like this it generally means that
they’re heading for water that are
feeding a little bit as they go and
there’s a couple more still coming
through that are gonna cross the road
just shortly it looks like a rather
large herd that is coming through here
and we positioned ourselves nicely in
the shade because we’re also feeling the
heat and I believe just up front is the
female Fang she’s got that but she’s
just crossed the road folks and she’s
headed into the thicket I dunno if VM
can pick up on her there there you can
maybe just see the Fang like tusks that
was going through the thickets there so
she’s now in a nice big herd I’m not too
sure or clued up too much on her history
but I do know that everybody has got a
little bit of a liking to that female
Fang and a very distinguishable task
that is growing very much downward from
them okay folks while we carry on here
Tristan has got some elephants that are
mad bossing we do indeed Ralph it is a
great way to get back into the swing of
things by arriving down to Gary dam and
having Elly’s having the best time ever
by being in the mud and rolling around
and giving themselves a really good mud
bath now as Rolf mentioned my name is
Tristan on camera today I’ve got Fergus
and it’s an absolute pleasure to focus
on the back of the vehicle since I
haven’t seen him in quite some time now
remember this is live it is interactive
so it’s always great to hear from all of
you
hashtag safari live on twitter or
youtube chat if you’d like to get hold
of us but this is the best thing to have
is normally when we have a hot weather
like this it’s nice to have the alias go
around and they do make their way
towards watery points and gary dam at
the moment is just a small kind of
little mauler effectively but there’s
quite a lot of mud just on the edges and
fringes of the water and it’s the
perfect place for Elias to come down and
really have a good mud bath and the
reason why they
this is just too cool themselves down at
the end of the day when it’s hot like it
is today they creating a layer on their
body of cool mud that he’s going to just
protect them a little bit against that
Sun it’s going to cool down the blood in
the ears and if they’ve got any
parasites on them it allows them to them
find some way to rub up on and pull any
of those parasites that they have off
now you can see that female she’s really
is flapping her ears quite extensively
and quite rapidly and the reason for
that is basically just to cool herself
down and especially when they’ve sprayed
a bit of mud to water they will do this
because that coolness of the madden and
water on the years as they flap is going
to just cool the blood much quicker than
if it dries out and it creates that
layer of mud on there so that’s why
she’s flapping quite a bit you’ll also
notice that they’re right out in the Sun
at the moment you would think after they
finished mud wallowing because it looks
like the majority of them are done and
not finished with their baths that
they’ve had you would think that they
would start to move off into the shade
but after a bit of rain that we’ve had
in and you know this area flooding with
a bit of water there’s a lot of
nutritious plants that have just
suddenly grown and so they’re sitting
there and you can see they delicately
removing all little bits of vegetation
by using those trunks and those two
little fingers and they just kind of
roll around and they find exactly what
they looking for and then they pluck
them up but now there might be a little
vehicle that might get in the way of our
shots I do apologize that I think Tex is
going to just pull round there we go
that’s okay so Texas just moved off but
they are just trying to get all of those
little nutritious growths of herbaceous
plants or any little trees that might be
growing and any nutritious grasses that
are coming up so it’s a perfect place to
feed and if they get hots then while
they can come back to the water again
just now and cool themselves down but it
is amazing to have Eddie’s around and
I’m so excited that Fang is back I know
a number of you let me know over the
course of the week when James found her
back on Juma and the fact that ralphus
got here this afternoon is absolutely be
wonderful and it’s great to hear that
she’s in good condition and that she’s
moving around so thoroughly happy with
the fact that she is back and around now
what I’m gonna do is I’m just going to
reposition ass Lackey the herd was all
swimming and man bathing and I didn’t
really want to try and disturb him too
much I wanted to have a situation where
we could try and see them mud bathing
but now that they’ve stopped my bathing
I just want to go around so you can see
the rest of the herd
there’s some more behind us coming in
that’s actually fantastic news so I’m
just going to pull off here and there’s
a whole massive herd that is just
joining from behind that haven’t been
down to the water yet and so they’re
going to want to come down and if we
position ourselves right here
we should get a perfect view of all of
these elephants coming together and it’s
amazing to watch any is when they come
towards a look at how they start to
break out into a run they get so excited
about the fact that they can get close
to water and they can have a mud wallow
and they can cool off in these hot
afternoons and so they get all kind of
fidgety and lots of noise as well and
look at the reaction now you’ll see
these two herds will greet one another
all the babies are being grouped on both
sides are being grouped together
unfortunately here’s a few warthogs that
are also being chased so you can see
there’s a couple warthogs in amongst
everybody that are wandering probably
what all this chaos is about but babies
all being grouped together herds are
merging and they’re busy kind of
figuring out who’s who look at them all
coming down together how cool is this
what a way to get back to work
[Music]
and everybody into the water as quick as
they can
really the question exactly which I
think you said you love how Ellie’s I
didn’t hear the last part how chill they
are the social there we go thank you
and say yes that’s the best part about
it is when you get these elephants herds
and how social they are and how they
kind of meet and they greets and
everybody interacts with one another it
is the coolest thing to see especially
when you get to herds that come together
because there’s a lot of communication
that goes on and you’ll find that
they’ll go and they’ll try and kind of
interact with one another a lot of the
time it is parts of the same herd so
you’ll get a situation where some of
these members are have fractured or for
herd and they actually related in some
way and so they see each other there’s a
bit of a greeting and then they spread
out again but look at how they’ve lined
up everybody’s gotten themselves into a
situation where they’ve got their own
little bit of space the problem is is
that if Ellie’s have been mud wallowing
already here it’s not going to be really
any water there hasn’t been Maddie DUP
by them wallowing and going into the
water and so they all trying to find a
space where they
actually drink so a lot of the little
ones are trying to find areas of water
that is not all muddied up you can see
they use their trunk and they just kind
of flail it’s about on top of the
surface tension just to break that to
get to the cleaner water underneath but
it is so cool to see you can see the
other hood that was peacefully grazing
before the Stampede arrived they’ve just
started going up the hill and away and
they starting to go into the shade to go
and feed and now the rest of them seem
to be following on a very quick drink
and a little quick spray of the ears to
cool down and everybody else is off and
moving and I believe they are more that
are arriving behind us so hello it looks
like all of our gentlemen well one
gentleman at least and a female with a
little one that also going to join the
fray fairly shorty he’s a fairly young
bull but a beautiful individual he’s got
really nice big thick tusks I mean a
typical bull swagga that they’ve got
when they move down towards water they
kind of bounce on their legs and then
the little one that’s running to try and
keep up but this is absolutely wonderful
how amazing is this we had a really dry
lean spell with elephants in the sabi
sands for a while we’re in Toomer and it
was tough we didn’t see too many of the
herds and it seems as though in the last
few weeks they’ve started to come back
since the rains have arrived and fallen
so the elephants are starting to move
back into this area and it’s such a
delightful way to start an afternoon by
coming down to a waterhole and just
having this many elephants all around us
I’d actually like to know how many they
are maybe some of you that are watching
on the dam cam that can get some
screenshots of the whole herd we’ll be
able to tell us exactly how many oh yeah
I would surmise that there’s probably
between 25 and 30 now I believe a lot of
you are saying that this is a great
welcome back surprise it is it’s
probably one of the best outside of tiny
and her Cubs showing themselves as
afternoon this is probably one of the
things I’m most looking forward to
seeing so I always loved spending time
with Ellie’s particularly here at uma we
get Ellie’s that are very relaxed we get
to spend time with them in close
proximity and they all kind of come
around the vehicle it’s just the most
magic thing to be a part of these herds
and to listen to them and watch all the
little social nuances that they have in
amongst the grouping it really is a
special thing to do so I’m super excited
to be back and to be seeing this
straightaway it’s one of the best ways
like I say to start a working cycle
it will be as good sign of things to
come so there we go figures just telling
me now that is this is something that he
missed the most while he was in the
moral one of the things that he missed
was this proximity to elephants and the
sheer kind of intimacy of the sightings
that we have here so we get in amongst
all the aliens and we were able to spend
a lot of time with them and follow them
around and it really is just the most
wonderful way to spend time is amongst
these big gentle giants
the other thing is about a lot of the
hilly areas because we’re in a system
where you know they aren’t heavily
poached they’re not really persecuted
and we as respectful as we can be about
them they tend to be quite relaxed most
of the herds and we get really kind of
in amongst them and they’re they really
are very relaxed with our presence which
is quite pleasant and it allows for us
to have these incredible sightings of
them now you can see the herd that came
down for it rather quickly are leaving
very quickly now they probably going to
push off towards before looking at a
tiny baby at the back you’re going to
have to keep up little one it’s probably
hard work in this weather to try and
keep up but they’re going to probably
head up to some of the bigger warts and
points up north maybe to have a bit of
drink in the muddy water that they’ve
had here now while I admire our elias
and just spend a little bit longer here
because it’s so wonderful to be back
with them let’s go back across to print
in the Maasai Mara with something that
the area is very famous for yes we are
with the zebra now he looks okay from
this angle I’m just gonna try and move
on you can see him moving his leg I’d
say he’s got away from a crocodile and
he’s just turned unfortunately let’s try
just get a different angle on him you
can actually see there’s a big chunk of
skin that’s opened up but why I think
it’s a crocodile I can see what looked
like other spots where the teeth might
have embedded into him but he keeps
taking our site around around II so I’m
just trying to see it now we’ve checked
where scar was
but he has vanished he is no longer
there from where he was this morning so
it was right chair so I was sort of
wondering Lions God you see this injured
zebra because he does look quite sort
when he moves how’s that char
don’t you turn around before we get a
chance to zoom mr. zebra so here we go
now
can’t really see those other spots with
it looks like a croc gripped him but
that’s on this other shoulder yeah that
looks very sore shame poor mr. zebra
opens a spooling Lapwing behind him but
yeah it does look quite saw it’ll
definitely impede his movement little
bit which might make him an easier
target for the Lions but I think
definitely looks like got away from a
crocodile poor chap shame so I think
I’ve got one more spot to check where
the Lions might be Andrea you are a
hundred percent correct that zebra will
probably end up as dinner or breakfast
or lunch or tea snack or a brunch snack
for the paradise pride are you guys
thinking about crossing do you not see
what happened to him maybe not I think
there’s gonna be a bit of a greeting up
there almost like a herd jogging in
quite nice with their little puffs of
dust coming from their feet I know as he
press they’ve stopped to have a look at
us
hi Lily who’s a bit of a zinger of zero
argument in the background who’s six
years old Lily would like so if the
Lions don’t eat him will he survive
maybe Lily maybe animals are so strong
when it comes to surviving from what we
would think are such terrible terrible
injuries but they are all very good at
surviving so we don’t know whether he
will survive or not we’ll definitely
come back and check tomorrow to see if
he has made it through the night there’s
a little zebra having a drink okay I
think I’ve got one last spot to check
for the paradise pride and the musketeer
boys
it is a favorite spot of this I have
seen them in that area quite a few times
oh but it sounds like all the way down
in that South Africa my very dear friend
Tristan is having a storm of a start to
his afternoon Safari so it seems as
though we are not destined to leave
Gauri damn this afternoon because as the
elephant’s disappeared now so a tall
lanky giraffe has come down and I’m
hoping that it is going to drink at the
moment it’s kind of just sussing out the
situation in giraffe are very cautious
drinkers you’ll find they’ll come down
to water they’ll look around you can see
the elephant in the background actually
just going up over the damn wall there
and so they’ll come and they’ll look and
they’ll just make sure that there isn’t
some sort of predator in the area at the
end of the day when they drink they
often are in a very compromised position
they splay their legs right out their
head is down it’s difficult for them to
get back up to stand and a number of
giraffe have been killed around water
points and so they very nervous about it
they check they make a hundred percent
sure if the coast is clear before
they’ll then start to have a little bit
of a drink now it seems as though it’s
going to drink in a different place I
was hoping that I would turn and drink
side onto us but it seems as though it’s
going to drink from a small puddle in
the background the problem is is there’s
some little little rather than large
Eddie’s coming down and so they might
push this giraffe or from the water
there we go typical cheeky Elly’s they
often do you do this and there you can
see a nice gallop from the earth that’s
very cool
not often we get to see them running so
always very nice to see how the
locomotion works of a giraffe and to see
how their legs work when they need to
try and run anyway now this is just a
splinter off that herd that we first had
when we arrived they were down behind
the dam wall feeding and so they’re
going to come in and have a little bit
of a drink in a cool down themselves at
the end of the day they probably haven’t
had water just yet they were still
feeding in so it’s in our time just to
cool down a little bit you can see that
other ones do you have a bit of water on
their ears and so does that big one
actually so maybe they’ve come from tun
dam side the trunk itself is quite dry
and the feet are dry which means I don’t
think they have a situation where
they’ve been too
– right now it’s probably from earlier
in the afternoon now Palin you’re
wondering how many herds I think there
are in the Kruger Park system
Palin that’s very difficult question to
answer because the numbers on elephants
are not a hundred percent at the moment
the last census was a few years ago and
so we don’t actually know how many herds
they are also it’s subject to water
availability food availability because
as water dries out so elephants are
being pushed into areas with with
constant water and the herds then grow
they’ll then dissipates when there’s
more water and food around and so you
know it depends on the time of the year
but I can tell you that there’s believed
to be between sixteen and eighteen
thousand elephants within the Kruger
Park system and that would compromise if
you think that most of our elephant
herds are between 50 and I mean 15 and
30 it means that there is a number of
herds within that 18,000 it’s really a
large number so a lot of herds spread
all the way throughout now while our two
massive meandering beasts move off in
the form of giraffe and our elephants I
believe Jaime Patterson has found well
the biggest of those that have sharp
claws and teeth and they were hunting
and she’s just crept all the way across
a massively deeper lugar about to use
her claws and teeth potentially on the
wildebeest that are up ahead of her so
this is as far as we can go this is as
far as we can follow her it might be
quite fascinating to witness a hunt from
this distance because we’ll get to watch
and see how they worked why I was gonna
say work together as a team but to be
honest with you she’s all on her own now
she’s got a real problem here she’s
stalking these wildebeest but there’s an
entire herd of a very sharp eyed impala
up and to the left of her I will be
shocked if she manages to get close
enough to chase those Volda beasts on
this flat flat open area the grass is so
short
okay
Megan it’s your call as well this is as
close as I can get so she’s gonna run
all the way up the hill
but otherwise yes I think if you happy
go for it another absolutely gorgeous
evening in the Maasai Mara and we’ve got
a scene from a kind of perspective that
we don’t often get to share with all of
you
so what sure what you are watching is
happening right here and right now in
the Maasai Mara of Kenya where a hungry
lioness has just broken away from the
rest of her pride and is sneaking all
the way up mountain towards an
unsuspecting group of valle de beast so
there’s some Valle de beast there’s some
Buffalo and this are some Impala
antelope as well but she’s all on her
own the other lionesses haven’t come to
help her they’ve moved a little bit
closer to where she is but they haven’t
come to offer any support now what
you’re watching is completely live which
means that you can send through any
questions that you have in the comments
section below and it’s quite
extraordinary that technology exists
such that we can share these amazing
moments that are happening all the way
in Kenya with all of you wherever you
happen to be across the globe – now has
to use the land to her advantage the
grass is very very short there’s no
cover for her at all and I suspect as
she has embarked on a mission that is
not going to succeed I know she is very
far away so if we just explain a little
bit about why she is where she is and
why we are where we are but first an
introduction my name is Jamie and
afternoon Archie is on camera with me
and in front of us is an impossible
river system it is absolutely massive
there is nothing we can do so I’m gonna
keep watching her but essentially we we
can’t really do anything we can’t get
any closer to her not without running
serious risk of injury in trying to
drive across there but I have something
else to show you
and remember how I said that she was
without support she is there she is all
on her own but the two lioness is off to
my right did actually get up and they
did move a little bit closer to see what
her plans were and to see whether or not
it was worth of their energy in trying
to go and catch her now this morning
this particular group of lions this
particular pride of lions are caught
three warthog piglets and unfortunately
for them they’ve got a 13 Cubs to feed
there’s four lionesses water piglets
just didn’t go very far at all so they
are really really hungry for the moment
she’s lying down so she still she’s
lying down over there and she hasn’t
crypt all that much closer William from
Australia you say that you are loving
this broadcast well I’m really glad that
we could share it with you William
watching all the way in Australia it is
very special that we’re able to do this
and of course what we try and do is give
you you know whether it’s its animals
hunting or whether it’s animals with
youngsters whatever it happens to be we
try and share these moments with you
because it all ties together and tells a
story of the lives of these animals
she stopped there’s no way it is all
hold on a second Linus and the third
Linus have now moved down there they go
they’re moving she’s moving the one the
one’s already done and it’s just have a
little let’s just wait a little bit
longer to see how this works its way out
so we can’t obviously now see them my
head’s in the way for a start
but also we can’t get any closer down
there that these lionesses are no gonna
walk up just along this path excuse me
over there there we go there comes a
lioness now no it’s watch how this plays
out because as I said we don’t often get
to watch a hunt from this kind of
perspective and it gives us a really a
really sort of broad perspective on the
way that the animals work together now
Tyler you’re watching in Japan and you
say that you really are enjoying this
very much I’m thrilled to here at Tyler
I’ve lost a lion though I’m sure they
were two on the right I mean now I can’t
see any and I can only see one over
there maybe one of them stopped
somewhere down there to drink one of
them is definitely gone missing so I
wonder if she’s not sneaking all the way
around to try and get behind the bull
the Beast it is possible it would be a
bit of a stretch to try and get all the
way up that mountain and around them but
it is possible
Karin you say you know that it’s bad but
you really hope that they get to catch
them I don’t think it’s bad at all the
Lions can’t go to a grocery store they
don’t buy pre-packed meats they need to
eat and I’ll show you like I understand
of course that you feel sympathy with
the animal that’s being hunted but let
me show you something that might help
you feel a little bit better about the
entire situation while we wait for these
Lions to move up
I’ll show you something that will bring
those of you that are sad worried about
the the Lions hunting a little bit of
comfort so off to my right there are
some very very expectant little faces
not the cut not people in the car I’m
talking about the Cubs over there one
two three four five six seven eight nine
of them and there’s actually 13 in total
in this pride that we know of and now
they’re waiting for mom to bring them
some dinner that’s what they’re after
that’s what they’re thinking about and
now bear in mind of course that’s eight
out of the 10 times that mom tries to
get them dinner possibly even 9 out of
the 10 times that mom tries to get them
dinner knees sorts of conditions she’s
not going to manage it and so what we’re
showing you is not a kill what we’re
showing you is a struggle for survival
Donnie you say that lions are just
magnificent oh there we go now we’ve got
two that have popped out moving up the
path I agree
Donna Lions are truly magnificent
animals and more than that they are
animals that have the most extraordinary
social structure and bonds between the
individuals it’s impossible to watch a
lion pride interacting with each other
bearing in mind that it is a family unit
and not see just how much affection they
have for each and every single pride
member that of course in turn means that
they work together seamlessly when it
means time to get down to business now
she’s watching the lioness that’s close
to the wildebeest there is an additional
factor here there are three there are
three lionesses that I can see there are
four lionesses in this pride one of them
is missing and I wonder where she’s gone
and I wonder as I always do when I watch
something like this is just how much
these Lions have planned it out has she
been gone a lot longer than I realized
sneaking around and these lioness is
just waiting for her to
start from behind the animals I don’t
know I can tell you though that I think
that this hunt is going to take a very
very long time in this case the
lionesses really cannot afford to rush
things they’re very hungry
and once they scare the animals here if
they don’t manage to catch one
everything around here is going to be on
high alert so this is going to be a true
game of patience and I think what that
means for all of you having – having
introduced you to this particular pride
of lionesses and they struggle off for
dinner I think what that means for us is
that we say goodbye to you from for now
and we say from our she and myself a
very big thank you but if anything does
change stay tuned because we will go
live with more amazing stories from the
Masai Mara in Kenya
right okay well I don’t think anything’s
going to change and unfortunately the
darker it gets the heart of this is
gonna be fast so will City on we’ll
figure out what our plans are let’s send
you across to Brent who has found well
the fluffiest of all fluffy antelope so
fluffy and particularly when there’s a
baby involved which there is looks like
they’ve just come down to the edge of
the Mara River for a drink but the
female is very cautiously approaching
the river and making sure there’s no
dangerous crocodilians now there are
less crocodiles in this part of the
river than around the crossings but
there are still definitely crocodiles I
know someone has seen a zebra taken by a
crocodile at this very spot I also think
the river might be a little bit okay I
heard something
mm false alarm I thought I heard some
alarm calls a little bit upstream but no
sir sack there we go she’s going down to
drink this is a very popular drinking
spot for lots of different animals the
zebra and drink err frequently the
Thompsons the topi
trap says I love their heart knows
they’re hurt and their noses are quite
special aren’t there underline you also
gonna go drink and you can see there’s a
little bit of rain starting little
droplets all in the water getting quite
a pretty scene I can hear some birds on
the other side
sounds like a puff back track just
having a look to see if we can spot it
we can hear the hippos it is truly
Pleasant just taking a moment next to
the river and listening to their the
sounds so there’s a big group of hippos
we can hear some weavers dark cap ball
ball rattling Cystic EULA
I am a red-eye does I am a red-eyed of
you know the doves calling I see if we
get a view of these weavers and this
acacia next day I hope they don’t fly
off when we reverse
[Applause]
mmm
[Applause]
it’s I can just make him art hopping
around in the tree top of this smaller
acacia it’s very difficult to see I just
healed shot of yellow so with and there
we go and just see it happy I can’t see
which Weaver it is I’ve been here the a
prize again it doesn’t want to be on
camera Weaver that’s what type of Eva it
is and you can see there’s impressive
thorns on the acacia zanthor Illya what
do you spot a jar the thorns yes you
don’t want to be walking barefoot under
one of these trees elbows think it’s
funny
great joke as they are okay
I’m hoping we’re not gonna get wet but
we might a little bit arraigned behind
us in a bit around ahead of us but it
looks like there’s little bits of rain
we were seeing have stopped
so we shall continue on unfortunately no
luck with Scott in the Paradise prior
today
okay well we see if there’s any other
wonders to find in the Mara let’s go all
the way down south to Ralph
so folks just a little bit of an update
we’ve there was some Impala alarm
calling and a couple of the game viewers
spread out and there’s been some checks
picked up of a male leopard so it could
be hasanat in ghana Voula
any one of these male cats so we are
trying to help locate these animals and
it looks like they’ve they’ve headed
towards the Galago lodge so we’re gonna
we going to be just looping around and
just seeing if we can pick up on him on
this animal his some it seems he is
walking around now during the day the
clouds are coming over a little bit and
it’s been such a relief every day this
has been happening when it’s been
scorching hot and the clouds have come
through a little bit and it’s just
cooled things down nicely so hopefully
we’re gonna find this male leopard
moving sorry for all the bumps I’m on a
little bit of a bumpy road yeah but
better a little bit further on but
it’s one of those days we’ve just
started out we found those elephants who
are lovely on the move we’re moving
towards water now that you you did then
watch some lovely elephants with Tristan
heavy bait toys asking the question what
is the most difficult part of my job
well that’s a difficult question is not
too much about my job that I find overly
difficult
I do enjoy most of what I do that’s why
I’m here yes I must say that you know
working in the tourism industry I think
probably one of the most difficult parts
of working with people is the people
because we have a lot of different
nationalities we have people from all
over the world we have people that
sometimes don’t quite I don’t know see
things the way we do so it can be
difficult I think initially especially
as an inexperienced guide that’s
probably one of the most difficult parts
of the job to get over I think later it
has come easier to me especially once
I’ve traveled around the world to Europe
and and also having a lot of different
people coming on the tours and staying
in different lodges I think you get to
understand people a little bit better
but that is probably one of the most
difficult parts especially initially as
a young guard once you get to know
people better in the way that they
generally operate different
nationalities I think it then becomes a
lot easier to handle so yes I think I
think the animals are a lot easier to
handle then people are there are a lot
more instinctive I think and they’re not
as emotional I would say so it’s quite a
bit easier to to work with animals but
they don’t talk as well so it’s a little
bit easier to understand body language
etc so yeah quite a difficult thing to
get your head around different
nationalities but eventually as I say it
does become second nature and you know
that French people like certain
things or things done in a certain way
especially around food and the table
Americans might like things differently
you know and the British for instance
like things their way so everybody likes
their own little the own little way so
yes but it’s not decided that anybody’s
way is the best it’s just that everybody
around the world do things differently
so we’re gonna continue here along the
ride looking for this lipid and I’ll
give you an update shortly in the
meantime let’s go over to Tristan and
see what he’s been up to well we just
left Gary dam after spending some time
watching all the different creatures
coming down they were some Nala
it was impalas the giraffe were there
and we decided once they all started
leaving that we would also take our
leave of absence and we’re going to try
and see if there’s any sign of tündi
around yalla it’s off now I know Scots
and Ralph were out this morning and they
think that they found where she’s been
going up and down and so I’m in the area
just to have a little look so far
nothing that I can see other than an
egyptian goose that seems fairly relaxed
with life doesn’t seem as though it’s
too upset about anything moving around
in this particular section so I don’t
know if she’s been moving during the day
today maybe she’s at the Dane site
wherever it is and just resting or she’s
found herself a shady spot to rest
either way it’s worth checking around
here I want to try and see if maybe
she’s moved the day and if we can try
and pick up exactly where she’s moved it
to nothing that’s going to be my mission
over this next little work stunt mister
try and find at Andy and the little ones
there he’s the plan anyway whether it
works out or not I’m not quite sure what
is surprising with our Egyptian goose is
that there is only one of them I would
have thought that we would have had a
pair here they generally are in pairs
together very seldom that you see one by
itself so maybe the other one is
drifting somewhere at one of the other
mud wallows maybe a chillip and just
across the drainage on the other side
so did it Tom no nobody has actually
seen Tom these Cubs yet the no burdens
actually had any visual of them
whatsoever and that’s why we trying now
quite intensively to start looking for
her and to try and really see if we can
find and confirm if they are Cubs how
many Cubs what the situation is how big
they are whether or not our timing in
terms of what we think how old they are
is is correct and so that’s why we put
in gonna put in concerted efforts over
the next few weeks to try and find this
and try and find exactly where she is at
the end of the day something might have
happened to them you never know maybe
she’s not dating anymore but the signs
are that she still is the way that she’s
moving about and going back and forward
in in similar areas to where she’s been
over the last I would say six weeks
he’s an indication that she should be
somewhere in this general vicinity and
should still have Cubs we know that she
did have suckle marks the other day I
did ask somebody they said they saw
suckle marks on her so she must have
them it’s just a question of whether
they’ve survived and if there are still
a lot indeed still alive so we’re going
to try our very best and to see if we
can find them I am positive I feel like
we are going to find them shortly Scots
and I were talking about it today that
we try and spend a lot of time outside
of drives even to try and find her and
see if we can spot a some way in these
areas now where I’m going now is a
little pan that’s not too far off from
where Scot things that the den might be
Scot said this morning you had tracks
like I say going up and down quite close
to Bethany Road so I want to just
quickly check this waterhole and see if
there is anything at the water hole
itself which is just round this corner
there’s some Franklin’s so that’s not
going to bode well for a leopard it’s
just check here quickly so no it looks
as though it’s all quite quiet around
this little watery mud wallows this way
I was talking about it is a section I’ve
seen a drink at a few times so I thought
I’d just come and check but while I kind
of scan or not I was going to say while
I scan the bushes were you going to go
across to Jamie Patterson but let’s just
check and make 100% sure first before we
do any of that it doesn’t look like
anything’s yeah the Franklin’s are sort
of walking around they don’t seem too
ruffled by anything they
not squawking or squeaking or making any
noise there’s no other birds also making
any noise so I don’t think there’s any
sign of her in this potential area right
now I’d really like to continue the
search and hopefully we will have some
luck at some points and while we do that
it seems as though Jamie Patterson is
having a far easier time of it and is
managed to find what she’s been looking
for so while Tristan goes off in search
of a ton Dee’s Cubs we have some Cubs of
our own and they’re just were looking so
sweet that I couldn’t resist coming to
have a closer look although I am going
to turn around and go back towards the
other lionesses shortly because just as
I left them some zebra started moving
down towards them I’m just gonna keep
looking backwards the reason I actually
left apart from the fact that the lion
cubs are so cute is because it started
to rain so I needed to put my the back
of the car towards the well in the
direction that the wind was blowing the
raining from but we seem to be a great
deal better off now but it’s still a
nice moment to just stop and look at the
Lions in front of us
there was one off to the right but I’ve
lost it now let’s keep looking at the
lines on the termite mound let me move
my head out of the way I keep trying to
do a head count to work out exactly how
many are around but it hasn’t worked out
so well
ah there’s a voice I haven’t heard
properly in a while over the radio
no James injury no no no you can go
ahead makes I just I just heard James
chatting to me over the radio I hope he
wasn’t actually trying to chat to me
there is the fourth line s moving up the
termite mound she’s now responding to
the movements of the Lions behind us so
I think she now knows that there is a
chance that her sister’s could be
successful and we are going to turn
around and move in that direction when
she comes past us but we do have a
question from a new viewer about whether
or not we ever worry that the animals
are going to jump into the vehicle with
us or if they are in any way going to
attack us because obviously we’re out
here in an open vehicle and the answer
to that is no absolutely not
we’re in it we’re in no way concerned
for our safety obviously that we don’t
get blase about the whole thing there
are wild animals and they are capable of
injuring us however they have grown up
around Safari vehicles they’re not
concerned by us at all you can see they
haven’t altered their natural behavior
at all they haven’t shown any signs of
fear or aggression and they don’t see us
as food either now there’s no reason for
us to fear the animals that we see we’ve
also been doing us for many many years
so we’re constantly watching their
behavior and we’re looking to see
whether or not the Lions are in any way
uncomfortable or any animal actually and
we’re constantly making judgment calls
as to exactly where we want to be or
what we want to be doing or two Cubs on
the lift just behind the slot busy
having a little rough or were having a
rough and tumble the Cubs aren’t very
playful at the moment I think because
they are so hungry
but usually at this time of day you find
that the Cubs become particularly
playful there we go
that’s called lazy wrestling that’s
what’s happening right there that is
lazy wrestling in size of that one’s
paws pop on your head got your head
now Catherine you say that you love this
pride and that you find that the
lionesses work so hard and I’m and yes
they do they do work very hard I have a
soft spot for that for this particular
pride because it’s the pride of lions
that I started following from the very
beginning and when I first arrived here
the the middle set of Cubs were still
very very small so I was the first
person to see them and I was lucky
enough to be the first person to see the
youngest set of Cubs and I have followed
them for many many many hours overnight
back in the beginning in fact I probably
have spent well over a hundred a hundred
hours with these lions but that’d be
excessive no it wouldn’t be that would
be about fair take down Riesling each
other I would say I’ve spent over a
hundred line 100 lines with these hours
exactly totally
I do have a soft spot for them I’ve seen
them succeed and fail succeed and fail
look at your gorgeous face Hannah at
around about a year and a half will be
the soonest that the Cubs will really
start to be able to participate in a
meaningful way to the hunt and it’s only
at around about two two and a half years
old but they stopped messing it up
though they they will participate from
now so the older Cubs are big enough and
strong enough that the lioness is in a
situation where they’ve caught something
like a buffalo calf or or whatever it
happens to be if they don’t think that
the Cubs will injure themselves the Cubs
will be allowed to to practice their
hunting skills practice their killing
skills actually if I’m honest because by
then the hunt is over so they have to
learn but they’re still just a little
bit too young the oldest ones I keep
saying eight months but I think that’s
because I’ve lost track of time I think
the oldest ones are around about nine
months now possibly even a little bit
older obviously I wasn’t here for when
those Cubs were first born have you ever
seen such hungry looking Cubs
ah things I’m so sorry I couldn’t hear
that name at all campus campus wants to
know if lines lionesses raise their cubs
on instinct or do they remember how
their mothers raised them or perhaps
have they observed how their answer
raised their their cousins we don’t know
the answer to that but I would say that
the most likely luck answer
realistically is that it’s instinct I
mean we don’t remember things from our
early early childhood and all from when
we were babies and I doubt that the Cubs
do either and that instinct is so so
strong all all essentially all female
animals out here most female animals
have got such strong maternal instincts
and you see it in action from the minute
the lionesses have their cubs and you
can see they look they do learn I think
that they do learn certain tricks of the
trade but you watch them with their
first set of cubs and you see this
almost confusion on their faces as they
stare at these little bawling creatures
as if to say what on earth have I done
what are these what am I meant to do
with them I meant to do them why is it
yelling and then of course they know
instinctively how to pick it up how to
feed it when to introduce it to the
pride not to introduce it to the pride
in the early stages theirs are all
powerful powerful powerful instincts
they’re beautiful yes we’re talking
about you that’s the last of the female
store there’s some really really great
free advertising right there behind the
Lions head
such pretty lionesses what do you think
girl I don’t think you think this is a
good effort this hunt I don’t think you
think it’s gonna succeed but I can tell
you that the Cubs are eagerly awaiting a
good result in fact it almost looks they
look they look like children waiting for
their parents to come over take away
okay we’re going to sit this one out and
spend more time with the agamous let’s
go and find out where brent is
apparently he’s bumbling about in the
Mara I’m taking a very relaxed afternoon
Drive this afternoon I’m hoping that I
was feeling lucky but nothing seems to
be popping out for me today but anyway
that’s the way it goes we are live from
one of the most incredible places on
earth the Maasai Mara National Reserve
and it is just quite nice to just take
in the scenery in I mean it is
absolutely stunning here gorgeous that’s
a gorgeous yeah I’m hoping I will find
some lions of my own
I’m checking very carefully quite often
the Mara River pride
pop-up in this part of the park what
have we got there nothing
hello viñoly bernard is wondering where
on earth of all the wildebeest disappear
gee well they were gone south well not
all of them
the Valda beast of the main section of
the migration I know not this way
I need that side lines but that was a
long time ago yeah not me I was off this
morning but yeah so one of our cars was
there yes the two border boys okay very
nice good safari what we live right now
so everyone’s watching right now we’re
broadcasting live across the world
perfect
well great I’m glad that it’s brought
you to the Mara and it’s a nice time of
the year to be here there plenty you
just gotta look hard okay guys we’ll
have a good Drive okay sorry about that
face what does I talking about how you
can you remember
I’ll waive all of all the B’s
disappeared too there we go that was the
question sorry about that too got sub DP
sidetracked their bar lions and cheetahs
and whatnot but yes so there’s basically
two major herds of all the beasts in
this area you have the main sort of the
migration of all the beasts that travels
between the Serengeti in the Maasai Mara
there’s about 1.5 million of them and at
this time of the other have moved south
towards the southern plains around in
due to where they will go give birth and
about two months all same and then
there’s thoroughly start working their
way back up and they should be back in
Kenya at the earliest end of June
normally July however we have about
another 250,000 which are currently
spread from around ma Sierra to talaq
and into the conservancies
they’re called the loiter herd and they
do not leave care they traditionally
migrates to the loiter Hills which is
100 KS or so that way as the crow flies
and that they’re good birth are on there
however last year quite a significant
number of the loiter heard did not make
the journey to the hills and they
actually gave birth on Paradise plain in
the Maasai Mara
so it’s going to be interesting to see
whether they decide to hang about or
head to loiter this year now one of the
problems that’s facing the Leutze herd
and one of the reasons main reasons why
they stayed in the Lamar last year is a
fences being put up for agriculture so
it it is one of the biggest of killers
of large migrations and animal movements
it’s often not shooting or poaching it
is actually the fence that will stop it
okay what is everything not even Eddie’s
our chat today I feel like some Ellie’s
I never even find some Ellie’s
and as I said early I was I was really
hoping to find some Ellie’s having a mud
bath and well Tristan had the elephants
might debar think so have a little bit
jealous of him but of course you never
know what’s around the next corner on a
live African safari
oh I think ah I think I have lost still
yet I lost comms with Megan but I’ve got
it back but let’s go quickly back to
Jamie and her lines our lines that are
posing so beautifully for us this is
such a rare and wonderful opportunity
for us to see all of the end garments
together on a termite mound it’s just
such a special image or at least most of
them anyway I might not yet have been
able to to do what I was expecting to be
able to do I thought at one point or
another we get all of them walking from
one spot to another and I thought maybe
we could do a quick calculation of how
many males and females are here it
hasn’t quite worked out that way because
they haven’t moved since I arrived so
I’m still keeping an eye on where the
lionesses are I can’t see them at all
anymore
back on that slope and unfortunately as
it gets dark obviously it’s going to be
harder and harder for us to be able to
see what they’re doing our infrared
lights won’t reach there there’s not all
that much that we’ll be able to do about
it
some big yawns coming from the Cubs some
signs of moving quite a few of them
giving each other a bit of a clean or
their own feet a bit of a clean
of all she look so dejected no need to
look so dejected
so I mush riding on those lionesses
hunting efforts over the next few days
okay we’re gonna spend out a bit more
time with our puddle of lions and wait
to see whether or not the Cubs get up
and perhaps even start playing it sends
you back across a – ruff who has had a
truly special afternoon surrounded by
elephants a fox we’ve been driving along
the Milwaukee River and we’ve just come
across a small group of elephants that
are just enjoying themselves in this
lovely cool River and vegetation next to
the river and they’re feeding a little
bit there were two miles that we’re just
having a little bit of a sparring
session but they seem to have calmed
down a bit now so if these elephants
start to come towards us I will be
moving out the way of them rather
quickly and you can see them now and
they starting to spar off again I’m just
keeping my own name because as they
write nicely way down towards us I don’t
want to be getting in their way they’re
in a little bit of a boisterous mood and
sometimes when one can be pushed around
a little bit they can start to take it
out on you so I’m not gonna let them get
too close to me but if they stay in that
general area and we should be all right
in it just starting to be a little bit
more elephants popping up around the
area
moving back slack eFax Saladin want to
get involved in a little scuffle quite
nice to see them facing off like that
the Bulls do I sort of have this play
fighting and it is a couple of
youngsters that are fighting they’ve
moved into the thicket of it but this is
all very important for later in life
when they when they when they do become
very big males and they can literally
fight to the death so it’s important for
them to learn that sparring techniques
now and it’s all in the name of for the
the real-life situations a bit lighter
generally when they’re a little bit
younger likeness they’re just pushing
and shoving each other around like all
the teenagers would a bit of arm
wrestling and a bit of fun so it’s not a
laugh in this situation at present but
there can be a little bit boisterous and
with him being so big if they do make
their way towards us we do need to be a
little bit careful because we’re
probably a small sized elephant with the
vehicle and everything involved here and
so it’s it’s just important is to just
to give them their space that’s all now
there’s a little young bull here I think
this I’m having the feeling that that
it’s a small group of males I haven’t
had a chance to positively do a male and
female decision yet but those two that
were playing they’ve definitely males
they were having another go at each
other it’s nice to see them
some relaxed some are pushing each other
around and it’s been absolutely
fascinating that so many more elephants
have moved into the area and
straw-haired making the comments some
power struggles going on there I
definitely agree with you destroy hit
and there’s a few of them they’re moving
towards us nicely a little bit that’s a
young teenager he’s a lot younger than
the rest so he wouldn’t get involved in
the scuffle because he’s a little bit
too young for that but he’s also
witnessing it and it was a realizing
that that’s what boys do it’s a learning
even if he’s not partaking and you can
see the flapping of the ears that’s all
down to this nice heat that we’ve got
rat facts we’re just gonna jump over to
Justin who’s got husana for you
we do indeed we’ve managed to come down
to twin dams and then you can see him
just riding he’s crossing over into
little Gary so we’re gonna be able to
have him for very long at all but he’s
going down towards the bean pan hope
he’s gonna have a little bit of a drink
you can see the impalas are shouting at
him at the moment making quite a bit of
noise telling him that they’ve seen him
and you’ll see him partners will
actually run closer towards him like
that when they shot at him just to try
and keep him in sight and keep him in
view and you would think that that
distance would be really really close
and that this Impala would be in a lot
of danger but they are a well aware of
how fast he is and they are much more
feet footed over that distance and they
can get away much quicker than he can
get to them but you see he is st.
marking so for all of you that have been
asking whether or not asana has been st.
marking that is a typical scent marking
manoeuvre first to rub the face the
glands on the face will then cause this
animal to secrete from there and that
won’t be a marking and then he lifts his
tail and he sprays urine to be able to
sink in that area as well now I’m gonna
go forward just a little bit because it
looks like he might drink and if he
drinks then we can at least see him
drinking I also just want to get off the
main road because otherwise we’re gonna
cause a bit of a traffic jam but it
seems as though he’s going in towards
the waterhole al-ahram where you say you
love that cool tell it is the best thing
and it is something that we use a lot to
spot lipids when they curl that tail you
can see how that white really contrasts
the rest of his body
blings in incredibly well but when he
sticks that tail up and is that white
contrasting bits it’s quite easy to spot
them but it is the best thing when
they’re getting shorter that they lifted
up as almost like a white flag to say
I’m not hunting you leave me alone stop
shouting and I was kind of hoping for a
second there when these Impala started
to shout at him that I was gonna push
him back northwards but unfortunately it
seems as though he’s going to be on his
way straight south and off into little
Gary
unfortunately so he was on our side he
must have been around twin dams just
having a rest during the day today and
he’s then decided to move off what’s he
found they look as though he’s gone into
the bush
what’s he got maybe he’s found a little
tortoise or a Terrapin No
Sharon you say it’s nice to see the
beginning of his julep Mercer Tunisia is
definitely starting to drop quite a bit
now you starting to see a little bit of
that fold of skin kind of coming out and
it’s looking a lot more like a male
leopard and a lot less cub like as the
days go on and he’s growing every single
day you can see it’s also got a nice
full belly he’s been taking advantage of
the lambing season with the impalas and
has really gone after quite a few
different lambs is that tail up again
marking territory once again
he’s just looking as the car goes past I
apologize about the vehicles
unfortunately where we are we can’t
really position ourselves any
differently than what we have already
and our view of him is about to
disappear in the next few seconds as he
just goes behind a little Bank once he
goes behind me unfortunately
there’s very little we can do to keep
him just gonna travel forward a bit or
maybe back for you Ferg
let’s see if we can just keep a view of
him a little bit longer as he meanders
southwards because he is moving straight
off in a southerly direction which is
not ideal but we will store on our
tündi search and we’re just checking
the milliwatts e when we heard some
impalas alarm calling and we were told
that they were impalas alarm calling
close to this area so he came to just
investigate and I’m glad we did I
thought maybe Tandy could be moving
around at the end of the day she’s in a
situation where she would be looking for
water and potentially maybe even hunting
and moving from the areas where they had
tracks of her this morning and I thought
maybe she might be done twin dams we
know she does come down here every now
and then but very pleasant surprise to
see the young Prince he’s always a
welcome sight in our area but I think
like I said that is the last view we’re
going to get of him as he just
disappears and watch that camouflage as
he goes behind these bushes completely
disappears in the space of two or three
seconds it is so good to see leopards
again in particularly husana it’s
wonderful when you get back and you see
all these characters again and you get
to kind of sit with them and know
there’s not been a very long sighting
but it’s always very pleasant when we
get to see them so very nice right well
I’m going to carry on trying to look for
tündi in this area since I’m down here
and maybe we’ll get lucky maybe husana
will come back north we’ll just keep an
ear out while we do that so let’s go
back across to Jamie who’s still sitting
with the beautiful and gamma pride I
would have been very surprised if
Tristan wandered away from just having
got back from leave and hadn’t found a
leopard I definitely would have been I
would have been shocked to say the least
so our beautiful lion cubs are still
posing beautifully for us and not only
that or even more privileged because one
of them has chosen to come and sit right
next to our vehicle and ankle beautiful
cat yes no she’s right up next to us she
went to go and investigate exactly what
the other three lionesses have gone off
to do and to provide an extra layer of
entertainment there’s a vehicle that
drove into a hole and is now stuck
we’ve got all sorts of things happening
here in this particular sighting I keep
checking behind me just to make sure
that the adults haven’t launched
themselves after dinner yet I haven’t
seen any sign of movement and the zebra
and the bull the beasts are still
looking very calm nothing’s happened
nothing’s changed yet
still waiting still hoping for dinner I
think what you’ll probably find in this
particular area is that the Lions are
going to have to wait until night falls
Oh get it get it get the fly I would say
that they without any kind of cover
they’re gonna have to wait for the cover
of darkness and it is getting towards it
is getting towards full moon as well
which means that it’s going to be even
harder for them during full moon nights
is when the Lions probably have their
lowest success rate of of hunting at
night doctor nub
we actually spoke about this question
this morning funny enough dachshund I
was wondering about how long a lion can
last without eating and obviously it
depends on the condition that the Lions
in it depends on if it’s owned if it’s a
tiny lion or an older lion but for a
healthy adult lion I would say that they
could probably go around about three
weeks possibly even more but of course
there is a very firm cutoff point
because when they can’t although maybe
within a pride they’ll be okay but when
they can’t hunt for themselves and when
they don’t have the energy to hunt for
themselves then even though they could
survive for a little bit longer
they still been ongoing to survive if
that makes any sense because it’s a
tough world out here and for a lion with
a broken leg or whatever else it happens
to be I have seen lion prides feed
injured members before they don’t drag
the carcass to them or anything like
that and they certainly don’t
regurgitate like wild dogs do but what
they do I mean essentially the the
injured line drags herself after the
rest of the pride and then they allow it
to to feed with them so it is something
that does happen
my back yet she bought us – no I mean
what are those Tufts of hair sticking
out of the side of your ears there they
look ridiculous
thank you very funny haircut is it just
my imagination does anyone else see that
on that lion cub on the left there’s two
little Tufts of hair it’s just because
they’re so symmetrical as well it’s
hilarious what is all of this hullabaloo
huh guys here comes one of the Cubs the
cub let was next to us let’s just have a
look at her quickly because I want to
show you what I meant about the Cubs
looking a little lanky now looking at a
lanky or not she definitely does okay as
a lioness young lioness sickles down
back on the termite mound let’s go and
see whether or not a Brent is still
driving about the Mara and what he’s
searching for
I am I’m not sure what I’m searching for
it this very moment I’m searching for
anything because there is not a
heartbeat around me
there’s not even a timid taupey in sight
but we do have a breathtaking view which
I’m going to show you I’m just going to
get into the right spot line up a lovely
Shepherds tree ah there we go how’s that
oh we can do a little listen to see what
we can hear again then he has some
pickle patch sister killers I can also
hear yellow-throated long floor and
there was a bit earlier a red-winged
Franklin calling as well and the cricket
absolutely gorgeous
okay now umka was wondering since there
is a policy of human intervention in the
Masai Mara would the park feed the
animals during a drought um to be honest
I don’t know
no Jonas is not and Joe has been in the
bar a lot longer than that so I am
definitely going to say stick with Java
so no so and and again it seems to be
that the the lions and leopards and the
cheetahs and elephants Reiner are pretty
much what their will
use veterinary service on I can’t see
them for example using the vets on the
zebra we saw today but I’m not sure yeah
I didn’t think so bad yes now on the
other hand if that wound was from a
steer I think definitely then they would
get involved it’s quite a an interesting
one and I mean everywhere it’s different
and I’m sure they have their reasons as
I tend to lean far more to the side of
let nature be nature I mean
hypothetically for example you keep
fixing male lions they stay at the head
of the pride longer than they should and
start mating with their daughters and
that affects the genetics of the whole
population even though that particular
individual might be spectacular was
special but he’s only one lion and you
can’t look after one line or two lines
need to look after the whole population
the the health of a population is far
more important than one individual in
that population probably into trouble to
say I never had any man well that’s what
I believe this is my opinion
Oh exciting times it sounds like Jamie’s
lions have woken up and on the move
that’s two males three males my lions
are indeed awake
that’s three males we’ve got okay so
three males this just can’t the males
there was a female
we’ve got hey you’re in my way move four
males
five six males seven males it’s a lot of
males possibly even eight I couldn’t get
the last one so in that group that just
walked past me there was eight males I
still have encountered obviously having
come to the lioness first eleven counts
these two which looks like nine male on
ninth male man little one at the back
what are you you look like a female oh
they’re little testicles under their
tail I can tell it’s harder to look when
they’re a bit younger so what did I just
say Jai say nine males that I confirmed
that’s crazy there’s so many males 9 out
of 13 I thought there were a lot of
males in that group but my goodness if
I’ve got that count right that’s a lot
of males of the same age if I’ve got
that count right then the and gamma
pride provided all Cubs survive will
only be will only have four females
added to their number when they these
Cubs grow up and they’re nine young
males we’ll have to disperse if they all
survive of course and they probably
won’t all disperse in one group nine is
uh I mean I could stand corrected on
that who knows how it will play out but
nine is not a very
stainable number it’s going to forgive
me youngsters I’m going to examine
closely beneath your tail with a pair of
binoculars you definitely a boy
I’m pretty sure that last one was a
female tardy you want to know why some
of them have spots on their legs like a
leopard all lions have spots when
they’re born its to help to camouflage
them and as they grow up those spots
slowly fade but most lions will never
lose them altogether so if you look at
the adult females but tricky to see but
she’s going to get up and accompany the
rest of her that the Cubs now if you
look at her she’s got spots on her legs
and her belly still as well no wonder
you haven’t bothered all that much this
whole time did you get the biggest
piglet by any chance yes yes you did you
know nearly as hungry as everyone else
somebody lucked out today lucked out on
lunch is this the lioness with a limp I
just want to see if that’s not why she’s
also stayed behind I didn’t notice any
of them limping today in this morning
wallet but I did it the last time I saw
them so this morning they all seemed
fine there’s a chicken see if she isn’t
the one that I saw damn thing about a
bit earlier
I wonder can you imagine nine male lions
there won’t stay I doubt they will stay
together generally speaking when that
does happen and of course it does happen
with certain prides she’s walking nah no
she’s fine little bit of us to walk but
nothing serious
generally when that does happen when you
get groups of nine males like that if
I’ve got that count right which I think
I did
then you’ll have a situation where
they’ll move off in a group of four and
five or three and six but probably four
and five
I’m posh you want to know sorry I’m
having a chuckle because I’m thinking
about lions with table manners you want
to know if they catch a large a zebra
will they share nicely not in the state
they’re in at the moment
no I’m just gonna wait I can’t sorry
actually can’t turn on the vehicle yet
until she’s a bit further past us
otherwise we’re gonna give her a fright
no not in the state that they’re in
they’re hungry they’re really really
hungry if they fall and there’s plenty
of food to go around then you’ll find
the growling and the the snapping and
each other is kept to a minimum but when
they’re really hungry like this the it’s
a bun fight essentially for who gets
what piece of the meal
by the way in the continuing saga of the
guy who drove into the hole his bumper
just came off while they were trying to
tow him poor guy
okay just gonna catch up a little bit to
these lines see what they get up to
let’s send you over back across to a
South Africa you’ve already seen a water
back here in the Maasai Mara go and have
a look at one in South Africa yes folks
we right near twin dams and we’ve just
come across some of these FEMA water and
lovely nice view of them swishing their
tails around keeping the flow that they
obviously remember that the females
don’t have horns and very easily
identifiable with this lovely shaggy cut
they all right near the water and you
aren’t generally funding more than five
to ten kilometres away from water and
that’s actually quite far they’re
generally within five kilometers of
water but it all depends on how far they
need to go for the grazing now it should
be time for them to start dropping the
young quite soon and the Predators will
be having an opportunity to change their
diet a little bit because they’ve been
filling their boots
another Impala and now I’m sure that
they will be moving across to some of
the Volta based zebra and water back
youngsters in the near future because
they’ll also be dropping quite soon so
just lovely to see them feeding here and
remember the water back once they do you
give this they’ve they’ve got a tactic
where they actually leave a lot of the
young in a crash with younger females
parsa’s Bobby making a comment they’re
just beautiful I agree absolutely and
especially with that toilet seat ring on
the bottom it’s like really a game of
putting the tail on the donkey except
the tail is right in the correct place
so one of those hot afternoons coming
down towards later afternoon starting to
cool down and things are slowly starting
to happen a little bit more movement all
round from the Antelope from the
Predators I hear that you did have a
little sneaky peek of husana before he
left the property with Tristan so that’s
fantastic news and we’re gonna go on our
way towards chitwa dam so we’re gonna be
hitting along this way we’re not quite
sure if we’re going to have signal in
that area there are little bit of
gremlins around there today so I’m not
going to set you up for us not going
there because it’s not for sure so we’re
gonna head that way and we see what
happens but there has been a lot of
movement of the leopard in that
particular area in the last few days so
I do want to just cover that area and if
we don’t come right there has been talk
of some lions in the Buffalo area so
we’ve got a little bit of a plan around
that heading towards chitra in maybe
towards buffer look and in the meantime
we’ll also be listening out for all the
other guides if anybody else hears
anything so let’s start up let’s carry
on down the road while we move past
these water back
hey folks while I continue to search for
any of these big cats Jamie has still
got some of those big cats and I’m sure
she’s got lots to tell you about them I
would love to tell you more about them I
can tell you that in the lionesses must
have attempted a hunt at some point a
little bit earlier because all of the
zebra and Impala that were gathered
round there have scattered I think
that’s why actually the Cubs got up and
they moved in the direction of the
adults they heard the running now it’s
quite a cold day today and I promised
Taylor I’d look after Maurice for her so
maurices Maurice is both acting as a
scarf and also tucked up nice and warm
in my jacket I can make sure that he’s
fine I’ve been sending Taylor pictures
of him throughout the course of the
drive Maurice
looking at lions Maurice looking through
binoculars Julia very good very very
valid point because of course the fact
that we are able to enjoy the animals
like this means that it’s privileged not
to be abused in any way now Julia is
wondering how close are the vehicles
allowed to get to the animals
there is a Mara Ranger here and there
always is it a busy sighting to make
sure that all rules are obeyed and
you’re looking at if I remember
correctly a distance of 13 meters at
absolute minimum if I remember that that
if I remember if that was the case
are we always gauge exactly how close
we’re going to go obviously there’s
situations where you can’t help it if an
animal chooses to come and walk right
next to you and lie down next to you
that’s that’s not sure you know that
really it’s nobody’s fault and you can
do more damage in terms of upsetting the
animal by then moving then you have by
allowing them to walk in your direction
so as long as you’re not allowing them
to break that Spurs personal bye why am
i Spooner izing everything today break
that personal space barrier then you’re
absolutely fine so you don’t ever let
them touch the vehicle I can’t show you
unfortunately because we believe
terribly against the rules but the the
situation unfolding to my left now has
one two three four five six vehicles
plus the guy who’s stuck he’s out an
arranger and some slightly lost tourists
hilarious I can’t show you unfortunately
okay so another exciting it’s never
never a dull day in the Masai Mara but
it is time for the morrow team to say a
farewell so we’ll send you back across
to my friend back in South Africa
Tristan who has a continued his luck and
found you some elephants
I have indeed it’s been a lucky
afternoon we’ve just literally bumped
into animal after animal after animal
it’s been quite pleasant actually I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed being back in gym and
having a delightful time we’ve just
really not having to work too hard for
anything this afternoon so it seems as
though the Ellie’s are back in full
force
almost every road I’ve driven has got
some sort of sign track dung indication
of an elephant somewhere and now we
bumped into another large herd and it’s
slowly but surely moving kind of in a
south east e direction and so if Ralph
is going to head towards chitra Dam I
wouldn’t be surprised that this herd
makes an appearance at chipra dam around
sunset that’s the kind of direction that
they taking at the moment and there it’s
a beautiful big herd once again we’ve
got lots and lots of cars they spread
out all through this thicket and so it’s
difficult to actually see all of them
now you might notice something flying
around in front of the lens we’ve got a
whole bunch of insects that are giving a
hard time hold on fig let’s get rid of
those for you there we go
now they should hopefully be all gone
but we call them mucking is here in
South Africa but they are just different
types of small insects that fire on so a
lot of those will be biting flies often
find them flying around in the
accompaniment of animals so they are
attracted to the animals and you’ll find
them kind of moving where they are and
they often in congregate around people
and and particularly lenses for some
reason I don’t know what the reason is
but you’ll often find camera lenses they
attract them and even screens of TVs or
computers and find that they flock
towards that area I’d actually love to
know why it is a must be a reason for it
maybe there’s some sort of reflection or
something that they like but anyway I
mean the aliens are slowly but surely
moving along and like I say it’s quite
difficult to judge how many they
actually are here because every way I
look they kind of ones that are
appearing like ghosts out of these
thickets it’s difficult to see them and
you see that’s quite dense to our
western side at the moment but there’s
another one in the background there
there’s one behind us at the moment I’ve
seen some that already to our east as
well so it seems as though it’s a fairly
decent grouping and they slowly but
surely are going to make their way
towards check – I think for a bit of a
drink now you can see there’s a
beautiful sunset that is developing I
think we can
have a wonderful sunset later because
those cards are going to just get
beautiful colors as the Sun gets down a
little bit lower so Shelley the
elephants will give birth year-round
they’re not seasonal breeders like the
impalas are these guys give birth at any
stage of the year and so you’ll find
that whether it’s winter summer autumn
spring they all are around in the are
little babies at all of those stages so
it’s just at any stage and the reason
why that is is because elephants
generally being mixed feeders they’re
able to find nutrition and even the most
harshest of conditions as well as the
fact that the little ones suckle for
such a long period of time so they
suckle for you know over two years and
that means that these little ones are
able to get nutrients even when it’s
quite tough and as they grow older then
they become you know adults the mothers
are able to find nutrients even in the
dead of winter by going and digging for
roots and for bark and and they’ll know
where there’s areas to get food in the
winter months and they can sustain that
milk and still be able to feed the
little one so even though the mothers go
through a tough time
they still able to produce milk and to
be able to feed the babies when they
stall young and developing once they get
over that sort of three-year-old
threshold they’re able to feed
themselves and they’ll learn from the
mothers and from the other herd members
and they’ll be able to then find the
food that they need and the nutrients
that they need you can see a little
young male of it he’s showing everybody
that he is a boy thank you for that
quite a long way to go though before you
intimidate too many others how stayed
that just try and just catch up a little
bit with them so take care you’re
wondering where the tusks goes into the
look there’s a little covering of skin
that’s over that top part is that part
of the lip yes it is so what tickly
happened is those are modifies incisors
so they start in the in the basically in
the jaw and in the bone structure and
they then start to come out and there is
a look that goes over it so if when they
lift their trunk actually if you ever
get to see an elephant with its trunk up
in the air and its mouth open you’ll see
the tusks come out from the mouth and
that skin on the sides is just over the
top of it it actually doesn’t cover the
tusks all the way around it’s just on
top
right now we’re going to sit I think a
little longer without any is because why
not it’s such a wonderful creature to
spend a lot of time with and I’m
thoroughly enjoying being in amongst
them and I believe Ralph has found the
best thing to see and that is in he’s
going for a little swim yes folks and
we’ve we’ve got these Elysia going for a
lovely swim in the heat of the day
absolutely awesome to what the
youngsters all playing they’ve had a
fabulous time heading towards the
holiday season and it looks like the
elephants are in the holiday spirit as
well and up in front I have been chasing
off the Egyptian geese and it’s been a
lovely little site inglis with these
individuals they might go back in the
water logs out the way strutting his
stuff yes that is a mile off you know
that is a female in the way here folks
they are making their way towards us
once again once elephants show that
they’re in a bit of a boisterous mood
don’t want to get in their way and the
idea is for us not to be changing their
behavior in any way whatsoever so I
don’t want to be in a way especially
when you can sort of see that they’re
coming in your general direction I can
now they’ve turned a little bit so it’s
going to mean a little bit more out of
their way as well see how they’re
reacting towards the Egyptian geese we
don’t want them to act the same way with
us coming our way
continuing to come on I’m just gonna
back up a little bit as you can see
there in a very boisterous me it’s
starting to throw some sand over
themselves so they might stop but it’s
just a bit of a wall of elephants coming
our way and we don’t want to tempt fate
give them the space to their art of way
and we should be fun
so and the hippos off to the right of
these elephants as they make their way
towards us have also been having a
little bit of a orgy bhaji so
everybody’s been having a little bit of
a confrontational day I’m not really in
the mood to confront either of them
hippos or elephants so they can by all
means make the way in whatever direction
they want I will give them the right of
way and they’ll just come out and
they’ve started throwing dust over
themselves stop now and starting to feed
a little bit on these on these plants it
almost looks like it’s these devil
thorns but I’ll have a look now in a
minute yellow flowers at pioneer pioneer
plants all over this disturbed area and
they’ve got it’s quite green foliage on
them with yellow flowers and in a minute
I’m just gonna check what they are see
there’s a couple of young bull elephants
in the group just keep my eye on them
there’s no real big Bulls here they are
making me way across and as I’ve said
folks if they start making their way
towards me you know sometimes the
youngsters can be a little bit
boisterous and then I obviously bring
the adults with them look at that is a
bit of an interaction there was between
the elephant and hippos a young bull
didn’t really like those hippos being
too close to him okay mommy don’t mean
any harm and we well out of your way
thank you very much that’s fantastic as
they all march past us sometimes they
can just have a bit of a look at you
just to check that you don’t mean any
danger and if they continue I’ve hit it
off from the side and while these hippos
now start to display wow look at that
so hippos generally when the elephants
are making a bit of a noise behind us I
don’t know if you heard that a little
bit of a trumpet don’t know if that was
the matriarch which was the biggest of
the elephants there that female oh if it
was that young male who was being a bit
boisterous towards their the hippos but
the hippos when I open their mouth like
we saw that one I think we caught the
end of it as he was I don’t know if it’s
a male or female they but they will both
do it that open their mouths almost like
a big yawn that’s more of a dominance
display or the bit of an aggression
towards each other they showing each
other how wide their mouths can open or
how big the gape is the one who’s got
the biggest mouth and the biggest gape
is normally the one that ends up being
the dominant one if they don’t back down
just from the sight of it and they can
then and end up fighting which I think
might have happened to that mummy was a
little youngster because a couple of
days ago and it seemed like it had been
caused by another hippo so it might have
been in that’s more altercation
number of birds flying overhead looks
like it could be Martens
no it’s just trying to see nothing
closely fast it’s moving 300 hundreds of
them I’m just checking in my book a
little bit just to see which of this
looks like it could be you know I all
looked black to me but I’m not quite
sure that African black Swift common in
the area and it’s quite difficult folks
to see they’re obviously old little
black dots a whole host of them to be
little Swift’s or black Swift’s African
palm Swift’s a little bit more rare
they’re quite interesting because they
the palms worst I mean and I’m not by
any means saying that these are them but
Tom Swift’s quite ingenious because they
literally stick the eggs on the inside
of palm leaves and the hang babies when
they hatch they literally immediately
hang as well so a friend of mine was
actually looking after a couple of
little baby Swift’s and I got to see how
they actually hang even from that tiny
little chick stage you even in captivity
you just put a stick over a box and the
little Swift’s will hang upside down
from this from the stick so they are
totally dependent on hanging for in
their wrists
otherwise they maintain flight and
staying on the wing
they eat on the wing and I do most
things on the wing they even drink and
that’s what they’re doing and that they
were doing a minute ago a lot of them
were swooping down and just taking a
little drink and they do have quite a
special hinge on the bottom part of
their jaw which enables them to drink at
speed like that because you can imagine
the force of it as they scoop that water
if if it wasn’t able to hinge they would
literally snap that bottom part of the
jaw off so quite important for them to
be able to shift that and it’s obviously
be able to do the little scoop okay
folks we’re going to start up and move
along the damn wall of chitra dam and
then we’re gonna go around towards the
airstrip and it’s getting that time of
day when the lipids are starting to move
around and there has been some in that
area we’re in the area that I did see
her sauna yesterday evening so we’re
going to now go and look for some other
ones maybe we can find tomba apparently
he has been in the area too even now
let’s go and have a look just gonna go
in the same direction that those
elephants walked
all right folks we’re losing signal so
let’s cut back to Tristan and see what
he is up to now I believe Ralph has had
a beautiful time at you today meaning is
the best time to be there as is it where
we are the Sun is just getting to that
time of the day where it becomes golden
in color and with the cards that we’ve
got at the moment the cards are just
filtering it out and making the lights a
lot softer than what it actually appears
and with the bit of green that we’ve got
after the rains it really is a beautiful
scene just watching these elephants that
are taking on a more yellow orange color
now because of the light as they goes
through these thickets and just feed
slowly on their way towards the east
it’s been amazing just a sitter because
we’ve sat in quite in relative silence
and just hear them feeding and moving
all around you is just one of the most
wonderful and special things in the
world so Kathy from Ohio you wondering
if I’ve seen my girl Fang yet no I
haven’t I there’s a couple girls that I
need to catch up with in the next few
days and Fang is most definitely one of
them I know everyone was super relieved
to hear that she was back at Jimin it
was a matter of time I know a lot of
people thought that maybe we were you
know we didn’t have any information and
that maybe something had happened to her
but an individual that sort of well
recognized with a tusk that shape and
the size that she was she would have
been cited somewhere in terms of if she
had died so somebody would have found
her we would have heard of a big
elephant carcass with that Fang in there
all that tusks that grows backwards and
it would have been easy to kind of
follow where she would have been so I
wasn’t too concerned that it just took a
lot longer for it to come back then I
initially thought so I’m super happy
that she’s back in this area I don’t
know I know James saw her but I haven’t
seen the footage and I know that Ralph
has saw her this afternoon
but what I saw one or two photographs
and what surprised me is it looks as
though she was on her own now Fang
generally was always in a very large
herd so it will be interesting just to
see if she is part of all these groups
of elephants that have arrived at Juma I
absolutely shocked at how many elephants
we’ve seen this afternoon literally
we’ve seen elephants absolutely
everywhere it’s been come round the road
and they’re there not that I’m
complaining it’s the best thing in the
world to have lots of Baileys around or
inside I was saying to
when we have elephants we seem to have
lots of leopard as well and so maybe
that recipe will carry on for the next
couple weeks it’s a great recipe to have
there’s nothing better than both of
those animals for me anyway I like to
spend time with both of those kind of
species and so it’s really good to come
back to a lot of them and I hope that
I’ll catch up with Fang fairly shortly
and the other female or lady that I
would like to catch up with fairly soon
is Tandy so the two of them that will be
my mission over the next few weeks is to
try and find those two individuals and
spend as much time as I can with both of
them I absolutely love Fang and the hood
that she was a part of it was an amazing
experience to be there when that whole
sort of scenario played out
Rhianna you wondering if elephants will
ever eat bones and I think you said
birds etc so not that I’ve ever seen
they do pick up bones from time to time
so you will see and then going past a
carcass and they’ll pick it up with the
trunk and sometimes they’ll even put it
towards their mouth but it’s not very
common at all and that’s generally if
it’s an elephant carcass I haven’t seen
them doing it with anything else I’ve
seen them walk right past buffalo
skeletons I’ve seen them walk past in
part of skulls all those kind of things
but it seems as though when they get to
a point where they have another elephant
that’s to pick it up and they put it
towards their mouth I don’t think they
actually gain any nutrients from it like
something like a giraffe would win
giraffe practices osteo failure when
they put bones in their mouth and they
suck on them and to gain calcium content
I don’t think it’s the same with the
aliens I think it’s more of a intrigue
and they trying to work out if there’s
maybe some sort of a scent or something
that they can use to figure out what
went on there I’ve seen it only with
other elephants skeletons and down your
trip really there’s an area as you go
towards the airstrip if you’re coming
from the damn side on the eastern side
of the lodge there was an elephant that
died there and that elephant decomposed
over the months and it was absolutely
fascinating to watch the elephants
coming past that skeleton and that
carcass and and the the amount of
touching and and maneuvering of those
bones that took place was absolutely
phenomenal but anyway we’re going to
probably sit a little longer without at
least the light is just getting better
and better and we’ve got such a
beautiful view of the sunset that’s
about to happen but I believe Ralph is
got a bird so before it flies away
let’s go across to him and see the
majestic beauty of Africa
thanks Justin absolutely we do have a
wonderfully beautiful bid and the very
iconic and special bird as well the
african fish eagle and he’s just sit
down on the edge of the dam wall and
he’s looking like he wants to catch some
fish so we’ve just stopped and we want
to see if he he’s potentially eyeing up
some prey in the water he’s looking in
the direction of the hippos as well but
there might be some fish moving in the
area because he’s looking very intently
the possibility that he takes to the
wing and stretches out those talons and
grabs a fish on his way through but just
after certain white maybe he’s just
wanting to go down for a drink that’s
also possible predators is always
looking like they wanted to chase prey
he was just doing a little bit of
feather maintenance they’re shifting his
feathers around running his ball through
them as well it’s important for birds
constantly to be maintaining their
feathers and I usually molt up to three
times a year so they get a whole new set
of feathers but they do work their way
through that they’re not dropping all
the feathers all at once as you could
imagine it would make flying a little
bit difficult to make them look rather
naked and just behind him a double band
clever just ran off and he needs to be
careful as well because this fish ego
will not only eat fish I do eat birds as
well they’ll eat reptiles I’ve seen them
eating monitor lizards and maybe even
baby crocodiles so they will eat all
sorts not only fish and in some places
they’re hot to eat fish at all it all
depends on their environment and you
don’t always find a meeting
fish it’s a very iconic and beautiful
and amazing to watch when they do
actually go fishing stretching those
talons out and grabbing this out the
water but it needs to be quite a
specialized but of hunting that because
the fish need to be brought near to the
surface when he is able to do that so
and he needs to be able to see them for
a prolonged period on the surface too
and Byron making a lovely current
comment one of the wildest presenters
saying that it looks like a beautiful
afternoon on Juma absolutely Byron it’s
a fantastic day it’s been lovely and hot
but we’ve had lots of movement of
elephants and hopefully we’ve gonna
we’re gonna see a little bit more of the
lipids as well as the Sun starts dipping
tristin don’t see husana if you didn’t
see that now folks I’m in a little bit
of two minds because I don’t know if I
should be starting up and moving towards
this fish eagle because I think I might
disturb him so we might have to just sit
and wait a little bit and see what he’s
gonna do because I’d hate to changed the
behavior of him unnecessarily and if we
do change of place we might actually
miss this bird flying down and
attempting a catch we’re gonna continue
sitting here and hopefully we see this
fish Eagle take to flatten do a bit of
hunting but in the meantime let’s go
over to Tristan who’s got a little Roli
to show you I do indeed I have a very
pretty
beetle that is just sitting and enjoying
the afternoon sunshine as much as we are
but I can’t seem to figure out exactly
what it is the angle that we’ve got is
not that ideal in terms of what the
beetle looks like is I’ve just got its
back end with its legs it’s almost got a
very rounded back to it now I know that
we do get milkweed leaf beetles that
have a greenish coppery tinge to the
back which it could be the shape is
right for that it’s not one of the
emeralds dung beetles that we get they
are a lot different in terms of the
shape of the actual beetle itself now
I’m just trying to look through my
beetle book or not my beetle book but my
book of insects should I say because
maybe just maybe the answer lies
somewhere in the hour so thought maybe
it was a jewel beetle but it’s not that
it doesn’t have the right sort of look
for a jewel beetle so I’m not 100% sure
what it is maybe some of you out there
might know
what it is although it does look dung
beetle ish now that it’s turning a
little bit doesn’t it so let’s try and
have a little look quickly because there
is an emerald colored dung beetle that
we get here
small green dung beetle is what its name
looks like but now I can see the heat
nicely to see but this is what we’re
talking about is this little guy over
here it’s got that right kind of shape
although the back legs seem a little
short on this particular beetle maybe
I’ll have to go and have a little look
but it’s the right color raishin it’s
got this emerald kind of color and it’s
much like any of the other dung beetles
you see the Marten about and I recently
was in a park not too far from
Johannesburg in the northwestern
province of South Africa and they were
these guys were absolutely everywhere
the green dung beetles and small green
dung beetles they were all over it and
so it might be one of those but it just
doesn’t seem like the right shape
whether I see its turning its face
towards us now hold on let’s see maybe
we can try and reposition ourselves so I
can actually see what the head looks
like it might hope you know
identification of our beetle now I know
it’s just a local beetle and these
things don’t seem that’s important but I
love trying to ID these little things
and try and work out exactly what these
beetles are there we go you see it’s
come out onto the open so it’s actually
sitting third you need a hand with that
so you should be able to get it up a
little bit food there we go straight in
and then just you’re laughs there we go
so now it’s come out onto the edge there
now it’s not a dung beetle that’s for
sure it’s got it different it does it
beetle I don’t know it looks dung beetle
ish maybe you guys at home can help me
but I think small drunk beetle is small
green dung beetle is what we are looking
at it seems writer because can’t see the
shovel on the head like they normally
gets either way it’s a beautiful
creature it’s an emerald emerald green
color and when the Sun was shining on it
it was glistening less green and was
absolutely beautiful particularly
against that drab dry background that
it’s on at the moment
lady bird you wondering what type of
lady birds do we get here in the sabi
sands well we get I think three
different species if I’m not mistaken
there are lots in South Africa within
the sabi sands we had three different
species and I’m just trying to find them
in my book so I can show you which ones
we get now of course they are very
similar and so a lot of the time they
just get branded as the same thing even
though they are different so if we have
a look yeah we good the lady bird that
we get and I wonder if it’s maybe the
same is what you get is in this
particular individual over here so we do
see them they’re not commonly occurring
in this area it’s not as common as some
of the other sort of similar types
insects that we get but they do
sometimes show themselves this is the
other one that we get which is a lot
more common I’ve seen this one a lot
more it doesn’t actually have a common
name at all so it’s not referred to you
as a lady bird bug but it is of the same
family and looks very similar it’s just
a lot more radon it’s in the one at the
bottom which is the Lady Bird bug that
we’re talking about but you do get these
guys here
very seldom is what I say is not that
often that you’ll see them anyway I’m
not 100% sure what’s our little insect
who is it’s now flown away so maybe some
of you got screenshots and you can help
me out and identify it right now I’m
going to leave our Ellie’s because
they’ve drifted off into the bush into
the thickets we’re going to try and see
if we can pull a little rabbit out the
Hat with tandy at some point and while
we do that I believe Ralph has found
something rather stripey to look at yes
Tristan strappy and a donkey in pajamas
that’s virtuals plains zebra lovely
stallion here all on his own and as such
his behavior is also that of being not
as skittish as a group of them
and he’s so photogenic it is fantastic
to see that just off to the left of him
approaching the waterhole is a water
buck as well that’s a nice bull water
buck starting to get that lovely
curvature in his horns he looks like he
might be coming down for a drink as I
would did too if I was an animal in this
heat
I started against that I doesn’t like
that Spotty’s I don’t look for a better
spot to come down a lovely reflection of
him as he goes fast
little to no wind and just in front of
us the zebra started to graze a little
bit here we go lovely nice back end of
zebra and remembering that we do get
different zebra in South Africa now we
get a couple of different ones up in the
more as well and of the gravy zebra and
the virtual zebra up there to the plains
zebra we get the Cape mountain zebra and
up into Namibia you have the the
Hartman’s mountain zebra but their
stomachs are white and I have a dewlap
and they don’t have that lovely shadow
strop that you’re seeing there on the
rump of this all the ramp going down the
legs and up the torso of this virtual
zebra
Julie are asking a very pertinent
question do the Stallions usually stay
on their own or not with a herd but that
can happen especially with the younger
males that haven’t established
themselves a harem and generally the
males will move with the herd the
youngsters they’ll stay with mommies
heard that has been established by a
stallion and then once he comes of age
that stallion will chase him off and
then he can wander around on his own for
a little while until he can challenge
for a harem himself and they’re not
territorial but they I do
protect a group of females at present
maybe he’s just he’s enjoying the alone
time hasn’t got himself a group of
ladies just yet so a pistol in that
movable mode and water back also making
his way towards the zebra is also having
a quiet feed and beautiful animals that
is all as we saw the females but earlier
Kathy in a higher asking what antelope
have curled horns I believe I think the
question was well we have quite a few
different of the of the antelope and as
they curl yes we do start to be able to
tell the age now with the water back
once they get a full curl it’s it’s
normally at about fifty months so if you
can do the maths on net with kudu and
also with it with the curls in a kudos
horns you start to get the third curl at
about eighteen months break their horns
start curling a lot earlier in
comparison to the water back sorry I’ll
just keep looking a little bit away from
the camera because there’s a great go
away bird which is alarm calling just
off to our alright but so a lot of the
the antelope you can tell the age from
the curvature in their horns as with the
the the Springbok there’s also curl and
a lovely story that I do have about the
antelope and how they got the shapes of
their horns well initially all the
animals used to feed out on the plains
and it was the Lions and the Predators
were with him as well and none of them
at horns and the Lions also ate grass
too now one day the Lions one line in
particular he got a taste for meat he
tried to eat a little Impala and he
loved the taste so much that he started
to aggressively chase all sorts of
antelope and he told all of his friends
and so all the lions started to get a
very nice taste for meat now the
antelope had no way of defending
themselves so they were a little bit
perturbed by this whole thing with with
the Lions starting to eat all of them as
we see some warthogs there that have
just been in the water so the antelope
were very perturbed about them being
eaten by all these lines so they went to
the wise owl and they said to the wise
owl we need a way of being able to
defend ourselves
so the
I’ll said to them you all need to go
down to the water hole on the full moon
as we’re having this evening the super
moon you need to go down to the water
hole and you need to go in the water
hole and during the night you will grow
some horns that you will be able to
defend yourselves with against the lions
but you must stay in the water hole
until the full Sun of the next day
returns because at such time your horns
will sit and they’ll be lovely and
straight and spiky and they’ll be able
to help you defend yourself as a weapon
against the Lions so the Antelope listen
to the wiles ow and all of them went
down to the waterhole and they lay in
the water and they started to grow the
horns now there were some different
reactions to them growing their horns so
a few of them got very excited and as
the Sun came up and I started to see the
the horns they started to run out in
excitement with his new addition to
their body and such wonderful things on
their heads that they could now use to
defend themselves but they weren’t
listening to the wiser
they’re heading for water that are
feeding a little bit as they go and
there’s a couple more still coming
through that are gonna cross the road
just shortly it looks like a rather
large herd that is coming through here
and we positioned ourselves nicely in
the shade because we’re also feeling the
heat and I believe just up front is the
female Fang she’s got that but she’s
just crossed the road folks and she’s
headed into the thicket I dunno if VM
can pick up on her there there you can
maybe just see the Fang like tusks that
was going through the thickets there so
she’s now in a nice big herd I’m not too
sure or clued up too much on her history
but I do know that everybody has got a
little bit of a liking to that female
Fang and a very distinguishable task
that is growing very much downward from
them okay folks while we carry on here
Tristan has got some elephants that are
mad bossing we do indeed Ralph it is a
great way to get back into the swing of
things by arriving down to Gary dam and
having Elly’s having the best time ever
by being in the mud and rolling around
and giving themselves a really good mud
bath now as Rolf mentioned my name is
Tristan on camera today I’ve got Fergus
and it’s an absolute pleasure to focus
on the back of the vehicle since I
haven’t seen him in quite some time now
remember this is live it is interactive
so it’s always great to hear from all of
you
hashtag safari live on twitter or
youtube chat if you’d like to get hold
of us but this is the best thing to have
is normally when we have a hot weather
like this it’s nice to have the alias go
around and they do make their way
towards watery points and gary dam at
the moment is just a small kind of
little mauler effectively but there’s
quite a lot of mud just on the edges and
fringes of the water and it’s the
perfect place for Elias to come down and
really have a good mud bath and the
reason why they
this is just too cool themselves down at
the end of the day when it’s hot like it
is today they creating a layer on their
body of cool mud that he’s going to just
protect them a little bit against that
Sun it’s going to cool down the blood in
the ears and if they’ve got any
parasites on them it allows them to them
find some way to rub up on and pull any
of those parasites that they have off
now you can see that female she’s really
is flapping her ears quite extensively
and quite rapidly and the reason for
that is basically just to cool herself
down and especially when they’ve sprayed
a bit of mud to water they will do this
because that coolness of the madden and
water on the years as they flap is going
to just cool the blood much quicker than
if it dries out and it creates that
layer of mud on there so that’s why
she’s flapping quite a bit you’ll also
notice that they’re right out in the Sun
at the moment you would think after they
finished mud wallowing because it looks
like the majority of them are done and
not finished with their baths that
they’ve had you would think that they
would start to move off into the shade
but after a bit of rain that we’ve had
in and you know this area flooding with
a bit of water there’s a lot of
nutritious plants that have just
suddenly grown and so they’re sitting
there and you can see they delicately
removing all little bits of vegetation
by using those trunks and those two
little fingers and they just kind of
roll around and they find exactly what
they looking for and then they pluck
them up but now there might be a little
vehicle that might get in the way of our
shots I do apologize that I think Tex is
going to just pull round there we go
that’s okay so Texas just moved off but
they are just trying to get all of those
little nutritious growths of herbaceous
plants or any little trees that might be
growing and any nutritious grasses that
are coming up so it’s a perfect place to
feed and if they get hots then while
they can come back to the water again
just now and cool themselves down but it
is amazing to have Eddie’s around and
I’m so excited that Fang is back I know
a number of you let me know over the
course of the week when James found her
back on Juma and the fact that ralphus
got here this afternoon is absolutely be
wonderful and it’s great to hear that
she’s in good condition and that she’s
moving around so thoroughly happy with
the fact that she is back and around now
what I’m gonna do is I’m just going to
reposition ass Lackey the herd was all
swimming and man bathing and I didn’t
really want to try and disturb him too
much I wanted to have a situation where
we could try and see them mud bathing
but now that they’ve stopped my bathing
I just want to go around so you can see
the rest of the herd
there’s some more behind us coming in
that’s actually fantastic news so I’m
just going to pull off here and there’s
a whole massive herd that is just
joining from behind that haven’t been
down to the water yet and so they’re
going to want to come down and if we
position ourselves right here
we should get a perfect view of all of
these elephants coming together and it’s
amazing to watch any is when they come
towards a look at how they start to
break out into a run they get so excited
about the fact that they can get close
to water and they can have a mud wallow
and they can cool off in these hot
afternoons and so they get all kind of
fidgety and lots of noise as well and
look at the reaction now you’ll see
these two herds will greet one another
all the babies are being grouped on both
sides are being grouped together
unfortunately here’s a few warthogs that
are also being chased so you can see
there’s a couple warthogs in amongst
everybody that are wandering probably
what all this chaos is about but babies
all being grouped together herds are
merging and they’re busy kind of
figuring out who’s who look at them all
coming down together how cool is this
what a way to get back to work
[Music]
and everybody into the water as quick as
they can
really the question exactly which I
think you said you love how Ellie’s I
didn’t hear the last part how chill they
are the social there we go thank you
and say yes that’s the best part about
it is when you get these elephants herds
and how social they are and how they
kind of meet and they greets and
everybody interacts with one another it
is the coolest thing to see especially
when you get to herds that come together
because there’s a lot of communication
that goes on and you’ll find that
they’ll go and they’ll try and kind of
interact with one another a lot of the
time it is parts of the same herd so
you’ll get a situation where some of
these members are have fractured or for
herd and they actually related in some
way and so they see each other there’s a
bit of a greeting and then they spread
out again but look at how they’ve lined
up everybody’s gotten themselves into a
situation where they’ve got their own
little bit of space the problem is is
that if Ellie’s have been mud wallowing
already here it’s not going to be really
any water there hasn’t been Maddie DUP
by them wallowing and going into the
water and so they all trying to find a
space where they
actually drink so a lot of the little
ones are trying to find areas of water
that is not all muddied up you can see
they use their trunk and they just kind
of flail it’s about on top of the
surface tension just to break that to
get to the cleaner water underneath but
it is so cool to see you can see the
other hood that was peacefully grazing
before the Stampede arrived they’ve just
started going up the hill and away and
they starting to go into the shade to go
and feed and now the rest of them seem
to be following on a very quick drink
and a little quick spray of the ears to
cool down and everybody else is off and
moving and I believe they are more that
are arriving behind us so hello it looks
like all of our gentlemen well one
gentleman at least and a female with a
little one that also going to join the
fray fairly shorty he’s a fairly young
bull but a beautiful individual he’s got
really nice big thick tusks I mean a
typical bull swagga that they’ve got
when they move down towards water they
kind of bounce on their legs and then
the little one that’s running to try and
keep up but this is absolutely wonderful
how amazing is this we had a really dry
lean spell with elephants in the sabi
sands for a while we’re in Toomer and it
was tough we didn’t see too many of the
herds and it seems as though in the last
few weeks they’ve started to come back
since the rains have arrived and fallen
so the elephants are starting to move
back into this area and it’s such a
delightful way to start an afternoon by
coming down to a waterhole and just
having this many elephants all around us
I’d actually like to know how many they
are maybe some of you that are watching
on the dam cam that can get some
screenshots of the whole herd we’ll be
able to tell us exactly how many oh yeah
I would surmise that there’s probably
between 25 and 30 now I believe a lot of
you are saying that this is a great
welcome back surprise it is it’s
probably one of the best outside of tiny
and her Cubs showing themselves as
afternoon this is probably one of the
things I’m most looking forward to
seeing so I always loved spending time
with Ellie’s particularly here at uma we
get Ellie’s that are very relaxed we get
to spend time with them in close
proximity and they all kind of come
around the vehicle it’s just the most
magic thing to be a part of these herds
and to listen to them and watch all the
little social nuances that they have in
amongst the grouping it really is a
special thing to do so I’m super excited
to be back and to be seeing this
straightaway it’s one of the best ways
like I say to start a working cycle
it will be as good sign of things to
come so there we go figures just telling
me now that is this is something that he
missed the most while he was in the
moral one of the things that he missed
was this proximity to elephants and the
sheer kind of intimacy of the sightings
that we have here so we get in amongst
all the aliens and we were able to spend
a lot of time with them and follow them
around and it really is just the most
wonderful way to spend time is amongst
these big gentle giants
the other thing is about a lot of the
hilly areas because we’re in a system
where you know they aren’t heavily
poached they’re not really persecuted
and we as respectful as we can be about
them they tend to be quite relaxed most
of the herds and we get really kind of
in amongst them and they’re they really
are very relaxed with our presence which
is quite pleasant and it allows for us
to have these incredible sightings of
them now you can see the herd that came
down for it rather quickly are leaving
very quickly now they probably going to
push off towards before looking at a
tiny baby at the back you’re going to
have to keep up little one it’s probably
hard work in this weather to try and
keep up but they’re going to probably
head up to some of the bigger warts and
points up north maybe to have a bit of
drink in the muddy water that they’ve
had here now while I admire our elias
and just spend a little bit longer here
because it’s so wonderful to be back
with them let’s go back across to print
in the Maasai Mara with something that
the area is very famous for yes we are
with the zebra now he looks okay from
this angle I’m just gonna try and move
on you can see him moving his leg I’d
say he’s got away from a crocodile and
he’s just turned unfortunately let’s try
just get a different angle on him you
can actually see there’s a big chunk of
skin that’s opened up but why I think
it’s a crocodile I can see what looked
like other spots where the teeth might
have embedded into him but he keeps
taking our site around around II so I’m
just trying to see it now we’ve checked
where scar was
but he has vanished he is no longer
there from where he was this morning so
it was right chair so I was sort of
wondering Lions God you see this injured
zebra because he does look quite sort
when he moves how’s that char
don’t you turn around before we get a
chance to zoom mr. zebra so here we go
now
can’t really see those other spots with
it looks like a croc gripped him but
that’s on this other shoulder yeah that
looks very sore shame poor mr. zebra
opens a spooling Lapwing behind him but
yeah it does look quite saw it’ll
definitely impede his movement little
bit which might make him an easier
target for the Lions but I think
definitely looks like got away from a
crocodile poor chap shame so I think
I’ve got one more spot to check where
the Lions might be Andrea you are a
hundred percent correct that zebra will
probably end up as dinner or breakfast
or lunch or tea snack or a brunch snack
for the paradise pride are you guys
thinking about crossing do you not see
what happened to him maybe not I think
there’s gonna be a bit of a greeting up
there almost like a herd jogging in
quite nice with their little puffs of
dust coming from their feet I know as he
press they’ve stopped to have a look at
us
hi Lily who’s a bit of a zinger of zero
argument in the background who’s six
years old Lily would like so if the
Lions don’t eat him will he survive
maybe Lily maybe animals are so strong
when it comes to surviving from what we
would think are such terrible terrible
injuries but they are all very good at
surviving so we don’t know whether he
will survive or not we’ll definitely
come back and check tomorrow to see if
he has made it through the night there’s
a little zebra having a drink okay I
think I’ve got one last spot to check
for the paradise pride and the musketeer
boys
it is a favorite spot of this I have
seen them in that area quite a few times
oh but it sounds like all the way down
in that South Africa my very dear friend
Tristan is having a storm of a start to
his afternoon Safari so it seems as
though we are not destined to leave
Gauri damn this afternoon because as the
elephant’s disappeared now so a tall
lanky giraffe has come down and I’m
hoping that it is going to drink at the
moment it’s kind of just sussing out the
situation in giraffe are very cautious
drinkers you’ll find they’ll come down
to water they’ll look around you can see
the elephant in the background actually
just going up over the damn wall there
and so they’ll come and they’ll look and
they’ll just make sure that there isn’t
some sort of predator in the area at the
end of the day when they drink they
often are in a very compromised position
they splay their legs right out their
head is down it’s difficult for them to
get back up to stand and a number of
giraffe have been killed around water
points and so they very nervous about it
they check they make a hundred percent
sure if the coast is clear before
they’ll then start to have a little bit
of a drink now it seems as though it’s
going to drink in a different place I
was hoping that I would turn and drink
side onto us but it seems as though it’s
going to drink from a small puddle in
the background the problem is is there’s
some little little rather than large
Eddie’s coming down and so they might
push this giraffe or from the water
there we go typical cheeky Elly’s they
often do you do this and there you can
see a nice gallop from the earth that’s
very cool
not often we get to see them running so
always very nice to see how the
locomotion works of a giraffe and to see
how their legs work when they need to
try and run anyway now this is just a
splinter off that herd that we first had
when we arrived they were down behind
the dam wall feeding and so they’re
going to come in and have a little bit
of a drink in a cool down themselves at
the end of the day they probably haven’t
had water just yet they were still
feeding in so it’s in our time just to
cool down a little bit you can see that
other ones do you have a bit of water on
their ears and so does that big one
actually so maybe they’ve come from tun
dam side the trunk itself is quite dry
and the feet are dry which means I don’t
think they have a situation where
they’ve been too
– right now it’s probably from earlier
in the afternoon now Palin you’re
wondering how many herds I think there
are in the Kruger Park system
Palin that’s very difficult question to
answer because the numbers on elephants
are not a hundred percent at the moment
the last census was a few years ago and
so we don’t actually know how many herds
they are also it’s subject to water
availability food availability because
as water dries out so elephants are
being pushed into areas with with
constant water and the herds then grow
they’ll then dissipates when there’s
more water and food around and so you
know it depends on the time of the year
but I can tell you that there’s believed
to be between sixteen and eighteen
thousand elephants within the Kruger
Park system and that would compromise if
you think that most of our elephant
herds are between 50 and I mean 15 and
30 it means that there is a number of
herds within that 18,000 it’s really a
large number so a lot of herds spread
all the way throughout now while our two
massive meandering beasts move off in
the form of giraffe and our elephants I
believe Jaime Patterson has found well
the biggest of those that have sharp
claws and teeth and they were hunting
and she’s just crept all the way across
a massively deeper lugar about to use
her claws and teeth potentially on the
wildebeest that are up ahead of her so
this is as far as we can go this is as
far as we can follow her it might be
quite fascinating to witness a hunt from
this distance because we’ll get to watch
and see how they worked why I was gonna
say work together as a team but to be
honest with you she’s all on her own now
she’s got a real problem here she’s
stalking these wildebeest but there’s an
entire herd of a very sharp eyed impala
up and to the left of her I will be
shocked if she manages to get close
enough to chase those Volda beasts on
this flat flat open area the grass is so
short
okay
Megan it’s your call as well this is as
close as I can get so she’s gonna run
all the way up the hill
but otherwise yes I think if you happy
go for it another absolutely gorgeous
evening in the Maasai Mara and we’ve got
a scene from a kind of perspective that
we don’t often get to share with all of
you
so what sure what you are watching is
happening right here and right now in
the Maasai Mara of Kenya where a hungry
lioness has just broken away from the
rest of her pride and is sneaking all
the way up mountain towards an
unsuspecting group of valle de beast so
there’s some Valle de beast there’s some
Buffalo and this are some Impala
antelope as well but she’s all on her
own the other lionesses haven’t come to
help her they’ve moved a little bit
closer to where she is but they haven’t
come to offer any support now what
you’re watching is completely live which
means that you can send through any
questions that you have in the comments
section below and it’s quite
extraordinary that technology exists
such that we can share these amazing
moments that are happening all the way
in Kenya with all of you wherever you
happen to be across the globe – now has
to use the land to her advantage the
grass is very very short there’s no
cover for her at all and I suspect as
she has embarked on a mission that is
not going to succeed I know she is very
far away so if we just explain a little
bit about why she is where she is and
why we are where we are but first an
introduction my name is Jamie and
afternoon Archie is on camera with me
and in front of us is an impossible
river system it is absolutely massive
there is nothing we can do so I’m gonna
keep watching her but essentially we we
can’t really do anything we can’t get
any closer to her not without running
serious risk of injury in trying to
drive across there but I have something
else to show you
and remember how I said that she was
without support she is there she is all
on her own but the two lioness is off to
my right did actually get up and they
did move a little bit closer to see what
her plans were and to see whether or not
it was worth of their energy in trying
to go and catch her now this morning
this particular group of lions this
particular pride of lions are caught
three warthog piglets and unfortunately
for them they’ve got a 13 Cubs to feed
there’s four lionesses water piglets
just didn’t go very far at all so they
are really really hungry for the moment
she’s lying down so she still she’s
lying down over there and she hasn’t
crypt all that much closer William from
Australia you say that you are loving
this broadcast well I’m really glad that
we could share it with you William
watching all the way in Australia it is
very special that we’re able to do this
and of course what we try and do is give
you you know whether it’s its animals
hunting or whether it’s animals with
youngsters whatever it happens to be we
try and share these moments with you
because it all ties together and tells a
story of the lives of these animals
she stopped there’s no way it is all
hold on a second Linus and the third
Linus have now moved down there they go
they’re moving she’s moving the one the
one’s already done and it’s just have a
little let’s just wait a little bit
longer to see how this works its way out
so we can’t obviously now see them my
head’s in the way for a start
but also we can’t get any closer down
there that these lionesses are no gonna
walk up just along this path excuse me
over there there we go there comes a
lioness now no it’s watch how this plays
out because as I said we don’t often get
to watch a hunt from this kind of
perspective and it gives us a really a
really sort of broad perspective on the
way that the animals work together now
Tyler you’re watching in Japan and you
say that you really are enjoying this
very much I’m thrilled to here at Tyler
I’ve lost a lion though I’m sure they
were two on the right I mean now I can’t
see any and I can only see one over
there maybe one of them stopped
somewhere down there to drink one of
them is definitely gone missing so I
wonder if she’s not sneaking all the way
around to try and get behind the bull
the Beast it is possible it would be a
bit of a stretch to try and get all the
way up that mountain and around them but
it is possible
Karin you say you know that it’s bad but
you really hope that they get to catch
them I don’t think it’s bad at all the
Lions can’t go to a grocery store they
don’t buy pre-packed meats they need to
eat and I’ll show you like I understand
of course that you feel sympathy with
the animal that’s being hunted but let
me show you something that might help
you feel a little bit better about the
entire situation while we wait for these
Lions to move up
I’ll show you something that will bring
those of you that are sad worried about
the the Lions hunting a little bit of
comfort so off to my right there are
some very very expectant little faces
not the cut not people in the car I’m
talking about the Cubs over there one
two three four five six seven eight nine
of them and there’s actually 13 in total
in this pride that we know of and now
they’re waiting for mom to bring them
some dinner that’s what they’re after
that’s what they’re thinking about and
now bear in mind of course that’s eight
out of the 10 times that mom tries to
get them dinner possibly even 9 out of
the 10 times that mom tries to get them
dinner knees sorts of conditions she’s
not going to manage it and so what we’re
showing you is not a kill what we’re
showing you is a struggle for survival
Donnie you say that lions are just
magnificent oh there we go now we’ve got
two that have popped out moving up the
path I agree
Donna Lions are truly magnificent
animals and more than that they are
animals that have the most extraordinary
social structure and bonds between the
individuals it’s impossible to watch a
lion pride interacting with each other
bearing in mind that it is a family unit
and not see just how much affection they
have for each and every single pride
member that of course in turn means that
they work together seamlessly when it
means time to get down to business now
she’s watching the lioness that’s close
to the wildebeest there is an additional
factor here there are three there are
three lionesses that I can see there are
four lionesses in this pride one of them
is missing and I wonder where she’s gone
and I wonder as I always do when I watch
something like this is just how much
these Lions have planned it out has she
been gone a lot longer than I realized
sneaking around and these lioness is
just waiting for her to
start from behind the animals I don’t
know I can tell you though that I think
that this hunt is going to take a very
very long time in this case the
lionesses really cannot afford to rush
things they’re very hungry
and once they scare the animals here if
they don’t manage to catch one
everything around here is going to be on
high alert so this is going to be a true
game of patience and I think what that
means for all of you having – having
introduced you to this particular pride
of lionesses and they struggle off for
dinner I think what that means for us is
that we say goodbye to you from for now
and we say from our she and myself a
very big thank you but if anything does
change stay tuned because we will go
live with more amazing stories from the
Masai Mara in Kenya
right okay well I don’t think anything’s
going to change and unfortunately the
darker it gets the heart of this is
gonna be fast so will City on we’ll
figure out what our plans are let’s send
you across to Brent who has found well
the fluffiest of all fluffy antelope so
fluffy and particularly when there’s a
baby involved which there is looks like
they’ve just come down to the edge of
the Mara River for a drink but the
female is very cautiously approaching
the river and making sure there’s no
dangerous crocodilians now there are
less crocodiles in this part of the
river than around the crossings but
there are still definitely crocodiles I
know someone has seen a zebra taken by a
crocodile at this very spot I also think
the river might be a little bit okay I
heard something
mm false alarm I thought I heard some
alarm calls a little bit upstream but no
sir sack there we go she’s going down to
drink this is a very popular drinking
spot for lots of different animals the
zebra and drink err frequently the
Thompsons the topi
trap says I love their heart knows
they’re hurt and their noses are quite
special aren’t there underline you also
gonna go drink and you can see there’s a
little bit of rain starting little
droplets all in the water getting quite
a pretty scene I can hear some birds on
the other side
sounds like a puff back track just
having a look to see if we can spot it
we can hear the hippos it is truly
Pleasant just taking a moment next to
the river and listening to their the
sounds so there’s a big group of hippos
we can hear some weavers dark cap ball
ball rattling Cystic EULA
I am a red-eye does I am a red-eyed of
you know the doves calling I see if we
get a view of these weavers and this
acacia next day I hope they don’t fly
off when we reverse
[Applause]
mmm
[Applause]
it’s I can just make him art hopping
around in the tree top of this smaller
acacia it’s very difficult to see I just
healed shot of yellow so with and there
we go and just see it happy I can’t see
which Weaver it is I’ve been here the a
prize again it doesn’t want to be on
camera Weaver that’s what type of Eva it
is and you can see there’s impressive
thorns on the acacia zanthor Illya what
do you spot a jar the thorns yes you
don’t want to be walking barefoot under
one of these trees elbows think it’s
funny
great joke as they are okay
I’m hoping we’re not gonna get wet but
we might a little bit arraigned behind
us in a bit around ahead of us but it
looks like there’s little bits of rain
we were seeing have stopped
so we shall continue on unfortunately no
luck with Scott in the Paradise prior
today
okay well we see if there’s any other
wonders to find in the Mara let’s go all
the way down south to Ralph
so folks just a little bit of an update
we’ve there was some Impala alarm
calling and a couple of the game viewers
spread out and there’s been some checks
picked up of a male leopard so it could
be hasanat in ghana Voula
any one of these male cats so we are
trying to help locate these animals and
it looks like they’ve they’ve headed
towards the Galago lodge so we’re gonna
we going to be just looping around and
just seeing if we can pick up on him on
this animal his some it seems he is
walking around now during the day the
clouds are coming over a little bit and
it’s been such a relief every day this
has been happening when it’s been
scorching hot and the clouds have come
through a little bit and it’s just
cooled things down nicely so hopefully
we’re gonna find this male leopard
moving sorry for all the bumps I’m on a
little bit of a bumpy road yeah but
better a little bit further on but
it’s one of those days we’ve just
started out we found those elephants who
are lovely on the move we’re moving
towards water now that you you did then
watch some lovely elephants with Tristan
heavy bait toys asking the question what
is the most difficult part of my job
well that’s a difficult question is not
too much about my job that I find overly
difficult
I do enjoy most of what I do that’s why
I’m here yes I must say that you know
working in the tourism industry I think
probably one of the most difficult parts
of working with people is the people
because we have a lot of different
nationalities we have people from all
over the world we have people that
sometimes don’t quite I don’t know see
things the way we do so it can be
difficult I think initially especially
as an inexperienced guide that’s
probably one of the most difficult parts
of the job to get over I think later it
has come easier to me especially once
I’ve traveled around the world to Europe
and and also having a lot of different
people coming on the tours and staying
in different lodges I think you get to
understand people a little bit better
but that is probably one of the most
difficult parts especially initially as
a young guard once you get to know
people better in the way that they
generally operate different
nationalities I think it then becomes a
lot easier to handle so yes I think I
think the animals are a lot easier to
handle then people are there are a lot
more instinctive I think and they’re not
as emotional I would say so it’s quite a
bit easier to to work with animals but
they don’t talk as well so it’s a little
bit easier to understand body language
etc so yeah quite a difficult thing to
get your head around different
nationalities but eventually as I say it
does become second nature and you know
that French people like certain
things or things done in a certain way
especially around food and the table
Americans might like things differently
you know and the British for instance
like things their way so everybody likes
their own little the own little way so
yes but it’s not decided that anybody’s
way is the best it’s just that everybody
around the world do things differently
so we’re gonna continue here along the
ride looking for this lipid and I’ll
give you an update shortly in the
meantime let’s go over to Tristan and
see what he’s been up to well we just
left Gary dam after spending some time
watching all the different creatures
coming down they were some Nala
it was impalas the giraffe were there
and we decided once they all started
leaving that we would also take our
leave of absence and we’re going to try
and see if there’s any sign of tündi
around yalla it’s off now I know Scots
and Ralph were out this morning and they
think that they found where she’s been
going up and down and so I’m in the area
just to have a little look so far
nothing that I can see other than an
egyptian goose that seems fairly relaxed
with life doesn’t seem as though it’s
too upset about anything moving around
in this particular section so I don’t
know if she’s been moving during the day
today maybe she’s at the Dane site
wherever it is and just resting or she’s
found herself a shady spot to rest
either way it’s worth checking around
here I want to try and see if maybe
she’s moved the day and if we can try
and pick up exactly where she’s moved it
to nothing that’s going to be my mission
over this next little work stunt mister
try and find at Andy and the little ones
there he’s the plan anyway whether it
works out or not I’m not quite sure what
is surprising with our Egyptian goose is
that there is only one of them I would
have thought that we would have had a
pair here they generally are in pairs
together very seldom that you see one by
itself so maybe the other one is
drifting somewhere at one of the other
mud wallows maybe a chillip and just
across the drainage on the other side
so did it Tom no nobody has actually
seen Tom these Cubs yet the no burdens
actually had any visual of them
whatsoever and that’s why we trying now
quite intensively to start looking for
her and to try and really see if we can
find and confirm if they are Cubs how
many Cubs what the situation is how big
they are whether or not our timing in
terms of what we think how old they are
is is correct and so that’s why we put
in gonna put in concerted efforts over
the next few weeks to try and find this
and try and find exactly where she is at
the end of the day something might have
happened to them you never know maybe
she’s not dating anymore but the signs
are that she still is the way that she’s
moving about and going back and forward
in in similar areas to where she’s been
over the last I would say six weeks
he’s an indication that she should be
somewhere in this general vicinity and
should still have Cubs we know that she
did have suckle marks the other day I
did ask somebody they said they saw
suckle marks on her so she must have
them it’s just a question of whether
they’ve survived and if there are still
a lot indeed still alive so we’re going
to try our very best and to see if we
can find them I am positive I feel like
we are going to find them shortly Scots
and I were talking about it today that
we try and spend a lot of time outside
of drives even to try and find her and
see if we can spot a some way in these
areas now where I’m going now is a
little pan that’s not too far off from
where Scot things that the den might be
Scot said this morning you had tracks
like I say going up and down quite close
to Bethany Road so I want to just
quickly check this waterhole and see if
there is anything at the water hole
itself which is just round this corner
there’s some Franklin’s so that’s not
going to bode well for a leopard it’s
just check here quickly so no it looks
as though it’s all quite quiet around
this little watery mud wallows this way
I was talking about it is a section I’ve
seen a drink at a few times so I thought
I’d just come and check but while I kind
of scan or not I was going to say while
I scan the bushes were you going to go
across to Jamie Patterson but let’s just
check and make 100% sure first before we
do any of that it doesn’t look like
anything’s yeah the Franklin’s are sort
of walking around they don’t seem too
ruffled by anything they
not squawking or squeaking or making any
noise there’s no other birds also making
any noise so I don’t think there’s any
sign of her in this potential area right
now I’d really like to continue the
search and hopefully we will have some
luck at some points and while we do that
it seems as though Jamie Patterson is
having a far easier time of it and is
managed to find what she’s been looking
for so while Tristan goes off in search
of a ton Dee’s Cubs we have some Cubs of
our own and they’re just were looking so
sweet that I couldn’t resist coming to
have a closer look although I am going
to turn around and go back towards the
other lionesses shortly because just as
I left them some zebra started moving
down towards them I’m just gonna keep
looking backwards the reason I actually
left apart from the fact that the lion
cubs are so cute is because it started
to rain so I needed to put my the back
of the car towards the well in the
direction that the wind was blowing the
raining from but we seem to be a great
deal better off now but it’s still a
nice moment to just stop and look at the
Lions in front of us
there was one off to the right but I’ve
lost it now let’s keep looking at the
lines on the termite mound let me move
my head out of the way I keep trying to
do a head count to work out exactly how
many are around but it hasn’t worked out
so well
ah there’s a voice I haven’t heard
properly in a while over the radio
no James injury no no no you can go
ahead makes I just I just heard James
chatting to me over the radio I hope he
wasn’t actually trying to chat to me
there is the fourth line s moving up the
termite mound she’s now responding to
the movements of the Lions behind us so
I think she now knows that there is a
chance that her sister’s could be
successful and we are going to turn
around and move in that direction when
she comes past us but we do have a
question from a new viewer about whether
or not we ever worry that the animals
are going to jump into the vehicle with
us or if they are in any way going to
attack us because obviously we’re out
here in an open vehicle and the answer
to that is no absolutely not
we’re in it we’re in no way concerned
for our safety obviously that we don’t
get blase about the whole thing there
are wild animals and they are capable of
injuring us however they have grown up
around Safari vehicles they’re not
concerned by us at all you can see they
haven’t altered their natural behavior
at all they haven’t shown any signs of
fear or aggression and they don’t see us
as food either now there’s no reason for
us to fear the animals that we see we’ve
also been doing us for many many years
so we’re constantly watching their
behavior and we’re looking to see
whether or not the Lions are in any way
uncomfortable or any animal actually and
we’re constantly making judgment calls
as to exactly where we want to be or
what we want to be doing or two Cubs on
the lift just behind the slot busy
having a little rough or were having a
rough and tumble the Cubs aren’t very
playful at the moment I think because
they are so hungry
but usually at this time of day you find
that the Cubs become particularly
playful there we go
that’s called lazy wrestling that’s
what’s happening right there that is
lazy wrestling in size of that one’s
paws pop on your head got your head
now Catherine you say that you love this
pride and that you find that the
lionesses work so hard and I’m and yes
they do they do work very hard I have a
soft spot for that for this particular
pride because it’s the pride of lions
that I started following from the very
beginning and when I first arrived here
the the middle set of Cubs were still
very very small so I was the first
person to see them and I was lucky
enough to be the first person to see the
youngest set of Cubs and I have followed
them for many many many hours overnight
back in the beginning in fact I probably
have spent well over a hundred a hundred
hours with these lions but that’d be
excessive no it wouldn’t be that would
be about fair take down Riesling each
other I would say I’ve spent over a
hundred line 100 lines with these hours
exactly totally
I do have a soft spot for them I’ve seen
them succeed and fail succeed and fail
look at your gorgeous face Hannah at
around about a year and a half will be
the soonest that the Cubs will really
start to be able to participate in a
meaningful way to the hunt and it’s only
at around about two two and a half years
old but they stopped messing it up
though they they will participate from
now so the older Cubs are big enough and
strong enough that the lioness is in a
situation where they’ve caught something
like a buffalo calf or or whatever it
happens to be if they don’t think that
the Cubs will injure themselves the Cubs
will be allowed to to practice their
hunting skills practice their killing
skills actually if I’m honest because by
then the hunt is over so they have to
learn but they’re still just a little
bit too young the oldest ones I keep
saying eight months but I think that’s
because I’ve lost track of time I think
the oldest ones are around about nine
months now possibly even a little bit
older obviously I wasn’t here for when
those Cubs were first born have you ever
seen such hungry looking Cubs
ah things I’m so sorry I couldn’t hear
that name at all campus campus wants to
know if lines lionesses raise their cubs
on instinct or do they remember how
their mothers raised them or perhaps
have they observed how their answer
raised their their cousins we don’t know
the answer to that but I would say that
the most likely luck answer
realistically is that it’s instinct I
mean we don’t remember things from our
early early childhood and all from when
we were babies and I doubt that the Cubs
do either and that instinct is so so
strong all all essentially all female
animals out here most female animals
have got such strong maternal instincts
and you see it in action from the minute
the lionesses have their cubs and you
can see they look they do learn I think
that they do learn certain tricks of the
trade but you watch them with their
first set of cubs and you see this
almost confusion on their faces as they
stare at these little bawling creatures
as if to say what on earth have I done
what are these what am I meant to do
with them I meant to do them why is it
yelling and then of course they know
instinctively how to pick it up how to
feed it when to introduce it to the
pride not to introduce it to the pride
in the early stages theirs are all
powerful powerful powerful instincts
they’re beautiful yes we’re talking
about you that’s the last of the female
store there’s some really really great
free advertising right there behind the
Lions head
such pretty lionesses what do you think
girl I don’t think you think this is a
good effort this hunt I don’t think you
think it’s gonna succeed but I can tell
you that the Cubs are eagerly awaiting a
good result in fact it almost looks they
look they look like children waiting for
their parents to come over take away
okay we’re going to sit this one out and
spend more time with the agamous let’s
go and find out where brent is
apparently he’s bumbling about in the
Mara I’m taking a very relaxed afternoon
Drive this afternoon I’m hoping that I
was feeling lucky but nothing seems to
be popping out for me today but anyway
that’s the way it goes we are live from
one of the most incredible places on
earth the Maasai Mara National Reserve
and it is just quite nice to just take
in the scenery in I mean it is
absolutely stunning here gorgeous that’s
a gorgeous yeah I’m hoping I will find
some lions of my own
I’m checking very carefully quite often
the Mara River pride
pop-up in this part of the park what
have we got there nothing
hello viñoly bernard is wondering where
on earth of all the wildebeest disappear
gee well they were gone south well not
all of them
the Valda beast of the main section of
the migration I know not this way
I need that side lines but that was a
long time ago yeah not me I was off this
morning but yeah so one of our cars was
there yes the two border boys okay very
nice good safari what we live right now
so everyone’s watching right now we’re
broadcasting live across the world
perfect
well great I’m glad that it’s brought
you to the Mara and it’s a nice time of
the year to be here there plenty you
just gotta look hard okay guys we’ll
have a good Drive okay sorry about that
face what does I talking about how you
can you remember
I’ll waive all of all the B’s
disappeared too there we go that was the
question sorry about that too got sub DP
sidetracked their bar lions and cheetahs
and whatnot but yes so there’s basically
two major herds of all the beasts in
this area you have the main sort of the
migration of all the beasts that travels
between the Serengeti in the Maasai Mara
there’s about 1.5 million of them and at
this time of the other have moved south
towards the southern plains around in
due to where they will go give birth and
about two months all same and then
there’s thoroughly start working their
way back up and they should be back in
Kenya at the earliest end of June
normally July however we have about
another 250,000 which are currently
spread from around ma Sierra to talaq
and into the conservancies
they’re called the loiter herd and they
do not leave care they traditionally
migrates to the loiter Hills which is
100 KS or so that way as the crow flies
and that they’re good birth are on there
however last year quite a significant
number of the loiter heard did not make
the journey to the hills and they
actually gave birth on Paradise plain in
the Maasai Mara
so it’s going to be interesting to see
whether they decide to hang about or
head to loiter this year now one of the
problems that’s facing the Leutze herd
and one of the reasons main reasons why
they stayed in the Lamar last year is a
fences being put up for agriculture so
it it is one of the biggest of killers
of large migrations and animal movements
it’s often not shooting or poaching it
is actually the fence that will stop it
okay what is everything not even Eddie’s
our chat today I feel like some Ellie’s
I never even find some Ellie’s
and as I said early I was I was really
hoping to find some Ellie’s having a mud
bath and well Tristan had the elephants
might debar think so have a little bit
jealous of him but of course you never
know what’s around the next corner on a
live African safari
oh I think ah I think I have lost still
yet I lost comms with Megan but I’ve got
it back but let’s go quickly back to
Jamie and her lines our lines that are
posing so beautifully for us this is
such a rare and wonderful opportunity
for us to see all of the end garments
together on a termite mound it’s just
such a special image or at least most of
them anyway I might not yet have been
able to to do what I was expecting to be
able to do I thought at one point or
another we get all of them walking from
one spot to another and I thought maybe
we could do a quick calculation of how
many males and females are here it
hasn’t quite worked out that way because
they haven’t moved since I arrived so
I’m still keeping an eye on where the
lionesses are I can’t see them at all
anymore
back on that slope and unfortunately as
it gets dark obviously it’s going to be
harder and harder for us to be able to
see what they’re doing our infrared
lights won’t reach there there’s not all
that much that we’ll be able to do about
it
some big yawns coming from the Cubs some
signs of moving quite a few of them
giving each other a bit of a clean or
their own feet a bit of a clean
of all she look so dejected no need to
look so dejected
so I mush riding on those lionesses
hunting efforts over the next few days
okay we’re gonna spend out a bit more
time with our puddle of lions and wait
to see whether or not the Cubs get up
and perhaps even start playing it sends
you back across a – ruff who has had a
truly special afternoon surrounded by
elephants a fox we’ve been driving along
the Milwaukee River and we’ve just come
across a small group of elephants that
are just enjoying themselves in this
lovely cool River and vegetation next to
the river and they’re feeding a little
bit there were two miles that we’re just
having a little bit of a sparring
session but they seem to have calmed
down a bit now so if these elephants
start to come towards us I will be
moving out the way of them rather
quickly and you can see them now and
they starting to spar off again I’m just
keeping my own name because as they
write nicely way down towards us I don’t
want to be getting in their way they’re
in a little bit of a boisterous mood and
sometimes when one can be pushed around
a little bit they can start to take it
out on you so I’m not gonna let them get
too close to me but if they stay in that
general area and we should be all right
in it just starting to be a little bit
more elephants popping up around the
area
moving back slack eFax Saladin want to
get involved in a little scuffle quite
nice to see them facing off like that
the Bulls do I sort of have this play
fighting and it is a couple of
youngsters that are fighting they’ve
moved into the thicket of it but this is
all very important for later in life
when they when they when they do become
very big males and they can literally
fight to the death so it’s important for
them to learn that sparring techniques
now and it’s all in the name of for the
the real-life situations a bit lighter
generally when they’re a little bit
younger likeness they’re just pushing
and shoving each other around like all
the teenagers would a bit of arm
wrestling and a bit of fun so it’s not a
laugh in this situation at present but
there can be a little bit boisterous and
with him being so big if they do make
their way towards us we do need to be a
little bit careful because we’re
probably a small sized elephant with the
vehicle and everything involved here and
so it’s it’s just important is to just
to give them their space that’s all now
there’s a little young bull here I think
this I’m having the feeling that that
it’s a small group of males I haven’t
had a chance to positively do a male and
female decision yet but those two that
were playing they’ve definitely males
they were having another go at each
other it’s nice to see them
some relaxed some are pushing each other
around and it’s been absolutely
fascinating that so many more elephants
have moved into the area and
straw-haired making the comments some
power struggles going on there I
definitely agree with you destroy hit
and there’s a few of them they’re moving
towards us nicely a little bit that’s a
young teenager he’s a lot younger than
the rest so he wouldn’t get involved in
the scuffle because he’s a little bit
too young for that but he’s also
witnessing it and it was a realizing
that that’s what boys do it’s a learning
even if he’s not partaking and you can
see the flapping of the ears that’s all
down to this nice heat that we’ve got
rat facts we’re just gonna jump over to
Justin who’s got husana for you
we do indeed we’ve managed to come down
to twin dams and then you can see him
just riding he’s crossing over into
little Gary so we’re gonna be able to
have him for very long at all but he’s
going down towards the bean pan hope
he’s gonna have a little bit of a drink
you can see the impalas are shouting at
him at the moment making quite a bit of
noise telling him that they’ve seen him
and you’ll see him partners will
actually run closer towards him like
that when they shot at him just to try
and keep him in sight and keep him in
view and you would think that that
distance would be really really close
and that this Impala would be in a lot
of danger but they are a well aware of
how fast he is and they are much more
feet footed over that distance and they
can get away much quicker than he can
get to them but you see he is st.
marking so for all of you that have been
asking whether or not asana has been st.
marking that is a typical scent marking
manoeuvre first to rub the face the
glands on the face will then cause this
animal to secrete from there and that
won’t be a marking and then he lifts his
tail and he sprays urine to be able to
sink in that area as well now I’m gonna
go forward just a little bit because it
looks like he might drink and if he
drinks then we can at least see him
drinking I also just want to get off the
main road because otherwise we’re gonna
cause a bit of a traffic jam but it
seems as though he’s going in towards
the waterhole al-ahram where you say you
love that cool tell it is the best thing
and it is something that we use a lot to
spot lipids when they curl that tail you
can see how that white really contrasts
the rest of his body
blings in incredibly well but when he
sticks that tail up and is that white
contrasting bits it’s quite easy to spot
them but it is the best thing when
they’re getting shorter that they lifted
up as almost like a white flag to say
I’m not hunting you leave me alone stop
shouting and I was kind of hoping for a
second there when these Impala started
to shout at him that I was gonna push
him back northwards but unfortunately it
seems as though he’s going to be on his
way straight south and off into little
Gary
unfortunately so he was on our side he
must have been around twin dams just
having a rest during the day today and
he’s then decided to move off what’s he
found they look as though he’s gone into
the bush
what’s he got maybe he’s found a little
tortoise or a Terrapin No
Sharon you say it’s nice to see the
beginning of his julep Mercer Tunisia is
definitely starting to drop quite a bit
now you starting to see a little bit of
that fold of skin kind of coming out and
it’s looking a lot more like a male
leopard and a lot less cub like as the
days go on and he’s growing every single
day you can see it’s also got a nice
full belly he’s been taking advantage of
the lambing season with the impalas and
has really gone after quite a few
different lambs is that tail up again
marking territory once again
he’s just looking as the car goes past I
apologize about the vehicles
unfortunately where we are we can’t
really position ourselves any
differently than what we have already
and our view of him is about to
disappear in the next few seconds as he
just goes behind a little Bank once he
goes behind me unfortunately
there’s very little we can do to keep
him just gonna travel forward a bit or
maybe back for you Ferg
let’s see if we can just keep a view of
him a little bit longer as he meanders
southwards because he is moving straight
off in a southerly direction which is
not ideal but we will store on our
tündi search and we’re just checking
the milliwatts e when we heard some
impalas alarm calling and we were told
that they were impalas alarm calling
close to this area so he came to just
investigate and I’m glad we did I
thought maybe Tandy could be moving
around at the end of the day she’s in a
situation where she would be looking for
water and potentially maybe even hunting
and moving from the areas where they had
tracks of her this morning and I thought
maybe she might be done twin dams we
know she does come down here every now
and then but very pleasant surprise to
see the young Prince he’s always a
welcome sight in our area but I think
like I said that is the last view we’re
going to get of him as he just
disappears and watch that camouflage as
he goes behind these bushes completely
disappears in the space of two or three
seconds it is so good to see leopards
again in particularly husana it’s
wonderful when you get back and you see
all these characters again and you get
to kind of sit with them and know
there’s not been a very long sighting
but it’s always very pleasant when we
get to see them so very nice right well
I’m going to carry on trying to look for
tündi in this area since I’m down here
and maybe we’ll get lucky maybe husana
will come back north we’ll just keep an
ear out while we do that so let’s go
back across to Jamie who’s still sitting
with the beautiful and gamma pride I
would have been very surprised if
Tristan wandered away from just having
got back from leave and hadn’t found a
leopard I definitely would have been I
would have been shocked to say the least
so our beautiful lion cubs are still
posing beautifully for us and not only
that or even more privileged because one
of them has chosen to come and sit right
next to our vehicle and ankle beautiful
cat yes no she’s right up next to us she
went to go and investigate exactly what
the other three lionesses have gone off
to do and to provide an extra layer of
entertainment there’s a vehicle that
drove into a hole and is now stuck
we’ve got all sorts of things happening
here in this particular sighting I keep
checking behind me just to make sure
that the adults haven’t launched
themselves after dinner yet I haven’t
seen any sign of movement and the zebra
and the bull the beasts are still
looking very calm nothing’s happened
nothing’s changed yet
still waiting still hoping for dinner I
think what you’ll probably find in this
particular area is that the Lions are
going to have to wait until night falls
Oh get it get it get the fly I would say
that they without any kind of cover
they’re gonna have to wait for the cover
of darkness and it is getting towards it
is getting towards full moon as well
which means that it’s going to be even
harder for them during full moon nights
is when the Lions probably have their
lowest success rate of of hunting at
night doctor nub
we actually spoke about this question
this morning funny enough dachshund I
was wondering about how long a lion can
last without eating and obviously it
depends on the condition that the Lions
in it depends on if it’s owned if it’s a
tiny lion or an older lion but for a
healthy adult lion I would say that they
could probably go around about three
weeks possibly even more but of course
there is a very firm cutoff point
because when they can’t although maybe
within a pride they’ll be okay but when
they can’t hunt for themselves and when
they don’t have the energy to hunt for
themselves then even though they could
survive for a little bit longer
they still been ongoing to survive if
that makes any sense because it’s a
tough world out here and for a lion with
a broken leg or whatever else it happens
to be I have seen lion prides feed
injured members before they don’t drag
the carcass to them or anything like
that and they certainly don’t
regurgitate like wild dogs do but what
they do I mean essentially the the
injured line drags herself after the
rest of the pride and then they allow it
to to feed with them so it is something
that does happen
my back yet she bought us – no I mean
what are those Tufts of hair sticking
out of the side of your ears there they
look ridiculous
thank you very funny haircut is it just
my imagination does anyone else see that
on that lion cub on the left there’s two
little Tufts of hair it’s just because
they’re so symmetrical as well it’s
hilarious what is all of this hullabaloo
huh guys here comes one of the Cubs the
cub let was next to us let’s just have a
look at her quickly because I want to
show you what I meant about the Cubs
looking a little lanky now looking at a
lanky or not she definitely does okay as
a lioness young lioness sickles down
back on the termite mound let’s go and
see whether or not a Brent is still
driving about the Mara and what he’s
searching for
I am I’m not sure what I’m searching for
it this very moment I’m searching for
anything because there is not a
heartbeat around me
there’s not even a timid taupey in sight
but we do have a breathtaking view which
I’m going to show you I’m just going to
get into the right spot line up a lovely
Shepherds tree ah there we go how’s that
oh we can do a little listen to see what
we can hear again then he has some
pickle patch sister killers I can also
hear yellow-throated long floor and
there was a bit earlier a red-winged
Franklin calling as well and the cricket
absolutely gorgeous
okay now umka was wondering since there
is a policy of human intervention in the
Masai Mara would the park feed the
animals during a drought um to be honest
I don’t know
no Jonas is not and Joe has been in the
bar a lot longer than that so I am
definitely going to say stick with Java
so no so and and again it seems to be
that the the lions and leopards and the
cheetahs and elephants Reiner are pretty
much what their will
use veterinary service on I can’t see
them for example using the vets on the
zebra we saw today but I’m not sure yeah
I didn’t think so bad yes now on the
other hand if that wound was from a
steer I think definitely then they would
get involved it’s quite a an interesting
one and I mean everywhere it’s different
and I’m sure they have their reasons as
I tend to lean far more to the side of
let nature be nature I mean
hypothetically for example you keep
fixing male lions they stay at the head
of the pride longer than they should and
start mating with their daughters and
that affects the genetics of the whole
population even though that particular
individual might be spectacular was
special but he’s only one lion and you
can’t look after one line or two lines
need to look after the whole population
the the health of a population is far
more important than one individual in
that population probably into trouble to
say I never had any man well that’s what
I believe this is my opinion
Oh exciting times it sounds like Jamie’s
lions have woken up and on the move
that’s two males three males my lions
are indeed awake
that’s three males we’ve got okay so
three males this just can’t the males
there was a female
we’ve got hey you’re in my way move four
males
five six males seven males it’s a lot of
males possibly even eight I couldn’t get
the last one so in that group that just
walked past me there was eight males I
still have encountered obviously having
come to the lioness first eleven counts
these two which looks like nine male on
ninth male man little one at the back
what are you you look like a female oh
they’re little testicles under their
tail I can tell it’s harder to look when
they’re a bit younger so what did I just
say Jai say nine males that I confirmed
that’s crazy there’s so many males 9 out
of 13 I thought there were a lot of
males in that group but my goodness if
I’ve got that count right that’s a lot
of males of the same age if I’ve got
that count right then the and gamma
pride provided all Cubs survive will
only be will only have four females
added to their number when they these
Cubs grow up and they’re nine young
males we’ll have to disperse if they all
survive of course and they probably
won’t all disperse in one group nine is
uh I mean I could stand corrected on
that who knows how it will play out but
nine is not a very
stainable number it’s going to forgive
me youngsters I’m going to examine
closely beneath your tail with a pair of
binoculars you definitely a boy
I’m pretty sure that last one was a
female tardy you want to know why some
of them have spots on their legs like a
leopard all lions have spots when
they’re born its to help to camouflage
them and as they grow up those spots
slowly fade but most lions will never
lose them altogether so if you look at
the adult females but tricky to see but
she’s going to get up and accompany the
rest of her that the Cubs now if you
look at her she’s got spots on her legs
and her belly still as well no wonder
you haven’t bothered all that much this
whole time did you get the biggest
piglet by any chance yes yes you did you
know nearly as hungry as everyone else
somebody lucked out today lucked out on
lunch is this the lioness with a limp I
just want to see if that’s not why she’s
also stayed behind I didn’t notice any
of them limping today in this morning
wallet but I did it the last time I saw
them so this morning they all seemed
fine there’s a chicken see if she isn’t
the one that I saw damn thing about a
bit earlier
I wonder can you imagine nine male lions
there won’t stay I doubt they will stay
together generally speaking when that
does happen and of course it does happen
with certain prides she’s walking nah no
she’s fine little bit of us to walk but
nothing serious
generally when that does happen when you
get groups of nine males like that if
I’ve got that count right which I think
I did
then you’ll have a situation where
they’ll move off in a group of four and
five or three and six but probably four
and five
I’m posh you want to know sorry I’m
having a chuckle because I’m thinking
about lions with table manners you want
to know if they catch a large a zebra
will they share nicely not in the state
they’re in at the moment
no I’m just gonna wait I can’t sorry
actually can’t turn on the vehicle yet
until she’s a bit further past us
otherwise we’re gonna give her a fright
no not in the state that they’re in
they’re hungry they’re really really
hungry if they fall and there’s plenty
of food to go around then you’ll find
the growling and the the snapping and
each other is kept to a minimum but when
they’re really hungry like this the it’s
a bun fight essentially for who gets
what piece of the meal
by the way in the continuing saga of the
guy who drove into the hole his bumper
just came off while they were trying to
tow him poor guy
okay just gonna catch up a little bit to
these lines see what they get up to
let’s send you over back across to a
South Africa you’ve already seen a water
back here in the Maasai Mara go and have
a look at one in South Africa yes folks
we right near twin dams and we’ve just
come across some of these FEMA water and
lovely nice view of them swishing their
tails around keeping the flow that they
obviously remember that the females
don’t have horns and very easily
identifiable with this lovely shaggy cut
they all right near the water and you
aren’t generally funding more than five
to ten kilometres away from water and
that’s actually quite far they’re
generally within five kilometers of
water but it all depends on how far they
need to go for the grazing now it should
be time for them to start dropping the
young quite soon and the Predators will
be having an opportunity to change their
diet a little bit because they’ve been
filling their boots
another Impala and now I’m sure that
they will be moving across to some of
the Volta based zebra and water back
youngsters in the near future because
they’ll also be dropping quite soon so
just lovely to see them feeding here and
remember the water back once they do you
give this they’ve they’ve got a tactic
where they actually leave a lot of the
young in a crash with younger females
parsa’s Bobby making a comment they’re
just beautiful I agree absolutely and
especially with that toilet seat ring on
the bottom it’s like really a game of
putting the tail on the donkey except
the tail is right in the correct place
so one of those hot afternoons coming
down towards later afternoon starting to
cool down and things are slowly starting
to happen a little bit more movement all
round from the Antelope from the
Predators I hear that you did have a
little sneaky peek of husana before he
left the property with Tristan so that’s
fantastic news and we’re gonna go on our
way towards chitwa dam so we’re gonna be
hitting along this way we’re not quite
sure if we’re going to have signal in
that area there are little bit of
gremlins around there today so I’m not
going to set you up for us not going
there because it’s not for sure so we’re
gonna head that way and we see what
happens but there has been a lot of
movement of the leopard in that
particular area in the last few days so
I do want to just cover that area and if
we don’t come right there has been talk
of some lions in the Buffalo area so
we’ve got a little bit of a plan around
that heading towards chitra in maybe
towards buffer look and in the meantime
we’ll also be listening out for all the
other guides if anybody else hears
anything so let’s start up let’s carry
on down the road while we move past
these water back
hey folks while I continue to search for
any of these big cats Jamie has still
got some of those big cats and I’m sure
she’s got lots to tell you about them I
would love to tell you more about them I
can tell you that in the lionesses must
have attempted a hunt at some point a
little bit earlier because all of the
zebra and Impala that were gathered
round there have scattered I think
that’s why actually the Cubs got up and
they moved in the direction of the
adults they heard the running now it’s
quite a cold day today and I promised
Taylor I’d look after Maurice for her so
maurices Maurice is both acting as a
scarf and also tucked up nice and warm
in my jacket I can make sure that he’s
fine I’ve been sending Taylor pictures
of him throughout the course of the
drive Maurice
looking at lions Maurice looking through
binoculars Julia very good very very
valid point because of course the fact
that we are able to enjoy the animals
like this means that it’s privileged not
to be abused in any way now Julia is
wondering how close are the vehicles
allowed to get to the animals
there is a Mara Ranger here and there
always is it a busy sighting to make
sure that all rules are obeyed and
you’re looking at if I remember
correctly a distance of 13 meters at
absolute minimum if I remember that that
if I remember if that was the case
are we always gauge exactly how close
we’re going to go obviously there’s
situations where you can’t help it if an
animal chooses to come and walk right
next to you and lie down next to you
that’s that’s not sure you know that
really it’s nobody’s fault and you can
do more damage in terms of upsetting the
animal by then moving then you have by
allowing them to walk in your direction
so as long as you’re not allowing them
to break that Spurs personal bye why am
i Spooner izing everything today break
that personal space barrier then you’re
absolutely fine so you don’t ever let
them touch the vehicle I can’t show you
unfortunately because we believe
terribly against the rules but the the
situation unfolding to my left now has
one two three four five six vehicles
plus the guy who’s stuck he’s out an
arranger and some slightly lost tourists
hilarious I can’t show you unfortunately
okay so another exciting it’s never
never a dull day in the Masai Mara but
it is time for the morrow team to say a
farewell so we’ll send you back across
to my friend back in South Africa
Tristan who has a continued his luck and
found you some elephants
I have indeed it’s been a lucky
afternoon we’ve just literally bumped
into animal after animal after animal
it’s been quite pleasant actually I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed being back in gym and
having a delightful time we’ve just
really not having to work too hard for
anything this afternoon so it seems as
though the Ellie’s are back in full
force
almost every road I’ve driven has got
some sort of sign track dung indication
of an elephant somewhere and now we
bumped into another large herd and it’s
slowly but surely moving kind of in a
south east e direction and so if Ralph
is going to head towards chitra Dam I
wouldn’t be surprised that this herd
makes an appearance at chipra dam around
sunset that’s the kind of direction that
they taking at the moment and there it’s
a beautiful big herd once again we’ve
got lots and lots of cars they spread
out all through this thicket and so it’s
difficult to actually see all of them
now you might notice something flying
around in front of the lens we’ve got a
whole bunch of insects that are giving a
hard time hold on fig let’s get rid of
those for you there we go
now they should hopefully be all gone
but we call them mucking is here in
South Africa but they are just different
types of small insects that fire on so a
lot of those will be biting flies often
find them flying around in the
accompaniment of animals so they are
attracted to the animals and you’ll find
them kind of moving where they are and
they often in congregate around people
and and particularly lenses for some
reason I don’t know what the reason is
but you’ll often find camera lenses they
attract them and even screens of TVs or
computers and find that they flock
towards that area I’d actually love to
know why it is a must be a reason for it
maybe there’s some sort of reflection or
something that they like but anyway I
mean the aliens are slowly but surely
moving along and like I say it’s quite
difficult to judge how many they
actually are here because every way I
look they kind of ones that are
appearing like ghosts out of these
thickets it’s difficult to see them and
you see that’s quite dense to our
western side at the moment but there’s
another one in the background there
there’s one behind us at the moment I’ve
seen some that already to our east as
well so it seems as though it’s a fairly
decent grouping and they slowly but
surely are going to make their way
towards check – I think for a bit of a
drink now you can see there’s a
beautiful sunset that is developing I
think we can
have a wonderful sunset later because
those cards are going to just get
beautiful colors as the Sun gets down a
little bit lower so Shelley the
elephants will give birth year-round
they’re not seasonal breeders like the
impalas are these guys give birth at any
stage of the year and so you’ll find
that whether it’s winter summer autumn
spring they all are around in the are
little babies at all of those stages so
it’s just at any stage and the reason
why that is is because elephants
generally being mixed feeders they’re
able to find nutrition and even the most
harshest of conditions as well as the
fact that the little ones suckle for
such a long period of time so they
suckle for you know over two years and
that means that these little ones are
able to get nutrients even when it’s
quite tough and as they grow older then
they become you know adults the mothers
are able to find nutrients even in the
dead of winter by going and digging for
roots and for bark and and they’ll know
where there’s areas to get food in the
winter months and they can sustain that
milk and still be able to feed the
little one so even though the mothers go
through a tough time
they still able to produce milk and to
be able to feed the babies when they
stall young and developing once they get
over that sort of three-year-old
threshold they’re able to feed
themselves and they’ll learn from the
mothers and from the other herd members
and they’ll be able to then find the
food that they need and the nutrients
that they need you can see a little
young male of it he’s showing everybody
that he is a boy thank you for that
quite a long way to go though before you
intimidate too many others how stayed
that just try and just catch up a little
bit with them so take care you’re
wondering where the tusks goes into the
look there’s a little covering of skin
that’s over that top part is that part
of the lip yes it is so what tickly
happened is those are modifies incisors
so they start in the in the basically in
the jaw and in the bone structure and
they then start to come out and there is
a look that goes over it so if when they
lift their trunk actually if you ever
get to see an elephant with its trunk up
in the air and its mouth open you’ll see
the tusks come out from the mouth and
that skin on the sides is just over the
top of it it actually doesn’t cover the
tusks all the way around it’s just on
top
right now we’re going to sit I think a
little longer without any is because why
not it’s such a wonderful creature to
spend a lot of time with and I’m
thoroughly enjoying being in amongst
them and I believe Ralph has found the
best thing to see and that is in he’s
going for a little swim yes folks and
we’ve we’ve got these Elysia going for a
lovely swim in the heat of the day
absolutely awesome to what the
youngsters all playing they’ve had a
fabulous time heading towards the
holiday season and it looks like the
elephants are in the holiday spirit as
well and up in front I have been chasing
off the Egyptian geese and it’s been a
lovely little site inglis with these
individuals they might go back in the
water logs out the way strutting his
stuff yes that is a mile off you know
that is a female in the way here folks
they are making their way towards us
once again once elephants show that
they’re in a bit of a boisterous mood
don’t want to get in their way and the
idea is for us not to be changing their
behavior in any way whatsoever so I
don’t want to be in a way especially
when you can sort of see that they’re
coming in your general direction I can
now they’ve turned a little bit so it’s
going to mean a little bit more out of
their way as well see how they’re
reacting towards the Egyptian geese we
don’t want them to act the same way with
us coming our way
continuing to come on I’m just gonna
back up a little bit as you can see
there in a very boisterous me it’s
starting to throw some sand over
themselves so they might stop but it’s
just a bit of a wall of elephants coming
our way and we don’t want to tempt fate
give them the space to their art of way
and we should be fun
so and the hippos off to the right of
these elephants as they make their way
towards us have also been having a
little bit of a orgy bhaji so
everybody’s been having a little bit of
a confrontational day I’m not really in
the mood to confront either of them
hippos or elephants so they can by all
means make the way in whatever direction
they want I will give them the right of
way and they’ll just come out and
they’ve started throwing dust over
themselves stop now and starting to feed
a little bit on these on these plants it
almost looks like it’s these devil
thorns but I’ll have a look now in a
minute yellow flowers at pioneer pioneer
plants all over this disturbed area and
they’ve got it’s quite green foliage on
them with yellow flowers and in a minute
I’m just gonna check what they are see
there’s a couple of young bull elephants
in the group just keep my eye on them
there’s no real big Bulls here they are
making me way across and as I’ve said
folks if they start making their way
towards me you know sometimes the
youngsters can be a little bit
boisterous and then I obviously bring
the adults with them look at that is a
bit of an interaction there was between
the elephant and hippos a young bull
didn’t really like those hippos being
too close to him okay mommy don’t mean
any harm and we well out of your way
thank you very much that’s fantastic as
they all march past us sometimes they
can just have a bit of a look at you
just to check that you don’t mean any
danger and if they continue I’ve hit it
off from the side and while these hippos
now start to display wow look at that
so hippos generally when the elephants
are making a bit of a noise behind us I
don’t know if you heard that a little
bit of a trumpet don’t know if that was
the matriarch which was the biggest of
the elephants there that female oh if it
was that young male who was being a bit
boisterous towards their the hippos but
the hippos when I open their mouth like
we saw that one I think we caught the
end of it as he was I don’t know if it’s
a male or female they but they will both
do it that open their mouths almost like
a big yawn that’s more of a dominance
display or the bit of an aggression
towards each other they showing each
other how wide their mouths can open or
how big the gape is the one who’s got
the biggest mouth and the biggest gape
is normally the one that ends up being
the dominant one if they don’t back down
just from the sight of it and they can
then and end up fighting which I think
might have happened to that mummy was a
little youngster because a couple of
days ago and it seemed like it had been
caused by another hippo so it might have
been in that’s more altercation
number of birds flying overhead looks
like it could be Martens
no it’s just trying to see nothing
closely fast it’s moving 300 hundreds of
them I’m just checking in my book a
little bit just to see which of this
looks like it could be you know I all
looked black to me but I’m not quite
sure that African black Swift common in
the area and it’s quite difficult folks
to see they’re obviously old little
black dots a whole host of them to be
little Swift’s or black Swift’s African
palm Swift’s a little bit more rare
they’re quite interesting because they
the palms worst I mean and I’m not by
any means saying that these are them but
Tom Swift’s quite ingenious because they
literally stick the eggs on the inside
of palm leaves and the hang babies when
they hatch they literally immediately
hang as well so a friend of mine was
actually looking after a couple of
little baby Swift’s and I got to see how
they actually hang even from that tiny
little chick stage you even in captivity
you just put a stick over a box and the
little Swift’s will hang upside down
from this from the stick so they are
totally dependent on hanging for in
their wrists
otherwise they maintain flight and
staying on the wing
they eat on the wing and I do most
things on the wing they even drink and
that’s what they’re doing and that they
were doing a minute ago a lot of them
were swooping down and just taking a
little drink and they do have quite a
special hinge on the bottom part of
their jaw which enables them to drink at
speed like that because you can imagine
the force of it as they scoop that water
if if it wasn’t able to hinge they would
literally snap that bottom part of the
jaw off so quite important for them to
be able to shift that and it’s obviously
be able to do the little scoop okay
folks we’re going to start up and move
along the damn wall of chitra dam and
then we’re gonna go around towards the
airstrip and it’s getting that time of
day when the lipids are starting to move
around and there has been some in that
area we’re in the area that I did see
her sauna yesterday evening so we’re
going to now go and look for some other
ones maybe we can find tomba apparently
he has been in the area too even now
let’s go and have a look just gonna go
in the same direction that those
elephants walked
all right folks we’re losing signal so
let’s cut back to Tristan and see what
he is up to now I believe Ralph has had
a beautiful time at you today meaning is
the best time to be there as is it where
we are the Sun is just getting to that
time of the day where it becomes golden
in color and with the cards that we’ve
got at the moment the cards are just
filtering it out and making the lights a
lot softer than what it actually appears
and with the bit of green that we’ve got
after the rains it really is a beautiful
scene just watching these elephants that
are taking on a more yellow orange color
now because of the light as they goes
through these thickets and just feed
slowly on their way towards the east
it’s been amazing just a sitter because
we’ve sat in quite in relative silence
and just hear them feeding and moving
all around you is just one of the most
wonderful and special things in the
world so Kathy from Ohio you wondering
if I’ve seen my girl Fang yet no I
haven’t I there’s a couple girls that I
need to catch up with in the next few
days and Fang is most definitely one of
them I know everyone was super relieved
to hear that she was back at Jimin it
was a matter of time I know a lot of
people thought that maybe we were you
know we didn’t have any information and
that maybe something had happened to her
but an individual that sort of well
recognized with a tusk that shape and
the size that she was she would have
been cited somewhere in terms of if she
had died so somebody would have found
her we would have heard of a big
elephant carcass with that Fang in there
all that tusks that grows backwards and
it would have been easy to kind of
follow where she would have been so I
wasn’t too concerned that it just took a
lot longer for it to come back then I
initially thought so I’m super happy
that she’s back in this area I don’t
know I know James saw her but I haven’t
seen the footage and I know that Ralph
has saw her this afternoon
but what I saw one or two photographs
and what surprised me is it looks as
though she was on her own now Fang
generally was always in a very large
herd so it will be interesting just to
see if she is part of all these groups
of elephants that have arrived at Juma I
absolutely shocked at how many elephants
we’ve seen this afternoon literally
we’ve seen elephants absolutely
everywhere it’s been come round the road
and they’re there not that I’m
complaining it’s the best thing in the
world to have lots of Baileys around or
inside I was saying to
when we have elephants we seem to have
lots of leopard as well and so maybe
that recipe will carry on for the next
couple weeks it’s a great recipe to have
there’s nothing better than both of
those animals for me anyway I like to
spend time with both of those kind of
species and so it’s really good to come
back to a lot of them and I hope that
I’ll catch up with Fang fairly shortly
and the other female or lady that I
would like to catch up with fairly soon
is Tandy so the two of them that will be
my mission over the next few weeks is to
try and find those two individuals and
spend as much time as I can with both of
them I absolutely love Fang and the hood
that she was a part of it was an amazing
experience to be there when that whole
sort of scenario played out
Rhianna you wondering if elephants will
ever eat bones and I think you said
birds etc so not that I’ve ever seen
they do pick up bones from time to time
so you will see and then going past a
carcass and they’ll pick it up with the
trunk and sometimes they’ll even put it
towards their mouth but it’s not very
common at all and that’s generally if
it’s an elephant carcass I haven’t seen
them doing it with anything else I’ve
seen them walk right past buffalo
skeletons I’ve seen them walk past in
part of skulls all those kind of things
but it seems as though when they get to
a point where they have another elephant
that’s to pick it up and they put it
towards their mouth I don’t think they
actually gain any nutrients from it like
something like a giraffe would win
giraffe practices osteo failure when
they put bones in their mouth and they
suck on them and to gain calcium content
I don’t think it’s the same with the
aliens I think it’s more of a intrigue
and they trying to work out if there’s
maybe some sort of a scent or something
that they can use to figure out what
went on there I’ve seen it only with
other elephants skeletons and down your
trip really there’s an area as you go
towards the airstrip if you’re coming
from the damn side on the eastern side
of the lodge there was an elephant that
died there and that elephant decomposed
over the months and it was absolutely
fascinating to watch the elephants
coming past that skeleton and that
carcass and and the the amount of
touching and and maneuvering of those
bones that took place was absolutely
phenomenal but anyway we’re going to
probably sit a little longer without at
least the light is just getting better
and better and we’ve got such a
beautiful view of the sunset that’s
about to happen but I believe Ralph is
got a bird so before it flies away
let’s go across to him and see the
majestic beauty of Africa
thanks Justin absolutely we do have a
wonderfully beautiful bid and the very
iconic and special bird as well the
african fish eagle and he’s just sit
down on the edge of the dam wall and
he’s looking like he wants to catch some
fish so we’ve just stopped and we want
to see if he he’s potentially eyeing up
some prey in the water he’s looking in
the direction of the hippos as well but
there might be some fish moving in the
area because he’s looking very intently
the possibility that he takes to the
wing and stretches out those talons and
grabs a fish on his way through but just
after certain white maybe he’s just
wanting to go down for a drink that’s
also possible predators is always
looking like they wanted to chase prey
he was just doing a little bit of
feather maintenance they’re shifting his
feathers around running his ball through
them as well it’s important for birds
constantly to be maintaining their
feathers and I usually molt up to three
times a year so they get a whole new set
of feathers but they do work their way
through that they’re not dropping all
the feathers all at once as you could
imagine it would make flying a little
bit difficult to make them look rather
naked and just behind him a double band
clever just ran off and he needs to be
careful as well because this fish ego
will not only eat fish I do eat birds as
well they’ll eat reptiles I’ve seen them
eating monitor lizards and maybe even
baby crocodiles so they will eat all
sorts not only fish and in some places
they’re hot to eat fish at all it all
depends on their environment and you
don’t always find a meeting
fish it’s a very iconic and beautiful
and amazing to watch when they do
actually go fishing stretching those
talons out and grabbing this out the
water but it needs to be quite a
specialized but of hunting that because
the fish need to be brought near to the
surface when he is able to do that so
and he needs to be able to see them for
a prolonged period on the surface too
and Byron making a lovely current
comment one of the wildest presenters
saying that it looks like a beautiful
afternoon on Juma absolutely Byron it’s
a fantastic day it’s been lovely and hot
but we’ve had lots of movement of
elephants and hopefully we’ve gonna
we’re gonna see a little bit more of the
lipids as well as the Sun starts dipping
tristin don’t see husana if you didn’t
see that now folks I’m in a little bit
of two minds because I don’t know if I
should be starting up and moving towards
this fish eagle because I think I might
disturb him so we might have to just sit
and wait a little bit and see what he’s
gonna do because I’d hate to changed the
behavior of him unnecessarily and if we
do change of place we might actually
miss this bird flying down and
attempting a catch we’re gonna continue
sitting here and hopefully we see this
fish Eagle take to flatten do a bit of
hunting but in the meantime let’s go
over to Tristan who’s got a little Roli
to show you I do indeed I have a very
pretty
beetle that is just sitting and enjoying
the afternoon sunshine as much as we are
but I can’t seem to figure out exactly
what it is the angle that we’ve got is
not that ideal in terms of what the
beetle looks like is I’ve just got its
back end with its legs it’s almost got a
very rounded back to it now I know that
we do get milkweed leaf beetles that
have a greenish coppery tinge to the
back which it could be the shape is
right for that it’s not one of the
emeralds dung beetles that we get they
are a lot different in terms of the
shape of the actual beetle itself now
I’m just trying to look through my
beetle book or not my beetle book but my
book of insects should I say because
maybe just maybe the answer lies
somewhere in the hour so thought maybe
it was a jewel beetle but it’s not that
it doesn’t have the right sort of look
for a jewel beetle so I’m not 100% sure
what it is maybe some of you out there
might know
what it is although it does look dung
beetle ish now that it’s turning a
little bit doesn’t it so let’s try and
have a little look quickly because there
is an emerald colored dung beetle that
we get here
small green dung beetle is what its name
looks like but now I can see the heat
nicely to see but this is what we’re
talking about is this little guy over
here it’s got that right kind of shape
although the back legs seem a little
short on this particular beetle maybe
I’ll have to go and have a little look
but it’s the right color raishin it’s
got this emerald kind of color and it’s
much like any of the other dung beetles
you see the Marten about and I recently
was in a park not too far from
Johannesburg in the northwestern
province of South Africa and they were
these guys were absolutely everywhere
the green dung beetles and small green
dung beetles they were all over it and
so it might be one of those but it just
doesn’t seem like the right shape
whether I see its turning its face
towards us now hold on let’s see maybe
we can try and reposition ourselves so I
can actually see what the head looks
like it might hope you know
identification of our beetle now I know
it’s just a local beetle and these
things don’t seem that’s important but I
love trying to ID these little things
and try and work out exactly what these
beetles are there we go you see it’s
come out onto the open so it’s actually
sitting third you need a hand with that
so you should be able to get it up a
little bit food there we go straight in
and then just you’re laughs there we go
so now it’s come out onto the edge there
now it’s not a dung beetle that’s for
sure it’s got it different it does it
beetle I don’t know it looks dung beetle
ish maybe you guys at home can help me
but I think small drunk beetle is small
green dung beetle is what we are looking
at it seems writer because can’t see the
shovel on the head like they normally
gets either way it’s a beautiful
creature it’s an emerald emerald green
color and when the Sun was shining on it
it was glistening less green and was
absolutely beautiful particularly
against that drab dry background that
it’s on at the moment
lady bird you wondering what type of
lady birds do we get here in the sabi
sands well we get I think three
different species if I’m not mistaken
there are lots in South Africa within
the sabi sands we had three different
species and I’m just trying to find them
in my book so I can show you which ones
we get now of course they are very
similar and so a lot of the time they
just get branded as the same thing even
though they are different so if we have
a look yeah we good the lady bird that
we get and I wonder if it’s maybe the
same is what you get is in this
particular individual over here so we do
see them they’re not commonly occurring
in this area it’s not as common as some
of the other sort of similar types
insects that we get but they do
sometimes show themselves this is the
other one that we get which is a lot
more common I’ve seen this one a lot
more it doesn’t actually have a common
name at all so it’s not referred to you
as a lady bird bug but it is of the same
family and looks very similar it’s just
a lot more radon it’s in the one at the
bottom which is the Lady Bird bug that
we’re talking about but you do get these
guys here
very seldom is what I say is not that
often that you’ll see them anyway I’m
not 100% sure what’s our little insect
who is it’s now flown away so maybe some
of you got screenshots and you can help
me out and identify it right now I’m
going to leave our Ellie’s because
they’ve drifted off into the bush into
the thickets we’re going to try and see
if we can pull a little rabbit out the
Hat with tandy at some point and while
we do that I believe Ralph has found
something rather stripey to look at yes
Tristan strappy and a donkey in pajamas
that’s virtuals plains zebra lovely
stallion here all on his own and as such
his behavior is also that of being not
as skittish as a group of them
and he’s so photogenic it is fantastic
to see that just off to the left of him
approaching the waterhole is a water
buck as well that’s a nice bull water
buck starting to get that lovely
curvature in his horns he looks like he
might be coming down for a drink as I
would did too if I was an animal in this
heat
I started against that I doesn’t like
that Spotty’s I don’t look for a better
spot to come down a lovely reflection of
him as he goes fast
little to no wind and just in front of
us the zebra started to graze a little
bit here we go lovely nice back end of
zebra and remembering that we do get
different zebra in South Africa now we
get a couple of different ones up in the
more as well and of the gravy zebra and
the virtual zebra up there to the plains
zebra we get the Cape mountain zebra and
up into Namibia you have the the
Hartman’s mountain zebra but their
stomachs are white and I have a dewlap
and they don’t have that lovely shadow
strop that you’re seeing there on the
rump of this all the ramp going down the
legs and up the torso of this virtual
zebra
Julie are asking a very pertinent
question do the Stallions usually stay
on their own or not with a herd but that
can happen especially with the younger
males that haven’t established
themselves a harem and generally the
males will move with the herd the
youngsters they’ll stay with mommies
heard that has been established by a
stallion and then once he comes of age
that stallion will chase him off and
then he can wander around on his own for
a little while until he can challenge
for a harem himself and they’re not
territorial but they I do
protect a group of females at present
maybe he’s just he’s enjoying the alone
time hasn’t got himself a group of
ladies just yet so a pistol in that
movable mode and water back also making
his way towards the zebra is also having
a quiet feed and beautiful animals that
is all as we saw the females but earlier
Kathy in a higher asking what antelope
have curled horns I believe I think the
question was well we have quite a few
different of the of the antelope and as
they curl yes we do start to be able to
tell the age now with the water back
once they get a full curl it’s it’s
normally at about fifty months so if you
can do the maths on net with kudu and
also with it with the curls in a kudos
horns you start to get the third curl at
about eighteen months break their horns
start curling a lot earlier in
comparison to the water back sorry I’ll
just keep looking a little bit away from
the camera because there’s a great go
away bird which is alarm calling just
off to our alright but so a lot of the
the antelope you can tell the age from
the curvature in their horns as with the
the the Springbok there’s also curl and
a lovely story that I do have about the
antelope and how they got the shapes of
their horns well initially all the
animals used to feed out on the plains
and it was the Lions and the Predators
were with him as well and none of them
at horns and the Lions also ate grass
too now one day the Lions one line in
particular he got a taste for meat he
tried to eat a little Impala and he
loved the taste so much that he started
to aggressively chase all sorts of
antelope and he told all of his friends
and so all the lions started to get a
very nice taste for meat now the
antelope had no way of defending
themselves so they were a little bit
perturbed by this whole thing with with
the Lions starting to eat all of them as
we see some warthogs there that have
just been in the water so the antelope
were very perturbed about them being
eaten by all these lines so they went to
the wise owl and they said to the wise
owl we need a way of being able to
defend ourselves
so the
I’ll said to them you all need to go
down to the water hole on the full moon
as we’re having this evening the super
moon you need to go down to the water
hole and you need to go in the water
hole and during the night you will grow
some horns that you will be able to
defend yourselves with against the lions
but you must stay in the water hole
until the full Sun of the next day
returns because at such time your horns
will sit and they’ll be lovely and
straight and spiky and they’ll be able
to help you defend yourself as a weapon
against the Lions so the Antelope listen
to the wiles ow and all of them went
down to the waterhole and they lay in
the water and they started to grow the
horns now there were some different
reactions to them growing their horns so
a few of them got very excited and as
the Sun came up and I started to see the
the horns they started to run out in
excitement with his new addition to
their body and such wonderful things on
their heads that they could now use to
defend themselves but they weren’t
listening to the wiser
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