the whole thing the grass everything so
it’s going to change rapidly once we get
that rain particularly with temperatures
like this this is great temperatures for
the growth of vegetation but they need
water for that to happen and at the
moment there is no sign of any rain it’s
not a cloud in the sky it seems as
though unfortunately it’s all sitting
over the Atlantic Ocean and the southern
side of the United States so for all of
you that are in Florida if you are
watching I hope you’re staying safe in
that you’re all okay that side is the
hurricane start to move that way it
really is a scary prospect when you look
at the size of it and the fact that
there’s another one following it which
is not so pleasant so hopefully you all
stay safe for any of you that are in
that side of the world but we get the
similar if not as catastrophic at those
as and as big as those but we do get a
similar effects here and our summer
rainfall is actually a result of
tropical storms we call them tropical
storms down here not hurricanes and they
come off the Mozambique Channel so we’re
just too far inland for it really to
survive very well sip can ask you just
to put the camera on that big ball and
the tree there I’m trying to see what
that actually is I wonder if it’s not a
potter wasp nest so Potter wasps build
these clay type of nests in a tree yeah
sometimes or under sort of hangs and
branches the people to see but it looks
like a putter wasp nest so the reason
they called prata wasp is because
they’re going to collect mud and then
they build this clay like structure on
branches so that’s what it seems to be I
might be wrong there’s just so much
glare and it’s quite far away at the
moment that it’s difficult to actually
make out what substance it is it could
also be as a result of some sorts of
insect that’s fed off the branch and it
causes the tree to send a growth hormone
that expands it and you get what’s known
as a wood rose on a tree it could also
be that but it’s very difficult to make
out exactly what it is maybe if
binoculars will actually be better
I’m not quite sure what it’s actually
made out of it doesn’t look like a
growth of the tree itself and it doesn’t
look like my de that almost looks grassy
in its texture in places I’m not sure
actually it’s a bit too high to actually
climb up there and have a look properly
but it’s some sort of I would say mist
or something like that it’s not a potter
wasp low what a wasp you would see it
would be a very clay like structure and
that’s a little bit more fibrous so
interesting I’ll have to try and watch
that and see what happens with it and
whether or not it grows one of those
mysteries of the bush like I say it’s
just a little bit too high to actually
be able to go and feel what the
consistency is because it actually might
be quite spongy in which case it would
almost resemble a massive you thicker
from a praying mantis but you shouldn’t
see youth occurs at this time of the
year it’s a little bit early for them we
generally see that youth occur which is
the egg casing from Mantid and let grow
they normally in summer you know early
to mid summer that we see those I also
came down this way just to check if
there’s any sign of shadow and her cub
that’s less no tracks that I’ve picked
up yet and we’re nearing the end of the
new road but earlier I was talking about
stiff and well he’s up and running and I
believe he’s already got into some luck
with some lions
good afternoon everybody and welcome to
the Masai Mara specifically the Mara
triangle and I am Stefan tubulin I’m
gonna be doing this afternoon’s draw for
everybody which is unusual I don’t think
I can remember the last time I was in a
safari or PM Safari with all of you and
I’m looking forward to it greatly on the
camera today we’ve got David and you
wouldn’t believe it if I just told you
but right in front of us we’ve just had
the whole land gone the pride all of it
all the moms everyone walking across
this grassy plain towards us and to
black Rana and they’ve disappeared
two minutes ago and so that’s our plan
for this afternoon we’re gonna see if we
can hold out the young gamez from the
thicket that you’re looking at over
there and see if we can see if we can’t
you deserved it it does it’s been a
mighty frustration let’s see if we can
bring the black rhino to you as well
that’s good so that’s a mum and a cough
a very old cough oh by very old I mean
probably less than five probably older
than three and there’s every hope that
that female is pregnant at the moment
wouldn’t it just be lovely in the moral
triangle here they are about 12 black
rhinoceros and black rhinoceros or some
of the rarest large mammals left in
Africa and there’s a very healthy
population of them here and we’re
incredibly lucky to see even a brief
glimpse like we are at the moment even
it’s so far a distance it is very very
lucky and very rare to see black runner
in the wild in Africa and an escorted
you reserve hear such good conservation
policies that and practices that these
runner are left to fend for themselves
although they are looked after from
Pharr by the gentleman called brian he
who’s the warden of the mara
triangle and his team of
conservationists who take their job of
looking after these runner very very
seriously and it’s showing itself to be
absolutely successful and see how far
away it is now a massive mountain that
you have in the lid on the left hand
side that is part of an escarpment
called the Euler escarpment which is a
feature in the Rift Valley the African
Rift Valley which is basically just one
big fault that is busy splitting a chunk
of land away from from the African
mainland a couple of hundred million
years from now you’ll be able to Barre
beachfront property right where we are
right now and the animals that you busy
having a look at on these Plains are
just very numerous and lovely at this
time of the year
this is sort of in the aftermath of the
migration what you’re looking at now is
a topi and in the far distance there are
zebra and they enjoy the short grass
that is on these planes these alluvial
plains now another thing that enjoys a
short grass another one of Africa’s
first mammals and my friend Scott is on
the other side of the moral of a sitting
with some of them right now
can you believe how lucky we’ve got
we’ve managed to find the musketeer
coalition of five male Keita again
they’ve literally just woken up
they are looking hungry and they are
surrounded by wildebeest there are many
many wildebeest cashing in on these
short open green plains and these
cheetah I’m fairly certain are going to
try and catch one at some point this
evening great stuff and also great that
you got to see a black rhino with stiff
the Safari has got off to a wonderful
start it sounds like my name’s scott
dyson i’m teamed up with a manu on
camera and we are looking forward to
taking you on an adventure with these
five male cheetah now let me just turn
around and as i turn around you’ll
notice the wildebeest dotted all over
these shorts open green grass plains
we’re gonna get you some great two shots
of the cheetah and the wildebeest are so
action is imminence
very good it looks like the boys are
just gonna spend some time doing some
scent-marking and we very very lucky
that since safari live arrived here in
the Mara these boys have been spending a
lot more time in this area that we
Traverse we’re in the National Maasai
Mara National Reserve and they only came
into this general area in December last
year and they ordinarily would spend
more time there some more scent-marking
they would ordinarily spend more time in
the surrounding community conservancies
to the north and east of the park but
now as you can see they are laying claim
to this area as their territory there
you’ll see all the wildebeest in the
background awesome stuff each time I
spend with these five cheetah I for more
and more in love with them they’re an
incredible Bunch and there are just the
coolest animals to follow especially
when they are looking for a meal what an
incredible scene interestingly this area
was a yellowy golden brown about a week
or so ago and there’s been a rain in
this area
you
grassy plains you can see hundreds and
thousands of all to be scattered off in
a distance
well unfortunately Scott’s got a few
gremlins still attached to his car so
I’m sure they will sort those arts and
we’ll be able to get back to the cheetah
but it seems as though the boys in the
Mara having a wonderful afternoon
already lots of things happening that
side which is fantastic news just
thought I spotted a track yeah and I did
spot a track yeah but now is it a hyena
or is it a spotted leopard Shrek looks
liquidy doesn’t it sim doesn’t that look
liquidy to you yes it is a lipid track
so it looks like a male lipid tracker
don’t know it’s that fresh maybe it’s a
track from whence in Ghana has been
patrolling around it looks like his
footprint that we’ve got here so it’s
this track over there and you can see
that it’s quite an interesting one
because it’s got a sort of three lobes
at the back and it’s a typical very
triangular lipid back pad but the one
toe is a little bit squished up here
it’s back to normal there but this toe
is slightly closer together than normal
it’s almost giving a little bit of a
hyena shaped toe and then the two left
toes alright or the normal shape so it
is a leopard track but it is not a very
fresh leopard track this looks like it
was done maybe two days ago so yesterday
so not a track that we’re going to
follow is definitely nothing on top of
my vehicle tracks from yesterday
afternoon when I drove here so it’s just
interesting that I didn’t pick them up
yesterday I wonder maybe I wasn’t
concentrating too well at this when I
drove this side yesterday it was really
quite dark and I was using my spotlight
so but interesting that there is a trek
for a lipid in this area and winda looks
it doesn’t look big enough to really be
for ting Ghana maybe husana was
somewhere here at some stage hmm
interesting
well we’ll just drive around and have a
little look and make hundred percent
sure and just double check in case but
there’s nothing on top of the vehicle
tracks from last night there I go over
those tracks yesterday already so
not very fresh unfortunately the same
two said that I doubt we’re going to see
too much out in the open at this stage
it’s warm in the Sun so most the animals
I would imagine would be seeking some
sort of refuge and some sort of shade
and water so we’re gonna try and hang
around closer to water sources as well
as the Milwaukee and the drainage
sections because those well at least
provide a bit of shade for a lot of the
animals and they’ll be able to then stay
a little bit cooler but our hippo
friends from yesterday is quite
interesting we’ve seen their tracks all
over so the one hippo went out of
treehouse northwards apfel Mons north to
quarantine and from quarantine past
Inga’s and looks as though it went
towards Gauri damn no don’t fly away
well there was a magpie Shrike that
decided just to fly away but was sitting
so nicely on top of one of the trees and
that streaming tail you can just see it
there in the background now but it’s got
such an impressive tail this particular
one it’s much longer than I’ve seen on a
lot of the others really big I mean that
tail must be twice to almost three times
the length of its body which is crazy
and looking very nice and I always loved
them in the afternoons when there’s a
bit of a wind blowing and they tail kind
of Bozarth underneath the magpie strike
it is really very pretty there will be
more of them here though you’ll never
find just one magpie Shrike by
themselves they generally are quite a
sociable Bunch they tend to hang around
to get in fact I can hear another one
just two are now northern side and so
they kind of flock together and then
they’ll go from tree to tree and and
varying insects a typical of the shark
family that they are quite ferocious
insect predators and they’ve got that
little hooked beak much like you would
see on any of your predatory Birds and
they’ll swoop down from there and grab
varying insects and these guys I’m sure
are eagerly awaiting the rains as well
because then it’s just an absolute
buffet of food items when the rains come
and the magpie name comes from the
coloration that black and white is where
they get the magpie name from they used
to actually be called a longtail track
which you can see why they would have
been called that nice I think we should
do a bit of birding today say what do
you think I can’t let you get to rusty
after Byron got you going on birds and
we should
a little bit of birding as well I feel
like doing some birds today I’m sure
there’s some interesting birds around
and I’m still very surprised we haven’t
seen any signs of Wahlberg’s eagles it’s
starting to get quite late now normally
we see them in the worst beginning of
September we’re already on the 11th of
certain of September sorry and that’s by
now should we should have had meat seen
maybe one or two so I’m quite surprised
we haven’t seen any yet I wonder what’s
keeping them slightly north of us maybe
there’s some sort of delay with certain
bird species because the Wahlberg’s
Eagles actually follow the quail ears
quite a bit and they’ll hunt the koalas
excessively able you’re asking if the
Magpies tracks like shiny objects well
no they’re not like Magpies that’s a
different type of bird the magpie is a
bird that occurs in the United Kingdom
and I think a little bit into Europe I
might be mistaken but they are very fond
of shiny objects here in South Africa
this Shrike is not the same thing and it
doesn’t actually go after shiny objects
very much at all
you don’t find them near cities they
generally are not in these Bush felt
areas in the wild sections very seldom
seen in a city environment so they don’t
really go after shiny objects what does
go after shiny objects here are the
crows so you will find crows picking up
shiny objects and hammer cups so that’s
a water bird that we get here they are
often notorious to have all kinds of
different things in their nests we do
have is a few water buck which will make
James very happy I wonder how James is
doing on his first afternoon on leave
he’s having a wonderful time but there
the water back are just in front of us
we are slowly approaching towards
treehouse dad so very kind of expectant
to see them here they’ve been hanging
around here quite a bit you’ve got a
couple young males and some females I
haven’t seen any big metals around this
particular grouping it’s not to say
there isn’t any but I just haven’t seen
them but you can see that’s the female
they’re lacking the horns and they’re an
easy animal to identify they’ve got this
long shaggy coat which is very unusual
very different to a lot of our other
antelope species out here that are quite
far
these guys are all very thick food coats
and you can see that they’ve got that
little heart-shaped nose the white
chinstrap and then if they turn and face
us a very white bottom but is
interesting is they’ve all staring
straight to our left-hand side they’re
not alarm calling but there’s something
that’s grabbed their attentions they’re
not looking at us they’re all staring
deep into this drainage line so I might
just take a little drive down there and
have a look it is a perfect shady spot
for a lurking leopard and this is where
we last saw shadow this is exactly where
we lost her
the other day so maybe she’s still
hanging around here who’d be worth just
having a little look you never know well
though they don’t seem too perturbed by
whatever it is it was kind of staring in
that direction maybe there’s a small
antelope also walking around it’s making
a bit of a rustling in the grass that
they’re watching but there you can see
that perfect heart-shaped nose of the
water buck quite clearly I’ve got to
feel sorry for these guys at this time
in the end winter there must be lovely
to have a nice thick coat like this but
in summer it surely can’t be very
pleasant at all
and of course their coat is not because
they are cold it’s more to do with the
fact that they trying to repel water so
they secrete in oil through sebaceous
glands on the skin which coats that fur
and repels water and keeps them nice and
dry when they try and use water to evade
predators it’s a clever system that
they’ve got going and that’s why they
have this slightly longer fur because
the more fit and the more chance they
can abstain dry right we’re gonna go
investigate quickly and while we do that
let’s go back to Steph who’s quite the
largest of the large in the Mara welcome
back to the Mara and this is definitely
the land of far vistas as you can see
from there those dots that you’re seeing
there are elephant a herd of elephant in
fact spread out have a quite a distance
and have a look at what’s in the centre
of your screen there that is a huge male
lion and this is watching the elephants
go by and is the target that we aiming
for right now we’ve skirted around the
edge of the thicket that the angle of
Pride decided that they’d walk into and
they haven’t come out the other side but
what is lying on this side is a big male
lion and then you can see how far away
we actually are
on these melons we decided that did stop
in this fantastic herd mixed herd of
grazers
we’ve got zebra and an eel and just have
a look how fat and beautiful she is one
of the most gorgeous of all the antelope
Archaea beautifully long horn in this
particular and then those zebra just
adding that black and white contrast to
pictures that you know we forget up
pretty these animals are in these
environments you know both of them are
grazers and as we pan off to the left
you’ll notice that there’s a swamp that
comes up into the distance and that is
exactly why all these animals are here
it is because that swamp is providing
the means for a much better nutrition
nutritious grass and so there you got
some topi and some zebra and then in the
center of the swamp we have an elephant
and ostrich and a buffalo
well is it a buffalo or a hippo let me
just have a look it’s a hippo not a
buffalo so elephant zebra and hippo in
the same thing now what we gonna be
doing is sending you to the other side
of the Mara River where my friend Scott
is busy with us cheetah we look like
we’re getting busy
well well done step for finding you
those lion and elephant and something
else I’m told and dotted in between
these boys are certainly looking active
hungry and quite intent on finding their
next meal but at the moment as you can
see they are just rolling abouts I guess
it can be equated to us waking up in the
morning takes a little bit of time to
get into full swing of things but they
certainly are up and about there are
certainly lots of wildebeest around
three of which actually walked right up
to the cheetah the ones to the right
their mana where they were sent marking
a bit earlier those three came up just
to keep an eye on the cheetah and it’s
always interesting when you see prey
species coming straight towards their
predators once they have detected them
with these cheetah have got lots of
options so it would be foolish for them
to rush in they’re gonna take their time
I’m guessing to find a youngster that
was probably born
most of the young wildebeest were born
earlier this year in the southern
Serengeti plains and that has been the
favourite meal that we’ve noticed thus
far but having said that they can also
take down larger wildebeests there are
highly formidable team and I’d be very
surprised that if by the time the Sun
sets they have not actually succeeded in
hunting something or are getting more
and more into the swing of things we’ve
got a great evening lined up isn’t this
wonderful all those white flowers will
be skull and some wildebeest
so lots of options in these cheats are
just gonna be scanning looking for any
weaknesses any easy opportunities when I
was gonna says that they also do hunts
after dark and we are fully equipped to
be able to follow them into the darkness
with an infrared camera where we can
capture what goes on without interfering
so I am thoroughly looking forward to
seeing what these guys get up to this
afternoon and as you can see this is
just the perfect perfect runway for
which they can unleash their speed they
make the wildebeest look like they’re
standing still I’ve noticed especially
in open environments like this where
they’ve got no obstacles to cater for no
it’s always tricky deciding where to
position oneself in order to be in the
best possible spot but I think we do
need to keep moving we don’t want to be
left in a cloud of dust
hello book lover you’d like to know if
these cheats are any bigger than the
cheetah that we would be seeing or you
would be sitting down on Jumma at cheats
are playing specifically and no not that
I I would imagine I would guess they’re
fairly similar sizes but then again I
have never waited sheets of myself for
being present with one getting weighed I
nearly crashed into that guy earlier say
said no you go first get out of the way
I nearly reversed in turn so but I don’t
think so but then again I don’t know if
any cheetahs being weighed here in the
Mara and or the sabi sands I wouldn’t be
able to make an accurate assessments on
that question but I’m guessing there are
fairly similar sizes with obviously
exceptions to one individual that maybe
began the same will be for the lion I
think the lion may be on average are
slightly bigger but you will get some
big lines down on Zuma as well okay what
I like to try and do is get on the
opposite side of the herds to give you a
kind of a herd perspective so let’s do
that and Chantal maybe we can invite
other people on board if you would like
on other platforms because this could
you
hurry well unfortunately once again the
gremlins are plaguing scottson you can
see we are busy watching Sebastian as
he’s finishing his time-lapse at
treehouse dam and it’s slowly but surely
coming back there we go a little wave
from Sebastian he was supporting the
Maasai Mara team with his Mara t-shirt
hey this is wait for save to get back on
the vehicle but no signs of anything
around chest time we checked withers
water back we’re looking there was a
brief little alarm call but nothing that
we can see and they slowly then started
to walk in the direction that they were
steering so nothing to be alarmed about
so now we’re going to head up towards
before took them and go and see what’s
happening with those elephants that’s
the plan at least anyway from there I
can say check around for the cheetah
brothers and then it’s on towards
shitfire and at least it’s starting
already now it’s just slowly but surely
the temperature is easing off a little
that we’re just starting to lose a bit
of that bites that’s been in the air
during the middle part of the day so
he’s starting to cool down slack II it
really is amazing how quickly the
temperature changes in this part of the
world
ah you know you want to know how we know
the difference between a lipid and a
cheetah track and how do we know if
they’re male or female right well you
know we’d love to show you but I lift my
tracking book at home because I was
actually busy looking at some stuff
today so I do apologize but I’ll try and
explain it as best I can basically with
a lipid and a cheetah the difference
between the two of those the most
obvious difference that you will see is
that the cheetah track will be very very
narrow so you’re gonna have a very
narrow very long track on a cheetah
whereas on a leopard it’s almost gonna
be like a circle so you can think of a
cheetah more as an oval and a leopard
more as a circle kind of track also with
the leopard the back part of the pad is
very wide whereas a cheetah track the
back part is very very small they both
will have three lobes but the other in
big one that is different is that the
cheetah displays claws when it’s in its
track where’s leopards don’t remember
lipids cores are sheathed so they cause
don’t show up in a track where as a
cheetah scores will show up so that’s
the difference between those two and the
other side of in terms of male and
female is a size difference a lot of the
time so with male lipids a male leopard
track is really quite a lot bigger than
a female’s if you’re talking about a
male leopard cub and if you look on the
back of the lobes particularly on the
front foot you will find that as they do
the three lobes and that sort of W shape
on the back if you had to take a line
and you drew and you follow the contour
of that low it should make a full circle
on a male track the females tend to have
of angular points on the edge of their
back pad and whereas the males is around
a point so that’s how you can tell male
and female from a leopard point of view
in cheetah a little bit more difficult
it’s just more the size than anything
else the male cheetah track will be
bigger in the female cheetah track like
I said I’m sad that I don’t have my
tracking book I was busy looking at some
tracks and notes that I had made when I
was doing my tracking training back in
the day and I was just going through
some of those just to refresh a little
bit and I’m a bit sad that I didn’t
bring it cause it would’ve been quite
nice to actually show you the difference
in a book but I’ll have to try and bring
it on another Drive so let me know when
you’re watching again and I’ll make sure
that I pack it in for that drive and I
can show you a little bit
betta what do you think save our
elephants gonna be there Christina said
am I looking for the cheetah brothers
and did you hear that right – no
Christina I’m not looking for the
cheetah brothers I am looking for a
cheetah mother and three cubs that’s
what I am going to be searching for she
was seen yesterday on Torchwood and her
tracks we’re coming towards cheetah
cutline yes a afternoon there was also a
young male cheetah that was in the
vicinity as well that they don’t we
don’t know who years so it’s one of
those what any of those bunch that could
potentially pop out on cheetah cut line
so it’s not the two big boys but rather
a female and Cubs that have been hemming
around they see it seen every now and
then and before took and tortured but
they haven’t come to Juma maybe today is
the day that they come to Juma with the
Lions the in koomer pride walking around
on that eastern boundary of with Kruger
maybe that’s gonna push this cheetah
into zoom a little bit and we’ll get
lucky this afternoon that’s the idea
yeah anyway whether or not it actually
comes to fruition is anyone’s guess a
little bit of luck and a bit of positive
vibes and you never know what can come
out of that but it’s interesting just
driving along these shaded areas
normally we see a few Nala and few
impalas drifting around but today it
seems as though these nothing I don’t
know if everything has maybe gone
towards the milliwatts see whether it’s
a little bit more shade than even these
smaller drainage lines but I’m quite
surprised you normally see the odds die
Coast animal coin Paulo and Yana
drifting along but it’s been very quiet
with any of those animals so far
even birds wise I mean it’s a little bit
on the quiet side but I’m sure it will
get better as it cools down a little bit
I wonder when we’re going to see the
marilla’s also getting leaves it should
be fairly shortly the marilla’s all bare
and barren at the moment and it won’t be
too long now and they will start getting
some leaves of their own and then it
really is beautiful when you get these
thick canopies of the marilla’s all
across the landscape it really is very
pleasant
right now I believe Scott is got his
gremlin sorted he’s got the Cheetahs
they are hunting so let’s quickly jump
across to him a whole bunch of
wildebeest and there’s actually two more
cheetah as well so we’ve got some
incredible prospects a coalition of five
male cheetah that are looking hungry and
even though one just flopped itself down
and the next don’t be fooled because
they are slowly gonna work their way
through these never-ending herds of
wildebeest in the hope that they find
one that looks to be like a bit of a
easier targets so I’m very very
confident that at some stage within the
next couple of hours
these cheetahs are going to show us what
they do best and that is hunt down
wildebeest we have shared with some of
you before live kills just a few days
ago they took down a wildebeest live
with a lot of you watching and for those
of you who may be joining for the first
time it’s great to have you on safari
with us it’s an interactive Safari
please do pop your questions in the
comment boxes and your thoughts and your
feelings as it would be wonderful to
chat with you my name is Scott Dyson I
am teamed up with a manual on camera and
we literally found these cheats are
about half an hour ago they got up
immediately and have started moving so
they’re moving a bit earlier than they
ordinarily would that in terms of the
kind of history that I have spent with
them which indicates that they are quite
hungry again there’s lots of wildebeest
around so there’s no need for them to to
rush into anything they’re gonna ease
into the afternoon
Teresa you’ve just mentioned what a
standoff n it is and what what least it
was an incredible scene as you joined us
with those cheetah heading straight
towards the wildebeest it is a beautiful
beautiful still afternoon here in the
Maasai Mara and this area’s got a lot of
rain recently which is going to make the
wildebeest happy you can see lots of
fresh green grass shoots popping up and
about two weeks ago this was a golden
brown hue another thing to bear in mind
is it’s not just a favorable environment
for the wildebeest at the moment but
these short open plains are going to
allow these five cheetah to unleash
their furious speed as and when they
need to
wonderful wonderful stuff I’ve been Pina
for a while so it’s good to see that
they still are lots of the migrating
herds in this area of the reserve they
move quite a big distance the migrating
herds over this short over the over the
short time Rob you would like to know
why these cheetah have not taken an
opportunity
considering how plus the wildebeest were
to them and it’s foolish for predators
to Russian waste energy get injured
until they find the right opportunity
and they do know they do know at the
back of the minds that it is the
migration season there’s lots and lots
of opportunities this will change in the
coming weeks but for now there’s just so
much food around it would be foolish to
go in and work too hard for something
essentially so they’re gonna buy their
time wait until they see an easy option
a youngster that they can separate from
the herd even though it’s not very
common oh there’s some little Thompson’s
gazelle they’re a bit too quick and
small for those five boys to share and
great prey for a female cheetah but
these guys I’m fairly certain we’re
going to overlook that opportunity now
something also to remember rob is that
that’s not
that easy for them to kill wildebeest
without the other wildebeest actually
turning on them we got some incredible
footage late one evening as dusk was
breaking and that does drizzle was
falling of one of these cheats are
getting completely bald off a young
wildebeest that they’ve managed to bring
down sir all the wildebeest came in and
absolutely thumped it out the way so all
these things they’ll be factoring into
the hunting equation and as you can see
there are just spoiled for choice at the
moment what a classic scene this is now
because we had no idea what was going to
happen
as these cheetah were approaching that
herd we thought we couldn’t let up the
opportunity to invite you guys on board
so we will be sure to invite you back as
and when these five get up and going I’m
certain in the next few hours that they
are going to show us how they ants so if
it’s something you’d like to see try and
clear up some space in your schedule
because like I say it’s just a matter of
time and so these guys try and catch
themselves so wildebeest and nine times
out of ten when they try they succeed
for now though we are going to say
goodbye wait for these guys to get up
and moving again
be sure to keep following closely for
any notifications of us going live again
and we will see you all a little bit
later goodbye
so I believe we are live which means
that we are busy looking around down in
the Milwaukee because I just got tracks
for a male leopard walking in this
direction it looks like maybe who sanas
tracks from last night coming from twin
dams and we heard some of Franklin’s
alarm calling in here I didn’t get very
far but we just quickly checking to see
I can’t find the Franklin’s anymore and
I can’t hear them anymore but the last
track I had was just on top of the bank
walking this direction they were driven
over from this morning so I’m not sure
how far he’s ended up but it’s just with
the Franklin’s alarm calling in the
tracks hitting in this direction I
thought it would be a good place to
quickly come and have a little look a
little look
all right nothing there since see any
tracks coming down here it’s a great
place for a leopard to sit there it’s
very very cool and nice and shady
there’s some Franklin’s there
they looked unperturbed by life where oh
where oh where are you
but I’m surprised that whoever drove
that road miss those their projections I
asked if anyone drove there and they
everyone told me the guys that did drive
there that there was no sign of lipid
tracks but they’ve clearly been driven
over so I don’t know how they miss them
because they’re quite clear in the
middle of the road my uncle’s for the
Franklin we’ve much further north
than where I am now so what I’m going to
do is just try to turn around somewhere
there should be a place to turn around
in front look again
hmm no no sign here unfortunately I was
hoping we would come down into the
milliwatts and there’d be a lipid
lounging in the cool sand but while we
check around let’s go back to stiff who
I believe is now doing a spot of birding
in the Mora
and on our way to that lion we found you
this wooly neck stalk and in this
particular vantage point we get to see
two things which are quite uncommon and
the bronzy iridescent on the wing on the
middle of the wing there you can just
see it now at the Sun behind us just
sticking out is a rare thing to see on
this wooly next talk as well is the
feces that it covers its legs with there
you can see that it’s been a hot day and
that is done on its legs and I know
you’re gonna be asking yourself what is
a bird doing defecating on its legs when
it’s bombs obviously finer for what it
doesn’t need to do that the easy answer
is that this bird cools itself down that
way it pumps a lot of blood into the
skin surrounding the leg bones and then
by defecating on the legs and letting
the wind blow on those skinny legs it
cools the blood down considerably and
and that way returns to the body cooler
than it was giving this bird the ability
to stay cool when everything else around
it is hot albeit using its own done
we’re quite nice to see that one of the
smallest stalks in this particular area
in actual fact I think it is the
smallest stalk and much like all stalks
they actually don’t have a voice box
sound like a parrot or a son bird or a
canary or a budgerigar which has voices
that they use all the time
stalks do not and this particular stock
is no exception it doesn’t have any
voice box what it does do is to track
mates they do the most unbelievable
dances and elaborate wing flaps and
bowels to each other and there’s a
courtship amongst stalks which is quite
phenomenal another thing that is quite
phenomenal is the lilac breasted roller
this bird definitely has some voice box
but in addition to the voice box it also
has superb coloration you can see
they’re just sticking out of the out of
the process is watching us of the BDI is
that lilac breasted roller
and flown away and probably returning to
the same place enough to the same brunch
just try to hook an insect this time of
the year their colors are not so bright
and they don’t have the tail streamers
but they’re giving us a beautiful
afternoon shot they take your screen
shots that is a lovely shot of a lilac
breasted roller at this time of the year
David framing it up so nicely remember
that we are interactive you can ask me
questions while we ongoing drop live and
I’ll try to answer as many as what we
can these are whole nesting birds they
rely on barbets and woodpeckers to
create nests for them that they quite
actively defend and will quite often in
pairs defend against other rollers other
lilac breasted rollers and other birds
as well which would like to make use of
their of their nests it’s blue and
purple color just really remarkable now
we are almost at these Lions I can see
one lion from we’re relying now he’s now
that that big male that we saw lying
with the with the with the elephant just
nice lying flat on the ground there we
go in the center you can see how flat a
lion can get that is a full-grown
500-pound male lion that is lying
unconscious on his side with some topi
water buck and zebra behind and off to
the right hand side is the reason why
he’s lying unconscious and in the Sun
they’ve actually made a kill we’re just
gonna see there we go
there’s a zipper that is lying on its
side and I did see a lion lying next to
it definitely a there we go there’s the
lion or lioness I should say not lion
the lioness has been eating are we gonna
see if we can go a little bit more
forward and see if we can show you a bit
of picture than these ones that I’ve
been showing you
so far this off to me we have got some
elephant aramis deserts actually be in
such a brilliant afternoon
surrounding us has just been animals by
the ton and this elephant cow and her
young calf
they’ve just been feeding with us as
we’ve as we’ve come down this drainage
line
now Atilla n who uses old as my son is
only five years old has remarked that
this that these animals will look like
they’re friends with one another and
that the and that they and is it normal
for this time of the year so chill and
what a fantastic question from a
five-year-old and yes all these animals
are friendly with one another some of
them eat grass
some of them eat trees some of them eat
each other some of them eat won’t be
stingy bruh and and so on and so forth
but they all get along with one another
quite nicely to be quite honestly
there’s no big there’s no big animosity
which is a big word to say that better I
don’t dislike each other at all they’re
just in a healthy sort of equilibrium is
what I’d like to use is that there’s a
balance between all the things they’d
like to eat other animals and all the
things they’d like to eat the grass
there’s a nice balance
but youngster busy eating the grass over
there flanked by mom which has got a
beautiful set of tusks I love the
elephant in the Mara here in Kenya the
females in particular got the most
elegant ivory almost always the same
length the same shape and quite long for
female elephants is up another fantastic
shot over the trees in the back up
now Chantel tells me that a few of you
are commenting on the fact that it’s so
exciting to see all these animals here I
must agree with you I think it is quite
exciting to see all these animals here
and I think it’s going to be exciting to
see what happens at this line killed
today when we saw the iron Garner’s they
were heading in this direction but into
a thicket and I think if we are lucky
they are going to come and join their
sister on this on this this kill in the
distance and arriving towards us is the
because that join like the cars that
join this fantastic reserve with us of
course it’s an open reserve very much
like the Kruger National Park is where
we do some of our other drives as well
albeit this is a public area where you
can come and drive yourself in or be
driven around in in some cars ads nicely
everyone helping one another to define
their thing thank you to everyone you’re
saying that it’s nice to see me in the
driving seat again I must say I do miss
it from time to time and it’s not it’s
gonna be nice to join you for a couple
of drives over the next few days or so
before Prince and Jamie get back in
between when when James has left he’s on
his way back to South Africa for a much
deserved break
Debra you wanted to know what surprised
me the most about Damara that’s actually
a very good question Debra because it
changes from week to week and from month
to month I think when I got here the the
unbelievable space was was what got me
initially was the fact that you could
see so far you could drive so far and
you’d still be in a game reserve then it
was the fact that that the reserve is
open and that the borders are there no
physical borders so animals can domestic
animals can enter the reserve and wild
animals can leave the reserve and how
often they do it but also what type of
in what type of of harmony they’ve got
what often you have we have zebra and
Buffalo and hippo we’ve even had a
leopard prowling around our camp for the
last couple of for the last couple of
nights and everything just seems sort of
calm there’s no there’s no tension
coming a bit closer nod to the smell
line let’s see if I can into a nice spot
where we can at least see the back of
its head hey is he lying down over there
I have no doubt that is really partaking
in in in this zebra kill and you can see
that fat belly at the back there another
thing that’s been quite surprising
Deborah is the fact that it’s it’s a
calm temperature here all year round
we’ve gone from summer to winter without
a noticeable change in temperature
whatsoever and it’s very comfortable you
don’t ever get too hot you don’t ever
get too cold and I must say that I can’t
say the same for our friend Tristan
who’s sitting down south three and a
half thousand miles away definitely do
have winter and summer and where we are
transitioning from the cold of winter to
one of the hottest months of the year
and that is October and I’m sure that
Tristan has got some news to tell you
about how uncomfortable he’s feeling of
department
well sniff now I’m starting to feel
comfortable is about two o’clock this
afternoon it wasn’t so pleasant it was
rather warm at that stage and but now
it’s actually very pleasant it is
perfect weather now for a safari it’s
just cool down a little bit and there’s
a bit of a breeze and so I’m actually
enjoying this afternoon bumbling around
fortunately no further sign of that
leopard track I just want to come up to
buffers with them and check around first
while it’s still a bit warm and see if
the eddies aren’t there and then I’ll go
back to that area I have a funny feeling
if it isn’t sauna that he may have
looped and gone back down towards twin
dams and he’s made me lying somewhere
close to the water they’ve given how
warm it is I don’t think he’s gonna have
gone too far from the dam itself so
maybe just lying somewhere in those
Milwaukee Bank thickets and we’ll catch
him later when it gets a bit cooler
walking around so we’re just coming and
checking up the side so it’s difficult
this afternoon because well it’s just me
all on my own by the sounds of things
there’s one other vehicle out which is
from puffles hook and they rides in the
northeast corner there’s nobody from
Juma no one from cheetah Plains so it’s
well the lonely lonely world out here at
the moment Seb at this I have you for
companies have and all of you on the
back of the vehicle which means that
hopefully we’ll find something it’s just
that it’s always written there’s not as
many vehicles it’s harder because you
don’t have a situation where people are
spreading out and they can help you with
looking in certain sections you’ve got
to kind of loop around and do all of its
on your own so it makes it just a little
bit tougher in terms of actually finding
things
where’s all using come on you know I can
find a spotted leopard well that’s the
idea I think we can we just got to give
it the right timing and the right pace
it doesn’t feel lepida yet I don’t have
the leopard feeling just yet I think
it’s going to come a little bit later
that’s what I feel is that whence it
cools down that Sun is just above the
horizon and we’ve got that golden lights
across the landscape that’s when we’re
going to find a lipid stepping out and
it’s going to be ever so beautiful
that’s what I think anyway I’m hoping
that’s what’s going to happen but if not
the lipids maybe the cheetah so one of
the two spots will find its way to us at
some point this afternoon we’ve just got
to be patient and we’ve got to be like I
say positive positive impatient for pees
today on a Sunday
manicure are wondering when I did my
tracking training well when I first
started to become a guide when I was at
Sangeeta that we did a lot of tracking
work there and got shown how to identify
tracks and how to read tracks look at
them and then from there it’s just been
an ongoing lesson basically from all the
trackers I’ve worked with every single
one of them has imparted some sort of
knowledge on me and it’s a kind of thing
that them it’s a kind of thing that the
more you do it the better you get at it
you’ve just got to keep going and you
got to keep looking and keep working at
it and you’ll you be able to if you ask
people like stiff and Scots and James
and Brent and Jamie they’ll tell you
that with the list that they track the
more rusty they gets in the harder it
becomes the more that you track and the
more you get in sync with the animals
that you’re you’re looking for in a
certain area the easier it actually
becomes because a lot of tracking is
actually not physically seeing what’s on
the ground don’t run away this is gonna
be so cool stay they stay they stay
there so there’s two little button
quails in front of us and these guys are
so difficult to get on camera
here they are see how little they are
well out in the open that’s about as
good of you as we’ve ever had of a
button quail or certain Yahveh that I’ve
ever had of a button quail and then into
the long grass they’ve gone and you see
how quickly they disappear they’ve got
the most perfect camouflage to just melt
into that grass well that was cool so it
wasn’t a spot but a little bit of a
flicked little bird that was really cool
I’ve been trying to get them on camera
for months and they are so elusive and
they tend to be very shy so as soon as
you come along they bolt off into the
grass so it’s at least got some them
crossing the road was very special well
then say it’s all about the cameramen
exactly that’s exactly right
I’m under no illusion don’t worry so but
back to the tracking is it’s it’s
basically a constant school you that you
going to but in terms of the actual
training as into what to look for hard
to identify that was all in my ride in
the beginning when I first started doing
my training to be a guide spent a lot of
time at lebombo which is a part of the
kruger national park on the eastern side
where there is a lot of rocks and
trekking is very difficult so did a lot
of training there and some assessments
and back then I was still very sort of
very big novice and I didn’t actually
kind of grasp it that well but it took a
bit of time with some experienced
trekkers and then I started to come
right from there and now I wouldn’t say
I’m good I’m proficient but I wouldn’t
say I’m good at it there’s many trackers
out there that are insanely good and way
way beyond the scope of what I can do
but I at least am able to see and find
tracks from time to time now there’s a
beautiful bird talking about to finding
things I said you see it in the tall
tree on the right side of the tree is a
black editorial yeah the top there on
that side just went down yes yeah same
let’s try go around maybe we’ll find it
it’s just such a beautiful bear that
it’s worth trying to see if we can find
this beautiful beautiful yellow with
this black head and this beautiful beak
where are you know I’ve lost it it’s
gone but interesting enough we can look
at the tree anyway because it’s quite a
cool example of something so you’ll
notice that there is a lid word that is
growing there on the base of that tree
is a lid word but if we go up you notice
there’s some roots that are actually
growing down so there’s a strangler fig
that is growing over the lid wood and
this is how strangler figs work is
basically what happens is they produce a
fruit or something like a bar bet or a
go away bird will come and feed off it
and then they come in the sticky seeds
on their beak and they then wipe it on
something like a lid word and that then
starts to grow in these aerial roots
start to grow down all the way along the
trunk
of the lead word and you use it as a
support structure and over time more and
more and more roots grow and eventually
they’ll encompass that whole led word go
right beyond the lead words crown and
they’ll actually suffocate the tree art
or strangle it and have stop it from
getting sunshine and nutrients and they
will then take over and it uses it
basically as a host so that is a
predatory tree if you want to call it
and it’s not one that we see that often
we don’t get too many figs yeah
unfortunately not enough water but
that’s a nice example of a strangler fig
over taking a really large old lid word
very cool to see not so we might not
have seen our Oriole but at least we got
to see a strangler figure that’s
actually the first time I’ve noticed
that strangler fig funny enough it’s
something you see a lot of dawn on the
big river so the Sand River the sabi
River lots of big figs d’armes which
here doesn’t seem as though we get
nearly as many because of the lack of
water that we have in this particular
section
snazzy you say some of those branches
look like snakes
see what’s this a little bit on top here
this the Gail Don it’s going to land
there seems to be a few of them I just
look through the binoculars as well a
little bit far off now and a bit
silhouetted they look like some of those
female village weavers again that are
moving around difficult to say though
they right on the edge of that Bush
willow it’s not very pleasant
let me try get a bit closer so no
struggle from this distance to ID them
they’re not very big birds at all
there’s also a woodpecker that’s just
flying let’s see if we can try and get
that on camera because that’s gonna be a
bit easier
birds are giving us a bit of a challenge
today so this is not Thorn here they
might be a wood picker sticking out
somewhere
our beard you say the button Quayle was
number 83 for you well I’m glad that’s a
really good number and we must push hard
to get you to a hundred our beard it’s
gonna be difficult it’s gonna be silly
rated but it’s at the top of that back
knob thorn there you see it bouncing
around but unfortunately it’s going to
be very silly rated I’m not sure which
would pick it is because it’s right
against the Sun I can’t get color it
looks very small so it looks like it’s
possibly a cardinal woodpecker let’s see
that’s okay that’s okay see if it’s more
than good enough you can see the black
bar that goes through the eyes stripe
which I’m thinking I just want to make
100% sure looks a bit small for the
bearded though it doesn’t look like a
bearded would pick it to me it could be
though but doing a bit of birding is
actually quite fun it’s been such a long
time that I’ve done it and I always love
doing birding so something that I should
really do a lot more of I get a bit
sidetracked like I say sometimes with
the Lions and lipids so it is a bearded
would pick up it’s just a fairly small
and it’s a female bearded would pick her
because it’s got that black bar through
the eye that’s a nice one to find
there’s quite a few of them around at
the moment you hear them quite often in
the mornings when you drive along these
riverbed systems lots of them bouncing
around these dead trees looking for any
with boring insects that potentially are
in the dead trees themselves
right well we’re approaching before sook
damn now there’s no sign of our
elephants crossing anyway the section
here so unless they went northwards and
didn’t come towards the dam they might
still actually have been there or they
on their way there it would be quite
nice if we get there and they’re all
lined up at the water but they haven’t
gone further west which is good so let’s
go back to stiff in the meantime with I
think you saw with this lion
why can you believe it we were showing
you that that wooly neck stalk and the
elephant there was also a mating pair of
lion lying just on the other side of us
but we didn’t see at all we it took us
to drive past and sit and turn around to
see these lions who not even 50 50 yards
or 50 paces from we actually think that
this is the line that we saw just now
it’s in the same line and there’s some
elephant and this female she’s quite
Restless with attending male her body at
the moment is is in E stress which means
that she’s having hormonal spikes
every time she ovulate so and these go
through some dips and troughs and see
this should elicit this male to stand up
oh she’s beautiful I mean are you going
go let’s see if he wakes up there we go
so now that is very typical of a male
lion attending a female he doesn’t let
her out of his sight at all and the
reason for that is that she’ll ovulate a
few times in all of this and and this
male who’s attending her at the moment
wants to make sure that every time she
ovulate he is right there to try and
inseminate every egg that comes down
into the fallopian tube so all the
babies are his now colors she’s a new
viewer I just want to say welcome to so
hello collars and
welcome to to the show and you said that
you’ve been wanting to see Lyon and are
very happy that we could show you lion
right off the bat today that’s quite
nice and they have gone super flat again
well that is an uncommon for mating
lions and you shouldn’t despair because
we should we should be able to see them
mating again in a few seconds to a few
minutes as the female’s body comes into
or as it oscillates in a hormone spike
as the eggs are travelling down the
fallopian got there so just as we
predicted the garments have come through
the thicket we thought they were gonna
come through excuse all the poles go
right right right right right right and
let me see if I can turn the car so it
looks like we’ve got the n gamma pride
that has come out of them come out of
the bushes
and I’m making their way through to the
zebra killed quite a story that we can
see from here nice pot that gives David
all the freedom that he needs to do what
he needs to do so what we’ve got is
we’ve got a let me just see if I can see
them it looks like we do so zebra and
eland show us all that could’ve been my
imagination absolutely and it’s being
confirmed at the moment by Richard who
is our game scout and protect on the
back of our vehicle and what he’s doing
is he can also see them so but I’ll not
tell you there is the story while we’re
waiting for these lines to come out of
the stickit this should be our cheering
a second we’ve got a male line that’s
lying directly in front of the car and
sorry dev I’m making you jump around
please excuse everybody that we are
jumping around there’s a male line there
and while a male line in the Sun on his
own isn’t uncommon sight it’s not very
it’s not very common and we we initially
thought it was because he was lying
close to the kill which is a common and
is a female that is that is that is
lying on that killing and it’s it’s also
again not an uncommon for female and
male coalition’s that are mating us one
another to make it kill every now and
again although it’s not there here we go
in the center of the screen although
it’s not their their primary concern
hunting but it would have explained the
fact that there was a female lying on a
dead zebra plus a male close by but then
we’ve got the added complication if you
want to call it that of another mating
pair right next to us at the moment
probably from the same coalition of of
lions they lying flat in the grass here
at the moment can hardly even see that
their lions there there we go that
proves that there’s a lion there and you
probably find that these are two males
in a curl
with one another they are both attending
females which are ovulating which is not
uncommon in a private line especially
especially in an area that’s just at the
super abundance of food at the moment
but now which lions from which pride
that is the question if the angles are
moving towards this area to come and
join in the feast on the zebra then it
absolutely is that that they are the air
gama’s but if they’re not then they’re
from a different and adjacent pride of
Lyon and like in the Kruger National
Park where you connect it’s almost like
a physical barrier between lion prides
you feel like you going to this no-man’s
land
yeah there is no boundary between lion
lion prides in actual fact rather than
home Rangers touching one another which
is what it quite often is in the Kruger
you’ve got home ranges that overlap and
court territories which brush up amongst
one another and I actually think that
that the the the the the the Lions are
in a much bigger I say they’re in
competition with each other here a lot
more than what there would be in a
kruger for space let’s go backwards a
little bit and see if we can get a bit
more height
now James you’ve asked an interesting
question with the fluidity of the lion
prides become less so once the migrating
migratory herds have moved on I don’t
think so to be quite honest I actually
think that these prides there’s so much
food around here James even outside of
the migration is a lot of food available
here more than what there is and I think
that that has a market effect on how
these lines behave I think huge smell of
something did here didn’t notice it on
the way in here it is overpowering so he
might also be some line dangit we’ve
managed to drive through which is a big
possibility with us driving around in
this class so James no I don’t think so
it should be honestly I think that the
super abundance of food here has led to
the fact that there’s a large number of
cats spread of a very wide area and I
think that because they don’t have the
space I think rather than home ranges
are touching one another and cats left
pretty much to just roll and fend the
boundaries almost non-aggressive your
non-lethal yet anyway I think that these
lions are packed inside taught that they
core territories overlap I think Lions
have a lot of trouble defending their
boundaries here which is why the male
lions always look like they’ve got their
faces having means stuck in a meat
grinder and I also think that that is
the reason why lion pride numbers here
fluctuate so much in that a female
that’s got six babies that gets caught
another proud of lion will will will
very easily dodge they’ll kill her
because of the cool territories that
overlap here and of course as soon as
she goes down if there’s not other
lactating mother lying around those Cubs
will die and I think the Cubs numbers
fluctuate in throwing the the the added
complexity of two and a half million
wildebeest that arrive and then four
months later leave again it’s not like
they leave with every
thing believe me even when there’s no
wildebeest here there is still a massive
amount of animals here and I think that
there’s more than enough food to to keep
to keep all these lions very healthy in
the tree is this lilac breasted roller
that you are watching a little bit
earlier and this bird is taking
advantage of this elephant being so
close what it’s hoping is that the
elephant chases up a tasty grasshopper
Richard will then snatch up as it as it
flies out of the grass because these
birds would battle to to actually catch
the grasshopper once it’s gone into the
grass and so being so close to the
elephant works in this bird’s favour
though I think that that was a little
bit too close for comfort
oh this is a beautiful female elephant
the pet Simona hit there that David’s
that David zooming into the enough for
you is just dried mud it’s not her skin
however that secretion from behind her
eye is from her skin that’s a sebaceous
gland and it’s just weeping a little bit
and as it dried up in the Sun it’s left
that white residue there and the reason
for that is is a little bit of stress it
could also be an indication of a
hormonal change that she’s going through
at the moment and and it just causes
that gland to leak it’s nothing to worry
yourselves about or anything like get
this elephants to 100% perfectly normal
and wooly necks talk in the background
last weekend while our where while away
with the elephant already for lines you
make
while we waiting for those lion tomatoes
each other again
Odie farming has asked what the social
structural family structure of elephants
are Odie farmer let’s see this little
baby I wasn’t gonna chase this this the
stork that’s actually quite an asked
question because very similar to how you
know elephant societies are matriarchal
in other words the herd that you that we
with at the moment will be hid hit up by
a cow a female elephant not a bull
elephant bull the elephants born into a
into a herd will between 12 and about 18
years of age separate themselves for
longer and longer periods from their
family to a point where they’re actually
not associated with their natal herd
anymore well wonder around until there
are about 35 and then at 35 years of age
they will they will go into a period
where their bodies actually change and
they go into a state called must where
they actively search out females that
are ovulating and will combat with other
males for the right to ovulating females
let’s go backwards a little bit just so
that for one I can get out of the smell
that we are sitting in at the moment it
is creating the back of my neck
sorry deaf
how’s that
I feel up you want to know if the if the
cars can be aged I’m just going to
finish my question as a farmer quickly
females and I’ll get to that because
Philip your question does make sense in
context to OD farmers question about the
about the dynamics of a family now
although males will will then a thirty
five plus five for females and be
associated to females and all that the
females will stay in a herd their entire
life so they’ll be born in a herd and
will basically live in a herd their
entire lives when it gets big bigger
than twelve to sixteen individuals it
can split off where two sisters will
split off with their calves and you can
get to settle at herds forming that can
actually join up again in in in drier
terms around common food sources and
congregations of a hundred plus lion
that I mean 100 plus elephant are quite
common in areas where where food sources
can can draw elephant in from you know
hundreds of miles all around it and
these particular elephant will all be
related to one another and now for
Philips question but if you wanted to
know if elephants can be can be aged
they absolutely can you’ve got to you’ve
got to take them in relation to to their
moms so a small calf with a small mom
will be smaller than a large car for the
large mom and although that sounds
pretty you know reasonable logical it
can actually complicate things nothing
is to have a look at the tip so this
youngster here you’ll see has some teeth
erupting out of the jaw just started to
erupt out of the door and when they do
that when you can see that they dead
elephant is just over a year old the
elephant on the right hand side the
youngster on the right hand side same
profile only you can’t see any teeth
coming out there and that elephant is
less than a year
so elephant get them do they get milk
tusks and at about six months you get
some time
see there’s little mo tasks sharp frail
little tasks they will fall out at about
six months and then the more robust
tasks are up to the body year so let it
give you an idea of elephant up to about
a year from a year to five years all
elephant look pretty small and then they
start to get bigger than their mom’s add
a rod I’m talking about unable to fit
under their mom’s tummies is actually
what I wanted to say from about three
years to about seven years and then from
7 years on for mail for male elephants
and female elephant their size changes
dramatically and from about nine years
to 12 years female elephant just smaller
than their mom’s male elephants are just
bigger than their moms and of course
onward from there as they get to
adolescence and then eventually into
adulthood around their late teens early
20s now while we wait for these for
these male for these Lions to mate and
we’ll call you back as soon as they do
why don’t you go all the way south to
the Kruger National Park and Tristan
who’s got something to show you in the
sand so as we thought which is super
exciting the cheetah have come onto
cheetah cut line so we’ve got their
tracks going down the road and you can
see I’ve circled one for you it is much
much much longer than what you would see
on an on a leopard track earlier and we
were looking at the leopard tracks
they’ve very small very round but you
can see the length of this track is very
long with toes that point up and then
little crawl marks in the front and
there’s all four of them have walked
here so it’s the female with the three
cubs that have come out and it really is
exciting to see the problem is is we’re
only about 200 meters south of the
boundary and they’re hitting northwards
so they’re going straight up the road
like this and I’m gonna try my very best
to check I’m hoping that they’ve turned
west along the firebreak or even the
boundary and hit it towards befores of
damn we did check before exam no sign of
anything there but you never know they
might have been lying somewhere closely
and I just didn’t see them but this is
an exciting sign it’s not something we
see every day but what I wanted to point
out with these tracks is that you can
still see the three lobes on the back
they just really small in comparison to
the leopard track so here you’ve got one
two three and then it comes up and then
you’ve got these toes there’s the side
toe the two front toes and the other
side toe with the leopard track we would
have found that the toes would have been
far more pushed up on the sides and they
would have been fairly sort of in line
with one another with a much wider back
pad than what we see here it really is
very cool to see these tracks and mrs.
nock tracks that we see very often at
all so I’m super excited hopefully we
get lucky but they must have come out
just after we’ve been here because
they’re on top of all of the vehicle
tracks I don’t find any bird tracks on
top of them which means hopefully
they’ve moved here fairly recently and
we’ll be able to find them so without
further ado let’s try and see if we can
find these guys it would be so cool if
we can see these four cheetah some part
of me has got this optimism that they’ve
not far off the other part of me thinks
that they’ve already gone over which is
a little disappointing but let’s rather
stay positive and just see maybe we get
really lucky and they sitting somewhere
on a termite mound here or just resting
in the shade somewhere no the tracks are
still kind of going in a zig zagging a
lot so they go on to the fire break then
they come back and then fire break and
come back so I just want to check
are they on the left side massive so I
thought I saw something’s ears poking
out of the grass
of course now in is the possibility of
seeing these guys you’ll find cheetah
looking things all over the place you
can spot logs and stumps and varying
other things that look cheetah like now
this is where I want to check because
here is where they potentially could
have gone so I’m just gonna jump out the
vehicle for two seconds to make a
hundred percent sure where the tracks go
because I don’t see any sign of them
anymore on the road I think they might
have gone back into Torchwood
unfortunately we just want to quickly
check on the roads yeah there’s a nice
soft Road so we’ll see very quickly if
they came to the side but I don’t find
any tracks for them no
that’s this so there’s just the tracks
for the Lions from the other day that
have been walking here actually they
looks like they have come down which is
good news so it looks like they’ve
turned and gone further down they just
cut off quite early and are moving in a
westerly direction down the fire break
which is fantastic news because that
means that they still hopefully you are
within Juma let’s see if maybe they’ve
gone to the force of dam and we just
drove past them and miss them
it is possible yeah we were looking for
elephants we weren’t really paying too
much attention but there’s definitely no
tracks that are going north so that’s a
good sign so far
I just want to make a hundred person
sure but it looks like there’s a set of
tracks moving straight down in front of
me
the fire break would be a good place for
cheats it’s a lie it’s nice and open
they can see anything that’s coming
their way so it wouldn’t surprise me if
they are in this area
lots of snake tracks as well funny
enough I’ve seen three different snake
tracks already on this fire break
burr Babb you are wondering if the
snakes are all to reading the sabi sands
no not just yet
it is starting to warm up nicely for
them and we should start to see them
coming out but nothing that we’ve seen
just yet lots of tracks it’s starting to
emerge the last 3-4 days as the spike in
temperature has happened but without the
rains there’s not that many sort of
rodents around and you’ll find that they
will eventually start getting active in
the next couple of weeks but not too
much just yet oh so I believe we’ve got
a spider wave on the lens I’ll try just
get rid of that so apologize above my
hand being in the way there’s the line
tracks on there as well I hope these
guys didn’t turn and go back to
Torchwood no nothing here I don’t know
I’m not 200 percent sure we’re going to
find him I want to just check around
very carefully and do the buffers hook
boundary as well just in case they just
cut straight over the fire break and
went in from there it’s nothing that’s
on the road in front that I can see I’m
just trying to scan all of the termite
mounds and grassy areas at the end of
the day the use of particular cheats are
a little bit on the shy side so
theoretically the noise of our vehicles
should prompt them to set up at least
and that would mean that we’d be able to
spot them from quite far and
theoretically it’s not obviously always
the case but theoretically that would be
what would happen
I don’t see any further tracks to speak
of let’s check at this Junction here
okay so you’ll see any further signs
coming down this way which is where we
drove this morning there’s just tracks
for Enys I’m gonna go back to the large
tracks and see where they go and while I
do that let’s go across to stiff with
his elephants and lions and see what’s
happening we still here with these ILI’s
and the Lions had haven’t even moved
their hair and one of the guides that
passed us and what two minutes ago said
that these lines are coming to the end
of their mating spree now and that means
that we could be waiting here anyway up
to 30 or 40 minutes between mating
sessions but you know don’t fear we it’s
it’s not a bad place to be and to 8rt
lions mating with these elisa we’ve got
yeah now we’ve got the tea Ellie’s two
moms with their two youngsters still
around us they wanting to cross this
particular drainage line here and I
think we’re gonna see this youngster
hopefully cross out because the one one
is inside the drainage on you can see
the this one their baby who’s already
crossed over
she’s busy eating sort of succulent
grass that’s growing on the edge of this
depression
well this drainage line is a
I’ll fool these things get in the
summertime it must get pretty full oven
this is the terminal end of a drainage
line that starts in the mountains and
when it rains the runoff here is
incredible because there’s on the
mountains itself the soil profile is
only about six foot to seven foot deep
and once that gets saturated the water
will be running out over the surface and
through the sand and will come out in
these places now not a feeling that it’s
not uncommon to see the water right up
these bags right level it’s going to be
really nice to see what this looks like
in wet years to come and see what we
probably won’t be able to see it here
these roads would become impossible to
drive but I think it’s gonna be
interesting to see exactly how deep all
these drainage lines get okay this
elephant is standing now to be basically
underwater you could see they were the
grasses did and if that’s from flood
damage or whether it’s from from
sunshine now captain you wanted to know
why elephants have wrists and you’re
only six years old where are you getting
this information from that elephants
have wrists because you’re not wrong at
all
elephants absolutely have wrists but
they’re only have wrists on their front
legs and it’s because they have a foot
that looks basically like this five toes
on the front and four toes on the back
and around that is a pad and these bones
that stick into this pad join at a
flexible joint and we’re gonna see there
we go you’re looking at that right now
and you’ll see when this elephant moves
you’ll be able to see those wrists you
go and the wrist obviously flows up to
the elbow and if you go up a little bit
you can even see an elbow skin there on
that elephant isn’t that just amazing so
I want you to put your hand down on the
floor if you can put your hand down on
the floor like this lift your fingers
and like this
imagine that there was this fatty piece
of tissue all the way around here and
then turn your elbow this way
so without turning your without turning
this part of your turn your elbow like
this and there you have an elephant’s
foot that is an elephant’s foot isn’t
that incredible that we share very
similar characteristics or something
that doesn’t even look even close to
what we are and that’s the same effect
on the side isn’t that beautiful
this youngster is actually very brave
actually not it’s not it’s not it’s it
is very brave in that it’s standing
griller to be far from its mom who’s
just in front there you can just see
mom’s forehead now wouldn’t that be a
surprise if he came wandering through
this place not even not knowing there
were two invisible lions right here and
an elephant that’s standing in
adrenaline I think this would be quite a
surprising place although I doubt mom
would be able to get out of this
drainage line quick if needs be and I
think you could probably go and lie
almost right up on the edge and watch
her from close part
past nezzie you want to know if a
drainage line is safe for humans to
drink from yes steady you know in this
area with so many animals and with the
water not flowing I definitely would
purify this word too somehow and I try
and filter it as much as what I could
and then I I would I would boil it
before I drank it not good but that’s of
course with the luxury of being able to
boil and filter stuff I think if you
were really thirsty and you you didn’t
have any matches or just raining or you
had no way or no knowledge of making a
filter I think that there’s enough what
to hear that you’d be able to to drink
and you know even if it gave you a bit
of a runny tummy it’s not the last water
that’s here and so I think you’d
actually get away with it to be honest
there’s some water over there in front
of us and you can see what quality the
what is it’s not bubbling it’s not black
it doesn’t have a scum on top of it and
apart from tasting probably like
everything in the Maura has urinated in
it I don’t need to be too bad to be
quite honest there’s even some bubbles
from something now vehicle what kind of
process just yet these lions in this
particular place is generating a lot of
interest and we’re being passed but one
or two cause and that’s all normal
Archer everybody helps everyone here to
have a fantastic Safari but of course
that doesn’t mean that from time to time
there’s a few cars that come past we’ve
got the male line with his head up
which I’ll show you a second maybe got
the male line is good is head up let’s
see if the female lion sticks her head
up as well big yawn with the evening now
coming coming up fast male lions and
female lions would start to react by
yawning and rolling around and what that
does is it oxygenates the blood there we
go it looks like we’re gonna get ready
for another mating you got it
female being covered by the male big
scarred male with a beautiful view there
we go and then he just hasn’t consoles
her a little bit she doesn’t look
impressed whatsoever now for every cub
that reaches a year old males and
females will mate up to 1,000 times and
then it’s just testimony this has been
going on for a few days she’s lost that
aggression that she normally has and
that just because she’s fully submitted
to this male and she’s basically
committed herself to the fact that the
smell will father her next litter of
Cubs he’s proven himself to be the
strongest male in this area
females can go and do a thing called pre
E stress for up to 100 days they can put
off ovulating to give male lions the
chance to compete with one another in an
area for basically to show her to prove
their worth to her in this particular
case at the end of the cycle that has
been unnecessary he looks like a
beautiful boy big scarred face which
shows he is the is the victor of many a
fight and the fact that he looked so
healthy when he stood up there
Shelly you’ve asked an interesting
question how does a male line know that
a female is ovulating
is it like scent-marking Shelly
basically lions and a lot of animals out
here have got such a sensitive sense of
smell and taste but just by testing
urine like your dog or like a doctor
would do when you go to the doctor and
they ask you to do a urine sample
we have to use expensive machines and a
lot of science to get answers lions and
other animals can taste or smell when
females are oscillating and that is
because a female’s body will change the
hormones will change and the hormones or
hormonal changes will will affect
chemical changes in the body and that
will leave trace elements of it’s of all
of this change in the urine and so male
lions or quite often walk-behind females
as they are busy urinating and will pass
the urine over a very sensitive the end
in the roof of their mouth and that will
then tell them whether or not this
female is ovulating also females that
are ovulating will actively search out
males and will flirt with them and that
sometimes triggers it as well just
incredible to think that all these
animals Archer have got things in their
bodies that are like machines that we
use
maybe you’ve asked an interesting
question and is it possible for a litter
of lions to be fathered by more than one
male absolutely feasible Mimi yes and
the reason for that is that it takes
about a week for a female to release all
the eggs from her ovaries about one week
four days to about eight days and she
will release anywhere from two to six
eggs into her fallopian tubes which
would need to be fertilized the hope is
by the time her body is needs to release
those eggs that the male that is in
attendance with her is a male that will
stick around for four for those four to
six days but to be honest with you it
doesn’t always work out that way
sometimes male lions or elephant inside
you know that’s busy rumbling around I
don’t know what’s going on go bit closer
can you all hear that that’s an elephant
and that thing that came flying out of
there was a nest of a weaver bird let’s
go forward a little bit and see if we
can do that
so Mimi sometimes what will happen is a
male line will get after it for me as a
position it’s not common I’ve never seen
it myself personally but it is possible
and then the female will have to
basically finish her cycle with a male
that’s in attendance
and that would lead to different fathers
for haircuts
Wow we’ve got a good view of this
elephant you know it’s very very
uncommon to be on top of elephants like
we are at the moment and it’s quite a
special view to be able to look down on
top of an elephant I must be honest you
can hear the water so they’ve reached
the water now now she’s gonna be stuck
because their tree is now over her way I
need to see what she does
it’s gonna be quite interesting to see
what this female does with him
is she gonna climb over the tree or is
she gonna try and climb up this Bank I
mean if she looks stuck we might have to
just create some space and I think
that’s what I’m gonna do I’m gonna
create some space backwards because I
think that this female is gonna battle
to get over this stuff they’re good
comments but to be honest to do
they’re not mountain goats it’s okay
you get
it’s gonna be interesting to see what
she does does she come over the tree or
does she reverse or does she come at the
bank
I’ve never seen this before to be caught
on a CD she’s gonna climb over the
branch that’s amazing he can see it just
battling a little bit let’s see what she
does with a can see her hip articulate
as she is dragging her leg over the top
of that branch she’s probably got it
stuck now just in front of her back legs
on her belly can’t see the baby anymore
she goes alongside oh just battling to
get over the top of that stuff well she
made that look very very easy just
testimony to the fact that these these
elephant and they can get almost
anywhere all right now that we’ve seen
this elephant do its acrobatics we’ll
stick around and see if anything else oh
there we go
hold on we’re not going back to Tristan
just yet you’re sticking with me so that
we can see what else this elephant gets
up to which is my problem at all sure
what Justin would be enjoying the fact
that he struck there we go you can see
just trying to climb over the exhibit
leg Mr P you want to know if elephants
can get stuck here to death elephants do
get stuck and they can absolutely die in
mud they can get stuck in these defiles
I don’t think that there’s elephants in
any danger of getting stuck whatsoever
I think that that she’s totally in
control I think is a bit of a chance
that baby falls into the mud prep so as
to swim a little bit depending on our
deep the water gets here but I don’t
think that there’s any danger whatsoever
at the moment now the baby’s climbing
over the stumps and look at this little
baby is this abetting come on little
that down getting over that stump it’s
actually very funny
oopsy-daisy come on you can do it you
can see almost upside down coming up
over that stump and did it with this
quite as much grace this mom but with no
harm done whatsoever
beautiful sighting all right why don’t
we send you three and a half thousand
miles south and I’m saying there –
Tristan so that he can tell you about
what he attracts of those cheetah are
doing
well we still trying our best the tracks
go up and down all over the fire break I
can’t find any sign of them going north
so I’ve come to a little clearing just
on the west eastern side of puffles ik
dam in case they came this way but I
don’t see any further tracks here so a
part of me reckons that they’ve gone
north but I just can’t see a track where
they crossed it’s baffling as to where
they went they almost look as though
they’ve grown wings and flown the
problem is is their tracks are in
amongst the whole in kuma prides tracks
from two days ago so it’s quite
difficult there’s an elephant though you
see 11 ray in the distance here and so
the tracks are all mixed up with that
and it’s quite difficult to make them
out in amongst all those other paw
prints you can see how a Lee’s way in
the distance inside before hook so
that’s as far as they go and this is why
it’s a nice place just to stop or switch
to scan maybe we could have seen these
cheetah some way in this general
vicinity but I don’t see anything
interesting that it’s just one female
elephant a knock off I can’t see any
others can you see any other save I
don’t see any others looks like just
these two maybe they’re the back end of
the herd these cheetah I can feel that
they’re close I just don’t know where
exactly the problem is we’ve got very
limited space to work with at the moment
we’re right up in the small feast and
Conan it’s difficult because if they’ve
gone slightly to the east there’s no
chance of us being able to find him the
other problem is as courses if it’s they
lying flat in some of this long grass
it’s going to be very difficult to even
see those cheetah so I was hoping that
they’d pop their heads up while we’re
driving around or standing up and that
would give us at least an indication of
where they are
you can see how the females just
peacefully feeding while the calf drinks
David you wondering if they could be
looking for water in heat well I think
so the problem is is that there is a
water hole straight north of us here
inside puffles hook so they might have
gone that way for water
I was just off chance that they might
head towards before look down they
definitely came onto the fire break it’s
there’s no doubt about it that one came
down the fire break it looks like maybe
one or two eventually another one kind
of joins up and then they turn and they
go a little bit back east and then from
there I lost their tracks I can’t see if
they go north or south from there back
into the block and but given that their
general direction was north I would have
imagined they went north into the over
the fire break but I can’t find anything
crossing over into puffles look the
problem with purfles of boundary is it’s
very busy and today would have been a
busy day on that road because a lot of
the landowners were here for the weekend
and they went home during the day so
it’s very possible that they’ve driven
over all the tracks but let’s just carry
on with this road towards before Zach
Dam you never know it’s this time of the
day that cheetah will be going towards
water maybe they’re at the dam now it’s
possible we’ll do another few loops
around here just in case and hope for
the best and maybe maybe maybe maybe
with a little bit of luck something will
happen the reason why I’m putting effort
into this is just because we really so
seldom see cheetah and it would be great
to see a cheetah in this area and also
just get it start getting it’s kind of
used to our vehicle our vehicles very
different shape to all the other
vehicles and so sometimes when some of
the cats haven’t seen it they’re a
little bit kind of weary of it
particulars cameraman that moves on the
back and the fact that I don’t ever door
they can see my legs moving so sometimes
get a little bit weary of it so be nice
just to kind of find those cheetah and
spend a bit of time with them also if
they’re exploring this area then
hopefully they’ll come back here again
at some point
there are lots and lots of impalas
though on the fire break between where
the checks are and the dam so
Casca you wondering if the all the
vehicles could be altering the cheetahs
behavior I suppose somewhat if the
cheetahs are very unrelaxed these female
in her Cubs they could potentially
change direction with the vehicles being
around but I don’t think so I mean we
heard this morning that the tracks were
coming west towards cheetah Kaplan we
drove there there was no sign of those
cheetah and then as we came this
afternoon their tracks are out there so
they might have just rested up in in the
morning and then decided to carry on
walking in a poptart later on that
boundary so the direction hasn’t really
changed the whole morning they’re kind
of heating in the same way they were
from last night so I don’t think we
changed their behavior too much they the
female like I said is a little bit
skittish of that so she’s a little bit
more kind of wary and that might mean
that she moves in a different direction
see the scrub here they zip so we have a
little scrub here that’s art a little
early maybe for a Sunday afternoon
stroll the orange ears is what actually
gave it away the sun’s coming through
the ears and you can see that almost
translucent and a big big eye with the
big guy that they can actually see it
night so during the day that eye is not
designed to be getting so much light
it’s bigger like that so that it can get
more light in at night and see a little
bit better so the site guys out I’m a
little on the early front that’s okay
I’m talking too many predators around
that we’ve seen maybe we will find a
cheetah bursting out towards scrubbers
we know that they hunt them quite a bit
by the looks of things in the Mara so I
would be surprised if our cheetah here
didn’t do the same but nice to see it’s
not something we get to see every day
out in the open in some nice sunlight
that’s no mere nocturnal species for us
good to see and you can see how well it
would camouflage if it just took two
steps to the right we’d really battle to
be able to see it need to be careful
little scrub here there’s still birds of
prey around she really hate to be a
guide you really need good eyesight well
I suppose yes you do it’s it’s one of
those things we also your eyes will get
better as time goes on so more time you
spend out yeah it’s funny your eyes
start to adjust and you actually start
to notice things and I’d always advice
that I give people that
come out on safari when I was guiding
was dark to look for animals in terms of
actually spotting an animal so a lot of
the time people will be like try and
look for a line or trying to look for a
liquid 99% of the time that we see
things it’s actually because we’ve
noticed a slight difference in the bush
so others tell them oh did I ruin a
romantic sunset I’m so sorry
you – well I’ll leave you in peace then
they’ve just ran off into the distance
then you know under this lid word but
they seem as though it was a male and a
female having a little moment watching
the Sun go down now I feel awful that
I’ve ruined his date oh well sorry buddy
so as I was saying when you’re looking
for things try and notice slight
differences in colors difference in
patterns and that’s the kind of thing
that you use to spot stuff that’s
normally how you pick things up or
movements so a lot of the time leopards
actually give themselves away when they
flick an ear or the tail lifts up
slightly and drops down again and those
are the things that the really good
trackers when they spotting things from
the vehicles will pick up it’s not so
much actually seeing an animal as
opposed to just seeing a slight
difference and being like hang on a
second that doesn’t look like it belongs
there let’s have another look and then
you notice okay there is whatever you
were looking for so it’s those kind of
things that you need to do and and the
really sort of talented guys do it and
as you spend more time archer so you get
to notice what shades work and sort of
structures and things like that that are
naturally occurring and then stuff that
is slightly out of place and you’re able
to then sports it up there’s an elephant
at the waterhole nice looks like just
one elephant dead puffle suktam so
that’s good news don’t know you don’t go
away from the dam now looks like a young
male that’s busy moving away slack
are you complaining at me sounds like it
so this is a young male that was part of
that herd that we saw this morning must
be off the back and maybe that female we
saw suckling with that other one way in
the distance was the head of this herd
and they just spread out all along the
fire break area and I can see a couple
more on the northern side there they
actually coming it looks like they’re
coming down to the water sip that’s good
news there’s a whole bunch of em
excellent a few a Lee’s at purfles exam
is exactly what we wanted earlier so it
seems as though we’ve got what we were
asking for well though I think they’ve
already had their drink and they’re just
finishing up now but that’s okay we’ll
still join them for a little bit that’s
let’s just go forward sake so he said
see there’s one that’s having a bit of a
mud wallow over there more on the left
as well so it is our heard from this
morning that is all just spread across
and it looks like some of them are still
making their way to the water others
have already drank and we know it’s
quite a big herd so I would imagine that
we’re going to see a few more arriving
just now that one’s busy playing with
the stick
young male what are you doing definitely
sounds like more of them coming which is
fantastic news
Christine you’re wondering if the tusks
continue to grow throughout their
lifetime yes they do but don’t forget
they also get worn down throughout their
lifetime so as they go so those tests
are getting worn and Blantyre as they’re
being used so even though they do
continue to grow there is some wear and
tear that happens that will limit that
amount of growth but also as genetics as
well some elephants will have tusks that
grow quicker than others and thicker
than others it’s not always that every
elephant is going to get big long tusks
as there’s a bit of genetics involved
with it but they do grow out throughout
their life what you doing so I believe
when they rock their foot like that it’s
a little bit of indecision as they’re
not a hundred percent sure which way
they want to go so they wait until
they’ve got some backup oh and all just
throwing sticks on top of the head
apparently is also what you do when you
have your foot up and resting a little
bit good and they rock like that it’s
just a bit indecisive as to what they do
you can see is that a dust bath today as
well but a nice white dust all over his
head young boy here comes another one
and there’s still quite a few to our
left-hand side so I would imagine
they’re all slowly but surely coming
down for a drink
but it is a beautiful scene it’s calm
it’s quiet
are you gonna come say hello yeah there
are they closing in now we’re in trouble
said look at these two cheeky England’s
Alicia is a party at the water well it
looks like it although it looks like
we’ve been ganged up upon Mike these two
you see how the posture is with both of
them ears art heads slightly raised so
they are now coming towards us just to
come and see what we are and who we are
typical of a young male he wants to know
what’s going on he’s looking hairy
casual with his foot over the top of the
other one and the one on the left is
slightly older one what are you what do
you want it don’t come and give us
trouble we’ve done nothing to you wave
yourself
so look at the posture you see how she’s
trying to make herself bigger he sorry
he’s trying to make himself bigger and
it’s trying to trick nurse but because
we standing our ground and he’s young
not a hundred percent sure about this
whole thing and that’s why I now moving
off a little bit he’s beginning to go
back towards the herd if it was a big
old male and it was showing that posture
there was a very different story these
youngsters you’ve got to teach them a
little bit you’ve got to show them that
you are not scared of them and that you
don’t have worried about them and you
sit and wait and just sit it out and
eventually that’s what happens as they
learn not to come near you and they go
off and back down to the water but you
can see they’ve dug a massive hole where
that male is they’re throwing mud all
over himself but there’s a nice deep
hole at the base of the feet that he’s
busy pulling mud out of and they’ve dug
that by the looks of it with their feet
before water to seep through so they’ll
be nice clean water in there and then
once they’ve drank they then start to
throw mud and get it all muddy and
collapse soil in there and then that’s
what he’s throwing all over his body you
can see the dark he is in
coloration bits of mud sticking to him
all over the place
sleeeeep you saying you wonder if the
Ellie’s know how much they are loved by
us yes I suppose not really they don’t
really know that because generally they
absolutely petrified of humans on foot
and see us as a predator because of all
the years of persecution that they’ve
had so in vehicles they know that we’re
not really a threat but they do
definitely yeah or not seeing us as part
of the family I mean we are an object
that is in the hood sometimes and they
accept it because we don’t really do
anything but on foot is a very different
situation at what they see people and
humans as a potential dangerous animal
and something that they need to be very
wary of so you won’t find them being too
friendly to us on foot just you know
wondering if an elephant could ever
cause serious damage if you were
attacked by them the answer to that is a
resounding yes in fact it’s not just
serious damage they will cause death if
you are to get manhandled by an elephant
you’re not going to generally survive in
altercation like that elephants when
they get hold of people is a very ugly
situation even when they get hold of
cars there are a number of videos on the
internet if you want to go and check it
out about elephants rolling cars and
squashing cars and all kinds of other
things so they are extremely extremely
dangerous on foot and something you’ve
got to be very wary of and you’ll find
that they if they get hold of you then
you’re in a lot of trouble you’re not
going to come out of it very nicely and
even if you do survive you’re going to
have all kinds of big problems that
animal is hugely powerful it is
immensely strong much stronger than what
we are and our bodies are like a little
rag doll to them if they get hold of us
and it’s really not a pleasant situation
I know of a couple people that have been
killed by elephants and I can tell you
it’s not a very pleasant experience and
if you want to know just how unpleasant
it is you can ask one of our presenters
bring Claire Smith because he was hit by
an elephant in Gabon a forest elephant
which are much smaller than the Savannah
elephants and it certainly did a bit of
damage to him he had a badly dislocated
hip and so he’ll be able to tell you
just how unpleasant being
handled by an elephant is well no he’s
doing this elephant enormous looks like
he’s waiting the bank to make mud that
he can then potentially rub on what all
you see sprayed water all along there
any snuffing along what are you doing
are you watering the garden very strange
I’ve never seen an elephant actually do
this almost like he’s making his own
little mudslide you’re not really
drinking as you can see this is not
exactly a huge amount of water being
sucked up and put inside the mouth it’s
mostly just being thrown onto the bank
look there we go what are you doing
that’s super interesting natural are you
asking if he could be trying to eat some
of the soil in the minerals it’s
possible that he could be doing that I
think however what he’s actually doing
is taking the surface tension off the
water and then pushing that onto the
soil as getting rid of all of the dust
and dirt that’s on top of the water and
then he’s drinking the nice clean water
that’s left
so you see look he sprays that stuff out
and then once he sprayed a little bit
then he pushes water into the mouth so I
think he’s just getting rid of all the
dirty water that he first sucks up and
the sediment and then pushing nice water
into his mouth
okay use anything he’s building a
sandcastle I like that idea I suppose
when you young children down at the
water hole and the muddy areas they’re
going to make little sand castles and
that’s maybe what he’s doing it would be
nice imagine if he could build a
sandcastle would be very clever wouldn’t
it I reckon the elephant’s sandcastle
would look quite good you can see a
number of other elephants starting to
arrive now we’re getting lots and lots
and lots of them coming through there’s
a lot of babies that are going to come
through just now as well this is the
first part the rest are still in the
bush but a slowly but surely heading
down in this direction so they’re going
to be with us fairly soon so they
obviously came down for a drink during
the day then they went off to feed and
now they’re back again this is the same
herd we had this morning that big herd
that we had it’s exactly the same sort
of composition of them and I’ve
recognized a couple of these individuals
from earlier you can see they’re
actually having a mud wallow now you can
hear him slurping up the mud and
spraying it there we go
digging out a little bit of that swell
this will all be to help cool down as
well as to create a predictive layer for
those biting flies and various parasites
and like I said cooling down is probably
the biggest reason you see eye sprays
behind his ears up onto the chest area
because that’s where all the thinnest
skin is and where it will cool down the
quickest deadhead user love elephant
personalities they are are the best
aren’t they they’ve got so much sort of
spunk and so much attitude and
personality to all of them and each
one’s different each one has got its own
kind of uniqueness and they really are
an incredible animal when I spend time
in Kenya with all those orphans each one
has its own persona and its own way of
doing things they are some of them very
naughty others are shy and reclusive
others are playful it just depends on
the individual it’s really amazing how
different they actually all are and how
each one is very much like people in
completely unique in the way that they
go about their day and their business is
magical sitting here at this time of the
day it’s that sunset period we actually
have a beautiful big red disc of Sun
going down on our left hand side it is a
wonderful wonderful scene so there that
is
and then it’s quiet these alias all
around us is a prospect of potentially a
cheetah arriving at some point which
would be amazing so imagine if we had a
cheetah arrive on the other bank and
start drinking with these elephants that
would be a turn up for the books
so is lots going on and it is just so
pretty
being Archer and quiet Pleasant isn’t it
sip a lovely way to spend a Sunday
afternoon that’s for sure it’s a perfect
perfect perfect way to relax on a Sunday
slowly but surely going down I reckon it
will be done in the next two three
minutes I think we’ll see that it’s
going to go beyond the horizon there’s
the rest of our heads slowly but surely
arrives let’s just go forward a little
bit because we can maybe watch the rest
of them that are feeding and starting to
come out as well
I was thinking about going down to where
they’ve got that mud wallow but then I
remembered that elephant’s throne might
a long way away so I don’t really want
to go get covered in mud so I probably
won’t heed to far that direction that’s
what we will do is there’s a little path
here and we can then just Park and we
can watch them from on top as well as
all the others that will start coming
past us
come on rusty over the bump
we’re just going to park ourselves over
yep just on top of the bank we’re going
to sit with our elephants sorry if I
know it’s a butts skew and lopsided but
this is where we’re going to least enjoy
watching them as they drink around us
and have a little feed I believe a lot
of you are just saying how much you love
spending time with these ILI’s and we
are so fortunate particularly here in
the sands where we get these intimate
close encounters and they all around us
and just how relaxed they are they they
are so tolerant of us look at this
little one trying to get into the hole
don’t fall oh I thought we might see a
head plant into the hole what is it with
the young individuals husana yesterday
shoving his head down the hall at the
termite mound and now our little inny or
so I feel like we’re going to get one or
two of the tiny babies arriving and they
might disappear down that hole which
would be quite entertaining to watch
because they will probably be a bit of
screaming you can’t fit in there what
are you doing well Nega is the mud bath
for everybody else it’s too small for
you to sit in there you can’t sit it’s
not going to stop me trying is basically
what’s happening
so but if you are wondering or inexactly
myself and byron we’re going to join the
scene and run into the mud wallows since
we’ve got our mud wrestling match coming
up and we need to get into training well
Byron’s not here so I don’t want to get
any unfair advantage over him if we
training we can have to Train
you know at the same time I can’t get
all my techniques down pat and not give
him a chance to Train although he is in
the timber party game reserve so maybe
he’s found some mud wallows of his own
in this doing some sneaky training in
his speedos I’ll have to try and find
out from some of the sources that we
know there I wouldn’t be surprised if he
is it’s good weather and we know Byron
loves a bit of mud wrestling and Tim
bhavati was where he trained when he was
the champion back in the day and so he’s
gone back to his roots and back to his
training ground and I’m sure he’s busy
doing getting up to no good in the mud
that side so I’ll have to suppose put in
some hours at some point and we’ll have
to see how it goes we have to wait for
Brenton and James and Scott to come back
because they’re also part of this
challenge as well so until such time as
we’ve got them here we going to have to
try and hold off a bit of practice
although I suppose they can practice
that side as well right well we’re going
to sit and enjoy our Alize because well
why wouldn’t you want to it’s just the
most magical scene being here with them
and while we do that Oh Alize I think
it’s also more coming behind us but
stiff is back up and running in and
still with his lines so let’s see if
they’re going to be mating a little bit
more
welcome back and this lioness has left a
full and eaten zebra can you believe it
and has decided to head off in a
southerly direction towards the
escarpment which has created a lot of
confusion amongst David and myself as to
which pride she belongs to we’re on the
fringes of three prides right now the
young gamez the paradise and the sausage
tree and if I were to give a guess it
would probably be the angle is that this
lioness belongs to although she’s
hitting straight south and she’s
definitely not nervous about doing so
and that means that it might even be the
sausage pride now the sausage tree pride
is generally speaking located along the
edge of the escarpment that you see in
the background and not really here but
this lioness is walking straight there
and she’s she’s quite determined
beautiful afternoon shot the red line
Wow
it’s listening to the bush around us
very similar to the mornings changed
from day to night and night today this
crepuscular hour is quite astounding in
terms of what you can all of a sudden
start hearing a lot more birds making a
noise than when we left this afternoon
but that is because things have quieted
down a little bit I think there’s less
birds calling I just think that the
birds that are calling while making the
most of this fantastic shot there it
feature in the background the land that
we’re sitting on now is slowly subsiding
away from that escarpment face are we
sinking away from the escarpment face
leaving behind the top curve is now
walking away from her she’s on a game
path lands impossible will will choose
to walk on game pods it’s quieter I was
going from one place to another less
thorns in this particular area the game
paths are made up mostly from hippo pods
we’re not going to be able to follow
this lioness fish is going our she’s
moving to a non off-roading area this
area that we were in at the moment is it
Jason to a swamp and and is relatively
sensitive from an ecological point of
view we can’t just go off road whatever
we want and that’s a good thing this
lioness is moving through this
particular area there’s another road put
a mile or two away from here and you’ll
see if we can go and fit well go around
there in a little bit but we’ve got
three other lions right next to us right
now we’ve got two male lines in the
female line and a full grown and eaten
zebra and I think that that’s probably
where the action is gonna be and and I
think that that’s what we’re gonna be
doing so we’re gonna turn around and go
back to that zebra carcass now and see
what we will see what comes up from that
and leave that line has to go either
fetch your sisters the fetcher cubs and
come back to this carcass here and
that’s what I think she’s is he doing in
the meantime we’re gonna be sending you
an hour wolf for us it’s an hour back in
time but you are you going to a
different time zone
with with Tristan and what is it to be
quite an exciting thing well
unfortunately I will he just walked away
she was right next to us I don’t know
what’s wrong with these Aliza’s this
morning and this often every time we try
come back to us and the Ellie’s are
close to us they move away just as they
linking so they’ve gone up into the top
of one finished it’s mud wallow and it’s
going there and there we’ve come down
right near the mud wallow because we’ve
got a nice and low perspective and if
they are going to carry on you can see
there’s the mighty section and there’s a
whole bunch more that are slowly but
surely coming from behind us so I would
imagine they are going to end up coming
to CID mud wallow as well and we’ll end
up with a little bit of action nice and
close and the awesome little baby so I’m
hoping they are going to go into this
mud wallow and roll around and have a
good old time much like what we saw with
that other youngster that was here just
now there is a hardy da as well that’s
busy rooting around in the edge of the
water it seems to be almost hit deep as
it’s digging around I wonder what it’s
finding in there must be finding some
sort of food item you can see it’s going
quite deep in it’s generally Hardy does
you know will roots around a little bit
shallower than that but it’s must be
finding some sort of food item there
must be little insects or little maybe
freshwater crabs or some sort of food
item that’s just right down in the mud
and that’s why it’s digging as deep in
there to get what it’s looking for once
we get little freshwater snails
sometimes that they will go after it
might be those guys that are just low
down in the mud Slayer
it’s got the good right idea it’s such a
beautiful evening a little afternoon
swim is perfect so you’ve got the big
and the small the hardy door and the
elephant and both are completely
unperturbed by the other the Hadid I was
actually gotten away with murder today
generally these elephants will chase
them all over the show but this
afternoon they haven’t really worried
about this corridor at all
Coria wondering if we’ve seen any
offspring from the Magnificent Seven
correct we might have I have no idea
it’s very difficult to I haven’t any
idea as to who the father of these
infant cards is there’s multiple males
and the females get mated with and and
because of the gestation period being so
long and the number of females very
difficult to know if they come from
those magnificent seven in terms of
tusks as though an emerging Tuskers and
we have seen one or two tasker’s here
there was one that was around in
april/may that area i think a little bit
into june as well really nice it wasn’t
a massive Tusker but he did have nice
tusks and but when I was a cheetah we
used to have two really really big
Tuskers that came through um when I’m
talking Tuskers I mean massive thick big
long tusks that almost touched the
ground and I haven’t seen them in a very
long time and so he just sold him see
them down here I saw those really big
tusks is and even the Magnificent 7
themselves we’re in the northern part of
Kruger they very seldom came down to the
southern section they like to stay in
the Mopani Belt area just north of us
and so very seldom do we see them the
closest biggest Tusker that I know of is
in the timber party game reserve so
there was one that was up that’s I don’t
know if it’s still alive I remember
hearing something about it possibly
dying but that was a really big Tusker
that was around and then there was one
also seen around the sabi River down
towards lower sabi and when that
individual is also I think still around
that side but there is a number of
emerging Tuskers and if you’re
interested in it you just can go on to
the the sand parks website so they have
a whole thing on emerging Tuskers and
and all the emerging Tuskers of the
Krugerrand is even some females that
feature in there some of the big of
tusks good emails so if you are
interested in seeing which emerging
Tuskers are coming out and what the
where the areas that they inhabit then
you can go and see it on that website
listen to them talking to one another
there’s a little bit of grumbling all
around us seems as though none of them
were wanting to come down to the mud
wallow anymore the rest of them were
just coming to my northern side into
this little drainage section just to
feed but there’s something about being
in amongst them when they just do those
low grumbles and one will do it a little
bit further away and then one closer to
you in on your other side and when it
happens all around your sex around sound
of an elephant grumble it’s such a cool
experience to to go through remember
that time only in the moola wotty when I
was with sipped at one time and we had
the most epic afternoon with the
elephants and they were vocalizing
heavily it was just especially in the
Malati cuz it echoes through that
riverbed it was just so fantastic so
hopefully we’ll get that now that
they’re coming down into the drainage
that they do a bit more of the same
that’s a very content elephant with this
stick you can see foot is crossed over
stick in mouth it’s rotating and getting
all that cambium and that’s as cool as
you can look when feeding upon a stick
apparently reckon Byron would be envious
of this elephant and his coolness
no he’s just chomping away bit of ear
flapping to cool down in the late
afternoon warmth but I believe stiff has
made his way towards the zebra carcass
so let’s go back to him and see if
there’s anything that’s there and
feeding off the said Debray dead zebra
carcass and isn’t that just a majestic
sight
we’ve decided to return to the area with
the dead zebra and the reason for that
is I think that there’s the greatest
chance of seeing something around this
carcass the smell lands been lying off
to the one side the whole day he looks
full but the zebra caucus hasn’t been
touched and a male line won’t move from
from that much fresh meat additionally I
think that this male lions coalition
brother is busy mating with a female
close by and quite often you see these
sort of unfortunates that the guy who
didn’t make it quite lying on the
periphery of a mating event and and I
think in this particular case I think
he’s actually got the the the other say
the lion’s share of the meat okay is
that the right way to say that there and
does it sound bad and I think that he’s
be he’d be able to keep tabs on his
brother just in case something happens
and and still have some food available
to him and I think he’s just sort of
surveying his domain at the moment
that’s what male lions do they wake up
all of a sudden at sunset
have a look around I think he might even
if we lucky and you’re holding thumbs
give us a row or two and and then I
think he’s gonna go and have a meal that
female she walked off South with
Epis and there’s every chance that she
comes back here with some either cubs or
even her sisters as I was mentioning a
little bit earlier I think we’re on the
periphery here between three prods I
think this is just on the southern edge
of the paradise pride on the northern
edge of the N Gamez and when the south
eastern edge of the of the of the pet of
the sausage pods pride if I were to
guess I would have said that this was
the n gamma pride female but the way
that that female walked off south of
here I don’t know difficult to say and
the exciting thing about saying I don’t
know with regards to lion prides is
exactly that is that we just don’t know
there’s this is a new area we’ve only
been operating here for a couple of
months and these lion pride dynamics
here are very very complex and it’s
because there’s so much food spread so
widely around that the lions are spread
out and what we think might be two
prides could in fact be one giant pride
it might be even smaller fragmented
prides it might even be a combination of
the two in which case prides will form
and then and then disband and form again
we just don’t know even the line
researchers around here let’s say they
don’t exactly know what’s going on with
all these lion prides and it’s gonna be
very interesting with all of you out
there to try and get to the bottom of it
over time he’s getting a little bit
darker and a little bit of out of the
range of our infrared lights that male
lions lying about 150 yards off from us
at the moment but facing us and the
zebra is a little bit closer and so I
hope he does decide to get up and move
we’ll be able to see him he is beautiful
there maiya lines at about five years of
age to about nine years of age reach
their their maximum size but as they
take over prides the testosterone levels
actually increase when they are pride
males are dominant in an area and that
forms the growth of that black mane that
you seen
me and it has been proven that females
are more attracted to males with black
Mane’s than there are two males with
blonde Mane’s or even males with no
Mane’s however you know in survival
terms females that come into East rest
in areas where lion numbers are very low
like in the movie ER for instance up in
the central northern central part of of
Namibia it’s not uncommon for female
lioness to come into Easter’s with at
males being anywhere nearby and then
they will basically go for any male that
comes a-calling and it could even be
their son so incest in lions in small or
fragmented populations is not an
uncommon thing and for the survival of
the species females do sometimes subject
themselves to the attentions of males
that are related or very young
we’re not dominant or nomadic or any
other combination I don’t think that
that’s gonna be the case in this area
the male lines in this area are just
fantastic you know it’s the spot where
Lions in Masai culture male lions were
hunted by young warriors as a as a
basically as a rite of passage
okay oh you wanted to know when we tend
to hear these big male lions roaring
okay that happens around about now in
actual fact same reason why we hear lots
of bird calls and lots in the in the in
the early evening and in in the early
morning but now a male lion will call
just to reestablish where he went to
sleep in the Sun we’re done and so this
male lions looking around he’s busy
listening I have no doubt that if he’s
so inclined as to protect his his domain
that he will roar
anytime soon I’m looking forward to a
national factor now carry on roaring
throughout the evening sometimes if they
get distracted by one thing or another
they could stop picking it up again in
the morning but a male lion on patrol of
his boundary will raw every 3 or 4
minutes and will raw the entire evening
it’s it’s no effort
to do so whatsoever he’s busy looking at
the moment did a hippopotamus that has
come out of the Mara River and he’s
making its way to feeding grounds
adjacent to the river we quite close to
the river where we are now I’d say we’re
probably about 300 yards of gold head
getting into your shot please excuse
their sorry Debbie it’s just they off to
the left a little bit there we go
David’s looking at a little screen that
is no there we go
David’s looking at a very bright screen
that is overwhelmed by the evening as it
comes on and sometimes it does make a
little bit more challenging to find
these things but being the artist he is
picks it up very quickly so he come out
this time of the evening a feat for not
a long time by one two o’clock in the
morning hippos are almost always back in
their ponds very few hippo with grass so
close to the edges of the rivers will
actually be out longer than that in
areas like the elephants river which
lies just north of Juma you sometimes
find hippopotamus only arriving back at
the ponds 10 11 o’clock in the morning
sometimes in the dry season and that’s
because they’ve had to walk up to 20 or
50 miles away from the river to find
enough grass to eat that’s particularly
I don’t think is gonna have any such
trouble so David’s just informed us that
we’re going to be moving over to
infrared so excuse the change that’s
gonna happen now you’re gonna see a
remarkable change to the picture that
you’re having a look at now there we go
and isn’t that wonderful so now what
we’re doing is the cameras picked up
always change the filter which allows it
to utilize infrared radiation and that
is created a slightly different picture
now don’t forget we don’t have any
artificial lights on the story
whatsoever this is you looking at this
picture as it’s getting dark here
as listen to all the noises crickets
Franklin
is lovely it’s also not uncommon for for
lion to hunt hippo I would imagine that
Lions would either hunt a hippo that
gets too close to a bunch of them and
looks injured a week in a particular way
or if they’re lots of lions and they’re
hungry
oh the hippo is weak or injured that
Lions will single it out they’re not the
usual prey item for ProLiant however
there are some places in this world
where lions will hunt anything even
elephant let’s see this is around the
bottom of feeling the tension build
there’s Marilyn come give us a roll big
guy let’s see let’s hear you lay claim
to this area pick a fight where lines
are designed to fight because what is
that question tiger which weighs which
weighs more than a lion or a lion which
one would win in a fight now I’ve always
backed lion
I know sort of purpose bred fighting
machines and a big male line like this
has a lot of experience in fights no
he’s not gonna roll he’s going back to
sleep how could you do that
take a you wanna know well I’m sure
looking at this mayor there’s mail with
this big hairy black-maned body you’d
like to know why is it that that male
lions are more attractive to you excuse
me
Wow female lions more attracted to males
with black Mane’s than anything else
take it let me think about my auntie
here a little bit for you personally I
think it’s a sign of vitality not only
do male lions have to be strong enough
to prove to that female that they are
the strongest male in that particular
area in other words they speak and
health they’re healthy enough and
they’re strong enough to fight off other
males so that in this particular area
that male would be the strongest but
they also have to prove that from a
vitality point of view and the only way
that they it’s a visual cue and it’s
it’s it’s males are healthy their bodies
are healthy they’ve got enough excess
excess Arden I suppose metabolic energy
that can create this big fluffy mane the
black mane and the the main around the
lion’s head is also serve as a
protection it’s not just a visual cue
about vitality but it also forms a
protection around the head of the line
and that will tell a female that this
particular male is protected in other
words he can withstand some battering
and and can fend off other male lions so
I think it’s just a it’s just a it’s
basically just a visual cue on how vital
the these particular cats are so I’ll
just say that females won’t go for bald
or for blonde males at all but
definitely I think the increased
testosterone that creates the long Mane
is apart from everything else quite
attractive to females because it’s just
an added bonus in terms of how healthy
they are alright now we’re gonna keep an
eye on these males or this male and his
brother up there with his young female
and wait to see what happens to that
lioness that walked or south and this
zebra carcass off to our right inside in
the meantime you’re gonna be crossing
the Mara River to my friend Scott Dawson
he’s
sitting with those cheats over the whole
afternoon hello everyone
we’ve just had to get up and moving
quite quickly these cheetah that were
with their five of them have just
started rushing towards a herd of
wildebeest and you just never know
what’s gonna happen they were scent
marking on a tree initially we’ve just
seen some and they all trotting
alongside us how awesome is this heading
straight towards a herd of wildebeest
you couldn’t have joined us at a better
time they’ve just changed gears without
any warning and they are very steadily
approaching what looks to be a couple of
hundred wildebeest all dot adults about
ten seconds ahead of them now I’m gonna
keep moving alongside them like this so
that we don’t get left in their dust
and this is about to get serious we’re
about to start seeing this coalition of
five cheats are start working this herd
of wildebeests like a pack of wolves the
way they hunt them after dark like this
one at dusk is something to behold now
we’re using a special low-light camera
so it appears a lot brighter than it
actually is now I can only just faintly
make the world to be starts in front of
us let’s stop here
this time ahead of us here mono may be
stone these front ones just not just a
little bit left there and from that bush
there we go now we in a bit of a tricky
situation I don’t know if we should
quickly switch over to infrared mono if
you think that is a good idea tricky one
we do have an infrared light there we go
so this is going to be I think a lot
easier for us to follow the action look
at our awesomeness is pulling back
it’s partners asking for updates down
the front one money you can hear the
will to be snorting they’ve noticed
these cheater but they are not fleeing
just yet and it’s only when they start
running that the action and faults
welcome to everyone who has just jumped
on board this live Safari it is
wonderful to have you with us
we are following five cheetah and they
are surrounded by migrating herds of
wildebeest we are in the Maasai Mara in
Kenya and we are about to see some epic
epic action these five cheetahs have
become experts at hunting wildebeest and
we’ve been lucky enough to follow them
at dusk or after dark just like now on a
number of occasions and what they likely
to do is start working this herd of
wildebeest just like a pack of wolves
running in and amongst them creating
chaos and so finally they can single out
a youngster and then make their move
it’s incredibly tricky work for us to
work up at least mono who is on camera
to work out which cheetah to film when
there is so much action unfold and so he
is gonna be darting between all of them
to make sure that we do not miss out
then I go already this is why muhanad
has to keep switching over stay wide
let’s see what happens here how awesome
is this now what I’m gonna do is I’m
gonna keep following them we need to get
closer
you trust they’re as wide and as as many
as you can
perfect just like that mano good work
this is so exciting we spend many many
hours out with these animals waiting for
moments like this to happen and you guys
are in for a treat I just need to make
sure I don’t drive us into a hole as we
move along I’ll use my headlights
sparingly as when we need beep okay I
think we’re in a decent spot yeah hello
to Cheryl you just sent through your
comments saying how much you love
watching these five boys and me too
there are quick becoming my favorite
African predator to follow and they are
certainly showcasing how epic cheetah
can and are or can be and are but the
fact that we are lucky enough to have
just five of these guys together it’s
rare to have a correlation coalition
this large
hello Betsy you’d like to know why these
wildebeest are not panicking and I guess
it’s too soon to panic for them it’s not
quite dark yet they can still see a
little bit and they know that fleeing
into the unknown is just as dangerous as
kind of keeping an eye on your possible
threat so I guess that’s the theory that
they’re employing the fact that there’s
nice short open grass means they can
keep a good eye on them so they know
where the threat is coming from and who
knows maybe they’ve just been a little
bit dazed by all the action that is
attracted to the migration the amount of
wildebeest that they must see die as
they move along for this treacherous
journey it’s quite something and I’m
told a lot of you guys are cheering on
these cheetah so am i I’m not sure when
they last fed we were lucky enough to
see them catch and kill a young
wildebeest I think it was three days ago
early one morning we got incredibly
lucky and since then I’m not sure if
they’ve had any luck judging by their
bellies I don’t think they have so they
may not have eaten in quite some time
maybe I’m wrong there may have been
successful in making kills that have
simply been stolen by lion and hyena so
it’s not that they wouldn’t have been
successful simply they may just not not
have had any luck keeping their prey to
themselves
how beautiful is that with the clouds up
to the east
what an epic epic evening
now I’m surprised they haven’t started
working the herds as I would have
expected them to just yet but the
Knights are still young they usually
start doing just like we saw it kind of
doers they start all running in Allen
and you’d like to know if they would
target out a specific wildebeest well
yes eventually one of them would find a
youngster possibly two or three of them
could actually get lucky in one hands if
they all targets and find a youngster
that’s worth following they will follow
each one individually so once they’ve
kind of singled one Artes I guess others
may jump on board but interestingly
these guys have got so much faith in
their partners that once they see that
one or two of them are hots on the trail
of a wildebeest there are this kind of
lag behind just backing them to do the
job for them so I’ve been quite
surprised by that
okay so obviously no tasty wildebeest in
these initial herds but there’s a lots
more in this area so let’s just keep an
eye on what’s going on here you’d see a
gentle glow of eyes in the distance as
maybe just stop you’ll get some great
shots as they walk past these guys
listen to this noise audible the beasts
calling hooves rolling there’s a bit of
a breeze picking up it was it dead still
evening and that will create further
chaos and confusion once full darkness
sets in which I guess would be in a Bart
ten minutes or so
– 15 minutes it’s gonna be pitch black
and I think that is what these cheats
are waiting for they can simply create
more of a frenzy making it easier for
them to single one art wonderful
wonderful stuff
we’ve got really lucky finding these
guys this afternoon they move huge huge
distances from where they we saw them
three days ago when they start running
like that my heart starts racing mine is
doing a great job on just keeping on all
five of them like I said it is important
that we know all of them ours one may
decide to charge for it at any stage
hello VT you’d like to know if cheater
can see well at night will do they smell
their prey well in a situation like this
I think it’s going to be entirely sites
and audio I mean you can hear the
cacophony of these canoes all around us
so the combination of sight and hearing
mainly but smell in different situations
may definitely assist them try to locate
prey when prayers more sparse but in
these open areas these cheats are gonna
have absolutely no problem seeing who’s
who after dark good good
well I wonder when they’re gonna make
their move everyone as I’m sure a lot of
you are wondering but their body
language suggests that they are
certainly going to do the necessary
business tonight in order to get their
next meal I’m feeling very very
confident even when we met them earlier
this afternoon they were looking quite
perky and having spent the last two
months following these guys quite
closely it’s been very interesting to
get to start reading into their body
language and their behavior this this
state of hunger and at the moments
everything is looking very very
favorable for what could be a wonderful
after dark hunting experience I will
warn you in advance if you have yet to
join in on one of these it can be
absolute chaos
not knowing where to film and where to
drive but it is certainly awesome
and those clouds are making for an
incredibly dramatic scene that we can be
grateful for as well
here they go
they are looking more and more focused
now as it begins to get dark like I said
about five minutes ago wasn’t completely
dark but it’s just about getting there
now so don’t be fooled by this fancy
infrared camera it is almost pitch pitch
black
well I Brenda you’d like to know exactly
who they are hoping and singling out
tonight weak or small I guess either but
their main option at the moment has been
the smaller wildebeest that were born
earlier this year so they’re about seven
or eight months old now they’re still
quite a handful for these cheetah to
bring down so it’s not an easy job for
certainly one cheetah to dispatch a
young wildebeest but with all five of
them working together they have no
problem at all
and they are even capable of catching
fully grown wildebeest that are 2 or 3
years old so they’re gonna just work out
whichever option I guess is easiest and
presents itself to them to be honest we
haven’t seen them attack any seemingly
weak nor injured it’s just being the
young or whichever one was in the wrong
place
oh another pit
hyena has cleverly caught wind of these
cheetah and it’s probably gonna come
closer to investigate to make sure they
haven’t made a kill already the wind is
blowing from left to right so I think he
would have seen them as opposed to smelt
them so he won’t be certain if there is
a carcass nearby and he’s gonna probably
circle his way in just to make sure
there’s no snacks if we’re lucky we’ll
see them chase him last night or even
lucky enough to see two young sister
cheetahs chase or for hyena off they’re
in particle which was incredibly
surprising I was thinking that two young
girls would have fleed let’s see what
these five males think of this hyena
magical scene this is I’m not sure if
you guys can hear the good news
snorting and bellowing all around us
okay it looks like the Haines is kind of
disappearing behind our car but like I
said they do kind of like to slowly
circle their way in there’s supposed to
come in on a straight line so we will
just keep an eye on the Cheetahs body
language and they’ll let us know if he
or she that hyena or I don’t know if it
is a male comes any closer
now they’ve probably also thought let’s
just slow things down a bit it seeing as
though there is a hyena on the scene it
doesn’t make a huge amount of sense man
I’ll take down a wildebeest so then I
give it a few minutes it will be
interesting to see maybe they’re just
having a breather regrouping before they
attack these herds which are just
lingering a couple of hundred metres
away not far off you can see one of
their eyes there oh well this is awesome
and it’s great to have you guys with us
how incredible that we can be coming to
you live from the Masai Mara taking you
and Singh with cheetah after dark I
couldn’t think of a better way to spend
it is a Sunday evening it’s Sunday
evening here at least I’m not sure what
day it is or time it is and watch over
part of the world you may be watching
but it is wonderful to have you with us
and who knows when these cheats are
going to pass I don’t but I think it is
going to happen at some stage tonight so
that is something to look forward to
failing that our plan is to spend the
entire night with them and if they don’t
decide to do any more hunting tonight I
am almost guaranteeing you that
something will happen tomorrow morning
and we’ll be trying our best to stay
with them through the nights
hopefully they’ll all be sleepy and
won’t keep us moving too long
but we’ll definitely keep you guys
posted on what these guys get up to
there could end up having a snooze year
they could get up in the next five
minutes we certain we just don’t know
but like I said we will be certain to
notify you guys as soon as any imminent
action is ready to share with you it’s
been wonderful having you on safari with
me and the Manu on camera we will see
you all a little bit later well we have
a surprise for all of you from one
spotted cat to another Serb high five
there we go so we have ten Ghana on the
dam wall and he’s taking it very easy at
the moment he’s just watching over the
back of the demo so thank you to those
that did let us know we were thought
that the dam cam was out so for all of
you that did let us know that there was
a leopard at the dam we came to check it
out just in case that you were alright
and you were so thank you very much for
letting us know it’s always so nice when
you guys do and help us find things
there was also alarm calls from a Impala
for the south of us here so we were busy
checking that out I don’t know if it was
from ting Ghana but maybe another
leopard is also in the general vicinity
so it was a very nice surprise indeed
Wendy you say classic last-minute
leopard and yes well who else could it
be it could only be one last minute
fella and that is ting gone and look at
him just sprawled out and he’s looking
ever so bigger with the size of his neck
and head he is a monstrous individual
long tail is seems as though he hasn’t
had a meal though since we last saw him
either doesn’t look like he’s full in
any way but he is definitely looking
down the strange as though you can hear
something I wonder if me he maybe heard
those impalas alarm calling further down
towards the South here because they were
calling around central number will ort
area which is straight down this
riverbed so maybe that’s why it’s so
intent and looking that direction
we want to wait to finish our afternoon
there’s nothing better than CCB’s just
looking down at the infrared to see if
there’s any sign of anything there and
he could potentially be watching but it
really is a great way to finish and our
lipid luck continues so we didn’t have a
lipid this morning for the first time
since I’ve been back
but we’ve had a lipid at least this
afternoon so our lipid fortunes and our
trifectas are kept trifectas carry on
the cheetah inside Juma so we tried
again to go around and check when we
left the elephants I found their tracks
they they came in to Juma for sure and I
can’t find anything going out so maybe
tomorrow morning those cheetah will
still be around it’ll definitely go back
and have a look again but at least we’ve
got our Rose it spotted individual but
it looks as though he’s a bit sort of
tentative you can see is watching very
carefully he’s not as though he’s a very
sleepy cat at the moment so I wonder
what he’s seeing I can hear a few sort
of noises to the south yeah I wonder if
there isn’t some Yala moving around in
these tambuti thickets south of the dam
see how he’s using his yes to listen it
makes me think that if Singhania is here
sip see we I mean Sybil I both heard him
last night as well calling so I wonder
if he hasn’t been with tündi the last
two days and that’s since we last saw
him he because I had tracks for a female
in a male leopard in the Malati and I
wonder if the two of them haven’t been
walking around together a bit and that’s
why it’s listening maybe Tandy is not
too far away here could it be possible
that they potentially are mating again I
suppose it is very possible given that
the time is marching forward and we know
totality is already mated with ting gana
don’t think it was a full-on Easter I
think was a false eustress that you
ain’t into just to ensure safety in this
particular section as she’s moved in but
maybe she’s starting to come into a
proper estrus again and we’ve seen her
leaving tumblr for long periods of time
now and so I wonder if this is what
they’ve been up to the two of them have
not been together
mr. P you say he seems to be getting
quite old well yes he’s aging he’s
almost 12 years old now so he’s getting
on the older side we always talk of him
ruler as the old boy but you must
remember it singhania’s not exactly
young these days either so he is getting
older but it’s just his sheer width of
his neck I mean he’s got no chin whoa
Nick should I say he’s just quite the
one big thick kind of head that goes
into shoulders he looks a little bit
sausage like from that angle I always
say he’s like a sausage with four legs
ding goner
so he’s aging his juleps getting bigger
but he’s still in fine condition and
he’s in big boys a lot of people who is
Satan ganas not that big but I can show
you I’ve seen him next to Anderson and
he certainly doesn’t disgrace himself
he’s not a small individual and he’s got
big powerful shoulders and he’ll
certainly put up a massive fight for any
male that wants to try and asked him say
he’s adult
any chance of a male coming to this area
and chasing him away just yet he’s still
in perfect condition and health so I
reckon is still a good couple years in
Tenggara
as we go his teeth are still in good
condition like I said it’s going to have
to take a really strong young challenger
to push out that size male
so Cindy 10 Ghana means shy that’s
basically what it means now I don’t know
how are we gonna follow him through here
I’m gonna try and see if I can get
quickly done round on to the other side
because he’s dropping down into this
drainage and I just need to let the
other guys know that are responding
quickly but his name means shy
effectively yeah Ralph and Tom he’s
mobile are south into the middle whitey
I don’t know if I may be able to follow
him if you come in need to make your way
quickly he’s gonna do a bit of scent
marking down there I’m gonna try and
just put on a slight for SIB so you can
see him a bit better we are in the
infrared just so we can see a little bit
clearer what’s going on and as he drifts
away
he’s just hitting towards that tambuti
thicket exactly where he was watching
and like I say for us to be able to hit
in that direction it’s gonna be very
difficult down there no mmm
unfortunately where he is going there
really is very little chance to follow I
can try and just stick with him on the
bank but actually getting into where
that is is a whole nother story but
let’s try cookies
mr. P wondering if lipids normally die
naturally or do they get killed by young
challengers depends some died naturally
if males tend to get themselves into
trouble and fight and get some sort of
injury and that often leads to death
where is the females a lot of the time
die of old age so case in point is Sally
she died of old age
there’s been a couple others that have
also unfortunately
succumb to old age let’s try and see if
we can get here quick you remember we
had a two-track here from when we add
tumble citing so that should take us
exactly waiting ganas walking but from
there it’s going to be quite difficult
to follow where did I go down no
elephants have closed us all off let’s
try three years to drop our antenna so
if it’s a bit of picture breakup I do
apologize there we go we are through
sync just keep it down for now save for
two seconds while I get down into this
area you should be somewhere in front of
me now
try and get onto that side somewhere it
is worked out just fine he’s now lying
on again which is fantastic news it’s on
a quickly radio the other guy shame
they’ve been looking for animals all
afternoon nobody else has seen anything
and it’s one of the landowners and they
don’t have trackers and things like cats
I just need to quickly get hold of them
and just inform them where they are
which I will do once we stop and you
guys can watch our last minute lipids in
Ghana are you looking up into the tree
what is this their carcass yeah you know
let’s see anything he’s just looking
gazing up into this tree and I was
hoping that there is a carcass but let
me just quickly chat to these guys shame
they’re trying to get hold of me
urgently
right so I’m going to get onto the radio
I’m going to try and just quickly let
these guys know what’s happening and
where we are as they make their approach
and see if they can get in here because
obviously we’re coming to the end of our
show so at least if we can help them get
to the section then they’ll be okay but
he keeps looking up into the street I
don’t see any sign of a carcass I’ll
keep looking and so while I talk to the
guys in the radiators quickly jump back
to Scott with his spotted beauties in
the mara
hello everyone we are just looping a
head of a bit of a marshy area but I
didn’t want to get stuck in and we are
still following these five male cheetah
I wondering now what their plans are
they’ve just walked past a herd of all
the beasts there’s definitely lots of
opportunities there and they didn’t
really work it too insistently they just
kind of watched them go by but maybe the
next turd that they’re approaching now
is going to provide them with some
better opportunities it’s so animals
they seem so keen at moments and then
I’ve turn off the gas there’s also hey
that’s kind of been following them I’m
not sure if it still is but that may be
playing they’re all that
slinking in after them so maybe that’s
making them be a little bit apprehensive
towards hunting right away that one
stopped to face off the hyena let’s see
if we can watch that quickly on the back
one okay sir
I thought that one at the back was
possibly gonna chase off I you know
maybe we missed it maybe it already did
so we will keep on moving and we’re
gonna say goodbye to you guys and send
you back over to Tristan but be sure to
follow us on Facebook because we will be
going live after the show if any action
unfolds bye bye well we still got in
Ghana you can see he’s just he’s
striding through keeps looking up into
the trees so I thought maybe there was a
carcass here somewhere but it seems as
though maybe there isn’t although he’s
lying down again here I think there’s a
carcass here somewhere just can’t see it
so I’m gonna reposition that we can see
him a little bit better
I wonder sip the way he’s behaving in
the way he’s looking and the fact that
he drank water and he’s now lying here
tends to suggest that there is some sort
of food item somewhere in this vicinity
so I don’t know if potentially there is
a caucus in one of these trees now just
stalled and they try and just get
through here come on you don’t have much
more time we’re gonna try and get in so
that you can at least seat in Ghana I
don’t see any caucus though but there he
is he’s still just sitting ever so
regally up on the back we’ve got a
caucus air excellent that’s great news
well done same so we’ve got a kill which
means 10 Ghana should be here in the
morning that’s fantastic so it’s up in
the top of the tree there it is right in
the top litter horrible is it a carcass
are you sure okay well we’ll look at it
tomorrow morning we’ll come here
tomorrow morning so let’s at least enjoy
10 Ghana for our last minutes because
unfortunately it’s that time of the day
where we are going to be having to say
goodbye but at least we have a view of
our spotted beauty and we got a last
sort of 10 minutes with him and it’s
amazing if we had come 5 minutes later
we would not have known he was even here
because from where we are there’s no
chance that you can see him up from the
damn wall at the moment but it’s been an
absolutely brilliant day we’ve had a fun
time Sabin I was just saying we’ve had a
most chilled Sunday it’s been beautiful
with the ILI’s excitement of the cheetah
trek sting ghana cheetah in the mara
lions it’s all been happening we’ve had
just the most epic weekend and it’s just
continuing and our luck really has been
good so hopefully it will continue
tomorrow morning but from myself Seb
Steph Scott and all the others it’s very
good bye and we’ll see you tomorrow in
the sunrise Safari
[Music]
you
you
it’s going to change rapidly once we get
that rain particularly with temperatures
like this this is great temperatures for
the growth of vegetation but they need
water for that to happen and at the
moment there is no sign of any rain it’s
not a cloud in the sky it seems as
though unfortunately it’s all sitting
over the Atlantic Ocean and the southern
side of the United States so for all of
you that are in Florida if you are
watching I hope you’re staying safe in
that you’re all okay that side is the
hurricane start to move that way it
really is a scary prospect when you look
at the size of it and the fact that
there’s another one following it which
is not so pleasant so hopefully you all
stay safe for any of you that are in
that side of the world but we get the
similar if not as catastrophic at those
as and as big as those but we do get a
similar effects here and our summer
rainfall is actually a result of
tropical storms we call them tropical
storms down here not hurricanes and they
come off the Mozambique Channel so we’re
just too far inland for it really to
survive very well sip can ask you just
to put the camera on that big ball and
the tree there I’m trying to see what
that actually is I wonder if it’s not a
potter wasp nest so Potter wasps build
these clay type of nests in a tree yeah
sometimes or under sort of hangs and
branches the people to see but it looks
like a putter wasp nest so the reason
they called prata wasp is because
they’re going to collect mud and then
they build this clay like structure on
branches so that’s what it seems to be I
might be wrong there’s just so much
glare and it’s quite far away at the
moment that it’s difficult to actually
make out what substance it is it could
also be as a result of some sorts of
insect that’s fed off the branch and it
causes the tree to send a growth hormone
that expands it and you get what’s known
as a wood rose on a tree it could also
be that but it’s very difficult to make
out exactly what it is maybe if
binoculars will actually be better
I’m not quite sure what it’s actually
made out of it doesn’t look like a
growth of the tree itself and it doesn’t
look like my de that almost looks grassy
in its texture in places I’m not sure
actually it’s a bit too high to actually
climb up there and have a look properly
but it’s some sort of I would say mist
or something like that it’s not a potter
wasp low what a wasp you would see it
would be a very clay like structure and
that’s a little bit more fibrous so
interesting I’ll have to try and watch
that and see what happens with it and
whether or not it grows one of those
mysteries of the bush like I say it’s
just a little bit too high to actually
be able to go and feel what the
consistency is because it actually might
be quite spongy in which case it would
almost resemble a massive you thicker
from a praying mantis but you shouldn’t
see youth occurs at this time of the
year it’s a little bit early for them we
generally see that youth occur which is
the egg casing from Mantid and let grow
they normally in summer you know early
to mid summer that we see those I also
came down this way just to check if
there’s any sign of shadow and her cub
that’s less no tracks that I’ve picked
up yet and we’re nearing the end of the
new road but earlier I was talking about
stiff and well he’s up and running and I
believe he’s already got into some luck
with some lions
good afternoon everybody and welcome to
the Masai Mara specifically the Mara
triangle and I am Stefan tubulin I’m
gonna be doing this afternoon’s draw for
everybody which is unusual I don’t think
I can remember the last time I was in a
safari or PM Safari with all of you and
I’m looking forward to it greatly on the
camera today we’ve got David and you
wouldn’t believe it if I just told you
but right in front of us we’ve just had
the whole land gone the pride all of it
all the moms everyone walking across
this grassy plain towards us and to
black Rana and they’ve disappeared
two minutes ago and so that’s our plan
for this afternoon we’re gonna see if we
can hold out the young gamez from the
thicket that you’re looking at over
there and see if we can see if we can’t
you deserved it it does it’s been a
mighty frustration let’s see if we can
bring the black rhino to you as well
that’s good so that’s a mum and a cough
a very old cough oh by very old I mean
probably less than five probably older
than three and there’s every hope that
that female is pregnant at the moment
wouldn’t it just be lovely in the moral
triangle here they are about 12 black
rhinoceros and black rhinoceros or some
of the rarest large mammals left in
Africa and there’s a very healthy
population of them here and we’re
incredibly lucky to see even a brief
glimpse like we are at the moment even
it’s so far a distance it is very very
lucky and very rare to see black runner
in the wild in Africa and an escorted
you reserve hear such good conservation
policies that and practices that these
runner are left to fend for themselves
although they are looked after from
Pharr by the gentleman called brian he
who’s the warden of the mara
triangle and his team of
conservationists who take their job of
looking after these runner very very
seriously and it’s showing itself to be
absolutely successful and see how far
away it is now a massive mountain that
you have in the lid on the left hand
side that is part of an escarpment
called the Euler escarpment which is a
feature in the Rift Valley the African
Rift Valley which is basically just one
big fault that is busy splitting a chunk
of land away from from the African
mainland a couple of hundred million
years from now you’ll be able to Barre
beachfront property right where we are
right now and the animals that you busy
having a look at on these Plains are
just very numerous and lovely at this
time of the year
this is sort of in the aftermath of the
migration what you’re looking at now is
a topi and in the far distance there are
zebra and they enjoy the short grass
that is on these planes these alluvial
plains now another thing that enjoys a
short grass another one of Africa’s
first mammals and my friend Scott is on
the other side of the moral of a sitting
with some of them right now
can you believe how lucky we’ve got
we’ve managed to find the musketeer
coalition of five male Keita again
they’ve literally just woken up
they are looking hungry and they are
surrounded by wildebeest there are many
many wildebeest cashing in on these
short open green plains and these
cheetah I’m fairly certain are going to
try and catch one at some point this
evening great stuff and also great that
you got to see a black rhino with stiff
the Safari has got off to a wonderful
start it sounds like my name’s scott
dyson i’m teamed up with a manu on
camera and we are looking forward to
taking you on an adventure with these
five male cheetah now let me just turn
around and as i turn around you’ll
notice the wildebeest dotted all over
these shorts open green grass plains
we’re gonna get you some great two shots
of the cheetah and the wildebeest are so
action is imminence
very good it looks like the boys are
just gonna spend some time doing some
scent-marking and we very very lucky
that since safari live arrived here in
the Mara these boys have been spending a
lot more time in this area that we
Traverse we’re in the National Maasai
Mara National Reserve and they only came
into this general area in December last
year and they ordinarily would spend
more time there some more scent-marking
they would ordinarily spend more time in
the surrounding community conservancies
to the north and east of the park but
now as you can see they are laying claim
to this area as their territory there
you’ll see all the wildebeest in the
background awesome stuff each time I
spend with these five cheetah I for more
and more in love with them they’re an
incredible Bunch and there are just the
coolest animals to follow especially
when they are looking for a meal what an
incredible scene interestingly this area
was a yellowy golden brown about a week
or so ago and there’s been a rain in
this area
you
grassy plains you can see hundreds and
thousands of all to be scattered off in
a distance
well unfortunately Scott’s got a few
gremlins still attached to his car so
I’m sure they will sort those arts and
we’ll be able to get back to the cheetah
but it seems as though the boys in the
Mara having a wonderful afternoon
already lots of things happening that
side which is fantastic news just
thought I spotted a track yeah and I did
spot a track yeah but now is it a hyena
or is it a spotted leopard Shrek looks
liquidy doesn’t it sim doesn’t that look
liquidy to you yes it is a lipid track
so it looks like a male lipid tracker
don’t know it’s that fresh maybe it’s a
track from whence in Ghana has been
patrolling around it looks like his
footprint that we’ve got here so it’s
this track over there and you can see
that it’s quite an interesting one
because it’s got a sort of three lobes
at the back and it’s a typical very
triangular lipid back pad but the one
toe is a little bit squished up here
it’s back to normal there but this toe
is slightly closer together than normal
it’s almost giving a little bit of a
hyena shaped toe and then the two left
toes alright or the normal shape so it
is a leopard track but it is not a very
fresh leopard track this looks like it
was done maybe two days ago so yesterday
so not a track that we’re going to
follow is definitely nothing on top of
my vehicle tracks from yesterday
afternoon when I drove here so it’s just
interesting that I didn’t pick them up
yesterday I wonder maybe I wasn’t
concentrating too well at this when I
drove this side yesterday it was really
quite dark and I was using my spotlight
so but interesting that there is a trek
for a lipid in this area and winda looks
it doesn’t look big enough to really be
for ting Ghana maybe husana was
somewhere here at some stage hmm
interesting
well we’ll just drive around and have a
little look and make hundred percent
sure and just double check in case but
there’s nothing on top of the vehicle
tracks from last night there I go over
those tracks yesterday already so
not very fresh unfortunately the same
two said that I doubt we’re going to see
too much out in the open at this stage
it’s warm in the Sun so most the animals
I would imagine would be seeking some
sort of refuge and some sort of shade
and water so we’re gonna try and hang
around closer to water sources as well
as the Milwaukee and the drainage
sections because those well at least
provide a bit of shade for a lot of the
animals and they’ll be able to then stay
a little bit cooler but our hippo
friends from yesterday is quite
interesting we’ve seen their tracks all
over so the one hippo went out of
treehouse northwards apfel Mons north to
quarantine and from quarantine past
Inga’s and looks as though it went
towards Gauri damn no don’t fly away
well there was a magpie Shrike that
decided just to fly away but was sitting
so nicely on top of one of the trees and
that streaming tail you can just see it
there in the background now but it’s got
such an impressive tail this particular
one it’s much longer than I’ve seen on a
lot of the others really big I mean that
tail must be twice to almost three times
the length of its body which is crazy
and looking very nice and I always loved
them in the afternoons when there’s a
bit of a wind blowing and they tail kind
of Bozarth underneath the magpie strike
it is really very pretty there will be
more of them here though you’ll never
find just one magpie Shrike by
themselves they generally are quite a
sociable Bunch they tend to hang around
to get in fact I can hear another one
just two are now northern side and so
they kind of flock together and then
they’ll go from tree to tree and and
varying insects a typical of the shark
family that they are quite ferocious
insect predators and they’ve got that
little hooked beak much like you would
see on any of your predatory Birds and
they’ll swoop down from there and grab
varying insects and these guys I’m sure
are eagerly awaiting the rains as well
because then it’s just an absolute
buffet of food items when the rains come
and the magpie name comes from the
coloration that black and white is where
they get the magpie name from they used
to actually be called a longtail track
which you can see why they would have
been called that nice I think we should
do a bit of birding today say what do
you think I can’t let you get to rusty
after Byron got you going on birds and
we should
a little bit of birding as well I feel
like doing some birds today I’m sure
there’s some interesting birds around
and I’m still very surprised we haven’t
seen any signs of Wahlberg’s eagles it’s
starting to get quite late now normally
we see them in the worst beginning of
September we’re already on the 11th of
certain of September sorry and that’s by
now should we should have had meat seen
maybe one or two so I’m quite surprised
we haven’t seen any yet I wonder what’s
keeping them slightly north of us maybe
there’s some sort of delay with certain
bird species because the Wahlberg’s
Eagles actually follow the quail ears
quite a bit and they’ll hunt the koalas
excessively able you’re asking if the
Magpies tracks like shiny objects well
no they’re not like Magpies that’s a
different type of bird the magpie is a
bird that occurs in the United Kingdom
and I think a little bit into Europe I
might be mistaken but they are very fond
of shiny objects here in South Africa
this Shrike is not the same thing and it
doesn’t actually go after shiny objects
very much at all
you don’t find them near cities they
generally are not in these Bush felt
areas in the wild sections very seldom
seen in a city environment so they don’t
really go after shiny objects what does
go after shiny objects here are the
crows so you will find crows picking up
shiny objects and hammer cups so that’s
a water bird that we get here they are
often notorious to have all kinds of
different things in their nests we do
have is a few water buck which will make
James very happy I wonder how James is
doing on his first afternoon on leave
he’s having a wonderful time but there
the water back are just in front of us
we are slowly approaching towards
treehouse dad so very kind of expectant
to see them here they’ve been hanging
around here quite a bit you’ve got a
couple young males and some females I
haven’t seen any big metals around this
particular grouping it’s not to say
there isn’t any but I just haven’t seen
them but you can see that’s the female
they’re lacking the horns and they’re an
easy animal to identify they’ve got this
long shaggy coat which is very unusual
very different to a lot of our other
antelope species out here that are quite
far
these guys are all very thick food coats
and you can see that they’ve got that
little heart-shaped nose the white
chinstrap and then if they turn and face
us a very white bottom but is
interesting is they’ve all staring
straight to our left-hand side they’re
not alarm calling but there’s something
that’s grabbed their attentions they’re
not looking at us they’re all staring
deep into this drainage line so I might
just take a little drive down there and
have a look it is a perfect shady spot
for a lurking leopard and this is where
we last saw shadow this is exactly where
we lost her
the other day so maybe she’s still
hanging around here who’d be worth just
having a little look you never know well
though they don’t seem too perturbed by
whatever it is it was kind of staring in
that direction maybe there’s a small
antelope also walking around it’s making
a bit of a rustling in the grass that
they’re watching but there you can see
that perfect heart-shaped nose of the
water buck quite clearly I’ve got to
feel sorry for these guys at this time
in the end winter there must be lovely
to have a nice thick coat like this but
in summer it surely can’t be very
pleasant at all
and of course their coat is not because
they are cold it’s more to do with the
fact that they trying to repel water so
they secrete in oil through sebaceous
glands on the skin which coats that fur
and repels water and keeps them nice and
dry when they try and use water to evade
predators it’s a clever system that
they’ve got going and that’s why they
have this slightly longer fur because
the more fit and the more chance they
can abstain dry right we’re gonna go
investigate quickly and while we do that
let’s go back to Steph who’s quite the
largest of the large in the Mara welcome
back to the Mara and this is definitely
the land of far vistas as you can see
from there those dots that you’re seeing
there are elephant a herd of elephant in
fact spread out have a quite a distance
and have a look at what’s in the centre
of your screen there that is a huge male
lion and this is watching the elephants
go by and is the target that we aiming
for right now we’ve skirted around the
edge of the thicket that the angle of
Pride decided that they’d walk into and
they haven’t come out the other side but
what is lying on this side is a big male
lion and then you can see how far away
we actually are
on these melons we decided that did stop
in this fantastic herd mixed herd of
grazers
we’ve got zebra and an eel and just have
a look how fat and beautiful she is one
of the most gorgeous of all the antelope
Archaea beautifully long horn in this
particular and then those zebra just
adding that black and white contrast to
pictures that you know we forget up
pretty these animals are in these
environments you know both of them are
grazers and as we pan off to the left
you’ll notice that there’s a swamp that
comes up into the distance and that is
exactly why all these animals are here
it is because that swamp is providing
the means for a much better nutrition
nutritious grass and so there you got
some topi and some zebra and then in the
center of the swamp we have an elephant
and ostrich and a buffalo
well is it a buffalo or a hippo let me
just have a look it’s a hippo not a
buffalo so elephant zebra and hippo in
the same thing now what we gonna be
doing is sending you to the other side
of the Mara River where my friend Scott
is busy with us cheetah we look like
we’re getting busy
well well done step for finding you
those lion and elephant and something
else I’m told and dotted in between
these boys are certainly looking active
hungry and quite intent on finding their
next meal but at the moment as you can
see they are just rolling abouts I guess
it can be equated to us waking up in the
morning takes a little bit of time to
get into full swing of things but they
certainly are up and about there are
certainly lots of wildebeest around
three of which actually walked right up
to the cheetah the ones to the right
their mana where they were sent marking
a bit earlier those three came up just
to keep an eye on the cheetah and it’s
always interesting when you see prey
species coming straight towards their
predators once they have detected them
with these cheetah have got lots of
options so it would be foolish for them
to rush in they’re gonna take their time
I’m guessing to find a youngster that
was probably born
most of the young wildebeest were born
earlier this year in the southern
Serengeti plains and that has been the
favourite meal that we’ve noticed thus
far but having said that they can also
take down larger wildebeests there are
highly formidable team and I’d be very
surprised that if by the time the Sun
sets they have not actually succeeded in
hunting something or are getting more
and more into the swing of things we’ve
got a great evening lined up isn’t this
wonderful all those white flowers will
be skull and some wildebeest
so lots of options in these cheats are
just gonna be scanning looking for any
weaknesses any easy opportunities when I
was gonna says that they also do hunts
after dark and we are fully equipped to
be able to follow them into the darkness
with an infrared camera where we can
capture what goes on without interfering
so I am thoroughly looking forward to
seeing what these guys get up to this
afternoon and as you can see this is
just the perfect perfect runway for
which they can unleash their speed they
make the wildebeest look like they’re
standing still I’ve noticed especially
in open environments like this where
they’ve got no obstacles to cater for no
it’s always tricky deciding where to
position oneself in order to be in the
best possible spot but I think we do
need to keep moving we don’t want to be
left in a cloud of dust
hello book lover you’d like to know if
these cheats are any bigger than the
cheetah that we would be seeing or you
would be sitting down on Jumma at cheats
are playing specifically and no not that
I I would imagine I would guess they’re
fairly similar sizes but then again I
have never waited sheets of myself for
being present with one getting weighed I
nearly crashed into that guy earlier say
said no you go first get out of the way
I nearly reversed in turn so but I don’t
think so but then again I don’t know if
any cheetahs being weighed here in the
Mara and or the sabi sands I wouldn’t be
able to make an accurate assessments on
that question but I’m guessing there are
fairly similar sizes with obviously
exceptions to one individual that maybe
began the same will be for the lion I
think the lion may be on average are
slightly bigger but you will get some
big lines down on Zuma as well okay what
I like to try and do is get on the
opposite side of the herds to give you a
kind of a herd perspective so let’s do
that and Chantal maybe we can invite
other people on board if you would like
on other platforms because this could
you
hurry well unfortunately once again the
gremlins are plaguing scottson you can
see we are busy watching Sebastian as
he’s finishing his time-lapse at
treehouse dam and it’s slowly but surely
coming back there we go a little wave
from Sebastian he was supporting the
Maasai Mara team with his Mara t-shirt
hey this is wait for save to get back on
the vehicle but no signs of anything
around chest time we checked withers
water back we’re looking there was a
brief little alarm call but nothing that
we can see and they slowly then started
to walk in the direction that they were
steering so nothing to be alarmed about
so now we’re going to head up towards
before took them and go and see what’s
happening with those elephants that’s
the plan at least anyway from there I
can say check around for the cheetah
brothers and then it’s on towards
shitfire and at least it’s starting
already now it’s just slowly but surely
the temperature is easing off a little
that we’re just starting to lose a bit
of that bites that’s been in the air
during the middle part of the day so
he’s starting to cool down slack II it
really is amazing how quickly the
temperature changes in this part of the
world
ah you know you want to know how we know
the difference between a lipid and a
cheetah track and how do we know if
they’re male or female right well you
know we’d love to show you but I lift my
tracking book at home because I was
actually busy looking at some stuff
today so I do apologize but I’ll try and
explain it as best I can basically with
a lipid and a cheetah the difference
between the two of those the most
obvious difference that you will see is
that the cheetah track will be very very
narrow so you’re gonna have a very
narrow very long track on a cheetah
whereas on a leopard it’s almost gonna
be like a circle so you can think of a
cheetah more as an oval and a leopard
more as a circle kind of track also with
the leopard the back part of the pad is
very wide whereas a cheetah track the
back part is very very small they both
will have three lobes but the other in
big one that is different is that the
cheetah displays claws when it’s in its
track where’s leopards don’t remember
lipids cores are sheathed so they cause
don’t show up in a track where as a
cheetah scores will show up so that’s
the difference between those two and the
other side of in terms of male and
female is a size difference a lot of the
time so with male lipids a male leopard
track is really quite a lot bigger than
a female’s if you’re talking about a
male leopard cub and if you look on the
back of the lobes particularly on the
front foot you will find that as they do
the three lobes and that sort of W shape
on the back if you had to take a line
and you drew and you follow the contour
of that low it should make a full circle
on a male track the females tend to have
of angular points on the edge of their
back pad and whereas the males is around
a point so that’s how you can tell male
and female from a leopard point of view
in cheetah a little bit more difficult
it’s just more the size than anything
else the male cheetah track will be
bigger in the female cheetah track like
I said I’m sad that I don’t have my
tracking book I was busy looking at some
tracks and notes that I had made when I
was doing my tracking training back in
the day and I was just going through
some of those just to refresh a little
bit and I’m a bit sad that I didn’t
bring it cause it would’ve been quite
nice to actually show you the difference
in a book but I’ll have to try and bring
it on another Drive so let me know when
you’re watching again and I’ll make sure
that I pack it in for that drive and I
can show you a little bit
betta what do you think save our
elephants gonna be there Christina said
am I looking for the cheetah brothers
and did you hear that right – no
Christina I’m not looking for the
cheetah brothers I am looking for a
cheetah mother and three cubs that’s
what I am going to be searching for she
was seen yesterday on Torchwood and her
tracks we’re coming towards cheetah
cutline yes a afternoon there was also a
young male cheetah that was in the
vicinity as well that they don’t we
don’t know who years so it’s one of
those what any of those bunch that could
potentially pop out on cheetah cut line
so it’s not the two big boys but rather
a female and Cubs that have been hemming
around they see it seen every now and
then and before took and tortured but
they haven’t come to Juma maybe today is
the day that they come to Juma with the
Lions the in koomer pride walking around
on that eastern boundary of with Kruger
maybe that’s gonna push this cheetah
into zoom a little bit and we’ll get
lucky this afternoon that’s the idea
yeah anyway whether or not it actually
comes to fruition is anyone’s guess a
little bit of luck and a bit of positive
vibes and you never know what can come
out of that but it’s interesting just
driving along these shaded areas
normally we see a few Nala and few
impalas drifting around but today it
seems as though these nothing I don’t
know if everything has maybe gone
towards the milliwatts see whether it’s
a little bit more shade than even these
smaller drainage lines but I’m quite
surprised you normally see the odds die
Coast animal coin Paulo and Yana
drifting along but it’s been very quiet
with any of those animals so far
even birds wise I mean it’s a little bit
on the quiet side but I’m sure it will
get better as it cools down a little bit
I wonder when we’re going to see the
marilla’s also getting leaves it should
be fairly shortly the marilla’s all bare
and barren at the moment and it won’t be
too long now and they will start getting
some leaves of their own and then it
really is beautiful when you get these
thick canopies of the marilla’s all
across the landscape it really is very
pleasant
right now I believe Scott is got his
gremlin sorted he’s got the Cheetahs
they are hunting so let’s quickly jump
across to him a whole bunch of
wildebeest and there’s actually two more
cheetah as well so we’ve got some
incredible prospects a coalition of five
male cheetah that are looking hungry and
even though one just flopped itself down
and the next don’t be fooled because
they are slowly gonna work their way
through these never-ending herds of
wildebeest in the hope that they find
one that looks to be like a bit of a
easier targets so I’m very very
confident that at some stage within the
next couple of hours
these cheetahs are going to show us what
they do best and that is hunt down
wildebeest we have shared with some of
you before live kills just a few days
ago they took down a wildebeest live
with a lot of you watching and for those
of you who may be joining for the first
time it’s great to have you on safari
with us it’s an interactive Safari
please do pop your questions in the
comment boxes and your thoughts and your
feelings as it would be wonderful to
chat with you my name is Scott Dyson I
am teamed up with a manual on camera and
we literally found these cheats are
about half an hour ago they got up
immediately and have started moving so
they’re moving a bit earlier than they
ordinarily would that in terms of the
kind of history that I have spent with
them which indicates that they are quite
hungry again there’s lots of wildebeest
around so there’s no need for them to to
rush into anything they’re gonna ease
into the afternoon
Teresa you’ve just mentioned what a
standoff n it is and what what least it
was an incredible scene as you joined us
with those cheetah heading straight
towards the wildebeest it is a beautiful
beautiful still afternoon here in the
Maasai Mara and this area’s got a lot of
rain recently which is going to make the
wildebeest happy you can see lots of
fresh green grass shoots popping up and
about two weeks ago this was a golden
brown hue another thing to bear in mind
is it’s not just a favorable environment
for the wildebeest at the moment but
these short open plains are going to
allow these five cheetah to unleash
their furious speed as and when they
need to
wonderful wonderful stuff I’ve been Pina
for a while so it’s good to see that
they still are lots of the migrating
herds in this area of the reserve they
move quite a big distance the migrating
herds over this short over the over the
short time Rob you would like to know
why these cheetah have not taken an
opportunity
considering how plus the wildebeest were
to them and it’s foolish for predators
to Russian waste energy get injured
until they find the right opportunity
and they do know they do know at the
back of the minds that it is the
migration season there’s lots and lots
of opportunities this will change in the
coming weeks but for now there’s just so
much food around it would be foolish to
go in and work too hard for something
essentially so they’re gonna buy their
time wait until they see an easy option
a youngster that they can separate from
the herd even though it’s not very
common oh there’s some little Thompson’s
gazelle they’re a bit too quick and
small for those five boys to share and
great prey for a female cheetah but
these guys I’m fairly certain we’re
going to overlook that opportunity now
something also to remember rob is that
that’s not
that easy for them to kill wildebeest
without the other wildebeest actually
turning on them we got some incredible
footage late one evening as dusk was
breaking and that does drizzle was
falling of one of these cheats are
getting completely bald off a young
wildebeest that they’ve managed to bring
down sir all the wildebeest came in and
absolutely thumped it out the way so all
these things they’ll be factoring into
the hunting equation and as you can see
there are just spoiled for choice at the
moment what a classic scene this is now
because we had no idea what was going to
happen
as these cheetah were approaching that
herd we thought we couldn’t let up the
opportunity to invite you guys on board
so we will be sure to invite you back as
and when these five get up and going I’m
certain in the next few hours that they
are going to show us how they ants so if
it’s something you’d like to see try and
clear up some space in your schedule
because like I say it’s just a matter of
time and so these guys try and catch
themselves so wildebeest and nine times
out of ten when they try they succeed
for now though we are going to say
goodbye wait for these guys to get up
and moving again
be sure to keep following closely for
any notifications of us going live again
and we will see you all a little bit
later goodbye
so I believe we are live which means
that we are busy looking around down in
the Milwaukee because I just got tracks
for a male leopard walking in this
direction it looks like maybe who sanas
tracks from last night coming from twin
dams and we heard some of Franklin’s
alarm calling in here I didn’t get very
far but we just quickly checking to see
I can’t find the Franklin’s anymore and
I can’t hear them anymore but the last
track I had was just on top of the bank
walking this direction they were driven
over from this morning so I’m not sure
how far he’s ended up but it’s just with
the Franklin’s alarm calling in the
tracks hitting in this direction I
thought it would be a good place to
quickly come and have a little look a
little look
all right nothing there since see any
tracks coming down here it’s a great
place for a leopard to sit there it’s
very very cool and nice and shady
there’s some Franklin’s there
they looked unperturbed by life where oh
where oh where are you
but I’m surprised that whoever drove
that road miss those their projections I
asked if anyone drove there and they
everyone told me the guys that did drive
there that there was no sign of lipid
tracks but they’ve clearly been driven
over so I don’t know how they miss them
because they’re quite clear in the
middle of the road my uncle’s for the
Franklin we’ve much further north
than where I am now so what I’m going to
do is just try to turn around somewhere
there should be a place to turn around
in front look again
hmm no no sign here unfortunately I was
hoping we would come down into the
milliwatts and there’d be a lipid
lounging in the cool sand but while we
check around let’s go back to stiff who
I believe is now doing a spot of birding
in the Mora
and on our way to that lion we found you
this wooly neck stalk and in this
particular vantage point we get to see
two things which are quite uncommon and
the bronzy iridescent on the wing on the
middle of the wing there you can just
see it now at the Sun behind us just
sticking out is a rare thing to see on
this wooly next talk as well is the
feces that it covers its legs with there
you can see that it’s been a hot day and
that is done on its legs and I know
you’re gonna be asking yourself what is
a bird doing defecating on its legs when
it’s bombs obviously finer for what it
doesn’t need to do that the easy answer
is that this bird cools itself down that
way it pumps a lot of blood into the
skin surrounding the leg bones and then
by defecating on the legs and letting
the wind blow on those skinny legs it
cools the blood down considerably and
and that way returns to the body cooler
than it was giving this bird the ability
to stay cool when everything else around
it is hot albeit using its own done
we’re quite nice to see that one of the
smallest stalks in this particular area
in actual fact I think it is the
smallest stalk and much like all stalks
they actually don’t have a voice box
sound like a parrot or a son bird or a
canary or a budgerigar which has voices
that they use all the time
stalks do not and this particular stock
is no exception it doesn’t have any
voice box what it does do is to track
mates they do the most unbelievable
dances and elaborate wing flaps and
bowels to each other and there’s a
courtship amongst stalks which is quite
phenomenal another thing that is quite
phenomenal is the lilac breasted roller
this bird definitely has some voice box
but in addition to the voice box it also
has superb coloration you can see
they’re just sticking out of the out of
the process is watching us of the BDI is
that lilac breasted roller
and flown away and probably returning to
the same place enough to the same brunch
just try to hook an insect this time of
the year their colors are not so bright
and they don’t have the tail streamers
but they’re giving us a beautiful
afternoon shot they take your screen
shots that is a lovely shot of a lilac
breasted roller at this time of the year
David framing it up so nicely remember
that we are interactive you can ask me
questions while we ongoing drop live and
I’ll try to answer as many as what we
can these are whole nesting birds they
rely on barbets and woodpeckers to
create nests for them that they quite
actively defend and will quite often in
pairs defend against other rollers other
lilac breasted rollers and other birds
as well which would like to make use of
their of their nests it’s blue and
purple color just really remarkable now
we are almost at these Lions I can see
one lion from we’re relying now he’s now
that that big male that we saw lying
with the with the with the elephant just
nice lying flat on the ground there we
go in the center you can see how flat a
lion can get that is a full-grown
500-pound male lion that is lying
unconscious on his side with some topi
water buck and zebra behind and off to
the right hand side is the reason why
he’s lying unconscious and in the Sun
they’ve actually made a kill we’re just
gonna see there we go
there’s a zipper that is lying on its
side and I did see a lion lying next to
it definitely a there we go there’s the
lion or lioness I should say not lion
the lioness has been eating are we gonna
see if we can go a little bit more
forward and see if we can show you a bit
of picture than these ones that I’ve
been showing you
so far this off to me we have got some
elephant aramis deserts actually be in
such a brilliant afternoon
surrounding us has just been animals by
the ton and this elephant cow and her
young calf
they’ve just been feeding with us as
we’ve as we’ve come down this drainage
line
now Atilla n who uses old as my son is
only five years old has remarked that
this that these animals will look like
they’re friends with one another and
that the and that they and is it normal
for this time of the year so chill and
what a fantastic question from a
five-year-old and yes all these animals
are friendly with one another some of
them eat grass
some of them eat trees some of them eat
each other some of them eat won’t be
stingy bruh and and so on and so forth
but they all get along with one another
quite nicely to be quite honestly
there’s no big there’s no big animosity
which is a big word to say that better I
don’t dislike each other at all they’re
just in a healthy sort of equilibrium is
what I’d like to use is that there’s a
balance between all the things they’d
like to eat other animals and all the
things they’d like to eat the grass
there’s a nice balance
but youngster busy eating the grass over
there flanked by mom which has got a
beautiful set of tusks I love the
elephant in the Mara here in Kenya the
females in particular got the most
elegant ivory almost always the same
length the same shape and quite long for
female elephants is up another fantastic
shot over the trees in the back up
now Chantel tells me that a few of you
are commenting on the fact that it’s so
exciting to see all these animals here I
must agree with you I think it is quite
exciting to see all these animals here
and I think it’s going to be exciting to
see what happens at this line killed
today when we saw the iron Garner’s they
were heading in this direction but into
a thicket and I think if we are lucky
they are going to come and join their
sister on this on this this kill in the
distance and arriving towards us is the
because that join like the cars that
join this fantastic reserve with us of
course it’s an open reserve very much
like the Kruger National Park is where
we do some of our other drives as well
albeit this is a public area where you
can come and drive yourself in or be
driven around in in some cars ads nicely
everyone helping one another to define
their thing thank you to everyone you’re
saying that it’s nice to see me in the
driving seat again I must say I do miss
it from time to time and it’s not it’s
gonna be nice to join you for a couple
of drives over the next few days or so
before Prince and Jamie get back in
between when when James has left he’s on
his way back to South Africa for a much
deserved break
Debra you wanted to know what surprised
me the most about Damara that’s actually
a very good question Debra because it
changes from week to week and from month
to month I think when I got here the the
unbelievable space was was what got me
initially was the fact that you could
see so far you could drive so far and
you’d still be in a game reserve then it
was the fact that that the reserve is
open and that the borders are there no
physical borders so animals can domestic
animals can enter the reserve and wild
animals can leave the reserve and how
often they do it but also what type of
in what type of of harmony they’ve got
what often you have we have zebra and
Buffalo and hippo we’ve even had a
leopard prowling around our camp for the
last couple of for the last couple of
nights and everything just seems sort of
calm there’s no there’s no tension
coming a bit closer nod to the smell
line let’s see if I can into a nice spot
where we can at least see the back of
its head hey is he lying down over there
I have no doubt that is really partaking
in in in this zebra kill and you can see
that fat belly at the back there another
thing that’s been quite surprising
Deborah is the fact that it’s it’s a
calm temperature here all year round
we’ve gone from summer to winter without
a noticeable change in temperature
whatsoever and it’s very comfortable you
don’t ever get too hot you don’t ever
get too cold and I must say that I can’t
say the same for our friend Tristan
who’s sitting down south three and a
half thousand miles away definitely do
have winter and summer and where we are
transitioning from the cold of winter to
one of the hottest months of the year
and that is October and I’m sure that
Tristan has got some news to tell you
about how uncomfortable he’s feeling of
department
well sniff now I’m starting to feel
comfortable is about two o’clock this
afternoon it wasn’t so pleasant it was
rather warm at that stage and but now
it’s actually very pleasant it is
perfect weather now for a safari it’s
just cool down a little bit and there’s
a bit of a breeze and so I’m actually
enjoying this afternoon bumbling around
fortunately no further sign of that
leopard track I just want to come up to
buffers with them and check around first
while it’s still a bit warm and see if
the eddies aren’t there and then I’ll go
back to that area I have a funny feeling
if it isn’t sauna that he may have
looped and gone back down towards twin
dams and he’s made me lying somewhere
close to the water they’ve given how
warm it is I don’t think he’s gonna have
gone too far from the dam itself so
maybe just lying somewhere in those
Milwaukee Bank thickets and we’ll catch
him later when it gets a bit cooler
walking around so we’re just coming and
checking up the side so it’s difficult
this afternoon because well it’s just me
all on my own by the sounds of things
there’s one other vehicle out which is
from puffles hook and they rides in the
northeast corner there’s nobody from
Juma no one from cheetah Plains so it’s
well the lonely lonely world out here at
the moment Seb at this I have you for
companies have and all of you on the
back of the vehicle which means that
hopefully we’ll find something it’s just
that it’s always written there’s not as
many vehicles it’s harder because you
don’t have a situation where people are
spreading out and they can help you with
looking in certain sections you’ve got
to kind of loop around and do all of its
on your own so it makes it just a little
bit tougher in terms of actually finding
things
where’s all using come on you know I can
find a spotted leopard well that’s the
idea I think we can we just got to give
it the right timing and the right pace
it doesn’t feel lepida yet I don’t have
the leopard feeling just yet I think
it’s going to come a little bit later
that’s what I feel is that whence it
cools down that Sun is just above the
horizon and we’ve got that golden lights
across the landscape that’s when we’re
going to find a lipid stepping out and
it’s going to be ever so beautiful
that’s what I think anyway I’m hoping
that’s what’s going to happen but if not
the lipids maybe the cheetah so one of
the two spots will find its way to us at
some point this afternoon we’ve just got
to be patient and we’ve got to be like I
say positive positive impatient for pees
today on a Sunday
manicure are wondering when I did my
tracking training well when I first
started to become a guide when I was at
Sangeeta that we did a lot of tracking
work there and got shown how to identify
tracks and how to read tracks look at
them and then from there it’s just been
an ongoing lesson basically from all the
trackers I’ve worked with every single
one of them has imparted some sort of
knowledge on me and it’s a kind of thing
that them it’s a kind of thing that the
more you do it the better you get at it
you’ve just got to keep going and you
got to keep looking and keep working at
it and you’ll you be able to if you ask
people like stiff and Scots and James
and Brent and Jamie they’ll tell you
that with the list that they track the
more rusty they gets in the harder it
becomes the more that you track and the
more you get in sync with the animals
that you’re you’re looking for in a
certain area the easier it actually
becomes because a lot of tracking is
actually not physically seeing what’s on
the ground don’t run away this is gonna
be so cool stay they stay they stay
there so there’s two little button
quails in front of us and these guys are
so difficult to get on camera
here they are see how little they are
well out in the open that’s about as
good of you as we’ve ever had of a
button quail or certain Yahveh that I’ve
ever had of a button quail and then into
the long grass they’ve gone and you see
how quickly they disappear they’ve got
the most perfect camouflage to just melt
into that grass well that was cool so it
wasn’t a spot but a little bit of a
flicked little bird that was really cool
I’ve been trying to get them on camera
for months and they are so elusive and
they tend to be very shy so as soon as
you come along they bolt off into the
grass so it’s at least got some them
crossing the road was very special well
then say it’s all about the cameramen
exactly that’s exactly right
I’m under no illusion don’t worry so but
back to the tracking is it’s it’s
basically a constant school you that you
going to but in terms of the actual
training as into what to look for hard
to identify that was all in my ride in
the beginning when I first started doing
my training to be a guide spent a lot of
time at lebombo which is a part of the
kruger national park on the eastern side
where there is a lot of rocks and
trekking is very difficult so did a lot
of training there and some assessments
and back then I was still very sort of
very big novice and I didn’t actually
kind of grasp it that well but it took a
bit of time with some experienced
trekkers and then I started to come
right from there and now I wouldn’t say
I’m good I’m proficient but I wouldn’t
say I’m good at it there’s many trackers
out there that are insanely good and way
way beyond the scope of what I can do
but I at least am able to see and find
tracks from time to time now there’s a
beautiful bird talking about to finding
things I said you see it in the tall
tree on the right side of the tree is a
black editorial yeah the top there on
that side just went down yes yeah same
let’s try go around maybe we’ll find it
it’s just such a beautiful bear that
it’s worth trying to see if we can find
this beautiful beautiful yellow with
this black head and this beautiful beak
where are you know I’ve lost it it’s
gone but interesting enough we can look
at the tree anyway because it’s quite a
cool example of something so you’ll
notice that there is a lid word that is
growing there on the base of that tree
is a lid word but if we go up you notice
there’s some roots that are actually
growing down so there’s a strangler fig
that is growing over the lid wood and
this is how strangler figs work is
basically what happens is they produce a
fruit or something like a bar bet or a
go away bird will come and feed off it
and then they come in the sticky seeds
on their beak and they then wipe it on
something like a lid word and that then
starts to grow in these aerial roots
start to grow down all the way along the
trunk
of the lead word and you use it as a
support structure and over time more and
more and more roots grow and eventually
they’ll encompass that whole led word go
right beyond the lead words crown and
they’ll actually suffocate the tree art
or strangle it and have stop it from
getting sunshine and nutrients and they
will then take over and it uses it
basically as a host so that is a
predatory tree if you want to call it
and it’s not one that we see that often
we don’t get too many figs yeah
unfortunately not enough water but
that’s a nice example of a strangler fig
over taking a really large old lid word
very cool to see not so we might not
have seen our Oriole but at least we got
to see a strangler figure that’s
actually the first time I’ve noticed
that strangler fig funny enough it’s
something you see a lot of dawn on the
big river so the Sand River the sabi
River lots of big figs d’armes which
here doesn’t seem as though we get
nearly as many because of the lack of
water that we have in this particular
section
snazzy you say some of those branches
look like snakes
see what’s this a little bit on top here
this the Gail Don it’s going to land
there seems to be a few of them I just
look through the binoculars as well a
little bit far off now and a bit
silhouetted they look like some of those
female village weavers again that are
moving around difficult to say though
they right on the edge of that Bush
willow it’s not very pleasant
let me try get a bit closer so no
struggle from this distance to ID them
they’re not very big birds at all
there’s also a woodpecker that’s just
flying let’s see if we can try and get
that on camera because that’s gonna be a
bit easier
birds are giving us a bit of a challenge
today so this is not Thorn here they
might be a wood picker sticking out
somewhere
our beard you say the button Quayle was
number 83 for you well I’m glad that’s a
really good number and we must push hard
to get you to a hundred our beard it’s
gonna be difficult it’s gonna be silly
rated but it’s at the top of that back
knob thorn there you see it bouncing
around but unfortunately it’s going to
be very silly rated I’m not sure which
would pick it is because it’s right
against the Sun I can’t get color it
looks very small so it looks like it’s
possibly a cardinal woodpecker let’s see
that’s okay that’s okay see if it’s more
than good enough you can see the black
bar that goes through the eyes stripe
which I’m thinking I just want to make
100% sure looks a bit small for the
bearded though it doesn’t look like a
bearded would pick it to me it could be
though but doing a bit of birding is
actually quite fun it’s been such a long
time that I’ve done it and I always love
doing birding so something that I should
really do a lot more of I get a bit
sidetracked like I say sometimes with
the Lions and lipids so it is a bearded
would pick up it’s just a fairly small
and it’s a female bearded would pick her
because it’s got that black bar through
the eye that’s a nice one to find
there’s quite a few of them around at
the moment you hear them quite often in
the mornings when you drive along these
riverbed systems lots of them bouncing
around these dead trees looking for any
with boring insects that potentially are
in the dead trees themselves
right well we’re approaching before sook
damn now there’s no sign of our
elephants crossing anyway the section
here so unless they went northwards and
didn’t come towards the dam they might
still actually have been there or they
on their way there it would be quite
nice if we get there and they’re all
lined up at the water but they haven’t
gone further west which is good so let’s
go back to stiff in the meantime with I
think you saw with this lion
why can you believe it we were showing
you that that wooly neck stalk and the
elephant there was also a mating pair of
lion lying just on the other side of us
but we didn’t see at all we it took us
to drive past and sit and turn around to
see these lions who not even 50 50 yards
or 50 paces from we actually think that
this is the line that we saw just now
it’s in the same line and there’s some
elephant and this female she’s quite
Restless with attending male her body at
the moment is is in E stress which means
that she’s having hormonal spikes
every time she ovulate so and these go
through some dips and troughs and see
this should elicit this male to stand up
oh she’s beautiful I mean are you going
go let’s see if he wakes up there we go
so now that is very typical of a male
lion attending a female he doesn’t let
her out of his sight at all and the
reason for that is that she’ll ovulate a
few times in all of this and and this
male who’s attending her at the moment
wants to make sure that every time she
ovulate he is right there to try and
inseminate every egg that comes down
into the fallopian tube so all the
babies are his now colors she’s a new
viewer I just want to say welcome to so
hello collars and
welcome to to the show and you said that
you’ve been wanting to see Lyon and are
very happy that we could show you lion
right off the bat today that’s quite
nice and they have gone super flat again
well that is an uncommon for mating
lions and you shouldn’t despair because
we should we should be able to see them
mating again in a few seconds to a few
minutes as the female’s body comes into
or as it oscillates in a hormone spike
as the eggs are travelling down the
fallopian got there so just as we
predicted the garments have come through
the thicket we thought they were gonna
come through excuse all the poles go
right right right right right right and
let me see if I can turn the car so it
looks like we’ve got the n gamma pride
that has come out of them come out of
the bushes
and I’m making their way through to the
zebra killed quite a story that we can
see from here nice pot that gives David
all the freedom that he needs to do what
he needs to do so what we’ve got is
we’ve got a let me just see if I can see
them it looks like we do so zebra and
eland show us all that could’ve been my
imagination absolutely and it’s being
confirmed at the moment by Richard who
is our game scout and protect on the
back of our vehicle and what he’s doing
is he can also see them so but I’ll not
tell you there is the story while we’re
waiting for these lines to come out of
the stickit this should be our cheering
a second we’ve got a male line that’s
lying directly in front of the car and
sorry dev I’m making you jump around
please excuse everybody that we are
jumping around there’s a male line there
and while a male line in the Sun on his
own isn’t uncommon sight it’s not very
it’s not very common and we we initially
thought it was because he was lying
close to the kill which is a common and
is a female that is that is that is
lying on that killing and it’s it’s also
again not an uncommon for female and
male coalition’s that are mating us one
another to make it kill every now and
again although it’s not there here we go
in the center of the screen although
it’s not their their primary concern
hunting but it would have explained the
fact that there was a female lying on a
dead zebra plus a male close by but then
we’ve got the added complication if you
want to call it that of another mating
pair right next to us at the moment
probably from the same coalition of of
lions they lying flat in the grass here
at the moment can hardly even see that
their lions there there we go that
proves that there’s a lion there and you
probably find that these are two males
in a curl
with one another they are both attending
females which are ovulating which is not
uncommon in a private line especially
especially in an area that’s just at the
super abundance of food at the moment
but now which lions from which pride
that is the question if the angles are
moving towards this area to come and
join in the feast on the zebra then it
absolutely is that that they are the air
gama’s but if they’re not then they’re
from a different and adjacent pride of
Lyon and like in the Kruger National
Park where you connect it’s almost like
a physical barrier between lion prides
you feel like you going to this no-man’s
land
yeah there is no boundary between lion
lion prides in actual fact rather than
home Rangers touching one another which
is what it quite often is in the Kruger
you’ve got home ranges that overlap and
court territories which brush up amongst
one another and I actually think that
that the the the the the the Lions are
in a much bigger I say they’re in
competition with each other here a lot
more than what there would be in a
kruger for space let’s go backwards a
little bit and see if we can get a bit
more height
now James you’ve asked an interesting
question with the fluidity of the lion
prides become less so once the migrating
migratory herds have moved on I don’t
think so to be quite honest I actually
think that these prides there’s so much
food around here James even outside of
the migration is a lot of food available
here more than what there is and I think
that that has a market effect on how
these lines behave I think huge smell of
something did here didn’t notice it on
the way in here it is overpowering so he
might also be some line dangit we’ve
managed to drive through which is a big
possibility with us driving around in
this class so James no I don’t think so
it should be honestly I think that the
super abundance of food here has led to
the fact that there’s a large number of
cats spread of a very wide area and I
think that because they don’t have the
space I think rather than home ranges
are touching one another and cats left
pretty much to just roll and fend the
boundaries almost non-aggressive your
non-lethal yet anyway I think that these
lions are packed inside taught that they
core territories overlap I think Lions
have a lot of trouble defending their
boundaries here which is why the male
lions always look like they’ve got their
faces having means stuck in a meat
grinder and I also think that that is
the reason why lion pride numbers here
fluctuate so much in that a female
that’s got six babies that gets caught
another proud of lion will will will
very easily dodge they’ll kill her
because of the cool territories that
overlap here and of course as soon as
she goes down if there’s not other
lactating mother lying around those Cubs
will die and I think the Cubs numbers
fluctuate in throwing the the the added
complexity of two and a half million
wildebeest that arrive and then four
months later leave again it’s not like
they leave with every
thing believe me even when there’s no
wildebeest here there is still a massive
amount of animals here and I think that
there’s more than enough food to to keep
to keep all these lions very healthy in
the tree is this lilac breasted roller
that you are watching a little bit
earlier and this bird is taking
advantage of this elephant being so
close what it’s hoping is that the
elephant chases up a tasty grasshopper
Richard will then snatch up as it as it
flies out of the grass because these
birds would battle to to actually catch
the grasshopper once it’s gone into the
grass and so being so close to the
elephant works in this bird’s favour
though I think that that was a little
bit too close for comfort
oh this is a beautiful female elephant
the pet Simona hit there that David’s
that David zooming into the enough for
you is just dried mud it’s not her skin
however that secretion from behind her
eye is from her skin that’s a sebaceous
gland and it’s just weeping a little bit
and as it dried up in the Sun it’s left
that white residue there and the reason
for that is is a little bit of stress it
could also be an indication of a
hormonal change that she’s going through
at the moment and and it just causes
that gland to leak it’s nothing to worry
yourselves about or anything like get
this elephants to 100% perfectly normal
and wooly necks talk in the background
last weekend while our where while away
with the elephant already for lines you
make
while we waiting for those lion tomatoes
each other again
Odie farming has asked what the social
structural family structure of elephants
are Odie farmer let’s see this little
baby I wasn’t gonna chase this this the
stork that’s actually quite an asked
question because very similar to how you
know elephant societies are matriarchal
in other words the herd that you that we
with at the moment will be hid hit up by
a cow a female elephant not a bull
elephant bull the elephants born into a
into a herd will between 12 and about 18
years of age separate themselves for
longer and longer periods from their
family to a point where they’re actually
not associated with their natal herd
anymore well wonder around until there
are about 35 and then at 35 years of age
they will they will go into a period
where their bodies actually change and
they go into a state called must where
they actively search out females that
are ovulating and will combat with other
males for the right to ovulating females
let’s go backwards a little bit just so
that for one I can get out of the smell
that we are sitting in at the moment it
is creating the back of my neck
sorry deaf
how’s that
I feel up you want to know if the if the
cars can be aged I’m just going to
finish my question as a farmer quickly
females and I’ll get to that because
Philip your question does make sense in
context to OD farmers question about the
about the dynamics of a family now
although males will will then a thirty
five plus five for females and be
associated to females and all that the
females will stay in a herd their entire
life so they’ll be born in a herd and
will basically live in a herd their
entire lives when it gets big bigger
than twelve to sixteen individuals it
can split off where two sisters will
split off with their calves and you can
get to settle at herds forming that can
actually join up again in in in drier
terms around common food sources and
congregations of a hundred plus lion
that I mean 100 plus elephant are quite
common in areas where where food sources
can can draw elephant in from you know
hundreds of miles all around it and
these particular elephant will all be
related to one another and now for
Philips question but if you wanted to
know if elephants can be can be aged
they absolutely can you’ve got to you’ve
got to take them in relation to to their
moms so a small calf with a small mom
will be smaller than a large car for the
large mom and although that sounds
pretty you know reasonable logical it
can actually complicate things nothing
is to have a look at the tip so this
youngster here you’ll see has some teeth
erupting out of the jaw just started to
erupt out of the door and when they do
that when you can see that they dead
elephant is just over a year old the
elephant on the right hand side the
youngster on the right hand side same
profile only you can’t see any teeth
coming out there and that elephant is
less than a year
so elephant get them do they get milk
tusks and at about six months you get
some time
see there’s little mo tasks sharp frail
little tasks they will fall out at about
six months and then the more robust
tasks are up to the body year so let it
give you an idea of elephant up to about
a year from a year to five years all
elephant look pretty small and then they
start to get bigger than their mom’s add
a rod I’m talking about unable to fit
under their mom’s tummies is actually
what I wanted to say from about three
years to about seven years and then from
7 years on for mail for male elephants
and female elephant their size changes
dramatically and from about nine years
to 12 years female elephant just smaller
than their mom’s male elephants are just
bigger than their moms and of course
onward from there as they get to
adolescence and then eventually into
adulthood around their late teens early
20s now while we wait for these for
these male for these Lions to mate and
we’ll call you back as soon as they do
why don’t you go all the way south to
the Kruger National Park and Tristan
who’s got something to show you in the
sand so as we thought which is super
exciting the cheetah have come onto
cheetah cut line so we’ve got their
tracks going down the road and you can
see I’ve circled one for you it is much
much much longer than what you would see
on an on a leopard track earlier and we
were looking at the leopard tracks
they’ve very small very round but you
can see the length of this track is very
long with toes that point up and then
little crawl marks in the front and
there’s all four of them have walked
here so it’s the female with the three
cubs that have come out and it really is
exciting to see the problem is is we’re
only about 200 meters south of the
boundary and they’re hitting northwards
so they’re going straight up the road
like this and I’m gonna try my very best
to check I’m hoping that they’ve turned
west along the firebreak or even the
boundary and hit it towards befores of
damn we did check before exam no sign of
anything there but you never know they
might have been lying somewhere closely
and I just didn’t see them but this is
an exciting sign it’s not something we
see every day but what I wanted to point
out with these tracks is that you can
still see the three lobes on the back
they just really small in comparison to
the leopard track so here you’ve got one
two three and then it comes up and then
you’ve got these toes there’s the side
toe the two front toes and the other
side toe with the leopard track we would
have found that the toes would have been
far more pushed up on the sides and they
would have been fairly sort of in line
with one another with a much wider back
pad than what we see here it really is
very cool to see these tracks and mrs.
nock tracks that we see very often at
all so I’m super excited hopefully we
get lucky but they must have come out
just after we’ve been here because
they’re on top of all of the vehicle
tracks I don’t find any bird tracks on
top of them which means hopefully
they’ve moved here fairly recently and
we’ll be able to find them so without
further ado let’s try and see if we can
find these guys it would be so cool if
we can see these four cheetah some part
of me has got this optimism that they’ve
not far off the other part of me thinks
that they’ve already gone over which is
a little disappointing but let’s rather
stay positive and just see maybe we get
really lucky and they sitting somewhere
on a termite mound here or just resting
in the shade somewhere no the tracks are
still kind of going in a zig zagging a
lot so they go on to the fire break then
they come back and then fire break and
come back so I just want to check
are they on the left side massive so I
thought I saw something’s ears poking
out of the grass
of course now in is the possibility of
seeing these guys you’ll find cheetah
looking things all over the place you
can spot logs and stumps and varying
other things that look cheetah like now
this is where I want to check because
here is where they potentially could
have gone so I’m just gonna jump out the
vehicle for two seconds to make a
hundred percent sure where the tracks go
because I don’t see any sign of them
anymore on the road I think they might
have gone back into Torchwood
unfortunately we just want to quickly
check on the roads yeah there’s a nice
soft Road so we’ll see very quickly if
they came to the side but I don’t find
any tracks for them no
that’s this so there’s just the tracks
for the Lions from the other day that
have been walking here actually they
looks like they have come down which is
good news so it looks like they’ve
turned and gone further down they just
cut off quite early and are moving in a
westerly direction down the fire break
which is fantastic news because that
means that they still hopefully you are
within Juma let’s see if maybe they’ve
gone to the force of dam and we just
drove past them and miss them
it is possible yeah we were looking for
elephants we weren’t really paying too
much attention but there’s definitely no
tracks that are going north so that’s a
good sign so far
I just want to make a hundred person
sure but it looks like there’s a set of
tracks moving straight down in front of
me
the fire break would be a good place for
cheats it’s a lie it’s nice and open
they can see anything that’s coming
their way so it wouldn’t surprise me if
they are in this area
lots of snake tracks as well funny
enough I’ve seen three different snake
tracks already on this fire break
burr Babb you are wondering if the
snakes are all to reading the sabi sands
no not just yet
it is starting to warm up nicely for
them and we should start to see them
coming out but nothing that we’ve seen
just yet lots of tracks it’s starting to
emerge the last 3-4 days as the spike in
temperature has happened but without the
rains there’s not that many sort of
rodents around and you’ll find that they
will eventually start getting active in
the next couple of weeks but not too
much just yet oh so I believe we’ve got
a spider wave on the lens I’ll try just
get rid of that so apologize above my
hand being in the way there’s the line
tracks on there as well I hope these
guys didn’t turn and go back to
Torchwood no nothing here I don’t know
I’m not 200 percent sure we’re going to
find him I want to just check around
very carefully and do the buffers hook
boundary as well just in case they just
cut straight over the fire break and
went in from there it’s nothing that’s
on the road in front that I can see I’m
just trying to scan all of the termite
mounds and grassy areas at the end of
the day the use of particular cheats are
a little bit on the shy side so
theoretically the noise of our vehicles
should prompt them to set up at least
and that would mean that we’d be able to
spot them from quite far and
theoretically it’s not obviously always
the case but theoretically that would be
what would happen
I don’t see any further tracks to speak
of let’s check at this Junction here
okay so you’ll see any further signs
coming down this way which is where we
drove this morning there’s just tracks
for Enys I’m gonna go back to the large
tracks and see where they go and while I
do that let’s go across to stiff with
his elephants and lions and see what’s
happening we still here with these ILI’s
and the Lions had haven’t even moved
their hair and one of the guides that
passed us and what two minutes ago said
that these lines are coming to the end
of their mating spree now and that means
that we could be waiting here anyway up
to 30 or 40 minutes between mating
sessions but you know don’t fear we it’s
it’s not a bad place to be and to 8rt
lions mating with these elisa we’ve got
yeah now we’ve got the tea Ellie’s two
moms with their two youngsters still
around us they wanting to cross this
particular drainage line here and I
think we’re gonna see this youngster
hopefully cross out because the one one
is inside the drainage on you can see
the this one their baby who’s already
crossed over
she’s busy eating sort of succulent
grass that’s growing on the edge of this
depression
well this drainage line is a
I’ll fool these things get in the
summertime it must get pretty full oven
this is the terminal end of a drainage
line that starts in the mountains and
when it rains the runoff here is
incredible because there’s on the
mountains itself the soil profile is
only about six foot to seven foot deep
and once that gets saturated the water
will be running out over the surface and
through the sand and will come out in
these places now not a feeling that it’s
not uncommon to see the water right up
these bags right level it’s going to be
really nice to see what this looks like
in wet years to come and see what we
probably won’t be able to see it here
these roads would become impossible to
drive but I think it’s gonna be
interesting to see exactly how deep all
these drainage lines get okay this
elephant is standing now to be basically
underwater you could see they were the
grasses did and if that’s from flood
damage or whether it’s from from
sunshine now captain you wanted to know
why elephants have wrists and you’re
only six years old where are you getting
this information from that elephants
have wrists because you’re not wrong at
all
elephants absolutely have wrists but
they’re only have wrists on their front
legs and it’s because they have a foot
that looks basically like this five toes
on the front and four toes on the back
and around that is a pad and these bones
that stick into this pad join at a
flexible joint and we’re gonna see there
we go you’re looking at that right now
and you’ll see when this elephant moves
you’ll be able to see those wrists you
go and the wrist obviously flows up to
the elbow and if you go up a little bit
you can even see an elbow skin there on
that elephant isn’t that just amazing so
I want you to put your hand down on the
floor if you can put your hand down on
the floor like this lift your fingers
and like this
imagine that there was this fatty piece
of tissue all the way around here and
then turn your elbow this way
so without turning your without turning
this part of your turn your elbow like
this and there you have an elephant’s
foot that is an elephant’s foot isn’t
that incredible that we share very
similar characteristics or something
that doesn’t even look even close to
what we are and that’s the same effect
on the side isn’t that beautiful
this youngster is actually very brave
actually not it’s not it’s not it’s it
is very brave in that it’s standing
griller to be far from its mom who’s
just in front there you can just see
mom’s forehead now wouldn’t that be a
surprise if he came wandering through
this place not even not knowing there
were two invisible lions right here and
an elephant that’s standing in
adrenaline I think this would be quite a
surprising place although I doubt mom
would be able to get out of this
drainage line quick if needs be and I
think you could probably go and lie
almost right up on the edge and watch
her from close part
past nezzie you want to know if a
drainage line is safe for humans to
drink from yes steady you know in this
area with so many animals and with the
water not flowing I definitely would
purify this word too somehow and I try
and filter it as much as what I could
and then I I would I would boil it
before I drank it not good but that’s of
course with the luxury of being able to
boil and filter stuff I think if you
were really thirsty and you you didn’t
have any matches or just raining or you
had no way or no knowledge of making a
filter I think that there’s enough what
to hear that you’d be able to to drink
and you know even if it gave you a bit
of a runny tummy it’s not the last water
that’s here and so I think you’d
actually get away with it to be honest
there’s some water over there in front
of us and you can see what quality the
what is it’s not bubbling it’s not black
it doesn’t have a scum on top of it and
apart from tasting probably like
everything in the Maura has urinated in
it I don’t need to be too bad to be
quite honest there’s even some bubbles
from something now vehicle what kind of
process just yet these lions in this
particular place is generating a lot of
interest and we’re being passed but one
or two cause and that’s all normal
Archer everybody helps everyone here to
have a fantastic Safari but of course
that doesn’t mean that from time to time
there’s a few cars that come past we’ve
got the male line with his head up
which I’ll show you a second maybe got
the male line is good is head up let’s
see if the female lion sticks her head
up as well big yawn with the evening now
coming coming up fast male lions and
female lions would start to react by
yawning and rolling around and what that
does is it oxygenates the blood there we
go it looks like we’re gonna get ready
for another mating you got it
female being covered by the male big
scarred male with a beautiful view there
we go and then he just hasn’t consoles
her a little bit she doesn’t look
impressed whatsoever now for every cub
that reaches a year old males and
females will mate up to 1,000 times and
then it’s just testimony this has been
going on for a few days she’s lost that
aggression that she normally has and
that just because she’s fully submitted
to this male and she’s basically
committed herself to the fact that the
smell will father her next litter of
Cubs he’s proven himself to be the
strongest male in this area
females can go and do a thing called pre
E stress for up to 100 days they can put
off ovulating to give male lions the
chance to compete with one another in an
area for basically to show her to prove
their worth to her in this particular
case at the end of the cycle that has
been unnecessary he looks like a
beautiful boy big scarred face which
shows he is the is the victor of many a
fight and the fact that he looked so
healthy when he stood up there
Shelly you’ve asked an interesting
question how does a male line know that
a female is ovulating
is it like scent-marking Shelly
basically lions and a lot of animals out
here have got such a sensitive sense of
smell and taste but just by testing
urine like your dog or like a doctor
would do when you go to the doctor and
they ask you to do a urine sample
we have to use expensive machines and a
lot of science to get answers lions and
other animals can taste or smell when
females are oscillating and that is
because a female’s body will change the
hormones will change and the hormones or
hormonal changes will will affect
chemical changes in the body and that
will leave trace elements of it’s of all
of this change in the urine and so male
lions or quite often walk-behind females
as they are busy urinating and will pass
the urine over a very sensitive the end
in the roof of their mouth and that will
then tell them whether or not this
female is ovulating also females that
are ovulating will actively search out
males and will flirt with them and that
sometimes triggers it as well just
incredible to think that all these
animals Archer have got things in their
bodies that are like machines that we
use
maybe you’ve asked an interesting
question and is it possible for a litter
of lions to be fathered by more than one
male absolutely feasible Mimi yes and
the reason for that is that it takes
about a week for a female to release all
the eggs from her ovaries about one week
four days to about eight days and she
will release anywhere from two to six
eggs into her fallopian tubes which
would need to be fertilized the hope is
by the time her body is needs to release
those eggs that the male that is in
attendance with her is a male that will
stick around for four for those four to
six days but to be honest with you it
doesn’t always work out that way
sometimes male lions or elephant inside
you know that’s busy rumbling around I
don’t know what’s going on go bit closer
can you all hear that that’s an elephant
and that thing that came flying out of
there was a nest of a weaver bird let’s
go forward a little bit and see if we
can do that
so Mimi sometimes what will happen is a
male line will get after it for me as a
position it’s not common I’ve never seen
it myself personally but it is possible
and then the female will have to
basically finish her cycle with a male
that’s in attendance
and that would lead to different fathers
for haircuts
Wow we’ve got a good view of this
elephant you know it’s very very
uncommon to be on top of elephants like
we are at the moment and it’s quite a
special view to be able to look down on
top of an elephant I must be honest you
can hear the water so they’ve reached
the water now now she’s gonna be stuck
because their tree is now over her way I
need to see what she does
it’s gonna be quite interesting to see
what this female does with him
is she gonna climb over the tree or is
she gonna try and climb up this Bank I
mean if she looks stuck we might have to
just create some space and I think
that’s what I’m gonna do I’m gonna
create some space backwards because I
think that this female is gonna battle
to get over this stuff they’re good
comments but to be honest to do
they’re not mountain goats it’s okay
you get
it’s gonna be interesting to see what
she does does she come over the tree or
does she reverse or does she come at the
bank
I’ve never seen this before to be caught
on a CD she’s gonna climb over the
branch that’s amazing he can see it just
battling a little bit let’s see what she
does with a can see her hip articulate
as she is dragging her leg over the top
of that branch she’s probably got it
stuck now just in front of her back legs
on her belly can’t see the baby anymore
she goes alongside oh just battling to
get over the top of that stuff well she
made that look very very easy just
testimony to the fact that these these
elephant and they can get almost
anywhere all right now that we’ve seen
this elephant do its acrobatics we’ll
stick around and see if anything else oh
there we go
hold on we’re not going back to Tristan
just yet you’re sticking with me so that
we can see what else this elephant gets
up to which is my problem at all sure
what Justin would be enjoying the fact
that he struck there we go you can see
just trying to climb over the exhibit
leg Mr P you want to know if elephants
can get stuck here to death elephants do
get stuck and they can absolutely die in
mud they can get stuck in these defiles
I don’t think that there’s elephants in
any danger of getting stuck whatsoever
I think that that she’s totally in
control I think is a bit of a chance
that baby falls into the mud prep so as
to swim a little bit depending on our
deep the water gets here but I don’t
think that there’s any danger whatsoever
at the moment now the baby’s climbing
over the stumps and look at this little
baby is this abetting come on little
that down getting over that stump it’s
actually very funny
oopsy-daisy come on you can do it you
can see almost upside down coming up
over that stump and did it with this
quite as much grace this mom but with no
harm done whatsoever
beautiful sighting all right why don’t
we send you three and a half thousand
miles south and I’m saying there –
Tristan so that he can tell you about
what he attracts of those cheetah are
doing
well we still trying our best the tracks
go up and down all over the fire break I
can’t find any sign of them going north
so I’ve come to a little clearing just
on the west eastern side of puffles ik
dam in case they came this way but I
don’t see any further tracks here so a
part of me reckons that they’ve gone
north but I just can’t see a track where
they crossed it’s baffling as to where
they went they almost look as though
they’ve grown wings and flown the
problem is is their tracks are in
amongst the whole in kuma prides tracks
from two days ago so it’s quite
difficult there’s an elephant though you
see 11 ray in the distance here and so
the tracks are all mixed up with that
and it’s quite difficult to make them
out in amongst all those other paw
prints you can see how a Lee’s way in
the distance inside before hook so
that’s as far as they go and this is why
it’s a nice place just to stop or switch
to scan maybe we could have seen these
cheetah some way in this general
vicinity but I don’t see anything
interesting that it’s just one female
elephant a knock off I can’t see any
others can you see any other save I
don’t see any others looks like just
these two maybe they’re the back end of
the herd these cheetah I can feel that
they’re close I just don’t know where
exactly the problem is we’ve got very
limited space to work with at the moment
we’re right up in the small feast and
Conan it’s difficult because if they’ve
gone slightly to the east there’s no
chance of us being able to find him the
other problem is as courses if it’s they
lying flat in some of this long grass
it’s going to be very difficult to even
see those cheetah so I was hoping that
they’d pop their heads up while we’re
driving around or standing up and that
would give us at least an indication of
where they are
you can see how the females just
peacefully feeding while the calf drinks
David you wondering if they could be
looking for water in heat well I think
so the problem is is that there is a
water hole straight north of us here
inside puffles hook so they might have
gone that way for water
I was just off chance that they might
head towards before look down they
definitely came onto the fire break it’s
there’s no doubt about it that one came
down the fire break it looks like maybe
one or two eventually another one kind
of joins up and then they turn and they
go a little bit back east and then from
there I lost their tracks I can’t see if
they go north or south from there back
into the block and but given that their
general direction was north I would have
imagined they went north into the over
the fire break but I can’t find anything
crossing over into puffles look the
problem with purfles of boundary is it’s
very busy and today would have been a
busy day on that road because a lot of
the landowners were here for the weekend
and they went home during the day so
it’s very possible that they’ve driven
over all the tracks but let’s just carry
on with this road towards before Zach
Dam you never know it’s this time of the
day that cheetah will be going towards
water maybe they’re at the dam now it’s
possible we’ll do another few loops
around here just in case and hope for
the best and maybe maybe maybe maybe
with a little bit of luck something will
happen the reason why I’m putting effort
into this is just because we really so
seldom see cheetah and it would be great
to see a cheetah in this area and also
just get it start getting it’s kind of
used to our vehicle our vehicles very
different shape to all the other
vehicles and so sometimes when some of
the cats haven’t seen it they’re a
little bit kind of weary of it
particulars cameraman that moves on the
back and the fact that I don’t ever door
they can see my legs moving so sometimes
get a little bit weary of it so be nice
just to kind of find those cheetah and
spend a bit of time with them also if
they’re exploring this area then
hopefully they’ll come back here again
at some point
there are lots and lots of impalas
though on the fire break between where
the checks are and the dam so
Casca you wondering if the all the
vehicles could be altering the cheetahs
behavior I suppose somewhat if the
cheetahs are very unrelaxed these female
in her Cubs they could potentially
change direction with the vehicles being
around but I don’t think so I mean we
heard this morning that the tracks were
coming west towards cheetah Kaplan we
drove there there was no sign of those
cheetah and then as we came this
afternoon their tracks are out there so
they might have just rested up in in the
morning and then decided to carry on
walking in a poptart later on that
boundary so the direction hasn’t really
changed the whole morning they’re kind
of heating in the same way they were
from last night so I don’t think we
changed their behavior too much they the
female like I said is a little bit
skittish of that so she’s a little bit
more kind of wary and that might mean
that she moves in a different direction
see the scrub here they zip so we have a
little scrub here that’s art a little
early maybe for a Sunday afternoon
stroll the orange ears is what actually
gave it away the sun’s coming through
the ears and you can see that almost
translucent and a big big eye with the
big guy that they can actually see it
night so during the day that eye is not
designed to be getting so much light
it’s bigger like that so that it can get
more light in at night and see a little
bit better so the site guys out I’m a
little on the early front that’s okay
I’m talking too many predators around
that we’ve seen maybe we will find a
cheetah bursting out towards scrubbers
we know that they hunt them quite a bit
by the looks of things in the Mara so I
would be surprised if our cheetah here
didn’t do the same but nice to see it’s
not something we get to see every day
out in the open in some nice sunlight
that’s no mere nocturnal species for us
good to see and you can see how well it
would camouflage if it just took two
steps to the right we’d really battle to
be able to see it need to be careful
little scrub here there’s still birds of
prey around she really hate to be a
guide you really need good eyesight well
I suppose yes you do it’s it’s one of
those things we also your eyes will get
better as time goes on so more time you
spend out yeah it’s funny your eyes
start to adjust and you actually start
to notice things and I’d always advice
that I give people that
come out on safari when I was guiding
was dark to look for animals in terms of
actually spotting an animal so a lot of
the time people will be like try and
look for a line or trying to look for a
liquid 99% of the time that we see
things it’s actually because we’ve
noticed a slight difference in the bush
so others tell them oh did I ruin a
romantic sunset I’m so sorry
you – well I’ll leave you in peace then
they’ve just ran off into the distance
then you know under this lid word but
they seem as though it was a male and a
female having a little moment watching
the Sun go down now I feel awful that
I’ve ruined his date oh well sorry buddy
so as I was saying when you’re looking
for things try and notice slight
differences in colors difference in
patterns and that’s the kind of thing
that you use to spot stuff that’s
normally how you pick things up or
movements so a lot of the time leopards
actually give themselves away when they
flick an ear or the tail lifts up
slightly and drops down again and those
are the things that the really good
trackers when they spotting things from
the vehicles will pick up it’s not so
much actually seeing an animal as
opposed to just seeing a slight
difference and being like hang on a
second that doesn’t look like it belongs
there let’s have another look and then
you notice okay there is whatever you
were looking for so it’s those kind of
things that you need to do and and the
really sort of talented guys do it and
as you spend more time archer so you get
to notice what shades work and sort of
structures and things like that that are
naturally occurring and then stuff that
is slightly out of place and you’re able
to then sports it up there’s an elephant
at the waterhole nice looks like just
one elephant dead puffle suktam so
that’s good news don’t know you don’t go
away from the dam now looks like a young
male that’s busy moving away slack
are you complaining at me sounds like it
so this is a young male that was part of
that herd that we saw this morning must
be off the back and maybe that female we
saw suckling with that other one way in
the distance was the head of this herd
and they just spread out all along the
fire break area and I can see a couple
more on the northern side there they
actually coming it looks like they’re
coming down to the water sip that’s good
news there’s a whole bunch of em
excellent a few a Lee’s at purfles exam
is exactly what we wanted earlier so it
seems as though we’ve got what we were
asking for well though I think they’ve
already had their drink and they’re just
finishing up now but that’s okay we’ll
still join them for a little bit that’s
let’s just go forward sake so he said
see there’s one that’s having a bit of a
mud wallow over there more on the left
as well so it is our heard from this
morning that is all just spread across
and it looks like some of them are still
making their way to the water others
have already drank and we know it’s
quite a big herd so I would imagine that
we’re going to see a few more arriving
just now that one’s busy playing with
the stick
young male what are you doing definitely
sounds like more of them coming which is
fantastic news
Christine you’re wondering if the tusks
continue to grow throughout their
lifetime yes they do but don’t forget
they also get worn down throughout their
lifetime so as they go so those tests
are getting worn and Blantyre as they’re
being used so even though they do
continue to grow there is some wear and
tear that happens that will limit that
amount of growth but also as genetics as
well some elephants will have tusks that
grow quicker than others and thicker
than others it’s not always that every
elephant is going to get big long tusks
as there’s a bit of genetics involved
with it but they do grow out throughout
their life what you doing so I believe
when they rock their foot like that it’s
a little bit of indecision as they’re
not a hundred percent sure which way
they want to go so they wait until
they’ve got some backup oh and all just
throwing sticks on top of the head
apparently is also what you do when you
have your foot up and resting a little
bit good and they rock like that it’s
just a bit indecisive as to what they do
you can see is that a dust bath today as
well but a nice white dust all over his
head young boy here comes another one
and there’s still quite a few to our
left-hand side so I would imagine
they’re all slowly but surely coming
down for a drink
but it is a beautiful scene it’s calm
it’s quiet
are you gonna come say hello yeah there
are they closing in now we’re in trouble
said look at these two cheeky England’s
Alicia is a party at the water well it
looks like it although it looks like
we’ve been ganged up upon Mike these two
you see how the posture is with both of
them ears art heads slightly raised so
they are now coming towards us just to
come and see what we are and who we are
typical of a young male he wants to know
what’s going on he’s looking hairy
casual with his foot over the top of the
other one and the one on the left is
slightly older one what are you what do
you want it don’t come and give us
trouble we’ve done nothing to you wave
yourself
so look at the posture you see how she’s
trying to make herself bigger he sorry
he’s trying to make himself bigger and
it’s trying to trick nurse but because
we standing our ground and he’s young
not a hundred percent sure about this
whole thing and that’s why I now moving
off a little bit he’s beginning to go
back towards the herd if it was a big
old male and it was showing that posture
there was a very different story these
youngsters you’ve got to teach them a
little bit you’ve got to show them that
you are not scared of them and that you
don’t have worried about them and you
sit and wait and just sit it out and
eventually that’s what happens as they
learn not to come near you and they go
off and back down to the water but you
can see they’ve dug a massive hole where
that male is they’re throwing mud all
over himself but there’s a nice deep
hole at the base of the feet that he’s
busy pulling mud out of and they’ve dug
that by the looks of it with their feet
before water to seep through so they’ll
be nice clean water in there and then
once they’ve drank they then start to
throw mud and get it all muddy and
collapse soil in there and then that’s
what he’s throwing all over his body you
can see the dark he is in
coloration bits of mud sticking to him
all over the place
sleeeeep you saying you wonder if the
Ellie’s know how much they are loved by
us yes I suppose not really they don’t
really know that because generally they
absolutely petrified of humans on foot
and see us as a predator because of all
the years of persecution that they’ve
had so in vehicles they know that we’re
not really a threat but they do
definitely yeah or not seeing us as part
of the family I mean we are an object
that is in the hood sometimes and they
accept it because we don’t really do
anything but on foot is a very different
situation at what they see people and
humans as a potential dangerous animal
and something that they need to be very
wary of so you won’t find them being too
friendly to us on foot just you know
wondering if an elephant could ever
cause serious damage if you were
attacked by them the answer to that is a
resounding yes in fact it’s not just
serious damage they will cause death if
you are to get manhandled by an elephant
you’re not going to generally survive in
altercation like that elephants when
they get hold of people is a very ugly
situation even when they get hold of
cars there are a number of videos on the
internet if you want to go and check it
out about elephants rolling cars and
squashing cars and all kinds of other
things so they are extremely extremely
dangerous on foot and something you’ve
got to be very wary of and you’ll find
that they if they get hold of you then
you’re in a lot of trouble you’re not
going to come out of it very nicely and
even if you do survive you’re going to
have all kinds of big problems that
animal is hugely powerful it is
immensely strong much stronger than what
we are and our bodies are like a little
rag doll to them if they get hold of us
and it’s really not a pleasant situation
I know of a couple people that have been
killed by elephants and I can tell you
it’s not a very pleasant experience and
if you want to know just how unpleasant
it is you can ask one of our presenters
bring Claire Smith because he was hit by
an elephant in Gabon a forest elephant
which are much smaller than the Savannah
elephants and it certainly did a bit of
damage to him he had a badly dislocated
hip and so he’ll be able to tell you
just how unpleasant being
handled by an elephant is well no he’s
doing this elephant enormous looks like
he’s waiting the bank to make mud that
he can then potentially rub on what all
you see sprayed water all along there
any snuffing along what are you doing
are you watering the garden very strange
I’ve never seen an elephant actually do
this almost like he’s making his own
little mudslide you’re not really
drinking as you can see this is not
exactly a huge amount of water being
sucked up and put inside the mouth it’s
mostly just being thrown onto the bank
look there we go what are you doing
that’s super interesting natural are you
asking if he could be trying to eat some
of the soil in the minerals it’s
possible that he could be doing that I
think however what he’s actually doing
is taking the surface tension off the
water and then pushing that onto the
soil as getting rid of all of the dust
and dirt that’s on top of the water and
then he’s drinking the nice clean water
that’s left
so you see look he sprays that stuff out
and then once he sprayed a little bit
then he pushes water into the mouth so I
think he’s just getting rid of all the
dirty water that he first sucks up and
the sediment and then pushing nice water
into his mouth
okay use anything he’s building a
sandcastle I like that idea I suppose
when you young children down at the
water hole and the muddy areas they’re
going to make little sand castles and
that’s maybe what he’s doing it would be
nice imagine if he could build a
sandcastle would be very clever wouldn’t
it I reckon the elephant’s sandcastle
would look quite good you can see a
number of other elephants starting to
arrive now we’re getting lots and lots
and lots of them coming through there’s
a lot of babies that are going to come
through just now as well this is the
first part the rest are still in the
bush but a slowly but surely heading
down in this direction so they’re going
to be with us fairly soon so they
obviously came down for a drink during
the day then they went off to feed and
now they’re back again this is the same
herd we had this morning that big herd
that we had it’s exactly the same sort
of composition of them and I’ve
recognized a couple of these individuals
from earlier you can see they’re
actually having a mud wallow now you can
hear him slurping up the mud and
spraying it there we go
digging out a little bit of that swell
this will all be to help cool down as
well as to create a predictive layer for
those biting flies and various parasites
and like I said cooling down is probably
the biggest reason you see eye sprays
behind his ears up onto the chest area
because that’s where all the thinnest
skin is and where it will cool down the
quickest deadhead user love elephant
personalities they are are the best
aren’t they they’ve got so much sort of
spunk and so much attitude and
personality to all of them and each
one’s different each one has got its own
kind of uniqueness and they really are
an incredible animal when I spend time
in Kenya with all those orphans each one
has its own persona and its own way of
doing things they are some of them very
naughty others are shy and reclusive
others are playful it just depends on
the individual it’s really amazing how
different they actually all are and how
each one is very much like people in
completely unique in the way that they
go about their day and their business is
magical sitting here at this time of the
day it’s that sunset period we actually
have a beautiful big red disc of Sun
going down on our left hand side it is a
wonderful wonderful scene so there that
is
and then it’s quiet these alias all
around us is a prospect of potentially a
cheetah arriving at some point which
would be amazing so imagine if we had a
cheetah arrive on the other bank and
start drinking with these elephants that
would be a turn up for the books
so is lots going on and it is just so
pretty
being Archer and quiet Pleasant isn’t it
sip a lovely way to spend a Sunday
afternoon that’s for sure it’s a perfect
perfect perfect way to relax on a Sunday
slowly but surely going down I reckon it
will be done in the next two three
minutes I think we’ll see that it’s
going to go beyond the horizon there’s
the rest of our heads slowly but surely
arrives let’s just go forward a little
bit because we can maybe watch the rest
of them that are feeding and starting to
come out as well
I was thinking about going down to where
they’ve got that mud wallow but then I
remembered that elephant’s throne might
a long way away so I don’t really want
to go get covered in mud so I probably
won’t heed to far that direction that’s
what we will do is there’s a little path
here and we can then just Park and we
can watch them from on top as well as
all the others that will start coming
past us
come on rusty over the bump
we’re just going to park ourselves over
yep just on top of the bank we’re going
to sit with our elephants sorry if I
know it’s a butts skew and lopsided but
this is where we’re going to least enjoy
watching them as they drink around us
and have a little feed I believe a lot
of you are just saying how much you love
spending time with these ILI’s and we
are so fortunate particularly here in
the sands where we get these intimate
close encounters and they all around us
and just how relaxed they are they they
are so tolerant of us look at this
little one trying to get into the hole
don’t fall oh I thought we might see a
head plant into the hole what is it with
the young individuals husana yesterday
shoving his head down the hall at the
termite mound and now our little inny or
so I feel like we’re going to get one or
two of the tiny babies arriving and they
might disappear down that hole which
would be quite entertaining to watch
because they will probably be a bit of
screaming you can’t fit in there what
are you doing well Nega is the mud bath
for everybody else it’s too small for
you to sit in there you can’t sit it’s
not going to stop me trying is basically
what’s happening
so but if you are wondering or inexactly
myself and byron we’re going to join the
scene and run into the mud wallows since
we’ve got our mud wrestling match coming
up and we need to get into training well
Byron’s not here so I don’t want to get
any unfair advantage over him if we
training we can have to Train
you know at the same time I can’t get
all my techniques down pat and not give
him a chance to Train although he is in
the timber party game reserve so maybe
he’s found some mud wallows of his own
in this doing some sneaky training in
his speedos I’ll have to try and find
out from some of the sources that we
know there I wouldn’t be surprised if he
is it’s good weather and we know Byron
loves a bit of mud wrestling and Tim
bhavati was where he trained when he was
the champion back in the day and so he’s
gone back to his roots and back to his
training ground and I’m sure he’s busy
doing getting up to no good in the mud
that side so I’ll have to suppose put in
some hours at some point and we’ll have
to see how it goes we have to wait for
Brenton and James and Scott to come back
because they’re also part of this
challenge as well so until such time as
we’ve got them here we going to have to
try and hold off a bit of practice
although I suppose they can practice
that side as well right well we’re going
to sit and enjoy our Alize because well
why wouldn’t you want to it’s just the
most magical scene being here with them
and while we do that Oh Alize I think
it’s also more coming behind us but
stiff is back up and running in and
still with his lines so let’s see if
they’re going to be mating a little bit
more
welcome back and this lioness has left a
full and eaten zebra can you believe it
and has decided to head off in a
southerly direction towards the
escarpment which has created a lot of
confusion amongst David and myself as to
which pride she belongs to we’re on the
fringes of three prides right now the
young gamez the paradise and the sausage
tree and if I were to give a guess it
would probably be the angle is that this
lioness belongs to although she’s
hitting straight south and she’s
definitely not nervous about doing so
and that means that it might even be the
sausage pride now the sausage tree pride
is generally speaking located along the
edge of the escarpment that you see in
the background and not really here but
this lioness is walking straight there
and she’s she’s quite determined
beautiful afternoon shot the red line
Wow
it’s listening to the bush around us
very similar to the mornings changed
from day to night and night today this
crepuscular hour is quite astounding in
terms of what you can all of a sudden
start hearing a lot more birds making a
noise than when we left this afternoon
but that is because things have quieted
down a little bit I think there’s less
birds calling I just think that the
birds that are calling while making the
most of this fantastic shot there it
feature in the background the land that
we’re sitting on now is slowly subsiding
away from that escarpment face are we
sinking away from the escarpment face
leaving behind the top curve is now
walking away from her she’s on a game
path lands impossible will will choose
to walk on game pods it’s quieter I was
going from one place to another less
thorns in this particular area the game
paths are made up mostly from hippo pods
we’re not going to be able to follow
this lioness fish is going our she’s
moving to a non off-roading area this
area that we were in at the moment is it
Jason to a swamp and and is relatively
sensitive from an ecological point of
view we can’t just go off road whatever
we want and that’s a good thing this
lioness is moving through this
particular area there’s another road put
a mile or two away from here and you’ll
see if we can go and fit well go around
there in a little bit but we’ve got
three other lions right next to us right
now we’ve got two male lines in the
female line and a full grown and eaten
zebra and I think that that’s probably
where the action is gonna be and and I
think that that’s what we’re gonna be
doing so we’re gonna turn around and go
back to that zebra carcass now and see
what we will see what comes up from that
and leave that line has to go either
fetch your sisters the fetcher cubs and
come back to this carcass here and
that’s what I think she’s is he doing in
the meantime we’re gonna be sending you
an hour wolf for us it’s an hour back in
time but you are you going to a
different time zone
with with Tristan and what is it to be
quite an exciting thing well
unfortunately I will he just walked away
she was right next to us I don’t know
what’s wrong with these Aliza’s this
morning and this often every time we try
come back to us and the Ellie’s are
close to us they move away just as they
linking so they’ve gone up into the top
of one finished it’s mud wallow and it’s
going there and there we’ve come down
right near the mud wallow because we’ve
got a nice and low perspective and if
they are going to carry on you can see
there’s the mighty section and there’s a
whole bunch more that are slowly but
surely coming from behind us so I would
imagine they are going to end up coming
to CID mud wallow as well and we’ll end
up with a little bit of action nice and
close and the awesome little baby so I’m
hoping they are going to go into this
mud wallow and roll around and have a
good old time much like what we saw with
that other youngster that was here just
now there is a hardy da as well that’s
busy rooting around in the edge of the
water it seems to be almost hit deep as
it’s digging around I wonder what it’s
finding in there must be finding some
sort of food item you can see it’s going
quite deep in it’s generally Hardy does
you know will roots around a little bit
shallower than that but it’s must be
finding some sort of food item there
must be little insects or little maybe
freshwater crabs or some sort of food
item that’s just right down in the mud
and that’s why it’s digging as deep in
there to get what it’s looking for once
we get little freshwater snails
sometimes that they will go after it
might be those guys that are just low
down in the mud Slayer
it’s got the good right idea it’s such a
beautiful evening a little afternoon
swim is perfect so you’ve got the big
and the small the hardy door and the
elephant and both are completely
unperturbed by the other the Hadid I was
actually gotten away with murder today
generally these elephants will chase
them all over the show but this
afternoon they haven’t really worried
about this corridor at all
Coria wondering if we’ve seen any
offspring from the Magnificent Seven
correct we might have I have no idea
it’s very difficult to I haven’t any
idea as to who the father of these
infant cards is there’s multiple males
and the females get mated with and and
because of the gestation period being so
long and the number of females very
difficult to know if they come from
those magnificent seven in terms of
tusks as though an emerging Tuskers and
we have seen one or two tasker’s here
there was one that was around in
april/may that area i think a little bit
into june as well really nice it wasn’t
a massive Tusker but he did have nice
tusks and but when I was a cheetah we
used to have two really really big
Tuskers that came through um when I’m
talking Tuskers I mean massive thick big
long tusks that almost touched the
ground and I haven’t seen them in a very
long time and so he just sold him see
them down here I saw those really big
tusks is and even the Magnificent 7
themselves we’re in the northern part of
Kruger they very seldom came down to the
southern section they like to stay in
the Mopani Belt area just north of us
and so very seldom do we see them the
closest biggest Tusker that I know of is
in the timber party game reserve so
there was one that was up that’s I don’t
know if it’s still alive I remember
hearing something about it possibly
dying but that was a really big Tusker
that was around and then there was one
also seen around the sabi River down
towards lower sabi and when that
individual is also I think still around
that side but there is a number of
emerging Tuskers and if you’re
interested in it you just can go on to
the the sand parks website so they have
a whole thing on emerging Tuskers and
and all the emerging Tuskers of the
Krugerrand is even some females that
feature in there some of the big of
tusks good emails so if you are
interested in seeing which emerging
Tuskers are coming out and what the
where the areas that they inhabit then
you can go and see it on that website
listen to them talking to one another
there’s a little bit of grumbling all
around us seems as though none of them
were wanting to come down to the mud
wallow anymore the rest of them were
just coming to my northern side into
this little drainage section just to
feed but there’s something about being
in amongst them when they just do those
low grumbles and one will do it a little
bit further away and then one closer to
you in on your other side and when it
happens all around your sex around sound
of an elephant grumble it’s such a cool
experience to to go through remember
that time only in the moola wotty when I
was with sipped at one time and we had
the most epic afternoon with the
elephants and they were vocalizing
heavily it was just especially in the
Malati cuz it echoes through that
riverbed it was just so fantastic so
hopefully we’ll get that now that
they’re coming down into the drainage
that they do a bit more of the same
that’s a very content elephant with this
stick you can see foot is crossed over
stick in mouth it’s rotating and getting
all that cambium and that’s as cool as
you can look when feeding upon a stick
apparently reckon Byron would be envious
of this elephant and his coolness
no he’s just chomping away bit of ear
flapping to cool down in the late
afternoon warmth but I believe stiff has
made his way towards the zebra carcass
so let’s go back to him and see if
there’s anything that’s there and
feeding off the said Debray dead zebra
carcass and isn’t that just a majestic
sight
we’ve decided to return to the area with
the dead zebra and the reason for that
is I think that there’s the greatest
chance of seeing something around this
carcass the smell lands been lying off
to the one side the whole day he looks
full but the zebra caucus hasn’t been
touched and a male line won’t move from
from that much fresh meat additionally I
think that this male lions coalition
brother is busy mating with a female
close by and quite often you see these
sort of unfortunates that the guy who
didn’t make it quite lying on the
periphery of a mating event and and I
think in this particular case I think
he’s actually got the the the other say
the lion’s share of the meat okay is
that the right way to say that there and
does it sound bad and I think that he’s
be he’d be able to keep tabs on his
brother just in case something happens
and and still have some food available
to him and I think he’s just sort of
surveying his domain at the moment
that’s what male lions do they wake up
all of a sudden at sunset
have a look around I think he might even
if we lucky and you’re holding thumbs
give us a row or two and and then I
think he’s gonna go and have a meal that
female she walked off South with
Epis and there’s every chance that she
comes back here with some either cubs or
even her sisters as I was mentioning a
little bit earlier I think we’re on the
periphery here between three prods I
think this is just on the southern edge
of the paradise pride on the northern
edge of the N Gamez and when the south
eastern edge of the of the of the pet of
the sausage pods pride if I were to
guess I would have said that this was
the n gamma pride female but the way
that that female walked off south of
here I don’t know difficult to say and
the exciting thing about saying I don’t
know with regards to lion prides is
exactly that is that we just don’t know
there’s this is a new area we’ve only
been operating here for a couple of
months and these lion pride dynamics
here are very very complex and it’s
because there’s so much food spread so
widely around that the lions are spread
out and what we think might be two
prides could in fact be one giant pride
it might be even smaller fragmented
prides it might even be a combination of
the two in which case prides will form
and then and then disband and form again
we just don’t know even the line
researchers around here let’s say they
don’t exactly know what’s going on with
all these lion prides and it’s gonna be
very interesting with all of you out
there to try and get to the bottom of it
over time he’s getting a little bit
darker and a little bit of out of the
range of our infrared lights that male
lions lying about 150 yards off from us
at the moment but facing us and the
zebra is a little bit closer and so I
hope he does decide to get up and move
we’ll be able to see him he is beautiful
there maiya lines at about five years of
age to about nine years of age reach
their their maximum size but as they
take over prides the testosterone levels
actually increase when they are pride
males are dominant in an area and that
forms the growth of that black mane that
you seen
me and it has been proven that females
are more attracted to males with black
Mane’s than there are two males with
blonde Mane’s or even males with no
Mane’s however you know in survival
terms females that come into East rest
in areas where lion numbers are very low
like in the movie ER for instance up in
the central northern central part of of
Namibia it’s not uncommon for female
lioness to come into Easter’s with at
males being anywhere nearby and then
they will basically go for any male that
comes a-calling and it could even be
their son so incest in lions in small or
fragmented populations is not an
uncommon thing and for the survival of
the species females do sometimes subject
themselves to the attentions of males
that are related or very young
we’re not dominant or nomadic or any
other combination I don’t think that
that’s gonna be the case in this area
the male lines in this area are just
fantastic you know it’s the spot where
Lions in Masai culture male lions were
hunted by young warriors as a as a
basically as a rite of passage
okay oh you wanted to know when we tend
to hear these big male lions roaring
okay that happens around about now in
actual fact same reason why we hear lots
of bird calls and lots in the in the in
the early evening and in in the early
morning but now a male lion will call
just to reestablish where he went to
sleep in the Sun we’re done and so this
male lions looking around he’s busy
listening I have no doubt that if he’s
so inclined as to protect his his domain
that he will roar
anytime soon I’m looking forward to a
national factor now carry on roaring
throughout the evening sometimes if they
get distracted by one thing or another
they could stop picking it up again in
the morning but a male lion on patrol of
his boundary will raw every 3 or 4
minutes and will raw the entire evening
it’s it’s no effort
to do so whatsoever he’s busy looking at
the moment did a hippopotamus that has
come out of the Mara River and he’s
making its way to feeding grounds
adjacent to the river we quite close to
the river where we are now I’d say we’re
probably about 300 yards of gold head
getting into your shot please excuse
their sorry Debbie it’s just they off to
the left a little bit there we go
David’s looking at a little screen that
is no there we go
David’s looking at a very bright screen
that is overwhelmed by the evening as it
comes on and sometimes it does make a
little bit more challenging to find
these things but being the artist he is
picks it up very quickly so he come out
this time of the evening a feat for not
a long time by one two o’clock in the
morning hippos are almost always back in
their ponds very few hippo with grass so
close to the edges of the rivers will
actually be out longer than that in
areas like the elephants river which
lies just north of Juma you sometimes
find hippopotamus only arriving back at
the ponds 10 11 o’clock in the morning
sometimes in the dry season and that’s
because they’ve had to walk up to 20 or
50 miles away from the river to find
enough grass to eat that’s particularly
I don’t think is gonna have any such
trouble so David’s just informed us that
we’re going to be moving over to
infrared so excuse the change that’s
gonna happen now you’re gonna see a
remarkable change to the picture that
you’re having a look at now there we go
and isn’t that wonderful so now what
we’re doing is the cameras picked up
always change the filter which allows it
to utilize infrared radiation and that
is created a slightly different picture
now don’t forget we don’t have any
artificial lights on the story
whatsoever this is you looking at this
picture as it’s getting dark here
as listen to all the noises crickets
Franklin
is lovely it’s also not uncommon for for
lion to hunt hippo I would imagine that
Lions would either hunt a hippo that
gets too close to a bunch of them and
looks injured a week in a particular way
or if they’re lots of lions and they’re
hungry
oh the hippo is weak or injured that
Lions will single it out they’re not the
usual prey item for ProLiant however
there are some places in this world
where lions will hunt anything even
elephant let’s see this is around the
bottom of feeling the tension build
there’s Marilyn come give us a roll big
guy let’s see let’s hear you lay claim
to this area pick a fight where lines
are designed to fight because what is
that question tiger which weighs which
weighs more than a lion or a lion which
one would win in a fight now I’ve always
backed lion
I know sort of purpose bred fighting
machines and a big male line like this
has a lot of experience in fights no
he’s not gonna roll he’s going back to
sleep how could you do that
take a you wanna know well I’m sure
looking at this mayor there’s mail with
this big hairy black-maned body you’d
like to know why is it that that male
lions are more attractive to you excuse
me
Wow female lions more attracted to males
with black Mane’s than anything else
take it let me think about my auntie
here a little bit for you personally I
think it’s a sign of vitality not only
do male lions have to be strong enough
to prove to that female that they are
the strongest male in that particular
area in other words they speak and
health they’re healthy enough and
they’re strong enough to fight off other
males so that in this particular area
that male would be the strongest but
they also have to prove that from a
vitality point of view and the only way
that they it’s a visual cue and it’s
it’s it’s males are healthy their bodies
are healthy they’ve got enough excess
excess Arden I suppose metabolic energy
that can create this big fluffy mane the
black mane and the the main around the
lion’s head is also serve as a
protection it’s not just a visual cue
about vitality but it also forms a
protection around the head of the line
and that will tell a female that this
particular male is protected in other
words he can withstand some battering
and and can fend off other male lions so
I think it’s just a it’s just a it’s
basically just a visual cue on how vital
the these particular cats are so I’ll
just say that females won’t go for bald
or for blonde males at all but
definitely I think the increased
testosterone that creates the long Mane
is apart from everything else quite
attractive to females because it’s just
an added bonus in terms of how healthy
they are alright now we’re gonna keep an
eye on these males or this male and his
brother up there with his young female
and wait to see what happens to that
lioness that walked or south and this
zebra carcass off to our right inside in
the meantime you’re gonna be crossing
the Mara River to my friend Scott Dawson
he’s
sitting with those cheats over the whole
afternoon hello everyone
we’ve just had to get up and moving
quite quickly these cheetah that were
with their five of them have just
started rushing towards a herd of
wildebeest and you just never know
what’s gonna happen they were scent
marking on a tree initially we’ve just
seen some and they all trotting
alongside us how awesome is this heading
straight towards a herd of wildebeest
you couldn’t have joined us at a better
time they’ve just changed gears without
any warning and they are very steadily
approaching what looks to be a couple of
hundred wildebeest all dot adults about
ten seconds ahead of them now I’m gonna
keep moving alongside them like this so
that we don’t get left in their dust
and this is about to get serious we’re
about to start seeing this coalition of
five cheats are start working this herd
of wildebeests like a pack of wolves the
way they hunt them after dark like this
one at dusk is something to behold now
we’re using a special low-light camera
so it appears a lot brighter than it
actually is now I can only just faintly
make the world to be starts in front of
us let’s stop here
this time ahead of us here mono may be
stone these front ones just not just a
little bit left there and from that bush
there we go now we in a bit of a tricky
situation I don’t know if we should
quickly switch over to infrared mono if
you think that is a good idea tricky one
we do have an infrared light there we go
so this is going to be I think a lot
easier for us to follow the action look
at our awesomeness is pulling back
it’s partners asking for updates down
the front one money you can hear the
will to be snorting they’ve noticed
these cheater but they are not fleeing
just yet and it’s only when they start
running that the action and faults
welcome to everyone who has just jumped
on board this live Safari it is
wonderful to have you with us
we are following five cheetah and they
are surrounded by migrating herds of
wildebeest we are in the Maasai Mara in
Kenya and we are about to see some epic
epic action these five cheetahs have
become experts at hunting wildebeest and
we’ve been lucky enough to follow them
at dusk or after dark just like now on a
number of occasions and what they likely
to do is start working this herd of
wildebeest just like a pack of wolves
running in and amongst them creating
chaos and so finally they can single out
a youngster and then make their move
it’s incredibly tricky work for us to
work up at least mono who is on camera
to work out which cheetah to film when
there is so much action unfold and so he
is gonna be darting between all of them
to make sure that we do not miss out
then I go already this is why muhanad
has to keep switching over stay wide
let’s see what happens here how awesome
is this now what I’m gonna do is I’m
gonna keep following them we need to get
closer
you trust they’re as wide and as as many
as you can
perfect just like that mano good work
this is so exciting we spend many many
hours out with these animals waiting for
moments like this to happen and you guys
are in for a treat I just need to make
sure I don’t drive us into a hole as we
move along I’ll use my headlights
sparingly as when we need beep okay I
think we’re in a decent spot yeah hello
to Cheryl you just sent through your
comments saying how much you love
watching these five boys and me too
there are quick becoming my favorite
African predator to follow and they are
certainly showcasing how epic cheetah
can and are or can be and are but the
fact that we are lucky enough to have
just five of these guys together it’s
rare to have a correlation coalition
this large
hello Betsy you’d like to know why these
wildebeest are not panicking and I guess
it’s too soon to panic for them it’s not
quite dark yet they can still see a
little bit and they know that fleeing
into the unknown is just as dangerous as
kind of keeping an eye on your possible
threat so I guess that’s the theory that
they’re employing the fact that there’s
nice short open grass means they can
keep a good eye on them so they know
where the threat is coming from and who
knows maybe they’ve just been a little
bit dazed by all the action that is
attracted to the migration the amount of
wildebeest that they must see die as
they move along for this treacherous
journey it’s quite something and I’m
told a lot of you guys are cheering on
these cheetah so am i I’m not sure when
they last fed we were lucky enough to
see them catch and kill a young
wildebeest I think it was three days ago
early one morning we got incredibly
lucky and since then I’m not sure if
they’ve had any luck judging by their
bellies I don’t think they have so they
may not have eaten in quite some time
maybe I’m wrong there may have been
successful in making kills that have
simply been stolen by lion and hyena so
it’s not that they wouldn’t have been
successful simply they may just not not
have had any luck keeping their prey to
themselves
how beautiful is that with the clouds up
to the east
what an epic epic evening
now I’m surprised they haven’t started
working the herds as I would have
expected them to just yet but the
Knights are still young they usually
start doing just like we saw it kind of
doers they start all running in Allen
and you’d like to know if they would
target out a specific wildebeest well
yes eventually one of them would find a
youngster possibly two or three of them
could actually get lucky in one hands if
they all targets and find a youngster
that’s worth following they will follow
each one individually so once they’ve
kind of singled one Artes I guess others
may jump on board but interestingly
these guys have got so much faith in
their partners that once they see that
one or two of them are hots on the trail
of a wildebeest there are this kind of
lag behind just backing them to do the
job for them so I’ve been quite
surprised by that
okay so obviously no tasty wildebeest in
these initial herds but there’s a lots
more in this area so let’s just keep an
eye on what’s going on here you’d see a
gentle glow of eyes in the distance as
maybe just stop you’ll get some great
shots as they walk past these guys
listen to this noise audible the beasts
calling hooves rolling there’s a bit of
a breeze picking up it was it dead still
evening and that will create further
chaos and confusion once full darkness
sets in which I guess would be in a Bart
ten minutes or so
– 15 minutes it’s gonna be pitch black
and I think that is what these cheats
are waiting for they can simply create
more of a frenzy making it easier for
them to single one art wonderful
wonderful stuff
we’ve got really lucky finding these
guys this afternoon they move huge huge
distances from where they we saw them
three days ago when they start running
like that my heart starts racing mine is
doing a great job on just keeping on all
five of them like I said it is important
that we know all of them ours one may
decide to charge for it at any stage
hello VT you’d like to know if cheater
can see well at night will do they smell
their prey well in a situation like this
I think it’s going to be entirely sites
and audio I mean you can hear the
cacophony of these canoes all around us
so the combination of sight and hearing
mainly but smell in different situations
may definitely assist them try to locate
prey when prayers more sparse but in
these open areas these cheats are gonna
have absolutely no problem seeing who’s
who after dark good good
well I wonder when they’re gonna make
their move everyone as I’m sure a lot of
you are wondering but their body
language suggests that they are
certainly going to do the necessary
business tonight in order to get their
next meal I’m feeling very very
confident even when we met them earlier
this afternoon they were looking quite
perky and having spent the last two
months following these guys quite
closely it’s been very interesting to
get to start reading into their body
language and their behavior this this
state of hunger and at the moments
everything is looking very very
favorable for what could be a wonderful
after dark hunting experience I will
warn you in advance if you have yet to
join in on one of these it can be
absolute chaos
not knowing where to film and where to
drive but it is certainly awesome
and those clouds are making for an
incredibly dramatic scene that we can be
grateful for as well
here they go
they are looking more and more focused
now as it begins to get dark like I said
about five minutes ago wasn’t completely
dark but it’s just about getting there
now so don’t be fooled by this fancy
infrared camera it is almost pitch pitch
black
well I Brenda you’d like to know exactly
who they are hoping and singling out
tonight weak or small I guess either but
their main option at the moment has been
the smaller wildebeest that were born
earlier this year so they’re about seven
or eight months old now they’re still
quite a handful for these cheetah to
bring down so it’s not an easy job for
certainly one cheetah to dispatch a
young wildebeest but with all five of
them working together they have no
problem at all
and they are even capable of catching
fully grown wildebeest that are 2 or 3
years old so they’re gonna just work out
whichever option I guess is easiest and
presents itself to them to be honest we
haven’t seen them attack any seemingly
weak nor injured it’s just being the
young or whichever one was in the wrong
place
oh another pit
hyena has cleverly caught wind of these
cheetah and it’s probably gonna come
closer to investigate to make sure they
haven’t made a kill already the wind is
blowing from left to right so I think he
would have seen them as opposed to smelt
them so he won’t be certain if there is
a carcass nearby and he’s gonna probably
circle his way in just to make sure
there’s no snacks if we’re lucky we’ll
see them chase him last night or even
lucky enough to see two young sister
cheetahs chase or for hyena off they’re
in particle which was incredibly
surprising I was thinking that two young
girls would have fleed let’s see what
these five males think of this hyena
magical scene this is I’m not sure if
you guys can hear the good news
snorting and bellowing all around us
okay it looks like the Haines is kind of
disappearing behind our car but like I
said they do kind of like to slowly
circle their way in there’s supposed to
come in on a straight line so we will
just keep an eye on the Cheetahs body
language and they’ll let us know if he
or she that hyena or I don’t know if it
is a male comes any closer
now they’ve probably also thought let’s
just slow things down a bit it seeing as
though there is a hyena on the scene it
doesn’t make a huge amount of sense man
I’ll take down a wildebeest so then I
give it a few minutes it will be
interesting to see maybe they’re just
having a breather regrouping before they
attack these herds which are just
lingering a couple of hundred metres
away not far off you can see one of
their eyes there oh well this is awesome
and it’s great to have you guys with us
how incredible that we can be coming to
you live from the Masai Mara taking you
and Singh with cheetah after dark I
couldn’t think of a better way to spend
it is a Sunday evening it’s Sunday
evening here at least I’m not sure what
day it is or time it is and watch over
part of the world you may be watching
but it is wonderful to have you with us
and who knows when these cheats are
going to pass I don’t but I think it is
going to happen at some stage tonight so
that is something to look forward to
failing that our plan is to spend the
entire night with them and if they don’t
decide to do any more hunting tonight I
am almost guaranteeing you that
something will happen tomorrow morning
and we’ll be trying our best to stay
with them through the nights
hopefully they’ll all be sleepy and
won’t keep us moving too long
but we’ll definitely keep you guys
posted on what these guys get up to
there could end up having a snooze year
they could get up in the next five
minutes we certain we just don’t know
but like I said we will be certain to
notify you guys as soon as any imminent
action is ready to share with you it’s
been wonderful having you on safari with
me and the Manu on camera we will see
you all a little bit later well we have
a surprise for all of you from one
spotted cat to another Serb high five
there we go so we have ten Ghana on the
dam wall and he’s taking it very easy at
the moment he’s just watching over the
back of the demo so thank you to those
that did let us know we were thought
that the dam cam was out so for all of
you that did let us know that there was
a leopard at the dam we came to check it
out just in case that you were alright
and you were so thank you very much for
letting us know it’s always so nice when
you guys do and help us find things
there was also alarm calls from a Impala
for the south of us here so we were busy
checking that out I don’t know if it was
from ting Ghana but maybe another
leopard is also in the general vicinity
so it was a very nice surprise indeed
Wendy you say classic last-minute
leopard and yes well who else could it
be it could only be one last minute
fella and that is ting gone and look at
him just sprawled out and he’s looking
ever so bigger with the size of his neck
and head he is a monstrous individual
long tail is seems as though he hasn’t
had a meal though since we last saw him
either doesn’t look like he’s full in
any way but he is definitely looking
down the strange as though you can hear
something I wonder if me he maybe heard
those impalas alarm calling further down
towards the South here because they were
calling around central number will ort
area which is straight down this
riverbed so maybe that’s why it’s so
intent and looking that direction
we want to wait to finish our afternoon
there’s nothing better than CCB’s just
looking down at the infrared to see if
there’s any sign of anything there and
he could potentially be watching but it
really is a great way to finish and our
lipid luck continues so we didn’t have a
lipid this morning for the first time
since I’ve been back
but we’ve had a lipid at least this
afternoon so our lipid fortunes and our
trifectas are kept trifectas carry on
the cheetah inside Juma so we tried
again to go around and check when we
left the elephants I found their tracks
they they came in to Juma for sure and I
can’t find anything going out so maybe
tomorrow morning those cheetah will
still be around it’ll definitely go back
and have a look again but at least we’ve
got our Rose it spotted individual but
it looks as though he’s a bit sort of
tentative you can see is watching very
carefully he’s not as though he’s a very
sleepy cat at the moment so I wonder
what he’s seeing I can hear a few sort
of noises to the south yeah I wonder if
there isn’t some Yala moving around in
these tambuti thickets south of the dam
see how he’s using his yes to listen it
makes me think that if Singhania is here
sip see we I mean Sybil I both heard him
last night as well calling so I wonder
if he hasn’t been with tündi the last
two days and that’s since we last saw
him he because I had tracks for a female
in a male leopard in the Malati and I
wonder if the two of them haven’t been
walking around together a bit and that’s
why it’s listening maybe Tandy is not
too far away here could it be possible
that they potentially are mating again I
suppose it is very possible given that
the time is marching forward and we know
totality is already mated with ting gana
don’t think it was a full-on Easter I
think was a false eustress that you
ain’t into just to ensure safety in this
particular section as she’s moved in but
maybe she’s starting to come into a
proper estrus again and we’ve seen her
leaving tumblr for long periods of time
now and so I wonder if this is what
they’ve been up to the two of them have
not been together
mr. P you say he seems to be getting
quite old well yes he’s aging he’s
almost 12 years old now so he’s getting
on the older side we always talk of him
ruler as the old boy but you must
remember it singhania’s not exactly
young these days either so he is getting
older but it’s just his sheer width of
his neck I mean he’s got no chin whoa
Nick should I say he’s just quite the
one big thick kind of head that goes
into shoulders he looks a little bit
sausage like from that angle I always
say he’s like a sausage with four legs
ding goner
so he’s aging his juleps getting bigger
but he’s still in fine condition and
he’s in big boys a lot of people who is
Satan ganas not that big but I can show
you I’ve seen him next to Anderson and
he certainly doesn’t disgrace himself
he’s not a small individual and he’s got
big powerful shoulders and he’ll
certainly put up a massive fight for any
male that wants to try and asked him say
he’s adult
any chance of a male coming to this area
and chasing him away just yet he’s still
in perfect condition and health so I
reckon is still a good couple years in
Tenggara
as we go his teeth are still in good
condition like I said it’s going to have
to take a really strong young challenger
to push out that size male
so Cindy 10 Ghana means shy that’s
basically what it means now I don’t know
how are we gonna follow him through here
I’m gonna try and see if I can get
quickly done round on to the other side
because he’s dropping down into this
drainage and I just need to let the
other guys know that are responding
quickly but his name means shy
effectively yeah Ralph and Tom he’s
mobile are south into the middle whitey
I don’t know if I may be able to follow
him if you come in need to make your way
quickly he’s gonna do a bit of scent
marking down there I’m gonna try and
just put on a slight for SIB so you can
see him a bit better we are in the
infrared just so we can see a little bit
clearer what’s going on and as he drifts
away
he’s just hitting towards that tambuti
thicket exactly where he was watching
and like I say for us to be able to hit
in that direction it’s gonna be very
difficult down there no mmm
unfortunately where he is going there
really is very little chance to follow I
can try and just stick with him on the
bank but actually getting into where
that is is a whole nother story but
let’s try cookies
mr. P wondering if lipids normally die
naturally or do they get killed by young
challengers depends some died naturally
if males tend to get themselves into
trouble and fight and get some sort of
injury and that often leads to death
where is the females a lot of the time
die of old age so case in point is Sally
she died of old age
there’s been a couple others that have
also unfortunately
succumb to old age let’s try and see if
we can get here quick you remember we
had a two-track here from when we add
tumble citing so that should take us
exactly waiting ganas walking but from
there it’s going to be quite difficult
to follow where did I go down no
elephants have closed us all off let’s
try three years to drop our antenna so
if it’s a bit of picture breakup I do
apologize there we go we are through
sync just keep it down for now save for
two seconds while I get down into this
area you should be somewhere in front of
me now
try and get onto that side somewhere it
is worked out just fine he’s now lying
on again which is fantastic news it’s on
a quickly radio the other guy shame
they’ve been looking for animals all
afternoon nobody else has seen anything
and it’s one of the landowners and they
don’t have trackers and things like cats
I just need to quickly get hold of them
and just inform them where they are
which I will do once we stop and you
guys can watch our last minute lipids in
Ghana are you looking up into the tree
what is this their carcass yeah you know
let’s see anything he’s just looking
gazing up into this tree and I was
hoping that there is a carcass but let
me just quickly chat to these guys shame
they’re trying to get hold of me
urgently
right so I’m going to get onto the radio
I’m going to try and just quickly let
these guys know what’s happening and
where we are as they make their approach
and see if they can get in here because
obviously we’re coming to the end of our
show so at least if we can help them get
to the section then they’ll be okay but
he keeps looking up into the street I
don’t see any sign of a carcass I’ll
keep looking and so while I talk to the
guys in the radiators quickly jump back
to Scott with his spotted beauties in
the mara
hello everyone we are just looping a
head of a bit of a marshy area but I
didn’t want to get stuck in and we are
still following these five male cheetah
I wondering now what their plans are
they’ve just walked past a herd of all
the beasts there’s definitely lots of
opportunities there and they didn’t
really work it too insistently they just
kind of watched them go by but maybe the
next turd that they’re approaching now
is going to provide them with some
better opportunities it’s so animals
they seem so keen at moments and then
I’ve turn off the gas there’s also hey
that’s kind of been following them I’m
not sure if it still is but that may be
playing they’re all that
slinking in after them so maybe that’s
making them be a little bit apprehensive
towards hunting right away that one
stopped to face off the hyena let’s see
if we can watch that quickly on the back
one okay sir
I thought that one at the back was
possibly gonna chase off I you know
maybe we missed it maybe it already did
so we will keep on moving and we’re
gonna say goodbye to you guys and send
you back over to Tristan but be sure to
follow us on Facebook because we will be
going live after the show if any action
unfolds bye bye well we still got in
Ghana you can see he’s just he’s
striding through keeps looking up into
the trees so I thought maybe there was a
carcass here somewhere but it seems as
though maybe there isn’t although he’s
lying down again here I think there’s a
carcass here somewhere just can’t see it
so I’m gonna reposition that we can see
him a little bit better
I wonder sip the way he’s behaving in
the way he’s looking and the fact that
he drank water and he’s now lying here
tends to suggest that there is some sort
of food item somewhere in this vicinity
so I don’t know if potentially there is
a caucus in one of these trees now just
stalled and they try and just get
through here come on you don’t have much
more time we’re gonna try and get in so
that you can at least seat in Ghana I
don’t see any caucus though but there he
is he’s still just sitting ever so
regally up on the back we’ve got a
caucus air excellent that’s great news
well done same so we’ve got a kill which
means 10 Ghana should be here in the
morning that’s fantastic so it’s up in
the top of the tree there it is right in
the top litter horrible is it a carcass
are you sure okay well we’ll look at it
tomorrow morning we’ll come here
tomorrow morning so let’s at least enjoy
10 Ghana for our last minutes because
unfortunately it’s that time of the day
where we are going to be having to say
goodbye but at least we have a view of
our spotted beauty and we got a last
sort of 10 minutes with him and it’s
amazing if we had come 5 minutes later
we would not have known he was even here
because from where we are there’s no
chance that you can see him up from the
damn wall at the moment but it’s been an
absolutely brilliant day we’ve had a fun
time Sabin I was just saying we’ve had a
most chilled Sunday it’s been beautiful
with the ILI’s excitement of the cheetah
trek sting ghana cheetah in the mara
lions it’s all been happening we’ve had
just the most epic weekend and it’s just
continuing and our luck really has been
good so hopefully it will continue
tomorrow morning but from myself Seb
Steph Scott and all the others it’s very
good bye and we’ll see you tomorrow in
the sunrise Safari
[Music]
you
you
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