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this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and carcasses viewer discretion is
advised
welcome to another sunny day in South
Africa we are now in the area where the
hockey Murray oh look at him oh he’s
beautiful
the hooker Murray male leopard is we’ve
just spotted him now behind the tree
there’s a tiny little bit of food left
behind you can see him in the dappled
light there a beautiful big male leopard
this is my first time what my second
time seeing him I saw him on foot this
morning and he’s the new the new boy in
the western sections of of Juma and
pushing ting Garnett further to the east
see where he’s off to him I head off for
a drink it is nice and warm about 27
degrees Celsius 80 Fahrenheit so not
blistering by any means but definitely
warm Aki is gonna lie down this move a
little bit remember this is a hundred
percent live and what a wonderful way to
start the afternoon Safari so while I
try get you a better view of oh c’mon
let’s go across the meadow makayley well
I can’t tell you how excited Breen has
been all day long trying to find what
he’s been bragging about it all morning
how he’s going to get morning my name is
Taylor mccurdy and on camera with me is
David we’ve got some crazy squirrels
going up and down the street it’s you
figured I come out I doubt it though
because they like to hide away but
they’re up in this what have we got
not for now it’s black monkey orange and
there’s some nice cavities there
hopefully they’ll come back out again
perfect habitat for squirrels in fact
and they’re quite entertaining at the
moment because when we do find them
normally they’ve got big marilla nuts
running around in their mouths stashing
them away in preparation for the dry
times that are ahead because winters on
its way how cool is that now if you
haven’t joined us on a safari before
it’s good to have you on board remember
you can chat to all of us you can
hashtag Safari live on Twitter or you
can talk to us via the YouTube chat I
think I may be a bit closer to this tree
they don’t trust us hey David I wouldn’t
trust me either if I was an animal off
we go so our plans this afternoon are to
try and find it which is a female liquid
that Steve had this morning on the
Safari so that’s what we’re gonna do
we’re gonna have a little scrounge
around and see if we can pick up on
where she’s gone to we have already
checked Gallagher pan thinking and it’s
a hot day she did have a meal she’s
probably going to one to have a drink
but sadly no luck
what we will do though is go down to the
original spot where she was and see if
she’s maybe just somewhere around there
right off you go those two brains who
already has a leopard it’s always very
exciting to see a leopard you’ve never
seen before and particularly a new male
with all the sort of dynamics that
change and he is really really beautiful
he is very fat and happy at the end and
can see eyes closed and he’s lucky it’s
not too hot today now of course I’ve
been gone for so long I don’t know too
much about the whole camera so if
anyone’s got some information for me it
was apparently it’s a Miss ID he’s not
from the hooker Murray in Ottawa he
could be from somewhere else so if
anyone’s got some information about the
hooker more email it but for me I would
love to have it
hashtag Safari live it would be great to
see if you guys know a bit of his
history and where he’s from
and I nearly forgot to tell you I had oh
it’s the boys from the borough on Drive
today so sends I owe myself for both
from the same small town were born in
the same small town in the kwazulu-natal
Midlands so nice to be back on the
vehicle with sense
and I said look like a could format what
we could see or could who or big in
yalla difficult to say actually and
there’s a tiny bit of meat up in the
tree there was nothing left now there’s
some more on the ground but I think the
majority of the caucus was stolen by
hyenas at some point early this morning
is that the piece of meat
yes well spotted their sins there’s a
piece of meat in the grass there
you can see how well his camouflage
works in the shade like that how those
rosettes break up his outline and make
them that’s what makes them one of the
more difficult animals to find often but
here on Duma we are very lucky with the
amount of leopards we see now since I’ve
just seen how koumori and a workout
could be how many leopards I’ve seen on
a Juma in my time with Safari live now
of course the Queen
Garuda I heard two boys quarantine and
kanuma so I mean was it kuru their
quarantine kanuma in Villa ting Ghana
shadow I’m not gonna count I suppose I
should count the Cubs and and and and
that have died no may be honest I can’t
be comforted that’s a bit morbid so ones
that have made it to adulthood so a
shadow and Salah Heche qua Tila Ingrid
dam which is now du Loup in cheela and
that’s ten obviously yeah
Sanne and Sangeeta
twelve tumba Tandi gajima
keep going and it must be more I don’t
have to wait cause I was gonna take 116
already and I know I’m missing quite a
few we had some leopard sightings and
little just popped in and out so while I
try to figure that out let’s go back
across to steep to see what his plans
are for the afternoon
good afternoon a German how I hope you
all having a wonderful morning or
afternoon wherever it is you may be
welcome my name is steve falcon rich i’m
joined again by mr. Sibal um be on
camera now we are coming out to
something and we are hoping to see if we
can follow up on any activity of those
Buffalo from this morning but while
we’re doing that we also checking on the
dams who knows what might come in and
out definitely on a day like this it’s
warmed up a bit from this morning we
could have animal movements lots of
elephant tracks around so lucky that
bread’s has managed to find the hookah
moody again all the hard work that the
bush walk team put in this morning is
paying off and I’m sure he told you to
send your questions and comments through
the hashtag so far alive and follow us
on the YouTube stream let us know what
you’d like this afternoon we’re going to
quickly check the dams maybe some lions
had decided to follow those buffaloes in
that could be cool and then barring that
we’re gonna go over to Chitra and see
what’s happening that time so jump on
board fasten your seat belts get your
popcorn and snacks ready let’s have a
fantastic afternoon drive I’m super
excited
Seb is on camera with me as I said in
his super excited he hasn’t been with me
in a few days already said be missing
him so maybe it’ll be a day that hisana
the little prince will the little chief
leopard decides to show himself again
because you all know out there how much
she likes seven myself and he hasn’t had
a cameo for a couple of days I’m sure he
is feeling a little bit left out of the
story with the shadaloo female filling
up the that the air time for the last
two three drives yes yesterday morning
yesterday evening and this morning so
she has definitely taken some of her
saunas airtime and they’re giving Tandy
a little bit of respite so once we check
treehouse dam we’re gonna zoom around
across to our eastern side and see
what’s happening in it happening at
Buffalo and obviously on the way see
with those Buffalo of gone okay so while
we go in search of the water and these
animals this go back to Brent Leo Smith
and they’re very very dangerous looking
who can what
well here we go he’s not looking too
dangerous at the moment is not facing us
it’s just panting heavily and digesting
so our exercise it’s about 27 different
leopards in my time at DeMuth now of
course that’s not really counting the
ones from cheetah planes and chitwa
chitwa and and around us just purely
seen on Juma so quite a few not very
many places in the world can boast in
about two years 27 different adult
methods and I didn’t include a lot of
the Cubs that didn’t make it to
adulthood so I think with those who
could be close to 30
Kathy is wondering has Herkimer
officially taken over Tinga on this
territory not all of it so I would say
her Maria’s doing almost exactly what
Kangana did many moons away many moons
ago he took over the western sections of
villas territory and then and then
Buller moved further to the east and
that’s what’s happening to turn Ghana
now from what chatting to everyone here
it seems like he will go as far as sort
of quarantine maybe as far as the
maratti but for the moment he tends to
be on the south western sections and and
anton ghana still holds most of the
eastern sections now of course that can
change and it all depends on condition
of 10 ghana condition of a Komori it
does another new male come in so this is
quite an interesting time to be watching
the leopards here on Juma because there
is going to be a little bit of upheaval
now of course with her camera moving
into the western sections that has moved
Tandy and cub quite a lot further to the
east and spending quite a lot of time
and Torchwood and what buffle took and I
think well but it all depends if it’s
Andes cab doesn’t make it to adulthood
she will move right back into this area
and happily mate with her koumori and
Jen garner for that matter but up until
that sort of little leopard gets to 16
months 17 months oh maybe a little bit
younger and she’s gonna try avoid her
camera at all costs
oh it seems like what is up is just
turning around to try to find a bit more
comfortable spot because of the heat but
in the meantime it sounds like Steve’s
search of the water horse is paying off
let’s go see what’s about to go for a
swim or drink
thanks brain so we found this young
elephant bull very close to treehouse
Dam not drinking not doing anything too
close to the water but busy feeding be
quite selective of what he feeds on and
he is primarily picking very nice juicy
grasses that are growing off of that
termite map as he slowly disappears
behind it let’s see if we can just move
a few meters forward get him on the
other side he thinks he can hide from us
trying to pull a hookah Maureen with the
termite mounds those of you have been
watching the show notice how KooKoo
Marie really enjoys we got a mare Seb
there we go
so what we do now I mean hookah Mori
likes her too much man she likes to to
find the war talk and get them out of
their burrows but what we do know is the
termites recycle all the nutrients into
the soil and so whatever grows on a
tumor and is generally got a higher
nutrient value then stuff growing around
it and you’ll often find the browsed
vegetation on the termite mound is
always a little bit more then around it
because there’s a few more nutrients and
elephants are smart enough to know that
not that it’s that important this time
of year because there’s nutrients all
over the place there is busy digging in
amongst what looks like a white raisin
one of the grievious species digging in
with his trike trying to pick whatever
grasses might be growing underneath he’s
gonna come around fresh folks there he
is
hello beautiful very easy to see that
it’s a young elephant bull straight away
because you find him on his own you
wouldn’t find a young female on her own
if you did it would be a bit unusual but
I’ve been trying to get him to turn to
see his right yeah because we saw a very
nice bull the other day with her idea
who is playing lots and lots of games of
us and still haven’t seen his right ear
he’s trying to hide it from us but he’s
not behaving the same way as that bull
turd that bull was trumpeting and
running and being very sneaky yep and
that’s the way it the cookie crumbles
and we have lost sight of this beautiful
infant ball but no worry our search
continues treehouse damn there’s not too
much going on so yes Jason Jason can’t
believe how big they are
well Jason that’s quite a small a small
guy actually to get twice as big as that
when you see a a proper elephant bull
one of the big Tuskers you are really
truly mind blown at the size of them I
mean they can get up to 6,000 kilograms
so that’s about 13,000 pounds when I was
in the 1d National Park a few years ago
they I’m having an aptitude hash of a
turn around here I do apologize I
reversed into a bush that had very sharp
spines in it and I’m you know sips my
good friend I don’t want to injure him
but today hey Debbie and I was in the
one day National Park 2 years ago with
African parks they were doing some
translocations of the elephants there
Prince Harry was there and each elephant
that was picked up so their data they
were moving it from luanda up to and
code to code so park for the north where
the poaching has decimated the the
elephant in the north and now African
parks is they’re managing and really
really sorting out everything that’s
going on so they were going to move 500
elephants in two years so they’ve moved
about 280 something in the first year
and an hour’s there during that period
and I was fortunate to be involved with
the removal of nine the family herd of
nine but they were weighing every
elephant that went on because the crane
that picked the elephant up had a big
scale on it and the one elephant bull
weighed six thousand eight hundred
kilograms that’s just incredible it’s
incredible size and he wasn’t even the
biggest bull that they’d seen in the
reserve so I think a lot of what we
think of with regards to elephant weight
is is a guess because they did used to
to cull elephants back in the park in
the Kruger back in the day but I doubt
they actually had the mechanisms to
weigh what those elephants weighed it’s
possible they just calculated what they
got out of it effort at the abattoir so
to speak but 6,800 is an enormous
enormous elephant kilograms so if you
just times that by 2.2 I think that is
ridiculous Beck says can you see
guru over there Ravindra wants to know
but if elephants have six layers of skin
Reuven dad don’t know about six layers
and now they’ve got an outer sort of
sort of the the the hide layer then
there’s a lot of fatty muscle tissue
inside but I really have no idea the
number of layers I know that this
estimated to be about a hundred thousand
muscles in the elephant’s trunk which
allows you to turn the trunk right left
at the end look up towards the mouth and
also that typical sort of trumpet lifts
up in front of it and also each of the
valves are able to work independently so
they can have the trumpets or suck of
water you’re just losing sight of a
little of a female kudu they I think you
know is that a young male young male
just with the little horns and another
one is coming in from the back they’re
absolutely fantastic how we can get kudu
in this environment and they are so
invisible the one that wasn’t that
invisible was the one that hukum Orion
as hyena have decimated and Brent if you
were watching this morning offered me up
some liver which was awesome not really
but let’s go back over to Brent at the
jokester and see what is happening to do
with mr. CooCoo Murray
yes it was quite funny to try to get
Steve to eat some liver I’m just moving
because he was look like he was about to
go up the tree but he is up their ears
now he’s not as relaxed as some of the
leopards we get here so he’s by no means
unrelaxed but I just don’t like moving
too much or too quickly around him I
think he might be going for a drink
Elizabeth is wondering how does Hawk
Marie’s size compared to other dominant
males and now that I can see him up a
little bit and on the move he’s a he’s a
good good sized male leopard you
probably a little bit smaller than 10
gana Winton ghana’s at his prime but
often that doesn’t mean anything cause
if you look at him bulla bulla was
actually very small for a dominant male
leopard but often it’s not the size of
the cat but the size of the fight in the
cat and as I said I think he’s heading
down to have a drink so what I’m going
to do I just want to make sure where
he’s going is he does have some meat
stashed down here as well and that was
the original meat we found as I said I
don’t want to pressure him too much and
I say I don’t know this leopard as well
as I know the other leopards so I’m
gonna give him a fair bit of distance
and respect I don’t want him to become
as relaxed as tungare and the other
other big males we get in this area so
we don’t want to put too much pressure
on him so we’re just keeping our
distance while he’s moving when he lies
down or or what not then we’ll stop a
fair distance away so I’m hoping he’s
going to go climb up that fallen I think
it was a fallen nabh4 and if I remember
correctly where that’s where I got
Steve’s liver from this morning was
around here so this is what happens does
it look like he caught the kudu drinking
at a pan oh it’s gonna be nice light get
ready with your screen shots
I found something in the grass there I’m
sure that as I said is there’s lots of
bits of meat spread out over quite a
distance
isn’t that beautiful and then afternoon
light now guide monkey says what I was
asking a question is it is it fair to
say that predator territories are more
about sort of avoiding or finding the
the least confrontation for the best
territory rather than over resources I
would say that plays a part of it but I
would say a resource and female
availability is what drives predator
territories specifically when it comes
to to the big cats so where you’ve got
an area that’s resource rich you’ve got
a lot of females and a male leopard a
male lion they sort of driving driving
force is to mate and make sure that
their genes get passed on so he’s gonna
have a drink let me just zoom around
quick you know that Lee’s got some space
so this is actually where he killed the
kudu and I’m just gonna try get to the
other side
macaques gonna go find a shady spot to
have a drink oh hold on we’re nearly
there
it’s just have a quick safety shot from
here and let me just see there we go ice
when the trial go very slowly as I said
he’s not quite as relaxed as mr. t and
KY all guys get ready this is going to
be gorgeous look at that face now we’ve
got a nice frontal view of him to know
she’s wondering how do we identify the
different leopards
now of course when you spend a lot of
time with them you get to know them
individually and you can see body shape
size all that type of stuff but the best
way with new leopards is this spot
pattern above the last line of whiskers
so you can see there that last line of
whiskies he’s got three prominent spots
above it so each of those each leopard
has a spot pattern that’s like a
fingerprint
well that nice scar nope he’s got a
character and scar down and just below
his left eye he’s a thirsty boy has
perfect spot where he killed this so
from what it looked like is he actually
caught the animal drinking and then
dragged it away from the water’s edge
and being a big kudu it was too big for
him to hoist and then behind has made
off with some pieces of it he made off
with other pieces of it the little
pieces he did make off with he’s managed
to to hoist into spots and I’m sure the
hyenas are still probably snoozing not
too far away hoping to try get whatever
is left the ultimate object opportunists
my niece wondering why would the hyena
leave when there’s still food there
well Monique what I’m saying is that
they haven’t left there’ll be while it’s
hot they’ll be doing the exact same as
him and you’ll probably find behind is
actually made off with a fair fair
amount of the carcass from what we could
see from the tracks and they will be
some hyenas still in the area but they
also struggle with heat so there
probably is snoozing in the shade
somewhere and as it gets cooler they’ll
probably come back for an expansion
expect another inspection see if he’s
dropped some meat or if he’s abandoned
some of the bones that are too big for
him to crash
the tails wondering will Herkimer is
julep get large as he gets older for
those of you don’t know what a Jew lapis
it’s that little thick loose skin under
his neck now in methods it’s there and
particularly in the male’s it can be
quite pronounced and that thick loose
skin helps protect them when they’re
fighting with other leopards now
probably it will get larger I’m not sure
how old he is and looking at looking at
him I would say and this is a complete
guest you guys are welcome to correct me
and just generally looking at him I’d
say he’s about 7 6 or 7 years old maybe
even as old as 8 maybe a bit younger I’m
not sure I’d say it’s 6 7 years old
actually hear him lapping up the water
so
and one of the reasons I can’t get at
this time of the day he’s probably been
snoozing for the majority of the day
there’s a very good chance especially as
you get some spots coming down just
after three o’clock the afternoon and
they might be coming down for a drink
he has not disappointed
oh he’s heard something did uh you know
Oh
I think there’s a hyena I think there’s
a hyena that’s gone back towards his
food that’s what’s got him up and on the
movie all this big hole we don’t wanna
fall into that we from the tracks we saw
yeah he absolutely gave those hyenas as
good as he got I’ll try to show you that
Cersei is heading back to her words that
meters I said I don’t want to spook him
he should be about to appear in front of
us shortly there he is
okay
his body language change a little bit
maybe he just heard something and he was
just making sure that nothing was going
to try steal the remnants of his carcass
but when he goes flat again because of
donut these are running now oh it’s a
bat earlier a bat earlier was stealing
his food it wasn’t a hyena it was a bird
just took off as he ran towards the tree
again it’s just
have a quick look at because you might
even go up the tree to the battery I was
stealing that piece of meat from in the
tree and it looks like the battery I
might have knocked it down so let’s see
if he lets just wait here a little bit
see what he does a big boy oh he’s
beautiful so there was some pieces of
meat in the tree and there were some on
the ground it’s likely that vasilyev
might have dropped one of the pieces
onto the ground when it was disturbed by
the leopard running there and now Justin
told me to look at his tongue look at
his tongue it is so long silly looking
cat he might go back up the tree to
check we might just to flop down in the
shade there flop okay well while he
flops down I’m just gonna wait a little
bit to see what happens next while we do
that I know madam mccurdy is searching
for another leopard about 3 to 4
kilometers away from me we are we are
we’re not having much luck though but we
are getting closer to solving the
mystery and what we’ve been doing now is
we’ve basically gone bubbles of boundary
we’ve gone then down the northern part
of sandy patch via Taylor access back up
ovaries
we checked where she was no sign of her
all the way around now we’ve done
Gallagher and we’ve also done Gallagher
shortcuts but we haven’t had any luck
and I haven’t seen any tracks and where
we where she was sorry after net marula
tree it’s almost impossible to have seen
where she went and I didn’t ask on the
radio he was the last person with her
and Sawyer come down the tree and it was
yours fun before look and he then
responded and said as soon as she
dropped to the floor he couldn’t see
where she winked so we’ve been checking
around and around and around to see if
we can figure out where she’s gone I
would I
assume she’s going to go and get water
some way so it’s just trying to find the
pan that she’s gonna drink at maybe
she’s still in this block just to the
waste of us and to the north of us
pretty cool all right very quickly we’re
gonna go across to Steve yeah thanks
very much Taylor we we’re sitting here
with the group of little Peters and they
keep moving off so Seb has been trying
very hard to keep catching up with them
and there is another bird on the left
for the trees well called the ground
scraper thrush one of the nicest birds
archer and we’ve seen them quite
regularly lately very characteristic a
black stripe on the face sort of through
the eye from the eyebrow a very streaky
chest very easy to identify
thrushes versus robin chats which
frequent very similar sort of habitats
is if on the ground you see a bird of
that sort of size if it runs with its
head down and it stands up tall it’s
generally a thrush if it hops around the
same sort of size it’s probably a Robin
Jett so that is something you can do to
help you identify them in the
undergrowth if you don’t get the colors
very well you’ll know at least which
family to go to Robin chat or thrush and
here is the ground a scraper very pretty
bird and bee-eaters are all over the
place yeah in the open feeding on at the
back over there they are just up and
down and service finding it very
difficult to find them there it goes
another one the V eaters like to catch
insects on the wing and there we go
right to the screen said it’s gone
marvellous little he’s landed exactly
back there again
their practice of behavior known as
Hawking where they fly from one perch
and they grab an insect on the wing and
then they will land back on the same
branch and often use that branch itself
to smash the insects on the branch if
it’s a bee helped to remove the sting or
if it is some form of hard shelled
insect use the branch to sort of break
the carapace
open so that the juices can go inside
and get eaten yes joy bee-eaters are so
so pretty we’re very blessed to have
quite a few species down here always
enjoy showing the beat it’s probably one
of the prettiest families out there and
this is the littlest and the most sort
of I think overlooked we do see they
don’t normally Akuma in such large
numbers they are here all year round so
we notice when the Europeans arrived
sometimes when the car mines arrive
they’re very sort of noticeable and the
beach has been quite small seem to just
slip the notice of most people whether
you want to know which Park we’re we’re
and we’re in Juma private night reserve
in the sabi sands greater Kruger
National Park on this sort of
northeastern side of South Africa I hope
that helps the sabi sands as world
renowned for game viewing and for
leopards as you’ve seen with Okamura so
we are now on our eastern boundary with
torture it we’re going to drive up this
road keeping our eyes peeled for any
tracks of tündi and also trying to see
where these Buffalo might have gotten to
on our way up to zero out would like to
know how far apart the guides are from
each other that I will show you on our
fantastic map that Gerry provided she
works in production here we are over
here at the moment we’re about here on
our eastern boundary and where is Brent
is over there so how far is that
probably about two and a half to three
kilometres and Taylor has been working
up in this section over here I’m not
sure exactly where she is now but this
is where we had the shadaloo female this
morning and so she’s checked this whole
area now not sure where she’s going to
go to so we’re on the complete eastern
boundary over here we’re gonna go all
the way up here see if there’s any
activity of Tandy and their cub coming
in while not we’re in the area and also
the Buffalo are probably in this area so
we’ll see if we can find them they
haven’t come to Twin dams or treehouse
it’s possible they might have gone up to
above a sock Dam and what we do know
about the Buffalo is that the lion
prides in the area they like
to follow the Buffalo and also that
young man that little chief leopard or
sauna when he smells a buffalo he likes
to follow them as squat and who is with
Scott and walk the other day was a Jew
said I think it might have been Dave
it’s always David never animals run in
charge it’s always Dave but Scott and
Dave are on foot and they heard the
Buffalo Stampede and they thought it was
the lions chasing them but it was the
little prince
the little chief hasana a two-year-old
male leopard who’s got the most
character in the world and he was all
sis last seen in this sort of area so
who knows where and what we might find
and remember folks everything is
absolutely live coming to in real time
from Juma okay so we’re going to go back
over to Brent with the new and
established Rainer of Juma let’s go back
to Brendan with Waka moody he’s looking
quite comfortable in the grass over the
essay I said I wanted to show you some
tracks a little bit earlier I said I
think that’s what we’re gonna do while
he’s flat cat in the grass making sure
the battle ears don’t come back to steal
his meat let’s go have a quick look at
these incredible tracks so that’s how we
knew something was up when we arrived
when we found his tracks walking in from
the south from outside of Juma so he
came in last night or early this morning
and we saw the tracks going down the
road and then we followed them towards
the pan and then suddenly we saw where
he had been fighting with hyenas and
that’s when we knew something was up so
there’s an incredible spot where he’s
moved the mud that’s been sprayed around
by some elephants and you can see that
he is gripping into leap2a to chase the
hyenas
and it’s just done yet
now this pattern always brings back lots
of memories for me I had some in
credible sightings with Hassan and
shangilia in the rain yeah playing and
jumping up and down all over the trees
we’re probably about 70 or 80 meters
away from him now and I’m just trying to
find this track again
it was so clear this morning but now
that it’s dried out a bit it’s not not
quite as care in the harsh afternoon
lights but so what what looked like
happened in action is to see you can
actually have a look at but I think
happened is he stopped here for a wrist
and you can see where the grass is a
little bit flattened right next to us
yeah so I think he was lying there and
while he was lying here the poor
unsuspecting kudu came down for a drink
now he’s a little bit wider there since
to the left of tiny bit to the other
left so he was there behind that log and
the coot who came down on the opposite
side of that green grass to drink and
from what we could work out he lept
across and grabbed it around we’re just
beyond where that elephant dung is there
there we go and then from that little
corner there of the water where the kudu
was drinking he dragged it off to the
right to that thicket here we go and he
drags it into that thicket there and
then that’s where the hyenas found him
yeah unfortunately the track is not as
clear and I can’t really see where it is
it was so clear when we were on foot but
it’s one of those things
now all the little pieces of liver
including the one I tried to feed Steve
this morning are all gone they I’m sure
the bachelors and Tony eagles and other
well predatory birds and scavenging
birds came and cleaned up that crime
scene now of course when we were there
it was still quite early and a lot of
those birds had not found it yet so
that’s why we were able to see all the
little bits of blood and and all sorts
that were around
oh my god let’s go back into the leopard
so he found his tracks coming in from
that side down this road well hi Walt
waltz would like to know what happens to
a male leopard who uses his territory
well while it becomes a very difficult
time for that male leopard so male
leopards when they become independent
from mom and get pushed out of the area
by their the dominant males in the area
become nomadic and the same thing
happens at the end of a male leopard
side when he has pushed out of his
territory again they will become nomadic
and they tend to sort of try slip
between different male leopard other
male leopards territories a little bit
of long grass there but not too bad so
they’ll slip between different male
leopards territories and try avoid
conflict at all at all costs they still
will try and rob a lot of kills from
females and other young males so they do
move around a lot more than when they’re
territorial males and territorial males
do move around a lot but what they’re
doing is moving around and and and scent
marking and patrolling to make sure
there are no other threats coming into
their territory oh yeah that’s nice of
them to lift his head
and
belly full of kuru alpha well sloshing
with water after that big drink is a
very very tired kitty at the moment very
happy cat as well well are we gonna say
chair a little bit longer I’d like to go
to some of the water holes to see if
there’s any elephants around but in the
meantime let’s go see our Steve’s doing
somewhere else out there in the African
bush Thank You Brent we are doing
fantastically well
it is a lovely afternoon to be on Safari
after the cool conditions of this
morning it is a glorious afternoon hello
lady bird you want to know forget Robins
like the Robin we get in Europe the
red-breasted Robin called the Robin in
Europe let me show you quickly in my
very nice book over here
how many Robins we in fact have we have
got many many many Robins just give me a
moment I’m navigating apologize for the
delay no that is the wrong page sorry
folks
see that’s why I’d like to use my phone
the phone is far easier to use the phone
app give me just a moment so there are
lots of Robins and lots of Robin chats
as well and if I just type in here Robin
okay
scrub Robins Robin chats have a look at
the bird family see here we’ve got lots
of the scrub Robins I’m not sure if the
color is very good on the screen there
here we get bearded Robin beard a
scrubber Robin brown scrub Robin so
these all kind of Bush felts open
grasslands sort
of Savannah specialists and they are all
very very camouflaged and if I go to the
next page hang on there we go here we
get the more colorful a sort of more
woodland forest the top birds the white
Brad Robin chat the wife throats our
other chat caper up and chat and then
the red to capture of and chat over here
which is very very pretty and then over
here some very special ones which you
find mainly in forests and areas I
haven’t even seen it up in the top the
white star Robin very very spot forest
specialist I’ve never seen this
Winterton Robin I think that somewhere
else in in Africa and then that is it
for our Robins but I know in Europe even
Europeans have only got the one
Robin and I have very very territorial
and if you like to see them in your are
in the in Europe they would respond very
very well to that behavior I was doing
the other day that shh-shh-shh
they come and they get quite sort of
Tortola like who’s that who’s in my spot
and it’s awesome to see I really enjoyed
birding in the UK the birds are very
responsive to alarm calls especially in
the oak forests up there
Rob would like to look for some sunbirds
Rob I’d love to show you a sunbed I
don’t know why we don’t see that many I
mean for example the the white-bellied
sunbird is normally a very common bird
in other places I’ve worked as well as
the Mariko sunward around our camp we
get them they are there I don’t know why
on drives I haven’t been seen them but I
will look for a Sun bird for you the red
breasted or the scarlet breasted sun
bird is also very very beautiful haven’t
seen one here um I will make a very good
effort to find you some Sun birds but on
the topic of birds look at the feather I
found only moments before on the road
look at that this is the feather of a
lilac breasted roller and you see that
the colors are they are made up of
carotenoids and melanin and of the Blues
the dark blues is something they called
Tyndall scattering so essentially this
sort of air pockets within the the
feather cells and they reflect the light
in a certain way to give it that
beautiful color there’s no actual
pigment it has carotenoids and melanin
and melanin makes it nice and strong the
Afrikaans word for a roller is called
the croak bunt and for those of you who
don’t speak Afrikaans throw means to
Mary and a bunt is a band so essentially
by giving this to someone you are
committing yourself you could
essentially say would you marry me with
this feather and it is very very common
in culture African culture as well and
chief lobbing gula who was a head of the
in the Bailey’s one of the tribes that
you find in Zimbabwe
he banned any warrior to wear any a
feathers of the Lark Priscilla this was
his bird and if anybody was caught
wearing feathers of the lolly Priscilla
yep he was quite an interesting fella he
was a very very big man and very very
wealthy because he had a lot of his sort
of his his guys in the mining sections
of Africa at the time the gold and the
Diamonds the diamonds and Kimberley and
what he liked to do is a lot of his sort
of
is his people who worked in the the the
the big pit the Kimberly diamond mind
where the Cullinan diamond comes from
just by the way it was given by Cecil
John Rhodes to to the Queen and she
still has that in the crown jewels but
he used to like to cover himself in
honey and stick the Diamonds to his body
because he had many many diamonds
brought back to him from the mines from
his people and he likes to cover himself
in honey and stick them on me until one
day Cecil John Rhodes did him a very bad
did him a very bad deed and ended up
taking Zimbabwe from him by force back
in the day it’s quite an interesting
history Rhodesia it was caught
eventually Robin once know if guinea
fowl are related to Partridge I am Not
sure I mean what is the the genus hmm
there’s a partridge a gala form because
I think galliformes all our Franklin’s
we get share and I think the guinea fowl
also falls into sort of the family or
order of galliformes so if a partridge
does fall into that then yes they would
be related but I honestly don’t know a
lot about partridges apart from the fact
that they occur in a pear tree
is that right am I getting my my
Christmas songs mixed up thanks pecks
you said I am correct okay so yesterday
there was someone who’s very interested
in finding a mongoose track and I don’t
know said if you can get it just over my
shoulder there that’s not very clear
there’s some bird tracks let me jump out
and circle it someone yesterday wanted
to see a mongoose track here we go
actually I’m mistaken now that I look at
it it is a squirrel but here we have the
squirrel toast one two three four five
and a pair and here’s the back foot what
toes nails
who’s going that direction so not a
mongoose my apologies I did look at it
very briefly
I wonder who it was I’m forgetting
history someone wanted to see a mongoose
track we’re always on the lookout for
little checks like that maybe it will be
better on the bush walk okay so the
Taylors are tracking as well let’s go
over to her and see what updates she has
for you well we’re checking one last pan
of water and then we’re done trying to
find a leopard for part of the afternoon
however we’ve checked a variety of
different places where thought we’d find
all sorts of creatures and the only
thing that we have seen this afternoon
will do Johnny here the long list of
animals we’ve seen and birds in the
beginning we saw receive the water was
that the first animal all chunk also did
not want to be on camera twice we gave
at opportunities kept running away we
moved on we have seen two yellow-billed
hornbills fly across the road and one
Impala Ram I like a herd of Impala and
they won in pile around that is the
extent of our animal sightings this
afternoon they’re a little bit on the
quiet side but I do find that this sort
of northwestern corner can be a little
bit quiet other than the Empire hanging
around you don’t normally see much so I
think once we’ve checked this other pan
just off we’re Taylor access we’re gonna
go and look for perhaps some elephants
and I think I think we’ll go up towards
puffles of dam and we have a look around
there maybe we’ll even papa Sydney’s
things like that just see if we can see
any elephants in in the distance but but
it’s okay we’ll get there we’ve also
seen quite a few snake tracks so I’ve
been singing a snake song and I can’t
remember the words to it because I made
it up numb but hopefully we’re gonna see
a pattern here is shopping Phoenix
you’re wondering if there’s any honey
badgers yes there are any badges
they’re just very shy and the best time
to see them is actually early morning
late evenings as the Sun has gone down
here’s a watering hole Oh little
Terrapin gone in the murky waters
so so yeah so they do occur I haven’t
seen a honey badger for ages though we
often just see their footprints
unfortunate with the tall grass it makes
it difficult what we got from the water
today I can see little ripples here and
there one of their little boatman or
just riders skidding across the water
definitely some little midges or flies
of sorts is all black specks that you
can see on the top of the water
we are the swimming ones but not really
a smooth surface it’s kind of like when
you go ice-skating I’ll say this like
I’m a professional I’ve been ice-skating
a whole whole of once but you can see
when the ice gets sort of quite cut up
and it’s not as smooth to skate around
on I wonder if the water Striders and
boatman and things like that struggle to
move around when all that algae forms if
it’s not as easy for them just get
across but a bit difficult to see I
noticed most of these little pans also
getting all this alguna able to see the
water scorpions anyone know they’re like
that though the water scorpions will
enjoy that anything that ambushes as a
hunting technique let’s check those
snakes little pad nice spot a nice
patrulla trees big board beans for
liquids to sit up in I see bubbling
who’s making the bubbles no lots of
bubbles however they could also just be
me thank des pushing up if there’s any
vegetation that is well suppose
decomposing it will give them quite a
bit of that only there’s an African
pygmy hippopotamus in this puddle no
there’s a little Terrapin here though oh
yeah there we go who’s that you see that
someone’s skimming across the water
amazing
well we’ll also continue to keep
checking these muddy wallows for animals
I think the elephants will be heading to
them
Steve however is looking at some more
tracks yes I am thank you and I’ve found
for you the track I was looking for not
the exact track but we have got a track
of a rather large Mongoose and I’m going
to point it out to you if you can’t see
it you know the toes why
two three four and there’s the back pad
that is the one foot and here’s the
other foot I would assume this is the
back and that is the front and it is not
walking on what we call justify so it’s
not standing on mongooses don’t do that
not like cats and where the toes have
pushed forward because the claws you
could see the scuff in the sand and this
is the track of a white-tailed Mongoose
probably the largest mongoose we find in
the area and i heard someone talking
there about honey badgers we found
tracks of honey badgers a few days ago
but what’s very very interesting about
the whitetail mongoose is if you have a
look at the picture itself you can see
the whitetail and you can see the legs
are black the body is black underneath
now when the white cell mongoose is
threatened by a predator what often will
do is it’ll crouch down low will bend
the tail over its back onto its neck and
actually mimic a honey badger because as
we know archer honey badgers are very
very scary and have lots and lots of
sort of what’s the word lots of mouthful
of beans should I say and so an animal
will see the water mom who’s pretending
to be a honey badgers go home hang on
hang on hang on this is not exactly how
I’d like to pull out my evening and then
leave it alone and the white a mongoose
gets up gets away with it so isn’t that
marvelous so the track we can measure it
from there to there that’s about five
and a half centimeters long and
beautiful to be able to see these things
the marvelous thing about trekking is
that you can see animals that are in the
area that you don’t actually see so the
honey badger we got Rex aardvark we got
Rex well I tell Mongoose we put checks
we don’t see them but it’s a passive way
of knowing that animals are in the area
so a very nice way of understanding what
we have and a good way of identifying
animals and areas to clear areas like
this put some form of food down or bait
station and you can actually have animal
tracks coming through and you can
develop an idea it’s not a liquid butter
a species count of animals that you
might find in the area that are very
very seldom seen for example hiking in
Table Mountain I have found tracks of a
leopard never seen a little deer but I
found tracks which is really always very
very cool to know that you’re walking in
an area where you find dangerous cats
and the hikers in front
me didn’t even see them so that’s what I
love about trekking you can always see
what is around even though you don’t see
it okay so the arts of tracking is a
wonderful science let’s go over to Brent
Leo Smith and see what his views are on
the matter well how come where he is
very flat at the moment and almost even
chatting our tracking and the fact that
he saw record tracks on Table Mountain
I’ve seen their tracks in the Kirsten
Bush National Gardens on Table Mountain
as well so they are lipids around those
cape mountain methods however have
incredibly massive home ranges in
comparison to elected here male leopard
in the cederberg or in in those cape
mountains can have a territory of up to
200,000 hectares
so that is for sabi sands and that’s due
to lack of prey availability and that
also causes them to be a lot smaller and
much much smaller who can where he’s
probably 80 kilograms and a male leopard
in that in the cederberg and or than in
the cape mountains is probably only 35
to 40 kilograms so 50% in the weight and
that’s all to do with food availability
now my favorite thing I think about
tracking I don’t know there’s something
I’d to be honest he’s spotted something
how you know coming in no and just put
his head back down again he just jumped
popped his head up for a second there
but everything about tracking I just
love being out on foot
I love having close encounters with big
cats with elephants with with Rhino
Buffalo and it is quite exhilarating and
just to just absolutely adore it now one
other thing Steve was chatting about
Robins a bit earlier now for those of
you in the Europe and UK the closest
Robin to what you call robin redbreast
or whatnot
i’m hard to bring up my big
in terms of looks of course is a forest
Robin there’s quite a few different
color variations of forest Robins I’ve
been lucky enough seeing quite a lot of
them and I’ve seen them in Gabon I’ve
seen them in Congo so there we go the
forest Robbins is probably the closest
in terms of looks to the UK of robin
redbreast oh he’s down again and he’s
just getting hot and moving around so
they occur pretty much in the northern
Congo Basin forests if we have a look at
their distribution map they’re so very
very cool now I’m trying to decide now
whether to move along or sit with her
camera a bit longer so why don’t you
guys just make it easy for me and decide
for me so ash tags fire dive
should we stay or should we go up to you
I don’t think he’s gonna get after too
much but it is just incredibly pleasant
to sit next to a mess of male leopard
he’s it’s always lovely to see them
especially through the grass sometimes
some of my favorite views are leopards
are not way out in the open it’s sort of
views like that where you’ve got the
grass in front of him and so just a
leopard in its habitat a big boy
sheshank is wondering is there any
difference between Jaguars and leopards
yes quite a few they’re indeed a
separate species so that means they
cannot mate and produce viable offspring
and Oh flop a Jaguars is physically much
bigger than a leopard and often going
over 100 kilos where a male leopard of
100 kilos is is is almost unheard of
they’re also far more aquatic than
leopards leopards will swim if they have
to but they don’t really like getting
their feet wet weather is Jaguars will
hunt and swim and lion water to cool off
so of course they have once you’ve
called sort of parallel evolution and
there’s a they have evolved on the other
side of the world literally and the the
dappled markings and spots for
camouflage is a parallel a parallel
evolution there are positive there are
both part of the Panthera family so the
big cats family so they’re both able to
raw but yes yes so there’s quite a lot
of big differences between them it’s
tired kitty
sorry Becks could you go again with that
question that game drive radio is quite
loud
hi TV TVs wondering to what extent to
other lodges share information on
leopard sightings well it all depends on
your Traverse if the lodges traverse
over the same area there’s extensive
information shared there’s actually
whatsapp groups and that all the guides
in the sabi sands are part of so if the
leopard that no one knows arrives you
pop a picture on there and see if anyone
else knows that leopard so we do share
information extensively with the other
lodges of course the lodges that you
Traverse in in the same area you share
more more information with because you
out there in the same places every day
now for example when we share a lot of
information with Chitra and with Timur
of course now of course it’s it’s for me
it’s quite easy with Chitra as well
because if we don’t get any information
they’ll give my brother a good clip
around the ears as my brother is a guy
dad she 2012
ah now apart from sitting with leopards
one of my favorite things is to spend
time with our feathered creatures and it
seems like Steve is on a birding mission
this afternoon thanks Brent yes we have
found ourselves a little indigo bird
ladies and gentlemen and it is with a
laughing dove Oh off you went
now when you want to identify these
birds indigo birds you need to have a
look at the beak as well as the feet
because there are three indigo bird
species that you could find here it
could be the dusky the purple and the
village now that individual being the
male he had what I thought was a white
beak you still got him there’s some
starlings and buffalo weavers around he
had a white beak and orange feet so that
was the dusky indigo bird which I don’t
actually see very often the dusky inga
bird I can show you on the the phone
here if you didn’t get a proper look let
me just get you a nice photo of him
there he is
how’s that look
oh sorry about the reflection folks not
working very well today
there is the red beak black beak and the
orange feet so very important to
identify that and the indigo birds are
also brood parasites and we just double
check who his African fire finch so they
will lay the eggs in the nest of another
bird and these below the – let me try
that all down Bex let me try put this in
the shade there there we go that’s
better
apart from my head you see he’s got the
white beak and the orange feet and so
there will be brood parasites of African
fire finch and I haven’t seen many fire
finches in this area I haven’t actually
seen any this my first indigo bird the
season and so it’s quite awesome so the
females are very very sort of cryptic he
colored the male stand after that very
very bright sort of it actually looks
quite blue in the right light but he
looks quite black or melanin and stands
out
see Dietz up they’re all here at this
little pan here drinking and because
there are CDs as they need to sorry but
my gear hello infernal you’d like to
know what go away birds are hmm I’ve
just found some lipid tracks underneath
my vehicle which is this is the last
area sips is that we head to Tandy so we
have to make a little bit of a of a show
see which way she was going you’d like
to know what an indigo a bird is a go
away bird is a they used to be a a taco
or a lorry let me show you it seems to
be very nice birding afternoon we’ll get
our borrows on and our bird books go
away okay where is the go away bird in
here go I’ll find him gray go away bird
there it is now hopefully this is going
to be a little bit better but easier on
the screen now come on come on screen
there we go various he is great and he’s
is gray and they used to be part of the
luery family but now all the louise have
changed to tacos and I’ll show you why
if I go to the bird family if you have a
look at this page here have a look at
how all the birds on this page have got
a red a blue and possibly even green in
their pigment whereas the go a bird they
on the right is very bland with nothing
to show for himself
except for gray feathers and now all of
the other ones have got a red which is
called tea resan which is a pigment they
produce and the green is called Taraka
verdun which is also the only green
pigment found in nature and so all the
laries have now been called to Rocko’s
because of that double chourus enterica
verdun sort of headland and the grey go
red bird now matches his counterparts in
northern africa so that is why hits
koala go a bird i hope that answers your
question very very common in this area
but i’m gonna pop off for a few moments
to try make head or tail or what’s going
on with these tracks because I’m not
sure if you want to go to someone else
while I do that
okay we will link to Brent because we
have got tracts of the cub here as well
okay so we’ll come back to shortly let’s
go to Brent
hello welcome back oh it sounds like
Steve’s a gone off the feather’d
emission and onto a kitty cat mission I
hope he has success there I’m just sort
of man during down towards the tree
house water halt hoping that there might
be an elephant all three about I didn’t
hear any while we’re sitting with her
Komori but they might be moving into
this area
in the Ferno is saying if different
species do not make how do you explain
hybrids hybrids are very very rare in
the wild so what happens with most
hybrids it’s people that cause them so a
very very cruel practice and that has
happened a lot
not so much in Africa but particularly
in in North America is the hybridization
of big cats so forcing a lion and a
tiger to mate what that is they keep
those animals in close contact for
extended periods I mean those animals
fight beat each other often die in that
the quest for a liger or I forgotten
what the other one is but it is a very
it’s very cruel and barbaric practice so
there are very very few hybrids and in
in the mammals in the wild and they tend
to keep to themselves although a couple
of years ago there’s a very very very
interesting hybrid that happened in the
Linea ante area of Botswana which was a
hybrid between a Ledge where and a water
back so it it does happen but it is
incredibly rare and a lot of hybrids as
I said I said are generally done by by
people and trying to think of some other
obvious hybrids a donkey a zebra and a
donkey again humans putting them in
place close close proximity so it’s it’s
it’s it’s it’s generally human beings
that cause hybrids now in in in nature
hybrids can happen and actually quite
quite common in Birds of more sorry this
game Drive radios going mad at the
moment so it happens quite often in
birds and then the hybrids were probably
there from a very very close family very
close closely related family actually
show you a hybrid quickly
let me just get on some flat ground so I
don’t torture sensor while he’s trying
to level the camera okay there we go
some some flat ground yeah so I’m just
gonna turn this off you know making an
incredible amount of noise talking about
very little everyone saying hello so
certain species of hybridized quite
frequently one of them is the little
seed eaters so often there they start
and just there you go so wax balls are
known to high five inches sorry are
known to hybridize which means that a
lot of them are probably very very
closely related and it’s it happened in
in the very sort of recent times that
they’ve split there’s still a lot of
research being done into hybrids and
birds but as I said in in mammals what
are you complaining about
bird never look like it could be a snake
there so it’s very rare so most hybrids
in the modern era are forced by human
beings and some absolutely barbaric
practice
what were you squawking about Lila
crested red and
I mean yeah lovely late afternoon light
on the roller so the rail is was
squawking and there’s also a Franklin
squawking in the Little River system
just to be on the roller so I’m gonna go
see if there is a snake or some other
form of predator maybe even a predatory
bird around while we do that let’s go
see Taylor who’s with some animals that
are enjoying an afternoon swim they are
they look so relaxed these hippos almost
too relaxed in fact they’ve barely got
their heads above the water this
afternoon but soon we have arrived at
bubbles look down just to have a quick
squeeze and to see if there’s anything
around and we haven’t got too much
aren’t ya but we do have two hippos
which is quite nice and I said just just
relaxing going about their day no
thrashing in the water just yet I was
hoping that we were going to see them
open up their mouths and show their big
teeth it’s always very impressive when a
hippo does that because most of the time
we just seen little bits of a hippo and
this is the typical sighting that you
have I can tell you most of my guests
have in fact only seen this part of a
hippopotamus ahead ears the eyes and of
course the nostrils and that’s about it
and we’re lucky was spoiled to check her
damn almost every morning every
afternoon we see them playing around
those little ones are so playful now
there’s lots of different things that
live in these dams not just big hippos
but from lots of different species of
birds and Terrapins and well childhood
universe you were asking if there are
any frogs yes of course there’ll be some
frogs and we probably have a better
chance of finding them a little bit
later tonight so that’s something that
I’m always up for finding is is them for
being species they’re one of my favorite
in fact so maybe we’ll head on towards
twin dance or not not twin dance
actually you know it’s a good honest
treehouse down it’s a particularly good
one Oh
an apparently world frog day is in two
days time now
some of you may remember last year’s
hilarious and phibian antics we all put
on remember David I was sleeping and
snoring I was pretending obviously I
wasn’t really see but I don’t actually
sleep like that stiff did some great
frog noises are really terrible who else
was making frog noises someone went
ribbit ribbit can you believe it I feel
like it may have been Rebecca that
actually did that it was an eggs either
did it oh yeah we all made noises eggs
EI k zonda all making strange noises I
wonder what we’re going to do us yeah
who knows and and then there are some
little birdies David can I point you in
the direction of so you see we’re in the
middle of the dam at the other side
where the grass is quite close just to
the left of it there’s like a little V
that goes in there some little
three-banded clubbers there’s just two
three bad and clubbers they’re not three
three-banded clubbers very busy this
afternoon as there always are working
very very hard moving those legs pretty
quickly looking for insects on the
surface and on a hot day like today I
think that they would have filled their
crops up quite easily with all sorts of
little insects oh no they may have been
actually analyzed I think they may have
been three III Band of Brothers in fact
now when are you wondering if there are
any shrimp or prawns in the water
well I remember last year after a bouts
of rain the mud wallows had filled up we
did in fact to find some freshwater
shrimp I think they were called fairy
shrimp they’re bright red in colour I
don’t have a picture of one but I’m
pretty sure someone can put up a screen
shot for you because we were all so
fascinated about it so yes they could
possibly be in here too and would be a
very important food source to a lot of
critters that live in the water so I’m
on bush walk in the morning I think
we’ll be checking and instead of having
a closer inspection of the mud wallows I
like to do that on my bush walks and see
if we can find some water scorpions
because we’re finding some exoskeletons
of water scorpions and we’ll look for
frogs or even just some frog tracks
might be quite nice to look at and
anything else that really wants to show
itself member we’ll try find those fairy
shrimp again the only problem is and we
check more about the algal bloom that we
sort of see in the water tomorrow when
we can get close to it and it’s like I
said earlier it’s great if you’re an
ambush predator and you’re thinking
murky waters nothing we’ll see you camp
but it makes it hard for us to spot
things and there too so not great for us
so now that we’ve checked bubbles of dam
I think we’re gonna take a drive along
worried pan Road and perhaps check
worried pan well we might remind you
hippo pools do that now some maybe and
the three tiers that live in the water
and childhood universe you’re wondering
of it there are wondering sorry if there
are some that are perhaps becoming
endangered well there’s quite a few
frogs that live in specific areas the
very small areas there the Western
leopard tone is one of them that
unfortunately is under threat at the
moment and that’s because I have a chat
last a lot of them cross the road so
they’re being killed pollution into
freshwater systems again frogs are super
sensitive and really good indicators to
the environment I might have sort of how
clean water is and so that’s one of them
then these I’m just trying to remember
all the frogs and you see as at the AMA
I’m a toilet toad is it it’s in hogsback
I’m just near em I’ll bring my frog book
on rod that’s another one only occurs in
a small section of the Eastern Cape
again habitat loss is a huge factor when
well sorry Rebecca saying all sorts of
things made me laugh distracting me I’m
trying to be professional and educate
people here Rebecca
Rebecca’s directing so so yeah so I’ll
have a look at a couple but like I said
the main factor to a lot of the reason
why species are going extinct is due to
habitat loss unfortunately because of us
because of us as humans making the
environment
what’s making that noise can you hear
that
let’s be oh you know what it is you
might be able to see it it’s doves
fluttering in the leaves behind us so
that’s what was making that noise is
really strange son anyways we’re gonna
kick it towards quarry pants a little
productive pad maybe we find something
there Steve however is got some
elephants and I’m sure you want to find
out more about those neighborhood cub
tracks
yes thanks Taylor
we’ve managed to find this big elephant
bull apologises decided to go behind us
instead of in front of us which was the
plan all along we did have a long chat
before you came on air about him going
in front but he is decided to defy me
but this is this is the African bush and
the elephant will do what he likes so
the tracks of that female and cub that
sundean cub came from grow a pen
directly into the block towards us here
so we’re just taking cheetah cut line to
see if there’s anything crossing but
this is a very very large block and if
Seb just pans across even if we found
tracks what a difficult area it is to
look for a leopard in this block even
yesterday Brent was driving around
aimlessly trying to just hopefully bump
something so you know we’re gonna move
on a little bit further from here see if
anything cuts across here into the east
so far there’s nothing but we will keep
you updated if we manage to find
anything very fresh that seemed to be
like Tandy and her cub had drunk their
bag wari pan and they’re come directly
into the block maybe she’s got a kill if
she does could be anywhere in the
section so maybe I’ll chat with her be
maybe he’s keen to to bring Taylor into
this area tomorrow on their bush walk to
to put some effort into the tracking of
her cuz now if Scottie D gone he seems
to be the master behind finding Tandy
but then again
ladies gentlemen mr. Tristan Dix is back
on Drive tomorrow afternoon so if anyone
can find Tandy it is him so I’m excited
to have him back I saw his cars already
in camp so looking forward to a little
catch up with him this afternoon and see
how his leave has been and fill him in
on the gossip and the scoop
of the Leopards in drama of late so
while we up here if we don’t get any
tracks we’re gonna still have a little
look at before silca dam and see what’s
going on okay well we gonna go over to
Brent
it looks like he’s cooked his goose well
here we go well we’ve got goose and
something else is that a Gosling was it
something else entirely
let’s go across to the ones to the left
oh there we go those three there zoom in
on the one in the middle
hello yeah oh stretchy stretchy no I
wonder if you can tell me what those ah
hashtags file I’ve if you know what that
is that is not the Egyptian goose it is
a very very pretty
duck the males are far more striking
than the females and there’s a all
females there no males presently at twin
dabs doing a bit of prepping and
preening and feather cleaning
now these particular tax can actually
travel incredible distances and at this
time of the year they move around all
you got some Cape total Deb’s in the
background as well so they’ll move
incredible distances between different
water halls and they really like
seasonal pans of the Ducks and that’s
all the clues I’m giving you
boomer says they’re doing duck yoga yes
indeed actually what they’re doing is
they’re like cleaning a lot of their
feathers and sort of when they’re preen
like that they want them to be in the
perfect spot and some of the feathers
for flying but often when they’re doing
their chests and stuff like that it’s
their swimming feathers to get make sure
they’ve got that lovely little sort of
waterproof waxy layering in the correct
I’m trying to think corrector spots so
that they don’t take on too much water
and go down
isn’t that wonderful now we’ve got a few
more beds up on the other side yeah I
was gonna move forward a little bit see
if I can give you view of them again
it’s disappeared
as lovely is the dam is for
bird-watching one of my favorite spots
to birdwatch is around a seasonal pan
like this so you can see there lots of
nice grass so there’s places for the
creeks to hide oh there’s a woodland
Kingfisher your serum cents here we go
and there’s a safari vehicle in the
background there’s some elephants that
seem to be heading in our direction and
I’m hoping they’re head towards the
water yeah so I’ll move when they get a
bit closer and I was hoping to see some
crakes and that Kingfisher looking for a
frog or something in the little pan
below more could just be really to dive
down there for a drink
again let’s get into a position in case
those elephants decide to go much
barfing and wallowing there’s a whole
host of little pans in this area down
here
hold on you know it’s only taking
there’s a big bump there that
no little cracks smack
Oh quickly across to Steve yes with a
very pretty little Stan look and this
one is being very obliging and standing
very still normally once they’ve been
detected they disappeared very quickly
into the undergrowth be very alert for
tündi no cub in this area see her
nostrils are flaring up see what is that
a bird every bit of a fraud says said
look at those ears focus and she just
seemed pretty good eye flies all over
her face come on my dear blink get rid
of the Flies she doesn’t want to move
folks she doesn’t want to be feel as if
she’s been seen by us now she’s moved
very delicate aren’t they it’s a fully
grown animal I’ve only ever seen one
baby Steinbach with busy suckling and
was so cute and so small I’ve never seen
another one though look at that face
absolutely gorgeous that very small
mouth to last for very selective feeding
you hear the Swenson spur fowl making
all sorts of noises in the background
and you see him said there we go there’s
the Saran cents per foul male you can
tell it’s a male by the spurs on the
back of the feet on the back of the leg
which they used for fighting is it
typical for male to perch on a little
bit of a ledge and do that very sort of
smoker’s cough sort of sound that you
heard isn’t he pretty
very
t-bird he knows it I wonder if the
ladies think the same
give us another call my friend I might
try and play it for you so you can hear
it again I don’t know if you all heard
it it back home it’s turning out to be
an absolutely marvelous day for birds
you didn’t hear it sooner said moved off
of him yeah now you heard it okay so
there’s no need for me to play it now
how marvelous is that hey as we moved
off a little bit camera shy before and
as we moved off
you played the call thank you my friend
do you enjoy your your perch okay well
let’s go over to Brent who has got a
crossing well yes it is a crossing a
crossing of elephants nice but you heard
now they’ve crossed into into Juma and I
thought they might stop at baboon pan
but it looks like there might go all the
way to n’dam we’re just sticking with
them now doesn’t look like they’ve been
here having all splashing and playing in
the mud yet today but there might
definitely do it in twin dams yeah let’s
let’s move quickly
min-jeong I run good bags okay guys
let’s keep up with these elephants now
and then like go straight into twin dams
by the looks of things so I’m gonna suit
around this way so we’re not going to
affect them or will impede them and it
can possibly Oh but quickly for the
birders keep everyone happy
look at that beautiful Hoopoe sitting in
the gorgeous golden light and elephants
behind the big end of the small hey hold
on
you’re the own sins and I care let’s do
this we they coming up onto the twin
dams wall now
Oh bouncy bounce
I hope they get their water walk on so
one of my favorite things when elephants
get the water walk they get excited when
they get close to the water and they
know they’re gonna go for a swim or or a
drink and we’re now in the perfect spot
directly opposite them you happy yeah Oh
magic and I was really hoping for some
lovely Ellie Ellie action around the
water halls today and I’m being sported
a hooker Marie elephants elephants
elephants look at that little one it
doesn’t want to get too close to the
water is quite steep the bank don’t fall
in
he’s decided that pace is too steep
that’s too steep for me there I’m not
going down there it’s scary now what I
think will happen is the eddies will
some of them will drink there whether
it’s deeper but the majority oh I’ve
seen this female so that one there the
big female on that on the left look at
her she’s she’s I’ve seen her before but
a long time ago and I haven’t seen often
she’s got a missing half of her left ear
and she looks a bit but strange you see
that it’s got almost no left ear and it
doesn’t look like it was cut or anything
like that looks like it’s a natural
birth deformity amazing isn’t it
hello dawn dawn is wondering at what age
do elephants start to grow tusks well
they have baby tusks and for the first
year of their life and then at a year
old they start growing their big tusks
off there’s an even smaller baby an even
younger baby than the one we’re looking
at earlier I know little one tiny tiny
there hasn’t been too hot today so
ladies might not sort of dive in so to
speak and go swimming and they might
have a drink I was hoping they might do
a bit of mud bathing as I said okay
comes Oh bully now you happy about this
slippery slide ease deep slope what is
going on yeah oh look at that all the
adults camera and comfort Oh sham peace
oh and try again here we go oh yeah oh
yeah a couple of weeks old dented one he
doesn’t like that
Oh for the no no think it out so I think
what’ll happen is mister the little ones
not so happy the herd might move around
towards that the head the head walk head
of the dam where there’s a it’s not as
steep
and said it’s it’s been quite cold today
so they might actually just move off and
continue feeding we’ll see now it was
that is that was a very cute little
elephant he did not look happy with that
steep slippery slope at all almost like
I’ve fallen down something like this
before I don’t want to do it again I’m
so nice to move the car the hood because
they’re gonna disappear behind us
that looks like they’re gonna continue
on towards that Milwaukee riverbed and
to feed and I think I’m gonna keep up
with them for a little bit longer
trim buds is do I think animals notice
deformities and others I’m sure but I
think it really depends on the deformity
and if it is a deformity that weakens in
animals particularly if it’s a it’s a
male who’s going to be fighting for for
for mating rights I think in then yes
other animals might take advantage of
that but with elephants you see quite a
lot of different deformities with Elly’s
back of tails ears all sorts of things
and they’re the elephant’s seem to not
take too much notice of deformities and
others now if we’re lucky they’re mark I
have some fun in the sand in the
material bed dust it all around and I’m
hoping they do that because there’s some
really nice Eddie’s in this here there’s
some youngsters that are very playful at
the moment there’s that tiny little
gorgeous creature
now they split the other little one went
off oh dear no it doesn’t look like
they’re going to do that I love it girl
yes I see you it’s okay it looks like
they’re gonna cross straight through the
Marathi and up and start feeding on the
bank on the other side well oh there we
go down the steep hill
I always love it when that happens it’s
sort of the sheer weight causes them to
speed up as they go down well it doesn’t
look like they’re gonna hang around for
too long so I’m gonna send you across to
Taylor who’s got a lonely elephant we do
know that’s not English
it looks like a young bull and he’s
actually been very accommodating this
afternoon he has moved a hole of about a
meter in ten minutes I would say maybe
not quite ten minutes maybe about in
between six and eight minutes and the
time does fly when you’re out in the
bush and I don’t know if there’s any
little marilla’s that he’s perhaps
picking up because I can’t see him
pulling any leaves and things out and
there is a smaller tree above him
so perhaps he’s lucky he’s managed to
find the
last of the fruits underneath all those
round leave teak and large fruit bush
willows looks like he’s being quite
picky about what he goes for you’re
dropping some of the vegetation on of
his mouth concrete he see what he is
getting in fact there we go that well
that’s obviously leaves and he was
eating yep stripping them away and he’s
just taking it easy it doesn’t look like
he’s been for a swim recently I think he
must have gone one for one midday midday
swim during the heat because he is a lot
darker than the color that elephant
normally is although I suppose it
depends on what soil they cover
themselves with and and that would
determine the color of the elephant he
looks a little bit on the downside but
all on his own unlike that herd of
elephants at friends had so he’s been
kicked out now living a life of solitary
swatting that tail keeping away all the
biting flies I even have a quarry branch
in the car today the insects have been
particularly bad it’d be nice if he gave
that marula a shake just to see if they
aren’t one or two more fruit still
dangling on holding on maybe they don’t
want to leave either
hmm no no child of the universe you said
why our young elephant pools not lonely
when they go off on their own because
they essentially spend well the
beginning of their life and I heard I
think they just get used to it it’s a
very very traumatic experience for these
elephants to get pushed out of the herd
I’ve seen it a couple of times and it’s
it’s never quiet nice because
essentially what happens is that they’re
inside herd but mainly the the older
cars sort of stand their ground and what
they did once in the Eastern Cape
they formed a wall and every time this
young bull would try and come back into
the herd their girls are basically just
chase him away and chase and chase and
chase and then they would go back and he
would still follow the herd around but
that gap would get bigger and bigger and
bigger and the cars would be less and
less tolerant of them so I think it’s a
very traumatic experience for them but
it’s just one of the things that happen
so it I’m sure it takes a bit of time to
get used to and they do meet up with
other young bulls along the way though
if they find them and they can tolerate
one another these Bulls also form
bachelor hoods and it’s typically when
they get into the prime of their lives
anywhere between about 30 and 40 years
old and you know that’s been it you
really start to see the true size of an
elephant and they they then become lone
Wanderers and go off and start searching
for breeding herds looking for cars that
are coming into East rifts and get on
the go
but it is quite nice in the southern
Kruger you see spectacular bachelor
herds of elephants all lots of them in
Zambia too big 50 60 70 of them all just
marching across the plains big ones
small ones medium-sized ones it’s quite
cool and a young fool like this and
would probably benefit from moving
around with a couple of other old
elephant bulls sort of learning the way
of life also been put into their place
and they can be there probably the most
cheeky at this age otherwise when
they’re at mass they were also pretty
cheeky to be very calm it’s quite nice
is very peaceful sighting he’s not in a
rush she’s not turbed by us at all he
hasn’t even acknowledged that way ya
know he can hear us you can smell us he
can see us
but he hasn’t showed
any interest whatsoever this is quite
nice it’s always nice when you can just
sit from a distance and watch the
animals as they go along now I did go
past query pan and I saw the tracks that
Steve had so we can also have a little
look around yeah
no no Steve said he was heading to
Chitra so we’ll carry on exploring
around this area and see if we can’t
pick up on anything now he isn’t stopped
feeding since we’ve been sitting here a
combination of swatting those starting
the tail around and flapping the ears
and eating pretty good at multitasking
and cool now you’re wondering how much
does an elephant need to eat in the day
well I suppose it depends on how big
they are
so essentially an elephant needs to eat
about 5% of their body rate body weight
sorry that’s just roughly and at the
amount so depending on the size of the
elephant would determine but I mean a
fully grown elephant bull can eat
anywhere between 150 and 200 kilograms
of vegetation a day so they’re very busy
and they will feed for about 19 hours of
that day so very very small amount of
time is actually safe for a sometimes
elephants can go 24 hours 48 hours
without even having a siesta they’ll
just go go go and the reason why they
have to eat so much is firstly because
they’re enormous they’re the largest
land mammal and they have a really poor
digestive system so it’s you know the
only digesting one is about 44 percent
of their food every day this is why when
you find elephant dung you can almost
tell immediately what that elephant had
been eating 24 hours ago also you can
find undigested fruit we find a lot of
undigested marilla’s although they can’t
peel back the skin and pull the flesh
off of the seeds so they sort of just
crunch it and and get all the juice from
the fruit
you see twigs you see whole leaves
sometimes bits of bark that’s quite cool
in fact when you find elephant dung and
to do a bit of digging to see what what
they were craving that day
mmm-hmm now take you’ve asked why do
elephants sometimes rock one leg back
and forth when standing or you often see
elephants doing that and also crossing
their legs I suppose that just maybe
resting them and I mean that we normally
do that rocking motion with a leg I
don’t do it for too long but you do see
them sort of standing cross-linked just
getting the weight of why supposin maybe
you get a bit tired too so they can do
that remember elephants don’t sit down
very often or lay down should I say be
quite funny to see elephants sitting on
its bottom normally you see that when
they go down to the water and like you
saw with brains sometimes slide down the
bank then you have to sit back and well
enjoy the ride and with all the
elephants of course they don’t do that
as well as often but in the Mara
actually saw quite a few elephants fast
asleep big ones – snoring away which was
quite nice to see with like the little
ones just standing by going I’m not
ready to sleep it off you guys know
Richard sure you’ve asked cuz you know I
use this weirdest words things thanks to
my Australian parents and we’re
wondering what is a squiz because I used
it earlier a squiz I don’t know where it
comes from I don’t even know if it’s a
word but it’s a word that my parents use
all the time that can look a quick look
we’re gonna have a squiz at the spider
building its web we’re gonna have a yeah
I don’t know David do you know what I’m
talking about
a quick look a quick look that’s what
exquisite so yes
Rebekah’s is like a peak having a peak
of something it’s exactly right
I’m not going sidling like I said I
should see you across to Steve because
it sounded weird we’re gonna go down
this fire break however and see if we
can find Tandy
maybe she’s on the move now that it’s
cooled down a little bit let’s go see if
Steve is on his way to church worth
yes thanks very much Taylor we’ve also
been doing having a bit of a squiz
around to see if maybe tündi and a
couple just pop out of this big block
very hard to see anything inside so
seems like Taylor and I in a very
similar area but we’re gonna be moving
out of the areas soon
one final squiz as you’d say to see if
we can see her what’s that said Seb has
spotted another cool bird we’re having a
wonderful Sunday afternoon of birding
and let me just try and find what it is
said it was a cuckoo it looked like
either a Jacobin or love Ellen’s cuckoo
I didn’t see the colors very well the
levan has got white loud black lines on
the white chest and the Jacobin just has
the white chest easy to remember cuz la
valence has a w4 lines whereas Jacobin
doesn’t have any lines in it he’s enough
they’re a black bird the watch is the
last crest and the top quite a long tail
and they will probably be departing soon
as the breeding starts to slow down
so Jacobin but I haven’t heard them
calling in the last of a while which
means that they’re probably not laying
their eggs in the nests of other birds
at the moment anymore
they’re just feeding and their primary
source of food most of the cuckoos that
come down here are caterpillars I
apologize for any of the breakup we are
just going through a little rough patch
I’ll just travel a bit slowly we’re
gonna be coming out of this area soon
and if there’s no sign or further sign
of tündi and cub then we’re gonna go and
try our hand at chitwa and who knows if
we will be lucky maybe with ting gana I
believe he was seen the small I haven’t
seen that old still in some time him
there’s been when I stood I see him it’s
been ages actually last time I saw him
was on foot is actually added for it for
you tell the dad okay
sorry about the signal folks we’re going
to quickly go over to branch who I’m
sure he’s got far better signal than we
do and we catch up with you soon
welcome back well unfortunately Steve’s
heading into a Google Emlyn zone I’m
back on the new road wonders I wrote
that I drove for the first time
yesterday I think it’s possible that
that should do Lou female might have
come this way you never know but my plan
is to just check through here it’s quite
nice driving a new a new road and then
as it gets a bit cooler I might head
back to see Hawkeye Maureen I see almost
sounds like some Japanese samurai oh
it’s nothing
he’s a samurai here we go
since I says he’s definitely a samurai
ho come over here and it’s such a
beautiful oh hello new it’s so beautiful
at this time of the day you know learn
wildebeast herbal looking for
girlfriends of course the wolfy’s rat in
the sabi sands is about to start
quite soon so that’s always fascinating
to watch the the different males and
their different strategies to keeping
females within their territory
so what I think he’s doing he’s moving
from that open era around the big brown
ivory tree and he’s gonna head to go
parkour fertile parlor plains see if
there any girls there it’s just such
lovely lights at this time of the day oh
you might go to knob for an open on
arrow Sousa as well it’s not too far
away
Oh what gave you a fright something gave
him a fright I don’t think it was a
leopard I was I was always hoping that
everybody’s gonna start snorting it was
probably a Franklin in the grass that
often happens with quite a few different
ones yeah he’s carried on the straight
same direction
no I can’t see anything let’s just keep
moving another quick look never know any
tracks yeah
no no tracks as this is a really lovely
area and this road is a very well placed
rate and well shadow used to spend a lot
of time in this block and there were no
roads yeah and it often took us quite a
lot of walking in here to find her and
now we’ve got a nice road where we can
see tracks now for an update on shadow
attracted to some of the era these guys
they think she’s actually down in
Hoffman’s near the Mala Mala boundary
and especially with hooker Murray being
in this area she’s gonna try avoid this
area if not Barbara’s still alive Frank
and that is what she’ll be doing keeping
a very low profile so be interesting to
see what the should do do female gets up
to whether she’s going to try take a
chunk of Tandy’s territory in this sort
of northwestern sections of Juma now of
course that could change very quickly so
if she loses Tandy loses the cub she’ll
move straight back into these areas that
hooker Marie’s in at the moment
but while hooker Murray’s around she’s
gonna spend a lot more time that way and
that’s given the should do do female a
sort of chance to come scope out this
area so it’s actually next to the the
camera ops logging station in in in the
final control there’s a list of names of
the leopards so the cameramen don’t
spell it wrong and I was having a quick
look at it last night after after Drive
while I was chatting to Nikola and and
it was amazing that how many leopards
have how many leopards have actually
moved on to greener pastures in the last
couple of years so since I was just
gonna you know see his hand come through
in a little bit she’s gonna come
his lens so well valo we’re not 100%
Sean but I mean he’s he’s an old man
he’s on his way but out of that list of
of leopards so they were quite a few on
there that have better that have died it
was Salah Hesh Corolla and I mean to
really long-standing prominent female
leopards in the area quite chilly I’m
trying to think last on there just
looking at that list for Tommy Chong
area we can’t be 100% sure on but I
would say it’s it’s probably highly
likely that that that she got killed
just because of the density of other
territorial female leopards in the area
and it really breaks my heart to say
that because she was definitely one of
my one of my favorites so I mean she
would normally have popped up somewhere
by now someone would have seen it
because in the Kruger Park so the east
of us is there is a concession where
there’s there are safari lodges as well
and i think by now we would have seen a
picture of where somewhere in the same
goes for the manatee now just there’s
dominant female leopards in the menu
lady very close to the sabi sands border
so there’s not it’s not a good place for
her to go there and it’s very good
leopard country that’s southern
moneylady
so there’s plenty of females up that
side I said I took bit sad but it is
what it is I’m trying to think what else
I can’t remember now but it was it was
quite a shock to me you know I realized
how many of those those leopards work
were passed on to happy hunting-grounds
I mean a skedaddle past the guard
repeater shortly this is one of our
repeaters that brings you the picture
together you might be sitting in the
world and it’s a very prominent one you
know in this pop around the corner and
you’ll get a nice view of the gallery
repeater it is okay so our signal from
the vehicle goes to go your PA then it
goes down from that there we go there’s
the antenna Oh
what bad scrub robbing such a lovely
call and then it goes down to via teller
or to final control and then from front
final control out to the top of my lip
scope Mountain I think I might be wrong
tech team is welcome to tell me if I’m
wrong and then then I don’t know where
it goes but it gets to you and that’s
what’s important ah there we go Thank
You Conrad I am correct so actually if I
remember correctly I haven’t heard this
before it goes to by next or London is
London acosta next London next
Khai Lana he’s ten years old Halleck I
would like to know do Valle de B’s
travel in family groups like elephants
do now not really they have a slightly
different sort of setup
so May of all the beasts in this area so
in different parts of Africa they have
different strategies in this area the
male Valle de beast will defend a
territory and the females will move with
their babies between different males
territories so so the females will
travel with the youngsters and the males
will stay in one sort of spot so we’re
gonna head towards and put on a and pile
a plane shortly and that will see it
could be another lone melville to be
looking for girlfriends over there now
in the Mara that wildebeest
migrate and the males migrate with the
herds so a different system so you could
say that the Kenyan and Tanzanian
wildebeest they travel in family groups
and the male’s will travel with for herd
at all times and they don’t they don’t
defend a set territory now that’s of
course because it’s a different
ecosystem but here in the loaf of South
Africa the male’s do not travel with the
family groups now Steve is on a proper
birding mission today so let’s see how
his search is going yes indeed Thank You
Brent sorry folks you’ve been having
some signal issues so you haven’t been
able to come to us and so now we are
stationary hopefully things will work
out but we have managed to find the bird
that we spoke about earlier someone
asked what does it go away bird look
like in here we have two beautiful
beautiful birds look at the crest on the
head and notice how they are completely
grey hence the name of grey go away bird
and there are a woodland specialist we
find them all over the lo felt all over
the savanna and they absolutely love
seeds and fruit and small leaves the new
shoots of leaves and buds and even
flowers and they will be here all year
round nesting in quite communal sort of
nests
on top of trees marvelous I’m so glad
we’re able to find one
and indeed Brent we’re having a
fantastic afternoon with birds and I’m
not sure if I can start moving because
if I do we might lose our signal Becks
what do you think can I start moving or
should I stay stationary we’re gonna
attempt it we’re gonna go very slowly
and hopefully our signal issues are not
going to continue we are now slowly
making our way towards chitwa we have
not managed to find any more signs of
that beautiful lepidus sandy and her cub
so I think me being able to see that cub
again I’m going to have to really earn
it really really earn it but I’m up for
the challenge everything seems to be
okay in my ear on the eastern side
fantastic we’re on the eastern side on a
road called drakensberg okay well as we
think things are working things dead so
let’s go over to Taylor and see what
updates yes for you sorry everybody
gremlins are attacking as Steve oh oh
rebecca is using the wrong radio
punishment and if you later in campus
rights so we’re just bumbling along at
the moment and we’re looking for more
tracks of that leopard because they’re
kind of they kind of just think having a
little look around sort of fentons and
things of giving alarm calls but then
you think that sounded didn’t sound
terrified a little bit scared but maybe
it was a raptor of sorts so I’m just
checking very carefully wrong quarry
warrior
oh no all the scenes is Oh Steven are
just me bouncing back and forth today
the gremlins are both trying to get us
off you go back to Steve the gremlins
and leprechauns whatever it might be I
am not sure what is happening this
afternoon we are now stationary Seb has
just been in the boot trying to fiddle
with any wires and see if maybe
something’s been dislodged to nothing so
okay so when we probably cut away we
might do a reboot and see if we can by
powering down powering up again the
system will kick back in we don’t know
but seeing as we are stationary and
we’re not moving anywhere for the moment
just to show you where we are we are
down here on the road called drakensberg
because on a beautiful day if we go to
the right hand side you can often see
the Drakensberg in the distance but on a
day like this we cannot see it but it is
a beautiful Vista nonetheless just a bit
of cloud and moisture in the atmosphere
is making it very hard to see you can
actually see a little bit of it just
over there Seb it started to come
through now the longer we look at it
there is the mass there is the
Drakensberg in the background and that
is one of the masks that provides us
with signal so very strange that we’re
not able to get any the Drakensberg
mountain and on top of that is what we
call the high felts everything east of
that we call the low felt low felt
meaning low lying Range lands and high
felt meaning high lying Range lands the
difference between the two areas would
be altitude and that would lead to frost
the difference in frost will lead to
difference in structure so down on the
low felt we get no frost that’s why we
get more trees and the high felt only
trees that are very well adapted to
frost will grow there normally in your
ravines and that sort of thing but very
very open grasslands in a huge
proportion of the high felt okay so I am
going to dare to try and move because we
would like to get down to Chitra
eventually so Bex I am going to start
moving and I am sorry if we lose signal
but we are on a mission
so it seems the best thing to do is to
go to someone who’s got signal let’s go
over to Brent who seems to be in a very
stable place here’s where we’re very
close to the GAO a repeater that we just
had a look at so we’ve just popped out
onto Impala plans and I think that
wildebeest we saw obviously this is one
of his patches in his territory because
there’s no Valda beach chair at the
moment oh yeah
look what as I said I’m in a loop here
along the western sections see if she
dudu pops off somewhere she was in that
general area and then I’m gonna sort of
slowly loop back towards oh my movie as
we get closer towards the evening guy
says Oh who’s got some swine so we’ve
got some piggies at Quarry bed
well they moved away from the pan
because of us unfortunately so what
we’re doing now is you’re just sitting
very quietly I’m not gonna move the
vehicle at all and I want to see how
desperate they are for a drink
Inga’s if there are desperate enough
they should just come back and it will
be beautiful to see them having a drink
of water and perhaps even wallowing in
the mud
Sunday afternoon Jacuzzi time come on
pigs yours didn’t run away so I know you
want to come back here just do it you’re
like they’re not scared of us was it
would have carried on and opted straight
into the bushes but they’re lingering so
let’s see if there’s going to be one
brave one basically it’s a patience game
and this is also where the last of the
tracks are for Tandy and that little one
who knows maybe turn he’s going to pop
out the bushes and try and catch one of
these these peas but somebody else has
joined us and the watering hole it’s
just behind some grass at the moment it
was like a turtle dove on its way for a
drink it’s not to be frightened of us
come on warthogs if the Dove is not
frightened of us then you surely you’ve
got nothing to be worried about
now you can see it’s not a rear dad
tough because it doesn’t have a red eye
but even even the Turtledove a little
bit nervous to come down not because of
us I think because of all sorts of
critters that lurk below those more
murky waters always a quick drink hey
you’re not well it’s just resting on a
little pitch yeah is the other one I was
gonna say it’s a bit strange but there
aren’t two of them you don’t often get
to see just one turtle dove on its own
are you gonna be brave enough to come
down as well
they’re beautiful birds especially that
golden light on them all the different
types of grays and sort of tones of
brown and of course the prominent black
markings but a bird that’s often
overlooked our gem being very careful
well it’s quiet maybe they’ve seen
something else oh look there’s even a
little wax ball to the left Davi that
have come down to drink look at this
yeah a little boot party and laughing
dough but that’s beautiful that works
for blue X Ville hopping on two feet
coming down to have a quick drink there
was another one to wait also not staying
around for too long laughing death
coming in all very cautious I wonder if
those are knocked Andes tracks they’re
sort of below the birds feet looks like
there’s some footprints in the mud and
they look fairly fresh too from this
angle come on have a drink get it over
and done with
very nervous this one not certain as to
what’s going on who’s going to try and
surprise it and we were talking about
this yesterday as birds and various
mammal species are exceptionally
vulnerable when they are taking a drink
because they’re focusing of course on
getting as much water as possible our
pigs have disappeared Davi that didn’t
work okay
well it’s quite nice to see all sorts of
things coming down for a drink my pigs
oh let them come back
now vivid you’re wondering if the
warthogs can squeal yes very loudly they
squeal they were making a weird sound
just now I’m trying do it I don’t know
how to make it but it was like a a
rumble it’s a funny noise that warthogs
do and they kind of do it when they’re a
little bit nervous because they do with
the expression they lift their heads up
a little bit as if they try trying to
see better and that was quite funny that
they do they make all sorts of noises
and a grunt and they squeal normally you
only hear a warthog squealing when
leopards got its claws and rattle a
hyena or lion or anything like that then
you typically hear them squeal not this
area is a favorite area of 10d so we’re
just going to check very carefully she
loves drakensberg version of central she
loves all these spots and it’s nice and
lots of impart around here lots of
different vegetation for the animals to
feed on so that will bring them on in oh
that’s actually very pretty here I’m
going to very quickly show you one thing
because that’s so stunning I know Steve
are showing you the Drakensberg but that
is a magical view one of the higher
points here on Juma lovely perfect
evening I think we’re gonna have a great
sunset but off you go to brain trees got
his second really good Aylee sighting
well we fight I’ve spotted an elephant
who’s got a fang like tusks but it’s not
as big as or not as pronounced is Fang
but she’s disappeared that’s not her
they’re just crossing the open area and
they’re now disappeared into some quite
thick quarry thickets unfortunately Oh
anyway had such lovely elephant
sightings to start anew so this is what
it is they want to go eat in the
thickets they’re more than welcome to
they might pop up on the other side so
I’m just gonna go around oh good
question from Rick Rick is wondering
what the elephant teeth looked like well
apart from the tusks of course such are
quite visible an elephant has a sort of
a really big solid tooth and with lots
of little grooves in it
and I don’t know how to describe what an
elephant tooth looks like I think about
this for a second I think Rick the best
way to figure out what an elephant tooth
looks like is a Google elephant teeth
like I don’t know how to describe it but
a big males elephant the tooth can be
sort of about that long and and then
depending on the where from feeding it’s
got grooves and lighter and darker
darker patches I’ve actually got some
fossilized elephant teeth at home and I
found in Zululand also got these
fossilized elephant tusks
if I found in there in the loafers
okay I got a feeling they’re gonna pop
out here and the lights should be
ah well Thank You Tyler mccurdy who is
sending me a picture of an elephant
tooth to my phone and to say kind of you
Taylor I hope she remembers to use my
South African number not my Kenyan
number because I am NOT going to get the
one on the Kenyan number oh dear no it
doesn’t look like I thought there might
the frontrunners of the herd might be
ready to pop out yeah and looks like
they’ve stopped in the center too
Munchie Munchie Munchie yes they have
isn’t the fact they’re coming out ed
yeah well you win some you lose some
Oh wonderful it seems like it’s an
pachyderm filled afternoon so let’s go
across to Steve he’s got some away Li’s
this youngsters a little bit too old to
be suckling but it seems as if Mama’s
pregnant so it’s possible that of
mammary glands are producing milk again
for the new new baby that’s probably on
its way she’s right next to us quite
relaxed I apologize for the aerial as
Septor n–‘s the car they’ve been
walking straight towards us in the jest
walking past us now the four tailed
ronger is following them picking up on
any insects that the elephants flash
from the grass isn’t that marvelous we
are at Chitra now just above the dam
currently and we found ourselves
elephant how marvellous is that they are
more in the distance we can hear Seb can
apparently see them I haven’t managed to
see them so we’re gonna come around
good answer the dam see if we can get
another look
I might even just try getting that a
look at this elephant yet
she is very pretty very pretty mama very
very pretty she’s tolerating that
youngster suckling but if she does give
birth to a baby she’ll have to prevent
that one from suckling because he’s a
bit old now to be nursed mmm
l-drago for sir
Jango has annoyed that little boy we can
tell it’s a little boy
hello isn’t he precious
isn’t he precious Oh shake you head
young sir isn’t that fantastic that just
made my day and just like that the
naughty little elephant all retreats
back into the vegetation where mom has
gone isn’t that fantastic I love
elephants I love it when they behave
like that and show us their their the
humorous side okay well thank you for
that performance I’m sure a lot of the
viewers back home would have enjoyed
that as much as I did
okay let’s go down to the dam have a
little look at some hippos see if
there’s elephant to wherever they are in
the distance are going to materialize
what is that okay well we’re gonna go
over to Taylor who’s got a picture I
think she’s being a dentist today let’s
go see what she’s going to talk about
what dentist I’m trying to find the
picture now here’s my sub close one we
never look at my screens not too dirty
at least we’re not on the Sun haha oh
hang on you know what we can do David I
was gonna turn the light up but it’s
okay there we go there are the
elephant’s molars so you can kind of see
that diamond shape in there which is
where the Latin name luck Siddhanta
Africana comes from it describes the
diamond shape and their teeth you can
see it and basically the older ones are
here on on the side so this is where the
end of the jaw is and then this is the
back of the jaw on the right hand side
of the phone so they push up from the
right hand side and move forward like a
conveyor belt and you can see the car
worn that one is on the far left you see
how there’s sort of no grooves
whatsoever so that’s just natural
deterioration from feeding on all sorts
of things and then I’m going to show you
another one and just need to find it
it’s somewhere here there we go that’s
the one I want wants to go that way
sorry David there we go so this is an
elephant skull that unfortunately died
and before hook and you can see these
there’s all the teeth so this is the top
jaw that we’re looking at this is the
entire head and those big gaping holes
or where the tusks would have come out
of they did remove the tusks we do
remove the ivory and if the animal does
die over here but it’s quite cool don’t
you think
very cool it’s the same
ah no Thomas you’re wondering what would
you do if you were to find an elephant
tusks on the ground I think it depends I
probably wouldn’t pick it up
I would notify the sabi sand Vil team I
would give them a call in where I am and
say we have found an elephant tusks
would you like to collect it would you
like us to hold it in an area for you
but of course you had risk if you caught
you you know you holding something like
that people come and poach these animals
for their ivory and so I probably just
leave it in the bush and give the
location of where it was to the
conservation team they would then come
and collect it and I would assume that
they have a big vault or safe of sorts
where they will keep rhino horn where
they will keep elephant tusks and if
anything like that is of course palm on
the property and of course if they do
catch poachers and they confiscate horns
from them that’s where they’ll go
now we’re looking at those teeth Fox you
were wondering if the teeth ever fall
out or they’re just wear it to wear away
completely they actually do fall out
sometimes the elephant’s most of the
times in fact the elephant just ends up
swallowing them black you would as a kid
when you lose your bein your milk teeth
or baby teeth and and then they come out
in the don’t or maybe they could come
loose
you know biting down on something hard
one that’s at the end of its end of it
serve food shop I mean doing its
troubles it’s smooth and so yeah very
lucky and many of you found them once
before in the Eastern Cape
I’m elephant teeth which require couch
at home somewhere I’ve not yet stole
them was amazing right now something
that’s really quite fun to watch is of
course elephants that are about to have
a swim and it seems as though Steve’s
elephants are very excited about the
water
yes thanks very much Taylor
ever breeding herd of elephants that’s
about to surround us and then a whole
lot of them down by the water itself
right now having a drink and there’s two
very cute and very playful little babies
there destroyed’ do elephants get
jealous of newborns siblings I’ve never
heard of them doing that I think they
like to play with each other they might
get quite boisterous but I don’t think
they get jealous they enjoy the company
we are surrounded right now by elephants
and now this other female probably the
one with the baby see they’re quite
relaxed it’s gonna walk right in front
of us now you can see her eyes I could
see her has a very soft she’s gonna come
as close as she wants to
she’s very relaxed really a metre in
front of my car now it’s okay mama here
comes the youngsters just precious it is
absolutely precious and we’ve got
another one here it’s being very
boisterous
and the rest of the herd is about to
come now and this is the smallest member
of the herd and if she’s about to come
pass the car they’re very excited look
at her
oh him I don’t know hello it’s okay it’s
okay it’s okay it’s okay it’s just the
most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever
seen I’m gonna turn around again and
then we can have a look at them drinking
you notice that they weren’t bothered by
by us at all they saw us a long time ago
they heard us they smelt us they walked
right past and the behavior of the
babies if the adults were not relaxed
those babies you wouldn’t even see them
they’ll just disappear inside the herd
Sam I’m not gonna go too much further I
think this is gonna work are you happy
with that okay let me just move my head
what more can you do then just observe
so what are saying is that if the
elephant’s weren’t relaxed they wouldn’t
have come as close to us as they did and
if there weren’t relax the babies would
disappear you wouldn’t really notice the
that the communication happened but
you’d see the babies disappear in
amongst the hood and they would form
sort of like a phalanx around them with
the bigger females protecting them and
even though they were relaxed
my heart is can beating it’s being
surrounded by elephants like that is
such a special feeling and they’ve
chased the Egyptian geese off the island
little baby is I think it might be the
umbilical cord actually you say that
Becks it is keeping up with mum how
beautiful is that it’s more ears than
anything else so if that female was not
relaxed you wouldn’t see that yang said
wouldn’t be just
running around like that and about to
join the frame is about to open and
you’re bout to see all the elephants in
the hood doing their thing absolutely
sensational we come here quite often but
you can never get bored of a society
like this of elephants at Chitra damn
absolutely fantastic and what is
happening on the left hand side folks is
there’s an enormous herd of buffalo that
is coming down to drink I don’t know
what to do said are we gonna look at
elephant are you look at Buffalo let’s
look at the Ellie’s for a while longer
okay let’s go across to the buff they
are emerging down to the water’s edge in
on mess to drink this is a fantastic day
they come what did the viewers like to
see elephants buffalo both of them
there’s a huge herd of buffalo still
coming food the bushes there they always
drink at least twice a day
guess I’m gonna hold off speaking
shortly we’ve got the little young
elephant up on this side it’s a busy
having a swim just above my head here
look at that little one isn’t it having
so much fun this is marvelous just legs
everywhere everywhere the thing goes
it’s just Lakes
good afternoon and welcome ladies and
gentlemen we are at Chitra dam with
their herd of elephants a pod of hippos
and an enormous herd of buffalo that is
coming down to drink please feel free to
drop your comments in below my name is
Steve Faulconbridge I’m joined by Subaru
um be on camera we’ve come down in the
late afternoon to try capture some
animals at the water’s edge and we have
been very fortunate with not only the
small breeding herd and their young baby
that is absolutely loving the water look
at that open with the complete
excitement coming from Juma in the sabi
sands Chitra dam I have no words folks I
have no words for this is the cutest
thing you’ll ever see still got its
umbilical cord attached it’s following
mum very closely it has had an
absolutely lovely little swim and the
others behind they are also enjoying a
bit of a swim elephants need to drink a
lot of water every day and there are the
only animals I know of that play like
this they come down to the water to swim
to cool themselves and there’s an
enormous enjoyment factor behind it yes
Michelle it is a beautiful beautiful
elephant family and they are drinking
and swimming and having an absolute
whale of a time there they go
when you weigh as much as an elephant
being in water makes them quite buoyant
so it’s the first time in their life
that they can feel the weightlessness of
their enormity with the Sun setting in
the background the elephant herd to the
right is slowly going off into the
sunset with the littlest member of the
group right next to mums legs
it is just too cute she would stay close
to Mum for the first most years of her
life she’ll stay all kids Lind likes a
plain water indeed indeed splash around
it is a marvelous time for them there’s
nothing more fun than watching elephant
Maggie this elephant brings me so much
joy too before we went live in this
broadcast we had them actually walk
right next to the car and the youngster
barged it’s oldest sibling out the way
so it didn’t come as close to us as it
was going to and was really quite
special as the elephants have seemed to
finish their play and finished their
their drink they’re going to slowly make
their way off into the vegetation to
continue their seemingly endless feeding
nice and wet and cool for the afternoon
with a smile on its face
they almost look very chuffed don’t
they’re the Roman we are coming to you
from the sabi sands in the greater
Kruger National Park South Africa and
that youngsters trying to suckle they
sought a youngster that is a huge
elephant is trying to suckle and it’s
being tolerated what are you doing
that’s very interesting it’s probably
his mum anyway or her mum looks like a
he Wow and mum looks like she’s pregnant
it’s possible that she’s lactating do
you because she’s got a baby on the way
so in Juma we actually had Chitra dam in
the sabi sands Kruger National Park
northeastern part of South Africa in the
province of Puma langa and there we get
the elephants as they start to move over
the dam war now before we lose sight of
anything else we’re going to go a little
bit on to the left of the dam and where
we have an enormous herd of buffalo that
have come down to drink and the Buffalo
when they come to drink they basically
drop their almost their diaphragm you
could say and they can take in about
thirty six litres of water
a couple of minutes it’s an enormous
amount of water to take in there they
are
nice big breeding herd and they’re just
having a look at another vehicle a
vehicle has come into the sighting one
of the the chip two vehicles have come
to have a look at these beautiful
dangerous animals one of the big five
and we always seem to have lion prides
following the buffalo so it’s a nice
animal species to follow they are very
easy to follow because of the the mess
that they leave behind and the tracks
Pradeep wants to know if that baby
elephant running is not going to get
tired well mum will keep her pace
exactly where it needs to be to
facilitate that youngster it won’t she
won’t run as far or go as far as as as
she would with older older older
siblings or older offspring but with the
younger ones she has to match her pace
and the distance she goes to that one’s
energy so I hope that answers your
question we still have her on the damn
war with the youngster which is now
catching up on a little bit of muck from
Mom’s belly
from mums mammary gland there she is
right underneath is she sucking no she’s
just sheltering underneath mum basically
telling my McKay mom I’m tired we can’t
run anymore and mum won’t go any further
than she needs to just gently walk with
her until they get to where they need to
the trumpet of the youngster that is
trying to climb trying to climb the hill
well while we watch the last scenes of
this youngster very hard trying to climb
up onto the wall we’re going to say
goodbye to all of your viewers on this
short broadcast and thank you for
joining us if you’d like to continue
watching
we are still live for another 45 minutes
half an hour
so please just Google Safari Live and
follow us and we’ll see you later have a
fantastic evening
and you are back with us ladies and
gentlemen I hope you’ve been enjoying
this little scene unfolding in front of
us a trip to them it is always a very
nice place to come to at this time of
day we’re always rewarded with marvelous
scenes and there’s nothing quite
majestic as majestic as a herd of
elephant moving across the dam wall am I
trying to get us a bit closer to these
Buffalo said what do you think we’ve
seen some nice illy shots there let’s go
and have a look and see okay well we
gonna quickly go over to Brent who’s got
some action oh here we got Camrys up in
the tree and there’s actually – I can
see – there might be a few more hyenas
about as well below him so he’s taking
up what little remnants of food he had
and he’s really just trying to get the
last little meat out of the vertebrae
there oh isn’t that beautiful
and you can see the hyenas hoping for
him to drop whatever little is left so
someone asked a bit earlier today
whether the hyenas were still around or
they’d gone away as I said they were
just sleeping somewhere close by there’s
very little food left on there and what
makes hyenas so incredible that they are
able to survive off the little scraps
they do hunt a lot for themselves but
their patience is is undeniable when it
comes to you oh there’s another eye in a
key so now we’ve got three hyenas
there’s one coming in from behind us and
we’ve got this one right under the tree
lots of ticks all those ticks or wounds
zoom up on the neck there the wound
battle-scarred hyena hyena coming in
from behind you as which sides gonna
come but too much to your right sins
here we go
no the hyena coming in
Oh one shot dropped my head coming right
around the front of the car now okay
look at that
now toon is wondering how do you tell
male and female hyenas apart it
generally you look at their tummies
so the tummies are sort of the easiest
way to tell a male and female a hyena
apart the males is that that’s
definitely a female but the male’s
stomach sort of graduates upwards in a
sort of straight line while as the
females is a bit more rounded there’s a
third out is the third how unit just
walking parts disappeared let’s have a
look at hooker Morey up there in the
tree again Oh quickly across to Steve
yes ladies and gentlemen for the
sensitive viewers we are having
something very special happening right
now can you see those hooves there is a
female Buffalo giving birth right now
live live there it is look at that that
is the notice and the feet coming
through and see what the mucus of the
placenta coming out the buffalo herd is
staying very vigilant around this female
unbelievable I’ve never ever seen
anything like this in my life
look at those ears sorry that they have
the Buffalo moving in the way there’s
nothing we can do about it
good afternoon a very warm welcome to
all of you on this stream please pay
attention we have got a female Buffalo
that is giving birth alive on on the
show happening in real time this is a
cape buffalo and we’re not gonna go away
from it my name is Steve Faulconbridge
and we’ve got saved rom be on camera
please feel free to send your comments
through to the on the chat below let us
know what you think your questions this
is happening the cape buffalo giving
birth right in front of us I’ve never
ever seen anything quite like this
before she doesn’t seem too stressed but
the herd is quite anxious it’s quite a
tricky position to be in I’m not sure
how long this is supposed to take but
you can see the hooves in the nose of
that youngster as it’s starting to come
out incredible staff ladies and
gentlemen we will have other vehicles in
the sighting so if you do hear vehicles
we do apologize yes Linda Linda she can
do it she can do it yes you can see
their boobs themselves are very
unscratched yes Michelle fantastic stuff
amazing Michelle I’m speechless
I don’t really know what to say yes
Paula those are the front feet of the
hooves and the nose you can see other
youngsters jumping around this one seems
to be a little bit late it generally
breed in January so this one’s about two
months late I don’t know if this is
normal that it’s taking so long but you
can see how the other Buffalo are very
interested they know what’s going on the
males are standing around in God they
know that they can’t move off because
this female will not be able to follow
them for some time and as I said we are
joined by other vehicles in the sighting
so I do apologize
could you hear the other vehicles yes
grace this is unbelievable stuff we are
very lucky indeed Barbara would like to
know if the baby would be breathing it
doesn’t seem like it is I don’t know
actually I mean the eyes are still
closed I was watching for some breath I
think maybe it needs to hit the floor
before to start breathing hit the floor
to sort of to stimulate those lungs
absolutely incredible
live focus is happening in real time
said indeed this is a first for me I’ve
never in my life seen an animal give
birth I’ve seen an elephant – at the end
of birth but I actually didn’t see the
process unfold
so they are the vehicles you probably
hear vehicles moving around is that the
headstone to come out here it comes
ladies gentlemen come on the final push
here we go the hardest part is done come
on man come on man be a good mother
squeeze there we go this is so
incredible ladies and gentlemen
so incredible come on mama
everyone’s cheering it we’re all
cheering here one final push and we’ll
see the explosion of fluids as the baby
is ejected out there we go the eyes are
opened it has open ladies gentlemen here
it comes final push here’s Astana to
twitch happy birthday baby Buffalo there
we go ladies and gentlemen oh my word
did you see that and out comes the
placenta now the female will turn around
and lick the baby she’ll lick it try and
get it to stand up it needs to stand up
within minutes after breath says to be
able to follow the herd this is a very
dangerous time for baby Buffalo to be on
the ground predators will come in they
will pick out the easiest and the
quickest to catch and that’s why the
Buffalo stand around very very alert
they would be very very aggressive
towards a lion or leopard that decided
to come in here
it’s one of the chips of vehicles coming
around obviously this is fantastic SEP
to see there we can see one of the Bulls
standing over yes telly it is amazing
they know what’s going on they know that
she’s giving birth it’s not the first
youngster in the herd there’s quite a
few than that she is a bit late she’s a
bit late is the herd they’re all
standing by normally they would have
left by now after drinking make their
way art how fantastic was that that was
alive ladies gentlemen I initiate there
you can see she’s busy licking her she
will lick the baby get all of that
placental juice and fluid off of her
it’s also important because the the
mother will often eat the placenta to
get back those nutrients that she’s lost
during the birth I know that must sound
quite disgusting to most of you back
home but his part and past what happens
Archer they do lose a lot of energy in
processes like that and it will benefit
her immensely to be able to clean that
baby and the baby there you can see its
head in the bottom left of the picture
you surfaces it’s very fast years I
don’t know how long it’s supposed to
take but the herd was probably here for
about 15 minutes before we came and
joined them it’s possible that that
baby’s nose and feet were protruding the
entire time very unsure one of the other
guards was watching when who came and
said she’s giving birth Melanie would
like to know when will it stand it will
stand as soon as it can American between
ten and fifteen minutes the Yanks will
get up on very unsteady Lakes and it’ll
have to follow the herd as it moves away
from the water this is probably going to
be the hardest few hours of its life but
if it makes it through the night it will
only get better Jason you have
goosebumps I think we all have
goosebumps look at her what a proud
mother she is probably not her first
offspring she looks like she’s a few
years of age probably enough her late
teens even not late teens but they
see the placenta hanging out of her
unbelievable ladies and gentlemen but I
want to go any closer for fear of
disturbing them I’m gonna stay right
where we are I know you’re all hoping it
will stand up soon I don’t know how many
minutes said if you’ve seen this before
Zeb thinks this is amazing he’s never
seen it before I don’t know how many
minutes it’ll take but it will stand up
in the next little while not sure how
long but let’s keep watching and see
what happens
Lisa I’d like to know how long the
hurdle wait before the leave I don’t
know Lisa um it really depends on the
status of this female if this is one of
the lead females the hurdle wait until
she’s ready to move if this is one of
the old sort of females that’s got no
status anymore she’s not really a
important breeding female or herd
matriarch then the herd will maybe just
leave her behind
but are there we go she’s trying to get
her to stand up she’s trying to get her
to stand up lavinda would like to know
how far the smell of birth would go
honest you don’t know I know a lot of
the animals are sure when they give
birth the baby itself is actually almost
completely free of scent it’s another
reason why the the mother licks them but
the afterbirth itself must have some
form of smell will definitely attracts a
Mahina in the night but there’s not a
breath of air at the moment it requires
a little bit of air to carry the scent
and as we sitting here it is is as cool
there is no wouldn’t whatsoever and
she’s a very proud mother look at her
she’s smiling for the camera game did
you get that I would like a copy one for
the photo album Kathy would like so if
the hippos would come and investigate I
don’t know if they would it’s possible
that walk past I mean it’s not an
unlikely that that a crocodile might
come up and find the afterbirth they can
smell meat and stuff on the banks only
about maybe 50 60 meters from the
river’s edge itself and there were some
crocodiles in
in the water before there’s a nice
decent herd of buffalo you can see they
just know that something’s going down in
the hood and they’re very very relaxed
and willing to wait it out I think she’s
quite a high-ranking female and the herd
is very very willing to allow her to do
her thing and allow the next generation
of the dominance because that youngster
if she is a dominant female will inherit
her mom’s status within the herd
absolutely sensational absolutely
sensational shaking it off is it going
to try stand up come on everybody let’s
give it some support I think it’s trying
where where all the cheerleaders are
they come on young Buffalo Paula would
like to know if there’s something wrong
with the baby would they rejected or
Tecates they would probably just leave
it behind and if there’s something wrong
with it if I can’t get up and follow the
hood it will not be able to survive mom
might stay a day or two if the
youngsters deformed or has something
wrong with it it’ll basically stay root
is and will be very quickly taken care
of by animals such as lion hyena and
even Leopard Lynne we don’t know if any
predators are directly in the area we do
know that King Ghana was seen in Chitra
Tipler lodge itself this morning which
is just on the other side of the dam
from where we are now and it’s possible
that this activity of the Buffalo might
attract his attention we are keeping our
eyes very firmly on everywhere we can
see but there are other vehicles in the
sighting I’m sure if they spotted a
leopard moving in they’ll be very quick
to tell us but the Buffalo who would be
very quick to tell that ting Ghana the
male leopard what’s to do with himself
and we’ll have absolutely nothing to do
with him
if he comes anywhere near not only a
threat to that newborn he is a threat to
a number of the other calves within the
hood and the ultimate life is dependent
on the big males that are hanging around
just waiting for any form of agnostic
behavior from a predator so folks we’re
gonna say good night to you from this
medium thank you for joining us if you’d
like to continue watching please Google
Safari Live we are still on air for
another 15 minutes are you going to stay
and see if this youngster managed to
stand so for all your questions comments
are thank you have a fantastic evening
the hippos are shouting it is getting to
their time of night when they are went
in to emerge from the waters for feeding
and look at that Buffalo how marvelous
is this ladies and gentlemen welcome
back to all our regular interview
internet viewers we’re all cheering for
this Buffalo to stand I wonder how long
would it take the mother is very very
excited to welcome the new member to the
herd what a beautiful mother she is and
how well she did in that childbirth here
we go it’s trying with the front legs
okay so seeing as I’m stealing all the
action and the show let’s go for a quick
update to Brent and hookah money Oh her
camera is still munching on the remnants
of that foodie carcass not much left so
it’s unlikely he’s gonna be here
tomorrow he’ll probably be out on the
move patrolling his recently gotten
territory and I’m the interesting to see
if him and ting gana eventually ever do
come to blows but incredible to see a
live Buffalo birth with Steve it is
absolutely amazing
isn’t that exciting a live Buffalo birth
very very cool not something you see
every day so I won’t done Steve
all right place at the right time we’re
gonna search at with Herkimer reefer but
longer I think he might come down the
tree in the next little bit so we’re
gonna keep watching him and let’s have a
look and he’s almost nothing left on
that carcass at the moment
okay he’s definitely not oops where the
hyenas he’s just dropped it he’s going
down quickly my eanes might come rushing
in
yeah the hyenas are running in oh dear
Hawker Marie that wasn’t very clever Oh
happy hyena tail up chasing off the
leopard and he goes he’s in front of us
through there
okay he’s stopped now there we go wasn’t
that exciting I mean it didn’t look like
anything exciting was going to happen
here and Steve had all the action but
the hyenas definitely came in at the
right time as he lost concentration
slightly and dropped that vertebrae now
I want to make sure we don’t lose them
because I have to say I think he’s going
to move now and and in this low light
you can lose a leopard in a few seconds
here we go just have a quick look at the
hyena munching crunch crunch well there
was almost nothing left to be honest say
he didn’t lose too much
quickly back across to Steve trying this
gentleman in here your support from afar
the front legs have tried the back legs
have tried now he just needs to get them
at the same time mom is being very
patient and very accommodating to this
new addition she’s giving him up it’s a
proper lick all over we don’t want to go
any closer I went to disturb them in any
way not only is that young Buffalo not
ever seen a car before it’s never seen
grass before never seen anything before
now it is surrounded by family it is a
new day for it even though it is night
coming in tonight I don’t think it knows
quite what is going on
and it is the temperatures have dropped
a little bit and it’s possible that it’s
a little bit cold because it’s so wet
hello Aidan age six here we go you would
like to know if the baby could hurt its
head on the drops of a grounder
it is very possible but these animals
have been breathing like this for many
many many years and so if it did
influence then they would change their
ways so what often happens is the fall
to the ground actually they fall kind of
sideways and they land with their legs
because their legs come out the same
time as the head they kind of land on
those front legs that kind of hits the
lungs between the front legs and that
almost stimulates them to take a kick
the gospel air mom’s helping it up come
on they Rico a little one it’s very
shaky
it’s very shaky on its legs look at the
umbilical cord I have absolutely no
words what a proud mama gorgeous baby
that is come on take a few more steps
forward I absolutely love my job
this is this is terrible way to spend
the afternoon
zip said to me when it came out he wants
a very interesting job today because he
hasn’t had an interesting Drive in a few
days and so I said don’t worry good
vibes you will get one and known behold
we had one of the cutest and four bumps
there he goes one of the cutest elephant
sightings with the young babies and now
we’ve got a live Buffalo birth court on
safari life isn’t that just the most
incredible thing that is I think the
most incredible thing I’ve ever seen the
live birth waiting to get it to to stand
up everyone’s a friend sitting on the
edge of their seat
we’ve got leopards and hyenas on the
other end of the phone and yet we want
to watch a baby buffer
don’t we yes we do you don’t get to see
this every day folks in my 10 years in
the bush I have never seen this before
we are very very lucky right attainment
right the time and right place is all it
is
young Buffalo is still struggling the
rest of the herd is slowly starting to
bed down get the feeling they might have
taken the cue from this mum and are
going to just relax a little but take
their time wait for the morning before
moving off there you can see them
if folks are from acid aside we got the
baby he did stand up are we gonna go
over to branches got some action welcome
Ori is walking this Castillo boy is off
to my ears just popped out into the road
unfortunately fast he’s heading in the
wrong direction I’m sorry I’ve just got
a car behind me so I just need to make
sure they can see him as well
that he’s coming back
that’s good of you having a good smell
good scent mark maybe we’ll get lucky
and he’ll give us her a little core oh
he is a beautiful boy
he’s definitely setting up shop now he
wouldn’t take that much time sent
marking what not if he didn’t feel
comfortable in this area
I love it when male leopards do that put
their head into the trees give me a good
sniff before scent-marking
I get let’s move again think you might
go for a drink at the pan
he’s just going down to the water just
behind this let’s push out
well it seems like Steve has got lots
and lots of babies today yes we do just
had the little baby hippo out the water
has gone back in Beck’s wants to know
what are we doing to her today because
there’s lots of babies and there’s
another one about to emerge just here on
the left looks like that youngster is
about to come out just being spoken to
hang on a second
standing by yeah last I heard is his
mobile towards the boundary but that’s
all I could hear but his scent marking
and moving towards Gary okay so the
hippo is being shy has gone back into
the water seems like we have been having
an amazing afternoon for babies and the
like and how marvellous is that
marvelous is that well we’re gonna start
carrying on we’re gonna move back to get
back to camp because what else could we
see on this evening’s activity Thank You
chipper for once again providing sever
myself with some magical magical stuff
this is exactly where we came to or my
interview drive and again it is full of
wonders and from myself and separ I
think that’s might be I lost a little
bit we gonna go up to Taylor and she’s
gonna say goodnight herself well got no
good updates for you no tracks of
shedule a young female leopard coming
out of anywhere so good news means that
she’s probably around here in the bush
some way so we will come back and check
first thing tomorrow morning
have a little look I’ll be on bush walk
though and that’s well that’s the plan
we’ll see what we can find and try it
all again but anyways off you go across
your brains his catch is having another
drink
knew as he had a quick little drink at
the pan and now I sort of trying to
decide which way to go next
I’m hoping he heads sort of North East
deeper into Juma and a not south way
from Jima and we’re very very close to
the boundary no more than about 60
meters and they’re really hoping that he
decides to not head south at all I’m
just listening now he’ll probably not
move too far before resting up at the
moment and with that full belly you
probably will sleep a little while I was
hoping he’d give us a little sore
proclaiming territory and I’m pretty
sure of ting ganas at chitwa chitwa
you’ll hear that from
and he’ll definitely yeah okay Maury
calling and good news again he’s heading
deeper into Schumer he’s not heading
towards the boundary anymore isn’t that
exciting
that’s very good news unfortunately is
just passing behind a vehicle damage
cannot see where he’s moving when he’s
very very close to the cause and he’s
not as relaxed as other mail papers
around the vehicles so I’m not gonna
move the car just yet it was a weight
that I can see that he’s far enough
where he is okay hold on
looks like he might take a walk down
towards treehouse waterhole oh he’s
right behind me he popped up right
behind me I’m after wait for him to pass
where is he since has he gotten up okay
thanks changed his mind decided to walk
right past the cart even while I was
moving
okay well it’s nearly the end of the
Safari I’m gonna try to get you one last
view of the Magnificent automotive as he
walks and down and towards treehouse
damn so we got a good idea about where
to start looking for him
bright and early tomorrow morning oh
here he is
we’re gonna let him disappear around the
corner on his way to treehouse waterhole
hopefully we’ll have luck with him
tomorrow morning while he continues on
his territorial takeover of Jummah so
from all of us here at safari live Bhan
we and see you in the morning
you
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this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and carcasses viewer discretion is
advised
welcome to another sunny day in South
Africa we are now in the area where the
hockey Murray oh look at him oh he’s
beautiful
the hooker Murray male leopard is we’ve
just spotted him now behind the tree
there’s a tiny little bit of food left
behind you can see him in the dappled
light there a beautiful big male leopard
this is my first time what my second
time seeing him I saw him on foot this
morning and he’s the new the new boy in
the western sections of of Juma and
pushing ting Garnett further to the east
see where he’s off to him I head off for
a drink it is nice and warm about 27
degrees Celsius 80 Fahrenheit so not
blistering by any means but definitely
warm Aki is gonna lie down this move a
little bit remember this is a hundred
percent live and what a wonderful way to
start the afternoon Safari so while I
try get you a better view of oh c’mon
let’s go across the meadow makayley well
I can’t tell you how excited Breen has
been all day long trying to find what
he’s been bragging about it all morning
how he’s going to get morning my name is
Taylor mccurdy and on camera with me is
David we’ve got some crazy squirrels
going up and down the street it’s you
figured I come out I doubt it though
because they like to hide away but
they’re up in this what have we got
not for now it’s black monkey orange and
there’s some nice cavities there
hopefully they’ll come back out again
perfect habitat for squirrels in fact
and they’re quite entertaining at the
moment because when we do find them
normally they’ve got big marilla nuts
running around in their mouths stashing
them away in preparation for the dry
times that are ahead because winters on
its way how cool is that now if you
haven’t joined us on a safari before
it’s good to have you on board remember
you can chat to all of us you can
hashtag Safari live on Twitter or you
can talk to us via the YouTube chat I
think I may be a bit closer to this tree
they don’t trust us hey David I wouldn’t
trust me either if I was an animal off
we go so our plans this afternoon are to
try and find it which is a female liquid
that Steve had this morning on the
Safari so that’s what we’re gonna do
we’re gonna have a little scrounge
around and see if we can pick up on
where she’s gone to we have already
checked Gallagher pan thinking and it’s
a hot day she did have a meal she’s
probably going to one to have a drink
but sadly no luck
what we will do though is go down to the
original spot where she was and see if
she’s maybe just somewhere around there
right off you go those two brains who
already has a leopard it’s always very
exciting to see a leopard you’ve never
seen before and particularly a new male
with all the sort of dynamics that
change and he is really really beautiful
he is very fat and happy at the end and
can see eyes closed and he’s lucky it’s
not too hot today now of course I’ve
been gone for so long I don’t know too
much about the whole camera so if
anyone’s got some information for me it
was apparently it’s a Miss ID he’s not
from the hooker Murray in Ottawa he
could be from somewhere else so if
anyone’s got some information about the
hooker more email it but for me I would
love to have it
hashtag Safari live it would be great to
see if you guys know a bit of his
history and where he’s from
and I nearly forgot to tell you I had oh
it’s the boys from the borough on Drive
today so sends I owe myself for both
from the same small town were born in
the same small town in the kwazulu-natal
Midlands so nice to be back on the
vehicle with sense
and I said look like a could format what
we could see or could who or big in
yalla difficult to say actually and
there’s a tiny bit of meat up in the
tree there was nothing left now there’s
some more on the ground but I think the
majority of the caucus was stolen by
hyenas at some point early this morning
is that the piece of meat
yes well spotted their sins there’s a
piece of meat in the grass there
you can see how well his camouflage
works in the shade like that how those
rosettes break up his outline and make
them that’s what makes them one of the
more difficult animals to find often but
here on Duma we are very lucky with the
amount of leopards we see now since I’ve
just seen how koumori and a workout
could be how many leopards I’ve seen on
a Juma in my time with Safari live now
of course the Queen
Garuda I heard two boys quarantine and
kanuma so I mean was it kuru their
quarantine kanuma in Villa ting Ghana
shadow I’m not gonna count I suppose I
should count the Cubs and and and and
that have died no may be honest I can’t
be comforted that’s a bit morbid so ones
that have made it to adulthood so a
shadow and Salah Heche qua Tila Ingrid
dam which is now du Loup in cheela and
that’s ten obviously yeah
Sanne and Sangeeta
twelve tumba Tandi gajima
keep going and it must be more I don’t
have to wait cause I was gonna take 116
already and I know I’m missing quite a
few we had some leopard sightings and
little just popped in and out so while I
try to figure that out let’s go back
across to steep to see what his plans
are for the afternoon
good afternoon a German how I hope you
all having a wonderful morning or
afternoon wherever it is you may be
welcome my name is steve falcon rich i’m
joined again by mr. Sibal um be on
camera now we are coming out to
something and we are hoping to see if we
can follow up on any activity of those
Buffalo from this morning but while
we’re doing that we also checking on the
dams who knows what might come in and
out definitely on a day like this it’s
warmed up a bit from this morning we
could have animal movements lots of
elephant tracks around so lucky that
bread’s has managed to find the hookah
moody again all the hard work that the
bush walk team put in this morning is
paying off and I’m sure he told you to
send your questions and comments through
the hashtag so far alive and follow us
on the YouTube stream let us know what
you’d like this afternoon we’re going to
quickly check the dams maybe some lions
had decided to follow those buffaloes in
that could be cool and then barring that
we’re gonna go over to Chitra and see
what’s happening that time so jump on
board fasten your seat belts get your
popcorn and snacks ready let’s have a
fantastic afternoon drive I’m super
excited
Seb is on camera with me as I said in
his super excited he hasn’t been with me
in a few days already said be missing
him so maybe it’ll be a day that hisana
the little prince will the little chief
leopard decides to show himself again
because you all know out there how much
she likes seven myself and he hasn’t had
a cameo for a couple of days I’m sure he
is feeling a little bit left out of the
story with the shadaloo female filling
up the that the air time for the last
two three drives yes yesterday morning
yesterday evening and this morning so
she has definitely taken some of her
saunas airtime and they’re giving Tandy
a little bit of respite so once we check
treehouse dam we’re gonna zoom around
across to our eastern side and see
what’s happening in it happening at
Buffalo and obviously on the way see
with those Buffalo of gone okay so while
we go in search of the water and these
animals this go back to Brent Leo Smith
and they’re very very dangerous looking
who can what
well here we go he’s not looking too
dangerous at the moment is not facing us
it’s just panting heavily and digesting
so our exercise it’s about 27 different
leopards in my time at DeMuth now of
course that’s not really counting the
ones from cheetah planes and chitwa
chitwa and and around us just purely
seen on Juma so quite a few not very
many places in the world can boast in
about two years 27 different adult
methods and I didn’t include a lot of
the Cubs that didn’t make it to
adulthood so I think with those who
could be close to 30
Kathy is wondering has Herkimer
officially taken over Tinga on this
territory not all of it so I would say
her Maria’s doing almost exactly what
Kangana did many moons away many moons
ago he took over the western sections of
villas territory and then and then
Buller moved further to the east and
that’s what’s happening to turn Ghana
now from what chatting to everyone here
it seems like he will go as far as sort
of quarantine maybe as far as the
maratti but for the moment he tends to
be on the south western sections and and
anton ghana still holds most of the
eastern sections now of course that can
change and it all depends on condition
of 10 ghana condition of a Komori it
does another new male come in so this is
quite an interesting time to be watching
the leopards here on Juma because there
is going to be a little bit of upheaval
now of course with her camera moving
into the western sections that has moved
Tandy and cub quite a lot further to the
east and spending quite a lot of time
and Torchwood and what buffle took and I
think well but it all depends if it’s
Andes cab doesn’t make it to adulthood
she will move right back into this area
and happily mate with her koumori and
Jen garner for that matter but up until
that sort of little leopard gets to 16
months 17 months oh maybe a little bit
younger and she’s gonna try avoid her
camera at all costs
oh it seems like what is up is just
turning around to try to find a bit more
comfortable spot because of the heat but
in the meantime it sounds like Steve’s
search of the water horse is paying off
let’s go see what’s about to go for a
swim or drink
thanks brain so we found this young
elephant bull very close to treehouse
Dam not drinking not doing anything too
close to the water but busy feeding be
quite selective of what he feeds on and
he is primarily picking very nice juicy
grasses that are growing off of that
termite map as he slowly disappears
behind it let’s see if we can just move
a few meters forward get him on the
other side he thinks he can hide from us
trying to pull a hookah Maureen with the
termite mounds those of you have been
watching the show notice how KooKoo
Marie really enjoys we got a mare Seb
there we go
so what we do now I mean hookah Mori
likes her too much man she likes to to
find the war talk and get them out of
their burrows but what we do know is the
termites recycle all the nutrients into
the soil and so whatever grows on a
tumor and is generally got a higher
nutrient value then stuff growing around
it and you’ll often find the browsed
vegetation on the termite mound is
always a little bit more then around it
because there’s a few more nutrients and
elephants are smart enough to know that
not that it’s that important this time
of year because there’s nutrients all
over the place there is busy digging in
amongst what looks like a white raisin
one of the grievious species digging in
with his trike trying to pick whatever
grasses might be growing underneath he’s
gonna come around fresh folks there he
is
hello beautiful very easy to see that
it’s a young elephant bull straight away
because you find him on his own you
wouldn’t find a young female on her own
if you did it would be a bit unusual but
I’ve been trying to get him to turn to
see his right yeah because we saw a very
nice bull the other day with her idea
who is playing lots and lots of games of
us and still haven’t seen his right ear
he’s trying to hide it from us but he’s
not behaving the same way as that bull
turd that bull was trumpeting and
running and being very sneaky yep and
that’s the way it the cookie crumbles
and we have lost sight of this beautiful
infant ball but no worry our search
continues treehouse damn there’s not too
much going on so yes Jason Jason can’t
believe how big they are
well Jason that’s quite a small a small
guy actually to get twice as big as that
when you see a a proper elephant bull
one of the big Tuskers you are really
truly mind blown at the size of them I
mean they can get up to 6,000 kilograms
so that’s about 13,000 pounds when I was
in the 1d National Park a few years ago
they I’m having an aptitude hash of a
turn around here I do apologize I
reversed into a bush that had very sharp
spines in it and I’m you know sips my
good friend I don’t want to injure him
but today hey Debbie and I was in the
one day National Park 2 years ago with
African parks they were doing some
translocations of the elephants there
Prince Harry was there and each elephant
that was picked up so their data they
were moving it from luanda up to and
code to code so park for the north where
the poaching has decimated the the
elephant in the north and now African
parks is they’re managing and really
really sorting out everything that’s
going on so they were going to move 500
elephants in two years so they’ve moved
about 280 something in the first year
and an hour’s there during that period
and I was fortunate to be involved with
the removal of nine the family herd of
nine but they were weighing every
elephant that went on because the crane
that picked the elephant up had a big
scale on it and the one elephant bull
weighed six thousand eight hundred
kilograms that’s just incredible it’s
incredible size and he wasn’t even the
biggest bull that they’d seen in the
reserve so I think a lot of what we
think of with regards to elephant weight
is is a guess because they did used to
to cull elephants back in the park in
the Kruger back in the day but I doubt
they actually had the mechanisms to
weigh what those elephants weighed it’s
possible they just calculated what they
got out of it effort at the abattoir so
to speak but 6,800 is an enormous
enormous elephant kilograms so if you
just times that by 2.2 I think that is
ridiculous Beck says can you see
guru over there Ravindra wants to know
but if elephants have six layers of skin
Reuven dad don’t know about six layers
and now they’ve got an outer sort of
sort of the the the hide layer then
there’s a lot of fatty muscle tissue
inside but I really have no idea the
number of layers I know that this
estimated to be about a hundred thousand
muscles in the elephant’s trunk which
allows you to turn the trunk right left
at the end look up towards the mouth and
also that typical sort of trumpet lifts
up in front of it and also each of the
valves are able to work independently so
they can have the trumpets or suck of
water you’re just losing sight of a
little of a female kudu they I think you
know is that a young male young male
just with the little horns and another
one is coming in from the back they’re
absolutely fantastic how we can get kudu
in this environment and they are so
invisible the one that wasn’t that
invisible was the one that hukum Orion
as hyena have decimated and Brent if you
were watching this morning offered me up
some liver which was awesome not really
but let’s go back over to Brent at the
jokester and see what is happening to do
with mr. CooCoo Murray
yes it was quite funny to try to get
Steve to eat some liver I’m just moving
because he was look like he was about to
go up the tree but he is up their ears
now he’s not as relaxed as some of the
leopards we get here so he’s by no means
unrelaxed but I just don’t like moving
too much or too quickly around him I
think he might be going for a drink
Elizabeth is wondering how does Hawk
Marie’s size compared to other dominant
males and now that I can see him up a
little bit and on the move he’s a he’s a
good good sized male leopard you
probably a little bit smaller than 10
gana Winton ghana’s at his prime but
often that doesn’t mean anything cause
if you look at him bulla bulla was
actually very small for a dominant male
leopard but often it’s not the size of
the cat but the size of the fight in the
cat and as I said I think he’s heading
down to have a drink so what I’m going
to do I just want to make sure where
he’s going is he does have some meat
stashed down here as well and that was
the original meat we found as I said I
don’t want to pressure him too much and
I say I don’t know this leopard as well
as I know the other leopards so I’m
gonna give him a fair bit of distance
and respect I don’t want him to become
as relaxed as tungare and the other
other big males we get in this area so
we don’t want to put too much pressure
on him so we’re just keeping our
distance while he’s moving when he lies
down or or what not then we’ll stop a
fair distance away so I’m hoping he’s
going to go climb up that fallen I think
it was a fallen nabh4 and if I remember
correctly where that’s where I got
Steve’s liver from this morning was
around here so this is what happens does
it look like he caught the kudu drinking
at a pan oh it’s gonna be nice light get
ready with your screen shots
I found something in the grass there I’m
sure that as I said is there’s lots of
bits of meat spread out over quite a
distance
isn’t that beautiful and then afternoon
light now guide monkey says what I was
asking a question is it is it fair to
say that predator territories are more
about sort of avoiding or finding the
the least confrontation for the best
territory rather than over resources I
would say that plays a part of it but I
would say a resource and female
availability is what drives predator
territories specifically when it comes
to to the big cats so where you’ve got
an area that’s resource rich you’ve got
a lot of females and a male leopard a
male lion they sort of driving driving
force is to mate and make sure that
their genes get passed on so he’s gonna
have a drink let me just zoom around
quick you know that Lee’s got some space
so this is actually where he killed the
kudu and I’m just gonna try get to the
other side
macaques gonna go find a shady spot to
have a drink oh hold on we’re nearly
there
it’s just have a quick safety shot from
here and let me just see there we go ice
when the trial go very slowly as I said
he’s not quite as relaxed as mr. t and
KY all guys get ready this is going to
be gorgeous look at that face now we’ve
got a nice frontal view of him to know
she’s wondering how do we identify the
different leopards
now of course when you spend a lot of
time with them you get to know them
individually and you can see body shape
size all that type of stuff but the best
way with new leopards is this spot
pattern above the last line of whiskers
so you can see there that last line of
whiskies he’s got three prominent spots
above it so each of those each leopard
has a spot pattern that’s like a
fingerprint
well that nice scar nope he’s got a
character and scar down and just below
his left eye he’s a thirsty boy has
perfect spot where he killed this so
from what it looked like is he actually
caught the animal drinking and then
dragged it away from the water’s edge
and being a big kudu it was too big for
him to hoist and then behind has made
off with some pieces of it he made off
with other pieces of it the little
pieces he did make off with he’s managed
to to hoist into spots and I’m sure the
hyenas are still probably snoozing not
too far away hoping to try get whatever
is left the ultimate object opportunists
my niece wondering why would the hyena
leave when there’s still food there
well Monique what I’m saying is that
they haven’t left there’ll be while it’s
hot they’ll be doing the exact same as
him and you’ll probably find behind is
actually made off with a fair fair
amount of the carcass from what we could
see from the tracks and they will be
some hyenas still in the area but they
also struggle with heat so there
probably is snoozing in the shade
somewhere and as it gets cooler they’ll
probably come back for an expansion
expect another inspection see if he’s
dropped some meat or if he’s abandoned
some of the bones that are too big for
him to crash
the tails wondering will Herkimer is
julep get large as he gets older for
those of you don’t know what a Jew lapis
it’s that little thick loose skin under
his neck now in methods it’s there and
particularly in the male’s it can be
quite pronounced and that thick loose
skin helps protect them when they’re
fighting with other leopards now
probably it will get larger I’m not sure
how old he is and looking at looking at
him I would say and this is a complete
guest you guys are welcome to correct me
and just generally looking at him I’d
say he’s about 7 6 or 7 years old maybe
even as old as 8 maybe a bit younger I’m
not sure I’d say it’s 6 7 years old
actually hear him lapping up the water
so
and one of the reasons I can’t get at
this time of the day he’s probably been
snoozing for the majority of the day
there’s a very good chance especially as
you get some spots coming down just
after three o’clock the afternoon and
they might be coming down for a drink
he has not disappointed
oh he’s heard something did uh you know
Oh
I think there’s a hyena I think there’s
a hyena that’s gone back towards his
food that’s what’s got him up and on the
movie all this big hole we don’t wanna
fall into that we from the tracks we saw
yeah he absolutely gave those hyenas as
good as he got I’ll try to show you that
Cersei is heading back to her words that
meters I said I don’t want to spook him
he should be about to appear in front of
us shortly there he is
okay
his body language change a little bit
maybe he just heard something and he was
just making sure that nothing was going
to try steal the remnants of his carcass
but when he goes flat again because of
donut these are running now oh it’s a
bat earlier a bat earlier was stealing
his food it wasn’t a hyena it was a bird
just took off as he ran towards the tree
again it’s just
have a quick look at because you might
even go up the tree to the battery I was
stealing that piece of meat from in the
tree and it looks like the battery I
might have knocked it down so let’s see
if he lets just wait here a little bit
see what he does a big boy oh he’s
beautiful so there was some pieces of
meat in the tree and there were some on
the ground it’s likely that vasilyev
might have dropped one of the pieces
onto the ground when it was disturbed by
the leopard running there and now Justin
told me to look at his tongue look at
his tongue it is so long silly looking
cat he might go back up the tree to
check we might just to flop down in the
shade there flop okay well while he
flops down I’m just gonna wait a little
bit to see what happens next while we do
that I know madam mccurdy is searching
for another leopard about 3 to 4
kilometers away from me we are we are
we’re not having much luck though but we
are getting closer to solving the
mystery and what we’ve been doing now is
we’ve basically gone bubbles of boundary
we’ve gone then down the northern part
of sandy patch via Taylor access back up
ovaries
we checked where she was no sign of her
all the way around now we’ve done
Gallagher and we’ve also done Gallagher
shortcuts but we haven’t had any luck
and I haven’t seen any tracks and where
we where she was sorry after net marula
tree it’s almost impossible to have seen
where she went and I didn’t ask on the
radio he was the last person with her
and Sawyer come down the tree and it was
yours fun before look and he then
responded and said as soon as she
dropped to the floor he couldn’t see
where she winked so we’ve been checking
around and around and around to see if
we can figure out where she’s gone I
would I
assume she’s going to go and get water
some way so it’s just trying to find the
pan that she’s gonna drink at maybe
she’s still in this block just to the
waste of us and to the north of us
pretty cool all right very quickly we’re
gonna go across to Steve yeah thanks
very much Taylor we we’re sitting here
with the group of little Peters and they
keep moving off so Seb has been trying
very hard to keep catching up with them
and there is another bird on the left
for the trees well called the ground
scraper thrush one of the nicest birds
archer and we’ve seen them quite
regularly lately very characteristic a
black stripe on the face sort of through
the eye from the eyebrow a very streaky
chest very easy to identify
thrushes versus robin chats which
frequent very similar sort of habitats
is if on the ground you see a bird of
that sort of size if it runs with its
head down and it stands up tall it’s
generally a thrush if it hops around the
same sort of size it’s probably a Robin
Jett so that is something you can do to
help you identify them in the
undergrowth if you don’t get the colors
very well you’ll know at least which
family to go to Robin chat or thrush and
here is the ground a scraper very pretty
bird and bee-eaters are all over the
place yeah in the open feeding on at the
back over there they are just up and
down and service finding it very
difficult to find them there it goes
another one the V eaters like to catch
insects on the wing and there we go
right to the screen said it’s gone
marvellous little he’s landed exactly
back there again
their practice of behavior known as
Hawking where they fly from one perch
and they grab an insect on the wing and
then they will land back on the same
branch and often use that branch itself
to smash the insects on the branch if
it’s a bee helped to remove the sting or
if it is some form of hard shelled
insect use the branch to sort of break
the carapace
open so that the juices can go inside
and get eaten yes joy bee-eaters are so
so pretty we’re very blessed to have
quite a few species down here always
enjoy showing the beat it’s probably one
of the prettiest families out there and
this is the littlest and the most sort
of I think overlooked we do see they
don’t normally Akuma in such large
numbers they are here all year round so
we notice when the Europeans arrived
sometimes when the car mines arrive
they’re very sort of noticeable and the
beach has been quite small seem to just
slip the notice of most people whether
you want to know which Park we’re we’re
and we’re in Juma private night reserve
in the sabi sands greater Kruger
National Park on this sort of
northeastern side of South Africa I hope
that helps the sabi sands as world
renowned for game viewing and for
leopards as you’ve seen with Okamura so
we are now on our eastern boundary with
torture it we’re going to drive up this
road keeping our eyes peeled for any
tracks of tündi and also trying to see
where these Buffalo might have gotten to
on our way up to zero out would like to
know how far apart the guides are from
each other that I will show you on our
fantastic map that Gerry provided she
works in production here we are over
here at the moment we’re about here on
our eastern boundary and where is Brent
is over there so how far is that
probably about two and a half to three
kilometres and Taylor has been working
up in this section over here I’m not
sure exactly where she is now but this
is where we had the shadaloo female this
morning and so she’s checked this whole
area now not sure where she’s going to
go to so we’re on the complete eastern
boundary over here we’re gonna go all
the way up here see if there’s any
activity of Tandy and their cub coming
in while not we’re in the area and also
the Buffalo are probably in this area so
we’ll see if we can find them they
haven’t come to Twin dams or treehouse
it’s possible they might have gone up to
above a sock Dam and what we do know
about the Buffalo is that the lion
prides in the area they like
to follow the Buffalo and also that
young man that little chief leopard or
sauna when he smells a buffalo he likes
to follow them as squat and who is with
Scott and walk the other day was a Jew
said I think it might have been Dave
it’s always David never animals run in
charge it’s always Dave but Scott and
Dave are on foot and they heard the
Buffalo Stampede and they thought it was
the lions chasing them but it was the
little prince
the little chief hasana a two-year-old
male leopard who’s got the most
character in the world and he was all
sis last seen in this sort of area so
who knows where and what we might find
and remember folks everything is
absolutely live coming to in real time
from Juma okay so we’re going to go back
over to Brent with the new and
established Rainer of Juma let’s go back
to Brendan with Waka moody he’s looking
quite comfortable in the grass over the
essay I said I wanted to show you some
tracks a little bit earlier I said I
think that’s what we’re gonna do while
he’s flat cat in the grass making sure
the battle ears don’t come back to steal
his meat let’s go have a quick look at
these incredible tracks so that’s how we
knew something was up when we arrived
when we found his tracks walking in from
the south from outside of Juma so he
came in last night or early this morning
and we saw the tracks going down the
road and then we followed them towards
the pan and then suddenly we saw where
he had been fighting with hyenas and
that’s when we knew something was up so
there’s an incredible spot where he’s
moved the mud that’s been sprayed around
by some elephants and you can see that
he is gripping into leap2a to chase the
hyenas
and it’s just done yet
now this pattern always brings back lots
of memories for me I had some in
credible sightings with Hassan and
shangilia in the rain yeah playing and
jumping up and down all over the trees
we’re probably about 70 or 80 meters
away from him now and I’m just trying to
find this track again
it was so clear this morning but now
that it’s dried out a bit it’s not not
quite as care in the harsh afternoon
lights but so what what looked like
happened in action is to see you can
actually have a look at but I think
happened is he stopped here for a wrist
and you can see where the grass is a
little bit flattened right next to us
yeah so I think he was lying there and
while he was lying here the poor
unsuspecting kudu came down for a drink
now he’s a little bit wider there since
to the left of tiny bit to the other
left so he was there behind that log and
the coot who came down on the opposite
side of that green grass to drink and
from what we could work out he lept
across and grabbed it around we’re just
beyond where that elephant dung is there
there we go and then from that little
corner there of the water where the kudu
was drinking he dragged it off to the
right to that thicket here we go and he
drags it into that thicket there and
then that’s where the hyenas found him
yeah unfortunately the track is not as
clear and I can’t really see where it is
it was so clear when we were on foot but
it’s one of those things
now all the little pieces of liver
including the one I tried to feed Steve
this morning are all gone they I’m sure
the bachelors and Tony eagles and other
well predatory birds and scavenging
birds came and cleaned up that crime
scene now of course when we were there
it was still quite early and a lot of
those birds had not found it yet so
that’s why we were able to see all the
little bits of blood and and all sorts
that were around
oh my god let’s go back into the leopard
so he found his tracks coming in from
that side down this road well hi Walt
waltz would like to know what happens to
a male leopard who uses his territory
well while it becomes a very difficult
time for that male leopard so male
leopards when they become independent
from mom and get pushed out of the area
by their the dominant males in the area
become nomadic and the same thing
happens at the end of a male leopard
side when he has pushed out of his
territory again they will become nomadic
and they tend to sort of try slip
between different male leopard other
male leopards territories a little bit
of long grass there but not too bad so
they’ll slip between different male
leopards territories and try avoid
conflict at all at all costs they still
will try and rob a lot of kills from
females and other young males so they do
move around a lot more than when they’re
territorial males and territorial males
do move around a lot but what they’re
doing is moving around and and and scent
marking and patrolling to make sure
there are no other threats coming into
their territory oh yeah that’s nice of
them to lift his head
and
belly full of kuru alpha well sloshing
with water after that big drink is a
very very tired kitty at the moment very
happy cat as well well are we gonna say
chair a little bit longer I’d like to go
to some of the water holes to see if
there’s any elephants around but in the
meantime let’s go see our Steve’s doing
somewhere else out there in the African
bush Thank You Brent we are doing
fantastically well
it is a lovely afternoon to be on Safari
after the cool conditions of this
morning it is a glorious afternoon hello
lady bird you want to know forget Robins
like the Robin we get in Europe the
red-breasted Robin called the Robin in
Europe let me show you quickly in my
very nice book over here
how many Robins we in fact have we have
got many many many Robins just give me a
moment I’m navigating apologize for the
delay no that is the wrong page sorry
folks
see that’s why I’d like to use my phone
the phone is far easier to use the phone
app give me just a moment so there are
lots of Robins and lots of Robin chats
as well and if I just type in here Robin
okay
scrub Robins Robin chats have a look at
the bird family see here we’ve got lots
of the scrub Robins I’m not sure if the
color is very good on the screen there
here we get bearded Robin beard a
scrubber Robin brown scrub Robin so
these all kind of Bush felts open
grasslands sort
of Savannah specialists and they are all
very very camouflaged and if I go to the
next page hang on there we go here we
get the more colorful a sort of more
woodland forest the top birds the white
Brad Robin chat the wife throats our
other chat caper up and chat and then
the red to capture of and chat over here
which is very very pretty and then over
here some very special ones which you
find mainly in forests and areas I
haven’t even seen it up in the top the
white star Robin very very spot forest
specialist I’ve never seen this
Winterton Robin I think that somewhere
else in in Africa and then that is it
for our Robins but I know in Europe even
Europeans have only got the one
Robin and I have very very territorial
and if you like to see them in your are
in the in Europe they would respond very
very well to that behavior I was doing
the other day that shh-shh-shh
they come and they get quite sort of
Tortola like who’s that who’s in my spot
and it’s awesome to see I really enjoyed
birding in the UK the birds are very
responsive to alarm calls especially in
the oak forests up there
Rob would like to look for some sunbirds
Rob I’d love to show you a sunbed I
don’t know why we don’t see that many I
mean for example the the white-bellied
sunbird is normally a very common bird
in other places I’ve worked as well as
the Mariko sunward around our camp we
get them they are there I don’t know why
on drives I haven’t been seen them but I
will look for a Sun bird for you the red
breasted or the scarlet breasted sun
bird is also very very beautiful haven’t
seen one here um I will make a very good
effort to find you some Sun birds but on
the topic of birds look at the feather I
found only moments before on the road
look at that this is the feather of a
lilac breasted roller and you see that
the colors are they are made up of
carotenoids and melanin and of the Blues
the dark blues is something they called
Tyndall scattering so essentially this
sort of air pockets within the the
feather cells and they reflect the light
in a certain way to give it that
beautiful color there’s no actual
pigment it has carotenoids and melanin
and melanin makes it nice and strong the
Afrikaans word for a roller is called
the croak bunt and for those of you who
don’t speak Afrikaans throw means to
Mary and a bunt is a band so essentially
by giving this to someone you are
committing yourself you could
essentially say would you marry me with
this feather and it is very very common
in culture African culture as well and
chief lobbing gula who was a head of the
in the Bailey’s one of the tribes that
you find in Zimbabwe
he banned any warrior to wear any a
feathers of the Lark Priscilla this was
his bird and if anybody was caught
wearing feathers of the lolly Priscilla
yep he was quite an interesting fella he
was a very very big man and very very
wealthy because he had a lot of his sort
of his his guys in the mining sections
of Africa at the time the gold and the
Diamonds the diamonds and Kimberley and
what he liked to do is a lot of his sort
of
is his people who worked in the the the
the big pit the Kimberly diamond mind
where the Cullinan diamond comes from
just by the way it was given by Cecil
John Rhodes to to the Queen and she
still has that in the crown jewels but
he used to like to cover himself in
honey and stick the Diamonds to his body
because he had many many diamonds
brought back to him from the mines from
his people and he likes to cover himself
in honey and stick them on me until one
day Cecil John Rhodes did him a very bad
did him a very bad deed and ended up
taking Zimbabwe from him by force back
in the day it’s quite an interesting
history Rhodesia it was caught
eventually Robin once know if guinea
fowl are related to Partridge I am Not
sure I mean what is the the genus hmm
there’s a partridge a gala form because
I think galliformes all our Franklin’s
we get share and I think the guinea fowl
also falls into sort of the family or
order of galliformes so if a partridge
does fall into that then yes they would
be related but I honestly don’t know a
lot about partridges apart from the fact
that they occur in a pear tree
is that right am I getting my my
Christmas songs mixed up thanks pecks
you said I am correct okay so yesterday
there was someone who’s very interested
in finding a mongoose track and I don’t
know said if you can get it just over my
shoulder there that’s not very clear
there’s some bird tracks let me jump out
and circle it someone yesterday wanted
to see a mongoose track here we go
actually I’m mistaken now that I look at
it it is a squirrel but here we have the
squirrel toast one two three four five
and a pair and here’s the back foot what
toes nails
who’s going that direction so not a
mongoose my apologies I did look at it
very briefly
I wonder who it was I’m forgetting
history someone wanted to see a mongoose
track we’re always on the lookout for
little checks like that maybe it will be
better on the bush walk okay so the
Taylors are tracking as well let’s go
over to her and see what updates she has
for you well we’re checking one last pan
of water and then we’re done trying to
find a leopard for part of the afternoon
however we’ve checked a variety of
different places where thought we’d find
all sorts of creatures and the only
thing that we have seen this afternoon
will do Johnny here the long list of
animals we’ve seen and birds in the
beginning we saw receive the water was
that the first animal all chunk also did
not want to be on camera twice we gave
at opportunities kept running away we
moved on we have seen two yellow-billed
hornbills fly across the road and one
Impala Ram I like a herd of Impala and
they won in pile around that is the
extent of our animal sightings this
afternoon they’re a little bit on the
quiet side but I do find that this sort
of northwestern corner can be a little
bit quiet other than the Empire hanging
around you don’t normally see much so I
think once we’ve checked this other pan
just off we’re Taylor access we’re gonna
go and look for perhaps some elephants
and I think I think we’ll go up towards
puffles of dam and we have a look around
there maybe we’ll even papa Sydney’s
things like that just see if we can see
any elephants in in the distance but but
it’s okay we’ll get there we’ve also
seen quite a few snake tracks so I’ve
been singing a snake song and I can’t
remember the words to it because I made
it up numb but hopefully we’re gonna see
a pattern here is shopping Phoenix
you’re wondering if there’s any honey
badgers yes there are any badges
they’re just very shy and the best time
to see them is actually early morning
late evenings as the Sun has gone down
here’s a watering hole Oh little
Terrapin gone in the murky waters
so so yeah so they do occur I haven’t
seen a honey badger for ages though we
often just see their footprints
unfortunate with the tall grass it makes
it difficult what we got from the water
today I can see little ripples here and
there one of their little boatman or
just riders skidding across the water
definitely some little midges or flies
of sorts is all black specks that you
can see on the top of the water
we are the swimming ones but not really
a smooth surface it’s kind of like when
you go ice-skating I’ll say this like
I’m a professional I’ve been ice-skating
a whole whole of once but you can see
when the ice gets sort of quite cut up
and it’s not as smooth to skate around
on I wonder if the water Striders and
boatman and things like that struggle to
move around when all that algae forms if
it’s not as easy for them just get
across but a bit difficult to see I
noticed most of these little pans also
getting all this alguna able to see the
water scorpions anyone know they’re like
that though the water scorpions will
enjoy that anything that ambushes as a
hunting technique let’s check those
snakes little pad nice spot a nice
patrulla trees big board beans for
liquids to sit up in I see bubbling
who’s making the bubbles no lots of
bubbles however they could also just be
me thank des pushing up if there’s any
vegetation that is well suppose
decomposing it will give them quite a
bit of that only there’s an African
pygmy hippopotamus in this puddle no
there’s a little Terrapin here though oh
yeah there we go who’s that you see that
someone’s skimming across the water
amazing
well we’ll also continue to keep
checking these muddy wallows for animals
I think the elephants will be heading to
them
Steve however is looking at some more
tracks yes I am thank you and I’ve found
for you the track I was looking for not
the exact track but we have got a track
of a rather large Mongoose and I’m going
to point it out to you if you can’t see
it you know the toes why
two three four and there’s the back pad
that is the one foot and here’s the
other foot I would assume this is the
back and that is the front and it is not
walking on what we call justify so it’s
not standing on mongooses don’t do that
not like cats and where the toes have
pushed forward because the claws you
could see the scuff in the sand and this
is the track of a white-tailed Mongoose
probably the largest mongoose we find in
the area and i heard someone talking
there about honey badgers we found
tracks of honey badgers a few days ago
but what’s very very interesting about
the whitetail mongoose is if you have a
look at the picture itself you can see
the whitetail and you can see the legs
are black the body is black underneath
now when the white cell mongoose is
threatened by a predator what often will
do is it’ll crouch down low will bend
the tail over its back onto its neck and
actually mimic a honey badger because as
we know archer honey badgers are very
very scary and have lots and lots of
sort of what’s the word lots of mouthful
of beans should I say and so an animal
will see the water mom who’s pretending
to be a honey badgers go home hang on
hang on hang on this is not exactly how
I’d like to pull out my evening and then
leave it alone and the white a mongoose
gets up gets away with it so isn’t that
marvelous so the track we can measure it
from there to there that’s about five
and a half centimeters long and
beautiful to be able to see these things
the marvelous thing about trekking is
that you can see animals that are in the
area that you don’t actually see so the
honey badger we got Rex aardvark we got
Rex well I tell Mongoose we put checks
we don’t see them but it’s a passive way
of knowing that animals are in the area
so a very nice way of understanding what
we have and a good way of identifying
animals and areas to clear areas like
this put some form of food down or bait
station and you can actually have animal
tracks coming through and you can
develop an idea it’s not a liquid butter
a species count of animals that you
might find in the area that are very
very seldom seen for example hiking in
Table Mountain I have found tracks of a
leopard never seen a little deer but I
found tracks which is really always very
very cool to know that you’re walking in
an area where you find dangerous cats
and the hikers in front
me didn’t even see them so that’s what I
love about trekking you can always see
what is around even though you don’t see
it okay so the arts of tracking is a
wonderful science let’s go over to Brent
Leo Smith and see what his views are on
the matter well how come where he is
very flat at the moment and almost even
chatting our tracking and the fact that
he saw record tracks on Table Mountain
I’ve seen their tracks in the Kirsten
Bush National Gardens on Table Mountain
as well so they are lipids around those
cape mountain methods however have
incredibly massive home ranges in
comparison to elected here male leopard
in the cederberg or in in those cape
mountains can have a territory of up to
200,000 hectares
so that is for sabi sands and that’s due
to lack of prey availability and that
also causes them to be a lot smaller and
much much smaller who can where he’s
probably 80 kilograms and a male leopard
in that in the cederberg and or than in
the cape mountains is probably only 35
to 40 kilograms so 50% in the weight and
that’s all to do with food availability
now my favorite thing I think about
tracking I don’t know there’s something
I’d to be honest he’s spotted something
how you know coming in no and just put
his head back down again he just jumped
popped his head up for a second there
but everything about tracking I just
love being out on foot
I love having close encounters with big
cats with elephants with with Rhino
Buffalo and it is quite exhilarating and
just to just absolutely adore it now one
other thing Steve was chatting about
Robins a bit earlier now for those of
you in the Europe and UK the closest
Robin to what you call robin redbreast
or whatnot
i’m hard to bring up my big
in terms of looks of course is a forest
Robin there’s quite a few different
color variations of forest Robins I’ve
been lucky enough seeing quite a lot of
them and I’ve seen them in Gabon I’ve
seen them in Congo so there we go the
forest Robbins is probably the closest
in terms of looks to the UK of robin
redbreast oh he’s down again and he’s
just getting hot and moving around so
they occur pretty much in the northern
Congo Basin forests if we have a look at
their distribution map they’re so very
very cool now I’m trying to decide now
whether to move along or sit with her
camera a bit longer so why don’t you
guys just make it easy for me and decide
for me so ash tags fire dive
should we stay or should we go up to you
I don’t think he’s gonna get after too
much but it is just incredibly pleasant
to sit next to a mess of male leopard
he’s it’s always lovely to see them
especially through the grass sometimes
some of my favorite views are leopards
are not way out in the open it’s sort of
views like that where you’ve got the
grass in front of him and so just a
leopard in its habitat a big boy
sheshank is wondering is there any
difference between Jaguars and leopards
yes quite a few they’re indeed a
separate species so that means they
cannot mate and produce viable offspring
and Oh flop a Jaguars is physically much
bigger than a leopard and often going
over 100 kilos where a male leopard of
100 kilos is is is almost unheard of
they’re also far more aquatic than
leopards leopards will swim if they have
to but they don’t really like getting
their feet wet weather is Jaguars will
hunt and swim and lion water to cool off
so of course they have once you’ve
called sort of parallel evolution and
there’s a they have evolved on the other
side of the world literally and the the
dappled markings and spots for
camouflage is a parallel a parallel
evolution there are positive there are
both part of the Panthera family so the
big cats family so they’re both able to
raw but yes yes so there’s quite a lot
of big differences between them it’s
tired kitty
sorry Becks could you go again with that
question that game drive radio is quite
loud
hi TV TVs wondering to what extent to
other lodges share information on
leopard sightings well it all depends on
your Traverse if the lodges traverse
over the same area there’s extensive
information shared there’s actually
whatsapp groups and that all the guides
in the sabi sands are part of so if the
leopard that no one knows arrives you
pop a picture on there and see if anyone
else knows that leopard so we do share
information extensively with the other
lodges of course the lodges that you
Traverse in in the same area you share
more more information with because you
out there in the same places every day
now for example when we share a lot of
information with Chitra and with Timur
of course now of course it’s it’s for me
it’s quite easy with Chitra as well
because if we don’t get any information
they’ll give my brother a good clip
around the ears as my brother is a guy
dad she 2012
ah now apart from sitting with leopards
one of my favorite things is to spend
time with our feathered creatures and it
seems like Steve is on a birding mission
this afternoon thanks Brent yes we have
found ourselves a little indigo bird
ladies and gentlemen and it is with a
laughing dove Oh off you went
now when you want to identify these
birds indigo birds you need to have a
look at the beak as well as the feet
because there are three indigo bird
species that you could find here it
could be the dusky the purple and the
village now that individual being the
male he had what I thought was a white
beak you still got him there’s some
starlings and buffalo weavers around he
had a white beak and orange feet so that
was the dusky indigo bird which I don’t
actually see very often the dusky inga
bird I can show you on the the phone
here if you didn’t get a proper look let
me just get you a nice photo of him
there he is
how’s that look
oh sorry about the reflection folks not
working very well today
there is the red beak black beak and the
orange feet so very important to
identify that and the indigo birds are
also brood parasites and we just double
check who his African fire finch so they
will lay the eggs in the nest of another
bird and these below the – let me try
that all down Bex let me try put this in
the shade there there we go that’s
better
apart from my head you see he’s got the
white beak and the orange feet and so
there will be brood parasites of African
fire finch and I haven’t seen many fire
finches in this area I haven’t actually
seen any this my first indigo bird the
season and so it’s quite awesome so the
females are very very sort of cryptic he
colored the male stand after that very
very bright sort of it actually looks
quite blue in the right light but he
looks quite black or melanin and stands
out
see Dietz up they’re all here at this
little pan here drinking and because
there are CDs as they need to sorry but
my gear hello infernal you’d like to
know what go away birds are hmm I’ve
just found some lipid tracks underneath
my vehicle which is this is the last
area sips is that we head to Tandy so we
have to make a little bit of a of a show
see which way she was going you’d like
to know what an indigo a bird is a go
away bird is a they used to be a a taco
or a lorry let me show you it seems to
be very nice birding afternoon we’ll get
our borrows on and our bird books go
away okay where is the go away bird in
here go I’ll find him gray go away bird
there it is now hopefully this is going
to be a little bit better but easier on
the screen now come on come on screen
there we go various he is great and he’s
is gray and they used to be part of the
luery family but now all the louise have
changed to tacos and I’ll show you why
if I go to the bird family if you have a
look at this page here have a look at
how all the birds on this page have got
a red a blue and possibly even green in
their pigment whereas the go a bird they
on the right is very bland with nothing
to show for himself
except for gray feathers and now all of
the other ones have got a red which is
called tea resan which is a pigment they
produce and the green is called Taraka
verdun which is also the only green
pigment found in nature and so all the
laries have now been called to Rocko’s
because of that double chourus enterica
verdun sort of headland and the grey go
red bird now matches his counterparts in
northern africa so that is why hits
koala go a bird i hope that answers your
question very very common in this area
but i’m gonna pop off for a few moments
to try make head or tail or what’s going
on with these tracks because I’m not
sure if you want to go to someone else
while I do that
okay we will link to Brent because we
have got tracts of the cub here as well
okay so we’ll come back to shortly let’s
go to Brent
hello welcome back oh it sounds like
Steve’s a gone off the feather’d
emission and onto a kitty cat mission I
hope he has success there I’m just sort
of man during down towards the tree
house water halt hoping that there might
be an elephant all three about I didn’t
hear any while we’re sitting with her
Komori but they might be moving into
this area
in the Ferno is saying if different
species do not make how do you explain
hybrids hybrids are very very rare in
the wild so what happens with most
hybrids it’s people that cause them so a
very very cruel practice and that has
happened a lot
not so much in Africa but particularly
in in North America is the hybridization
of big cats so forcing a lion and a
tiger to mate what that is they keep
those animals in close contact for
extended periods I mean those animals
fight beat each other often die in that
the quest for a liger or I forgotten
what the other one is but it is a very
it’s very cruel and barbaric practice so
there are very very few hybrids and in
in the mammals in the wild and they tend
to keep to themselves although a couple
of years ago there’s a very very very
interesting hybrid that happened in the
Linea ante area of Botswana which was a
hybrid between a Ledge where and a water
back so it it does happen but it is
incredibly rare and a lot of hybrids as
I said I said are generally done by by
people and trying to think of some other
obvious hybrids a donkey a zebra and a
donkey again humans putting them in
place close close proximity so it’s it’s
it’s it’s it’s generally human beings
that cause hybrids now in in in nature
hybrids can happen and actually quite
quite common in Birds of more sorry this
game Drive radios going mad at the
moment so it happens quite often in
birds and then the hybrids were probably
there from a very very close family very
close closely related family actually
show you a hybrid quickly
let me just get on some flat ground so I
don’t torture sensor while he’s trying
to level the camera okay there we go
some some flat ground yeah so I’m just
gonna turn this off you know making an
incredible amount of noise talking about
very little everyone saying hello so
certain species of hybridized quite
frequently one of them is the little
seed eaters so often there they start
and just there you go so wax balls are
known to high five inches sorry are
known to hybridize which means that a
lot of them are probably very very
closely related and it’s it happened in
in the very sort of recent times that
they’ve split there’s still a lot of
research being done into hybrids and
birds but as I said in in mammals what
are you complaining about
bird never look like it could be a snake
there so it’s very rare so most hybrids
in the modern era are forced by human
beings and some absolutely barbaric
practice
what were you squawking about Lila
crested red and
I mean yeah lovely late afternoon light
on the roller so the rail is was
squawking and there’s also a Franklin
squawking in the Little River system
just to be on the roller so I’m gonna go
see if there is a snake or some other
form of predator maybe even a predatory
bird around while we do that let’s go
see Taylor who’s with some animals that
are enjoying an afternoon swim they are
they look so relaxed these hippos almost
too relaxed in fact they’ve barely got
their heads above the water this
afternoon but soon we have arrived at
bubbles look down just to have a quick
squeeze and to see if there’s anything
around and we haven’t got too much
aren’t ya but we do have two hippos
which is quite nice and I said just just
relaxing going about their day no
thrashing in the water just yet I was
hoping that we were going to see them
open up their mouths and show their big
teeth it’s always very impressive when a
hippo does that because most of the time
we just seen little bits of a hippo and
this is the typical sighting that you
have I can tell you most of my guests
have in fact only seen this part of a
hippopotamus ahead ears the eyes and of
course the nostrils and that’s about it
and we’re lucky was spoiled to check her
damn almost every morning every
afternoon we see them playing around
those little ones are so playful now
there’s lots of different things that
live in these dams not just big hippos
but from lots of different species of
birds and Terrapins and well childhood
universe you were asking if there are
any frogs yes of course there’ll be some
frogs and we probably have a better
chance of finding them a little bit
later tonight so that’s something that
I’m always up for finding is is them for
being species they’re one of my favorite
in fact so maybe we’ll head on towards
twin dance or not not twin dance
actually you know it’s a good honest
treehouse down it’s a particularly good
one Oh
an apparently world frog day is in two
days time now
some of you may remember last year’s
hilarious and phibian antics we all put
on remember David I was sleeping and
snoring I was pretending obviously I
wasn’t really see but I don’t actually
sleep like that stiff did some great
frog noises are really terrible who else
was making frog noises someone went
ribbit ribbit can you believe it I feel
like it may have been Rebecca that
actually did that it was an eggs either
did it oh yeah we all made noises eggs
EI k zonda all making strange noises I
wonder what we’re going to do us yeah
who knows and and then there are some
little birdies David can I point you in
the direction of so you see we’re in the
middle of the dam at the other side
where the grass is quite close just to
the left of it there’s like a little V
that goes in there some little
three-banded clubbers there’s just two
three bad and clubbers they’re not three
three-banded clubbers very busy this
afternoon as there always are working
very very hard moving those legs pretty
quickly looking for insects on the
surface and on a hot day like today I
think that they would have filled their
crops up quite easily with all sorts of
little insects oh no they may have been
actually analyzed I think they may have
been three III Band of Brothers in fact
now when are you wondering if there are
any shrimp or prawns in the water
well I remember last year after a bouts
of rain the mud wallows had filled up we
did in fact to find some freshwater
shrimp I think they were called fairy
shrimp they’re bright red in colour I
don’t have a picture of one but I’m
pretty sure someone can put up a screen
shot for you because we were all so
fascinated about it so yes they could
possibly be in here too and would be a
very important food source to a lot of
critters that live in the water so I’m
on bush walk in the morning I think
we’ll be checking and instead of having
a closer inspection of the mud wallows I
like to do that on my bush walks and see
if we can find some water scorpions
because we’re finding some exoskeletons
of water scorpions and we’ll look for
frogs or even just some frog tracks
might be quite nice to look at and
anything else that really wants to show
itself member we’ll try find those fairy
shrimp again the only problem is and we
check more about the algal bloom that we
sort of see in the water tomorrow when
we can get close to it and it’s like I
said earlier it’s great if you’re an
ambush predator and you’re thinking
murky waters nothing we’ll see you camp
but it makes it hard for us to spot
things and there too so not great for us
so now that we’ve checked bubbles of dam
I think we’re gonna take a drive along
worried pan Road and perhaps check
worried pan well we might remind you
hippo pools do that now some maybe and
the three tiers that live in the water
and childhood universe you’re wondering
of it there are wondering sorry if there
are some that are perhaps becoming
endangered well there’s quite a few
frogs that live in specific areas the
very small areas there the Western
leopard tone is one of them that
unfortunately is under threat at the
moment and that’s because I have a chat
last a lot of them cross the road so
they’re being killed pollution into
freshwater systems again frogs are super
sensitive and really good indicators to
the environment I might have sort of how
clean water is and so that’s one of them
then these I’m just trying to remember
all the frogs and you see as at the AMA
I’m a toilet toad is it it’s in hogsback
I’m just near em I’ll bring my frog book
on rod that’s another one only occurs in
a small section of the Eastern Cape
again habitat loss is a huge factor when
well sorry Rebecca saying all sorts of
things made me laugh distracting me I’m
trying to be professional and educate
people here Rebecca
Rebecca’s directing so so yeah so I’ll
have a look at a couple but like I said
the main factor to a lot of the reason
why species are going extinct is due to
habitat loss unfortunately because of us
because of us as humans making the
environment
what’s making that noise can you hear
that
let’s be oh you know what it is you
might be able to see it it’s doves
fluttering in the leaves behind us so
that’s what was making that noise is
really strange son anyways we’re gonna
kick it towards quarry pants a little
productive pad maybe we find something
there Steve however is got some
elephants and I’m sure you want to find
out more about those neighborhood cub
tracks
yes thanks Taylor
we’ve managed to find this big elephant
bull apologises decided to go behind us
instead of in front of us which was the
plan all along we did have a long chat
before you came on air about him going
in front but he is decided to defy me
but this is this is the African bush and
the elephant will do what he likes so
the tracks of that female and cub that
sundean cub came from grow a pen
directly into the block towards us here
so we’re just taking cheetah cut line to
see if there’s anything crossing but
this is a very very large block and if
Seb just pans across even if we found
tracks what a difficult area it is to
look for a leopard in this block even
yesterday Brent was driving around
aimlessly trying to just hopefully bump
something so you know we’re gonna move
on a little bit further from here see if
anything cuts across here into the east
so far there’s nothing but we will keep
you updated if we manage to find
anything very fresh that seemed to be
like Tandy and her cub had drunk their
bag wari pan and they’re come directly
into the block maybe she’s got a kill if
she does could be anywhere in the
section so maybe I’ll chat with her be
maybe he’s keen to to bring Taylor into
this area tomorrow on their bush walk to
to put some effort into the tracking of
her cuz now if Scottie D gone he seems
to be the master behind finding Tandy
but then again
ladies gentlemen mr. Tristan Dix is back
on Drive tomorrow afternoon so if anyone
can find Tandy it is him so I’m excited
to have him back I saw his cars already
in camp so looking forward to a little
catch up with him this afternoon and see
how his leave has been and fill him in
on the gossip and the scoop
of the Leopards in drama of late so
while we up here if we don’t get any
tracks we’re gonna still have a little
look at before silca dam and see what’s
going on okay well we gonna go over to
Brent
it looks like he’s cooked his goose well
here we go well we’ve got goose and
something else is that a Gosling was it
something else entirely
let’s go across to the ones to the left
oh there we go those three there zoom in
on the one in the middle
hello yeah oh stretchy stretchy no I
wonder if you can tell me what those ah
hashtags file I’ve if you know what that
is that is not the Egyptian goose it is
a very very pretty
duck the males are far more striking
than the females and there’s a all
females there no males presently at twin
dabs doing a bit of prepping and
preening and feather cleaning
now these particular tax can actually
travel incredible distances and at this
time of the year they move around all
you got some Cape total Deb’s in the
background as well so they’ll move
incredible distances between different
water halls and they really like
seasonal pans of the Ducks and that’s
all the clues I’m giving you
boomer says they’re doing duck yoga yes
indeed actually what they’re doing is
they’re like cleaning a lot of their
feathers and sort of when they’re preen
like that they want them to be in the
perfect spot and some of the feathers
for flying but often when they’re doing
their chests and stuff like that it’s
their swimming feathers to get make sure
they’ve got that lovely little sort of
waterproof waxy layering in the correct
I’m trying to think corrector spots so
that they don’t take on too much water
and go down
isn’t that wonderful now we’ve got a few
more beds up on the other side yeah I
was gonna move forward a little bit see
if I can give you view of them again
it’s disappeared
as lovely is the dam is for
bird-watching one of my favorite spots
to birdwatch is around a seasonal pan
like this so you can see there lots of
nice grass so there’s places for the
creeks to hide oh there’s a woodland
Kingfisher your serum cents here we go
and there’s a safari vehicle in the
background there’s some elephants that
seem to be heading in our direction and
I’m hoping they’re head towards the
water yeah so I’ll move when they get a
bit closer and I was hoping to see some
crakes and that Kingfisher looking for a
frog or something in the little pan
below more could just be really to dive
down there for a drink
again let’s get into a position in case
those elephants decide to go much
barfing and wallowing there’s a whole
host of little pans in this area down
here
hold on you know it’s only taking
there’s a big bump there that
no little cracks smack
Oh quickly across to Steve yes with a
very pretty little Stan look and this
one is being very obliging and standing
very still normally once they’ve been
detected they disappeared very quickly
into the undergrowth be very alert for
tündi no cub in this area see her
nostrils are flaring up see what is that
a bird every bit of a fraud says said
look at those ears focus and she just
seemed pretty good eye flies all over
her face come on my dear blink get rid
of the Flies she doesn’t want to move
folks she doesn’t want to be feel as if
she’s been seen by us now she’s moved
very delicate aren’t they it’s a fully
grown animal I’ve only ever seen one
baby Steinbach with busy suckling and
was so cute and so small I’ve never seen
another one though look at that face
absolutely gorgeous that very small
mouth to last for very selective feeding
you hear the Swenson spur fowl making
all sorts of noises in the background
and you see him said there we go there’s
the Saran cents per foul male you can
tell it’s a male by the spurs on the
back of the feet on the back of the leg
which they used for fighting is it
typical for male to perch on a little
bit of a ledge and do that very sort of
smoker’s cough sort of sound that you
heard isn’t he pretty
very
t-bird he knows it I wonder if the
ladies think the same
give us another call my friend I might
try and play it for you so you can hear
it again I don’t know if you all heard
it it back home it’s turning out to be
an absolutely marvelous day for birds
you didn’t hear it sooner said moved off
of him yeah now you heard it okay so
there’s no need for me to play it now
how marvelous is that hey as we moved
off a little bit camera shy before and
as we moved off
you played the call thank you my friend
do you enjoy your your perch okay well
let’s go over to Brent who has got a
crossing well yes it is a crossing a
crossing of elephants nice but you heard
now they’ve crossed into into Juma and I
thought they might stop at baboon pan
but it looks like there might go all the
way to n’dam we’re just sticking with
them now doesn’t look like they’ve been
here having all splashing and playing in
the mud yet today but there might
definitely do it in twin dams yeah let’s
let’s move quickly
min-jeong I run good bags okay guys
let’s keep up with these elephants now
and then like go straight into twin dams
by the looks of things so I’m gonna suit
around this way so we’re not going to
affect them or will impede them and it
can possibly Oh but quickly for the
birders keep everyone happy
look at that beautiful Hoopoe sitting in
the gorgeous golden light and elephants
behind the big end of the small hey hold
on
you’re the own sins and I care let’s do
this we they coming up onto the twin
dams wall now
Oh bouncy bounce
I hope they get their water walk on so
one of my favorite things when elephants
get the water walk they get excited when
they get close to the water and they
know they’re gonna go for a swim or or a
drink and we’re now in the perfect spot
directly opposite them you happy yeah Oh
magic and I was really hoping for some
lovely Ellie Ellie action around the
water halls today and I’m being sported
a hooker Marie elephants elephants
elephants look at that little one it
doesn’t want to get too close to the
water is quite steep the bank don’t fall
in
he’s decided that pace is too steep
that’s too steep for me there I’m not
going down there it’s scary now what I
think will happen is the eddies will
some of them will drink there whether
it’s deeper but the majority oh I’ve
seen this female so that one there the
big female on that on the left look at
her she’s she’s I’ve seen her before but
a long time ago and I haven’t seen often
she’s got a missing half of her left ear
and she looks a bit but strange you see
that it’s got almost no left ear and it
doesn’t look like it was cut or anything
like that looks like it’s a natural
birth deformity amazing isn’t it
hello dawn dawn is wondering at what age
do elephants start to grow tusks well
they have baby tusks and for the first
year of their life and then at a year
old they start growing their big tusks
off there’s an even smaller baby an even
younger baby than the one we’re looking
at earlier I know little one tiny tiny
there hasn’t been too hot today so
ladies might not sort of dive in so to
speak and go swimming and they might
have a drink I was hoping they might do
a bit of mud bathing as I said okay
comes Oh bully now you happy about this
slippery slide ease deep slope what is
going on yeah oh look at that all the
adults camera and comfort Oh sham peace
oh and try again here we go oh yeah oh
yeah a couple of weeks old dented one he
doesn’t like that
Oh for the no no think it out so I think
what’ll happen is mister the little ones
not so happy the herd might move around
towards that the head the head walk head
of the dam where there’s a it’s not as
steep
and said it’s it’s been quite cold today
so they might actually just move off and
continue feeding we’ll see now it was
that is that was a very cute little
elephant he did not look happy with that
steep slippery slope at all almost like
I’ve fallen down something like this
before I don’t want to do it again I’m
so nice to move the car the hood because
they’re gonna disappear behind us
that looks like they’re gonna continue
on towards that Milwaukee riverbed and
to feed and I think I’m gonna keep up
with them for a little bit longer
trim buds is do I think animals notice
deformities and others I’m sure but I
think it really depends on the deformity
and if it is a deformity that weakens in
animals particularly if it’s a it’s a
male who’s going to be fighting for for
for mating rights I think in then yes
other animals might take advantage of
that but with elephants you see quite a
lot of different deformities with Elly’s
back of tails ears all sorts of things
and they’re the elephant’s seem to not
take too much notice of deformities and
others now if we’re lucky they’re mark I
have some fun in the sand in the
material bed dust it all around and I’m
hoping they do that because there’s some
really nice Eddie’s in this here there’s
some youngsters that are very playful at
the moment there’s that tiny little
gorgeous creature
now they split the other little one went
off oh dear no it doesn’t look like
they’re going to do that I love it girl
yes I see you it’s okay it looks like
they’re gonna cross straight through the
Marathi and up and start feeding on the
bank on the other side well oh there we
go down the steep hill
I always love it when that happens it’s
sort of the sheer weight causes them to
speed up as they go down well it doesn’t
look like they’re gonna hang around for
too long so I’m gonna send you across to
Taylor who’s got a lonely elephant we do
know that’s not English
it looks like a young bull and he’s
actually been very accommodating this
afternoon he has moved a hole of about a
meter in ten minutes I would say maybe
not quite ten minutes maybe about in
between six and eight minutes and the
time does fly when you’re out in the
bush and I don’t know if there’s any
little marilla’s that he’s perhaps
picking up because I can’t see him
pulling any leaves and things out and
there is a smaller tree above him
so perhaps he’s lucky he’s managed to
find the
last of the fruits underneath all those
round leave teak and large fruit bush
willows looks like he’s being quite
picky about what he goes for you’re
dropping some of the vegetation on of
his mouth concrete he see what he is
getting in fact there we go that well
that’s obviously leaves and he was
eating yep stripping them away and he’s
just taking it easy it doesn’t look like
he’s been for a swim recently I think he
must have gone one for one midday midday
swim during the heat because he is a lot
darker than the color that elephant
normally is although I suppose it
depends on what soil they cover
themselves with and and that would
determine the color of the elephant he
looks a little bit on the downside but
all on his own unlike that herd of
elephants at friends had so he’s been
kicked out now living a life of solitary
swatting that tail keeping away all the
biting flies I even have a quarry branch
in the car today the insects have been
particularly bad it’d be nice if he gave
that marula a shake just to see if they
aren’t one or two more fruit still
dangling on holding on maybe they don’t
want to leave either
hmm no no child of the universe you said
why our young elephant pools not lonely
when they go off on their own because
they essentially spend well the
beginning of their life and I heard I
think they just get used to it it’s a
very very traumatic experience for these
elephants to get pushed out of the herd
I’ve seen it a couple of times and it’s
it’s never quiet nice because
essentially what happens is that they’re
inside herd but mainly the the older
cars sort of stand their ground and what
they did once in the Eastern Cape
they formed a wall and every time this
young bull would try and come back into
the herd their girls are basically just
chase him away and chase and chase and
chase and then they would go back and he
would still follow the herd around but
that gap would get bigger and bigger and
bigger and the cars would be less and
less tolerant of them so I think it’s a
very traumatic experience for them but
it’s just one of the things that happen
so it I’m sure it takes a bit of time to
get used to and they do meet up with
other young bulls along the way though
if they find them and they can tolerate
one another these Bulls also form
bachelor hoods and it’s typically when
they get into the prime of their lives
anywhere between about 30 and 40 years
old and you know that’s been it you
really start to see the true size of an
elephant and they they then become lone
Wanderers and go off and start searching
for breeding herds looking for cars that
are coming into East rifts and get on
the go
but it is quite nice in the southern
Kruger you see spectacular bachelor
herds of elephants all lots of them in
Zambia too big 50 60 70 of them all just
marching across the plains big ones
small ones medium-sized ones it’s quite
cool and a young fool like this and
would probably benefit from moving
around with a couple of other old
elephant bulls sort of learning the way
of life also been put into their place
and they can be there probably the most
cheeky at this age otherwise when
they’re at mass they were also pretty
cheeky to be very calm it’s quite nice
is very peaceful sighting he’s not in a
rush she’s not turbed by us at all he
hasn’t even acknowledged that way ya
know he can hear us you can smell us he
can see us
but he hasn’t showed
any interest whatsoever this is quite
nice it’s always nice when you can just
sit from a distance and watch the
animals as they go along now I did go
past query pan and I saw the tracks that
Steve had so we can also have a little
look around yeah
no no Steve said he was heading to
Chitra so we’ll carry on exploring
around this area and see if we can’t
pick up on anything now he isn’t stopped
feeding since we’ve been sitting here a
combination of swatting those starting
the tail around and flapping the ears
and eating pretty good at multitasking
and cool now you’re wondering how much
does an elephant need to eat in the day
well I suppose it depends on how big
they are
so essentially an elephant needs to eat
about 5% of their body rate body weight
sorry that’s just roughly and at the
amount so depending on the size of the
elephant would determine but I mean a
fully grown elephant bull can eat
anywhere between 150 and 200 kilograms
of vegetation a day so they’re very busy
and they will feed for about 19 hours of
that day so very very small amount of
time is actually safe for a sometimes
elephants can go 24 hours 48 hours
without even having a siesta they’ll
just go go go and the reason why they
have to eat so much is firstly because
they’re enormous they’re the largest
land mammal and they have a really poor
digestive system so it’s you know the
only digesting one is about 44 percent
of their food every day this is why when
you find elephant dung you can almost
tell immediately what that elephant had
been eating 24 hours ago also you can
find undigested fruit we find a lot of
undigested marilla’s although they can’t
peel back the skin and pull the flesh
off of the seeds so they sort of just
crunch it and and get all the juice from
the fruit
you see twigs you see whole leaves
sometimes bits of bark that’s quite cool
in fact when you find elephant dung and
to do a bit of digging to see what what
they were craving that day
mmm-hmm now take you’ve asked why do
elephants sometimes rock one leg back
and forth when standing or you often see
elephants doing that and also crossing
their legs I suppose that just maybe
resting them and I mean that we normally
do that rocking motion with a leg I
don’t do it for too long but you do see
them sort of standing cross-linked just
getting the weight of why supposin maybe
you get a bit tired too so they can do
that remember elephants don’t sit down
very often or lay down should I say be
quite funny to see elephants sitting on
its bottom normally you see that when
they go down to the water and like you
saw with brains sometimes slide down the
bank then you have to sit back and well
enjoy the ride and with all the
elephants of course they don’t do that
as well as often but in the Mara
actually saw quite a few elephants fast
asleep big ones – snoring away which was
quite nice to see with like the little
ones just standing by going I’m not
ready to sleep it off you guys know
Richard sure you’ve asked cuz you know I
use this weirdest words things thanks to
my Australian parents and we’re
wondering what is a squiz because I used
it earlier a squiz I don’t know where it
comes from I don’t even know if it’s a
word but it’s a word that my parents use
all the time that can look a quick look
we’re gonna have a squiz at the spider
building its web we’re gonna have a yeah
I don’t know David do you know what I’m
talking about
a quick look a quick look that’s what
exquisite so yes
Rebekah’s is like a peak having a peak
of something it’s exactly right
I’m not going sidling like I said I
should see you across to Steve because
it sounded weird we’re gonna go down
this fire break however and see if we
can find Tandy
maybe she’s on the move now that it’s
cooled down a little bit let’s go see if
Steve is on his way to church worth
yes thanks very much Taylor we’ve also
been doing having a bit of a squiz
around to see if maybe tündi and a
couple just pop out of this big block
very hard to see anything inside so
seems like Taylor and I in a very
similar area but we’re gonna be moving
out of the areas soon
one final squiz as you’d say to see if
we can see her what’s that said Seb has
spotted another cool bird we’re having a
wonderful Sunday afternoon of birding
and let me just try and find what it is
said it was a cuckoo it looked like
either a Jacobin or love Ellen’s cuckoo
I didn’t see the colors very well the
levan has got white loud black lines on
the white chest and the Jacobin just has
the white chest easy to remember cuz la
valence has a w4 lines whereas Jacobin
doesn’t have any lines in it he’s enough
they’re a black bird the watch is the
last crest and the top quite a long tail
and they will probably be departing soon
as the breeding starts to slow down
so Jacobin but I haven’t heard them
calling in the last of a while which
means that they’re probably not laying
their eggs in the nests of other birds
at the moment anymore
they’re just feeding and their primary
source of food most of the cuckoos that
come down here are caterpillars I
apologize for any of the breakup we are
just going through a little rough patch
I’ll just travel a bit slowly we’re
gonna be coming out of this area soon
and if there’s no sign or further sign
of tündi and cub then we’re gonna go and
try our hand at chitwa and who knows if
we will be lucky maybe with ting gana I
believe he was seen the small I haven’t
seen that old still in some time him
there’s been when I stood I see him it’s
been ages actually last time I saw him
was on foot is actually added for it for
you tell the dad okay
sorry about the signal folks we’re going
to quickly go over to branch who I’m
sure he’s got far better signal than we
do and we catch up with you soon
welcome back well unfortunately Steve’s
heading into a Google Emlyn zone I’m
back on the new road wonders I wrote
that I drove for the first time
yesterday I think it’s possible that
that should do Lou female might have
come this way you never know but my plan
is to just check through here it’s quite
nice driving a new a new road and then
as it gets a bit cooler I might head
back to see Hawkeye Maureen I see almost
sounds like some Japanese samurai oh
it’s nothing
he’s a samurai here we go
since I says he’s definitely a samurai
ho come over here and it’s such a
beautiful oh hello new it’s so beautiful
at this time of the day you know learn
wildebeast herbal looking for
girlfriends of course the wolfy’s rat in
the sabi sands is about to start
quite soon so that’s always fascinating
to watch the the different males and
their different strategies to keeping
females within their territory
so what I think he’s doing he’s moving
from that open era around the big brown
ivory tree and he’s gonna head to go
parkour fertile parlor plains see if
there any girls there it’s just such
lovely lights at this time of the day oh
you might go to knob for an open on
arrow Sousa as well it’s not too far
away
Oh what gave you a fright something gave
him a fright I don’t think it was a
leopard I was I was always hoping that
everybody’s gonna start snorting it was
probably a Franklin in the grass that
often happens with quite a few different
ones yeah he’s carried on the straight
same direction
no I can’t see anything let’s just keep
moving another quick look never know any
tracks yeah
no no tracks as this is a really lovely
area and this road is a very well placed
rate and well shadow used to spend a lot
of time in this block and there were no
roads yeah and it often took us quite a
lot of walking in here to find her and
now we’ve got a nice road where we can
see tracks now for an update on shadow
attracted to some of the era these guys
they think she’s actually down in
Hoffman’s near the Mala Mala boundary
and especially with hooker Murray being
in this area she’s gonna try avoid this
area if not Barbara’s still alive Frank
and that is what she’ll be doing keeping
a very low profile so be interesting to
see what the should do do female gets up
to whether she’s going to try take a
chunk of Tandy’s territory in this sort
of northwestern sections of Juma now of
course that could change very quickly so
if she loses Tandy loses the cub she’ll
move straight back into these areas that
hooker Marie’s in at the moment
but while hooker Murray’s around she’s
gonna spend a lot more time that way and
that’s given the should do do female a
sort of chance to come scope out this
area so it’s actually next to the the
camera ops logging station in in in the
final control there’s a list of names of
the leopards so the cameramen don’t
spell it wrong and I was having a quick
look at it last night after after Drive
while I was chatting to Nikola and and
it was amazing that how many leopards
have how many leopards have actually
moved on to greener pastures in the last
couple of years so since I was just
gonna you know see his hand come through
in a little bit she’s gonna come
his lens so well valo we’re not 100%
Sean but I mean he’s he’s an old man
he’s on his way but out of that list of
of leopards so they were quite a few on
there that have better that have died it
was Salah Hesh Corolla and I mean to
really long-standing prominent female
leopards in the area quite chilly I’m
trying to think last on there just
looking at that list for Tommy Chong
area we can’t be 100% sure on but I
would say it’s it’s probably highly
likely that that that she got killed
just because of the density of other
territorial female leopards in the area
and it really breaks my heart to say
that because she was definitely one of
my one of my favorites so I mean she
would normally have popped up somewhere
by now someone would have seen it
because in the Kruger Park so the east
of us is there is a concession where
there’s there are safari lodges as well
and i think by now we would have seen a
picture of where somewhere in the same
goes for the manatee now just there’s
dominant female leopards in the menu
lady very close to the sabi sands border
so there’s not it’s not a good place for
her to go there and it’s very good
leopard country that’s southern
moneylady
so there’s plenty of females up that
side I said I took bit sad but it is
what it is I’m trying to think what else
I can’t remember now but it was it was
quite a shock to me you know I realized
how many of those those leopards work
were passed on to happy hunting-grounds
I mean a skedaddle past the guard
repeater shortly this is one of our
repeaters that brings you the picture
together you might be sitting in the
world and it’s a very prominent one you
know in this pop around the corner and
you’ll get a nice view of the gallery
repeater it is okay so our signal from
the vehicle goes to go your PA then it
goes down from that there we go there’s
the antenna Oh
what bad scrub robbing such a lovely
call and then it goes down to via teller
or to final control and then from front
final control out to the top of my lip
scope Mountain I think I might be wrong
tech team is welcome to tell me if I’m
wrong and then then I don’t know where
it goes but it gets to you and that’s
what’s important ah there we go Thank
You Conrad I am correct so actually if I
remember correctly I haven’t heard this
before it goes to by next or London is
London acosta next London next
Khai Lana he’s ten years old Halleck I
would like to know do Valle de B’s
travel in family groups like elephants
do now not really they have a slightly
different sort of setup
so May of all the beasts in this area so
in different parts of Africa they have
different strategies in this area the
male Valle de beast will defend a
territory and the females will move with
their babies between different males
territories so so the females will
travel with the youngsters and the males
will stay in one sort of spot so we’re
gonna head towards and put on a and pile
a plane shortly and that will see it
could be another lone melville to be
looking for girlfriends over there now
in the Mara that wildebeest
migrate and the males migrate with the
herds so a different system so you could
say that the Kenyan and Tanzanian
wildebeest they travel in family groups
and the male’s will travel with for herd
at all times and they don’t they don’t
defend a set territory now that’s of
course because it’s a different
ecosystem but here in the loaf of South
Africa the male’s do not travel with the
family groups now Steve is on a proper
birding mission today so let’s see how
his search is going yes indeed Thank You
Brent sorry folks you’ve been having
some signal issues so you haven’t been
able to come to us and so now we are
stationary hopefully things will work
out but we have managed to find the bird
that we spoke about earlier someone
asked what does it go away bird look
like in here we have two beautiful
beautiful birds look at the crest on the
head and notice how they are completely
grey hence the name of grey go away bird
and there are a woodland specialist we
find them all over the lo felt all over
the savanna and they absolutely love
seeds and fruit and small leaves the new
shoots of leaves and buds and even
flowers and they will be here all year
round nesting in quite communal sort of
nests
on top of trees marvelous I’m so glad
we’re able to find one
and indeed Brent we’re having a
fantastic afternoon with birds and I’m
not sure if I can start moving because
if I do we might lose our signal Becks
what do you think can I start moving or
should I stay stationary we’re gonna
attempt it we’re gonna go very slowly
and hopefully our signal issues are not
going to continue we are now slowly
making our way towards chitwa we have
not managed to find any more signs of
that beautiful lepidus sandy and her cub
so I think me being able to see that cub
again I’m going to have to really earn
it really really earn it but I’m up for
the challenge everything seems to be
okay in my ear on the eastern side
fantastic we’re on the eastern side on a
road called drakensberg okay well as we
think things are working things dead so
let’s go over to Taylor and see what
updates yes for you sorry everybody
gremlins are attacking as Steve oh oh
rebecca is using the wrong radio
punishment and if you later in campus
rights so we’re just bumbling along at
the moment and we’re looking for more
tracks of that leopard because they’re
kind of they kind of just think having a
little look around sort of fentons and
things of giving alarm calls but then
you think that sounded didn’t sound
terrified a little bit scared but maybe
it was a raptor of sorts so I’m just
checking very carefully wrong quarry
warrior
oh no all the scenes is Oh Steven are
just me bouncing back and forth today
the gremlins are both trying to get us
off you go back to Steve the gremlins
and leprechauns whatever it might be I
am not sure what is happening this
afternoon we are now stationary Seb has
just been in the boot trying to fiddle
with any wires and see if maybe
something’s been dislodged to nothing so
okay so when we probably cut away we
might do a reboot and see if we can by
powering down powering up again the
system will kick back in we don’t know
but seeing as we are stationary and
we’re not moving anywhere for the moment
just to show you where we are we are
down here on the road called drakensberg
because on a beautiful day if we go to
the right hand side you can often see
the Drakensberg in the distance but on a
day like this we cannot see it but it is
a beautiful Vista nonetheless just a bit
of cloud and moisture in the atmosphere
is making it very hard to see you can
actually see a little bit of it just
over there Seb it started to come
through now the longer we look at it
there is the mass there is the
Drakensberg in the background and that
is one of the masks that provides us
with signal so very strange that we’re
not able to get any the Drakensberg
mountain and on top of that is what we
call the high felts everything east of
that we call the low felt low felt
meaning low lying Range lands and high
felt meaning high lying Range lands the
difference between the two areas would
be altitude and that would lead to frost
the difference in frost will lead to
difference in structure so down on the
low felt we get no frost that’s why we
get more trees and the high felt only
trees that are very well adapted to
frost will grow there normally in your
ravines and that sort of thing but very
very open grasslands in a huge
proportion of the high felt okay so I am
going to dare to try and move because we
would like to get down to Chitra
eventually so Bex I am going to start
moving and I am sorry if we lose signal
but we are on a mission
so it seems the best thing to do is to
go to someone who’s got signal let’s go
over to Brent who seems to be in a very
stable place here’s where we’re very
close to the GAO a repeater that we just
had a look at so we’ve just popped out
onto Impala plans and I think that
wildebeest we saw obviously this is one
of his patches in his territory because
there’s no Valda beach chair at the
moment oh yeah
look what as I said I’m in a loop here
along the western sections see if she
dudu pops off somewhere she was in that
general area and then I’m gonna sort of
slowly loop back towards oh my movie as
we get closer towards the evening guy
says Oh who’s got some swine so we’ve
got some piggies at Quarry bed
well they moved away from the pan
because of us unfortunately so what
we’re doing now is you’re just sitting
very quietly I’m not gonna move the
vehicle at all and I want to see how
desperate they are for a drink
Inga’s if there are desperate enough
they should just come back and it will
be beautiful to see them having a drink
of water and perhaps even wallowing in
the mud
Sunday afternoon Jacuzzi time come on
pigs yours didn’t run away so I know you
want to come back here just do it you’re
like they’re not scared of us was it
would have carried on and opted straight
into the bushes but they’re lingering so
let’s see if there’s going to be one
brave one basically it’s a patience game
and this is also where the last of the
tracks are for Tandy and that little one
who knows maybe turn he’s going to pop
out the bushes and try and catch one of
these these peas but somebody else has
joined us and the watering hole it’s
just behind some grass at the moment it
was like a turtle dove on its way for a
drink it’s not to be frightened of us
come on warthogs if the Dove is not
frightened of us then you surely you’ve
got nothing to be worried about
now you can see it’s not a rear dad
tough because it doesn’t have a red eye
but even even the Turtledove a little
bit nervous to come down not because of
us I think because of all sorts of
critters that lurk below those more
murky waters always a quick drink hey
you’re not well it’s just resting on a
little pitch yeah is the other one I was
gonna say it’s a bit strange but there
aren’t two of them you don’t often get
to see just one turtle dove on its own
are you gonna be brave enough to come
down as well
they’re beautiful birds especially that
golden light on them all the different
types of grays and sort of tones of
brown and of course the prominent black
markings but a bird that’s often
overlooked our gem being very careful
well it’s quiet maybe they’ve seen
something else oh look there’s even a
little wax ball to the left Davi that
have come down to drink look at this
yeah a little boot party and laughing
dough but that’s beautiful that works
for blue X Ville hopping on two feet
coming down to have a quick drink there
was another one to wait also not staying
around for too long laughing death
coming in all very cautious I wonder if
those are knocked Andes tracks they’re
sort of below the birds feet looks like
there’s some footprints in the mud and
they look fairly fresh too from this
angle come on have a drink get it over
and done with
very nervous this one not certain as to
what’s going on who’s going to try and
surprise it and we were talking about
this yesterday as birds and various
mammal species are exceptionally
vulnerable when they are taking a drink
because they’re focusing of course on
getting as much water as possible our
pigs have disappeared Davi that didn’t
work okay
well it’s quite nice to see all sorts of
things coming down for a drink my pigs
oh let them come back
now vivid you’re wondering if the
warthogs can squeal yes very loudly they
squeal they were making a weird sound
just now I’m trying do it I don’t know
how to make it but it was like a a
rumble it’s a funny noise that warthogs
do and they kind of do it when they’re a
little bit nervous because they do with
the expression they lift their heads up
a little bit as if they try trying to
see better and that was quite funny that
they do they make all sorts of noises
and a grunt and they squeal normally you
only hear a warthog squealing when
leopards got its claws and rattle a
hyena or lion or anything like that then
you typically hear them squeal not this
area is a favorite area of 10d so we’re
just going to check very carefully she
loves drakensberg version of central she
loves all these spots and it’s nice and
lots of impart around here lots of
different vegetation for the animals to
feed on so that will bring them on in oh
that’s actually very pretty here I’m
going to very quickly show you one thing
because that’s so stunning I know Steve
are showing you the Drakensberg but that
is a magical view one of the higher
points here on Juma lovely perfect
evening I think we’re gonna have a great
sunset but off you go to brain trees got
his second really good Aylee sighting
well we fight I’ve spotted an elephant
who’s got a fang like tusks but it’s not
as big as or not as pronounced is Fang
but she’s disappeared that’s not her
they’re just crossing the open area and
they’re now disappeared into some quite
thick quarry thickets unfortunately Oh
anyway had such lovely elephant
sightings to start anew so this is what
it is they want to go eat in the
thickets they’re more than welcome to
they might pop up on the other side so
I’m just gonna go around oh good
question from Rick Rick is wondering
what the elephant teeth looked like well
apart from the tusks of course such are
quite visible an elephant has a sort of
a really big solid tooth and with lots
of little grooves in it
and I don’t know how to describe what an
elephant tooth looks like I think about
this for a second I think Rick the best
way to figure out what an elephant tooth
looks like is a Google elephant teeth
like I don’t know how to describe it but
a big males elephant the tooth can be
sort of about that long and and then
depending on the where from feeding it’s
got grooves and lighter and darker
darker patches I’ve actually got some
fossilized elephant teeth at home and I
found in Zululand also got these
fossilized elephant tusks
if I found in there in the loafers
okay I got a feeling they’re gonna pop
out here and the lights should be
ah well Thank You Tyler mccurdy who is
sending me a picture of an elephant
tooth to my phone and to say kind of you
Taylor I hope she remembers to use my
South African number not my Kenyan
number because I am NOT going to get the
one on the Kenyan number oh dear no it
doesn’t look like I thought there might
the frontrunners of the herd might be
ready to pop out yeah and looks like
they’ve stopped in the center too
Munchie Munchie Munchie yes they have
isn’t the fact they’re coming out ed
yeah well you win some you lose some
Oh wonderful it seems like it’s an
pachyderm filled afternoon so let’s go
across to Steve he’s got some away Li’s
this youngsters a little bit too old to
be suckling but it seems as if Mama’s
pregnant so it’s possible that of
mammary glands are producing milk again
for the new new baby that’s probably on
its way she’s right next to us quite
relaxed I apologize for the aerial as
Septor n–‘s the car they’ve been
walking straight towards us in the jest
walking past us now the four tailed
ronger is following them picking up on
any insects that the elephants flash
from the grass isn’t that marvelous we
are at Chitra now just above the dam
currently and we found ourselves
elephant how marvellous is that they are
more in the distance we can hear Seb can
apparently see them I haven’t managed to
see them so we’re gonna come around
good answer the dam see if we can get
another look
I might even just try getting that a
look at this elephant yet
she is very pretty very pretty mama very
very pretty she’s tolerating that
youngster suckling but if she does give
birth to a baby she’ll have to prevent
that one from suckling because he’s a
bit old now to be nursed mmm
l-drago for sir
Jango has annoyed that little boy we can
tell it’s a little boy
hello isn’t he precious
isn’t he precious Oh shake you head
young sir isn’t that fantastic that just
made my day and just like that the
naughty little elephant all retreats
back into the vegetation where mom has
gone isn’t that fantastic I love
elephants I love it when they behave
like that and show us their their the
humorous side okay well thank you for
that performance I’m sure a lot of the
viewers back home would have enjoyed
that as much as I did
okay let’s go down to the dam have a
little look at some hippos see if
there’s elephant to wherever they are in
the distance are going to materialize
what is that okay well we’re gonna go
over to Taylor who’s got a picture I
think she’s being a dentist today let’s
go see what she’s going to talk about
what dentist I’m trying to find the
picture now here’s my sub close one we
never look at my screens not too dirty
at least we’re not on the Sun haha oh
hang on you know what we can do David I
was gonna turn the light up but it’s
okay there we go there are the
elephant’s molars so you can kind of see
that diamond shape in there which is
where the Latin name luck Siddhanta
Africana comes from it describes the
diamond shape and their teeth you can
see it and basically the older ones are
here on on the side so this is where the
end of the jaw is and then this is the
back of the jaw on the right hand side
of the phone so they push up from the
right hand side and move forward like a
conveyor belt and you can see the car
worn that one is on the far left you see
how there’s sort of no grooves
whatsoever so that’s just natural
deterioration from feeding on all sorts
of things and then I’m going to show you
another one and just need to find it
it’s somewhere here there we go that’s
the one I want wants to go that way
sorry David there we go so this is an
elephant skull that unfortunately died
and before hook and you can see these
there’s all the teeth so this is the top
jaw that we’re looking at this is the
entire head and those big gaping holes
or where the tusks would have come out
of they did remove the tusks we do
remove the ivory and if the animal does
die over here but it’s quite cool don’t
you think
very cool it’s the same
ah no Thomas you’re wondering what would
you do if you were to find an elephant
tusks on the ground I think it depends I
probably wouldn’t pick it up
I would notify the sabi sand Vil team I
would give them a call in where I am and
say we have found an elephant tusks
would you like to collect it would you
like us to hold it in an area for you
but of course you had risk if you caught
you you know you holding something like
that people come and poach these animals
for their ivory and so I probably just
leave it in the bush and give the
location of where it was to the
conservation team they would then come
and collect it and I would assume that
they have a big vault or safe of sorts
where they will keep rhino horn where
they will keep elephant tusks and if
anything like that is of course palm on
the property and of course if they do
catch poachers and they confiscate horns
from them that’s where they’ll go
now we’re looking at those teeth Fox you
were wondering if the teeth ever fall
out or they’re just wear it to wear away
completely they actually do fall out
sometimes the elephant’s most of the
times in fact the elephant just ends up
swallowing them black you would as a kid
when you lose your bein your milk teeth
or baby teeth and and then they come out
in the don’t or maybe they could come
loose
you know biting down on something hard
one that’s at the end of its end of it
serve food shop I mean doing its
troubles it’s smooth and so yeah very
lucky and many of you found them once
before in the Eastern Cape
I’m elephant teeth which require couch
at home somewhere I’ve not yet stole
them was amazing right now something
that’s really quite fun to watch is of
course elephants that are about to have
a swim and it seems as though Steve’s
elephants are very excited about the
water
yes thanks very much Taylor
ever breeding herd of elephants that’s
about to surround us and then a whole
lot of them down by the water itself
right now having a drink and there’s two
very cute and very playful little babies
there destroyed’ do elephants get
jealous of newborns siblings I’ve never
heard of them doing that I think they
like to play with each other they might
get quite boisterous but I don’t think
they get jealous they enjoy the company
we are surrounded right now by elephants
and now this other female probably the
one with the baby see they’re quite
relaxed it’s gonna walk right in front
of us now you can see her eyes I could
see her has a very soft she’s gonna come
as close as she wants to
she’s very relaxed really a metre in
front of my car now it’s okay mama here
comes the youngsters just precious it is
absolutely precious and we’ve got
another one here it’s being very
boisterous
and the rest of the herd is about to
come now and this is the smallest member
of the herd and if she’s about to come
pass the car they’re very excited look
at her
oh him I don’t know hello it’s okay it’s
okay it’s okay it’s okay it’s just the
most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever
seen I’m gonna turn around again and
then we can have a look at them drinking
you notice that they weren’t bothered by
by us at all they saw us a long time ago
they heard us they smelt us they walked
right past and the behavior of the
babies if the adults were not relaxed
those babies you wouldn’t even see them
they’ll just disappear inside the herd
Sam I’m not gonna go too much further I
think this is gonna work are you happy
with that okay let me just move my head
what more can you do then just observe
so what are saying is that if the
elephant’s weren’t relaxed they wouldn’t
have come as close to us as they did and
if there weren’t relax the babies would
disappear you wouldn’t really notice the
that the communication happened but
you’d see the babies disappear in
amongst the hood and they would form
sort of like a phalanx around them with
the bigger females protecting them and
even though they were relaxed
my heart is can beating it’s being
surrounded by elephants like that is
such a special feeling and they’ve
chased the Egyptian geese off the island
little baby is I think it might be the
umbilical cord actually you say that
Becks it is keeping up with mum how
beautiful is that it’s more ears than
anything else so if that female was not
relaxed you wouldn’t see that yang said
wouldn’t be just
running around like that and about to
join the frame is about to open and
you’re bout to see all the elephants in
the hood doing their thing absolutely
sensational we come here quite often but
you can never get bored of a society
like this of elephants at Chitra damn
absolutely fantastic and what is
happening on the left hand side folks is
there’s an enormous herd of buffalo that
is coming down to drink I don’t know
what to do said are we gonna look at
elephant are you look at Buffalo let’s
look at the Ellie’s for a while longer
okay let’s go across to the buff they
are emerging down to the water’s edge in
on mess to drink this is a fantastic day
they come what did the viewers like to
see elephants buffalo both of them
there’s a huge herd of buffalo still
coming food the bushes there they always
drink at least twice a day
guess I’m gonna hold off speaking
shortly we’ve got the little young
elephant up on this side it’s a busy
having a swim just above my head here
look at that little one isn’t it having
so much fun this is marvelous just legs
everywhere everywhere the thing goes
it’s just Lakes
good afternoon and welcome ladies and
gentlemen we are at Chitra dam with
their herd of elephants a pod of hippos
and an enormous herd of buffalo that is
coming down to drink please feel free to
drop your comments in below my name is
Steve Faulconbridge I’m joined by Subaru
um be on camera we’ve come down in the
late afternoon to try capture some
animals at the water’s edge and we have
been very fortunate with not only the
small breeding herd and their young baby
that is absolutely loving the water look
at that open with the complete
excitement coming from Juma in the sabi
sands Chitra dam I have no words folks I
have no words for this is the cutest
thing you’ll ever see still got its
umbilical cord attached it’s following
mum very closely it has had an
absolutely lovely little swim and the
others behind they are also enjoying a
bit of a swim elephants need to drink a
lot of water every day and there are the
only animals I know of that play like
this they come down to the water to swim
to cool themselves and there’s an
enormous enjoyment factor behind it yes
Michelle it is a beautiful beautiful
elephant family and they are drinking
and swimming and having an absolute
whale of a time there they go
when you weigh as much as an elephant
being in water makes them quite buoyant
so it’s the first time in their life
that they can feel the weightlessness of
their enormity with the Sun setting in
the background the elephant herd to the
right is slowly going off into the
sunset with the littlest member of the
group right next to mums legs
it is just too cute she would stay close
to Mum for the first most years of her
life she’ll stay all kids Lind likes a
plain water indeed indeed splash around
it is a marvelous time for them there’s
nothing more fun than watching elephant
Maggie this elephant brings me so much
joy too before we went live in this
broadcast we had them actually walk
right next to the car and the youngster
barged it’s oldest sibling out the way
so it didn’t come as close to us as it
was going to and was really quite
special as the elephants have seemed to
finish their play and finished their
their drink they’re going to slowly make
their way off into the vegetation to
continue their seemingly endless feeding
nice and wet and cool for the afternoon
with a smile on its face
they almost look very chuffed don’t
they’re the Roman we are coming to you
from the sabi sands in the greater
Kruger National Park South Africa and
that youngsters trying to suckle they
sought a youngster that is a huge
elephant is trying to suckle and it’s
being tolerated what are you doing
that’s very interesting it’s probably
his mum anyway or her mum looks like a
he Wow and mum looks like she’s pregnant
it’s possible that she’s lactating do
you because she’s got a baby on the way
so in Juma we actually had Chitra dam in
the sabi sands Kruger National Park
northeastern part of South Africa in the
province of Puma langa and there we get
the elephants as they start to move over
the dam war now before we lose sight of
anything else we’re going to go a little
bit on to the left of the dam and where
we have an enormous herd of buffalo that
have come down to drink and the Buffalo
when they come to drink they basically
drop their almost their diaphragm you
could say and they can take in about
thirty six litres of water
a couple of minutes it’s an enormous
amount of water to take in there they
are
nice big breeding herd and they’re just
having a look at another vehicle a
vehicle has come into the sighting one
of the the chip two vehicles have come
to have a look at these beautiful
dangerous animals one of the big five
and we always seem to have lion prides
following the buffalo so it’s a nice
animal species to follow they are very
easy to follow because of the the mess
that they leave behind and the tracks
Pradeep wants to know if that baby
elephant running is not going to get
tired well mum will keep her pace
exactly where it needs to be to
facilitate that youngster it won’t she
won’t run as far or go as far as as as
she would with older older older
siblings or older offspring but with the
younger ones she has to match her pace
and the distance she goes to that one’s
energy so I hope that answers your
question we still have her on the damn
war with the youngster which is now
catching up on a little bit of muck from
Mom’s belly
from mums mammary gland there she is
right underneath is she sucking no she’s
just sheltering underneath mum basically
telling my McKay mom I’m tired we can’t
run anymore and mum won’t go any further
than she needs to just gently walk with
her until they get to where they need to
the trumpet of the youngster that is
trying to climb trying to climb the hill
well while we watch the last scenes of
this youngster very hard trying to climb
up onto the wall we’re going to say
goodbye to all of your viewers on this
short broadcast and thank you for
joining us if you’d like to continue
watching
we are still live for another 45 minutes
half an hour
so please just Google Safari Live and
follow us and we’ll see you later have a
fantastic evening
and you are back with us ladies and
gentlemen I hope you’ve been enjoying
this little scene unfolding in front of
us a trip to them it is always a very
nice place to come to at this time of
day we’re always rewarded with marvelous
scenes and there’s nothing quite
majestic as majestic as a herd of
elephant moving across the dam wall am I
trying to get us a bit closer to these
Buffalo said what do you think we’ve
seen some nice illy shots there let’s go
and have a look and see okay well we
gonna quickly go over to Brent who’s got
some action oh here we got Camrys up in
the tree and there’s actually – I can
see – there might be a few more hyenas
about as well below him so he’s taking
up what little remnants of food he had
and he’s really just trying to get the
last little meat out of the vertebrae
there oh isn’t that beautiful
and you can see the hyenas hoping for
him to drop whatever little is left so
someone asked a bit earlier today
whether the hyenas were still around or
they’d gone away as I said they were
just sleeping somewhere close by there’s
very little food left on there and what
makes hyenas so incredible that they are
able to survive off the little scraps
they do hunt a lot for themselves but
their patience is is undeniable when it
comes to you oh there’s another eye in a
key so now we’ve got three hyenas
there’s one coming in from behind us and
we’ve got this one right under the tree
lots of ticks all those ticks or wounds
zoom up on the neck there the wound
battle-scarred hyena hyena coming in
from behind you as which sides gonna
come but too much to your right sins
here we go
no the hyena coming in
Oh one shot dropped my head coming right
around the front of the car now okay
look at that
now toon is wondering how do you tell
male and female hyenas apart it
generally you look at their tummies
so the tummies are sort of the easiest
way to tell a male and female a hyena
apart the males is that that’s
definitely a female but the male’s
stomach sort of graduates upwards in a
sort of straight line while as the
females is a bit more rounded there’s a
third out is the third how unit just
walking parts disappeared let’s have a
look at hooker Morey up there in the
tree again Oh quickly across to Steve
yes ladies and gentlemen for the
sensitive viewers we are having
something very special happening right
now can you see those hooves there is a
female Buffalo giving birth right now
live live there it is look at that that
is the notice and the feet coming
through and see what the mucus of the
placenta coming out the buffalo herd is
staying very vigilant around this female
unbelievable I’ve never ever seen
anything like this in my life
look at those ears sorry that they have
the Buffalo moving in the way there’s
nothing we can do about it
good afternoon a very warm welcome to
all of you on this stream please pay
attention we have got a female Buffalo
that is giving birth alive on on the
show happening in real time this is a
cape buffalo and we’re not gonna go away
from it my name is Steve Faulconbridge
and we’ve got saved rom be on camera
please feel free to send your comments
through to the on the chat below let us
know what you think your questions this
is happening the cape buffalo giving
birth right in front of us I’ve never
ever seen anything quite like this
before she doesn’t seem too stressed but
the herd is quite anxious it’s quite a
tricky position to be in I’m not sure
how long this is supposed to take but
you can see the hooves in the nose of
that youngster as it’s starting to come
out incredible staff ladies and
gentlemen we will have other vehicles in
the sighting so if you do hear vehicles
we do apologize yes Linda Linda she can
do it she can do it yes you can see
their boobs themselves are very
unscratched yes Michelle fantastic stuff
amazing Michelle I’m speechless
I don’t really know what to say yes
Paula those are the front feet of the
hooves and the nose you can see other
youngsters jumping around this one seems
to be a little bit late it generally
breed in January so this one’s about two
months late I don’t know if this is
normal that it’s taking so long but you
can see how the other Buffalo are very
interested they know what’s going on the
males are standing around in God they
know that they can’t move off because
this female will not be able to follow
them for some time and as I said we are
joined by other vehicles in the sighting
so I do apologize
could you hear the other vehicles yes
grace this is unbelievable stuff we are
very lucky indeed Barbara would like to
know if the baby would be breathing it
doesn’t seem like it is I don’t know
actually I mean the eyes are still
closed I was watching for some breath I
think maybe it needs to hit the floor
before to start breathing hit the floor
to sort of to stimulate those lungs
absolutely incredible
live focus is happening in real time
said indeed this is a first for me I’ve
never in my life seen an animal give
birth I’ve seen an elephant – at the end
of birth but I actually didn’t see the
process unfold
so they are the vehicles you probably
hear vehicles moving around is that the
headstone to come out here it comes
ladies gentlemen come on the final push
here we go the hardest part is done come
on man come on man be a good mother
squeeze there we go this is so
incredible ladies and gentlemen
so incredible come on mama
everyone’s cheering it we’re all
cheering here one final push and we’ll
see the explosion of fluids as the baby
is ejected out there we go the eyes are
opened it has open ladies gentlemen here
it comes final push here’s Astana to
twitch happy birthday baby Buffalo there
we go ladies and gentlemen oh my word
did you see that and out comes the
placenta now the female will turn around
and lick the baby she’ll lick it try and
get it to stand up it needs to stand up
within minutes after breath says to be
able to follow the herd this is a very
dangerous time for baby Buffalo to be on
the ground predators will come in they
will pick out the easiest and the
quickest to catch and that’s why the
Buffalo stand around very very alert
they would be very very aggressive
towards a lion or leopard that decided
to come in here
it’s one of the chips of vehicles coming
around obviously this is fantastic SEP
to see there we can see one of the Bulls
standing over yes telly it is amazing
they know what’s going on they know that
she’s giving birth it’s not the first
youngster in the herd there’s quite a
few than that she is a bit late she’s a
bit late is the herd they’re all
standing by normally they would have
left by now after drinking make their
way art how fantastic was that that was
alive ladies gentlemen I initiate there
you can see she’s busy licking her she
will lick the baby get all of that
placental juice and fluid off of her
it’s also important because the the
mother will often eat the placenta to
get back those nutrients that she’s lost
during the birth I know that must sound
quite disgusting to most of you back
home but his part and past what happens
Archer they do lose a lot of energy in
processes like that and it will benefit
her immensely to be able to clean that
baby and the baby there you can see its
head in the bottom left of the picture
you surfaces it’s very fast years I
don’t know how long it’s supposed to
take but the herd was probably here for
about 15 minutes before we came and
joined them it’s possible that that
baby’s nose and feet were protruding the
entire time very unsure one of the other
guards was watching when who came and
said she’s giving birth Melanie would
like to know when will it stand it will
stand as soon as it can American between
ten and fifteen minutes the Yanks will
get up on very unsteady Lakes and it’ll
have to follow the herd as it moves away
from the water this is probably going to
be the hardest few hours of its life but
if it makes it through the night it will
only get better Jason you have
goosebumps I think we all have
goosebumps look at her what a proud
mother she is probably not her first
offspring she looks like she’s a few
years of age probably enough her late
teens even not late teens but they
see the placenta hanging out of her
unbelievable ladies and gentlemen but I
want to go any closer for fear of
disturbing them I’m gonna stay right
where we are I know you’re all hoping it
will stand up soon I don’t know how many
minutes said if you’ve seen this before
Zeb thinks this is amazing he’s never
seen it before I don’t know how many
minutes it’ll take but it will stand up
in the next little while not sure how
long but let’s keep watching and see
what happens
Lisa I’d like to know how long the
hurdle wait before the leave I don’t
know Lisa um it really depends on the
status of this female if this is one of
the lead females the hurdle wait until
she’s ready to move if this is one of
the old sort of females that’s got no
status anymore she’s not really a
important breeding female or herd
matriarch then the herd will maybe just
leave her behind
but are there we go she’s trying to get
her to stand up she’s trying to get her
to stand up lavinda would like to know
how far the smell of birth would go
honest you don’t know I know a lot of
the animals are sure when they give
birth the baby itself is actually almost
completely free of scent it’s another
reason why the the mother licks them but
the afterbirth itself must have some
form of smell will definitely attracts a
Mahina in the night but there’s not a
breath of air at the moment it requires
a little bit of air to carry the scent
and as we sitting here it is is as cool
there is no wouldn’t whatsoever and
she’s a very proud mother look at her
she’s smiling for the camera game did
you get that I would like a copy one for
the photo album Kathy would like so if
the hippos would come and investigate I
don’t know if they would it’s possible
that walk past I mean it’s not an
unlikely that that a crocodile might
come up and find the afterbirth they can
smell meat and stuff on the banks only
about maybe 50 60 meters from the
river’s edge itself and there were some
crocodiles in
in the water before there’s a nice
decent herd of buffalo you can see they
just know that something’s going down in
the hood and they’re very very relaxed
and willing to wait it out I think she’s
quite a high-ranking female and the herd
is very very willing to allow her to do
her thing and allow the next generation
of the dominance because that youngster
if she is a dominant female will inherit
her mom’s status within the herd
absolutely sensational absolutely
sensational shaking it off is it going
to try stand up come on everybody let’s
give it some support I think it’s trying
where where all the cheerleaders are
they come on young Buffalo Paula would
like to know if there’s something wrong
with the baby would they rejected or
Tecates they would probably just leave
it behind and if there’s something wrong
with it if I can’t get up and follow the
hood it will not be able to survive mom
might stay a day or two if the
youngsters deformed or has something
wrong with it it’ll basically stay root
is and will be very quickly taken care
of by animals such as lion hyena and
even Leopard Lynne we don’t know if any
predators are directly in the area we do
know that King Ghana was seen in Chitra
Tipler lodge itself this morning which
is just on the other side of the dam
from where we are now and it’s possible
that this activity of the Buffalo might
attract his attention we are keeping our
eyes very firmly on everywhere we can
see but there are other vehicles in the
sighting I’m sure if they spotted a
leopard moving in they’ll be very quick
to tell us but the Buffalo who would be
very quick to tell that ting Ghana the
male leopard what’s to do with himself
and we’ll have absolutely nothing to do
with him
if he comes anywhere near not only a
threat to that newborn he is a threat to
a number of the other calves within the
hood and the ultimate life is dependent
on the big males that are hanging around
just waiting for any form of agnostic
behavior from a predator so folks we’re
gonna say good night to you from this
medium thank you for joining us if you’d
like to continue watching please Google
Safari Live we are still on air for
another 15 minutes are you going to stay
and see if this youngster managed to
stand so for all your questions comments
are thank you have a fantastic evening
the hippos are shouting it is getting to
their time of night when they are went
in to emerge from the waters for feeding
and look at that Buffalo how marvelous
is this ladies and gentlemen welcome
back to all our regular interview
internet viewers we’re all cheering for
this Buffalo to stand I wonder how long
would it take the mother is very very
excited to welcome the new member to the
herd what a beautiful mother she is and
how well she did in that childbirth here
we go it’s trying with the front legs
okay so seeing as I’m stealing all the
action and the show let’s go for a quick
update to Brent and hookah money Oh her
camera is still munching on the remnants
of that foodie carcass not much left so
it’s unlikely he’s gonna be here
tomorrow he’ll probably be out on the
move patrolling his recently gotten
territory and I’m the interesting to see
if him and ting gana eventually ever do
come to blows but incredible to see a
live Buffalo birth with Steve it is
absolutely amazing
isn’t that exciting a live Buffalo birth
very very cool not something you see
every day so I won’t done Steve
all right place at the right time we’re
gonna search at with Herkimer reefer but
longer I think he might come down the
tree in the next little bit so we’re
gonna keep watching him and let’s have a
look and he’s almost nothing left on
that carcass at the moment
okay he’s definitely not oops where the
hyenas he’s just dropped it he’s going
down quickly my eanes might come rushing
in
yeah the hyenas are running in oh dear
Hawker Marie that wasn’t very clever Oh
happy hyena tail up chasing off the
leopard and he goes he’s in front of us
through there
okay he’s stopped now there we go wasn’t
that exciting I mean it didn’t look like
anything exciting was going to happen
here and Steve had all the action but
the hyenas definitely came in at the
right time as he lost concentration
slightly and dropped that vertebrae now
I want to make sure we don’t lose them
because I have to say I think he’s going
to move now and and in this low light
you can lose a leopard in a few seconds
here we go just have a quick look at the
hyena munching crunch crunch well there
was almost nothing left to be honest say
he didn’t lose too much
quickly back across to Steve trying this
gentleman in here your support from afar
the front legs have tried the back legs
have tried now he just needs to get them
at the same time mom is being very
patient and very accommodating to this
new addition she’s giving him up it’s a
proper lick all over we don’t want to go
any closer I went to disturb them in any
way not only is that young Buffalo not
ever seen a car before it’s never seen
grass before never seen anything before
now it is surrounded by family it is a
new day for it even though it is night
coming in tonight I don’t think it knows
quite what is going on
and it is the temperatures have dropped
a little bit and it’s possible that it’s
a little bit cold because it’s so wet
hello Aidan age six here we go you would
like to know if the baby could hurt its
head on the drops of a grounder
it is very possible but these animals
have been breathing like this for many
many many years and so if it did
influence then they would change their
ways so what often happens is the fall
to the ground actually they fall kind of
sideways and they land with their legs
because their legs come out the same
time as the head they kind of land on
those front legs that kind of hits the
lungs between the front legs and that
almost stimulates them to take a kick
the gospel air mom’s helping it up come
on they Rico a little one it’s very
shaky
it’s very shaky on its legs look at the
umbilical cord I have absolutely no
words what a proud mama gorgeous baby
that is come on take a few more steps
forward I absolutely love my job
this is this is terrible way to spend
the afternoon
zip said to me when it came out he wants
a very interesting job today because he
hasn’t had an interesting Drive in a few
days and so I said don’t worry good
vibes you will get one and known behold
we had one of the cutest and four bumps
there he goes one of the cutest elephant
sightings with the young babies and now
we’ve got a live Buffalo birth court on
safari life isn’t that just the most
incredible thing that is I think the
most incredible thing I’ve ever seen the
live birth waiting to get it to to stand
up everyone’s a friend sitting on the
edge of their seat
we’ve got leopards and hyenas on the
other end of the phone and yet we want
to watch a baby buffer
don’t we yes we do you don’t get to see
this every day folks in my 10 years in
the bush I have never seen this before
we are very very lucky right attainment
right the time and right place is all it
is
young Buffalo is still struggling the
rest of the herd is slowly starting to
bed down get the feeling they might have
taken the cue from this mum and are
going to just relax a little but take
their time wait for the morning before
moving off there you can see them
if folks are from acid aside we got the
baby he did stand up are we gonna go
over to branches got some action welcome
Ori is walking this Castillo boy is off
to my ears just popped out into the road
unfortunately fast he’s heading in the
wrong direction I’m sorry I’ve just got
a car behind me so I just need to make
sure they can see him as well
that he’s coming back
that’s good of you having a good smell
good scent mark maybe we’ll get lucky
and he’ll give us her a little core oh
he is a beautiful boy
he’s definitely setting up shop now he
wouldn’t take that much time sent
marking what not if he didn’t feel
comfortable in this area
I love it when male leopards do that put
their head into the trees give me a good
sniff before scent-marking
I get let’s move again think you might
go for a drink at the pan
he’s just going down to the water just
behind this let’s push out
well it seems like Steve has got lots
and lots of babies today yes we do just
had the little baby hippo out the water
has gone back in Beck’s wants to know
what are we doing to her today because
there’s lots of babies and there’s
another one about to emerge just here on
the left looks like that youngster is
about to come out just being spoken to
hang on a second
standing by yeah last I heard is his
mobile towards the boundary but that’s
all I could hear but his scent marking
and moving towards Gary okay so the
hippo is being shy has gone back into
the water seems like we have been having
an amazing afternoon for babies and the
like and how marvellous is that
marvelous is that well we’re gonna start
carrying on we’re gonna move back to get
back to camp because what else could we
see on this evening’s activity Thank You
chipper for once again providing sever
myself with some magical magical stuff
this is exactly where we came to or my
interview drive and again it is full of
wonders and from myself and separ I
think that’s might be I lost a little
bit we gonna go up to Taylor and she’s
gonna say goodnight herself well got no
good updates for you no tracks of
shedule a young female leopard coming
out of anywhere so good news means that
she’s probably around here in the bush
some way so we will come back and check
first thing tomorrow morning
have a little look I’ll be on bush walk
though and that’s well that’s the plan
we’ll see what we can find and try it
all again but anyways off you go across
your brains his catch is having another
drink
knew as he had a quick little drink at
the pan and now I sort of trying to
decide which way to go next
I’m hoping he heads sort of North East
deeper into Juma and a not south way
from Jima and we’re very very close to
the boundary no more than about 60
meters and they’re really hoping that he
decides to not head south at all I’m
just listening now he’ll probably not
move too far before resting up at the
moment and with that full belly you
probably will sleep a little while I was
hoping he’d give us a little sore
proclaiming territory and I’m pretty
sure of ting ganas at chitwa chitwa
you’ll hear that from
and he’ll definitely yeah okay Maury
calling and good news again he’s heading
deeper into Schumer he’s not heading
towards the boundary anymore isn’t that
exciting
that’s very good news unfortunately is
just passing behind a vehicle damage
cannot see where he’s moving when he’s
very very close to the cause and he’s
not as relaxed as other mail papers
around the vehicles so I’m not gonna
move the car just yet it was a weight
that I can see that he’s far enough
where he is okay hold on
looks like he might take a walk down
towards treehouse waterhole oh he’s
right behind me he popped up right
behind me I’m after wait for him to pass
where is he since has he gotten up okay
thanks changed his mind decided to walk
right past the cart even while I was
moving
okay well it’s nearly the end of the
Safari I’m gonna try to get you one last
view of the Magnificent automotive as he
walks and down and towards treehouse
damn so we got a good idea about where
to start looking for him
bright and early tomorrow morning oh
here he is
we’re gonna let him disappear around the
corner on his way to treehouse waterhole
hopefully we’ll have luck with him
tomorrow morning while he continues on
his territorial takeover of Jummah so
from all of us here at safari live Bhan
we and see you in the morning
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