Safari Live - Day 312 | National Geographic

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

Good afternoon everybody! Welcome once again to the Sunset Safari here in Duma in the Sabi Sands, South Africa, where it is a very nice 29 degrees Celsius, 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Well, we always have the Juke of Juma, who has been lying up around Treehouse Dam for the whole day, and just before we went live, he's decided to get up and start moving! How splendid is that?

But what is interesting about it is he started scent-marking. The line that he's on right now is pretty much a few meters to the right of the line that Huka Murray came down last week, straight down here to Treehouse Dam. Hukumor came down this path but went on the other side and went straight across down to the I in a dead end.

Tengana has waited for the sunshine, he's waited for it to dry up, and now he is doing his territorial duties in the middle of the day, which just boggles the mind sometimes. It's probably to do with the fact that it is so windy, you can see the vegetation is blowing as we go, and he's probably been waiting for a long time to do this. But he's been quite hungry, as we've got a TV show this evening.

Actually, he had hardly come out and spent many hours with Tengana. He came out at a bit of a bro session, actually. He's attempted to mate with female kudos; large kudos, but he missed. So he's definitely hungry, and he's also scent-marking as he goes. But I think he needs a meal in him; his belly is looking very, very empty.

It looked like he got a little bit of a... I'm not sure if it was a wound on the head. We didn't see anything earlier. Those of you who were with me this morning, we didn't notice anything on his head, but there was a bit of blood on it. Just possibly from a tick that he might have scratched.

We're going to get a little bit closer in and see if we can see that and see if it is, in fact, a wound or if it is just a tick that he managed to scratch off and it’s his own blood burst onto the surface.

When the wind is like this, it cools things down, and it makes these stealth movements of leopards even more proficient. Okay, well, we're going to be spending the afternoon with Tengana because he's just a Duke and a wonderful character. We love him, so don’t forget you can get in touch with us on #SafariLive on the YouTube chat stream.

But in the meantime, let’s go all the way up to the Maasai Mara to say good afternoon to Isaac!

Welcome to Maasai Mara, everyone! From the windy situation in Kruger to windier areas in the Mara, I have Tapas here with me. Welcome this afternoon everybody to this afternoon's game drive! My name is Isaac, and on camera, we have G Andre.

Welcome to the Maasai Mara! It’s a bit windy, but all in all, we are happy that you can join us this afternoon. On this afternoon’s game drive, it is such a beautiful scene I have here! I have lots and lots of topi. It’s not always that I come across this big herd of topi like this everywhere this time of the year!

The main reason is that they are migratory animals; they do go to the Serengeti for the annual migration and then come back. But we do have small resident herds that stick around. As you can see, there are lots of young ones. A lot of these young ones were born in October; from October they start giving birth.

And behind there, I have Impala. Also, it’s very windy, as you can tell. The grass is moving very fast, and also I think you might hear it from my microphone. The topi is an antelope only found in East Africa plains. They amount to around twenty to thirty thousand during the migration.

In case you are not aware of what I'm talking about, the Great Migration is an annual movement of animals from the southern Serengeti in Tanzania to Kenya. It involves the wildebeest, zebra, topi, Eland, and nomadic herds that move in one direction, moving for about five hundred kilometers one way.

At the moment, the majority of them are way down in the Serengeti, a place called Ndutu. That’s where they go to give birth, so that is what is called the Great Migration.

And this, uh, topi with me here, let me test send you to Trish, who’s got our sleeping lion.

Good afternoon everybody! So glad to have you on board as usual. Mashaallah here from Juma in South Africa, as always, and I've caught up with my lovely Avoca male yet again. Now, there is a second male hanging around; he's just in the bushes off to the right, but we don't actually have a visual of him with the camera. But I can see him with my eyes just off to the right behind these bushes.

You won’t be able to see it at the moment, but I'm going to reposition maybe a little later and be able to show you, hopefully. Now, we are in the middle of the road, and there is a car behind us. So, well, you know what? It’s not as if the car can do anything if the lion's in the middle of the road.

Okay, good; they’ve decided to take another route. So he’s kind of capitalized on all the shade here on the road while we… BK is on camera with me. While we have to suffer in the sun, he has found all the shade and has decided that he’s gonna take it all, haven’t you?

Well, you deserve it! We know that you’re not yourself; you’re a little bit injured. So, there you go, you can have the shade for now. Rain covers are off and the sun is out, so hopefully we can get some really nice shots and have some really nice sightings. I’m sure we will.

Now, he hasn’t moved far at all. Where he was in the morning was not even a hundred meters from here, less than that by far. Now, if he would let me get past, then I could show you the other male in the bushes, but this is quite exciting to have them both around!

I think that kind of maybe settles what we were thinking about the reasons he could be injured. So if the other male is around, maybe he has not had a fight with him. Anyway, I am going to try and reposition so we can get a view of the other male.

In the meantime, let’s go to David in the Mara.

Very well done, Trish, to have spotted a lion! And we’ve got one grumpy animal here! I'm not sure why I would say he is grumpy, but hopefully, he’ll settle down and try and behave.

Jumbo jumbo! My name is David, as usual, and this main camera is Archie. Archie, how are you, sir? Very good! I think today might be one of those weekends that you call the weekend of the big five.

Because I think I heard Steve talking about Tengana. Maybe he must have seen him. And now, Trish with a lion, and myself with the buffalo! So you got three of the big five!

So can we have some work today? Are all presenters going to request that we work on the big five? Because this buffalo here is one of the big five. And as Trish correctly said, he is one of the most grumpy animals. Now it's very windy here where we are. You can see how the grass is moving, and it shows you how windy it is.

And that's why this grumpy animal here doesn’t look very comfortable. Can you see the grass there? We think, oh, I think we might be getting rain, maybe tonight or tomorrow. This is how it starts; it's the signs of rain.

And I believe Isaac, Trish, and Steve already told you! Keep talking to us; any comments just send us! Ask me why I think that the grass is moving left and right. Is that grass or... any questions, please do send them. Hashtag Safari live on Twitter.

So we got some work to do, and got their buffaloes, and yeah, Trish with a lion, and Steve with a leopard. Now, let’s work on a big five before long!

Let’s go back, I guess, to Tingana with Steve.

Oh, welcome back! Tingana is on the top of the termite mound, and I do apologize! I got so carried away with the fact that we have a moving leopard in the afternoon, I forgot to introduce myself and Mr. Sebastian Aram behind the camera.

Though I’m Steve of course, and that’s Tingana! He is definitely on the move. He’s now on top of the termite mound, having a look-see if anything is moving in the long grass apart from all the trees.

And the grass is swaying, and with his very keen vision, he’s trying to see if there's anything just stumbling around that he can maybe try and move towards. It’s such a characteristic thing that we see.

I’m sorry, he’s suddenly hidden from view. Can I go back and meet him? Oh, there we go; there he is! So can you see right on the top of his head? There’s a bit of a bloodstain there! I think it’s just from a tick because it's not seeping or anything; it’s just a little bit of blood.

I think it was from a tick that got squashed. There’s another one on the top left of his head, another big tick up there! When they get nice and gorged and full of blood, they generally fall off to breed.

The longer ticks can give us enormous amounts of itching when we walk around. But he caught that one probably with his claw and scratched it off, and that would have led to a little bit of a bloodstain.

Well, he’s just coming down the termite mound. There he is! Hello, Tinky! We’re all saying hello, Tinky! Well, Mr. Duke, it’s wonderful to be with him. I told you all he’d be back, and well, what a good opportunity for him to be back as well to say goodbye to our season one of ABC 3 that is on this evening.

Sorry Sam, I’m taking you through a little bit of a day! That’s Morocco! He is a gorgeous boy. He’s getting a little bit old; you can see that in his face—his face and his fur. He’s getting a little bit droopy skin; maybe doing a little bit of Botox or something!

I don’t advocate any of that! Can you imagine a leopard with Botox? The image is just too much!

Tingana is not that vain; he doesn’t mind he knows he’s getting on a bit. He’s still a very powerful leopard, a very loud and confident leopard, and he is walking directly east. So he’s coming back to the road called Weaver’s Nest, and he is finding every conceivable bush he can find to that demarcates his territory.

It’s interesting to see where he’s going to lead us, what is on his mind. But it’s not only myself and Shoshanna and Isaac and David Art this afternoon. We’ve also got Sydney. He’s on a vehicle, and he would like to say good afternoon.

So sorry about that, guys! But I have found something great for us. I found another Avoca male!

So I did tell you that he was in the bushes there, and we managed to spot him! Now, he is in quite a thick block, and I think if I get in there, I’ll be able to close to him. So I’m being a bit sensitive, and I’m staying out of the road.

Now, he’s not too far from his brother, so like I was saying before, there's the brother dearest sitting in the shade, hanging out! As I was saying before, I hope this kind of puts to sleep the suspicions that we thought he may be in a coalition internal kind of fight because they are still around each other. They were sitting with each other as we drove up, and then the one sat down on the road, and the other walked across the road, not too far at all.

So, to me, it seems that they're still quite a coalition, and they don’t have any sort of internal squabbles yet at least. So what created the hole in his head is still a question to be answered!

Yes, we’re talking about you! Like I said, it’s become quite hot now in June, 29 and 84 degrees Fahrenheit, so everyone’s looking for a bit of shade, and I am too!

So while I look for some shade, let's go over to Sydney, who has some zebra!

What a beautiful sighting! I’ve got lovely zebra standing right in the middle of the impalas! These two different species are feeding together this afternoon! And most of all, good afternoon and welcome on board. This is Sydney, formerly Makozi, and I’m traveling with Shenzeen Kesey, who is my camera operator this afternoon.

We are going to definitely look for the interesting game for you this afternoon! You can talk to us by following us on Twitter #SafariLive. You can also follow us on the YouTube chat stream.

So the weather this afternoon, rain is still promising! Don’t get surprised! I'm still having the roof off, and you might get disturbed with the poles we're viewing these animals.

So, impalas and zebras, when they are feeding together like this, they do help each other a lot when it comes to the identification of the predators.

So if you can check animals such as the zebras, they are very much popular with connecting with animals such as wildebeests because wildebeests have poor eyesight. But here I know both impalas as well as the zebras; they’ve both got good eyesight.

So it means any animal, any big cat, which might try to go this evening. We could see the kudu running away there! So it means it’s not just the zebras here!

So these three different species—the kudus and zebras and impalas—when animals are feeding like this, this is what is called safety in numbers because it's very much difficult for a predator to single one animal out when they are in a very big herd like this.

And see, some of these impalas are now feeding under the trees!

So now we are going to leave this beautiful bachelor herd of impalas and cross over to the Maasai Mara where David is having something.

Well, I was talking about the big five, and I could be wrong here, but I think now we can close that chapter of talking about the big five!

Because after the buffalo, I just took one loop and came to this herd of elephants here, which completes the list of the big five! I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about, but just in case, we go to the animals that fall into the big five in Africa, which are elephants, buffalo, lions, leopards, and rhinos.

They apologize! We still have one more to get to make that list complete of the big five! Now the wind continues howling here, still blowing, and you can see through the grass, and this is the red porridge grass; it’s just being moved!

And should we get any rains now, we would say we should get easterly rains coming this way, in this direction! But I do not think the time now; it could be maybe tomorrow or the day after. But when this has come, these elephants will still be here!

But this, you know, rains come, nothing much is going to change. Now we’ve got two seasons of rainfall in Kenya: the long rains and the short rains!

So what we could be going into, the wrong rains, it could be at a time, you know, quite much. But again, the weather has been very erratic the last couple of years, so it could come early, or it could even come rather late!

African elephants, we call them small herds of anything; five, sometimes up to a hundred! Of course, when you get a hundred, that would be definitely different families coming together.

So if you look at that grass carefully where they’re eating, you notice it’s a lot greener than the other grass around in that area, and, of course, much shorter, definitely more nutritious.

And secondly, our guess is it has more moisture content in it! Always very much led by one female, a matriarch, and she’ll always decide where to graze, where to browse, where to go have a drink or, when to go have a drink!

She’s like a commander! This is very exciting! Now we have walked four of the big five! Now let’s see whether we can get——

With the rain at one point and then, those who move on as just howling and howling at my ears because of the wind!

And let’s go back to the Duke of Juma! I think with Steve.

Orville, really see is a bit of his profile, and it’s very easy to see how thick that neck is, the Juke! Well, he was walking through the two steinbok, probably about thirty meters away!

Decided they were going to take a bolt, and both went in different directions! And if quarters attention for a moment, he stood up on a big log to see if he could find one!

But that’s the strategy with small antelope like that; they will run a short distance very quickly and stand dead still! And well, I’ve just seen it, and it’s worked for them!

A couple that is probably going to survive the day! But he’s still trying to find one; one went off in the direction he’s now looking; the other one went off in the direction behind us!

He tried to see where that one went, but I think it concealed itself quite nicely!

Roslin, you wonder how big a dewlap can get! And well, there we go; that’s probably the best example! I mean, Singhal is an enormous leopard, and I think that’s as good an example of a fully matured dewlap that I’ve ever seen!

Not many other leopards that I’ve seen are as big as Singhal, but they all have a similar sort of size. But I've never seen anything bigger than what you see there with the Juke! So a very, very good example right there!

Roslyn, now he’s headed straight! There’s a couple of pans along the way here, but he is definitely hungry because he didn’t drink at Treehouse, watching home while we were there!

He just kind of walked along, after being in the shade, maybe he enjoyed the tick off of his head! Charlotte Universe, leopards would most certainly hunt topi!

Don’t know if they’d manage an adult topi, but certainly, the youngsters! But yeah, the idea behind the topi is that they are plains game! And their strategy is to be able to stand, and they’re very vigilant animals.

The ability to stand up tall and to look and be attentive! The wildebeest often don’t even notice predators approaching; the topi is very, very on top of things!

And I think a leopard would have a hard chance trying to sneak up on a topi in their short grass habitats! But a young topi most certainly is a risk of a leopard!

But I think with the vigilance of the adults, they probably are able to evade them! But leopards will hunt absolutely anything they can possibly get their claws or teeth into!

I mean, David and Ralph both had leopards in the Mara last year with small giraffes up the tree! So now that is something that you just wouldn’t think would be possible for a leopard! But they are opportunistic!

If they can catch it and bring it down, they most certainly will! For example, he’ll go for a bird, he’ll go for a snake, he’ll go for anything that is catchable! Even tortoises from time to time!

You’re going to walk up to the waters up there, the water is so muddy! You’re gonna have a drink, boy? Yes, he is! There we go!

Look at the size of his feet! Now, honestly, I wish I could just give him some of my water because of the erosion from the rainfall that’s filled that little pan with a fair amount of sediment, a fair amount of runoff, and mud!

I prefer this to Treehouse! Watching all the teams! And then you can see how long his whiskers are!

I was asked a question this morning: “Why are leopards’ whiskers longer than lions?” And I wonder if anyone out there can answer for me!

Are they, in fact, longer than lions or do they just stand out a bit more on the leopard's face because of the colors and the spots? It’s not something I’ve really paid attention to in the past! But now looking up close at the large head and face of Tengana, you can see how enormously long his whiskers are, as he drinks up the entire pan!

Really, you’re very blessed to be able to spend time with these animals in close proximity!

Okay, well let’s quickly go up to the Maasai Mara where Gigi has moved off from large buffalo to baby buffaloes running! Lovely! Any time you see a cat drinking, I think Steve, you feel very lucky to see the Duke of Juma doing that, but I got some more lions from the two-three that I saw earlier! Now, I got to be a group that you call a heart of buffalo here that is getting very confused by the wind!

Most of the herbivores, when it gets very windy, it brings a bit of anxiety in them in the sense that they know the cats will always be trying to get all of them! And their hearing is not very accurate!

They smell also; the smell does not smell very good! So they’re always a bit careful when it's windy like this! But now I stopped here because there were two small calves!

Oh, wow! That buffalo has a short tail! And you see that small baby there? See how clever they are? They'll always put the young ones in the midst of the group, and I think that’s the mother who is walking very close to the calf.

So the wind brings lots of confusion to these animals because all their senses do not work quickly! And they have known out of experience animals or predators like lions will always be taking that advantage to get them!

Not sure they can hear the wind blowing from where we are, me and Archie! Archie’s my camera operator this afternoon! And all those small little birds you’re seeing flying on top of those buffalo are called the oxpeckers!

Linda, how are you today? And you say they are so very cute! And Linda, especially to see them with the wind blowing there makes them, I guess, even cuter!

Not sure that’s an English word, but I think that makes them even more cute to see the wind blowing and see the size of that small little baby there!

I think you, Archie, but the mother is very, very cautious because even a thing you see how they keep raising their heads they would not know what direction any danger would come from!

You see how they smell? You see that? I’m putting her nose up; it's just to pick up the smell because they know!

Now the hearing senses, I would say, almost not to count on! They better count on smell! Of course, if the wind is blowing, I got a question here from Ryan why that buffalo is something!

And the same wind is blowing to my ears and me! Me, start questioning! So what she’s trying to do is to smell see what that, you know, she can pick up; any smell of lions or anything there!

Ryan, very good question! And you’d like to know where the buffaloes are native to Africa? Yes, Ryan; buffaloes are native to Africa! And exactly, that's why we call them the African buffaloes!

They’ve been found here, and I think when some of the Europeans came way back at the beginning of the century to South Africa, I think they brought them here and they realized they could not be domesticated! I think this area called Cape Town because we call these buffaloes their African Cape buffaloes!

Yes, they're natives here! And we will compare them to the bisons also to the water buffalo, which you get maybe in Asia and North America!

Well, I need to move; this particular area is an area I call the sausage republic! And so the stadium took your butt about a particular pride of lions! I want to give you one more quick look at that buffalo because I am enjoying how the wind is bringing them some worries!

And I want to move some lions here in this particular area, see the small, you know, calf just following the mother very closely, not to make any mistakes!

While talking about buffalo calves, small babies of buffalo, I think Isaac got small babies of a type of bird!

Yes, I'm talking about; wind—it's also very windy here, and I think it's an advantage to certain animals, and others are at a very big disadvantage! Over here, I have female ostrich with her five chicks!

This is an ostrich that we know before from quite a while! She had about ten chicks, and she has lost five, and the five she’s held onto—she’s been holding on to them for the last about three months, and they are doing quite fine!

So we’re very, very happy—we’re hoping to see never reach maturity! This is the Maasai ostrich, and there is a female. It’s quite an unusual setting because usually, you come across a pair and the chicks; they take care of the chicks.

I don’t know what happened to the male; we haven’t seen him since December! Maybe he decided to abandon the family, which is rather sad because they usually try to bring up the chicks together until they are almost quite big!

You know, much one, and they leave! But we don’t know exactly what happened to the male! Looks like she’s quite a smart, clever mother because she is moving downwind, so in case of any threat, she can see it, and nothing would attack her!

I remember to join me in conversation on #SafariLive, or you can, you know, watch us on YouTube live stream!

Can I get your name, but you did ask how many eggs do ostriches lay? They say a female ostrich will lay up to four eggs a day, aren’t you? Yes, if I got your name right!

Yeah, they do lay about, you know, four! What happens is that when a female is ready after mating to lay some eggs, she will lay the eggs.

She’ll find a spot on the ground, and then she'll lay an egg; the rest of the females that have been mating with the same male will follow suit and lay eggs in the same spot!

So in a nest, you can find up to sixty eggs—sixty! But of those sixty, maybe forty will hatch after incubation of about three months! And then of those forty, maybe fifteen reach maturity!

Infant mortality is very high because of extreme sunlight, too much water, fast jackals, leopards, and lions will also go for the chicks, so the mortality rate is very high at a very young age!

But yes, if I hope I answered your question right! They look like they are very happy with these guys! Jemma, you asked me, how long do chicks stay with their moms? They will stay sometimes even forever!

They will stay forever sometimes, but when they are big enough, like mature, to start meeting, if the flock is too big, they might break away! They will stay even up to two to three years before the flock gets too big and they break away!

But I have seen where they stick with their moms, you know, forever! They become part of the big, big family! This is a beautiful setting, and this is coming to you from the Maasai Mara!

And these guys were once, you know, under serious threat a few years back when there was a lot of poaching!

The girl asked me if we know how many ostriches are found in the Mara! Of course, we don’t know! These are, you know, birds or, you know, animals that they had, you know, to keep track of!

So I don’t know; I would lie to you! It’s an animal we don’t keep track of, so I don’t know how many! But we do have a very healthy population as you can see!

We have chicks right now! This is not the case that you know, about 10 years ago, where you didn’t see them because everybody was having ostrich farms!

So people came and stole eggs, but there have been restrictions on who can have ostrich farms, and so we have seen a very healthy population of ostriches coming back! So, don’t you worry!

I don’t know the number, but we do have a very good population of the Maasai ostrich!

I’ll proceed on and see what else I can find for you because they have gone over the horizon and all I can share with you now isn’t this beautiful plains over here? Quite a huge expanse where I am! Very open! And this is typical of Mara.

Besides, it’s very, very, very open! You can… Okay, while I continue to see what I can find for you, let me send you to Greater Kruger, where Trish has got a lion for you guys!

Wow, just look at the way that mane is blowing in the wind! Hey, my gorgeous boy! Absolutely stunning!

Now, the most heartwarming thing happened! He was sitting on the road, the one with the injury on his skull, and then the brother came out from the bushes and nuzzled him a few times!

Picked him up and then saw that—well, not picked him up physically—but sort of helped him, and they nudged each other! And then it almost looked like he said, “Come bro, let’s go have a drink!”

And they've just stopped over somewhere! You can see his mouth is still wet! And his brother sort of walked off to the right there!

Oh, look at that! Is that not the most beautiful thing? Hey, guys, get a good look at his teeth now! Absolute poser!

He’s got my nose out, guys! So I’m just having a closer look! Wow, he's been struggling to keep up with his brother quite a bit, and his brother’s been moving at a really slow, slow, slow pace to kind of just, I suppose, help him and guide him.

But it was just the most heartwarming thing! He’d stop every now and then to make sure that this limpy one would catch up! That’s just been the sweetest thing ever!

Now, he’s just flopped down in another patch of shade, and his brother has moved off! But I bet I could put money on the fact that their brother's not far off at all because he has been staying with him the whole time, trying to help him!

Jonathan would like to know if he could actually be pushed out of the coalition if his injuries get worse! Um, I’m actually not sure! What I can tell you is in my suspicions, I don’t think that will happen!

I don’t think so! But, you know, ready? Who knows? He could—his injuries could become so bad that he actually gets left behind, in which case the other two brothers just sort of move ahead and don’t come back!

As opposed to being physically pushed out because of his injuries. But being left behind, that could definitely happen! I think! But at the moment, seeing this interaction with the two of them, I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon!

Because he’s so concerned about his limping brother here! Either I really don’t think it's come to that yet!

I want to just angle myself a bit better; all the viewers say he looks so lazy! Well, that’s a lazy lion for you! That’s what they do in the day! Laze around, look for a bit of shade, you know, get the wind blowing through their mane!

He’s been resting a lot, though! Even this morning when I saw him, he had not moved very much from how I had seen him the day before, which is not a great sign!

Because usually, what he should be doing is sort of patrolling his area, his territory, and scent-marking! Especially after the rain, when most of it would have been washed away!

He would go and resend mark all those areas, and I haven’t seen him doing it! Maybe he’s just relying on his brothers for now!

Okay, his brother is actually next to him on the other side! I am going to reposition a bit! And then, yeah, I’m gonna because I can see him just kind of at the edge there, so I'm going to reposition!

I’m not gonna get too close, but I want to just angle so we can see the brother as well! Hello, boy! You’re lifting your head up! There we go, BK! Can you see him?

Yeah, Dixon says bonds mean a lot to lions! They certainly do! They are the only cat that lives in such a type of social structure and with so much social bonding going on! So it is important!

And that is kind of telling from their success! They are the apex predators! And that’s because—very well, one of the reasons is because of their social bonds and the way they reaffirm these bonds, and they kind of, you know, each member of the pride is valuable in some way!

But I just love how he’s waiting with their brother, and I’m saying they’re waiting because it’s as if they’re taking pit stops along the way! Just so that Limpy can sort of recuperate!

David says they look like they’re on a yoga diet! I don’t even know what a yoga diet is! Is that just healthy, healthy veggies? That’s not gonna do much for you, is it?

Oh, yogurt diet! Even that’s a bit far-fetched for them! But I think the yoga diet was even worse! I think the one with the injury could do with some yoga! He looks so stiff when he gets up, and he starts to move around, and that back leg is looking really, really swollen!

Not great signs! But he’s got his brother around to help him, and you can see that he's super tired and just flopped down there! But the brother's still got his head up, because I have a feeling they know exactly where they need to go or want to go!

Because they must’ve been really, really walking fast! They were not wandering about looking for a nice spot of shade! Not at all! Well, these brothers are on a mission, and apparently, so is Isaac! So let’s go to him!

Welcome back! I’m driving aimlessly here looking for something! I haven’t found, but even without anything, it is a lovely view that I have in front of me!

I cannot complain! I know there will be something! Maybe up here! I can see lots and lots of game! There’s a big herd of buffalo over there! Maybe about 300! There’s a big herd of eland across the other side, about maybe 30!

So I’m not complaining! I’ll see something soon! The area I am in is called Ly Plains! In our map of Maasai Mara, we have different names for different areas!

And this area is called Ly! Ly is a certain type of tree in Maasai; it’s medicinal, and it’s what quickly forms that sometimes, they cut it and use it to build the corral, so that they can protect animals at night!

I think they used to occur here; I don’t see very many at the moment! But, you know, that’s the name of this area! If you have a map of the Maasai Mara, just look out for that name, and it will tell you exactly where I am!

Sometimes it’s always nice to stop and have a look because sometimes you will miss something when you are just driving around! So I’ll just scan around while J and Ray also use our, you know, camera to see if there is anything!

But, you know, scanning all around, it’s just a beautiful scene everywhere in front here! It’s just miles and miles of beautiful endless plains!

Okay, while we’re scanning, those actually are buffalos! You see that over there? Those are buffaloes! And while I drive to get close to them, let me send you over to David!

I hope he's getting lucky in looking for the sausages!

Thank you! It’s indeed very powerful to hug a tree; quiet enjoy hugging trees on a daily basis but indeed we are still with the Duke!

And isn’t that incredible how tall that red-out grass can get in the Mara? I mean, at the height of David, it's not a small man! So you can imagine how everything would disappear up here!

If we had the same sort of growth, that’s all to do with the rain and the soil! Huge new churning soil providing a hugely nutrient-rich vegetation!

But it’s not always ideal when you’re searching for lions in the long grass! Most certainly wouldn't be the most fun area to walk in with the grass that long!

Well, Luke is slowly, slowly making his way towards Chilla Pan! He knows there are always a couple of animals hanging around over here!

And he’s been taking his time, showing us the patience that is the Duke of Jummah! And he’s stopping right in front of us here, right above my head!

Hello, he’s looking at Chilla Pan! He’s looking for—because there’s always a couple of impala hanging around over here!

Generally just in the open area just behind us! Mmm! You probably could make him wear a hat, Emma! I mean, I was saying earlier because we were sitting next to him! And simply saying that's the highlights of my job!

We were sitting there, and I said I was eating some nuts, and Tingana was right next to the car in the shade, and said, “This is the best part of my job, getting to sit with a leopard while having a snack!”

And he also said after that: “I wish we could go up and just cuddle them!” Because they just look so cuddly, don’t they?

But I’ll tell you folks, leopard fur is a lot more coarse than you think it is! It’s a lot tougher! It’s not as... and the belly may be nice and soft!

But it’s very, very, very, very coarse! It’s not like a shaggy dog, like a very hard fur type of dog! I’m trying to think what kind of dog—I'm sorry, boy!

You’re right there! He says stop in the shade! And I also warn you that the smell that she'll generate on your hands after snuggling with a leopard like this is gonna be quite something to behold!

Well, it seems like Sydney has either gone somewhere else or he’s moved to the Jim Beam, and he’s got a very special surprise!

I am so very lucky this afternoon by the gym, again! As yesterday, I was here looking for them, and there was nothing! For today; oh, look! The smallest one is coming now!

I haven’t seen this smallest one for a long time! Look at that! This is beautiful! Oh, the other one is pulling—there’s more one from the ear!

So they are very much inquisitive! The mother is just looking everywhere! So I’m sure this is the mother for these adult ones! Pretty!

So the smallest one, I can see there now; she's growing high up looking from the high elevation! So the small one is very much interested to play!

So these hyenas keep moving these little ones away for the following reasons; one, they don’t want other predators in the area to detect the scent of their little ones! Two, when these high infestations of parasites such as fleas, they’ve got to move their little ones!

So there is quite a lot of competition going on amongst these predators, as predators such as wild dogs, when we come to these areas, when they’re babies, they will eat their little ones!

Same applies to the hyenas! When they come across the other den sites of other predators, they also eat their little ones!

So that helps them in order to minimize competition in these areas! So, in order to see the kill, we’ve got to sometimes depend on this kind of animal because they have a good sense of smell! And they can smell blood from a long distance!

So I am most also very much happy that the hyenas are back at Juma, as it was difficult a few weeks ago to see them! They were gone—a few!

You can see now the mother is now walking around us, trying to check what’s happening! But I can see they are not having any stress about our presence!

The little ones are also interested to follow their mother in order to show us the road! The little one is down already! You can see wanting to follow the mother at the moment!

So this little one is growing very fast! Look, they are very much interested in play! So the smallest one, which is still very dark or disappearing—as in black—is growing!

I have seen that first time I’m seeing them for quite a long time! I can see that little one is going to follow the mother; it’s somewhere resting under the tree there!

So the sun is a bit hot at the moment, so that’s why now they’re moving much more to the other side! I’m gonna have to change the position so that I can give you a better sighting!

Oh, this one is coming back again! It doesn’t want me to move! So this termite mound, which is used as a den site, has got the two holes at the back; there’s another entrance! So they’ve got two entrances!

At the moment, sometimes when these holes are too open, big predators such as leopard can go in! Not long ago we have witnessed it when Tristan was lucky with Tengana going deep and completely disappeared in one of the German mounds!

So that is a sign that when the predators are in the area, they can easily go down and get hold of these little ones! And this is so cute! Look at that! Look at this beautiful spot!

It’s unbelievable that when these little ones are still young, the color is completely different! Just like what we saw earlier when the little one came out!

So if you can compare Plunk and a small one, you will see that they don’t look the same, Nina! They look very funny, especially when looking at the body design having long legs and short hind legs! It makes it much more interesting!

They just want to sniff every time! Look at that! You can see that the little one is trying to pick up the sand from the wind because there is too much wind at the moment!

Maybe the wind is bringing them updates! Very much inquisitive! The ears are moving all the time! The question about the termites collapsing is very much gray!

I have seen the big animals such as the elephants! You must check; these termites have got entrances! Entrances are not done mostly by designers! These entrances are done by the animals such as the aardvarks and the hyenas!

They just come and use them and modify them in order to get better so that they can easily go inside! But the elephants, they can weigh up to five thousand kilograms!

Elephants can be able to climb up here and feed from the trees while standing on top of the termite mound! It’s very rare for a termite mound to get dissolved!

Also, when it’s raining too much, they don't easily get dissolved! So the materials which are used in order to build the termites, the termite mounds, by the termites is interesting!

They build this kind of big houses from their saliva and their droppings! So they’ve got kind of a sticky glue which helps them in order to stick this kind of soil!

And it becomes very much hard! If you go and knock there, you are going to feel that this is very much hard; it’s like a rock! And it’s very rough on the outside and smooth by the inside!

So hyenas, a part of those animals, all got to be thankful when it comes to the utilization of the holes dug by the aardvark!

So while I’m still checking what is going to happen around here, let’s go to David by the Maasai Mara, who is lucky with the lions!

Hyena cubs are pretty good to watch in the afternoon! And we go to cubs here! But be sure before we show you the cubs, we got a very fast lioness here who is drinking!

Now this one member is a part of the sausage tree pride, and I feel full of joy to have spotted them! Finally, I've been looking for them for the last couple of three hours!

Not sure who this is, but my guess is this is the very famous king tail! King tail is the oldest female in this particular pride!

And the other day, or was it yesterday morning, she introduced us to her three cubs! And how exciting is that? Well, for those of you who have never joined us before, I've got a special pride of lions here!

And I'm saying especially because it’s my favorite pride in the Mara! I’ve got loads of tribes of lions—fairly many, over ten prides! But this particular one I follow them with passion because of the economics!

I want to show you King tail as she is walking down towards her two cubs! I'm sure those cubs could be hiding for her to do what you call hide and seek! Very good job!

Archie is the camera operator with me this afternoon! But if you look carefully in the grass there where King tail is fitting at twelve o'clock, the two smaller cubs are hiding in the grass!

Nor small; our guest is about six months old! And King tail is followed by another female behind! I’m yet to identify who she is!

Just watch carefully and see what these cubs will do to something! Yep, nice play! A little stretch there! Excellent stretching on four-by-four!

Child of the universe, you would like to see all the cubs together! You stay tuned, Child of the universe! But seeing King tail in the child—other wonderful things!

How come so close to a calf? So child of the universe could have done this! These lions are on the move! I do not know where they’re going, but chances are they are going to where the other smaller cubs are!

And if they end up in the action, Child of the universe, I'll be following them there! So stay tuned and you’ll see what happens! So what we want to do is to turn around!

And I’ll be more than happy to do that so that we can cover a bigger audience! I just put my head down because Archie doesn’t like seeing my head!

He likes seeing lions which are just in front of the car, and not very far, two meters, four meters from the car! Hello, hello! Jumbo jumbo!

And a very warm welcome to Kenya! We are in a game reserve that is called the Mara triangle with some very exciting playful lion cubs! Oops, look at that!

They’ve always said a good picture is worth a thousand words, but I think this particular caption of graphics playing is worth our guest a million words!

Very windy where we are, but these cubs are not bothered by the blowing air up or down here in the grass! Lynne, you’re asking how the Chinnies cubs are doing?

Now, this particular one here is about six months old, Lynne! And they belong to one of the females here! We haven’t seen the Chinnies cubs in the whole of today!

Yesterday, I assume, Lynne, we never saw them! But yesterday morning we saw them, and I’m sure you’re watching!

When she’s on a small little band of joy, trying to walk, she came very close to the car and you saw her going! Yeah! No! And she was calling!

So what are you doing? We’ll be following this big cub sphere because they’re following their mother!

And if they're going to take us to you, I’m thinking they will go, yeah! We’ll be able to see their smaller cubs, and especially that very small one!

Now, Lynne, let me just go very close to—no, very close, rather! I’ll feel closer to these lions, and I’ll show you the lead female and give you an idea of the direction she’s going into, where I got a feeling there could be the den of King tails' cups.

And the other one female! Now look carefully when you look ahead of me! See that one? I understand my guess is that is my team!

It is one of the realities in this particular pride! I haven’t seen her closely! I swear to you how could I be able to identify her!

Of the five females in this pride, she’s got the darkest or a very brown eyes, and she’s got a small split on her right nose!

Curren, you’re saying yes, cubs can turn out to be ferocious as they grow, and this is an indication of what will happen to these cubs as they grow older!

Now we have confirmed 100% these two cubs here are males, of course! After about a month, a month and a half, if you look at them carefully and closely with below their tails, you can tell what sex they are!

And these two boys maybe that’s a 9th month that we are going to see small signs of men coming out of their necks! So these are the oldest cub of the sausage tree pride, about six months old!

There’s another cub almost the same age, which is about five months old, and her mother is called Limpy; she isn’t here! And of course, that other cub that belongs to Limpy—they’re not here! Both of them now!

King tail is one female also in this particular pride that we saw earlier! She’s got a knot on her tail; that’s why we call her King tail!

And we think she has three cubs! This one more, a female! Here that put my mind on my brain in a spin the other day because we have never seen her meeting with anybody! We have never seen her pregnant!

But one of the very small, tiny cub that we think is even nine or ten days old, we saw her yesterday! So we are just wait and see! Most likely nothing!

Now, from the position there, they are definitely scanning! You can see they’re just looking around and scanning! I’m talking about them looking for some dinner!

They mean to spot some animals at the moment! They may spot some prey now, and then later on, they’ll take advantage of the darkness!

Now, look at that particular one! She is on top of a termite mound! And that gives her a vantage point of, like, 360 degrees to look around and see where buffaloes, for example, could be!

Isn't that special? What are you thinking? Looking, too! Looking at each other, and oh that’s right! We need to have proper identity!

And the good news, Angel, we can identify King tail 150%! We can identify Meaty 150%! And we need to look at them more carefully, and you will know who is who!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m very happy that you’ve been able to watch this with us! And I hope you’re all excited just like me, haven’t you?

Well, my name, my name is David, and on camera with me was Archie! Please stay on the lookout! You might be sending you more notifications much later on!

We’re gonna give you one more quick look at these particular beautiful lions! And for myself and Archie, many thanks and goodbye!

Well, welcome back our regular viewers, and I’m sure we are all enjoying this particular sighting here! Those two cubs are sitting very close to some water there!

We have a little stream that flows down there, but they don’t seem very thirsty! Not sure they haven’t eaten meat! But what would happen is when they eat meat, you’ll always see them coming to have a drink!

Very interesting! Look at the color of that water! It looks very dark, very mucky! But I’m most sure in the wilderness we’ll always drink that water as it is, and they never get issues!

Not sure what will happen to me or G if you go drink the same water! But it’s wonderful! The kind of immune system of how their bodies work that they can comfortably drink water like this, and nothing actually would happen!

Well, happy man today! Having seen my favorite pride of lions! And I think a treat, got a lion!

Shouldn’t talk about! I certainly am enjoying my cats! In fact, I wish they were as playful as David had right there!

I was just saying to BK, these cubs are hogging all the cat action! But I suppose they’re just way too cute; you just can’t stop looking at them!

Myself even! They are just the most stunning little creatures ever! And imagine that they turn into these sort of beasts in five to seven years!

Stunning! So these guys were born in 2013, so they’ll be six this year! I don’t know if we know the exact month, but definitely, 2013! And they’ll be their biggest and their manes! They’re sort of darkest and biggest when they’re about 7!

So maybe there’s even more to go! More mane and more size to see! I can’t wait to watch them actually! Fiona says their stomachs must be hardened now!

I would think so! Although it does look like they haven’t really—yeah, it looks like they haven’t eaten! I really hope that they get a kill!

You know, with the way that they were kind of mentioning about, I thought that they were... could the lion’s injury have been from a snake bite? What I thought?

I actually didn't even think about that! Well, apart from the injury on the actual head, that I suppose could be a fang! But then there would be two puncture wounds! And it looks like a massive puncture wound!

But then again it could have started small and then gotten big! I don’t know! He does have a few swelling on some joints as well!

I suppose if he had some sort of snake bite, that could be the case too! But I don’t know—it seems like it kind of goes through the skull just a bit, or into the skull just a bit!

Some of you guys are wondering if a lion would die from a snake bite! I suppose in the same way as a human may die from a snake bite!

It doesn’t happen often! Most of the time, when a snake bites you, you can experience horrible repercussions and that sort of thing!

But death is not usually on the cards unless it’s something very, very venomous! Maybe like a black mamba or a boomslang or a vine snake—even a vine snake!

I don’t think it can actually kill you, but it will— the venom, there is no anti-venom for it, so you’ll just have to kind of suffer through!

And I’m pretty sure that most other mammals will also feel the same sort of effects! But the benefit that us humans have is having access to medical care!

And of course, anti-venom, if and when we need it! Something that these animals don’t have! And the other thing is we have people who bring us food, take us to the hospital, take care of us, bring us anything we need!

And if you’re out in the wild, and you’re in that situation, most of the time, the best you’re gonna get is exactly what we’re seeing here! You’re gonna get some guidance from your kind of group members—in this case, his coalition!

And then apart from that, there’s not much else he can do! He can take down a kill! But I don’t know if he’d drag it to the brother! He did lead him to some water early on; the water is just actually ahead of us in this little patch right—so he led his brother to some water!

But like I said, I think that’s the best that can be done! It's not like he can get his brother to kind of bandage up or something like that!

So I hope he does get better, and I really hope it's not a snake bite at all! I really don’t! Well, I’m gonna stay here! I’m enjoying my time with the cats! And the breeze and the grass!

In the meantime, let’s go to Steve!

Mmm, it has suddenly gotten a bit warmer. The wind is not as powerful as it was, and cats are lying down! Well, we followed him for some time! He’s now here in the shade!

Perfect ambush position from one watching hole to another! And he's hoping something is going to come down and drink, but we are going to stay right here so we don’t miss any of the action!

He doesn’t look like he’s gonna be giving any action for any time soon, but needless to say, we are with him, and we will remain so!

The Duke of Juma! Don’t forget, folks! We are live, and we have got many questions and answers for you! Well, you’ve got the questions, we got the answers!

Please feel free to send them through on #SafariLive! Or drop them on the YouTube chat stream! Let us know what you’d like to talk about with regards to Tingana!

Of course, Emma, if you could just let Trish know that someone’s trying to get her on the game drive radio, please, that would be awesome!

It’s really nice after the rain, nice sunshine coming out! Hello, Riot! Your Honor! Not survival advantage! Spotted fur has four leopards!

Well essentially, it makes them extremely camouflaged! And well, when you’re a young cub trying to avoid detection from large predators that might see you do harm—well, you can hide away!

But also a leopard uses its spots for camouflage to sneak up as close as possible! If the leopard was only white, it's a very good chance that it would not be able to sneak up or be stealthy at all!

It would just stand out very clearly! But it’s really incredible how well camouflaged a leopard really is, bearing in mind the herbivores and the prey animals out!

Yeah, they see with a black and white division, so they actually don’t be—they’re not able to pick out much of the sort of definition of a cat!

And what the spots do—they break up the outline! And what black and white division animals need to do is they need to basically be able to see an outline!

It’s all about outline, and they get a shape sort of an image! And so when a leopard sticks its head over a termite mound, it flattens its ears so that it blends in with the termite mound!

But animals are looking for a specific shape! And it’s the same with predators—they are looking for a shape that agrees!

They see definition! And Yala and Kudu alike, they are able to break up their 3D shape with the stripes and the fur that they have on their body!

And I was actually—I witnessed a little bit of research taking place in a reserve! Some American university, I forget the name, were trying to test the theory with lions that were there!

And they were dragging these cutouts, cardboard sort of things of Impala behind the car! And the Lions were reacting to it! They were chasing these cardboard cutouts because of the shape!

So it’s quite incredible and it’s all about search image! And that’s why leopards and lions don’t really pay attention to us in a car!

They get used to the fact that we are part of the car! But if I stood up and got out of the car, they’ll see that shape, that is me!

And, well, not necessarily me, but that is associated with humans! And humans too, leopards, lions, and most other animals are regarded as danger!

As we evolved with him on the African plains, and we were very, very adept hunters and gatherers, and we used to fight for our place in the system!

But right now, Kangana is not doing anything! Okay, well it seems like David is with the cats that are playing around! Let’s go back up to MIT with a world of cuteness!

It’s very typical for a cat to be flat sometimes as Kangana is doing now! But the very opposite of this different species of cats I got here!

And you can see how playful they are! Now a third cub that had not seen before just came and joined! Not knowing, there’s another lioness elsewhere —and I guess that one other lioness must be Limpy!

Because Limpy’s got one cub that’s about five months old! So I got four females here and three cubs! I’ve stopped here just to watch them, where they’re going!

But I got a feeling the direction they’re going into this little forest ahead of them—it’s the most likely den of one of the females that’s not here!

Which I think have the youngest and the smallest cubs! And she could be learning how one cub and King's tail got their three cubs!

The King tail is another female here, but we call her by the name because we are not on her tail for those of you who could be joining us now!

This has two of those cubs, and again, if you look carefully, yeah, raised from the ground! It’s modular!

And the whole idea is just come—that’s what they do when it’s not very hot on the out of the shade! And once they identify the prey, then they will make strategies and plans on how to hunt!

I only guess they could be going for buffalo and not anything else! Look at the background and see the cloud hanging there! Beautiful!

And those are the plains of the Mara triangle! We’ll always have tree lines along the loggers! Yes, in the final control—it’s quite stunning!

And that’s one of the compliments of seeing where we are! Fiona, you’d like to know why they’re called the big five?

There have been a few theories of how that phrase was coined, Fiona, and I would say, number one, way back, we had hunters!

When hunting was very big in Africa, we had the hunters coming all over the world! I mean, from all over the world! From the US, I mean from North America, Europe!

And they’d come and hunt animals! And one of the theories, or you know how they loved without faces; they are the animals that still hunt for trophies!

So buffaloes, for example, they would hunt them for the huge horns! And they used to do the bigger of the white of the horn, the bigger of the value of the trophy!

Was today that might have changed a little bit because what they do is look at how wide the base of the horn is! On what they call volumetrics—and that’s more in the Maras!

They didn’t use to hunt females! But if the thymus had huge horns that could come out— that would be one reason! Of course, lions—they would definitely be hunting the male!

The males go back to those times, there are Fiona, because of the mane layer! Parts the beautiful skins with the rosette!

Rhinos there was always that myth that rhinos had some African properties on the horns! And what have I forgotten of the big five and what else, of course, the elephants!

Fiona, because of the ivory! And ivory makes wonderful carvings! Ivory makes carvings that they’d leave for thousands of thousands of years before the way out!

That’s one of the reasons why they call them the big five! And the number two, Fiona, this to me is some of the most dangerous animals that we've got in Africa!

So those two results—that’s how they ended up calling them the big five! It’s one lioness that sustained back as the others are still walking away!

They’re walking, stopping, looking! And the cubs are still playing, which is very typical of the lions! I guess that Isaac got a bit rattled on these lions that we saw earlier!

I’m enjoying how these lovely lion cups have emerged! As I said, they play confidence! And for some time now, we all must get together!

Thank you for being with us! And I hope you have noticed the different nature! There’s a lot we can do and where the animals seem to thrive and where they are happy!

And since we are concluding the fun we have been having today, I want to wish everyone a lovely time!

Well, welcome back! This is such a lovely day! The interactions with the lions today have turned into an entertaining sight, exactly!

And this has brought joy to us! And be sure to follow through! We need that gentle closure!

Also, an intelligent and safe time to see how peaceful these interactions are! Also, how gentle, and they seem to bond!

So don’t forget to catch up with the rest! I wish everyone a lovely time!

We will continue to look and see what the next round will be! Thank you very much for being part of our connection!

As we slowly turn this around, I want to appreciate your encouragement through all!

And if you like this, we should return again! Until next time, remember to enjoy those memories! Thank you once more!

Have a wonderful day, and hi or bye to enjoy these special encounters! Thank you!