’s why most of them are on the
threatened list that was a lot of
British for vulture I mean I wrote there
lots of vulture that we were looking at
but it was just so nice because he was
sitting perfectly fair so he could see
its colors so this might be the mate of
the one that we saw just now all the one
that it was trying to chase away so
that’s probably why it’s doing that
now actually I don’t know why I drove
past him but I want to show you
something else
but only kind of registered now so busy
thinking about our vultures and why they
say threatened at the moments that I
forgot to show you this
so since oh if you can please put those
ever so pretty paws marks on camera for
me so I’m going to move now but you’ll
see that just here or two poor marks now
those are paws for a leopard a very
small young female leopard that we
actually saw last night and these are
the tracks that we used to be able to
find her she’s a female that is known as
shangela
so she’s the little princess of this
area she was from the most dominant
female that we had and since her mother
disappeared she’s been walking around
and tries to kind of stay under the
radar but so we don’t see her as much as
we used to but we know she’s a leopard
for a number of reasons these tracks
firstly the size of them and the shape
of them scream leopard already you could
maybe confuse this size with something
like a caracal but it’s got the three
lobes at the back and then the toe is
very very close and you can see quite
rounded in this section over here and
that’s the front foot whereas the back
foot would be a little bit more slender
so both of these are the front pads and
then she’s walked along and there will
be a little back foot somewhere here
unfortunately we drove over a lot of
these tracks yesterday when we were
tracking her and that will be a lot more
elongated something like a caracal would
be probably slightly smaller and you
would find that the toe so it’s likely
more away from the pad than what you see
with the limits so that’s why leopard
tracks but unfortunately they’re not
fresh ones that we can follow today and
try and find her I actually tracked her
this morning
over our boundary and south into a
different part of the reserve so we’re
not going to be able to probably follow
any further but maybe you’ll just maybe
that what’s a hole that we’re going to
now is a favorite haunt for her so I’m
sure that she might come back and you
never know maybe this afternoon she’s
already decided to come back and might
be sitting at the waterhole itself
I’ve got to make sure that I’ve plugged
myself in because I tend to forget about
that is this Lila Krista drone are going
to stay there look at the colors on this
bird isn’t that magnificent
Shirley has got to be one of the most
beautiful birds in the world and this
one is very relaxed it’s just sitting
right next to the car but I was saying
earlier that there are predatory of
insects and you can see that with that
shape of beak they have that little
downturn tip a little hook on it which
is indicative of any predatory bird so
any birds that have that little downturn
beak you know feed off insects Bobby
you’re wondering if their tail is just
too long feathers or if there’s multiple
feathers Bobby there’s multiple feathers
with two streamers as they call that
come off so those are just two
individual feathers that finish off the
tip of the tail but there are multiple
feathers that are in between those two
streamers so when air rollers in flight
and you see it spread its tail you’ll
actually see all the feathers much like
a normal bird but those two streamers
extend so when they sitting it just
looks like the two feathers that are
sticking off the back end
right now we’ve discussed vultures and
what threatens them here in South Africa
and I believe James has got a bird of
prey now I’m not sure which one but
maybe he can tell us more on whether or
not it’s threatened I don’t think it’s
threatened everybody I think that is the
unwritten goshawk unless I’m very much
mistaken I’ll just quickly check its
distribution it’s got a Pink’s here
which is the bit just around the nose
behind the beak and it’s also got pink
legs and the big distinguisher as this
thing flies off of course is not the
legs or the beak but the fight band that
is at the top of the tail yeah I’m
pretty sure that’s what he is as he
flies off he’s got a very distinctive
white band the top of the tail otherwise
quite difficult to tell apart from some
of the others and despite you know what
despite the vast size difference that
there is between the dark taunting
goshawk in the gap our Gorga have had
this problem since I was M well since I
started guiding the gaba is 36
centimeters tall which is just over a
foot
which I think that is this is very
embarrassing the dark chanting is 56 so
almost sort of two feet tall and because
I have such a silly appalling sense of
proportion
I often struggle to tell the difference
but I my instinct went with Galvis I’m
gonna go with that
I mean really you should be able to see
the difference between a one foot and a
two foot bird this is go sir
seeing that you want to know CMAC you
wanted to know what GABA means I have
absolutely no idea I’ll try and find out
for you we’ll just sneak it a little bit
closer
you can’t get too close because then man
who’s gonna be stuck with the roof
underneath say win money it’s all right
slow hey don’t try and get inside on
there he goes now differently
definitely a ghetto
good more RG let us continue
our plan now we’ve left the realm of the
Sasori pride we’re gonna in Iran towards
Egyptian view span see what’s going on
there fascinating thing we saw the other
night of a line is sort of trying to
kill evil the beers that you chased into
the mud that villainous eventually died
they’re not from the effects of Lian
rather from the effects of exhaustion
and then drowning and if we don’t find
anything there we’ll head down towards
the salt licks which if nothing else
it’s a very beautiful area storms are
starting the builders they always do
every single afternoon like clockwork I
think they’re taking a little bit more
time over today which is good so maybe
we’ll discuss
all right Scott has not managed to find
not only some signal but also is flat
cheaters
hello and let’s hope the stormy weather
does not interfere with our safari
adventures because it is obviously not
going to allow us to do exactly what we
please now the cheats are doing exactly
what they please we’ve got no say in
what they do either they are all fast
asleep we are with one male here
sleeping in that bush it’s hard to
believe but there is a spotted cheetah
cat there we go there are some
Thompson’s gazelle not too far away from
it so let’s show you that is just
someone over there I think
nice VM so that is the perfect size meal
for an individual male cheetah I mean
they can take down bigger certainly but
that would be a relatively easy meal
regarding size obviously not easy to
catch but once they do at least it won’t
be thrown off like it was this morning
by a young topi that’s not the only
cheetah in this valley
I know we showed you a brief glimpse a
little bit earlier but I just want to
give you an update because we could
actually see them sleeping in the shade
of a large tree there we go in the shade
there you can see a few blobs a few
tourists is enjoying the sighting
interestingly the cheetah was up where
one of the Cheetahs was up that tree
right into the top fork will the first
Forks are quite high up this morning I
don’t know what I was doing I was
looking around watching the birds and
the bees and our next thing I looked up
and the cheetah was up the tree sudden
see how it managed to climb up but we
did see it coming down show you it
coming down I think actually our
concert-ready I’ve really uploaded it
onto my computer I’m traveling with the
computer some of you saw my computer
this morning I’ve already uploaded a
picture onto Instagram from one of the
pictures from this morning got a
beautiful photo up and that is the joy
about spending a long time out o VM
spotted something where are you taking
us okay I thought V M spotted something
on the horizon but it is leveling off
the camera
so basically the plan is is to wait with
this male he could pocus it up and chase
that Thompson’s ghazzal that we just
showed you at any time
failing that if those other five the
Musketeers get up and mobile then we
will follow them so we’re not far away
and just so that you know the Musketeers
favorite food is wildebeest and I’d just
like to show you that there’s an expanse
of wildebeest look at all of those
options and plenty more in that area so
I’m guessing that they’re gonna make
another kill tonight I’d be highly
surprised at least if they don’t try but
the thing is every time they try they
have succeeded so those are my
predictions if you had plans and going
any way out cancel them if you would
like to see a cheetah hunting because
there’s a strong strong possibility that
that will happen at some point this
afternoon if only we knew when then we
could help you coordinate your plans a
little bit better but we don’t so you
just have to sit tight
and hope for the best as we have been
doing no problem no good Susan very
wonderful to have you with us you would
like to know how is it that we camp out
here and basically we’ve got some
mattresses vm q mattress there we go
that’s viens fancy masai suka fabric we
just split one single mattress down the
middle and got them covered up and then
basically I don’t know if we’ll be able
to show you let me try you’ll have to
excuse me I’m barefooted it’s very hot
and I do not like wearing shoes on any
truck you’ll have to excuse me I’m
barefooted it’s very hot and I do not
like wearing shoes and it’s hot but
down here and then kind of sleep like
this
we’ve got pillows and blankets but last
night the wind was so hectic that the
blankets were blowing office so last
night was a tough night also the cheetah
were quite busy so it’s difficult to
sleep even with cheetah that’s typically
kind of like busy so it’s difficult to
sleep even with cheetah that’s typically
kind of are supposed to be more die
quite a lot and just plug my earpiece
back in at night and that obviously
makes you sleep with one eye open we
need to devise a way that’s as soon as
they exit the screen and alarm goes off
and then we can wake up that would be
easy we could just leave a camera on
them
usually the girls and FC keep an eye on
things for us and as soon as they move
out they radio us and quickly quickly
the cheetah I’ve gone with a lion have
gone but we don’t have enough people at
the moment to be able to do that so you
let the girls sleep last night and we
just took a gamble and we did luckily
managed to stay there with them we
nearly lost them at about 2:30 3:00 in
the morning when they got active but all
was good so that’s how we sleep out yeah
the typical breakfast we have our chair
that’s from ask me breakfast isn’t a big
one we have a cup of coffee when we get
up and then what we did today is is a
camp called old shakey which is just
outside the reserve along the talaq
River about five minutes from the one
entrance gate the talaq gates into the
reserve and they very kindly offered to
look after us so whenever we need
anything we just bum in there the
kitchen gives us new food cooks us a
quick breakfast so this morning we had
Spanish omelets for breakfast it wasn’t
too tough I guess once we headed back
there had a quick Spanish omelets a
shower new shirts polished ones ivory
and then we came straight back aft with
some stew and rice for dinner and some
rolls we came with plain rolls to make
chip rolls vm’s a fan of the chipper
also just butter and then crisps and
some cheese and tomato roles so
breakfasts usually we have away all
we’ve got nuts and biscuits and all kind
of like nibbly things that keep us going
and I guess thankfully when you’re on
the vehicle you are not burning too much
energy so just as well we’re not eating
too much any updates there ah kind of
you can see its head now
okay so like I said you know the planet
we’re not going anywhere we’ve got good
options we’ve got this single hungry
cheetah we’ve got another coalition of
five males who are also gonna be getting
hungry
ooh a yawn is a good sign but for now
you’re gonna head across to mr. Hendrie
and help him search for some lions some
help would be very good thank you
everybody for offering there’s some
birds in that little Khepera smush there
let’s see if we can’t identify them they
look like the Cystic killers indeed they
are which species of statistic all it
will be almost impossible to tell her
there’s a juvenile now we do know what
those are don’t we because somebody told
me what they are I’ve obviously
forgotten I’ll keep looking now I’m very
glad you got that tour of Scots vehicle
and sleeping accommodations the galley
the sleep the bunk room vo of course is
the world’s best camper so Scott could
not be in better company it is
oh come on Angie was it your chirping
what’s the chirping tickler I can’t
remember for those of you who very
kindly told me the last time we
identified this testicular the juvenile
of which had a yellow belly don’t you
remind me please it’s gone from my brain
yet again anyway might be the staff
nurse from the start they’re definitely
sistah killers and they’re enjoying the
afternoon as we are
well the tiny maybe I don’t know can’t
figure it out and let’s they start to
call it will be very difficult to tell
Rebecca is saying the pictorial patched
stickler they’re not a bad guess given
that they too have got a yellow-bellied
juvenile so maybe there are the petrel
patched text total particular I’ve
played the sound few before we move on
distinctive see if they come out look
look at that one there
let’s see if they cool now can’t hear
them alright well the little families
moved on so we I think we’ll do the same
we’re halfway along this fairly main
road towards the pan where we want to go
so we’ve been driving village ibly fast
we don’t have to drive too quickly we
can see what else we can see on the way
now about a week ago this place was just
covered in wildebeest
you couldn’t even barely move and those
pictures I don’t if you saw them that
man who got in the balloon flying over
this area where it looked like somebody
had either kind of emptied a bottle of
iron filings or sprinkled peppercorns
all over the place or the and the
enormous ant nest has escaped into the
area
well those amazing shots were shot over
this plane here which is now totally
free of any the lovest what is that bird
it’s on the road there at the junction
[Music]
I’m going to continue driving at quite a
speed we’re just going to be on peasant
for you so let us head to back to South
Africa and find out what on this Tristan
is doing with his life there’s a bit so
from one bird to another now hopefully
these birds will stay with rusty
squeaking the way it is now don’t fly
away don’t be naughty
it’s a black crown chakra that was there
oh no it’s just flowing oh well
birds do that sorry sins oh there’s no
way you’re gonna see it it flew off a
little bit have you got another bird
there maybe you’ve got a different bird
for me because that’s not the same one
that I saw that looks like another one
of the rollers so our graph you off but
what you can hear around me is the syste
killers
so this stickler we do know this is a
rattling sistah killer that is chirping
away and it’s upset because I’ve come
driving past you’ll find with these guys
they don’t like when we are around and
you’ve got the checker there well done
so there’s our black crown chakra which
just says a very cool call it sounds
like somebody whistling through the bush
there it is is that the brown crown or
the electron now you get both species
here so a black crown fly off but that
looks like a black crown checker you can
see the two dark lines that are running
over the head so I’ll quickly find the
other checkers and then I’ll be able to
so apparently I’m having more luck
I agree that we saw there not a black
crown sorry my fault I was looking now
nicely you can just see that it’s got
the brown top to the head with a little
black line me I thought I’d saw a bit
more black on the head than I actually
did but now that I can see it on the
monitor a little bit bit and I’ll show
you the differences between the two of
them so if you have a look here you’ve
got the checkers so they look quite
similar you’ve got the brown crown one
on top that is what we just saw now you
see it’s got that black eye stripe of
white above the eye and in a slight
black above the white and then brown on
the top of the head so that is what we
just saw now and in the black round you
can see it’s got the same black through
the eye a little bit of white on top and
then a little bit of black over the top
of that now the thing is is that what we
saw from the side they looked very
similar but once you see this big drop
its head slight can you see that Brown
then you know that it’s the brown Crown
Chakra there we go
now saying talking about the bush I know
James was talking about what the Maasai
Mara looks from the air and wondering
whether or not well what’s Duma would
look like from there luckily we don’t
have to worry or think too hard about
what I would look like from a balloon
because well we’ve seen Juma from the
air from our drone that we have that
flies around here so it is pretty cool
to see it it’s it’s a lot drier than you
think it is when you see the bush now
from this ground level lots of grass
lots of trees and it looks as though
it’s quite lush and bushy I suppose lush
is not the right word but it looks bushy
when you go up into the air it’s quite
scary actually
how barren it looks at the moment it
looks a lot drier from up there and a
lot more open so it’s quite interesting
to see it in the summer months it’s a
little bit of a different story it
becomes quite dense yeah very quickly
and it’s a carpet of green trees that
fulfills the landscape it’s really quite
beautiful from the drone in summer I
always quite liked it and lots of birds
of prey that are flying around in the
summer months now in the winter we do
see a few birds of prey but not quite as
many as what we would see in the summer
months the good news though as I was
saying I was attempting to try and find
some elephants I did find tracks of them
just north of ton dams and they looked
like they were going in a northeasterly
direction so I went up the Mana Party no
sign they’re checking Mumba now just to
see if they haven’t crossmember and if
it’s nothing yeah I’m going to head
towards redwood road and see if they
didn’t turn a little bit more east now
sorry Alice you’re going to have to
repeat that the radio just went
completely static and I didn’t hear one
word you said other than scenic
see you next so the bird family that the
checker is closely related to is the
Shrike sore roof racks that’s the
closest relative that it has so they are
quite similar and you’ll find them all
group together similar kind of beak
structure and even shape of the bird and
very much like the Shrike family so
that’s the closest relatives for them
it’s the closest relatives for them and
they’re a lot more
brush so you’ll find them just
under the tree line and of going in and
out of different trees so they can be
really tough to keep up with
now sensor do you see any sign of
elephants anyway I don’t I wonder if
they haven’t stuck around the milliwatts
just off twin bands so they don’t check
a little bit south towards twin dams
itself side of Milwaukee
or they’ve carried on a little bit
further north than I checked maybe
they’re making their way towards God
lead and that’s where they could be
heading as well
Tayla is 10 years old and not the tailor
that is around on safari live officers
she was vanquished from YouTube chat
this morning now Taylor you want to know
if we see spiders around well yes
lots of spiders not so much now because
it’s winter the spiders either some of
them have died because they are only
around during the summer months then
they lay their eggs and they die after
they lay their eggs unfortunately but
there are some around and they all just
hiding out trying to stay out of the
cold because for a little insect the
cold is very tough for them to survive
so in summer they all come out and they
spiders everywhere James in Kenya and
Scott both love spiders and will spend a
lot of time looking at the spiders and
going over them and if you turn over the
leaves you can find the sex spiders and
the garden spiders and the orb spiders
and the crab spiders and you name it
kind of spiders all over the place and
so if you like spiders Taylor and you
want to see them then you must carry on
watching because as soon as a bush walks
are up and running which is soon then
we’re going to be looking at a lot of
those kind of things
now here’s another beautiful bird since
we’re on the third topic today rusty
stop your squeaky goodness with the
brakes it’s called a christed barbets
and look at those colors you see bright
oranges reds yellows butts of black and
spots on the wings and in that big crest
that gives it his name Kristin Bobbitt
now you see the beak of this bird is
very different to the beak of the
vulture or their lilac breasted Rona or
even that chakra that we saw just now
that all have that down turned hooked
beak these guys have a very heavy beak
because they are fruit and seed eaters
so they need that big beak to pick away
at fruits and to be able to crush
sandals pips and seeds out of the fruit
to gain nutrients and one of their
favorite meals is actually mistletoe
funny enough and you’ll find the barbets
do go after mistletoe so crested and
black collared barbets which are the two
that we see here regula they all both go
to mistletoe and they’ll feed off it and
the problem with mistletoe is that the
seed is very very sticky so what you’ll
find is they go to branches particularly
of big trees or don’t go to the toilets
are you going to go to the toilet I
think it’s going to show us its back end
and go to the toilet what is with all of
them
all these animals that have been doing
this this week luckily this one decided
not to you can see it’s a bit windy
though it’s Christa’s being blown all
over all over the place now Alice is
saying they want to play whoo dung it’s
yes maybe they missing Tara and they
want to do dung it so that we can all
see what are you doing
maybe its backside is a little bit warm
and it’s now just cooling it down by
lifting its tail and getting but a
breeze to cool down the rear end but I
have honestly never seen a crested
bothered doing that other than wind it’s
going to difficut so Rebekah’s is that
when James is around there all the
animals use the toilets well we’ll have
to send a photo a screenshot let’s flood
James Henry’s Twitter account with
screenshots of all animals that have
been going to the toilet the last few
days in Juma there we go dropped a
little bomb there we go so there’s a
screenshot just for James that we can
all send to him over the next little bit
I’m sure James will love to see those
she’d send him one of our jackal from
the other day that was highly
entertaining as well so I was saying
about the mistletoe and how they’ll then
go to big trees and wipe the the seed
off and the problem with mistletoe is it
actually grows on trees itself so these
barbets are a little bit of a problem
because they take the mistletoe and they
actually wipe it onto trees and in the
mistletoe becomes a parasitic plant on
their tree itself so the barbets while
they are cool to eat things varying
seeds and fruits oh here comes a
veterinary –gel another bird seems to
be a bird day this afternoon we haven’t
seen birds like this for a while they
seem to have been a little bit on the
quiet side over the past few days I’ve
had so many animals to look at in the
last week that we haven’t really been
paying that much attention to birds now
this is called a bat earlier eagle and
this is a juvenile that’s near ego you
can see it’s still brown in coloration
short tail and well actually longer tail
than what it would have been if it’s an
adult as soon as it becomes an adult the
tail starts to shorten and its
coloration will change from that drab
horrible brown to the nice black white
and striking rid of the face and feet
it’s like it’s landed there somewhere
soon so let’s try see if we go forward
maybe we’ll get lucky and
find him so Ellis is saying bats Illya
Eagles make think of Connor because
we’re talking about the drone just now
and what it looks like from above well
Connor used to love filming the battle
ears from the drone so I suppose that’s
a fair assumption now there’s more
elephant tracks here going down the road
you can see them big disks that are
walking and filling the road with these
big circular patterns almost looks like
crop circles going down the road so
there we go you know but the problem is
is that these are not the freshest
tracks you can see there’s varying
things on top of them so branches and
school footprints of what looks like
deco a Steinbach that have gone across
there might actually be something else
it’s quite far away that I’m looking but
those are not from this afternoon these
are not the elephant tracks researching
maybe these are the ones that wink to
the dam where they drank I mean they
started to turn northwards from there so
we’ll have to just try and see if we can
follow these and work out where they go
they from this morning sometimes so
they’re not too old that’s quite nice
since oh can you show this on my
right-hand side here it was is a really
nice track that would confuse a few
people I’m sure so just on my right just
come down a little bit for me sends up
okay there we go so that there you see
there’s a pattern in the sand a that
almost looks like a brush has gone
through it or a very wiry brush should
we call it now that track there a lot of
people probably would be very confused
as to what that is and a lot would have
said that is that probably from the
trunk of an elephant or something like
that but it’s not even though it’s in
amongst the elephants
tracks it’s from a piece of grass now
there’s a grass stem that is just
hanging over slack II and as the wind is
blowing it’s dragging the grass back and
forward and that grass is creating
that’s pattern so it’s not an elephant’s
trunk it’s the grass that is in amongst
them there it is that’s the piece of
grass that has been dragged back and
forth and is leaving that striated
pattern on the sand isn’t that cool
so not only animals leave tracks when
you see that plants do you as well
very nice thank you sensor well done
in the way I’ll bet salir landed it did
land here somewhere because that’s it
there yes I can see it now
is it no it’s a part of a tree
Jaime you’re wondering if we have the
same kinds of grasses in the Mara as we
do in Juma Jaime I have not the foggiest
idea we’re left to ask James or Scots
who have spent some time in both well a
lot of time in both and they’ll be able
to probably give you a more educated
answer as to what the plant life is
there now I’m not 100% sure on the plant
life in the Mara and that’s also I’m
sure they are sons crossed specie all
species that are the same in both but I
would imagine that they also have very
different cross species that side as
well so well that’s ask James I’m sure
he will be able to help us and be able
to tell us what grass species those
wildebeest and zebra love to chomp on I
would imagine there will be some of the
same species though that’s the thing
about the Mara is it’s such a big
learning curve for all of us because
even if you’ve visited the Mara there’s
a lot of things about visiting a place
as opposed to actually working in a
place now when you visit somewhere hello
yellow-billed horrible it’s just a bird
road this way as we’ve been driving keep
finding birds everywhere he looks
beautiful with his back lights the beak
is glowing bright yellow if only he
would turn towards us so it would be
really nice if he did or she he or she
there we go
and look at that they’re not beautiful
right so while we admire our hornball
and its best side as it cooks it’s
hidden poses a versus likey towards us
like a model on a cover of a magazine
let’s go across to five other members of
the cat family that tend to love a
posing act and well more not found here
in South Africa but only in the Maasai
Mara well is this not a magnificent
sight not to take anything away from a
yellow bull horn bull but this is quite
spectacular we haven’t got to see them
on the move in beautiful sunshine too
much yet and we also haven’t got to see
them on the move towards a ginormous
mass of wildebeest in the sunshine like
they are heading towards now so we’re
about 100 metres away from them they’re
coming straight towards us as you can
see and then on the right-hand side of
our vehicle we’ve got a huge huge herd
of wildebeest starting over there and
then panning all the way across lots of
potential meals here there’s also lots
of tourists here enjoying the sighting
they’re all behaving themselves on the
road which is wonderful we have got
special permission to be off the road
with you guys and isn’t that a huge huge
privilege that we are allowed to get you
guys into pole position to make sure
that you don’t miss out on any of this
live Safari action
hello to sky you would like to know how
far north into the conservancies do
these cheetahs travel and I’m guessing
about 15 or 20 kilometres into a
Conservancy called my boss or is the one
area that they go into as well as
another Conservancy I forget the name of
it just to their to the kind of east or
south east of knob or shore I’ve done a
bit of research into these guys and they
actually only joins together about five
weeks ago so sorry how about five weeks
ago sorry I’m just trying to flash one
of the vehicles that has come off-road
that shouldn’t be otherwise it creates a
bit of an avalanche effect and everyone
does its and so I was chatting with
Eleanor one of the researchers and
there’s several cheetah researchers in
this area and she said that these
cheetah only came together or they were
only noted in this area around December
last year and they’re not too sure
exactly how many of them were brothers
if any were related how they joined up
where they joined up so they’re actually
doing some DNA analysis on them they’ve
got scat samples from all five of them
and basically they’re going to be able
to in the next few weeks determine who
of them are brothers and who of them are
strangers so that’ll be really
interesting to know wonderful while
these guys think about what to do next
we are going to send you across to James
with some wandering stripes yes good
they’re having a drink that one is not
wandering any more than one you can see
there has ceased to wander it is cease
to do anything
the wandering stripes are having a drink
here at the pan where we saw the dead
Vil the best and indeed they’re drinking
of his rotting flesh as we speak
and so they’ve clearly got constitutions
far stronger than ours because viewer to
drink out of this water I promise you
you would get very sick
they seem to have been chased out of the
water by two superb starlings which
seems a bit strange given that they’re
well a substantially larger than superb
starlings and B what I’ve never seen a
superb Starling take down a zebra have
you money I don’t think it’s unlucky but
they are very skittish at the water
always and it’s not only because of
crocodiles it’s because something in
their nose that predators will
congregate around water holes and use
them because they know that the prey has
to come and drink at some stage I wonder
if there isn’t just something sitting
the other side there may be popping its
head a part of the grass don’t really
see why there should be nervous
otherwise
to have sniff of lion on the wind
well this one doesn’t care he’s gonna
have a drink he doesn’t mind I do not
see any of the Egyptian goofs pride
around here there’s another pan down the
road which we’re gonna have a look at
shortly and we’ll go down towards the
Salt Lick area as I say that the wooden
starts to pick up I may have just filled
one drop of rain and these clouds well I
think that they’re my far less advanced
than there were this time yesterday so
I’m gonna hope for a rain free afternoon
now Jamie you’re wondering if we have
the same type of grass here as we do at
Juma inside that forget yeah well many
of the grasses are the same the red oak
grass is known just as red grass in
South Africa and that’s definitely
they’re not in nearly the same profusion
as it is here I’ve seen as some touching
grass species some died had repugnant
species that we get there so yeah I
would say you probably find that about
50 percent at least 50 to 60 percent of
the grasses that you find here you would
find in South Africa and there’ll be
some that you don’t and there’ll also be
local sub specific variations very nice
indeed you know we know of course that
the the zebra that grant zebra is not
quite the same as the virtuals there
it’s the same species different
subspecies of the plains zebra though
virtuals the one that we get down South
Africa the grants up here now they could
absolutely interbreed with each other
but because of geographical separation
for substantial period they’ve just very
slowly drifted apart from each other and
I suppose that the grasses would do the
same and they’re often a lot older as
well you’re wondering if the hyenas will
come and eat this wildebeest I
personally don’t think this wildebeest
going to be eaten by anything other than
birds if it was the case that there was
nothing else on offer then hyenas might
try and pull it out of the water but
it’s so muddy in there and so difficult
to get to and actually dangerous excuse
me
it’s quite dangerous for hyenas to get
in there because the Magister deep and
so they could suffer the same fate as
the little beasts
so I think you’ll find that they will
avoid it if they can I mean it’s been
there now what money when did we film it
it wasn’t Sunday Monday yesterday no
sunday so two days ago then nothing’s
had a touch of it I suspect some birds
have sat on it but I think that’s
probably about all so cautious when they
go anywhere near the water
hmm so now you say other zebras skittish
due to the smell of death in the water
[Music]
you know there may be an element of that
I don’t think it’s necessarily in the
water I mean there are carcasses strewn
about the Mara all over the place now so
the smell of death disturbed them I
suspect that we having a fairly
disturbing time of it so I’m gonna say
no I don’t think so
now that was caused simply by the
marabou stork taking off next to them so
they’re very skittish very nervy
stunning well done manu gorgeous of the
marabou stork disappearing into the
grasslands now Sandra you’re asking in
which area you find the Grevy’s zebra
well the gravy Zebras found further
north in Kenya I will just take this
opportunity to say that on the back of
the car we won’t show her to you because
she’s starting to look a little panicked
is his Shivani and shivani’s going to be
joining us in our TV show on Saturday
morning
she’s a lion expert from up north where
she’s nodding vigorously there are
Grevy’s zebra correct so much drier
areas and fascinating looking zebras
there I think but stockier than these
chaps they’re the stripes are much
closer together and I think they look
much more donkey luck than horse like
anyway we’ll chat to Siobhan you about
that I’ll try and get her on camera
before before Saturday but she’s just
easing into it today
now scenic you want to know the
difference between a gravies in a
virtual zebra or there are totally
different species so in Africa we get
four species of zebra the plains zebra
which the grants and the virtuals one
two mountain zebras two species of
mountain zebra and then one species of
Grevy’s zebra and I’ll show you some
pictures of them in my little book now
once I have found them and in fact this
one this one counts well there’s the
Birchall’s or plain zebra otherwise
known as the common zebra now the one we
get down in South Africa’s Equus
vercelli that one there or might even
get something called yeah it was
virtually that one and it’s most obvious
by the fact that it’s got no stripes on
the belly and it’s also got Nostra it’s
got shadow stripes in between there is
this one Equus haha a Bohemia the grants
a zebra and that’s that one then you can
see they’ve got stripes all the way to
the base and they don’t have the
distinctive shadow stripes now if we go
and they could all interbreed very
comfortably with each other they also
look a little bit more sort of than
donkey like if you like but in this book
it’s got the two mountains there is a
cape and the Hartman’s as one species so
this has only got three species of zebra
and I think that that has probably been
disputed a number of times and then
undisputed so at the moment they seem to
be one species that thing is an extinct
extinct animal called oquawka and then
there’s the gravy’s and you can see the
stripes much more closely
much closer together huge ears sometimes
these pictures are not particularly ever
and accurate but there it is in the
other ecwid that we get in Africa is the
African wild ass but you’ll have to go
all the way to
somalia to see that I think is that
correct yes
Ethiopia and Somalia to see that you
don’t want to go there
good all right
I believe that Tristan has managed to
find a gravy zebra in South Africa and
he’d like to show it to you I’m talking
rubbish well we’ve managed to catch up
with our ILI’s we found them and are you
going to come in feed off the bush right
in front of the car yes you are so if
you don’t believe me that the car is
there that’s where our elephant is
eating for me since the school there’s
nothing better than being this close to
nearly as long as you don’t eat the car
we’re all good well yes sir I believe
James was saying that I found a grave is
a brand of course we know James is
talking utter rubbish because the
Grevy’s zebra only occur up in East
Africa
and one person well actually I have seen
a baby zebra before but one other person
who’s seen a gravy zebra will be Scott
and I know Scott absolutely loves the
gravy zebra there are a beautiful
species with big ears and there’s
beautiful fine pinstripes very very
pretty animals but isn’t this amazing
this elephant is literally feeding
basically underneath the cards it’s
taking branches that are growing it’s
sitting just underneath the left side of
the car and so like I say yeah you think
that I’m joking when I say that that is
close but if I were to be sitting on the
front of the car that elephant would
basically be touching left that’s how
close it is to that front edge so really
is quite something I didn’t think she
would come wandering over to the serious
she was quite far away actually and she
just decided this is where she wanted to
come and feed thank you for that that
was very special you need to just feed
next to us instead now if that’s okay
it’s a far more comfortable distance to
have you can actually see our shadows
since I wave to everybody
Mary Kay you say so nice not bothered at
all by us and Omega this was probably
one of the closest in terms of feeding
behavior that I’ve ever had normally
with a Li’s they don’t feed that close
they will come to this area and they
will sort of sniff you out and come in
chick and they’ll check out the car and
they’ll smell and whatever but to
actually feel that that distance is
really quite something so that was
incredibly special and I believe a lot
of the team in the Mara are saying how
much they miss these intimate any
sightings that we get here in the sands
and well I know it is super special we
were talking about it yesterday and you
know we’ve had some incredible a lease
items in the last week Tara had some and
I’ve had some it’s just been insane with
them all around the car and being so
relaxed it’s really is very very very
cool and we get a little bit sort of
blase about it which is not the right
way to be as you know when you sit in
this Ellie’s all around and you’ve
gotten any sniffing you like that it’s
kind of would have to take a moment and
actually just realize how fortunate we
are and how super lucky we are to spend
time in amongst these big giants and
that they’re so relaxed with us it is a
very very cool situation so hopefully
all of you at home all loving it just as
much as sins oh and I are now
interestingly there’s an elephant over
here now this elephant is quite a older
elephant it’s probably I would say now
must be about what say eight or nine
years old maybe a little bit younger
seven maybe seven wait but look there no
tusks that you can see coming out so
this individual is tuskless it does not
have any tusks growing and this is
something that we’ve been seeing more
and more of over the last few years
particularly from the females and it
tends to be a lot of female elephants
that carry this gene that they don’t
grow tusks at all down there’s a lot of
theories as to why they don’t have tusks
and I personally I’m not an essential of
which theory I actually believe I don’t
think any of them really ring true just
yet and there will be a reason for it I
have a funny feeling it might be
something to do with diets or with some
sort of nutrient deficiency that they
have
that when they are growing inside of the
mother that they give a little bit of an
issue and they don’t actually grow those
tasks properly that’s something like
that I don’t know if they may be it
because a lot of people are saying that
they’re evolving against hunting a to
not produce tusks but then you would see
it in male offspring as well where is
it’s only in the females and we know
that the females don’t use their tusks
mainly as much to defend themselves so
it could be something to do with it now
Liz you’re wondering how much their
trunks weigh in an adult male elephant
the trunk will weigh 300 pounds of just
pure muscle so that’s how heavy the
trunk is which is absolutely amazing
when you think that it’s just a
basically a modified nose for it to
weigh 300 pounds imagine having a 300
pound nose that would be quite an
unfortunate problem to deal with but in
the elephant world being the size that
they are it is most certainly anything
but a hindrance it is perfect for them
to sustain themselves and to survive
they’re able to use it to drink to eat
to even defend themselves somewhat are
you also going to come say hello
you lot are very relaxed hello and off
she goes
so cool swimmer you’re wondering how
many species of elephants they are in
Africa well there’s just one in the
African elephant but there is a
subspecies which is known as well two
subspecies the desert and the forest
elephant and then you’ve got the
Savannah elephants as opposed three
subspecies under the general banner of
an African elephant but only one actual
specie of
animal and then the subspecies that are
dictated by the environment that they
spend most of their time in there we go
there’s another screenshot for James
quickly everybody capture that and tag
James Henry there we go
that will fill him with delight I’m sure
feel like James is going to probably be
quite upset with me at some point if we
just keep flooding his whole Twitter
page with all kinds of pictures of
animals defecating but well it will be
worth a laugh anyway so it’s just the
one species and I could say according to
area and small little changes that they
have so the forest elephants being much
smaller as well as the terrors of
elephants then what you see in the
savanna elephants allows them to they
become a subspecies but it’s just the
African elephant itself the only other
species of elephant in the world is the
Asian elephant which of courtesy occurs
in India and through sri lanka and parts
of Indonesia as well so that’s the two
species in the distribution range
interesting that there wasn’t an
elephant species in South America or in
the Americas or she versus say in the
Americas as general and would surprises
me that there wasn’t one that developed
in those areas or inhabit it was in sort
of the big vastness if you think about
how much space that is in the big of the
big vastness if you think about how much
space that is in the big jungles of
interesting well I’m certainly not
complaining that we are the ones that
have got them now our hood is drifted
off slightly so I’m going to try and
just get back towards where they are and
back into the front of them so we can
watch them coming again now Ellis
apparently says to me that I have to say
that we are going to ponder what goes on
with these elephants and that I must
link to Scott in the South American
accent now what exactly is a South
American accent Ellis because well
there’s many countries in South America
and don’t say Mexican because I think
Ellie might shoot you if you do now
there’s a big ad for Clara that we’ve
just gone so I’m just gonna link to
Scott anyway and not use the South
American accent because I’m not sure
which one it is but the next time we go
to Scott if L excuse me a specific
country we shall try and use that one
Thank You tristin
and these five Cheeta have pancaked
themselves on to termite mark you could
drive past them so so easily and it’s
actually boggling my little mind as to
how easy you could easily you could
drive past five cheetah I heard you were
discussing different types of elephant
and zebra I wish that I could have seen
a woolly mammoth when they were still
wandering around when we were still
wandering around in just skins with
claps another elephant that would be
nice they don’t exist but hypothetically
speaking would be a pygmy elephant you
get a pygmy hippo which is very cool so
I mean imagine if there’s a pygmy
elephant wouldn’t that be great quick
updates yeah as you can see the cheetahs
are sleeping the wildebeests have
cleverly moved off a short distance but
they are still very very much within the
sides of this coalition and judging from
the behavior that I’ve seen in the past
from these boys is that they’re gonna
wait for darkness to begin to sit soon
possibly you yeah we should actually
still be on safari because it’s half an
hour later this evening so we could well
be on safari when they do decide to make
a tempted hunt on these wildebeest the
last kill they’re made with us was at
quarter to eight so 15 minutes after the
foot safari finishes of course if there
is good action though we’ll keep you
updated as to whether we’re gonna go and
live on Facebook whether we going to
extend the Safari but very very good
prospects I’m very excited for VM who’s
on camera with me who is desperate she
said he’s gonna retire after he gets a
good cheetah hunts I don’t think this
one will qualify because it won’t be in
perfect sunlight but diem is basically
on the road to retirements so for those
of you enjoy his camerawork best you
make the most of it because there’s
going to be living I think remotely
semi-nomadic lee out of his vehicle and
a caravan trailer tent come home in the
next few weeks
there’s quite a strong wind blowing
that’s gonna assist and create some
confusion and chaos when these guys
start running in like a pack of wolves
into these large herds of wildebeest and
they’re basically just running and kind
of chased them at fairly random
intervals and not necessarily together
as a team but then one of them manages
to single out say youngstorget on one
and then the rest of them come barreling
in to help subdue it because even a
young wildebeest is quite a handful or a
powerful for a single cheetah so that’s
why these guys have become so so
effective another thing that’s
interesting that I was thinking about
earlier is that they may well never have
hunted together in scenario in a
scenario like this during the migration
like I said a bit earlier they only
joined together or they’ve only been
noted in this area as of December so
they’re not sure where they came from
this speculation that one of the males
has come from Tanzania we’re gonna rush
you across to James and I’ll continue
the story later doesn’t seem to be going
anywhere at all big lappet-faced vulture
and just very nicely framed there on the
termite mound huge bird with a wingspan
of some nine feet now if we zoom out
from there and we look over the top
underneath that rainstorm II up to about
there all the way to the end you can
just see the top of my head there well
and even beyond that hoop and to the
right there Manu yeah onto those hills
there beyond and just brought in the
picture slightly
and what you can see are numberless
herds of wildebeest you can just sort of
make them out there any discoloration
that you see on that hill is numberless
to build a boost and that is where we
are going and that is where I’m hoping
that we are going to get a V salt liquor
pride I’m very sorry to have dragged you
over from Scott at high speed and I
think I gave the wrong impression about
how urgent the sighting was anyway we’re
going to carry on over the top here
Rebecca do you want to get back to Scott
hi you can stay with us no problem
Scott is now putting the Emmie 20
low-light camera onto his vehicle which
will allow for him to take very
beautiful night shots at the cheetah
killing morville the best
this is really why don’t we get over the
top of this hill you’re going to be so
amazed
Becca is so excited that she wants to be
so amazed
wait I will say amazing wall short
people not by my own hand but simply by
facing the vehicle in the right
direction
goodness gracious me
nice money under the far Ridge there
there we go look at that and Rebecca is
already so amazed which is a great
relief because our very sad she hadn’t
been and that not
so we’re going to get in amongst Tim and
see if we can’t find those other lines
if you don’t find those lines I will
probably give up right in the mean time
that’s it across to Tristan who
apparently is in and amongst the
elephants
well we’re still just trying to catch up
without Ilias they’re moving a lot
quicker than they were just now just now
it was all sedate and you ain’t really
going to find Holly kind of getting
going a little bit so I’m just trying to
catch up with them and try and find a
better way to position myself that we
get to see them without having to move
too much I would rather be a slightly
since er if you can try and just go
straight ahead of me into this grass
yeah I’m gonna duck out the way whether
we gonna see them or not is anyone’s
guess but they are button quails inside
there then where’s that I thought that
was one of them it’s just grass removing
its tiny tiny little birds that’s all
inside here we have you gone no button
whales come out is that one sitting
there no that’s a leaf difficult to see
actually the cinders trying to look scan
in the grass there for me it’s too much
wind we can’t see the movements of our
button quails since I’m gonna try and
move just watch that spot maybe we’ll
see them but there was most definitely
some button quails that were lurking in
this little thicket and they so
difficult to get on camera
no our button whales have moved off
oopsey as our our elephants our big
females just guiding her young ones away
there we go
lots of flapping of ears a soft saying
given that it is warm it’s very warm if
you’re a big grey beast with the Sun
hitting your back so they have to flap
your ears a little bit just to stay nice
and cool and you can see the young one
it’s stops every now and in his feeding
and I wonder if it’s going to move that
branch if it’s learnt that trait yet
from its mom as they get older they will
learn that they can move trees around to
get to what they want underneath no not
quite
not just yet trying though and you can
see that one’s a little tusks are
starting to show so that one is about
five or six years old
cat’s paw is you want to know if
elephants ever come into camp well yes
they most certainly do come to the
fringes of camp I haven’t seen one yet
come into the gate and towards FC
we have a little gatepost our to the
final control into the DRC but they do
certainly walk right past it and feed
and munch way Chantelle has had some
behind the house I think or Connor I
can’t remember one of the two of them
they had in Leah’s somewhere behind they
live mix they used to live next door to
each other so I think there was in his
behind there at some point
I remember somebody telling me that one
of those rooms I can’t remember I’m
getting old I can’t remember who’s who
and who’s been in whose room because
it’s changed so much since I’ve been
yeah all the Mara guys have left and new
rooms and so people have gone into
different rooms and well it’s just all
quite complicated at this stage but yes
they do come around when I was at
chipper and lion sands and sim Amelie
they were a permanent fixture at all of
those camps they used to come in all the
time and the reason why they’re coming
to camp so much is because camps water
gardens for the plants around the lodge
to make it look pretty and minutes try
and like it is now then you know what
that means that means elephants want to
eat nice pretty plants and therefore
they come in and they destroy nice
pretty Gardens and soon you left with an
absolute mess but if we go up just from
the baby for two seconds and so if you
look at that female you can see that she
is pregnant look at how wide she is you
can see the hips there and then beyond
the hips is a lot of swelling at this
stage so she is probably quite heavily
pregnant I would imagine she’s almost as
round as she is tall at this stage so
that is a good sign it’s always nice to
see pregnant females it’s very
encouraging when the population is going
up rather than down
although the elephant population in the
query is not struggling at this stage at
all they are steadily increasing every
single year there’s not very much that
the elephants have to worry about here
in South Africa there is a bit of
poaching that’s starting to happen right
in the northern part of the Kruger but
other than that they don’t really suffer
from disease there’s not too many
predators around that hunt them
particularly in the system there’s so
many other prey species that can be
hunted by lions and leopard and all
these others that elephants really don’t
from part of the menu that much and so
find that the elephant numbers are just
exponentially increasing or said number
of good years of rain which has meant a
lot more vegetation and so
the numbers have done very very well
that coupled with artificial water
points means that the elephant’s find
water easily and there’s no longer these
long journeys to trek from water source
to water source that might have killed
off older or younger weaker individuals
and so that’s why their population is
slowly on the increase it’s not to say
that it’s the bad thing and there’s a
lot of studies about it and John you’re
wondering if the dry grass that eating
has any nutrients in it John the grass
that we see are above the surface of the
soil
absolutely not it’s all just dry and
there’s very little in it but what they
are trying to get is the roots of that
grass so they pull the grass in chunks
and you’ll find they eat the bottom half
of the grass are they eating all the
root system and that’s where grass
stores its nutrients in its moisture to
keep it alive and that’s what they’re
actually targeting in these nutrients in
that and then they’ll supplement that
with a lot of leaves and bark and roots
and this time of year right since a
before Ellie’s disappear let’s try and
catch up once again because they are
moving off slightly
this area is a bit of a minefield though
is the odd-odd FARC burro is the odd
warthog burro you’ve got to be a little
bit careful is a few sickle bush around
which is a tyre hazard of note so just
trying to be careful of those as we
going along as well
katelyn who’s ten years old hello
Caitlyn you want to know how thick is an
elephant’s skin in centimeters now in
centimeters it depends where we look in
Caitlyn because on their body they have
different thicknesses of skin so around
the ears we know that the skin look
particularly on the back side of the ear
is very very thin but on the other side
a sort of on the body and in that area
that skin is going to be very thick so
on the year only a few probably it not
even a centimeter thick it’ll be
millimeters whereas on the body itself
you’re probably finding in places it’s
going to be close to five to ten
centimeters thick so it’s very thick on
the body and the trunk as well the trunk
is got very thick skin to try and keep
that trunk in good condition remember
they’re grabbing for knee trees with
their trunk so they have to have strong
skin on their trunk as well so it’s also
very thick there then five centimetres
about what the thicknesses of the trunk
itself now the reason why I actually
know the thickness of the trunk more
than anything else is because
unfortunately we had an elephant bull
that died in this area actually at
Chitra just on one eye pan close to the
dam there and that poor elephant bull
because he was he died and they have to
remove the tusks so that poachers don’t
come and steal him the easiest way to
remove the tusk winland carcass is still
fresh is to actually cut the trunk away
first and then get to the tusks like
that and we actually had to take the
trunk often it was quite something to
try and get through the skin in through
the muscle and through that area and it
was not a very pleasant experience and
something I hope that I’ll never have to
repeat again but very interesting just
to have a look at and like I said the
animal died of natural causes so it
wasn’t like there was a poaching
incident to anything like that and I
suppose it was no longer with us so
cutting its trunk and looking and seeing
all of those things up close was not
actually a bad thing it was a great
learning experience and it’s heartbeats
and various other things learn as well
but this has just been so magical as
often they so relaxed this particular
group they’ve not in any way worried
about us and we’ve followed them through
quite a thick bush and crashed a few
trees as we’ve gone with them and as you
can see we haven’t had a head shake then
as the mothers have been upset they
haven’t in any way given us any trouble
so it’s been rather Pleasant
now you can see the grass that’s in
there well that’s actually the air hole
sorry since up but there’s the grass and
you’ll find you see it’s the bottom
sections that it’s eating of course now
an elephant would walk right where the
grass was naughty little elephant and of
course it’s not know Jesus doing what
it’s supposed to do but in the purposes
of what we were trying to see it doesn’t
really help very much you can see it’s
got its trunk down pat already so this
is an elephant that you can see the
tusks with it easily like I say be about
five six years old and so that trunk is
working absolutely fine and incy just
watch how it’s just strips the leaves of
these small branches there we go
strips them and shoves them in now I
know this is conch remember who it was
but somebody was asking the other day
why we can’t see the elephant’s teeth
this might be the prime opportunity to
see them this upper one the way it’s got
its head cocked up we might be able to
see the teeth as it pulls food in
although it’s turned its head slightly
if it faces us we might be able to see
some of the teeth if you look at that
right-hand corner of the mouth there
might be a visual of some of those big
broad plate black teeth on that right
hand area just as it opens although
we’ll have to wait for it to take its
head out of the bush if we’re going to
get lucky and actually see that the only
time I’ve seen elephant teeth regularly
is on the bull elephant so if you park
near the bull elephants and they come
and feed near you and they often feed
quite high up and because of their
heights in comparison to the vehicle you
actually look up into their mouth and
you can then often see the teeth that
way but otherwise very very difficult to
see I thought we might get a lucky break
there and see the silver ones teeth but
unfortunately it’s not buried it’s here
deeper into the thicket
and is turning the wrong direction
maybe now let’s see come on open your
mouth wide oh there’s too many branches
in the way no almost there let’s see if
we can see them come on if it turns one
more time like it did just now we might
be able to get to see those teeth
of course we are seeing has teeth anyway
in the form of the modified incisors
that are coming out between one either
side of the trunk in the form of the
tusks
those are modified teeth that we see so
there are not horns in any way it’s not
bonus exactly what your teeth are made
out of become some of the younger ones
you can also hear a bit of gas that’s
being passed which is quite normal for
an elephant head Charles in Charge you
want to know how far a elephants trumpet
would travel now so that in charge I
wonder if you saying in terms of our
hearing or in terms of their hearing
because that’s two very different things
our hearing you can probably hear
elephants trumpeting depending on
obviously wind and thickness of the bush
as well as the sort of terrain that
you’re in if you’re in dips and troughs
and and high areas but I would say you
could probably hear elephants trumpeting
from 3-4 kilometers away if they really
trumpeting poppy in terms of elephants
themselves I would imagine you could
probably treble even quadruple that
distance that they’d be able to start
picking it up so the thing is with them
is that they actually have sensory cells
that are in even the tip of their trunk
and they feet that are able to pick up
the vibrations caused by sound waves and
they can actually hear themselves from
15 kilometers which is really quite
something when you think about it if
you’re long how long it’s taken has to
be able to communicate over 15
kilometres that elephants can do it
naturally is quite something right
they’ve moved off again into your little
green belt thickets in front of me here
so I’m just going to try and catch up
once more it’s amazing how when they do
decide to move
they go quite quickly I’m not sure where
this has come from and why we are doing
this but apparently I need to go to spot
and I need to do it in an accent that
first was a Bolivian accent which who
knows what that is I even tried to
google it while I was archer picky
because I had the bit of cell phone
reception and I can’t find anything on a
Bolivian accent so now they want any
accent whatsoever but you can’t put me
on the spots with this I need to have
quick time to be able to say it so I’ll
do it the next link how about that since
I do you have an accent that you want to
do and one was so we’ll have to think
about unwise accent and we’ll try to do
it a little bit later let’s go across
the Scots and see what he’s up to nippy
still with those beautiful cheetah
brothers way to look at that whole
episode and fold
I’m trying up and you presents a cam
it’s a new piece of equipment that I
haven’t got used to so that’s oh I’m
leaning very closely to it it’s only
about eight inches from my nares and
it’s quite a nifty little toy it was one
of the improvements I guess to our
equipments if you look ahead there are
five cheetah and you are now on the main
camera they’re all lined up and poised
like a military operation
like I say waiting for the cover of
darkness to wreak havoc and terror with
the herd of wildebeest which is just to
the left hand side of them it’s actually
slowly grazing towards him look at those
beautiful rays of sunshine bursting
through the clouds another very very
splendid moody afternoon here
in the Maasai Mara now
you know in an ideal world be a little
bit too big for the cheetah so they’ll
be looking through the search for any
youngsters let’s have a look and see if
we can find any youngsters in here that
we want to seal their fate for them but
too many small ones yeah so we may have
an epic showdown where these five boys
try and bring down a big wildebeest and
I have been told that they do that
fairly often about maybe a week two
weeks ago everything kind of blends into
one big Safari out here to be honest
that took a half an hour to bring down a
fully grown wildebeest so I kind of
trying to liken that to Lions hunting
Buffalo it’s a very similar match
equally dangerous for these cheetah to
hunt will the beast as it is for lion to
hunt Buffalo so it could be something a
little bit nerve-wracking for all of us
but again
the Predators do come unstuck from time
to time it’s not just their prey who is
unlucky for now though all is calm and
peaceful very strong wind still blowing
let’s hope it doesn’t continue into the
evening and then blow our blankets away
and I’m very very happy to hear that
it’s not just me that’s very excited for
the prospects of this evening if I were
you I would phone a friend spread the
love of safari live and let them know
what they’re about to miss out on it’ll
certainly assist in us taking you to
different safari destinations around the
world
southern coastal would be quite nice to
mix it up Coastal Safari mm-hmm palm
trees underwater snorkeling scuba diving
hello Audrey who’s just 12 years old you
would like to know what the chances are
of a cheetah jumping onto the car while
we are sleeping and to be honest Audrey
I don’t think there’s a good chance of a
cheetah doing that while we are sleeping
however during the day they sometimes
like to jump up onto the hoods of the
vehicles to use it as a vantage point
just like their climb up onto termite
mounds they will jump onto the hoods of
the vehicles sometimes even the roofs of
the vehicles and get a better view now
that is something that we as humans
should not really promote as cool as it
is and I would love to have it happen if
no one was watching but that’s not how
we should think because by letting it
get so close to us it eventually may
mean that it may hurt somebody even if
it scratches somebody by mistake and
then who knows what they will do to that
cheetah so there is a limit that we
should rather kind of chase them off
when they get a bit close rather than
letting them get too friendly having
said that though VM and I were
discussing today that there are there is
a chance that possibly a lion or hyena
it won’t even need to jump into the
vehicle it could just walk up to the
side of the vehicle and grab onto our
toes and pull us off but hopefully
that’s not going to happen and we we
generally keeping an eye out but there
is a small chance that could happen to
be honest I’d rather that happened then
something else in this world we live in
so
yes and no it’s not gonna be a realistic
problem thankfully I think if you’re
sleeping under a bush all alone without
any lights on the vehicle without any
other people snoring and so it’s kind of
switching around in there on their
mattress then that would be a little bit
different but I think we are safe for
now hello James you’re interested to
know at what age would a young male
cheetah’s start struggling to join a
coalition I’m told any we’re kind of
upwards of two and a half years of age
it starts becoming tricky for them to be
allowed into a boys club but again I
would be interested to know if any of
you have found any research or documents
that states otherwise one thing that
fascinates me about wildlife and
especially African wildlife because I
know more about that the African wild
left and then the other continents is
that you get the same species of animals
occurring widely through through
sub-saharan Africa yet their behavior
depending on where they live the exact
same species can be very very different
let’s take hyena for example the clans
here a huge and Duma they’re small if
they’re exactly the same animal and
their behavior in those clans changes so
it can’t kind of be like into us as
humans some countries people get married
young some people some countries and
cultures people have forced arranged
marriages I mean just us as one species
is a great example of how different we
can act behave eat sleep drink work you
name it
so cheats are the same leopard are the
same lion are the same they’ve all kind
of got their own traits personalities
and trends depending on where they are
but yes around two to two-and-a-half
years of age I’m really looking forward
to trying to work out more about these
guys and it’s really a forgot to
continue my story from earlier basically
not much is known about this coalition
they came into the area in December last
year nobody’s sure if any of them are
brothers there’s you know high
likelihood that possibly two pairs of
the four or two pairs out of the five
are brothers but some scatter analysis
that are going to be analysis I don’t
know if that’s correct but we all roll
with it and they have done some scat
samples and they are waiting to be DNA
tested so we will know for certain in
the coming weeks who is related to who
out of this coalition I’m also told one
other little bits of information is that
one of these guys was born with the
sister so his sibling was a sister and
his mother was a Tanzanian cheetah so he
has skipped the border and come north
into Kenya other than that I don’t think
any of these cheetahs whereabouts
backgrounds anything is known about them
so really looking forward to trying to
work out what it is you know as much as
we can about them and it looks like for
now it’s gonna be safe to send you off
to another African predator with mr.
James Henry I think I thought Scott for
a moment they was referring to me as an
African predator or spot to be
complimented not there we have way in
the distance and the reason they’re in
the distance is because they’re in the
bottom of a signal free Valley is the
Salt Lick pride and two more of them are
way off to the right hand side we’ve
lost sight of them now a mating pair but
the reason we’ve stopped in this area
because of the vast number of all the
business we tilt up we can see the herd
that we were in amongst earlier and the
herd that you saw earlier that massive
herd is actually just behind us and I’ll
take you driving through them right now
I’m hoping desperately that this wind
that’s blowing does not mean rain every
single time into this area I have got
hit by storms and in fact the last time
which was Sunday last from two weeks ago
and Ferguson I got stuck for two and a
half hours we were running from the
storms everyone’s fate worried about us
you know they thought maybe we’d been
blown away except of course mrs.
Wellington who’s English and said they
can’t die of rain yours of course
correct so I think they probably going
to hunt well I hope they’re going to
hunt that hurt a little bit later as it
gets a bit darker the flatness indicates
to me that they’re probably eaten 74
wildebeest in the last two hours and so
I’m not convinced they’re going to get
up and do anything right come with me
now what we’re going to do is just take
a little drive around through this vast
swath of life over here
look at that
is that not too gorgeous
is that not too gorgeous
not them having a panic attack I just
let us drive
listen click with it
and not that is great
so what we don’t want is for them to
have a panic and we just want us then
CSS
panic this medieval the best all you
would need to do is get up and make a
big noise or hoot and shout and then
they would be panic and that would be
horrible and then there would be panic
and that would be horrible
you
I think try and think of the biggest
crowd you’ve ever been in amongst
faucets imagine the you to cut
I think that’s the biggest crowd I’ve
ever been in amongst and I was suspected
now if your questions are not being
answered it’s not because we’re ignoring
you there is a few there is a few no
James there are a few
we will try and maintain a stream I can
actually see the camp NASA
now as we drive through here what’s
interesting is that yester Becker I can
see you waving at us
what you can see is that the Valerius
very quietly made a circle around us and
that’s what they do around the Lions
they will know where those lines are
quite probably well not anymore not this
group but if you come around the big
group of old abyss when you see a dent
in the side of it or an irregular shape
you can be almost certain but around
that irregular shape there will be a
lion
and some other predator perhaps for
cheetah
I think this is very very entertaining
I mean I don’t know about you I’ve
certainly never seen this number of
animals in one place before son about to
sit behind us a huge storm in the offing
tremendous tremendous stuff
it’s gonna ease up to the top of the
ridge here
and once we’re up there we should be
able to see down over the top
into the rest of the herd and from there
we won’t be able to go any further to
the west because we will unfortunately
lose the signal
now as pretty as that is it’s not as
pretty as the site that I can see with
my eyes and that is because as I said to
you before
oops
unfortunately I hit a stump there that’s
why they started to run the camera is
exposing for the brightest parts of the
screen
and so when you look into the Sun the
validity has become dark but our eyes
are so clever that we can expose for
both at the same time so there’s build
abuse to me look a lot brighter than
they do to you
it’s very nice
I’m a little worried about the weather
but the last four times I’ve said that
we haven’t been rained upon so I’m just
gonna keep saying
in the hopes that I’m warding it off
and the weather is starting to cool
slightly but nice
you have to start putting jerseys on
shortly I believe Scott is doing that
now
who’s the viewer white-bearded gönül
like these chaps you don’t have any
jerseys
yes Rebecca we can absolutely stop I
just want to get over the top of this
hill if you don’t mind
another 1 minute and then I’ll stop
Rebecca wants to hear them canoeing
stop the other side of this termite
mound
all righty let’s head back across the
gym oh I will get to the top of the hill
apparently there have got a sunset to
show you
now we’ve just got the most beautiful
scene of the Sun slowly heading towards
the Drakensberg mountains and below that
is our herd of Emmys that is slowly but
surely making their way along below the
sunset and moving just around us a
little bit this the one or two that have
come towards the car but there is one
that is sitting almost directly
underneath the Sun at this stage so I
will show you that just now when we
admire the Sun for a few moments isn’t
that beautiful
there are many better ways to end the
day than to watch that you can see quite
a bit of dust on the horizon you can
actually can’t even see the mountains
today from here you should see the
mountains quite clearly and the Sun
itself is a big ring and that’s from the
wind that we’ve had it’s kicked that
dust up and caused that to be a little
softer than it normally would be there’s
the mountains just through all the best
that you can see in the distance Rita
you say you love the Juma sunset colors
will Ricci I agree they are beautiful
there I have seen some incredible scenes
from the Mara those sunset thunderstorms
that they tend to get there’s also
absolutely wonderful so the two of them
both have equally beautiful sunsets and
there are elephants just making their
way through the shot as all isn’t that
beautiful
very nice Enzo all done quite like that
it is strewn under a african sunset now
I’m not quite sure where I’m going to be
able to go from here because we have a
situation where we are firmly stuck
between a whole bunch of trees and
Elly’s in every direction and then I go
one female writer you can see how large
she is that’s the pregnant female is
just walking past us big girl that’s
dwarfing us at the moment and then here
comes she nuts not the pregnant female I
lie
they must be actually pretty piggies you
know the one that’s to show you a left
over the other one look at how big she
is in front of the comparison to come
this upon yourself in really nutritious
treat that’s for the sickle Bush that
she’s been using in the circulation as
you can see that you find down in the
softer the sabi sands lots of it that’s
sickle bushes like is a targeted heavily
by the inner fence he also finds bearing
other species that eat it like to do and
giraffe but the Ailey’s really love it
did I think she’s trying to eat off a
different plant but it’s doesn’t look as
though it’s actually got any live
vegetation she’s kind of branching her
trunk through all the dead stuff it is
such a beautiful scene we’ve got
elephant we’ve got Setting Sun it is
magic Josh are you wondering if
elephants will avoid any species of tree
I’m just trying to think Josh F of
species of trees that I’ve never seen an
elephant to eat I must be honest I’ve
never seen them feeding off the sand
paper raisin and it’s not to say that
they don’t is we don’t keep that many
sand paper raisins in this area because
those long eyelashes and that deep amber
I’ve hidden behind them you can see the
pupils dilating quite a lot because
that’s the side away from the Sun which
is getting quite dark now but I’ve never
seen them eat sand paper raisins I
haven’t seen them I think what other
trees Archer seen them feed of worries
I’ve seen them feed off cluster leaf
bush willow jackal berries so all of
those species of Jesus actually not
meaning that I can’t think of you might
find this the odd succulent
that goes careful where you throw those
sticks we’re in hazard the zone at the
moment there’s twigs being thrown all
over the place and we hopefully won’t
get a sickle Bush branch on us because
the sickle Bush has got some nasty
spines so and if you can just see on the
branch here
these hard spines that’s are on there
and those hard spines are lethal to
one’s hands and feet and anything else I
had a spine from a sticker bush go into
my family how cool was that
that is so epic
now I can assure you that that is the
elephant and not to my stomach or since
a stomach we were fed well at lunch this
afternoon so that is the elephant making
that sound how amazing is that as I was
saying to you that the spine actually
went into my thumb and unfortunately I
didn’t notice that it was in there
because it kind of made like a little
blood scab over the top and about eight
weeks later it was still really painful
and eventually I managed to pull out
this about an inch long phone from
underneath my fingernail and it was not
very pretty at all it’s got quite a
infected and wasn’t very nice so sicker
Bush is not a friendly plant at all and
you can see some of those spines just on
the branch there and it amazes me that
Elly’s can deal with it because that
spine is very hard the spine is a
modified leaf and so it’s you would
think would be quite soft in comparison
to the thorns but it’s actually much
harder than what thorns are no Cole
you’re gonna throw that on me babe
yourself well look at that sunset now as
well sins oh I know she’s really close
and it is beautiful to see her you just
watch that tree now James you want to
know whether or not the baby elephants
can feed off the cambium layer like the
adults can well as soon as they get
tusks then yes they watch the adults and
they start practicing it already and so
they can start to show signs of being
able to do it and it really does happen
even in the young ones they tend to wait
a little bit and they only really get
the strength to be able to dig the tusks
in and rip off a little bit later in
life so after they’ve gone through their
formative years and they start reaching
late teens is when we start to see it
for the first time but there you can see
Moritz cope and if you look very
carefully you can actually see the
towers that our signal gets broadcasted
from these little spikes on there I
think those are them by some way on that
northern tip there and those receive the
signal from where we are and send it all
the way to all of you Michael okay but
you
this is so cool she’s sitting right in
front of us at the moment she was just
stopping just to see what we were making
sure we weren’t in issue and she’s now
going to move on
who is she is she going to just sit yeah
no she’s moving on so we’ll just watch
the last of the sunset going down now I
believe in err has sent me a video of
her doing her accent for all of us so
this is a real treat and while our
Indies move away and the Sun is setting
I’m just going to try and pull up our
video and see if we can’t watch in
essentia doing her thing
hold on so we want to pause it we don’t
want it to start just yet all right are
we ready for this and give it two more
minutes as the Sun just steps over the
back end of the Drakensberg mountains
it’s amazing how quickly that Sun does
go down and I would say in 10 seconds
when we’re going to have it down
beautiful
and gone very cool right now and we’re
just going to quickly play our videos in
the center so there’s in Accenture say
let in essentially everybody now
hopefully this is going to be loud
enough I’m going to have to turn sound
up let’s see so this is in a sensuous
accent of a can wha
Oh why’s it not playing doesn’t seem to
want to play now you know I’m very very
happy now our son is sit but it sounds
like there is a sunset in the Maasai
Mara so I’m going to send you all to the
Masai Mara so you can go and hang out
with Scottie and the Sun that setting
I’m not sure if the accent that Rebecca
gave was the same one that Tristan gave
it sounded like something like sort of
an southern report if you like anyway
here we are with our sunset and I think
a very spectacular spectacular thing
that we’re watching here hundreds of
thousands of wildebeest what I’m saying
hundreds of thousands because it sounds
impressive but it may only be twenty
thousand are moving past us and there’s
a storm dropping water out of the sky
there these funny bulbous clouds above
us whose names I have forgotten and
somebody can tell me if you like
hashtags right up just above them and
they do have a name actually
[Applause]
don’t know what that is anyway it is a
very very astounding thing to be in
amongst and everywhere you look there is
beauty off to the eastern side away from
the Sun here is a lovely tree framed by
some very beautiful clouds there we are
is that not nice nice and I really use
that at my English today has been
necessary appalling Rebecca says yar
nice brew that’s what you say in
Johannesburg if you’re really educated
if abri that’s really nice hey that’s
lovely beautiful there’s a lot of good
living and some high digital some low
pitch the highest pitched ones I can
hear again Oh mommy the Sun is about to
drop down below the cloud line there
sure
and the Rebecca is going to be soy
amazed once again now she’s going in a
very South African fashion she’s getting
you which means that’s amazing little
bit of alarm calling but I mean if the
Lions get in amongst this bunch is gonna
be absolute chaos
isn’t that let’s try to get a little
closer in if you can money
Arnett it’s going to play with your
exposure horribly there we go
just dropping below the cloud line
Gotha is amazing
Wow all right now that squeak and pull
back out again you can show us that
canoes
now before I answer Annie’s question I
just need to tell Manu of course that it
is illegal for me to be taking
photographs on Drive because it
distracts me from my presenting so when
I am breaking the law your please not to
put the camera on me is that okay thanks
very much that’s great Andy sorry I
missed your question as I was caught
there doing an illegal thing what was it
again
oh I will carry the answered shortly
apparently I think the cheater on the
move well the cheater are certainly not
on the move the wildebeest are now what
is going to happen you literally saw the
front wildebeest start streaming past
these cheetah and there’s a lot more to
come I’m guessing there’s still about
another hundred wildebeest that will
come streaming past these cheetah and
most of the young wildebeest are at the
back of the herd and as soon as the
youngster strays close enough to them I
think these guys might surge at them
look at the way they flattened
themselves to the ground
the wildebeest it’s hard to believe but
they’ve got no idea whatsoever that
these cheats are young and there’s five
of them only about thirty meters away
Oh what is going to happen it’s not as
dark as it usually is when these guys
really start revving the herds so that’s
possibly why there’s still a little bit
apprehensive but at any moment they may
see a youngster that they see fit for
dinner and they could surge forward and
when they do the hurt starts kind of
running around they don’t free
completely they’ll almost run around in
circles because they’re not hugely
intimidated by the cheetah they just get
an initial fright and it’s then that
they start kind of churning through
these wildebeest until they managed to
find a youngster bring it down some of
you may have seen the footage of one of
the cheetah getting bald over by a
mother wildebeest who came back to
rescue its youngster so wildebeest will
stand up against these cheetah not
always but certainly from time to time I
cannot believe how incredible this is
what a beautiful beautiful evening it is
here in the Maasai Mara I’m told you are
enjoying a wonderful sunset with James
so while the action awaits us we will
show you the view from where we are
perched at the moment isn’t that
spectacular
beautiful
I’m glad James isn’t getting wet you can
see lots of rain arts and those clouds
over there
so he’s obviously a little bit further
north I’m guessing
very very good seller there’s still
about another 50 or 60 wildebeest I’m
guess I’m not easy to be certain how
many and I can’t believe these cheats
haven’t done anything yet but that is
the beauty of it you may think you’re
getting to know these animals and may
predict whatever guesstimate as to what
they are going to do but very often they
prove us wrong
very very windy afternoon again this
will assist the cheetah did the one on
the right there try to kind of swivel
itself to the side but didn’t wasn’t
always graceful move but did definitely
swivel itself pointing more towards the
world least maybe that one’s going to
search first oh there’s a warthog hey
mister you get out of there buddy
although I think these guys really have
become wildebeest hunting experts and be
ready because at any moment now
one of them could surge forward
most of the young wildebeest I was
talking about are starting to stream
forward now the first one here in the
middle of the screen last stray is too
far away from any of the big ones I
think they may have a go at it which
that cheats on the right it seems to be
getting the most prone and ready
I wonder what’s going through their
heads wouldn’t that be nice to know
there’s no ways they can be
communicating with one another now I
wouldn’t think but individually
all of them are Express or displaying
incredible patience and this is a skill
that even the fastest mammal on the
planet will fastest land animal on the
planet needs to be able to succeed and
bring down some prey oh that’s a small
one there sure you are lucky for now it
appears
Oh have they got a front this may
trigger a chase for a lot of predators
if their prey don’t run for them from
them oh yeah they go yeah they go can
you believe it just out of nowhere you
stay on that front one VM I’ll keep an
eye on the others John it’s going it’s
gonna get it’s oh can you believe this
what a takedown it looks like the other
one might be going for another thank God
they’ve got two was it just the one no
they just got the one the others are
coming back to help
well done p.m. I’m gonna get us in there
a little bit closer hold tight everyone
I was supposed to do that quick I’ve
gotten off to a slow start yeah I was so
busy looking for others there’s a lot of
vehicles also getting in I’d only put
too much pressure on them but it looks
like everyone’s stopping at a healthy
distance so that’s the good news
let’s see if I can get the Sun set
behind that’s gonna be able to van ask
so we’ll skip that this is a big wall to
beast they’ve still thought they were
cut off that was such an incredible
tackling couldn’t can you believe how
just out of nowhere they surged forward
oh this may be hard for some of you but
it is nature there’s nothing we can do
about this they are trying to kill this
wildebeest as quickly as they can but I
fear it may take some time this is the
biggest wildebeest I have seen them
attack so far
now what we must all be aware of is that
this wildebeest bleats that it’s letting
up now as saddening as it is to hear it
is also going to Lear in any hyena a
lion that may be in this area so I’m
scanning around just making sure that no
hyena come barreling in or even worse
than that any lion we’ve seen this
coalition of five male cheetah Loser
cool – just one single hyena that really
fit on most of it but that is something
we need to be aware of can you believe
how quickly and precisely that all
unfolded it was certainly the cheats on
the far I too was showing the most
interest in making this kill that surged
out of the blocks
and what an incredible takedown that was
incredible camerawork to VM these things
all happen so quickly and it’s something
that none of us are practiced in hence
me taking two minutes to drop the clutch
and get us here but well done to VM
incredible camera work and well done to
this coalition of wildebeest machines
wildebeest machines will cease killing
machines and for those of you on a
lighter note who are worried that
wildebeest is now going to retire VM the
camera man wildebeest aka wildebeest he
is not I was just joking around it’s
just a joke that he said he would retire
after he gets a good cheetah takedown
and I think that was certainly worthy of
his joke
well this is interesting because the
squabbling behavior around the kill is
something that is new to us we haven’t
spent a long time with this coalition of
cheetah but only in the last week or so
look at these two having a go at one
another
wildebeest isn’t dead yet so they
shouldn’t try and focus on doing that
don’t think it is dead
that must be close looks like d’Artagnan
the male with the collars gonna show
them how it’s done yeah
now this behavior we don’t know who’s
who yet sir that’s difficult in a
chaotic siting like this we need to even
have a guess but obviously the male with
the collar is easy to distinguish he is
one of the biggest of these five and
there is another big one so there’s two
that are distinctly bigger than the
others and it looks like he’s been
showing that slightly smaller one who is
boss
you can see that one’s trying to bake
its way in you see I think this is
another of the more mature males that’s
gone in on the chokehold now they’re
obviously they’re obviously not
convinced that it’s dead yet nor am i
what does that feel okay Sophie I’m just
a – what is called the drop in indie
filters are basically just assisting
with the lessening light as the Sun has
just set
well everyone what can I say to be able
to witness a live Cheetah Hunt from the
Masai Mara again is just the most
phenomenal thing and I’m so so grateful
to be sharing this with you we are so so
lucky to be seeing these five cheetah do
their business
and it looks like the long hours Spence
Archer has already paid off I’m still
continually scanning to make sure no
hyena come on to the fray it could
happen at any point in time
hello Tamir you’d like to know if there
are any lion or hyena around in the
general area and that I know of and no
not that I know of but one thing I can’t
tell you is that there’s no shortage of
both of those animals in the Masai Mara
ecosystem especially hyena so it’s
there’s a strong possibility one will
come on to the fray the wind could be
helping these cheats in terms of it
muffling the sounds of this wildebeest
bellowing bleating and it will also be
muffling the sounds of their argument
would attack attract some attention
they’re so busy fighting over one
another they’re not forgetting to kill
this will Derby behavior
she said wouldn’t like to be those two
with their tails towards us and their
heads away from us they could catch us
straight hoof at any point in time here
comes the first hyena on the Left BM or
really the first anus here and on cue
what is it going to do is it gonna
charge in and try and chase them all off
alone it’s just doing the maths first it
is coming closer not cleverly probably
going to come behind the vehicles using
a bit of our cover to sneak up on them
and it may well try and call in
reinforcements and other hyena like
orchid comes on the BM on the left now
they haven’t had a mouthful of this look
at this
very characteristic maneuver that the
cheetah used they left their front legs
up high and slam them down onto the
ground to make himself look more fierce
and impressive now is this hyena going
to be greedy I look more fierce and
impressive now is this hyena going to be
greedy keep quiet and
to the rest of the plan for
reinforcements it’s an it’s an
interesting scenario that plays out that
a hyena has options to be selfish or to
be greedy if he calls on the rest of the
clan it knows it’s going to have its
work cut out for it lots of competition
this cheetah also knows it needs to
start eating as quickly as possible
I wonder how that hyena got the message
was that the sound must have been the
wind is blowing in that direction so it
could have blown those moans and groans
off the wildebeest towards wherever that
hyena was resting for the afternoon or
the day
and I’m not convinced that these cheats
are gonna get much of this meal I think
there’s gonna be more hyena coming in
and who knows that may mean another
hunter this evening
once darkness has fallen
very very interesting prospects that is
for certain well I think all of us need
to take a deep breath
and compose ourselves after that manic
action it’s been such a calm and
pleasantly slow afternoon Safari I would
like to say at least from my point of
view as you’ve had the joy of jumping on
board with Tristan and James but things
have just taken a rapid rapid spike in
excitements and adrenaline and emotion
the hyena still just sitting off on the
side there patiently and it appears like
it is taking the selfish route as
opposed to calling in the rest of the
clan to chase off these hyena Cape
Churchill W would like to know what Hyde
is the toughest to break through I’m
guessing most of your general kind of
antelope have got similar thickness
hides you know wildebeest and topi will
be on a par and zebra
maybe buffalo slightly thicker and then
you know Rhino hippo and elephant will
have the thickest of the skins to try
and get through does appear like they
are having a tough time getting through
this I think age also makes a difference
I think the older the wildebeest the
tougher the skin becomes whereas the
younger wildebeest might be a little bit
softer more supple to open and appears
that is the case these guys having
trouble getting in here there’s great
news Tristan has been tirelessly
tracking while we’ve been enjoying the
sighting of these cheetahs so why don’t
you go and have a look what he’s found
you
now it’s just managed to find a spotted
surprise for all of you so I’m gonna try
and see how fish is not gonna drop down
into the Mana Party but it looks like
Tandy I haven’t seen very nicely but I’m
gonna try and just see there she goes
I can see her just going in front of me
so it doesn’t look like her so she’s
just disappearing into the darkness now
sorry about the little bit of a breakup
in picture I’m gonna quickly just shoot
round at the side of the mawashi be able
to keep up with them so just want a
quickie get round so just hold on little
Ferrari Safari for two seconds
so she’s just on the western side well
at twin dam she’s on the eastern side
now tumblers are in Torchwood and he’s
moving west so I wonder if we’re not
gonna get a situation where we gonna get
both of them meeting up together again
so we’re just gonna see if we can’t get
around a little bit bumpy
sorry scrubby
all right and down we go into the
molarity now tell you be nice to us
don’t cross in a horrible place and
don’t go to Ricky
now I do need later today so we’re not
going to have a little last minute
little bit we hope well sorry about that
shaky signal down in Juma but at least
you’ve got some good action here and
well done to Tristan for getting you at
least a glimpse of that Leopard
it seems like they’re slowly making
their way through the thick hide of this
wildebeest but they certainly are
finding it harder than any of the other
young wildebeest that I’ve seen them
snack on the hyena is still waiting
patiently on the outskirts and all
you’ve missed is a few little squabbles
between this coalition and I’m hoping
that all the squabbling we’re seeing
isn’t the beginning of the end of this
coalition it’s not uncommon for
coalition’s to join up for periods of
time and then obviously as relationships
either
I guess dwindle they can then split up
and go off on their own in smaller
groups so that may happen and again
further reason for us to really be
gracious that we get to see this mini
cheetah together it’s not the norm and
to see such efficient killing again as
neither is not normal either
now you’re here possibly quite a few
vehicles starting up people are heading
back towards their respective camps yet
we do not have two we are here the whole
night so fear not we are not going
anywhere and again very very fortunate
that we’ve got special privileges to be
out after dark
hello again a Russian II good to have
you on safari again you would like to
know how long after this chase would
they need to cool off while it doesn’t
look like they need to cool off at all
they’ve gone straight from the chase it
was a short chase there you know as far
as cheats ago they can have to chase
things for far longer than it did in
this situation I would say that was
probably only about a hundred meters or
so that it had to run it’s a very cool
evening and as you can see all of them
have taken no time to get their breath
or cool off and I’m actually told it’s
more of a a kind of old wives tale that
cheats I need to cool off I mean of
course they need to catch their breath
but they don’t run the risk of
overheating which i think is quite a why
do deserts a recent document that I read
it’s a bit of a misnomer that’s not the
case their body temperature doesn’t
really rocket to the point that they’re
going to self combust they’ll obviously
be out of breath and possibly a little
bit tired but they don’t need to cool
down as much as a lot of us believed was
the case
okay well it’s turning out to be a big
cat evening from a glimpse of a leopard
on Juma – these five cheetah and now
across to James with some line yes some
lines indeed and astoundingly with some
signal and not far from the villa beast
herd now this is a mating pair from the
Salt Lick pride and we know they’re
mating because we have them
well we’ve seen them mating basically
and I think that she looks relatively
hungry and she’s just perked up and the
rest of the pride is the other side of
this sort of marshy spot and I don’t
think there’ll be any signal near them
so I think what we’re going to do is
wait and see if she doesn’t go hunting
often with a mating pair the female will
go hunting you know it’s exhausting work
mating as a lion many many times a day
it must be done you can see the male
completely exhausted and she well she
looks a little bit like she could do eat
something before the new mating
commences so I think we’ll sit with
these two and wait and see what happens
there are two large groupings of
wildebeest around here one to the left
of your screen and one the one we were
with is just sort of behind us and so
rather like Scott was waiting with the
Cheetahs during the day we are going to
work with these lions for a while at the
night and see what happens we’ll give
them a little while before we try the
rest of the pride but having seen where
they are I think that they’re just not
going to be able to give us any workable
signal she’s looking up towards them I
wonder
listen carefully to see if there aren’t
some alarm calls they’re a long way from
here probably about 300 meters also
about a thousand feet which you might be
listening to see if there isn’t signs or
sounds of a kill because she’ll quite
happily scavenge from the family since
the night just starting to fall what an
astounding day yeah you’ve had there
with those cheat isn’t it amazing once
they decide that they’re going to hunt
they heard of all the best it’s almost
certain that they will keep kill hello
love hello darling what’s for dinner how
I got nothing it Oh Ricci you say when
there’s a mating pair to the other lions
move off in order to give the lovers
some space
Ricci I don’t think it’s anything quite
like that no I think what happens is
that these two become so preoccupied
with each other with each other that the
others just kind of get on with the rest
of their lives and he’ll sometimes try
and separate her from the rest of the
pride you know you’ll kind of block her
way and then I suppose by default they
do become separated often not very far
away from the rest of the pride and
she’s looking straight towards them now
and in fact she’s looking at a Jekyll
there’s a Jekyll off to the left there
can you see it there money I’m not sure
you see it way oh no no no much further
left you’d be clearing behind us they’re
in there somewhere there’s little pair
of jackals and that’s what she’s looking
at there you go well spotted and there’s
a there is actually a carcass there an
old carcass that is this milling very
high indeed and that’s what the Jackals
eating lion is licking her chops but I
don’t think the chances the chances of
her catching Jekyll for dinner
well highly unlikely here we are looking
at chops I definitely think she’s quite
peckish he’s watching these little
jackals now they’re jackals are very
fast so they would be able to escape
from her almost always
although lions do take their toll we
know of course that horrendous scene we
saw with Brent win at Juma when the
Lions got hold of a wild dog pup
dreadful dreadful stuff so they do take
their toll on the cane it’s out here
right now either this is it prelude to
more mating or perhaps it’ll be a
prelude to hunting we’re just putting on
the infrared now it’s getting of a doc
so things are going to go from a vibrant
Technicolor to black and white
I’m not sure while she’s licking her
lips quite so enthusiastically she looks
like she might be sick actually well
that’ll make a different picture after
that now that is the thinnest belly I
have seen on a lion and during this
migration season and I think this line
is about to have a bomb yeah that’s
disgusting oh goodness here it comes
he’s not fertile from the slightest I
sitting in know what’s going to happen
here
under the IR light on yes they are is
thick is the IR filter on lose it on
full auto yeah it is quite dark there I
must say anyway let’s reverse back a
little bit
they’re going to mate here we go I must
tell you the smell there aren’t here
it’s not that of a kind of them there’s
no romantic smell around here it smells
like rotting meat and lion dung which is
quite the worst smell in the world yeah
I think she’s hungry now I’m sure this
mating Malarkey’s holding her
fascination really at the moment and if
you can hear that low throaty growl no
go away she says I have a headache
I don’t now that is black we can see
nothing what’s happened
there we go romance in the dusk and
often you know them after territory like
that as the mating happens the male’s do
just to sort of assert themselves it
almost looks like they feel slightly
inadequate afterwards from the
aggressive response they receive so they
mark their territory to show how big and
tough their
office
I’m glad we got to see that
and what I think I might try and do is
speak on to the others just to see if
we’ve got signal I’m 90% sure we won’t
and so while I do that let’s hit across
to Scott and find out how his cheaters
well migration banquet is going well the
banquet has officially begun they have
managed to wake work their way through
the blazer of this Porgy new VM
could be the cheats are chattering to
one another
his turn a strange noise apologies and
VM quite hysterically said that the his
cheetah feed like silkworms and to be
honest I think it’s a great analogy
compared to a lot of the other
carnivores our chair how they eat the
cheats are very petite they don’t ever
get too dirty or bloody and much like a
silkworm nibbling on a leaf of a
mulberry tree kind of I thought it was
great now how much of this will they get
to feed on that for me is the begging
question also what’s boggling my mind is
that this hyena is clearly not much of a
team player if you just let out a few
howling whoops or they’re hysterical
laugh that would certainly get other
hyena in the area onboard and then be
able to override these cheats are very
easily like I said one single hyena has
managed to move these Qi drive these
cheats or offer kill before in all
fairness it wasn’t as fresh as this
there to really been feeding on it for
about half an hour most of it was
finished and I guess maybe by then they
worked out that it’s not worth the risk
of trying to keep the hyena at bay
the sky you know I guess there’s two
sides to the story because it knows that
if it does get all of this to itself
there’ll be lots of bits that the
cheetah cannot feed on so it’s probably
actually more than enough all it needs
to be is patience and little get a lot
of future that like I say the Cheetahs
little jaws were little silkworm jaws
will not be able to cope with something
that I’d also love to know about these
cheats and it will be possible to work
it out with a little bit of time and
effort
there’s which cheetah makes the most
kills we’ve seen definitely the collared
male he showed us a lot of he was the
kind of leader of the hunts when we
initially started spending time with him
but now it looks like we see he’s
drinking the blood there which is also
quite interesting I think they really
enjoy drinking but where they can when
they break open a vein or an artery they
just sit and lap up or the blood that
comes shooting out
we noticed when doing that on a
Thomson’s gazelle one of the two sisters
when they caught a Thomson’s gazelle a
couple of nights ago again that was a
cool made after dark hmm like growling
and squabbling I’m just gonna keep quiet
for a second it could intensify
now what will definitely be happening as
the minutes unfold is that the smell of
this carcass is going to be carried very
far very quickly with this howling wind
any hyena to the west of us is going to
know that there’s a fresh wildebeest up
for grabs so again I wonder how long it
may take for the whole clan come rushing
in it’ll be very interesting to see a
two or three more hyena coming to the
fray to see what these cheetah do
whether they stand together as a team or
if they just rely on one individual to
do all the dirty work
hello Jean you like to know if the
cheetah would prey on the hyena no it’s
highly highly unlikely and I’m fairly
certain the only hyena that would have
been killed by a cheetah will be small
Cubs or very young kind of six month old
hyena a fully grown hyena I don’t think
is a match for a cheetah
not even five of them to be honest
although it would be an interesting
match I’ve never heard of any documented
records of cheetah killing hyena
certainly it can happen the other way
around
and it definitely happens with lion and
leopard lion and leopard can quite
easily kill cheetah as a general rule
see it depends on the circumstances but
no I don’t think cheetah have it in them
to be able to attack and kill a hyena
certainly stand up to them where they
can try and chase them off but I don’t
think they have the strength to be able
to dispatch one
hello David you would like to know if
eating the stomach acids of this
wildebeest is dangerous for the cheetah
I guess there’s two answers to that
question one is that no it’s not
dangerous and they can eat it
the second option would be that it is
dangerous and they know not to eat it’s
basically I don’t think so because they
would know if it was and they wouldn’t
eat it
so I don’t think it’s something they
have to worry about another thing is
that they generally don’t feed on the
stomach content and the stomach acid
would only be within the bag of rumen
full of grass which is of no desire
which is of no desire
well the cheats will have no desire to
eat that so that will be removed at some
point in stage that it’s that bull it
was just the one that when you may have
seen that big bag there it’s just behind
the cheetah that’s lying down on the
left and that is would be fooled with
most of the stomach juices and acids so
they don’t feed on that other animals
may break it open and eat that stomach
lining but leave the rumen the content
the cod that the wildebeest would have
been chewing on but I’ve never heard of
any animals having problems from feeding
on this I guess their digestive systems
along with everything else is probably
far tougher than ours as humans
all these cheats that have been very
very fortunate in that more hyena have
not coming to the fray
are we on infrared now VM not quite okay
hello carpool you would like to know
what drinking it does for the Predators
it makes their life easy blood as it
changes yes yeah they come Oh No coming
barreling in the cheetah are lucky then
I guess the hyenas two-degree as well
and still has this all to itself with
leftovers so cool the benefits are its
high huh it’s very very high in protein
and it doesn’t need to be chewed so it’s
a great source of minerals nutrients
protein basically in the form of a
smoothie I guess if you could equates it
to something that us humans are enjoying
at the moment smoothies are kind of
quite the rage
you see that is really interesting they
they obviously saw those three warthog
and just went bolting off rather than
taking a chance all you see that
lightning in the background
it’s all happening here keep scanning
around please movie I just want to make
sure it was just the warthogs nothing
else to be seen no Lions their senses
are far better than ours
check whether cheats are sorry buddy
surely they haven’t kept it no this is
bizarre
crazy they are looking back now come on
guys that was the biggest false alarm
ever it’s three warthogs that are
approaching and the hyena or say even
ran away from the warthogs maybe these
are they’re not very well known about
killer warthogs of Kenya carnivorous
warthogs because it sent one hyena
packing and five male cheetah off into
the distance well I’m torn as to what to
do I guess you might have to stay with
the cheetah cuz that was our plan
initially and no guys I’m just gonna
reverse of its just to really open up
the scene for them just so that there’s
nothing here
really really strange I was kind of you
know considering where they ran off I
guess the vehicle would have been a bit
of a barrier that they wouldn’t have
been certain of anything hiding behind
so let’s just stop here have another
look at the cheats appears vm yeah i
scrapped that out in case the cheats are
do come because i all go and then then
we done for the evening i just want to
see if they’re thinking of coming back
know that I’ve pinned up these years
well I guess the wind the darkness vm’s
using a very very fancy camera with the
ridiculous lens on it so it’s making it
look like it’s 5:30 on a cloudy
afternoon but the Sun sits just about an
hour ago or at least half an hour ago
and it’s far far darker in real life
okay let’s have once quiz it seems like
they are not going to be hanging around
which means we need to stick with them
but I just want to see if the hyena has
cashed in yet they did quite well I mean
they’ve got a decent chunk of that rule
to beast into their bellies
okay well Papa’s are very interesting
and again what an absolute privilege and
oppression pressure to share that all of
you the joys of the unknown Safari live
Safari action just I can’t get enough of
and I’m loving having you guys alongside
[Music]
okay have you got them there VM well
done
very to ash Trish
so what I’m doing is I Drive with my
headlights on obviously so I can see the
road and then what my goal is is to get
the cheater parallel to us so that I’m
not shining the lights on them has
removed therefore they are snooping
about essentially just with the vehicle
tagging along adjacent to them it seems
like they have calmed down as would I
after having had a big wildebeest snack
that they absolutely wolf down and again
I’m just gonna park on the side of them
that allows them to still look back in
the direction of that kill they may
decide to go back there once the initial
fright wears off well who knows maybe
they’re gonna hit off and claimed
another canoe to fool the gaps that they
hadn’t quite got two years
yes as Becks cleverly puts it though
just having a light starter and the
evening is only just beginning
okay I think we will not be in their
view yeah
okay Turtledove you would like to know
if the ma the Mara cheetah are any
bigger than cheetah elsewhere in Africa
and I’m not sure I don’t have the
faintest idea your reason for asking is
because there’s more prey around yes
there is but not always the migration is
not always here it’s here for two or
three months of the year when your
average pride or coalition or predator
will be able to cash in on its the other
nine months of the year can be quite
bleak in the Mara relatively speaking
and because some areas have such good
rain and such long grass the lions
cheetahs leopards in those habitats or
in those areas don’t have nearly as much
food it’s too swampy a lot of the food
moves outside of the reserve and the
triangle into the surrounding
conservancies I’m told so it’s not
always a time of Plenty and I’ve heard
that some of the prides of lions in
outside of the migration so yes for
three months of the year it’s the place
to be if you’re a carnivore however
there are also some tricky months now
we’ve got a very cool toy called a FLIR
which is a heat sensitive camera
ie thermal-imaging camera and there we
go
isn’t it quite fascinating I love the
way their tails
there’s not too much heat traveling down
to the tip of that and a very very
useful toy to assist us in being able to
keep an eye on these animals and the
Lions and who knows whatever everything
else that moves around after dark
without impacting on what they get up to
so we’ve got two cameras mounted on top
of one another through some ingenious
Sofia live tech work and that’s
basically being built for the job and
the thermal camera sits on top of the
lowlights infrared camera
so wherever VM was pointing one camera
he’s pointing the other what would help
is if we could grow two more arms and
hands for him so that two hands could
control the focus and the zoom of the
bottom camera and the other two folk at
the hands could focus the thermal so
he’s doing some great multitasking look
where it’s just rolled over there’s
still a heat burner sorry you’ve gone
back onto the other camera whoops that’s
when they when they do roll over you can
see where they’ve been lying on the
ground I’m very very impressed by the
technology and it’s only gonna get
better and a technology that’s becoming
available to us is really going to open
up the doors to show you guys and learn
with you guys some fascinating
fascinating stuff that people don’t
actually know about up until now people
haven’t been able to spend time with
animals like these without interfering
in their business after dark if you’re
shining a big spotlight surround of
course you’re creating a huge amounts of
attention to the predator you are the
blinding the prey so as a general rule
the less lights after dark the better
well well done guys you had a very
successful evening hunting
I commend whichever one of you did that
incredible tackle and persisted in
taking down that wildebeest after
initially missing it I thought I was
gonna give up John you would like to
know if this coalition will break up
after the migration passes through it
could well but I think it’ll be through
defaults I guess it could be spearheaded
by the fact that there’s less food
therefore more quarreling at mealtimes I
guess it could be a contributing factor
to them breaking up but there’s no ways
of being certs and all that knows that
they joke they we don’t know when they
join together but they came into the
area they started being noticed by the
researchers only in December so very
very recently
d’Artagnan the individual with the
collar I think was only collared in
January or February so I was putting my
hand over my lapel my little microphone
there second Jimmy
so yes d’Artagnan this individual was
collared in February so I mean it’s all
very very new and this coalition to the
area to the researchers and we’re not
entirely certain what the future holds
for them what I do know is that as long
as they stay together we are gonna get
spoiled with some crazy crazy action
I wonder if we shouldn’t rush back to
that caucus and see what’s happening
there because we should be able to keep
an eye on them hmm
I’ll just answer take cares question and
then I’ll make up my mind and this any
of you would like to let me know what
you would like to do should we stay or
should we go I’m confident we’re not
gonna lose the cheetah in their current
states so now we back onto the FLIR the
thermal-imaging camera and you’d like to
know why the ears are showing up hotter
than the rest of the body and I guess
it’s the inside of the ears it’s not the
outside of the ear so you see the
outside of the year which we’ll be
looking at now is warm it’s probably
because it doesn’t have too much fear
but it’s the inside of the ear the white
is the hottest color oh oh there’s that
there’s the little hot touch on the
ground I was talking about that gets me
so excited cool well it looks like the
cheetah are going to escort us back
towards the kill let’s go and see what
happens I’m just gonna follow from a
from a generous distance behind then the
reason being is that the vehicle noise
is going to have an impact on how
they’re feeling on any noises warnings
so it’s very important that I just keep
back a little bit so to not muffle any
important sounds that they may be
listening to
okay where they’ve been
cool thank you so they’re all hitting
back
in that direction
very very interesting you would think
they would have just not run so far away
initially are they actually even gonna
go that can have a look stuff again I
just want to let them have a chance to
listen and make sure they know what
they’re doing
so the scan has all of the thermal I’m
sorry guys I’m told that every now and
then the picture drops that’s just to
keep you guys on the edge of your seats
only kidding
we’re in a very low-lying area and
obviously the signal is not great yeah
but the action is so it’s a small price
to pay
there we go VM has found the carcass and
the hyena seems to be tucking in let’s
try and use the thermal that’s working
marvelously the thermal camera the FLIR
no we are far far away I’m guessing like
500 meters 400 meters so it gives you an
idea of how effective this machine is
well you enjoy your snack there hyena
the cheats are all looking on kind of
wondering what to do next
wonderful well how interesting and how
lucky are we to see this action they’re
just interesting behavior the fact that
you know if they can obviously see that
far because they confidence and that
they’re looking at something whether
they can work off what exactly it is I’m
not entirely certain but well I can
assure you is that that hyena is having
a great great time stumbled upon an easy
meal of which there are lots in the Mara
at the moment and it seems like
everything is coming to a not a grinding
halt but a slowing down to a leisurely
pace just at the right time because it
is about to say it is about time to say
goodbye I’ll get there eventually it’s a
but it’s about to say goodbye to all of
you and thank you for joining in on
what’s being an epic epic Safari well
done to Tristan on of all his
contributions as well as James and thank
you very much to Bex in the final
control well done on another epic Safari
we will see you all in the morning
no worries Becks
were played thank y’all
very good very good now the catches what
the hell do we do how much longer do we
invest with these things
we’re here now we’ve got you you’ll
spend the nights and
[Music]
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