Safari Live - Day 242 | National Geographic

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

Is why the inclement ride is such a firm favorite. Kito looks ready for a fight. This is still insane. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to another installment of Safari Lives. It promises to be another epic, epic week. We've just had a big storm out here in Juma in South Africa, and well, hopefully that's going to mean our cats are going to be out and about trying to kind of mark territory and looking for all kinds of things as they kind of walk around in the coolness of the afternoon.

My name is Tristan, and on camera I've got Sebastian this afternoon. We are coming to you from not only South Africa but Kenya, and we encourage all of you to ask many, many questions. Remember that Safari Lives is a celebration and a catch-up of all of our characters that we've seen over the past week, and that means we want to hear about all of your kind of questions that you have about our characters.

Remember to try and keep it relevant to those that we are seeing, and hopefully we'll be able to answer as many questions as possible. You can send your questions to hashtag Safari Live or @FC on YouTube, and we'll try, like I said, to get through a lot during the course of this afternoon. It promises to be a really epic, epic day. Now that we've had some rain, I'm hoping things are going to come alive.

I was saying we are going to be focusing on our cat characters. It's been another absolute bumper week. Well, take a look at where our cats have been moving. The first rains of summer might have arrived at Juma this week, but they sure didn't put a dampener on the characters making regular appearances as usual. The little chief, Hasana, started the week in the center of Juma. He then moved south before hitting northeast, scent marking as he went.

Meanwhile, Tingana made his way south deep into Juma with an unknown Shia female in tow. After a couple of days of mating, they then returned back to the north. Tandi, until Amber made a welcome albeit brief appearance in the southeast, and continued to head northeast back into Tortured. The Incumber pride also arrived at Gallagher Pan this time on the trail of a herd of buffalo. As dusk fell, they followed the buffalo further south. We finally got another glimpse of the Juma clan's newest additions, this time at the Aubrey's Road den up in the north.

The Mara was busy as the Paradise pride were once again found close to the river. The Olive Oil pride, meanwhile, moved further south down the escarpment following the large herds of wildebeest. The Sierra surprised us down Cooney Beach to round out a still busy week with our cat characters. Well, as you can see, it was a really busy week not only here on Juma but up in the Maasai Mara with many of our characters making appearances.

It's shaping up to be a really interesting year as we've kind of moved from Hasana being the young male around who's starting to show signs of kind of being, well, to sort of progress into dominance. So it'll be interesting to kind of see how everything plays out. But while we explore and see if we can help find Hasana this afternoon, let's try and send you back up to Steve, who well should be out in the grassy plains of East Africa, hopefully looking for the prowling cats that are often near the beasts' herds in the Mara Triangle.

We are up here on the base of the Ololong Escarpment with a very nice herd of wildebeest, one or two zebra in tow. My name is Steve, I'm joined on camera by Archie, and it is a very nice, well, apparently 21 degrees Celsius, 75 degrees Fahrenheit, although the weather's pulled in and is windy and it's pretty miserable.

But we have been with a pride of lions for the last few hours, and they were hunting this herd of wildebeest. Now we've lost them somewhere there in the rocks; we've given them a lot of space. We moved around and we're trying to see if they're going to come out. It was a nice pride of five, one young male, two young females, and two adults, and we spent some time with one of the younger females actually pulling off what was actually not a bad sort of stalk.

So we were pretty close, and right at the last minute she blew it by running a little bit too blatantly towards a herd of wildebeest that then, well, just all moved away. They all are looking very relaxed considering there’s a hungry pride of lions somewhere in the grass here, busy lurking around doing whatever it is that they’re doing. They might have even gone back to their slumbers because we found them this afternoon due to some vulture activity.

We found the remains of a wildebeest from either this morning or last night. So they are not actually that hungry, but they have been interested nonetheless with the abundance of general game out here on the open plains. When the wind is blowing it is always a nice time for lions to hunt.

So a gentleman that spends a lot of time up here in the Mara, he is now down in Juma, Brent Leo Smith. Welcome, welcome to the greater Kruger National Park. I thought I spotted something. I am looking for Hasana, a little chief. My name is Brent Claire Smith. I have Dangerous Dave as the objectified dish on camera with me today.

So we are searching for Hasana. He was seen in the middle of the day around the main access road into Juma, and we think he might have moved a little bit further to the south. Now, of course, we've had quite a bit of rain throughout the day which has obliterated his tracks. But Rex and Tristan are giving me a hand; hopefully we will be able to find him.

Remember hashtag Safari Live if you want to get your questions through to us. Lulu is wandering to the storm; bring that much water. Oh! Davi roll is fighting, and of course now they stop. I was hoping they might do their characteristic roll.

Let's have a look; he might roll and he flies. No, he's building a bit of height, and we're going to do a roll. There we go! No roll, just the landing. Oh yeah! Alright sorry I got sidetracked by the lilac-breasted rollers.

It didn't actually bring much water at all, so just enough to sort of dampen the ground and white clear the tracks. So if we do find any tracks on top of the rain, there are going to be very fresh because it only stopped now. Is this the smelly wallow jog that Jamie had the other day? I think it is. Nice set of deep on this guy now. If I remember correctly, this warthog was munched on by the McGann boys, those unfortunate mangy boys.

Okay, well speaking of Jamie, let’s go see which of our favorite cat characters she’s off to find. I was planning on finding the incoherent pride of lions. Good afternoon to all of you, and welcome to this episode of Safari Lives. My name is Jamie, and I'm searching for the Inka Huma pride of lions, who were right here when I left them this morning.

Now, as Has told you, we had a massive storm by you know, dry season standards. We had a massive storm a few minutes ago, and I think it's caused them to wander off and go off in search of shelter. So this morning we had 18 Inka Huma lionesses, as well as one Mangani male. Although this poor young male kept trying to edge closer and closer to a pride, he’s not part of it, and the lionesses were not friendly; they were growling at him.

They didn't really allow him to approach or wander. But this feeling that they hadn't gone far into the bush, I really feel as though they might be around here somewhere. But I don't know where. Cats are cats; they don't necessarily enjoy the rain all that much, and they will seek out shelter underneath the bushes. I'm going to have a chat with some of the other guides to see if maybe they can give me some input as to where they might have moved off to.

Let's go to Brent, whose cat has also wandered off into the wild. Still haven't managed to find that little chief, but there we go. Let's look. Let’s go try run over to Tristan, so let's see maybe they've got an update for me. Maybe they found some tracks, and that's why they're heading in this direction.

I didn't see any tracks up on Zoe's road, so I'm just going to go have a quick chat with Tristan while I do that. We've had some wonderful moments with our little chief behaving quite interestingly earlier this week. Hasana has been displaying some worrying tendencies; it shows he is growing up. He is starting to scent mark vigorously.

The question is how long will Tingana tolerate this insolent behavior? As always, a member of the ever-present Juma clan paid the little chief a visit in hope that Hasana might have a free snack. Hasana stood his ground, and with no food around, the hyena moved off under the watchful eye.

Maybe the little chief with one of the Juma clan having a pesky look now. Tristan and Rex have not found any tracks after the rain yet, so are we going to take a bit of a gamble? A facade normally comes this way; it tends to like to head towards tree house down. So we're going to go check Fulham on step down towards Trail stand. Forget nothing there; we're going to work our way back to the northwest.

Oh, I'm just thinking next to you. I to the north sounds. Tingana is still busy with his lady friend, but in the north, Buffalo Cat—so very wet pregnant impala disappearing. Have you seen his on impala? No? You're not talking to me. Fine, be like that. Sandra is wondering what's happened to Tumba.

I think the last I heard he was seen to the southwest on land Duluxi, and it's the last I heard of Tumba. Tristan might actually have a better idea. I think he hasn't been in the Sands for quite some time, and me, hmm, I actually haven't seen Tumba in a long time. I haven't even heard of Tumba, but the last I heard he was down to the southwest.

Let's have a quick look. Yeah, this is one of Hasana’s favorite routes, but there's no tracks on top of the rain. Okay, wow! It seems like Juma has a bit of catching up to do to find some cats. Unfortunately, Steve is in the Mara following some lions.

Well, I wouldn't want to be a wildebeest in these conditions. We were with the lions, followed them hunting, and then we moved back into the area, and we completely lost them. There they are hiding in the longer grasses. There are three of them—therefore, watch it!

Just pull our little— but you'll see there's a third one to the left. There's probably a fourth one. Where is it? There we go! There's a third one moving, and there's a fourth one somewhere. We were with the pride earlier via; we know pride from the lioness. One of them was hunting, and it's a beautiful part of two adults and three youngsters.

The young male we followed ran all the way back. He suddenly, after the attempted wildebeest hunt, ran all the way back, and we thought, well, something's going on. Why is he running? Maybe he just got a furious look from one of the buffalo that were hanging down in the little mud wallow area, and he decided, hang on, I'm not going to stick around for the hunt.

Here we are; we found three females, and they are sheltering a little bit from the wind. The wind does make everything uncomfortable, but it's quite amazing that those of all the beasts that we were with just before, how relaxed they are after being chased into the mud.

Go! What an interesting question! You want to know where animals go when it rains? Well, there's nowhere to go, Babo. Exactly where you see them now is exactly where they go. Sometimes the ruminants, like the wildebeest, giraffe, and buffalo, when all the rains come in, they’ll tuck themselves up and sit down on the ground so they can have a nice dry patch.

But quite often, they just stand there in the rain. There's nothing they can do. And lions, you’ll see them get very miserable in a very, very torrential downpour. Even baboons will just sit in a tree. They just don't really have anywhere to go unfortunately, so they'll just be exactly where they are in the sunshine, and they'll move on to trees.

But the likelihood of certain animals spending time under trees in these environments is tricky because lightning is a reality. Archer and those animals that tend to move to the cover of trees in lightning storms, well, sizzle pop, and they don't breed because being hit by a lightning bolt in a tree invariably doesn't leave too much in the way of a living animal afterwards.

Hello, Rosalinda! Well, the black tuft on the back of the tail as well as the black on the back of the ears makes it easy for the youngsters or the pride themselves to follow them. We spent some time with the lions before, and as you look from behind, that's all you can see really as they move through the tawny grass.

When they're looking in a direction, you can see there's no real interest. Now their ears are kind of moving backwards and forwards, but when they look like— you can see now looking in a specific direction. The adults or the others in the hunt can actually see the exact direction by the positioning of the ears; that that animal is moving and then they know exactly what animal is trying to hunt.

The same goes for the tail. Cubs can also follow the tail, and when a lion is about to charge, they flick their tail up, and that's a very obvious sign in the tawny for a brown grass of an imminent movement of the adult lioness moving forward.

Lions also got the black behind the ear, but then they've got that white tip on the tail, which the cubs used to follow through the long grass. Sometimes there's so much they have to play with and bite it, but that is a young step and one of the young females on the right-hand side probably a year and a half old, and there is one of the adults. I'm not sure which one is the mother.

There was another young step in the pride, a very pale lioness, who unfortunately didn't make it, and we haven't seen her since late last year. But we were quite certain that something was going to happen earlier; that lioness did everything. Or, I actually used the rocks to her advantage. She really got close to a herd of unsuspecting wildebeests, and well, it was not to be.

Okay, well, we're going to stay here with these lions, and while we do that, let's go back down to Tristan.

Okay, well, we're going to stay. There's a technical issue with Tristan and the bushwalk team, so you're stuck with me for the moment. You can see the coloration of the body as they get older. Lionesses start to sort of fade a little bit in the coloration.

You see the difference between those two in coloration. One of the writers is a little bit more brighter in color, hasn't been washed as many times, but that one in the middle is actually the young male. Now, my word! How confusing was that? He's joined back again; he ran all the way away, and he's back.

You can actually see he's just got the little bits of making of fur on the bottom of the neck, and he is a pale in color. Probably, his sister was the pale female that disappeared. He is not the brightest; he's been washed too many times.

But quite often, you can tell a difference in age due to the coloration. And this young boy, he's got a very bad wound on his back hip. There are a couple pods around with cubs. The Paradise Pride has got some cubs that are probably between the ages of 6 and 8 months. These are the youngest that this pride has got, and normally, the cub interval is about two years or so.

So, there's still a few months away from new cubs being brought into the pride, and I haven't seen any males with this pride. The lions though are all over the place at the moment. It's very hard to get a handle on who they are. Not far away, just over here, we've had the Alalure ID, we've had other males I haven't seen before.

The Sausage Tree pride is a bit further down, but they are moving because the food is just abundant. So the cubs at the moment, the Sausage Tree Pride, which is much further south, they've got two very smaller ones that I haven't yet seen, and there's been a lot of mating going on in that pride in the last couple of weeks, but we haven't seen anything new in regards to that.

But back over to these beautiful lions in the long grass. I would love to show you some cubs. We have been searching for the Sausage Tree Pride, but we yet had any luck. Anyway, while we watch these lions getting a little bit on the move, let's go back down to the bushwalk team that's got elephants on foot.

So, even though we're out on foot and we are trying to find Tingana, Hussana, and Tundi and all the likes we get down here in Juma, sometimes, well, nature throws different things at you, and so we've bumped into a massive herd of elephants that is spread across the landscape at the moment, and it's really been a phenomenal kind of last few days as we've had lots of elephants around, and that’s made bushwalk well highly entertaining.

I’m hoping what we can do is try and just get a little bit of a view of these elephants. Obviously, they're quite far away at the moment, so we just bumped into them and they’re spread out feeding.

Now, the reason we came down this way was to try and see if we could help Brent after Hasana, as well as to check if there are any signs of Tingana. He often likes to walk down these kinds of drainage sections, and so we thought it would be a good place to come and have a look.

It's going to be obviously very tricky with the rain that fell about 45 minutes ago to find many tracks, but you never know what's going to happen. So this is kind of a prime opportunity to do an approach on the elephants. Now, Massey, what have I heard about Tandi and Columbus? I haven't heard much to be honest.

I mean, I wasn't driving for a few days, and it seems as though Tandi and Columbus have moved off into Torchwood, which we know that they do from time to time. Maybe with the conditions that we've had, you know we've had overcast, gray, wintry kind of feel to it, and it's been a bit of rain and even wind. That's generally prime conditions for our cats to be hunting.

I wouldn’t be surprised that Tundi managed to grab herself a really substantial meal, and that's why her and Trelle Manda stayed on the tortured side for the most of the end of the week and into this weekend. So that's where I think they are at the moment. But no one's actually reported seeing them since we saw her with that Dyke Aquila round the Treehouse Dam area, and when she kind of had that interaction with Hasana, but she's around. I’m sure I’m sure Columbus is just fine.

We know with Tandi she can head off into those areas and spend a lot of time that way. It's also not a bad place to be looking for her, to be honest, if she is back on the move. This is the kind of terrain, and given that it did rain, we should start to see our cats moving about.

To remark territory, so Tingana should be fairly active, Tandi would be active, should, you know, all of the kind of territorial individuals should be moving around and actually marking. So where we are now is a great place not only for Ellies to kind of see on foot but it's also a great place for us to be tracking and to be looking for any signs of our cats.

Right, so we're going to move off a little bit. We're going to try and see if we can get a better view of these ellies and check the drainage line where they're feeding. And while we do that though, let's send you back across to Jamie, who's on the lookout for the Inka Huma Pride.

Well, at least we managed to find a good view of ellies that we haven't managed to find our lions yet. Unfortunately, I think I've crossed her beyond our borders. I've just done a quick loop, and I can see some very, very fresh buffalo tracks.

All that stormy weather, I said that lions don't like it, and they don't really. They like to shelter from rain, but if there's an opportunity to hunt, that weather suits them down to the ground because it disorients their prey, and it makes their job a little bit easier. This morning we were with the Inka Humas, and they were looking quite full-bellied, but as though they could still eat a little bit more.

It was a far cry from their almost entirely flat stomachs two days ago. We managed to find a few Inka Huma lions lazing in a shady spot of the dry riverbed, relaxed and resting. They were clearly quite hungry and the sub-adult cubs displayed some curious behavior, settling into a cub-like suckling position.

As darkness fell and the weather worsened, the pride set off through the darkness towards some buffalo, but not before obtaining an evening drink. Catching buffalo is thirsty work. So the good news is that they did manage to catch themselves something. We don't know exactly what it was because by the time we found them here this morning, they had already finished, and all that was left were a few hungry looking hyenas hanging around the outskirts.

I found fresh buffalo tracks over here, and I think I heard some oxpeckers. If I were to guess, I would say that these lions are hiding off somewhere in the bushes. The most interesting thing about that particular sighting was the suckling behavior from—it wasn't quite true suckling, but the sub-adults settling in up against their mom's belly or Ferenc's belly potentially.

It was very fascinating behavior because they really are far past the age where the females would be lactating or when they'll be suckling. But obviously, old habits die hard, and those instincts are still partially ingrained in their minds. Although it would have been completely fruitless to try and suckle, maybe it brought them a little bit of comfort, maybe with the separation, because of course they should be 11 members of the pride plus three males.

Now this morning there were eight females around here and one of the Mangani males. I've heard tell after the morning safari that there are still the missing members of the pride on a giraffe kill with the other Mangani male and the mystery young male that's joined them. So but tricky to keep track of all the things that are happening in the lives of Ikhumas right now. Just listening, hoping I might hear the sound of buffalo moving through the thick vegetation.

Now, Marcel, here's the interesting thing about the Inka Humas. Those sub-adults are almost at the stage where their mothers are ready to start mating again. Someone was wondering how often lions breed. The Inka Humas will be ready to mate again; the cubs are about two years old. They'll be ready to mate again very, very soon, possibly in the next few months.

So with lions, you're looking at a birthing interval of around about every three years if they manage to raise their cubs to adulthood. Obviously, if the cubs are killed for whatever reason, the females will come back into heat sooner, and they will then get pregnant before their three-year interval.

It really depends. In this case, three of the five Inka Huma adult lionesses, three of the five, yes that's great—three of the five have cubs that are now nearly fully grown, actually sub-adults.

No, no luck. I'm gonna keep listening; hopefully, we get lucky. But unfortunately, I think the Inka Humas have gone beyond where we can follow. While we figure that out, Steve has had more success up in the Mara, and he has managed to find a lovely lion pride to spend time with.

We are with them, and they're trying again for those wildebeests, folks. We're just going to try and get into a position so we can see just ahead of us yet is the lioness because she's stalking once again. She's hidden behind the rocks; this could be what we've been waiting for the whole afternoon.

We were parked here a little while ago, and we lost the lions. Some are on our art inside. I'm just going to stop by this rock, and there she is in front of us at the rock. There's a second youngster joining her, and look at her body language.

You know, the second one about to come join from behind, but while we wait for action to unfold, talking about lions with youngsters, the Paradise pride loves the marsh. The Paradise pride seemed content in the marsh area, a swampy field of tall and lush green grass dotted with muddy wallows and small streams.

This area is a therapy as it runs along the Mara River and tracks gain throughout the year. The Paradise pride have found the perfect place to rear their cubs, so the bountiful area of the marsh provides a beautiful grazing area year-round. It’s a perfect place if you want to rear cubs with lots of animals moving through.

And the marsh pride, the Paradise pride themselves, my apologies, were eating of all the beasts that day that we found them, as is on the menu for all of the lions these days. What happened there? I think she suddenly didn't realize her sister or her daughter was so close behind.

I think there might be two youngsters, in fact, in the front. Where are the adults? We don't know; we are keeping our eyes very well peeled because they're not far away at the moment. Look at their intention. Have a look at the body language. They are the Valda pierced Ramos to the Paradise pride being out in the open marsh.

There they have quite a nice selection this time of year. Yes, there's lots of hypertension and zebra moving through, but throughout the year, there's Topi and Impala and all sorts of other small animals such as warthogs are moving through, and they quite enjoy whatever is on the cards.

In fact, because there’s such abundance of prey, well, there’s no need to be too choosy. But this time of year, just with the abundance of wildebeest, they tend to be the number one food on offering.

Whether they taste the best, and whether it’s just the abundance, it seems to it is a debate now. Well, across the African continent in the savannas, due to the abundance of wildebeest, they do form the majority of lion diets in the lion diet.

But down in South Africa, we see the Boomer pride thoroughly enjoy their buffalo when they can, kuru, impala, and honestly, of all the best when they're available. But their numbers are very low down there; have millions of wildebeest as they do appear.

The wildebeest are a little bit alerted; we don't know what's going to happen. And this is all coming to life, folks, and we spend some time with this pride. Earlier, seeing something quite similar to what you see now, and unfortunately, nothing came about it.

But where the adults are, I think that is the money. Wherever they are, maybe the adults are watching from a distance to see how these hungry youngsters are going about it, because a small pride like this only really needs to feed once a day, because they are not too many of them.

But anyway, Tristan is down in South Africa, hot on the search for Hasana. We are on the search for cats, but we are surrounded by a massive herd of elephants at the moment. They say Elly is absolutely everywhere, and so we've just sat still now because it's not really much we can do at the moment.

If we move off in any direction, so we're just kind of sitting in and just enjoying these guys as they slowly start to move around us. We've got an elephant that's off to our right-hand side; there's one straight in the middle and one straight in front of us.

It's going to make an appearance fairly shortly as it's coming straight towards where we are. Absolutely phenomenal to be on foot, say, but you see this one here in front, it's coming right towards us.

This is amazing! Now this morning I had an incredible sighting of elephants on foot, and it seems as though we're about to repeat the performance because here they come; Ellys up all over the place.

This afternoon really is quite special to be around, and of course, remember Elly's can be very, very dangerous, and you've got to be aware of what you're going to get yourself into. And you're around a musical, always make sure that you're going to be aware of your surroundings, and that doesn't apply only for us out here; our cats also sometimes have to be aware that there are dangers that they face too in their environment.

Well, for the most part, life at the top of the leopard hierarchy is a comfortable one for each and every Ghana. But they are where versatile perils must face to carry on his rule of this unforgiving land under a team territorial control. The Duke unknowingly walked straight into one of the other local male lions, luckily.

Tingana saw the crouching male lion laying in wait in the nick of time and stopped in his tracks. The moment seemed to last forever; the cats weighed up their options until Tingana decided to make a break for it.

Tingana made a clean break; we live to fight another day. Wasn't that a close call for the Duke? You really did kind of see that line at the last minute, and luckily, he did because otherwise, he would have gotten himself into a bit of trouble.

I think he was very fortunate that he walked into one of the avert Camille's with the limp rather than actually walking into the Inka Huma pride, which would have undoubtedly meant he would have gotten chased.

So he only needs to be quite careful; it's a peril of being out there. Lions are not friends with leopards, and so to get that close to a lion and not really see it until the last second could have been very dangerous for him, had it been, like I say, more than just the one, and had it been a fitter, stronger, healthier lion.

It definitely would have made life a little bit more tricky for him had it been that case. But an amazing sighting that we managed to witness; it really was super special to be able to kind of see him moving around and just to see how he all of a sudden kind of bumped into that line was really quite something now while he's closed in and get a little closer.

It seems like Steve's got his lions, and they also are getting closer to the prey that they are busy stalking. They are. Watch. Close to the bottom of the screen, that little black bump look underneath that they jaguared through the left.

They are the ears I was talking about. No, that's how the other line is following them. The intention, the body language, points out an individual that that lioness is looking at, and then the rest play their part by seeing what angle they are moving and then trying to position themselves in the right spot as to assist or catch anything that might run in a different direction.

Very, very important! That's how lions have evolved on a landscape to build to take much larger prey than they can individually, working as a unit. And they've been waiting for these valore de beers to calm down again and to relax, and they're starting to bed down.

She's using her cover; there's a youngster in that sort of middle right of the screen there—the lions will always try and select the easiest. Trying to bring down a young value is much easier than an adult that’s probably twice even three times the weight.

So always try and select something, and then, well, in the chaos that ensues if they catch something else, well, they'll take it. Marcel, yes, lions are regarded as highly threatened at the moment due to the fact that they're disappearing in places across the African continent due to their sort of—what's the word? Their interference in livestock with people, and also due to the fact that there is an enormous industry in the East talking about tiger bones and tiger bones, something in traditional medicine in the east, and there's a lot of people that are hunting lions in Africa and then selling their bones off as tiger bone.

So the market, the price is enormous, and lions are disappearing at an alarming rate. The numbers are going down every year. Only in these massive reserves are they still in a really good nick, but let's have another look. A second lioness; she started moving off to the right.

She's kind of picked up on her sister's idea. You see how she's now looking to the right-hand side due to the change in body language. Now, folks, bear in mind lions have got a success rate of probably 20% or less when it comes to hunting, and these two appear to be both youngsters, so their success rate—so they're very good at jumping and holding on to things, and there’s the young male.

I didn't take any effort in the initial hunt, but there might be in here somewhere, there might have gone all the way around, and I'm actually about to push these vultures back towards these youngsters, who don't quite have the technique of stalking and getting too close.

So they're very good at jumping and holding onto things, and there’s the boy. Have a look at his back left hip. He's got a very bad wound over there, but his belly is quite full because being a boy, regardless of our all, do you always eat more than the ladies? It doesn't matter what species you are I suppose he's finally making his way in.

That lioness that was stalking in the beginning, she's moved to just slightly to the left of the rock. NASA, she hasn't made another move as this male gets himself into a possible ambush position.

It means the lioness over there is going to go round up. Maybe she has seen something interesting. She's obviously going to go over the little hill that we can't see, isn't she, Archer? That's how it works; she's using the rocks for cover.

This is so awesome to watch, folks. Don't forget to send through any questions and comments you might have. I wonder if you can hear how windy it is. It really does make a big difference in the lions' approach. Okay, well, are we going to move up and see if we can get into a better position for this hunt? And while we do, let's go back down to Tristan and his elephants.

Well, good luck, Steve. We at the moment, unfortunately, are sitting at a dead storm. That's because with what a boo elephant that is sneaky, talk to us, and he's, I would say, probably in about ten meters from where I'm sitting at the moment.

The thing is, is that he's feeling his way slowly but surely closer and closer, and so, I mean, just sitting did still in the hope that he is going to kind of find his way out of the sital drainage line; otherwise, he's going to walk right in front of us, which will be quite something.

So I can't really move anyway; the problem is, is we've got another elephant behind us, so, okay, and it is stuck in here at the moment, which is not the worst thing at all. I'm quite enjoying it, but you say any time spent with elephants is a good time indeed.

And we have been so spoilt in the last few days. We've had epic, epic elephant encounters on foot. It really is thanks to you too, Rex, and you know who obviously gets us into these incredible places time in and time out.

And you know we've had these most amazing sightings between all of us, you know Brent, and Damien, myself; it's been quite something. But this afternoon is shaping up to be a beautiful one; this little bit of golden light is just starting to come out from time to time against the sort of darkness of the LED as it’s still wet from the rain.

It really is quite something, so it’s turning and shaping to be a magical, magical sighting we store. So it's not a bad thing that we are sitting like this because it allows us to be in the central part of the property where we can hear very, very well.

You must remember that with the rain, tracking has become very difficult, but if we’re sitting dead still, we can hear noises all around us, and that means that if any of our cats are mobile, moving, we won't be able to pick up the noises and pick up the alarm calls if they can seem by, let's say a bushbuck or an impala or something like that.

And being able to then work out where they are, so sometimes being stationary is not the worst thing at all, especially given where we are. We’re so central to the kind of whole area that we can pick up anything on either side of us and be able to follow up on it.

And hopefully, we have some success, so it really is a good spot that we are in. So, you know, sometimes you will find elephants can emerge under certain conditions; it's not always only dry seasons. But dry seasons is what a time that you do see a lot of any herds coming around to certain water points particularly.

Oh, bless you! It's what happens when you get some mud up your nose; I think he’s just blowing off a little bit of the mud that’s kind of collected. It is very muddy. I’m pretty sure when I stand up from here, I’m going to look like I’ve soiled myself because I’m sitting on the mud, and I can feel it slowly seeping into my pants, which is not very pleasant at all.

You can see it is a kind of dark, dark mud, which is going to be quite something when I stand up, so please don't laugh with me when you see me from behind during the course of this afternoon. I'm pretty sure you all will. Anyway, you can see that this area is a big person.

The thing is this—it really isn't any way for him to go up that bank. He's going to have to either go the way he came or he's going to follow the bank around, and there's a pathway that's just off to my left-hand side that runs right here.

So that would probably be the pathway that he would have to use, or he's going to come along the front where there's a lot of pathways a movement of elephants that has taken place. So it's kind of—that's the area he's going to be with. Perfectly safe, where we are, we're on this Pacific, and I'll tell my mom that he won't be able to get up even if he tried to climb up here; he wouldn't have any chance.

So we just have to sit here quietly and just kind of enjoy the sort of beauty of being, you know, amongst an elephant herd. It really is quite something. It was amazing though how quickly we got amongst them, because we kind of saw them in the distance and we walked a little bit, and all of a sudden there were just elephants popping up everywhere around us.

It can be one of the things about being arts and the bushing when you're on foot is that you've got to be a bit careful. Sometimes everyone thinks elephants make lots of noise, but sometimes they can be incredibly quiet and they can just pop up kind of right next to you, so he's going to be aware of those kinds of things right now.

He’s going to come around a little bit further, and so while we kind of wait for him to see if he's going to come this way, he's just going to stop the infeed. So we began to see while we kind of wait for him to get here. Let’s send you back across to Steve, who’s still with the lions and who are still trying to hunt.

What a filthy beast! Well, the vultures are slowly moving away as they're feeding, and this one young lioness, seemingly out of reach at the moment, is getting big. Then slowly feeding as they move away; she’s in such a good position behind that really big rock.

You’ll see the characteristics on the back of her leg. Let me give away her age; so inquisitive! What a great time to sing! In fact, that's maybe why the adults are—no, it's been seen! They're letting them practice going, "Oh, here we go, she's gonna show us how it's done!"

She’s been waiting for you to, before she shows. Well, from our stalk, let’s go back down to Juma with Jamie, who's got some action.

I'm terribly sorry, just as you came across to us all the way from the Mara, the pole of our roof got in the way of the stalk that we were trying to show you. That is because it has been pouring with rain all day, so we put the roof on only for the rain to stop, because that's obviously how what makes it stop raining is to be prepared for it.

Though, the search for the Inka Humas continues, it doesn't sound as though any of the other guides have had any luck. So what I thought we would do is we’d come and check at the waterhole.

And there’s nothing here! We're going to continue on around towards the hyena den, but in Tristan is sneaking closer and closer to an elephant. Come right past the mound and it's just walking right next to us!

Okay, that is unbelievable! That is as close as you're ever going to get to a wild elephant on foot. Unbelievable! Look at that!

Not quite right; there is nothing like looking ten elephants in the eye on special minutes a meter in front of you and staring at the same level as you are. It's quite something. So that was very, very, very special!

That elephant put its trunk out and almost touched this tree that's right here in front of me, so that's how close he actually came. If you look down below, you can see where his foot was down at the bottom of the base of the mound, and he kind of just walked past.

And he's still not 100% sure about where we are, what we're actually doing. He kind of walked past and out of the corner of his eye, I think he realized, hang on a second, there's actually somebody sitting watching, but he didn't really understand what it was.

That's why he kind of just pivoted like that and sort of looked at us, and now he's gone around the side, and he's still feeding. So that was just unbelievable! It's really very seldom that you're going to see something like that.

It's seriously quite special to be in company with these guys. The rest of the elephants are still coming, so there's a bull and a cow and a calf that are slowly coming through the drainage line at the moment hitting in our direction once again.

So it's going to be a little while, unfortunately, until we can move. Well, I say unfortunately, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being up here. We had a really brief view of a little baby as well trying to play on one of the banks and climb its way up, which was very entertaining just when we saw you guys last time.

And so that one is also around somewhere in this general vicinity. But that was seriously, seriously special! It was one of those kind of once-in-the-lifetime sightings that you get.

It really is quite something; it just goes to show that if you're quiet and you sit very restful, any elephant will walk past, and you can see that he was not aggressive towards us in any way. He didn't trumpet, he didn't mock charge; he just realized, "Hang on, something's watching me from this bank. I can't really get to it," and then he just walks off and around.

It’s super, super special to get something like that on what it really is one of those incredible moments. Good! Now we're going to slice a—you have to sit and be patient. These elephants are still all around us, and so while we are patient, let's change you back across to Steve, whose lions are also feeling playful on a marvelous African evening.

Yes, well, the geology here doesn't only support the beautiful plains of wildebeests on the landscape and also a very nice playground for some young lionesses who have been running and jumping.

And here we go! Watch out! It's going to jump off the other side! Oh, caught him! Caught! Or should I say, okay, they’ve been running and tackling each other! The way they should tackle a wildebeest.

It's been quite comical to watch. The boy I ever, with his injured leg, has been staying well out of the action because I think it's just quite painful. In fact, I don't know exactly what happened to him, but one of these lionesses was up a tree just now.

Let’s try to move up quickly to see if we can get them on the other side of that big basalt rock; it just happened to block our view. That is Steve. Colors are a little bit so faded.

I've managed to take up much supplies as we can. Oh! So it might look a little bit black and white to you—we tried to use the infrared light because our light has gone—our sun is setting in the distance.

It's been overcast for some time, and the light is quite poor. On the eye, we're going into the realm of darkness with these young lions! Where are your parents, or should I say, mum and auntie? I don't know.

They are walking every which direction they can to try and find them. Maybe climbing trees and rocks and looking off into the distance to see if they can find a bit. So far, they have not been lucky.

I have no doubt that possibly the lioness have maybe killed something when with the other pride. Not watching Courtney, how all of the females; well females can probably make from as early as about two, two and a half, but normally more like around the age of about three is when they're properly in heat.

But a little bit earlier can happen. The same goes with males, but they’re not generally allowed to mate earlier than that because they haven’t exerted any dominance. So three is pretty much about the sort of age.

Males anywhere from about three up to four is when they're starting to become sort of a little bit more section, yeah. Obviously, they would be possibly one of the reasons males get pushed away from pride straying interest in their sisters and their mothers.

He loved them from a genetic point of view. Okay, well, as it seems like we might be losing some signal, let's go back down to Jamie, who has her favorite animal—the cubs!

Oh, it's really truly a cub coming out. It's absolutely adorable! So will you name me to get into trouble? Your mom isn't here to protect you!

The hyena ranking is not necessarily based on size; it's based on psychology, so this little cub, if Corky is high rank, then Pretty at this point has to learn this from its mother.

So she will, by her behavior, teach it where it sits in the ranking system and it will respond to that. Now if Pretty were the matriarch, I think she would have gone for that cub properly and chased it away properly.

I don't know; we'll have to watch and see how this unfolds. But it looks as though Corky's little one is already learning from mom and knows that it can push its luck. You’re going to get kicked back into the hole; you're not careful!

It's quite a steep entrance at this particular den site. We watched the cub trying to struggle out or are you hungry? It’s a standoff! Well, he's cub, really pushing its limits here while we wait to see who wins—the bold cub or the adult female.

Let’s find out how Brent's search for the little chief is treating him. Well, at the moment, I'm searching for any leopard. I'm going to make my way back towards camp and hopefully, Hasana pops out around quarantine a little later.

At the moment, we're just taking in the beautiful views, and this looks like there might be some more rain on the way later on this evening. You can see the dark brooding skies to the south, but now, why I ponder where Hasana might possibly be, let's go have a look at what he's been up to.

Earlier in the week, Hasana continues to scent mark with Tingana occupied with a new lady from the north. Our little chief is testing the boundaries—all of us are wondering if and when he might start soaring, and will that be the final straw that pushes Tingana to chase the little chief away.

But for now, it's amazing just to spend time with the goofy Hasana as he keeps us entertained with all his silly antics. I, for one, will be sad when he moves off to make his way in the world.

He is truly such a special, special cat, and I'm hoping we are spoiled with sightings of Hasana for many years to come. I know that's unlikely, but hey, we can hope. Now we're just going to sit quietly for a bit longer here.

Listen to see if we can hear any alarm calls. Yes, and brown-headed parrots walking in the distance can hear hornballs, but none of the alarm calls we're hoping for. Oxpecker is flying over, and in the distance, okay, we're going to keep moving now see what else we can find.

Hopefully, Hasana is going to make an appearance before the end of the safari lives. But let's go back to the one hand with Jamie still with our lovely two little cubs—not just one!

Oh, Pretty finally lost it with the cup, with Corky's cub trying to suckle from her, and now both cubs have gone into the hole. It's her own cub that got a fright as well. That was the wrinkliest thing you ever did see!

Okay. Oh, well, the cub is hurt! In theory, if they can manage to get out of the den, let's cut back to Steve, whose lions are also feeling playful.

On a marvelous African evening, yes! Well, the geology here doesn't only support the beautiful plains of all that's on the landscape and source a very nice playground for some young lioness who have been running and jumping.

And here we go! Watch out! It’s going to jump off the other side! Oh, caught him! Caught! Or should I say, okay, they've been running and tackling each other. The way they should tackle all the beasts—it's been quite comical to watch.

The boy I ever, with his injured leg, has been staying well out of the action because I think it's just quite painful. In fact, I don't know exactly what happened to him, but one of these lionesses was up a tree just now.

Let's write up in the tree! We're going to have to move up quickly and see if we can get them on the other side of that big basalt rock.

It just happened to block our view. That is Steve! Colors are a little bit so faded. I've managed to take up much supplies as we can.

Oh, so it might look a little bit black and white to you. We tried to use the infrared light to our light, as a gone. Our sun is setting in the distance and it's been overcast for some time with the light that is quite poor and going into the realm of darkness with these young lions.

Where are your parents, or should I say, mom and aunt? I don't know—they are walking every which direction they can to try and find them. Maybe climbing trees and rocks and looking off into the distance to see if they can find a bit.

So far, they have not been lucky. I have no doubt that possibly the lioness have maybe killed something when with the other pride.

Not watching Courtney, how all of the females—well females can probably make from as early as about two, two and a half, but normally more like around the age of about three is when they’re properly in heat. But a little bit earlier can happen; the same goes with males, but they're not generally allowed to mate earlier than that because they haven't exerted any dominance.

So three is pretty much about the age. Males anywhere from about three up to four is when they're starting to become a little bit more sectioned.

Yeah, obviously, they would be. Perhaps one of the reasons males get pushed away from a pride straying interest in their sisters and their mothers. He loves them from a genetic point of view.

Okay, well, as it seems like we might be losing some signal, let's go back down to Jamie, who has her favorite animal—the cubs!

Oh, it's really truly a cub coming out! It's absolutely adorable! So will you name me to get into trouble? Your mom isn't here to protect you!

The hyena ranking is not necessarily based on size; it's based on psychology, so this little cub, if Corky is high rank, then Pretty at this point has to learn this from its mother.

So she will, by her behavior, teach it where it sits in the ranking system and it will respond to that. Now if Pretty were the matriarch, I think she would have gone for that cub properly and chased it away properly.

I don't know, we'll have to watch and see how this unfolds, but it looks as though Corky's little one is already learning from mom and knows that it can push its luck! You're going to get kicked back into the hole; you're not careful!

It's quite a steep entrance at this particular den site. We watched the cub trying to struggle out—or are you hungry? It’s a standoff!

Well, he's cub really pushing its limits here while we wait to see who wins—the bold cub or the adult female. Let’s find out how Brent's search for the little chief is treating him.

Well, at the moment, I'm searching for any leopard. I'm going to make my way back towards camp and hopefully Hasana pops out around quarantine a little later.

At the moment, we're just taking in the beautiful views, and this looks like there might be some more rain on the way later on this evening. You can see the dark brooding skies to the south, but now, why I ponder where Hasana might possibly be.

Let’s go have a look at what he's been up to. Earlier in the week, Hasana continues to scent mark with Tingana occupied with a new lady from the north.

Our little chief is testing the boundaries—all of us are wondering if and when he might start soaring, and will that be the final straw that pushes Tingana to chase the little chief away. But for now, it's amazing just to spend time with the goofy Hasana as he keeps us entertained with all his silly antics.

I, for one, will be sad when he moves off to make his way in the world. He is truly such a special, special cat, and I'm hoping we are spoiled with sightings of Hasana for many years to come.

I know that's unlikely, but hey, we can hope. Now we're just going to sit quietly for a bit longer here. Listen to see if we can hear any alarm calls. Yes, and brown-headed parrots walking in the distance can hear hornballs, but none of the alarm calls we're hoping for.

Oxpecker flying over in the distance. Okay, we're going to keep moving now. See what else we can find.

Hopefully, Hasana is going to make an appearance before the end of the safari lives. But let's go back to the one hand with Jamie still with our lovely two little cubs—not just one!

Oh, Pretty finally lost it with the cub, with Corky's cub trying to suckle from her. And now both cubs have gone into the hole; it's her own cub that got a fright as well. That was the wrinkliest thing you ever did see!

Okay. Oh, well! The cub is hurt—in theory, if they can manage to get out of the den, let’s cut back to Steve, whose lions are also feeling playful.

On a marvelous African evening, yes! Well, the geology here doesn't only support the beautiful plains of wildebeests on the landscape and also a very nice playground for some young lionesses who have been running and jumping.

And here we go! Watch out! It's going to jump off the other side! Oh, caught him! Caught! Or should I say, okay, they've been running and tackling each other. The way they should tackle a wildebeest—their playful antics continue!

It's been quite comical to watch. The boy I ever, with his injured leg, has been staying well out of the action because I think it's just quite painful. In fact, I don't know exactly what happened to him, but one of these lionesses was up a tree just now.

Let’s write up in the tree. We're going to have to move up quickly to see if we can get them on the other side of that big basalt rock; it just happened to block our view.

That is Steve! Colors are a little bit so faded. I've managed to take up much supplies as we can.

Oh! So it might look a little bit black and white to you! We tried to use the infrared light because our light has gone!

Our sun is setting in the distance and it's been overcast for some time with the light that is quite poor, and going into the realm of darkness with these young lions. Where are your parents, or should I say, mom and aunt?

I don't know—they are walking every which direction they can to try and find them. Maybe climbing trees and rocks and looking off into the distance to see if they can find a bit.

So far, they have not been lucky. I have no doubt that possibly the lioness have maybe killed something when with the other pride.

Not watching Courtney, how all of the females. Well, females can probably make from as early as about two, two and a half, but normally more like around the age of about three is when they're properly in heat.

But a little bit earlier can happen. The same goes with males, but they're not generally allowed to mate earlier than that because they haven't exerted any dominance. So three is pretty much about the sort of age.

Males anywhere from about three up to four is when they're starting to become sort of a little bit more sectioned.

Yeah, obviously they would be. Perhaps one of the reasons males get pushed away from pride straying interest in their sisters and their mothers.

He loves them from a genetic point of view.

Okay, well, as it seems like we might be losing some signal, let's go back down to Jamie, who has her favorite animal—the cubs!