an African safari and may include animal
kills and carcasses viewer discretion is
good afternoon and welcome to a
sweltering sabi sands Game Reserve I’ve
just hit my first traffic jam over the
afternoon you can barely see it but
there is a massive male elephant hiding
behind the bush I’m just trying to be
careful we found a big must bull this
morning out on Drive and I don’t want to
surprise him hello big boy now remember
this is a hundred percent live so this
is unplanned you never know what you’re
gonna find our lives fire my name is
Brittany Smith and for the first time in
about six months
I’m reunited with the wildebeest so very
exciting to be back on Drive with Foley
and of course we have some very very
special Safari live fans that that are
in a final control so a big hello to
them and I’m sure a lot of you know who
they are
hashtags Fri live if you can guess which
Safari Live fans are sitting in final
control right now remember if you can
send that questions as well once you’ve
finished guessing on the hashtag a
safari live as well just pop it on any
of the feeds that you might be watching
on so I’m trying to get towards husana
the young male leopard you we left at
the end of Drive quack post here this
morning but listen Eddie is a little bit
close to the road for me to go shooting
past him I’m just trying to see if it is
the same big must ball we saw this
now a little clue – which Safari live
viewers are sitting in final control
they might be on safari a cheetah
cheetah and there might have my little
brother is there safari guide even the
elephants listening you started keeping
still I’m gonna try it maneuver us into
a slightly better position without
getting too close to him he chosen the
looks like you might be having a snoozer
against that tree looks like he’s been
here all day and it’s not is it the must
warm he was look at that he’s resting
his face on that branch what is he doing
actually I can’t really see what he’s
doing but he’s being oh yeah so it looks
like he’s actually am so guys this is
quite a possibly dangerous situation so
I’m just gonna move the car into a place
that I can’t escape if I need to be it
looks like he’s quite badly injured from
it looks like the size of that injury it
looks like he tangled with another big
elephant and it looks like a test
puncture something’s pulled out a lot of
his insides so this is quite a serious
injury and that’s why he was probably
trying to rest his head up on that on
that tree okay so shame boy now we can’t
really see what’s going on on the other
side and that looks very very serious
from this side he’s not showing any ill
displaying any aggression at all towards
us at the moment but you can see him
lean
against that tree to try to take the
shame big guy now male elephants when
they do fight can it can be very very
looks like he’s probably been injured by
a big tusks and it’s pulled through now
animals of course are uncredible
resilient and they can sometimes come
back from what we consider to be
when I need to do now is I need to get
hold of the sabi sands quickly just
because an injured male elephant like
this can be potential threats to people
on safari and if he gets close to safari
lodges so we just need to inform someone
and I’m gonna do that quickly while we
do that let’s go across to Taylor so she
can say good afternoon good afternoon
everybody and welcome to the sunset
Safari again my name is Taylor mccurdy
and on camera with me I’m very lucky is
David I just wanted to make it awkward
for him right now as most of you know
you can chat to us and ask us all sorts
of questions all you have to do is
hashtag Safari Live and you can talk to
us via the YouTube chat – pretty sad
about that elephant Mike Green said it
can be quite dangerous especially if we
are around doing bush walks that is an
animal you do not want to bump into now
are we ready we’re heading to the
Birmingham voice that we had this
morning will that brain cut this morning
and then we revisit it a little bit
later on on the drive so that’s where
we’re going now I suspect they’re going
to be flat so we’ll have a little look
at them and then maybe go and look for
something else and come back a bit later
so all of you diehard safari lot of fans
out there you know you can come and
visit us right we come to the sabi sand
and you come and stay around you come
and see us and well we’ve got Matt and
Lisa sitting in final control today
having a little watch and I just wanted
to make a public announcement thank you
very much for the chocolates and the
apple juice coffee
we’re very yes with us we wish you could
stay longer so actually I have a
question then for Matt Aneesa sitting in
final control do you have any questions
for us how cool is that instead of
having to type away you can just ask a
question oh this actually David hold on
tap but have they already drank there’s
a whole herd of elephants they’ve just
gone past the dam can you may have seen
them I didn’t see them I didn’t know
they were there but we’ll try and catch
up to them I think there’s a sneaky road
down yeah
an old tree trick that I used when I we
had hooker Moody
hello parlor making all sorts of strange
noises um oh no you know what they’re
gonna do they’re gonna be so sneaky I
know exactly where they’re gonna come
are they’re gonna go feed in this
thicket we shall reposition quickly
sorry everybody we’ll try and get a view
of elephants but they’re going down
basically pass the lodge does not last
for dinner and as we drive along though
speaking of elephant bulls and masks and
brains head obviously an interesting
this morning
Megan you’ve asked and how exactly do
elephants come into Matt’s well they
just start producing a lot of
testosterone at certain times of the
year and at a certain age is that again
there’s a lot of factors that will
determine when an elephant bull comes
into must but essentially were one is
that there’s an overload of testosterone
being produced being reap what
reproduced being produced in their
bodies and it basically causes them to
go but wild they become very excited and
all they want to do is chase after the
females they basically have blinkers on
and they don’t even acknowledge anyone
else around them unless you drive behind
the elephant bull and mass and and sort
of bother them then they’re gonna turn
around and go well I told you I didn’t
want you to drive right behind me I
think before we get to these lions we’re
gonna try and anticipate we hold on
everybody
that’s a bumpy section of the road we’re
gonna but and then hopefully we’ll get
to see them because there were quite a
few of them some of you may have been
watching on there on the Dan cam in fact
there’s a massive animal pathway that
runs on line with the the rooms of Rhea
tiller and come all the way it comes all
the way up here the thing is is that I
don’t like to offer it for elephants
because I think it’s dangerous because
if something goes wrong you can’t really
get out very quickly at least if we’ve
so y’all that’s the plan and we just
wait for them and here’s a particularly
thick area so I think they seem to be a
few bulls and massed around on the
property they could have been bothering
these breeding herds so we don’t want to
bother them anymore but actually what we
might do is I might just pull off here
so maybe we can hear them that’s what
I’m gonna do like these elephants are
tiptoeing through the bush hmm now I
can’t hear any cracking of branches just
yet
are they still down at the dam did they
maybe turn around and go towards
Retailer dam itself anyways I’m gonna
doesn’t sound like anybody’s been able
to spot them
they’ve gone sort of further north yeah
we’ll just wait patiently there’s only a
couple of animal pathways that I think
that they would use they will get them
eventually Tristan is going to be on
bush walk for a little bit so off you go
and join him we are indeed we are going
to be on Bush walk and that is why we
are a little bit tardy this afternoon so
as Taylor mentioned my name is Justin on
camera I’ve got a Craig aka the Batman
and we are hopefully going to have a
wonderful afternoon it’s a warm very
very hot day and so it should be good
conditions for walk we should have a few
insects around hopefully moving about
maybe even some butterflies I’ve already
seen a couple monarchs floating about so
maybe see if we can concentrate on some
butterflies and anything else that comes
our way we’re gonna try and see if we
can go and the reason why we like I say
are on foot is because Antigua has a
problem weird overheats a little bit and
so the sound then goes and so we waiting
for Jigga to cool down so we’ll jump
into Jigga a little bit later when it
gets a little cooler but for now we’re
gonna be on foot I did have some audio
for some elephants not too far away
very close sounds like actually just at
the dam itself so maybe what we gonna do
is try and head down that section and
see if we can find those in ease and
have a little look at them on foot and
then otherwise anything else we can see
now while we try and get everything
sorted out and try and get ourselves
down to that area let’s send you back
across to brains and see where he is and
what his plans are so far now that he’s
left that elephant hey guys I’m just
warning everyone this this is not the
nicest view around so if you are
sensitive you might not want to look so
I’ve reported I’m just waiting for a
call back
from the wardens and stuff and you can
see they’re quite obviously that it’s a
task wound from another elephant so it
is it isn’t from human beings but and
you can see the wound is quite serious
and you can just see that from his
behavior now and you can see there’s
even a stick stuck in there so I mean
this looks relatively recently within
the last couple of days and shame you
must be in so much pain so it’ll be up
to the sabi sands to decide what to do
I’ve just got a way chat to till I hear
back from them and if they need GPS
coordinates and things like that no it
does look quite bad shame and he’s
showing no sign of aggression or
anything like that he’s just resting up
against this weeping waffle tree so he
keeps throwing sand on the wound and
what he’s doing there is trying to keep
now of course that injury is quite bad
but he doesn’t look too weak just yet so
the Predators are possibly could take
advantage of this and that’s what Matt’s
wondering and we’ll will Lions take
advantage of this elephant there is a
strong possibility depending on how weak
he is
hyenas as well would definitely I’ve
seen hyenas harass injured eddie’s
before for up to two days before
actually managing to kill the elephant
but that is nature and that’s how nature
plays out day after day when we’re not
watching so one must remember that we
are observers here we’re not here to
Ramat it’s such a difficult question
you’re asking why matter but if the
animal is endangered will they interfere
you saw what happened with that wild dog
they didn’t interfere so if the injury
is deemed to be caused by human beings
by some way then the vets will sometimes
interfere and try heal it but most of
the time in these situations
nothing will happen that if they do
decide to interfere with this elephant
it’s it’s it’s difficult to say what
will happen but they just need to know
about it because it is a potential
safety risk – all of us are chaired I
mean bush walks and at the game drive
vehicles and if he wanders close to
camps and he’s injured and trying to get
water or food so that’s why I’ve
notified people he is a potential safety
risk I wonder if it was that masked of
all we saw this morning that that is
something a big muscle like that might
do to a younger ball like this while in
must not necessarily when they’re out of
mast but when in master that is
something that massive mass ball we had
now Rhonda’s asking about the age of
this Eddie he’s old he’s not he’s not a
very old bull I’d say he’s probably
around 30 so here’s an adult and Shana
is throwing dirt on that wound again and
it’s quite bad you can actually see
there’s a little looks like an acacia
stick that’s got actually stuck in some
of the tattered flesh there so as I said
it’s quite fresh and at the moment he
might not be a problem but if infection
sets in he could become a very dangerous
animal yeah so whether the choice is
made to leave them or euthanize or treat
I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make
and we’ve had quite a close look at the
injury and Bobby’s wondering is it just
skin or intestines it actually looks to
be pieces of intestine Bobby so when we
first saw him hiding behind the tree I
just thought he was having a snooze and
as we moved around I could actually I
just got that smell of stomach so the
chances of it getting infected are very
very high especially since its dangling
could get tangled on unstuff as you’ve
seen there I’m just gonna move a little
okay then now as I said the what happens
to him I’m bad I’m not the one who has
to make those decisions but JK is asking
if he’s euthanized will you be
euthanized if you pass papa
there’s a danger towards the Safari
vehicles and stuff like that again it’s
not my place to answer those questions
okay but I think a careful decision will
be made awful it looks like this is just
a fresh Bart of blood coming out now
something it moved you can on the back
right side they’d say I just suddenly
saw a little gush of blood coming out
there we go
and as I said if you are sensitive this
is not for you we we’re not going to be
here the whole afternoon I’m just
waiting to hear back from the
authorities and soon as I’ve heard back
from them I will be leaving I just need
to know whether they need GPS locations
it doesn’t look like he’s gonna move
anyway it looks like he’s been here for
quite a long time now of course seeing
stuff like this is difficult in Emma
who’s asking does it ever get easier I
should hope not I mean that to a degree
we are immune to certain things
what more immune than people who don’t
deal with it on a daily basis but it’s
never nice to see anything suffering
animal or human so if you get too used
to it I’d say there’s probably something
so he’s just been moving around the
street throughout the whole day I can
see from the tracks he’s flattening the
area and and he just can’t seem to get
comfortable no you can just see it he’s
been there kicking up the dirt spraying
the dust on that wound sorry I need to
answer the phone quickly sir NIC’s if
you need to link away can you please do
it I get crushed – Taylor hello hello
again everybody
we gotta elephants I think it was
fantastic by the way it was really right
nice I’ve been searching for a herd of
elephants for I cannot tell you how long
most of you know sorry I didn’t get to
share it with all of you I’m trying to
think what we’re gonna do now it was
very cute it was a tiny little baby but
maybe some of you were lucky enough to
get to see it on the dam can and I’m not
gonna go to the Birmingham males cuz I
know they’re going to be fast asleep so
we’ll probably come back a bit later and
I suppose we’ll just drive around and
see what we can find maybe do some
birding so that’s going to be the plan
for now maybe we’ll hit on over to
Chitra we’ll have a little look bit
later mm-hmm
let’s go this way because there’s a nice
mud wallows done here surely around here
I don’t I don’t know we’re gonna just
try to find some more elephants because
I’d like to spend a bit of time with
them as I haven’t spent much time with
them at all just that nice ball that
decided to stay for like two seconds
this morning have a haddem quick ride
bars and then continued chasing after
that young cow and calf that were there
before him speaking of elephants
right whereas a road that I’m looking
for
hopefully we’ll be able to find some
elephants and then we can have lots and
lots and lots of chats about them but
seeing though we’re just doing a DNC at
the moment Jason you’ve asked how long
does must last with elephants and it
depends again some it can last for up to
two weeks time it might last a week so
as it just depends on their their age
and sort of social status perhaps if
they’re a very big strong bullets in
prime condition it can last for a little
bit longer than others some only around
I’ve also laid the tracks wasn’t left
track in fact it was lying a footprint
ski hyena mad wala is done oh sorry
everyone I’m eating ice it’s very hot
just under 100 fahrenheit so we’re busy
still formulating a plan I’m just
waiting for another phone call should be
hopefully won’t be here longer than
another 10 or 15 minutes while we get
the right people on the way so that’s
the biggest danger with this Ilias not
now while it’s quite fresh still it’s in
a day or two when it gets in if it gets
infected with with intestines and stuff
it probably will he could become very
aggressive and take it out on all sorts
of things including vehicles bush walks
lodges and housekeeping ladies while
they’re collecting and stuff like that
so at the moment he is nice and relaxed
but he is a potential danger down the
Oh No load me that was asking is there
any chance that Eddie could have got
better and I was sort of humming and
airing but then he defecated and his
done came out runny and full of blood so
you see there VMP so it wasn’t the
normal block dope that you hear from an
elephant and it’s yeah so it just sort
of shot out and I could see specks of
blood in it which as I said is not a
good sign
that means he’s wounded quite badly some
way in the digestive tract so there’s in
fact if I’m honest with everyone yeah
there’s very very little chance of
survival for this elephant and said that
wound probably happened last night so
yesterday although it’s very difficult
to tell especially with these edibles
because they keep throwing dust all over
a sham big boy unfortunate this is one
of those realities about living out in
the bush but sometimes it isn’t all
strawberries and cream now if we we take
a positive from this elephant dying this
elephant has died the will die from a
natural cause and a wound from fighting
with another elephant bull coaster
Islander is asking what animals will eat
it now that’s the positive that if this
elephant does die it does provide a huge
amount of food and nutrition back to the
bush lie I’ve seen lions hyenas I’ve
even seen leopard feed off dead elephant
and but most it’ll be lions and hyenas
and apart from that and apart from the
lions and hyenas the beetles the the
carrion beetles the scarab beetles the
dung beetles flies maggots a whole host
of other insects I mean it’s is his
legacy will be putting back to the earth
in terms of nutrients and and food for
I say at the moment he’s trying not to
move too much but he can’t help himself
okay so Nikki we still having tech
problems with other vehicles um I do
again it sounds like Taylor has moved
out of will fixed her gremlins or moved
into a good signal area so I’m afraid
I’m gonna have to disappear for a little
bit to try sort out everything about
this elephant and hopefully we’ll be
back a little bit later with Hosanna
well we’ll see how long I’ll signal last
fall as we aren’t hitting it to some
other areas now furnishing these guys
that I’m loved and I can’t stop and have
a chat I’m sure they’re going to go and
look for horse I know but I’m not gonna
go and look for a sauna now because I
know that Brent would like to look for
hot sauna so we shall go down this way
we’re just gonna drive up and down on
some roads with lots of mud wallows and
hopefully find the elephants because
that’s what I’d like to do I think it’s
gonna be too hot for the cats to be
doing anything right now I mean the way
the 136 degrees Celsius it’s warm it
doesn’t make you feel that hot it’s warm
but it’s not not too bad
nice with a breeze gentle breeze still
continuing from this morning so that’s
quite nice and refreshing so we want to
keep on the go or stop in the shade I
don’t want to be stopping in the in the
Sun that’s all not on a day like today
it’s actually not that many birds oh
maybe we’ll have a good chance of
watching some birds splish and splash
around in the water but not now if
everything is hiding away from us at the
moment which needs to be about normal
we’re looking I’m looking for anything
that’s moving in these bushes and maybe
should keep my eyes on the road at some
point – all that rain that we had even
though it was nice soaking rain and
we’ve had a couple of roads that don’t
like the rain very much caused erosions
so some of the roads needs to be
regraded again and I’m pretty sure when
Drake sent us back since coming back
when he’s gonna back Wednesday I think
I’m pretty sure in between drives you’ll
be back at it again and his big tractor
perhaps dragging tires or first scraping
check in the trees anybody sitting in
the branches no that’s well we’ll try
our luck maybe we’ll have to go into the
molarity perhaps catch some elephants
that side or if you go to Tristan who’s
got something that flaps its wings
pretty quickly
I do indeed now it’s bouncing around all
over this plant and making it a little
difficult to see but it is a butterfly I
was saying that there is noticeably more
butterflies flying around today and I’m
just trying to I the exactly which one
it looks like maybe a dusky copper
that’s what it looks like I’m just
waiting for it to open his wings or now
it’s flying again I was hoping it was
just a little open for me and we did see
it it keeps going away and then landing
back on this plant so we’re just gonna
wait for it there we go it’s now landed
once again in the same spot and it’s
opening every now and then and gives a
little bit of orange tinge so it does
look like a little dusky copper it’s
over here I know there’s lots of grass
in your way I’ll try and get that rid of
that have you got a deer Craig lots of
wind as well which is not ideal so a lot
of butterflies already flying around
like SF seen this guy I’ve seen some of
the little spotted blues I saw citrus
Swallowtail monarch even some of the
crias are around as well so it should be
a good afternoon for butterflies
hopefully what’s gonna happen is we
gonna get a bit of a wind and the wind
will then settle down and it will cool
off a bit and then these butterflies
should stop from flying around it will
make it a lot easier there Craig it’s
not actually even closer to you so but
it is bouncing around all over the place
which is making life ideal at all for
poor Craig Craig’s ending to bounce
around on different plants all over the
place but isn’t it beautiful with those
little spots and stripes and markings
and the winner it opens its wings it’s
more brown on top with a little orange
section so I’ll just double-check
exactly which one it is but I’m pretty
sure it’s one of the coppers I’ll just
have to double-check exactly which
couple sorry Craig that’s my fault I’ve
dropped a piece of grass and fry pause
Craig its face but they’ll be out
because there will be a number of plants
and there are flowering and with the bit
of rain that we had an hour and little
sunshine and gonna have perfect
conditions for butterflies to go
get all the nectar out of and pollen out
of these plants and be able to actually
feed on button I apparently you can see
it’s a proboscis going into the plants
and actually feeding off that nectar
which is very very cool it’s not every
day that you can see that now in terms
of the difference between moths and
butterflies you can see how this insect
keeps its wings closed for the most part
and it’s very very active now during the
day a moth is far more active during the
night and when it lands it will land
with its wings down and flattened
against its body or so if you look at
these guys they have clubbed like in
tennis a very thin antennae with a
little sort of swollen into it whereas
moths tend to have a feather like
antennae that gives them a little bit of
a difference between the butterfly so if
you’re wondering how they kind of work
and what the difference is between the
two then that is it but very very cool
excuse me so it has just cooking there a
little bit it seems there’s a lot of
insects out yeah she’s just looking
around a lot of buzzing about and lots
of flies and all kinds of other things
so hopefully we’ll see lots of different
types of things now
sorry Nicks if you could just repeat the
first part of that question I heard it
turns into butterflies but I didn’t get
the first part David what percentage of
cocoons turns into butterflies those are
difficult things to say I think it
depends on different areas I would
imagine that some areas there’s a lot
more predation then there is in others I
mean if you look at out here there’s
going to be huge amounts of animals it
will predates on poor little
caterpillars that are going into a
chrysalis to start kind of hatching so I
actually wouldn’t be sure as to what to
say to that I I know last year though we
had a fallen over tree with the Koreas
that went up at one point I think there
was about 12 chrysalis on May and after
about a week there was only one still
dangling so if you go on maps you’ll
have you know a very very very small
percentage but it depends I think it
depends on the area that you in the
amount of predators that are around how
well they conceal themselves when they
go into that state and they then start
to kind of going through a metamorphosis
it’s going to be interesting I honestly
have no idea though what the person
would be in a system like this I think
we would have a you know it could be
something that could have to kind of
monitor you’d have to get a sample size
and then try and work it out amongst
them right let’s carry on Craig and see
what else we can find Patrick you’re
asking if I have a favorite butterfly I
don’t know if I have a favorite
individual butterfly but I do have a
favorite in terms of a family of
butterflies so my favorite butterflies
that we always actually – one is the
Shrek C’s family so the Shirazis family
for me are absolutely beautiful and
there’s one called the Fox track C’s
which is a very very cool name and then
also the swallowtails so things like the
citrus solid tail are absolutely
beautiful vivid colors quite large
butterflies and there were these little
tail streamers that come down so those
two families are really my favorites and
the ones that I like to see the most
difficult to find around yeah that in
certain other parts of South Africa you
can see that maybe I would be on that
list but those are the two kind of
families in particularly here in this
part of the world I would say probably
the Fox you sure taxis in the citrus
Swallowtail on my two favorites that we
see hopefully we’ll be able to find
either one of those this afternoon would
be quite nice like I said did see a
Swallowtail fly pastures just now and so
while I go looking for them and seeing
if we can find them let’s hand you back
to Bryn – I think his left that poor
elephants and is carrying on on his way
so welcome back guys I know a lot of you
would prefer to stay there and stuff
like that but at the moment I don’t add
any pressure on that animal the sabi
sands are on route I will go back and
take them there a little bit later in
the drive so for the moment let’s see if
we can find our little prince this is
where we left him this morning and I
said it was a sauna it’s unlikely that
he’s lying in the same spot during the
day he likes to cruise around and he is
not there so he was lying at the base of
that little bush there this morning so
he’s not there there’s no tracks of him
heading down towards that elephant which
is probably more most sensible for him
because I think that Eddie would
take most unkindly to the presence of
any predators at this very moment but
I’m gonna just check some of the other
bits of shader on yeah you might have
moved a little bit during the day I’m
just saying if the either game drive
vehicles tracks hit off a little bit so
what we’re doing is my eyes playing
tricks on me let’s have a quick look
look wait I saw spots in this thicket
but I think I’ve got spots on the brain
okay well I try to figure out where the
Sun is gone oh no you’re staying with me
it seems like the gremlins are art
now the Birmingham boys are back on the
property and child of the universe is
asking what how far away from this
injured elephant they’re actually quite
far we’re down to south east of Zima and
the Birmingham’s are in the north the
Northwest sort of afternoon Henry no
updates just yet battle-ax Road is zoned
due to injured elephant balls so please
take care of that area no sign of a sign
yet we’re trying to follow up but till
the sabi sands has come to have a look
at the early battle Arizona okay we’re
just checking all the little spots of
shade where’s a sign that I liked a
little loop onto the road see if his
tracks come out but in the meantime
let’s go see where madam mccurdy is
heading to next
well brain she won’t believe who we just
spotted it very briefly but that’s big
Tusker that was chasing her around this
morning he’s basically between mumble
road and drakensberg and he’s I think
I’m hoping he’s following a breeding
herd because that’s a breeding herd I’d
like to try and find so we can’t get to
the elephant of course because he is in
the middle of the thicket and you all
know I don’t off road for Elephants
especially not a masked ball never so
we’re gonna just drive around you but
I’m just checking carefully in the
thickets it’s so easy with this long
grass and big trees to miss a fully
grown elephant even to miss 30 elephants
and I would think that he’s trying to
find breeding herds especially if he
isn’t masters and I could we’re talking
about earlier
he’s basically just going to be driven
by his testosterone at the minute they
will be munching along the way but he’ll
be marching and marching constantly
trying to pick up a scent on a group
females on his brains actually let’s go
say hello to green tea I tell him that
his friend is coming to mind and perhaps
that’s what maybe that’s what that
elephant is doing hi Brent your friend
the elephant must bull is on his way to
you on his way to do you think he’s
given him a hiding mmm his brain reigns
on the radio let’s watch our brain
operates the radio from so he’s trying
to follow tracks I’m actually gonna turn
around because I don’t want to squash
any of hassanis tracks maybe we’ll go
down towards Chatsworth so this is the
area brains is workings a brand might
even find that herd of elephants but my
brain said perhaps that big fella has
already given another young bull were
hiding and we were talking about this
the other day in fact where we had that
very well rowdy young elephant pool and
playing with another elephant bull and
if a big Tusker like that came across
that young fella being cheeky he may
meet the same well my good on the same
road and tusks him that happens quite
often in fact very sad for that elephant
though very very sad but I don’t think
there’s much you can do for it some test
now for those of you who haven’t met
Darrell the elephant who is my favorite
elephant he roams around on the sabi
sand he spends most of his time down at
earth lunch at sabi sabi and he’s that
elephant with a bell shape in his yeah
all the snapchat symbols some of you
have said looks like the little ghost
and scenic you’ve asked if this
testosterone makes elephants a little
bit cheeky and most certainly it does
and Daryl’s a prime example of it
whenever he comes up and causes havoc
he’s normally in must but he it’s like
he enjoys the vehicles and causing
trouble with him and once we’re quite
funny because that was like one of
David’s first elephant encounter
interesting and he had been working in
the bush and all ran came straight from
the city and then Mitch Terrell with
Scott so yeah and he’s not a small
elephant either so you say yes it does
seem like you’re quite right it’s an it
indeed makes them cheeky yes so you just
gotta be wary of them and give them a
bit of room and and just well watch them
sometimes they’re fine sometimes they
just carry on with their day I don’t not
particularly like viewing eleven bulls
and that’s just because I’ve had some
not-so-nice encounters with in which
I’ve told you all about but you’re
anyways it seems as though Tristan might
be stomping around perhaps it’s because
he’s got ants in his pants I hopefully
won’t have this many ants in my pants
because otherwise I’ll be very
uncomfortable but we basically have been
looking around and there’s so much
insect life after the rain that we
decided we’ll have a little look under a
fallen over log just to see what’s
happening and there is just a myriad of
ants going absolutely crazy so they’re
all over this tree and they’re moving
around they’ve coming out and they kind
of streaming up and down there’s a whole
bunch on the ground as also I feel that
that we moved it so we’ll put it back
nicely just now but it’s amazing to see
how many oh yeah there must be hundreds
of thousands events going up and down
utilizing this old dead tree is a way to
be safely housed and to be able to hide
away from various predators that might
be Archer you’ll find that’s why things
like even odd fox sometimes will try and
break towards these kind of trees and
dig underneath and try and link it to
all of this that is moved on you can
actually see that some of them are busy
carrying eggs out of the actual area and
moving them around in fact I don’t even
sure these are ants some of them some of
them might even be termites there’s an
interesting one that’s kind of going
along which is this individual over here
and it’s moving very fast I know it’s
gotten hidden but it was a really large
one and it was in amongst them that was
moving quite quickly and wow it looks a
little termite black and what could be
happening is sometimes you’ll have
termites in these kind of trees actors
and the ants actually raid them and they
try and kind of take the eggs and
actually even carry off some of the
termites as well and so ferocious
predators they’re amazing things to
watch but it also looks like some of
them
I’m just trying to have a little look
because difficult to see but there’s
little eggs that are actually being
carried as well by these ants so there’s
some of them are picking up little egg
lavas and they’re now moving them along
deeper into the actual dates of this
tree to try and just hide them our way a
little bit better so I’m not gonna
actually spend too long yeah obviously
we’ve disturbed their nest a little bit
so I want to put it back nicely but
before we do that what you will find is
also over here is that we’ve got a very
interesting situation there you’ve got a
carapace for a dung beetle by the looks
of things now what that could indicate
is two things either the dung beetle
when it was very very soft decided to
kind of lay its last egg in this Arian
bury its little ball if it was one of
those that does bury balls or there’s a
situation where they might have been a
scorpion living in this particular tree
and so as we have these kind of dead
trees you’ll find lots of scorpions live
inside here particularly a scorpion
called pista canthus ESPA and they spend
a lot of time kind of moving around in
dead trees and they’ll hunt various
insects from then so what it might have
done is actually caught it fit or fit
and then this is just the exoskeleton
that is now left after the scorpion has
fed which is pretty crazy very difficult
to say how many ants are in each colony
as you can see here counting this many
ants is nearly impossible one because
they are moving so fast – because there
is just literally so many that you’ll be
here probably for the next ten weeks
trying to count all of these answer
difficult to say I would say that they
must be easily thousands within this
particular colony because it’s not only
here that there’s a lot of movement
there’s a whole bunch of movement on the
ground as well so there’s literally ants
all over the place here you can see
where craig is sitting the ground is
literally crawling with ant species that
are moving around so there’s far too
many food for us to count in to know
exact numbers also the way that they go
back and forth to individually know
which and you’ve counted in which one
you haven’t would make it very difficult
to probably have a situation where you’d
have far too many ants – that should
as incapacitated oh my goodness sorry
about that everybody
Tristan for the ants get him perhaps
that a busy city hope she doesn’t get
ants in his pants
maybe they crawled on in there and he
had to stomp around I don’t know what
just happened there
and so he driving down she to cut line
now looking still looking for her in
avail of them so I know how long it’s
going to take me now shall we play a
game on how long will it take Taylor to
find a herd of elephants I think it’s
going to be another three game drive so
this afternoon I think about tomorrow
afternoon or the following morning I
might put a herd of elephants on screen
we’ll see you have to start the counter
again and oh I see some Impala up ahead
but you can go and have a look at them
maybe they’ll once stay around and
quickly check your fort in Ghana I
should probably ask the guards if
anybody’s read ok so Duncan gone and
seen as I’m approaching the area let me
do that Sheldon Sheldon can you copy me
Dylan Dylan potato maybe they’re not
even in the East anymore oh I just can’t
hear them also a possibility who’s
shouting in yeah
oh there’s what those want they’re the
fighting hornbills so cool listen to
they run why are you being long pants
it’s a hot day
they aren’t quite warm – they’re very
chatty in these – flying around looking
for beetles and all sorts of other
things that may be crossing the road
what is it doing and other ones coming
in to join it did you catch something
no no caterpillars always enjoy watching
hornbills feast but now you can see
sadly not successful but we’ll just give
the beak a good clean anyways very cool
now I can hear the babble is very nice
well let’s go down to the little pan
because I think that’s where all the
Impala or gathering perhaps you’re gonna
see Wilbur the warthog that would be
none surprised Wilbur the warthogs pan
has filled up so much you won’t even
recognize it he might have to be careful
you might have to wear a life jacket if
now speaking of animals popping into the
road
Avon wishes you’ve just asked about
whether a leopard is ever popped onto
the road while I’ve been driving you
know it actually happens often a gajima
does that to you and then you normally
just see his tail disappearing and who
else has done that arkaroola has done
that so many times or there’s so many
elephant tracks here but they all going
this way I think this is the breeding
herd that was here oh my goodness all
the Impala and the sabi sand will stop
young and they might get a bit nervous
for now but I reckon they’ll settle hi
how’s it going Apollo where’s Wilbur and
this is really nice actually
listen to the sounds as well this great
all very nervous all very chatty at the
edge of the span now if you have no idea
who I’m talking about when I say Wilbur
Wilbur is a warthog he’s my favorite
warthog he’s got no hair on the end of
his tail and he’s an old boy he chased
Quinn out of her warthog burrow out of
the Burrow in a termite mound and then
took her Freezone it was probably his
first which was quite funny he’s a very
relaxed warthog and he normally lays in
the corners of the pans and he can drive
right up to me doesn’t run away which is
quite nice because the typical sighting
we get of a war Tigers as well their
bottoms with their tails in the air and
barley’ why are you all talking so much
ii saw all the lands are separated from
their mothers and they’re sort of all
doing their own thing just chatting with
one another supposed to keep in contact
to say everything’s okay a little bit
nervous down at the water’s edge though
they don’t drink for long i know if
you’ve ever noticed that I mean animal
just doesn’t keep its head down and down
and down they drink for a couple of
seconds and then put their heads up and
look around and that’s important because
10 Ghana was not far from here
could be a crocodile in the water it
could be a number of different things
but very nice to see so many Impala
we’ve been having some great Impala
sightings in fact we’re very lucky we
better make the most of them of course
off you go to Kosta Tristan who is
having a look at some of the flora
I am indeed I haven’t seen one of these
in ages and well I’m so excited that we
found one it’s a small little bush that
we’ve got right in the middle of well
just close to the damn camera and
actually know it was even here which is
very very exciting now apologize first
before we carry on about our little
criminal attack we had earlier
unfortunate I don’t know what happened
they went back to our plant we have the
most delicious smelling tree we have
Archer when you pick this and you squash
it and you smell it mmm smells like a
lemony month’s kind of smell so it’s
known as Lapierre Java Nica or fever tea
and this part is really really cool it’s
used for a number of different things
it’s a really good plant for things like
asthma if you’ve got cuffs if you’ve got
any sort of
blockage in your sinuses you kind of
will use this and if unfortunately that
elephant did die it would have a
situation where you could put this in
your nose if you were going to that
caucus and all your smell is this lemony
mint smell rather than this horrible
kind of rotting meat smell so often used
to do this with kiss whenever we used to
go to a caucus you’d pick this and then
you just shove it up your nose now of
course you look absolutely weird when
you do it and I’ll do it for you guys so
that you can see it looks really odd but
I promise you if you’ve ever smelt a
dead elephant then you would know that
you would do this it would be much much
better for you so basically you just do
something like that now there we go
delicate jeggings they’re basically like
that and then all you smell is this
really fresh kind of minty lemon smell
as opposed to rotting meat it really
makes things much much better now I’m
probably sure that most of you can’t you
see Craig is definitely laughing behind
now the other things that they use this
plant for quite interestingly enough is
it’s a plant that they will rub on
people and they say that it keeps
crocodiles away from you so if you’re
ever going into an area where this
crocodile infested water they reckon if
you rub this on yourself the oils from
this will repel crocodiles I’m not sure
that that’s very very true it’s an
interesting kind of thing the other
thing is also is if you have meat that
has been infected with anthrax they
reckon that this plant rubbed on that
meat will actually get rid of that
anthrax I’m Batesville about that one as
well I don’t think I’d want to try and
eat anything that’s infected by anthrax
after it’s been rubbed with a plant but
you know these are the things that
sometimes people believe and so it’s a
quite an interesting plant for me it’s
just the most amazing smell and you can
make a tea from a substitute from it you
kind of boil the water and you put it in
and then you add milk into it and it’s
actually not too bad so it is actually
taste alright I have made tea from it
before it’s not the best he’ll ever have
it’s like a green tea but it is pretty
good nonetheless and I didn’t actually
know that there was one right yeah so if
anybody in camp was got sinus issues
this is where we need to come to be able
to get it is a really cool smell now all
I can smell is
intense lemony and and it kind of feels
funny non it’s the leaf is a bit
scratchy so make sure there is each a
little bit so I’m gonna have probably
things we have like this Wiggly nose as
we do the rest of this segment now I was
busy talking about just now when we got
so rudely interrupted by the gremlins
are talking about and swarming so the
only time we will see ants swarming is
if there’s a food item so if let’s say
if you at home you see ants and you drop
maybe a sugar solution so sugar and
water you’ll see the ants will then
swarm around that in order to feed off
it but other than that’s not really
there also I suppose if they in defense
of their their nest then your finance
will kind of come in and try and defend
you know big grouping but no not really
they just kind of go in lines and
they’ll go and find food and they
distributes art but they don’t actually
swarm anything unless it’s either food
related or in defense of their nest that
they are close to so it’s a pretty
interesting thing to see and answer a
phenomenal creatures are absolutely love
them there’s actually a thought that if
they were the size of a medium-sized dog
that none of us would even be surviving
because of the sort of prowess as
predators they would have a situation
where they would probably just take over
completely I’m good we’re going to carry
on we’re gonna try and see what other
little weird and wonderful things we can
find in the open areas and see what
there is and while we do that let’s
change you back across to brint and find
out whether he’s had any more luck with
husana or if he’s still with the big
grey pachyderms we back with the injured
le
sabi sands are about to arrive so I’m
just here to see what’s happening next a
quick update you know a herd of
elephants have moved into the area as
well so he’s actually surrounded by
other elephants now the problem is
apparently that big masked ball that we
saw this morning tell us bumped into him
already this evening and he was heading
in this direction so I could be a mute
object if that that must bull decides to
sort of finish the job I think he’s the
culprit and he perpetrated that injury I
can’t see him at the moment he’s got a
towards in the area there now the big
problem is this is the last direction
that husana went so with injured
elephants and must bulls around and you
don’t really want to get out and track
us on our own foot and so we just I’m
just checking quickly here and sorry I’m
just make sure I can’t see the big must
ball just yet you can see is still
constantly throwing dirt dirt on the
okay well I can see are we starting to
move now yeah I know you can see there
it’s the same Eddie okay I don’t want to
be stuck yet with other elephants so
next I gotta get out of here so are we
gonna send you across we don’t want to
be caught out in a bad position with
these Eddie’s so I say you gotta be very
just moving out of the way giving them
lots of space okay so while we see
what’s happening here next let’s go
across to Tristan to see how his Bush
was going well Prince I think it’s a
good idea for you to get yourself out of
the way of the ILI’s and make sure that
you do not get yourself squashed on
rusty I rather like rusty and so I don’t
want to see something happen I’m just
being honest a you as well we don’t want
to see you getting yourself into danger
and so now we’re still just ambling
about having a look and I’m trying to
look closely at all the plants because
I’m sure we’re gonna get some cool
insects after the rain that we had over
the last few days with the Sun brilliant
sunshine you’ve had since yesterday we
should have had quite a few insects
starting to at least lay eggs hatch or
be in the area and so we’re just kind of
walking and trying to check and to see
what we’ve got in the section and it’s
been lots of movements but nothing
really sitting still which is what makes
it difficult in the afternoons when
you’re doing insect looking so Dale yes
the scorpions in this area all of them
will glow under UV light so they have a
chemical within there within the
exoskeleton called hylene and then
heileen reacts under UV lights and you
get this glowing scorpion so I’ll try
and do you I don’t have a UV light with
me and we’re not gonna be arts late
enough for it to be really dark to find
a scorpion and actually do it but I will
try and find one
somewhere along the line on one of the
drives are in your heart and we’ll try
get a UV light and show you but this the
answer to that is all about scorpions
here do some color there we go so
there’s probably one of the more
colorful feathers that you get out here
it’s a bit bedraggled and probably came
out during the course of the rain but in
this form what looks like a lilac
breasted roller feather and you’ve got
these beautiful beautiful yeah blues
purples that come across this way and it
fades into a more sort of like
coloration so I would imagine this is
from a lilac mister on if it was a
purple roller we wouldn’t get this
brilliant electric blue here and the
European riders don’t get to this kind
of color almost purpley blue towards the
edge of the wing so from a lilac
breasted roller and like I said it
probably came out during the witch you
can actually see the tips of the
feathers are kind of bonded together and
because this is not on a bird this is
what would have happened if the bird was
still wet and then if it grooms it with
its beak and kind of goes with a beak a
little bit and just sort of runs their
beak through you can see the feather
starts to actually gain its shape again
and starts to look a lot more healthy
and more feather like so that’s why they
preen a lot after rain is why you see
them fluffed out and why they try and
then run their beaks through their
feathers in order just to soften
everything up again and get them looking
into good conditions so that they can
fly effectively but this would have been
like I say during the rain unfortunately
and that for a bit whatever happens is
grow another one it does happen quite
regularly that they lose feathers from
now and maybe now then good not so
interesting kind of things happening I
feel like there’s a lot of growth of
grass that’s working very tall but
interestingly enough as I’m walking
around here it’s really actually not
very thick so the grass is quite sort of
patchy in places you can see lots of big
gap between the grass so while we’ve
been driving around at the moment and
we’ve been moving around we’ve got a
situation where there’s kind of you
think that there’s a really thick
carpets of grass over the last few weeks
but it’s actually a little bit less than
you think and then once we get some
really dry weather this should die down
quite quickly and we’ll actually see
that it’s quite barren store there’s a
lot of big gaps between the grass sort
of clumps and that’s gonna mean a tough
winter stall for a lot
even though the grass looks healthier
and longer than what we’ve seen this
thought isn’t that thick cover that we
used to have back in the day right and I
just heard some of the just heard some
great go away birds along quoting little
bits I wonder if maybe they’re
Wahlberg’s eagles are not around no I’m
so you’re talking about a lipid that
killed the cheetah today and in the
Kruger Park I gather is where you saw
that because I did see a post about it
why would that have happened so
basically well how that happens and it’s
something that is quite common
particularly in certain parts of the
Kruger down towards actually where
Herkimer comes from crocodile bridge it
happens there every now and then and
basically what the situation is is that
generally cheetah are going to be
catching and hunting and killing
something like an Impala and they’re
hunting in areas on the fringes of quite
dense area big thickets and they catch
things in the open what happens is these
nets find them there and they rush in
and they grab these sheets and get them
while they are still feeding and they’ve
so preoccupied with the feeding process
that they don’t see the liquid coming
and the lipid being a much more physical
stronger animal grabs them and then
kills them and they have a situation
where they unfortunately then get you
know I did and then they dragged up into
the tree and eaten so the lipid is a
very opportunistic animal it’s something
that it will try its very best to try
and find food all the time and whether
that be an Impala or a cheetah is
irrelevant to their nutrients nutrients
and they will go after and they will
actually feed on them it’s not like
they’re you going to just put it up in
the tree and leave it they will actually
eat cheater so it’s a not a common
common thing but it does happen quite a
bit in the Krug I think in the last few
years I’ve seen maybe seven or eight at
the incidents at least of leopard
killing cheats and hoisting up into the
tree and eating it so not a very nice
thing to witness and certainly not what
we want to see but that’s nature it’s
how things go and it’s the way it’s gone
for many many years in the past so let’s
have to hope that the cheetah population
wherever it may be continues to grow
it’s been a good couple years for cheats
in the Kruger so it should be alright
now we’ll carry on we’re going to see
what else we can find I think brain’s
gotten myself out of that sticky
situation and so while we carry on let’s
go back to him and find out what
so sorry about that guys we’re still
busy trying to sort out the issue of
this elephant the sabi sands I just had
a chat with there so in theory if you if
anything has to be done with an elephant
it has to come with God well mpumalanga
which is the province we’re in it has to
be notified to the the parks would sorry
guys
taxes fun day there now between
Battaglia and Yared South Anechka Cova
as a Spaghetti Junction that side is
the session or subject could alarm
called sort of sounds like niala red
north junction with central red I’m
following up
okay so we’ve zoned that area and we’re
not letting any other vehicles into that
area
that must will arrive while we were
there looking at the injured animal the
injured animal immediately started
walking towards us that’s what you saw
there we couldn’t see the big masked
ball coming so we’ve just left that area
completely alone and we’re gonna go
follow-up so while we were chatting they
were kudu alarm calling directly north
of where we were so around since Road
and I’m pretty sure that’s a sign so
we’re gonna go have a look in that area
now so it will do is we’re gonna head
down they’re gonna switch off we’re
gonna listen and see if we get any luck
so we were sitting down there June North
will be anywhere from yeah so let’s just
turn the engine off and drift down the
road hope to get some of those alarm
calls so it’s quite late in the
afternoon so probably nothing will be
done about that elephant at the moment
as you can see that that wind doesn’t
seem to be hampering his movement and
whatnot too long or too much but the
problem is it’s not now while the winds
fresh it’s once the stiffness sets in
and especially because it’s a gut wound
in a in five days or four days time when
it’s incredibly infected and that
animals in a huge amount of pain will
become incredibly aggressive and that’s
where that elephant might be a possible
problem so we’ll wait to hear back from
MTPA
which is the government body and I’m
pretty sure they’ll be sending someone
out here tomorrow morning to search our
follow up I don’t think that elephant is
going to move too far from that area and
but unfortunately we will not be doing
any elephant tracking on foot while we
are I mean but leopard tracking on foot
while we’ve got all of that over there
so let’s hope asana is deciding to be
kind to us this afternoon and stays
close to the road so I don’t have to go
walking in the meantime let’s go see
where madam mccurdy is heading back to
camp seems to be like a common train
these days I promised the I’m not trying
to sneak off of Safari Wendy’s been fine
mechanically and then all of a sudden
there’s Impala once we started the car
we carried on driving she’s making a
shuddering noise and I’ve opened up the
hood of the car and it’s very very very
hot inside there well I don’t know I
don’t know what it is because the fan
belts still going around and round and
oh hi the running across the road I’m
not really sure so I’ve got no cars
number and I hope I was a mechanic by
the way I hope he may be he’s not yes
there’s no such thing as a Sunday when
you work in the bush so well first we’re
gonna get rid of that sneeze rule that
gave me goosebumps thank you and we’re
just slowly making our way back to camp
I seem to be losing power
so my foots quite far down on the
accelerator not really going anywhere
anymore so we’re just gonna hope that we
make at home we’re not too far away and
so I’ll have a little look now only
drive along hopefully we’ll be able to
hear what Daniel has just been talking
about and that is kind another line as
well
identify identify identify another line
from its roar
the answer to that is yep yes yes yes
they can indeed and I suppose we might
not be able to hear the difference all
the time but some friends of lions you
can hear and well they’ve got different
pictures at which they they rules so
just like I don’t sound the same as
David David doesn’t sound the same as me
each lion rule will be unique and of
course lions can understand one another
we can’t understand them so they will
indeed be able to tell the difference
and remember that’s how lines try and
find one another if a coalition say the
Birmingham boys have all split up and
one is looking for the other he might do
a big rule to try and locators his
fellow coalition members or the same
thing within Garuda pride for example if
any of the lionesses they get separated
they often start with contact calls if
they think they’re close by but if
there’s a little bit further away they
might end up doing a roar and then
obviously the rest will reply and then
that’s how they’ll find one another
which is quite cool I think and like
that sometimes you can hear it
especially with the male lions and if
you get to hear them roar often enough
you’ll be able to know be able to notice
the different types of roars like the
one of the four ways males punches two
boys that lived at sobby sobby for a
little bit they then moved on though
they went into Kruger then when the
trials – the Mail’s arrived and the one
male with very orange eyes had the
deepest roar I’ve ever heard mine
laughs it was so cool because the
gratest rule of any lion it was amazing
and he wasn’t a particularly big boy
either than he to listen what he lacked
in size he made up and in his raw it was
really quite cool in fact so so yeah
that’s quite nice yeah I haven’t heard a
line we’re all we hear them obviously
for a distance but I haven’t had a lion
roar right next to my car since I’ve
been back in they say that would be a
lovely treat that really would and shoe
now I’ll chat as long as I can we’re
gonna be pulling into the workshop
shortly so one last question from Katia
and that is if I had any close calls
with any of the animals yeah my most
recent one was with an elephant in fact
an elephant Colin on chitwa chitwa
looking at this breeding herd and then
this cow sort of came out and she didn’t
look very happy was so far away in the
next minute she just ran and she pushed
a whole tree down to try and gates us ah
reversed so quickly David were you with
me again for them again
I gained again again David was on the
car with me so yeah that wasn’t fun and
I mean it wasn’t a close close call I
moved away that if I think if I’d stayed
put and I didn’t start the car and drive
away I would have been a lot of trouble
she would have moved me and hippos have
had close calls with on foot I have also
had a close call with Buffalo on foot
before a buffalo that was a lot of fun
outside the tent and then also with
elephant balls in must that I didn’t
necessarily know where a master I was
trapped got trapped by breeding her on
it first to drag once when I first
started guiding that was terrifying
all right I’m gonna send you to Tristan
news what would be walking around here
somewhere if I look carefully enough I
could see him I’m going to very quickly
open the hood of my car and see what’s
going on with it it’ll free go to
welcome back sorry about that folks I
was um on the phone again just with the
guys making sure that everyone stays
away from that area with the general
manager of Joomla
he just wanted an update so just giving
him a quick update so I’m back and
hopefully Tyler gets her tech 4x quickly
and so does Tristan now I’m hoping that
her son is somewhere in this area I
nearly said quarantine you know that you
know that’s a blast from the past
they’re vim because they’re how many
times were at quarantine yeah sure
at least 2530 was via Malone so I just
sort of and I haven’t been on Zuma for
quite a while so and almost said
quarantine be nice no it wouldn’t
actually be very bad for her lipid
dynamics of quarantine arrived but this
is the area where does could alarm
calling so just been sitting quietly and
listening and unfortunately we haven’t
heard any more alarm call so I’m gonna
check down a little bit further towards
in the other edge south north and the
eddies are down in there and we’re gonna
keep clear of that area for now it is
absolutely sweltering today it’s a good
thing one of the most important things
when you’re out in the bush and it’s
very hard to make sure you drink enough
it’s not uncommon that will drink two to
three liters of Awards of water in one
drive especially at this when it’s this
temperature means 36 degrees Celsius and
I say I’m quite impressed with myself I
was on the phone to Jamie after drive
this morning and I said today is going
to be a stinker I think it’s gonna get
to 35 degrees and it was 36 so not too
far off now what I’m also trying to do
this is another good spot let’s actually
just get down into the shade let’s have
a look around yeah now of course it’s
beautiful in green at the moment but in
a few months it’s going to be quite
brown and and grey and it’s our fire
season the scenic is asking about
wildfires and do we ever get them we do
occasionally and we also have controlled
fires we do control the burns in this
area a lot of people think fire is bad
it’s another one of those massive
misconceptions because fire is good most
of sub-saharan Africa outside of the
forest block which is obviously the
Congo Basin rain forests and the rain
forests in West Africa is what you call
a fire climax biome and what that means
there’s a lot of species particularly
the grass needs the fire and to climax
and that means it will destroy and burn
all the moribund dead grasses dead seeds
and it helps enrich the soil and so
after fire with a little bit of rain you
get incredible growth incredibly quickly
and most of our trees are here are fire
resistant or fire retardant so they
don’t actually get damaged that much and
even the small animals like tortoises
mice and rats and and those type of
things the vast majority are able to get
into the bottom of the thickets of
something like a quarry which is fire
retardant and survive the the fire so
fire is actually a very good thing
traditionally in Africa and in this type
of area those wildfires would have been
started by lightning during the dry
season all right at the beginning of the
wet season and they could have burned
many thousands upon hundreds of
thousands of hectares these days because
of people we control them so most
depending on the type of soil type of
grass most areas are most effective if
burnt once every two to three years so
you’ll have different areas that your
cordon off and burn every two to three
years and what that does more elephants
and these Eddie’s everywhere
and what that does is creates a very
healthy ecosystem with the right balance
okay now he seems to be heading up
Nuala red North sir I think let’s do
that there might be some eddies heading
towards Brussels hook down and we can
sit there and listen and we should still
be close enough that if we do hear alarm
calls again we should be able to dash
well while we’re going through here
Paula is wondering about species of Arab
ever gain trees this is one here the
tambuti tree is an evergreen tree and
you see if I rip the leaf like that it
will start bleeding a milky latex now
that milky latex is highly poisonous and
can burn one skin but timber teas are
evergreen we’ve got lots of evergreen
trees actually but the vast majority are
not vast majority of the deciduous but
ever evergreen trees we’ve got another
one right here in the African evany the
jackal berry there’s another evergreen
tree and only one or two occasions are
evergreen and such as the Brack thorn
which is also yeah most of your
evergreen trees will grow around these
little riverbeds
sorry vampy the black thorn is all the
way behind you gory bushes so yes we
apologize that is not a black thorn is
it I apologize it’s just a very green de
Christakis
or sickle Bush so a lot of our trees and
bushes are evergreen one of the most
important ones in terms of animals due
to its palatability is the ziziphus or
buffalo thorn this is a very important
evergreen tree and during the winter
months it’s not so important during the
summer months but during the winter
months you’ll actually see a Browse line
where parler bush back in Jana and could
it will feed on it extensively as well
as elephants so that is the Buffalo
phone and it’s got the most wonderful
Afrikaans name it is a blank blood vaca
Becky boss vaca Becky boy yeah that’s
what I’m correct yes so it’s called a
waste of it which translates to a waste
of it bush or tree now the thing is
because if you ever get stuck in it you
have to wait a bit to get out so not
only will it impale you on a very sharp
straight thorn it will hook you with a
very nasty hawkthorne
on the underneath now of course if you
are very popular at being eaten
you need all the defenses you can get
now not only is it popular amongst
animals but it actually goes very well
in salads especially when they’re nice
and fresh and green like that now
apologies at the moment that I’m the
only feed their tech issues with both
Tristan and Taylor Taylor is asking me
if I’m live
see I’m the only feed at the moment
I can’t so we’re gonna try it towards
bottles of water see if the Le is gonna
read back shrike sitting nice and high
perched eating as many insects as
possible before the long flight home or
back T woods Europe read back tracks
that have been ringed in South Africa
have been recalled in bird net in
England
can you believe so they’ll be taking
advantage especially after that little
bit of rain we had of eating as much as
many insects as possible before their
long flight back towards Europe are very
now certain birds will shed feathers
from time to time and that is called
molting and first lady is asking why I
will notice would they do that
well those feathers become damaged will
affect their flight patterns and whatnot
so they’re constantly getting new
feathers and that’s why they take a lot
of effort and grooming and keeping those
feathers in pristine condition now it’s
very important if you are something like
a red backtrack who has to fly that
incredible distance all the way back to
Europe for the summer so they spend
European summers in summer and African
summers yeah so they just live in summer
permanently now we heard those who do
I’m calling quite a while ago so it’s
not impossible that husana might have
even got this far so always a good spot
this is still definitely one of my
favorite roads on juma in Holroyd north
is we meander up the little river system
I’m just gonna check your on the soft
sand no no sign of a signer coming this
way now of course after the rain and
there’s been a bit of an explosion in
insects but not so much in flowers James
was asking about baboons tail have they
started flowering after the rain no
James and they’re very unlikely to there
are normally they normally flower with
the first rains not the last rains so
their flowering season is well and truly
over it’s very unusual to find any
baboon’s tails flowering this late in
okay unfortunately guys sir although we
are stable and here in present Conrad is
running around like an absolute man mad
trying to fix bushwalk and Wendy but to
do that he has to reboot our whole
system which means you’re going to lose
us as well I will give you a little bit
of a warning before that happens but in
the next little while there’s a policy
when you’re going to have to go into
tech you we will be back hopefully it
won’t be to be hopefully we’ll have
Taylor and Tristan back as well if it’s
just me we will soldier on don’t you
welcome back unfortunately so far it’s
just me bush walks trying I’m not sure
about Taylors is a mechanical problem so
opus on his way
but for now yeah stuck with the world of
Easton me now as I said it feels like a
bit like the old days again and for
those have you been watching for a long
time valve you on that
I remember Baldy when we only used to do
one vehicle Monday Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday Friday and we only put two
vehicles arcs Saturday Sunday is that
right for thee
two vehicles in the afternoons on the
weekends so and the week no we also only
used to do there were already four of us
we didn’t have enough staff that was it
can you believe that three just over
three years ago there were four of us
five of us who’s voting it was Brian
mock me that was it and then Scott Nikki
then James came the enemy Jean Dre and
oh I can’t even remember her ass
so I’m not quite ready to give up on it
so I’m gonna do one last big loop this
area we found with the kuduro but they
were looking very relaxed now so maybe
in a sauna went off that way so we’re
gonna do another loop Central Road
around towards quarry pan and then maybe
back down very pan Road and then if we
have no luck maybe we’ll go visit the
now on Twitter while Velda beast now
opposed and proposed posting our
fabulous selfie that about that cheetah
that was killed by a leopard near choke
1 and it sounds like the cheetah killed
an Impala
the leopard obviously heard that
commotion Rushton killed the cheetah
hoisted the cheetah as well as eating
and wasting the Impala if I think I’m
correct and oh so next now I’ve
completely gone off on a tangent and
forgotten who was asking about that Amy
sorry Amy and Amy is wondering do the
cheats they ever coming to sabi sands
yes they do
Amy there’s actually quite a reasonable
cheetah population in the sabi sands
however where we are is not the best
cheetah country in the southeast and so
there are some more open areas on the
gabbro soils with the cheetah spend more
time Tristan was the last person to see
cheetah on Juba and he saw I think was a
female in three sub adults three sub
adults in the beginning of January
somewhere around there if the last
person to see chicken gonca on on Jima
three or four times I’ve seen the same
two males the ones we used to see on
cheated plans I’ve seen them on Juma a
couple of times and then I’ve only ever
seen one female on Jima and that was
actually on foot so I wasn’t here I was
tracking a leopard than her Hampton – a
cheetah and she got too frightened he’d
addled off but yes they do come into the
sabi sands strangely and South Africa is
is the only country in the in Africa
where cheetah occur where their
population is actually increasing so
even Kenya Tanzania the cheetah
populations there are decreasing and the
cheetah the cheetah in South Africa are
increasing the largest meta population
of cheetah in in Africa now when I say
meta population I mean the population
with the greatest journey at genetic
genetic I don’t think this such word is
janitor genetic diversity and so
therefore the most viable population of
cheetah in Africa we’re actually sitting
in it right now all driving through it
right now
it is the greater Kruger so they’re
there and there’s incredible work being
done by ewt the endangered wildlife
trust at spreading cheetah to as many
reserves as possible now I think I might
have mentioned a while ago that I was
excited to come back to Juma but I was a
little bit disappointed because there
there’s lots of stuff going on in the
reserve where my pensive and my dad’s in
charge of all of that and so the day I
had to come back was the day we released
the male cheetah from from the boma and
caught lions and did all sorts of stuff
and I was at work so I would have liked
have been part of that I’ve been part of
big cat Game Capture quite a few times
but it’s always an exciting thing to be
part of and we actually ended up moving
them so my dad’s neighbor owns the
Safari wines shop with suppliers wine to
a lot of the lodges here and he donated
his wine delivery vehicle and so that
day it wasn’t delivering wine
it was delivering three lions from Kapaa
ma – laid with so these three lionesses
in the Burma but back to the endangered
wildlife trust and and and and cheetah
so they’ve got a really incredible
program with cheetah and wild dog that
are reintroducing them to a lot of
reserves where they haven’t been for a
long time and there will actually almost
give you that she’s air with and a lot
of things as long as you adhere to their
their sort of approach course and what
happens is then if they know the exact
genetics of all the different cheetah
that are outside of this meta population
and then they’re able to fully move and
control moving males and females from
different areas to make sure that the
cheetah have the best chance of survival
with the highest genetic diversity so
that they’re doing absolutely
unbelievable job I must having I take my
hat off GE WT and a good friend of mine
is actually well he’s in charge of the
wild dog project for this part of the
world so when you see the colors on any
wild dog yet my friend grant is
now speaking of Jeter and a cheetah we
came to know and love you has
unfortunately probably disappeared is
malaika laura was asking is there in any
other word on my locker not that I’ve
heard Laura unfortunately not since her
two boys were seen calling for on the
banks of the Colorado River
there hasn’t been any word on her just
yet
so I’m hoping that she’s still around
but I mean she’s such a recognizable
cheetah and the fact that she hasn’t
been seen now for probably over a month
means that she’s either I think she
either drowned overtaken by crocodiles
so for those of you don’t know what
happened but like it was a female
cheetah that Jaime followed the most to
spend the most time with but we all
spend quite a lot of time within the
Mara I saw awesome incredible stuff with
Malacca and the Mara’s had a huge amount
of rain recently and the cheetah was
seen trying to cross the flooded river
and the next day only to Mayor the two
young boys were seen and there was no
sign of Malacca now that was the last I
heard I haven’t I have kept a sort of
not a close eye but a sort of a distant
eye on what’s been going on up there and
so far I haven’t heard anything about
Malacca yet she was probably the most
famous cheetah in the world and at the
moment I think the five boys are
catching up there
so very very sad but again black that
elephant early on drive today
these things happen up in the bush it’s
it’s it’s I shouldn’t say it again but I
like the way it sounds it’s not
strawberries and cream really bad sad
harsh things happen our chair and that’s
nature and it’s in human nature to want
to try interfere and try sort of change
the outcome of what’s going on but when
human beings do that it actually makes
things worse at the end of the day so
it’s better to just let nature take its
course so it is a it is a difficult one
but that is the right decision eloise is
asking about the two boys are they okay
Eloise I’m not sure I’m not a hundred
percent I will find out how’s that I’ll
speak to Scott and Jamie you are up
there and see if they’ve heard no it’s
good so what do you think then great pan
or bubbles
let’s go query pan I think that’s the
okay well I’m sure you are all sick and
tired of hearing the sound of my voice
in my continuous waffling so let’s go
listen to some waffle from Tristan well
quite right and waffling is something
that both of us care the talent for and
can do it quite regularly so back to
camp and try and sort out some stuff
with the pack in with the camera and
regarded alright and so hopefully that’s
the last of the gremlins then they are
gone and that they leave us alone for
the race but it is a beautiful beautiful
evening we’ve had a bit of cloud cover
come in and is the most magnificent sky
off to the south but these blue blue
blue hues with this kind of wispy cloud
that’s there and then to a sort of
western side we’ve got a eastern side
we’ve got these massive storm build apps
that are happening so you can see these
big clouds then it were beautiful color
in them as the Sun is starting to sit so
they’re starting to get pinks and
oranges and it is a wonderful time to be
out walking at this time of the day it’s
one of my favorite times of the book in
the bush
it has everything is just kind of
sickening down the wind is settled
completely but I will tell you one thing
that it is gotten incredibly humid which
might be an indication now we’re gonna
see a little bit of rainfall at some
point tonight I wouldn’t be surprised at
all it feels very close and muggy and
sticky but still a beautiful day to be
out and about asking if there’s a time
or season when ticks hibernate so know
there can be ticks throughout the year
you can’t have a situation where you’ll
get ticks both now well in winter all
the way through into the summer months
but obviously there’s a much higher
percentage in the summer and you pick up
a lot more in the summer and the reason
for that is because that’s when they
start to breed and so they have a lot
more little babies at that time the
grass is also much longer and so there’s
a lot more space for ticks to inhabit
areas and when you walk you then pick up
a lot more so there’s a higher
percentage during the summer months when
they’re breeding but you can find them
still in winter it’s not as much but
there definitely is still ticks in the
winter months so it’s something you’ve
got to be aware of and you’ve always got
to kind of pay attention but it’s
drastically reduced number during the
winter then there is during the
as the grass dies down a little bit now
sorry that doesn’t hear you at all the
car just came process and it just
through the question parts you can just
repeat trust in the fact that I have
walked around enough in the bush to know
that I’ll be okay
and to trust that I’ve spent enough time
with some very experienced people who
have shown me a lot and taught me a lot
and walking with guys like Herbie and
Rex you learn and you kind of get to a
situation where you become a lot more in
tune with what’s going on and so I find
on walk that’s for the 99% of the time
you feel fairly safe and particularly
the chances of us coming across
something that’s going to be very very
dangerous
you’ll see it long before you really get
yourself into too much trouble and so
it’s not so bad I actually love walking
so I always feel fairly comfortable on
foot it’s just that you’ve got to be a
lot more aware of what’s going on and
take nothing for granted so even though
it is a comfortable feeling because you
do it a lot it’s not to mean that it’s
complacent so you can’t have a situation
where you get complacent and you sit
around and you don’t pay attention to
what’s going on because then you’re
gonna get yourself into a bit of trouble
but definitely not an uncomfortable
feeling walking good well we’re gonna
try and find some stuff it’s getting
quite dingy now so hopefully in six you
know just start cycling a little bit
find some of them or maybe see if we can
find some flowers off the rain but while
we do that so believe Taylor mccurdy is
also solve her gremlin issues and
there’s also out and about and really to
entertain all of you we’re back up and
running and basically what had happened
was iPod actually serviced Wendy today
which is very called euphoria so he gave
the engine a good clean and a good spray
so what it was it was just a plug that
it actually got wet and because of that
it was causing the car to misfire and we
were losing power and all these things
but we Paul we went down so high he
opened it all up took basically a
compressor sprayed it down dried it out
and no we good now something I want to
show you is this
line and all of a sudden as soon as you
pull down a camp that smell of petrichor
was strong in the air maybe they’re not
sure what petrichor is it’s every earthy
smell sort of like a mold and fungus and
wet soil that you get before you have
rain these clouds have come out of
nowhere the smell and this morning
earlier today I did mention I was like
all these wispy cirrus clouds which
typically mean that we’re gonna get rain
in a couple of days time but perhaps
we’ve been having cirrus clouds and in
the last few days maybe with all the
rain and we have had and I just didn’t
notice them but it looks like I think
we’re gonna have another storm on our
hands maybe not now
I definitely think a little bit late or
perhaps tomorrow morning just
interesting on that Petrus call smells
around them
and then another good news as tax owners
manage to a relocates on the
Birmingham’s
so that’s where we’re going to be
heading in a minute get down there so
let’s go
I’m so happy there was nothing really
wrong with we do because she’s been
driving so beautifully lately and so
well it’s um it’s hope it’s take those
confused I thought to myself my goodness
why is this car doing so hot is Hector
Gaddafi it’s a beautiful smell mmm it’s
really really nice okay well we haven’t
got far to go till we get to the
Birmingham’s
hopefully by the time we get to their
heads they’re not laying on the long
grass but off you go to Tristan he’s
found himself another flutterby I was
saying now that we it’s starting to
settle down a little bit it’s getting a
little cooler so things are starting to
get to that point where it’s gonna get
dark and so a lot of the insects will
start finding a place to sit
particularly the butterflies and in
particular their careers they love
sitting on a grass talk like this and
this looks like a dustier Korea it just
difficult because not opened its wings
just yet but I just want to double check
but it’s got that white bar towards the
end of the wing tips which the dusky
areas do get and
I think it’s one of those but isn’t it
amazing how we’ve had very few
butterflies over the last little bit and
all of a sudden today we’ve kind of had
them coming out and a lot more around
it’s been a kind of a little mini
explosion of butterflies which is
exciting because I know Brent loves
butterflies and well I really enjoy
watching them as well and a number of
you do too so really in the peasant just
to kind of find them and and spend some
time with them now this one’s being far
more cooperative than our butterfly
earlier and I must correct myself
because I said that it could have been
one of the coppers but it was actually a
hairtail butterfly so it was just when
we kind of got back I’ve got to see a
picture of it from a screen shot and and
a number of you also coming to run it so
thank you for that and it’s you know
difficult with these guys when you kind
of standing and trying to look at a very
small screen because generally we try to
stand quite far from the butterflies
because otherwise we spook them quite
quickly certain particular this guy I’m
standing relatively far away allowing it
just to sit very nicely and so that prey
can get a nice shot of it which is
working quite well perfect that it’s
sitting on top of the longest piece of
grass that we’ve got in our immediate
vicinity so that’s making life a lot
better which is very very cool so Paula
butterflies in it say they there will be
one or two migratory species that we get
so something like a brown brained whites
they will migrate African vagrants do a
little bit of a migration but there’s
nothing in the scale like we see the
Monarchs in in North America that’s a
far bigger scale than any of ours but
the brown vein whites do do into a
migration I remember when I was a little
kid I used to spend time in an area not
too far from here on the Drakensberg
mountains and that area we used to see a
situation where you know we’d have these
brown vain whites coming over this hill
and down and we just get this cloud of
white coming through it was really very
very pretty and just to stand there was
just this flurry of butterflies can be
possible almost like being in snow so
really cool to see and you know since
when I was a kid was seeing those I
haven’t seen them in since then which is
a bit strange and it’s a bit of worrying
when you start to seeing insect
migrations getting less and less and
probably due to the increase of farming
Goods well hopefully there’ll be more
little things lying in wait for us while
we move around so while we do that it’s
you back across to brains you still
driving I wonder if he’s gonna get any
luck with the little chief I’m trying
desperately now what makes it quite
difficult at the moment because of the
injured alien that must fall in this
area and to walk and safe where he is
he’s far so normally but I would have
skedaddled three little well-being in
the same area as a sauna it’s important
for my my general well-being that I
don’t occasionally you come across those
situations on foot while you’re in the
bush that’s that when you’re not yeah so
you know those situations and get out of
their safety so to put yourself in that
situation when you know there’s a
oh no sorry about that everybody my
goodness the gremlins have been terrible
hopefully tomorrow morning will be a
different story we’ll have all smiles
right I’m looking for Jackson he should
be here somewhere
he said that they hadn’t moved too far
and he’s thrown the eastern side of the
road oh there he is now holds on all the
car there too
fabulous now let’s try and is it Texas
at all Bree this yeah try and figure out
where those lines are well everyone’s
looking at us now just know it’s the
most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced
in my entire life I have to tell you
this quickly before we get there driving
into a society with leopards and lions
and people stop looking at the animals
to look at us it’s the most bizarre
thing ever
so he’s try and find a gap I’d imagine
though that these cats are probably
tucked away I was saying to David I
would they wouldn’t have moved too far I
think it was just when the Sun that sort
of moved towards the waist and they
shining down on them because they were
covered by trees during the morning all
my goodness is a tight squeeze it’s just
check out to see one let’s quickly have
a look and see where we can find the
others there’s another one okay we might
have to just take this little gap yeah
hey David it’s not gonna be great
and you even got the best end of him
either so well a little bit I’m going to
relax now I’m going to get as you can
see the horizontal position but there’s
the line there’s one of them and the
other two also scattered around the sort
of dwarfed silver casted eaves and as
well as some of the bush willow trees so
they haven’t moved far they’ve probably
moved the whole of I don’t know maybe
no well obviously talking this morning
about the dynamics that are going on
between the vaca males and the okay
sorry
and the Birmingham’s and Peter Viper
you’ve just asked a question why didn’t
the forth Birmingham I think it’s in
four more that’s missing why didn’t he
come up and help chase away the Avoca
males well we don’t actually know if
they had an altercation or not I mean I
don’t necessarily think that they knew
that the vocal males were here perhaps
only once they arrived and they picked
up on their scent but we know what the
Birmingham is alike normally when they
come back they’re very vocal lines they
start calling from far away so perhaps
they started their rules as they were
passing through their old territory
maybe those youngsters heard it and then
well got on the move and obviously as
that sign was coming closer and closer
and in their direction
I reckon they would have gone out of
there and the reason why that other lion
I suppose is not here is it seems as
though he’s quite comfortable with among
again breakaway pride but Tristan knows
quite about more about it so maybe he
can let you
on on that side of the story and I think
he said to me today it wasn’t for more
that’s down there so if he’s happy and
he’s found another pride maybe he’s just
gonna stay a bit further away and three
big male lines versus three sort of
youngsters it’s not I don’t think it’s
much of a challenge I can say these boys
are certain healthy they’re in the prime
of their life they’re not old and
they’re much larger than those are vocal
males and just their bellowing roars all
three of them at the same time I think
would be enough to chase them away we’re
talking about it today we’re talking
about how the variants have definitely
got an advantage because it’s their turf
it’s their land they know this area
exceptionally well his other fellows are
new they don’t really know what to
expect what’s around the next corner so
you know what it’s like whenever you
have a sports game on home ground you’ve
got the advantage and the mattress here
the match was on at a Birmingham’s turf
so they’ve gone no one has seen them I
think that they’ve moved into Mon unity
I think they’ve gone back to a spot that
they’re probably more comfortable in and
maybe that’s where they’re just going to
wait around and spend most of their time
until they’re up for the challenge until
they are big and strong enough to come
on through and try and take on the
Birmingham know these lines have also
traveled a fair distance in the day
remember that Birmingham has arrived in
I think winter of 2015 and quickly and
Avon wishes you just honest weird they
where did they get their name from so
this kind of all ties in so these cats
have come from very far away from the
timber party and there is a property and
supervisors remember these are all old
farms essentially and lots of the times
people name their farms and that farm
that the Birmingham pride is from was
called Birmingham so that’s where they
got their name they left the pride they
dispersed and then they came on down
here and well they all they kept their
name so there’s a huge distance to get
here – I’m just seeing where everybody’s
moving – perhaps we okay maybe we’ll do
that hage what we’ll do now is I’ll try
and get another gap here Texan has moved
on up and around so there must be
another boy over there and I think we
should be able to get a bit of view so
while we Reapers
we go back to Tristan who’s still
looking at the ends
well good luck repositioning Taylor I
hope that you find yourself a perfect
place in order to get a good view of the
Birmingham boys and so what we are doing
is we are sitting with a bunch of
harvester ants and I’m absolutely loving
watching them because they’ve found
themselves a whole bunch of grass seeds
that they are busily carrying back and
forth into the nest and then they
carrying some onto the edges and it’s
just a complete kind of busy array of
little grass seeds being carried all
over the place it’s quite funny to see
because the ants are so small but he
cross seeds are kind of three times the
size of them and they’re kind of
carrying them all over the place
absolutely fascinating to watch them
going about their business and how much
strength they have in order to be able
to bring it to the actual entrance to
the nest lots and lots of things going
on and amazing just watching the process
as they go about it and the way that
they kind of move things about and it’s
always easy to find these guys because
of the amount of debris that you find
around the edges of the nests itself
there’s massive amounts of little grass
bits that are all over the place and so
they drag them in and then they feed off
them and then they it will basically
take the husks outs and so this is all
the husk area over here you can see look
how many little grass seeds they’ve
brought out I mean that’s all husks of
grass seeds that they’ve already fed on
and then dropped on the edges of their
nest so there’s a really nice large one
and they’ve been taking advantage of the
flurry of grass seeds that have come out
over the course of this little bit of
rain that we’ve had in the last month so
really amazing to kind of see how they
do it it’s incredible watching them and
his tireless work and never stopped him
so he saw the ants earlier
moving about and thousands of them up
and down the log and these guys are just
as cool because they are just constantly
working like this and imagine how much
if it has taken to take this many seeds
out of this area and to move them all
over the place like this it’s pretty
so David your funds heavy rain can
effects and sin in particular when we at
times excuse me I’m trying to talk here
go away Birds they being very loud about
this but you’re finding times of heavy
rain and we get flooding and stuff like
that and still are very perceptive so
they often pick it up long before we
even know about it and before the rain
falls and they’ll then start to move and
you see them carrying their eggs and
they actually move into areas that are
slightly higher so maybe something like
a termite mound or even sometimes in
towards trees and they’ll use trees as a
nesting point while it floods and then
once the they kind of flooding subsides
then they back down into the ground
itself so and so a really good indicator
for rain coming our way as soon as you
start to see ants moving and going away
from a nest carrying eggs and often
towards higher ground you know that
we’re gonna have a situation where we’re
gonna get a bit more rain coming our way
right now our ants are still busy
feeding and moving things around and so
we’ll probably need them to do that as
the Sun starts to sit in the meantime
let’s go back across to Brent Leo Smith
who’s still driving about and I think
well I’ve decided to give up on this
honor for now just the fact as I’m sure
he’s close by there but he’s in that
same block as the elephants and as I was
saying I don’t typically you feel like
walking amongst and amongst that whole
situation so my brother told me that
they had a Camry this morning heading
east towards western boundary and no one
really checked up there this morning so
I think we’re gonna have a shot straight
up for the ones cut line and then check
that new road mendoza road to see if
there we can find any sign of him in
that area so he was seen heading east
from nob thorn open which is only about
100 meters away from our boundaries that
might be worth going to have a check in
temperature is actually really Pleasant
at the moment it’s just dropped a little
bit off that really hot period it is a
oh it’s time for some language lessons
for Eloise we would like know what this
shop mean in South African slang
apparently I used it earlier I don’t
even remember
circumstances it’s SH double or triple
quadruple depending on how long you hold
the show for so it’s generally an
exclamation of surprise or shock so you
could say the Australians were caught
ball tampering and you could go sure so
those of you follow cricket will know in
the news those trillions of just being
caught being very naughty boys cheating
if the cricket so when I found out that
they were cheating in to quickly go into
the shop so that’s that’s one way you
could use it I’m not sure I used it
earlier but yes that is that is it sort
of an expense exclamation of surprise
not to be confused with shot shot
was I’m gonna try get up towards the
western areas before we lose the light
and while we do that I’m hoping the tail
is going to have some luck and those
lions will start roaring early tonight
to make sure the Avars keep heading to
well glad that’s all settled down now
we’re getting nervous
we had a very excited lion at one point
it was quite awkward to be honest now he
this male ever it may be laying upside
down like this was them yawning and
rolling around and I’m hoping that that
was the first of many and that the next
step is to actually set up and show
himself I can’t see if I’ve been one of
the other males was sitting up for like
two seconds but there wasn’t really a
gap to get in there but I think he’s
gone down now I think he’s gone
completely flat which is a pity we’ll
see there’s another vehicle moving so
I’m just gonna watch to see if there is
any more movement with these lines now
where they’d go and drink oh there we go
oh there’s one hello moving in from the
back oh you Limpy Lou
see that a couple of scratches on the
back right leg have you been fighting
obviously we couldn’t see much of them
this morning let me go up and go around
no why did you do that that was
unnecessary I don’t know who that was
that got up but he doesn’t have a couple
of scratches on his back legs that
didn’t look particularly fresh to me
they actually look like that scarred and
gone black already I don’t believe this
other boy is going to walk into frame
not to I can see him sitting up so
that’s good news I think he may walk
straight in this direction that might be
Nana I don’t know who we were looking at
goodness I it’s been a long time since
I’ve seen the faces of a Birmingham so
you might have to help me I know that
informal has a scar under his right eye
Levi’s time where he had the attack of
the my ASIS remember one of the uncommon
lionesses swatted at him and then
unfortunately them flies got in there
and laid their eggs inside the wound and
and then basically it was the top of my
Asus where the the larvae of those
Flyers actually feeds on on flesh and
then ate a big hole in his face but it
healed up quite nice it was quite a cool
thing to see in the wild unfortunate for
him for more but we did all did learn a
lot from that experience yeah here he
comes and that’s the easiest way and
he’s got quite a sort of beaten up face
as well and then Nana has got an equal
sign on his nose I think tin yours the
one that’s got the half moon taken out
of his yeah as well as well as them he
has got a big cut on his lip from way we
was in a bit of an argument and you can
see a part of his lip is missing come on
kitty kitty kitty come to us please
we’ve been waiting or patient
everybody’s now left
here he comes yeah yeah I’m so happy and
then in sook who’s just got the most
golden eyes in the most beautiful mane
here we go this is Nana but we’ve got a
beautiful equal sign on the right hand
side of his nose hi gorgeous
that’s a very pretty lion do you looking
real got a few scratches on them but
like I say that doesn’t look fresh so I
don’t know if they’ve maybe been in a
couple of arguments perhaps with even
the females down a little bit further
south from here I remember
these boys have been roaming around down
on sobby sobby and they have been moving
around up and on Dalhousie Mala Mala so
yeah crazy know as we sit some hope that
these lines are going to set up and raw
and I think they may I don’t think that
they’ve finished
you know announcing their presence that
they’ve returned and Wendy you’ve just
asked that question basically about
their real whole how far away can
another lion here it’s wrong well we as
humans can hear a lion rule from about
eight kilometres away and that’s what
our very deaf ears in comparison to a
lion it’s hard to say I reckon it’ll be
a couple of kilometers more than that
because I can’t tell you how many times
you’ve heard you guys she’s seen mines
the fast asleep like they were not and
then sitting up is sort of pricked out
listening quiet quiet you can hear a
sound was even a bird tweeting you know
be one of those quiet now it’s a next
minute those Lions that you were
watching that were fast asleep break out
in a roll and that’s when you know that
um that something is they’ve obviously
heard something they must have heard
other lions roaring in the distance so I
can’t say exactly how far away I mean
you do be able to do a test if you had
one private lines it was sitting 14
kilometres away and you’ll meet us with
another private lines and the one fella
said all my lines are roaring and the
other guy said all my own lions have
actually just popped their heads up they
listening to something you know then you
could be exact about a distance but we
know eight kilometers as a human I think
it’s a cut probably a few more
kilometers than that or just this is
quite cool and pretty amazing so like I
said the Birmingham’s are known to do
that they’re known to start roaring from
quite a distance away I mean I’d be
sitting up and I’d hear faint roars far
far far far south from my bedroom and
and in the DRC it’s quite difficult to
normally yeah and the sounds the sort of
can be distorted slightly because of
obviously all the concrete walls around
and you hear it gets closer and closer
doesn’t stop every ten minutes or at all
at your windows are vibrating you think
they’re gonna fall out of the framing
and I’ve had that a couple of times
pretty cool when they come right past
can walk down past the cars so and then
you carry on hearing that until it
completely disappears so they make a lot
of noise and especially now that they’ve
smelt that the vocal males are here
whether or not they they sold them out
there was an interaction we don’t know
we can’t say for sure until we see the
Avoca males if they will batted up and
got scratches well then we know there
was an altercation and they probably
won’t come back for some time but off
you go to Tristan the light is fading
they are indeed now this is a type of
beetle that we see very regularly and I
still can’t find a positive ID on it
I’ve tried to find many different
examples of this beetle and I’ve come
close but never found the exact one that
we’re looking at and we find them like I
said quite regularly on trees certain
bushes and often on the car itself as
well and it’s a small kind of black
beetle but when you get a bit of light
until it gets this coppery Sheen to it
and it’s very very round and small the
Clinton and small leagues it’s almost a
little kind of ladybug like instructure
but it’s not one of those and I can’t
seem to find the exact beetle I’ve tried
numerous times because we see them quite
often you see them a lot on some of the
plants particular this is Vania as we
see them on there and we want to see
them a little bit on the wattles on the
flowers so I don’t really know which
pizza that is but they are pretty cool
little things now I’ll try and put my
finger roughly in the area contacts you
see where it is oh there it is so I’m
going to put my finger there and just
give you an idea of how large it is also
try and put the lights a little bit
better for Craig but is that a right
Craig have you got my finger there so
that’s my index finger that you’ve got
just in terms of a relative size between
the beetle and me and they are very
common in this area good well we are
gonna start making our way home there’s
a big storm coming there’s lightning so
starting to get a bit dark Archer for
walking around and so while we do that
so let’s send you back across to Prince
well we’re now on the opposite side of
the property to where we’ve been and you
can see there’s the storm Tristan’s
talking about I don’t think it’s going
to get to us there somehow it looks like
it’s gonna go further down to the south
but we are right yet we’re looking for a
hooker Maury now so this is the area
where you might have crossed that knob
for not open areas just a little bit to
the right of that termite mound through
there so that’s where he’s going to come
from and so we’re just having a quick
look through here as it gets dark you
might start getting on the move start
getting on the hunt or getting on the
oh now since we’ve been reminiscing you
know about the old days
then were becoming when wheeze but sweet
peas asking about the coalition that
came before the Birmingham boys they
were called vomit Imbert’s and you had
hairy very hairy belly my timber and
ginger met umber there used to be I
think four or five of them but since I
when I arrived there were only two of
them they got chased by the Birmingham
they ended up down south and blonde
Alosi and central sabi sands for a bit I
think they must have moved on to the
next plane now but so it was the matte
umber male lion coalition and they were
already quite old
so unlike the birmingham’s when the
Birmingham’s came in the members were
sort of right down towards the end of
their their reign at the top weather is
that these are workers have arrived
while the Birmingham’s are still in
prime condition well it was what it was
really nice to see them this morning
they were looking spectacular hungry but
now of course their increments were bomb
shelled by the voters of unites ago and
the little cab has I think been seen
Olivia I was asking about that I think
it has been seen I’m not a hundred
percent sure but so far they’ve seen
dribs and drabs of the Inca homers to
the west all contact calling trying to
find each other which I mean we’ve got
to remember when the birmingham’s first
arrived that’s what happened frequently
as well they would chase the in comas
and they would bombshell in groups the
Birmingham’s even killed he was two
adults in Kakuma lionesses and
sub-adults female and that they killed
that that the sabado
female right near Tristan’s room when he
was working at sebum Billy and the Inka
Homer female was killed in Torchwood at
second Rock and we actually got special
permission to go into torture did you
come with me them was Andrew Andrew came
with me we’ve got special permission to
go into tortured to actually go film
of course there were five Birmingham’s
in the beginning one male died from
injuries received from a buffalo horn in
the lung Punk looked like he had a
punctured lung quite quiet yeah in the
West well it seems like Justin’s having
a lots of fun with flatter buys this
afternoon let’s go see what he’s found
now we are indeed so we’ve managed to
find another one Craig somehow managed
to spot this guy hidden in the plants
because it is really very well
camouflaged it’s got this kind of
similar Sheen to its that the leaves do
in South African vagrant that is just
sitting it’s actually quite a white
creamy colored butterfly but with my
lights on and the greens around it it’s
almost reflecting that green color and
blending in a lot better but you can see
that nice big eye
there’s antennae and a very cool view of
a butterfly now because it’s getting
quite dark and I’m using my lights just
to try and highlights it’s a little bit
for you you can see that the butterflies
are far more relaxed then they were
earlier in the day we were struggling
hyperactive they were flying they were
moving all over the place
whereas now we’re sitting I don’t even
know Craig’s probably maybe 20 cent not
even 15 centimeters from that butterfly
and it’s just sitting dead still as it
tries to not camouflage for the night
and you’ll find that these guys do this
they find a plant and they get into a
good position where they’re able to then
spend the evening and relax but isn’t
that beautiful
like it’s a very pretty butterfly very
common here we see them regularly flying
across the road all over the place and
you can see there’s beautiful veins and
the wings and big wing structure with an
upturned head very very cool to see so
well spotted Craig that’s very good job
it is a very pretty little butterfly and
I said it’s quite big actually I’ll try
and give you a size reference so that
you can all see without disturbing it
but if I put my hand there hopefully
it’s not going to fly away it’ll give
you an idea of just how kind of big it
is in comparison to my hand so one of
the larger butterflies that we see in
this particular section much larger
sorry I’m trying to find a way to get a
bit of light on it much larger than any
of the
is that we have seen this afternoon so
far good it is getting very dark now
like I say I’m trying to use a light
highlight that butterfly so while we
kind of get hit off home and avoid the
rain and head back to camp
that’s sending across the Taylor with
the Birmingham boys and hopefully
they’re going to give an almighty roar
this evening something because all three
of them jolted up as if they were zapped
by some electricity I can’t get anything
but they look treated a sort of waste we
are non they’re looking up north well
contact corn but if they have picked up
the scent of the Avoca males they aren’t
going to be on high alert to any other
Biggio on Oh a trio of yawns very nice
is that nothing formal in the middle
without very swollen face I actually
can’t tell the difference between them
anymore
isn’t it 10 yo that looks like conformal
hey what do you think
Darby you don’t have to help me
everybody but you but you’re a better at
identifying the animals and I am like I
said I’ve not been here for a very long
time and have forgotten you use cats and
what they look like no hashtags fine
either definitely Nanna closest to us
perhaps in secret the back no that line
also think it’s and super glue thinks
it’s in CQ doesn’t even so cool say doc
a terrible South African
but again these boys look so different
they will definitely got a few more
scars on their face since I last saw
them which is of course normal
considering considering say that they’ve
been roaming around out of their home
turf what is wrong yeah that’s in super
those eyes don’t lie golden eyes and
then I think it’s some form or maybe
it’s tenure that’s not here it’s quite
interesting but we’ll wait for
confirmation from all of you
lion ideal experts I don’t want to mess
it up so it couldn’t have been anything
too serious because they smile they put
their heads back down very quickly and I
think they’re gonna wake up soon
it’s fact that they just keep moving
further south and not north or east now
something that I’ve never seen of course
is different coalition’s of lions
joining up with one another except to
single lines and Paulo you’ve launched
us that have I ever seen something like
that I haven’t but we can pass it on to
Brent and Tristan who have also been
guarding from exceptionally long time
and worked in a variety of different
areas the only time I’ve ever seen it
was when two older male lions on their
own each on their own join up and
Freddie and solo which were both lions
that sort of came from Krug and popped
into the sabi sand the southwestern
corner around there so so those are the
only two but they sort of came together
as retirement they weren’t actively
going ask marking defending territories
and mating with females so just sort of
trying to stay alive and to keep out of
the way of the younger upstarts because
of course they would love to beat down
on some old old male lions probably be
good for their ego not so good for the
older boys and they were worried they
were old males so that’s the only other
time I’ve seen it but otherwise no I
haven’t seen before it does occasionally
happen though of game Brent Adam I’m
sighting where a single male lion in
Kenya trying to join a coalition but it
didn’t work they denied him I know she
had a big scrap with him he was lucky to
get away with the scratches that he had
and it’s quite interesting and panache
I’m sure it depends on the circumstances
for things like that can indeed happen
like I said I’m not surprised by
anything that happens in the bush
anymore not surprised if it’s so
crazy how things can sort of happen here
there’s a big roll now big stretches
these boys obviously chomped down on a
buffalo this morning must have been a
small one that they caught because they
barely seemed to have subsided
substantially some we last saw them and
Elizabeth you’ve just asked of these are
cats will ever eat other cats I’ve never
seen lines doing it before they’re not
typically cannibalistic so they don’t
necessarily eat other lines I suppose
that a pure desperation of they’re
starving they might eat and they put a
fair catch one and what I have seen
though is a documentary and I can’t
remember what it was called we’re a very
old male lion he said sorry I’ve told
this story to you before actually goes
out and catches a sleeping hyena and
then eats the hyena which he was
actually just purely desperate he was
starving today and then a few days later
he came across a buffalo that was suck
in the mud and he desperately tried to
kill it but he was just so weak that he
couldn’t even tear through the hide of
that Buffalo so his days had come and
gone it was quite sad and quite ironic
that the two of them died together in
the same mud water prey and predator
it was quite hectic I was what an old
documentary I don’t think it was eternal
enemies I don’t know what it was but
long it was from a long long long time
ago so I’ve never seen anything like
that but again when desperation comes
around these animals are not going to
say no just because the book says that I
don’t do it and so I say you can’t
actually ever be surprised about what
these animals get up to well they’ve
gone slightly more flat again hopefully
not for too long
hopefully they’re going to wake up and
maybe give us a roll but off you go
across your brain to see if he’s had any
it’s being almost apps whether there’s
been no like beside it’s been very quiet
no tracks and the only animal we’ve seen
down in the South West has been a single
die cat true story but it is at that
time of the day when start happening
let’s throw a little bit too light to
whip up the spotlight there’s still
enough ambient light around that I can
now Taylor was answering a question from
Paula about male lions joining up with
other male lion coalition’s it’s a very
narrow window when that that happens you
can have two males and two males that
will join together but that isn’t that
sort of three to five year probably it’s
not probably no longer than a year and a
half or two years where where those
lines will be able to join in into a
coalition after that and after those
coalition’s are established there’s very
little chance another male can actually
join I’ve actually never heard of any
now the strangest terms I suppose you
could you could always say it was a
different coalition adjoining a
coalition and it’s only ever been
recorded once and that was in the Mara
was the notch boys so there was a with
it four or five not children I can’t
remember I think it was five four four
notches and what happened is that
strange enough the Musketeers scar
hunter more Ronnie or Seco moved in and
chased knotch
and there was only one notch big male
much left and he used to lord over the
marsh pride and and the Mara River pride
in that area around the massara Marsh
and so the Musketeers came along and
he’s he split but he left with it was
five it was five he left with his five
young boys so that’s never been recorded
and they formed another coalition and it
enabled not senior two to survive a lot
longer and and and and take over another
pride even after he was a he was a
deceiver he was senior a senior age was
able to survive a little bit longer and
Mesa made for a bit longer with other
females and as far as I’m aware that’s
the only case of that being recorded I’m
not saying it’s never happened in the
history of violence before but that’s
the only case where it’s actually been
recorded by people I’m sure lots of
stuff that we would think was complete
be out of this world has happened it
just hasn’t been anyone there to record
now since we are on a male lion
coalitions probably the most famous male
lion coalition to have graced the sabi
sands was the mahal males and Randy
Allen’s is have you seen all of all of
them I did I saw them when there were
six of them most people think they were
five but there used to be six mobile
whores and I saw them first on there
about three and a half years old I was
at singita and I just had a dinner and I
was walking back to my room and being a
new staff member I was living in the in
the Ranger trainee camp which was called
rooibos and all the tents were named
after teas very strange don’t know why
you would have to do that but and it was
about 500 meters from the car garages
off from the bush and as I was walking
there with my torch I suddenly
encountered six male lions in my way to
my bed so I had to go back and get a
vehicle to drive back to my tent that
night and then I spent a lot of time
with him over the years
so I actually spend most of my time with
Sangeeta in the crew gap against the
lebombo mountains with the mountain
pride which is another big pride of
lions but then when I was at London
Losey was sort of the height of the more
potholes reign over the central sabi
sands I’ve seen all five of them take
down a buffalo together it seen them
take down a giraffe as well so yes I
have seen all all all of those bow lions
and for those of you don’t know what my
bottle means and why they were called
them up or so to the north of us yeah
and actually at eventually I ended up
here there was a security company that
was formed by the local community
themselves called them up or whores and
they got quite a reputation for being
very brutal and particularly with people
who offended in the rural communities
they would just take them out and there
were very aggressive
used to use some tactics that were not
very nice in terms of dealing with
criminals in their communities so that’s
where the ma pot hole have got their
name from now for those of you I’m going
to tell you a story that you will think
was straight out of a horror film about
the more powerful males
now mr. t was one of them up waffle
males he had a bit of a mohawk hence his
nickname we that was what they called
him up here in the north we actually
call them something else different at
Bundle AZ the trackers called them sat
on Satan and the reason they called him
Satan was because of this particular day
so what happened was is they were Ottawa
pride one of the Ottawa pride females
had been pulled across by some of the
other map offers and one of them was
mating with her and mr. T ran in killed
her mated with her corpse while she was
dead and then proceeded to eat almost
every inch of it so the guys up here in
the north used to call her mr. t but all
of us down south although all of us all
of us who worked without our trackers
and stuff we saw that our trackers
immediately said that lion is Satan
Satan so strange enough there were very
aggressive male lions with with that
with other lines they killed quite a lot
of females and a lot of other males
however we’d used to walk them on foot
they were not very scary at all
I don’t think I ever got charged by um a
pothole once and I’ve probably walked
them well over 50 60 times on foot maybe
even more than that and I never got
charged by more powerful ones I got
charged by it’s a lot of females I got
charged by I have you got charged by the
shores males were there before them
Abajo
but anyway yeah so it was quite strange
they were pretty chilled on foot and
they didn’t really give you too much
ribs they’d rather run away
I’m gonna see if we can find anything
you know what I haven’t seen since I’ve
been back there’s a bush baby that’s
what I want to see tonight or an hour in
the meantime let’s go see how Taylor’s
lions are doing look at what we’ve got
up in the sky and a moon that is slowly
starting to disappear because of the
cloud cover
and I’ve also spotted the odd flash of
lightning in the distance and again
something has drawn the attention of the
Lions in the north maybe it is maybe
it’s the Avoca males perhaps they’re
calling in the fire distance and who
knows if these birmingham’s will go
charging on afterwards so I believe that
you’ll think that the lion in the middle
is tenure awesome I’d trust you on this
one if he rolls over and he shows his
mangy belly then we will of course well
can confirm it well that’s how I
normally identify them because women
have the most swollen faces and to me
they look quite similar species after
such a long stint away and Angela well
done for being the first run in fact to
get all three of the IDS correct that’s
fantastic news it really is come on boys
give us a big old roll I mean that’s
what we’re going to be after this
evening
like I said to you it’s been a long time
since I heard lions roaring right next
to my car and I don’t know if Maurice
the elephant has actually had a decent
buy and roaring sighting he’s actually
changed his outfit David because this
has become a ninja elephant now amazing
he got dressed and ready and hoped that
the Lions would draw for him so he’s a
karate kid you see he’s not as grand as
scoff that’s too hot to wear scoff so
he’s tied it around his head soon you
think he can dream is behave being a
lion sighting confident karate in front
of male lions no I was supposed to think
about this but I got distracted and make
magic dragon lizard love the name by the
way that’s great
very creative he’s long so what is the
what is my most entertaining funniest
thing either
seen a lion do oh I’m sorry Nikki I know
you told me to think about it only and
then I forgot what is the funniest thing
I’ve seen a lion do I don’t even know
where to begin my favorite part is when
they climb up into trees the youngsters
and then fall out of them that’s always
quite entertaining Oh watching a young
lion try and climb a tree and go all the
way up and go this is easy watching them
come down that’s a stereo cool all the
lines and we’ve got more experience
obviously I’m better at doing it but the
youngsters are I really not well
equipped at timing just until they’ve
learnt where they need to put their feet
Oh back in the Eastern Cape Town the
southeast coast of South Africa I also
told the story before but I’ll never
forget it it was a pride of lions and
the most beautiful male line remember I
showed you those pictures of Mon Doral
and in the beautiful black man Kalahari
line and there was a huge puddle on the
road basically along the fence line they
were walking and there was trouble on
the other side of the road and this
puddle had completely covered the road
and it was quite deep probably more than
ankle deep hmm anyways the pride of
lions and the Cubs will walk through it
some of them licked over it and this big
male lion got to the water’s edge
stopped put his paw in and sort of took
it out and shook it kind of like what a
cat does and then walked turned around
and he must have done a big 3 400 meter
loop to get around it he was not putting
his feet in order so looking at a big
strong male lion and seeing him being
put off by a puddle of water was
particularly funny – and the other thing
that was quite funny was a lion
defecating next to one of the vehicles
and then that vehicle trying to leave
the sighting and driving through the
dung and then getting slightly stuck and
tire spinning and the Dan going onto the
side of another car and their guests
indirectly but quite an Darius the other
vehicle was not impressed
so I’ve seen a couple of funny things
I’m pretty sure I could think of some
more fire she just put my head down and
and thought about it but yes the cats
goodness junior you might be the first
one to get up with all those yawns and
he’s starting to groom himself well
obviously these lines have got big
beautiful means and something that I do
a lot is my hair sheds all the time
often referred to as either a German
Shepherd or a Labrador the rated which I
lose here and first eight years ask to
you the male lions lose their manes as
they get older I haven’t really noticed
that I haven’t noticed any hair loss you
know any bald spots forming on the male
line so I don’t think that that really
does happen um but maybe I’m wrong again
we can ask Brent and Tristan but I don’t
well Justin’s not driving any which
wasn’t fun back scampers it’s dark now
and we don’t want to be walking around
but I don’t think that that happens well
not to an extent rather than noticed and
I’ve seen some very old male lions
before it’s very interested in whatever
is in the north could be a pride
alliance maybe it’s an Akuma pride that
are coming back maybe their contact
calling for one another and because from
my understanding it seems as though that
they can come on goomer product quite
split up at the moment
I mean they’ve all been seen together
and that’s probably because the Evoque
errs were around and caused a bit of a
stir and scattered oh seven minutes and
15 seconds for these lions to rule for
us come on boys just one we just need
one to start and then the rest should
start chiming in and at the moment the
most promising one looks like it’s going
to be 10 you know if they do raw I’m
telling you right now I’ll get
goosebumps because the whole vehicle
start vibrating the sound is just
amazing and it just sends a couple of
chills down your spine is a pretty cool
thing especially in such close proximity
now I’ve completely forgot who’s just
asked this question
sorry Nicky topical hey ever do the
Lions ever scary
buddy when they’re raw yeah so um I
wonder I don’t know anybody in Campen if
see anybody in final control get nervous
from the Lions roar a bit when they rule
when they’re right outside camp like I
said and that the windows start to
vibrate that’s an intimidating song hmm
I think the first time you ever hear a
lion roars probably a bit on the
intimidating side but again the
adrenaline is rushing through you it’s a
it’s sort of you feel confused you don’t
quite know what your body is feeling
it’s a it’s a it’s a hard thing to
describe you have to just experience it
for yourself so so I think initially
especially anybody that comes from the
city and has never been out into the
African wilderness before then yes
definitely and I reckon the Impala must
panicky every now and then too or the
Buffalo when they hear that sounds going
on that means they’re probably going to
be up and on the move I’d be a bit
nervous if I was a prey species I’ll
check at night and in dark
sounds like the fiery Nick nightjars
have also just started calling – right
we’re gonna sit on tight and hold our
breaths well maybe we shouldn’t hold
their breaths for that long and then
hope but of course these lions are going
to roar
let’s go and see what brent is going to
pull out of his hat next but I’m
checking some of my favorite bush baby
hangouts I haven’t seen a bush baby
since I’ve been back out I’ve seen them
in an English house but much out and
about almost always a good chance just
around the old bush price right now I
know a lot of you are probably wondering
about the fate of that poor elephant
he’s got some of his intestines hanging
out and so it’s been reported to the
parks board in Pullman longer parks they
will be coming through in the morning to
assess that animal and it will be up to
I’m not going to lie to you because I’m
not that type of person I think most
likely the most likely decision that
will be happening with that animal is it
will be euthanized
now just because of the high density of
people in in this area and safari lodges
and bush walk and tracking and all that
type of stuff
it depends is a very very serious threat
to anyone while on safari or
specifically when you’re on foot now the
thing is he’s fine now it’s a fresh wind
he saw but you could see he was
completely relaxed around the vehicle
and so the the problem will come in in
about a week or so maybe even shorter
with this very hot weather where that
wound gets infected and it’s almost
certainly going to get infected because
the intestine is punctured and you could
see blood and his his his his dang was
really runny so you could see that
already so the infection would Satan and
the fever first year that would cause
the animal a huge amount of pen secondly
a doubt makes that animal extremely
dangerous now if this had been in an
area in the far northern Kruger
somewhere where the tourists don’t go
and a section water had found it he
probably would have left it but but
because because it is in an area where
we operate constantly all the time it
does make sense and as I said I don’t
want to lie to you that elephant is not
going to be fine and it is very very sad
and I feel very sorry and it’s never
easy to see that type of stuff but if we
think about it logically it’s it’s
probably it’s it’s safer for everyone
and a lot more comfortable for the
elephant if he’s what was that if he is
euthanized and because dying from
septicemia whoopsie it’s a little stay
in Bakke I thought it was the factor
little kitty cat I want to put the Latin
a little
ten bulky if he dies from septicemia
or even pulled apart by hyenas in in a
in a in a it’ll probably be two weeks or
so it’s going to be a far far worse
death from so I think probably the the
as I say I can’t be sure it’s not my
decision to make but I think logically
that is the decision that is going to be
made when the parks gets here tomorrow
and I think that’s best for all parties
involved the elephant and all of us who
have – oh who live and work our chair on
a daily basis so I know it is very sad I
hope you guys just understand that that
you must also understand that the people
working for the park sometimes have to
make some incredibly difficult decisions
and just be glad that you don’t have to
make those decisions with such
incredible animals like elephants and
wild dogs and cheetah and lion and
leopard so it is it is very sad but it
is it is one of those things and it is
something that happens out here in the
wild from time to time but I’m hoping we
can end the Safari on a happy note with
a big Birmingham no they’ve all gone
flat again oh no actually have they was
tenured just decided that he’s grooming
himself in the most bizarre fashion time
is not on our side this evening
well if you don’t roll now they aren’t
close enough to the Dan you should be
able to hear it so have a little listen
throughout the night and of course it’s
always nice to hear that perhaps you can
just leave it playing in the background
turn the volume up nice and loud and
hear what you can hear see what you can
yeah I want you be quite cool you may
even hear some thunder because it is a
big lightning storm coming from the east
but it has been fantastic a very hot
afternoon filled with gremlins sorry
about that but we’ll try again tomorrow
at least we got the Birmingham boys and
hopefully they’ll be around in the
morning we’ll see you on the sunrise
Safari you