See Elephants at Their Local Watering Hole – Day 55 | Safari Live

[Music]
this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and caucuses viewer discretion is
advised
it’s a breezy shimmery party filled
atmosphere as we celebrate the birth of
Scotty 2 hotty this is Safari live I am
in the middle of one of the true
wilderness areas left in the world
this is the most mind-blowing wildlife
experience you could ever hope to have
good afternoon good afternoon and
welcome to our beautiful summer’s day
here in Juma Game Reserve as you can see
I’m wearing a ridiculous hat and that’s
because it’s party time for Scotty D
whose birthday it is today now my name
is Tristan on camera today I’ve got sins
oh hello sins Oh since I was also
getting involved in the birthday spurts
and I will show you what he looks like a
little bit later but remember this is
live it is interactive so if you want to
join in the festivities of the birthdays
and all kinds of other things that are
going on this afternoon remember hashtag
safari live on twitter or youtube chat
if you would like to do so right now the
plan for this afternoon other than
looking like a complete ridiculous human
driving around in a sparkly blue hat
with little red ribbons flowing off of
it and trying not to get laughed at is
to hopefully find some animals hopefully
they will also appreciate my hat and
will be out in full force so what we’re
going to do is we need to do our time
lapses quickly just to get those out of
the way so that will be down towards
tree our stem and then from there I’m
gonna just take it as it comes and I’ll
probably end up going on towards chipper
this afternoon we also will have Noel
Afton about for a first afternoon drive
so be nice to her and ask lots of
questions and then hopefully the Mara
will join us a little bit later I know
they’ve been rained upon right now and
no one likes a rain on the birthday
parade so hopefully that will all clear
up and soon we’ll have Scotty and Taylor
art in their fancy hats – I hope they
joined the party because otherwise I’m
gonna look ridiculous all on my own with
a fancy hat right
sends up shall we get going and go and
do all these things that we need to do I
think so I feel like we need to just
quickly get these time lapses out the
way so you can have a bit of a party
after that and have a good time but
since I is going to get out shortly and
we’re going to show you exactly how Enzo
is dressed today he’s once again going
with Safari chic but a touch of sparkly
jewels I think today is the best way to
put it so we’ll definitely have to show
you exactly how he looks fairly short
leads a little muddled shut up for us
just now and I’ll show you the photos
from that little model shoot or photo
should I say there’s one that captures
the essence of sins Oh
solutely perfectly and so we’ll get that
just now
now I think this hats actually funny
enough now that I think about it has
been used many a time I believe that Sam
once wore it back in the day and I think
James has worn it once and now I’m
wearing it everybody to tell me what to
wear at the moment I’ve had a week of
being laughed at and well I think it’s
going to continue today as we drive
around in this hat I promise to try and
keep it on for as long as possible but I
do feel like I might have to just mix it
up I feel like I might have to create a
bit of suspense and have different hats
on today who knows maybe I will maybe I
won’t but the blue hats is definitely
going to be here to stay for the first
little bit of this drive right since I
I’m going to position us so that we can
see your thanks Meg’s make says I look
great and mix is the you know she’s the
real one that we need to kind of impress
because Megan some of you may not know
this but Megan is actually a superstar
she really is probably the most famous
art of all of us yes she’s in a music
video that has over 4 million views and
Megan is in that music video and so
she’s very famous far more famous than
I’ll ever be but anyway it’s okay I’ll
just deal with it and so if I get advice
from Megan well then I’m on the right
track and if she says I look good well
then there we go mix thank you very much
I appreciate that
now you’ll see sins over their sins oh
is rocking like I say Safari chic once
again he’s got cocky shirt cocky pants
nice long socks completed by the leather
felt screen which is a absolute Safari
must win your Archer and to top it all
off we’ve got a bit of a color in the
belts you see there’s some Masai colors
coming through his little Kenyan
expedition you’ve got to add a bit of
touch of Kenya to our show to mix it up
and on top then he’s wearing his jeweled
crown which is the crown of the king and
king sins oh is the king of fashion and
so that’s him looking as dapper as death
could be on this afternoon of
celebrations so since I think you’re
looking wonderful
and I think you need to give everyone a
thumbs up there we go well done thanks
buddy you’re looking very good today
there we go so it seems I think is
feeling as though he does look good as
well
right let’s carry on and see if we can
get to tree house damn without laughing
too much at ourselves the thing is is
that this afternoon and while we kind of
trying to move around it seems as though
there might be a few technical bitches
with some of the other vehicles so you
might be with me for a little while
longer which I hope you don’t mind
and I hope Scotty will get out today
because I feel like sending Scotty a
couple videos and photos and various
other things to him as he drives along
just so that he can be in the party mood
with us and I really do hope that him
and Taylor have got hats on I I assumed
the challenge today because Scotty said
he wanted a party hat and he said he
wanted to have a beer party at now of
course we couldn’t make him one in
synder to Kenya so I was hoping that
maybe somebody decided that side to do
it for him and knowing Taylor well she
never shied away from a challenge to get
dressed up and so I’m hoping she also
has a hat of her own this afternoon but
barring all of those kind of things I
think we’re gonna have a fairly slow
start to our afternoon it was very very
quiet this morning and we didn’t see too
much but I think it’ll be a little bit
of a slow start given how warm it is it
is extremely hot again there is not a
single card in the sky
it’s amazing how every morning we’re
waking up with overcast conditions
fairly cool and by the afternoon it’s
blazing and clear and and very kind of
warm so I think most of the animals will
be in some sort of shade area some sort
of and thickets just trying to stay out
of the Sun for a bit you can always tell
that that’s the case when you come onto
quarantine and there’s no animals in
quarantine you know then it’s been quite
warm and so I would imagine if we just
check around the shady sections watery
sections we might get lucky with some of
the herbivorous animals and then later
in the day hopefully some of the spotted
cats or arts in a part because we know
our naughty tawny cats have ditched us
for quite some time
interestingly enough though I did get a
little rumor today and and it can only
be a room at this stage I don’t know for
sure so don’t quote me on this and don’t
think that it is an absolute but
apparently it sounds like one of the
income of females and nu has also given
cut birth to Cubs on elephant Plains now
the only income a female that could
possibly be giving birth would be
Amber’s so I wait with bated breath for
confirmation of this but they said to me
this morning that there are two females
lactating in that pride not just one and
so I’m interested to see who the other
one is and what’s going on one of the
guys I spoke to said he’s gonna go and
investigate this off me and he didn’t
see them this morning but he’s gonna go
investigate this afternoon and try and
give me confirmation
on that but if that is true then that’s
absolutely exciting news and let’s hope
that the in kuma bride comes back to
this area and shows us the new additions
to the Pride it would be wonderful to
have them back on the side of the world
if maybe is why they spending so much
time that side of the boundary and
hopefully eventually it will bring them
back yeah other than that’s news on all
the other animals that we have arts and
about parent P gajima was in Arethusa
again last night causing a bit of
trouble with Ingrid dams young female
and they were having a little kind of
fight to scrap over a carcass course
gajima won that battle very very quickly
because well male versus female there’s
never gonna really work so he managed to
get off with that shadow and cub
obviously on little Gauri Hassan as
close to chipper boundary little Gauri
so hopefully he’s gonna cross over
towards chip to her no updates for
tumblr or Tandy or any of those so
hopefully this afternoon will bring a
lot more exciting things and a lot more
lots and a bath in what we had this
morning right it seems as though
technical glitches have been shifted
aside gremlins have been booted and Noel
is ready to make her first appearance
and to say hello to all of you as a crew
so without further ado let’s go over to
her so she can say I love you to me
everyone
good afternoon everybody and welcome to
this beautiful warm slightly windy day
in Juma on the northern sands in South
Africa
I am Noelle you can follow us on hashtag
Safari live or on YouTube chat it’s my
very first official drive with everybody
so thank you for all the warm wishes I
received on my Instagram feed it made me
smile made me super happy an on camera I
have Jean Dre hello Jean Dre back from
the Mara and some leave happy to be out
here so we’re busy sitting at the the
hyena den this morning as you guys know
it was super cold and a little bit quiet
so I was crossing fingers crossing
thumbs holding thumbs rather crossing
toes that maybe just maybe they might
pop out and show their cute little faces
but unfortunately it’s just a bit warm
it’s about 30 degrees Celsius to about
80 85 Fahrenheit so I think what we’re
gonna do is rather head off to one of
the watering holes and see if we can
find anything coming for a drink or
maybe some bird activity along the way
so there’s your Noel moment for the day
i knots we’re always in August
all right we’re gonna head over to
Tristan
so it seems a few gremlins are still
lurking about but that’s okay we’ll sort
those out and Noah will be often bought
all over the place but I’m sure she’s
super excited to be out sure I know
she’s gone up towards the hey Nadine
hopefully it’ll be active a little bit
later I think she wants to go and check
back there later and hopefully she has a
wonderful start to a safari live Korea
I’m looking forward to spending time
with no oh of course I know no well I’ve
worked with her at chiller before so she
came and helped us out some freelance
for a while there and we got along very
well and it’s kind of like old times
being back in this area again so
hopefully she will have a wonderful time
with us and and she will grow and enjoy
to love all of it could you I was so
busy talking about other things that I
didn’t even notice you I’m sorry let me
come back and appreciate you because
you’re in the shade and you are also
wearing your best party hat and that is
the best party hat I could you could
ever want and that is the form of an ox
bag or no the oxpecker flew away there
was a perfect party hat it was sitting
right in between its ears but the
oxpeckers have now moved and they along
the side of the body and down the back
and all over and in fact this could you
is absolutely covered in oxpeckers I
wonder if they are feeding off the mange
mites because this could who does have
mange if you look on its neck area where
these ox pickers are actually sitting
there is a bit of mange that is formed
on that area and so Amanda if they do
feed off mange mites I’ve actually never
rid of oxpeckers feeding off that I know
they feed off parasites and ticks and
various other things but honestly I’m
not sure if they do feed off the mange
mites themselves I’ll have to just try
and research that maybe some of you
might know same there who do you in the
background is actually one that’s way
more affected than this individual one
that’s crossing the road there she’s got
some lots of scarring from mange and
that will go away now that we’re in the
summer months you’re gonna find as the
sort of rain comes and washes their
coats clean and they’ll be able to groom
it all out and the population of mites
will decrease Manges very prevalent in
in the winter months and particularly
dry winters remember that even though
we’re going into summer and spring now
and there are green shoots to the leaves
a lot of these animals are still
suffering it’s still dry dry dry dry
there’s not a lot of moisture content
around and even the trees that have
sprouted leaves in the grass that has
grown is slowly but surely dying due to
the
fact that it’s so hot at the moment in
the afternoons and so little rain has
fallen so it’s not ideal for these guys
but they will be fine the body condition
of that particular kudu is very good so
there’s no need to worry about it just
yet the thing about mites and wall mange
mites and is that they do dehydrate
these animals quite heavily and so as
long as they can find water they should
be okay they’re just gonna have to spend
a lot more time at water drinking all
the time and so maybe that’s why they
close to tree a stem I’ve seen this
particular kudu here for the last week
just hanging around this area
Cathy you asking if Birds cream each
other now I’ve never seen the oxpeckers
physically groom one another I would
imagine that’s the chicks get groomed by
the adults when they younger and still
in the nest on the animal itself no
you’ll find that they don’t groom one
another they’re very good at grooming or
preening themselves preening is probably
a better word to use for the grooming
process of a bird but they tend to look
after themselves fairly well and they
don’t actually groom each other it’s
only if it’s a mother or father grooming
the little chicks you’ll find that they
probably look after them a little bits
and thistledown and just make sure that
they nice and clean and free of mics and
various other things before they learn
how to do it it’s fairly quick process
they’re little chicks a lot of these
chicks so I mean they fledging in in you
know 15 20 days of the smaller birds and
so they learn the technique fairly
quickly right but I think those kudos
have got the best idea is to try and get
into some sort of shade because it is
stiflingly hot in the Sun I feel like I
am being melted like a little candle and
so we don’t want to be melted like a
candle on party day we want to be able
to be a bright burning shiny candle so
let’s try and carry on driving or find
some sort of shade to discuss all of
these things now I see the tracks for
shadow and cub from last night or in
this little area as well they do go down
towards treehouse damn we know and then
down south and into little Gary itself
which is a bit of a pity I was hoping
that we were going to find them a
treehouse down this morning and that
they were gonna end up resting there and
then trying to kind of take it easy for
the day and then only cross while
they’re tonight but that’s the way it
goes and we can’t really complain too
much shadow was here for about two days
we just only managed to find out
yesterday morning so hopefully she’ll
come back and seems as though she is
spending a lot of time in this area
what’s interesting me very much is that
I used to see when I was at summer melee
we used to see Tandy frequently in the
Malati to the south of twin dam so from
a view pans upwards towards little gary
camp and then from there now she seems
as the shadow has moved in there
completely and and pushed
tündi out of that section which is
quite strange to me I would have thought
Tandy would be trying to keep that area
for yourself maybe she realizes with all
these young males around in the form of
tumblr and her sauna that it’s maybe
better to push further north and leave
that shadow can look after that and try
and kind of keep her little daughter
alive in that area and she’ll try and
push up into this northern section where
it’s a little quieter and she can move
around a lot less well under cover
basically a lot more under cover then if
she’s down in the South Bay we know
hasana
oh my goodness it’s going to snow there
are like 50 elephants next to me that’s
amazing that’s so cool I haven’t seen
elephants in so long
now I know I get super excited with this
second mini ELISA which is so cool have
missed elephants a lot and so this is a
sight for sore eyes hello guys where
have you all been
hopefully you like my hats and don’t run
away oh no my hats is getting hit off my
trees no they don’t really want me to
come much closer so I’m just going to
stay yeah but this is exciting to see I
didn’t expect to see that many elephants
as I was driving down the road I just
saw the road now and I thought well it
looks like a few elephant tracks there I
wonder if these are any good I was gonna
check a little bit further down but
there you can see a whole grouping of
elephants all together now they are
looking so they’re quite hot a lot of
them are sitting dead still the ears are
art a little bit trying to catch
whatever breeze there is nothing that’ll
settle down I think there’s an initial
shock of us kind of finding them and
just going off-road a little bit so they
were all kind of stopped and looked in
my direction but everybody’s starting to
relax now and feed and I see
a few more of them ride up on the top of
the crest and they sort of kind of
spread across this area it’s not 50
elephants as I first thought is a little
bit less than that but I was excited so
it’s the way it goes but very cool to
see these guys I don’t know where
they’ve come from and why they’re here
but at least we do have them so I’m
certainly going to spend a vast majority
of my time with these guys as afternoon
if they will allow me now while i suture
and enjoy the beauty of some elephants
on Juma for the first time in a long
time
the birthday boy is out and about I hope
he’s wearing a fancy hat but he does
want to say hello to all of you and he’s
got something that might fly away so
let’s quickly jump across to him hello
everyone and exciting stuff with that
large herd of elephants it’s a cold wet
and windy afternoon here in the Maasai
Mara we’ve just got a deluge of rain as
you can see we all covered up we’ve just
been sniping out of the one window the
rain isn’t too hard at the moment this
live very slight pitter-patter but there
is a lot of rain in the area so I’m
guessing we’re gonna have an interesting
afternoon on top of that trying to get
into position
vehicle at an angle like this to be able
to get a shot of that bird up in the
tree and in so doing
fully a bystander soit fallouts and
taller so as a hold of driven off
unbeknownst so I’m gonna have to hop
arts and
what the solution is and where that I
can continue drive gently without that
coil spring you can see this black
chested snake he goes a little bit wet
and you’ve got an idea of the weather we
are experiencing here now I must
apologize we didn’t really come to the
party with the party hats but we’ll hold
on to Tristan and since I’m looking
forward to seeing their outfits and also
looking forward to some pizzas later
this evening that’s the plan for us we
can have a pizza partay there’s very
nice pizza oven that we get to use that
the in gamma camp kindly lend us when
they’re not using its well let us use
their little Bush Dennis IDEs
a good news is at least you’ve got
Tristan Taylor and Noel and very excited
for Noel and her prospects with our team
it sounds like she has a wealth of
knowledge and I’m sure all of you are
looking forward to getting a new style
of guiding each guide has their own
little way about doing things a very
warm welcome to her and we wish her all
the best on her first official drive Oh
goodbye perfect timing because as that
bird hit off it sounded like Tristan
wanted you to jump back on his vehicle
with that large herd of elephants well
we do still ever and he’s there little
on the shy side so they keep moving off
a little bit I tried to just reposition
so we had some sort of shade and they
didn’t really like my repositioning and
moved off a little bit so I’m just gonna
stay where I am now I didn’t even manage
to get to the shade itself I just
stopped as soon as they started moving
just so that they would settle down and
start feeding and kind of get a bit more
relaxed again but it’s so nice to see
them on the property again and see
little babies I’m sure it’s just that
they are not used to the vehicles and
maybe it’s also hot and it’s it’s
uncomfortable but you can see all of a
sudden there’s been some sort of
communication and everybody is up and
moving incredibly fast so they’re not
hanging around for anybody that’s for
sure which is a shame I was hoping that
they would be far more relaxed in this
and we could just spend the afternoon
with them as they kind of fade their way
along but they seem as though they’re a
little on the shy side and I don’t want
to pressurize them at all so we’re gonna
keep our distance and just try and see
if we can just find a way that we can
stand quite far from them and still
watch them nicely as they go along
feeding I’m surprised they’re moving as
much as they are it’s it’s hot and I
would imagine that they would rather be
in shade then right out in the open of
course elephants are supremely well
designed and just handle the heat with
that yeah that almost acts like a
radiating system and is able to flap and
cause the blood to basically get cooler
but it also as far as sometimes they get
a little bit on the grumpy side in the
heat and they move now I believe there’s
a herd of Elie’s at
Jumma cam so maybe noel who’s that side
of the world can head there because i’m
right down in the south at the moment so
take me quite a while to get there and
maybe if Noel is on that set I know I
was going to poofles of damn okay well
maybe when she’s finished this you can
hit that play it just goes to show you
from no elephants now we’ve got a whole
bunch of herds all at once it was only a
matter of time in heat like this that
Ellie’s were going to come back to an
area where there is water now oh Henry
you want to push too hard but let’s try
and just catch up a little bit with them
they are quite far now hoping that if we
just get into a place where we can still
see them and we can sit well I see
there’s another hood to my right yet
another whole grouping on my right-hand
side whether or not these guys are going
to come to the ones on the right so I’m
not quite sure but let’s have a look
they seem as though they’re changing
direction and starting to move more
towards this herd that’s on the right
hand side so maybe if we can go to the
right hand side ones settle with them
these groupings will start coming and
coming back this way what I’m going to
do though is because they’re a little
nervous the shininess of my hats and as
much as I like to wear a hat and we like
to have a lot of fun this is probably
not the best thing for what we’re doing
right now
now Ellie’s noticed things like this so
I’m just gonna put that off while we
with the 80s I’ll put it back on a bit
later but while we with the alias
themselves I don’t want to cause any
unnecessary sort of distraction to them
you can see a whole bunch of them still
moving on my right inside so they are
slowly kind of moving away from me it’s
not ideal where we are either it’s brief
they convince in here which means that
I’m hitting a lot of trees and branches
and that’s causing a bit of sort of
noise to to start and that’s why they
moving away but there’s the rest of the
hood it seems to be about 9 or 10 over
there and then about another 12 or so to
my left-hand side so it’s really good
size average size hood for our area they
definitely are welcome site though I’m
like I say super excited to see them one
of the biggest things that we’ve missed
over the last few weeks has been these
guys I love spending time with elephants
particularly here on Juma because
generally they are very relaxed and we
do get these intimate experiences where
elephants are often all around the car
and you know it really just is wonderful
to watch these social nuances as they
move
interact with one another the family and
the Titans unit that they form is always
fascinating to watch him to observe and
so I really hope that these guys do
spend a bit of time and relax with us so
that we can stay here a little longer
the census elephant herds won’t fight
too much unless we get a situation where
it gets dire for water and things like
that then you’re fine they’ll compete
quite a lot around the water sources and
they’ll push each other and kind of move
each other off but generally no they’re
not too stressed about one another in
fact you’ll often find a lot of
communication will take place and
they’ll come towards one another you
investigate there’ll be lots of rumbling
lots of cooling and then everyone will
either go their separate ways or they
sometimes even join together for a few
days if conditions are right and there
is a food source that is available and
water that is available the in your fund
you can actually see look at that
elephant snow chunk up in the air it’s
nothing so I think it’s picking up that
there’s a herd here that is south of us
maybe these are two different groupings
and they’re now bumping into one another
but she’s definitely picking up a smell
you see that and she’s by analyzing what
is that scent that I’m picking up now
the distance that they are at they’ll be
able to communicate with low-frequency
sound much lower frequencies and we can
hear so they might be talking to each
other it also could be that they
speaking up the scent of us and of rusty
rusty does have a little bit of it fuel
smell to him at the moment or her should
we say and so they might be picking up
that fuel scent it could be why they’re
kind of just smelling around but I think
it’s more because they’ve picked up that
there’s another herd around and these
two herds hopefully are going to join
together they’ll often will be
associated herds that do join up so
sometimes we’ll get a situation where
it’s ants that have left a herd during
times where conditions weren’t favorable
to be in a big grouping and they then
come back together again and they join
for a few days lots of communication
they know one another and then they kind
of drift off again so maybe that’s what
we’re seeing here is that two herds have
come together and they’re not tightly
bonded but they are in an area because
of food and water and they then going to
stripped apart at some point but for now
are still going to settle around one
amazing though you can see that they are
lethargic they’re they they’re hot and
they probably are not really wanting to
move to five hundred percent sure that
they’ve come from tree house damn they
all look fairly dark in coloration as
though they’ve thrown water on
themselves I think they’ve just come
from tree house they probably had a
really good swim they’re in a bath and
throwing water on themselves cool
themselves down and now it’s just about
getting into shade waiting for the
hottest part of the day to wear off
before they can then actively feed and
really try and find you know good areas
to to capitalize on and feed on the
thing about it is it’s gonna be
interesting to watch how these Ellie’s
feed over the next little bit watch are
amazing this is look you see one in ofin
started to move now look at how the
whole group is moving together and
they’re all coming this way so they
slowly they’ve picked up some sort of
communication amongst them there was no
sound that we could hear and all of them
are now starting to just drift with one
another arts you see how they’ve even
turned around some of them and I
starting to come isn’t that incredible
it’s absolutely phenomenal to watch the
intelligence of these elephants you can
see her she’s posturing at us the radio
so she knows that there is something
around and that means that our distance
needs to be kept we don’t need to make
her any more aggressive or any more sort
of upset as she is that’s a really big
old female she would have seen a lot and
that posturing and him making herself
big is just trying to basically check
what’s going on and inform us okay where
you are is just far enough I don’t want
you coming any closer you’re okay where
you are and then she’s gone back to
feeding now which is absolutely fine
also could be because she’s got a cough
yeah oh they can see the little one
coming out even though that’s not a very
young cough she might have a smaller one
somewhere there’s why she’s a little bit
more kind of posturing as to what’s
going on but their intelligence astounds
me in the in the communication between
elephants is absolutely amazing the fact
that we don’t hear it in it this is
obviously a very clear indication that
these guys are able to talk to one
another is absolutely fascinating and
phenomenal to watch now I just need to
give an update on the radio quickly to
the guys that are getting mobile so I do
apologize your odds there’s a elephants
apparently at Gauri dam there’s an
here at shoe bomber mobile in a westerly
direction with quite a big tummy so
there we go just let orbs know that they
are elephants run you see that female
she’s still posturing in this direction
now there could be two reasons for this
one could be us and could be the fact
that we are making a bit of noise in the
form of me talking there is a synth
that’s blowing towards her and whoa it
could be a situation that we find
there’s a bull elephant that might be
around in this area as well
copy that Obi I did have tracks for that
Madonna English going from all breeze
towards Gallagher shortcutted and pick
up anything on Gallagher’s shortcut to
it maybe you’ll find some tracks there
does confirm he drank at all so just
listening to the radio apparently there
was a sighting of a lipid at some point
today close to Gallagher pan which is
quite interesting so I wonder if maybe
there’s not a lipid on a killer and
those lipid tracks we had this morning
would indicate that there would be some
sort of sign of that lipid in that area
I did say that those tracks look fairly
good but we’ll just try and carry on and
find them this elephant heard itself I’m
not going to go any closer she’s already
posturing from where she is now like I
say it could be a bull elephant it might
not be but I certainly don’t want to
push them we have elephants for the
first time in a while and I want them to
feel as comfortable and at home as
possible and not push them out of this
area so let’s rather just leave and keep
our distance as it is and while we do
that I believe Scotty D has found a
couple Eddie’s on his birthday and I
hope it is a beautiful beautiful sight
of them as they meander through those
long grasses of East Africa it seems to
be always such a pretty occasion
elephants in South Africa who seem to be
a little bit agitated but a little bit
on edge to a very very relaxed herd of
elephants who are enjoying the soothing
effects of the rain as well as I guess
the slightly juicier grass that then
I’ll get to feed on
to them look so different to normal and
what I also find fascinating if we look
at this one here there’s patches of
their body which appear absolutely dry
and how on earth that works I’m not
entirely sure maybe because their skins
the skin absorbs a lot of the water and
keeps some parts dry I mean there was a
serious deluge earlier so quite
interesting we haven’t moved let me show
you the spring that fill out the car
it’s quite interesting the way macadamia
nuts this is what has fallen off the car
out of the back left wheel it is called
a coil spring
I am mechanically void of knowledge so
don’t know if we’re even gonna be able
to drive the car away from here without
causing damage or if we can just take it
slowly see us they need to speak to all
Shadrach and shadrach I must say has
been an absolute lifesaver him and his
assistant David these vehicles were in a
state of disrepair when we arrived here
and there’s been a huge huge amounts of
work done on them to get them working so
a lot to Shelly cute little baby they’re
hiding under a mom hello Lorne you’d
like to know what is the average size of
an elephant herd and it fluctuates
greatly but I’d say on average between
kind of 10 and 20 individuals is your
standard herd size anyway upwards of
that you can consider to be a large herd
and right sure we’ve got some of them
you might be able to see cuz our front
rain flap is still down but I can count
to 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28
30 32 34 so this is a large herd of
elephants but there’s no set rules and
often what’s difficult for us to know is
where the two heads have come together
like a joint family holiday as they
cruise around so when you see a hundred
elephants together that’s no way of us
being certain that it’s not three heads
that are just converging on the same
area and spending time together so no
sit rules which is I guess the beginning
of every answer with wildlife related
questions there may be trends and kind
of general norms but there’s no set
rules our chair the same goes for the
size of prides of lion the size of
coalition’s of cheetah herds of buffalo
they’re all very greatly on the area
okay I want to give Shadrach a call now
so I can work out what our afternoon is
going to entail and that way I can also
let Taylor know whether she should
rather go to the lines that I was
planning on hitting – there’s certainly
some good prospects with them so the
sooner I found out what I can do with
this vehicle the sooner I can let Taylor
know whether she should head off there
it’s time to exquisite my binoculars to
try and see if I can’t see the Lions
from here but it was a very it’s a very
very long way away but it’s something
kind of just above where we’re looking
at these elephants up and to the left on
the other side of this forest at the
base of the escarpment somewhere hidden
up there I’m not sure exactly where but
some up there kind of where we are
looking now underneath some of those
Bela nighties trees with a very flat
canopies some way up there but I don’t
think we are going to be lucky enough to
get a view from here we are very very
far away okay good well I’m gonna start
ringing shadi
I’ll put it on speakerphone so you can
all listen it’s it’s quite common for
guys to put funny songs on for their
intern this is the advertisement for the
song it’s called a squeezer job or
shoddy hibari Alejo Paulo to some boy
Sasha here coil-spring Numa a Mitaka
Calgary Yong Yong goo cabeza cabeza
he knew Magoo short or nimefanya
off-roading I love we keep to a Mitaka
pockemon Kukoc Guam Changa so sasazuka
Matt attack at a rudika camp at Atari
Bugatti
Kweli copies one echoed the economy I’m
Cano young governor so to symbolize
honor coach in acquire Malema soon
balasana apanasana off-roading so come
here oh yeah
coming in the funny off-roading Gary I’m
a I’m a toy get to come on Vicky DCC I
was he on – yeah
Nita watch our Gary Appa
Natasha Gary Appa Allah who utter chaos
to be Santa
[Music]
that’s not good news he says we cannot
move the car so we’re gonna have to
leave a chair which means it’s the end
of the chart for us and have to get a
rescue mission to come and save us take
everything off the vehicle so sadly
that’s the end of that or trying to get
a shot of that black chested snake he’ll
throw funny little window well we’re
gonna say mr. Taylor
and I think you guys should all let her
know that it is her responsibility not
to go and head towards the the Triangle
boys and the sausage tree pride she
knows where they are
and I think she could get lucky with
some action there a little bit later on
see you tomorrow Scott we cannot move at
the moment because we’re in a torrential
downpour it’s coming you’re gonna get it
just now – maybe in 15 minutes or so but
it is pouring down my name is Taylor and
on camera with me today is jeho we and
we’re sitting in a tent as you can see
and maybe you would like to see what’s
going on outside we’ve got a little
window but we’re actually gonna have to
take it up in a minute
will do could you do that now what you
can’t see is that that’s actually coming
from a little bit for the further east
but there’s a huge storm that’s just to
the north of us that’s hit us but it is
bucketing down you know how you can just
see for miles and miles Archer in the
Mara and that’s not the case this
afternoon so we can’t go anyway it’s
unfortunately raining too hard enough
for us to even drive in these amazing
covers but this is one of those things
that Scott we’re gonna have to wait
until the rain stops and we want to turn
around and head in that direction this
is the second set of sort of rain that
we’ve had now which is not ideal because
that means that I can’t really do
anything we’ve been reading books
looking at bird books making notes
literally that’s all we can do we have
to just set it off but where I’m
concerned about is that I see we’re not
far from the kitchen or timber airstrip
and I see vehicles that are parked
waiting which means that there must be
an error
that is hunting tool and I don’t know
how an aeroplane is gonna want will
attempt to that and that’s because we
can’t see anything
they lots of lightning lots of thunder
lots of so it’s quite funny yeah but it
seems as though there’s gremlins all the
way around and Scott maybe that spring
is your birthday present
perhaps you’re gonna bounce about for
joy now maybe you can try to do
something like a bounce on it like
Tigger anyways I’m gonna send you back
to you South Africa it seems as though
they’re having a little bit more luck
than us in the Mara and Noel I wish you
well on your first ride thanks Taylor
and thanks Scotty happy birthday Scotty
and sorry everyone we’ve got lots of
gremlins and as you know with gremlins
when you get them wet they go crazy so
we’ve got a lot of wet crazy gremlins
running around and we have found a
beautiful herd of Impala
they’ve busy coming down for a drink
which you might have seen on our live
cam that chu man down here and then now
they’re slowly gonna move off and
continue on feeding so what you’re
seeing here with the structure is you’ve
got lots of adult females you’re gonna
see a few sub adult males and a few
adult males it’s not breeding season
most of these females are gonna be
pregnant
we should OH Tristan found that
beautiful beautiful little first lamb of
the season a couple of days ago so these
females should start dropping within the
next two weeks you’re gonna get ones
that do a little bit earlier ones that
you in the middle on them ones that do a
little bit later but in general they
tend to drop all around the same time
it’s called flooding the market so
basically when you have a huge group of
little ones come it’s harder for the
Predators to take them all out and
rather than the one one one like say a
kudu and it’s basically safety in
numbers
and then what you’re also gonna see this
time of day because it’s going to start
getting dark in a couple of hours it’s
not just the Impala there was some kudu
that were in back there who also came
down to have a drink safety in numbers
is extremely important more eyes more
ears more sense of smell better chance
of survival
now even though Impala are beautiful and
we love them they’re a staple in the
bush there is actually an elephant that
is just down the way which I would like
to show you so if you guys wouldn’t mind
I’m just gonna reverse a little bit and
then just carry on over the damn wall
all right now we get quite a few sorry
just stand by one there’s something in a
tree sorry guys Jean did you see where
I’m looking so if we go it’s sort of ten
o’clock sorry two o’clock excuse me see
that termite mound that’s very pointy
and then there’s the marula tree with
the branch that’s hanging not at a
ninety but sort of yeah there what does
that look like to you huh it does a
little bit guys okay I’m gonna drive
closer to that I could just be having
cat eyes or or it could actually be what
I think it is Thunder I’m just gonna
head straight in um Jean Dre was saying
to me earlier we started drive please
please please we find Leopard I was like
I’m always down for a leopard it was
really hoping for a wild dogs now if
this ends up being a growth in the tree
I’m sorry that will be your Noel moment
for the day but if this ends up being
our leopard oh okay so give me a few
minutes I’m also just gonna be a little
bit quiet as we get a little bit closer
because obviously you don’t want to
scare anything out of the position
they’re in as you all know especially
the viewers that have been with us for a
really long time um when you get a lot
of the leopard species decide they grow
up with the vehicles so they know our
sounds they know our smells they know
how our voices work but you can also
have a bad day you can have a day as a
human where you don’t really want anyone
around and you can have days where you
don’t mind having people around so let’s
just get a wee bit closer
and have a look you’ve got a kudu that’s
just coming through on our one o’clock
there alright so I’m just gonna lower my
voice a little bit and come around with
the best angle I can find
Shawn Dre I think I think this is your
lucky day my friend should we count our
chickens before they hatch
alright guys let’s see send some
questions through hashtag Safari live
YouTube chat do we think it’s a leopard
have we actually done our jobs today
yes either a leopard or a leopard law
definitely agreed to that let’s see if
it’s a leopard log I’m gonna laugh at
myself so hard
[Laughter]
it’s a leopard log we got to excited and
of course it’s a leopard log you guys
see that all right so that’s your Noel
moment for the day I’ve gone a little
bit pink in the face but it’s fine it’s
a leopard log we’ve been searching all
morning with Tristan as you know and
then it has to be on my first day it’s
Murphy’s Law first game drive there we
go okay we’re we’re gonna go look for
our elephant way too funny John Dre any
comments that’s a good Leopard luck
that’s good see our elephants now
alright the other thing that was
interesting about that is the wind is
pushing behind us and all of the impala
and the the kudos that we were seeing
we’re moving sort of this way around so
they wouldn’t have smelled and noticed
oh well okay
here we go back out the block
so Jenny animation you’re asking about
do trees mimic leopards look Jenny
oh yes Jenny the tree is definitely
mimicking a leopard it wants to give me
an interesting start to my very first
drive but it’s fine
it happens Richard leopard logs
okay
back out
so again our beautiful herd of Impala
the social structure of Impala we’re
sorry I should say the name for a group
of Impala is it a rank of Impala and
that has to do a lot with the the males
with the horns and also how they
function in their and their little
bachelor groups but it applies for the
females as well its carry on oh I got so
excited
James is there anything I’m really
hoping to see on my first drive well
look John Dre asked for a leopard and I
really wanted to see wild dogs what are
the reasons why we got so excited about
that tree ranch was for John Dre’s
leopard but look I’m I’m just excited to
be out here but yeah off the wild dogs
pop-up I’m never never gonna get rid of
that one that one will be too good
but as you all know we didn’t really get
much this morning a lot of our leopard
to move over the boundaries and I
believe the last time I don’t think we
saw the dogs I think we got the tracks
with dogs a few days ago so they’re
around but not here here there’s a whole
bunch of Impala that are running down
towards the dam and then we’re gonna
come up in our elephants are going to be
here as well
beautiful little Starling in the middle
of the road there
all right okay so these are actual
elephants they’re not stuffed elephants
they’re not robotic elephants they’re
not trees pretending to be elephants
they’re real live elephants thank
goodness
Murphy can’t be that cruel all right so
again it’s super hot flapping ears
cooling themselves down every animal
species has a really particular way of
being able to keep themselves
functioning within the heat of the
African bush veld so something like the
leopard that we thought we saw they
don’t have sweat glands so they pants
they lay in the shade and then they move
when it’s cooler for an elephant
elephants don’t sleep the way that we
sleep or the way that a leopard or a
lion will sleep it’s just a few minutes
rest here a few minutes rest there they
constantly have to be feeding themselves
so their body structure has developed
this amazing ability to lose about
eighty to eighty-five percent of their
body heat through their ear so when
they’re cold it’s very flat and then
like you can see with that female it’s
nice and hot so she’s constantly
flapping she it’s her own air
conditioner she’s aerating herself
Tristan was talking about how we really
haven’t been seen alleys and it’s been
nice today
you know Trish had some alleys earlier
and then we’ve got these ones now Scotty
had his up in the Mara but it means
they’re slowly starting to come back the
rains have been a little bit spotty we
had a wee bit of rain the other day
farther east of us has been quite a bit
of rain and farther north of us but
nothing spectacular so they’re gonna be
moving farther distances at the moment
within their home ranges to pick up on
on food and water but they don’t want to
stay in one place for too long because I
didn’t want to over utilize the area
there’s a tiny tiny tiny little baby to
the right of that big beautiful female
just at her feet
tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny little baby see
there
so that little one looks to me like it
can almost still fit under mom’s belly
and then wait for them to come out I
can’t
Proud cat mama you’re wondering how much
is an average elephant calf weigh at
birth between 100 and 120 kilograms
great question this little one here is
flapping its ears quite a bit but not
hugely just waiting it’s standing up and
a little bit higher than what I thought
was mom but could be auntie there’s
another adult back there so I just want
to check usually the rule of thumb is
when she fits under the belly it’s still
less than six months in anything sort of
over the belly to over six months but it
changes everything comes in small medium
and large but they’re pregnant for 22
months so by the time 22 months is up
you can see those females are hugely
uncomfortable and then yeah one hundred
one hundred kilograms so that’s real
that’s roughly two to one two pounds so
it’s over 200 pounds it’s a big baby
check there
so something you’ll notice with these
ones that are feeding here is they don’t
have wet feet or wet trunks so they
haven’t come to drink yet who’s thinking
you’re asking do elephants lay down to
sleep or to rest or do they stand up
it’s a really excellent question that
little teeny one that we were looking at
he’ll lie down he’s tired he gets tired
little legs this female that we were
just focusing on now she’ll stand up and
a lot of the time what you’ll see with a
breeding herd like this is the little
the tiny little ones will lay in the
middle and the older ones will all sort
of stand around them in a circle in the
shade and and they’ll do that we’re
gonna get a really stunning sighting
just now they’re all gonna come across
the dam wall and they’re all gonna go
and head down and drink water and maybe
just maybe do one of my favorite things
which is to play in the mud he’ll have a
little spa treatment there we go
beautiful
I don’t know if you all can notice but
you can hear them in the bushes you’re
not really hearing them when they walk
it’s virtually silent right what we’re
gonna do is we’re gonna focus on the
female that’s in front she’s gonna come
down and lead check that everything’s
okay then the rest of the herd will
follow her down watch how they come down
this little incline so mum says it’s
okay so little one follows the rests are
gonna just check out this bush just
there and then and then come through
yeah they’re gonna come to a perfect
spot elephants like clean water so
sometimes what you’ll see is you’ll see
them come and mud base firs and then
drink or sometimes if they find that
there’s a nice big spot of clean water
enough for all of them they’ll go and
drink first and then mud bathe so what
it looks like to me is that mums gonna
go through mum Sasha on tea because some
of these aren’t hers she’s gonna clear
the tip with the part of the water a
little bit with the tip of her trunk she
just did and then there we go absolutely
stunning
glenda I think you asked how much water
can an elephant trunks hold or was it
how much muscle sorry max how many
muscles Glenda so what I’ve read and
heard is that there’s about a hundred
thousand muscles in there so are roughly
about forty-five to fifty thousand sets
but I have heard other guides give a
little bit of a different number that’s
what I I know the best to be he takes in
about two years to learn how to use it
and then their whole life to perfect it
very similar to our own human bodies it
takes us about a year year and a half to
be able to learn how to walk and then
our whole lives to develop how we
function with our body the little tiny
baby is coming down to drink next to
what is now its mom so originally that
little baby was next to the matriarch
that big female I came down first but
now look where this baby is situated
itself and I just want to have a look
with my by nose elephant breeding herds
are very communal like having an
extended family the way that I grew up
for instance and you know lots of
brothers and sisters and then you’ve got
your grandparents living with you your
cousin sometimes live with you that’s
how a breeding herd works as well and so
everyone helps take care of everybody
else there now that matrix gonna start
to mud bathe like we talked about so she
had all of her clean water she’s got her
own little patch she’s not gonna disturb
the other ones from having clean water
and she’s gonna throw that mud on her to
cool herself down and with the way that
that little one is drinking I’m gonna
put that little one I’d probably say
eight months ten months right around in
there
Debbi how does it make me feel to be so
close to elephants Debbie I absolutely
love elephants I love elephants from a
vehicle I love elephants from foot
we’re as right now we’re probably about
80 meters from them but I’ve had many
many an occurrence where an elephant’s
been right next to me I’ve had an
elephant smell my face I used to work
with this little male elephant who would
come up and chew on the side of the
vehicle he had a problem so for me it’s
not I have no issue with it it’s really
something special I had a moment last
year
hurry with a breeding herd and the
matriarch came right up next to the car
her I was literally not right not in the
right next to my face cuz I’m sitting
short in the vehicle but just above my
head and she stood there staring at me
with her eye and I stared at her and it
was just one of those magical moments I
can’t I don’t have words to describe so
I get a very calming feeling with
elephants
this is a photographer’s dream right now
beautiful light so you notice they’re
all moving over to the big female and
they’re all gonna start coming and and
and cooling themselves down in the mud
so that second female that’s moved over
to the right of the big female that is
the mum of the little one so you’ll
notice she’s smaller than that big
female so that little one in relation to
her especially her belly size makes him
older than in relation if you were to
put him next to that big female that’s
why I said we just needed to wait a
minute and see also the use of his trunk
his ability to utilize it a bit more
it’s it’s quite a good utilization which
is why I said eight months ten months I
mean you could even possibly push him up
to a year depending on who’s looking and
what you’re saying it look it’s all it’s
all variable and it’s all relative
[Laughter]
that sound you just heard there that
matriarch there’s an older calf that’s
there and the older calf is trying very
hard to nurse off of mom so that
matriarch is looking pregnant to me
she’s not sitting heavy heavy but she’s
sitting heavy enough you can see when
she turns there that bulge sometimes
when they’re heavy enough if you look
yeah perfect things Andra if you look
right where’s Andre is focusing on now
you can sometimes see the baby move we
might we might get lucky it’s sometimes
when she breathes it’s moving yot and
then sometimes you can actually see
where the feet and everything is kicking
through and but unfortunately she’s
moving off so we’re gonna have a little
bit of trouble getting that very similar
again to humans right Tristan is down
south of me and I believe he has a
beautiful giraffe to show you everyone
loves a draw-off so we are gonna head
down there and give Tristan a chance to
show off his skills well we do everyone
do it does like a giraffe they are quite
cool animals at the end of the day they
are a little bit different to everybody
else and I’m sure Noelle is absolutely
loving the fact that there’s some
Eddie’s around and just goes to show you
we had the most quiet morning not a
single animal around now these elephants
everywhere there’s apparently a mullah
somewhere just north of where Noelle is
so hopefully she’ll be able to find him
and catch up with the guys that side as
well and now we’ve got a few drops now
you will see a car passing by I do
apologize it is north of us and there is
a car that is going luckily giraffes are
tall and so we don’t even have to
actually see it as they go wonderful
anyway well done sensor but it is a
young Bulger off that we’ve got feeding
is a beautiful coloration I know he’s in
the shade but he is really nice and dark
he’s got this kind of dog melanistic
kind of color to him now he’s not a full
melanistic individual but alfred with
giraffe some of them will produce a lot
of melanin in their coats and they will
get this much darker coloration that we
see yeah so really nice to see these
guys I love this kind of spending time
in the areas which are afar they often
are a good indicator for a number of
different things and
so it’s always good to see them I quite
enjoy having the giraffe around it’s
just the one on his own he doesn’t seem
to be with anybody else which is not
strange or offer probably the most
loosest of the social structures in this
area you’ll find that they will you know
be either on their own or in groups
together and there’s really no rhyme or
reason to their groupings together you
will find a situation is not like
elephants where it’s matriarchal or it’s
lions where there’s a dominant male
leopard like that it’s really these guys
kind of spend as much time as they can
wherever they want as long as there’s
food they’ll just mix and match with
each other all over the place now I have
heard some disturbing news to me which
makes me very very sad it’s nothing
that’s suppose to much to complain about
but it sounds like our boy tumba crossed
all the way into Mala Mala and has gone
that side now it thinks that going
tomorrow Moloch generally don’t come
back and the reason I say that is
because it’s really is beautiful down in
his perfect situation for a lipid to
survive and move right down that way and
so since I was pointing to me because I
have another hat on as you may have
noticed it’s all about party hats and so
I’ve got different hats on and so I’m
hoping our boy tumba gets chased off by
another male and pushed back into this
area because I’m not ready for him to go
just yet so I’ll be very sad if he
leaves us and goes in another direction
right well I’m gonna sit with my party
hats and my party giraffe and while we
do that I believe I’m supposed to go and
think back to Taylor I’m not handed
percent sure but given that I’m getting
a 10-second count on it differently is
Taylor and hopefully she’s having a
wonderful afternoon on her side of the
world
we’re shooting out of a window so kind
of things are kind of time-sensitive but
you can look at the rain and and there’s
also a whole bunch of people around us
that’s very difficult to try and
maneuver I can’t see where I’m going
it’s fun times entertain carry on what
to fail right so yes I was going to show
you some elephants but they’ve now gone
behind their car these there’s not even
a chance I’m gonna try and reposition
this vehicle because it’s a nightmare
I’ve initially I cannot see what’s going
on around me and there’s lots of
vehicles that are all heading home
because they’ve seen the storm that’s
coming in Joshua who is ours Ascari this
evening says
gonna rain the whole night we’re trying
to get away from it but we’re not gonna
evade it it’s gonna hit us and then
we’re just gonna be sitting like this
reading books and the taint in the car
waiting for the show to finish but yes
but that was our innocence
they were they they were definitely some
now Kaitlynn you’re wondering if the
Mara’s got any active volcanoes or it
has any earthquakes I’m passing this
question on to Joey Joey not on the
morrow but there might be some places
okay so I’m gonna stop so Joey can tell
you through the ambience and see this
cars trying to pass me and I don’t even
know so kaftan listen very carefully
Joey’s gonna tell you where you can yes
come sit with us come and sit in front
Joey’s getting art he’s gonna continue
now we’ll be a minute well not a minute
maybe a few seconds climbing around no
shoes because that’s how we that’s how
we do it yeah but not too far away from
here they are it’s called all done your
lenght and it’s on the order of Kenyan
Tanzania and but because it’s actually
active at the moment it does send
tremors which you could kind of feel
here but other than that no it’s M I
felt a tremor once when I was at the
airport actually you know wasn’t where
was I going I think I was going to
Australia was a flying to Kenya I can’t
remember anymore now but there was a
tremor I thought that I was going crazy
it’s sitting down and one of the slow
lounges and I was looking around me and
my drink I had glass of water on the
table it’s like Jurassic Park it was
just sort of ripples and then I looked
around and no one else was reacting and
I was confused by this was a massive
tremor was a big earthquake that
happened in Botswana but thank you yeah
thank you very much for that this is a
feather if you want any question or you
want any questions answered about Kenya
and things like that this is the man to
go to and Scott we’ll just wait for
Howard you climb back around it’s like a
jungle gym in here and then we shall
continue but I can hear a car is it a
car or an airplane it’s a car we’re
gonna let the car pass us because I
would hate to just pull out in front of
them can you imagine causing accidents
that I think it’s safe do I need you I
need to signal okay put my hands out and
do this thing okay we’re gonna try and
get to the lines I suspect we’re gonna
have to zip up and bunker down in a
minute one minute maybe the next 10 to
15 minutes because it is coming through
so while we do that just slowly make our
way towards such tree Brad Tristan is
out driving around and I wonder what
he’s going to find this evening well I’m
not sure either Taylor hopefully it will
be lots of interesting things I do have
one thing that’s on the side of the car
so while we look at the giraffe I’m just
gonna quickly come and get it because it
went off the side so I don’t want to
have a situation where it gets lost oh
no what happened – it seems did you see
where it went so apparently we had a oh
there it is it just blends in so well
it’s difficult to actually see it come
on here we go now I wanted to get this
because I wanted to show all of you what
it looks like so the giraffe is behind
me and giraffes have great camouflage
but not nearly as good as this fella now
look at this so it is turning and I’m
going to turn it around so that you can
see but there is the branch isn’t this
incredible look at the coloration and
the detail on the stick insect so this
is an insect you can see it’s got its
long body and then it’s got oh fly out
of my way maybe the fly likes my Sun
bearer I don’t know but anyway it’s got
these long legs it’s got this kind of a
beautiful coloration it comes down
little antennas and the eye is just here
in front and in these legs in front that
kind of touch things and try and find
but that camouflage is absolutely
unbelievable you can see why it is
difficult to see it kind of fell onto
the card and aha because we haven’t been
even been offroad really as far as we
were with the Ailey’s and so it fell
onto the car has been crawling around
and since I managed to spot it and then
it jumped off onto the side but it is
absolutely awesome when we get to see
these guys I love these stick insects
and this morning I was actually
discussing them as to how long they can
get so this is still a little baby in
comparison to some of the others that we
see in this area some of the others will
be as long as this whole stick that we
see here which is pretty incredible now
since I know I’m shaking a little bit I
do apologise maybe if I do this hold on
let’s put it in like that
how’s that since that better is it
closer to close are we good it’s good so
there we go now I don’t have to shaken
since I can actually focus properly it’s
too close okay hold on don’t worry we’re
gonna make another plan sins just give
me two seconds I’m sorry little stick
insect I do apologize there we go
how’s that is that better perfect so not
only is that perfect but it means I can
get back into the seats and so that I
can hear Megan if she’s got any
questions because obviously out the
vehicle I can’t hear very much but
that’s where our little sticky insects
is position he may be can be our mascot
as we drive around but how cool is that
little sighting isn’t that amazing I
love the camouflage in these guys and
you can see sensors got the eyes on the
front and the little end tinner Patti
you say this is the biggest one you’ve
ever seen well like I say this is still
a little baby get in comparison to some
of the ones we get Archer some of the
ones are as thick as that stick that
that one is on and probably about double
the length so we do get some absolutely
massive stick insects in this area it is
a really beautiful creature and I
absolutely love these guys I think
they’re fascinating the fact that there
is an animal that has evolved to
camouflage as well as that has is really
something astounding now this particular
individual is quite out in the open and
is really long-legged
and so it’s easy to see and it’s not
difficult for us to find it when it’s on
a stick that gets better imagine that on
its foliated tree how difficult that
would be to be able to actually see and
to pick up now did a hit Tom you want to
know what they actually feel like they
feel sticky so they’re not sticky as in
like where they stick to you but they
just feel much like a stick would feel
they quite rough and abrasive on their
actual sort of bodies and their legs are
like any insect when they actually touch
you it’s it’s almost got like a little
core like structure that’s kind of
stamps onto your skin a little bit it’s
not so in any way it’s quite ticklish
actually but they they don’t feel
anything less than what a stick would
feel but you see how its able to move
you can actually see how pliable it is
it’s not actually rigid it’s it’s quite
soft and where you going you’re going
the wrong way
this is our extreme version
of a sticky and safe to this guy what’s
that too hot on the dashboard so it’s
now gone into the car and fallen off now
of course I’ve set this all up thinking
that this would be a fantastic idea what
I haven’t realized is that I’ve got to
drive like that so I’m going to take
that off
not that it means anything when I’m
wearing a sombrero because everyone
thinks I’m a fool as it is already
and people have laughed at me and taken
photos already once again it’s the same
guide as all the funny enough that was
laughing at me because he saw me in the
giraffe onesie the other day and he said
to me do we dress up like this every day
and I said to him no not really this is
just a special occasion because it’s
Scotty’s birthday and now Scotty is not
even in the show he didn’t wear a hat
more quite said the problem with my
sombrero is it doesn’t really fit so
every time I’m driving in the wind
gusted like pulls me backwards and falls
back and almost chokes me to death
so I need to try and just balance that
out and figure it out ah – and who’s 5
years old – LAN thank you so much it was
my birthday so you said happy birthday
but
now sorry about that today we went
through a little dip and we lost the
reception but thank you so much I really
appreciate it and I will hopefully have
a really nice day and I hope that you’re
having a wonderful day as well and say
hello to Tucker for me as well so to
learn often asked the funnest questions
and I know that you loved our giraffe
onesie and so hopefully you like my song
Berra as well Jalan I’m trying new hats
today and so I’ve got this hat on and I
think later I might try a little
different combination of the hats and
see maybe we’ll get a bit fancy up see
my hats is falling but I was talking
about it chokes me a little bit when it
falls off so we don’t try and squish
that down a little bit so that it
doesn’t fall off but I’m going to go and
explore Chitra today we seem to have a
few little gremlins if I coming around
the juma with Noel so I’m on Chitra I’m
gonna go and scratch around and see what
I can find
like I say I’m a little sad that tumblr
has gone all the way to cheetah I mean
to Mala Mala and on that area and so I
wanna see if maybe some of our other
lipids are on I believe our Sun has gone
south also towards the Mala Mala
boundary and so has tingle and shadows
so all of them are moving in that
direction what’s going on down there
it’s a while I explore chatter let’s
back to Noel who hopefully will have far
better news regarding us in Juma
hello everyone welcome back so we are a
beautiful elephant sighting I’m now just
trying to find a little an actual
leopard not a leopard tree so I’m just
busy doing a wee bit of bundu bashing
just excuse me two seconds attacks I’m
gonna sum up just a little bit farther
and then I’m gonna shut off if you
wouldn’t mind giving me just a quick one
you can give me
tax just confirm your about 400 meters
in 100% and 400% alright I don’t know if
you all could hear that 100 percent 100
percent and como genetic um that
sometimes when other people find
sightings like what’s happening now so
tax is wonderful he found this Leopard
he called us he says please you must
come and so sometimes when we’re
offering it’s a pinpoint exactly where
they are we do what’s called giving a
red so I stopped I shut off
tax revs and then through the audio
that’s how we find each other it’s that
it’s using tire tracks it’s just not so
we’re not actually using too many tire
tracks at the moment because of where
that Leopard was and where tax is but
shortly we will be able to give you an
actual visual but not a crazy Murphy’s
Law let me take you’re gonna on a stick
okay
come on Gingka
okay let’s see if you all can spot the
leopard before me or maybe Baracus well
for me our audio that we had was very
roughly here and you heard earlier when
I was talking on the radio used north at
the north south east and west and we use
meters to to talk to each other about
where we are and it helps us pinpoint so
let’s say for some reason tax couldn’t
give a rap to give me audio he would
explain on the western side go north and
were this many meters up except you’re
extra
and then of course what we’re busy doing
this little bit of bundu bashing we also
just need to be careful of stumps and
aardvark burrows and zebra wood which
will take out your tire one time the
problem I also have to make sure that I
don’t send John Dre off the back of we
need him there’s wonderful camera
and then we also have to be careful of
areas like this so this is a little
sodic site that we have over on my
right-hand side and it’s not the best to
drive right through the middle of them
they’re just creeping along the edge
here some sensitive soils there
so ramen you’re asking what drove me to
become a guy so sorry I’m not looking at
you as much I’m busy looking for art buy
pearls and things from it was actually
kind of by accident I was living in
Tanzania writing grants for a non-profit
for about a year and then got sort of
tired of doing that and so I decided to
come down and that’s it from the attacks
I’m just busy live at the moment I heard
your audio perfectly I should be with
you shortly
and I decided to come down to
[Music]
to South Africa and I got involved with
research with lions and leopards and
elephants and rhinos and just really
fell in love with being in the bush and
through that found out about guiding and
I went and did a guide training program
and then 10 years later Here I am
did you get them thanks Andre
this is why we have two people on the
vehicle it’s not just Cassandra does
camera he’s also sitting up much higher
he’s got good Bush eyes and he helps me
out so John Dre wins he’s spotted first
there’s a lot of artwork daughterís
here so he just happened to be a little
bit careful come around from a different
angle
there we go
[Music]
Thaksin thank you so much I’ve got your
visual I appreciate all your help
as you guys are noticing I’m sure you’ve
noticed with all the other presenters as
well as you can’t guide in a vacuum you
can’t guide in a bubble we all need each
other and we help each other as much as
possible you know in the end it’s not
just I saw this vehicle but it’s also
the guest in the other vehicle and
everybody here you want everyone to go
away having the most amazing experience
I can see the leopard a real-life
leopard it’s not in trees
[Music]
alright what I’m gonna try and do
everybody is get around him and then
find a nice little stable position to
stop
so Jean Drake can work his magic and you
all can see what we can see so just
stick with me hang tight is a beautiful
termite mound
please go on the termite mound stand by
sorry guys I’m getting used to the
petrol and rivers I have to say I’ve
never driven until I started working
with safari live their clutches are a
little bit more touchy than I’m used to
also I’m a woman driver careful that was
a joke by the way
okay so viewers what I need from you all
is once they get visual I don’t know the
Leopards here like you do so I need you
all to tell me who we’re looking at
please share your knowledge
he is a beautiful boy you know to be
honest with you I actually think this
might be in bula I’ve seen in goo a
couple of times I’ve worked in and out
of this area a little bit and I have
photos of him and you see the size of
that dewlap that is an old male but I
know you all have been talking about I
think his name is ting gone I’ve never
seen him so let’s get a view and then
you all let me know hashtag Sofia live
YouTube chat who is this male leopard
I’m currently in love but you see the
stockier short legs that’s me
possibly could be in lieu of but I’m
waiting for you all Lulu if you could go
up that beautiful tree my boy I would be
so happy yes he’s a stunning boy so
Tristan’s birthday is tomorrow
Tristan’s favorite animals a leopard I’m
sad he’s not here to watch it
he must we must hope that he finds a
leopard tomorrow and remember this
morning Tristan got those male leopard
tracks near the hyena den we’re not far
from there at all
okay I’m gonna reverse the sit around
and get another spot we also have two
other vehicles from Jimmy with estimate
on the sighting you have to make sure
that they can the their guests can see
as well and so we’re just gonna work and
leapfrog and come around each other
viewers keep thinking let me know I’m
pretty sure I’m gonna go with a Buddha
but again you all know more than I do
Rosetta cats
[Music]
Shondra I’m gonna go around like that
we’re gonna take a nice big beep around
and then give him time to walk towards
us so as you saw super super super
relaxed mouth
and if he comes up into this little spot
here he’s going to get some gorgeous
gorgeous gorgeous light moment okay if
it helps any of you all decide who he is
give you the spot pattern just now with
my horrible binoculars that told us
about Leopard Roger James you’re saying
100% in Lula all right I feel redeemed
from earlier thank you James thank you
for for confirming what I was thinking
beautiful beautiful boy I was shadowing
tristin the other day and we saw a young
male leopard I’m so sorry I can’t
remember his name just now and and when
we went off air I said to Trish and I
was like yes but that looks like Mvula
and blue as his dad there’s something
about those almost Bulldog like legs
that he has in the front okay so he’s
not gonna come towards us like I was
hoping he’s gonna carry on a little bit
that way so what I want to do is to give
us again the optimal view is let’s just
come around a little bit I also don’t
want to get in the way of anyone’s
photography anywhere out so we’re just
gonna come around sorry I’m super
excited I hope you all are as excited as
I am
elephants and a leopard in one game
Drive really does not get much better
than this
sorry John Dre I know I’m stepping
around a little bit what he’s doing he’s
actually trying to figure out what his
best course of action is be smelling
amazed he’s not doing any scent marking
but here we are viewers moment of our
day have them a boy so the last time I
saw a mullah was in 2013 I’m in love
everybody
definitely in love James you’re asking
which other leopards I’ve seen before as
a guide so Tristan and I work together
some years ago several years ago when
carullo was still alive and so I
definitely saw her Ulla and a ton D
would have been alive then and shadow I
don’t remember seeing shadow I do
remember seeing ton D there was also a
huge male leopard much bigger than a
mullah his name was muffin Yan that we
used to see in shame shortly after that
that stint food from Yun passed away I’m
trying to think who melts there was a
young male I’ve been trying to find the
photos of from 2013 that was up in a
tree on one of the may on gallery main
and that I need to show Tresor actually
I’ll see if I can download them on my
phone you guys can see and so we can
figure out who that was and then many
many many years ago the viewers that
have been watching for a long time Jess
after wild earth since fry life came out
with their 3d cams I was here for an
interview we had a young male leopard it
actually might have been 10 Ghana but I
would need to again
have a look at the ones that are old
because remember young male leopards
they they move they move out of a
territory after a while so the males not
necessarily gonna stick around too long
while in Lula’s here sorry everybody
bouncy bouncy and so he might still be
around he might not still be around
Tristan was telling me some super
interesting story is about several of
the younger males being together in the
area trying to sort out who’s dominant
and and who’s working
what areas and and who’s gonna take over
and it’s a really interesting concept
James I actually can’t think of any
other leopards that I would have seen
from this from this particular area
where you all would have view them but
over my career I’ve definitely been
lucky enough to have many many many
leopard sightings and some incredible
magic sightings
he doesn’t look overly full he looks
like he’s definitely eating something in
the past couple days but nothing big and
because he’s not scent-marking to me it
seems as if he’s doing a little bit more
of checking for hunting it’s also still
quite warm so the fact that he’s moving
the way that he’s moving in this warmth
is is very very interesting
yeah so William he looks like he’s
definitely eaten in the next in the next
in the last couple of days what’s your
scene you see that flabby flabby bit of
skin that’s hanging there Lula’s old he
is an old old man so some of that is
because of his age and it’s sagging down
and then a lot of it is you know when
when you’re young your skin is very
elastic and it comes up and then it’ll
go down so when he fills himself full
full full it’ll go elastic but now it’s
not contracting as much so I would say
he probably either ate about three four
days ago or he just ate something really
really small
so yeah I think I think he’s I think
he’s hungry I don’t think he’s starving
but I do you think our boy is hungry
I don’t even think you guys can
understand just how excited I am right
now I love this leopard
there’s a beautiful little termite mound
up ahead as well just piss okay let’s
pull through
all right while we keep up with and love
Tristan is wearing a very sparkly crown
I would like to say hello to everybody
so let’s head on over to Tristan well we
are all the way down on Chitra
unfortunately I found tracks for a male
leopard which I think could be
quarantined tracks maybe they come from
Torchwood and right on the sort of
eastern side of chipler which is exactly
so quarantine the other day and they
were going south nice fresh tracks but I
unfortunately have no signal there so I
can’t really follow any further they
turn a little bit more towards the sort
of cheetah Plains driveway area so I’ve
had to kind of leave them where they are
for now but that’s okay we’ll just carry
on and maybe we get lucky and that track
comes round again I’m gonna check along
the southern side of the airstrip and
just see if maybe he turned and cut
across this direction but it was nice to
see those tracks they looked really good
like I say they were nice and clean and
I’m super happy that Noel got to see him
hula out of all the leopards that we
have here and I’m sure she has seen him
hula before I know that she knew about
him below for sure and I’m glad that she
got a leopard on that side and it was
worth her staying in that area and me
coming south at least so that’s good
news
and what we do have at least is not a
leopard but we do have something that
lipids like to eat and these ones on the
airstrip are generally very relaxed and
very chilled and I’ll show you what they
are now you might be able to see them up
in the distance but there is a few of
them just sitting kind of feeding off
the edge of the runway which is quite
nice so there is a whole family of
warthogs now I don’t want to go too far
just in case they’re not the relaxed
ones because sometimes they aren’t
relaxed ones but you can see that this
family looks as though it is fairly
chilled they’re just sitting they
haven’t even flinched since I’ve been
coming up here so I assume that they are
going to be nice and chilled like I said
the ones on the airstrip generally are
because of all the planes that come
through here they hear planes landing
and taking off and they see vehicles and
all the rest of it and so they generally
actually get fairly relaxed quite
quickly and you can then spend quite a
bit of time with them now it looks like
that female also might be pregnant as
well I can’t see nicely it’s quite far
away at this stage so you can see a bit
of the heat
in the back and that’s what I was
referring to and we started the drive
it’s very hot and the fact that you’re
getting serious heat A’s already at five
o’clock in the afternoon means that it’s
still very warm our chair and I don’t
think we’re gonna see too much of the
animals out of the shade just yet but
it’ll start happening Sony but surely
I’m hoping that that’ll husana is
somewhere on the southern side of shit
where as well I try get a little closer
to these guys because they are still
very far away and maybe we can get to
watch them rooting up all kinds of
things I’m interested to watch the the
warthogs here because I remember
watching them a few years ago when I
worked at chipped where now is used to
giggle at watching them in this area
because the reason why is it’s a tough
area to negotiate and you might think
why would it be a tough area to
negotiate it’s open it’s clear it’s the
perfect conditions for a warthog to
survive now the reason it’s a tough area
to negotiate is that this area is
covered in devil for now devil thorns
are a type of ground cover that we get
yeah oh he goes a cuckoo come on land
for me learn for me yes it did land
excellent so there’s a cookie that’s
landed there
so here’s one of our summer migratory
birds sorry I’ll get back to my warthogs
story Nana I just want to try and see if
we can ID this cookie back to me okay
let’s just try get a little closer
hopefully it’s gonna stay there I’m
gonna try to get a little closer so I
can just get a better sort of angle on
this I’m sorry warthogs if I chase you
cuckoo you don’t fly got to tell
everybody to stay still today because
yesterday and this morning they didn’t
listen to me so hopefully today is going
to be a better day okay cuckoo is
staying fairly stole it’s in a nice
clean background so we should be able to
see what it is from here look now a very
spotty barred tail and a nice little
yellow eye ring and so we should be able
to ID it I just wanted to try and
hopefully turn around and fly away no it
still they know they’ve got it now so we
get a lot of different species of cuckoo
in this area now this is one of the gray
cuckoos is which is what I refer to them
as of course this is not scientific in
any way to call them grey cuckoos but
there is a few of the
birds that we get out yeah or
particularly the cuckoo species that are
gray in coloration and they are
difficult to identify and to tell which
one is which and I’m going to show you
the ones that we do get you that are
this gray coloration so the common
cuckoo is this individual over here
which is what I think that bird was I
didn’t see too much yellow around the
base of the beak you can see there’s
quite a dark beak on the common cuckoo
was so quite a heavenly spotted tail and
barred with a little white trim on the
edge of it so I think it was the common
cuckoo like I said I didn’t get a really
good look at the beef but it didn’t look
like it had very much yellow in it at
all the other one that we get sure is
the African cuckoo so you can see the
African cuckoo very similar in
coloration to the common cuckoo but it
has a lot more yellow on that B Kover
there and so that’s how you tell the
difference between the two of them and
also it seems to not have as many bars
on the tail as what you see in the bars
are much closely more much more closely
packed together
now the other one that skew could
potentially confuse it with would be the
red chested cuckoo these guys are also
around this area they do have that
spotted tail on the back as well but
again they’ve got quite a bit of yellow
on the beak very large sort of ring
around the eye now that bird there I
didn’t get a clear look but if somebody
can maybe check on the screenshots
whether it had a dark black eye like
this with a yellow ring or if it had the
yellow eye like the common cuckoo
that’ll give us whether it was a red
chested or a common cuckoo I think it’s
a comment just from what I could see
from the clarity picture on the
presenter screen and so that would be
nice now I believe in Villa is mobile
he’s still moving and I think he’s
heading towards the boundary so let’s
quickly jump back across the oil for one
last look before he leaves the area
hello everyone so we’re back here we’ve
got a ruler still but sadly he’s very
close to the boundary so we’re gonna see
what we can do about getting you a bit
more of
you before he heads off into the wild
blue yonder he’s just a bait him what he
wants to do at the moment still Chucky
and he was checking a lot of warthog
burrows he’s gonna come past us now this
is gonna be really stunning I don’t know
if you guys can hear the birds alarm
call me in the background
all right so you’ll notice where he’s
just walking now in front of the two
vehicles from Juma you saw that tracker
that’s sitting there these guys these
trackers are amazing they have wildlife
come right up to their feet sometimes
smell them sometimes look at them I’m
just gonna reverse just a bit for a
little bit a bit better visual and they
sit still and it’s par for the course
and they really really do amazing work
I’m just gonna reverse
without putting John Dre too much entry
he’s gonna come into this beautiful
little Oakland spot there have a have a
look at you guys while we wait all right
you can still hear the the birds alarm
calling and notice when he’s walking
he’s walking with determination he
doesn’t have another care in the world
yes you will to get interactions between
predators and yes other predators can
kill themselves but a big old male like
this really doesn’t have too much to
worry about he’s very secure in himself
alright let’s just keep with him we’re
only gonna have him for another couple
of minutes before he goes where we can’t
see him anymore
[Music]
Thank You viewers I’m also happy I
didn’t find him Jackson found them but
I’m happy that he decided to show
himself to us definitely extremely happy
about that especially after everyone’s
been waiting so patiently with our our
very cold and I’m sort of windy mornings
or everything seems to be hiding from us
all right let’s just come up onto the
road a little bit
and we’ll just angle ourselves for our
last little view and then let’s other
guys take over and let him fool ago on
his way
and here we go
beautiful stock Chuck around and then
carry on
all right perfect so there we go he’s
off on his way tella
in the north of the continent well north
east of the continent has found us some
lions so now that in Villa has headed
off we are going to hand over to her
Taylor enjoy your lions I hope you’re
having an amazing time up there today
wonderful that you got to see a
beautiful male leopard on your first
afternoon drive with us
very cool he’s one of my favorites and
Voula but now we have not gotten a pet
we’ve got three beautiful male lions and
you saw them this morning with Scott
it is the triangle boys and the fourth
one is obviously on a walkabout
somewhere else I’m not sure areas I
haven’t seen all four together and for
my understanding what the guides have
said is that he doesn’t really stay with
the the three other coalition members
permanently he just sort of wanders
through and visits him every now and
then but so we’re shooting out of the
window just so you know it’s nice huh
started pouring with rain again it’s
quite a heavy drizzle but you can see
the rain is coming we thought at one
point because you actually put the
covers up and we’re gonna get lucky and
the rain was going to go towards the
south and was gonna skip the escarpment
we thought you ever come here that’s
gonna be perfect
we were wrong we were horribly wrong
it is now engaged all the way onto the
escarpment as it’s making its way around
swiftly towards us so that’s gonna be
quite fun and I think it is gonna be
nice soaking rain we do need it though
we’ve gotten quite a few days about a
decent amount of rain you can see the
grass has actually changed colour quite
a bit it’s not as beautiful and green as
what it was it’s sort of more golden
yellow now like the look with the grass
looks like around Serena I suppose and
but yeah so it’s good and every time we
have had rain as well it’s always been
these short quick downpours which are
not necessarily ideal sometimes quick
downpour does more damage than anything
it can cause a lot of erosion so this
sort of more gentle rain that’s soaking
is gonna be really really good for the
grass are those vultures making that
noise it sounds like there’s starlings
or I’m just having a look I think in
this Bella night
you can just see the corner of it
there’s a bird in here that’s going you
can hear it it’s alarming at the Lions
at Salina crested roller well done
charlie that’s fantastic it almost looks
like we’re actually filming through
binoculars you know when you take a
picture with your cell phone through a
pair of binoculars that’s what I feel
like this looks like at the moment so
that lilac breasted rotor is very
unhappy with the Lions and is expressing
it at the moment that’s that sort of
we’ll see if it does it again and then
I’ll sit quietly so you can hear I don’t
know what the line of question red is
really worried about sitting all the way
on the top of the tree perhaps he’s
doing his duty as a fellow citizen and a
lot of while loading everyone else I can
see that the radio is going but I have
no comms do you have guns
what does she and I please have the
question from porn I have no comms with
if she I don’t know what’s wrong with my
apiece do you remember it okay so thank
you very much so it’s a question from
Portland it is why don’t these lines
find shelter from the rain I think
that’s what it was I think I City is a
connection problem here my earpiece as
well which is why I’m not getting any
communication so and they probably gonna
get a bit annoyed with it in the minute
you saw when they were sitting there
feet almost just over the tops of their
heads they’ve also got a big man there
they’ve got beautiful big maids so I
wonder if some of that hair actually
isn’t protecting their face and I
suppose as long as their eyes stay nice
and dry and the ears don’t get too wet
and they can bury themselves it’s like
having a blanket on them anyway with
their with their coats see that’s pretty
much what they were doing with all that
hair flopping over so it’s also not too
hard just yet but if it does become
terrain shoring although I feel as
though the Lions of the Mara
are well adapted to rain because they
get it so often is they might just move
under the balanitis tree there’s quite a
thick canopy of leaves on top so it
should provide a little bit unless the
wind picks up thankfully it’s not
Harling with one at the moment because
if it was then I think they’d move they
might even use us as shelter might use
the car hmm we can also get to a spot
now where the rain is going to
inside the vehicle it’s okay for now
it’s not blowing too badly but it’s it’s
a tricky spot yeah we need it though we
really really do need it I think it’s
going to next few days that Bush is
going to look beautiful and green again
now Scott said he also had the sausage
tree prod the two line is with four
youngsters we went and had a look in the
spot that he said unfortunately we
didn’t manage to find them I don’t know
I don’t know where they’ve gone they
might have moved up we did hear some
guinea fowl that were frantically
alarming so they could have gone into
the lugger that would be a good spot to
try and keep out of out of the the rain
I don’t think they would have enjoyed it
as much these boys seem to be quite
tolerant Megan can either come sis I
just want you to try and figure out what
is wrong with my earpiece and why it is
all of a sudden not picking up comms at
all yes
gotcha I got you girl I can hear you I
don’t know why I said that
now snazzy thank you for your question
this afternoon you’re wondering if I
think that there would be less flies on
them during the rain most certainly I
don’t think the insects find it
particularly easy to fly
especially when the droplets are the
size of a 1 cent coin in it rain is even
begging here in Kenya it’s ridiculous
anyways so they would have moved off
they also would have gone to look for a
nice sort of sheltered spot often they
come and sit in the cars or they’ll be
on a tree somewhere on branches you’ll
see them resting just an area where
they’re not going to get beaten by the
rain remember a lot of these little
midges and things are absolutely tiny
and you can crush them between your
fingers so a big raindrop would
definitely knock them out of the sky so
they don’t want to be flying around
during that so that might be one good
thing for these lines is that they a
don’t term of course have any any biting
insects on them except the ticks the
ticks are not going to be bothered by
the rain they’re going to be holding on
tight and continuously sucking up the
blood of the Lions they won’t be
bothered by it like one yarn from our
triangle boy with the blond mane but
nothing nothing just yet there isn’t any
prey around Scott told me I think he’s
telling big stories on his birthday
maybe he feels I can get away he said
there was Buffalo all around them and
they were gonna go and hunt we’re here
to see a buffalo so I’m Johari as I
search in you look at those lines would
you like a cup of tea would you how many
sugars would you prefer honey honey sure
no problem
so I’m just it’s very chilly out here
today so I just want to make sure I made
a nice cup of tea my flask um what was
it what are those special leaves that
are in here called the Lapierre there we
go
the PIA giovanna c’n which is quite nice
here we go – careful it’s hot make and
so so can you what I don’t actually know
exactly what is so the common name is
just Lapierre
that’s great
tulsi oh okay so it’s I’ve seen it
growing around camp it looks very much
like wild bezel in fact and it doesn’t
quite taste like wild bezel it’s and
it’s an interesting taste actually while
I was sick as well Alka made me an
amazing a little witches brew I suppose
and it had the LaPierre in it had fresh
ginger had some honey at work and then a
hot water it was absolutely it was
delicious it was actually the only thing
that I could keep down which was quite
nice and so so very good Fellini stomach
ailments if you’re struggling to keep
things down or stomach cramps all that
sort of thing hmm I’m actually dad we
did tea today
we’re gonna do coffee but I think that
I’d be bouncing up and down and around
the tank would be absolutely ridiculous
can you imagine how are our lines doing
are they still sleeping yeah now the
rain is actually starting to get quite
heavy like you can you might be able to
hear it listen to the difference now
yeah those drops it’s not looking good
for us now Jamal you’re wondering if the
rain would help predators hunt
absolutely and and and this is why we
always cringe is that every time I’ve
missed a lion hunting I’ve missed a few
here since I’ve been in the Mara
especially when I first arrived in the
world of Eastern zebra just at the foot
of the escarpment and unfortunately it
wasn’t because we weren’t at the right
place at the right time the rain would
just come down so quickly and we didn’t
have these very fancy covers that we’ve
got now and every single time the rain
came down the Lions would successfully
while they were stalking with
successfully catch either a wildebeest
or a zipper and not just one but two or
three of them if it was a big enough
pride so I think into a must five or six
hunts and we were there we’d see them
feeding afterwards that was often it was
late at night was when we were trying to
do Facebook lives and things and and and
and just the rain is one of those things
nature it got to us we have to keep all
the equipment nice and safe so we
cranked down waited waited waited and
then when we rolled the covers back up
again you know
after half an hour 20 minutes or an hour
sometimes we waited three or four hours
before the rain would stop and either
the Predators were gone or we’d find
them on a kill so yes it does so not
only and we heard it now we heard out
loud it is it doesn’t just muffle sound
but some another washes away they sent a
bit I suppose so they’ve got a really
really good chance of catching some prey
but their good thing I have to move
though because there isn’t anything here
can’t see any Buffalo and when it was
lighter and we drove on in it wasn’t
particularly great so this is nothing
seemed to be a good area at the moment
Chester
seems like Justin is having an absolute
fantastic day today I think with his
next outfit he’s not going to be linked
to as Tristan he will be my big sister
again Christina well indeed I am having
great fun and I have also have a friend
that has joined me so he picked up the
crown to put it on and well as you can
see I now have a stick insect friend
that is decided that the best place to
purchase right between my eyes it almost
feels like I have windscreen wipers in
front of my face and hopefully it will
keep all the bugs away and I’ll have a
good time as I Drive along but there you
go my little stick in say friend is
joining the Hat party maybe it was felt
a little left out there it wasn’t on the
hats and wasn’t having its own time so
I’ll leave it there for now it can just
do whatever it likes on top of the I
don’t really mind but we’re done at
Tripler we’ve just been slowly bumbling
about and we’ve been kind of moving
around and trying to just see what’s
happening Archer baby that’s all really
unfortunately can’t really find any more
lipid tracks I was hoping that maybe I’d
find tracks for husana or Tambe or
kochava coming towards this area so I’m
going to check behind Chitwood dam wall
because it’s been so good to me anyway
the last few days that well why not why
wouldn’t we it seems like a logical
thing to do now stick insect what are
you doing because you’re now going onto
my eyes and I can’t see if you put your
feet in my eyes the help these days can
you just see what is going on yeah no
that’s not comfortable off you go there
we go that way
No yeah okay that’s better as long as it
stays up there it’s okay but it keeps
putting its things in my eyes and that
didn’t sound very good at all but I’m
talking about its legs and its antennae
and various other things and not
anything else that’s the mind might
wonder towards okay now you know this is
a core to stuff because it’s really not
very comfortable to drive with a stick
insect on the face to be honest really
like a stick on I’m decent health these
days
and now I’m going to try and find a nice
place for us to get together it’s fun
back up onto the crown it wants to be
the king of stick insects what was that
that seemed interesting those babblers I
think they babble is over there so it’s
always good just to check birds out but
I think they just babble is yes they are
so the era marked babblers that are just
through the trees on the other side no
sign of our little kingfishers today
funny enough which is not so nice I was
hoping that the kingfishers would be
around but the the babblers are popping
about can you see them since I’m not
really can hear them they calling and
they were flying over us now on
different directions there they go
they’re crossing the drainage line what
is amazing to me is how little water
there is compared to yesterday in this
area what’s that oh there we go they
down on the ground who’s hopping around
all done since you’ve spotted them
they’re not that’s not one of the arrow
mark babblers in fact that’s a crew
charlie thrush which is not something
that we see too much today just call it
a Kearney thrush I think I did yes it is
so it’s busy running around we don’t see
them too much in this area and while I
haven’t seen too many and put them on
camera but nice to see and you’ll see
they run around the ground as thrushes
do thrushes typically or ground-based
birds kind of walk around will run
should I say they don’t really have a
walk they run quite a bit now there are
two types of thrush that we get in this
area we get this guy which has got the
little mola strap coming down so a
little black and white stripe that will
come down from the beak with those
orange-ish wings and then we’ll get
another one which is called the olive
thrush neither olive thrush is not very
common in this area and tends to kind of
move off and tends to kind of be outside
and the outskirts you see a lot of them
Johannesburg but not too many in this
area so well spotted sins that’s very
good now in terms of which ones I’m
talking about so we see these two
individuals here so there are all of
thrush which are finches this one on top
you can see quite a dark back part of it
with this brown sort of section that’s
mottled and then on to rusty orange
Bailey where is the one that we see now
is this one below with it’s got this
black little white my last stripe is
what a columella stripe should I say and
then a little bit less orange and a bit
of a white Bailey so that’s when we see
these two and then the other one that we
do get in the thrush B C’s is this
ground scraper but you can see very
difficult to be able to sort of what is
the weight be now I’m drawing a blank
we’d be difficult to know what’s going
on my brain’s failing
maybe it’s the crowns I’m getting older
that’s why but I’m getting it’s
difficult to to actually not get it
confused with the others so you wouldn’t
be able to get a confuse now there we go
now what I wanted to show you actually
is why I’m drawing blanks is just the
amount of water that is dried up today
so yesterday when we are here with the
pygmy kingfishers this is where they
would drive bombing into now where you
see the tire track that was water all of
this was all water and they were
dive-bombing into this and bar thing and
you can see that is shrunk by I would
say two thirds during the day today
gives you an idea of how quickly things
dry out when there is heat like what
we’re having so that is gone from a
stretch of water all over to completely
nothing and open so pretty amazing now
Meghan I don’t know if you are still
there makes are you still there
yes there we go joy what time of day and
I know people often cook my day for them
but for me it’s not my day I find that
the hardest part of the day here is
normally around sort of 2 o’clock I find
the heat really builds and in 2 to 3
o’clock in the summer it is absolutely
stifling and then from started Peter off
oh it’s actually a beautiful time
particularly behind here here is a
beautiful kind of section much cooler in
behind yeah because of the nice big
shady tree
that we’ve got it makes it a lot better
in this area but I find like two o’clock
in the summer it is seriously seriously
cooking at that time right careful there
sins
she’s gonna get sins through you guys
are gonna drain us as we just bash our
way through a little bit just because
we’re not really doing much bashing it’s
more just eating a few branches here and
there beautiful behind you it’s just
nice to drive with his water and
greenery and grass and all those kind of
things that we don’t see much of these
days not
see what I mean talk about greenery and
prettiness Tyson’s idea
the muddy sector very muddy section and
developers closed our way along nice and
easy
I’m sorry apparently we had a few
picture breakups through that little
section and as far as the intentions but
it’s still at least we get to explore
this back in area lots more than what we
used to anyway so it’s at least
something but I do apologize a little
baked up that we have had right now from
here
yeah migraines getting Chitra damn let’s
go check up on boo and the little baby
crocs I think that’s really check that’s
going outside the world nothing much
else happening behind here right I
believe my signal is being put on the
finicky side today which is a bit of a
worry I don’t know why it is like that
but let’s quickly jump across to Noel
before we do drop too much signal we’ll
see y’all in a little bit hello
everybody welcome back we had a
brilliant and foolish sighting and now
we’re just busy driving around see what
else we can find it’s a wonderful warm
slightly breezy afternoon we’ve just
come across this mud wallow and I just
want to sit and just chat about it a
little bit a mud wallow of this size
takes roughly about seven years to to
build sometimes up to ten years
sometimes a little bit longer so
basically what happens there’s a slight
indention indent in the ground it fills
up with a little bit of water which
makes mud and something like a warthog
will come and roll in it and then other
warthogs and then it gets a little bit
bigger and then Buffalo will common
elephants will common and other species
that that need the mud to help cool them
down and then slowly over time season
after season this is what happens so
it’s dry now but when we start getting
our first rains which when I first
started guiding our first rains were in
the beginning of October and now we
usually start only getting our first
rains beginning of January but I’m
really hoping our first proper rains are
gonna happen when sort of mid November
that would be beautiful get our water
table back up from last year’s drought
and then this will fill up again and
again and become a really great place
for Buffalo for rhino for warthog and
for elephant so let’s carry on driving
let’s see what we can find
all right now I have a very dear friend
who is going to be taking assessment at
the end of this week it is with track
and sign so I know we get a lot of
people asking what do we do outside of
our time as being presenters or even if
we’re just guiding them outside of being
a guide and a lot of us do activities to
help build us to be better guides and
for better qualifications so with the
tracking and and the following of
animals you get track and sign which is
the individual track you must ID and
then trailing which is following
following actual trails say from that
that leopard of Loula that we saw and
there’s a thing called cyber tracker
that we all use and we get graded on it
and when you get up to the seniors means
you’ve gotten a hundred percent on an
evaluation you’ve now been invited it’s
a really big deal it’s a huge concept
and it’s very tough so I promised him we
would do a little bit of track and sign
so tracks we all know what tracks are so
here we’ve actually got a beautiful
beautiful array of tracks okay so what
you’re gonna see here don’t know if
everyone can have a guess say when am I
in the way the car is in the way hold on
lemme let me back up just a little bit I
parked too close I’m still getting used
to our our camera ops
[Music]
I joined today let me know how is that
still true clefts okay going back a
little bit more
how’s that okay so now I’m just gonna
unplug for a minute and go over there so
what we’re seeing here is we’ve got one
two three four toes and one two three
lobes at the back viewers I don’t know
if you can maybe let me know what animal
that we would find in the African bush
would give us three lobes at the back
and four toes no claws showing and while
you are thinking about that hashtag
safari live YouTube chat we can go on to
what would be a sign so that’s going to
be a track this would be a sign so it’s
a very old sign but this is what happens
with elephants they tear off the
branches they put it in their mouth they
roll it between their molars they take
the bark off and they throw it away so
these are the types of questions that
you’ll get to on an assessment so this
question that I just picked up here is
going to be what’s known as a level one
question very obvious what it is this
one will go back you’re gonna get asked
several things here you’re gonna get
asked what species you’re gonna get
asked male or female you’re gonna get
asked which foot so left to right front
or back and you’ll probably be asked
possibly they might even get sneaky and
just give you just give you a toe or –
okay I’m gonna plug back in
you can have a look all right mags I’m
back with you and there’s also some
Impala tracks we have here Justin and
rain you gues leopard well done see a
female leopard thank you very much
so you have three lobes of the back four
toes and a very precise track so Lions
will do the same cheetah will do the
same but they’ll show claws and then
hyenas obviously have the two lobes and
they show their claws all the time as
well so this little female there and
that was her it was looking like her
front right I actually didn’t look close
enough sorry about that then you’ll get
the Impala track she also get toad
tracks you get birding tracks but we’ll
carry on down the road and see if we can
find any thought anything else
interesting to spot and quiz
all right we’re gonna head back over to
Tristan and see what else is happening
on the other side of Jummah as we carry
on looking for good questions from my
friend to have an eye as he watches the
show with us
well we sitting on chit way at the
moment behind the damn wall and we’re
watching our little clever chick which i
think is high time we give our little
clever chick a little name so that we’ve
got something to refer to it as because
I keep calling it the plugger chick and
it’s done so well to survive the last
few days so maybe if you guys want some
suggestions hashtag Safari life we also
didn’t wrap up our names for our
crocodile babies too so we need to give
them a little bit but this little one is
full of beans today it’s running around
all over the place it was having a
cuddle with mom just now and now it’s
running into this little thicket and
it’s going to go into the big jungle
that is that grassy little area off it
goes there’s mom keeping a close eye on
it’s all dad one of the two of them so
he’s nice to see them now hopefully the
little chick will come back towards the
adult and just get in under the wing
like it was just now they were right in
front of the car for a long time they
set here with us and they were chirping
away and the little one was grooming mom
and it was just very cute to watch the
two of them kind of interact with one
another but they have gone towards the
grassy area which is a good thing in a
way because that grassy section is far
more protected for this little chick and
where it can hide so I didn’t want to
disturb them any further but super cute
when you get to see these are the ones I
love this little chickens so cute and
the fact that we’ve watched this whole
process kind of unfold has been
absolutely wonderful so glad to see it’s
always good just to catch up with these
little guys and have a little look and
see what’s going on
now earlier I was talking about a story
about the warthogs which I’ll wrap up
just now now Katniss you say Perry the
plumber
it should quite like that maybe we can
call it piri piri the plumber
now has a nice ring to it so period
Shelby yes Senza do you vote yes sensor
is voting is so sorry Meghan if you can
repeat what money voted for what she
want Meghan there we go
happy the plumber hmm I’m not sure what
about PIPA plumber well no that doesn’t
work either I like that one I mean
that’s my favorite one
Christine you say pebbles for the chick
I also like it Megan likes it since I
likes it I think pebbles it is so
pebbles the plover is its new name and
that’s what our little one it’s going to
be called I really like that at all
Kluber chickens super cute now I bet
you’re too damn onto the wall itself
just to have a little look around it’s
always beautiful up the side of life is
lots of hippos too
welcome how are you doing
tiny asleep on the back of its mom you
are super cute what are you doing on top
of mom again
don’t you love our it just rides mom
it’s like a surfboard it’s just like
mommy you will stay there and I’m going
to just sit on your back I’m not
interested in doing the swimming
nonsense or this walking nonsense
it’s far more fun just to sit on your
back and walk around except when mom
moves cuz obviously when mom moves she
loses balance a little bit or he loses
balance I have no idea whether it’s a
male or a female but it ends up losing
balance and falling off sorry it’s nice
to see that it’s worked out a way to be
able to sit in this big Dam and stay
nice and safe and hang around on the
edge say very cool I always like seeing
this little head but it’s such a special
thing in it boys have a special place
because such an amazing sighting that we
had between and the hippo itself and
obviously the hassanis action that we
had and all of those kind of things
together so very cool to see it’ll do
the hippo I really do enjoy a chat today
I’m at this time in the day it’s quiet
this is very cool that goes on often
it’s it’s the best time to be here
because everybody else goes rushing off
to other places and it leaves it
actually all open to yourself so you
don’t actually have to worry too much
there is a vehicle here today but
generally it’s very quiet it’s just the
sounds of the hippos and sounds of the
birds and it’s a wonderful place to
spend the afternoon so super happy to be
here now the hippo numbers in this dam
seem to be actually growing rather than
get some less and the reason why I say
getting laces because normally at this
time of the year you’ll find a number of
these hippos actually move out they end
up going to other places in order to try
and establish themselves particularly
things like
males they’re going to try and get into
different areas and try and find places
that they can spend time that they don’t
have to compete with the big guys but
it’s still so dry that there really
isn’t that many places for these guys to
go so they employ numbers in Chitra damn
I still very healthy it seems though
they kind of reach a mass the most
tippers I’ve ever seen in years is about
20 odd and it’s never really gotten more
than that and we are at that a sort of
amount now you can see they’re kind of
stretched all the way through the dam so
I don’t think we’re gonna get a
situation where many more hippos will be
around I think it’s gonna be a case
where this is kind of the upper limit in
it summer comes so they’re gonna
distribute art and we’re not gonna have
as many hippos again I think as an eagle
look it looks like a Wahlberg’s eagle
that’s flying off and that’s why the
great go away bird started an alarm
calling I was actually looking just to
see if there was maybe something like a
lipid walking around behind me but there
goes a Wahlberg’s Eagle that’s flying
over and it’s causing all the other
birds to alarm call look at how
beautiful that evil is in the light now
the reason I know it’s an Wahlberg’s
look at that tail shape it’s just
indicative of a Wahlberg’s eagle long
rectangular tail is no one else really
that has a tail that shape and I also
know that they have a nest just behind
the dam wall here and so that’s why it’s
easy to see but it’s amazing to watch
the actions of all the birds and a lot
of the birds immediately started to seek
shelter some of them even went into
trees and some of them went under trees
it was amazing to watch everybody just
fly off of the open sections and try and
get themselves hidden now it seems as
though there’s another bird of prey I
don’t know if it’s a Wahlberg’s Eagle
just up to the lift from that particular
Wahlberg so there’s actually two of them
together there now they both look like
Wahlberg’s now that I can see the tail
area of the other one which is very cool
so it’s not just the one is actually two
of them together there’s one really
close and one a lot higher up and in
amongst them is a few Swift’s and
swallows as well so really really cool
to see can you imagine just driving well
I mean flying around like that over
there damn like this it must be just so
beautiful I suppose we do imagine we
know what it looks like given that the
drone has been able to go places like
this and get that bird’s-eye view so to
speak and so we do get that same kind of
feeling but I’ll then since that’s very
cool and the lights on that Wahlberg’s
Eagle is just
nominee code it’s beautiful light it’s
got only it’s that time of the day and
to the soundtrack of the hippos as well
very nice now the rest of the hippos
have all kind of started to kind of wake
up a little bit too as soon as you get
one snorting like that it often gets all
the others to poke their heads are just
to see who’s talking and what’s going on
and why are they all talking and then
you’re fine they kind of go under again
and so it’s nice to hear when they kind
of making a bit of noise and then you
see them all kind of all popping up and
of course the sound itself is just
synonymous with Africa as soon as you
hear that snorting grunting sound you
just know that you’re in somewhere in
Africa and you in one of Africa’s
beautiful spots because obviously these
guys spend a lot of time in water
now earlier I was talking about our
warthogs on the airstrip and I was
telling you that I always used to giggle
at the warthogs on the airstrip
and the reason why I used to giggle at
them is because the poor war talk is
used to feed on the edge of the airstrip
and there’s this plant called the devil
thorn so I found some of it while I was
at the airstrip itself this is what it
looks like it’s just a bit of ground
cover that kind of hangs around on the
ground it grows very much like this and
lots of its it’ll kind of clump out from
a central point and then you’ll find
that I’ll get a beautiful little purple
flower on turds now it’s called the
devil thorn because it does have a seed
pod and that has two horns on it I
couldn’t find a seed pod I walked all
over the place there trying to find them
it’s not the right time of year for seed
pods unfortunately the seed pods
generally all right here in the summer
months as you would expect and so I
didn’t find any but the devil phone name
becomes comes from the thorn itself like
I said it’s got the two little horns on
it and I laugh at the warthogs because
they feed off that area and then every
now and then you’ll see them kind of get
a fright and it’s normally because
they’ve either kneeled or they stood on
those thorns and those thorns are
incredibly strong and powerful and
they’ll pierce up into the sort of hoof
itself and cause a bit of an issue or
they’ll pierce even the actual knee of
the the warthogs and they get a kind of
fright and they jump and then scream off
running and it’s all because of a thorn
so I always get quite entertained by
them but this plant is it’s a really one
of the most amazing plants that we get
here in in this reserve well I always
think so and the reason why a lot of you
know this from watching before but some
of you may not if I take this plant and
I’m gonna do it for you just for the
sake of it because why not and I just
put a bit of water on the plant itself
so if we take the plant say since I’ll
put it back there now and we just put a
bit of water on my hand sorry I just
want to do it on the other side so that
if it leaks then it goes out of the car
not in and I take this and I actually
rub it so if I just scrunch it all up
and I rub it for a while eventually
what’s still going to start happening is
I’m going to start getting a very soapy
sort of texture that’s going to start
coming so it’s going to get a bit sticky
and soapy and this is because this is a
natural soap and shampoo for this area
so if you take the stuff and you rub it
it is going a little slimy it’s
difficult to actually see it I’m trying
to show you but if you look between my
fingers as I open and close my fingers
you’ll see that there’s a slime that is
developing there so just between there
you see as I close it you’ll see that
slime so it’s difficult to show it but
there’s that slime that I’m talking
about now that’s slime you can cover
your body in it it’s very very good for
your skin it has a cleaning agent
basically that keeps you in good
condition what so very good for your
hair and it does get a bit sticky and
but once it dries properly it actually
loses that stickiness all together and
it becomes quite nice they also use it
as a natural Sun cream so this gets put
on the skin itself and forms a nice
layer and actually stops the Sun from
burning you apparently I’ve never tried
it myself but that is apparently what
happens with it and the other thing that
this plant was used for it had a that
seed pod that I was telling you about
with that really sharp pointy sort of
top to it was actually used for
committing assassinations and you might
wonder how they managed to do that but
what they would do is they would sit
that’s pod down in front of somebody’s
house and put it basically on the step
of somebody’s house and as they would
walk up they would lace those two little
points with poison now those two little
points with the poison on them as the
person would step on it so we’d go into
the foot and that would cause a
situation where they would get a you
know basically poisoned by that’s
chemical and they would then die from it
so it was the perfect thing to use in
order to try and commit an assassination
because no one would have suspected a
little seed pod on their doorstep quite
sinister but very clever in a way as
well right now I’m going to just such a
little bit longer I’m gonna go quickly
check on our little baby crocs tour
southern side of the dam see what’s
happening with them and so while I do
that let’s go back to know who I believe
is tracking and is on the trail of some
sort of animal you all enjoyed the soap
with the thorns with the devil thorns
there we have some more tracks for you
so what I want to show you first is just
over here I’ve got a little piece of
grass just to show you it’s very very
round hard track you can see the little
push up from the soil here and then if
you come with me a little bit to my left
but to you Andres right you’re gonna see
the full track in this deeper soil here
so now this is an antelope track it has
two lobes with a split down the middle
alright the direction of this track is
headed this way
and what you’re seeing very very
interesting here is you’ve got a single
track that we saw at the back there’s
another single track they’re coming into
a single track and then as we move
further along you can see what’s called
track on track walking so one track on
top of the other and then here but it’s
not an entirely precise track on track
walking so this particular antelope
species only does track on track
sometimes it can be easily confused with
a ville de beast this is not a ville de
beast this is looking like a female
water buck the reason why I say female
is just the size of it but now if we
come back here there’s another track
just this side so if you were to look at
this track wrong you might think it has
one two three toes moving that way
something like an aardvark or if you
look at it correctly which is actually
this way you’ve got that little dip that
we talked about where it’s pushing
here’s the middle with the two lobes and
then this is the part that you see on
the side is actually the front foot this
is a kudu and they do definite track on
track all the time so it’s front foot
next foot behind to minimize the noise
that they make so these would be
depending on the substrate level to
questions in an assessment and and
remember with these sorts of things it’s
all going to be different it’s all
relative substrate soil how old they are
all all plays into the difficulty and
for some people what might seem like an
easy question will be hard for someone
else’s and it’s up to the Assessor to
figure out how how that’s going to work
so what we’re going to do now
a little bit of tracking an antelope
tracks are the best because they give
you huge huge variables we’re just gonna
keep driving down there’s going to be a
gorgeous sunset happening in a few
minutes and yesterday was full moon
think Tristan said it was the beaver
moon so today it’s not going to be full
moon but it’ll be the day just after
obviously so hopefully we’ll get a
little bit of contrast there so let’s
hop back in and then I can plug back in
and then you can ask me any questions I
can hear Meg’s finally hello Megan
alright
joy that is a fabulous fabulous question
joy is wondering what is the difference
between a ranger a scout and a tracker
so technically I’m a field guide I’m not
a ranger there was debate over over the
name it is interchangeable a true Ranger
is someone that is out in the bush
checking on things it’s actually a term
that comes from the Rangers in America
and the National Parks there but again
we use interchangeably in our field but
technically we’re field guides nature
guides a scout depends on what country
that you work in so for instance I was
just working up in Zambia and South
Luangwa National Park the gentleman that
would go on vehicle with me sometimes at
night and then on walks with some of the
guides he works for the National Parks
Board and he is someone that comes in
and uses the rifle in case of scenarios
and is trained but then also does anti
poaching work and then a tracker Herbert
who you guys all know Herbie so he does
our Bush walks with us Herbie is a
tracker but Herbie’s also a guide but
Herbie started out as well he started
out differently but he turned into a
tracker so that’s the guy when we saw
the Juma vehicles that sits on the
bonnet and he sees tracks and sometimes
he does it from the vehicle and
sometimes it gets up on foot and follows
and then he’ll radio and say I have this
leopard here so those those very briefly
those are the differences so usually a
scout and a ranger is someone that works
away from guests and a tracker and a
field guide works with guests all in
conservation all within the reserves but
slightly different tasks great question
oh sunset
okay
so Tristan has some crocodiles I believe
so we’re gonna link back over to him and
see what he has to say
and then carry on looking for so some
prizes for you all to view
well we have found our little crock ‘yes
and they are sitting just one that I can
see I think one slim talked into the
water when I first arrived and they
camouflage so well and I’m trying to
scan the bank to see if the rest are
around but I can’t find him now
I know I asked for names the other day
and I remember somebody calling them
Hughie Julian knew he was that it was
those the three names for the for the
Ducks
I think they were so I think those are
good names for them Huey Dewey and Louie
that’s what we’ll use for our crocodiles
because they seem as though they’re
going to be mischievous and full of
nonsense now there’s a bird that flew
far away unfortunately don’t worry since
you won’t be able to get it but it was a
Chicana now jacanas or birds we haven’t
seen quite a while so I’m gonna might
try go around and find it again just now
because our little croc is fast asleep
and taking it very easy and the babies
of chatter are still doing just fine and
doing well just doing perfectly well I
think that they’re going to slowly grow
obviously we’re not gonna see big
changes in them but it’s so wonderful to
come here and be able to follow the
story of all three of these little
babies so our little clever are three
Crocs and our baby hippo all still doing
absolutely fine and I would imagine
we’re going to have far more babies in
the form of maybe some baby weavers that
are in there evenness there might be
some little Lapwing chicks at some point
Egyptian geese youngsters so it’s all
going to happen is going to be a lot of
different things going on now I don’t
see any sign of mother croc I don’t see
her anywhere in this section so maybe
she’s off hunting at the moment she
might be or she’s just submerged
somewhere close by but we can’t see at
the moment remember crocodiles are
incredible and they’re able to hold
their breath for up to two hours
generally around an hour but up to two
hours and that’s because they can
control their breathing and they can
also control the vascular system by
restricting blood flow to the
extremities it means that they don’t
waste oxygen to the tail and the feet
when they are not moving and that’s when
they’re sitting on the bottom are
waiting for prey animals they’ll just
slow their breathing right down I mean
their heart rate down and that heart
rate can go to as much as two beats per
minute which is absolutely phenomenal
and it means that they just slowly
moving that oxygen around the body
enough just to keep the muscles alive
effectively and
from there and they’re able to launch an
attack and so for two hours they can be
underwater at the extreme point
generally about an hour so she might be
somewhere sitting there with some of the
other little ones that are around but
still nice to see nonetheless right I
think let’s leave our little crocks for
now we’re going to head to try and see
if I can get that Jacana there comes a
fish eagle flying even though it’s going
the wrong way I was hoping it was going
to come towards us it might stall it’s
on the other side of the dam No hold on
since it might come back because it’s
not gonna get into the lodge itself so
let’s see it might turn and come back
again but it was just beautiful lighter
note it’s obviously found a perch there
somewhere hmm maybe let’s see if we
reverse we’ll be able to find it
somewhere in this general section once
in cells it’s gonna reverse back for you
a little bit I think maybe it must have
landed in one of those trees behind us
here because it turned up towards the
lodge and I’m just trying to think what
trees it could have landed in there’s
not too many big trees in that general
vicinity are there it’s landed it’s very
close to the lodge itself which we’re
not going to be able to show you which
is not ideal that’s okay
well I’ll just try and see if we can go
and find the Jacana now there is
somebody else that’s on the dam wall so
it’s going to be careful as I’m
reversing and going backwards and see if
I can avoid them at all costs it’s
actually a friend of mine that I used to
work with that’s among many so it’s
Lazarus he works at the lodge next to
some Amelia calling Toma which is the
sort of shareholders camp and so he kind
of spends his time we’re driving them
around now since I was pointing to my
hat because as you can all see I’ve just
spruce things up a little bit and as
Megan said it’s my vibe used version
ever and so you can see a nice kind of
thing that’s going on so I combined all
three together for the my final
appearance and hopefully like I say
Scotty D appreciates this because well
nobody else joined me and so Taylor Mac
I want to know why you didn’t join us a
softening you normally one that’s always
game for these kind of things yet today
I’m being kind of left on my own to wear
the hats and be the fool art on the bush
which is okay I don’t really care that
Sun is still very bright I was hoping
that we have a nice sunset that I could
show you but it’s tool a little bit too
hi and a little too bright so I’m gonna
head a little bit closer towards where
that Chicana is now where the Jacana is
is actually quite difficult if you look
in the middle of this dam there’s a
little clump of vegetation it looks like
so it looks like just kind of some of
the sticks and things that have come up
together there it is and so on that is
where the Jacana is sitting that you’re
kind of sitting on that little section
there and maybe that’s why it’s nesting
there is because it’s so isolated is
gonna have very difficult for things
like my little lizards to hit into that
area and hunt them and to go after the
eggs or anything like that so it’s the
perfect place to sit and to bait take it
easy now I can’t see it from here but if
I think if we go around you might be
able to have a better view of it if we
go onto the other side of the island
there we’ll be able to see into the nest
itself and see that Chicanos now
Chicanos like I say I’m not something we
see too often I mean more in the summer
months when things are a little bit more
sort of damp and wet and so I’m sure
we’ll find them at that stage but
hopefully we can show you this one
because it’s been a while now while I
kind of talk about birds and try and
find this period I believe Noel has got
a bird of her own much larger and in a
beautiful tree welcome back everybody we
do have quite a large and beautiful bird
Thank You Tristan very much I hope you
find yours as well here we have a white
backed vulture so no I don’t think
anything’s dead under there
one reason is usually when you have
something that has died you’ll see quite
a few more vultures you don’t have to
necessarily have hundreds but you might
have two or three but the Sun is setting
those vulture is not going to be flying
around in the dark he’s too big so he’s
just found a beautiful little roosting
spot and the reason why I say white back
has a lot to do with his coloration and
where he’s sitting and also the colour
of the eye if he was at Cape he would
have I believe it’s a blue ring but
before I pull another in the well move
for you guys today well that’s just
triple check that vultures are really
amazing they are birds who take care of
the basically the garbage that we need
in the bush they’re immune to many of
the diseases that’s come out here so
here
got the Cape culture you can see that
light-colored I and then the white back
vulture has the dark I there’s that
little bit of blue on that one here with
the juveniles
oh sorry there we are there we go John
Dre I’ll be Vanna White
here are your vultures Jon Dre would
have seen Rupa’s vulture up in the in
the Mara when you just up here and then
also white back vulture is just much
more common than the Cape vulture and
that has a lot to do with the the
numbers plummeting but if you look over
here we were talking a little bit about
earlier about the difference between a
guide and a scout and a tracker etc when
you’re starting to learn to guide or
even just now if you were in an area you
don’t know or an area you do know you
use these little things on the side to
figure out whether or not the bird
occurs here so if you can see Swaziland
there that’s that little bump and then
just above there in the Green Zone
that’s roughly where we’re located and
so yes it’s dark green it means it’s
here all year round and then here we’re
just sort of the line of year round and
not as common year round alrighty so
he’ll sit up there for the evening and
then tomorrow morning after the Sun
warms up the earth and the thermals
start rising up then he’ll catch a
thermal off and start looking for food
so the way we have old World vultures
rather than New World vultures here so
old World vultures find their prey using
site whereas new world used sense of
smell so new world you would find in in
South America where there’s a very broad
thick canopy and they need to smell the
dead carcass as opposed to see it ours
do you say they also watch each other so
if they’re up in a thermal and they can
see vultures moving in a line and
getting low and they’ll follow to
investigate and then those vultures a
lot of the times are following things
like battler and tawny Eagles who hunt
on their own but will also be the first
to get too many dead kills so they’re
all keeping an eye on each other
and when you get these thermals up like
this you’ve got the battle ears and the
Tonys down below and then you’re gonna
get sort of the the white back in the
cape and sometimes a lappet-faced in
here below but not always sometimes
they’re up here but a lot of the times
will be the ones that open the carcass
this is extremely interesting alright so
we on our other side have set up another
beautiful view
it’s not a bird but it is a gorgeous
sunset so we’re just gonna take a quiet
quiet moment let’s say it’s for Scott
Edie’s birthday and watch the gorgeous
sunset on Zuma
magic absolute magic Louise was saying
and I see the other day that she loves a
sunset and I have to agree with her
just as EU asked what stops birds from
travelling around the globe and staying
in one country
listen Ozzie every bird has a different
way of being so the ones that we just
saw now they don’t need to migrate
everything they need food habitat all
the resources they need are here but
there are birds that will fly oh say
from China from Mongolia to here so you
get the more Falcon that travels every
single year thousands and thousands of
thousands of kilometers you get some
birds that travel from sort of central
Africa East Africa and then traveled
down here to us like a woodlands
Kingfisher for summer so so everything
is different so nothing stops a bird but
everything has to fit in each and
everything has to fit the habitat and
the food sources that are there without
overly competing with other say bird
species in this instance that would make
it that they can’t survive either so for
instance vultures fit a very particular
niche that allows them to access a food
source that not many other birds can
access and therefore they don’t really
need to move very far now the Rubel’s
vulture that I mentioned earlier we do
get rare sightings of it down here it
will happen and you also see white back
vultures when you get up into Kenya area
as well they just happen to fit better
into the ecosystem of say East Africa
than into our ecosystem down here so for
instance I worked up in the Marius very
long time ago and I remember seeing much
more ruppell’s vulture than its say the
Cape and white back that we would see
here it just says as a sidenote all
right so we’ve had our beautiful vulture
moment that was a fabulous question by
the way we’ve had a beautiful vulture
moment we’ve had our beautiful sunset
moment we are gonna carry on and see if
anything will poke its head out our last
little bit of time we have together
maybe we’ll get some interesting
nocturnal creatures like civet I would
love to see an aardvark I haven’t seen
an aardvark in a very long time but
while we’re busy looking for you let’s
head back over to Tristan at Chitwood
dam and see what he has for us
I am indeed I’m loving my time in shit –
damn we just had a beautiful herd of
Impala coming down now and they
hopefully you’re gonna have a drink so
I’m gonna stop here fairly short me so
that we can watch them drinking as they
line up on the edge and so is obviously
a bit of it it’s tough time for him
parlors when they want to drink because
they come towards the edge of the water
they know it’s a dangerous place to be
because of the crocodiles that we get in
here and so they come down tentatively
and they kind of move slowly towards the
water to try and drink and you see it’s
quick sips and then back again quick
sips and then back again it’s not like
what we see from some way like twin dams
of treehouse dam and they tend to sit
and drink for long periods or even
Galago pan yeah
they tend to move down and then they
drink and they slowly kind of sip little
bits of water before they decide no
sorry they’d lost their nerve and then
they’d go back a little bit so being as
brave as they can and you can see
they’re kind of pulling back as they
busy drinking shame it must be so
nerve-racking for these guys to drink on
the edge of this damn Crocs er not small
and they would easily take something
like an Impala and certainly revel in
being able to hunt these impalas so I do
feel for these impalas when they do come
down it’s never the most pleasant
experience if you are an Impala to try
and have to do this and to try and drink
and get water from an area where you
know lots of crocodiles are spending
time it’s very unpleasant I would
imagine and I feel for them but at the
end of the day it’s got to be done and
they’ve got a try and the crocodile is
also got to eat so you kind of end up
with a situation where everybody tries
to kind of watch each other’s back and a
few will then try and drink while one or
two sit and watch and take in what’s
going on you see and then every now and
then they lose their nerve and they’ll
back off thinking that maybe something
is there and when one runs they all run
and they all come away from metal
section now there is a bird that is
right near where those impalas were
drinking where that Impala is coming
down since if you just follow the edge
and then just zoom in for me towards
that point over there come down a little
bit come down with it down down down sit
down more towards us more more MORE come
come come a little bit more there it is
you see looking grabbed a fish did you
see that how cool is that
so it was a green bacteria and it was
just on the edge and it’s went in and
smashed the fish see it hunting and I
was about to say that these guys are
some of my favorite hunters and you see
it grabbed itself a little bream species
it’s also in its breeding colors you can
see it’s got its red on the chest with a
white stripe there so you’ve seen its
breeding coloration it is a green-backed
heron and it’s managed to catch itself a
little bream and that’s a really good
meal you can see now it’s going to kind
of get it in its beak and it will
eventually try and figure out how to
actually sort of get it and one even
hits it against the ground and try and
sort of stun that fish before it then
swallows it but that’s going to be a
really good meal well done greenback
heron and just in time as well to see it
kind of splashing in and grabbing it so
that was super cool I’ve been wanting to
get one of these catching a fish on form
for a long time and on the cameras and
there we go
it’s kind of standards and now down the
gullet it goes and that will be as
proper meal when you want to stop
halfway there we go and in it goes
well done hearing that’s very clever
that is epic that is cool so Taylor
seems to me a little drink of water to
wash it down well done clean the beak as
well make sure that there’s not too many
little scales and things left on the
beak you see just cleaning it’s a bit of
water do you see how far its neck
stretches out as well so this Heron
looks super compact and you’d think it’d
be difficult to get to fish in those
kind of things but look how far that
neck stretches you see it pushes the
neck right out towards the water and can
drink and stay a safe distance away so
that things like crocodiles don’t get to
it there we go look at that and then in
the background was a little Pied wagtail
that also ran away so it’s all happening
now Taylor was saying this is an early
birthday present because she’s set hours
with his green-backed Heron trying to
get it to catch a fish and I think so
telling it’s definitely a little
birthday gift from the birds of chitwa
themselves that was so cool now the
chances of seeing that soar so rare we
couldn’t spend hours as Taylor mentioned
watching these guys and you won’t see
them grabbing a fish so that is just
super special and we’ve been spoiled to
be able to
see that all fluff it up and if that
fish is still wiggling inside there
which is a bit weird Cheryl you said it
seems pretty big for a little bird like
that well that bird funny enough he’s a
little bigger than you think it is I
mean it is small and that fish was quite
big but at the end of the day they Nick
does stretch out a little bit and his
stomach will be big enough to cope with
that it’ll just address that fish and
you can see it’s still on the stalk it’s
still moving around keeping its profile
quite low so that’s not enough for it
just yet they’re still looking for more
and if we stay on it for long enough
maybe we’ll get lucky and you’ll see
another little strike art and a fish but
it’s definitely got its profile nice and
lone when they are hunting they do do
this they get themselves kind of creeped
down much like a leopard would and then
you’ll see that Nick just shooting out
and then going after a fish so I
wouldn’t be surprised if we see it kind
of trying to go quickly into the water
again and grabbing whatever it’s looking
for so while that seemed like a big meal
it’s still what hunt a little bit more
and we’ll still try and make use on the
conditions now is the best time for it
to hunt it’s oh it’s kind of low light
so the fish can see as well and it makes
it much harder for them to be able to
see that the prey right on the edge of
the water soon as you say they must have
a pretty tough digestive system or yes I
think all of these birds that eat fish
must have really strong constitutions
because it swallowed that thing alive
and that poor fish is going to be
digested very quickly by those stomach
acids and break that all down and it’ll
break down the bones the skull
everything which is amazing
I know fish don’t have the hardest of
bones their brains need to be a lot
softer than what we see kind of in
mammals but still to break that all down
is pretty amazing but you see how it’s
just positioned neck is cocked in so
that as soon as a fish comes anywhere
near and its eyes are able to detect the
movements it could strike out using
their long here we go hold on it looks
like it might go again let’s have a look
now you see how its weighting is patient
it’s creeping forward it’s obviously
spotted a little bit of prey and some of
the fish cruising the shallows very
close to the edge of the water so it’s
gotten itself nice and low its neck is
all tucked in and it’s going to try and
strike out as soon as their fish
comes past so it’s in prime position now
to be able to go after some sort of fish
now how long it’s going to take until it
strikes out I’m not quite sure it’s
still just working out exactly what it’s
got to do and it’s got to calculate for
diffraction and all kinds of things
within the water before it then shoots
that head out into the water itself so
let’s just see it seems to be settling
down a bit not so as poised as it was a
few seconds ago did whadda you say could
it really swallow another one hole well
I think it’s going to try maybe this is
the glutton of the hearing world and it
maybe just maybe it’s going to try and
find itself another little fish I would
imagine it’s going to go to bed shortly
after that and it will be very satisfied
with itself if it does grab another one
because that will be perfect to sleep on
there we go did you see Oh missed but
did you see how quickly it goes in so
epic now I know hunting cats are always
something that we try and find and we
try and look for these kind of epic
moments with cats moving around but
watching this bird go after prey animals
is just as exhilarating and just as
exciting and it’s patience and it’s
stalking capabilities are amazing I love
watching these guys go about their work
the other thing with these little herons
is that they will actually sometimes
even bait their prey animals so they’ll
put something like an insect on the
surface and they wait for their prey to
come all I’ve seen them doing it with
bread before as well and as the fish
come to feed off it in and launches look
you see it spotted again keeping itself
low it’s just like a lipid there we go
it’s going in did it get anything I
don’t know I think no I don’t think I’ve
got anything no it must again it was a
bit hasty on that approach but it’s
still school skulking along still
looking absolutely amazing little heron
are you still hungry you can’t be that
hungry surely not maybe it’s been a hot
day and it’s processed everything and
it’s still got a little bit of a stomach
to fill up now you would wonder how big
this bird is there’s a bit of elephant
dung to be able to give you if sort of
size kind of comparison so that’s a
rather large bonus of elephant dung but
it is still gives you a nice size
comparison not chitty chitty bang
you want to know would officiate girls
steal a fish from this green bacterium
or striated Heron yes it could
potentially if the fish was large enough
something as small as what you saw there
it’s not really worth the fish eagle
coming in and trying its luck it’s not
going to get anywhere with that it’s not
really gonna be worth trying to spend
the energy to swoop down chase this bird
off grab that little fish and swallow it
so they don’t really do it too much what
you will find will believe these green
bacterias other here and see if you’ve
got something like a Goliath here and a
purple hair and gray here and black in
here and all of those bigger herons
would chase this little hearing away and
try and steal the food now where it’s
hunting now is actually a very clever
thing the reason why is because elephant
dung often I’ve seen fish hanging around
elephant dung and it’s not because
they’re feeding off it it’s just a point
of structure and structure as we know is
a great place for fish to hide and to be
able to kind of conceal themselves and
so maybe there’s a few little fish now
it’s decided next spot next Bay is where
it’s going to go fishing see this little
Aaron doesn’t waste time it’s not going
to worry about sitting in the same spot
for hours but you see how when it gets
close to the water like I said it’s
talks just like a lion or a leopard
would gets its profile nice and low gets
itself poised and hopes that the fish
will come in within striking range and
then it darts forward with that
lightning quick reflex and goes after it
will it it tipped again let’s see it’s
amazing look at that you can see how
that eye is focused as well and it’s
trying just to watch and work out
exactly what’s going on and how it does
it I really don’t know I mean you look
there’s a ripple on that water it’s
difficult to see anything but yet this
heron is spotting fish somehow it really
amazes me wonder if it picks up the
movement of the fish just underneath the
water surface and is able to
differentiate ripple from what a fish
movement is fascinates me watching these
guys go about their business now we may
not have seen too many of the bigger
animals this afternoon but this has just
been a highlight of my week for sure
absolutely amazing
wonder if it’s gonna grab another one
for us certainly trying here we go there
we go it’s getting closer
let’s see she’s gotta wait for it to
dart in to that water and grab those
little fish now I’m speaking in a hushed
tone I’m not really sure why because the
fish generally won’t hear me and it’s
but it’s still it’s just too exciting
and I don’t want to spoil it I don’t
want to make too much noise it’s so cool
come on are you going to grab another
one did you get it no missed again
oh no so so far we’ve got a twenty five
percent success rate out of four
attempts we’ve had one successful
attempt but that’s not for lack of
trying I think it will get it right
eventually problem is it’s running out
of light now so it’s gonna get to a
point where it’s gonna need to go and
roost and find an area to try and spend
time but that was just so cool to watch
it’s not something we’re gonna see every
day and maybe at this time of the day is
the right time to be with these green
herons and to dream back Tyrians and to
try and see if they do hunt more with is
drifting a little far for the camera now
particular with the light that we have
but how amazing was that I’m so excited
now I was saying that it’s in breeding
colors so while I kind of keep an eye on
it and see if it gets back closer to the
water I want to show you what I’m
talking about when I refer to breeding
colors and hearings or at the front of
the book or not at the back I didn’t
know while I was paging so far sorry
guys I’ll get to it eventually
in bacteria it’s all just kind of
drifting on the edge of the bank there
so I’m just trying to find exactly where
it is in my book why can’t I find it
it’s now there it is green back turns
now this particular one doesn’t show the
breeding coloration as much as what
maybe my app might show but I’ll explain
to you what I mean anyway now you see
that this is the adult bird this is
pretty much what we watching he’s got
that sort of black top to it that’s a
little green back that gives it his name
and I was saying that it’s got this
rusty red and white stripe on the legs
now you notice that it’s got a bit of
yellow on the beak area or sere kind of
area if you were thinking of a bird of
prey and yellow legs now if you looked
at that bird that we just saw
it’s legs were more an orange color and
what happens when they inbreeding is the
section here goes Orange and so does
this on their legs and they become a lot
more kind of colorful with that also
this becomes much deeper coloration that
we see on the chest and on the back area
and that’s how you can kind of tell when
they’re in the breeding coloration which
is very cool so this one is in that
stage and it’s about the right time of
year for all of these things to happen
so I’m going to leave our green bacteria
because as I see it’s just kind of flown
off onto the other side it’s a little
far and out of our reach I’m not gonna
go around to the Jacana is gonna be a
bit dark for that so I think we’re gonna
leave Chitra damn it’s been an absolute
wonderful afternoon just spending time
it should when it shows goes to show if
you patient in the wild and you sit for
long periods of time anything can happen
and so while we meander back to Juma and
see what else we can find let’s go back
to the well and see what she’s managed
to get up to you over the last little
bits and hopefully there’s lots of
little things looking for her to find
welcome back everybody we have some
beautiful mail water buck we had those
water bucks earlier from that female and
here we’ve got a group of satellite
males so a male will take anywhere from
about seven to nine years to establish a
territory and so until they’re old
enough basically what happens is they
form these little bachelor groups and
they work on the outside of a male’s
territory and as long as they don’t do
anything overtly dominant they’re
allowed to stay there now eventually I
don’t know if you can see the one in the
middle there looks older than the other
two from my guesstimation he will
shortly probably take over whatever our
territory he’s busy on the periphery
with I love for some reason I just
really loved water Buck’s their fuzzies
they remind me of donkeys for some
reason donkeys with antelope antelope
horns on them absolutely beautiful
I’m very relaxed with us especially but
also relaxed in the space that they’re
in at the moment
look I’ve been sitting with with
antelope species like this before and a
lion or a leopard has jumped out and
killed them but in general they do have
an idea and there is a faint breeze
going on every now and then so I think
they’re just happily working their their
way through their their feeding habits
they’re not going to sleep tonight they
will keep feeding throughout the night
something that’s very useful to know
about water buck is if you’re ever lost
in the bush and you find water bucking
means you’re within at least two
kilometers of water they don’t really go
farther than that and the drier it is
the closer though they’ll be to water so
if you follow the pathways and we’re
teaching you all about tracking
they’ll meander down and and it can help
you find water joy yes the water buck
are extremely beautiful especially the
males and the full-grown males when
they’ve got the the the big beautiful
horns the one in the middle that we
showed earlier has a nice set but there
are some males I have an even bigger set
and there’s just something about that
especially when they stand with their
bomb with their little white circle then
they turn their head over the shoulder
absolutely absolutely gorgeous
all right let’s carry on down towards
chela pan and see what we can find there
maybe the hyenas that Tristan found the
other day thank you water buck you were
beautiful as always
this is my favorite time of evening
after the Sun sets we have about 20
minutes of usable light or for walking
or without using a torch but the
stillness the quietness and the pastel
colors that come out right now it’s very
calming
we are going to send you back up to
shame tail I’m so sorry about that rain
head get back up there and let her do
about what’s happening in Kenya must
enjoy
thank you very much it’s fantastic it is
not going to stop I think we might even
have rain in the morning how exciting is
that
now Tristan I believe you are being
nasty to me that’s well I suppose you
have grace because it’s your birthday
tomorrow so I can’t even say anything
that is the rule in our household you
get 24 hours the day before 24 hours
after on your birthday
nobody’s allowed to say a bad thing so
as much as it kills me I’m going to only
be able to say nice things about Tristan
today tomorrow and the next day and I
bet he’s jumping for joy for that so if
Tristan it’s so good and I really hope
you enjoy your fortieth food fish
striking just in 1640 Tristan how old
are you even training I don’t even know
how old Tristan say 30 something he’s in
his early thirties shall we try and age
Tristan Tristan is turning how old do
you think ja I was gonna say 31 Megan
you didn’t give me a chance Megan gave
me the answer before I even got a chance
to guess and I was looking at him I was
gonna say try and work on his
identifying features how many gray haze
he’s got in his beard oh and his hair
you know all these different type things
you have Teddy is you know of course is
how we identify animals not by how many
gray hairs they have in their bed
because that doesn’t matter at all now
we are on a treacherous road at the
moment on the escarpment Oh
Tristan’s not having a go at me because
he says that I didn’t wear a party hat
now I have to tell you that Tristan
actually set me up he purposely didn’t
tell me that we were supposed to wear
party hats this afternoon and now I look
bad how terrible is that but because
it’s his birthday tomorrow he thinks
that he can just get away with things
like this which is which is ridiculous I
think it’s actually it’s outrageous I’m
flabbergasted by his behavior Megan you
have to tell them that I’m flabbergasted
little little Drake there bit some
videos but Tristan I hope you have the
best birthday ever tomorrow and Scott
you’re back at camp already maybe making
pizzas in the pouring rain
that’s gonna work but anyway we’ll see
how it goes I suppose Scotch he always
makes plans so I hope he’s having the
best birthday ever
I’m sure he is it’s always fun when
you’re with your family I suppose we’re
we can’t as fan me don’t we we gonna try
and drive now because I really really
want to get home before the train gets
any harder because it’s a nightmare
already I’ve heard you drive like this
because there were no windscreen wipers
I’m creeping along in low range like
this I feel like I’m Brent now drink
drive like this mmm
also he can’t defend himself okay I’m as
she’s scared I need to concentrate over
here going around the bend and keep both
eyes on the road and both hands on the
steering wheel Tristan is also just
driving around but I think he’s having
it a lot easier than I am I’m driving
around in a hat that isn’t made to be
worn that keeps flying off my head
and I feel like these excuses that are
being made are just excuses between
Taylor and possibly Louise there’s
somebody’s going to be in trouble
because either one didn’t tell the other
one or Taylor just didn’t want to come
to participate and so it’s meant that
I’ve had to wear three different head
outfits this afternoon so I’ve had to
wear mine
Taylor’s and Scotty’s to make up for it
and so now I’ve got all three on and it
was Noelle’s – what’s what else can I
add up well I do have I’ve got 1 cap 2 3
& 4 so I’ve got 4 all four of the other
well 3 of the other presenters and
myself so I’ve covered you all guys and
hopefully tomorrow you guys can make fun
of yourselves and not just me because
I’ve been left on my own today to have a
good giggle and at least laugh and
hopefully it’s been at least
entertaining I’ve quite liked my
headdress I think it’s a fair party hat
and I would imagine if I went to a party
and there’s lots of people would be
quite entertained by it and asked lots
of questions which would be perfect for
a party Muta to be very fast and if I
win somewhere with my hat what do you
think since yeah since I agrees
synthesis I’ll be the life of the party
and I believe Ellie who’s NFC tonight is
rolling her eyes at me saying whatever
hopefully no couch time for me it’s my
birthday tomorrow so I can’t be put on
the couch if that’s the case what could
I hopefully not so that will be a
horrible way to spend my birthday is on
the couch let’s not tempt fate
if I lose NFC I’m not going to tempt
fate at all because no doubts she will
follow through if I say the wrong thing
and be getting myself into trouble
no I’m just kidding Ellie doesn’t
actually put me on the couch at all
she’s very tolerant of my nonsense and
make no mistake that I am a handful to
deal with at the based of time so she
does a lot of good things and keeps me
in line that’s for sure and she doesn’t
ever put me on the couch this is all
just a joke of course she makes sure
that I’m well looked after most of the
time right now that turned out because I
was hoping by some miracle all of these
lipids that decided to have a party
under lagari today would have come this
way because not one of them has been
found this afternoon from this morning
so four different lipids not one has
been found we have a malfunction of the
party way and so I was hoping that our
might just get a little bit of luck and
one would be drinking at the dam but
alas no sign unfortunately oh no it’s
fallen over what’s going on hats you’ve
got to balance and I’m gonna have to try
and push it down there we go that’s
better it should hopefully hold like
that it should hopefully be a lot better
what a beautiful evening though it’s got
no clouds in the sky it’s absolutely the
perfect temperature I think it’s for
only some one of the nicest evenings
we’ve had in quite some time it really
is beautiful weather
there we go 84 and 29 not a cloud in the
sky
balmy evening absolutely perfect so what
a wonderful way to kind of finish off
our day and to drive in this is always
very pleasant hopefully some of the
animals will pop out and maybe we’ll
just get a last minute lipid I know
we’ve had a lipid from Juma today but I
feel like a last minute lipid of my own
and so I’m going to hope for that sand
while we do that let’s go across to Noel
and see maybe she’ll pull out a
last-minute lipid on her own or that
aardvark that she was talking about
hello sadly no aardvark leopard leopard
Tristan I hope you find your last-minute
leopard I don’t know what’s going on
with me today and then Nyali you were
wondering been my most exciting game
drive ever and I’m sitting here
pondering says John and drive was Andre
was excellent and my first game drive
with you guys super exciting but if we
had to take this one out of it I would
actually say it was a walk and the
reason why I think of this just now is I
actually had to write a short little
blurb about it today
I was working in Northwest province in
South Africa provinces similar to States
and I had guests that were there on an
educational one of the largest ice free
Landsat and they desperately wanted to
see lions so we go outs in the morning
it’s a little bit chilly a little bit
cold so we’re heading out and one of the
vehicles that headed out just before us
got three young male lions who were some
of my favorite male lions and we’re
getting there that they went into a non
off-roading area so we can’t take the
vehicle and so all the other vehicles
left
and we let them leave and then we
stopped the vehicle we got off and we
started tracking these lions on foot and
as we’re busy tracking these lions on
foot
I can hear another male roarings who
stalked me listen but he’s about two
kilometres away it was the father of
these three males and as his roar dies
down we just start to see these three
young males would creep up a little bit
closer probably about 60 metres from
them and we had the Sun behind us and
the wind was blowing our scent away so
they’re not going to turn around and
stare into the Sun and also their
fathers call it calling from the
opposite side so they’re gonna focus on
there and as we get into perfect
position optimal weather they start
roaring and when a lion roars when
you’re on foot and you’re about six
meters and there’s not just one lion sea
lions roaring all together your whole
body shakes and we managed to sit there
for about 20 minutes and before I
decided look we’ve had a really good
view you must carry on and I have to say
that was one of the most exciting
experiences that I can think of right at
this moment to have on a game viewing
activity
and specifically on foot it was really
really really something special great
question thank you okay
laughs little bits of color show into
the West
talked about our pastel skies earlier
all right we’re gonna head back over to
Tristan I’m hoping he found his
last-minute Leopard and I hope it’s a
real Leopard and not a leopard branch
Tristan enjoying good luck
unfortunately no last-minute lipids many
lipid logs that we’ve seen but maybe you
never know maybe something will pop out
in front of us in this area now fool you
want to know what my favorite birthday
meal is in the bush I’m not really sure
but I’m a huge fan of a good steak so a
couple steaks on a fire with all a bunch
of friends under the stars of the bush
well learning much can really beat that
why don’t you apple juice is of course
just to make sure that no one gets
dehydrated you wouldn’t want a situation
where anybody gets dehydrated while
trying to slave over a hot fire so
that’s kind of the plan now we don’t
have too much time because it’s almost
the end of the show but I need to get
through this little dip because it’s not
going to have the best signal so
hopefully we can just get on top of this
side but it has been a wonderful
afternoon filled with all kinds of
interesting things it’s great to have
now on board the into the team and she
started off with an absolute bang and
for John Dre as well and spoke to John
ray briefly before he went out and Robin
said he had missed the lipids so super
happy for both of them that they got to
catch up with them hula it’s such a
special thing to see and I’m really glad
now it’s also from Scotty who’s had some
cashews Taylor myself Noelle Meg’s in
AFC and all the camera ops it’s been an
absolute pleasure I will see you
tomorrow on the Sun Rise Safari
you
you