Safari Live - Day 12 | National Geographic

49m read

·Nov 11, 2024

[Music]

Standing by. Good afternoon again. My name is James Hendry and on camera today we've got Mono, that's his thumb with the ring on, a steel ring. Very nice! Yeah, made of copper. Mmm, wonderful.

Okay, so we're coming to you live from the Masai Mara. Tristan is down in South Africa and a special warm welcome to the Schools Conference that has joined us today. Its name, I'm afraid, has escaped me. There were two; now there is one, and it is the... it's coming, don't worry everybody, it'll come... while consolidated school districts of New Britain. Good! Marvellous! Wonderful to have you with us.

We will hopefully find you lots of animals and you can send us any questions you'd like using the hashtag #SafariLive. Otherwise, I think you guys are probably joining us on Skype. You can do that, the rest of you #SafariLive on Twitter. Otherwise, the YouTube chat channel will work very well.

We're hopefully also gonna have Scotty following the cheetahs there in some very bad signal. Five male cheetah at the moment, but he can't afford to leave them to go away from the cheetah sand fine signal because, of course, then we will lose the cheetah, and at the moment they're the most important part of, well, this afternoon so far.

Now, I've come up again. Many of you will feel the time has gone stark raving insane because, for the third afternoon in a row, I find myself sitting on the edge of the early low escarpment looking for the sausage tree pride and not finding them. I'm hoping that it's going to change during the course of the day.

While I decide whether I should be flying over the cuckoo's nest or not, it does here down to South Africa where Tristan is knocking about in what used to be winter.

Good afternoon everybody and welcome to our sunset safari from sunny South Africa. My name is Justin, and on camera today I've got a sense. Oh, and a special, special warm welcome to the consolidated schools of New Britain teachers conference. Hopefully, you will enjoy your next 45 minutes with us, and remember to ask lots of questions, and we'll try and answer as many as we can.

Now, for the rest of our viewers, we will be taking the teachers conference for your questions first, but you can still send your questions through on #SafariLive on Twitter or on the YouTube chat, and we'll get into those a little bit later.

Right now, I know James is out looking for the sausage pride down in the Maasai Mara, and I'm out, well, I think two starts. I'm going to start looking for some of our big grey --great pachyderms because it is quite warm this afternoon, so we're going to try and see if we can't find some, at least at the waterhole, before we turn our attentions a little bit later to maybe trying to find some of the spotted cats.

This morning, there were tracks for a male leopard, a female leopard, and a leopard cub all together, and it's actually close to where I am right now, so we're gonna try and see if we can't find them a little bit later.

It's probably a bit warm for them now, and they're spending quite a bit of time sleeping, I would imagine. I don't think they're gonna be moving around too much, so we're gonna try and see if we can check some of the warthogs to start off with and then carry on from there and see, maybe, just maybe, if we get lucky.

Now, I'm hoping that we will get some elephants. They have been a few big herds of elephants around in the past few days. There was a herd yesterday afternoon that was well over 50 of them that were walking around, so I'm gonna try and see if I can't find any sign of them. They do leave quite a few footprints, so they are a nice herd to track. It's quite easy to follow those big round footprints, so hopefully, we will find them.

Now, I believe James has got another spotted kind of creature that is running across the great plains of East Africa.

Well, sort of everyone, it was running down the mountain, and well, there were two of them. In fact, I think we've seen four so far, and they took a little bit of a fright from us, but it's very unusual to see them herd. There they are, herding about this time of the day—there are hyenas, the spotted hyena, and we're just gonna go up around the corner here to get in front of them.

There are some wildebeest up ahead, and I wonder if these hyenas don't know something that we don't. I'm fairly sure that they do know many things that I don't, but in this respect, I'm hoping it has to do with lions.

You still see them on there; it might simply be coming on to get something to drink. You stop here; there we have them! Wonderful! Now, where are they going at such high speed on a hot day? I think it's probably sitting at around, or something around about 80 degrees today, around about 26.

Let's integrate, and already the seasons have started to change down in South Africa. Here, of course, I don't think that change is enormous amount of great wit hyena! Wait! 30? No, which been lying in the mud? There, we did see a couple of hyenas feeding on a carcass a little earlier, but I'm not sure that we're gonna get back to that because it was in some deep, deep grass.

Maybe these chaps are just heading down there. I just want to make sure that they aren't going towards some kind of, you know, sort of fresh kill, and therefore the sausage tree pride?

No, this one's turned on and coming back!

Now, hello Chris from the conference! You want to know what hyenas eat because that reminds me of a question that I was asked once by a trainee guide, and basically, I said fruit, nuts, and mice. That was the standard issue answer I used to give. I'm not sure why it reminded me of that.

They don't eat fruit. They don't eat nuts. They will eat mice, but largely, they will eat any meat at all, rotting or otherwise. They are having a very fun romp, these chaps! I think there's a lot of elements of fun going on here, some play behavior perhaps.

Picking up a few things on the wind was on hot days; it's unusual for them to be knocking around like this. So, Chris, largely, they do scavenge a lot. They will hunt absolutely, especially at this time of the year in the Mara.

It's very scary-looking hyena. Holy! A male! In fact, you'll probably find that these are both males, and I suspect the older one there, they don't have the bulk of the females. He's not a very bulky fellow; it was fun! Cool!

Okay, so that was a spotted hyena, and I was just gonna say that there are some herds up here; it's still eating the grass on the slopes of the mountain and because, again, it's quite a hot day. We'll keep looking underneath all the trees to see if there aren't any tawny or white bellies lying prostrate in whatever shade there is available. By what, that, of course, I mean cats only!

Now Justin was heading towards some water; he's not going to be swimming despite the heat, and he's going to tell you why he won't be swimming.

Well James, I think you’d want to look under all the trees here in the Sabi Sands; I would be quite dizzy trying to find things. As you can see, there are far more trees in our neck of the woods, so to speak, as there are in the Maasai Mara.

It's a little bit of a denser system, and that's why we tend to see quite a few more leopards. We tend to get quite lucky with our leopard sightings, and this bushy terrain is absolutely perfect for them to camouflage incredibly well.

So, it's always good when you're driving through these areas to check the shady parts, but where we check is a little bit different to where James would be checking. So, James will be checking under trees a lot of the time with leopards; the best place to check is these big termite mounds.

Now, I'm going to show you a termite mound shortly. It's just here in front of me as a nice example of one. So here we go, just straight in front of the car at the moment. That big structure there is a termite mound, and those places are perfect, perfect structures for leopards to sit on in the afternoon, particularly a windy afternoon like we've got today.

It's quite warm, and so there's a bit of a breeze that's blowing, and on top there, it's gonna be a lot cooler under that little shady tree than it would be lying down on the ground where it's gonna be radiating heat, and it's gonna be a lot, lot more warm.

So you'll find that cats do like to lie up there on these windier, hotter afternoons, or sometimes even up in the trees themselves. So that's what we're looking for when we're driving around and trying to spot some of our spotty leopard friends.

Now, James, you say you wouldn't swim at any of the dams or pans around Juma if it was hot? Well, I think I would tend to agree with James! The funny thing about this area is that out of nowhere, all of a sudden a crocodile will appear in one of those small pans, and you've got to be very careful with crocodiles.

Even though you don't see them, it's not to say they're not there. They can sit underwater and hold their breath for close to two hours! So sitting there, you might come along and think, "Oh, there's no crocodile! I'll just have a little swim!" and then back here you go! The crocodile grabs you! So be careful, and in saying that we wouldn't swim in the dams, yeah, I would imagine that, James, it could be a very bad idea for you to try and swim across the Mara River because if you've seen some of the crocodiles that lurk in the Mara River, they look as though they are Tyrannosaurus Rex aquatic cousins because they're so large, and they go after anything that tries to cross over in that section.

Now, talking about the heat, the animals themselves will have no such problem. They will be quite happy to go down to the water, particularly the animals. Researching, like I say, the elephants weren't really too fazed by crocodiles, so even if there was a crocodile in the pan, that's not gonna stop them from going for a nice big... ola! And playing around in the water, so hopefully our idea to head towards water is going to be successful.

Now in the distance, I can spot some of our antelope that we get, so we'll get to them shortly. They are a little bit further ahead of where I am now, so I'm just going to bounce our way slowly along towards where they are.

Eric the poet, you're wondering if it's ever snowed here in the bush? Eric, in my time, yeah, no, and as far as I know, no, it hasn't snowed. Yeah, we are in the middle of our winter, so we are in August, which is often a cold month here, but it is 30 degrees or close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

So it gives you an idea of what winter is like here in South Africa; it's not exactly the most strenuous and cold situation that we have, and so, no, no snow that I know of. We have had frost once or twice, but never snow. Would be quite cool to have snow, they imagine! I think our animals would be confusingly confused if it did snow here.

We saw a lot of them would actually not do very well at all! One, because their coats would not be thick enough to keep them warm, and two, they'd probably find that they'd get all kinds of feet problems from frostbite and varying other things, given that they're not used to walking around in metal and have no adaptations for it. They're all designed to stay cool and not to stay warm.

So there you go, some of our antelope that are just running across—these are both male impalas. They are the most common antelope that we get here in the Sabi Sands system or in this northeastern corner of South Africa. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them spread out all over the place, and they form a huge part of the diet of many of our predators in this area.

So as many of the predators go along, this is what they'll be looking for. So from lions and leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and wild dogs, we'll even find some of our birds of prey and snakes also go after them.

So it's a tough life if you're an impala, and that's why they join together in these groups just for safety in numbers! Now I believe James has got a bird that is flying around, so before it flies away from him, let's quickly jump across to him!

There are some big birds flying! They are vultures flying, and that means, of course, that something has died around here. Now they've just come off the ground; I think they're finished picking the hapless carcass. Oh, I promised I would never use the word helpless again, the unfortunate carcass of a wildebeest has now been picked clean, and well, they're all flying up and around and down towards the next carcass.

There you go, it's still nice and warm today; it's very easy for them to fly. Another one coming off the ground, it really is a vultures paradise this! And there's really a nice shot there of two ripples, Griffins, I think that's what they are, sitting on the termite mound there. No, no, their white backs, they have no honey-colored beak scrap on the ground there.

Manu, this is the most gorgeous afternoon here! The doves calling in the background, which is not a common sound out here because, of course, down on the plains and away from the escarpment, there aren't as many trees, which means the doves don't exist in the same numbers that they do where we are.

Now I'm still staring longingly in all parts of shade here, but I cannot see the Sasari pride.

Alright, Scott, apparently has decided that he, although he loves his cheetah, he would like to talk to you even more, and so he's moved into some signal to say good afternoon!

Hello everyone! And it is a great pleasure to have you on board! We're just trying to work out what's going on over there. We actually left the five male cheetah underneath a few bushes, plus to where those vehicles are. Now I think they're heading towards that tree, so they're on the move.

VM, which means they're just to the left there. There's a coalition of five male cheetahs called the Musketeers. You got them there? You'll probably be able to see little specks.

We've left them with one of the researchers who's on that tiny little white car on the right-hand side of your screen. She said she was gonna call us as soon as they get active. I guess she's just possibly waiting to see if they don't go to sleep under that tree.

And if they do continue moving, we'll definitely rush off to them, but we are being absolutely spoiled rotten! Because that's not the only cheetah in this valley!

Hello, I'm Scott, VM's on camera. There's another one somewhere just stuffed down here. Can you remember where it is? There! It's just to the left of... there we go!

So there's another male over here! Now this is a lone male; he would not like to bump into those five. They would give him a run for his money, and he is a little bit more hungry than them. That's why we decided to camp out with him.

Apparently, he tried to catch a young topi while VM and I were getting some food resupply to spend another night archer on. As soon as we got back into this area and heard there was a hungry cheetah around, we've been camping out with him.

Morning, he had a little look at some Thomson's gazelle, but they were too far out into a very large open clearing to be able to have a go, and we're gonna not keep you here any longer because Tristan's got a beautiful scene back in Juma in the sky.

Now, there's not only vultures soaring in the Maasai Mara, but there is one here at Sabi Sands too! So it was a white-backed vulture that was busy circling. It seems to have disappeared a little bit; they do move quite fast.

But I will show you quickly what it looks like. I'm not sure which vulture James had; I know he had some vultures, but I don’t know which one exactly.

Now this is the vulture that we saw circling. It's there! It comes, and as it turned, we should see a little white piece on the back of it between its wings there, and that's how we know it's a white-backed vulture.

Oh, it's turned the wrong way now; hopefully, it will turn again shortly! There it is! You see the white patch there? So easily diagnostic from that white patch is no other vulture that shows that white little band when flying.

So this is what they look like—a little bit more up close. This is our most common vulture that we actually get in this particular part of the world.

So it's these guys over here; they have this sort of creamy caramel wing and the nice dark trailing edge, and then that's that little white patch that I was talking about just now in flight.

And you notice that they've also got a dark eye, which separates them from the vulture above, which has a honey-colored eye.

So this cape vulture on top is the one that could be confused with, but unfortunately, that one has a yellow eye and not the dark eye like this white-backed vulture.

Now, Roger, you were wondering the wingspan of this particular vulture. This particular vulture will have a wingspan of about 2.3 meters, so that should be close to, I think, about seven and a half, eight feet, somewhere around there, if I'm not mistaken.

So quite a massive wingspan, and that's what they will do, is what it's busy doing now, is using the thermals from the sun that is art and beating down in all these hot air waves that are going up.

It's just riding in circles going up, using its incredible eyesight to then spot carcasses that might be down on the ground that it can come down and feed on.

So it's really a very clever way of doing things, and not very much energy is used when you've got massive wings like that. You don't have to stress too much about having to flap them because as those thermals grow, it's easy just to ride them and go right up into the sky.

Now, we haven't gotten to our first waterhole yet. We are almost there, slowly but surely making our way. We've been getting distracted with a few things on the way, so we saw those impalas and then we had vultures, and now we've got probably the most beautiful bird that we get here in the Sabi Sands.

So it's just landed on that tree over there. Oh no, don't fly away! That is a lilac-breasted roller! Now the lilac-breasted roller has got these electric blue trailing edges to its wings, dark blue below that, and then it's got a lilac brace or the little turquoise crown moment.

And these rollers are predatory of insects; you'll find them often on branches like that that obey, and from there they watch what's going on, and as soon as any insects try and come out of the grass, or maybe a grasshopper that flies or something like that, they come flying down quickly and grab it and then eat it, and they can actually subdue quite large prey.

But it must be definitely the most photographed bird in Africa just because of its coloration! It really is beautiful!

Guys, it's making a bit of noise because it might have seen another roller somewhere close by, and so it's just squawking like that to tell everybody that this is my territory and to stay out!

They are quite territorial! That was a nice surprise! Didn't expect to see one!

Yeah, they do like these more sort of open-ish grassy sections. So there's a section on our left; you'll see it looks much shorter than the section on the right.

Now, the reason for that is that section has actually been purposely cut as a firebreak, so it's to make sure that if there is a fire anywhere around here that it doesn't cross over from this right side to the left side.

[Music]

See! You’re wondering about what threats vultures face? Well, they're numerous. So, probably the biggest threat that vultures have is the loss of habitat.

So, loss of nesting sites really is a big, big one for them. So, that you find that as we inhabit places and we try and get into areas, we often will destroy perfect trees that they can nest in, so that's one— as we put power lines wherever we go— and power lines for vultures are terrible things!

They end up flying into them and they die from that, so that's really a big problem. And then the last one is actual poisoning of vultures.

So, vultures are used in the muti trade, and muti is basically a trade of animals within Africa and which has beliefs about them.

And they basically poison these vultures to use them for the sangomas or witch doctors in medicine, so it's really a big problem, and lots and lots of vultures have been poisoned. The other thing is farmers and varying others; they try to poison carcasses of animals that have been preyed upon by things like caracal or leopard as they try to get rid of that predator, and then the outcome is the vultures come in and they feed off it and will also die too.

So those are the biggest problems facing vultures, and that's why most of them are on the threatened list. That was a lot of British for vulture!

I mean, I wrote there lots of vultures that we were looking at, but it was just so nice because he was sitting perfectly fair, so you could see its colors!

So this might be the mate of the one that we saw just now, or the one that it was trying to chase away.

So that's probably why it's doing that! Now actually, I don't know why I drove past him, but I want to show you something else, but only kind of registered now.

So busy thinking about our vultures and why they say threatened... at the moments that I forgot to show you this!

So, since, if you can please put those ever so pretty paw marks on camera for me! So I'm going to move now! But you'll see that just here, there are two paw marks! Now, those are paw marks for a leopard! A very small young female leopard that we actually saw last night!

And these are the tracks that we used to be able to find her. She's a female that is known as Shangela! So she's the little princess of this area!

She was from the most dominant female that we had, and since her mother disappeared, she's been walking around and tries to kind of stay under the radar, but so we don't see her as much as we used to.

But we know she's a leopard for a number of reasons—these tracks, firstly, the size of them and the shape of them scream leopard already!

You could maybe confuse this size with something like a caracal, but it's got the three lobes at the back, and then the toe is very very close, and you can see quite rounded in this section over here, and that's the front foot, whereas the back foot would be a little bit more slender.

So both of these are the front pads, and then she's walked along, and there will be a little back foot somewhere here! Unfortunately, we drove over a lot of these tracks yesterday when we were tracking her, and that will be a lot more elongated.

Something like a caracal would be probably slightly smaller, and you would find that the toe is likely more away from the pad than what you see with the limits! So that's why leopard tracks!

But unfortunately, they're not fresh ones that we can follow today and try and find her. I actually tracked her this morning over our boundary and south into a different part of the reserve, so we're not going to be able to probably follow any further!

But, maybe, just maybe, the waterhole that we're going to now is a favorite haunt for her! So I'm sure that she might come back! And you never know, maybe this afternoon she's already decided to come back and might be sitting at the waterhole itself.

I've got to make sure that I've plugged myself in, because I tend to forget about that!

Is this Lila Krista drone? Are they going to stay there? Look at the colors on this bird! Isn't that magnificent? Shirley, it's got to be one of the most beautiful birds in the world!

And this one is very relaxed; it's just sitting right next to the car! But I was saying earlier that they are predatory of insects, and you can see that with that shape of beak!

They have that little downturn tip, a little hook on it which is indicative of any predatory bird! So any birds that have that little downturn beak, you know, feed off insects.

Bobby, you're wondering if their tail is just too long feathers or if there's multiple feathers. Bobby, there's multiple feathers with two streamers, as they call that, that come off!

So those are just two individual feathers that finish off the tip of the tail, but there are multiple feathers that are in between those two streamers!

So when air rollers in flight and you see it spread its tail, you'll actually see all the feathers, much like a normal bird, but those two streamers extend! So, when they’re sitting it just looks like the two feathers that are sticking off the back end!

Right now, we've discussed vultures and what threatens them here in South Africa, and I believe James has got a bird of prey now! I'm not sure which one, but maybe he can tell us more on whether or not it's threatened.

I don't think it's threatened, everybody! I think that is the unwritten goshawk, unless I'm very much mistaken! I'll just quickly check its distribution; it's got a pink's here, which is the bit just around the nose behind the beak, and it's also got pink legs!

And the big distinguisher as this thing flies off, of course, is not the legs or the beak, but the fight band that is at the top of the tail!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what he is! As he flies off, he's got a very distinctive white band at the top of the tail! Otherwise, quite difficult to tell apart from some of the others!

And despite you know what?! Despite the vast size difference that there is between the dark-taunting goshawk and the Gabra... I've had this problem since I started guiding!

The Gabra is 36 centimeters tall, which is just over a foot, which I think that is... this is very embarrassing! The dark chanting is 56, so almost sort of two feet tall!

And because I have such a silly appalling sense of proportion, I often struggle to tell the difference! But my instinct went with Galvis! I'm gonna go with that!

I mean, really, you should be able to see the difference between a one-foot and a two-foot bird! This is go sir!

Seeing that you want to know "CMAC," you wanted to know what "GABA" means. I have absolutely no idea! I'll try and find out for you! We'll just sneak it a little bit closer!

You can't get too close because then Manu's gonna be stuck with the roof underneath, say "win," money! It's all right! Slow!

Hey, don't try and get inside! Oh, there he goes!

Now, definitely a ghetto! Good! More RG, let us continue our plan now! We've left the realm of the Sasori pride; we're gonna head in Iran towards Egyptian view span to see what's going on there!

Fascinating thing we saw the other night of a lion is sort of trying to kill a wildebeest that you chased into the mud, that villainess eventually died—the not from the effects of lion, rather from the effects of exhaustion and then drowning!

And if we don't find anything there, we'll head down towards the Salt Licks, which, if nothing else, is a very beautiful area! Storms are starting the builders! They always do every single afternoon like clockwork! I think they're taking a little bit more time over today, which is good!

So maybe we'll discuss! Alright, Scott has not managed to find not only some signal but also his flat cheetahs!

Hello, and let's hope the stormy weather does not interfere with our safari adventures! Because it is obviously not going to allow us to do exactly what we please!

Now the cheetahs are doing exactly what they please! We've got no say in what they do either! They are all fast asleep!

We are with one male here sleeping in that bush. It's hard to believe, but there is a spotted cheetah!

Cat, there we go, there are some Thomson's gazelle not too far away from it! So let’s show you! That is just someone over there! I think nice VM!

So, there's another male over here! Now, this is a lone male! He would not like to bump into those five! They would give him a run for his money!

And he is a little bit more hungry than them! That's why we decided to camp out with him! Apparently, try to catch a young topi while VM and I were getting some food resupply to spend another night Archer!

And as soon as we got back into this area and heard there was a hungry cheetah around, we've been camping out with him morning!

He had a little look at some Thomson's gazelle, but they were too far out into a very large open clearing to be able to have a go!

And we're gonna not keep you here any longer because Tristan's got a beautiful scene back in Juma in the sky now!

There's not only vultures soaring in the Maasai Mara, but there is one here at Sabi Sands too! So it was a white-backed vulture that was busy circling!

It seems to have disappeared a little bit; they do move quite fast! But I will show you quickly what it looks like!

I’m not sure which vulture James had; I know he had some vultures, but I don’t know which one exactly! Now, this is the vulture that we saw circling!

It's there! It comes! And as it turned, we should see a little white piece on the back of it between its wings there, and that's how we know it's a white-backed vulture!

Oh, it's turned the wrong way now! Hopefully, it will turn again shortly! There it is; you see the white patch there! So easily diagnostic from that white patch is no other vulture that shows that white little band when flying!

So this is what they look like—a little bit more up close! This is our most common vulture that we actually get in this particular part of the world!

So it's these guys over here; they have this sort of creamy caramel wing and the nice dark trailing edge! And then that's that little white patch that I was talking about just now in flight!

And you notice that they've also got a dark eye, which separates them from the vulture above, which has a honey-colored eye!

So this cape vulture on top is the one that could be confused with, but unfortunately, that one has a yellow eye and not the dark eye like this white-backed vulture!

Now, Roger! You were wondering the wingspan of this particular vulture? This particular vulture will have a wingspan of about 2.3 meters! So that should be close to, I think, about seven and a half, eight feet!

Somewhere around there, if I'm not mistaken! So quite a massive wingspan, and that's what they will do! It's what it's busy doing now! Is using the thermals from the sun that is art and beating down in all these hot air waves that are going up!

It's just riding in circles, going up, using its incredible eyesight to then spot carcasses that might be down on the ground that it come down and feed on!

So it's really a very clever way of doing things, and not very much energy is used when you've got massive wings like that! You don't have to stress too much about having to flap them because, as those thermals grow, it's easy just to ride them and go right up into the sky!

Now, we haven't gotten to our first waterhole yet! We are almost there, slowly but surely making our way! We've been getting distracted with a few things on the way! So we saw those impalas and then we had vultures and now we've got probably the most beautiful bird that we get here in the Sabi Sands!

So, it's just landed on that tree over there! Oh no, don't fly away! That is a lilac-breasted roller! Now the lilac-breasted roller has got these electric blue trailing edges to its wings, dark blue below that, and then it's got a lilac brace or the little turquoise crown moment!

But it must be definitely the most photographed bird in Africa just because of its coloration! It really is beautiful!

Guys, it's making a bit of noise because it might have seen another roller somewhere close by, and so it's just squawking like that to tell everybody that this is my territory and to stay out!

They are quite territorial! That was a nice surprise! Didn't expect to see one!

Yeah, they do like these more sort of open-ish grassy sections. So there's a section on our left; you'll see it looks much shorter than the section on the right!

[Music]

See! You’re wondering about what threats vultures face? Well, they're numerous! So, probably the biggest threat that vultures have is the loss of habitat!

So, loss of nesting sites really is a big, big one for them! So, that you find that as we inhabit places and we try and get into areas, we often will destroy perfect trees that they can nest in, so that's one— as we put power lines wherever we go!

And power lines for vultures are terrible things! They end up flying into them and they die from that, so that's really a big problem! And then the last one is actual poisoning of vultures!

So, vultures are used in the muti trade, and muti is basically a trade of animals within Africa and which has beliefs about them!

And they basically poison these vultures to use them for the sangomas or witch doctors in medicine, so it's really a big problem, and lots and lots of vultures have been poisoned! The other thing is farmers and varying others; they try to poison carcasses of animals that have been preyed upon by things like caracal or leopard as they try to get rid of that predator!

And then the outcome is the vultures come in and they feed off it and will also die too!

So those are the biggest problems facing vultures, and that's why most of them are on the threatened list! That was a lot of British for vulture!

I mean, I wrote there lots of vultures that we were looking at, but it was just so nice because he was sitting perfectly fair so you could see its colors!

So this might be the mate of the one that we saw just now, or the one that it was trying to chase away!

So that's probably why it's doing that! Now actually, I don't know why I drove past him, but I want to show you something else, but only kind of registered now!

So busy thinking about our vultures and why they say threatened... at the moments that I forgot to show you this!

And these are the tracks that we used to be able to find her! She's a female that is known as Shangela! So she's the little princess of this area!

But we know she's a leopard for a number of reasons—these tracks, firstly, the size of them and the shape of them scream leopard already!

Something like a caracal would be probably slightly smaller, and you would find that the toe is likely more away from the pad than what you see with the limits! So that's why leopard tracks!

But unfortunately, they're not fresh ones that we can follow today and try and find her! I actually tracked her this morning over our boundary and south into a different part of the reserve, so we're not going to be able to probably follow any further!