well hidden at the moment tucked away in
the long grass and you can see that one
of the little Cubs is suckling away so
these are the four cuts that we saw
playing with the game drive blanket not
all that long ago tugging it backwards
and forwards and having a grand old time
and they belonged to three lionesses
known as G Cho Keeley and Akeem II who
are all part of Marsh breakaway pride or
one of the marsh breakaway prides Marsh
breakaway twos if I’m not mistaken so
they came from the famous Marsh pride
that was famously filmed across in Lucy
our Amash so that’s where these lions
come from now we’ve got the four older
Cubs I promise you there are three tiny
Cubs they must be hidden away at the
moment they are very very young which
means that they are not always with the
rest of the pride a lot of the time they
will spend hidden away in their own den
site fast asleep and well behaved
because they’re too young to know any
better and wait until mom goes to call
them now given where they were this
morning and given where they are this
afternoon I would say that the den site
is very very close to where we are now
and I’m hoping that if we show a little
bit of patience even if we don’t have
the best view now to get to the den site
is going to provide us with a really
spectacular view as the lioness gets up
and moves back towards them and
hopefully we will be able to figure out
who’s who in those in this particular
pride detour meaning I she’s got very
very bright clear orange eyes I have
learned to recognize her and I’ve
learned to recognize Kimmy who’s got 330
years but I’m not sure who fits in where
in terms of mothers of the Cubs that is
one thing that I’m still trying to
figure out because I have never seen the
mother of the youngest set of Cubs in
clear daylight I know it’s not hold on
I’m relatively certain no I’m not I was
about to say that it’s not you sure but
I’m actually not certain of that there
was a different sighting I am in fact
talking utter nonsense
but that’s the plan is to wait and see
whether or not she goes to fetch the
youngest set of Cubs aren’t very excited
about that I really wanted to show them
to you this morning and we couldn’t
because the gremlins were attacking and
the ground was getting mushy and mushiya
I’ve also just watched a little bit
earlier on I’m just watched about three
warthogs we’ll pass these lioness close
there doesn’t even lift their heads Hey
ladies
they haven’t actually been in this area
all that long this would be the first
litter of covers that they’ve had here
in this new part of their territory that
I think is Keaney at the back with the
tatty right here think pretty sure it’s
hard to tell at this angle I think I’d
know if us were pretty sure that’s a no
there we go
world famous lionesses probably one of
the most famous prides in the world
although there’s quite a few Marsh
prized throughout the world
don’t forget questions to hear from you
particularly not particularly but for
new viewers please don’t be shy to ask
questions obviously we’ve had viewers
you’ve been watching for many years and
know as much as there is to know about
many of the different animals so don’t
forget to send through your questions as
well don’t be shy remember at the
beginning of the Stryver said we’d be
joined by our crew in South Africa well
they’re out and about let’s go and join
Tristan and find out what his plans are
as he cruises around juma well indeed we
are in South Africa and we are ready to
go and we’ve got something that Jamie’s
Lions I’m sure are missing dearly at the
moment in the form of a ville de beast
although it’s a different species
altogether you can see he’s also just
having a look over to say hello and as
Jamie mentioned as well my name is
Tristan and on camera today I have got
Ferg and as you may notice we have
stolen James’s vehicles so we have
ditched rusty behind and we have decided
we will take jigger this afternoon and
try and see if we can look after it
because I hope James doesn’t kill me
with all these fancy new toys that’s on
jigger now remember we are coming to you
live and interactive so hashtags for
alive when Twitter was a YouTube chat
should you want to get hold of us but
interestingly enough it has been sitting
here watching this world of Eastern
they’re a funny animal to say the least
but what’s been really cool to watch
with this particular individual is how
he’s been marking so little
you would think would not be an animal
that would mark territory you would
think things like lions and leopards in
the way that they spray and those kind
of things would be what you would
normally expect from an animal but these
guys have a bit of a different way of
doing things you can see his kind of got
his horn up against the tree and he’s
been pushing his face using a little
gland that is just below the eye so if
you look just below the eye there there
is a sort of roundish shape going down
towards his nose and that pre-orbital
gland is full of scent and what they
what he was doing was rubbing it all
over their tree and so he’s basically
staking his claim that this is my area
the problem is is that the valta bees
just to his left which also is a boy was
doing the exact same thing and they were
both marking over one another which
seems a bit odd and it’s amazing to
actually see this because it’s
completely different behavior to what
we’re seeing from the valta beast in the
Mara there we go he’s doing it again now
so he’s got his head up against the tree
and he’s busy rubbing and pushing it
there we go you see you see how I uses
the gland underneath the eyes so he’s
not rubbing really his horns that much
it’s more that he’s trying to put that
gland all over that tree any other Valle
de beast that’s gonna come past he’s
going to smell it and I was saying it’s
different from the Valle de beast in the
Mara and the reason why is because all
the beasts here tend to be not nearly as
migratory as what we see from those
wildebeest these guys tend to sit up
territories within an area that they
feel like there’s food and water
availability and then try and keep
females within that section to be able
to dominate because the amount of
females in this area is so much less
whereas in Kenya because these massive
herds move around and there’s so many
females and the males can in just
compete when a female comes into
Easter’s they don’t have to set up their
territory in quite the same way that
these guys have to do so it’s very very
cool to see the difference between the
species over the East Africa and those
that are down here in South Africa but I
think what we’re going to do is probably
leave our wildebeest to be on their own
I want to try and find the rest of the
herd because there is a brand new little
baby that I saw two nights ago that is
in amongst the herd and there was a
number of other females that were
looking heavily pregnant and so I think
that maybe just maybe we might find a
couple new ones within the hood itself
and there’s nothing better than a couple
baby animals and in particularly valle
de b’s cars i quite like them then much
lighter in color and very very cute so
we’re gonna try and see if we can find
them of
other than that I think this afternoon
we’re going to hear probably down
towards chipper see if we can find any
signs of our naughty little friend
hasanah who seems to have been on many
adventures over the last couple of weeks
and so we’ll try and see if we can find
him somewhere but while we do that I
believe and Noel has found something
that’s maybe husana would like to hunt
when he’s a little bit older just in
good luck confining the sauna I hope you
do well you are the leopard whisperer
after all and indeed when husana gets a
little bit older some of these kudu
might be a good size for him these
females might be a Titch big but a big
male leopard can take down a small
giraffe so you never know good afternoon
everyone I’m Noel and on camera I’ve got
Sens oh there’s the three fingers hi
sends I hope everybody’s good and
enjoying their day or their evening
depending on where they are it’s turned
from a bright and sunny day to a very
very cloudy afternoon here in the sabi
sands in South Africa oh and now our
kudu have disappeared our little cutlery
of kudu as it were of course there they
are just peeking through the bushes with
their disruptive markings striped
beautifully across their body that white
is really sticking out on that one
female that we can see there now the
theory behind those stripes is that it’s
striped that way because predators see
in black and white and shades of grey in
vertical striping as far as I understand
now I’m always curious to know how they
manage to find these things out I had an
optometrist once as a guest and she was
describing some of how the eye functions
cuz we were talking about predators eyes
at nights and how they take the light
and it reflects back off their retina
and then out again but as far as the
vertical banding goes with the black and
white in shades of gray her and I had a
long discussion about it but she’s not
quite sure where they found that so I’m
sure someone very smart discovered it I
don’t know if any of you that like to
look for papers for us has anything like
that I would love to see a paper on any
of those eye issues but issues isn’t the
right word i conversations is it worry
about predators okay my plan for the day
not quite sure I’m hoping maybe tündi
starts moving away from her den site we
can may
you get a view of her shadow is in
little gallery she was near treehouse
dam there inside a little gallery not
our tree house down there tree house
a waterhole over there with her
youngster ting gana I’ve not heard
anything about today the talam Aki pride
is up in biffle’s hook they have killed
a buffalo near hunter’s rest camp so we
won’t be seeing them unfortunately they
don’t usually come this far south either
but I was I was crossing fingers and
holding guns because I haven’t seen them
in a very long time nothing from the
Inca Leamas that I’ve heard and nothing
from the sticks that I’ve heard and that
male lion is still somewhere in and
that’s south of chitwa chitwa so maybe
Tristan gets lucky on his journey over
to Chitwood damn you never know so maybe
we’ll do a bit of birdie it’s not bad
weather for a burning but I’m gonna
carry on towards the Milwaukee and see
what we can find
now we have James Henry who was out and
about on his own two feet so let’s head
over to him yes well I’m glad not to
have borrowed anyone else’s feet out
here
ha-ha-hilarious Sunday afternoon joke my
name is James Henry I am indeed on push
walk this afternoon with my friend Ian
here Ian is an Impala more accurately in
was an Impala VM is on camera hello VM
as vm’s unusually large thumb he’s been
cleaning his ox wagon today so his nails
are a little grubby don’t worry about
that now the reason I picked up Ian of
course is because well I’m going to do a
quiz with you I don’t often do quizzes
with you but in order to introduce the
hashtag safari live in the YouTube chat
stream I’m going to ask you to tell me
what do you think killed this and how do
you know
hashtag safari live or on the YouTube
chat stream you can give one word for
the animal responsible for the death of
this Impala and you may have three words
to tell me why you think it was that
animal okay the way out there is the
brain of the Impala substantially larger
than many of the human beings I know
excellent so that was an important
I’ll plan this afternoon while you think
about that rather remarkable quiz I’ve
given you is the head down into the
valley over here or Exxon is fairly
convinced that the mating leopard pair
of an unknown male leopard and the
Ingrid dam female are somewhere around
here we saw them the other day it was
very exciting indeed and they’ve been
sought after ever since there were brief
sort of reporting’s on the bush
Telegraph that there was somewhere near
the western boundary earlier today they
were not seen here Erickson is convinced
that they’re going to go in there
exhaustion because cats get very
exhausted when they are in love down to
treehouse Dam where we think they will
possibly have a drink so that’s the plan
there the M is now walking backwards so
if suddenly you find yourself looking at
the sky it’s because V M has fallen onto
his back side and she’s thankful to keep
the camera upright they make this a bit
easier for him and walk mixed him okay
so that’s the plan today now somebody
just saw there’s an elephant there it is
it’s quite far away just across the
drainage line if it could hear me at
that distance I’d be seriously impressed
by its ears let me just check the wind
yes still southeast playing perfectly
for us
it looks like a young bull on his own
has decided to issue the comforts of
home who is another one come with me
from B if you don’t mind
this is a perfect way to view elephants
because they’re across the drainage line
which means we don’t have to worry about
them sort of rushing towards us across
open ground we can get a nice aerial
kind of view down look up look down on
them this is what Rick’s on spotted
Rickson is on security detail I thought
he was indicating that he’d seen a bird
but his flapping arms we need this mint
obviously the ears of an elephant not a
vulture so there they are
they’re quite a few you just go over
here there we go that’s a beautiful view
should we
the termite model I think there’s a
really nice view there
this is just Sunday afternoon what you’d
want to do is sit here this perfectly
designed seat have a cup of Earl Grey
and perhaps a scone with some cream and
strawberry jam watching elephants now if
they’re turned on from there it’s quite
possible they could see us and there’s
some debate as to how good their eyes
really are I think that their eyes are
probably just slightly worse than our
own certainly better than some people
but possibly not nearly as good as say
lions leopards oh and parlors or crew
they can certainly smell us from there
if the wind was to turn and I’m pretty
sure that if I was to start singing the
Hallelujah Chorus they would almost
certainly hear that as well I’m not
going to start thinking about how to do
your chorus that would be inappropriate
you can’t hear them moving at all it’s
just very special isn’t that gorgeous
all right well we’ll sit here and see
where they go while we do that I believe
that Tim Noel has got a girl a food for
you little size one I think quite catch
James’s words there but I’ve got a
cousin of a cutlery of kudu we have some
niala the only cousin of kudu and yalla
that we don’t get here is a seat Otunga
see the tongue go you’ll see sort of up
in the the can’t talk today in the large
a swamp that is the Okavango Delta we
get in the Ala we get kudu I said before
we technically get Eiland all in the
tribe
laughing a which means spiral horned
antelope and then unfortunately the seat
of tuna and the seat of tuna is actually
something I have not seen yet I worked
up in the Delta for a while and I
visited up out there a few times but I
have yet to see a seat attune goods on
my list that is for sure there’s a
couple other wet marshes or swamps that
you would see them in now part of the
spyro horn dance a little family what
you’re going to see there that sends out
showing so nicely is that track on track
walking where they put one foot and then
the next foot directly in the same spot
to minimize the noise the other thing
you will notice is the striping along
the body for some like the niala and the
kudu it’s very apparent Oh in the bush
box sorry we also get bush box that’s
also in the family I knew I was missing
one and then also the white under the
tail as well as the very very large ears
now they’ve moved again into some
thickets Nuala’s are interesting kudu
perform prefer more thick areas nee
Allah’s will will do both but you tend
to see in the Allah’s closer to water
bushbuck are much more shy than both
niala and kudu and tend not to be in as
such large groups as we’re seeing here
what we saw earlier they tend to be in
in pairs or like we have in our camp we
have two males who really enjoy camp
they find it safer and they’ve been
hiding out there a lot since the wild
dogs have been around and then eel and
eland will be in all sorts of areas but
also very very dry areas as well so they
do occur in this area and then I’ve seen
them in places like around the Kalahari
basin and there as well absolutely
beautiful they’re the largest antelope
species in sub-saharan Africa now let’s
head on up to Brent who’s in the Masai
Mara which is about a thousand six
hundred miles away from us so about
double that in kilometres and see what
he has to show us that might be
something fun well welcome back to the
Maasai Mara and we are still with the
five male cheetah a hundred percent live
bringing you Africa’s wildlife in real
time now Noelle was chatting about such
at Unga and how she would love to see
you sat at Unga now I’ve been fortunate
enough to see a leopard eating a certain
ger as well as crocodile eating a
certain guy I grew up
and the Okavango Delta said certain gear
is something I’ve seen a fair few of and
I’ve also seen different subspecies of
saratoga in the Congo and Gabon now the
one animal you I’m likely to see eating
a certain guy is of course a cheetah it
is always possible especially in areas
such as the Chobe and the Okavango for
certain go wanders out of the papyrus
swamps onto the edge there are a fair
amount of cheetah that could take
advantage of there but unlikely so here
we go our fire boy said three of them
are very well fed – not so much moment
they are starting to show some signs of
movement a few little rollovers and
stretches and little shivers as the cold
wind blows it looks like the rain has
fortunately left us for now we’ve still
got the one side of the car down just in
case the rain decides to come back but
we will be playing the patience game
indeed with the fire boys there are such
prolific hunters and it would be nice to
see them stretch their legs this evening
remember if you have any questions for
us hash tag a safari live it is the best
way to get hold of us on whatever
platform you might be watching on Oh
Lily you’re so sweet
Lily’s Brent you’ve made my Christmas
well Lily it’s going to be a Christmas
week for you because I’m hoping to spend
every day with Cheeta from now all the
way till Friday and hopefully we’ll be
able to share as many Cheeta with you as
possible Nellie
now there are quite lazy at the moment
but I said there are few signs that
there might be starting to get mobile so
hopefully they will get mobile I’m not
too distant future sorry guys we are
live
we can’t talk right now we’re live and
Meigs can you give me a moment can I go
to someone else please sorry I’m just
gonna send you across to Jamie with
lions quickly and we’ll be back in a
second so lions are sort of looking a
little bit more awake but I think that
might have just been to move to a cooler
spot that if I’m not mistaken
oh snapping it flies that I think is
cheetah hard to tell at this distance I
think that’s her oh so irritated there’s
obviously a real biting fly problem
there and it’s just driving her nuts
must be so irritating while she I don’t
know why I’m saying it must be so
irritating I know exactly what it’s like
and it is irritating and they come and
bother us as well at exactly the same
time ah let’s see we have a well
well-placed vehicle in the background to
our shots as well
we’ll come on cats the rain is coming
the rain is coming soon but I really
really want to show everybody your brand
new brand new ish little Cubs especially
because we were there for that traumatic
slightly traumatic heart-rending moment
of that tiny Cubs squealing away sort of
calling repeatedly with it’s a very big
voice for a very small thing and when we
saw it it must have been let me try not
to exaggerate now because it’s one of
the
things that happens to one’s memory
after us it must have been about that
big I would say I mean it’s really for
Lion Cup it was really really small it
could only have been I think I guessed
at the time it was about ten days or
under ten days old its ears was still
flat to its head so they hadn’t actually
peeled away from the skull yet we’ll
lift it up kissa do lions eat plants
only very occasionally so they are
obligate carnivores the vast majority of
their diet is meat and it has to be that
way they do however occasionally eat
grass usually when their stomachs are
feeling a little bit upset they’ve eaten
something that disagrees with them
perhaps they’ve got a chunk of a hoof or
bone that’s a little bit too large to
break down and then they will eat grass
and then shortly after that most of the
time they will then throw up so they are
not in any way herbivorous or omnivorous
they are obligate carnivores they have
to eat meat just like dogs and cats have
to as well you might occasionally see a
line chewing on fruit but it’s very
unusual they don’t really like it it’s
not it’s not on their menu at all and
it’s not a smell or taste that attracts
them she’s very pretty
pen and it’s funny that you should ask
that actually in brain search for his
ostrich nest once again not so long ago
on one of our sunset safaris we saw a
lioness with an ostrich egg in her mouth
she obviously decided that it wasn’t
worth the trouble
because she abandoned it but yes
predators will eat ostrich eggs and they
something like a hyena can break it open
so can a lion honey badgers also really
really like ostrich eggs if they can
find them so yes predators will eat
ostrich eggs you can imagine just how
nutritious and ostrich egg would be
because it’s got the the fledgling you
wouldn’t really call it a fledgling
actually it’s got the embryo and the and
the egg sac on the yolk to feed the
embryo so it’s really quite a double
meal in one an ostrich egg is so massive
that it really is for a lion not hugely
okay you know it’s not a filling meal
but it’s certainly a pleasant one
absolutely
lions will eat ostrich eggs so will
honey badgers hyenas leopards chetan
might have a hard time breaking open an
ostrich egg bearing in mind that an
adult human or maybe not adult human
being but when I was around a kid of
around about I don’t know how heavy I
was 30 35 kilograms at the time I could
stand on an ostrich egg without breaking
it so it’s a very tough egg copy how
much these guys have grown either they
were so sweet when they were playing
with that blanket
so the fun story of the marsh breakaway
pride is that kini who is one of the
younger females the youngest actually in
this group kini apparently was the
daughter of lippy now Lippe died
recently lippy was quite a famous linus
has she seen sorry was she looking at
Buffalo or is this something smaller
she’s definitely looking at something
warthogs she’s looking at war dogs
running around can you see them there
Joey right over the straight over the
top of my head and running towards us
potentially the lioness is now up she’s
moving towards them as well can you see
them there there we go
two little piggies she’s got quite a
distance to cover I think it’s the same
two little piggies I drove past and
asked them where their mothers were
earlier on today I don’t think I was
live at the time but I did drive past
two little piglets and wonder that they
were so far away from mum actually that
was the end part of the story of Keaney
actually was the fact that she
eventually became separated from her mum
at about three months old and was
returned to her by the Wildlife Services
okay – to settle down again it remains
to be seen
generally speaking in these situations
the piglets are the ones that actually
make the mistake can go running towards
the lion so while we wait to see how
this plays out let’s head back over the
river to Brent to see if the rain is lit
up
well the rain has let up there’s a tiny
bit of light seeping through huge storms
to the south of us and bathing the
currently lazy five boys but I’m hoping
that our gonna get moving they are
getting to the crepuscular Eyre hour
where these boys are very fond of taking
down topi Harvey Stovall the Beast that
has said three of them are very well fed
– not so much
now Deidre is wondering will cheetah
climb a tree now very simply tree
climbing lines today so yes they will a
male cheetah in particular they do climb
trees they like to scent mark-up entries
there however not nearly as agile as a
leopard but there are more agile than
lions when it comes to climb trees but
they generally prefer trees that are
quite easy to climb so they don’t take
on vertical vertical brought vertical
trunks to you often but there will climb
a tree if if the mood takes them and
quite often cheetah like to defecate
quite up high and scent mark up in trees
so yes there will climb trees but again
not nearly to the same effectiveness as
as a leopard you in last at the moment
that’s called down they’ve moved after
shade of the small Croton bushes and I
just sort of lying in the breeze at the
moment I’m guessing from here they’re
gonna head towards the east which is
their general route from here
Richard is wondering how did the cheetah
learn how to hunt again now that’s a
very interesting question Richard so
cheetah Mother’s will let their cubs
especially with baby antelope sort of
play with them and make the kill but no
big cat in Africa actually needs to
learn how to hunt it is a great
misconception that human beings have
that they think they need to teach a big
cat how to hunt it would be like
teaching any mammal how to breed those
it is an instinctive in bred thing that
every single animal knows how to hunt as
it knows how to breathe as it knows how
to run so it is it is a very human thing
and a lot of humans like to do these
little things where they’re going to
take a big catch and they’re going to
teach it how to hunt so it can be wild
which is an absolute farce if if a big
cat gets hungry enough it knows how to
hunt those instincts are there there
have been there for hundreds of
thousands of years they don’t need to be
taught anything
and as I said it would be the same as
trying to teach us hard to breathe it is
a it is a complete fallacy that you need
to teach a cat how to hunt even your
domestic cat without any teaching or
training
it’s instinct will take over and it
knows exactly out ant
at the moment they are not too
interested in hunting know they look far
more interested in having a sneeze but
that’s why we sit with the big cats and
play the patience game because those
momentary momentary bursts of energy are
absolutely incredible to behold and well
I couldn’t think of too many worse ways
to spend a Sunday afternoon than in the
company of five male cheetah even if
they’re relaxing if it is quite a
relaxing time to be searching them now
someone hasn’t quite learned the art of
relaxation and is always quite a
busybody is my good friend James Henry
let’s see what is busying at the moment
I have perfected the art of relaxation
as you can see I’m very relaxed in front
of a lion’s eye which I showed you this
morning and will probably show you every
day that I’m on book walk because there
are many of them around there it is the
same color as my eyes as I and not the
same color as most Lions eye so why it
should be this orange color and so be
named well who can who can look into the
mind of the botanical tech psalmist but
then over here we have got a little
termite mound now it’s not an impressive
termite mound in that it’s about the
same size as my hand but if you look
very carefully you can see little
termites emerging and going back inside
and emerging and going back inside on
this cool day they’re probably nocturnal
and there will be a different form of
termite from the big macro termes that
make the big mounds I’m not sure exactly
which ones these are and I’m speaking
quietly like this not necessarily
because I think they’re going to hear me
and run away but simply because those
elephants are not too far away we also
have a betel fairmont
VM just hit me in the face of the Ariel
there yeah here’s a better one there’s
an ant beastly ant beastly beastly ant
has murdered this termite and taking it
away look
foul foul fellow here’s another one I
thought there was a battle going on here
I have never ever seen an anteater mind
battle where the termites aren’t taking
a fearful pasting they never seem that
soldiers are a complete waste of time
a little bit like the air like the
French in World War two and some joke no
brains a bad joke never matter happened
to me here’s another one isn’t that
awful ah now Julia you make a very good
point Oh question you said you anteaters
eat only ants or termites um I’m not
sure about the scaly anteater of the ant
eaters of South America for example but
at an art park for example which is the
thought of as largely of termite eater
will in fact eat ants mostly during the
summer time and during the other were
under ants in the winter and termites
during the summer time so they will
absolutely eat both and ants probably
more so than termites and the same goes
for something like a Pangolin which has
a long sticky tongue to dig into the
adness here look here’s more brutality
going on here only these things been
carted off then another predators come
onto the scene a little wolf spider it’s
gone unless it’s hunting me it was a
little wolf spider here he is he’s just
over there
see in there him I think he’s a wolf
spider and I think you’ll find that he
grab a whole lot of termites and ants he
will hunt the hunters and the hunted an
uber predator at the micro-level
killer now I believe we have some
answers to my almost impossible quiz
that I gave you do we have those answers
Rick and Mama you both said that her
hyena killed that Impala because they
only eat bone and sure mama you say they
crushed the skull to get to the brain I
think it could well have been taken
eventually by a hyena but I suspect that
that was killed by lions and lions will
eat away the entire face and leave the
horns and that little piece of skull
possibly killed by a leopard or a
cheater perhaps and then a hyena would
have taken away so Andrea you say lions
because they would’ve eaten the whole
skull I would have gone with lions for
that but I might be wrong it could
easily have been something smaller
it was then taken by the scavenging
highness thank you for playing my Sunday
afternoon game it was very nice of you
to do that okay let’s move on from this
battle royale going on here
it’s Sunday take a rest leave them alone
I’m just talking to the ants they’re not
beautiful
now and I’m going to get round this way
VM you can go round that way if you want
make things easier for you what are we
looking for of course it’s checks of
this mating pair we haven’t actually
managed to come across them yet we’ve
covered some distance and VM said do you
think we could slow down slightly not
because he was tired but because he
thought perhaps that we were going to
cover the whole property before the
drive ended well while we do cover the
whole property
Jamie has got a ville de Beast not alive
that is in the mouth of something that’s
a tit but it is long dead my mum told me
that there were loads of these animals
all around but she says I’m only going
to see them again when I’m much much
older
our Cubs found itself a to toy a remnant
of the migration the migration that this
little one is too young to remember you
would have been alive for it but it
would most definitely not really have
registered in this little Cubs mind now
that it’s left with the remnants in the
form of a chew toy a much a contestant
to toy I have to say as the second
comers come chasing after it storms are
rolling in the sun’s coming out between
patches of dark is if it’s you go look
how proud you are of yourself mouth full
of wildebeest torn yeah you’ve got a
year to go just under a year to go seven
months mr. Parker you say that it is
just too cute it is isn’t it I’m going
to have to reposition in a moment for
Joey so Joe you just let me know when
you at the point of no return and I’ll
shuffle around possibly with us blowing
away in this gale if you lived in the
golden grass actually almost reddish
grass reddish and green crystal at oh
goodness
tonight she cried it’s prickly angle
around that is anyone behind me one down
there depression to a car if I don’t
remember to keep checking
here we go you are wondering very far
away look one vicious and delicious says
look at that strut I know it couldn’t be
more pleased with itself if it tried of
course it also helps that it doesn’t
want to drag it on the ground come on I
think what we’ve got is a young male on
the right and a young female on the left
his sister she wants to go and challenge
him but at this point it’s not quite
brave enough for now we get very far
away from mum I’m just gonna I’m sorry
to do this to you again oh there we go
and we got the pants and I’m really
sorry to do this to you I’m gonna have
to move hold on he’s gonna go round me
very kind of him thank you Suba
hehehe
atul do I ever feel like getting off my
vehicle and hugging cute animals like
this one no I can’t say that that desire
ever strikes me with with wild animals
but I do with elephants occasionally
have the strange desire to want to just
go and rest my hand up against their
heads but it was something that I
understand would be so innately
disrespectful quite apart from the fact
that I’d either be chasing the animal
away or possibly getting myself
flattened which would be the most likely
response I am so very aware of the fact
that they are completely wild and that’s
half the joy of these animals and
whenever I see pictures of people
cuddling lion cubs it makes my stomach
turn
not just because those lion cubs are
fated to a life of canned hunting no
matter what the shelter says no matter
what the play says that they are happily
released into the wild
it’s nonsense no animal that has been
touched by humans wild animal can be in
in the sense released back into the wild
no lion no elephant not in a way that
can be safely safely done without the
risk of injury to that animal or to
human life so all of the lion cubs that
get their pictures taken will all
ultimately have a very sad fate but
beyond that I just don’t like seeing
wild animals with people obviously but
no oddly enough I’m happy being able to
cuddle dogs and cats I don’t want to go
and cuddle Lions alright we’re going to
send you across to James speaking about
being on foot with the animals let’s go
and find out whether he’s got any desire
to go and cuddle the ones he’s walking
around no now cuddle this and it will be
a very unpleasant experience indeed now
these are some of the soldiers of which
I was talking although they belong to
different species of termite this is the
macro termes the big fungus growing and
mound building termite and that is a
major soldier you get smaller ones
called
surprisingly minor soldiers and then you
get major workers and minor workers
which are just different sizes and these
chaps have been guarding one of these
holes here and it is my firm belief that
this hole you see it’s curved nature I
think that is a hole that has been dug
specifically for a termite a late
emergence in other words I probably yeah
probably not today I’m not sure that
it’s warm enough but after the rain when
the soil is soft the elates or flying
termites come to these little emergence
holes and they have a guard of honor
around them formed by those big soldier
termites and off they go
and it’s always I keep saying this but
maybe there are one or two new viewers
who haven’t heard it before but it’s my
favorite part of the termites lifecycle
it’s like this sort of enormous
celebration of the whole purpose behind
the work that goes on in this termite
mound the countless hours countless
numbers of eggs some 25,000 of them a
day are laid sometimes by the really big
Queens whoops we understand he fell on
his bottom and it’s all for this time
when the termite elites come out of
these holes and they’re fly off in those
enormous clouds of gossamer wings often
at sunset when the flight is the most
beautiful and then they find each other
they find a male or a female depending
if they’re male or female and they try
and start a new mound and of course it’s
also covered in a sense of tragedy
because well probably 95 to 99 percent
of them will never mate they’ll never
manage to meet a mate and even those
that do and manage to get themselves
that far under the ground will often not
survive to create an amazing man like
this because they’ll be eaten they’re
such a rich food source
so quite a celebratory we’ve make
natural event but one tinged with a
little bit of sadness at the same time
goodbye
termites may you have a wonderful
afternoon we are going to carry on do
that just before we leave these fellows
you
know how long it takes for them to build
these mounds Julia it’s difficult to
save and it’s not difficult to say
simply because I’m ignorant it’s
difficult so I don’t think that a mound
this size has been continuously occupied
by only one colony
it’s an enormous mound but it’s my guess
that this termite mound is probably
around a but let’s say 50 years 50 to a
hundred years or so I have seen sort of
a half sour mound about half well about
half of no not half I’m gonna say about
1/10 of this much soil deposited over
the course of a year so I think that
there’s probably about 50 years not 10
years and and the reason I say that of
course is because there’s a huge amount
of erosion that happens in the rain so
although yes they can certainly make
them they can make a certain amount per
year a lot of that will get washed away
during the right now I’m very excited to
tell you that in Jigga this afternoon is
tristan who’ve met and he’s now got the
mobile microscope working and he’d like
to show you Sunday BT indeed James we do
have the mobile microscope working and
it is the most insane thing in the world
I’m absolutely loving playing around
with it feel like a little kid on
Christmas and I suppose it’s apt for
this time of the year and as James
mentioned we do have a little beetle now
this little beetle I have actually never
ever ever in my life seen before it is a
tiny little dung beetle that we have so
it is small and it is got little kind of
yellow and black markings on it you can
see it’s covered in sand at the moment
this poor little beetle has been
burrowing through the road and we
spotted it coming off a bit of elephant
dung and that’s also why it’s a bit
sticky with and the sand is all sticking
to it because it’s been in the moist
elephant dung for a while and it’s
amazing to watch it because it goes
burrowing through the sand at times now
it’s just sitting the ever so quietly of
course it hasn’t been doing this the
whole time we’ve been with it it’s been
all over the place and I feel like I’ve
moved this microscope about 20 times to
try and keep it in frame and now it’s it
very patiently so that you can all see
it it almost doesn’t look alive at this
stage but I can assure you it is a very
much alive an English can show you that
it is very fast now I’m sorry I’ve just
bumped the microscope slightly which is
not ideal I was hoping that he was going
to burrow around and you would be able
to see that head Action Network because
it is absolutely unbelievable to see how
small it is and this particular little
guy is only about the size of some of
these small particles of sand it’s
really as amazing how little it is I’m
going to try and take the microscope
away and just give it a little pick up
so that you can see just how tiny this
little beetle is well you little beetle
there we go so I’m going to put it on my
hand you can see he’s going to move
quite fast well no beetle don’t go there
it’s now gone back onto the road maybe
we can actually get a better view of it
I’ll try on the microscope one more time
there we go
it might be digging down now that’s much
better we can actually see it digging
which is very very cool so it’s now
going into the sand you can see how it
uses that shovel like head to dig its
way underneath the soil and to be able
to hide away from a predator so it’s
been very clever in its way does things
this of course is also how it’s going to
emerge when it was a little beetle and
it’s going to start feeding and how it’s
going to be able to lay its Lavi if it
is that type of dung beetle that does
leyla event you can see the particles of
the road there which is little sand
particles and how small that little
beetle is in comparison it is absolutely
fascinating I’m thoroughly enjoying
playing with this microscope I think I’m
going to try and see what other things I
can find and talking about microscopic
beetles and small beetles Noel has found
a little carnivore that I’m sure would
love to eat one of these little guys up
so we do dwarf Mongoose a lot on the
show because we amazingly see them quite
a lot that sends when I right next to
this termite mound where this little
dwarf mongooses smelling us and looking
around we’re getting the most amazing
visual as you all can see I mean it’s
right next to the car sounds I don’t
know if you want to zoom out a little
bit just so everyone can see I mean
literally right here
just sun zone i’ve been talking in
whispers
and sitting very still and moving very
slowly so that he’ll pop his head out
just like you saw now now the rest of
this business of Mongoose is around and
the bushes there’s another one you see
just here at about two o’clock sands
I’ll read my mind my friend there’s a
few more out foraging looking for
insects possibly beetles like the one
Tristan was showing you through the
microscope and if you if you move slowly
around them and then sit sort of quietly
they will just carry on their business
and and we’ll find you quite interesting
and sometimes when you’re this close you
can really hear their communications
it’s as tiny little tiny little chirpy
noise that they do now one of my
favorite sightings of this year was
actually with Senzo sands when was it
about a month ago five weeks ago
something like that when we had dwarf
Mongoose that were chasing a black mamba
around it was pretty amazing
so for me Dorf Mongoose are kind of like
the wild dogs of the small mammal
community because they move so quickly
and have such severe a DD that anything
can happen at any moment now it seems as
if everybody has meandered off into
spots where we can’t see them there’s
one now and we’re not getting any of the
the noises that I’d like to hear and our
one that’s right next to the car has
decided not to poke pop out his head
again those ones are playing over there
Paulo that’s a really interesting
question sense can we come back to these
holes here
Sao Paulo where they’re living are
inside of a termite mound and those
holes that you’re seeing are not burrows
that they’ve made it’s actually
collapsed chimneys from inside the
termite mounds that termite mound is
still active like the one that James was
showing you of every mound is a little
bit different and then they live inside
of these open opened up chimneys as well
as things like monitor lizards and
snakes certain types of birds will also
live in there and then we’ve seen larger
cavities that are dug out by things like
height um things like aardvark and then
lived in by hyena or similar to tondee’s
den so those chimneys actually go down
quite far to the termite mound it can be
several yards it could be tens of yards
it just depends on where the water table
is but the the Mongoose don’t know
Cecily necessarily go all the way down
to where the water table is now inside
those chimneys it wouldn’t surprise me
if there’s little nooks and crannies
that they’ve sort of dug out a little
bit with their claws too to live inside
of but those initial ones is not not not
not they’re making it’s very very
interesting all right so we’ve been
tracking elephants we’ve been tracking a
huge herd of elephants for about three
kilometers now and unfortunately these
elephants have gone south into little
gallery so I think what we’re gonna do
is we’re gonna go lurk along the
boundary and see if shadow wants to pop
up or possibly if the wild dogs want to
pop up that’s our plan for from here so
while we are busy looking for any
Rosetta creatures or painted wolves
let’s head on up to the masai mara where
Jaime has one of the three big cats that
we have without lions not all that much
it distracted
into the void any sign of them I can see
them I can’t see them and they are
making their way back : make me just
shift out of the way
well Joey and I are eyeing out the
weather and it’s not looking positive no
matter which direction we look in it
appears as though it’s their car behind
me wonderful just mud little Cubs are
going to come into view shortly in fact
you should be able to see them I want to
go further back to the mush there’s one
Oh Nadia you want to know if a lion will
have a single mate throughout their
lives and the answer to that is no
absolutely not they will have multiple
males that they made with or multiple
females depending on what we’re talking
about these little Cubs make their way
back towards their mothers a lioness
will essentially the way that lion
dynamics work a male Coalition has Dara
Tori in that territory encompasses the
territory of several different prides
and therefore several different
lionesses they’ll make those lionesses
for around about two to three years
before they are all stood by another
group of young males obviously this is a
general rule they will then move on
possibly to a new territory and the new
males will start mating with those firm
the females and the old males will start
mating with other females so no there is
no monogamy within a lion pride or
coalition they and females will mate
with as many males as they possibly can
within their Easter cycle so first of
all it’s just naturally instinctive for
them and secondly it helps to large
doesn’t eliminate the risk but it helps
to eliminate the risk of the Cubs being
killed by a male because males will kill
Cubs that do not belong to them or their
coalition mate because it will bring the
female back into Easter us faster and
allow them to mate with her and
therefore sire their own Cubs rather
than the Cubs of another male methyl
naughty things going wandering into the
dangerous big white world luckily you’ve
got one large mother and two big
auntie’s to keep you safe I was telling
you the story of a keaney not a Guinea
sorry Kimmy
she disappeared away from her mum at
around about this age possibly even a
little bit younger and she was gone for
nine days before reuniting with mum and
her two brothers lapies now no longer
with us but Keaney her daughters
stalking through the grass you need to
go and pounce on a sibling there are
some very ominous rumblings of thunder
here
vicious and delicious with the storm
coming no dead never it never snows here
in my tail infected has hailed very
small hailstones
Oh pants very gentle pants there it
might hail very small hailstones but
that’s about as icy as it gets here
there won’t be any snow and bear in mind
we are very close to the equator and
although we are high in altitude we’re
not that high oh here comes the other
cub I imagine
hence the reason for the Crouch assume
the stalk position completely flat in
the grass now
Oh lion cub number two is distracted its
veered off in a different direction here
we go get him
I love lion cubs at this age they are
just so unbelievably playful it’s so
sweet I miss watching leopard cubs do
this as well it’s one thing that we
haven’t managed to really find in the
Mara we know where they are
we know where the relaxed females are
with Cubs but a lot of the time they’re
in very bad signal areas was that a drop
of rain no no Joe it wasn’t just pretend
it’s not if we pretend it’s not
happening then it’s not happening right
okay we’re in all the clouds and the
giant storm that is engulfing the
escarpment and racing towards us at the
speed of well clouds oh goodness
okay well Joe Joey and I contemplate our
fate off you go to James who’s having a
fun Dicer time enjoying looking at the
flowers I am definitely having a far
nicer time enjoying the flowers and to
my mind the assertion that there’s a
long rain and a short rain season in
Kenya is at a rubbish it rains all the
time there in fact it probably rains
more there than it does in England which
of course is impossible now what we have
here is the beautiful yellow flowers the
blooms of peltor form Africana more the
weeping wattle and I was hoping to find
a fruit chaffeur or two which are little
beet he’s often very prettily colored
but I haven’t found any fruit chef is
here but what we have found or some drop
tailed ants now if your own walk with us
this morning which of course you should
have been for your morning exercise on
Sunday you would have known or you would
have seen we talked about the drop tail
dens then there we have one
and what this drop tailed ant is doing I
still don’t know
I think perhaps it’s looking for a fight
also be looking for little bits of plant
eggs you date or what we did find this
morning was a little frog hopper or
spittle bug this is interesting actually
we found a spittle bug being tended to
by these ants and what’s very
interesting is that this plant the
weeping wattle is called the weeping
wattle because of the fact that it gets
spittle bugs on it so I wonder if that’s
not what this ended looking for I don’t
see any spittle bugs and in fact the one
that I found today but possibly one of
the only ones I’ve ever seen one would
also expect to find crab spiders on a
tree like this little spiders disguised
like the flowers that are sitting here
and tore some other kind of creature
come across them and then they will
devour it for their Sunday roast dinner
let’s have a look here we need the eye
different huntable in order to find this
sort of thing ah now Kalin you’re asking
about a species of arachnid we’re not a
species our family of arachnids called
the red Romans or Sun spiders or more
particularly the Soloff uija’s and we do
get them here absolutely they are and to
most arachnophobia refined creatures in
the world they run at an astonishing
speed they’ve got these vicious kind of
an scissor like tooth drawers at the
front of their faces that kind of slide
over each other like this and the kind
of things you really don’t want wouldn’t
want to get caught in totally harmless
to human beings but they do look vicious
especially when you look at them under a
microscope and I had one outside my room
the other day it was a little fellow
like that and he ran around at a speed
that defied belief would be but like you
and I being able to run that around
about 60 miles an hour to 100 kilometers
an odd really was just amazing so yes we
do get them here I’m afraid I can’t find
you one in this sort of weather I don’t
think but if we get very lucky than I
felt that is Tommy you’ve want to know
if the word beat Lee is the correct way
to pronounce beetle no it’s not it is a
jerk I’ll tell you where the jerk comes
from the word l-e has no equivalent in
Shangaan out here and so often words
that end in le are said by local people
as they’re spelt so they’re said beat
Lee or literally and so literally beat
Lee and that sort of thing and you can
imagine some of the conversations that
people have and the giggles they have
with each other when you know words like
that are pronounced it’s always a quite
worth it’s often quite funny when people
mispronounce e so mispronounce each
other’s languages and beat Lee is just a
very kind of I think a hugely endearing
term for a beetle so that’s why I use it
immediately anyway that’s what it comes
from and then James you’re wondering
which species of insect has a symbiotic
relationship with the fungus I don’t try
to think if I know of an insect that has
a symbiotic relationship with the fungus
well I mean the the termites do those
fungus growing termites have a symbiotic
relationship
the fungus would not grow it’s a very
specific species of fungus that wouldn’t
grow in the absence of the termites the
termites are able to create the correct
conditions the right amount of moisture
the right temperature for the fungus to
grow in and without them it wouldn’t
exist they’ve co-evolved together to
live with each other completely
dependent on each other so they are they
are symbiotic for the termites they of
course get nourishment from the fungus
which helps them to digest the cellulose
and lignin and other structural material
in the plants that the termites are
unable to digest themselves so that
would be a good example of one I feel
like James you were asking perhaps for
something slightly less obvious than
that and I can’t think of I mean there
lots of ants that have that kind of
relationship but it’s the same sort of
relationship if you have if you have one
that you can think of I would be very
very pleased to try and understand it or
go and research it but yeah there’s the
only one that comes to mind all right
now let me see what else I can find you
there’s a lack of signal and obviously
an enormous storm in the Maasai Mara and
so you’re going to have to stick with me
for a little while let’s have a look in
here now I suspect you quite strongly
it’s something fairly large has spent a
substantial amount of time in here
possibly a warthog anyway I’m going to
have a bit of a rest here see what I can
see and while I do that you’re going to
go for a little Drive with no
hello James I’m so sorry that you’ve
gotten so old that you need to rest
after an hour and a half and got a tear
for you anyway so it’s a really
interesting question one of the insects
have a symbiotic relationship with fungi
and James honestly myself as well all I
can think of is the termites but it’s
tickling my file 13 when it’s saying
that so I’m assuming it’s also tickling
your file 13 which is why you’re passing
the question on forward and I’m trying
to think of
yeah I mean insects unless we count
things like lobster and prawns as
insects and then eating sort of fungal
like plant matter in oceans I guess we
could go with that train of thought but
yeah I can’t I can’t honestly such an
interesting question I can’t honestly
think of it and I’m sure we both have
friends at home that are sitting there
and yelling oh what about this and
neither what’s it’s thinking of it it
will come all right so my my search for
Tandy yeah and I picked up any other
leopard tracks I got really excited
because there were some vultures earlier
but I think they’re just resting because
of the cold eating at the ground and
we’re also coming towards evening so
that could be reason so I’m sort of
patrolling our eastern boundary just to
see if the wild dogs want to come back
through Torchwood which is on our
right-hand side and it doesn’t seem as
if they have yet but as you know they
they move here and they move there and
they zig and a zag so we might we might
just get lucky and other than that yes
it’s been a good afternoon but it’s been
relatively quiet especially after all
the excitement we’ve been having well I
know Senzo and I have and poor Wendy
here
then some some serious bundu bashing
over the the past couple of drives and
had some amazing times with the wild
dogs and look I’ll you know I’ll take
out my own eye teeth just to see wild
dogs they’re my absolute favorite I dig
them and I’m trying to think oh
elephants there’s been loads of
elephant’s especially this morning it
feels as if everything sort of maze we
get everything and some days it’s a
little bit
girl
gulia have I ever been on the drive
where I have not seen any animals well
Julia there’s always birds birds are
always around no I’ve never been on a
drive where we haven’t seen anything
I’ve been on drives where I haven’t seen
any of the big five but I’ve never been
on a drive where I haven’t seen any
birds and or other wildlife species no
and but it depends Julia on where you
work so a lot of the places I work have
very high population densities of
multiple different species of bush
wildlife one of the reserves I used to
work at was amazing for its complexity
of antelope species so even if you
didn’t see any of the big five or
magnificent seven on a drive you would
probably see about 10 different antelope
species as well as zebra and things like
that and birds are always around we’ve
just a lot of the birds that I’ve
personally been seeing today are birds
that we do very often and I’m looking
for ones that we don’t see as often to
show you so I think let’s head on over
to Tristan maybe he’ll find the painted
snipe for us I did get a quick glimpse
of the painted snipe near Chitwood dam
yesterday and let’s see what he has to
show us
we’ll be nice to find the pages in
Cyprus been a while since I’ve seen when
the last time I saw one was at twin dams
a few months ago so be good to see one
again but I don’t think so just yet I’ve
just arrived at you – damn we literally
have just come up onto the dam also I’m
still surveying around to see what there
is it seems quite quiet though with
regards to hippos and various other
things
it seems as though most of them are
under the water at this stage the
withers turned a little bit foul it’s
gotten quite overcast and rather windy
and cold and so not great weather for a
number of our animals to be frolicking
about and showing themselves so every
now and then just see these nostrils
from a hippo kind of poking up out of
the water I wonder if our little baby
crocs are around it’s been so long since
I’ve been in this area that I haven’t
seen in you the baby crocs for quite
some time
now there is some COO there you can see
they’re actually inside the lodge very
clever kudu go in and on the other side
of the fence that will make sure that
you’re a little bit safer from various
other things and they will go in there
all because they’re really going to go
and feed off all the vegetation that’s
in there the end of the day a lot of the
lodgers have lots of plants that they
water and is tends to be flowering
delicious food items for them and so
you’ll find that they’ll go inside there
to go and feed it’s also tends to be a
little safer you find that the Predators
even though they do move around the
lodges and we know that husana and
timber seems to think that chipler
belongs to them these days and they both
go and lounge around on the Bix while
the guests have dinner but typically
it’s a little bit safer but what’s
interesting
so those far left kudu they are all kind
of steering with the ears arts and maybe
it’s because there is another kudu that
has just moved into frame you can see
there’s another kudu that’s just arrived
so that’s maybe why they were just
looking at that one coming along no so
seems to be a few bush buckin y’all are
floating around within the lodge as well
then maybe let’s go forward a little bit
fig and let’s see if our baby in a
situation where it seems from what I’ve
been talking to forego bout is that
there’s only one little property
Sene so hopefully the other three are
still around Lorena you want to know
what is on the front of our vehicle well
this is firstly I think the best way to
start this is that this is James’s
vehicle and I’m just borrowing it for
the day and what is on the front of the
vehicle is what James deems to be his
insignia for Jigga which is a water box
skull now I will get it out now now
we’ll try and and sort of secure and
wedge it from the front of the car even
though that’s all there’s a picnic
Kingfisher so you see just on the edge
they folk right on the edge of the water
just off the top there we go there it is
just on the right is it a pygmy or is it
a malachite so it’s a malachite
Kingfisher so I thought it was a pygmy
at first because these guys in ages so
that’s super cool to see they are
incredibly beautiful little birds you
can see that bright red beak little
white section on the collar and then
that sort of a iridescent blue purple
coloration or for the back and so one of
the things about being a Chitra dam is
that you never know what you’re going to
find and that is an absolutely welcome
surprise to our afternoon here so now
that we’ve got our little Kingfisher
that is flowing away I might as well see
if I can try and get these horns out for
you so I can show you what these
actually are because at the end of the
day this is James’s idea of decoration
and so you’ve got a massive set of water
back horns now these water back horns as
you can see are fairly large this
particular water back is a water back I
recovered after the Inca Houma pride was
the ones that actually killed this it
was a water back that was killed close
to the boundary with arethusa you can
see there is a little bit of sort of
blood and bits on it
still it’s it was killed I think if I
remember correctly it must have been
about November last year didn’t ever
miss a symbol somewhere and there was
where it was killed and so we decided we
would pick it up and I know that James
has been doing all kinds of interesting
things with this water buck skull it is
an incredible set of horns this is a
really large water bag that you’ve got
you and what’s amazing is that you can
tell a lot about the horn structure of
this annum
firstly if you have a look at it it’s
got lots of these ridges running all the
way up now this is typical of any of the
antelope species that fight for
dominance so when they fighting for
dominance at the end of the day if they
had smooth horns like the top there’s
very little resistance and so what you
had find is that as they clash horns the
horns would slip and you would get up a
situation where they then stab each
other in the neck but if they’ve got
these ridges when they come together the
horns will actually lock together and
you’ll have a situation where those two
you can push and test each other’s
strengths rather than actually slip and
stab each other because at the end of
the day they didn’t want to kill each
other they just really want to establish
who is dominant so very very cool to see
and it is an incredible set that we have
got now I’m going to probably put them
back because I don’t want to break them
and to destroy them in any way
whatsoever so we’re going to put these
back for James but it is a really nice
sort of thing to have on the front of a
car I would imagine I don’t know it
certainly is going to evoke some fear
well there we go the hippos agree and
they think that it is very nice and
invokes a little bit of fear as well so
that’s quite cool now there are lots of
hippos around including little baby
hippos which is quite nice a source
little one just now just on the back
side of its mother it was kind of
sitting there and having a little sort
of look around and sleep and I’m sorry
that if I still disturbed it because I
didn’t want to when I got out I was
hoping that the little one would stay
where it was but it seems as though it’s
gone under there it is hello little one
now I wonder if this is boo our little
hippo that we saw born a few months ago
or if it is the other one that Noel
found the afterbirth for
David’s wondering if crocodiles attack
nests that aren’t their own so in terms
of the actual nesting structure I’ve
never seen a crocodile going in and
digging out the nest and getting to the
eggs and and the little ones but once
they are brought back in through the
water source then yes that can happen
you do see a situation where other
crocodiles will prey up on baby Crocs so
as a little baby crocs maybe venture too
far they will get preyed upon by other
crocodiles in this particular case
you’ll see that’s the larger crocodiles
she tends to spend a lot more time quite
close to where these little ones have
being kept which is in this corner same
as this baby hippo and its mother it’s a
nice sort of shallow section there’s a
little bit of a you know Bank that they
can go and lie on and they’re able then
to stay nice and safe in this little
kind of Cove within chapter dam it’s
actually very shallow here it looks
quite deep in this corner but it’s
actually a very shallow section and all
of the hippos and even the little baby
Crocs that are hiding out in amongst
that fallen over tree sounds like we’ve
got some elephants that are maybe coming
this way as well in fact I can see them
all the way at the back so they’re going
to slowly start meandering their way
down which will be very nice indeed but
as I was saying it’s a nice shallow
section so the hippos can lie down there
and the little babies can rest with them
and for the crocodile there’s a little
bit of structure that those little
babies can get into and then mom can go
and lie up on the bank and keep a
watchful eye over them so that if any
other big crocodiles come along and want
to speed off those at once that she can
chase them away the problem is is that
being a baby crocodile in the system
like this means that you’ve got a number
of predators and so catfish fish eagles
Marshall Eagles those things are all
going to be predators for those at work
rocks and so it’s a dangerous life and
you’ll find that probably 90% of these
Crocs are not going to survive at the
end of the day a big crocodile female
like that she could probably have laid
anywhere between 60 and 90 eggs and
we’ve only actually seen four crocodiles
here so she might have lost all the
others to monitor lizards or whatever
else may have raided the nest and then
as they’ve come into the water so things
like catfish and fish eagles and various
other predators have killed him so it’s
a tough life Archer but yes to answer
the original
is that other crocodiles almost
certainly go off to the young of a
different crocodile insult right but
while we search I believe Noah’s got
something very exciting sand it’s
quickly linked across to her
my goodness everyone we came up here to
do some filming with this injured wild
dog because we have the hopes that it’s
going to get better and this is the
scene that we found I don’t know what’s
gonna happen it’s it’s an interesting
scene for anyone that’s sensitive maybe
don’t watch but this is this is very
very interesting I don’t know if the
hyena is waiting to see if this dog will
fight back
obviously the dogs moved from where we
saw it this morning where we saw it this
morning was probably about 100 meters a
hundred yards from where we are now I
again if you’re sensitive maybe don’t
watch but if you want to see nature at
its best this is a very good thing to be
watching I can’t even begin to describe
to you how how incredibly interesting
this is because even though that hyena
is much larger than that wild dog and
obviously a lot more fit than this wild
dog that we’re seeing it’s still
displaying submissive behavior with this
injured dog so it can tell I personally
think this hyena can tell that this wild
dog is injured but the wild dog is
growling enough that I mean look at that
that is a huge submissive behavior do
you see there I mean it’s notched it’s
chewing on its paw
yes oh my goodness gracious everyone
this dog does not want to give up at all
so whatever leg it just chomped on there
obviously the dog still has feeling in
its extremities and if it’s able to move
as far as its moved from this morning my
thoughts were that it wasn’t really
gonna last for most of the day but you’d
be amazed Tristan was telling me about a
wild dog that he knew who had both and
could feed
[Music]
sans oh I do think that I do think that
this hyena is taking advantage of this
injured wild dog to see if it can eat it
but I think this wild dog has a lot of
gumption left you can see it’s the back
right leg that’s injured but again it
still has all three legs that’s visible
invisible usable excuse me you can see
it’s a very hungry dog obviously it’s
difficult for it for it to hunt because
the way that a dog hunts is very
different from a cat it’s claws can’t
get caught in you can see that it hurts
to get down but you can also see that by
it’s standing up the way that it is it’s
trying to make itself bigger and the
hyena is not taking that lightly
at all so though so the leg the hyena
bit earlier is the injured leg so
obviously the now the there’s more
displacement behavior going on here with
a hyenas pretending now to ignore the
dog a little bit smelling checking but
also keeping an eye on any sort of
advantage it might be able to get but
that that wild dog is his it’s keeping
up an eye as best as it can I mean that
hyena has tens of kilograms tens of
pounds on on that that wild dog but do
you remember the sighting we had the
other day where there was the whole pack
of dogs where there was the whole pack
of dogs and that hyena was was following
it around and and they’ve killed that
little baby hyena
hello everyone welcome to our Action
broadcast I’m going to pre lewd this was
saying that if you were a sensitive you
tur you’re not gonna want to watch this
if you were a viewer that enjoys strange
interactions and unusual interactions in
the bush stay with us we have another
vehicle that’s in in the kit in the
camera in the sighting with us so you
will hear it from time to time I’m Noel
I’ve got Senza on camera there we go hi
Senzo we’re gonna go back now over to
this hyena and this this wild dog sorry
sorry about that guys I just don’t want
to miss anything with this sighting this
hyena circling this injured wild dogs
wild dogs been injured for for several
days now watch watch the back right leg
is the injured leg we believe it was
injured from a lion and we do think that
this hyena is is tried to gain some sort
of advantage to to kill and eat this
wild dog hyenas are one of the few
predators that will actively hunt other
predators these sounds are absolutely
incredible absolutely incredible
so the effort for those of you that
might just be joining us on this action
broadcast and whatever platform you’re
on the African wild dog is not it’s not
related to a domesticated dog it’s also
known as an African painted wolf that
hyena is much bigger much much bigger
than that wild dog Oscar you’re curious
to know where the pack is Oscar the pack
has left this dog usually packs are very
good at keeping injured ones with but
this one is injured enough that it
really can’t keep up with that pack so
that pack is left and they are busy
hunting they came to visit past this
side
excuse me late last night / early this
morning but unfortunately it’s to the
detriment of the pack if they stick in
this one area because they won’t be able
to to hunt properly I’ve got another
vehicle you’ll hear it you’ll hear the
the sound just behind us who’s coming to
join us we do share this this property
with other other lodges Amy you are so
right it is it is ruthless and it is
part of life and Amy I’m glad you’re
enjoying it in the same way that I’m
enjoying it which is I actually have
goosebumps and I don’t necessarily want
the hyena get the wild dog but the
hyenas job is to take care of to take
out the old weak in the sick and
unfortunately this this wild dog happens
to be one of those so I just excuse the
noise behind me
I’ve just got another vehicle that’s
come through I’m just a busy filming
filming live for all of you on this
action broadcast at the moment I am
gonna have to reposition the vehicle a
little bit better Senzo can also see a
little bit of a better viewing so if you
just give me a second or two we’re not
gonna miss too much action we will move
around for you that’s for sure
we’re just going to push our nose down a
little bit more and and see if we can
get a little bit of a different a little
bit of a different glance for you and as
I say that it looks as if the hyena
g-strain dog you’re curious why not say
the dog everyone this is wild these are
wild animals these are not pets we do
not interfere
we just are lucky enough to see wildlife
doing what wildlife does human
interference in most circumstances of
wildlife is not for the better
we have a lot of emotions that go
through a scenario like this or any sort
of scenario where you have a tough tough
thing happening but it is not
necessarily for the better the hyenas
job is to eat but it’s a job is also to
take out the old the weak and the sick
of any sort of species and and although
it is heart-wrenching with this wild dog
there’s nothing wrong with what’s
happening here so it’s very hard to
detach ourselves as humans with the
emotional side of things it is very very
difficult but unfortunately that is
something we have to do in a scenario
like this and then we have to appreciate
the fact that both of these species that
we’re currently with are allowing us to
view them so the reason why the high end
of moved a little bit now has to do with
that vehicle that came past us and then
a little bit with me as well positioning
positioning my car was just a lot of
noise I’m so unfortunately for us we
have interfered a Titch with with the
scenario it couldn’t be helped on
fortunately I needed to move away from
the road so that that that vehicle could
could carry on
and this hyena is now debating whether
or not it’s going to go back a hyena is
very tenacious with the way that they
hunt and the way that they carry their
their prey so I do think he’s gonna go
back John you’re curious no are there
any lions around John there’s lions that
aren’t as the crow flies too far from us
but the pride that’s there is not a
pride that usually usually comes down
this far south if the Lions were to come
again then they would definitely kill
this wild dog but they wouldn’t eat it
if this hyena kill kills the wild dog it
will eat it so this hyena is now
deciding if it is worth to stay and try
and finish off this wild dog or if it’s
gonna move away from now I have a
feeling that its choice is going to be
to move off for now and then wait I do
think that that’s what’s going to happen
so unfortunately the the noise levels as
well as the the dogs ability to chase
off that predator has even in its state
has made it so this hyena sort of taking
a breather and taking a break it’s
actually not that far from us at the
moment it’s just on our left-hand side
and it’s busy listening and
investigating and and and deciding it’s
a male hyena so hyenas live in clans of
females with young the males are more
nomadic as it were and he’s gonna move
off a little bit there we go now again I
know it’s a very difficult sighting that
we just had but I cannot even begin to
describe you I’ve been guiding for just
over a decade and I’ve never seen
something like this I’ve seen bits that
are very similar to this but I’ve never
seen something like this so this is an
extremely exceptional albeit harrowing
sighting
all right well thank you everyone for
joining us for the action broadcast I do
appreciate you coming in and viewing
this amazing signing with us there’s our
dog there so please continue to follow
us along other channels YouTube or
follow us on Twitter with more questions
or comments hashtag safari live
okay everyone we’re back mmm
we’re here our hyena has moved off a
little bit I don’t know if while we’re
still here if this hyena is gonna come
back Senzo and I are gonna be sitting
with this dog for a little bit we were
gonna do some filming I didn’t want any
of you to miss that sighting I know for
some of you it was probably very
difficult but I also know for a lot of
you it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing to
see so I’m I’m here I’m open to any
comments any questions you have about
anything that happened and I’m we’re
very open about talking about every
aspect no matter how difficult or how
hard or even slightly I don’t want to
use the word enjoyable but it is an
amazing intricate little sighting that
we had there I mean just completely out
of this world again I still have goose
bumps seeing things like this is very
very rare all right while we are letting
you all think and while we are busy
checking on everything and let’s go over
to trace
the long grass and you can see that one
of the little Cubs is suckling away so
these are the four cuts that we saw
playing with the game drive blanket not
all that long ago tugging it backwards
and forwards and having a grand old time
and they belonged to three lionesses
known as G Cho Keeley and Akeem II who
are all part of Marsh breakaway pride or
one of the marsh breakaway prides Marsh
breakaway twos if I’m not mistaken so
they came from the famous Marsh pride
that was famously filmed across in Lucy
our Amash so that’s where these lions
come from now we’ve got the four older
Cubs I promise you there are three tiny
Cubs they must be hidden away at the
moment they are very very young which
means that they are not always with the
rest of the pride a lot of the time they
will spend hidden away in their own den
site fast asleep and well behaved
because they’re too young to know any
better and wait until mom goes to call
them now given where they were this
morning and given where they are this
afternoon I would say that the den site
is very very close to where we are now
and I’m hoping that if we show a little
bit of patience even if we don’t have
the best view now to get to the den site
is going to provide us with a really
spectacular view as the lioness gets up
and moves back towards them and
hopefully we will be able to figure out
who’s who in those in this particular
pride detour meaning I she’s got very
very bright clear orange eyes I have
learned to recognize her and I’ve
learned to recognize Kimmy who’s got 330
years but I’m not sure who fits in where
in terms of mothers of the Cubs that is
one thing that I’m still trying to
figure out because I have never seen the
mother of the youngest set of Cubs in
clear daylight I know it’s not hold on
I’m relatively certain no I’m not I was
about to say that it’s not you sure but
I’m actually not certain of that there
was a different sighting I am in fact
talking utter nonsense
but that’s the plan is to wait and see
whether or not she goes to fetch the
youngest set of Cubs aren’t very excited
about that I really wanted to show them
to you this morning and we couldn’t
because the gremlins were attacking and
the ground was getting mushy and mushiya
I’ve also just watched a little bit
earlier on I’m just watched about three
warthogs we’ll pass these lioness close
there doesn’t even lift their heads Hey
ladies
they haven’t actually been in this area
all that long this would be the first
litter of covers that they’ve had here
in this new part of their territory that
I think is Keaney at the back with the
tatty right here think pretty sure it’s
hard to tell at this angle I think I’d
know if us were pretty sure that’s a no
there we go
world famous lionesses probably one of
the most famous prides in the world
although there’s quite a few Marsh
prized throughout the world
don’t forget questions to hear from you
particularly not particularly but for
new viewers please don’t be shy to ask
questions obviously we’ve had viewers
you’ve been watching for many years and
know as much as there is to know about
many of the different animals so don’t
forget to send through your questions as
well don’t be shy remember at the
beginning of the Stryver said we’d be
joined by our crew in South Africa well
they’re out and about let’s go and join
Tristan and find out what his plans are
as he cruises around juma well indeed we
are in South Africa and we are ready to
go and we’ve got something that Jamie’s
Lions I’m sure are missing dearly at the
moment in the form of a ville de beast
although it’s a different species
altogether you can see he’s also just
having a look over to say hello and as
Jamie mentioned as well my name is
Tristan and on camera today I have got
Ferg and as you may notice we have
stolen James’s vehicles so we have
ditched rusty behind and we have decided
we will take jigger this afternoon and
try and see if we can look after it
because I hope James doesn’t kill me
with all these fancy new toys that’s on
jigger now remember we are coming to you
live and interactive so hashtags for
alive when Twitter was a YouTube chat
should you want to get hold of us but
interestingly enough it has been sitting
here watching this world of Eastern
they’re a funny animal to say the least
but what’s been really cool to watch
with this particular individual is how
he’s been marking so little
you would think would not be an animal
that would mark territory you would
think things like lions and leopards in
the way that they spray and those kind
of things would be what you would
normally expect from an animal but these
guys have a bit of a different way of
doing things you can see his kind of got
his horn up against the tree and he’s
been pushing his face using a little
gland that is just below the eye so if
you look just below the eye there there
is a sort of roundish shape going down
towards his nose and that pre-orbital
gland is full of scent and what they
what he was doing was rubbing it all
over their tree and so he’s basically
staking his claim that this is my area
the problem is is that the valta bees
just to his left which also is a boy was
doing the exact same thing and they were
both marking over one another which
seems a bit odd and it’s amazing to
actually see this because it’s
completely different behavior to what
we’re seeing from the valta beast in the
Mara there we go he’s doing it again now
so he’s got his head up against the tree
and he’s busy rubbing and pushing it
there we go you see you see how I uses
the gland underneath the eyes so he’s
not rubbing really his horns that much
it’s more that he’s trying to put that
gland all over that tree any other Valle
de beast that’s gonna come past he’s
going to smell it and I was saying it’s
different from the Valle de beast in the
Mara and the reason why is because all
the beasts here tend to be not nearly as
migratory as what we see from those
wildebeest these guys tend to sit up
territories within an area that they
feel like there’s food and water
availability and then try and keep
females within that section to be able
to dominate because the amount of
females in this area is so much less
whereas in Kenya because these massive
herds move around and there’s so many
females and the males can in just
compete when a female comes into
Easter’s they don’t have to set up their
territory in quite the same way that
these guys have to do so it’s very very
cool to see the difference between the
species over the East Africa and those
that are down here in South Africa but I
think what we’re going to do is probably
leave our wildebeest to be on their own
I want to try and find the rest of the
herd because there is a brand new little
baby that I saw two nights ago that is
in amongst the herd and there was a
number of other females that were
looking heavily pregnant and so I think
that maybe just maybe we might find a
couple new ones within the hood itself
and there’s nothing better than a couple
baby animals and in particularly valle
de b’s cars i quite like them then much
lighter in color and very very cute so
we’re gonna try and see if we can find
them of
other than that I think this afternoon
we’re going to hear probably down
towards chipper see if we can find any
signs of our naughty little friend
hasanah who seems to have been on many
adventures over the last couple of weeks
and so we’ll try and see if we can find
him somewhere but while we do that I
believe and Noel has found something
that’s maybe husana would like to hunt
when he’s a little bit older just in
good luck confining the sauna I hope you
do well you are the leopard whisperer
after all and indeed when husana gets a
little bit older some of these kudu
might be a good size for him these
females might be a Titch big but a big
male leopard can take down a small
giraffe so you never know good afternoon
everyone I’m Noel and on camera I’ve got
Sens oh there’s the three fingers hi
sends I hope everybody’s good and
enjoying their day or their evening
depending on where they are it’s turned
from a bright and sunny day to a very
very cloudy afternoon here in the sabi
sands in South Africa oh and now our
kudu have disappeared our little cutlery
of kudu as it were of course there they
are just peeking through the bushes with
their disruptive markings striped
beautifully across their body that white
is really sticking out on that one
female that we can see there now the
theory behind those stripes is that it’s
striped that way because predators see
in black and white and shades of grey in
vertical striping as far as I understand
now I’m always curious to know how they
manage to find these things out I had an
optometrist once as a guest and she was
describing some of how the eye functions
cuz we were talking about predators eyes
at nights and how they take the light
and it reflects back off their retina
and then out again but as far as the
vertical banding goes with the black and
white in shades of gray her and I had a
long discussion about it but she’s not
quite sure where they found that so I’m
sure someone very smart discovered it I
don’t know if any of you that like to
look for papers for us has anything like
that I would love to see a paper on any
of those eye issues but issues isn’t the
right word i conversations is it worry
about predators okay my plan for the day
not quite sure I’m hoping maybe tündi
starts moving away from her den site we
can may
you get a view of her shadow is in
little gallery she was near treehouse
dam there inside a little gallery not
our tree house down there tree house
a waterhole over there with her
youngster ting gana I’ve not heard
anything about today the talam Aki pride
is up in biffle’s hook they have killed
a buffalo near hunter’s rest camp so we
won’t be seeing them unfortunately they
don’t usually come this far south either
but I was I was crossing fingers and
holding guns because I haven’t seen them
in a very long time nothing from the
Inca Leamas that I’ve heard and nothing
from the sticks that I’ve heard and that
male lion is still somewhere in and
that’s south of chitwa chitwa so maybe
Tristan gets lucky on his journey over
to Chitwood damn you never know so maybe
we’ll do a bit of birdie it’s not bad
weather for a burning but I’m gonna
carry on towards the Milwaukee and see
what we can find
now we have James Henry who was out and
about on his own two feet so let’s head
over to him yes well I’m glad not to
have borrowed anyone else’s feet out
here
ha-ha-hilarious Sunday afternoon joke my
name is James Henry I am indeed on push
walk this afternoon with my friend Ian
here Ian is an Impala more accurately in
was an Impala VM is on camera hello VM
as vm’s unusually large thumb he’s been
cleaning his ox wagon today so his nails
are a little grubby don’t worry about
that now the reason I picked up Ian of
course is because well I’m going to do a
quiz with you I don’t often do quizzes
with you but in order to introduce the
hashtag safari live in the YouTube chat
stream I’m going to ask you to tell me
what do you think killed this and how do
you know
hashtag safari live or on the YouTube
chat stream you can give one word for
the animal responsible for the death of
this Impala and you may have three words
to tell me why you think it was that
animal okay the way out there is the
brain of the Impala substantially larger
than many of the human beings I know
excellent so that was an important
I’ll plan this afternoon while you think
about that rather remarkable quiz I’ve
given you is the head down into the
valley over here or Exxon is fairly
convinced that the mating leopard pair
of an unknown male leopard and the
Ingrid dam female are somewhere around
here we saw them the other day it was
very exciting indeed and they’ve been
sought after ever since there were brief
sort of reporting’s on the bush
Telegraph that there was somewhere near
the western boundary earlier today they
were not seen here Erickson is convinced
that they’re going to go in there
exhaustion because cats get very
exhausted when they are in love down to
treehouse Dam where we think they will
possibly have a drink so that’s the plan
there the M is now walking backwards so
if suddenly you find yourself looking at
the sky it’s because V M has fallen onto
his back side and she’s thankful to keep
the camera upright they make this a bit
easier for him and walk mixed him okay
so that’s the plan today now somebody
just saw there’s an elephant there it is
it’s quite far away just across the
drainage line if it could hear me at
that distance I’d be seriously impressed
by its ears let me just check the wind
yes still southeast playing perfectly
for us
it looks like a young bull on his own
has decided to issue the comforts of
home who is another one come with me
from B if you don’t mind
this is a perfect way to view elephants
because they’re across the drainage line
which means we don’t have to worry about
them sort of rushing towards us across
open ground we can get a nice aerial
kind of view down look up look down on
them this is what Rick’s on spotted
Rickson is on security detail I thought
he was indicating that he’d seen a bird
but his flapping arms we need this mint
obviously the ears of an elephant not a
vulture so there they are
they’re quite a few you just go over
here there we go that’s a beautiful view
should we
the termite model I think there’s a
really nice view there
this is just Sunday afternoon what you’d
want to do is sit here this perfectly
designed seat have a cup of Earl Grey
and perhaps a scone with some cream and
strawberry jam watching elephants now if
they’re turned on from there it’s quite
possible they could see us and there’s
some debate as to how good their eyes
really are I think that their eyes are
probably just slightly worse than our
own certainly better than some people
but possibly not nearly as good as say
lions leopards oh and parlors or crew
they can certainly smell us from there
if the wind was to turn and I’m pretty
sure that if I was to start singing the
Hallelujah Chorus they would almost
certainly hear that as well I’m not
going to start thinking about how to do
your chorus that would be inappropriate
you can’t hear them moving at all it’s
just very special isn’t that gorgeous
all right well we’ll sit here and see
where they go while we do that I believe
that Tim Noel has got a girl a food for
you little size one I think quite catch
James’s words there but I’ve got a
cousin of a cutlery of kudu we have some
niala the only cousin of kudu and yalla
that we don’t get here is a seat Otunga
see the tongue go you’ll see sort of up
in the the can’t talk today in the large
a swamp that is the Okavango Delta we
get in the Ala we get kudu I said before
we technically get Eiland all in the
tribe
laughing a which means spiral horned
antelope and then unfortunately the seat
of tuna and the seat of tuna is actually
something I have not seen yet I worked
up in the Delta for a while and I
visited up out there a few times but I
have yet to see a seat attune goods on
my list that is for sure there’s a
couple other wet marshes or swamps that
you would see them in now part of the
spyro horn dance a little family what
you’re going to see there that sends out
showing so nicely is that track on track
walking where they put one foot and then
the next foot directly in the same spot
to minimize the noise the other thing
you will notice is the striping along
the body for some like the niala and the
kudu it’s very apparent Oh in the bush
box sorry we also get bush box that’s
also in the family I knew I was missing
one and then also the white under the
tail as well as the very very large ears
now they’ve moved again into some
thickets Nuala’s are interesting kudu
perform prefer more thick areas nee
Allah’s will will do both but you tend
to see in the Allah’s closer to water
bushbuck are much more shy than both
niala and kudu and tend not to be in as
such large groups as we’re seeing here
what we saw earlier they tend to be in
in pairs or like we have in our camp we
have two males who really enjoy camp
they find it safer and they’ve been
hiding out there a lot since the wild
dogs have been around and then eel and
eland will be in all sorts of areas but
also very very dry areas as well so they
do occur in this area and then I’ve seen
them in places like around the Kalahari
basin and there as well absolutely
beautiful they’re the largest antelope
species in sub-saharan Africa now let’s
head on up to Brent who’s in the Masai
Mara which is about a thousand six
hundred miles away from us so about
double that in kilometres and see what
he has to show us that might be
something fun well welcome back to the
Maasai Mara and we are still with the
five male cheetah a hundred percent live
bringing you Africa’s wildlife in real
time now Noelle was chatting about such
at Unga and how she would love to see
you sat at Unga now I’ve been fortunate
enough to see a leopard eating a certain
ger as well as crocodile eating a
certain guy I grew up
and the Okavango Delta said certain gear
is something I’ve seen a fair few of and
I’ve also seen different subspecies of
saratoga in the Congo and Gabon now the
one animal you I’m likely to see eating
a certain guy is of course a cheetah it
is always possible especially in areas
such as the Chobe and the Okavango for
certain go wanders out of the papyrus
swamps onto the edge there are a fair
amount of cheetah that could take
advantage of there but unlikely so here
we go our fire boy said three of them
are very well fed – not so much moment
they are starting to show some signs of
movement a few little rollovers and
stretches and little shivers as the cold
wind blows it looks like the rain has
fortunately left us for now we’ve still
got the one side of the car down just in
case the rain decides to come back but
we will be playing the patience game
indeed with the fire boys there are such
prolific hunters and it would be nice to
see them stretch their legs this evening
remember if you have any questions for
us hash tag a safari live it is the best
way to get hold of us on whatever
platform you might be watching on Oh
Lily you’re so sweet
Lily’s Brent you’ve made my Christmas
well Lily it’s going to be a Christmas
week for you because I’m hoping to spend
every day with Cheeta from now all the
way till Friday and hopefully we’ll be
able to share as many Cheeta with you as
possible Nellie
now there are quite lazy at the moment
but I said there are few signs that
there might be starting to get mobile so
hopefully they will get mobile I’m not
too distant future sorry guys we are
live
we can’t talk right now we’re live and
Meigs can you give me a moment can I go
to someone else please sorry I’m just
gonna send you across to Jamie with
lions quickly and we’ll be back in a
second so lions are sort of looking a
little bit more awake but I think that
might have just been to move to a cooler
spot that if I’m not mistaken
oh snapping it flies that I think is
cheetah hard to tell at this distance I
think that’s her oh so irritated there’s
obviously a real biting fly problem
there and it’s just driving her nuts
must be so irritating while she I don’t
know why I’m saying it must be so
irritating I know exactly what it’s like
and it is irritating and they come and
bother us as well at exactly the same
time ah let’s see we have a well
well-placed vehicle in the background to
our shots as well
we’ll come on cats the rain is coming
the rain is coming soon but I really
really want to show everybody your brand
new brand new ish little Cubs especially
because we were there for that traumatic
slightly traumatic heart-rending moment
of that tiny Cubs squealing away sort of
calling repeatedly with it’s a very big
voice for a very small thing and when we
saw it it must have been let me try not
to exaggerate now because it’s one of
the
things that happens to one’s memory
after us it must have been about that
big I would say I mean it’s really for
Lion Cup it was really really small it
could only have been I think I guessed
at the time it was about ten days or
under ten days old its ears was still
flat to its head so they hadn’t actually
peeled away from the skull yet we’ll
lift it up kissa do lions eat plants
only very occasionally so they are
obligate carnivores the vast majority of
their diet is meat and it has to be that
way they do however occasionally eat
grass usually when their stomachs are
feeling a little bit upset they’ve eaten
something that disagrees with them
perhaps they’ve got a chunk of a hoof or
bone that’s a little bit too large to
break down and then they will eat grass
and then shortly after that most of the
time they will then throw up so they are
not in any way herbivorous or omnivorous
they are obligate carnivores they have
to eat meat just like dogs and cats have
to as well you might occasionally see a
line chewing on fruit but it’s very
unusual they don’t really like it it’s
not it’s not on their menu at all and
it’s not a smell or taste that attracts
them she’s very pretty
pen and it’s funny that you should ask
that actually in brain search for his
ostrich nest once again not so long ago
on one of our sunset safaris we saw a
lioness with an ostrich egg in her mouth
she obviously decided that it wasn’t
worth the trouble
because she abandoned it but yes
predators will eat ostrich eggs and they
something like a hyena can break it open
so can a lion honey badgers also really
really like ostrich eggs if they can
find them so yes predators will eat
ostrich eggs you can imagine just how
nutritious and ostrich egg would be
because it’s got the the fledgling you
wouldn’t really call it a fledgling
actually it’s got the embryo and the and
the egg sac on the yolk to feed the
embryo so it’s really quite a double
meal in one an ostrich egg is so massive
that it really is for a lion not hugely
okay you know it’s not a filling meal
but it’s certainly a pleasant one
absolutely
lions will eat ostrich eggs so will
honey badgers hyenas leopards chetan
might have a hard time breaking open an
ostrich egg bearing in mind that an
adult human or maybe not adult human
being but when I was around a kid of
around about I don’t know how heavy I
was 30 35 kilograms at the time I could
stand on an ostrich egg without breaking
it so it’s a very tough egg copy how
much these guys have grown either they
were so sweet when they were playing
with that blanket
so the fun story of the marsh breakaway
pride is that kini who is one of the
younger females the youngest actually in
this group kini apparently was the
daughter of lippy now Lippe died
recently lippy was quite a famous linus
has she seen sorry was she looking at
Buffalo or is this something smaller
she’s definitely looking at something
warthogs she’s looking at war dogs
running around can you see them there
Joey right over the straight over the
top of my head and running towards us
potentially the lioness is now up she’s
moving towards them as well can you see
them there there we go
two little piggies she’s got quite a
distance to cover I think it’s the same
two little piggies I drove past and
asked them where their mothers were
earlier on today I don’t think I was
live at the time but I did drive past
two little piglets and wonder that they
were so far away from mum actually that
was the end part of the story of Keaney
actually was the fact that she
eventually became separated from her mum
at about three months old and was
returned to her by the Wildlife Services
okay – to settle down again it remains
to be seen
generally speaking in these situations
the piglets are the ones that actually
make the mistake can go running towards
the lion so while we wait to see how
this plays out let’s head back over the
river to Brent to see if the rain is lit
up
well the rain has let up there’s a tiny
bit of light seeping through huge storms
to the south of us and bathing the
currently lazy five boys but I’m hoping
that our gonna get moving they are
getting to the crepuscular Eyre hour
where these boys are very fond of taking
down topi Harvey Stovall the Beast that
has said three of them are very well fed
– not so much
now Deidre is wondering will cheetah
climb a tree now very simply tree
climbing lines today so yes they will a
male cheetah in particular they do climb
trees they like to scent mark-up entries
there however not nearly as agile as a
leopard but there are more agile than
lions when it comes to climb trees but
they generally prefer trees that are
quite easy to climb so they don’t take
on vertical vertical brought vertical
trunks to you often but there will climb
a tree if if the mood takes them and
quite often cheetah like to defecate
quite up high and scent mark up in trees
so yes there will climb trees but again
not nearly to the same effectiveness as
as a leopard you in last at the moment
that’s called down they’ve moved after
shade of the small Croton bushes and I
just sort of lying in the breeze at the
moment I’m guessing from here they’re
gonna head towards the east which is
their general route from here
Richard is wondering how did the cheetah
learn how to hunt again now that’s a
very interesting question Richard so
cheetah Mother’s will let their cubs
especially with baby antelope sort of
play with them and make the kill but no
big cat in Africa actually needs to
learn how to hunt it is a great
misconception that human beings have
that they think they need to teach a big
cat how to hunt it would be like
teaching any mammal how to breed those
it is an instinctive in bred thing that
every single animal knows how to hunt as
it knows how to breathe as it knows how
to run so it is it is a very human thing
and a lot of humans like to do these
little things where they’re going to
take a big catch and they’re going to
teach it how to hunt so it can be wild
which is an absolute farce if if a big
cat gets hungry enough it knows how to
hunt those instincts are there there
have been there for hundreds of
thousands of years they don’t need to be
taught anything
and as I said it would be the same as
trying to teach us hard to breathe it is
a it is a complete fallacy that you need
to teach a cat how to hunt even your
domestic cat without any teaching or
training
it’s instinct will take over and it
knows exactly out ant
at the moment they are not too
interested in hunting know they look far
more interested in having a sneeze but
that’s why we sit with the big cats and
play the patience game because those
momentary momentary bursts of energy are
absolutely incredible to behold and well
I couldn’t think of too many worse ways
to spend a Sunday afternoon than in the
company of five male cheetah even if
they’re relaxing if it is quite a
relaxing time to be searching them now
someone hasn’t quite learned the art of
relaxation and is always quite a
busybody is my good friend James Henry
let’s see what is busying at the moment
I have perfected the art of relaxation
as you can see I’m very relaxed in front
of a lion’s eye which I showed you this
morning and will probably show you every
day that I’m on book walk because there
are many of them around there it is the
same color as my eyes as I and not the
same color as most Lions eye so why it
should be this orange color and so be
named well who can who can look into the
mind of the botanical tech psalmist but
then over here we have got a little
termite mound now it’s not an impressive
termite mound in that it’s about the
same size as my hand but if you look
very carefully you can see little
termites emerging and going back inside
and emerging and going back inside on
this cool day they’re probably nocturnal
and there will be a different form of
termite from the big macro termes that
make the big mounds I’m not sure exactly
which ones these are and I’m speaking
quietly like this not necessarily
because I think they’re going to hear me
and run away but simply because those
elephants are not too far away we also
have a betel fairmont
VM just hit me in the face of the Ariel
there yeah here’s a better one there’s
an ant beastly ant beastly beastly ant
has murdered this termite and taking it
away look
foul foul fellow here’s another one I
thought there was a battle going on here
I have never ever seen an anteater mind
battle where the termites aren’t taking
a fearful pasting they never seem that
soldiers are a complete waste of time
a little bit like the air like the
French in World War two and some joke no
brains a bad joke never matter happened
to me here’s another one isn’t that
awful ah now Julia you make a very good
point Oh question you said you anteaters
eat only ants or termites um I’m not
sure about the scaly anteater of the ant
eaters of South America for example but
at an art park for example which is the
thought of as largely of termite eater
will in fact eat ants mostly during the
summer time and during the other were
under ants in the winter and termites
during the summer time so they will
absolutely eat both and ants probably
more so than termites and the same goes
for something like a Pangolin which has
a long sticky tongue to dig into the
adness here look here’s more brutality
going on here only these things been
carted off then another predators come
onto the scene a little wolf spider it’s
gone unless it’s hunting me it was a
little wolf spider here he is he’s just
over there
see in there him I think he’s a wolf
spider and I think you’ll find that he
grab a whole lot of termites and ants he
will hunt the hunters and the hunted an
uber predator at the micro-level
killer now I believe we have some
answers to my almost impossible quiz
that I gave you do we have those answers
Rick and Mama you both said that her
hyena killed that Impala because they
only eat bone and sure mama you say they
crushed the skull to get to the brain I
think it could well have been taken
eventually by a hyena but I suspect that
that was killed by lions and lions will
eat away the entire face and leave the
horns and that little piece of skull
possibly killed by a leopard or a
cheater perhaps and then a hyena would
have taken away so Andrea you say lions
because they would’ve eaten the whole
skull I would have gone with lions for
that but I might be wrong it could
easily have been something smaller
it was then taken by the scavenging
highness thank you for playing my Sunday
afternoon game it was very nice of you
to do that okay let’s move on from this
battle royale going on here
it’s Sunday take a rest leave them alone
I’m just talking to the ants they’re not
beautiful
now and I’m going to get round this way
VM you can go round that way if you want
make things easier for you what are we
looking for of course it’s checks of
this mating pair we haven’t actually
managed to come across them yet we’ve
covered some distance and VM said do you
think we could slow down slightly not
because he was tired but because he
thought perhaps that we were going to
cover the whole property before the
drive ended well while we do cover the
whole property
Jamie has got a ville de Beast not alive
that is in the mouth of something that’s
a tit but it is long dead my mum told me
that there were loads of these animals
all around but she says I’m only going
to see them again when I’m much much
older
our Cubs found itself a to toy a remnant
of the migration the migration that this
little one is too young to remember you
would have been alive for it but it
would most definitely not really have
registered in this little Cubs mind now
that it’s left with the remnants in the
form of a chew toy a much a contestant
to toy I have to say as the second
comers come chasing after it storms are
rolling in the sun’s coming out between
patches of dark is if it’s you go look
how proud you are of yourself mouth full
of wildebeest torn yeah you’ve got a
year to go just under a year to go seven
months mr. Parker you say that it is
just too cute it is isn’t it I’m going
to have to reposition in a moment for
Joey so Joe you just let me know when
you at the point of no return and I’ll
shuffle around possibly with us blowing
away in this gale if you lived in the
golden grass actually almost reddish
grass reddish and green crystal at oh
goodness
tonight she cried it’s prickly angle
around that is anyone behind me one down
there depression to a car if I don’t
remember to keep checking
here we go you are wondering very far
away look one vicious and delicious says
look at that strut I know it couldn’t be
more pleased with itself if it tried of
course it also helps that it doesn’t
want to drag it on the ground come on I
think what we’ve got is a young male on
the right and a young female on the left
his sister she wants to go and challenge
him but at this point it’s not quite
brave enough for now we get very far
away from mum I’m just gonna I’m sorry
to do this to you again oh there we go
and we got the pants and I’m really
sorry to do this to you I’m gonna have
to move hold on he’s gonna go round me
very kind of him thank you Suba
hehehe
atul do I ever feel like getting off my
vehicle and hugging cute animals like
this one no I can’t say that that desire
ever strikes me with with wild animals
but I do with elephants occasionally
have the strange desire to want to just
go and rest my hand up against their
heads but it was something that I
understand would be so innately
disrespectful quite apart from the fact
that I’d either be chasing the animal
away or possibly getting myself
flattened which would be the most likely
response I am so very aware of the fact
that they are completely wild and that’s
half the joy of these animals and
whenever I see pictures of people
cuddling lion cubs it makes my stomach
turn
not just because those lion cubs are
fated to a life of canned hunting no
matter what the shelter says no matter
what the play says that they are happily
released into the wild
it’s nonsense no animal that has been
touched by humans wild animal can be in
in the sense released back into the wild
no lion no elephant not in a way that
can be safely safely done without the
risk of injury to that animal or to
human life so all of the lion cubs that
get their pictures taken will all
ultimately have a very sad fate but
beyond that I just don’t like seeing
wild animals with people obviously but
no oddly enough I’m happy being able to
cuddle dogs and cats I don’t want to go
and cuddle Lions alright we’re going to
send you across to James speaking about
being on foot with the animals let’s go
and find out whether he’s got any desire
to go and cuddle the ones he’s walking
around no now cuddle this and it will be
a very unpleasant experience indeed now
these are some of the soldiers of which
I was talking although they belong to
different species of termite this is the
macro termes the big fungus growing and
mound building termite and that is a
major soldier you get smaller ones
called
surprisingly minor soldiers and then you
get major workers and minor workers
which are just different sizes and these
chaps have been guarding one of these
holes here and it is my firm belief that
this hole you see it’s curved nature I
think that is a hole that has been dug
specifically for a termite a late
emergence in other words I probably yeah
probably not today I’m not sure that
it’s warm enough but after the rain when
the soil is soft the elates or flying
termites come to these little emergence
holes and they have a guard of honor
around them formed by those big soldier
termites and off they go
and it’s always I keep saying this but
maybe there are one or two new viewers
who haven’t heard it before but it’s my
favorite part of the termites lifecycle
it’s like this sort of enormous
celebration of the whole purpose behind
the work that goes on in this termite
mound the countless hours countless
numbers of eggs some 25,000 of them a
day are laid sometimes by the really big
Queens whoops we understand he fell on
his bottom and it’s all for this time
when the termite elites come out of
these holes and they’re fly off in those
enormous clouds of gossamer wings often
at sunset when the flight is the most
beautiful and then they find each other
they find a male or a female depending
if they’re male or female and they try
and start a new mound and of course it’s
also covered in a sense of tragedy
because well probably 95 to 99 percent
of them will never mate they’ll never
manage to meet a mate and even those
that do and manage to get themselves
that far under the ground will often not
survive to create an amazing man like
this because they’ll be eaten they’re
such a rich food source
so quite a celebratory we’ve make
natural event but one tinged with a
little bit of sadness at the same time
goodbye
termites may you have a wonderful
afternoon we are going to carry on do
that just before we leave these fellows
you
know how long it takes for them to build
these mounds Julia it’s difficult to
save and it’s not difficult to say
simply because I’m ignorant it’s
difficult so I don’t think that a mound
this size has been continuously occupied
by only one colony
it’s an enormous mound but it’s my guess
that this termite mound is probably
around a but let’s say 50 years 50 to a
hundred years or so I have seen sort of
a half sour mound about half well about
half of no not half I’m gonna say about
1/10 of this much soil deposited over
the course of a year so I think that
there’s probably about 50 years not 10
years and and the reason I say that of
course is because there’s a huge amount
of erosion that happens in the rain so
although yes they can certainly make
them they can make a certain amount per
year a lot of that will get washed away
during the right now I’m very excited to
tell you that in Jigga this afternoon is
tristan who’ve met and he’s now got the
mobile microscope working and he’d like
to show you Sunday BT indeed James we do
have the mobile microscope working and
it is the most insane thing in the world
I’m absolutely loving playing around
with it feel like a little kid on
Christmas and I suppose it’s apt for
this time of the year and as James
mentioned we do have a little beetle now
this little beetle I have actually never
ever ever in my life seen before it is a
tiny little dung beetle that we have so
it is small and it is got little kind of
yellow and black markings on it you can
see it’s covered in sand at the moment
this poor little beetle has been
burrowing through the road and we
spotted it coming off a bit of elephant
dung and that’s also why it’s a bit
sticky with and the sand is all sticking
to it because it’s been in the moist
elephant dung for a while and it’s
amazing to watch it because it goes
burrowing through the sand at times now
it’s just sitting the ever so quietly of
course it hasn’t been doing this the
whole time we’ve been with it it’s been
all over the place and I feel like I’ve
moved this microscope about 20 times to
try and keep it in frame and now it’s it
very patiently so that you can all see
it it almost doesn’t look alive at this
stage but I can assure you it is a very
much alive an English can show you that
it is very fast now I’m sorry I’ve just
bumped the microscope slightly which is
not ideal I was hoping that he was going
to burrow around and you would be able
to see that head Action Network because
it is absolutely unbelievable to see how
small it is and this particular little
guy is only about the size of some of
these small particles of sand it’s
really as amazing how little it is I’m
going to try and take the microscope
away and just give it a little pick up
so that you can see just how tiny this
little beetle is well you little beetle
there we go so I’m going to put it on my
hand you can see he’s going to move
quite fast well no beetle don’t go there
it’s now gone back onto the road maybe
we can actually get a better view of it
I’ll try on the microscope one more time
there we go
it might be digging down now that’s much
better we can actually see it digging
which is very very cool so it’s now
going into the sand you can see how it
uses that shovel like head to dig its
way underneath the soil and to be able
to hide away from a predator so it’s
been very clever in its way does things
this of course is also how it’s going to
emerge when it was a little beetle and
it’s going to start feeding and how it’s
going to be able to lay its Lavi if it
is that type of dung beetle that does
leyla event you can see the particles of
the road there which is little sand
particles and how small that little
beetle is in comparison it is absolutely
fascinating I’m thoroughly enjoying
playing with this microscope I think I’m
going to try and see what other things I
can find and talking about microscopic
beetles and small beetles Noel has found
a little carnivore that I’m sure would
love to eat one of these little guys up
so we do dwarf Mongoose a lot on the
show because we amazingly see them quite
a lot that sends when I right next to
this termite mound where this little
dwarf mongooses smelling us and looking
around we’re getting the most amazing
visual as you all can see I mean it’s
right next to the car sounds I don’t
know if you want to zoom out a little
bit just so everyone can see I mean
literally right here
just sun zone i’ve been talking in
whispers
and sitting very still and moving very
slowly so that he’ll pop his head out
just like you saw now now the rest of
this business of Mongoose is around and
the bushes there’s another one you see
just here at about two o’clock sands
I’ll read my mind my friend there’s a
few more out foraging looking for
insects possibly beetles like the one
Tristan was showing you through the
microscope and if you if you move slowly
around them and then sit sort of quietly
they will just carry on their business
and and we’ll find you quite interesting
and sometimes when you’re this close you
can really hear their communications
it’s as tiny little tiny little chirpy
noise that they do now one of my
favorite sightings of this year was
actually with Senzo sands when was it
about a month ago five weeks ago
something like that when we had dwarf
Mongoose that were chasing a black mamba
around it was pretty amazing
so for me Dorf Mongoose are kind of like
the wild dogs of the small mammal
community because they move so quickly
and have such severe a DD that anything
can happen at any moment now it seems as
if everybody has meandered off into
spots where we can’t see them there’s
one now and we’re not getting any of the
the noises that I’d like to hear and our
one that’s right next to the car has
decided not to poke pop out his head
again those ones are playing over there
Paulo that’s a really interesting
question sense can we come back to these
holes here
Sao Paulo where they’re living are
inside of a termite mound and those
holes that you’re seeing are not burrows
that they’ve made it’s actually
collapsed chimneys from inside the
termite mounds that termite mound is
still active like the one that James was
showing you of every mound is a little
bit different and then they live inside
of these open opened up chimneys as well
as things like monitor lizards and
snakes certain types of birds will also
live in there and then we’ve seen larger
cavities that are dug out by things like
height um things like aardvark and then
lived in by hyena or similar to tondee’s
den so those chimneys actually go down
quite far to the termite mound it can be
several yards it could be tens of yards
it just depends on where the water table
is but the the Mongoose don’t know
Cecily necessarily go all the way down
to where the water table is now inside
those chimneys it wouldn’t surprise me
if there’s little nooks and crannies
that they’ve sort of dug out a little
bit with their claws too to live inside
of but those initial ones is not not not
not they’re making it’s very very
interesting all right so we’ve been
tracking elephants we’ve been tracking a
huge herd of elephants for about three
kilometers now and unfortunately these
elephants have gone south into little
gallery so I think what we’re gonna do
is we’re gonna go lurk along the
boundary and see if shadow wants to pop
up or possibly if the wild dogs want to
pop up that’s our plan for from here so
while we are busy looking for any
Rosetta creatures or painted wolves
let’s head on up to the masai mara where
Jaime has one of the three big cats that
we have without lions not all that much
it distracted
into the void any sign of them I can see
them I can’t see them and they are
making their way back : make me just
shift out of the way
well Joey and I are eyeing out the
weather and it’s not looking positive no
matter which direction we look in it
appears as though it’s their car behind
me wonderful just mud little Cubs are
going to come into view shortly in fact
you should be able to see them I want to
go further back to the mush there’s one
Oh Nadia you want to know if a lion will
have a single mate throughout their
lives and the answer to that is no
absolutely not they will have multiple
males that they made with or multiple
females depending on what we’re talking
about these little Cubs make their way
back towards their mothers a lioness
will essentially the way that lion
dynamics work a male Coalition has Dara
Tori in that territory encompasses the
territory of several different prides
and therefore several different
lionesses they’ll make those lionesses
for around about two to three years
before they are all stood by another
group of young males obviously this is a
general rule they will then move on
possibly to a new territory and the new
males will start mating with those firm
the females and the old males will start
mating with other females so no there is
no monogamy within a lion pride or
coalition they and females will mate
with as many males as they possibly can
within their Easter cycle so first of
all it’s just naturally instinctive for
them and secondly it helps to large
doesn’t eliminate the risk but it helps
to eliminate the risk of the Cubs being
killed by a male because males will kill
Cubs that do not belong to them or their
coalition mate because it will bring the
female back into Easter us faster and
allow them to mate with her and
therefore sire their own Cubs rather
than the Cubs of another male methyl
naughty things going wandering into the
dangerous big white world luckily you’ve
got one large mother and two big
auntie’s to keep you safe I was telling
you the story of a keaney not a Guinea
sorry Kimmy
she disappeared away from her mum at
around about this age possibly even a
little bit younger and she was gone for
nine days before reuniting with mum and
her two brothers lapies now no longer
with us but Keaney her daughters
stalking through the grass you need to
go and pounce on a sibling there are
some very ominous rumblings of thunder
here
vicious and delicious with the storm
coming no dead never it never snows here
in my tail infected has hailed very
small hailstones
Oh pants very gentle pants there it
might hail very small hailstones but
that’s about as icy as it gets here
there won’t be any snow and bear in mind
we are very close to the equator and
although we are high in altitude we’re
not that high oh here comes the other
cub I imagine
hence the reason for the Crouch assume
the stalk position completely flat in
the grass now
Oh lion cub number two is distracted its
veered off in a different direction here
we go get him
I love lion cubs at this age they are
just so unbelievably playful it’s so
sweet I miss watching leopard cubs do
this as well it’s one thing that we
haven’t managed to really find in the
Mara we know where they are
we know where the relaxed females are
with Cubs but a lot of the time they’re
in very bad signal areas was that a drop
of rain no no Joe it wasn’t just pretend
it’s not if we pretend it’s not
happening then it’s not happening right
okay we’re in all the clouds and the
giant storm that is engulfing the
escarpment and racing towards us at the
speed of well clouds oh goodness
okay well Joe Joey and I contemplate our
fate off you go to James who’s having a
fun Dicer time enjoying looking at the
flowers I am definitely having a far
nicer time enjoying the flowers and to
my mind the assertion that there’s a
long rain and a short rain season in
Kenya is at a rubbish it rains all the
time there in fact it probably rains
more there than it does in England which
of course is impossible now what we have
here is the beautiful yellow flowers the
blooms of peltor form Africana more the
weeping wattle and I was hoping to find
a fruit chaffeur or two which are little
beet he’s often very prettily colored
but I haven’t found any fruit chef is
here but what we have found or some drop
tailed ants now if your own walk with us
this morning which of course you should
have been for your morning exercise on
Sunday you would have known or you would
have seen we talked about the drop tail
dens then there we have one
and what this drop tailed ant is doing I
still don’t know
I think perhaps it’s looking for a fight
also be looking for little bits of plant
eggs you date or what we did find this
morning was a little frog hopper or
spittle bug this is interesting actually
we found a spittle bug being tended to
by these ants and what’s very
interesting is that this plant the
weeping wattle is called the weeping
wattle because of the fact that it gets
spittle bugs on it so I wonder if that’s
not what this ended looking for I don’t
see any spittle bugs and in fact the one
that I found today but possibly one of
the only ones I’ve ever seen one would
also expect to find crab spiders on a
tree like this little spiders disguised
like the flowers that are sitting here
and tore some other kind of creature
come across them and then they will
devour it for their Sunday roast dinner
let’s have a look here we need the eye
different huntable in order to find this
sort of thing ah now Kalin you’re asking
about a species of arachnid we’re not a
species our family of arachnids called
the red Romans or Sun spiders or more
particularly the Soloff uija’s and we do
get them here absolutely they are and to
most arachnophobia refined creatures in
the world they run at an astonishing
speed they’ve got these vicious kind of
an scissor like tooth drawers at the
front of their faces that kind of slide
over each other like this and the kind
of things you really don’t want wouldn’t
want to get caught in totally harmless
to human beings but they do look vicious
especially when you look at them under a
microscope and I had one outside my room
the other day it was a little fellow
like that and he ran around at a speed
that defied belief would be but like you
and I being able to run that around
about 60 miles an hour to 100 kilometers
an odd really was just amazing so yes we
do get them here I’m afraid I can’t find
you one in this sort of weather I don’t
think but if we get very lucky than I
felt that is Tommy you’ve want to know
if the word beat Lee is the correct way
to pronounce beetle no it’s not it is a
jerk I’ll tell you where the jerk comes
from the word l-e has no equivalent in
Shangaan out here and so often words
that end in le are said by local people
as they’re spelt so they’re said beat
Lee or literally and so literally beat
Lee and that sort of thing and you can
imagine some of the conversations that
people have and the giggles they have
with each other when you know words like
that are pronounced it’s always a quite
worth it’s often quite funny when people
mispronounce e so mispronounce each
other’s languages and beat Lee is just a
very kind of I think a hugely endearing
term for a beetle so that’s why I use it
immediately anyway that’s what it comes
from and then James you’re wondering
which species of insect has a symbiotic
relationship with the fungus I don’t try
to think if I know of an insect that has
a symbiotic relationship with the fungus
well I mean the the termites do those
fungus growing termites have a symbiotic
relationship
the fungus would not grow it’s a very
specific species of fungus that wouldn’t
grow in the absence of the termites the
termites are able to create the correct
conditions the right amount of moisture
the right temperature for the fungus to
grow in and without them it wouldn’t
exist they’ve co-evolved together to
live with each other completely
dependent on each other so they are they
are symbiotic for the termites they of
course get nourishment from the fungus
which helps them to digest the cellulose
and lignin and other structural material
in the plants that the termites are
unable to digest themselves so that
would be a good example of one I feel
like James you were asking perhaps for
something slightly less obvious than
that and I can’t think of I mean there
lots of ants that have that kind of
relationship but it’s the same sort of
relationship if you have if you have one
that you can think of I would be very
very pleased to try and understand it or
go and research it but yeah there’s the
only one that comes to mind all right
now let me see what else I can find you
there’s a lack of signal and obviously
an enormous storm in the Maasai Mara and
so you’re going to have to stick with me
for a little while let’s have a look in
here now I suspect you quite strongly
it’s something fairly large has spent a
substantial amount of time in here
possibly a warthog anyway I’m going to
have a bit of a rest here see what I can
see and while I do that you’re going to
go for a little Drive with no
hello James I’m so sorry that you’ve
gotten so old that you need to rest
after an hour and a half and got a tear
for you anyway so it’s a really
interesting question one of the insects
have a symbiotic relationship with fungi
and James honestly myself as well all I
can think of is the termites but it’s
tickling my file 13 when it’s saying
that so I’m assuming it’s also tickling
your file 13 which is why you’re passing
the question on forward and I’m trying
to think of
yeah I mean insects unless we count
things like lobster and prawns as
insects and then eating sort of fungal
like plant matter in oceans I guess we
could go with that train of thought but
yeah I can’t I can’t honestly such an
interesting question I can’t honestly
think of it and I’m sure we both have
friends at home that are sitting there
and yelling oh what about this and
neither what’s it’s thinking of it it
will come all right so my my search for
Tandy yeah and I picked up any other
leopard tracks I got really excited
because there were some vultures earlier
but I think they’re just resting because
of the cold eating at the ground and
we’re also coming towards evening so
that could be reason so I’m sort of
patrolling our eastern boundary just to
see if the wild dogs want to come back
through Torchwood which is on our
right-hand side and it doesn’t seem as
if they have yet but as you know they
they move here and they move there and
they zig and a zag so we might we might
just get lucky and other than that yes
it’s been a good afternoon but it’s been
relatively quiet especially after all
the excitement we’ve been having well I
know Senzo and I have and poor Wendy
here
then some some serious bundu bashing
over the the past couple of drives and
had some amazing times with the wild
dogs and look I’ll you know I’ll take
out my own eye teeth just to see wild
dogs they’re my absolute favorite I dig
them and I’m trying to think oh
elephants there’s been loads of
elephant’s especially this morning it
feels as if everything sort of maze we
get everything and some days it’s a
little bit
girl
gulia have I ever been on the drive
where I have not seen any animals well
Julia there’s always birds birds are
always around no I’ve never been on a
drive where we haven’t seen anything
I’ve been on drives where I haven’t seen
any of the big five but I’ve never been
on a drive where I haven’t seen any
birds and or other wildlife species no
and but it depends Julia on where you
work so a lot of the places I work have
very high population densities of
multiple different species of bush
wildlife one of the reserves I used to
work at was amazing for its complexity
of antelope species so even if you
didn’t see any of the big five or
magnificent seven on a drive you would
probably see about 10 different antelope
species as well as zebra and things like
that and birds are always around we’ve
just a lot of the birds that I’ve
personally been seeing today are birds
that we do very often and I’m looking
for ones that we don’t see as often to
show you so I think let’s head on over
to Tristan maybe he’ll find the painted
snipe for us I did get a quick glimpse
of the painted snipe near Chitwood dam
yesterday and let’s see what he has to
show us
we’ll be nice to find the pages in
Cyprus been a while since I’ve seen when
the last time I saw one was at twin dams
a few months ago so be good to see one
again but I don’t think so just yet I’ve
just arrived at you – damn we literally
have just come up onto the dam also I’m
still surveying around to see what there
is it seems quite quiet though with
regards to hippos and various other
things
it seems as though most of them are
under the water at this stage the
withers turned a little bit foul it’s
gotten quite overcast and rather windy
and cold and so not great weather for a
number of our animals to be frolicking
about and showing themselves so every
now and then just see these nostrils
from a hippo kind of poking up out of
the water I wonder if our little baby
crocs are around it’s been so long since
I’ve been in this area that I haven’t
seen in you the baby crocs for quite
some time
now there is some COO there you can see
they’re actually inside the lodge very
clever kudu go in and on the other side
of the fence that will make sure that
you’re a little bit safer from various
other things and they will go in there
all because they’re really going to go
and feed off all the vegetation that’s
in there the end of the day a lot of the
lodgers have lots of plants that they
water and is tends to be flowering
delicious food items for them and so
you’ll find that they’ll go inside there
to go and feed it’s also tends to be a
little safer you find that the Predators
even though they do move around the
lodges and we know that husana and
timber seems to think that chipler
belongs to them these days and they both
go and lounge around on the Bix while
the guests have dinner but typically
it’s a little bit safer but what’s
interesting
so those far left kudu they are all kind
of steering with the ears arts and maybe
it’s because there is another kudu that
has just moved into frame you can see
there’s another kudu that’s just arrived
so that’s maybe why they were just
looking at that one coming along no so
seems to be a few bush buckin y’all are
floating around within the lodge as well
then maybe let’s go forward a little bit
fig and let’s see if our baby in a
situation where it seems from what I’ve
been talking to forego bout is that
there’s only one little property
Sene so hopefully the other three are
still around Lorena you want to know
what is on the front of our vehicle well
this is firstly I think the best way to
start this is that this is James’s
vehicle and I’m just borrowing it for
the day and what is on the front of the
vehicle is what James deems to be his
insignia for Jigga which is a water box
skull now I will get it out now now
we’ll try and and sort of secure and
wedge it from the front of the car even
though that’s all there’s a picnic
Kingfisher so you see just on the edge
they folk right on the edge of the water
just off the top there we go there it is
just on the right is it a pygmy or is it
a malachite so it’s a malachite
Kingfisher so I thought it was a pygmy
at first because these guys in ages so
that’s super cool to see they are
incredibly beautiful little birds you
can see that bright red beak little
white section on the collar and then
that sort of a iridescent blue purple
coloration or for the back and so one of
the things about being a Chitra dam is
that you never know what you’re going to
find and that is an absolutely welcome
surprise to our afternoon here so now
that we’ve got our little Kingfisher
that is flowing away I might as well see
if I can try and get these horns out for
you so I can show you what these
actually are because at the end of the
day this is James’s idea of decoration
and so you’ve got a massive set of water
back horns now these water back horns as
you can see are fairly large this
particular water back is a water back I
recovered after the Inca Houma pride was
the ones that actually killed this it
was a water back that was killed close
to the boundary with arethusa you can
see there is a little bit of sort of
blood and bits on it
still it’s it was killed I think if I
remember correctly it must have been
about November last year didn’t ever
miss a symbol somewhere and there was
where it was killed and so we decided we
would pick it up and I know that James
has been doing all kinds of interesting
things with this water buck skull it is
an incredible set of horns this is a
really large water bag that you’ve got
you and what’s amazing is that you can
tell a lot about the horn structure of
this annum
firstly if you have a look at it it’s
got lots of these ridges running all the
way up now this is typical of any of the
antelope species that fight for
dominance so when they fighting for
dominance at the end of the day if they
had smooth horns like the top there’s
very little resistance and so what you
had find is that as they clash horns the
horns would slip and you would get up a
situation where they then stab each
other in the neck but if they’ve got
these ridges when they come together the
horns will actually lock together and
you’ll have a situation where those two
you can push and test each other’s
strengths rather than actually slip and
stab each other because at the end of
the day they didn’t want to kill each
other they just really want to establish
who is dominant so very very cool to see
and it is an incredible set that we have
got now I’m going to probably put them
back because I don’t want to break them
and to destroy them in any way
whatsoever so we’re going to put these
back for James but it is a really nice
sort of thing to have on the front of a
car I would imagine I don’t know it
certainly is going to evoke some fear
well there we go the hippos agree and
they think that it is very nice and
invokes a little bit of fear as well so
that’s quite cool now there are lots of
hippos around including little baby
hippos which is quite nice a source
little one just now just on the back
side of its mother it was kind of
sitting there and having a little sort
of look around and sleep and I’m sorry
that if I still disturbed it because I
didn’t want to when I got out I was
hoping that the little one would stay
where it was but it seems as though it’s
gone under there it is hello little one
now I wonder if this is boo our little
hippo that we saw born a few months ago
or if it is the other one that Noel
found the afterbirth for
David’s wondering if crocodiles attack
nests that aren’t their own so in terms
of the actual nesting structure I’ve
never seen a crocodile going in and
digging out the nest and getting to the
eggs and and the little ones but once
they are brought back in through the
water source then yes that can happen
you do see a situation where other
crocodiles will prey up on baby Crocs so
as a little baby crocs maybe venture too
far they will get preyed upon by other
crocodiles in this particular case
you’ll see that’s the larger crocodiles
she tends to spend a lot more time quite
close to where these little ones have
being kept which is in this corner same
as this baby hippo and its mother it’s a
nice sort of shallow section there’s a
little bit of a you know Bank that they
can go and lie on and they’re able then
to stay nice and safe in this little
kind of Cove within chapter dam it’s
actually very shallow here it looks
quite deep in this corner but it’s
actually a very shallow section and all
of the hippos and even the little baby
Crocs that are hiding out in amongst
that fallen over tree sounds like we’ve
got some elephants that are maybe coming
this way as well in fact I can see them
all the way at the back so they’re going
to slowly start meandering their way
down which will be very nice indeed but
as I was saying it’s a nice shallow
section so the hippos can lie down there
and the little babies can rest with them
and for the crocodile there’s a little
bit of structure that those little
babies can get into and then mom can go
and lie up on the bank and keep a
watchful eye over them so that if any
other big crocodiles come along and want
to speed off those at once that she can
chase them away the problem is is that
being a baby crocodile in the system
like this means that you’ve got a number
of predators and so catfish fish eagles
Marshall Eagles those things are all
going to be predators for those at work
rocks and so it’s a dangerous life and
you’ll find that probably 90% of these
Crocs are not going to survive at the
end of the day a big crocodile female
like that she could probably have laid
anywhere between 60 and 90 eggs and
we’ve only actually seen four crocodiles
here so she might have lost all the
others to monitor lizards or whatever
else may have raided the nest and then
as they’ve come into the water so things
like catfish and fish eagles and various
other predators have killed him so it’s
a tough life Archer but yes to answer
the original
is that other crocodiles almost
certainly go off to the young of a
different crocodile insult right but
while we search I believe Noah’s got
something very exciting sand it’s
quickly linked across to her
my goodness everyone we came up here to
do some filming with this injured wild
dog because we have the hopes that it’s
going to get better and this is the
scene that we found I don’t know what’s
gonna happen it’s it’s an interesting
scene for anyone that’s sensitive maybe
don’t watch but this is this is very
very interesting I don’t know if the
hyena is waiting to see if this dog will
fight back
obviously the dogs moved from where we
saw it this morning where we saw it this
morning was probably about 100 meters a
hundred yards from where we are now I
again if you’re sensitive maybe don’t
watch but if you want to see nature at
its best this is a very good thing to be
watching I can’t even begin to describe
to you how how incredibly interesting
this is because even though that hyena
is much larger than that wild dog and
obviously a lot more fit than this wild
dog that we’re seeing it’s still
displaying submissive behavior with this
injured dog so it can tell I personally
think this hyena can tell that this wild
dog is injured but the wild dog is
growling enough that I mean look at that
that is a huge submissive behavior do
you see there I mean it’s notched it’s
chewing on its paw
yes oh my goodness gracious everyone
this dog does not want to give up at all
so whatever leg it just chomped on there
obviously the dog still has feeling in
its extremities and if it’s able to move
as far as its moved from this morning my
thoughts were that it wasn’t really
gonna last for most of the day but you’d
be amazed Tristan was telling me about a
wild dog that he knew who had both and
could feed
[Music]
sans oh I do think that I do think that
this hyena is taking advantage of this
injured wild dog to see if it can eat it
but I think this wild dog has a lot of
gumption left you can see it’s the back
right leg that’s injured but again it
still has all three legs that’s visible
invisible usable excuse me you can see
it’s a very hungry dog obviously it’s
difficult for it for it to hunt because
the way that a dog hunts is very
different from a cat it’s claws can’t
get caught in you can see that it hurts
to get down but you can also see that by
it’s standing up the way that it is it’s
trying to make itself bigger and the
hyena is not taking that lightly
at all so though so the leg the hyena
bit earlier is the injured leg so
obviously the now the there’s more
displacement behavior going on here with
a hyenas pretending now to ignore the
dog a little bit smelling checking but
also keeping an eye on any sort of
advantage it might be able to get but
that that wild dog is his it’s keeping
up an eye as best as it can I mean that
hyena has tens of kilograms tens of
pounds on on that that wild dog but do
you remember the sighting we had the
other day where there was the whole pack
of dogs where there was the whole pack
of dogs and that hyena was was following
it around and and they’ve killed that
little baby hyena
hello everyone welcome to our Action
broadcast I’m going to pre lewd this was
saying that if you were a sensitive you
tur you’re not gonna want to watch this
if you were a viewer that enjoys strange
interactions and unusual interactions in
the bush stay with us we have another
vehicle that’s in in the kit in the
camera in the sighting with us so you
will hear it from time to time I’m Noel
I’ve got Senza on camera there we go hi
Senzo we’re gonna go back now over to
this hyena and this this wild dog sorry
sorry about that guys I just don’t want
to miss anything with this sighting this
hyena circling this injured wild dogs
wild dogs been injured for for several
days now watch watch the back right leg
is the injured leg we believe it was
injured from a lion and we do think that
this hyena is is tried to gain some sort
of advantage to to kill and eat this
wild dog hyenas are one of the few
predators that will actively hunt other
predators these sounds are absolutely
incredible absolutely incredible
so the effort for those of you that
might just be joining us on this action
broadcast and whatever platform you’re
on the African wild dog is not it’s not
related to a domesticated dog it’s also
known as an African painted wolf that
hyena is much bigger much much bigger
than that wild dog Oscar you’re curious
to know where the pack is Oscar the pack
has left this dog usually packs are very
good at keeping injured ones with but
this one is injured enough that it
really can’t keep up with that pack so
that pack is left and they are busy
hunting they came to visit past this
side
excuse me late last night / early this
morning but unfortunately it’s to the
detriment of the pack if they stick in
this one area because they won’t be able
to to hunt properly I’ve got another
vehicle you’ll hear it you’ll hear the
the sound just behind us who’s coming to
join us we do share this this property
with other other lodges Amy you are so
right it is it is ruthless and it is
part of life and Amy I’m glad you’re
enjoying it in the same way that I’m
enjoying it which is I actually have
goosebumps and I don’t necessarily want
the hyena get the wild dog but the
hyenas job is to take care of to take
out the old weak in the sick and
unfortunately this this wild dog happens
to be one of those so I just excuse the
noise behind me
I’ve just got another vehicle that’s
come through I’m just a busy filming
filming live for all of you on this
action broadcast at the moment I am
gonna have to reposition the vehicle a
little bit better Senzo can also see a
little bit of a better viewing so if you
just give me a second or two we’re not
gonna miss too much action we will move
around for you that’s for sure
we’re just going to push our nose down a
little bit more and and see if we can
get a little bit of a different a little
bit of a different glance for you and as
I say that it looks as if the hyena
g-strain dog you’re curious why not say
the dog everyone this is wild these are
wild animals these are not pets we do
not interfere
we just are lucky enough to see wildlife
doing what wildlife does human
interference in most circumstances of
wildlife is not for the better
we have a lot of emotions that go
through a scenario like this or any sort
of scenario where you have a tough tough
thing happening but it is not
necessarily for the better the hyenas
job is to eat but it’s a job is also to
take out the old the weak and the sick
of any sort of species and and although
it is heart-wrenching with this wild dog
there’s nothing wrong with what’s
happening here so it’s very hard to
detach ourselves as humans with the
emotional side of things it is very very
difficult but unfortunately that is
something we have to do in a scenario
like this and then we have to appreciate
the fact that both of these species that
we’re currently with are allowing us to
view them so the reason why the high end
of moved a little bit now has to do with
that vehicle that came past us and then
a little bit with me as well positioning
positioning my car was just a lot of
noise I’m so unfortunately for us we
have interfered a Titch with with the
scenario it couldn’t be helped on
fortunately I needed to move away from
the road so that that that vehicle could
could carry on
and this hyena is now debating whether
or not it’s going to go back a hyena is
very tenacious with the way that they
hunt and the way that they carry their
their prey so I do think he’s gonna go
back John you’re curious no are there
any lions around John there’s lions that
aren’t as the crow flies too far from us
but the pride that’s there is not a
pride that usually usually comes down
this far south if the Lions were to come
again then they would definitely kill
this wild dog but they wouldn’t eat it
if this hyena kill kills the wild dog it
will eat it so this hyena is now
deciding if it is worth to stay and try
and finish off this wild dog or if it’s
gonna move away from now I have a
feeling that its choice is going to be
to move off for now and then wait I do
think that that’s what’s going to happen
so unfortunately the the noise levels as
well as the the dogs ability to chase
off that predator has even in its state
has made it so this hyena sort of taking
a breather and taking a break it’s
actually not that far from us at the
moment it’s just on our left-hand side
and it’s busy listening and
investigating and and and deciding it’s
a male hyena so hyenas live in clans of
females with young the males are more
nomadic as it were and he’s gonna move
off a little bit there we go now again I
know it’s a very difficult sighting that
we just had but I cannot even begin to
describe you I’ve been guiding for just
over a decade and I’ve never seen
something like this I’ve seen bits that
are very similar to this but I’ve never
seen something like this so this is an
extremely exceptional albeit harrowing
sighting
all right well thank you everyone for
joining us for the action broadcast I do
appreciate you coming in and viewing
this amazing signing with us there’s our
dog there so please continue to follow
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okay everyone we’re back mmm
we’re here our hyena has moved off a
little bit I don’t know if while we’re
still here if this hyena is gonna come
back Senzo and I are gonna be sitting
with this dog for a little bit we were
gonna do some filming I didn’t want any
of you to miss that sighting I know for
some of you it was probably very
difficult but I also know for a lot of
you it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing to
see so I’m I’m here I’m open to any
comments any questions you have about
anything that happened and I’m we’re
very open about talking about every
aspect no matter how difficult or how
hard or even slightly I don’t want to
use the word enjoyable but it is an
amazing intricate little sighting that
we had there I mean just completely out
of this world again I still have goose
bumps seeing things like this is very
very rare all right while we are letting
you all think and while we are busy
checking on everything and let’s go over
to trace
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