Safari Live - Day 265 | National Geographic

This program features live coverage of an African safari and may include animal kills and carcasses. Viewer discretion is advised.

What a great afternoon to start with! Look at the predetermined one of the water holes, and the Impala is drinking there. He doesn't know what to do; he's looking at the Impala, who's facing the wrong direction. A very, very good afternoon and welcome to the beginning of our afternoon safari, and my plan is quite very easy this afternoon; I will be looking for the cats.

My name is Sydney from Iran my cozy, and in case if you need our attention, you can follow us on Twitter with the hashtag #SafariLive. You can also follow us on the YouTube chat stream. So, what is happening here is unusual. You can see we've got an amphitheater right in the middle of the waterhole, and the Impala is directed behind. This Impala, before he got here, did not even check if there was a predator or not; he was just concentrating much more on the surrounding and went straight to that side.

The hyenas, mostly, we see them active at night, but I can promise you hyenas; we do see them a lot doing their movements during the day, specifically if there's a kill around; you will see them going in order to have a chance to have something to eat. Now the hyenas, in the middle of the waterhole because the Sun is very hot at the moment, they also try to cool the temperature a bit. But don't get surprised because sometimes in early mornings and late afternoons, they normally go to the waterhole before even the Sun comes out in the morning and they play by the waterholes. Sometimes they also do mud wallow.

Indeed this is a pool day! You can see that earlier on from the dam cam, I saw the elephants; we were also having a scene, and it was quite a lot of them. Youngsters were enjoying. Now we have got the hyena, so now I am going to fly you to the Maasai Mara in Kenya before David loses his sighting. It's gonna be fantastic.

Sydney, and a very warm welcome to the Mara triangle! We are starting with a feathered friend there. That's a tawny eagle, and she's just either warming herself. I don't know why she should be; that's pretty warm for me because we're talking about 34 degrees and 93 degrees Fahrenheit. My name is David, and on camera today is Bungay.

It won't be a very good afternoon, welcome all of you, and remember this is a very interactive safari. Should you have any questions or any comments, talk to us using the hashtag #SafariLive. All right, back to our rafter there! And that is a bird of prey. We call them raptors because of what they're able to do. Raptors come from a large Latin word "repere," which means to seize or to forcefully hold.

The raptors are very many; any bird that may be able to grasp or hold another one to safely prey on it. You are right; those talons are no joke, and Bungay is giving you the best from this eagle here. They need those talons that are huge and strong because they pick sometimes lambs and baby antelopes, for example. When they need to kill other birds, they need them very much. Their legs also happen to be very strong.

If you look at the big talons, they are very hooked and very sharp at the end. It's like a dagger, so they need strong legs, and the talons should be able to dig in any prey they pick up to fly with it if they do not feed on it on the ground. Tawny eagles are very similar to the serpent eagle; the difference is the serpent eagle has the yellow line you see below the eye that is little extended towards the back or towards the ears, a typical characteristic.

All eagles have feathered legs, apart from the snake eagles. I think most snake eagles will not have any feathers. Well, I'll be moving on, but in the meantime, I want to take you back to Sydney to see what kind of predator he's still got.

I am still here with the relaxed hyena by the waterhole. At the moment, we saw the Impala coming to drink, which means maybe hyenas are not considered a very strong threat by this animal, such as Impalas. But I think that Impala did not notice that it was a hyena here until she left. I saw her running; it seemed like she realized only her way out. So look at those beautiful ears!

It is normal for this kind of predator to be here at the waterhole for this long. This clan, the Juma clan, normally used to go to the Treehouse dam and also the twins dam, and spend much time just by the waterhole, specifically at the edge where there's mud. You will see them with mud. This is normal; but now here where I am, in the western side of the Greater Kruger National Park Service in Juma Game Reserve, the sun is at 34 degrees. It is quite very hot at the moment, and I am not surprised why he's spending much time in that waterhole at the moment.

Quite a very difficult name for me to pronounce, and I will get the name as I am explaining about the waterhole. This whatever it is indeed a man-made waterhole. You can see that these at the edges, there, you can see that we are refilling every time when the water is taken away, the soil, and also the branches that are there to prevent animals from opening for the water to flow down the other side.

But if you can check the design of the waterhole, it does meet all the requirements. Ours are not just designed for animals to come and drink; there are a lot of things which have to be considered. For example, there has to be available cover for incase if the predators want to hide; that is very much important. So if you can check here, the waterhole does have some hiding areas for the predators to be able to act. There must also be bushes for the predators and animals to go and rest after drinking. So what a hold does influence the natural life where animals can hide for others to come to drink, and other animals, after drinking, can also hide under the shade.

A safari... sorry, the hyenas! I have never seen them swimming by a very deep water; every time I see them to the areas where you can see the whole body, you can see the big part of the body showing out. If you look here, and now you can see that only the bottom part is public on the ground and you cannot see the stomach. But from the side of the stomach up, you can see this animal. So if you look at the neck, the neck doesn't have spots so if you don't check properly, it's difficult to even tell that this hyena has got spots. It doesn't expose at all! All the hyenas, if you check them here by the neck, they do not have spots; the spots are only around their bodies.

So now let's go to the lions, one of those animals who are seen fighting with hyenas for food mostly. Good afternoon everybody, welcome to the Mara Triangle in Kenya! My name is Steve, I'm joined on camera by Big James. At a beautiful 28 degrees Celsius is 82 degrees Fahrenheit. It's a wonderful afternoon to search for cats. It's not hot; there could be lions moving. They could be hiding in the shade.

We checked this area this morning, all the way down that side, we checked this area and all the way back to camp; we didn't find them. We no pride. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get up ahead; there's a road that takes us to the scope and road again, and we're gonna go sort of south along the Mara. Maybe we'll be lucky and spot something in the form of cats. That would be wonderful; that is our objective for the afternoon.

We weren't able to find them this morning or yesterday, but today we are going to try and find the known pride, the pride of five individuals, very recognizable by the adults. One adult is quite pale in color, and the young male is also very pale with a very nice or very interesting injury on the inside of his back of his left hip, which is healing quite nicely. But there's an abundance of zebra and buffalo food in this area, and well, we did check this side this morning but we didn't find anything.

So maybe on the right-hand side, we'll be able to find something in the form of known pride of lions, which would be wonderful. I would like to find them for you, and of course along the way, who knows what else will be there. There'll be birds, and there will be the wonders of the wild. So please send your questions through hashtag #SafariLive. Drop your questions or comments; we'll sort through in the YouTube chat stream. We'd love to hear from you! Let us know if you have any queries or suggestions for the afternoon that you'd like to discuss.

On this wonderful Sunday afternoon, it is a very hot start in Juma, and while we are blessed with a pretty average sort of temperature, the winners are indeed the underdog pride. I need the lioness; they were essentially a breakaway from the sausage tree pride, which David has been spending a lot of time with of late.

Well, they're trying to make their mark. You can see the zebras are everywhere at the moment; lots of rain has been falling along this escarpment over the last couple of weeks, and well, the grazing is phenomenal. It's not as tall as when I came a month and a half ago when the thousands upon thousands of animals moved through here and pretty much mowed down the living lawnmower service, but they are still in place. They've come back; more zebra here than when I got back from my leave two weeks ago, and the buffalo are everywhere—elephants are in huge abundance.

And well, all we need to do is, between all of that, is scratch out some lions, but importantly, what is it that provides the ability for lions to stay in this environment? And why do lions form prides? And well, these interesting topics of discussion, obviously, lions being savanna hunting specialists, prides develop due to the large prey items that developed when the savanna opened up and created what they call 200 times more animal species than what the forest would have allowed before.

All the different feeding regimes, all the different grazing heights, the different browsing heights has a lot for an enormous number more mammal species than previously. Willie, the grasses... I suppose they do smell quite nice, quite fragrant, almost like a very nice Sauvignon Blanc. Lots of people like to describe Sauvignon Blanc as a fresh-cut grass, which if you happen to find yourself close to the nose of a zebra while feeding, you'd probably get that crisp, fresh note on the nose, which just made me rather thirsty on this Sunday afternoon.

I'm sure that hyena don and Juma wouldn't mind a cold beverage while cooling down in the pan, and while animals that don't need to cool themselves down too much, not far away from us, David Guiteau is with a very tall giraffe.

Alright, let's have a little change and look at this tall animal of the African plains, of the African bushes. And these are the Maasai giraffes! Sometimes they'll forget to use the advantage of their height and just go for some bushes that are pretty low from the ground, like the Kapus bush, and they'll always be picking on the leaves from those bushes. Giraffes being browsers, they will not be bothered to eat any grass; smaller leaves, twigs, and that's nothing apparently, which is quite something!

Well done, Bungay! I was wondering what that young calf was doing and just realized she’s nothing! What a position to be in there! I mean, the final controls are awesome because I don't remember the last time I saw a calf suckling! The mother was not very amused; she thinks it's time for her to start feeding on her own, to be weaned and start eating the normal food. But that was pretty cool to see a giraffe just sucking there! I mean, see how tall the mother is, and when they give birth, and I'm assuming this is definitely her baby, they drop the babies from such a high height.

Sharon, I'm happy for your comment because even for me, I'm trying to walk back and remember the last time Sharon I saw a giraffe suckling and it's a long time. Zebras we see every day; lions, especially the cubs, we see almost every other day. The pattern, I don’t remember the last time I saw giraffe in this peak because look, look at that baby; she's almost the same size as the mother! You know she is a big calf; there she should, you know, be feeding on the leaves like the rest.

So that bush is what I guess she should be feeding on! Which is saying if I'm only maybe a baby of the mother? I don't keep enjoying the milk. Notice she's a bit lighter in color than the mother, of course, one because of young age, but not necessarily; we get some giraffes that are dark even when they are young depending on their genetics, different types of giraffes in East Africa. This one being the Masai giraffe, we have another species that you called articulated!

Christine, good question—do female giraffes fight? I must say no, Christine! They might have little squabbles here and there, but I would say, Christine, male or female giraffes do not get into that combat like the males, and it was about two months ago initially, Christine, you had or you saw we had two male giraffes that fought to the death, which was quite unusual! If you get two male giraffes fighting, one will always die and maybe the winner survives.

But in this particular case, this is about two months ago; we had two male giraffes and they fought to the death, and that's why when you look on top of the ossicones or the horns on top of the giraffes, the males ones are always blunt or bald or flat because they are always engaging themselves in combat once a while, sometimes for mating rights, you know, sometimes they wanted the younger ones or the losers to submit to them! And of course if you want to be the dominant male, you must prove to the other males why you should be in charge!

So it gets the drums! I then think it's like that, or sometimes way about an open area while they'll be getting some leaves and other small bushes. Hello there pretty tall animals and having three different or four different species of giraffes in Africa. Everything else is the same apart from the body pattern; that's only the thing that would change! And see them looking differently! Lifespan, gestation period, you know, size, as much as the little later giraffe is a little taller to me than this one here.

And again remember, this is a very interactive safari drive that we do; keep talking to us—questions, comments—Twitter using hashtag #SafariLive. Chris, good snow; I'll tell you, ideally giraffes, to me I could be wrong and maybe my friend Sydney might want to disagree with me. Chris, I have found out giraffes are the most careless mothers. To turn off when we talk about big animals, I think giraffes really don't care; the times you see a giraffe and a mother and a calf like almost a kilometer or two kilometers away, which doesn't make much sense because they expose them and make them very vulnerable to would-be predators!

You know, scratch their back! I do not know where the oxpeckers are. Oxpeckers have the types of barbs that will come and remove the mites and the ticks; that was a big scratch! She kept scratching very good! And still met from the Masai giraffes; he will take you again across to South Africa to Sydney to find out what he is up to with his hyenas.

So there is still very much stationary at the moment here. Not only the hyena is trying to avoid the Sun at the moment here where I am, I just want to show you something else from a distance. Also, under the tree, since we arrived here, you can see there we have got a small herd of elephants. They are also under a very big mulberry tree; they have been there for quite a while now, so it means that 34 degrees Celsius I have indicated earlier is giving this animal some sunburn this afternoon.

So what I'm going to do now is that I will be heading towards the heat watch area as I have been updated earlier on that the lions have been spotted earlier around that area. I want to go and see which pride is that, and then later on we will come back here and see if we can find the spotted cats.

So it was here it was he going to change? The hyena sometimes they do chase each other; sometimes no. This I know sometimes can be very much ignorant to us. So they come and look at him, and after you see them looking at him—like this—when he is trying to open the mouth to show his aggression—they just turn and go! So asana, by this time of the day, mostly is when he's resting. He will come to drink soon as the Sun starts to cool down, but possibilities of the interactions are very high! But hyenas are not that very much afraid of Asana at the moment.

Maybe as time goes wrong when Asana is starting to gain a lot of strength and to try and show that he can fight, there will be some lot of challenges to the hyenas. So he's listening to the Impalas in the background who are also coming to drink. Isabella, indeed, this hyena looks so relaxed, not worried; he's just listening to what is happening. Don't get surprised when you hear other vehicles' engines. I am NOT alone at this beautiful sighting; there are other people here with me!

But I am going to leave this relaxed hyena now and see if we can find maybe we might be lucky with those lions when we get to the Chitwa Chitwa area later on. I will come back here and see if we can find this spotted cat; but before I come here, I will try to drive the cheetah cutline, just try to see if we can be lucky with Kangana or Tlalam in that area! Later on, I will also visit the hyena then if the time is still available for us to do so. So I am the only one out at the moment, so I will be driving a lot visiting different areas. So now let's cross over back to Steve by the Maasai Mara who is still with the lions.

Apologies for that technical error when it comes to signals! I am now making my way to the shiitake! I'm just gonna pass by the Jackalberry tree where Asana was hiding some meal yesterday, and the day before! This morning, I also got some update that Asana took a small baboon and he ran away toward one of these areas chased by those baboons! Some baboons, they can be so very protective! Nothing is left, only a small bit of the intestines ending there; I’m not seeing anything too much.

So I'm just gonna check here by the dam wall because sometimes from the top, I can be able to spot any predator lying down somewhere. Here, now I am not seeing him! Now let him, let me give him some time; I will come back when we first go to Chitwa Chitwa! We might be lucky with him when we come back! Actually, I didn't get your question very well! Here, the question is related to the hyena in water, the terrapins' possibilities—oh look at this! This Impala here! I can see the stomach is very, very big! It's so heavily pregnant, might deliver at any time!

Maybe that is one of the reasons why this Impala is isolating herself from the others! If you look at that body, now you can see! So the baby can arrive here at any time this week! So the terrapin possibilities of the terrapin to pick up some of the ticks and not from the body of the hyena, but of the lion because when the hyena is there, yes, possibilities of some of the ticks to come off; they are very much high!

So I'm sure hyena because you cannot see under the water, if he gets touched by something else, he must have to go out. I don't think he will allow the terrapin to touch him when he's under the water. So now let's go back to David, who is looking for the lions at the moment!

Well, my plans are being to also look for lions like Sydney but as much as he is going to cheat on me, should he not even get lions. The cheetah Adam has been full of activity, and on my way to the lions, I'm thinking of looking for this male elephant not very far from the Maasai area. You can tell he's just feeling on that nice green grass! This area has underground water, and even times when you have big drought, the grass here remains very green, and you have seen so many animals crowding this one small area during difficult times of drought in the Mara Triangle.

Male elephants be on their own! Alright, having my elephant just eating! I think we got elephants! Could be doing something interesting! Well, thanks, David! We have indeed got elephants here—two bulls that we're having a little bit of a pushing and shoving match! And the typical, typical sort of behavior that an elephant does once it's been dominated or shows displacement behavior to show that it’s being subordinate is they turn their shoulder, like the one on the right-hand side; it was being pushed—it had decided, ‘No! I don’t like that!’

Typical behavior when one elephant is dominant than the other one. Often you'll see a big bull walking into a group, and one of the younger ones will just turn away like that one on the right, and there’s a very good sign of one being submissive! And well, they were having a bit of a pushing and shoving match, and it wasn't very serious! But one of the right is obviously smaller and didn't quite like the attentions of the bigger male! And well, we've got some buffalo as well lying up in the open!

No, I think they’re lying up. Some are lying up; those are standing in fact! The grass is very long over there! The preferred habitat of buffalo—nice long juicy grasses! They do like nutrient-rich grasses as well!

Here we go; we've got a couple lying up enjoying a bit of rumination this afternoon! No doubt if it was as hot as it is in Juma, they'd probably be lying up in the mud, keeping themselves nice and moist and cool. Yes, the mud serves a secondary purpose—the mud, I mean, of keeping the flies away! And a third purpose of decay, in any parasitic in the form of ticks that they might have.

But let's have a look at these two bulls and see exactly if they're going to get up to any nonsense again! It seems as if the shenanigans are over and they're going off onto their feeding! But it's time for play! When you have the dietary requirements of so much food per day that elephants generally have, big males eat enormous amounts Scottie; they're not hiding—they're basically just having a bit of a chill! They’ve probably been feeding for a period of time and now they're all just lying down, taking a break resting their tired legs while those two are still feeding—very inquisitive and looking at us, and the others are resting.

So when they're certain and ruminate, so they're actually resting! They're meditating; their bodies are resting because they are not using their legs, so they’re taking up the weight in while their mind is in a state of meditation! Very automatic response, and it’s for that reason that ruminants don’t necessarily actually sleep; they just ruminate and get up and feed, and then ruminate and get up and feed! It's a constant battle!

Harsha, between rest and feeding, our simple lives would be if we were able to eat grass and get everything we needed! Simple would it be so simple! Plenty of grass around! Emma says, as long as we can put some form of dressing on it! Yes, well, these animals get by eating quite dry, sometimes quite unedible sorts of food! But out here in the Mara, especially after the rains, these grasses—you can see your odd buffalo legs have some brown patches and then green patches, and essentially what that is, I've got some in the grass on the dashboard for you here!

So we can have a little look-see and see what's going on! And it is in fact the red grass, or the red oat grass, known as red grass in South Africa, the Thermo-trichodes, and you can kind of see the remains of the inflorescence there! You can see which one that one over there! Just see the three sort of trichodes there, we go! It's kind of fading because the grass went into the reproductive stage, produced its seeds, and they've probably fallen on the floor somewhere!

And the brownness, if I just pulled this grass out, you'll see I've grabbed an entire piece of the grass yet; and where the grass grows—so here is the base, here are the roots, and that's anchored in the ground! Obviously, a lot of the nutrients can be stored in there, and the roots are designed for picking up the nutrients derived from this very nutrient-rich soil!

And the rainfall facilitates that! Then the grass will grow, and what we can see in parts of a... sorry, James, I've made a mess of this! Let me just grab this piece yet! What we can see here is the new growth growing out over here, so there's some old growth over here from earlier in the season! And then you can see the new growth is popping out! Yeah, that's what the buffalo are absolutely loving right now!

A zebra is well quite enjoying that! So a second growth for this grass of this season being a perennial grass, they'll be around for more than one season! And I know you're all wanting me to try it! Yes, that's very... hmm... it's not bad! There, as Emma says, it could probably do with dressing, could probably do with dressing!

And the idea of the ruminant is to be able to chop that up and chew that up to be able to maximize, you know, it's to maximize this grass into small little particles for digestion! And Rubina, you want to know how much grass the average buffalo can eat? I actually have absolutely no idea!

Hmm... so I've got a few bits of grass stuck in my mouth! I actually have no idea, Rubina! Another buffalo can drink about 30-odd 40-odd liters of water per day! Well, they require two! And the grass, well, they need... I'm going to find out! I'm sure I can find it somewhere!

But I don't know at the moment! But if they... means I'm... I just saw David; he's found elephants! So it looks like it's going to be a very good day today for Elly’s! The first mullet and Steve had tools were like going for each other, and I've found breeding hard with this young master here, showing us how much he can eat, and how efficient she is picking the grass! There! See, very similar to what you call couch grass!

And I've always wondered what an elephant can do without a trunk! A very important organ to elephants! These are African elephants, and most of the savanna elephants! They're different from what sometimes we call the forest elephant. Just in terms of size!

Walking away there, see how majestic when they walk! If it approached the grass, it doesn't come out, the Lord is giving a small little kick with the leg, and they are very cute! Sometimes the pig choosing just the green one. You can see not just sometimes they're stealing grass for the sake of grasping grass, they of course want to get the right cross, the right nutrients!

And what I wanted to do is just have a little change, a little change of the angle because we have another one that has a calf here! I think Bungay wants us to shoot that one! Can I keep coming away? Keep coming! It's good! And this one seems a modern high young one! What guests could be less than 25 years? It’s still not asked; they're showing up! And you can see the characteristic pose for elephants!

When they rest, they lift up one leg and just put it back! Much for the young ones just eating was just being full of nonsense, and protein grass and kicking it! You see all the wrinkles on the trunk! Very nice! And I'm guessing the only one is about 15 meters from where we are!

And so long as these animals behave themselves—they're not very loud, the hinges are running; you can have the best time with elephants, which happen to be my favorite animals of all the animals that we got in Africa! Furtive close to mama! What a shot! How nice is that?

Cynic, good—Christian, we are talking about underground water! You see that elephant there? You can tell she seems to like to be wearing some socks, some shoes! She was wallowing at one point, and the short rains have not come very well out; she's in a car at the moment and still dry! Some rivers and streams have dried up, but of course not the marsh area, as was talking in before! And the other day, I've found some elephants that went to the river and been intelligent as they are, they will always tell like hydrologists! We are just waiting for water!

And elephants using the trunks and tusks dug about three feet, and probably water popped up! And I’ll tell you, Cynic, that water should be also good for human beings! I was out on a drive, and I forgot my water, and I was thirsty! Cynic, I would definitely drink that water! It must be very clean and very sifted by this hand!

One more time to say goodbye to these elephants before we move on! And I think there were different areas, so we're gonna be moving on to souls full of other stuff! Alright, elephants get insane! Daniel says, "What's about the mom?" Sorry, and there was an elephant trumpeting behind me there!

Oh, Daniel, I get your comment, and you think the mom is quite small, and most likely, Daniel guesses—that could be maybe how fast calf and from what is so! She looked pregnant again, so if she's about three, they might take four or five years before they get another baby! But in terms of science, I agree with you; she looks a very small mom, and was like they’re grabbing half a half!

It would happen for such small cows, anything nine to ten years! Daniel! You know calves are fully grown and mature and sexually mature! And you could easily, you know—just get a calf! We have another one here, which also looks to be another young cow!

And let’s try to compare this to the very first one! So quite a number of them and breathing hard! Oh! So Daniel looks like a young cow with a calf too, but if Bungay is suing to the left, there’s another hand, and there’s one fully grown of big female that seems to have one tusk!

Excellent! Thank you very much! She's a very big cow! Christian, good question! How old must they be, you know, the calves be before the mothers get pregnant again? I would say anything for five years should be a good age! For five years, should be a good age before the mother can get pregnant again!

I mean, she's such an investment! Grateful, a cow to carry a baby for two years! So they want to do the best they can! You see that one putting the trunk up? They won't, for the best they can to make sure that baby matures! They have worked so hard for two years carrying that baby going through labor! So they have to take some time until they're guaranteed that the baby can survive on its own before they can conceive again!

I'm sure we all know among the animals in the wilderness, the elephant's got the mammary glands between the four legs! When the people will always miss that point, as Bungay is showing you, there! We have seen viewers seeing calves nothing and wondering what those calves drink, and we tell them they are nothing! And they're like—they're nothing at the wrong place!

But yes, that's where the glands or the mummies of the female calves are! So many reasons to not have the other tusks; could be genetic reasons, sometimes age, sometimes when they bring down bushes or trees, they crack them, and of course, once they lose them, that's it!

They are left with one! And as the ear looks very toned, so I would say this is a very senior citizen from the look; she's quite mature! The right ear looks fine, and the tusks are made! Jokes are saying that the African elephant ears look like the map of Africa, and the ones for Asia look like the map of Asia!

But not exactly! So we don't say that when you have kids with us on the show! But one thing is a fact, both males and females here have tusks. A lot more you're talking about carving! And depending on the animals we are looking at and comparing the difference between here and Juma, elephants to me will breed all around a year!

They'll have babies all around there! But should we look at different species of animals like the wildebeest? They have a particular season that will bring down the babies, and that will be the month of February! And that mainly will be in Serengeti east of Serengeti in Tanzania, the Western gonorrheal conservation area in Tanzania!

But the wildebeest that happen not to go or tag along with them during the migration that remain here in Kenya! They apparently get babies in the same time! So around February, both wildebeest and zebras, you know, in Kenya and in Tanzania, they'll have babies at that particular time! But elephants and giraffes and all the other animals will have babies!

Or around the very lucky elephants can adopt to eat both grass and bushes like mixed feeders! It's very difficult to see elephants traveling of hunger because they'll always have a lot! They have much choices of what to feed on! That's a very good question!

And it has been claimed, or you want some elephants, whether they have twins. It has been claimed, they do! Personally, I'll tell you for a fact, of my all my years in the bush, I have never seen an elephant with twins, but it is very possible! Most of the animals here will always get one calf, one baby with rhinos!

Elephants, or even the antelopes, took of the wildebeest, zebras! But it has been claimed that occasionally they get twins! I have never seen an elephant with twins! But maybe you can help me; you can tell me! Is there such thing?

Bungay says he hasn't seen one as the majestic eagle walks across the road in front of us! I'm guessing that calf definitely—that is the mother following the footsteps of mom, the most very behind! Occasionally they get pretty Ted by lions! Lions will always hunt any animal! I think could offer them an opportunity!

As I was saying before, it should be for a number of reasons! Looking at it from a genetic point, elephants that are born with one tusk and the elephants that are also born with zero tusks—not even one! But also the use of tusks either to fight, to dig for water, or to bring food down when they're breaking the, you know, branches—that could be another reason to lose the other tusk!

So we can maybe lose it! Or it could have been an infection, so all these possibilities could cause this particular le to have only one tusk! Sometimes we say elephants, either right-handed or left-handed! And if this particular one's right-handed and kept using the 100 so much, that could be another reason!

Tian, where as much as the tusks of elephants keep growing, they're made of keratin protein just like human hair or nails, and they keep growing all their lives! Very majestic! They’ve got very padded feet! If you would be lying next to the grass, not elephant, unless you listen carefully, you might not even get the vibration as she walks!

And then, beautiful MSCs in the background of the trees and the different shades of green there! Or well done, Bungay! Either to me, she is a pretty big female and at the very full!

And not sure that she is pregnant or not. Looking at the calf with the things maybe less than three years, did he lose your calf? Is she still walking? They’ll ask if the baby is very close! I was talking earlier about some of their animals that I think are careless mothers! I mentioned the giraffe is one of the animals I think done a very good job!

Very good elephant is one of the big five in Africa! And I think Sydney is trying to track another big five in South Africa! I have got the lions hunting a water buck at the moment here. Anything can happen at any time! I can see that these lions—the water buck is slowly approaching, and that water buck is looking, looking!

But so far, the water buck is not seeing anything! And I don't even know which pride this is, but I can see that these lions are very much static, and the water buck is in the middle of the bush! Now the impalas are starting to give some warning calls, which might even alert the water buck at the moment! You can hear some squealers are also starting to make noise!

So these lions are slowly coming following the water buck! I can see that! Look at that! Look at that! Look at that! Look at that! Look at that! You can see the lions coming, they’re chasing! They’re chasing! Chasing! What about? Now they’re chasing a water back!

Antelope! They were too fast to change that water back! So they were not patient enough! Look now, I have got them right in front of me, and the water buck disappeared! And not all of them managed to participate in that; I think the right winger decided to go fast, and so they still have got the interest of going further!

But I think the right winger made a mistake because she started running without communicating with the left winger and the other ones at the back! So it was coordinated, but I think the coordinator failed to inform the other members that now is the time we can go!

So lions are pieces with hunters—the pieces with hunters! It means the hunt as a group! And they coordinate the work together! They've got different positions! They locate each other quite a certain responsibility with the killers in the middle! When these right wingers are cornering an animal, those are the ones who are normally taking down a big animal!

Linda ADEA means the water buck, and that was a great opportunity! I thought they were going to catch that because it was a nice available cover! It’s just that that one started to run very fast! Somewhat amazed! Now they are cornering a hippo! Let me pull forward now! They want to follow you here for now! Let's see if they win here; there might be another hour!

They are giving up! They know—maybe he put something else! I can see this hippo out of the water, and one of them is looking at the hippo, and this is happening right here in front of me! You will see the way I'm gonna stop now! On my left-hand side, we are going to see this lion! Behind the lion, you will also see the hippopotamus!

But now they are not really going after that hippo! They are now lying down! And one of them is going very close to the hippo! Even the hippo is looking at each other at a distance less than eight meters! Look at that, and the other ones are not interested to go joy in that!

You can see the hippopotamus is right in the background there! And the hippopotamus I realized a lion is not in front! I can see what the hippopotamus is also doing there; it is moving the head all the time! So don't get surprised! As well, here we are not alone at the sighting! There are some guests as well who are enjoying the sighting!

So that lion is very close to the hippopotamus, has got quite a lot of interest! I think it's a young male! So the experienced lions are lying down here! Who knows? The hippos are tough to take them down, so I can see they are now very much in the mix! I don't even know how many these lions are, but it's quite a lot! I can see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!

I have counted eight at the moment! There might be more than eight! You can see that the one who was very close to the hippo is coming back because he did not get a lot of support! So the hippopotamus is not moving at all! That one now is living himself; he's just now defecating right there next to the road!

This is what the lions do most! When they wake up late afternoon, they isolate themselves for a while, and they just go and defecate to a short distance! So we are very lucky to find the lions active by this time of the day! Isabella, eight versus one; they can be able to make that hippo tired!

But maybe they can see that it is a much bigger hippo, and it's a territorial male! I can see the outer layers of the eyes is showing me that the darker color of the outer layer of the eyes tells me that it's a male! A female is pink! So the males can be very much aggressive!

Maybe that is why they are now moving away from the animals! We are very lucky to see the lions much more active when the Sun is beta four degrees! Lions are conducting a hunt! Lovely, isn't it Joshua? When it comes to hunting, you must have to think about the following: the hippopotamus can run thirty-six kilometers per hour; the lions can run up to eighty kilometers per hour!

But the thing is, who is going to run fast when the animals are stalking a prey? Remember, they make sure that the concealment is right! They hide, and this is the surprise! They launch a surprise! Even if an animal has good high speed, if surprised, if a launch has been surprised, then by the time you realize it’s coming—it's too late! That is how these animals are catching their prey!

So you can see now they’re lying down again! Some of them must have eaten! Some of them must be lying down flat again! So the waterbuck was much more ideal to take down than the hippopotamus. So now let's cross over to the Maasai Mara, where Steve has got a lovely egg!

Welcome back! Thanks, Sydney! I hope your lions happen to come across something to snack on in the wild! Hippos are a very interesting thing for lions to snack on, and you’ll probably see tomorrow afternoon!

Look what we found! Alone! Out in the bush! No nests, no adults, a single ostrich egg! Look at the size of it! Twenty-four eggs apparently in there! Somewhere around that, and that's rotten—completely rotten! I can even smell it on my hands now! Elvis is the range of the back who collected it, and he's pulling a very sour face behind me!

Oh my word! So he was wondering, am I going to fry it, are we gonna cook it? But it's definitely rotten; you can smell it; it's permeating through the shell! But isn't that an incredible size for an ostrich? And they will lay a number of those on their nests out in the open, and the adults will incubate them at different times! But they'll first lay all of them, and they'll do it one at a time because it takes a good half a day sometimes thirty hours to develop an egg.

And they'll move away and then come back again lay another one, move away, and then they will sit on the nest for a one period! Once all the eggs are there so that all the chicks hatch at the same time! Called synchronistic hatching! So all the chicks will hatch! And due to the size of this egg, there's an enormous amount of yolk, and that’s food to assist in the chicks to get much bigger than they would if they’re in a nest in the tree or something like that!

So that is a term called precocial, meaning pre-developed! They come out and they’re pretty much ready to follow mum around! They're just these little tiny bundles of down feather, and they can follow mum around and pick and pick and pick!

Oh James is now laughing at me! Well, does it smell nice? I'm gonna put it back on the ground next to the road where it belongs! And I don't even think a honey badger would be interested in this guy! Unless one of us have now got very smelly hands!

And well folks, I've been trying to search the literature! The literature that’s spelt with G double O G O! And my books for how much a buffalo can eat in a day, and I can't find it! Anyway, lots of information telling you what a buffalo's eating habits are!

But, and conquering with me about thirty-five-odd liters! Some say forty-five liters they can drink in a matter of minutes sometimes twice a day or they’ll drink depending on the temperatures! But nowhere can I find how much they physically can eat!

The reality though is that they are bulk feeders, so they do feed on a lot of food, but if you go through a rumination stage, you feed on a lot less than you would if you’re hand-grazing! So a zebra has got twice the amounts of food going through than an animal of its equivalent size that is a ruminant!

And that is just a guy who sits in the gut for half the time! So ruminants, they can feed on a fair amount of food, but it goes through slowly! So that in higher quality food, zebra, elephants, black and white runner warthog, well they can just feed on bulk quickly, quickly going through, and the gut retention time is very low!

It's all sort of fermentation that happens sort of in the back! That’s what causes them to be very flatulent! Very flatulent! Big flatulents of the bush! That is where, as a buffalo, when the conditions or the vegetation gets quite poor, they’re still feed on the same amount, but they don’t get as much quality out of a lower quality vegetation! So that’s one of the benefits of being a ruminant or negatives of being a ruminant versus a non-ruminant or hungry animal!

Is that when the quality of the vegetation diminishes, as we’ve seen in Juma's madrasahs, the buffalo last year—everyone remembers! I wasn't there, but I saw some footage, and there are carcasses all over the place! The buffalo do very badly! Or lots of ruminants do very badly when the conditions are very poor!

We’re seeing it now with Indiana and Juma. I'm not sure if that’s changed in the last couple of weeks! Retin zebras, warthogs, I just keep going on keeping doing their thing! They’re gonna feed more! But they get better! They get more out of the quantity that they’re feeding on!

If that makes any sense, that's all through fermentation in the gut! Oh, so I hope that clears a little sheds a little bit of light! But I'm not finished; I know there is a book out there! My friends got one on graders and it gives you all of this information!

I know that information is there! If anyone has that information on them right now, please feel free to pop it in, on Twitter or on a message or on the YouTube chat stream! Let us know how much! Oh James, I don't know what I've done here, but we have picked a road that’s been disused for some time!

Can you maybe say that question again for me, please? While I navigate this very treacherous path! There’s a road, by the way, it’s just disused! James, it's a very good question! I mean ostrich chicks' survival has really got to do with the predation in an area! I think you know you can get anywhere from ten to fifteen eggs being laid! All those chicks will hatch, or not all of them!

A lot of them will get stolen! They’re prized! I mean that egg there is ideal! Every spotted something! That egg is an ideal food source for plenty of animals! Archer, mongooses, and badgers! Even hyenas! Jackals will go for it! Even baboons, of course! And humans will go for the eggs! And how many survive?

Well, the ostriches are very good parents! Sorry, I'm being pointed out something in the distance! We might have something of interest! I've got some topi! Are we scared? See, if I can answer your question better. So I suppose they were quite a high success rate in areas of low predation, but unfortunately, aren't on these sort of plains!

There are so many predators! That ostrich! Ostriches! I don't know the exact number, but they've probably got a very low survival rate! We don't see too many ostriches around, and they are able to breed quite readily! Which means they're able to have a number of chicks at the same time!

And while I haven't seen any chicks since I've been here, it’s a good chance that a lot of them are now caught and eaten! Not only to ground or terrestrial predators, but also to aerial predators! Isabella, there are extremely nutritious! And I've heard of people having ostrich omelets!

Can you imagine the size of that? Woof! Oh, smell is following us around! So James, I'm sorry I don't have an exact number—OODs on the success of ostriches! I had my salads, yes I did! And our eggs for dessert! I could have saved some for breakfast! But unfortunately, I don't know about you—many of you ever tried to eat a rotten egg?

I made the mistake once of making an omelet of thirteen eggs into the pan! And then mixing it well! Scrambled egg, it was a very big mistake! You've got to crack them each into a cup and then throw them in! Otherwise, you can really spoil whatever it is you’re trying to eat! I've done that once before; I'll never do it again! Learn my mistake!

And it takes one rotten egg to spoil the batch! But you are! James, I'm sorry I haven't seen any juvenile ostriches! I've been here a few females and a few males together, but none of that sort of small diminutive kind!

That’s, I haven't seen them! So I suspect up here the survival is quite low, but in the sort of more arid areas where you've generally got the less predators per hectare, I'm sure the survival increases quite a lot! Oh, smell that! That's a dead animal! Yes, it is! There's a carcass over here!

There's nothing quite like the smell of a rotten dead animal to take your mind off your stinky hands that smelt of ostrich rotten egg! Lovely smell today! And those smells! I hear in the dark, disgusting! Oh yes, oh yes! Very exciting!

Well, I know if the lions were around and the wind picked up! And they smelled that they’d probably get quite excited! But it seems as if Sydney's lions have decided to take a nap! So you can see that the boomers are starting to come together now; they are resting not very far away from the hippopotamus.

They are just lying down at a distance of about twenty to twenty-five meters away from the hippopotamus! So they are coming together! So far, I have counted nine! So the ninety-one I can say is far behind; maybe it's gonna come this side, much more closer!

So now they are doing what they know, sleeping long hours during the day! So that is when the ninth one so these critters are making quite a lot of noise; vocalizing against that one! So this we decide, by all means, to inform the waterbucks.

Earlier on, it’s just that the waterbuck was not seeing what was happening, so this feels cold, cold, cold! And the waterbuck kept coming, kept coming until these lions started talking and getting closer, and that last one decided to go first!

The first one decided to go first without informing the others! So these lions, when they're hunting, they coordinate, make use of their tails and the tip of the ears! You see the ears moving every time, and also the tails! So we didn't see too much communication amongst that group, so maybe when joy the hippopotamus is just standing there, he might be there maybe since this afternoon, or since this morning!

They can spend much time standing like that! This is not very rare! It's what the hippos do when they are away from the water holes! Sometimes, you can see the hippopotamus very long distances, such as sixteen kilometers away from the territorial water holes, and then they come back to the water holes afterward!

He's not very far away from the water hole! I can estimate that it might be about six hundred to seven hundred meters away from the water hole! So he's not very far! You can hear the others falling from the water hole! M'kay, the hippo is trying to be invisible!

So it means this hippo got stuck here because of the lions! Maybe why? Because the eve of the hippopotamus has been very hot at thirty-four degrees! For him to stand there all day long is very bad to the skin! Hippopotamus, they do secrete some kind of fluid in order to try and fight the sunburn, but they must have to be going in and out of the water hole!

Maybe this is the main cause of him stuck in there without going to the water hole! So, but then we just went to wait here and see what's going to happen! The time he's moving back to the water hole, we might see some action between him and their lions! Michelle, the possibilities are very much high!

We are talking about an adult hippo! So this hippo is huge! I can promise you these lions at ten, they are nine and trying that hippo is a big mission! The hippopotamus can be very dangerous! He can ingest some of these lions! There are records where lions do take hippos, but it's not an easy exercise!

Gavi, I think for nine lions, the hippopotamus is enough compared to the size of the waterbuck; they lost earlier! They just got to eat this very thick skin! So that hippopotamus knows very well what is happening! He saw the lions! Anyway, he can still see the lions, and he's not worried about them at all!

So you can see now, the young male is there at the moment also resting! I think I saw another young male as well! I cannot see where it is! When the lions are starting to grow the mane, normally is when they get older than two years! So the mane is showing you that they are getting there; they're about to mature!

Just gonna take them one or two years again in order to be fully mature! It contributes a lot when it comes to the absorption of the sun! It’s like a scarf; it helps them when it’s cold, and it brings quite a lot of heat when it's hot! But it does say for many other purposes, such as the protection of the neck when they are challenging each other for territoriality!

Tick-tick! The hippopotamus, they can be very strong! Sorry for that! Hippopotamus are very much strong animals! And if you check within the whole animal kingdom, hippopotamus are the first group with a very huge record of killing people every year! When talking about the mammals within the animal kingdom!

But the animal killing people alert among the whole animal kingdom is the mosquito! So when talking about mammals—mammals are those animals with heads! They've got mammary glands! They are endemic! They regulate their own body temperature, and they've got a well-developed brain!

So when talking about those ones hippopotamus is the first one! But when talking about everything—including insects, etc.—is just a class: insects fall under kingdom Animalia! So the animals I can see, this hippo, when it is not even moving at all, it is just standing there!

So this is what the hippos are doing as well when they go to the buffaloes; they get there, and then they wait because there's no water! Now we’ll see them out of the water; you're out of the dry dam! So now let's cross over back to the Masai Mara and see what Steve is having at the moment!

Thanks to Elvis, we have seen a few fully grown hyenas! Some couple minutes ago! But now we've found one of the mothers with her two cubs! And I might keep my voice a bit soft, as they are very close to the mother! I can't see very well! Not sure if they're nursing or not, but this is one of the females in a Waffles clan of hyenas!

That sure she's very relaxed with us! Oops! She puts her head up! We had the zebras from the background that they could hear! And like any other mother with natural instincts, when you have a baby, the mother is very alert to any sound of movement!

See how dark or black the calves look? An indication to me, they could be less than three months! The sport doesn't show until they capture three months and above! Very sleepy cubs! Hold up, guests, but now this should be out and about playing! It was pretty cool! Too easily you—nothing!

I guess I initially learned to our browse! Not very swarmed! And I know this system will be in a smaller... baby has no brain! Not for a very long time with quite an issue for cubs! Or for the cubs rather! It tends to maintain us for up to I in half, which is very unlike cubs!

Before the wind! And again, remember, it's a very interactive safari! Turn on! You’re asking if hyenas are omnivorous, and I would say hyenas are carnivores! Carnivores because they will only eat meat, and either they tell on hunt for themselves!

Or occasionally, they scavenge, but also they are known to steal meat or kills from other predators like lions or leopards! Oh, hyenas are very good hunters! And by themselves! But even opportunistic about stealing which kills they have been known to do that!

Taylan, hyenas got wonderful hearing! They can pick the sound of a lion cracking a bone weigh like one thousand meters away! Can you imagine? One thousand kilometers! And you can pick a sound! Very high order to! I’ve heard them talking about shakes—something 6.2 or 6.5 miles!

So picking some of the lions going for a hunt or as soon as they can hear them struggling! The animals before they start eating it! Hyenas can pick that sound or vibration! And definitely go there! This particular clan we have seen a number of times going to lions and stealing the kills!

There's a particular print of lions around here! That's good! We know! We know the pair of lions Steve has been trying to locate! We haven't seen for a couple of days! And this highness has always picked thick heel from the O-Enos!

And snatched the Emil! What they do, they get close to the kill and build numbers! They intimidate them! I carries! They must be very hungry! We've seen two of them in the background who can hear more hyenas!

I either heading home! It's very tiny cubs, and cuisine! Because of their color, being black, that's how they are born! And again, I say it's rather unusual to see the mothers nothing for long! And I'm very happy all of you enjoy this view!

And I hope Waffles, her name is Linda, you're still tuned in and you're watching these cubs! You are happy when their heads I might be visiting the Waffles or the North clan! And here we are, how sleepy and how peaceful this mother is!

We'll have two cubs! But once the old head up, listen! Look! Smell! An obscure! Should there be an opportunity of some food somewhere! She was top nursing her cubs and go look for some food! Occasion we have seen some other senior ranking members bring food!

Whity, that's a very good question! And I wonder why she cannot sleep while they're nothing! And I'm sure she is having a bit of carnage for a couple of seconds or minutes! But like we see, that one whitey! But like any, you know, mother, they have natural instincts!

Especially when they have very tiny cubs! Very small cubs like this! And the whole idea is you have to be very alert! I mean, even if challenges the fish, who took away the leopards or maybe other hyenas!

Or alliance because of what are called predator competition! So she cannot take any chances! You see how she’s looking—she's very alert! So natural for all animals in the wilderness when they have the young ones; they become super alert!

And very conscious of any sound out there! But I think the cubs—my guess is they’re both nothing! And maybe having local cups because they look so, so peaceful! And this is one of those great sightings!

I am really enjoying this sighting at the moment! So this little one has got a big house! You see that house there next to the adult? If you look at that termite mound next to the adults, that’s where they are staying! It’s a very big house!

And that house is very much safe; the problem is this house is used by the animals as a timeshare! Today we have got the hyenas, tomorrow the warthogs are staying there! After that, it’s gonna serve as the den for another species as well!

So when the little ones are there, they are also at high risk because the other predators such as wild dogs! If they discover the dens, they look for them and kill them! So just to minimize the predators in the area!

So the competition is too high; it's got nothing to do with territoriality; it’s about the competition of food! If Steve has got another servo at the moment, Steve is leading in terms of the servo sightings!

I’ll call you Mr! Self on these days, do you? Indeed! This is the fifth servo we have seen this evening! So as far as what we've spotted from the road, these animals are certainly not endangered in the Mara!

On that, so this is calling me Mrs. Cyril! Shame! Citizen! Oh, you're quite jealous of us seeing their servals! But you'll get your opportunity! I'm sure my friend, and it's one of those cats! You just got to go to the right habitat and you will find them!

And well—this is clearly the right place! And well—this one seeming! There’s been a little bit more resting—no, it’s up! Oh, hello! Serval! Steve! I think you are—is the typical cat stretch!

I definitely was having a bit of a rest and now it’s going to slink away into the long grass! Isn't that a beautiful sight? Lovely patterns—spots—rings on the tail! And long stripes on the back of the neck provide the perfect camouflage for a cat that lives in long grasslands! Gorgeous!

Well, as it moves slowly away out of the IR spectrum yet again! RB it, indeed! Well, we—this is what is happening; the spotlight is assisting, obviously! And there’s beautiful emerald shining eyes are what stand out for us in the darkness!

And well, as we see our last serval depart into the thickets—day of the long grass! David is still with at the North Glen! Well, I think Steve has heard! He’s more sighting of servals today than any other day of his life!

I won't confirm that in him during dinner time and our cabbages are still nothing! And by the Maasai Mara, there was also not—so you can see that now ours, they want to take over! And at the moment, the cubs are pretty!

Got disappeared to the other side! Maybe now, Priddy is giving the cubs some orders! That you have to remain in the den; I'm just about to leave now, and you can see now! Good cookie and the cub! Also, they are very relaxed! It has been a lovely afternoon, and coupled with quite a lot of sightings all the way from the Maasai Mara in Kenya as well as here in South Africa by the western side of the greater Kruger National Park!

Thank you very, very much for all your questions and commands! We are going to meet again tomorrow morning! We are going to carry on and bring you the best wildlife experience ever!