Safari Live - Day 322 | National Geographic

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

What a beautiful afternoon! You can see here we have got the wildebeest just at the background there who are now going to drink. Apart from the wildebeest, some other animals—big herbivores—I can see them approaching from far. Good afternoon and welcome to the beginning of the game drive we have long been waiting for. I am Sydney from Makozi and I’m traveling with Craig, who is my camera operator this afternoon.

I am going to be looking for interesting animals, specifically the cats, but when coming across the big ones, such as the elephants and other big animals, we are going to stop and have a discussion. In case you want to be part of our discussion, you can follow us on Twitter, hashtag #SafariLive. You can also follow us on the YouTube chat stream.

So, I'm going to see if we can have a better sighting on this ahead of the wildebeest. I can see this one big elephant as well approaching from the other side. Also, baboons are here! I can see baboons as well here, around o'clock, right in front of us. It looks like it’s an amazing sighting there, because there’s a lot of wildebeest just by the open space.

So we are right at the Vuyatela pan; it is one of the non-perennial dams here where the beasts are enjoying themselves. You can see some of them are done drinking; they are just relaxed. I am so very much worried about the lack of dung beetles in the area. For a while, I have been looking for the dung beetles here every day, and I'm not winning. I am not too sure what is happening; maybe the dung beetles are now just after the elephants, and they are concentrating where there’s still a population of elephants, as well as the buffalos, as they like to eat those droppings a lot.

So, you can see now I have got the wildebeest; if you look at them from a distance, you'll see they’ve got a lot of stripes. Today we can clearly see that they are brindle; the wildebeest—if you can see just by the side of the head, these stripes are very much clear at the moment. This is where the name "brindle nose" is coming from, as brindle is a term which means the stripes.

So I'm not seeing any of the zebras around here. I know the wildebeest are always associated with animals such as zebras due to their poor eyesight, as the zebras have got good eyesight, which is a good relationship. Because when it comes to predators, they can easily warn each other. The wildebeest have got good sense of smell, and zebras don't have good sense of smell. It means both these two have got a mutualistic relationship. They are both benefiting from feeding together.

So you can see this wildebeest there is trying to sniff. One of them is right in the water here. I don't know the reason why this one is deep in water; maybe it’s trying to cool their body temperature. Look at that! This one looks tired! When the little one was going down, I thought maybe the little one wants to feed from the knees like the warthogs.

So it's nice, and the wildebeest can migrate long distances! I am just not too sure in terms of the kilometers, but let me give you something which determines the low productivity of their movement. These animals can migrate according to the availability of food; so if the food is nearby, they are going to obviously stop nearby. But if the food is far, they are going to walk long distances. In other words, the migration distances are determined by the availability of food.

So this is normal here by the Juma Game Reserve and other areas as well. Well, the wildebeest, when they are walking, you will see they normally walk and they keep changing according to the availability of food. Now let’s go to Taylor, who’s got a beautiful cat.

"Right to everybody! Hello, good afternoon! Thank you so much for joining us today! We have a special guest appearance of Kalamba, the young daughter of Tandi!"

I wonder, I wonder, I wonder where she’s off to. Can I just tell you the quick joke? The joke is that I didn't know where I was going, and I was like, "Okay fine, we're going to the Mawasi because we were fine Tamba," and then I just turned the corner and they took that not Tamba Kalamba; the infant Kalamba was just there! So, that's great—a great start to the afternoon!

"Now, she, I think she’s using the luxury facility! That looks like a luxury facility from what I can remember! I can’t hear any animal sounds, so I thought I heard something in the distance, like maybe a herd of elephants, but that’s not the case at all! Oh, there she goes, just one rolling down the road! Kristen, thank you so much, you’re hilarious! He said finally, I don’t have anything that’s running away from me! No, for a change! This morning, if you watched the sunrise safari, it was a disaster because I couldn’t find any animals!

I went up to Buffles, looked down because Jamie—well she said to me, ‘there’s mating leopards here,’ and she had a great sighting of him. I couldn’t even get that right! Then ran away from me! She’s just walking past another mud wallow! Now she didn’t even care for the dives! Did you see that? She showed no interest whatsoever! Let’s go and see where she goes!

"This is going to be fantastic!" Well, I'm hoping that this is going to be fantastic! I was actually going to church with Church, where we were gonna go via the Malati over those dives! Can I just say one moment? You have to appreciate the two dives that... well I suppose they survived, didn't they? They had a near-death encounter with a leopard and all they wanted to do was just come down to have a drink of water!

Okay, lovely showing all you all the animals now while we have them before they decide to run away from me again! Kalamba is now not going particularly fast up the road. You can’t see her now, but she’s kind of just around the bend; she’s actually moving very quickly!

I don’t know where she's off to! She’s got her ears pricked forward and she seems to know exactly where she’s going. Hmm. Is she going towards her Koumori? I don’t know. We’ll wait and see! Right, Sydney, however, has not got such a small animal in front of him; he’s got a rather large one and it’s walking quite close by!

The elephant has just arrived now and I can see the baby is following while the other side the wildebeests are now trying to move away from the dam as the elephants are coming in; I think the wildebeests are not very comfortable with the presence of this big animal here around them! You can see this elephant looks very much thirsty at the moment; it’s drinking and this kind of animal can be able to drink 150 to 250 liters of water a day! That’s quite a lot!

So the sun is getting hot at the moment; maybe after drinking they might display some of the mud wallowing! So you can see that these elephants are really thirsty! It has been a very long day; the elephants can be able to drink up to 18 hours! They can be able to feed up to 18 hours a day! So I can see that this is one of the best sightings at the moment!

We diverted away the wildebeests nearby and all the other animals! So I don’t think it’s fair if we don’t share this kind of spectacular sighting with the other viewers! What a beautiful sighting and welcome to the beginning of our very special sighting!

I am Sydney from Makosi and I'm coming to you live from the western side of the greater Kruger National Park here in South Africa, Sabi Sands, Juma Game Reserve! I'm just not far away from the Vuyatela pan and we have got this very beautiful sighting of the elephants who are trying to have a drink at the moment while the wildebeests are watching.

As the wildebeest got here first, it is amazing to see that the little one, instead of drinking water, the little one needs some calcium! She doesn’t want to drink water; she needs some milk! I can see that she’s trying by all means to get hold of the teats so that she can get milk! This is a beautiful sighting! Elephants are just beautiful! Just by looking at the elephants' ears you can see you are indeed in Africa! The elephant's ears resemble the map of Africa!

Look at that! So the little ones must have to be drinking milk a lot! You can hear that we don’t only have the elephants here and the wildebeests; we do have other animals! The baboons are also making some calls, but those calls are not warning calls. They’re just normal calls! I know baboons! When it comes to predators, they always warn other animals!

So, the baby elephant is going to be here until they are about 18 years, when they are going to be chased away. Judging by the size of that baby, I think the baby might be between two and three years. Remember the elephants have two nursed? These little ones until they’re between three and four, and after that, they will be part of the very same herd. But when they get to 16 to 18 years, is when the little ones are going to be independent completely!

So here, the mother has to nurse the little one and teach the little ones all the manners! Elephants, they have to be feeding! They make use of the trunk, and in order to use the trunk while they are still very young, they must have to go through a certain training from the others to know how to utilize the trunk!

So you can see on a convoy, the little one is leading! So it is not the responsibility of the little ones in order to lead the herd! What we are seeing there is not normal! Normally, the head of elephants is headed by a matriarch, which is normally the oldest female! She is the one who is responsible for decision-making as to where we are going, what time we're going to be back here, and which directions we are going to feed!

This afternoon you can hear the baboons! So, I’m left now here with the wildebeest, and I can hear the baboons making noise everywhere here around me. The baboons' noise is bringing us to the end of the special broadcast of the special sighting! I am going to carry on now and look for more animals!

So you can see that the wildebeests were just giving the largest land mammal a chance to come and drink! Now the elephants are right on their feet; they are still watching the larger mammals moving away from this waterhole! So this part here where the wildebeests are is ideal because this way the wildebeests can be able to see far! It’s much more open here!

Now we can see there are some baboons here, so now we are going to Jamie! It is also about to start by the tent.

"Awesome! It’s something that I’ve really missed since I’ve got back! Here’s a wonderful sighting of Sydney! Nothing of Sydney; oh, her sighting of elephants drinking! I’m sorry something bit me on the side of the nose!"

As we read it live, my eyes are watering! "So, happy! Oh very good afternoon to you all! My name is Jamie, the soft, and Hing Andre is on camera with me. And the reason that we are out in the tent this afternoon is because we’re having some tech difficulties with the Mara! And Chandra needs to be relatively home-based because he is quite an important man when it comes to running things!

"He is another important man and he’s hiding through the window! He’s hiding his idea! He’s tried Roddy! You must have known I was gonna do that! That of course is the Con Roddy! He is our tech genius out here!

Now the most exciting thing about this afternoon's events for me, at least, Chandra wasn't as excited as I was because he's already seen this! It's a return of the Mopani bees! And I was so happy; I really hope James knows about this because I really feel like it’s going to bring him so much joy! Look at them! They've got an even bigger entrance tunnel to their skull than they’ve ever had before!

That is incredibly disconcerting, watching myself ten seconds ago in the background! But anyway, nevertheless, there are the Mopani bees and they have returned in greater numbers than ever before! This is an absolute joy to sit and watch as they come streaming out of their little waxy entrance tunnel, or exit tunnel, I suppose it goes both ways!

Sorry, Chandra, left in the way! Isn’t this absolutely beautiful? For the last, I don’t know, when did we first spot the Mopani bees—two years or so ago, I would say? Whenever we set this tent up, the Mopani bees have been a constant feature of our lives!

I was truly devastated when I saw the entrance tunnel was broken and looked deserted and devoid of life! And it was like that for a long time! Chandra, that is stunning! What an absolutely beautiful view! Now, right now, what they’re doing in their little hive is creating what is said to be the sweetest honey of all bees!

But to subscribe or whether or not that is actually the case we would have to break open the giraffe skull and destroy their hive in order to get to it! So I don’t think that’s something we will ever, ever do! We also know that these particular bees are attracted to sweat! So if by the end of the afternoon they are buzzing all over us, then you'll know exactly why!

Now I’m pretty certain I’ve got your name wrong! Bug marker, pad marker, bug maker—I’m really sorry! You say “Wow!” or something along those lines! I’ve forgotten what you said because I’ve forgotten your name! Yep, there we go! It is indeed pug mark! I’m very sorry; I was absolutely right the first time!

Pug marker says something about this being absolutely amazing! It really is! I’m probably going to have to move them outside, at least for the duration of our segments in the tent! Which is quite sad because I always worry about disturbing them! But if they’ve survived two years of us coming and going in this tent, I’m pretty certain that they’re going to be absolutely fine!

No, Princess Kimberly! These are also known as stingless bees! No, they do not sting humans! They can get a little bit much when they crowd around your face! They’re obviously in search of any kind of moisture—sweat, liquid around the eyes, around the tear ducts, or up your nose—that gets a bit much at times when they do that!

And what you find is if you accidentally squash one, which I’m afraid to say does happen because now you know, you do that, and all of a sudden, there’s a squishy little Mopani bee! It actually attracts the rest of them and they all swarm towards you! So that while they don’t bite, they can get a little bit irritating!

Which is why I think I’m going probably to avoid that accidental squashing of a Mopani bee! I’m going to move this outside for the duration—I of course have that option available to me! Sydney’s out battling the elements, of course, including the Mopani bees!

I am doing some tracking at the moment as I want to see if we are going to find some cats in this area or not! But so far, there are no updates! I’m heading towards the area where Koumori was spotted this morning and maybe our luck is on that side! Central is very much quiet! Maybe Koumori is not down with the occupancy and he was seen this morning!

I wonder how he managed to catch the porcupine! As James—there are no updates at all with regards to Tenganan and the new girlfriend! Tingan has been introducing a lot of girlfriends to her! New girlfriends! He knows where to find them!

So far, there are no updates with regards to his whereabouts together with his girlfriend! Our saying, Koumori—I don’t know how he managed to catch the porcupine because hunting a porcupine can be a very serious mission! I was once on a sighting where a leopard failed to catch a porcupine! This porcupine was very clever!

When the leopard was coming, the porcupine was reversing, and the leopard was going back! And when the porcupine goes forward, the leopard was following! You will see the porcupine turning his back and the leopard going back!

He tried to even crawl! He tried all the different strategies but you couldn’t win that porcupine that day! So catching a porcupine can be a very serious mission, and they can also be dangerous sometimes! Because if they don’t approach the porcupine naturally, they can end up getting those quills on them!

And if there’s nobody to assist them, they can catch big cats! They can die from those quills! So it's a very serious protective armor! The elephant has been here! It looks like it has been quite a lot of elephants! So here I am! The bush is changing! I can see already the grass is reaching the final stage of development!

The grass is only at climax stage now they are starting to get dry! Some of them! So the sun is too much! So when the grass is getting dry now by the beginning of March, you can see that when—when me, some of the porcupines—you might find that they are old! And when getting old because of fighting and encountering quite a lot of challenges, they lose the quills!

And you find that they don’t have a lot of quills anymore! What I have seen the leopard trying to do that day—they try by all means to get an area which does not have quills! That is where they capitalize to catch these porcupines! If not that, they try to see if they can have an opportunity to turn the porcupine so that they can catch them!

But the leopard has to be very hungry to go after the porcupine! I don’t think a leopard which has got quite a little food can get quite a lot of motivation to go after the porcupine! So, there are very fresh tracks of the elephants here! We might be lucky with the elephants in this area! The animals are so very much unpredictable!

And I will give you a very good example! Maybe this is something you have heard here before! Not long ago, we witnessed a female leopard which was killed by Tenganan! So, Okumura and Kalamba—the interaction can be very much unpredictable! So if they meet, the chances of Okumura to take action against Kalamba are also very much high!

Normally, we see the females fighting the same sex, and we see the males against the same sex! It is very much rare to find that a male is killing a female! So that is why it’s important sometimes to consider the behavior of animals we are seeing rather than just focusing on the texts! Because the textbooks sometimes contradict what we are seeing here out in the world!

So sometimes we talk about what we are witnessing, which is completely different from what we are reading on different menus we are studying most of the time! So there is quite a lot of things that are not yet discovered on these animals! And some of these discoveries—because we are spending much time with these animals— we see things that are totally unusual!

So now let's go back to Taylor, who is trying to reallocate the shy Kalamba.

"Hello, everybody! Hello, hello! We’re searching Kalamba! Went into the mawashi, which we then followed for a while, and then she just went up a steep bank like this and jumped on top and came out somewhere here! But now I don’t know where she’s gone, and I’m trying to see if I can find tracks!

She’s making strange sounds! I don’t know what she was doing—if she heard somebody! So sorry! I just got to quickly focus on the road just to see if I don’t miss any footprints! We’ll go back down; I mean I’m sure she’s going in the direction of Twin Dam’s watering hole itself!

Yeah, we need to turn around! She’s gone! But where did she go? Why did she come up here? If she’s gone into some of these drainage lines, that’s gonna be a disaster! We’ll have to probably move on from her and try to come back a little bit later! Because it is super thick!

I mean, even in winter, we struggle to drive along these drainage lines! It’s absolutely no way we’ll be able to do it in summer! Okay, so now we need the squirrels, the Franklins, the spur fowl, anybody else that wants to shout leopard! We need them right now! See, she could have just dashed down that side!

So… who sins on? I just got a scanning! Lee, Rainie! Rainie! Ha! Wonderful! Seems things are about gremlins or any of this afternoon to know! Let’s off! You go to Sydney, who’s having some more luck!"

Apologies for the inconvenience! This is due to some bad signals! And the bush is still very much thick! We are still here at the rainy season; the bush is excited, and we cannot blame the bush for that! Because this bush, when it’s looking nutritious and growing big, is beneficial for quite a lot of animals! So now, I am heading much more towards the treehouse dam! After three of them, I'm going to where Koumori was spotted!

I’m just hoping he’s gonna come and drink there by the tree! Asda—but I know next to the Irony dad, there are also some other waterholes where he can also have a drink! Because animals don’t mind water from their waterholes! But here where I am, I am not seeing any tracks! There is no much cat activity since Hannah decided to leave us to go up to the known Louisi area! It’s very quiet! Even Kangana is not around!

So there’s not much leopard tracks here! There used to be a lot of leopard streets because these animals used to sometimes take each other’s kill! Like when was on, of course, something Chananga will come! So which means you will always see the tracks around here everywhere because of that!

So here I can pick up very, very nice push! Something very important here in the bush is that the rhino beetles—I haven't seen them feeding on the dung! Because remember we have got different kinds of beetles! So the rhino beetles, I’ve never seen them handling the dung! Like the dung beetles we are having! But if we look at the structure of the rhino beetle and look at the structure of the dung beetle, you will see that the tools are not the same! The dung beetles that are eating the dung they've got a spade-like—they’ve got a spade-like front structure that helps them to dig!

And we ask them in order to collect the droppings! But the rhino beetle, you can see with those two horns, cannot help in order to get the droppings, the particles from the droppings to construct a ball! So the rhino beetles are so very beautiful! They are good-looking beetles! But I like the dung beetles for now!

Let’s go back to Jamie by the tent!

"I feel a little bit like an odd Disney princess in a way with all these Mopani bees around me! I took the skull outside and then felt so guilty that we brought it back in again because all the Mopani bees looked so lost and distraught that we felt bad! So we’ve put it back where it was so that they can come in and out!

So if you see us surrounded by the Mopani bees, that’s why! And I’ve just got to hope that none of them land on me and I don’t, you know, forget and accidentally squash one! We also have this tent; it’s actually become something of an ecosystem in its own way! We have an entire family of geckos, as you know! The weather—what do they call the end-button spiders? Made it a home at one point!

There we go! There’s a striped skink! One dragged along at the top of the tent! We’ve had an eastern tiger snake slithering around at some point or another! Although it’s largely the geckos and the lizards and the skinks that enjoy their time here! I’m sure there’s a whole host of other spiders that we haven’t really noticed!

But perhaps the most distressing is what’s happened underneath the tent! A couple of weeks ago we thought we’d had quite a big rain, and we thought that perhaps the floor of the tent had washed away when we compacted it and put it all back together! And the next day, it was uneven! One small—well, we realized that there had to be another explanation to this, although Steph and I had something of a disagreement about this because he was convinced it was water! I was convinced otherwise!

Anyway, it turns out that an entire family of rodents has moved in underneath of the tent! And as a result, we now have large holes in the form of tunnels moving all the way through the floor of the tent! Meaning that if John Drew falls over, it’s probably not his fault! At least in this particular case, it’s because the chair goes over backwards!

Yeah, exactly! Exactly! Beautifully demonstrated! Thank you, John Drew! It is because there’s a family of rodents that persists in excavating underneath our tent! We haven't quite figured out what actually is we’re going to do about it! But while we sort of problem-solve and brainstorm that, we’re seeing amazing things on our live safaris! We see lions! We see leopards! We see elephants drinking!

We see all sorts of birds! But the truth is, what we really want to show you—and I know what you get really excited about—is grass! Now we try and meter out the chats that we have about grass! Because sometimes it gets so overwhelmingly exciting that people actually can’t take it! And sometimes we get reports of viewers fainting when we overdo the grass segments! But today we’re going to take that risk!

Because the dry season is approaching! The flowers of—the flowers! But the breeding parts of the plants, of a grass—the litter, the breeding parts of the grasses, also known as the inflorescences, are in full bloom right now! But they’re starting to dry out! Meaning that our opportunity to tell you all about grasses is relatively limited! Because once they disappear, then I have to tell you, there’s not one among us who can tell the difference between one species of grass and another!

It is only at this time of year! So then I was thinking, you know, when we have a whole host of different grasses here, what shall we do with them? How can we make this slightly more exciting? And I thought, well, I do know that some of you would really love the opportunity to demonstrate—I use the word demonstrate and not show off—just how much you’ve learnt from our live safaris over the years!

Some of you actually astound us with your knowledge! And I often find myself gobsmacked with my jaw hitting the floor when you can answer some of the questions that we put to you! And find out information that gives us an example of your true abilities as researchers!

Oh yeah, we’re having a minor crisis here! It’s falling apart! Oops! Now I'm throwing a tortoise shell across the room! So here’s the idea! Every segment—and we might do other stuff as well, never fear! Because I wouldn’t want any of you to get overwhelmed by the power of grasses and find yourselves too excited!

Nature girl says, “Wait! Let her take her heart polls before the start of this grass segment!” Maybe take two, just in case! You never know! Alright, we’re gonna do a lot of grasses! So prepare yourselves! Take a deep breath! Get yourself a fan, perhaps! Maybe have a cup of tea, nice and sweet with plenty of sugar! Sugar, of course, comes from a grass!

We’re gonna do a quiz on each and every single segment that we do! That is going to make Emma’s job extraordinarily enjoyable at final control! I think she’s in D2, so she’s going to be sifting through all of your answers!

First up is the easiest of all of them! I’m not going to tell you what it is! And I will only tell you what each grass species is in the next segment that I do; how does that sound? So we’re going to have a look at first—you’re going to see the inflorescence—and then I’m going to put it under the microscope! Because I have a microscope! And as you know, you cannot let me loose with a microscope without being forced to enjoy endless amounts of discussion about just how extraordinary in nature’s!

Oh! Oh! Jamie’s focus is appalling! There you go! Wow! That’s really cool, actually! Look at the spikes on that! Oh, the wind is going to blow it out from under there! Let me just put my finger on it to hold it! Jamie! Stop shaking! It’s ridiculous! Too much sugar in your tea!

There you go! Alright! Just stay okay! I’m not gonna touch it anymore because I’ve got the shakes! Joy in Hong Kong is already on it! She’s already given the answer! I’m going to hold off! Remind you, you just seen most of you using Twitter! Will have seen Joy in Hong Kong’s answer or using YouTube! I think Joy uses YouTube! So you would have seen her answer already!

Okay, so I didn’t think that through because I was going to say I’m not going to give the answer until some more of you have had a chance to think about it and perhaps give it! But let’s go because Joy has absolutely spot-on told us what it is! It is, our worst type of grass! We hate this grass! Ok, and you therefore have to hate this grass as well!

This is carrot seed grass indeed! And do you think I can remember what the Latin name is? You think I would, wouldn’t you? Well, you would be mistaken! Besides, I have a rule when I present these live safaris—a rule that I don’t break out a Latin name unless I can tell you something interesting about what the Latin name means!

Otherwise, I think it really is just pointless! You’re just listening to left names of people! People are never going to remember it and you’re only doing it to make yourself look good! James says that’s his favorite grass! Is it because it irritates us? Is that purely out of badness? It’s your favorite grass because it’s the one that gives us the least joy!

You see, the thing is, you saw those spikes on that seed! Now that, of course, is a very efficient method of seed dispersal! That is of course, provided it comes off again! Which, when they get stuck in our socks, they don’t! Yes, Monique, exactly! It ruins socks! Unless you have the patience of an absolute saint! If you walk through a patch of this, and it doesn’t, you know, just one little piece sticking up out of the ground! If you walk through a patch of this, you will find yourself absolutely covered in these grass seeds, and they don’t go anywhere!

I suppose if you have hair, if you look at fur perhaps it’s more efficient because it doesn’t stick quite as seriously! I’m gonna hate myself for this; I don’t know! There you go! Look, that’s also wet! No, James, this is not your favorite grass seed! You are mistaken! Totally mistaken!

Right, while I get that out of my hair, let’s go across to Taylor! Who is much more sensible than I am and probably doesn’t have any grass seeds in her hair!

Jamie, what on earth have you put in your hair? Also, everybody! If you didn’t notice Jamie has taken over the role of entertainer for the sub! Thank you, Jamie! I had to do it this morning! But I’m so thankful to be relieved of duty!

So now I will be serious! Safari! Taylor! I don’t know if my eyebrows moved! I think my cheeks just moved! I don’t know! It’ll embarrass days ago away, but tell me where is it? Where’s the leopard? Is she there? I’m coming for you!

Tell Amber I’m gonna catch you now by the tail, making me drive around in circles! And she’s probably just been sitting there the whole time too! So this car’s gonna conk out just now, cause it’s gonna come out!

He told you just pops out a full bath full all the time! She’s in this tree! She’s getting in big trouble! Been driving around in circles! Thank you very much! That’s my new name! Stress!

Come back! Come back! I don’t know where she is! Go away! But please say again where the leopard was that you were whining about! I know she’s gone back in the Malati! I don’t know! What do you think, Senso? There’s a girl away! A bird away!

She ran up? Yeah, I just crazy! It’s super steep! Don’t get art, because I will just flush her art in the potato, and then she’ll run away! I don’t want to do that! Knowing they’ll say!

But she could have run up and then run back down! Fizzle back into the Malati! Yeah, she’s making me work! And we’re not even halfway through this safari!

Alright, there’s a bird calling, Nina! Is a woodland kingfisher! Nina, who’s directing today, said there was nice ambient from that bird! So I thought I better tell you all! And me know what that bird actually is!

We’re going to hit a log now! Hold on, please! Hey! Up we go! It was a small one! I’m dramatic in case you haven’t noticed! Casual reverts, reverse!

Okay, we gotta go back into the Malati again! The Malati doesn’t like us very much, but stop making noises in the car, sorry! Everybody, it’s full bar for gear! Just— it’s kind of has a mind of its own!

I can’t! I don’t think when it does that it says very nice things to us in car language! No, I’ll have you know! I can be very serious! Very, very serious! Thank you very much!

You must stand up in my vehicle! You must call the animals! Go to a lion! Then watch how serious I get! Then when else can I be serious? In a lion hunt! Super serious, Sally Taylor!

Yeah, trying to think when I was! I’m really serious when people mess with my food! It’ll win! Elsa, my serious! You can’t even say anything, that’s disappointing! I’m serious about—I don’t know! I think that’s it! Guess what other things I’m serious about! I’m serious about pet and dogs! I have a serious fear of sharks! Something else that I don’t grumble about ever! You hear me joking about sharks? Not even once!

So she was here! This is—yeah, she’s now gone! Obviously, she taped some profile footprints! Anyways, if we go back to Sydney, I have got my favorite animals at the moment! Some of them are underneath here! I can just see the movement of this dung beetle! One is here! You can see another one is there!

Oh yes, the movement! You can see that they are busy now doing some constructions! So a lot of holes are showing that a lot of balls have been developed and have been taken away to the burial site! So this is amazing! Insects—they are busy doing their job!

But apart from the insects, I want to tell you something today! Coming here by the wildlife environment is very much beneficial to our health! These trees, I know a lot of people don’t take trees into consideration! They only think about game viewing! And they think game viewing is the only one which plays an important part when it comes to their relief of the stress level!

So, today I want to share something with you! Coming to the bush like this helps to boost the immune system! And it also helps to lower the blood pressure! Again, those with surgeries can easily recover quickly! What happens here is that these trees that we are seeing here, when they are breathing, they give off some of the chemicals such as phytoncides!

Phytoncides are the chemicals given by the trees in order to fight diseases and to fight the insects! When we inhale those phytoncides, they then help us because they do boost our immune system via the blood cells! And they also give what is called a natural killer! This natural killer kills what is called the affected viruses!

So you can see that when you are coming to the bush, you are going to get quite a lot of benefits! Apart from game viewing, you are going to have quite a lot of health benefits! So now I want to remind you that the Wild Earth Expeditions—their website is now open! And the bookings are going to be up and running from the 17th of March!

So you can come and gain some health benefits here in the wild! I am going to see if we can find Koumori now! So I'm going to be heading towards that area where Koumori was spotted! Oh look how the dung beetle is living just after I left there—the dung beetle is leaving! You can see there’s this dung beetle pushing the ball!

A child of the universe—the birds—they come and eat these dung beetles! You know the thing is, the birds come when there are insects! Normally the elephant dung, when they’re getting dried, the material consisting of the elephant dung attracts the termites! And the termites come in order to eat that fiber!

When they come, that’s when the birds will come and disperse it, and open the elephant dung so that they can get hold of the insects in there! So the birds get benefit because the droppings attract insects! Sometimes when they are fresh as well, you will see the guinea fowls coming!

And disperse! Even their own volition—they also go there and disperse to try and get hold of the insects! So the way that is so very much perfect for the cast to move around at the moment is slowly getting overcast! You can see that every day I don’t work, I am just doing the forest bath!

So that’s why every day you can see that I am always happy! Because I am in the wild where I am gaining quite a lot of health benefits! And what I am doing this job is a forest bath job! So this area is the area where Koumori was spotted!

So now let’s go back to Taylor!

"Oh! Is still a session! I am still searching! I will be searching! I’m going to hunt all day! Yay! So we don’t hate to children! I’ve given up on Koumori! But that's all the time—it’s all of my time that she deserves because she was rude! And she just decided to put a ton of D on us! She’s really acting like a mother right now! She disappears on us all the time!

But maybe we’ll be lucky enough to find her a little bit later! That’s bad! Sure, I think we’re gonna go towards Drak Dwyer’s trip first! Just running here! So we’re gonna head down that way! Oh! It was baboons! I couldn’t wake up! What was going on in the road? There were lots of tracks, but the baboons were here! They were playing about on the very dangerously on Gary main! But they’re pretty good!

Not the same troop that we’ve been seeing in and around camp! Although they’ve left camp alone, touch wood! Thankfully! Is that Wilbur? See, this is serious now! Hey! See? Us check! Their check that water just chilling in the mud!

Now, for those of you who’ve been watching Safari Live for a long time, you will know that that is my favorite warthog in the whole wide world! His name is Wilbur! And he lives at Juma dam pan! And he’s missing half of his tail! This looks like an old warthog too!

So the only way we’ll find out if this is Wilbur the warthog and if his legacy lives on is if he stands up! Will the real slim warthog please stand? I was—what? That was gonna work! It wasn't there! Huh? And the oxpecker does not seem pleased!

But no, it’s not Wilbur! It’s Warren! It’s not his brother! This warthog has pushed out Wilbur! This is Warren the warthog! Now I’m very upset right now because this kind of confirms that Wilbur no longer lives! That Warren has now taken over his old area!

This is very upsetting! He’s not as impressive as Wilbur! That makes me really sad! But this isn’t nothing! We get to spend some time with a warthog! So even though we don’t really like this fella, we’ll just watch him waddle away! You can come back! It’s fine! You can take this place! You’ve obviously fought him off! You wouldn’t— you deserve it!

We know, watch—in comparison to Wilbur! This is a small warthog! This is the smallest male warthog I’ve ever seen in my life! But that’s just because I really liked Wilbur a lot! And we had—I really close relationship where he would do funny things when I was around, like slide around in the mud, or chase other warthogs away, or get frisky with the females! You know, he would do cool things!

We had an understanding! This one—zero time for him! An African pygmy warthog? No wonder you’ve got no ladies! Yeah, because size does matter in the animal kingdom, everybody!

Maybe while dogs will be scattered out on the edge, triple, what else? Innovators and stuff! Maybe she will be! Maybe she won't! I hope she is, though! So we’ll just check! Very Cathy! She could have moved! She was going towards the Mawani! But then I believe she was back the afternoon!

So I’m very pleased! Okay, Senso is also on spotting duty! Sir, please! We apologize if a camera veers off and goes somewhere else! That’s because you’re trying to find you a lead! But if I veer off for the road, it’s for the same reason! Let’s check!

Sometimes you have to gain to refresh your eyes! Oh sorry, everybody! Probably wouldn’t have got any of my jokes because the gremlins were here! And they attacked my feed and then couldn’t hear what I was saying! Nor they probably weren’t that funny anyway! Okay, we’re coming up to a favorite spot now!

The only problem is there are so many marula trees! She could be in any one of them! I’m even gonna, you know what? We’re gonna first, Garrett! That’s all slowly! We’re gonna go, yeah, to make sure we don’t miss anything! I saw kudu very far in the bushes!

I’m just gonna shout out all the things that I see! Lions! It’s a martial eagle! And she would stop and look at them! Don’t panic! I mean she isn’t that big one! That’d be great! But she’s not!

Okay, so she’s not in the trees that she was in Brenda's its Enzo! What? Not yesterday morning! The day before that! I hope she hasn’t baked in this area! It was nice seeing her every single day! She’s not up in these trees! Hmm, David! The weather is lovely today! There’s a gentle breeze!

The sky is blue! The few little clouds is providing us with nice shade! The temperature is not too hot, but warm when you start moving! But as you go, it’ll blow straight through your hair! It’s lovely!

Yeah! Is that everything? You hope that the way that was gonna be here? It’s always nice at this time of year! We haven’t had rain for a couple of days, which has been great! Please go Chava, can you come out? Nope! No could rather today! At least we tried!

There you can see! I put an effort to try and find the animals! It’s not very good if I actually find them! We will go this little bit further! We’re getting gone! The children driveway! Then try! Oh wonderful!

Now I know Sydney City is still searching! I don’t know if he’s going to Koumori! But I know that Rickson has located! Okay, never mind! I’m not sending you anywhere! The cap got canceled! Canceled! Axed!

But you can tell Sydney that Rickson has located Koumori! He doesn’t even need to search! He’s just gonna respond! And we’re gonna turn in here!

We’re still searching, searching, looking for animals! We’ll see what’s happening at the dam maybe a little bit later! I heard stories about Shibuya down south! So we might see if we can’t get a long-range view of Cebu!

I don’t know if a cub is with us! We can’t ask me that! But maybe we’ll be able to tell you it a little bit later! And she wasn’t on chat web! But we will! We will try! Nothing!

Okay! Well, we’re gonna keep this bumble on a roll! And off you go to Jaime! It’s probably going to tell you quite a bit about grass!

So what I’m doing now is because I like to leave things for the next generation of safari live presenters! That doesn’t mean I’m leaving! It just means that I’m not going to be in the tent to the next time we do a tent segment! So I’d like to leave my mark for a couple of reasons!

One of course is very educational! And—hm—I like to show that I actually went above and beyond to make an effort during my tent segments! So I’m making a little chart and it’s going to be labeled as we go through these grasses! Of course, you know it’s going to happen! By the time somebody gets in here, that was terribly done! You know how difficult it is to actually get tape right when you’re being watched this way!

So there we go! I don’t have glitter with me, unfortunately! Nina would like to know where my glitter is! I don’t have glitter, but I do feel that it would add an extra sparkle to a grass chart! But as discussed prior to this particular conversation, there’s only so much excitement that people can actually take!

And by adding glitter to grass, I actually think it might be a little bit too much! But I hope that you’ve had a chance to get your heart rate back down to normal! And now you are prepared for the next exciting grass segment!

So as you’ve noticed! We—I know you haven’t noticed! Because it’s flown out from under the microscope! I have put another grass under the microscope for you! There you go! We’ll start by looking at it!

Oh my word! Under the microscope! Come on, Jamie! There we go! It is an absolutely beautiful grass when you look at it this way! And I must say, the microscope adds a sort of dimension that it might otherwise be lacking in our lives!

You can really get grips to the contrast! We’ll get grips with the contrast and colors working between the green and the purple little hair-like projections extending from the base of the grass seed! Which I assume when ripe would do the same thing that the carrot seed hooks would do in terms of attaching them to something! Perhaps even act for wind dispersal!

But at the moment, this grain is not ready yet when it comes to the production of seeds! Because as you can see, the grasses actually still got flowers attached right at the base there! So it’s still producing pollen and allowing fertilization by pollen!

So you can see the little brown bits are the dead flowers and the little white bits are the live pollinating flowers! There you go! Of course, very, very important to us mostly—pollinated most likely this plant by actually insects! Maybe it doesn’t look like it’s fertilized by wind pollination! Maybe a little bit by wind pollination!

I don’t know! So there we go! Your next grass to answer for me! Which grass is this? It is about the size of my palm in terms of the length of the inflorescence! The inflorescence, by the way, when we talk about the inflorescence, we're talking about the part of the plant that is involved in its breeding cycles!

And on the leaf—not the stalk! Just this bit! And that I find—I’m no grass expert, as you may or may not have noticed! But I found that that’s the most identifiable! Flying adventures! Access! Flying adventures! Something along those lines has answered herringbone grass! Not a bad guess, but not what this is!

Interestingly enough, I know I’m not going to give you a hint at all! I was about to give away and give away the game! I’m not going to! No, it is not herringbone grass! But a good guess! Herringbone is one of the grasses that we do see out regularly in Juma! It is actually, I think, one of the nicest names for a grass—the most descriptive!

Muldoon is absolutely right! Foxtail or both because I just saw the book’s got it as a different name! I know it is bottlebrush cat’s tail! That’s it! Bottlebrush cat tail grass! The book has got it as cat cat tail grass!

I know it is bottlebrush grass! But that’s what it is! It’s going to be a multitude of different names! Now there is a similarity here between these two grasses! I really appreciate that Nina tried to feed me the Latin name as described by Judy! Judy H, of course, is our resident genius when it comes to such things!

In fact, probably can come to all things! But Judy H is actually endless! I mean, entirely genuinely, truly extraordinary when it comes to powers of knowledge, memory, and research! Without Judy, I feel that safari life might actually fall!

So Judy has given us the Latin name, but Nina, I'm not going to write it down or say it until I’ve double-checked myself! Because I fear I might make a terrible fool! So, bottlebrush, cat’s tail! Now, earlier on while you were with Taylor talking about her, and I must say, I really did enjoy the way that I really enjoyed the way Taylor said Warren!

But I nearly had a deep fryer moment and that’s a true in-joke for those of you that have been watching for an extended period of time! I really nearly had a deep fryer moment! So while you think about that, of course, you can cut across to Sydney, who definitely won’t know anything about deep fryers but certainly knows a lot about searching for leopards!

"I have just arrived now! Koumori is here! We’ve got him at the moment! And I saw the porcupine as well hanging by the tree! You can see that he’s the porcupine still having quite a lot of kills! I am very happy to see how he’s going to take down all those quills from— and the talk of it looks like it was a very big porcupine!"

Apologies, I am NOT alone here! I decided! Indeed, I do have some other vehicles who are enjoying this very spectacular unusual sighting! So the porcupine must be completely different from the warthogs!

I just want to see how he’s going to get rid of those quills because I know when it comes to these other antelopes, they normally use their tongue in order to get rid of the hairs! But here—what strategy is he going to use? I can't wait to see that! Look at those very long quills! How is he going to take them off from that beautiful porcupine?

Yeah, I can see that the porcupine is right on top! Maybe he’s just going to overturn the porcupine and feed from the stomach side! I don’t think he has eaten a lot! When I’m looking at the bellies, those are indeed showing having a lot! And maybe he has been battling to get a lot to eat there!

But it's normal! This kind of animal has got a huge responsibility because they hunt by themselves, and they get tired, and they don’t really like it when it’s too harsh! Look at those very beautiful manes! The vendor name for the porcupine is Nunu!

Nunu is the porcupine! Say it’s N-u-N-u! They’re traditionally quite a lot! Apologies for the inconveniences here! Where we are, we have got quite a lot of overgrown bushes, which are causing some of the network breakdown! But here we are still with Koumori! Koumori doesn’t want to show his face this afternoon! He’s just sleeping!

There was a question as if maybe the front foot is sore, and I was just saying I will wait until I see how he’s going to move! Sometimes limping after lying down for long hours is normal when it comes to the cats! So I will just observe Koumori to see if there’s any problems!

So now let's go back to Taylor, who is having some antelopes!

"I have just counted a hundred and four impalas! And that’s not even all of them! We’re now at the airstrip, and the joy that I have received is the gift of numbers! And there are plenty of them! Lots and lots of otters!"

Our growth seems a bit suspicious! When I first arrived on scene, they were all scaling down towards the tree line in the distance, and there’s still a couple of impalas there up on the termite mound! They don't seem to be too bothered right now! None of them are looking in a particular direction, so I don’t know if maybe a hyena popped out and sort of just ran across the road and then ducked into the bushes, or if there was a giraffe or maybe an elephant that sort of caught the attention!

Who knows? It could have even been a day—care little engineer! They scared things! And for a change, unlike yesterday afternoon, the flies are bothering the impala! Not as a sensor! How happy are you?

Well, maybe we’ll still be able to show Vincent or one of these dead biting flies looks like! But it’s really awesome to see so many animals gathering at this time of the year! I suppose when food is plenty, there’s no real normal drama! And I’m not seeing much fighting other than a bit of jostling here and there!

But nothing too serious! The youngsters—actually, the year-old impala fighting one another more than anything! Look at these two! Grooming each other! Tim! I mean, I was dreaming that it was wild dogs that were gonna come bursting into the scene! So, I mean, that would be great!

However, who knows? I don’t know why I—why I—however, because I had nothing to really say after that! It would be really cool with all that! I suppose that I should have a good chance of catching an impala! With so many of them, because they all freaked out, it sort of goes into a frenzy!

I would imagine then some young inexperienced impala, I think, would get left behind or sort of run the wrong way! I suppose having a lot of animals is good because you’ve got a better chance of spotting something, a predator of sorts! But at the evasion, I don’t know—and this was, you know, 150 buffalo! Everyone's kind of at risk, okay?

Oh well, it’s lovely! Okay, we’re gonna carry on now! I want to see how many impalas are at the top of the airstrip! We’ll be driving through this herd! It’s so nice! I was hoping to have a big herd of elephants here, to be honest, 'cause it’s pretty at this time of year with a nice light that will come through this afternoon!

Oh! Wonder if there’s going to be a bush dinner! I know it’s not! It’s shall and his dog! Okay, it shows me—oh there’s actually not that many apart around here! Oh well! Maybe there’s like 150 then! It’s like 20 off! I don’t think I counted all of them correctly! I think I probably missed quite a few!

I didn’t count any of these on this side of the termite mound, that’s for sure! The whole bunch, yes! But no, they do seem to be on alert! That’s why I mentioned it, that they were all staring at something into the distance! I don’t know what it was there! But now they’re fine!

There was no snorting, and we’ve been there for ages! Way too long! We’re gonna have more things! Maybe some inyala in the mix! Nope! Kudu are the most unusual! The holidays! Get into the fight with a baboon while I was in Zambia! I told you the story about the baboon grabbing hold of the impala and I think I showed you your pictures!

I’ve got more! Oh no, I don’t! That’s amazing! Macaque! But I’ve still got that! Yeah! Okay, I don’t know if Ava showed you, so I can pull some pictures, and maybe even a video from one of my things now! And so, that was weird, but then I had another experience where I was sitting on the deck!

I was just watching them parlor and the baboons and waterback and buffalo! And all the animals were eating! They’re in tree pods! And the next one, a baboon came out of a beginner tree and she came down because an elephant had come through and sort of shook the tree and all the pods then rain down!

I don’t know why I have my sunglasses on my head, everybody! Oh! We took—if we’re taking scenes and we’re taking pictures with doing some selfies! Trying to cool! Gangster! And then I had my sunglasses on my head because it made the picture look better—

Hey, Tony! I mean, look, it looks much better! Or such! Apparently! Drive! It’s cool, Taylor! And so, anyways, so this female baboon comes down the tree! And then the next minute, all the young impalas scatter! They move off! They’re not hanging around!

And this one impala comes through this! She’s just like, “I’m gonna eat some of these pods! I deserve some of these pods!” Narcessus! An elephant! His child doesn’t mind all the other animals coming around and feeding on them! And this baboon, as she gets closer, grabbed her by her back leg!

And I was like, "What?" And would not let go of the back leg of this impala! And she kicked and while she got away in the end! But it was—and then that baboon just took all the pods as many as she couldn’t put them in front of her! And I was like, “Wow!”

So that was pretty weird! I mean, I know, though, they were desperate for food! Though there was literally nothing else for any of the animals to really eat other than the pods from the winter thorn tree! Or Anna—Anna—Anna tree! And it’s on just energy! So yeah very, very very hectic! I thought it was pretty hectic to kind of see the competition!

How they were all battling! And, oh, right in front of my deck in ways! I’m gonna scratch around here for Subbu! Yeah! She’s somewhere here! We’ll keep an eye out!

Sydney’s still got the very sleepy Koumori in the long grass! And you can see that Koumori is lying down, fled! He was just up about few minutes ago! Now again, he’s up! You can see that the cats can be unpredictable! They can just return us if they’re lying down!

That look at that! When the cat is yawning, you must know that it’s trying to also cool the brain temperature! And that helps in order to assist the animal with the mental efficiency! The Franklins are starting to make some calls!

Let’s wait and see what Koumori is thinking! Maybe he’s gonna go up into the tree and carry on feeding! So that porcupine is not smelling bad yet up there! But I can see it has been eaten quite a lot! He already got something!

He did manage to open some of the quills from that porcupine! You can see all the fluids are starting to come down! You can see the things coming from the stomach are coming out! Look at that! So those are the things which are coming down at the moment from the stomach!

So I can see that he is trying to feed now on the pieces that fell on the ground! And you can see he’s even going down at the moment! So he doesn’t want any of his competitors to come here and get anything! So the hyenas are not here at all!

But maybe because now the stomach is open, they might pick up the signal and come to this port! This is not very far away from the hyena den! The Juma den is just about three or four minutes away from here! So we’re just going to be here until he goes back again, high up into the tree, and carry on feeding!

I can see that at the moment he’s feeding on the ground and it’s not easy for us to access him! So you can see that it was a big piece which is on the ground there because he’s not even finishing!

And see, because he’s crashing some bones there! So the piece that he got there was big because it was the neck bones! They just got the neck bones falling there! This is what he’s feeding on at the moment! They flip! So what we are hearing now is the bones! He is crashing those; are the ones that normally develop that kind of a chalky color when the droppings on the ground are for a long time! When he’s crashing bones like that, he’s grinding them for the other animals to come and eat!

So now let’s go back to Jamie by the tent, who is enjoying the beautiful sunset!

So you can see that he’s still very busy crashing those bones at the moment, and also eating, and some of the things that are coming down there, the quills on the porcupine.

You can see he did quite a lot of job already! I opted by the tree! Those quills! Am I this porcupine must be old? Because the quills are very much low!

Porcupines can be able to regrow or regenerate the quills when they lose them from where they have lost them! And it is a process! It’s something that takes time!

When experiencing the loss of quills is when they are not safe at all! So, during the olden days, traditionally, when people were injected with some of the ingredients from the trees, because we did not have razors, the porcupines—the quills were the ones that used to drill the little holes here on the skin so that they can be able to put some of the traditional ingredients from the plants, the powders, in order to strengthen some of the people from various tribes.

So while we are waiting for him to go back up into the tree, let’s go back to Jamie with a beautiful sunset!

It’s pretty! I’m hiding behind the grass, yada yada! Look how tall it is! And that was essentially where we were going with that scene! But, unfortunately, because you couldn’t hear me, probably didn’t come across very well!

So you get the idea! Look, it’s gorgeous! We’ve been—what did I say again? I had it all worked out! The tent has been here for a long time, but I don’t think we’ve ever stopped to appreciate the true beauty of the grass!

Genre is a cameraman; therefore, he has an eye for these things! And that was pretty much all that you missed! Oh, and that grass can hide all sorts of things—leopards included—and myself!

And most likely the tick that’s probably, as we speak, making its way towards somewhere unmentionable upon me! Because now I’ve been lying in the grass, and it has found its way! Now we’ve sort of been quite think this through! Genre, it’s very pretty! But now I feel compelled to walk towards you! I have to wade through stands of panicum grass!

We were talking about pioneer species! Panicum, of course, I’m not even going to think about tasting your own panicum! Because it’s really a very easy grass for you to have done! I said no, sorry! I have to get past the tent poles! And then I stopped to pick panicum!

There we go! So panicum is a type of grass that is actually nutritionally very valuable! But the previous grasses that I’ve shown you—and I do believe you haven’t got the third grass yet—the previous grasses that I’ve shown you are not very good for eating at all! They’re pioneer species that mean they need very little in the way of nutrients, but that also means they yield very little in the way of nutrients!

But that doesn’t make them any less important! So they essentially hold onto the soil! They hold us in place! When they die, their nutrients are fed back into the soil! And gradually over time, the quality of the soil actually improves! Which makes way for the next species of grass to come in, which is known as a subclimax species!

Look, they’ve changed the names around a little bit, but the process is the same! Essentially, what happens is you have grasses that aren’t in very good condition! Grasses that capitalize on that and don’t need much in the way of nutrients settle in! And they tie down the soil using the quite sort of shallow root systems!

And they make use of what they have! They’re tough species! As a result of them being there over the course of time! Essentially what happens is those root systems and the plant itself actually hold the soil in place! And what that means is that they can then allow other plants to come in as the conditions improve!

So I think we should go back across to Sydney, who has yet another bush baby! Cool! I have just yet arrived! Look how beautiful and grass they take care of their food! Thank you, Jamie!

We’re still here and surely we can say goodbye to the day! We must go now to Jamie! Jamie still owes us a quick look before sunrise!

So I’m going to leave you there, and I hope we’ll be back tomorrow morning! Goodbye!