Safari Live – Day 134 | National Geographic

this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and carcasses viewer discretion is
advised
hello hello hello and welcome to well a
bleak gray overcast cool morning here in
South Africa is bartha’s kind of cold as
it’s been in a while so hopefully it
will warm up a little bit later as the
cards separate and hopefully a little
bit of sunshine will come out at some
point the cloud doesn’t look too thick
so I think the Sun should come out at
some time now my name is Justin on
camera I’ve got a sins oh there we go
answer sins oh saying good morning it is
a very very very warm welcome to all of
you and I hope that you are going to
interact with us lots this morning
hashtag Safari live on Twitter or
YouTube chat now the plan is for the
morning one is that we’ve got Brent Leo
Smith mended and seems to be that he is
feeling better so he’s going to be back
up with us we’re also going to have
Steve on walk but for us we gonna check
all the wastes in signs of Juma I’m
gonna try and see if we can find any
sign for him community shadaloo or even
see if maybe then kuma pride push back
further waste again interestingly enough
I believe Steve had a very exciting
sighting of the Akuma practiced after we
finished the show last night so I’m
gonna leave that for him to tell you all
about cause he sounds like he had a
really cool time with him good now we’re
on filler ones at the moment no sign of
anything we had a bit of rain last night
that unfortunately has probably washed
away 90% of the tracks that we’re going
to be looking for this morning I don’t
even remember what time it was but the
rain came in it must have been early
hours of this morning and it didn’t rain
for long but it seemed to rain with a
little bit of force and so now seeing
tracks is almost impossible at the
moment so we’re gonna try and see if I
can find them just trying get a bit of
lights on the situation it is quite dark
this morning it’s not very kind of good
for tracking it’s the sort of lights is
not incredibly sort of bright sand and
that makes tracking a little harder so
just trying to look as we go but this is
a road yesterday that was covered in
Lion tracks now today you can’t see a
single Lion track on its because of that
rain hello impala sorry I didn’t even
see you there you were lying down in the
grass luckily it wasn’t a lion or a
leopard or I might have missed it
completely it’s time to wake up to some
come on so here is a male Impala that
was having a bit of a nap on the grass
itself and they sleep a lot on this fire
break area we see them regularly on for
the monster plant just because it’s a
bit more open and it’s easier for them
to see what’s going on good now I
believe Brent is up and about and like I
say he is feeling better so let’s go
yes welcome welcome I’m feeling much
better you nearly got to see what I had
for lunch yesterday on Drive but I have
recovered and we’ve got that lovely
little cagey dude who’s been catching a
ride he just landed on the car good
morning my name is Brittany Smith and I
have the Batman on camera and I love
katydids
unless they’re in my room because they
have the ability to create the most
incredible screams or look he’s cleaning
his foot I’m gonna try get him onto the
dashboard so it’s easier for Craig
because I move around too much and it’s
a female katydid and she lifts up you
can see her ovipositor egg-laying device
where she’s tucked it up now but a
female katydid now they can create some
of the most incredible noises by rubbing
their legs the back legs together it is
incredibly loud and often when they tend
to do that there happen to be in the
highest corner of the roof and now this
patina your feet again you can see
there’s very very powerful and big back
legs it looks like she might even be
getting ready for a leap into the abyss
off the car now most of the Katie
katydid species is the opposite to
grasshoppers are nocturnal
and so she’s obviously was flying
somewhere after a night out on the
bushes feeding away I’m just trying to
see come on now
yep so you can see those feet are very
very important for her so she likes to
keep all her feet clean and also with
his saliva I’ll add a bit of stickiness
so when she needs to grip on to
something so what she’s gonna try to do
is find a nice green patch during the
day and what to hide up on and look how
incredibly long her antennae are now
there’s antennae offered various
different reasons and a lot of it is to
pick up possible predators also to pick
up possible mates so very very cool
little insect kalenna you are spot on
the noise is a to attract mates and it’s
normally the males that make more noise
than the females to attract them and in
some species the females will have
longer antennae
to a toothpick up where that the male’s
are I’ve just noticed I’ve been looking
for this ever since I arrived back from
in the sabi sands so I’m going to have a
quick look because there’s a I haven’t
seen many of them this year the African
vagrant butterfly and their little
caterpillar larval stage is one of my
favorites because they’ve got awesome
awesome coloration but also they’re
their defense mechanisms are are so so
wonderful that their body feels like
sandpaper and they seem to really like
this exotic plant that grows here so
this is not a this is called a peanut
butter cassia and actually comes from
South America but I’ve just noticed that
this one has been heavily fed on by
caterpillars and I’m hoping that there
might be I think I might be a bit late I
was hoping that there might be one or
two African vagrant larvae around that
has been feeding on it but I can’t see
any
unfortunately because they’re very very
cool so they’ve got multiple defenses
they’re there their body is green and
black so it blends in very well they
this skin is like sandpaper and when
when you touch them they have a very
cool jump reflex so it moves quickly and
and very jerky that might give a bird or
Warner that’s trying to feed off them a
fright and enable them to then just keep
still afterwards and escape detection
okay while we’re hoping that the lions
and leopards don’t evade our detection
well it looks like our katydid friend
has decided still not to jump into the
bus so we’ll see how long she lasts in
the meantime let’s go send you across to
Steve who’s on foot good morning
everyone I hope you’re doing very very
well this morning
now welcome to a bushwalk Safari with
myself Steve Falconbridge joined on
camera by Fergus and we obviously joined
once again by herby who’s assisting us
with the tracking and the safety on this
magnificent cool morning in Douma in
South Africa we are on a mission sort of
in a south westerly direction at the
moment looking for who knows what we are
too excited please feel free to send
through your comments and questions to
hashtag Safari Live or follow us on the
YouTube stream and let us know what
you’d like to see it is a very nice cool
morning so bring all your equipment with
don’t forget your binoculars like I seem
to have done this morning I suddenly
felt very naked on my chest what can you
do what can you do I find mornings like
this really to be cool or not that good
for birding but you never know maybe on
t we find a lot of animals through
tracking but then we also find a lot of
them just bumping into them it depends
what we’re looking for we don’t
generally track elephant and Impala and
kudu the sort of animals we just sort of
come across but we go out in search of
leopard and lion and when we find their
tracks we put in a lot of effort to try
and find them and by understanding the
road network in the direction and where
the water is and the game paths people
like Kirby and Tristan and Brent’s
who’ve been here for long time have a
very good understanding of how these
animals move so if you find for example
we’re just crossing another road now if
you find some tracks along the road you
kind of get an idea of a potential game
path for what might be in that direction
when they’re moving in a certain
direction then you could just drive
around and if they don’t come out the
other side it’s a very good chance that
they’re inside that block so when it
comes to tracking that is what we do but
in conditions like this after rainfall
as Justin has said 90% of the tracks are
washed away so there is a thunderstorm
last night at about I think 12 1 o’clock
in the morning and it just buckets are
down and there’s not a single track to
be seen anyway because what we know when
the rain comes down like this is that
there’s water all over the place there’s
water on the leaves so the animals don’t
have to go very far they can just kind
of drink it off the leaves and stay
where they are without having to mission
all the way to a water point where it’s
potentially dangerous Robert I would
love to show you some elephants as well
we saw one yesterday I have no idea
where they’ve gone this is my first
season working here in Juma so maybe two
individuals like Tristan or Brent might
know where the elephants have moved to
it’s possible they’ve moved to the east
to the basalt Plains there where the
rainfall causes the grasses there and
the knob ponds there to be beautiful so
that’s my theory
they’ve gone that way but let’s go over
to either one of those two and see if
I don’t Steve I’ve been wondering the
same thing but you might find you’re
right that they’ve headed up towards the
basalt Plains if there’s been some good
rain up in those areas then you will
find the alias will go that direction
and they they like that kind of grass
that comes out of there and the
nutrients they can get from that area so
you’ll find that they do do that and
also the battle plains areas have most
of it didn’t get much rain in the early
summer and they’ve got a lot of rain
recently so that’s maybe why the ILI’s
have moved in that direction well so the
way that hasn’t really been good weather
you needs Sun and sort of dryness and
then you get a situation where Ellie’s
come out and they move towards the water
points because there’s not much water
kind of between them whereas now after a
bit of rain they find water in little
mud wallows in the bush and lots of
thickets that they can go into and try
and hide out from the wind and the cold
and the rain and so Ellie’s are not
always almost seen animal when we have
conditions like this so we’ll just have
to see where they go but I know like I
said it was a big herd around a sidney’s
dam not yesterday the day before so
hopefully they’ll come our side and
we’ll be able to find them and see
something this has been a early draft of
late I’ve seen very few eighties that’s
all right no sign of any of our lions
coming this way no sign of any leopards
so far not that we can see very many
tracks at the moment I’m kind of having
to sort of scan with eyes squinted to
try and see any footprints on the roads
it just kind of has most of it has just
been arraigned on unfortunately so we’ll
need to find tracks that are on top of
the rain then we’ll be in the running
so leopard girl the biggest animal I’ve
seen taken down by a leopard mmm I’ve
seen fully grown could be bull taking
down my leopard which is a massive
individual a rather large giraffe I’m
not a fully grown one but a not a tiny
baby either
I was actually ting gana that took that
down fully grown in Volda beast or so
big instead because they’ve also seen
them take down a baby elephant but the
baby elephant when it was a brand new
born baby I mean it’s not the same size
as something like a fully grown couldi
bull but the danger element in that is
that much more given that the female was
there she was not impressed at all and
was lots of trumpeting and chasing of
elephants and she smashed a whole tree
that an elephant went into so it depends
on one kind of danger versus size but
sighs I would say probably a fully grown
kudu bull or that giraffe those are both
massive massive animals and they manage
to bring them down so it was pretty
weird looking at single on the giraffe
Gilly kind of was dwarfed by this thing
in hidden they didn’t actually managed
to keep it he was mating with Moya at
the time and the two of them fiddleford
for the day and then into the night and
then my Eanes came and there was just no
way they were going to keep it from
heiner’s unfortunately it’s just too big
a carcass for that but it was a bit of a
surreal experience seeing a female and a
male leopard sitting on a giraffe
carcass it was a bit weird it was not
something you’re going to see every
single day one because it was two of
them and two because of this prey animal
that they had brought down so you know
lipids are very versatile I’m sure these
reported cases of them even bringing
down in fact actually there was a
situation we we can’t say for sure but
we had ting HANA once during a night
Drive following around a rather old
buffalo bull and the buffalo bull was
during the drought wasn’t very kind of
steady on his feet and it was a little
bit sort of struggling in terms of the
way
that it was walking and it was you could
see quite weakened and it’s time was
coming and then we had a situation where
eating on a arrived and we lift him that
night just kind of literally sitting
right behind the buffalo bull just
following it as it was going and the
next morning we came there and ting gana
was feeding off this dead Buffalo and so
I don’t know if he managed to get it by
the throats and actually the Buffalo was
just so we could collapse and he was
able to kind of kill it or if it just
died on its own sort of under its own
sort of conditions and and then ting on
and just scavenged difficult to say but
there was definite bite marks around the
nose and the throat area so maybe he
tried to kill it I don’t know it would
be quite a serious feat for a liquid to
bring down a buffalo bull but that’s
also in extreme circumstances it’s not
because you know it was it’s not because
of an easy situation it was just because
of the droughts and and those kind of
things but interesting nonetheless
lipids are amazing animals they it’s
pretty crazy that they can do those kind
of things and in in the same sort of
break they’ll go in attack what will eat
little things like termites and insects
and and small birds pretty strange that
they can kind of go through all of those
different things that just gives you an
there’s a few sightings it’s been a long
time in the sabi sands and so been
fortunate to have seen some crazy stuff
with lipids they tend to always come out
with something that will surprise you
you kind of think that they you know are
not capable of suits and things and then
the sudden anyway I’m sure somebody else
who’s got Minear Leopard story is brain
Cleo Smith so let’s go find out what’s
the biggest animal he’s seen them kill
me well yes I’ve been lucky enough to
see some pretty crazy stuff
in my years out in the bush in terms of
leopards baby giraffe is a big one adult
male kudu was a male leopard in Botswana
and took on an adult male could you that
is massive for a leopard
trying to think I’ve seen leopard
scavenge on elephant carcasses hippo
carcasses but I think the biggest thing
I know Aleph it is caught is an adult
male could you which is incredible
incredibly massive the male effort is
caught the biggest things in this part
of the world since I’ve been yet it’s
definitely quarantine
it’s called quite a few sub adult male
could do to the two three year old male
kudu which are a very big I female kudu
so yes so there is a there is a
precedence that certain males seem to
definitely focus on bigger prey than
others and also those males that focus
on bigger prey also seems to be far less
tolerant of hyenas and yes Jamie I think
Jamie’s seen it twice in the Mara male
leopard with giraffe up the tree k-6 was
remembering that so that I think he was
called the Shepherds tree mail he seemed
to like giraffe I also know there’s some
male leopards are on the Sand River that
have been recorded taking giraffe
actually I suppose doesn’t really very
big pay for a leopard was a an adult
zebra in the Mara but it had already
been injured by crocodiles and had a
broken leg and then the leopard and the
crocodile fed from either side I didn’t
see it so it was the year before we
arrived
and so I suppose but as ever was still
alive and it got out of the water and in
the leopard was suffocating it and the
crocodile came and grabbed it from the
other side I saw photographs of that
from Boyd Chris Boyd I think from from
from solace they were lucky enough to
see that mark boy Thank You Nicholas
mark Boyd from Sylas he he saw that in
enjoying the migration
so crazy stuff does happen and sometimes
you’re lucky enough to be there I still
think the craziest in terms of hunts
that I’ve ever seen is lion and elephant
and lion and rhino as the boys always
been the the moat and line and hippo for
that matter but that’s more common but
lion runner and lion and elephant are
really really crazy to watch in you
you’ve often got to be very careful in
because a stressed elephant just
charging around with 2530 lions trying
to jump on it now there’s elephants are
big 15 to 20 years old and there’s
certain prides of lions and in Botswana
that target those young males that have
left have been pushed out of the herds
and are pretty solitary I haven’t seen
without late rains we’re starting to see
some spiders and stuff that we don’t we
haven’t seen too much of this yet yet
those who are arachnophobia golden orb
spider female now you can see there’s a
lot of carcasses in the middle of her
web and she leaves the carapace –is and
exoskeletons of the the insect she eats
in her web so birds don’t fly through it
now
this isn’t it’s a big spider but they
can get double triple the size of that
and they’ve even been recorded catching
small birds like wax bulls and fire
finches I’m just trying to see I can’t
if we look around to the edges of the
web okay so like maybe a little bit down
I think I can see I’m trying to see if
we can spot a male so males tend to hide
on the peripheries they’ve well done
Craig well no that’s a fly that’s been
caught but we’re trying to see said the
who’s that a dewdrop that’s a dewdrop
spider that’s a klepto parasite so those
little spiders live on the webs and they
eat the little pieces that are too small
for the the bigger spider to eat the
male’s however will be on oh she’s
picked up on the something’s in her web
something fresh see how she’s using her
feet to test where the vibrations are
coming from she’s decided well you’ve
it’s quite small the thing that flew
into the web says she’s felt those oh
she’s got a fly it’s breakfast isn’t
back down towards the Marathi now all
spiders all choose spiders are venomous
if they’re not poisonous
poison is ingested venom is injected but
all spite all true spiders are venomous
however the spider has got a saw bite
but it’s not a danger to human beings at
all look how she’s how she’s busy
spinning web around it and she might be
quite full so she might be saving that
leave her to stock up on her ladder and
it sounds like Tristan hasn’t got his
favourite animal but he’s got his
favorite animals favourite food I do but
I’ve got a very interesting one that we
see from time to time in this area it’s
the one that’s busy going to the toilet
which is helpful so you try and discern
it from the others unfortunately it’s
facing away from us so seeing what makes
it unique is quite different difficult
but this is an Impala that we’ve seen
from time to time that has a horn
growing out from its nose area basically
between its eyes and its nostrils on its
face there is a little horn it grows out
it’s a very underdeveloped one given
that she’s a female it’s not surprising
that she’s got this undeveloped horn now
hopefully when she’s finished going to
the toilet she’ll turn her face but
there you can just make it art between
the eyes and the nose you see there’s a
sort of ridge there there it is you see
it there coming out of the face so very
very unusual to see something like that
and it’s it does happen in females
sometimes they will have a little bit of
a defect and they grow horns the ones
are pretty underdeveloped but to grow it
in that area is very very strange so
there you can just see it kind of on the
nose or the bridge of her nose should we
call it and that kind of porn is growing
a little bit since the last time I saw
it it was much straighter it’s now kind
of curled back down towards her face and
is kind of growing in walk back towards
her which is gonna be interesting to see
how she copes with that but amazing
isn’t it it’s not something you’re gonna
see every single day like I say a very
developed one so it’s a little piece of
bone that’s growing out a little bit of
carotene over the top in fact it’s
probably fine that there’s not even much
bone in there doll it’s mostly carotene
mrs. grumpy is that you love this little
unicorn it’s very cool isn’t it and like
I say we’ve seen this I don’t know I’ve
seen it twice I think showing you guys
that twice before and I think Taylor
might have seen it before
biron one of the two of them so it is a
Impala that does hang around normally be
anywhere between sort of Gallagher and
where I am now just north of in pilot
planes it kind of moves in this way
stand sector and it just goes to show
that some of our Impala herds are
regulated in this area even though we
can’t really do this whole the
difference when you see this individual
it gives you an idea that some of the
impalas spend a lot of time and hey if
you didn’t know that there was one that
had this and you looked at them from
here you would never ever ever be able
to spot that it’s got a kind of little
horn growing out of its face it’s it’s
something that’s only if you’ve not seen
it and you’d kind of look at the females
can you pick it up quite quickly but I’m
just going to reverse back so we can
follow her so should have a better view
of her now she’s the first one in that
whole row there we go so now you can
actually see it quite nicely just that
sort of little horn sticking out amazing
isn’t it such an anomaly so pearl you
say April 9th is unicorn day is that for
real because if this really is a unicorn
day and we found this in partner that
will be pretty weird and quite fun but
it’s amazing to me ad especially it
crows from like I say I’ve seen females
with horns generally it comes from the
top between the ears like where the
male’s have it very seldom do you see
them coming out of the face like this
Mandie at the moment no you can see
she’s a healthy individual she’s walking
around just like everybody else and it’s
not obscuring her vision or hearing or
anything like that so it doesn’t seem to
affect her in any way it’s also not
gonna cause any infections or anything
untoward the size of it also won’t weigh
her down it’s not gonna get caught up in
branches too much so she seems to be
fine I think the only thing is if it
grows and continues to curl towards her
face she might have a situation me it’s
going to cause a bit of damage to her
face somewhere or something like that
but for now it seems as though it’s
absolutely fine Jeff I don’t think so
I’m pretty sure males of the impala kind
are not picky particularly because most
of the time that they are mating with
females is because they smell like
they’ve come into Easter’s it’s not so
much of physical appearance with them
it’s not the other way around
females were from judge males on a
physical appearance of the horns and
they size was a male just kind of gets
driven by the scent that he’s picking up
if the females in estrus and he picks up
that she’s ready to mate that drive is
there and he’s so hot up because of the
rut and all those kind of things then
I’m pretty sure he will mate with a
female like that it’s gonna be
interesting I mean hopefully she’s
around come November December January
February and we hopefully see her with a
little one cuz then we would know if she
has a little bit more she did get mated
with to be able to say otherwise
so really his national international
unicorn day today can you believe it
that’s absolutely ridiculous you found
this in father on unicorn day that’s
what is the chances it’s ridiculously
sort of coincidence but anyway good
happy international unicorn day
everybody I don’t know what happened but
anyway how these things happen I don’t
know anyway let’s go back to Steve let’s
go see what he’s up to where he’s
walking you know what his plans are for
the morning thanks Justin did you all
know out there that the unicorn is in
fact the national animal of Scotland
true story
fine is that mud sand so we were talking
about elephant movements
and I think for ease of understanding I
have got out my fantastic tree book
let’s have a look at where we are
understand the loaf a little bit more
and then show you a cross-section of the
Kruger Park to see exactly where the
soil is and why the elephants might have
moved so first of all we’re going to go
into South Africa here we have South
Africa Cape Town is down here in the far
southwest but we are all the way up here
inland Popa and Mpumalanga province
where you see the green is essentially
what this book relates to and we are
over there okay so now I’m gonna go and
show you a quick picture of the Kruger
Park itself
let me just turn the page here is the
Kruger Park in its entirety with much
more included the Kruger Park is this
boundary line here all the way and
there’s Mozambique and fence line
although out there and we are over here
somewhere sabi sands is this section
over there and the Tim of our te and
class area all forming up on the side
here so this is all private game
reserves and you can see how it all
falls within a particular color and this
is granite the the pinkish sort of
oranges granite this gray is basalt we
talked about the bessel before and then
the pink all the way along the eastern
side is the lebombo mountains and this
legend is the low felt the Drakensberg
runs along and the entire eastern side
here the bombo’s along the sorry the
darkest Berg’s on the western side the
lebombo mountains on the eastern side
everything in between is what we call
the low felts so if i quickly jump back
to a cross-section of the low felt you
can see this is west over here all the
way across to east over here and you can
see the different soil types you see are
granite takes up a huge portion there’s
a small section of sand felt and then
basalt and then rhyolite now to
understand this better the granite is
very very old rock we took about 2.8
billion years and the granite was magma
that never came to the surface and as
everything above it eroded away if
there’s what’s revealed the granite we
don’t
see too much granite actual visible in
this area but they are very very obvious
with these rocky outcrops which are
quite obvious in some areas elsewhere in
the sabi sands and around but the soil
is very very hot oh it’s very very
porous not very not a huge amount of
nutrients and the water that lands here
goes straight through so any nutrients
that are they move down so you get very
particular type of soil and particular
type of plants types in these areas and
this is where we are but if you go all
the way to the east the bath salts there
that is lava that was deposited on the
Earth’s surface
probably 118 million years ago 130 280
million years and a very soft rock but
very high in nutrients lots and lots of
volcanic material and nutrients and the
soil that is very clay like holds the
water very very well and it gives rise
to very sweet grasses and trees so when
there’s rainfall in the summer months
all of the migrating animals including
elephant will move into this area where
the food is very nice and tasty so I
hope that answers some of the questions
and you get a bit of an idea of where we
are and the diversity of the low felt is
because of those different soil types
and just to jump back to the Kruger Park
what also adds to the diversity not just
the soil type but the rainfall gradient
is lower up here and increases as you go
south so as you go south towards sort of
Pretoria Scorpio Cuza
the rainfall is the highest that you get
in the park and so you get even more
leaching of the soil so the granitic
soils are even lower in nutrients then
further north so that’s where you get so
many different vegetation units within
this complex of only three or four soil
that’s it what would I eat if our
strainer there is lots of things to eat
let me quickly grab you some off the top
of my mind I can see there is some magic
worry seeds here very very delicious let
me grab a couple there’s a quarry look
at those those are quite tasty hmm so
that’s number one
we’re ready munching on the the white
berry bush just before they have fruits
it again and hmm if there must they must
be this color if you grab them where now
this color when you grab them when
they’re green do you want to see my face
but she did so better it’s very bit done
that’s all you know birds can see color
because birds will eat fruit when it’s
ripe they know when it’s red and Ferg is
gonna have one as well
mmm tasty tasty hmm you can see how big
the seed is inside it’s very fresh very
nice it’s almost like a plum a little
bit more bitter than the plum but very
similar in consistency and texture okay
so I hope the explanation of the low
felts in where we are explains a little
bit more about what’s going on and why
we see what we do and cuz of the soil
here that’s why we get quite a similar
sort of vegetation unit and I’m not able
to show you hundreds of trees only that
craft is – joy and Michael what happened
last night off the drive was really
something quite special Craig and I are
followed to the Oklahoma pride we
followed them afraid you saw that last
closing segments we lost sight to them
for a few moments we continued following
them they crossed another road we
decided to stay in the road and wait for
them just as she was going on and then
all the Yanks is just stood very still
very still with is looking in the
direction so Craig and I switched off
the car we listened for some time and
then we heard some running branches
moving and then we heard the
characteristic what well oh I’m not very
good at that of a kudu barking we
listened to listened listened a next
thing we heard the Lions take down the
kudu took us about three four minutes to
get in there because it was quite thick
and we found them uncle homers
absolutely smashing a female could or a
young could do we’re not sure I never
got a look at the head wallah nose was a
kudu because I saw two of them walk off
with the leg and there was a tail but
never found any horns or a head so
they’re practically ate the ribs
everything they just smashed it so that
was very very special and that probably
happened five to ten minutes after the
close of drop which is very very sad for
all of you out there but Craig and I had
a marvelous afternoon evening the ladies
in FC were super jealous of us and were
constantly commenting on the radio with
things like is this making you hungry
and I was going no not really
not really because you know I’m a
vegetarian watching an animal get eaten
alive doesn’t do anything to my to my
tummy sorry just a very quick little
look here at this is granite that is
granite we see them when we look in
these little riverbeds you can see how
crumbly it is at the moment but look how
large those particles are very sandy
very coarse-grained very very coarse any
water that lands on these soils just
sinks through to the bottom okay on that
note let’s go over to Brent Leo Smith
but we tried to find with these lines
now that Steve had Craig was with them
so only there was somewhere in this area
where they got that could you but it
looks like they might have moved off a
little bit so if we don’t get any
lacquer on yeah we might have to check
don’t know if they would have gone as
far as buffle took damn if they had a
good feed they might just be lying happy
and comatosed
somewhere in this area well there’s what
they were eating last night so they
but no sign of the lines just yet but it
sounds like Tristan’s got a feathered
friend who will be departing for warmer
climes soon indeed I’m actually quite
surprised that this individual is still
here it’s getting quite late now for
Warburg’s to still be hanging around but
this is one of our pale forms that’s
still here well sir one that I haven’t
seen much of on this western side so I
don’t know if it’s one of the ones it’s
kind of finished up nesting around ton
dams or Wahlberg’s area and kind of now
slowly but surely he’s going to think
about departing but I’m looking a bit
ruffled up there with the wind you can
see the clouds moving in the background
as it’s sitting there and kind of slowly
but surely it’s going to seem as though
they cards we need to get blown away
which is going to be quite a nice but
this guy we know is the Wahlberg’s it’s
quite easy to tell you’ve got that
little crease that’s sticking up that
bright yellow seer and then you can see
a long tail that’s sticking out from
sort of the tail or the wing area and
then you’ve got the bird sitting in a
sort of quite upright manner the reason
it’s leaning a little bit forward more
than normal is because of the wind
that’s blowing so just kind of
counterbalancing or lace it’s a little
bit more upright but the crest on the
yellow seer will be the biggest
identifying features on this bird and
the four say yellow feet makes it much
easier to be
to tell that it’s that there are a
couple of other birds that you can
sometimes confuse it with so booted
Eagles and and the likes but these guys
with that like I say what that crest
just gives them away immediately now
it’s sitting probably because of the
conditions that we’ve got this overcast
cloudy where there’s not great for
flying or though Wahlberg’s typically
are not like vultures or some of the
other eagle species that will ride
thermals these guys are often a lot kind
of lowered to the ground in a sort of
short flying birds you’ll find them kind
of going from sort of treetop to treetop
and in their hunt birds they’ll hunts
winged alerts from termites so those
kind of things which doesn’t require
huge amounts of flying for long periods
in order to find them so you do find
them perched quite regularly there’s
gonna be interesting I wonder if they
stayed a little longer this year just
because of the rain that we had and we
interesting was her to know what which
was that when was the last time we saw
Wahlberg’s last year so what does the
last world we’ve seen on drives asked if
anybody knows hashtags for a live or
YouTube chat let us know when we last
saw a Wahlberg’s and if we have passed
that date or are we in a similar time
frame as to last year both last year and
this year we’ve had late rain which is
old I think some of the migratory birds
like all those Eagles a little longer I
did see a lesser spotted eagle yesterday
I think it was yesterday morning maybe
and so they are around some of the
migratory birds but it must be the last
few that us gonna start heading back
funny enough also haven’t seen very many
red back tracks this morning they were
around yesterday morning in the day
before but I haven’t seen any today yet
which they were everywhere at one point
and so so much quieter than here they
little fishing sort of chirpy sound that
they sometimes have Archer so I wonder
if maybe just maybe
they’ve started to leave now as all with
this kind of cold front and pushed in in
the winds that we’ve got maybe they
decided they are going to start hitting
back north as well so it’s so sad in all
of our migratory birds start to leave I
get sad they provide so much color and
sort of variety to our bird life so he’s
very nice to have them in this area good
one no one else is in store for us this
morning very quiet from an animal point
of view I don’t know unicorn which I
suppose is special nonetheless we should
take that just both hands given that it
is the day that it is get my brain
working because I’m drawing a blank as
to what the longest migratory bird is I
I’m sure Steve will print will know
straightaway I do know the answer to
just trying to think now read this many
many many many many many times but I
just can’t think of it right now okay
I’ll think about it maybe Steve will
have the answer so let’s go ahead and
send you across to him while I try and
see if I can scramble the information in
my own brain hmm thanks Justin sorry we
just stopped for a little bit of what we
call in South Africa Pat course a little
bit of food for the road mmm white berry
bush marvelous look I’m sorted for the
morning very very tasty very very juicy
seeds so this is one of the things that
you would eat in the bush and we are
bumbling around from tree to tree so the
largest migrating bird or the furthest
migrating bird I think Judy edge sends a
little article on Twitter the other
nights thank you for that very
interesting
it is the Arctic Tern which is now going
more than 6,000 miles further than the
sooty Shearwater which is a bird they
thought used to cover the greatest
distance six thousand miles further than
that one they come down from Antarctica
are to go down Africa South America and
back again and it’s all about feeding
it’s all about the movement of fish in
the water that’s in a marvelous distance
the
cliff drops about 30 years and they’re
not putting on these very small little
transmitters that way about a gram on
their foots and they’re getting all
these zigzagging movements they don’t go
in a straight line they kind of move
like this so they go so much further
than they need to but it’s all about
energy and they’re feeding along as they
go so that is a marvelous article that
we read just the other day and that’s
truth because they got the trackers on
the bird now before all we could know
about was we’d see a bird some way and
okay cool as the crow flies they’ve gone
from here to there but now with the
actual GPS tracker and I know exactly
how far the birds have gone and I think
it’s like 17,000 miles or something in a
year flying and imagine that’s some
serious a a miles I wonder if there and
they have no passports they have no
customs control they just they just go
isn’t it marvelous
no security checks they don’t have to
take off their shoes or their belt the
yeah I am a bit of both gem video
browser an aggressor it just depends on
what leaf type so here is a very nice
grass this is known as red grass and
this is grass tit to be associated with
basaltic soils we go up to the Maasai
Mara the red oak grass everybody talks
about it there it’s the same species
this is out of ten you would say ten out
of ten and this grows very very well on
nutrient-rich soils here in the sabi
sands we find it in small sporadic
places it’s got nothing to do with an
overall layout but in the Mara this is
the dominant grass species that brings
in the millions of animals that come
there to graze so this is a very nice
species and when we find lots of it you
could call it very good grazing but here
we find it just in a little patch little
patch here as we keep moving it’s going
to disappear again so a very nice grass
regu this stick is a stick I found up in
the northern Kruger a friend of mine
actually found it and he gave it an oil
and then he left it on the deck of the
room are staying in he went on leave
I needed a stick to go walking I’d left
mastic I’d been in an elephant encounter
one afternoon where I’d left my stick on
the ground purely because we had to to
leave the scene very quickly we were
sitting down elephants came in and we
quickly retreated up onto the rocks and
I left my stick and so the next day I
needed one and I found this and it’s
marvelous it is my wisdom stick it’s got
lots of stories to tell it’s nice and
polished now from my hand and it’s
lovely to walk with the stick you can
evade spider webs
you can point things out you can hit
fergus on the head when he’s not paying
attention very important very important
to have a stick out here pointing our
tracks also when you start getting old
like me and you want to point our tracks
on the floor it’s much easier to point
with your stick they’d so physically get
quite old well talking about getting old
and people with injuries let’s go over
to see how brent is doing ha hi Steve ha
ha you’re older than me
so since Steve’s come back and Fergus
have come back the old men have come
back so I’m known for a while I think
Sebastian and I were the two oldest in
camp but we are not anymore we’ve handed
so we had tracks of the the lines coming
out of that thick block they lay on the
road here for a bit so I’m just going to
check round on the next road otherwise
they’re sleeping somewhere between here
if they haven’t gone north or west or
last night on the Sun sunset Safari we
saw a very old male lion from the
Magellan coalition so there used to be
four there’s only two left and
apparently both of them are in that
really really bad States like we saw
that that male yesterday
so far no updates on him this morning he
crushed him to Aerith lose the last
night we haven’t heard anything yet this
morning but he is about 14 years old
which is incredibly old for a firm
airline so currently in the western
sections of the sabi sands there are no
dominant male lions there’s apparently
one two and a half year old auto ally
and he thinks he’s the bee’s knees
however we just heard that the
Birmingham’s are mating on Londos and I
think what’s going to happen is they’re
gonna push west into that area that is
devoid of male lions which is troubling
news for the in Goma Torchwood and Styx
prides less so for the Styx then the
other two but these northern prides are
probably at great risk at the moment so
they’re very great risk at the moment is
there the Torchwood’s and the in corners
as the birmingham’s are looking to
probably spend more time down south and
maybe even head west from there as we
were just saying there to Magellan males
still alive and both in very bad
condition like the one we saw yesterday
both sort of eating out in existence
often that when male lions get to that
sort of state they eat tortoises and
Terrapins and and anything now even if
they had to come across in calmer pride
or or anything like that that those
lionesses would probably kill a male and
like that especially if it’s not one of
the males from there they’re there their
coalition so it’s going to be very
interesting what happens with the Lions
and the Leopards at the moment there is
just checking carefully I think these
are the tracks from when Steve was
following last night now one of the
biggest myths that is perpetrated out on
Safari is that bright colors will cause
animals to charge and react and
everything
Sao Paulo most animals see in a various
monotone colors especially the Predators
and the only things that really see in
true color are cats not cats Oh monkeys
as cats don’t really see in true color
so lions sort of see in a monotone
greeny grey probably very similar to
what we see in IR except without the
definition that we see so strangely
enough that the two colors that stick up
the most in the African bush are black
and white because they are really really
prominent solid blocks of color
so that whole neutral colors and whatnot
that you get told to wear and Safari is
more so as not to offend the other
people on the vehicle then to offend the
animals as most animals couldn’t care if
okay now have these lines arrived at
Buffalo K it’s a possibility that you
like this area oh yeah so while we keep
meandering towards the buffalo water it
seems like Steve has found something
else son bushwalk yes I have once again
looking at a very nice tree one of the
favorite trees Archer not only from a
food point of view but from a spiritual
and cultural point of view the Buffalo
thorn very easy to see by the straight
hook and the backward hook and this is
one of the favorite browsing plants for
myself it’s a substitute for spinach and
very very tasty when the fruits are wrap
you can actually eat them as well they
are red berry dark fruit with a very
hard seed inside and you must eat them
when they’re red and they’re very very
tasty but what I was going to talk about
is how this buffalo thorn is growing has
actually facilitated an enormous amount
of of growth of two types of grasses the
first one we have seen already is the
red the great grass the red oak grass or
for me to try Andra and the second one
is this wonderful panikker maximum blue
guinea grass there’s a lot of common
names out there and talked about grazing
and browsing here I’m eating the leaves
and here I’m eating the seeds seeds are
very tasty and the base of these grass
stalks are so juicy hmm you can eat them
all day as we walk through we’re
constantly putting these up and eating
them and these are one of the grasses
that need semi-shade it’s a reason why
they don’t grow really much up in the
Mara because there’s not much shade they
need a semi shade and semi Sun and they
grow very very well in the undergrowth
like this protected by trees like the
Buffalo thought very very marvelous but
the reason why I actually wanted you to
come back to me was we found a rock and
this rock is very easily identified by
the very large sort of granules in there
and that sort of dark orangey color to
it now this rock is known as fairy
and it is the youngest rocks you find on
earth at the moment and a very good
geologist friend of mine told me that
these rocks actually when historians
look back or a new civilization looks
back on the human world they can
actually correlate this rock with the
existence of homo sapien how interesting
is that so we’re looking at about two
million years which is very young in the
scope of a rock but these rocks are
being formed as we speak there are
sedimentary rocks which means they are
deposited soil particles moving and then
getting compacted through lithification
and these rocks are correlated with the
existence of the human species I think
that is an absolutely marvelous story
when you think about the granite 2.8
billion years that is enormous amount of
time and even the best salt 150 250
million it’s a very long time verses
about one to two million years
marvelous indeed you got to leave this
right here we found it and we’ll
continue on Joe and ale if we find
invasive plant species we will
definitely remove them I don’t haven’t
found too many while I’ve been walking
around but a lot of the invasive species
come in as I’ve said a few times before
via the extensive River systems that
come in from the West I showed you that
photo of the map that entire map runs
from north to south and all the rivers
come in from the West so those perennial
rivers those free-flowing rivers that
flow all year round are the bringers of
agricultural pests and problem plants
and we don’t find many of them here in
Jim itself because we don’t have a
perennial River system moving through
but if we do find will show you and
we’ll pull them out so we are walking as
you can see let’s go is Justin Dix who
indeed we are we are driving with very
little success at this rate so we’ve
come to triage them now which means that
we’ll just have a little stop here and
have a little look around as to what’s
going on and see if there’s anything
that’s working that’s a no it’s just a
log for a second I thought maybe there
was a crocodile that was in chaos there
but it’s not it’s just a log that is
positioned kind of oh is it mud might be
mud
yes it’s mud that’s what it is so I
thought for a second day it was a croc
that was that was sitting kind of on the
edge of the woods as briefly glanced at
it but it’s definitely mud now shales
dam is quiet there is literally we have
not seen a single track from after the
rain so there’s been nothing moving
around maybe everybody’s decided it’s
bad weather and it’s decided to have a
bit of a nap so I’m not sure actually
where I’m going to hit from here I might
head to the elephant carcass just again
see we haven’t been there for a few days
you never know maybe something lurking
around that side so we’ll go and have a
little chick around then hopefully windy
behaves herself in that area now I’m
glad that we resolved the longest
migratory bird I was funny as we kind of
st. you to Steve I said to since I’m 99%
sure it’s the turn and then I wasn’t you
know I was just drawing a blank and I
mean you know it was confirmed Arctic
Tern and you know all the information
comes back which is good but anyway
that’s the way it goes sometimes you
forget things now Julie largest
migratory birds hmm
max you don’t even show about this you
know what would we say what will we say
largest would be–would largest be
heaviest or largest would be biggest
wingspan or would it be there’s
different parameters and is heaviest and
there’s sort of longest wingspan I would
say probably I might be wrong in this
but maybe one of the stork species would
misbehaving is also a violation good fun
terribly sorry about there ladies and
gentlemen having a few technical issues
with windy but don’t you worry we are
back with bushwalk and we have found a
magnificent specimen of a golden orb web
spider this is the female she is about
200 times bigger I’m in the mail and
look at those beautiful colors the black
the orange very contrasting it stands
out quite brightly and that is to
indicate two birds potentially its
toxicity if eaten I don’t know if it is
poisonous to eat what I do know is that
it is slightly venomous if it did give
you a bite it would only give you a mild
headache so nothing to be worried about
not one of the dangerous or human
fearing spiders out there but the name
golden orb comes from the beautiful
golden web that it spends and this
female actually has got an ecosystem or
should we say a party to herself
first of all in her web which you can
see now at that beautiful golden light
there is her junk lion in the middle
there that is where the remains of her
of her kills she puts the make as it
stands out quite easily from a distance
you can clearly see that line it
hopefully deters an animal from walking
through and then over here you can see
there is a male there is a male here
there’s two males in fact in the sweat
and what I always marvel at is quite
often the males are missing a leg or two
the one male is got all of his legs
albeit one of them is half and the other
male is missing a few legs and that is
because whenever they try to mate with
the female they’re living in her web
browsing most of his legs he’s only got
five legs you should have eight so what
happens in fact is there live in the web
and they want to mate with the female so
when they touch the web the femur gets
excited about food she goes rushing off
there to go catch the food and then the
male will often drop down a line and
sort of escape and then come back again
and he learns to play a very particular
tune on the web a little sort of
serenade for the
female you could say and then eventually
she realizes oh hang on maybe this is a
mating partner and then she does not eat
him but it’s very common to find them
missing legs so they live in the web
with the female and she does most of the
hunting and catching that’s right we
learned to play the guitar to serenade
the ladies hmm Paula I have no idea what
the average weight is but these spiders
have been known to catch small birds in
these webs they are very very strong so
small Finch like bird of about maybe 9
to 10 grams could potentially get caught
in these webs but the thing is as the
spider won’t be able to eat them and it
just damages the web hence the fact that
they put these drag lines or often a
Stabila mentum to show other organisms
that the web is here and to try steer
clear but what is very interesting is
we’ve got a parasitic spider within the
web of figs gonna try to focus on it and
there’s quite a few of them there they
known as a dewdrop spider and I wonder
if you look at it looks like a little
drop of mercury and they live in the web
of the golden orb spider and they are
actually klepto parasites which means
that they steal to know what a
kleptomaniac is as someone who steals so
klepto parasite is they live in the web
of the female golden orb and they all
feed on catch that she has wrapped up
ready for digestion so they don’t seem
to affect her too much because they’re
so small and she doesn’t seem to hunt
them down but they will steal bits and
pieces of a food just like a tick
stealing the blood out of an animal they
will not kill the spider but they are
stealing its food so klepto parasite a
very interesting symbiotic relationship
and I wonder if you can actually see
see see and Mysterio we’re going to show
you how big this spider is I’m gonna
come stand on the other side of it and
then folks going to get a bit of a
relation in that you can see how big it
is compared to my fingers here that’s
about half the length of my index finger
if you can see that I’m not afraid of
her because she’s not going to try bite
me there she is
beautiful yeah absolutely beautiful and
what will happen is after mating and
after laying eggs in the tree itself and
she’s about as big as they can get a
little bit bigger than that what is she
doing is she laying there while she’s
sticking some more web it’s possible
that a we’ve got little bit damaged last
night she’s gonna remake some of it and
after laying eggs in the tree soon she
will die and the next season they will
hatch again and the whole process of the
golden orbs ecology begins again rev
Indus the revenant paula spiders have
got a very special mechanism on their
feet which enables them to walk over
their web without getting stuck it is
obviously unique to spiders they don’t
get stuck in the web I don’t know
exactly how it works
but the web is designed by them and
facilitated by them and so if they got
stuck in it evolution just would not
continue
so they’ve evolved obviously to live in
a web to produce the web to gobble it up
as well or to to spin it whenever they
need and so they are very adept at not
getting stuck I saw some little eggs
over here fair girls on the other side I
saw some little white patches okay well
it looks like Justin has managed to get
back into a better signal area so let’s
leave our spider and go over to him no I
want to just head quickly towards Janet
Jackson’s home and see if maybe she’s
home on a cold day like today
whichever one it is and see whether or
not they are relaxing in the little hole
and appearing outs now we were
discussing largest migratory birds and I
wasn’t a hundred percent sure what they
were but I went and checked it out
creepy just to kind of make sure and see
what it was and interestingly enough it
is a pelican so the great white pelican
is the largest migratory bird apparently
in the world which is pretty interesting
it has a wingspan of over two meters and
is the largest one according to some
articles now I don’t know if that’s just
applies to the Americas or if it applies
to us as well but I mean here in
southern Africa obviously we don’t see
much of a migration of pelicans at all
and we don’t see much of a migration in
terms of any of the other top ten birds
that they were in that list so I’ll tell
you what the top ten birds are met
according to a certain list that I found
which would be let me just get it for us
quickly so in number 10 is the Canadian
goose that is apparently a bird that is
but 1.7 2 meter wingspan and these geese
follow over North America basically and
they are the most distributed use in
North America then you’ve got the great
blue here and I have a funny feeling
this is an American migratory list but
anyway let’s just have a look then
you’ve got the great blue heron then
you’ve got a turkey vulture golden eagle
bald eagle sandhill crane Tundra Swan
whooping crane trumpet this one and then
American white pelican it’s pretty much
all the North American species I don’t
know if this is completely true but it
does say this is the world’s sort of
migratory birds but I think it must be
the American Maya tree bird so maybe
somebody can help us and see what the
world’s is be interesting to see I my
first thought would have been one of the
sort of like I say cranes maybe stalks
for us here in southern Africa but in
terms of the world I’m on a hunt
potential now
no Jenna Jackson today as well that’s
its so let’s carry on and see I’m
interested to know though if somebody
can find what our largest South African
migratory bird is maybe I’m just curious
to know what it is do you all know I
haven’t checked the barn owl nest
recently just from a simple fact that I
haven’t actually been on Chitra recently
I have spent very little time in the
time that I was there the other day we
had kochava in the middle one and Intan
ganas I hasn’t actually get a chance to
get this I might hit day today now sins
on the road over here is a crime scene
of some sort maybe a bit close right
yeah so the pole might be all the car
might be in the way but there’s the
shell of a tortoise I need to move a
little bit
sorry sins let me go back a little bit
sorry I thought I had enough space but
evidently not here we go since that
should be better so is interesting to
see because this is just the sort of
bottom side of a tortoise but I don’t
see any other signs of it and that’s
very strange normally when you have a
situation where tortoise is cleaned up
in eaten then you’ll find bits of it
broken all over the place resold them if
you see them kind of separated in half
like this and stole some of the flesh
there but no signs of the rest of the
shell so now wonder if this was maybe
killed somewhere else and then something
like a young hyena picked it up and
carried it around or what the actual
situation is a constant in our tracks
around it so I think this hasn’t been
here for a day or two and then the rain
has washed over whatever had walked yeah
hmm interesting that’s for sure they put
tortoises there getting absolutely
hammered at the moment this is about the
third dead tortoise I’ve seen in the
last couple days okay well we’re going
to leave our thoughts between to head
down towards the elephant carcass I see
there’s a few fresh tracks for hyenas
going in that direction so maybe we’ll
get some pain action at the carcass
itself I know a lot of you love behind
and so we’ll try and see if we can find
that houses here a great go away bird
calling quite a bit slowly I just wanna
check sometimes they can be a good
indicator that something’s lurking so
quiet number okay
we’ll carry out and down towards the
elephant carcass while we do have to
send you to print who I think has found
what Steve saw last night well we have
we’ve arrived at the remnants of the
kudu and I think it’s quite a young kudu
just judging by how little of its left
and on the jawbone it’s not a big big
jawbone at all even though part of its
chewed off I think it’s quite a young
young kudu sub-adult and the fact that
there’s all the ribcage most of the
vertebrae gone is only a jawbone and two
scapulars left chair I’m hoping that the
Lions aren’t too far away
not quite interestingly even if we
didn’t know it was it kudu
we could surmise it was a kudu even if
we didn’t have the jawbone to look at
because if you look at some of the
undigested stomach contents you can see
all the leaves and it looks like these
could have been eating quite a lot of
round-leaf teak so you can see
hasn’t been ruminated fully yet and
there’s quite a lot of leaves inside it
now the other reason I know it’s a small
canoes just from the size of the stomach
contents a big could he would be a lot
more stomach
now the Lions seem to have come out to
come back in here and I think we heard
of Franklin alarming not too far away
I’m hoping they’re lying up just they’re
all they’re just about to get moving so
we’re gonna try negotiate our way
now since it is national unicorn dad
I’ve got a question for you to ponder
before I send you back to Steve is that
why did Scotland choose the unicorn as
their national emblem or national animal
okay
think about that hashtag safari live in
the meantime Steve’s doing some
flowering yes we are Thank You Brent and
Baathists are able to find that cooter
caucus and I’m happy to see that my
assumption said it was a small crew or
young crew you are correct and that is
purely because we watched those Lions
just devour the bones as if there were
nothing so the reason our stock jet is
we found two beautiful flowers which are
related both of them this is the blue
wandering jew orca Melina and here is
the yellow another common name for them
is Mickey Mouse ears which you can quite
easily see in the shape of them and
these are very well known for if you use
the leaves themselves you make them into
a drink are very good to cure any
bladder problems that you might have and
I’ve also heard the story that you can
actually there’s a little droplet that
gets caught in over there
and you can use that as an eye wash as
eyedrops if need be and a marvelous to
see both of them together why one is
yellow and one is is blue no idea but I
mean you can see the flowering parts and
the shape of them are identical but it’s
just the color so the color itself will
actually attract a different type of
insect so yellows you’re expected to
attract sort of daytime animals and
blues and purples are sort of more for
the nocturnal spectrum but all flowers
have got a UV signature and we know all
insects actually follow UV signatures
versus color so to speak because they
see in a very different level to what we
see
but marvelous another situation or
another thing I wanted to talk about was
we’re talking about grazing and browsing
again this morning I found another
beautiful flower not flower but grass
this is very easy to identify Niki I
taught you this one yesterday it looks
like some fingers this is the finger
grass and very very tasty out of the two
other grasses that showed you the red
grass and the blue buffalo grass or
white buffalo grass I keep getting their
common name mixed up panic a maximum
this is on a par with it with regards to
feeding and you can tell that by hmm
very very juicy
but now ladies and gentlemen how can I
be aggressor it’s not possible if I had
to take this grass here and eat it it
would cause me to vomit I just would we
are not designed to eat grass the food
that we eat we are they need to eat
completely raw or we need to cook it and
grasses if you ever see a cat or a dog
they eat grass and it’s often to cough
up a fur ball so one of the lionesses
last night eat some of the grass and she
coughed up a fur ball with some bones in
it it’s quite revolting but it is a an
emetic which causes you to to
regurgitate whatever it is you have in
your tummy so we are not able to digest
grass we probably were at one stage but
our appendix has altogether disappeared
and in one stage it was probably quite
similar to that of a grazing animal very
large cecum for digesting those sort of
things so we can’t directly eat grass
I have tried before it does not have
work it’s curved Tristan who has managed
to find a dead elephant caucus well not
very difficult to find it so it’s been
here for the last three weeks
fairly easy to go and don’t really know
anyway you can see not very much left of
this elephant is amazing how a few weeks
ago this was a full elephant and it was
alive and now look at what it’s been
reduced to you can see you have a hyena
that’s also in the area it’s just
chomping down on bones and it is
literally all that is left is a bit of
skin here and there that they’ve eaten
off to the rain
Skinner’s softened up and looks like a
blanket that has been dragged all over
the place but it’s actually the skin
say Kira who’s 11 years old I was asking
have I ever seen I you know Kira we have
seen I what we see is regularly almost
most days in fact maybe don’t get them
on the show every single day but as we
live in and work in this area so we get
them pretty much every day we hear them
every night they very common archer and
there’s lots of them and they love these
kind of things where they can find a
carcass like this and it’s amazing to
watch them go to town and to try and
feed off all of this kind of thing the
power in their jaws is amazing and if I
keep quiet you might be able to hear it
crunching down on the bone you can see
it salivating because it’s trying to get
to that bone I’m not sure if you’ll be
basically what it’s trying to do it’s
trying to basically get any little last
bit of nutrients at cancer this kind of
biting down on the leg bones and and the
sort of areas where is a bit of maybe
marrow that’s exposed and can try and
feed all for that so you’ll see this for
hangers they’ll come back day in day art
especially after a bit of rain rain
basically reactivates the scent a little
bit and it makes everything kind of
smell like there’s a fresh wall at least
some meat left and then they come in and
they come and chew the bones and they
scatter things around and they’ll choose
the skin so is still some nutrients left
chef’s for both vulture and hyenas
there’s a few vultures that are here as
well there’s a white black vulture
that’s off to the right-hand side that’s
feeding off the spinal area and then in
the distance is a whole bunch of hooded
vultures that are sitting up on the tree
over there so there’s four hooded
vultures all together
hoping maybe just maybe there might be a
Egyptian vulture amongst them but alas
no sign of our Egyptian friend
Sisi the smell is almost non-existent
now as no real smell kind of decaying
dead dry smell but it’s not nearly as
bad as it was a few few weeks ago
once all the meats really gone and it’s
just the bones that are left now the
bones themselves will stink this skull
and and the ribcage and everything else
is going to smell horrific for months
and you’ll take probably six months to a
year before you won’t be able to smell
that dead decaying smell on the bones
but in terms of us just sitting here
it’s not bad at all it doesn’t really
stink much anymore it’s actually quite
fine just sitting here not really
so make sometimes they wag their tails
when they’re happy they just just pins
on how they feel sometimes they’ll just
kind of give it a little wag just
because they have fun and they like to
do it no not really no honey knows when
they’re excited will turn their tails up
so the tails will lift and they’ll
become very excitable then they tails
are in the air quite straight and they
kind of have them up and they and
there’s lots of weeping that goes on
with that but in terms of when they see
that each other not really tell tends to
stay flattened down anytime you really
see the tail wagging is if they’ve got a
situation where they’ve got flies that
are landing on their coat or landing
around the area end like that and then
you just see it kind of flicks to be
able to try and kind of chase them away
but they don’t wag them to be happy they
they are not a dog remember that they
might look like dogs but they are not a
dog they’re in their own family
altogether
and in fact they reckon are more closely
related to cats in there are dogs which
is pretty interesting but they are not a
dog in any way so wagging of the tail is
not the same as a domestic dog at all
Jason I mean suppose there’s a little
pale it’s more of a gray color than some
of the other in as we get but hyena
coats very massively I mean we know that
in the mara printhead those view cystic
hyenas the ones that had that were very
very white very very lighting Allen and
then you get ones that are very ginger
others that are a bit more gray like
this so it’s I mean it’s common to see
you know different sort of colors on
heiner’s and this particular gray kind
of brown color is regular you see it’s
often on hyenas many of our hyenas have
that kind of coloration very young
individual you can see its spots or
bright bright bright they still very
deep rich kind of dark color
few little wounds on the back as well
and then you see someone’s bits in it on
the back and on the spinal area maybe
had a fight with another I know and then
also it’s ears are very very clean so
you can see the ears are not too torn up
there’s only an indication of a younger
individual but look hearts are still
trying to force its way through that
bone it’s amazing the damage that they
can do in the power in those jaws I mean
that elephant bone is huge it’s not a
small bone and you can see no carts
crunch down you can actually want to see
the teeth marks on the edges of that
bone as they’re going in and trying to
feed off it amazing isn’t it incredible
how efficient our cleanup crews in the
bush are you would think that an
elephant carcass would have lasted for
as for kind of much longer than it did
but when you look at it now and you
remember thinking of that massive sized
animal that was here and you think about
what we’re seeing now it is seriously
incredible of what’s gone on there’s
very very little life journey give it
another week or so and it’ll be probably
nothing nothing nothing and most of
these bones will be spread apart the
amazing thing is the skin is to my right
sort of back of the car when I first
drove in I thought maybe somebody had
dropped a blanket but there is the skin
that is kind of just lying next to the
car over there doesn’t it look blanket
like it does and that is all elephant
skin that is kind of softened up now now
that would have been hard and almost
crispy when
the Sun was out for those few weeks that
this was dead didn’t have too much rain
but now with the two sort of storms that
we’ve had this skin has all become soft
and pliable and you’ll find that that is
the perfect chew toy for hyenas and I
wouldn’t be surprised that we see if
there’s some hyenas here that maybe
potentially have young ones that they
drag off bits of the skin back towards
the teen sides and the reason why I say
that is because they will have a
situation where they can then the little
ones can chew on it and basically go
after it as much as they they want and
kind of swallow down those nutrients and
especially if they’re teething it’s very
very cool so know you’re asking if hyena
clans asked the young males
well the males in hyena clans are
generally lower than low I’m wondering
why this hyena keeps looking up into the
tree and being quite nervous I thought
maybe just had a quick look in their
trees to make sure there wasn’t a lipid
sitting you and me just completely
missed it but it definitely isn’t maybe
something in the wind because the wind
is blowing over the right shoulder of it
so how you know clans are the low I mean
the males are the lowest of the low and
so yes sometimes look at the strength in
this look look watch it’s dragging the
whole leg amazing so the males like I
said all those sort of lone so it’s
often that they kind of get chased out
and they go off on their own and they go
drain other clans and they kind of move
around quite a bit but they don’t in
terms of being ousted there will be sort
of competition amongst the males for
sure to be the top male but within the
clan itself they are not the dominant
force and so they don’t really get
ousted by the females the females are
already bigger than them stronger than
them and they just fall lower than their
then the females are in any case so it’s
not really that they get ousted by the
clan itself it’s more another male try
and asked an older male to try and be
their sort of dominant male within the
the grouping that looks after that
particular clan will mates in that
particular clan but they’re not really
kind of territorial very sort of kind of
combative males like you would see with
male lions or Mae
if it’s it’s a bit different with hyenas
anyway that’s it with the site in a
little bit longer see what else maybe
comes down and seems to be quite nervous
and maybe something else is coming
around its is another eye you know
actually coming that’s right so there’s
a right in front of us that’s just
arriving as we speak so just coming down
the pathway there we go hello a little
bit more ginger in that particular
individual so I’ll just search and see
maybe more hyenas are going to arrive as
we kind of spend some time and while we
wait for this Hina to move in
let’s send you back across to Steve who
I believe is at a dam yes we are indeed
we are a treehouse dam and in the
picture you can probably see a beautiful
little sedge and sedges are quite easy
to identify by the fact that they have
edges I know that might sound a bit
strange but if I if you look at the stem
over here you’ll see that there are
actually four sides to it so very easy
to remember trees have leaves grasses
have arses which might sound quite
strange and sedges have edges and the
reason why we say cross devices is
because there’s holes in the bottom and
that’s a grass there and a sedge has got
edges and they’ve got this very
interesting sort of leaf structure or
is3 at the top coming off but the edge
is very very cagey I don’t know which
species of sedge this is there’s a
couple of them down here by the river or
by the pan and sedge is a very good
indicator of moisture soil moisture and
very obvious along the edge of treehouse
damn it lots and lots of edges down here
and you can actually make all sorts of
things out of sedge this is almost
related to to papyrus papyrus is a type
of sedge and as you know the existence
of humankind as we know it was written
down on very very old papyrus that was
formed in Egypt a very very long time
ago and that’s how we remember and
transcribe everything that’s happened
over three
years ago fantastic all started with the
little sedge and that’s where human
history as you know it began but what we
have also found on by the water here is
evidence of what the Bushmen will talk
about and if we have a look in the dung
of this animal and the way it’s been
spread out it’s very clear that there
are no fish bones inside here and we
know that this is from a hippo and it’s
quite fresh it smells quite fresh
it looks quite fresh so it must be quite
fresh and the the Bushmen talk about the
story I’ve told it before about how the
hippo lived in the water with its big
mouth and it would eat all the fish so
they need to come on to the land every
night and spread after dung and then God
will come along or the Creator and he’ll
have a look through for any fishbones if
there are any fish bones he’ll condemn
him back to the life he had before out
of the water so hippos are definitely
grazers and they have the ability to
digest or at least ferments the grass at
their feet but it does come out very
poorly digested look at that look how
poorly digested that is it’s almost
nothing taken out of there less than 40%
of the grass in hippo done is digested
so ash has anyone come across a
traveling crocodile on bushwalk I have
not here in rumour but I have many times
before up in the Kruger National Park
right up in the north we found tracks of
them and we’ve also found them
physically walking it is quite an eerie
feeling a quite a crazy experience your
whole body just you just freeze on the
spot because there’s something about
that crocodile that makes you just want
to stop moving and also want to run away
the other direction but often they’re
just moving back into the water or they
crossing land from one paddle to another
instinctively they’re know as the dry
season gets more dry that dams like this
are going to sort of deplete in the
water and they’ll go somewhere have
permanent water resource I hope that
answers your question I’m gonna go up
onto the dam wall see what other
activity there is there’s not too many
signs of animals down here by the
water’s edge but it is quite difficult
Gary I wouldn’t say we’ve got
underground rivers but we do have
aquifers so there are huge water tables
underneath the surface all across the
country and that is in every country
actually and they’re not flowing I
wouldn’t say they’re flowing but they’re
all connected to the water table
throughout the continent or throughout
sort of southern Africa I’m sure you
find them all over the place and that’s
one of the reasons Cape Town is having a
bit of difficulty with waters because
they planned a very long time ago a big
what did you say her rubbish dump on top
of one of the biggest aquifers that they
have and so all that rubbish seeps in to
the water that they have and they’ve got
plenty of water but they can’t use that
now problem problem problem problem
planning is very important when you’re
going to develop a civilization they
should have read the transcripts on the
Egyptian Scrolls that they’re Oates on
the papyrus 3,000 years ago and figured
out the importance of planning and human
waste and all our waste so that we can
have suitable water for drinking but
unfortunately as humanity appears to be
getting smarter we are in my opinion
getting a little bit more stupid as we
go has all been done before that yet we
think it is all new and we need to
reinvent it let’s go to someone who is a
bit who has invented most things brent
Leo Smith well unfortunately like those
in comas are in one of those areas we
cannot get a car we’ve checked around so
now we’re just doing a quick scan see if
we can find any sign of Tandy hopefully
she’s might make an appearance if
nothing we’re gonna head towards the
west and check the sort of northwestern
corner we did have some just so there
was rain last night and but we can’t
find any sign of the lines moving I’m
just double-checking and also this is
where Tandy was last sort of seen was
hiding was in this area same area where
the Lions are so she might have moved
now you’d say it’s quite cloudy not
foggy yesterday morning was incredibly
foggy granny pig so this is just some
low-lying cloud it is relatively normal
for this time of the year winter less
normal and winter we will get that mist
in the early mornings and then generally
clear skies during the day we will get a
few overcast days during winter but
mostly it is clear skies for most of the
winter months it’s quite interesting as
I’ve been moving through the different
areas so the area around camp got a lot
more rain last night than this eastern
area so it got a few drops but but not
nearly as much as we seem to get in the
center and the west of the reserve there
are quite interesting and our rain can
be very localized Archer as those of you
who watched us in the morrow I mean you
can sometimes you can drive around the
initiate their cake little rattling
sister killer so in that littles in that
passeth on it I said he’s disappeared
that way you went down into the grass
ah let’s see what what do you think
about the unicorns Tim because dot dot
dot
Scotland I suppose that is a viable of a
haha now Eddie’s on to a sort of tract
because it would make the crown is in
England mad so it actually comes from
medieval times when the Scottish and the
English were warring but it wasn’t the
reason why it wasn’t to make the crown
mad although that would have been a bone
a bonus added add add on to okay we’re
waiting now let’s see if anyone’s got
so you’re spot-on be truthful that the
unicorn was used on the Scottish coat of
arms in the Middle Ages but there’s a
very specific reason why it was used and
that’s what I’m looking for now see you
well Dan Laura well Dan you are correct
Lauren
unicorns are the enemies of lions and
can kill lions and the emblem of the
British crown which was trying to invade
Scotland and take over Scotland at those
times was of course the British lion so
that represents the crown of England and
the English in the English represented
the English
so the unicorn was the animal that could
kill the lion that is why it is the
Scottish national animal yeah yeah a bit
of interesting folklore there now
there’s no there’s no sort of unicorn
equivalent art in Africa but we’ve got
some incredible mythical beasts that are
said to live in Africa I think my
Coulee combi is a very specific mythical
beast to a certain part of Central
Africa and Gabon in particular and to a
certain tribe they’re called the me na
and the coulee combat is an bipedal ape
man and something crossed between a
gorilla chimpanzee and a human being
that is said to live in the forests that
surround the furred invaders Magoon so
and we go Cooley combi he’s a mad
Frenchman out there and he believes in
the Cooley combat and he was trying to
convince me the one day of the Cooley
cumbers existence but he got his anatomy
class a bit mixed up because he was
mixing gorilla and chimpanzee Barrens to
try and make this thing that stands up
so yes it was it was it was an
interesting conversation and the more
you argued with him about that he was
mixing up the vertebra from a chimpanzee
or
from a gorilla on a chimpanzee he got
more angry with you so to be friends we
just decided to stop arguing with it
oh great black okay so so zoom in center
frame where you were a little bit to the
left I get in that little acacia there
zoom a bit more little bit down he’s
just behind that branch there let’s have
and he’s just in there that’s really
landed and I didn’t seem fly on let me
just try it move forward a little bit
okay just keep an eye see if you see
anything jumping see if we can have a
look behind and could have hopped up
into those thorny thickets when’s he
carried on there are one of the more I
flew done it he flew out of the tambuti
I said they’re difficult ones to get on
camera but said this Frenchman I’m not
gonna mention any names
he eventually collected all his
chimpanzee gorilla concoctions the only
thing in this garden and sent them off
because no one would listen to him he
paid a huge amount of money to send them
off to Paris to an anthropologist and he
came to the same conclusion as the rest
of us it is a combination of gorilla and
chimpanzee bones not a new upright
species of bipedal eggs that has been
another one is mccullough member mcaren
been there is another Congo forest story
about this massive thing that makes
massive noises that lives in Lake tell
in in in the DRC and what is apparently
leak liquids look for McCullen bambe
we’re pretty sure we know what McCulloch
and Bender is now it’s just a very very
loud Linda’s not a very large slender
snouted crocodile I worked with a guy up
in Gabon is the leading expert on
reptiles that’s not something you see
very often arch yeah it’s the Torchwood
staff going home obviously they don’t
have any guests this weekend but so it’s
just from the sounds and stuff it’s
night so that this spend stand us
slender snouted crocodile makes an huge
amount of varied screams and noises I’ll
see if I can find some sounds of it feet
and when that’s one of the theories that
it’s especially there in a very wet area
there’s quite a lot of big slender
snouts in that area that it’s a legend
probably started and based off the
noises and whatnot that come from the
ascender started crocodile right I’ll
see if I can find you some of those
sounds that they make and you can
actually get them to make the noise if
you tap the side of your boat they’ll
start roaring at you sometimes that’s in
the meantime it’s going to the animal
who has a deal with the Nile crocodile
according to zoo D Zulu folklore the
water back well Brent II I can imagine
that heels that go on and on and on
about mythical stories all day Bentley
loves a African tale or mythical story
and will tell anybody who’s willing to
listen so I’m sure he’s got many but
what we’ve got is probably three of the
cutest fluffiest warmest animals this
morning with three of these little baby
water back there all together
surprisingly enough there is
not a single adult that I can see
anywhere near these three so why they’re
on their own I have absolutely no idea
and why they would be kind of sitting by
themselves in this area is pretty
strange generally water back of the size
are very close to mom and so I’m
surprised to see them all on their
lonesome but how cute are these little
guys look up fluffy they would imagine
so so Nicky says all the girls in FC are
doing and eying and making cute sounds
I’m pretty sure that it would be the
case I didn’t think anything differently
know how the girls in FC gosh over these
little guys but they are very cute they
this probably some of the cutest animals
that we actually have Archer now they
need to be careful they can’t walk
around like this by themselves because
otherwise they are a prime target for
the likes of Tenggara and husana both of
which would probably love a water bug
snack and so they need to be a little
bit more careful about what they doing
because if they’re gonna sit out in the
open like this by themselves with no
adults they are going to make themselves
a target for any of the predators that
we get arches so things like wild dogs
even lines if they see this will take
well it wouldn’t even second-guess the
chant to go after one of these guys so
they need to be careful and then all
likely would need to find their mothers
and the adults to be careful to try and
stay safe because like I say if they
stay like this they’re going to get
themselves into a lot of trouble but
they really are cute they’re they
probably got to help be one of the most
cutest animals in there baby I mean any
baby animals cute but these guys just
because of how fluffy they are I think
is what makes them kind of appear almost
teddy bear like in a way very very cool
now the reason why I worry for them is
because we are chipped a damn wall and
we know that Dingaan and husana
generally I never far from this area and
they aim to have a tough time of it if
those two boys are around and I’m hoping
that their moms are just down below the
dam wall and that’s why they haven’t
kind of stretched too much and it’s why
they’re just kind of standing I suppose
they’ve also positioned themselves
probably not too bad they kind of got
Heights up there it’s gonna be very
difficult
for husana or Tooting garnets who try
and hunt them and less and less there
one of them can get behind this little
wall where they might walk down and he
they can grab him but your right knee is
very cool to see how different the
colors are even though all three of them
are the similar size and age they all
have a very different look about them
you can see the smallest one is the
darkest one and then you’ve got a more
kind of rusty color on the left and then
that more normal water back color on the
right so as they get a little bit bigger
so they start to kind of fade a little
bit which is opposite to a lot of the
other young animals a lot of other
younger animals start off quite lights
and then darken up if you think of
wildebeest in particular in sable as
well they start off more this color and
then they end up going into those kind
of dark grays and blacks that you see so
interesting kind of difference between
them but how cute is that and the little
tail as well Nicky the reason they array
when he may tell so much is because of
flies so as flies are landing on them so
they wear tail to get rid of them so
they’re getting irritated and flies
often congregates around the rear end of
antelope species so unfortunately for
them they get a lot of them and Nicky in
final control which is not the same
Nicky that asked the question it’s all
getting very Nicky confusing at the
moment says that you can actually see
the Flies flying about all around them
so that’s why they wagging their tail
and making sure they get rid of them
doing a good job there little one your
tail is very very active and is
caryl they potentially could outrun a
lipid that’s if they see a lipid coming
remember these are young young animals
these guys have got very little
experience and probably on the side of
where they just don’t really know what’s
going on too much they said that they
could easily be caught by a wily old a
cat like ting garner I mean he’d be able
to force them into areas where it would
be easier for him to hunt but if they
saw a lipid coming here sell out run
it’s already at this age they already
probably have more stamina then a lipid
could have over long distance but the
problem is is for them is that they’re
very vulnerable because they are small
and they are little and they are
inexperienced which means that things
like lipids that’s exactly what they’re
looking for they like to find small
inexperienced animals on their own makes
life a lot easier the only saving grace
is that they group together in a little
herd you wish an adult would come by
meet you I would be nice to have the
adults with them you never like to see
baby animals all on their own the
interesting thing about this is I know
Steve told me the other day that he saw
one female with four young ones now I
wonder if that female who has a young
one currently these three have not just
tried to latch on to that female to try
and kind of you know have some semblance
of security and that females now kick
them away and to go and find their own
moms but I promise you that there is not
a single water back outside of these
three anywhere that I can see here
nothing on the open area nothing that is
kind of hanging around that I can see in
the thickets maybe they down below the
dam wall at the moment and that’s why
the little ones are quite chilled but I
would have thought that with us arriving
these are the ones if the if the adults
were around would have gone straight
down towards where they are and to try
and kind of stay safe but it seems as
though they’re not really sure and when
you’re first gotcha they’re actually
lying down just on the left-hand side I
didn’t really notice them until one of
them stood up but they were just lying
off the side of the dam wall by
themselves and like I said no adults
present so a bit of a strange one I
don’t know what would have caused all
three of them to lose their moms maybe
something like wild dogs or something
separated the herds and they’ve just
battled now to try and find where their
moms
and they’ve now it’s kind of in a
situation where they lost but a mother
what’s about generally is very good at
trying to kind of find her youngsters
and to make sure that she can see them
and and look after them so I just want
to double check down here but I don’t
so Lorna they do have very pointy tracks
in fact you wanted to know about their
tracks let’s just go back because
there’s some really nice water bug
tracks behind me yeah just give me two
all right don’t wash away the tracks
whoops II didn’t really think that
through very well but here we go
so these are water bug tracks on my
right-hand side that are walking along
there so reversing through piles of
water where these tracks are never a
good idea but there we go you can see
that it’s it’s maybe not quite as pointy
as some of the other antelope species we
get yeah but it still does have quite a
sharp point and a very raised Ridge area
in the middle so you’ll see that this
track can be confused sometimes with a
Valda B’s track but I find the Valda B’s
track the backings plays a little bit
more and the mound of sand is bigger
than what you see on this particular
track in the middle section so that’s
what about good now I’m just trying to
listen to me cuz somebody just mentioned
something sorry law station just go
so I’m just listening to the radio okay
copy
right so we just got the news that I was
looking for and hoping that we would
find there’s moms you see you know
that’s dad over there
is the male is on that side maybe that’s
why they were looking at him the male’s
just sitting on that little sort of area
over there but we are going to try and
me and our way to something that we were
hoping we would find in this particular
section of the world and so while I do
that it sends you across to Steve and
Ernest ones how surprising what could it
be
I bet shoot in Ghana is sitting around
close by licking his lips at the thought
of a young water buck for breakfast but
we stopped here for a purpose of once
again the buffalo grass is growing out
like this we’ve got the buffalo thorn
growing here and very unassuming in the
back there we have got the nest called a
woven nest of a blue wax ball and as we
approach the adult flew out of there and
they will use these nests obviously not
only for breeding but they were also
roost in them in the cold winter nights
to come because I know we were talking
lots about migratory birds on the blue x
bill is not one of them it’s a small
finch like bird seed eater and they use
the grass not only for feeding on the
seeds of the grass but also for weaving
a little woven ball nothing like that of
a a weaver they will just take a whole
lot of grasses if I can just demonstrate
I’m not the best weaver in the world and
they will just roll them into sort of a
ball lots of them
and roll them like that so it’s not much
of a weaving as opposed to a just a ball
so that is a very nice unique nest for
the Blue Expo and his put his nest in a
very inaccessible tree to try and get my
hand in it and be quite sore because
there’s lots of buffalo thorn sharp
hooks and straight thorns there which is
a very good place for it’s a secret
itself away and to be unavoidable every
one because you
even see it Herbie with his eagle eyes
spotted that as we walk past and we’ve
been on the topic a little bit about
soil and geology this morning and that
previous rock I showed you which are
Sigma’s Granite’s not actually granite
rock it is the breaking down of a
granite rock where’s here is an actual
granite rock is very very hard very hard
and it’s made up of a few different
types of minerals namely courts as well
as mica which is fool’s gold and then
felt spa feldspar as the pink sort of
little guys in there the the quartz an
example of this this is a much larger
quartz crystal and we find these as
quite a dominant sort of chemical or or
mineral component of granite okay so
very very hard rock doesn’t break down
very easily even though he did see a
little bit breaking off there as opposed
to the bath salts which breaks down very
very easy we don’t find many basalt
rocks left just the derivative of the
soil that they leave behind so that is
it beautiful quartz crystals very nice
and big and the size of the crystal is
the term bar where it cooled in the
landscape so if you came up from the
bottom surface you came from the magma
deep down in the Earth’s crust and
here’s the surface of the earth and you
came up to about there and you cooled
down the cooling is very very slow so it
leads to very large crystals but if you
explode onto the Earth’s crust in the
form of lava and you land on the Earth’s
crust imagine going from magma which was
in the Earth’s mantle which is extremely
hot molten rock and you land on the
surface as a rock you cool down far
quicker than you would if you’re
underneath the surface still so the
crystals are much smaller and leads to
much softer softer rock which is much
easily a weathered and broken down so
that is a good way of working out the
difference in your basalt and granite I
do enjoy my rocks we don’t find too many
rocks around here because it’s all still
very flat and the weathering has
happened so we don’t find too many
beautiful rocks mmm
Lady Bird I am not sure on what type of
gemstones be fine around here further up
in a reserved called a salah t who i
used to work as action emerald mind
there and they have closed down for some
reason but there are still emeralds
within the rock and those have come
about from a process known or a rock tap
known as talc schist or soapstone and
those emeralds actually metamorphic
crystal inside of that metamorphic which
was actually basalt at one stage went an
extreme pressure like this and a changed
the crystals from whatever they were
before into emerald so they found
emeralds there i have never found i did
to go scratching around in the soil and
the rocks there but i didn’t find
anything of any great value but in
botswana there’s lots of diamonds that
are found in and around in namibia
they’re diamonds found all along the
coastline there you cannot go into the
series as you can imagine
diamonds are quite heavily controlled by
the people who have all the money but in
this area i don’t know of any gemstones
the birds are starting to wake up
they’ve been very quiet they’ve probably
been very wet just heard some arrow mark
babblers making their very noisy call in
the background okay sounds like Tristan
has found something let’s go and see
whose spots he’s looking at hoping to
come and find it chitter so he’s hidden
a little bits at the moment he was up in
a tree and came pounding down as we
gotcha
and then darling to the grass where he’s
now lying completely obscured so I’m
Hassan I like to know me he’s a little
poser and his likes to stay up and kind
of have a look I think it’s because
there’s lots of rutting impalas around
maybe decided would be better to come
down and lie in the grass but he’s
sitting here because he actually has a
kill at the moment I can’t see where
exactly the kill is but he does have a
darker kill somewhere in this area and
just can’t see exactly where the kill
itself now if he lies down we’re going
to see absolutely please nothing of him
it’s really long long grass at the
moment and you can see this is typical
of the summer months is when the grass
gets long like this and you’ve kind of
come over and liquid almost disappears
and if you didn’t know that he was
actually here you would have a situation
where he would probably have been driven
right past you wouldn’t be able to
really see him now Mehsana what have you
been busy with interestingly enough when
I was crossing the dam we also found
tracks 14 Garner quite fresh ones that
are sort of just at the end of the rain
and so he’s also looking around this
little water buck need to be very very
careful about staying in that area
though I was they’re gonna get
themselves into a lot of trouble but at
this stage he’s no way to be seen ting
Arnaud which is a good thing I suppose
for Sanne because he’ll manage to keep
his kill that he has at the moment
otherwise he might have a situation
where he’ll unfortunately lose it if
ting garner does come along so indiegogo
he has been busy husana is a busy
katerina that he seldom likes to sit
still and loves to be hunting and moving
around and trying to find as much food
as is possible and so we see him kind of
around and moving all the time and he
has been busy as opposed to finding
himself a little dark and I think yes
she came off a kill from tortured I know
in Taylor had him the other day with
ting gana I’m pretty sure he came out
from tortured and probably possibly had
himself a bit of a meal that he was then
able to kind of deal with but see he’s
kind of looking up into the tree I
didn’t see the killer in the tree itself
which might be the reason that he’s down
maybe just maybe he ended up pulling it
down and it’s on the ground at the
moment but it’s a very obscure view at
so Brittany husana means the little
chief or the little prince is the kind
of direct translation for it and he got
that because obviously his mom was ruler
who was the queen of German so it made
sense to call him the little prince the
little chief as basically comes from
that lineage and as it’s turned out he
is the little Frenchie Connor doesn’t
really care about anybody else he just
does his thing and he’s an absolutely
epic cat and his relationship currently
with you note in Ghana is absolutely
fascinating to me to watch their kind of
interactions that they go through in
Mehsana kind of walks up to ting gan and
just really doesn’t care as much as ting
on it doesn’t want him around he just
doesn’t care he’s forcing his dad to
almost be friends with him and he does
this with tandy and he doesn’t he’s done
with shadow and so he seems to be a cat
that almost likes company and we’re
seeing him follow around all kinds of
different animals so he really is a
little character and I suppose if you’re
the prince you’re allowed to do all of
these things maybe he’s got that kind of
thing we just his mom says I can do it
and so that’s why he did it but he’s a
very cool cat I’ve thoroughly enjoyed
time with wasana
over the last year he’s really given us
probably more than any of the other
lipids if you think about I mean I know
we’ve had an amazing stuff with tani and
should do you and shadow and an even
ting on and who can worry but if you
think about just the constant kind of
sightings that we get from this
particular cat we are really spoiled
he’s given many many many insights into
leopards that many people probably would
argue with if you had to tell them that
had no experience of this particular cat
and he’s also you know seems to just be
one of those cats that we see probably
more than all the others as well so he
really is a special individual and
whoever inherits him if he moves away
from this area is going to inherit a
very very special individual and going
to be very fortunate I I have a sneaky
feeling he’s just going to be one of
those lipids that’s just not going to
take this I have to go somewhere else
for you know as the rule he’s going to
try and probably have a situation where
he’s going to try and stay here for as
long as he can
from Italy you know dad is not really
pushing him away who can worry seem to
chase him the other day but it didn’t
really affect us on much if you think
about how hassanein literally just went
straight towards we kind of know Kamui
had chased him the very next day it
seems to see that he’s not really that
kind of concerned with what goes on and
he’s pretty happy to continue to be
around sort of Jame area so I think
hopefully he’s going to stay I mean
obviously it’s it’s gonna be an
interesting one there’s so much upheaval
in the lipid world at the moment and it
could very well lead to him being pushed
on but he seems to have kind of thought
to himself that Chitra is his and that
he’s going to take this in a sort of
southeastern corner of Jummah for now so
that’s fine by us as long as we get to
see him I’ll be very happy with him
taking over Chitra and even maybe now
and then popping on to Juma in that
southeastern corner interesting that
hooker Maurice told and hasn’t really
kind of pursued chingada I mean Mehsana
that much and also this new male that
we’re seeing on little gari how he
hasn’t chased either ting honor or sign
away just yet
good well we’re getting to sit with him
and try and see maybe he’s gonna get up
and move you know sonic sometimes
doesn’t always race for long and while
we do that to send you back across to
Steve who I think is staring at one of
well our ugliest creatures we see our
son idly Tristan that’s beautiful not as
beautiful as a sauna I must add but it
is a slag layer gentlemen and what it’s
trying to do it was moving across the
road it’s trying to camouflage itself
with little quartz crystals from the
granitic soils we’ve been talking about
isn’t that marvelous
here’s an herb marvellous let’s turn
them over the bottom side is the very
sticky side where it moves this is
called the foot of the bottom he’s
covered in in in the gravel from the
soil itself to three Heights already see
his mouth is over here and they feed on
vegetation they are grazers very much
like like a snail itself and the
chainsaw like a mouth parts are in there
and as they move over stuff they’re kind
of vegetation that is they sort of grind
it down like a chainsaw would do without
the noise of course
he is quite sticky and quite slimy and
he was trying to move across the road
when we caught him trying to camouflage
himself with all of those crystals I’m
going to put him back though IV in
Culina yuck you say poor little guy I’m
just gonna put him back not so yuck
really just a little creature doing his
thing moving through the environment and
trying to survive and it is nice and
moist out there at the moment which
means it’s easier for him to move around
much more difficult to move around if
you are a dry animal they need moisture
to sort of slide across the ground so
someone who’s not sliding Brentley as
Smith he’s driving well I’ve been trying
to find a decent audio recording of that
cat of practice messy sob scatter
factors slain it’s not a crocodile
roaring but I can’t really get a good
but they get much louder and much more
scary than that that’s the best one I
can find now there are quite a little
known species and quite endangered
through most of their Retton but they
are mean they fake it you can hear that
from sometimes a kilometer way and it
says and I think there’s quite a lot of
theories now that the McCullough member
bear from Laketown is actually just a
really big and very loud male cat a
fractus saying it’s not a crocodile
those of you who’ve watched the video of
our Rikki – conga there’s some clips of
stainless now – crocodiles in that video
that we saw while we’re traveling along
those waterways so now I’m quite I’m
quite lucky I think so there’s different
subspecies of slender starters and dwarf
crocodile but of the main sort of
species of crocodile in Africa I have
caught by hand all while I’ve caught
for various different reasons worked
with the guy up in Gabon is sort of the
leading world expert on crocodiles and
specifically Central and West African
crocodiles so we caught some some of the
Nile crocodiles that go into the ocean
in that area and swim quite big
distances in the ocean between different
lagoons to take little genetics skin
samples from them same with dwarf and
and saying it’s not a crocodiles and we
even found some stainless it’s not some
crocodile nests so it’s quite
interesting about your dwarf crocodile
and you’ll stay on the snout of
crocodiles that occur in those Congo
Basin forests so Nile crocodiles and a
lot of the other crocodilian species
rely on open sand banks and stuff to you
to lay their eggs so the Sun can heat
heat them up and keep them warm and then
the said having different layers of sort
of sexes depending on the heat of of the
nest so your females will come from the
bottom your males from the top the
higher the temperature the more males
the lower the temperature more females
so that’s a big problem where you get
exotic and invade
of plants coming into certain areas
because they end up turning the nest
all-female and you run out of males for
breeding now your forest crocodiles like
your your standard started and your
dwarf crocodile obvious of course living
in those closed forests it’s near
impossible for them to find decent
breeding grounds if you had to have that
open sand bank so how they’ve evolved to
avoid this is they’ll build them what
they need so they make massive mounds
out of leaf litter and understand it
started crocodiles sort of this big will
build a mound that’s Barbary about
sometimes up to two one and a half to
two meters in size and of all the
detritus and rotting leaf litter and
stuff like that and then lay the eggs
and the center of that and the D comes
decomposition of all those leaves and
sticks and and and stuff like that
creates heat so that’s how they keep
their nest warm from the decomposing
vegetable matter that they pile up
around their eggs so very interesting
how they’ve evolved to survive in those
in those forest areas their diet is also
incredibly varied so the big Crocs
obviously need big things to eat like
Nile crocodiles those slender snouts
couldn’t really attack a human being or
anything like that their nose is very
small very thin teeth far more
needle-like then a Nile crocodile so far
more Peskov all specialised in fish and
obviously insects and occasionally the
older bird or whatnot but very seldom
dwarf crocodile actually their main one
of their men died it’s depending on
where you are is-is-is frogs and bats
and stuff and they are out of the three
species the least water alliance so they
will build these burrows in the forest
and and underneath eventually I’ll get
down to groundwater so they have a pool
their own private pool in their burrow
I’ve actually climbed down dwarf
crocodile burrows before to try and see
what’s going on as you do of course
now as Nicky says how do they catch bats
so quite often well there’s a there’s a
whole population of them at live in a
section of caves in in Gabon that have
actually become
sort of orange they changed color
because they don’t ever really got out
of the Batcave but in in the boroughs
that they live in the the bats will
actually some certain species of bats
will utilize their burrows and the
forest is a place to roost
so they’ll fall into the water and
they’ll eat them there but they’re crabs
is another big favorite of dwarf
crocodiles actually hunt the forest
crabs quite frequently so it’s very
interesting that how the different
animals are able to adapt and evolve and
to different environments now it’s very
seldom that you find many slender
snouted crocodiles near where their Nile
crocodiles because the Nile crocodiles
will eat them up so in Gabon where you
had all three species in one area the
Nile crocodiles were in the big open
water and the lagoons around right along
the along the coast the further inland
you went and the deeper into the forest
where you lacked all those you lack
those big sand banks etc your your
standard answer would be on the main
waterways what is that there do you see
what I’m looking at okay I think it’s a
termite mound it’s really the distance
there you just have a look with the
unfortunately and then your your dwarf
crocodiles actually live out in the
forest and they’ll walk around in the in
the forest so I’m sort of far more
terrestrial then the other crocodile
species okay well let’s head you back to
Stephens I found something that’s creepy
and crawly it is very creepy but it’s
not very crawly at the moment in a very
hard to really keep it in frame because
it is not moving very well it beautiful
caterpillar like stick think absolutely
marvellous the camouflage that this
thing is practicing it’s just holding on
with its front legs its back legs I
don’t even I think is that’s the head
I’m not even sure now I can see it look
at those eyes we think those are the
eyes and there’s the body as you go back
there’s a false sort of sticking
taking off the top there look at the
legs holding on and then it’s bottom is
in the air in a very sharp little
fashion I have no idea what this is
leather gentleman if you by chance know
what species this might be please let me
know some form of Caterpillar I’m
thinking otherwise it’s a very
strange-looking stick I can’t believe
how well it matches the actual branch
that it’s on as well as on the branch of
a small white berry bush
no white berries on it at the moment but
it matches it beautifully it’s almost as
if it was designed for this particular
tree itself and it is not uncommon now a
lot of caterpillar species out there
that or larvae should I say the
butterflies that lay their eggs
specifically on certain species and then
those larvae or the eggs will hatch and
the caterpillars which are the larvae of
the butterflies will feed exclusively on
the plant that it has put on some of
them are over a broad variety of trees
and some are various species specific so
this one potentially could be a species
specific to the white berry bush it is
marvellous Patrick I do agree with you
take your screen shots and wind is
moving a little bit yeah
Sophie I think we go with that an alien
caterpillar indeed but how marvelous is
that sort of camouflage so if a bird was
moving along here I think it would find
it very hard to identify that
caterpillar as a food source
well marvellous thanks for that fig very
nice attempt last caterpillar for us for
the morning
definitely a creepy crawly well it seems
like Tristan might have had a better
visual of that young chief let’s go back
over to him we do half bits of visual is
maybe slight exaggeration but at least
we can see more spots and at least he’s
kind of back of his head is visible but
he’s fast asleep at the moment he’s I
think had probably a good eat
and after taking his kill up into the
tree and then bringing it back down
again for some odd reason you know how
sunny does these funny things I actually
think he’s done it on purpose and
normally what happens is if it’ll take a
kill into a tree and they leave it up
the end then they just go back up and
down but Hasan is clever is what he’s
done is you’ve brought this carcass down
and shoved it into the long grass now
fort in Ghana or Java or any lions that
potentially could be in the area it is
almost impossible now for them to spot
that carcass as opposed to if it was
dangling from a big marula tree in this
area if it was dangling from the tree
much easier for any of those are the
cats to spot it and to come to where he
is and feed off it he also knows that in
all likelihood there’s going to be very
little hyena movement during the course
of the day so bring it down put it on
the ground where it’s easier to eat it’s
also out of the sights and out of the
way of marauding male leopards in the
form of Tenggara and then tonight if the
hyenas start to come back and take it
back up into the tree and raise theirs
at the end of the day the kill which I
can’t see to be honest even in this long
grass I just have no idea where he’s put
it I’ll try and find it just now but it
Pena’s a little Dyke here that he’s got
he’s kind of then put it in down and
right next to the base of the tree and
then he can just pop it straight back up
should he need to if anything arrives so
it’s supposed to be clever from him and
I wonder how he’s learnt that because he
must have had it stolen at some point
for him to have that kind of behavior
from it I don’t think her son is really
quite yet to be fighting for territory
and I think he’s brave enough and and
kind of got this sort of demeanor where
he doesn’t really care about other life
it’s too much and kind of just roams
around and but I don’t think he’s he’s
ready to fight with anyone here I mean
he’s still a young boy everybody keeps
kind of thinking of hosannas you know
three four year old male he’s not he’s
only two and that’s still very small and
so I don’t think he’s gonna be fighting
just yet I think he’s just gonna try and
wing it as far as he can without having
to fight with anyone
the thing is though is that he’s already
starting to get to the same size who can
where you say if he can just eat out
another year without being chased I
reckon he would be a serious competitor
to Haku Murray and to being able to
actually kind of chase him out of the
way so it’ll be interesting to see I I’m
hoping her sonic and King
this area and until such time as he’s
big enough cats there are females that
potentially would be in the area for him
I mean we know kochava is yeah but she’s
got a cub at the moment so he’s not
gonna be mating with her anytime soon
and that’s really the only female that
he’s will be able to worry about at this
stage we have a situation where he could
possibly subbu you might push for the
north we might have other females
arrived but at this stage is just good
job and there’s gonna be interest
fronting on and and quarantine there and
because she’s got a couple versus she’s
not in any sort of Easter cycle
whatsoever so it’s you know at the stage
he’s also not really going to be in the
situation where he’s mating there are
males that have made it as young as two
and a half three years the white they’re
male down in the south of and the sabi
sands he’s mated at a very young age but
I just don’t see it with her son I don’t
think he’s right at that age he a tree
he can start mating and start actually
looking for four females to mate with
also theoretically we don’t really want
him to be mating with kochava
or Tandy at this stage
given that Tandy is his sister
effectively the same mother and in
kochava Stanley’s daughter it’s a little
bit incestuous so hopefully I won’t have
a situation where that happens hopefully
he’ll be able to dominate and the likes
of shadaloo and Sebu ii and those
females come in and he can mate with
those instead but it’s gonna be really
interesting is I mean you just don’t
know what the outcome of what’s going to
happen is there’s just too many
variables at the moment to know who’s
gonna be where in a month’s time
everything could be different as it has
been over the course of this year it
seems to say every month there’s a new
lipid that shows up there’s a different
sort of way of things going but mrs.
grumpy you suggesting a good female
companion for husana to matrice would be
should do – I agree I think should do
would be an epic one for husana to mate
with be a very stocky leopard that’s for
sure that would come out of there I
still like the idea of should you having
Cubs with her Kumari just from a point
of view that it would be fun to have the
chicken medicine and termite mound mate
and then we would have we could have the
two Cubs called chick
mound and termite medicine and then that
would be perfect so it could be hookah
dulu in shimmery that would be the Cubs
two covers is what she should have and
then we can have those stupid obviously
that’s complete nonsense we’re just
making it up and way things going but I
mean look I don’t think Hassan is going
to push that for waste anytime soon
you know the last time he pushed quite
far north and west into Juma he met with
hooker Murray and obviously a chaser I
don’t think we’re gonna see much of him
with should delay is more likely him
going towards to be kochava and then
maybe any of their the liquids that
occur and in Torchwood Oh paddy depends
you know there’s obviously times when
both of those options are important so
strengths and experience can be useful
in both situations I mean obviously the
stronger you are the easier it is but
experience was her help so you see
smaller male lipids if you look at model
there was a time when we had you know
the bicycle crossing male and a couple
of others and they bicycle crossing
there was not as big as maybe some of
the others and and we’re still able to
chase often and get rid of a lot of
young males that came in that we’ve
potentially physically strong over there
so it’s sometimes I’m all about kind of
the the attitude and the experience that
they’ve had and techniques that they’ve
had in her come where he’s a prime
example of this he’s just stood up to
probably the biggest lipid that there is
in the sabi sands currently in the form
of Anderson and he’s come out unscathed
so he’s attitude and his experience
which I’m sure Herkimer he’s probably
got more experience in all of the lipids
that we’ve got in this area in terms of
males just given the amount of distance
he’s traveled gives him an advantage
from somebody like asana who’s never
really had to fight that hasn’t come
across males that are very hostile
towards him so in his case experience is
going to be hugely important even though
he’s not the biggest and strongest of
the lipids that we have our chair so
just depends on the individual depends
on on what lipids are around and like I
said what sort of experience they’ve had
in the last sort of in their lives at
that point so we’ll just have to kind of
see how it goes I think Kumari though
it’s going to have a situation where
is not going to kind of be able to stand
up to some of the younger males that
so I believe a lot of you enjoying the
fact that we’ve come up with these it
was actually Ali that first came up with
the the who could do you insure movie
kind of names and like I say it would be
chicken medicine and termite and know
what I say
this chicken mound and termite medicine
is a little chicken medicine and termite
I don’t know whatever we even either way
it’s entertaining and it would be very
very funny to kind of see so I think
chicken mound and and and too much
medicine would be too cuter little Cubs
from those two so we’ll just have to see
how that goes and and see whether or not
that happens I mean I looked at you the
other day she doesn’t look pregnant to
me she might be she might honey I have
one but it really if she mated when she
did which was really febri by now I
suppose that was the second mating I’m
always thinking of the mating in
December which would have shown by now
but maybe her second round of mating in
February it’s possible especially if
she’s only got one cub you know we only
a month into that and so he’s very
difficult to see any signs that a month
it’s only around two months that you
start to pick it up and if we think of
Tandi when we started to see her we kind
of called that she was pregnant maybe a
month out from her giving birth was the
first time we noticed that she was
pregnant and so when it’s one cub it’s
difficult and maybe it should you leave
his pregnant but it’s very difficult to
say at this stage doesn’t look like it
to me but we’ll see well see how it goes
she’s have not been in East recycles and
she’s not really been mating much over
the course of the last month so maybe
she is and maybe she’s kind of just much
showing just yet cuz normally with
females when they at that age they’re
young like that they are often into
their Easter cycles every two to three
weeks and mating excessively to try and
fall pregnant so it’ll be interesting to
see what happens right so well little
hasana is napping he’s taking it very
easy at the moment and I don’t know if
we’re gonna see much movement from him
but we’ll give it a bit longer so while
we do that it seems you I think across
well chatting about you do Louie in an
area where should you likes to frequent
and so does McMurray so maybe in this
nice cool morning we might find one of
them making it easy for us and just
strolling down the road in the meantime
while we keep checking this area we can
chat a little bit more about mythical
beasts guy do you know of any mythical
African animals no okay so it’s quite an
interesting myth that permeates through
quite a lot so he was talking about
lions there I’m just couldn’t hear him
clearly anyway so um it goes through
quite a lot of the in goony tribes and
that is of a great snake that lived in a
hole in the ground and this great snake
was a banana it was a God actually more
than anything else it was a bit
benevolent God it possessed great wisdom
and great healing powers and the story
goes as the great chief became very ill
and he had four sons and he sent the
four sons to see the great snake to get
some medicine to help him in the first
and oldest son went and the snake gave
him the medicine and said you must be
very careful you cannot spill a drop
otherwise it won’t work and you must
just be careful and he said there’ll be
many trials and tribulations on your
trip back to your father end Wolfie went
with the the medicine and a male lion
popped out of the bush and he got a
fright and he smelled the medicine
everywhere and you came back crying to
his father that he had failed and second
son went the same story trials
tribulations black mamba reared out of
the grass sports all the medicine and
also the snake said you can’t come back
come back once you’ve been
and then the third son was nowhere to be
found
so the fourth son went the same story
trials and tribulations and whatnot and
was tripped up by the the third son and
then the third son went and tried to
kill the great snake and the great snake
decided that human beings were evil and
just shut up shop and the chief died and
it turned out the third son had been
poisoning his father to try remove him
and then he had planned to poison his
brothers so the great knowledge and
healing powers that the snake held on
our lost human race forever that’s quite
a common one it stems through quite a
lot of Africa various different versions
of that one one of my favorite ones
comes from just north of yet in Venda
the land of moojiji the reign queen and
there’s a lake there could Lake fun
don’t doozy and it is very sacred Lake
you can’t film it you’ve got to get
special permission to even go near it
and it said that they are evil water
sprites that live in that lake and there
lots of different sacrifices are made to
majazi the rain green and to the water
sprites and stuff at that in that leg
now the water sprites have long sharp
canines that rip people’s throats out
but they are half day and a half night
so if you look straight on to the leg
during the daytime they approach you
with their day scythe that mimics the
mimics the day and they kill you and
drink your blood and if you approach and
look at the lake during night they
approach you with their nine sides that
mimics the night and they kill you and
drink your blood
so when you go to give your
sacrifice or or pay homage what not at
leg funda newsy there’s only one way and
this is not a joke this history that you
are allowed to look at leg funda newsy
and I’m going to show you but it is
quite ridiculous so you’re supposed to
walk up to the lake like this not
looking at it and then the water sprites
to leave you alone and once you get and
you want to look at the lake you
actually have to look through your legs
and then it is said you can see the cut
between the day and nights of the water
sprites so you could kill them if they
came up to you so you don’t and so they
don’t there’s a lot of really really
cool folklore from vendor which is some
of it’s quite fantastical so it’s
actually a very interesting story that
and the vendor also have the folklore of
arts Giants now the area where the
vendor live north of yet is proper bear
that country there are many many many
bear babs and it is said that they are
sleeping giants and if they’re ever
working they will wipe out people so and
I think it’s quite a story quite often
used to scare small children and bathing
like lots of originally where
Red Riding Hood etc so yeah so there’s
quite a lot of interesting interesting
I’m just trying to remember it when
another one of my favorites now of
course there’s a lot of folk laws that
rely solely on animals not only on
people but in while Hasan has heads up
let’s go have a look at him well his
head is up because decided to groom
himself and you can see his duiker
carcass is actually in these about to
start playing with it so he’s got one
foot on the tree one foot on the carcass
and what he’s doing I have absolutely no
idea it almost looks like brains trying
to look between his legs at the moment
so it’s kind of it’s infectious
apparently between our animals but
brains is also bouncing around and
contorting himself into interesting ways
and so hasanah and what son is going to
play with his carcass now he’s decided
it’s time i want to play around with my
duiker interesting as well is what
happened was we had a situation where
the male dykey actually came back yet so
i think this is a female duiker that
he’s got over here and I’ll I’ll be
interested to see if I’m right and the
reason why I’m interested to see is
because often you’ll see with dykey when
is when is kind of one that is killed
because they monogamous the other one
actually comes looking for it and very
common they actually get killed together
which is pretty weird
I know tend to used to be a big exponent
of that she used to hunt families of
decay often on Jetta and so he I think
the male came looking for the female
spotted wasana and then ran away as
quick as possible but he seems like he’s
rested long enough now and now he’s
going to get into playful mode where
he’s going to pull his duiker carcass
around there we go
you see it he’s a female it doesn’t have
horns you see that so that’s why the
male was here looking for his mate
unfortunately which is very very sad and
it’s just goes to show how tight that
bond is between these monogamous
antelope species you would think when
one gets killed that they would just run
away and leave it much like what you see
from things like in parlors in the
Mike’s but as you can see with with daya
and Steinbach they often do come back
and try and kind of see if the mate is
around it is kind of sad isn’t it it was
tea but in um like I said it’s nature
it’s the way things go Archer and I
suppose Hasan has gotta eat the thing is
his belly is absolutely massive already
and it looks like he’s hardly eaten
so I wonder if he didn’t have another
kill already sometimes what you’ll find
was so in their feed off things like
this is that they have killed the baby
and in May the mother as well and so
maybe he’s eating the young one and now
I was eating the mother of this
particular individual we’ll see now I
mean he’s looking up into the tree again
maybe he’s gonna play around and take
the carcass up into a tree we know he’s
a playful cat so sometimes he gets these
kind of moments where he wants to play
around and especially when you got a
situation when it’s cool weather like
this he often is a very playful isn’t he
a beautiful boy though his teeth are
very white because he’s young so he’s
any like I said he’s just gone to sow
his teeth are still very very white in
coloration they obviously will yellow as
he goes and if you compare it what are
you doing hosana now he’s on his back
trying to in the I don’t know what he’s
up to this cat is hilarious what are you
doing boy now there’s a stick on your
head now what you can see that even
though he’s gotten big and he’s you know
he’s kind of growing up and he’s doing
adult things there’s still this useful
side to us on and where he plays around
was branches like this what are you
doing boy our paws are in the air and on
his back he looks about as comfortable
as possible
really is kind of another story this
gets and you guys yeah wipe their
tummies are you often forget just how
whiter the lipids tummy is and when they
lie like this is actually quite easy to
spot them because of how bright they are
and in the long grass as soon as he
rolls over the other way it becomes a
lot harder to see so that beige
coloration as opposed to white blends in
a lot better there there we go that is a
leopard in total darkness which is a
Monday morning so he’s welcome to have a
little bed rest and especially in
mr. yeah I don’t know I mean it’s he’s a
bit of an anomaly you see tumblr doesn’t
really spend much time around in Ghana
you don’t see many other and mail if
it’s doing these kind of things the fact
that he’s following Tenggara around I
have no idea why it’s doing it could be
that team lost his mom really could be
that he just craves company no it could
be a situation where he knows that ting
Ghana often is a safety point
and he’s a curious cat I mean it’s not
like he doesn’t only approach to Ghana
he approaches everybody vici approach to
even who can where he literally walked
straight towards him so he just almost
says like he wants to kind of
investigate and see who all these other
people that look like me or other lipids
that look like me I want to go and try
and kind of see everybody and make as
many friends as possible so he’s just a
curious cats it’s the same as him
following around all kinds of other
animals that we’ve seen him follow in
the case of Buffalo that’s a little bit
different he’s learnt that’s potentially
following around Buffalo can result in
food and that’s why it’s following them
around but with other things that’s I
think it’s just more curiosity than
anything else that he wants to go and
investigate very impossible to say
that’s a question where we just will
never know had crooler not disappeared
would he be the same way as years now no
idea in terms of an investigative cat he
always was even as a little cub he was
one that was quite active and went and
saw things and practiced hunting and
chasing and so I think it’d still be a
very effective hunter but whether or not
he’d have the same demeanor I have no
idea but it’s like I say impossible to
tell but isn’t that awesome to see right
well Prasanna is kind of in between
phases now of playing and being awakened
so we’ll sit with him for five more
minutes see what he gets up to because
they are others that want to come in
this area and if he does get up he’ll
stay a little longer but while we do
that to send you back across to Steve
who’s managed to find some rather large
we have indeed we were walking along and
we in the Milwaukee drainage now and
here is the track of the young male line
you can see how far out those toes are
it’s quite a big track it is in the soft
sail which makes it a bit bigger but
these are extremely fresh extremely
fresh they’ve come this way and they’ve
turned around again and we’re gonna keep
going up this road following the track
see if we can find them
I’ve got a feeling they might be quite
close by by the activity you feeling
lucky is that the Dirty Harry movie so
let’s just keep heading up here they’ve
just moved up this is a road coming out
of the mawashi called the called battle
ear kind of a Spaghetti Junction kind of
right in the middle well hopefully
they’ll find a way to get a better
signal but husana as you can see has
gone into a position of recline and I’ve
seen this pose somewhere else before I
must try and see if I can find a photo
of it but Prince Leo Smith on the couch
and Inga’s been watching rugby and a
knee finishes watching rugby and falls
asleep this is pretty much what it looks
like just sprawled out over the car tyre
I once took a photo of it but it was
many many moons ago and I don’t know if
I’ve still got it so I’ll have to have a
look just now that is very funny when
brain falls asleep on that card because
he just gets kind of exactly the same
way is just on his back and there’s just
limbs everywhere brain it’s not a small
small person and the couch is not very
big either so it was funny to watch but
anyway let’s send you back across to
we’re gonna keep we’re gonna keep very
quiet I can see them just gonna walk up
there hopefully they don’t get angry at
us I’m sure they’ll be fine
they are quite a relaxed I don’t foot
but we gonna be very quiet of the next
this is fantastic
we’ve got lions on foot again now that
is the beauty about tracking and
understanding the freshness of tracks
and those tracks with very very fresh
should we does a bit of a loop around
and there they are
looks like one of the youngsters looking
at us they probably about a kilometer to
south from way I left them last night
and they’re looking at me and wondering
if I’m food but it’s quite an amazing
so it’s probably one of my favorite
things to find on foot his lines and
having an expert like Herbie around
didn’t take us very long at all not far
from where they’re being I found the
last time I heard little bit further
west from east from here but there
laughs coming in and out of this
drainage system yeah super excited super
excited everyone’s excited as excited as
myself and her bein hopefully Ferg is
able to hold the camera steady
I can only see two here we can see a
third one but that’s fine this is what
Lions on foot is all about started back
getting close it’s not about getting a
reaction
it’s about viewing them from a safe
distance where we’re not going to
Franklin alarm calling behind us so he’d
be just keeping an eye on them and on
these lions doesn’t matter how many
times you do this focus the heart rate
always increases by a huge beat staring
down the largest carnivore on the
African continent with my stick here we
go relaxed again absolutely marvelous
do you want to come up a bit closer
Victoria you are excited and you would
be terrified but with people like myself
and Herbie you would make you feel right
at home but the beautiful thing about
being in the situation is that I’m not
thinking about anything else you’re in
the moment it brings you straight into
the moment into the present it’s just
the breath it’s the sounds it’s the
smells nothing else is on the mind at
all and that is what’s beautiful about
being in the bush you don’t even have to
see these guys but the anticipation of a
seeing a dangerous animal or foot does
something for the human spirit this is
where we as humans evolved this is where
we as humans spread ourselves out onto
the world stage on the African continent
in the Savannah with lions with elephant
and to see them this close up were
probably about 35 40 yards from them at
the moment it is always always or
how’s everybody feeling it I’m this is
are you good Herbie Hey he’s completely
relaxed it’s like a second nature to him
look at that
chilled there’s a cucumber or is it as
cool as a cucumber African but that is
the marvelous thing foxes I can only see
to her beacon her beacon see a third one
but we know for sure just because the
Oklahoma bride is always together that
all 11 individuals are some worthy in
the long grass and the visibility of
them is not great but this is fine brent
is on his way here he’s gonna be able to
get up a much closer and much more in
personal space with them cuz they’re
much more relaxed to the vehicle and for
me it’s awesome because last night you
saw we how close we were to the prod
themselves and how they were very close
to the prod or grab to the vehicle and
now we’re 40 50 meters from there 40
times the distance but the sensations
coursing through me are far different
for more wild for more real and if you
ever want a true FA can experience you
laurits it’s quite easy actually
how we exit from a place like this is
that we would just go back just back the
way we came we know where the danger is
we know whether the Lions potentially
asked if we wanted to leave here we
would just sort of back up and go back
the way we came to just go trudging
through there is just unethical
we’ll probably chase the lions away okay
so apparently NYX is saying that we’re
looking at the oldest female she’s one
of the wound on her on her rump all I
can see is two sets of ears couldn’t
tell you an individual from this
distance
apparently Ferg’s managing to capture
the moment how’s the steady hands
they’re going well he’s concentrating
focus I’ll stop talking tip so they’re
still looking quite interested you know
I mean they’re up there they’re they’re
paying attention to us I wonder how far
that could’ve went between them last
night at the end when they started to
finish in the kudu there wasn’t too much
in the way of aggression that you
normally see when a a kill gets too
small it comes another line into the
frame from the side that’s marvelous
let’s just made my weekend thanks Herbie
very cool lions on foot is something
that if you’ve never done it before it’s
something very very worthwhile doing I
mean the object of in it something I
always used to say on my trails is that
it’s not about getting close we’re not
that close but the feeling here there’s
no there’s no protection around us at
good morning and a very warm welcome to
you all from wherever you may be in the
world we are coming to you live from
Drew MA in the sabi sands South Africa
where we have just found ourselves a
pride of lions on foot my name is Steve
Faulconbridge I’m joined by the very
steady handed Fergus who is managing to
do a very good job of looking at these
lions with the camera let’s go back to
them and they’re just lying up over
there please feel free to send through
your comments just below in the stream
let us know what you think about this
your questions this is the Inca Houma
pride we had them last night they killed
a kudu further north from where we are
right now
very exciting they’re about two
kilometers south from where we had them
we were walking along we found their
tracks in the the River drainage
depression we did a bit of a loop this
way and that way with the expert help of
my very good friend here Herbie and we
found them within about three to four
minutes of the attempt trekking so that
is absolutely fantastic to be able to
see these cows on foot and this is live
ladies gentlemen these are wild lions
and they’re about 30 to 40 meters away
from us right now
Cathy our absolute pleasure for going
live this is what we live for
and we’re super excited we’re able to
share this with you
city your home or wherever you may be
the Lions looking at us quite intently
for a moment and but now they’re looking
all over the place they seem to be quite
relaxed to Gary and Craig from Australia
welcome to the show let us know what you
think about all of the seasons focus and
my heart is pumping in my chest Jesse
this is potentially quite dangerous but
we are a safe distance away and we are
with an expert by the name of Herbie he
does have a rifle in case of any
emergencies but we are walking as if we
don’t have a rifle we’re keeping very
low our voices we will not turn our back
and we will not go closer than this to
influence their behavior they are quite
relaxed if the Lions happen to go down
flat and their ears go flat and you
that you causing them some discomfort
but we’re a safe distance away if that
did start showing us any warning signs
we’d immediately reverse and back out
with keeping our eyes focused on them
you can see that their heads are
starting to go down they are not too
concerned with our presence at the
moment our J we are being very careful
but thank you for the concern it is one
of the most one of the highlights of
being in the African wilderness is the
potential to walk and to encounter the
biggest carnivore on the African
continent on foot there is something
very special to be said about this kind
of interaction and there they go
they’ve gone back to sleep we clearly of
absolutely no interest to them
whatsoever
maybe we can creep up a couple maybe we
can creep up a couple meters Herbie
we’re just going to go a little bit
closer figure just gonna keep his eye
peeled on these lines see sterling job
and Jenna the in Kahuna pride has got
eleven eleven lions five adult females
and then six youngsters one of them is a
male they’re about between ages of 14
youngsters got its head up again it
hitters up again giving us a little
good job Pegasus so ladies and gentlemen
if you are not there watching people
from California South Dakota New Zealand
so fantastic you’re here watching with
us remember this is absolutely live and
if you’d like to continue watching
please we are still live on Safari lava
so please Google us keep watching the
show we’d love to have your support in a
net-net
so before fergus’s arm falls off and
before anything else happens we’re gonna
go back over to Tristan Diggs he would
well well done guys on finding the Lions
they obviously had moved down towards
the Milwaukee and the signal issues on
the vehicles it’s not an area that we
can check very often at all so Peters
saying goodbye to me at the moment so
Peter just left the sighting say it’s
just saying advise pizza is full of the
joys of life this morning is being very
naughty on the other car and trying to
make me smile and miss a beat while I’m
talking to all of you but we’ve got this
down paths it’s not the first time that
other guides have been like this
but vasanas as you can see not really
been up to much he’s catching flies now
as he does but I think he’s gonna have a
bit of a nap he’s got his kill right
pays doesn’t really need to go anyway so
we’re probably going to make way for
some others and and give everybody else
a chance to come and have a look at
what’s going on but definitely got a lot
of meat still there he’s gonna be yeah
for sure for the next day at least and
if he’s not sure ting Ghana will be one
of the two of them will be on this kill
over the course of the next little bit
but we’re going to head out three like I
say well give some others a chance
because also there’s not very much space
to actually see him so if we move back
then it allows everyone else the better
chance of seeing what’s going on it’s
amazing the camouflage of these lipids
and how they can kind of blend in if you
didn’t know that he was here the I can
guarantee you 90% of people would drive
right past cats anyway as we go off
let’s send you back across to Brent see
if he’s maybe had any luck with cuckoo
Murray or should do lute and see if
there’s any sign of them on that side of
while we’ve caught up with Steve and
Herbie and Fergus and just through that
gap there it’s whatever lions are looks
like one or two of the might have
spotted Fergus is Ariel you can see that
one is looking quite intently at Ferg’s
Ariel but we’re gonna let the bushwalk
team have a chance to move out of here
safely there we go and we’re gonna go
have a closer look at the lines mobs and
they walked far from so they’ve from
where we looked for them this morning
they’ve come out on top of our tracks
and they’ve now probably covered about
okay look at this isn’t this wonderful
– now Craig listen to me it looked like
one of the lionesses had a bit of an
injury try see if we can find it oh
they’re all looking a lot better than
the last time I saw them last time I saw
them they were very skinny and looking a
bit bedraggled the moment they’re
surrounded ourselves with them so we’ve
got the majority of the the pride
sitting up there it’s one of the big
girls there’s another line is walking
towards her at the moment cakes and it’s
just a little stretch by looking I’m
very happy come on pop out from behind
the bush I just want to see you can see
the females aren’t too fat at the moment
I said it doesn’t look like the biggest
could either aired last night this is
that the one with the injury doesn’t
I’m very happy looking sub-adults
they’re all around us and ones to the
left chair look particularly happy
there’s a little boy
oh he’s a little judge now he was quite
brave during the whole fight yesterday
warring and running around behaving like
he was twice his size as you can see the
now where are you off to mr. this is
little male off to he’s gonna go head
off to the rest of the pride
now bush walk of course was quite close
to these lines on foot and Andy the
danger isn’t really from the Lions you
can’t see during the day Lions have a
very healthy respect for human beings
human beings being the dominant diurnal
predator and they’ll actually try to
avoid or run away from human beings
mostly and the brushroll cars were safe
enough distance that the Lions didn’t
feel created so they didn’t feel the
need to either run away or growl or
charge now most of the times that we
rely on charges it makes a lot of noise
and in doing that it’s saying you guys
are too close go away but they don’t
really want to get into a fight they
have their instinctively scared of human
beings during the day at night however
is a completely different story and they
would definitely try munch upon you o
a big lioness Lara and next to me at the
shoulder would probably be just below my
hip at the shoulder head probably just
above my hip my big lioness can wear as
much as 120 hundred and 25 kilograms you
off to go see the rest of the bride as
well with those wobbly bellies now the
last time I saw them they were looking
in not the best condition very hungry
very skinny well I got a few Nicks and
scratches as you can see but they are
looking far far better than when I last
caught up with in gormer’s it seems like
they’re really enjoying kudu at the
they’re probably not gonna move too far
today with those full bellies but they
might hunt again this evening now oh
sorry Greg now of course this little
male is not too old at the moment he’s
hiding in the thickets eating some grass
Carol he’ll hang around as long as
possible basically so normally to about
two and a half three years old three
years old normally they get the boot but
it’s with the birmingham’s
possibly not spending nearly as much
time here going forward he might hang
around a little bit longer
he might get get lucky but the females
will tolerate him for a certain amount
of time they do tend to get a little bit
aggressive when their sons on if you
start trying to mate with them but it
does happen especially if no other male
lions move into this area and he’s able
to hang around till he’s four or five
but that’s that’s very unlikely that we
would get no new males if the
Birmingham’s decided not to spend as
now the voters would definitely try
claim this pride breezy if the bee boy
has decided not to come back however the
problem is they would probably kill all
the sub adults at this stage the females
probably need another year or two to to
really get to a stage where the males
would ignore them the young male however
would have to leave
regardless he would be there that the
voters would definitely try to remove
him from the equation completely oh here
we go got some movement again some a
little bit of groom all flopped down on
top of each other look at that lovely
little playing there practicing that
it’s still going for this the the
isn’t this cute now lions are not the
nicest smelling things in the world Dean
fortunately at the moment after the rain
last night they don’t smell too bad but
there are smelly creatures they eat
carrion eat rotting meat they’re
predators yes they there they’re not the
nicest smelling creatures are you going
now there’s quite a lot of interesting
debates and research in to do female
lions prefer males with dark Mane’s
which is what bear bob is asking as a
general rule it seems to be dark amend
males have more testosterone so are
slightly more dominant but again that
all depends on whether that males been
in a fight and injured and one of the
blonde demands males haven’t so can they
can also disturb the the darker males as
the dominant in the coalition a male
lion coalition is a constant seesaw of
dominance but in in sort of controlled
captive environments it seems like
lionesses prefer males with dark men’s
in wild environments it doesn’t really
seem to happen because sometimes you’ve
just got a mate so as not to get beaten
up so I said it all depends on the
now lovely to have asana and the income
is still on the property and hopefully
then it wouldn’t have moved too far for
that sunset safari so I’m sure one of us
will be back to see what they get up to
you but from all of us here at Safari
Live see you in a few short hours for
lions and leopards galore you