[Music]
this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and caucuses viewer discretion is
advised
dry-season day this is safari life
standing by
[Music]
good afternoon and welcome to our sunset
safari on this chilly overcast windy day
that is a Valle de beast and it is
snorting at us for some unknown reason
because well there’s no predator between
us in it my name is Justin and on camera
today I have got a Senzo and we are
coming to you live from the Kruger
National Park well sabi sands Game
Reserve actually to be exact and that
means that we’re interactive so hashtag
Safari live on Twitter Oh on the YouTube
chat if you want to ask any questions
now I don’t know why I will the Beast is
alarm calling at us I think he’s for
some reason a little bit perturbed by
the wind today maybe there is a scent of
something that’s blowing around we’ll
say it could be just a little nervous of
us given that these conditions mean he
can’t hear very well and he’s seen a car
and maybe he’s had a bad experience
before where the car has been around and
a predator was close by or he might have
even seen a predator at some point today
you can hear he’s very difficult over
the wind to actually hear him snorting
but he’s got this nasal snort that he
lets out from time to time he’s going to
keep quiet because I said so
but it is really tougher than the winter
yeah and that’s why this afternoons
gonna be a tough game viewing experience
because when pilasters move around often
we rely on alarm calls too for us to
locate on their predator and I can
hardly hear that wildebeest from this
distance so we’re gonna have to be right
on top of any prey animal if it spots a
predator for us to even hear what’s
going on and hopefully the wind will
settle and that will help us a little
bit later
now the Mara team should be joining us
maybe at some stage they have Bolivar
being pelted and battered by some
serious amounts of rain so brent is busy
tucked away in it in his little
makeshift tent and I think tail is still
hunkering down at base camp so we’ll get
to them probably a little bit later so
for now it’s just with me and hopefully
it’s going to be a busier day than what
we had this morning although we did have
a wonderful morning we had the inclu
MERP ride at the Birmingham mails and
I’m sure they’re going to be around so
our plan for the afternoon is probably
to go and check around to see if little
tumba maybes back from his traumatic
experience this morning and those of you
don’t know what happened to Tambor he
killed him first big male Impala and it
was stolen by the hyenas and they chased
him so maybe he’s come back to turndowns
for a little bit of a drink so we’re
gonna go check around there and then
later we’re gonna head towards the Lions
because I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be
quite active tonight and there is
apparently a rather large herd of
buffalo on its way southwards from
Bullards Hook it’s apparently close to
300 Buffalo which can you believe it
that is an amazing number because we
haven’t seen I think more than 10
Buffalo this whole year so it’s gonna be
incredible if we get that herd coming
down and I’m pretty sure if that herd
starts to hit in this direction those
lines will pick up the scent and pick up
the noise and they are going to be up
and moving pretty quickly we know how
the in Puma pride loves a good Buffalo
meal and so let’s hope that by the end
of the drive those Buffalo are starting
to coming to Juma and their lions have
picked up their scent and we might be a
in for an incredible finish to our
afternoon and our week because we’ve had
the most amazing week right but let’s
carry on our Valda bestir is very upset
with us and we want him to relax we
don’t want to irritate him any more than
we are
have not that we’ve done anything wrong
we’ve just been sitting here and our
wildebeest just thinks that we are the
worst thing in the world by shouting at
us since I have you been chasing the
wildebeest around that it’s scared of
you
no okay excellent good maybe it’s just
jealous of all the Volta beasts in Kenya
at this stage now I’ve got to quickly
just go down and do our little time
lapse Oh Sims er is going to hop off the
vehicle failure shortly as I move along
towards the edge of quarantine this is a
Sebastian’s project but cinder is very
kindly helping say about and doing it
while he’s away and on a day like today
is the perfect kind of day that’s it
once because he wants changes in weather
and clouds and all of that so it makes
for a perfect day to do a bit of a
time-lapse are we going to just leave
our little time lapse then you know
couple shots and then we’ll carry on
probably towards treehouse from
treehouse to in dams from twin dams well
then I’m not quite sure we will check
before we hit onto the lines like I say
a little bit late in the afternoon I was
hoping though that this wind was going
to stop the wind has been absolutely
howling all day and I was thinking that
maybe by this afternoon blow itself out
because these weather conditions are not
the worst if it’s not windy the problem
is when it is windy it doesn’t really
help us very much at all the animals
don’t really like it’s and things like
elephants and Buffalo even and even the
cats will go into somewhat of hiding
they go into drainage lines and thickets
so we’re not going to get that amazing
experience that we had yesterday where
the aliens were running to water
unfortunately that will be curtailed by
the windy cold weather we’re having
today now I believe a lot of you are
very excited about the prospect of a
buffalo herd coming on to Juma I know
isn’t it exciting not that we have even
enough water to sustain a herd of 300
Buffalo we’re going to get into a
situation where our dams would be drank
absolutely dry if they arrived because
they are animals that do drink about a
lot and they will muddy it up and cause
quite a lot of disturbance which is not
ideal particularly if they go to Gauri
down because curry dam at the moment
needs as little pressure as possible
although what we saw yesterday was quite
interesting with the elephants because
we saw a herd that kind of left and
another herd arrived and that
actually didn’t really drink from Gary
dam so the water wasn’t lost to to
drinking they more just splashed and
played and the water itself actually
really stayed in the dam so it was quite
a interesting thing to watch I would
have thought that that herd was going to
go drink but they didn’t they actually
win right past his Cameron and further
on so maybe they went to drink around
Gallagher pan and the round potential or
northwards to towards tambuti dam on the
northern side of the Buffalo boundary we
find that they often go drink up that
way it’s kind of a route that they walk
up the milliwatts II drainage and then
all the way into purfles Hook towards
those big big big dams that there
there’s a couple really large dams that
are called Manzi and there’s sensor
sensor wave see said well since it’s got
one glove are you Michael Jackson today
sensor I know he’s got his path to clean
the lenses so since I was looking very
spiffy while since I finishes up his
time-lapse let’s go across to the brink
Leo Smith who’s hiding away from the
rain in his little in the pouring rain
and I’ve got some very important tools
that every time we spring a new leak
gaffer tape cables are I’m starting to
get a new leak at the moment you’ll
notice I’ve added cable ties all around
and we’ve just started to get a new one
and excuse me pop try
sure yeah
not long enough we need the double cable
time so it’s been raining solidly for
about 45 minutes we are we getting leaks
again light so Fergus is telling them
and put the lights on here we have
lights now and it’s raining so hard that
I was actually worried the canvas roof
was gonna burst while mattresses where
it started sagging we weren’t
concentrating why we’re trying to fix
other leaks and all of a sudden looked
up and was like a pregnant elephant
barely above us full of water
lots of different tricks to stay dry out
yet
here we go a few little gaps that we
tried control we’re gonna have some
fresh air and yeah otherwise it’ll get
quite bad as well but that’s basically
we’re not moving unfortunately I think
for the rest of the drive even if we
wanted to drive anywhere we can’t
actually always try to find that
beautiful cheater early to get out to
find the cheater
Taylor was smart she was leaving at
normal time so she’s still safe and dry
in camp
and we she’s raining so hard we can’t
even actually move the vehicle at the
moment
and I think just getting up the hill to
and gamma is going to be an challenge in
itself but we will keep you updated as
we search I think we’re probably not
going to move for the next while lots of
lightning around but while we wait out
our storm let’s go back to Tristan who’s
expecting rain but is still dry that’s
you
so I believe we live unfortunately my
comms again are letting me down our
little earpiece and so your piece thing
is a bit of an issue because there’s
apparently a shipment that is supposed
to be coming to South Africa that’s been
waylaid and I would imagine it’s maybe
something to do with the Hurricanes that
have been all over the US side I think
they come from that side another person
sure but anyway there’s a shortage in
South Africa nobody’s got them and so we
waiting patiently for new earpieces so
I’m so with problem earpiece and problem
earpiece sometimes means that I don’t
hear anybody and well at least we can
hear you now so that’s good news not
gone very far just be an image to cut
around quarantine there we go you I can
hear you now thank you so I just have to
fiddle a little bit and then sometimes
it comes back it’s very–it’s immittance
lucky I’ve got sensor at the back here
lets me know what’s happening a little
bit so I do apologise if we go alive and
I’m just sitting there staring blankly
into space which is what sometimes
happens although this time I was
actually looking for animals as we were
going around the corner
but we’re just meandering our way down
Philemon stop we’re going to slowly hit
towards free house like I say to do the
other time-lapse that Sebastian is busy
with it’s a little psycho over there
right just get back where is our darker
it’s gone I think our dacha has run away
which is well fairly typical of Attica
they don’t really sit around too much
Philipp no no at the camera traps this
is just something new that we started
with Sebastian he’s just trying to do a
little sort of story on the changes of
the season here at you man how
drastically it changes from summer to
winter and how we go from dry desolate
Bush like we’re seeing now that’s very
thin and it is yellow and Browns and no
leaves to full dams and green and grass
and lushness and so that’s the kind of
thing so what he’s going to try and do
is do a year’s worth of pictures every
single day at the same sort of time and
then what he’s gonna do is pull this all
together and it’ll be a short little
clip as the days go on and hopefully
it’ll be really cool just to see how
everything goes from brown to green back
to brown again it’s gonna be really cool
so I’m quite looking forward to it and
I’m hoping that it will be nice and it
will go really well and the plan is if
they successful and they work the way
that they want to is that we’ll start to
do a couple more around and we’ll try
and look around well we also want to do
at some point is try and see if we can
do a bit of camera traps work on if we
find that say like the other day when we
had that white-tailed Mongoose caucus
and tracks for the honey badgers just
set up a little camera there and leave
it and see what we get on it
the next day so we will do stuff like
that but at the moment currently no are
the camera traps on the property other
than what we’ve got currently
and I suppose these aren’t really camera
traps either there goes a little stand
book over the road there it goes Tony
tutos who well according to your name
has feet on the brain and you want to
know how sins of socks are looking today
and I actually just asked sins oh that
very question we are the fancy sucks
today you said to me no today is no
fancy socks because the weather is not
conducive for fancy socks today is the
dull brown socks because it’s a gray
dull day so we’re not gonna put those
socks on camera because well Bell brown
socks don’t work for anyone so he
promises me the next time it’s sunshine
we’re gonna see some more brightly
colored socks from sins er and I think
this could be the new thumb is sin so
sucks so instead of thumb we’re going to
have socks from now on and hopefully
we’ll get some really interesting ones I
feel like since I’ve got some hidden
gems in his bag somewhere he said he’s
gonna dig around in his bag for some
special ones so I’m sure we go to see
some very interesting one I reckon we
should get sins Oh some sucks all the
time and we’ll just give him all random
colors and all random shapes and sizes
and see how many difference we can get
him to put on camera of course it will
be quite an interesting thing like I
said instead of seeing a thumb at the
beginning of Drive we will see well
socks at the beginning of drive a guy
that’s how you’re gonna have to sort
your drives from now on no longer
fingers you’re going to do your socks
and toes
we’re lefty it sends all kinds of fancy
ones I’m sure there are lots of
interesting types of socks out there
when I go and leave next since I’m gonna
go look for some socks for you so who
says now we know what to get for
birthday and Christmas indeed now
hopefully this little bird is going to
stay still stay still little bit no
you’re not supposed to fly away because
there is a beautiful bird that is right
here if you got its sensor back or
forward back okay so since I says he’s
got it say when there we go okay well
done seams are very good so there is our
little bita and they are beautiful birds
and on a dull day like today it’s nice
to get a bit of colour splash of color
in the bush and these little guys
provide a lot of color you can see
bright yellow throats that orangey
breast and a
back with the little blue eye stripe
that goes over the top of it and so
these are Toby eaters as they are called
will jump around and fly around with a
lot of agility and hunt varying insects
that we get in this area so real gets
things like little flies or bees as the
name suggests that they’ll go often and
once they grab it they often go to a
branch like that and if it’s something
like a bee and it’s got a stinger
they’ll wipe it on that rough bark pull
the Stinger out and then swallow it like
that so they’re really cool birds to
watch in really difficult birds for our
cameraman because they are super fast
and agile as they fly and turn in twists
from these small little perches now the
cool thing about these guys is these
guys are here all year round so we see
the little beauties in the winter months
a lot of our beats is are migratory and
we know that migratory birds are coming
back so I would expect any day now to
hear the European beaters starting to
come back and they’re a beautiful bird
so they should be here soon
and then after that the carmine beaters
will be the next ones and the Carmine’s
are probably my favorite beater they’ve
got this rosy sort of maroon color to
them and they really are vibrant and
beautiful so hopefully we will see them
towards sort of December as the next one
now I know yesterday we were talking
about or this morning I think it was
about the next migratory birds to arrive
and I was saying cuckoos will be the
next ones and all of those and I forgot
completely about some of the other
migratory birds that we should be seeing
so we should see the woodlands
kingfish’s which are normally around the
end of October beginning of November I
know because it’s close to my birthday
in November that we normally see them
for the first time so I always use my
birthday as my guess as to when we’re
gonna see them it of course is not
always the case but we do sometimes get
it right so I think one year I did find
them on my birthday same as the impala
lambs they also get born around that
time and then after them we’ve actually
got red back strikes that should we
arrive I forgot completely about them
and the list of gray tracks as well as
some of the others so that’s still what
we can look forward to coming our way
but I’m really hoping that the cuckoo
start coming soon because they are
vibrant and they had a lot
of color to the bush particularly the
classes and the Diedrich and if we
really were quite lucky and we got onto
the mawashi and I don’t think it’s been
recorded in the section but you might
one day have one is the African emerald
cuckoo in the African emerald cuckoo is
a beautiful bird I’ve seen one down it
lion sands on the sabi River you hear
them a lot but you don’t see them very
much and so I will show you exactly what
that looks like because it is incredibly
pretty little computer species to have
and I’m not sure we’ve ever had it on
safari live but I’ll have to ask Brent
because if he’ll remember if we have now
where all the cuckoos we quickly find
them for you cuckoos of course when you
loo if you can ask him about the African
America coup if he’s ever seen one here
at Yuma don’t think any other guys have
seen one but this is what I’m talking
about if we look down here at the bottom
is the African emerald cuckoo and look
at the how beautiful that male bird is
it’s got this iridescent emerald green
back with this bright yellow chest and
those white wings it is a magnificent
bird and it has I promise you it
sparkles emerald so it is a wonderful
bird to see in that we don’t see it very
often and it’s got this very conspicuous
call that you hear every now and then so
it’s a nice bird to listen to and it’s
basically sings a song that says Georgie
so that’s how its song goes and then
these are the other two cuckoos that I
was talking about that we do see quite
regularly and that I’m hoping both will
come so the Diedrich on top which has
got lots of coppers and and greens in it
and in the classes cuckoo below so those
two funny enough their names are
actually linked which is quite cool so
they I will get into that one day when
we actually see them and they are around
I’ll tell you why they called Diedrich
and classes and they are actually linked
to one another as well as the song
they’re pacing
now for some reason I feel like some
little fly flew up my nose which is not
oh my goodness this means that there is
going to be a hailstorm there’s going to
be snow and Armageddon is coming because
Brent Claire Smith has not ever even
seen an african-american only heard its
call and I don’t believe it there is a
bird in the sabi sands that I have seen
that Brent Claire Smith has not seen in
fact actually that makes two birds brain
clear Smith because well the golden
puppet of January 2017 is also one
that’s on the list that Brent has not
seen here in the sabi sands he has seen
it elsewhere and in Kenya and Tanzania
you do see them but not here in the sabi
sands so that is a miracle for me to
have seen a bird that brains hasn’t seen
well though he’s got a couple that I
haven’t seen so I suppose we are
probably even Stevens he said the
corncrake as well as the purple band at
Sanford so we are fairly close in terms
of birds that we’ve seen in the sabi
sands but actually wanted to would love
to know what other birds he’s seen that
I haven’t seen here and there’s likewise
with me and him if you know with brains
and I it’s always a competition we’ve
always got to see you seen the most
birds here in sabi sands and we’re
having a good each other about it
it’s all friendly banter though so don’t
worry we’re saying just now that a fly
flew up my nose and it’s now causing a
mess massive amounts of issues because
my nose is itching even though the fly
is gone now it’s still itching like
crazy so I do apologize if you see me
rubbing my nose it’s only because
everything’s gone a little haywire and
there I don’t know really what else to
do about it and this is a horrible
feeling to ever it almost feels like the
fly is still in there fluttering about
since I was busy giggling at me because
he thinks it’s highly hilarious but I
can tell you it’s not a comfortable
feeling adding a fly up the nose
hopefully that never happens again
who you would think it’s very funny
luckily it didn’t go up my nose and then
into my mouth that would have been quite
horrible
CJ you wondering why the female cuckoo
is so dull in color and why well it’s
pretty common in a lot of birds a lot of
birds are the males are a lot more
brightly colored than the females and
that’s generally birds that have quite a
lot of competition for mating and so the
males have to be brightly colored to
attract the females attention and to
show themselves off in order to get the
females sort of look and gaze and to be
able to then mate with them so it’s
normally when you’ve got birds that’s
migratory birds or one that because
Birds all together here and they
don’t mate with the same individual
every time they will then try and go
after one another and try and sort of
compete for mating rights and so the
more brightly colored you are and the
better you look well the more likely
you’re going to get a female so that’s
why the males are more brightly colored
the females on the other side they’re
not going to really chase after the
males they know that the males drive to
mate far outweighs theirs and they will
come to them so that’s why the females
often a little bit more drab what so
females there’s a theory that because
they often are breeding chicks that they
camouflage needs to be slightly better
in order to not to attract attention to
the nest and so that’s why they do
funnily enough though you would think
with these brightly colored birds like
the classes cuckoo Diedrich cuckoo even
the African emerald that there would be
easy birds to spot Archer with emerald
green feathers but remember when those
birds arrive here it does not look like
it does now it will be lush it will be
green and those birds blend in very very
well that’s only when they fly do you
actually see them outside of that they
are very well camouflaged and it’s
difficult actually to pick them up it is
the tracks for our mating pair of lipids
from yesterday that went south
unfortunately towards little Gauri
Aaron you wondering if there’s any bird
in particular that I’m looking forward
to seeing well I think the woodlands
Kingfisher is always a bird that all the
guides look forward to seeing we
completely sort of get irritable about
their call by the end of summer but
before summer arrives that’s one of the
birds that we all look forward to it’s
bright it’s beautiful it’s got this call
that just reminds you that summer is on
its way and a change of this dry winter
season so for me it’s that’s one of the
birds I always look forward to seeing
like I said the carmine bee-eaters they
are a beautiful bird cuckoo species
booted Eagles Wahlberg’s Eagles so
there’s a number of them in fact all the
migratory birds because they generally
had a bit of sort of dynamic to us they
add a bit of extra variety lots of
colors and so it’s a it’s a great sort
of splash of color into the bush and a
way of just sprucing everything up and
getting everything going now there’s a
beautiful bird that has just come out
talking about a bit of vibrance just on
this tree here is a wood picker now it
looks like a golden tailed woodpecker
there it is you see it’s just arts and
about so one of the smaller wood pick is
that we get you know it’s gone behind a
big tree hopefully it will come out
let’s just be patient maybe we’ll get
lucky and we’ll see it’s coming out I
can hear it pecking away behind the tree
is there another one here because it
sounds like another one picking as well
but it doesn’t look like it’s going to
come out since I’m going to try go
forward a little bit and see if we
change the angle maybe we will be lucky
well there it is it’s just hopped up
there it’s going up the branch so there
it hops looks like a little golden
tailed hood picker and off it goes again
that’s nice to see the golden tails have
a beautiful gold tail and that’s where
they get their name from me little red
cap that they have and they’re one of
our smaller woodpeckers that we get just
so we have the very large bearded wood
picker which is the biggest of the
grouping and then we get the Bennets
golden tailed and right at the back is
the little Cardinals which are really
quite small Cardinal woodpecker and
they’re beautiful bird as well
no now while I Drive around and
contemplate the cold of the sabi sands
the wind that is howling in the gray
overcast clouds I can still count myself
very lucky that I am NOT sitting in a
very wet soggy tent like Brent Leo Smith
we’re still here we’re still in the rain
and the first storm that hit seems to
have passed and we’re in a bit of a lull
but unfortunately it looks like there’s
another storm coming from on top of the
mountain so we’re not moving anywhere
soon and I noticed Tristan was there
talking about any old cuckoo and a
golden Pipit and hearing themselves as a
really wonderful birds for the sabi
sands but Justin they can’t compare with
the purple bandit son but oh yes
the corncrake you can forget the corn
crack now speaking of birds my head
every now and then unless I see I can
see some really big flying ants coming
out so the birds are gonna be very happy
about that
and I’m hoping that if we do have a
little bit of a lull and it stops
raining we might get some birds really
taking advantage of these flying ants if
it stops raining unfortunately if it
continues to rain we are pretty stuck
Fergus is too is trying to get me wet
the Ebola live from behind here we go
getting the water off the roof I can see
a little bit of lights down towards the
east but unfortunately there is still a
wall of water heading towards us and now
when it rains like this we have to stay
on the main sort of big access roads if
we ventured off road or onto any of the
small little tracks that we normally use
we would probably be stuck and not very
popular because generally what happens
in these type of soils you get stuck
someone comes to rescue you they get
stuck someone comes to rescue them and
you they get stuck and then someone’s
got to call a tractor were bulldozer and
they’re not very happy when you got to
call a tractor or a bulldozer to pull
you out so we will be if we do manage to
get moving and I’m hoping we will we
will be sticking to the sort of very big
main access roads and that’s the update
from us and we’ve managed to
keep most of the leaks to a minimum it’s
a little bit of a drip there but that’s
not too bad
holding arms well and I know it’s my
fault I didn’t even bring any hot water
for tea today
silly silly Brent I should have brought
some water fatigue I can hear some birds
there’s one very unhappy looking a
starling flying away
what goodness I don’t know if you can
get it figure the road is actually
flooded over you can’t me try just to
try hopefully twas the wind’s coming
from the other side just for Fergie can
you see the road there there we go
that’s the other storm I was worried
about it’s coming from the other
direction so there’s that enemy we just
try and move the car a little bit so the
main roads to all or gate I’ve never
seen water flow over that little bugger
before but at the moment it is flowing
right over the road you get a dick so
they want to leave it to open as my arm
in the way okay wait okay let me have a
look oh wait Fergus
you see the road
do the writer that’s I think I switch
off site then you leave that then it’s
right which cops have Jay said little it
to the right I think and oh sorry
I’m trying to see which trees you on
where are we looking okay I’m done see
you see where I’m looking at the flight
there
oh goodness sorry mamas let me try this
way
you see the water Jeremy so we’re gonna
be sitting yeah better just hook my
thing back in and keep us dry and so
we’re gonna sit out hopefully we will be
able to move as I said we’re gonna be
very limited in the areas we can move
and we’re just really hoping that really
big storm from behind us doesn’t hit s
as well as the initial storm but while
we do that spring is in full flow here
in the Mara but it sounds like some of
the little early signs are starting to
show at you
they are indeed and this is the first
one that I’ve seen on this particular
gardenia that’s a tree house damn I’ve
been looking and hoping that this
gardenia will flower and that’s the
first little bud of a flower that’s
starting so soon we’re going to have a
bush that will be covered in these
beautiful creamy white flowers and as
they start to age so they’ll start to
turn a more yellow color but that’s the
beginning stages of it you can just see
the top of it where it’s going to start
splitting out and forming the petals and
a little bit later so they have a
beautiful flower and becomes very
aromatic this plant it’s wonderful to
actually see so I’m super glad to see
that Philip you’re asking which flowers
am I looking forward to turning to this
area Hulot’s there’s so many flowers
that cause a bit of color there’s
actually an older yellow flower that’s
already opened and is now drying up and
shriveling so that’s the yellow color it
will turn after being creamy white and
you can see that one’s a little bit
drier has been blasted by this heat that
we’ve had over the last few days but for
a burn I think probably my favorite
flowers that we see in the summertime
roadside pimpernel is one of them I like
the blue come Elena’s yellow come
Elena’s yellow just ishes what else do
we I see that the African violets they
were always very pretty as well so those
are come some of the more common ones
that we’ll see quite a lot of I really
like those but my favorite sort of
flowering tree of the spring summer
generally is the sausage trees I always
loved when ours its lion sands and watch
the sausage trees flowering man just a
number of different species that we used
to get feeding off those flowers because
they form a really big tubular flower
and lots of nectar which means you get a
lot of different types of animals and
birds and insects that congregate around
there lots of nicks in them and used to
find bushbuck and y’all and could you
Impala you’d find but Boone’s
all kinds of things feeding off the
flowers as they fell and then in the
trees was you know monkeys there was
brown headed parrots you would find all
kinds of green pigeons or all kinds of
things that would go there and feed off
that nectar and then after then at
nights you would also find the bats
would go and feed off them so you’d sit
there at night and you would get these
bats coming into these beautiful big
maroon flowers and if you sat for long
enough and you use the light the right
way you could get some of the most
incredible sort of views of bats feeding
or flowers and funny enough the sausage
tree is biggest now what’s the word I’ve
forgotten what the word is
biggest pollinator is actually bats you
find bats are one of the biggest
pollinators obviously insects and and
birds do you play a part but bats are
one of the big ones for sausage trees so
it was really amazing to watch that and
like I say it’s a beautiful tree you get
these long sort of stems that come down
and then eventually the sausage of fruit
grows off that so wonderful to see in a
really nice addition to to a colorful
environment or actually I suppose a drab
environment because they flower early
early in the summer or spring time
unfortunately here on Juma we don’t have
a sausage tree that flowers we do have
one sausage tree that I’ve seen but it
doesn’t seem to flower maybe a little
bit on the young side hopefully one day
we will start to see it flowering and we
will see those big sausages forming we
get them at Chitra if we go to Chitra we
will find on the deck of Chitra Lodge
there’s a big sausage tree there that’s
produced a lot of flowers and a lot of
the sausage fruits so next time I’m at
chatter damn we’ll try and zoom across
the damn wall and see what’s going on
now that reminds me that I’ve been
saying all week I’ll go to Chitra and
check on the Jimmy G nest and I did
actually have a look the other day when
we had the mating lipids at Chitra I
went past the chimney gene laced quite
late but there was no sign of the jamuna
gene at that stage and unfortunately I
think wasn’t there and I suppose I came
round with a whole bunch of lights so
maybe it flew off before I got there and
before I saw it
straw head you want to know how animals
know how to avoid poisonous plants
flowers and mushrooms
well I suppose now it’s all pretty much
instinct as well as learned behavior
from the adults so after a while the
adults won’t feed of something and then
the young ones only get taught to eat
what they see their moms eats
effectively so that’s one part of it but
most of the poisonous or toxic should we
say plants generally have some sort of
coloration to them that the animals will
avoid so they know bright colors tend to
mean things that they mustn’t eat and
most of those animals that are plants
eaters or eats any sort of mushrooms or
anything like that or all have good
color visions so they’ll be able to see
those apis somatic colorations which are
generally reds and blacks reds and
whites on mushrooms for example those
kind of things they’ll know straight
away that’s not something that they can
eat so it’s a combination of colors just
read on its own is fine there you’ll
find they’ll feed off that but like I
say combinations of reds and blacks reds
and why it’s greens and blacks blues and
blacks those kind of things all mean
toxic although some animals have
developed systems that can handle
certain toxins or mating duikers his
mating his love is in the air they’ve
now running away but there was a dike on
top of another duiker right there
they’ve just trotted behind the bush
they just behind the queries you can see
them moving they look you see their
mating look like I said love is in the
air we had mating leopard yesterday
mating died cuz you far less aggressive
the Dyke is then what the leopards are
and this is the only reason we probably
singing look he’s going to try and jump
on her again so male at the back there
we go
oh no she’s not having any of it at this
stage she’s decided she’s shy she
doesn’t want to be seen on camera this
is not the way she wants to grow up and
and spend her life as a woman she does
one not want to be shamed by the world
so she’s going into the thicket for some
privacy exactly as lucy is imagine if
her mom saw this well do I think her mom
would be a little on the embarrassed
side but she is going for privacy at
least he doesn’t mind too much he’s just
trying his best and this is what will
happen with antelope species
they try and mate is often the male will
try and jump onto the back of the female
she’ll keep moving forward and when
she’s not ready and eventually she gets
tired of it and she succumbs and
eventually the mating takes place but
see look how he’s sniffing towards her
genital area so he’ll be picking up the
scent of a urine and they she he will be
later he’s actually even tasting the
urine so that he can work out how she’s
doing and if she’s in heat and whether
or not she’s receptive to mating but
he’s certainly trying his luck I know
it’s not the best for you but you can
see every now and then him jumping on
her back trying to be able to copulate
with her
keep trying buddy she’ll eventually wear
down and it will happen for you bet he
wishes she was more like the lipids in
that the net birds forced the females
force it on the males I think that’s
what he would prefer because he’s
getting really no way at the moment also
he’s a very young male you can see
there’s horns a tiny he’s almost smaller
than her as well that’s maybe why maybe
that’s why she’s also moving away is
because she’s thinking well you sorry
buddy you really aren’t what I want I
want the beefcake stud of the bush not a
young upstart to be mating but they’re
coming out into the open so there we go
he’s drying no there we go again Paula
you want to know about Steinbach
gestation well first Paula these are not
stand book these are die casts so it’s a
little bit different to the Steinbach
but in terms of weights so don’t worry
you did sayst and I can not stand book
so I will just want to double check it’s
but I have an idea it’s somewhere around
five months but I want to just make a
dub double show quickly it’s been awhile
since I’ve spoken about the mating
duikers so let’s just check quickly
seven months re is their gestation
period so they’ve got a slightly longer
gestation period of seven months quite
close to actually the impalas which is
quite strange given how small they are
in relation well it’s cool that’s not
something you see every day and we know
that our dijkers are normally very very
shy
not today that’s for sure
I wonder why they went off to do they
run off sins oh I didn’t see I was busy
looking in my book oh there they go they
still busy chasing off to one another
now that’s what a lipid wants to come
across a lipid wants to come across
duiker like that because they’re so
preoccupied with mating and him messing
around pushing the female and causing
noise that they won’t be able to see a
lipid coming and then it’s perfect
conditions for a lipid to be hunting and
be able to then try and get to them and
it’s not uncommon at like I said seem
tandy taking out space of duiker often
in the mating season and you come to a
tree and both of them are in the tree
and she’s sitting panting there so if
she’s around we know she does hang
around in this particular section then
they’re in for trouble now this is the
area where tumba made his kill in fact
the drag mark for it is just up ahead
here and he dragged it towards that big
tree so his intention was really really
good he was trying to go towards that
big bur beam that we see over this and
so it’ll be better when I go around the
corner so don’t stress about it just yet
but he was his intention was to try get
it towards a big tree and I’m sure he
was just not strong enough to get it up
and into the tree itself and then the
hyenas arrived and now is the end of
that so he did try his best but
basically it was somewhere here the
thing of vehicles have probably driven
over it by now but he was dragging it
towards the tree and trying to get it up
towards that big bur beam if he had been
able to get it there he might have been
able to eat a little bit and then take
it up into the tree itself and that
would have been a perfect place for a
lipid to have a carcass so poor boy and
what she didn’t get that far but at
least he medical
Philip view asking will Hassan and
tumblr be renamed when they get chased
out of this territory well Philip
unfortunately they might depending on
where they go so and the thing is is
that they shouldn’t theoretically but
sometimes they go on to certain reserves
where they feel the need that they must
rename animals because they don’t like
the names that’s they’ve got already
when they come to that area and so we
might see a situation where some of them
get renamed and and you might find a
different name for them I’m hoping it
won’t be the case I’m really hoping that
they both stick with the original names
and we have a situation where we get to
still follow them as they go along
like I said wherever they end up I would
love to maybe go there one day and see
them as big adult males it’ll be
wonderful to watch their progress and to
actually see them as big units but they
might just their names might get change
but the thing is now is also with the
way that we follow animals and the way
that’s it’s kind of these social media
we can still use have a name for our
purposes so they will always be husana
and tumblr to us at safari live no
matter where they go that’s what they
are going to be called so hopefully
wherever it is they end up that the guys
do decide to keep their names because it
would be a travesty if they change them
I like both of them and I like both of
the names that they’ve got at the moment
they seem to both kind of roll off the
tongue and suit them so it’ll be really
a bit of a travesty if they change huh
look at that scene so you see the
snakeskin there’s a snakeskin over there
which I would imagine is a snake that
its skin over this warm period the
snakes wool gets a lot more active when
there’s heat so there’s the skin and it
probably didn’t shed where that
particular branch is it probably has
been blown by the wind today and then
just caught up in that Buffalo thorn
difficult to say what kind of snake it
is I mean we could go do a scale count
on it which would then indicate exactly
which snake species it is but quite a
big oval-shaped scale so it could be a
Boomslang or a vine snake I can’t see
the head area too well that’s all
shriveled up so
it would be easy if we got the head
section and look if it’s got a big big
round eye then generally would be
Boomslang which is Afrikaans for a tree
snake so we call it a bull and it is
toxic but you will find a lot of this at
the moment as the snakes are getting
going for the summer they will have
grown a little bit through the winter so
they then have starved a little bit and
they can then separate from this older
skin and then they start to pop out of
it so they get the new skin that’s
flexible and soft and then they’ll go on
a massive massive feeding mission and
that’s when it starts to get warm so
they know that the warmth can help them
be active and they can then go and try
and find the food that they need so it’s
really cool to see this is the second
snake skin I’ve found in less than a
week so it means that the snakes are
starting to move and I hope that we’ll
start to see a few more of them on the
drives they are an interesting part of
our ecosystem and something that we
really need yeah because otherwise the
rodent population would get out of hand
and funny enough if rodent populations
get out of hand so it can cause a
catastrophic effect in this area the
rodents urine sometimes will have
certain rodents carries a disease that
can really affect elephants funny enough
so you would think that elephants would
be able to combat any rodents but their
urine on grasses and things the
elephants come in feed off it and they
seem to be very prone to this type of
disease and attacks the central nervous
system and they die from it so you’ve
got to be a bit careful as rodents and
that’s why snakes are vitally important
that they here as well as ours and we
know we haven’t had a shortage of ours
well they’ll seem to have disappeared
over the last little bit maybe it’s
because they all nesting now and when we
were seeing them was because they were
vocalizing and they were trying to find
partners and trying to build up nests
and that’s maybe why we saw so many for
that sort of two three week period when
Byron and Taylor were here it really was
quite crazy we’re all seeing owls all
over the place which was really cool
right turn dams come on Humber be lying
here somewhere maybe after the struggle
of his kill he wants to come and have a
bit of water and he’s decided to come
and lie at the dam
it’s a long shot because he did go south
but you never know
so I didn’t catch the name new if you
can just repeat the name for me please
Francis from Israel you want to know if
it’s mating season or do the animals
mate all year round depends on the
animal Francis some animals will mate
any time of the year
others will mate at certain spot time so
we know it in parlors they tend to be
April May maybe a little bit too second
rat into June but generally around April
May which is when a lot of the other
species were also made so kudu are a
little bit earlier than that they
generally in March that they mating but
you’ll find things like Buffalo
elephants the cats they all mate at any
time of the year they don’t really
matter when they mate they just will
mate and produce and it’s normally
linked to the way that they sort of life
works so if they are a an animal that is
a predator there’s always going to be
prey items and they’ll always be able to
find food within that system and so it’s
okay for them to be able to have Cubs at
any time if they are a herbivore
generally they try and coincide with the
summer months so that they can produce
little ones that can feed off the
nutrient nutrient-rich grasses that are
around in summer so you’ll find that is
the case with the herbivores things like
elephants which is a mega herbivore and
can find food any time of the year
that’s why they’ll produce at any stage
also a very long gestation period so
it’s a time that right would be your
nyam possible to get it right so that’s
why you find differences in them mm-hmm
no sign of our little leopards anywhere
here
so David you weren’t mating a honey
badgers mixed because we’ve had mating
leopard and mating tiger if we see
mating honey badgers I don’t know I I
think I would probably do a flick flick
off the vehicle if we saw mating honey
badgers because that’s not something
you’re gonna see every day and I’ve yet
to see mating honey badgers to be
perfectly honest I’ve seen honey badgers
with babies I’ve seen a male and female
honey badgers but never them actually in
the act of mating so if we see that
today well like I say then I’ll do a
flick flick off the front of this
vehicle and hopefully not kill myself
but whether or not we’ll see that is
anyone’s case of course so I’ll try and
see maybe a little bit later if if we
can find some honey badgers – it’d be
nice but no liquids around yeah that’s I
can see at this stage there’s just a
vehicle that hasn’t noticed me at all
look there they go driving past haven’t
seen me in the slightest just goes to
show how people can miss even a big
hulking great vehicle with a white
antenna so you can imagine how easy it
is for people to drive past things like
lipids hmm wonder now I should go maybe
Milwaukee Milwaukee’s been good to us so
wanna check up here quickly because I
know Tambor often spends a lot of time
in this general vicinity
Elizabeth you want to know what’s going
on with Janet Jackson don’t worry we
will go past again this morning
Janet Jackson was in very vocal spurts
and I don’t know if there was a second
Janet in there or if they were attacking
the lilac breasted Road Ernest I am not
sure if these young ones in there I
really am unsure of what was going on
with Janet Jackson but we all got
popping again just to have a look I’m
just gonna quickly say hello to surprise
he was from chipler so just quickly say
hello to him hello it’s up here are you
very well thank you good way of tea ok
cool is a Meccano slambien before
succumbing south if they say they say
like to 300 yeah it’s coming so
hopefully
buns is in Yama is my ninja movies no
Lutie now the increments are close to
the Triple Aim as well I’ll let you know
if they cross yeah just north of the
transformer side yeah fine walking fine
yeah yeah
also to my daughters
so people are asking if they can be on
camera which obviously we know doesn’t
work quite like that so they want to say
a load and since shout out to people
that just have to explain nasty that
that doesn’t work so what we’re going to
do is because I was gonna look for
tumblr well I’m not going to do that
anymore because surprise told me that
the sticks are busy eating something
right yeah so let’s go and have a look
at the sixth part it’s been awhile since
we’ve seen them so we’ll go pop into
them we’ll be having a line filled
afternoon we’ll do a little bit of the
sticks and we’ll go to our in comas and
birmingham’s right towards the end of
Drive but we might as well go and see
the sticks pride while they are around
and like I say if they eating then
that’s a perfect opportunity to go and
see them but I do need to radio and tell
the guys I am coming otherwise they’re
going to be a bit confused as if I just
arrived Peter Peter Peter coming
I wonder if they are going to even hear
me with given my earpiece probably not
we’ll have to get a little closer I can
actually see the tracks for the sticks
going all along the driveway yes oh sure
they will be eventually on wood
chipper either be there peanut
no-nothing sound like anybody can hear
me so I’m gonna try to get up over the
region in down towards the dam hopefully
by then they will copy me and hopefully
nobody is on their way there that we
push them out of the siding which would
be quite nice now Prince Lea Smith is
forever kids at heart he pretends like
he’s an adult but he’s not really he’s
like I say a child still at heart and it
sounds like he apparently has found
himself some flotation devices for his
arms so that he doesn’t get in weights
and he doesn’t get carried away by the
torrents that are flowing around in the
Mara at the moment well we haven’t moved
a muscle we’re still in the exact same
spot and it is still raining it’s
definitely lit up a bit but we sort of
seem to be on the edge of two storms now
apparently Tristan’s being very romantic
or saying all the animals a tumour very
romantic I think it’s probably because
Ali is back at the campaign he’s feeling
all soft warm and fuzzy on to Big Boy
but anyway we’ve got a question from
Cheston he was how many different uses
are there for duct tape and in in the
bush well camerman well I could probably
say just off the top of my hand they
make screen door like shades for their
their their eyepieces with duct tape and
we use it to pretty much for everything
another good thing you can use it to
keep cameraman quiet they talk too much
you can just when you use a big piece
and you put it around their head so it
pulls their hair and then they’re
generally bears and what else can you
use duct tape for you can’t really fix a
puncture with it well then I mean we use
it for everything really
keeping cables on the roofs fixing your
shoes
it’s a very good one I’ve actually seen
someone make a pair of flip-flops out of
duct tape and expensive pair of
flip-flops dry gold Archer I mean the
two things that we sort of really really
can’t really live without
just in case of needing to fix something
in a bind as are these two things the
one day actually vmon our our roof broke
and we held it together till we could
get to a welder with cable ties and duct
tape so it does have many uses it is
probably probably one these are the two
most useful things coupled with a
Leatherman and then you’re sorted you
can pretty much fix anything out yet now
to keep a lookout it definitely has
slowed and say I can only see out the
one sided pontoon owner things out the
way they’re coming and still
unfortunately it’s we’re unable to drive
Leah who’s eight years old is wondering
why we can’t drive on the rain in the
rain
yeah unfortunately there’s there’s a
couple of reasons if we drive we tend to
get water in the air and we’ve got lots
of very expensive electronic equipment
and the cameras and thingamabobs that
make signal good jig image a gold weight
you to you and then the other reason is
that you’re not gonna see many animals
because we drive in the rain even if I
do drive in the rain it may be soft
enough for me to start driving there
anything unity is see me fighting my
steering wheel as we slip and slide
across the road and because we’re not
gonna be able to look out of any of the
animals because it’s raining too much
otice I’d like to know where do animals
go in the rain do they go into dens or
if they aren’t in the open well things
like zebra and stuff they’re just
standing out there somewhere there’s
some someone behind us there there’s
some elephants in the distance as well
but no they just stay then some animals
will try go down to it then and actually
really heavy rain in some cases brings
animals out of dens and their holes will
fled that’s why it’s a very good time to
see blind snakes is just after end
because they’ve been pushed out of their
holes by the water and they’re on top of
the ground where you don’t normally find
them sometimes water holes get flooded
and they’ll have to leave their dens
same goes for Mongoose and and and
aren’t but it is quite uncommon so
you’ll find a lot of artifact dens for
example go very very deep and then come
up so there’s a little raised area that
the water can’t get into okay well we’re
gonna maybe try and move a little bit
and see if we can possibly get close to
those elephants we might be able to open
up the one side and keep the rain coming
from one side so while we do that let’s
go back to Tristan who’s on the hunt for
lions
I’ve already found the lines because the
lines are directly in front of me
seems as though they’re on a kill of
some sort I don’t quite know what it is
just yet so
we see the sticks pride is not often
that we get to see them so I’m looking
forward to catching up with them them
for a little bit and spending some time
in some little Cubs that are feeding
hello guys it’s good to see the sticks
pride it’s been a while since I’ve seen
him
a few vultures are around as well and
how cool is that it looks like they’ve
got a water back that’s what they’ve
managed to bring down on was
massive open area right in front of the
lodge so those gifts must have had a
wonderful day of watching lions feeding
all day long and look at the fat little
bellies of those Cubs they are full full
full so nice to see them and their
manger is not looking too bad as well
they’re looking a little bit better than
the last time I actually saw them which
is good news there’s one or two that are
a little bit mangy but not as bad as I
thought there’d be they seem to be
coming rights a little bit and hopefully
they’ll be able to just last long enough
for the rain once the rain comes along
and we’re going to have a situation
where these guys will be absolutely fine
remember that the might in mange is
proliferate stirring the dry period as
soon as we start to go into a wet period
then they start to calm right down and
the the might start to disappear in the
little ones then we’ll stop itching
they’ll stop stretching and they fear
will grow back and I see just like the
Akuma Cubs has and they’ll be okay look
at the one on top of the tree they’re
just poking its head over the top
there’s a fallen over tree and this is
one little head that’s on it’s come down
again unfortunately oh there it is you
see this little head just poking over
what are you doing oh no now you down
again I was having a little game on top
there so none of those tiny tiny Cubs
are here they’ve only just been born so
they won’t be introduced to meet yet for
those of you that don’t know the third
female gave birth he was about what is
it now
four or five weeks ago very similar age
maybe a little bit older than the in
Karuma Cubs that we’ve got so it’s
somewhere around there so the third
female I don’t see her at the moment I
Shh no I don’t see at the moment I think
she maybe is with those small little
cubs after feeding they often will go to
the little Cubs
to go and get food but the other Cubs
are to have bellies the size of beach
balls they can hardly move at the moment
they kind of waddling around which is
great to see so very cool to see the
pride at least feeding well and and this
will all help with combating those mites
Aiden who’s six years old hello Aiden I
hope you’re having a nice day you want
to know whether the Lions will swim in
the dam here
no Aiden they’re not going to swim the
Lions I’m a bit scared of water they
don’t like water on their coats also
today is very cold so they don’t want to
go into the water because then they’re
going to be wet and cold and miserable
and these crocodiles and crocodiles are
very dangerous for especially little
lion cubs I’ve actually seen a lion cub
being killed by a crocodile and so you
have to be very careful with crocodiles
and so the Lions will avoid the water
they’ll go and drink there but they’re
not going to go and swim in the woods at
night or even if it was hot and it was
really warm and the Lions were having a
tough time dealing with all the heat
they still won’t go swim in the water
because of the crocodiles they’re going
to be very scared of the crocodiles and
rightly so crocodiles are animals that
you have to be very nervous of we’ve
actually got some water back that are
still right here close to us that are
watching a Lions feed I wonder if it
maybe wasn’t a youngish one from one of
these adults and that’s well maybe it
was the mother for one of them and
that’s why they sitting just watching
the pride feed on them which is not very
nice but it is the way it goes it’s how
life works Archer and you’ll find that
sometimes if it’s a mother or a young
one for that mother they will spend
hours just watching the Lions feed off
them as
kind of workout what’s going on and try
and come to terms with the loss there
comes a hooded vulture it’s going to
land directly on the branch
that’s very nice isn’t that wonderful to
have a hooded vulture sort of an eye
level close to us it’s a very cool sight
now the hooded vultures are the ones
that will feed right at the end they are
going to be the ones that will get food
only at the end of this caucus they’re
going to basically be the last last
birds to give nutrition out of this in
fact you’ll find the white backs first
and in the hyenas and then only will the
hooded vulture get food later and
there’s the light back vultures are on
top and there’s a number of them still
arriving it’s the cards are seeming to
parts a bit of sunshine is coming out
and that means we’re gonna get a
situation where it will be perfect
conditions for vultures to fly we will
be but windy but it’s going to be nice
thermals that will start coming out and
they’ll find this fairly quickly and
then come and try and finish that
carcass once the Lions move forth
then you’re asking why is it that the
sticks pride always gets mange it’s not
that they always get means they just
haven’t recovered from the mange from
last year remember it’s not exactly been
a very wet yeah and so the mange itself
is still present in the adult females
and so they’ve had their young ones and
then unfortunately what’s happened is
that they’ve continued to carry that
Mane genese it’s gotten dry again so
it’s proliferated and expanded and it’s
gotten onto them also remember that the
females even though they’re able to deal
with the mites the cubs when they’re
younger the immune systems are not as
good they also lie together a lot
whereas the females will kind of
separate themselves a little bit more
grooming themselves a bit better whereas
the Cubs are rubbing up in and
constantly in contact ins that might
crosses between them a lot that’s
coupled with the fact that you’ve got a
situation look at those faces how cute
is that and that’s what coupled with the
fact that these Cubs aren’t like I say
have a weak immune system in the hell
else means that they gets the mite a
little bit worse remember that Cubs from
master died and these are new Cubs so
that might was introduced to them when
they were still young and that’s why
they’ve been battling with it if we get
a few years of wit or weather and these
Cubs survive and they build up an
immunity to it in the next dry season
they should be a lot better off than one
they are currently you can see that all
the Cubs in the background they actually
look a lot better in the newer Cubs so
the one that’s what lling off there they
look a lot healthier see control do you
asking if lions always carry the mange
my – yes they do
in fact some most animals carry the
mange might even people have mange on
them it’s tiny tiny little mites love it
it’s completely natural it occurs but
like I say when it goes through a period
of very dry conditions that’s when that
mange populates and you’ll have a
situation where it’ll get really out of
control and particularly in young
animals the adults tend to be able to
deal with it a lot better with the
younger ones tend to get a little bit
out of control now I do apologize if you
guys are picking up a lot of wind it’s
just here on Chitra open it is
completely clear of any vegetation and
that means it really blows through here
and we get a situation where it’s gonna
gust and so I do apologize if the wind
sound is quite loud it’s unfortunately
very little that I can do with the wind
it would be nice if it did stop at least
it’s blowing these cards away and we
look at least have a nice clear sky
above us so hopefully tomorrow will
bring about a little bit warmer weather
and far less wind than we’ve experienced
today how beautiful is the lights on the
sticks fried onions early afternoon but
it’s beautiful
okay you wondering if the notches on the
ears are caused by the mange not
necessarily it might be they’ve
scratched and they’ve caused scabbing
and and and they’ve caused a bit of
injury to their ears that is now healing
and you getting those little notches
that are formed it also can be ticks so
ticks also feed off the ears of cats and
they cause these little V’s as well as
fighting around caucuses you saw just
now that the two little Cubs she were
giving each other a bit of a hard time
and belting one another and that will
cause a little bit of scarring and
scrapes on the ears every now and then
but most of that’s to do with the mange
its itches and they scratch the ear and
they cut it and they cause a little bit
of a disturbance around the ears and
around the face and in fact when you see
mange it often is really bad around the
muzzle area the ear area and then
underneath the baby if you look at Tino
he’s still got a little bit of that
mange on his tummy as well so it’s
normally in the warmer places they’re
more difficult to reach places where
they battle to groom that it
proliferates and causes a little bit of
damage so but these lions are going to
be very very content by the end of this
afternoon they and probably loving the
fact that they have a nice meal that
will help also with the colder weather
if they’ve got a meal the body will be
using energy to try and stay warm and so
this meal does help keep that going they
will sort of water close by it’s nice
and open so now with a bit of Sun in the
afternoon I’m sure little Cubs are
loving it you can see the fact that
they’re lying
most of them aren’t in the open it shows
you that they’re not worried about the
heat of the Sun at all in fact they’re
probably enjoying that a little bit of
heat but their carcass is all but done
Jared’s buddy you save never seen the
sticks pride before how old are these
Cubs well with sticks pride so we don’t
see them that often they spend a lot of
time to the south of us but in terms of
the ages of the Cubs you’ve got two
older Cubs which are the ones on the far
left and the back there behind the
female so those two that are lying down
at the back and and they must be now
about 910 months and things that way
around there and maybe a little bit
older and just trying to remember
exactly when the first time I saw them
was it’s been a while since I’ve seen
the stick pride too but somewhere around
there is how and when they were born and
in these newer Cubs for about six months
old so they’re a little bit smaller and
not as large as what we see with the
others now look at this vultures going
to come in no it landed short I thought
I was going to come and learn just on
the termite mound but the lines I think
I’ve wanted to and then it realized hang
on a second that’s not a good idea to
land right on top of the Lions and just
pulled out and then stopped right where
it was but it’s really cool to watch the
vultures in this wind because the wind
holds them up this one’s coming down now
as well sins though it might be quite
nice and fortunate it’s gone behind the
tree but let’s see the wind is just
holding it so it’s full foaming is
really cool because they come over
fairly slowly and then they just turn no
it’s caught the wind and has now gone
off but as they come in it’s quite nice
because they just sort of float and
glide in which is very cool
sirens buddy the vultures know they
won’t start getting close to this
carcass yet because these Cubs are
rounds eating if you see behind that
Cubs backside there’s one vulture it’s a
little bit further away you’ll find that
the hooded vultures generally are a bit
more brazen and will come a little bit
closer
a few vultures talking behind us in fact
actually it’s tawny Eagles building a
nest by the looks of things behind us
that are making some noise but if you
look behind that cub look the Cubs
trying to drag the carcass that’s so
cool what are you doing but there’s a
female there there’s a big adult female
so if any vulture came anywhere near
that females going to chase those
vultures away so the vultures have got
no chance whatsoever even with the Cubs
they won’t risk it these lionesses would
chase those vultures long before they
got in un yet and the Cubs themselves I
suppose if they were by themselves and
know had all females which would be
pretty much impossible with lions then
maybe they would bully the Cubs off but
you know there’s always going to be some
adults around that would take them from
these vultures so they were nothing to
worry about so the voltages will only
get this once the lionesses take the
Cubs away and they move off completely
which will be shortly you’ll find a
situation where they’re going to come
off at some point do they have a kill up
there so it seems like the tawny Eagles
behind us are making a bit of noise you
can see one right at the top and soon as
I says he thinks that one of them’s got
something in its talons
so I wonder if they haven’t got some
sort of food up there maybe they got a
piece of this carcass or they got
something that they’re feeding on no
difficult to say lots of talking going
on between those two
unfortunately there’s the lighters in
the way our presenter lied so since I
was battling Hollins in so let me just
turn you slimy and then just try and see
because I want to see where exactly what
these guys are eating whether they got a
piece of the carcass or whether it’s
just some other food item that they’ve
got so where do you see it there sins oh
is it in that with the bird itself or
above it
but itself no that one’s got nothing in
its talons that I can see has it got
something in its talons
Jeff you’re asking what type of
carnivorous birds visits or in the sabi
sands Jeff there are lots of carnivorous
Birds remember that the insect eaters
are also considered parts of that but in
terms of art and art meat eaters
vultures tawny Eagles battaglia Eagles
and now the vulture species there’s five
that we see here regularly so or for
regularly one not so much what other
birds of prey are eating strictly meats
a number of the sparrowhawks pretty much
all the Eagles
we’ve got Falcons we’ve got normal Hawks
Goss Hawks so lots of different straight
art and art meat eaters that we get in
this particular area and we very
fortunate that we see a lot of different
birds of prey and it’s a wonderful place
for birding the sabi sands it’s amazing
watching these birds actually coming in
here comes another tawny eagle straight
over us and the carts gonna land ratchet
there we go
the cart just hovered in amazing you see
how much control these birds have got
and how they use those wings and they
just sort of need to sit down and then
drop onto the branch it’s an incredible
way that they do things so that’s the
tawny Eagle which are generally around
carcasses it’s very common to see them
in this area they do like to scavenge as
well
so go you asking do I think that the
wall – I hope that the Egyptian vulture
will fly down to the sabi sands every
single moment of the day I know it was
seen a couple days ago but far north of
us and I keep wishing that I see it
drifting into this caucus and I see it
here but alas no luck so far hopefully
though I’ll get spoiled in 1 days yet
for those of you that don’t know what
we’re talking about the Egyptian vulture
is a very very rare vulture species in
fact it shouldn’t really occur here but
there is one young individual a juvenile
that for some reason has found itself in
the Kruger National Park and we are
getting regular sightings in the Kruger
Park area north of us and I’m really
hoping that at some point it comes down
to the sabi sands and imagine if we see
it on one of these carcasses because I
think it would be a first record for the
sabi sands and as far as I know no
Egyptian vultures have ever been seen in
the sabi sands before so it would be a
wonderful thing to see the Egyptian
vultures in this area so I’m hoping one
day and for those of you are wondering
what the Egyptian vulture looks like
this is the bird that we’re talking
about over here so that adult is a
beautiful white coloration it’s not the
prettiest head that it’s got it’s got a
bright yellow face and a beady red eye
but it’s got this white coloration those
are easy to spot but the bird we’re
talking about is this one over here so
it’s a sub-adult it’s got this juvenile
should I say it’s got this dark
pigmentation the gray blue facial patch
and sling the weak but the big
identifying features is very
diamond-shaped tail no other vulture has
a diamond-shaped tail as prominent as
what you see there the only bird we
could confuse it with and why it went
unnoticed for so long is the juvenile
hooded vulture so if we have a look at
the bottom here this is the juvenile
hooded vulture
and you can see look how similar those
two birds look and it’s very very very
difficult to tell them apart in flight
is the best way and you see they’ve got
a much more rounded tail in that diamond
tail that we saw which tell that we saw
one your Egyptian vulture but maybe one
day I’ll be lucky enough to find it I
certainly hope so to really make my day
if
I didn’t see one of those because that
would be another one we could add to the
list of brains not seeing in the zombies
and abusing back into position for our
lines because where we are now the trees
in the way let’s go around the side
truth be told you’re asking lifespan of
a vulture and how long do they live for
well here in the wild generally we find
our vultures living between sort of 15
and 20 years for the most part
unfortunately a lot of our vultures are
going and a bit of threat at the moment
they dying due to poisoning of carcasses
also a lot of them are flying into
electrical lines and so the numbers are
not quite as much as what we would hope
for but about 15 to 20 years mostly what
we see from him here in the service and
obviously that’s quite generic across
the five species that we do see in fact
six species if we include the Egyptian
vulture in this area in captivity I
believe there’s been some that have
recorded to go over 20 but here that
would be very uncommon in the wild it’s
generally the case with any wild animals
that you have a situation where wild
animals and will be far less able to
survive longer because of how hard the
rigors of being in the wild are now it’s
interesting what I was watching now the
little cub was dragging the carcass and
mom stepped in and just kind of chased
it away from where it was and is now
busy feeding herself so she’s kind of
pulled the carcass off from where the
cub was and the poor little cub is now
sitting watching mom feed which is not
ideal for that little one the
interesting thing though is if you look
at the Cubs they are so full and so
round but if you look at the adult
females not nearly as much as what the
Cubs are so their bellies aren’t as
round so they’ve obviously let the Cubs
feed more than anything else and they’ll
then clean up what’s left they would
have got to least a little bit of a meal
but the Cubs are more important they
need the nutrition and so you’ll find
that they’ll let those Cubs feed quite a
bit as well and that water back is
smaller now that we can see the ribcage
it’s a baby water buck so I’m sure that
other water water back that we saw
watching is potentially its mother
that’s just watching what’s going on
unfortunately
Jared’s buddy is saying that I mentioned
that these Cubs are on the small side
well I didn’t mean that they were on the
small side in terms of in relation to
other Cubs they’re pretty normal for
their ages I was just mentioning small
Cubs is in relation to the other Cubs
within the pride so there’s two older
Cubs that are bigger and then there’s
the four younger smaller Cubs
that’s all those ones well that’s
actually the adult female but behind
them is the two older ones and then
there’s the four smaller ones that are
around as well why are you growling at
us one of the females has just growled
at us I don’t know maybe there’s another
cub aging in behind it it’s it’s very
strange for a lioness to grow so in
relation to the new home Cubs though
they are probably very similar at the
same sort of age there’s not too much
difference between them they definitely
are not in any way too small or not not
developed enough they’re pretty healthy
and pretty regular or average for their
age so then they’re not massive and
they’re not small they’re okay and the
mange won’t influence their size
remember mange is just influencing their
coat and also influencing their ability
to hold on to water so they dehydrate
very quickly when they’ve got to mange
and so you’ll find that these guys
that’s possibly the reason why they die
is they actually get into a situation
where they dehydrate quite a bit so it’s
not going to affect their size there as
long as they’re getting food and they’re
getting nutrients they’re going to be
absolutely fine and they will grow just
like any other lion cubs would
idem dirts they most definitely will eat
the hide in the skin if you look at that
caucus and you look around there’s no
skin or hide anywhere to be seen so a
water back has a very hairy very sort of
thick fur and you can see the fur is all
around so they they will lick the fur
off and pull the fur off with their
teeth but they will not worry about
eating the skin they will eat the skin
or the hide of this animal it’s got
nutrition there’s a bit of a fat layer
on it and there’s there’s lots to be
gained from eating that so they
definitely will eat that hide they just
try and avoid eating the first and
they’ll lick the fur off or try and bite
the fur off using those front teeth and
but the hide itself they will definitely
consume you’ll be surprised how much of
this they’re going to eat so you’ll find
that the females will even crunch
through those rib bones a little bit and
maybe even some of the leg bones and
then the hyenas if they find this will
pretty much clean up most of that the
vultures will be left with very little
unless they can get in before the hyenas
arrive which I’m sure all these vultures
will be hoping is the case really good
to see the sticks pride I didn’t realize
that they had a caucus this morning
otherwise we would have come this way
and it was nice to at least see the
income a pride but really good to see
the sticks and to see them at least
feeding and the Cubs I promise you are
looking a lot better than what they were
the last time I saw them so it’s amazing
what a little meal does it makes him
definitely look a lot fuller and
healthier and I’m sure at some points
how is that one lying that one almost
looks as though it’s got its legs
sprayed out on either side and it’s just
kind of flat tummy one is Bailey what
are you doing little one
but that is as round as in his tall at
this stage there we go that looks more
comfy mr. Karle lions surviving without
food is obviously dependent on what they
ate loss and how much of it they got so
it’s it’s about two weeks that they
until they are absolutely amazed and are
really battling to find food and that
the problem with the lion is as it gets
more and more starving and it gets
weaker and weaker and harder and harder
for it to hunt so about two weeks
without food and you’ll find that that
cat is emaciated and really starting to
become very weak and the chances of it
surviving is quite slim but for the most
part like I said it also depends on
conditions and and if it’s hot too if
it’s cold or how far is having to move
given other lions in that area because
that also consumed its energy but two
weeks is a rough sort of estimate as to
when they desperate desperate desperate
we will need food I have seen a lion
that went 2 and a half weeks without
food it was literally wasted away but
then it got a meal and actually bounced
back from there so you they can go I
would say maybe three weeks at the most
but two weeks is about sort of average
for lions an Emir like this for this
female you can see she’s not exactly
full she’s doesn’t have a big round
tummy at all not like the Cubs so she
would be after two weeks of not eating
would be absolutely famished
she would be really kind of wasting away
so they at the end of the day will
consume their own body when they’re
basically starving so their muscles
start to break down and the body like I
say basically eats itself to try and
survive and so muscle atrophy is huge in
the condition in weakens and it becomes
harder and harder for them to come back
from that
now we’re going to sit with our sticks
pride probably a little bit longer they
are quite a few people that want to come
here at the end of the day chip – it has
quite a number of different lodges that
traverse this area and so while our
female plays with the shoulder blade or
the
hip joints I can’t decide which let’s go
to Brent who’s got his own lines on his
own kill well imagine this while the
rain was pouring down there in gamma
pride took advantage of course the
animals would not have been able to see
them approaching and they I can’t see
what they’ve killed but they’ve killed
something so we’ve just opened up the
one side of our our vehicle to show you
the N gamma pride and looking very happy
the Cubs were quite full this morning
but the lionesses were hungry now I’m
pretty sure they they’re used as that
big storm came in they moved out into
the short grass and took advantage of an
animal that couldn’t see them coming
through that wall of water now I don’t
know how long we’re gonna be able to
stay here there is more rain on the way
so we will stay for as long as possible
but isn’t this exciting where there’s a
world is aware we would ended about 400
metres from where we’ve been sitting
waiting for the rain to go and then
gamez have made a kill
and it’s quite fresh I would say we
probably missed it it was while we were
sitting tight waiting for the rain to
abate that they caught this I think they
would have caught this probably in the
East sort of eye of the storm the
Frances from Israel says Wow another
kill Wow indeed
and these girls have got 12 hungry Cubs
to keep well fed and they’re doing a
spectacular job of that and he said I
says these cats are better groomed I
assume you’re comparing them to the poor
Styx pride and their bedroom because
they’ve got a bit biased in the only a
bit of any easier diet and a lot of the
animals here will be in better condition
than Juma at the moment because it is
sort of the small rep beginning of the
small rains there’s lots of lovely green
grass so the animals that the Lions are
eating how on prime condition where
there is in at Juma you coming right out
of the end of dry season so the animals
will be suffering a little bit from
condition or there’s a little bit of a
family disagreement but who gets the
trace tasty last piece of liver
Rebecca’s wondering how long will it
take them to eat the whole animal
Rebecca I can’t see what animal this is
but it’s probably nearly done already
and there’s just a pile of lines on top
of it
hence we can’t see what it is now quite
funny and some of you might have seen on
Twitter or Instagram or even on Facebook
and I put up a little video of the road
we took to get here the road is a river
and we got stuck while I was fiddling
around making a video but well
unfortunately you managed to not get
stuck we are about half way up the river
road and we will try continue up at a
little bit later as I said yeah there is
some more rain coming and you can
probably still hear the pitter-patter of
rain drops on our roof
kylie is wondering how does the blood
not permanently stay in there sir
while kylie what happens is there will
lick it off other lines will help them
groom it and and it just comes off quite
quickly comes off their fur now we quite
like you the lines have moved where
there are now from if we had to drive
the road that they were on this morning
it was that we would certainly have got
very very stuck if it stays like this we
should be okay to such air for a while
and there was some more lightning to the
south but that’s not way I’m too worried
about I’m actually worried about there’s
another big storm directly behind final
control so I’m hoping that doesn’t come
down over us and as I say it’s almost
uncute Alicia says they still look
slippery well I’m sure that’s absolutely
soaked they weren’t able to certain oh
hang gree adverted slippery angry well
as I say there are 12 line this is I
don’t think this is a particularly big
kill maybe a baby zebra and it’s very
difficult for us to see what it is when
the Lions are rummaging to try get a
tasty treat and the females will let the
Cubs eat first and look too bad I mean
the females were a little bit hungry
this morning they weren’t starving by
any means but the Cubs are greedyguts
that all of the Cubs get are the less
tolerant the ladies’ll beak of them
scoffing most of the meal and I’ll get
the odd clip around the ears and to
remind them that they’re not quite the
bigger big bosses yet yeah you can see
she’s fed but she’s not not well fed
Rebecca is wondering when do lion cubs
get their big teeth they lose their milk
teeth at about six months old and that’s
also when the
males wean them of course once they get
those adults teeth well there was a big
lightning strike in the distance but
once once they are weaned at that as
soon as they start getting the adult
teeth the females will wean them off
milk of course because those adults
could probably do some damage to mom
Stevie is wondering how many kills a day
do they have to make make to feed all 12
cubs and themselves well they probably
don’t kill every days TV probably every
second day or every third day but
Islands can go quite a few days without
without eating can we see what it is yet
no just the odd rib popping up Lions
have the most atrocious table manners
absolute free-for-all in the cabin
Christine is wondering are there any
male Cubs in this group ID we definitely
white because I saw him this morning I
haven’t spent as much time with Fang
gamma pride as as a lot of the other
presenters as I I know there’s
definitely I think there’s probably
there’s definitely one now so probably a
few more corrupted guts
it’s amazing how quickly some of these
cabs have grown since we arrived here
Rex is wondering how old are the Cubs
when they learn to hand RIT that’s the
thing edit a lot of people as human
lions have to learn they don’t hunting
is instinctive it is inbred in them
there are killing machines there have
evolved to be like that but by the time
they actually start being effective
members of that that that probably
around two years old now they will hunt
and stalk lots insects butterflies lots
of little things up until then and and
and there sometimes are quite successful
in catching but they’re not really there
to mess up a lot of ants but the best
way well there’s a lot of people who
think you need to teach lion to hand all
you the best way to describe this all
you need to do is let the line get
hungry and it will catch something
it could even be you
well how girls aren’t that fat sir they
might take advantage of this cold rainy
windy weather to hunt again once they’ve
finished scoffing whatever that might be
but it sounds like Tristan’s lines are
as fat and as lazy as a whale well they
are very fat and lazy brain T although
we had a little cub that was up on the
tree it was super Coolio is lying on the
log and was almost liquid like in the
way that it was looking so it was a very
cool little picture to see this little
lion cub resting on top of the tree it
was really quite pretty and we had the
perfect lights on it at one time and in
the background you can see there’s one
that’s playing a game of hide-and-seek
behind the termite mounds just see his
little head popping out from behind it
there we go you see you little one what
you doing behind there like I say bit
sleepy and was using that termite man to
block itself from the wind the wind is
coming from that direction so it’s
actually doing a good job of being
blocked and the rest of them are strewn
arts ball the two cubs that are feeding
with the female you can see their drag
the carcass quite far around now and so
they’re just having a last little feed
on that that eirick and they’re going to
abandon this carcass tonight’s I don’t
think they’ll still be here tomorrow by
any stretch of imagination that any will
go far but they’re definitely not going
to be still on the carcass there’ll be
very little left by an hour twos time
you can see they’re really just cleaning
up the bones clicking off the little
bits of meat using those rough tongues
and trying to get as much kind of out of
it as possible but there really isn’t
very much left anymore the females
if they decide to feed the two of them
are going to clean that up very quickly
what a wonderful sighting with the
sticks Friday an unexpected one as well
so not only is it good but it’s also
unexpected I didn’t think we would see
the sticks pride it’s they’ve been
especially now with the new Cubs I would
have thought that they might be spending
most of their time to the south of us
whistles and Annette’s property and so
it’s a nice surprise that they’ve moved
up this way you know at least on Chitra
and hopefully you will see a lot of them
over the next few months if they spend
time around Chitra area and then also
coming every now and then into via
Taylor they’ve been seen three times in
the last month on wheeler Taylor which
is interesting because prior to that it
was a long long period that we went
without seeing the sticks pride anyway
Nia wheeler camps or even Anjou May
anyway and so it’s been nice that
they’ve been sort of poking their nose
in around ten dams and spending a lot of
time in that area certainly is a nice
surprise
when we get them every now and then and
like I said they are a little bit sort
of mangy and not as good-looking as the
in Coomer pride but they are a pride
steeped with history this pride has been
in the area and in the song beasts and
unknown by a lot of people for as long
as the soggy sands has really had
tourists coming in so they were one of
the first prides that was ever sort of
named and ever followed and so they have
got a lot of history and in my time here
in the sabi sands unfortunately I’ve
watched this pride just get decimated by
the rolling coalition’s so Michael
you’re asking if I know how successful
the sticks have been at raising Cubs
well the answer to that is in the time
that I’ve known them pretty horrific as
I was saying they’ve really had a tough
time of it they’ve had a number of
coalition’s come through and they’ve
just really battled to keep their cubs
alive so when I first started there was
in livin adult Lions in the sticks pride
there was well and as I had out there
was a couple of adults and some adult
male the sub adult male then went off on
his own unfortunately ended up with a
dislocated hip and a very badly injured
face and he unfortunately succumb to
those injuries and then since then
they’ve really struggled to raise any
Cubs it’s been one young female that’s
been raised and other than that nothing
nothing nothing they’ve lost pretty much
the majority of their Cubs and this
hopefully will mean that there’s going
to be a little bit more or success when
it comes to Cubs this year hopefully we
names in them for the situation really
gets
some little ones making it and this kind
of strengths in the sir pride because at
the end of the day the three females are
all fairly on the older side they’re not
young individuals and so you know it
would be nice if we get some females
that last and they’re the continuation
of the sticks pride can happen and we
end up with the pride rebuilding and
becoming the strength that it once was
it it’s it’s sad when I see the sticks
pride I always feel sorry for them
they’ve they’ve really been battered
hard and they were first hit by them
cause then they were hit by the machine
guns in the mid Timbers and then after
that the Birmingham so they’ve really
gone through a lot of male coalition’s
and that’s all since 2010 so in seven
years they’ve dealt with four male lion
coalition’s and if you work out that
Cubs generally only kind of adults that
are left alone by the male’s between two
and a half and three you can work out
very quickly that form coalition’s in in
seven years means that they’ve just not
had time to raise any of their cubs
before the new males come in and kill
all those Cubs so they’ve really
struggled and I’m hoping that this is a
bit of change of luck the birmingham’s
are young males they’ve done really well
and so I’m pretty sure that we’re going
to be in a situation where they
hopefully will be able to survive and to
be able to grow and become big adults
and once again build the sticks pride
into a powerful force that it should be
but look at the size of the belly of
that little cog that’s lying down like I
say his belly is bigger than it is tall
basically it’s just round and big and
you can see a little bit of Kellis thing
of the mange but it’s actually like I
say a lot better in the last time I saw
these little ones they looking really
in much better condition Stevie the only
part of the prey that they don’t go
after his bones that are too big for
them
so sometimes leg bones and and vertebra
and then also the stomach content itself
so they won’t eat the rumen of this
animal but otherwise everything else is
fair game you’ll find that they’ll go
off to rib bones or they’ll eat the
hides they’ll eats organs they eat any
of the meat obviously they’ll they’ll
eat the eyes they eat the ears you can
see she’s actually busy feeding on the
ear at the moment I think that was the
last bit of the year that went down the
gullet just now so pretty much
everything other than the big bones that
they really battled to be able to
consume and then of course the hair they
also don’t like to eat so they’ll try
and pluck the hair and get rid of that
so they don’t have to deal with that but
this wind is really not dying down I
thought it would but it seems to be just
carrying on and really going a bit crazy
still so I was hoping we would see the
end of it this evening but that doesn’t
seem like it’s going to happen it seems
as though we going to be punished by
wind a little bit longer and we’re going
to really have a rough night of it in
the end of the day it’s not going to be
as pleasant as I thought it would be I
wanted it to be a nice beautiful calm
evening because there would have been a
wonderful way to certain new you reckon
a pushcart and go fly it I reckon I love
that too imagine trying to fly a vulture
that would be quite crazy so you
wouldn’t want to add anything to
avulsion and try and follow them because
they are moving around all over the
place at the moment are you seeing them
kind of jumping around and flying in and
the speed at which they move when the
wind takes them is quite incredible so
forget to push kites you have a bush
vulture that we can operate or better
yet a drone would be quite cool the
drone would have been a very cool way to
have watched what was going on so
hopefully it’s some stage student will
unleash the drone again and share comes
their vulture look at this how cool is
that and it’s gonna just slowly float
upwards and then it will open the wings
and slow right down and land
not the softest of landing that
particular one and in fact it even
landed on a small branch that I thought
might fall Majan if one of these lions
got a branch to the head to their food
certainly not impress them at all given
that they can’t get to those vultures
but I’m also watching very carefully for
one of them that’s about to difficut
because I feel like these lions are in
danger of being difficut Adhan by
vultures and I can assure you I’ve seen
somebody being difficut Adan by a
vulture it is not a funny experience it
is a lot of lot that comes out of a
vultures back-end and causes quite a big
mess so if I was a lion I would be very
careful where I was sitting right now
they right in the firing line for these
vultures at the moment and hopefully
they’ll be ok and they won’t end up with
a situation where they going to end up
with some well the proverbial egg on the
face as they say when is that one fallen
asleep on the carcass it looks like it
has looks like there’s a little one
that’s decided to have a little nap on
the carcass
Nancy you asking if vultures ever make
their own kills or do they wait for
others to do it well Nancy they pretty
much are our scavengers they do not kill
things for themselves I’ve never seen a
vulture kill anything most of the time
100% of the time they are scavenging off
carcasses of other individuals so they
going to things like this line carcasses
or animals that have died and then
feeding off those so they are scavengers
art and art they are not designed to be
able to feed on the wing or to be able
to catch their own prey items and so
you’ll find them pretty much just going
for carcass to carcass and you must
remember there are lots of caucuses in
the bush there’s a lot of things that
die regularly and there’s some really
large caucuses so things like elephants
and hippos and Buffalo and when they die
that’s food for a long period and
sometimes those don’t get farmed by
lines if they die of natural causes and
the vultures can have an absolute field
base there’s more than enough for them
to survive as scavengers Archer and it’s
unfortunately why their numbers have
declined somewhat I love other hooded
vultures run around like I say they’re
the most brazen of all of them so
they’ll try coming here and see if they
can steal a little morsel from somewhere
one day the lion that’s behind the
termite mound is about to give this
vulture a big surprise because it’s
slowly but surely hitting towards the
termite mound where our little lion is
tucked away and I don’t know if that
vulture has seen that line but it’ll be
funny if it doesn’t go see that line and
that line comes bursting around and
chasing them off all right but
unfortunately going to have to start
moving on because there are others that
want to come into the sighting so I’m
going to leave the sticks pride now let
them finish off their water bucket kill
and we’re going to start heading across
towards the ink uma pride so hopefully
there we can get the birmingham’s
roaring as the Sun sets but while we do
that let’s go back to Brent and his
feasting lines all the way on the other
side of Africa well I think there’s not
much left and we still haven’t quite
managed to work hard what the angle
Mazar munching upon and just from what
was around here this morning I think
it’s probably a young zebra but they are
really getting stuck in there and you
can hear the pitter-patter of rain on
the roof it’s still raining so we’re
sitting nice and dry just the one side
open at the moment and the rain coming
in from the northwest of us
and I think these lines might not get
all they need out of this meal the Cubs
will probably do care the females might
be a little bit hungry still afterwards
oh I saw it poufy maybe it was a young
bull beast one of the lost souls that
run around the Mara going me me it is
absolutely wonderful but that did manage
to catch something off little one what
are you whining at me mum still hungry
I’m too small to get in there all the
big ones on the way although that belly
is big I don’t think you could fit
another morsel in but if it’s wobble as
it walks sweetness
now you’ll notice that in some
circumstances they’ll lick their paws
and after they’ve got blood and stuff on
them it’s to clean them and as well with
that one there he’s probably actually
got a little piece of meat
there’s indeed that sometimes looks like
they’re licking is a leg but he’s
actually found something good to eat or
sir there’s not much meat left on
anything right now
lots and lots of growling and growling
what is he got maybe we can identify
we’re not going to identify what element
is from a lung it is a long way I can
tell you that much well done mr. London
to yourself quite a sizable lung
actually so maybe it was something a bit
bigger than we thought that also just
the lines are just have just quite
hungry
Alisha’s wondering how many lion cubs
are in a single litter your average is
between one and three the largest litter
ever recorded if I remember correctly is
eight and that was from in the wild
which was in Nairobi National Park in
Kenya so generally the average line that
decided between one and three and the
largest litter ever recorded is eight
and and that was in Kenya as well now
remember for those of you who might not
believe we are coming to you from a
rain-soaked Masai Mara a hundred percent
live so you witnessing this at the exact
same time as we are
maybe wonder what that is it is quite a
mystery what they are munching upon at
the moment I’m just trying to see I saw
who they I think it could be a Valda
beast there were a few of all the beasts
in this area earlier today it could also
be a zebra incident I’m not 100% sure
and at the moment I might ask Fergus to
go poke his nose in there between the
lines see what’s what not know if eggs
not hungry
oh no you could eat just not not with
them oh is that one of the little ones
are that very fat belly again
well fati trying to get in there heliox
asking what are the pockets for on the
side of the lions ears i assume you just
referring to the little Indian tension
that like we have in our ears I’m it
will be there to try to catch a certain
sounds and also they have quite a little
hair in there to protect but their
hearing is phenomenal oh speaking of
sounds can hear a hyena in the distance
higher up the mountain up the road that
is the river
always little boy there’s at least one
and probably a few more as I said I
haven’t spent as much time with this
part as the other presenters
there we go now normally they would
struggle to catch something in grass
this short but that massive storm that
was here little bit earlier that
obviously aided them and the fact that
they were able to sneak up upon whatever
unsuspecting critter this was I’m
thinking wildebeest I saw it looked like
a black leg and Huth briefly in jaws of
one of the Lions
Oh CJ is now asking me quite a difficult
question CJ is wondering what is my
favorite pride and CJ oh that is so
difficult I I think you’re putting me on
the spot now CJ I think in the triangle
itself my favorite pride is the
something pride what about the so the
putting got pride is with Tiffany one of
my favorites say they operate on both
sides of the river are on pure uncut
bridge look aren’t hill that I think and
I spend a lot of time with them I’ve got
a soft spot for the sand aspired I like
the bronchi pride oh I like to Bridget
pride I like the Paradise pride now a
lot of you are going to probably
disagree with me about who my favorite
male coalition of lions is I know a lot
of you are probably going Musketeers
Musketeers Musketeers and I go bah
humbug Musketeers I’m a bullish sucker
man
so I think those six bear lions are
going to be absolutely fantastic so
that’s my favorite coalition of male
lions or six young male lines and
spending a lot of time around the March
what have you spotted lady lion honey
duck down for my seat what is out there
she’s got quite a little bit allure in
tinting I mean see where my binoculars
now could be a hyena wandering in that
could be potential prey oh I in his
making lots of noise I’m not sure what
she’s seen I can’t see anything
Ricci is wondering if hyenas decided to
charge in here and attempt to steal the
meal who would win the fight now from
chatting to the Mara lion researchers
and the Mara hyena researchers it
generally takes about three hyenas per
adult lioness sorry for no Mara’s five
iron is part of lioness
so you would need there’s four adult
lionesses yeah so you’d need twenty
highness
so it’s all a numbers game and with a
kill that’s probably like this with very
little left and with all the Cubs around
there might just abandon it from a
safety point of view for the youngsters
I have no idea what she’s looking at I’m
following her eye line down towards the
trees I can’t see anything apart from
trees some grass yeah time for a bath
oh here we go they’re pulling the
carcass we might be able to see what it
is well it is an argument Ricci is
wondering if there’s a size difference
between the lines in the Mauryan Jima I
would say a very very minimal one I’d
say I’d say the lines here are stuck
yeah probably heavier but not
necessarily taller oh is it a Volvo
beast no it’s a pig it’s a warthog can
just see it I think what looks to be a
warthogs schnoz yeah it’s a warthog a
big male warthog as well I mean that’s
why it’s such a hefty set of lungs
inside him that is a massive male water
probably caught the poor poor poor pig
on its way of trying to get down at all
when it was raining he wanted to go home
or the amount of rain we had flooded the
pig out of his Hall during the rain and
led him into lions
one line is she stopped looking here
that she keeps looking up have another
quick scan with my binoculars there’s
some elephants in the distance that’s
about it quite a long way away she’s
looking again maybe she’s hearing
something about while we’re sitting in
the rain I did yes’m it sounded to be
male lions roaring I’m off in that
direction
who knows maybe they’re only where happy
on their way up cat
and a little bit less aggression I’d say
there’s almost zero pork left on that on
that carcass and I’ve managed to
completely eat the whole a pig now it
seems to be a very very much a lion
evening and at Tristan’s been with the
sticks I’ve been with the Yankees after
the rain and it sounds like Tristan’s on
his way to get more oh well I was
thinking about it towards the Birmingham
boys and in coomer’s because I would
love to hear the whole pride roaring and
I have a funny feeling that the
Birmingham’s might raw it’s a long shots
and maybe it won’t happen but well I
think it will be worth the try the the
sticks are all but finished that water
back and like I said there’s other
people that wanted to come in and have a
look so we did spend a decent amount of
time man it was really nice to see them
that we have to give some of the others
a chance as well it’s the nice thing
about being archers that we all help
each other and that makes life a lot
easier so we’ll go and have a little
quick look at the young Coomer pride and
hope and hope that the Birmingham is raw
and that the rest of the pride joins in
novi you something wonderful to listen
to them all going at the same time
they’re just going to let one of the
vehicles come past and so it’s another
one of our good friends which is Davi
from elephant pains and I haven’t seen
Davi in a long time
anybody I’ll see you later
coaches better good to see you again
yeah I’ll catch you soon so like I say
nice to see doggie again I haven’t seen
him in so long and he’s is one of my
good friends Archer so he’s nice to
catch up with the guys
Eric the poet’s he wanted to know how
the stick in the sticks pride got the
ancient Greek name well basically
there’s a section on Mala Mala called
sticks all a farm that’s called sticks
why it was called sticks in the first
place I’m not quite sure it seems as
though all the the farms what we deem as
farms but let’s say sections of the sabi
sands all of them have these really old
school names so we’ve got Ravens quotes
and Sparta and sticks and two lon and
what else have we got Martha to our
Alice cots
wallingford’s so there’s all these older
names around your galleries another one
so that’s where it comes from it’s just
an area on Mala Mala that they got this
the name sticks and there’s no River
system or anything like that that’s
caused them to get it’s it’s just the
way things have were an area that they
inhabit sit in like today grateful
you
okay well we’re back and seems like
Tristan’s found a gremlin or two so
we’re back with the gamez and they’re
starting to spread out a little bit from
where they were munching on the warthog
some of those Cubs are absolutely filthy
of mode covered in blood the guts and
gore and in need of a good wash from mum
what is that caption is a hyena only way
it doesn’t look like it
dori is wondering how can a lioness feed
eight cubs if she’s only got four teats
well it’s all about competition so there
would have been great competition
between the Cubs and when must remember
the other thing about lions and being
the only truly social cat they are also
practice Paulo suckling so other members
of the pride would have suckled her if
they had babies would also suckle her
youngsters that is one of the reasons
you often find a lot of Cubs of the same
age in a pride a lot of the females on a
similar Easter cycle and of course that
makes it much easier for them to raise
their young when they all sort of have
Cubs around the same time and all of
them are lactating so they can share the
milk load so to speak who’s 8 years old
Leah’s wondering how long is a lion is
pregnant for they have a very short
gestation period leah which is the fancy
word for saying pregnant and it’s it’s
between 90 and 110 days so very very
short about 3 months so it is a quarter
of a third by mathesar walk there a
third of all the humans and gestation
period is
it seems like we have no more bitter
patter on the roof so Philips wondering
if a mama died with other members of the
pride let them suckle they would Philip
um as I said it’s a vines will suckle
the young and others young so it’s not
uncommon for if a female dies for one of
the other members of a pride to take up
the sucking what do you want a little
monster how do you do oh it is one of my
favorite sounds nothing quite like
little contact calls of Cubs Oh playtime
I Caston in Denmark Carson’s wondering
how much I think that warthog weighed
probably over a hundred kilograms cost
in that big mail water can be a very
hefty beast and actually sometimes quite
a dangerous animal to take down even for
the Lions because of those incredibly
sharp dashes the bottom tusks that rub
up against the top tusks and are and
they can be as sharp as a razor blade
but you can see a little bit less
arguing going on at the moment a little
bit more friendlier than they were when
we first arrived
Ricci is wondering do they eat bones or
only flesh and they’ll eat both and
gristle and everything in between and
they will eat the smaller bones of
course certain bones will be too big
especially some of the thicker Lake
bones and and some of the the vertebrate
will be too thick for even for the Lions
to crash but of course and you’ve always
got the hyenas coming in afterwards and
you might make short work of said bones
it says it seems that the animals aren’t
here are strictly herbivores and
carnivores are there any omnivores
indeed there are there’s quite a lot of
omnivores for them don’t know I heard a
jackal in the distance but little things
my cat
Janet’s civets Mongoose are omnivores
baboons monkeys and we’ve got up three
species or one species of aboon three
species of monkey possibly in the Mara
and what other omnivores can I think of
offhand polecats yes they are quite a
few omnivores but out of your your
bigger species things are generally one
all the other
so it is getting a little bit darker
we’re going to have to switch to
infrared quite soon
so while Fergus plays with lights and
gets our camera ready for after dark
let’s go across the chest and he’s still
on his way to the incomers LAN store my
way Brent I’m meandering I’m putting
about enjoying Juma and the lack of wind
that I feel on this road it’s a little
thicker here then where I’ve been
driving I was on the main road gauri
main and it was gusting and cold and
horrid and bouncy and bumpy it was
really not very pleasant so it’s nice to
be in a bit more of a thicket area and a
little bit more of a smooth Road not
that this new road is any smoother than
gauri main actually but it’s feels a bit
more I suppose it’s not as corrugated at
least it’s a bit bumpy but it’s not as
corrugated as what we saw or what we had
on Gauri main but it’s amazing how
quickly the light is fading tonight so
we had sort of beautiful sunshine and
then all of a sudden it’s just gotten
dark quite quickly and you can see as a
few ominous cards still sticking around
so it was separating and now it seems to
have been coming back together again so
not ideal but suppose it would be nice
for a bit of rain though tonight
wouldn’t it just just spruce things up a
little bit and get everything starting
to green up again it’s very dry in this
area this grass is turning almost a
translucent white colour now rather than
a yellow drab wintery color since are
you okay there so since I saw I was
fiddling with the aerial and since I and
I once had an accident with an aerial
while we were driving along so I was
driving and I hits a bump as soon as I
was trying to put the aerial down when
he first started and it pinched his
thumb and Oh was it your thumb or your
forefinger was your it was your pinky
finger that’s right and it’s made a nice
nasty little gash on cinders thumb so
now I’m always careful if I see sins are
looking at the aerial or antenna to ask
if I need to stop but apparently all is
good and we have fine we don’t have to
worry but that was not the finest moment
from the two of us but we’ve since
worked that one out and been able to
communicate a little bit better as to
what’s going on
but always in Drey driving this road
it’s got such a beautiful view of the
Drakensberg mountains off to the western
side and often you get nice sort of
views of the mountains and the sunset
and it’s a very pleasant road to drive
and we know that shadow often spends
time here so I like driving it just for
that reason is in case I get lucky and
bump into hurts for no other reason
really is just to hope that I bump into
shadow in this area it’s always nice to
find her and and the thing is is that I
haven’t seen the cub in so long that I
would like to see that it will cut with
it
apparently it’s it’s doing fine I spoke
to somebody who was it I don’t remember
that saw the cub about three four days
ago so apparently it’s doing okay and
he’s still with the shadow so that’s all
good news and she seems to be out of the
sort of most dangerous period so I would
imagine that shadow should theoretically
raise this one to adulthood they say
should because poor shadow has the worst
luck in the world and so hopefully
she’ll be okay and she’ll get her cub
into adulthood and we’ll see yet another
little female Alton about on Drive now
when the how relaxed she is now the last
time I saw her much better and was
fairly chilled with a sec she didn’t
worry too much about us and certainly
didn’t go too far and didn’t run was a
little bit as nervous by itself but it
wasn’t too bad once it was with mom so
hopefully it will start to settle down
as it’s getting older and feeling a
little bit braver and a little bit more
kind of confident in itself
but alas no sign of her no tracks no
so Christine my favorite season in the
sabi sands is now happening as we speak
we’re going September October November
my favorite time of the year and the
reason why as we come out of this cold
winter which I’m not a fan of cold I
like hot weather and the hotter the
better really and so I’m happy with the
hot weather then and also we go out of
cold dry drab Brown sort of dusty into
life fill the beautiful greens lots of
baby animals everywhere lots of
migratory birds and I love that
transition from one to the other so the
now is my favorite time from winter to
summer so this little short spring and
the first little bit of summer is
definitely for me the best time in the
bush is it’s amazing to watch everything
just rejuvenate and come back to life
after being sucked dry by the baking Sun
of winter and the dryness and you see
all things thriving in those summer
conditions and so I love that sort of
process that happens and watching it
unfold and watching these trees start to
bud and flowers start to form and just a
really a complete sort of difference in
what you used to that’s my favorite part
about this time in the air and like I
say there’s lots of interesting things
that arrive and things that you get
excited about because you haven’t seen
them in six months so it’s an excitable
time and everybody kind of gets into the
spirit of it and you find people start
beating on when we’re going to see the
first baby Impala when we’re gonna see
you know the first Wahlberg’s ego when
we gonna see the first woodland
Kingfisher and so it’s just there’s lots
of anticipation and lots of great things
that come and there’s things to look
forward to I know a lot of other people
love the winter times because generally
the game viewing is better and yes it is
it’s much easier to find a lot of these
animals because they spend a lot of time
around water holes but at the end of the
day it is not as pretty and they’re
certainly far less to look at in the
winter than there is in the summer and
the summer I love it because there’s so
much to see and so many new things we
get new insects new plants it’s really
quite nice
Katty you wondering the what dates I
think the first rains are going to come
and have the crew started pacing well I
had a bit with Sebastian I can’t
remember the exact date I think he said
8th of October and I said the 27th of
September I think that’s about right
maybe somebody can remind me of what I
said so those are I say 27th of
September and the deal was that it has
to be a solid rain it can’t be a little
one millimeter or two millimeters of
rain because we measure our rain in
millimeters so it had to be a really
solid so 20 moles 20 moles was the
cutoff flu so we need lure and Meghan’s
get involved in today’s the perfect day
lose Megan what are your predictions for
when the rain is going to come and
sensor when do you think the rain is
going to come you’re gonna be the last
one so we have to wait for Megan and Lou
first okay then you can now look up on
weather apps and things in FC you’ve got
to come up instantly it’s got to be a
quick answer because I now hear standby
which I know what that means
Megan 2nd of October and Lou the 18th of
October okay so second of October 18th
of October 8th of October for Sebastian
27th of September for Tristan and 10 of
October so I’m the only September boy
watch let’s see the space it’s gonna be
interesting and it’s got to be a 20
millimeter or more rain that we get in
this area hopefully it’s going to be
sooner rather than later I wonder if
anybody else wants to predict hashtag
Safari live predictions when we going to
get office rains 10 of October you
winning what’s the bet sensor what are
we going to give each other we can get
you some more socks if you want some
nice socks
or we can bet a six-pack of apple juice
maybe a six-pack of apple juice to the
winner there we go the all there rest of
the crew has to everyone has to get a
six-pack of apple juice – whoever wins
part of the crew each everybody each one
six-pack sensors dates Lou was the 10th
of October Sebastian the 8th of October
if I remember correctly and then me the
27th of September so we’ll note those
all done I don’t know if Brent wants to
take a stab at it not that real gets our
six pack of apple juice anytime soon
because Brent’s going to be in the Mara
first or quite some time and who taught
that where they’ll even make it past his
10th if he did have to buy them so
hopefully we’ll leave him out of that
one for now and we well the Mara will
guess if you had to guess rain in the
Mara you just say later on tonight at
this rate the sins there’s having a bit
of a laugh behind me but I would imagine
I think we’re gonna get it sooner or
later this buildup in heat that we’ve
had
you can only mean that we’re going to
start getting rain as some points it’s
got to you at some point start to come
to fruition are you Mike you are thanks
buddy
so it’s going to at some points have to
break and the heat has to give way to
some sort of rain and if it’s anything
like last year we had that rain storm of
about 20 miles just at the end of
September and that’s going to put the
little cat amongst the pigeons and make
me well a apple juice rich man so let’s
see how we go and it’s of course is
closest to the date and the interesting
the interesting parts about is all the
others have gone very close together
Jason you 29th of September Jason are
you with me we’re on the right path yeah
we’re going to be the winners in this
particular situation I’m sure of it
we’re going to be the ones that are
gonna get this right now the nice thing
is that the income or pride seems to all
be head up Frances you say first of
October mmm Frances I don’t know it’s
gonna be interesting to see who’s going
to be right I think a lot of you have
gone in October to close together
because now you don’t give yourself any
room
for winning because at least with me if
it’s slightly earlier in September I’ve
got it all to myself nobody else is
going to have anything to do with me if
it’s earlier in September and if it’s in
even early October I’m pretty close as I
think Megan’s probably the closest to
Mia at this stage the interesting thing
in kuma pride every single one has got
head up at the moment so they all are
awake there’s a bit of yawning from
empires which i think means we’re about
to go on a bit of a March I see him Fuu
more in the background is starting to
yawn his head is up so I reckon we are
going to start sort of moving shortly
the problem is is that we ride up
against the boundary and so the chances
of us keeping up with him there’s
tenures now popped up his head in the
background you see one of the lioness is
moving here we go so I think we’ve
arrived just at the right time to see
our lionesses start going on the prowl
the problem is like I say if they hid in
this they already hitting the way that I
thought they were going to and that’s
the wrong way for us they will cross
within the next ten minutes if they go
the way they’re going and am buyers
typically in front taking them from this
area and heading southwards and we know
there was some impalas around and it
girls are you coming to say hello you
can see they’re just drifting right in
front not perturbed by us at all and
typical to see these two first moving
it’s always amber eyes and the younger
female that tend to go first so I think
this is the youngest female with the
suckle marks in front of me I might be
wrong I’m just trying to see no it’s not
sorry it’s not the youngest female the
youngest female will come fairly shortly
there she is she’s at the back over
there the one that’s busy grooming her
back you can see the milk underneath and
her teats of the suckle marks so that’s
the youngest female that generally
follows amber eyes so as soon as an buys
Mews but she looks like she’s stalking
something look at her posture a misers
gone into a store posture look at her
the way that she’s walking she’s head
down look lowering that head looking
forward I wonder if she spotted
something
no not she’s gonna go to the toilets
even if she has spotted something the
bush calls and nature calls and she’s
got to quickly go to the toilet and make
sure that she just gets that out of the
way before any serious hunting takes
place
no back down we go here comes the other
two so they’re coming
and I think here comes the injured
female so you want to see how she’s
walking you didn’t believe me that she
was walking fine even though she’s got
that injury she’s got a little bit of a
limp but otherwise that is not a bad
walking gait at all she’s walking better
than what I would have thought she would
have managed with an injury as horrific
as that she really is doing a lot better
than I would have thought but it is a
nasty nasty injury that and hopefully it
will heal but it looks horrible you can
actually even see the muscles as she
moves past us
it really is sore oh that’s not very
pleasant shame my girl that must be very
painful but the fact that she’s not
limping is absolutely incredible to me
imagine how strong and how resilient
they are to be able to walk with a wound
like that and not even have any
stiffness remember she’s been lying down
all day and yet snow stiffness in that
walk at all it’s absolutely phenomenal I
don’t understand how these animals deal
with it I could say if that was a human
you would be man down woman down you
would be in serious pain and not very
happy about life at all so it’s pretty
incredible that they’re managing to well
she’s managing to walk the way she is at
the moment the good thing though that
the saving grace for us today and
hopefully why the Lions will stay here
on Juma is that the wind is now us
shifted and it’s coming from a south
easterly direction so Lions like to walk
into the wind they don’t like to walk
with the wind blowing over their
shoulder so I don’t think they’re going
to go to arrows I think they might start
cutting back towards Juma to the central
parts which is fantastic news for us so
hopefully they’re going to head that
direction now see all the Cubs are open
are they all starting to approach us the
males are still lingering at the back
and are busy grooming but it’s this time
of the day that things are going to
start happening and we’re going to start
to see the income of pride starting to
get going and I hope that they start
hunting their Buffalo hood I haven’t
gotten any more updates on the buffalo
herd I’m not sure where they are and
what they doing
but I’m pretty sure the
pride is hungry they looking for food
the females are fairly skinny even the
Cubs or sub-adults or CIN skinny they
had a meal last night it must have been
a very small meal and the boys must have
stolen most of what was going on cindy
tennessee asking if there’s any prey
animals that are more nutritious than
others well most of the prey animals
that have really big layers of fat are
good for them so zebras funny enough
have really thick yellow fat and that’s
highly nutritious for lions so that’s a
good one to go after healthy Buffalo or
good one but unfortunately not many
healthy buffalo around anymore and
droughts have really hammered them and
so then the only other one that’s really
nutritious meat is hippo and hippos are
very difficult to bring down so I would
imagine a situation that hippos are
going to be fairly tough to find
Toby you’re asking if one of the
lionesses has been meeting you thought
you saw bite marks on the back of your
neck well Toby I also noticed the same
thing with amber eyes does look like she
has a few bite marks on the back of the
neck so I think maybe she has and maybe
that’s why we’ve got two of the
birmingham’s with us at the moment these
boys are obviously picking up that
there’s some sort of East recycle’
somewhere here and that’s why they’re
coming into this area but she definitely
does have some signs but you can see
they are mobile again and they
definitely spotting something to the
south of us maybe that Impala hood that
we saw earlier today that is there
didn’t see any when I came in but I
could be wrong maybe the Impala hood is
somewhere and they’re gonna start
stalking look you can see there there’s
some intent in what they’re doing the
way that they stopping the way that they
staring they looking very very intently
to the south so maybe there is something
in that area that they seeing we’re
gonna stay here because I want the boys
to come walking past and meandering past
us they will eventually as soon as those
females walk like this
the boys generally are not far behind
and coming and looking and giving the
attention that they need so I’m pretty
sure we’re gonna end up with the boys
coming this way
Urmi from Germany you’re asking if I’m
able to identify the floppy-eared cub
not I am not unfortunately the reason
why is because when I’ve got sure the
floppy ed cab this year was a right
again so I believe it was a younger one
so it could be that one that’s further
back there but I’m not 100% sure at all
I know a lot of the viewers know exactly
which one it is and maybe they’ll help
us out but I’m not 100% sure at all
which one it is it was before my time
that it had the floppy air and I only
got to see the income of pride once I
came to Safari live remember when they
had these small Cubs in that year was
floppy this pride was it’s only on Juma
they didn’t move off German we saw very
little of them at some Amelia it’s only
once I got here that they saw it’s great
to summer me all the time so I’m not a
hundred percent sure which one is the
floppy-eared cub maybe some of you guys
can help us as to exactly which one I
have an idea if maybe is the one at the
back there there’s one right behind a
stump that one that’s sitting at the
back it might be that one but I’m not a
hundred percent sure
is it the floppy-eared one is that the
one with the amber eyes maybe somebody
can help us and let me know what they
think as to whether it’s the one with
the amber colored eyes or if it isn’t
but the lionesses are stretched in a
long long line are they all looking
around I think we’re gonna see the boys
coming shortly I don’t think the boys
are gonna let the females get out of
sight
this tenure was just having a sneeze in
the back there comes another one of the
sub adults
pretty amazing to be in such close
proximity to them and just watching them
filing past here comes the last of the
Cubs and I reckon then after that we’re
gonna start to see the boys rolling past
as well see him former starting to you
on
Mega Man you’re asking winner Alliance
obituaries to humans as in win with a –
they’re not attack humans and what
tactics were used to get them that way
well Mega Man is quite simple when we
stopped hunting them so as soon as we
had a situation maybe we weren’t hunting
lions anymore we went killing them
stealing food from them because people
actually used to chase them off their
carcasses and steal from them so as soon
as we stopped doing that then you’ll
find that they started to relax already
around those situations and also took
probably a lot of time when they had
food that you’d park far away watch them
observe them and slowly but surely they
weren’t used to the vehicles and used to
us remember that guidance inherently
don’t just attack people they don’t come
running at people and killing them even
back in the day it was only because
people hunted them and people hurt them
that they were aggressive otherwise they
would have been absolutely fine and it
would have been a situation that we
wouldn’t have had to worry about them
but they learned behavior that they had
to defend themselves and protect
themselves and once they’ve eaten
somebody they’re the meat then obviously
they can taste that and they know that
we are then a soft target we slow we are
not very fast we soft we don’t have
sharp teeth we don’t a sharp cause we
don’t have horns and so we’re in easy
targets for lions and that’s why they
would have come after us and would have
ended up chasing people and eating them
but they inherently are scared of people
and most of the time they’ll move away
from you and so over time now in these
reserve areas because we haven’t hunted
them because we haven’t gone after them
they’ve now become very relaxed around
the vehicles and they’ve learned as cubs
to see vehicles and that that’s it
now we’re going to follow this in Coomer
prior they are heading south but quite
quickly now and the boys I’m surprised
haven’t gotten up to move yet they still
busy with their grooming and it is windy
and cold and it’s the perfect conditions
for hunting but I believe the Mara is
also dark and stormy and I’m sure the
Lions are gonna have a field day that
side welcome back and once the road that
was a river is now a stream and I’m
trying to negotiate my way up the stream
Oh frog don’t make life difficult for me
and you’ll see that I’m not in color
there’s a reason for this figs got it in
that low line setting as if we put on
the light it reflects off the windscreen
and I can’t see where I’m going not that
I do much a good job when I can see
where I’m going but well there we go
we’re driving sideways very very
slippery this black cotton soil so we
left the lines they still mention on the
last to the warthog but we can see
another big torrent of rain coming
towards us and we don’t want to get
properly caught there because I think
this road has deteriorated enough and
too much more there’s not going to be
much of a road left
oh it’s a very good question from Aiden
who’s six years old Hayden would like to
know if the animals get caught or if it
rains too much can the animals get
caught in the mud now Aiden you would
think that but that actually happens
when it doesn’t rain enough so what
happens with the water holes will dry up
and the animals are so desperate for a
drink that they’ll go into the matter
and then they get stuck in the mud when
it rains a lot like this the animals
will stay away from the mud because
there’s lots of little puddles of water
everywhere where they can get a drink or
hold on so they don’t all hold on sorry
Aiden that’s just concentrate on driving
there for a second still concentrating
here we go through we go the bad so it’s
actually the opposite so when it doesn’t
rain enough the animals get caught in in
the map but when it rains like this
there’s lots of little puddles for them
to drink everywhere so it’s it’s better
whoo we got a soft spot coming up is
everyone holding on oh I was that bad
hi Lucy Lucy says when you get this much
rain how long does it take to get
absorbed into the ground well Lucy the
one thing that amazes me it it absorbs
surprisingly fast now certain areas of
course will hold water for a long time
but if we get a bit of sunshine tomorrow
a lot of the roads that we haven’t been
able to drive on today so for example
where we saw the cheetah this morning it
should be completely possible by
tomorrow morning now there will be
certain areas that are soggy air and
wetter than others but it does dry out
quite quickly but there is a very high
water table here in the Mara so even a
little bit of rain and that water table
gets a little bit higher a little bit
higher so even certain areas that we’ve
been spending a lot of time in now where
we’ve driven around no problem
whatsoever in a couple of months will
actually become an impossible swamp so a
lot of the area around hippo pools and
that is actually during the wet season
as swamp so what I think’s happening now
is this year that the small rains have
started early and after chatting to a
lot of people who spent a lot of time in
Kenya they say generally when you have a
very dry year and the big rains don’t
deliver what they normally do and the
small rains come early on and it has
definitely come early this year the
small rains are normally in November
December and so what are we now in
September October so very early it could
just be a little bit of rain but it’s
going to be interesting to see whether
this rain continues through into the
small rent traditionally one of the
driest times of year when I say dry I’m
not talking like sabi sands dry it’s
just that it doesn’t rain nearly every
day or every second day is January
February and in between the small rains
and the big rains and then when the big
rains come it’s March April May and then
lessons off again in June but unlike the
the dry season of South Africa and
the sabi sands where you’ve got two very
distinct seasons you’ve got a wet and a
dry season here you have a less wet
season and a very wet season it’s also
the altitude we add places in South
Africa and a high altitude we’ll also
get a lot more rain I can us in Canada
is it steamy in there in the
vehicle.well Tana so we’ve got quite a
lot of gaps that we’ve opened up so not
steamy but yes it can get very steamy
especially when we there’s three of us
sitting inside the vehicle for only a
really long time I think the other
nights
Craig and I sat for nearly three and a
half hours in the rain it just didn’t
stop and then it did get quite steamy we
had to sort of occasionally open until a
bit of air you couldn’t actually see
through the windscreen it missed it up
Kathy would like to know has the top
ever caved in from too much water no it
hasn’t Kathy the only reason it hasn’t
is because we’ve keep an eye on it as
soon as we see it starting to sag we’ll
push and push it over now we are
redesigning the roofs and actually
pucker has got a redesigned roof and
slowly all of our vehicles we’re gonna
we’re learning our chairs but by the
time big rains come we will be so sorted
in waterproof you know in our tent cars
that we won’t have to worry but it
Tristan is on a lion roll this evening
and he is now at his third different
lion sighting well not our third
different lion sighting rent we all it’s
part of the in Coomer pride it’s just
tenure slowly striding behind us so he’s
just moving and him fumo he has just
passed us as well so we’re gonna try and
keep up with the boys as they move and
follow the in Coomer prior they’ve
unfortunately the in Coomer pride has
gone quite a long way from where we are
already so it’s gonna be interesting to
see how quickly the boys catch up but
they are seriously moving quite fast now
everybody’s mobile and everybody’s up
and going I think the in Coomer pride
probably is going to cross into arethusa
before our drive finishes but at least
the boys are up and I wonder if this is
not going to drag them a little bit I’m
hoping a little bit more to the east I’m
really really hoping that they end up in
a situation where they do go towards the
East but at this stage it looks like
they’re hitting straight towards
triple-m and canoes across them it is
football just using the facilities as
they say so he’s having a little bit of
a chance to go to the toilet as majestic
as a male lion can look when going for a
squatting toilet break it’s it’s nice
with the lights you can see the sort of
like just shining on him as he’s moving
along and tinya will join him in the
next probably I would say two seconds in
continuous just behind him maybe not two
seconds let’s see four was done and then
ten yo coming now but look how big these
boys are looking they really are filling
out quite extensively now they’re
getting massive in size so it’s it’s
amazing to see just how much bigger
they’ve gotten in the last little bit
and it’s fun to keep my lights off
so look how they’ve got noses done they
sniffing they scenting they trying to
work out where these females where
they’re gone and look at how fast
they’re walking it’s much quicker pace
then you would generally see these two
don’t want to lose this pie they groomed
themselves for too long the pride ended
up getting away from them a little bit
and now they’ve got to try and keep get
back to where they are and so they’re
striding out as only male lions can do
they really are kind of moving at a rate
of knots at the moment much faster than
you would typically see males and you
can see why the birmingham’s can cover
so much ground if they are walking in
this fashion regularly then you know why
they cover the whole of Jummah in the
space of about two hours sometimes
because these guys are walking seriously
fast at the moment right so I’m going to
just turn off my lights because I don’t
want to blind the other vehicles and our
lights are very powerful so just gonna
turn those off while I’m sort of driving
towards other cars but I believe the
Mara unfortunately is about to be driven
by another big rainstorm so I think
they’re going to be out for the rest of
it so you with me for the last 20 odd
minutes as we follow this pride around
and try and see where they going to go
but we really are very close to Triple
Aim we’re going to cross in the next I
would say 10 minutes at least is balloon
or at the moist should I say it the
least in the next five minutes the way
these boys are walking it will be five
minutes and we’ll be over and across on
the other side I’m just going to try and
quickly get through here and trying to
keep up with them
so they just off on my left hand side if
they are moving very quickly though so
there they go
striding and you can see why it’s being
difficult to keep up noses down to the
ground trying to sniff for females it’s
amazing how these two spend so much time
with the ink uma pride as opposed to
Nina and in suku they tend to really
like the in Coomer pride so it’s been
interesting to watch these two in
comparison to the others and see how
these guys have gone about things but I
think mean kuma pride has already
crossed judging by the number of Lights
I see up ahead of me on the road and
that’s the road not far from where we
are there’s a number of different lights
that are here so I think these guys are
about to cross the main road at the
moment so we’re just going to have to
stand by and watch them go over and in
to outer thigh in the next I would say
not even two minutes at this rate so
unfortunately that’s going to be our
Lions off I was hoping we’d have them
for slightly longer than what we’ve got
now but it seems as though they are on
one mission and that’s to try and get it
towards refuser maybe they’re heading
towards red dam and that’s why they’re
heading in this direction I’m not quite
sure but you can see here is the main
road and they’re about to cross it in
the next second so things you just
quickly turn my lights off
Paula you say male lions always make you
think of the movie The Lion the Witch
and the Wardrobe they do don’t they they
are a bit like Aslan so they look very
similar in that regard and especially
big male lions and they’ve got this big
sort of Mane’s on them they are
beautiful so you can see tinya is now
leading the charge he’s now gone up
front and I’m full more behind him but
they’re going to cross this road in I
would say like I said two seconds maybe
they’re going to be over and through
into arethusa and that’s going to be the
last that we see of them unfortunately
for maybe a day or two we know that the
informal pride once they’re going here
often spend two or three days on this
side of the world and it’s a pity those
Buffalo didn’t make more noise that
brought them along this way so we’ve got
to turn our lights off as they cross
over because I don’t want to blind the
guys in front of me I’m just gonna pull
off to the side so he can still see them
as they go over
but there we go
Monique you say please roll for us boys
unfortunately they got left behind by
the pride so they’re not gonna rule now
and they’ve crossed over that’s the last
view we’re gonna get of them I’d better
put my light down
given that the guys want to come past
and so that’s it for us unfortunately in
Houma pride gone Birmingham’s gone and
well it’s going to be 20 minutes of
trying to find something else hopefully
we’ll get lucky with another interesting
sighting somewhere I’m sure we’ll find
some owls or maybe some night jars or
Janet’s or something like that these
guys are going to struggle to follow
them where they’ve gone now it’s not a
very pleasant place where they’ve
crossed lots of zebra wood in May which
is very bad for one’s tires so they’re
gonna have a really tough time of it
over the next little bit just very go
see you later
Aiden who’s 14 years old Aiden you’re
asking if I’ve ever seen a lion kicked
out of his pride or moved out of his
pride yes I have I’ve seen a number of
different young males being kicked out
I’ve seen the sticks young male the
Salalah young males southern pride males
Gilda’s Rock males Charleston males so a
number of different young individuals
that have been kicked out how you doing
you walk very well thank you sorry sorry
good unfortunately they’ve crossed over
they’ve gone yeah so they all gone over
and fortunately yeah
yes it’s just alphas that killed an
intruder basically yeah so it’s breeding
season now so they go after the horn
walls that’s breeding season so they go
after any intruders that come in so
dispersed from another flock and that’s
why they’ve killed it yeah it’s pretty
crazy
sorry guys I am live so I’ll check to
you soon they’re nice to see you there
and have a good evening and enjoy so
it’s just creepy chatting to some of the
guys that follow Safari live and they
were asking me about the crazy horn bull
sighting that we had of the horn bells
killing them so there we go there was a
viewer question live but live live so
here he goes
kind of just quickly had to satisfy them
and sometimes you know when people are
out here and they watch the show and
things like that’s it’s it’s always nice
to interact with them and we try and do
it off air but since it’s just me this
evening that’s why I had to just quickly
answer them quickly about the horn bulls
and why they were killing each other and
as I was explaining and so for those of
you who don’t know what I’m talking
about the ground hornbills that we have
on Juma they killed another ground
hornbill a few days ago and basically
what happens is at this time of the year
we have nesting season and breeding
season and so the Alpha pairs within a
ground hornbill flock gets very very
territorial and they get very kind of
nervous of other horn bells being in the
area and they get quite angry if other
horn bells are around and then you’ll
get a situation where if you any
intruder comes anywhere near they’re
going to try and go after it and try and
get it out of there and sometimes though
generally they just chase it away they
don’t really actually get hold of it but
for some reason they must have gotten
hold of this bird and they just picked
it to death which is not a very pleasant
way to go I would imagine it’s being
picked to death by ground hornbills
seems like a very unpleasant way to be
handled in life so there’s a few umpires
up here I’m just going to turn off my
lights so I don’t blind them
so Lu is saying yes now is much more
pleasant to have it sitting in our
freezer at the camp because I’ve
unfortunately the researchers wanted it
and they haven’t been able to come fetch
it so it’s not a situation where I’ve
told all the staff not to touch the horn
ball that is sitting in the freezer and
everyone’s a bit crow starts by this one
bullet is in plastic bags you can’t even
see it you can’t see anything of it but
they wanted to be able to do a bit of
DNA testing to be able to check out
what’s going on so I’m doing polymer
apologize crew that I have shoved a dead
horrible in our freezer I’m very sorry I
will it will be removed tomorrow morning
I promise they come in two future
tomorrow and everything can be right in
the world as it goes so we have to label
it so just in case anybody got the wrong
idea and thought it was something else
so it’s been labeled hemant Harry
unfortunately that’s what we decided to
call that hornball that died
given the circumstances I thought
Hammond Harry was quite an apt name
which was Lou’s name new action came up
with that names of all that knew who’s
got a very wicked sense of humor
sometimes so they lose laughing at me
same place saying that I’m naughty for
bringing it up well it’s true it’s
exactly how it is you can’t shy away
from your own traits you have to embrace
them and utilize them to the best of
your abilities
so Lou’s saying that’s why she’s behind
the camera not in front and luckily I’ve
just brought you in front of the camera
virtually through the digital world so
there is one of your secrets has been
aid to the masses right now I wonder if
there’s any push babies around
ah James you are thinking along the same
lines is that I am thinking of at the
moment you saying is it too much to ask
for a last-minute lipid James it’s never
too much to ask for a last-minute lipid
in fact last-minute lipid is always on
the cards and always something we’re
looking out for and wouldn’t it be nice
last-minute gyeonggido that’s what I’m
gonna put out into the air so art go
good juju all over the place come last
minutes from gilja
pop let’s see how you are and hope that
she’s doing well that’s what I’m gonna
throw out there but I would love a
last-minute lipid it would certainly
endure for other crazy drive I don’t
think I’ve seen to drop prides of lions
and the Birmingham boys ever since I’ve
been here in one afternoon
so it’s really quite nice Alexis you’ve
been wondering how strong gila is doing
and here and a lot of other people
including myself or wondering how chunky
Leo’s doing we haven’t seen her since
her altercation with Tandy we’ve seen
tracks and the other day we had tracks
that came into Inga’s very small epic
tracks into Inga’s downfall of minds
towards treehouse which is typical
strong gilliam the new movement and so I
think she’s around I just think she’s
really playing it very safe and very
cautious so she’s probably flying under
the radar you might find she’s even shy
of the vehicles at the moment she’s
trying to just keep a little attention
away from her as possible and so she
might just be hearing cars coming and
then slinking off into the distance and
trying to get away from us so she might
be around but we just not seeing her and
I’m sure she’s just keeping a low
profile which is the clever way to do
things with so many females being around
we know tendis been around we’ve seen
shadow recently we had Keshava now she’s
the best thing for her is just to be
silent don’t sort of st. mark don’t call
don’t attract attention to yourself and
try and just stay as hidden as possible
what so a lot of people are saying you
know if month is a long time since we’ve
seen her but you must remember that we
went I think it was almost six or eight
weeks that we were in 2006 from here at
one time she does kind of move around I
know none of the other lodges of she
know which is strange because generally
she used to go into little Gary and they
used to see her there we used to get the
odd updates about her on that side but
you never know maybe she’s gone up in
two before hook and went that way
remember the female tracks
we’ve been seeing have been around the
northern area so maybe she went up into
buffers hookin is just lying low there
so I’m not too worried about her I think
she’s still around and she’s okay
I think she’s just being very smart
about what’s going on in trying to stay
as hidden as possible over the next
little bit which is the way she’s gonna
survive if she’s if she is to survive
Archer and she is to forge away and to
become a territorial individual around
juma she’s going to have to be very
smart about it and she’s going to have
to keep a low low profile and try and
just stay under the radar until she gets
big enough at around four to two and a
half years to start forging her own way
and find a territory and we know that
Keshava gets chased by ten years and is
that’s mom chasing daughter so she’s got
a tough time of it to try and keep up
and try and keep timely and shadow at
bay and any other young females are
coming we’re at the end of the day we
know in Sheila’s been coming in every
now and then tiana made a run in here
once so there are young females that are
bigger than her that are also around so
it’s tough for her she’s gonna have a
really tough time we’ve said that from
the beginning that shangela is going to
have to be very clever and very sneaky
in order to stay here and to become a
part of Juma so her fight with Tammy was
unfortunate and it’s not ideal but she
as far as I know it didn’t sustain any
real massive injuries when I left her
she was still very much fine she was up
in the trees to climb up a tree would
have required some energy and so she’s
okay I was so funny enough meet its two
guides from London Ozzy today and I had
a chat to them about a female doll man
just to put people’s minds at ease about
how resilient animals are given the
current climate with you know the in
koomer female and shedder and tani and
they their injuries that they’ve all
carrying at the moment and there’s a
female down in London Ozzy at the moment
I think I can’t remember her name in
Cove a knee or something like that who’s
got a very bad lump and is her whole leg
is atrophied away there’s no muscle left
she’s walking on three legs so it’s a
back leg but the amazing thing about it
is they were telling me that in the last
three weeks this this leopard has killed
something like six different bushbuck
and has hoisted three of them into a
tree even on three legs
it’s amazing how resilient these animals
are how strong they’re and I’m sure
shanira is just fine I’m sure she’s just
taking it very easy and being very
clever and that’s the way it needs to be
and if we don’t see her for a while and
we and we battle to find her and she
survives well that I’m fine by that
completely I don’t mind if that’s going
to be the case obviously I would like to
see her and like to know that she’s
doing okay every now and then but if it
means that she’s gonna survive and
become a territorial female here in Juma
later on and this is what it takes for
her to get there and I’m okay with her
being a little bit on the shy side over
the next little bit
mrs. zero you’re saying if I could be an
animal for a day which one would I
choose interesting because that’s a
different one to being an animal for
life there’s a little scrub here talking
about animals so while we look at the
scrubby I’ll think about this because if
you were going to be an animal for life
then I think I would be an elephant
given that they live a nice long life
they roam around very little to worry
about other than people and it would be
you know you can go swimming you can go
and break big trees down and you have a
really quite an easy life look at how
skinny this scrubber is in this wind
it’s trying to keep its ears down shame
it must be a little bit nervous in this
wind and battling a bit to hear what’s
going on so elephant would be if I had
to be for life for a day I think I would
be something really random just because
I would love to know where they go so I
think I’d be something like an odd fork
or a Pangolin or a striped polecat or a
caracal caracals what I’d be there we go
I’ve decided because I have not seen a
caracal in sabi sands and I want to know
where they go and what they get up to
and how to find him so if I could be an
animal for a day I would be a caracal so
that I could know where they’re hanging
out and what they’re doing and how to
find one here in the sabi sands as I’ll
scrub here disappears so that would be
my random animal for a day
Ziya who say how often do we see
caracals on the night drive so another
answer to that is in my case never so I
have yet to see a caracal in the sabi
sands way and it’s a sore point I don’t
really want to go into it too much
because everybody else working to us at
some point scenic area code in the sabi
sands except for me I count myself very
lucky that I have seen pretty much every
other species of land-based mammal
because obviously they are bat species
that are difficult to ID and I don’t
think I’ve seen all of them that occur
here but in terms of land-based mammals
I have seen everything even a stripe
polecats etc so that is something that
pretty much 90% of the guides here and
the sabi sands have not seen and so I
can’t myself very lucky to have seen
those odd fox pangolins various other
animals that are considered rare I’ve
even seen a sable in the sabi sands so
the only thing that I have not seen is a
caracal and it drives me crazy because I
tried to look for them everywhere as far
as I know here on safari live we’ve only
ever seen a caracal once and that was by
Taylor on cheetah plains in March I
think maybe March or April twice and
there was another sighting in 2008
apparently there’s a night job talking
about some Nocturnals a little nightjar
macaque camouflage that nachos I’m gonna
shine my light because otherwise you’d
battle to see it but is it a night job
just go above my life to little bits
it’s there it is there it goes it was a
night job but it was incredibly well
camouflaged and I was trying to show you
the camouflage but I don’t want to
spotlight it too much but it is now
flown away and unfortunately we can no
longer see it so that’s not ideal the
problem with this wind as well as I
haven’t heard any owls tonight I was
kind of hoping we’d find some owls at
some points and be able to see them but
it’s some reason none to be heard I
think the wind is messing with our
hearing at the stage
Graham you’re saying have I gotten or
gotten into my new book yet I for those
of you don’t know what Graham is talking
about Aly got me a new book and it is
basically in the tracks of the int of
invertebrates of South Africa that has
just been released and Graham Norah I’m
waiting for Ellie to bring it back from
town she’s back on Wednesday I think so
I’m going to get stuck into that book
very quickly and you say it’s your new
favorite book in in terms of field
guides so I gather that you’ve got it
and that you’ve gotten into it and that
it is good so I’m super looking forward
to it and I can’t wait to utilize it and
see it out in the field and and to use
it on bush walks I’ll certainly will
bring it out and show everybody what
we’re talking about but it’s going to be
very cool it basically focuses on tracks
of spiders and grasshoppers and
scorpions and snails and anything like
that and signs of them so not just the
tracks that they leave behind but also
the signs of those animals so the let’s
say the the cocoons that they suppose
spend the nests any sort of eggs that
they lay things like that that we can
use to identify them so I’m super
looking forward to that book I’m really
really really really interested to go
through it I know Steph is dying to get
his hands on one so is Taylor
I’m sure Brent wants to get one and it’s
only just been released a few days ago
it wasn’t hasn’t been asked for long so
I’m really looking forward to get into
that and then there’s another book that
I’m trying to get hold of although it is
a very costly book and that is the ants
of South Africa so thanks to James
Richard who sent me a link on to the
hands of South Africa they are
unfortunately quite expensive and so I’m
just trying to shop around a little bit
and see if I can find one but it looks
also very very cool ants of southern
Africa because I would love to know more
about them there’s such interesting
little creatures they are a phenomenally
well-organized and I would love to learn
more about them so hopefully that book
will I’ll be able to secure that and
then there’s a whole host of other books
that I want to try and gates in fact I
actually have an order that I want to
place with PAGASA
which is the field guides Association of
South Africa which is for a whole bunch
of books that I’m looking for and
hopefully I will get them soon
and then I will be able to share all of
it with you guys as to what I actually
see sorry impalas I’ll turn my lights
off I’m so busy yakking and signing
spotlights that I ran out of hands to be
able to turn the lights off on the
impalas come on windy there we go
so Wendy is led light sometimes decides
not to work and if I turn when these
lights on then my monitor over here goes
off and then you have to kind of fiddle
a little bit and eventually it gets
right so I don’t know what’s going on
with the electrics it’s something to do
with the fuse causes that problem so I
have to kind of replace the fuse every
now I mean which is a bit harder but
anyway that’s okay so there’s a number
of books that are coming my way and I’m
going to probably be a bookworm for the
next few weeks I’ve got to go now on my
next leave in October I unfortunately
have to go and get a very problematic
wisdom tooth taken out sir but a nasty
sort of surgery that I’ve gotta have so
I’m gonna be bedridden I think or at
least in mobile so I think that’s when
I’m going to be into the books and
having a look and checking things out
and studying up for summer bushwalk
season and that’s going to be a
fantastic time I’m really looking
forward to it and I’m sure there’s going
to be lots of interesting things to go
through but look at the dust as I’m
driving from the wind if I shine my
light you can actually see the dust
clouds following me
you know it’s windy when you drive and
you driving in your own dust card it’s
not ideal for the sinuses but it’s quite
amazing how the dust is actually been
blown straight in front of me as I’m
driving it’s not something that you see
every day it’s certainly not something
that I was hoping to have and I’m going
to try and change direction so that the
dust blows away from me and not into the
car because otherwise everything needs
covered in dust and like I say up in the
sinuses and in the eyes and then you
have watering eyes and everyone thinks
that I’m crying and when I’m not so it’s
better to avoid such situations
lots of impalas around on quarantine
open I wonder if we gonna get a little
white-tailed Mongoose somewhere around
here there was a white-tailed Mongoose
that hung around for a few days so I’m
hoping that the white-tailed Mongoose is
around now you if you can hear me if you
can speak so I can there we go that’s
better now
pick you up again so poor lay your
daughter I don’t know who what her name
is but she wants us to find a snail
because she thinks snails are cute well
Paula I promise promise promise promise
that I will find you a snail but Paula I
have to wait for the rains we’re gonna
have we don’t have snails now until the
rains come so we won’t see the snails at
all big giant African land snails they
unfortunately only come in the rainy
time so I’m waiting for that to happen
and as soon as the rains come I promise
Paula that I will show your daughter a
snail just remind me when the rains are
around and I will most definitely do it
for you now sitting in the darkness over
there is one of our stripey friends that
I haven’t seen for a few days there is a
zebra that is currently just sitting and
staring and hoping to stay safe on
quarantine interesting though it’s all
by itself it’s the only zebra that we
have on quarantine at the moment that I
can see so it must be a male that’s just
distributed up now I’m trying not to
shine too much lights on it and because
we were with the Lions for a while and
we’ve been live or haven’t have been
able to put on my infrared lights so I
don’t want to shine on it for too long
but I thought she would be all
interested to see a little save breath
so he’s nice to see the Zebras of jummah
and to see them up on quarantine
James you say that we should start
keeping track of our cat streak on Juma
because well it’s been a while since
we’ve had a day without a cat we most
certainly James we’ve been really really
really really fortunate the time that
I’ve been back I have yet to do you I’ve
done one drive without a cat but I’ve
had cats every single day that I’ve been
back which has been pretty crazy so
apparently five days solid that can’t be
right it’s got to be more than five days
solid since I’ve had cats it’s we need
only think we need to recheck that
because I’m sure since I’ve been back
it’s been more than five days and we’ve
had cats pretty much every single day
since I’ve been back so it’s been really
great and the nice thing is that we’ve
had a variety so the days when we
haven’t had leopard we’ve had lions and
the days that we’ve heard the Lions you
know we haven’t had the lipids but it’s
a bin oK we’ve been kind of looking out
for all of them we’ve even had a bit of
excitement with cheetah track so it’s
been really good now unfortunately it’s
that time of the night we’ve got to say
goodbye so for myself and sins oh and a
very wit bring Kier Smith in the Mara
it’s been an absolute pleasure and we’ll
see you all on the Sunrise Safari
tomorrow
[Music]
you
this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and caucuses viewer discretion is
advised
dry-season day this is safari life
standing by
[Music]
good afternoon and welcome to our sunset
safari on this chilly overcast windy day
that is a Valle de beast and it is
snorting at us for some unknown reason
because well there’s no predator between
us in it my name is Justin and on camera
today I have got a Senzo and we are
coming to you live from the Kruger
National Park well sabi sands Game
Reserve actually to be exact and that
means that we’re interactive so hashtag
Safari live on Twitter Oh on the YouTube
chat if you want to ask any questions
now I don’t know why I will the Beast is
alarm calling at us I think he’s for
some reason a little bit perturbed by
the wind today maybe there is a scent of
something that’s blowing around we’ll
say it could be just a little nervous of
us given that these conditions mean he
can’t hear very well and he’s seen a car
and maybe he’s had a bad experience
before where the car has been around and
a predator was close by or he might have
even seen a predator at some point today
you can hear he’s very difficult over
the wind to actually hear him snorting
but he’s got this nasal snort that he
lets out from time to time he’s going to
keep quiet because I said so
but it is really tougher than the winter
yeah and that’s why this afternoons
gonna be a tough game viewing experience
because when pilasters move around often
we rely on alarm calls too for us to
locate on their predator and I can
hardly hear that wildebeest from this
distance so we’re gonna have to be right
on top of any prey animal if it spots a
predator for us to even hear what’s
going on and hopefully the wind will
settle and that will help us a little
bit later
now the Mara team should be joining us
maybe at some stage they have Bolivar
being pelted and battered by some
serious amounts of rain so brent is busy
tucked away in it in his little
makeshift tent and I think tail is still
hunkering down at base camp so we’ll get
to them probably a little bit later so
for now it’s just with me and hopefully
it’s going to be a busier day than what
we had this morning although we did have
a wonderful morning we had the inclu
MERP ride at the Birmingham mails and
I’m sure they’re going to be around so
our plan for the afternoon is probably
to go and check around to see if little
tumba maybes back from his traumatic
experience this morning and those of you
don’t know what happened to Tambor he
killed him first big male Impala and it
was stolen by the hyenas and they chased
him so maybe he’s come back to turndowns
for a little bit of a drink so we’re
gonna go check around there and then
later we’re gonna head towards the Lions
because I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be
quite active tonight and there is
apparently a rather large herd of
buffalo on its way southwards from
Bullards Hook it’s apparently close to
300 Buffalo which can you believe it
that is an amazing number because we
haven’t seen I think more than 10
Buffalo this whole year so it’s gonna be
incredible if we get that herd coming
down and I’m pretty sure if that herd
starts to hit in this direction those
lines will pick up the scent and pick up
the noise and they are going to be up
and moving pretty quickly we know how
the in Puma pride loves a good Buffalo
meal and so let’s hope that by the end
of the drive those Buffalo are starting
to coming to Juma and their lions have
picked up their scent and we might be a
in for an incredible finish to our
afternoon and our week because we’ve had
the most amazing week right but let’s
carry on our Valda bestir is very upset
with us and we want him to relax we
don’t want to irritate him any more than
we are
have not that we’ve done anything wrong
we’ve just been sitting here and our
wildebeest just thinks that we are the
worst thing in the world by shouting at
us since I have you been chasing the
wildebeest around that it’s scared of
you
no okay excellent good maybe it’s just
jealous of all the Volta beasts in Kenya
at this stage now I’ve got to quickly
just go down and do our little time
lapse Oh Sims er is going to hop off the
vehicle failure shortly as I move along
towards the edge of quarantine this is a
Sebastian’s project but cinder is very
kindly helping say about and doing it
while he’s away and on a day like today
is the perfect kind of day that’s it
once because he wants changes in weather
and clouds and all of that so it makes
for a perfect day to do a bit of a
time-lapse are we going to just leave
our little time lapse then you know
couple shots and then we’ll carry on
probably towards treehouse from
treehouse to in dams from twin dams well
then I’m not quite sure we will check
before we hit onto the lines like I say
a little bit late in the afternoon I was
hoping though that this wind was going
to stop the wind has been absolutely
howling all day and I was thinking that
maybe by this afternoon blow itself out
because these weather conditions are not
the worst if it’s not windy the problem
is when it is windy it doesn’t really
help us very much at all the animals
don’t really like it’s and things like
elephants and Buffalo even and even the
cats will go into somewhat of hiding
they go into drainage lines and thickets
so we’re not going to get that amazing
experience that we had yesterday where
the aliens were running to water
unfortunately that will be curtailed by
the windy cold weather we’re having
today now I believe a lot of you are
very excited about the prospect of a
buffalo herd coming on to Juma I know
isn’t it exciting not that we have even
enough water to sustain a herd of 300
Buffalo we’re going to get into a
situation where our dams would be drank
absolutely dry if they arrived because
they are animals that do drink about a
lot and they will muddy it up and cause
quite a lot of disturbance which is not
ideal particularly if they go to Gauri
down because curry dam at the moment
needs as little pressure as possible
although what we saw yesterday was quite
interesting with the elephants because
we saw a herd that kind of left and
another herd arrived and that
actually didn’t really drink from Gary
dam so the water wasn’t lost to to
drinking they more just splashed and
played and the water itself actually
really stayed in the dam so it was quite
a interesting thing to watch I would
have thought that that herd was going to
go drink but they didn’t they actually
win right past his Cameron and further
on so maybe they went to drink around
Gallagher pan and the round potential or
northwards to towards tambuti dam on the
northern side of the Buffalo boundary we
find that they often go drink up that
way it’s kind of a route that they walk
up the milliwatts II drainage and then
all the way into purfles Hook towards
those big big big dams that there
there’s a couple really large dams that
are called Manzi and there’s sensor
sensor wave see said well since it’s got
one glove are you Michael Jackson today
sensor I know he’s got his path to clean
the lenses so since I was looking very
spiffy while since I finishes up his
time-lapse let’s go across to the brink
Leo Smith who’s hiding away from the
rain in his little in the pouring rain
and I’ve got some very important tools
that every time we spring a new leak
gaffer tape cables are I’m starting to
get a new leak at the moment you’ll
notice I’ve added cable ties all around
and we’ve just started to get a new one
and excuse me pop try
sure yeah
not long enough we need the double cable
time so it’s been raining solidly for
about 45 minutes we are we getting leaks
again light so Fergus is telling them
and put the lights on here we have
lights now and it’s raining so hard that
I was actually worried the canvas roof
was gonna burst while mattresses where
it started sagging we weren’t
concentrating why we’re trying to fix
other leaks and all of a sudden looked
up and was like a pregnant elephant
barely above us full of water
lots of different tricks to stay dry out
yet
here we go a few little gaps that we
tried control we’re gonna have some
fresh air and yeah otherwise it’ll get
quite bad as well but that’s basically
we’re not moving unfortunately I think
for the rest of the drive even if we
wanted to drive anywhere we can’t
actually always try to find that
beautiful cheater early to get out to
find the cheater
Taylor was smart she was leaving at
normal time so she’s still safe and dry
in camp
and we she’s raining so hard we can’t
even actually move the vehicle at the
moment
and I think just getting up the hill to
and gamma is going to be an challenge in
itself but we will keep you updated as
we search I think we’re probably not
going to move for the next while lots of
lightning around but while we wait out
our storm let’s go back to Tristan who’s
expecting rain but is still dry that’s
you
so I believe we live unfortunately my
comms again are letting me down our
little earpiece and so your piece thing
is a bit of an issue because there’s
apparently a shipment that is supposed
to be coming to South Africa that’s been
waylaid and I would imagine it’s maybe
something to do with the Hurricanes that
have been all over the US side I think
they come from that side another person
sure but anyway there’s a shortage in
South Africa nobody’s got them and so we
waiting patiently for new earpieces so
I’m so with problem earpiece and problem
earpiece sometimes means that I don’t
hear anybody and well at least we can
hear you now so that’s good news not
gone very far just be an image to cut
around quarantine there we go you I can
hear you now thank you so I just have to
fiddle a little bit and then sometimes
it comes back it’s very–it’s immittance
lucky I’ve got sensor at the back here
lets me know what’s happening a little
bit so I do apologise if we go alive and
I’m just sitting there staring blankly
into space which is what sometimes
happens although this time I was
actually looking for animals as we were
going around the corner
but we’re just meandering our way down
Philemon stop we’re going to slowly hit
towards free house like I say to do the
other time-lapse that Sebastian is busy
with it’s a little psycho over there
right just get back where is our darker
it’s gone I think our dacha has run away
which is well fairly typical of Attica
they don’t really sit around too much
Philipp no no at the camera traps this
is just something new that we started
with Sebastian he’s just trying to do a
little sort of story on the changes of
the season here at you man how
drastically it changes from summer to
winter and how we go from dry desolate
Bush like we’re seeing now that’s very
thin and it is yellow and Browns and no
leaves to full dams and green and grass
and lushness and so that’s the kind of
thing so what he’s going to try and do
is do a year’s worth of pictures every
single day at the same sort of time and
then what he’s gonna do is pull this all
together and it’ll be a short little
clip as the days go on and hopefully
it’ll be really cool just to see how
everything goes from brown to green back
to brown again it’s gonna be really cool
so I’m quite looking forward to it and
I’m hoping that it will be nice and it
will go really well and the plan is if
they successful and they work the way
that they want to is that we’ll start to
do a couple more around and we’ll try
and look around well we also want to do
at some point is try and see if we can
do a bit of camera traps work on if we
find that say like the other day when we
had that white-tailed Mongoose caucus
and tracks for the honey badgers just
set up a little camera there and leave
it and see what we get on it
the next day so we will do stuff like
that but at the moment currently no are
the camera traps on the property other
than what we’ve got currently
and I suppose these aren’t really camera
traps either there goes a little stand
book over the road there it goes Tony
tutos who well according to your name
has feet on the brain and you want to
know how sins of socks are looking today
and I actually just asked sins oh that
very question we are the fancy sucks
today you said to me no today is no
fancy socks because the weather is not
conducive for fancy socks today is the
dull brown socks because it’s a gray
dull day so we’re not gonna put those
socks on camera because well Bell brown
socks don’t work for anyone so he
promises me the next time it’s sunshine
we’re gonna see some more brightly
colored socks from sins er and I think
this could be the new thumb is sin so
sucks so instead of thumb we’re going to
have socks from now on and hopefully
we’ll get some really interesting ones I
feel like since I’ve got some hidden
gems in his bag somewhere he said he’s
gonna dig around in his bag for some
special ones so I’m sure we go to see
some very interesting one I reckon we
should get sins Oh some sucks all the
time and we’ll just give him all random
colors and all random shapes and sizes
and see how many difference we can get
him to put on camera of course it will
be quite an interesting thing like I
said instead of seeing a thumb at the
beginning of Drive we will see well
socks at the beginning of drive a guy
that’s how you’re gonna have to sort
your drives from now on no longer
fingers you’re going to do your socks
and toes
we’re lefty it sends all kinds of fancy
ones I’m sure there are lots of
interesting types of socks out there
when I go and leave next since I’m gonna
go look for some socks for you so who
says now we know what to get for
birthday and Christmas indeed now
hopefully this little bird is going to
stay still stay still little bit no
you’re not supposed to fly away because
there is a beautiful bird that is right
here if you got its sensor back or
forward back okay so since I says he’s
got it say when there we go okay well
done seams are very good so there is our
little bita and they are beautiful birds
and on a dull day like today it’s nice
to get a bit of colour splash of color
in the bush and these little guys
provide a lot of color you can see
bright yellow throats that orangey
breast and a
back with the little blue eye stripe
that goes over the top of it and so
these are Toby eaters as they are called
will jump around and fly around with a
lot of agility and hunt varying insects
that we get in this area so real gets
things like little flies or bees as the
name suggests that they’ll go often and
once they grab it they often go to a
branch like that and if it’s something
like a bee and it’s got a stinger
they’ll wipe it on that rough bark pull
the Stinger out and then swallow it like
that so they’re really cool birds to
watch in really difficult birds for our
cameraman because they are super fast
and agile as they fly and turn in twists
from these small little perches now the
cool thing about these guys is these
guys are here all year round so we see
the little beauties in the winter months
a lot of our beats is are migratory and
we know that migratory birds are coming
back so I would expect any day now to
hear the European beaters starting to
come back and they’re a beautiful bird
so they should be here soon
and then after that the carmine beaters
will be the next ones and the Carmine’s
are probably my favorite beater they’ve
got this rosy sort of maroon color to
them and they really are vibrant and
beautiful so hopefully we will see them
towards sort of December as the next one
now I know yesterday we were talking
about or this morning I think it was
about the next migratory birds to arrive
and I was saying cuckoos will be the
next ones and all of those and I forgot
completely about some of the other
migratory birds that we should be seeing
so we should see the woodlands
kingfish’s which are normally around the
end of October beginning of November I
know because it’s close to my birthday
in November that we normally see them
for the first time so I always use my
birthday as my guess as to when we’re
gonna see them it of course is not
always the case but we do sometimes get
it right so I think one year I did find
them on my birthday same as the impala
lambs they also get born around that
time and then after them we’ve actually
got red back strikes that should we
arrive I forgot completely about them
and the list of gray tracks as well as
some of the others so that’s still what
we can look forward to coming our way
but I’m really hoping that the cuckoo
start coming soon because they are
vibrant and they had a lot
of color to the bush particularly the
classes and the Diedrich and if we
really were quite lucky and we got onto
the mawashi and I don’t think it’s been
recorded in the section but you might
one day have one is the African emerald
cuckoo in the African emerald cuckoo is
a beautiful bird I’ve seen one down it
lion sands on the sabi River you hear
them a lot but you don’t see them very
much and so I will show you exactly what
that looks like because it is incredibly
pretty little computer species to have
and I’m not sure we’ve ever had it on
safari live but I’ll have to ask Brent
because if he’ll remember if we have now
where all the cuckoos we quickly find
them for you cuckoos of course when you
loo if you can ask him about the African
America coup if he’s ever seen one here
at Yuma don’t think any other guys have
seen one but this is what I’m talking
about if we look down here at the bottom
is the African emerald cuckoo and look
at the how beautiful that male bird is
it’s got this iridescent emerald green
back with this bright yellow chest and
those white wings it is a magnificent
bird and it has I promise you it
sparkles emerald so it is a wonderful
bird to see in that we don’t see it very
often and it’s got this very conspicuous
call that you hear every now and then so
it’s a nice bird to listen to and it’s
basically sings a song that says Georgie
so that’s how its song goes and then
these are the other two cuckoos that I
was talking about that we do see quite
regularly and that I’m hoping both will
come so the Diedrich on top which has
got lots of coppers and and greens in it
and in the classes cuckoo below so those
two funny enough their names are
actually linked which is quite cool so
they I will get into that one day when
we actually see them and they are around
I’ll tell you why they called Diedrich
and classes and they are actually linked
to one another as well as the song
they’re pacing
now for some reason I feel like some
little fly flew up my nose which is not
oh my goodness this means that there is
going to be a hailstorm there’s going to
be snow and Armageddon is coming because
Brent Claire Smith has not ever even
seen an african-american only heard its
call and I don’t believe it there is a
bird in the sabi sands that I have seen
that Brent Claire Smith has not seen in
fact actually that makes two birds brain
clear Smith because well the golden
puppet of January 2017 is also one
that’s on the list that Brent has not
seen here in the sabi sands he has seen
it elsewhere and in Kenya and Tanzania
you do see them but not here in the sabi
sands so that is a miracle for me to
have seen a bird that brains hasn’t seen
well though he’s got a couple that I
haven’t seen so I suppose we are
probably even Stevens he said the
corncrake as well as the purple band at
Sanford so we are fairly close in terms
of birds that we’ve seen in the sabi
sands but actually wanted to would love
to know what other birds he’s seen that
I haven’t seen here and there’s likewise
with me and him if you know with brains
and I it’s always a competition we’ve
always got to see you seen the most
birds here in sabi sands and we’re
having a good each other about it
it’s all friendly banter though so don’t
worry we’re saying just now that a fly
flew up my nose and it’s now causing a
mess massive amounts of issues because
my nose is itching even though the fly
is gone now it’s still itching like
crazy so I do apologize if you see me
rubbing my nose it’s only because
everything’s gone a little haywire and
there I don’t know really what else to
do about it and this is a horrible
feeling to ever it almost feels like the
fly is still in there fluttering about
since I was busy giggling at me because
he thinks it’s highly hilarious but I
can tell you it’s not a comfortable
feeling adding a fly up the nose
hopefully that never happens again
who you would think it’s very funny
luckily it didn’t go up my nose and then
into my mouth that would have been quite
horrible
CJ you wondering why the female cuckoo
is so dull in color and why well it’s
pretty common in a lot of birds a lot of
birds are the males are a lot more
brightly colored than the females and
that’s generally birds that have quite a
lot of competition for mating and so the
males have to be brightly colored to
attract the females attention and to
show themselves off in order to get the
females sort of look and gaze and to be
able to then mate with them so it’s
normally when you’ve got birds that’s
migratory birds or one that because
Birds all together here and they
don’t mate with the same individual
every time they will then try and go
after one another and try and sort of
compete for mating rights and so the
more brightly colored you are and the
better you look well the more likely
you’re going to get a female so that’s
why the males are more brightly colored
the females on the other side they’re
not going to really chase after the
males they know that the males drive to
mate far outweighs theirs and they will
come to them so that’s why the females
often a little bit more drab what so
females there’s a theory that because
they often are breeding chicks that they
camouflage needs to be slightly better
in order to not to attract attention to
the nest and so that’s why they do
funnily enough though you would think
with these brightly colored birds like
the classes cuckoo Diedrich cuckoo even
the African emerald that there would be
easy birds to spot Archer with emerald
green feathers but remember when those
birds arrive here it does not look like
it does now it will be lush it will be
green and those birds blend in very very
well that’s only when they fly do you
actually see them outside of that they
are very well camouflaged and it’s
difficult actually to pick them up it is
the tracks for our mating pair of lipids
from yesterday that went south
unfortunately towards little Gauri
Aaron you wondering if there’s any bird
in particular that I’m looking forward
to seeing well I think the woodlands
Kingfisher is always a bird that all the
guides look forward to seeing we
completely sort of get irritable about
their call by the end of summer but
before summer arrives that’s one of the
birds that we all look forward to it’s
bright it’s beautiful it’s got this call
that just reminds you that summer is on
its way and a change of this dry winter
season so for me it’s that’s one of the
birds I always look forward to seeing
like I said the carmine bee-eaters they
are a beautiful bird cuckoo species
booted Eagles Wahlberg’s Eagles so
there’s a number of them in fact all the
migratory birds because they generally
had a bit of sort of dynamic to us they
add a bit of extra variety lots of
colors and so it’s a it’s a great sort
of splash of color into the bush and a
way of just sprucing everything up and
getting everything going now there’s a
beautiful bird that has just come out
talking about a bit of vibrance just on
this tree here is a wood picker now it
looks like a golden tailed woodpecker
there it is you see it’s just arts and
about so one of the smaller wood pick is
that we get you know it’s gone behind a
big tree hopefully it will come out
let’s just be patient maybe we’ll get
lucky and we’ll see it’s coming out I
can hear it pecking away behind the tree
is there another one here because it
sounds like another one picking as well
but it doesn’t look like it’s going to
come out since I’m going to try go
forward a little bit and see if we
change the angle maybe we will be lucky
well there it is it’s just hopped up
there it’s going up the branch so there
it hops looks like a little golden
tailed hood picker and off it goes again
that’s nice to see the golden tails have
a beautiful gold tail and that’s where
they get their name from me little red
cap that they have and they’re one of
our smaller woodpeckers that we get just
so we have the very large bearded wood
picker which is the biggest of the
grouping and then we get the Bennets
golden tailed and right at the back is
the little Cardinals which are really
quite small Cardinal woodpecker and
they’re beautiful bird as well
no now while I Drive around and
contemplate the cold of the sabi sands
the wind that is howling in the gray
overcast clouds I can still count myself
very lucky that I am NOT sitting in a
very wet soggy tent like Brent Leo Smith
we’re still here we’re still in the rain
and the first storm that hit seems to
have passed and we’re in a bit of a lull
but unfortunately it looks like there’s
another storm coming from on top of the
mountain so we’re not moving anywhere
soon and I noticed Tristan was there
talking about any old cuckoo and a
golden Pipit and hearing themselves as a
really wonderful birds for the sabi
sands but Justin they can’t compare with
the purple bandit son but oh yes
the corncrake you can forget the corn
crack now speaking of birds my head
every now and then unless I see I can
see some really big flying ants coming
out so the birds are gonna be very happy
about that
and I’m hoping that if we do have a
little bit of a lull and it stops
raining we might get some birds really
taking advantage of these flying ants if
it stops raining unfortunately if it
continues to rain we are pretty stuck
Fergus is too is trying to get me wet
the Ebola live from behind here we go
getting the water off the roof I can see
a little bit of lights down towards the
east but unfortunately there is still a
wall of water heading towards us and now
when it rains like this we have to stay
on the main sort of big access roads if
we ventured off road or onto any of the
small little tracks that we normally use
we would probably be stuck and not very
popular because generally what happens
in these type of soils you get stuck
someone comes to rescue you they get
stuck someone comes to rescue them and
you they get stuck and then someone’s
got to call a tractor were bulldozer and
they’re not very happy when you got to
call a tractor or a bulldozer to pull
you out so we will be if we do manage to
get moving and I’m hoping we will we
will be sticking to the sort of very big
main access roads and that’s the update
from us and we’ve managed to
keep most of the leaks to a minimum it’s
a little bit of a drip there but that’s
not too bad
holding arms well and I know it’s my
fault I didn’t even bring any hot water
for tea today
silly silly Brent I should have brought
some water fatigue I can hear some birds
there’s one very unhappy looking a
starling flying away
what goodness I don’t know if you can
get it figure the road is actually
flooded over you can’t me try just to
try hopefully twas the wind’s coming
from the other side just for Fergie can
you see the road there there we go
that’s the other storm I was worried
about it’s coming from the other
direction so there’s that enemy we just
try and move the car a little bit so the
main roads to all or gate I’ve never
seen water flow over that little bugger
before but at the moment it is flowing
right over the road you get a dick so
they want to leave it to open as my arm
in the way okay wait okay let me have a
look oh wait Fergus
you see the road
do the writer that’s I think I switch
off site then you leave that then it’s
right which cops have Jay said little it
to the right I think and oh sorry
I’m trying to see which trees you on
where are we looking okay I’m done see
you see where I’m looking at the flight
there
oh goodness sorry mamas let me try this
way
you see the water Jeremy so we’re gonna
be sitting yeah better just hook my
thing back in and keep us dry and so
we’re gonna sit out hopefully we will be
able to move as I said we’re gonna be
very limited in the areas we can move
and we’re just really hoping that really
big storm from behind us doesn’t hit s
as well as the initial storm but while
we do that spring is in full flow here
in the Mara but it sounds like some of
the little early signs are starting to
show at you
they are indeed and this is the first
one that I’ve seen on this particular
gardenia that’s a tree house damn I’ve
been looking and hoping that this
gardenia will flower and that’s the
first little bud of a flower that’s
starting so soon we’re going to have a
bush that will be covered in these
beautiful creamy white flowers and as
they start to age so they’ll start to
turn a more yellow color but that’s the
beginning stages of it you can just see
the top of it where it’s going to start
splitting out and forming the petals and
a little bit later so they have a
beautiful flower and becomes very
aromatic this plant it’s wonderful to
actually see so I’m super glad to see
that Philip you’re asking which flowers
am I looking forward to turning to this
area Hulot’s there’s so many flowers
that cause a bit of color there’s
actually an older yellow flower that’s
already opened and is now drying up and
shriveling so that’s the yellow color it
will turn after being creamy white and
you can see that one’s a little bit
drier has been blasted by this heat that
we’ve had over the last few days but for
a burn I think probably my favorite
flowers that we see in the summertime
roadside pimpernel is one of them I like
the blue come Elena’s yellow come
Elena’s yellow just ishes what else do
we I see that the African violets they
were always very pretty as well so those
are come some of the more common ones
that we’ll see quite a lot of I really
like those but my favorite sort of
flowering tree of the spring summer
generally is the sausage trees I always
loved when ours its lion sands and watch
the sausage trees flowering man just a
number of different species that we used
to get feeding off those flowers because
they form a really big tubular flower
and lots of nectar which means you get a
lot of different types of animals and
birds and insects that congregate around
there lots of nicks in them and used to
find bushbuck and y’all and could you
Impala you’d find but Boone’s
all kinds of things feeding off the
flowers as they fell and then in the
trees was you know monkeys there was
brown headed parrots you would find all
kinds of green pigeons or all kinds of
things that would go there and feed off
that nectar and then after then at
nights you would also find the bats
would go and feed off them so you’d sit
there at night and you would get these
bats coming into these beautiful big
maroon flowers and if you sat for long
enough and you use the light the right
way you could get some of the most
incredible sort of views of bats feeding
or flowers and funny enough the sausage
tree is biggest now what’s the word I’ve
forgotten what the word is
biggest pollinator is actually bats you
find bats are one of the biggest
pollinators obviously insects and and
birds do you play a part but bats are
one of the big ones for sausage trees so
it was really amazing to watch that and
like I say it’s a beautiful tree you get
these long sort of stems that come down
and then eventually the sausage of fruit
grows off that so wonderful to see in a
really nice addition to to a colorful
environment or actually I suppose a drab
environment because they flower early
early in the summer or spring time
unfortunately here on Juma we don’t have
a sausage tree that flowers we do have
one sausage tree that I’ve seen but it
doesn’t seem to flower maybe a little
bit on the young side hopefully one day
we will start to see it flowering and we
will see those big sausages forming we
get them at Chitra if we go to Chitra we
will find on the deck of Chitra Lodge
there’s a big sausage tree there that’s
produced a lot of flowers and a lot of
the sausage fruits so next time I’m at
chatter damn we’ll try and zoom across
the damn wall and see what’s going on
now that reminds me that I’ve been
saying all week I’ll go to Chitra and
check on the Jimmy G nest and I did
actually have a look the other day when
we had the mating lipids at Chitra I
went past the chimney gene laced quite
late but there was no sign of the jamuna
gene at that stage and unfortunately I
think wasn’t there and I suppose I came
round with a whole bunch of lights so
maybe it flew off before I got there and
before I saw it
straw head you want to know how animals
know how to avoid poisonous plants
flowers and mushrooms
well I suppose now it’s all pretty much
instinct as well as learned behavior
from the adults so after a while the
adults won’t feed of something and then
the young ones only get taught to eat
what they see their moms eats
effectively so that’s one part of it but
most of the poisonous or toxic should we
say plants generally have some sort of
coloration to them that the animals will
avoid so they know bright colors tend to
mean things that they mustn’t eat and
most of those animals that are plants
eaters or eats any sort of mushrooms or
anything like that or all have good
color visions so they’ll be able to see
those apis somatic colorations which are
generally reds and blacks reds and
whites on mushrooms for example those
kind of things they’ll know straight
away that’s not something that they can
eat so it’s a combination of colors just
read on its own is fine there you’ll
find they’ll feed off that but like I
say combinations of reds and blacks reds
and why it’s greens and blacks blues and
blacks those kind of things all mean
toxic although some animals have
developed systems that can handle
certain toxins or mating duikers his
mating his love is in the air they’ve
now running away but there was a dike on
top of another duiker right there
they’ve just trotted behind the bush
they just behind the queries you can see
them moving they look you see their
mating look like I said love is in the
air we had mating leopard yesterday
mating died cuz you far less aggressive
the Dyke is then what the leopards are
and this is the only reason we probably
singing look he’s going to try and jump
on her again so male at the back there
we go
oh no she’s not having any of it at this
stage she’s decided she’s shy she
doesn’t want to be seen on camera this
is not the way she wants to grow up and
and spend her life as a woman she does
one not want to be shamed by the world
so she’s going into the thicket for some
privacy exactly as lucy is imagine if
her mom saw this well do I think her mom
would be a little on the embarrassed
side but she is going for privacy at
least he doesn’t mind too much he’s just
trying his best and this is what will
happen with antelope species
they try and mate is often the male will
try and jump onto the back of the female
she’ll keep moving forward and when
she’s not ready and eventually she gets
tired of it and she succumbs and
eventually the mating takes place but
see look how he’s sniffing towards her
genital area so he’ll be picking up the
scent of a urine and they she he will be
later he’s actually even tasting the
urine so that he can work out how she’s
doing and if she’s in heat and whether
or not she’s receptive to mating but
he’s certainly trying his luck I know
it’s not the best for you but you can
see every now and then him jumping on
her back trying to be able to copulate
with her
keep trying buddy she’ll eventually wear
down and it will happen for you bet he
wishes she was more like the lipids in
that the net birds forced the females
force it on the males I think that’s
what he would prefer because he’s
getting really no way at the moment also
he’s a very young male you can see
there’s horns a tiny he’s almost smaller
than her as well that’s maybe why maybe
that’s why she’s also moving away is
because she’s thinking well you sorry
buddy you really aren’t what I want I
want the beefcake stud of the bush not a
young upstart to be mating but they’re
coming out into the open so there we go
he’s drying no there we go again Paula
you want to know about Steinbach
gestation well first Paula these are not
stand book these are die casts so it’s a
little bit different to the Steinbach
but in terms of weights so don’t worry
you did sayst and I can not stand book
so I will just want to double check it’s
but I have an idea it’s somewhere around
five months but I want to just make a
dub double show quickly it’s been awhile
since I’ve spoken about the mating
duikers so let’s just check quickly
seven months re is their gestation
period so they’ve got a slightly longer
gestation period of seven months quite
close to actually the impalas which is
quite strange given how small they are
in relation well it’s cool that’s not
something you see every day and we know
that our dijkers are normally very very
shy
not today that’s for sure
I wonder why they went off to do they
run off sins oh I didn’t see I was busy
looking in my book oh there they go they
still busy chasing off to one another
now that’s what a lipid wants to come
across a lipid wants to come across
duiker like that because they’re so
preoccupied with mating and him messing
around pushing the female and causing
noise that they won’t be able to see a
lipid coming and then it’s perfect
conditions for a lipid to be hunting and
be able to then try and get to them and
it’s not uncommon at like I said seem
tandy taking out space of duiker often
in the mating season and you come to a
tree and both of them are in the tree
and she’s sitting panting there so if
she’s around we know she does hang
around in this particular section then
they’re in for trouble now this is the
area where tumba made his kill in fact
the drag mark for it is just up ahead
here and he dragged it towards that big
tree so his intention was really really
good he was trying to go towards that
big bur beam that we see over this and
so it’ll be better when I go around the
corner so don’t stress about it just yet
but he was his intention was to try get
it towards a big tree and I’m sure he
was just not strong enough to get it up
and into the tree itself and then the
hyenas arrived and now is the end of
that so he did try his best but
basically it was somewhere here the
thing of vehicles have probably driven
over it by now but he was dragging it
towards the tree and trying to get it up
towards that big bur beam if he had been
able to get it there he might have been
able to eat a little bit and then take
it up into the tree itself and that
would have been a perfect place for a
lipid to have a carcass so poor boy and
what she didn’t get that far but at
least he medical
Philip view asking will Hassan and
tumblr be renamed when they get chased
out of this territory well Philip
unfortunately they might depending on
where they go so and the thing is is
that they shouldn’t theoretically but
sometimes they go on to certain reserves
where they feel the need that they must
rename animals because they don’t like
the names that’s they’ve got already
when they come to that area and so we
might see a situation where some of them
get renamed and and you might find a
different name for them I’m hoping it
won’t be the case I’m really hoping that
they both stick with the original names
and we have a situation where we get to
still follow them as they go along
like I said wherever they end up I would
love to maybe go there one day and see
them as big adult males it’ll be
wonderful to watch their progress and to
actually see them as big units but they
might just their names might get change
but the thing is now is also with the
way that we follow animals and the way
that’s it’s kind of these social media
we can still use have a name for our
purposes so they will always be husana
and tumblr to us at safari live no
matter where they go that’s what they
are going to be called so hopefully
wherever it is they end up that the guys
do decide to keep their names because it
would be a travesty if they change them
I like both of them and I like both of
the names that they’ve got at the moment
they seem to both kind of roll off the
tongue and suit them so it’ll be really
a bit of a travesty if they change huh
look at that scene so you see the
snakeskin there’s a snakeskin over there
which I would imagine is a snake that
its skin over this warm period the
snakes wool gets a lot more active when
there’s heat so there’s the skin and it
probably didn’t shed where that
particular branch is it probably has
been blown by the wind today and then
just caught up in that Buffalo thorn
difficult to say what kind of snake it
is I mean we could go do a scale count
on it which would then indicate exactly
which snake species it is but quite a
big oval-shaped scale so it could be a
Boomslang or a vine snake I can’t see
the head area too well that’s all
shriveled up so
it would be easy if we got the head
section and look if it’s got a big big
round eye then generally would be
Boomslang which is Afrikaans for a tree
snake so we call it a bull and it is
toxic but you will find a lot of this at
the moment as the snakes are getting
going for the summer they will have
grown a little bit through the winter so
they then have starved a little bit and
they can then separate from this older
skin and then they start to pop out of
it so they get the new skin that’s
flexible and soft and then they’ll go on
a massive massive feeding mission and
that’s when it starts to get warm so
they know that the warmth can help them
be active and they can then go and try
and find the food that they need so it’s
really cool to see this is the second
snake skin I’ve found in less than a
week so it means that the snakes are
starting to move and I hope that we’ll
start to see a few more of them on the
drives they are an interesting part of
our ecosystem and something that we
really need yeah because otherwise the
rodent population would get out of hand
and funny enough if rodent populations
get out of hand so it can cause a
catastrophic effect in this area the
rodents urine sometimes will have
certain rodents carries a disease that
can really affect elephants funny enough
so you would think that elephants would
be able to combat any rodents but their
urine on grasses and things the
elephants come in feed off it and they
seem to be very prone to this type of
disease and attacks the central nervous
system and they die from it so you’ve
got to be a bit careful as rodents and
that’s why snakes are vitally important
that they here as well as ours and we
know we haven’t had a shortage of ours
well they’ll seem to have disappeared
over the last little bit maybe it’s
because they all nesting now and when we
were seeing them was because they were
vocalizing and they were trying to find
partners and trying to build up nests
and that’s maybe why we saw so many for
that sort of two three week period when
Byron and Taylor were here it really was
quite crazy we’re all seeing owls all
over the place which was really cool
right turn dams come on Humber be lying
here somewhere maybe after the struggle
of his kill he wants to come and have a
bit of water and he’s decided to come
and lie at the dam
it’s a long shot because he did go south
but you never know
so I didn’t catch the name new if you
can just repeat the name for me please
Francis from Israel you want to know if
it’s mating season or do the animals
mate all year round depends on the
animal Francis some animals will mate
any time of the year
others will mate at certain spot time so
we know it in parlors they tend to be
April May maybe a little bit too second
rat into June but generally around April
May which is when a lot of the other
species were also made so kudu are a
little bit earlier than that they
generally in March that they mating but
you’ll find things like Buffalo
elephants the cats they all mate at any
time of the year they don’t really
matter when they mate they just will
mate and produce and it’s normally
linked to the way that they sort of life
works so if they are a an animal that is
a predator there’s always going to be
prey items and they’ll always be able to
find food within that system and so it’s
okay for them to be able to have Cubs at
any time if they are a herbivore
generally they try and coincide with the
summer months so that they can produce
little ones that can feed off the
nutrient nutrient-rich grasses that are
around in summer so you’ll find that is
the case with the herbivores things like
elephants which is a mega herbivore and
can find food any time of the year
that’s why they’ll produce at any stage
also a very long gestation period so
it’s a time that right would be your
nyam possible to get it right so that’s
why you find differences in them mm-hmm
no sign of our little leopards anywhere
here
so David you weren’t mating a honey
badgers mixed because we’ve had mating
leopard and mating tiger if we see
mating honey badgers I don’t know I I
think I would probably do a flick flick
off the vehicle if we saw mating honey
badgers because that’s not something
you’re gonna see every day and I’ve yet
to see mating honey badgers to be
perfectly honest I’ve seen honey badgers
with babies I’ve seen a male and female
honey badgers but never them actually in
the act of mating so if we see that
today well like I say then I’ll do a
flick flick off the front of this
vehicle and hopefully not kill myself
but whether or not we’ll see that is
anyone’s case of course so I’ll try and
see maybe a little bit later if if we
can find some honey badgers – it’d be
nice but no liquids around yeah that’s I
can see at this stage there’s just a
vehicle that hasn’t noticed me at all
look there they go driving past haven’t
seen me in the slightest just goes to
show how people can miss even a big
hulking great vehicle with a white
antenna so you can imagine how easy it
is for people to drive past things like
lipids hmm wonder now I should go maybe
Milwaukee Milwaukee’s been good to us so
wanna check up here quickly because I
know Tambor often spends a lot of time
in this general vicinity
Elizabeth you want to know what’s going
on with Janet Jackson don’t worry we
will go past again this morning
Janet Jackson was in very vocal spurts
and I don’t know if there was a second
Janet in there or if they were attacking
the lilac breasted Road Ernest I am not
sure if these young ones in there I
really am unsure of what was going on
with Janet Jackson but we all got
popping again just to have a look I’m
just gonna quickly say hello to surprise
he was from chipler so just quickly say
hello to him hello it’s up here are you
very well thank you good way of tea ok
cool is a Meccano slambien before
succumbing south if they say they say
like to 300 yeah it’s coming so
hopefully
buns is in Yama is my ninja movies no
Lutie now the increments are close to
the Triple Aim as well I’ll let you know
if they cross yeah just north of the
transformer side yeah fine walking fine
yeah yeah
also to my daughters
so people are asking if they can be on
camera which obviously we know doesn’t
work quite like that so they want to say
a load and since shout out to people
that just have to explain nasty that
that doesn’t work so what we’re going to
do is because I was gonna look for
tumblr well I’m not going to do that
anymore because surprise told me that
the sticks are busy eating something
right yeah so let’s go and have a look
at the sixth part it’s been awhile since
we’ve seen them so we’ll go pop into
them we’ll be having a line filled
afternoon we’ll do a little bit of the
sticks and we’ll go to our in comas and
birmingham’s right towards the end of
Drive but we might as well go and see
the sticks pride while they are around
and like I say if they eating then
that’s a perfect opportunity to go and
see them but I do need to radio and tell
the guys I am coming otherwise they’re
going to be a bit confused as if I just
arrived Peter Peter Peter coming
I wonder if they are going to even hear
me with given my earpiece probably not
we’ll have to get a little closer I can
actually see the tracks for the sticks
going all along the driveway yes oh sure
they will be eventually on wood
chipper either be there peanut
no-nothing sound like anybody can hear
me so I’m gonna try to get up over the
region in down towards the dam hopefully
by then they will copy me and hopefully
nobody is on their way there that we
push them out of the siding which would
be quite nice now Prince Lea Smith is
forever kids at heart he pretends like
he’s an adult but he’s not really he’s
like I say a child still at heart and it
sounds like he apparently has found
himself some flotation devices for his
arms so that he doesn’t get in weights
and he doesn’t get carried away by the
torrents that are flowing around in the
Mara at the moment well we haven’t moved
a muscle we’re still in the exact same
spot and it is still raining it’s
definitely lit up a bit but we sort of
seem to be on the edge of two storms now
apparently Tristan’s being very romantic
or saying all the animals a tumour very
romantic I think it’s probably because
Ali is back at the campaign he’s feeling
all soft warm and fuzzy on to Big Boy
but anyway we’ve got a question from
Cheston he was how many different uses
are there for duct tape and in in the
bush well camerman well I could probably
say just off the top of my hand they
make screen door like shades for their
their their eyepieces with duct tape and
we use it to pretty much for everything
another good thing you can use it to
keep cameraman quiet they talk too much
you can just when you use a big piece
and you put it around their head so it
pulls their hair and then they’re
generally bears and what else can you
use duct tape for you can’t really fix a
puncture with it well then I mean we use
it for everything really
keeping cables on the roofs fixing your
shoes
it’s a very good one I’ve actually seen
someone make a pair of flip-flops out of
duct tape and expensive pair of
flip-flops dry gold Archer I mean the
two things that we sort of really really
can’t really live without
just in case of needing to fix something
in a bind as are these two things the
one day actually vmon our our roof broke
and we held it together till we could
get to a welder with cable ties and duct
tape so it does have many uses it is
probably probably one these are the two
most useful things coupled with a
Leatherman and then you’re sorted you
can pretty much fix anything out yet now
to keep a lookout it definitely has
slowed and say I can only see out the
one sided pontoon owner things out the
way they’re coming and still
unfortunately it’s we’re unable to drive
Leah who’s eight years old is wondering
why we can’t drive on the rain in the
rain
yeah unfortunately there’s there’s a
couple of reasons if we drive we tend to
get water in the air and we’ve got lots
of very expensive electronic equipment
and the cameras and thingamabobs that
make signal good jig image a gold weight
you to you and then the other reason is
that you’re not gonna see many animals
because we drive in the rain even if I
do drive in the rain it may be soft
enough for me to start driving there
anything unity is see me fighting my
steering wheel as we slip and slide
across the road and because we’re not
gonna be able to look out of any of the
animals because it’s raining too much
otice I’d like to know where do animals
go in the rain do they go into dens or
if they aren’t in the open well things
like zebra and stuff they’re just
standing out there somewhere there’s
some someone behind us there there’s
some elephants in the distance as well
but no they just stay then some animals
will try go down to it then and actually
really heavy rain in some cases brings
animals out of dens and their holes will
fled that’s why it’s a very good time to
see blind snakes is just after end
because they’ve been pushed out of their
holes by the water and they’re on top of
the ground where you don’t normally find
them sometimes water holes get flooded
and they’ll have to leave their dens
same goes for Mongoose and and and
aren’t but it is quite uncommon so
you’ll find a lot of artifact dens for
example go very very deep and then come
up so there’s a little raised area that
the water can’t get into okay well we’re
gonna maybe try and move a little bit
and see if we can possibly get close to
those elephants we might be able to open
up the one side and keep the rain coming
from one side so while we do that let’s
go back to Tristan who’s on the hunt for
lions
I’ve already found the lines because the
lines are directly in front of me
seems as though they’re on a kill of
some sort I don’t quite know what it is
just yet so
we see the sticks pride is not often
that we get to see them so I’m looking
forward to catching up with them them
for a little bit and spending some time
in some little Cubs that are feeding
hello guys it’s good to see the sticks
pride it’s been a while since I’ve seen
him
a few vultures are around as well and
how cool is that it looks like they’ve
got a water back that’s what they’ve
managed to bring down on was
massive open area right in front of the
lodge so those gifts must have had a
wonderful day of watching lions feeding
all day long and look at the fat little
bellies of those Cubs they are full full
full so nice to see them and their
manger is not looking too bad as well
they’re looking a little bit better than
the last time I actually saw them which
is good news there’s one or two that are
a little bit mangy but not as bad as I
thought there’d be they seem to be
coming rights a little bit and hopefully
they’ll be able to just last long enough
for the rain once the rain comes along
and we’re going to have a situation
where these guys will be absolutely fine
remember that the might in mange is
proliferate stirring the dry period as
soon as we start to go into a wet period
then they start to calm right down and
the the might start to disappear in the
little ones then we’ll stop itching
they’ll stop stretching and they fear
will grow back and I see just like the
Akuma Cubs has and they’ll be okay look
at the one on top of the tree they’re
just poking its head over the top
there’s a fallen over tree and this is
one little head that’s on it’s come down
again unfortunately oh there it is you
see this little head just poking over
what are you doing oh no now you down
again I was having a little game on top
there so none of those tiny tiny Cubs
are here they’ve only just been born so
they won’t be introduced to meet yet for
those of you that don’t know the third
female gave birth he was about what is
it now
four or five weeks ago very similar age
maybe a little bit older than the in
Karuma Cubs that we’ve got so it’s
somewhere around there so the third
female I don’t see her at the moment I
Shh no I don’t see at the moment I think
she maybe is with those small little
cubs after feeding they often will go to
the little Cubs
to go and get food but the other Cubs
are to have bellies the size of beach
balls they can hardly move at the moment
they kind of waddling around which is
great to see so very cool to see the
pride at least feeding well and and this
will all help with combating those mites
Aiden who’s six years old hello Aiden I
hope you’re having a nice day you want
to know whether the Lions will swim in
the dam here
no Aiden they’re not going to swim the
Lions I’m a bit scared of water they
don’t like water on their coats also
today is very cold so they don’t want to
go into the water because then they’re
going to be wet and cold and miserable
and these crocodiles and crocodiles are
very dangerous for especially little
lion cubs I’ve actually seen a lion cub
being killed by a crocodile and so you
have to be very careful with crocodiles
and so the Lions will avoid the water
they’ll go and drink there but they’re
not going to go and swim in the woods at
night or even if it was hot and it was
really warm and the Lions were having a
tough time dealing with all the heat
they still won’t go swim in the water
because of the crocodiles they’re going
to be very scared of the crocodiles and
rightly so crocodiles are animals that
you have to be very nervous of we’ve
actually got some water back that are
still right here close to us that are
watching a Lions feed I wonder if it
maybe wasn’t a youngish one from one of
these adults and that’s well maybe it
was the mother for one of them and
that’s why they sitting just watching
the pride feed on them which is not very
nice but it is the way it goes it’s how
life works Archer and you’ll find that
sometimes if it’s a mother or a young
one for that mother they will spend
hours just watching the Lions feed off
them as
kind of workout what’s going on and try
and come to terms with the loss there
comes a hooded vulture it’s going to
land directly on the branch
that’s very nice isn’t that wonderful to
have a hooded vulture sort of an eye
level close to us it’s a very cool sight
now the hooded vultures are the ones
that will feed right at the end they are
going to be the ones that will get food
only at the end of this caucus they’re
going to basically be the last last
birds to give nutrition out of this in
fact you’ll find the white backs first
and in the hyenas and then only will the
hooded vulture get food later and
there’s the light back vultures are on
top and there’s a number of them still
arriving it’s the cards are seeming to
parts a bit of sunshine is coming out
and that means we’re gonna get a
situation where it will be perfect
conditions for vultures to fly we will
be but windy but it’s going to be nice
thermals that will start coming out and
they’ll find this fairly quickly and
then come and try and finish that
carcass once the Lions move forth
then you’re asking why is it that the
sticks pride always gets mange it’s not
that they always get means they just
haven’t recovered from the mange from
last year remember it’s not exactly been
a very wet yeah and so the mange itself
is still present in the adult females
and so they’ve had their young ones and
then unfortunately what’s happened is
that they’ve continued to carry that
Mane genese it’s gotten dry again so
it’s proliferated and expanded and it’s
gotten onto them also remember that the
females even though they’re able to deal
with the mites the cubs when they’re
younger the immune systems are not as
good they also lie together a lot
whereas the females will kind of
separate themselves a little bit more
grooming themselves a bit better whereas
the Cubs are rubbing up in and
constantly in contact ins that might
crosses between them a lot that’s
coupled with the fact that you’ve got a
situation look at those faces how cute
is that and that’s what coupled with the
fact that these Cubs aren’t like I say
have a weak immune system in the hell
else means that they gets the mite a
little bit worse remember that Cubs from
master died and these are new Cubs so
that might was introduced to them when
they were still young and that’s why
they’ve been battling with it if we get
a few years of wit or weather and these
Cubs survive and they build up an
immunity to it in the next dry season
they should be a lot better off than one
they are currently you can see that all
the Cubs in the background they actually
look a lot better in the newer Cubs so
the one that’s what lling off there they
look a lot healthier see control do you
asking if lions always carry the mange
my – yes they do
in fact some most animals carry the
mange might even people have mange on
them it’s tiny tiny little mites love it
it’s completely natural it occurs but
like I say when it goes through a period
of very dry conditions that’s when that
mange populates and you’ll have a
situation where it’ll get really out of
control and particularly in young
animals the adults tend to be able to
deal with it a lot better with the
younger ones tend to get a little bit
out of control now I do apologize if you
guys are picking up a lot of wind it’s
just here on Chitra open it is
completely clear of any vegetation and
that means it really blows through here
and we get a situation where it’s gonna
gust and so I do apologize if the wind
sound is quite loud it’s unfortunately
very little that I can do with the wind
it would be nice if it did stop at least
it’s blowing these cards away and we
look at least have a nice clear sky
above us so hopefully tomorrow will
bring about a little bit warmer weather
and far less wind than we’ve experienced
today how beautiful is the lights on the
sticks fried onions early afternoon but
it’s beautiful
okay you wondering if the notches on the
ears are caused by the mange not
necessarily it might be they’ve
scratched and they’ve caused scabbing
and and and they’ve caused a bit of
injury to their ears that is now healing
and you getting those little notches
that are formed it also can be ticks so
ticks also feed off the ears of cats and
they cause these little V’s as well as
fighting around caucuses you saw just
now that the two little Cubs she were
giving each other a bit of a hard time
and belting one another and that will
cause a little bit of scarring and
scrapes on the ears every now and then
but most of that’s to do with the mange
its itches and they scratch the ear and
they cut it and they cause a little bit
of a disturbance around the ears and
around the face and in fact when you see
mange it often is really bad around the
muzzle area the ear area and then
underneath the baby if you look at Tino
he’s still got a little bit of that
mange on his tummy as well so it’s
normally in the warmer places they’re
more difficult to reach places where
they battle to groom that it
proliferates and causes a little bit of
damage so but these lions are going to
be very very content by the end of this
afternoon they and probably loving the
fact that they have a nice meal that
will help also with the colder weather
if they’ve got a meal the body will be
using energy to try and stay warm and so
this meal does help keep that going they
will sort of water close by it’s nice
and open so now with a bit of Sun in the
afternoon I’m sure little Cubs are
loving it you can see the fact that
they’re lying
most of them aren’t in the open it shows
you that they’re not worried about the
heat of the Sun at all in fact they’re
probably enjoying that a little bit of
heat but their carcass is all but done
Jared’s buddy you save never seen the
sticks pride before how old are these
Cubs well with sticks pride so we don’t
see them that often they spend a lot of
time to the south of us but in terms of
the ages of the Cubs you’ve got two
older Cubs which are the ones on the far
left and the back there behind the
female so those two that are lying down
at the back and and they must be now
about 910 months and things that way
around there and maybe a little bit
older and just trying to remember
exactly when the first time I saw them
was it’s been a while since I’ve seen
the stick pride too but somewhere around
there is how and when they were born and
in these newer Cubs for about six months
old so they’re a little bit smaller and
not as large as what we see with the
others now look at this vultures going
to come in no it landed short I thought
I was going to come and learn just on
the termite mound but the lines I think
I’ve wanted to and then it realized hang
on a second that’s not a good idea to
land right on top of the Lions and just
pulled out and then stopped right where
it was but it’s really cool to watch the
vultures in this wind because the wind
holds them up this one’s coming down now
as well sins though it might be quite
nice and fortunate it’s gone behind the
tree but let’s see the wind is just
holding it so it’s full foaming is
really cool because they come over
fairly slowly and then they just turn no
it’s caught the wind and has now gone
off but as they come in it’s quite nice
because they just sort of float and
glide in which is very cool
sirens buddy the vultures know they
won’t start getting close to this
carcass yet because these Cubs are
rounds eating if you see behind that
Cubs backside there’s one vulture it’s a
little bit further away you’ll find that
the hooded vultures generally are a bit
more brazen and will come a little bit
closer
a few vultures talking behind us in fact
actually it’s tawny Eagles building a
nest by the looks of things behind us
that are making some noise but if you
look behind that cub look the Cubs
trying to drag the carcass that’s so
cool what are you doing but there’s a
female there there’s a big adult female
so if any vulture came anywhere near
that females going to chase those
vultures away so the vultures have got
no chance whatsoever even with the Cubs
they won’t risk it these lionesses would
chase those vultures long before they
got in un yet and the Cubs themselves I
suppose if they were by themselves and
know had all females which would be
pretty much impossible with lions then
maybe they would bully the Cubs off but
you know there’s always going to be some
adults around that would take them from
these vultures so they were nothing to
worry about so the voltages will only
get this once the lionesses take the
Cubs away and they move off completely
which will be shortly you’ll find a
situation where they’re going to come
off at some point do they have a kill up
there so it seems like the tawny Eagles
behind us are making a bit of noise you
can see one right at the top and soon as
I says he thinks that one of them’s got
something in its talons
so I wonder if they haven’t got some
sort of food up there maybe they got a
piece of this carcass or they got
something that they’re feeding on no
difficult to say lots of talking going
on between those two
unfortunately there’s the lighters in
the way our presenter lied so since I
was battling Hollins in so let me just
turn you slimy and then just try and see
because I want to see where exactly what
these guys are eating whether they got a
piece of the carcass or whether it’s
just some other food item that they’ve
got so where do you see it there sins oh
is it in that with the bird itself or
above it
but itself no that one’s got nothing in
its talons that I can see has it got
something in its talons
Jeff you’re asking what type of
carnivorous birds visits or in the sabi
sands Jeff there are lots of carnivorous
Birds remember that the insect eaters
are also considered parts of that but in
terms of art and art meat eaters
vultures tawny Eagles battaglia Eagles
and now the vulture species there’s five
that we see here regularly so or for
regularly one not so much what other
birds of prey are eating strictly meats
a number of the sparrowhawks pretty much
all the Eagles
we’ve got Falcons we’ve got normal Hawks
Goss Hawks so lots of different straight
art and art meat eaters that we get in
this particular area and we very
fortunate that we see a lot of different
birds of prey and it’s a wonderful place
for birding the sabi sands it’s amazing
watching these birds actually coming in
here comes another tawny eagle straight
over us and the carts gonna land ratchet
there we go
the cart just hovered in amazing you see
how much control these birds have got
and how they use those wings and they
just sort of need to sit down and then
drop onto the branch it’s an incredible
way that they do things so that’s the
tawny Eagle which are generally around
carcasses it’s very common to see them
in this area they do like to scavenge as
well
so go you asking do I think that the
wall – I hope that the Egyptian vulture
will fly down to the sabi sands every
single moment of the day I know it was
seen a couple days ago but far north of
us and I keep wishing that I see it
drifting into this caucus and I see it
here but alas no luck so far hopefully
though I’ll get spoiled in 1 days yet
for those of you that don’t know what
we’re talking about the Egyptian vulture
is a very very rare vulture species in
fact it shouldn’t really occur here but
there is one young individual a juvenile
that for some reason has found itself in
the Kruger National Park and we are
getting regular sightings in the Kruger
Park area north of us and I’m really
hoping that at some point it comes down
to the sabi sands and imagine if we see
it on one of these carcasses because I
think it would be a first record for the
sabi sands and as far as I know no
Egyptian vultures have ever been seen in
the sabi sands before so it would be a
wonderful thing to see the Egyptian
vultures in this area so I’m hoping one
day and for those of you are wondering
what the Egyptian vulture looks like
this is the bird that we’re talking
about over here so that adult is a
beautiful white coloration it’s not the
prettiest head that it’s got it’s got a
bright yellow face and a beady red eye
but it’s got this white coloration those
are easy to spot but the bird we’re
talking about is this one over here so
it’s a sub-adult it’s got this juvenile
should I say it’s got this dark
pigmentation the gray blue facial patch
and sling the weak but the big
identifying features is very
diamond-shaped tail no other vulture has
a diamond-shaped tail as prominent as
what you see there the only bird we
could confuse it with and why it went
unnoticed for so long is the juvenile
hooded vulture so if we have a look at
the bottom here this is the juvenile
hooded vulture
and you can see look how similar those
two birds look and it’s very very very
difficult to tell them apart in flight
is the best way and you see they’ve got
a much more rounded tail in that diamond
tail that we saw which tell that we saw
one your Egyptian vulture but maybe one
day I’ll be lucky enough to find it I
certainly hope so to really make my day
if
I didn’t see one of those because that
would be another one we could add to the
list of brains not seeing in the zombies
and abusing back into position for our
lines because where we are now the trees
in the way let’s go around the side
truth be told you’re asking lifespan of
a vulture and how long do they live for
well here in the wild generally we find
our vultures living between sort of 15
and 20 years for the most part
unfortunately a lot of our vultures are
going and a bit of threat at the moment
they dying due to poisoning of carcasses
also a lot of them are flying into
electrical lines and so the numbers are
not quite as much as what we would hope
for but about 15 to 20 years mostly what
we see from him here in the service and
obviously that’s quite generic across
the five species that we do see in fact
six species if we include the Egyptian
vulture in this area in captivity I
believe there’s been some that have
recorded to go over 20 but here that
would be very uncommon in the wild it’s
generally the case with any wild animals
that you have a situation where wild
animals and will be far less able to
survive longer because of how hard the
rigors of being in the wild are now it’s
interesting what I was watching now the
little cub was dragging the carcass and
mom stepped in and just kind of chased
it away from where it was and is now
busy feeding herself so she’s kind of
pulled the carcass off from where the
cub was and the poor little cub is now
sitting watching mom feed which is not
ideal for that little one the
interesting thing though is if you look
at the Cubs they are so full and so
round but if you look at the adult
females not nearly as much as what the
Cubs are so their bellies aren’t as
round so they’ve obviously let the Cubs
feed more than anything else and they’ll
then clean up what’s left they would
have got to least a little bit of a meal
but the Cubs are more important they
need the nutrition and so you’ll find
that they’ll let those Cubs feed quite a
bit as well and that water back is
smaller now that we can see the ribcage
it’s a baby water buck so I’m sure that
other water water back that we saw
watching is potentially its mother
that’s just watching what’s going on
unfortunately
Jared’s buddy is saying that I mentioned
that these Cubs are on the small side
well I didn’t mean that they were on the
small side in terms of in relation to
other Cubs they’re pretty normal for
their ages I was just mentioning small
Cubs is in relation to the other Cubs
within the pride so there’s two older
Cubs that are bigger and then there’s
the four younger smaller Cubs
that’s all those ones well that’s
actually the adult female but behind
them is the two older ones and then
there’s the four smaller ones that are
around as well why are you growling at
us one of the females has just growled
at us I don’t know maybe there’s another
cub aging in behind it it’s it’s very
strange for a lioness to grow so in
relation to the new home Cubs though
they are probably very similar at the
same sort of age there’s not too much
difference between them they definitely
are not in any way too small or not not
developed enough they’re pretty healthy
and pretty regular or average for their
age so then they’re not massive and
they’re not small they’re okay and the
mange won’t influence their size
remember mange is just influencing their
coat and also influencing their ability
to hold on to water so they dehydrate
very quickly when they’ve got to mange
and so you’ll find that these guys
that’s possibly the reason why they die
is they actually get into a situation
where they dehydrate quite a bit so it’s
not going to affect their size there as
long as they’re getting food and they’re
getting nutrients they’re going to be
absolutely fine and they will grow just
like any other lion cubs would
idem dirts they most definitely will eat
the hide in the skin if you look at that
caucus and you look around there’s no
skin or hide anywhere to be seen so a
water back has a very hairy very sort of
thick fur and you can see the fur is all
around so they they will lick the fur
off and pull the fur off with their
teeth but they will not worry about
eating the skin they will eat the skin
or the hide of this animal it’s got
nutrition there’s a bit of a fat layer
on it and there’s there’s lots to be
gained from eating that so they
definitely will eat that hide they just
try and avoid eating the first and
they’ll lick the fur off or try and bite
the fur off using those front teeth and
but the hide itself they will definitely
consume you’ll be surprised how much of
this they’re going to eat so you’ll find
that the females will even crunch
through those rib bones a little bit and
maybe even some of the leg bones and
then the hyenas if they find this will
pretty much clean up most of that the
vultures will be left with very little
unless they can get in before the hyenas
arrive which I’m sure all these vultures
will be hoping is the case really good
to see the sticks pride I didn’t realize
that they had a caucus this morning
otherwise we would have come this way
and it was nice to at least see the
income a pride but really good to see
the sticks and to see them at least
feeding and the Cubs I promise you are
looking a lot better than what they were
the last time I saw them so it’s amazing
what a little meal does it makes him
definitely look a lot fuller and
healthier and I’m sure at some points
how is that one lying that one almost
looks as though it’s got its legs
sprayed out on either side and it’s just
kind of flat tummy one is Bailey what
are you doing little one
but that is as round as in his tall at
this stage there we go that looks more
comfy mr. Karle lions surviving without
food is obviously dependent on what they
ate loss and how much of it they got so
it’s it’s about two weeks that they
until they are absolutely amazed and are
really battling to find food and that
the problem with the lion is as it gets
more and more starving and it gets
weaker and weaker and harder and harder
for it to hunt so about two weeks
without food and you’ll find that that
cat is emaciated and really starting to
become very weak and the chances of it
surviving is quite slim but for the most
part like I said it also depends on
conditions and and if it’s hot too if
it’s cold or how far is having to move
given other lions in that area because
that also consumed its energy but two
weeks is a rough sort of estimate as to
when they desperate desperate desperate
we will need food I have seen a lion
that went 2 and a half weeks without
food it was literally wasted away but
then it got a meal and actually bounced
back from there so you they can go I
would say maybe three weeks at the most
but two weeks is about sort of average
for lions an Emir like this for this
female you can see she’s not exactly
full she’s doesn’t have a big round
tummy at all not like the Cubs so she
would be after two weeks of not eating
would be absolutely famished
she would be really kind of wasting away
so they at the end of the day will
consume their own body when they’re
basically starving so their muscles
start to break down and the body like I
say basically eats itself to try and
survive and so muscle atrophy is huge in
the condition in weakens and it becomes
harder and harder for them to come back
from that
now we’re going to sit with our sticks
pride probably a little bit longer they
are quite a few people that want to come
here at the end of the day chip – it has
quite a number of different lodges that
traverse this area and so while our
female plays with the shoulder blade or
the
hip joints I can’t decide which let’s go
to Brent who’s got his own lines on his
own kill well imagine this while the
rain was pouring down there in gamma
pride took advantage of course the
animals would not have been able to see
them approaching and they I can’t see
what they’ve killed but they’ve killed
something so we’ve just opened up the
one side of our our vehicle to show you
the N gamma pride and looking very happy
the Cubs were quite full this morning
but the lionesses were hungry now I’m
pretty sure they they’re used as that
big storm came in they moved out into
the short grass and took advantage of an
animal that couldn’t see them coming
through that wall of water now I don’t
know how long we’re gonna be able to
stay here there is more rain on the way
so we will stay for as long as possible
but isn’t this exciting where there’s a
world is aware we would ended about 400
metres from where we’ve been sitting
waiting for the rain to go and then
gamez have made a kill
and it’s quite fresh I would say we
probably missed it it was while we were
sitting tight waiting for the rain to
abate that they caught this I think they
would have caught this probably in the
East sort of eye of the storm the
Frances from Israel says Wow another
kill Wow indeed
and these girls have got 12 hungry Cubs
to keep well fed and they’re doing a
spectacular job of that and he said I
says these cats are better groomed I
assume you’re comparing them to the poor
Styx pride and their bedroom because
they’ve got a bit biased in the only a
bit of any easier diet and a lot of the
animals here will be in better condition
than Juma at the moment because it is
sort of the small rep beginning of the
small rains there’s lots of lovely green
grass so the animals that the Lions are
eating how on prime condition where
there is in at Juma you coming right out
of the end of dry season so the animals
will be suffering a little bit from
condition or there’s a little bit of a
family disagreement but who gets the
trace tasty last piece of liver
Rebecca’s wondering how long will it
take them to eat the whole animal
Rebecca I can’t see what animal this is
but it’s probably nearly done already
and there’s just a pile of lines on top
of it
hence we can’t see what it is now quite
funny and some of you might have seen on
Twitter or Instagram or even on Facebook
and I put up a little video of the road
we took to get here the road is a river
and we got stuck while I was fiddling
around making a video but well
unfortunately you managed to not get
stuck we are about half way up the river
road and we will try continue up at a
little bit later as I said yeah there is
some more rain coming and you can
probably still hear the pitter-patter of
rain drops on our roof
kylie is wondering how does the blood
not permanently stay in there sir
while kylie what happens is there will
lick it off other lines will help them
groom it and and it just comes off quite
quickly comes off their fur now we quite
like you the lines have moved where
there are now from if we had to drive
the road that they were on this morning
it was that we would certainly have got
very very stuck if it stays like this we
should be okay to such air for a while
and there was some more lightning to the
south but that’s not way I’m too worried
about I’m actually worried about there’s
another big storm directly behind final
control so I’m hoping that doesn’t come
down over us and as I say it’s almost
uncute Alicia says they still look
slippery well I’m sure that’s absolutely
soaked they weren’t able to certain oh
hang gree adverted slippery angry well
as I say there are 12 line this is I
don’t think this is a particularly big
kill maybe a baby zebra and it’s very
difficult for us to see what it is when
the Lions are rummaging to try get a
tasty treat and the females will let the
Cubs eat first and look too bad I mean
the females were a little bit hungry
this morning they weren’t starving by
any means but the Cubs are greedyguts
that all of the Cubs get are the less
tolerant the ladies’ll beak of them
scoffing most of the meal and I’ll get
the odd clip around the ears and to
remind them that they’re not quite the
bigger big bosses yet yeah you can see
she’s fed but she’s not not well fed
Rebecca is wondering when do lion cubs
get their big teeth they lose their milk
teeth at about six months old and that’s
also when the
males wean them of course once they get
those adults teeth well there was a big
lightning strike in the distance but
once once they are weaned at that as
soon as they start getting the adult
teeth the females will wean them off
milk of course because those adults
could probably do some damage to mom
Stevie is wondering how many kills a day
do they have to make make to feed all 12
cubs and themselves well they probably
don’t kill every days TV probably every
second day or every third day but
Islands can go quite a few days without
without eating can we see what it is yet
no just the odd rib popping up Lions
have the most atrocious table manners
absolute free-for-all in the cabin
Christine is wondering are there any
male Cubs in this group ID we definitely
white because I saw him this morning I
haven’t spent as much time with Fang
gamma pride as as a lot of the other
presenters as I I know there’s
definitely I think there’s probably
there’s definitely one now so probably a
few more corrupted guts
it’s amazing how quickly some of these
cabs have grown since we arrived here
Rex is wondering how old are the Cubs
when they learn to hand RIT that’s the
thing edit a lot of people as human
lions have to learn they don’t hunting
is instinctive it is inbred in them
there are killing machines there have
evolved to be like that but by the time
they actually start being effective
members of that that that probably
around two years old now they will hunt
and stalk lots insects butterflies lots
of little things up until then and and
and there sometimes are quite successful
in catching but they’re not really there
to mess up a lot of ants but the best
way well there’s a lot of people who
think you need to teach lion to hand all
you the best way to describe this all
you need to do is let the line get
hungry and it will catch something
it could even be you
well how girls aren’t that fat sir they
might take advantage of this cold rainy
windy weather to hunt again once they’ve
finished scoffing whatever that might be
but it sounds like Tristan’s lines are
as fat and as lazy as a whale well they
are very fat and lazy brain T although
we had a little cub that was up on the
tree it was super Coolio is lying on the
log and was almost liquid like in the
way that it was looking so it was a very
cool little picture to see this little
lion cub resting on top of the tree it
was really quite pretty and we had the
perfect lights on it at one time and in
the background you can see there’s one
that’s playing a game of hide-and-seek
behind the termite mounds just see his
little head popping out from behind it
there we go you see you little one what
you doing behind there like I say bit
sleepy and was using that termite man to
block itself from the wind the wind is
coming from that direction so it’s
actually doing a good job of being
blocked and the rest of them are strewn
arts ball the two cubs that are feeding
with the female you can see their drag
the carcass quite far around now and so
they’re just having a last little feed
on that that eirick and they’re going to
abandon this carcass tonight’s I don’t
think they’ll still be here tomorrow by
any stretch of imagination that any will
go far but they’re definitely not going
to be still on the carcass there’ll be
very little left by an hour twos time
you can see they’re really just cleaning
up the bones clicking off the little
bits of meat using those rough tongues
and trying to get as much kind of out of
it as possible but there really isn’t
very much left anymore the females
if they decide to feed the two of them
are going to clean that up very quickly
what a wonderful sighting with the
sticks Friday an unexpected one as well
so not only is it good but it’s also
unexpected I didn’t think we would see
the sticks pride it’s they’ve been
especially now with the new Cubs I would
have thought that they might be spending
most of their time to the south of us
whistles and Annette’s property and so
it’s a nice surprise that they’ve moved
up this way you know at least on Chitra
and hopefully you will see a lot of them
over the next few months if they spend
time around Chitra area and then also
coming every now and then into via
Taylor they’ve been seen three times in
the last month on wheeler Taylor which
is interesting because prior to that it
was a long long period that we went
without seeing the sticks pride anyway
Nia wheeler camps or even Anjou May
anyway and so it’s been nice that
they’ve been sort of poking their nose
in around ten dams and spending a lot of
time in that area certainly is a nice
surprise
when we get them every now and then and
like I said they are a little bit sort
of mangy and not as good-looking as the
in Coomer pride but they are a pride
steeped with history this pride has been
in the area and in the song beasts and
unknown by a lot of people for as long
as the soggy sands has really had
tourists coming in so they were one of
the first prides that was ever sort of
named and ever followed and so they have
got a lot of history and in my time here
in the sabi sands unfortunately I’ve
watched this pride just get decimated by
the rolling coalition’s so Michael
you’re asking if I know how successful
the sticks have been at raising Cubs
well the answer to that is in the time
that I’ve known them pretty horrific as
I was saying they’ve really had a tough
time of it they’ve had a number of
coalition’s come through and they’ve
just really battled to keep their cubs
alive so when I first started there was
in livin adult Lions in the sticks pride
there was well and as I had out there
was a couple of adults and some adult
male the sub adult male then went off on
his own unfortunately ended up with a
dislocated hip and a very badly injured
face and he unfortunately succumb to
those injuries and then since then
they’ve really struggled to raise any
Cubs it’s been one young female that’s
been raised and other than that nothing
nothing nothing they’ve lost pretty much
the majority of their Cubs and this
hopefully will mean that there’s going
to be a little bit more or success when
it comes to Cubs this year hopefully we
names in them for the situation really
gets
some little ones making it and this kind
of strengths in the sir pride because at
the end of the day the three females are
all fairly on the older side they’re not
young individuals and so you know it
would be nice if we get some females
that last and they’re the continuation
of the sticks pride can happen and we
end up with the pride rebuilding and
becoming the strength that it once was
it it’s it’s sad when I see the sticks
pride I always feel sorry for them
they’ve they’ve really been battered
hard and they were first hit by them
cause then they were hit by the machine
guns in the mid Timbers and then after
that the Birmingham so they’ve really
gone through a lot of male coalition’s
and that’s all since 2010 so in seven
years they’ve dealt with four male lion
coalition’s and if you work out that
Cubs generally only kind of adults that
are left alone by the male’s between two
and a half and three you can work out
very quickly that form coalition’s in in
seven years means that they’ve just not
had time to raise any of their cubs
before the new males come in and kill
all those Cubs so they’ve really
struggled and I’m hoping that this is a
bit of change of luck the birmingham’s
are young males they’ve done really well
and so I’m pretty sure that we’re going
to be in a situation where they
hopefully will be able to survive and to
be able to grow and become big adults
and once again build the sticks pride
into a powerful force that it should be
but look at the size of the belly of
that little cog that’s lying down like I
say his belly is bigger than it is tall
basically it’s just round and big and
you can see a little bit of Kellis thing
of the mange but it’s actually like I
say a lot better in the last time I saw
these little ones they looking really
in much better condition Stevie the only
part of the prey that they don’t go
after his bones that are too big for
them
so sometimes leg bones and and vertebra
and then also the stomach content itself
so they won’t eat the rumen of this
animal but otherwise everything else is
fair game you’ll find that they’ll go
off to rib bones or they’ll eat the
hides they’ll eats organs they eat any
of the meat obviously they’ll they’ll
eat the eyes they eat the ears you can
see she’s actually busy feeding on the
ear at the moment I think that was the
last bit of the year that went down the
gullet just now so pretty much
everything other than the big bones that
they really battled to be able to
consume and then of course the hair they
also don’t like to eat so they’ll try
and pluck the hair and get rid of that
so they don’t have to deal with that but
this wind is really not dying down I
thought it would but it seems to be just
carrying on and really going a bit crazy
still so I was hoping we would see the
end of it this evening but that doesn’t
seem like it’s going to happen it seems
as though we going to be punished by
wind a little bit longer and we’re going
to really have a rough night of it in
the end of the day it’s not going to be
as pleasant as I thought it would be I
wanted it to be a nice beautiful calm
evening because there would have been a
wonderful way to certain new you reckon
a pushcart and go fly it I reckon I love
that too imagine trying to fly a vulture
that would be quite crazy so you
wouldn’t want to add anything to
avulsion and try and follow them because
they are moving around all over the
place at the moment are you seeing them
kind of jumping around and flying in and
the speed at which they move when the
wind takes them is quite incredible so
forget to push kites you have a bush
vulture that we can operate or better
yet a drone would be quite cool the
drone would have been a very cool way to
have watched what was going on so
hopefully it’s some stage student will
unleash the drone again and share comes
their vulture look at this how cool is
that and it’s gonna just slowly float
upwards and then it will open the wings
and slow right down and land
not the softest of landing that
particular one and in fact it even
landed on a small branch that I thought
might fall Majan if one of these lions
got a branch to the head to their food
certainly not impress them at all given
that they can’t get to those vultures
but I’m also watching very carefully for
one of them that’s about to difficut
because I feel like these lions are in
danger of being difficut Adhan by
vultures and I can assure you I’ve seen
somebody being difficut Adan by a
vulture it is not a funny experience it
is a lot of lot that comes out of a
vultures back-end and causes quite a big
mess so if I was a lion I would be very
careful where I was sitting right now
they right in the firing line for these
vultures at the moment and hopefully
they’ll be ok and they won’t end up with
a situation where they going to end up
with some well the proverbial egg on the
face as they say when is that one fallen
asleep on the carcass it looks like it
has looks like there’s a little one
that’s decided to have a little nap on
the carcass
Nancy you asking if vultures ever make
their own kills or do they wait for
others to do it well Nancy they pretty
much are our scavengers they do not kill
things for themselves I’ve never seen a
vulture kill anything most of the time
100% of the time they are scavenging off
carcasses of other individuals so they
going to things like this line carcasses
or animals that have died and then
feeding off those so they are scavengers
art and art they are not designed to be
able to feed on the wing or to be able
to catch their own prey items and so
you’ll find them pretty much just going
for carcass to carcass and you must
remember there are lots of caucuses in
the bush there’s a lot of things that
die regularly and there’s some really
large caucuses so things like elephants
and hippos and Buffalo and when they die
that’s food for a long period and
sometimes those don’t get farmed by
lines if they die of natural causes and
the vultures can have an absolute field
base there’s more than enough for them
to survive as scavengers Archer and it’s
unfortunately why their numbers have
declined somewhat I love other hooded
vultures run around like I say they’re
the most brazen of all of them so
they’ll try coming here and see if they
can steal a little morsel from somewhere
one day the lion that’s behind the
termite mound is about to give this
vulture a big surprise because it’s
slowly but surely hitting towards the
termite mound where our little lion is
tucked away and I don’t know if that
vulture has seen that line but it’ll be
funny if it doesn’t go see that line and
that line comes bursting around and
chasing them off all right but
unfortunately going to have to start
moving on because there are others that
want to come into the sighting so I’m
going to leave the sticks pride now let
them finish off their water bucket kill
and we’re going to start heading across
towards the ink uma pride so hopefully
there we can get the birmingham’s
roaring as the Sun sets but while we do
that let’s go back to Brent and his
feasting lines all the way on the other
side of Africa well I think there’s not
much left and we still haven’t quite
managed to work hard what the angle
Mazar munching upon and just from what
was around here this morning I think
it’s probably a young zebra but they are
really getting stuck in there and you
can hear the pitter-patter of rain on
the roof it’s still raining so we’re
sitting nice and dry just the one side
open at the moment and the rain coming
in from the northwest of us
and I think these lines might not get
all they need out of this meal the Cubs
will probably do care the females might
be a little bit hungry still afterwards
oh I saw it poufy maybe it was a young
bull beast one of the lost souls that
run around the Mara going me me it is
absolutely wonderful but that did manage
to catch something off little one what
are you whining at me mum still hungry
I’m too small to get in there all the
big ones on the way although that belly
is big I don’t think you could fit
another morsel in but if it’s wobble as
it walks sweetness
now you’ll notice that in some
circumstances they’ll lick their paws
and after they’ve got blood and stuff on
them it’s to clean them and as well with
that one there he’s probably actually
got a little piece of meat
there’s indeed that sometimes looks like
they’re licking is a leg but he’s
actually found something good to eat or
sir there’s not much meat left on
anything right now
lots and lots of growling and growling
what is he got maybe we can identify
we’re not going to identify what element
is from a lung it is a long way I can
tell you that much well done mr. London
to yourself quite a sizable lung
actually so maybe it was something a bit
bigger than we thought that also just
the lines are just have just quite
hungry
Alisha’s wondering how many lion cubs
are in a single litter your average is
between one and three the largest litter
ever recorded if I remember correctly is
eight and that was from in the wild
which was in Nairobi National Park in
Kenya so generally the average line that
decided between one and three and the
largest litter ever recorded is eight
and and that was in Kenya as well now
remember for those of you who might not
believe we are coming to you from a
rain-soaked Masai Mara a hundred percent
live so you witnessing this at the exact
same time as we are
maybe wonder what that is it is quite a
mystery what they are munching upon at
the moment I’m just trying to see I saw
who they I think it could be a Valda
beast there were a few of all the beasts
in this area earlier today it could also
be a zebra incident I’m not 100% sure
and at the moment I might ask Fergus to
go poke his nose in there between the
lines see what’s what not know if eggs
not hungry
oh no you could eat just not not with
them oh is that one of the little ones
are that very fat belly again
well fati trying to get in there heliox
asking what are the pockets for on the
side of the lions ears i assume you just
referring to the little Indian tension
that like we have in our ears I’m it
will be there to try to catch a certain
sounds and also they have quite a little
hair in there to protect but their
hearing is phenomenal oh speaking of
sounds can hear a hyena in the distance
higher up the mountain up the road that
is the river
always little boy there’s at least one
and probably a few more as I said I
haven’t spent as much time with this
part as the other presenters
there we go now normally they would
struggle to catch something in grass
this short but that massive storm that
was here little bit earlier that
obviously aided them and the fact that
they were able to sneak up upon whatever
unsuspecting critter this was I’m
thinking wildebeest I saw it looked like
a black leg and Huth briefly in jaws of
one of the Lions
Oh CJ is now asking me quite a difficult
question CJ is wondering what is my
favorite pride and CJ oh that is so
difficult I I think you’re putting me on
the spot now CJ I think in the triangle
itself my favorite pride is the
something pride what about the so the
putting got pride is with Tiffany one of
my favorites say they operate on both
sides of the river are on pure uncut
bridge look aren’t hill that I think and
I spend a lot of time with them I’ve got
a soft spot for the sand aspired I like
the bronchi pride oh I like to Bridget
pride I like the Paradise pride now a
lot of you are going to probably
disagree with me about who my favorite
male coalition of lions is I know a lot
of you are probably going Musketeers
Musketeers Musketeers and I go bah
humbug Musketeers I’m a bullish sucker
man
so I think those six bear lions are
going to be absolutely fantastic so
that’s my favorite coalition of male
lions or six young male lines and
spending a lot of time around the March
what have you spotted lady lion honey
duck down for my seat what is out there
she’s got quite a little bit allure in
tinting I mean see where my binoculars
now could be a hyena wandering in that
could be potential prey oh I in his
making lots of noise I’m not sure what
she’s seen I can’t see anything
Ricci is wondering if hyenas decided to
charge in here and attempt to steal the
meal who would win the fight now from
chatting to the Mara lion researchers
and the Mara hyena researchers it
generally takes about three hyenas per
adult lioness sorry for no Mara’s five
iron is part of lioness
so you would need there’s four adult
lionesses yeah so you’d need twenty
highness
so it’s all a numbers game and with a
kill that’s probably like this with very
little left and with all the Cubs around
there might just abandon it from a
safety point of view for the youngsters
I have no idea what she’s looking at I’m
following her eye line down towards the
trees I can’t see anything apart from
trees some grass yeah time for a bath
oh here we go they’re pulling the
carcass we might be able to see what it
is well it is an argument Ricci is
wondering if there’s a size difference
between the lines in the Mauryan Jima I
would say a very very minimal one I’d
say I’d say the lines here are stuck
yeah probably heavier but not
necessarily taller oh is it a Volvo
beast no it’s a pig it’s a warthog can
just see it I think what looks to be a
warthogs schnoz yeah it’s a warthog a
big male warthog as well I mean that’s
why it’s such a hefty set of lungs
inside him that is a massive male water
probably caught the poor poor poor pig
on its way of trying to get down at all
when it was raining he wanted to go home
or the amount of rain we had flooded the
pig out of his Hall during the rain and
led him into lions
one line is she stopped looking here
that she keeps looking up have another
quick scan with my binoculars there’s
some elephants in the distance that’s
about it quite a long way away she’s
looking again maybe she’s hearing
something about while we’re sitting in
the rain I did yes’m it sounded to be
male lions roaring I’m off in that
direction
who knows maybe they’re only where happy
on their way up cat
and a little bit less aggression I’d say
there’s almost zero pork left on that on
that carcass and I’ve managed to
completely eat the whole a pig now it
seems to be a very very much a lion
evening and at Tristan’s been with the
sticks I’ve been with the Yankees after
the rain and it sounds like Tristan’s on
his way to get more oh well I was
thinking about it towards the Birmingham
boys and in coomer’s because I would
love to hear the whole pride roaring and
I have a funny feeling that the
Birmingham’s might raw it’s a long shots
and maybe it won’t happen but well I
think it will be worth the try the the
sticks are all but finished that water
back and like I said there’s other
people that wanted to come in and have a
look so we did spend a decent amount of
time man it was really nice to see them
that we have to give some of the others
a chance as well it’s the nice thing
about being archers that we all help
each other and that makes life a lot
easier so we’ll go and have a little
quick look at the young Coomer pride and
hope and hope that the Birmingham is raw
and that the rest of the pride joins in
novi you something wonderful to listen
to them all going at the same time
they’re just going to let one of the
vehicles come past and so it’s another
one of our good friends which is Davi
from elephant pains and I haven’t seen
Davi in a long time
anybody I’ll see you later
coaches better good to see you again
yeah I’ll catch you soon so like I say
nice to see doggie again I haven’t seen
him in so long and he’s is one of my
good friends Archer so he’s nice to
catch up with the guys
Eric the poet’s he wanted to know how
the stick in the sticks pride got the
ancient Greek name well basically
there’s a section on Mala Mala called
sticks all a farm that’s called sticks
why it was called sticks in the first
place I’m not quite sure it seems as
though all the the farms what we deem as
farms but let’s say sections of the sabi
sands all of them have these really old
school names so we’ve got Ravens quotes
and Sparta and sticks and two lon and
what else have we got Martha to our
Alice cots
wallingford’s so there’s all these older
names around your galleries another one
so that’s where it comes from it’s just
an area on Mala Mala that they got this
the name sticks and there’s no River
system or anything like that that’s
caused them to get it’s it’s just the
way things have were an area that they
inhabit sit in like today grateful
you
okay well we’re back and seems like
Tristan’s found a gremlin or two so
we’re back with the gamez and they’re
starting to spread out a little bit from
where they were munching on the warthog
some of those Cubs are absolutely filthy
of mode covered in blood the guts and
gore and in need of a good wash from mum
what is that caption is a hyena only way
it doesn’t look like it
dori is wondering how can a lioness feed
eight cubs if she’s only got four teats
well it’s all about competition so there
would have been great competition
between the Cubs and when must remember
the other thing about lions and being
the only truly social cat they are also
practice Paulo suckling so other members
of the pride would have suckled her if
they had babies would also suckle her
youngsters that is one of the reasons
you often find a lot of Cubs of the same
age in a pride a lot of the females on a
similar Easter cycle and of course that
makes it much easier for them to raise
their young when they all sort of have
Cubs around the same time and all of
them are lactating so they can share the
milk load so to speak who’s 8 years old
Leah’s wondering how long is a lion is
pregnant for they have a very short
gestation period leah which is the fancy
word for saying pregnant and it’s it’s
between 90 and 110 days so very very
short about 3 months so it is a quarter
of a third by mathesar walk there a
third of all the humans and gestation
period is
it seems like we have no more bitter
patter on the roof so Philips wondering
if a mama died with other members of the
pride let them suckle they would Philip
um as I said it’s a vines will suckle
the young and others young so it’s not
uncommon for if a female dies for one of
the other members of a pride to take up
the sucking what do you want a little
monster how do you do oh it is one of my
favorite sounds nothing quite like
little contact calls of Cubs Oh playtime
I Caston in Denmark Carson’s wondering
how much I think that warthog weighed
probably over a hundred kilograms cost
in that big mail water can be a very
hefty beast and actually sometimes quite
a dangerous animal to take down even for
the Lions because of those incredibly
sharp dashes the bottom tusks that rub
up against the top tusks and are and
they can be as sharp as a razor blade
but you can see a little bit less
arguing going on at the moment a little
bit more friendlier than they were when
we first arrived
Ricci is wondering do they eat bones or
only flesh and they’ll eat both and
gristle and everything in between and
they will eat the smaller bones of
course certain bones will be too big
especially some of the thicker Lake
bones and and some of the the vertebrate
will be too thick for even for the Lions
to crash but of course and you’ve always
got the hyenas coming in afterwards and
you might make short work of said bones
it says it seems that the animals aren’t
here are strictly herbivores and
carnivores are there any omnivores
indeed there are there’s quite a lot of
omnivores for them don’t know I heard a
jackal in the distance but little things
my cat
Janet’s civets Mongoose are omnivores
baboons monkeys and we’ve got up three
species or one species of aboon three
species of monkey possibly in the Mara
and what other omnivores can I think of
offhand polecats yes they are quite a
few omnivores but out of your your
bigger species things are generally one
all the other
so it is getting a little bit darker
we’re going to have to switch to
infrared quite soon
so while Fergus plays with lights and
gets our camera ready for after dark
let’s go across the chest and he’s still
on his way to the incomers LAN store my
way Brent I’m meandering I’m putting
about enjoying Juma and the lack of wind
that I feel on this road it’s a little
thicker here then where I’ve been
driving I was on the main road gauri
main and it was gusting and cold and
horrid and bouncy and bumpy it was
really not very pleasant so it’s nice to
be in a bit more of a thicket area and a
little bit more of a smooth Road not
that this new road is any smoother than
gauri main actually but it’s feels a bit
more I suppose it’s not as corrugated at
least it’s a bit bumpy but it’s not as
corrugated as what we saw or what we had
on Gauri main but it’s amazing how
quickly the light is fading tonight so
we had sort of beautiful sunshine and
then all of a sudden it’s just gotten
dark quite quickly and you can see as a
few ominous cards still sticking around
so it was separating and now it seems to
have been coming back together again so
not ideal but suppose it would be nice
for a bit of rain though tonight
wouldn’t it just just spruce things up a
little bit and get everything starting
to green up again it’s very dry in this
area this grass is turning almost a
translucent white colour now rather than
a yellow drab wintery color since are
you okay there so since I saw I was
fiddling with the aerial and since I and
I once had an accident with an aerial
while we were driving along so I was
driving and I hits a bump as soon as I
was trying to put the aerial down when
he first started and it pinched his
thumb and Oh was it your thumb or your
forefinger was your it was your pinky
finger that’s right and it’s made a nice
nasty little gash on cinders thumb so
now I’m always careful if I see sins are
looking at the aerial or antenna to ask
if I need to stop but apparently all is
good and we have fine we don’t have to
worry but that was not the finest moment
from the two of us but we’ve since
worked that one out and been able to
communicate a little bit better as to
what’s going on
but always in Drey driving this road
it’s got such a beautiful view of the
Drakensberg mountains off to the western
side and often you get nice sort of
views of the mountains and the sunset
and it’s a very pleasant road to drive
and we know that shadow often spends
time here so I like driving it just for
that reason is in case I get lucky and
bump into hurts for no other reason
really is just to hope that I bump into
shadow in this area it’s always nice to
find her and and the thing is is that I
haven’t seen the cub in so long that I
would like to see that it will cut with
it
apparently it’s it’s doing fine I spoke
to somebody who was it I don’t remember
that saw the cub about three four days
ago so apparently it’s doing okay and
he’s still with the shadow so that’s all
good news and she seems to be out of the
sort of most dangerous period so I would
imagine that shadow should theoretically
raise this one to adulthood they say
should because poor shadow has the worst
luck in the world and so hopefully
she’ll be okay and she’ll get her cub
into adulthood and we’ll see yet another
little female Alton about on Drive now
when the how relaxed she is now the last
time I saw her much better and was
fairly chilled with a sec she didn’t
worry too much about us and certainly
didn’t go too far and didn’t run was a
little bit as nervous by itself but it
wasn’t too bad once it was with mom so
hopefully it will start to settle down
as it’s getting older and feeling a
little bit braver and a little bit more
kind of confident in itself
but alas no sign of her no tracks no
so Christine my favorite season in the
sabi sands is now happening as we speak
we’re going September October November
my favorite time of the year and the
reason why as we come out of this cold
winter which I’m not a fan of cold I
like hot weather and the hotter the
better really and so I’m happy with the
hot weather then and also we go out of
cold dry drab Brown sort of dusty into
life fill the beautiful greens lots of
baby animals everywhere lots of
migratory birds and I love that
transition from one to the other so the
now is my favorite time from winter to
summer so this little short spring and
the first little bit of summer is
definitely for me the best time in the
bush is it’s amazing to watch everything
just rejuvenate and come back to life
after being sucked dry by the baking Sun
of winter and the dryness and you see
all things thriving in those summer
conditions and so I love that sort of
process that happens and watching it
unfold and watching these trees start to
bud and flowers start to form and just a
really a complete sort of difference in
what you used to that’s my favorite part
about this time in the air and like I
say there’s lots of interesting things
that arrive and things that you get
excited about because you haven’t seen
them in six months so it’s an excitable
time and everybody kind of gets into the
spirit of it and you find people start
beating on when we’re going to see the
first baby Impala when we’re gonna see
you know the first Wahlberg’s ego when
we gonna see the first woodland
Kingfisher and so it’s just there’s lots
of anticipation and lots of great things
that come and there’s things to look
forward to I know a lot of other people
love the winter times because generally
the game viewing is better and yes it is
it’s much easier to find a lot of these
animals because they spend a lot of time
around water holes but at the end of the
day it is not as pretty and they’re
certainly far less to look at in the
winter than there is in the summer and
the summer I love it because there’s so
much to see and so many new things we
get new insects new plants it’s really
quite nice
Katty you wondering the what dates I
think the first rains are going to come
and have the crew started pacing well I
had a bit with Sebastian I can’t
remember the exact date I think he said
8th of October and I said the 27th of
September I think that’s about right
maybe somebody can remind me of what I
said so those are I say 27th of
September and the deal was that it has
to be a solid rain it can’t be a little
one millimeter or two millimeters of
rain because we measure our rain in
millimeters so it had to be a really
solid so 20 moles 20 moles was the
cutoff flu so we need lure and Meghan’s
get involved in today’s the perfect day
lose Megan what are your predictions for
when the rain is going to come and
sensor when do you think the rain is
going to come you’re gonna be the last
one so we have to wait for Megan and Lou
first okay then you can now look up on
weather apps and things in FC you’ve got
to come up instantly it’s got to be a
quick answer because I now hear standby
which I know what that means
Megan 2nd of October and Lou the 18th of
October okay so second of October 18th
of October 8th of October for Sebastian
27th of September for Tristan and 10 of
October so I’m the only September boy
watch let’s see the space it’s gonna be
interesting and it’s got to be a 20
millimeter or more rain that we get in
this area hopefully it’s going to be
sooner rather than later I wonder if
anybody else wants to predict hashtag
Safari live predictions when we going to
get office rains 10 of October you
winning what’s the bet sensor what are
we going to give each other we can get
you some more socks if you want some
nice socks
or we can bet a six-pack of apple juice
maybe a six-pack of apple juice to the
winner there we go the all there rest of
the crew has to everyone has to get a
six-pack of apple juice – whoever wins
part of the crew each everybody each one
six-pack sensors dates Lou was the 10th
of October Sebastian the 8th of October
if I remember correctly and then me the
27th of September so we’ll note those
all done I don’t know if Brent wants to
take a stab at it not that real gets our
six pack of apple juice anytime soon
because Brent’s going to be in the Mara
first or quite some time and who taught
that where they’ll even make it past his
10th if he did have to buy them so
hopefully we’ll leave him out of that
one for now and we well the Mara will
guess if you had to guess rain in the
Mara you just say later on tonight at
this rate the sins there’s having a bit
of a laugh behind me but I would imagine
I think we’re gonna get it sooner or
later this buildup in heat that we’ve
had
you can only mean that we’re going to
start getting rain as some points it’s
got to you at some point start to come
to fruition are you Mike you are thanks
buddy
so it’s going to at some points have to
break and the heat has to give way to
some sort of rain and if it’s anything
like last year we had that rain storm of
about 20 miles just at the end of
September and that’s going to put the
little cat amongst the pigeons and make
me well a apple juice rich man so let’s
see how we go and it’s of course is
closest to the date and the interesting
the interesting parts about is all the
others have gone very close together
Jason you 29th of September Jason are
you with me we’re on the right path yeah
we’re going to be the winners in this
particular situation I’m sure of it
we’re going to be the ones that are
gonna get this right now the nice thing
is that the income or pride seems to all
be head up Frances you say first of
October mmm Frances I don’t know it’s
gonna be interesting to see who’s going
to be right I think a lot of you have
gone in October to close together
because now you don’t give yourself any
room
for winning because at least with me if
it’s slightly earlier in September I’ve
got it all to myself nobody else is
going to have anything to do with me if
it’s earlier in September and if it’s in
even early October I’m pretty close as I
think Megan’s probably the closest to
Mia at this stage the interesting thing
in kuma pride every single one has got
head up at the moment so they all are
awake there’s a bit of yawning from
empires which i think means we’re about
to go on a bit of a March I see him Fuu
more in the background is starting to
yawn his head is up so I reckon we are
going to start sort of moving shortly
the problem is is that we ride up
against the boundary and so the chances
of us keeping up with him there’s
tenures now popped up his head in the
background you see one of the lioness is
moving here we go so I think we’ve
arrived just at the right time to see
our lionesses start going on the prowl
the problem is like I say if they hid in
this they already hitting the way that I
thought they were going to and that’s
the wrong way for us they will cross
within the next ten minutes if they go
the way they’re going and am buyers
typically in front taking them from this
area and heading southwards and we know
there was some impalas around and it
girls are you coming to say hello you
can see they’re just drifting right in
front not perturbed by us at all and
typical to see these two first moving
it’s always amber eyes and the younger
female that tend to go first so I think
this is the youngest female with the
suckle marks in front of me I might be
wrong I’m just trying to see no it’s not
sorry it’s not the youngest female the
youngest female will come fairly shortly
there she is she’s at the back over
there the one that’s busy grooming her
back you can see the milk underneath and
her teats of the suckle marks so that’s
the youngest female that generally
follows amber eyes so as soon as an buys
Mews but she looks like she’s stalking
something look at her posture a misers
gone into a store posture look at her
the way that she’s walking she’s head
down look lowering that head looking
forward I wonder if she spotted
something
no not she’s gonna go to the toilets
even if she has spotted something the
bush calls and nature calls and she’s
got to quickly go to the toilet and make
sure that she just gets that out of the
way before any serious hunting takes
place
no back down we go here comes the other
two so they’re coming
and I think here comes the injured
female so you want to see how she’s
walking you didn’t believe me that she
was walking fine even though she’s got
that injury she’s got a little bit of a
limp but otherwise that is not a bad
walking gait at all she’s walking better
than what I would have thought she would
have managed with an injury as horrific
as that she really is doing a lot better
than I would have thought but it is a
nasty nasty injury that and hopefully it
will heal but it looks horrible you can
actually even see the muscles as she
moves past us
it really is sore oh that’s not very
pleasant shame my girl that must be very
painful but the fact that she’s not
limping is absolutely incredible to me
imagine how strong and how resilient
they are to be able to walk with a wound
like that and not even have any
stiffness remember she’s been lying down
all day and yet snow stiffness in that
walk at all it’s absolutely phenomenal I
don’t understand how these animals deal
with it I could say if that was a human
you would be man down woman down you
would be in serious pain and not very
happy about life at all so it’s pretty
incredible that they’re managing to well
she’s managing to walk the way she is at
the moment the good thing though that
the saving grace for us today and
hopefully why the Lions will stay here
on Juma is that the wind is now us
shifted and it’s coming from a south
easterly direction so Lions like to walk
into the wind they don’t like to walk
with the wind blowing over their
shoulder so I don’t think they’re going
to go to arrows I think they might start
cutting back towards Juma to the central
parts which is fantastic news for us so
hopefully they’re going to head that
direction now see all the Cubs are open
are they all starting to approach us the
males are still lingering at the back
and are busy grooming but it’s this time
of the day that things are going to
start happening and we’re going to start
to see the income of pride starting to
get going and I hope that they start
hunting their Buffalo hood I haven’t
gotten any more updates on the buffalo
herd I’m not sure where they are and
what they doing
but I’m pretty sure the
pride is hungry they looking for food
the females are fairly skinny even the
Cubs or sub-adults or CIN skinny they
had a meal last night it must have been
a very small meal and the boys must have
stolen most of what was going on cindy
tennessee asking if there’s any prey
animals that are more nutritious than
others well most of the prey animals
that have really big layers of fat are
good for them so zebras funny enough
have really thick yellow fat and that’s
highly nutritious for lions so that’s a
good one to go after healthy Buffalo or
good one but unfortunately not many
healthy buffalo around anymore and
droughts have really hammered them and
so then the only other one that’s really
nutritious meat is hippo and hippos are
very difficult to bring down so I would
imagine a situation that hippos are
going to be fairly tough to find
Toby you’re asking if one of the
lionesses has been meeting you thought
you saw bite marks on the back of your
neck well Toby I also noticed the same
thing with amber eyes does look like she
has a few bite marks on the back of the
neck so I think maybe she has and maybe
that’s why we’ve got two of the
birmingham’s with us at the moment these
boys are obviously picking up that
there’s some sort of East recycle’
somewhere here and that’s why they’re
coming into this area but she definitely
does have some signs but you can see
they are mobile again and they
definitely spotting something to the
south of us maybe that Impala hood that
we saw earlier today that is there
didn’t see any when I came in but I
could be wrong maybe the Impala hood is
somewhere and they’re gonna start
stalking look you can see there there’s
some intent in what they’re doing the
way that they stopping the way that they
staring they looking very very intently
to the south so maybe there is something
in that area that they seeing we’re
gonna stay here because I want the boys
to come walking past and meandering past
us they will eventually as soon as those
females walk like this
the boys generally are not far behind
and coming and looking and giving the
attention that they need so I’m pretty
sure we’re gonna end up with the boys
coming this way
Urmi from Germany you’re asking if I’m
able to identify the floppy-eared cub
not I am not unfortunately the reason
why is because when I’ve got sure the
floppy ed cab this year was a right
again so I believe it was a younger one
so it could be that one that’s further
back there but I’m not 100% sure at all
I know a lot of the viewers know exactly
which one it is and maybe they’ll help
us out but I’m not 100% sure at all
which one it is it was before my time
that it had the floppy air and I only
got to see the income of pride once I
came to Safari live remember when they
had these small Cubs in that year was
floppy this pride was it’s only on Juma
they didn’t move off German we saw very
little of them at some Amelia it’s only
once I got here that they saw it’s great
to summer me all the time so I’m not a
hundred percent sure which one is the
floppy-eared cub maybe some of you guys
can help us as to exactly which one I
have an idea if maybe is the one at the
back there there’s one right behind a
stump that one that’s sitting at the
back it might be that one but I’m not a
hundred percent sure
is it the floppy-eared one is that the
one with the amber eyes maybe somebody
can help us and let me know what they
think as to whether it’s the one with
the amber colored eyes or if it isn’t
but the lionesses are stretched in a
long long line are they all looking
around I think we’re gonna see the boys
coming shortly I don’t think the boys
are gonna let the females get out of
sight
this tenure was just having a sneeze in
the back there comes another one of the
sub adults
pretty amazing to be in such close
proximity to them and just watching them
filing past here comes the last of the
Cubs and I reckon then after that we’re
gonna start to see the boys rolling past
as well see him former starting to you
on
Mega Man you’re asking winner Alliance
obituaries to humans as in win with a –
they’re not attack humans and what
tactics were used to get them that way
well Mega Man is quite simple when we
stopped hunting them so as soon as we
had a situation maybe we weren’t hunting
lions anymore we went killing them
stealing food from them because people
actually used to chase them off their
carcasses and steal from them so as soon
as we stopped doing that then you’ll
find that they started to relax already
around those situations and also took
probably a lot of time when they had
food that you’d park far away watch them
observe them and slowly but surely they
weren’t used to the vehicles and used to
us remember that guidance inherently
don’t just attack people they don’t come
running at people and killing them even
back in the day it was only because
people hunted them and people hurt them
that they were aggressive otherwise they
would have been absolutely fine and it
would have been a situation that we
wouldn’t have had to worry about them
but they learned behavior that they had
to defend themselves and protect
themselves and once they’ve eaten
somebody they’re the meat then obviously
they can taste that and they know that
we are then a soft target we slow we are
not very fast we soft we don’t have
sharp teeth we don’t a sharp cause we
don’t have horns and so we’re in easy
targets for lions and that’s why they
would have come after us and would have
ended up chasing people and eating them
but they inherently are scared of people
and most of the time they’ll move away
from you and so over time now in these
reserve areas because we haven’t hunted
them because we haven’t gone after them
they’ve now become very relaxed around
the vehicles and they’ve learned as cubs
to see vehicles and that that’s it
now we’re going to follow this in Coomer
prior they are heading south but quite
quickly now and the boys I’m surprised
haven’t gotten up to move yet they still
busy with their grooming and it is windy
and cold and it’s the perfect conditions
for hunting but I believe the Mara is
also dark and stormy and I’m sure the
Lions are gonna have a field day that
side welcome back and once the road that
was a river is now a stream and I’m
trying to negotiate my way up the stream
Oh frog don’t make life difficult for me
and you’ll see that I’m not in color
there’s a reason for this figs got it in
that low line setting as if we put on
the light it reflects off the windscreen
and I can’t see where I’m going not that
I do much a good job when I can see
where I’m going but well there we go
we’re driving sideways very very
slippery this black cotton soil so we
left the lines they still mention on the
last to the warthog but we can see
another big torrent of rain coming
towards us and we don’t want to get
properly caught there because I think
this road has deteriorated enough and
too much more there’s not going to be
much of a road left
oh it’s a very good question from Aiden
who’s six years old Hayden would like to
know if the animals get caught or if it
rains too much can the animals get
caught in the mud now Aiden you would
think that but that actually happens
when it doesn’t rain enough so what
happens with the water holes will dry up
and the animals are so desperate for a
drink that they’ll go into the matter
and then they get stuck in the mud when
it rains a lot like this the animals
will stay away from the mud because
there’s lots of little puddles of water
everywhere where they can get a drink or
hold on so they don’t all hold on sorry
Aiden that’s just concentrate on driving
there for a second still concentrating
here we go through we go the bad so it’s
actually the opposite so when it doesn’t
rain enough the animals get caught in in
the map but when it rains like this
there’s lots of little puddles for them
to drink everywhere so it’s it’s better
whoo we got a soft spot coming up is
everyone holding on oh I was that bad
hi Lucy Lucy says when you get this much
rain how long does it take to get
absorbed into the ground well Lucy the
one thing that amazes me it it absorbs
surprisingly fast now certain areas of
course will hold water for a long time
but if we get a bit of sunshine tomorrow
a lot of the roads that we haven’t been
able to drive on today so for example
where we saw the cheetah this morning it
should be completely possible by
tomorrow morning now there will be
certain areas that are soggy air and
wetter than others but it does dry out
quite quickly but there is a very high
water table here in the Mara so even a
little bit of rain and that water table
gets a little bit higher a little bit
higher so even certain areas that we’ve
been spending a lot of time in now where
we’ve driven around no problem
whatsoever in a couple of months will
actually become an impossible swamp so a
lot of the area around hippo pools and
that is actually during the wet season
as swamp so what I think’s happening now
is this year that the small rains have
started early and after chatting to a
lot of people who spent a lot of time in
Kenya they say generally when you have a
very dry year and the big rains don’t
deliver what they normally do and the
small rains come early on and it has
definitely come early this year the
small rains are normally in November
December and so what are we now in
September October so very early it could
just be a little bit of rain but it’s
going to be interesting to see whether
this rain continues through into the
small rent traditionally one of the
driest times of year when I say dry I’m
not talking like sabi sands dry it’s
just that it doesn’t rain nearly every
day or every second day is January
February and in between the small rains
and the big rains and then when the big
rains come it’s March April May and then
lessons off again in June but unlike the
the dry season of South Africa and
the sabi sands where you’ve got two very
distinct seasons you’ve got a wet and a
dry season here you have a less wet
season and a very wet season it’s also
the altitude we add places in South
Africa and a high altitude we’ll also
get a lot more rain I can us in Canada
is it steamy in there in the
vehicle.well Tana so we’ve got quite a
lot of gaps that we’ve opened up so not
steamy but yes it can get very steamy
especially when we there’s three of us
sitting inside the vehicle for only a
really long time I think the other
nights
Craig and I sat for nearly three and a
half hours in the rain it just didn’t
stop and then it did get quite steamy we
had to sort of occasionally open until a
bit of air you couldn’t actually see
through the windscreen it missed it up
Kathy would like to know has the top
ever caved in from too much water no it
hasn’t Kathy the only reason it hasn’t
is because we’ve keep an eye on it as
soon as we see it starting to sag we’ll
push and push it over now we are
redesigning the roofs and actually
pucker has got a redesigned roof and
slowly all of our vehicles we’re gonna
we’re learning our chairs but by the
time big rains come we will be so sorted
in waterproof you know in our tent cars
that we won’t have to worry but it
Tristan is on a lion roll this evening
and he is now at his third different
lion sighting well not our third
different lion sighting rent we all it’s
part of the in Coomer pride it’s just
tenure slowly striding behind us so he’s
just moving and him fumo he has just
passed us as well so we’re gonna try and
keep up with the boys as they move and
follow the in Coomer prior they’ve
unfortunately the in Coomer pride has
gone quite a long way from where we are
already so it’s gonna be interesting to
see how quickly the boys catch up but
they are seriously moving quite fast now
everybody’s mobile and everybody’s up
and going I think the in Coomer pride
probably is going to cross into arethusa
before our drive finishes but at least
the boys are up and I wonder if this is
not going to drag them a little bit I’m
hoping a little bit more to the east I’m
really really hoping that they end up in
a situation where they do go towards the
East but at this stage it looks like
they’re hitting straight towards
triple-m and canoes across them it is
football just using the facilities as
they say so he’s having a little bit of
a chance to go to the toilet as majestic
as a male lion can look when going for a
squatting toilet break it’s it’s nice
with the lights you can see the sort of
like just shining on him as he’s moving
along and tinya will join him in the
next probably I would say two seconds in
continuous just behind him maybe not two
seconds let’s see four was done and then
ten yo coming now but look how big these
boys are looking they really are filling
out quite extensively now they’re
getting massive in size so it’s it’s
amazing to see just how much bigger
they’ve gotten in the last little bit
and it’s fun to keep my lights off
so look how they’ve got noses done they
sniffing they scenting they trying to
work out where these females where
they’re gone and look at how fast
they’re walking it’s much quicker pace
then you would generally see these two
don’t want to lose this pie they groomed
themselves for too long the pride ended
up getting away from them a little bit
and now they’ve got to try and keep get
back to where they are and so they’re
striding out as only male lions can do
they really are kind of moving at a rate
of knots at the moment much faster than
you would typically see males and you
can see why the birmingham’s can cover
so much ground if they are walking in
this fashion regularly then you know why
they cover the whole of Jummah in the
space of about two hours sometimes
because these guys are walking seriously
fast at the moment right so I’m going to
just turn off my lights because I don’t
want to blind the other vehicles and our
lights are very powerful so just gonna
turn those off while I’m sort of driving
towards other cars but I believe the
Mara unfortunately is about to be driven
by another big rainstorm so I think
they’re going to be out for the rest of
it so you with me for the last 20 odd
minutes as we follow this pride around
and try and see where they going to go
but we really are very close to Triple
Aim we’re going to cross in the next I
would say 10 minutes at least is balloon
or at the moist should I say it the
least in the next five minutes the way
these boys are walking it will be five
minutes and we’ll be over and across on
the other side I’m just going to try and
quickly get through here and trying to
keep up with them
so they just off on my left hand side if
they are moving very quickly though so
there they go
striding and you can see why it’s being
difficult to keep up noses down to the
ground trying to sniff for females it’s
amazing how these two spend so much time
with the ink uma pride as opposed to
Nina and in suku they tend to really
like the in Coomer pride so it’s been
interesting to watch these two in
comparison to the others and see how
these guys have gone about things but I
think mean kuma pride has already
crossed judging by the number of Lights
I see up ahead of me on the road and
that’s the road not far from where we
are there’s a number of different lights
that are here so I think these guys are
about to cross the main road at the
moment so we’re just going to have to
stand by and watch them go over and in
to outer thigh in the next I would say
not even two minutes at this rate so
unfortunately that’s going to be our
Lions off I was hoping we’d have them
for slightly longer than what we’ve got
now but it seems as though they are on
one mission and that’s to try and get it
towards refuser maybe they’re heading
towards red dam and that’s why they’re
heading in this direction I’m not quite
sure but you can see here is the main
road and they’re about to cross it in
the next second so things you just
quickly turn my lights off
Paula you say male lions always make you
think of the movie The Lion the Witch
and the Wardrobe they do don’t they they
are a bit like Aslan so they look very
similar in that regard and especially
big male lions and they’ve got this big
sort of Mane’s on them they are
beautiful so you can see tinya is now
leading the charge he’s now gone up
front and I’m full more behind him but
they’re going to cross this road in I
would say like I said two seconds maybe
they’re going to be over and through
into arethusa and that’s going to be the
last that we see of them unfortunately
for maybe a day or two we know that the
informal pride once they’re going here
often spend two or three days on this
side of the world and it’s a pity those
Buffalo didn’t make more noise that
brought them along this way so we’ve got
to turn our lights off as they cross
over because I don’t want to blind the
guys in front of me I’m just gonna pull
off to the side so he can still see them
as they go over
but there we go
Monique you say please roll for us boys
unfortunately they got left behind by
the pride so they’re not gonna rule now
and they’ve crossed over that’s the last
view we’re gonna get of them I’d better
put my light down
given that the guys want to come past
and so that’s it for us unfortunately in
Houma pride gone Birmingham’s gone and
well it’s going to be 20 minutes of
trying to find something else hopefully
we’ll get lucky with another interesting
sighting somewhere I’m sure we’ll find
some owls or maybe some night jars or
Janet’s or something like that these
guys are going to struggle to follow
them where they’ve gone now it’s not a
very pleasant place where they’ve
crossed lots of zebra wood in May which
is very bad for one’s tires so they’re
gonna have a really tough time of it
over the next little bit just very go
see you later
Aiden who’s 14 years old Aiden you’re
asking if I’ve ever seen a lion kicked
out of his pride or moved out of his
pride yes I have I’ve seen a number of
different young males being kicked out
I’ve seen the sticks young male the
Salalah young males southern pride males
Gilda’s Rock males Charleston males so a
number of different young individuals
that have been kicked out how you doing
you walk very well thank you sorry sorry
good unfortunately they’ve crossed over
they’ve gone yeah so they all gone over
and fortunately yeah
yes it’s just alphas that killed an
intruder basically yeah so it’s breeding
season now so they go after the horn
walls that’s breeding season so they go
after any intruders that come in so
dispersed from another flock and that’s
why they’ve killed it yeah it’s pretty
crazy
sorry guys I am live so I’ll check to
you soon they’re nice to see you there
and have a good evening and enjoy so
it’s just creepy chatting to some of the
guys that follow Safari live and they
were asking me about the crazy horn bull
sighting that we had of the horn bells
killing them so there we go there was a
viewer question live but live live so
here he goes
kind of just quickly had to satisfy them
and sometimes you know when people are
out here and they watch the show and
things like that’s it’s it’s always nice
to interact with them and we try and do
it off air but since it’s just me this
evening that’s why I had to just quickly
answer them quickly about the horn bulls
and why they were killing each other and
as I was explaining and so for those of
you who don’t know what I’m talking
about the ground hornbills that we have
on Juma they killed another ground
hornbill a few days ago and basically
what happens is at this time of the year
we have nesting season and breeding
season and so the Alpha pairs within a
ground hornbill flock gets very very
territorial and they get very kind of
nervous of other horn bells being in the
area and they get quite angry if other
horn bells are around and then you’ll
get a situation where if you any
intruder comes anywhere near they’re
going to try and go after it and try and
get it out of there and sometimes though
generally they just chase it away they
don’t really actually get hold of it but
for some reason they must have gotten
hold of this bird and they just picked
it to death which is not a very pleasant
way to go I would imagine it’s being
picked to death by ground hornbills
seems like a very unpleasant way to be
handled in life so there’s a few umpires
up here I’m just going to turn off my
lights so I don’t blind them
so Lu is saying yes now is much more
pleasant to have it sitting in our
freezer at the camp because I’ve
unfortunately the researchers wanted it
and they haven’t been able to come fetch
it so it’s not a situation where I’ve
told all the staff not to touch the horn
ball that is sitting in the freezer and
everyone’s a bit crow starts by this one
bullet is in plastic bags you can’t even
see it you can’t see anything of it but
they wanted to be able to do a bit of
DNA testing to be able to check out
what’s going on so I’m doing polymer
apologize crew that I have shoved a dead
horrible in our freezer I’m very sorry I
will it will be removed tomorrow morning
I promise they come in two future
tomorrow and everything can be right in
the world as it goes so we have to label
it so just in case anybody got the wrong
idea and thought it was something else
so it’s been labeled hemant Harry
unfortunately that’s what we decided to
call that hornball that died
given the circumstances I thought
Hammond Harry was quite an apt name
which was Lou’s name new action came up
with that names of all that knew who’s
got a very wicked sense of humor
sometimes so they lose laughing at me
same place saying that I’m naughty for
bringing it up well it’s true it’s
exactly how it is you can’t shy away
from your own traits you have to embrace
them and utilize them to the best of
your abilities
so Lou’s saying that’s why she’s behind
the camera not in front and luckily I’ve
just brought you in front of the camera
virtually through the digital world so
there is one of your secrets has been
aid to the masses right now I wonder if
there’s any push babies around
ah James you are thinking along the same
lines is that I am thinking of at the
moment you saying is it too much to ask
for a last-minute lipid James it’s never
too much to ask for a last-minute lipid
in fact last-minute lipid is always on
the cards and always something we’re
looking out for and wouldn’t it be nice
last-minute gyeonggido that’s what I’m
gonna put out into the air so art go
good juju all over the place come last
minutes from gilja
pop let’s see how you are and hope that
she’s doing well that’s what I’m gonna
throw out there but I would love a
last-minute lipid it would certainly
endure for other crazy drive I don’t
think I’ve seen to drop prides of lions
and the Birmingham boys ever since I’ve
been here in one afternoon
so it’s really quite nice Alexis you’ve
been wondering how strong gila is doing
and here and a lot of other people
including myself or wondering how chunky
Leo’s doing we haven’t seen her since
her altercation with Tandy we’ve seen
tracks and the other day we had tracks
that came into Inga’s very small epic
tracks into Inga’s downfall of minds
towards treehouse which is typical
strong gilliam the new movement and so I
think she’s around I just think she’s
really playing it very safe and very
cautious so she’s probably flying under
the radar you might find she’s even shy
of the vehicles at the moment she’s
trying to just keep a little attention
away from her as possible and so she
might just be hearing cars coming and
then slinking off into the distance and
trying to get away from us so she might
be around but we just not seeing her and
I’m sure she’s just keeping a low
profile which is the clever way to do
things with so many females being around
we know tendis been around we’ve seen
shadow recently we had Keshava now she’s
the best thing for her is just to be
silent don’t sort of st. mark don’t call
don’t attract attention to yourself and
try and just stay as hidden as possible
what so a lot of people are saying you
know if month is a long time since we’ve
seen her but you must remember that we
went I think it was almost six or eight
weeks that we were in 2006 from here at
one time she does kind of move around I
know none of the other lodges of she
know which is strange because generally
she used to go into little Gary and they
used to see her there we used to get the
odd updates about her on that side but
you never know maybe she’s gone up in
two before hook and went that way
remember the female tracks
we’ve been seeing have been around the
northern area so maybe she went up into
buffers hookin is just lying low there
so I’m not too worried about her I think
she’s still around and she’s okay
I think she’s just being very smart
about what’s going on in trying to stay
as hidden as possible over the next
little bit which is the way she’s gonna
survive if she’s if she is to survive
Archer and she is to forge away and to
become a territorial individual around
juma she’s going to have to be very
smart about it and she’s going to have
to keep a low low profile and try and
just stay under the radar until she gets
big enough at around four to two and a
half years to start forging her own way
and find a territory and we know that
Keshava gets chased by ten years and is
that’s mom chasing daughter so she’s got
a tough time of it to try and keep up
and try and keep timely and shadow at
bay and any other young females are
coming we’re at the end of the day we
know in Sheila’s been coming in every
now and then tiana made a run in here
once so there are young females that are
bigger than her that are also around so
it’s tough for her she’s gonna have a
really tough time we’ve said that from
the beginning that shangela is going to
have to be very clever and very sneaky
in order to stay here and to become a
part of Juma so her fight with Tammy was
unfortunate and it’s not ideal but she
as far as I know it didn’t sustain any
real massive injuries when I left her
she was still very much fine she was up
in the trees to climb up a tree would
have required some energy and so she’s
okay I was so funny enough meet its two
guides from London Ozzy today and I had
a chat to them about a female doll man
just to put people’s minds at ease about
how resilient animals are given the
current climate with you know the in
koomer female and shedder and tani and
they their injuries that they’ve all
carrying at the moment and there’s a
female down in London Ozzy at the moment
I think I can’t remember her name in
Cove a knee or something like that who’s
got a very bad lump and is her whole leg
is atrophied away there’s no muscle left
she’s walking on three legs so it’s a
back leg but the amazing thing about it
is they were telling me that in the last
three weeks this this leopard has killed
something like six different bushbuck
and has hoisted three of them into a
tree even on three legs
it’s amazing how resilient these animals
are how strong they’re and I’m sure
shanira is just fine I’m sure she’s just
taking it very easy and being very
clever and that’s the way it needs to be
and if we don’t see her for a while and
we and we battle to find her and she
survives well that I’m fine by that
completely I don’t mind if that’s going
to be the case obviously I would like to
see her and like to know that she’s
doing okay every now and then but if it
means that she’s gonna survive and
become a territorial female here in Juma
later on and this is what it takes for
her to get there and I’m okay with her
being a little bit on the shy side over
the next little bit
mrs. zero you’re saying if I could be an
animal for a day which one would I
choose interesting because that’s a
different one to being an animal for
life there’s a little scrub here talking
about animals so while we look at the
scrubby I’ll think about this because if
you were going to be an animal for life
then I think I would be an elephant
given that they live a nice long life
they roam around very little to worry
about other than people and it would be
you know you can go swimming you can go
and break big trees down and you have a
really quite an easy life look at how
skinny this scrubber is in this wind
it’s trying to keep its ears down shame
it must be a little bit nervous in this
wind and battling a bit to hear what’s
going on so elephant would be if I had
to be for life for a day I think I would
be something really random just because
I would love to know where they go so I
think I’d be something like an odd fork
or a Pangolin or a striped polecat or a
caracal caracals what I’d be there we go
I’ve decided because I have not seen a
caracal in sabi sands and I want to know
where they go and what they get up to
and how to find him so if I could be an
animal for a day I would be a caracal so
that I could know where they’re hanging
out and what they’re doing and how to
find one here in the sabi sands as I’ll
scrub here disappears so that would be
my random animal for a day
Ziya who say how often do we see
caracals on the night drive so another
answer to that is in my case never so I
have yet to see a caracal in the sabi
sands way and it’s a sore point I don’t
really want to go into it too much
because everybody else working to us at
some point scenic area code in the sabi
sands except for me I count myself very
lucky that I have seen pretty much every
other species of land-based mammal
because obviously they are bat species
that are difficult to ID and I don’t
think I’ve seen all of them that occur
here but in terms of land-based mammals
I have seen everything even a stripe
polecats etc so that is something that
pretty much 90% of the guides here and
the sabi sands have not seen and so I
can’t myself very lucky to have seen
those odd fox pangolins various other
animals that are considered rare I’ve
even seen a sable in the sabi sands so
the only thing that I have not seen is a
caracal and it drives me crazy because I
tried to look for them everywhere as far
as I know here on safari live we’ve only
ever seen a caracal once and that was by
Taylor on cheetah plains in March I
think maybe March or April twice and
there was another sighting in 2008
apparently there’s a night job talking
about some Nocturnals a little nightjar
macaque camouflage that nachos I’m gonna
shine my light because otherwise you’d
battle to see it but is it a night job
just go above my life to little bits
it’s there it is there it goes it was a
night job but it was incredibly well
camouflaged and I was trying to show you
the camouflage but I don’t want to
spotlight it too much but it is now
flown away and unfortunately we can no
longer see it so that’s not ideal the
problem with this wind as well as I
haven’t heard any owls tonight I was
kind of hoping we’d find some owls at
some points and be able to see them but
it’s some reason none to be heard I
think the wind is messing with our
hearing at the stage
Graham you’re saying have I gotten or
gotten into my new book yet I for those
of you don’t know what Graham is talking
about Aly got me a new book and it is
basically in the tracks of the int of
invertebrates of South Africa that has
just been released and Graham Norah I’m
waiting for Ellie to bring it back from
town she’s back on Wednesday I think so
I’m going to get stuck into that book
very quickly and you say it’s your new
favorite book in in terms of field
guides so I gather that you’ve got it
and that you’ve gotten into it and that
it is good so I’m super looking forward
to it and I can’t wait to utilize it and
see it out in the field and and to use
it on bush walks I’ll certainly will
bring it out and show everybody what
we’re talking about but it’s going to be
very cool it basically focuses on tracks
of spiders and grasshoppers and
scorpions and snails and anything like
that and signs of them so not just the
tracks that they leave behind but also
the signs of those animals so the let’s
say the the cocoons that they suppose
spend the nests any sort of eggs that
they lay things like that that we can
use to identify them so I’m super
looking forward to that book I’m really
really really really interested to go
through it I know Steph is dying to get
his hands on one so is Taylor
I’m sure Brent wants to get one and it’s
only just been released a few days ago
it wasn’t hasn’t been asked for long so
I’m really looking forward to get into
that and then there’s another book that
I’m trying to get hold of although it is
a very costly book and that is the ants
of South Africa so thanks to James
Richard who sent me a link on to the
hands of South Africa they are
unfortunately quite expensive and so I’m
just trying to shop around a little bit
and see if I can find one but it looks
also very very cool ants of southern
Africa because I would love to know more
about them there’s such interesting
little creatures they are a phenomenally
well-organized and I would love to learn
more about them so hopefully that book
will I’ll be able to secure that and
then there’s a whole host of other books
that I want to try and gates in fact I
actually have an order that I want to
place with PAGASA
which is the field guides Association of
South Africa which is for a whole bunch
of books that I’m looking for and
hopefully I will get them soon
and then I will be able to share all of
it with you guys as to what I actually
see sorry impalas I’ll turn my lights
off I’m so busy yakking and signing
spotlights that I ran out of hands to be
able to turn the lights off on the
impalas come on windy there we go
so Wendy is led light sometimes decides
not to work and if I turn when these
lights on then my monitor over here goes
off and then you have to kind of fiddle
a little bit and eventually it gets
right so I don’t know what’s going on
with the electrics it’s something to do
with the fuse causes that problem so I
have to kind of replace the fuse every
now I mean which is a bit harder but
anyway that’s okay so there’s a number
of books that are coming my way and I’m
going to probably be a bookworm for the
next few weeks I’ve got to go now on my
next leave in October I unfortunately
have to go and get a very problematic
wisdom tooth taken out sir but a nasty
sort of surgery that I’ve gotta have so
I’m gonna be bedridden I think or at
least in mobile so I think that’s when
I’m going to be into the books and
having a look and checking things out
and studying up for summer bushwalk
season and that’s going to be a
fantastic time I’m really looking
forward to it and I’m sure there’s going
to be lots of interesting things to go
through but look at the dust as I’m
driving from the wind if I shine my
light you can actually see the dust
clouds following me
you know it’s windy when you drive and
you driving in your own dust card it’s
not ideal for the sinuses but it’s quite
amazing how the dust is actually been
blown straight in front of me as I’m
driving it’s not something that you see
every day it’s certainly not something
that I was hoping to have and I’m going
to try and change direction so that the
dust blows away from me and not into the
car because otherwise everything needs
covered in dust and like I say up in the
sinuses and in the eyes and then you
have watering eyes and everyone thinks
that I’m crying and when I’m not so it’s
better to avoid such situations
lots of impalas around on quarantine
open I wonder if we gonna get a little
white-tailed Mongoose somewhere around
here there was a white-tailed Mongoose
that hung around for a few days so I’m
hoping that the white-tailed Mongoose is
around now you if you can hear me if you
can speak so I can there we go that’s
better now
pick you up again so poor lay your
daughter I don’t know who what her name
is but she wants us to find a snail
because she thinks snails are cute well
Paula I promise promise promise promise
that I will find you a snail but Paula I
have to wait for the rains we’re gonna
have we don’t have snails now until the
rains come so we won’t see the snails at
all big giant African land snails they
unfortunately only come in the rainy
time so I’m waiting for that to happen
and as soon as the rains come I promise
Paula that I will show your daughter a
snail just remind me when the rains are
around and I will most definitely do it
for you now sitting in the darkness over
there is one of our stripey friends that
I haven’t seen for a few days there is a
zebra that is currently just sitting and
staring and hoping to stay safe on
quarantine interesting though it’s all
by itself it’s the only zebra that we
have on quarantine at the moment that I
can see so it must be a male that’s just
distributed up now I’m trying not to
shine too much lights on it and because
we were with the Lions for a while and
we’ve been live or haven’t have been
able to put on my infrared lights so I
don’t want to shine on it for too long
but I thought she would be all
interested to see a little save breath
so he’s nice to see the Zebras of jummah
and to see them up on quarantine
James you say that we should start
keeping track of our cat streak on Juma
because well it’s been a while since
we’ve had a day without a cat we most
certainly James we’ve been really really
really really fortunate the time that
I’ve been back I have yet to do you I’ve
done one drive without a cat but I’ve
had cats every single day that I’ve been
back which has been pretty crazy so
apparently five days solid that can’t be
right it’s got to be more than five days
solid since I’ve had cats it’s we need
only think we need to recheck that
because I’m sure since I’ve been back
it’s been more than five days and we’ve
had cats pretty much every single day
since I’ve been back so it’s been really
great and the nice thing is that we’ve
had a variety so the days when we
haven’t had leopard we’ve had lions and
the days that we’ve heard the Lions you
know we haven’t had the lipids but it’s
a bin oK we’ve been kind of looking out
for all of them we’ve even had a bit of
excitement with cheetah track so it’s
been really good now unfortunately it’s
that time of the night we’ve got to say
goodbye so for myself and sins oh and a
very wit bring Kier Smith in the Mara
it’s been an absolute pleasure and we’ll
see you all on the Sunrise Safari
tomorrow
[Music]
you
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